with what we were doing. * dr. pepperberg thinks the bird is responding cognitively to her questions rather than simply responding to a stimulus. she thinks the bird is getting frustrated, but she has stipulated earlier in the interview : i never claim that alex has full - blown language ; i never would. i ' m not going to be able to put alex on a " t " stand and have you interview him the way you interview me. so, whereas you or i might say " give me the nut or this interview is over " were we parrots with intentionality and language, the parrot ' s movements and sounds have to be less direct and more complex, so that they have to be interpreted for us by pepperberg. in her view, alex is " clearly getting more frustrated " and his frustration culminates with a " very slitty - eyed " expression. but this is pepperberg ' s interpretation, as is her hearing the bird sound out the letters of the word ' nut '. it could have been a stutter for all we know, but pepperberg is facilitating alex ' s communication by telling us what she hears. the final paragraph indicates that pepperberg is having a hard time drawing the line between imagining what a parrot might be thinking and projecting those thoughts into the parrot ' s movements and sounds. she ' s also having a hard time getting grant money ( nih turned her down ), so she started her own private foundation, the alex foundation. when news of n ' kisi broke on the pages of bbc online, there was no mention in the article by alex kirby of the parrot having conversations with people other than aimee morgana. ( the story was originally told in usa today in the february 12, 2001, edition. ) despite the headline " parrot ' s oratory stuns scientists, " there was no evidence given that the parrot had stunned anyone during a conversation. it seems that aimee is to her parrot what the facilitator is to her client in facilitated communication, except that the parrot is actually providing data to interpret and is more like clever hans, the horse that responded to unconscious movements of his master, than a disabled human who may not be providing any content or direction at all to the facilitator. it is aimee who gives intentionality to the parrot ' s sounds. she is the one who attributes ' laughter ' to his shrieks and conscious awareness to his responses, though those responses could be due to any one of many stimuli, consciously or unconsciously provided by aimee or items in


to the parrot ' s sounds. she is the one who attributes ' laughter ' to his shrieks and conscious awareness to his responses, though those responses could be due to any one of many stimuli, consciously or unconsciously provided by aimee or items in the immediate environment. nevertheless, dr. jane goodall, who studies chimpanzees, met n ' kisi and said that he provides an " outstanding example of interspecies communication. " there is some evidence, however, that much of the work with language - using primates also mistakes subjective validation by scientists for complex linguistic abilities of their animal subjects ( wallman 1992 ). according to mr. kirby, n ' kisi not only uses language but has been tested for telepathy and he passed the test with flying colors : in an experiment, the bird and his owner were put in separate rooms and filmed as the artist opened random envelopes containing picture cards. analysis showed the parrot had used appropriate keywords three times more often than would be likely by chance. kirby doesn ' t provide any details about the experiment, so a reader might misinterpret this claim as implying that this parrot did about twice as well as people did in the ganzfeld telepathy experiments. in those experiments, subjects in separate rooms were monitored as one tried to telepathically send information from a picture or video to the other. typically, there was a 20 % chance of guessing what the item was but results as high as 38 % were reported in some meta - analyses. if the parrot scored three times better than chance, then he would have gotten 60 % correct. the odds of a parrot randomly blurting out words that match up 60 % of the time with pictures being looked at simultaneously in another room are so high that there is virtually no way that this could happen by chance. however, as you might suspect, kirby ' s claim is a bit misleading. i assume that kirby was writing about an experiment that was part of the n ' kisi project, a joint effort by morgana and rupert sheldrake to test not only the parrot ' s language - using abilities but his telepathic talents as well. sheldrake has already validated the telepathic abilities of a dog and thinks the " findings [ of this experiment ] are consistent with the hypothesis that n ' kisi was reacting telepathically to aimee ' s mental activity. " * the full text of sheldrake ' s study published in the peer reviewed journal of scientific


findings [ of this experiment ] are consistent with the hypothesis that n ' kisi was reacting telepathically to aimee ' s mental activity. " * the full text of sheldrake ' s study published in the peer reviewed journal of scientific exploration is available online. the title of the paper would send most journal editors to their grave, killed by laughter : " testing a language - using parrot for telepathy. " fortunately for sheldrake and his associates there will always be a sympathetic editor for another story like that of j. b. rhine and the telepathic horse, " lady wonder. " at least sheldrake ' s protocols show some measure of sophistication, unlike rhine ' s. even so, as the editor at the journal of scientific exploration commented : " once again, we have suggestive results, a level of statistical significance that is less than compelling, and the devout wish that further work with refined protocols will ensue. " * so, we ' ll just have to wait and see whether further study of n ' kisi supports the telepathic hypothesis. anyway, here is how sheldrake set up the experiment. he first compiled a list of 30 words from the bird ' s vocabulary that " could be represented by visual images. " a package of 167 photos from a stock supplier was used for the test. since only 20 of the photos corresponded to words on the list, the word list was reduced to 20. the word ' camera ' was removed from the list because ' n ’ kisi " used it so frequently to comment on the cameras used in the tests themselves. " thus, they were left with 19 words. during the tests, n ’ kisi remained in his cage in aimee ’ s apartment in manhattan, new york. there was no one in the room with him. meanwhile, aimee went to a separate enclosed room on a different floor. n ’ kisi could not see or hear her, and in any case, aimee said nothing, as confirmed by the audio track recorded on the camera that filmed her continuously. the distance between aimee and n ’ kisi was about 55 feet. aimee could hear n ’ kisi through a wireless baby monitor, which she used to gain ‘ ‘ feedback ’ ’ to help her to adjust her mental state as image sender. both aimee and n ’ kisi were filmed continuously throughout the test sessions by two synchronized cameras on time - coded videotape. the cameras were mounted on tripods and ran continuously without interruption


help her to adjust her mental state as image sender. both aimee and n ’ kisi were filmed continuously throughout the test sessions by two synchronized cameras on time - coded videotape. the cameras were mounted on tripods and ran continuously without interruption throughout each session. n ’ kisi was also recorded continuously on a separate audio tape recorder. ( sheldrake and morgana 2003 ) according to sheldrake : we conducted a total of 147 two - minute trials. the recordings of n ’ kisi during these trials were transcribed blind by three independent transcribers.... he scored 23 hits : the key words he said corresponded to the target pictures.... if n ’ kisi said a key word that did not correspond to the photograph, that was counted as a miss, and if he said a key word corresponding to the photograph, that was a hit. ( sheldrake and morgana 2003 ) however, sixty of the trials were discarded because in those trials n ' kisi either was silent or uttered things that were not key words, i. e., showed no signs of telepathy. a few other trials were discarded because the transcribers did not agree on what n ' kisi said. in short, sheldrake ' s statistical conclusions are based on the results of 71 of the trials. i ' ll let the reader decide whether it was proper to omit 40 % of the data because the parrot didn ' t utter a word on the key word list during those trials. some might argue that those sessions should be counted as misses and that by ignoring so much data where the parrot clearly did not indicate any sign of telepathy is strong evidence that sheldrake was more interested in confirming his biases than in getting at the truth. n ' kisi ' s misses were listed at 94. ten of the 23 hits were on the picture that corresponded to the word ' flower ', which n ' kisi uttered 23 times during the trials. the flower image, selected randomly, was used in 17 trials. the image corresponding to water was used in 10 of the trials. the bird said ' water ' in twelve trials and got 2 hits. it seems oddly biased that almost one - third of the images and more than half the hits came from just 2 of the 19 pictures. one of the peer reviewers thought that the fact that the flower word and picture played so heavy a role in the outcome that the paper ' s results were distorted and that the paper


and more than half the hits came from just 2 of the 19 pictures. one of the peer reviewers thought that the fact that the flower word and picture played so heavy a role in the outcome that the paper ' s results were distorted and that the paper should not be published. the other reviewer accepted sheldrake ' s observation that even if you throw out the flower data, you still get some sort of statistical significance. this may be true. however, since the bird allegedly had a vocabulary of some 950 words at the time of the test, omitting sessions where the bird said nothing or said something not on the key list, is unjustifiable. furthermore, there is no evidence that it is reasonable to assume that when the parrot is by itself uttering words that it is trying to communicate telepathically with morgana. or are we to accept sheldrake ' s assumption that the parrot turns his telepathic interest off and on, and it was on only when he uttered a word on the key list? that assumption is no more valid that morgana ' s belief that the telepathy doesn ' t work as well when she makes an effort to send a telepathic message to her parrot. in any case, i wonder why sheldrake didn ' t do a baseline study, where the parrot was videotaped for two - minutes at a time while morgana was taking an aromatherapy bath or meditating or doing something unrelated to the key word pictures. had he made several hundred such clips, he could then have randomly selected 71 and compared them to the 71 clips he used for his analysis. if there was no significant difference between the randomly selected clips and the ones that emerged during the experiment, then the telepathy hypothesis would not be supported. on the other hand, if he found a robust statistically significant difference, then the telepathy hypothesis would be supported. i suggest he do something along these lines when he attempts to replicate his parrot telepathy test. in some trials, n ’ kisi repeated a given key word. for example, in one trial n ’ kisi said ‘ ‘ phone ’ ’ three times, and in another he said ‘ ‘ flower ’ ’ ten times, and in the tabulation of data the numbers of times he said these words are shown in parentheses as : phone ( 3 ) ; flower ( 10 ). for most of the statistical analyses, repetitions were ignored, but in one analysis the numbers of words that were said more than once in


numbers of times he said these words are shown in parentheses as : phone ( 3 ) ; flower ( 10 ). for most of the statistical analyses, repetitions were ignored, but in one analysis the numbers of words that were said more than once in a given trial were compared statistically with those said only once for both hits and misses. for each trial, the key word or words represented in the photograph were tabulated. some images had only one key word, but others had two or more. for example, a picture of a couple hugging in a pool of water involved two key words, ‘ ‘ water ’ ’ and ‘ ‘ hug. ’ ’ ( sheldrake and morgana 2003 ) he calculated 51 hits and 126 misses when repetitions were included. i ' m not going to bother with any more detail because by now the overall picture should be clear. once the statisticians went to work on the data, they were able to provide support for the claim that the data were consistent with the telepathic hypothesis. but nowhere in sheldrake ' s paper can i find a claim that the parrot did three times better than expected by chance. in any case, i have to agree with the editor who published sheldrake ' s parrot paper : the results have a statistical significance that is less than compelling. however, unlike that editor, my devout wish is that when such studies as these are published in the future, responsible journalists continue to ignore them and recognize them for the rubbish they are. on the other hand, if you happen to think your parrot is psychic, drop dr. sheldrake a line. he ' s set up a page just for you. sheldrake has responded to this article. his comments and my responses are posted here. books and articles new grey parrots use reasoning where monkeys and dogs can ’ t " christian schloegl and his team at the university of vienna, let six parrots choose between two containers, one containing a nut. both containers were shaken, one eliciting a rattling sound and the other nothing. the parrots preferred the container that rattled, even if only the empty container was shaken.... thus, grey parrots seem to possess ape - like reasoning skills.... " [ / new ] last updated 16 - aug - 2012


. • compound ( or catadioptric ) telescopes, which use a combination of lenses and mirrors, offer compact tubes and relatively light weight ; two popular designs are called schmidt - cassegrains and maksutov - cassegrains. the objective ' s focal length ( f or fl ) is the key to determining the telescope ' s magnification ( " power " ). this is simply the objective ' s focal length divided by that of the eyepiece, which you ' ll find on its barrel. for example, if a telescope has a focal length of 500 mm and a 25 - mm eyepiece, the magnification is 500 / 25, or 20x. most telescopes come supplied with one or two eyepieces ; you change the magnification by switching eyepieces with different focal lengths. your telescope will need something sturdy to support it. many telescopes come conveniently packaged with tripods or mounts, though the tubes of smaller scopes often just have a mounting block that allows them to be attached to a standard photo tripod with a single screw. ( caution : a tripod that ' s good enough for taking your family snapshots may not be steady enough for astronomy. ) mounts designed specifically for telescopes usually forgo the single - screw attachment blocks in favor of larger, more robust rings or plates. some telescopes come with small motors to move them around the sky with the push of a keypad button. in the more advanced models of this type, often called " go to " telescopes, a small computer is built into the hand control. once you ' ve entered the current date, time, and your location, the scope can point itself to, and track, thousands of celestial objects. some " go to " s let you choose a guided tour of the best celestial showpieces, complete with a digital readout describing what ' s known about each object. but go to scopes aren ' t for everyone the setup process may be confusing if you don ' t know how to find the bright alignment stars in the sky. and lower - priced go to models come with smaller apertures than similarly priced, entry - level scopes that have no electronics. a telescope can literally open your eyes to a universe of celestial delights. with a little care in selecting the right one, you ' ll be ready for a lifetime of exploring the night sky!


dynamic nasopharyngoscopy ( dn ) is a simple method of : the examination is performed with the patient lying on their back and under local anesthetic with topical lidocaine that is sprayed onto the back of the throat and into the nasal passages. the flexible fiberoptic endoscope is introduced through the nose and advanced into the pharynx. note is taken of any fixed obstructions such as a deviated septum, nasal polyps, and enlarged adenoids and tonsils. the tip of the endoscope is then positioned at the level of the hard palate and the patient is asked to perform a series of maneuvers. note is taken of the size and shape of the airway. this patient has a heart - shaped airway because of narrow insertion of the posterior tonsillar pillars and edema. note is taken of the degree of collapse that occurs when the patient attempts to inspire with their mouth closed and nostrils pinched shut. | with jaw thrust this simulates the wearing of a dental appliance that advances the mandible. this patient could use such a device if the overnight oximetry shows mild disease. opening of the jaw opening the mouth to breathe relaxes the pharynx and promotes backward collapse of the tongue. this increases the likelihood of apnea. interpretation of the findings requires a detailed knowledge of the anatomy of the upper airway and a good understanding of the physical principles that determine why certain structures are stable and others are not. back to dynamic nasopharyngoscopy page


it security is, generally, defined as a defensive approach to protect a company and its assets from unauthorized access by an intruder. it security efforts include network security appliances, honeypots, robust authentication, limiting authorization to least necessary privileges, as well as other perimeter security defenses. however, these approaches do not provide definitive protection of the company ' s most valuable asset, its data, because a single intrusion could result in sensitive data being compromised. additionally, in today ' s workplace culture the disgruntled employee may be as much of a threat as any external threat. data encryption is a direct response to internal and external security threats that may also meet compliance regulations. encryption provides strong security for data " at - rest " ; in our case, the data stored in the database, but to be effective should be implemented as a part of a broader security plan. there are many issues involved with the implementation of encryption, details that require decisions and actions to ensure the success of the implementation and the security of the data. this document will discuss the issues associated with database encryption implemented using sql server ' s native transparent database encryption ( tde ) mechanism. encryption has been integral to human history beginning with the babylonian use of intaglio other historical examples include the caesar cipher, scytale transposition cipher, enigma, and even jimkryptos sculpture. throughout history our society has enjoyed the ability to protect information using cryptographic methods including steganography, microdots, invisible ink, digital watermarks, and encryption which may be defined as the conversion of data so as to keep its meaning private. as the amount of sensitive data collected by commercial entities continues to grow the regulatory requirements for protecting the sensitive data will become more robust ; meeting the regulatory requirements will necessarily require the continued use of data encryption methods. encryption requires the application of an algorithm to transform the target data into a form that is unusable to anyone that does not have access to the encryption process used. in practical terms encryption applies a cryptographic algorithm with a " key " to the target data producing the encrypted form of the data which cannot be accessed without the key used to encrypt the data. the two primary forms of key encryption are symmetric and asymmetric which are distinguished by the number of keys used in the encryption / decryption process. symmetric encryption uses a single key while asymmetric encryption uses a pair of keys generally referred to as public and private keys. while asymmetric encryption appears ideal for implementation because only the public key need ever be shared


encryption / decryption process. symmetric encryption uses a single key while asymmetric encryption uses a pair of keys generally referred to as public and private keys. while asymmetric encryption appears ideal for implementation because only the public key need ever be shared there are disadvantages with regard to performance. a sampling of asymmetric algorithms includes rsa, dsa, elgamal, ecdsa, and xtr. figure 1 demonstrates the asymmetric encryption process. figure 1 asymmetric key encryption / decryption process symmetric algorithms require a single key for both encryption and decryption which allows for high - performance ; however, with this approach the strength of the encryption is dependent on the security of the key. common symmetric algorithms include aes / rijndael, blowfish, des, triple des, serpent, and idea to name only a few. figure 2 demonstrates the symmetric encryption process. figure 2 symmetric key encryption process both symmetric and asymmetric encryption approaches are vulnerable to brute force attacks and cryptanalysis. brute force is an attack during which every possible permutation of the key value is attempted. cryptanalysis, on the other hand, applies computational techniques to circumvent the encryption. in general, the use of sufficiently long keys will mitigate these attacks. in summary, a symmetric key algorithm is fast but less secure than an asymmetric algorithm. another approach is a hybrid wherein a symmetric key is used to encrypt the data while an asymmetric key is used to encrypt the symmetric key. it may be important to know in order to maintain perspective that there is only one encryption algorithm that is impossible to crack, one - time pad ( otp ), any other algorithm may be broken given sufficient time and / or computer resources. security concerns, in general, and encryption, specifically, are new concepts for most it professionals ; therefore, a glossary of security / encryption terms is included as an appendix for reference. overview of transparent database encryption the primary benefit of transparent database encryption ( tde ) is the ability to encrypt data without affecting any application that uses the data while providing security for the entire database. tde is implemented at the database - level, unlike cell - level encryption tde does not require modification to applications or database column data types ; furthermore, database - level encryption allows for higher performance than cell - level encryption. however, tde may allow more data leakage because encrypted data is decrypted when read into the buffer


to applications or database column data types ; furthermore, database - level encryption allows for higher performance than cell - level encryption. however, tde may allow more data leakage because encrypted data is decrypted when read into the buffer pool ; therefore, the data is not protected if the operating system writes data from memory to disk during paging operations, or during hibernation, or memory dumps, nor is the data protected while in memory. database encryption is achieved by leveraging the data protection api ( dpapi ) in windows® which protects the service master key ( smk ) which protects the database master key ( dmk ) which is used to protect the certificate or asymmetric keys which are used to protect the database encryption key ( dek ). these dependencies create a security chain from the operating system to the data eliminating user interaction thus strengthening security. the relationships and dependencies between keys is represented in figure 3 below : figure 3 sql server encryption key hierarchy with tde and ekm ( source : bol - http : / / msdn. microsoft. com / en - us / library / cc278098. aspx ) the hierarchy of keys in tde is protected from the dpapi to the dek allowing the server to manage encryption and decryption automatically. the dmk and the certificate are stored in the master database while the dek is stored in the user database. this hierarchy and the key management chain provide tde the capability to transparently encrypt and decrypt the database. the process for encrypting a database is conceptually simple : - create a master key - obtain an authentication certificate - create dek - enable tde on the database however, significant complexity will be introduced if the database encryption strategy is undertaken without proper planning that addresses important implementation issues. those issues are discussed in the following section. the level of security necessary to protect the database should be documented during the planning phase. individually and in combination the following encryption mechanisms are available to secure the database : - encrypting file system ( efs ) - transparent database encryption ( tde ) discussion of the benefits and performance implications of each mechanism and their combinations is beyond the scope of this paper. data encryption must address two equally important issues : encryption technology and cryptographic key ( key ) management. encryption technology provides for variable granularity of data protection, performance, and integration with existing applications, as well as ease of implementation and management. however,


encryption must address two equally important issues : encryption technology and cryptographic key ( key ) management. encryption technology provides for variable granularity of data protection, performance, and integration with existing applications, as well as ease of implementation and management. however, the success of the selected encryption strategy may depend most on key management policies and processes. key management issues include : key access, key storage, and cryptographic algorithm. key management is one of many important issues that must be considered when planning the encryption project. the important issues to consider during the planning phase of the encryption project are listed below : - encryption algorithm : des, triple des, triple _ des _ 3key, rc2, rc4, 128 - bit rc4, desx, 128 - bit aes, 192 - bit aes, and 256 - bit aes - key management : key storage, hardware security module ( hsm ), key scheduling, key availability / mobility / security - performance impact. encryption / decryption - microsoft claims 3 - 5 % ; however, independent tests indicate 6 - 12 %.. - tempdb encryption - encryption of any one db will encrypt tempdb. - transaction log is encrypted. - log shipping implementation changes - encrypted database log shipping requires the recipient database to possess the key in order to apply the logs. - backup and recovery plan changes - encrypted databases cannot be recovered to a different instance without the key. - disaster recovery plan changes - encrypted databases cannot be recovered to a different instance without the key. - increased disk space requirements - no sql server native backup compression. third party tools may be available ; however, in general, encrypted data cannot be significantly compressed. - tde operates during i / o ; therefore, any data written to disk outside of the buffer pool is not protected - no support for filestream data - type the diagram in figure 4 represents a nominal encryption project planning process with each major area of consideration represented. the end result of the planning process is to produce a document detailing the decisions made that address the issues related to encrypting the database. figure 4 encryption planning process a comprehensive it security policy provides a layered defense against threats to the system. however, even the most thorough perimeter network and physical defenses do not obviate the vulnerability of plaintext data stored in databases. data encryption provides a means to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access as a part of a coordinated it security policy that includes network security, robust authentication


most thorough perimeter network and physical defenses do not obviate the vulnerability of plaintext data stored in databases. data encryption provides a means to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access as a part of a coordinated it security policy that includes network security, robust authentication and authorization, as well as other physical security considerations. sql server and windows® provide several mechanisms for the protection of data either at the file, database, or data levels. transparent database encryption ( tde ) is a new technology available in sql server 2008 enterprise edition which provides a simplified the data encryption option. tde is a database - level encryption mechanism that reduces the implementation complexity by negating the need to modify the data and / or the client applications. however, the benefits of performance and simplicity are balanced by tde ' s potential for data leakage ; therefore, for the most sensitive data tde alone may not suffice as a data security strategy. any data protection strategy must weigh the costs and benefits of implementation to arrive at a usable solution that meets the security requirements defined by the business. tde ' s protection of sensitive data in low to moderate threat environments may be sufficient for some business requirements while highly sensitive data or data in high threat environments will require the combination of tde with other encryption mechanisms such as cell - level encryption, efs, or bitlocker.


are you entangled in difficult relationships or painful emotions? do you suffer from childhood trauma? do you suffer from your parents ' drama, your partner ' s demands, your boss ' s moods? systemic solutions can help you untangle your life and reclaim your freedom. delay, prevent and reverse aging people are born with an energy for living that, unless continuously restored, will fade with age. after about age 25, unless care is taken to replenish energy, many people stop growing up and begin growing old. aging is optional and controllable for most motivated people, and degeneration may be delayed, and, in some cases, reversed. degenerated body tissues are unlikely to be replaced, except perhaps by major surgery. the degeneration of aged tissues is far easier to prevent than to repair. aging & life coaching the deterioration of bodily functions that accompany old age is often considered a one - way road towards suffering and death. although many theories explain one or two aspects of aging ; no single theory explains all aging phenomena. yet many changes associated with old age are not from natural aging - but from diseases which occur more frequently with increased age. with appropriate care, people can delay, prevent many of the problems of old age, and even reverse the aging process. systemic coaching can help you delay and prevent your fragmentation and loss of mental resources associated with ageing. as time passes, cellular damage accumulates and impairs the function of a tissue. if the damage interferes with metabolism, whole organs may malfunction. an example of this is adult - onset diabetes, which can often be controlled by diet and exercise. one theory of aging assumes that the life span of a cell or organism is genetically determined. another theory of aging assumes that cell death is the result of the formation of enzymes that do not work efficiently. yet another theory assumes that aging is due to the gradual accumulation of mutant cells that do not perform normally. ( the natural mutation may be increased dramatically by toxins, radiations and carcinogens associated with diseases of old age old age & the cardiovascular system the heart changes with advancing age, gradually losing muscle, and reducing in performance. heart diseases are the biggest cause of death after age 65. - the heart does not contract as rapidly in older people. in response to exercise, the heart can double or triple the amount of blood pumped, although the maximum output diminishes with age. - arteriosclerosis ( hardening of the arteries ) is a progressive disorder and is present in most people


response to exercise, the heart can double or triple the amount of blood pumped, although the maximum output diminishes with age. - arteriosclerosis ( hardening of the arteries ) is a progressive disorder and is present in most people by middle age, and increases markedly with age. - blood vessels become less elastic with age, with a progressive thickening of the walls of blood vessels. these changes may increase blood pressure, increasing the work of the heart. old age & digestion the overall digestion of sugar, proteins, vitamins, and minerals are similar to young people. most nutritional deficiencies can be avoided if the diet assures all nutritional elements. deficiencies are most likely to develop from poor eating habits, such as excessive sugars and refined flour. the loss of teeth in elderly people is often a result of long - term neglect. old age & the nervous system human behavior requires the brain to integrate information from the eye and ear, skin and internal organs. there is only a slight loss of brain cells in old age, however, brain cells are extremely sensitive to oxygen deficiency. consequently, it is likely that loss of brain cells results from heart disease, which reduces oxygen delivery to the brain. old age & vision from about age 50 there is an accelerated decline in the ability to discriminate detail, usually compensated for by spectacles and increased illumination. aging reduces the ability to focus the eyes for viewing near objects, so that distant objects can be seen more clearly than close objects. sensitivity to darkness and glare is also greater in the old than in the young, and the incidence of eye disease, such as glaucoma and cataracts, increases with age. a rare childhood disease is characterized by many aspects of aging, such as baldness and thin skin. children with this disease rarely usually die of old age - as teenagers. premature aging is associated with lifestyle - such as sunlight, smoking, alcohol and overeating. causes of aging people exposed to hard radiation die younger, although the only definite effect of continuous irradiation throughout life is cancer. diseases such as leukemia increase after irradiation. natural radioactivity in the body, from the earth and from cosmic rays, are not major contributors to aging, but increase the incidence of cancer. many organisms live longer at low temperatures. a rate - of - living theory holds that an organism ' s life span depends on critical substances that are used faster at higher temperatures. some aging may occur as a result of heat destruction of proteins, but this does


organisms live longer at low temperatures. a rate - of - living theory holds that an organism ' s life span depends on critical substances that are used faster at higher temperatures. some aging may occur as a result of heat destruction of proteins, but this does not seems to be a strong contributing factor. the psychological features of aging are impaired short - term memory and longer reaction times. yet some aged people become fearful and depressed, withdraw from social contact, or act like children to their own children. some aged people commit suicide or passively invite death with self - destructive, unhealthy lifestyle choices. elderly people can acquire new information and remember it as well as the young. age differences in learning increase with the difficulty of the material to be learned. people who “ age successfully ” often maintain their mental alertness by continuing to learn and by social contacts with younger people. stress. depression. suicide. anxiety parenthood and aging human life, including old age and death, is focused on successfully creating and raising children. old age is linked to the reproductive process. although the onset of old age is gradual, without specific systemic or environmental cause ; an early manifestation of age is a decline in sexual performance. the proportional contribution of an individual to a family or community diminishes as the number of living children increases. this implies an optimum number of children that reflects the survival of those children to maturity. in many developing countries, the number of living children is proportional to the food supply. before medical advances, an optimum number of children would balance those who could be expected to die from disease. in modern industrial countries, the optimum number of children reflects the beliefs and values of the parents. children, and later grandchildren, provide a natural focus and purpose for older people. in many cultures, there is a special relationship between grandparents and grandchildren. the children often gain indulgent " second parents ", while most grandparents enjoy caring for their children ' s children. advantages of aging in most traditional cultures, the elders represented the knowledge of the community, and were the teachers of the young. in western cultures, old people are often seen as liabilities, and inexperienced young adults teach " academic subjects " instead of the wisdom of life experience. if older relatives are perceived to limit the freedom of the young ; then " old folks homes " may be perceived older people tend to have more time and patience, acting as family and community mentors. they have seen more of life ; they have solved more problems and they are not so easily shocked. they have seen


objectivescommunication | collaboration | team strategy - 1 ’ x 1 ’ squares of cardboard or foam or rubber baseball bases work well also ( half to two - thirds as many squares as people in the group ) - you can also substitute 8. 5 " x 11 " pieces of paper - 2 pieces of rope ( or masking tape or 4 cones ) - several blindfolds ( optional ) create a river by marking two river banks with the rope. make the river wide enough to be a challenge for the group to get from one side to the other ( look at about 15 – 25 ft. ). distribute the cardboard squares – 1 piece for every 2 people. the object of the activity is to get all members of the group safely across the river. they must go as one big group, not multiple smaller ones. also stress that everyone must be on the river before anyone can get off the river, forcing the entire group to be engaged at once. participants cannot touch the water ( floor / grass ) and therefore must use rafts ( cardboard squares ) to cross. the water is filled with piranhas. therefore if someone loses their balance and touches a hand in the water it gets eaten ( put behind the back ). same goes for a foot. if a person completely comes off the raft they are gone and since this is a team exercise everyone must start over. i recommend using this motto with the group, " start as a team end as a team. " you can also be creative and add challenges in as the group crosses. for instance you can say a fish jumped up and tail slapped someone in the eyes so now they cannot see ( blindfolded ). tell them the river is acidic and when two people share a raft it tipped and now their legs are fused together ( tie ankles together ). use these tools to help take away the natural leaders or more outspoken participants and it forces the others to step up and take on more substantial roles. no scooting or sliding on the squares. this can be a safety issue and it emphasizes individual work versus teamwork. rafts must be in contact with a human at all times or they will be swept away with the current. once the group has started the process, your role is to take cardboard squares that are “ swept away by the current ” and to watch for safety issues. use this to your advantage as well. the participants will invariably slip up and leave some rafts here or there with no one contacting them, those you should steal. when the first group members get


the current ” and to watch for safety issues. use this to your advantage as well. the participants will invariably slip up and leave some rafts here or there with no one contacting them, those you should steal. when the first group members get to the other side immediately start to encourage them to hurry and get off the river. nearly every time the first few people will rush off the rafts leaving them unattended for you to steal and stranding some of their team - mates. work this into your debrief, when working with a team you can ' t forget about your mates. just because you have made it to the finish line someone else may not have. - participants must stay in constant contact - each raft represents a symbol named by participants - river sections - the tiles can only go forward. they cannot move backwards - no one can finish until everyone has left the “ bank ” of the river - choose to add challenges like muting individuals, using only 1 arm, eyes closed / blindfolded, no one can talk, others can be " gators " in the river and try to impede those crossing the river, stand in front of the group with arms outstretched to simulate tree they must go around. - give group an object that they need to carry with them to safety and discuss what that might represent - create situations for them to draw from that are connected directly to their group - what happened during the process? what worked? what didn ’ t or what hindered the process? - what leadership was demonstrated during the process? how so? what did you observe? - what were the individual roles people played? were members comfortable with their roles? - who knew what the process for crossing was? who didn ’ t? how did you communicate the plans to group members? - what might the different aspects of the exercise represent in your group : the squares, the river, the loss of squares, the facilitator, etc? - when the first people rushed off the river and stranded some of you how did that feel?


tuned for fluorine - mri reporter genes that increase the iron content of cells ( see below ). radionucleotide imaging : positronemission tomography eduardo marban, director and mark siegel family foundation chair, cedars - sinai heart institute, los angeles, california. marban, a cardiologist, aims to use stem cells to repair the muscle damage resulting from a heart attack. he hopes stem cells will provide the necessary signals to make the heart convert scar tissue into healthy muscle. unfortunately, the heart is a tricky target for stem cells — once injected, the heart pumps them right back out again. within an hour, only 10 % of the graft is left in the heart, and only 1 % of cells remain after three weeks, he laments. “ if we could boost those values, then we could get more bang for the buck with stem - cell therapy, ” marban says. in a recent study, he and his colleagues managed to improve retention rates by slowing or stopping the heart or dabbing a bit of fibrin glue in the injection site. ( j am coll cardiol, 54 : 1619 - 26, 2009 ). the scientists transplanted cardiac - derived stem cells from healthy rats into the hearts of those that had undergone surgically - orchestrated heart attacks. to label the transplanted stem cells, they first incubated them with the radioactive tracer 18fdg, a form of glucose toting a radioactive fluorine, that was internalized by the cells. using a pet scanner, they were able to follow the cells and show that after an hour, 20 – 75 % of the transplanted cells remained in the heart if its beat was slowed by drugs or if glue was dabbed into the injection site. - “ it ’ s the only reliable quantitative method, other than destructive methods, ” marban says, because the half - life of the tracer is known. - pet is already available in clinics. - minimal background signal. - pet is limited by the half - life of the tracer ; signals from 18 - fluorine, for example, last for six to eight hours because the isotope ’ s half - life is 110 minutes. - pet does not indicate cell viability — the tracer could leak out of the cell or show up in macrophages that devoured the original stem cells. - this method requires the use of radioactive substances, with the associated risks to cells, animals, and personnel. a pet scanner from philips healthcare runs between $


out of the cell or show up in macrophages that devoured the original stem cells. - this method requires the use of radioactive substances, with the associated risks to cells, animals, and personnel. a pet scanner from philips healthcare runs between $ 1 million and $ 1. 5 million, and the machines have become standard equipment in hospitals. radioactive tracers are also required ; a human - size dose of 18fdg costs $ 200 - 250 at cedars - sinai. to acquire the tracers, one needs to be within a few hours of a cyclotron that can generate the radioactive fluorine ion for coupling to the glucose ; most major universities have one, wu says. - single - photon emission computed tomography ( spect ) - combining pet with computed tomography helps scientists localize the radioactive signal within the animal ’ s anatomy. genetic reporters for pet frank bengel, chairman of the department of nuclear medicine, hannover medical school, germany both pet and mri only reveal where the labels are. “ the cell may die and you may still get the signal, ” bengel says. plus, preloading the cells only works as long as the tracers last — hours or days for pet tracers. bengel is developing reporter genes that allow living cells to produce their own pet signal at any time. the technique relies on genes whose products force the cell to grab onto radioactive tracers. for example, the herpes simplex virus enzyme thymidine kinase ( hsv - tk ) phosphorylates a guanine homolog called fhbg. unphosphorylated fhbg travels freely in and out of cells. but once phosphorylated — as only happens in cells having the hsv - tk gene — it ’ s negatively charged, and stuck on the inside. by engineering stem cells to express the transgene before transplantation, then treating the animal with radioactive fhbg, researchers can observe the transplants on a pet scan. - only live cells show up : “ if you don ’ t see a signal, there are no cells, ” wu says. - with promoters specific for different cell types, these reporters could also indicate whether the stem cells go on to differentiate. - hsv - tk provides a built - in fail - safe : the viral kinase phosphorylates the antiviral drug ganciclovir, turning the drug cytotoxic. should transplanted cells cause trouble — for example,


in the simplest of terms, a virus is an infectious agent. it operates like a computer virus, replicating and dispersing itself in all directions, while crippling the normal function of the host. a virus has genes, but no cellular structure, so it ' s not considered a living organism. and like parasites, viruses can ' t survive on their own. bacteria, on the other hand, are tiny cells that reproduce and can survive independently, with the ability to transport dangerous toxins. epidemiologists generally rely on an international but informal network of colleagues to get wind of a disease outbreak fast, even when it starts in a remote corner of the world. but while patients may be lining the hospital corridors in jakarta, veracruz or pittsburgh, activating a worldwide emergency response protocol is not instantaneous. laboratory tests must first isolate the virus, microbe, toxin or other mechanism of injury. usually, scientists in the field must collaborate with researchers in other countries to identify the culprit. and only when the team is absolutely sure about the agent and its cause will entities like the centers for disease control ( cdc ) and world health organization ( who ) spring into action. that ' s when the country alerts go out, a vaccine ( or other remedy ) gets developed, and the counterattack begins. getting ahead of the curve in 1999, the cdc initiated the laboratory response network ( lrn ), a group of local, state, federal, and international labs that can test for disease agents and develop vaccines in a fast, efficient manner. an estimated ninety percent of the u. s. population now live within a 100 miles of a designated lab. this close proximity insures a quick turnaround as evidence in the field is procured, then shipped to epidemiologists ready to analyze it. to help get a jump on the next global pandemic, the cdc also dispatches scientists worldwide each year to sniff out virulent strains that may be on the prowl. the epidemic intelligence service ( eis ) recruits 70 - 80 college graduates annually for two - year, post - graduate assignments performing surveillance and study in the field. influenza viruses that affect humans are divided into two basic groups. " a " viruses have pandemic potential. " b " viruses don ' t. to qualify as a pandemic, an " a " virus must also be " novel ", which means there ' s no pre - disposed immunity to it and no existing vaccines. furthermore, the bug must have the potential for human to human


u. s. government. over 200 million doses, for instance, were ordered at the start of the h1n1 pandemic. in addition to pandemic vaccines, drug manufacturers produce the annual flu shot vaccine and chilhood immunization drugs for polio, chicken pox, german measles, etc. immunizations for adults include hepatitus, malaria and tetanus. some of these shots have only a short - term effectiveness. in the case of tetanus, for instance, a " booster " shot is recommended every ten years. vaccines are divided into other categories based on how the drug intends to destroy the targetted microbe or pathogen. since viruses, bacteria and toxins attack the body in different ways, the epidemiologist must design a solution that works best for the circumstances. here are his choices : live, attenuated vaccines these contain a version of the living microbe that has been weakened in the lab so it can ’ t cause disease. like firefighters setting small fires in advance of a mega - blaze, this small dose of the killer pathogen is easy for the immune system to fight off, thereby achieving lifelong immunity with one or two doses. however, people with compromised immune systems are considered too weak to overcome a live vaccine. besides that, the microbe that ' s injected may on occasion morph into something worse than it was initially. these vaccines are likewise not suitable for some geographical locations, since a " live " vaccine must be kept alive through refrigeration. samples of the disease - causing microbe are first destroyed with chemicals, heat, or radiation. these vaccines are more stable and safer than live vaccines, since the dead microbes can ’ t mutate back to their disease - causing state. inactivated vaccines usually don ’ t require refrigeration, and they can be easily stored and transported in a freeze - dried form, which makes them accessible to people in developing countries. on the down side, they trigger a weaker immune system response and therefore require multiple doses over time or booster shots to be effective. these use only parts of the killer microbe, specifically the antigens, which are responsible for triggering the production of antibodies to fight the microbe. it takes a long time to develop a subunit vaccine, but once it ' s perfected, adverse reactions are much lower than with live or inactivated vaccines. these vaccines are a good choice for people with compromised immune systems. some bacteria secrete toxins or harmful chemicals, which can cause a serious


vaccine, but once it ' s perfected, adverse reactions are much lower than with live or inactivated vaccines. these vaccines are a good choice for people with compromised immune systems. some bacteria secrete toxins or harmful chemicals, which can cause a serious illness all by themselves. the toxins can in some cases be neutralized by treating them with formalin, which is a solution of formaldehyde and sterilized water. such “ detoxified ” toxins are called toxoids and are safe for use as vaccines. when injected, the toxoid causes the immune system to fight off the natural toxin and produce antibodies that will block the real toxin. diphtheria and tetanus are examples of diseases that toxoid vaccines can prevent. the immature immune systems of infants and younger children don ' t always recognize or respond to certain types of coatings around bacteria, so this special type of subunit vaccine has been developed to address the problem. still in the experimental stages, these vaccines show great promise ( according to nih ), and several types are currently being tested in humans. these vaccines dispense with the microbe and its parts, and instead use the genes of those all - important antigens. recombinant vector vaccines also in the experimental stage, these are similar to dna vaccines, but they use an attenuated virus or bacterium to introduce microbial dna to cells of the body. “ vector ” refers to the virus or bacterium used as the disease carrier. ( for instance, mosquitoes carry malaria, so it ' s considered a " vector - bourne " disease. ) in addition to antigens that alert the immune system to an infectious agent, vaccines may also contain substances called adjuvants, which nih says improve the immune response produced by the vaccines. currently, the only adjuvant licensed for human use in the united states is an “ alum ” adjuvant, which is composed of aluminum salts. vaccines may also contain substances to prevent contamination, as well as maintain a vaccine ’ s potency at less - than - optimal temperatures, or act as a preservative. one such controversial ingredient in this catgegory is a compound call thimerosal. autism advocacy organizations oppose the use of thimerasol and other mercury - based additives in vaccines. they allege that autism is caused in part by these ingredients when multiple childhood immunizations are administered at one time. the claim is virulently rejected by the cdc and much of the


autism and aspergers - 04 - 10 - 2007, 08 : 07 am ( taken from wikipedia ) autism is classified by the world health organization ( who ) and american psychological association as a developmental disability that results from a disorder of the human central nervous system. it is diagnosed using specific criteria for impairments to social interaction, communication, interests, imagination and activities. the causes, symptoms, etiology, treatment, and other issues are controversial. autism manifests itself " before the age of three years " according to the who ' s international classification of diseases ( icd - 10 ) children with autism are marked by delays in their " social interaction, language as used in social communication, or symbolic or imaginative play " ( diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders ). autism, and the other four pervasive developmental disorders ( pdd ), are all considered to be neurodevelopmental disorders. they are diagnosed on the basis of a triad, or group of three behavioral impairments or dysfunctions : 1. impaired social interaction, 2. impaired communication and 3. restricted and repetitive interests and activities. these three basic characteristics reflect dr. leo kanner ' s first reports of autism emphasizing " autistic aloneness " and " insistence on sameness. " from a physiological standpoint, autism is often less than obvious in that outward appearance may not indicate a disorder. diagnosis typically comes from a complete patient history and physical and neurological evaluation. the incidence of diagnosed autism has increased since the 1990s. reasons offered for this phenomenon include better diagnosis, wider public awareness of the condition, regional variations in diagnostic criteria, or simply an increase in the occurrence of asd ( autism spectrum disorders ). the united states centers for disease control ( cdc ) estimate the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders to be about one in every 150 children. in 2005, the national institute of mental health ( nimh ) stated the " best conservative estimate " as 1 in 1000. in 2006, nimh estimated that the incidence was 2 - 6 in every 1000. there are numerous theories as to the specific causes of autism, but they have yet to be fully supported by evidence ( see section on " causes " below ). proposed factors include genetic influence, anatomical variations ( e. g. head circumference ), abnormal blood vessel function and oxidative stress. their significance as well as implications for treatment remain speculative. conversely, some autistic children and adults are opposed to attempts to cure autism. these people see autism as part of who they are, and


abnormal blood vessel function and oxidative stress. their significance as well as implications for treatment remain speculative. conversely, some autistic children and adults are opposed to attempts to cure autism. these people see autism as part of who they are, and in some cases they perceive treatments and attempts of a cure to be unethical. on the surface, individuals who have autism are physically indistinguishable from those without. some studies show that autistic children tend to have larger head circumferences but the significance in the disorder is unclear. sometimes autism co - occurs with other disorders, and in those cases outward differences may be apparent. individuals diagnosed with autism can vary greatly in skills and behaviors, and their response to sensory input shows marked differences in a number of ways from that of other people. certain stimulations, such as sounds, lights, and touch, will often affect someone with autism differently than someone without, and the degree to which the sensory system is affected can vary greatly from one individual to another. autistic children may display unusual behaviors or fail to display expected behaviors. normal behaviors may develop at the appropriate age and then disappear or, conversely, are delayed and develop quite some time after normal occurrence. in assessing developmental delays, different physicians may not always arrive at the same conclusions. much of this difference between diagnosis is due to the disputed criteria for autism. deciding how a child should behave is also difficult because diagnostic tests have to be objective, which is not a simple thing to accomplish. because of this practitioners and researchers in pediatrics, child psychology, behavior analysis, and child development are always looking for early indicators of autism. the diagnosis of autism must meet specific criterion but there are also many characteristics that are idiosyncratic. thus, autism is not a " one size fits all " label. in other words the spectrum disorder encompasses a very wide range of behaviors and symptoms. some behaviors cited by the national institute of child health and human development ( listed below ) may simply mean a normal delay in one or more areas of development, while others are more typical of asds — autistic spectrum disorders. the list below is not all - inclusive, and generally applies to children and not adults. furthermore, while some of these behaviors might be seen in a person with autism, others may be absent. noted behaviors in children


inorganic matter in a wheat berry is heavily concentrated in the outer layers, such as the bran, various seed coatings, and the germ. as you traverse from the outer coatings to the outer endosperm and then to the inner endosperm, the concentration of inorganic matter steadily drops. during milling, the flour is ground, then sifted, then ground again, and sifted again repeatedly. when the milling process is complete, a large number of bins of product will result from very coarse to very fine, and from very dark to very light flours. the whitest flours will have less ash content, and the darker flours will have more ash content. at this point, various grades of flour may be created by blending the flour from the bins. ash content then summarizes how much of the outer layers made it in to the final flour, regardless of how it may have been milled, sifted, and blended. the importance of measuring ash content was immediately obvious to me as i tried to mill and sift at home on my own. an infinite number of possible permutations of grinding and milling could be imagined. for example, i tried grinding very coarsely, then sifting, then grinding the coarser results of the sifting again, then sifting again. another version was grinding very finely and sifting into more and finer sizes. i also tried grinding coarsely, then regrinding, then sifting. of course, the possibilities are endless. in each of these cases, flour resulted that made good bread, seemed light in color, and fine in texture. the difference to the eye and the feel in the hand was not great between one and the other, at least not to me, a first - time home miller. measuring ash content of my results would make it possible to know at least approximately how much of the outer layers had made it into each type of flour resulting from the various grinding and sifting processes tried. also, once a given process is adopted and used consistently, calculating the right blend of the various outputs of the milling process to achieve a desired ash content, depending on the type of flour needed, should also be fairly easy. distilled water doesn ' t conduct electricity. however, if some salt is dissolved in distilled water, it will conduct electricity. the ions contributed by the salt are charged particles that will travel through the water in the field created by the voltage difference on the electrodes of the conductivity meter to create a flow


salt is dissolved in distilled water, it will conduct electricity. the ions contributed by the salt are charged particles that will travel through the water in the field created by the voltage difference on the electrodes of the conductivity meter to create a flow of electric current. the higher the concentration of salt, the higher the conductivity of the water and salt solution will be. the diverse mineral content in the inorganic matter that makes up the " ash content " of the flour ionizes the water in the same way described above for salt. if the flour has a larger amount of " ash content " it will also contribute a larger quantity of ionizing compounds to water, increasing the conductivity. to measure conductivity you need a conductivity meter. in the field of water quality measurement, " total dissolved solids " is a standard measurement, but it is essentially a measure of the conductivity of the water being tested. so, you can use either a " conductivity meter " or a " tds meter ". in my case, i had obtained a hanna 9813 ph meter a number of years ago, and it turns out it also had a conductivity meter function. however, it was easy to discover conductivity meters on the internet, by searching on terms like " conductivity meter ", " tds ", " total dissolved solids ", " water quality meter ", and so on. one place i found was http : / / www. technika. com. also searching on " hannah meter " might work, since that ' s the brand of meter i have that has both ph and conductivity meters, both useful functions for flour measurement. you might wonder why a standard digital multi - meter wouldn ' t work. i tried to use one unsuccessfully. first of all, you would have to carefully mount the probes to maintain the same distance apart and total surface area exposed to the water. however, it gets worse. the dc current used by a digital multi - meter to measure resistance causes the ions to build up on the electrodes, so the measurement just goes higher and higher the longer you leave the electrodes in the water. conductivity meters made for measuring water impurities use ac current to measure the conductivity so the above problem with an ohm - meter doesn ' t occur, have probes made of less reactive conductors, and are designed to maintain proper spacing of the electrodes. i found a couple of papers on the internet describing methods of measuring ash content with conductivity. one was especially useful for home


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the study involved the first - ever use on an infectious disease of a new research technique called chemical genetics. every virus presents scientists with a new kind of genetic code — the challenge is to figure out how to decipher it to gain a fuller understanding of how the virus works and how to combat it. in the past, such research was often slow and laborious. but thanks to chemical genetics — which allows scientists to quickly test how a new virus reacts with thousands of different chemicals — viruses that might have remained indecipherable for years can now be at least partially unlocked in months or even weeks. " instead of testing out keys in a lock one by one, it ' s like trying out 50, 000 keys all at once, " says yuen. the point of both chemical and classical genetic research is to figure out which genes do what — in effect, to learn to read an organism ' s genetic language. in classical genetics, scientists usually mutate an organism, see how its functions have changed ( a mutated virus might no longer be infectious ) and then work back and identify which gene mutated. if a mutated virus loses its ability to infect a cell, then that gene probably has something to do with infectivity. in chemical genetics, explains dr. richard kao, the lead researcher on the hku study, scientists try do the same by testing thousands upon thousands of chemicals on virus samples. the vast majority won ' t have any effect, but a handful will. researchers can then take those virus samples and use further tests to figure out which viral gene has been affected by which chemical. " if we discover that interfering with a certain gene stops the virus from replicating, then we know that gene ' s function likely has to do with replication, " says kao, a biochemist who brought his passion for chemical genetics to hku from harvard university, where the process was first pioneered in the early 1990s. in hku ' s sars study, kao and his colleagues filled the tiny wells of a small, waffle - like board with samples of the coronavirus cultured in cell lines. microscopic amounts of different chemical compounds were introduced into each separate well using a $ 180, 000 machine called an automated high - throughput screening platform. once the chemicals had time to interact with the virus, scientists could examine the results with an inverted microscope. the process was repeated until all 50, 240 compounds in their chemical library had been tested, which took a few months. " you ' d think it '


interest. i think that a man should not live beyond the age when he begins to deteriorate, when the flame that lighted the brightest moment of his life has weakened. letter from prison, 1953 regarding human rights with what moral authority can they speak of human rights — the rulers of a nation in which the millionaire and beggar coexist ; the indian is exterminated ; the black man is discriminated against ; the woman is prostituted ; and the great masses of chicanos, puerto ricans, and latin americans are scorned, exploited, and humiliated? speech in 1978 quotes regarding fidel castro. by jesse jackson the most honest, courageous politician i have ever met. during 1984 visit to havana - - - books you may like include : - - - - one minute to midnight : kennedy, khrushchev and castro on the brink of nuclear war by michael dobbs. in october 1962, at the height of the cold war, the united states and the soviet union appeared to be sliding inexorably toward a nuclear conflict ove... the dark side of camelot by seymour m. hersh. if the kennedys are america ' s royal family, then john f. kennedy was the nation ' s crown prince. magnetic, handsome, and charismatic, his perfectly coi... brothers : the hidden history of the kennedy years by david talbot. for decades, books about john or robert kennedy have woven either a shimmering tale of camelot gallantry or a tawdry story of runaway ambition and rec... one hell of a gamble : khrushchev, kennedy, and castro, 1958 - 1964 by aleksandr fursenko. the berlin wall has been rubble for a decade and the memories of the cold war are growing dim. and yet no one is ever likely to forget the cuban miss...


here is an example of how to make a cylinder, naming it " rod " for future reference : the center of one end of this cylinder is at x = 0, y = 2, and z = 1. its axis lies along the x axis, with length 5, so that the other end of the cylinder is at ( 5, 2, 1 ), as shown in the accompanying diagram. you can modify the position of the cylinder after it has been created, which has the effect of moving it immediately to the new position : rod. pos = ( 15, 11, 9 ) # change position ( x, y, z ) rod. x = 15 # only change pos. x if you create an object such as a cylinder but without giving it a name such as rod, you can ' t refer to it later. this doesn ' t matter if you never intend to modify the object. since we didn ' t specify a color, the cylinder will be the current " foreground " color ( see controlling one or more visual display windows ). the default foreground color is white. after creating the cylinder, you can change its color : rod. color = ( 0, 0, 1 ) # make rod be blue this will make the cylinder suddenly turn blue, using the so - called rgb system for specifying colors in terms of fractions of red, green, and blue. ( for details on choosing colors, see specifying colors. ) you can set individual amounts of red, green, and blue like this : rod. red = 0. 4 rod. green = 0. 7 rod. blue = 0. 8 the cylinder object can be created with other, optional attributes, which can be listed in any order. here is a full list of attributes, most of which also apply to other objects : position : the center of one end of the cylinder ; default = ( 0, 0, 0 ) a triple, in parentheses, such as ( 3, 2, 5 ) axis the axis points from pos to the other end of the cylinder, default = ( 1, 0, 0 ) x, y, z essentially the same as pos. x, pos. y, pos. z, defaults are all 0 radius the radius of the cylinder, default = 1 length length of axis ; if not specified, axis determines the length, default = 1 if length is specified, it overrides the length given by axis color color of object, as a red - green - blue ( r


extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, as astronomer carl sagan once said. sagan was talking about ufos and aliens, but his words now stand as a watchword for skepticism in science. but how do we know when a claim is extraordinary? say, maybe when the aliens don ' t arrive from space? consider the controversial " arseniclife ", short for arsenic - based life, bacteria study. rather than arriving on a ufo, the microbe was unveiled at nasa headquarters, announced at an " astrobiology " news briefing on dec. 2, 2010, as " the first known microorganism on earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. " arsenic is a poison. how did the finding that the bacteria called gfaj - 1 replaced phosphorus, a basic chemical constituent of biochemistry, with arsenic even in its dna make its way into the hallowed journalscience, and onto the stage at nasa? the idea turned out to be too good to be true, as two studies also published by science that refuted the claim showed this summer. both showed that the microbe, discovered in california ' s mono lake, in fact seems to need some minuscule amount of phosphorus to survive. it ' s just tough, not completely alien, in its biochemistry. " science magazine is perhaps the most important publication in the united states for communicating science to the public. therefore, when science publishes something funded by nasa that is likely to broadly interest the public, nasa is effectively required to hold a press conference, " says chemist steven benner of the foundation for applied molecular evolution in gainesville, fla. benner served as the outside skeptical voice at the nasa press conference announcing the finding. " this all assumes, of course, a very high quality of peer review at science magazine, " benner says. and that might be the rub. a usa today investigation suggests that the problems with the arseniclife story started with science ' s " peer review " of the findings before it ever took the nasa stage. peer review is the basic process in science where anonymous outside experts eyeball a study for journal editors, acting as gatekeepers on publications. in the case of the 2010 gfaj - 1 study, three anonymous reviewers, along with science editor caroline ash, asked the authors 32 questions about the study, which were answered by the authors a month ahead of the press conference. and they made a few general comments on the paper. here are some : " the results are exceptional, " said reviewer 1. " it ' s a


important piece of work and also comment that it is clearly presented. " " judging from the quotes, the three reviewers were enthusiastic about the paper. indeed, these reviews would be described by most scientists as ' glowing, ' " says biologist patricia foster of indiana university in bloomington. in particular, she notes at least three striking things about the reviews lost in these glowing comments. " first, there is little biology mentioned - the reviewers questioned only mildly the authors ' assumption that there was too little phosphorus in the medium to support growth. this assumption was a major point of disagreement voiced by scientists after the paper appeared. " second, the reviewers didn ' t question wide variation in chemistry analysis of the medium that the bugs grew in ( specifically, how much contaminating phosphorous was in it ), something that later critics saw as a major shortcoming. finally, they only commented, rather than inquiring, on the biochemistry implied by the results, the central extraordinary claim that arsenic was acting in place of phosphorus in the metabolism of the gfaj - 1 bacteria. " in conclusion, i believe that nasa would have had no reason to doubt the results of the paper based on these reviews. in fact, nasa officials would have felt encouraged to publicize the paper, " foster says. foster does note that the study authors added a figure ( and a few more authors ) to the paper, suggesting the gfaj - 1 bug had arsenic in its dna, as a result of the review wanting to see more evidence of arsenic inside the bacteria. the figure became another point of controversy in the debate over the study. ( wager says that adding a new figure and authors is " perfectly acceptable " during peer review and wouldn ' t necessarily trigger a re - review of a study. ) basically, the reviewers took at face value the fundamental claim by the study authors that the gfaj - 1 bug was growing without any phosphorus, says microbial ecologist norman pace of the university of colorado. " once you accept that, everything else follows, " pace says. " you just have to have a certain expertise to know that is nearly impossible ; removing phosphorus is just very hard. " in general, pace says that he believes peer review improves studies and works as a " pretty strong " corrective to error in science. " there is lots of poor science out there, but important claims like this one are checked up on and proven true or false, as this ( arseniclife ) one was, so i think things are not actually so suspect out there


error in science. " there is lots of poor science out there, but important claims like this one are checked up on and proven true or false, as this ( arseniclife ) one was, so i think things are not actually so suspect out there in science. in essence, this was all found out in due course. my belief is the peer - review system is fundamentally sound. " regardless, pace says there was " poor judgment at multiple levels " in the arseniclife case, from an " overly exuberant " interpretation of the study results by the authors to the peer reviewers missing " the big crux of the results : the claim of absence of phosphorus, " to nasa repeating some of the mistakes that caused the agency trouble in 1996, when it publicized results suggesting a martian meteorite contained microscopic signs of life. still, pace had actually recommended the publication of that 1996 paper, he says. " i do think it is important to get noteworthy results out there. " in 2011, science editor - in - chief bruce alberts echoed that comment in a statement on the arseniclife study. " we hope that the study and the subsequent exchange being published today will stimulate further experiments - whether they support or overturn this conclusion. in either case, the overall result will advance our knowledge about conditions that support life, an important outcome for science and education, " alberts says. worth noting is that nasa scientist michael new and original study lead author wolfe - simon, now of the lawrence berkeley ( calif. ) national laboratory, both still supported the original 2010 study ' s findings this summer when the refuting studies were published. " science is continuously evaluating its peer - review policies and procedures with the goal of a rigorous and fair process, " magazine spokeswoman ginger pinholster said in response to questions about whether the journal has changed its peer - review practices since 2010. this year, the journal added an additional step to the review process. once all reviews are in on a manuscript, all the reviewers are invited to read them and comment. " this step allows the reviewers to react to the comments of the other reviewers and may help the editor to calibrate the reviewer comments, " pinholster says by e - mail. kruglyak cautions against looking back too harshly at the reviewers of the arseniclife study. " in hindsight we can see what went on, but that ' s how hindsight works, " kruglyak says. " it was a pretty spectacular claim. in the big picture, i ' m


what rh factor testing screens for the rh factor is a protein carried by red blood cells in some people, and not in others. if you have the protein, you are rh positive. if not, you are rh negative. ( and you are special : only about 15 percent of the population is rh negative. ) in blood typing, everyone is either type a, b, or o ; the plus or minus sign after the letter refers to the rh factor. both rh negative and rh positive are entirely normal, healthy blood characteristics. problems can arise, however, if an rh - negative mom - to - be carries an rh - positive baby. the mother ' s body may mistake the baby ' s blood cells as intruders and start making antibodies to attack them. left unchecked, this condition ( known as fetal rh disease ) can threaten the health of the baby. this almost never happens in a first pregnancy ( since the baby ' s blood is unlikely to enter the mom ' s bloodstream until delivery ). however, if untreated in the first pregnancy, it can threaten subsequent pregnancies. so as a preventive measure, all rh - negative women are given injections of a substance called rhogam ( rh - d immune globulin, which prevents the antibodies from forming ) at various times during each pregnancy — starting with the first. these injections save the lives of an estimated 10, 000 babies per year in the united states alone. who rh factor testing is forall pregnant women will have their rh factor determined. rh - negative woman will have follow - up testing and treatment. how rh factor testing is doneblood samples are taken from a vein in your arm. if you are rh - negative, a rhogam injection goes into your muscle tissue in your arm or your backside. you might be given a choice ; or your practitioner might favor one spot or the other. the injection is somewhat painful and the soreness can last for a couple of days. ask your practitioner about taking a pain reliever to alleviate the discomfort. when rh factor testing is done rh testing is usually done during a woman ' s first blood test during pregnancy. rhogam injections for rh - negative women are given at 28 or 29 weeks and again within 72 hours of delivery. the rhogam injection is also administered after any genetic testing that could result in mixing of maternal and fetal blood, such as cvs ( cho


pi : amy bower ( whoi ) deep ocean convection is limited to a small number of isolated regions worldwide, including the labrador sea, but it has a profound impact on the ocean ’ s thermohaline circulation and climate. while the convection process itself has been studied intensively over the last decade, the restratification of the water column after convection, which will directly impact convection during subsequent winters, is not as well - studied. it has recently been suggested that the decay of coherent, long - lived, anticyclonic eddies shed from a surrounding warm boundary current are potentially important in restratifying convection regions. this idea is most developed in the labrador sea, where anticyclonic eddies containing a core of warm, salty water from the irminger current ( a remnant of the gulf stream ) have been observed. the goal of the proposed research is to advance our understanding of the role of irminger rings in deep convection by collecting new information on their initial structure and on the evolution of their core properties as they propagate across the labrador sea. to meet this goal, we plan to deploy one densely instrumented mooring in the northeastern labrador sea near, but offshore of the eddy formation site to document the full water column hydrographic and velocity structure of about 12 new rings where they detach from the boundary and enter the interior. the mooring will also serve as the “ launch pad ” for the automatic release of a profiling float each time an eddy sweeps by the mooring. trapped within the eddies by the strong azimuthal velocities, the floats will track the eddy trajectories and measure changes in eddy core properties as they move from the formation site toward the convection region. when this research program is completed, we will have unprecedented information on the structure and heat and salt content of nascent irminger rings that have separated from the boundary, improved estimates of the heat and freshwater fluxes associated with rings, and new information on where and how their anomalous core properties are spread within the labrador sea. oceaninsight : irminger rings project overview link to oceaninsight irminger rings project overview popular science : fieldwork the unseen currents on the labrador sea, the scientific crew of the research vessel knorr hunts for underwater storms, sinks a two - mile mooring — and gathers clues to the planet ’ s fate. march, 2011. furey, h., a. bower, and t. mckee. an irminger


minimum inhibitory concentration minimum inhibitory concentration ( mic ), in microbiology, is the lowest concentration of an antimicrobial that will inhibit the visible growth of a microorganism after overnight incubation. minimum inhibitory concentrations are important in diagnostic laboratories to confirm resistance of microorganisms to an antimicrobial agent and also to monitor the activity of new antimicrobial agents. mics can be determined by broth dilution methods usually following the guidelines of a reference body such as the clsi, bsac or eucast. another, more modern method is the e - test method using strips of a gradient of antibiotic concentration. clinically, the minimum inhibitory concentrations are used not only to determine the amount of antibiotic that the patient will receive but also the type of antibiotic used, which in turn lowers the opportunity for microbial resistance to specific antimicrobial agents. - ↑ andrews, j. m. determination of minimum inhibitory concentrations. journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy 48 ( suppl. 1 ) : 5 - 16, ( 2001 ). pmid 11420333. there is no pharmaceutical or device industry support for this site and we need your viewer supported donations | editorial board | governance | licensing | disclaimers | avoid plagiarism | policies


these is a drawing of the interior of io. click on image for full size interior of io the diagram to the left shows the interior of io. when the galileo spacecraft flew by io it took measurements which showed that io was separated into two layers, as shown in this picture. thus scientists think that io has a large core, covered with a rocky material. there is no ice within io. shop windows to the universe science store! our online store on science education, ranging from evolution, classroom research, and the need for science and math literacy you might also be interested in : differentiation is a scientific term which really means " to separate ". in their earliest history, elements which made the planets would part into separate regions, if the planet were warm enough. this... more galileo is a spacecraft that has been orbiting jupiter for eight years. on september 21, 2003, galileo will crash into jupiter. it will burn up in jupiter ' s atmosphere. the crash is not an accident! the... more amalthea was discovered by e barnard in 1872. of the 17 moons it is the 3rd closest to jupiter. amalthea is about the size of a county or small state. amalthea is named after the goat in greek mythology... more callisto was first discovered by galileo in 1610. it is the 2nd largest moon in the solar system, and is larger than the earth ' s moon. it is about as big as the distance across the united states. callisto... more measurements by the galileo spacecraft have been shown that callisto is the same inside from the center to the surface. this means that callisto does not have a core at the center. this means that, unlike... more many different types of surface are shown in this picture. in the front is a huge crater, which goes for a long way over the surface. this crater could be compared to that of mimas. they both show that... more the surface of callisto is deeply marked with craters. craters are the little white marks in the picture. it looks like it might be the most heavily cratered body in the whole solar system. and some of... more


a new look at the human genome suggests that unappreciated variations in its fundamental architecture, rather than point - by - point mutations, may be responsible for most genetic difference among people. point - by - point mutations, called single nucleotide polymorphisms, involve simple changes to dna lettering. they ' re the best - studied type of variation, the target of most genomic disease hunts, and the substance of commercially available personal more complex yet less - studied are structural variations, which involve large - scale changes : wholesale duplications and reversals, or unexpected additions and omissions, of long dna sequences. traditional genome sequencing techniques are too fuzzy and piecemeal to make sense of these, yet " our observations suggest that structural variations are more specific to individuals than single nucleotide polymorphisms are, " wrote researchers led by jun wang of the beijing genomics institute in a 24 july nature biotechnology study. it might seem counterintuitive that big changes have been harder to detect than small ones, but it ' s a consequence of how genomes are read. every method involves breaking long dna sequences - - the human genome contains three billion dna pairs - - into pieces, then trying to reassemble them. the methods vary according to fragment size and reassembly technique, but as a rule it ' s far less expensive and time - intensive to use small fragments. as a result, most genomic studies, including genome - wide association surveys, involve sequences reassembled from small pieces. as with a jigsaw puzzle or a book, however, larger fragments would work better. if the pieces are too small, or the text blocks just a few letters long, it ' s difficult to be certain what the final product ought to look like. it ' s possible to compare two pieces, but not puzzle sections or paragraphs. " one reason you ' ve heard more about single nucleotide polymorphisms, that they ' ve come to the fore even though they ' re a more minor form of variation than these structural variants, is that they were easier to see, " said yale university bioinformaticist mark gerstein, who was not involved in the in the new study, wang and colleagues used algorithms that assemble long, relatively intact genome sequences from small fragments, allowing them to see more structural variation than is usually possible. in a high - profile earlier study, they ' d used it to sequence a giant panda genome ; this time they compared structural variations across 106 people from the 1000


this teacher - submitted, secondary lesson plan appeared in the badger history bulletin. please adapt it to fit your students ' needs. author : joni shahrani, sennett middle school, madison students will investigate the meaning of " change " in our society and grasp the way wisconsin ' s progressive traditions have affected changes in many aspects of life. they will make the connection between wisconsin as a progressive leader, and the inventions and legislative acts that are documented on the wisconsin firsts poster. then students will choose one of the items listed on the poster to research and report on in class. this lesson plan requires two to three class periods. students will gain a greater understanding of how change can be viewed in society. students will think critically and make intelligent inferences. students will be able to distinguish between industrial and legislative firsts. students will analyze and draw conclusions about how these " firsts " reflect the wisconsin people who made and used them. the wisconsin firsts poster has been created by the office of school services for students of all ages. the following lesson idea can motivate middle - level students to discuss and research the great state of wisconsin. - begin the lesson by asking students these questions : - what is change? - why is there change? - lead students to the idea that change can be anything new and innovative. - once students understand a good working definition of change, ask them if change will happen more easily if it benefits an individual or a large number of people? why? now have students also generate a working definition for the word " progressive. " at this point, ask students to draw parallels between their working definitions of " change " and " progressive. " enable students to understand that the state of wisconsin is seen as a progressive state in many areas. display the wisconsin firsts poster to show the many wisconsin firsts. these " firsts " exhibit why wisconsin is considered a progressive state. now ask students to brainstorm categories of " firsts " from the poster. two categories that work well are " inventions " and " legislative firsts. " there will be a few " firsts " that will not fit into these two categories. direct individual or pairs of students to research the " first " of their choice. their research should explain what the innovation was and its impact on industry and human rights, or laws. the information from these reports can be related to middle school history curriculum such as industrialism and reforms in the united states. - help students to see that change is much easier on a society if many people benefit as opposed to


century dictionary and cyclopedia - n. the destroyer : a name given ( only in rev. ix. 11 ) to the angel of the bottomless pit, answering to the hebrew abaddon. gnu webster ' s 1913 - n. the destroyer ; - - a name used ( rev. ix. 11 ) for the angel of the bottomless pit, answering to the hebrew - ancient greek απολλυων ( " apollyon, the destroyer " ), from απολλυμι ( " destroy " ) ( wiktionary ) “ apollyon comes from a greek word meaning the destroyer. ” “ now, phineas, be content ; apollyon is beaten down. ” “ “ have you ever heard of a company called apollyon associates? ” ” “ in revelation he is the king of hell, for says the apostle, " and they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the hebrew tongue is abaddon, but in the greek tongue hath his name apollyon " ( rev. 9 : 1. 1 ). ” “ for what is the very name apollyon, but an occult prophecy concerning the great conqueror of europe! nothing can be plainer! ” “ without entering upon the thing in its reality, i shall only observe, 1st, that it is neither in his power, or of his nature, to be a saviour of men ' s lives ; he is called apollyon the destroyer. ” “ without entering upon the thing in its reality, i shall only observe ; that it is neither in his power or of his nature to be a saviour of men ' s lives ; he is called apollyon the destroyer. ” “ the leader of this legion of tormenting scorpions was apollyon, meaning “ the destroyer. ” ” “ be warned though that it investigates the heavy sounds even more ( " apollyon " ). ” “ his voice is strongest on the golden gate bridge ; if you stop and look down you can hear the whisper of apollyon. ” ‘ apollyon ’ hasn ' t been added to any lists yet. looking for tweets for apollyon.