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Being Black, Living in the Red by Conley provides us with analysis of the already existing wealth racial difference between the blacks and whites in America. The book demonstrates that differences between blacks and white results from economic inequalities accumulating a time progresses in American history. Conley economic oppression to the blacks is demonstrated by property ownership measured by net worth of a family. Racial disparity leads to whites being more advantaged to enjoy better residences, best schools and higher opportunities to save furthering their economic status. The book contributes much to understanding of economic and social predicament experienced by African American immigrants.

According to Conley, racial disparities are widening and getting their roots deeper in the United States, with no actual cause of the same understood to be solved. His argument is based on socio-demographic traits of immigrants’ parents’ wealth and their disadvantages.

In this context, wealth can be defined as net assets owned by the household or an individual. Wealth in the United States is considered as the mediator for intergenerational show of inequality, as well as being the result to the process of social stratification. Children education and labor supply clearly indicates the parental wealth from the different social origins.

Conley argues that race wealth differences are pointed by the race differences in traits such as parents’ income and youths’ education. He says that race differences disappear in young adults when parents’ attribute like parental wealth are considered as control variables suggesting that race has an overall effect towards assets accumulation. The author suggests that sedimentation of inequality that kills the morale of African-Americans to accumulate wealth contributes much towards racial inequality.  In accordance with Conley, these differences can be reduced from the race background by introduction of race-neutral policies to benefit the youths with lass advantaged parents.

Black-White gap is well explained by the wealth-relevant traits, for example, entrepreneurial activities and assets portfolio. Whites are advantaged to accumulate wealth by the trait of racial inequality enabling them to inherit parental resources. Conley says that youths are able to reduce their debts by using their parents’ wealth to finance fees for the higher education.

Being Black, Living in the Red has faced the challenge of the race gap by approaching the challenge from the basis of race differences and social origins in the individual traits. African-American adults are much disadvantaged in terms of assets accumulation due to their social class but not from direct racism effect.

Conley concludes that most of the inequalities that are experienced between the blacks and whites are caused by the ever growing disparities in wealth accumulated in a family. His analysis also gives us an insight that shows that if wealth is considered, racial differences reduce or diminishes though this will make the research miss significant variation in levels of family economic resources. He suggests that what matters is class position and wealth levels associated with race in America but not race “per se”. Conley demonstrates that racial discrimination and differences in saving rates do not contribute towards whites-blacks wealth gap in generations living past 1960s.

Portes & Rumbaut’s

The book by Porters and Rumbaut probes and deals with the lives of the second generation immigrants and their potential and challenges they face in their fight to assimilate into American society. The authors well explain cause of these challenges and the way in which they should be addressed in order to streamline the ease at which the immigrants adapt in to a society mainstream. The book recommends the reduction of the gap between the immigrants and the society they are to fit in and explains that this can only be solved by eliminating racism and ethnicity.

Segmented assimilation best describes most of the adaptive experiences that are at disposal of the immigrants as they fit and become a part of society. An earlier model of assimilation had several phases through which the immigrant underwent to adapt to the already existing society. The phases included: contact, competition, and accommodation phases and the last was assimilation. Today’s model of assimilation involves all the means and ways which an immigrant can adapt to the new society. Immigrants can follow the traditional four phases to assimilate into an underclass or else follow a less prosperous phases to go through the process.

The analyzed phenomenon is much concerned with how minorities are able to adapt the terms and eventually get absorbed to fit the mainstream of the new social surrounding. Segmented assimilation is all about integration of the newcomers to an existing society. Its concept carries the prediction that shows the final outcome of encounter between the native majority and the foreign immigrants despite their differences in social classes or generation since they are heterogeneous.

The authors are explaining the models of immigrants’ incorporation, their consequences, challenge to second generation immigrants adaptation and ways and means to counter this challenges. According to the researchers, second generation descendants faces the issue of ethnicity as source of strength to force their way to adapt the new society in terms of social life and economy based on their community resources. On the other hand, some immigrants face ethnicity as a source of subordination that puts their children to the risk of joining the multitude of the dispossessed, especially in the American inner cities. The second generation is associated with the segmentation assimilation with outcomes varying across the minorities.

Factors identified by the authors as important for predicting whether the children of immigrants will end up assimilating “downward” or into the middle class are: the history of newcomers’ first generation; the pace of acculturation among immigrants and their children; the cultural and economic barriers that challenged the immigrants youths in quest for adoption; and, finally, the resources required to confront these barriers.  Barriers that immigrants face in their race to assimilate and adapt to the new society range from race, labor markets and counterculture.

Labor markets’ barrier to the immigrants is in basis of the progressive inequality and deindustrialization enabling the immigrants’ upward mobility for the European immigrants offering them good living standards in contrast to other immigrants. Counterculture barrier, if experienced in the American schools, results to students dropping out from schools to join the drug subculture.

The authors consider race as a paramount criterion in America for social acceptance that has potential to overwhelm the effect on class religion or background. With or without considering the class origin of the immigrants, it is true to say that outcomes face more challenges in their attempt to get themselves to the middle class mainstream on the basis of their race.  There exist a great racial gradient in the United States culture translating to a great social distance between immigrants with dark skin and the dominant group. In more extreme cases, Asian, Black and Mulatto immigrants’ children endure the ethnic challenges facing discrimination based on the physical differences affecting aspirations and self-esteem in the Blacks immigrants’ children. The overall approach considers immigrants backgrounds as an influence to adaptation outcomes to the society the immigrants inhabit. Despite all the challenges that the immigrants face challenges, all parents wishes the best to their young ones and have great aspiration to their children. The book concludes that the resources needed for better future of the immigrants’ generation are resources giving them job opportunities and access to economic goods.

Code: Sample20

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SIGGRAPH 2003: Human Bodies papers

The human bodies papers covered a variety of topics, from reconstructing heads from skull data, to building character skins from metrics, to capturing skin deformation using video cameras.

Reanimating the Dead: Reconstruction of Expressive Faces from Skull Data

If you've ever seen a modern forensic TV show, they are pretty much guaranteed to show you somebody building a face by putting little spacers and clay on a human skull.

That process may be sped up considerably if the researchers who wrote this paper have their way. Although the technique is far from refined, these folks are creating a method to create expressive faces from skull data in minutes or hours instead of the weeks it usually takes when doing it by hand.

The process involves scanning the skull (which can be done through a variety of methods, including CT scans and range scanning), marking landmark points on the skull with a mouse and telling the computer what those points correspond to. The computer then takes over and uses data from a well known database to add height to the markers and then creates the face by warping an existing model head onto the landscape points.

This method has some significant advantages over the existing manual method, including:

  • Quicker initial construction (minutes/hours instead of days/weeks)
  • The ability to generate multiple heads from the same model data (using the physical method, you need to start from scratch to make a second model)
  • The resulting face is expressive, meaning you can change the expression to match the requirements.

It's clear that these folks know their stuff and there are some good applications for this project moving forward.

Building Efficient, Accurate Character Skins from Examples

The researchers from the University of Wisconsin who gave this talk are working on a method to create fast interactive deformable skins. In order to keep everything fast, one of their design constraints was a requirement to use only linear blend skinning (because this is handled in hardware by most modern graphics card). Unfortunately, existing LBS methods have weaknesses that often make them collapse or self-intersect if they aren't carefully tweaked.

This paper details a method for automatically creating additional joints in the model to keep the skinning from creating artifacts.

One proposed use of this method is to allow animators to use more complex skinning algorithms in modeling programs but output the data using a system that can use this method to create a more "boiled down" version of the geometry that will still deform correctly.

This technique shows promise for the gaming industry especially.

Free-viewpoint Video of Human Actors

In the first of three papers that discussed taking human forms from captured data, this group of researchers proposed using video shot from eight synchronized cameras to capture data from free motion. Thus, instead of requiring a fixed set of actions to be motion captured, it would capture a full range of motions and their effect on the skin and store this for use later. When the model is then animated, the data is used to determine the level and type of deformation. Although promising, it is still a bit heavy, requiring 5 stat-of-the-art CPUs each with a GPU to handle scanning one frame of reference video per second.

Continuous Capture of Skin Deformation

This paper dealt with the automatic acquisition of human skin geometry, similar to the previous paper. Also similar to the previous paper, this paper does so with requiring a specifically choreographed set of moves. However, this is where the similarities stop. The method presented here by the folks from MIT used a combination of video and MoCap data to create an animatable 3D geometry. The system can scale down to a single camera for acquisition, although most examples were done with three operating on the same subject. The algorithm does a beautiful job of capturing geometry and has some other interesting attributes besides as regard being able to describe the human form by a set of parameters.

Space of Human Body Shapes: Reconstruction & Parameterization from range scans.

This method was unique from the other two because it does not involve taking new measurements. Instead, the system relies on the large human-form data sets now available commercially to serve as the basis for a global model of what man and woman should like like at particular ages.

Using this data, they have been able to come up with highly realistic deformable models that provide a high level of accuracy while at the same time providing extreme control over the models. As an example, they showed sliders for height, and a number of width (weight) measurements.


Osmo Nadir

Liquid kaleidoscopes, clicks and brainwaves

It is most probably a by-product of evolution that we are able to discriminate relevant sounds, which might announce important events like approaching danger, from the background noise.

This audiovisual experiment, like many others, was initiated by pure coincidence. I was drinking my afternoon coffee on the terrace, safely hidden under a fatigued awning finished with black and white stripes. I reached for a next sip and froze. A maelstrom of light glittered on the coffee surface as I lifted the cup. As I swayed it, the reflections would divide and distort creating even denser kaleidoscopic patterns. At this point I knew that I would soon recreate this effect in controlled conditions and record it.

A couple of days later I rolled out the awning, filled a tray with water and hit the record button. The results were extraordinary. I fed the footage into Live, ran different vibration frequencies at different speeds and mixed it.

The audible clicks resembling high voltage electrical discharges are actually birds chirping on the nearby plane-tree as I was conducting this experiment on the terrace facing the Pyrenean landscape. I loved this sound from the moment I discovered it and to my bewilderment it wasn’t until listening to the footage in the studio. I decided to enhance the clicks, intertwine them with the arrangement and put in the final mix. It is truly astonishing how our brains filter out the multitude of ambient sounds that build up the rich soundscapes that we call silence.

Filtering out the noise

This phenomenon is caused by the hierarchic organisation of the stream of processes that flow through the brain. The prefrontal cortex, our ‘decision center’ is unaware of most of the processes the brain has to calculate on a daily basis. This arrangement is not only giving us a chance to react accordingly in the face of an emergency but it also makes for a very efficient power-saving strategy. This way one doesn’t have to be bothered by the speed of hair growth or frequency of intestine contractions in the midst of a boar encounter in the woods.

Ambient sounds, a collection of air vibrations produced by our environment which we are familiar with, make for a ‘safe soundscape’ or ‘background sounds’ and thus can be processed ‘subconsciously’, rarely reaching the prefrontal cortex. If they do reach it however, it is likely that either our temporal lobe noticed something peculiar about them, or that we are musicians or field-recording artists who just won’t leave a faintest rustle unregistered. All the sounds that get into the brain through the ear canal, after being transformed into a neurochemical code, are directed by the central auditory pathways to the temporal lobe. Here, all the filtering occurs, with all incoming information being evaluated and ‘tagged’ as the sounds that should get our immediate attention, or the irrelevant noise. The information tagged as significant goes to the prefrontal lobe and we suddenly become ‘aware’ of it.

By-product of evolution

It is most probably a by-product of evolution that we are able to make a clear distinction between relevant sounds, which might announce important events like approaching danger, and the background noise. Michio Kaku, in The Future of the Mind compares the way a brain functions to that of a large corporation. In this analogy which I find quite accurate, the prefrontal cortex would be the CEO of the company.

Most information is “subconscious”— that is, the CEO is blissfully unaware of the vast, complex information that is constantly flowing inside the bureaucracy. In fact, only a tiny amount of information finally reaches the desk of the CEO, who can be compared to the prefrontal cortex. The CEO just has to know information important enough to get his attention; otherwise, he would be paralyzed by an avalanche of extraneous information.¹

For us, it means the comfort of uninterrupted focus on whatever we are currently doing. We can forget about the humming of a distant highway, cicadas’ song or wind howling in the street and concentrate our attention on creating, playing sudoku or having a conversation.

Electric ear

When the patterns became repetitive, I decided it’s time to modify the technique and introduce some variations in the frequency of vibrations. I plugged in a loudspeaker, turned it cone-up with the tray safely taped atop, turned the volume up and generated some sound waves. The patterns suddenly gained complexity, bringing in entirely new quality.

At this stage, the basic principle of this setup could serve as a simplified model of how the brain processes auditory signals. In this analogy, the loudspeaker would be an external sound source, the thin tray bed – a tympanic membrane and the tray content – a fluid-filled cochlea located deep inside the inner ear. The process would look like this: air vibrations travelling through the ear canal (loudspeaker’s diaphragm) would be transformed into mechanical stimuli by the tympanic membrane (tray bed) and pass through the fluid-filled cochlea as hydraulic energy. In our experimental audiovisual model, this is the moment that we would observe the ripples and rosettes on the liquid surface as the acoustic waves put the tray bed in motion. At this point, our model ends. In the brain however, the newly created hydraulic energy would then stimulate the cochlea’s hair cells, which in turn would fire a neurochemical signal and finally, excite the hearing nerve.

Liquid visuals

Auditory part aside, the resulting images are truly mesmerising.

More to come soon. Did you like this story? Share it on facebook.

by Osmo Nadir 11 October 2018


Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder | Starfinder

Terrestrial Vehicles | Starships

Starship Examples

Expansion Bays

Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 298
Most starships have room within their hull for one or more expansion bays, each of which can be converted to function in a wide variety of roles. Unfilled, these bays are simply storage space (and count as cargo holds), and for many large transport vessels, they remain this way. If a starship’s bays are instead used for guest quarters, the ship can serve as a transport vessel for soldiers, travelers, or refugees. If its bays are filled with medical bays and guest quarters, the ship becomes a mobile hospital.

The following options are available for most ships that have available expansion bays. If an option requires multiple bays, this is noted in its description; if it must consume PCU to function, the amount is listed in the table on page 300. An entire expansion bay must be used for a single purpose, even if it gives you multiple instances of that option. For example, if you select escape pods, that expansion bay gains all six escape pods—you can’t combine three escape pods and one life boat.

The PCU requirement and the Build Point costs of the expansion bay options can be found on page 300.

Cargo Hold

Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 299
PCU 0; Cost (in BP) 0
Unconverted expansion bays count as cargo holds. A cargo hold can contain approximately 25 tons of goods, with no item being larger than Large. A starship with multiple cargo holds can hold larger objects; usually 4 contiguous cargo holds are required to hold Huge objects and 8 for Gargantuan objects. These size restrictions can be overridden at the GM’s discretion.


Discretionary Spending

Function 370 - Commerce and Housing Credit

Convert the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Program Into a Direct Loan Program

This option would replace the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program with a direct loan program in 2020. Instead of guaranteeing reverse mortgages that private lenders originate, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) would make loan disbursements directly to borrowers.

Using the budgetary procedures prescribed by the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, CBO projects that if FHA charged borrowers an interest rate similar to those charged by private lenders, the option would result in discretionary savings with a net present value of $3.1 billion from 2020 to 2028, provided that federal appropriations were reduced accordingly. (A present value is a single number that expresses a flow of current and future payments in terms of an equivalent lump sum paid today; the present value of future cash flows depends on the rate of interest, or discount rate, that is used to translate them into current dollars.) Using fair-value accounting—an alternative method that is based on market values and that more comprehensively accounts for the risk that the government assumes in guaranteeing or making loans—CBO projects that net discretionary savings would amount to $6.9 billion over the same period. The savings are uncertain and depend on a number of factors, including CBO's projections of interest rates, house prices, and the size of the HECM program, as well as CBO's assessment of how lenders and borrowers would react to such a change.


Sahara set to buy London hotel for 470 million!

Sahara is believed to be taking advice from consultants DTZ and Blandford Goldsmith on the real estate deal. RBS had originally hoped to get as much as 700 million pounds from the sale, but lowered its target after two previous auctions failed. RBS has been trying to offload the site for three years. Grosvenor House was built in the 18th century and became the Duke’s London home in 1806.

It was commandeered by the government during the First World War before being knocked down and rebuilt in 1927. Sahara, which has been in exclusive talks with the state -backed bank since mid-October, is understood to have already handed over a deposit for the property. If all goes smoothly, the deal is expected to be inked before Christmas. Both parties declined to comment on the deal.(PTI)

We would like to hear your comments below:


Greta Thunberg on Climate Change

Greta Thunberg (born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish climate activist. She is known for her strike outside the Riksdag in Stockholm, Sweden under the slogan Skolstrejk för klimatet (School Strike for the climate). This Swedish 15-year-old has been named one of the world’s most influential teenagers by America’s Time Magazine in a new ranking.

Greta Thunberg speech to UN secretary general António Guterres at COP24 climate conference in Katowice, Poland on the 3rd December 2018

“Before I start I just want to thank you, Antonio Gueterres, for speaking so clearly about the climate crisis, it brings a lot of hope to people.

For twenty five years countless of people have stood in front of the United Nations climate conference asking our nations’ leaders to stop the emissions, but clearly this has not worked since the emissions just continue to rise.

So I will not ask them anything. Instead I will ask the media to start treating the crisis as a crisis. Instead I will ask the people around the world to realise that our political leaders have failed us, because we are facing an existential threat and there is no time to continue down this road of madness.

Rich countries like Sweden need to start reducing emissions by at least fifteen per cent every year to stay below two degree (Celsius) warm target. You would think that the media and every one of our leaders would be talking about nothing else but they never even mention it. Nor does hardly anyone ever mention that we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction with up to 200 species coming extinct every single day.

Furthermore does no one ever speak about the aspect of equity clearly stated in the Paris agreement which is absolutely necessary to make it work on a global scale. That means that rich countries, like mine, need to come down to zero emission within six to twelve years with today’s emission speed.

How can we expect countries like India, Columbia or Nigeria to care about the climate crisis if we, who already have everything, don’t care even a second about our actual commitments to the Paris agreement.

And why should I be studying for a future that soon may be no more, when no one is doing anything to save that future. What is the point of learning facts when the most important facts clearly mean nothing to our society.

Today we use one hundred million barrels of oil every single day. The politics to change that, the rules to keep that oil in the ground, we can no longer change the world by playing by the rules because the rules have to be changed.

So we have not come here to beg the world leaders to care about our future. They have ignored us in the past and they will ignore us again. We have come here to let them know that change is coming whether they like it or not. The people will rise to the challenge. And since our leaders are behaving like children we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago.

Thank you”

“Even if there is no hope we have to do something. Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing anything. Of course we need hope but the one thing we need more than hope is action because once we start to act hope is everywhere.”


Smokey- St John, NB

This kitty is a very affectionate, lovable cat.He is so sweet but I already have three male cats and they do not get along very well. my cats with him not the other way around.

charlotte st
saint john, new brunswick, canada, e2l 2k4


Indigenous Goddess Gang

Relieving Cramp Pain Naturally

Relieving Cramp Pain Naturally

During the sacred moon cycle, womxn deserve effective pain relief without the risk of negative side effects. Over the counter pain relievers such as aspirin, naproxen, ibuprofen, and mefenamic acid have toxic risk and negative effects on our bodies including stomach bleeding, ulcers and upset stomach, high blood pressure, fluid retention and swelling, kidney problems, heart problems, and rashes.

Below is a short list of cramp remedies that are natural inexpensive and extremely effective against period pain and cramps. Please note, this is just the start of non-toxic remedies for pain during moon time.

Wishing all our sisters an empowering and pain-free cycle!

Herbs with strong healing properties:

Ginger reduces bleeding, abdominal and low-back pain, headache, gastrointestinal disturbances, nausea, and joint and muscle pain.

-How to make a ginger tea

To prepare your tea, you will need root of the ginger plant. Wash the ginger root and remove the skin. Now slice the root into small pieces. For every cup of water, add 2 tablespoonfuls of ginger root pieces. Now boil this solution in a small pot on low heat and simmer for a while. Your tea is ready. Strain the ginger from water and drink the ginger tea 2-3 times a day to ease pain associated with menstrual cramps.

Fennel Seed relieves menstrual pain, nausea and fatigue.

-How to make fennel tea:

Fennel tea works the best for PMS and menstrual cramps. To make fennel tea, pour 1 cup of water to a vessel and add 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds. Let it simmer in low flame for 5 minutes with a lid on it. Turn off the flame and strain. Have it warm several times a day.

-Fennel honey syrup:

Grab a handful of fennel seeds and roast them until crunchy. Grind them into fine powder and store in an airtight container. Take a spoonful of raw honey and add in 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds. Mix it well and have it. Have this fennel-honey syrup 2-3 times a day.

Cinnamon helps reduce bleeding and ease pain and has potent antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory properties. It is effective in fighting first day cramps of your period. You can make make a tea, add to your food or take 840 mg of cinnamon capsules three times a day during the first three days of your period to support pain relief.

-How to Make Cinnamon tea:

Cinnamon tea can be made by boiling cinnamon in water for 15 minutes and then adding some milk or honey to it. This delicious tea is said to reduce premenstrual cramps. It has anti-clotting and anti-microbial activity and is a good source of calcium, manganese and iron too. Drink cinnamon tea regularly, especially before the start date of your period. You can even include Cinnamon in other foods.

Frankincense and myrrh work together to relieve pain and are highly anti-inflammatory.

-How to make a frankincense oil:

In an ounce of carrier oil such as jojoba oil, add five drops of frankincense. Use the oil to massage the abdomen. Many women have also found relief by adding 8-12 drops of the oil in a warm bath.

Chamomile increases the production of glycine, an amino acid that reduces muscle spasms. This calming effect helps lower pain experienced from menstrual cramps.

-How to make chamomile tea:

Start by putting a chamomile teabag or an infuser filled with a tablespoon of dried chamomile into your cup. Then, add boiling water to the cup and let it steep for 5 minutes to get the full flavor of the chamomile. Have it warm several times a day. Also sip two cups of tea per day a week before your period., and you may benefit more if you drink it every month.

Dill reduces cramping and pain and supports hormonal balance.

-How to make dill tea:

You can use either dill seeds or leaves, but since seeds tend to be richer in the components you need, here is the tea recipe for using seeds. Start by putting the kettle on and boiling water for your tea. Get your tea pot and place inside 2 teaspoons of mashed dill seeds per cup of tea. Pour boiling water into the teapot and let the seeds steep for 10 minutes, turning the tea into a nice yellow color. Now that your tea is ready, filter the seeds and drink. Take only up to 3 cups a day, preferably after meals to help the digestive juices to flow. This is a tea that is sweet and cool, with a pungent sharp taste. If you are using this tea as a sedative and wish for a milder tea, then try blending dill and chamomile tea for a soothing and calming tea. Drink daily for five days, starting two days before your cycle.

Other natural ways to support your body during your moon cycle:

Drink water

Drinking water actually keeps your body from retaining water and helps to avoid painful bloating during menstruation. Warm or hot water is usually better for cramps, as hot liquids increase blood flow to your skin and may relax cramped muscles (drink your herbal teas!).

Heat therapy

Topical heat therapy or use of a heating pad or soak in hot water helps to relax the myometrium, reducing constriction of blood vessels and improving blood flow to the uterus. If you don’t have a hot water bottle or heating pad, take a warm bath or use a hot towel.

How to make your own heating pad:

  1. Cut and sew together two pieces of fabric, leaving a hole at the top or simply use a sock.

  2. Fill with uncooked rice and sew up the hole.

  3. Microwave for a few minutes to the desired temperature. Don’t overheat! (you can pop it in the oven at 200 degrees for about 5-10 mins if you do not have a microwave.

  4. Let cool, if necessary. Or wrap your homemade pad in a towel to reduce heat transfer. Reuse as necessary.

Massaging with essential oils:

A massage for about 20 minutes can help reduce menstrual pain immediately and afterward. Effective massage for menstruation involves pressing specific points around your abdomen, side, and back. Adding essential oils such as lavender, sage or frankincense for an aromatherapy style of massage supports further reduction in the amount and duration of pain. If using essential oils, always dilute your essential oil with a carrier oil such as vegetable or nut oils like grapeseed or sweet almond oil. A safe concentration is one drop of essential oil per teaspoon of carrier oil. (When purchasing essential oils always make sure they are sustainably sourced)

Watch this video for a tutorial on massaging for menstrual pain:

The idea of exercise immediately before or during your period may not appeal to you. But exercise releases endorphins and is effective at reducing menstrual pain to the extent it may also eliminate or reduce the need for pain-relief medication. Moderate activity such as walking can be beneficial during your period in place of more strenuous activity.

Three different yoga poses — Cobra, Cat, and Fish reduce intensity and duration of pain during menstruation for young women ages 18 to 22.

Below is a video for a short yoga routine for your moon time:

Avoid certain foods:

During menstruation, it’s a good idea to avoid foods that cause bloating and water retention. Some of the foods and beverages to avoid include alcohol, carbonated beverages such as soda, caffeine, and overly salty and fatty foods. Reducing or cutting out these foods can help alleviate cramps and decrease tension. Instead, try soothing herbal teas. To satisfy a sugar fix, snack on fruits such as strawberries or raspberries.

What to eat to  support ease of pain:

Generally, a diet geared toward decreasing menstrual pain should be high in minimally processed foods, fiber, and plants.

-Give these foods a try:

  • Olive oil and broccoli contain vitamin E.

  • Papaya is rich in a multitude of vitamins.

  • Flaxseed contains omega-3s with antioxidant properties, which reduce swelling and inflammation.

  • Boron is a mineral that helps your body absorb calcium and phosphorus and reduces menstrual cramps. Foods with high concentration of boron include: avocados, peanut butter, prunes, chickpeas, bananas

  • Lettuce, celery, cucumbers, watermelon, and berries including strawberries, blueberries and raspberries are water-based foods to increase your hydration

  • Calcium is a mineral that helps reduce muscle cramping during menstruation.  Foods high in calcium include dairy products, sesame seeds, almonds and leafy green vegetables.

Have an orgasm!

CBD oil

CBD it is one of the 104 chemical compounds known as cannabinoids found in the cannabis or marijuana plant. CBD oil helps ease period cramps acting as an anti-inflammatory.

Blessings for an empowering cycle!

Kill Patriarchy, Save the Womb

Kill Patriarchy, Save the Womb


Beyond currency wars, the coming Global Gold Standard w/John Butler

Welcome to Capital Account. The S&P 500 stock index has had its best yearly start vis-à-vis gold in over a decade, and bond traders see a rebound for treasuries after the most tumultuous quarter since 2010. Meanwhile, Greenspan going to bat for his old right-hand at the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, for all the criticism he has taken in recent months, in particular for criticism he has received by the republican primary candidates. But what does all this say about the direction of the us economy. Should we be optimistic or pessimistic, and what to make the dollar? After all, the performance of treasuries, as well as that of gold, is directly related to the value of the dollar. It's a dollar-denominated world after all!

Well, let's take a step back for a moment shall we? Let's take a look at the bigger picture. Let's start with US national debt, which in some of the latest figures we could find, stands at 15.6 trillion dollars – that's higher than US GDP. Most of that debt has been accumulated in the last 20 years, with only 7% accumulated before Ronald Reagan was president. If we stay on the path we've been going the national debt will reach 20 trillion dollars by 2015, and according to Jim Quinn of Burning Platform (posted on ZeroHedge) if interest rates were to normalize to levels that we saw in 2007 (5%), annual interest expenses would be 1 trillion dollars. This is 45% of current tax revenue. If you want something more official, the CBO says the deb will reach 21.7 trillion dollars by 2022. Still not very encouraging.

Now, an economy's health is not just a factor of debt. It is also a factor of jobs, and in that regard, the US isn't doing so well either. According to US census data, the share of the population that is working fell to its lowest level since women started entering the workforce in large numbers three decades ago…45.4% of Americans had jobs. Jobs continue to be an issue, and if you don't have jobs, you don't have a stable economy, and you don't have a stable currency. And the unfunded liabilities, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security don't help much either. They exceed 60 trillion dollars according to some estimates.

So should we be worried about this, and how important is the health of America's economy to the future of its currency? To help walk us through these questions, is John Butler, founder of Amphora Capital and author of "The Golden Revolution: How to Prepare for the Coming Global Gold Standard." As his book suggests, he believes that a return to the gold standard is inevitable, and that America's economic health, its deficits (trade, budget, and confidence deficits) are a much larger issue than is the "money it has printed."

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The potential scale of investment proposed through the Australian Government's Land Sector Package is large (~$1.7billion) and poses both great opportunity and risk for Australian ecosystems. The major initiative of the package is the Biodiversity Fund ($946 million) that aims to support landholders to undertake projects that establish, restore, protect or manage biodiverse carbon stores.

The opportunity is great, because the carbon cycle is the first ecosystem service with a market based mechanism to fund the restoration of cleared lands. The risk is great, because ecosystems are not just trees, and the business model associated with selling carbon credit tends toward simple, monoculture systems in an effort to maximize profit. However, carbon plantings represent a permanent land use change. What you see is what you get.

The Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia (SERA) presents itself as an impartial body able to provide unbiased advice to ensure that such land use change contributes to the conservation, protection, and restoration of Australia's native landscapes.


Optimism trumps despair at climate summit in San Francisco

Former US vice-president Al Gore speaking at the C40 Cities For Climate The Future Is Us kickoff event at San Francisco's City Hall, on Sept 12, 2018.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Mayors, governors, entrepreneurs, CEOs, investors and celebrities delivered a double-edged message on Friday (Sept 14) at the close of a climate summit in San Francisco: global warming is making the planet unliveable - but we know how to fix it.

"We are using the sky as an open sewer, it's insane," former US vice-president Al Gore told the conference, noting that humanity belches 110 million tons of heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere every day.

The 196-nation Paris Agreement, inked in 2015, enjoins nations to cap global warming this century at "well below" 2 deg C, and to strive for a ceiling of 1.5 deg C if possible.

With only 1 deg C of warming so far, Earth has seen a crescendo of deadly heatwaves, droughts, floods and superstorms engorged by rising seas.

Even if all nations honour current pledges - many of which depend on climate finance that does not yet exist - the world will heat up by an unbearable 3.5 deg C, scientists have calculated.

"Withdrawing American leadership from an issue that is life or death is one of the single greatest acts of irresponsibility of a president anywhere, anytime," former US secretary of state and presidential candidate John Kerry told the plenary, to thunderous applause.

The final verdict was delivered by Hollywood veteran Harrison Ford.

"Nature doesn't need people, people need Nature," he told the plenary. "So let's turn off our phones, let's roll up our sleeves, and let's kick this monster's ass."


Fascia is a word we usually associate with the roofing industry relating to ‘bands of material’ joining one surface to another. In the human body it is the emerging science of the connective tissue.

An elastic and often inelastic structural system that encompasses, wraps round and contributes to stability, flexibility function and movement. Our general understanding of our muscular skeletal system has massively moved on in the 21st century and the fascia is at the centre of the storm.

The Bowen Move

The move does not slide or flick over the surface of the skin, but uses the slack in the overlying skin to move over the underlying tissue, so each move covers a small area, defined by how far an individual’s skin can move over a targeted area.

The Importance of the 2 Minute Breaks

This element of allowing the body to rest for a few minutes initiates the process of repair and is important. The length of the breaks will vary from client to client and with different procedures, but on average we will leave clients for around two minutes in between each set of moves. The implications for these breaks become more apparent for experienced practitioners, but at the start of training many people find this a very difficult concept.

How Does It Work?

One of the most interesting areas of the body is the brain. The basic function of the brain is to receive information from our sensory organs and interpret this information, such as light, sound, pain, movement. This enables conscious communication within our body. Neuroplasticity which is the brains ability to recognise itself by forming new neural connections, allows the nerve cells in the brain to adjust their activities in response to new situations or changes in their environment. This includes a stimulus through touch. There is something like 600,000 signals that travel from the brain into the body every second and these in turn come back to the brain with information which is then interpreted and sent back out. Whenever we feel, hear, see or even think something, the brain brings in past experience in order to categorise the sensation and create an appropriate response.

In the case of the Bowen move, the brain is unable to do this instantly and needs more information to form a response. As it is, just when the brain is asking for more information, the therapist has left the room, and therefore the brain has to send specific signals to the area in order to gauge a response. If the client is lying down, the immediate response is nearly always rapid and deep relaxation. The client will also often report that they feel a tingling sensation or warmth in the area just worked on. “It felt like your hands were still on me,” is a common comment.

One of the more difficult elements to come to terms with is how little ‘hands on work’ is done during a session. In addition, the client may well walk out of the treatment room having felt little or no improvement over and above a sense of relaxation.

However, the reactions to Bowen in the days following a treatment can often belie its soft and gentle approach. Stiffness, soreness, headache and feeling like “I’ve been run over by a bus!” are common, demonstrating that the brain and body have started the process of repair. This process, when started, is generally rapid and it is not uncommon for even longstanding pain to be reduced or resolved in two or three treatments.

There are no such things in this life as guarantees and this can be said of Bowen as well. If the body responds to the treatment, then it can and will start the process of repair. If it doesn’t respond, then no harm is done.


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Do You Experience Wrist Pain? How Do You Know if it’s Carpal Tunnel

Have you been experiencing pain in your hand, especially in the thumb, index finger and middle finger area?  Or maybe a fuzzy feeling or pins and needles and/or numbness in the same described area?

wrist pain
Image by FreeImages under Content Licence

These are all symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.

What is carpal tunnel syndrome?  Carpal tunnel syndrome is a problem where one of the nerves (the median nerve) that feeds the hand, becomes irritated and inflamed.  This inflammation of the median nerve in the wrist area results in swelling of the tissue surrounding the median nerve.  Because there is very little space in the area where the median nerve passes through the wrist, swelling in this area causes pressure on the median nerve.  This pressure on the median nerve in turn causes your symptoms of pain, pins and needles and numbness in the thumb, ring finger and index finger and the area in the palm just below it.

carpal tunnel syndrome
“Carpal Tunnel Syndrome” by Bruce Blaus under licence CC BY 3.0

Inflammation of the median nerve is normally due to overuse of the hand, and this condition is also known as repetitive strain injury or RSI.  Office workers and factor workers are both at risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome.

In office workers,  RSI/carpal tunnel syndrome is quite a common injury.  Not quite as common as neck pain or lower back pain (read my post on 4 computer positions that cause neck pain) but quite common nonetheless.

One of the reasons office workers end up with RSI/carpal tunnel syndrome is due to excessive use of the computer mouse.  Strangely enough, too much typing is not associated with the development of carpal tunnel syndrome.  Another reason office workers are susceptible to developing carpal tunnel syndrome is due to pressure on the underside of their wrist.  People who use mouse pads place themselves at risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome due to the pressure they place on their wrist when they rest their wrists on their mouse pad.  This is slightly ironic, since the mouse pad was developed to help with carpal tunnel syndrome.  Research has shown though, that mouse pads actually increase the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome rather than reducing it.  So, please throw your mouse pad away!

Factory workers are at risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome due to excessive hand use, particularly in activities that cause them to bend their wrists, such as jobs that involve repetitively folding boxes all day.

Sometimes, carpal tunnel syndrome can also be due to mechanical compression that occurs as a result of scarring in the area from a wrist injury.  Injuries result in inflammation, and inflammation always creates scarring in the inflamed area.

One of the reasons it’s always important to get physiotherapy when you have an injury, is because your physiotherapist will help to reduce secondary complications that in themselves can cause problems for you down the line, such as the scarring mentioned above.  Your physiotherapist has many many years of training and specialising in injury management (Find a Physio near you).

How do you test whether you may or may not have carpal tunnel syndrome?  Simply bend your wrist forwards (fingers and hand moving palm downwards towards the forearm) and sustain that position for a few moments (about a minute).  If your symptoms appear or increase, you likely have carpal tunnel syndrome.  If you go see a specialist (e.g. a neurosurgeon/neurologist), they may do a nerve conduction test to see if the nerve is functioning properly and to assist in diagnosing carpal tunnel syndrome.  Ensure that you also go see your physiotherapist for your rehabilitation.  Physios work hand in hand with your specialists to help get you back to normal as fast as possible.

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What are common causes of headaches at the computer?

A pounding headache.  Thump, thump, thump….  Who of us, stuck behind a computer for hours, has not experienced this?

“Can’t Concentrate” by Sasha Wolff under licence CC by 2.0

Headaches and neck pain are very common in office workers and have a debilitating affect on our mood, concentration levels and productivity.

Since headaches are so common, it’s worthwhile understanding what can predispose us to developing a headache in the work place.  What are some of the common causes for developing headaches at work?

  1.  Glare on your computer screen

Glare can be a real problem in the office, especially when it causes you a headache.  To resolve glare, you need to first find the source of your glare.  Is your glare coming from the light above you or is your glare coming from a window?  To help reduce glare, you may need to move your computer screen and sometimes even your desk so that the glare is no longer a problem.  If that’s not an option, you can get anti-glare films to put onto your computer screen or even changing the angle of your screen to reduce the glare may help.  If the glare is from a window, consider blinds or curtains to help address the problem.  Speak to your co-workers, I’m sure that they will understand that headaches caused by glare are not fun and then they will be more willing to help you find a solution.

2.  A poking chin posture

A poking chin posture is a common cause of headaches for people working behind a computer.  A poking chin posture causes compression of the neck joints just below the skull, which in turn causes your headaches.  A poking chin posture is often as a result of a poor computer monitor position.  Ready my post on 4 monitor positions that cause neck pain or my post on how the how the position of your monitor causes neck pain to learn more about it.  Neck pain and headaches often go hand in hand.

3.  Working for too long without a break

Working for too long without a break is a common mistake that most people make.  We forget that we are not robots, and that our bodies require time out to function properly.  Read my post on work breaks to learn more.

4.  Tension in your neck muscles

Tension in your neck muscles will most certainly cause both neck pain and headaches.  This tension will be created as a result of stress or poor posture at your desk.  Read my post on stress and neck pain to learn more.

5.  Using the wrong spectacle prescription

Using the wrong spectacle prescription while working at a computer or reading will strain your eye muscles that commonly leads to headaches.  When last did you have your eyes checked?

6.  Not drinking enough water

When you are dehydrated, one of the symptoms is a headache.  You may be dehydrated because you don’t enjoy drinking water, or because you’ve been drinking too much coffee and tea which stimulates your body to eliminate water.  However, if you drink too much water, and eliminate too many salts from your body in the process, you may also develop a headache.  Moderation is key.

7.  Hunger

When you don’t eat properly, you affect the finely tuned equilibrium that your body is constantly seeking and designed to seek.  When you don’t eat properly, you affect the sugar levels in your blood and low blood sugar levels trigger a system of responses that can lead you to experiencing a headache.  Do you often suffer from headaches and do you also eat badly?  Have you had your blood sugar levels tested?  Maybe it’s time to go see your GP and maybe a nutritionist to help you look after yourself better.

Overall, working for long hours without a break can cause many of the problems mentioned above.  Too many people tend to neglect themselves at work, without realising that doing so negatively affects their work and their health.  Are you one of them?

Helland M., H. G. (2008). Musculoskeletal, visual and psychosocial stress in VDU operators after moving to an ergonomically designed office landscape. Applied Ergonomics, 39, 284-295.

Malinska M., B. J. (2010). The Influence of Occupational and Non- Occupational Factors on the Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Complaints in Users of Portable Computers. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics (JOSE), 16(3), 337–343.

Wahlstrom J., H. M. (2004, June). Perceived muscular tension, job strain, physical exposure and associations with neck pain amongst BDU users: a prospective cohort study. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 61(6), 523-528.

Wahlstrom J., L. A. (2003, October). Perceived muscular tension, emotional stress, psychological demands and physical load during VDU work. International Archives of Occupational and Envronmental Health, 76(8), 584-590.

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Ergonomics and Work Breaks – Helpful or not?

Pomodoro Technique by Michael Mayer is licensed under CC by 2.0


Denigma is unique as everything in it is fully editable as well as programmable and modifiable. Denigma can, in principle, be changed in three fashions:

  1. Content: regarding the actual content it is composed of (Research).
  2. Functional: how it is conceptually built and working (Programming).
  3. Representative: regarding its overall structure and representation (Design).

As soon as your Email address is verified you gain staff status and will be able to access the admin interface, hence receive access to all the tables in Denigma db. Data in Denigma is organized according to application (apps). There are for instance annotations, interactions, datasets, expressions and lifespan apps:

Annotations integrates information from external sources such as gene annotation databases.

Interactions is specialized on integrating heterogenous interaction types.

Expressions contains transcriptomics or proteomics profiles of gene activity measurements.

Datasets is a collection of other diverse data (e.g. from individual studies) where each table represents a single dataset.

Lifespan is most important constitute of Denigma which is dedicated to systematically decipher the aging process and reveal the limits of life. In the lifespan section the probably most import model describes the factors with limit lifespan.

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Free Essay

Wla Lng

In: English and Literature

Submitted By khurlet
Words 2357
Pages 10
wla lngTaenia saginata

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Class: Cestoda
Order: Cyclophyllidea
Family: Taeniidae
Genus: Taenia
Species: T. saginata
Binomial name
Taenia saginata
Goeze, 1782
Taenia saginata, also known as Taeniarhynchus saginata or the beef tapeworm, is a parasite of both cattle and humans, causing taeniasis in humans. Taenia saginata occurs where cattle are raised by infected humans maintaining poor hygiene, human feces are improperly disposed of, meat inspection programs are poor, and where meat is eaten without proper cooking. The disease is relatively common in Africa, some parts of Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

Taenia saginata proglottid stained to show uterine branches. The pore on the side identifies T. saginata as a cyclophyllid cestode.
T. saginata is normally 4 m to 10 m in length, but can become very large, over 12 m long in some situations. The body is whitish in colour, divided into the anterior scolex, followed by a short neck and a highly extended body proper called the strobila. Unlike other tapeworms, the scolex does not have a rostellum or scolex armature. It is composed of four powerful suckers. The strobila is composed a series of ribbon-like segments called proglottids. The segments are made up of mature and gravid proglottids. T. saginata is the largest of genus Taenia, consisting between 1000 to 2000 proglottids, and can also have a lifespan of 25 years in a host's intestine.

The mature proglottid contains the uterus (unbranched), ovary, genital pore, testes, and vitelline gland. It does not have a digestive system, mouth, anus, or digestive tract. It is also an acoelomate, meaning it does not have a body cavity. In the gravid proglottid, the uterus is branched and filled with eggs. The gravid segments detach and are passed in the feces. Each of these segments can act as a worm. When they dry up, the proglottid ruptures, and the eggs are released. The egg can only infect cattle, the intermediate host. Inside the cow's duodenum, the oncosphere hatches with the help of the gastric and intestinal secretions, and migrates through the blood to the muscle. There it develops into infective cysticercoid cysticerci.
The life cycle of Taenia saginata
The life cycle is indirect and complicated, and is completed in humans as the definitive host and cattle as the intermediate host. The adult worm inhabits the small intestine of humans. Fertilized eggs are released through the faeces along with the gravid proglottid which gets detached from the strobila. Cattle ingest the infective embryo while grazing. The digestive enzymes will break the thick shell of the egg and allow formation of the zygotes called "oncospheres". These zygotes then penetrate the mucous layer of the digestive tract and enter the circulation of the host. This is where the young larval stages form a pea-sized, fluid filled cyst, also known as “Cysticercus bovis” and these cysts seem to form in the muscular fibers and are sometimes seen in specific organs like the lungs and liver. Humans acquire the infective larvae from eating undercooked meat i.e.,measley beef. The digestive enzymes break down the cysticercus and the larval cyst is released and the inverted scolex is able to come out and attach to the host’s intestine. Adult tapeworm take about 2 months to develop, and within three months it can reach 5 m long.

The disease is relatively common in Africa, some parts of Eastern Europe, the Philippines, and Latin America. Humans become infected when they eat undercooked beef. Prevention is easy; cook beef until it is no longer pink inside and 56°C in the center, because this kills the cysticerci. Also, beef frozen at -5°C is considered to be safe to consume.

The basic diagnosis is done from a stool sample. Feces are examined to find parasite eggs. The eggs look like other eggs from the family Taeniidae, so it is only possible to identify the eggs to the family, not to the species level. Since it is difficult to diagnose using eggs alone, looking at the scolex or the gravid proglottids can help identify it as Taenia saginata. Proglottids sometimes trickle down the thighs of infected humans and are visible with unaided eye, so can aid with identification. Observation of scolex help distinguish between T. saginata, T. solium and T. asiatica. When the uterus is injected with India ink, its branches become visible. Counting the uterine branches enables some identification (Taenia saginata uteri have 12 or more branches on each side, while other species such as Taenia solium only have five to 10).
Differentiation of the species from other species of Taenia, such as T. solium and T. asiatica, is notoriously difficult because of their close morphological resemblance, and their eggs are more or less identical. Identification often requires histological observation of the uterine branches and PCR detection of ribosomal 5.8S gene. T. saginata’s uterus stems out from its center to form 12 to 20 branches, but in contrast to its closely related Taenia species, the branches are much less in number and comparatively thicker; in addition, the ovaries are bilobed and testes are twice as many.
Treatment for cestode infection with the drug praziquantel opens membrane calcium channels, causing paralysis of the worm, thus aiding the body in expelling the parasite through peristalsis. Niclosamide, used to treat many different kinds of infections with trematodes and adult tapeworms, is also quite effective.
Taenia solium, also called the pork tapeworm, is a cyclophyllid cestode in the family Taeniidae. It infects pigs and humans in Asia, Africa, South America, parts of Southern Europe and pockets of North America. In the larval stage, it causes cysticercosis, which is a major cause of seizures in humans. Like all cyclophyllid cestodes, T. solium has four suckers on its scolex ("head"). T. solium also has two rows of three hooks.
T. solium , commonly known as tapeworm, is a triploblastic aceolomate. It is normally 2 to 3 m in length, but can become very large, over 50 m long in some situations.
T. solium has a very similar life cycle to Taenia saginata. Cysticerci have three morphologically distinct types. The common one is the ordinary "cellulose" cysticercus, which has a fluid-filled bladder 0.5 cm to 1.5 cm in length and an invaginated scolex. The intermediate form has a scolex, while the "racemose" has no evident scolex but is believed to be larger and much more dangerous. They are 20 cm in length and have 60 ml of fluid, and 13% of patients might have all three types in the brain. Humans are usually infected through eating infected pork, fostering adult tapeworms in the intestine, and passing eggs through feces, but autoinfection is also possible. In that case, a cysticercus (a larva sometimes called a "bladder worm") develops in the human, who acts as an intermediate host. This happens if eggs get to the stomach, usually as a result of contaminated hands, but also due to retroperistalsis. Cysticerci often occur in the central nervous system, which can cause major neurological problems, such as hydrocephalus, paraplegy, meningitis, convulsions and even death. The condition of having cysticerci in one's body is called cysticercosis.
Eggs can be diagnosed only to the family level, but if a proglottid's uterus is stained with India ink, the number of visible uterine branches can help identify the species; unlike the Taenia saginata uteri, T. solium uteri have only five to 10 uterine branches on each side.
Infection with T. solium adults is treated with niclosamide, which is one of the most popular drugs for adult tapeworm infections, as well as for fluke infections. As cysticercosis is a major risk, it is important to wash one's hands before eating and to suppress vomiting if a patient may be infected with T. solium. If neurocysticercosis occurs, the drug of choice is either albendazole or praziquantel. These drugs damage the parasites' skin internally, causing it to disintegrate and is then removed by the host's immune system.

Life cycle
This infection is caused by ingestion of eggs shed in the feces of a human tapeworm carrier. Pigs and humans become infected by ingesting eggs or gravid proglottids. Humans are infected either by ingestion of food contaminated with feces containing eggs, or by autoinfection. In the latter case, a human infected with adult T. solium can ingest eggs produced by that tapeworm, either through fecal contamination or, possibly, from proglottids carried into the stomach by reverse peristalsis. Once eggs are ingested, oncospheres hatch in the intestine, invade the intestinal wall, and migrate to striated muscles, as well as the brain, liver, and other tissues, where they develop into cysticerci. In humans, cysts can cause serious sequelae if they localize in the brain, resulting in neurocysticercosis. The parasite life cycle is completed, resulting in human tapeworm infection, when humans ingest undercooked pork containing cysticerci. Cysts evaginate and attach to the small intestine by their scolices. Adult tapeworms develop, (up to 2 to 7 m in length and produce less than 1000 proglottids, each with approximately 50,000 eggs) and reside in the small intestine for years.

Taenia solium adult
Diagnosis requires biopsy of the infected tissue and examination of feces. T. solium eggs and proglottids found in feces diagnoses taeniasis and not cysticercosis. Cysticercosis is diagnosed primarily on confirming the presence of hooks on the scolex of T. solium. Radiological tests, such as X-ray, CT scans which demonstrate "ring-enhancing brain lesions", and MRIs, can also be used to detect diseases. X-rays are used to identify calcified larvae in the subcutaneous and muscle tissues, and CT scans and MRIs are used to find lesions in the brain.

Praziquantel (PZQ) is the drug of choice for the treatment of T. solium infection. Some consider niclosamide to be the drug of choice for all types of tapeworms. For cysticercosis,treatment with albendazole combined with steroids reduces the inflammation. Surgical intervention may be necessary to treat central nervous system lesions. Albendazole appears to be more effective and a safe drug for neurocysticercosis.
Stained T. solium proglottid
In 1990 and 1991, four unrelated members of an Orthodox Jewish community in New York City developed recurrent seizures and brain lesions, which were found to have been caused by T. solium. In keeping with their religion, none of the patients ate pork; additionally, none had any history of recent foreign travel. Several immediate family members of these four patients with seizures were found to have cysticercus antibodies. The families of the four patients had all employed housekeepers from Latin American countries, and one of the housekeepers tested positive for cysticercus antibodies, leading to the conclusion that the housekeepers were the most likely source of the infections.

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I have travelled through the districts of Namakkal, Salem, Erode and Karur during the past few weeks. The mighty Cauvery has completely dried in these districts since the end of March, 2017. This happened for the first time after the construction of Mettur Dam during 1940s. All canals, tanks, and wells dried up. Standing crops are dying, tall coconut trees are falling, and long queues are kept for drinking water supply. People try to engage more bore-wells to dig deeper. A lot of them failed to fetch water even after reaching close to 1000 feet.
The failure of groundwater sustainability is attributed to the unregulated extraction of groundwater as anyone can read in every state and academic studies and reports. However, there have been very little mentions about sand mining in these reports. The ill effects of legal and illegal sand mining in the river basin are more than visible. More specifically, anyone can see and understand the following effects of sand mining:
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  2. The wells close to rivers, dams and tanks are immediately dried after the flow of the river stopped. This has lead to the failure of crops and drinking water supply schemes attached to this river system.
  3. Lower and so far hidden (presumably foundation) parts of the bridges are visible; thereby endangering the lives of all commuters over these bridges.
If all these evidences are visible, what is the reason for the continued extraction of sand in the river?
River sand has become a more precious natural resource because of stricter regulation in the neighboring states, especially after Kerala enacted a law to curb sand mining during 2001. However, Tamil Nadu continues to regulate sand mining through executive made regulations. Whenever adherence to these norms and irregularities questioned before the courts, the judiciary affirms the rules with certain extra conditionality.
The principle lease hold for all sand mining in Tamil Nadu remains with the PWD and the sub-lease holders are private players with lesser legally sanctioned role in terms of maintaining the river sustainably. But in practice, the private players are all powerful. They hold more than sovereign powers in the River basin. They control the River area for beyond the lease hold and the paths in and out of these places. The neighboring village presidents, politicians, legislators, executive, media and every other person interested in the river is taken care; they are bribed or threatened. There were also few reported murders of officials in relation to sand mining.
The sand mining rules are not just failed to protect the sand mining; but they are drafted with inherent features to promote sand mining beyond all prescriptions, i.e., sand miners dig deeper, use more area than legally prescribed, and operate machinery beyond prescribed capacity, number and time. Public are least informed about the happenings in the lease areas which are inaccessible to public including the leaders of farmers’ associations. Transparency is a failed term in the whole process of sub-leasing of sand mining. Except PWD, no authority has full control and powers over the river system; to put it otherwise, PWD maintains the River system, PWD is the leaseholder for sand mining and authorized to sub-lease, and it finally certifies the promptness of sub-leasers. If you have heard anything about ‘Public Trust Doctrine,’ you should have also understood ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.
The farmers’ agitations for the past few weeks have resulted in nothing significant. The state at large, academia, public and media are relatively silent about murdering a river system; which is state’s lifeline and future. There is an immediate need to stop sand mining in all Tamil Nadu rivers until an enacted law is brought into force with provisions for stakeholders’ involvement in the decision making process.


Q&A with Dr Ralph AssmanN for Horizon magazine article on plasma accelerators

2018 - 07 - 11

Dr Ralph Assmann was interviewed by Horizon magazine, the EU’s science and innovation magazine, about EuPRAXIA’s place in the particle accelerator landscape and the forthcoming publication of the Conceptual Design Report.

Horizon.  I understand the basic concept of plasma wakefield accelerators, and I have also seen your brochure. But can you tell me when they were invented, and (in general terms) how quickly they have been developed?

RA. They have been proposed in 1979 in a theoretical paper by Tajima and Dawson published in Physical Review Letters. The lasers were not yet available but invented in the 1980‘s by Mourou and Strickland. Since then the achievable electron beam energy increased exponentially with time. By now 4.25 GeV electron beam energy can be achieved in 9cm.

Horizon.  Where are we at now with the science and engineering of plasma accelerators, and what are the big remaining challenges (with plasma accelerators in general, not necessarily your project)?

RA. Accelerating fields a thousand times higher than in RF accelerators are routinely achieved in many places. Multi GeV electron beam energies are produced reproducibly, quality has greatly improved by some factor 10, lasers as drivers are progressing rapidly: shrinking in size and growing in power. European laser industry is world leading and all the world buys these European lasers, including US and Asian competitors (e.g. Berkeley). Big challenge is to improve quality another factor 2-5 and to establish pilot applications. This is now more on the engineering side than on invention. This is why big accelerator labs can help.

Horizon.  Why is your project to build a 5 GeV plasma accelerator so important?  Is there something special about 5GeV as an energy milestone, for example?

RA. The 5 GeV was chosen because it is presently just achievable, so we can concentrate on quality, but also because it is in the regime of hard X ray free electron lasers which operate in this energy regime. To produce a small size and lower cost free electron laser for low power users would be the break-through result needed to start a user basis, e.g. reaching out into mid size lab environments in research centers, universities, hospitals, etc. In addition, this 5GeV would be a stage towards a high energy physics collider: 50 such stages for 250 GeV beam energy. Higher power will need higher average power laser solutions, something European laser industry works on.

Horizon. What will your conceptual design report for EuPRAXIA achieve?

RA. It will propose a European project and consortium that brings together the required expertise, credibility and resources to make plasma accelerators usable and to succeed in the ongoing competition with US, Japan and China. In addition to a consistent engineering approach it will also include some innovative solutions that we have published and want to build. This project will also help to defend world leadership of European high power laser industry by providing incentive requirements and a growth in customer basis.

Horizon. After the CDR (in November next year?) will the accelerator be built? If so, how long will that take? And what will the facility look like, roughly?

RA. Whether a European project will be built depends on the availability of European resources. Presently LNF at Frascati is starting a construction project EuPRAXIA@SPARClab and Helmholtz in Germany has just announced a 30M€ material investment on laser-driven plasma acceleration in the context of EuPRAXIA - the first step towards EuPRAXIA (see press release). The EU initiative LEAPS could provide some resources for the technical design and prototyping but European construction requires additional resources. At present we realistically foresee implementation/prototyping phase from 2020 to 2022 and construction from 2023 to 2026. We are discussing how it would look like but it is clear that it will be centered in Italy, France, Germany with roughly equal levels and will be supported by consortia in Portugal, UK and possibly Czech republic (ELI). EuPRAXIA should be constructed as a particle physics detector: all connected labs use their local infrastructure to develop, prototype and test the required components. Then we construct together the facility at probably two locations with different specializations, e.g. the laser-driven approach in Hamburg/DESY and the beam-driven approach in Frascati/Italy. We are still discussing this but presently we think that such an integrative approach is better than choosing one or the other.

Horizon. Pretend for a moment that you are speaking to a non-scientist member of the public: why should he or she care that this accelerator is being built? (That is, what are the most easy-to-grasp applications?)

RA. Particle accelerators today produce X rays for precise medical imaging of the human body, for studying how bacteria react to medicine, for inspecting cargo and many other applications. There is more demand than the big and cost-intensive accelerator facilities can satisfy. Based on the world-leading lasers from European industry the novel plasma accelerators can reduce the size of such facilities such that they can be used in many additional places, broadening access and for example providing opportunities to study many additional bacteria, viruses, etc. The public in Europe will profit from the advance in knowledge to be expected but also from the well paid jobs such high technology investments create and defend.

Horizon. Particle physics is in a bit of a sticky spot at the moment. To put it bluntly, are synchrotrons, linacs and so on dead—and are plasma accelerators the future? (Could they be how we access energies beyond those of the LHC?)

RA. Plasma accelerators provide a path to higher energies beyond LHC and particle physics must take this opportunity very serious. However, RF accelerators are highly developed and it is difficult to catch up. This is why an intermediate step like EuPRAXIA with other applications is required for plasma accelerators. This will prove a number of issues required also for colliders. Afterwards the field can concentrate on the other difficult challenges for plasma colliders (positron acceleration in plasmas, emittance, luminosity, ...). If we cannot build a 5GeV plasma FEL, then also a 500 GeV or 3 TeV plasma collider will not work. Clearly: high field accelerators like plasma accelerators can be the logical long term solution for advancing the energy frontier in particle physics. But it require a realistic and sustained approach. By the way, before coming to DESY in 2012 I was a senior scientist at CERN, one of the guys building and commissioning the LHC. I got motivated by this vision beyond LHC to look at plasma accelerators after we discovered the Higgs...

Dr Ralph Assmann was interviewed by Jon Cartwright for Horizon Magazine