to outline the individual merits of each, you cannot, for instance, in icewm do event actions. and while i have used icewm, it just doesn ' t have..., well, it lacks something. [ ben ] epid. that ' s why i didn ' t say that kde was evil and should be wiped off the face, etc. - some people love it. and fvwm doesn ' t have a lot of things that icewm has ( i. e., a decent taskbar ; i could never stand that huge thing they use that takes up so much real estate. ) [ thomas ] actually, fvwm provides a taskbar ( fvwmtaskbar ) that takes up no more space than any " normal " task bar, plus it can autohide. you can also configure fvwmiconman to act as a taskbar. apart from the inherent motif theme that fvwm takes on by default ( \ o / ), perhaps the other major attraction to it for me was the fact that you can define events based on actions. afaict this is an idiom unique to fvwm, and no other wm / desktop environment ( the module that provides this is known as ' fvwmevent ' ). perhaps another addition that you might appreciate ben is the fact that you can script commands to fvwm, using the underlying $ shell. there is even a full set of perl - bindings. the power that this gives, to allow complex things to be done simply, is quite amazing. not only that but fvwm has its own internal widget set ( fvwmscript ) so that you can define all kinds of things. [ ben ] perhaps i ' m just not visualizing a scenario where this would be useful, but i can ' t really see the advantage. what wm functions would you want to script, and why? [ thomas ] lots of reasons that are situation dependent. one is to do things like compute the distance between windows and slide a window in a given direction to sit beside the window. another is to take a snapshot of the window on iconify, and set the icon to the picture of the window. for example, i have a function in fvwm that displays the total number of windows that i have open, on the title for my pager. by " open ", i mean those windows that are


to the picture of the window. for example, i have a function in fvwm that displays the total number of windows that i have open, on the title for my pager. by " open ", i mean those windows that are not iconified. you can see it here. you probably couldn ' t do that easily in anyother wm. whether or not you would want to, is another question entirely. [ ben ] yes. * that * ' is the question i ' m asking. if i really needed to, i ' d parse the output of " xwininfo - root - tree " and get the information, but i don ' t see how it would benefit me in either case. [ thomas ] / me comes down from his high horse. but it really does just depend. i ask of nothing visual from my wm in terms of eye candy. ick. the only thing i permit myself is xteddy. after all, a wm is just there to provide a means of being able to launch lots of rxvts. oh, i don ' t know. that one example of fvwm eyecandy you showed before was very impressive - and i like the idea of having a pretty desktop, although to me that means a nice background plus some good looking icons, not dancing rabbits that ( again ) waste my resources. don ' t forget the guis, now. i use mine to launch " gmplayer " and mozilla quite regularly. no matter how you improve the thing, it ' s still going to be a spoon, and the functionality of it will never be worth much more than that price. [ thomas ] that ' s where i diagree. the environment you work in is what you make it. and since fvwm is free, the amount of things i can do with it, and the extendability of it is immense. i joke not. there are over 1000 styles in all to fvwm. you can configure the minutest. [ ben ] yeah, you could theoretically make it out of gold and attach it to a gadget that will feed the baby, wipe up the spills, and go to the store to buy the products to replace the ones it used up... but it ' s neither a spoon any longer, nor is it nearly as useful as a spoon is if you move away from the home / baby / store metaphor. [ thomas ] given that all of


to replace the ones it used up... but it ' s neither a spoon any longer, nor is it nearly as useful as a spoon is if you move away from the home / baby / store metaphor. [ thomas ] given that all of this is contained within fvwm, the need to add on any features are irrelevant. it ' s ironic to think that despite all i have said, given my needs, i could quite easily go back to using twm again.... - no, despite what you might have read. motif is not dying. it ' s very much alive, and i for one am grateful that it is. - rumours that i ' m working on fvwmruby, are very true indeed. [ ben ] have you seen the icewm theme packs lately? i wouldn ' t be surprised if there were a thousand or more of them available. i generally take one, hack it a little, and use it for six months or so, and i don ' t see myself running out anytime soon. [ kapil ] since we ' re onto desktop / window manager wars... my latest " standard " for how good such a thingy is has been : - can it emulate " ratpoison "? - can it improve on " ratpoison "? - can it do the above without bringing a low - end machine to a screeching, grinding, * thrashing * halt? it turns out that ( in combination with gnu " screen " ) fvwm, icewm and even ( surprise ) gnome2 + metacity can do this. i haven ' t tried with kde. some notes of explanation : - in combination with " screen " what this really means is that you should be able to maximize a window * without * title bars, menubars, borders, handles and all that fluff. this is what you * really * need when you are doing a deep hack or writing a paper. - means that you should be able to " switch " in and out of this ratpoison mode with some key combination ( don ' t touch that mouse yet! ). in the " real " gui mode you should be able to use gimp ( which is ratpoison disabled or vice versa ) and other such programs that require a mouse and / or graphical interface and non - mazimized windows. - is reasonably clear - - - low on memory usage for ( a ) but could use more memory in


could there be a greenhouse gases plan? posted : 18 april 2009 in a landmark move that countered eight years of inaction by the bush administration, the environmental protection agency determined yesterday that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare because they contribute to climate change. the ruling set the stage for the agency to regulate emissions from a spectrum of sources, including automobiles, ships, airplanes, power plants, oil refineries, steel mills, and more. the finding, which includes carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, is subject to a period of public comment, after which the agency has no timetable and broad leeway in how to proceed. “ this finding confirms that greenhouse - gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations, ” epa administrator lisa jackson said yesterday. sen. james inhofe ( r, okla. ), the ranking republican on the environment and public works committee and a leading skeptic on global warming, said the decision would “ unleash a torrent of regulations that will destroy jobs, harm consumers, and extend the agency ’ s reach into every corner of american life. ” the epa ’ s analysis also found that climate change has “ serious national - security implications ” because of the potential for political and social upheaval related to food shortages, environmental refugees, and clashes over fuel, water, and other resources. the obama admin has made a first step ….. will they keep walking or is it just that … one lone step?


the united states has a unique legal and political relationship with indian tribes and a special relationship with alaska native entities as provided in the constitution of the united states, treaties, and federal statutes. these relationships extend to the federal government ’ s historic preservation activities, mandating that federal consultation with native american tribes be meaningful, in good faith, and entered into on a government - to - government basis. on september 23, 2004, president george w. bush issued executive memorandum government - to - government relationship with tribal governments recommitting the federal government to work with federally - recognized native american tribal governments on a government - to - government basis and strongly supporting and respecting tribal sovereignty and self - determination. mandates for the federal government ’ s unique policies and relationship with native american tribal governments are also codified in several executive orders : executive order 13007 indian sacred sites, issued by president clinton in 1996, directed federal agencies to accommodate access to and ceremonial use of native american sacred sites by native american religious practitioners, as well as avoid adversely affecting the physical integrity of such sacred sites. executive order 13175 consultation and coordination with indian tribal governments, issued by president clinton in 2000, recognized tribal rights of self - government and tribal sovereignty, and affirmed and committed the federal government to a work with native american tribal governments on a government - to - government basis. gsa ’ s policy toward native american and alaskan tribes ( adm 1072. 1 ) [ pdf, 90k ] was issued on november 17, 1999, by then - administrator david j. barram. the policy committed gsa to a government - to - government relationship with federally - recognized native american tribal governments. the policy further committed gsa to integrate guiding principles and practices of meaningful consultation and communication with native american tribal governments down to the agency ’ s regional and local levels. tribes and historic preservation law preservation and protection of native american historic resources, at least archeological resources, dates back to at least the antiquities act of 1906, usually seen as the first federal historic preservation law in the united states. more recent federal historic preservation laws mandate native american tribal government involvement and consultation. these include : - the native american graves protection and repatriation act ( nagpra ), passed in 1990, provides a process for museums and federal agencies to return certain native american cultural items – - - human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony – - - to lineal descendants, culturally - affiliated native american tribes, and native hawaiian organizations. under section 3 of the law


american cultural items – - - human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony – - - to lineal descendants, culturally - affiliated native american tribes, and native hawaiian organizations. under section 3 of the law, repatriation is mandated for native american cultural items excavated or discovered on federal land after november 16, 1990. - the archeological resources protection act ( arpa ) [ pdf, 158k ], passed in 1979, requires federal agencies to consult with tribal authorities before permitting archeological excavations on tribal lands. it also mandates the confidentially of information concerning the nature and location of archeological resources, including tribal archeological resources. - the american indian religious freedom act ( airfa ) [ pdf, 38k ], passed in 1978, affirms a national policy to protect and preserve for native americans their inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise the traditional religions of indigenous america, including protecting and preserving access to sacred sites. - the national environmental policy act ( nepa ) [ pdf, 158k ], passed in 1969, calls for the federal government to invite the participation of any affected native american tribe in the environmental review process. - the national historic preservation act ( nhpa ) [ pdf, 639k ] of 1966, as amended in 1992, enhanced native american tribal roles in historic preservation and created the tribal historic preservation officer ( thpo ) program. federal agency obligation to consult with native american tribal governments under section 106 of nhpa. the shortcut to this page is www. gsa. gov / tribalconsultation.


provided by : manpages - dev _ 3. 23 - 1 _ all feclearexcept, fegetexceptflag, feraiseexcept, fesetexceptflag, fetestexcept, fegetenv, fegetround, feholdexcept, fesetround, fesetenv, feupdateenv, feenableexcept, fedisableexcept, fegetexcept - floating - point rounding and exception handling int feclearexcept ( int excepts ) ; int fegetexceptflag ( fexcept _ t * flagp, int excepts ) ; int feraiseexcept ( int excepts ) ; int fesetexceptflag ( const fexcept _ t * flagp, int excepts ) ; int fetestexcept ( int excepts ) ; int fesetround ( int rounding _ mode ) ; int fegetenv ( fenv _ t * envp ) ; int feholdexcept ( fenv _ t * envp ) ; int fesetenv ( const fenv _ t * envp ) ; int feupdateenv ( const fenv _ t * envp ) ; link with - lm. these eleven functions were defined in c99, and describe the handling of floating - point rounding and exceptions ( overflow, zero - divide etc. ). the divide - by - zero exception occurs when an operation on finite numbers produces infinity as exact answer. the overflow exception occurs when a result has to be represented as a floating - point number, but has ( much ) larger absolute value than the largest ( finite ) floating - point number that is representable. the underflow exception occurs when a result has to be represented as a floating - point number, but has smaller absolute value than the smallest positive normalized floating - point number ( and would lose much accuracy when represented as a denormalized number ). the inexact exception occurs when the rounded result of an operation is not equal to the infinite precision result. it may occur whenever overflow or underflow occurs. the invalid exception occurs when there is no well - defined result for an operation, as for 0 / 0 or infinity - infinity or sqrt ( - 1 ). exceptions are represented in two ways : as a single bit ( exception present /


occurs. the invalid exception occurs when there is no well - defined result for an operation, as for 0 / 0 or infinity - infinity or sqrt ( - 1 ). exceptions are represented in two ways : as a single bit ( exception present / absent ), and these bits correspond in some implementation - defined way with bit positions in an integer, and also as an opaque structure that may contain more information about the exception ( perhaps the code address where it occurred ). each of the macros fe _ divbyzero, fe _ inexact, fe _ invalid, fe _ overflow, fe _ underflow is defined when the implementation supports handling of the corresponding exception, and if so then defines the corresponding bit ( s ), so that one can call exception handling functions, for example, using the integer argument fe _ overflow | fe _ underflow. other exceptions may be supported. the macro fe _ all _ except is the bitwise or of all bits corresponding to supported exceptions. the feclearexcept ( ) function clears the supported exceptions represented by the bits in its argument. the fegetexceptflag ( ) function stores a representation of the state of the exception flags represented by the argument excepts in the opaque the feraiseexcept ( ) function raises the supported exceptions represented by the bits in excepts. the fesetexceptflag ( ) function sets the complete status for the exceptions represented by excepts to the value * flagp. this value must have been obtained by an earlier call of fegetexceptflag ( ) with a last argument that contained all bits in excepts. the fetestexcept ( ) function returns a word in which the bits are set that were set in the argument excepts and for which the corresponding exception is currently set. the rounding mode determines how the result of floating - point operations is treated when the result cannot be exactly represented in the signifcand. various rounding modes may be provided : round to nearest ( the default ), round up ( towards positive infinity ), round down ( towards negative infinity ), and round towards zero. each of the macros fe _ tonearest, fe _ upward, fe _ downward, and fe _ towardzero is defined when the implementation supports getting and setting the corresponding rounding direction. the fegetround ( ) function returns the macro corresponding to the current rounding mode. the fesetround ( ) function sets the rounding mode as specified by its argument and


is defined when the implementation supports getting and setting the corresponding rounding direction. the fegetround ( ) function returns the macro corresponding to the current rounding mode. the fesetround ( ) function sets the rounding mode as specified by its argument and returns zero when it was successful. c99 and posix. 1 - 2008 specify an identifier, flt _ rounds, defined in < float. h >, which indicates the implementation - defined rounding behavior for floating - point addition. this identifier has one of the following - 1 the rounding mode is not determinable. 0 rounding is towards 0. 1 rounding is towards nearest number. 2 rounding is towards positive infinity. 3 rounding is towards negative infinity. other values represent machine - dependent, non - standard rounding modes. the value of flt _ rounds should reflect the current rounding mode as set by fesetround ( ) ( but see bugs ). the entire floating - point environment, including control modes and status flags, can be handled as one opaque object, of type fenv _ t. the default environment is denoted by fe _ dfl _ env ( of type const fenv _ t * ). this is the environment setup at program start and it is defined by iso c to have round to nearest, all exceptions cleared and a non - stop ( continue on exceptions ) mode. the fegetenv ( ) function saves the current floating - point environment in the object * envp. the feholdexcept ( ) function does the same, then clears all exception flags, and sets a non - stop ( continue on exceptions ) mode, if available. it returns zero when successful. the fesetenv ( ) function restores the floating - point environment from the object * envp. this object must be known to be valid, for example, the result of a call to fegetenv ( ) or feholdexcept ( ) or equal to fe _ dfl _ env. this call does not raise exceptions. the feupdateenv ( ) function installs the floating - point environment represented by the object * envp, except that currently raised exceptions are not cleared. after calling this function, the raised exceptions will be a bitwise or of those previously set with those in * envp. as before, the object * envp must be known to be valid. these functions return zero on success and non - zero if an error these functions first appeared in glib


##wise or of those previously set with those in * envp. as before, the object * envp must be known to be valid. these functions return zero on success and non - zero if an error these functions first appeared in glibc in version 2. 1. iec 60559 ( iec 559 : 1989 ), ansi / ieee 854, c99, posix. 1 - 2001. if possible, the gnu c library defines a macro fe _ nomask _ env which represents an environment where every exception raised causes a trap to occur. you can test for this macro using # ifdef. it is only defined if _ gnu _ source is defined. the c99 standard does not define a way to set individual bits in the floating - point mask, for example, to trap on specific flags. glibc 2. 2 supports the functions feenableexcept ( ) and fedisableexcept ( ) to set individual floating - point traps, and fegetexcept ( ) to query the state. int feenableexcept ( int excepts ) ; int fedisableexcept ( int excepts ) ; the feenableexcept ( ) and fedisableexcept ( ) functions enable ( disable ) traps for each of the exceptions represented by excepts and return the previous set of enabled exceptions when successful, and - 1 otherwise. the fegetexcept ( ) function returns the set of all currently enabled c99 specifies that the value of flt _ rounds should reflect changes to the current rounding mode, as set by fesetround ( ). currently, this does not occur : flt _ rounds always has the value 1. this page is part of release 3. 23 of the linux man - pages project. a description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http : / / www. kernel. org / doc / man - pages /.


send your name to mars for all those who submitted your names, congratulations! your name was successfully etched onto a microchip and is officially on mars! how did nasa collect the names? more than 1. 2 million names were submitted on our web site over a one year period! some 20, 000 visitors to nasa ’ s jet propulsion laboratory, pasadena, calif., and nasa ' s kennedy space center, cape canaveral, fla., wrote their names on pages that were scanned and reproduced at microscopic scale onto two chips the size of a dime. how were the chips made? engineers etched the names onto a silicon wafer or microchip. they used an electron beam “ e - beam ” machine at jpl that specializes in etching very tiny features ( less than 1 micron, or less than the width of a human hair! ). they normally use this machine to make high - precision microdevices in jpl ' s microdevices laboratory. leonardo da vinci ’ s codex on bird flight, a document from about 1505 was reproduced on a microscopic scale and fastened to the chip on curiosity. leonardo ’ s self - portrait is also on the rover, along with some essays, drawings, and other submissions from finalists and semi - finalists who participated in the “ send your name to mars ” rover naming contest opportunity.


search journal of online mathematics and its applications : journal of online mathematics and its applications page 1 of 1 dealing with data : a ' simple ' linear fit [ note : the activities in this module make reference to the computer algebra system ( cas ) maple. any other cas can be used instead ( e. g., mathematica, mathcad, etc. ) as long as the user is familiar with that cas system. in other words, while preferred here, maple is not required for the use of this module. ] the first true test of any scientific theory is whether or not people can use it to make accurate predictions. calculus, being the study of quantities that change, provides the language and the mathematical tools to discuss and understand change in a precise, quantitative way. an important prerequisite to using calculus to analyze " real - world " situations is having a good understanding of the basic " elementary " functions : polynomials, logarithms, trigonometric functions, and all their compositions, inverses, etc. with an understanding of the calculus of the basic functions, it is often possible to formulate a mathematical model of ( an idealized version of ) a phenomenon in one of two ways : first, enough might be understood about the phenomenon so that a mathematical formulation of it is directly attainable. for example, newton ' s second law of motion - - force is the derivative of momentum, where momentum is the product of mass and velocity - - is such a model. at the other extreme are models which are derived purely empirically - - data are collected, and one searches for an appropriate formula to match the data with reasonable accuracy. many economic models are derived in this manner. more often, however, mathematical models are developed with a combination of the two approaches : one has some basic understanding of a phenomenon, enough to restrict the class of functions appropriate to model it. very often, one knows enough so that the functions are determined except for a few parameters, such as the coefficients of a polynomial, or some other kind of multiplicative factor. then, experimental data are used to determine the values of the missing parameters. many of the " constants ", " coefficients " and " numbers " one encounters in science ( e. g., rate constants of chemical reactions, half - lives of radioactive elements, coefficients of thermal conductivity, the gravitational constant, etc. ) started out as the last unknown parameters in a mathematical model, which had to be determined by collecting experimental data. linear fits : in many situations,


, half - lives of radioactive elements, coefficients of thermal conductivity, the gravitational constant, etc. ) started out as the last unknown parameters in a mathematical model, which had to be determined by collecting experimental data. linear fits : in many situations, researchers want to understand how some quantity will change when another quantity is varied. a simple example of this might be the following sports - physics experiment : a basketball is dropped from different heights, and the height of the first bounce is measured each time. what is the relationship between the height of the drop and the height of the bounce? we can try a simple mathematical experiment to look at the problem. below is an interactive program that allows you to enter several data points ( possibly non - physical ) claiming to be data representing the starting height and subsequent bounce heights of a basketball. enter the x, y values for any points you like, then use the mouse to click on any two positions inside the graph area. the program draws a line between the two points and indicates the endpoints and the midpoints with circles. by clicking near the center of any of the circles, you can drag the line around. as you do so, you will see a display of the distance between the closest approach of the line to each data point. you also see at the bottom a display of a number which characterizes how " badly " the line fits the points. the smaller the " badness " number, the better the line should appear to represent the points. try it! dr. deturck collected the following data by dropping a basketball in his garage. after each drop, he measured the height of the first bounce : to get ready for our subsequent analysis, we use maple to make a list of the drop heights and the corresponding bounce heights : # make an ordered list of data points # drop : = [ 36, 40, 40, 44, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60 ] : bounce : = [ 25, 29, 28. 5, 31. 5, 32, 35, 38, 42, 46 ] : the square brackets indicate to maple that the set of numbers is an ordered list. the two statements end with colons, rather than semicolons, so that there will be no output from them ( because in this case, maple would just parrot back the input ). it will be helpful to have maple make what statisticians call a " scatter plot " of the data points. to plot points from a list, maple expects an ordered list containing the x - coordinate of


would just parrot back the input ). it will be helpful to have maple make what statisticians call a " scatter plot " of the data points. to plot points from a list, maple expects an ordered list containing the x - coordinate of the first point followed by the y - coordinate of the first point, followed by the x - coordinate of the second point, etc. to transform our drop and bounce lists into ordered pairs, we enter the following command ( this is pretty advanced maple - speak, so don ' t worry if you wouldn ' t have thought of it ) : this defines the variable points to be the list of points we want to plot. be careful when you type this statement that you distinguish carefully between parentheses and square brackets. the variable points has the drop height and the corresponding bounce height right next to each other, for use with plot. so try plotting the data ( " style = point " and " symbol = cross " are to keep maple from connecting the dots ) : plot ( points, style = point, symbol = cross ) ; the data look pretty linear, but how do we find the line that " best " describes it? there are several different definitions of " best " in use. we will be using the so - called " least - squares " fit. for our drop - bounce data, the least squares line is obtained as follows : with ( stats, fit ) ; with ( fit, leastsquare ) ; leastsquare [ [ x, y ], y = a * x + b ] ( [ drop, bounce ] ) ; y =. 8502604294 x - 5. 567708941. now we can plot the data and the line to see how well maple did with fitting the data. since we want to combine two different kinds of plots, we will be using the display command. first, let ' s assign a name to the equation maple returned. fitlin : =. 8502604294 * x - 5. 567708941 ; now we can plot both the line and data and store those plots as variables. the names stand for what maple calls " plot structures ", which are maple ' s internal directions for making plots. it is very important to use colons at the end of statements that assign plots to names. you defnintely do not want to see the plot structures! fitplot : = plot ( fitlin, x = 35.. 60 ) : pointplot : =


colons at the end of statements that assign plots to names. you defnintely do not want to see the plot structures! fitplot : = plot ( fitlin, x = 35.. 60 ) : pointplot : = plot ( points, style = point, symbol = cross ) : we can display the plot commands we ' ve saved. before we do that, we have to have maple load the display command. fit this data with a least - squares line. what interpretation do you give to the slope of your line? using your linear model, predict the winning height in the 2000 olympics... in the 2096 olympics. according to your model, in what year will pole vaulters be able to " leap tall buildings in a single bound "? ( the empire state building is 1250 feet tall. ) comment on the reasonableness of your model ( including comments about the residuals ). problem 2. in a physics experiment, students measure the period of a pendulum ( i. e., the amount of time the pendulum takes to swing back and forth ) as a function of its length. one group of students obtained the following data : as you did in the first problem, find the least squares line that best fits this data. compute and plot the residuals - - these are the differences between the measured values of the period and the value predicted by the least squares equation for each measurement. explain why these indicate that a different model is needed. published july 2001 © 2001 by larry gladney and dennis deturck


history of fractions date : 12 / 7 / 95 at 9 : 30 : 11 from : anonymous subject : history of fractions i have several math classes coming to our school media center next week to research the history of fractions. the problem is, our media center does not have the right resources to help students with their assignment. they are trying to find out how fractions developed and how they have been used in history. for example, how did the babylonians, ancient chinese, egyptians, greeks, or hindus use fractions? how were fractions written? which operations ( addition, subtraction, multiplication, division ), if any, could be carried out with fractions? how did they expand the use of fractions? we have a few books that cover what the numerals of these societies looked like, but nothing about the history of fractions in ancient cultures. our public library and our district high school library didn ' t have anything either. your help is greatly appreciated! date : 3 / 8 / 96 at 23 : 45 : 47 from : doctor jodi subject : re : history of fractions hi there! if you have access to a web browser, you ' ll find a detailed description of the babylonian and egyptian mathematical system, including some discussion of fractions, at http : / / www - groups. dcs. st - and. ac. uk / ~ history / histtopics / babylonian _ and _ egyptian. html briefly, the babylonians used base 60, rather than base 10. their fractional system survives in the hours minutes and seconds notation we still use. the chinese system is described at http : / / aleph0. clarku. edu : 80 / ~ djoyce / mathhist / china. html briefly, the chinese used a symbol for the numbers 1 - 10, 100, 1000, and 10000. 2034 would be written 2, 1000, 3, 10, 4 ( 2 * 1000 + 3 * 10 + 4 ) small bamboo counting rods were used for calculations. positions from left to right gave place value. fractions, as far as i can tell from this description, were like ours. you might find a better description in the original sources, development of mathematics in china and japan ( mikami ) and chinese mathematics, a concise history ( li yan and dushiran ). some of the resources from the bibliography at http : / / aleph0. clarku. edu : 80 / ~ djoyce / mathhis


arcs, cevians, tangents theorem 4. 5 the lines tangent to the circumcircle of a triangle at its vertices cut the opposite sides in three collinear points. the proof in the text is as follows : let the tangent to the circumcircle at a meet line bc at l. then angle bal is congruent to angle c since each angle is measured by half of arc ab. * * * * * that would be fine, but i don ' t know how they determine this... * * * * *. also we have that angle lac = 180 - angle abc, since these angles are measured by halves of the two opposite arcs ac. * * * * * again, i am lacking the theorem which is used to deduce this * * * * * *.... the rest of the proof is trivial and i don ' t need help with it. can someone please give me the theorems they use for those parts of the proof. uploaded with imageshack. us it ' s elementary theorem that angles on the circumference of the circle ' looking ' at the same arc of that circle are themselves equal. ( the proof is a bit long but if necessary i can try to write it, try this circumferential angle is half corresponding central angle ; the theorem works for any circumferential angle. ) bal is ' looking ' at the arc ab but is degenerated. when you know this you can find the second part easily just observing the angles abc and the angle at a ' looking ' at arc ac. sorry if my english was bad.


| niche holding carved stone monument at the time of its discovery at zazacatla in the mexican highlands. photo courtesy inah - morelos. ( zoom ) | an early 1970s aerial photograph of one of the plots forming the site known as zazacatla, just outside cuernavaca in the mexican state of morelos, shows a large platform with a very large destruction hole in its southern portion. existence of an archaeological site there in the municipality of xochitepec was officially reported in the middle 1980s, although no exploration was carried out. nevertheless, knowledge of the presence of archaeological remains in this place must have existed since much earlier, given the fact that the original mexico city - acapulco road, built several decades ago, practically runs through the ancient site. in the early 1990s, when the old mexico city - acapulco road was enlarged to make way for the current superhighway linking these two cities, no better consideration was shown for the site. not only did it go unreported without any salvage archaeology ever conducted, but it was mercilessly bulldozed over, completely destroying what must have been a very interesting structure, lined with large stones, a few meters to the east of the site ' s two main platforms. in july, 2006, building of a parking lot started by the road leading into the town of xochitepec, barely 50 meters to the west of the superhighway, and almost right away the building crew came across remains of an ancient wall. archaeologist giselle canto intervened and the zazacatla archaeological salvage work was begun. by then, the site had been greatly destroyed not only by the road, but by housing, a gas station, a small commercial complex, and by the facilities of several private companies. the archaeological team, headed by canto and by victor m. castro, set out to conduct research in what was left of it, before urban sprawl obliterated it entirely. after consolidating the damaged wall hit by the building crew, they began extensive test pitting throughout much of the plot. thus, they were able to find a burial containing the remains of some ten to twelve individuals. ceramic data collected throughout the site allowed them to establish that it was occupied between 800 and 500 bc, during the middle formative period ( also known as the middle preclassic ), and they were also able to identify at least six different building phases. one of the last pits, undertaken to explore an area


was occupied between 800 and 500 bc, during the middle formative period ( also known as the middle preclassic ), and they were also able to identify at least six different building phases. one of the last pits, undertaken to explore an area not yet sampled, revealed a facade that was ultimately found to run along the northern edge of two adjacent platforms, placed along an east - west axis and separated by an earthen stair. the platforms were made of rammed earth and faced with stone lajas. the lower portion of much of the facade survived because it was sealed over in ancient times when a new floor was put in. along this facade, four sculpted figures were recovered in their original position inside niches. two of these figures display typical olmec iconography and poses. aside from the obvious importance of the figures found in their original context, the facade itself affords a rare and fascinating glimpse of middle - formative architecture. it is interesting to note in the context of the zazacatla discoveries that a remarkable figurine in olmec style was discovered some years ago only ten kilometers away in atlihuayan. also interesting to note among the excavation ' s preliminary results is the fact that obsidian from what appear to be numerous distinct sources has been found at the site. given the diversity of samples, this obsidian could have come from sites far away from both the site and each other, such as otumba, michoacan, cerro de las navajas, el chayal and pico de orizaba, to name a few. this suggests that the site must have been in the crossroads of important trade routes. to this day, pilgrims from guerrero going to the guadalupe shrine in mexico city pass a few meters from the ancient site, which underlines its nature as a natural place of passage between mexico ' s western coast and the central plateau. ( for more photographs see mesoweb resources. ) | members of the archaeological team as they prepare to take one of the sculpted stone figures from its nicheone of four such niches in the platforms ' facade. ( photo courtesy inah - morelos. ) | | a member of the archaeological team takes the first look at one of the four sculpted stones found inside the niches. the style of this possibly re - shaped rock cannot be readily identified as olmec, and it may have been a representation of a dog - like beast. both of the pieces whose style is not readily identifiable as olmec were heavily covered with red pigment, either


possibly re - shaped rock cannot be readily identified as olmec, and it may have been a representation of a dog - like beast. both of the pieces whose style is not readily identifiable as olmec were heavily covered with red pigment, either cinnabar or hematite. ( photo courtesy inah - morelos. ) | | the two olmec - style stone effigy figures side by side. the figure on the left is 46 cm. in height ; the one on the right is 58 cm. in height. ( photo courtesy inah - morelos. ) | | frontal view of the larger of the two olmec - style anthropomorphic effigies found in niches in the northern facade of the two platforms. the figure measures 58 cm. in height. ( photo courtesy inah - morelos. ) | | three - quarters view of the larger of the two effigy figures as seen from the effigy ' s right. ( photo courtesy inah - morelos. ) | | frontal view of the smaller of two olmec - style anthropomorphic figures found in the platforms ' facade niches. this figure is 46 cm. in height. ( photo courtesy inah - morelos. ) | | three - quarters view of the smaller of the two olmec - style effigies. ( photo courtesy inah - morelos. ) | | another three - quarters view of the smaller of the two olmec - style effigies. ( photo courtesy inah - morelos. ) | | the two olmec - style stone effigy figures, with people included for scale. ( photo courtesy inah - morelos. ) | | general view of the zazacatla platforms. in the foreground is the western one, showing the laja facade and one of four niches found so far. in the background, the elevation marks the place where the autopista del sol superhighway goes by. ( photo : jorge perez de lara / precolumbia mesoweb. ) | | in the foreground, the eastern platform, with the western to the right. in the middle, remains of an earthen stair. ( photo : jorge perez de lara / precolumbia mesoweb. ) | | northeastern corner of the eastern platform as liberated by excavation. ( photo : jorge perez de lara / precolumbia mesoweb. ) | | stratig


perez de lara / precolumbia mesoweb. ) | | northeastern corner of the eastern platform as liberated by excavation. ( photo : jorge perez de lara / precolumbia mesoweb. ) | | stratigraphic cut in front of the northern edge of the platforms. the clearly visible white band points out the floor that ultimately sealed and protected the lower portion of the platforms ' facades and its niches and sculptures. ( photo : jorge perez de lara / precolumbia mesoweb. ) | | detail of one of the niches where sculpted effigies were found. ( photo : jorge perez de lara / precolumbia mesoweb. ) | | archaeologist victor m. castro stands in front of the northern facade of the western platform. ( photo : jorge perez de lara / precolumbia mesoweb. ) | | remains of eastern facade of the eastern platform. note the use of diagonally - placed lajas. ( photo : jorge perez de lara / precolumbia mesoweb. ) | | a closer, lower view of the northeastern corner of the eastern platform as liberated by excavation. ( photo : jorge perez de lara / precolumbia mesoweb. ) | | ground level detail of the surviving facade of the eastern platform. ( photo : jorge perez de lara / precolumbia mesoweb. ) | | remains of a structure a few meters to the east of the eastern platform. this was almost completely obliterated by the passage of the mexico city - acapulco superhighway. ( photo : jorge perez de lara / precolumbia mesoweb. ) |


a double - stranded dna molecule containing one or more mispaired bases. a double - stranded dna in which the base sequences are not completely complementary due to recombination or mutation. a dna molecule that is formed by base pairing between strands that are derived from two dna molecules that are not identical in sequence. a double - helix formed where one strand is rna and the other is dna a double - stranded dna molecule or dna - rna hybrid, where each strand is of a different origin, and consequently containing one or more mismatched ( non - complementary ) base pairs. a dna duplex is prepared by the hybridization of single - stranded dna molecules derived from two different sources. where the two dnas have identical or very similar sequences, a double - stranded molecule will be established, whereas where the two dnas differ in sequence, single - stranded regions will remain. a heteroduplex will be revealed as single - strand " bushes " when dna is observed electron microscopically. a map of homologous and non - homologous regions of the two molecules may thereby be constructed. this process is known as heteroduplex mapping. hybrid structure formed by the annealing of two dna strands ( or an rna and dna ) that have sufficient complementarity in their sequence to allow hydrogen bonding. a double - stranded nucleic acid molecule in which each strand has been derived from a different individual. a heteroduplex is a double - stranded ( duplex ) molecule of nucleic acid originated through the genetic recombination of single complementary strands derived from different sources, such as from different homologous chromosomes or even from different organisms. one such example is the heteroduplex dna strand formed in hybridization processes, usually for biochemistry - based phylogenetical analyses.


what is mrsaid™? mrsaid™ is a novel, non - antibiotic system for nasal bacterial decolonization to reduce the incidence of hospital - acquired infections ( hai ’ s ). mrsaid™ is based on the technology “ photodisinfection ”, and consists of the application of a topical photosensitizer solution in the nasal passages of individuals colonized with a pathogenic bacteria such as methicillin - resistant staphylococcus aureus ( mrsa ). this solution is subsequently activated locally using non - thermal visible light energy. the treatment is painless, does not lead to … mrsaid™ treatment is based on the platform technology “ photodisinfection ”. photodisinfection involves the use of non - thermal light energy to activate a liquid photosensitizer formulation, leading to the generation of reactive oxygen - based molecules that are lethal to bacterial cells. these molecules are extremely short - lived, and destroy bacterial membranes via lipid peroxidation while causing little or no damage to surrounding tissue. photodisinfection has been shown to be effective against a wide range of bacteria ( including biofilm forms ), as well as … - vgh team wins bc quality award for ssi reduction results using photodisinfection prweb - february 28 - reducing surgical site infections with photodisinfection ucl eastman dental institute - january 4 - light therapy cuts post - surgery infections at vancouver general hospital ( with video ) vancouver sun - december 14


new alias ( alias tab ) an alias is an alternate name that can be used to make a connection. the alias encapsulates the required elements of a connection string, and exposes them with a name chosen by the user. use the alias page on the alias - new dialog box to specify the elements of the connection string for an alias. to change the connection string of an existing alias, see < alias > properties ( alias tab ). all values in the properties grid do not have to be completed. valid combinations vary depending on the protocol selected. see the topics listed below for examples of valid combinations. by default, sql server connects to a local instance of sql server using the shared memory protocol, and to an instance of sql server on another computer using either tcp / ip or named pipes. create an alias when you are using tcp / ip, named pipes, or via, and you want to provide a customized connection string, or when you want to use a name other than the server name for the connection. sql server is not listening on the default tcp / ip port of 1433 so you want to provide a connection string with a different port number. sql server is not listening on the default named pipe so you want to provide a connection string with a different pipe name. an application expects to connect to a database on the server named acct, but that database has been consolidated as an instance named acct on a server named central. the application cannot easily be changed. create an alias named acct, with a connection string pointing to central \ acct. see the following topics for a description and examples of valid combinations of alias properties :


testing a user interface this section describes in detail some of the tasks associated with testing a ui for a windows application. to fully determine the effectiveness and overall usability of an application ui, it must be tested. testing exposes how easy or difficult the ui is to use for the broadest possible audience. the time that it takes to test an application is well worth it. this topic focuses on three primary testing scenarios : general usability, accessibility, and automation. usability testing provides the opportunity to evaluate a product by studying how real users actually use the product. this analysis ensures that key assumptions about intended users and interface designs are supported ( or challenged ) with real data. only by gathering this empirical data can you find out how well the ui for a product fits your users ' needs and expectations. by observing user interaction with the product and listening to user feedback, important features that may be difficult to find and use are identified. based on these results, adjustments can be made to the ui as required. it is almost impossible to build a useful product without some level of usability testing as the results provide the basis for making better decisions about the product and improving the overall user experience. usability testing provides significant payback only when it is well integrated into the entire project lifecycle. a single usability study can identify issues, but without follow - up tests it is difficult to determine if the solutions have solved those problems or introduced new ones. the primary scenarios for usability testing are : - if you are a software product vendor, testing real users of your product means you are evaluating the design. based on how you have designed the application, can users complete the tasks they need to do? testing real users doing real tasks can also point out if the ui guidelines you are following are working within the context of your product, and when consistency helps or hinders the ability of a user to do their work. - if you are a software product purchaser, you can do usability testing to evaluate a product for purchase. for example, your company might consider buying a product for their twenty thousand employees. before the company spends its money, it wants to make sure that the product in question will really help employees do their jobs better. usability testing can also be useful to see if the proposed application follows published ui style guidelines ( internal or external ). it ' s best to use ui guidelines as an auxiliary, rather than primary, source of information for making purchase decisions. for more information, see usability in practice : usability testing. accessibility testing encompasses


it still is a huge challenge to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as alzheimer, parkinson or huntington, which are increasingly affecting our society as the average life - span of our population increases. one of the main obstacles for successful therapy of these disorders is safe and effective drug delivery to the central nervous system. tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses have been used to modify transparent dielectric materials, to form voids, and to polymerize resists and resins for more than a decade. a high sub - 100 - nm spatial resolution has now been reached making it potentially a nano - fabrication tool. researchers at the university of new mexico have demonstrated a new, simple, and facile approach to the fabrication of various nanopatterned films composed of nanoparticles. the findings could lead to nanoparticle sensors for both biological and chemical species. contouring measurement methods are important for high quality, high speed and productivity machining in order to achieve the high precision required. among the most commonly used methods, no measuring techniques have been available with nanometer resolution except for the grating encoder measurement system. researchers at cornell university have developed a novel quantitative nanoparticle - based sensor of chemical concentrations based on organic dye molecules covalently integrated into the matrix of silica nanoparticles. this is the first work that implements an optimized core - shell architecture for such sensor particles. gold nanoparticles have shown promise for cancer therapy by virtue of their ability to absorb laser light, heat up and thus kill the tumor. however, in order for the gold nanoparticles to have their therapeutic effect they need to be taken up specifically by tumor cells. researchers have now used targeted viral vectors as carriers to bring the gold nanoparticles to the location where they need to work. humidity is a measure of the moisture content of an environment. control of humidity is thus essential for maintaining the desired level of moisture in an enclosure be it in a hospital or in a semiconductor - processing unit or in a laboratory. for humidity control an efficient sensor is an absolute necessity. researchers in israel demonstrated a new technique for creating polymer microlenses. while current processes employed for manufacturing large microlens arrays are not compatible with the need to place single microlenses in very precise, strategic locations ( such as an intersection of two nanochannels, for example ) the israeli group ' s method is specifically designed to do so. they deposit small drops of monomer solution with a nanopipette,


women in the war zone hospital services in the first world war date of publication : april 2009 publisher : the history press in our collective memory, the first world war is dominated by men. the sailors, soldiers, airmen and politicians about whom histories are written were male, and the first half of the twentieth century was still a time when a woman ' s place was thought to be in the home. it was not until the second world war that women would start to play a major role both in the armed forces and in the factories and the fields. yet there were some women who were able to contribute to the war effort between 1914 and 1918, mostly as doctors and nurses. in women in the war zone, anne powell has selected extracts from first - hand accounts of the experiences of those female medical personnel who served abroad during the first world war. covering both the western and the eastern fronts, from petrograd to basra and from antwerp to the dardanelles, they include nursing casualties from the battle of ypres, a young doctor put in charge of a remote hospital in serbia and a nurse who survived a torpedo attack, albeit with serious injuries. filled with stories of bravery and kindliness, it is a book that honours the often unsung contribution made by the female doctors and nurses who helped to alleviate some of the suffering of the first world war.


natural gas 101 at colorado state university designed to give students an overview of important colorado industry increased demand for natural gas and greater public interest in gas drilling and production in colorado has led colorado state university to offer students a course on the “ fundamentals of natural gas ” for the first time. the interdisciplinary course this spring features an introduction to the natural gas industry including geology, exploration, production, transportation and environmental issues. the class exposes students to all aspects of the natural gas industry with a particular focus on unconventional gas extraction as it is being practiced in colorado. “ part of the significance of this course is that it ’ s multidisciplinary – we have students from economics and construction management in addition to geology and engineering students, ” said sally sutton, associate professor and geosciences department chair. “ it ’ s exciting to have so many different professors with different backgrounds, ” said jessica olsen, a senior in mechanical engineering who has already accepted a job with pioneer natural resources upon her graduation in may. about 30 students in a variety of disciplines are enrolled, but 50 routinely show up. some of the folks sitting in the front row are other faculty members teaching the course. tom sale, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and bryan willson, mechanical engineering professor, for example, have attended sutton ’ s lectures on the geology of shale. “ i ’ m having a load of fun in there, ” said willson, whose engines and energy conversion laboratory has done more than any group in the world to address impacts of natural gas pipelines and help industry partners reduce environmental effects of natural gas compression as well as improve efficiency. “ i ’ ve always been focused on the end use and haven ’ t studied the rock formations, and i find that pretty interesting. ” other instructors include ken carlson and tom sale. carlson is co - director of the colorado energy water consortium, a private - public partnership between csu and the natural gas industry that is focused on addressing water issues related to shale gas extraction and production. sale is a leader in solutions for petroleum impacted soil and groundwater with current funding from chevron, suncor energy, exxonmobil, shell, and the american petroleum institute. in addition, the class will draw on guest instructors such as former gov. bill ritter who is now director of csu ’ s center for the new energy economy. officials from industry and the environmental protection agency also have been invited to speak. the course addresses increased interest in natural gas production in colorado and around the nation, particularly with the anticipated future development of


recently, before our son went off to college, my wife and i debated how we could best protect his future health while living away from home for his studies. one of the more controversial issues we grappled with was whether he should be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus ( hpv ), a sexually transmitted virus that causes cancer. as you read this, you may be thinking, why a debate ; why the controversy? many parents we know worry that this uncomfortable discussion may promote the idea of promiscuity or speak to your moral compass when in reality this issue is about preventing cancer. the fact that hpv infection has serious consequences makes this an essential conversation that needs to happen in all households in the us. here are 8 things you need to know about hpv. 1. hpv is the most commonly diagnosed sexually transmitted infection in the united states resulting in a number of medical conditions ranging from genital warts to cancer. 2. hpv is spread by skin to skin contact, including sexual intercourse, oral sex, anal sex, or any other contact involving the genital area. 75 - 80 % of sexually active adults will acquire hpv infection before the age of 50, typically between the ages of 15 and 25 years — when many first become sexually active. the problem is that hpv exposure increases with the number of sexual partners that one has and the number of partners a partner has had. 3. condoms help but do not provide complete protection from hpv infection because condoms do not cover all exposed genital skin. people do not become infected with hpv by touching an object such as a toilet seat. 4. most people who are infected have no signs or symptoms. in 10 - 20 percent of women, however, the infection persists. in this situation there is a greater chance of developing cervical cancer, one of the most common types of cancer in women. it takes at least 20 years for hpv infection to cause cervical cancer. thus, regular cervical cancer screening and pap tests are important in detecting cervical abnormalities early before cancer develops. 5. although 100 types of hpv have been identified, researchers divide hpv viruses into two types, high or low risk, for causing cervical cancer. low risk hpv cause about 90 percent of genital warts and are considered low risk because they do not cause cervical cancer. it is important to know that persistent viral infection with high risk hpv types virtually cause all cancer ( 70 - 80 percent ) of the cervix and most cases of anal


| el nic±o - southern oscillation the most common way of monitoring the el nic±o - southern oscillation phase is by looking at sea surface temperatures in the equatorial pacific ocean. the animated map below shows sea surface temperature anomalies over the past three months. warm / positive anomalies are associated with the el nic±o phase, while cool / negative anomalies are associated with the la nic±a phase. several climate models also provide enso forecasts, again based on sea surface temperatures over a specific region in the equatorial pacific ocean. the graph below shows the observed enso phase for the previous three - month period ( as a red circle near the left side of the image ), along with computer model forecasts for the next year - and - a - half. the light blue square represents the model consensus forecast. in north carolina, a warm / positive phase ( el nic±o ) event is often associated with cooler, wetter conditions and an increased chance of winter weather. likewise, a cool / negative phase ( la nic±a ) event often brings north carolina warmer and drier conditions. the impacts of enso on north carolina are most prominent during the winter. because enso conditions are generally slow to change, with a frequency on the order of months to seasons, we have some skill at issuing forecasts on a seasonal and even annual basis. for more information about enso, visit our information page or the climate prediction center ' s page that includes past, current and forecast conditions.


there have been efforts for many decades to introduce religious beliefs about the beginning of life on earth into the science curriculum of the public schools. most recently, these efforts have included " creation science " and " intelligent design. " following a number of court decisions finding the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in the public school science curriculum to be unconstitutional, there have been efforts to introduce these beliefs into the social studies curriculum. although the national council for the social studies believes in the open and thoughtful discussion of ideas, public school classrooms are not the place for the teaching of religious beliefs. social studies is the forum for open analysis and discussion of historical, social, economic, geographic, political and global issues. thus our recommendations seek to include the study of intelligent design within that framework. the american heritage dictionary ( 2007 ) defines intelligent design as the " belief that physical and biological systems observed in the universe result from purposeful design by an intelligent being rather than from chance or undirected forces. " attempts to introduce this doctrine, originally termed " creationism, " then " creation science, " and most recently, intelligent design, " into public school curricula have been found unconstitutional in state and federal courts. the first supreme court decision regarding the issue came in epperson v. arkansas in 1968, when the court ruled that an arkansas anti - evolution law was unconstitutional. twenty years later in edwards v. aguillard, the court held that a louisiana law which required equal time for the teaching of " creation science " along with the teaching of evolution, was unconstitutional. most recently, a district court in pennsylvania struck down an intelligent design policy adopted by the dover area school board in dover, pennsylvania ( kitzmiller v. dover area school district ). these decisions have struck down state attempts to interfere with the teaching of evolution in the public school science curriculum. in the kitzmiller decision, for instance, the judge found that the policy of the dover school board, which called for teachers to discuss problems with the theory of evolution and make students aware of intelligent design, failed the test of the establishment clause of the first amendment, since the policy ' s primary purpose was to advance a religious belief. because federal courts, to date, have ruled against the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in the science curriculum, an approach called " critical analysis " has been introduced to get around these decisions. this approach seeks to incorporate what the courts have ruled to be religious belief into the public school curriculum by contending that public schools should take a critical view of the theory


, an approach called " critical analysis " has been introduced to get around these decisions. this approach seeks to incorporate what the courts have ruled to be religious belief into the public school curriculum by contending that public schools should take a critical view of the theory of evolution. in this critical view, particular attention is to be focused on any uncertainties in the fossil record as well as what are contended to be examples of " irreducible complexity. " this view then introduces intelligent design as an explanation addressing these uncertainties. this " critical analysis " approach to teaching intelligent design has attracted political support in several states and districts. it was a motivating force behind former senator rick santorum ' s unsuccessful attempt to include a statement that evolution was a controversial scientific theory into the original no child left behind legislation. it has also figured prominently in the much - publicized battle over the treatment of evolution in the kansas science standards. in ohio, the state board of education has suggested that although a critical analysis of the theory of evolution with the teaching of intelligent design should not be put into the science curriculum, " social studies appears to be a good fit " ( columbus dispatch, september 2002 ). rationale for recommendations social studies may, at first glance, seem to be a better fit for this approach to teaching intelligent design, but the same constitutional issues arise whether religious beliefs are taught in science or in the social studies curriculum. while the social studies classroom is the proper forum for the discussion of controversial issues, educators should be wary of being used to promote a religious belief in the public schools. this unintended outcome can be the result of teaching students that a scientific controversy exists between intelligent design and the theory of evolution when, in fact, no such controversy exists. teaching about religion in human society is an important component of many social studies courses ( see the ncss position statement " study about religions in the social studies curriculum, " revised and approved by the board of directors in 1998 ). however, teaching religious beliefs as the equivalent of scientific theory is not consistent with the social studies nor is it allowed under the first amendment. evolution is a scientific theory subject to testing by the scientific method. in contrast, religious teaching based on the existence of a supreme being does not allow for the scientific processes of hypothesizing, gathering evidence or questioning as they are based on faith, not scientific observations or experimentation. nonetheless, social studies may have to contend with these issues because of local or state mandates. the curricular recommendations that follow allow for substantive discussion of the issues surrounding intelligent


gathering evidence or questioning as they are based on faith, not scientific observations or experimentation. nonetheless, social studies may have to contend with these issues because of local or state mandates. the curricular recommendations that follow allow for substantive discussion of the issues surrounding intelligent design, while avoiding first amendment problems. most significantly, these recommendations prevent the social studies curriculum from being a repository for intelligent design instruction in the public schools, while still allowing students to analyze the political, legal, and historical issues involved. prior to teaching about intelligent design, social studies teachers should check their district ' s policies related to teaching controversial issues and teaching about religion. there are a number of ways in which social studies teachers might introduce the issues surrounding intelligent design in their curriculum. the following recommendations examine the issues from a social studies, rather than a religious, perspective. - constitutional perspective : a teacher using this approach would focus on court cases that consider policies requiring the teaching of intelligent design in public schools and the establishment clause of the first amendment. - historical perspective : a teacher adopting this perspective would focus on the historical conflict between science and religion since the middle ages, with particular attention to public debates over the teaching of evolution in the united states in the past century. - sociological perspective : a teacher using this lens would focus on competing organizations and social forces involved in the attempts to teach about intelligent design in the schools. - anthropological perspective : a teacher choosing this perspective would have students analyze creation stories and beliefs of many cultures as well as scientific theories dealing with the origin and development of human life. - public issues perspectives : a teacher using this approach would encourage students to research intelligent design and debate whether intelligent design should be taught in the public schools. the national council for the social studies believes that a free and open discussion of ideas is essential to a healthy democracy. however, the social studies classroom should not and cannot be used for teaching any specific religious belief, as this is antithetical to the first amendment. the national council for the social studies recommends analysis, and thoughtful discussion, not indoctrination.


dog lovers in search for the right canine are often faced with the challenge of choosing between a mutt and a pure breed. most of these people would never expect that their own curiosities are also shared by ecologists. hybrids are a symbol of complexity. for several decades these mixed species have challenged ecologists who study their role in ecological communities. ecologists are still asking themselves the question : are plant and animal hybrids viable contributors to ecosystems or just evolutionary blunders? the special feature in the march issue of ecology focuses on hybridization and the current research encompassing this issue. indeed, researchers are intrigued by the unique genetic makeup of hybrid species that merit evolutionary distinction from their parental generations. researchers at the university of georgia, department of genetics conducted a study challenging the existing paradigms that minimize the importance of hybridization in ecological settings. michael arnold et al. in their paper " natural hybridization : how low can you go and still be important? " state that hybrids are in fact viable evolutionary components of communities, and in some cases, more fit than their parents. because hybridization enhances genetic variation, arnold states, "... hybrid genotypes can be more fit than parental genotypes in novel environments. " in contrast, catherine moulia from the laboratoire de parasiologie compare in france presents a different scenario. her research on hybrid mice reveals that they are more prone to parasite attack than their parental counterparts ( mus mus musculus and m. m. domesticus ). her review of the parasitism of animal hybrids not only suggests an evolutionary implication of parasites. it also stresses that this implication of parasites is very similar in animal and in plant hybrids. according to some studies reviewed by moulia, " by taking advantage of hybrid susceptibility, parasites could enhance their range and contact : alison gillespie ecological society of america


you can probably expect cake and presents on your birthday, but you also have a good chance of kicking the bucket. a after analyzing 2. 4 million deaths over four decades, swiss researchers found that you ’ re nearly 14 percent more likely to die on your birthday than any other day of the year. why? a€smen have an increased risk of falling down or committing suicide on their birthday, presumably due to alcohol consumption, a€t says study author vladeta ajdacic - gross, ph. d., a research associate at the university of zurich. but boozing on your birthday isna€™t the only time your lifea€™s in danger. protect yourself on some other dangerous days throughout the yeara€ ” herea€™s how. ( plus, learn more ways toa break your date with death. ) the month of july if you ’ re having elective surgery, don ’ t go under the knife in july. new medical residentsa€ ” recent med school gradsa€ ” start work on july 1, hence the 4 percent spike in deaths throughout the month, according to a harvard study. inexperienced doctors are also more likely to administer the wrong medication, says a university of california, san diego study. of 62. 3 million hospital deaths, there are 10 percent more deaths attributed to a medication error in july. and if you have to visit the hospital, schedule a 9 a. m. surgery : duke university researchers found that operations at that time of day are the least likely to develop complications. ( want more great health and fitness insight delivered straight to your inbox? sign up for the daily dose newsletter. ) march 11, 2013, isn ’ t just another dreary mondaya€ ” ita€™s the first workday after rolling the clocks forward for daylight saving. and losing about 40 minutes of shuteye has consequences : researchers at michigan state university found that workplace injuries increase by 5. 7 percent the day after daylight saving time. a study in the new england journal of medicine found that the time shift also causes 5. 1 percent more heart attacks the following week due to increased inflammation in the body from sleep loss. your move : load up on 1, 000 milligrams of vitamin c a day before you turn the clocks backa€ ” researchers at the university of california found the vitamin reduces levels of c - reactive protein, a marker of inflammation. which day has the most drunk driving deaths each year, thanksgiving, christmas, new year ’ s eve,


new york — the diy enthusiasts involved in today ' s " maker movement " love experimenting with 3d printers to turn digital designs into real - life objects made of plastic, metal, even chocolate. but one of the leading do - it - yourself pioneers has come forth to explain why he really dislikes the 3d printing craze and sees it as just a steppingstone to something greater. modern 3d printers use lasers or squirt hot materials to build objects layer by layer from a computer design. they represent the latest in a long line of computer - controlled tools dating back to the 1950s — a more refined way of " metal bashing metal, squirt squirt, " said neil gershenfeld, director of mit ' s center for bits and atoms. " the real revolution in digital fabrication isn ' t a computer connected to a machine — that ' s decades old, " gershenfeld said. instead, the revolution would be " putting the information into the material itself. " the road to " star trek " computer - controlled machines marked the first stage of " a road map to a " star trek " replicator where you make molecular assemblers that can make anything, " gershenfeld explained at the world science festival ' s " innovation square " event june 2 in brooklyn. the second stage, he said, involved machines making machines. the third stage has computer codes serving as a blueprint for real - world materials made from building - block components. but gershenfeld wants to reach the fourth and final stage : programming materials to make them intelligent. imagine smart plastic or metal parts with the capabilities of dna. " the last stage is we ' re actually making materials that themselves are programmable so that the materials can change shape in the same way biology does it, but we ' re doing it with materials that biology can ' t do, " gershenfeld said. the massachusetts institute of technology physicist has done much toward making that diy future a reality. he founded the global fab lab network with field labs in locations such as afghanistan and the arctic circle. he also owns " just about every known 3d printer " as head of mit ' s center for bits and atoms ( a spinoff of the university ' s popular media lab ). [ us ready to bet $ 60 million on 3d printing ] what ' s wrong with diy gershenfeld had more on his mind than the limitations of 3d printing — he also took the opportunity to critique the do - it - yourself movement. " i


ready to bet $ 60 million on 3d printing ] what ' s wrong with diy gershenfeld had more on his mind than the limitations of 3d printing — he also took the opportunity to critique the do - it - yourself movement. " i love the maker movement, " gershenfeld told the world science festival audience. " what i want to do is talk about what ' s wrong with it. " diy enthusiasts could do better in learning from the past without rediscovering bad ways to solve problems, gershenfeld said. he wants people to look beyond basic tools such as the popular arduino microcontrollers that serve as tiny computers — he pointed out that the arduinos use an atmel avr processor that exists separately in many cheaper varieties. but the popularity of imperfect tools such as 3d printers or arduinos can still do well for the diy movement if they spur enthusiasm among more people. " i ' m a big fan of bad standards at the right time, " gershenfeld said. making a better reality so can the world combine the maker movement ' s enthusiasm with a smarter blueprint for getting things done? gershenfeld ' s fab lab network has come up with a fab academy program to teach students around the world in work groups with mentors. rather than just diy, it ' s do - it - together. similar approaches already exist in universities including mit, but gershenfeld hopes to scale the learning opportunity up beyond just a few thousand mit students. that is where long - distance learning through online education can combine with real - world teams of students and mentors. " what ' s wrong with diy is if you do it by yourself, it ' s easy to do dumb things, " gershenfeld said. " if you learn with other people, you can do it better. a place like mit is organized but it doesn ' t scale. we want to scale to a few billion people on the planet and harness the enthusiasm of the maker movement, but don ' t want to reinvent dumb things. " this story was provided by innovationnewsdaily, a sister site to livescience. you can follow innovationnewsdaily senior writer jeremy hsu on twitter @ sciencehsu. follow innovationnewsdaily on twitter @ news _ innovation, or on facebook. - 10 incredible 3 - d printed products - nasa looks to 3d printing for spare space - station parts - 10 sci


crab pulsar emits light at highest energies ever detected in a pulsar system, scientists report by kim derose october 06, 2011 category : research an international team of scientists has detected the highest energy gamma rays ever observed from a pulsar, a highly magnetized and rapidly spinning neutron star. the veritas experiment measured gamma rays coming from the crab pulsar at such large energies that they cannot be explained by current scientific models of how pulsars behave, the researchers said. the results, published today in the journal science, outline the first observation of photons from a pulsar system with energies greater than 100 billion electron volts — more than 50 billion times higher than visible light from the sun. " this is the highest energy pulsar system ever detected, " said rene ong, a ucla professor of physics and astronomy and spokesperson for the veritas collaboration. " it is a completely new and surprising phenomenon for pulsars. " data were acquired for 107 hours over the course of three years by veritas ' s ground - based gamma ray observatory, which is part of southern arizona ' s whipple observatory, a facility managed by the harvard – smithsonian center for astrophysics. veritas ( very energetic radiation imaging telescope array system ) observes gamma rays using a network of four telescopes, each 12 meters in diameter. ong noted that all previous observations of pulsars indicated that the radiation cuts off at the high energies the team observed. " it means the radiation we detect must be a new component that was completely unexpected, " he said. gamma rays, the most energetic type of electromagnetic radiation, cannot be directed by lenses or bounced off mirrors like ordinary visible light, ong said. because the rays are invisible to the human eye, the only way telescopes on earth can detect them is by observing the path they take as they are absorbed in the planet ' s atmosphere. gamma rays are ejected from the crab pulsar, and they smash into earth ' s atmosphere, causing " the electromagnetic equivalent of a sonic boom, " ong said. this collision creates a shower of visible light more than 6 miles above the ground that is recorded by veritas. " the atmosphere is an integral part of our measurement system, which makes veritas different from conventional telescopes, " ong said. one of the most widely studied astronomical objects in the northern hemisphere, the crab nebula, which is some 6, 500 light - years from earth, was formed when a massive star exploded in a supernova


different from conventional telescopes, " ong said. one of the most widely studied astronomical objects in the northern hemisphere, the crab nebula, which is some 6, 500 light - years from earth, was formed when a massive star exploded in a supernova event that was observed on earth in the year 1054. while it is most typical for pulsars to be ejected from the stellar wreckage during a supernova, in the case of the crab system, the pulsar remained at its center, producing radiation that covers the entire electromagnetic spectrum, ong said. he calls the crab system the " rosetta stone of astronomy, " because astronomers and astrophysicists have observed this object at every conceivable wavelength of light. " the crab pulsar is considered among the best understood systems in all of astronomy, yet here we have found something totally new, " he said. " it is astronomy in a completely new light ; we are seeing phenomena that you just can ' t explore with optical light or x - rays, or even low - energy gamma rays. " the crab pulsar is a highly magnetized neutron star with a surface magnetic field a trillion times stronger than that of the earth. the star spins at the dizzying rate of about 30 times a second and emits gamma rays through " curvature radiation, " an effect that creates a lighthouse - like beacon that winks on when the beam faces the earth and off when the star pivots away. light detected by the veritas experiment cannot be explained by curvature radiation, however, and likely comes from regions well outside the high – magnetic field region close to the neutron star, ong said. while such energetic gamma rays have been observed elsewhere in the galaxy, the actual mechanism of how they are created in a pulsar is not fully understood. " the pulse duration of the radiation we see is almost three times shorter than that seen at other gamma ray energies, " he said. " this was very surprising and means this new radiation is probably coming from a different physical region of the star ' s outer magnetosphere. " the veritas experiment looks for radiation emanating from celestial objects such as pulsars, active galaxies, the center of the milky way and supermassive black holes. it has collected data for nearly 1, 000 hours every year since it began operating in 2007. " we are trying to understand processes out in the cosmos that can create particles at these extreme energies, beyond what can be produced here on earth, " ong said


collected data for nearly 1, 000 hours every year since it began operating in 2007. " we are trying to understand processes out in the cosmos that can create particles at these extreme energies, beyond what can be produced here on earth, " ong said. " we are also very interested in seeing if these processes indicate some sort of new physics. " ong hopes his research may shed some light on the mystery of cosmic rays. " we are bombarded by high - energy particles from all over the cosmos that reach unimaginable energies, " he said. " these cosmic rays are an important energy source in our galaxy, yet we have no clue where they are coming from. " this measurement indirectly gives us clues to the highest energies in the cosmos, telling us about particles and energies that we can ' t generate here on earth but that nature ' s accelerators are able to create for us. " ong is currently helping to plan the next - generation ground - based gamma ray observatory, called the cherenkov telescope array ( cta ). covering more than one - half square mile with dozens of telescopes, the cta will be 10 times more sensitive than veritas, allowing radiation from fainter and more distant objects to be accurately resolved. the 95 co - authors of the science paper on the crab pulsar include scientists from 26 institutions in five countries who are part of the veritas collaboration. ucla co - authors include vladimir vassiliev, an associate professor of physics and astronomy ; pratik majumdar, a postdoctoral scholar in physics and astronomy ; and timothy arlen, a graduate student. this research is supported by the u. s. department of energy, the u. s. national science foundation, the smithsonian institution, the national sciences and engineering research council of canada, the u. k. ' s science and technology facilities council, and the science foundation ireland. ucla is california ' s largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 38, 000 undergraduate and graduate students. the ucla college of letters and science and the university ' s 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. ucla is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. six alumni and five faculty have been awarded the nobel prize.


deaths in moscow have doubled to an average of 700 people a day as the russian capital is engulfed by poisonous smog from wildfires and a sweltering heat wave, a top health official said today, according to the associated press. the russian newspaper pravda reported : “ moscow is suffocating. thick toxic smog has been covering the sky above the city for days. the sun in moscow looks like the moon during the day : it ’ s not that bright and yellow, but pale and orange with misty outlines against the smoky sky. muscovites have to experience both the smog and sweltering heat at once. ” “ russia has recently seen the longest unprecedented heat wave for at least one thousand years, the head of the russian meteorological center, ” the news site ria novosti reported. various news sites report that foreign embassies have reduced activities or shut down, with many staff leaving moscow to escape the toxic atmosphere. russian heatwave : this nasa map released today shows areas of russia experiencing above - average temperatures this summer ( orange and red ). the map was released on nasa ’ s earth obervatory website. nasa earth observatory image by jesse allen, based on modis land surface temperature data available through the nasa earth observations ( neo ) website. caption by michon scott. according to nasa : in the summer of 2010, the russian federation had to contend with multiple natural hazards : drought in the southern part of the country, and raging fires in western russia and eastern siberia. the events all occurred against the backdrop of unusual warmth. bloomberg reported that temperatures in parts of the country soared to 42 degrees celsius ( 108 degrees fahrenheit ), and the wall street journal reported that fire - and drought - inducing heat was expected to continue until at least august 12. this map shows temperature anomalies for the russian federation from july 20 - 27, 2010, compared to temperatures for the same dates from 2000 to 2008. the anomalies are based on land surface temperatures observed by the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer ( modis ) on nasa ’ s terra satellite. areas with above - average temperatures appear in red and orange, and areas with below - average temperatures appear in shades of blue. oceans and lakes appear in gray. not all parts of the russian federation experienced unusual warmth on july 20 - 27, 2010. a large expanse of northern central russia, for instance, exhibits below - average temperatures. areas of atypical warmth, however, predominate in the east and


all parts of the russian federation experienced unusual warmth on july 20 - 27, 2010. a large expanse of northern central russia, for instance, exhibits below - average temperatures. areas of atypical warmth, however, predominate in the east and west. orange - and red - tinged areas extend from eastern siberia toward the southwest, but the most obvious area of unusual warmth occurs north and northwest of the caspian sea. these warm areas in eastern and western russia continue a pattern noticeable earlier in july, and correspond to areas of intense drought and wildfire activity. bloomberg reported that 558 active fires covering 179, 596 hectares ( 693 square miles ) were burning across the russian federation as of august 6, 2010. voice of america reported that smoke from forest fires around the russian capital forced flight restrictions at moscow airports on august 6, just as health officials warned moscow residents to take precautions against the smoke inhalation. posted by david braun earlier related post : russia burns in hottest summer on record ( july 28, 2010 ) talk about tough : these guys throw themselves out of 50 - year - old aircraft into burning siberian forests. ( national geographic magazine feature, february 2008 ) photo by mark thiessen join nat geo news watch community readers are encouraged to comment on this and other posts – and to share similar stories, photos and links – on the nat geo news watch facebook page. you must sign up to be a member of facebook and a fan of the blog page to do this. leave a comment on this page you may also email david braun ( email @ example. com ) if you have a comment that you would like to be considered for adding to this page. you are welcome to comment anonymously under a pseudonym.


romeo and juliet the son and heir of montague and lady montague. a young man of about sixteen, romeo is handsome, intelligent, and sensitive. though impulsive and immature, his idealism and passion make him an extremely likable character. he lives in the middle of a violent feud between his family and the capulets, but he is not at all interested in violence. his only interest is love and he goes to extremes to prove the seriousness of his feelings. he secretly marries juliet, the daughter of his father ’ s worst enemy ; he happily takes abuse from tybalt ; and he would rather die than live without his beloved. romeo is also an affectionate and devoted friend to his relative benvolio, mercutio, and friar lawrence. the daughter of capulet and lady capulet. a beautiful thirteen - year - old girl, juliet begins the play as a naive child who has thought little about love and marriage, but she grows up quickly upon falling in love with romeo, the son of her family ’ s great enemy. because she is a girl in an aristocratic family, she has none of the freedom romeo has to roam around the city, climb over walls in the middle of the night, or get into swordfights. nevertheless, she shows amazing courage in trusting her entire life and future to romeo, even refusing to believe the worst reports about him after he gets involved in a fight with her cousin. juliet ’ s closest friend and confidant is her nurse, though she ’ s willing to shut the nurse out of her life the moment the nurse turns against romeo. a franciscan friar, friend to both romeo and juliet. kind, civic - minded, a proponent of moderation, and always ready with a plan, friar lawrence secretly marries the impassioned lovers in hopes that the union might eventually bring peace to verona. as well as being a catholic holy man, friar lawrence is also an expert in the use of seemingly mystical potions and herbs. a kinsman to the prince, and romeo ’ s close friend. one of the most extraordinary characters in all of shakespeare ’ s plays, mercutio overflows with imagination, wit, and, at times, a strange, biting satire and brooding fervor. mercutio loves wordplay, especially sexual double entendres. he can be quite hotheaded, and hates people who are affected, pretentious, or obsessed with the latest fashions. he finds romeo ’ s romanticized ideas about love tires


loves wordplay, especially sexual double entendres. he can be quite hotheaded, and hates people who are affected, pretentious, or obsessed with the latest fashions. he finds romeo ’ s romanticized ideas about love tiresome, and tries to convince romeo to view love as a simple matter of sexual appetite. juliet ’ s nurse, the woman who breast - fed juliet when she was a baby and has cared for juliet her entire life. a vulgar, long - winded, and sentimental character, the nurse provides comic relief with her frequently inappropriate remarks and speeches. but, until a disagreement near the play ’ s end, the nurse is juliet ’ s faithful confidante and loyal intermediary in juliet ’ s affair with romeo. she provides a contrast with juliet, given that her view of love is earthy and sexual, whereas juliet is idealistic and intense. the nurse believes in love and wants juliet to have a nice - looking husband, but the idea that juliet would want to sacrifice herself for love is incomprehensible to her. a capulet, juliet ’ s cousin on her mother ’ s side. vain, fashionable, supremely aware of courtesy and the lack of it, he becomes aggressive, violent, and quick to draw his sword when he feels his pride has been injured. once drawn, his sword is something to be feared. he loathes montagues. the patriarch of the capulet family, father of juliet, husband of lady capulet, and enemy, for unexplained reasons, of montague. he truly loves his daughter, though he is not well acquainted with juliet ’ s thoughts or feelings, and seems to think that what is best for her is a “ good ” match with paris. often prudent, he commands respect and propriety, but he is liable to fly into a rage when either is lacking. juliet ’ s mother, capulet ’ s wife. a woman who herself married young ( by her own estimation she gave birth to juliet at close to the age of fourteen ), she is eager to see her daughter marry paris. she is an ineffectual mother, relying on the nurse for moral and pragmatic support. romeo ’ s father, the patriarch of the montague clan and bitter enemy of capulet. at the beginning of the play, he is chiefly concerned about romeo ’ s melancholy. romeo ’ s mother, montague ’ s wife. she dies of grief after romeo is


the patriarch of the montague clan and bitter enemy of capulet. at the beginning of the play, he is chiefly concerned about romeo ’ s melancholy. romeo ’ s mother, montague ’ s wife. she dies of grief after romeo is exiled from verona. a kinsman of the prince, and the suitor of juliet most preferred by capulet. once capulet has promised him he can marry juliet, he behaves very presumptuous toward, acting as if they are already married. montague ’ s nephew, romeo ’ s cousin and thoughtful friend, he makes a genuine effort to defuse violent scenes in public places, though mercutio accuses him of having a nasty temper in private. he spends most of the play trying to help romeo get his mind off rosaline, even after romeo has fallen in love with juliet. the prince of verona. a kinsman of mercutio and paris. as the seat of political power in verona, he is concerned about maintaining the public peace at all costs. a franciscan friar charged by friar lawrence with taking the news of juliet ’ s false death to romeo in mantua. friar john is held up in a quarantined house, and the message never reaches romeo. romeo ’ s dedicated servant, who brings romeo the news of juliet ’ s death, unaware that her death is a ruse. sampson and gregory two servants of the house of capulet, who, like their master, hate the montagues. at the outset of the play, they successfully provoke some montague men into a fight. montague ’ s servant, who fights with sampson and gregory in the first scene of the play. an apothecary in mantua. had he been wealthier, he might have been able to afford to value his morals more than money, and refused to sell poison to romeo. a capulet servant who invites guests to capulet ’ s feast and escorts the nurse to meet with romeo. he is illiterate, and a bad singer. the woman with whom romeo is infatuated at the beginning of the play. rosaline never appears onstage, but it is said by other characters that she is very beautiful and has sworn to live a life of chastity. the chorus is a single character who functions as a narrator offering commentary on the play ’ s plot and themes.


medicines : one size does not fit all studies have shown that bad reactions to properly prescribed medicines cause a number of hospitalizations each year. researchers believe that many of these errors show that when it comes to taking medicines, " one size does not fit all. " for example, allergy medicines simply don ' t work for everyone who takes them. for some people, taking the standard dosage of a prescription pain reliever such as codeine offers no pain relief, and can even cause side effects that are uncomfortable or life - threatening. as the body ages, fat and muscle content change, affecting how the body absorbs and processes drugs. many other factors - - exercise habits, diet, and general state of health - - also influence how a person responds to medications. genes and proteins can affect your response to medicines another key factor is heredity - - the genes we inherit from our parents and other ancestors. genes can influence the way people respond to many types of medicines, such as tylenol # 3®, which is acetaminophen plus codeine ; antidepressants like prozac®, also called fluoxetine ; and many blood pressure and asthma medicines. video length : 4 min 18 sec click to watch this video your genes determine the shape and function of your proteins. as drugs travel through the body, they interact with dozens of proteins. everyone ’ s genes are slightly different, so everyone ’ s proteins are different. variations in some proteins can affect the way we respond to medicines. such proteins include those that help the body absorb, metabolize, or eliminate drugs. what is pharmacogenomics? many scientists around the country are conducting research to understand how genes affect the way people respond to medicines. this type of research is called pharmacogenomics. as pharmacogenomics research progresses, it will become increasingly important to identify all the possible variations in genes that play a role in drug response. to identify which versions of these genes a person has, researchers examine dna from that person. an easy, painless, and risk - free way to obtain dna is from mouth cells that stick to a cotton swab rubbed on the inside of a volunteer ' s cheek. uncovering differences in people ' s genetic backgrounds will help doctors prescribe the right medicine in the right amount for each person, making medicines more safe and effective for everyone. scientists will also better understand the role that genes play in causing or contributing to diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, depression, and many others.