source stringclasses 1
value | snapshot stringclasses 3
values | text stringlengths 264 621k | size_before_bytes int64 269 624k | size_after_bytes int64 183 251k | compression_ratio float64 1.27 4.93 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
warc | 201704 | Andrew Tyrie, Chairman of the Treasury Committee, has today written to Hector Sants, Chief Executive of the Financial Services Authority, asking for the FSA to provide more disclosure on executive remuneration at the “high-end” of the banking sector, in aggregate form.
Andrew Tyrie said
“As we have heard in evidence to the Committee, without international agreement for disclosure of remuneration at the top level, the banks are understandably reluctant to release information which they consider may place individual firms at a competitive disadvantage.
I am today writing to Hector Sants to see if as much as possible of this information can be provided in an aggregate form, providing greater transparency, while meeting the banks’ concerns.”
Letter to Hector Sants, Chief Executive, FSA ( PDF 125 KB)
For more information about the inquiry please see: Competition and Choice in Banking. | 924 | 510 | 1.811765 |
warc | 201704 | I was emailing with a colleague the other day, and she asked, “How do you pick keywords that will help, without drowning against the 40 billion other people who are using those same keywords? And, if you pick ones with less competition, then no one is actually searching them, right?”
Great questions! Here’s how I answered her:
When I teach my 16-hour SEO workshop, we spend about 4 hours on this very topic. It’s an art
and a science.
Using some of the SEO tools is helpful, and deeply dissecting your competition’s website is helpful as well (it will tell you whether they’re an “accidental SEO success” or if they’re really skilled at it). Many websites will rank well for a short time, but if they don’t do SEO as a long-term maintenance task, you can jump ahead of them after their rankings start to slip. Learning all the SEO techniques helps you to determine if your arsenal will get you anywhere. Then it’s a stab in the dark. 🙂
I rarely go after “long tail” keywords on my main selling pages. But if the keyword is long tail AND somewhat popular, I’ve been known to write a specific page about that specific topic to draw attention. For instance, if you type in “mastermind group” in Google, my one-page article comes up #1.
But since my main service is small business coaching, I really go after that phrase with wild abandon on my main selling pages. When you type “small business coach” into Google, I come up #1 for that. (I’ve been #1 for that phrase for several years now.)
When we do SEO work for clients, the vast majority of our billable hours is in picking the right keywords. I’d say we typically spend 6-8 hours just picking the correct keywords.
If you ever have a grand passion for learning SEO in a hands-on class, I do teach a 4-week teleclass called SEO For Everyone.
There are so many great SEO techniques, when you use the right combination of them, you can rank high for nearly any keyword except the really, really competitive ones. And even for those, with the right domain name (and other factors that you can’t control…nice to know it’s not 100% in your control, eh?), you can still rank on the first page of results. Part of the problem is knowing whether your competition is beatable or not. Some sites, like the Wall Street Journal, you will never rank above, no matter how hard you try.
Do you use WordTracker or Keyword Discovery (the paid versions) when picking keywords? WT is a dog to use, but both tools can help you wade through a stack of keywords to find out which ones have the best chance of success.
I’d love to tell you there is one, perfect, tried-and-true method for getting it right every single time, but there’s not. There are just a bunch of tools and a bunch of techniques to help sift through the massive information…and then you have to trust your gut instinct, your experience, and your intellect to make final choices and implement them correctly. It’s interesting to note that I find that small business owners usually do quite well in choosing keywords; it’s the implementation part they fail at.
A lot of the skill comes with practice, over and over again, picking keywords. With more experience you get better at the “pattern matching” necessary to make it all work. Consider doing an SEO experiment on a topic that you aren’t emotionally connected with, just to practice without needing to get it perfect. If you like detective work and putting together puzzles, you’ll love SEO!
Category: Internet & Social Media Marketing
Tags: choosing keywords , search engine optimization , seo | 3,735 | 1,842 | 2.027687 |
warc | 201704 | You know that new particle collider that was supposed to isolate the Higgs boson, the so-called “God particle,” which supposedly gives particles their mass? And how some people worried that the experiment might create a black hole that would destroy the earth? Well, the collider keeps breaking down. To the point of provoking a new theory. From The New York Times:
More than a year after an explosion of sparks, soot and frigid helium shut it down, the world’s biggest and most expensive physics experiment, known as the Large Hadron Collider, is poised to start up again. In December, if all goes well, protons will start smashing together in an underground racetrack outside Geneva in a search for forces and particles that reigned during the first trillionth of a second of the Big Bang.
Then it will be time to test one of the most bizarre and revolutionary theories in science. I’m not talking about extra dimensions of space-time, dark matter or even black holes that eat the Earth. No, I’m talking about the notion that the troubled collider is being sabotaged by its own future. A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.
Holger Bech Nielsen, of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, Japan, put this idea forward in a series of papers with titles like “Test of Effect From Future in Large Hadron Collider: a Proposal” and “Search for Future Influence From LHC,” posted on the physics Web site arXiv.org in the last year and a half.
According to the so-called Standard Model that rules almost all physics, the Higgs is responsible for imbuing other elementary particles with mass.
“It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr. Nielsen said in an e-mail message. In an unpublished essay, Dr. Nielson said of the theory, “Well, one could even almost say that we have a model for God.” It is their guess, he went on, “that He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.”
This malign influence from the future, they argue, could explain why the United States Superconducting Supercollider, also designed to find the Higgs, was canceled in 1993 after billions of dollars had already been spent, an event so unlikely that Dr. Nielsen calls it an “anti-miracle.”
I realize that part of this must be jocular, but still it is interesting that the imagination of our theorists is taking such forms.
HT: Joe Carter at First Things | 2,861 | 1,471 | 1.944935 |
warc | 201704 | When Payson's oldest building, the Sidles house, went back on the market earlier this month, Jim Estess moved into action.
Estess is a 35-year masonry veteran who specializes in earthen buildings.
Estess has discussed the acquisition of the property with owner Greg Turturro. As a result, Estess said, he and Turturro agreed on an undisclosed "soft commitment" for a portion of the 36,000-square-foot parcel at the intersection of McLane Road and Main Street.
Over the past several days, Estess has collected information from the town's planning and zoning department to plot his next move.
"I have accomplished several objectives necessary to any program being instituted," he said.
To start with, Estess has agreed to prepare a rezoning request and reconstruction plan.
"This work must be done before any formal committee can take a serious look at all the factors involved in moving forward with this project," he said.
And as he walks the perimeter of the mud house, surveying its historical nuances, he feels ever more passionate about saving it from the parking lots of development, he said.
Throughout the decades, the mud house has cycled through several iterations.
"There are some indicators that it wasn't meant to be a house," Estess said. "The Sidles house was probably a wagon house because it was originally three-sided."
The construction of the fourth wall tips him off.
It's made of early, mass-produced wooden planks -- now weather-beaten and warped --- held together by oxidized wire nails. Estess compared those materials with the resources used on the original structure: rough-hewn siding and square-headed nails.
The wooden wall and a higher roof, he concluded, came later on.
"The original roof was a flat, mud roof," he said. "Somebody added a couple of different roofs over the years."
A seam running around the wall and through the chimney reveals the roof extension, which now peaks at nearly 14 feet.
The sandstone chimney and concrete fireplace were also built later.
Before that, a wood-burning stove, evidenced by a ventilation hole, heated the 600-square-foot cabin.
Adobe, made of straw and mud, encouraged insulation.
Dick Wolfe, president of the Zane Grey Cabin Foundation, said adobe structures are somewhat uncommon in this area.
"That is a true piece of history that needs to be saved," Wolfe said. "That intersection was the center of town."
Estess points across the street from the Sidles house to another building at 520 W. Main St., once known as the Pieper Saloon. Though you would never know it unless a historian told you, the building is made from the same material as its neighbor.
"Underneath the stucco, you can see the adobe blocks," Jim Estess said.
Estess seeks other adobe structures in town, and encourages the owners of historic homes to investigate the original construction.
"The easiest, fastest way to determine whether you have adobe is to go to the attic," he said.
"The top plate will be sitting on adobe blocks."
If you are interested in creating a preservation group, find adobe in your home or need help identifying it, contact Estess at JEstess409@aol.com. | 3,174 | 1,610 | 1.971429 |
warc | 201704 | A nice, reasonable disagreement. Maybe some bitter debate — firmly grounded in facts. Too much to ask?
Seems so.
At least, that’s how it seemed listening to our own Sen. Chester Crandell’s peculiar remarks on carbon dioxide, global warming and the smoke from coal-fired power plants.
The Heber Republican grilled an expert witness testifying against a bill intended to prevent the federal Environmental Protection Agency from requiring expensive anti-pollution controls on the Navajo Generating Station.
Now, we understand the thrust of the bill. One could have a vigorous, enlightening, fact-based argument about the EPA’s effort to coerce the coalition of utilities that owns the power plant into paying the steep cost of reducing pollutants. The massive coal-fired plant provides jobs on the unemployment-plagued Navajo Reservation and provides the power needed to pump Colorado River water into the Central Arizona Project and on uphill to Phoenix and Tucson.
The power plant probably contributes to the increase in haze in the Grand Canyon, probably increases breathing problems for some people in the region and undeniably adds greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
Reasonable people may differ on whether cleanup costs exceed the likely benefits — and even whether the states should play the leading role in such regulation.
But it certainly doesn’t help your argument when you climb aboard the trolley to crazy town — as Mr. Crandell seems inclined to do now and then.
For starters, he said that if scientists disagree it proves the science is bogus. Mind you, surveys show that about 97 percent of climate scientists agree that average temperatures are rising due to the steady increase in greenhouse gases planet-wide — and that humans have probably caused much of that increase. But Crandell suggested that unless every single scientist agrees, then it just ain’t true.
Next, he made a vague reference to some research that shows that in controlled conditions increased concentrations of carbon dioxide both enhance plant growth and reduce their need for water. Never mind that things like drought and dry soils will likely offset any such growth inducing effect.
Nope, Crandell skipped right past any hint of nuance. Instead, he declared that we’ll all likely starve to death if we don’t increase carbon dioxide levels.
Alas, far too many lawmakers seem perfectly willing to twist the facts to fit their preconceptions.
But as Mark Twain advised: “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” | 2,600 | 1,344 | 1.934524 |
warc | 201704 | Open for Business, Again
There's renewed optimism in the country after the elections, and we at Materials Matter are sharing in that optimism. We finally signed a new lease and have opened our doors again. Yeah!!! In early September, after four years of operating our Home Improvement Outlet -- the retail end of our operation – out of Corona, California, we very suddenly had to pack up and seek new digs due to events entirely out of our control. As a result, these past three months have been rough for us.
But we remain determined to continue our mission: to help provide housing for those who need it and keep as much salvageable material out of the landfills as possible. Since we set up shop in 2004, we have distributed over $4 million in materials to nonprofit organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, for building and renovating affordable shelter housing. We have recycled over 75 million pounds of good, usable materials headed for landfills. We have touched the lives of thousands of people in need from all walks of life: low income families, veterans, battered women and children, children with life threatening disease, autistic children, the elderly, and many more. We are extremely proud of the work we’ve done, and are excited and thankful every day that we can continue to do what we do.
Since we’ve moved, each day brings new challenges, especially financial ones. The move itself cost us roughly $25,000 (trucks, extra workers, gas, storage, legal fees) and there are also many costs associated with opening a new location. And, because the Home Improvement Outlet was forced to temporarily close its doors for two months, we lost about $100,000 in revenues. Those revenues are critical for us, as they pay for the costs of running our charitable programs. Altogether, we estimate losing over $175,000 because of what we went through, and we still are not earning what we would have if none of this ever happened. We have a lot of start up charges that we didn’t count on too: deposits, signage, racking, damaged merchandise, advertising, etc. It’s been a difficult time, and it obviously doesn’t help that the country is reeling along with us. Another challenge is getting the word out about our new location. Since we’ve relocated to a new city, and because we had to abandon our other facility so quickly, many people don’t really know where we are. So, in a way, it’s as if we’ve had to start over.
But during these tough economic times, I think we’re actually part of the solution, rather than a victim of circumstances. It seems that everyone, no matter what their financial status, is looking to save money wherever they can. Also, with the housing market the way it is, many people are staying in their homes. So they are making upgrades to preserve or increase the equity and make their homes nicer to live in. This is where our Home Improvement Outlet offers help -- people can purchase amazing quality items at 40%-80% off retail. With this in mind, we think we can survive through the economic crisis. We’ve always prided ourselves on being almost 100% self-sustaining. Right now, however, we really need money to get us through this rough patch and it’s hard for people to give – even small amounts. Everybody is hurting. So, we’re feeling the crunch, it just affects us in a different way.
We are so thrilled for everyone to get a glimpse into our world – who we are, what we do, and how we make a difference, or so we hope. We were honored to be profiled and filmed by NOW on PBS. We were humbled and excited to have won the Project Enterprise contest because it validated what we were doing and why. So many times you just get lost in what you’re doing and forget about why you’re doing it. To have the NOW crew come in and really want to understand who we are and what we do was a great experience. Everyone was so wonderful and easy to work with. They spent a lot of time talking to us and had such a desire to learn more about us.
We see the light at the end of the tunnel, and hope that things are starting to turn around. We love our new location and hope that eventually we can bring in a lot more money so that we can double and triple the amount of materials we can provide for affordable and transitional housing. The nonprofits we work with are all suffering right now. And these days, people need help more than ever.
Alison
** Our new location is at 23351 Avenida de la Carlota in Laguna Hills, CA 92653. Our new phone number is 949-421-3800. | 4,596 | 2,260 | 2.033628 |
warc | 201704 | Biohit Oyj Press Release November 8, 2016 at 09:30 am local time (EET)
New scientific evidence on Acetium capsule has been obtained. A collaborative study with Uppsala University shows that Acetium capsule prevents acetaldehyde exposure in patients suffering from the atrophy of the stomach mucosa (atrophic gastritis) caused by Helicobacter pylori infection. The scientific report has recently been published in Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology.
Acetaldehyde associated with alcohol consumption is a group 1 human carcinogen implicated in the pathogenesis of gastric cancer. Atrophic gastritis leads to acid-free stomach that associates with enhanced exposure of gastric mucosa to acetaldehyde and increased risk of gastric cancer. Acetium capsule contains fully safe amino acid, L-cysteine that releases slowly in the stomach and binds acetaldehyde into a harmless compound.
The acetaldehyde-binding effect of Acetium capsule is long-lasting
In the study, the acetaldehyde concentration in the stomach of the patients with Helicobacter pylori associated acid-free stomach was reduced with Acetium-capsule after consuming alcohol. The main new finding of the study was that L-cysteine releasing slowly from Acetium capsule remains in the stomach for several hours and binds effectively (on average 68%) alcohol-derived acetaldehyde into a harmless MTCA-compound (see the Scientific report).
Professor Per Hellström, Uppsala University: ‘Stomach cancer is the fifth most common malignancy worldwide with the third highest mortality. Because of the poor prognosis of gastric cancer, preventive measures are vital. Particularly, the detection of the risk groups and precancerous conditions is important. Atrophic gastritis associating acid-free stomach is the most important independent risk factor for gastric cancer. Our next goal will be to show that disease development can be prevented.’
Professor Kari Syrjänen, Chief Medical Director, Biohit Oyj: ‘The study confirms previous results on the efficacy of Acetium capsule as the eliminator of acetaldehyde in an acid-free stomach caused either by atrophic gastritis or acid suppressive drugs. The presence of
Helicobacter pylori and acid free stomach (atrophic gastritis) was confirmed with GastroPanel® test. GastroPanel® test and Acetium capsule are inventions aimed to improve patient safety and to achieve marked health economical savings.'
4. Linderborg K et al, Reducing carcinogenic acetaldehyde exposure in the achlorhydric stomach with cysteine. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2011;35: 516-522.
5. Maejima R et al Effects of ALDH2 genotype, PPI treatment and L-cysteine on carcinogenic acetaldehyde in gastric juice and saliva after intragastric alcohol administration. PLOS ONE |DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120397 April 1,2015
6. Jeong Soo Ahn et al. Acid suppressive drugs and gastric cancer: A meta-analysis of observational studies. World J Gastroenterol 2013 April 28; 19(16): 2560-2568.
Artikkeli: Slow-release L-cysteine capsule prevents gastric mucosa exposure to carcinogenic acetaldehyde: results of a randomized single-blinded, cross-over study of Helicobacter-associated atrophic gastritis. Per M. Hellström, Panu Hendolin, Pertti Kaihovaara, Leif Kronberg, Axel Meierjohann, Anders Millerhovf, Lea Paloheimo, Heidi Sundelin, Kari Syrjänen, Dominic-Luc Webb & Mikko Salaspuro. Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology ISSN: 0036-5521 (Print) 1501-7708 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00365521.2016.1249403
Biohit in brief Biohit Oyj is a globally operating Finnish biotechnology company. Biohit mission is “Innovating for Health” – we produce innovative products and services to promote research and early diagnosis. Biohit is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, and has subsidiaries in Italy and the UK. Biohit Series B share (BIOBV) is quoted on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki in the Small cap/Healthcare group. www.biohithealthcare.com
Last updated on: 08/11/2016
PharmiWeb.com is Europe's leading industry-sponsored portal for the Pharmaceutical sector, providing the latest jobs, news, features and events listings.
The information provided on PharmiWeb.com is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her physician. | 4,357 | 2,146 | 2.030289 |
warc | 201704 | What is the physics involved with breaking glass with your voice?Asked by:Grace Jackson
Answer
While breaking glass with sound is an interesting trick, it really takes a lot of effort to get the job done. First off, the glass in question needs to be crystal, not just any glass. Crystal, resonates all at one particular harmonic frequency. Try getting a crystal wineglass, dipping your finger in water, and rubbing it gently around the rim of the glass. Your finger will vibrate on the glass, and once you get it right and consistent, the glass will 'hum'.
Waves of any sort set up sympathetic vibrations in the materials they impinge upon, which is the principle behind many many things, including telephones and radar. The glass hums (and doesn't shatter) because the amplitude of the waves (the actual physical displacement that creates the sound) is not sufficient to surpass the strength of the glass. If you generate a sound that is the same frequency the glass resonates at, after you turn off the sound, the glass will hum a little, much like a pitchfork. To break the glass, you need to broadcast not only a sound that is *just* the right frequency, but also has a high enough amplitude (loudness) to exceed the strength of the glass to resist those vibrations. When the sound gets too loud for the glass to vibrate, it shatters the glass. I HIGHLY recommend asking a teacher about this, since doing experiments with crystalware at home is not likely to win much support whoever owns the crystal.
Answered by:Frank DiBonaventuro, B.S., Air Force officer, Tinker AFB, OK.
Any physical object has frequencies at which they naturally vibrate, known as resonance frequencies. If you flick a crystal wine glass with your finger, you will hear a fairly clear tone as the glass vibrates, causing waves of air pressure to emanate out from it, which your ears and brain interpret as sound. The sound gradually gets quitter and dies out as the amplitude of the vibrations diminishes due to energy being carried away by the sound waves.
Your voice is also a series of air pressure waves, with the pitch related to the frequency of the waves, and the volume related to the amplitude of the waves.
Now to fit these two together. If you can match the pitch of your voice to the resonant frequency of the glass the vibrating air will start the glass vibrating too. If you can do this with sufficient volume, the glass will try to move in its vibration farther and faster than the material in the glass is able to move, and the glass will break under the strain.
This is an example of a driven oscillation. Imagine pushing a friend on a swing: after one big push, the swing slows down, but continues oscillating for a while with a given frequency. If you impart randomly timed pushes to your friend, you are unlikely to get her moving very much. But if you carefully time your efforts so you administer a small push at the same time in each cycle, your efforts can add up and your friends amplitude (height) will increase a bit each time. Likewise, the sound of your voice administers hundreds of tiny 'pushes' each second to everything around you. If the timing is right, the energy of the pushes can add up, leading to a large stress on the glass.Answered by:Rob Landolfi, Science Teacher, Washington, DC | 3,309 | 1,546 | 2.140362 |
warc | 201704 | Six serious safety hazards to avoid in manufacturing jobs Almost no work environment is as hazardous as manufacturing, but if you know what to look for, you may be better able to protect yourself and your workers from injury.
Below are six of the most-common safety hazards in manufacturing settings:
1. Chemicals: Dangerous chemicals can be anywhere, from corrosive cleaning solutions to leaking battery acid. To reduce risk of exposure, all hazardous material in your facility should be clearly labeled. Safety instructions should be posted in the immediate vicinity and should include precautions, procedures for treating exposure and an evacuation plan. Employees should also be trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of chemical exposure so that they or their coworkers can immediately receive the proper first aid. 2. Falls: When paired with overconfidence, high places can be one of the biggest hazards in your workplace. In addition to helmets, fall-protection equipment should be in place for ladders, cherry-pickers, or any other piece of raised equipment. Employees should be trained to work together and understand safety signals from those on the ground. 3. Heavy Machinery: Carelessness when maneuvering a forklift or other factory vehicle can result in serious injury and even death — and not just for the operator. All heavy equipment should be well-guarded to limit access by untrained workers. And like those working in high places, the workers permitted to use the equipment must avoid the pitfalls of being overly confident. For example, they should know to constantly be on the lookout for employees. Employees outside of the machinery must know to get and hold eye contact with an operator, anticipate the vehicle’s movements and alert the operator to an emergency. 4. Fire: Engines that run your machinery, welding equipment that is used on a daily basis, and the electrical wires that keep the lights on can each pose a significant risk for a manufacturing facility. To minimize risk, fire extinguishers should be visible and well-marked. They should also be regularly inspected. Smoke detectors should be placed throughout your facility, as well as emergency phone numbers and emergency instructions for employees. 5. Confined spaces: A confined space can include any space in which oxygen can quickly deplete — a vat or tank, for example. Because symptoms of suffocation can come on suddenly and limit a person’s ability to communicate, the best defense against this hazard is education. Employees should know what qualifies as a confined space. When working in one, they should work in pairs, with one employee removed from the danger who can act if needed. And in some cases, your facility should be equipped with confined-space rescue equipment, such as a harness or facemask. 6. Non-employees: One of the most dangerous elements in the workplace can be the people who shouldn’t be there in the first place. Work areas should be forbidden to all people who do not have proper training and equipment — including employees who work elsewhere in the facility. Limit access to your facility and post clear warnings so outsiders know to keep away. Enforce the rules — make no exceptions for friends, family members or anyone else who is not onsite to perform a specific task. Tom Bonine is president of National Metal Fabricators(NMF). The Chicago-area firm, established in 1944, offers custom fabrication, angle rings, welding, and bar-milling services. Edited by Jessica DuBois-Maahs, associate content manger, CFE Media, jdmaahs@cfemedia.com.
Events & Awards Magazine Archives Oil & Gas Engineering Supplements Salary Survey Blogs Digital Reports Annual Salary Survey
Before the calendar turned, 2016 already had the makings of a pivotal year for manufacturing, and for the world.
There were the big events for the year, including the United States as Partner Country at Hannover Messe in April and the 2016 International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago in September. There's also the matter of the U.S. presidential elections in November, which promise to shape policy in manufacturing for years to come.
But the year started with global economic turmoil, as a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing triggered a worldwide stock hiccup that sent values plummeting. The continued plunge in world oil prices has resulted in a slowdown in exploration and, by extension, the manufacture of exploration equipment.
Read more: 2015 Salary Survey | 4,518 | 2,190 | 2.063014 |
warc | 201704 | 1. Saya ingin mengucapkan tahniah kepada Persatuan Perkhidmatan Tadbir dan Diplomatik (PPTD) dan INTAN oleh kerana menganjurkan bagi kali keduanya persidangan tahunan seperti ini, iaitu "Persidangan Perkhidmatan Awam 1996". Terima kasih saya tujukan kepada PPTD khususnya kepada Presiden PPTD Y.Bhg.
Dato' Dr. Mazlan Ahmad oleh kerana sudi memberi peluang kepada saya untuk berucap pada pagi ini.
2. Tema yang dipilih bagi persidangan kali ini iaitu "Public Sector Performance: Gearing Towards Becoming World Class" saya dapati mempunyai kesinambungan dengan tema persidangan tahun lepas iaitu "Kecemerlangan Perkhidmatan Awam - Meningkatkan Kelebihan Daya Saing dan Globalisasi".
3. Saya ingin meneruskan ucapan saya dalam Bahasa Inggeris oleh kerana terdapatnya kehadiran beberapa orang pembentang kertas daripada luar negara, bagi membolehkan mereka turut serta dalam membicarakan isu-isu yang akan dibincangkan kelak.
4. According to Dr Rosabeth Moss Kanter in her latest book, "World Class", she says, `World class ... suggest both the need to meet the highest standards anywhere in order to compete and the growth of a social class defined by its ability to command resources and operate beyond borders and across wide territories'. The civil service of Malaysia should continue to strive towards achieving a world class civil service to support a private sector that can compete in a highly competitive global environment, as well as to provide locally, the best service in areas such as health, education, environment, infrastructure, public utilities etc.
Our Prime Minister in his speech in Malta at the recent CAPAM Conference (April 22, 1996) said as follows:- "A good government administration cannot be of a lower quality than its clients - largely the private sector. It must complement the private sector fully if it is going to serve the country and contribute towards its growth and the well-being of the people. .... the civil service has a crucial role to play and it is necessary that they appreciate them and take immediate steps to make themselves relevant." According to the World Competitiveness Report, 1994 (a report released by The World Economic Forum and the International Institute for Management based in Geneva) for the Government Sector, which includes the responsiveness of the public service, Malaysia ranks 4th in the world ranking. Success like quality is an unending pursuit. "Success" has been defined as "the progresive realization of worthy goals"; so we must continue to strive to reach the top of the ladder.
5. The effectiveness and efficiency of the public service as well as its facilitating role has helped the country's economic development. This we have accomplished through the introduction of numerous administrative measures which are designed to provide high quality services to the private sector and the society at large. Among these measures are:- i) the introduction of a detailed manual and work instructions called Manual of Work Procedures and Desk Files; the establishment of Quality Control Circles and the implementation of Productivity Measurement; ii) the institutionalization of the Client's Charter; iii) the establishment of various types of one-stop service centres such as one-stop payment centres, and the Public Services Network, a facility which enables government agencies to offer on-line services through post offices; iv) the use of composite forms and composite licences; v) the implementation of Electronic Data Interchange or EDI to facilitate trade, and which replaces the need for paper documents and is thus suitable for the sending and receipt of purchase orders, invoices, bills of lading and other trade documents; vi) the establishment of the Civil Service Link and other data bases, which stress on a more systematic information collection and dissemination system; vii) the proposed establishment of a comprehensive telecommunications infrastructure known as the Government Integrated Telecommunications Network (GITN), which will provide, amongst others, services such as video conferencing, electronic mail, bulletin boards, distance learning, `tele- medicine' for the transmission and exchange of medical and patients' records among government hospitals, work-flow automation and work group applications.
6. To be world class, and at par with the best, we have to continue the quality revolution in the public service. In fact I would suggest we think of two Qs: Quality and Quickness. One of the important attributes of quality is to be responsive to customer needs and this means Quickness of Response. Members of the public want speedy approvals of their house plans, certificates of fitness for occupation of their newly-built houses, quick service at the immigration counters, at hospital dispensaries etc. The business community want quick approvals for company incorporation, trade licences, manufacturing licences, duty drawbacks, patent rights, approval of industrial premises, crucial market information on their products and services, etc. If speed is the essence in doing business, then systems and procedures, particularly those that ensure accuracy, reliability, consistency and simplicity will have to be put in place. The public service will be implementing ISO 9000 very soon. Malaysia will be the first country that will adopt ISO 9000 in its entire public service. Gearing ourselves to world class means that we will gear ourselves to implementing ISO 9000.
7. Training of public servants should emphasise the sharpening of core competencies covering the three broad areas of conceptual, technical and interpersonal skills. However, the emphasis will vary depending on whether the officer is in the upper, middle or lower levels of management. The conceptual skills are skills related to `higher order activity' more relevant to the upper level management where the need is to see issues, recognise problems, strategise, and think systems.
On the other hand, the technical skills are the operational skills, the hands-on type of skills which are needed at the lower rung of management.
The middle level management needs a balance of both the conceptual and the technical skills as they act as the interface between the top level management and the lower level of management. However, across all levels of management is the requirement for interpersonal skills. No one works alone in any organization; people will have to network and build relationships at all levels of management vertically as well as horizontally. As such, training programs in public sector training institutions particularly INTAN will have to take into consideration these aspects of skills development focussing on core competency areas. Among the topical areas that need to be given emphasis are: i) total development concept for 2020; ii)comparative public administration; iii) contemporary economic and finance issues; iv) cross cultural interations; v)geo political studies; vi) crisis management; vii) strategies for global competition; viii) strategic management of technology; ix) lateral thinking and mindfulness; x) creativity and innovation; xi) problem solving; xii) negotiation skills; xiii) communication skills; xiv) team leadership and interpersonal skills; xv) quality management and standard; and xvi) information technology. The public service officers, particularly the Administrative and Diplomatic Service officers and other pofessional officers have to be exposed to these areas early in their career and then progressively as they move up the ladder.
8. World class also means the ability to command resources and operate beyond borders. In this regard, our public service should have the ability to support our private sector to effectively operate beyond our shores. There are many ways in which this can be done. Firstly, in business, the question of integrity and image are very critical elements.
In this connection, besides facilitating the business sector through enhancing the administrative processes, the public service must see itself as the custodian of Malaysia's good image overseas, and assist in the conduct of business with good ethics, to see that our businessmen conduct dealings with reputable partners overseas; secondly, the public service has to focus on establishing connections and networking; examine investment opportunities and facilitate the entry of Malaysian products and services to new markets.
9. The country should never be allowed to suffer from a deep crisis of faith in the public service; the people must not criticise us as a faceless bureaucracy that is unable to accurately meet personalized services; the people must not be allowed to spend their precious time finding answers to their questions, after being bounced from department to department. The new information technology appears to be the key enabler of public service transformation. The notion of an electronic civil service seem to spark interest. During the Seventh Malaysia Plan period, the thrust of IT development will be to further develop IT infrastructure in order to create a strong foundation for building a knowledge-based industrial economy. We are on the threshold of an electronic civil service, an internetworked civil service, linking with the tax payers, suppliers, business customers etc; some institutions in the society such as schools, laboratories, mass media, hospitals and other nations around the world. To a certain extent, the public service has used the electronic system to deliver better quality services and products to the public more quickly, cost effectively, and conveniently. In other words, gearing towards world class must mean designing delivery of services around the needs of our clients, rather than just the old structures or the convenience of civil servants.
10. Saya dengan sukacitanya merasmikan Persidangan Perkhidmatan Awam 1996. | 9,919 | 4,333 | 2.289176 |
warc | 201704 | Atmospheric Sciences & Global Change
Research Highlights
November 2013
With Our Sites in the Sky ARM's Aerial Facility provides extensive datasets, new upgrades extend capabilities
The ARM Climate Research Facility has provided the scientific community with extensive and freely available datasets since 2006. The facility includes a Gulfstream-I aircraft, shown here with the wing and nose pylons fully loaded with a total of eight cloud and aerosol probes. Enlarge Image.
Results: To bridge the gap between satellite-based data and that from our planet's surface, scientists obtain detailed measurements with the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Aerial Facility (AAF). In the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, the Facility Director Dr. Beat Schmid and his colleagues detailed the scientific endeavors achieved using data from the research facility. The facility, which includes a Gulfstream-1 (G-1) and contracted aircraft along with a suite of high-end instruments, produces freely available data for studying atmospheric particles and gases, clouds, the transfer of energy between the Earth and sky, and other atmospheric interactions.
Schmid's collaborators on this article are from his team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Colorado, and the University of Illinois.
Why It Matters: Droughts and floods can devastate populations and economies. Answering tough questions about these and other climate-based phenomena requires comprehensive data on atmospheric processes. The airborne observations acquired by the facility provide high-resolution in situ measurements that enhance surface-based measurements. Specifically, the facility's measurements promote understanding atmospheric processes, developing instruction sets for the models to work with the processes, and evaluating models- all of which are not possible using surface- or satellite-based techniques. Further, the facility works on maturing and testing of newly developed airborne sensors for next-generation instruments.
Methods: The researchers reviewed the scientific literature that has used data from the nine facility campaigns that have occurred since 2006. These campaigns have resulted in more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles. They also described the current research capabilities of the facility. They emphasize recent developments made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including the procurement of more than 20 new instruments used aboard the G-1 and contracted aircraft.
"The ARM Aerial Facility has matured, and now provides an extensive in-house capability," said Schmid.
What's N ext? The AAF just concluded a 4-month-long campaign to study aerosol particles and gases emitted from wild fires in the Pacific Northwest and agricultural burns near Memphis, Tennessee, as part of the Biomass Burn Observation Project. The next two research campaigns will be in 2014 in Brazil. Scientists will study the emission and transport of aerosol and gases from the megacity Manaus into the pristine and largely uninhabited Amazon environment.
The ARM website has more information on past and future ARM Climate Research Facility campaigns, including AAF.
Acknowledgments
Sponsors: The ARM Climate Research Facility is funded through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science and is managed through the Office of Biological and Environmental Research.
Research Area: Climate & Earth Systems Science
Research Team: Beat Schmid, Jason Tomlinson, John Hubbe, Jennifer Comstock, Fan Mei, Duli Chand, and Mikhail Pekour, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL); CD Kluzek, formerly with PNNL and now at Mojave, California; E Andrews, University of Colorado, Boulder; SC Biraud, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and GM McFarquhar, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Reference: Schmid B, JM Tomlinson, JM Hubbe, JM Comstock, F Mei, D Chand, MS Pekour, CD Kluzek, E Andrews, SC Biraud, and GM McFarquhar. 2013. "The DOE ARM Aerial Facility." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 95(5). In advance of print. DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00040.1 | 4,202 | 1,975 | 2.127595 |
warc | 201704 | In 2015, PhRMA member companies invested $58.8 billion in research and development, up 10.3% from 2014. The new R&D data is based on findings from the 2016 PhRMA annual member survey released in the 2016 Biopharmaceutical Research Industry Profile and the corresponding industry chart pack, Biopharmaceuticals in Perspective, which highlighted the wide-reaching impact of PhRMA member companies on the economy and biopharmaceutical innovation.
In the United States, the biopharmaceutical industry is a driver of economic growth and global competitiveness, and is the most research-intensive sector of the economy. The biopharmaceutical industry invests an average of six times more in R&D as a percentage of sales than all other manufacturing industries. The sector also accounted for approximately 17% of all business R&D spending by U.S. businesses. Overall, PhRMA member companies represented the majority of all biopharmaceutical R&D spending in the United States.
According to Stephen J. Ubl, president and CEO of PhRMA,
Investing more than half a trillion dollars in R&D since 2000, our member companies remain tireless in their commitment to driving innovation and delivering greater value than ever before. It is through this increased R&D that the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry continues to lead the world in the development of new medicines to address unmet medical needs of patients.
The increase in long-term R&D investments made by the biopharmaceutical industry have led to more medicines in clinical development than ever before, more than 7,000 medicines globally. As a sign of how increased R&D can really help, from 2000 to 2015, more than 550 new medicines were approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – including 56 new medicines in 2015 alone. Since only 12% of medicines in clinical trials make it to patients, it is critical that there are pro-innovation policies in place that can help sustain the long-term investments needed to develop tomorrow's cures.
As noted in the recently-released "Medicines in Development for Rare Diseases," the biopharmaceutical industry is currently developing more than 560 medicines for patient with rare diseases. The industry is also working to find cures and other treatments for Alzheimer's, cancer and heart disease, and other devastating conditions. This progress once again makes clear that public policies are needed that maintain a health care system that recognizes the value of medicines and incentivizes researchers to continue to develop new treatments and cures for patients.
Of those 560 medicines currently in development for rare diseases, 151 are for rare cancers and 82 are for rare blood cancers; 1468 are for generic disorders, including cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy; 38 for neurological disorders, including ALS and seizures; 31 for infectious diseases, including rare bacterial infections and hepatitis; and 25 for autoimmune diseases, including systemic sclerosis and juvenile arthritis.
ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), is notorious for being a rare disease with no cure. However, new therapies that are currently under development, such as antisense technology against SOD1, are a step toward helping patients and their families manage the disease.
These figures and anecdotes show that the biopharmaceutical industry is delivering true value to Americans by transforming patient's lives, lowering projected health care costs, strengthening the United States economy, and helping to improve the drug review and approval process, all while continuing to invest for the long term health of our country. | 3,650 | 1,661 | 2.197471 |
warc | 201704 | House Agriculture committee pulls back on farm bill markup
“I know that the farm bill has always been probably one of the lesser issues of priority for many folks in the House,” Lucas said. “But it’s my opinion that with the Senate completing its work, with the House Ag committee soon to complete its work, the focus of the agriculture and rural community of America is going to be on the floor and this thing will build momentum all on its own.”
While not addressing floor time, a Cantor spokesperson also confirmed the leader’s expectation that a committee markup will proceed in July.Continue Reading
“Given that the Senate is still in the process of finalizing their farm bill and the House is considering Ag approps next week,” she said, “it is our understanding that the committee will move forward with a markup following the July 4th recess.”
Wednesday’s Senate debate on crop insurance dealt with two priority issues for those wanting more reform in the current farm program: soil conservation and payment limits.
On a 52-47 vote, senators adopted an amendment by Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) that would require farmers getting premium subsidies to again meet conservation compliance rules—just as they now do for commodity subsidies. Crop insurance was first exempted in the mid-90’s as part of an effort then to encourage more producers to enroll. But environmentalists argue that the program is so much bigger now –and the commodity title smaller— that this exception weakens anti-erosion efforts.
In a second series of votes, senators approved the first real payment or income limits on the premium discounts paid for by the government in support of crop insurance.
These subsidies cover on average about 62 percent of the cost, and the amendment, offered by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), would cut this by 15 percentage points in the case of producers with an adjusted gross income of $750,000 or more.
The estimated 10-year savings are $1.2 billion and number of producers impacted is a small percentage of the total nationally. But it is a foot in the door for those who want still tighter limits. And critics warn that if wealthier farmers drop out of the crop insurance program, it could add to the costs of the risk pool and impact smaller farmers with less income.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) made this argument but failed on a 44-55 vote to win his amendment, delaying implementation of the Coburn-Durbin cap, which was then adopted easily 66-33.
At one level, the three crop insurance losses were a defeat too for Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, the Republican floor manager and a great champion for the industry.
At each turn, Roberts loudly but cheerfully warned senators they would have to spend another two weeks hiding in their offices from irate farmers, aggravated by the added paperwork and meddling with their insurance. By the time of the last vote, he was up to six weeks.
“Don’t spend six weeks hiding in your office!” Roberts yelled. “Vote no!”
But they didn’t— by larger and larger margins. | 3,182 | 1,604 | 1.983791 |
warc | 201704 | As a part of President Barack Obama’s efforts cut down on spending, here’s what you’ll be seeing less of: swag.
On Wednesday, Obama signed an executive order that will direct government agencies to, among other things, “stop using taxpayer dollars to buy swag.”
Story Continued Below
What exactly falls under the category of “swag”? Plaques, “nonessential items used for promotional purposes” like clothing, pens and mugs, and “other unnecessary promotional items that agencies purchase,” according to the White House, which did not respond to multiple requests for more details about the “swag” and its cost.
The executive order will also direct federal agencies to reduce spending on travel, limit the number of “information technology devices” issued to employees, including cellphones, smartphones, tablets and laptops, stop unnecessarily printing documents that can be posted online and even shrink the “executive fleet” of the federal government.
According to an administration official, nearly $20 billion is spent every year in the above areas, and a 20 percent cut to this total would result in roughly $4 billion in savings, “allowing us to focus our resources on the things that really matter.”
For example, the federal government spends $9 million every year “just to shepherd itself around Washington, D.C.,” the White House said. With the executive order, the Commerce Department will reduce the number of drivers for all senior officials to just one, including for Commerce Secretary John Bryson.
Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), criticized the move, telling POLITICO that Obama’s order is “a cost saving proposal that doesn’t actually save costs – underwhelming would be an overstatement.”
At the Oval Office signing of the executive order, Obama said cutting the country’s deficit will involve “making some tough choices.”
“Cutting waste, making government more efficient, is something that leaders in both parties have worked on,” he said. “We haven’t seen as much action out of Congress as we’d like, and that’s why we launched on our own initiative the campaign to cut waste. Not just to cut spending but to make government work better for the American people.”
According to the administration, spending in the above areas is expected to be reduced by 20 percent as a result of the directive.
“The executive order will set bold but achievable goals that are informed by the results of the work of the Campaign to Cut Waste, launched by President Obama and Vice President Biden earlier this year,” the White House said.
Leslie Paige, the vice president for policy and communications at Citizens Against Government Waste, says as much as she supports the sentiment behind Obama’s effort, what she would really like to see are hard numbers and data.
“It’s not clear where this stuff is buried – it’s just marbled throughout the budget,” Paige said. “I’d love to see the president put up a database and see where all this stuff is located and how it’s described in the federal budget. I’m sure they don’t put it under [the label] ‘promotional activities,’ and that it has some innocuous name.”
She added, “Let’s not kid ourselves – this is an optics issue. It’s not going to balance our budget: it’s symbolic, it’s going to be incremental, and you don’t really have to put out a press release about it.”
On Wednesday, the White House will also announce the finalists of the SAVE Award, launched in 2009 to gather ideas from federal employees on how to make the government more effective and efficient, while reducing wasted taxpayer dollars. | 3,908 | 1,834 | 2.130862 |
warc | 201704 | You don’t have to be a dentist to know that tooth pain is bad. In olden times, the science of dentistry hadn’t been discovered yet, so it wasn’t like you could just go and have your rotted molar yanked out of your head and put in a display case by a quirky dentist. No, you had to look for other means to restore your jaw functioning to its full chewing glory. According to a recently analyzed jawbone fragment discovered in a cave wall in northern Slovenia, ancient man used beeswax as a way to fill rotting and broken teeth.
The owner of the teeth was a male in his late 20’s, which was probably pretty old going by standards 6500 years ago (the teeth found are believed to be between 6440 and 6650 years old); if its age is accurate, this is the oldest piece of dental filling ever discovered. As for the tooth, it is believed that the beeswax was used on a cracked or broken tooth to help insulate it from heat and cold as it chewed on giant hunks of animal meat or whatever people ate in those days. It is unsure if the technique worked, but ancient Egyptians used a combination of honey and minerals to fix loose and painful teeth.
The research article on the ancient tooth filling was released in the online journal PLoS One. The jaw and teeth are on display at the National History Museum of Trieste in Italy.
Tags: archaeology, dentistry, ancient dental work, 6500-year-old tooth filling made of beeswax, beeswax tooth filling, filling cavities with beeswax, unusual tooth-filling techniques, ancient dentistry, dental history, dentists, slovenia, Natural History Museum of Trieste, Italy, PLoS One | 1,632 | 866 | 1.884527 |
warc | 201704 | I had the pleasure of attending the annual American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) conference held in New York over the weekend. The conference, for writers at every level of their career, featured more than 70 sessions covering a variety of topics, such as how to score a big book deal, how to break into women’s magazines, how to write white papers, and more. I was able to attend several of the sessions, and will recap them here over the next few days.
Producing an engaging and successful blog means coming up with new ideas while staying energized, but how do you find inspiration, and generate creative and fresh ideas, time and time again?
This session, “Beating Blog Burnout,” provided helpful, concrete advice on how to spot trends that will increase your blog traffic, how to generate ideas, and how an editorial calendar and style guide can help you avoid blog burnout.
Speakers:
Moderator Irene S. Levine, Ph.D., is a psychologist, award-winning journalist, author, spokesperson, professor at the NYU School of Medicine and blogger. She produces The Friendship Blog; is a regular blog contributor to the Huffington Post, Psychology Today, Third Age and Her Campus; and is author of “Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend.” Susan Getgood, is vice president of sales and marketing for BlogHer, a women’s community and media company that receives more than 23 million unique visitors per month. She also is author of “Professional Blogging for Dummies” and co-founded the ethics initiative, Blog with Integrity. Myrna Blyth is an editorial consultant for Third Age, the largest website for baby-boomer women. Previously, she was editor-in-chief and publishing director of Ladies’ Home Journal; founding editor-in-chief and former publishing director of More; editor-in-chief of BettyConfidential.com, which won MIN’s Editorial Excellence award in 2010; and author of “Spin Sisters: How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness – and Liberalism – to the Women of America,” a New York Times best-seller, and “How to Raise an American.”
Following are some highlights from their presentations:
BLOGGER BURNOUT
Blogging became popular in 1994, and what started as very personal sites has morphed into larger sites like Huffington Post, where individuals blog under the banner of one website. Levine said she loves the editorial freedom of blogging: “You are free to write what you want to write about.”
It also helps her develop a relationship with her readers and keep on top of the topics that are hot. Through analytics, she can find out where her readers are coming from, which helps her understand her audience better and ultimately helps her with her brand identity.
The first step to beating blog burnout? “Make sure you’re writing the blog you
really want to write,” said Getgood. “Think about what you’re doing that meets your objective and the needs of your audience, whether one or 1 million. Are these the stories you really want to be telling? If not, shift it. When I have trouble writing, I find it’s because I’m not writing what I want to write about.”
CREATING YOUR BLOG
Getgood detailed nine steps for creating your blog:
1. Identify objectives
2. Find your niche
3. Create your editorial mission
4. Design and develop the blog
5. Identify and train your bloggers
6. Build and maintain your blogroll
7. Create your blog policies
8. Write the blog
9. Promote the blog
The first three steps apply directly to burnout:
Identify objectives: What do you want to achieve with your blog? Who is your audience? What will you share that only you can provide to your readers? “You have to have a clear picture of where you’re going.”
Find your niche: Who are your competitors? What do they do well and not so well? Do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis of yourself and your competitors. “Doing that upfront will help you during the noncreative moments, because you’re created a framework for everything you do.”
Create an editorial mission: “Your blog ‘charter’ or editorial mission is the most important, most critical element,” said Getgood. It’s the reason why the blog exists. Write it out as a mission statement. How frequently will you post? Will you allow comments?
“If you do the hard work upfront,” she added,” it’ll be easier down the road. There’s too much competition now. If you want to grab the readers, you have to think of it as a business, even if you don’t want to monetize the blog.”
FINDING INSPIRATION
Getgood also shared some possible sources of inspiration for bloggers:
Editorial calendars: “If you want to be serious about your blog, you have to have an editorial calendar,” said Getgood.
Your editorial calendar should have two parts: a framework (what kind of content you’ll be posting: recipes, op-eds, travel stories, etc.) and a schedule of posts (how often you will post; when you will write the posts; whether you need photos, visuals, etc.).
“Be your own editor,” she added. “It will give you the structure you need.”
Archives, blogrolls and comments: Do roundups of your favorite posts, whether yours or from your favorite colleagues. Re-read comments – are there any you never addressed or that you can use for a post? Check out what leaders in your field are writing – can you offer another perspective? Line up guest writers – they will return the favor.
Your social networks: What are people on Facebook and Twitter writing about?
Keeping up with trends is also a good way to come up with ideas for posts. Getgood shared her tips for spotting trends:
Read, read, and read some more. Write about what you’ve read in books, newspapers, magazines. Keep a notebook of ideas. You can use social bookmarking sites like Delicious and Diigo to tag posts you might want to write about down the line. Subscribe to newsletters in your area of interest. Keep an eye on market research about your topic. Listen to your friends – they may know something you don’t. Predict, and don’t be afraid to be wrong.
If you’re still stuck, “go surfing,” advises Getgood. Go to Google, type in a keyword and press “I’m feeling lucky.” You never know what you’ll find out.
If your blog is about your hobby, spend an hour actually doing it, rather than writing about it. You can also move to a “different window” – go to another place in the house. “It can often be the easiest way to get unstuck,” said Getgood.
Above all, stay focused on your objectives. “Stay on the path to writing what you want to write,” said Getgood. “It’s OK if your objectives change, but do it deliberately.”
And if you do change them, make sure to do the first three steps (identify objectives, find your niche, create your editorial mission) all over again.
MONETIZATION & SYNDICATION
“The truth is, blogging is very difficult,” said Blyth. “It’s really a job.”
And while blogging has been good for writers, it has not been good for
professional writers. “The amount of money that has been spent for good writing has gone down and down and down,” said Blyth. “What the Web really needs is journalism – real journalism. That’s what moves around the Web.”
Blyth also talked about the benefits of monetizing blogs. “I don’t understand why bloggers don’t try to write for a large website more than individually,” she said. “If you can blog for a larger site like
Third Age, you get more views. If any of you write on health, relationships, celebrity, beauty, style, personal experiences of boomers, it makes more sense to come to me, because we pay – a little bit.”
“Getting paid to write is a dream,” said Getgood, “and there are a lot of ways to monetize a blog.”
One way is syndication. With BlogHer, you can register your blog at no charge. BlogHer’s editors troll the community and look for syndication opportunities and paid blogs. If the editors like a post, they will publish it on BlogHer and link to your original post.
When you’re writing your blog, think about syndication and look for other ways to monetize: advertising, consulting, speaking, book deals.
RISING TO THE TOP
When asked to share top tips for making your blog rise to the top of the heap, the panelists offered the following suggestions:
Getgood: “The most important part of the blog is the title and the first two sentences.” Use Google Ad tools to understand what keywords the advertisers are using. Also, be active in other social networks. Talk about what you’re writing on Facebook and Twitter.
Blyth: Be more direct. If you write an article about carpet cleaning, for instance, don’t title it, “Out, Out, Damn Spot.” While that’s creative, a title like “How to Clean Your Carpet” will get better results because of search engines. “You have to think about keywords.”
And don’t forget your friends. “Pay it forward,” suggests Getgood. “Write about other people and link to other people. They’ll do the same for you and you’ll both get hits.” | 9,527 | 4,233 | 2.25065 |
warc | 201704 | Phoenix, AZ (PRWEB) September 19, 2012
Dr. K. Michael Hood trained and certified to become one percent of dental professionals who can offer the Laser Assisted New Attachment Procedure to patients suffering from advanced gum disease. He was the second dentist in Phoenix to offer LANAP, and has seen successful results in his patients.
It is estimated that over 75 percent of Americans have some form of gum disease, which in the beginning stages causes red, swollen gums that may bleed while brushing or flossing. Once gum disease passes this stage it becomes periodontitis. At this point the gums begin to form “pockets,” deep hollow areas around the teeth that trap food, plaque and bacteria. The gums start to recede and form gaps between the teeth. At the advanced stages, teeth are loose and begin shifting.
Aside from the obvious dangers of losing teeth and eventually the jaw structure, neglecting treatment for periodontal disease can lead to larger health risks. Since there are millions of germs in the human mouth, having gum disease leaves open wounds in the gums that allow bacteria to enter directly into the blood stream, and it circulates throughout the body. This is how gum disease can affect things such as heart disease and diabetes. To avoid major health risks, it is important to seek periodontal disease treatment such as the laser surgery.
The LANAP procedure begins with Dr. Hood using a probe to determine the depth of the pockets between the gums and the teeth. The laser is then used to get rid of the bacteria that have gathered in those pockets. Gum tissue that is damaged is also removed by the laser; however, healthy tissue is left alone. The laser is extremely selective so that it does not damage the healthy tissue. The laser can stimulate the remaining tissue to attach to the teeth after tartar has been ultrasonically removed. The bone is also stimulated so that it can begin to regenerate.
Most patients find that only one treatment is necessary to eliminate the problems associated with periodontal disease. The laser is relatively comfortable and usually does not cause much pain during the procedure. Dr. Hood is hoping that more patients in Arizona will be willing to seek treatment once they learn about the new LANAP procedure. His goal is to provide the best dental care available to his patients. To learn more about the LANAP procedure or about periodontal disease, please visit http://www.phoenixarizonagumdisease.com.
Dr. K. Michael Hood is a general practice dentist offering patients personalized dental care for Phoenix, Arizona for over 27 years. Dr. Hood attended NAU and graduated from Arizona State University (Go Sun Devils) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology. When still in his first semester of his senior year, Dr. Hood was accepted to the prestigious Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas, Texas where he graduated with his degree in dentistry. Dr. Hood is part of one percent of dental professionals providing the most recent FDA cleared laser procedure for gum disease and periodontal treatment. To learn more about Dr. Hood and the Arizona Center for Cosmetic and Restorative Dentistry visit their website at http://www.phoenixarizonagumdisease.com and call (480) 696-5855. | 3,268 | 1,547 | 2.112476 |
warc | 201704 | Demand will continue to drop as the manufacturing sector continues to move offshore.
New York, NY (PRWEB) March 14, 2014
Subdued industrial production and mounting competition from imports have harmed the performance of the Cardboard Box and Container Manufacturing industry over the five years to 2014. Industry products include corrugated and solid fibre boxes, folding paperboard boxes and other assorted converted paper items, which are ubiquitous in domestic packaging. The industry is highly dependent on the manufacturing sector for demand, particularly on food, beverage and agricultural producers. “Given the nondiscretionary nature of their products, food and beverage manufacturers have continued to provide a relatively stable source of demand for industry operators,” according to IBISWorld Industry Analyst Stephen Hoopes. Yet, sales to the manufacturing sector as a whole have declined in recent years due to the long-term trend of offshoring manufacturing operations to low-cost countries that also provide access to emerging markets. Consequently, industry revenue is expected to decline at an annualized rate of 3.4% from 2009 to 2014 to reach $4.3 billion; this decrease includes a 2.1% drop in revenue anticipated in 2014 alone.
Moreover, cardboard box and container manufacturers continue to face escalating competition from imported corrugated products, particularly those sourced from the United States and China. Over the five years to 2014, the total value of imports is anticipated to increase at an annualized rate of 7.0%, with imports now accounting for over one-fifth of domestic cardboard use. “Meanwhile, export sales are expected to decline at an annualized rate of 2.6% over the same period, reflecting continued weakness in overseas markets, declining domestic production and the continued appreciation of the dollar,” says Hoopes.
Over the five years to 2019, revenue is forecast to continue to fall. Industry operators will find it necessary to contend with declining downstream production, especially food and beverage manufacturing, which is set to decline as a share of GDP over the five-year period. Moreover, competition from substitute products is anticipated to intensify, with flexible packaging expected to increasingly replace rigid packaging due to its lighter-weight characteristics. Yet, not all trends are anticipated to damage the industry's performance.
For more information, visit IBISWorld’s Cardboard Box and Container Manufacturing in Canada industry report page.
Follow IBISWorld on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/IBISWorld.
Friend IBISWorld on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/IBISWorld/121347533189.
IBISWorld industry Report Key Topics
This industry includes companies which primarily convert purchased paper, paperboard and old corrugated containers into cardboard boxes, containers and similar packaging. The industry produces corrugated and solid cardboard packaging for a range of industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, wholesale, shipping, retail and others.
Industry Performance
Executive Summary Key External Drivers Current Performance Industry Outlook Industry Life Cycle Products & Markets Supply Chain Products & Services Major Markets Globalization & Trade Business Locations Competitive Landscape Market Share Concentration Key Success Factors Cost Structure Benchmarks Barriers to Entry Major Companies Operating Conditions Capital Intensity Key Statistics Industry Data Annual Change Key Ratios
About IBISWorld Inc.
Recognized as the nation’s most trusted independent source of industry and market research, IBISWorld offers a comprehensive database of unique information and analysis on every US and Canadian industry. With an extensive online portfolio, valued for its depth and scope, the company equips clients with the insight necessary to make better business decisions. Headquartered in Los Angeles, IBISWorld serves a range of business, professional service and government organizations through more than 10 locations worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.ibisworld.com or call 1-800-330-3772. | 4,153 | 1,911 | 2.173208 |
warc | 201704 | Chicago, Ill. (PRWEB) March 15, 2016
The American Hospital Association (AHA) today announced it has exclusively endorsed Quality Reporting and Management Solution from Medisolv, Inc. Following a proprietary due diligence process, AHA Solutions, a division of Health Forum, the strategic business enterprise of the American Hospital Association (AHA), awards the AHA Endorsement to products and services that help member hospitals and health care organizations achieve operational excellence.
Many hospitals are acquiring physician practices to form clinically integrated networks in order to improve quality of care, enhance population health and reduce the total cost of care. As health systems transition from volume- to value-based care and grow their physician base, they face greater accountability for managing their physicians’ performance in and beyond the hospital.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS), Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), Value-based Payment Modifier (VBPM) and similar programs for hospitals linking payments to quality provide strong incentives for eligible providers and hospitals to demonstrate high performance by satisfactorily reporting on a large number of specific quality measures increasingly mandated as electronic quality measures (eCQMs).
Medisolv’s ENCOR Quality Reporting and Management software suite helps hospitals and physicians efficiently measure and report quality data to meet evolving requirements, improve performance and patient safety, and deliver value-based care. From one integrated platform, hospitals can now manage performance improvement and report accurate quality measures data. Deployed within a hospital’s intranet, the software integrates with all forms of electronic health record and other information systems to convert large volumes of existing clinical, operational and financial data into actionable information.
ENCOR automates daily abstraction of core measures; simplifies management and reporting of Meaningful Use and electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs); displays daily updates on key hospital claims measures; allows eligible providers to easily capture and report eCQM data; and provides data dashboards so hospitals and providers can monitor performance and take corrective action. Beyond software, Medisolv’s solution offers the services of quality, analytics, clinicians and software experts to advise providers and practices in performance improvement strategies and guide hospitals during the solution’s highly organized implementation process.
“Medisolv’s Quality Reporting and Management Solution enables hospitals and their associated physicians to measure, monitor and improve quality, cost and efficiency,” said Tim Steffl, chief operating & development officer, AHA Solutions. “The solution is distinguished by its comprehensive scope, which includes support for all three types of quality measures (abstraction, claims and eCQMs), and for ambulatory, outpatient and inpatient quality programs. It also stands apart for its implementation success — confirmed by its 95 percent client retention rate — in more than 300 hospitals.”
“It is an honor to receive the exclusive endorsement by the American Hospital Association for quality reporting and management solutions,” said Zahid Butt, MD, CEO of Medisolv. “For over 15 years, hospitals and physicians have successfully used Medisolv software to analyze, improve and report their quality data. This recognition by the AHA motivates us to reach even higher levels of performance and customer service. AHA members will benefit from the extensive evaluation done by AHA Solutions through its AHA Signature Due Diligence Process™ and can be confident in choosing Medisolv as their long-term partner in quality reporting and value-driven health care.”
About the AHA
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the improvement of health in their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, who include nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations and 43,000 individual members. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. Visit http://www.aha.org to learn more.
About AHA Solutions
AHA Solutions is a division of Health Forum, the strategic business enterprise of the American Hospital Association (AHA) dedicated to serving member hospitals by helping them identify the optimal solutions to their most pressing market challenges. Through the AHA Endorsement, along with educational programs featuring peers and industry experts, AHA Solutions supports the decision-making process for hospitals looking for partners to help with clinical integration, information technology, talent management, cultural transformation, financial sustainability, the patient flow and other key challenges.
AHA Solutions is proud to reinvest its profits in the AHA Mission: To advance the health of individuals and communities. For more information, contact AHA Solutions at info(at)solutions.org or 800.242.4677. Also connect with us via Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
About Medisolv, Inc.
Medisolv, Inc. is a national leader in the Quality Management and Patient Safety. Our quality management and reporting solution addresses electronic, abstracted and claims based quality measures. With our single quality reporting platform, Medisolv’s highly skilled staff provides end to end support from implementation to file submission of quality data to CMS and TJC. As CMS continues to move rapidly to align its quality programs around electronic reporting and use this data for both performance based reimbursement and public reporting, Medisolv is working with hundreds of hospitals and health systems to help them keep pace with CMS’ and TJC’s changing specifications, validate the accuracy of their eCQM information, and improve quality performance.
For more information about Medisolv call 443-539-0505 x243 or email marketing(at)medisolv.com.
# # #
Contact information:
American Hospital Association:
Marie Watteau Vice President, Media Relations and Digital Media American Hospital Association 202.626.2351 mwatteau(at)aha.org
Medisolv:
Michelle Boucher Vice President of Marketing Medisolv 443.539.0505 ext.243 mboucher(at)medisolv.com | 6,565 | 2,788 | 2.354735 |
warc | 201704 | Sensors are changing how and where information is being gathered, creating novel information pools to tap into for better, more informed decision making.
It’d be a far cry to suggest that the story of human progress can be folded up into a neat, linear sequence. The less grandiose version of its history looks more like a patchwork of bold ideas that either grew in the face of resistance or perished as a result of it. A series of trials and error based off bold, but educated guesses and necessarily limited by the quality and quantity of information available at any given time. If knowledge is power in this scenario, then information provides the fuel.
Thanks to recent developments which have cut costs and increased efficiency in a variety of sensor technologies, we are able to embed them into a greater number of objects and devices. These sensors will passively gather and broadcast an immense amount of data about our lives and our surroundings-creating, in effect, a Distributed Intelligence – and empowering us to make some of the best decisions on earth, and we’re only beginning to understand and capture its true potential.
Martin G. Curley, a vice president at Intel Labs explores how these connected networks are gathering data that will help inform the planning of future cities. In an interview, he explained what kind of innovative applications will be developed to engage locals and tourists alike, and how this Distributed Intelligence will help local governments make proactive decisions and increase their cities’ quality of life.
What’s the end goal of these distributed intelligence systems?
In cities-and it’s not rocket science-but the common vision that’s emerging is simply how can we make our cities a better place to live? How can we make cities run more efficiently and effectively? How can we make them more sustainable, through climate change mitigation, and so on.
We’re working to deploy fairly widespread sensor networks and integrate them into a sustainable intelligent system. Today, for example, in a London borough like Enfield, there are only three air-quality stations-and they know the air-quality can sometimes be poor-but by using the distributed Quark processor-based solutions that we’ve developed (instead of only three data feeds and a computer simulated model) they can get a hundred distributed different data samples for the same price, or less, than they’re paying now. With machine learning you’re able to constantly monitor and check the quality of the data, and make recommendations for mitigation actions and that can make a huge difference.
That in itself is useful. But when it’s applied as a part of a sustainable intelligence system? Suddenly it’s very useful. Be it air quality, be it traffic management, et cetera, this will be distributed intelligence in support of a goal. Moving from intelligence into real action.
Can you help us envision what some of the applications will look like?
Though the initial applications will be air-quality, sound monitoring, and then micro-climate and weather conditions-eventually, within each city, the different departments such as environmental or traffic management will be defining the specific characteristics of these collection parameters. Be it carbon dioxide, NOX, or particulates-and it’s also effective to add video-because we know that air-quality and weather, or air-quality and traffic congestion, are co-interrelated, sensor networks start to become powerful when you are able to connect these dots.
As an example, an interesting project that we are doing in the district of Brixton, in the UK, is that we’re working with the schools. So today in London 50% of all car journeys are less than three kilometers, and cars are the major source of pollution in London. In fact, the UK is facing a significant fine from the European commission-lb300 million-because they haven’t addressed the problem. In addition, 20% of people in London get almost no exercise. The average person gets only 33% of the recommended daily exercise levels.
We’re integrating air-quality sensors and display boards outside of schools in Brixton to show parents and children what those short drives are costing them, and their environment and the children themselves are helping design the usage models for the application that supports this. By encouraging parents to walk their kids to school rather than drive, this is an example of where sensors are being integrated into solutions that are actually driving a behavior change and creating a lot of shared value. Improved air quality. Money saved on petrol costs. Kids and adults are getting more exercise and staying healthier.
How does real-time data play into the success of these systems?
Real-time data is important because it enables much faster responses. For example, one sensor that we’ve been starting to deploy is a noise level sensor. If the noise level from a night club goes over a certain decibel level, cities may get phone calls from nearby residents. Then they have to respond and send somebody out to monitor the situation to see if it’s actually over the prescribed decibel level. If you can record that in real time, you will see when the allowed decibel level in a particular area has been exceeded, and deal with the problem before citizens start complaining.
More real-time sensing will allow for more automation which, ultimately, in cities, the goal is to run more efficiently and more effectively. You want to have a better quality of life, better service-level agreements for citizens and visitors. Automation is a great opportunity once you have distributed intelligence in place. As with the detection of unexpected sound. Because you’re already parsing the different sound patterns in a city you will immediately detect something like a collision. Right away we can give first responders a location and a timestamp enabling a much faster response than would be otherwise possible. The rules just need to be defined for specific parameters and automations. Then the system will gather for these and invariably give a good response-often better than a human would-and it will be cheaper, more efficient, more reliable. Essentially you’re taking variability out of the equation.
We’ve been conducting a pilot in Dublin with Trinity College and Dublin City Council where we’ve had about a hundred users using an app called City Watch. They can, for example, take a picture of an acute situation like a flood and tag it so that the city knows to respond. Likewise it could be a nice resource, like a green space, they’d like to tag and make available for somebody else in the city. Similarly, pedestrians could receive automatic recommendations for routes where the air-quality is better. If developers are able to add in elements of gamification and incentivization, they could build a virtual cycle where the more people add to it, the more they get back, and then it could pick up a lot of momentum.
Are there any concerns around privacy?
Of course, in the European Union privacy concerns and legislation are more stringent than in the US. I think the important thing is that citizens have the ability to elect in or out of what would amount to becoming a sensor on the network. Again, this is all new, it does become quite powerful when you have fixed sensing, mobile sensing, and then add what we call participatory sensing where citizens in the city are electing to report in real-time.
We’re in the early days of figuring out the governance of this big data-and that’s a very important consideration, and one which is evolving-but our approach is that we’re using living labs like the ones we have in Dublin, London, and San Jose. We’re working with these cities, and learning together along with their citizens, about what will be the best way to govern, to curate, and to act as broker for the data.
Our perspective at Intel Labs Europe is that we should strive to co-create this future with the citizens, and the city councils or local governments, of Dublin and London and so on. Whatever future exists will be something that has been shaped and created by a broad set of constituents. Niels Bohr once said, “Prediction is difficult, especially about the future.” That’s one school of thought, though we tend to share Allen Kay’s view which is that “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
In The Real World Web, iQ by Intel and PSFK Labs explore the role internet-enabled technologies will play in connected ecosystems of the future. This series, based on a recent report, looks at the rise of the internet of things and its impact on consumer lifestyles. | 8,843 | 3,916 | 2.258172 |
warc | 201704 | Click Image to Enlarge
New simulation software for micro-molded parts allows for internal runners to be designed within the simulation (right) rather than separately with conventional CAD software (left).
Ultrasonic sensing is a new method to analyze the potential for sink marks during injection molding by evaluating the characteristics of the sonic signal through the tool and part.
The IKV in Aachen, Germany, is known internationally as one of the foremost academic incubators of new plastics technology. At its 23rd International Plastics Colloquium this spring, the IKV (which stands for the German equivalent of Institute for Plastics Processing) presented the latest results of injection molding research projects on computer simulation of micro-molding, ultrasonic analysis of sink marks during molding, and alternative techniques to improve surface quality of foamed parts.
Simulating micro-molding
While injection molding of micro-sized parts with dimensions in the millimeter range is growing in importance, current simulation software reportedly is not appropriate for parts of such scale. Said IKV engineer Axel Cramer, “No simulation software exists that considers the typical characteristics of micro-parts.”
He identified several software improvements that would be required. One is a provision for internal runners to fill non-continuous parts—i.e, ones with multiple inserts such as tiny letters. “The internal runners are difficult to predict and have to be designed in CAD software separate from the mold design, then simulated together with the whole part. If that runner needs to be optimized for rheological layout, it is modified in CAD software and the entire system must be meshed again—a time-consuming process,” said Cramer.
Heat transfer between part and mold during filling is another area for development. With tiny parts, rapid dissipation of heat from the melt causes fast solidification of the melt. Small variations in mold temperature can dramatically affect filling of parts less than 1 mm thick. Cramer recommended coupling simulation of mold filling with simulation of transient local changes in mold temperature caused by heat transfer from the part.
Cramer added that material models for simulation typically are based on melt-viscosity measurements taken with capillary rheometers at shear rates between 100 and 10,000 sec-1. But in filling micro-sized parts, shear rates can exceed 100,000 sec-1 and even reach 1 million sec-1, according to Cramer. These values are typically extrapolated with conventional simulation software, which opens the door for inaccuracy in flow prediction.
Another overlooked aspect in conventional simulation software is that capillary rheometers take the viscosity measurements under isothermal conditions (constant temperature), but in micro-molding, very high shear rates generate a rise in temperature.
Cramer and IKV were a part of a consortium of 13 universities and companies on a project funded by the European Union. One partner, Simcon Kunststofftechnische Software GmbH, used its Cadmould simulation software for the research.
The project developed new software for non-continuous parts that allows internal runners to be easily modified within the simulation without further work in a CAD program. To address heat exchange between the part and mold, a new software interface allows the simulation program to use the result of a heat-exchange calculation by standard 3D finite-element software such as Abaqus. The interface makes it possible to calculate mold temperature throughout the process cycle (instead of assuming a constant wall temperature) based on the cooling medium, its temperature and flow rate, and mold cycle time and open time.
Furthermore, a new material model was developed for the simulation that describes viscosity at very high shear rates and determines actual viscosity (not extrapolated values) by accounting for shear at high injection speeds and fill times as short as 0.1 sec.
Ultrasonic sink analysis
A new way to predict the occurrence and severity of sink marks while the part is still in the mold was developed by Oliver Lingk, an engineer in the IKV Dept. of Injection Molding. The speed of travel of ultrasound waves through plastic are affected by temperature and pressure. When the melt is at its hottest, sound travels slowest, and as the part cools, the sound velocity increases until the part detaches from the cavity, at which point the signal ends.
Using pairs of ultrasonic emitters and receivers in a mold, Lingk varied the machine parameters while molding a test part and analyzed the resulting sink depths with an optical laser. He performed a multiple regression analysis to correlate the ultrasonic information and the sink dimensions. Lingk thereby derived a linear equation that estimates the sink depth for a particular material in a particular mold according to ultrasonic measurements taken during molding. This new on-line QC tool could be used to fine-tune molding parameters to minimize sinks.
Rethinking foam molding
One well-known difficulty in foam injection molding is producing parts with smooth unblemished surfaces. Axel Cramer discussed a second project to solve this problem. Unlike the usual low-pressure, short-shot approach for filling a foam mold, Cramer described several alternatives that can yield better surfaces by starting with a full shot under high pressure.
Three of these approaches are well known: gas counterpressure, a movable core or cavity that withdraws after filling to allow foaming, and a textured mold surface to hide swirls or bubbles. A variation on the last approach is what Cramer calls a “structured” cavity surface, which is etched with geometric structures such as pyramids, that permit better venting of the escaping gas and also help conceal defects.
In addition, Cramer suggested using a heat-insulating coating on the cavity surface that’s designed to slow the cooling of the outer skin of the part to avoid freezing in gas bubbles or streaks. It does impose a minor increase in cycle time, Cramer concedes. | 6,157 | 2,741 | 2.24626 |
warc | 201704 | PTSD: National Center for PTSD Trauma, PTSD, and Attachment in Infants and Young Children Trauma, PTSD, and Attachment in Infants and Young Children
Decades ago, little was known about what PTSD looked like in infants and young children. Today, we know that trauma and maltreatment can have grave impact on the very young. In addition, we know the importance of the early child-caregiver attachment to a child's development. This fact sheet discusses epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of trauma-related problems in infants and young children, with a special focus on the role of attachment.
Please see our fact sheet PTSD in Children and Adolescents for a review of trauma-related issues in school-aged children and teens.
How many infants and young children experience maltreatment?
Child protection services in the United States receive approximately 3 million referrals each year, representing 5.5 million children (1). Infants and young children are more vulnerable to maltreatment than older children; over one-third of substantiated reports to child protection agencies are for children under the age of 5 years. Further, the rates of injury and death as a result of maltreatment occur most frequently in the first year of life, and 77% of children killed due to maltreatment are under the age of 3 years (2).
How do trauma and neglect affect infants and young children?
Very young children may have few of the PTSD symptoms we see in adults. This may be because 8 of the 17 PTSD symptoms require that the trauma survivor be able to talk about what happened. Young children may show a fear of strangers or be scared to leave their parent. They might also have sleep problems or nightmares. They might think a lot about certain words or symbols that may or may not be related to the trauma. Young children may also show posttraumatic play. This is when they repeat themes of the trauma. For example, a child who was sexually abused in her bed might play out "dark" bedroom scenes with dolls. They might also be more fussy, irritable, aggressive, or unsafe. Also, young children may lose skills they once had, such as toilet training. Or they might go back to earlier habits, like sucking their thumb.
Research has also pointed to the biological effects of early trauma. Neural development occurs most rapidly in early childhood and is shaped by experience. Prolonged stress can lead to increased arousal, elevated stress hormones, and biochemical alterations of emotion regulation circuits (3,4). In essence, early stress and trauma can alter the brain and have long-term effects across many domains, including physical, mental, and emotional development (3,4). Moreover, the impact of early maltreatment often extends into later childhood, adolescence, and even adulthood.
Diagnosing PTSD in infants and young children
A diagnosis of PTSD requires exposure to a traumatic event. For infants and young children it can be difficult to decide what constitutes a traumatic event. Does witnessing violence or experiencing neglect qualify as a traumatic or life-threatening event? It is certainly plausible that young children who experience a threat to their own or another's life may experience fear, helplessness, or horror. Defining a traumatic event is further complicated by the fact that the event might occur before the child can use language to encode the information. Young children are often not able to verbally describe the event or their subjective reactions.
To aid in diagnosing PTSD and other psychiatric conditions in children ages 0 to 3 years, the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood: Revised Edition (5) was developed.
What is attachment?
Attachment can be defined as the primary emotional relationship with a caregiver that serves as the basis for all later relationships (6,7). Children and parents are biologically wired to form attachments with each other. For example, a baby or young child's cuddling, orienting, and crying instincts are meant to elicit caregiving responses, and infants prefer their caregiver's face and voice over other stimuli.
Four different child-caregiver attachment styles have been identified (8,9):
Toddlers with secureattachments have caregivers who provide consistent, sensitive responses. These toddlers readily explore their environment and use their caregiver as a "secure base." After separated from their caregiver, they seek their caregiver for comfort and are easily soothed. Toddlers with anxious-ambivalent (insecure)attachments have caregivers who might be unpredictable or attentive yet out of synch with their child. These toddlers explore little, are wary of strangers, and might be clingy and demanding. Upon reunion after separation from their caregiver, they are difficult to soothe and appear angry at the caregiver, while also seeking comfort. The anxious-avoidant (insecure)attachment style can occur when caregivers are emotionally unavailable or rejecting. The toddler often seeks little physical contact with the caregiver and might be unresponsive when held, although upset when put down. These toddlers often avoid or ignore their caregiver after a separation. A disorganizedattachment can arise when the primary caregiver serves as both the source of comfort to the child and source of stress or fear. These toddlers lack an organized strategy for coping with stress and therefore show odd behaviors, such as freezing or turning in circles, during a reunion with their caregiver. Why is the child-caregiver attachment important?
Prominent attachment researcher John Bowlby explains how a child's primary attachment figure regulates the emotions and social cognitive processing of young children (7). When a caregiver provides an attuned response to their child, the young child develops a "felt security" and adapts this internal working model to build self-organization and physiological regulation skills (10, 11). Children also use their caregivers for social referencing to guide their responses to events, and they use their attachment foundation to internalize self-control and build social skills and independence (12).
A child who is not regularly comforted when scared or whose caregiver responds in an inconsistent manner when the child is seeking comfort might be fussy, have difficulty self-soothing, withdraw, or exhibit intense tantrums. A child who does not receive consistent physical or verbal intervention from his caregiver in dangerous situations might not internalize self-control and may subsequently demonstrate reckless or impulsive behaviors.
Animal models have shown the importance of quality caregiving on biobehavioral regulation (e.g., eating, sleeping, emotional regulation) through the neuroendocrine stress response systems. For example, rat pups and baby monkeys that receive more attention and affection (e.g., grooming, holding, caressing) from their caregivers demonstrate more regular biobehavioral cycles and more life-long protection from stress than those who do not receive quality caregiving (13,14). Similarly, research with young children has demonstrated that the quality of the attachment relationship impacts brain development, emotional regulation, and coping, largely through adrenocortical activity (15).
How do attachment, traumatic stress, and coping interact?
The child-caregiver attachment interacts in complex ways with the traumatic reactions and coping styles of both the child and caregiver. For example:
If a child receives attuned, soothing responses from her caregiver when distressed, she learns to develop her own coping skills and might be less likely to experience traumatic reactions after exposure to a traumatic event. A child with a poor attachment could be expected to evidence behavioral difficulties (e.g., aggression, withdrawal) and might be more difficult to soothe, which could cause higher levels of frustration in his caregiver and in turn lead to maltreatment or attachment difficulties. The traumatic event might interfere with the child-caregiver attachment due to strong emotions that get in the way of a positive relationship. For example, a child's anger toward her parent for not keeping her safe, a parent's guilt about the event, or a parent's resentment toward his child for causing pain and family upheaval all too often impede positive child-parent interactions and attachment. The caregiver or child could serve as a trigger to the other's arousal or re-experiencing traumatic stress symptoms, making a secure attachment difficult. If the caregiver has her own trauma history, her symptoms (e.g., emotional numbing, avoidance) might interfere with attending sensitively to her child. Interventions for poor attachment and maltreatment
Pediatric settings are vital to the identification of maltreatment and poor attachments in young children and their caregivers because this is often the first or most frequent setting these families encounter. If a problem is identified, pediatricians and other health professionals can provide support, education, safety planning, and referrals for specialized services.
In-home health and nurse providers and other professionals can assist new parents in providing quality care for their infants or young children in many domains (e.g., breast-feeding, sleep, safety, illness). Child and family social service agencies are available to help families with numerous issues such as parenting support and foster or adoption services.
Psychotherapy interventions are recommended if relationship difficulties or traumatic reactions persist, and these interventions work. Research has shown the effectiveness of relationship-based interventions for cases in which poor attachment and/or maltreatment are primary concerns. Child-parent psychotherapy (CPP) is one such relationship-based model that is effective for infants and young children (age 0-6 years) who have experienced traumas or attachment problems. Through play and developmental guidance, CPP helps caregivers understand their children and the meaning of their play and trauma-related behaviors. It helps caregivers provide protection and emotional sensitivity to their children. CPP can also build a caregiver's awareness of how their own childhood history, traumas, or emotions can affect their relationship with the child (6).
For some children, intervention does not take place for many years. In the case of poor or broken attachments, it remains important for psychotherapy to involve both the child or adolescent and a primary caregiver. When trauma and PTSD are also involved, evidence-based treatment is available.
References US Department of Health and Human Services, ACF, 2006 National Research Council & Institute of Medicine (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. Washington D.C: National Academy Press. Schore, A. N. (2001). The effects of a secure attachment relationship on right brain development, affect regulation, and infant mental health. Infant Mental Health Journal, 22 (1-2), 7-66 Schore, A. N. (2001). The effects of a relational trauma on right brain development, affect regulation, and infant mental health. Infant Mental Health Journal, 22 (1-2), 201-269. Zero to Three/National Center for Clinical Infant Programs. (2005). Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood: Revised Edition. Arlington, VA: Author. Lieberman, A. F., & Van Horn, P. (2008). Psychotherapy with infants and young children: Repairing the effects of stress and trauma on early attachment. New York: The Guilford Press. Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books (Original work published 1969). Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Earlbaum. Main, M., & Solomon, J. (1990). In M. T. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, & M. Cummings. (Eds.). Attachment in the preschool years: Theory, research, and intervention, pp. 121-160, The University of Chicago Press: Chicago. Schore, A. N. (2000). Attachment and the regulation of the right brain. Attachment and Human Development, 2(1), 23-47. Schuder, M. R., Lyons-Ruth, K. (2004). "Hidden trauma" in infancy: Attachment, fearful arousal, and early dysfunction of the stress response system. In J. Osofsky (Ed.), Young Children and Trauma: Intervention and Treatment, 69-104. New York: The Guilford Press. Bretherton, I., & Munholland, K. A. (1999). Internal working models in attachment relationships: A construct revisited. In J. Cassidy & P.R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications, 520-554. New York: The Guilford Press. Liu, D., Diorio, J., Tannenbaum, B., Cladji, C., Francis, D. et al. (1997). Maternal care, hippocampal glucocorticoid receptors, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal responses to stress. Science, 277, 1659-1662. Coplan, J. D., Andrews, M. W., Owens, M. J., Friedman, S., Gorman, J.M. et al. (1996). Persistent elevations of cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of CRF in adult nonhuman primates exposed to early life stressors: Implications for the pathophysiology of mood and anxiety disorders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 93, 1619-1623. Spangler, G., & Grossmann, K. E. (1993). Biobehavioral organization in securely and insecurely attached infants. Child Development, 64, 1439-1450. | 13,547 | 5,563 | 2.435197 |
warc | 201704 | All Alone in the World: Children of the Incarcerated
Children of prisoners: who even thinks about them? Journalist Bernstein puts a face on this population with staggering statistics (2.4 million children have a parent in jail, and as many as half of all boys whose parents do time will wind up behind bars themselves) and personal stories of children like Susana, who has embraced her father only once in her life, and Carl, who told the jailhouse Santa that all he wanted for Christmas was for his mother to come home. Parents and children speak about the trauma of prison visits, the expensive phone calls that cut off without warning and the questions from children (What do you tell your friends? Are you to blame?) and parents (Would your child be better off without you?). Bernstein takes on the system as well: because of mandatory sentencing, judges must impose life imprisonment without parole, regardless of circumstances; a convicted felon, once released, has no access to student or small-business loans, public assistance or housing; a grandmother fears applying for aid because she must give up her grandchildren to the foster care system for evaluation and may never get them back. Well researched and smoothly written, Bernstein's book pumps up awareness of the problems, provides a checklist for what needs to be done and also cites organizations like the Osborne Society that provide parenting and literacy classes, counseling and support. The message is clear : taking family connections into account "holds particular promise for restoring a social fabric rent by both crime and punishment."
(Oct.) 08/15/2005
Release date:
10/01/2005 | 1,663 | 942 | 1.765393 |
warc | 201704 | According to
data released last Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO), polluted air is able to contribute to the deaths of over 3 million individuals each year, which poses a significant threat to human health conditions worldwide.
The data comes from the latest Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database, which takes into account the air contamination levels of 3,000 cities spanning over 100 countries.
The report asserted that overall air pollution levels rose 8 percent in spite of significant improvements in certain regions. Air pollution is a key factor in the development of deadly diseases such as lung cancer, strokes, heart attack and respiratory disorders.
Worsening air conditions
Over half of the cities within high-income nations reviewed by the WHO failed to meet the expected air quality levels, but the rate rises to 98 percent when looking at low-income countries, with India becoming the country with the highest level of risk.
The city with the most polluted air was Zabol, an Iranian city that undergoes frequent sandstorms over the year, a natural phenomenon which directly contributes to the worsening condition of its breathable air. On a previous report, the first spot was occupied by India’s New Dehli, as it now stands at No. 11.
WHO director Dr. Maria Neira stated the importance of air pollution contributing to the detriment of human health, “Urban air pollution continues to rise at an alarming rate, wreaking havoc on human health. At the same time, awareness is rising and more cities are monitoring their air quality. When air quality improves, global respiratory and cardiovascular-related illnesses decrease.”
Most of the data reviewed by the WHO comes from academic sources, as not every city’s administration complies to provide air pollution levels. On the list, there is a clear trend of drier countries being the ones with the most contaminated air conditions, as precipitation proves to be an effective method of rinsing the air pollution.
Some of the greatest contributors to air pollution are inefficient public transport units, as they emit harmful gasses that heat up the air and are comprised of heavy particles which are then ingested by the lungs of whoever is in the near vicinity. Garbage incineration and coal-powered machinery and electric plants are also important key factors that yield harmful contaminants to the atmosphere.
Although some countries appear several times on the list, such as China and India, others are completely exonerated, as it is the case of most African countries.
Source:
World Health Organization | 2,625 | 1,294 | 2.028594 |
warc | 201704 | You can see stores like Target using sneaky holiday strategies, decorations, pumpkins, and Christmas trees. While this is a great time for shopkeepers, it is a miserable time for shoppers. For seasonal marketers, though, it couldn’t be any better.
Holidays mean marketing advantage, the holiday fever hits everyone and for marketers, it is the right time to gauge the impact of their marketing strategy.
The tips we will give you are tried-and-tested; many people have been successfully using them for years now. Lets start!
Some tips are tried-and-true techniques that many marketers have been using for years, whereas others have emerged recently as more options have become available to digital marketers. Regardless, these tips and tricks will help kick off your holiday marketing campaigns with a bang, so let’s get started!
Ad Extensions are your Friend
Ok so this one is a little on the nose but, most marketers overlook this and don’t make use of ad extensions. What is the purpose of your ad? One word….REACH. When you launch a holiday marketing campaign, consider using features like review extensions, sitelinks and call extensions. Make your ad stand out. Therefore it is worth revisiting your ads while checking them if you are getting the most out of them.
Shopping Campaigns are Profitable
Shopping campaigns are specially effective for those are selling tangible products, shopping campaigns were also known as PLAs, Ads, or product listings. Without any doubt, this is and should be the center of your marketing strategy.
They are to the point and are great from the perspective of user experience, your prospect gets everything that helps him/her to make a quick decision. The most important part of an ad are pictures and the price, ads make these elements more visible – making Shopping campaign a powerful tool.
Obviously you will be competing with others so the most important thing here is price. You can differentiate your product via price and unique images. So overall, Shopping Campaigns can boost your holiday sales if you implement them correctly.
Ad Automation
Its important that we spend at least 45 minutes a week on refining and optimizing our research strategy. You need a hands-on approach for managing your campaign and we highly recommend it for your holiday marketing plans.
There are tons of tools you can use in AdWords, you can resume, pause, and commence your campaigns, this depends on your timing. For example, you can create campaigns for Christmas shoppers now and your campaign will automatically start, commence, and stop.
There are many variables in automated process, make sure that you delete campaigns or disable them after the holiday is over.
Your Ad Copy is Your Way Out
No need to concentrate on time-sensitive sales because there is more financial reward, people usually call it a day and this is a big mistake which will cost you. Make sure that you revisit your ad copy before launching your campaign.
There are many options you can use, you can write it yourself and maybe rewrite it again to make that it hits your target market. If you do not have the time than hire a freelance writer, some freelancers can be expensive but some can be very modest in terms of price. To be frank, it will cost you a little more than you expect because good writers charge $50-$75 per hour, some may write it in 5 hours and for some it may take 8-9 hours.
In any case, writing a good copy is integral to your success. There is super competition and unfortunately its rising day by day. So marketers have to be sharp because of competition, its like a war – everything is fair. So put yourself ahead of everyone else, because holidays are hectic for marketers, there are so many things to do and so little time.
The first thing you need to do is to make that the offer in your copy is current, its not important If you don’t mention your promotion in your copy, the key is to understand the REASON why would your prospect click on your ad. This does not mean that you should overlook key areas like sales and discounts – you need those in your copy. Holidays are a great time to push your sales and find more customers so that your reach becomes higher.
In any case, position your product in your copy, make it compelling so that it creates interest…enough interest for your target market to click.
The Holiday Rush and You
The holiday is long awaited for and is probably a miserable time for most. People driving under stress to find the best gift for their loved ones or someone who is a sit-at-home-shopper and gets the wrong package. We face smart advertisers and to compete with them, you need to appeal to your customers, making sure that you had planned your campaign in advance. You can make your customer’s holiday stress free, that is a feature that will help you bag more sales.
You will need to entice people with your special offers and carefully crafted sales copy. Making sure that your landing pages, ads and social media set up is in order. Giving your customers the ‘act now’ promotion which helps them save time with lesser stress. You will be surprised that people are willing to pay an extra buck for convenience. Its obvious that TIME is an important factor, most people don’t have it, they are busy with their jobs and when holiday season approaches, they are completely dumfounded by the amount of stress. You can create a sense of urgency NOW because people would go to extreme lengths to avoid the holiday rush, imagine the crowd on Christmas Eve, that image would put a dent on any plan.
If you aren’t doing it, START NOW because the clock is ticking, now is the time to observe your competition and gain a head start in the race. That is your best chance to start selling early – before your competition. | 5,876 | 2,653 | 2.214851 |
warc | 201704 | The basic goal of good nutrition is to get enough of everything — which is easy if you eat a balanced diet that includes lots of different foods. But these six nutrients appear to have special benefits for people with arthritis. None of these nutrients offer miracle cures, and some appear to have more of an impact on arthritis than others.
1. Omega-3 fatty acids. They may sound technical and unappetizing, but it’s worth savoring what omega-3s do for the body — especially the joints. Fatty acids are a family of special fats that the body needs but can’t make for itself, so you have to get them from food. Once in the body, they collect in cells, where they help form hormone-like substances, called leukotrienes, that put the brakes on inflammation — a root cause of rheumatoid and, to a lesser extent, osteoarthritis. More than a dozen reliable studies suggest that increasing your intake of omega-3 fatty acids can help quell symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, even if the fats don’t slow progression of the disease.
The most important food source of omega-3s is cold-water fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, and trout. But you’ll also find types of omega-3s in nuts and seeds, beans, soy products, green leafy vegetables, and cooking oils such as canola oil. Fish oil is not entirely benign: Taking large amounts in supplements can have side effects, and even eating too much fish raises health concerns. Nor is cod liver oil the answer. It is high in calories, has high amounts of vitamin A, and may contain high amounts of cholesterol. Here’s how to safely add omega-3s to your diet.
Switch from corn oil to canola oil.Close relatives of the omega-3s are the omega-6s, fatty acids found in corn and other vegetable oils. While omega-3s (found in abundance in canola oil) are beneficial for your joints, omega-6s aren’t: they make arthritis pain worse by promoting inflammation. They also compete with omega-3s in the body. So by switching your cooking oil, you boost your cells’ usage of omega-3s and bring your body’s fatty acids into better balance. Consider omega-3 supplements.To get omega-3s in the amounts used for many studies, you’d need to eat more fish than you can probably stomach — at least three servings every day. That makes taking fish oil supplements a viable alternative. But first, check with your doctor. On the whole, fish oil is safe, with mild side effects such as fishy burps. But omega-3 fatty acids also thin the blood, so you should be cautious if you’re taking blood-thinning medications, including aspirin. Emphasize salmon and canned tuna.It’s not that these fish are richer in omega-3s than their cold-water companions; it’s that they are generally safer to eat. The Food and Drug Administration warns that many cold-water fish, such as king mackerel, swordfish, tilefish, and shark, contain toxic levels of mercury that make eating too much of them potentially dangerous. A safe limit: no more than 14 ounces a week of fish on the FDA caution list cited above. As for salmon, they are usually farmed or caught in the cleaner waters of Alaska. And cans of tuna tend to be packed with younger fish that haven’t had as much time to accumulate toxins. Say “no” if you have gout.People with gout, a specific type of arthritis caused by excess uric acid, should avoid fish altogether because many types — including mackerel — contain purines, a building block for uric acid. 2. Vitamin C. It’s one of the most familiar of all nutrients, but vitamin C’s role in joint health tends to be underappreciated. Vitamin C not only helps produce collagen, a major component of joints, but sweeps the body of destructive molecular byproducts known as free radicals, which are destructive to joints. Without vitamin C and other so-called antioxidant nutrients, free-radical damage to joints would be much worse. One of the best-known studies looking into vitamin C and arthritis, the Framingham osteoarthritis study, found that people whose diets routinely included high amounts of vitamin C had significantly less risk of their arthritis progressing. Points to bear in mind:
Content continues below ad
Drink OJ from frozen concentrate.A prime source of vitamin C, orange juice is a favorite breakfast eye opener. While orange juice bought in the carton is wonderfully healthy, OJ made from frozen concentrate is even better. According to recent research published by the American Dietetic Association, juice reconstituted from frozen concentrate has more vitamin C than fresh-squeezed juice after four weeks of storage. If you prefer no-fuss pourable products, buy juice three to four weeks before the expiration date and drink it within a week of opening. Spread out intake.Your body doesn’t store vitamin C; rather, it takes what it needs from the bloodstream at any given time and flushes out the rest. So a megadose in the morning doesn’t really do as much good as you would think. Rather, replenish your vitamin C stores throughout the day by sipping citrus drinks or eating C-rich fruits and vegetables such as strawberries or melon, broccoli or sweet peppers at meals. Beware of megadoses.Your body needs about 60 milligrams of vitamin C each day for basic bodily functions. For healing and antioxidant purposes, many people take much higher doses. Most people aren’t affected by a few hundred milligrams of vitamin C, but once you get past 500 milligrams or so, you should check with your doctor. Some people develop digestive unrest when they megadose on the vitamin. In addition, high doses of vitamin C can raise blood levels of salicylate medications such as aspirin, and can also interfere with absorption of other nutrients. 3. Vitamin D. You can get vitamin D just from standing in the sun. That’s because ultraviolet light converts precursors of the vitamin in the body into a usable form. Many people with arthritis are D-deficient. Studies find that getting more vitamin D protects joints from osteoarthritis damage, probably because this nutrient is vital to the health of bones that support and underlie joints. Vitamin D also appears to play a role in production of collagen in joints themselves. Some suggestions: Get into the sunlight.You don’t need to bake on the beach to get sun-stimulated vitamin D: The skin only needs 10 to 15 minutes of exposure two to three times a week to synthesize what it needs. Your usual outdoor walks, games, or yard work should fill your vitamin D needs. Read your dairy labels.Milk, from skim to homogenized, is a prime source of vitamin D because it is D-fortified. Check labels on other dairy products. Though domestic cheese, cream, ice cream, butter, and yogurt often contain vitamin D, they’re sometimes made with unfortified milk. Beware of oversupplementing.Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means excess amounts are stored in the body rather than immediately excreted. Large doses from high-potency supplements or multivitamins can build up and become toxic to soft tissues such as the kidneys and heart. Getting your D from foods and sunlight poses no such problems. 4. Vitamin E. Like vitamin C, this is an antioxidant vitamin that protects the body — including the joints — from the ravages of free radicals. Some of the same research showing that other nutrients protect against arthritis also indicates that vitamin E can help prevent joints from becoming worse, though E’s effects appear more limited than those of vitamins C and D. Some suggestions for getting vitamin E into your body:
Content continues below ad
Try soybean oil.Up in the omega-3 section, we suggested switching to canola oil, which is widely available and no more expensive than corn oil. To go one better, though, try finding and then cooking with soybean oil. Though vitamin E can be tough to get from eating prime sources such as wheat germ and avocados, it’s easy to pick up in other foods when cooked in this E-rich oil. Bonus: Soybean oil is also a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. Combine with fish oil.Taking vitamin E together with fish oil seems to boost the body’s ability to fight inflammation beyond what either nutrient would do on its own, according to two recent studies in animals, at Loyola University, in Illinois, and the University of Buffalo. Be wary of heavy-duty supplements, however: Like fish oil, vitamin E thins the blood. Compensate for cooking.Whenever possible, eat E-rich foods raw — cabbage in coleslaw, for example. While a number of vegetables (including asparagus, brussels sprouts, and cabbage) contain small amounts of vitamin E, boiling can deplete food of as much as a third of its E content. Another option: Save cooking water, which retains leached nutrients, and use it to moisten mashed potatoes or make soup or sauce. Add nuts to your cereal, salads, and snacks.Sprinkling a quarter cup of almonds on your breakfast cereal or lunchtime salad will give you your daily requirement of vitamin E. Pumpkin and sunflower seeds, eaten as a snack or added to muffins, are another good source of vitamin E. Of course, dieters should be careful. Nuts are as high in calories as they are rich in nutrients, so weigh the benefits and drawbacks. 5. B vitamins. As cousin chemicals in the B-vitamin family of nutrients, vitamin B 6 and folate are also among the nutrients most likely to be lacking in people with arthritis. Part of this is due to deficiencies common population-wide — for example, one study found 90 percent of women don’t get enough B 6 in their diet. But there’s also evidence that the inflammation process eats up these B vitamins especially fast in people with rheumatoid arthritis — bad news for a variety of bodily functions, including the manufacturing of protein, the building block for tissues such as cartilage. Double up.When possible, eat foods that contain both vitamin B 6and folate, such as spinach and fortified cereal. Otherwise, look to B vitamin sources for other arthritis-fighting nutrients. For example, in addition to being a rich source of B 6, tuna and sardines contain omega-3 fatty acids, and fortified cottage cheese contains vitamin D. Bonus foods for folate include asparagus (vitamin E) and broccoli (vitamin C). Take a multivitamin.To ensure you get enough of these nutrients, consider taking a multivitamin that provides 100 percent of the recommended Daily Value of 2 milligrams for B 6and 0.4 milligrams for folate. (Look also for vitamin B 12, which works in tandem with folate.) But steer clear of high-dosage, single-nutrient supplements, which may pose risks of nerve damage. 6. Calcium. The issue with calcium, as with vitamin D, is bone health. Calcium has obvious importance to bones — more than 90 percent of the body’s stores are contained in the skeleton and teeth. Getting too little calcium raises the risk of osteoporosis, a brittle-bone condition that accelerates if you have rheumatoid arthritis. All women (who are especially at risk) should get about 1,200 milligrams a day after age 50 — about twice what’s typical.
Content continues below ad
Drink milk; cook with milk.You probably know that milk is a prime calcium source — but the same is true even for cooked foods made with milk. So consider having pancakes or waffles (one large waffle may contain as much as 12 percent of your daily calcium requirement) at breakfast or lunch. For other meals, balance your diet with low-fat cheese as a topping for savory fare such as chili or spaghetti. Down it with D.One reason vitamin D is so important to bone health is that it boosts the body’s absorption of calcium — another reason to consume more D-fortified dairy, which contains both nutrients. Go beyond the dairy case.Milk and milk products aren’t the only sources of calcium: It’s also found in vegetables such as cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, kohlrabi, broccoli, and turnip greens. These foods have less calcium than dairy products, but contain a form that’s easier for the body to absorb. Other non-dairy calcium sources include omega-3-rich fish that have edible bones, such as salmon and sardines. Bottom line: It’s likely these nutrients help, getting more of them certainly won’t hurt you, and it’s easy to work them into your daily eating without overhauling your diet.
Some people like to travel by train because it combines the slowness of a car with the cramped public exposure of an airplane.
Dennis Miller
I think my pilot was a little inexperienced. We were sitting on the runway, and he said, “OK, folks, we’re gonna be taking off in a just few—whoa! Here we go.”
Kevin Nealon
“I can’t wait until your vacation is over.” —Everyone following you on Instagram
@kristencarney
A man knocked on my door and asked for a donation toward the local swimming pool. So I gave him a glass of water.
Comedian Greg Davies
Just found the worst page in the entire dictionary. What I saw was disgraceful, disgusting, dishonest, and disingenuous.
@sixthformpoet Client: We need you to log in to the YouTube and make all our company videos viral. From clientsfromhell.net
My cat just walked up to the paper shredder and said, “Teach me everything you know.”
@NicCageMatch
“Just because you can’t dance doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dance.” —Alcohol
@yoyoha (Josh Hara)
My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned 60 and that’s the law.
—Jerry Seinfeld
Q: What do you call an Amish guy with his hand in a horse’s mouth?
A: A mechanic. | 13,782 | 6,030 | 2.285572 |
warc | 201704 | Ask Dr. Ellis January, 2006 Question: What is shyness and how can I overcome it? Dr. Ellis answers: Shyness can be quite normal and sensible—as when you shy away from doing things you really don’t want to do but in a moment of weakness you promised to do. Or when you shy away from staying too long with difficult and boring people. Good.
Most of what we call shyness, however, results from fear of rejection and of being disapproved. Thus, you avoid approaching people who you think will find you inferior. When you are illegitimately shy, you first rationally tell yourself, “I do not like being rejected, and wish I get accepted by people I favor.” This Rational Belief (RB) and feeling leads you to avoid “dangerous” people and to try to get accepted by others. Fine. But when you are very shy, you add an Irrational Belief-feeling, “I absolutely must not ever be rejected! If I am, it’s
awful, and I can’t stand it! Rejection makes me, a person, totally inadequate! Horrors!”
Your second, Irrational Belief-feeling (IB) scares you witless and drives you to avoid
any people who might possibly reject you and thereby prove “your utter worthlessness.” It creates your disturbed shyness. It makes you manufacture your scariness.
If Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is correct about this, what can you do to reduce your disturbed shyness? Try the following actions:
Fully see that youchoose to create your shyness. It doesn’t merely come from an Activating Event or Activating Situation (A). You chooseto Believe and to feel it at B, your Belief-feeling. Fully realize that you don’t have tochoose Irrational Belief-feelings at B abouta situation where you may be rejected. You can instead choose a Rational Belief-feeling (RB), such as, “I greatly dislike rejection but still can stand it and fully accept myself, me, when and if I don’t get it.” Give yourself, with this philosophy, Unconditional Self-Acceptance (USA). Completely accept your entiretyin spite of your failingto get accepted. Give yourself, in addition, the REBT philosophy of Unconditional Life Acceptance (ULA)—that is, “I fully accept my life, my ongoing existence, whether or notI get what I want. I definitely prefer, but do not need, what I want, such as social acceptance. It’s bad when I get rejected and don’t get what I want, but I can try next time to get it. My rejectionis part of my life but it doesn’t equalme. I can still get a great deal of happiness in life in spite of this particular rejection. Too bad—but not awful.”
Your seeing that irrational rejection really is a choice to reject
you totally when someone rejects you in part, and you see that this is an irrational choice for you to make. This will stop you from denigrating yourself if and when others reject you. Then you have nothing to lose by unselfishly trying and trying again for social acceptance. | 2,989 | 1,411 | 2.118356 |
warc | 201704 | Help
You are here: Rediff Home » India » Get Ahead » Careers » Cracking CAT
Discuss this Article | Email this Article | Print this Article B-school GD: 9 personality traits, evaluated Brijesh Singh, Arun Mittal
Advertisement In our present knowledge economy, one's personality is crucial for success.
B-schools evaluate students on personality ethics in the second stage of their selection process commonly known as the 'Personality Assessment' phase.
Personality means different things to different people in different situations. This article tries to capture what personality assessment means to a top B-school Group Discussion panel.
Let's start with the definition of Group Discussion. A GD at a B-school can be defined as a formal discussion involving 10-12 participants in a group. A topic is given to them, with some time to collect their thoughts, and the group is then asked to discuss the topic for 20-25 minutes.
Here are a few of the most important personality traits a candidate should possess to do well at a GD.
Team spirit Leadership
A leader is a person who facilitates the third type of situation in a GD. A leader shows the group direction, whenever it moves away from the topic. He or she inspires and motivates team members to express their views and also coordinates the effort of different participants.
FlexibilityThis means openness to another person's ideas and also being open to the evaluation of one's own ideas. To stay flexible in a group discussion, try to create a framework and avoid taking a stand in the beginning.
For instance, if the topic is 'Should India go to war with Pakistan?', some participants may get emotionally attached to the topic and take a stand.
But, by taking a stand, a person has reached a conclusion, even without discussing the topic at hand or listening to the views of his or her team members.
Moreover, if a person who has taken a stand faces a very strong point against his point at the 11th hour, he is in a typical Catch 22 situation. 1. If he changes the stand, he is seen as a fickle-minded or whimsical person. 2. If he does not change his stand, he is seen as inflexible, stubborn and obstinate. Flexibility is an important personality trait. A person who is flexible will have less sharp corners in his personality and his friction with people around will also be less. Assertiveness Initiative Creativity/Out of the box thinking
It was put across very convincingly and discussed at length by the group.
At another GD on 'Men can cook better than women', a participant added a new dimension by bringing in a fresh perspective like 'Cooking is not only about food. I know men can cook better lies than women.' Fresh ideas are always appreciated.
Inspiring ability A good group discussion should incorporate the views of all team members. If some members want to express their ideas but are not getting an opportunity to do so, giving them an opportunity will be seen as a positive leadership trait. Listening Awareness In today's dynamic environment, a manager should be well versed with both the micro and macro environments. Your awareness about your environment helps a lot in your GD content, which carries maximum weight.
Apart from these qualities, communication skills, confidence and the ability to think on one's feet are also very important.
-- Arun Mittal is DGM, South and West, Career Launcher India Ltd, which prepares students for exams like GRE, CAT, GMAT, etc. He can be reached at arun.mittal@careerlauncher.com Brijesh Singh is City Business Head, Bangalore, Career Launcher India Ltd and an alumnus of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. He can be reached at brijesh.singh@careerlauncher.com
Email this Article Print this Article
© 2006 Rediff.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer | Feedback | 3,862 | 1,856 | 2.080819 |
warc | 201704 | India's elite educational institutions have been producing first-rate scientists, engineers, and managers who helped India's information technology sector take off during the 1990s.
Far less visible is the more recent, quiet revolution in India's elementary education that, if successful, will equip an entire younger generation with skills to improve productivity and reduce the burden of disease, high birth rates, hunger, and poverty, while changing societal attitudes toward gender, caste, tribe, and disability.
What India has accomplished is no small feat -- especially given that its population grew from about 840 million to nearly one billion between 1991 and 2001, with the number of children between the age of 6 to 14 rising by 35 million to 205 million.
Over roughly the same period, the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in primary education (grades 1) rose from 82 per cent to 95 per cent, and in upper primary education (grades 6) from 54 per cent to 61 per cent (see table).
Available government data suggest that in that age group, the number of children not in school fell sharply from about 60 million in the early 1990s to 25 million in 2002, and this decline is continuing. While specific numbers in such a large federal system may be viewed with caution, the rough magnitude of the progress appears to be in little doubt.
Educating the masses
After primary education was made a national priority, enrolment --especially for girls -- showed dramatic gains.
1993
2002
(percent)
Primary education (grades 1-5 for ages 6-11)
(percent of GDP)
Total public spending on education and training
3.6
4.1
(dollars)
Public spending per elementary student
Sources: Data from India's Ministries of Human Resource Development and Finance; and World Bank estimates.
The expansion of primary education -- driven by major policy changes along with higher demand for schooling stemming from economic growth and globalisation -- took hold all across India. Historically, India's southern and western states had always been far ahead in education of the large northern states, which accounted for most of the out-of-school children.
Over the past decade, however, many poorly performing states began to make real overall advances -- the primary GERs in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh were well over 90 per cent, although the ratio remained at 74 per cent in Bihar.
The southern states, the states on the east and west coasts, the Himalayan states, and the northeastern states -- except for Assam and Nagaland -- were either approaching universal primary enrolment or had already achieved it.
Increased access for girls and children of disadvantaged groups accounted for much of the improvement. The overall GER for girls was 92 per cent and over 95 per cent for children of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes -- the most disadvantaged groups, which make up 18 and 9 per cent, respectively, of all primary school-age children.
Given the momentum built up over the years, India will, in all likelihood, meet the education Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of universal primary education -- which calls for all children of primary school age to participate in the school system and complete primary school. This article explores India's quiet revolution.
From elite to all
India's education development since Independence can be divided into three phases.
Phase 1: Educating the elite to build national capacity. From Independence in 1947 through 1986, education policy emphasised building national capacity for self-government and self-sufficiency through elite education. The states were mainly responsible for financing and providing education, which led to mixed results as commitment varied between states. Initially severely constrained, public spending for education rose from below 1 per cent of GDP in 1950 to 3.4 per cent in 1986.
Phase 2: Making primary education a national priority. In 1986, the Government of India (known as the Union Government) launched the landmark National Policy on Education, which resulted in a series of pilot projects on a large scale. Following the World Conference on Education for All in 1990 in Jomtien, Thailand, India opened up to external assistance for primary education.
The most extensive external partnership, involving the World Bank, the United Kingdom, the European Commission (EC), the Netherlands, and UNICEF, was the District Primary Education Program in 18 large states, covering about half of India's 600 districts with low female literacy rates.
The program created active partnerships between the government and civil society organisations and strengthened coordination in the areas of planning, training, and research. Financial management and procurement systems, procedures, and checks and balances have been put in place, making it possible to scale up in the next phase.
Between 1993 and 2002, total public spending on education rose steadily from 3.6 to 4.1 per cent of GDP, higher than the average spending of 3 per cent of GDP among low-income countries. Elementary education expenditure rose from 1.7 to 2.1 per cent of GDP, accounting for over 60 per cent of the growth in public expenditure on education in this period. As the economy grew about 6 per cent annually over this period, resources increased in both relative and absolute terms and spending per elementary student rose from $25 to $44 despite higher enrolment. The Union Government's share of total public expenditure on education rose to about 15 per cent, with the states covering the remainder (see chart).
In 2001, India launched the National Programme of Universal Elementary Education, known in Hindi as
Phase 3: Universalising elementary education.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA), and amended its Constitution to make quality elementary education a fundamental right of every child. The program is designed so that by 2007, all children, including children with disabilities, will have completed primary schooling, and by 2010, upper primary schooling -- a much stiffer requirement than the MDG of universal completion of primary education by 2015.
The SSA program combines centrally set targets and norms for planning and costing with decentralised management, bottom up planning, community mobilisation, and social audits. With the Union Government contributing 75 per cent and the states 25 per cent, SSA funds annual work plans submitted by states and districts to meet the targets.
To ensure that central funds are not used to substitute state spending, SSA obliges the states to maintain spending for elementary education in real terms at the 1999 level and to match growing central funds above this level. The expected incremental SSA cost of $3.5 billion for 2004 would add another 9 per cent per year to the total resources for elementary education. Three external partners (the World Bank, the United Kingdom, and the EC) contribute $1.05 billion to the Union Government's share.
SSA finances civil works, salaries for additional teachers, alternative schools in sparsely populated areas, bridge courses for dropouts, innovations, teacher training, school and teacher grants, and community-based organisations to provide on-site support. To tackle gender and social inequalities, SSA subsidises the cost of providing free textbooks to all girls and all students of scheduled castes and tribes, special facilities for girls (such as early childhood education centres for alternative sibling care and girls' toilets), and grants to districts to support students with disabilities.
SSA also funds a national component for capacity building, technical support, monitoring and evaluation, financial management, dissemination of good practices, and media campaigns.
The program is designed to emphasise participation, transparency, and public accountability. It requires that every state take a baseline household census of children to ascertain their age, gender, social, and education status. Once the Project Approval Board agrees to the states' and districts' annual work plans, funds are released to the states for implementation. The funds are overwhelmingly spent at the community level, and their sources and uses at the school level are required to be posted publicly.
Since its 2001 launch, SSA has focused its efforts -- with initial signs of success -- on enrolling children who have never enrolled and in bringing dropouts back to school, while at the same time taking in new age groups and improving the quality of educational inputs. SSA is complemented by another national program, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, that provides daily school meals to all primary school students, thereby providing not only the needed nutrition but also incentives for poor children to enrol in and complete school.
SSA enjoys non-partisan political backing, as evidenced by major budget increases under both the present and previous Union Governments. The prime minister of India is the chair of SSA's National Mission, ensuring the highest-level attention.
Risks and challenges
As India has vastly expanded enrolment, it now needs to reduce high teacher and student absenteeism, lower repetition and dropout rates, and improve student achievement. In 2002, an early assessment of public school student achievement in grade five suggested huge differences within and across states.
India tends to reward rote learning, and there are no international benchmarks for judging education standards. At the national level, periodic assessments of student achievement are planned. It is vital that the test instruments be valid, reliable, and well designed. Participation in international comparative assessments should be used to improve and strengthen the technical capacity for measuring quality.
Some states are taking steps to focus on quality. Madhya Pradesh has a system of tracking each child's achievement in each subject for diagnosis, remedial education, and teacher training, and the results of state-wide examinations at the end of grades 5 and 8 are reported to the state legislature, putting the focus on learning outcomes.
Meanwhile, sustaining improvement in the teaching and learning process, increasing the time-on-tasks, and devising specific strategies to address special needs are essential. Multigrade classrooms, common in rural areas, require far more learning materials and teachers than are currently provided. With 17 official languages and more than 300 spoken languages and dialects in India, tribal children need help to overcome language barriers.
Lessons for others?
Could India's experience help guide other countries striving to reach universal primary education? Five lessons come to mind.
First, successive Union governments have provided strong leadership in defining national goals and setting time-bound targets -- elimination of gender inequities, full participation of disadvantaged groups, universal completion of elementary education, and establishment of minimum standards for inputs across and within states. Second, to advance these national goals, India's Union government -- aided in part by external assistance -- not only sustains massive transfers of resources but also requires the states to commit resources to meet the goals through the matching fund mechanism. Third, SSA combines central leadership with decentralised planning and implementation. It provides ample flexibility to design locally specific strategies. It encourages partnerships with non governmental organisations and requires community oversight to ensure transparency and sustainability. Fourth, investment in school meals has raised enrolment and helped retention, while providing much needed nutrition to poor children. Fifth, substantial efforts were put into institutional development and capacity building while the education programme was rapidly expanded. This approach provides room for innovations (such as the provision of alternative schools, which brought flexibility to a rigid system, and the use of community-based teachers) and enables successful models to be developed for large-scale implementation.
References:
Government of India, 2001, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan: A Programme for Universal Elementary Education Framework for Implementation (New Delhi).
_____, various years, Economic Survey (New Delhi).
_____, various years, Selected Education Statistics (New Delhi).
Govinda, R, 2002, India Education Report, Oxford University Press (New Delhi).
Kremer, Michael, Karthik Muralidharan, Nazmul Chaudhury, Jeffrey Hammer, Halsey Rogers, 2005, Teacher Absence in India: A Snapshot, Journal of the European Economic Association, forthcoming.
World Bank, 2004, Elementary Education Project Appraisal Document, Report No 27703-IN (Washington).
Kin Bing Wu is the Lead Education Specialist, Venita Kaul is a Senior Education Specialist, and Deepa Sankar is an Education Economist in the World Bank's South Asia Human Development Department. Wu and Kaul are co-task team leaders of the World Bank project supporting SSA. The article first appeared in Finance & Development, June 2005, Vol 42, No 2, published and copyrighted by the International Monetary Fund. | 13,186 | 5,701 | 2.312928 |
warc | 201704 | November 8, 2013 Speaking More Than One Language Delays Dementia Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online
Besides being able to navigate in two or more cultures, people who speak more than one language have a lower risk for developing earlier dementia, according to a new study published in the journal
Neurology. In the study, a team of British and Indian scientists tracked nearly 650 dementia patients, taking note of when each patient was diagnosed with the condition. The researchers found that individuals who speak more than one language and who are diagnosed with dementia tend to receive their diagnosis up to five years later than those who speak only one language.
"We know from other studies that mental activity has a certain protective effect," study author Thomas Bak, a neurologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland told USA Today. "Bilingualism combines a lot of different mental activities. You have to switch sounds, concepts, grammatical structures, cultural concepts. It stimulates your brain all the time."The research found that the correlation even extended to illiterate individuals — suggesting that the effect has nothing to do with formal education. When the team compared data for illiterate people, those who could speak more than one language were diagnosed with dementia six years later on average.
For the study, the scientists reviewed the medical records of patients who visited a clinic in the city of Hyderabad, the largest city of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The team said that selecting this location was important because residents of the city often speak two or three language - typically some combination of India's official language, a local dialect, and English.
"Since bilingualism is more of a norm in India, bilingualism is not a characteristic of any particular socioeconomic, geographic or religious group," said Suvarna Alladi, a neurologist at Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad.
Over 50 percent of the people diagnosed with dementia at the clinic spoke more than one language, the researchers said. However, the team found that bilinguals and multilinguals developed their initial symptoms at an average age of 65.6 — five years later than the average of 61.1 for those who spoke just one language. The differences were seen for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and frontotemporal dementia, which is caused by deterioration of the brain's frontal or temporal lobes.
The new study echoes findings from two previous smaller studies conducted in Canada that found a later onset of Alzheimer's disease in bilingual individuals. However, the bilinguals in those studies were mostly immigrants, raising doubt about whether they were different from the general population, according Brian Gold, a neuroscientist at the University of Kentucky.
Though not a part of the newly released study, Gold told USA Today the UK and Indian team’s findings a more convincing, "because it is studying bilingual people raised in the same country and culture."
He added that the study reinforces the idea of exposing children to multiple languages as they grow and for bilingual families to keep teaching their kids the languages they know. He said it was unclear if people can affect their risk of developing dementia by taking up a second language later in life.
"It may never be too late," Bak said, noting that it’s uncertain if bilingual people are any better off once symptoms of dementia take hold. | 3,550 | 1,666 | 2.130852 |
warc | 201704 | January 31, 2011 Cells’ Energy Factories Linked To Damaging Inflammation
Scientists have discovered that molecules called reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by the energy factories, or mitochondria, in cells, may play a role in a rare inherited disorder in which uncontrolled inflammation damages the body's tissues. Their research in human and mouse cells suggests that blocking these molecules could reduce inflammation in TNF receptor-associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS) and possibly other inflammatory diseases.
The work, published online on January 31 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (www.jem.org), was supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, a component of the National Institutes of Health.TRAPS is one of a recently identified family of conditions referred to as autoinflammatory disorders, which are marked by unexplained inflammation. As discovered by Dr. Daniel Kastner's research group in 1999, TRAPS is caused by mutations in the gene coding for TNF receptor 1 (TNFR1), which binds tumor necrosis factor (TNF). TNF is a key inflammatory molecule in the body's response to infection, as well as in a number of common rheumatic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. In people with TRAPS, TNF-mediated inflammation causes recurrent fevers, abdominal pain and skin rash. If not controlled, inflammation can lead to amyloidosis, a buildup of inflammatory proteins that can result in organ damage.
While blocking TNF with agents called TNF-inhibitors relieves symptoms for some patients, others continue to have symptoms, says Richard Siegel, M.D., Ph.D., NIAMS autoimmunity branch chief and acting clinical director. Some go on to develop amyloidosis despite treatment.
The inadequacy of anti-TNF treatment in these patients led Dr. Siegel and his colleagues to look at ROS. ROS are chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen that have been implicated in a variety of conditions, including cancer and atherosclerosis. For some time, ROS have been known to play a role in protection against infection. It has also been shown that they can contribute to signaling pathways that lead to inflammation.
Using cells from patients with TRAPS and mice genetically altered to have mutations identical to those in TRAPS, the researchers found that the mutant cells produced elevated levels of ROS, and that blocking ROS significantly decreased the abnormally elevated inflammation in the cells.
In addition, working in collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Michael Sack in the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Dr. Siegel and his team identified mitochondria as the source of ROS leading to inflammatory responses. Mitochondria provide energy for cells through a series of biochemical reactions that result in the generation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a key energy source; ROS are routinely generated as a byproduct of these reactions. In the cells of patients with TRAPS, however, the researchers found that mitochondria generate elevated levels of ROS. Blocking mitochondrial ROS in those cells reversed the inflammation.
Another crucial finding was that mitochondrial ROS play a role in inflammatory responses in normal cells, suggesting that this phenomenon also underlies normal inflammatory responses to some extent.
"Overall, I think the important idea is that there is a healthy balance of ROS in the cells," says Ariel Bulua, an M.D./Ph.D. student in the NIAMS Autoimmunity Branch and the study's lead author. "While there are some beneficial roles of ROS, when they are over produced, they can cause damage."
The researchers say blocking excessive ROS with antioxidants may be a way to reduce the inflammation in patients with TRAPS that is not controlled by TNF inhibitors alone. However, the efficacy of antioxidants in TRAPS will have to be studied in controlled clinical trials. "Although drugs that work in cells and mice do not always translate into humans, these studies provide a new avenue for future investigation," says Dr. Siegel.
Perhaps more importantly, he says this approach may lead to improved therapies for a wide range of inflammatory diseases "“ not just TRAPS. "This is like a test case on a very defined set of patients," he says. "If you get a big effect clinically, I think you could try other groups of patients."
---
On the Net: | 4,419 | 2,076 | 2.128613 |
warc | 201704 | February 28, 2014 Nutrients Are Important For Coral Reefs University of Southampton
Unfortunately, coral reefs are declining at an alarming rate. To promote management activities that can help coral reef survival, an international group of world renowned scientists have summarized the present knowledge about the challenges that coral reefs are facing now and in the future in a special issue of the journal
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability.
The contribution of scientists from the University of Southampton to this special issue, which highlights the crucial role of nutrients for the functioning of coral reefs, can be freely downloaded here.
The University of Southampton researchers who are based at the Coral Reef Laboratory in the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, explain that "too many" nutrients can be as bad for corals as "not enough".
Professor Jörg Wiedenmann, Professor of Biological Oceanography at the University of Southampton and Head of the Coral Reef Laboratory, says: "The nutrient biology of coral reefs is immensely complex. It is important to distinguish between the different direct and indirect effects that a disturbance of the natural nutrient environment can have on a coral reef ecosystem."
Since corals live in a symbiotic relationship with microscopically small plant cells, they require certain amounts of nutrients as "fertilizer". In fact, the experimental addition of nutrients can promote coral growth. "One should not conclude from such findings, however, that nutrient enrichment is beneficial for coral reefs – usually the opposite is true," explains Dr Cecilia D'Angelo, Senior Research Fellow in the Coral Reef Laboratory and co-author on the article.
Professor Wiedenmann, whose research on coral reef nutrient biology is supported by one of the prestigious Starting Grants from the European Research Commission, adds: "Too many nutrients harm corals in many different ways, easily outweighing the positive effects that they can undoubtedly have for the coral–alga association. Paradoxically, the initial addition of nutrients to the water column might result in nutrient starvation of the corals at a later stage. In this publication, we conceptualize the important role that the competition for nutrients by phytoplankton, the free-living relatives of the corals' symbiotic algae, may have in this context."
"Nutrient pollution will continue to increase in many coral reefs. Therefore, an important prerequisite to develop efficient management strategies is a profound understanding of the different mechanisms by which corals suffer from nutrient stress." | 2,665 | 1,296 | 2.056327 |
warc | 201704 | Perhaps you fit this mold: You do only high-end work or period restorations and target the affluent, or some similar market segment. Or you focus on a specific line of business such as refinishing cabinets or bath fixtures; installing closet organizers, gutter toppers, etc.
But, in the U.S., the swelling of the 60-plus age group — especially the 80-plus market segment — presents a new opportunity for remodelers to develop a business serving a demographic segment whose members have more in common than just the size of their pocketbooks.
“Aging-in-place” and “aging-in-community” are popular concepts these days. Simply put, they describe the desire of many senior Americans to remain in their own homes and continue to be active within their communities as they age, rather than moving to an assisted living/care facility. AARP indicates that about 90% of seniors feel this way.
To support this desire, the home health and home care industries have grown rapidly, providing assistance to individuals and families who have lost much of the ability to care for themselves. But despite the wish to remain independent and the availability of care services, little has been done to alter the way we design and maintain the built environment. Herein lies the opportunity.
SPECIFIC APPROACH Building an aging-in-place-focused remodeling business starts with the basic components that characterize any successful remodeling company, such as strong project estimation tools and timely, accurate financial reporting. But if you want to build your business to truly serve the senior homeowner, you need much more: Caring attitude and understanding.Working with seniors requires empathy, patience, and a willingness to develop ongoing client relationships that are more than just transactional. Your mission is to understand the issues surrounding aging and to go beyond “remodeling” to meeting your customers' unique needs. Full range of services.The key to effectively serving this segment is to provide a complete range of services beyond just traditional remodeling. Many of our company's customers look to us as their trusted resource, which they can call whenever they need assistance on the home front — from installing a grab bar to weather-stripping a door, even cutting down an old stump. Expertise.Sure, you still need to know how to frame a wall or set a three-piece molding, but you must also be aware of the types of products and solutions that make sense for seniors. Which handrail profiles are most effective? What solutions exist to increase the friction coefficient of tubs or stone floors? Which paint sheens and lighting solutions work best?
It also helps to understand the effects of common health complications associated with aging — not just visual impairments such as glaucoma, but other conditions that can develop or worsen with age such as diabetes, MS, and dementia. There are things remodelers can do in the home to help clients living with these conditions. (Visit www.homemods.org for information.)
Appropriate marketing.Remember that the senior population is diverse in its needs. Those who are being proactive in their planning will increasingly seek out resources they learn about through traditional marketing. But often a life event creates an immediate need, and ensuring that support networks are aware of your service is a more effective way to generate business. Demeanor.A great crew is essential because, typically, the customer is at home during the remodel. Staff must be polite, conscientious, and willing to lend a hand when needed. I'm sure we all strive for this, but it is all the more important for this client group. —David Dickinson, with his business partner Brian Bartholomew, founded In Your Home, in Portland, Ore., in 2003. Since then, the company has served more than 150 seniors and is rapidly growing. They now offer franchises of their successful business model (see www.iyhusa.com). | 4,002 | 1,993 | 2.008028 |
warc | 201704 | The US Office of Naval Research successfully tested a new explosive substance that has five times the explosive power of materials available today. The revolutionary new High-Density Reactive Material (HDRM) is a mix of polymers and metals that is reported to have the density of mild steel but the strength of aluminum.
Traditional military projectiles, like missiles and shells, are built with a steel casing that houses explosive materials that explode on impact. The new method replaces the steel casing with HDRM, which combines with warhead explosives and only explodes once the target has been penetrated, explains Clifford Bedford, a scientist working for the Office of Naval Research (ONR) on the development of the new substance.
On impact, HDRM reacts with explosives and creates a chemical explosion. "In the case of a steel missile you explosively launch it, it goes through the target and all the kinetic energy is dissipated into the target," Bedford said in an ONR statement.
"With the reactive material missile, it disintegrates within the target and liberates chemical energy, and this chemical and kinetic energy combined gives you the enhanced effect."
Reduced Collateral Damage
In addition to augmented destructive capability, the ONR believes it could also lower civilian casualties in densely populated areas. Because HDRM reacts and is consumed once it hits the target, there is potential to control the explosion. “If this can be focused, which I know we can do, we can really reduce the collateral damage for these systems," said Bedford.
The HDRM could eventually be introduced into grenades and bullets for high-caliber machine guns and larger weapons, but researchers say it is likely to be used first in anti-missile warfare.
Currently anti-missile systems require three or four shots to be fired because the high amount of steel fragments in traditional warhead explosions make it difficult to determine if an incoming projectile has been destroyed.
HDRM’s increased explosive power would raise the probability of taking down incoming munitions faster and with fewer missiles. "Hopefully, with the reactive warhead, we fire once, look and can determine a catastrophic kill. We still have the option for a second fire. But it saves a great deal of cost if you can take out the target with one missile versus three,” said Dr Bedford.
More HDRM tests have been scheduled for September. But five times the explosive power costs up to four times as much to develop, which means budget may also be a factor with the eventual introduction of the new technology.
Key Statistics – Global Missile Market In 2010, the global missile market was worth over $10.2 billion. (source: Visiongain) China has the most active land-based ballistic and cruise missile program worldwide, according to the Pentagon. Key Players – Leading Companies in the Missiles Market Alliant Techsystems (ATK), Almaz-Antey, BAE?Systems, Bharat Dynamics, Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS), BrahMos Aerospace, Denel Dynamics, Diehl BGT Defence, Eurosam, Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd (IAI), Israel Military Industries Ltd (IMI), Konstruktorskoye Byuro Mashynostroyenia (KBM), KBP Instrument Design Bureau, Kongsberg Defence Systems, LIG NEx1 Company, Lockheed Martin, MBDA, Novator Design Bureau, NPO Mashinostroyeniya, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd, Raytheon Company, Roketsan, Saab Bofors Dynamics, State Kyiv Design Bureau (Luch), Thales, Vympel NPO | 3,500 | 1,789 | 1.9564 |
warc | 201704 | Introduction There are some pretty complicated explanations of the center of gravity of a load. Complex mathematical ways are available to determine the center of gravity of any load. As riggers, all we care about is where the load's center of gravity is located. Why Is The Center of Gravity Important? Balanced lifts are inherently more stable in flight. Knowing the location of the center of gravity of a load is important in order to make a balanced lift. Simple Definitions The center gravity of a load is the single point on the load at which it can be hoisted perfectly balanced. Some riggers like to think of it somewhat in reverse: it is the point at which all of a load's weight is concentrated. When performing a lift, they see it as counteracting this concentrated weight at exactly the right spot. It Is Not Rocket Science Sometimes finding the correct pick point for a load, or in other words, the center of gravity, is pretty simple. A load that is uniformly consistent in cross section along its length will have its center of gravity located exactly half the length of the load. This is because uniform cross sections result in uniformly distributed weight.
How to Find the Center of Gravity by Trial and Error Lifting problems can arise when loads have unevenly distributed weight. When it is obvious that the load does not have uniformly distributed weight, the following step by step method can be used to locate the center of gravity by trial and error: Make attachment(s) to the load based an estimate of the location of the center of gravity Slowly remove hoist slack and lift the load just enough to observe for any rotation If the load is stable, continue with the lift ◦ If the load is unstable, move the attachment point toward the load's low point and make another trial lift Continue this method until the load remains stable. Loads Rotate Around Their Center of Gravity It is a known fact that loads, given the opportunity, will rotate around their center of gravity. This leads to some simple, but important, hoisting rules. | 2,063 | 951 | 2.169295 |
warc | 201704 | Interested in writing for RunAddicts.net? Get started now!
“It’s never too late until you believe it is!” This saying certainly applies to running. Regardless of your age or fitness level, the road is always paved for you to start your amazing running adventure. This comprehensive article is packed with essential tips every aspiring runner needs to know.
Tip 1: Visit a Physician
Better safe than sorry! It’s always recommended for new runners to check out with a physician especially under the following conditions: breathing problems, overweight, heart problems, chronic fatigue, above forty, and if you have no running background whatsoever.
Tip 2: Start with a walk/run program
“Too much too soon” is a big NO unless you want to quite within weeks because of fatigue, injury or both! “Slowly but surely” is how all successful runners began their running journey. You must incorporate walking into your running routine especially if you’re an absolute beginner. In doing so, you’ll reap all the healthy rewards of walking while slowly and steadily building up your pace and, in the mean time, reducing the risk of injuries.
Tip 3: Check your heart rate regularly
Most beginning runners are so keen to monitoring their weight but they often forget to check their pulse. As you probably know, Running is mainly a cardiovascular activity. It actually trains your heart to pump more blood to your body with every heartbeat. As a result, you would eventually need less beats to work for you.
It’s highly recommended to check your pulse regularly and monitor your improvement. The ideal checking moment is just after waking up. Here’s how you do it: Count your heartbeats for ten seconds. Then, multiply the number by six to calculate your total pulse per minute.
If you’re running regularly and within your fitness level, you should notice steady improvement in your heart rate. Of course, it wouldn’t happen in a day or two but you should see measurable results within weeks or months in some cases.
It’s very important to remember that if your heart rate increased by five to eight beats per minute one day than the day before, chances are high that you’re overdoing it. In this case, it’s advisable to take a rest and check the pulse again the next day. Once it’s back to the old level, you could start running again.
Tip 4: Keep a running log
Most experienced runners assert that keeping a running log is by far the best way to keep track of their progress. The good news is: You don’t even have to buy a running log. Simply make up your own on a paper or computer spreadsheet. Your running log should include basic information about your runs including: time, distance, type of workout, weight and pulse.
It goes without saying that you will become extremely motivated to feel that all your effort is paying off, as you see your mileage increase while your pulse and weight decrease thanks to running.
Also read our article: “Keeping Track: Why a Running Log is Important”
Tip 5: Listen to your body
It’s never too late until you believe it is!
You could become your own coach once you learn to listen to your body. Muscle pains and tiredness are perfectly normal running pains. However, beware if during or after the run, you start to feel dizzy or experience pain in the chest area, the legs, or the back.
In this case, you must stop running immediately and start walking or completely resting. Later on, you’d need to decrease your training load or even stop when necessary until the pain is ceased. If still in pain after all, you must check with your physician.
With experience, you’ll understand you body signals and learn when to keep going and when to stop.
Tip 6: Lower Your Intensity
Don’t fall into the trap of starting at a too high intensity. Paradoxically, the slower you go when you begin, the faster you will become in the end! “Base building” is by far the most essential part of your running. This will result in easy running in the future. Low intensity running for beginners is an excellent aid in avoiding overtraining. If, at the end of your workout, you would tell yourself: ’I could’ve gone a bit longer’, it’s a clear indication that you’ve been running at the right pace.
Tip 7: Maintain regular workouts and healthy diet
To ensure maintaining steady progress, it’s far much better to run three to four times a week for thirty minutes than two run once a week for two hours. It’s very important to ensure that you follow an effective running schedule that takes into consideration slow yet regular build-up.
It’s important to maintain a healthy diet if you strive to make the most out of your running. Poor eating habits could easily sabotage your effort and hinder your desired progress.
Tip 8: Warm up then cool down and incorporate Cross-training
Warming up is an excellent way to send your body a clear message that you’re about to become physically active. This way, your heart and legs could adjust properly. This’s how the ideal running warm up works: Start in a brisk walk followed by easy running for couple of minutes or so.
When you finish your running, take a few of minutes to cool down by running very slowly and walking in the last minutes of your workout. Finish with a stretch.
Maintaining warm-ups and cool downs greatly helps in reducing muscle pains which, in turn, improves your overall recovery process.
Cross training refers to other wonderful exercises that you could easily add to your running routine. They include swimming, biking, hiking, Pilates…etc. The beauty of cross training is that it helps increasing your fitness level while giving your running-muscles a break.
Tip 9: Live, Eat and Breath running!
If you aspire to become a good runner, surround your life with everything related to running. Become an obsessed running fanatic! Subscribe to a running magazine and occasionally pay a visit to a running store to find out about the latest running trends.
Find a local race and set a goal to compete in it. This will motivate you to keep up with your training plan.
Tip 10: Set goals and celebrate your successes
I couldn’t think of a better ways to keep motivated than setting attainable goals for yourself. Try to set S.M.A.R.T. goals which are:
Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Tangible
Examples of S.M.A.R.T. goals include:
Running at least three times per week thirty minutes each Losing ten pounds in three months. Finishing a local 5K race which will be held twelve weeks from now
And so on…
Give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done. Celebrate your successes and get ready for the next challenge. What are you waiting for?! The time is now. The place is here. Just do it! | 6,904 | 3,131 | 2.205046 |
warc | 201704 | Reflexivity, Bubbles and Profits
Market "risk on" - in the face of a risky and unstable world.
My analytical framework owes a debt of gratitude to, among others, George Soros. His 1987 classic "The Alchemy of Finance," particularly his Theory of Reflexivity, has profoundly influenced the way I view the markets, economics and the world.
From Wikipedia: "Economic philosopher George Soros, influenced by ideas put forward by his tutor, Karl Popper (1957), has been an active promoter of the relevance of reflexivity to economics, first propounding it publicly in his 1987 book The Alchemy of Finance. He regards his insights into market behaviour from applying the principle as a major factor in the success of his financial career. Reflexivity is inconsistent with equilibrium theory, which stipulates that markets move towards equilibrium and that non-equilibrium fluctuations are merely random noise that will soon be corrected. In equilibrium theory, prices in the long run at equilibrium reflect the underlying fundamentals, which are unaffected by prices. Reflexivity asserts that prices do in fact influence the fundamentals and that these newly influenced set of fundamentals then proceed to change expectations, thus influencing prices; the process continues in a self-reinforcing pattern. Because the pattern is self-reinforcing, markets tend towards disequilibrium. Sooner or later they reach a point where the sentiment is reversed and negative expectations become self-reinforcing in the downward direction, thereby explaining the familiar pattern of boom and bust cycles. An example Soros cites is the procyclical nature of lending, that is, the willingness of banks to ease lending standards for real estate loans when prices are rising, then raising standards when real estate prices are falling, reinforcing the boom and bust cycle."
In simplest terms, I explain reflexivity as "perceptions creating their own reality." I would argue that the concept of "reflexivity" has never been as important as it is these days. The self-reinforcing nature of Credit cycles has played prominently throughout history. I have argued for years that the move to market-based Credit instruments (i.e. securitizations vs. bank loans) has profoundly exacerbated the inherent instability of Credit, market and economic cycles. Moreover, the instability and fragility of contemporary market-based Credit has over time engendered progressively more "activist" governmental market manipulation and intervention.
The headline certainly caught my attention: "George Soros bets $2B-plus on stock market collapse." At less than 17% of fund assets, I don't want to get too carried away with Soros' bearish bet/hedge. At the same time, it does support my view that the sophisticated market operators have begun to pare some risk. Further confirmation came in Thursday's Wall Street Journal article "Nervous Hedge Funds Turn Defensive on Concerns Over Asset Prices."
Also, interestingly, from Thursday's Wall Street Journal (Kirsten Grind): "Investors Pour Into Vanguard, Eschewing Stock Pickers. Investors are pouring money into Vanguard Group, the epitome of the hands-off approach to investing, flocking to funds that track market indexes and aren't run by stock pickers or star managers. The inflow has pushed the mutual-fund giant to almost $3 trillion in assets under management for the first time. The surge is part of a sea change in the fund business in which investors are increasingly opting for products that track the market rather than relying on managers to pick winners... Investors poured a net $336 billion into passively managed stock and bond funds in 2013, handily beating the $53 billion invested in traditional mutual funds of the same type, according to Morningstar. So far this year through July, investors put a net $177 billion into those passive funds, compared with $74 billion in actively managed funds... Through July, passively managed stock funds have seen a net $128.4 billion in investor inflows, compared with $18 billion for traditional stock funds..."
The contrast between hedge fund risk aversion and "money" flooding into index products stimulates the analytical brain. Certainly, the notion of "distribution" from the sophisticated market operators to the less sophisticated comes to mind. Yet so-called "dumb money" doesn't do justice when it comes to explaining the incredible $500bn that flooded into (largely ETF) index products over the past 18 or so months. Wow.
Credit Bubbles and financial manias are most fascinating. The written history of some of the more notorious Bubbles too successfully paints monetary fiascos as events driven largely by manic obsession with tulip bulbs or various financial instruments. As a student of the monetary inflations/distortions that underpin market Bubbles ("manias"), I take a differing view.
As much as Bubble episodes seem absolutely ridiculous in hindsight (Internet stocks 1999, subprime 2006), they do not appear as such in real time. Indeed, the perceived rationality of participating in the boom is integral to Bubble Dynamics. By 1999, it had become obvious that technological innovation was changing the world - and that tech stocks only went up. By 2006, who could argue against the view that home prices only rose and loan losses were a non-issue? Was borrowing at historically low rates to buy a home irrational? How about speculating in higher-yielding MBS? After all, and as was clearly understood throughout the economy and markets (thanks to various bailouts and market interventions), Washington and the Fed would never allow a housing bust. These days, it's not irrational for "money" to flood into funds indexed to equities and corporate Credit. At this point, there is absolutely no doubt that Washington, the Fed and global central banks would never allow a securities market bust.
To better appreciate today's Bubble, it is first necessary to understand previous Bubbles and the evolution of policymaking and market perceptions. Frankly, I am astonished by the almost complete lack of understanding of key mortgage finance Bubble dynamics. And the more time that passes the greater historical revisionism's sway. The Fed insists that monetary policy and interest-rates were not responsible. It was instead a case of overzealous lending and regulatory failure - all correctable; won't happen again.
I would strongly argue that the so-called "worst financial crisis since the Great Depression" was at its root caused by momentous financial distortions that incentivized a historic expansion of mispriced mortgage Credit. The Fed's extremely low pegged interest rates incentivized aggressive lending and leveraged speculation. Importantly, the Fed and Washington validated the market's perception that Fannie and Freddie securities were free of default risk. The perception of unlimited cheap liquidity coupled with a Federal Reserve market liquidity backstop completely distorted the pricing of mortgage Credit throughout the system. The Fed-induced backdrop simply made it too easy to garner profits in lending, securities speculation and home buying. In terms of "reflexivity," the perception of unending mortgage Credit growth, housing price gains, economic growth and robust financial markets ensured a (fatefully) protracted boom.
The Fed, the GSE's and the government more generally made mortgage lending and housing appear virtually risk-free; mortgage securities became "money"-like. I have argued that during the ongoing global government finance Bubble this dynamic evolved to encompass virtually all asset markets. The fundamental issue of "Moneyness of Credit" distortions throughout mortgage finance evolved to "Moneyness of Risk Assets" virtually across all asset classes on a globalized basis. This is the essence of why I focus on the "Granddaddy of All Bubbles," while most see a healthy bull market.
Mounting systemic fragility went virtually unnoticed during the mortgage finance Bubble period. Late-stage financial and economic vulnerabilities were masked by what was perceived as extraordinary opportunities to profit from the boom. It went unrecognized that profits throughout both the real economy and financial system would transform into massive losses come the inevitable bursting of the Credit Bubble.
The conventional view holds that a market Bubble is defined by asset prices diverging from underlying fundamentals. To most, Bubbles are simply about overvaluation. My analytical framework holds that Bubbles are fueled by some underlying monetary disorder that actually works surreptitiously to inflate "fundamentals." The stock markets didn't appear significantly overvalued in 2007 - or 1929 for that matter. In 1929, 1999 and 2007 virtually everyone was extrapolating ongoing prosperity. These days, it is taken for granted that corporate profits will grow steadily for years to come. I believe strongly that inflating "profits" are the centerpiece of today's Bubble, similar to how inflating home prices were the cornerstone of the mortgage finance Bubble.
First of all, I always believed that Washington monkeyed with home prices at its own peril. As beguiling as rising home prices and affordable mortgages were for politician and voter alike, policies that stoked home price inflation and "affordable housing" were playing with (Bubble) fire. As history proved, housing market stability is integral to a sound financial system and economy. I believe stability in the backdrop for corporate profits is similarly essential for financial and economic stability. Should it be within the Fed's mandate to monkey with profits - hence securities prices and wealth distribution?
The Fed specifically targeted mortgage Credit for its post-"tech" Bubble reflationary policies. An even more incredible effort to inflate equities (and risk markets) has been the centerpiece of the Fed's post-mortgage finance Bubble efforts. While not generally appreciated, various Washington policy measures have worked in concert to inflate corporate earnings. Massive deficit spending was instrumental in funneling purchasing power throughout the real economy, in the process significantly boosting corporate cash-flows and profits. Meanwhile, Fed policies have inflated corporate profits in various ways, some more obvious than others. Clearly, the collapses in the Fed funds rate and market yields dramatically reduced debt service costs - hence boosted profits - throughout corporate America. For the household sector, the Fed-induced fall in mortgage borrowing costs reduced debt service for homeowners, in the process providing additional spending power (and corporate profits!).
There are myriad other facets of monetary policy that have had a major, if not appreciated, inflationary impact on profits. I believe QE has had a profound impact on corporate cash flows, earnings and balance sheets. Fed liquidity injections have created purchasing power throughout the economy, while also stocking asset prices and attendant "wealth effects." Moreover, by dramatically manipulating market yields lower while inflating market liquidity, the Fed has provided extraordinary incentives for financial engineering and M&A. Unprecedented stock buybacks, in particular, have been instrumental in boosting stock prices and earnings-per-share.
Perhaps most importantly for this cycle, the Fed's move to unlimited quantitative easing emboldened the market perception of infinite central bank liquidity support. This perception has manifested most directly into a powerful collapse in risk premiums, with profound self-reinforcing effects on Credit availability, debt service costs, profits and securities valuation for U.S. and global corporations.
Total Non-Financial Debt growth surpassed $1.0 TN for the first time during booming 1999 (nineties annual avg. $721bn). Non-Financial Debt growth surpassed $2.0 TN annually for the period 2004-2007. The doubling in mortgage Credit had a profound inflationary effect on home prices, along with spending and corporate profits. I have argued over recent years that the mal-adjusted U.S. Bubble economy requires about $2.0 TN of annual Credit growth for the appearance of a sustainable boom. Importantly, this amount of system Credit expansion is necessary to sustain inflated corporate profits.
The big issue I have - and why I am convinced in the Bubble thesis - is that I don't believe $2.0 TN of Credit growth is sustainable. Supposedly, the Fed will soon be concluding its historic balance sheet expansion (monetary inflation). To this point, the perception holds that the recovery is on track and global central banks will continue to backstop the markets and global economy. And as long as "money" continues to flow to risk markets and the speculators keep the faith, then booming markets (underpinned by massive buybacks and M&A) support spending, economic activity and corporate profits. I'm the first to admit that the now protracted global government finance Bubble has attained significant momentum.
There is ample support for my view that financial speculation and securities market leveraging are today unprecedented on a global basis. On the one hand, this financial Credit has been instrumental in both inflating securities prices and fueling the Bubble in profits. The inflation of the Fed's (and other central banks') liabilities ("money") has been fundamental in incentivizing securities speculation. Just as the Fed was never to tolerate a housing bust, it is now taken on faith that central banks would never allow a securities market liquidity crisis. The 2008/09 market dislocation and crisis were manifested by market recognition that the Fed could not sustain the mortgage finance boom.
I expect the next crisis to likely revolve around the harsh reality that central banks cannot guarantee robust and liquid markets. Actually, reflexivity ensures that perceptions of limitless cheap liquidity and market backstops ensure the type of excess that inevitably ends in liquidity crisis. When this historic Bubble bursts, corporate profits will be one of the more prominent casualties. And in the fascinating world of Bubble analysis, I can confidently posit that the Fed is oblivious to the unfolding financial stability problem. They clearly don't appreciate the Bubble they have induced in corporate profits and the ramifications for the true overvaluation of corporate securities generally - both equities and bonds.
Soros has taken a bearish position through the purchase of put options on the S&P 500. Surely he is not alone in looking at relatively inexpensive market insurance for downside protection (as myriad risks become increasingly apparent). These types of instruments tend to exacerbate market volatility. In market declines, those that have sold/written market insurance must dynamically hedge this exposure, which can lead to self-reinforcing selling. At the same time, these types of bearish bets also provide buying power when markets reverse course and rally. This helps to explain why markets (think 1999 or 2007) tend to go into speculative melt-up mode right into the face of deteriorating fundamentals.
It's also worth noting that the hedge fund industry is generally struggling with performance again this year. Ironically, all the "money" slushing into index products only makes the job of generating "alpha" from stock picking all the more challenging. There are many reasons I suspect the markets have entered a period of heightened volatility.
For the Week:
The S&P500 jumped 1.7% (up 7.6% y-t-d), and the Dow gained 2.0% (up 2.6%). The Utilities rose 1.3% (up 10.3%). The Banks surged 3.0% (up 2.6%), and the Broker/Dealers advanced 2.2% (up 3.8%). The Transports gained 2.0% (up 13.9%). The S&P 400 Midcaps jumped 2.2% (up 6.2%), and the small cap Russell 2000 gained 1.6% (down 0.3%). The Nasdaq100 rose 1.6% (up 12.8%), and the Morgan Stanley High Tech index jumped 2.3% (up 10.1%). The Semiconductors rose 2.4% (up 19.6%). The Biotechs gained 1.4% (up 26.7%). With bullion down $25, the HUI gold index was hit for 3.1% (up 20.4%).
One- and three month Treasury bill rates closed the week at two bps. Two-year government yields jumped nine bps to 0.49% (up 11bps y-t-d). Five-year T-note yields were 12 bps higher to 1.66% (down 8bps). Ten-year Treasury yields gained six bps to 2.40% (down 63bps). Long bond yields increased two bps to 3.24% (down 81bps). Benchmark Fannie MBS yields gained six bps to 3.15% (down 46bps). The spread between benchmark MBS and 10-year Treasury yields was little changed at 75 bps. The implied yield on December 2015 eurodollar futures jumped 10 bps to 1.01%. The two-year dollar swap spread was little changed at 22 bps, and the 10-year swap spread was about unchanged at 15 bps. Corporate bond spreads were mostly narrower. An index of investment grade bond risk declined two to 58 bps. An index of junk bond risk dropped eight to 314 bps. An index of emerging market (EM) debt risk fell seven to 282 bps.
Ten-year Portuguese yields sank 27 bps to 3.24% (down 289bps y-t-d). Italian 10-yr yields dipped a basis point to 2.58% (down 155bps). Spain's 10-year yields slipped two bps to 2.38% (down 177bps). German bund yields gained three bps to 0.98% (down 95bps). French yields gained three bps to 1.37% (down 119bps). The French to German 10-year bond spread was little changed at 39 bps. Greek 10-year yields declined two bps to 5.85% (down 257bps). U.K. 10-year gilt yields were up eight bps to 2.41% (down 61bps).
Japan's Nikkei equities index gained 1.4% (down 4.6% y-t-d). Japanese 10-year "JGB" yields were unchanged at 0.50% (down 24bps). The German DAX equities index jumped 2.7% (down 2.2%). Spain's IBEX 35 equities index rose 2.7% (up 5.9%). Italy's FTSE MIB index gained 2.2% (up 5.0%). Emerging equities were mostly higher. Brazil's Bovespa index jumped 2.5% (up 13.4%). Mexico's Bolsa gained 1.7% (up 6.2%). South Korea's Kospi index slipped 0.3% (up 2.3%). India's bubbly Sensex equities index gained 1.2% to another all-time high (up 24.8%). China's Shanghai Exchange rose 0.6% (up 5.9%). Turkey's Borsa Istanbul National 100 index jumped 2.9% (up 16.4%). Russia's MICEX equities index gained 1.5% (down 3.8%).
Freddie Mac 30-year fixed mortgage rates declined two bps to 4.10% (down 41bps y-o-y). Fifteen-year rates slipped a basis point to 3.23% (down 31bps). One-year ARM rates increased two bps to 2.38% (down 26bps). Bankrate's survey of jumbo mortgage borrowing costs had 30-yr fixed rates down three bps to 4.55% (down 16bps).
Federal Reserve Credit last week declined $3.7bn to $4.373 TN. During the past year, Fed Credit inflated $784bn, or 21.8%. Fed Credit inflated $1.562 TN, or 56%, over the past 93 weeks. Elsewhere, Fed holdings for foreign owners of Treasury, Agency Debt fell $3.1bn last week to $3.322 TN. "Custody holdings" were down $31.7bn year-to-date, while posting a one-year increase of $38.7bn.
Global central bank "international reserve assets" (excluding gold) - as tallied by Bloomberg - were up $843bn y-o-y, or 7.5%, to $12.028 TN. Over two years, reserves were $1.495 TN higher for 14% growth.
M2 (narrow) "money" supply declined $8.7bn to $11.426 TN. "Narrow money" expanded $667bn, or 6.2%, over the past year. For the week, Currency increased $1.2bn. Total Checkable Deposits sank $62.8bn, while Savings Deposits jumped $46.8bn. Small Time Deposits slipped $1.6bn. Retail Money Funds rose $7.5bn.
Money market fund assets gained $6.7bn to $2.584 TN. Money Fund assets were down $134bn y-t-d and dropped $53bn from a year ago, or 2.0%.
Total Commercial Paper fell $14.0bn to $1.023 TN. CP was down $23bn year-to-date, while being little changed from a year ago.
Currency Watch:
The U.S. dollar index jumped 1.1% to 82.34 (up 2.9% y-t-d). For the week on the downside, the Japanese yen declined 1.5%, the Swiss franc 1.2%, the euro 1.2%, the Danish krone 1.2%, the Swedish krona 1.1%, the South African rand 0.9%, the New Zealand dollar 0.9%, the Brazilian real 0.8%, the British pound 0.7%, the Norwegian krone 0.5%, the Mexican peso 0.5%, the Canadian dollar 0.4%, the Singapore dollar 0.3%, the South Korean won 0.1% and the Australian dollar 0.1%.
Commodities Watch:
The CRB index slipped 0.4% this week (up 3.0% y-t-d). The Goldman Sachs Commodities Index declined 0.7% (down 4.6%). Spot Gold dropped 1.9% to $1,280 (up 6.2%). September Silver slipped 0.3% to $19.46 (up 0.5%). October Crude dropped $1.67 to $93.65 (down 4.8%). September Gasoline gained 1.5% (down 2%), and September Natural Gas rallied 1.7% (down 9%). September Copper jumped 3.2% (down 5%). September Wheat was little changed (down 9%). September Corn was about unchanged (down 13%).
U.S. Fixed Income Bubble Watch:
August 22 - Wall Street Journal (Mike Cherney): "U.S. corporate-bond issuance is hurtling toward a record for the third consecutive year, as companies take advantage of a surprising interest-rate decline to stock up on cash. Companies around the globe have sold about $994.9 billion of bonds in the U.S. this year as of Thursday morning, according to... Dealogic... That is up more than 4% from a year ago, with sales on pace to cross the $1 trillion mark at the fastest clip on record... Acquisitions have about doubled in the U.S. from last year to a recent $1.1 trillion, and U.S. bond sales earmarked for capital spending -- purchases or upgrades of long-lived assets such as plant and equipment -- have risen 90% from a year earlier to $40 billion, Dealogic said."
August 22 - Bloomberg (Sridhar Natarajan and Christine Idzelis): "U.S. high-yield bond funds recorded the biggest weekly inflow of 2014 as investors returned to the riskiest corporate debt following an unprecedented withdrawal at the start of August. Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that buy junk bonds attracted $2.2 billion in the week ended Aug. 20, according to data provider Lipper. That's the second straight week of inflows after investors pulled $7.1 billion in the five days ended Aug. 6, extending redemptions to as much as $12.6 billion over a four-week period."
August 18 - Bloomberg (Lisa Abramowicz): "Hedge funds dislike junk bonds so much that they're willing to pay 48 times more to short the debt using exchange-traded funds than at the end of last year. A prime example is BlackRock Inc.'s $12.4 billion fund that trades under the ticker HYG, which allows traders to borrow a certain proportion of shares to wager that prices will decline. The daily cost for financing such activity was $342,000 a day in the week ended Aug. 5, up from $7,000 at the end of December... This shows a couple of things. First, that traders have really hated high-yield debt ETFs in recent weeks. And second, that ETFs, often thought of as tools for individual investors, are increasingly dominated by a hedge-fund type crowd, particularly in less-traded asset classes like junk bonds. 'It seems like maybe these ETFs are acting as canaries in a coal mine for possibly a broader selloff,' said Chris Benedict, director and lead analyst of DataLend."
U.S. Bubble Watch:
August 16 - New York Times (James Stewart): "After a nearly uninterrupted five-year rally in stocks and bonds, some investors seem to be getting nervous. On July 31, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 317 points, wiping out the year's gains. Last week, junk bond funds experienced record withdrawals and junk bond interest rates spiked. Such gyrations may be healthy, a reminder that there are risks and that markets go down as well as up. But they could also be the harbinger of something more worrisome, which would be renewed financial instability as the Federal Reserve brings to an end its extraordinary easy money policy. The Federal Reserve has said it expects to raise interest rates in 2015 for the first time since the financial crisis."
Federal Reserve Watch:
August 22 - Bloomberg (Jeff Kearns and Craig Torres): "Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she still isn't satisfied with the U.S. labor market. Deciding when she is won't be easy. 'The labor market has yet to fully recover,' Yellen said today... at the Kansas City Fed's annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. While the five-year expansion has put more Americans back to work, 'a key challenge is to assess just how far the economy now stands from attainment of its maximum employment goal.' ...She said policy makers will have to look at a 'wide range' of indicators to make that assessment, adding that there's 'no simple recipe' for deciding when to raise interest rates for the first time since 2006."
Europe Watch:
August 21 - Bloomberg (Alessandro Speciale): "Euro-area manufacturing and services activity slowed in August, signaling that the economy of the 18-nation region remains vulnerable to weak inflation and rising tensions with Russia... While the gauge has signaled growth for more than a year, economic expansion in the euro area unexpectedly halted in the second quarter amid weakness in the region's three largest economies. With inflation below 1% since October, unemployment near record highs and rising political tensions, the European Central Bank unveiled a stimulus package in June that policy makers say will take months to show results."
August 21 - Reuters (Gavin Jones): "Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi denied on Thursday that his government planned to raise taxes, cut pensions or adopt corrective measures to rein in the budget deficit this year. There have been repeated media reports this summer that the government will need to pass a mini-budget to hold the deficit inside European Union limits after the economy unexpectedly slipped back into recession. 'Anyone talking about pension cuts or mini-budgets is talking about things that are not on the agenda,' Renzi said..."
Global Bubble Watch:
August 20 - Financial Times (Tracy Alloway and Michael Mackenzie): "In March of last year, Kyle Bass, founder of the hedge fund Hayman Capital Management, made a startling proclamation: aggressive young bankers in Japan were pushing complex over-the-counter derivatives similar to those that rapidly soured during the financial crisis of 2008... That warning appears sagacious, with investors once more chasing levered returns via certain types of US credit derivatives that Wall Street is willingly providing in the current climate of low interest rates and moribund volatility. Some market participants say the rise of these derivatives raises questions about the effectiveness of financial reform undertaken since 2008. While standardised derivatives such as interest rate swaps are now transacted in exchange-type venues and centrally cleared, the flourishing area of opaque products are not, and moreover there are few records of activity that regulators can monitor. 'We've reformed nothing,' says Janet Tavakoli, president of Tavakoli Structured Finance. 'We have more leverage and more derivatives risk than we've ever had."
August 22 - Wall Street Journal (Laurence Fletcher): "Some hedge funds are cutting back on their riskier positions because of fears that certain assets may have become overpriced and concerns about the conflicts in Ukraine and Iraq. Nervous funds have reduced their bets that equities will keep rising, have increased wagers on falling bond prices and have bought protection for their portfolios in case the crises escalate further... Favored recent trades include buying 10-year U.S. Treasurys, seen as a haven, and buying 'put' options that rise in value when stock markets fall. Hedge funds have also been buying credit-default protection on Italy, Spain and Portugal or on banks in those countries to protect themselves from more upheaval there. 'You definitely are seeing managers reduce risk levels,' said Robert Duggan, managing director at fund-of-hedge-funds investor Skybridge Capital... 'It has been in the last four to six weeks that you've seen a bit of a sentiment shift. 'Cautious' or 'more defensive' are clearly things you hear when you speak with managers."
August 19 - Bloomberg (Abigail Moses): "The biggest overhaul to the $19 trillion credit derivatives market in more than a decade will seek to solve flaws that have stopped some contracts paying out as buyers anticipated. The changes come too late for investors in the junior debt of Banco Espirito Santo SA, whose credit-default swaps were devalued this month when the Portuguese lender was rescued and restructured by the government. Since the contracts are tied to the majority of a company's debt, if the borrower is reorganized the swaps don't necessarily stay tied to the securities they're meant to protect. Investors will start signing up to convert outstanding trades into new contracts as early as this week after the International Swaps & Derivatives Association rewrote the documentation to address the weaknesses."
August 18 - Bloomberg (Michael Heath): "A deepening gloom across the largest developed economy to escape recession during the global financial crisis is shaping up as one of the toughest challenges yet for Reserve Bank of Australia chief Glenn Stevens. Australia's misery index -- the sum of unemployment and inflation rates -- is at 9.0, the highest since 2008, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. froze credit markets around the world and triggered the deepest recession in the U.S. since the Great Depression."
August 18 - Bloomberg (Jillian Ward): "London home sellers cut asking prices by the most in more than six years this month, adding to signs that the property market in the U.K. capital is coming off the boil. London values fell 5.9% from the previous month to an average 552,783 pounds ($922,300), the biggest drop since December 2007, property website Rightmove Plc said... Nationally, prices declined 2.9%, a record for an August... Tougher new mortgage rules introduced by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, as well as anticipation of higher interest rates, are putting pressure on the market after a surge in values raised concerns that a bubble may develop."
August 19 - Bloomberg (Neil Callanan): "Monaco, the tax haven on the French Riviera, is experiencing a luxury-housing boom that includes the world's most expensive penthouse as developers prepare for an influx of millionaires and billionaires escaping higher taxes or a loss of banking privacy. A 'flow' of new residents is emigrating from Switzerland, where financial-secrecy laws are crumbling, said Jean Claude Caputo, managing director of broker Savills Plc's French Riviera unit. They're drawn by the principality's 'security, sophistication and climate,' he said -- as well as for financial reasons... The Tour Odeon, a double-skyscraper being built by Groupe Marzocco SAM near Monaco's Mediterranean seafront, will contain a 3,300 square-meter (35,500 square-foot) penthouse with a water slide connecting a dance floor to a circular open-air swimming pool. The apartment may sell for more than 300 million euros ($400 million) when it goes on the market next year..."
EM Bubble Watch:
August 22 - Bloomberg (Camila Russo and Charlie Devereux): "First came the default, then a proposed debt swap aimed at circumventing a U.S. court ruling that could normalize Argentina's relations with foreign investors. Now traders foresee a devaluation for the second time this year. Argentina's peso sank 1.3% this week to 8.3932 per dollar, the biggest drop since the government devalued the currency 15% in the week ended Jan. 24. In the black market, where Argentines go to avoid government limits on purchases of U.S. currency, the peso weakened to a record 13.95 per dollar... The plan means it's less likely President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will negotiate a deal with holdout creditors that would lift the court order that has prevented the country from servicing its obligations, according to Bank of America Corp. Prolonging the default would then restrict Argentine borrowers' access to international markets, putting pressure on policy makers to allow the peso to weaken as dollars become scarce."
August 21 - Bloomberg (Charlie Devereux and Camila Russo): "Argentina's attempt to circumvent a U.S. court order to pay its overseas bondholders is threatening to prolong the nation's isolation from international markets and sink its economy deeper into recession. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said on Aug. 19 that Argentina will let holders of foreign-currency bonds swap into new securities governed under local law after a U.S. ruling blocked payments and triggered its second default in 13 years. The plan comes in direct conflict with orders from U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Griesa, who ruled that Argentina must first resolve unpaid debts from its 2001 default before it can make any other payments and said such a swap would be illegal. The announcement is also the clearest sign yet Argentina would rather remain cut off from overseas debt markets than compromise with creditors led by billionaire Paul Singer's Elliott Management ... At a time when the country's reserves are tumbling, the debt dispute may shave as much as 5 percentage points from growth next year if left unsettled, Bank of America Corp. said."
August 18 - Bloomberg (Vladimir Kuznetsov and Olga Tanas): "Russia's central bank widened the ruble's trading band and reduced the amount of foreign exchange it will buy and sell as the world's largest energy exporter moves away from managing its currency. Policy makers increased the corridor within which the dollar-euro basket can trade to 9 rubles from 7 rubles and abandoned all interventions while the exchange rate moves within this band..."
Geopolitical Watch:
August 22 - Bloomberg (Jake Rudnitsky): "Trucks carrying what Russia says is humanitarian aid reached the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, after crossing the border in what the government in Kiev denounced as an 'invasion.' Tension escalated as Oana Lungescu, a spokeswoman for NATO, said by e-mail that since the middle of this month the alliance had received 'multiple reports' of direct involvement of Russian airborne, air defense and special operations forces in eastern Ukraine... The U.S., European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization denounced the convoy's entrance into Ukraine, with a Pentagon spokesman saying Russia continues to add troops near the border with Ukraine. The convoy is a 'flagrant violation of Ukraine's sovereignty,' White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters..."
August 22 - Associated Press (Robert Burns): "The Pentagon says a Chinese fighter jet conducted a 'dangerous intercept' of a U.S. Navy aircraft three days ago off the coast of China in international airspace. The Pentagon press secretary, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said Friday that Washington has lodged a protest to China through diplomatic channels. Kirby said the Chinese jet made several close passes by the Navy P-8 Poseidon plane, coming within 30 feet of it. He said the Chinese jet did a roll maneuver over the top of the Poseidon and also passed across the nose of the Navy plane, exposing the belly of the fighter in a way apparently designed to show that it was armed."
August 22 - Financial Times (Emily Cadman): "Geopolitical threats are starting to weigh on executives' confidence in the global economic recovery, according to the latest FT/Economist Global Business Barometer survey. The proportion of executives who believed the global economic environment would worsen over the next six months has nearly doubled to 18%, nearly one in five respondents, from just 9% at the end of last year. There was another rise in the number of executives citing political risk as one of the biggest threats to their business to 43%, the highest level since the survey began in 2011."
August 19 - Bloomberg (Cynthia Koons and Michael Riley): "Chinese hackers stole social security numbers, names and addresses from 4.5 million patients of Community Health Systems Inc., the second-biggest for-profit U.S. hospital chain... The attacks occurred in April and June, the... company said... The hacker group originated from China and bypassed the company's security system, making off with non-medical information from people who visited doctors' offices associated with the company. 'Unfortunately, we have joined numerous American companies and institutions who have been victimized by highly sophisticated, criminal cyber-attacks originating out of China,' Tomi Galin, a spokeswoman for Community Health, said..."
August 20 - Bloomberg: "China found a dozen Japanese auto-parts makers guilty of price fixing and doled out the biggest antitrust fines in the country since relevant rules came into effect six years ago. Total fines amounted to 1.24 billion yuan ($200 million)... While China follows the U.S., Europe and Japan in punishing parts makers, the fines come as foreign businesses increasingly voice concerns that an era of heightened regulatory scrutiny is dawning on the world's second-largest economy. Global Car manufacturers, technology companies and food companies have faced antitrust probes in the country since last year."
China Bubble Watch:
August 13 - Bloomberg (Clement Tan): "China's broadest measure of new credit plunged to the lowest since the global financial crisis and industrial output unexpectedly slowed, adding risks to growth as the government grapples with a property slump. Aggregate financing was 273.1 billion yuan ($44.3bn) in July, the central bank said... 'The July data is certainly a warning sign,' said Chen Xingdong, chief China economist at BNP Paribas SA in Beijing. While it may be too soon to turn pessimistic on growth, 'if the situation continues for another two or three months, there will be serious liquidity problems,' Chen said... The People's Bank of China said the drop in financing resulted from recent regulation and financial institutions' enhanced control of risks. Aggregate financing compared with the 1.5 trillion yuan median estimate of economists, while new local-currency loans of 385.2 billion yuan were half of projections... The decline in property sales accelerated in July, with data for the first seven months showing an 8.2% drop from a year earlier, after a 6.7% fall in the first half. Floor space of newly started property construction declined 12.8% in the January-July period from a year earlier, easing from the 16.4% drop in the first half."
August 18 - Bloomberg: "China's new-home prices fell in July in almost all cities that the government tracks as tight mortgage lending deterred buyers even as local governments eased property curbs. Prices fell in 64 of the 70 cities last month from June..., the most since January 2011 when the government changed the way it compiles the data. Beijing prices fell 1% from June, posting the first monthly decline since April 2012. 'The falling trend of China's property market has no sign of improving,' Shen Jian-guang, Hong Kong-based chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd., said... 'The key issue is the mortgages, despite all types of local government easings. The high rate is damping sentiment of owner occupiers.' China's property market has become a drag on the world's second-biggest economy, prompting cities to start easing local curbs in June... The International Monetary Fund has urged China to target slower expansion in 2015, saying the economy faces a 'web of vulnerabilities' from rising debt and financial institutions' exposure to real estate."
August 21 - Bloomberg (Christopher Langner): "A Chinese manufacturing gauge fell more than analysts estimated in August as a credit slowdown and property slump add to risks the world's second-largest economy will miss its growth target this year. The preliminary Purchasing Managers' Index from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics was at 50.3, trailing all 22 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey... The measure dropped from July's final reading of 51.7..."
August 19 - Financial Times (Gabriel Wildau): "Chinese banks have been ramping up lending to developers in recent months, even as falling sales and weaker prices ratchet up the risk of these loans souring. New home prices in China fell 0.9% in July from June..., the third straight monthly drop. Sales volume and construction activity have also slowed as potential buyers adopt a cautious approach ahead of expected further price declines. Despite this weakness banks, under pressure from the government to prop up the property market, lifted lending to residential real estate developers by 26.9% year on year in the first six months of 2014 to Rmb3.1tn ($504bn). That is a marked increase over the 19.3% year-on-year pace of growth in the first quarter... Nearly half of the increase went to affordable housing. That leaves banks exposed to highly indebted local governments, which finance such projects largely through off-budget financing vehicles."
August 21 - Bloomberg (Christopher Langner): "After three years of experimenting with municipal bonds, China's debt market is still failing to price in any additional risk over central government notes. Zhejiang province sold five-, seven- and 10-year securities yesterday at yields one basis point higher than those on similar Ministry of Finance paper, while Qingdao city a day earlier paid a maximum five-basis-point premium... Premier Li Keqiang is allowing regional authorities to raise money directly, after they accumulated 17.9 trillion yuan ($2.9 trillion) in debt in an effort to avert a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy. He has called for markets to play a greater role in pricing risk and allowed the nation's first onshore bond default in March amid the slowest economic growth in 24 years."
August 22 - Bloomberg (Christopher Langner): "Chinese companies renting debt ratings from state-owned banks when raising funds in U.S. money markets are fueling credit concerns as bad loans mount. Including the first program guaranteed by Bank of China Ltd. in New York in 2012, eight firms have set up $2.6 billion in short-term fundraising backed by standby letters of credit, giving them the same ratings as the lender for a fee... Unrated China International Marine Containers Group Co. has a $600 million program. China Power International Development Ltd., which had a junk score until Fitch Ratings withdrew it in 2012, has a $300 million plan... The use of credit sweeteners for shorter-dated commercial paper is now bringing unrated Chinese borrowers to the low-risk U.S. money market. 'The only reason why a company needs a standby letter of credit is because in many situations, the underlying credit is a challenging one,' said Raymond Chia, the... head of credit research at Schroder Investment Management Ltd., which oversaw $464 billion in assets as of June 30. 'Over a longer term, such risky companies and sectors could still pose fundamental issues for the guarantee bank.'"
August 18 - Bloomberg: "China's biggest banks, already poised for the weakest profit growth in more than a decade, risk a further erosion in earnings from record share sales intended to boost their capital after a credit binge. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China... and its listed peers this year proposed selling $63 billion of preferred and common stock, exceeding U.S. and European banks' combined $56 billion... Selling preferred stock will saddle the banks with expensive dividend payments, an extra drag on retained profits. Shares of China's lenders, trading at the cheapest price-to- earnings valuations among global banks, are already constrained by rising bad loans, a faltering economy and prospects of more equity sales."
August 19 - Bloomberg (Clement Tan): "Falling property prices in China's eastern city of Wenzhou triggered 6.4 billion yuan ($1 billion) of bad loans as buyers abandoned homes and stopped making mortgage payments... Purchasers of 1,107 properties halted payments as prices dropped for 34 straight months, the Xinhua News Agency- affiliated magazine said... China's slumping property market is a drag on the world's second-biggest economy and banks' profits, with lenders' soured loans increasing for almost three years. New-home prices fell last month in 64 of 70 cities tracked by the government. In Wenzhou, about 56% of the homes were abandoned due to falling values and most were high-end apartments... Homes were also abandoned by borrowers left with liabilities after making guarantees for companies in financial trouble, the report said."
August 20 - Bloomberg (Clement Tan): "Aviation Industry Corp. of China, the state-owned fighter-jet maker, plans to spend as much as 120 billion yuan ($20bn) to build aerospace-themed amusement parks as it seeks to woo Chinese looking for leisure activities... China's leaders are seeking to spur a shift toward a consumption-driven economy in a country where the World Bank estimates household consumption expenditure accounted for 35% of the gross domestic product in 2012, compared with 69% in the U.S... 'There will be a big market for leisure activities and AVIC can't be left out as new leisure products emerge and aviation becomes a way of life for many,' Lin Zuoming, who heads AVIC, said..."
Tweet | 45,454 | 19,565 | 2.32323 |
warc | 201704 | Where an inspector believes that there is a contravention of health and safety legislation, there is the power to serve a notice that requires the fault to be put right. Typically, this is used as a way to ensure that physical defects are put right, but on occasions there might be a requirement to undertake measures such as to carry out a risk assessment. Failing to comply will generally lead to a prosecution and the fines can be severe.
Because there is no court hearing, this method of enforcement is sometimes seen as more cost-effective than taking a prosecution. Providing that the notice is correct in all respects, this can be true.
Occasionally, notices are served which go much further than the law requires, impose unreasonable requirements or unrealistic deadlines. In those situations, it is possible to appeal. Details of the appeal process are contained with the notice when it is served, but the process can sometimes be less than straightforward.
If you need advice on whether a notice is legitimate or wish to appeal then we can assist. For more information, contact us and speak to one of our safety solicitors. | 1,138 | 621 | 1.832528 |
warc | 201704 | While some of its members may genuinely believe they are doing good by their fellow human beings in protecting health and potentially dangerous things, as they think genetically modified plants to be, the dangers of the Precautionary Principle are highlighted to a stark degree by the activities of Greenpeace activists in Canberra, Australia. According to a report, trials in producing GM wheat have been badly damaged.
The persons who did this will, hopefully, be caught and punished with the full weight of the law. Remember, if these guys had their way, the Agricultural Revolution that took place in the decades leading up to the Industrial Revolution might not have happened, or at least to the same degree.
Here is an article by the excellent Ronald Bailey on the GM crops issue. | 790 | 476 | 1.659664 |
warc | 201704 | Below are frequently asked questions about windows.
Q: Should I replace my single-pane windows?
A: I do not recommend replacing single-pane windows with new dual-pane windows for energy savings alone. Replacing windows is expensive, and it can take years to receive a return on your investment. The majority of heat coming in through the glass in Phoenix is in the form of infrared energy — the heat contained in sunlight. Adding a layer of glass does very little to stop the sun's rays and associated heat. Instead of replacing your windows, try shading them with shade screens that block at least 80% of the sun's rays. Shade screens typically pay for themselves in one to two summers.
Q: Are new dual-pane windows cost effective?
A: Energy-efficient windows save energy, but a window replacement is unlikely to pay for itself in energy savings alone. If you need to replace your windows for other reasons, the premium you'll pay for high-performance windows (ENERGY STAR® or better) is generally worth the investment. And like so many other major energy efficiency projects, much of the energy savings depends on the quality of the contractor you hire to do the work. Bad installations not only can leak and cause drafts but also can lead to major moisture damage. Q: We are having a home built here in Phoenix, and we are considering low-E windows. Do the savings in energy costs make it a worthwhile investment?
Low-E glass works by reflecting heat back to its source using an ultra-thin metallic coating on or in the glass. When selecting low-E windows, make sure they are rated as "low solar gain." This type of window is designed for the desert climate. | 1,680 | 886 | 1.896163 |
warc | 201704 | Conference chair Catherine MacGregor (photo: SPE OE 2017)
Embracing New Realities: Reinventing our Industry has been announced as the central theme for SPE Offshore Europe 2017 which will take place in Aberdeen, Scotland from 5-8 September 2017.
Conference chair Catherine MacGregor, president, Reservoir Characterization Group, Schlumberger Limited, urged the industry to think beyond cost efficiency and embrace new technologies, new types of business models and collaborations that lead to new sustainable ways of working as she launched the Call for Papers for the conference programme which will comprise more than 85 technical papers as well as keynote sessions.
“For some time now, the industry’s technical and financial performance has been challenged. Learning the lessons from the most severe downturn for the past 30 years, there is no doubt that the industry has to reinvent itself. The traditional industry response to market downturns, which has included halting exploration investment, decreasing development activity, pressing for price reductions throughout the supply chain, and letting talented people go, is no longer viable,” says MacGregor.
“With a central theme of ‘Embracing New Realities: Reinventing our Industry’ SPE Offshore Europe 2017 technical and keynote panel sessions, combined with business breakfasts and topical lunches, will provide a free-to-attend opportunity to debate, knowledge-share and take new courses of action that will shape the future of our industry.”
Abstracts are invited for peer-review on seven topics: HSE – Engaging and Training our Workforce; Emerging and New Digital Technologies; Subsea; Decommissioning; Automation; Reinvigorating Drilling and Innovation to Reduce Oil and Gas Environmental Impact. More details on the topics and how to submit an abstract before the 13 January 2017 deadline are available on the SPE Offshore Europe website.
SPE Offshore Europe has been held biennially in Aberdeen since 1973. It is the largest and technically foremost offshore E&P conference and exhibition outside North America. In 2015 the event attracted over 1,500 international exhibitors and 56,000 attendees from more than 100 countries. SPE Offshore Europe 2017 will be held at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre. | 2,323 | 1,194 | 1.945561 |
warc | 201704 | Have we gone from, “No Child Left Behind” to leaving our Special Needs students behind? Reading the article posted in the New York Times, “Thousands of New York City Students Deprived of Special Education” by Kate Taylor, brings up the worst nightmare for any special need parent. You attend all the PPT meetings and set up an IEP (Individualized Education Pan) where you are assured that certain services will be in place for your child. Yet, there is no check to know if the services are actually delivered. Typically, there is a yearly meeting to review the IEP goals and objectives and see whether they have been met. Often there is no specific system in place to know if students are getting the services they need or even if they are getting services that are addressing the goals of the individual child.
At a recent parent advocate conference, parents questioned how much they need to understand and know the laws if their child is to get the services they require. As one parent said, “Some of you can ask your child if they saw Mrs. Raymond for speech today. But I have a nonverbal child and I have to trust the system.” Now we learn after reading Taylor’s article that because of a computer ’glitch’ some 5% or 9,000 students in NYC never received services and another 35% or more than 60,000 were only getting some of the services recommended for them.
In December 2015, The Every Student Succeeds Act replaced No Child Left Behind. The new law eliminates the much-maligned No Child Left Behind Act, which hadn’t been updated since Congress passed it in 2001. The Every Student Succeeds Act limits the role of the federal government. This new law allows states to create their own accountability systems, their own teacher evaluation systems, and gives them new flexibility in deciding how to fix failing schools and close achievement gaps. There were initially concerns that the bill would not provide enough guardrails to ensure the most underserved populations – poor students, racial minorities,
students with disabilities and those still learning English – are keeping pace.
Well, if “Every Student Succeeds Act” is meant to keep in place the most important aspects of No Child Left Behind, then we have to make sure that the New York public school system has just that, a “system” to make sure that ‘every student succeeds,’ especially our special needs students who can’t advocate for themselves. While the federal government is trying to fix a failing program and give more accountability to states and city governments, who is assuring the parents that their children are getting the required services that they need and deserve?
Laurel Peterson | 2,768 | 1,327 | 2.085908 |
warc | 201704 | This paper has been added to your cart ($35.00)
To gain further insight into the seismic design of concentrically braced frames as defined by the Canadian and Chinese codes, a comparison of the main design requirements contained in each code is carried out in this paper. The comparison emphasizes on the differences existing in these two code provisions, and the reasons behind them. The issues that are examined include the seismic force resisting systems for braced frames, the height restrictions, the force transferred to the beams in chevron configurations, the slenderness ratios of the bracing members, the width-to-thickness ratios of the brace sections, and the influence of brace connections on the columns. Some additional issues that still remain undefined on the seismic response of these systems and some proposals for further studies are also discussed. It is concluded through this comparison that a number of modifications are still required in order to fully implement a capacity design approach of these systems in both codes. | 1,049 | 548 | 1.914234 |
warc | 201704 | Dairy the Most Common Schoolchild Food Allergy Dairy the Most Common Schoolchild Food Allergy:Censusatschool
Dairy is the most common food allergy among New Zealand school children, according to early results of the nationwide CensusAtSchool project.
CensusAtSchool, which started on Monday and runs until June 15, is an online educational project that brings statistics to life in the classroom. Supervised by teachers, students answer 32 questions about their lives, many of them involving practical activities such as weighing and measuring, then analyse the results in class. This year, more than 1120 teachers from 539 schools all over New Zealand are running CAS in their classrooms.
Early results, from the first 2800 respondents, show that 8.5% of students aged 10 to 18 (Year 5 to Year 13) taking part to date report having one or more food allergies. Dairy is top of the list (3.5% of all respondents), followed by peanuts (2.5%) and eggs (2.0%), then wheat, tree nuts, shellfish, fish and soy (each under 1.9%). The consequences of a food allergy can range from uncomfortable to life-threatening.
CensusAtSchool co-director Rachel Cunliffe says a question about food allergies was added to this year’s questionnaire for the first time to reflect the lack of data on the issue. “There appears to be plenty of anecdotal evidence that this generation of children is more allergy-prone than earlier generations,” she says, “and we were keen to see what food allergies students reported and their prevalence.”
She adds, “While these are self-reported allergy figures, which may have a range of meanings and differ in their severity, the figures provide an interesting snapshot of what food allergies students have to manage.”
CensusAtSchool, now in its sixth edition, is a biennial collaborative project involving teachers, the University of Auckland’s Department of Statistics, Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry of Education. It is part of an international effort to boost statistical capability among young people, and is carried out in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the US, Japan and South Africa. The countries share some questions so comparisons can be made, but the majority reflect New Zealand students’ interests.
ENDS | 2,301 | 1,156 | 1.990484 |
warc | 201704 | How can you get a solar energy system on the roof of my house without going into bankruptcy; how can you build an affordable rain-catching system to reuse rain water in your garden and beyond; what’s the latest insulation technology to cut my home’s heating and cooling bills? It’s fashionable to call oneself an “environmentalist” these days but few of us have taken the steps to implement green policies around our own homes, from big construction projects like installing solar panels to smaller steps like recycling water. As the AltBuild expo rolls into town this weekend, architects, water experts and green builders will gather to tackle the big and small of green home improvement. Patt brings together a few experts to answer your questions and help you build a meaner, greener home.
Guests:
Brenden McEneaney, Green Building Program Advisor for City of Santa Monica, and the presenter of AltBuild Expo Christine Dzilvelis, producer of the AltCar & AltBuild Expos | 1,001 | 586 | 1.708191 |
warc | 201704 | Soka Gakkai International
Buddhism in Action for Peace
History & Philosophy
Buddhist Practice
Stories and reflections on the Buddhist approach to life
Updates and reports from around the world
On November 13, a lecture addressing Japan’s need to choose peace was given at Shinjuku Meiji-Yasuda Life Hall in Tokyo by Professor Kevin Clements, renowned peace scholar, director of the New Zealand National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand and secretary general of the Soka Gakkai-affiliated Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research.
In his lecture, titled “The Costs of Violence and the Benefits of Building a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence,” Professor Clements cited SGI President Daisaku Ikeda’s words about nonviolence: “The real struggle of the 21st century will not be between civilizations, nor between religions. It will be between violence and nonviolence. It will be between barbarity and civilization in the truest sense of the word.”
Emphasizing Gandhi’s view that poverty is the worst form of violence, he stressed that we must ensure the reallocation of resources from the military to areas such as health care. He shared the results of a global study on the economic impact of violence that showed the cost of violence was estimated to be $9.8 trillion in 2013. That is 11.3 percent of the gross world product and equivalent to around $1,350 per person.
related article Peace Emanates from SGI Youth Events Across the US and Argentina During March, in 25 locations throughout the country, a total of some 12,000 SGI-USA youth members gathered to hold Youth Peace Expos marking March 16, SGI Kosen-rufu Day, and express in various ways their commitment to the dignity of life. Professor Clements also highlighted the danger of responding to feelings of vulnerability with nationalism and pointed out that individual citizens need to focus government attention on priorities that satisfy real needs rather than phantom fears. “In an interdependent world . . . we need to care for others whether they wish to harm us or not. We need to accord them dignity, and build our security in compassionate relationships—both at the interpersonal and transnational levels,” he said.
Additionally, Professor Clements expressed his concern over recent moves in Japan to reinterpret the constitution, stating that such moves are a challenge to regional and global peace.
In broad terms, he encouraged each individual to play a role in building a society of peace and nonviolence and develop necessary skills such as critical thinking, the ability to argue effectively, and the ability to challenge injustice and inequality. “We need explicit political commitments to nonviolence as a way of life and support for state pacifism,” he said.
Professor Clements concluded with a quote from John Paul Lederach’s book “The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace”:
Reach out to those you fear.
Touch the heart of complexity.
Imagine beyond what is seen.
Risk vulnerability one step at a time.
[Compiled from reports from the Soka Gakkai International Office of Public Information (SGI-OPI)]
SGI’s Activities for Nuclear Abolition
by Kazuo Ishiwatari and Kimiaki Kawai
Raising Awareness
Singapore Soka Association—Promoting Harmonious Coexistence in the Lion City
by Dennis Lee, director of Program and Community Relations, SSA
Soka Gakkai in America: Focused on Servant Leadership and Dialogic Teaching
by William Aiken, director of public affairs, SGI-USA | 3,627 | 1,868 | 1.941649 |
warc | 201704 | The US Department of Defence has confirmed that 12,154 military flights have gone through Shannon between 2001 and the start of 2011. These took 2,030,925 armed troops and 8,487 tonnes of military cargo through what is supposed to be a civilian airport.
The figures which were published by RTE based on a freedom of information request to the US authorities are in line with military flight data recorded and published by Shannonwatch. Both show that on average more than 3 US military flights pass through Shannon
every day. Most of these are troop carriers operated by Omni Air International. They use an ageing fleet of DC-10's, many of which are more than 25 years old.
Former Irish Army commandant Edward Horgan who is a member of Shannonwatch (quoted in the Irish Times) said: “I am particularly concerned about the safety of DC-10s which seem to experience an inordinate number of engine problems. These are old aircraft now and they are also licensed to carry munitions, which makes them a significant additional hazard.”
There have been a least six incidents so far this year involving Omni DC-10s at Shannon, including two in a 24-hour period in February.
The US Department of Defence data gives the annual breakdown of flights, troop numbers and cargo passing through Shannon. Shannonwatch provides a more detailed monthly breakdown of civilian planes like Omni that are carrying US troops or cargo through Shannon, as well as US Air Force/Navy aircraft at the airport.
Missions Arriving or Departing Ireland (1 Jan 2001 to 26 Jan 2011) [Published by RTE]
The figures for the first 26 days of January of this year confirm that 81 aircraft landed at Shannon. Shannonwatch records show 60 troop/cargo carriers and an additional 20 US Air Force/Navy/Army planes for the same period. Shannonwatch only records planes which it confirms as having landed at Shannon Airport, and as a result our figures may be lower than the actual number of landings.
The US troop carriers that were at Shannon in January included several Omni Air DC-10s (N270AX, N720AX, N621AX, N531AX), as well as Boeing 767s (N342AX, N351AX AND N378AX) and a Boeing 757 (N531AX).
The Navy planes included C-9s (registrations 159118 and 159113) that provide cargo and passenger transportation as well as "forward deployment logistics support" and a C-20G that provides long range, medium airlift logistics support for Fleet Battle Groups (165093). There was also a C-37B (166378) at Shannon on Jan 15th. The latter is based on the Gulfstream V and provides world-wide airlift for senior leadership and dignitaries.
The US Air Force planes included two MC-130P Hercules Combat Shadows (66-0223 and 66-0216), two C-37As (99-0402 and 06-0500), and a Gulfstream C-40B (01-0040). A C-40C (02-0202) which is similar to the C-40B landed on January 28th.
The C-37A is used for high-ranking government and Defense Department officials. The primary customers of the C-40B are combatant commanders, and the C-40C's customers include members of the Cabinet and Congress. The C-40B/C is based on the Boeing 737-700 Business Jet.
Clearly is is not only rank and file US soldiers that are using Shannon Airport. But while the men and women who do the fighting are forced to travel in the old, dangerous DC-10s operated by Omni Air International, the commanders, politicians and senior officials are all provided with much more luxurious and safer modes of transport. And of course they also get extra-special treatment when on Irish soil. | 3,523 | 1,758 | 2.003982 |
warc | 201704 | If you’ve ever visited a therapist, you’ve likely experienced this very moment: You spill your heart out, anxiously await a response, and your doc looks down—scribbling into a notebook or tapping away at an iPad.
You’re stuck: “What is he writing?!”
About 700 patients at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital—part of a preliminary study at the hospital—needn’t worry about that moment. They have full access to their clinician’s notes, either during the appointment or later through an online database, as cited in a recent
New York Times article.
And while this may seem like a novel concept, Stephen F. O'Neill, L.I.C.S.W., J.D., social work manager for psychiatry and primary care at Beth Israel urges it’s not: “I’ve always had an open note policy. Patients have a right to their records, and a lot of us here [at Beth Israel] have practiced this transparently.”
That’s right: Access to your therapist’s notes is your right (note: laws vary state by state and if it would be harmful to you for any reason, the therapist is allowed to provide a summary). But many people don’t ask for them. And many clinicians shy away from sharing. “Unfortunately, most therapists have been trained to practice defensively,” O’Neill says. “In graduate school a professor once said, ‘There are two kinds of therapists: ones who have been sued and ones who haven’t.’”
Running the risk of offending or confusing a patient through handing over your notebook, then? That’s arguably risky business. And O’Neill admits that knowing you’re on the receiving end of his note does change the way he writes (changes mainly come in the form making sure you’ll understand his lingo, he says). But practically speaking, the benefits outweigh the risks, he says: “If we deliver bad news, we expect patients won’t remember more than 30 percent of what we say. With good news, we expect them to remember 70 percent. Either way, you’re missing information. If patients can go back and remember, that helps.”
RELATED: The Diseases Doctors Miss Most
In fact, access to notes cuts unnecessary phone calls from people seeking clarity on a session, lessening the strain on the overall system. And a recent study in the
Annals of Internal Medicine found that people who saw their doc’s notes were more satisfied with their care and more likely to stick to their meds.
For many, note sharing is just one more tool to build a patient-therapist relationship. While initially worried that the practice could make paranoid patients flee (after all, what if they thought he was writing bad things about them?), O’Neill noticed the opposite: Knowing that (at any given time) a patient could see what he wrote bridged trust levels, producing a calming effect.
But the process isn’t one-size fits all—and currently, only a few other medical practices around the country are set to open notes from therapists to patients. “Part of our job is to figure out who is this going to work wonderfully for and who is this going to be a risk for.” And opposition is natural. If a therapist writes an interpretation of what they think is going on with someone, for example, and wants the patient to make that discovery in his or her own time, seeing a note prematurely could interrupt therapy’s flow, O’Neill explains.
And with the ability to see notes at home comes the reality that you never know who is reading over a patient’s shoulder. In cases of domestic violence or an affair, having an abuser or an unsuspecting spouse stumble upon notes could be problematic. (Note: There are safeguards to prevent this from happening, O’Neill says.)
The bottom line: You have to know yourself. Will you obsess over questions like, “What does that word mean?” or, “Is that what he really meant?” At Beth Israel, about one third of patients who have had the opportunity to opt in to the program have done so. But many others don’t want to. As O’Neill recalls, “One patient said, ‘It’s like brining your car to the mechanic—once he’s done, I don’t need to look under the hood.’” | 4,320 | 2,108 | 2.049336 |
warc | 201704 | Communicating and explaining is am important as actually doing in my business. To be able to explain better, I need to understand what people are thinking and how they are viewing things. To assist in this process, I asked people the question on Linkedin (login required):
When you hear the phrase “estate planning” what comes to your mind? Check out the answers to the question below.
To me estate planning means determining where, how & to whom my stuff & money are distributed to. but i’m typically wrong when it comes to legal jargon.
Planning for retirement, planning for death, trusts, wills, taxes and probate. 🙂
Paperwork. Tons and tons of paperwork.
Preparing your physical, financial, and emotional assets and liabilities to be distributed and dismissed according to your wishes after your imminent demise in a manner that distracts and burdens your loved ones as little as possible.
The overall planning of a person’s wealth is estate planning. All of the assets owned or controlled by a decedent and the debts that were the responsibility of the decedent at the time of deceased’s death are included in estate planning. Estate planning includes the preparation of a will and the planning for taxes after the individual’s death. In order to meet a person’s goals with respect to preparing for incapacity and death, numerous factors such as financial, estate law, insurance, investment, and tax implications must be taken into consideration.
Usually, estate planning includes; 1. creation of a will; 2. limiting estate taxes by setting up trust accounts in the name of beneficiaries; 3. appointing a guardian for living dependents; 4. appointing an executor of the estate to oversee the terms of the will; 5. making funeral arrangements; and 6. establishment of annual gifting to reduce the taxable estate.
Fully and seamlessly providing for my family when I become incapable to do so in the future.
Preparing for the future… | 1,997 | 1,028 | 1.942607 |
warc | 201704 | A few, simple gestures that are often overlooked will take your child further in life, now and in their future.
Please and thank you are the most powerful words anyone can use. Incorporating these three pleasing words into your child's daily vocabulary and routine will make a difference. Teach your child to use please when asking for something. Using this one simple word will impress adults and they will be more likely to accommodate your child's needs. Showing appreciation by saying thank you, your child will always leave a good impression.
It's best not to let your child get in the habit of interrupting conversations. It's best to wait until the other person's sentence or thought has been completed. However, there will be times when breaking into a conversation already in progress will be necessary. In these cases, a polite "Excuse me" works well. It is the best way to be recognized by the other speakers and establish that you have something to say and good reason to interrupt their conversation.
Holding the door open for someone is a good deed. It promotes kindness, and this gesture will bring on the smiles. Your child might not have the upper body strength to hold a door with just their arms, so show them to place their back against the door to use their full body weight to support it.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you! This famous saying's complex language could be above your child's comprehension. It's an important life message, so bring it down to their level by saying, "treat others how you want to be treated." Give some real-life examples so it will resonate with your child for a deeper understanding. Sending out good karma will benefit all aspects of your child's life. If you can't be anything else, be nice. It will come back to them in so many positive ways.
And you'll see personalized content just for you whenever you click the My Feed .
SheKnows is making some changes! | 1,942 | 1,011 | 1.92087 |
warc | 201704 | When I walked into the building where I work yesterday, I was greeted with the most glorious sunrise. I was so struck by it that as soon as I put my things in my office, I grabbed my phone and took a few pictures.
Little did I know, an hour later, all hell would break loose in Connecticut.
We’re never prepared for these things.
One minute we’re enjoying a glorious sunrise, the next, we’re wondering why.
Within minutes, seconds even, of the horrific news being broadcast, my Facebook feed started filling with accusations.
“It’s the guns. If we only got rid of the guns.” “See? This is what happens when we take prayer out of schools.”
Times like these bring fuel to the fire that lies just beneath our very thin skin.
Here’s the thing. I’m not on the side of those who automatically go to the “we have to take away guns” response. I’m also not on the side of “our kids need to pray in school.”
I’m just trying to see this horrific situation as it is and to call is just what it is:
evil.
We’ve stopped talking about evil in our world, but evil is very, very real. And evil is being unleashed at a terrific rate these days. We see it all around us, but we’re afraid to name it.
I’m not a doomsdayer. I’m not a “Church Lady” who finds Satan around every corner. What I am is a Christian who has read her Bible some, and what I see in the gospels is that Jesus is dealing with evil on a daily basis.
When people had physical issues, Jesus cast out demons. Why? Because Jesus recognized that often our issues are more spiritual than we give them credit for.
Some came to Jesus blatantly demon possessed. He cast them out. Because only He can do that.
When the Pharisees tried to blame the parents of a man who was born blind, asking which one of his parents had sinned to bring about this misery, Jesus corrected them and said that nobody has sinned.
“It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
The works of God displayed in him. In his heart. A change took place and the man was miraculously healed.
Friends, may we be frank? May we see evil as it truly is? There is a spiritual dimension to our lives, and, yes, it’s much more pleasant to talk about the good work that Jesus has done in our lives than to focus on the battle that is waging for our souls. Every day.
I don’t believe that this tragedy was punishment on the people of Newtown, CT. I don’t believe it could have been prevented if people had just prayed more. I don’t even get it much at all, but what I sense is that Satan is having a field day out there, and we Christians aren’t doing much to stop him.
And it’s not just in Newtown. This evil wants to stamp out our own hometowns.
Our churches.
Our families.
Our marriages.
This isn’t a gun problem or even a public prayer problem. It’s a heart problem that we seem to want to ignore.
Until hearts are changed, evil will continue to run rampant, Satan will continue to be unleashed, and the spiritual battle will rage.
Praise God that He wins in the end and that He doesn’t leave us helpless. The truth will prevail, and the truth is that God loves us. He loves the people of Newtown, CT. He loves our own broken lives and hearts enough to come to earth to die for us.
The picture is so much bigger than guns or prayer in schools.
What can we do? Ironically, we can pray. At home, alone or with our families. In our churches. In our hearts.
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He reminded them of the evil that’s in this world and instructed them specifically to pray,
“Deliver us from evil.”There’s power in that prayer.
We can also do what the sick and the lame did in the days when Jesus could be felt and touched and seen—we can lay ourselves on His mercy. We can come to Him, touch His robes, fall to our knees and beg for mercy. We need it more than ever.
Our children need it.
Our marriages need it.
Our country needs it.
We need it. | 4,148 | 1,950 | 2.127179 |
warc | 201704 | Download the news in French
Brussels, 14.02.2014 – On 11 February, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform accepted the invitation from Surfrider Foundation Europe, an NGO dedicated to protecting the marine ecosystems around the world, to speak at a conference on the emerging maritime risks, held at the Foundation’s EU headquarters in Biarritz, France. More than 40 people attended the conference.
The conference was streamed online:
Speakers included Antidia Citores, policy advisor at Surfrider, who presented the white paper that the Foundation addressed to the European Commission last year and which lists 45 recommendations in order to enhance maritime safety and reduce pollution. Amongst others, the document entitled “A white paper on maritime safety – Towards an Erika IV package?” [1] calls for solutions to the risks that are posed by the increasing number of containers transported by sea. Last year, and likewise in January 2014, the French Atlantic coast has been littered with goods that escaped from broken containers following shipping accidents. Sometimes such accidents are caused by other floating containers. The containers have no legal status and it is therefore difficult to identify the party responsible for the pollution. The white paper also calls for stricter rules for shipowners choosing to register a ship under certain flags, and recommends the creation of an EU flag to minimize the risks associated with “flag hopping”, whereby shipowners are free to choose any flag they want, including those that enforce the lowest possible social and environmental standards.
Delphine Reuter, communications officer at the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, presented the Platform’s work that is carried out at the European and South Asian level. The debate with the audience focused on the responsibility that should be borne by shipowners, such as the French company CMA-CGM, who has chosen to make more profit by beaching its end-of-life ships in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan instead of ensuring their safe and clean recycling elsewhere.
After the conference, the Platform and Surfrider launched an exhibition called “Dément tellement” [2]. The exhibition features steel sculptures by French artist Gilles Plantade and photographs of the Chittagong shipbreaking yards by Pierre Torset. The exhibition will remain open to the public at the Biarritz headquarters until 7 March 2014.
The NGO Shipbreaking Platform also participated with Surfrider in a press meeting organised by the town of Anglet, next to Biarritz, where a Spanish cargo ship was accidentally beached two weeks ago following stormy weather conditions. The mayor of Anglet told the press that the owner of the “Luno” is now looking into options for dismantling the ship. The Platform together with the Surfrider Foundation will continue to monitor the progress of the operations, with the Platform paying particular attention to the handling of the hazardous materials that are present within the structure of the “Luno”.
CONTACT
Delphine Reuter Communications officer NGO Shipbreaking Platform delphine@shipbreakingplatform.org | 3,189 | 1,559 | 2.045542 |
warc | 201704 | Slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. See our User Agreement and Privacy Policy.
Slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. See our Privacy Policy and User Agreement for details.
2.Projects & institutions<br />Mod4L: practice models project, UK JISC Design for learning programme, April-Dec, GCU + consultants, http://mod4l.com/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=7<br />Planet: Pattern language network, UK JISC Users and innovation programme, Jan 2008-April 2009, Leeds Met, Coventry, GCU, Kings, IoEhttp://patternlanguagenetwork.org/<br />
3.What is learning design?<br />the outcome of the process of “designing, planning and orchestrating learning activities as part of a learning session or programme”(JISC, 2006)<br />The purpose is to “to develop further the community’s understanding of the principles that inform the design of effective learning activities which involve the use of technology” (JISC, 2006)<br />
4.What are practice models?<br />Generic approach to the structuring and orchestration of learning activities. They express elements of pedagogic principle and allow practitioners to make informed choices. (JISC, 2006)<br />
5.An issue for practice models<br />Be generic<br />Detail sequence and orchestration<br />Inspire teachers to implement them and hence change practice<br />Can achieve any two, but not all three<br />
6.Design for learning outcomes<br />... we have discovered that many of the technologies and standards in development point towards an ‘unprincipled’ future in which the purposes and processes of learning are determined largely by the learner. There are fundamental challenges here ... for curriculum design practice as a whole <br />(Beetham 2008, Review of the UK JISC Design for Learning Programme)<br />
7.Independent/autonomous/self-directed learners...<br />are SOCIAL. Their decisions about some, or all, of:<br /> goals outputs<br /> interactions assessment<br /> methods pace<br /> resources place<br /> tools<br />are not controlled by an individual (eg. teacher) or formal institution (eg. university)<br />
8.Design an environment, not a machine?<br />A route plus a train?<br />Snakes and Ladders plus a set of dice?<br />A play plus a troupe of actors?<br />An environment plus a life-form?<br />
9.Patterns<br />Planet project aim: to develop a community centred approach to eliciting and representing practice using patterns and evaluate this approach in the context of the web 2.0 in learning community<br />A pattern describes an effective solution to a recurrent problem embedded in a specific context and is characterised by being drawn from successful practice rather than from theory<br />
11.REAP principles<br />Good feedback practice:<br />1. helps clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected standards);<br />2. facilitates the development of self-assessment (reflection) in learning;<br />3. delivers high quality information to students about their learning;<br />4. encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning;<br />5. encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem;<br />6. provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance;<br />7. provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape the teaching.<br /> (David Nicol & Debra Macfarlane-Dick (2006) Studies in Higher Education (2006), Vol 31(2), 199-218<br />
13.Sharing practice through structured storytelling<br />Problem: Effective sharing of practice relies on people being able to share their personal experiences in a reflective manner, in a way that lends itself to examination by others, but to be useful such sharing needs to be focused, relevant, specific and highlight what has worked. However people can find it difficult to identify an appropriate level of detail or granularity and often focus on what has failed.<br />Context: This pattern works best where the group involved has a defined purpose for sharing practice. It can operate in anything from a 10 minute quick fire round to a full day workshop and works well both face to face and online.<br />Solution: Ask participants to represent their story of successful practice using a simple common structure, to present it in their own words to the larger group. Then have the larger group explore the details of the story and examine it to identify the factors that contributed to its success.<br />Related patterns: <br />Three Hats is one way to facilitate this pattern.<br />The output from applying this pattern forms the input for the Abstracting … pattern.<br />Objects to talk with<br />
14.Start with introductions<br />Problem: When people join a group, they have expectation of finding help and being able to work together. However, for this to happen, there has to be a mutual disclosure between participants of personality, expertise etc., specific to the group.<br />Context:<br />Solution: Make sure to start any collaborative activity with this period of disclosure. This is part of the key phase of establishing engagement of participants, that would include disclosure and negotiation. This could usefully be part of a specific session aimed at introductions. This could be through the facilitator indicating appropriate dimensions of this. If the group has the opportunity as a initial stage, it can achieve this through mutual interaction.<br />
16.Some conclusions<br />Community approach necessary for authenticity<br />Abstraction difficult, need expert facilitation and development of patterns<br />Structured storytelling fundamental and useful for generating source material for more generic representations<br />"Pure" pattern writing is difficult and perhaps not necessary - a good solution can be presented in a non pattern form (e.g. bundle) or pre pattern form (e.g. candidate) and be effective in supporting sharing practice. but might not be supported by rule of 3. These should be differentiated from patterns. <br />Need for validation through use of patterns<br />Process as valuable as product<br />
17.Bundles (Sally Fincher)<br />1. Problem Statement <br />Each bundle starts with a formulation of a general problem to which the body of the bundle is a specific solution. <br />2. Body <br />The Body of each bundle is presented in a format that shares certain formulaic phrases. These are: <br />This Bundle A phrase which captures the essence of the practice <br />The way it works is A description of what is involved this may be quite short, or many paragraphs long. <br />It works better if Key criteria for success <br />It doesn’t work if Watchpointsfor unsuitable (or undesirable) situations <br />From Computer Science Project Work: Principles and Pragmatics, Sally Fincher, Marian Petre and Martyn Clark (eds), Springer-Verlag 2001 pp171-175. Also available at: http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/national/EPCOS<br />
18.Bundles (cont)<br />Every bundle has these. Additionally, they may be supplemented by:<br />It doesn’t work unless Points which are absolutely required <br />You’ll know it’s worked if Ways to check that the desired result has been achieved <br />Variations Other ways this might work (mostly, but not always, we have observed these “in real life”) <br />3. Solution Statement <br />Following the body of the bundle is a general solution which refers back to the initial problem statement. (The solution statement, of course, captures the aim of the body too, because a bundle is itself a specific instance of the general solution). <br />
19.Share project<br />Sharing practice: how do educators discover “what works”? (Disciplinary Commons)<br />Representing practice: what is an appropriate representation of teaching practice?<br />Adopting practice: how does educators’ practice change over time?<br />
20.Credits & References<br />Mod4L project: Allison Littlejohn, Isobel Falconer, Helen Beetham, Lori Lockyer, Ron Oliver http://mod4l.com/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=7<br />Planet project: Janet Finlay, John Gray, Jim Hensman, Isobel Falconer, YishayMor, Steve Warburton http://patternlanguagenetwork.org/<br />Share project: Sally Fincher, Josh Tenenberg, Janet Finlay, Helen Sharp, Isobel Falconer http://www.sharingpractice.ac.uk/<br />Bundles: Computer Science Project Work: Principles and Pragmatics, Sally Fincher, Marian Petre and Martyn Clark (eds), Springer-Verlag 2001 pp171-175. Also available at: http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/national/EPCOS<br />Disciplinary Commons: Sally Fincher & Josh Tenenberghttp://www.disciplinarycommons.org/<br /> | 8,904 | 3,792 | 2.348101 |
warc | 201704 | This is a new brand fronted by Dean Jackson, ex of blueseventy and Quintana Roo. Huub is named after Huub Toussaint, a PhD in biomechanics who specializes in the science of swimming.
The theme of this company is to tailor a wetsuit to match a swimmer's specific strengths and weaknesses or, more precisely, to match a swimmer's aspect in the water. The idea is this: if you're a good swimmer, your legs don't sink, and you don't need to float them. If you're a bad swimmer, they do, and you do. There are two versions of every HUUB model: the 3:5 and the 4:4. The former consists of 3mm rubber in the chest, and 5mm in the hips and legs. The 4:4 is just that thickness of rubber throughout. I swam in the Archimedes 3:5. On paper, this is either the right or wrong suit for me depending on whether I make the cut as a technically good swimmer, or am congenitally mired in my shit technique ignominy. I can see that argued either way, depending on whom is the arbiter of my swim style. For this test, I wore a 3:5, and it is a thematic match for what I used as a control suit: an Orca Alpha. Each suit is constructed around the idea that you need to float the legs at the expense of the rest of the body. I'd like a chance to ask Dr. Toussaint how he feels about this. When I had our QR suits tested a the flume in Colorado Springs—in a former millenium—what we got back was interesting. There were a certain few swimmers who got faster and faster as the rubber below the waist was reduced. There was no analysis of this by those at the flume. It was resident and national team members doing the swimming, and it occurred to me at the time that swimmers with a more demonstrable kick would have some trouble getting all that 5mm rubber into down the water.
Hence the 4:4 suit, which adds rubber to the chest and takes it out of the legs. However, why not 5:5? Or even 5:3? I don't know. And, it's not relevant to this review, which is of the 3:5 Archimedes.
This suit also features a core stabilizer, and a lot of suits are doing this nowawadays. Aquasphere, TYR and others basically place you in a sort of girdle, and don't allow you to engage in the bad habits that you otherwise might, such as jackknifing at the waist when you breathe. The "X-O Skeleton" and the "Arm Crossover alignment" are those corseting elements in the Archimedes. The Archimedes also features a par of muscular "releases"—specifically in the bicep and calf—that portend to allow these muscles to flex and relax without constraint. Those are the red areas in the images, and are fabric only. How much of all this stuff works? Hard to say. I didn't feel the corseting mechanics as much in this suit as I do in the others named above that employ this technique. And, I didn't feel the bicep and calf releases. However, maybe it's like that bank advertisement, when you know that your bank is operating properly when you don't notice it and never think about it. Here are the results of this suit in the water. I followed my typical protocol, which is, four sets of 4 x 100 SCY, repeating on the 1:30 base. 2012 Orca Alpha 1:11 1:12 1:13 1:12 2012 Orca Alpha 1:12 1:12 1:12 1:12 2012 HUUB Archimedes 3.5 1:12 1:12 1:12 1:12 2012 HUUB Archimedes 3.5 1:12 1:12 1:12 1:12 These two suits swim almost identically for me, and that is to be expected since they follow very similar construction motifs. I found the HUUB to be a little longer or taller in its sizing, matching the sizing trends of QR, TYR, 2XU and Aquaman.
The construction of the suit is first rate, and I really like the way the neck closure operates. As to the front of the neck, it works fine, but, I like a little more
there there, and the more substantial neck constructions of, say, Aquaman, or 2XU, are more to my liking. That said, I had no trouble with water entry in the neck, and the suit is perfectly comfortable. One more thing about this suit. We all are familiar with the term neoprene, and this refers to a specific application of blown rubber that reaches back 80 years or so. It is a DuPont developed product, a polymerization of chloroprene. We're talking about a synthetic rubber that organizes itself into a matrix, and is a flexible construct of an elastic, synthetic rubber and air inside cells. One offshoot application is to control the kind of air that sits in those cells. Certain inert gases resist compression at depth, and when that gas is what sits inside those cells the rubber resists compression at depth. Hence the use in suits for deep sea diving. Nevertheless, this inert gas blown smoothskin rubber is what our very first QR suits were made out of back in 1986 and 1987. Another kind of rubber is nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR). As was the case with neoprene back in the 1930s and thereafter, it is used in automotive and industrial hoses, seals, sleeves and so forth. HUUB has tested NBR and finds that it has less specific gravity than neoprene, so, its suits have some NBR in their construction. I have not yet uncovered any noticeable change in the performance of a wetsuit with NBR as part of its construction. However, it's too early to tell. On thing: NBR is combustible when combined with red fuming nitric acid. So, if you contemplate swimming in a vat of red fuming nitric acid, eschew this particular wetsuit. The HUUB Archimedes is a $700 wetsuit, which is pretty much what top end wetsuits are going for these days. It's new, and known more in Europe at the present, so, you might have to hunt around a bit for a retailer here in the U.S. But it's obtainable in North America. Still, because this company is based in the UK this might be just the sort of product you ought buy from one of those huge UK etailers. | 5,728 | 2,703 | 2.119127 |
warc | 201704 | Question
In an attempt to determine the factors that affect the amount of energy used, 200 households were analyzed. The number of occupants and the amount of electricity used were measured for each household.
a. Draw a graph of the data. b. What have you learned from the graph?
a. Draw a graph of the data.
b. What have you learned from the graph?
Answer to relevant QuestionsMany downhill skiers eagerly look forward to the winter months and fresh snowfalls. However, winter also entails cold days. How does the temperature affect skiers’ desire? To answer this question, a local ski resort ...An analyst employed at a commodities trading firm wanted to explore the relationship between prices of grains and livestock. Theoretically, the prices should move in the same direction because, as the price of livestock ...Do younger people spend more time reading news on the Internet than older people? Use a graphical technique to help answer the question.Refer to Exercises. We’ve included the number of Americans aged 15 to 24.a. What is the significance of adding the populations aged 15 to 24?b. Include these data in your analysis. What have youdiscovered?One hundred students who had reported that they use their computers for at least 20 hours per week were asked to keep track of the number of crashes their computers incurred during a 12-week period. Using an appropriate ...
Post your question | 1,421 | 755 | 1.882119 |
warc | 201704 | Question
The final grades given by two professors in introductory statistics courses have been carefully examined. The students in the first professor’s class had a grade point average of 3.0 and a standard deviation of .2. Those in the second professor’s class had grade points with an average of 3.0 and a standard deviation of 1.0. If you had a choice, which professor would you take for this course?
Answer to relevant QuestionsAccording to the government, federal spending on K–12 education has increased dramatically over the past 20 years, but student performance has stayed essentially the same. Hence, former President George Bush signed into ...Two species of rhinoceros native to Africa are black rhinos and white rhinos. The International Rhino Federation estimates that the African rhinoceros population consists of 3,610 white rhinos and 11,330 black rhinos. ...A pair of fair dice is tossed. Define the following events: A: {You will roll a 7 (i.e., the sum of the numbers of dots on the upper faces of the two dice is equal to 7).} B: {At least one of the two dice is showing a 4.} ...The Organizational Development Journal (Summer 2006) reported on the results of a survey of human resource officers (HROs) at major firms. The focus of the study was employee behavior, namely absenteeism, promptness to work, ...Refer to the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making (Jan. 2007) study of the effect of guilt emotion on how a decision maker focuses on the problem, Exercise. The results (number responding in each category) for the 171 study ...
Post your question | 1,596 | 889 | 1.795276 |
warc | 201704 | Georgia Southern University’s Center for Sustainability will host a number of events throughout April that are designed to improve and protect the environment and change behavior when it comes to food, energy, water and waste. The focal point is “No Impact Week,” to be held next week.
“No Impact Week engages our campus in extended sustainability awareness with challenges, action and positive choices that are within our control,” said Lissa Leege, the director of the Center for Sustainability. “It gives participants power in the face of difficult environmental problems and shows us that, collectively, our small lifestyle changes can result in a large impact on the planet.” The goal of the environmental education activities is to share ideas and information and learn to live by leaving as little of a carbon footprint as possible. “Our campus will offer more than 25 events over the course of the week that emphasize the themes of the day, which include consumption, trash, food, transportation, water, energy and giving back,” Leege said. “Our outreach centers will even get in on the act with special ‘No Impact Week’ programs for the public.” A highlight of No Impact Week, which starts Monday, is a presentation from New York Times best-selling author Van Jones at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Performing Arts Center, 847 Plant Drive. Jones, who has worked as a green jobs adviser to President Barack Obama, is the founder of Green For All, a national organization that creates green jobs in disadvantaged communities. In celebration of Earth Day on Monday, April 22, U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., will join leaders of utility companies and environmental groups for a discussion on the future energy needs of Georgia. The presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Nessmith-Lane Conference Center Assembly Hall. Admission is free and open to everyone. Georgia Southern is the only university in the United States to participate in No Impact Week for three consecutive years. It is a joint project between the Center for Sustainability and the University Wellness Program with support from Campus Life Enrichment Committee, the Multicultural Student Center, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development and the College of Science and Mathematics for various events. See the full calendar of No Impact Week events by visiting http://recreation.georgiasouthern.edu/wellness/special-events/no-impact-week/. | 2,501 | 1,289 | 1.940264 |
warc | 201704 | The Archbishop of Canterbury The official site of the head of the Church of England. The speeches, press releases and CV of the present Archbishop are on-line, together with a history … The Episcopal Church Welcomes You Official church web site, containing information about Episcopal Church dioceses, provinces and parishes; Episcopal Church activities; news releases and … Episcopal Diocese of New York Encompassing the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, as well as several adjacent counties. Gives calendar and events, parishes, … The Lectionary Page Three months of Bible readings according to the Revised Common Lectionary, also readings for special services. Full text of the lessons is provided. The Daily Office resurrection icon. the daily office. Rite II March calendar · Text calendar · Text by day · Text by day, pdf · April calendar · Text calendar …
Look in on the work of Barbara Crafton at the Geranium Farm. Barbara visited us on Holy Saturday 2011. It was an eye opening experience.
UNICEF has been fighting to end preventable childhood deaths. It may sound like a fantasy, but it’s possible.
Child survival experts know how – and so much progress has been made since the first global commitment to ending preventable deaths was made in 1982. Since then, the number of children dying needlessly every day has dropped from 39,000 to 21,000.
The week of June 11-15, 2012 is a turning point in getting from 21,000 to zero. UNICEF, global leaders, and child survival experts are meeting in Washington with a single purpose: to commit to end preventable childhood deaths by 2035. | 1,671 | 902 | 1.85255 |
warc | 201704 | At its roots, permaculture is the idea of using agriculture to mimic natural ecosystems. It uses the idea of a closed-loop system — nothing wasted, no outside inputs needed. Ideally, everything is balanced and sustainable, just like it is in nature. Although agriculture was the basis of the permaculture movement, it has grown to encompass economic interactions, social systems and even religious/spiritual growth.
When I first learned about permaculture, I didn’t have a name for it. I was fascinated by the idea of agriculture as a living ecosystem. Greg and I have been able to implement several permaculture practices into our wee homestead.
We started out with goats, using them as four-legged lawnmowers. They ate the tall grass in which the mosquitoes seemed to thrive, providing us with insect control. They also have been valuable in their production of milk, meat and fiber.
We have free-range turkeys to eat the grasshoppers that go after our garden. The cat eats the mice in the house. The weeds we pull go to the rabbits in summer. The turkeys and rabbits go in our freezer, and we use the manure from both to fertilize the garden.
We have a large livestock guardian dog so the foxes don’t eat the turkeys when they’re free-ranging. He is a dual-coated breed; in the spring and summer when he blows his undercoat, I harvest it and spin it into yarn. In return, he gets all of the goat/turkey/rabbit entrails, feet and heads we can provide him with. What he doesn’t eat, the magpies do.
Nothing is wasted at our house. Excess grease and fat is skimmed off the top of dishes, stored in a jar, and doled out to the dogs as part of their evening meal. Leftover whey from cheesemaking is fed to the dogs, cat, goats and turkeys. Eggshells are dried, pulverized in a coffee/spice grinder and fed back to the dogs for calcium. Fruit and vegetable scraps are usually given to the goats; if they are too far gone, they go into the compost bin.
Leftover bones go in Ziploc bags in the freezer, along with onion and garlic scraps. From there, they go into the crockpot for stock. A dash of vinegar helps pulls minerals from the bones into the stock. Afterwards, meat scraps go to the dogs or cat, veggie bits go in the compost, and the bones go in the freezer until fall. At that point, they are buried in the garden, along with any blood, feathers or unconsumed bits from butchering.
Yes, it’s a little extra work sometimes. But our trash output is incredibly minimal. I like knowing where my food comes from, and it’s important to me that the animals in my care live the best, happiest lives they can. Permaculture helps me feel more a part of the world, not apart from it.
Routt County resident Erica Olson can be reached at girlwithgoats@gmail.com. | 2,800 | 1,414 | 1.980198 |
warc | 201704 | If depression is disrupting your work life, there are a number of things you can try in order to keep yourself going – and hold onto your job. Doing anything when deeply depressed, however, is never easy. Depression takes away the energy and motivation you need to act. But if your co-workers, supervisor or clients start noticing that you’re not delivering what they need, you may have little choice.
I don’t want to imply that these are surefire methods, but they’re worth considering. If none of them work, you might have to consider more drastic action, and I’ll talk about that in the next post in this series. It made sense to me, when I was going through this crisis, to try everything, starting with the simplest approach I could think of and working from there.
One of the few guides I’ve found for understanding the options is the excellent Working in the Dark: Keeping Your Job While Dealing with Depression, by Fawn Fitter and Beth Gulas. It’s a highly useful, insightful and encouraging overview of steps you can take, much of it based on Fawn Fitter’s own experience. I’ve adapted some of her advice for this post, and added what I’ve learned.
1. Treatment
Getting treatment is at the top of the list. If you’ve never been diagnosed with depression before, but struggle at work with the problems described in the last post, it’s important to consult a doctor and/or therapist to get an opinion on what the cause might be. If it is a depressive disorder, medication might take the edge off the worst symptoms, and a therapist might be able to guide you in handling day-to-day situations. Hopefully, treatment will work well enough to help you better manage your workload.
It could do a lot more than that. For some people, the initial treatment with medication alone eliminates all the symptoms and completely restores their effectiveness at work. However, I wouldn’t count on that happening. It’s more common for the first medication to provide only partial improvement, and for some people, none at all. It often takes several tries with different medications and different therapists before you make any progress.
2. Adapting on the Job
No matter how well or poorly you react to treatment, it takes time to find out what the effect will be. While you’re waiting to see if you feel better, you can try a few things on your own to keep yourself going.
People:Work is about people as much as getting things done. Co-workers, supervisors, clients or customers not only want a finished product, they want to see you, talk to you in order to find out if they’ll like working with you – and can trust you. Yet talking to anyone, even on the phone, might be the last thing you can handle. Even so, if you isolate yourself behind a closed door or otherwise try to avoid everyone where you work, you’re getting yourself in trouble.
If it’s at all possible, you can try taking breaks with co-workers or have lunch with them. Even if you have trouble getting words out at a normal pace, you can ask questions rather than try to carry the conversation. You can ask a colleague for advice or do a project with a couple of colleagues. You don’t need to do a lot. You just have to be there enough so the people you work with don’t start to count you out or label you as a problem.
Schedule:With the cooperation of the person you’re accountable to, you might be able to get more flexibility in your work schedule. That could mean occasionally telecommuting , or changing your hours to fit the part of the day when you feel at your best. Sometimes it’s possible to work longer hours for four days in order to keep one free. Workload:Getting organized, staying focused on one thing at a time and finishing tasks are essential skills for meeting your obligations but hard to manage when you’re depressed. There are dozens of methods to get organized – it’s one of the most written about topics on the internet, as well as the subject of hundreds of books. Everyone has their own approach. I’ll outline mine as one example.
When I’m feeling completely lost and unable to make sense of anything, I bypass all the sophisticated technology at my fingertips. I grab paper, post-it notes and pen and start making a list.
I may not be able to sort out all the tasks, but I know what’s overdue and what people are complaining about. Those are the do-or-die’s and go at the top. After that I put down the biggest commitments I have – the stuff that really defines what I’m supposed to be doing. I don’t try to list out the mass of specific tasks because that would only throw me back into panic or paralysis. I put do-or-die’s on separate post-it notes and stick them in a spot I can’t miss. Then I have a rough structure to start with. I need those visual cues. When I’m depressed, out of sight is out of mind.
It’s worth trying to find a method that works for you, but it needs to be simple. If you can’t use it when your mind isn’t focusing, then it’s not much good.
Time Out:Fit time for yourself into your schedule if you can. It helped me to go out for a walk over lunch time. It was an important way of lowering the stress level. Getting outside by myself restored a bit of energy and made it feel easier to get through the rest of the day. Exercise is usually recommended, but walking is the extent of what I can do. I think that’s true of most who are trying to get through a work day in spite of depression.
If efforts like these don’t work and/or treatment is not effective, you may need to get further help from your employer.
3. Help from Employer
To get help, however, you have to tell your employer that you have a depressive disorder, and that can be risky. There is so much discrimination about mental illness that, instead of help, you might get negative reactions that would only add to the stress and perhaps make it impossible to stay. Keeping silent might be best, but then you face continuing problems that could put your job in jeopardy anyway.
I was lucky since the director of the workplace where this crisis reached a peak was knowledgeable and immediately responsive. We worked out a plan to adapt my workload and schedule to match what I could do while severely depressed. I would be able gradually to resume my earlier work as I made progress in treatment. However, there was a price to pay, literally, since less work meant less income. For me, it was a worthwhile tradeoff.
There were other reasons for this accommodation than the helpfulness of this manager. The organization was a large public institution that had procedures to keep it in line with federal and state laws about the treatment of anyone with a disability. That includes mental as well as physical conditions.
Part of their concern was to stay away from those formal procedures since they could lead to long-term liabilities for the institution. If your employer resists helping you voluntarily, however, or penalizes you because of your illness, you may need to take advantage of your legal rights. This is a complicated topic, far more than this post can handle. I’ll explore it in detail separately, but here I want to mention briefly one issue that can change the way you think of yourself.
4. Disability
It comes down to this question: Will you accept the formal status of disability? The laws protect you but only if you win recognition as being mentally disabled. Passing that test means the employer has a legal obligation to make a “reasonable accommodation” in work conditions to enable you to function effectively.
The process to prove that you are disabled is complicated, and getting the designation is no guarantee of improved working conditions. There are many limitations on what an employer has to do, and court decisions have narrowed the disability definitions in recent years.
I chose not to go this route, primarily because I didn’t want another label. I didn’t think of myself as having a disability and didn’t want to be known as being mentally disabled. That was my preference, but many people feel differently. After all, severe depression does disable you at work in many ways. Often the benefit that can come from the legal status is a life saver, perhaps the only way of staying employed. It’s a big decision to make.
But you may find, as I did, that trying these approaches still doesn’t solve the problem. In my case, stress kept increasing as my performance got worse and worse. What then? The answer for me was to make a more fundamental change, and it might be one that you have to consider as well. That’s the subject of the next post in this series.
What methods have you tried in order to keep yourself going on the job? Did they work for you? If not, what did you do? | 8,973 | 3,958 | 2.267054 |
warc | 201704 | BOBOYE B., *OLUKUNLE O. F., ADETUYI F. C. AND ADEBIYI G. A
ABSTRACT
A study was carried out to assay for oil-degrading potential of fungi isolates on diesel, kerosene and petrol. Water samples were collected aseptically and analyzed microbiologically using standard techniques. The fungi isolated from the water samples were: Trichoderma viridae, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus and Stochyborys atra. The confirmatory test for oil utilization potential of the isolated fungi was carried out using the enrichment method, minimal salt broth (MSB). There were variations in the growth patterns of each of the fungal species with respect to the different oil (diesel, kerosene, petrol) used. This also signified that fungal species varied in their degradative abilities. The length of incubation for the fungi ranged from the 5th day to the 20th day. The fungi with the highest hydrocarbon utilization potentials were: Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus niger while stachyborys atra had the least hydrocarbon utilization potential. These hydrocarbon degraders are capable of utilizing oil polluted river and could therefore be employed in bioremediation process. *Corresponding Author:
Institute of Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
KEYWORDS: oil–degrading potential, microorganism, polluted land, hydrocarbon degraders, enrichment medium
INTRODUCTION
The huge demand for crude oil causes enormous quantities to be moved from production areas to different destinations where the oil will be used. The greatest environmental problem connected with crude oil exploration in Nigeria is oil spill both on-shore and off-shore (Okpokwasili, 1996). Crude oil, because of its characteristics, is one of the most significant pollutants in the environment as it is capable of causing serious damages to humans and the ecosystem, resulting in the contamination of drinking water, killing the fishes and poisoning aquatic life, thereby, placing hardship on those who make their living by fishing. Regardless of the source of contamination, some oil or decomposition products may reach groundwater reserves, lakes and other water bodies, polluting water for domestic and industrial use, thus posing serious threat to public health and causing socio-economic hazards to the populace using the water (Okpokwasili, 2003). When oil enters the ocean, it quickly begins to spread and disperse with the aid of the winds and waves while some will evaporate due to its high volatility, some will form into tar balls and sink to the bottom where they may remain for a long time, slowly releasing hydrocarbons into the water. Though oil is toxic, it becomes less so with time. Winds and waves help spread and disperse the oil. Some oil will evaporate. Microorganisms in the water attack and digest the oil. If people act quickly after the spill, they can scoop up some of the oil and stop it from causing worse damage to the environment (Swannell and Richard, 2003). Many microorganisms are found to posses the ability to actively decompose specified fractions of hydrocarbon (Bartha and Atlas, 1997). Since not all components of petroleum–derived hydrocarbon mixture are decomposed simultaneously, Yuan et al. (2000) suggested the introduction of mixed culture of bacteria and fungi for the degradation of petroleum. However, single cultures of fungi have been found to be better than mixed cultures (Okerentugba and Ezeronye, 2003). The filamentous fungi are known to possess some attributes that enable them as good potential agents of degradation, such as digestion of the hydrocarbons through the secretion of extracellular enzymes and ability to grow under environmental conditions of stress (low pH values, low nutrients and low water activity) (Ojo, 2006). Different techniques have been employed to clean up... | 3,874 | 1,886 | 2.054083 |
warc | 201704 | College is an important time for everyone. Some may say it is supposed to be the greatest time in an individual’s life. The tricky part with college is that there are so many factors that deal with a student’s life. Grades play a huge role in that. Intelligent college students, those who are going to have successful college careers, know why grades are important. One reason that grades are important is because they affect eligibility in sports. For example, student-athletes at least have to keep a 2.5 grade point average to participate. Another reason grades are vital is they determine if a student-athletes maintains scholarships. To maintain a scholarship a student must at least keep a 2.0 G.P.A. Grades, also play a big role in future jobs. Employers look at a person’s transcript to see aspects of a student. One aspect would include if a student was efficient at school. Even though grades are important, college student know there are some negative aspects to grades. One drawback to grades is that grades can make a student lose motivation. When a student receives a bad grade, he or she feels a sense of disappointment. This disappointment can affect future grades. When a student is worrying about grades, he or she gets weighed down by stressed. Stress is not good for one’s body. The whole negative aspect of grades is quite complicated. When a student is caught up in this entire negative grade situation, then it begins a terrible downward spin to his or her life. As one could see, grades have a very negative consequence to a student’s life. Sometimes students just don’t get bad grades; sometimes students bring bad grades on themselves. When a student gets caught up in the “party life,” he or she will just be asking to receive bad grades. When one parties one gets distracted from his or hers main goals and the sight of why he or she is even at college. Partying means he or she is procrastinating from what he or she should be focusing on. With procrastinating he or... | 2,040 | 944 | 2.161017 |
warc | 201704 | Want to learn how to grow sunflower sprouts at home for a delicious and nutty microgreen you can harvest fresh from your own kitchen counter? Well, you will be happy to know that the process of growing them doesn't take much time and requires very few tools or supplies.
Once you get down some of the basic techniques we discuss below, you will be well on your way to sprouting these fresh, crunchy, thick leafy sprouts to use in salads, wraps, sandwiches as well as green juices.
They are an inexpensive way to grow your own produce indoors in the colder months, with one tray of greens yielding between 1-2 pounds of sprouts. Alternatively, they can be grown outside in partial sunlight when warmer seasons permit.
Also called "sunflower greens", they are a quintessential seed sprouting variety because of their larger size, tasty chlorophyll-rich leaves and succulent white stems. They are typically grown from a certain variety of unshelled sunflower seed called "black oil sunflower", which are smaller black seeds rather than the larger, lighter-colored striped seeds many of you may be familiar with.
They are different from jar sprouted sunflower, which uses shelled seeds and does not produce long leafy sprouts, but small short ones with underdeveloped leaves.
Sunflower greens must be grown on soil much like the process of growing wheatgrass, buckwheat, pea shoots and other microgreens. The greens can also be grown using soil-less mediums like vermiculite, coco peat mats or hydroponic water-based solutions.
For those of you interested in growing other types of microgreens, sunflower is a great one to start with as they tend to be easier to grow than other tray sprout varieties.
Sunflower sprouts are not only delicious, they are also quite nutritious and are rich in a number of vitamins and minerals as well as chlorophyll, amino acids, lecithin, choline, protein and fiber.
The sprouted greens contain between 20-25% protein with all essential amino acids and are considered a complete protein-rich food. The sprouted seed, as opposed to the sunflower seed itself, is high in natural enzymes making its protein and other phytonutrients easier to digest and assimilate.
Sunflower sprouts contain vitamins A, C, E and B vitamins as well as the minerals calcium, iron, magnesium, niacin, zinc, selenium, potassium and phosphorus.
Sunflower seeds and especially their sprouts provide a source of specific nutrients such as lecithin and folic acid.
Lecithin is an important nutrient for breaking down fatty acids, like the omega-3's, from the foods we eat to effectively utilize them. Lecithin keeps our joints, tendons and bones healthy and strong. Choline is a component of lecithin and a nutritionally important precursor to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is vital to nerve and muscle function and needed for proper liver metabolism.
The sprouts are also particularly high in the B complex vitamin called folate or folic acid, which is a dietary nutrient needed by pregnant women and their developing fetus.
As we mentioned, vertical tray grown sunflower sprouts are sprouted using a tiny black unshelled sunflower seed called the black oil sunflower.
This variety grows and produces the best healthy green sprouts, although they can be grown from other types. The black seeds can be difficult to find at your local health food store and usually have to be ordered by mail. They are commonly available in bulk quantities, by the pound or 25 pound bags.
The "how to grow sunflower sprouts" method we share below uses a soil-based growing medium that is mixed with worm castings and watered with seaweed solutions. This gives your sprouts additional minerals that they will love and that you will later consume as nutrients.
How Long Do They Take to Sprout?
The process from start to finish takes about 8-12 days and yields 1-2 pounds of sprouts per 20" x 10" tray.
This is a necessary step that involves jar sprouting the unshelled seeds. To do this simply soak 2C of seeds overnight (as recommended in our sprouting guide) in a quart-sized wide mouth mason jar of pure water.
Drain and rinse them the next day, placing a mesh sprouting lid on your jar. Turn the jar upside down tilted at an angle to sprout them and allow excess water to drain out. This usually takes between 1-2 days depending on the temperature. It is best to do this out of direct light.
You will need to rinse and drain them twice daily, in the morning and again at night during this process. They are ready when you see the little white roots (1/8-1/4 inches) just popping out of the pointed end of the unshelled sunflower seed.
We typically use between 1-2 inches of soil to fill a 20" x 10" sprouting tray. Generally, the more soil you have the less you will need to water them.
This tray size works well for 2 cups of sprouted seed. You can however use other types of trays; some people prefer using wood or clay rather than plastic.
We use a high quality organic soil mix, which we blend with up to 20% worm castings. After you place the soil in the tray, pack it down and mist the top with water to thoroughly moisten it.
The next step is to take your jar of sprouted sunflower seeds and place them ON TOP of the soil mix. Spread them out as evenly as you can. Don't worry if they are stacked on top of each other, the roots will find the soil medium below to grow in.
Press the seeds down lightly with your hands, mist them well, and place an upside down tray as a lid on top of the bottom tray.
This will help to incubate your sprouts, as they tend to grow better in a dark, moist environment during the initial sprouting process.
When they reach the top of the upper lid, this is when you remove the lid and allow them to "green" in indirect sunlight.
The sunflower sprouts will be a yellow color at this point but will start to turn green soon after they are exposed to light. This is called "greening the sprouts" and can be achieved in a bright sunlit window, partial to direct outdoor sunlight or indoor full spectrum grow lights.
The rest of the process of how to grow sunflower sprouts involves watering them daily. When the sprouts are young, a light mist will do fine.
As they mature you will need to water the soil in addition to lightly misting the sprouts. It is important to make sure they are not too dry but not too moist.
You can usually tell this by picking up the tray and feeling the weight of it.
When you have a full tray of green sprouts you can place them in mild direct sunlight to increase the chlorophyll content and overall life-force.
At about day 10, or right before the second set of leaves develop, you will be ready to harvest and eat your sprouts.
To do this you can use a pair of kitchen scissors and cut the stems at the base above the soil level. Be sure to remove any of the black seed hulls that have a tendency to hang off of the leaves.
You can keep your sunflower sprouts growing, snipping off fresh sprouts as you need them, or you can harvest them all at once if the second set of leaves are starting to bud. They are less edible after this has occurred and become more fibrous and fuzzy, getting ready for life as a sunflower plant.
They can be stored, like any salad produce, in a plastic bag or sealed container in the refrigerator and will last many days.
Sometimes, especially in humid and hot climates, mold can occur at the base of the sprouts. Also, if they are too moist or lack sufficient air flow this can encourage mold growth as well.
This type of mold, which is a white and fuzzy cotton mold, usually grows just above the soil's surface. It can be sprayed down to the soil level and the sprouts on top can be rinsed off and are fine to eat.
If you are concerned, you can additionally rinse the harvested sprouts with a diluted food grade hydrogen peroxide solution or spray it directly at the base of the sprouts as they grow.
Two other types of molds that are a lot less common include a blue or brown-colored mold. The blue mold grows directly on the seed itself, usually on freshly sprouted seeds. If this occurs, you must discard them and try again using a sanitized jar and healthy viable seeds.
The other is a brown mold that occurs in the roots, moves up to the stalk and will effect the success of your sunflower seed sprouting.
Both of these mold varieties are more likely a problem in hot climates with poor ventilation, but they can also arise from a bad batch of seeds. It is very unlikely that you will ever experience either of these molds in your sunflower sprout growing process, but it is good to know about them just in case.
Black sunflower seeds are sometimes hard to find, not all health food stores carry them. It is best to buy them by the pound in sealed bags that maintain freshness and their ability to sprout healthy greens. It is of course good to also purchase sprouting seeds that are organic and non-GMO.
Sunflower sprouts can be enjoyed with almost any meal, adding fresh fiber, enzymes and assorted nutrients.
Enjoy them with many of our recipes like our:
They are delicious with other types of sprouts, like alfalfa, broccoli, radish and fenugreek sprouts. | 9,219 | 4,025 | 2.290435 |
warc | 201704 | Liberty Times: The government announced the construction of the plant’s No. 1 reactor “will not continue,” but still go through safety checks after which it will be “sealed up,” and that the construction of the No. 2 reactor will be “suspended.” Can these measures be carried out? Ho Li-wei (賀立維): From a technical standpoint, whether it said “will not continue,” “sealed up” or need to “pass safety inspections,” all of these are just playing word games.
Even taking another five years, or 10 years, the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant [in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City] would not be completed because it has several inherent critical issues.
An incident reported in April 2002, where the contractors were found to have used inferior steel rebar in building the No. 1 reactor’s pedestal. More than a dozen people were indicted in that case. Construction of this quality could topple in a big earthquake. Even if it did not fall, much of its piping and wiring would be stretched, ripped apart and broken. This would cause many fatalities.
When nuclear fuel rods are inserted into the reactor, there might be no major problems immediately. Maybe they would happen after a few years of operation. Because the reactor will undergo physical contraction and dilation due to temperature variations, there is also the problem of material fatigue.
When a big earthquake hits, a tiny hairline fissure may extend open into a large fracture, which would be a big disaster.
There is also a major concern over penetration of the nuclear reactor containment wall. When fuel rods start the nuclear chain reaction, the rate is about 1 million reactions per second. The heat and radiation generated are constrained by a 1m-thick wall. Around the containment building are numerous vents. If these are built with inferior materials, are shoddily constructed or are not sealed to the required thickness, then radiation could leak out.
LT: President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration stressed the plant’s start-up operation will depend on the result of a public referendum. If the plant was sealed up, would it be possible for operations to restart? Ho: Taiwan’s first, second and third nuclear power plants were turnkey projects by the contractor company. For example, if General Electric had already built 100 nuclear power plants, then Taiwan was its 101st plant. The project and its testing were standardized. However, construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant was divided among different contractors.
The Ma administration said that after undergoing safety inspection, the plant will be sealed up. However, without inserting fuel rods, without producing steam, without power generation and without producing radiation, how do you conduct safety inspections? At the most, the plant’s structures can be checked to see if there are plastic bottles in the cement mixture. For most of the machinery and the electrical circuits, all that can be done is “cold testing.”
Nuclear fission produces steam from water; the reactor is known as a “nuclear steam generator.” Steam is needed to generate circulation, which rotates a turbine. Without the steam, how can you do testing?
Inspection is also needed to detect possible radiation leaks. When the fuel rod is bombarded with neutrons, the nuclear fission process produces gamma-ray radiation. Fuel rods have to be inserted to make radiation detection tests meaningful and to find any leaks in the plant. The reactor’s control rod is a powerful absorber of neutrons; it acts like the brake in a car. It is to prevent neutrons from starting a chain reaction. This also cannot be checked without starting operations at the plant. | 3,829 | 1,793 | 2.135527 |
warc | 201704 | Adapted from a recent online discussion. Couple figuring out the give and take of sharing the workload Pregnant Pause: My husband and I are expecting our first child. We haven't been married long and are still learning the ways of one another.
We are in the middle of deciding if I should go back to work after the baby arrives. One of his stipulations is that if I am not working, then I would take care of all cooking and cleaning, and he will provide income for the family.
Part of me understands this idea, the other part of me wonders why he gets a 9-to-5 work day, and leaves me with the never-ending, no set hours of homemaker?
Do you think he should still help me around the house? I know lots of moms can't stay home. I feel guilty even bringing this up to him.
Carolyn: How about this:
You will be in charge of the child and the home — and all that entails — during the hours he's at work.
He will be in charge of earning money during the hours he's at work.
In the hours you are both home, you will share the responsibilities of home and child equally (with allowances for when one of you is wiped out; equality announces itself best over time, and not in chore-by-chore increments).
By the way, the best way for you both to appreciate what the other does is to trade off for long stretches on weekends — as soon as you realistically can after the baby is born. By that I mean, you go off and do necessary errands, business, yard work, home repairs, etc., while he cares for the baby. In particular, he needs to know what your days really feel like versus what he imagines them to be, since you presumably know what a day at work is like for him.
Anonymous: To Pregnant Pause: I have three kids. Years ago my husband said to me: "We share the work equally. But that doesn't mean we each do 50 percent. It means we both give 100 percent."
Ideally you can cultivate this notion of being a team rather than clocking hours. We both are willing to do what has to be done, and to forgive what the other person didn't get to, since we're both in that position at times. Like athletes on a team, we have strengths and weaknesses, good days and bad, but every day when the alarm goes off we try our best.
Obviously you need a good partner for this or you could get taken advantage of. But if you're going to talk expectations, I'd try to talk about pitching in and working together to create the best environment and future for your child.
Carolyn: Beautiful, thank you. The only thing I would add (at the risk of ruining it) is that "we both give 100 percent even when we both want to go fetal and do zero percent." Because you do get that tired and you can't just bail.
You also both need to be attentive to each other's fatigue, because you need to give each other breaks, even when the only source of that break needs one, too.
It's the respectful, mutually generous partnerships that survive. If even one of you is a taker, then marital strain is all but assured. | 3,005 | 1,519 | 1.978275 |
warc | 201704 | Students from Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts and as far as California are part of a group of 83 freshmen comprising the largest number of out-of-state students the College has admitted since it began tracking the statistic in the fall of 2000. Earlier in the summer, as many as 93 out-of-state students had sent acceptance letters to the College, but that figure decreased as students withdrew those letters.
As usual, the great majority of out-of-state students are from neighboring New York and Pennsylvania. Most students at the College are still residents of New Jersey.
Matthew Middleton, assistant director of Admissions, says the College?s goal in pursuing out-ofstate students is to increase geographic diversity on campus and to increase the College?s visibility to the entire east coast, beyond New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Middleton oversees all out-of-state recruitment.
“I think to be considered a truly elite institution it helps to have students coming from places all over the country,” he said.
As part of its out-of-state recruitment efforts, the of?ce of Admissions has two counselors, one for recruitment in New York and one for recruitment in Pennsylvania. In addition, the College sends representatives to Delaware and Maryland.
“Our goal is to actually make physical recruitment trips to Connecticut and Virginia in the next couple of years,” Middleton said.
The main method of the of?ce of Admissions is simply to put prospective out-of-state students in communication with current out-of-state students through mail, e-mail or instant messaging.
Last year, Middleton tasked four out-of-state students, one from each class, with writing a letter to high school seniors who had been accepted to the College.
Each student wrote about an aspect of their experience at the College. For example, Allison DeMarco, now a senior health and exercise science and biology major, related her experience studying abroad, while Jansen Weaver, sophomore biology major, wrote about Welcome Week.
This is all part of an effort to make potential out-of-state students feel that they will not be the only students who do not hail from New Jersey, explained Middleton.
“The number one thing that out-of-state students say about why they choose not to come here is it feels to them that everybody?s from New Jersey,” he said.
Jack Casey, an incoming freshman business major from Pennsylvania, admitted he was intimidated at ?rst about the overwhelming majority New Jersey residents have.
“If you see the raw numbers of how many kids are from out of state, it?s understandable why they might get a little nervous,” Middleton added.
Out-of-state students make up only about 5 percent of the undergraduate population, approximately 311 students, according to the Princeton Review.
Many students living in far-off places like California and Colorado are former residents of New Jersey seeking to return to the state where they grew up, said Middleton.
He also cited the College?s appearances in publications such as Peterson?s Competitive Colleges,
U.S. News and World Report and Barron?s Pro?les of American Colleges, in which the College was ranked among the nation?s most competitive schools.
Casey, the freshman from Pennsylvania, found out about the College from the Princeton Review.
“The more I read about it, the more I liked it,” he said.
The College also offers programs that are dif?cult to ?nd elsewhere, such as the 7-year medical program and the deaf education program, though the most popular majors for out-of-state students are similar to those for in-state students. For example, biology is among the most popular majors for out-of-state students, just as it is for in-state students.
Aside from a dearth of other out-of-state students and tuition, which is approximately $7,000 higher for out-of-state students, other disincentives for out-of-state students to atend the College include the lack of name recognition outside New Jersey. | 4,041 | 1,776 | 2.275338 |
warc | 201704 | The US government has admitted that it arranges drone strikes and assassinations based on a person’s metadata.
According to the New York
Review of Books, the National Security Agency claims that its sweeping collection of phone and Internet records is nothing to worry about because it is only “metadata” are bogus.
NSA General Counsel Stewart Baker has said: “Metadata absolutely tells you everything about somebody’s life. If you have enough metadata, you don’t really need content.”
Now General Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and the CIA, has called Baker’s comment “absolutely correct” and raised him one, asserting, “We kill people based on metadata”.
What is worrying then is that Kevin Bacon theory might actually get yourself on a CIA kill list.
For example, you could be being watched because you called your mum who also ordered a pizza from a bloke who was once called by a suspected terrorist.
Coming up with metadata conclusions like this requires huge data warehousing and a complete pattern of spying. The NSA needs to look at the metadata of everyone.
However even if the US pulls its finger out and stops the retention of different levels of metadata collection, some of the proposed laws, such as the USA Freedom Act only skims the surface.
It would not stop the NSA inserting vulnerabilities into computer software and drivers, to be exploited later to surreptitiously intercept private communications. It will also not stop them collecting foreign metadata. | 1,560 | 876 | 1.780822 |
warc | 201704 | By Jamie Nelson, | January 11, 2017
Sleeping for an hour after lunch has been linked to a mental boost in older adults. (YouTube)
The habit of sleeping for an hour or 30 minutes after lunch has been found to boost brain activity in older adults. The researchers behind this finding believe that a nap in general in the afternoon can keep the brain five times younger.
According to the Daily Mail, the study involved more than 2,000 Chinese adults who were older than 60 years. More than 50 percent of the participants in the study reported that they took naps everyday after lunch for 90-30 minutes.
Like Us on Facebook
The study involved giving the participants a range of calculations to undertake as well as memory-related tests to assess their cognitive abilities. The research findings were published in the scientific journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
The study revealed that those who took hour-long naps performed better at the tasks. This test was also conducted on individuals who were part of a control group and did not take naps.
The research revealed that those who took short naps displayed a decrease in their cognitive abilities. However, those who took slept for an hour displayed four to six times increase in their cognitive abilities, Health reported.
Dr. Junxin Li, one of the researchers behind the study, explained that those who did not take a nap or took shorter naps also experienced a decline in their mental capabilities.
While the research study displayed a link between an hour long nap and mental abilities, the research was unable to establish a cause and effect relationship to confirm the findings. However, previous studies have highlighted significant health benefits of indulging in short naps called "power naps."
Learn more from the video below:
'Pokemon Sun and Moon' Special Battle Season 2 Starts, Transfer ‘Pokemon Red and Blue to Sun and Moon Intel Pentium G4560 Review: Kaby Lake CPU Beats FX-6300; Can Compete With i3-6100 Skylake Processor 'Pokemon Go' Rolls Out New Updates for 2017 This is why the Largest Shark ‘Megalodon’ Went Extinct Tiny Moth With Unique Hairstyle Named After Donald Trump Vampire Bats Found Feeding on Human Blood Scientists Create a Software That Predicts Time of Heart Failure Central Asia Could be the new Home of Tigers: Scientists Massive 'Wave' Seen on Venus Atmosphere Scientists Reduce Spread of Cancer by 75% in Tests | 2,438 | 1,263 | 1.930325 |
warc | 201704 | The study, conducted by
Japan's Board of Audit, found that around a quarter of the Y19 trillion (£150.2 billion) raised in a series of supplementary budgets has not yet been allocated to projects due to confusion over rebuilding strategies in the Tohoku region.
The funds are being raised through tax increases over the next 25 years and government spending cuts.
The new investigation was prompted by a documentary in September that accused the authorities of siphoning cash off into projects that would not benefit the victims of last year's earthquake and tsunami.
The audit found some Y330 million (£2.57 million) has been allocated to carry out repairs to a sports stadium in central Tokyo, a further Y500 million (£3.89 million) is being used to promote exports of nuclear technology to Vietnam and a similar figure is being used to build roads in Okinawa, more than 1,000 miles south of the affected areas.
A contact lens factory in central Japan has benefited from subsidies, while more funds were used to promote the Sky Tree, Japan's tallest building, as a tourist destination. Another Y12 billion (£93.3 million) is being used to enhance the earthquake resistance of local government buildings outside the disaster zone.
Nearly 20,000 people were killed or remain missing as a result of the earthquake and the tsunami that it triggered, with those who lost their homes and livelihoods increasingly angry at the government's handling of the reconstruction of their communities. An estimated 325,000 are still displaced as a result of the disaster, 18 months on.
Addressing the Diet on Monday, Yoshihiko Noda, the prime minister, admitted that mistakes had been made in the way the money was allocated to projects. | 1,752 | 921 | 1.90228 |
warc | 201704 | New Associate Vice Provost and Director of the Teaching & Learning Center
—Suzanne Willever, TLC Communications Manager & Web Designer, Temple University
Pamela Barnett, Associate Vice Provost and Director of the Teaching & Learning Center
Dr. Pamela Barnett is new to Temple as an Associate Vice Provost and Director of the Teaching & Learning Center. She comes to us from Princeton University’s McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, where she served as Associate Director and was responsible for programs serving faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates. Before Princeton, she was tenured as a professor of English and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. Her book
Dangerous Desire: Literature of Sexual Freedom and Sexual Violence Since the Sixtieswas published by Routledge in 2004 and examines literature written in response to the liberation movements of the 1960s.
Given her background and scholarly interests in race and gender studies, one of her first concerns when she moved to instructional development at Princeton was to develop programming about identity and diversity in the classroom. Among her other initiatives was a program that linked support for undergraduates with support for faculty. Her “large class initiative” provided academic skills instruction for undergraduates in some of the university’s most challenging large science and quantitative classes, and then teaching consultations for the faculty who taught them. Thus, a workshop on “Problem Solving Skills for Physics 101” became an opportunity to brainstorm with faculty about new teaching approaches as well.
Dr. Barnett’s interest in working at Temple University was sparked when she taught a night class here several years ago on African American literature while on leave from the University of South Carolina (USC) and living in Philadelphia. She was impressed by the diversity of backgrounds—in terms of race and ethnicity, class, age, and life experience—and how much it enriched their study. “The experience underscored what a liberal education can be in a richly diverse environment. So,” she recalls, “when I decided to relocate permanentlys to Philadelphia and make the next stage of my career here, I kept my eye on the Temple job website. This is where I wanted to be: at a large, diverse, public, urban, institution with a real sense of educational mission.”
Dr. Barnett is particularly suited to understanding the needs of Temple faculty and Teaching Assistants; over the course of her career she has served as a TA, Adjunct, Non- Tenure-Track faculty, and then Tenured faculty. She has balanced classroom teaching with dissertation advising and her own research, and at Princeton she balanced teaching with administrative duties. Therefore, she understands the unique challenges faced by university teachers at various stages of their careers and in their different roles. Her varied experiences will help her develop programming and services that are relevant to the different roles—and worthy of Temple teachers’ precious time.
She also brings her experience as a professor of African American studies and her work in diversity and pedagogy programming. She plans to have the TLC do its part to contribute to the efforts of the Office of Multicultural Affairs to promote the retention and success of faculty who are underrepresented in their fields. And she wants to provide programming to support all faculty teaching Temple’s diverse student body. She notes, “This is the most diverse university in the country, and I aim to build a center that enables Temple instructors to make the most of this unique environment. The learning opportunities in this context are enormous.”
Coming into the TLC, Pamela was impressed by the foundation laid by her predecessor, Angela Linse, who built the center and cultivated relationships throughout the university. She also notes that the entire TLC staff has raised the profile of the center by running high quality pedagogy events like the annual new TA orientation and the winter faculty conference. “I feel very fortunate that so many people are interested in what we do, predisposed to want to talk with me.” She hopes to continue the relationships that exist with the center’s current network of great teachers and administrators who are involved or have been involved on the advisory board, in facilitating teaching programs, or speaking at the TLC.
What does she want the TLC to look like in a few years? Her top priority is to develop sustained and substantive opportunities for faculty to reflect on their teaching and their students’ learning, and to do that in communities with other teachers. Expanding upon TLC’s one-time workshops, Barnett intends to experiment with different formats including book groups, teaching discussion circles, short courses, pedagogy certificate programs, and research projects on teaching and learning.
Dr. Barnett is also currently working on a new program that will give instructors the opportunity to visit the classrooms of their colleagues who are doing innovative, interactive teaching in the challenging large-lecture format. The program will pilot this fall, allowing participating instructors to visit classes of their choice from a list, then meet with those professors to talk about the methods they are using, why they use them, and how they impact students’ learning. Ideally, participants will get ideas and have conversations that will enable them to bring some new strategies to their own teaching of large classes. Dr. Barnett cites the importance of consulting with fellow teachers: “It is one thing for me and my staff to extol the benefits, for example, of using the rapid response systems or ‘clickers’ to get students thinking and engaged in a large lecture hall, but it’s another actually to see how a colleague uses them successfully.”
As the center grows and adds staff, it will also offer one-on-one consultation services to instructors, along with classroom observation and feedback. She believes that busy faculty should be able to make an appointment to talk about a teaching issue, whenever the need arises: “The assignment design workshop may not be offered the week that you really need it.” As for classroom observation and feedback, she adds, “I’ve now seen this process invigorate many people’s teaching. If we do our job well, we help instructors build on their strengths, innovating in ways that fit their teaching goals and personas.” Another top priority moving forward is the Gen-Ed initiative. She believes the TLC needs to stand by faculty as they design and pilot innovative new courses, and then as they assess and consider how to improve them year to year.
Her longer-term goals include expanding TLC programming for TAs. One exciting initiative would implement a pedagogy certificate program, through which Temple will gain more recognition for producing excellent scholar-teachers. In addition to participating in TLC programming and getting classroom observation and feedback, certificate seekers would get support creating materials that are often expected on the academic job market: statements of teaching philosophy, well-designed course syllabi, and other elements of a teaching portfolio.
Prior to moving into an administrative role, Dr. Barnett received awards for teaching excellence. When asked why she decided to shift to administration, she replied that after having finished her book and knowing that her tenure was secure, she had more time to reflect on what she most loved about her career and what she wanted to do next. She recalls, “I always wanted to be a teacher; when I was young, I even had a play schoolhouse on my back porch where I somehow convinced neighborhood kids to come study globes and draw letters. And it turned out I was well suited to getting things done, in collaboration with other people.”
For instance, she chaired a committee to revise USC’s African American Studies curriculum and enthusiastically embraced the challenge of thinking about what the students needed to learn and how the curriculum could be designed to get them there. This experience convinced her that departmental service, and then a position of greater administrative responsibility, would be a good way to make a difference using her interests and skills. Adding to this a desire for urban life, and the ability to choose where she lived, solidified her decision to move to Philadelphia and work in administration. “I am motivated knowing that my work can affect more students; I will continue to teach, and by supporting all of the university’s instructors, my work as an educator extends beyond my own classrooms.”
Since taking the job here and relieved of her grueling commute to Princeton, Dr. Barnett is finding more time to become involved in the community. She would like to go back to some work she was doing with the Center for Literacy’s adult high school diploma program before she started her commuting life. Another thing for which she now has time, she happily adds, is gardening: “When I got the job at Temple, one of the first things I did was get a plot in my community garden. I now actually have time to water it before or after work since I don’t have to commute 110 miles a day.” As for her colleagues at Temple, we are thankful that Pamela Barnett has planted roots, quite literally, in our neighborhood, and we look forward to the contributions she will make to this center and to the Temple University community. | 9,759 | 4,183 | 2.333015 |
warc | 201704 | With Tesla’s new product unveiling less than a week away, Elon Musk’s “unexpected by most” ambiguous language has led to a flood of speculation. Some think the new product will be a vehicle — perhaps the Model Y crossover SUV based on the Model 3. Or it could be the electric pickup truck Musk has mentioned on occasion, the electric tractor trailer he has hinted at, or the autonomous multi-passenger minibus concept built on the Model X chassis.
Instead of a vehicle, it could be a new suite of sensors, including a triple cam and more radar units for Tesla’s Autopilot system, a major announcement for SpaceX, or even a breakthrough in Hyperloop technology. Elon has so many irons in the fire, it’s hard to guess which one could spawn a new product.
Matthew DeBord at
Business Insider has a wild guess that is interesting. He asks, “What if the new “product” is a bank?” A bank obtains money through commercial lending channels at low interest and uses that money to make car loans at higher rates. There is quite a bit of profit involved. In fact, DeBord says, “I often say that dealers don’t sell cars — they sell car loans.” Presently, Tesla works with two major lenders to obtain financing for its customers.
He argues that Tesla is leaving money on the table by not being its own bank, especially when the number of cars it sells rises after the Model 3 is introduced. “Having ‘Tesla Financial’ would promote a more seamless process as the company really starts to grow sales,” he says. After all, it’s not like Musk is a stranger to the world of finance. He did make his fortune as the prime mover behind PayPal.
DeBord is extending the definition of “product” by taking it in an entirely different direction. But in financial services and insurance, companies often refer to a loan program or insurance policy as a “product.” Is Musk being too clever by half or is he hiding his intentions in plain sight, assuming most people won’t think of an alternative definition for the word “product?” Come next Monday, we will know. | 2,175 | 1,126 | 1.931616 |
warc | 201704 | Learning with YOURpurpose in mind -- not your parents', not your teacher's, not your school's Every day, your school, your teachers, and even your peers draw lines to measure and standardize intelligence. They decide what criteria make one person smart and another person stupid. They decide who will succeed and who will just get by. Perhaps you find yourself outside the norm, because you learn differently -- but, unlike your classmates, you have no system in place that consistently supports your ability and desire to learn. Simply put, you are considered lazy and stupid. You are expected to fail. Learning Outside the Linesis written by two such "academic failures" -- that is, two academic failures who graduated from Brown University at the top of their class. Jonathan Mooney and David Cole teach you how to take control of your education and find true success -- and they offer all the reasons whyyou should persevere. Witty, bold, and disarmingly honest, Learning Outside the Linestakes you on a journey toward personal empowerment and profound educational change, proving once again that rules sometimes need to be broken.
Jonathan Mooney graduated from Brown University with an honors degree in English. A recipient of the Truman Fellowship for graduate study in creative writing and disability studies, he is also the co-author of Learning Outside the Lines. | 1,378 | 729 | 1.890261 |
warc | 201704 | You Want to Be Where Everybody Knows Your Name Most traditional marketing is really expensive. Fortunately, however, you can do a lot of other things to spread the word about your business, and most of them cost a lot less than advertisements. First of all, you'll need a name. It's worth spending a lot of time thinking about this, because a good one can really set your business apart. Think about how often you'll be dropping your company's name into conversation once you actually pick it. One hundred times a day? One thousand? What about the number of times customers or potential customers will come into contact with it? Thousands? Tens of thousands? It better make a damn good impression. (Also, once it does, you can be sure someone will try to steal it if you don't have it trademarked, so make sure to talk to a lawyer about this.) An outrageous impression helps too. This was the tack that David and Tom Gardner took when they named their online personal finance site the Motley Fool. "We knew what we wanted to do," David recalls, noting that most personal finance guides at the time were dry, boring, and lacked any sort of edge or attitude. "We just didn't have a name for it. And then we thought of the fool. It's actually a great position to come from, because there's no pretension whatsoever about it. I had read Shakespeare's plays in high school and college, and the fool was always a great character--funny, smart, unusual, distinctive. If we screwed up, well, we were fools anyway and we tried our best. But if we succeeded, well, then that would be a very interesting position. We could tell people to just make of us what they would--we're fools, and meanwhile all the other people out there trying to tell you how to manage your money are wearing pin-stripe suits and trying to look impressive. But they're not succeeding at helping you beat the market. So what are you left with?" What they were left with was not so much the distinctive image of two brothers in clown suits and Dr. Seuss hats. Instead, the notion of the fool came across as a sly marketing ploy. What it said was that this company's approach to investing would be radically different, and probably a whole lot of fun too. It made the Gardner brothers out to be people just like their customers, instead of all-knowing gurus. What could it hurt for someone to at least check it out on America Online? And once they did, what would keep them from jumping in the discussion areas and offering up their point of view, whatever expertise they could toss in? Nothing, it turns out. Today, the best thing about the Motley Fool is that so many different people do just that, and now the Fool stands for the little guy slugging it out against the Wall Street big guys trying to create a stock portfolio that will beat those so-called pros. The subtlety of the Fool works quite well, but it's difficult to pull that sort of thing off. So it's fine if you want to take an easier route and have your business's name create a sharp mental image in the minds of your potential customers. "In the first big space I had, the business was called 'Let's Face It,'" says Marcia Kilgore. "But I decided that was a little too sarcastic, because when you're getting a skin treatment, you're not supposed to be facing anything. You're supposed to be forgetting it all for a while. I didn't want anything French, because that would be too poofy. That's not what we are--we're happening people having a good time here. So I just thought about how you would describe the best feeling you could possibly have--happiness, elation. Then it just came to me: Bliss. It's catchy, and we can have a mail order catalog of beauty supplies called Bliss Out and a press kit that says 'Pu-Bliss-Ity' on it. I was lucky that no one else had thought of it before me." When Robert Stephens set out to create a computer repair service in Minneapolis that would be worlds apart from anything that had come before it, he knew that even the name would have to be truly different. "The first thing I did was to see what the competition called themselves," he recalls. "The same two names were in front of every business in this town--Northern Lights and Twin Cities. Northern Lights Computer Repair, Twin Cities Molding and Dye, and on and on. Then there were the Technodynes and the Cybersystems. In terms of corporate identity, those prefixes are so overused. They've been totally deadened. The meaning is gone." While the word geek isn't exactly underutilized either, no one had ever thought to name their business with the term. "The name of the company needed to do two things," Stephens explained. "It needed to explain that we were a group, even though I was the only member at the time. And it needed to emphasize that we were technical people. So what's a good word for that? Rocket scientists? Engineers? Nerd was kind of funny, but geek had a great phonetic ring to it. Then it needed an action word to get at the fact that we were a group of people performing a function. After a while, I came up with this idea of a bomb squad. How many people can say they work for a bomb squad?" So Robert Stephens became the Geek Squad, and while the name doesn't explain exactly what his business does, it conveys enough of a promise of something really interesting that it ends up working quite well. It's all right to be literal too, as long as you don't end up sounding like all those Northern Lights companies. When Kevin Donlin set out to name his r�sum� consulting business, he looked in the Yellow Pages and laughed at all the companies that had tagged themselves with names like AAA Resumes to be the first enterprise listed alphabetically under "Resumes" in the directory. "There was no niche evident anywhere," he recalls. "No one had made any effort to distinguish themselves other than to be listed first. Now people tell me that they looked at 20 different firms in the phone book and on the Internet, but they called me because my name, 'Guaranteed Resumes,' stuck out. It really is one of my strongest marketing weapons." If you're not like Donlin and have a product to sell instead of a service, assigning a great name to your most prominent product can give a fledgling business a boost too. "We chose the name 'Dave's Insanity Sauce,'" says Dave Hirschkop, founder of Dave's Gourmet. "The name of the product matches the product, which is the hottest of the hot sauces. You've got to be crazy, just insane, to use it. The label looks that way. The way we conduct ourselves at trade shows backs it up. We even started answering the phone in a way that would make people think we were nuts." In a sea of thousands of hot sauces, that's not a bad way to make yours stand out. And while naming a company after yourself usually reeks of pretension, in the food business it sends a nice message--that there's some guy named Dave somewhere cutting up habaneros so that you can experience the heat yourself. | 7,029 | 3,268 | 2.150857 |
warc | 201704 | The 'Lived' Body takes a fresh look at the problem of human embodiment through a critical examination of the dualist legacies of the past. A broad range of classical and contemporary social theorists are surveyed--from Marx to Freud, Foucault to Giddens, Deleuze to Guattari and Irigaray to Grosz--in terms of the bodily themes and issues they raise. A variety of new areas of research in this rapidly expanding field are also considered, including medical technology and the ''fate'' of human embodiment, the sociology of emotion, the problem of pain, sleep and dreams, and the relationship between the body, art and society. | 628 | 388 | 1.618557 |
warc | 201704 | Sixty percent of the 309 readers who took part in our latest survey are involved in teaching. The average amount of time our readers spend educating the up-and-coming varies widely, from less than one hour per week to more than 20 hours; the average is 10 hours per week. Our readers have various teaching duties, with lecturing and individual instruction being the most frequently mentioned.
The majority, 83%, are enthusiastic, or even more so, about their place at the lectern, as evidenced in their comments: "Enthusiastic students can stimulate everyone's environment and improve productivity," wrote one participant. On the benefits to their research, another wrote: "Teaching increases my awareness and understanding of many less well understood scientific issues."
A few, however, would love to lose their pointers and lesson planners: "Teaching is simply not a valued activity. The only thing that matters is obtaining overhead-paying grant support." Said another: "At this point in my career, teaching is an unnecessary distraction which I am forced to partake in for financial reasons." | 1,109 | 640 | 1.732813 |
warc | 201704 | “Green Keepers will bring the community together with the most highly regarded professionals in our area working in stormwater management,” said Susannah Burley, designer of the Green Keepers program and a landscape architect at Parkway Partners. “The idea behind it is to build understanding in the community of how to handle stormwater to prevent flooding and keep runoff out of the sewer system as much as possible.”
The program focuses on the study of “green infrastructure,” which Burley described as a system of practices that mimic how nature handled rainwater before man intervened with hard roofs, asphalt parking lots and other nonporous surfaces.
“What green infrastructure does is manage the water at its point of introduction, before it ever reaches the underground drainage pipes,” Burley explained. “At a residence, it could be something like installing a water barrel to collect roof runoff instead of diverting the water through downspouts to the street.”
The series of classes begins Tuesday, Sept. 9, and is made possible by a grant from the Sewerage & Water Board, which recently awarded funds to several nonprofits via its Green Infrastructure Initiatives program. Other groups winning grants are the Louisiana Urban Stormwater Coalition, the Land Trust of Louisiana, Ripple Effects and Groundwork New Orleans.
“We chose an educational track and modeled Green Keepers on our Tree Troopers program, which has helped restore the tree canopy damaged by Hurricane Katrina,” Burley said. “There won’t be a minimum number of volunteer hours that Green Keepers will have to devote to the community after they complete their training, but we will be expecting them to take what they learn back to their neighborhoods or nonprofits and develop ideas for green infrastructure projects. I will work with them in planning and implementing what they come up with.”
Burley said there are a variety of approaches, both small-scale and large, to reducing runoff and that planting trees goes a long way toward building green infrastructure.
“Trees help in general because they soak up water through their roots, but some trees are thirstier than others, so knowing what kind of trees to plant is important,” Burley said. “A bald cypress, for example, is one that consumes more water than many others.”
Burley said that runoff from an increasing number of paved residential parking areas adds significantly to stormwater management problems in many neighborhoods.
“I think solid concrete drives and parking pads used to be thought of as a sign of progress, so everyone wanted to have one instead of gravel or something else, but now we’re seeing the kind of issues they cause,” she said. “Water flows off the concrete pad straight to the street and to the storm drain. If the material used for the parking area were permeable, then a lot of rainwater would be absorbed at the point of contact and the rest of it slowed down to reduce its erosional force.”
Sessions in the Green Keepers curriculum will cover the following topics:
“Introduction to Green Infrastructure” by Joe Evans of Evans + Lighter; “Plants for Green Infrastructure” by Dana Brown of Dana Brown & Associates; “Vertical Gardens and Rooftop Gardens” by Emily Bullock of Spackman, Mossop and Michaels; “Concrete and Permeability” by Dana Eness of the Urban Conservancy; “Green Infrastructure at Urban Farms and Community Gardens” by Dan Etheridge of Colectivo and Tony Lee of the Magellan Street Garden; and “Bioswales and Rain Gardens” by Dana Brown of Dana Brown & Associates.
The Green Keepers program is free, but enrollees must commit to attending all sessions. To learn more and register, go to www.parkwaypartnersnola.org. Space is limited.
R. Stephanie Bruno writes about houses and gardens. Contact her at rstephaniebruno@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter @rstephaniebruno. | 4,047 | 1,908 | 2.121069 |
warc | 201704 | Frivolous calls stretch ambulances
Stretched ambulance resources are being wasted on frivolous calls for help, with about 13,000 callers a year who do not require urgent medical attention.
The number of ambulance attendances in Melbourne jumped almost 20,000 to 250,083 last financial year.
The Metropolitan Ambulance Service says a significant proportion were requests for help from people who did not need an ambulance or emergency treatment. These included 400 calls from people who could not pass urine, 41 from people who could not sleep, eight for hiccups and 660 for diarrhoea.
Service chief executive Greg Sassella said: "We're having to find ways of dealing with 680 calls every day, and when you factor in this quick-fix mentality ... it's not good that we're being put under that pressure because we need to respond to the sicker people."
The figures coincide with the release of a community attitudes survey, commissioned by the service, showing that almost a quarter of people think they are entitled to an ambulance whenever they need treatment. Twenty per cent of the 200 people surveyed said they would call 000 to be treated by paramedics at home and avoid a trip to the doctor, and more than half believed arriving at an emergency department by ambulance would cut their waiting time.
"They're not ringing us for the care we'll give, they're ringing us because they think ... they'll jump the queue in emergency," Mr Sassella said. "But the emergency department will still prioritise from sickest to least sick regardless of how they get there."
Mr Sassella said problems in the health system, including a shortage of doctors and access problems in emergency, were exacerbating pressure on ambulances. "We're being used in lieu of the GP," he said.
A spokesman for Health Minister Bronwyn Pike, Ben Hart, said the figures highlighted the Victorian Government's view that the Federal Government's "mismanagement" of GP services was causing great hardship to people seeking a doctor.
"It's also putting great pressure on parts of the health system that we're responsible for, such as ambulance services and emergency departments," Mr Hart said.
The Metropolitan Ambulance Service has refined its definition of medical emergencies warranting an ambulance to someone who is unconscious, choking or having severe difficulty breathing, has severe chest or abdominal pain, has sudden dizziness, weakness or change in vision or mental status, or has had a fall, injury or accident and is unable to sit, stand or walk. | 2,551 | 1,260 | 2.024603 |
warc | 201704 | I get off a connecting flight in Newark, en route to Shanghai, to see a mailbox full of notes questioning an item from last night. That item was based on a chart appearing to show that Fox News viewers overall did worse on a test of public-affairs factual knowledge than those who got their news elsewhere, or even than those who said they didn't watch the news at all.
Here's the most fully argued version of the comments I've received, from a reader in New York. All emphasis in original:
I've been following your "False Equivalence" series and have generally enjoyed and agreed with your insights, but I fear you may have jumped to a possibly unfounded conclusion on this one. I'm a statistician by trade and have worked with various US government statistics departments the past and current work for an international organization. Though I find these results entertaining from a media frenzy point of view, a number of alarm bells go off right away when I see this survey. In ascending order of what bothered me most (with the relevant survey disclaimer quotes in italics): 1. It was conducted as a telephone survey. "Survey results are also subject to non-sampling error. This kind of error, which cannot be measured, arises from a number of factors including, but not limited to, non-response (eligible individuals refusing to be interviewed).....". With caller ID these days what are chances that randomly chosen people would pick up for an unknown number? And of those that pick up, how many are likely to agree to talk on the phone for 10 minutes to complete a survey such as this? I would surmise that the response rate was quite low (I didn't see any documentation in the report). A low response rate raises the possibility of nonresponse bias - the possibility that certain demographic types would be undersampled. The report states that responses were reweighted to account for discrepancies in race, age and gender proportions as compared to the national average, but presumable there are other factors that go into nonresponse bias. 2. Only 8 questions were asked. "Survey results are also subject to non-sampling error. This kind of error, which cannot be measured, arises from a number of factors including, but not limited to, ..... question wording, the order in which questions are asked, and variations among interviewers."This is a structural bias issue. For example, what if Fox News reported particularly poorly on one or more of the topics included in the survey, but reported much better on some other topics not included? While I don't see any inherent bias in the questions that doesn't mean there isn't any. How were the questions selected? Did both liberals, conservatives and centrists screen them for bias? And how well the result of 8 random news questions relate to "what you know" anyway? 3. The deep breakdown of data in the survey. 1,185 people sounds like a lot, but when it is broken down to such a low level the sample size dwindles. The graph that you use in your post shows the average number of questions answered correctly by respondents who reported getting their news from just this source in the past week. So of the 1,185, how many watched Fox News and not any of the other sources listed? MSNBC? I would think that most people get their news from multiple sources (local news AND Fox News for example). These people are apparently excluded from the analysis. Presumably, the remaining sample could be quite small. Which leads to the possibly most important issue: 4. Lack of standard errors on the correct answers statistic. "The margin of error for a sample of 1185 randomly selected respondents is +/- 3 percentage points. The margin of error for subgroups is larger and varies by the size of that subgroup."The size of the subgroups on which the graph is based are not mentioned. Also +/- 3 percentage points does not apply to the number of questions answered correctly. I do not see evidence of statistical testing to show there are significant differences by respondents reporting receiving their news from different sources (though I suppose there's a chance it may just not have been mentioned in the report). While I'm not sure that the team at Farleigh Dickinson could have done a much better job than they did with their resources, I think this type of survey does not rise to level of "news" (nor do most soft surveys like this). It is extremely easy to jump to conclusions based on a graph that agrees with one's inklings about news sources even when the data behind it may not lend itself to clear cut conclusions. Another thing that should be noted is the issue of causality. You note in your post "that NPR aspires actually to be a news organization and provide 'information', versus fitting a stream of facts into the desired political narrative" While this could be true, it is also possible that even if the survey results were correct there may be a bit of self-selection when choosing news networks. In that case, ignorance could be the viewer's fault rather than the fault of Fox News.
These are convincing points; I am sorry if I passed this chart along too eagerly and credulously, without reading the caveats. I have been big on the theme that reporters / commentators should not so often rush to conclusions and should instead be more aware of what they/we do not know. Conveniently and in my public-spirited way, I have now provided an illustration of this tendency myself. On the other hand, I do very much re-suggest consideration of the important false equivalence item from masscommons I mentioned last night.
FInally a sample of another recurring theme:
I take some exception to this post, on how Fox viewers answer fewer questions correctly than NPR viewers. I'll bet that Fox viewers tend to be more conservative than NPR listeners. Conservatives tend to be less educated than liberals, and less educated people probably know less about current events. There are any number of correlations that could be involved in driving this result, and until those are explored the only safe accusation you can make is that Fox attracted less informed viewers than NPR, not that Fox provides less information. That might be true, and your opinion, but this isn't proper evidence for it. | 6,277 | 2,882 | 2.178001 |
warc | 201704 | Increasing vehicle age sustains growth in brake rotors, drums, and calipers aftermarket
North American consumers are spending more on parts and service because they are keeping their cars and light trucks longer due to prolonged economic uncertainty. The increasing average age of vehicles — which currently stands at 10.5 years — will drive the aftermarket for brake rotors, drums, and calipers. Suppliers should still concentrate on maintaining and expanding market share as a wave of mergers and acquisitions are expected to heighten competition in the market.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, “North American Brake Rotors, Drums, and Calipers Aftermarket,” finds that the market earned revenue of $1.39 billion in 2013 and estimates this to reach $1.64 billion in 2020. Rotors account for about two-thirds of the total market revenue.
The continuous entry of new stock-keeping units into the aftermarket also is increasing the potential of this market as distributors add them to their inventories. In addition, manufacturers are raising the price of vehicle parts to cover the rise in cost of raw materials and transport, boosting market revenues.
However, large auto parts retailers in North America, which exert significant power in the automotive aftermarket by virtue of their size and consolidated two-step distribution channel, are driving the migration to private-label brands. They also are putting pressure on manufacturers to reduce the prices of brake rotors, drums, and calipers and accept lower margins in return for market share.
The accelerating trend of consolidation among large distributors is reducing the number of distributors in the market. This is intensifying the competitive pressure on manufacturers to make additional concessions in order to gain shelf space in the retail stores and stay in business. Manufacturers that are not aligned with one or more of the large retail or wholesale distribution groups will not be able to establish a strong presence.
"Manufacturers may, however, find increasing success using e-commerce sites like eBay and Amazon.com. Consumers and installers are expected to purchase 10 percent of the total spare parts through such channels by 2020," noted Stephen Spivey, Frost & Sullivan automotive and transportation aftermarket program manager. | 2,338 | 1,131 | 2.067197 |
warc | 201704 | Every time I opened my mouth to speak during staff meetings, this guy at work would cut me off. “That’s not true,” he’d say loudly, or, “I disagree with that.” Then he’d launch into his own argument – part of which would trash mine.
This became such an uncomfortable occurrence in our weekly team meetings that all I could do was back down. After the meetings, this older and more experienced worker would charge into my office and continue his diatribe about whatever point he had disagreed with earlier.
A manager finally took me aside and urged me to stand up to the guy – though she herself wouldn’t. This was my moment of truth. Was there a difference between being bullied at work – and intimidated? Was this person testing me as a young 24-year-old professional to see just how tough I was?
In the end, I learned how to stop the intimidation – a sign that this wasn’t bullying, since I had the power to change the behavior. An executive coach helped me develop specific techniques to combat the guy’s morale-damaging actions, which finally made him back off and helped me preserve both my job and my peace of mind.
While none of that was easy, today people claim “workplace bullying” at the drop of a hat – at a tremendous cost to business. Real bullying on the job, however, is a huge issue and something to take very seriously.
“I’m a big believer in letting bullies know when they’re bullying,” says Jon Gordon, a workplace strategist and author of
The Carpenter: A Story About the Greatest Success Strategies of All. “Whether it’s a co-worker or a boss, you can confront that person in a constructive way. When you’re strong but positive, you create healthy boundaries that protect you.”
Workplace bullying is defined very specifically. The Workplace Bullying Institute says it is behavior that:
Is driven by the perpetrator’s need to control others. Has specific targets, timing, location, and methods. Undermines legitimate business interests. Includes acts of commission or omission (in the latter case it includes withholding key resources so the victim can’t do his job well). Has real consequences for those being bullied, including physical, psychological and emotional reactions. Escalates to involve others, who often end up siding with the bully either voluntarily or through coercion.
Roughly a third of workers say they’ve experienced bullying on the job, according to a 2014 Zogby poll by the Workplace Bullying Institute – but 56 percent of employers say they have no formal procedures in place for combating workplace bullies.
The issue is now so widely acknowledged that many state legislatures have introduced bills to push employers to take action against bullies – or face consequences. Fifteen states now have active bills against workplace bullying,
The Boston Globe reported .
“In 2005, Massachusetts became the sixth state to introduce the Healthy Workplace Bill, which allows a victim to sue a fellow employee, the employer, or both,” says
The Globe. “If the offending party is found liable, a court may mandate reinstatement, back pay, medical expenses, and compensation for pain and suffering, among other damages. The bill exempts employers if they can prove they acted promptly to correct any abusive behavior. The bill also attempts to distinguish between frivolous claims and legitimate abuse.”
Actually suing a bully and a workplace can be an ordeal. What can employees do when they think they’re being bullied at work? Experts say that while bullying takes many forms, there are specific steps employees can take to at least identify the problem. Michele Woodward, an executive coach in the D.C. area, offered these pointers:
Step 1: Determine if you’re really being bullied or “if the other person is just a jerk. It’s bullying when that person’s behavior prevents you from fully doing your job, such as denying you information or support, or excluding you from key meetings, or when there is a threat of violence,” says Woodward. Step 2: If it is bullying, do as much as you can to distance yourself from the bully, both physically and emotionally. “Rather than dwell on how the bully operates, focus on other aspects of your job. What you focus on grows bigger in your life.” Step 3: Understand you cannot change a bully. “Too many people believe that the bully will eventually stop bullying them,” says Woodward. “So they continue in a relationship with someone whose entire motivation is to dominate and belittle. This is not good for anyone’s health. You can’t change a bully, so don’t try.” Step 4: “If you ever feel physically threatened with violence, go to an HR executive immediately,” says Woodward. Step 5: If you cannot distance yourself from the bully and you’ve gone up the chain of command or to HR without luck, “it’s time to start looking for a new job, either internally in a different department, or outside the organization,” says Woodward.
The bottom line is that workplace bullies “are stressors, and when stress goes unabated, it compromises your physical and mental health,” says the Workplace Bullying Institute. Remember that if you
are being bullied, you didn’t cause it, you’re not alone – and you don’t have to take it. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: | 5,550 | 2,587 | 2.145342 |
warc | 201704 | You know the folk tale of the three hungry soldiers returning from war? After years of hardship, the villagers in the town they come upon are reticent to share any food with them. The soldiers end up tricking the townspeople into contributing a bounty to their Stone Soup. One man brings a hunk of beef while another brings some carrots. A woman and her child contribute potatoes and onions that they "happen" to find in the cellar. The resulting meal is a feast for all to partake of.
There’s a lesson for us home cooks, as well.
No, not swindling your neighbors, but that you really can make something, or at least soup, from practically nothing. And more than that, you can feed a crowd with just little bits of odds and ends.
Rummaging through the odds and ends in your freezer can create soups fit for a king. What you got hidden away in there? Now’s the perfect time to make soup! It doesn’t matter if you just have a little bit of something, many drops fill the ocean — or a soup pot!
Make stock or "bone broth" from whatever meaty bones you have on hand. If you’ve got a roast or a chicken in the freezer, cook that one night and then use what’s left to make the stock and use the leftover meat for your soup.
How To Make Stone Soup (From the Freezer)
A good stock is a great base for a delicious soup. Once you’ve got your stock ready, you’re good to go in crafting your own Stone Soup.
Start with some fat:Heat butter or oil in a stockpot. This adds flavor as well as a medium for sautéing your vegetables. Sauté onion and other fresh vegetables:Sauté the onion as well as any chopped potato, carrot, celery, or mushrooms you might have on hand. Add the stock and any odds and ends in the freezer:Stir in frozen vegetables, cooked meats, that little container of pasta sauce, and that bag of rice or those tortellinis you got there. Season with herbs and spices:I keep a lot of my custom spice blends in the freezer for extended shelf life so this is a great time to use them up. Simmer until cooked through:If you want an exact recipe, try my master recipe for Stone Soup; it makes good use of leftovers and is great for cleaning out the freezer. Flavor Inspiration for Stone Soup
Flavor combinations you might want to try based on what’s in your freezer:
Chicken stock, mashed potatoes (just whisk them into the stock), corn kernels, and that random piece of salmon, chopped into bite-sized chunks Beef stock, that small container of beef stew, vegetables Vegetable broth, marinara sauce, tortellinis, vegetables Chicken stock, wontons, vegetables
You’ll be pleasantly surprised at all the fun combinations you can make. Next time you have just a little bit of sauce, vegetables, or meat leftover – not enough for a meal – package it for the freezer as it will add great flavor to your next Stone Soup. | 2,905 | 1,399 | 2.076483 |
warc | 201704 | You may have read the piece in the Wall Street Journal: “America’s Unworking Men”. I agree with the comments that the Democrat Party benefits from increasing joblessness. It makes sense when we consider the Democrat model for expanding their political power:
1.) Strengthening control from the top through the regulatory and tax power of the Washington-Wall Street Axis. This is the “corporate socialism” (a.k.a. Fascism) that makes the Clinton Crime Syndicate the preferred political puppets of the lobbyist class, the bureaucrat class, and the “too big to fail” money firms. The money side of this Axis replenishes the Democrat Party coffers, and the political side of this Axis maintains laws and regulations that diminish competition from the little guys (i.e. Dodd-Frank adding cost to regional and small banks that put them out of business, thus increasing the relative power of the big banks). 2.) Increasing the ranks of the dependency class, which is the bottom-up manner of creating and maintaining a New Democrat Majority. Importing waves of unassimilated illegal aliens creates an Old World peasant class. Solidifying the ranks of the jobless, who become ever more reliant on government support, provides political support for the peasant class. The result is the Democrat Plantation – a voting majority that perpetually keeps in power the Washington-Wall Street Axis in return for sanctimonious, moralistic platitudes about “compassion for the little guy.”
Bill Clinton pursued policies that expanded business opportunity, which in turn led to more job creation. He did this because he was a DLC Democrat who wanted to bring moderate, business-oriented Republicans into a new, centrist, Democrat Party. Basically, he wanted the Democrat Party to be a suburban middle-class party.
Barack Obama pursued the opposite agenda. He put ideological class and racial warfare above all else. There would be no “Sister Souljah Moments” in Obama’s Democrat Party. Instead, we see an embrace of Black Lives Matter. On the economic side, Obama pursued a stimulus package that did little for job growth but provided a lot of paybacks for Democrat operatives and fundraising bundlers. Then, after getting past the crisis, he gave his regulators free reign to expand their political power at the expense of the entrepreneurial class. In essence, he abandoned the moderate, business-oriented Republicans in exchange for increasing and radicalizing the ranks of the new peasant class.
Will Hillary Clinton favor her husband’s DLC Democrat Party model or her predecessors Social Democrat model? Her close ties with Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms suggest the former, but I see little indication otherwise that she intends to dismantle the Democrat Party that now thrives on promoting class and racial divisions, radicalizing unassimilated illegal aliens, and tearing down moderate whites with a contrived “white privilege” message. The Clinton Crime Syndicate is all about pay for play and raw power. The Obama model is in place. There is no reason to think that she will set aside that model for the previous model of embracing entrepreneurialism and job creation.
Clinton will remain very close to Wall Street. The question is whether she will favor policies that facilitate job creation, such as a corporate tax rate cut that brings corporate capital back into the USA, or policies that foster more dependency. My sense is the latter, both because the Democrat Party has shifted so far to the left, and also because policies that enable more jobs and middle-class purchasing power wind up creating more Republican voters. I suspect the Clinton Crime Syndicate will be pro-Wall Street, though she will trot out populist rhetoric to energize the base before elections, while also favoring the growth of the big regulatory-welfare state that kills jobs. Cronyism on the top and welfare dependency on the bottom will be her model, and the result will be a much poorer nation with Latin American style corruption all around. | 4,112 | 1,868 | 2.201285 |
warc | 201704 | As power came back on in Ridgefield after the last major storm, a light bulb lit up over First Selectman Rudy Marconi’s head.
His idea — that CL&P should offer backup generators to its customers at a monthly fee to defray the possibly prohibitive upfront cost — has gained some media attention outside of town and support from area municipal executives.
The first selectman’s call for the utility to “be more creative and think outside the box” about storm response, which The Press reported online Nov. 5 and in the Nov. 8 print edition, has been picked up by the CBS and NBC local channels, WTNH and the Associated Press among other outlets after Mr. Marconi sent a Nov. 21 letter to the utility.
The first selectmen of Redding and New Fairfield reportedly back the idea.
Mr. Marconi formalized his call for the utility to consider the generator when he wrote to William Quinlan, CL&P’s vice president for emergency preparedness, two weeks ago.
After the last three storms “some, but not all members of our community purchased generators for their homes. Unfortunately the majority of residents cannot afford the cost” of a generator and “proper electrical installation,” Mr. Marconi wrote.
“Therefore, it is my request that CL&P investigate and, hopefully, implement a program… that would allow a resident to purchase such equipment based on a monthly payment plan that makes it affordable for every homeowner to have emergency power when necessary…
“This program, if you recall, was available through Yankee Gas for the purchase of hot water heaters for many years,” he wrote, referring to a program that the gas company, which is part of the same company as CL&P, implemented to encourage people to convert their homes to gas.”
Hurricane Sandy was the third storm in little over a year to leave 100% of Ridgefield residents without grid power. After each storm, it took a week for nearly complete recovery here.
Mr. Marconi has criticized the utility and called for it to improve storm response, but he’s changed his approach from harping solely on improving response time to recognizing that a long recovery appears inevitable.
After Irene, the first of the three major storms, struck in August last year, Mr. Marconi was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams in a segment titled “Power Struggle” that correspondent Anne Thompson described as putting Ridgefield at the story’s “epicenter.”
At that time, Mr. Marconi called for more crews to be brought in more quickly and local electricians to be trained to do basic line work for a quicker response.
The utility did make some improvements, Mr. Marconi said earlier this month. He applauded CL&P for embedding line crews with emergency responders before the storm struck to help respond to 911 calls, and for working quickly to get the Danbury Road corridor online.
However, he added that it seems that even after last year’s storms, the utility has shown it can’t or isn’t willing to get enough crews here in the immediate aftermath of a widespread disaster, so the company should look beyond response time and think about the period between an outage and power restoration.
To handle major storms like the last three, Mr. Marconi said, the town needs 50 crews immediately to have an adequate response. This, he said, was based on ‘microbursts’ a few years ago that did serious but isolated damage in Ridgefield. Since the town was then able to get many crews, he said the response time was adequate.
But after the last few storms, crews have trickled into town in the days after the storm, ultimately numbering more than 100 as they were freed up from other areas.
If CL&P can’t respond quickly and “if you take what happened in those three storms and put it in the month of February, then we have a very, very, very serious issue…” Mr. Marconi said Tuesday. “Not only will it result in frozen pipes and extreme damage to homes but also loss of life.” | 4,108 | 1,975 | 2.08 |
warc | 201704 | Christians fall back on their belief that the Bible is the inerrant word of God and is the best descriptor of his will. They will explain that although it is written by men it is literally the words of God breathed into men and put down on paper. Here is my question: Were the people of the Bible more infallible than the people are today? Were they any more honest? Any less likely to be mistaken? Were they any less likely to fabricate, manipulate or dominate others? Were they less susceptible to hearing voices or to having mental illness? Did any one of them have a better understanding of how the world works than we do today? If the answer to these questions is no, then why on Earth would anyone see what they have writtren as infallible, let alone the Word of God?
Views: 174
I would suggest that people in early Christendom had more reasons to believe that the Bible was “god breathed” and was his word from start to finish. Maybe a better way of putting it is that they had less reason not to believe otherwise. Most were illiterate and were beholden to the priests and to the powerful in society (often one and the same thing). All knowledge was controlled by the few and access to it was only really attainable by the rich.
Another reason for accepting the Bible as “the Truth” was that there were very few alternative explanations for how the world works. For over ¾ of the time since Jesus we lived in the dark ages. It is only in the last few hundred years that we have come to understand that the Earth is not flat or at the centre of the Universe. It is even more recent since we learned things like Evolution or Big Bang Cosmology.
So now many of us have the ability to question the wisdom of our forefathers. We now have alternative theories and world views. We, as Atheists reject the religious view and the need to accept that a “god did it”. We see how weak the god view is. While I do understand it and accept that had its merits in times long past, I see no need for anyone to hold onto it. It is all myth.
Theists now tend to disrespect Science rather than try to understand it. They want to hold onto the religious view, not because it answers questions about anything worthwhile but mainly because of what it promises; they cannot let go of the eternal life concept and the opium like love bug feeling they get from it. It is all built up on how they feel emotionally and they see and Atheism as “cold” because it is not based on emotions. It challenges them intellectually and that causes them to cover their ears because it takes away their crutches. If only they could see how much better off they would be standing on their own two feet and not on their knees.
I see the Bible and religion as completely outdated and of no use anymore. The worldview given by it is dangerous (yes, it does poison everything) and its morals and teaching obsolete and below par. Christians today are becoming more fundamental because they have to be. They have an imagined persecution complex about Atheism and the Secularist being out to get them. As they become so they tend to stress more and more often the “inerrant word” of their special book.
It no longer bothers me too much. We now have access to a world of knowledge via the Internet. We can see that god is redundant. The concept is not as advanced as we have become. It no longer works. We are a species that has grown up. We are a species that is educated and uses its evolved skills of logic and reasoning to work out more meaningful solutions. We may not know it all but we don’t claim too. Anyone who claims to have a monopoly on the “real truth” and that it is inerrant or infallible is wrong, plain and simple.
They were less adaptable. Christianity is an organism, it survives on adaptability (altar girls and gay pastors). They were less skeptic. But most of all I think there were just a lot of conditions at the time that allowed for the need of a strong movement to sweep through with promises of hope.
Do not look for rational explanations for irrational behavior.
I expect that 'infallability' is depended upon how much is actually known and how claims can be checked.
If nearly everyone would agree with you, because everyone around you accepts the local prevailing world view, then any statement generated might not yield disagreement. It is ability to check and to question where 'infallability' or 'rightness' can/would be challenged.
Reg, I like how you talk about people wanting to cling to religion because of fuzzy warm feeling that emotional kind of thinking connects one to. I think that is true. It seems like any other addiction that it might be best eliminated if they were to able to get that fantasmical-type of high somewhere else in their life.
I was just turned on to this lecture series where this professor talks about metamagical thinking and how it developed a usefulness in our genetics. He talks about how shamans who heard voices at the right time were deemed prophets, and shamans who heard voices and started chanting during the big game hunt (and scared away their dinner) were deemed insane. Thus making 'mild insanity' relatively acceptable. Good video. The part I'm talking about comes at about 20 minutes in. But interesting stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WwAQqWUkpI | 5,380 | 2,509 | 2.144281 |
warc | 201704 | Welcome to Smart Retail
Retail as we know it is coming to an end. And not a moment too soon. Seismic changes are sweeping the industry with consumers taking greater control and retailers scrambling to keep up. The pressure to perform amid limited budgets and greater consumer demands is stripping the industry's gears. Thankfully, there's a new opportunity for brands and retailers. A new way to build a better in-store sales cycle.
This is the new world of Smart Retail.
Smart Retail gives you a platform with rich sales data analytics that's powered by a dedicated field force on the ground. While managing your brand across thousands of stores normally is an impossible, ineffective task, Smart Retail creates opportunities so you can make important, informed decisions that affect sales right now. It allows you to break the existing sales cycle and create a smarter one.
Say goodbye to retail as you knew it, and say hello to visibility, actionability, and profitability.
Say hello to Smart Retail with ThirdChannel. Smart Retail: A Remedy for Five Pain Points
Retail data can be limited and even stale. With a lack of in-store information, you’re missing merchandise opportunities and losing control of your brand at the most critical time: point of sale.
Maintaining a consistent brand presence across scores of retailers and thousands of locations is a very costly and real personnel management challenge.
Regular turnover of sales associates on the retail floor means a lack of consist brand message, wasted training and, ultimately, lower enthusiasm for your brand.
A lack of tools and regular communication easily leads to a disconnect between brand and retailer. The result is a misrepresented brand, missed sales opportunities and underwhelmed consumers.
Outdated inventory management systems combined with an increased demand from consumers means lost opportunities.
The Technology ThirdChannel Customer Brands The Brand Right Workforce
Passion and intelligence creates a more powerful voice. A dedicated team of brand ambassadors on the ground wherever your product is sold provides distinct advantages.
Direct communication on-site Optimized sales presence in store Instant store reporting on inventory, display and more
Learn how both building a dedicated field force or enabling your existing team with our platform can increase sales, improve your ROI and more | 2,400 | 1,188 | 2.020202 |
warc | 201704 | During a 30-day period last year, seven residents at the Elizabeth Scott Community all were 100 years old or older.
Today, there are two residents 100 years or older, including 104-year-old Edna Sandys, living at the facility on Albon Road near Maumee.
At other retirement communities across northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, dozens of residents are celebrating the century mark and beyond.
What’s going on here?
More people on the planet, more people living longer. Perhaps playing a role: medical advances. A push for staying active, mind and body. Campaigns that promote consumption of fresh, rather than processed, foods.
The centenarian trend is expected to increase dramatically as Baby Boomers come of age, leading some people to wonder whether 100 will be the new 50.
Not only are people living longer, many continue to work at the age of 80, 90, or even 100.
Centenarians today come from a generation that lived through the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Space Age, and into the Digital Age. These are people who are helping to redefine Old Age, and possibly could help erase such stereotypes of the crotchety, porch-sitting, chair-rocking old fogy who yells at the kids, “Keep off my grass!”
A Baby Boomer is a person born during post–World War II, between the years 1946 and 1964. In 2011, the first of that generation reached what used to be known as retirement age. And for the next 18 years, Boomers will be turning 65 at a rate of about 8,000 a day.
The sheer number of Boomers can help explain the trend of more people living longer, said Melanie Ayotte, administrative support with communications and government outreach for the Ohio Department of Aging. She said the department doesn’t track the number of centenarians within the state, but said the 2010 census showed Ohio had nearly 1,900 residents who were at least 100 years old.
Matt Bucher, director of marketing at the Elizabeth Scott Community, said the seven centenarians residing at the facility were the most ever at one time there. He credits the longevity to the life and times of a hearty generation. “I think they ate better. A lot grew up on the farm. They knew how to survive. That generation is inherently tough. I really believe they have the ability to handle adversity,” he said, noting the importance of keeping the mind and body active.
From 1980 to 2010, the number of centenarians in the United States grew 66 percent, while the total population grew 36 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As of the 2010 census, more than 53,000 Americans were 100 or older. Based on estimates, by 2050, there will be more than 600,000 centenarians in America.
Supercentenarian status — for those living to 110 — is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Estimates put the number of supercentenarians in the world at a few hundred people out of more than seven billion people. There are only about 60 individual verified cases of living supercentenarians today.
This week, northwest Ohio will be one of the places on the planet with a supercentenarian in its population. Tiffin resident Audrey Lott, born Oct. 18, 1903, will celebrate her birthday this week, becoming a supercentenarian at the age of 110 on Friday.
Mrs. Lott has a few years to go to earn accolades as the oldest person ever. Jeanne Louise Calment, who died in 1997, was a French supercentenarian who reportedly had the longest confirmed human lifespan in history, living to the age of 122 years.
Misao Okawa, born March 5, 1898, is a Japanese supercentenarian who, at the age of 115 years, is listed as the world’s oldest living person today.
Jeralean Talley of Inkster, Mich., was born May 23, 1899, and at the age of 114 years, is reportedly the oldest living American and is the second-oldest living person in the world.
Guidelines: Please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Comments that violate these standards, or our privacy statement or visitor's agreement, are subject to being removed and commenters are subject to being banned. To post comments, you must be a registered user on toledoblade.com. To find out more, please visit the FAQ. | 4,259 | 2,082 | 2.045629 |
warc | 201704 | WASHINGTON — The nation’s union membership rate held steady last year. There were gains among private sector workers’ unions but they were largely offset by losses in state and local government.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the number of unionized workers grew by about 162,000 in 2013, to 14.5 million members. But union members still make up the same share of the workforce, 11.3 percent. That follows a steep decline in 2012 that saw unions lose 400,000 members.
There are now slightly more union members in the private sector than in government, reversing a five-year trend. The rate of union membership has been steadily declining for decades and remains at its lowest levels since the 1930s. | 723 | 442 | 1.635747 |
warc | 201704 | Swimming Tests of Cardiovascular Endurance
Swimming is a sport in which cardiovascular endurance plays a major part in performance. There are many aerobic fitness tests, but not many designed specifically to test the endurance of swimmers. Here is a discussion of some of the commonly used swimming fitness tests.
Measuring V02max
The criterion test for aerobic fitness is the maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) test. To directly measure VO2max in swimmers is difficult to do as it requires the measurement of ventilation rate and the collection of expired air. VO2max measures of swimmers is usually done in research situations, requiring a swimming flume and specific equipment. Doing a VO2max test on swimmers on a treadmill or bicycle is not a valid alternative as those exercise modes use different muscle groups and actions. The alternative is to do other water based tests.
The (Water) Beep Test
The most common field test of aerobic fitness is the Beep Test which was developed by Léger and Lambert (1982). The team of Lavoie et al. (1985), which included Léger, later published a variation of this test - a swimming beep test - conducted in a 25m pool, starting at a speed of 1 m/sec and increasing by 0.05 m/sec every two minutes.
There have been other swimming
beep type tests. One example was developed specifically for water polo players, who have different demands than competitive lap swimmers. The 10 meter Multistage Shuttle Swim Test (MSST) was developed by sport scientists in Western Australia for the assessment of aerobic fitness of water polo players. The test is conducted over a 10-meter distance in the water rather than the 20m used on land for runners. Over such a short distance, the turning and acceleration phase becomes more important for this test performance, and makes it more relevant to water polo players who do more of this type of movements. There is a simpler coach designed swimming beep test across a 12.5m pool, with the speed increasing every 100m. There is also the water polo intermittent shuttle test, over an even shorter distance (7.5m) which includes ten seconds of active recovery after each lap. Other Swimming Tests
Many swimmers would have performed some form of step test, which involves swimming laps at a set pace followed by the measurement of physiological responses (e.g. heart rate, blood lactate level, perceived exertion). An example is described on this site - the 7 x 200m swim step test. This complex and time consuming test can give valuable information to the coach - the results can be used to plot heart rate/velocity curves or lactate/velocity curves. Changes in these over time are used to monitor changes in swimming specific aerobic conditioning. A measure of anaerobic threshold can be determined from the analysis too. A simpler test is the critical swim speed test, just requiring a maximal swim over two distances and some number crunching to give a value of the theoretical swimming speed that can be maintained continuously without exhaustion.
Sometimes the best assessment of swimming fitness can be to swim a set distance flat out. Examples of such tests are the 100m swim test that has been used for junior talent identification, the 1 km swim, and the 500yd / 450m Swim Test which is an alternative to the 1.5 mile run test which forms part of the US Navy Physical Readiness Test.
Considerations
When testing in a swimming pool, it is important to consider the water temperature, which can affect the body physiology and performance. You should be aiming to have the temperature similar each time that testing is conducted, and also this temperature should be similar to the poll temperature used for competitions.
Swimming Specific Tests Shuttle Swim Test - designed for water polo players. Swimming Beep Test Critical Swim Speed Test Swimming Step Test 1 km Swim time trial. 450 yd / 500m swimming test 100m Swim Time Trial References Léger, L.A. and Lambert, J., 1982, 'A maximal multistage 20m shuttle run test to predict VO', 2max European Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol 49, p1-5. Lavoie JM, Léger LA, Leone M, Provencher PJ. 1985, A maximal multistage swim test to determine the functional and maximal aerobic power of competitive swimmers. J Swimming Res; 1: 17–22 | 4,295 | 1,992 | 2.156124 |
warc | 201704 | For many marketers, the holiday season is one of their busiest times of year. But let’s face it, focusing on solving your top marketing problems when you have a holiday party to go to and a new year just around the corner isn’t always easy.
This year, let’s change our perspective. Instead of letting things slip with the notion that you’ll pick back up in the new year, finish 2016 with a bang!
This post has a little bit of everything to keep you motivated and ranges from social media marketing, to email marketing and SEO.
Pick the top one or two items that you’re struggling with most this time of year and commit yourself to maintaining a laser focus through the end of the year.
Need to Inspire Engagement with Social Media Marketing?Content is KING, but engagement is QUEEN, and she rules the house! - @MariSmith Click To Tweet Listen and empathize– Learn the current situation, goals and troubles involved as well as the ability to empathize with both the brand marketer and the customers they’re trying to reach. Social Media program Audit– Inventory your assets and examine current social performance. This will help you determine where to focus efforts, and what to let go. Community building and distribution of content– It’s more than pushing brand content, it’s making active efforts to attract and engage a community. Improve Social User Experience– SUX – Make it easy for users to find your brand social channels from your company website. Include social sharing widgets on your blog to make it easy for readers to share on their favorite social network. Social Media Advertising Just Not Hitting the Mark?Be so good they can’t ignore you. @SteveMartinToGo Click To Tweet Find the right platform– One message does not fit all social media platforms. Tailor messaging– Always create content that speaks directly to your audience. Messaging for a CEO should be different from that for a Manager or Consultant. Ad targeting– Test different types of targeting within your social media advertising campaigns to find the best mix. Incorporate compelling imagery– Creating images that are unique, bright and energetic will go a long way. Rethink your CTA– If users aren’t signing up for demos or more information, consider offering a gated downloads. Experiencing General Digital Marketing Burnout?Attention is a precious commodity. @briansolis Click To Tweet Read a book and explore new places –Stories give us new perspectives and a vacation can provide new scenery to provide new and fresh perspectives. Spark your personal life –Have a good diet, sleep 7-9 hours and exercise that makes you sweat. Mix up your work life –Network with other digital marketers to gain inspiration from by talking about what you do and try attending conferences to rev up your marketing know-how. Jumpstart creativity –Go to local theaters, art museums or concert halls to feel cultural. It can help in supplying you inspiration and motivation to keep creating. Struggling with Influencer Marketing?Everyone is influential about something. @leeodden Click To Tweet Defining influence –Take into account their ability and willingness to affect action – not just achievement of high fan, friend and follower counts. Don’t get distracted –Don’t be blinded by the prospect of fame by association. Popular influencers won’t necessarily create positive effects for brand marketing and PR goals.. Validate influencers –Narrow down a short list of influencers by finding correlations across multiple influencer discovery tools and then validating through manual inspection of their work. Share a game plan –Provide examples of a thought leader who is already speaking to your target audience. Share steps for how you might attract, engage and partner with those influencers. Be the expert –Help your boss & constituents understand what influencer marketing is and isn’t. Be mindful of results –Focusing on social shares vs clickthroughs and actions creates fuzzy influencer results. Want to Take Your Optimization Strategy Beyond Search Engines?Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first. @emom Click To Tweet Create a connection –SEO can deliver content-rich answers to buyers at the moment of need, and social media can provide the means to connect and engage. Be where customers are searching –While many marketers will debate what comes first, content, social media or SEO, the most practical approach is to use the tactics necessary for your target audience in order to “be the best answer” wherever customers are looking. SEO success –More than keywords and links, search engine optimization is an important part of the success equation when it comes to content marketing. Be conversational –While SEO has traditionally been able to drive online marketing performance on its own, search engine updates to address content quality and the more conversational nature of search behavior have combined with the growing popularity of social networks to change the SEO landscape forever. Think of SEO this way –If a customer-focused content marketing program is the sandwich, then SEO is the mayonnaise. It touches nearly everything and enhances the overall flavor of the sandwich. But on it’s own, not very appetizing. Email Marketing Campaigns Failing to Nurture Leads?Email is the glue that binds everything together. @Mike_Stelzner Click To Tweet Segment your list –Begin incorporating and requiring segmentation information in lead capture forms by adding simple qualifiers. Develop a lead nurturing strategy –It may be worth taking the time to develop a few user personas based on the data that you have. Proper persona development can help guide your strategy for different communication streams. Set lead nurturing goals –Understanding what exactly you want to accomplish can help drive your lead nurturing strategy and execution. Consider marketing automation –Marketing automation can simplify the lead nurturing process. However, it’s not a decision to be taken lightly. Marketing automation can be a large investment and requires the appropriate resources to execute effectively. End the Year with A Bang!
This calendar year isn’t over until it’s over. Take the time that you have left and focus on the marketing activities that will help you have the biggest impact throughout the end of the year. If there are any additional quick tips or inspirations you’d like to share with our other readers, include them in the comments below! | 6,706 | 3,091 | 2.169524 |
warc | 201704 | Trane Features Latest Solutions, Discusses Air Balance Data Optimization at RFMA 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Trane Features Latest Solutions, Discusses Air Balance Data Optimization at RFMA 2015 San Diego, Jan. 29, 2015 – Trane, a leading global provider of indoor comfort solutions and services and a brand of Ingersoll Rand , will discuss how to optimize air balance data at the Restaurant Facility Management Association (RFMA) annual conference. Trane will also feature some of its latest solutions at the conference, which is held Feb. 1-3 in San Diego.
Greg DuChane, retail vertical marketing director for Trane, will offer a hands-on working session to educate facility directors about optimizing air balance report data using recent case study information from Red Lobster. While an air balance report on heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) restaurant systems can be a costly investment, the information obtained is invaluable.
Leveraging the report properly requires understanding the information and how to use it in the most advantageous way. Attendees will learn how to use air balance report data and gain an understanding of benchmarking and other key performance indicators to assist in diagnosing and troubleshooting HVAC system issues. They will walk away prepared to execute a plan to help ensure their stores operate at optimum efficiency.
Session Information: Title: Optimizing Air Balance Report Data
Date: Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015, from 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Room 2
Trane Showcases Latest Offerings In addition to the Air Balance report session, Trane will also showcase some of its latest offerings at booth #907at RFMA: Fellon-McCord,a recently named Trane The Tracerdesigned specifically for the retail and restaurant environment, delivers a simplified way to manage HVAC and lighting controls. This pre-programmed and packaged system contains all the components needed to reduce installation time and ensure consistency across multiple locations. The Tracer Concierge System offers simplified in-store operations so staff can focus on their customers. This solution reduces energy use, while maintaining a comfortable environment for customers. TMConcierge System,
# # #
About Ingersoll Rand and Trane
Ingersoll Rand (NYSE:IR) advances the quality of life by creating comfortable, sustainable and efficient environments. Our people and our family of brands—including Club Car®, Ingersoll Rand®, Thermo King® and Trane® —work together to enhance the quality and comfort of air in homes and buildings; transport and protect food and perishables; and increase industrial productivity and efficiency. Trane solutions optimize indoor environments with a broad portfolio of energy efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, building and contracting services, parts support and advanced control. Ingersoll Rand is a $12 billion global business committed to a world of sustainable progress and enduring results. For more information, visit ingersollrand.com or trane.com.
About the 2015 RFMA Conference The Restaurant Facility Management Association (RFMA) conference will be held Feb. 1-3, in San Diego.. Attendees will learn about the latest restaurant industry news and trends. About Greg DuChane Greg DuChane, retail vertical marketing director for Trane, focuses on assuring the satisfaction of retail/restaurant customers with Trane solutions and services. DuChane joined Trane in 1989 where he has held positions of increasing responsibility. Throughout his 23-year tenure, he’s worked with large, national retail and restaurant chains in various capacities—first as an account executive for Trane National Accounts, then as a regional sales manager for the Trane global business development group. DuChane serves on the education committee at the Restaurant Facilities Management Association) and is and is a voting member and past Chair of ASHRAE TC 5.10 Kitchen Ventilation committee. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University. | 4,114 | 1,892 | 2.174419 |
warc | 201704 | China Evacuates 500,000 During Massive Flooding That Ends 50-Year Drought A flooded Yangtze River in 1999, by Paul Mannix via Flickr CC
China has struggled through a 50-year drought, creating water shortages that some blamed on the government's poor management of water resources rather than dry skies. But while this week's rains may have broken that drought, the devastation isn't over. Half a million people have been evacuated as 40 rivers flooded over, and over 100 people have already lost their lives in the rush of water. The Guardian reports that the worst affected province is Zhejiang, where parts of the Qiantang river have exceeded levels not seen since 1955. Meanwhile, the Zhuji district has had 88 villages flooeded and the Jiangxi province has evacuated over 122,400 residents from lowlands. Already at least 105 people have been killed in the flooding or in landslides, and another 65 are missing.
"Monitoring stations on 40 rivers have recorded water levels above the safety limit, including Asia's biggest waterway - the Yangtze - which is simultaneously suffering a flood downstream and a drought closer to its source," reports the Guardian.
Weather experts expect the rains to ease up by Sunday, but there will still be more rain through the southwest of the country until then. Plus, there is still a significant number of people to be evacuated and rescued from flooded homes.
It is all too easy to make a connection between the shifts in the global climate and the torrents of rain coming down in China after decades of dryness. For instance, China Daily writes, "Chen Zhenghong, senior engineer at the Meteorological Bureau of Central China's Hubei province, said the sharp shift between drought and flood in East and Central China was a result of global warming, Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday."
The talk of late among media outlets and experts alike is the extreme weather conditions seen more and more frequently across the globe. From the Joplin tornadoes to the drought-turned-flood in China, it seems to be the new normal for weather that we'll have to learn to cope with as the planet warms. For those who are doubtful that much of the odd weather we've witnessed especially in the last year is related to climate shifts, we'll leave off with this video remixing Bill McKibben's sarcastic op-ed:
Follow Jaymi on Twitter for more stories like this More on Weird Weather Natural Disasters Left 42 Million People Homeless Last Year Google Map Reveals Weird Weather Caused Half of Mass Animal Death Incidents Crazy Weather is the New Normal, Thanks to Climate Change | 2,613 | 1,414 | 1.847949 |
warc | 201704 | Tropical Fish Keeping - Aquarium fish care and resources( http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/forum.php) Beginner Freshwater Aquarium( http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/beginner-freshwater-aquarium/) How many fish?( http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/beginner-freshwater-aquarium/how-many-fish-86189/)
How many fish?
I just got a 15-20 gallon fish tank filter and it is on my 10. I was wondering how many fish can i keep in the tank with the new filter, it also has the ammonia remover rock things in it and so far I have two mollies a swordtail and a betta with 4 ghost shrimp in it. the betta is about 1 inch and the sword tail and mollies are inch and a half. What do you guys think can i fit more fish in there than the limit because I had a 10 gallon filter in it and the water was crystal clear without the ammonia rocks and with them and the new filter it is super clean and i want to get more mollies or get some tetras and i dont care what kind of tetra just WANT MORE FISHES, lol.
No you can not in my opinion add more fish just because you get a bigger filter. I know what its like to want more fish and not have room for them but its also very important for the fishes health not to over crowd them.
Ok cool I understand now, there is not enough room in the tank for the fish to roam happy, i will try to get a bigger tank insted maybe a 20 so that i can have a bunch thanks!
Also, keep in mind their adult sizes:
Molly 3"-5"
Swordtail 4"-5"
Betta 2"-3"
So you'll have 12"-18" of fish when they are full grown. Also, these are fairly full bodied types of fish, not thin like a Neon or Whiptail Catfish. So that makes a difference, too. So that's a lot of fish for a 10 gallon! Sometimes I use AqAdvisor.com for a rough idea, or if I'm feeling low-tech I cut pieces of paper (from my recycling pile) to the approximate size of the fully grown fish and tape them to the front of my tank. Then I have a concrete visual aid for available space.
Just for kicks, I entered your stock on AqAdvisor:
AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor
You can see that you are at full capacity, according to this site. Of course, I didn't enter your filtration, but that has no bearing on physical space. Its a good tool, especially for beginners, but realize that its just a rough guide. Good luck!
OK cool, one of my mollies (male) is like an inch and the other (female) just a bit bigger and had therm for like 3 months and no growth, the betta is like 1 inch and that is the body only, the sword is the same size the female molly is and then it is just the ghost shrimp at half inch each.
This post we be a bit redundant to the others... Although better filtration and overall tank maintenance like routine partial water changes will allow a larger bio-load, this is similar to the fact that routine water changes are not all about removing nitrates. Fish need space to promote the best health and well being. Lets consider that we've taken creatures that in the wild, could live in vast rivers or lakes. Some may be content to live their entire lives in small pools and estuaries while others may roam for countless miles and miles.
We put them in these tiny glass cages. Sometimes letting the water get rank. Feed them processed man made food. Subject them to harsh, unnatural lighting so we can see them better...and sometimes crowd them with too many tank mates or other unfriendly territorial species that chase and hound them.
Some would say, 'but these are fish that were raised in tanks and never knew life in the wild'. This is true, but just means is our responsibility to do the very best for them.
I tend to like the diversity of the community tank. But then I saw a 55g with a couple of dozen neon tetras...and another 120g with a few dozen zebra danos - it was awesome watching these fish school.
Then I was at a pet store and saw two very large, very sad Otto's in a tank they could barely turn around in. How awful it must fell to be trapped in such a small space, with no hope of escape. (shame on them!)
The point, if there is one, to my rambling on and on here is that we need to be ever mindful that the more fish we put in the tank, the required maintenance goes up exponentially...and at at a point, the occupancy is full and the 'no vacancy' sign must go out.
AD
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:31 PM.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2017, vBulletin Solutions, Inc. vBulletin Security provided by vBSecurity v2.2.2 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2017 DragonByte Technologies Ltd. User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2017 DragonByte Technologies Ltd. | 4,796 | 2,320 | 2.067241 |
warc | 201704 | By
Eugene Robinson
Approve the lousy deal.
It pains me to write those words, because the agreement President Barack Obama negotiated with Republicans on tax cuts is really quite awful. I know that some progressives have come to see the package as a cleverly disguised “second stimulus,” but they’re just rationalizing. The fact is that nobody would start from scratch and design an economic boost offering so little bang for so many bucks.
For a two-year cost of nearly $1 trillion, we get a bit more than $300 billion worth of new measures that are truly stimulative: a cut in the payroll tax, a provision allowing businesses to write off capital investment and an extension of unemployment benefits. We’ll spend the rest—I should say borrow the rest, then spend it—to continue existing tax breaks that obviously are not roaring engines of job growth.
The deal invests basically nothing in the nation’s future. We need to be channeling money into education and clean energy, where it can help the United States remain competitive against China and other economic rivals—not into the well-stuffed bank accounts of the rich.
Yet congressional Democrats have no real choice but to hold their noses, approve the thing and live to fight another day. The opportunity to shape a better deal—one without those unnecessary, unfair and supremely galling tax cuts for households making more than $250,000 a year—is long gone.
As a practical matter, I don’t see how Democrats could possibly think they have leverage to exact concessions before the end of the year. Republicans can simply wait them out, knowing that Democrats will be in a much weaker position when the new Congress convenes in January.
The Democrats do have public opinion on their side—or had it, at least. Polls showing that a substantial majority of Americans opposed extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich were far more meaningful before the deal was announced. Now the calculus has shifted, and not in a good way.
Looking at the agreement, you’d never imagine the federal government was running a deficit. Before the deal was sealed, Democrats argued that it was unconscionable to continue a huge tax break for the rich at a time when the nation is so deeply in debt. Republicans argued that it was irresponsible to keep extending unemployment benefits without paying for them by cutting something else. The solution? Do both. I guess this makes the package unconscionable
and irresponsible, but never mind. Oh, and let’s extend the middle-class tax cuts, too.
It’s as if a shiny, expensive, prettily wrapped present has been placed under the Christmas tree. The political question is whether anyone will dare to snatch it away.
Six months ago, Democrats could have refused to compromise—and forced the GOP to play its hand on the “millionaires’ tax cut” before the election. Obama and congressional leaders could have gotten a better deal and maybe—who knows?—even saved a few seats.
But as much as I sympathize with the progressives who are ready to man the barricades, let’s be real. Killing the deal now would mean a middle-class tax increase, no extended unemployment benefits and no payroll tax holiday. Voters would surely feel they had been robbed—and Democrats, perhaps unfairly, would get the blame.
As I said, this is painful. Democrats in Congress are understandably irate at being lectured so sternly by a president for whom ending the tax cuts for the wealthy was so important that it was non-negotiable—until he negotiated it away.
It’s a sad story, for the country and especially for the Democratic Party. I believe the White House continues to underestimate the anger and disillusionment among the party’s loyal base—and the need for some victories, or at least some heroic battles, to lift the spirits of the faithful. Obama needs to train his newfound passion and outrage on his foes in the GOP, not on the friends and supporters that his press secretary once derisively called the “professional left.”
Pyrrhic victories don’t make anything better, however. And that’s what killing the tax cut deal would clearly be.
Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com. © 2010, Washington Post Writers Group | 4,388 | 2,150 | 2.04093 |
warc | 201704 | Building a better community every day!
---------------------------------------
Note from Chuck Parrish: Dean Radford, editor of Tukwila Reporter, wrote this thoughtful piece. I thought it would be worth additional exposure on Tukwila Talk. Socratic Seminar is unknown to me. If someone could enlighten me and Tukwila Talk participants about this process, I would appreciate it. ---------------------------------------
Race is not being ignored in the Tukwila School District.
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will ensure that.
Nor is student achievement.
Dedicated teachers and staff – and a success coordinator at Foster High School – will help ensure that all students ignite their passion.
Nor is the district itself shying away from meeting its responsibility to create an environment in the workplace and classroom where everyone is valued and respected.
A community conversation will help ensure that. It’s beginning this week.
Of course, all that is easier to write than actually put into place. Racial tension has been a central theme of our American history from the beginning. Frankly, we’re not very good at understanding each other; we’re culturally incompetent, no matter which census box you check.
For Tukwila, race is a key defining demographic. For the Tukwila School District, that multitude of colorful faces is magical but also its greatest challenge.
Tukwila’s schools have been shaken for two years and not just because African-American employees have filed lawsuits – that’s a symptom of a larger issue and it’s their right. Tukwila’s school community is finding its racial footing, one that everyone shares or at least understands and from which everyone can try to move forward.
And that’s not going to happen without a lot of talking. And understanding. And more talking. And a realization that success isn’t achieved by going to court and winning but figuring out how to keep everyone out of court. Let’s spend those legal fees to educate kids.
And it starts at the top.
Talk about school district leadership, including the school board, and the employee’s attorney, Joan Mell, asks, “Where’s the color?” Voters in the City of Seattle have just opted to elect City Council members by district, rather than in a city-wide vote, an effort to better represent neighborhoods with common needs and demographics. A change like that in Tukwila could add color to the dialogue on the Tukwila school board, Mell says.
Anyone who grew up in Tukwila in the middle decades of the 20th century (boy that sounds like a long time ago), found little color in Tukwila’s schools (actually, South Central School District 406). But that doesn’t mean those kids weren’t exposed to the social upheaval of those decades. Tukwila is small, but it’s not isolated.
Still, Tukwila has had a steep learning curve, I think, in learning how to provide a home and an education for all the new arrivals from around the world who have made the city and the school district among the most diverse in the nation.
Right now is a critical point in that evolution and it should continue with not one but many conversations.
Those conversations started this week. Superintendent Nancy Coogan has organized a Socratic Seminar that will allow students, community members and political leaders to inquire deeply into a single issue and come up with an action plan. That issue is race and racism in education.
And it should continue with community partnerships like the one that brought Jesse McCall to Foster as the school’s success coordinator. Reaching or teaching kids is all about making connections on many levels, including skin color, or in McCall’s case, a cultural one. (See our cover story in this issue).
And I’ll end by circling back to the courtroom. A judge or a jury should not impose a set of values on the Tukwila school system. Choosing its own values is a right and responsibility that belongs to the community.
Views: 68
Comment | 4,096 | 1,937 | 2.11461 |
warc | 201704 | News 16.01.2017: David Dorn on the limits of globalization
In light of the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos, SRF dedicated a television broadcast to the issue of globalization. What level of globalization is enough? Are there any limits? These questions took center stage in the «ECO Spezial» one day before the opening of the 2017 WEF. Moderator Patrizia Laeri discussed the issue with Harvard-Professor Dani Rodrik, Oxford-Professor Kevin O’Rourke, and Professor David Dorn from the University of Zurich.Watch "ECO Spezial" on SRF1 (in German)
12.01.2017: The UBS Center welcomes Ralph Ossa and Florian Scheuer
With Ralph Ossa and Florian Scheuer, two outstanding researchers from the University of Chicago and Stanford University, respectively, are joining the UBS Center at the University of Zurich. Prof. Ralph Ossa’s research focuses on international trade, economic geography, and economic development. He has been appointed to the Professorship in Economics of Globalization and Emerging Markets, endowed by the UBS Center. Prof. Florian Scheuer has been appointed to the Professorship in Economics of Institutions, endowed by the UBS Center. His research focuses on public finance, taxation, inequality, public policy, and political economy.Ralph Ossa’s webpage
Florian Scheuer’s webpage
20.12.2016: Protectionism is no solution
Trump has promised that by restricting international trade he would bring back those jobs which have been lost in the U.S. due to globalization. In a recently published article in
Finanz und Wirtschaft, Dorn explains why the chances of success for Trump’s campaign promise are very low. If you want to actually help the globalisation-losers, you need a different approach. 11.12.2016: From Zurich to Harvard and back
The
NZZ am Sonntag has published a feature on Dina Pomeranz in their latest edition. The article focuses on her academic career and her work in the field of development economics. Professor Pomeranz’ research is far away from the ideological approach which characterized the field of development economics during the movement of 1968. Modern approaches of development economics – to which Dina Pomeranz relates – focus on empirical facts. That is why she worked closely with tax authorities from Chile, Ecuador, and Kenya for her research projects on tax fraud containment policies. Professor Pomeranz is currently working on a study about the transfer price policy of international corporations. 09.12.2016: The role of social mobility for Trump’s rise The Big Idea is a platform from Vox for smart, often scholarly excursions into the most important issues and ideas in politics, science, and culture. Vox recently published an article by Filipe Campante and David Yanagizawa-Drott on how social mobility in the U.S. influenced voting behaviour during the presidential election. Did declining social mobility cause Trump’s rise? No, say Campante and Yanagizawa-Drott, but the influence of social mobility on voting seems to be growing. 22.11.2016: Uncertain future for US economic policy after Trump's win
After Donald Trump's unexpected win on Tuesday, November 8, which will make him the 45th U.S. president, experts are trying to get to the bottom of his election victory. The
Wall Street Journal recently published an article entitled “Jump in Chinese Imports Gave Trump Election Boost, Study Finds,” referring to a new study by David Dorn, David Autor, Gordon Hanson, and Kaveh Majlesi. Furthermore, David Dorn was interviewed by Swiss Television (SRF) for a special on the 2016 U.S. elections. His research shows that cheap imports from China led to an immense job loss in the U.S. economy. Interestingly, those regions which were hardest hit by Chinese import competition became much more likely to elect politicians from the far right or far left. This effect of strong ideological polarization became evident in the current elections. Moreover, Professor Dorn’s professional opinion on the U.S. economic policy under Trump can be found in several newspapers and online articles which are based on a news report by SDA-ATS (e.g., swissinfo.ch). While Dorn predicts little change for Switzerland, he identifies major uncertainties for the future of economic policy in the U.S.
Swiss Television (in German)
Swissinfo.ch (in German)
09.11.2016: Income inequality and helicopter parents
The way in which parents interact with their children affects the formation of human capital, which in turn is a crucial determinant of long-run growth and future inequality. In
Finanz und Wirtschaft Fabrizio Zilibotti shows that different parenting styles influence the future success of children in different ways and explains why income inequality has a strong effect on the choice of parenting styles. 01.11.2016: Globalisation - A Question of Education
The German economist program "makro" interviewed David Dorn on the decisive factors of globalization and the effects on the political landscape in areas in which the losers outnumber the winners of the process. David Dorn explains how the manufacturing workers in the US are hit hardest: They have fewer options to find new employment in other sectors and are more likely to have to take on lower paid jobs than their better educated colleagues.Program (in German)
Interview (in German)
30.09.2016: Seven new professorships at the Department of Economics
The number of professors of economics at the University of Zurich has increased substantially from 23 to 30, with a corresponding contribution to research and teaching. Due to this growth of about 30 percent, the Department of Economics has gained a decisive advantage in the international competition between universities. This progress is largely due to the support from the UBS Center. After the University of Zurich appointed the first two of the professorships endowed by the UBS Center last year, two more full professorships, one assistant professorship, and one affiliated professor have now joined the Center and the University.
Media release (PDF) Research Profiles NZZ Interview Ernst Fehr (PDF) (in German) 28.09.2016: Competitiveness and private bankruptcy
In a current article in the «Finanz und Wirtschaft», Joachim Voth elaborates on the fact that most people are not only interested in doing well, they rather want to be better off compared to others. For them, the competition among consumers and the related egotism are part of our economic system. Voth discusses whether the positive effect of social comparison does outweigh its downside. Can the resulting higher collective economic performance make up for costs of individual unhappiness, overconsumption and private bankruptcy?Article in Finanz und Wirtschaft (in German)
26.09.2016: Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman on the future of the European Monetary Union
Last Thursday – 70 years after Winston Churchill’s historical speech on Europe that took place in the aula at the University of Zurich - Paul Krugman talked about the future of Europe with a focus on fiscal and monetary policies and the European Monetary Union. Krugman’s lecture which was hosted by the UBS Center attracted over 600 people and received considerable media attention. If you missed the speech, you can watch the whole lecture on YouTube.
Video on YouTube Interview in NZZ SRF News (in German) Article in F&W (in German) Article in Tagesanzeiger (in German) 14.09.2016: David Dorn on the automation of work
Will the development of intelligent machines lead to an increase of unemployment in the near future? In a recently published article in Finanz und Wirtschaft, David Dorn gives a clear answer to this question. On the one hand, humans still outdo computers in tasks requiring creativity, decision-making, and problem-solving skills (which remain highly paid) and lower product prices lead to more demand for personal services, on the other hand automation creates jobs on both ends of the income scale. However, this is not true for middle-income jobs, which are mostly affected by automation. Thus, the current phase of automation leads to an increasing income gap.
FuW article (in German)
Public Paper “The Rise of the Machines”
12.09.2016: China becoming an innovation driven economy
In a recent interview for China’s largest Newspaper «People’s Daily», Fabrizio Zilibotti explains how China is now standing at a historical point in time, moving from an investment and export driven to an innovation driven economy. China’s investments into R&D in relation to its GDP are at a similar level as within the EU, pushing forward the innovation based growth strategy. Professor Zilibotti continues recommending further steps: eliminating entry barriers and breaking up monopolies, loosening financing restrictions for SMEs and further investment into building high-tech industrial parks.
Read the article (in Chinese)
08.09.2016: Fabrizio Zilibotti to hold Fredric B. Garonzik Lecture
Fabrizio Zilibotti has been invited to hold the Fredric B. Garonzik Lecture at Brown University. Zilibotti will talk about „China at a Turning Point: The Difficult Transition from Investment-Led to Innovation-Led Growth”. The lecture is hosted by the William R. Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance and will take place on Tuesday, September 13, 2016.
Brown University Website
02.09.2016: Fabrizio Zilibotti held Presidential Address at the 2016 EEA-ESEM Congress
From August 22 to 26, 2016, nearly 1,800 members of the European Economic Association (EEA) and the Econometrics Society (ES) converged to Geneva for the annual EEA-ESEM Congress. Prof. Fabrizio Zilibotti, President of the EEA, held the Presidential Address entitled, “Growing and Slowing Down Like China” on Wednesday evening. In his talk Prof. Zilibotti analyzed the post-reform Chinese growth and explained why the growth in China is set to slow down.
Slides of the Presidential Address Youtube Video | 10,078 | 4,418 | 2.281123 |
warc | 201704 | Read frequently asked questions about bronchoscopy.
Read frequently asked questions about bronchoscopy.
The bronchoscope is a small, flexible tube which can be easily passed through a child's nose. The flexible tube carries a fiber-optic system that attaches to a video camera and light source. The image from the open end is transmitted through the fiber-optic system to a video camera.
A trans-nasal flexible fiber-optic bronchoscopy is a procedure where a physician examines various parts of your child's respiratory system through the bronchoscope. The following are some helpful definitions:
Bronchoscopy is an evaluation of the respiratory system, including voice box (larynx), wind pipe (trachea), and the airways (bronchi) for evidence of any abnormality. Your child's physician can see these structures during different stages of the breathing cycle. He or she can also take pictures and record the images on video. This video image is helpful for the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital physicians to monitor the progress of any abnormalities.
In a bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), the physician injects a small amount of saline through the bronchoscope into the airways and then sucks it back through the bronchoscope. The fluid obtained contains saline plus secretions from the lung, bacteria (if present), and cells. This sample is sent to the laboratory for various tests.
Your child will not be allowed to eat or drink for four hours prior to the procedure. This is very important in order to avoid vomiting.
Once your child arrives, our staff takes his or her height, weight, and vital signs. He or she is then brought to the procedure suite. You will be asked a series of questions and your child will be examined.
Your child will receive an intravenous (IV) line. Monitors are attached to your child in order to watch vital signs. Small children may need to be swaddled. Your child will not be restrained unless absolutely necessary for his or her safety
At the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital, our experts take every step available to ensure the safety and comfort of your child. Typically, a flexible bronchoscopy is not done under general anesthesia, but your child will be given medications via the IV for sedation. Your child will be able to wake from this deep sleep and be able to cough, sneeze, or try to speak if directed.
Numbing drops will be used to numb the nose, back of the throat, larynx, trachea, and bronchi. Lidocaine prevents irritation, cough, and sneezing.
Once the numbing medication takes effect, the bronchoscope is inserted.
Once the IV is in and all monitoring equipment is attached, the procedure takes less than 15 minutes to complete. If a bronchial alveolar lavage is needed, this takes a few additional minutes.
After the procedure, your child will be monitored while the effect of sedation and numbing medicine wears off--usually about 30 minutes. In order for you child to go home, he or she must be fully awake, able to drink clear fluids, and no longer exhibit signs of sedation. The full recovery process takes around an hour. Your child's physician or nurse will be able to tell you the approximate time for your child.
Although each child is different, there are usually little or no side effects from this procedure. Some of the possible side effects include:
Your child's doctor will give you personalized instructions prior to the procedure. This information will instruct you not to feed your child for four to six hours before the procedure.
If your child is old enough, it is important to prepare him or her. Explain as much as you feel he or she can understand.
The following information will help ensure a smooth procedure: | 3,750 | 1,650 | 2.272727 |
warc | 201704 | Her interest in India started when she was at the University of Tennessee where she earned a B.S. in Special Education and an M.S. in Education.
“I took a class about women and cross-cultural perspectives and something about India was a magnet. I felt pulled to the women of India,” said Mindy Eichhorn, a COE student currently working on her doctorate in international education. Upon graduation from UTenn, she moved to Hartford and started teaching for Hartford Public Schools in the summer of 2002. But her interest in India never flagged.
“I decided I wanted to go to India for a year. I heard about an NGO, one of its focuses was India. They told me about a couple of places I could use my skills,” she said. “One option stuck out – it was a home for orphan girls and abandoned women in a village outside Pune.”
The place was “Mukti Mission.” “It means ‘salvation,’” said Eichhorn, who flew there in the summer of 2004 to work for one year. But one year turned into four. Even then, Eichhorn did not want to leave the country she had grown to love. “Once you go and see the need it is really hard to leave,” she said.
At Mukti, Eichhorn worked in a “special” school helping women aged five to 45. “They all had special needs,” she said. “Most had been abandoned by their families. They were all clumped together. We started a candle-making project to help them earn an income. It is still going on.”
At the close of her year-long program at the Mission, and not yet ready to leave India, Eichhorn travelled to a medical teaching college and hospital in Vellore in South India. She worked in the hospital developing a pediatric unit and in the neighboring school for the children of hospital staff where she helped put together an inclusion program. Eventually, she moved again, this time to Mumbai where she worked for Destiny Education “doing teacher training, seminars, and consulting in schools.” In Mumbai, she met a student in UMass Amherst’s College of Education’s Department of Educational Policy, Research and Administration, who encouraged her to apply to COE.
“Even to come here, to the College of Education, was a difficult decision because I was so needed there in India,” she said from a meeting room in Hills South. “The field of special education is still developing there. There is still so much work to do.”
“In the future, I would love to go back and do dissertation research there and continue in special needs education,” she said. “I’m here, trying to nail it down. I know I need more focus on policy and research methods. I know I’m going to learn a lot here being in an international learning community. That’s one of the reasons I’m here in EPRA.” | 2,871 | 1,368 | 2.098684 |
warc | 201704 | Both Canada and the US suffered a severe fire season. In Canada,
the 2003 fire season was especially harsh in the Province of British
Columbia. For example, in August 2003, the provincial government
issued its most restrictive travel advisory ever after a wildfire
near the city of Kelowna grew fivefold in a day. The wildfire
at Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park, which started at a relatively
manageable size, grew over several weeks, eventually covering
more than 250 km
2 . Gusting winds, bone-dry forests and a lack
of rain were blamed for the fire’s growth. Two-kilometre-wide
fire fronts burned through timber at rates of up to 50 metres
per minute. The Province of British Columbia estimates that it
spent more than US$400 million fighting forest fires in 2003 (Makarenko
2003).
In the US, in October 2003, fires raging from just north of Los
Angeles to the Mexican border became one of the worst natural
disasters to strike California State in years, darkening the skies,
and raining ash over much of the surrounding area (Figure 1).
In all, the southern California fires killed 20 people, burned
almost 300 000 ha and destroyed about 3 400 homes. They are considered
the worst in the state’s modern history (Keating and Whitcomb
2003).
One of the major policy developments in the US is a new forestry
bill, approved by the US Senate in 2003 (White House 2003b). It
will give managers of the nation’s 155 national forests more
leeway to approve logging and other commercial projects with less
formal environmental review. The plan overhauls the 1976 National
Forest Management Act, easing environmental rules and allowing more
tree thinning. California’s lawmakers, who consider that thinning
underbrush and small trees is crucial to prevent devastating wildfires,
have praised the bill (Daly 2003).
Figure 1: In the top image taken on 26 October,
2003, vegetation is green, burned area is reddish, smoke
is blue, and the blazing fire front is hot pink. In the
bottom image taken on 18 November after fires had subsided,
the burned areas are in darker red areas north of the urban
development.
Source: Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team | 2,214 | 1,233 | 1.79562 |
warc | 201704 | New state law requires simple, non-invasive test before babies leave hospital beginning Sept. 1
A beautiful newborn baby — by all appearances perfectly healthy — goes home from the hospital in the care of delighted parents. What they don’t know is that within that tiny, beating heart lies an undiagnosed defect that can surface tragically, days or weeks later, without warning.
Beginning Sept. 1, hospitals must begin screening newborns for these life-threatening heart problems before they’re discharged, so they can be treated in time. A new state law, H.B. 740, adds the screening to the list of conditions babies must be tested for.
“These cases are heartbreaking because the babies often leave the hospital looking completely healthy, and by the time the problem is apparent it’s sometimes too late,” said Dr. Alice Gong, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Science Center and a neonatologist at University Health System. “But if the heart condition is caught early, before they go home, it can often be corrected through surgery.”
A simple, noninvasive test called pulse oximetry, performed 24 hours after birth, measures the level of oxygen in the baby’s blood using a sensor that wraps around the baby’s hand and foot. A low level of oxygen could signal critical congenital heart disease, or CCHD — a group of conditions that together make up the leading cause of death in infants younger than 1 year old.
About 7,200 infants a year in the United States are born with CCHD. And while most are diagnosed soon after birth, about 300 healthy looking babies go home undiagnosed.
Gong, with colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, formed the Texas Pulse Oximetry Project, or TxPOP. The comprehensive program trains health providers using guidelines developed through the consensus of expert groups. For the past several months they’ve been working with seven hospitals in the Houston area and six in South Texas to prepare for the statewide roll-out, screening about 10,000 newborns.
During that time, the first baby with CCHD was identified through pulse oximetry at University Hospital. The child successfully underwent surgery in December.
More information and a short video about the screening can be found online at http://txpeds.org/txpop. | 2,361 | 1,200 | 1.9675 |
warc | 201704 | We wish to comment on the article in the March 21
Record, beginning on page 3, on the report of the Budget Study Committee. In the third paragraph the article states: The committee identified the two most significant causes of rising University expenditures: increasing non-instructional expenses and declining productivity as measured by the student-faculty ratio.
The importance of increasing non-instructional (largely administrative) expenses is well documented in the report. However, the analysis of productivity is more difficult. In the report, data are used to show that the student-faculty ratio appeared to be decreasing in the last few years. However, as pointed out in the text, the Committee found the data used to be uncertain, since these data did not accurately measure the number of teaching faculty. The Committee plans to refine the analysis in order to obtain a more reliable account of what has been happening to the crucial ratio.
Wilfred Kaplan for the Budget Study Committee: Elizabeth Duell (Dermatology), Marjorie Jackson (Nursing, Emeritus), Wilfred Kaplan (Mathematics, Emeritus) and Leo McNamara (English)
Editors Note: Copies of the Budget Study Committees report are available at the Senate Assembly office, Room 4008, Fleming Administration Building. The committee, originally constituted by the U-M Chapter of the American Association of University Professors and the Committee on the Economic Status of the Faculty, has become a standing committee of the Senate Assembly. | 1,512 | 790 | 1.913924 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.