a sukkah ( booth for the festival of sukkos ). they levied special taxes and / or fines on lulavs and esrogs, the species needed for the festival of sukkos. these and other laws were passed expressly to diminish jewish life. worse than the laws themselves was the climate of anti - semitism they bred. when hitler came he found a ready climate of anti - semitism that made it easy for the nazis to disenfranchise the jews. jews in western europe jews in germany between the wars were in turmoil. a great section of the german people refused to admit that they had been defeated in the first world war. they said the only reason they lost was because someone sold them out. the “ someone ” who sold them out was of course the jews. one of the men who signed the armistice was a jew and he was soon assassinated. even though his assassins were known they were never arrested. the weimar republic, which was the new democratic government set up after the war, was very weak and ineffective. germany was wracked by tremendous inflation. there are famous photographs of germans going to shop with wheelbarrows full of cash. a person needed millions and millions of marks just to buy a loaf of bread. the general german culture in the 1920s was strongly anti - semitic, but the jews nevertheless lived there with a false sense of security, believing that nothing would ever come of it. they did not realize the potential for disaster that was just under the surface. during the 1920s, until the time of hitler, intermarriage between jews and non - jews reached new heights. combined with jewish deaths in the first world war and a steep decline in the jewish birth rate, jewish life weakened markedly. there was also a large defection of jews from the jewish religion. it is hard to know why it happened. on one hand, it could have been because of persecution and anti - semitism, and on the other hand it was because of assimilation. but, whatever the cause, there was a flood of defections. the closing door it would be incorrect to say that the jews did not want to leave europe. they did. however, there was virtually nowhere to go and no way to get there. from 1920 to 1926 almost a million jews left europe. about 60 % came to the united states, 25 % went to palestine and the rest to various places all over the world. in 1926, the united states closed its doors and made it much more difficult for


for our project to understand pigmentation genetics in archaic humans, we had to find a good comparative sample of sequence data from recent humans. the original publication on the draft neandertal genomes compared them to five low - coverage genomes from different old world populations, along with the publicly available genomes from craig venter and others. the first publication on the denisova genome added an additional handful of genomes to these comparisons. some of these handful of genomes from living people are more similar to the neandertal and denisova genomes than others. that simple fact is the proof that some living people have neandertal and denisovan ancestors. but until now, the comparison has been limited to a very small number of human genomes. that became a focus for critics of the neandertal and denisovan results. how could three or four genome sequences possibly provide an adequate representation of human variability? we could imagine scenarios in which the similarities between neandertal and humans could be explained by some unsampled population, for example, northeast africans. denisova does not present the same problem, because african population structure cannot possibly explain its resemblance to populations in wallacea, australia, and oceania. but to compare either of these genomes, we should seek a broader sampling of genomes from living people. as i wrote yesterday, my students and i have been working to understand pigmentation genetics of the archaic human genomes ( " pigmentation of archaic humans : introduction " ). i ' ve emphasized the need to break the analysis into small steps. for this question, we need to examine whether the pattern of introgression around pigmentation genes is characteristic of the genome as a whole. if genes involved in pigmentation have systematically higher or lower levels of neandertal ancestry, that will tell us a lot about the evolutionary history of pigmentation in recent and archaic humans. for this, we need a good comparative sample, and the 1000 genomes project provides the best sample available. the first step in assessing the pattern of introgression for pigmentation genes is to characterize the pattern of introgression across the whole genome. yes, a whole - genome introgression analysis sounds awfully big for my " small steps " concept. but actually this is simpler than it might sound. here ' s a teaser : the figures in this post are not from a whole - genome analysis ; they include data from eight chromosomes that we prioritized because of our pigmentation analysis. i am licensing all of them under a creative commons share


. here ' s a teaser : the figures in this post are not from a whole - genome analysis ; they include data from eight chromosomes that we prioritized because of our pigmentation analysis. i am licensing all of them under a creative commons sharealike license so that anyone can use them anywhere. update ( 2011 - 12 - 10 ) : i finished the whole genome analysis and am updating this post and figures accordingly. the results are the same throughout, with the exception of the europe - east asia comparison, which now shows these populations to be significantly different across the genome as a whole. i have partially updated the figures and will finish these later today. the value of sequences the 1000 genomes project data have been updated several times in the last year, as both sequencing and analysis of the genomes have progressed ( more information on 1000 genomes project website ). we downloaded a release of snp genotype calls from 1094 individuals, based on the low - coverage ( average 4x ) sequencing that has been carried out on the sample. a snp ( single nucleotide polymorphism ) is a nucleotide site with at least two alleles present in the global human sample. these sites represent only one kind of genetic variation in today ' s populations. many of the differences between people ' s genes are caused by insertions, duplications, deletions, transpositions, or inversions. but those kinds of polymorphisms can be challenging to study in low - coverage genomes, and we already understand quite a lot about snps in human populations from the earlier hapmap project. the hapmap provided the data underlying our 2007 paper on the acceleration of recent human evolution ( " why human evolution accelerated " ). the drawback of earlier snp variation projects is that they examined only a subset of snp variation in a sample of people. to design a microchip that could provide a million or more snp genotypes from a saliva sample, somebody first had to discover where in the genome snps could be found. so they took small samples of people, sometimes only a single person ' s two copies of the genome, and sequenced. adding together snps found by several methods, they could get a representation of snp variation across the whole genome in a population. but this process introduced a bias : the snps were ascertained in a sample that inevitably could not represent humans in other samples with the same accuracy. initially, snp samples were heavily biased


we could tell whether incomplete lineage sorting is a credible explanation for any particular site. i ' ll leave that point for another post. in the meantime, if we pretend that we know nothing at all about the ages of alleles, we must find some other way to tell whether incomplete lineage sorting can explain neandertal similarities. reich and colleagues recognized that incomplete lineage sorting from ancient pre - neandertal ancestors ought to be distributed equally among living people. if we look at every site in the genome where we have data from neandertals, we should find that one living human genome should look like the neandertal just as often as another. this insight led to their test. take a pair of humans, count the number of times sequence a is like the neandertal and sequence b is like a chimpanzee, and then do the inverse — b then a. abba - baba. why a chimpanzee? in most cases the chimpanzee allele will represent the ancestral state for humans. living people can inherit ancestral alleles from neandertals as well as derived ones, but the derived ones tend to be rarer and younger within human populations. if one living genome shares an ancestral allele with the neandertal genome, we don ' t need incomplete lineage sorting or introgression to explain the pattern. for all we know, such a mutation originated after neandertals were already gone. so we need to pay attention to the derived mutations, ones that are present in neandertals but not in chimpanzees. do a count of these across the genome, and if you find a living genome with significantly more than another, you ' ve found evidence for introgression. ed green, david reich and colleagues did a comparison of every possible pair of genomes in their modern human sample. these sequence data were gappy, so that sequence a might share different coverage with b than with sequence c. so it was necessary to consider each pair separately, counting all the sites where both human sequence and the neandertal and chimpanzee sequences had data. the 1000 genomes project sample reports genotypes for every snp for every sampled individual. so in principle, every pair of sequences should have data for every one of these sites. again, we have to be cautious about the nature of the sequencing, attending to the possibility of systematic biases due to low coverage. but we really don ' t have to take the time - consuming step of comparing every possible pair


of these sites. again, we have to be cautious about the nature of the sequencing, attending to the possibility of systematic biases due to low coverage. but we really don ' t have to take the time - consuming step of comparing every possible pair of the 2188 resulting haploid genomes. we can just find the derived snp alleles that are present in neandertals and count how many of them are in each of the human sequences. if one sequence has significantly more neandertal derived alleles than another, it had to get them somehow. that magic three percent the figure at the top of the post represents that count. every individual in the 1000 genomes project dataset has two copies of the autosomal genome. separating these two copies of the genome ( basically arbitrarily ) and counting up the shared derived features between each of those copies and the genome of vindija 33. 16, we obtain the histogram. here it is again : the african genomes in the 1000 genomes sample include yoruba from nigeria and luhya from kenya. the asian populations sampled are japanese and chinese, including people of han chinese ethnicity in beijing and southern china. the european ancestry samples include the ceu sample from utah, as well as british, tuscan, spanish and finn samples. the histogram shows that asian and european genomes have significantly more neandertal derived snp alleles than do the african genomes. the averages for the asian and european samples are around 3 % higher than the average for the african samples. whatever gave africans some degree of similarity to neandertals, non - africans seem to have gotten around 3 % more of it. green and colleagues assumed conservatively that africans share derived snp alleles with neandertals only because of incomplete lineage sorting from the human - neandertal ancestral population. this fraction should be the same in all human populations, under the assumption that africans were mostly isolated from neandertals for some period of time. the 3 % neandertal bonus outside africa should then represent introgression from neandertals into recent populations outside africa. both previous studies noted that genomes outside africa are not significantly different in the fraction of derived snp alleles shared with neandertals. a genome from china and a genome from france carried the same fraction of shared derived snp alleles with neandertals. here, we ' ve confirmed that basic identity in the level of introgression in these populations. i


some of the 1000 genomes project samples are from populations that represent historically recent admixture of people who trace their ancestry to different parts of the world. for example, the " asw " population sample includes african - american people who live in the southwest united states. we know from many other genetic studies that african - americans vary in the fraction of ancestry they derive from europeans and from africans. the average amount of african and european ancestry varies among african - americans who live in different parts of the u. s., as low as 3 % and as high as 20 % or more in some parts of the country. the proportion among individuals varies even more. so when we consider the asw sample, we should expect to see a lot of variation in the number of shared derived snp alleles with neandertals, with a mean higher than african populations. which is exactly what we do see : the asw sample overlaps substantially with the yoruba sample from west africa ( nigeria ) and slightly with the ceu sample, which includes people of european ancestry in utah. the total in the asw genomes is more variable than either the yoruba or ceu population samples. if the higher mean in the asw genomes reflects european ancestry from a population like ceu, the proportion of european ancestry would be around 17 % for that sample of people. it would be hard to tell from these numbers alone how much of the variation in asw is attributable to variation in ancestry fraction, and how much is expected within a population of homogeneous ancestry. as we ' ll see in some other populations, there are some appreciable differences among populations within a given region, and ancestry differences may add to the variation among individuals within populations. we see a similar pattern when we look at the puerto rican sample. individuals in this sample have some ancestry from european, native american and african ancestors. the comparisons by reich and colleagues and green and colleagues suggested that native american populations have the same fraction of neandertal ancestry as other people outside africa. in the comparison with yri and ceu samples, puerto rican ( pur ) genomes are intermediate, with a mean suggesting around 15 % ancestry from the west african population. the two outlier points in the puerto rican sample are the two genome copies from one individual, who we would hypothesize had much higher african ancestry than the average in the sample. this post has taken me much longer than i expected to get to the point of talking about variation among


" populations across the region are much lower than in 2011, " said ed gorman, small game manager for colorado parks and wildlife. " this area was stricken by a dry winter in 2011 - 12, and extreme heat and drought during the primary nesting and brood rearing season in the summer of 2012. hunters in northeast colorado will see impacts of drought in the fields this season, in terms of bird numbers and cover availability, but may find better populations of pheasants in the irrigated croplands of the south platte river valley in 2012. " northeast colorado ( including yuma, phillips, sedgwick, logan, washington, morgan and se weld counties ) experienced a very early spring, yielding good nesting conditions. however, brood habitat was nearly non - existent except in areas with irrigated cropland. reports of hens with no broods or only one or two chicks were common during an early wheat harvest. the severe drought condition resulted in emergency haying and grazing authorization by the united states department of agriculture ' s conservation reserve program ( crp ) lands in mid july, further reducing habitat on the landscape. drought conditions did not recede during the late summer period, resulting in little re - growth of crp and scarce weed growth in wheat stubble fields. the south platte river corridor ( eastern morgan, washington, logan, sedgwick counties ) appears to have improved bobwhite quail populations over 2011. this year is the second season since flooding, which generally improves quail habitat. hunters should expect less cover within the river itself due to drought, but there are some indications that quail numbers are better than the last few years. hunters in east central colorado ( southern yuma, kit carson, cheyenne, kiowa counties ) face much lower populations than in 2011, due to the scorching dryness and vast amounts of haying and grazing of crp, severely reducing the amount of available habitat. pheasant densities will increase within the areas that provide sprinkler irrigation fields. expect populations to be at least 50 percent lower, at a minimum, than in 2011. it ' s important to note that many wia areas in kiowa county are enrolled primarily for light goose hunting, including some fields that offer little cover for pheasants and quail. quail populations are present within the extreme southern reaches of this area, whereas few bobwhites or scaled quail exist in the northern counties of kit carson and cheyenne. finally, hunting in the extreme southeast


pheasants and quail. quail populations are present within the extreme southern reaches of this area, whereas few bobwhites or scaled quail exist in the northern counties of kit carson and cheyenne. finally, hunting in the extreme southeast colorado counties ( baca & prowers counties ) could provide opportunity due to nearly normal precipitation in some areas. haying and grazing of crp lands within the area was very common during the summer of 2012. expect that pheasant populations to be higher in areas with sprinkler irrigation systems. quail populations in the extreme southeast may be slightly higher than in 2011, although both bobwhites and scaled quail were reduced by the severe winter of 2006 - 07 and by a drastically dry 2008 and 2010. the degree of recovery is difficult to assess at this point, although the general feeling is that quail populations are still low in the area, with very small areas that are better than expected. colorado ' s pheasant and quail seasons open one - half hour before sunrise on saturday, nov. 10. the seasons run through jan. 31, 2013 east of i - 25. hunters must have a colorado small game license and must have completed hunter education to participate in the seasons. small - game hunters in colorado are also required to register for the harvest information program ( hip ) before hunting. hunters can register and receive a hip number by going on - line to http : / / colohip. com or by calling toll - free at 866 - colo - hip ( 866 - 265 - 6447 ). hunters take note : due to the severe drought, wildfire danger is very high. please do not park on or drive through vegetation. refrain from smoking while in the field. also note that wia sprinkler corners are closed to wia hunting when the landowner is harvesting the associated crop. this closure is in effect to allow harvesters to work efficiently, and to minimize safety concerns for hunters and harvesters. corners are posted with closure signs in addition to wia boundary signs.


twentieth - century america was the era of civil rights. the national american woman suffrage association was formed in 1890 by the merger of several smaller predecessors. in 1906, a group of german jewish americans came together to advocate on behalf of russian jewish pogrom victims. this was the beginning of the american jewish committee. following the springfield race riots of 1908, w. e. b. du bois and others founded the national association for the advancement of colored people. the national urban league was founded in 1911 to ameliorate the living conditions of newly urbanized african americans and, in 1913, during the leo frank rape case, the anti - defamation league was established by the b ’ nai b ’ rith. these and other subsequent organizations changed the nature of america by challenging america to live up to its ideals. prior to these organizations ’ efforts, america was a white - male - protestant christian - led country, in which everyone else was a more - or - less tolerated guest of the dominant group. during the course of the past century, first one group and then another broke through the legal barriers that discriminated against them. american jews and american jewish organizations played prominent roles in every civil rights struggle during this period. american jewish organizations determined that “ the best way to protect jewish populations in danger would be to work toward a world in which all peoples were accorded respect and dignity, ” according to the ajc web site. the age - old fight against anti - semitism thus became part of the larger fight against all forms of bigotry and in support of ( american ) democratic ideals and the protection of civil rights for all. by the approximate end of the 20th century, america truly was on the verge of reaching a benchmark for the ideals set forth, but not necessarily anticipated, by the founding fathers. geraldine ferraro, joseph lieberman and barack obama are proof of our having formally reached our country ’ s highest aspirations, even if a broader application of universal equality still lies ahead in a hopefully not - too - distant future. but what do the persecution, oppression and legal discrimination of the 20th century mean to a younger generation that didn ’ t have to endure and transcend such suffering? and, with israel playing the role of regional superpower rather than that of a fledgling state beset on all sides, will its concerns resonate with a group that did not witness its traumatic birth and its struggle to survive? what issues will captivate and motivate our future leaders and community members? and what of these organizations that championed a


what is the best book for identifying british butterflies and moths? unfortunately there is no single book that covers the subject, but i can recommend two, one on butterflies and one on moths. the best reference book for butterflies is, in my opinion, " the butterflies of britain & ireland " by jeremy thomas and richard lewington. this is published in association with the national trust and costs £16. 99. for moths there is the " field guide to the moths of great britain and ireland " by paul waring and martin townsend, with illustrations by richard lewington. this costs £29. 95. until i got this book two years ago i used to struggle with moth identifications ( and still do but to a far lesser extent! ). apart from that, there is also " colour identification to the moths of the british isles " by bernard skinner. this costs around £40, and is useful for showing details of the under wings, whereas the waring and townsend book shows the moths at rest, with their wings folded, just as you will encounter them. what kind of trap do you use? i use a robinson trap, which many people consider to be the rolls - royce of moth traps. the downside is that it costs the best part of £400, though it is sometimes possible to purchase one much cheaper through the internet. there are other traps, the skinner and the actinic. the skinner works on the same principle as the robinson and though less efficient is a much cheaper trap. the actinic uses a low light emission lamp and has the advantage of portability, since it is relatively small and can be operated from a car battery. the other two require mains electricity or a generator. are the moths harmed by the traps? certainly not! trapping moths is in order to study and record them, not destroy them. what happens is that they are attracted to the light and then go inside the trap to roost. they will ( usually! ) remain there until daybreak or until the light is switched off, then they make their way out. after the identification and counting process is completed, they are placed under cover so that they remain protected from predators, especially birds, and can leave in their own time, though most will stay put until the early evening before departing. so you don ' t kill them and use pins to stick them on boards? again, certainly not! it is true that sometimes moths are forwarded for an inspection for scientific reasons that can, unfortunately, entail them being killed, but personally i


so you don ' t kill them and use pins to stick them on boards? again, certainly not! it is true that sometimes moths are forwarded for an inspection for scientific reasons that can, unfortunately, entail them being killed, but personally i have never done this. if you want to " collect " moths and butterflies, do it with the camera. how many moths do you get in the trap? the highest number i have ever had is over 600, but that is unusual. during the peak period from july to september a normal count would be between 1, 000 and 250. but you have to be prepared for nights when you get nothing at all. generally speaking, warm, humid summer nights are when the highest numbers occur. what is the highest number you have ever trapped of a single species? i had 237 large yellow underwings one night in september 2005. that was higher than normal, but around here to get over 100 of this species is not uncommon. do moths only fly during the night? definitely not. there are several day - flying species of moth, in fact one of the most common moths i get asked to identify is the six - spot burnet, which is a very common day - flying moth found along the north downs in kent. another, though not yet seen in kent, is the jersey tiger, which has started to colonise counties in the south - west as far inland as gloucestershire. i saw dozens of them in the gardens of hidcote manor some years ago, which were proving a great puzzle to other visitors striving to identify this strange " butterfly ". what is the best way to attract butterflies into my garden? there is a whole range of suitable plants that will certainly attract butterflies ( and moths ) of certain species, but what they really like are places that have been left untended. many modern species of plants are totally unsuitable for butterflies because they either do not provide the nectar or because it is there but the butterflies can ' t reach it. some plants they find unattractive, perhaps because they are the wrong colours. for an example, the cultivated buddleias in my garden get a fraction of the butterflies on them compared with one growing wild just a few hundred yards away. the royal horticultural society publishes a booklet on some of the plants that you can grow, which you may find a help. there seem to be a lot less butterflies around than there were when i was younger. is this really the case? unfortunately it is. butterflies and moths have been on the decline for many


plants that you can grow, which you may find a help. there seem to be a lot less butterflies around than there were when i was younger. is this really the case? unfortunately it is. butterflies and moths have been on the decline for many years, not helped by recent weather patterns in which we have had a series of cold springs and autumns. this has had a detrimental effect on butterflies such as the small tortoiseshell and red admiral, which hibernate and emerge to lay their eggs in the spring, the butterflies from which, in their turn, are the generation that lays the eggs for the later brood hibernating the following winter. thus they suffer at both ends of the cycle. even more important than numbers is the sharp decline in the variety of butterfly species. within the last couple of years it is likely that the pearl - bordered fritillary, which was just hanging on in woods near canterbury, has finally become extinct in kent. two others, the wall and the grayling, are now only seen in the very south - east part of the county along the coast in diminishing numbers, while others, the duke of burgundy fritillary, heath fritillary and silver - spotted skipper are confined to just a few enclaves. several others are becoming increasingly rare, among them the grizzled skipper, small copper, dark green fritillary and small heath. what camera do you use? i use a fujifilm s5000 digital camera. although not an ideal camera in several respects it is affordable and with a little perseverance can take superb photographs. the main drawback is that it switches itself off automatically while you are waiting to take a picture, and then has to be turned on again. when taking photographs of any form of wildlife this can be a constant irritation as the subject can choose that moment to take off so you miss your chance. another is that you get a shadow at the bottom of the picture when using flashlight for close - ups ( and hence i rarely try to use it ). also, the zoom does not give such good results in macro mode ( or maybe that is just me being inept? ). are there any special tips for photographing butterflies and moths? yes - take lots of photos while you have the chance and, where possible, try changing the background and the position with respect to the light. i have sometimes taken 50 or more photos in order to get the one excellent one you see on the website. another is to inspect the photos you have


the chance and, where possible, try changing the background and the position with respect to the light. i have sometimes taken 50 or more photos in order to get the one excellent one you see on the website. another is to inspect the photos you have just take immediately afterwards, because can be quite infuriating to find they are all out of focus after the moth has flown away. do butterflies and moths make easy subjects for photography? well yes and no! most moths are fairly docile during the day and will readily submit to being picked up on a pencil gently inserted beneath their body and deposited on a suitable surface. others are just the opposite and will either fly away if disturbed, or, in the case of moths, immediately head for cover. a moth has many enemies and to survive it has keep still and to try to blend in with its background or it has to hide. i have seen a caterpillar with a big sting on the tail - is this harmful? no, but you and any potential predators are encouraged to think that it is! these are the caterpillars of the hawk - moths and it is an appendage meant to look just like a sting. it certainly worked in your case. you are far more likely to be " stung " by other caterpillars, some of which can secret a liquid that causes skin irritations. as a rule of thumb, avoid using your bare hands to pick up caterpillars with lots of yellow markings. is the main difference between butterflies and moths that butterflies close their wings vertically and moths close them flat? you might expect that to be the case but it is not true. skipper butterflies do not close their wings vertically, instead they rest with the upper wing open at an angle of around 30o. on the other hand, several moths of the geometrid family, which is the one closest to butterflies in many respects, can close their wings vertically and in many other ways including colour can resemble butterflies. hence why i am sometimes asked about the big green butterfly that has been seen, which, of course, is a large emerald moth


uk germination toolbox - about the database the millennium seed bank partnership has successfully collected and stored seed samples from around 90 % of the united kingdom ’ s native seed plant species, as a hedge against extinction and as a conservation resource. the ‘ missing ’ species produce either no seeds at all ; or seeds that cannot be stored conventionally ; or are too rare, or fruit too infrequently for seed collections to have been made without threatening their survival. as well as further collecting to increase bio - geographic and genetic coverage of those species already in the bank, efforts are also continuing, to locate and bank collectable samples from those last few, elusive species. in this database, the naming and definition of uk native species follows the plantatt database ( hill, preston and roy, 2004 ) ; and includes species designated there as native ( n ), native endemic ( ne ) or archaeophyte ( ar ; introduced before 1500ad ) – 1442 species. at present casuals, aliens and more recent introductions are not included. germination tests are central to the routine management of seeds collected for the purpose of their conservation. as well as being the most useful means of monitoring seed viability over time in storage ; they also provide essential information towards the propagation of new plants. ultimately, seeds in a bank, even though they may be perfectly viable, will be of little use if we do not know how to grow new plants from them. the msbp aims to promote conservation by enabling the sustainable use of seeds in the bank, not least for the re - introduction of native species and restoration of degraded natural and semi - natural vegetation. consequently, this database is intended as a resource for all those who need to propagate uk native species from seed : researchers ; conservationists attempting to restore native species and vegetation ; horticulturalists, including those commercial nurseries specialising in growing and supplying uk native species. it will also be useful for researchers in comparative and evolutionary ecology, seeking germination trait data. the ‘ toolbox ’ is comprised of information on germination from up to three available sources. 1. msb germination tests the main purpose of this database is to share the msb ’ s germination data on uk species with potential users. so, wherever they are available, a search returns a summary of the conditions applied in successful msb germination tests. by and large the conditions ( mostly temperatures ) returned by a search for a particular species will be those that resulted in at least 75 %


wherever they are available, a search returns a summary of the conditions applied in successful msb germination tests. by and large the conditions ( mostly temperatures ) returned by a search for a particular species will be those that resulted in at least 75 % germination ( i. e. the msb viability standard is passed ). the tests ‘ accepted ’ by the msb are usually those that are easiest to apply and repeat ; wherever possible avoiding complicated temperature regimes, or the application of dormancy - breaking chemicals, for example. please note that the successful germination conditions presented almost always do not result from designed experiments with controls. thus, they do not exclude other potentially equally successful conditions that have not been tried ; nor are unsuccessful conditions reported at present. in a few cases the successful germination conditions result from tests on collections of species native to the uk, but originating elsewhere, usually in europe. 2. information from published literature despite the msb ’ s high coverage of uk native species, successful germination conditions are not yet available for some of them. this is sometimes due to as yet intractable dormancy problems in certain species – and research continues on these. more frequently, the collections currently held of those species are too small ( < 500 seeds ) to commit any of them to germination testing, without jeopardising the value of the conservation collection. in such cases, where there is published information available, the database will return a summary of the conditions found to be successful in other laboratories. this part of the database currently relies heavily on the extensive compilation and analysis of published literature by baskin & baskin ( 1998 ), with further updates to 2001 kindly provided by the authors ( cf. baskin & baskin, 2003a ). updates beyond that date are from the msb ’ s own literature searches, which are ongoing, and will be added to the database in due course. some published germination treatments for uk native species is for material not collected in the uk. 3. predicting likely successful temperature regimes worldwide, around one third of all wild species studied are not exacting in their germination requirements ; and this is probably also true of uk species. so long as they have sufficient moisture and a broadly favourable temperature, they are relatively easy to germinate fully. the remainder possess varying degrees of several different kinds of dormancy, presumed to result from evolution to ensure that seedlings emerge when they are most likely to survive, and often also to ensure that emergence is spread over time (


to germinate fully. the remainder possess varying degrees of several different kinds of dormancy, presumed to result from evolution to ensure that seedlings emerge when they are most likely to survive, and often also to ensure that emergence is spread over time ( ‘ bet hedging ’ ). synchronous germination to a high percentage is often quite difficult to achieve for these species. however, optimal germination temperature and dormancy breaking conditions are often related to local climatic conditions ; and these can suggest likely successful germination conditions. for example ; seeds of tropical dry - land species, shed at the beginning of the dry season, often require an extended period of relatively high temperature in the dry state before germination occurs in the subsequent rainy season. this requirement appears to be an adaptation to avoid germination in response to sporadic, unreliable rainfall during the dry season, when emerging seedlings would probably be killed by drought. similarly, cool temperate species shed in autumn may delay germination until temperatures begin to rise in the early spring, by having a requirement for an extended period at low temperature ( ‘ cold stratification ’ ) before germination can occur, mimicking the passage of winter and the risk of frost damage to sensitive seedlings. application of temperature regimes related to seasonal climate cycles forms the basis of ‘ move - along ’ experiments ( e. g., baskin & baskin, 2003b ) ; in which seeds, imbibed on a moist substrate, are transferred between a succession of incubators, running at temperatures that approximate to local conditions at the source of the seeds. the start point in the temperature regime is set at the conditions pertaining when seeds are shed naturally ( ≈ collected ) in the field. to help users predict likely successful temperature sequences, they are able to enter the latitude and longitude of the source of their seed collection ( if known ; input restricted to decimal degrees at present ), as well as month of collection. the system will return the monthly mean minimum and maximum as well as corresponding median temperatures. this facility is mainly to allow users to make predictions of likely germination conditions in the absence of information from msb germination tests msb. however, they can also be used in conjunction with msb records and published data, where they exist. the temperature values are provided by ‘ worldclim ’ ( hijmans et al., 2005 ) ; which uses an algorithm to compute interpolated, or modelled, temperature and rainfall data from real data compiled from weather


, where they exist. the temperature values are provided by ‘ worldclim ’ ( hijmans et al., 2005 ) ; which uses an algorithm to compute interpolated, or modelled, temperature and rainfall data from real data compiled from weather station records worldwide, at high ( 1km ) spatial resolution. properties of the algorithm and uneven distribution of climate stations mean that uncertainty is highest for small islands and mountainous regions. the database currently does not return interpolated monthly rainfall amounts for uk locations, as rainfall appears to have very limited value in predicting germination period in the uk. especially in seasonal climates, rainfall amounts can give an indication of relatively dry periods ( when germination would be less likely ) ; or relatively moist periods, when seedling emergence is likely to take place in the field. rainfall is more evenly distributed throughout the year in the uk ; and though observed mostly in spring and autumn, newly emerged seedlings of some species can be seen at any time of the year, even during mild weather in winter. worldwide, observations of species ’ seedling emergence timing are scarce or mostly non - existent ; whereas it is often quite well documented for uk species ( e. g. ecoflora ). keep up to date with events and news from kew


staff picks : books staff - recommended reading from the buddha, jesus, aristotle, and stoicism reading some of the passages from the dhammapada ( collected wisdom of the buddha ), i found some interesting parallels : ( 1 ) “ by one ’ s self the evil is done, by one ’ s self one suffers ; by one ’ s self evil is left undone, by one ’ s self one is purified. the pure and the impure stand and fall by themselves, no one can purify another. ” this sounds exactly like the stoicism of marcus aurelius, but also jesus in the gospels : “ by your own words you shall be judged... by what measure you measure others, shall be measured unto you. " ( 2 ) “ let a man, after he has discerned his own duty, be always attentive to his duty. ” again, classic stoicism, but this sounds like immanuel kant ' s moral philosophy, who was obsessed with the concept of duty. philosophy is finding out, by reason, what our duties are ; and the truly good person does their duty for the sake of duty alone. which reminds me of a much older saying : " know thyself, and do thy duty " [ who said that? ]. ( 3 ) “ the virtuous man is happy in this world … ” sounds like aristotle, who thought the only road to true happiness was contemplating and practicing virtue constantly. the wisdom of the buddha


dalai lama fast facts here is a look at the life of his holiness, the 14th dalai lama tenzin gyatso, spiritual leader of the people of tibet. personal : birth date : july 6, 1935 birth place : taktser, amdo province, tibet birth name : lhamo dhondrub, renamed jetsun jamphel ngawang lobsang yeshe tenzin gyatso father : choekyong tsering mother : dekyi tsering education : geshe lharampa degree ( doctorate of buddhist philosophy ), 1959 other facts : the dalai lamas are the manifestations of the bodhisattva ( buddha ) of compassion, who chose to reincarnate to serve the people. this dalai lama, the 14th dalai lama tenzin gyatsois, is the 74th manifestation of avalokiteshvara bodhisattva, the enlightened buddha of compassion. tibetans normally refer to his holiness as yeshe norbu, the wishfulfilling gem, or simply kundun - the presence. his holiness has continuously emphasized the need to further democratize the tibetan administration and has publicly declared that once tibet regains independence he will not hold political office. has traveled to numerous countries with a message of religious and cultural tolerance and peace. winner of the 1989 nobel peace prize. timeline : 1938 - is taken from his family in taktser and taken to the kumbum monastery after a delegation of monks looking for the new dalai lama find him. february 22, 1940 - enthronement ceremony takes place in lhasa, tibet. november 8, 1950 - chinese soldiers of the people ' s liberation army invade tibet at lhasa. november 17, 1950 - assumes full political power as tibetan head of state and government almost 2 years ahead of schedule. investiture is moved up from eighteenth birthday ( was to be july 6, 1952 ) as a result of china ' s invasion of tibet. 1954 - 1959 - participates in unsuccessful peace talks in beijing with chinese leaders including mao tse - tung, chou en - lai and deng xiaoping. in 1959, the talks end when the chinese army forces 80, 000 tibetan refugees into exile. march 17, 1959 - goes into exile ; leaves lhasa for india dressed as a soldier. april 21, 1959 - officially takes up residence in exile in mussoorie, india. 1960 - dharamsala, india, becomes home to the dalai lama and headquarters of the government -


lhasa for india dressed as a soldier. april 21, 1959 - officially takes up residence in exile in mussoorie, india. 1960 - dharamsala, india, becomes home to the dalai lama and headquarters of the government - in - exile of tibet. 1963 - enacts a new tibetan democratic constitution based on buddhist principles and the universal declaration of human rights. september 30, 1973 - meets with pope paul vi at the vatican, the first ever meeting of a pope and a spiritual leader of tibetan buddhists. may 1977 - the chinese government makes the dalai lama a conditional offer, the opportunity to return to tibet after acceptance of chinese rule over tibet. the offer is rejected. august 3, 1979 - arrives in the united states for a 49 day tour. february 2, 1986 - meets with pope john paul ii in new delhi. september 1987 - attends the congressional human rights caucus in washington, dc, and proposes a five point peace plan for tibet ' s future. 1989 - shares the nobel peace prize with mikhail gorbachev. april 16, 1991 - white house meeting with george bush, the first ever between the spiritual leader and a president of the united states. may 6, 1993 - meets with president bill clinton and vice - president al gore at the white house. september, 1995 - tours the united states urging government involvement with talks with china over tibetan autonomy. march 27, 1997 - meets with president lee teng - hui of taiwan in taipei. december 25, 1997 - disney, through touchstone pictures, releases the biopic " kundun, " directed by martin scorsese. november 10, 1998 - requests assistance in opening official negotiations with china regarding the future of tibet at a meeting of senior government officials in washington, dc, including president clinton. the dalai lama says that the distrust between himself and china is too great to re - open the talks. may 2001 - meets with president george w. bush, congressional leaders and secretary of state colin powell, among others in washington, dc. 2002 - speaks out against china, stating that china should embrace democracy if the country is to be a major world power in the coming years. - he also criticizes the united states - led war on terrorism, saying that the use of force to override terrorists overlooks the underlying problems that lead to terrorism. september 2003 - begins a 16 - day tour of the u. s. in san francisco. other cities include new york, boston, bloomington, indiana and washington dc, meeting again with president bush and colin powell.


underlying problems that lead to terrorism. september 2003 - begins a 16 - day tour of the u. s. in san francisco. other cities include new york, boston, bloomington, indiana and washington dc, meeting again with president bush and colin powell. september 19 - 22, 2004 - tours south florida and gives a series of public and private lectures on peace and religious and cultural harmony. lecture sites include miami university and florida international university. november 8, 2005 - meetings with president george w. bush and secretary of state condoleezza rice in washington. september 11, 2006 - receives honorary canadian citizenship in a ceremony held at vancouver ' s gm place stadium. february 5, 2007 - the dalai lama is named a presidential distinguished professor at emory university in atlanta. june 22, 2007 - appears in a documentary titled " ten questions for the dalai lama, " a 2001 interview done in india that shows some of the life and teachings of the dalai lama. october 9 - 31, 2007 - visits north america. october 17, in washington, dc, is awarded the congressional gold medal by president bush. october 20 - 22, visits emory university, in atlanta, georgia, for a conference and installation as a presidential distinguished professor. january 2008 - calls for peaceful protests during the upcoming beijing olympics, in order to highlight the plight of tibet. march 18, 2008 - states during an interview that he would step down as leader of tibetan exiles if violence in tibet were to get out of control. april 13, 2008 - arrives in the us for a ten - day tour that makes stops in seattle, ann arbor, michigan, and hamilton, new york. april 21, 2008 - the dalai lama is made an " honorary citizen " of paris, over the objections of french president nicolas sarkozy ' s political party. may 23, 2008 - meets with british prime minister gordon brown in london. june 12, 2008 - urges his supporters not to cause trouble when the olympic torch passes through tibet ; he also reiterates a general plea for his supports not to target the torch or the olympic games. october 6, 2009 - house speaker nancy pelosi awards the inaugural lantos human rights prize to the dalai lama, honoring his commitment to ending global injustices. march 10, 2011 - announces he plans to devolve political power to an elected leader of the tibetan exile movement. may 29, 2011 - approves amendments to the exiled constitution, formally removing his political and administrative responsibilities. july 16, 2011 - meets with president barack obama at the white house. may 14,


a relatively obscure drug used to treat mouth sores has made obese mice thin - - and the mice didn ' t have to eat less or exercise more, according to a study at the university of michigan. doctors at the university will begin studies in human beings later this year. hopes are high, even though many drugs that work in mice do not work in humans. " it is a tour de force and offers a new and potentially exciting opening for developments of new anti - obesity drugs - - something which is badly needed, " says dr. george bray, chief of the division of clinical obesity and metabolism at pennington biomedical research center at louisiana state university. in the study at the university of michigan, researchers gave mice a high - fat diet, and they became obese. they then injected the animals with a drug called amlexanox, which has been on the market for more than 15 years to treat canker sores. the mice lost weight, even though they kept eating the same number of calories. when they were taken off the drug, the mice gained all the weight back. if amlexanox works in humans - - and that ' s a big if - - bray said it could become like the story of viagra, which was originally developed to treat one condition, chest pain, but serendipitously was later found to treat a different condition, erectile dysfunction. " it could well be that what works for one disease will turn out to work for another, even though that wasn ' t the original intent, " he said. the researchers screened several drugs and found that amlexanox, used in an ointment to treat canker sores, changed the action of genes that control metabolism. when injected in mice, the drug worked by increasing metabolism, not by suppressing appetite. " one of the reasons that diets are so ineffective in producing weight loss for some people is that their bodies adjust to the reduced calories by also reducing their metabolism, so that they are ' defending ' their body weight, " says dr. alan saltiel, the lead researcher at the university of michigan. " amlexanox seems to tweak the metabolic response to excessive calorie storage in mice. " the findings were published sunday in the journal nature medicine. clinical trials are expected to begin later this year to test the drug ' s effectiveness in humans.


this place we now call kansas was " unorganized " territory prior to 1854. it was the home of numerous indian peoples including the plains tribes and less nomadic indians such as the kansas, pawnees, and osages. as part of " indian country, " this land was shared after 1830 with about 20 different tribes from east of the mississippi river, resettled west of missouri under the federal government ' s indian removal policy. with the ever - increasing desire for further westward expansion, however, the federal government commenced the negotiation of another indian removal in 1853. the u. s. congress passed the kansas - nebraska bill in may 1854. by the fall of that year, the tide of euro - american settlement was rolling over the prairies of eastern kansas — displacing the native population. these emigrant tribes were, in large measure, removed to lands in the remaining indian country, which later became oklahoma. at mid 19th century, the sectional division within the nation was becoming more and more pronounced. the kansas - nebraska act, which repealed the missouri compromise ' s ban on slavery in the northern portion of the old louisiana territory, sought yet another compromise to facilitate expansion. in the name of popular sovereignty, settlers themselves, not the u. s. congress, were to decide the slave question. to the chagrin of senator stephen a. douglas and other champions of this concept, the " compromise " settled nothing ; indeed, it exacerbated an already tense situation by creating a competitive arena focused on the slavery question. immediately, partisans on both sides of the mason - dixon line targeted kansas and the question whether it would be slave or free. as the settlers came, this " kansas question " became the centerpiece of an emotionally charged national debate. in the territory soon called " bleeding kansas, " the two sides squared off in a sometimes - violent contest. many historians have pointed to the events in kansas at the time as the place where the civil war began. a substantial number of the early contestants came from the proslavery state of missouri. david rice atchison, missouri ' s senior senator from platte city, and the brothers stringfellow, john h. and benjamin f., " urged their people to resist the abolitionist plot to surround their state with free territory, " and helped establish the proslavery town of atchison. leavenworth was founded about the same time, and proslavery partisans gained the early advantage. soon, however, antislavery forces organized to contest the area. the


and helped establish the proslavery town of atchison. leavenworth was founded about the same time, and proslavery partisans gained the early advantage. soon, however, antislavery forces organized to contest the area. the new england emigrant aid company and other groups formed to promote and support free - state settlement. the first organized band of new englanders arrived in the territory in july 1854 and founded the city of lawrence. before the end of the year, cyrus k. holliday and company established the present city of topeka. although kansas has been referred to as a " child of new england, " most of kansas ' territorial settlers were not " yankees. " the majority came neither from the " north " nor the " south, " but from the " border. " nearly 60 percent of kansas ' population hailed from the northern ( illinois, indiana, ohio, etc. ) and southern ( missouri, kentucky, tennessee, etc. ) border states. most of these folks were more concerned about bettering their economic situation and about available land rights than with settling their nation ' s slavery question. likewise, the territory ' s first governor, andrew h. reeder, could be characterized as ambivalent with respect to the issue of slavery. events would soon force him to throw his lot with free state partisans, but upon his arrival in 1854, he directed his energies toward the business of land speculation and government. by early 1855 the first territorial census revealed a population of 8, 500. the governor called a legislative election for march 30. on that day the infamous " border ruffians " appeared on the scene, crossing the border from missouri to " help " the legitimate electorate make the " correct " political choices. the result was the so - called " bogus legislature. " the freestaters ' belief that this missouri - dominated government was illegitimate led to the establishment of the topeka movement, a shadow government that adopted its own constitution and elected its own legislature until its side took control of the federally recognized government in the fall of 1857. the political turmoil that emerged from the passage of the kansas - nebraska bill caused serious conflict in kansas. at the national level, the perception about what was going on in the territory was more important than the reality. eastern newspapers gave sensational attention to " bleeding kansas. " in fact, kansas was not nearly so bloody as the appellation implies, notwithstanding the violent exploits of abolitionist john brown, proslavery sheriff sam jones, and others. the print media did


gave sensational attention to " bleeding kansas. " in fact, kansas was not nearly so bloody as the appellation implies, notwithstanding the violent exploits of abolitionist john brown, proslavery sheriff sam jones, and others. the print media did, however, fan the flames. the kansas imbroglio changed the complexion of national politics. the republican party emerged in 1854 to oppose the expansion of slavery in the territories, and soon replaced the whig party as the main opposition to the democratic party. during the course of the kansas struggles, two events of special significance involving the western territories occurred in 1857. both had a profound impact on the country ' s apparent inevitable journey toward civil war. the first was the dred scott decision, handed down by the u. s. supreme court on march 6. this ignoble ruling held that slaves were not citizens of the united states, residency in a " free " state did not alter their status, and that congress had no authority to ban slavery in the territories. the missouri compromise was therefore unconstitutional. the second 1857 event of note was the controversy surrounding the lecompton constitution and kansas ' second constitutional convention. this convention was authorized by the proslavery territorial legislature. it met at lecompton in the fall of that year. in december the convention submitted a document to the voters. the vote of the people was to be on a special slavery article only : a choice between " the constitution with slavery " or " the constitution without slavery. " because a vote " for the constitution without slavery " meant kansans could keep the slaves they already owned, freestaters refused to participate, and the " constitution with slavery " won 6, 266 to 559. months of controversy followed, featuring a bitter national debate that split the democratic party. in the meantime, however, kansans elected a new free - state legislature on october 5, 1857, ultimately defeated the lecompton constitution at the polls, and wrote and ratified the free - state wyandotte constituton in the summer and fall of 1859. as a matter of law, because of the dred scott decision, slavery remained legal in kansas territory until admission to the union in 1861. by the time delegates assembled in wyandotte, however, the central issue was all but decided, so the decision to make kansas " free " was no surprise. to their credit, the delegates did not adopt a clause excluding any racial groups from participation, but they failed to remove " white " from several significant parts of the


was all but decided, so the decision to make kansas " free " was no surprise. to their credit, the delegates did not adopt a clause excluding any racial groups from participation, but they failed to remove " white " from several significant parts of the document. thus, the new constitution reflected the common prejudices of 19th - century america in a racially " conservative " document. in other areas, too, the delegates moved forward cautiously for political and ideological reasons. women, for example, were not granted equal voting rights, but the wyandotte constitution allowed them to participate in school district elections, granted them the right to own property, and instructed the legislature to " provide for their equal rights in the possession of their children. " the joy over the adoption of the wyandotte constitution and the imminent prospects for statehood were tempered somewhat in late 1859 and 1860 by a severe drought and famine. the big day of admission to the union, january 29, 1861, was clouded by the prospects of war on the national horizon. the battle for kansas was finally over, but the conflict, which for the past six years had caused bleeding in kansas, now engulfed an entire nation. territorial era primary sources from the kansas historical society are available online in the bleeding kansas portion of kansas memory and on a cooperative web site ( territorial kansas online ) with the kansas collection, university of kansas. entry : kansas territory author : kansas historical society author information : the kansas historical society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state ' s history. date created : april 2010 date modified : march 2013 the author of this article is solely responsible for its content.


the hottest field in science this past decade has been neuroscience. that explosion in research, and our understanding of the human brain, was largely fueled by a new technology called functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fmri ) that became widely available in the 1990s. well look out! another technology - based neuroscience revolution is in the making, this one perhaps even bigger. the term to watch for in 2013 is " optogenetics. " it ' s not a sexy term, but it is a very sexy technology. the heritage of optogenetics goes way back to 1979, when nobel laureate francis crick, co - discoverer of the structure of dna with james watson and rosalind franklin, suggested that neuroscientists should seek to learn how to take control of specific cells in the brain. well, that certainly would seem to be an advance with great potential. imagine being able to turn the neurons in an animal ' s brain on and off from the outside. sounds like you ' d be turning the creature into a robot, sounds like science fiction. right? well, flash forward thirty - some years, and guess what, optogenetics is a reality! here ' s how it works... roughly. an obvious approach would be to stick a tiny electrode into an animal ' s brain and stimulate the cells using electricity. today we have tiny microelectrodes, but they are still too crude for the job. crick speculated that light could be the tool to use. that turned out to be true : optogenetics involves inserting fiber - optics tools into an animal ' s brain, in order to control the target neurons using pulses of light as a trigger. learning to shine light on a neuron is not the whole answer, though. in order for the method to work, the neurons have to be re - engineered so that they react to the light. that was made possible by the amazing discovery of a kind of protein that can be used to turn neurons on and off in response to light. the exotic light - sensitive protein is not present in normal neurons, so scientists designed a way to insert it. that is accomplished through a type of gene engineering called " transfection " that employs " vectors " such as viruses to infect the target neuron, and, once there, to insert genetic material that will cause the neuron to manufacture the light - sensitive protein. put it all together, and you have that sci - fi - sounding technology : genetically - engineered neurons that you can turn on and off


and, once there, to insert genetic material that will cause the neuron to manufacture the light - sensitive protein. put it all together, and you have that sci - fi - sounding technology : genetically - engineered neurons that you can turn on and off at will, inside the brain of a living and freely - moving animal. it is the combined use of optics and genetics that give optogenetics its name, but it ' s not the " how " that makes optogenetics exciting, it is the " what. " scientists didn ' t really develop it to " take over " a creature ' s brain. they developed it, like fmri, to learn about the brain, and how the brain works, in this case by studying the effect of stimulating specific types of neurons. the technology is already beginning to pay off, and despite its recent invention, the word on the street is that a nobel prize isn ' t far off. in one application of optogenetics, scientists investigated how neurons that make dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain, may give rise to feelings of reward and pleasure. that work may help scientists understand the pleasure - related pathologies involved in clinical depression. in another application, scientists selectively stimulated brain cells in animal models of parkinson ' s disease, a disease that involves the disruption of information - processing in the brain. that research gave new insight into the circuitry involved in the disease, and the way that the therapies we currently prescribe for it operate. it has also suggested new directions for therapeutic intervention. schizophrenia is another disorder that involves information processing issues in the brain. the illusion of hearing voices, for example, may arise from the failure of an internal mechanism for notifying a person when his or her thoughts are " self - generated. " optogenetics has been employed to better understand a kind of brain activity called " gamma oscillations " that appear abnormal in schizophrenia - - and also in autism. today, we are a long way from the era when a single person working with an assistant or two can make a revolutionary technological breakthrough. it took, instead, decades of work in many fields, which came together, only very recently, to bring crick ' s vision to fruition. but now that it ' s here, optogenetics is destined to change the way we treat mental illness, and eventually, even, the way we understand ourselves as human beings. follow us on twitter @ cnnopinion join us on facebook /


unlike many exercise programs, yoga practice does not take energy away from the system ; instead, it puts energy back into the system. contrary to most exercise programs that leave you exhausted, your yoga exercise period will leave you refreshed and renewed. when yoga exercises are combined with breathing and meditation techniques, the chronic fatigue syndrome patient has a daily support system that makes a normal, productive life possible. here ' s how it works : physical and emotional tension and fatigue lodge in muscle tissue, making it knotted, hot, and the circulation sluggish. yoga exercises systematically stretch and relax the major muscle groups and push fresh blood / oxygen through the tissues, which releases the tension and allows the muscles to relax and cool. the exercises are done slowly, and the breathing patterns with each exercise allow for maximum oxygen intake and for the release of toxins. poor circulation also means the brain and other vital organs get less blood and important nutrients. yoga exercises improve all - over circulation by limbering the spine, by movements which improve elasticity in the blood vessels, and by selected inverted poses, which use compression to pump more oxygen throughout the body. breathing techniques improve concentration and awareness, and help to reduce stress reactions. extreme reactions to stress - especially when they are triggered by a past event or a future fear, or by a situation that cannot be changed - cause energy demands to increase rapidly. your breathing techniques put you in touch with an unlimited source of energy that lies within you. by constantly returning the mind to the present moment, you allow the body to deal with what ' s happening now. relaxation and meditation teach conservation of energy and build self - confidence. the student learns to completely relax every muscle in the body and then to forget about the body while turning attention toward the mind in meditation. in meditation you simply stop all thought momentarily, allowing the strength within you to express itself. courtesy of the american yoga association


the lancet, volume 359, issue 9318, page 1675, 11 may 2002 doi : 10. 1016 / s0140 - 6736 ( 02 ) 08603 - 8cite or link using doi smoking outside still causes second - hand smoke exposure to children research has shown that exposure to second - hand or environmental tobacco smoke ( ets ) can be detrimental to a young child ' s health. but even if a parent smokes outside the home, children could still face a high level of ets exposure, us researchers reported at the 2002 pediatric academic societies ' annual meeting ( baltimore, md, usa ; may 4 — 7 ) judith groner ( columbus children ' s hospital, oh, usa ) and colleagues assessed the extent of ets exposure by analysing hair cotinine concentrations in 327 chi... this article is made available free of charge, as a service to our users. please login to access the full article, or register if you do not yet have a username and password. already registered? please login new to thelancet. com? thelancet. com is the online home of : - the lancet - the lancet diabetes & endocrinology - the lancet infectious diseases - the lancet neurology - the lancet oncology - the lancet respiratory medicine please register to access selected articles for free, personalize and interact with this site. registration is free, takes no more than two minutes, and offers you many benefits.


without any of the trappings of a hollywood premiere, a documentary made by university of miami law students in the historic black church program ' s oral history project had its first public screening at a coconut grove school that is at the heart of the film ' s real - life story. the documentary, titled " g. w. carver : a community school, " focuses on carver from its inception more than a century ago to its integration in the wake of the civil rights act. the film – made in collaboration with the coconut grove ministerial alliance, ransom everglades school and the university of miami school of communication – features a number of notable african - american figures who attended carver and went on to leave a lasting impression not only on miami ' s coconut grove community but the nation. the premiere, hosted by miami law ' s center for ethics and public service, took place on thursday, april 5, at 6 p. m. at the g. w. carver middle school, 4901 lincoln drive. ceps ' historic black church program oral history project uses filmed documentaries to compile historical archives for church congregations and ministries. students conduct videotaped interviews with congregants and ministers, edit the film, and organize panel discussions on the subjects at issue. two earlier films focused on the history of the west grove and the west grove churches. g. w. carver – which includes elementary and middle schools – can trace its history to 1899, when it was known at the little schoolhouse. in 1943, the year george washington carver died, it was named after him. carver was a scientist, botanist, educator and inventor who is believed to have been born into slavery in missouri in 1864. carver was the first black student and faculty member of iowa state college. he later became director of agriculture at tuskegee normal and industrial institute, where his pioneering research of 300 uses for the peanut led to multi - crop farming that saved the south ' s economy. for decades, the carver school ' s students lived under jim crow laws, segregated from whites in all aspects of everyday life, the school ' s website says. carver was desegregated in 1970 by court order. ceps ' historic black church program is headed by law professor anthony v. alfieri, director of the center for ethics and public service, which for more than a decade has been immersed in helping the distressed areas of the coconut grove community. cynthia mckenzie is the program ' s manager. the documentary project had as collaborators the um school of communication ' s kim grinfeder, an assistant


international criminal law although we can trace the roots of international criminal law to the nuremburg and tokyo war crimes trials held after world war ii, the field has experienced remarkable growth in the past 15 years. the international community has created a range of new international criminal tribunals to investigate and prosecute international crimes, and national courts now also exercise criminal jurisdiction over international or transnational crimes that have occurred in countries thousands of miles away. the substantive criminal law has expanded, and notions of individual responsibility for international crimes have also evolved, extending the reach of international criminal law. at the same time, new debates have emerged about the suitability of using criminal justice mechanisms to respond to mass atrocity situations, and some increasingly question the legitimacy of vesting the international community, rather than the affected states, with responsibility for addressing such offenses. this course will explore legal and institutional responses to transnational and international crime. it will consider traditional forms of international cooperation to address " transnational " crimes and the concept of universal jurisdiction that provides a basis for treating certain crimes as " international. " it will study the range of institutions created to punish international criminals, including the nuremburg and tokyo tribunals, ad hoc tribunals such as the international criminal tribunals for the former yugoslavia and rwanda, " mixed " international / domestic tribunals such as the special court for sierra leone and the cambodia war crimes tribunal, and the recently - created permanent international criminal court. in doing so, it will examine both institutional and substantive law developments. it will also look at alternative institutional arrangements and options for responding to international crimes, such as truth commissions and amnesties. it will also consider enforcement of international criminal law through trials by national courts of countries with no or limited connection to the underlying offenses, such as the pinochet case. themes running throughout the course include : ( 1 ) the moral and political goals that do and should motivate responses to international crimes ; ( 2 ) the role of international politics and foreign policy considerations in shaping responses to international crimes ; and, ( 3 ) the suitability of different institutional models for addressing international crimes.


life science : session 1 session 1. what is life? during this session, you will have an opportunity to build understandings to help you : - distinguish between living, dead, and nonliving - define the characteristics of life what is life? this question at first seems deceptively simple — we all know how to recognize what is living and what is not. or do we? what are the characteristics of all living things, and how do we know if an object really possesses those characteristics? this session explores how the concept “ life ” can be defined. error - unable to load content - flash we open with a look at environments where you wouldn ’ t expect to find life and pose the question : if you are looking for life, what do you look for? dr. herbert thier, representing the science curriculum improvement study ( scis3 + ), emphasizes the importance of building understandings of the concept “ life ” in the early elementary grades as a foundation for the development of ideas in life science throughout the elementary school years and beyond. the program continues as children in grades two and three are presented with a challenge : group objects as living, dead or nonliving. in what is called the “ science studio, ” the children are observed and interviewed in a clinical setting to uncover their ideas about these three concepts. throughout the course, the science studio is a place where research on children ’ s ideas is brought to life. in brooklyn, new york, we visit laurajo kelly and her second - grade students as they generate their own definitions of living, dead, and nonliving and proceed to design experiments to test whether a “ mysterious ” object is alive. an interview with dr. gary ruvkun, who is leading a team of researchers to determine whether life exists on mars, tells us what he considers to be the best sign of life. our search for an answer to the question " what is life? " leads us to consider five characteristics that are shared by all living things. one characteristic — cells — introduces us to the fundamental unit of life. we also look more closely at the matter that composes life and see the role played by organic molecules, such as the hereditary molecule dna. finally, dr. paul williams introduces us to an ongoing web site - based activity — bottle biology — that is meant to provide you with an opportunity to apply ideas addressed during this session as well as act as a resource for k - 6 classroom activities. | next : a closer look |


we ’ ve already exhausted the ‘ march hare mad - hatter - ness ’ pun on this blog a few years ago, but lewis carroll is making basketball news during the college playoffs! his contributions to bracketology were discussed at length at the wall street journal in two articles : in addition to writing “ alice in wonderland, ” lewis carroll was a mathematician who was offended by blind draws in tennis tournaments. so carroll devised a method to ensure that the most skilled players would survive to the latest rounds. so in the spirit of adventure, the wall street journal put carroll ’ s radical format to the ultimate test : this year ’ s ncaa men ’ s basketball tournament. if we assigned the 64 - team field randomly, then played out the tournament based on the ncaa selection committee ’ s overall ranking for each team, what would happen? would the teams that got unlucky draws or suffered early upsets still make it through to the late rounds? and would there be enough surprises to keep people entertained? [ continue reading ] then bachman expanded the idea into a printed wsj article : when the wall street journal undertook a search to figure out who invented the concept of the tournament bracket, nobody had any idea where the search might lead. it ’ s fair to say nobody imagined it would bring us to the same neighborhood inhabited by alice, the white rabbit and the mad hatter. after our march 17 story, in which we speculated that an 1878 pairings list from wimbledon was among the first brackets used in sports, we received a number of letters offering fresh leads. the most intriguing one came from a longtime reader, joel chinkes, who lives in luna county, n. m. chinkes had in his possession a version of an 1883 monograph written by charles lutwidge dodgson, a 19th - century english mathematician better known by his pen name, lewis carroll. carroll, as you may recall, is the author of alice in wonderland. chinkes thought we should have a look at the monograph. the monograph, “ lawn tennis tournaments, the true method of assigning prizes with a proof of the fallacy of the present method, ” is just about what it seems to be : a proposal for a better way to conduct a sports tournament. let ’ s get one thing straight : carroll didn ’ t invent the bracket. in writing this nine - page plan, his only goal was to make it better. [ continue reading... ] - rachel bachman, from “ a bracket through the looking glass, ” wall street journal,


definition of phytolaccaceae 1. noun. chiefly tropical herbaceous plants ( including shrubs and trees ) with racemose flowers : genera phytolacca, agdestis, ercilla, rivina, trichostigma. generic synonyms : caryophylloid dicot family group relationships : caryophyllales, chenopodiales, order caryophyllales, order - chenopodiales member holonyms : genus phytolacca, phytolacca, agdestis, genus agdestis, ercilla, genus ercilla, genus rivina, rivina, genus trichostigma, trichostigma click the following link to bring up a new window with an automated collection of images related to the term : phytolaccaceae images lexicographical neighbors of phytolaccaceae literary usage of phytolaccaceae below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and / or classical literature : 1. an illustrated flora of the northern united states, canada and the british by nathaniel lord britton, addison brown ( 1913 ) " phytolaccaceae lindl. nat. syst. ed. 2, 213. 1836. pokeweed family. herbs ( some tropical species shrubs or trees ) with alternate entire mostly exstipulate... " 2. systematic anatomy of the dicotyledons : a handbook for laboratories of pure by hans solereder ( 1908 ) " 3, t. iii, 1887, p. 238 and pi. i. — volkens, in naturl. pflanzenfam., iii. teil, abt. ia, 1893, p. 135. phytolaccaceae.... " 3. scientific and applied pharmacognosy : intended for the use of students in by henry kraemer ( 1915 ) " phytolaccaceae ), a perennial herb ( fig. 85 ) indigenous to eastern north america, and naturalized in the west indies and southern europe.... " 4. edinburgh new philosophical journal, exhibiting a view of the progressive by robert jameson, sir william jardine, henry d rogers ( 1838 ) " carpels 1 or 3 or 5 or more ( some phytolaccaceae ), free from the calyx ( exc. some chenopodiaceae ), more or less connate with each other ( exc. some... "


if someone you love has had a stroke, or " brain attack, " in which a blood vessel in the brain was blocked or damaged, you may wonder what lies ahead. a stroke can cause problems with speech, vision, memory, balance, or coordination. it can leave part of the body weakened or paralyzed, among other physical problems. your loved one may have to relearn how to walk, talk, or do daily activities. it may help to know that rehabilitation can help people regain life skills and learn new ways to do tasks. according to the national institute of neurological disorders and stroke, post - stroke rehabilitation provides a way a person can make significant progress to overcome disabilities resulting from a stroke. a comprehensive program also addresses the person ' s personal goals. here are some of the physical and mental problems that a stroke can cause : weakness or paralysis on one side of the body, or in one arm or leg muscle stiffness or muscle spasms balance or coordination problems difficulty speaking or understanding speech being unaware or ignoring one side of the body, or being unaware of the stroke ' s effects memory, thinking, or learning problems pain, numbness, or odd sensations bowel or bladder control problems how much can be accomplished in rehabilitation depends on the amount of brain damage the stroke caused, and also the area in which the stroke is located. these are other factors that influence the success of rehab : the rehab team ' s skill support of family and friends the timing of rehab each person ' s recovery after stroke is unique. this is because a stroke can affect different people in different ways and to different degrees. stroke rehab should start as soon as possible after a stroke to give the person the best chance to recover skills and abilities. stroke rehab programs can be found at a rehab hospitals and long - term care facilities. they also are offered on an outpatient basis and in the home. specialists who may be involved in stroke rehab include : physiatrists, neurologists, internists, geriatric specialists, and family practice doctors rehab nurses, who are trained to assist people with disabilities physical therapists, who help with movement, balance. and coordination problems occupational therapists, who help with daily living skills speech - language pathologists, who help with language skills social workers, who help the stroke patient return home or to a new living place psychologists, who help with mental and emotional issues therapeutic recreation specialists, who help stroke patients return to recreational activities they once enjoyed it ' s natural to want quick results from rehabilitation. while immediate intervention following a stroke


showing their ‘ grit ’ ( page 3 of 4 ) “ we need to develop an alternative energy source that is environmentally friendly, ” said chen, who conducted his research at the garcia center at suny stony brook under the direction of dr. miriam rafailovich. presumptions about what bullies looks like and why they act the way they do led kay to this topic. “ there are preconceptions society has about bullying, then there is what we really see, ” he said. “ on tv the bully in the playground is a big, brawny kid. in my school there ’ s a different perspective : everyone bullies because, from my perspective, everyone is competing for social and sexual advantages. ” kay didn ’ t have to leave his home during sandy, but dealt with a loss of power for close to two weeks. he surveyed ninth - through 12th - graders at hewlett high, and found that stress, anxiety, frustration and disappointment facilitate bullying. his project mentor, dr. patricia nardi, a hewlett science teacher, said that kay ’ s work underscored the importance of both enabling and motivating factors in bullying behavior. “ when investigating bullying from this perspective, it isn ’ t difficult to realize that bullying behavior is a more commonplace behavior than it is typically believed to be, ” she said. people like to be scared sullivan was impressed that sosnowik could make horror films the focus of an academic study. saying that “ it doesn ’ t make sense to like horror films, ” she showed clips of scary movies to teenagers, who then answered questions about their emotional responses. her most surprising find? “ people who are the most afraid gain the most pleasure from the horror film, ” said sosnowik, whose favorite scary movie is “ scream. ” she had to scramble to get her project done by the deadline because her family ’ s house in lawrence was without power after sandy, and she was staying at her uncle ’ s house in queens for nearly two weeks. intel alumni have made unique contributions to science and been awarded more than 100 of the world ’ s most coveted science and math honors, including the nobel prize and the national medal of science.


references : cltl p. 160 edit history : v1 9 sep 1988, david gray ( initial version ) v2 19 sep 1988, david gray ( delete first alternative ) the optimize declaration provides a way to tell the compiler how important various qualities are in order to guide which optimizations are done. there is another quality, however, that is not mentioned, but is an important consideration for the compiler : how much information should be included in the object code to facilitate debugging. this includes both annotation added to enable a debugger to display more information to the user, and also suppression of optimizations that would confuse debugging by making it harder to connect the object code with the in the description of the optimize declaration, add an additional quality named debug, described as " ease of debugging ". since ease of debugging is an issue that the user will be concerned with, and is an issue that the compiler needs to consider, this provides a clear way for the user to control the amount of debugging information placed in the object module, with debug = 0 meaning none and debug = 3 meaning " as much no current implementation of this is known. cost to implementors : all would have to update their handling of optimize declarations to accept the new quality. cost to users : one more little feature to learn. some problems may result from the addition of the symbol debug to the lisp package. provides users a standard way to control the interaction between the compiler and debugger, and saves implementors from having to invent costs of non - adoption : continued confusion about how debug information should be controlled. concern has been raised that there is already a problem with the non - orthogonality of speed, safety, and space that would be made even worse with debug added, since users tend to be perplexed by the interactions of these qualities.


sometimes after an accept method has read some input from the user, it may be necessary to insert a modified version of that input back into the input buffer. the following two functions can be used to modify the input buffer : arguments : stream new - input start end buffer - start rescan summary : replaces the part of the input editing stream stream ' s input buffer that extends from buffer - start to its scan pointer with the string new - input. buffer - start defaults to the current input position of stream. start and end can be supplied to specify a subsequence of new - input ; start defaults to 0 and end defaults to the length of new - input. replace - input queues a rescan by calling queue - rescan if the new input does not match the old output, or if rescan is t. the returned value is the position in the input buffer. arguments : stream object type view buffer - start rescan query - identifier for - context - type summary : like replace - input, except that the new input to insert into the input buffer is obtained by presenting the object object with the presentation type type and view view. buffer - start and rescan are as for replace - input, query - identifier is as for accept, and for - context - type is as for present. if the object does not have a readable representation ( in the lisp sense ), presentation - replace - input may create an " accept result " to represent the object and insert it into the input buffer. for the purposes of input editing, " accept results " must be treated as a single input gesture. the following two functions are used to read or write a token ( that is, a string ) : input - wait - handler pointer - button - press - handler click - only summary : reads characters from the interactive steam stream until it encounters a delimiter, activation, or pointer gesture. returns the accumulated string that was delimited by the delimiter or activation gesture, leaving the delimiter unread. if the first character of typed input is a quotation mark ( will ignore delimiter gestures until another quotation mark is seen. when the closing quotation mark is seen, will proceed as discussed previously. if the boolean click - only is t, then no keyboard input is allowed. in that case, read - token will simply ignore any typed characters. input - wait - handler and pointer - button - press - handler are as for stream - read - gesture. refer


review by lada ray with profound knowledge and great style, j. j. collins sets out to explore the creation of the american constitution and the birth of the american republic, as well as the people behind these events. this is not a very long book, but it packs a wallop of information, at the same time managing to convey the feel, texture and attitudes of that era. we get to meet not only james madison himself, but also the other greats of american history : george washington, thomas jefferson and alexander hamilton, among others. the author takes us to the historic 1787 constitutional convention in philadelphia where we witness first - hand the process of creation of the constitution. the uncharted territory that was the american constitution made it difficult to reconcile all the varying opinions and interests in order to arrive at one document, which would unite the whole country. james madison and others were heavily influenced by the philosophy of the european era of enlightenment. in turn, the american constitution would later become the symbol of freedom and the fight against tyranny in europe and elsewhere. ironically, some of the most shameful moments of american history were also enshrined in the constitution, including the justification of slavery and the fact that each slave was considered only 3 / 5 of a white man, as well as the creation of the electoral college – the us presidential election ’ s unfair and archaic indirect voting system, which still persists today. the book proceeds to describe the era of the british / french war, the french revolutionary wars starting at the end of the 18th century, a struggle for the usa to remain neutral to european conflicts, and the ever deepening bitter political divisions between federalists and jeffersonian republicans – the former revolutionary buddies. we follow james madison ’ s life and career, from the post of the secretary of state to being elected the fourth president of the united states, and later, to his death. it was the era of great statesmen, not mere politicians, the kind of people we only wish we could see in the white house today. their intellect, knowledge, erudition and profound concern for their country and fellow man – moderated with reason and wisdom – led them to create the foundation on which america functioned successfully for many years. they passionately debated the issues of individual ’ s rights, state vs. federal power, unjust enrichment, monopoly, separation of legislative and executive powers, establishment of a national bank, and equitable taxation. they developed laws, which at that time in history resulted in the most advanced society on earth


ancient lizard missing front limbs remains from a 95 - million - year - old marine creature with nubs for legs is clarifying how some lizards shed their limbs as they crept through evolutionary time and morphed into slinky snakes. described in the current issue of the journal of vertebrate paleontology, the snake - like lizard had a small head and willowy body. extending 10 to 12 inches from snout to tail, the aquatic creature also sported a lengthy neck and relatively large rear limbs. missing were all the bones of its forearms, including the hands and digits found in modern lizards. the oddball creature, adriosaurus microbrachis, is a member of a lineage of lizards thought to be snakes ' closest relatives. “ it adds to the picture we have of what was happening 100 million years ago, ” said lead researcher michael caldwell, a paleontologist at the university of alberta, in canada. “ we now know that losing limbs isn ' t a new thing and that lizards were doing it much earlier than we originally thought. ” the new fossil reveals the earliest record of this limb - shedding in a lizard and gives scientists a rare glimpse back to the time when terrestrial lizards evolved to be limbless and returned to their watery origins. in fact, the ancestors of all animals lived in aquatic and marine environments. steps to limb loss body parts once used in an animal ’ s evolutionary past but tossed aside or morphed via natural selection to provide another function are called vestigial limbs. “ it has been clear for centuries that snakes are tetrapods ( four - legged vertebrates ) that lost their limbs, ” caldwell told livescience. “ the process and pattern of this limb - loss has remained a mystery for a long time. ” fossils of lizards in transitional states — as the four - legged critters begin to evolve into snakes — have been rare. “ what we have not had to this point is a fossil record of vestigial limbs in lizards, ” caldwell said. “ this is the first. ” scientists initially collected the fossil during the 19th century from a limestone quarry in slovenia. for nearly 100 years, the little lizard remained in a collection bin at the natural history museum in trieste, italy, before caldwell and a colleague found it in 1996 during a visit to europe. the scientists were surprised to find the lizard ’ s forelimbs were too small to be useful for walking, while its hind limbs appeared to be functional. " for some oddball reason, the forelimbs


what can cause a travel thrombosis long, immobile sitting, such as in aircraft, restricts the flow of blood to the heart, which active muscle movement promotes. this can result in deposits of liquid, mostly in the lower leg. increased pressure on the tissues causes for its part a reduction of the blood circulation. in rare cases, involving ' risk ' persons, a blood clot can develop on the wall of the vein. this is described as a thrombosis, which impedes the flow of blood much more. in very rare cases, part of the blood clot can break off and be carried to the lungs by the flow of blood. by blocking a blood vessel this can result in considerable reduction of the heart ' s pumping performance. this is called an embolism of the lung, which in an extreme situation can lead to sudden heart failure. special risk groups - people over 60 - persons who have already suffered from thrombosis - overweight people - pregnant women - people with a malignant ailment - women who take a contraceptive pill and also smoke - people who recently had an operation - people with a hereditary blood coagulation disorder what you can do to prevent a thrombosis by wearing compression stockings ( best of all, compression panty hose ), you can greatly reduce the liquid deposits in your legs. people in high - risk groups should have compression stockings fitted individually. try to get some exercise during your flight, such as taking an active part in the lufthansa flyrobic program offered on your video screen on long - haul routes. make sure you drink enough on the flight in order to help your body achieve a sensible liquids balance amid the dry air in the cabin. cut down on alcohol and don ' t take sleeping pills or tranquilizers. we definitely recommend that especially endangered persons should consult their doctor. in some cases, taking a preventive anticoagulant medication can be necessary.


infections and immunizations why do people with lupus get infections so easily? an individual with lupus is more susceptible to infection than most people for two reasons : - lupus directly affects a person ' s immune system and reduces his or her ability to prevent and fight infection. - many of the drugs used to treat lupus suppress the function of the immune system and leave the body more prone to infection. effects of medications used in the treatment of lupus cortisone - like drugs ( prednisone ) and cytotoxic drugs such as azathioprine ( imuran ) and cyclophosphamide ( cytoxan ) increase a person ' s susceptibility to infections because they suppress both normal and abnormal immune system function. however, controlling lupus is usually more important than the danger posed by a possible infection due to the use of immunosuppressive medications. the risk of infection parallels the dose and the duration of treatment with steroids : - a daily dose of 20 mg. of prednisone is enough to impose a significant risk of infection - taking steroids every other day ( " alternate day " treatment ) decreases the risk and incidence of infections direct effects of lupus on the immune system people with lupus have abnormalities in their immune systems, so they are more likely to develop infections. they are more susceptible to infection even if they do not take corticosteroids. lupus experts such as dr. marian ropes sparingly used steroids in treating her patients in the 1940s and 1950s. yet, the data she published showed that the majority of her patients developed serious infections, even on low - dose steroids. types of infection in sle infections in people with lupus fall into two categories. - the first category includes infections with organisms that can affect persons with lupus and the general population : - streptococcus ( which causes strep throat ) - staphylococcus ( which causes staph infections ). - the second category consists of " opportunistic " infections, which are caused by organisms that bring about disease only when the immune system is weakened. most opportunistic infections are one of three kinds :