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What are the types of skin cancer? There are two main types of skin cancer: - cancer in moles (malignant melanoma) - the non-melanoma group (basal cell – and squamous cell carcinoma). People of all ages can get skin cancer, but it's rare in children. Symptoms and treatment depend on the type of cancer. What are basal cell and squamous cell cancer? Basal cell carcinoma is a cancer that begins in the deep basal cell layer of the epidermis (the outer layer of the skin). It is six to eight times more common than malignant melanoma. It is often located in the face and on the neck. Basal cell carcinoma is not one of the most dangerous cancers, but it must still be treated to avoid it spreading. 'Rodent ulcer' is an alternative term sometimes applied to basal cell carcinoma. Squamous cell carcinoma begins in a different layer of the epidermis. It is not as common as basal cell carcinoma and is typically found in places exposed to sunlight, like the face or neck. Like basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma is not among the most dangerous cancers, but it can become dangerous if it is not treated in time. What causes basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma? Sunlight is a contributing factor in 90 per cent of the cases. The disease itself is usually triggered by damage to the skin caused by sun rays. People who are exposed to large quantities of sun radiation can develop skin cancer as early as age 20 or 30 but most patients are older. What are the symptoms of non-melanoma cancer? Basal cell carcinoma The first warning signs may be small lumps, scar-like changes, or eczema-like changes on the skin. The first sign can also be a small sore with raised borders. It is a slow-growing cancer and it never spreads to other parts of the body. Squamous cell carcinoma The first sign can be a patch of scaly eczema. Later, a sore that can turn into a tumour may appear. Squamous cell carcinoma grows faster than basal cell carcinoma especially when located near orifices – the eyes, ears, mouth, anus or the vagina. It may spread via the lymph vessels, but that is rare. What are the warning signs? - Sores that will not heal. - Sores that grow bigger or turn into tumours. - Sores or tumours in or around the orifices should be watched carefully as these can behave aggressively. What can be done at home? - Avoid excessive exposure to the sun, especially the midday sun (from 11am to 2pm). - Move into the shade and have a 'siesta' instead. - Clothing and sun hats can protect the skin from the sun's harmful rays. - Children must be protected from getting sunburn. Although the sunburn clears up nicely, the skin may have suffered damage that will become apparent later in life. Sunburn increases the risk of developing skin cancer. - Consult your doctor if you have sores that will not heal. How is it diagnosed? The sore or tumour often has certain distinctive features that, in most cases, will enable the doctor to recognise the disease. A biopsy will often be done to confirm the diagnosis. Most non-melanoma skin cancers are cured, but there are no guarantees that the patients will not develop a new cancer. How is basal cell carcinoma treated? - The tumour is usually removed surgically. - Another possibility is to expose the tumour to heat and scrape it off (cutterage and electrocautery), expose it to radiation (radiotherapy) or to freeze it with a little nitrogen (cryotherapy). A cream containing imiquimod has been shown to cure 85 per cent of basal cell carcinoma and is an option for smaller tumours less than 2cm in diameter. Fluorouracil cream can also be used for these cancers. - The most recent therapy to be provided on the NHS is photodynamic therapy (PDT). A cream containing 5-aminoaevulinic acid, or 5-ALA, is placed on the basal cell carcinoma and a strong light then applied to the lesion. The cream makes the lesion more sensitive to the light and this causes it to heal. How is squamous cell carcinoma treated? - The tumour will often be removed surgically, but the other treatments used for removal of BCC can also be used. - Radiation therapy is sometimes used. - Electrochemotherapy is the latest treatment but evidence for how effective it is is limited at present. - A tumour located in or around an orifice may require extensive surgery and lead to a longer than usual stay in hospital for recovery and healing to take place. Other people also read: Skin cancer: what causes it? Sunbathing: how can you avoid sun damage? It happened to me…skin cancer
by Kimberly Allen R. N. Post traumatic stress disorder known at PTSD is a mental health condition that develops as a result of a traumatic physical or emotional experience. Symptoms of PTSD can manifest anytime from one month to years after experiencing the traumatic event. PTSD was originally recognized in soldiers returning from war and has gone by other names like ‘shell shock’ in the past. For years PTSD was considered an illness that affected adults almost exclusively, however in recent years studies have shown that children and teens also can suffer from PTSD. It is believed that in the US alone there are more than 3 million children with PTSD. Unfortunately, the two most common causes of PTSD in children and teens are physical and/or sexual abuse. Though they are the most common, there are other events that can lead to PTSD in children and teens including witnessing domestic violence or other violent crime, being in an auto accident and even bullying can lead to the development of PTSD. Researchers have also discovered a few other little known facts about PTSD in children and teens, for example girls are more likely to develop PTSD than boys and if the trauma involves family the child is at even greater risk for developing PTSD. When the child perceives an event as life threatening or responds to the event with intense overwhelming fear and helplessness they will most likely develop PTSD. Not all children will develop PTSD, however there are certain factors that have been identifies that can affect the chances a child will develop PTSD: 1. How close was the child to the traumatic event? Did the child witness the event or it’s aftermath? 2. How close is the child to the people involved? Was it family or close friends? 3. How severe was the trauma? 4. How long did the traumatic event last or was it ongoing? The symptoms of PTSD vary from child to child depending on the age of the child and the circumstances of the trauma. The problem with many of the symptoms of PTSD si they can easilt be mistaken by adults close to the child as ‘moody behavior’ or ‘just being a teenager’ especially if the adult is unaware that the child has or is experiencing trauma, such as severe bullying. It’s important to view the symptoms in their context, for example is the behavior new, or in response to certain events. A child may suddenly demonstrate intense anxiety if separated from family members or when around strangers. If a child is suddenly experiencing nightmares or starts wetting the bed chances are he/she is reliving a traumatic event. Adolescents may develop self-abusive and self- destructive behaviors like cutting or alcohol and drug abuse. Adolescents with PTSD often develop other mental health disorders such as bipolar disorder or OCD. The treatment for PTSD is complex, individualized and long term. Psychotherapy or “talk therapy” and if necessary medication are the standard treatment and have shown great success in helping children with PTSD to live a normal life. There are several factors that can affect the success of the treatment plan including the coping skills of the child and family, the mental health history of the childs family and how much support the child receives at home, school and in the community. The rise in incidence of PTSD in children and adolescents has many mental health practitioners concedrned, as the violence in society increases so will the incidence of PTSD affecting children and teens. Kimberly Allen is a registered nurse with an AND in nursing. She has worked in ACF, LCF and psychiatric facilities, although she spent most of her career as a home health expert. She is now a regular contributor to HealthAndFitnessTalk.com, dispensing advice and knowledge about medical issues and questions. You can reach her with any comments or questions at email@example.com.
You are hereHome › Now showing results 1-3 of 3 Learners can read about the Deep Impact mission to encounter comet Tempel 1, including the mission, the experiment, results, the comet, the team, and how the results were transmitted back to Earth. Includes pre- and post-encounter fact sheets. This activity is an interactive word find game with words related to comets and NASA's Comet Nucleus Sample Return mission. Accompanying text and pictures describe what comets are and why we are interested in them. In this lesson, learners will use images to observe and compare the surfaces of two comet nuclei from close range. Separate teachers guides and students guides are provided. Supplementary resources needed for the lesson are provided and include... (View More) scientist and student audio tracks, and images of Wild 2, Tempel 1, and Hartley 2. (View Less)
What Is Vascular Screening? It is a painless test that checks the arteries of the body for the buildup of fatty deposits, or atherosclerosis. Blood and oxygen is transported through the body by the cardiovascular system, an extensive network of arteries and smaller vessels. Depending on where they occur, any blockages in these arteries can cause sudden and severe illness, even death. Using ultrasound technology to screen the vascular system for signs of narrowing or blockages can help prevent future heart attacks, strokes and impaired blood flow to the legs, arms and abdomen. A ‘screening’ is where a person is checked for signs of a vascular disease although they show no symptoms. What Does It Screen For? Typically, a screening will look for signs of the following three conditions: Carotid Artery Disease The carotid arteries are the 2 large arteries which supply blood to the brain, located on each side of the neck. Over time, atherosclerosis can form in these arteries and cause narrowing and blockages. If blood becomes completely blocked, it can cause a stroke. The disease does not usually show any symptoms and a stroke may be the first sign of the problem. Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) PAD is the narrowing of the peripheral arteries, the blood vessels which are farthest from the heart and include the legs, arms and head. Blockages in these arteries can cause limb numbness, pain, and open sores. If it is severe enough, gangrene and amputation may result. People with coronary heart disease have a 1 in 3 chances of developing blocked arteries in the legs. Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm The aorta is the largest blood vessel in the body. It leads from the heart and continues down into the abdomen where it branches into two smaller arteries to supply blood to the legs. An abdominal aortic aneurysm is when the region of the aorta in the abdominal region swells and may potentially burst and cause heavy internal bleeding or sudden death. Up to 75 percent of people with a ruptured aorta will die before they even reach hospital. Screening is recommended for people showing any risk factors. It is more common in white men over the age of 60; and in those with symptoms of CHD and PAD. Note: It is not related to aneurysms of the brain. Renal or Mesenteric Arteries The arteries to the kidneys can be blocked for many reasons and can cause kidney failure and hypertension and heart failure. If the arteries to the bowels and stomach are closed, patients develop belly pains after meals and weight loss. These can be treated with angioplasty and stents.
From the bacterial point of view, a paramecium is a microcosm offering several tempting niches for colonization. When you collect a paramecium from nature, it's likely to have hundreds – even thousands – of bacterial endosymbionts on board, in different locations. Some will likely be in the cytoplasm, others in other cellular compartments, including the nuclei. To remind you, the ciliates evolved their own particular approach to nuclear compartments. They haveF two kinds of nuclei, macronuclei (we'll call them Macs) and micronuclei (Mics), typically two or more of each. The Macs carry out all the RNA transcription during normal vegetative growth; the Mics transmit the germline genome to subsequent generations. Both the Mics and the Macs are hosts to specific symbionts. While locations in mitochondria and nuclei have been observed for bacterial pathogens of animal cells, they are relatively uncommon. So far, nine endosymbionts are known to live within the nuclei of paramecia, about half in the Mics, half in the Macs. These nine species, α-proteobacteria all, have been lumped together into the genus Holospora because of their similar cytology and lifestyle. Their closest known relatives are Rickettsia and Ehrlichia. They all appear to be obligate endosymbionts, that is, are not known to live outside their hosts. All are host-specific and nuclei-specific. Life in a Mac has its perks, such as a goodly supply of nutrients and protection from cellular defenses, including lytic enzymes. But what's an endosymbiont to do when the host cell mates? During this process, the Macs are digested along with the symbionts. New Macs formed after conjugation are free of bacteria. This may be one reason why, unlike the cytoplasmic symbionts, all of these species are infectious, that is, they are capable of horizontal transmission. Quite a bit is known about Holospora obtusa, a symbiont living in the Mac of P. caudatum. Its life cycle includes two stages. The reproductive form (RF) is a short rod, 1–3 μm by 0.5–1 μm, that grows and divides by binary fission within a Mac. Some RFs differentiate into an infectious form (IF), long rods 5 to 20 μm in length. This is a dramatic transformation, involving the replacement of 60% of their proteins, along with marked changes in cell structure. Both forms coexist, intermingled, in the Mac until the host undergoes mitosis. At that time, some of the RFs move to the poles of the dividing Mac, thus ensuring that each daughter nucleus will inherit a share. Meanwhile, the IFs are destined to be released from the cells via a special, dedicated structure. They gather in a cluster in a central bridge that forms as the daughter Macs pull apart. This structure is seen only in symbiont-bearing paramecia, not in "cured" ones. As the daughter nuclei separate, the bridge breaks away from the Mac to form a membrane-bounded structure that travels through the cytoplasm to the cytoproct (the quasi-anus of ciliates), there to be discharged into the environment. The IFs can remain viable for weeks outside a host cell. They have a unique structure, the hallmark being a massive periplasm filled with proteins required for successful infection. IFs are ingested by paramecia along with other bacterial prey. But instead of being digested, they escape from the phagosome and journey – periplasm tip first – through the cytoplasm. They arrive at the Mac 30 minutes later. This process involves several fancy membrane fusions and evaginations. Host actin is also required. Once in the nucleus, the IF constricts transversely, dividing to form 4-10 RFs. The cycle is then repeated. Many observations suggest a long shared history between H. obtusa and P. caudatum, the intimate communications between them during infection being one. Here are some others. The association seems to be quite specific. If you experimentally infect a different species of paramecium with H. obtusa, the IFs make it into the Mac, but within 24 hours they are deported to the cytoplasm, often in fragments, and "shat out" via the cytoproct. Although P. caudatum can get along just fine in the lab when cured of their endosymbionts, some natural isolates have H. obtusa on board, especially when collected in cold climates. In the lab, paramecia with H. obtusa endosymbionts do better in colder temperatures and also better handle rapid heating from 25 °C to 35 °C. The symbionts alter host gene expression, up-regulating several genes and down-regulating others. Reproduction of the RFs in the Mac requires some proteins made by the host. Are these endosymbiont genes that have been transferred to the host genome? Initial estimates indicate a reduced genome size for the endosymbiont, about 1.7 Mb, but evidence of gene transfer must await genomic data. Endosymbioses have a way of fascinating us. The very idea! Bacteria living within the organelles inside cells? When sketching a eukaryote cell, we draw a membrane around it, and around the nucleus and the other organellar compartments. These membranes mark serious boundaries. But endosymbionts remind us that such boundaries can be doorways – if you know the right incantation.
A collection of nuclear power plant diagrams are available in the following 101 Diagramss to help you learn how the nuclear reactor works. The images that we have collected in the following images below show basic components and layout of a nuclear power station.The first diagram is available right below, and the other types of nuclear reactor such as BWR and CANDU are also provided. From the illustration drawn on the above nuclear power plant diagram, it can be seen that a nuclear reactor consists of fuel rods, control rods and moderator. A fuel rod contains small round fuel pallets (uranium pallets). Control rods are of cadmium which absorb neutrons. They are inserted into reactor and can be moved in or out to control the reaction. The moderator can be graphite rods or the coolant itself. Moderator slows down the neutrons before they bombard on the fuel rods. The nuclear power plant consist of two main buildings: containment and turbine building. The containment building is the key building of the nuclear island while the turbine building houses a turbine, generator, condenser and other equipment, which is used for conversion thermal energy from pressurized steam to mechanical work used for drive the generator. The following structure diagrams of the nuclear reactor will help you to understand more. Most reactors need to be shut down for refuelling, so that the pressure vessel can be opened up. The CANDU and RBMK types have pressure tubes (rather than a pressure vessel enclosing the reactor core) and can be refuelled under load by disconnecting individual pressure tubes. A CANDU fuel assembly consists of a bundle of 37 half metre long fuel rods (ceramic fuel pellets in zircaloy tubes) plus a support structure, with 12 bundles lying end to end in a fuel channel. The CANDU reactor diagram is posted below. Get all these nuclear reactor diagrams that you need by clicking on the images. You can also find other diagrams in our site by typing the keyword on the search column. Don’t forget to share this article to your social media account!
“We probably can’t hold—it’s coming over—we are abandoning the task!” a firefighter radioed in at 11:33am on Sunday, October 20, 1991, as the Oakland Hills were engulfed in flames. As winds picked up and the blaze spread from house to house, firefighters who had been battling the fire suddenly had to battle simply to survive. One lieutenant and a firefighter took shelter in a swimming pool, and only stuck their heads out intermittently to splash water over the pool’s cover, to keep it from being set aflame. Another team waited it out by a water tank, spraying a perimeter around their position as the inferno raged past them. While first responders tried to evacuate civilians from buildings, many of those who were killed were unable to escape due to the traffic jams in the tight, narrow roadways leading up through the hills. By the time firefighters were able to put out the blaze, what would eventually be known as the 1991 Oakland firestorm had killed 25 people and injured 150, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It also caused $1.5 billion in property loss and other damages, the most from a single fire in US history. Now, a team of University of California, Berkeley scientists believes it may have the answer to preventing such destruction: a satellite that can see fires from space. Known as the Fire Urgency Estimator in Geosynchronous Orbit, or “FUEGO”, the satellite would use infrared sensors to detect fires as small as one quarter of an acre in size and could scan the entire Western US in under three minutes, researchers said. Currently, fires can burn for days—or even longer—in some areas before they are detected, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The satellite would have the greatest impact in these more remote areas. “Most fires are seen by humans by chance,” said Dr. Carlton Pennypacker, one of the authors of the FUEGO study and a research associate at Berkeley. “The Oakland fire was smoldering for hours, but we could have seen it instantly. And the Rim Fire we could have gotten to very quickly as well.” If it were created, FUEGO would be the only satellite dedicated specifically to fires, and the only one capable of rapidly spotting blazes down to the scale of a single house. While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has access to a different satellite, it is primarily used to monitor weather and its sensors aren’t powerful enough to detect fires on that small of a scale. Another system is used by the US Forest Service, but it can only sense wildfires one square kilometer or larger, and scans the Western US just once every one to two days. Proponents argue that FUEGO could be a vital tool for fighting wildfires, which have been a growing problem in California and across the US for the past several decades. Over the past five years, an average of more than 74,000 individual fires have occurred annually nationwide, burning a total of about 6.5 million acres per year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Most fires are reported by civilians who call them in on their cell phones, though occasionally state fire officials will put fire spotters in towers during the critical months. The problem with this approach, Pennypacker said, is that it relies too much on chance, meaning that fires can get dangerously large before first responders are alerted. In the case of the Rim Fire, he noted, it “must have taken hours and hours to be seen by humans.” In fact, the Rim Fire was only discovered when a plane responding to a separate fire nearby happened to spot it. When the report of the blaze was called in at 3:25pm on August 17, the fire was already 40 acres. By the time first responders got there, at 4pm, it had more than tripled in size, to 150 acres, and had become virtually unstoppable as it flowed over the surrounding dry, hilly terrain. But not everyone believes the FUEGO satellite, which would likely cost several hundred million dollars, is necessary given how quickly most fires are detected. Julie Hutchinson, a battalion chief for CAL FIRE, notes that even a very small fire—say one-quarter of an acre—can put up a large amount of smoke for passers-by to see. And the spread of cell phones has also helped. “Twenty years ago, if someone saw a fire, they would have to drive 20 minutes or an hour to find a landline and call it in,” Hutchinson said. “Now, people can report fires instantly.” Once a fire is reported, officials say, response time varies from three minutes to half an hour depending on how remote the location is. Justin Anderson, a seasonal firefighter for CAL FIRE in the Tahoe Basin, agreed with Hutchinson that while a satellite would be an interesting tool, it may not be necessary given how quickly most fires are reported, and how rapidly firefighters are able to respond. Nevertheless, he thought that FUEGO might help by reducing the number of false alarms. “Sometimes people just start up a lawn mower that hasn’t been used in a while, and it puts up a lot of smoke,” he said. “Or sometimes people will call in smoke from smoke stacks. We get a lot of calls like that.” While researchers believe that the satellite could help keep many small fires from becoming larger, they remain divided on the question of whether the satellite would have made a difference in the 1991 Oakland firestorm. “Certainly if the 1991 Oakland fire could have been seen long before it became critical, a billion dollars of house infrastructure in the Bay Area might have been saved,” the Berkeley scientists write in their study. But a report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency evaluating the causes of the firestorm states that local firefighters were aware of the blaze from the start. After being notified, they fought the fire for an afternoon but abandoned efforts overnight because because the fire had been reduced to embers. The result of this, however, was that Diablo winds came in the next morning and whipped the fire’s embers into flames once more. Apart from the fact that the fire was allowed to smolder, the report also noted that the firefighters’ response was hampered by overwhelmed radio frequencies, compatibility issues with outside fire companies hooking up to fire hydrants, and the winding roadways that delayed fire trucks – none of which the satellite could have prevented. Despite this, a number of local firefighters were enthusiastic about the possibility of developing a faster and more accurate way to spot fires. “If we have a system to detect gunshots, then we don’t we have something like this?” said Dave Espino, a 15-year veteran of the Oakland Fire Department. “Frankly, I’m surprised it hasn’t been built yet.” Sean Gascie, a fire lieutenant at Station 8 in Temescal, added that FUEGO might be able to help with pinpointing the location of fires, and thereby help firefighters get to the scene more quickly. “A lot of times we get called up to the hills for a report of smoke, and we have to drive around for five or ten minutes trying to find it,” he said. “Just a few weeks ago, we had one where the people reporting it told us to go to totally the wrong spot. When we got there, we couldn’t see fire or smell smoke at all.” The team then returned to the fire station, thinking it had been a false report, only to be called to respond to the fire again in a completely different area. Once firefighters are alerted, it usually takes only three to five minutes to get to the scene, Espino said, provided it is reported accurately. “It’s hard to find locations, especially out in the hills,” he added. “We’ll get a lot of different reports of smoke. So then we’ll have to send out multiple companies and have them driving around to different spots trying to find it.” With a satellite, Espino and Gascie hope local firefighters could be given a more exact location. In practice, however, FUEGO is still a long way from becoming a reality. The next step for scientists will be to build a prototype and start raising money for the real thing. If approved, the project would likely take seven years—or longer—to complete. Despite the challenges, Pennypacker remained optimistic. “I’m pretty confident it will eventually get built,” he said. “The planet and the galaxy should have this.”
Spain wanted to expand its borders past the Rio Bravo, today known as the Rio Grande, but did not have much success. For the most part the area north of the river was inhabited by hostile Indians and the terrain was vast and desolate; quite impossible to control without a huge army. However, some pioneers seeking new land and social freedom ventured into the territories north of Mexico City, these settlers were known as the Norteños. The open plains of Sonora were suited to cattle and grazing. To encourage the migration, the Crown, through the Viceroys, issued thousands of land grants to the Castas, the mixed blooded people, as early as 1670. Mestizo families became Rancheros. With them they brought thousands of heads of livestock. By 1750 there were permanent settlements along and south of the Rio Bravo. In New Spain a person was identified by race and the color of their skin. This distinction even extended to the taxes they had to pay; the upper classes paid less tax than the hard-working lower classes. The Castas living in Mexico City were severely constrained by laws inhibiting them from rising above their life of servitude to the white Spaniards. Opportunities of advancement for the Castas were in these northern territories. While the Norteño was herding cattle he was not subject to the restrictive mandates. He owned a horse, carried arms and knife and wore European dress; privileges that were denied to them in New Spain. These Indio mixed people not only dressed like European Spaniards but spoke Spanish, no longer their native Indian dialects. They were treated, not by their color, but as individuals. To the Indians, like the Apache and Yaqui, they were considered “white” and were subject to being robbed, tortured and killed as any pure-blooded Spaniard. They were on their own out in the wilderness, they were skilled horsemen, and they could be men who took pride in their work; a life they could never attain in the haciendas. Slowly the races melded together. They were neither Indian nor Spanish; they were no longer being identified by their Castas’ labels. They were developing their own identity; they were evolving into the “Mexican.” Ranchers were called Charros and Vaqueros; this was the beginning of the Cowboy era. These emerging Mexicans adopted their own style of clothing, economics and social values. The name, Vaquero, comes from the Arabic word relating to cow and in Spanish cow is vacca. Buckaroo, is a word we use today to describe a cowboy, possibly came as an English version of vaquero. Charro refers to the traditional horseman from the central-western regions of Mexico. Vaqueros usually owned a ranch and many heads of cattle. Vaqueros and Charros had 2 styles of dress. Charros wore colorful clothing. The Vaquero wore garments we associate with the Mariachis of today; the other, more like what we think of as working-cowboy attire. The most familiar item of clothing associated with the Vaquero and Charro is the wide brimmed pointy crowned sombrero or hat. It’s practical; it protects the head and eyes from the hot sun. The bandana or kerchief is also used to protect the cowboy from the elements. The jacket of the Vaquero is short and usually wrapped around the waist is a sash. The Charro usually wore a sarape, also known as a pancho, which served as protection from cold and rain and was used as a blanket. It was also used in the roundup by waiving it in the air to help move the cattle. They wore leggings as a protective covering from cactus and bushes, similar to chaps and it may have also covered the horse. The word chaps comes from the Spanish word chaparejos. Footwear could be any shoe or boot or none at all. Spurs, espuelas in Spanish, were worn either around the heel of the shoe or ankle of a bare foot. They were usually made of heavy iron. One of the TV shows from the 50’s was the “Cisco Kid” and his side kick, Pancho, their costume was the classic Hollywood version of the apparel worn by Vaqueros and Charros.
Deleting a value inside a cell is easy, just click a cell and press delete. But how you can delete a cell that has no value, in other words, the blank cells? In this lesson, I’m going to show you how you can remove blank cells. Take a look at the following example, where you have a list of values with some empty cells. Selecting blank cells First, you have to select a range of cells and then navigate to Home >> Editing >> Find & Select >> Go to Special. From the Go To Special window choose Blanks and click OK. All the blank cells are now selected (A1, A4, A6). Now, navigate to Home >> Cells >> Delete >> Delete Cells. Alternatively, you can use a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + –. A new window has 4 radio buttons. In our example, we can use both Shift cells up and Entire row. After you click OK, the empty cells will disappear, leaving only cells with values. Shift cells up In this example, you have three people with the number of hours they worked. You can use Shift cells up to move all cells that have values into places of empty cells. Select all the cells, then choose blanks. Use Ctrl + – to open the Delete window. Choose Shift cells up and click OK. You can also delete the entire row of cells. You have to be careful here because any blank cell inside a row will delete the entire row. Take a look at the previous example. What happens if you choose Entire row. Only two rows left. Because in rows 4 and 6 there were no blank cells at all. Let’s take a look at another example: There are three people again, but this time we have a table with the number of hours worked on workdays. On holidays nobody worked, so let’s get rid of these rows. Select cells from A2 to D8, choose blanks, and then delete Entire row. It’s important not to select the first row because cell A1 is empty and it will result in deleting the header. After this action, you are going to get a table without Saturday and Sunday.
This eruption cloud of gases and rock fragments was released by the Mount Augustine volcano in Alaska during an eruption in 1986. Water droplets and ice crystals in the atmosphere condensed on the infusion of dust particles and settled into pouch-like formations due to wind currents. When a volcano erupts, a vertical pillar of debris soars skyward and gets carried downwind, sometimes encircling the Earth within days. Such emissions can appear dangerously similar to normal weather clouds. In December 1989 a Boeing 747 carrying 231 passengers from Amsterdam to Anchorage nearly crashed after an ash-filled cloud from Mount Redoubt momentarily knocked out all four engines.
Ars Technic’s Sam Machkovech recently posted an article about solar power, and the energy it produces. He found that, on average, a typical American home has about half as much solar power as it does gas. The energy is cheap, but, according to Machkovese, this doesn’t mean it’s the right choice. He explains:The reason solar power is cheaper is because it is a renewable resource, but it’s not renewable because it’s powered by sunlight. There are also several other factors that come into play, which we’ll get to later. The good news is that we’re getting closer to zero-carbon energy. Solar power can produce electricity with much less CO2 emissions than nuclear power. As Machkowksi writes, solar power has the potential to supply more electricity than fossil fuels by 2030, when the Obama administration plans to cut carbon emissions. That means solar power could become the most economically viable way to generate electricity in the United States. But the big problem with solar power isn’t how much it produces per square foot, but how it delivers. A recent study from MIT’s Media Lab showed that if you look at all the electricity produced by all the fossil fuel plants, the one that comes out on top is coal. That’s because coal is cheaper, Machkovsky writes. But this is just one way to look at it. Solar is a very inefficient source of electricity. Its energy density is low, and solar power relies on capturing sunlight in order to produce electricity. As a result, it’s inefficient in other ways. For example, it requires an enormous amount of electricity to produce one watt of energy, and it doesn’t use up as much water as gas plants. Solar can also cause greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, to build up in the atmosphere. Machkovich also notes that wind power also produces less electricity than solar power. So it may not be as efficient as solar power on the whole, but its efficiency will drop as we reduce its emissions. Solar power isn´t cheap, either. The cost of installing a solar array is typically less than the cost of buying the electricity itself. But the real cost of solar power varies dramatically depending on the state of the grid. In the U.S., it’s generally cheaper to install solar panels in states where the sun is relatively bright, like California, Florida, and Arizona. But it’s more expensive to install them in states that are more cloudy, like Arizona, Nevada, and Texas. That is, it takes more energy to generate the same amount of power as in sunny states. Solar has the ability to be cheaper than nuclear plants, too. A 2011 study from Harvard University’s Center for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis estimated that solar panels will be cheaper to build and operate in the U, and in most cases will cost less to install than coal-fired plants. In other words, it will be possible to get the same price for solar power in the next decade as it was in the 20th century. The study estimated that by 2035, the cost to build solar power will be about $1,100 per megawatt hour, which means that it’s about a tenth of the price of coal. But if you consider how much of that electricity will be generated by solar power itself, it turns out that solar is more efficient than nuclear, at least when it comes to generating electricity. According to Machkovese, the amount of CO2 produced by solar plants depends on how cloudy the region is. For instance, solar panels with good visibility can be expected to produce less CO 2 than panels with less visibility, which are typically coal-burning power plants. This means that solar power can reduce greenhouse gases significantly, by a factor of more than two. Machkovets research also found that solar could reduce the carbon footprint of the U., but it depends on what you mean by “carbon footprint.” Solar panels produce a lot of energy and carbon dioxide emissions, but they also produce a significant amount of other valuable natural resources, like water. Solar panels are a great way to provide water to people who live in areas with low levels of water. So, while solar power does create a lot more energy than coal, it doesn´t create as much CO2 as coal. This is the reason why solar panels are usually rated at lower CO2 levels than nuclear reactors. In addition, the economics of solar have also changed over the years. Solar has become more efficient over the last 20 years, according, and is now a lot cheaper than wind power. That makes solar the best choice for people who want to get out of a carbon-intensive way of living. Solar doesn’t need to generate energy when it’s sunny or cloudy, because the sun’s rays reflect off the clouds. And solar power plants don’t need expensive solar panels because solar panels produce the same energy as gas turbines.
As I suggested in Grouping Topics for Easy Learning, one for the easiest things to learn is family. What’s great with vocabulary for family is that you can combine it with other topics to create sentences to make it easier to remember the words and grammar. You can now learn and practice family vocabulary using the J-Talk Online Family Memrise Course! The interesting thing about the word “family” かぞく is that it uses the kanji for “house” 家 (いえ on it’s own and か when combined with other kanji) and “tribe” 族 (ぞく), so your family is your “house tribe” 家族. Japanese family vocabulary for immediate family are divided by gender and age, and if they are your family or someone else’s family. The images below shows how this work: \|From Isinha101 from DeviantArt\| Other relatives are used for both yourself and other people’s families. きょうだい is used to describe “brothers” but it is also used generally for “siblings”. If you only had sisters you would say しまい. If you had a mix of brothers and sisters you would use きょうだい. You may have noticed watching anime or other Japanese shows, that Japanese people refer to their family members directly the same way they refer to other people’s family. i.e A child will call her mother おかあさん, instead of はは, or their brother おにいさん instead of あに. This is because they are either talking to directly to the person (ie their mother), or to a friend about their mother. If they were talking to someone they didn’t know or who was higher status about their mother the correct way would be to say わたしのはは. If you were talking to some Japanese people about your family you would use はは、ちち、あね、etc. If you were talking to some Japanese people about someone else’s family you would use おかあさん、おとうさん、おねえさん、etc. Counters – for People なんにんですか？何人ですか？- How many people (are there)? なんめいさま？何名様？ – How many people (are there)? -> This is a formal phrase used by waitresses/waiters in restaurants. So it’s a good one to learn so you can recognize when they ask you. (The correct sentence would be なんめいさまですか or なんめいさまでいらっしゃいますか, but people working in cafes/restaurants shorten so it’s easier to say.) \|By Learn Japanese Adventure\| 1 – ひとり一人 2 – ふたり二人 3 – さんにん三人 4 – よんにん四人 5 – ごにん五人 6 – ろくにん六人 7 – しちにん七人 8 – はちにん八人 9 – きゅうにん九人 10 – じゅうにん十人 The counter for people uses the kanji for ひと人 but with the counters it is pronounced/read as にん. Apart from people 1 and 2, every other counter for people is just number + にん. います – To be/have (for living creatures only! Not including plants.) In The Basics of Grammar I explained the simple sentence: A basic sentence in Japanese WITHOUT a verb will always end in です (spelt “desu” BUT pronounced “dess”). Some people say this is like the verb “to be” but I don’t think that makes much sense for beginners, so I would suggest thinking of it more as a full stop. In terms of family you can use these sentence pattern: Person はわたしの Family です。- Person is my family. - Scottはわたしのあにです。- Scott is my brother. I also explained in the post how の is used between two nouns to describe something as something’s thing. I.e “My book” わたしのほん or “the cat’s ball” ねこのボール. は is used to mark a topic in a sentence, but emphasizes what comes after. So in the above sentence “family” is emphasized. I.e “this is a cat” これはねこです, in this situation “this” isn’t an important word, the “cat” is. Where as if you were saying “I love cats” you would use がねこがすきです or “I have a cat” ねこがいます. Verbs in a sentence will replace the です at the end of the sentence. Using the verb mentioned above います we can describe that we have family members, or how many people are in a room. (わたしは) Person/Counter がいます。– I have a Person or There are Counter people. - あねがいます – I have an elder sister. - さんにんがいます – There are 3 people. (This implies that you are talking about other people in a particular place. If you were to go to a restaurant and they asked how many people, it would be more natural to just say さんにんです. This is similar to English when a waitress asks “how many?” you reply “three”, rather than answering with “there are 3 people” which is what さんにんがいます means.) How is your wife? おくさんはいかがでしょうか？ (This is very formal, and great for making a good impression, especially if you replace おくさん with ごかぞく (it’s important to add ご to かぞく when you’re using a formal sentence like this)) How many siblings do you have? きょうだいはなんにんがいますか？ I have 2 sisters. しまいのふたりがいます。 I love my dad. わたしのちちがだいすきです。 Why don’t you try it yourself? After learning all the vocabulary write down in Japanese sentences to describe your family, or find a picture of someone else’s family and describe them. If you don’t already know about Lang-8 I recommend making an account and practice writing sentences in Japanese on there. Native Japanese speakers will correct your Japanese in exchange for you correcting their English.
History, Facts and Information about Claudius The content of this article provides interesting history, facts and information about the Emperor Claudius and the all-powerful Caesars who ruled the empire of Ancient Rome. The word "Caesar" was originally the name of an aristocratic patrician family of ancient Rome, the most famous being the dictator Julius Caesar who seized power when Rome was still a republic. The adopted son of Julius Caesar was Augustus became the first Roman Emperor and all of the successors in the family used the name Caesar. The term became synonymous with the Roman Emperors and each succeeding emperor retained the name "Caesar" as part of their title. Refer to the comprehensive List of Roman Emperors for the names of the most famous Romans, their dynasties and the historic eras of all the Roman Emperors and usurpers. Read about the life of Claudius who can be described, or remembered, as: "The bumbling man who became Emperor against all odds and married the infamous Messalina" Short Biography about the life of Claudius Short Biography profile and facts about one of the most famous Romans of all, in the life of Claudius, Emperor of Rome and provinces of the Roman Empire. - Name commonly known as: Claudius - Latin Roman Name: Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (Britannicus AD 44) - Reigned as Roman Emperor / Caesar: January 24 41 AD –October 13, 54 AD - Dynasty / Historical Period: Julio–Claudian - Place and Date of Birth: August 1 10 BC in Lugdunum - Name of previous Emperor: His predecessor or the Emperor before Claudius was Caligula - Date succeeded as Emperor of Rome and circumstances of rule: 54 AD - Family connections / Genealogy of Claudius - Name of Father: Nero Claudius Drusus - Name of Mother: Antonia Minor - Claudius Married: - Plautia Urgulanilla, AD 9–24 - Aelia Paetina, AD 28–31 - Messalina, AD 38–48 - Agrippina the Younger, AD 49–54 - Children of Claudius: - Claudius Drusus (died in childhood) - Claudia Antonia - Claudia Octavia - Place and Date of Death: Claudius died October 13, 54 (age 63) and was buried in the Mausoleum of Augustus - Name of next Emperor: The successor to Claudius was Nero who was his stepson by 4th wife, Agrippina the Younger Why was Claudius famous? Accomplishments, achievements and important events: The Emperor Claudius was the son of Drusus and Antonia, and the brother of Germanicus. He was fifty-one years old when, after the murder of Caligula, the Praetorian Guard raised him to the throne. His health had always been delicate and he had never taken any part in public affairs. Claudius was fond of letters, and wrote memoirs of his own time and histories in Greek of Etruria and of Carthage. Claudius also made various useful laws, and carried out several public works of importance. He completed the Claudian aqueduct, begun by Caligula, and built a fort and light-house at Ostia, and a tunnel from Lake Lucinus to the River Liris. Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) was raised by his orders to the most important military station in Lower Germany. In A.D. 43 a Roman army invaded Britain. Claudius himself entered that country soon after, and returned to Rome in triumph. His first acts were popular and mild, but, having fallen under the control of his wife Messalina he put to death many of the best of the Romans. When, however, Messalina ventured to marry C. Silius, a young Roman knight, Claudius directed her execution. Claudius then married his niece Agrippina, who prevailed upon him to set aside his son Britannicus, and to adopt her own son Nero. Claudius became suspicious of the ambitions of his wife for Nero and she resolved to have Claudius killed. Locusta, a noted poisoner, was hired to prepare a dish of poisoned mushrooms, of which Claudius ate: but the poison not proving fatal, the physician Xenophon forced a larger quantity into his throat and Claudius died October 13, A.D. 54. The Julian-Claudian Dynasty - 27 BC to AD 68 The Julian-Claudian Dynasty spanned 27 BC to AD 68. This dynasty is known as the Julio-Claudians because its Emperors belonged to the patrician families called the Julii and the Claudii. Some of the most famous of all of the emperors belonged to this dynasty including Julius Caesar, the Dictator and the first Roman Emperor, Octavian (Augustus) Caesar who was followed by Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. The content of this Claudius category in the Emperors of Ancient Rome provides free educational details, facts and information for reference and research for schools, colleges and homework. Refer to the Colosseum Sitemap for a comprehensive search on interesting different categories containing the history, facts and information about the lives and people of Ancient Rome. Map of the Roman Empire c395AD illustrating the power of the Emperor
Ldot Vets - The American Revolution 1775-1783 The Battle of Princeton January 3, 1777 Gen. Howe responded to the fall of Trenton by sending 5,550 troops south from New York through Princeton toward Trenton. Gen. Cornwalis' troops arrived in Trenton late on the afternoon of the 2nd of January. Cornwalis found Gen. Washington's troops along the ridge of the Assunpink Creek, and decided to wait until the next day to attack. Overnight, Washington moved his troops out of Trenton and into Princeton to the north. There, his advance force met a British blocking force commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Mawhood. A desperate fight ensued in Princeton, in which the Americans almost lost. Washington's timely arrival on horseback, however, served to rally the Americans, and the Colonial army defeated Mawhood's troops, forcing them to retreat to Trenton. Both armies were spent, and Washington took his army into winter quarters in Morristown, while Cornwalis withdrew to New Brunswick. Comments? email: Shenandoah A guestbook is at the bottom of the Home Page
These U.S. Cities Are Best Prepared to Adapt to Climate Change Depending on where you live, climate change could lead to longer and hotter summers, heavier downpours, frequent flooding, and more intense wildfires. That has led scores of cities to develop strategies to adapt to climate change. A study just published in the journal Nature Climate Change found that such plans contained many good ideas for improving infrastructure, protecting ecosystems, and educating residents. But researchers concluded that many plans fall short on the details, such as how to prioritize the most urgent needs, estimating costs, securing funding to implement projects, and planning for uncertainties surrounding climate change. “The biggest weaknesses we saw were that they failed to include monitoring their progress in the plans, and they didn’t think of uncertainty with climate change projections,” said study coauthor Sierra Woodruff, an environmental planning researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Woodruff and her colleagues looked at 44 climate-adaptation plans developed by big cities like New York, small towns, and tribal governments. They found that many simply didn’t envision different climate change scenarios and how to manage them. Among the solid ideas the researchers found were plans for altering maintenance schedules for storm-water drains and cleaning them more frequently to minimize flooding during extreme downpours. Woodruff said coastal communities have also started thinking about flooding from sea-level rise and realizing that new development needs to be built “so it lasts and doesn’t do damage.” She pointed to three cities with unique strategies that made them stand out. “Baltimore has a wonderful plan that integrates natural hazard mitigation and climate change adaptation,” she said. The city identified multiple threats, such as heavy snowfall, ice storms, torrential rains, and storm surges, that it will face as climate change accelerates. “City officials recognize they can’t rely solely on the past to understand future risks,” Woodruff said, noting that Baltimore also spelled out details on how climate-adaptation strategies will be implemented. Denver monitors progress toward meeting its climate change goals; it has one-year, three-year, and five-year plans that set specific targets. Chula Vista, a Southern California city of 250,000 near the Mexican border, developed one of the earliest climate-adaptation plans. Woodruff said the city details who will implement climate-adaptation strategies, provides cost estimates, and produces timelines for measuring progress toward meeting goals, which include retrofitting buildings with white roofs that reduce urban temperatures and energy use. The study found that the better plans engaged elected officials and planners in the process from the start and set short-term as well as long-term goals. Woodruff said funding shouldn’t be an obstacle to climate-adaptation plans. “We can incorporate climate change considerations into our day-to-day operations as we upgrade infrastructure,” she said.
Fear. The common feeling associated with hearing the words “AIDS” or “HIV”. For people living with HIV or AIDS, the fear is of the incurable disease in their bodies. For others, the fear is associated with the person themselves. Unfortunately, there is a strong social stigma attached to those living with HIV or AIDS in our society. Shame, fear of rejection and guilt sometimes prevents these people from reaching out to others for support, both physically and emotionally. Many of us do not fully understand what HIV and AIDS are, and our fear stems from this lack of awareness and education. The theme for 2019’s World AIDS Day is “Communities Make the Difference”. This highlights the community’s importance in reaching, helping and supporting people living with HIV and AIDS. Today, we explore some common misconceptions about AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). Misconception About AIDS And HIV #1 Having HIV Means You Have AIDS Misconception About AIDS And HIV #2 You can get HIV by sharing food and drinks with a person living with HIV False! HIV is not transmitted through saliva. HIV cannot be transmitted by: - Hugging, touching or close-mouthed kissing - Sneezing or coughing - Insect or mosquito bites - Contact via objects such as shared food or toilet seats (HIV does not survive for long on surfaces outside the human body, and it cannot reproduce outside a human host) - Saliva, tears, or sweat that is not mixed with the blood of an HIV-positive person Misconception About AIDS And HIV #3 HIV is transmitted only through sexual intercourse False! It is most commonly transmitted through the act of unprotected sex with a person with HIV, but it can also be transmitted: - By sharing injection needles or piercing instruments (e.g. tattoo guns or acupuncture needles) with a person with HIV - By receiving infected blood or blood products (e.g. blood transfusion, organ transplant) - From a mother to her child during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding Misconception About AIDS And HIV #4 HIV can be cured with medications Misconception About AIDS And HIV #5 I have a strong immune system. My body can fight off HIV! False! Anyone can get HIV. The virus can be passed on to anyone via the mentioned transmission methods, even for healthy individuals. Misconception About AIDS And HIV #6 You can tell by looking at someone if they are living with HIV False! Some people don’t show signs of HIV for years after being infected. However, many can have some symptoms within 10 days to a few weeks after infection. Initially, a person living with HIV may present with normal flu like symptoms, including fever, swollen lymph nodes, a sore throat, rash, and muscle aches. Thereafter, symptoms usually disappear and might not show for several years, especially if they are on medications. A blood test is the only way to tell if a person has HIV. Action For Aids Singapore offers Anonymous Testing Services for those who need them. You can find more information here (https://afa.org.sg/whatwedo/support/ats/) Misconception About AIDS And HIV #7 Sex is safe if both parties have HIV False! Protection when having sex is still vital when both parties have HIV. Using a condom or other latex barrier protects from other sexually transmitted diseases as well as other strains of HIV, which may be resistant to anti-HIV medication. Furthermore, it is clear that co-infections with multiple HIV strains can and do occur, and such events may worsen a previously stable infection. A growing number of new infections are drug resistant upon first presentation, suggesting that these infections were transmitted from individuals receiving therapy. Misconception About AIDS And HIV #8 A HIV-positive mother will definitely have a baby who is also HIV-positive False! Mothers living with HIV can pass HIV to their babies during pregnancy or delivery. However, the risk is lowered significantly with the use of anti-HIV medications and other strategies. In the United States and Europe, these have helped to lower the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV to 1% or less. The risk of transmission is low when: - HIV is detected before pregnancy or as early as possible during pregnancy. - Women with HIV receive anti-HIV medicines during pregnancy and childbirth and, in certain situations, have a scheduled caesarean delivery (sometimes called a C-section). - Babies born to women with HIV receive anti-HIV medicines for 4 to 6 weeks after birth and are not breastfed. People living with HIV are as much a part of our society as we are. Our role as a community is to spread awareness instead of fear, show compassion instead of judgement, and replace isolation with acceptance. To learn more about Singapore initiatives that support people with HIV, you can check there is Action for Aids Singapore which also gives details about the Anonymous Testing Service available for HIV.
Speech or Language Impairment Speech or language impairment means an impairment of speech or sound production, voice, fluency or language that significantly affects educational performance or social, emotional or vocational development. Specific Language Impairment (SLI) has been actively studied for more than 40 years. Language acquisition is the primary area of concern as a child grows and develops. There are no obvious related causes such as hearing loss or low IQ. The condition appears in young children and is known to persist into adulthood. Although the causes are unknown, current research persist into focuses on possible inherited tendencies. Early identification and intervention are considered best practices, in order to minimize possible academic risk. There area top 10 things you should know about children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI): - Speech impediments are different from language disorders. - Specific Language Impairment has many names and it is surprisingly common. - SLI can be diagnosed precisely and accurately. - The nature of the disability limits a child's exposure to language. - Early intervention can begin during preschool. - A child with SLI does not have a low IQ or poor hearing. - Late talking may be a sign of disability. - An incomplete understanding of verbs is an indicator of SLI. - Reading and learning will be affected by SLI. - The condition may be genetic.
At Peninsula, the goal of our health program is to motivate our students by educating them on the benefits of making healthy decisions, rather than the fear or consequences of unhealthy decisions. Various activities we do to achieve our goal: - Discuss and practice stress management strategies - Review the signs/symptoms of depression and how to get help - Encourage, educate, and practice healthy diet and exercise - Discuss healthy decision making steps and strategies - Discuss how to create and maintain healthy relationships of all kinds - How to set goals and reflect on past mistakes and behaviors Nutrition Unit Example: Above, students are working on a lesson that branches off of the book “Eat This, Not That.” Here they review actual foods (as seen on desks) from restaurants in our area that they would typically eat at. Most of these restaurants are ones that are fast, cheap, and realistic. After working in groups to determine which of the two food choices on their desk is healthier, we discuss the nutrition facts to come up with the right answer. One goal from this lesson would be for students to understand why choosing the grilled chicken sandwich over the breaded chicken salad is a better health choice. Further, when they are in a situation where the only dinner option is fast food, they can make a healthy, more educated decision.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have opined that bacteria in the gut of the Anopheles mosquito could contain malaria from spreading. They said that the bacteria could prevent the Anopheles gambiae mosquito from getting infected with Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans. The researchers showed that removing these bacteria, or microbial flora, with the help of antibiotics could make the mosquitoes more susceptible to Plasmodium infection because of a lack of immune stimulation. Usually, a mosquito acquires the malaria-causing parasite as part of the malaria transmission cycle after feeding on blood from an infected person. The parasite then develops within the mosquito, and can later be transmitted to another human when the mosquito feeds again. "Our study suggests that the microbial flora of mosquitoes is stimulating immune activity that protects the mosquito from Plasmodium infection. The same immune factors that are needed to control the mosquito's infection from the microbes are also defending against the malaria parasite Plasmodium," said Dr. George Dimopoulos, senior author of the study. He added: "The interplay between bacteria and the mosquito's immune system may have significant implications for the transmission of malaria in the field where mosquitoes may be exposed to different types of bacteria in different regions. Theoretically, these bacteria could be introduced to the mosquitoes to boost their immunity to the malaria parasite and make them resistant and incapable of spreading the disease. Our current research aims at identifying those bacteria that trigger the strongest mosquito immune defense against the malaria parasite." For the study, the researchers treated mosquitoes with antibiotics to kill the gut bacteria. They noted that treated mosquitoes were more susceptible to infection by Plasmodium when feeding on infected blood as compared to mosquitoes that were not treated with antibiotics. For further verification, bacteria-free mosquitoes were infected with bacteria to determine if they were less susceptible to Plasmodium infection. Also, the researchers determined that mosquitoes infected with bacteria died earlier than mosquitoes without bacteria when infected with Plasmodium, even with Plasmodium levels five times higher than those with bacteria. "The malaria parasite must live in the mosquito for about two weeks in order to complete its life cycle and be transmitted to a person. The fact that these bacteria shorten the mosquito's life span is additional good news," said Dimopoulos. The study has been published in the journal PLoS Pathogens.
Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by Rufus from Hollywood, CA. Rufus Wonders, “How are frogs and toads different?” Thanks for WONDERing with us, Rufus! There are hundreds of individual species of frogs and toads within the Anura order. However, the many species within the Anura order can appear quite different, leading people to believe that toads and frogs aren't the same. The popular distinction drawn between frogs and toads is probably best viewed as a distinction between true "frogs" (members of the Ranidae family) and true "toads" (members of the Bufonidae family). The Ranidae family contains more than 400 species of frogs, while the Bufonidae family contains more than 300 species of toads. Frogs can look and act quite differently from toads. Here are some of the differences you may notice: - Need to live near water to survive. - Have smooth, moist skin that may look or seem slimy. - Have a narrow body with round eyes that bulge. - Have long hind legs that help them take long, high jumps. - Have many predators. - Don't need to live near water to survive. - Have rough, dry, bumpy skin. - Have a wide body with oval eyes that don't bulge as much as frogs' eyes. - Have short hind legs that allow them to take small hops rather than jumps. - Don't have many predators because their skin has a bitter taste and smell that deters predators. Before you become too confident in your ability to distinguish frogs from toads, though, remember that these differences don't hold true across all species. Near the equator, frogs and toads can look quite similar. Sometimes, the only way to tell them apart is to look inside them at things like their teeth and bones. Good luck catching them, though! If you do happen to catch a frog or a toad to get a closer look, don't worry about getting warts on your hands. Neither frogs nor toads will give you warts. That's just a myth that probably came about because of the bumpy skin common to many toads. A toad's bumps aren't really warts. They're a special adaptation that helps it blend into its environment.
Chapter 16 Oscillatory Motion and Waves - Observe resonance of a paddle ball on a string. - Observe amplitude of a damped harmonic oscillator. Sit in front of a piano sometime and sing a loud brief note at it with the dampers off its strings. It will sing the same note back at you—the strings, having the same frequencies as your voice, are resonating in response to the forces from the sound waves that you sent to them. Your voice and a piano’s strings is a good example of the fact that objects—in this case, piano strings—can be forced to oscillate but oscillate best at their natural frequency. In this section, we shall briefly explore applying a periodic driving force acting on a simple harmonic oscillator. The driving force puts energy into the system at a certain frequency, not necessarily the same as the natural frequency of the system. The natural frequency is the frequency at which a system would oscillate if there were no driving and no damping force. Most of us have played with toys involving an object supported on an elastic band, something like the paddle ball suspended from a finger in Figure 2. Imagine the finger in the figure is your finger. At first you hold your finger steady, and the ball bounces up and down with a small amount of damping. If you move your finger up and down slowly, the ball will follow along without bouncing much on its own. As you increase the frequency at which you move your finger up and down, the ball will respond by oscillating with increasing amplitude. When you drive the ball at its natural frequency, the ball’s oscillations increase in amplitude with each oscillation for as long as you drive it. The phenomenon of driving a system with a frequency equal to its natural frequency is called resonance. A system being driven at its natural frequency is said to resonate. As the driving frequency gets progressively higher than the resonant or natural frequency, the amplitude of the oscillations becomes smaller, until the oscillations nearly disappear and your finger simply moves up and down with little effect on the ball. Figure 3 shows a graph of the amplitude of a damped harmonic oscillator as a function of the frequency of the periodic force driving it. There are three curves on the graph, each representing a different amount of damping. All three curves peak at the point where the frequency of the driving force equals the natural frequency of the harmonic oscillator. The highest peak, or greatest response, is for the least amount of damping, because less energy is removed by the damping force. It is interesting that the widths of the resonance curves shown in Figure 3 depend on damping: the less the damping, the narrower the resonance. The message is that if you want a driven oscillator to resonate at a very specific frequency, you need as little damping as possible. Little damping is the case for piano strings and many other musical instruments. Conversely, if you want small-amplitude oscillations, such as in a car’s suspension system, then you want heavy damping. Heavy damping reduces the amplitude, but the tradeoff is that the system responds at more frequencies. These features of driven harmonic oscillators apply to a huge variety of systems. When you tune a radio, for example, you are adjusting its resonant frequency so that it only oscillates to the desired station’s broadcast (driving) frequency. The more selective the radio is in discriminating between stations, the smaller its damping. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a widely used medical diagnostic tool in which atomic nuclei (mostly hydrogen nuclei) are made to resonate by incoming radio waves (on the order of 100 MHz). A child on a swing is driven by a parent at the swing’s natural frequency to achieve maximum amplitude. In all of these cases, the efficiency of energy transfer from the driving force into the oscillator is best at resonance. Speed bumps and gravel roads prove that even a car’s suspension system is not immune to resonance. In spite of finely engineered shock absorbers, which ordinarily convert mechanical energy to thermal energy almost as fast as it comes in, speed bumps still cause a large-amplitude oscillation. On gravel roads that are corrugated, you may have noticed that if you travel at the “wrong” speed, the bumps are very noticeable whereas at other speeds you may hardly feel the bumps at all. Figure 4 shows a photograph of a famous example (the Tacoma Narrows Bridge) of the destructive effects of a driven harmonic oscillation. The Millennium Bridge in London was closed for a short period of time for the same reason while inspections were carried out. In our bodies, the chest cavity is a clear example of a system at resonance. The diaphragm and chest wall drive the oscillations of the chest cavity which result in the lungs inflating and deflating. The system is critically damped and the muscular diaphragm oscillates at the resonant value for the system, making it highly efficient. Check Your Understanding 1: A famous magic trick involves a performer singing a note toward a crystal glass until the glass shatters. Explain why the trick works in terms of resonance and natural frequency. - A system’s natural frequency is the frequency at which the system will oscillate if not affected by driving or damping forces. - A periodic force driving a harmonic oscillator at its natural frequency produces resonance. The system is said to resonate. - The less damping a system has, the higher the amplitude of the forced oscillations near resonance. The more damping a system has, the broader response it has to varying driving frequencies. 1: Why are soldiers in general ordered to “route step” (walk out of step) across a bridge? Problems & Exercises 1: How much energy must the shock absorbers of a 1200-kg car dissipate in order to damp a bounce that initially has a velocity of 0.800 m/s at the equilibrium position? Assume the car returns to its original vertical position. 2: If a car has a suspension system with a force constant of how much energy must the car’s shocks remove to dampen an oscillation starting with a maximum displacement of 0.0750 m? 3: (a) How much will a spring that has a force constant of 40.0 N/m be stretched by an object with a mass of 0.500 kg when hung motionless from the spring? (b) Calculate the decrease in gravitational potential energy of the 0.500-kg object when it descends this distance. (c) Part of this gravitational energy goes into the spring. Calculate the energy stored in the spring by this stretch, and compare it with the gravitational potential energy. Explain where the rest of the energy might go. 4: Suppose you have a 0.750-kg object on a horizontal surface connected to a spring that has a force constant of 150 N/m. There is simple friction between the object and surface with a static coefficient of friction (a) How far can the spring be stretched without moving the mass? (b) If the object is set into oscillation with an amplitude twice the distance found in part (a), and the kinetic coefficient of friction is what total distance does it travel before stopping? Assume it starts at the maximum amplitude. 5: Engineering Application: A suspension bridge oscillates with an effective force constant of (a) How much energy is needed to make it oscillate with an amplitude of 0.100 m? (b) If soldiers march across the bridge with a cadence equal to the bridge’s natural frequency and impart of energy each second, how long does it take for the bridge’s oscillations to go from 0.100 m to 0.500 m amplitude? - natural frequency - the frequency at which a system would oscillate if there were no driving and no damping forces - the phenomenon of driving a system with a frequency equal to the system’s natural frequency - a system being driven at its natural frequency Check Your Understanding 1: The performer must be singing a note that corresponds to the natural frequency of the glass. As the sound wave is directed at the glass, the glass responds by resonating at the same frequency as the sound wave. With enough energy introduced into the system, the glass begins to vibrate and eventually shatters. Problems & Exercises (a). 0.123 m (b). −0.600 J (c). 0.300 J. The rest of the energy may go into heat caused by friction and other damping forces.
Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the “Father of American Anthropology”. Studying in Germany, Boas was awarded a doctorate in 1881 in physics while also studying geography. He then participated in a geographical expedition to northern Canada where he became fascinated with the culture and language of the Baffin Island Inuit. He went on to do field work with the indigenous cultures and languages of the Pacific Northwest. In 1887 he emigrated to the United States where he first worked as a museum curator at the Smithsonian, and in 1899 became professor of anthropology at Columbia University where he remained for the rest of his career. Through his students, many of whom went on to found anthropology departments and research programmes inspired by their mentor, Boas profoundly influenced the development of American anthropology. Among his most significant students were A. L. Kroeber, Ruth Benedict, Edward Sapir, Margaret Mead, and Zora Neale Hurston. Boas was one of the most prominent opponents of the then popular ideologies of scientific racism, the idea that race is a biological concept and that human behavior is best understood through the typology of biological characteristics. In a series of groundbreaking studies of skeletal anatomy he showed that cranial shape and size was highly malleable depending on environmental factors such as health and nutrition, in contrast to the claims by racial anthropologists of the day that held head shape to be a stable racial trait. Boas also worked to demonstrate that differences in human behavior are not primarily determined by innate biological dispositions, but are largely the result of cultural differences acquired through social learning. In this way, Boas introduced culture as the primary concept for describing differences in behavior between human groups, and as the central analytical concept of anthropology. Among Boas’s main contributions to anthropological thought was his rejection of the then popular evolutionary approaches to the study of culture, which saw all societies progressing through a set of hierarchic technological and cultural stages, with Western-European culture at the summit. Boas argued that culture developed historically through the interactions of groups of people and the diffusion of ideas, and that consequently there was no process towards continuously “higher” cultural forms. This insight led Boas to reject the “stage”-based organization of ethnological museums, instead preferring to order items on display based on the affinity and proximity of the cultural groups in question. Boas also introduced the ideology of cultural relativism which holds that cultures cannot be objectively ranked as higher or lower, or better or more correct, but that all humans see the world through the lens of their own culture, and judge it according to their own culturally acquired norms. For Boas the object of anthropology was to understand the way in which culture conditioned people to understand and interact with the world in different ways, and to do this it was necessary to gain an understanding of the language and cultural practices of the people studied. By uniting the disciplines of archaeology, the study of material culture and history, and physical anthropology, the study of variation in human anatomy, with ethnology, the study of cultural variation of customs, and descriptive linguistics, the study of unwritten indigenous languages, Boas created the four field subdivision of anthropology which became prominent in American anthropology in the 20th century.
A Blueprint to Regenerate Limbs Probing the salamander genome reveals clues to its remarkable ability to regrow damaged limbs and organs. In its own way, the axolotl salamander is a mighty beast. Chop off its leg, and the gilled creature will grow a new one. Freeze part of its heart, and the organ will form anew. Carve out half of its brain, and six months later, another half will have sprouted in its place. “You can do anything to it except kill it, and it will regenerate,” says Gerald Pao, a postdoctoral researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in La Jolla, CA. That extraordinary power of regeneration inspired Pao and his collaborator Wei Zhu, also at the Salk Institute, to probe the axolotl salamander’s DNA. Despite decades of research on the salamander, little is known about its genome. That began to change last year, when Pao and his collaborators won one billion bases’ worth of free sequencing from Roche Applied Science, based in Penzberg, Germany. Now that the data is in, scientists can finally begin the hunt for the genetic program that endows the animal with its unique capabilities. While all animals can regenerate tissue to a certain extent–we can grow muscle, bone, and nerves, for example–salamanders and newts are the only vertebrates that can grow entire organs and replacement limbs as adults. When a leg is lost to injury, cells near the wound begin to dedifferentiate, losing the specialized characteristics that made them a muscle cell or bone cell. These cells then replicate and form a limb bud, or blastema, which goes on to grow a limb the same way that it forms during normal development. Scientists have identified some of the molecular signals that play a key role in the process, but the genetic blueprint that underlies regeneration remains unknown. Researchers hope that by uncovering these molecular tricks, they can ultimately apply them to humans to regrow damaged heart or brain tissue, and maybe even grow new limbs. In order to quickly identify sections of the salamander’s genome involved in regeneration, the scientists sequenced genes that were most highly expressed during limb-bud formation and growth. They found that at least 10,000 genes were transcribed during regeneration. Approximately 9,000 of those seem to have related human versions, but there appear to be a few thousand more that don’t resemble known genes. “We think many of them are genes that evolved uniquely in salamanders to help with this process,” says Randal Voss, a biologist at the University of Kentucky, who is working on the project. The researchers now plan to make a gene chip designed to detect levels of some of these candidate genes, so that the scientists can determine at exactly what point during the regeneration process the genes are turned on. The team is also developing molecular tools that allow them to silence specific genes, which will enable them to pinpoint those that are crucial for proper regrowth. Scientists also sequenced random chunks of the salamander genome. At about 30 billion bases and 10 times the size of the human genome, it is one of the largest among vertebrates. Most scientists expected that the extra DNA would be made up of junk DNA, long stretches of bases between genes. But initial findings were surprising. “Genes are on average 5 to 10 times larger than those in other vertebrates,” says Voss. “The region of the genome containing genes is estimated to be more than two gigabases, which is as big as some entire genomes.” The extra DNA sequences sit within genes and are cut out during the translation from gene to protein. Much of this DNA comprises repetitive sequences not found in any other organisms to date, says Pao. However, it’s not yet clear whether these repetitive stretches help facilitate regeneration or play some other role in the salamander’s life cycle. One of the key questions yet to be answered is whether the salamander has unique genetic properties that enable regeneration, or whether all animals have that innate capability. “If we come up with some totally unique gene only present in axolotl, that would make it really hard to replicate,” says David Gardiner, a biologist at the University of California, Irvine, who is also collaborating on the project. He prefers to think that regeneration comes from a fundamental abilitylying dormant in mammals, which could be reawakened with some simple genetic prodding.”Most of the tissue in our arm regenerates; it’s just the arm that doesn’t regenerate,” he says. “What’s missing is how you coordinate a response to get an integrated structure.” Become an MIT Technology Review Insider for in-depth analysis and unparalleled perspective.Subscribe today
New Caledonia in the two World Wars As was the case for all of France and the French Empire, New Caledonia, one of France's principal possessions in the Pacific, played a role that remains mostly unknown in France today but was nonetheless important, or even crucial, at certain points during the World Wars, especially in the Pacific operations during World War II. I - New Caledonia and the Great War Noumea, departure for La Grange, 4 June 1916 © Noumea City Museum From the point of view of the contingents involved, according to the official French statistics, one thousand fighters came from Oceania. Moreover, for the needs of the war, the Kanak people were called upon, notably with the help of a Protestant pastor (the Protestant religion was imported by British explorers and colonists in the 19th century and is very important), Maurice Leenhardt, who took on the role of a mediator and spokesman for ”mobilising” the Kanak populations. The argument developed was quite traditional. The Kanaks' participation in the fight earned them France's recognition, ensuring them good land and the means to cultivate it. Maurice Leenhardt in 1902. Source: DR Thus, the first convoy of 700 Melanesian soldiers left Noumea on 23 April 1915 on the Sontay, after several weeks of training for the recruits. The Sontay embarks troops at Noumea, 23 April 1915. Source: P. Ramona Collection According to the archives of the Amicale des Anciens Combattants de Nouvelle-Calédonie (New Caledonia Veterans Association), out of 1,134 Melanesian volunteers who went to France between 1914 and 1918 (or approximately 18% of the men of fighting age), 374 were killed on the front, notably in the Aisne in July-August 1918, and 167 were wounded. Furthermore, of the 2,290 men of the Bataillon du Pacifique (which, of course, included recruits from all French possessions), 332 were decorated on the front. Kanak Tirailleurs, undated. © Noumea City Museum II - New Caledonia and World War II Thus, the Governor of New Caledonia, Mr Pélicier, decided on 20 June 1940, to ”continue the fight alongside the English”. A few days later, as the Governor started to hesitate, the Privy Council, a consultative body comprising four civilians and two civil servants, and the General Council, a deliberative assembly with four elected members, maintained the position that the fight should go on. It should be pointed out that this position was not unique, as many personalities around the Empire expressed the same desire despite the armistice. Michel Verges. Source: Museum of the Order of the Liberation While Governor Pélicier was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Denis and part of the African colonies joined Free France from the Pacific Establishments in the night of 18 to 19 September 1940, hundreds of residents of the bush ”descended” upon Noumea to demand that they rally General de Gaulle, while on 19 September, Governor Henri Sautot arrived in New Caledonia from the New Hebrides as General de Gaulle's representative. At the end of the day, the new Governor announced to the population that they had rallied de Gaulle. Governor Henri Sautot. Source: Museum of the Order of the Liberation On 3 May 1941, during a ceremony at the war memorial in Noumea, the Bataillon du Pacifique was created, its flag being handed over to Captain Félix Broche. As of April 1941, 605 volunteers, 287 of them Caledonians, signed up to form the battalion which also included recruits from Tahiti and the New Hebrides. Capitan Félix Broche. Source: Museum of the Order of the Liberation Arrival of the Free French Forces on the English lines. Source: Imperial War Museum. DR. San Giorgio Cemetery: before leaving Italy. The BIMP salutes the flag along with the delegations from all the Companies forming a Section, to those who would never return to France. Source: Amicale de la 1re Division Française Libre. Polvet Collection. April 1945, BIPM parade in Nice. Source: Museum of the Order of the Liberation Flag. Source: Amicale de la 1re Division Française Libre. From 1942 to 1945, New Caledonia was also an essential support base and a key location for the American and Allied troops during the Pacific War, notably contributing to strategic deployment and logistics support during the re-conquest carried out by the American forces against Japan. Indeed, on 12 March 1942, an American Expeditionary Force landed in Noumea under the orders of General Pach. Despite the difficult relations with the new governor, Admiral Thierry d'Argenlieu, the American, Australian and New Zealander allies were to make full use of New Caledonia as a highly effective ”aircraft carrier” against the Japanese, notably during the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu (right), governor of New Caledonia in the name of Free France, with Brigadier General Alexander Patch, commander of the American Poppy Force, in Noumea. Source: U.S. Federal Government
Elusive key molecular signal for planarian stem cell regeneration identified. Like a magician, the freshwater flatworm known as planaria can survive decapitation or even being cut into many pieces. Its ability to fully regenerate from tiny remnants of tissue is due to a special population of adult stem cells known as neoblasts. Scientists have spent decades studying the mechanisms that drive this remarkable feat, with the hopes that any secrets they uncover might lead to new perspectives in human biology and new ways to treat disease. Now, a study from researchers at the Stowers Institute identifies a key molecule that directs stem cells in the planarian flatworm to make copies of themselves. The team state that their findings have important implications for advancing regenerative medicine and for developing more effective cancer therapies. The opensource study is published in the journal Developmental Cell. Previous studies show that planarians are world-renowned for their regenerative properties. Split one down the middle, and two identical organisms will appear in its place. Cut a fragment 1/279th the size of the original animal and it will regenerate a complete animal. This ability originates in a special group of adult stem cells called neoblasts that are spread throughout the bodies of these freshwater worms. Several years ago, researchers tested the limits of these resilient creatures by subjecting them to near-lethal doses of radiation. They found that even if just a single neoblast remained, it was enough to replenish the entire population of planarian stem cells. The current study identifies a molecule, known as EGFR-3, which is part of a cascade of signals that seem to control the way these cells divide and differentiate in response to near-lethal levels of radiation. The current study utilised an advanced molecular technique called RNA interference to silence different genes in the suspected signaling pathways. The planaria were then given a dose of radiation that would kill most, but not all, of their resident neoblasts. Results show that the egfr-3 gene is required for neoblast repopulation. The lab explain that this gene codes for a protein that sits on the surface of cells and binds another protein, called epidermal growth factor, known to stimulate growth, proliferation, and differentiation in other cell types. The group state that they confirmed their findings by using a fluorescent staining to illuminate the EGFR-3 protein on the neoblasts; data findings show that the proteins sat on the top of the cell and were clumped together on one side. They go on to add that the uneven distribution of EGFR-3 suggested that the protein might be involved in a phenomenon known as asymmetric cell division, where the mother cell divides into two daughter cells that have different fates, one might be a neoblast, another a muscle cell or photoreceptor cell. The team surmise that their study shows stem cell repopulation can be achieved from even a single pluripotent stem cell in planarian flatworms. They go on to add that even though asymmetric cell division has long been proposed to exist in planarians, their study provides the first direct molecular evidence of its existence. For the future, the researchers believe that this particular pathway might be providing a type of quality control to ensure that mistakes made to the genome either through irradiation or other forms of damage are not propagated. They conclude that the theory would be that only the cells with the best DNA get to stick around and serve as the template for future generations, something they need to test next.
What is NaN? NaN is a data type which says "Not a Number". An operation between invalid operands result in this type of data. Like an operation of addition between a string and a number. Why is Java called "write once run anywhere"? Let us first assume every machine of various OS has their appropriate JVM's (Java Virtual Machine) installed. We write a java code on our machine, then compile it. After compilation we get a bytecode file. This bytecode is interpreted by JVM and give us the output. So we can take this bytecode, put into another machine and its runs and gives us the output. Hence no need of recompiling and running. Hence we say, write once and run anywhere(provided appropriate JVMs are installed in them). what is a dangling pointer? First of all a pointer is a variable which holds the address of a memory location which might hold some object. Using the pointer we can access the desired content(or object) at the specified location. If we delete the content the memory gets freed. But still the pointer contains the address which is invalid. Such pointers after deleting the content in the memory they are pointing at are called dangling pointers.
The capture and storage of CO2, also known as CCS, from our waste is essential because this refuse is responsible for a large proportion or our cities’ greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the technology represents a relatively inexpensive abatement cost. Humankind will need to harness carbon capture and storage technologies to help keep global warming to 2 degrees C or less. New research shows that there’s plenty of room to store captured CO2 — in offshore geologic rock formations. When scientists carry out experiments to investigate safe and efficient CO2 transport on the roof of the thermal power engineering laboratories at Trondheim, Norway, the noise they make will sound like a jet engine. Why is there so much talk about storing CO2 underground? Doesn’t it cost more than it’s worth? Here we provide the research scientists’ answers and explanations of why CCS is climate technology that we are completely dependent on. And yes, this can be performed in a safe manner. The world will not be able to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement without technology capable of capturing, transporting and storing CO2. Have you ever wondered what climate scientists are really saying, but find it a little embarrassing to ask anyone about the language? Here is a glossary that explains commonly used technical terms. Beginning on 30 November, the nations of the world will gather in Paris to discuss a new global agreement on climate change. But what will it take to transform international political will into real action to curb global warming? Capturing and storing carbon dioxide is one of the most important things we can do to prevent the most damaging effects of global warming. Norway’s first full-scale facility for CO2 capture may be built at Norcem’s cement factory in Brevik. Four technologies are being tested. Norway has a particular vested interest and responsibility to develop CO2 capture and storage (CCS), believes Nils A. Røkke. Without CCS, the world will be unable to achieve the aim of limiting the global temperature increase to two degrees, says SINTEF’s Director of Climate Technology Research. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is essential if the EU’s climate target is to be reached in a cost effective way. Extensive governmental support in the form of subsidies is necessary to support early implementation of this technology.
The Crimean War In Britain, the Crimean War is principally remembered for three reasons: the Charge of the Light Brigade, maladministration in the British army, and Florence Nightingale. However, this war, fought by an alliance of Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia against Russia, is far more complex. Many wars have been fought on the grounds of the strategic importance of a region; many wars have been fought over religious differences. The Crimean War was the result of both factors. The causes of war During the years leading up to the Crimean War, France, Russia and Britain were all competing for influence in the Middle East, particularly with Turkey. Religious differences were certainly a catalyst in the Crimean War. Control of access to religious sites in the Holy Land had been a cause of tension between Catholic France and Orthodox Russia for a number of years and in 1853, the conflict came to a head with rioting in Bethlehem, which was then part of the Ottoman empire ruled by Turkey. A number of Orthodox monks were killed during fighting with French monks. Tsar Nicholas I blamed the Turks for these deaths. 'The sick man of Europe' Tsar Nicholas I demanded that the dispute be resolved in favour of the Orthodox Church and sent his representative Menshikov to Constantinople (now Istanbul) with demands on the Porte (the Turkish court). These demands were not met however and Nicholas took the opportunity to mobilise the Russian army against Turkey, which at this point was beginning to lose its grip on its empire. Nicholas referred to Turkey and its weakening empire as the 'sick man of Europe' and historians have argued that he had ambitions of his own in the eastern Mediterranean. The British and French, for their part, were concerned about Russian expansion in the region and the potential threat to their trade routes. Russia attacks Turkey Initial Russian operations against the Ottoman empire were conducted in Romania with the Russian army crossing the River Pruth into Moldavia on 2 July 1853. In response Turkey declared war on Russia on 5 October. On 4 November, the Russians destroyed the Turkish fleet at Sinope, on Turkey's Black Sea coast, sinking seven frigates and other shipping. The British and French responded quickly. In March 1854, they declared war on Russia expecting, with their naval supremacy, a quick victory. The allied forces were mustered at Varna in Bulgaria and they prepared for an all-out assault on Russian forces in the Crimea to seize the naval base at Sevastopol.
The four cases in German grammar are nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), dative (indirect object) and genitive (possessive). Because the word order of sentences is not fixed in German grammar, we need the cases to tell us what role a noun or pronoun is playing in a sentence. Articles, nouns, adjectives and pronouns all have to be declined or inflected to reflect a case. In the following pages, learn when and how to use each case and what to pay attention to when declining words. Just click on one of the links below for an in-depth explanation and exercises that let you practise what you have learnt.
Deforestation around Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro may have as large of an impact on the mountain's local weather and climate as global climate change, according to researchers from the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Udaysankar Nair, a research scientist at the university's Earth Sciences Center, and doctoral student Jonathan Fairman are using climate models and data from NASA satellites to create a local model that can predict the effects of deforestation on local weather patterns, including rainfall and snow cover. In early work published last month in the Journal of Geophysical Research, the team studied the impact of deforestation for the month of July. They found that deforestation changed weather at the base of the mountain, but not at its peak. Deforestation in July affected airflow — instead of flowing around the mountain, most of the air flowed over the top, which in turn, affected rainfall. "When you deforest, you increase rainfall at elevations of 1,000 to 4,000 meters, but at the expense of a reduction of rainfall at lower elevations," Nair told OurAmazingPlanet. Because they studied the mountain in the month of July — the dry season — it's unclear how deforestation would affect the peak of the mountain, where gradually disappearing glaciers reside, because there is no rain or snow at that time. So the researchers are now extending their study to look at the impacts of deforestation for the entire year, including the rainy seasons. Nair and Fairman previously studied the impact of deforestation in the mountains around Monteverde, Costa Rica, which host exotic ecosystems known as cloud forests. The region has experienced significant ecological changes, including less rainfall, the reduction of cloud cover and the subsequent disappearance of several species of amphibians and birds. While global climate change is certainly playing a role in those impacts, Nair and Fairman found that deforestation of the lowlands around the mountains is exacerbating that effect. They found that deforestation had the same effect as climate change — causing clouds to move up the slope of the mountain, increasing temperature and decreasing rainfall. "What we're finding more and more is that [deforestation impacts] can be very location-specific," Fairman said. Understanding how local changes are affecting climate could be important for mitigating the overall impact of climate change, Nair said. "Large-scale changes are hard to control because they involve the whole globe, but local changes are easier to control. If we find that deforestation adds to the changes, that's one thing that could be controlled regionally," he said. "And sometimes, the regional effects can be as strong, or even stronger than, the global effects." - 8 of the World's Most Endangered Places - Infographic: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench - Earth Checkup: 10 Health Status Signs This article was provided by OurAmazingPlanet, a sister site to LiveScience.
\|About UNEP\|\|UNEP Offices\|\|News Centre\|\|Publications\|\|Events\|\|Awards\|\|Milestones\|\|UNEP Store\| \|Table of contents Preface Annex 1 African economies during pre-colonial times were able to avoid any large-scale environmental degradation, partly because the population was small and partly because the demands on the economy were small (UNEP 2002a). More importantly, the technology was appropriate and adequate, as the people learnt over centuries to adapt systems of extraction of natural resources to be commensurate with the dictates of the environment. In contrast, modern economic practices have introduced increased demands on human and natural resources and the available technology has proved inadequate. Africa needs to improve and diversify the range of technological options available if the demands of change are to be met (UN Millennium Project 2005a, UN Millennium Project 2005b). New technologies often come with new costs, including high demands for fuel and increased pollution, and new risks, such as uncertainty about the environmental and human health impacts of genetically modified (GM) crops and chemicals. Chapter 1: The Human Dimension considers the developments in the pharmaceutical sector, and the potential economic opportunities investment in genetic resource R&D can bring for Africa, particularly in rural communities. Section 3: Emerging Challenges considers the challenges and opportunities associated with GM crops (Chapter 9) and chemicals (Chapter 11). In the 20th century, Africa’s role in the development of science and technology remained small. Historical factors contributed to this. Colonization inhibited the development of indigenous technology and destabilized some of the existing processes of technical growth. Indigenous manufacturing capability was deliberately undermined to facilitate European exports for which captive markets were created. Further, Africa has not only been a user of technologies developed in the west, but has also served as a dumping ground for obsolete technologies abandoned in the west. Africa remains on the technological fringes, and in the absence of large-scale investment in this area this is not likely to change. Africa in general has a high dependence on imported technology. As the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) noted, addressing this is critical if development targets are to be met. Stimulating R&D in this sector requires not only an improved economic environment but also better infrastructure and efficient communications systems. Africa needs to increase investment in this area, and focus on the development of appropriate technologies (ECA 2005). The growth of ICT has been an important driver of economic growth and the diversification of opportunity in the economies of Southeast Asia. Chapter 1: The Human Dimension describes the current state of ICT and considers the opportunities this sector can bring for development. The Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) technology offers significant opportunities. The introduction of GSM in many African countries and the deregulation of the telecommunications sector have energized private companies to embark on aggressive telecommunications development programmes across the region. This trend is expected to become a major catalyst for development through improvements in information access. Modern ICT will assist the emergence of micro-power technologies to revolutionize energy sources. While many African countries continue to see modern information technology and industrialization as principal agents for economic development, some countries will recognize the importance of sequencing in harnessing technology and integrate these into the process of development including environmental management. With the introduction of cleaner fuels, swift transition to renewable resources and greater concern for the environment, the impact of industrialization and technological advancement on the environment is reduced to the barest minimum.
Fracking, or Hydraulic Fracturing, is a method of extracting hard-to-get oil and gas from shale. For the most part, fossil fuels originally formed in shale, which was in turn laid down by near surface life in anoxic seas. Sunlight powered a high turnover of near surface plankton, algae, and bacteria, but oxygen-poor conditions just a little deeper in the sea made it unlikely for much of that life to be recycled through other life forms. So, during periods of anoxic seas, which lasted for millions of years now and then in earth history, much of that organic material from near the surface of the ocean settled into the sea floor mud where it became buried and incorporated into the growing layers of sediment. This was eventually transformed into oil and gas rich shale. (For a detailed overview of that aspect of earth history, see this fascinating book.) Eventually, some of that oil and gas collected in deposits that could be easily removed through drilling. Once this oil and gas is removed, however, the remaining hydrocarbon fuels are much more thinly distributed in the shale. In order to access this fuel, modern day miners pump water mixed with sand and chemicals at high pressure into the shale, which causes it to fracture, allowing the gas and oil to accumulate and become more easily removed. It is a little like squeezing a few drops of the water out of a mostly dry sponge. So, we have an important question to address: How much water is used in fracking, and does fracking pose a threat to the availability of clean and accessible water? There is an awful lot of water on the Earth. But everyone knows from their earth or environmental science class in high school that what matters is not the total amount of water, but the water’s distribution. Most of the liquid water (not in glaciers, air-born vapor, or incorporated with other molecules in rock or living things) is sea water, which is both too salty to use for most purposes and inconveniently located far from points inland, being in the sea and all. Free flowing fresh water … rain, lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater … makes up only a small part of the total water budget for the planet, and this free flowing water is very unevenly distributed. And, some of that is not so fresh. For example, in the Permian Basin in Texas, the site of the Black Gold Rush of bygone days, the groundwater is often brackish (meaning somewhat salty). I do not know this for a fact, but I suspect that this brackishness is the result, at least in part, of early oil drilling activities. (If you know, tell us in the comments!) Fracking uses very little water, when you look at the overall budget of water. The use of water in fracking has been best studied in Texas and to some extent in Pennsylvania. Fracking in these two states is relatively high in water use per well. In Texas, fracking for oil and gas uses less than one percent of the state’s total water supply. It is important to note, however, that water is used in other mining activities as well, including coal extraction, so the total amount of water used in mineral extraction, including oil, gas, and coal, is closer to 2%. That does not sound like a lot. However, as noted, fresh, usable, free flowing, accessible water (including lakes, streams, rivers, and groundwater that is not too deep) is very unevenly distributed. In some counties in Texas, where the Eagle Ford Shale is being exploited, the total amount of water used locally approaches or even exceeds 50%. Suddenly, that is a lot of water. In some cases, the draw-off of water for fracking has caused water in wells used for other purposes to drop significantly. In one study in a five county area in Texas carried out by the Wintergarden Groundwater Conservation District, fracking was shown to reduce the available water in the aquifer by one third. This problem has pitted Texas Cattlemen against Texas Oilmen. Interesting. Also, once the water is used, you still have this water on hand, but it has been contaminated. Or, if you used brackish water to begin with, you still have brackish water but it is no longer where it originally was siting and minding its own business. It is now in a truck, or really, a whole bunch of trucks, in which it is driven to a "disposal well.” Disposal wells are deep wells into which the messed up fracking fluid is put, where it hopefully will not get into the fresh water supply for nearby communities. Except that it does, apparently, contaminate fresh water supplies at least some times. In addition, deep wells for fracking fluid disposal tend to follow fault lines, and the fracking fluid injected into them cause earthquakes. Though whether this is true has been controversial, it no longer seems to be. Fracking causes earthquakes. A recent study in Pennsylvania showed where the water used for fracking comes from. In that case, about 4.4 million gallons was used over a period of less than a week to frack the average well. About 63% of that water came from nearby rivers and streams, 20% from public water supplies, 15% recycled from previously fracked wells in the area. About 2% of the total fracking fluid consisted of sand and chemicals used to make the water more effective and for other purposes. How much water is that? About 11,000 average American families use up 4.4 million gallons of water a day, which if you put it all in one place would fill six Olympic size swimming pools. A report by EcoWatch looked at fracking across 26,339 fracking instances across 12 states. The reported water usage showed a great deal of variation by state in average water use per well, ranging from high numbers in Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Virginia (between 4.4 and 5.3 million gallons per fracking event) down to much lower numbers in California (168,000 gallons per fracking). The differences across regions could be attributed to a number of factors, but is probably mainly related to the nature of the rock being fracked. The total amount of water used in these 26,339 events was just shy of 66 billion gallons of water. That is roughly equivalent to a full day (24 hours) of flow over Niagara Falls. One single day of one major waterfall seems like both a lot and not so much depending on one’s perspective, but again, Niagra Falls is an unusual and spectacular concentration of water, and fracking is often done in places where there is much less available water. Here’s the thing with fracking: We are not going to be fracking forever. It is a last ditch effort to extract hydrocarbon fuels from areas that were either depleted using traditional techniques or never exploited because the deposits were low quality. Also, the fracking itself is generally done in the early stages of exploitation in a given area. Once you’ve fracked, you put in wells and extract the oil or gas and are unlikely to frack again. In addition, the petrolatum industry dishonestly claims that fracking is not part of extraction, but rather, part of “exploration.” This is important because if one accepts this spurious argument, fracking falls under less strident rules regarding environmental effects and other regulations. This is how fracking can run under the regulatory radar. First, it may be less regulated if it is considered exploration, then the special considerations regarding fracking’s effects are addressed by a ponderous slow moving legal and regulatory process, so by the time we get our environmental protection ducks in a row, a lot of the fracking is done with. This means that across the possible range of effects fracking can have on a local aquifer and ecosystem, we can expect the worse or nearly so. Back to water. In particular, let’s talk about water in Minnesota. Historians of yore identified a line that ran roughly north to south in the US, east of which traditional agriculture could be practiced without significant irrigation, and west of which one would need to irrigate to grow key crops like corn. This line ran through Minnesota. It was an oversimplification but a useful guide to understanding 19th century settlement pattern. The point is, if you want to farm in Minnesota, especially in the western and southern parts of the state (the prairies), you really have to irrigate. Irrigation stresses groundwater supplies. We have fairly uneven amounts of rainfall from year to year and over the months of a given year. Anyone who pays attention to the news in our state will know that every year farmers seem to have one problem or another having to do with water, but the problem varies between too much and too little, and often relates to when during the year the rain falls. Too little water in the Spring makes it hard for crops to take hold, too much makes it impossible to work many of the fields. This problem affects other aspects of life as well, from municipal water supplies to fishing and other water activities to the levels of the Upper Mississippi required to use the nations greatest waterway to transport goods. Over the last 10 years or so, climate change has made this worse. Meteorologist Paul Douglas recently noted in a piece in Weather Nation that climate change is likely to move snowfall and other precipitation away from the middle part of winter towards the beginning and end. In and of itself a given seasonal distribution of snow may not be a big deal, but if water supply and irrigation systems are built to assume a certain pattern and that pattern changes, then costly adaptation may be required. Generally speaking, climate change has warmed the atmosphere which means that the air holds more water on average than it did, say, 30 years go. But the increased energy of the atmosphere has also caused a qualitative change in the distribution of water. In a sense, one could say that the atmosphere has become better organized with respect to air currents that block the movement of air in some directions, and at the same time, certain air currents can now hold much more water than others. In short, the water vapor in our atmosphere is bunched up in both space and time. This means fewer mild rains and more heavy rains, often in the form of severe storms. Since the exact location of storm systems varies a great deal, this means that some areas that formerly received a certain average annual precipitation will a) have more precipitation overall; and b) a much greater variation in precipitation, leading to frequent periods of very little rain. This is how we can simultaneously have more really big and wet storms (and we do) and drought. The current national drought we are experiencing is part of a global drought being experienced in temperate zones in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Minnesota has experienced this drought to a lesser degree than states just to our south, but it has not been insignificant. So here’s the thing. We are facing a future with a new climate reality that will involve, for Minnesota, long stretches of dry conditions (especially in the southern and western parts of the state) punctuated by flood-causing storms now and then. And now, fracking comes along and potentially adds a locally significant demand on a water supply that has been transformed from tenuous but manageable to stressed, possibly severely stressed. On top of this, fracking does not use water like irrigation does. Irrigation removes water from the local water supply and turns it into vapor and corn (or, in the unlikely event that you are growing something other than corn, whatever that may be). This is problematic in some ways, but it is not as polluting as fracking. Fracking takes water out of the water supply, messes it up with contaminants from the fracking process, and then puts it back into the water supply often in a less convenient location that can sometimes cause small earthquakes. In this way, a couple of percent demand on the water supply can translate into a much larger impact because contaminated water tends to mingle with uncontaminated water and the result is more contaminated water. I wanted to talk about fracking and water, but while we are on fracking I’d like to make one other quick point: Fracking is stupid, just like building the Keystone Pipeline is stupid. We truly are approaching, and in fact are already experiencing, a climate crisis caused by the release of fossil carbon into the atmosphere. We have to stop doing that. The use of fracking to squeeze the nearly dry sponge is not what we should be doing right now.
Will the Great Barrier Reef recover? The Great Barrier Reef has not had a good year. Prolonged high temperatures have devastated portions of the reef, especially the more remote, historically pristine, and less impacted northern section. While some recovery will occur over time, the sad truth is that ongoing ocean warming may keep some reefs from ever recovering their previous level of health, diversity, and productivity. Coral bleaching occurs when corals become heat-stressed enough to expel their primary source of food, the microalgae that live inside their cells. This leaves the coral looking as white as if they had been soaking in bleach. Previous major bleaching events at the Great Barrier Reef occurred in 1998, 2006, and 2010, with 1998 and 2010 being associated with El Niño events. This year was no different: the bleaching corresponded with a strong El Niño event. El Niños generally mean less precipitation across northern Australia. The resulting dry, sunny, and hot conditions heat up the waters across the reef, leading to bleaching events. However, just as impacts from no two El Niños are alike, neither are bleaching events. They can impact different sections of the Great Barrier Reef with different levels of severity. This year’s event more severely impacted the northern reef, for instance. Just because a coral is bleached doesn’t mean it’s dead. If water temperatures drop back below stressful levels and remain there for a long enough period of time—with no additional bleaching events or other major stresses—corals can regrow their algae and resume their mutually beneficially relationship. Recovery when corals die can take a long time, however. Even in the most remote and hardy places (such as the northern Great Barrier Reef), recovery following the 1998 bleaching event took 10 to 20 years. Elsewhere along on the reef, severe bleaching events or local disturbances have been occurring so often that significant recovery has been limited. And there’s the rub for the Great Barrier Reef’s future. Sadly, almost all climate models show that meaningful recovery of corals along the Great Barrier Reef (and many other parts of the world) may be very difficult, if it is even possible at all. This is because rapidly rising carbon dioxide concentrations will cause coral bleaching events to continue to become more frequent and severe in the years ahead, giving corals too little time to recover from the stress of repeated bleaching. It is evident even now that bleaching events are affecting a larger area, deeper reefs, and that they are lasting for a longer period of time—all of which will harm the reefs and the animals that rely on them. Research published by scientists at NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program and Australia’s James Cook University and University of Queensland found that our changing climate and warmer ocean temperatures might increase coral bleaching along the Great Barrier Reef even more than previously thought (Ainsworth et al. 2016). The researchers found that corals handle bleaching conditions better if they get a “practice run” in the weeks before the bleaching event. If the corals are exposed to a brief stretch of warmer than normal (but below bleaching threshold) temperatures followed by a cooler recovery period of 10 days or so, it’s like they get a chance to “brace for impact.” The corals go through a heat shock response, increasing the corals’ heat tolerance and reducing the severity of bleaching and likelihood of death. All of this comes in handy when waters warm enough to meet bleaching conditions. No more practice runs However, if ocean waters warm by as little as 0.5°C overall, as predicted for the near future, there won’t be a pre-stress practice run. Without it, corals are at a greater risk of dying during bleaching, which means reefs are more likely to see a faster decline in coral cover. The 2016 coral bleaching event is probably not an isolated event, just a combination of El Niño and bad luck. Instead, it is a sign of things to come thanks to climate change. An increasing number of worsening bleaching events destroying the corals across the Great Barrier Reef may ruin one of the natural wonders of the world. Work can be done to protect the reefs. Better management that reduces other human-caused stresses can reduce the bleaching risk. However, as researchers showed, under high greenhouse gas emission scenarios, the outlook for the Great Barrier Reef is pretty dire. The research showed that the way to greatly improve the outlook for the reef was aggressive action to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations. Ainsworth, Tracy D., S.F. Heron, J.C Ortiz, P.J. Mumby, A. Grech, D. Ogawa, C.M. Eakin, W. Leggat (2016) Climate change disables coral bleaching protection on the Great Barrier Reef. Science. 352. 338-42.
What is Anterior Uveitis? Anterior uveitis is an inflammation of the middle layer of the eye, which includes the iris (colored part of the eye) and adjacent tissue, known as the ciliary body. What causes anterior uveitis? Anterior uveitis can occur as a result of trauma to the eye, such as a blow or foreign body penetrating the eye. It can also be a complication of other eye disease, or it may be associated with general health problems such as rheumatoid arthritis, rubella and mumps. In most cases, there is no obvious underlying cause. How serious is anterior uveitis? If untreated, it can cause permanent damage and loss of vision from the development of glaucoma, cataracts or retinal edema (fluid under the retina). It usually responds well to treatment; however, there may be a tendency for the condition to recur. Treatment usually includes prescription eye drops, which dilate the pupils, in combination with anti-inflammatory drugs. Treatment usually takes several days, or up to several weeks, in some cases. What are the symptoms of anterior uveitis? Signs/symptoms may include a red, sore and inflamed eye, blurring of vision, sensitivity to light and a small pupil. Because the symptoms of anterior uveitis are similar to those of other eye diseases, Dr. Fife will carefully examine the inside of your eye, under bright light and high magnification, to determine the presence and severity of the condition. If anterior uveitis continues to recur, Dr. Fife may also perform or arrange for other diagnostic tests to help pinpoint the cause.
US researchers have found that eye drops designed to lower cholesterol may be able to prevent macular degeneration, one of the most common forms of blindness. Researchers showed how high cholesterol levels could affect the immune system and lead to macular degeneration. Tests on mice and humans, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, showed that immune cells became destructive when they were clogged with fats. Others cautioned that the research was still at an early stage. The macula is the sweet spot in the eye which is responsible for fine detail. It is essential for reading, driving and recognizing people’s faces. Macular degeneration is more common in old age. It starts in a “dry” form in which the light-sensing cells in the eye become damaged, but can progress into the far more threatening “wet” version, when newly formed blood vessels can rapidly cause blindness. Specialists at the Washington University School of Medicine investigated the role of macrophages, a part of the immune system, in the transition from the dry to the wet form of the disease. One of the researchers, Dr. Rajendra Apte, said the role of macrophages changed and they triggered the production of new blood vessels. “Instead of being protective, they accelerate the disease, but we didn’t understand why they switched to become the bad cells,” he said. Normally the cells can “eat” fatty deposits and send them back into the blood. However, their research showed that older macrophages struggle. They could still eat the fats, but they could not expel them. So they became “bloated”, causing inflammation which in turn led to the creation of new blood vessels. Dr. Rajendra Apte said: “Based on our findings, we need to investigate whether vision loss caused by macular degeneration could be prevented with cholesterol-lowering eye drops or other medications that might prevent the build-up of lipids beneath the retina.”
Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99... A British possession in South Africa, bounded on the north and northwest by the Congo Free State and German East Africa; on the east by German East Africa, Nyassaland, and Portuguese East Africa; on the south by the Transvaal and Bechuanaland; on the west by Bechuanaland and Portuguese West Africa. Cecil John Rhodes, to whom the colony owes its name, desired to promote the expansion of the British Empire in South Africa. The Dutch South African Republic and Germany were contemplating annexations in the neighbourhood of the Zambesi River. To thwart these enemies of unity without delay and without the aid of the British Parliament was the task to which Mr. Rhodes and his colleagues set themselves. Early in 1888 Lobengula, King of Matabeleland, entered into a treaty with Great Britain and on 30 October of the same year he granted to Rhodes's agents "the complete and exclusive charge over all metals and minerals" in his dominions. On 28 October, 1889, the British South Africa Company was formed under a royal charter. The company, on Lobengula's advice, first decided to open up Mashonaland, which lies north and west of Matabeleland and south of the Zambesi. In September, 1890, an expeditionary column occupied that country and, in the next four years, much was done to develop its resources. In 1893 the company, who questioned the right of the Matabele to make annual raids among their neighbours the Mashonas, came to blows with King Lobengula. Five weeks of active operations and the death of the king, probably by self-administered poison, brought the whole of Southern Rhodesia under the absolute control of the company. After the war, the settlement and opening up of the country was carried on under the direction of Mr. Rhodes who, on the ruins of Lobengula's royal kraal at Bulawayo, built Government House, and in the vicinity, laid out the streets and avenues of what was intended soon to become a great city. At one time Bulawayo had a population of some 7000 white inhabitants and seemed to be fulfilling the dreams of its founder when its progress and that of the whole country was cut short by the cattle pest, the native rebellion of 1896, and by years of stagnation and inactivity consequent upon the Boer War. Its white population (1911) is 5200. Besides Southern Rhodesia the chartered company own the extensive territories of Northwestern and Northeastern Rhodesia which lie north of the Zambesi and which, with the more populous southern province, cover an area of some 450,000 square miles and form a country larger than France, Germany, and the Low Countries combined. The black population is less than 1,500,000, while the whites hardly exceed 16,000. All the native tribes of Rhodesia belong to the great Bantu family of the negro race. Before the arrival of the pioneer columns the dominant race south of the Zambesi were the Matabele, an off-shoot of the Zulus, who conquered the country north of the Limpopo River in the middle of the last century. They formed a military caste which lived by war and periodical raids upon their weaker neighbours. The destruction of this military despotism was a necessary step to the evangelizing of the country. Before the arrival of the Matabele warriors the principal inhabitants of Southern Rhodesia were the Makaranga whose ancestors had formed the once powerful empire of Monomotapa. North-western Rhodesia or Barotseland is ruled partly by an administrator residing at Livingstone, near the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi and partly by its native King Lewanika, the chief of the Barotse, who has been heavily subsidised by the company. The predominant people in North-eastern Rhodesia are the Awemba and the Angoni whose raiding propensities and coöperation with the Arab slave drivers caused much trouble and expense until their definitive annexation by the company in 1894. The earliest attempt to evangelize Matabeleland was made in 1879 when three Jesuit Fathers, travelling by ox-wagon, accomplished the journey of some twelve hundred miles between Grahamstown and Bulawayo. They were hospitably received by King Lobengula who had been assured by some resident traders that the missionaries had come for his people's good. He granted them a free passage through his dominions and allowed them to train his subjects in habits of industry but not to preach the Gospel of Christ which, as he well knew, would lead to drastic changes, not only in the domestic life of his people, but in his whole system of government. For some fourteen years the missionaries held their ground awaiting events and it was only through the conquest of the country by the company that free missionary work was rendered possible. It was during this period that Baron von Hübner, who was not without personal experience of South Africa, declared that he would never contribute a penny to the Zambesi Mission, since he thought it contrary to his duty to foster an enterprise doomed to failure and disaster. Events seemed to justify his prognostications, for the mission, owing to fever and the hardships of travel, seemed to be losing more workers than it made converts. In 1893, however, the power of Lobengula was broken and mission stations began to grow up in the neighbourhood of Salisbury, the capital, and of Bulawayo. In Matabeleland there are two mission stations, one at Bulawayo and the second at Empandeni, some sixty miles away. This last station owns a property of about one hundred square miles most of which formed the original grant of Lobengula and the title to which was confirmed by the company. The principal station among the Mashonas or Makaranga is Chishawasha, fourteen miles from Salisbury (founded in 1892). There are other stations of more recent date at Salisbury, Driefontein, Hama's Kraal, and Mzondo, near Victoria, all under the charge of the Jesuit Fathers. The Missionaries of Marianhill, recently separated from the Trappists, have two missions in Mashonaland at Macheke and St. Trias Hill. The Makaranga who are thus being evangelized from seven mission stations are the descendants of the predominant tribe who received the faith from the Ven. Father Gonçalo de Silveira in 1561. Among the Batongas, who owe a somewhat doubtful allegiance to King Lewanika in North-western Rhodesia, there are two Jesuit mission stations on the Chikuni and Nguerere Rivers. These missions are under the jurisdiction of the Jesuit Prefect Apostolic of the Zambesi, resident in Bulawayo. There are 35 priests, 30 lay brothers, and 83 nuns in charge of the missions. The Catholic native population is about 3000. For the missions of North-eastern Rhodesia see VICARIATE APOSTOLIC OF NYASSA. The land of the mission stations in Rhodesia is usually a grant from the Government made on condition of doing missionary work and is therefore inalienable without a special order in Council. Native schools, in some cases, are in receipt of a small grant from the Government. The Jesuit Fathers have one school for white boys (120) at Bulawayo, while the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic have three: at Bulawayo (210), Salisbury (130) and Gwelo (40). These schools are undenominational and receive grants from the Government. Hence Catholics who were first in the field, have a very considerable share in the education of the country. New Government schools have been built recently in Salisbury, Bulawayo, and Gwelo and other places in order to meet the growing demand for education and they have, so far, succeeded in filling their school-rooms without taking many pupils from the schools managed by Catholics. The chief source of information about the Zambesi Mission is the Zambesi Mission Record, issued quarterly (Roehampton, England); HENSMAN, A History of Rhodesia (London, 1900); HONE, Southern Rhodesia (London, 1909); HALL, Prehistoric Rhodesia (London, 1909); MICHELL, Life of C. J. Rhodes (2 vols., London, 1910). APA citation. (1912). Rhodesia. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13025a.htm MLA citation. "Rhodesia." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13025a.htm>. Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York. Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.
Presentation on theme: "Aim: How can we solve problems dealing with the Law of Conservation of Energy? HW #10 due tomorrow Do Now: A 10 kg object free falls off the top of a 100."— Presentation transcript: Aim: How can we solve problems dealing with the Law of Conservation of Energy? HW #10 due tomorrow Do Now: A 10 kg object free falls off the top of a 100 m tall building. At the top, calculate its potential and kinetic energies. U = mghK = ½mv 2 U = (10 kg)(9.8 m/s 2 )(100 m)K = ½(10 kg)(0 m/s) 2 U = 9,800 JK = 0 J HW #9 Answer Key Conservation of Energy The total energy (E T ) of an object or system is constant Energy cannot be created or destroyed Energy can be changed from one form to another. A Dropped Sphere What energy does it have when held off the ground? Potential Energy What happens to this PE as the ball drops? It becomes smaller and smaller Is the energy just disappearing? No!! It is being converted into KE (the object is speeding up) 100 m m = 10 kg At the top: PE = 9,800 J (PE = mgh) KE = 0 J (at rest) E T = 9,800 J (PE + KE = E T ) At the bottom: PE = 0 J (no height) E T = 9,800 J (total energy is constant!) KE = 9,800 J (PE + KE = E T ) If PE = 4,900 J, what is KE? KE = 4,900 J PE = 3,000 J, what is KE? KE = 6,800 J 1.The figure above shows a rough semicircular track whose ends are at a vertical height h. A block placed at point P at one end of the track is released from rest and slides past the bottom of the track. Which of the following is true of the height to which the block rises on the other side of the track? (A) It is equal to h/2 (B) It is equal to h/4 (C) It is equal to h/2 (D) It is equal to h (E) It is between zero and h; the exact height depends on how much energy is lost to friction. If no energy were lost, the answer would be (d) No calculator 1 minute 2. If the potential energy is zero at point II, where will the kinetic and potential energies of the ball be equal? (A) At point II (B) At some point between II and III (C) At point III (D) At some point between III and IV (E) At point IV 3. The speed of the ball at point II is most nearly (A) 3.0 m/s (B) 4.5 m/s (C) 9.8 m/s (D) 14 m/s (E) 20 m/s A ball swings freely back and forth in an arc from point I to point IV, as shown at the right. Point II is the lowest point in the path, III is located 0.5 meter above II, and IV is 1 meter above II. Air resistance is negligible. ΔK = ΔU ½ mv 2 = mgh ½ v 2 = gh No calculator 2 minutes 4. What is the kinetic energy of the rock just before it hits the ground? (A)mgh (B)½ mv 0 2 (C)½ mv 0 2 – mgh (D)½ mv 0 2 + mgh (E)mgh - ½ mv 0 2 A rock of mass m is thrown horizontally off a building from a height h, as shown above. The speed of the rock as it leaves the thrower’s hand at the edge of the building is v 0. No calculator 1 minute 15 sec a. Using the principle of conservation of energy, develop an expression for the speed of the child at the lowest point in the swing in terms of g, R, and cos o 5. A child of mass M holds onto a rope and steps off a platform. Assume that the initial speed of the child is zero. The rope has length R and negligible mass. The initial angle of the rope with the vertical is o, as shown in the drawing above. Calculator 8 minutes b. The tension in the rope at the lowest point is 1.5 times the weight of the child. Determine the value of cos o. a. What is the tension T in the string? 6. Two 10 ‑ kilogram boxes are connected by a massless string that passes over a massless frictionless pulley as shown. The boxes remain at rest, with the one on the right hanging vertically and the one on the left 2.0 meters from the bottom of an inclined plane that makes an angle of 60° with the horizontal. The coefficients of kinetic friction and static friction between the Ieft ‑ hand box and the plane are 0.15 and 0.30, respectively. You may use g = 10 m/s 2, sin 60° = 0.87, and cos 60° = 0.50. ΣF = 0 T – mg = 0 T = mg T = (10 kg)(10 m/s 2 ) T = 100 N Calculator 15 minutes b. On the diagram below, draw and label all the forces acting on the box that is on the plane. T N FfFf mg c. Determine the magnitude of the frictional force acting on the box on the plane. ΣF = 0 T – F f – mgsinθ = 0 F f = T – mgsinθ F f = 100 N – (10 kg)(10 m/s 2 )(0.87) F f = 13 N The string is then cut and the left ‑ hand box slides down the inclined plane. d.Determine the amount of mechanical energy that is converted into thermal energy during the slide to the bottom. W f = F f x W f = μ k Nx W f = μ k mgcosθx W f = (0.15)(10 kg)(10 m/s 2 )(0.5)(2 m) W f = 15 J e.Determine the kinetic energy of the left ‑ hand box when it reaches the bottom of the plane. U = K + W f K = U – W f K = mgh – 15 J K = mgxsin60° - 15 J K = (10 kg)(10 m/s 2 )(2 m)(0.87) – 15 J K = 159 J 7. A 5.0 ‑ kilogram monkey hangs initially at rest from two vines, A and B. as shown above. Each of the vines has length 10 meters and negligible mass. a. On the figure below, draw and label all of the forces acting on the monkey. (Do not resolve the forces into components, but do indicate their directions.) TATA TBTB mg Calculator 10 minutes b. Determine the tension in vine B while the monkey is at rest. The monkey releases vine A and swings on vine B. Neglect air resistance. c. Determine the speed of the monkey as it passes through the lowest point of its first swing. d. Determine the tension in vine B as the monkey passes through the lowest point of its first swing.
Tech moves fast! Stay ahead of the curve with Techopedia! Join nearly 200,000 subscribers who receive actionable tech insights from Techopedia. Serial Storage Architecture (SSA) is an open protocol used to facilitate high-speed data transfer between disks, clusters, and servers. SSA is an industry and user supported storage interface technology. The SSA concept was developed by the IBM engineer Ian Judd in the early 1990s. IBM developed several SSA products, including disk enclosures, storage servers, and host bus adapters. SSA products are based on the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) standard. Applications like e-commerce, video on-demand, and video conferencing are rapidly advancing, due to expanded network infrastructures and computer processing speeds. Such applications use networks to accommodate data requirements and require systems with sufficient storage capacity, fault tolerance, and high data bandwidth. To meet increasing storage system demands, the SSA standard was developed for deployment in mainframe environments, networked computer systems, and small systems. SSA provides high-performance Serial Attached Technology (SAT) to link disk drives and servers. SSA is configured with two point-to-point links connected through the ports of two different devices. A node, such as a storage device with two ports, connects to two other storage devices using two link pairs. If each storage device has two ports, they are easily linked as an SSA loop. SSA configuration provides 20 MBps of link bandwidth and supports total data bandwidth of 80 MBps. SSA benefits include:
[A short version was published by the Canberra Times, 2 Feb, as “Evidence Points to Catastrophic Climate Change”. A longer version was posted on On Line Opinion, 8 Feb.] In a new scientific paper (pdf, 600kb) prominent climate scientist James Hansen and his colleague Makiko Sato argue that the Earth is now at least as warm as it was between earlier ice ages, and further warming by even one degree celsius could result in sea level rising by anything from 5 to 25 meters, with perhaps 5 meters rise by the end of this century. This implies more stringent limits than current, politically-adopted targets to keep warming below two degrees celsius and atmospheric carbon dioxide content below 450 parts per million (ppm). Hansen now says the present targets are prescriptions for disaster, and that we must keep warming to less than one degree. This requires reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide to less than 350 ppm, from its present value near 390 ppm, as quickly as possible. Meeting the new targets would require very rapid reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and active efforts to withdraw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Bio-sequestration (using plants to build carbon in soil) is an option that can be undertaken immediately. Given that existing policies in most countries fall well short of meeting even the old targets, this adds a new level of urgency to the existing urgency to begin major and effective efforts immediately. There are three main approaches used to understand global warming: direct measurements of the world at present, computer models, and records of past climate extracted from sedimentary rocks and polar ice cores. The latter, deciphering natural records, has the advantage of looking at natural experiments that include all the complications of the real climate system, whereas computer models do not handle well some difficult factors such as cloud and aerosol variations. It depends, of course, on correctly and accurately deciphering the subtle chemical and isotopic records in the rocks and ice, but scientists have been unravelling those signals for quite a long time and a lot is known. Hansen and Sato have built on earlier work using recent data sets. Over the past million years or so the climate has swung between ice ages and briefer, warmer interglacial periods. For the past 10,000 years, during which civilisation developed, we have been in a warm period called the Holocene in which temperature and sea level have been unusually stable. (Graph courtesy of ClimateCodeRed blog.) The old targets, limiting the temperature increase to less than 2 degrees celsius and carbon dioxide to less than 450 ppm, were based on ice core records, which indicated that two previous interglacial periods, about 120,000 and 400,000 years ago, were 2.7-3.7 degrees celsius warmer than the Holocene (see graph (a) below). At those times sea level was 5 metres or more higher than now. However Hansen and Sato now argue that the ice core record is affected by extra regional warming over the polar ice sheets, and it is not representative of the globe as a whole. They argue the deep sea sediment record is more globally representative, and this shows the earlier temperature peaks to have been no more than 1 degree warmer than now. To explain the difference between the ice core and deep ocean records, Hansen and Sato argue that there are several positive feedbacks that come into play at temperatures near the present temperature, and they would accentuate the warming of polar regions more strongly than the rest of the globe. As temperatures rise through the present level, sea ice melts and ice shelves disappear, so the exposed water absorbs more solar heat than the ice it replaces. Also as surface melting occurs on ice sheets they darken significantly, so they also absorb more solar heat. At present polar temperatures increase about twice as much as the global average, but the feedbacks would increase this ratio. Thus the ice sheets in the past warm intervals would have experienced the stronger warming recorded in the ice cores. Correspondingly they would have melted more, raising sea level several metres above present levels. The concerning implication is that further warming by 1 degree or less over coming decades could trigger a rise in sea level of 5 metres or more, similar to levels during the earlier interglacial periods. This is much more than the 18-60 cm rise projected in 2007 by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) using earlier data, and puts us on the brink of dangerous warming right now. The urgency of Hansen and Sato’s message is bolstered by records from 3-5 million years ago (during the Pliocene epoch, graph below) which show temperatures no more than one degree warmer than now but sea levels as much as 25 metres higher than now, a rise that would be catastrophic. Hansen and Sato also argue that ice sheet melting and breakup is an exponentially accelerating process that doubles its speed every 6-10 years, rather than a steady process. This implies that sea level rise would be much faster than previously thought. An accelerating process is expected because melt water tends to lubricate the bases of glaciers, which flow and break up more quickly, and because substantial parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet are grounded below sea level, so ocean warming and ice thinning can float their edges away more readily. Melt rates, ice mass losses and sea level rise have all been measured to be increasing, consistent with these arguments. However the data do not yet extend for a long enough period to confirm that an exponential doubling process is occurring, and to accurately estimate the doubling time. The data are consistent with a doubling time of 6-10 years, and this will become more accurately known over the next 5-10 years. Even a doubling time of 10 years allows nine doublings this century, so rates could increase 500 times, to metres per decade by 2100. Hansen first advanced arguments along these lines in 2007, but the new paper brings more data and insights to bear, and moves the conclusions from conjectural to plausible. There are of course many who deny that global warming is caused by human activity. Most such claims are based on only small portions of the wide range of arguments mentioned earlier. The Hansen and Sato conclusions do not require computer models of climate, and they are quite independent of the climategate controversy, which in any case was an enormous beatup of some private discussion of quite peripheral data sets. It is past time that policy makers gave serious attention to those whose long and successful careers, under the scrutiny of rivals, attest to the breadth and depth of their understanding. A sea level rise of several metres would devastate global civilisation, as large populations, many cities and much infrastructure are within only a few metres of sea level. After the extreme weather of Black Saturday, February 7 2009, Australia added the “Catastrophic” category of bush fire danger above the previous highest “Extreme” category. The danger from global warming may have moved from extreme to catastrophic.
The bacteria that destroy about one-third of the potent greenhouse gas methane before it can reach the atmosphere use a neat trick to gather a key nutrient for the job. They produce a small organic compound and release it into the surrounding environment, where it "lassos" atoms of copper. The bacteria then reabsorb the compound and use the copper as a weapon against methane, from which they extract energy. The crystal structure of the compound--called methanobactin--will be reported in the Sept. 10 issue of Science. The research was led by Hyung J. Kim, who did much of the work as a graduate student at the University of Kansas and is now a postdoctoral associate at the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences. Methanobactin may have antibacterial properties, and its ability to absorb copper may find application in the semiconductor industry, which needs copper-free water. The bacteria that make methanobactin are quite common. "These bacteria are often found in rice paddies and wetlands," said Kim. "Methane is produced in the bottom muck and diffuses into the water, where these bacteria live. The bacteria sequester the methane and turn it into methyl alcohol." According to estimates made in the 1990s, the amount of methane produced from all sources worldwide is about 120 billion tons per year, said Kim. About 40 percent comes from paddies and wetlands, and the methane-eating bacteria, known as methanotrophs, remove 80 to 90 percent of it. That translates to a methane diet of close to 43 billion tons a year. Deane Morrison \| EurekAlert! A novel synthetic antibody enables conditional “protein knockdown” in vertebrates 20.08.2018 \| Technische Universität Dresden Climate Impact Research in Hannover: Small Plants against Large Waves 17.08.2018 \| Leibniz Universität Hannover There are currently great hopes for solid-state batteries. They contain no liquid parts that could leak or catch fire. For this reason, they do not require cooling and are considered to be much safer, more reliable, and longer lasting than traditional lithium-ion batteries. Jülich scientists have now introduced a new concept that allows currents up to ten times greater during charging and discharging than previously described in the literature. The improvement was achieved by a “clever” choice of materials with a focus on consistently good compatibility. All components were made from phosphate compounds, which are well matched both chemically and mechanically. The low current is considered one of the biggest hurdles in the development of solid-state batteries. It is the reason why the batteries take a relatively long... New design tool automatically creates nanostructure 3D-print templates for user-given colors Scientists present work at prestigious SIGGRAPH conference Most of the objects we see are colored by pigments, but using pigments has disadvantages: such colors can fade, industrial pigments are often toxic, and... Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles present new research on a curious cosmic phenomenon known as "whistlers" -- very low frequency packets... Scientists develop first tool to use machine learning methods to compute flow around interactively designable 3D objects. Tool will be presented at this year’s prestigious SIGGRAPH conference. When engineers or designers want to test the aerodynamic properties of the newly designed shape of a car, airplane, or other object, they would normally model... Researchers from TU Graz and their industry partners have unveiled a world first: the prototype of a robot-controlled, high-speed combined charging system (CCS) for electric vehicles that enables series charging of cars in various parking positions. Global demand for electric vehicles is forecast to rise sharply: by 2025, the number of new vehicle registrations is expected to reach 25 million per year.... 17.08.2018 \| Event News 08.08.2018 \| Event News 27.07.2018 \| Event News 20.08.2018 \| Information Technology 20.08.2018 \| Life Sciences 20.08.2018 \| Information Technology
126.96.36.199 What Is Known About the Mechanism of these Abrupt Changes? There is good evidence now from sediment data for a link between these glacial-age abrupt changes in surface climate and ocean circulation changes (Clark et al., 2002). Proxy data show that the South Atlantic cooled when the north warmed (with a possible lag), and vice versa (Voelker, 2002), a seesaw of NH and SH temperatures that indicates an ocean heat transport change (Crowley, 1992; Stocker and Johnsen 2003). During D-O warming, salinity in the Irminger Sea increased strongly (Elliot et al., 1998; van Kreveld et al., 2000) and northward flow of temperate waters increased in the Nordic Seas (Dokken and Jansen, 1999), indicative of saline Atlantic waters advancing northward. Abrupt changes in deep water properties of the Atlantic have been documented from proxy data (e.g., 13C, 231Pa/230Th), which reconstruct the ventilation of the deep water masses and changes in the overturning rate and flow speed of the deep waters (Vidal et al., 1998; Dokken and Jansen, 1999; McManus et al., 2004; Gherardi et al., 2005). Despite this evidence, many features of the abrupt changes are still not well constrained due to a lack of precise temporal control of the sequencing and phasing of events between the surface, the deep ocean and ice sheets. Heinrich events are thought to have been caused by ice sheet instability (MacAyeal, 1993). Iceberg discharge would have provided a large freshwater forcing to the Atlantic, which can be estimated from changes in the abundance of the isotope 18O. These yield a volume of freshwater addition typically corresponding to a few (up to 15) metres of global sea level rise occurring over several centuries (250–750 years), that is, a flux of the order of 0.1 Sv (Hemming, 2004). For Heinrich event 4, Roche et al. (2004) have constrained the freshwater amount to 2 ±1 m of sea level equivalent provided by the Laurentide Ice Sheet, and the duration of the event to 250 ±150 years. Volume and timing of freshwater release is still controversial, however. Freshwater influx is the likely cause for the cold events at the end of the last ice age (i.e., the Younger Dryas and the 8.2 ka event). Rather than sliding ice, it is the inflow of melt water from melting ice due to the climatic warming at this time that could have interfered with the MOC and heat transport in the Atlantic – a discharge into the Arctic Ocean of the order 0.1 Sv may have triggered the Younger Dryas (Tarasov and Peltier, 2005), while the 8.2 ka event was probably linked to one or more floods equal to 11 to 42 cm of sea level rise within a few years (Clarke et al., 2004; see Section 6.5.2). This is an important difference relative to the D-O events, for which no large forcing of the ocean is known; model simulations suggest that a small forcing may be sufficient if the ocean circulation is close to a threshold (Ganopolski and Rahmstorf, 2001). The exact cause and nature of these ocean circulation changes, however, are not universally agreed. Some authors have argued that some of the abrupt climate shifts discussed could have been triggered from the tropics (e.g., Clement and Cane, 1999), but a more specific and quantitative explanation for D-O events building on this idea is yet to emerge. Atmospheric CO2 changes during the glacial antarctic warm events, linked to changes in NADW (Knutti et al., 2004), were small (less than 25 ppm; Figure 6.7). A relatively small positive feedback between atmospheric CO2 and changes in the rate of NADW formation is found in palaeoclimate and global warming simulations (Joos et al., 1999; Marchal et al., 1999). Thus, palaeodata and available model simulations agree that possible future changes in the NADW formation rate would have only modest effects on atmospheric CO2. This finding does not, however, preclude the possibility that circulation changes in other ocean regions, in particular in the Southern Ocean, could have a larger impact on atmospheric CO2 (Greenblatt and Sarmiento, 2004).
34.3.4: Palestinian Refugees During the 1948 Palestine War, around 85% (720,000 people) of the Palestinian Arab population of what became Israel were expelled from their homes, fleeing to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Trace the Palestinian refugee populations in places such as Jordan - During the Palestine War of 1948, the first phase of the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, 85% of the Palestinian Arab population fled from their homes in what became known as the Palestinian Exodus of 1948. - There is heated debate among historians and politicians as to the causes of the Exodus, and the status of this debate has bearing on the claim of Palestinians to their land. - The expulsion of the Palestinians has since been described by some historians as ethnic cleansing, while others dispute this charge. - Displaced Palestinian Arabs, known as Palestinian refugees, were settled in Palestinian refugee camps throughout the Arab world, with most fleeing to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. - Most Arab nations denied citizenship to the Palestinian refugees, except in Jordan, where most have citizenship or the equivalent rights of citizens. - In a 2007 study, Amnesty International denounced the “appalling social and economic condition” of Palestinians in Lebanon. - Palestinian Exodus of 1948 - Also known as the Nakba, this event occurred when more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 Palestine war. - A displaced person who has been forced to cross national boundaries and cannot return home safely because of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. - Gaza Strip - A small, self-governing Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, bordering Egypt on the southwest for 6.8 miles and Israel on the east and north along a 32-mile border. Together with the West Bank, it comprises the territories claimed by the Palestinians as the State of Palestine. - West Bank - A landlocked territory near the Mediterranean coast of Western Asia, forming the bulk of the Palestinian territories. It shares a border with Jordan across the Jordan River. Palestinian Exodus of 1948 During the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War that followed, around 750,000 Palestinian Arabs (85% of the population) fled or were expelled from their homes, out of approximately 1.2 million Arabs living in former British Mandate of Palestine. This event was known as the Nakba (Arabic for “disaster” or “catastrophe”). This number did not include displaced Palestinians inside Israeli-held territory. More than 400 Arab villages and about ten Jewish villages and neighborhoods were depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict, most of during 1948. According to estimates based on earlier census, the total Muslim population in Palestine was 1,143,336 in 1947. After the war, around 156,000 Arabs remained in Israel and became Israeli citizens. The causes of the exodus are a subject of fundamental disagreement between historians. Factors involved include Jewish military advances, destruction of Arab villages, psychological warfare, and fears of another massacre by Zionist militias after the Deir Yassin massacre, which caused many to leave out of panic; direct expulsion orders by Israeli authorities; the voluntary self-removal of the wealthier classes; collapse in Palestinian leadership and Arab evacuation orders; and an unwillingness to live under Jewish control. In the years after, a series of laws passed by the first Israeli government prevented Arabs from returning to their homes or claiming their property. Most remained refugees, as do their descendants. The expulsion of the Palestinians has since been described by some historians as ethnic cleansing, while others dispute this charge. The Palestinian refugee problem and debate about the Palestinian right of return are also major issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Palestinians and their supporters have staged annual demonstrations and commemorations on May 15 of each year, which is known to them as “Nakba Day.” The popularity and number of participants in these annual Nakba demonstrations has varied over time. Life After the Exodus Displaced Palestinian Arabs, known as Palestinian refugees, were settled in Palestinian refugee camps throughout the Arab world. Most fled to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. The United Nations established UNRWA as a relief and human development agency tasked with providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees. Arab nations refused to absorb Palestinian refugees, instead keeping them in refugee camps while insisting that they be allowed to return. Refugee status was also passed to their descendants, who were also largely denied citizenship in Arab states except in Jordan. The Arab League instructed its members to deny Palestinians citizenship “to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right of return to their homeland.” More than 1.4 million Palestinians still live in 58 recognized refugee camps, while more than 5 million Palestinians live outside Israel and the Palestinian territories. More than 2 million registered Palestine refugees live in Jordan. Most Palestine refugees in Jordan, but not all, have full citizenship. The percentage of Palestinian refugees living in refugee camps to those who settled outside the camps is the lowest of all UNRWA fields of operations. Palestine refugees are allowed access to public services and health care, as a result, refugee camps are becoming more like poor city suburbs than refugee camps. Most Palestine refugees moved out of the camps to other parts of the country. Following the capture of the West Bank by Israel in 1967, Jordan revoked the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians to thwart any attempt to permanently resettle from the West Bank to Jordan. West Bank Palestinians with family in Jordan or Jordanian citizenship were issued yellow cards guaranteeing them all the rights of Jordanian citizenship if requested. 100,000 Palestinians fled to Lebanon because of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and were not allowed to return. As of January 2015, there are 452,669 registered refugees in Lebanon. In a 2007 study, Amnesty International denounced the “appalling social and economic condition” of Palestinians in Lebanon. Until 2005, Palestinians were forbidden to work in over 70 jobs because they do not have Lebanese citizenship, but this was later reduced to around 20 as of 2007 after liberalization laws. In 2010, Palestinians were granted the same rights to work as other foreigners in the country. Lebanon gave citizenship to about 50,000 Christian Palestinian refugees during the 1950s and 1960s. In the mid-1990s, about 60,000 Shiite Muslim refugees were granted citizenship. This caused protest from Maronite authorities, leading to citizenship being given to all Christian refugees who were not already citizens. - Palestinian Refugees “Palestinian refugees.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_refugees. Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0. “1948 Palestinian exodus.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_exodus. Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0. “Palestinian_refugees.jpg.” https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palestinian_refugees.jpg. Wikimedia Commons Public domain.
How does a capacitor work for both AC and DC? Think as if we had a water pipe completely blocked by a flexible membrane. such an arrangement prevents the continuous flow of water (such as continuous electricity), but would allow two-way vibrations of low amplitude (such as alternative electricity). the more elastic the membrane (greater capacity) the greater the quantity of water that it can move. Role of the capacitor in the reciprocating circuits: in an alternating circuit, the capacitor inverts its charges when the current alternates and produces a delay voltage (in other words, the capacitor supplies a main current in the circuits and reciprocating networks). 1. less power supply In such circuits, the capacitor is connected in series with the load because it is known that the capacitor and the inductor in pure form do not consume energy. they simply take the power in one cycle and restore it to charge in the other cycle. in this case, it is used to reduce the voltage with less waste of energy. Split Phase Induction Motors 2: Capacitors are also used in an induction motor to divide a single-phase power supply into a two-phase power supply to produce a rotating magnetic field in the rotor to capture this field Correction and improvement of the power factor : The capacitor bank is installed after a precise calculation. basically, it provides the reactive power that was previously routed from the power system, reducing losses and improving system efficiency. Role of the capacitor in the DC circuit in a DC circuit, the capacitor once charged with the applied voltage acts as an open switch. Power Conditioning 1 .: In DC systems, the capacitor is used as a filter (most of the time). its most common use is to convert an alternating power supply into an alternating rectifier (such as bridge rectifier) 2. Decoupling capacitor: a decoupling capacitor is used, under which we have to decouple the two electronic circuits. other words, the noise generated by a circuit is grounded by a decoupling capacitor and this does not affect the performance of other circuits. 3. Coupler coupling: as we know, the capacitor blocks the DC current and allows the alternating current to cross it.
Highly sensitive children (HSC) analyse situations in detail; they think deeply about things that have happened and the repercussions they can have. It’s a trait that makes HSCs cautious, that triggers a pause before acting. Sometimes though a child focuses so much on the negatives, or possible negative outcomes, that it becomes unhealthy. Here’s how to help your child think more positively. A simple written statement hanging on a wall in a child’s bedroom can make a huge difference. I know because it’s something a counsellor created with one of my sons and I saw it have a positive impact. One read simply: Today is a new day. Another: Today will be my best day. Simple short sentences, but a potent reminder to my son that whatever happened yesterday is gone and today is a new chance to have a fantastic day. He’s now older and facing different issues so we’re currently constructing new affirmations for him, as we work through his Big Life Journal. Tip: It works for adults too…… Having negative feelings is not something we should banish. Negative feelings are as valid as positive ones. However, we need to help our children when they process those negative feelings in an unhealthy way. Negative thoughts can seriously affect a child’s self-esteem. When negative thoughts become such a big hurdle that they become self-defeating it’s time to help a child reframe their thoughts. We need to help our kids before their negative self-talk dominates. So how do we reframe negative thoughts? Focus on common negative thoughts that your child has. Examine the language that your child uses – is there a never or an always in there? Help your child find alternative words to express their feelings. Help them understand that there’s always a way to turn negative into positive. Turn “I always get this type of math question wrong. I’m so stupid” into “There’s one part of this type of math question I don’t understand yet, but I am on the right track.” You can support a child reframe negative thoughts with positive thoughts by asking whether their thought is a helpful or an unhelpful one. And then by asking them how they could change their thought into a helpful one. Journal or Talk About the Fun Stuff Turning negative into positive can be as simple as writing or drawing about the good stuff that day in a journal. Or putting all the things a child is grateful for onto paper. It’s a simple but effective way of focusing on the good, positive aspects of a day. Read: Fill a Page to Empty a HSC Mind and Why Journaling is So Good for You. Just talking, listing the great things that day can be effective. I stood at bedtime with my son talking about the day. He was feeling a bit down for some reason or another and so we talked though his week, focusing only on the fun stuff he had done. He sat up, turned to me and said, “Actually I’ve had a great week haven’t I?” It’s a great tool to take a child out of a negative moment so they can see the bigger picture. Celebrate the positives. Help a child learn where their talents and strengths lie. Praise effort and not the result. One of the best ways to help build a child’s self-esteem is to spend time with them. Nothing tells a child they’re fun to be with more than being with them. Drop everything now and again and just be with your child. Show them they are worth your time and dedicated attention. There are great tips on Parents.com to help you boost a child’s self-esteem. Make Your Home a Positive Environment If you want your child to think positively, then model positive thinking in your home. Model compassion. Model empathy and kindness. Including being kind to yourself. Model positive self-talk. Remember that HSCs are sponges when it comes to emotions. If you tend to see the glass as half empty rather than as half full then they are prone to pick that up. If you are feeling negative, or stressed, then turn your focus to emptying your own bucket before you try to help your child. Decorate your home with artwork containing positive statements and mantras. Hold a weekly family meeting and celebrate and praise each other. For your convenience, this post includes affiliate links to products and books I find useful for the HSK community. They cost you nothing more to buy, but I get a small commission.
In "Amazing Grace," a Tapestry of Faith program This activity invites youth to burn off some physical steam by silently demonstrating a temper tantrum thrown by a small child. Its purpose is to introduce the topic of emotional outbursts without asking youth to talk about their own most temperamental moments. This leads to a discussion about controlling negative emotions. Ask youth to silently act out a two-year-old's temper tantrums. Depending on available time and the size of the group, you might have them perform one at a time or all at once. Note as you begin that not all two-year-olds act out in the same way. Some may be very physical and others may just sit in some angry pose letting the world know that everything is wrong. When all have settled down, say that having temper tantrums is normal for two-year-olds. Many little kids have them and we do not consider the children immoral or unethical. However, we expect older people to control themselves better. Nobody thinks it is right for adults to have temper tantrums. Ask the group how old most people are before they stop losing their temper frequently. Through discussion, help your youth come to understandings like these: Many people have occasional bad moods all through their lives. In fact, it would be difficult for most people to smile all the time. Life can be hard, with all sorts of pressures; most of us occasionally feel badly until time passes, things change, and we begin to see that life is not all bad. People who get very angry or violent or who suffer from frequent mood swings should get help from a professional counselor or a doctor. If somebody's anger is hurting themselves or other people, it is time to do something about it. You can have problems and still be a virtuous person who does many good things. Nevertheless, ignoring your problems is wrong, especially if the problems hurt you or other people. Ask participants how they go about controlling themselves. Suggest this scenario: "Imagine that you are angry at a family member and a friend shows up at the door. You do not want your friend to see you angry, so you have to change your mood immediately. How do you do it?" Say that sometimes how we feel and act is a mystery even to us. If we can solve the mystery, we can control ourselves better. Personalize this discussion as much as you think will be appropriate and helpful for your group, but do not pry into the emotional lives of participants. You might ask if any of them sometimes have bad moments and lose their temper. Spend more time discussing how the youth have learned and are learning to control themselves. Allow all participants to act out silent temper tantrums if they wish. Do not assume that people with limited mobility will not find this activity amusing or will be unable to express themselves physically. For more information contact web @ uua.org. This work is made possible by the generosity of individual donors and congregations. Please consider making a donation today. Last updated on Wednesday, October 26, 2011. Sidebar Content, Page Navigation More Ways to Search Donate to Support This Program and the Ongoing Work of the UUA Read or subscribe to UUA.org Updates for the latest additions to our site. Learn more about the Beliefs & Principles of Unitarian Universalism, or read our online magazine, UU World, for features on today's Unitarian Universalists. Visit an online UU church, or find a congregation near you.
Culture and nature The high seas are a "global public good". But even in the absence of sufficient international treaties, the oceans are in poor condition: sea levels are rising due to greenhouse gas emissions. The sea water is becoming increasingly acidic, with catastrophic consequences, including coral reefs. Because of overfishing many fish stocks are facing collapse. Plastic in the oceans kills many animals. Unregulated deep-sea mining can have dramatic consequences. People on the coasts are often vulnerable to tsunamis and storm surges. To effectively protect the oceans, research and constant observation are necessary. However, this is expensive - and at the same time all states should benefit from it. Data should be collected according to uniform standards and not redundant. Many developing countries cannot afford their own observation systems. Therefore, in 1960, UNESCO established the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) as a global forum for the coordination and promotion of oceanography and ocean observation. UNESCO and the UN General Assembly have declared the period from 2021 to 2030 to be the UN Decade of Ocean Research. The IOC is responsible for two goals of Goal 14 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda - and it is even the only United Nations agency specifically identified in the objectives of the 2030 Agenda. It also participates in the development of an international instrument for nature conservation on the high seas. Through coordinated research, the IOC reduces scientific uncertainties regarding the sustainable management of the oceans and the management of climate change. It creates permanent observation services on the high seas and in the coastal seas. It supports international data and experience exchange and technology transfer. It strengthens the education and training of scientists and specialists from developing countries. Germany participates intensively in the work of the IOC through the German IOC section located at the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH). The German IOC section coordinates the participation of German institutions and scientists in the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. Several Federal Ministries, the German Weather Service, the German Research Foundation, the German UNESCO Commission and research institutions are represented in the German IOC section. Germany is constantly providing national infrastructure for IOC research, monitoring and training programs, such as research vessels. Also the establishment of tsunami early warning systems in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean / Northeast Atlantic has benefited a great deal from Germany.
It may be possible to predict the lifespan of patients being treated for heart disease by taking a look at the lengths of strands of DNA found on the ends of special chromosomes called telomeres, according to a study by the Intermountain Heart Institute in Utah, which was presented Saturday at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session in San Francisco. It’s a pretty simple rule of thumb: The longer the telomeres, the longer the patient could be expected to survive. Just as our hair gets more brittle and likely to fray with age, chromosomes also get shorter with age, explained John Carlquist, director of the institute’s genetics lab. “Once they become too short, they no longer function properly, signaling the end of life for the cell,” he said. “And when cells reach this stage, the patient’s risk for age-associated diseases increases dramatically.” Non-medical folks can imagine the telomeres as functioning a bit like the tip on your shoelaces. As long as the tip is long, strong, and working, the chromosome won’t fray and come apart. However, once the tip is frayed, the chromosome starts to unravel, and serious diseases of aging like cancer or heart disease can be the result. A previous study, conducted on zebra finches, had demonstrated the long telomeres in young, healthy animals could be used to predict lifespan. Individual zebra finches have telomeres that vary a great deal in length even at the same age. The birds with the longest strands ultimately outlived the birds with shorter strands — and sometimes by quite a lot. Birds destined to die early passed away within their first year of life, while the longest lived finches survived to be almost 9 years old. What’s new about the Utah study is that, instead of looking at relatively young organisms, the doctors examined DNA strands from older patients who were already suffering from disease. Even though all of the patients had heart disease, they still showed individual variation in the length of their telomeres, and those people who had the longer telomeres lived the longest after receiving treatment. If I was the poor finch destined to die 8 or 9 times earlier than my buddies, I’m not sure I would want to know. However, the Utah cardiologists believe that if they can predict who will respond best, they can ultimately plan better and more individual treatments for everyone. Would you want your doctor to be able to easily predict your lifespan? [micrograph of diseased heart tissue courtesy Wikipedia Commons]
As Egypt grew and flourished to a powerful and rich nation, itleft behind for today’s historians, clues and artifacts of a oncedistinctive, well established and structured society. Proof ofthis is clearly depicted in king Narmer’s Palette. This Paletteshows historians the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, whichsignified the beginnings of a civilized era centred around theNile. The unification of Egypt occurred around 3100 B. C. , under theFirst Dynasty of Menes(3100-2850 B. C. ). This age is commonly knowas the Protodynastic era, which is known for the establishment ofa firm political structure of the land which was unified in thehands of the king. The glorification of Lower and Upper Egyptuniting was portrayed in Narmer’s Palette, which was found in theancient southern capital of Hierakonpolis. The general function ofNarmer’s Palette was to commemorate a victory over his human foes. With Narmer’s victory, the Palette also depicts his successfulclaim and conquest of all of Egypt, thus establishing unificationof Lower and Upper Egypt under his rule. The dominant themhowever, is the victory of the god incarnate over the forces ofevil and chaos.Order now The Narmer Palette, while depicting several social aspects andtendencies of the Egyptian society, also reveals and emphasizestheir structured positions within a hierarchy of command. Bothsides of the Palette reveal, at the top, the name of king Narmer,which first documents, in the written history of Egypt, that we noware dealing with a civilized state. When the scribes wanted towrite king Narmer’s name, they placed a small fish called a ‘nar’over a chisel, pronounced ‘mer’. This combination of the wordsgave them ‘Narmer’. The Palette also depicts king Narmer(probablythe legendary Menes) wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and theWhite Crown of Aphroditopolis, which represented Upper Egypt. Since Narmer had claimed victory over the northern king, thusbecoming the first Pharaoh, the unification of Egypt was completed. The reverse of the Palette portrays Narmer clubbing a foeman. Narmer is then followed by his foot-washer, which should be notedis shown on a smaller scale and standing on a separate registerline, as suited to his relative rank and position in Egypt’shierarchy. Narmer stands before the supreme sky-god Horus, of whomNarmer is also an incarnation, represented as a falcon with a humanarm holding a papyrus thicket. On the obverse of this palette, Narmer inspects a battlefieldnear Buto, with several decapitated bodies of his foemen. Narmeris then preceded by his four standard-bearers and his priest. Themiddle register of this highly organized recording shows two long-necked lionesses and their attendants, symbolizing the newlyestablished unification of Egypt. In the lower register Narmer isin disguise of a bull, which is destroying a fortified fort andkilling any opponents in his path. The Narmer Palette reveals several important social aspectsabout how the Egyptians lived and were structured. The Palettealso shows their value in recording historical events – with suchitems of war and political power struggles being ‘newsworthy’events. It would be a mistake however, to read the Narmer Paletteas a mere tale of conquest. Through military conquests however,Narmer was able to lay the political foundations of the kingshipwhich endured thereafter as long as a Pharaoh wore the two crownsof Egypt. The actual finding of a Palette proves that Egyptianshad established a written form of communication, which is todaycalled hieroglyphic script. The Palette however, was depicted byEgyptian scribes using a complex combination of ideograms andphonetic signs. While king Narmer’s name appears as hieroglyphiclabels at the top of the Palette, it emphasizes that Egypt at thistime was structured and had firmly established a civilized state. The entire Nile, now under the control of one king, was ableto be utilized as the most important form of transportation. Itwas used for military campaigns, economic trading, and as a form ofcommunication via boats. The Nile also provided a rich soil basewhich encouraged farmers to build huts and plant their crops alongthe river bank. Egyptian agriculture and the farmers’ practices inirrigation revealed that the Egyptians had the man power andcapabilities to divert water to particular fields for their crops. Although each community along the Nile was divided into districts,each governed by a man appointed by Narmer, each practised the samemethods of collecting and diverting water. Also each manappointed to a particular district saw to it that taxes werecollected and that the fields were drained and properly irrigated. The most significant piece of evidence that suggests that Egypt wasindeed a civilized state was a special calendar with a 365-dayyear, as well as keeping records of special events and a system ofstandard measures for surveying fields and dividing produce. While Egyptians were basically confined to the Nile valley,they were able to draw many strengths from their isolation. Fromthe beginning the Egyptians looked to a central authority in theperson of a king, or god, which was all held together and relatedto the Nile river. While king Narmer was able to bring economicgrowth and political stability to the newly formed Egypt, he wasunable to control the external pressures which would eventuallybreak up Egypt and lead to the collapse of the ruling Pharaohs.
STUDENT INSTRUCTION AND ANSWER SHEET Activity 5: Size and Mass Are Important! Up to this point we have identified that the "just right" condition for life is the presence of liquid water on a planet's surface. This suggests we should first search for a planet that rests in orbit around a Sun-like star (classes F, G or K) within the star's zone of habitability. In addition to the distance from the star, the planet must also have a suitable atmosphere. This requires that the planet have a mass between 0.5 and 10 Earth masses, with a radius between 0.8 and 2.2 times that of Earth. Planets that are too small will not have enough gravity to hold an atmosphere, and larger planets will have an atmosphere too thick to support life as we know it. For example, photosynthesis cannot occur if the atmosphere is impenetrable, or a runaway greenhouse effect could occur such as on Venus today. A habitable planet would also need to have the right type of atmospheric chemistry. Nitrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen would likely need to be present in amounts similar to what is found on Earth. Consider the information listed in the table below. A. On which of these hypothetical planets would you search for Earth-like life? Explain your reasoning for each planet.
Why Lesson Planet? Combine and Separate Shapes: Homework In this shape recognition worksheet, students learn how to recognize shapes by cutting out the first shapes and using them to make the second shape. Students draw the new shape in the space. Students then identify the shape that was made from the given shapes in the last problem.
Emotional literacy is the ability to identify and label a feeling. Identifying a feeling is important for processing situations and making choices. Throughout a day a range of feelings may be felt; slight irritation, pleasure, sadness, frustration. If these feelings cannot be labelled they are placed into two groups, positive and negative, and it could be that all positives are called good or happy and all negatives are called anxious or angry. Emotional literacy varies greatly from person to person and that variance in identifying emotion depends on so many factors. Emotions might not have been spoken within a family or expression of emotion may have been discouraged. Without emotional literacy it can be difficult to express needs, wants and boundaries to others and lead to misunderstanding and not feeling understood. This can heighten feelings of disconnection and alienation and impact on interpersonal relationships. It can lead to feeling silenced because the words are not there. It also means others are responding to the wrong emotion. “I feel sad” is very different to “I feel angry”. “I feel rejected” is different to “I feel anxious”. Not identifying emotions affects choices and behaviour. There are societal expectations of choice dependent on emotion. So if for example all emotions are mislabelled as anxiety, a person will then try to sooth the anxiety becoming more anxious that the anxiety cannot be soothed. If some of those feelings are not anxiety but restlessness, irritation or sadness different choices might be made. Rather than a feeling masquerading as anxiety that cannot be soothed, a movement can be made in response to restlessness, a change can be made in response to irritation. Not having the words for emotion impacts on self-worth. Rather than identifying the range of emotion and responding to those, the one label becomes the focal point and patterns of saying, “I’m always feeling anxious” or “I’m always angry” can occur. Worse still is the labelling of the self, “I’m an irritable person”, “I’m just anxious, that’s who I am”. This can lead to feeling different from others, fundamentally wrong in some way and an incorrect belief in possessing a personality flaw. There can be a sense of hopelessness that nothing can change. It is never too late to learn the language of feelings and to find your voice. Find the right counsellor or therapist for you All therapists are verified professionals.
Chemguide: Support for CIE A level Chemistry Learning outcome 16: Hydroxy compounds Find and read the statement in your copy of the syllabus. If you are working through this in order, you will already have read the page introducing alcohols. If you need to, re-read the first bit about the three types of alcohol. This statement also mentions the possibility of alcohols with more than one OH group. You have probably already come across one of these - ethane-1,2-diol, HOCH2CH2OH. If you have more than one OH group attached to a hydrocarbon chain (as long as they are on different carbon atoms), they just behave independently. Work out what each of them would do in the reactions we have looked at, temporarily ignoring the other one. Note: Out of interest only, if two OH groups end up attached to the same carbon atom, in most cases, water is lost, leaving a C=O double bond. You don't need to know that for exam purposes. Again, read the statement in your copy of the syllabus. This statement uses the effect of oxidation of the various sorts of alcohols using acidified potassium dichromate(VI) solution to help in distinguishing between primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols. You will find this covered on the page about oxidation of alcohols. You have already read the first part of this, but read the whole page again, this time concentrating on the second half about testing for the various kinds of alcohols. A problem relating this page to CIE's requirements CIE don't mention the use of Schiff's reagent either in the syllabus or in any of their questions. That means that you would have to pass the vapours in the final set of diagrams through either Tollens' reagent or Fehling's solution. Since you won't have any idea what either of those are until you have done aldehyde and ketone chemistry in more detail in Section 17, I suggest that you leave the problem for now and come back to it again after you have done Section 17. I will remind you. © Jim Clark 2020
The period between 1965 to 1979 was an important one in the history of colonial Rhodesia. The Rhodesia Front had taken over government in 1962 and quickly replaced Prime Minister Winston Field with the more authoritarian Ian Smith who introduced one repressive law after another. This led to mounting discontent among the blacks and a general movement towards militant action. The black people started making more radical demands which resulted in the formation of nationalist political parties. The National Democratic Party (NDP) in early 1962, Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) subsequently. 1 Smith responded to this by taking more drastic measures, declaring the independence of Rhodesia from Britain in 1965, the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). Britain and the rest of the world imposed sanctions on Rhodesia which worsened the living conditions of the blacks both in the rural and the urban areas. These developments further strained relationships between blacks and whites, making an armed struggle for independence almost inevitable. In 1966 the first shots marking the beginning of the armed struggle in Rhodesia were fired. The political developments in the period between 1965 to 1979 saw changes in the form and content of music. Local musicians who, since the mid 1950s had played cover versions of such rock 'n' roll, soul and pop artists such as Wilson Picket, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Otis Redding, and The Rolling Stones, were under pressure from both the worsening situation as well as the nationalists to contribute in the struggle. Nationalists for example, began to question why musicians had the luxury to stage shows while others were taking to the bush to fight. Musicians therefore adopted a more revolutionary stance in their music. Church hymns were changed and the lyrics substituted with revolutionary ones in some cases. In other cases the Christian lyrics assumed new meanings under the new circumstances. The different categories of Shona protest song assumed new interpretations in the new context. For example, songs that had protested about unjust chiefs, assumed new interpretations as social relationships changed. Similarly, 'traditional' war and hunting songs assumed new meanings in the wake of an armed struggle and tightening tensions between the black majority and the white minority government. The Zimbabwean people's music, which had been marginalised in the rock n' roll, soul and pop frenzy of the 1950s, was thus rejuvenated as a useful tool for mobilisation in the political struggle for justice. In a situation where black people were systematically excluded from the formal means of political representation, music became an alternative means of articulating their experiences. Richard Wagner, cited in Alex Pongweni, had this to say of music: "It is a truth forever that where the speech of men stops short, there, music's reign begins" (Wagner, in Pongweni 1982: 1). This was particularly true of the popular music that emerged in Zimbabwe in the mid 1960s to the late 1970s. [from Alice Dadirai Kwaramba, Popular Music and Society: The Language of Chiumurenga Music: The Case of Thomas Mapfumo in Zimbabwe. Oslo: University of Oslo, 1997, pages 31-32. Available from Department of Media and Communications [firstname.lastname@example.org].
Culturally Deaf Catholics in the U.S. have defined themselves not by their disability but by their shared history, language, and traditions. This article narrates the history of Deaf Catholics from the founding of the International Catholic Deaf Association (ICDA) in 1949 to the ordination of the first culturally Deaf priest in North America in 1977. Deaf Catholics have long struggled for inclusion in parish life. Beginning in the 1950s, the work of hearing priests and pastoral ministers resulted in improved availability of religious education and sacraments in sign language. In the 1960s and 1970s the institution of vernacular Masses after Vatican II, the acceptance of American Sign Language (ASL) as a language, and the increase of preaching in ASL provided for an expansion of ministry by the Deaf, for the Deaf. Consequently, Deaf Catholics themselves laid the groundwork for the first Deaf religious vocations. The growth of a core group of Deaf Catholic leaders, including clergy and laity, spurred the creation of several national organizations whoich sought to coordinate gatherings, including retreats in ASL, to further include this marginalized group in the life of the Church. Author(s): Marlana Portolano Journal: U.S. Catholic Historian Disabilities: Deaf-Blindness, Deaf/Hearing Impairments Categories: All Categories, Clergy/Theology, Individuals with disabilities
Earth impact hazard Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work! Read a brief summary of this topic Earth impact hazard, the danger of collision posed by astronomical small bodies whose orbits around the Sun carry them near Earth. These objects include the rocky asteroids and their larger fragments and the icy nuclei of comets. Space in the vicinity of Earth contains a great number of solid objects in a range of sizes. The tiniest (millimetre-size and smaller) and by far most abundant ones, called micrometeroids or interplanetary dust particles, hit Earth’s atmosphere continually. They are also the least dangerous: they either burn up in the atmosphere or settle to the surface as dust. Of the somewhat larger objects—i.e., mostly asteroidal in origin—the great majority that reach the ground as meteorites are too small to endanger human life or property on a significant scale. However, there are occasional reports of roughly softball-sized meteorite fragments damaging houses or cars, and in 2013 more than 1,500 people in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia were injured, mostly by flying glass which had been shattered by the shock wave of a meteorite 17 metres (56 feet) wide breaking up in the atmosphere. (The only other verified case of a meteorite hitting and injuring a human being occurred in 1954.) Reports of falls of meteorites with masses in the one-ton range are less frequent; when these objects strike the ground, they can excavate craters a few metres across. It is only the biggest projectiles, those that collide with Earth very infrequently on average, that are acknowledged to pose a great potential danger to human beings and possibly to all life on the planet. Recognition that such a danger might exist dates back at least to the English astronomers Edmond Halley and Isaac Newton and their work on the Great Comet of 1680, whose orbit they showed crossed that of Earth. Modern interest was rekindled in 1980 when the experimental physicist Luis Alvarez of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues presented evidence that the impact of an asteroid or comet having a diameter of about 10 km (6 miles) was responsible for the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period (66 million years ago), in which the dinosaurs and much of the marine life of the day perished. Since that time scientists have identified the probable site of the impact, called the Chicxulub crater, off Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and have come to suspect that similar catastrophic impacts may have triggered other mass extinctions as well. In addition to causing tremendous immediate devastation and ensuing earthquakes, firestorms, and giant sea waves (tsunamis), collisions of such magnitude are believed to be capable of perturbing Earth’s environment globally by throwing large quantities of fine debris high into the atmosphere. The consequences would include a decrease in the amount of sunlight reaching the surface and a prolonged depression of surface temperatures—a so-called impact winter—leading to loss of photosynthesizing plant life and worldwide starvation and disease. In the early 1980s astronomers in the United States, followed by those in several other countries, began studies aimed at better defining the risk posed by cosmic impacts, developing programs to detect threatening objects, and determining if anything could be done to protect Earth from the most devastating impacts. One outgrowth of these efforts was the development of a scale for categorizing the potential impact hazard of objects newly discovered to be orbiting near Earth. Objects that pose a threat All objects that can someday cross Earth’s orbit have the potential to collide with the planet. This includes not only objects that regularly approach Earth but also others whose paths may change over time in a way that would make them cross Earth’s orbit. The objects that fall into this category are asteroids and comets in short-period orbits—together called near-Earth objects (NEOs)—and those long-period comets that make their closest approach to the Sun inside Earth’s orbit. Short-period comets complete their orbits in less than 200 years and so likely have been observed before; they generally approach along the plane of the solar system, near which lie the orbits of most of the planets, including Earth. Like short-period comets, most known Earth-approaching asteroids have orbits tilted by less than 20° to the plane of the solar system and periods of less than about three years. Long-period comets have orbital periods greater than 200 years and usually much greater; they can approach from any direction. The amount of damage caused by the impact of an object with Earth is determined primarily by two factors: the object’s mass and its relative velocity. These determine the total kinetic energy released. A typical NEO would strike Earth with a velocity of about 20 km (12 miles) per second and a typical long-period comet with a greater velocity, 50 km (30 miles) per second or higher. For objects with diameters less than a few hundred metres, their physical properties are important in calculating how much destruction would result, but for larger bodies only the total energy of the impact is important. Hence, most damage assessments are based on the kinetic energy of an impact rather than the diameter or mass of the projectile. This energy is expressed in millions of tons (megatons) of TNT, the same units used to quantify the energy released by thermonuclear bombs. The energy released by an impact falls between about 10 megatons and 1 billion megatons—i.e., between 700 and 70 billion times the energy of the 15-kiloton atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. This very wide range corresponds to NEOs with diameters from about 50 metres (164 feet) to 20 km (12 miles) or to long-period comets with diameters about half as large. (Objects smaller than about 50 metres would break up high in the atmosphere; the damage would be limited to less than a few hundred square kilometres around the impact point.) For an object at the lower end of this size range, an ocean impact could cause more damage than one on land because it would result in large tsunamis that would devastate coastal areas for many kilometres inland. The last destructive impact known, called the Tunguska event, occurred at the low end of this range over land. On June 30, 1908, an object thought to be as much as 50 metres (164 feet) in diameter exploded over central Siberia, leveling about 2,000 square km (500,000 acres) of pine forest.
The digestive system serves the role of taking in nutrients, eliminating waste, and absorbing and using the nutrients we take in. The digestive system includes all the parts of your body that are involved when you eat or drink. While you may not think about your digestive system often, you are using it all the time. You also may not think of the digestive system as fun, but let’s take a look at some fun facts about your digestive system you may not have known. 1. The average person produces 2 pints of saliva every day. That is 32 ounces, or 2 cans of soda. 2. The muscles in your esophagus act like a giant wave. That is what moves food or drinks down to your stomach. This wave action is called peristalsis. 3. The second part of your small intestine is called the jejunum. That’s just fun to say! 4. Enzymes in your digestive system are what separate food into the different nutrients that your body needs. 5. The gut-brain axis is the close bond that exists between the digestive system and your brain. Emotions (including stress) and brain disorders affect how your body digests food. 6. Your body can move your food through the digestive system even while you are standing on your head. It is not connected to gravity because it works with muscles. 7. You know those laundry detergents you hear advertised that have enzymes to remove stains? Some of those enzymes are the same as those found in your digestive system. 8. The small intestine is about 22-23 feet long while the large intestine is only about 5 feet long. 9. Ever wonder why it smells bad when you pass gas? It is because it is produced by fermented bacteria and then mixed with air. 10. Platypuses do not have stomachs. 11. Stomach growling is called borborygmic and happens all the time, but it is just louder when your stomach is empty because there is no food to muffle it. 12. The stomach has the ability to stretch and hold up to 4 pounds of food at one time. 13. Aerobic exercise is the best type of exercise to keep your digestive tract in shape. 14. When you are first born, you don’t have any of the healthy bacteria your system needs to digest food. 15. Gastro mechanical distress symptoms can be caused by only slightly more than 1 cup of a carbonated beverage. 16. You burp to release extra air that you swallow if you eat fast, drink carbonated drinks, or smoke. 17. Hiccups can be caused by a change in temperature that happens suddenly. 18. The amount of saliva you produce increases when you throw up to protect your teeth from the acid in your stomach that will come up. 19. The longest attack of constant hiccups lasted 68 years. It is amazing the way your body works and that includes the digestive system. Learning more about it can actually uncover some fun or at least interesting facts you may not have known. So, the next time your digestive system does something you don’t understand, start researching to learn more. Many issues you may have with digestion can be remedied by learning how it works and then avoiding what upsets the balance of your digestive system.
DRAMA AT KEY STAGE 1 Drama is an ideal subject for young children to experience and, at Key Stage 1, it is invaluable as a means for developing communication skills, encouraging positive social interaction, increasing physical control and teaching children how to listen and respond appropriately. The sharp learning curve experienced by children as they enter Year 1 can sometimes be bewildering, but simple drama games and exercises can support their learning in an enjoyable way. It is essential, for example, that children at this stage of their development learn to listen and respond to instructions and many drama games contain this element of learning as an implicit part of the activities. Children of five and six also recognise and respond to familiar, or traditional stories and these can be extremely useful if used as a stimulus for drama in the classroom. In Year 1 children work best in pairs or in a whole group setting. They will happily improvise, or act out, stories and poems as a whole group and love to perform whole group mimes or dramatic movement pieces. Many life skills and transferable skills are learnt through drama – listening carefully to instructions; responding appropriately; respecting other opinions; working together; considering other viewpoints; making presentations; speaking clearly and with purpose, and so on – and this learning, plus an increase in self-confidence and self-awareness, is what makes drama such a fantastic teaching tool at Key Stage 1. Drama Activities for Key Stage 1 Suggestions for drama activities for Key Stage 1 - drama games, methods and ideas Drama Resources for Key Stage 1 Arts On The Move offers some great lesson plans, drama packs, schemes of work and other teaching resources. Here we’ve listed some resources that are particularly suitable for use with KS1 children. Other resources can be found elsewhere on this website and in our e-shop.
Candidiasis is an infection caused by a yeast-like fungus called Candida albicans. It can infect the mouth, vagina, skin, stomach, and urinary tract. Candidiasis infection commonly affects women as vaginal yeast infection during their lifetime and the highest percentage of all people with HIV/AIDS develop Candida infections. Oral infections called oral thrush are most common in infants, elderly people, and those with a weakened immune system. Oral candidiasis manifests itself as creamy white patches in the mouth or on the throat and some times with painful cracks at the corners of the mouth. There are also skin rashes, patches, and blisters found most commonly in the groin, between fingers and toes, and under the breasts. Vaginal itching and irritation with a white discharge resembling cottage cheese is a typical symptom for vaginal yeast infection. Important to notice is that normal amounts of candida live in the mouth, stomach, and vagina, and do not cause infections. But candidiasis occurs when there is an overgrowth of candida. Causes may include taking certain drugs especially antibiotics, corticosteroids, and some birth control pills. Other causes may include pregnancy, being overweight, having a bacterial infection, or several different health conditions for example a weakened immune system, diabetes, and psoriasis. Due to high prevalence of the disease in women, many women know when they have a vaginal yeast infection, and those who have never suffered from the disease need to consult doctors in case the above signs and symptoms present. Many antifungal medications can treat candidiasis. Antifungal medications include oral rinses and tablets, vaginal tablets and creams. For vaginal yeast infections, medications that are available over the counter include creams and suppositories such as miconazole (Monistat), ticonazole (Vagistat), and clotrimazole (Gyne-Lotrimin). Creams combined with low strength corticosteroids reduce inflammation and itching. Most treatments last from two or three days to two weeks. For severe candidiasis that could be life threatening to someone with a comprised immune system, doctors normally prescribe an intravenous (IV) medication such as amphotericin B. Some scientific reports suggest that reducing sugar in one’s diet may help prevent yeast infections. Other foods that some health experts believe may contribute to candidiasis include high amounts of milk, dairy products, and foods with high concentrations of yeast such as cheese, peanuts, and alcohol. Alternatively, one can use natural antifungal as well as immune strengthening therapies to improve the body’s ability to keep candida in check. Vitamin C (500 - 1,000 mg per day), vitamin E (200 - 400 IU per day), and selenium (200 mcg per day) helps to reduce the inflammation and keeps the immune system strong. Essential fatty acids help reduce inflammation. For example mix of omega-6 and omega-3 (fish oil) presents a good natural therapy. It also helps to reduce animal fats in our diet and increase fish and nuts. Vitamin B-complex is also required. Other vitamin B contents include B1 (50 - 100 mg), B2 (50 mg), B3 (25 mg), B5 (100 mg), B6 (50 - 100 mg), B12 (100 - 1,000 mcg), folate (400 mcg per day). Calcium is very important and at least 1,000 - 1,500 mg per day. Many people who have recurrent yeast infections normally do not have enough calcium in their diet. There is also need for magnesium (750 - 1,000 mg per day) to balance calcium intake. Caprylic acid (1 g with meals) is another type of fatty acid that may have antifungal properties. Adding more garlic (fungicidal), nuts (essential fatty acids), whole grains (B vitamins) and the diet may help avoid yeast infections. Avoid the overuse of antibiotics that kill off the friendly bacteria that normally keep candida in check. For use of antibiotics, it is important to consult health experts for the proper use of antibiotics, when they are needed. Some herbs have good anti-fungal properties, for example the juice of the herb Echinacea has been shown to help prevent recurrence of vaginal yeast infections. Tea tree oil scientifically known as meleleuca alternifolia has antifungal properties. It is effective in treating oral thrush when used as a mouthwash. Tea tree oil is toxic if swallowed, and should only be used as a mouthwash under health guidelines.
Civil Liberties in Wartime Grade level: 10-12 Subjects: U.S. Government, Civics, Sociology The attacks of September 11, 2001 led to a declaration of a war on terrorism by President Bush. As part of that war the Bush Administration proposed and Congress passed the USA Patriot Act which gives the government increased power to gather information on and detain U.S. residents in order to curtail activities related to terrorism. The act has been criticized by some as infringing on the rights of citizens and giving the government unprecedented powers. This lesson examines the civil liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and how the conditions of war might affect those liberties. Students will: - review the rights and responsibilities of a citizen in a democratic system; - study historical precedents for altering civil liberties during time of war; - discuss and debate the pros and cons of the wartime curtailment of civil liberties; - examine the role of the press in keeping citizens informed in light of the government's need to limit information during times of crisis. Background for the Teacher Before starting this lesson, if possible, watch Flashpoints USA (episode one - July 15, 2003) and use the information on this Web site for background on the various measures proposed by the Bush Administration in response to the events of September 11. Students will have the opportunity to apply the following critical thinking skills: - Summarize and re-state complex written material - Note similarities and difference between historical and contemporary laws and policies - Form opinions based on critical examination of relevant information - Communicate orally and in writing - Analyze and compare different sources of information for fairness and accuracy - Detect bias in various forms of presentations, e.g., written, oral, pictorial Tools and Materials Paper and pen Computers with Internet access Understanding Civil Liberties Before the first class session, give students the first three handouts listed above to read in preparation for the discussion below. What are civil liberties? (Briefly review the Bill of Rights.) Do only legal citizens of the United States enjoy the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution? What are the responsibilities of a citizen in a democracy such as ours? (e.g., vote, pay taxes, obey laws) What recourse do citizens have if they don't agree with a particular law or with government policies? Do the conditions of war justify changes in citizens' rights and responsibilities? Explain. (On the board list the reasons students give for and against.) Analyzing the USA Patriot Act and Other Anti-Terrorism Measures USA PATRIOT is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. Ask: Why do you think the Act was given this particular name instead of something simpler, such as The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001? Divide the students into groups to read and report on the provisions of the Patriot Act. The Act is long, with ten sections or titles. Both Title I and Title VI can be skipped for the purposes of this activity. It is suggested that you scan the contents section to see the length of each Title before assigning sections of the Act to the different groups. You may want to allow time for students to download and/or make copies of the Act in class. After they have read their assigned sections, each group should summarize their section of the Act for the class. Ask students to take notes on the summaries. After each summary, give students the opportunity to express any thoughts or reactions they have and to make a note of anything they don't understand. As the students report on the Patriot Act, ask for instances where they feel the provisions of the Act come up against the Bill of Rights, or where they think a provision might be especially useful in deterring terrorism. Have students compare their analyses of the Patriot Act with those of civil liberties groups such as the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights [www.ccr-ny.org]. The CCR site contains various reports dealing with civil liberties, including one entitled "The State of Civil Liberties: One Year Later - Erosion of Civil Liberties in the Post 9/11 Era." Arrange a point/counterpoint discussion of the question "Is the USA Patriot Act a threat to civil liberties or a necessary strengthening of the government's hand to stop terrorism?" Students can also examine these other measure proposed or passed by the Bush Administration: Give students the Civil Liberties After 9/11 Timeline to read, either as a homework assignment or in class. Ask them to jot down similarities and parallels between those earlier laws and government activities and current laws and policies related to the war on terrorism. Have a discussion in class about the similarities the students have noted. Ask: Why are measures affecting civil liberties promulgated during times of crisis? What has happened when individuals have attempted to speak out against restrictions or government leaders? Give examples, historical and contemporary. Ask students to find out about the effectiveness of the measures described in the Timeline. Did they work? Former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas once said, "Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us." Ask students to write an essay reflecting on Douglas's quote. Role of the Press When it comes to safeguarding civil liberties, the press has a crucial role to play. Its function is to keep the public informed about the activities of the government, in effect providing citizen oversight of the government. For this reason, it is referred to as the "fourth estate," or the fourth branch of government, wielding power on behalf of the people. In the war on terrorism, the press has come under some criticism, particularly during the Operation Iraqi Freedom - which has been called a battle in the war on terrorism. Some have accused the press of serving the government's purposes rather than maintaining a neutral voice. Others say the press has given the American public an accurate and close-up account of the events in Iraq. Have students examine the press's performance in the war on terrorism. Begin with a class discussion of these questions: 1) Should the government limit information in times of war or other crises? Why? In what ways might it do so? \| 2) Was the use of embedded reporters during the Iraq war a good idea or not? What are the pros and cons of such a practice? Have students analyze current news about U.S. activities in the Middle East and Central Asia (Afghanistan) by looking at how it is reported in a variety of sources: US television networks; major US newspapers; the BBC; National Public Radio; Al-Jazeera; online news services. Divide students into groups, each group following one news source for a week. Students should then report whether the US is portrayed negatively or positively. Included in their reports should be the following: descriptive words used in news reporting; types of visuals used; sources quoted; experts interviewed. Have students bring examples of articles or news broadcasts to show the class. Compare the different news media. Ask: Which ones give the most balanced reporting? How can you tell if a report is balanced and fair? Is there any value in getting news from several different sources? Explain. www.fair.org contains analyses of news stories and links to a wide variety of foreign and domestic news sources. The NewsHour Extra www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june03/embed_3-27.html features an excellent overview of the pros and cons of the embedded journalist program. Each side in the war on terrorism has accused the other of using propaganda to further its position and goals. Have students examine news stories, editorials, speeches, and commentary for instances of propaganda. An excellent source on propaganda techniques is found at CNN Student News: Explore the Balance Between National Security and Civil Liberties First Amendment Schools NewsHour Extra: The USA Patriot Act NOW: Classroom - Foreign War and Domestic Freedom: A Delicate Balancing Act PBS: America Responds Classroom Resources USA Freedom Corps: For Educators About the Author Karen Zill is the former Manager of Educational Outreach at WETA, Washington, D.C. She is currently an independent consultant who writes educational materials, develops outreach campaigns, and conducts media literacy classes and workshops. This lesson correlates to the following Civics Standards [From Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning www.mcrel.org]. What are the Roles of the Citizen in American Democracy? 24. Understands the meaning of citizenship in the United States, and knows the requirements for citizenship and naturalization \| 25. Understands issues regarding personal, political, and economic rights 26. Understands issues regarding the proper scope and limits of rights and the relationships among personal, political, and economic rights 27. Understands how certain character traits enhance citizens' ability to fulfill personal and civic responsibilities 28. Understands how participation in civic and political life can help citizens attain individual and public goals 29. Understands the importance of political leadership, public service, and a knowledgeable citizenry in American constitutional democracy
The Representative allows the people to be able to vote for all manners. (A1, Sec2, C1) states that the people are given the choice to vote for the house of representatives. An example of this is how every four years all 50 states are able to vote for the President. What are the principles of the Constitution? Which principle comes with "we the people"? What two principles are most alike? Do you think these principles are important? Which principle do you think is most important?
Great insights into 4 social classes: the nobility, the merchant class, the clergy, and the peasantry. The Nobility. Duty and Honor As soon as he was born, the Russian nobleman already had a purpose and destiny. He was destined for service, specifically for government service. Moreover, this child had a particular lineage, and from the moment of his birth, he was embedded in a genealogical chain, making him not simply a private individual, but a continuation of his family. He had ancestors, whom he doubtlessly knew and honored, and his behavior had to maintain a standard that would not possibly stain the family’s honor, but instead would increase it as much as possible. Peter the Great reinforced the obligation of a nobleman to serve his monarch, while also essentially making the noble ranks accessible to non-nobles (through education or service). For the Russian nobleman—who was most often not very well-off—the very idea of nobility was tied to education, upbringing, and duty. “He who receives much may be asked of much”—such was the unwritten credo of the nobility. An uneducated nobleman was a barbarian. One who rudely broke the code of conduct could lose note only the respect of those around him, but his very status as a nobleman. Patriarchal noble families did not dispose one to sensitivity and tenderness. The father was considered a demigod and absolute ideal; he controlled everything in the house. Noble families generally did not spoil their children or bend to their wishes. Much the opposite: children were harshly disciplined. Parents took care of their education and upbringing, but they regarded them as little grown-ups, without making allowances. Emotions weren’t regarded as a good reason for choosing a model of behavior—if anything they were seen as the opposite. The primary traits to be instilled were bravery, perseverance, having a place in the hierarchy, and the ability to control oneself with dignity in any situation. From a very young age, noble children were obliged to learn how to control their impulses, bad moods, fears, and desires. They were expected to unwaveringly fulfill their duties. Thanks to their physical exertion—walks in all kinds of weather, exercise, and a Spartan way of life—a young nobleman developed not only bodily (which was necessary for military service), but also spiritually. Hired specialists, who were usually foreigners, were in charge of their early home education. They taught languages, etiquette, and good manners. Music and dance were required subjects. Balls weren’t simply evenings of dancing but one of the ways in which noble society was organized. For this reason, balls were considered to be less a form of entertainment than an obligation, and the nobility were taught to fulfill their obligations faithfully. Parents primarily played the role of moral examples for their children, and their authority was usually very great. A nobleman’s whole life was permeated by a network of written and (mostly) unwritten rules, which bore a high cost if broken. Children could internalize these rules by watching their elders; they would consciously or unconsciously adopt their manner of conduct—and with it, their worldview. At a certain age, young men were sent to study in the institutions of higher education, and then they would enter into state service (which could be civil or military). After the “Decree of Noble Liberty” was enacted, noblemen had the right to refuse state service and tend to their estates—a task that also required extraordinary effort and substantial knowledge. A young noblewoman was expected to marry; otherwise, she would be in the sad position of an old maid. It happened occasionally that one sister would remain unmarried in order to live with her aging parents and ease their old age. If a young woman had the honor to be a lady-in-waiting in the imperial court, she would fulfill these obligations until she was married, and then, as a rule, she would be let go. Young women had no freedom before marriage. Their reputation and honor were vigilantly preserved. A young woman who cast doubt on her own reputation would bring shame not only upon herself, but also upon her family—and she wouldn’t be the only one to lose a chance at family life, as her sisters would also fall under suspicion. After marriage, her status would change: she would be considered a grown woman and gain much greater freedom—although her husband would have no less authority over her than her father had before. In contrast, the subjugation of sons to their fathers didn’t end with marriage or the birth of children. The reason for this was simple: the noblewoman’s sphere of service was the family, while the nobleman mainly served society. Incidentally, marriages (or at least, first marriages) were primarily arranged by the older generation. Widow and widowers were allowed to follow their hearts, but parents chose brides for their sons’ first marriages, even if they were relatively mature. In Russia, women enjoyed a certain amount of economic freedom in comparison with Europe. Thus, a bride maintained a right to her dowry without exception. If her husband was a spendthrift and conducted his affairs unreasonably, his wife could file a complaint against him to preserve her own and her children’s interests. Divorce was very complicated: a marriage could be annulled under certain conditions, but the party judged to be guilty would lose the ability to marry again. The only exception was if one of the parties (in a childless marriage, or if the children had grown up) expressed the intention of entering a monastery. It was more common for couples to separate while formally remaining married. In this case, the husband was obligated to maintain his wife and pay alimony, assuming, of course, that the separation wasn’t caused by inappropriate conduct on her part. Naturally, it’s not possible to idealize this whole social stratum—and there’s no need to do so, since the Russian nobility, with its poetics of duty, service, and honor, has remained a unique phenomenon by Russian and global standards. Sadly, it can never be reinstated insofar as it’s impossible to recreate the environment that nourished it. We only have memoirs and Russia’s great literary tradition (which was for a long time written exclusively by nobility) to preserve for us the spirit of the Russian nobility. The Merchant Class. Archaism and Pragmatism Popular consciousness in Russia associates merchant families with the values recorded in the Domostroy and the plays of Alexander Ostrovsky. As a result, the lives of merchants are often thought to be behind the times and overly calculated. There is certainly some truth to this: However much the merchant class contributed to the development of Russian society, it always preferred stability and respectability as the guiding principle for its own affairs. The lifestyles and habits of the nobles and intelligentsia changed with the times and fashions, but merchant families were able to maintain the order instituted by their ancestors—and they didn’t tire of it. Merchant wives and daughters were eager to keep up with fashions, especially since they had the money for it. Fancy dresses made from brilliant, finely knitted fabrics; expensive shawls (which would be valued by noblewomen about twenty years later), massive jewels—all of this was intended to show that the family’s business was doing very well (making it a more or less necessary expense). The merchants’ way of life was guided by society, and their conduct needed to be approved by respected people—either representatives of the government or elite merchants. They needed to walk a fine line between chic and showing off (the latter being strictly looked down upon)—and only then they could count on having a certain amount of respect and honor within their class. Merchants preferred to live in an insulated environment: the vast majority of merchants’ wives were also the daughters of merchants, who had grown used to calculations and imbibed the spirit of commerce since a young age. They were able to stand in for their husbands if he needed to leave on business. A merchant’s widow would have been entirely capable of conducting business on her own until her children were old enough to take over. Merchants had sons in order to continue the family business—and they didn’t ask for the child’s opinion in the matter. As a rule, they taught their children management and bookkeeping right in the shop beginning at school age. Boys were then sent to a technical school, but merchants were reluctant to send their kids to preparatory schools for fear that they would be tempted to ditch the family business. Incidentally, the merchant class gradually accepted the idea that higher education was a virtue rather than a temptation: in the beginning of the 19th century the Moscow Commercial School and Moscow Commercial Academy both opened. A girl’s education wasn’t limited to sewing, weaving, worship, and keeping after the house. No one would be surprised to see a literate daughter keeping the books for her father. But of course, women in merchant families were also obligated to please their masters by keeping up the house in such a way that it would impress others. Merchant dynasties brought many benefits to Russia. It was precisely the wealthy, God-fearing, and knowledgeable merchants who sponsored the construction of hospitals, conservatories, schools, and museums. They generously gave money for a variety of projects that didn’t benefit them directly but were essential to society as a whole. The Clergy. “Church-Tower Nobles” The clergy has long been a respected part of Russian society. Family life and family ties were especially important in the lives of the clergy. (Naturally, we are talking about the married clergy; the monastic clergy isolated themselves from the world and could not have attachments such as familiar ties.) For the parish priest, the family was one of the most important parts of his life. Just as the priest was supposed to be a moral compass for his parishioners, his wife was supposed to provide a model for women. Mistakes, bad habits, and personal failings transformed the priest’s family into a shameful parable. Every aspect of the lives of a priest’s family was attentively and scrupulously analyzed—in the country this was accompanied by envy (since the priests were generally better off and had more authority than the typical peasant), and in the cities it was accompanied by derision. The family life of priests was strictly regulated by canonical rules. Divorce and remarriage were allowed to the layperson (although not without difficulties), but it was unthinkable for a priest. What’s more, a second marriage was impossible, since a priest was considered a widower for his whole life. A priest could not marry outside his religion, just as his children could only unite themselves with other Orthodox Christians. The priest’s house was to be a hearth for Orthodox culture. A priest could not marry a widow or an actress. If a priest’s wife conducted herself in an inappropriate way, he was expected to leave her or become a monk. Since the clergy were encouraged to have children, a priest’s family, as a rule, would have several of them—and each would have to be educated, raised, and prepared for future service. It was entirely natural for a priest’s son to proceed to a seminary and then to become a priest, while a daughter would eventually marry another priest. As a rule, a son would inherit his father’s parish: when he had finished his education and was ordained, he would return home with a young wife and continue services in his home town. Another way of acquiring a parish was to marry a priest’s daughter. A priest-to-be only had the short period of time before taking vows to get married—and since these young men spent ten years in seminary, the search for a future companion was a serious problem. After all, they had to find not just wives, but companions, who thought the same way and could be trusted with their futures and those of their children—someone who would help build a “domestic church.” If the representatives of other social groups had plenty of time and opportunity to find and get to know a bride, the clergy were deprived of this possibility. Those future priests who couldn’t bring themselves to take monastic vows, but also couldn’t find a wife, could put off their consecration, though not for long. Meanwhile, they were helped out by special diocesan schools for priest’s daughters, where young women not only received a general education, but also learned Old Church Slavonic, singing, and the rules and history of the Church. Most often, the priest’s wife organized the parish’s charitable efforts. Women came to her for advice and compassion. At the same time, she was obligated to run the household irreproachably in order to free her husband from all concerns and allow him to fully devote himself to his profession. In general, there were fewer parishes than potential priests. Also, not all children of the clergy wanted to have the same fate as their fathers. Those who didn’t go to seminary, or were expelled from there, were excluded from the clergy. So were those who stayed with their father until the age of 15 without receiving the required education. They could then enter the petit bourgeoisie, peasantry, or merchant class. If a priest’s son didn’t have any other prospects, he was sent into the army. Upon joining the civil service, children of priests had the same rights as nobles. The children of clergy made up a large portion of the so-called raznochintsy, a social group that had a great influence on Russian history and culture, which was made up of educated individuals who lacked either nobility or sufficient material means from their families. They could depend only upon their hands and head. The Peasantry. An Ancient World in a New Time Among the peasantry, the concept of “family” extended beyond a married couple and their children. As a rule, their families were very large, with several generations living in a single hut: the elderly parents, their sons (both single and married), the sons’ families, and any unmarried daughters. This meant that, discounting young children, there might be 12 to 20 people in a hut. This family was built on the principle of strict hierarchy and patriarchy. The domestic work in the house was directed by the “mistress”—usually the mother-in-law, who ordered about the women in the house, especially any young and inexperienced daughters-in-law. After the mother-in-law’s death, her title and responsibilities would pass on to the wife of the eldest son. This set-up led to a whole range of family conflicts, but it was very often impossible to leave and live on one’s own for economic and administrative reasons. (Sometimes a landowner would directly forbid such moves. This made it easier to conduct a census and gather drafted soldiers, while also avoiding the need to divide the livestock.) No one gave a thought about the psychological problems that could result from this overcrowding, and peasants virtually spent their whole lives being watched by other people, including children. This meant that the adults’ sexual lives, their arguments, and difficult moments were not hidden from the children. A peasant’s life depended on the yearly cycle of farm labor. Every family member, including the youngest, had household obligations, which they needed to perform to their fullest abilities. During harvest times, during times of sowing or reaping, only very young children or enfeebled old folks stayed home, even on the hottest days. Children learned to work from a very early age. The Russian peasant household could not afford to feed someone who didn’t work, so everyone labored. Little girls began to weave and spin at the age of six, and by the age of ten or twelve they were capable workers and began to amass a dowry of linen, towels, shirts, and dresses. Young boys learned to control an axe, to work the land, and to handle horses. If a village was known for one industry or another, the children learned it from a young age: it never hurt for the household to have an extra kopeck. Education in peasant families was primarily devoted to professional habits, to religious studies (the most widespread prayers and stories from Scripture), and to the ethical norms of peasant life. Village life was based upon unwritten laws—a large number of customs and superstitions that were regarded seriously. Old men and women told their children fairy tales, local stories, interesting anecdotes, and various legends; they taught them how to act in the most varied situations. Virtually every event or activity in the lives of villagers was accompanied by a whole range of superstitions, folk sayings, and relevant stories—and in this way, the children took in the organic, half-Christian and half-pagan, worldview that characterized the Russian peasantry for centuries. When bathing their children, feeding them, massaging their limbs, or rocking them to sleep, mothers, grandmothers, and older sisters always recited poems or sang songs and lullabies, and so they would have to remember and repeat rhymed lines. Literacy was not widespread in the villages, but all necessary information was communicated from generation to generation, so that it would be wrong to call peasant children uneducated. Unfortunately, childhood mortality was extremely high in peasant families. Overcrowding, the lack of sanitation, the absence of proper medical help, and poor supervision of children—all these things contributed to the fact that on 3 or 4 out of the 8-13 children born to a peasant family would survive to adulthood. Death was not something at all unusual in peasant existence, and they mostly responded to it with total equanimity. Sudden or unnatural deaths frightened them, but they didn’t perceive death from illness or old age as a tragedy. Village women were married off at a young age—they could be betrothed at the age of 16. Grooms were generally a couple years older than the brides, but they could also be younger if the marriage were in the interest of the household (for instance, if it could make a tie to a rich family). In comparison to noble daughters, young peasant women enjoyed unlimited freedom. Gatherings with young men, strolls, conversations—even premarital relations were not seen as especially sinful; they were even accepted in some areas on the condition that the traditional wedding “crown covers everything.” But women, and only women, were punished harshly for marital affairs. Fathers and husbands had complete control over their wives and children; their word was law. Nonetheless, societal powers could interfere in family affairs if a man terribly abused his power or neglected his responsibilities as head of the family. The well-balanced structure of the peasant world was based on deeply archaic principles: it would be very difficult for someone of today to understand how it was possible to live in a19th-century village, just as a peasant who made his way into a major city would have been at a total loss for how to live in this giant anthill. If the nobles and landowners knew the common people and could come to an understanding with them, many intellectuals and populists were completely unfamiliar with the real Russian peasantry. Everything changed after the October Revolution. But that’s a whole other story. Source: Russkiy Mir
A new analysis of NASA's Viking mission to Mars, which happened about 30 years ago, shows we may have encountered life on Mars back then, and that we accidentally killed it. They argue that the scientists assumed in the 70s that any form of life would be based on water, but now we know that life doesn't always need water: Since the Viking missions, he noted, bacteria and other microbes have been found in extremely hot and chemically toxic environments. Some of these "extremophiles" -- found in hellish places such as undersea volcanoes -- actually thrive on chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide that are hostile to most other living creatures. A previously confusing finding on Mars by the Viking Landers was evidence of chemical oxidation. Scientists at the time assumed this meant the Martian surface was a highly reactive place, but further missions to Mars failed to find any evidence of oxidative chemistry. Schulze-Makuch and Houtkooper suggest that the hydrogen peroxide detected by Viking could have come from killing Martian microbes that, like some peculiar creatures on Earth, use hydrogen peroxide the same way humans use water.
Dr. Maria Montessori, the creator of what is called “the Montessori Method of education,” developed an approach to education with the fundamental belief that a child learns best within a social environment that supports and respects each child’s natural development to give them the academic and life skills they need. It’s comprehensive, time tested, and works with children from all types of backgrounds and environments. Our typical day begins promptly at 8:30 am when we line up for morning circle. During circle we take roll, do our morning stretches, go through the days of the week and months of the year. We also count and do a different phonic sound each day. After circle we move onto job time. Our children are curious, creative, and have a great sense of wonder. That is why the Montessori classroom is designed around the child. Small, child sized tables and chairs allow children to feel in control of their work and environment. A child’s work (or jobs) refers to a learning activity or set of Montessori materials. It includes direct and indirect aims, control of error, points of interests, and extensions. Work in the classroom mostly consists of one- or two-person activities. The Practical Life activities are the traditional works of the family and home. They allow children to gain independence and self-discipline, develop gross and fine motor skills, build concentration, as well as indirectly prepare for math and writing. Maria Montessori observed that children prefer real work over imaginary work and real, child-sized tools are used. The Sensorial work covers every quality that care be perceived by the senses. The purpose and aim of Sensorial wok is for the child to acquire clear, conscious, information and to be able to then make classifications in the environment. The Sensorial and Practical Life work is unique to the Montessori classroom. The Mathematics materials provide a visual introduction to numbers while preparing the child to progress to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The Language materials begin with phonetic sounds of letters and allow him to progress at his own speed to word construction and eventually to writing and reading. The Art, Geography, Music, and Science materials allow the child to expand his range of interests and to develop his creativity and self-expression. With Grace and Courtesy– children are in a sensitive period for learning good manners and becoming aware of being part of a community. Common courtesies such as saying please and thank you, greeting visitors, serving food, holding the door open and pushing in chairs are presented as lessons to the children.
Author: Sarah Kearns Editors: Whit Froehlich, Ada Hagan, and Irene Park The interior of a cell is inherently complex with a myriad of processes going on all at once. Despite the clean images that are commonly shown in diagrams and textbooks, the parts inside are more of a whirlwind of structural components, proteins, and products (see Figure 1). Because of its complexity, trying to figure out what’s going on within a whole cell is difficult. So instead, researchers look at parts of a cell and try to piece the puzzle back together. One way to study a part of a cell is called the in vitro approach, which uses biological components taken outside of their cellular system, such as on a culture dish. Even though findings from these in vitro experiments show meaningful results, they might be too simple to be reasonable or applicable to larger systems like tissues or a whole organism. However, if the in vitro studies are promising, researchers will turn to in vivo approaches to study the processes in a living organism, such as cells and mice. But many times the in vivo experiment involves lysing, or bursting, the cell. This disruption could destroy the very processes that we are trying to study. As the cells are being torn apart, we could be disrupting the cellular components (e.g. protein-protein interactions) important to these processes. Is there a way to study a living cell without lysing it? Nano- and Micro- Technologies Such concerns have led to the invention of new methods and technologies to study cellular contents without destroying them. One technique aims to collect small quantities from the cell for non-destructive monitoring by using nanostraws, which are small hollow cylinders that are 150nm in diameter. This is almost a thousand times thinner than a width of a single human hair. Researchers at Stanford University have used the nanostraws to penetrate the cell membrane and extract picoliters (trillionths of a liter) of cellular components. This sampling system, called nanostraw extraction (NEX), works not unlike a CapriSun. A small straw is inserted without damaging the rest of the package, but instead of slurping up all the juice, only a very small amount, on the order of picoliters, is collected (see Figure 2). Nanostraws attempt to mimic the biological process of nutrition transport between cells. Within our bodies, there is a network of gates, called gap junctions, that act as channels to permit cell-to-cell transfer of materials like ions or small molecules. Instead of exchanging contents with the cell, nanostraws remove the materials for study. When comparing cell contents from NEX experiments with lysed-cell experiments, the Stanford researchers found 90% similarity between samples, demonstrating that NEX can be a great alternative for studying cells without lysing them. Here at the University of Michigan, a similar non-damaging probing system is being developed to measure the levels of neurotransmitters within the brains of living organisms. Micrometer probes, which are slightly larger than nanostraws, are placed inside of the brain of a mouse to monitor its chemical levels in real time. This high-sensitivity probe can detect up to 27 neurotransmitters at once – in a living mouse, while it is moving! The probe works by microdialysis, which uses passive diffusion to collect small molecules like neurotransmitters. Passive diffusion is the movement of particles from a high concentration to a low concentration. Because the tube is typically only filled with water or buffer with no neurotransmitters, the neurotransmitter concentration is higher in the brain—causing the neurotransmitters to pass through the dialysis membrane pores and into the tube. This technology has been used to measure neurotransmitter levels within the brain, and researchers can then determine the relationship between neuronal activity and behavior. For example, it can be used to track how chemical levels change based on eating, which then explain the brain’s response. The current applications of this technique are primarily for animal studies, but because it’s non-invasive, it’s increasingly being used in humans to monitor small biological molecules. Currently, the technology measures neurotransmitters like dopamine or serotonin, amino acids, and molecules involved with energy metabolism, like glucose or pyruvate. Nanostraws and micrometer probes, though they still need improvement, are novel ways to study cells and tissues without destroying them. Using these techniques could lead to more accurate analyses by eliminating concerns about cellular metabolites being destroyed in the experimental process. The techniques also grant the ability to repeatedly test the same organism, and even the same cell. This real-time approach allows researchers to study cellular processes continuously rather than using different samples and assuming that what happens in one cell also happens in another cell. The technology could be applicable in many fields of research, including drug research. For instance, researchers can monitor how a drug directly alters cellular processes over time, allowing for more precise improvement in dosing regimens to maintain suitable drug levels. About the author Read all posts by Sarah here. Figure 2: Sarah Kearns. Adapted from A. Kittermen in Science. Figure 3: Used with Permission from Kent Berridge, LSA Psychology Department
Satellite, Artificial, a man-made object that orbits the earth, the moon, the sun, or any other celestial body. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union's Sputnik I became the first man-made object to be placed in orbitan event that ushered in the space age. The advent of the space age had a profound influence on education in the United States. The science content of high school curricula was modernized, and advanced study in engineering and the sciences received new emphasis. Later, there was a widening exploration into the methods and principles of teaching, to enable students to cope with the rapidly changing and expanding technological aspects of society. Politically, the ability to orbit ever heavier and more complex satellites immediately became a matter of prestige among nations, particularly the United States and the Soviet Union. The concepts of international law were extended to space, and many political questions were raised. Some of these questions, such as the banning of nuclear weapons in space, were settled, but other issues, such as the development of weapons to destroy satellites in space, remain unresolved. Satellites have important applications in communications and meteorology. Satellites are also important in the study of some of the most challenging problems of pure science, such as the origin of the earth and, indeed, of the whole universe. The developments of space science have also provided society with direct benefits in the form of what has been called technological falloutthat is, inventions and processes that were originally developed for the space program (or in an unsuccessful attempt to solve a problem for the space program) and later became useful in other applications. For example, metallized plastic film developed for an early artificial satellite called Echo later found use as a material for camping equipment, food packaging, and winter clothing. One unique application is as a lightweight emergency blanket that can protect a person against freezing temperatures, yet when folded is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket.
Author – Wricha Mishra Our dependence on fossil fuels has vastly increased levels of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere, causing global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change considers CO2 removal technologies to be the need of the hour. Technologies to capture carbon dioxide have been around since the 1970s, but they had not gained commercial acceptance due to high costs. Initially, these technologies only focused on carbon capture and storage (CCS), but some recent innovations have introduced another carbon capture & utilization technology, where carbon emissions are turned into something useful. Particularly in India where carbon emissions are still rising, carbon capture & utilization technologies have great potential in reducing emissions in steel, cement, coal and other energy-intensive industries. Experts have deemed carbon capture to be as important as renewable energy today. They estimate that capturing usable CO2 can mitigate 5-10% of the world’s emissions from coal. Although this is not huge in itself, it could give steady benefits in the long run. Further, the carbon credit system has made this technology even more promising since carbon emissions saved by one company can be sold to another. This provides double the incentive for companies to adopt this eco-friendly carbon capture & utilization technology. A lot of efforts are being taken in Canada, Germany and Netherlands to introduce carbon capture technology in their industries, but there are very few activities in India. CO2 capture by Carbon Clean Solutions Two IIT undergraduates, Aniruddha Sharma and Prateek Bumb realized this huge market for carbon removal technology and decided to work on it. They created a company named Carbon Clean Solutions for developing a technology to capture CO2 from industrial flue gases. Their technology uses proprietary solvents to dissolve the CO2 present in gaseous effluents. In, most carbon capture technologies, the exhaust gases are treated with monoethanolamine (MEA) to selectively remove CO2 from the mixture. When the MEA- CO2 mixture is heated, pure CO2 is released which can be used as a raw material. However, MEA is highly corrosive so building a plant is costly and requires high maintenance. Carbon Clean Solutions technology uses a new chemical catalyst called CDR-Max, which is far more efficient and less expensive than MEA. Thus, this chemical reaction requires lesser energy to capture CO2. The results from the testing revealed that 90% of the CO2 from the effluents could be easily removed through their technology. The captured carbon can be sold to chemical plants that require CO2 as a raw material. Aniruddha Sharma and Prateek Bumb presented their innovation in the IIT IDEAS competition won the third prize. soon they got a mentor who gave them the required seed capital with which they founded Carbon Clean Solutions. They have partnered with the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai and set up a pilot plant. Currently, Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals, EON Benelux, Netherlands, and Solvay Chemicals, India are using Carbon Clean Solutions’ technology to produce soda ash from carbon dioxide. Kaalink by Graviky Labs A Bengaluru based company found a way to tackle the air pollution problem by separating the carbon soot from the particulate matter and using it to make ink. Graviky Labs, which was founded by MIT Media Lab alumnus Anirudh Sharma with Nikhil Kaushik and Nitesh Kadyan, came up with the idea of converting vehicular exhaust into ink. The technology called ‘Kaalink’ captures carbon-based exhaust particles even before it is released into the environment. The Kaalink adaptor can be fit onto diesel generators, chimney stacks, vehicle tailpipes and biogas burning chimneys. The captured carbon goes through rounds of purification and chemical processes to finally form a variety of paints and inks. From this carbon powder, Graviky Labs developers produce ‘Air-Ink’, 100% carbon-neutral ink manufactured by the upcycling of carbon. Around 45 minutes of air pollution can be captured into 30 ml of ink! Graviky has partnered with International artists to cover walls of cities with street art made using their upcycled ink. StrataEnviro’s Air Pollution Controllers Strata Enviro is a Pune-based company that manufactures and installs outdoor air pollution controllers in public places. Strata Enviro was founded by Amol Chaphekar in 2016. This innovation by StrataEnviro Pvt Ltd consists of outdoor air pollution controller units that filter polluted air. These units have been installed for free at heavily polluted areas such as industries, traffic junctions, fuel pumps and airports. The units are internet-enabled and they can suck in polluted air to filter out particulate matter, smog, odour, etc. The pollution controller unit provides a display for the sponsor at the top of the unit, which ensures that the unit’s maintenance is taken care of. It is currently being used in 100 cities across India and rapidly expanding its niche.
About this postcard Atitlan means "at the water" in Nahuatl. Lake Atitlán is the deepest lake in Central America with a maximum depth of about 340 metres (1,120 ft) with an average depth of 220 metres (720 ft). Its surface area is 130.1 km2 (50.2 sq mi). It is approximately 12 x 5 km with around 20 km3 of water. Atitlán is technically an endorheic lake, feeding into two nearby rivers rather than draining into the ocean. It is shaped by deep surrounding escarpments and three volcanoes on its southern flank. The lake basin is volcanic in origin, filling an enormous caldera formed by an eruption 84,000 years ago.
A smile may be a “window to our soul,” but it’s also a window to our mental and physical well-being. On average, adults smile under two dozen times per day while a child may smile up to 400 times a day. While kids experience the same gamut of emotions that adults do, genuine smiles come more naturally to our children. We want our kids to live joyful and amazing lives. We long to prepare them to face the world in ways that allow them to shine. In order to do so, it’s vital we take care of their dental health–and, we need to take care of our own teeth, too. So, where do we start? When we’re afraid to show off our smiles, what does that say about our mental and physical well-being? Or, if our grins reveal yellow or decaying teeth, how might that impact our lives? How can smiling improve overall health? A child may feel insecure about their teeth and hide their smile from those around them. This insecurity may spill into their academic performance and keep them from interactive extracurricular activities that may be vital to their social development and overall health. If we empower kids to feel confident in their smiles, we lend to the betterment of their lives as well. If a child’s smile reveals unhealthy teeth, this also may explain why they experience other mental and physical health issues. Let’s take a look at how smiles make a statement about our overall health, and how smiling more can positively impact our life. Smiling reduces stress in children and adults In 2012, Psychological Science conducted a study on the health benefits of smiling. In the course of the study, 169 participants were asked to perform stressful tasks while forcing certain facial expressions. The researchers found that participants who were told to hold a Duchenne smile–a smile which engages mouth and eye muscles–recovered from stress far more quickly than those who held neutral or “standard” smiles (smiles which only engage mouth muscles). Smiling participants also had lower heart rates after the completion of the stressful tasks and a less intense feeling of stress, even if they didn’t feel happier after the study. Similarly, a 2009 study on facial expressions from Oxford found that smiling can actually produce happiness and reduce stimulation to the amygdala–our brain’s center for processing fear and anger. And in a study out of UC Berkeley, researchers were able to correctly predict the overall success and well-being of alumni solely based on their smiles in yearbook photos–the wider the smile, the more successful the subjects of the study. It may feel counterintuitive to smile when we’re stressed, or to help our children to smile more often–but science speaks to the positive results. Along with signifying the state of our dental health, our smiles are connected to alleviating our stress and anxiety levels. Smiles can show warning signs of disease and illness When smiles reveal yellowed teeth, chipped teeth, or teeth with thin enamel, this can indicate serious dental and overall health issues. Untreated teeth infections like cavities or abscesses can spread throughout the body and cause heart problems or even sepsis. Chipped teeth can expose sensitive nerve-endings and lead us or our children away from nutrient-rich foods that can improve our overall health. If flossing isn’t included in our family’s dental hygiene routines, gum disease could become a major issue. According to the CDC, kids with poor dental health tend to accrue more school absences and earn lower grades than kids with healthy teeth. The CDC also lists tooth decay as a top chronic childhood disease. Often the result of untreated cavities, tooth decay can lead to developmental issues in children–including speaking and learning. Tooth decay may also prevent people from ingesting vital fruits and vegetables. Regular dental cleanings, daily flossing, and sugar-free diets can help prevent tooth decay. At Ashburn Children’s Dentistry, we have been growing healthy faces for over 16 years. We believe that teeth health can have a huge impact on children’s overall well being –physically, socially, and academically. We aim to diagnose and resolve the root of any dental issue, rather than treat the symptoms alone. Contact us for a virtual consultation today. Smiles can help boost immunity Another cool perk of smiling is that it can help boost our protection against physical illness. Did you know that smiling more each day can actually boost your immune system? Yes, scientists have discovered that smiles impact our overall physical health, too. When we smile, our bodies relax and release neurotransmitters that improve the function of our immune systems. If our kids tend to frown often, or don’t want to smile for fear of embarrassment, we may find they get sick more frequently than their smiling friends. We should intentionally bring fun and joy into their lives to help coax those smiles to the surface. Simple smiles can help lead our families to improved health. You can also read more about another easy way to increase your immunity here. How to improve our family’s smiles Our smiles can tell much about our overall mental and physical health. By taking the following steps, we can help to improve our smiles: - Regularly schedule dental cleanings for ourselves and our children–at least once every six months. - Create a regular dental care routine for ourselves and our children: By brushing our teeth at least twice per day (after breakfast and before bed) and incorporating flossing into our dental care regimen, we can help prevent cavities, gum disease, and tooth decay. - Avoid foods high in sugar content. Sugary foods can erode tooth enamel and cause cavities. - Practice smiling when negative situations arise. Don’t discount anxiety and stress, but remember that smiles can actually help ease these struggles. It’s important to instill confidence in our family members to help them to feel comfortable breaking out into genuine grins. And remember, if we take care of our smiles, we can live better, healthier lives.
The Banded Urchin has a dark green central body with long, sharp spines, sometimes reaching 20 cm in length. The spines have hundreds of alternating light and dark bands. Some spines are strong, thick, and hollow, whereas others are shorter and finer. During the day it often hides in rocky crevices, and in the wild, can be found in large aggregations with other Banded Urchins. The aquarium should have stable rock work and some shaded areas. During the night, the Banded Urchin comes out to feed. Juveniles generally eat algae, and the adults are carnivores, preying on invertebrates. Smaller fish, such as the Banggai Cardinal, will often seek shelter among its spines during the day, leaving their protection at night to eat. Use care when handling the Banded Urchin, the spines are venomous; the sting from there spines are similar to a bee sting. In the aquarium, food can be placed near its spines or even on them. The spines have the ability to transport the food to its mouth. It will not tolerate copper-based medications and needs low nitrate levels. If it begins to shed its spines, it is a sign of poor water quality.
Background: The Northern Red-legged Frog (Rana aurora) is distributed from Northern California to Southwest British Columbia. The species occurs from sea level to about 2,000 feet elevation in Whatcom County. Adult and Juvenile Description: The frogs are brown to reddish-brown and are usually spotted to flecked with small ink black blotches on the back and sides. Dark banding is common across the legs. The skin is smooth and a dorsolateral fold is present from behind the eye and extending most of the length of back. A dark mask is typically present with a light stripe along the upper jaw extending almost to the shoulder. This frog has longer legs than the closely related Oregon Spotted Frog and typically escapes threats with a series of rapid, powerful leaps away from or toward the water. The underside of the hind legs are colored red (the color appears to be under the skin rather than on the surface), except for small juveniles, on which the undersides of the legs may be light pink or honey colored. The red color occasionally occurs on the belly and sides on mature individuals. The groin is mottled with yellowish-green patches and prominent black blotches. The eyes are set to the sides of the head, compared to spotted frogs which have eyes oriented towards the top of the head. Females can reach up to 4 inches in length and males to at least 2 3/4 inches. The advertisement call of this frog is very soft (described as chuckling, clucks, or grunts) and the male is often underwater when calling so it is not always audible. Northern Red-legged Frogs sometimes vocalize out of season in autumn. Larval Description: Tadpoles are sandy brown to dark brown in color on the upper body with a creamy to a dark mottled belly. In early stages of development, the upper tail fin is tall and extends to the middle of the back of the body, giving it a sailfin appearance. Later in development, the tail is proportionally longer and the upper fin is not high. The tadpoles can reach four inches total length. Egg Mass Description: The egg masses are moderately large (softball size) and loose, with distinct individual egg capsules. Egg laying occurs from mid February to mid March in Whatcom County. Egg masses are typically placed in vegetated areas of wetlands at depths from about 18 inches to just below the surface and attached to vegetation. Later in development the masses often float to the surface. The breeding sites can be permanently or temporary inundated, but the wetlands usually maintain water into August. Breeding begins when water temperatures reach 6C. Habitat: This species inhabits woodlands and riparian areas outside the breeding season. Northern Red-legged Frogs are excellent jumpers and will move quickly to escape when approached. They do not vocalize when they leap (unlike juvenile bullfrogs). For more information on this frog:
Mind & Perception Mind & Perception is a facet of the Exploratorium. The resources will supplement science and social studies. The reading level is appropriate for students in grades 6-12, but many of the activities can be used with younger students. Memory features a sheep brain dissection, five online exhibits, and articles and lectures. One of the online exhibits, Don't Forget! Playing Games with Memory, includes a sequence of four activities to test memory and suggests ways to help you remember things. The first activity offers a familiar memory game (20 things to remember) in an online solitaire version for individual students and a “Party Game” version to use with small groups or full class. Illusion Songs is a blog that highlights auditory illusions found in indigenous folk practices, popular music, and scientific research. A recent entry is for Silbo Gomero, a whistled language of the Canary Islands that facilitates communication over long distances and is taught in local schools. Mind: The Science, Art, and Experience of Our Inner Lives has two sections, Play and Ponder. Play has six activities. One of them, Divided Attention, challenges players to track orbs. Players can choose one to seven orbs. Ponder has four activities. One of them, Our Stuff, Our Stories, includes an article on adolescents and their important possessions and a lesson plan. An activity presents twenty items from twenty different people and stories explaining their significance. Young in Mind is an article that explores the science of memory and aging. Along the way, the article suggests techniques for improving memory. Mind Lecture Series includes five video lectures and abbreviated audio versions that examine creativity, emotion, autism and the animal mind, and humor and laughter.
Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman and senator from Massachusetts during the period leading up to the Civil War. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests. Webster's increasingly nationalistic views, and his effectiveness as a speaker, made him one of the most famous orators and influential Whig leaders of the Second Party System. He was one of the nation's most prominent conservatives, leading opposition to Democrat Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party. He was a spokesman for modernization, banking and industry, but not for the common people who composed the base of his enemies in Jacksonian Democracy. "He was a thoroughgoing elitist, and he reveled in it," says biographer Remini. During his 40 years in national politics, Webster served in the House of Representatives for 10 years, in the Senate for 19 years, and was appointed the Secretary of State under three presidents Webster took part in several key U.S. Supreme Court cases which established important constitutional precedents that bolstered the authority of the federal government. As Secretary of State, he negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which established the definitive eastern border between the United States and Canada. Chiefly recognized for his Senate tenure, Webster was a key figure in the institution's "Golden days". Webster was considered the Northern member of a trio known as the "Great Triumvirate", with his colleagues Henry Clay from the West and John C. Calhoun from the South. His "Reply to Hayne" in 1830 was regarded as "the most eloquent speech ever delivered in Congress."
Dr. Artee Nanji and the team of eye care professionals at Primary Eye Care in Arlington and South Main have the experience and clinical knowledge required to diagnose and treat myopia. What is Myopia? Also known as nearsightedness, myopia is a common refractive error in which close-up objects look clear but distant objects are blurry. Myopia is caused by a cornea (front surface of the eye) that is too steeply curved, or by the front surface of the eye being too long. When this happens, light is focused in front of the retina instead of on it, and this causes distorted vision. Myopia can be inherited, so if one or both parents have myopia, then their child may have it, too. Myopia is often diagnosed in children between the ages of 8 and 12, and when this happens, myopia can be progressive, meaning it worsens, as the child ages and grows throughout the teenage years. There are three types of myopia: low, moderate, and high. Classified as “mild”, low myopia means the prescription for eyeglasses is -3.00D or less. People who have low myopia may be able to engage in close work and activities without the use of eyeglasses but will need them to drive or see objects in the distance. Moderate myopia means the prescription for eyeglasses is anywhere between -3.25D to -6.00D. Classified as “severe” myopia, high myopia means the prescription for eyeglasses is over -6.00D. People who have moderate to high myopia will need to wear eyeglasses or contact lenses all the time, since they may only be able to see objects very close to their face. If you don’t have myopia, it can be hard to imagine what the world looks like for people with myopia. To see what the world looks like for people with low, moderate, and high myopia, look at this myopia simulator. Treating Progressive Myopia Children are typically prescribed eyeglasses or contact lenses to correct their vision upon diagnosis of myopia. While some cases of myopia stabilize by the time the child becomes an adult, most of the time the myopia progressively worsens as the child ages because the eyeball shape continues to grow and impact the child’s sight. Children with progressive myopia will experience eye strain, blurred vision, headaches, and fatigue, particularly after looking at objects in the distance for extended periods. People who have myopia are at a higher risk to develop serious eye conditions and diseases later in life, including detached retina, glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration. Due to the negative impact myopia has on eye health and quality of life, it’s important to get regular eye exams to screen for myopia. At Primary Eye Care in Arlington and South Main, Dr. Artee Nanji will create a customized treatment plan for patients with progressive myopia. She may recommend the use of MiSight® 1 day soft contact lenses, FDA approved to slow the progression of myopia in children ages 8 – 12. Learn more about myopia and MiSight® 1 day soft contact lenses. Our optometrist will perform various tests to check your eyes or your child’s eyes, determine your overall eye health, and screen for myopia. If myopia is discovered, your doctor will guide you through the proper treatment plan for correcting the issue and preventing further progression. Interested in learning more about myopia management? Schedule an eye exam at Primary Eye Care and let us know you want to learn more about myopia management. Our expert doctor and team will help you find the right solution for your needs or your child’s needs and support you in your pursuit of optimal eye health.
Critical development in young learners stems from outdoor play. A study on the importance of outdoor play and its impact on young learners was recently conducted by researchers at a school in Portugal. The study introduced outdoor learning and play into the school’s standard curriculum and analyzed its impact on student achievement and behavior. Findings revealed outdoor play promoted learning and development, enabled children to take healthy risks, and gave them more opportunity to socialize with one another. Promotes Learning & Development When children play outside, they learn to navigate their surroundings, overcome obstacles, reach goals and use their imaginations. School playground equipment offers the ideal environment for children to reach developmental milestones. Plus, children who play outside on the playground are better behaved in the classroom. Physical activity on school playground equipment improves young learners’ ability to retain information at school. Nearly 2000 principals were surveyed across the country on the impact of increased physical activity in U.S. schools. An overwhelming majority reported that children were significantly better behaved in the classroom after playing outdoors on school playground equipment versus those who had not. The survey also reported that outdoor play significantly improved students’ academic achievement. Enables Healthy Risk Taking In addition to aiding learning and development, outdoor play enables healthy risk taking among children. Recess provides the optimal time for children to take healthy risks. Playground equipment that is compliant with ASTM and CPSC standards has been tested for safety. As long as children are using playground equipment appropriately, it is a safe place for children to discover their physical abilities and limitations. By taking healthy risks, children are able to build self-confidence and strengthen decision-making skills. When children are allowed to play freely on the playground, they engage more with one another. Imaginative and collaborative play helps children develop friendships, a key part of child development. Increased socialization enables children to negotiate and collaborate with one another to reach a common goal. The use of school playground equipment has been shown to boost child development and learning, resulting in improved academic achievement. Take steps to improve attentiveness in the classroom at your school. Browse our selection of playgrounds and recreational equipment today!
Holy Week is the week before Easter, a period which includes the religious holidays of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Holy week does not include Easter Sunday. When did Holy Week get started? The first recording of a Holy Week observance was made by Egeria, a Gallic woman who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about 381-384. In an account of her travels she wrote for a group of women back in Spain, Egeria describes the Palm Sunday she observed in Jerusalem: . . . all the children who are [gathered at the top of the Mount of Olives], including those who are not yet able to walk because they are too young and therefore are carried on their parents’ shoulders, all of them bear branches, some carrying palms, others, olive branches. And the bishop is led in the same manner as the Lord once was led. What is Palm Sunday? Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four canonical Gospels. In many Christian churches, Palm Sunday includes a procession of the assembled worshipers carrying palms, representing the palm branches the crowd scattered in front of Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem. Because of the difficulty in some parts of the world of procuring palms for Palm Sunday, leaves from yew, willow, olive, or other native trees are frequently used. The Sunday was often designated by the names of these trees, as Yew Sunday, or by the general term Branch Sunday. What is Spy Wednesday? An archaic and infrequently used name for the Wednesday before Easter is “Spy Wednesday”, named for Judas’ becoming a spy for the Sanhedrin. What is Maundy Thursday? Maundy Thursday is the day before Good Friday. The term “Maundy” is derived from the Latin word mandatum (commandment). The term refers to the commandment given by Jesus at the Last Supper: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34) What is Good Friday? Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The historical origins of the “Good” in Good Friday remain unclear, though some entomologists believe the term “good” is an archaic form of “holy.” The holiday is also known as known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, and Black Friday. What is Holy Saturday? In Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, Holy Saturday commemorates the “harrowing of hell,” the time between his Crucifixion and his Resurrection when Christ is believed to have descended into hell. Some Protestants, however, don’t believe that Scripture warrants believing the claim, found in the Apostle’s creed, that “[Christ] descended into hell.” As evangelical pastor-theologian John Piper says, “there is no textual basis for believing that Christ descended into hell.” What is the Paschal Triduum? Paschal Triduum is the period of three days that begins with the liturgy on the evening of Maundy Thursday (the vigil of Good Friday) and ends with evening prayer on Easter Sunday, the three-day period therefore from the evening of Maundy Thursday (excluding most of Thursday) to the evening of Resurrection Sunday. It recalls the passion, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, as portrayed in the canonical Gospels. Other terms for the holiday period are Easter Triduum, Holy Triduum, Paschal Triduum, or The Three Days. What does the term Easter mean? The Christian scholar Bede (673-735 AD, aka, the Venerable Bede) claimed in his bookDe Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre, a pagan goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Later scholars, however, claim that the term derives from the Anglo-Saxon word “oster”, meaning “to rise” or for their term for the Spring equinox, “Eostre.” Other posts in this series: What Just Happened with Russia and Ukraine? The Believer's Handbook: A Guide to the Christian Life was written as a guide for young Christians. It is "lucid, practical, a rich source of inspiration and guidance for the Christian life" according to Pastor William Buursma of Kalamazoo, Michigan
(THIS ARTICLE IS COURTESY OF THE ‘CIA FACTBOOK’) territorial sea – the sovereignty of a coastal state extends beyond its land territory and internal waters to an adjacent belt of sea, described as the territorial sea in the UNCLOS (Part II); this sovereignty extends to the air space over the territorial sea as well as its underlying seabed and subsoil; every state has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles; the normal baseline for measuring the breadth of the territorial sea is the mean low-water line along the coast as marked on large-scale charts officially recognized by the coastal state; where the coasts of two states are opposite or adjacent to each other, neither state is entitled to extend its territorial sea beyond the median line, every point of which is equidistant from the nearest points on the baseline from which the territorial seas of both states are measured; the UNCLOS describes specific rules for archipelagic states. contiguous zone – according to the UNCLOS (Article 33), this is a zone contiguous to a coastal state’s territorial sea, over which it may exercise the control necessary to: prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration, or sanitary laws and regulations within its territory or territorial sea; punish infringement of the above laws and regulations committed within its territory or territorial sea; the contiguous zone may not extend beyond 24 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured (e.g., the US has claimed a 12-nautical mile contiguous zone in addition to its 12-nautical mile territorial sea); where the coasts of two states are opposite or adjacent to each other, neither state is entitled to extend its contiguous zone beyond the median line, every point of which is equidistant from the nearest points on the baseline from which the contiguous zone of both states are measured. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) – the UNCLOS (Part V) defines the EEZ as a zone beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which a coastal state has: sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the waters superjacent to the seabed and of the seabed and its subsoil, and with regard to other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy from the water, currents, and winds; jurisdiction with regard to the establishment and use of artificial islands, installations, and structures; marine scientific research; the protection and preservation of the marine environment; the outer limit of the exclusive economic zone shall not exceed 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. continental shelf – the UNCLOS (Article 76) defines the continental shelf of a coastal state as comprising the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance; the continental margin comprises the submerged prolongation of the landmass of the coastal state, and consists of the seabed and subsoil of the shelf, the slope, and the rise; wherever the continental margin extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the baseline, coastal states may extend their claim to a distance not to exceed 350 nautical miles from the baseline or 100 nautical miles from the 2,500-meter isobath, which is a line connecting points of 2,500 meters in depth; it does not include the deep ocean floor with its oceanic ridges or the subsoil thereof. exclusive fishing zone – while this term is not used in the UNCLOS, some states (e.g., the United Kingdom) have chosen not to claim an EEZ, but rather to claim jurisdiction over the living resources off their coast; in such cases, the term exclusive fishing zone is often used; the breadth of this zone is normally the same as the EEZ or 200 nautical miles.
Estimates of annual carbon loss from arctic tundra ecosystems are based nearly entirely on measurements taken during the growing season in part because of methodological limitations but also reflecting the assumption that respiration during winter is near zero. Measurements of CO2 flux during winter, however, indicate significant amounts of carbon loss from tundra ecosystems throughout the 240-day nongrowing season. In our study during the 1996 and 1997 nongrowing seasons, winter carbon losses ranged from 2.0 g CO2 m−2 season−1 in moist dwarf shrub communities to 97 g CO2 m−2 season−1 in natural snowdrift communities, with an average wintertime CO2 efflux of 45 g CO2 m−2 for all Low Arctic tundra communities (0.14 Pg CO2 yr−1worldwide). These measurements indicate that current estimates of annual carbon loss from tundra ecosystems are low. Inclusion of wintertime losses of CO2 into annual carbon budgets increases the annual carbon efflux of arctic tundra ecosystems by 17% and changes some ecosystems from net annual sinks to net sources of CO2 to the atmosphere.
A cochlear implant is an electronic prosthetic replacement for damaged cells in the inner ear. The implant is a small electronic device that can help "make" sound if you have severe or total hearing loss. The implant does the job of the damaged or absent nerve cells that in a normal ear make it possible to hear (auditory nerves). Cochlear implants can be programmed according to your specific needs and degree of hearing loss. Cochlear implants may help people with severe or total hearing loss in both ears who do not get any benefit from hearing aids. Cochlear implants have been shown to improve a person's ability to understand speech and speak clearly. Unlike hearing aids, cochlear implants do not make sounds louder but improve how well you hear sound. A cochlear implant consists of a: Microphone worn behind the ear, to pick up sound. Speech processor worn on the body. Some types may be worn behind the ear. Small device placed under the skin near the ear, with electrodes placed in the cochlea. The microphone picks up sound and sends it to the speech processor, which changes the sound to information the cochlear implant can understand. The implant then tells the nerves in the ear to send a message to the brain. The message is understood as sound. There are no tests to predict the level of benefit a particular individual will receive from a cochlear implant. The degree of improvement varies among individuals. However, most adults who receive a cochlear implant report many benefits that include improved communication ability and a personal sense of emotional well being. With the implant, and the appropriate post-operative training, most patients are able to improve their accuracy in understanding speech in combination with speechreading. The average patient is able to carry on a conversation on the telephone if he or she uses effective strategies to clarify what has been said to them. Almost all are able to differentiate environmental sounds and monitor the volume and quality of their own voice. Many patients report that they experience less stress communicating with family, friends, employers and co-workers; they feel the implant has had a positive effect on involvement in daily life and relationships. The specialists in the Adult Cochlear Implant Program in the Department of Otolaryngology at Washington University School of Medicine provide a comprehensive evaluation and treatment program for patients eighteen years and older. Candidates for a cochlear implant are those who are severely or profoundly hearing impaired in both ears (including those with nerve deafness). These individuals typically receive limited benefit from hearing aids and communicate using the limited auditory information they do receive in combination with speechreading (lipreading). The cochlear implant team includes skilled clinical, rehabilitative and research audiologists, two otolaryngologic surgeons, a neuropsychologist, a biomedical engineer and a medical secretary. The program has extensive experience in providing a thorough pre-surgical evaluation, performing the surgery, conducting the all important post surgical training and device programming that is critical to successful cochlear implant use, and coordinating all the administrative details. After surgery, speech therapy will help you make the most of your cochlear implant. Training in listening, language, and speech-reading skills (paying attention to people's gestures, facial expressions, posture, and tone of voice) also help you. Cochlear implants have a low rate of complications, which may include: Risks of surgery, such as infection and medicine that numbs your senses during surgery (general anesthesia). The implant moving out of its proper location. You may need a second surgery to relocate the implant. The implant not working. It may not work because it was made incorrectly or because of an injury to or problem within the ear. Twitching of the face (such as a tic) or not being able to move muscles in the face. This is uncommon and rarely permanent. The cochlear implant was invented about twenty five years ago to help severely to profoundly deaf persons communicate more easily. Thanks to extensive research and evolving technology the device has come to be accepted as a most valuable one for persons with this much hearing loss. Cochlear implants are recognized by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery (AAO- HNS) as an approved medical procedure for adults and children. They were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the mid-1980s and are covered by insurance policies, Medicare, Medicaid and Vocational Rehabilitation. There are now more than 60,000 individuals worldwide who have received cochlear implants.
Penguins are the most threatened group of seabirds after albatrosses. Although penguins are regularly captured in fishing gear, the threat to penguins as a group has not yet been assessed. We reviewed both published and grey literature to identify the fishing gear types that penguins are most frequently recorded in, the most impacted species and, for these susceptible species, the relative importance of bycatch compared to other threats. While quantitative estimates of overall bycatch levels are difficult to obtain, this review highlights that, of the world's 18 species of penguins, 14 have been recorded as bycatch in fishing gear and that gillnets, and to a lesser extent trawls, are the gear types that pose the greatest threats to penguins. Bycatch is currently of greatest concern for yellow-eyed Megadyptes antipodes(Endangered), Humboldt Spheniscus humboldti (Vulnerable) and Magellanic Spheniscus magellanicus penguins (Near Threatened). Penguins face many threats; reducing bycatch mortality in fishing gear will greatly enhance the resilience of penguin populations to threats from habitat loss and climate change that are more difficult to address in the short term. Additional data are required to quantify the true extent of penguin bycatch, particularly for the most susceptible species. In the meantime, it is crucially important to manage the fisheries operating within known penguin foraging areas to reduce the risks to this already threatened group of seabirds.
Lesson Two Marrakech Aims To know the writing technique of exposition. To learn the methods in developing an expository writing,esp. the use of examples. To appreciate the language features Teaching Contents 1. Exposition 2. George Orwell 2. Detailed study of the text Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author.While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. 1. Background information (15 min.) 2. Detailed study of the text (120 min.) 3. Structure analysis (15 min.) 4. Language appreciation (15 min.) 5. Exercises (15 min) Description -- deals with appearances and feelings Narration --- deals with events and experience Exposition --- deals with processes and relationships The key to a definition is concreteness. One has to give concrete facts to make a definition effective. We must have enough number of items to be listed. Then, if possible, arrange the items in the graded order of increasing importance. It's the simplest, the most common, best method. We have to follow a system consistently. The categories of division should be mutually exclusive. There should be no overlapping. One item can belong to one category and only one. We liken one thing to another by pointing out their similarities (comparison) We emphasize the difference between the two. (contrast) We may discuss the cause and effect of a historical event, its nature and its significance in history. The writer appeals to a reader's understanding with verifiable facts and valid information, explaining and interpreting that materials so that the reader will accept his point of view or explanation. Thus he must organize and develop his thought objectively and present it with honesty and completeness so that the reader will have confidence in what he is saying. 1. generally the writer makes a statement of the central thought or of his purpose quite early. This statement is sometimes called the "thesis", and may even be the title of the piece. 2. Sometimes the writer may first present and develop his facts and make his general statement as a conclusion at the end. It is an exposition, a political essay. Orwell leaves no doubt about his feelings concerning colonialism and its results. He has shown the reader how millions of people can be ignored and treated as less than human. 1. a word or group of words that is repeated over and over again, usually by more than one person.2. a religious prayer or song that is spoken or sung on only a very few notes so that there is not much variation in it. It's about this black kid growing up in the ghetto. ---- ghetto life in European cities ---- slums and ghettos --- symbolic of freedom 1) the living conditions of the Jews 2) the hard work the Jews do 3) biased attitude against the Jews 1. simple words, simple statements to convey deeper meaning 2. the use of rhetorical questions which is very effective in conveying his anger 3. terse, lucid prose style. 4. good diction
As of 2001, the most conspicuous fact about Nigeria's economy is that the corruption and mismanagement of its post-colonial governments has prevented the channeling of the country's abundant natural and human resources—especially its wealth in crude oil—into lasting improvements in infrastructure and the construction of a sound base for self-sustaining economic development. Thus, despite its abundant resources, Nigeria is poorer today than it was at independence in 1960. Still one of the less developed and poorer countries of the world, it has the potential to become a major economic power if the leaders resolve to learn from past mistakes and to harness the country's rich natural and human resources for a productive and sustained effort to promote economic development. Before the country was colonized by Britain, during the second half of the 19th century, the various nationality groups that currently make up Nigeria were largely an agricultural people. They were food self-sufficient and produced a variety of commodities that were exported overseas. British colonial administrators amalgamated (joined together) the nationality groups in 1914 into a larger economy for exploitation for the benefit of British industrial classes. Under colonial rule, Nigeria remained an agricultural country, exporting raw materials to Britain and importing from it finished goods. Therein lay the origins of the dependence of Nigerian economy on commodity markets of the industrialized Western world for its foreign exchange. While the industrialization of the country was discouraged, rudimentary foundations for a modern Nigerian economy, however, were laid. Colonial economic policies shaped future independent Nigeria's economy, particularly in marketing, labor supply, and investment. The process of colonial rule and formal economic exploitation ended in 1960 but left Nigeria a relatively strong but undiversified economy. Thereafter, Nigerians were poised to remedy this defect and to build a self-sustaining Nigerian economy comprising agricultural, industrial, and service sectors. From independence in 1960, the state took up the direction and planning of economic growth and development. Education was progressively expanded at all levels to reduce the rate of illiteracy and to provide the requisite skills and labor force for development. Infrastructure of roads and communication networks were constructed far beyond what was inherited from colonial rule. Hydroelectric dams were built to generate electricity. Secondary industries and automobile assembly plants were established to create more employment opportunities. Because of the paucity (small number) of indigenous (native or local) private capital, these activities were undertaken and financed by the government, often with foreign assistance from such countries as Britain and the United States. Foreign oil companies, such as Shell-BP, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, Agip, and Texaco, operate in partnership with the government in the oil sector, the mainstay of Nigeria's economy. The capital-intensive oil sector provides 95 percent of Nigeria's foreign exchange earnings and about 65 percent of its budgetary revenues. Because the established, government-owned industries and businesses were often inefficient and corrupt, productivity was low at best. In particular, mismanagement and corruption were endemic (characteristic of) in the successive governments and throughout the nation. However, the gravest problem was caused by the government's decision to stress the industrial sector above all others. Caught in a web of competing demands for scarce resources, the officials took the path of rapid, large-scale industrialization at the expense of the agricultural sector, as well as light manufacturing. They directed the bulk of investment capital towards the promotion of what Western advisers captioned "industrial take off." This decision to abandon the known—agriculture—for the unknown—rapid large-scale industrialization—was a fundamental error. The capital and the skill needed for rapid, large-scale industrialization were not sufficiently available. Thus, an unskilled workforce and insufficient funds severely handicapped the industrial sector. Also, Nigeria's neglect of the agricultural sector aggravated already problematic food shortages. Nigeria had raised enough food to meet domestic needs during its colonial period and in the decade following independence. However, it experienced food shortages in the 1970s and 1980s, which necessitated the importation of food from foreign countries. Among the imports were palm oil (from Malaysia), of which Nigeria had been the world's largest producer and exporter, and rice (from the United States) which was considered less nutritious than Nigerian brown rice. Once Africa's largest poultry producer, Nigeria lost that status because of inefficient corn production and a ban on the importation of corn. Furthermore, it is no longer a major exporter of cocoa, peanuts, and rubber. Several forces compounded the problems of the agricultural sector. The migration of labor from the rural areas to the urban centers reduced the traditional agricultural labor force. Ecological constraints such as poor soil, erosion, drought, and the absence of agricultural research added to the problem. Other constraints on agricultural production include the use of antiquated technology due to a lack of capital, the low status given to agriculture in the education of the youth, inefficient marketing, an inadequate transportation infrastructure, lack of refrigeration, trade restrictions, under-investment due to unavailability of credit, low prices, and unstable pricing policies which resulted in farmers literally subsidizing urban dwellers and other sectors of the economy. In addition to these handicaps, import constraints limit the availability of many agricultural and food-processing plants. In general, land tenure discourages long-term investment in technology and modern production techniques. The problem of food shortages and imports was addressed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the late 1970s the military government of Olusegun Obasanjo embarked upon "Operation Feed the Nation." His civilian successor, President Shehu Shagari, continued the program as the "Green Revolution." Both programs encouraged Nigerians to grow more food, and urged unemployed urban dwellers to return to the rural areas to grow food crops. The government provided farmers with fertilizers and loans from the World Bank. The food situation has stabilized, although Nigeria still imports food. A related problem which has not been completely resolved is the pollution of water in the Delta region and Ogoniland by oil companies. Water pollution disrupts farming efforts and has been a source of friction between farmers on one side and the national government and the oil companies on the other. The oil boom which Nigeria experienced in the 1970s helped the nation to recover rapidly from its civil war and at the same time gave great impetus to the government's program of rapid industrialization. Many manufacturing industries sprang up and the economy experienced a rapid growth of about 8 percent per year that made Nigeria, by 1980, the largest economy in Africa. The growth, however, was not sustained. The new oil wealth did little to reverse widespread poverty and the collapse of even basic infrastructure and social services. The iron and steel industry, started with the help of the Soviet Union, still has not achieved a satisfactory level of production. The oil boom also provoked a shortage of labor in the agricultural sector as members of the rural workforce migrated to jobs in the urban construction boom and a growing informal sector . When the price of crude oil fell and corruption and mismanagement still prevailed at all levels, the economy became severely depressed. The urban unemployment rate rose to 28 percent in 1992, and crime also increased as 31.4 percent of the population lived below the poverty line. Nigeria's debts mounted as administrators engaged in external borrowing and subsidized food and rice imports and gasoline prices. In the 1980s, economic realities forced Ibrahim Babangida's military regime to negotiate a loan with the World Bank and to reschedule Nigeria's external debts . His regime undertook an economic structural adjustment program (ESAP) to reduce Nigeria's dependence on oil and to create a basis for sustainable non-inflationary growth. However, external borrowing to shore up the economy created more problems than it alleviated. Much of the borrowed money never reached Nigeria. The portion that reached the country often went towards abandoned or nonperforming public sector projects. External loans escalated Nigeria's debts to US$30 billion during the Babangida regime and consumed external earnings in debt servicing . Similarly, the ESAP prescribed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) failed to advance the economy, and aggravated the problems of inflation and unemployment. It caused a reduction of state spending on education and health care. Continuing political instability due to Babangida's annulment of the presidential election results in June 1993 and the subsequent authoritarian rule of Sani Abacha (1993 to 1998) made the general economic situation worse. The gross corruption by the Abacha regime and its violations of people's fundamental rights turned Nigeria into an international pariah for 6 years, and thus discouraged foreign investment in the economy. Many industries and manufacturing companies could not obtain raw materials and closed down. Others operated under severe handicaps, including rampant power outages and refined petroleum scarcity. Not enough had been done in the years of plenty to diversify the economy or to sustain the development. Military coups (military overthrow of civilian governments) and political instability worsened the situation. There was considerable optimism in May 1999 when Oluseguan Obasanjo became Nigeria's civilian president. Many hoped that he would lift Nigeria from the verge of economic bankruptcy. One of Obasanjo's objectives to that purpose was to secure debt relief from Nigeria's foreign creditors. However, these creditors insisted that Nigeria's wealth of untapped resources provided the means for the country to pay off its debts, and refused to cancel its debts of US$30 billion. In spite of some opposition, Obasanjo embarked upon a program of privatizing some parastatals in order to reduce corruption, promote efficiency, and raise productivity. He introduced an anti-corruption bill which passed through the legislature, and recovered some of the revenues that had been stolen from the country and deposited in Western banks. The inflation rate , which was estimated at 12.5 percent at the start of his administration, was estimated at 6.6 percent in 2000. Significant exports of liquified natural gas started in 1999, and increased crude oil prices in 2000 provided his administration with additional revenues. So far, however, he has been unable to bring about economic recovery. Industrial capacity utilization appears to have diminished. Worse still, infrastructural facilities, including the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), continue to be in a state of disrepair. Expected massive inflow of foreign investment, on which the government had hinged its economic revival program, failed to materialize. This is in part because of the high cost of doing business in Nigeria and a lack of transparency in economic decision-making in the country. In addition to these realities, the unemployment situation in the country remains unchanged months after the restoration of civilian government. In fact, it has worsened among university graduates and ranged from 30 to 40 percent in 2000. Political uncertainties due to ethnic and religious conflicts between Muslims and Christians, and constant feuding between the president and the legislators aggravate the economic climate. Widespread armed robbery and a crime syndicate known locally as 419 prey on foreign nationals, further hindering foreign investment and tourism. The country's economy needs the collective efforts of the president and the National Assembly as well as more definite measures to address its ills in order to foster its recovery and growth. Currently, funds available to the government are insufficient to meet the needs of all sectors of the economy at once. External investors can contribute through long-term investment and joint ventures in Nigeria's large national market. Crude oil, the price of which rose sharply recently, remains a very considerable asset. Properly managed, it could provide a solid platform for more sustained Nigerian development and prosperity in the 21st century and beyond.
1D people lived in a 1D country. Everything in the country was one-dimensional, and everything was simple and clear: just one axis and two directions — forward and backward. Even a 1D world has problems, though; for instance, finding an exit from a maze. An idea of a 1D maze might seem weird to us, but not to 1D people. Escaping from such a maze is a hard and vital task for them. They solve this task in a following way. A 1D person chooses a direction: backward (decreasing his coordinate) or forward (increasing it), and then moves in this direction. If he finds an exit, he escapes the maze immediately; if he encounters an obstacle, he reverses his direction and continues walking. In order to feel the hard life of 1D residents, try to implement a function that will compute a distance a 1D person will walk before finding an exit, based on the initial direction. The first line contains space-separated integers n and x — the number of obstacles and the coordinate of an exit point (0 ≤ n ≤ 100). 1D person is located at the origin. The second line contains n different integers — the coordinates of the obstacles. Each coordinate, including x, is non-zero and doesn't exceed 1000 in absolute value. No obstacle is located at the exit point. It is guaranteed that 1D person will encounter either obstacle or exit point sooner or later regardless of the initial direction. Output two space-separated integers — the distance a 1D person should walk before finding an exit if his initial direction is forward or backward, respectively. If he can't find the exit due to the obstacles, output “Impossible”. -10 -4 2 10 -1 2 Problem Author: Daniil Ayzenshteyn Problem Source: USU Junior Contest, October 2008
A food allergy is an abnormal response of the body to a certain food. It is important to know that this is different than a food intolerance. Before having a food allergy reaction, a sensitive child must have been exposed to the food at least once before. The child could also become sensitized through breast milk. At the time of the initial exposure, the body produces a protective protein called an IgE antibody. This antibody will now activate every time the allergic food is eaten. The allergic symptoms will occur the second time your child eats the food. At that time, when IgE antibodies react with the food, histamines--a chemical compound that causes an inflammatory response in the body--are released. Histamines can cause your child to experience hives, asthma, itching in the mouth, trouble breathing, stomach pains, vomiting, and/or diarrhea. Food allergy causes an immune system response, causing symptoms in your child that range from uncomfortable to life-threatening. Food intolerance does not affect the immune system, although some symptoms may be the same as in food allergy. Approximately 90 percent of all food allergies are caused by the following eight foods: Eggs, milk, and peanuts are the most common causes of food allergies in children, with wheat, soy, and tree nuts also included. Peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish commonly cause the most severe reactions. Nearly 5 percent of children under the age of five years, and 18 percent under the age of 18 years, have food allergies. Although most children "outgrow" their allergies, allergy to peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish may be lifelong. Allergic symptoms may begin within minutes to an hour after ingesting the food. The following are the most common symptoms of food allergy. However, each child may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms may include: According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, it does not take much of the food to cause a severe reaction in highly allergic people. In fact, as little as 1/44,000 of a peanut kernel can cause an allergic reaction for a severely allergic individual. The symptoms of food allergy may resemble other problems or medical conditions. Always consult your child's doctor for a diagnosis. There is no medication to prevent food allergy. The goal of treatment is to avoid the foods that cause the symptoms. After seeing your child's health care provider and finding foods to which your child is allergic, it is very important to avoid these foods and other similar foods in that food group. If you are breastfeeding your child, it is important to avoid foods in your diet to which your child is allergic. Small amounts of the food allergen may be transmitted to your child through your breast milk and can cause a reaction. It is also important to give vitamins and minerals to your child if he or she is unable to eat certain foods. Discuss this with your child's health care provider. For children who have had a severe food reaction, your child's doctor may prescribe an emergency kit that contains epinephrine, which helps stop the symptoms of severe reactions. Consult your child's health care provider for further information. The development of food allergies cannot be prevented, but can often be delayed in infants by following these recommendations: If your child has one or more food allergies, dining out can be a challenge. However, it is possible to have a healthy and satisfying dining-out experience--it just takes some preparation and persistence on your part. The American Dietetics Association offers these tips for dealing with food allergies when your family is eating away from home: Another strategy for dining out with food allergies is to give your server or the manager a food allergy card. A food allergy card contains information about the specific items your child is allergic to, along with additional information, such as a reminder to make sure all utensils and equipment used to prepare your meal is thoroughly cleaned prior to use. You can easily print these cards yourself using a computer and printer. If your child is eating out with friends and you are not going to be present, give your child a food allergy card (or make sure the adult in charge has one) to give to the server. Alternately, there are several types of allergy cards available on the internet that can be customized with your child's personal information. One example is the "Food Allergy Buddy" Dining Card, promoted by the National Restaurant Association. The Food Allergy Initiative, in conjunction with the National Restaurant Association and the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, has developed the Food Allergy Training Program for Restaurants and Food Services. This training program was developed to help restaurants and other food service outlets to ensure their customers, including those with food allergies, will receive a safe meal prepared to customer specifications. Click here to view the Online Resources of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology
To fight Mexico, the United States had to mobilize, equip, and transport a large force, including Grade Range: 4-12 Resource Type(s): Reference Materials, Primary Sources Date Posted: 6/1/2009 Ocean liners were ships of transport for immigrants and machines of leisure, status, and national prestige. Students will learn about the roles that these ships played during the massive immigration of people to the United States from both Europe and Asia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in this section of On the Water: Stories from Maritime America, an online exhibition. Students will also learn how passenger liners such as the Mauretania, Titanic, and the S.S. United States became a popular, and sometimes dangerous, mode of leisure travel for those who could afford it. Historical Thinking Standards (Grades K-4) Standards in History (Grades K-4) United States History Standards (Grades 5-12) 2: How the New Deal addressed the Great Depression, transformed American federalism, and initiated the welfare state 3: The causes and course of World War II, the character of the war at home and abroad, and its reshaping of the U.S. role in world affairs World History Standards (Grades 5-12) Historical Thinking Standards (Grades 5-12) 2B: Reconstruct the literal meaning of a historical passage. 2C: Identify the central question(s) the historical narrative addresses. 2D: Differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations. 2E: Read historical narratives imaginatively. 2F: Appreciate historical perspectives. 2G: Draw upon data in historical maps. 2H: Utilize visual, mathematical, and quatitative data. 2I: Draw upon the visual, literary, and musical sources.
Nuclear energy and coal are both considered as the most significant sources of energy for humans. In their absence, there would be no difference between the previous centuries and our luxurious 21st-century. As essential sources of energy though, there exist some differences between the two. Three various aspects in the nature of nuclear energy from coal differentiate the two, they are: characteristics, benefits and adverse effects. Nuclear energy can either be produced naturally or through man-made equipment. Natural nuclear energy from the sun and other stars come in the form of heat and light produced through nuclear reactions. Man-made nuclear energy, on the other hand, is produced in nuclear reactors. Nuclear power plants can produce enough power to generate electricity for many cities. Nuclear energy can be released in two ways: first, through fission, when a large nucleus breaks into small nuclei and, second, through fusion, when small nuclei combine to from a large nucleus. (Altprofits, n.d) One remarkable characteristic of nuclear energy is its being renewable. Nuclear energy does not produce pollution; but it emits harmful radioactive energy. Today, more people turn to nuclear energy use because it is a clean source of energy. It does not help produce the greenhouse effect or acid rain. Hence, it does not add to the pollution or increase the rate of global warming. Nuclear energy, unlike most sources of energy, is renewable and is a great potential source of energy in the future. Small amounts of nuclear energy can generate a tremendous amount of energy. For instance, a piece of uranium the size of a pencil eraser can produce more energy than 6 tons of coal can produce, not to mention the amount of waste material left by burning coal.(Ovilia,2011) Of course, there are drawbacks in the use nuclear energy. Although a clean source of energy, it emits radioactivity which is very harmful to human beings since it can destroy cells and can retain its energy for quite a long period of time. The leakage from the nuclear power plants in Fukushima, Japan serves as an example. Radioactive substances from nuclear reactors can be harnessed and used as dangerous weapons used by nations to protect themselves from others. Nuclear energy can undergo combustion even without oxygen and can result in human exposure to radioactive substances (Ovilia, 2011). Hence, designing nuclear power plants using advanced technology is expensive. In spite of all necessary precautions, safety issues remain as to the disposal of nuclear waste since it cannot be released or exposed to the atmosphere. Coal, one of most abundant fossil fuel presently used, has been utilized as a major source of energy for about 200 years. However, much of the energy used today — including coal — is often non-renewable, which could lead to rapid depletion as demands for more energy supply grow (Little & Match, 2009). Coal is a fossil fuel formed from trees or marine organisms that lived millions of years ago. It is composed mainly of carbon, which when it undergoes combustion releases carbon dioxide and significant amounts of heat energy. At present, coal is still the most widely used source of energy worldwide and is the main provider of electricity. Coal is widely used because it is readily available in most parts of the world: 24% in United Kingdom, making it cheaper than other sources of energy (Little & Match, 2009). The equipment required for the combustion of coal is also fairly inexpensive compared to other sources of energy. Coal can be transported readily to a power plant since it does not contain any dangerous substances, unlike radioactive materials. Coal is also a versatile source of energy and can be used in industries to power boilers and in households to cook BBQs. Coal industries also help the economy by providing employment since coal mining and the coal distribution process is much larger compared to most industries. (Ann, n.d). However, as mentioned earlier, coal is a limited source of energy. As to the rate of consumption of coal, it is predicted that the supply of coal will not last for many years. Coal mining and its use has a long history of onerous effects on the environment. Burning coal emits a lot of carbon dioxide and other green house gases that pollute the air. These gases deplete the earth’s ozone layer causing a gradual rise in the earth’s temperature during the past 50 years – a process popularly referred to as global warming (Ovilia, 2011). Coal miners are common victims of diseases such as emphysema and black lungs as they breathe excessive coal dust. Clean coal technologies (CCTs), encouraged by governments, now help in the reduction of emission of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and some amount of mercury. Emission of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide results in acid rain which poisons plants and aquatic animals. Mercury, on the other hand, can cause great damage to human health when ingested through contaminated fish (Little & Match, 2009). After considering all the three different aspects in the characteristics of coal and nuclear energy, I believe that nuclear energy is better than coal energy. This is mainly because nuclear energy is renewable and does not cause pollution, unlike coal energy. Our home planet is said to be getting worse from day to day as a result of global warming and coal plays a major role in causing this problem. True, nuclear energy may not be as safe as it seems today; however, scientists and researchers would eventually come up with more efficient technology to make nuclear energy our primary and dependable source of energy in the future. Differences between Nuclear Energy and Coal Environmental
For most of the decades since the United States’ immigration restriction acts of the 1920s, Philadelphia was not a major destination for immigrants, but at the end of the twentieth century the region re-emerged as a significant gateway. Beginning with changes in U.S. law in 1965 and accelerating by the 1990s, immigration added large, diverse groups of newcomers to the city and suburbs. Immigrants and refugees dramatically altered the region’s economic, social, and political life and its geography of race and ethnicity. While the city and region remained more black and white than the global cities of New York, Los Angeles, or Miami, newcomers from Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Eastern Europe significantly diversified the population of Greater Philadelphia. During and after World War II, with limited foreign migration, internal migrations transformed the city and region. From the 1940s through the ’80s, two major demographic trends – the Second Great Migration of African Americans and mass suburbanization of the region’s white population – were joined by a third smaller, but significant development, the Great Migration of Puerto Ricans. Between 1940 and 1980, the nine-county region’s black population grew from 330,000 to more than one million. The Puerto Rican population expanded from 3,000 in 1950 to almost 55,000 in 1980, and by 2010 to more than 120,000, the second-largest Puerto Rican population in the country, behind only New York. As U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans are not an immigrant group, but as migrants to the mainland they became the largest group of newcomers to Philadelphia since the 1920s whose first language was not English. Puerto Ricans and African Americans settled mainly in the old rowhouse neighborhoods in Philadelphia and working class suburbs like Norristown, places earlier immigrants and their children left in the post-World War II era. Unlike earlier generations, however, the new migrants entered a region whose manufacturing economy crashed in the 1950s through the ’80s, as the jobs that had sustained these communities disappeared. Socially, economically, and spatially, in this period the region became a different destination for new immigrants. Although the federal government re-opened the borders with new immigration regulations in 1965, immigrant settlement in Philadelphia intensified and diversified only after 1980 and to a greater extent after 1990. New immigrants came from a much wider range of countries outside of Europe, with large numbers of Indians, Mexicans, Southeast Asians, Africans, Chinese, and Koreans in the city and suburbs. They entered a new regional economy, with the bulk of jobs dispersed in the suburbs, including high-paid posts in service and scientific sectors like health care, higher education, finance, computers, and pharmaceuticals. These jobs have attracted well-educated immigrants, while working class immigrants have found work in food and domestic service and other low-wage jobs. These trends marked significant changes in immigration to the region and nation, as today’s newcomers are far more diverse socially and economically than the working class immigrants from Europe a century ago. In national context, late twentieth-century Philadelphia illustrated distinct patterns and challenges of newcomer settlement in a low-immigration region that remained largely white and black and continued to struggle with the legacy of deindustrialization, patterns shared with other Rustbelt regions and re-emerging gateways like Baltimore and Milwaukee. When new immigrants began to arrive in sizeable numbers in the early 1980s, they did not immediately follow local jobs to the suburbs. Instead, most initially settled in the old, economically debilitated urban core, where they found a city divided sharply between black and white with a small but growing Latino population, primarily Puerto Rican, and an old Chinatown struggling to survive urban renewal. Almost exclusively white suburbs encircled the city. Yet many of the less upwardly mobile descendants of old immigrants remained in the city, vying, sometimes violently, with blacks for power, turf, and the political upper hand. For new immigrants, the precipitous fall in the city’s population that coincided with deindustrialization meant readily available housing, but often amid racial and economic tension. Such was the case for the many Southeast Asian refugees resettled in Philadelphia after the Vietnam War. The resettlement agencies tended to find open housing in borderland areas, where the combination of gentrification and job loss had already pushed lower-income residents out. Vietnamese, Cambodian, and other Southeast Asian refugees in Philadelphia often found themselves wedged between struggling African American communities and significantly wealthier neighborhoods. Settled in West Philadelphia, in North Philadelphia’s Olney and Logan sections, and in South Philadelphia, refugees struggled to make an already difficult cultural adjustment amid existing black-white racial animosity and economic tension. The consequences of life in these borderlands were harsh. According to the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, Asian Philadelphians comprised roughly a quarter of the victims of interracial incidents in the city in the late 1980s; at the time, Asians comprised only three to five percent of the city’s total population. A small group of Hmong refugees resettled in Philadelphia faced such adversity that they fled the city, mostly for established Hmong settlements in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Yet most Southeast Asian refugees in Philadelphia persisted, increasingly leaving West and Southwest Philadelphia for South Philadelphia and East Camden, where working class Cambodians and Vietnamese still concentrate, while middle-class Vietnamese families more often moved to suburbs like Upper Darby and Cherry Hill. By 1990 Koreans also made up a sizeable proportion of Asian immigrants in Philadelphia, illustrating different conditions of migration but also some similarities in settlement experiences. Middle-class Koreans, frustrated with opportunities in their own country, took advantage of the 1965 immigration law’s skills-based employment preference system. Others obtained professional training in the United States and remained in the area. Once settled, Korean immigrants sponsored their relatives’ visa petitions, a broad pattern shared with other immigrants. Many Koreans with high levels of education struggled to transfer their credentials or to overcome an initial language barrier, and hence gravitated toward small business ownership rather than professional jobs, often experiencing considerable downward mobility for a time. Racial Tensions and Tolerance Korean entrepreneurs helped sustain commercial districts in North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, Germantown, and the old streetcar suburb of Upper Darby. In each of these areas, Korean storeowners did business with the region’s working-class, especially African American, populations. And like in other cities, where black-Korean tensions boiled over into riots, conflict sometimes defined relations in Philadelphia. Yet the relationship between Korean storeowners and their clients, as elsewhere, was most often defined by tolerance and civility. In addition to these storeowners, a considerable set of working-class Koreans also migrated to the city, often through family sponsorship. Most worked in the local garment industry, in laundries, or in small stores, frequently employed at Korean- or Chinese-owned enterprises. Many remain in the city, but more have moved to the suburbs of Delaware County, Cheltenham, or North Wales and nearby towns in central Montgomery County. Since the 1990s, Dominicans have bought and run a large portion of Koreans’ inner city stores. Also fueling the growth, diversification, and suburbanization of the immigrant population in Philadelphia, a diverse mix of immigrants and refugees arrived from Africa, hailing from over thirty countries with Liberia and Nigeria the largest groups in the region. Highly educated Africans began arriving soon after the 1965 immigration law was passed, and many went on to sponsor the migration of family members. Beginning in the 1980s and continuing in the new millennium, first Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees, and then people displaced by wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Sudan, settled in the metropolitan area. Most came from large African cities and settled in West and Southwest Philadelphia, Delaware and Newcastle Counties, and Trenton, while some Sudanese moved to Northeast Philadelphia. Black immigrants and refugees further illustrated the complexity of newcomers’ diversity of experiences. Although African immigrants to the United States had the highest educational attainment of any other immigrant group, they struggled on the whole to transfer their skills to the U.S. Africans in Philadelphia established employment niches in nursing homes, home health-care for the elderly, parking lots, and taxi service. Liberians, Sierra Leoneans, and later Haitians were granted Temporary Protected Status, meaning the U.S. government expects them to ultimately return to their countries, adding to an already diverse range of legal statuses. African and Caribbean immigrants and refugees largely settled in black neighborhoods, suffering most of the same ill effects of segregation and discrimination as their African American neighbors. Pan-African organizing and civil society, however, succeeded in forging a politics of shared prosperity by the early twenty-first century, partly in response to violence between young native and immigrant blacks. Northeast Philadelphia Immigrants Joining black immigrants in reinforcing black-white segregation were Eastern Europeans who settled in the 1980s and ’90s especially in the predominantly Jewish sections of Northeast Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs. Many were refugees and their families, from the USSR, Russia, and Ukraine. Poles settled in the old Polish enclave of Port Richmond. Albanian Muslims were resettled in Fishtown and South Kensington, overlapping a small Palestinian enclave that had formed after the Yom Kippur War in 1973. In the 1990s, Indian and Mexican immigrants finally supplanted Italians and Germans as the largest foreign-born groups in the region, as Greater Philadelphia experienced more substantial and diverse immigration continuing into the early twenty-first century. Mexican settlement in South Philadelphia and Norristown signaled the health of the downtown and suburban service economies, including the Center City restaurant scene and regional construction boom. The region’s South Asian population, predominantly Indian, mostly came for middle class jobs and higher education, settling in Northeast Philadelphia, King of Prussia and other suburbs. Some working class Indians and Bangladeshis also settled in West Philadelphia and Millbourne, a tiny borough in Delaware County and the first majority-Indian municipality in the U.S. Chinese immigration in this era also included both professional and working classes, who lived in the historic downtown Chinatown and “satellite Chinatowns” in Cherry Hill and South and Northeast Philadelphia. Like Africans, these groups illustrated the bifurcation of immigrants’ economic and residential experiences in the late twentieth century. In 2008 the city of Philadelphia gained population for the first time since the 1950s, propelled mainly by immigration, which also helped reverse population loss in Norristown and other older suburbs and towns. According to a Brookings Institution report that year, among similar metropolitan areas Philadelphia had “the largest and fastest growing immigrant population.” Immigrants made up roughly nine percent of the region’s population, still lower than the national average though the area was an increasingly important destination. Many of its foreign-born moved to the area after originally having settled elsewhere in the U.S., especially the New York region, often choosing Greater Philadelphia because of its lower costs of property and starting businesses compared to other major urban centers. By 2000, the map of foreign-born population in the region illustrated major centers and corridors of settlement. Higher-income immigrants clustered along the route 202 corridor with its concentration of jobs in pharmaceuticals and other technology sectors, running from the suburbs of Trenton in the northeast corner of the region to the west-southwest through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties and turning south to the suburbs of Wilmington in Newcastle County. Super-diverse, “global neighborhoods” had emerged in South and Upper North Philadelphia and in Upper Darby just west of the city. As the map shows, since the 1980s a Mexican community helped sustain Kennett Square in southern Chester County as the world capital of mushroom production, as well as agriculture in Bridgeton, Vineland, and other parts of South Jersey. The Immigration Debate In the early twenty-first century, Greater Philadelphia also became a national center of immigration debates and movements. Beginning in the 1990s the city had a “sanctuary” policy of protecting unauthorized immigrants by forbidding local police from asking for immigration papers. In 2003, Norristown passed a law recognizing the Mexican consular identification card for access to municipal services and banks. On February 14, 2006, Independence Mall was the site of the first “Day Without an Immigrant” rally of mainly Mexican restaurant workers. By that spring, headlines juxtaposed large immigrant rights marches against disputes over an “English-Only” sign in the storefront window of the city’s famous Geno’s Steaks. That summer and fall, first the town of Hazleton in the Poconos, then Riverside, New Jersey, and then Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, passed “illegal immigration relief acts” to punish landlords and employers of unauthorized immigrants. Riverside repealed its act when it saw people leave, local businesses suffer, and out of embarrassment from negative national press. In some ways the recent dynamics of newcomer settlement and debates over immigration recall the era of mass European immigration a century earlier, though much about the new immigration is indeed new. For example, the experiences of recent Mexican immigrants resemble those of earlier generations of Italians, from their roles as cheap labor in booming food and construction industries to the fear they have encountered among receiving communities about housing overcrowding and integration. Yet the legal status of many new working class immigrants was quite different, partly since immigration restrictions barely existed for Europeans a century ago. Receiving communities’ politics of immigration remained fragmented and polarized, yet their responses took new forms. Moreover, newcomers of the early twenty-first century settled in a region with new geographies and structures of opportunity. Finally, the newest immigration was more diverse than older eras of immigration, in every way. It began to push Philadelphia and many of its suburbs beyond the black-white binary of their twentieth century population and neighborhood identities. Daniel Amsterdam is Assistant Professor of History at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Domenic Vitiello is Assistant Professor of City Planning and Urban Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. This essay is based partly on their work with colleagues in the Philadelphia Migration Project at the University of Pennsylvania. Copyright 2013, Rutgers University. Goode, Judith, and Jo Anne Schneider. Reshaping Ethnic and Racial Relations in Philadelphia: Immigrants in a Divided City. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994. Lee, Jae-Hyp, Dynamics of Ethnic Identity: Three Asian Communities in Philadelphia. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1998. Katz, Michael B., Mathew J. Creighton, Daniel Amsterdam, and Merlin Chowkwanyun, “Immigration and the New Metropolitan Geography,” Journal of Urban Affairs, 32(5) (2010), 523-547. Singer, Audrey, Domenic Vitiello, Michael Katz, and David Park, Recent Immigration to Philadelphia: Regional Change in a Re-Emerging Gateway. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institute, 2008. Takenaka, Ayumi, and Mary Johnson Osirim, eds., Global Philadelphia: Immigrant Communities Old and New. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010. Whalen, Carmen, From Puerto Rico to Philadelphia: Puerto Rican Workers and Postwar Economies. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001. Balch Institute Collections, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia. Philadelphia Folklore Project, 735 S. Fiftieth Street, Philadelphia. Places to Visit Chinatown, Center City Philadelphia. Italian Market (Ninth Street Market), Ninth Street from Wharton to Fitzwater Streets, Philadelphia. West Marshall Street (“Little Mexico”), Norristown, Pa. Market Street in Upper Darby and Millbourne, Pa. Nationalities Services Center, 1216 Arch Street, Philadelphia. Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, 1600 JFK Boulevard, Philadelphia.
Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) are the tallest North American bird and one of only two crane species on the continent. Brought to the verge of extinction in the 1940’s due to habitat loss and excessive hunting, there are now over 500, either in captivity or in the wild. As part of the conservation program, young cranes are trained to follow an ultralight aircraft to learn their traditional migratory routes. The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is the largest land bird in North America. Their wingspan can reach 10 feet. In 1987 all 22 remaining California Condors were taken into captivity as part of a captive breeding program at the San Diego and Los Angeles Zoos. Through this program, their numbers grew and starting in 1991 birds were released into the wild. In resent years the wild population has been threatened by the use of lead based bullets used by hunters. As scavengers, the birds would feast upon carcasses killed by hunters, sometime ingesting the lead bullets. Thankfully, on October 11, 2013 California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 711 into law, making California the first state to completely ban the use of lead in hunting ammunition. The California Fish and Game Commission has until July of 2019 to fully implement the law. The Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis) lives in old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. Long cited in the debate over cutting old growth forests, the Spotted Owl is now at risk due to Barred Owls that have migrated west into their habitat. Poison Dart Frogs are brightly colored members of the family Dendrobatidae from Central and South America. Secretions from their skin are toxic, and have sometimes been used to coat the tips of blowdarts. Many of these species are listed as threatened or endangered due to habitat loss from logging and farming. The Utah Prairie Dog (Cynomys parvidens) is the smallest of the Prairie Dog species. Between 1925 and 1975 the population was reduced in size by nearly 87% by poisoning, habitat loss, and introduced plague. They were classified as endangered as part of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, and then reclassified as threatened in 1984. The Leatherback Sea Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) is the largest known sea turtle, averaging 6 ft in length and weighing over 1,000 lbs. They travel immense distances and can dive as much as 4,922 ft deep. The Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtle was recently named the California State Marine Reptile, and has been listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 1970. The Pacific Leatherback population has been dropping rapidly in recent years. The main threats, according to scientists, are accidental deaths due to commercial fishing (especially longline), sale of sea turtle eggs, loss of nesting grounds due to beachfront development, and ocean pollution; especially the ingestion of plastic bags and other debris. For more information and to help sea turtles go to Turtle Island Restoration Network at www.seaturtles.org For more information on the Leatherback Sea Turtle go to:
At around 3 years of age, typically developing children start to understand sentences containing the conjunction “but”. “But” is a compound conjunction used to link ideas by showing contrast. For example, “I like to watch movies but my sister prefers to read books”. Understanding “but” in sentences helps to build receptive and expressive oral language skills at the sentence level. It helps build the foundation to introduce more complex contrastive conjunctions like “although” and “even though”. In this 18-page no-prep pack, we introduce two friends who like different things. In addition to helping children to understand and to produce “but” sentences, this pack also promotes theory of mind development, starting with the fundamental idea that different people like different things. Finally, basic categories (e.g. fruits, vegetables, actions) are used to stimulate semantic language development. Tip: For people with significant communication disorders and people who are beginning to learn English as a second language, use a blank piece of paper to cover upcoming exercises to isolate one sentence at a time.
The European inventors of the black powder gun include a monk, Berthold Schwarz, in around 1330, and Roger Bacon, a friar from Ilchester, Somerset, in 1214. Both are credited with coming up with the idea of the gun. It is interesting to note the unfortunate coincidence that the most efficient killing apparatus in the last 700 years was thought up by churchmen. The use of these weapons is similar regardless of the firing mechanism. So it is worth separating the weapons into the basic types, in approximate historical order (although there are massive overlapping periods of use). This is based upon the particle use of all the weapons, which are tested methods used over the last ten years including research from many areas. As time progressed, guns became easier to use and it was simple to train the men who used them. On the battlefield, accuracy was not the issue; efficient mass fire was the key to winning (not much different to the rain of arrows fired at Agincourt). Accuracy was down to the individual and came to the fore with skirmishers and snipers. The flintlock is general considered the most accurate gun due to the speed of the lock and it also made a good sporting gun for the gentry. A cannon is any large, smooth-bored, muzzle-loading gun that can not be held and fired in hand by one person. Classification Cannon by Size up to 1700; After 1700 by Weight of Shot - Cannon royal - Demi cannon At first, some cannons were made from oak with metal hoops, just like a barrel. Some were wood covered with leather. These were one-shot weapons. The next method was using strips of iron hammer welded around a core or former to make a barrel. Rings of iron were put over the barrel to keep it from splitting. It is speculated that the similarity to the making of a wooden barrel may have given the name to this part of all guns. These all had one thing in common: they were dangerous to use, as they were likely to split when fired and injure the user. The first cast iron English cannon appeared in about 1550. The Main Types The biggest difference between a cannon and a hand-held weapon was the positioning of the pan or touch-hole. On the larger weapons, the touch-hole migrates from the side to the top of the barrel. Some say that a touch-hole is more effective if it is sited towards the top of the barrel; that is why pistols were often fired with the hand turned so the lock was toward the top of the barrel, especially with the wheel lock as it improved reliability. For the purpose of this entry the touch-lock hand gun was replaced by the match-lock in about 1400. The Wheellock: Developed in Germany in about 1510, this works like a lighter - throwing sparks into the powder. It was an elegant device but expensive and easily damaged, and it did not stand up well to the battlefield. However, the cavalry liked it and used it into the 1640s. The Snaphaunce: The Snaphaunce first appeared In the 1470s, and is really a crude form of the flintlock. A big problem was that the pan was uncovered and if it was windy it blew the sparks or the powder away before you could fire. The Flintlock: First developed in the 1500s and accepted into military service in 1590, the basic weapon remained in common use until 1855. As it was reliable, robust and cost next to nothing, it was very popular in British colonies around the world. It became the most respected gun in the Americas, where it developed into a variety of styles unique to America. The Percussion Lock: This lock was made possible in 1805 when a Scot invented the percussion cap. Virtually waterproof, it allowed the development of the modern gun when the cap was put into the base of the bullet. This lock saw the end of the muzzle-loading gun within 100 years of its invention. Rifling: The invention of rifling is impossible to trace, though many claim to know who invented the idea. Rifling dates from about the mid-1400s, but production was difficult and limited to very expensive guns. It would take nearly 400 years for rifles to become common on the battlefield. A rifled musket led to an advance in the range at which you could kill your opponent. This, combined with the mass production of the military musket and, later, the bullet, led men to find cover. Even the Generals were forced to abandon the mass slaughter and re-think combat methods. The last throes of the traditional style can be found in the mass advance in World War One. The Beginnings of Mass Production: Nobody was ready for the American Civil War. Peace meant that the guns available were private defensive weapons or sporting guns. As men joined up to fight they simply ran out of guns. Men were sent out by both sides to buy up surplus weapons and send them home. Men could end up using any old gun and some were 50 or 60 years old. The American makers soon stepped in and production increased to fulfil demand. The Springfield: The most frequently used rifle of the Civil War was the American-made Springfield rifle musket, a single-shot, muzzle-loading percussion lock. It was the first rifle to fire a bullet-shaped projectile rather than a round ball, and it had a rifled barrel which increased range and accuracy. The rifled barrel made it possible to hit a man at 400 to 500 yards. Around 1.5 million Springfield muskets were made. The Enfield: The second most widely-used weapon of the Civil War was the British Enfield single-shot, muzzle-loading musket. It was also the standard weapon for the British army between 1853 and 1867. Originally produced at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield, England, approximately 900,000 of these muskets were exported to the Americas during the Civil War. The American Civil War was the conflict that marked the beginning of the change in the way wars were fought. This experimentation took the lives of many brave men. The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, 1870 – 71, between France and Prussia finished the process of change. They were used to test the new theories and practices and the changes from mass ranks at the start to a style of fighting that World War II veterans would recognise. British Laws on Gun Ownership The basic rules for the UK are (correct at time of writing): Gun ownership is legal only if you comply with the following... Shotguns and Shotgun Certificates If you are granted a shotgun certificate, you and your gun(s) must comply with the following. Any smooth-bore gun with a barrel length over 24 inches is a shotgun and can be held by anyone over 18 years with a reasonable use (needed to justify the grant of a shotgun certificate). If you have a shotgun certificate in your possession and the gun is in a case you can carry the gun through the streets providing the cartridges are in your pocket. A shotgun that is loaded with fewer than five pieces of shot becomes a class 1 firearm under the terms of the act. Oddly enough a cannon on the HMS Victory is a shotgun in the eyes of the act. All other guns that have a barrel length under 24 inches or those that have a rifled barrel are class 1 weapons or a firearm and need a firearms certificate. This can be obtained from your local police HQ providing you have a watertight reason to have one and can store the weapon 100% safely. How to Load and Fire a Black Powder Weapon This is how to fire a black powder musket (as long as you are legally able to do so): To load any black powder weapon, the basic procedure is the same; powder wadding and ball inserted down the barrel in that order. To use this guide, you will need some knowledge or be with someone who has. If so start at 1. If you do not know the weapon, check the proof marks. It will be proofed for blank or ball (live firing). Proof marks have been on European guns since about 1500. If there are no marks or if the weapon looks old and worn do not fire it, it's your life! NB: If you do not know what a proof mark is or you are not with someone who can tell you, put the gun down and walk away. Check the barrel for obstructions (rubbish old wadding or previous unfired charges). Do not forget to check the touch-hole at this time and make sure it is clear. The best way is to drop the ramrod down the barrel and listen for a metallic click as the end hits the end. If there is no click, do not load. When you know that the barrel is empty put the ramrod in the barrel and put a mark on it - this will be useful later. Prepare the charge of powder. Do not overcharge (it will be on the proof-mark or the gun seller will have told you don't fire an old gun or unmarked gun, but have it re-proofed), close the pan-cover and tip the charge down the barrel. Insert wadding (paper is best, not tissue as it is much too fine) - use the ramrod and ram down firmly. Get into the habit of holding the ramrod with your fingers from the side, as if by accident the charge ignites, the ramrod will not then pass through your hand on the way out of the barrel. If you are live firing put the ball/shot in. If the ball is loose in the barrel, top with wadding. Ram down firmly as in the point above. From now on the gun is in its most dangerous mode, so you must be aware at all times where you are pointing the barrel. Now prime the pan. Put a small measure of powder in the pan and close the pan lid or cover if the gun has one. A percussion lock will differ at this point as there is no pan; you will simply put a percussion cap on the firing nipple. Some people insist on priming the pan prior to the loading, but for safety reasons it is best to prime it after loading. If, by accident, the powder in the pan ignites while you are loading you will at best lose a finger or part of your hand. In any case, it's always advisable to use a priming flask. If you are using paper cartridges or pre-measured charges, be careful as you may have to prime the pan first. Do this only if the lock has a reliable safety catch. Matchlocks should be safe enough if treated with respect and the drill manuals of the time recommend to prime or charge the pan prior to loading. From this point on, the weapon should be pointed at only two things: the sky or the target. Aim at your target, check the ramrod is not in the barrel (you will be amazed how many people forget) cock the weapon and fire the weapon. NOW do three things: Look for smoke from the barrel; Look for a thin wisp of light grey smoke from the touch hole (these will confirm a clean firing); and point the weapon at the sky. Do the first and second things whilst doing the third. This will be very important if you are firing with others as it is very easy to assume you have fired if other guns are going off around you. Always check, then check again. If you are to re-fire, start at point 2 and go again. Remember if there is any smoke still coming from the barrel there are embers still smouldering (this is why tissue paper is a bad idea). Embers will ignite the powder as you put it down the barrel and you will say goodbye to your fingers... If at any time there is a mis-fire (it has not fired and the charge is still in the barrel) tell all your companions what has happened and get out of everyone's way. Prick out the touch-hole, re-prime and re-fire. If it still will not fire, flood the pan and touch-hole with water. Carefully pour water down the barrel (fill it if you can) and leave it in a safe place for ten minutes. If in doubt, put the ramrod in the barrel and check the mark suggested in point 2 above. If it is well above the end of the barrel this will confirm a misfire. Then worm (see Essential Tools) the charge out of the barrel. Clean the weapon to sort the problem and try again. If in doubt, call for help. How to Prime the Lock/Pan on Each Type of Weapon The only difference between the weapons will be the locks or firing mechanisms. A brief description of each is noted below. The Touch or Match Lock A touch-lock is just a simple pan or a hollow at the touch-hole as in a cannon; or a pan mounted at the side of the barrel as in a hand gun or musket. A small heap of powder is placed in the pan and ignited by a match cord (hemp cord soaked in saltpetre) held in the hand or, if firing a cannon, a linstock (a staff that holds the match). A matchlock is a simple trigger mechanism that holds the match and when fitted to a musket, allows for a controlled firing and allows the user to aim. The rate of fire of a match-lock musket from 1640 was about two rounds per minute. Wind or span the mechanism and prime and cover the pan. When ready to fire, lower the pyrites to the wheel aim and pull the trigger. Rate of fire is approximately two rounds per minute. The Flintlock (Also Known as Firelock or Dog-lock) Set at half-cock, pull back the hammer until you hear the first click. Open the pan by pulling back the frizzen, then put powder in the pan. Close the frizzen, and you are ready to fire. To fire, pull back the hammer to full cock, aim and fire. Rate of fire is approximately three rounds per minute. The Percussion Lock This is the same as a flint-lock; however, there is no pan. Instead there is a nipple onto which you put a percussion cap after you have pulled back the hammer to the half-cock position. To fire, pull back the hammer to full-cock, aim and fire. Rate of fire is approximately three rounds per minute. Common Gun-Related Terms - A flash in the pan (the charge in the pan is ignited but the gun did not fire) - Lock, stock and barrel (all complete) - To hammer it home (to forced a tight-fitting ball down the barrel tapped with a mallet) - Spanner (a device to wind up or span a wheel lock, not part of a tool kit) - A useless git (to get rid of). NB: 'Git' is a 17th-Century English term for 'gate' (the spare metal from casting a cannon ball from the pouring-hole) A Note on Accuracy Accuracy is variable. If you use a loose-fitting ball (commonly called a rolling-fit) you will get very poor results. If a tight-fitting ball is used or the ball is patched, surprisingly good results can be achieved with all weapons. The best result is achieved by a very tight fit with a cloth patch, forced down the barrel and tapped in with a mallet (hence the term 'to hammer it home'). A ball that is a loose fit in a barrel will, when fired, act like the clapper in a bell, and will bounce from side to side as it travels down the barrel. If the ball is loose-fitting it can leave the muzzle at very odd angles. So the tighter the ball fits and the longer the barrel, the more accurate the shot. In expert hands, a smooth-bore flint-lock musket properly loaded can hit a person at 150 yards or more, so the 'unable to hit a barn door' idea is doing the weapon a huge injustice. If shooting a moving target, you can't beat a flint lock. A good one will even be fast and accurate enough to take down clay pigeons. So the modern myth that these guns have poor accuracy is wrong and can only be down to the poor individual accuracy of men firing in haste and in massed ranks. Hollywood can help here: the results from the films The Patriot, The Last of the Mohicans and Waterloo give a good picture of the ability of these weapons in skilled hands. It is likely that those who cast doubt upon the quality may not have used the wepons over a long period or lack the skill to get the best from them. As weapons they are easy to use but hard to master. Essential Basic Tools Required - A screw to remove a ball. - A worm to remove anything else. - A scouring rod to attach and allow the use of 1 and 2. - Water in a bottle. - A tool to prick out the touch-hole. Cleaning After Use To get the barrel clean, use boiling water. Block the touch hole if you can and then fill and empty the barrel as many times as it takes for the water you pour out to be clean. The barrel won't rust as all the water will evaporate (that is why you are using boiling water). Stand the gun upright with the muzzle down and leave until barrel is cool. Use cleaning rod and swab out with oil on cleaning cloth; clean and oil pan, lock, outside of barrel and exposed metal parts; oil the stock; put into bag and put away. Join a society in the UK. They will train you and are great fun. A few (not all by any means) are listed below. If you cannot find what you are looking for or live outside the UK get on the internet. Some of the best are in the USA. - The American Civil War Society - The English Civil War Society - The Napoleonic Society - The Sealed Knot - The Southern Skirmish Associations - If you want to get into real detail and like the big guns try joining The Ordnance Society. Enjoy using of all your weapons and be careful.
The Mercantile Reign of Julius Caesar On the 12th or of July 100 BC Julius Caesar is believed to have been born in Rome, Italy, although this date is debatable. A legendary historical figure, he is renown for opposing the military dictator Sulla as a teenager and almost losing his life over it. In his illustrious military career he was decorated for courage in battle, was captured and held to ransom by pirates. As a popular leader, he almost bankrupted himself by staging games for the masses and became notorious as a dangerously ambitious maverick. Politically, he became Consul when he was barely in his 30s and ended up dominating the Senate. As for his international expansion, he conquered all of Gaul, invaded Germany, and twice landed in Britain – an achievement which in 55 BC turned him into a God-like figure in the eyes of his contemporaries. It took Caesar only thirty years to turn from a nobody into one of the richest men the world has ever seen, capable of overthrowing the Republic and becoming emperor of most of the world discovered up to that point in history. The ways in which he made his fortune were unimaginably cruel to modern sensibilities. During his conquests, he often bought large numbers of men, women, and children through merchants and sold them on as slaves. “It would have been quite normal for the era if most of the women were raped by the soldiers before this occurred. A share of the purchase price would also have gone to all of the legionaries, with larger shares to the centurions and tribunes. The sale of war captives was one source of profit. Another was plunder, though this is rarely mentioned in the Commentaries. Caesar says that the Gauls had many sacred sites where gold and precious objects had been dedicated to the gods and left piled up in public view. All the tribes respected these sacred sites and no one dared to steal from them. According to Suetonius, Caesar was unimpressed by such taboos and never failed to loot them. The wealth he was gaining restored his own finances, but as ever his main interest in money was to use it to buy friends and popularity, both with his army and back in Italy.” (Adrian Goldsmith, Caesar, 2007). “Caesar was carried from step to step by the demands of a personal career which was in its turn driven by his desire to succeed as a Roman aristocrat in the social, political, and economic world created by the value-system and beliefs of the governing class of the late Republic. These demands were often financial. Wolfgang Will points the finger at the neglect of Caesar’s material wealth by historians, and quotes Bertolt Brecht’s observation that Mommsen devoted a whole chapter to Caesar’s qualities, but not a single line to his income. ‘Modern history‘, he goes on, ‘holds to Hegel’s dictum, that Caesar to a supreme degree did the business of the spirit of the age (die Geschafte des Weltgeistes betrieb). But if men without qualities, but not men without money, could have careers, surely the business smelt of money‘.” (John Carter, review of A Revaluation of Julius Caesar/ Julius Caesar: Eine Bilanz by Wolfgang Will, The Classical Review, New Series, Vol. 43, No. 2, 1993). A series of books were written on Julius Caesar in the post WW II period (especially by German historians) and following the end of Hitler, most likely due to a need for a better understanding of how the mind of a dictator worked and the historical circumstances which allowed such reigns to develop. In A Revaluation of Julius Caesar(1993), Wolfgang Will could arguably not bring anything new to the table and John Carter claimed that he could not offer a “new picture of ‘Caesar’s greatness’, because this is an illusion”. Will concluded that ‘Caesar was an office-holder in a collapsing republic, the most capable perhaps, but nothing more. He owed his rise less to the daring of his ideas than to business (Geschafte) which had little in common with that of the Hegelian spirit of the age.” There are thus less researched areas in the dictator’s career, such as the economic aspect, which suggest that he was a very cunning businessman and that his reputation owed a lot more to his enterprising spirit, than his strategic thinking or bravery.
मई 25, 2016 With growing warnings of the cascading impacts of climate change in the Hindu Kush Himalayas, the region’s hydropower sector ought to take note. Melting snow and retreating glaciers in a region, parts of which are warming up at three times the global average, will drastically change the seasonal flow of Asia’s major rivers. More intense floods and rainfalls and periods of prolonged drought are predicted and will wreak havoc for hydropower stations. In the longer term lack of water may mean dams are no longer viable. The region has 500 GW of potential energy, and 550 projects underway are planned or are under construction in steep Himalayan valleys in China, India, Pakistan and Bhutan, according to ICIMOD’s new HIMAP report. But there are unknown consequences for the rivers and incalculable potential for catastrophic hazards. These risks are strangely overlooked in the major new assessment of the impacts of climate change in the HKH region, carried out by leading scientists at ICIMOD. The report calls for more water resources to be allocated to hydropower generation, by prioritising large scale projects and cross border infrastructure for regional trading of power through the grid. The potential impacts on fragile ecosystems, river flow, downstream flood plains are mentioned, but framed as necessary trade-offs. Large hydropower projects with well-defined benefit-sharing mechanisms are held up as the ideal energy solution. In this way, the assessment shirks questions of sustainable hydropower, climate and geological risks and impacts on local people. Hydropower is based on the availability of water, which is becoming more uncertain due to climate change – this fundamental issue is ignored by project developers and policymakers. Hydropower is considered as key to reducing poverty and promoting industrial growth in the mountain regions, as well as a way to mitigate and adapt to climate change. But the negative impacts on local communities are brushed over. History shows large dams too often leave local communities suffering from environmental damage and lack of water and without even the benefits of power – which is largely produced for export to other regions or countries. The ICIMOD review also fails to look at the cumulative impact of the huge number of large dam projects underway or the major geological risks in what is the world’s youngest and highest mountains and thus most seismically unstable. This silence in the HKH assessment report is reflective of a dangerous trend in the HKH region. Dam builders and government regulators are strategically ignoring climate change and geological risks in a rush to make short-term profits, argues new research from Amelie Huber at the University of Barcelona. The findings are based on interviews with hydropower developers, government officials and donor agencies in northeast India and published in journal Water. They paint a disturbing picture of negligence and even conspiracy in the hydropower sector. A spotlight on northeast India In India, large scale privatisation led to a hydropower boom from 2000, with public rivers contracted out to private investors with government financial support and tax breaks. India’s 2008 hydropower policy gave hydro developers concessions that insulate them from risk and help them maximise profit. The research paper takes a closer look at the hydro scene in Sikkim, one of India’s most environmentally progressive states. By 2007, Sikkim had signed 24 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with private and public sector entities for development of 5,000 MW in five years. Nearby Arunachal Pradesh signed 130 MoUs by 2010 for 40,000 MW. With no formal hydropower policy these agreements thrived on speculative investments and political brokering. Private companies – often working with public companies – have minimal accountability or experience in the hydropower sector, and include companies from logistics, real estate and tourism. The 510 MW Teesta V hydropower plant in central Sikkim was one of the first large scale projects in the state, commissioned in 2008 by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC). Villages above the reservoir and dam site reported perpetual sinking of the mountain slope, as a result of the cyclical release of impounded water. There was also visible damage of cracked buildings and agricultural land and an increase in landslides. This led to further displacement sometimes long after project construction, and in most cases the displaced haven’t been able to get any compensation. Other villages had to be moved after cracks emerged in the mountains, and because of risks of flash floods from the dam reservoirs and tunnel leaks. These problems are common in run of the river dams – the new standard in the Himalayas. The area submerged by the dam is smaller, but they require an extensive network of underground tunnels carrying river water to a powerhouse located several kilometres downstream. These tunnels affect places further away and are systematically ignored in environment impact assessments (EIA). What’s more, the paper highlights the deeper failure of the Indian government and hydropower industry to tackle climate issues. None of the publicly available EIAs or management plans for hydropower in Sikkim consider climate change. And India’s Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has no written position on climate change adaptation in the hydropower sector. Sikkim’s state action plan on climate change also steers clear of hydropower and associated risks. The state disaster management authority has taken no steps to prepare for dam induced disasters, saying that dam risks are exclusively monitored by hydropower companies themselves. Senior government officials interviewed for the research paper tried to downplay risks or retreat from responsibility. One NHPC official explained that without scientific data climate change was too uncertain to consider in a project’s EIA. Since the companies try to recover investment as quickly as possible, and licences only last 35 years, investing in precautionary measures doesn’t fit their economic model. The government and developers have dismissed evidence provided by local people of the impact of hydropower projects in Sikkim. People report sinking and degradation of land around dam sites, soil drying up and springs disappearing, which are the main source of agriculture and domestic water. In Assam, people have had more success opposing large dams, where the struggle against the Lower Subansiri mega hydropower project shows the potential for challenging such projects. NHPC’s 2,000 MW dam is among the largest of Arunachal Pradesh’s 160 odd dams on the Brahmaputra and its tributaries. While there’s been limited opposition in sparsely populated Arunachal Pradesh, fierce resistance from civil society, concerned scientists and political groups in downstream Assam brought the project to a standstill. People feared the dam would disrupt water flow through the densely populated Brahmaputra flood plains – and under Indian law downstream populations don’t get any compensation. Evidence also emerged of the huge seismic and geological risks to the area from the dam. In 2011 a road blockade stopped construction work. There is now emerging evidence that the hydro boom in Arunachal Pradesh is petering out of its own accord, with a large number of projects stalled or abandoned because of financial insolvency. However, the issues discussed in this paper are not unique to northeast India, the risks are responses are similar in Bhutan, China, Nepal and Pakistan. A history of disasters The history of dams comes with a long list of disasters. In 1975, the Banqiao dam in China’s Henan region gave way, releasing a deluge of water that devastated everything in its path killing an estimated quarter of a million people. In Nepal’s 2015 earthquake over 30 dams were damaged, destroying a third of Nepal’s installed hydropower capacity and causing a loss of USD 200 million to the industry. The 2013 flash floods in the Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand caused major damage to hydropower plants. Large dams are not only vulnerable to disasters, they also contribute to them. In areas of the Himalayas where dams are built, cracks emerge on houses, landslides increase, slopes become unstable and springs and water resources dry up nearby. This can happen years after construction. Dam reservoirs may even trigger earthquakes. This is the most fiercely debated risk, since the 7.9-magnitude Sichuan earthquake in 2008, which killed around 70,000 people and left nearly 20,000 missing. Some scientists argue that the weight of water behind a dam can produce shearing stress strong enough to worsen, or trigger, an earthquake. The 510 foot high Zipingpu dam, the largest dam in Sichuan province of China, was implicated in the 2008 earthquake.
Grass grubs (GG) are found throughout NZ. The larvae graze the roots of grass and clover causing poor growth and plant death, mainly from March-July. With severe damage, turf can be rolled back like carpet. GG damage is seen in mid to late autumn, typically as patchy areas of dead plants, often pulled out by stock. These damaged areas can expand outward from year to year. The damage is caused by GG larvae which hatch from eggs in October - December and develop through three instars (or stages). The small first and second instar feed on roots and soil organic matter, doing little damage. By autumn they have developed into the larger and most damaging third instar, feeding 1-3 cm below the ground on plant roots. GG larvae prefer white clover but eat most other species too. Populations typically grow over a three to five year cycle followed by a population crash due to disease build up in the soil. Within a single paddock however infestations can be at any stage in the cycle. GG larvae are best found by digging. They are translucent grubs, 25 mm long, with six legs and honey brown head. Usually curled in a 'C' shape, they become active only when disturbed. Threshold levels for economic control of grass grub have been estimated (see table). Typical one year GG cycle One and two year life cycle The GG life cycle typically takes one year, but in cooler regions a proportion of grubs takes two years to develop. One year GG pupate in spring, emerging as adult beetles which fly in October - December, starting the larval stage again. In dry or cool areas GG larvae grow more slowly and can take two years to become adults. In these areas larvae cease to feed over their first winter, and resume feeding on pasture through spring, rather than pupating. They can cause spring pasture damage. Prevention and management Sowing new pasture If establishing a new pasture into a paddock with GG problems, use of an insecticide or an appropiate seed treatment such as AGRICOTE Grass is recommended. Note GG primarily feed in the autumn, but control may be required for spring sowings in areas where GG have a two-year cycle. Cultivation usually drastically reduces GG larval numbers, but also disrupts natural diseases allowing a rapid resurgence of the population over the next two to three years. Direct drilling techniques are often used in GG prone areas to maintain more stable diseased populations and damage levels. Control of GG with insecticide has had mixed results, as soil dwelling insects are relatively difficult to kill. Best success is through early applications of chemical in February-March, when GG are smaller. Mob stocking and heavy rolling when soil is damp can reduce GG populations, but effects are variable. Bioshield Grass Grub® a bio-pesticide produced by Ballance, is also available for GG control.
Spread of Western Corn Rootworm The WCR originates in the USA and was imported to Serbia in the early 1990s. Since then, it has rapidly spread to most of South East and Central Europe. Currently, some 7 million hectares are affected in Europe. The main damage is caused by the larvae of WCR, which feed on the roots of corn. This leads to lodging of the plants and they cannot develop. Yield losses lie between 20 and 80 %, resulting in billions of damage without protection. The pest is distributing its eggs during the full flying period in summer. The eggs are overwintering and develop into the hazardous larvae in the following spring. As WCR is distributing its eggs even into cultures other than corn, simple crop rotation cannot fight the pest successfully and sustainably.
230 YEARS AGO: BANNER DAY On December 3, 1775, the flag of the 13 original Colonies is raised for the first time. Navy lieutenant John Paul Jones hoists the Continental Colors, also called the Grand Union Flag, aboard the warship Alfred anchored in the Delaware River. The Colonial banner, a combination of the British Union Jack and one stripe for each Colony, is adopted by the young Continental Army less than a month later, amid rising tensions between Colonists and Great Britain. In 1777, Congress orders the creation of a flag featuring "stars in a new constellation"—the Stars and Stripes. 140 YEARS AGO: FREE AT LAST The New York Times, reporting that North and South Carolina and Alabama have endorsed the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, implores Mississippi to do the same: "We should like to see them hasten themselves." But it is Georgia that becomes the 27th state legislature to ratify the amendment, December 6, 1865, ending slavery in the United States. Secretary of State William Henry Seward proclaims on December 18, 1865, that there will be no human bondage. Mississippi ratifies the 13th Amendment in 1995. 250 YEARS AGO: BRUSHED BY HISTORY Gilbert Stuart is born on December 3, 1755, in Rhode Island. As an adult he will paint the portraits of some of the most prominent Americans of the Federal period. Stuart's affable manner puts his subjects at ease, though one subject proves more difficult than most—George Washington. The artist complains that the founding father's lack of interest renders him "most appalling to paint." Today, one of Stuart's 104 portraits of Washington graces the dollar bill. Stuart dies in Boston in 1828 at age 72. 25 YEARS AGO: HALFWAY MARK
Asymmetric encryption requires the use of two keys: a private key that is known only by its owner and a public key that is readily available to those who need to use it. It is important to note that asymmetric encryption has the property that figuring out one key from the other should be as hard as decrypting the message without any key. Stated another way, the computational power required to decrypt an asymmetrically encrypted message is approximately the same as deducing one asymmetric key from the other. In this article, we’ll look at how asymmetric encryption can be used for ensuring confidentiality and authentication. Ensuring Confidentiality with Asymmetric Encryption One of the primary uses of asymmetric encryption is to encrypt a symmetric encryption key. Alice creates the two keys required for asymmetric encryption and publishes one of them to the world. Now everyone in the world, including Bob, has access to this key (Alice’s public key). This means Bob, or anyone else in the world, can encrypt data and send it to Alice for only Alice to read. Remember, the only person that can decrypt the cipher text is Alice or the person with Alice’s private key. Now the problem of sharing a symmetric key is easy. - Bob creates a symmetric key. - He uses Alice’s public key to encrypt the symmetric key so no one else can read it. - He sends the encrypted symmetric key to Alice. - Alice receives the encrypted symmetric key, decrypts it with her private key, and begins communicating with Bob using the symmetric key he created. But why would you use the symmetric key encryption algorithms at all? If asymmetric algorithms are secure and you already have everyone’s public key, why bother with creating a symmetric key and using symmetric algorithms? The answer to that question is simple – for speed. Using RSA (a standard asymmetric encryption algorithm developed by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Len Adleman), assume that your computer can encrypt 35,633 1024-bit messages in 10 seconds. Using AES, the standard for symmetric encryption in CBC mode, on the same computer you can encrypt 69,893 1024-bit messages in only 3 seconds. Using symmetric encryption is more than 6.5 times faster than using asymmetric encryption. Assuming both algorithms are secure, why would you use one that is 6.5 times slower than the other? Asymmetric encryption is slow because it uses properties of number theory to derive its strength. The addition and multiplication of these very large (1024-bit) numbers takes a very long time on computers compared to the binary operations performed in symmetric key encryption. Even though asymmetric encryption is very slow, it does a very good job of solving the problem of sharing keys. Most symmetric algorithms have a key size somewhere around 128 to 256 bits. These keys can be encrypted in a single asymmetric message block, for most algorithms. This means only one message (the encrypted symmetric key) needs to be sent from Alice to Bob using an asymmetric algorithm before they can communicate using a symmetric algorithm. A digital signature encrypts a message with a private key so that anyone can read it, but verify that it came from the holder of the private key because only the person who holds the private key can create cipher text that can be decrypted using the public key. Using asymmetric encryption is really, really slow. Does this mean digital signatures are really slow as well? If the digital signature implementation encrypted the entire file, it would be slow. To alleviate this problem, the message is represented as a smaller message which is signed by Alice and sent along with the unencrypted original message. This smaller message is so small that it takes only a tiny amount of time to sign. Now anyone can read Alice’s message and can also verify that it truly came from her and no one else. You go about making this smaller message that represents the larger one with a hash function. We’ll discuss hash functions in another article. References and Credits - Wiley Pathways Network Security Fundamentals Project Manual, by Eric Cole, Ronald L. Krutz, James Conley, Brian Reisman, Mitch Ruebush, Dieter Gollman and Rachelle Reese.
A new article published by the Centre for Research on Globalization, titled “The Methane Time Bomb and the Future of the Biosphere,” presents evidence that the current emission of carbon threatens to melt the large polar ice caps, leading to tens of meters of sea level rise and the disappearance of species at a rate two orders of magnitude higher than without recent human actions. Dr. Andrew Glikson, a visiting fellow at the Climate Change Institute and the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at Australian National University, states in his abstract, “Having sent young generations to kill and die in wars, the powers that be are now presiding over the greatest mass extinction of nature since 66 million years ago,” a reference to the event that caused dinosaurs to go extinct. According to Glikson, methane is the most potent common greenhouse gas, and there are many hundreds of billions of tons stored in Arctic permafrost, lakes, shallow seas, and sediments. This methane has accumulated as part of the unoxidized organic matter present in such features since the Arctic glaciation that occurred approximately 2.6 million years ago. This methane reservoir, which also exists in tropical bogs, may have catastrophic effects on the biosphere upon its release. The global carbon project has released data showing that up to 1,400 billion metric tons of carbon on land and 16,000 billion metric tons in the oceans will potentially be released in the near future. This much carbon, which would be emitted in the form of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide or methane, would cause a significant rise in temperatures and widespread melting and defrosting of the polar ice sheets. This possibility comes from the combustion of fossil fuels and is further compounded by coal seam gas drilling, which perforates the earth’s crust in several parts of the world and further releases huge quantities of methane into the atmosphere. Glikson notes that even a small percentage of this carbon released into the atmosphere as methane, which has 25 to 75 times the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide, may raise the atmospheric greenhouse concentration of carbon to the point that it leads to further extensive melting of the large ice sheets, major sea level rise, and a mass extinction event rivaling the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum that occurred approximately 56 million years ago. The warnings given by Glikson are substantiated by several sources, including 2011 expeditions along the East Siberian Arctic Shelf by Russian scientists who identified large sea-bed structures showing bubbling plumes of methane as well as large numbers of perforations in the shelf itself. The estimated release of methane from this region alone is 150 megatons of carbon per year and has driven atmospheric methane there to concentrations nearly forty percent higher than the global average. A 2013 Nature comment written by Whiteman, Hope, and Wadhams suggested that once the ice cover melts, water turbulence will warm the underlying sediments by up to 7 degrees Celsius, leading to more potentially catastrophic disintegrations of Arctic permafrost. Concentrations of atmospheric methane in the Arctic rose sharply between 2009 and 2013, reaching values of about 1,800 parts per billion (ppb), up from 800 ppb before the year 1840 and 400 ppb during the last glacial period. About one-fifth of the increase of human-linked greenhouse gas emissions since 1750 is due to methane. In addition to marshalling this data showing how disastrous the release of hundreds of billions of tons of carbon from the Arctic permafrost will be, Glikson also criticizes the drilling for natural gas in coal seams. He cites a 2013 paper by Tait and colleagues that reports fugitive emissions over an Australian coal seam gas field yielding atmospheric carbon concentrations up to thirteen percent above the global average. This has resulted in tremendous venting of methane and atmospheric levels of 3,000 ppb in the region. These data and predictions have led climate scientists to draw correlations between the current atmospheric changes and those that took place during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction of dinosaurs 66 million years ago. This global extinction event was responsible for eliminating approximately 80 percent of all species of animals and distinguishes the Cretaceous and Paleogene geological periods. According to Britannica, it ranks third in severity of the five major extinction episodes that punctuate the span of geologic time. Such results have also led some scientists to recognize that the same economic and political forces that drive climate change also drive imperialist war. Last year, a book was published, written by Glikson and Andrew Yoram, which posits the probability that the current people in power will cause a transition from the Anthropocene to a new geological period, which they call the Plutocene after the element Plutonium (although, given the class that would be responsible, the name could have equally been derived from the plutocrats, the ruling elite of billionaires and multi-millionaires). The Plutocene, according to Glikson and Yoram, would partially be a result of the use of nuclear missiles and bring high levels of radioactivity that will persist for at least 20,000 years and acid oceans that will severely limit biological activity to the “hardiest” of species. They suggest that such a period will be analogous to the Pliocene, which describes a period 2.6 to 5.3 million years ago where global temperatures were 2 to 4 degrees Celsius warmer and sea levels were 20 to 40 meters higher than pre-industrial levels. There is no reason to accept such a catastrophe fatalistically, however, as many climate scientists tend to do. The threat of nuclear war, combined with the growing crisis of global warming, raises ever more sharply the need to reorganize society along socialist lines in order to put an end to private ownership of the means of production and the system of rival capitalist nation-states, the main barriers to dealing with the global challenges that confront humanity.
The Parthenon, a temple, located on the Acropolis in Athens, is one of the most representative symbols of the culture of the ancient Greeks. is the civilization belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity and beginning of the Early Greek culture had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean region and Europe. provided the foundation of Western civilization, is widely known as the "father of history". Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Demosthenes, Their scope is further limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic and social history. the 8th century BC the Greek alphabet was created. From about the 9th century BC written records begin to appear. mercantile class rose in the first half of the 7th century, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC. the 6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs: Athens, Sparta and Corinth. Each of them had brought the surrounding rural areas and smaller towns under their control, and Athens and Corinth had become major maritime and mercantile powers as well. most of Greek history, education was private, except in Sparta. During the Hellenistic period, some city-states established public schools. Only wealthy families could afford a teacher. Boys learned how to read, write and quote literature. They also learned to sing and play one musical instrument and were trained as athletes for military service. They studied not for a job but to become an effective citizen. Girls also learned to read, write and do simple arithmetic so they could manage the household. They almost never received education after went to school at the age of seven, or went to the barracks, if they lived in Sparta. from wealthy families attending the private school lessons were taken care of by a household slave selected for this task who accompanied the boy during the day. Classes were held in teachers' private houses and included reading, writing, mathematics, singing, and playing the lyre and flute. When the boy became 12 years old the schooling started to include sports such as wrestling, running, and throwing discus and javelin. In Athens some older youths attended academy for the finer disciplines such as culture, sciences, music, and the arts. The schooling ended at age 18, followed by military training in the army usually for one or two years. small number of boys continued their education after childhood. The richest students continued their education by studying with famous teachers. Some of Athens' greatest such schools included the Lyceum founded by Aristotle and the Platonic Academy founded Greek society placed considerable emphasis upon literature. Many authors consider the western literary tradition to have begun with the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, which remain giants in the literary canon for their skillful and vivid depictions of war and peace, honour and disgrace, love and entered literature in the dialogues of Plato, who converted the give and take of Socratic questioning into written form. Aristotle, Plato's student, wrote dozens of works on many scientific disciplines, but his greatest contribution to literature was likely his Poetics, which lays out his understanding of drama, and thereby establishes the first criteria for literary criticism. Greek mathematics contributed many important developments to the field of mathematics, including the basic rules of geometry, the idea of formal mathematical proof, and discoveries in number theory, mathematical analysis, applied mathematics, and approached close to establishing the integral calculus. The discoveries of several Greek mathematicians, including Pythagoras, are still used in mathematical teaching today. Greeks developed astronomy, which they treated as a branch of mathematics, to a highly sophisticated level. Their ideas are: Earth rotates around its axis of the circumference of the Earth with great accuracy first measurement of precession compilation of the first star catalogue modern system of apparent magnitudes. device for calculating the movements of planets, dates from about 80 BC, and was the first ancestor of the astronomical computer ancient Greeks also made important discoveries in the medical field. Hippocrates was a physician of the Classical period, and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is referred to as the "father of medicine” art of ancient Greece has exercised an enormous influence on the culture of many countries from ancient times until the present, particularly in the areas of sculpture and
A control is a part of the experiment that tests whether the system behaves as it should imagine that you want to measure the rate of an enzyme reaction this is done by using an assay for. I purpose: what is the reason for doing the experiment or what is there to be learned from doing the experiment ii hypothesis: what you think will be the final. In an experiment, a control is used to establish a baseline to compare the results of the main experiment to having a control group rules out any environmental. Experiment definition, a test, trial, or tentative procedure an act or operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown or of testing a principle. Asch's experiment also had a control condition where there were no the real purpose was to see how the 'naive' participant would react to the behavior of the. An experiment is a procedure carried out to support, refute, or validate a hypothesis experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome. These statements should be as specific as possible to demonstrate a clear understanding of the experiment the purpose of experiment which the introduction. The learner gave mainly wrong answers (on purpose), and for each of these, the teacher gave him an electric shock milgram did more than one experiment. Los angeles city college chemistry 51 fall 2005 3093 experiment 3 introduction to density introduction the purpose of this experiment is to understand the meaning and. Purpose: the purpose of the experiment was to test the permeability of dialysis tubing to glucose in this experiment, the selective permeability of dialysis tubing to glucose, starch. The purpose of the laboratory physics is an experimental science the theoretical concepts and relationships introduced in the lecture part of the course describe the general nature and. Q: what was the purpose of the stanford prison experiment a: the purpose was to understand the development of norms and the effects of roles, labels, and social. The hawthorne effect nov 3rd 2008 \| online extra the original purpose of the experiments was to study the effects of physical conditions on productivity two groups of workers in the. The purpose of this study was to observe the natural progression of untreated syphilis in rural african-american men in alabama the tuskegee syphilis experiment. Purpose: the purpose of the experiment was to test the permeability of dialysis tubing to glucose the selective permeability of dialysis tubing to glucose. A scientific experiment may be designed with a control group here's what a control group is and how it helps increase the validity of an experiment. Kids love the dramatic mentos and diet coke experiment conducted in this awesome science fair project. Milgram's obedience experiment is one of the most famous studies in psychology's history learn what it revealed and the moral questions it raised. What is the purpose of research why is it needed what's the benefits. Osmosis experiment purpose: the purpose of this experiment is to demonstrate the principle of osmosis, the diffusion of water through a semipermeable membrane. The effect of caffeine on human blood pressure created by bryanne n 6 th grade soar purpose the purpose of this experiment was to determine if caffeine affects. Activity 4: transformation of e coli using green fluorescent protein information for teachers safety instructions although the e coli strain used in these experiments has been rendered. Get an answer for 'what is the purpose of a chemical reactions lab experiment' and find homework help for other science questions at enotes. The lab report printable pdf the purpose of this experiment was to identify the specific element in a metal powder sample by determining its crystal structure. I know what the purpose is, you're saying what you're doing in the experiment, but i don't really get itisn't it obvious, just look at the. Do you know about the growing gummy bear experiment what happens when you soak a gummy bear in water, juice, vinegar, and more kids love it.Get The purpose of the experiment was
Grey reef sharks were the first shark species known to perform a threat display, a stereotypical behavior warning that it is prepared to attack. The display involves a "hunched" posture with characteristically dropped pectoral fins, and an exaggerated, side-to-side swimming motion. Grey reef sharks often do so if they are followed or cornered by divers to indicate they perceive a threat. This species has been responsible for a number of attacks on humans, so should be treated with caution, especially if they begin to display. They are caught in many fisheries and are susceptible to local population depletion due to their low reproduction rate and limited dispersal. As a result, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed this species as Near Threatened. The Caribbean reef shark was originally described from off the coast of Cuba as Platypodon perezi by Poey in 1876. Bigelow and Schroeder later described the same species as Carcharhinus springeri in 1944 and the reef shark appears in much literature under this scientific name. The genus name Carcharhinus is derived from the Greek “karcharos” = sharpen and “rhinos” = nose. The currently accepted valid name is C. perezi (Poey 1876). Tax-deductible donations made to Tetiaroa Society help fund critical conservation efforts, scientific research being conducted at our Ecostation, and education programs for the local schools. Your contribution also helps us advance what we are doing on Tetiaroa as a model for island/earth sustainability. We deeply appreciate your generosity and look forward to sharing our progress with you. Every year, Reef Check trains thousands of citizen scientist divers who volunteer to survey the health of coral reefs around the world, and rocky reef ecosystems along the entire coast of California. The results are used to improve the management of these critically important natural resources. Reef Check programs provide ecologically sound and economically sustainable solutions to save reefs, by creating partnerships among community volunteers, government agencies, businesses, universities and other nonprofits. Generally a coastal, shallow-water species, grey reef sharks are mostly found in depths of less than 60 m (200 ft). However, they have been known to dive to 1,000 m (3,300 ft). They are found over continental and insular shelves, preferring the leeward (away from the direction of the current) sides of coral reefs with clear water and rugged topography. They are frequently found near the drop-offs at the outer edges of the reef, particularly near reef channels with strong currents, and less commonly within lagoons. On occasion, this shark may venture several kilometers out into the open ocean. A reef is a bar of rock, sand, coral or similar material, lying beneath the surface of water. Many reefs result from abiotic processes (i.e. deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock outcrops, and other natural processes), but the best known reefs are the coral reefs of tropical waters developed through biotic processes dominated by corals and coralline algae.
I don't usually think of Joshua trees as a "cloud forest" species, but in the winter when they get most of their moisture, a lot of them live up where they are in the clouds of oncoming storms. Although they are clearly a desert species, it's high desert, and much of the moisture falls as snow. This lengthens the time when the moisture can soak into the soil. Joshua trees are an indicator species for the Mojave Desert ecosystem. They have been declining in geographical extent for thousands of years. One contributing factor may be the extinction of the giant ground sloth, which spread Joshua tree seeds, but disappeared around the time that humans arrived on the continent. As climate change shortens winters and raises snow levels, that may accelerate their decline.

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