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He has the dubious claim to fame of having produced perhaps the most criticised psychological theory of all time. His experiments and theories about how children build up their knowledge of the world have faced endless challenges, many of them justified.
But because of his immense contribution and his grand vision it is fitting to round off this series on 10 crucial child psychology studies with the work of the famous Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget.
To give you a flavour of why Piaget's research has faced so much criticism and also why psychologists often regard him with such awe, I'll describe one of the observations he made of his own three children, why his conclusions are probably wrong and the central insight at the heart of his four-stage theory.
When the duck is out of sight, it's out of mind
One of Piaget's many careful observations was made when one of his daughters, Jacqueline, then 7 months old, dropped a plastic duck on the quilt and it fell behind a fold so that she couldn't see it. Piaget noticed that despite the fact that Jacqueline could clearly see where the duck had dropped, and it was within her reach, she made no attempt to grab for it.
Fascinated by this, Piaget put the duck in her view again but, then, just as she was about to reach for it, he slowly and clearly hid it under the sheet. Again, she acted as though the duck had simply disappeared, making no attempt to search for it under the sheet.
This seemed strange behaviour to Piaget as Jacqueline was clearly interested in the duck while she could see it, but seemed to forget about it the instant it disappeared from view - out of sight and, apparently, out of mind.
What Piaget deduced from these observations, along with many experiments, was that children do not initially understand the idea that objects continue to exist even when out of sight. This concept, he thought, children had to work out by themselves by interacting with and experiencing the world.
It wasn't until around 9 or 10 months of age that Piaget noticed his children began to search for a hidden object.
Piaget's four-stage theory of development
While many parents play games with their children like this, what set Piaget apart was that he used these observations along with many experiments to develop a theory of how children acquire knowledge, a theory for which he is rightly best-remembered.
This theory is a four-stage ladder up which Piaget thought children climbed as they gathered knowledge about the world:
- Sensorimotor (birth to 18-24 months): infants are aware only of their sensations, fascinated by all the strange new experiences their bodies are having. They are like little scientists exploring the world by shouting at, listening to, banging and tasting everything.
- Pre-operational (18-24 months to 7 years): during this stage children can process images, words and concepts but they can't do anything with them, they can't yet operate on them. It's like they've acquired the tools of thought, but don't yet know how to use them. E.g. in maths they can't understand that 2 x 3 is the same as 3 x 2.
- Concrete operations (7 to 12 years): at this stage children gain the ability to manipulate symbols and objects, but only if they are concrete - abstract operations are still a challenge.
- Formal operations (12 and up): from here on children are able to think in abstract terms about the world. Now they can understand concepts such as the future, values and justice. From around this age children start thinking like adults.
It's for this grand theory of development that Piaget is much admired. Unfortunately, like many an ambitious theory, over time evidence was uncovered that contradicted aspects of this neat time-line.
For example Piaget's conclusions about his daughter Jacqueline's failure to reach for the duck were probably wrong. Subsequent studies have revealed infants as young as 3.5 months appear to understand object permanence. Psychologists nowadays might explain Jacqueline's behaviour as a failure of memory or an inability to grasp something that is out of view.
Einstein on Piaget: genius
Although findings such as these have chipped away at Piaget's theory, his work has continued to attract interest and stimulate research. From observations like hiding his daughter's duck to his grand four-stage theory, Piaget's central insight was that children think in a fundamentally different way from adults. They don't just have less knowledge, less experience or less processing power; the qualitative content of their thoughts is actually different.
Even though psychologists now question many of the details of Piaget's observations and theories, this central insight remains intact. And it's this central insight that Albert Einstein once described as "so simple that only a genius could have thought of it".
» This is part of a series on 10 crucial child psychology studies. Read more on the emergence of infant memory, self-concept, learning, attachment, social behaviour, theory of mind, object permanence, language and knowledge.
Making Habits, Breaking Habits
In his new book, Jeremy Dean--psychologist and author of PsyBlog--looks at how habits work, why they are so hard to change, and how to break bad old cycles and develop new healthy, creative, happy habits.
→ "Making Habits, Breaking Habits", is available now on Amazon.Reviews
The Bookseller, “Editor’s Pick,” 10/12/12 “Sensible and very readable…By far the most useful of this month’s New You offerings.”
Kirkus Reviews, 1/1/13 “Making changes does take longer than we may expect—no 30-day, 30-pounds-lighter quick fix—but by following the guidelines laid out by Dean, readers have a decent chance at establishing fulfilling, new patterns.”
Publishers Weekly, 12/10/12 “An accessible and informative guide for readers to take control of their lives.”
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February 25th, 2005 | researchmaterial
John Halpern clearly remembers what made him change his mind about psychedelic drugs. It was the early 1990s and the young medical student at a hospital in Brooklyn, New York, was getting frustrated that he could not do more to help the alcoholics and addicts in his care. He sounded off to an older psychiatrist, who mentioned that LSD and related drugs had once been considered promising treatments for addiction. “I was so fascinated that I did all this research,” Halpern recalls. “I was reading all these papers from the 60s and going, whoa, wait a minute! How come nobody’s talking about this?”
More than a decade later, Halpern is now an associate director of substance abuse research at Harvard University’s McLean Hospital and is at the forefront of a revival of research into psychedelic medicine. He recently received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to give late-stage cancer patients the psychedelic drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy. He is also laying the groundwork for testing LSD as a treatment for dreaded super-migraines known as cluster headaches.
And Halpern is not alone. Clinical trials of psychedelic drugs are planned or under way at numerous centres around the world for conditions ranging from anxiety to alcoholism. It may not be long before doctors are legally prescribing hallucinogens for the first time in decades…
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Planting strawberries makes eating fun for kids
Are you tired of the endless attempts to persuade your children to eat fruit?
Are you looking for a healthy snack that is almost guaranteed to appeal to the kids – and the whole family? And that will be very affordable?
Why not enlist your children’s help in the garden and plant strawberries for the summer.
Strawberries are high in vitamin A and C, can be used in snacks or smoothies and kids love to eat them! And if you plant them now they’ll be ready for Christmas!
“Growing strawberries is a great activity for all the family and now, while the soil is moist and the plants are dormant, is the perfect time to plant,” says Henri Ham of Awapuni Nurseries.
Strawberries can be purchased from most garden centres, nurseries or supermarkets and the parjero variety, which is packaged in bundles of four, are great to start with.
“They are fantastic producers of medium to large sized strawberries, and will last all summer,” Henri says.
A well drained plot in full sun is essential for growing great strawberries for summer. But for those with limited space, strawberries can be planted in large pots, hanging baskets, or roof spouting nailed to your fence.
“They are adaptable and grow well in most sunny situations but they do not tolerate wet soils.”
Not only does growing strawberries provide great eating, but by involving children in the planting, it can also be a fun learning experience.
Children can help to test the pH of the soil is at the right level (pH 5.0 – 6.5 for strawberries) by using an easy-to-use pH test kit, which are readily available from most garden centres.
If the pH is too low, spreading garden lime over the garden will help return it to the right level.
Once the soil pH is correct, the soil must be prepared for the strawberries.
Mix compost and blood and bone fertiliser to the garden until you have created a mound 300mm high and 400mm wide.
“Strawberries are traditionally planted in mounds because the mounds improve drainage, increase air circulation around the plants, prevent the spread of disease and give shallow soils more depth,” says Henri.
“And the fertiliser will provide a great boost of food as the roots spread out.”
Plant the strawberries as normal but make sure the crown, the part just below the leaves, is just above ground level. Also, remember to keep the soil evenly moist.
To add some winter colour to your garden and to keep kids interested while the strawberries are growing, Henri recommends planting winter plants amongst the strawberries.
Awapuni’s Pop’n’Grow range has several varieties that children can plant, at this time of the year, easily and with a minimum of fuss. These include pansy, polyanthus, lobelia, and primulia.
Pop’n’Grow is a revolutionary new seedling range that is simple to plant and quite literally guaranteed to grow. The range includes over 120 different perennials, herbs, flowers and vegetables, and special kids’ fun pack products and is available from supermarkets, The Warehouse, Kmart and Bunnings stores.
To save extra work and weeding around the strawberries, Henri suggests placing a weed mat or straw around the base of the plants.
This will save having to weed the plants but also prevents the strawberries from sitting on the ground and rotting.
And for sweet juicey strawberries during the holiday season, fertilise the strawberries with a high potassium and low nitrogen content liquid fertiliser.
Lastly, and most importantly, Henri advises setting up bird-netting over the strawberries.
Bird netting is simple to use and can be found at any local garden centre.
Drape the netting over the plants, in baskets or in the garden, and secure with stones or cloth pegs.
“This will ensure you have big and tasty strawberries for toppings on Christmas pavlovas, dipping in chocolate or for low fat summer smoothies during the hotter months!”
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"The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice be done. As such he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor -- indeed he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one."
-- Mr. Justice Sutherland in Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 88 (1935)
The position of United States Attorney was created by the Judiciary Act of 1789, which provided for the appointment in each judicial district of a "[p]erson learned in the law to act as attorney for the United States... whose duty it shall be to prosecute in each district all delinquents for crimes and offenses cognizable under the authority of the United States, and all civil actions in which the United States shall be concerned..." This same act also established the position of Attorney General of the United States, specified the structure of the Supreme Court of the United States, and created inferior courts, including a district court system which make up the United States federal judiciary. Prior to the creation of the Department of Justice in 1870, the U.S. Attorneys were independent of the Attorney General and did not come under the Attorney General's supervision and authority until then.
The U.S. Attorney is appointed by the President of the United States for a term of four years, with appointments subject to confirmation by the Senate. A U.S. Attorney shall continue in office beyond the appointed term until a successor is appointed and qualified. The current U.S. Attorney is B. Todd Jones, who was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 7, 2009.
Minnesota was established as a territory and federal judicial district by the Congress of the United States on March 17, 1849. Two days later, Henry L. Moss was appointed its first U.S. Attorney by President Zachary Taylor and served for the first time in this position until 1853. Like several of his successors, Moss was re-appointed U.S. Attorney in 1863 and served until 1868. Since that time, the District's thirty-one (31) U.S. Attorneys have worked hard to uphold the laws of this nation and protect the rights and safety of the citizens of Minnesota.
Presently, approximately 125 people, including more than fifty (50) Assistant U.S. Attorneys, work in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Minnesota. The Office headquarters is in the federal courthouse in Minneapolis, and a branch office is maintained in St. Paul.
Functionally, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Minnesota is divided into five divisions: a criminal division, civil division, appellate division, community relations division, and administrative division.
The mission of the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota is to ensure that we provide the United States of America with high quality and professional legal representation, maintaining the highest ethical standards and, at all times, pursuing justice. We are wholly committed to the promotion of the public good and the safety of our community. Within this broader mission, we recognize that our primary responsibilities include:
* The prosecution of criminal offenses against the United States
* The prosecution or defense for the government of civil actions, suits, or proceedings in which the United States is concerned; and,
* Assisting communities within the District of Minnesota in appropriate community-building efforts designed to enhance public safety.
Henry L. Moss: 1849-1853
John E. Warren: 1854-1855
Eugene M. Wilson: 1857-1861
Henry L. Moss: 1863-1868
Cushman K. Davis: 1868-1873
William W. Billson: 1873-1882
D.B. Searle: 1882-1885
George N. Baxter: 1885-1890
Eugene G. Hay: 1890-1894
E.C. Stringer: 1894-1898
Charles C. Houpt: 1902-1914
Alfred Jaques: 1914-1922
Layfayette French Jr.: 1922-1928
Lewis L. Dull: 1928-1933
George F. Sullivan: 1933-1937
Victor E. Anderson: 1937-1948
John W. Graff: 1948-1949
Clarence Landrum: 1949-1952
Phillip Neville: 1952-1953
George E. MacKinnon: 1953-1958
Fallon Kelly: 1958-1961
Miles W. Lord: 1961-1966
Patrick J. Foley: 1966-1969
Robert G. Renner: 1969-1977
Andrew W. Danielson: 1977-1979
Thomas K. Berg: 1980-1981
James M. Rosenbaum: 1981-1985
Jerome G. Arnold: 1986-1991
Thomas B. Heffelfinger: 1991-1993
David L. Lillehaug: 1994-1998
B. Todd Jones: 1998-2001
Thomas B. Heffelfinger: 2001-2006
Rachel K. Paulose: 2006-2007
B. Todd Jones: 2009-present
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
Bureau of Prisons
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Drug Enforcement Administration
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
Federal Trade Commission
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
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U.S. Postal Inspection Service
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Read about Tribal Justice
Our nationwide commitment to reducing gun crime in America.
Joint effort to reduce gun violence in Minneapolis.
Help us combat the proliferation of sexual exploitation crimes against children.
Ways you can help children cope with the impact of exposure to violence.
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This is the fourth issue of the series of posts “365 Ways to Save the Earth. It is devoted to environment protection and energy saving. Read the previous post here
Roll Off Dumpster Rentals Blog
. This time we would like to share a few more tips and easy-to-do recommendations on how we can contribute to saving not-renewable resources and protect our environment and our communities for ourselves and future generations.
Use wood for heating.
America's forests cover 745 million acres, or 33% of the entire country. Of that total U.S. forested area, 495 million acres, or 67 %, are commercial forests that are used to produce timber for wood products.
Canada's forests cover 397.3 million hectares (ha), other wooded land and other land with tree cover, which represent 53.8 percent of its total surface. Canada is the home to 10% of world's forests.
As a source of energy, wood does not contribute to global warming. Although burning it releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, the amount given of is the same as the amount absorbed while the tree...
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Birds that Imitate Sound Invalidate Evolutionary Theory
In its claims about birds' evolution, evolutionary theory, as in all other fields of science, is full of contradictions. Defenders of evolutionary theory base their claims more on a series of hypotheses and assumptions than on findings and research results. Several of our books have presented scientific evidence of the illogic and contradictions in evolutionary theory, and have presented the invalidity of their claims with their own admissions. (For detailed information, see Darwinism Refuted, Evolution Deceit, The Collapse of Evolution Theory in 20 Questions, by Harun Yahya). In this book, accordingly, we will deal only with the subject of how birds, with their various physical characteristics and talent for mimicry, present evidence to counter evolutionary theory.
Birds' Vocal Learning Chops Down the Evolutionary Tree
In order to explain the diversity of species, Darwin drew an imaginary evolutionary tree and offered the theory that all living creatures arose from one single ancestor and have diverged from one another into distinct species. But this imaginary evolutionary tree, which is claimed as the backbone of evolutionary theory, has been turned upside down by the results of findings in the field of paleontology and molecular studies.
Among the most important examples that invalidate evolutionary theory are the birds that can imitate sounds and human speech.
To explain the diversity of species, Darwin drew an imaginary evolutionary tree, claiming that all living creatures came from one common ancestor and diverged from one another into different species. But current scientific findings invalidate these claims and show that species were created individually.
1. Songbirds, Parrots and Hummingbirds—Three Groups of Birds that can Imitate—Have Similar Physical and Mental Characteristics in Spite of Not Being Related
American and Brazilian scientists' research on hummingbirds also invalidates unfounded claims that birds' songs have evolved. Hummingbirds, parrots, and songbirds are, according to the imaginary evolutionary tree, far apart from one another in evolutionary terms.
Yet they have remarkably similar brain structures. This shows that these birds are not the descendents of a common ancestor, but the product of separate Design.
According to the evolutionists, songbirds, parrots and hummingbirds must come from a single ancestor, because of their similar physical and mental characteristics. However, these three categories of birds are not related in any way and so, are placed in different branches of the hypothetical evolutionary tree. First and foremost, no fossils of any common ancestor have been found, nor are any similar characteristics found in other varieties of birds closely related to these species. Accordingly, evolutionists are unable to answer the question of how these categories of bird all possess the ability of being able to speak and imitate sounds, despite being so far apart from one another on the imaginary evolutionary tree.
Gradually, therefore, research has pushed the evolutionists into an impasse. For example, a test carried out on the Anna hummingbird (Calypte anna) in 1990 established that some of the males imitated the singing of other birds. This is firm evidence of the hummingbird’s ability to learn songs. As a result of tests carried out on talking birds, scientists concluded that when the hummingbird is singing, its brain is activated in seven different places. This same observation also is true for songbirds and parrots.
This discovery creates serious problems regarding the evolutionary phases between living creatures. The songs of birds that can imitate sound are genetically coded, as opposed to sounds that they learn later in life. Of these, however, only adult songbirds, parrots and hummingbirds have the ability to learn songs and repeat them accurately. According to Erich Jarvis, a neurobiologist at Duke University Medical Center, this kind of vocal learning closely resembles the process by which humans learn to speak. Surprisingly, this research shows that birds skilled at vocal learning are in a completely different branch of the so-called evolutionary path. What’s more, none of the species that evolutionists claim are closely related to these birds can learn any similar songs.
Dr. Erich Jarvis, of Duke University
Regarding this subject, two evolutionary scenarios are put forward. The first states that all birds come from a common ancestor with the necessary brain structure for imitating sounds but that somehow, only certain species developed the ability. The other species were unsuccessful in this respect and lost these skills over time. However, this scenario is not given credit, not even by many evolutionists! According to celebrated neurobiologist Erich Jarvis, it seems extremely unlikely that this trait could be gained or lost more than once in both birds and mammals.28If this kind of undeveloped brain structure exists, asks Jarvis, then why is it not present in reptiles and dinosaurs as well?.29
Evolutionists put forward a second scenario: that in the brains of these three birds, these learning structures each evolved independently of one another. This claim is not only scientifically unfounded, but also cannot answer the most basic questions: How did this skill come about in birds? How is it passed on from generation to generation? And how was the necessary physiological structure for this skill formed? Of course, evolutionists cannot produce a tenable explanation for how this came about in even one of these species. Thus, it is unreasonable for them to claim that the three different bird species have evolved independently. This chain of events cannot be explained by evolution, and could not possibly be realized coincidentally in three different processes in three different living creatures. That is like saying that blind coincidences resulted in successful outcomes—on three different occasions.
Research conducted by Erich Jarvis concluded that the concept of different stages of evolution is invalid.
Facts that science has proven also show how evolutionists lack solutions on this subject. Erich Jarvis expressed the situation in which he found himself, in the light of scientific findings:
… Birds challenge all of us to rethink outmoded concepts of evolution… Throughout our education, we have this concept of linear evolution instilled in us. We're told that … vertebrates evolved from some worm-like creature to fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and so forth, and that living vertebrates represent these stages in both body plan and brain intelligence. And once there were mammals, they evolved to primates, then humans, being last at the top of the hierarchy. But this concept of lower and higher in the vertebrate lineage is just completely false.30
The evolutionary tree on which the evolutionists rely is a strained series of links between different animal species. This tree, based on anatomical similarities among animals, has no real scientific foundation and, as an inevitable result, is full of contradictions. One example is exemplified by those birds that imitate sounds. According to the family tree theory, three living species belonging to three very different branches share one highly complex characteristic—in vocal learning, the same seven areas of the brain are activated in all three. As has been shown, similarities among animals are no evidence of evolution. Attempts to claim otherwise are no more than biased interpretation in the name of science.
Parrots, songbirds and hummingbirds, the three species of bird that have the ability to mimic songs, are far apart from each other, according to the evolutionists' imaginary family relationships. This invalidates the evolutionary scenario, which claims that these birds independently acquired the necessary characteristics for vocal learning. However, it is irrational to imagine that even one species of bird, let alone three, could acquire such complex skills through coincidence.
"Have they not looked at the birds above them, with wings outspread and folded back? Nothing holds them up but the All-Merciful. He sees all things." (Qur'an, 67:19)
"That is God, your Lord. There is no god but Him, the Creator of everything. So worship Him. He is responsible for everything." (Qur'an, 6:102)
To Prove that Animals Are Descended from a Single Ancestor, Then You Should Produce a Mechanism, but There Is None
If you claim that animals are descended from a common ancestor, it's not enough to use the similarities between animals as proof. It would be more apt to show a mechanism, but no such mechanism has yet been put forward. For example, which mechanisms transformed the forelimb of a mouse or a shrew-like animal, imagined ancestors of bats, into a bat's wing? Similarly, we can ask what mechanism caused the hind limbs of a land animal to turn into the fins of a whale? For this to happen, according to evolutionary theory, natural selection and mutation are required. However, these two mechanisms make sense only if all intermediate phases in the evolutionary process are of some advantage to the species. If the incomplete forms of the said organs afford the animal no benefit, they are a disadvantage and constitute a handicap for the animal in question. Therefore, there is no natural mechanism for developing the complex organs of animals or for producing genetic information that corresponds to them.
SIMILARITIES BETWEEN LIVING CREATURES DO NOT PROVE THAT THEY COME FROM A
Evolutionists frequently point to similarities between living creatures as evidence to support their claims. For example, the bones in a human arm, a whale's fin and a bat's wing have similar structure. This, according to evolutionists, proves that the animals in question evolved from one single ancestor. However, it is mistaken to think in this way. Actually, this similarity is evidence that all living creatures have been designed according to a plan. From what we have observed in nature, it is evident that a Creator has formed all life within the scope of a similar plan, and fashioned all living creatures in accordance with their needs. When we examine the scientific evidence, the "common design" explanation emerges as the correct one.
If Several Animals Share Similar Characteristics, They Cannot Be Claimed to Have a Common Ancestor
The organs of many creatures resemble those of other animals, but the evolutionists cannot claim all are derived from one common ancestor. For example, the eyes of an octopus are very much like yours, but according to the evolutionists, these similar structures are not derived from a common root (that is to say homologous). Flies and birds both have wings, but again, these cannot be described as homologous. The evolutionists cannot claim an evolutionary relationship between these animals, despite their great similarities, because in the so-called evolutionary trees drawn up on the basis of fossil records and morphology, these animals are far apart from one another. For this reason, evolutionists describe these structures not as homologous but as "analogous"—that is, similar in spite of not having a common root. However, if some similar structures can be analogous, why not all? So far, evolutionists have not provided a tenable answer to this question.
They try to get around this by producing not an answer, but an imaginary concept they call “parallel evolution.” Parallel evolution is attributed to animals and organs that seem to have acquired similar characteristics over time, but which have no evolutionary relationship to one another. For example, let’s take the octopus once more. In spite of being an invertebrate—and therefore, according to the evolutionists, a primitive creature—is as intelligent as a dog, a highly developed mammal. In this case, evolutionists claim that an “intelligence” factor has developed separately in each species, an imaginary phenomenon they describe as “parallel evolution.” But since the octopus is a primitive creature in terms of evolution, it should be a creature of very low intelligence.
Another example is the ability to fly. Insects, birds, extinct reptiles, and even certain living mammals have wings; which is to say, flight has evolved in at least four different classifications of animals. According to evolution theory, why should all of these groups, on completely different imaginary evolutionary paths, have the same outcome? Is it possible for these completely separate groups to develop the same organic structure through an accidental evolutionary process? Why would coincidences follow the same common design in each case? This illustrates the folly of explaining away all these questions by mere coincidence: The common design in these creatures can be explained only by the existence of a common Designer, that is to say, through God’s creation.
Molecular Evidence Disproves the Claim that a Common Ancestor Can Explain Similarities
Regarding similar structures, the most important evidence to disprove the claims of evolutionary theory comes from molecular biology.
Before the genetic coding structure of DNA was discovered, the claim that similar organs “evolved” from a common ancestor was presented as plausible by evolutionists. As more knowledge was gained of genetics, however, scientists discovered the genetic code for similar organs, and it emerged that usually these genes were markedly different. This discovery dealt the common-ancestor assertion a deadly blow.
One fact that emerged in regard to this discovery was the five-fingered (or pentadactyl) hand structure encountered in all land-living vertebrates.
The hands and feet of a frog, lizard, squirrel and a monkey all have five digits. Even the bone structure of birds and bats conforms to this basic design. Evolutionists used the pentadactyl structure as evidence for the claim that all these various species derived from a common ancestor.
Today, however, even the evolutionists have accepted that pentadactyl anatomy occurs in species of different groups, between which no evolutionary link can be established. In two separate articles published in 1991 and 1996, evolutionary biologist M. Coates points out that the pentadactyl phenomenon appears independently in both the anthracosaurs and the amphibians. 31This finding indicates that the pentadactyl phenomenon does not constitute proof of a common ancestor.
Nowadays, even evolutionists admit that the pentadactyl characteristic occurs in different groups that share no evolutionary relationship. The limbs of a frog, lizard, squirrel and a monkey are all pentadactyl. Even the bone structures of birds and bats conform to this basic design. As has been seen, similarities between living creatures constitute evidence not of evolution, but of creation by common design.
But the essential blow to this evolutionary claim comes from molecular biology. The "pentadactyl homology" hypothesis, long defended in evolutionary publications, collapsed with the discovery that different genes controlled the digit structure in different creatures displaying the pentadactyl structure! As evolutionary biologist William Fix explains;
The older textbooks on evolution make much of the idea of homology, pointing out the obvious resemblances between the skeletons of the limbs of different animals. Thus the "pentadactyl" limb pattern is found in the arm of a man, the wing of a bird, and flipper of a whale—and this is held to indicate their common origin. Now if these various structures were transmitted by the same gene couples, varied from time to time by mutations and acted upon by environmental selection, the theory would make good sense. Unfortunately this is not the case. Homologous organs are now known to be produced by totally different gene complexes in the different species. The concept of homology in terms of similar genes handed on from a common ancestor has broken down... 32
2. 2. Birds that Display Vocal Learning Show Similarity with Humans in Terms of the Genes Determining Brain Structures
Evolutionists claim that genetic similarities derive from evolutionary development. However, when “biochemical similarities” are considered as a whole, they are seen to refute the alleged family tree that constitutes the backbone of claims supporting the theory of evolution. (For detailed information, see The Secrets of DNA, by Harun Yahya.)
That molecular verification does not support evolutionary theory is expressed in an article by Elizabeth Pennisi, “Is It Time to Uproot the Tree of Life?” published in Science magazine in 1999. Pennisi states that the genetic analyses and comparisons made by the Darwinist biologists to illustrate the “evolutionary tree” give quite the opposite result, and that “the new data casts a shadow over the evolutionary picture”:
A year ago, biologists looking over newly sequenced genomes from more than a dozen microorganisms thought these data might support the accepted plot lines of life's early history. But what they saw confounded them. Comparisons of the genomes then available not only didn't clarify the picture of how life's major groupings evolved, they confused it. And now, with an additional eight microbial sequences in hand, the situation has gotten even more confusing… Many evolutionary biologists had thought they could roughly see the beginnings of life's three kingdoms… When full DNA sequences opened the way to comparing other kinds of genes, researchers expected that they would simply add detail to this tree. But “nothing could be further from the truth,” says Claire Fraser, head of The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in Rockville, Maryland.
Instead, the comparisons have yielded many versions of the tree of life….33
In summary, on examination of living species at a molecular level, the homology hypotheses of evolutionary theory collapse, one by one. Jonathan Wells, an American molecular biologist, summarizes the situation in his book published in 2000:
Inconsistencies among trees based on different molecules, and the bizarre trees that result from some molecular analyses, have now plunged phylogeny into a crisis.34
In recent years, research conducted on the genetic structure of birds has also turned upside-down the evolutionists' theory of genetic similarity. To understand vocal learning in birds, Erich Jarvis and his team of colleagues examined the brains of 12 of the 30 or more species of hummingbird found in Brazil, in the movement of a gene that is activated when the birds sing. Their research established that a gene called "zenk" is active in seven different centers of the brain. It emerged that this characteristic is present not just in hummingbirds, but also in parrots and songbirds.35
In light of this information, scientists began making further comparisons between the brains of humans and birds. But the evolutionists—who wanted to present genetic similarities between humans and chimpanzees as evidence of evolution—felt uncomfortable about conducting studies using methods that produced evidence contrary to their position. The comparisons made on this subject to date are biased opinions supporting the fable that humans and monkeys have a common ancestor. When a genetic similarity was established between birds and humans, the evidence produced to date by the evolutionists was invalidated once again. Erich Jarvis, himself an evolutionist, expressed how this dogmatic approach, resulting from an evolutionist standpoint and which posed an obstacle to real observation, gave him great difficulty in his research:
The difference… between humans and songbirds, besides the general brain organization of mammals and birds, is that humans have more of what the birds have… But in order to explain this hypothesis of parallels between vocal imitation structures in the bird brain and language structures in human brains, I first have to get around this hundred-year-old dogma that their brains are so very different. 36
The reason behind the evolutionists' discomfort was that the possibility of a common gene in hummingbirds and humans could contradict the concept of homology and thus constitute evidence against evolution. Accordingly, they were not keen to see information on this subject emerge. Nevertheless, Jarvis explains that research in this field could be illuminating:
Such genetic experiments, even with an animal as seemingly distant from humans as the hummingbird, could help us understand human language… We're finding with these DNA chips that somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of the genes that we get from the songbird brain have a homologous counterpart in humans and mammals in general."37
The Darwinists have done no more with evolutionary theory than present information they believe suits their purposes, using the support of certain organs of the media as evidence of evolution. On the subject of genetic similarities, as in every field, they manipulate deliberately, giving misleading information and suppressing information they see as contrary to their purposes. But upon impartial evaluation of research conducted at a molecular level, the truth is evident: No “organism” is the ancestor of any other, nor is any more “primitive” or “developed” than the other. God has created all living creatures individually and perfectly, together with perfect systems that differentiate them from one another.
God makes this known fact in the Qur’an:
He is God—the Creator, the Maker, the Giver of Form. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Everything in the heavens and Earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. (Qur'an, 59:24)
"We subjected the mountains to glorify with him in the evening and at sunrise. And also the birds, flocking together, all of them turned to Him." (Qur'an, 38:18-19)
3. Birds with Vocal Learning Display a Talent Superior to Monkeys:
Many evolutionists are known to be working toward establishing links between chimpanzees and humans, to present as evidence of a relationship between the two species. However, research conducted on chimpanzees' linguistic and thinking skills shows that they use a very simple form of sign language. Thus, evolutionists' attempts to show that monkeys are the animals most well-adapted for learning to speak have had disappointing results. This shows, once again, how no such relationship exists between humans and chimpanzees like the one that evolutionists imagine.
Despite the time and effort spent in trying to make chimpanzees talk, results have remained inconclusive. The vocalizations that chimpanzees produce are extremely primitive when compared with the skilled mimicry of parrots. Nevertheless, no one mentions any evolutionary ties between humans and parrots. This is only one example of evolutionists' biased opinions.
The press claimed that a chimpanzee named Kanzi had been taught to "speak." However, it emerged that the chimpanzee produced vocalizations that had nothing to do with the skill of speaking.
Attempts to get chimpanzees to talk proved inconclusive, in spite of the time and effort invested, showing how wrong the approach of the evolutionists was. Nevertheless, the press presented these studies in a distorted way. One of the most recent examples of this was a piece entitled “Can Chimpanzees Talk?” in the science and technology supplement of Cumhuriyet newspaper, 25 January, 2003. Based on a news item published on BBC’s online site, this article claimed that a chimpanzee called Kanzi had been taught to speak. However, the vocalizations that the chimpanzee supposedly uttered had nothing to do with the skill of “speaking.”
Jared Taglialatela and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, two evolutionist researchers, claimed that Kanzi produced different vocalizations in response to certain behavior and objects, and that although the chimp used these vocalizations—meaning “banana,” “grapes,” “fruit juice” and “yes”—in different contexts, he did not substitute the word “yes” under any circumstances. These same researchers claimed that the chimpanzee had learned to do this by himself.
The fact is that chimpanzees cannot speak. A human’s ability to speak is not based on making sounds; it comprises exceptional characteristics such as naming concepts and forming grammatically correct sentences, which no animal can master and whose source no linguist can explain. Evidently, the “words” that Kanzi used repeatedly cannot be taken as speech. However, in the same news item, the critics said that if the vocalizations were to be termed as language, syntax was also a consideration.
This point brings up a contradiction on the subject of evolutionary theory, since in fact, parrots are at least as skilled as Kanzi in terms of vocalization and mimicry. Furthermore, the vocalizations that chimpanzees produce are extremely basic when compared with the skills of parrots. However, no newspaper has made any mention of an evolutionary relationship between humans and parrots.
Objective opinions of scientists working on the subject for many years expose the claims seen in Kanzi’s example as pure fantasy. Philip Lieberman, the famous linguist, emphasizes that attempts to teach language to chimps are doomed to failure:
Although animal trainers and investigators since the seventeenth century have tried to teach chimpanzees to talk, no chimpanzee has ever managed it. A chimpanzee's sound-producing anatomy is simply too different from that of humans. Chimpanzees might be able to produce a muffled approximation of human speech—if their brains could plan and execute the necessary articulate maneuvers. But to do this, they would have to have our brains, which they obviously do not. 38
As noted, some birds' ability to imitate sounds renders the "evolutionary tree," one of the evolutionists' most important claims, meaningless from another angle. The fact is, a parrot bears no physical resemblance to a human; yet if it has an ability such as speech requiring a high level of intelligence. This does not conform to any evolutionary model. According to the evolutionists, chimpanzees are just a step or two below humans on the said evolutionary tree. But the high level of consciousness and ability to mimic sounds that talking birds demonstrate, disprove the evolutionists' claims.
According to evolutionists, chimpanzees are just one step below humans in the so-called evolutionary tree. Nevertheless, the fact that a parrot, bearing no physical resemblance to a human, has the ability to speak—which requires such a high level of intelligence—does not conform to any evolutionary model.
1-Syrinx (the voice box of a bird)
2-Larynx (the voice box of a human)
Defenders of evolution are well aware that from the perspective of their theories, talking birds present a great difficulty. Another troublesome aspect for the evolutionists is related to the root of intelligence in birds. If birds, as evolution suggests, are less developed than the primates, then how have they, in spite of their tiny brains, suddenly managed to acquire this talent that primates—above them in the imaginary evolutionary tree—do not yet have? The Mynah bird, a member of the crow family, can also imitate human speech, but primates cannot. When evolutionists try to provide an explanation for this, they attribute the primate's inability to speak to its different laryngeal structures. However, this explanation is by no means adequate. Birds' laryngeal structures certainly do not resemble ours, but thanks to the ability God has given them, they can imitate human speech with ease. W. H. Thorpe, a Cambridge University zoologist and known authority on the subject, invalidates this claim of the evolutionists:
"How is it that an animal with this can talk?" he would say: "It is utterly impossible" 39
As we noted, certain birds' God-given talent is one of the important refutations of evolutionists' explanations. However different these birds' laryngeal structures may be, God has created them with an ability to speak in a way that fills us with admiration. It should not be forgotten that our Lord is the incomparable Creator; and it is by His will that "He has given speech to everything."(Qur'an, 41:21)
"Is He Who creates like him who does not create? So will you not pay heed? If you tried to number God's blessings, you could never count them." (Qur'an, 16:17-18)
4. Birds that Possess Vocal Learning Display More Advanced Intelligence than Monkeys
As already pointed out, evolutionists have come up with the scenario that monkeys and humans share a common ancestor. But this preconception, unscientific and full of contradictions, further invalidates the so-called evolutionary tree. Because evolutionists begin with the hypothesis that the chimpanzee is man’s closest relative, they also try to establish similarities between the behavior of monkeys and humans. Doing so, they try to give the impression that the chimpanzee is the closest to man in terms of intelligence. However, several creatures disprove the assertion that the chimpanzee is the next most intelligent being, after man.
The aforementioned Professor Irene Pepperberg, trainer of Alex as well as other an African Grey parrot by the name of “Griffin,” proves this. It was long believed that playing with objects and speaking were behaviors found only in humans. But Pepperberg's observations disprove this:
Human children start combining their labels at about 22 months… So, they start not just identifying”cookie” and “milk,” but will say “want milk” or “want more cookie.”
And they also tend to develop this combinatorial behaviour at the same time as they start doing physical combinations of their toys. So, they will start stacking cups in serried sizes, and things like that. 40
Parrots' ability to make connections between events and sounds was the subject of Pepperberg's speech at a meeting at the American Association for the Advancement of Science:
The simultaneous emergence of both vocal and physical combinatorial behaviours was always thought to be a purely primate trait, derived from primate brain area. The fact that we are finding this in animals so far removed from primates is exciting. 41
"God created every animal from water. Some of them go on their bellies, some of them on two legs, and some on four. God creates whatever He wills. God has power over all things." (Qur'an, 24:45)
Again, a characteristic that evolutionists assert is unique to primates also found in parrots—which appear in an entirely different branch of the imaginary evolutionary tree—constitutes a major evolutionary impasse. That parrots and certain other birds have such a complex brain capacity invalidates the evolutionists’ entire scenario. Therefore, their assertion that a small brain capacity develops into a large one is not applicable, which also invalidates the claim that primates are the ancestors of humans.
Furthermore, nature provides many more examples of “lesser” species exhibiting intelligent behavior. Beavers, for example, build a dam of ideal hydrodynamic size to stem the current; termites can build huge nests with special ventilation channels; and honeybees can build combs based on apparent knowledge of geometry and mathematics. Although they do perform such complex behaviors, all these creatures—especially the insects—have very small brains.
Without any guidance, a crow named Betty, being studied in the laboratory of Oxford University, bent a thin metal rod into a shape that she could use as a tool. When she couldn't reach food at the bottom of a container with her beak, the crow bent the end of a piece of wire she found in the laboratory into a hook. Betty understood that the wire, an object she had never seen before, would be useful because of its size and flexibility. She also succeeded in bending the flexible wire in a way that suited her purpose. Scientists pointed out that in spite of her smaller brain, Betty demonstrated a level of intelligence higher than chimpanzees.
A final example of this miraculous behavior is provided by a crow named Betty, which was studied in the laboratory of Oxford University. Without any guidance, Betty bent a piece of wire she found in the laboratory into a shape that she could use as a tool. When she could not reach food at the bottom of a container with her beak, the crow bent the end of a piece of wire into a hook. With the use of the wire, she was then able to get her food out of the container easily. What amazed the scientists was that Betty understood that something she had seen before only in the mesh of a cage would be useful, thanks to its size and flexibility. She also succeeded in bending the flexible wire in a way that suited her purpose. Wanting to establish whether or not Betty's success was a coincidence, scientists noted that she succeeded nine out of ten times.
Scientists pointed out that despite her small brain, Betty had demonstrated a higher level of intelligence than chimpanzees. The BBC, with its Darwinist prejudices, commented, “Betty is putting our closest cousins to shame.42 In other words, Betty had turned upside down the evolutionists’ accepted ideas on the root of intelligence. Alex Kacelnik, a scientist from Oxford who conducted research on Betty, made this comment:
"He is the Originator of the heavens and the Earth. How could He have a son when He has no wife? He created all things and He has knowledge of all things." (Qur'an, 6:101)
We assume primates will be cleverer because they are closest to us… But this animal (Betty) seems to be on a par at least with any primates we have seen.43
Betty is just one of many birds exhibiting “intelligent” behavior. Many other scientific investigations are being conducted on this subject, making it ever more evident that all interpretations of the intelligence of chimpanzees, and consequent claims of the relationship between man and chimpanzee, are wrong.
Whatever the source of animal behavior, evolutionary claims do not support these characteristics. Many birds’ behavioral patterns are determined from birth by their genetic structures. But if so, we should question who coded such behavioral patterns into the genes of birds? The evolutionists’ response—that behavior is caused by instinct—leaves this question still unanswered, because birds’ behavioral patterns are the inspiration of God and cannot be explained by such vague concepts as “instinct.” The learned behavior seen in a few species of bird creates yet another dilemma for evolutionists, since they cannot say it is due to instinct. The surprising degree of consciousness observed in birds that have vocal learning such as parrots is a manifestation of the inspiration of God.
Evolutionists seeking to establish an evolutionary link between chimpanzees and humans use skull size as a criterion. However, the evolutionist claim that "as the brain developed, its capacity to process information and store it in the memory also increased" is invalid for a variety of reasons. Although a bird's brain is extremely small compared to a human's, birds are able to perform extremely complex operations.
THE EVOLUTIONISTS, WHO TRY TO ESTABLISH A LINK BETWEEEN LIVING BEINGS ACCORDING TO CRANIAL MEASUREMENTS, HAVE ONCE AGAIN SEEN THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS:
One group of evolutionists claims that skull dimensions can demonstrate that humans and monkeys derive from a common ancestor. They relate humans’ brains being larger than chimpanzees’ to greater intelligence, and claim that over time, cranial dimensions have shown an evolutionary trend. This claim—that as the brain enlarged, its capacity to process information and store it in memory increased as well—is invalid, for a variety of reasons. Just the observations conducted on birds with vocal learning disprove it: Compared with a human’s, a bird’s brain is extremely small. For example, in birds weighing an average of 85 grams, the brain varies from 0.73 to 2.7 grams in weight. A bird's brain differs from a mammal’s in that the complex folds found in mammals’ cerebral cortex are missing, and the cerebral cortex itself is much smaller proportionally. Nevertheless, some birds are able to perform extremely complex operations such as speaking, learning songs, conceptualization and visual memorizing. Accordingly, there is no question of brain development from simple to complex to support evolutionary theory in living creatures.
"He is God. There is no god but Him. Praise be to Him in this world and the Hereafter. Judgment belongs to Him. You will be returned to Him." (Qur'an, 28:70)
A 65-MILLION-YEAR-OLD FOSSIL OF A PARROT’S JAW IS IDENTICAL TO THE JAW OF THE
One important development to disappoint the evolutionists is the "fossil parrot jaw" found 40 years ago. This fossil, estimated as being 65 million years old, has the same structure as the jaw of a present-day parrot. When this fossil was first unearthed, it was not given the interest it deserved, but has become a current issue, due to investigations conducted by Thomas Stidham on the fossil collection of Berkeley University's Paleontology Museum. His research showed this to be the oldest parrot fossil found to date, and that this parrot lived in the same era as the dinosaurs. According to X-rays taken of the 13 mm fossil, the K-shaped mark on the fossil—the tracks of blood vessel and nerves—is identical to ones on a present-day parrot's beak.
* Thomas A. Stidham, "A lower jaw from a Cretaceous parrot," Nature, No: 396, 5 November 1998, pages 29-30.
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Soils - Part 4: Soil pH
Soil pH is defined and its implications for crop production are described in this lesson. How are soil pH and buffer pH determined? How are these assessments used in lime recommendations? The factors that influence pH variations in soils, the chemistry involved in changing the pH of a soil, and the benefits associated with liming acid soils will be discussed.
[This lesson, as well as the other nine lessons in the Soils series, is taken from the "Soils Home Study Course," published in 1999 by the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension.]
What is pH?
Acidity and alkalinity of an aqueous system (solution) are described (measured) by the term pH. pH is the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion [H+] concentration. Hydrogen is a component of all acids. When hydrogen ionizes to form ions [H+], its concentration determines the acid properties of soil solutions.
Pure water, free of all minerals such as calcium, magnesium, etc., and free of carbon dioxide [CO2], has a pH of 7.0, which is called neutral. Water [HOH] ionizes to form hydrogen ions [H+] and hydroxyl [OH-] ions according to the following equation:
HOH <--> H+ + OH– (1)
If carbon dioxide is dissolved in water in the absence of other compounds or minerals, the water becomes slightly to moderately acid. Equation 2 shows the effect of distilled water open to CO2 in the atmosphere:
HOH + CO2 <--> H+ + HCO3– (Carbonic acid) (2)
There is now more H+ than OH-; thus, the pH of distilled water that has absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere may range from 4.0 to 7.0, depending on temperature and the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. The reaction in Equation 2 is probably responsible for seasonal fluctuation of 0.2 to 0.5 units in soil pH.
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Activities for Building Research Skills Among 6-7 Year Olds
Knowing the process by which your child is growing gives you many options to help support and advance development. Use the below activities to ignite your child’s passion, nurture a weak area, or foster the advancement of a strength.
Animals & Habitats: Children this age present an interesting mix of fantasy- and reality-based ideas. Their animism (belief that animals and humans act the same) is strong, as is their creative idea formation. Build off of both and support the development of your child’s schema (foundation knowledge), logic skills, and creative thinking with these activities:
Schema Building, Research Skills, Literacy, Multiple Intelligences, Logical Thinking:
- National Geographic Creature Feature: Discover fun facts about so many different animals. The facts, photos, videos, sound clips, map references, and collector’s card will entice all different kinds of learners, and each passage is easy to read and understand. You will love the easy print feature for helping your child do reports! Research has never been so much fun!
- Make your own picture book: This super simple interface lets your child create her own story about animals. Use it for creative thinking, or to do some non-fiction writing about what she has discovered on her nature walks or webcam viewing! Click “enter” at the bottom of the book image on the opening page. Click and drag her choices and then you cannot only scale the items, but change the viewpoint and positioning of the animals (perspective taking!). Email it or share it online.
- Design a Habitat for Pandas: Connect schema, logic, inferences, and literacy in this guided interactive that include audio clues. Choose various plants, water layouts, enrichment items, temperature control and food to create the ideal habitat.
Recommended Products for Your Child Ages 6-7
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Stanford builds first complex computer chip out of carbon nanotubes
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Researchers at Stanford University have become the first group to publicly demonstrate a computer chip fashioned entirely out of carbon nanotube transistors.
When silicon finally reaches the end of the road — when transistor features become so small that there aren’t enough silicon atoms to actually act like silicon — carbon nanotubes, along with silicon-germanium (SiGe) and gallium arsenide (GaAs), are the most likely candidates to take over. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are fantastically conductive, very small (just a few nanometers across), and are capable of switching at very high speeds. Unlike graphene, which also has very desirable electrical properties, it is much easier to create CNTs that are semiconducting. It is for this reason that CNTs, rather than graphene, are generally considered a more appropriate material for replacing silicon — at least in the short term. (See: IBM creates 9nm carbon nanotube transistor that outperforms silicon.)
Up until now, the barrier that has prevented research groups (such as IBM) from building chips out of carbon nanotubes is that it has proven very hard to produce purified, semiconducting CNTs. Depending on minute variations in CNT construction, they can be either metallic or semiconducting — and we haven’t yet discovered a large-scale method of producing (or isolating) 100%-semiconducting CNTs. Researchers only want the semiconducting variety, because the introduction of just a few metallic CNTs can cause a transistor to misbehave or burn out. CNTs also have a tendency to tangle up, again causing unpredictable electrical behavior.
Rather than trying to produce pure semiconducting CNTs, though, or finding a way to force CNTs to line up neatly, the Stanford researchers took the easy route: They built a chip that can tolerate all of the errors produced by imperfect CNTs. Unfortunately we don’t have the details on how they made their chips fault-tolerant, but it’s most likely a matter of redundant transistors and pathways, and making each feature larger and more rugged than normal. The chip, incidentally, which is an analog-to-digital converter, consists of 44 CNT transistors, seemingly fashioned on a silicon wafer (pictured right), and was demonstrated at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.
As you can probably imagine, current silicon chips with billions of transistors have a fault tolerance of almost zero. With a minimum feature size of 20nm, you are talking about tiny slivers of silicon or high-k metals that are just a few dozen atoms thick; get more than a few atoms out of place, and you’ve just lost a few hundred dollars. Moving forward, as feature sizes creep towards 5nm or less, and there simply won’t be a fault tolerance — nothing less than perfect will do.
As Stanford shows with its CNT chip, though, there is an alternative: Chip designs that intrinsically account for fault tolerance. “Variation and imperfection are going to be the air we breathe in semiconductor technology,” Philip Wong, a Stanford engineer who worked on the CNT chip, tells Technology Review. “Error-tolerant design has to be part of the way forward, because we will never get the materials completely perfect.” For a company like Intel, which has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on building the most exacting and intricate processes ever devised by humans, such an idea may not go down very well.
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sensitive and can be susceptible to both "sunburn" and "frostbite". If a tree that has grown for many years in deep shade is
suddenly exposed to hot sun (when all the trees around it are cut down, for example), the bark may become red and flake off,
injuring the tree. In northern regions, a frost too late in the spring or too early in the fall can kill new bark tissue, as well as leaves and
Why is there such variation in the
color and texture of bark? Certain characteristics have obvious advantages in certain habitats. The thick, rough bark of pine trees
withstands fire far better than the bark of oak trees, and therefore more pines survive the frequent fires in temperate coniferous forests. In
other cases, the advantage of one type of bark over another is less well understood. Smooth bark might take less energy to produce, or
it might help to discourage the growth of moss and lichen. Rough bark might be more effective in keeping wood-boring insects out. No
one knows quite why the types of bark have evolved the way they have. One possibility is that the appearance of bark is not adaptive,
and while all trees must have bark of one form or another, its exact color and texture are not particularly important.
Left: The bark on a Ponderosa pine trunk. Photo by Maya Walters.
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Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals incredible shrinking Moon
Based on the size of the newly discovered cliffs, scientists estimate the distance between the Moon's center and its surface has shrunk by about 300 feet.
August 20, 2010
Provided by Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
August 20, 2010
The mare basalts that fill the Taurus-Littrow valley were thrust up by contractional forces to form the Lee-Lincoln fault scarp, just west of the Apollo 17 landing site (arrow). It is the only extraterrestrial fault scarp to be explored by humans. The digital terrain model derived from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) stereo images shows the fault extending upslope into North Massif where highlands material are also thrust up. The fault cuts upslope and abruptly changes orientation and cuts along slope, forming a narrow bench. LROC images show boulders shed from North Massif that have rolled downhill and collected on the bench.
Photo by NASA/Goddard/Arizona State Univ/Smithsonian
Newly discovered cliffs in the lunar crust indicate the Moon shrank globally in the geologically recent past and might still be shrinking today, according to a team analyzing new images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. The results provide important clues to the Moon's recent geologic and tectonic evolution.
The Moon formed in a chaotic environment of intense bombardment by asteroids and meteors. These collisions, along with the decay of radioactive elements, made the Moon hot. The Moon cooled off as it aged, and scientists have long thought the Moon shrank over time as it cooled, especially in its early history. The new research reveals relatively recent tectonic activity connected to the long-lived cooling and associated contraction of the lunar interior.
"We estimate these cliffs, called lobate scarps, formed less than a billion years ago, and they could be as young as a hundred million years," said Thomas Watters from the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. While ancient in human terms, it is less than 25 percent of the Moon's current age of more than 4 billion years. "Based on the size of the scarps, we estimate the distance between the Moon's center and its surface shrank by about 300 feet," said Watters.
"These exciting results highlight the importance of global observations for understanding global processes," said John Keller from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "As the LRO mission continues to a new phase with emphasis on science measurements, our ability to create inventories of lunar geologic features will be a powerful tool for understanding the history of the Moon and the solar system."
The scarps are relatively small; the largest is about 300 feet (90 meters) high and extends for several miles or so, but typical lengths are shorter and heights are more in the tens of yards (meters) range. The team believes they are among the freshest features on the Moon, in part, because they cut across small craters. Because the Moon is constantly bombarded by meteors, features like small craters — those less than about 1,200 feet (370 meters) across — are likely to be young because they are quickly destroyed by other impacts and don't last long. So, if a scarp has disrupted a small crater, the scarp formed after the crater and is even younger. Even more compelling evidence is that large craters, which are likely to be old, don't appear on top any of the scarps, and the scarps look crisp and relatively undegraded.
Lobate scarps on the Moon were discovered during the Apollo missions with analysis of pictures from the high-resolution Panoramic Camera installed on Apollo 15, 16, and 17. However, these missions orbited over regions near the lunar equator, and were only able to photograph 20 percent of the lunar surface, so researchers couldn't be sure the scarps were not just the result of local activity around the equator. The team found 14 previously undetected scarps in the LRO images, seven of which are at high latitudes (more than 60°). This confirms that the scarps are a global phenomenon, making a shrinking Moon the most likely explanation for their wide distribution, according to the team.
As the Moon contracted, the mantle and surface crust were forced to respond, forming thrust faults where a section of the crust cracks and juts out over another. Many of the resulting cliffs, or scarps, have a semicircular or lobe-shaped appearance, giving rise to the term "lobate scarps." Scientists aren't sure why they look this way; perhaps it's the way the lunar soil — regolith — expresses thrust faults, according to Watters.
Lobate scarps are found on other worlds in our solar system, including Mercury, where they are much larger. "Lobate scarps on Mercury can be over a mile high and run for hundreds of miles," said Watters. Massive scarps like these lead scientists to believe that Mercury was completely molten as it formed. If so, Mercury would be expected to shrink more as it cooled, and thus form larger scarps than a world that may have been only partially molten with a relatively small core. Our Moon has more than a third of the volume of Mercury, but since the Moon's scarps are typically much smaller, the team believes the Moon shrank less.
Because the scarps are so young, the Moon could have been cooling and shrinking recently, according to the team. Seismometers placed by the Apollo missions have recorded moonquakes. While most can be attributed to things like meteorite strikes, Earth's gravitational tides, and day/night temperature changes, it's remotely possible that some moonquakes might be associated with ongoing scarp formation, according to Watters. The team plans to compare photographs of scarps by the Apollo Panoramic Cameras to new images from LRO to see if any have changed over the decades, possibly indicating recent activity.
While Earth's tides are most likely not strong enough to create the scarps, they could contribute to their appearance, perhaps influencing their orientation, said Watters. During the next few years, the team hopes to use LRO's high-resolution Narrow Angle Cameras (NACs) to build up a global, highly detailed map of the Moon. This could identify additional scarps and allow the team to see if some have a preferred orientation or other features that might be associated with Earth's gravitational pull.
"The ultrahigh resolution images from the NACs are changing our view of the Moon," said Mark Robinson from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. "We've not only detected many previously unknown lunar scarps, we're also seeing much greater detail on the scarps identified in the Apollo photographs."
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http://www.astronomy.com/en/News-Observing/News/2010/08/Lunar%20Reconnaissance%20Orbiter%20reveals%20incredible%20shrinking%20Moon.aspx
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Next Generation Science Standards
A Framework for K-12 Science Education
Laying the foundation for the science concepts, practices, and skills all students need to learn to succeed in science, the Framework is a critical first step, grounded in the most current research on science and science learning and identifying the science all K–12 students should know.
Read more about the Framework.
Click here to learn more about the Next Generation Standards.
Maine's 2007 Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction
Click here to download the complete document, or view related materials.
Science & Technology standards from the 2007 Maine Learning Results are available here: PDF / RTF
Supporting Materials for Implementing the 2007 Maine Learning Results
Science & Technology PowerPoint (PPT) - Provides an introduction to the 2007 Learning Results revision process, changes in content and structure for Science & Technology standards, and potential considerations for implementing the revised standards.
Multimedia Presentation (Flash*) - An audiovisual introduction to the Science and Technology standards of the 2007 Maine Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction.
Narration Notes for the Science & Technology PowerPoint and Multimedia presentations - available in PDF or Text Only format.
A Summary of the Differences between 1997 Maine Learning Results and the 2007 Maine Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction for Science and Technology
The Common Core State Standards Initiative
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort to establish a single set of clear educational standards for English-language arts and mathematics that states can share and voluntarily adopt. These standards are designed to ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to go to college or enter the workforce, and that parents, teachers, and students have a clear understanding of what is expected of them.
Click here to learn more about the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
Other National Standards
Benchmarks for Science Literacy: http://www.project2061.org/publications/bsl/online/bolintro.htm
National Science Education Standards: http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/
Science for All Americans: http://www.project2061.org/publications/sfaa/online/sfaatoc.htm
Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology http://www.iteaconnect.org/TAA/PDFs/xstnd.pdf
Updated 10/13/11 -pb
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1) Infections with the raccoon roundworm, Baylisascaris procyonis, have been increasingly identified in domestic dogs. These infections are of particular concern because:
A. Baylisascaris procyonis is an unusually large ascarid, so infections often result in intestinal impactions, particularly in small-breed dogs.
B. When people, particularly children, ingest larvated B. procyonis eggs, the larvae may migrate extensively and induce severe neurologic disease.
C. Adults of B. procyonis commonly migrate aberrantly in the lungs of the atypical canine host, resulting in severe respiratory disease.
2) A 12-week-old puppy is presented with a three-week history of intermittent mucoid diarrhea. The puppy has been treated with sulfadimethoxine for the last two weeks, but the diarrhea persists. Fecal flotation by centrifugation reveals these parasites (Figure 1). What is the most effective treatment protocol?
A. 50 mg/kg fenbendazole orally every 24 hours for five days
B. 25 mg/kg albendazole orally every 12 hours for two days
C. 30 mg/kg metronidazole orally every 12 hours for five days
3) Numerous microfilariae, each about 6 or 7 µm wide and about 310 µm long, were found on a blood smear from a 2-month-old puppy from Alabama. The puppy’s heartworm antigen test result was negative, and heartworm preventive therapy had not yet been started. How did this puppy most likely acquire this parasite?
A. Mosquito bite
B. Flea bite
4) A 5-year-old spayed female beagle is presented because of a progressively enlarging, nonhealing sore on its planum nasale. Treatment with a topical antibiotic ointment had not been effective. These organisms are found on a Giemsa-stained impression smear of the affected tissue (Figure 2). The history reveals that this dog traveled extensively in Italy and Spain several months ago. How did this dog most likely become infected with this parasite?
A. By inhaling infective cysts from the environment
B. From the bite of an infective sandfly
C. Through direct contact with an infected person
5) A 9-year-old boy developed severe pruritus associated with erythematous and tortuous tracks on his feet, the back of his thighs, and both hands. The boy’s pediatrician referred him to a dermatologist, who diagnosed cutaneous larva migrans and identified the pet dog, a 2-year-old bichon frise, as a potential source of the parasite. Diagnostic tests, treatment, and a review of the preventive program for what parasite, a causative agent of cutaneous larva migrans, are indicated in this dog?
A. Ancylostoma caninum
B. Toxocara canis
C. Trichuris vulpis
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http://veterinarymedicine.dvm360.com/vetmed/Parasitology+Center/ClinQuiz-Parasitology/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/548341?contextCategoryId=45712
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2013-05-23T18:58:52Z
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Given a quadrilateral ABCD with a fixed angle at A and fixed lengths for BC and CD. Determine (Construct) ABCD such that it has the maximum area.
That is, points B and D would be located on the respective rays of angle A so that BC and CD are the sides opposite angle A and the area is a maximum. For example, the following figure shows a quadrilateral satisfying the conditions but probably NOT with the maxmimum area.
Click here for a GSP sketch to explore this problem.
Return to EMAT 4600/6600 Page.
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Properties of Oriental Medicine Herbs
Bitter, Pungent, Salty, Bland, Sweet, Astringent, Sour, Warm, Cold, Neutral, Hot and Aromatic.
To use herbs within the scope of Chinese Herbology, one must first understand the properties (the personality which dictates how an herb will function) of each herb beyond the scope of its category. Properties are tastes, temperatures, and qualities of an herb. The possible tastes are sweet, sour, bitter, pungent, bland, salty, astringent, and aromatic. It may have other qualities such as toxic. The possible temperatures are cool, cold, warm, neutral, and hot.
It is very important to understand that herbs do not possess one quality. They are most always a combination of properties and temperatures and may reach one to as many as twelve organ systems. These combinations of qualities give each herb their character, and if you understand the functions behind the properties, than you can surmise what an herb is capable of before even becoming acquainted with it. Learning to combine the appropriate formula for each patient is a medical art which takes years to develop. A tremendous amount of respect should be given to those who do it well.
Sweet: If an herb is sweet, it can do one of a few things. This depends on it category and the other tastes and qualities it is combined with. For example, an herb which is sweet and cold and falls within the yin tonic category will tonify yin. These herbs are usually sticky and can not be mistaken for much else. However, an herb which is sweet and cold can also promote urination. These herbs are found within different categories. It is a quality an herb may possess in addition to its category. Another function of herbs which are sweet and cold is promoting fluids. This is a common function of herbs in the quell fire category where water is needed to put out the fire. Warm herbs which are sweet are found in the tonify Yang category. This is another example of sweetness which is tonifying in nature. The Qi tonics share these properties with the exception of a few neutral temperatured herbs. The digestive category is also filled with sweet herbs because most of these herbs have other functions which are moving (digestive) in nature and the sweetness helps to strengthen (tonify) as the other properties function to digest. A good herbalist understands that sweetness tends to be sticky, and therefore, will clog things up if they are not moving well. To prevent this kind of clogging, these herbs must be combined with herbs which are moving in nature to protect against this side effect.
Bitter: This quality functions to descend, to dry, to detoxify. Many herbs in the pharmacopoeia are bitter. This taste is one which spans numerous categories. If one looks closer at each individual herb, if it contains a bitter quality, it will serve one of the above functions. It is important to note that because this taste has a drying quality to it, It is prudent to protect against it in preexisting conditions of dryness, such as yin deficiency. Because bitterness descends, it is also prudent to beware of this quality in pregnant women as the fetus could be encouraged to descend as well with the use of such herbs.
Pungent: This is a moving force used for such things as moving Qi, ridding the body of phlegm, or expelling pathogens from the surface of the body outward. It is often seen in the anti-rheumatic category (also known as the Wind-Damp category) to eradicate painful joint conditions which Oriental Medicine recognizes as a Wind-Damp pathogen lodged in the interior. This is because an herb which is pungent in nature possesses the power of movement. It is present in numerous other categories where movement is a function of the category. One must be careful in those who are weak, or dry, or even pregnant in using such herbs. It is also important to remember that movement, like us when we exercise, creates warmth. So if you use an herb which is pungent and cold in nature, don't be surprised if some warmth results despite the cold temperature of the herb.
Salty: A salty herbs has the ability to detoxify (sore throat for example), dissolve (nodules, for example), and carry herbs to the Kidney system. Most herbs which from animal products or sea products are salty. If they are from the sea, they are almost always salty and cold. Salt, as we all know may encourage the retention of fluids in the body, so other herbs must be used to guard against this tendency so as not to disrupt the fluid balance of the patient.
Bland: Bland herbs are mostly only seen in the drain damp category. This group is made up of sweet and cold herbs (which we stated previously promotes urination) and sweet and bland herbs which accomplish the same task. Bland herbs are said to be mild and without taste, hence their name.
Astringent and Sour: Sour is very similar to astringent in its function and many herbs which are astringent are sour, and all herbs which are sour have some sort of astringent function. Let us clarify this issue. There is an entire category of astringent herbs some of which are sour and there are many sour herbs which astringe slightly, but not strongly enough to be primarily categorized as an astringent. Sour herbs "gently preserve" (hence the expression preserving Yin) while astringents actually "restrain" (as in urine, sweat, semen, etc...)! Bai Shao (Peoniae Albae), for example, is sour. It is definitely not an astringent herb, yet it does gently astringe the blood it is used to supply. Its primary function is to nourish blood and this is its primary category. Its secondary functions are based on the fact that it is sour.
Hot: In the Chinese pharmacopoeia, there is one basic group of hot herbs. This is the interior warming category. These herbs are used for conditions of severe and often acute internal coldness. There is only one exception to this rule. There is one Yang tonic which is hot. Hot is obviously warming and moving as well. Unlike cold which contracts, heat expands.
Warm: This temperature will create movement and of course warmth. It is important not to use warm herbs with patients with warm conditions unless the formula is very well balanced as not to exacerbate the hot condition. Warm herbs are also drying in nature and may dry up the Yin if not combined properly with the appropriate herbs in such circumstances.
Cold: Coldness does inside the body exactly what it does to us when we are exposed to it outside. It contracts! It slows down and contracts. This is not a temperature you want to use if stagnation is a problem, unless of course, you are combining the cold herbs with other herbs that move so as to prevent against this side effect.
Neutral: There are not too many neutral herbs in the pharmacopoeia These herbs are said to be neither hot nor cold and are often considered more gentle because of this.
Aromatic: Aromatic is drying, transforming, and moves upward and outward. Many of the herbs which are used to release exterior syndromes (as with the common cold) are assisted by the aromatic quality which assists their already pungent nature in releasing the pathogenic invasion from the body. Other herbs which are aromatic are herbs used to transform dampness. These herbs are focused on treating damp conditions and transforming (drying and moving it) this dampness. The aromatic quality, as I said, is ascending in nature which assists in the "awakening" of the Spleen which in turn will naturally rid the body of its damp condition.
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http://www.pacificcollege.edu/acupuncture-massage-news/articles/560-properties-of-oriental-medicine-herbs.html
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Outdoors | Recreation,
Emphasis is placed on building the students ability to become a proficient sewer. Sewing is fun, relaxing and most of all rewarding. The student will learn sewing terms, the sewing machine parts and threading and basic sewing techniques. Student will practice sewing various stitches, learn to read patterns, buy fabric, cut out and sew a simple garment.
Requirements: Must have a portable sewing machine and sewing kit**
**Sewing kit should include scissors, straight pins, pin cushion, hand needles, seam ripper, tape measure, and tailors chalk.
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Yellow starthistle is indeed a problem in western states, but the problem preceded “climate change” by decades. See the end of the press release for more.
Climate change allows invasive weed to outcompete local species
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Yellow starthistle already causes millions of dollars in damage to pastures in western states each year, and as climate changes, land managers can expect the problem with that weed and others to escalate.
When exposed to increased carbon dioxide, precipitation, nitrogen and temperature – all expected results of climate change – yellow starthistle in some cases grew to six times its normal size while the other grassland species remained relatively unchanged, according to a Purdue University study published in the early online edition of the journal Ecological Applications. The plants were compared with those grown under ambient conditions.
“The rest of the grassland didn’t respond much to changes in conditions except nitrogen,” said Jeff Dukes, a Purdue associate professor of forestry and natural resources and the study’s lead author. “We’re likely to see these carbon dioxide concentrations in the second half of this century. Our results suggest that yellow starthistle will be a very happy camper in the coming decades.”
The study is one of the first comparing the growth of invasive species versus their local competitors under future climate scenarios. Dukes believes the results indicate problems land managers and crop growers could see in the coming decades, and not just with yellow starthistle.
“Plants are going to respond in a number of ways to climate change. Sometimes, the species we depend on will benefit, but other times, it will be the weedy, problematic species that benefit most, and there can be economic and ecological damages associated that people should be aware of,” Dukes said. “These problems with yellow starthistle aren’t going to go away on their own. If anything it’s going to become more of a problem than it is now.”
Yellow starthistle is a significant weed in the West, especially in California, where it has a longer growing season than native plants and depletes ground moisture, affecting water supplies.
“It reduces the quality of the area for animal forage, is toxic to horses and when it forms spines, cattle don’t want to eat it,” Dukes said. “Many consider yellow starthistle to be the worst grassland weed in the West.”
The decreased pasture production, lost water, and control costs associated with yellow starthistle cause economic impacts in many western states. Experts suggest that in Idaho alone, the weed may cause more than $12 million a year in economic damage and that yellow starthistle reduces pasture values by 6 percent to 7 percent across the state of California.
Dukes said all plants increased in size as expected when exposed to more nitrogen. But yellow starthistle was especially responsive to increased carbon dioxide.
That might be in part because the weed can gain access to more soil resources, Dukes said. Grassland plants’ stomata, small porelike openings on the leaves, don’t have to be open as wide to take in carbon dioxide when there is a larger concentration in the air. Those smaller stomata allow less water to escape, and the extra water in the soil could favor yellow starthistle. The added carbon dioxide also changed the mix of species competing with the weed and may have allowed it to grow a more effective root system.
“It was an impressive increase in growth,” Dukes said. “It was one of the largest responses to elevated carbon dioxide ever observed.”
Biological control species introduced to control yellow starthistle have not been effective enough, and Dukes said it is becoming urgent that better controls be developed to address invasive species that could cause significant damage to pasture, cropland and wildlands.
The National Science Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation funded the research, which was carried out in collaboration with researchers at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Stanford University and the Carnegie Institution for Science.
Writer: Brian Wallheimer, 765-496-2050, email@example.com
Source: Jeff Dukes, 765-496-1446, firstname.lastname@example.org
From Wikipedia: it seems the spread of this weed preceded the global warming issue by decades:
After the turn of the 20th century, Spain, France, Italy, and perhaps Turkestan were also likely sources of the invasion’s seed. Since its introduction to California in the mid-nineteenth century, it has become a large-scale invasive species (noxious weed or invasive exotic) throughout twenty three states. It currently dominates over 15,000,000 acres (61,000 km2) in California alone.
By 1970, yellow star-thistle had reached 23 U.S. states. According to the USDA Forest Service, as of 2006 the plant has been reported present in 41 of the 48 contiguous U.S. states, with the only exceptions being Maine, Vermont, and five of the Deep South states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia). The plant is considered an invasive species in six of the 41 states: California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and New Jersey.
Also, here’s an article from 2004, by a US Forest Service expert on Yellow Starthistle, called Explosion in Slow Motion. Not a peep about climate change or global warming being a contributing factor.
Oh but wait, there’s more, just two years ago we read that climate change may actually get rid of star thistle and other noxious weeds.
From The Nature Files: An upside to climate change?
They’re the five “dirty words” of the West — cheatgrass; spotted knapweed; yellow starthistle; tamarisk; and leafy spurge — but the battle against these pervasive troublemakers could receive a boost from an unlikely ally, climate change. Scientists from Princeton University have determined that climate change will very likely cause massive die-offs of these invasive plants across the West, creating unprecedented opportunities to restore millions of acres of infected wilderness to native vegetation.
The findings, released this month in the journal Global Change Biology, will help land managers develop long-term invasive plant recovery projects. The restorative potential comes at a price however, as the model used in the study also predicts that some populations of invasive plants may simply shift their ranges to new areas — yellow starthistle will likely move from its current range in California, Oregon and Washington to a new ranges in California and Nevada for example.
Here’s the press release and link to paper:
Public release date: 27-Jan-2009
Climate change’s impact on invasive plants in Western US may create restoration opportunities
Princeton, NJ – January 27, 2009 – A new study by researchers at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs has found that global climate change may lead to the retreat of some invasive plant species in the western United States, which could create unprecedented ecological restoration opportunities across millions of acres throughout America. At the same time, global warming may enable other invasive plants to spread more widely.
The study, “Climate change and plant invasions: restoration opportunities ahead?”, was co-authored by Bethany Bradley, a biogeographer, Michael Oppenheimer, a geoscientist, and David Wilcove, a conservation biologist, at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, and is published in the journal Global Change Biology.
The article is accessible online at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121521769/abstract.
The researchers assessed the relationship between climate change and the distribution of five prominent invasive plants in the western United States – known colloquially as the “kudzus of the West” – cheatgrass; spotted knapweed; yellow starthistle; tamarisk; and leafy spurge. Such plants are defined as invasive because they were brought into this country from other lands and now dominate and alter ecosystems in ways that threaten native wildlife, agriculture, and ranching. All have greatly expanded their ranges in recent decades in the western U.S., causing millions of dollars in damage to farmlands and rangelands. Invasive plants are increasingly expensive to control, and it is widely believed that global warming will make the problem worse.
But Bradley and her co-authors find that global warming may also reduce the competitiveness of some invasive plants if conditions become climatically unsuitable to the weeds, “creating opportunities for restoration in areas currently dominated by intractable invasive species,” according to the study.
full PR article here
So we have dueling model outputs. It might be better to simply say “we don’t know”. Pass the Roundup.
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http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/05/31/oh-noes-giant-thistle-weeds-a-coming-consequence-of-climate-change-but-another-study-says-maybe-not/
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2013-05-20T12:02:13Z
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Geo 284, Overview for Volcanos
- Local: explosive blast, tsunami (in a few cases), lava rivers
- Regional: fall-out of rock debris from explosion
- Global: fine rock dust causes global changes to atmosphere
Tectonic setting of volcanos
- Spreading centers: mostly under the ocean, not directly hazardous
Special note: quite beneficial to the bio communities that live there
- Hot spots:
NOT a plate boundary setting, magma "burns" through the
oceanic lithosphere. Classic example is Hawaii, several other examples in the world's ocean, a few have been identified in continents (e.g. Yellowstone)
- Subduction Zones:
most of the volcanos -- that stick above sea level -- are found in subduction zones. Although we still do not have a complete understanding of these volcanos, nearly all of them occur above the point where the top of the subducting plate reaches a depth of 100 to 125 km.
- Basalt: the rock type at spreading centers, which then explains why the oceanic crust is basalt. Also, hotspots found in oceans (e.g. Hawaii) erupt basaltic magma. Basaltic volcanos have a mound shape ("shield" volcanos).
- Granite (or Andesite): the rock type for Subduction Zone volcanos. Compared to basaltic magma, granitic magma is more viscous. This changes the eruptive style and appearance of the volcanos (steep sides, "strato" volcanos).
Examples: Mt. Fuji, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Ranier, Krakatoua.
There are many source of "pretty pictures" of volcanos and volcanic eruptions.
The two web sites listed below also provide an educational component.
"USGS Volcano Web Site"
A good introductory book is: "Volcanoes", by Decker & Decker, published by Freeman, with CD-ROM.
Go to page with Volcano details & graphics links
Back to Geo 284 main page
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http://www.earth.lsa.umich.edu/~ruff/geo284.F2003/Volcanos/volOver.html
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2013-05-19T11:26:43Z
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North Carolina Civil War Image Portfolio
Prints and Photographs
North Carolina Collection
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Campaigns and Battles
Destruction and Pillage
Economic and Industrial Aspects
Equipment and Supplies
North Carolina seceded from the Union on May 20, 1861, the last southern state to do so. Relatively early in the war, Union forces occupied areas along the North Carolina coast and sought to limit the flow of supplies to Confederate forces by means of a naval blockade of the state's ports. The most significant land battle fought in North Carolina was at Bentonville in Johnston County, on March 19-21, 1865, when Confederates, under the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, made a vain attempt to thwart the advance of Union troops commanded by Gen. William T. Sherman. On April 18, nine days after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered the main Confederate army at Appommatox, Virginia, Johnston surrendered his forces to Sherman near Durham, N.C.
Images in the North Carolina Collection depicting the war are from woodcuts, engravings, lithographs, and photographs. The overwhelming majority of these were made by persons accompanying Union forces or were made from sketches and other information they provided. Numerous woodcuts appeared in publications based in the north such as Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. Lithographers, including Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives in New York City, produced hand-colored prints depicting Civil War events including some in North Carolina. The North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives has twenty-seven carte-de-visite prints attributed to Union photographer O. J. Smith made in New Bern about 1863, following the town's occupation. Most of the images owned by the Collection, regardless of format, are from a northern perspective and provide limited insight into life within the Confederacy. Even so, the images are significant historical documents.
Captions or image descriptions are grouped in categories by subject. Within each category, they are subdivided by county, town, and chronology.
Obtaining ReproductionsLow resolution digital images included within the Civil War Portfolio are provided for reference purposes only. To obtain high resolution digital scans or high-quality inkjet prints, see "Requesting Reproductions." Reproduction requests should include the negative (Neg.) number provided in the image description.
Copyright ©North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill, 2000. All Rights Reserved.
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2013-05-19T01:59:52Z
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This is a printer version of an UnderwaterTimes.com
To view the article online, visit: http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=10581793460
South Atlantic -- New research shows that global climate processes are affecting southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) in the South Atlantic. A thirty-year study by an international team of scientists found a strong relationship between breeding success of whales in the South Atlantic and El Nino in the western Pacific. The results are published this week in the On-line journal Biology Letters.
Southern right whales migrate from the South Atlantic to the Southern Ocean to feed. Scientists know from other studies that following El Nino, changes in sea temperatures affect the availability of krill, a shrimp-like crustacean, which is the main diet of these whales. It is known that these changes affect penguins and seals in the Antarctic, but this is the first time the link has been made with whales as they return to their calving grounds in the South Atlantic.
Keith Reid from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said, "These results help us to understand processes in three connected oceans and are crucial to predicting the consequences of climate change on the whales."
Southern right whales have been internationally protected since 1935. Their populations are showing signs of recovery, however, sea surface temperatures in parts of the Southern Ocean have increased by 1°C over the last 50 years and if they continue to rise this could threaten their recovery.
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http://www.underwatertimes.com/print.php?article_id=10581793460
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2013-06-20T09:17:23Z
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The first stage of the Delta II rocket to be used to launch the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, has arrived at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
GLAST will explore the most extreme environments in the universe, where nature harnesses energies far beyond anything possible on Earth, said Kevin Grady, the GLAST project manager. He said the telescope will be used to search for signs of new laws of physics and what composes the mysterious dark matter, explain how black holes accelerate immense jets of material to nearly light speed and help solve the mysteries of the enormously powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts.
GLAST is to be launched May 16 from the Kennedy Space Center.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to rename the observatory and has invited the public to submit name suggestions that can be an acronym but it isn't a requirement. The suggestions can be submitted through March 31 at
NASA said the GLAST mission is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed with the U.S. Department of Energy and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
Explore further: Field tests in Mojave Desert pave way for human exploration of small bodies
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http://phys.org/news122746030.html
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2013-05-18T18:05:28Z
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>In the same way, if someone cleverly constructs an artificial
>"atom" in which the quantum eigenstates correspond to the (unknown) factors
>of a large number (which is, I believe, what was proposed), the same
>principle applies. They're just using a very clever algorithm and a
>small number of steps.
Haroche and Raimond"Quantum Computing: Dream or NIghtmare?" Physics Today,
1996, p. 52 write:
"Consider, for example, an absurdly modest application of Shor's factorization
algorithm: factoring a four-bit number. Even that would require about 20 000
gate operations on 20 qubits."
I would say that Shor's algorithm is not very clever. They also raise some
interesting arguments against the ability to create quantum computers.
But as with much invention, mankind eventually does accomplish much of what he
dreams of, but not usually in the way we first conceive. We didn't go to the
moon via a cannon shot; nor did we fly by flapping our arms. We may make a
quantum computer in a manner different from our current conceptions.
Foundation,Fall and Flood
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http://www2.asa3.org/archive/ASA/199608/0166.html
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2013-06-19T19:41:33Z
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| 0.949183
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Source: National Milk Producers Federation
The most recent national government survey looking for pesticide residues in foods found virtually no positive levels in milk, and none that exceeded government tolerance levels.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducts an annual Pesticide Data Program annual survey to test various food commodities for pesticide residues. Each year, USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency jointly determine which commodities to test. In 2011, the USDA collected 743 whole milk samples in ten of the largest states, mostly at the retail level.
Overall, only five of the milk samples showed any presence of pesticide residue, and all were lower than Environmental Protection Agency-established tolerances for those compounds.
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http://www.agweb.com/agday/article/_usda_pesticide_survey_finds_no_problems_in_milk/
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2013-05-23T18:38:27Z
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The present 24-letter Greek alphabet, shown at the right, is the result of a long development. It evolved from Phoenician alphabets, which probably were inspired by Egyptian hieratic writing, by the addition of vowels. The letters representing double sounds, and distinguishing long and short vowels, were mostly added later, and a few letters from early alphabets that were regarded as superfluous were dropped. These are shown at the left. Most of these letters were retained for number notation, however, as shown.
The pronunciation shown is very approximate. Greek spelling and pronunciation differ between dialects, and have changed greatly over the course of time. The spelling, however, has always been intended to represent the actual pronunciation. Since heroic times there has been a constant tendency to combine and simplify vowel sounds, as evidenced by the Attic contractions. At present, there are only five pure vowel sounds, which is not enough to make the distinctions necessary in classical Greek. Classical scholars generally pronounce Greek rather like Latin, which has probably been done for a very long time. They defend the pronunciation of b as a hard b instead of a voiced v, and eu , au> as diphthongs rather than as ef and af, as in modern Greek. At the same time, they use the modern th for q and f for f.
Greek was originally written with letters like the capitals shown. The small letters evolved from them for easier writing on papyrus with a pen. Just when they attained their present shape is difficult to determine, but I think it was well on the way by 100 AD. Accents and breathings were added by 200 BC to ease the path of learners of Greek, which was becoming a general language. How Greek actually sounded when the accent was by pitch, which the accents describe, is unknown. It is now pronounced with a stress accent on any accented syllable, and modern Greek uses only the acute accent.
The basic accent is the acute. When it is on the final syllable, it changes to a grave when another word follows in the sentence. There are several other rules for accents, but this is the most commonly appearing. The circumflex accent is a combination of the acute and grave, and often represents a contraction involving an accented vowel. It is only used on long vowels, and only on one of the final two syllables. No accent can fall beyond the third syllable from the end of a word. If the final vowel is long, the accent must be on one of the last two syllables. It is often pulled towards the end of the word by inflection, when the ending has a long vowel.
The breathings are rough (an h-sound) and smooth (no h-sound), and must be used on all initial vowels and the letter r, which gets a rough breathing at the start of a word. This aspiration gradually disappeared, and is absent in modern Greek. They say that the comma-like breathings are two parts of the letter H, pulled apart when it was adopted for the long e instead of the aspiration.
Greek punctuation uses the full stop and the comma generally as in English. A high dot is like a semicolon or colon, used before further explanation or continuation of an idea, and the interrogation looks like a semicolon. Possibly sentences were separated by punctuation and spacing before individual words were clearly separated by spaces. Roman inscriptions usually separated words, so it is hard to believe that this was not done in writing to some degree, in Greek as well as Latin.
The first step in learning Greek is to learn the alphabet. The way to do this is to write out the small letters in order until you can do it neatly and quickly. It makes sense to memorize the letters in order because you will want to look up words in a lexicon, which will be arranged alphabetically. Once you have the small letters, the capitals will be no problem. Just make sure to get them the right way round. It is easy to print the small letters like a medieval scribe, and helps in recognition. Once you know the alphabet, it will only take a year or so of reading before you are comfortable, so cheer up!
Composed by J. B. Calvert
Last revised 8 August 1999
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http://mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/classics/alphabet.htm
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2013-05-24T02:39:03Z
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Tennessee, flag ofArticle Free Pass
During the Civil War (1861–65) a motion was submitted to the legislature calling for use of the Stars and Bars as the state flag, with the substitution of the Tennessee seal for the circle of stars in the Confederate national flag, but the motion appears not to have been acted upon. The first confirmed official flag was adopted in 1897. It had diagonal stripes of red-blue-white with the yellow inscription “The Volunteer State” (the state nickname) and the number 16, indicating the order of admission of Tennessee to statehood.
The current design, created by Captain LeRoy Reeves of the Tennessee Infantry and approved on April 17, 1905, features three stripes and three stars. These were said by Reeves to refer to “the three grand divisions of the State” (perhaps meaning the lowland regions in the west, the central plateaus, and the Appalachian areas), but they have also been said to represent either the three presidents who lived in Tennessee (Andrew Jackson, James Polk, and Andrew Johnson) or Tennessee’s joining the Union as the third state after the original 13. The colours correspond to those in the Stars and Stripes and the Stars and Bars. Tennessee and neighbouring Arkansas are the only states to have red backgrounds for their flags.
What made you want to look up "Tennessee, flag of"? Please share what surprised you most...
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http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1355654/Tennessee-flag-of
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2013-05-21T10:44:00Z
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Body image means different things to different people. To many it refers to how one feels about one’s body. To us, it refers to how one’s body feels to oneself and how one perceives its shape, orientation, agency and ownership. Hopefully you can see that body image is critical to pain, because pain is, we reckon, necessarily felt in one’s body. Anyway, one of the really top shelf researchers in this area is a fellow called Manos Tsakiris who is at Royal Holloway in London. He has very generously taken the time to quickly run us through one of his recent experiments:
We perceive our own bodies in many different ways. We can look at our bodies, feel touch on our bodies, and also feel our body from within, as when we experience our hearts racing or butterflies in our stomachs. One way to check how good people are at perceiving their body from within is to ask them to count their heartbeats over a few seconds, but without taking their own pulse. Neuroscientists believe that the more accurate people are at this task, the better their perception of internal bodily states is. Can our ability to detect our own heartbeat tell us something about our body-image, that is, the conscious and mainly visual representation of how our body looks like?
To answer this question, we, first, measured how good people are at feeling their body from within, using the heartbeat counting task. We then measured how good people are at perceiving their own body-image from the outside, by using a procedure that tricks them into feeling that a fake, rubber hand is their own hand. Looking at a rubber hand being touched at the same time as one’s own unseen hand creates the illusion that the rubber hand is part of one’s body . The less accurate people were in monitoring their heartbeat, the more they were influenced by the illusion . People with low scores on the heartbeat counting task showed a greater change in their body image as they experienced a stronger illusion of ownership over the fake hand. Conversely, those participants with high scores that indicate high interoceptive sensitivity were less influenced by the illusion.The study showed for first time that there may be a strong link between how we experience our body from within and how we perceive it from the outside.
It seems that a stable perception of the body from the outside, what is known as “body image”, is partly based on our ability to accurately perceive our body from within, such as our heartbeat. This finding is important as it may shed new light into pathologies of body-perception; exploring how certain people feel about or perceive the internal states of their body may help us understand why they perceive their body-image in distorted ways.
About Manos Tsakiris
Manos is, presumably, Greek by background and by photo we reckon. Despite LOOKING like a movie star, he is actually a very clever fellow. In fact, he is on the sharp end of the pile of clever people – he has done some really interesting and innovative research in the area of bodily representation and our sense of self. He is Reader in Psychology at Royal Holloway University of London. He has won Volkswagon Foundation, Bial and Economic and Social Research Council awards. He publishes in posh journals. To top that off, he has now written for BiM. Clearly, he did not write this bio.
Botvinick M, & Cohen J (1998). Rubber hands ‘feel’ touch that eyes see. Nature, 391 (6669) PMID: 9486643
Tsakiris M, Jiménez AT, & Costantini M (2011). Just a heartbeat away from one’s body: interoceptive sensitivity predicts malleability of body-representations. Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society PMID: 21208964
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http://www.bodyinmind.org/distortedbody-image-pain-internal-body-image/
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2013-05-18T05:58:51Z
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en
| 0.967969
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Date: May 2009
Creator: Thomson, Donna R.
Description: Experts do not agree on the definition of spiritual development although positive spiritual development benefits society in many ways. Without agreement on the definition of spiritual development and a common understanding of spiritual development, parents, teachers, and pastors who are entrusted with the task of fostering positive spiritual development in Christian settings face the challenges of determining what spiritual development is (definition), the desired goals (culmination) of spiritual development, and the most effective ways to meet those goals (context and content). The purpose of this study was to use data, from the social sciences and Christian points of view, to inform Christian education programs and arrive at recommendations for fostering young children's spiritual development. Data sources include textual literature from the social science and Christian points of view. In addition, the researcher gathered interview data from twenty children's pastors. Research results included: 1. It is possible that spirituality is associated with sensory awareness. 2. Examining spirituality as sensory awareness may lead to focusing on innate qualities of spiritual capacity with a more focused inclusion of children with special needs in faith-based programs, a God-given conscience, and consideration that children may be born with spiritual gifts to express their spiritual nature. ...
Contributing Partner: UNT Libraries
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http://digital.library.unt.edu/search/?q=%22Christian%20education%20of%20children.%22&t=str_subject
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2013-05-21T10:23:36Z
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en
| 0.92766
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The Town of Mammoth Lakes, CA, in the eastern sierra region of California, is surrounded by earthquake faults. In addition, Mammoth Mountain is an actual active volcano on the rim of the Long Valley Caldera. This caldera is one of the most seismically active regions of California. In 1980, Mammoth Lakes experienced 81 tremors of magnitudes 4.0 to 6.3 in just three days. While there were no fatalities, nine people sustained injuries and damages were reported to cost over $1.5 million. How can urban planners, environmental non-profits, and engineers prepare and plan for disaster mitigation in order to avoid fatalities, injuries, and costly damages in the future?
In the Town of Mammoth Lakes General Plan, adopted in 2007, policies have been provided to help avoid the dangers associated with seismic activity.
- Restricting development in areas with steep slopes;
- Requiring geotechnical evaluations and implementing mitigation measures prior to developing in areas of potential geologic or seismic hazards;
- Minimizing soil erosion and slope instability by amending Municipal Codes to include advances in construction techniques;
- Informing residents and businesses regarding earthquake preparedness and response by coordinating with other agencies to promote public education efforts.
In addition to these development policies, the Town of Mammoth Lakes, CA strictly adheres to the California Building Code, which requires specific tests for any masonry that is used in the construction and architecture design of new buildings. Mammoth Lakes, CA has also adopted an Emergency Operations Plan which outlines the Town’s response to many different contemporary emergency situations including wild fires, avalanches, transportation accidents, and hazardous material incidents, among others. This plan specifically follows the Response Plan for Volcano Hazards in the Long Valley Caldera and Mono Craters Region, California developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGA).
The USGA has installed a network of sensors in the area to detect subtle activity. The Town of Mammoth Lakes Police Department is responsible for building a working relationship with the USGS and monitoring the volcanic and seismic activity of the Caldera in order to organize a response in the case of an emergency. An earthquake of magnitude 5 will automatically trigger volcanic warning Yellow (Eruption watch).
What other ways can architects and urban planners plan ahead and prepare communities for emergencies?
Credits: Images and data linked to sources.
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http://www.globalsiteplans.com/environmental-design/disaster-awareness-how-to-plan-around-earthquake-faults-lessons-from-mammoth-lakes-ca/
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2013-05-21T09:59:30Z
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en
| 0.928612
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History Of Mosaic Art
Mosaic is basically the art of creating beautiful motifs and patterns, with the help of colorful stones, glass pieces, clay and other such items. These motifs are also used as floor patterns and other forms of interior decorative art. Though the exact origin place of this art is untraceable, this pattern is often associated with Roman and Greece dwellings and cathedrals, because of its prominent visibility in the Roman and Greek culture. There are also oriental links of this art, which can be traced to Chaldea, Syria and Byzantium. Mosaic arthas kept emerging through the eras, in diverse forms and in various cultures. This is also, undoubtedly, the reason that it has remained one of the most popular interior decoration art worldwide. Read on to explore some interesting information on the background, history and origin of Mosaic Art.
Interesting Information On Background & Origin Of Mosaic Art
To understand the history of the Mosaic art, a chronological description of the art in various cultures, in different eras, is necessary, as the art was not born at certain point of time, in a particular place. As the art form gradually emerged with time, there have been several stages in its development to the current form. It is even doubted that Mosaic art emerged simultaneously in various cultures not even linked to each other or spread from one culture to another, through subsequent links. The popular belief says that once this art form became a little prominent, it was subsequently developed and disseminated from one culture to other, in various time periods.
Though any scientific evidence of Mosaic art's origin is unavailable, the historians link it to the orient i.e. the eastern world. They even quote some links to justify these points. It is said that some of the earliest manifestations of this art have been found in Chaldean architecture, dating back to about 2,000 BC. There, some columns have been found embedded with small cones of clay, painted later on, to make it an attractive display very similar to Mosaic. They also refer to the Mosaic motif panels related to war and peace found in UR, a city of Sumeria, as one of the earliest manifestation of this art. However, till this culture, the Mosaic art was limited to the use of clay cones and paints.
Egyptian Developments and Further Spreading
The other most prominent development that took place in context of Mosaic art was the fusion of glasses by Egyptians. Even now, one can get to see numerous such ancient mosaic decorations in Alexandria Museum. The earliest example of the glass fusion in mosaic can be seen in the ships, palaces and temples belonging to the Egyptian. It is said that Mosaic art, around this time, gradually spread in two directions, simultaneously. On one hand, it was discovered by the eastern world - Asia, Syria and Byzantium and on the other, it spread towards the countries, like Greece and Italy.
Mosaic Art in Greece
In Greece, the art of Mosaic gained a quick foot hold. The first school of mosaics was born under Master Artist Sosos, in Pergamo - the capital of Misia (Greece). Gradually, the art became so famous that it was used in the interiors of even the most modest homes. At that time, the use of colorful pebbles in the Mosaic motifs of Greece became popular. The 'ciottol', or pebbles, were combined in a manner that they provided contrasting colors, gradation of shading and volume to the figures created through mosaic. A thin strips of led was inserted in the plaster to give it an outlining. This method remained popular for a very long time.
Mosaic Art in Rome
In the capital city of Italy, Rome, Mosaic became a form of artistic expression. Its use became prominent in the interiors of dwellings and cathedrals. Initially, it was used exclusively for the decoration of floors. However, gradually, the need to create works of art that would persist over time emerged. Romans gave Mosaic a completely different definition - of being a long-lived and easy handled art. The most prominent use of this art was seen in their dining halls, where simple terracotta art was not suitable in terms of beauty. So, they concentrated on developing mosaic as a method of visual decorations that, contrary to paintings and terracotta, could be walked on and could be easily washed and cleaned.
Mosaic Art Across the World
By 4th Century, Mosaic art had spread in almost all the parts of the world. It was the stage when the highest level of perfection was attained in this art and it reached unexpected heights of popularity. The credits can be given to Greek and Roman craftsmen, who gained perfection in this art form. By now, the use of pebbles had stopped and instead, the small, highly colored and brilliant pieces were employed. At this stage, Mosaic art spread in the world, like 'fire in jungle'. Till this time, it was considered that Mosaic art, apart from being beautiful, was also eternal.
With gradual passage of time and discovery of several other forms of art, the Mosaic stepped down from the top most slot of popularity. It was also realized that the art form was not eternal. As the mosaics were conditioned by plaster and cement bases, there became subject to deterioration over time. Still, the popularity of Mosaic art did not vanish altogether. Even now, the art is used as floor motifs and decoration pattern on fountain walls, pools, ceilings and garden walls. Now, it is also combined with glass paste, shells, and enamels, to add to its brilliance. With time, Mosaic art has only become more polished and beautiful.
How to Cite
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/history-of-mosaic-art-4769.html
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2013-06-18T23:11:12Z
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| 0.975527
| 1,191
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Injectable nanogel can monitor blood-sugar levels and secrete insulin when needed.
This article is reprinted with permission from the September 1999 issue of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the department's newsletter.
The inner ear is sensitive to sounds that vibrate the eardrum by less than the radius of a hydrogen atom, though the mechanisms by which this happens are not fully understood. Now, Associate Professor Dennis M. Freeman and colleagues in the Research Laboratory of Electronics' Auditory Physiology Research group have devised methods to "see" the motions of inner ear cells that barely blur high-resolution images from an optical microscope.
The key to the approach is the marriage of the computer with video microscopy. To gain insight into the signal-processing functions of the ear, Professor Freeman has devised techniques to make slow-motion, three-dimensional movies of sensory cells and their neighbors during sound stimulation. The movies resolve not only the motions of cells but also individual motions of the 50 to 100 microscopic sensory hairs that protrude from each sensory cell.
By analyzing these movies with algorithms from machine vision, quantitative measurements, accurate to a billionth of a meter, are possible. These measurements allow direct tests of how the million moving parts in each of our ears cooperate to provide our remarkable sense of hearing.
Many factors contributed to Professor Freeman's investigations of auditory physiology. "My family has a history of hearing problems, and I have a slight hearing problem myself," said Dr. Freeman, the W.M. Keck Career Development Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
He started out working with Dr. Lou Braida, the Henry Ellis Warren Professor of Electrical Engineering, on making a better hearing aid. The signal processing worked exactly as planned, but it didn't seem to help people with hearing loss. Frustrated by the setback, Professor Freeman decided to take a month off to study how the ear worked.
"I wanted to work on figuring out how the ear processed sound, with the goal of providing information that would help engineer better hearing aids. It turned out that the answers to my questions were hard to find, and it became a career in itself to understand the physiology.
"I really wanted to understand the neural code for sound, but that was already known to be quite complicated. Evidence suggested that motions of cells might be important," Professor Freeman said.
At this point, his focus shifted to physiological modeling to the hydrodynamics of sensory cells in the inner ear. He analyzed mathematical models to determine how the mechanically sensitive parts of the sensory hair cells should move. However, after the models were analyzed, there were no data available to test the theory. So the next step was to figure out how to get experimental data.
To measure motions as small as nanometers, Professor Freeman and his colleagues use video microscopy. The development of the charge-coupled device camera brought high quality and video together, but motions in the ear are much smaller than the pixels of a camera. Working on an entirely different class of problems, Berthold Horn and his colleagues at the Artificial Intelligence Lab developed powerful algorithms to determine motions from video images, algorithms that can reliably measure motions much smaller than a pixel.
Only one problem remains. The interesting motions of sensory cells in the inner ear are at audio frequencies and are faster than the fastest commercial cameras. To overcome this problem, Professor Freeman uses stroboscopic illumination to slow the apparent motion. The result is slow-motion, three-dimensional movies of inner ear motions.
He and his group have demonstrated motion measurements with much greater precision than had previously been thought possible. Using methods similar to their auditory research, they have extended their research into the realm of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), including micro-fabricated silicon structures that measure acceleration and angular velocity.
The invention of the transistor made it possible to make much smaller electronic devices than had previously been possible. The development of very large scale integration (VLSI) is perhaps even more significant. It is inconceivable that one could fabricate a modern computer with discrete components. MEMS are allowing the large-scale integration of not just electronic, but also mechanical, optical and fluidic devices.
"What if we could make a machine with a million moving parts? Will VLSI have the same enormous effect on mechanics, optics, and fluidics that it had on electronics?" Professor Freeman said. "I suspect yes. After all, the inner ear is a biological VLSI micromechanical system. Why shouldn't we use the same ideas in making artificial systems? And our toolbox is getting bigger. It is inevitable that we will learn to assemble biological parts into artificial machines."
Today, molecular biologists can determine the structure of an ion channel and its exact sequence of amino acids. Then they can manipulate and change its structure, and figure out the relation between a molecule's structure and function. This biological endeavor looks a lot more like engineering than did any aspect of biology just 10 years ago.
Professor Freeman's research is sponsored by the NIH (the hearing project) and DARPA (the MEMS project).
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on September 22, 1999.
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by Prof. Ian H. Giddy, New York University
Corporate restructuring entails any fundamental change in a company's business or financial structure, designed to increase the company's value to shareholders or creditor. Corporate restructuring is often divided into two parts: financial restructuring and operational restructuring. Financial restructuring relates to improvements in the capital structure of the firm. An example of financial restructuring would be to add debt to lower the corporation's overall cost of capital. For otherwise viable firms under stress it may mean debt rescheduling or equity-for-debt swaps based on the strength of the firm. If the firm is in bankruptcy, this financial restructuring is laid out in the plan of reorganization. The second meaning, operational restructuring, is the process of increasing the economic viability of the underlying business model. Examples include mergers, the sale of divisions or abandonment of product lines, or cost-cutting measures such as closing down unprofitable facilities. In most turnarounds and bankruptcy situations, both financial and operational restructuring must occur simultaneously to save the business.
Corporate financial restructuring involves restructuring the assets and liabilities of corporations, including their debt-to-equity structures, in line with their cash-flow needs to promote efficiency, support growth, and maximize the value to shareholders, creditors and other stakeholders. These objectives make it sound like restructuring is done pro-actively, that it is initiated by management or the board of directors. While that is sometimes the case -- examples include share buybacks and leveraged recapitalizations -- more often the existing structure remains in place until a crisis emerges. Then the motives are defensive -- as in defenses against a hostile takeover -- or distress-induced, where creditors threaten to enforce their rights.
Financial restructuring may mean refinancing at every level of capital structure, including:
Assignment: Identify a company in the news that is undergoing
corporate restructuring. Is the restructuring financial or operational? What
methods are being used? Will they produce fundamental improvements? What
risks does the company run in using these techniques?
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Wildlife Less Life
born. Death plays a pivotal balancing role in the drama of life.
There are three necessary components of every ecosystem: producers, consumers and decomposers. One part cannot exist without the others. Decomposers cannot process and recycle the materials of life until the natural agents of death have taken their toll. Nevertheless, some deny the third segment of life's cycle.
Many people today isolate themselves from the realities of nature. They want to live in a sanitized environment. They want to hide all evidence of mortality from their sight.
It is difficult to imagine how this is possible. It is likely that the grandparents and great grandparents of many of these people hunted squirrels, skinned rabbits and butchered their own hogs.
But, people in different generations perceive things differently, and today's generations are distantly removed from the farm.
Natural Curiosity of Children
Interestingly, the sight of a dead animal does not usually repel or disgust children. Unless or until they have been taught to groan, shudder or cringe at such a sight, they are attracted to and fascinated by a dead or even a decaying animal carcass.
Youngsters ask many questions about what they see under such circumstances. They seem to sense that something important has happened.
Observing the way children react to death can be instructive to adults, if they are open minded enough to learn from children. Kids eagerly examine bones that they find and get excited over skulls and teeth. They want to touch the fur or the feathers of the dead animal. They want to exa mine the feet. Many youngsters speculate or ask questions about what killed the animal. This is not morbid curiosity. It is just curiosity.
Young children - those under the age of 5 or 6 - do not really comprehend what it means for something to be dead. About all they can do is observe that lifeless things do not react or move anymore. Most children between the ages of 6 and 10 seem to grasp the meaning of death. Yet, they still retain a somewhat matter-of-fact acceptance of it.
This is not to say that any child would not or should not be profoundly upset at the death of a pet. That would be a sad and painful thing for a child to accept. But there is a difference between a pet and a wild animal - and it is a difference that it is important for children and adults to
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Insomnia can occur in response to a behavioral, physical, or mental health issue. Physical, psychological, environmental, and modifiable lifestyle factors can all play a role in preventing the condition, or alleviating the symptoms if it occurs. Most people experience temporary insomnia at some time. Preventing chronic insomnia from developing requires early treatment.
Treat Underlying Disease
Chronic disease and pain can cause insomnia for a variety of reasons. Diseases or conditions that may disrupt sleep include:
- Depression, mania, and anxiety
- Relationship stressors
- Diabetes and kidney disease
- Chronic lung disease
- Alcoholism or drug abuse
- Alzheimers and Parkinson diseases
- Heart disease
- Gastrointestinal reflux disease (GERD) or ulcer
- Sleep apnea (stopping breathing for short periods of time while sleeping)
- Restless legs syndrome and other disorders that cause involuntary limb movements during sleep
- Chronic pain
Discuss with your doctor whether these conditions or any other physical problems can be treated. Proper and timely treatment can reduce symptoms and often lead to an improved night’s sleep.
Avoid Certain Medications
Certain medicines can cause sleeping difficulties as a side effect. Having to take one or more of these drugs can lead to insomnia. Some medicines that may affect sleep include:
- Decongestants and other cough and cold remedies
- Diet pills
- Some high blood pressure medicines (beta blockers)
- Theophylline (asthma medicine)
- Phenytoin (anti-seizure medicine)
- Levodopa (medicine to treat Parkinson disease)
- Stimulants to treat attention deficit disorder, excessive daytime sleepiness, or obesity
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (antidepressants)
Avoid taking over-the-counter cold medicines if you have difficulty sleeping. If you are taking a prescription medicine that disturbs sleep as a side effect, talk to your doctor. You may be able to take an alternative drug that does not disturb your sleep.
Note: Do not stop taking any prescription medicine without the approval of your doctor.
Stress is considered by most sleep experts to be the number one cause of short-term sleeping difficulties. Common triggers include school- or job-related pressures, a family or marriage problem, and a serious illness or death in the family.
Exercise regularly to help relieve stress. However, do so at least three hours before bedtime. A workout after that time may actually keep you awake because your body has not had a chance to cool down and relax. Other techniques that may reduce stress are meditation and deep breathing.
Adjust Daily Activities
Habits and activities that you do during the day or night can interfere with getting a good night's sleep. Adjust your time schedule in order to avoid:
- Exercising close to bedtime
- Eating a large meal prior to bedtime
- Following an irregular morning and nighttime schedule
- Working or doing other mentally intense activities right before or after getting into bed
- Napping during the day, which can interfere with your ability to sleep at night—If you nap, do so for no more than one hour during the day.
Avoid Nicotine, Caffeine, and Alcohol
Nicotine and caffeine stimulate the nervous system. Although this may give you a sense of energy during the day, these substances may interfere with your ability to go to sleep at night. Alcohol depresses the nervous system. Although alcohol makes you feel drowsy at bedtime, it interferes with normal sleep patterns during the night and causes restlessness. Avoid using tobacco products and drinking beverages that contain caffeine or alcohol in the afternoon or evening. They can create a vicious cycle of poor sleep at night and an increased use of stimulants during the day to counteract the drowsiness from poor sleep.
Follow Bedtime Rituals If Working Night Shifts
Night shift work forces you to try to sleep when activities around you and your own "biological rhythms" signal you to be awake. One study shows that night shift workers are 2-5 times more likely than are employees with regular, daytime hours to fall asleep on the job because of poor sleep quality. If you work the night shift, speak with your employer about how to minimize the dangers of fatigue. Discuss your need for creating a sleep environment in the daytime with your family or those with whom you live. Try to keep a consistent schedule for sleep throughout the week, even on your days off. Make your daytime home environment conducive to sleep by keeping light out of the room you sleep in and minimizing external noise.
Create Good Sleep Habits and Environment
A distracting sleep environment, such as a room that is too hot or cold, too noisy, or too brightly lit can be a barrier to sound sleep. Interruptions from pets, children, or other family members can also disrupt sleep. Other influences may be the comfort and size of your bed and the habits of your sleep partner. Try to create an environment that is restful by using shades to block light, and playing soothing music or “white noise” (such as a fan). Seek medical help for a sleeping partner who snores loudly, or consider separate sleeping arrangements.
Establish a regular, relaxing bedtime routine that will allow you to unwind and send a "signal" to your brain that it is time to sleep. Avoiding exposure to bright light before bedtime and taking a warm bath may help. Do not use your bed for anything other than sleep or sex. Your bed should be associated with sleep. Avoid “clock watching” after going to bed. Also, avoid drinking fluids just before bed.
Prepare for Jet Travel
Jet lag is the inability to sleep as a result of crossing many time zones in a short period of time. This can disturb your biological rhythms and deprive you of good sleep. To help minimize its effect, get a good night’s sleep before traveling, drink plenty of water, and avoid alcohol during the trip.
- Reviewer: Brian Randall, MD
- Review Date: 10/2012 -
- Update Date: 10/11/2012 -
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The purpose of the Rosa Parks Museum is to uphold and interpret for the public benefit, education and enjoyment, materials related to the events and accomplishments of individuals associated with Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Museum includes a permanent exhibit, a time machine, temporary exhibit space, archives, classrooms, an auditorium and conference room.
THE ROSA PARKS MUSEUM IS RESPONSIBLE FOR:
- Collecting, identifying and cataloging items that are relevant to the Montgomery Bus Boycott
- Planning the museum collection and exhibits so they are a meaningful source of information
- Restoring and preserving items for the collection
- Planning and formulating policy for museum management and growth
- Maintaining an active and diverse exhibition program which acquaints the community with the global spectrum of human artistic and cultural expression
- Providing a center where the community and its visitors meet, create, and learn through participating in the museum programs and activities
- Creating and organizing the activities of a creative population of artists, archivist, historians, and other allied professionals
- Promoting museum programs through the media
- Planning educational programs for children
- Helping to promote tourism in Montgomery and in the state of Alabama
- Serving the widest possible audience (groups, individuals, and organizations) which share a common interest in cultural and educational activities through demonstration, leadership and education
The Museum is a major landmark in the revitalization of downtown Montgomery constructed on the site of the old Empire Theatre where Mrs. Parks made her courageous and historic stand in 1955. The interpretive museum occupies the first floor and 7,000 square feet of a three-story, 55,000 square foot building that also contains the TROY-Montgomery Campus Library. It includes space for permanent and special exhibits as well as a 103-seat, 2200 square foot multimedia auditorium. In a non-violent and non-threatening manner, six distinct and unique areas inside the museum tell the story of bravery and courage of early civil rights soldiers.
Artifacts include a restored 1955 station wagon, a replica of the public bus on which Mrs. Parks was sitting that day, and original historical documents of that era loaned by the City of Montgomery.
THE CHILDREN'S WING
In the Rosa Parks Library & Museum Children’s Wing, visitors go back in time on the Cleveland Avenue Time Machine to discover that things just don't happen – people make things happen. Visitors come to realize that they, too, can make a difference just as Rosa Parks, E.D. Nixon, Jo Ann Robinson, Fred Gray, Claudette Colvin and many others made a difference following in the footsteps of Dred Scott, Harriet Tubman, Homer Plessy and others who had gone on before.
As visitors enter the Cleveland Avenue Time Machine, they see what they think is a standard 1955 Montgomery city bus. On closer inspection they discover the vehicle has no wheels and indeed appears to be floating above a layer of violet-colored light. The vehicle is surrounded by a strange array of imposing equipment, lighting effects, glowing pipes and low fog. On one side of the vehicle, huge Time Diodes are ready to trigger Time Travel. On the other side, a similarly imposing sequence of equipment represents the collection and acceleration of “Tachyons” to power the Time Diodes.
The strange machineries of time travel emit pulsing light in random patterns as though their circuitry has somehow been damaged by fast traveling Tachyons. The effect is designed to make guests sense that huge energies might be under somewhat imperfect control. Strange and very low frequency audio effects envelop the space. Surrounding walls seem to be undulating in colorful abstract patterns as images from all eras of history drift by. Cloud ceiling lighting fires in random patterns as though it is heat lightning. These effects occur prior to and after the program. Strange and very low frequency audio effects envelop the space.
Guests approach the bus entrance door along a railed walkway. They enter the bus and meet the driver, a curious assemblage of engine parts. His eyes are glowing and light is pulsing along his limbs. His name is Mr. Rivets and he greets visitors in a strange mechanical voice.
Visitors are transported through time from to the early 1800’s to the early “Jim Crow” era where they observe scenes of segregation and social and legal challenges made by individuals like Harriet Tubman, Dred Scott and Homer Plessy. Visitors also learn about the various legal challenges that helped reshape the thinking of the 20th century that discrimination and segregation were both immoral and illegal.
Upon returning back through time to Montgomery, Alabama, visitors are encouraged to visit the second floor Research Center, where they can learn much more about the legal and social challenges involving a segregated bus system in Montgomery, Alabama. In addition, visitors can view numerous historical documents and hear testimonials of men and women who actually participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and 1956.
Museum: 252 Montgomery Street, Montgomery, AL 36104
Children's Wing: 220 Montgomery Street, Montgomery, AL 36104
View a Larger Map
Planning a Visit?
We invite you to take a virtual tour of the Troy University Rosa Parks Museum and Children's Wing.
Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Saturday, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Sundays and Holidays Closed (Except for Special Tours of 50 or more) Call 334-241-8661
Effective as of October 1, 2011 the price schedule for admission is as follows:
12 years and under: $5.50 and Over 12 years of age: $7.50
Alabama College Student's with a Valid Student ID: $6.50
AAA Discount: subtract $1.00 from regular Adult Price
Discount price for both Museum & Children's Wing: Adults: $14, Children $10
Reservations are required for groups consisting of ten (10) or more persons.
- For Tours: (334) 241-8661
- Gift Shop: (334) 241-8616
- Museum Receptionist: (334) 241-8615
- Children's Wing: (334) 241-8702
The Rosa Parks Museum is owned by Troy University. Persons coming to the Rosa Parks Museum are welcome to park in any Troy University, Montgomery Campus parking lot. There is no charge to park on Troy University, Montgomery Campus property when visiting the Museum. Be careful not to park in any space marked as reserved or in lots owned by other businesses such as Alabama Gas Corporation or the U.S. Post Office. There is also on-the-street, metered parking. Parking meters are ticketed weekdays, 8:00 AM -5:00 PM. Weekends, holidays, and evenings, meters are not monitored and parking tickets are not issued. Designated Handicap Parking spaces are located along Montgomery Street and in the Troy parking lots. If you have any questions about parking, ask any Troy University, Montgomery Campus Police Officer.
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Objectivity is both a metaphysical and an epistemological concept. It pertains to the relationship of consciousness to existence. Metaphysically, it is the recognition of the fact that reality exists independent of any perceiver’s consciousness. Epistemologically, it is the recognition of the fact that a perceiver’s (man’s) consciousness must acquire knowledge of reality by certain means (reason) in accordance with certain rules (logic). This means that although reality is immutable and, in any given context, only one answer is true, the truth is not automatically available to a human consciousness and can be obtained only by a certain mental process which is required of every man who seeks knowledge—that there is no substitute for this process, no escape from the responsibility for it, no shortcuts, no special revelations to privileged observers—and that there can be no such thing as a final “authority” in matters pertaining to human knowledge. Metaphysically, the only authority is reality; epistemologically—one’s own mind. The first is the ultimate arbiter of the second.
The concept of objectivity contains the reason why the question “Who decides what is right or wrong?” is wrong. Nobody “decides.” Nature does not decide—it merely is; man does not decide, in issues of knowledge, he merely observes that which is. When it comes to applying his knowledge, man decides what he chooses to do, according to what he has learned, remembering that the basic principle of rational action in all aspects of human existence, is: “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.” This means that man does not create reality and can achieve his values only by making his decisions consonant with the facts of reality.
Objectivity begins with the realization that man (including his every attribute and faculty, including his consciousness) is an entity of a specific nature who must act accordingly; that there is no escape from the law of identity, neither in the universe with which he deals nor in the working of his own consciousness, and if he is to acquire knowledge of the first, he must discover the proper method of using the second; that there is no room for the arbitrary in any activity of man, least of all in his method of cognition—and just as he has learned to be guided by objective criteria in making his physical tools, so he must be guided by objective criteria in forming his tools of cognition: his concepts.
It is axiomatic concepts that identify the precondition of knowledge: the distinction between existence and consciousness, between reality and the awareness of reality, between the object and the subject of cognition. Axiomatic concepts are the foundation of objectivity.
Most people . . . think that abstract thinking must be “impersonal”—which means that ideas must hold no personal meaning, value or importance to the thinker. This notion rests on the premise that a personal interest is an agent of distortion. But “personal” does not mean “nonobjective”; it depends on the kind of person you are. If your thinking is determined by your emotions, then you will not be able to judge anything, personally or impersonally. But if you are the kind of person who knows that reality is not your enemy, that truth and knowledge are of crucial, personal, selfish importance to you and to your own life—then, the more passionately personal the thinking, the clearer and truer.
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- Get Involved
- Education & Events
- Publications & Research
- About ACA
The Right to Play
What happens when children and youth are deprived of play?
We view play as frivolous or fun — a waste of time. Yet, once again while meeting with camp staff in Alaska, I was reminded of the danger of removing critical developmental opportunities for children and youth. Marginalizing play is an unwarranted, unrecognized, and careless experiment.
Play is a child's laboratory. Without that lab, the camp professionals in Alaska are witnessing some interesting developmental gaps in readiness. As we discussed these observations, it called the questions . . .
What happens to young children who are not allowed to participate in unstructured free time — play that is not scripted or merely a secondary experience? What is happening when children do not have a chance for SOCIALIZATION — engaging in parallel play and moving into cooperative play?
I believe, absent positive play, we are seeing children who are six and seven years old manifesting social and emotional behaviors of three and four year olds. They are not prepared to work with others or participate successfully outside of the family unit. These children might know their colors, speak in compound sentences, manage technology, or read, but they are unable to share space with and understand others. They have not learned to manage conflict and solve problems. They have not exercised their creative and innovative muscles. As a result, one has to ask what happens when we limit or remove a child's developmental right to play. What skills have they not had a chance to learn and practice?
Then, what happens to young adults who continue to have their opportunities to “play” (practicing adult skills) limited, managed, or absent? Without MATURATION, experiences that provide safe environments for risk, mistakes, reflection, and exploration, we find young people who are unable to self-regulate, are unable to make independent decisions, or, worse yet, feel crushed by defeat. I would suggest many of these young adults are the same ones failing in their freshman year of college.
You simply can't skip critical developmental steps without consequence.
Are we paying attention? Have we considered the shrinking radius of space for play children have today? A decade ago it was one mile; today it is 500 feet. Have we considered the accumulative time a young person spends in front of a screen compared to having authentic experiences with others? For instance, by the time a young adult is twenty-one, he or she will have logged in nearly 10,000 hours in front of a screen. It takes 4,800 hours to get a bachelor's degree. What does that say about our priorities? Have we considered that limited access to the out of doors combined with sedentary screen time have produced the most obese, unhealthy child population in our country's history?
At times, I grow weary hearing all the jargon about 21st century skills, graduation rates, or workforce readiness when we have undercut a basic, foundational key to healthy development — play. Creative, imaginative play does, in fact, exercise and support many of the 21st century, character, noncognitive, soft skills young people so desperately need if they are to grow up and be successful, contributing adults who are ready to learn, adapt, and excel.
We need a balanced, informed approach as parents, caregivers, politicians, and the public. We must learn to understand play as a form of invention. Invention seeds innovation. Innovation will bring true value to the 21st century.
Photo courtesy of Cheley Colorado Camps, Estes Park, Colorado
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NASA image courtesy of David Long, Brigham Young University, on the QuikSCAT Science Team, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Tropical Storm Dalila was already starting to fade on July 26, 2007, when the QuikSCAT satellite captured this image. The image shows wind speed in color and wind direction with barbs. The white barbs point to areas of intense rain. Dalila was never a big storm and was just declining from its peak when the data used to create this image were captured. High wind speeds—red and purple—are north of the calm region, represented by a green spot, that marks the center of the storm. In a well-organized storm, high winds circle a calm eye like a bull’s eye. Though the wind direction circles the center in neat bands, the storm itself is spread in a horizontal oval instead of a symmetrical circle.
Tropical Storm Dalila was the eighth tropical system to form in the East Pacific during the 2007 season, and the fourth named storm. Dalila formed south of Baja California and arced northwest over cooler waters as it degraded. At the time this image was taken, the storm’s winds blew at 74-83 kilometers per hour (40-45 knots or 46-52 miles per hour) said UNISYS Weather.
This image originally appeared on the Earth Observatory. Click here to view the full, original record.
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Erosion is defined as the removal of soil, sediment, regolith, and rock fragments from the landscape. Most landscapes show obvious evidence of erosion. Erosion is responsible for the creation of hills and valleys. It removes sediments from areas that were once glaciated, shapes the shorelines of lakes and coastlines, and transports material downslope from elevated sites. In order for erosion to occur, three processes must take place: detachment, entrainment and transport. Erosion also requires a medium to move material. Wind, water, and ice are the environmental media primarily responsible for erosion. Finally, the process of erosion stops when the transported particles fall out of the transporting medium and settle on a surface. This process is called deposition. Figure 1 illustrates an area of Death Valley, California where the effects of erosion and deposition can be easily seen.
Figure 1 is an image that was created from DEMs (Digital Elevation Model) for the following 1:24,000 scale topographic quadrangles: Telescope Peak, Hanaupah Canyon, and Badwater, California. To the left is the Panamint Mountain Range. To the right is Death Valley. Elevation spans from 3,368 to -83 meters and generally decreases from left to right. The blue line represents an elevation of 0 meters. Large alluvial fans extending from a number of mountain valleys to the floor of Death Valley can be seen in the right side of the image. The sediments that make up these depositional features came from the weathering and erosion of bedrock in the mountains located on the left side of the image. (This image was created with MacDEM software).
Energy of Erosion
The energy for erosion comes from several sources. Mountain building creates a disequilibrium within the Earth's landscape because of the creation of relief. Gravity acts to vertically move materials of higher relief to lower elevations to produce an equilibrium. Gravity also acts on the mediums of erosion to cause them to flow to base level.
Solar radiation and its influence on atmospheric processes is another source of energy for erosion. Rainwater has a kinetic energy imparted to it when it falls from the atmosphere. Snow has potential energy when it is deposited in higher elevations. This potential energy can be converted into the energy of motion when the snow is converted into flowing glacial ice. Likewise, the motion of air because of differences in atmospheric pressure can erode surface material when velocities are high enough to cause particle entrainment.
The Erosion Sequence
Erosion can be seen as a sequence of three events: detachment, entrainment, and transport. These three processes are often closely related and sometimes not easy distinguished between each other. A single particle may undergo detachment, entrainment, and transport many times.
Erosion begins with the detachment of a particle from surrounding material. Sometimes detachment requires the breaking of bonds which hold particles together. Many different types of bonds exist each with different levels of particle cohesion. Some of the strongest bonds exist between the particles found within igneous rocks. In these materials, bonds are derived from the growth of mineral crystals during cooling. In sedimentary rocks, bonds are weaker and are mainly caused by the cementing effect of compounds such as iron oxides, silica, or calcium. The particles found in soils are held together by even weaker bonds which result from the cohesion effects of water and the electro-chemical bonds found in clay and particles of organic matter.
Physical, chemical, and biological weathering act to weaken the particle bonds found in rock materials. As a result, weathered materials are normally more susceptible than unaltered rock to the forces of detachment. The agents of erosion can also exert their own forces of detachment upon the surface rocks and soil through the following mechanisms:
- Plucking: ice freezes onto the surface, particularly in cracks and crevices, and pulls fragments out from the surface of the rock.
- Cavitation: intense erosion due to the surface collapse of air bubbles found in rapid flows of water. In the implosion of the bubble, a micro-jet of water is created that travels with high speeds and great pressure producing extreme stress on a very small area of a surface. Cavitation only occurs when water has a very high velocity, and therefore its effects in nature are limited to phenomenon like high waterfalls.
- Raindrop impact: the force of a raindrop falling onto a soil or weathered rock surface is often sufficient to break weaker particle bonds. The amount of force exerted by a raindrop is a function of the terminal velocity and mass of the raindrop.
- Abrasion: the excavation of surface particles by material carried by the erosion agent. The effectiveness of this process is related to the velocity of the moving particles, their mass, and their concentration at the eroding surface. Abrasion is very active in glaciers where the particles are firmly held by ice. Abrasion can also occur from the particles held in the erosional mediums of wind and water.
Entrainment is the process of particle lifting by the agent of erosion. In many circumstances, it is hard to distinguish between entrainment and detachment. There are several forces that provide particles with a resistance to this process. The most important force is frictional resistance. Frictional resistance develops from the interaction between the particle to its surroundings. A number of factors increase frictional resistance, including: gravity, particle slope angle relative to the flow direction of eroding medium, particle mass, and surface roughness.
Entrainment also has to overcome the resistance that occurs because of particle cohesive bonds. These bonds are weakened by weathering or forces created by the erosion agent (abrasion, plucking, raindrop impact, and cavitation).
The main force reponsible for entrainment is fluid drag. The strength of fluid drag varies with the mass of the eroding medium (water is 9,000 times more dense than air) and its velocity. Fluid drag causes the particle to move because of horizontal force and vertical lift. Within a medium of erosion, both of these forces are controlled by velocity. Horizontal force occurs from the push of the agent against the particle. If this push is sufficient to overcome friction and the resistance of cohesive bonds, the particle moves horizontally. The vertical lift is produced by turbulence or eddies within the flow that push the particle upward. Once the particle is lifted the only force resisting its transport is gravity as the forces of friction, slope angle, and cohesion are now non-existent. The particle can also be transported at velocities lower than the entrainment velocities because of the reduction in forces acting on it.
Many hydrologists and geomorphologists require a mathematical model to predict levels of entrainment, especially in stream environments. In these highly generalized models, the level of particle entrainment is relative to particle size and the velocity of the medium of erosion. These quantitative models can be represented graphically. On these graphs, the x-axis represents the log of particle diameter, and the y-axis the log of velocity. The relationship between these two variables to the entrainment of particles is described by a curve, and not by a straight line.
The critical entrainment velocity curve suggests that particles below a certain size are just as resistant to entrainment as particles with larger sizes and masses (Figure 2). Fine silt and clay particles tend to have higher resistance to entrainment because of the strong cohesive bonds between particles. These forces are far stronger than the forces of friction and gravity.
Figure 2 shows a graph that describes the relationship between stream flow velocity and particle erosion, transport, and deposition. The curved line labeled "erosion velocity" describes the velocity required to entrain particles from the stream's bed and banks. The erosion velocity curve is drawn as a thick line because the erosion particles tends to be influenced by a variety of factors that changes from stream to stream. Also, note that the entrainment of silt and clay needs greater velocities then larger sand particles. This situation occurs because silt and clay have the ability to form cohesive bounds between particles. Because of the bonding, greater flow velocities are required to break the bonds and move these particles. The graph also indicates that the transport of particles requires lower flow velocities then erosion. This is especially true of silt and clay particles. Finally, the line labeled "settling velocity" shows at what velocity certain sized particles fall out of transport and are deposited.
Once a particle is entrained, it tends to move as long as the velocity of the medium is high enough to transport the particle horizontally. Within the medium, transport can occur in four different ways:
- Suspension is where the particles are carried by the medium without touching the surface of their origin. This can occur in air, water, and ice.
- Saltation is where the particle moves from the surface to the medium in quick continuous repeated cycles. The action of returning to the surface usually has enough force to cause the entrainment of new particles. This process is only active in air and water.
- Traction is the movement of particles by rolling, sliding, and shuffling along the eroded surface. This occurs in all erosional mediums.
- Solution is a transport mechanism that occurs only in aqueous environments. Solution involves the eroded material being dissolved and carried along in water as individual ions.
Particle weight, size, shape, surface configuration, and medium type are the main factors that determine which of these processes operate.
The erosional transport of material through the landscape is rarely continuous. Instead, we find that particles may undergo repeated cycles of entrainment, transport, and deposition. Transport depends on an appropriate balance of forces within the transporting medium. A reduction in the velocity of the medium, or an increase in the resistance of the particles may upset this balance and cause deposition. Reductions in competence can occur in a variety of ways. Velocity can be reduced locally by the sheltering effect of large rocks, hills, stands of vegetation or other obstructions. Normally, competence changes occur because of large-scale reductions in the velocity of flowing medium. For wind, reductions in velocity can be related to variations in spatial heating and cooling which create pressure gradients and wind. In water, lower velocities can be caused by reductions in discharge or a change in the grade of the stream. Glacial flows of ice can become slower if precipitation input is reduced or when the ice encounters melting. Deposition can also be caused by particle precipitation and flocculation. Both of these processes are active only in water. Precipitation is a process where dissolved ions become solid because of changes in the temperature or chemistry of the water. Flocculation is a chemical process where salt causes the aggregation of minute clay particles into larger masses that are too heavy to remain suspended.
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<urn:uuid:9d53f7d9-62e0-4372-a941-fa5627200c96>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.eoearth.org/article/Soil_erosion_and_deposition
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2013-05-24T08:42:26Z
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.93995
| 2,230
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For decades people have been learning to program by copying and modifying other people’s code.
How did you first learn to program? For us, it was by copying and tweaking simple BASIC programs on ZX Spectrums and Commodore 64s.
Folk Computing (a term coined by an MIT project which encouraged children to learn programming in exactly this way) has been a common factor in programming environments from LambdaMOO to Yahoo Pipes, the OLPC, Second Life, and more.
We look at the history of folk programming from the 80s to today, and then examine some modern folk programming platforms.
Some topics we’ll explore include:
20th–24th July 2009
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<urn:uuid:9908f5bb-6b0f-4a97-8e6f-7c4c4d64fb75>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://lanyrd.com/2009/oscon/schedule/?coverage=links&day=jul-24
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2013-06-18T22:26:19Z
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.958073
| 145
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Start by teaching kids under 7 the difference between a TV program and a commercial. Point out commercials and use a timer to show them when the commercial begins and ends. Ask questions to help them recognize the purpose of the commercial is to sell them a product. What is the commercial selling? How does the commercial make them feel? Would they like to buy the product?
Once kids understand that advertising is about persuading them to buy a product, they can begin to identify other types of advertising messages such as product placement, Web site games and guerilla marketing. Watch TV or play a video game with your child and find the products and logos used as a prop or part of the storyline. Have a conversation about how the messages try to get you to buy the product.
Who created this message?
What words, images and sounds are used to attract my attention?
What is really being sold in this message?
What does the message mean to me?
The same questions can be asked about any media message with just a few minor changes — substitute the word ad or product with the name of another media form.
Visit www.commonsensemedia.org for more information.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping parents make informed media and entertainment choices for their families.
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<urn:uuid:94b6bd8a-3872-4bb5-9649-6337af51dc40>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.greatschools.org/print-view/students/media-kids/506-media-selling-to-kids.gs?fromPage=1
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2013-05-25T13:43:04Z
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705955434/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120555-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.950397
| 261
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44. What is traffic shaping?
One of the main causes of congestion is that traffic is often busy. If hosts could be made to transmit at a uniform rate, congestion would be less common. Another open loop method to help manage congestion is forcing the packet to be transmitted at a more predictable rate. This is called traffic shaping.
45. What is multicast routing?
Sending a message to a group is called multicasting, and its routing algorithm is called multicast routing.
46. What is region?
When hierarchical routing is used, the routers are divided into what we will call regions, with each router knowing all the details about how to route packets to destinations within its own region, but knowing nothing about the internal structure of other regions.
47. What is silly window syndrome?
It is a problem that can ruin TCP performance. This problem occurs when data are passed to the sending TCP entity in large blocks, but an interactive application on the receiving side reads 1 byte at a time.
48. What are Digrams and Trigrams?
The most common two letter combinations are called as digrams. e.g. th, in, er, re and an. The most common three letter combinations are called as trigrams. e.g. the, ing, and, and ion.
49. Expand IDEA.
IDEA stands for International Data Encryption Algorithm.
50. What is wide-mouth frog?
Wide-mouth frog is the simplest known key distribution center (KDC) authentication protocol.
51. What is Mail Gateway?
It is a system that performs a protocol translation between different electronic mail delivery protocols.
52. What is IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol)?
It is any routing protocol used within an autonomous system.
53. What is EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol)?
It is the protocol the routers in neighboring autonomous systems use to identify the set of networks that can be reached within or via each autonomous system.
54. What is autonomous system?
It is a collection of routers under the control of a single administrative authority and that uses a common Interior Gateway Protocol.
55. What is BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)?
It is a protocol used to advertise the set of networks that can be reached with in an autonomous system. BGP enables this information to be shared with the autonomous system. This is newer than EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol).
56. What is Gateway-to-Gateway protocol?
It is a protocol formerly used to exchange routing information between Internet core routers.
57. What is NVT (Network Virtual Terminal)?
It is a set of rules defining a very simple virtual terminal interaction. The NVT is used in the start of a Telnet session.
58. What is a Multi-homed Host?
It is a host that has a multiple network interfaces and that requires multiple IP addresses is called as a Multi-homed Host.
59. What is Kerberos?
It is an authentication service developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kerberos uses encryption to prevent intruders from discovering passwords and gaining unauthorized access to files.
60. What is OSPF?
It is an Internet routing protocol that scales well, can route traffic along multiple paths, and uses knowledge of an Internet’s topology to make accurate routing decisions.
61. What is Proxy ARP?
It is using a router to answer ARP requests. This will be done when the originating host believes that a destination is local, when in fact is lies beyond router.
62. What is SLIP (Serial Line Interface Protocol)?
It is a very simple protocol used for transmission of IP datagrams across a serial line.
63. What is RIP (Routing Information Protocol)?
It is a simple protocol used to exchange information between the routers.
64. What is source route?
It is a sequence of IP addresses identifying the route a datagram must follow. A source route may optionally be included in an IP datagram header.
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<urn:uuid:78550a64-69e8-408e-9a4d-7705f3436d22>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://way2freshers.com/aptitude/computer-networks-aptitude-questions-and-answers.html
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2013-06-19T14:38:39Z
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.916142
| 837
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Posted on April 20, 2012
Filed Under Ocean Waves As an Alternative Energy Solution! |
Environmental Remediation is definitely an important process that site loaded with toxic hazards must undergo. With regards to re-using old empty industrial site, you cannot just simply remodel the building structures. Doing this without any regard for toxic cleanup may risk those who will land up occupying the locations. Hence, environmental remediation is really important.
Advances in the field of environmental cleanup are being continuously made. A number of researchers, environmentalists as well as corporation spend time and effort, effort, as well as resources in order to further increase environmental remediation procedures. Tar sands, to illustrate, can be separated from oil in a much friendlier approach. This environmentally friendlier means of isolating oil from tar sands was made by a number of researchers from Penn State University. This process, uses the special properties of ionic liquids to get rid of the heavy viscous oil from sand. As a result, it even has the capacity to clear massive oil spills from beaches as well as other bodies of water.
Tar sands, that happen to be also known as oil or bituminous sands, represent approximately 60% of the earth’s estimated quantity of oil reserves. Canada is the world’s biggest supplier of non traditional petroleum from sands. The USA then imports a lot more than a million barrels of oil per day from Canada. That rate of posting is all about twice as much as from rate of importing with Saudi Arabia. Much of this oil is gotten from the tar sands of rural Alberta.
Even though this kind of oil is very useful for both industrial as well as civilian uses, the creation of this sort of oil - the process in which oil is gotten from tar sands - contributes to major environmental damage. A few of the damage comes from the keeping of contaminated waste water from the separation process in large open air ponds. Waste water from the ponds are be combined with ground water. When waste water blends with ground water, and other waterways will ultimately get contaminated. Additionally, the large amounts of required water for the separation process can easily deplete the supply of local fresh water. The Penn State University’s newly designed method of separation makes use of very little energy as well as water yet all chemicals are reprocessed and reused.
Regardless of the fact that this approach is made for the use of oil companies, companies involved with the environmental remediation business might also utilize this process for industrial sites whose functions, as soon as they’re used again, contain industrial processes for example the separation of oil from tar sands. Aside from that, companies who provide remediation services might use this method whenever they contracted to clean oil spills. Environmental remediation contractors will sure make use of this new finding. If you’re an environmental remediation contractor, you will notice that his new discovery will of course make even more revenues.
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<urn:uuid:2dff64f0-61f2-4686-af75-29764b9ad267>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://greenenergysteps.com/blog/?p=4885
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2013-06-19T19:26:30Z
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.967137
| 592
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That's the goal is math and science, too. Too often kids get stuck on and obsessed with the tools (prefixes, scientific notation, algebra, trig, calculus, definitions, moles) and miss the forest for the trees. Having to spend a lot of mental energy on those things also means that you simply don't have the stamina to get to the end of something with a lot of sub-parts, because the sub-parts require too much effort (because you can't do them fluently!).
We worked at this fiendish challenge problem from The Physics Teacher today.
Mainly, I wanted to illustrate the concept of looking at different cases or regions within the problem. Here, we had to consider cases in which neither block slipped, only the bigger block slipped, or only the smaller block slipped. Cases in which both blocks slip are ruled out by the ribbon's masslessness (think about it - it's a little subtle!).
We went through what the accelerations of each slipping block and non-slipping block (+ribbon) would be in each of the three cases, as well as what the static friction force on each non-slipping block would be in each case. If a scenario is impossible, you'll get an impossible result from the comparison of the net force required for the acceleration indicated and the acceleration that the static friction /gravity can provide.
It looked something like this:
That's quite a bit of algebra, but... how long did it take us to come up with these functions for all of these different cases? 10 minutes, maybe!
The reason is fluency. These kids would've taken forever to get these out last year, and would've made a lot of wrong turns and not noticed for a while, because they were still stuck with partial fluency on some of the skills needed to write these equations. By my estimation, these are the skills that the kids had to be fluent with to model these three situations so quickly:
- Identification of forces (normal, mg, kinetic and static friction)
- Identification of acceleration direction and which accelerations will be equal to which others
- Trig and vector components
- Rotation of axes
- Defining positive in a consistent way for both blocks
- Newton's 2nd law
- Requirements for static friction to be in effect
- Symbolic algebra
- Relationships between the friction coefficients
After all, no composer can write an opera if they have to do "Every Good Boy Does Fine" to know what the notes are!
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<urn:uuid:61cc2544-b04c-432c-aa2d-c1662a088b6e>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://tatnallsbg.blogspot.com/2011/10/fluency-awesomeness.html
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2013-05-23T11:41:03Z
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en
| 0.960655
| 516
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Missouri Government, A Brief Look
The Missouri Senate has 34 members. Each senator represents about 155,000 people. Senate terms are four years, with one-half of the Senate up for election every two years. Senate candidates must be at least 30 years of age, a qualified Missouri voter for three years, and a resident of their district for at least one year.
When the lieutenant governor is not presiding over the Senate, the president pro tempore, elected by the members of the Senate, presides over the Senate most of the time and is the Senate's main official.
The Senate also approves most of the appointments made by the governor to head state agencies and to serve on state boards and commissions.
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<urn:uuid:005a5f01-ce69-4216-bd5c-af29c166da05>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.sos.mo.gov/kids/gov/?up=y&pID=senate
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2013-05-21T17:59:22Z
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700380063/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.971907
| 144
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New insect species make their way into the United States every year by hitching rides in shipping crates and on automobiles, clothing and shoes. They hide in produce, plants and firewood while they are transported to uninfested areas.
Upon arrival, invasive insects quickly begin to attack their new habitats, making themselves at home. Many different types of termites, beetles, carpenter ants and bees bore into trees and make themselves at home in wood structures, such as decks, play sets and patio furniture. Numerous varieties of caterpillars, moths and mites fashion meals out of plants, discoloring and deforming leaves and sometimes stripping foliage away completely.
“While it’s difficult to prevent invasive insects from making their way into your outdoor spaces, using an integrated pest management approach (IPM) can stop them from doing harm to your family and the environment,” says Aaron Hobbs, president of RISE (Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment) - a national organization representing manufacturers, formulators and distributors of pesticide products use around the home and yard.
IPM is a common sense approach to managing pests that combines property maintenance, watching pest populations and applying pesticides when necessary.
“Keeping outdoor spaces clean and tidy, without piles of wood or trash, will make them less attractive to invasive insects. When used properly as part of an overall IPM approach, pesticides are the most effective way to remove damaging pests from your property and provide protection from future infestations,” adds Hobbs.
“When selecting a pesticide product read the label to ensure you’ve got the right solution for your pest and location,” says Hobbs. “There are many products available for consumers to use when eliminating invasive insects from outdoor spaces. Consumers should remember to always read and follow all label directions.”
The globalization of markets and growth in both national and world travel raises the numbers of invasive insects finding new habitats in neighborhoods across the country. Following an integrated approach that uses registered pesticides is the best strategy to take back outdoor living areas and keep them pest-free so you can enjoy the summer.
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<urn:uuid:6ff6d0f1-a5ff-48e2-bdb4-b3fc044e1f5b>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://chanute.com/matchbin_businesses?state=VA&cat=Lawn%20and%20Garden&ara=Lawn%20Garden
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2013-06-18T22:52:36Z
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.933865
| 435
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 5, 2006
National School Lunch Week, 2006
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
For 60 years, the National School Lunch Program has contributed to the health and well-being of America's youth. National School Lunch Week highlights the many achievements of the National School Lunch Program and the importance of helping children develop good nutrition habits.
Eating healthy foods and maintaining an active lifestyle are vital for children's health and reduce their risk of serious long-term health problems, such as obesity, asthma, and diabetes. The National School Lunch Program, part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), provides more than 29 million children with healthy meals each day. The program raises awareness about the importance of good food choices and trains food service professionals to prepare nutritious breakfasts, lunches, and snacks that include foods rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. In addition, the USDA offers educational resources for school nutrition directors, managers, and staff based on the requirements for healthy school meals established in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. By promoting good nutrition and exercise, schools can help children develop well-balanced diets and lead healthier lives.
During National School Lunch Week, we recognize dedicated parents, school officials, community leaders, and food service professionals for their efforts to ensure that our children are provided with nutritious meals each day.
In recognition of the contributions of the National School Lunch Program to the health, education, and well-being of America's children, the Congress, by joint resolution of October 9, 1962 (Public Law 87-780), as amended, has designated the week beginning on the second Sunday in October of each year as "National School Lunch Week," and has requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this week.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of October 8 through October 14, 2006, as National School Lunch Week. I call upon all Americans to join the dedicated individuals who administer the National School Lunch Program in appropriate activities that support the health and well-being of our Nation's children.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.
GEORGE W. BUSH
# # #
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<urn:uuid:941ce094-1af4-426a-bf6f-0389d795b95c>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/10/print/20061005-12.html
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2013-05-24T22:29:40Z
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.956007
| 507
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We are asking boaters, paddlers, rowers, and anyone else in the Great Lakes to collect data for us using a Secchi Disk. The turbidity of a body of water is related to the cleanliness of the water. Waters with low concentrations of total suspended solids (TSS) are clearer and less turbid than those with high TSS concentrations. Turbidity can be caused by high concentrations of biota such as phytoplankton, or by loading of abiotic matter such as sediments. Turbidity is important in aquatic systems as it can alter light intensities through the water column, thus potentially affecting rates of photosynthesis and the distribution of organisms within the water column. Lowered rates of photosynthesis may in turn affect the levels of dissolved oxygen available in a given body of water, thus affecting larger populations such as fish. High turbidity can also cause infilling of lakes and ponds if the suspended sediments settle out of the water column and are deposited.
Who will use this information?
Val Klump, School of Freshwater Sciences UW Milwaukee/Senior Scientist and Director Great Lakes WATER Institute
The Great Lakes Region
What can you do?
Turbidity can be measured using several methods. The easiest and least expensive method is through the employment of a Secchi disk. A Secchi disk is an 8-inch diameter disk with alternating black and white quadrants that is lowered into the water column until it can no longer be seen from the surface. The point at which the disk disappears is a function of the lake turbidity. A turbidity tube, or T-tube, can be used as an alternative to lowering a Secchi disk through the water column. The T-tube is a plastic tube with a small-scale Secchi disk pattern at its base. Water samples can be poured into the tube and the clarity of the bottom disk can be used to reveal turbidity.
Turbidity can also be measured using higher tech instruments that measure the scattering effect suspended particles have on light. Chlorophyll concentrations can also be quantified using a fluorometer to determine turbidity contributions from photosynthetic organisms.
How will this data be used?
This data will help scientists gain a better understanding of water clarity in the Great Lakes, which is highly variable even within each lake. This data will help scientists understand why water clarity varies so dramatically, and what effect this has on overall water quality in the region. It will also contribute to understanding physical, chemical and biological processes in large lake systems.
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<urn:uuid:1acb2b9e-b674-4858-bd55-5a098798a57d>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.adventureandscience.org/secchi-disk.html
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2013-05-20T12:30:04Z
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Challenges for International Muslim Students in the Academic Environment
Cultural differences play an important part in the academic environment. It is often easy to overlook and may only become more obvious when we examine our own attitudes and behaviours and our students’ attitudes and behaviours. These explorations can be a wonderful opportunity to develop cultural understanding.
When teaching Muslim students there is an overlap between religion and culture. Often it is religion that we focus on when really we are dealing with cultural differences. It is helpful to remember that Islam is made up of many different ethnicities and cultures, so it can be difficult to generalise about many practices.
This resource recognises the overlap between religion and culture and offers suggestions for creating an inclusive teaching environment that encourages an openness to explore different ways of interacting.
Often in an attempt to be culturally sensitive, and trying not to do the "wrong thing", it is easy to lose confidence in talking openly about the issues that get in the way of a good learning environment.
This resource has three main parts:
- Understanding the challenges for International Muslim students
- Some ideas for building an inclusive academic environment
- Understanding Muslim beliefs and practices in relation to health issues
You may also download a printable version of Challenges for International Muslim Students in the Academic Environment.
Download now (PDF, 3.1MB)
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http://www.newcastle.edu.au/students/current/islaminhealth/
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2013-06-18T23:35:11Z
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Craniopharyngiomas are benign, slow growing cystic tumors that grow from cells on the pituitary stalk. They are related to Rathke’s Cleft Cysts.
Pre-operative image (side view) showing a craniopharygioma inside the area of the dark circle.
These tumors most commonly affect children between 5 and 10 years of age and adults between 40 – 60, but they can occur in any age group. They affect males and females equally. There is no known cause.
Risk factors are things associated with an increased chance of developing a disease or condition. There are no known risk factors for craniopharyngioma.
The main risks of a craniopharyngioma relate to problems caused by pituitary gland dysfunction and damage to the optic nerve which can cause visual problems.
Pre-operative MRI showing a craniopharyngioma from the front
There are several ways that a craniopharyngioma can cause symptoms:
- Direct pressure on the brain as the tumor enlarges or obstructs the 3rd ventricular may cause headaches, nausea/vomiting and balance problems
- Hormonal imbalances caused by pituitary gland dysfunction can lead to excessive urination and thirst, stunted growth (in children), weight gain, and lethargy, among other symptoms
- Damage to the optic nerve can lead to loss of visual fields and other visual disturbances
Craniopharyngiomas are generally diagnosed after patients present with symptoms. Your doctor will take a medical history and order additional tests, such as:
- MRI and/or CT of the brain
- Neurological examination
- Endocrine hormone levels
The decision to treat or not to treat depends on the size, the precise location and shape of the lesion as well as its rate of growth, if known. In addition, the presence of symptoms, especially visual loss virtually always indicates the need for removal.
- Surgery has traditionally been the primary treatment, usually requiring an open cranial procedure. As minimally invasive, transnasal approaches have evolved, many craniopharyngiomas can now be removed through the nose.
- Hormone replacement treats the side effects of the tumor and treatments
MRI demonstrating complete resection of the tumor, as seen from the side.
Post-operative MRI showing complete resection of the tumor, as seen from the front.
There is no known way to prevent craniopharyngiomas.
A teacher in her mid-fifties was seen after noting nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and rapidly deteriorating loss of short term memory over several months. An MRI revealed a suprasellar craniopharygioma. Endocrine studies showed that her pituitary gland was no longer functioning. She started cortisol which helped some of her symptoms but not the memory problems. After a thorough discussion of her surgical options the patient and her spouse decided to schedule an extended transnasal sublabial resection with Dr. Joshua Bederson. The patient underwent an extended transnasal, endoscopically assisted approach and resection of the tumor. This was performed by Dr. Bederson and Dr. Eric Genden. After recovering from surgery, the patient returned home and experienced a gradual improvement in her memory deficits, which have now completely disappeared. Post operative imaging demonstrates no residual tumor. She has since resumed her full time teaching schedule.
If you want to learn more about Craniopharyngiomas call the Mount Sinai Department of Neurosurgery at 212-241-2377.
Images used with permission from Joshua B. Bederson, MD
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http://www.mountsinai.org/patient-care/health-library/diseases-and-conditions/craniopharyngioma
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2013-05-26T02:55:31Z
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- Common names: Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat, Queensland Hairy-nosed Wombat, Yaminon
- Scientific name: Lasiorhinus krefftii
- National conservation status: Endangered (likely to become extinct if threats continue)
- Size: 35 cm high, 1 m long
- Weight: up to 35 kg (Females slightly heavier than males)
The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat is a marsupial with a backward facing pouch. The curious name comes from its distinctive muzzle which is covered with short brown hairs. It is strong and heavily built, with short, powerful legs and strong claws that are used to dig burrows or search for suitable plants to eat. Its fur is soft, silky, and mainly brown, mottled with grey, fawn and black. It has a broad head, and the ears are long and slightly pointed with tufts of white hair on the edges.
Like most marsupials, the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat is active at night, usually at dawn or dusk. Although mostly solitary, wombats often share burrows. Each burrow has several entrances and contains moist air which stays at a constant temperature throughout the year. The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat eats native and introduced grasses and stays close to one of its many burrows. The wombat's teeth never stop growing, allowing it to grind its food even when old.
The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat gives birth to one young during the wet season (November - April). The young stay in the mothers pouch for eight to nine months. They leave their mother at about 15 months.
The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat once occurred near Deniliquin (New South Wales), on the Moonie River near St George (southern Queensland) and at Epping Forest near Clermont (central Queensland). Fossil records from New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland show that they lived over a larger area, but probably not in high numbers. The last known colony of Northern Hairy-nosed Wombats is now restricted to 300 ha in Epping Forest National Park in central Queensland. The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat occurs along an ancient water course in the park where the soil is sandy and dry.
Their feeding areas contain native grasses, scattered eucalypts and acacias, and patches of scrub.
The wombats live in groups of large burrows usually located near trees.
Habitat loss and change, drought and competition with cattle, sheep and rabbits for food have contributed to the decline of the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat. Epping Forest National Park is now fenced to keep out cattle and sheep and will be fenced during 2002 to exclude dingoes which killed 10 northern hairy-nosed wombats during 2000-01. Introduced buffel grass, planted in the area for cattle feed, outcompetes the native grasses and forces the wombats to travel further to find the native species they prefer to eat. The small population of Northern Hairy-nosed Wombats that remains is susceptible to predation, fire and inbreeding.
Epping Forest National Park was established in 1971 to protect the habitat of the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat. Access into the Park is restricted to researchers and park managers. The park is protected from wildfires by fire breaks and patch burning of small areas. After the removal of cattle in 1982, wombat numbers increased from 35 to about 70 in 1989. Numbers remained steady during a major drought which spanned the first half of the 1990's. After several good years of rainfall, the population has increased to 110.
Programs to control buffel grass and improve the supply of native grasses are helping the wombats to move into other suitable habitats in the park. Management of Epping Forest National Park and ongoing research on the ecology of the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat also contribute to the long term conservation of this species. As well, a captive breeding program on the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat is currently under way. If this proves successful, it is hoped the techniques developed can be applied to the captive breeding of Northern Hairy-nosed Wombats.
There are three species of wombat in Australia. The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat is the largest. The other two are:
Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinis)
The Common Wombat occurs in southeastern Australia. It has coarser hair, a smaller tail and shorter, more rounded ears than the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat. It is nocturnal during the summer, but in winter it often comes out of its burrow during the day. Common Wombats breed at any time of the year. They live to 15 years in the wild, and up to 20 years in captivity.
Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons)
This species occurs in parts of southern South Australia, southeastern Western Australia and western Victoria. It is the smallest of the three wombats in Australia has red-brown fur and a shorter face. The Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat breeds from late September through to December.
- Flannery T (1990) Australia's Vanishing Mammals. R D Press, Sydney.
- Strahan R (1995) The Australian Museum Complete Book of Australian Mammals. Angus and Robertson.
Queensland Government Department of Environment and Resource Management
PO Box 15155
CITY EAST QLD 4002
Phone: 1300 130 372
You can also find out more information about Australia's threatened species by calling the Department of the Environment and Heritage's Community Information Unit on free call 1800 803 772
Northern hairy-nosed wombat, Lasiorhinus krefftii (QLD Department of Environment and Resource Management)
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You can left align, right align, or center one or more paragraphs. To format a single paragraph, click anywhere in the paragraph.
1. Select the paragraphs you want to format.
2. Right-click the selected text and choose Format > Paragraph. The Paragraph dialog box appears.
3. For Alignment, select the desired option.
n You can also choose Format > Paragraph to display the Paragraph dialog box.
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Our Solar System: In Order From the Sun
8 of 10
Next on our journey is the seventh planet of the solar system, Uranus. This picture shows the planet's faint rings and a few of its moons. The bright spot on the lower right corner is the snowy white moon named Ariel. The rings of Uranus were first discovered in 1977, before then Saturn was thought to be the only planet in the solar system with rings. Since discovering Uranus' rings, astronomers have found rings around all of the gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Fun Fact: Uranus is much farther away from the Sun than Saturn. While Saturn takes 29 years to make a single orbit around the Sun, Uranus takes 84.
Photo source: NASA
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2013-05-19T10:55:39Z
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Bonfire Night is an annual celebration held on the 23rd June (St. John’s Eve). The celebrations take place in towns and villages across the country and centered around the summer solstice.
Report/Photo: Michael Hussey Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
The custom dates back to pagan times. Bonfire Night was always celebrated in Youghal with bonfires in different parts of the town but these customs and traditions are largely ignored nowadays. The embers of this long tradition have become a burning or more accurately a non-burning issue. The photograph shows everybody enjoying the annual spectacle of the bonfire in the plot Sarsfield Terrace back in 1983.
St John’s Eve (or Oiche Fheile Eoin (Bonfire Night) is celebrated in many parts of rural Ireland with the lighting of bonfires. This ancient custom has its roots in pre-Christian Irish society when the Celts honored the Goddess Áine, the Celtic equivalent of Venus and Aphrodite. She was the Goddess Queen of Munster and Christianised rituals in her honour (as Naomh Áine) took place until the nineteenth century on Knockainy, (Cnoc Áine – the Hill of Áine) in County Limerick.
During the festival, people would say prayers, asking for God’s blessing upon their crops. They would also take ashes from the fire, and spread them over their land as a blessing for protection for their crops. It was also common to have music, singing, dancing, and games during the festival. The fire was used for destroying small objects of piety (rosary beads, statues, etc.) without disrespecting God. It was also common for people to jump through the flames of the bonfire for good luck.
In Thomas Flanagan’s The Year of the French, the ancient festival of St John’s Eve takes place. The book is set during the Irish rebellion of 1798. Here is an excerpt from The Year of the French:
Soon it would be Saint John’s Eve. Wood for the bonfire had already been piled high upon Steeple HIll, and when the night came there would be bonfires on every hill from there to Downpatrick Head. There would be dancing and games in the open air, and young men would try their bravery leaping through the flames. There would even be young girls leaping through, for it was helpful in the search of a husband to leap through a Saint John’s Eve fire, the fires of midsummer. The sun was at its highest then, and the fires spoke to it, calling it down upon the crops. It was the turning point of the year, and the air was vibrant with spirits. –The Year of the French
Some regions of Ireland follow a custom seemingly inspired by the activity from which this saint takes his title, Baptist (more accurately, Baptizer). They head to the ocean and immerse themselves in its waters. In this, they imitate the original form of baptism practiced by St John, as well as by the early Christians.
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The juice has even been purported to stimulate hair growth when applied to the scalp. The Nettle plant is found in Asia, Europe and North America and its use dates back as far as ancient Greece. The most common species is the Urtica dioica or stinging nettle. The stinging nettle gets its name from the hairs on the plant's surface (trichomes) that cause skin irritation on contact. The tips of the plant fall off when touched, and the hairs act as needles transferring the plant's chemicals into the person or animal that has come into contact with it. The irritation can be treated by gently washing the affected area with mild soapy water.One of the most common and preferred uses for treatments using nettle is through tea. When making the tea, the stinging hairs of the plant must first be removed by steaming or boiling. Nettle tea should not be used if you have a weak heart or bad kidneys except under the guidance of an experienced physician, herbal practitioner or naturopath. Treatments for Anemia, Kidneys and Blood Purification
Nettle tea added to daily nutrition regimens can help the immune system. Because of the vitamin K content, which helps blood-clotting factors, nettle tea is prescribed as a blood purifier, immune enhancer and is used in treating anemia and other kidney ailments. It also has been shown to have the ability to help cleanse the body of toxins, help stop bleeding and has been used by herbalists for fibroid tumors and excessive menstrual cycles.
Relief of Arthritis Pain and Joint Inflammation - Arthritis literally means "joint inflammation". The two most common forms of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis sufferers have found relief by drinking a prescribed amount of nettle tea daily as nettles help the body to excrete uric acid; high levels of which can cause the painful condition. The plant’s release of histamines and natural diuretics into the body triggers an anti-inflammatory action thereby relieving the pain and discomfort caused by enlarged joints.
Improvements in Enlarged Prostate and Kidney Treatments. An enlarged prostate brings about several painful and irritating symptoms. In Europe, nettle root is widely used for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or prostate enlargement. Common symptoms of enlarged prostate such as poor urine flow, pain, difficulty in passing urine, and urinary frequency are similar to other urological conditions such as urinary tract and bladder infections and kidney stones that are treated by using nettle.
Nettle tea consumption along with combined treatments has shown a significant improvement in patients with these symptoms. Studies which appeared in the August, 2001 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Bio-markers & Prevention show that great improvements are being made in treatment with nettle primarily with regard to prostate enlargement.
Nettle Tea and Pregnancy - Pregnant women find nettle tea particularly comforting as it not only relieves fluid retention, it also has high iron and calcium contents aiding in increased energy levels. Nettle tea provides an excellent source of folic acid and helps support the vascular system. A regimen of nettle tea should be prescribed by a physician or herbalist and can provide a healthy balance along with your daily prenatal care.
Lowering Blood Sugar in Diabetics - Nettle has shown benefits in the treatment of diabetes by mildly decreasing blood sugar and glycemic levels. Some herbs, however, can trigger side effects and can interact with other herbs, supplements, or medications. You may need to monitor your blood sugar more closely to see exactly how the herb affects you. For these reasons, you should take herbs with care, under the supervision of a health care provider. Relief for Allergy and Hay Fever Sufferers. An increase in drinking nettle tea during pollen season can help relieve symptoms.
In a study by Dr. Paul Mittman, President of Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, stinging nettles were found to give relief for hay fever symptoms such as sneezing and itching. By combining nettle capsules with alternating intake of nettle tea the reduction of these symptoms can have long term effects. Researchers think the relief is due to nettle's ability to reduce the amount of histamine the body produces in response to an allergen.
“Horticulture”; Rash Encounters; C. Elliott; Elliott, March, 1997.
“A Guide for Health-Care Professionals.” Herbal Medicines: London, England; 1996; C.A. Newall, L.A. Anderson, J.D. Phillipson
“Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention”; Prostate Cancer Prevention; August, 2001
“Planta Medica”; Randomized Double-Blind Study of Freeze-Dried Urtica Dioica in theTreatment of AllergicRrhinitis; Dr. Paul Mittman; 1990
Photo Credits: pollen image by asb from Fotolia.com
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2013-05-24T02:46:43Z
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U.S. coral reefs under threat, report finds
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (Reuters) - Half of U.S. coral reefs are in poor or fair condition, threatened by climate change and human activities like sports fishing, shipping and the release of untreated sewage, a U.S. government report said on Monday.
Reefs in the Caribbean, in particular, are under severe assault and coral in the U.S. Virgin Islands and off Puerto Rico had not recovered from 2005, when unusually warm waters that led to massive bleaching and disease killed up to 90 percent of the marine organisms on some reefs.
"The evidence is warning us that many of our coral reef ecosystems are imperiled and we as a community must act now," said Kacky Andrews, program manager of the Coral Reef Conservation program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The new NOAA report on the state of coral reefs in the United States and Pacific territories, including Palau and Guam, was presented at a meeting of coral reef scientists in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
It was the third such report and the second to be based on actual monitoring of reefs. The reefs were classified as excellent, good, fair or poor based on such things as water quality, fish population and the threats they faced.
The last report was issued in 2005 when warm Atlantic waters killed off large swaths of coral through bleaching, a condition that occurs when environmental stresses, like heat, break down the symbiotic relationship between coral polyps and unicellular algae that give them color.
Half the coral reefs off the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico were killed that year, said Jenny Waddell, a marine biologist at NOAA's Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment. On some reefs, the fatality rate reached 90 percent, she said.
A series of powerful hurricanes also devastated coral reefs off the Florida Keys in 2005.
But scientists at NOAA said coral reefs had been suffering for much longer due to a warming climate and other "stressors," many due to human activity, such as overfishing and damage caused by ship anchors.
"It is important to note that these declines did not happen overnight, they did not happen during the last three years," said Andrews.
"The degradation has happened over the past several decades and recovery may require similar time frames. Although there are a number of measures that we can implement in order to promote conservation, there are no quick fixes."
The NOAA report was based on reef monitoring in 15 areas in the Atlantic and Pacific.
It said that reefs near populated areas tended to suffer more intense threats due to coastal development and recreational activities like boating, diving and fishing, but even remote reefs were affected by climate change.
Reefs in the vast Pacific Ocean tended to be more resilient, with a greater diversity of both coral and fish, NOAA scientists said. While Pacific reefs had been able to start recovering from worldwide bleaching in 1998, Caribbean reefs had not.
Human activity had not just left Caribbean reefs battered, but also pretty tame in terms of marine life, said Alan Friedlander, a NOAA marine biologist based in Hawaii.
"When you dive in remote parts of the Pacific you really feel like an intruder, like you don't belong there and the big guys let you know. You feel way down the food chain," he said.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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2013-05-23T18:33:20Z
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Welcome to Philosophy 280: Teaching Children Philosophy!
The highlight of this course will be your having the opportunity to teach philosophy at the Martin Luther King Charter School of Excellence in Springfield. We will teach an introduction to philosophy course to the second graders there using childrens' books.
Of course, the question of whether children are actually capable of the type of abstract thought characteristic of philosophy is an important issue and, indeed, one that we will discuss. Our primary focus, however, will be on preparing you for what I assure you will be an amazing experience: facilitating philosophical discussions among the second graders themselves.
Below is a list of links to pages that contain information about the course that you will need. Be sure to read all of the information carefully, so that you understand everything that this course will require of you. You can access all of the pages in the Course portion of the site below, or by clicking the Course Index Page.
General Course Information
Information about Written Assignments
Information about Teaching at MLK
Other Helpful Links
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http://www.teachingchildrenphilosophy.org/wiki/Course
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Learning How to Ask Questions
Knowing how to ask students the right question at the right time for the right reason is an important skill that preservice teachers can learn that will serve them for a lifetime of teaching. Classroom questions can be divided into three types, which are linked to each other:
- Information questions that deal with facts.
- Processing questions that help students analyze.
- Imaginative questions that encourage students to propose possibilities (What if … ?) or think outside the box.
Teachers or teaching teams first develop good questions to guide a lesson during the lesson planning process when they consider what students ought to learn.
The video clip focuses on how teachers can ask informational questions so that all students in a class have a similar starting point based on the same information—in this case, story problems. Initial information questions (e.g., Who? What? When? Where?) can help students recall and share facts and ideas from their reading or previous learning or experiences. Repeating or rephrasing questions and allowing sufficient wait time gives students space to think.
You can then use such shared information for discussion at the next level, through the processing questions that ask students to connect information, analyze the facts, or draw conclusions based on the connections they make. After students think more deeply about the material through processing questions, they are primed to make the content their own by applying it to new situations or creating something new with it. These are experiences that teachers can be encouraged with imaginative questions.
Source: From The How To Collection: Helping New Teachers, [DVD], 2006, Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
ASCD Express, Vol. 7, No. 10. Copyright 2012 by ASCD. All rights reserved. Visit www.ascd.org/ascdexpress.
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Quantum computing -- considered the powerhouse of computational tasks -- may have applications in areas outside of pure electronics, according to a University of Pittsburgh researcher and his collaborators.
Working at the interface of quantum measurement and nanotechnology, Gurudev Dutt, assistant professor in Pitt's Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, and his colleagues report their findings in a paper published online Dec. 18 in Nature Nanotechnology. The paper documents important progress towards realizing a nanoscale magnetic imager comprising single electrons encased in a diamond crystal.
"Think of this like a typical medical procedurea Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)but on single molecules or groups of molecules inside cells instead of the entire body. Traditional MRI techniques don't work well with such small volumes, so an instrument must be built to accommodate such high-precision work," says Dutt.
However, a significant challenge arose for researchers working on the problem of building such an instrument: How does one measure a magnetic field accurately using the resonance of the single electrons within the diamond crystal? Resonance is defined as an object's tendency to oscillate with higher energy at a particular frequency, and occurs naturally all around us: for example, with musical instruments, children on swings, and pendulum clocks. Dutt says that resonances are particularly powerful because they allow physicists to make sensitive measurements of quantities like force, mass, and electric and magnetic fields. "But they also restrict the maximum field that one can measure accurately."
In magnetic imaging, this means that physicists can only detect a narrow range of fields from molecules near the sensor's resonant frequency, making the imaging process more difficult.
"It can be done," says Dutt, "but it requires very sophisticated image processing and other techniques to understand what one is imaging. Essentially, one must use software to fix the limitations of hardware, and the scans take longer and are harder to interpret."
Duttworking with postdoctoral researcher Ummal Momeen and PhD student Naufer Nusran (A&S'08 G), both in Pitt's Department of Physics and Astronomyhas used quantum computing methods to circumvent the hardware limitation to view the entire magnetic field. By extending the field, the Pitt researchers have improved the ratio between maximum detectable field strength and field precision by a factor of 10 compared to the standard technique used previously. This puts them one step closer toward a future nanoscale MRI instrument that could study properties of molecules, materials, and cells in a noninvasive way, displaying where atoms are located without destroying them; current methods employed for this kind of study inevitably destroy the samples.
"This would have an immediate impact on our understanding of these molecules, materials, or living cells and potentially allow us to create better technologies," says Dutt.
These are only the initial results, says Dutt, and he expects further improvements to be made with additional research: "Our work shows that quantum computing methods reach beyond pure electronic technologies and can solve problems that, earlier, seemed to be fundamental roadblocks to making progress with high-precision measurements."
Explore further: Stacking 2-D materials produces surprising results
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Pink Eye (Conjunctivitis)
Technically, pink eye is the acute, contagious form of conjunctivitis - inflammation of the clear mucous membrane that lines the inner surface of the eyelids and overlies the white front surface of the eye, or sclera. Bacterial infection causes the contagious form of conjunctivitis.
However, the term "pink eye" is often used to refer to any or all types of conjunctivitis, not just its acute, contagious form.
Signs and symptoms of pink eye
The hallmark sign of pink eye is a pink or reddish appearance to the eye due to inflammation and dilation of conjunctival blood vessels. Depending on the type of conjunctivitis, other signs and symptoms may include a yellow or green mucous discharge, watery eyes, itchy eyes, sensitivity to light and pain.
How can you tell what type of pink eye you have? The way your eyes feel will provide some clues:
- Viral conjunctivitis usually causes excessive eye watering and a light discharge.
- Bacterial conjunctivitis often causes a thick, sticky discharge, sometimes greenish.
- Allergic conjunctivitis affects both eyes and causes itching and redness in the eyes and sometimes the nose, as well as excessive tearing.
- Giant papillary conjunctivitis (GPC) usually affects both eyes and causes contact lens intolerance, itching, a heavy discharge, tearing and red bumps on the underside of the eyelids.
To pinpoint the cause and then choose an appropriate treatment, your eye doctor will ask some questions, examine your eyes and possibly collect a sample on a swab to send out for analysis.
What causes pink eye?
Though pink eye can affect people of any age, it is especially common among preschoolers and school children because of the amount of bacteria transferred among children.
Conjunctivitis may also be triggered by a virus, an allergic reaction (to dust, pollen, smoke, fumes or chemicals) or, in the case of giant papillary conjunctivitis, a foreign body on the eye, typically a contact lens. Bacterial and viral infections elsewhere in the body may also induce conjunctivitis.
Treatment of pink eye
Avoidance. Your first line of defense is to avoid the cause of conjunctivitis, such as contaminated hand towels. Both viral and bacterial conjunctivitis, which can be caused by airborne sources, spread easily to others.
To avoid allergic conjunctivitis, keep windows and doors closed on days when the airborne pollen count is high. Dust and vacuum frequently to eliminate potential allergens in the home.
Stay in well-ventilated areas if you're exposed to smoke, chemicals or fumes. If you do experience exposure to these substances, cold compresses over your closed eyes can be very soothing.
If you've developed giant papillary conjunctivitis, odds are that you're a contact lens wearer. You'll need to stop wearing your contact lenses, at least for a little while. Your eye doctor may also recommend that you switch to a different type of contact lens, to reduce the chance of the conjunctivitis coming back.
Medication. Unless there's some special reason to do so, eye doctors don't normally prescribe medication for viral conjunctivitis, because it usually clears up on its own within a few days. Your eye doctor might prescribe an astringent to keep your eyes clean, to prevent a bacterial infection from starting. Another common prescription is for artificial tears, to relieve dryness and discomfort.
Antibiotic eyedrops or ointments will alleviate most forms of bacterial conjunctivitis, while antibiotic tablets are used for certain infections that originate elsewhere in the body.
Antihistamine allergy pills or eyedrops will help control allergic conjunctivitis symptoms. In addition, artificial tears provide comfort, but they also protect the eye's surface from allergens and dilute the allergens that are present in the tear film.
For giant papillary conjunctivitis, your doctor may prescribe eyedrops to reduce inflammation and itching.
Usually conjunctivitis is a minor eye infection. But sometimes it can develop into a more serious condition. See your eye doctor for a diagnosis before using any eye drops in your medicine cabinet from previous infections or eye problems.
Because young children often are in close contact in day care centers and school rooms, it can be difficult to avoid the spread of bacteria causing pink eye. However, these tips can help concerned parents, day care workers and teachers reduce the possibility of a pink eye outbreak in institutional environments:
- Adults in school and day care centers should wash their hands frequently and encourage children to do the same. Soap should always be available for hand washing.
- Personal items, including hand towels, should never be shared at school or at home.
- Encourage children to use tissues and cover their mouths and noses when they sneeze or cough.
- Discourage eye rubbing and touching, to avoid spread of bacteria and viruses.
- For about three to five days, children (and adults) diagnosed with pink eye should avoid crowded conditions where the infection could easily spread.
- Use antiseptic and/or antibacterial solutions to clean and wipe surfaces that children or adults come in contact with, such as common toys, table tops, drinking fountains, sink/faucet handles, etc.
Article ©2008 Access Media Group LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction other than for one-time personal use is strictly prohibited.
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Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Winchester Rifle refers to an early family of repeating rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company that was used widely in the United States during the latter half of the 19th century.
The original Winchester rifle was famous for its rugged construction and lever-action breech mechanism that allowed the rifleman to fire a number of shots before having to reload: hence the term, "repeating rifle."
The first model, the Model 1866, was nicknamed Yellow Boy because of its brass receiver. This model is sometimes referred to as The Gun That Won The West, but the Model 1873 sometimes goes by this nickname as well.
The idea of a repeating rifle had been the subject of many inventions since the use of firearms began, but few of these had proven to be practical, mainly because the modern cartridge, which made repeating arms practical, had not yet been developed.
Repeating revolvers were popular in the mid 19th century. One of these revolving pistols, the Colt, was very successful, and a rifle version was produced, but it was not widely popular. The more successful Spencer rifles and carbines of the American Civil War were a notable step forward, but were not completely satisfactory in various respects.
The ancestor of the Winchester rifles was the Volcanic lever action rifle of Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson . It was originally manufactured by the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company , which was later reorganized into the New Haven Arms Company , its largest stockholder being Oliver Winchester.
The Volcanic rifle used a form of "caseless" ammunition and had only limited success. Wesson had also designed an early form of rimfire cartridge which was subsequently perfected by B. Tyler Henry . Henry also supervised the redesign of the rifle to use the new ammunition, retaining only the general form of the breech mechanism and the tubular magazine. This became the Henry rifle of 1860, which was manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company and was used in considerable numbers by certain Union army units in the civil war.
After the war Oliver Winchester continued to exercise control of the company, renaming it the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and had the basic design of the Henry rifle completely modified and improved to become the first Winchester rifle, the Model 1866, which fired centerfire cartridges and had an improved magazine and, for the first time, a wooden forearm.
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details
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The Human Genome Project was officially launched in 1990 with the ambitious goal of understanding the genetic essence of the human species. It intends to achieve that goal by sequencing the 3 billion pairs of chemical bases that make up the spiraling DNA strands inside the nucleus of each of our cells. Together these bases spell out a fantastically long message--equivalent in length to 13 sets of the Encyclopaedia Britannica-- programming the birth, development, growth, and death of a human being. Once the message is deciphered, it’s expected to be the ultimate sourcebook for understanding human biology and inherited diseases.
The project will take about 15 years and cost $3 billion. There are some 5 billion humans on Earth today. Whose genome or genomes will be immortalized by this massive effort, an undertaking that has been called the moon shot of biology?
There was speculation that the First Genome might appropriately be that of James Watson--after all, he is the project’s overall director and codiscoverer of DNA’s helical shape. One biologist jokingly told me he hoped the First Genome would be Ronald Reagan’s because so much would be missing that it would be relatively easy to sequence. Sequencing a stretch of DNA literally means finding the consecutive order of its chemical bases- -designated by the letters A, C, T, and G--and writing them out. (A typical sequence goes TACCGTTAAAGCATG. . . .) Deciphering short pieces of DNA is relatively simple. But doing a whole gene, which may go on for 30,000 bases, is much more difficult. Sequencing an entire genome, which has between 50,000 and 100,000 genes and some 3 billion bases, is something else again.
Most project participants have dismissed the whose genome question as irrelevant, stating that the final map and sequence will be a composite of information from hundreds of individuals. But recently Luigi Cavalli-Sforza of Stanford and the late Allan Wilson of the University of California at Berkeley complained that the project as presently conceived will be strictly Caucasian, a squeezy-white-bread genome. They made an impassioned plea for funds to collect and study genetic material from some of the hundreds of indigenous peoples, such as African Pygmies and Amazonian Indians, who are rapidly disappearing or being overrun by their neighbors.
How much difference does it make whose genome is sequenced? The answer to this question requires a consideration of the evolutionary status of the human species.
Like all life on Earth, we are the product of more than 3 billion years of evolution. During that very long period the biochemical machinery of life and reproduction has changed remarkably little, but the forms of life have diversified and become more complex. The smaller genomes of simpler forms will help us understand the architecture and organization of our own. For that reason the Human Genome Project will include studies of various honorary humans, as they’ve been dubbed: the bacterium Escherichia coli, the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.
The fruit fly genome, which is roughly one-twentieth the size of ours, contains about 4,000 genes. More than 400 of them have already been identified as being very similar to ours. This tells us that humans and flies descended from a common ancestor. That ancestor, which was some kind of insect, lived about half a billion years ago. We’re all relations under the cell membrane, and the things we will learn from the fly and the worm will help us enormously in deciphering the contents of our own cell nucleus.
Mammals have been around for some 200 million years, but modern placental mammals like us seem to have had a common ancestor about 65 million years ago. Naturally, we are genetically much more like mice, dogs, horses, and other placental mammals, which give birth to live young, than we are like flies and worms. Our DNA is only 20 percent different from that of a mouse. So in sequencing the human genome we will be sequencing about 80 percent of the genome of other placental mammals as well.
We humans, of course, are primates as well as mammals. Our closest living relative is the chimpanzee, whose genome differs from ours by only 1 percent. This difference reflects changes accumulated during the 5 million years since our divergence from a common African primate ancestor. To creationists, who don’t believe in the ape-human connection at all, it is ego-shattering to contemplate that the chosen species, made in God’s own image, is genetically 99 percent identical to the chimpanzee.
And ironically, despite our pride in human individuality, we are an unusually homogeneous species. On average, two people of the same sex differ in their DNA by only one-tenth of 1 percent. Even Dan Quayle and Linus Pauling would be 99.9 percent identical if you were to compare their genetic material. Chimps, the true individualists, average six times that much difference among themselves.
That’s because the longer a group has existed, the greater its diversity. Thus it appears that chimps have been around six times as long as modern humans. When different geographic and ethnic groups of humans are compared, those of African origin exhibit more gene diversity than those of Caucasian or Asian origin. From this it can be deduced that Homo sapiens originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago and later spread to the rest of the world. (Although the African Eve theory has come under attack since it was first proposed, the weight of accumulated data, including the fossil evidence, seems to continue to support it.)
This revelation (by Rebecca Cann, Allan Wilson, and their co- workers at Berkeley), that humans had a comparatively recent African origin, shocked a great many anthropologists. They had assumed that all modern humans descended from Homo erectus, a hominid lineage that left Africa a million years ago. According to the older scenario, different groups of Homo erectus evolved separately into Homo sapiens in Africa, Asia, and Europe. But this hypothesis just doesn’t fit the DNA data. If the old scenario were correct, you would expect human DNA to be much more diverse than it is. In other words, we would be more individualistic, like chimps, rather than being as similar to each other as we are.
Still, .1 percent of the 3 billion base pairs in human DNA amounts to 3 million--quite enough genetic difference to account for all the individual and racial variability that we observe among our species. One purpose of the genome project is to create a template that will help us find out how particular variations in chemical base sequence lead to differences in skin and hair color and height, as well as in susceptibility to disease.
So it does make some difference, a tiny but crucial .1 percent or less, whose genome is being sequenced and written out in a very long string of ACTGs. But no matter whether you start with Wilt Chamberlain or Danny DeVito, you’re going to get 99.9 percent of an average human genome. (Bear in mind, too, that you’re going to get typos, as you always do in copying cryptic manuscripts or any laboriously long text. It turns out that even in the very best hands, the error rate in DNA sequencing is about .1 percent, which will add as much slop to the sequence as 200 millennia of modern human evolution have done.)
So now let’s consider the hypothetical personage whose genome will be the first to be encyclopedically transcribed, errors and all. We’ll call him Hugo, the acronym for the Human Genome Organization, one of the leading groups involved in the project.
A feminist friend of mine complained that naturally Hugo would be a male, given the male bias of scientists, but actually there’s a reason for the choice. Both males and females have their DNA distributed on 23 pairs of chromosomes. But females have two X chromosomes, while males have an X and a Y. Since a complete genome sequence requires both an X and a Y, Hugo must inevitably be male.
Not only will Hugo be male, he will have a decidedly Gallic accent. Thanks to Nobel laureate Jean Dusset, the Center for the Study of Human Polymorphism, in Paris, has collected cell lines from more than 60 different three-generation families that include all four grandparents, two parents, and eight or more grandchildren. The French group provides high- quality DNA of known lineage to investigators throughout the world, and this material has been invaluable for finding out which genes are located on which chromosomes and for developing the initial map of gene topography that precedes actual sequencing.
Since getting to know Hugo is such a big job, it is being tackled by numerous groups. Some are focusing on particular chromosomes, just as explorers of past centuries took on particular islands or continents, or as present satellite voyagers take on different planets in our solar system. And hundreds of teams throughout the world are searching for specific genes, like the recently discovered gene for cystic fibrosis or the gene for Huntington’s chorea, a fatal neurological disorder. In fact, as of now some 400 of the 2,000 genes that have been mapped on particular chromosomes are disease-related. Obviously, then, a lot of Hugo’s composite genome will be derived from people with genetic diseases, since finding the basis of the diseases, with the eventual hope of curing them, is one of the major justifications for all the effort and money.
Who then will Hugo represent 13 years down the line when the Human Genome Project has accomplished its mission? Whose DNA footprints will we see when the moon shot of biology has landed?
Hugo’s genome, whatever its multiple sources, will be about 99.9 percent identical with the genomes of every other human being on Earth. It will be 99 percent the same as a chimpanzee’s, 90 to 95 percent the same as those of other primates, and 80 percent similar to those of other mammals. And hundreds, even thousands, of its genes will be very much like those of all other forms of life on Earth--honorary humans all--including bacteria, fungi, plants, worms, and insects.
Hugo will not only be Everyman and Everywoman, but in a sense Everyterrestrial--a testimony to the common origin and interrelatedness of all life on Earth.
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Forests Are Left Out
Of Rio's Final Outcomes Doc
Some environmentalists believe little was accomplished in generating sustainable forestry at Rio+20 and their feelings are being reinforced by the outcomes document which shows little promise of implementing sustainable forest practices or properly valuing forest ecosystems and instead simply reinforces old ideas that have never been put into action.
This article originally appeared in the REDD-Net blog. Click here it view the original.
18 July 2012 | The Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development pledged a renewed focus on sustainability challenges. By using a holistic framework that addresses economic, social and environment aspects of sustainability, it hoped to rekindle the essence of sustainable development that was a key part of the success of the 1992 Earth Summit.
But you wouldn’t know that from The Future We Want, the final outcomes document from the global summit. You only need to look at the coverage of forests to see that Rio+20 fell short of finding a way to talk about the complexities of ecosystems and shift how the natural world is valued.
Forests are emblematic of natural capital. Over 1 billion of the world’s poorest people’s livelihoods depend on forests and they support rich biodiversity. Without a strong focus on forest ecosystems, we will not be able to find solutions to climate change, food security or better equity in the north-south divide. But the Rio+20 text does not do justice to their critical role.
The Text: bad talk-to-walk ratio
Forests were given four paragraphs in The Future We Want. The first paragraph includes a list of themes that would make forest advocates proud, from stopping forest loss and degradation to supporting the local communities. But it’s largely reaffirming previous statements and agreement. The only call for action is an ‘urgent implementation of the Nonlegally Binding Instrument on all Types of Forests’, a document that was adopted in 2007 by the UN General Assembly and has yet to be implemented. The text says the right things, things that are difficult to disagree with, but fails to take the step to turn that into practical action.
The seeds of change entered at the proposal stage and never emerged in text form. Two timeframes were removed from the text during negotiations, as is clear from the draft dated 2 June 2012. One was a commitment ‘by 2020, to strengthen forest governance frameworks and achieve sustainable forest management’; the other was to halt ‘global forest cover loss by 2030 at the latest.’ But, as is the case with many multilateral processes, the host country was keen to reach some agreement between the hundreds of interests present, and Brazil opted to remove all proposals from the text that had not yet been universally agreed or resolved. Consequently, progress was extremely limited and forest governance wasn’t adequately addressed.
While the text refers to the importance of ‘cross-sectoral and cross-institutional policies’, governments failed to make these links in the outcome document as forests barely receive a mention in other parts of the outcome document. For example, while 40 percent of the global population depend on biomass for their energy needs, a figure that is expected to increase with the world’s population, there is no mention of forests in the section on energy.
Missed Opportunity: No Language to Bridge Economics and the Environment
Also absent from the text are new ways to understand the value of the environment. There were high hopes for a better metric of economic progress that takes into account environmental degradation and changing corporate reporting to include natural capital. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged the urgency of a mentality shift when he said, ‘It’s time to recognise that human capital and natural capital are every bit as important as financial capital.’
The outcomes document doesn’t completely ignore the role economics could play in action for the forests, stressing ‘the importance of integrating sustainable forest management objectives and practices into the mainstream of economic policy and decision-making’. But as with other sections, the enforcement mechanism relies on old ideas– not forward-thinking that could render a paradigm shift.
In an effort to connect the multilateral process with civil society, Rio+20 employed a technique never before utilised. It opened proposals up to a public vote. In the days leading up to the summit, organisers held a series of dialogues, each focusing on a different topic, in which a panel discussed proposals. On the dialogue about the economic bases of sustainable development, over half the votes cast were for two proposals: one to include environmental damage in the calculation of GDP, the other to remove the economic invisibility of nature. It represented a demand from the people for the economic sector to better understand its effects on the world’s ecosystems. But the dialogues were held the week of the summit, and there was no chance leaders would incorporate suggestions into the carefully crafted final outcome document.
Some environmentalists recoil at the idea of calling forests ‘capital’. They worry that language commodifying forests will result in corporations treating ecosystems like warehouses, reducing them to a line on finance sheets. But in many ways forests are already commodified, with the price of timber they hold or the land they’re on. Although economic terms perhaps should not be the only measure of the value of forests, there will be no solutions unless we find common terms to talk to business. The multilateral process let us down by not creating that mechanism.
We hoped Rio+20 would break through the progress made in the 1992 Earth Summit; instead, it doesn’t appear to have got us far. After decades of negotiations and effort, practical action against deforestation is still stalled by competing interests. In the following decades, it is predicted that the global population will balloon to 9 billion people and global consumption will quadruple. The only way we could accommodate the increase is if we learn how to develop without mining resources from the forest in unsustainable ways. And the first step is to find language to cut across the cross-sectoral. If we don’t change course, we are doomed to end up where we are headed.
Sarah Golden is a resarch assistant at ODI.
Please see our Reprint Guidelines for details on republishing our articles.
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20.4.3. Useful categories of characters (as defined by the POSIX standard)
This information has been taken from the grep info page with a tiny amount of editing, see in the Prev for further information.
[:upper:] uppercase letters
[:lower:] lowercase letters
[:alpha:] alphabetic (letters) meaning upper+lower (both uppercase and lowercase letters)
[:digit:] numbers in decimal, 0 to 9
[:alnum:] alphanumeric meaning alpha+digits (any uppercase or lowercase letters or any decimal digits)
[:space:] whitespace meaning spaces, tabs, newlines and similar
[:graph:] graphically printable characters excluding space
[:print:] printable characters including space
[:punct:] punctuation characters meaning graphical characters minus alpha and digits
[:cntrl:] control characters meaning non-printable characters
[:xdigit:] characters that are hexadecimal digits.
These are used with
The above commands will work with most tools which work with text (for example: tr ).
For example (advanced example), this command scans the output of the dir command, and prints lines containing a capital letter followed by a digit:
ls -l | grep '[[:upper:]][[:digit:]]'
The command greps for [upper_case_letter][any_digit], meaning any uppercase letter followed by any digit. If you remove the [ ] (square brackets) in the middle it would look for an uppercase letter or a digit, because it would become [upper_case_letter any_digit]
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|Acknowledgments, Second Edition||xi|
|Acknowledgments, First Edition||xiii|
|Introduction: Emancipation and Reconstruction in History||1|
|Chapter One: ShapingEmancipation, 1861–1870||6|
|From Slave Labor to Free Labor||7|
|The Response to Emancipation||12|
|The Impact of Emancipation||27|
|Chapter Two: PlanningReconstruction, 1865–1868||40|
|Chapter Three: ImplementingReconstruction, 1868–1873||73|
|The Republican Party in the South||73|
|The Achievement of Southern Reconstruction||86|
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Book title: Emancipation and Reconstruction. Contributors: Michael Perman - Author. Publisher: Harlan Davidson. Place of publication: Wheeling, IL. Publication year: 2003. Page number: ix.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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MgB2 is the superconductor with the highest critical temperature for a phonon-mediated superconductor. The superconductors with higher critical temperatures are the high temperature cuprates. The high temperature cuprates do not have a good theory to explain them. There is a good theory for phonon-mediated. This is used in the paper to describe a molecular architecture design of a room temperature superconductor. It will be hard to actually make it.
Andrei Mourachkine wrote a book in 2004 with ideas for making room temperature superconductors It involves various ways of bringing together molecular science and superconductivity. This is a link to a pdf copy of the book
Wikipedia entry on room temperature superconductors
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The colliding fates of two very different men
William McKinley and Leon Czolgosz lived in the same country but had virtually nothing else in common. As a member of the House of Representatives, McKinley had been a prime mover of tariff and other pro-business legislation; as president, he would push to transform the United States into a major economic, diplomatic and, reluctantly, military power. What to McKinley was the country’s expansion and progress, however, depended on the toil of masses of low-skilled and poorly paid workers like Czolgosz, who saw a few men making great fortunes at the expense of people like himself. For some of them, violence appeared to be the only way out of their misery. Scott Miller vividly recreates the history of circumstances that brought these two men together in The President and the Assassin.
Miller deftly weaves a complex tale, moving back and forth between the lives of the president and of the disillusioned man who sought to do harm to the person who seemed to him to symbolize the nation’s many injustices. Among others who figure prominently in events are Theodore Roosevelt, the anarchist leader Emma Goldman and Commodore George Dewey, the hero of the U.S. victory at Manila Bay. Miller covers much ground with skill and nuance, demonstrating that events could have turned out differently with only one or two changes. He shows the pressure that the affable and pragmatic McKinley was under to declare war with Spain, reflecting the country’s ambiguity about becoming an imperial power. He was keenly aware of the great economic potential for the country, and yet, as a veteran of the Civil War, he made it clear that he did not want the country to engage in wars of conquest or territorial aggression. “Peace is preferable to war in almost every contingency,” he said.
Although Czolgosz had been interested in social revolution for years, he said he was especially inspired to pursue the life of a radical revolutionary by a certain speech of Emma Goldman’s, who said it was understandable that some people might feel so strongly that they would resort to violence. But she also said that anarchists were opposed to bloodshed in order to realize their goals, and Miller points out that the majority of the anarchists in the United States opposed bombings and assassinations.
Miller, a former correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, spent nearly two decades in Asia and Europe and has reported from more than 25 countries. This is his first book, and its broad sweep—foreign policy, social conditions, McKinley’s concern for his frequently ill wife, the true story of Teddy Roosevelt and San Juan Hill and much more—is presented in a wonderfully readable way. The President and the Assassin is a real triumph.
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|© UNICEF/CARA2009-00137/de Hommel|
|Two girls in a school in a school in Beogombo, north-western Central African Republic, where access to basic education is low, and schooing is marked by strong gender and geographical disparities and poor quality.|
In the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative and the start of the global conference, 'E4 - Engendering Empowerment: Education and Equality,' to be held in Senegal from 17 to 20 May, UNICEF is featuring a series of stories on girls’ education and gender equality. Here is one of those stories.
By Pi James
NEW YORK, USA, 6 May 2010 – The Millennium Development Goals call for universal access to primary education by 2015. However, simply getting children into school may not be enough to improve life opportunities for boys and girls and reduce the gender gap.
Closing that gap is critical, because girls who receive a quality basic education are better prepared to protect themselves against violence, abuse, exploitation and trafficking. They are also less vulnerable to disease, including HIV and AIDS.
Quality education for all
In 2000, the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) was established to support the right to education and gender equality. UNGEI embraces the United Nations system, governments, donor countries, non-governmental organizations, civil society, the private sector, and communities and families worldwide.
To commemorate UNGEI’s 10th anniversary, UNICEF Radio podcast moderator Amy Costello recently spoke with Simone de Comarmond, Chairperson of the Forum for African Women Educationalists and Pamela Hogan, Executive Producer of the PBS Wide Angle special series, ‘Time for School’.
The US public television series is about providing quality education for children around the globe.
In the podcast discussion, Ms. Hogan explains that ‘Time for School’, a 12-year documentary project, follows seven schoolchildren in seven countries. Over the course of producing the series, she says, its focus changed from getting children into school to the quality of education they received once enrolled – and how to ensure that children stay in school.
Girls face immense challenges
To highlight the immense challenges girls face in simply attending school, Ms. Hogan describes the situation of a nine-year-old named Nanavi in Benin, where there is a large gender gap in education.
As Ms. Hogan relates the story, Nanavi “has to walk two hours each way to the nearest middle school.… She doesn’t get much to eat at home [and] she has to choose every day to spend the 50 cents that her mother can give her to make photocopies – there’s no books – or to eat lunch.”
Ms. Hogan adds: “A quality education for the kids in our show [is] an education which allows them to not only become literate but to allow them to develop their full potential and to get a job.”
With quality education, she suggests, “generation by generation, there’s improvement in economic levels and quality of life.”
Need for political will
Ms. de Comarmond argues that quality education comes down to national priorities and international commitments.
“I sincerely believe it starts with the political will and having proper policies in place,” she says. “It’s an issue that you have to work, and it takes time to sensitize governments.
Despite all the efforts made by UNGEI and others to date, notes Ms. de Comarmond, today there a still more than 32 million girls in Africa who are not yet able to go to school. “So we still have a major challenge,’ she says, “but at the end of the day, to me, it’s the political will.”
21 April 2010: UNICEF Radio podcast moderator Amy Costello speaks with Simone De Comarmond, Chairperson of the Forum for African Women Educationalists, and Pamela Hogan, Executive Producer of the PBS Wide Angle special series, 'Time For School', about providing quality education to girls and boys around the globe.
E4 - Engendering Empowerment: Education and Equality' conference website
(external link, opens in a new window)
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On This Date In History:
Perhaps the greatest and most courageous aviators no one has ever heard of got her flying license on August 1, 1911. Harriet Quimby was a single woman working in New York, which at the time was a pretty tough thing to do. Quimby worked for Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly. She was an independent and strong minded woman but wasn’t cast in the role of the Suffragettes. Instead she wrote articles that focused on neglect of children, corrupt politics and over hunting of certain species of animals. However, she went on to do spectacular things that hardly anyone knows about. Fortunately, as a writer, she did leave behind the tales of Harriet Quimby adventures in her own words.
Quimby also must have had a thing for machines because in 1906 while covering a race at the Vanderbilt Race Track, she went for a ride in a high speed automobile. So enthralled was she that she purchased her own car. I wonder if she was the only female car owner in 1906 New York. She covered a flying meet in 1910 and decided to take flying lessons. Quimby met Matilde Moisant and her brother John at the Belmont Park International Aviation Tournament. John and his brother Alfred ran a flying school so Harriet signed up. She said ” There is no more risk in an airplane than a high-speed automobile and a lot more fun. Why shouldn’t we have some good American pilots.” She became the first American woman to get a flying license and the second in the world. Not only did Harriet get her pilot’s license, but so did her friend Matilde, who became the second American woman to officially become a pilot just 10 days after Harriet. Matlide went on to establish herself as a female aviation pioneer as she and Harriet had a friendly competition. Just a month after receiving her license, Moisant defeated both Quimby and French pilot Helene Dutrieu in an altitude competition when she took her 50 hp monoplane up to 1200 feet. I’ve driven go-karts with a 50 hp engine. That’s really pretty incredible and the ladies were quite brave.
In fact, it took quite a bit of bravery to take to the air in the early days of aviation. Perhaps she learned her daring from John Moisant who dazzled the world when he crossed the English channel only a month after he learned to fly! Nevertheless, in spite of Harriet’s claim that it was no more dangerous than driving a car, John Moisant was killed in a flying accident not long after she made his acquaintance. Then, on April 14, 1912, Matlide landed her plane after a performance and it burst into flames due to a leaky fuel tank. She was pulled from the wreckage with her clothing on fire, but she survived. Nevertheless, Harriet was not deterred. Just two days after her friend nearly burned to death, on this date in 1912 Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly solo across the English Channel. Her accomplishment went largely unnoticed because on April 16, 1912, the press was filled with details of the tragic Titanic sinking and her feat was left to the back pages and generally lost to history. However, as a journalist, Quimby decided to write the story of how Harriet Quimby flew solo across the English Channel.
A few months later, she turned her sights on the air speed record. Her plane was a two seat monoplane. When she flew this particular aircraft solo, she used sandbags in the passenger seat in order to maintain balance. For some reason, she took a man on a ride, presumably before she went for the record. The man won the opportunity in a coin flip with his son. As the plane went on its journey, for unknown reason it pitched forward and the man was tossed to his death. Harriet maintained control briefly before the plane pitched again and she was tossed to her death at age 37(NYTimes 1912 story/obit). Like the more famous, Amelia Earhart, I think that Harriet was quite the looker. Her flying outfit was a quite handsome purple silk jumpsuit. Earhart gained fame perhaps as much for her disappearance as for her flying feats. While Quimby has been largely forgotten, I have an idea that her death highlighted the need of seatbelts in planes. When you buckle up on your next flight, think of Harriet.
Weather Bottom Line: After a week of splendid weather, the big day is here. Yes, it’s my birthday but to highlight it’s importance, I am getting a colonoscopy! That is a sure sign that age is creeping up and that I don’t count birthdays anymore. Snow White already had my birthday party last week at Burger King. I think that she’s getting me back for taking her to Golden Corral for Valentine’s Day. Guys..don’t make fun of Valentine’s Day. It will go on the “do not forget” list. But, this evening, it will be interesting to see how my emcee appearance goes tonight for the Justice Racing Stables as they kick off the Derby season. Hopefully, no one will strike a match. And I hope that John Nolley has planned for an indoor event because the cold front will be coming through and I suspect it will be less exciting than my visit to the doctor, though the Storm Prediction Center is rattling our cage a bit.
That 5% risk for severe weather that they had yesterday they upped to be a slight risk for severe thunderstorms. They only claim a less than 2% risk for twisters and hail but are watchful for high winds. As the front comes down, they are noting the amount of sunshine ahead of the boundary and that may increase the lapse rates sufficiently to team with a low level jet of about 50 kts and increasing dew points to produce a line of thunder storms. We are on the extreme western tip of the risk area but nothing really jumps out at me. The CAPE forecast is only 500 J/KG and, while that is sufficient to produce some boomers, I’m not too impressed. So, I wouldn’t head to the basement just yet. Nevertheless, it’s out there so keep in mind, if we do get some storms this evening with the front, there may be some winds to contend with in individual storms. Otherwise, Thunder Over Louisville weekend is upon us and the weather will be pretty good, though cooler than we’ve recently seen. Highs in the low to mid 60′s. Fireworks temperatures will be falling through the 50′s and the wind will be out of the North, meaning that if you are on the Louisville side of the river, be prepared for some smoke.
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Center of Mass Introduction to the center of mass
Center of Mass
⇐ Use this menu to view and help create subtitles for this video in many different languages. You'll probably want to hide YouTube's captions if using these subtitles.
- I will now do a presentation on the center of mass.
- And the center mass, hopefully, is something that
- will be a little bit intuitive to you, and it actually has
- some very neat applications.
- So in very simple terms, the center of mass is a point.
- Let me draw an object.
- Let's say that this is my object.
- Let's say it's a ruler.
- This ruler, it exists, so it has some mass.
- And my question to you is what is the center mass?
- And you say, Sal, well, in order to know figure out the
- center mass, you have to tell me what the center of mass is.
- And what I tell you is the center mass is a point, and it
- actually doesn't have to even be a point in the object.
- I'll do an example soon where it won't be.
- But it's a point.
- And at that point, for dealing with this object as a whole or
- the mass of the object as a whole, we can pretend that the
- entire mass exists at that point.
- And what do I mean by saying that?
- Well, let's say that the center of mass is here.
- And I'll tell you why I picked this point.
- Because that is pretty close to where the center
- of mass will be.
- If the center of mass is there, and let's say the mass
- of this entire ruler is, I don't know, 10 kilograms. This
- ruler, if a force is applied at the center of mass, let's
- say 10 Newtons, so the mass of the whole ruler is 10
- kilograms. If a force is applied at the center of mass,
- this ruler will accelerate the same exact way as would a
- point mass.
- Let's say that we just had a little dot, but that little
- dot had the same mass, 10 kilograms, and we were to push
- on that dot with 10 Newtons.
- In either case, in the case of the ruler, we would accelerate
- upwards at what?
- Force divided by mass, so we would accelerate upwards at 1
- meter per second squared.
- And in this case of this point mass, we would
- accelerate that point.
- When I say point mass, I'm just saying something really,
- really small, but it has a mass of 10 kilograms, so it's
- much smaller, but it has the same mass as this ruler.
- This would also accelerate upwards with a magnitude of 1
- meters per second squared.
- So why is this useful to us?
- Well, sometimes we have some really crazy objects and we
- want to figure out exactly what it does.
- If we know its center of mass first, we can know how that
- object will behave without having to worry about the
- shape of that object.
- And I'll give you a really easy way of realizing where
- the center of mass is.
- If the object has a uniform distribution-- when I say
- that, it means, for simple purposes, if it's made out of
- the same thing and that thing that it's made out of, its
- density, doesn't really change throughout the object, the
- center of mass will be the object's geometric center.
- So in this case, this ruler's almost a
- one-dimensional object.
- We just went halfway.
- The distance from here to here and the distance from here to
- here are the same.
- This is the center of mass.
- If we had a two-dimensional object, let's say we had this
- triangle and we want to figure out its center of mass, it'll
- be the center in two dimensions.
- So it'll be something like that.
- Now, if I had another situation, let's say I have
- this square.
- I don't know if that's big enough for you to see.
- I need to draw it a little thicker.
- Let's say I have this square, but let's say that half of
- this square is made from lead.
- And let's say the other half of the square is made from
- something lighter than lead.
- It's made of styrofoam.
- That is lighter than lead.
- So in this situation, the center of mass isn't going to
- be the geographic center.
- I don't know how much denser lead is than styrofoam, but
- the center of mass is going to be someplace closer to the
- right because this object does not have a uniform density.
- It'll actually depend on how much denser the lead is than
- the styrofoam, which I don't know.
- But hopefully, that gives you a little intuition of what the
- center of mass is.
- And now I'll tell you something a little more
- Every problem we have done so far, we actually made the
- simplifying assumption that the force acts on
- the center of mass.
- So if I have an object, let's say the object that
- looks like a horse.
- Let's say that object.
- If this is the object's center of mass, I don't know where
- the horse's center of mass normally is, but let's say a
- horse's center of mass is here.
- If I apply a force directly on that center of mass, then the
- object will move in the direction of that force with
- the appropriate acceleration.
- We could divide the force by the mass of the entire horse
- and we would figure out the
- acceleration in that direction.
- But now I will throw in a twist. And actually, every
- problem we did, all of these Newton's Law's problems, we
- assumed that the force acted at the center of mass.
- But something more interesting happens if the force acts away
- from the center of mass.
- Let me actually take that ruler example.
- I don't know why I even drew the horse.
- If I have this ruler again and this is the center of mass, as
- we said, any force that we act on the center of mass, the
- whole object will move in the direction of the force.
- It'll be shifted by the force, essentially.
- Now, this is what's interesting.
- If that's the center of mass and if I were to apply a force
- someplace else away from the center of mass, let' say I
- apply a force here, I want you to think about for a second
- what will probably happen to the object.
- Well, it turns out that the object will rotate.
- And so think about if we're on the space shuttle or we're in
- deep space or something, and if I have a ruler, and if I
- just push at one end of the ruler, what's going to happen?
- Am I just going to push the whole ruler or is the whole
- ruler is going to rotate?
- And hopefully, your intuition is correct.
- The whole ruler will rotate around the center of mass.
- And in general, if you were to throw a monkey wrench at
- someone, and I don't recommend that you do, but if you did,
- and while the monkey wrench is spinning in the air, it's
- spinning around its center of mass.
- Same for a knife.
- If you're a knife catcher, that's something you should
- think about, that the object, when it's free, when it's not
- fixed to any point, it rotates around its center of mass, and
- that's very interesting.
- So you can actually throw random objects, and that point
- at which it rotates around, that's the
- object's center of mass.
- That's an experiment that you should do in an open field
- around no one else.
- Now, with all of this, and I'll actually in the next
- video tell you what this is.
- When you have a force that causes rotational motion as
- opposed to a shifting motion, that's torque, but we'll do
- that in the next video.
- But now I'll show you just a cool example of how the center
- of mass is relevant in everyday applications, like
- high jumping.
- So in general, let's say that this is a bar.
- This is a side view of a bar, and this is the
- thing holding the bar.
- And a guy wants to jump over the bar.
- His center of mass is-- most people's center of mass is
- around their gut.
- I think evolutionarily that's why our gut is there, because
- it's close to our center of mass.
- So there's two ways to jump.
- You could just jump straight over the bar, like a hurdle
- jump, in which case your center of mass would have to
- cross over the bar.
- And we could figure out this mass, and we can figure out
- how much energy and how much force is required to propel a
- mass that high because we know projectile motion and we know
- all of Newton's laws.
- But what you see a lot in the Olympics is people doing a
- very strange type of jump, where, when they're going over
- the bar, they look something like this.
- Their backs are arched over the bar.
- Not a good picture.
- But what happens when someone arches their back over
- the bar like this?
- I hope you get the point.
- This is the bar right here.
- Well, it's interesting.
- If you took the average of this person's density and
- figured out his geometric center and all of that, the
- center of mass in this situation, if someone jumps
- like that, actually travels below the bar.
- Because the person arches their back so much, if you
- took the average of the total mass of where the person is,
- their center of mass actually goes below the bar.
- And because of that, you can clear a bar without having
- your center of mass go as high as the bar and so you need
- less force to do it.
- Or another way to say it, with the same force, you could
- clear a higher bar.
- Hopefully, I didn't confuse you, but that's exactly why
- these high jumpers arch their back, so that their center of
- mass is actually below the bar and they don't have to exert
- as much force.
- Anyway, hopefully you found that to be a vaguely useful
- introduction to the center of mass, and I'll see you in the
- next video on torque.
Be specific, and indicate a time in the video:
At 5:31, how is the moon large enough to block the sun? Isn't the sun way larger?
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about the site
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How Geocaching Works
This cache is located at Victoria Falls National Park on the Zimbabwe side of the waterfall. Admission to the park varies by nationality, but is US$0.50 for Zimbabwean and Zambian citizens and US$20-30 for most other nationalities. Please do not log this cache without emailing the answers to the questions in a timely fashion and no "armchair caching" please, as in both situations the log will be deleted!
Mosi-oa-Tunya, meaning "The Smoke that Thunders," is the indigenous name of Victoria Falls. Stone artifacts dating as far back as 3 million years have been discovered at the site, but the first European to visit was the Scottish missionary Dr. Livingstone on November 17, 1855. He was so impressed by the Falls that he named them after his Queen and famously wrote- "It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight." Tourism soon followed due to Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company building the Victoria Falls bridge right next to the Falls so the "spray of the falls over the train carriages," and today serves as the only rail link between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Large parts of Southern Africa are covered in basalt deposits which originated in volcanic activity during the Jurassic Period, which was 150-200 million years ago. Cracks formed in the basalt over time as the lava cooled, which was filled with softer materials like clay and lime. Over time the Zambezi River cuts through these soft materials and the erosion has caused the creation of the gorges downstream from Victoria Falls. This water flow is so intense that over 2,000 years the Falls have receded 8km upstream to their present location.
Today, Mosi-oa-Tunya is a single vertical drop of 1708 meters wide and a height of 108 meters, making it the largest waterfall in the world when calculating the area of the sheet of falling water. (Don't worry, you'll figure it out in a sec!) There is an astonishing 1088 kgm³/s going over the waterfall on average, though obviously this number changes dramatically depending on the season.
To log this Earthcache, please E-MAIL the answers to the following questions:
1) Using the information above, what is the area of the sheet of falling water?
2) Calculate the amount of hydro power in the Falls- the equation you need is Power= Height*Flow*Gravity, where Gravity= 9.8 m/s^2.
3) What is your elevation at your current position?
4) (optional) Attach a picture of yourself at this location- though in high season the spray might make this very impractical!
(No hints available.)
Last Updated: on 5/20/2013 8:17:27 AM Pacific Daylight Time (3:17 PM GMT)
Coordinates are in the WGS84 datum
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2013-05-24T08:30:35Z
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Seizure -- Child
|Abnormal and excessive electrical activity in the brain.|
|Copyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.|
- Conditions like epilepsy
- An injury or trauma to the head
- Infections, including meningitis and abscesses in the brain
- Brain tumor
- Accidental poisoning
Certain medical conditions, including:
- Low blood sugar
- Very high fever (especially in children)—called febrile seizures
- Electrolyte abnormalities
- Congenital diseases or deformities
- Having had a previous seizure
- Having a very high fever
Having health conditions like:
- Brain tumors
- Brain infections
- Having a family history of seizures.
- Staring, or a dazed look
- Jerking movements of the limbs and/or body (convulsions)
- Difficulty breathing
- Eyes rolling back in the head
- Crying or moaning
- Protect from physical injury—Place your child on the floor or bed. Make sure they are not near any hard or sharp objects.
- Protect airway—Do not place anything in your child's mouth during the convulsion. Turn your child’s head to the side. This will allow saliva or vomit to drain from the mouth.
- Watch the time—The length of the convulsions should be less than five minutes.
- Unless the doctor has told you otherwise, call 911.
- Lumbar puncture —removal of a small amount of cerebrospinal fluid for testing to look for infection in brain or spinal cord
- Blood tests—to look for infections, low blood sugar, abnormal electrolytes, or poison
- CT scan of the head —a type of x-ray that uses a computer to make pictures of structures inside the head
- MRI scan of the head —a test that uses magnetic energy to make pictures of structures inside the head
- Electroencephalogram (EEG) —a test that records the brain’s activity by measuring electrical currents through the brain
American Academy of Family Physicians http://familydoctor.org
American Academy of Pediatrics http://www.healthychildren.org/
British Columbia Ministry of Health http://www.bchealthguide.org
Epilepsy Ontario http://www.epilepsyontario.org
Febrile seizure. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at: http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/what.php . Updated July 11, 2012. Accessed July 20, 2012.
Hogan T. Seizure disorders in childhood. Loyola University Medical Education Network website. Available at: http://www.meddean.luc.edu/lumen/MedED/pedneuro/epilepsy.htm. Accessed July 20, 2012.
Neonatal seizures. Intensive Care Nursery Staff House Manual. The University of California San Francisco Children's Hospital website. Available at: http://www.ucsfhealth.org/childrens/health%5Fprofessionals/manuals/48%5FSeizures.pdf. . Accessed July 20, 2012.
Seizure in children. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at: http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/what.php . Updated April 9, 2012. Accessed July 20, 2012.
- Reviewer: Michael Woods
- Review Date: 09/2012 -
- Update Date: 00/91/2012 -
This content is reviewed regularly and is updated when new and relevant evidence is made available. This information is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with questions regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © EBSCO Publishing
All rights reserved.
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Robert Kennedy Biography
Born: November 20, 1925
Died: June 6, 1968
Los Angeles, California
American statesman, senator, and attorney general
Robert Kennedy was a U.S. senator and the attorney general in the presidential administration of his brother John F. Kennedy (1917–1963). Like his brother, Robert was extremely charming and a popular political figure during the
Early life as a Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy was born on November 20, 1925, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Joseph (1888–1969) and Rose (1890–1995) Kennedy. Robert enjoyed a privileged childhood and was surrounded by a loving and powerful family. Rose's father was the mayor of Boston. Joseph was a wealthy businessman and would later become U.S. ambassador, or official representative, to Great Britain.
Kennedy's childhood was greatly shaped by his father's values. Joseph Sr. always wanted his children to try their hardest, no matter what they were doing. The Kennedys raised their children as Roman Catholics, and Robert was very religious throughout his young life and served as an altar boy. The seventh of nine children born to the Kennedys, Robert constantly sought the attention of his two older brothers, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (1915–1944) and John F. Kennedy. Although slightly smaller than his brothers, Robert would develop the good looks and charm that would help the Kennedys win over the American public.
The Kennedys lived in England during his father's ambassadorship and the family quickly became a favorite with the English press. In 1939, with the threat of war hanging over Europe, Joseph Kennedy sent his family back to America, fearing for their safety.
Student and soldier
Robert graduated from Milton Academy before entering Harvard. His college career was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II (1939–45), in which the United States led the Allied forces against Germany, Japan, and Italy. After his oldest brother, Joseph, was killed in combat, Robert joined the navy and was assigned as a lieutenant. Later, he was assigned to the destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., which was named in honor of his brother.
In 1946 he returned to Harvard, where he played football, and he graduated in 1948. He then earned his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar (an association for lawyers) in 1951. While at school he met Ethel Skakel (1928–), his sister's college roommate. Robert and Ethel were married in June 1950. They would have eleven children together (the last one was born six months after Kennedy's death).
A political career begins
In 1951 Kennedy joined the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He resigned the following year to run John F. Kennedy's successful campaign for U.S. senator. In 1953 Robert was appointed one of fifteen assistant counsels, or advisors, to the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations under Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957). At the time, McCarthy was leading a nationwide "witch-hunt" for Communists, or people who believe in a political system in which property and goods are owned by the government. McCarthy's movement gained momentum through America's fear of Communists living in the country. But later that year, Kennedy resigned when Democratic members of this subcommittee walked out in protest against McCarthy's forceful methods of investigation.
Kennedy rejoined the Senate's permanent Subcommittee on Investigations as chief counsel for the Democratic minority in 1954. The following year, when the Democrats reorganized this committee under Senator George McClellan, Kennedy became chief counsel and staff director. That year the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce elected him one of "ten outstanding young men." In 1955, at his own expense, Kennedy joined Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (1898–1980) on a tour of several Soviet republics. (The republics were Communist states that made up the Soviet Union.)
Kennedy became chief counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field organized under McClellan in 1957. His major accomplishment was the investigation of corruption, or dishonest activity, in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a powerful labor union. The hearings became front-page news, especially Kennedy's prosecution of the union's president, James Hoffa (1913–c.1975). Some union leaders believed these hearings were more like persecution, or a public harassment, of Hoffa. Later, Kennedy was also responsible for several additional investigations of labor and management abuses.
A Kennedy in the White House
In 1960 Kennedy managed his brother's successful presidential campaign. When John appointed Robert U.S. attorney general, many cried nepotism, the act of favoring family members. But Robert's role in his brother's cabinet was unique, and he was virtually the president's other self. Shoulder to shoulder, the brothers stood together. The Kennedy administration carefully waded through civil rights cases, the growing Vietnam War (1955–75; a civil war in which U.S. forces helped South Vietnam fight against a takeover by Communist forces from North Vietnam), and the Cuban missile crisis, when the nation held its breath as the president narrowly avoided conflict with Communist Cuba and the Soviet Union.
Tragically, the partnership would not last. John F. Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullet in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. Distressed by the loss of his brother, Robert soon resigned from the administration of President Lyndon Johnson (1908–1973). Kennedy ran successfully for New York State senator in 1964. Many wondered why Kennedy chose to run in New York instead of his native Virginia. Kennedy was thinking of the presidency by now, and Virginia was no power base. As a senator Kennedy achieved a splendid record, and his popularity began to grow and rival that of his brother's.
Presidential candidate and a tragic ending
Kennedy leaped into the presidential race in 1968. He was the perfect candidate to oppose Eugene McCarthy (1916–). Kennedy's entrance bitterly divided liberal Democrats (those in favor of change). Kennedy won the support of activists as he had come to sympathize with the African Americans' drive for "black power." He could reach and unite young people, activists, African Americans, and blue-collar Roman Catholics. Meanwhile, the white South hated him, big business distrusted him, and middle-class, reform Democrats were generally suspicious of him. Just after midnight on June 5, 1968, Kennedy was gunned down by an assassin. He died a day later.
Robert Kennedy's tragic death robbed the nation of one of its most dedicated and popular politicians. For most of his life, Kennedy fought for equal rights, improving education, housing the poor, and many other issues of the day. Robert had been no copy of his brother John. In some ways he was more intense and more committed than his brother had been. Yet he shared John's personal philosophy that one man could make a difference.
For More Information
Kennedy, Robert F. Make Gentle the Life of This World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998.
Palermo, Joseph A. In His Own Right: The Political Odyssey of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.
Thomas, Evan. Robert Kennedy: His Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000.
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Main Subject Area: Mathematics
Duration of Lesson:
Using Amy Axelrod's "Pigs Will Be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money" as a reference, students calculate how much money the pigs find and spend in the book. Then they determine how else to spend the money at a restaurant and create posters showing their menu orders.
Additional Subject Area Standard(s):
To achieve the standard of whole number computation, students will construct number meanings through real-world experiences and the use of physical materials; understand our numeration system by relating counting, grouping, and place value concepts; interpret the multiple uses of numbers encountered in the real world; model, explain, and develop reasonable proficiency with basic facts and algorithms; use a variety of mental computation and estimation techniques; use calculators in appropriate computational situations; and select and use computation techniques appropriate to specific problems and determine whether the results are reasonable.
A copy of the book "Pigs Will Be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money" by Amy Axelrod, poster paper, pencils and pens, manipulatives (play or real dollars and coins), and calculators.
Coins Used in Lesson:
1. Read "Pigs Will be Pigs" aloud to your students.
2. Break the class into groups of four. Tell students that you are going to reread the book, and that their challenge is to determine just how much money the pigs found and spent. Hand out manipulatives and/or calculators.
3. Reread the story, pausing as needed so students can calculate the amount of money the pigs found as well as their final restaurant bill.
4. As a class, ask the groups to share their calculations for how much money the pigs had left after their meal. Have them explain the strategies they used to determine their answers.
5. Using the menu included in the book, have each group place a different order for its table - one that satisfies everyone and also stays within the available funds. Then have the groups create a poster showing what they ordered, the total cost of their meal, and the amount of money they have left over.
6. Share the posters with the class.
Assessment / Evaluation:
Were the students able to successfully calculate the amount of money the pigs found and spent? To judge the merits of the poster, use a standard rubric that includes any criteria set by you or the students at the start of the activity.
Differentiated Learning Options:
Have students create and design their own menu for a restaurant, using desktop-publishing software, if available.
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This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, (MUP), 1967
Sir John Morphett (1809-1892), landowner and politician, was born on 4 May 1809 in London, a son of Nathaniel Morphett and Mary, née Gliddon, of Cummins, Ide, Devon. His father came from a Kentish family and was a London solicitor. After leaving school at 16 Morphett joined a London commercial office and at 21 entered the counting-house of Harris & Co., in Alexandria, Egypt.
Morphett returned to London in 1834 with his younger brother George and, through Dr Edward Wright, became interested in the South Australian Association, then pressing for the establishment of a colony in southern Australia, on the principles of systematic colonization advocated by Edward Gibbon Wakefield. On the passing of the South Australian Act (4 & 5 Wm IV, c. 95), Morphett issued a four-page circular, Reasons for the Purchase of Land in South Australia, by Persons Resident in Britain; With a View to the Removal of Labourers, and the Profitable Employment of Capital. In this pamphlet he declared his intention of migrating and his readiness to act for purchasers of land. He also advertised in similar terms in the Globe and Traveller, 30 July 1835. In September 1834 he joined the South Australian Literary Association, and was soon elected to its committee. By 1835 he was one of the most energetic advocates of the new province.
Morphett sailed in the Cygnet and arrived in South Australia in September 1836. Two months later with Lieutenant Field and (Sir) George Kingston, he discovered the River Torrens. He considered Kangaroo Island unsuitable for permanent settlement but reported favourably on the mainland after two visits, his letter being published in London in pamphlet form. At the crucial meeting on 10 February 1837 Morphett's votes were decisive in confirming the site of Adelaide. In July 1837 in support of the resident commissioner, (Sir) James Fisher, against Governor (Sir) John Hindmarsh, he joined the committee which established the Southern Australian and his report on these matters was published next year in London. Hindmarsh later complained that Morphett was largely responsible for his recall. In 1839 Morphett had a part in selecting six special surveys, mostly for his English friends and for the Secondary Towns Association. With his Mediterranean experience he believed that wool-growing was more suited than agriculture to South Australia, but he also knew that the colony needed men of capital. He threw his weight behind every good cause; in 1840 he became treasurer of Adelaide's Municipal Corporation, helped to found the Agricultural Society in 1844, gave support to the Collegiate School of St Peter and acted as attorney for the Society for Propagating the Gospel in foreign parts. He became a local director of the South Australian Banking Co., and served on the committee of the English Railway Co. His office on North Terrace was thronged by men seeking level-headed advice on land and commerce and he was a popular chairman at public meetings.
Morphett's political career was long and distinguished. In 1843 he became one of the first non-official nominees in the Legislative Council. In 1846 he was one of four who walked out in protest against the mining royalty proposals, but later he proposed the bill for state aid to religion. Next year he visited England, returning in time to oppose Earl Grey's federal plans and local moves for vote by ballot. When the Legislative Council was reformed he was again nominated and in August 1851 he was elected Speaker. In the first elections under responsible government in March 1857 he won a place in the Legislative Council. In 1861 he was chief secretary in the two short Thomas Reynolds ministries, resigning because he was unable to support the moves to dismiss Judge Benjamin Boothby. In 1865 he became president of the Legislative Council, and retained the post until his retirement from politics in 1873.
On 15 August 1838 Morphett married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of J. H. Fisher. He was knighted in 1870, and died at his house, Cummins, Morphettville, on 7 November 1892, survived by six daughters and four sons. Portraits include a crayon drawing by Samuel Laurence in the possession of H. C. Morphett, Adelaide. As a prominent founder, his name figures large in South Australia's toponymy.
'Morphett, Sir John (1809–1892)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/morphett-sir-john-2483/text3337, accessed 19 June 2013.
This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, (MUP), 1967
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Sandia researchers have
developed a process that can mix tiny volumes of liquid, even in complicated
Kyle Solis, a graduate student intern in Nanomaterials Sciences, prepares a sample for mixing using a new approach called vortex field mixing. (Photo by Randy Montoya)
Researchers currently use all types of processes to try and create mixing,
with only "mixed" success. "In small devices," says
Sandia materials scientist Jim Martin "people have tried all kinds of
pillars and mixing cells to initiate mixing, but these approaches don’t
work well." Researchers need simpler and more reliable ways to mix in
tiny places such as micrometer-sized channels, Martin said.
"Mixing liquids in tiny volumes," Martin said, "is surprisingly
difficult." When fluid is pushed down a big pipe, eddies are generated
that create mixing. But if fluid is pushed down a small pipe no eddies are generated
and mixing does not occur unless you subject the fluid to tremendous pressure,
which isn’t usually easy or feasible, he said.
Martin’s discovery of how to mix tiny liquid volumes arose from LDRD-funded
research directed at improving the sensitivity of the chemical sensors developed
in his lab. That project, "Field-Structured Composite Studies,"
was a joint effort with Rod Williamson (now retired). While their LDRD project
did not lead to the expected results, Martin and Williamson were surprised by
the wide variety of physical effects they discovered along the way, including
magnetic mixing. These effects, Martin said, ended up being much more interesting
and important than the original goal.
Since the project began, Department of Energy’s Division of Material
Science and Engineering, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, has started a new
project whose goal is to better understand the fundamental science of field-structured
composites. So the program succeeded even as it failed, and eventually Martin
and graduate student intern Doug Read developed better ways to increase sensor
In the new method of mixing, when one turns on a particular kind of magnetic
field, the magnetic particles suspended in the fluid form chains like strings
of pearls. The chains start swirling around and that’s what does the mixing.
The particles are then removed magnetically, leaving a nice mixed-up liquid.
More technically, the new mixing method, which Jim calls vortex field mixing,
subjects a suspension of microscopic, magnetizable particles to a magnetic field
whose direction is constantly spinning in a motion similar to a spinning top
as it is about to collapse on its side, but much faster. In this "vortex
field" the particles assemble into countless microscopic chains that follow
the field motion, stirring every nook and cranny of the fluid. The vortex field
stirs the liquid vigorously, and surprising fluid effects are possible, such
as a kind of washing machine agitation where the spinning direction alternates
Currently, Martin, Lauren Rohwer, and graduate intern Kyle Solis work with
the vortex field mixing, among other projects. Their experimental report, recently
appearing in the July issue of Physical Review, has generated interest, including
a Physical Review Focus article and a Research Highlight in the September MRS
This type of magnetic mixing with particles that assemble into micro-stir bars
isn’t like the magnetic mixing done in high school chemistry class.
"In your high school chemistry class," Martin says "when
you mixed a beaker of water on a stir plate, underneath the plate was a permanent
magnet spinning around to make the stir bar spin. If that hidden magnet suddenly
became twice as strong, the magnetic field would double but you wouldn’t
see any increase in the stirring at all.
"With our process," Martin said "if we make the magnetic
field twice as strong, the stirring becomes four times as strong because the
stronger field makes the particle chains longer."
With conventional stir-bar mixing you can increase the mixing torque by increasing
the speed of the stir bar instead. It’s easy to feel this effect by simply
holding the beaker slightly above the stir plate. In vortex field mixing increasing
the speed of the wobbling doesn’t help, because the chains simply break
into smaller pieces and the mixing torque doesn’t change at all.
Vortex field mixing stirs just as effectively with magnetic nanoparticles as
with traditional micrometer-size powders. In fact, excellent mixing torques
have been obtained using 100 nanometer particles. This means even the tiniest
fluid volumes can be mixed, as well as the largest.
As strange as these effects are, they were initially predicted by Martin in
a theory paper published in the January 2009 issue of Physical Review. This
paper also explains why a simple rotating magnetic field doesn’t induce
mixing, and predicts the optimal wobbling angle of the magnetic field.
Vortex field mixing requires only the modest magnetic fields provided by simple
wire coils that can be scaled to the size of the fluid cavity. After mixing,
a researcher can trap the particles with a permanent magnet, decant the mixed
liquid and recycle the particles endlessly.
This work was supported by the Division of Materials Science and Engineering,
Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
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Last week we talked about sentience. The ability for an organism to feel, to direct it’s attention towards a thing and thus improve it’s neural model of that thing. This works in ways which are far too complicated for science to have yet explained. However, we do know more or less how neurons in the brain work, and can postulate that this system for filtering information, categorising it, directing attention to parts of it, attaching emotional significance to it and learning to operate in the world is built from some kind of neural network in the brain.
It seems likely that in a sufficiently advanced organism (and right now we basically have no way of determining how ‘advanced’ we mean) these neural circuits can do more than just focus awareness on the senses, more than just learn to trigger emotions and moods through association. It can also grow connections from part of it’s own network back into the ‘input’ parts of that network. By directing it’s attention not at the world, at it’s senses, but back at it’s own sentience network it can begin to learn to model that network in the same way it’s learned to model space though the visual field, sounds though the air-pressure sensors in it’s ears and it’s own body though the network of neurons in the skin and muscle building the kinaesthetic senses.
The organism can become aware not only of the world it lives in, but of it’s own processing of that world, it can learn to use those systems to model and understand itself. It can learn to see how it thinks. This, then, is sapience. A trait usually only attributed to people, to you and I.
With vision, hearing and feeling, you don’t ‘see’ photons or feel the air-pressure in your ear-drums or even actually the stretch of a single neuron. Sentience is finding patterns and metaphors and similarities and generally building a simplified model of that thing. Not trying to represent it all exactly at once. Just narrow down the salient parts. See what they remind it of.
Pattern recognition, simplification
Likewise, a train of thought, a moment of consciousness, an epiphany or understanding, is actually an unimaginably complex cascade of excited neurons selectively exciting and inhibiting others in turn. A massive waterfall of cause and effect. Far too complex and chaotic for the brain to model precisely just as a visual scene is too complex to be modeled precisely. It needs to be simplified, to be compared to other things through metaphor and simile.
When you look at a picture your retinal neurons — the rods and cones in the back of your eye — start firing in some extraordinary complex pattern. In order to see that picture rather than just look at it your brain simplifies and codifies and interprets that scene. The insanely complex neural firing patterns are simplified hierarchically. The visual cortex has networks looking for patches of similar colour which feed into networks looking for lines. Then these feed into networks looking for shape, and these feed into networks looking at orientation, and so on, until eventually it gets to things simple enough to keep in working memory, in the consciousness, in the sentience.
Surely sapience, our awareness of that sentience, our model of our awareness, works in a similar way. Hierarchically organizing the insane cascade of it’s own neurons, looking for patterns, comparing them.
Neuro Linguistic Programming practitioners teach that the brain works through ‘Representational Systems’. That each thought is strongly associated with a sensory system. That our thinking is done in ‘modes’, either visual thinking or auditory thinking or kinaesthetic thinking, or sometimes olfactory or gustatory thinking.
Each of us will have more practice with some of these modes of thinking than others. Likely the ones we happened to try first will have been most practised and so most useful and so used more often. Some people are strong visualisers, they have learned to take more conscious control over their visual system than others. Some people have amazing auditory and language skills, they “think in words” more deeply than others can. Some people have more often used kinaesthetic systems to model and understand their own thinking, and so practised that more and perhaps “grasp” ideas rather than “Seeing what you mean”.
These types of thinking may just be metaphors, interpretations of what the brain is doing using similar ideas as those used for seeing, hearing etc. Alternatively, they may be the actual systems which the brain uses to do the thinking. The visual or auditory systems themselves diverted by understanding and control.
Either way, practice using that control will lead to more refinement of those interpretive models or more skill at diverting the brains inherent systems. All normal human beings have learned some ability in all of these skills. Some of these methods are however better at solving some types of problems than others. Thus you should endeavour to improve your abilities to notice, model and so direct them all.
You will concentrate on paying attention to one of the three main styles of thought, concentrating on them, on how they work, and thus improving your own model of these thinking styles.
You will increase your awareness and your conscious control of your own thoughts. Though we will use words to direct you, you will be practising using, modeling and understanding your visual imagery and kinaesthetic senses as well as your auditory ones.
Note that if you’re following along our meditations in order, you have already been practising using those skills for some time. Just about every meditation has you imagining and visualising and paying attention to imaginary detail. As you listen to this meditation however, you’ll be deliberately focusing your attention onto the fact that you are practising them. Learning to direct your consciousness at itself more thoroughly. You’ll also be receiving suggestions that as you practice these things in future, you’ll remember to pay attention to all of your sensory systems rather than concentrating on just one.
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The Nuclear Option
Is atomic energy clean and green?
I always thought nuclear reactors were an absolute no-go for environmentalists. But I keep hearing them touted as a clean energy source that will do great things for the planet. What are nuclear energy's green credentials?
Some environmentalists are indeed coming around to nuclear energy. That's because the nuclear fission process produces virtually no greenhouse gas emissions—unlike the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. (Those two accounted for about 70 percent of the United States' electricity in 2008. Nukes made 20 percent.) In addition, nuclear fission differs from the burning of fossil fuel in that it produces neither sulfur dioxide nor nitrogen oxides, the pollutants that cause acid rain. Finally, nuclear power can provide a reliable, steady stream of electricity that's not dependent on a shining sun or blowing winds, giving it an advantage—in some people's minds—over its renewable competitors.
Advocates are fond of noting that nuclear power now provides 70 percent of the country's "carbon-free" energy. But nuclear energy isn't really a zero-carbon system, since you still have to manufacture power plants, mine and enrich uranium, and transport processed fuel—all of which typically rely on CO2-emitting fuel sources. Even when the entire life cycle is taken into account, however, nuclear energy warms the planet much less than coal or natural gas. The comparison with renewables like wind and solar (which also generate emissions during the manufacturing phase) is less cut and dry.
While it's commonly accepted that nuclear energy has a relatively dainty footprint, the question of whether new reactors would be the most cost-effective way to lower electricity-related emissions is still hotly debated. The fuel itself is relatively inexpensive, at least for the time being. But as Michael Grunwald noted in Time, recent price estimates for a large plant in Florida came in at $12 billion to $18 billion, and that's before you consider the fact that the nuclear industry has a history of 250-percent cost overruns.Some analysts say alternative methods would yield much more climate-saving bang for our buck than nuclear power. For example, Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute argues that we should be investing in general efficiency measures and "micropower" (a catch-all term that includes cogeneration of heat and electricity, plus renewables other than big hydropower operations).
What about safety concerns? Admittedly, there's a fright factor with nuclear power. But in the 31 years since the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, there haven't been any emergencies in the United States that remotely approached the severity of that incident—though there have been some close calls. The government's Nuclear Regulatory Commission has a set safety goal for every reactor in the country: The chance of an accident that results in radioactivity being released to the environment must be no more than one in a million, as determined by probabilistic risk assessment. Those odds will never be good enough to satisfy everyone, though—especially after the cataclysmic and unexpected drilling accident in the Gulf of Mexico. In recent years, a number of leaks of radioactive water have stoked environmentalist ire, though local residents were not exposed to dangerous doses of radiation.
Meanwhile, nuclear proliferation risks remain a prohibitive concern for many experts—even those who believe that nuclear energy can play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And many environmentalists continue to give nukes the stink-eye because—as the Lantern noted in an earlier column—after 50 years we still don't have a long-term plan for storing high-level commercial nuclear waste. The Obama administration is trying to scuttle the controversial, long-struggling repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and has formed a panel to consider alternative options. In the meantime, dry-cask storage can get us through the coming century, but those used fuel rods will remain a problem for at least another 9,900 years after that. Reprocessing and reusing spent fuel is technologically feasible but isn't practiced in the United States thanks to high costs and fears about proliferation—and it still results in some waste.
Though this state of affairs is distressing, it's worth noting that long-term disposal is a problem we're saddled with regardless of what steps we take next: Whether we ramp up nuclear energy production or shut down all our plants tomorrow, we'll have at least 62,500 metric tons of used nuclear fuel to deal with.
Atomic energy also generates some environmental concerns that aren't discussed as often in the media. Take water use, for example. Like conventional power plants, a nuclear site cranks out electricity using steam-driven turbines. Cooling those operations often requires a whole lot of water, the drawing and releasing of which can affect aquatic wildlife. Uranium mining can also damage the environment. Abandoned mines from the Cold War era continue to pose contamination problems in the Navajo Nation. (Today, most of the uranium used in American reactors comes from Canada, Australia, and Russia.) Mining and milling operators must deal with mill tailings—the radioactive material left over after the uranium has been extracted from the ore—as well as waste rock and radiologically contaminated equipment. For all this, it's worth noting that uranium is a very efficient energy source: One ton of natural uranium can produce the same number of kilowatt-hours as 16,000 tons of coal or 80,000 barrels of oil.
Perhaps it's because she was born after Three Mile Island (and wasn't old enough to watch the news during Chernobyl), but the Lantern doesn't find herself particularly freaked out by atomic energy. The long-term waste conundrum seems more pressing—after all, isn't the notion that you don't bequeath problems to your descendants a major tenet of environmentalism? At the same time, global warming is itself a dire legacy, and every energy technology has its pitfalls. So if nuclear power can play a role in cooling our planet, the Lantern thinks it deserves to stay on the table.
Is there an environmental quandary that's been keeping you up at night? Send it to firstname.lastname@example.org, and check this space every Tuesday.
Nina Shen Rastogi is a writer and editor, and is also the vice president for content at Figment.
Photograph of nuclear power plant by Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images.
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Parmigiano-Romano may have begun in ancient Rome as a cheese called La Luna. Photo courtesy Fanticini.com.
Last Updated March 2010
The History Of Cheese
Page 2: The Romans Master Cheese-Making
This is Page 2 of a six-page article on the history of cheese. Click on the black links below to visit other pages.
The Romans Master Cheese-Making
It was the Roman culture that developed the art of cheesemaking as we know it today. Roman cheesemakers were skilled artisans, and the Roman culture developed many varieties of cheese that resemble those we enjoy today. The Romans are credited with the first aging of cheese, or cheese storage. They were aware of the affects of various ripening techniques upon the taste and character of a particular cheese.
Photo courtesy of VRoma.org.
It is likely that the Romans brought cheese and the art of cheesemaking with them as they conquered Gaul—what we now know as France and England—where it was embraced enthusiastically. The ancestors of today’s French cheesemakers did their job by perfecting the art of cheese aging, which today is known by the French term, l’affinage.
The larger Roman houses had a separate cheese kitchen, the caseale, and special areas where cheeses could be matured. In larger towns, homemade cheeses could be taken to a special center to be smoked. Some written notes on cheesemaking survive:
- Homer, circa 1184 B.C.E., refers to cheese being made in the mountain caves of Greece from the milk of sheep and goats, specifying a variety called Cynthos sold by the Greeks to the Romans (perhaps the Feta cheese of today).
- Aristotle, who lived from 384 to 322 B.C.E., commented on cheese made from the milk of mares and asses. Russian koumiss is made from mare’s milk and is fermented to provide an alcoholic content of up to 3%.
- Varro, circa 127 B.C.E., noted the difference in cheeses made from a number of locations and commented on their digestibility. By this time the use of rennet was commonplace, providing the cheesemaker with far greater control over the types of curd produced. Cheese had started to move from subsistence food, produced for home consumption, to a commercial product.
- Columella, circa 50 C.E., wrote about how to make cheese in considerable detail. Cheesemakers today would be perfectly at home with many of the principles he set out so clearly more than 1900 years ago.
The First Cheese Exporter?
By 300 C.E., cheese was being regularly exported by Rome to countries along the Mediterranean seaboard. Trade had developed to such an extent that the emperor Diocletian had to fix maximum prices for a range of cheeses, including an apple-smoked cheese highly popular with Romans. Another cheese was stamped and sold under the brand name of La Luna, possibly the precursor of today’s Parmigiano-Romano, the name of which first appeared in 1579.
Like other areas of knowledge, Roman cheesemaking expertise spread with their empire throughout Europe. Roman soldiers who had completed their military service and intermarried with the local populace, set up coloniae farms in retirement, where they may well have passed on their skills in cheesemaking.
With the collapse of the Roman Empire around 410, cheesemaking spread slowly via the Mediterranean, Aegean and Adriatic seas to Southern and Central Europe. The river valleys provided easy access and methods adopted for production were adapted to suit the different terrain and climatic conditions. Goats and sheep provided plenty of milk.
Continue To Page 3: Stylistic Differences Evolve
Go To The Article Index Above
© Copyright 2005-
Lifestyle Direct, Inc. All rights reserved. Images are the copyright of their respective owners.
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Providing digital resourcesfor the Australian Curriculum
Biological, Physical and Earth and space sciences for early learners
Early learners discover the past through toys and games
Multimedia and inquiry questions about life in ancient times
Conducting historical inquiry related to Australian History
This is a short story about the lives of stick insects.
Living things have basic needs! These videos show how bugs handle their prey.
Dr Tanya Hill, astronomer, explains why we experience day and night.
Dr Tanya Hill, astronomer, explains changes in the sky and the star patterns.
An interactive where students match objects that move the same way.
This is a story about toys used by several generations of a family.
Toys from the museum's collection are used to explore continuity and change.
Children sequence images of toys from the My Grandmother's Toy Box story.
Students investigate primary and secondary sources about the Vesuvius eruption.
Students examine the importance of conserving the remains of Pompeii.
The features and functions of a Roman house are explored in this resource.
What does the practice of public bathing tell us about everyday Roman life?
Illustrations of daily life and slaves' videos prompt an inquiry into slavery.
Alistair Thomson offers advice to students on how to record oral histories.
Dr Moya McFadzean discusses the role of objects in personal migration stories.
Michael Reason discusses how photographs assist in understanding the past.
Dr Paula Hamilton reflects on creating community histories.
Museum Victoria Learning Lab material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License, displayed at the bottom of each Learning Lab page unless stated otherwise. Where website users are directed via links to Museum Victoria material which is not a component of the Learning Lab, the applicable copyright notice for that material appears in the Rights tab in the page footer.
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1. The largest planetary-scale wind patterns, called macroscale winds, include the westerlies and trade winds. A somewhat smaller macroscale circulation is called synoptic scale, or weather-map scale. Mesoscale winds, such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, and land and sea breezes, influence smaller areas and often exhibit intensive vertical flow. The smallest scale of air motion is the microscale. Examples of these very local, often chaotic, winds include gusts and dust devils.
2. All winds have the same cause: pressure differences that arise because of temperature differences that are caused by unequal heating of Earth's surface. In addition to land and sea breezes brought about by the daily temperature contrast between land and water, other mesoscale winds include mountain and valley breezes, chinook (foehn) winds, katabatic (fall) winds, and country breezes. Mountain and valley breezes develop as air along mountain slopes is heated more intensely than air at the same elevation over the valley floor. Chinooks are warm, dry winds that sometimes move down the east slopes of the Rockies. In the Alps, winds similar to chinooks are called foehns. Katabatic (fall) winds originate when cold air, situated over a highland area such as the ice sheets of Greenland or Antarctica, is set in motion under the influence of gravity. Country breezes are associated with large urban areas where the circulation pattern is characterized by a light wind blowing into the city from the surrounding countryside.
3. A simplified view of a model of global circulation is a three-celled circulation model for each hemisphere. Because the circulation patterns between the equator and roughly 30° latitude north and south closely resemble an earlier single-cell model used by George Hadley in 1735, the name Hadley cell is generally applied. According to the three-cell circulation model, in each hemisphere, atmospheric circulation cells are located between the equator and 30° latitude, 30 and 60° latitude, and 60° latitude and the pole. The areas of general subsidence in the zone between 20 and 35° are called the horse latitudes. In each hemisphere, the equatorward flow from the horse latitudes forms the reliable trade winds. Convergence of the trade winds from both hemispheres near the equator produces a region of light winds called the doldrums. The circulation between 30 and 60° latitude (north and south) results in the prevailing westerlies. Air that moves equatorward from the poles produces the polar easterlies of both hemispheres. The area where the cold polar easterlies clash with the warm westerly flow of the midlatitudes is referred to as the polar front, an important meteorological region.
If Earth's surface were uniform, two latitudinally oriented belts of high and two of low pressure would exist. Beginning at the equator, the four belts would be the (1) equatorial low, also referred to as the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) because it is the region where the trade winds converge, (2) subtropical high, at about 20 to 35° on either side of the equator, (3) subpolar low, situated at about 50 to 60° latitude, and (4) polar high, near Earth's poles.
In reality, the only true zonal pattern of pressure exists along the subpolar low in the Southern Hemisphere. At other latitudes, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, where there is a higher proportion of land compared to ocean, the zonal pattern is replaced by semipermanent cells of high and low pressure. January pressure and wind patterns show a very strong high-pressure center, called the Siberian high, positioned over the frozen landscape of northern Asia. Also evident in January, but absent in July, are two intense semipermanent low-pressure centers, the Aleutian and Icelandic lows, situated over the North Pacific and North Atlantic, respectively. With the onset of summer the pressure pattern over the Northern Hemisphere changes dramatically and high temperatures over the continents generate lows that replace the winter highs. During the peak summer season, the subtropical high found in the North Atlantic (called the Azores high in winter) is positioned near the island of Bermuda and called the Bermuda high.
4. The greatest seasonal change in Earth's global circulation is the development of monsoons, wind systems that exhibit a pronounced seasonal reversal in direction. The best-known and most pronounced monsoonal circulation, the Asian monsoon found in southern and southeastern Asia, is a complex seasonal change that is strongly influenced by the amount of solar heating received by the vast Asian continent. The North American monsoon (also called the Arizona monsoon and Southwest monsoon), a relatively small seasonal wind shift, produces a dry spring followed by a comparatively rainy summer that impacts large areas of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.
5. The temperature contrast between the poles and equator drives the westerly winds (westerlies) located in the middle latitudes. Embedded within the westerly flow aloft are narrow ribbons of high-speed winds, called jet streams, that meander for thousands of kilometers. The key to the origin of polar jet streams is found in great temperature contrasts at the surface. In the region between 30 and 70°, the polar jet stream occurs in association with the polar front.
6. Studies of upper-level wind charts reveal that the westerlies follow wavy paths that have rather long wavelengths. The longest wave patterns are called Rossby waves. During periods when the flow aloft is relatively flat, little cyclonic activity is generated on the surface. Conversely, when the flow exhibits large-amplitude waves having short wavelengths, vigorous cyclonic storms are created. In addition to seasonal changes in the strength of its flow, the position of the polar jet also shifts from summer to winter.
7. Because winds are the primary driving force of ocean currents, a relationship exists between the oceanic circulation and the general atmospheric circulation. In general, in response to the circulation associated with the subtropical highs, ocean currents form clockwise spirals in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise spirals in the Southern Hemisphere. In addition to influencing temperatures of adjacent land areas, cold ocean currents also transform some tropical deserts into relatively cool, damp places that are often shrouded in fog. Furthermore, ocean currents play a major role in maintaining Earth's heat balance. In addition to producing surface currents, winds may also cause vertical water movements, such as the upwelling of cold water from deeper layers to replace warmer surface-water.
8. El Niño refers to episodes of ocean warming caused by a warm countercurrent flowing southward along the coasts of Ecuador and Peru that replaces the cold Peruvian current. The events are part of the global circulation and related to a seesaw pattern of atmospheric pressure between the eastern and western Pacific called the Southern Oscillation. El Niño events influence weather at great distances from Peru and Ecuador. Two of the strongest El Niño events (198283 and 199798) were responsible for a variety of weather extremes in many parts of the world. When surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific are colder than average, a La Niña event is triggered. A typical La Niña winter blows colder than normal air over the Pacific Northwest and the northern Great Plains, while warming much of the rest of the United States.
9. The general features of the global distribution of precipitation can be explained by global winds and pressure systems. In general, regions influenced by high pressure, with its associated subsidence and divergent winds, experience dry conditions. On the other hand, regions under the influence of low pressure and its converging winds and ascending air receive ample precipitation.
10. On a uniform Earth, throughout most of the year, heavy precipitation would occur in the equatorial region, the midlatitudes would receive most of their precipitation from traveling cyclonic storms, and polar regions would be dominated by cold air that holds little moisture. The most notable anomaly of this zonal distribution of precipitation occurs in the subtropics, where many of the world's great deserts are located. In these regions, pronounced subsidence on the eastern side of subtropical high-pressure centers results in stable atmospheric conditions. Upwelling of cold water along the west coasts of the adjacent continents further adds to the stable and dry conditions. On the other hand, the east coast of the adjacent continent receives abundant precipitation year-round due to the convergence and rising air associated with the western side of the oceanic high.
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The following are health and medical definitions of terms that appear in the finasteride - oral (hair growth), Propecia article.
Allergic reaction: The hypersensitive response of the immune system of an allergic individual to a substance.
Alopecia: Baldness. There are many types of alopecia, each with a different cause. Alopecia may be localized to the front and top of the head as in common male pattern baldness. It may be patchy as in a condition called alopecia areata. Or it can involve the entire head as in alopecia capitis totalis. The word "alopecia" comes from the Greek "alopex" for "fox." Foxes are less furry when afflicted with a skin disease (the "mange") which causes them to lose their hair. When a fancier word for "baldness" was sought, the mangy fox supplied it -- "alopecia" or, if you wish, "fox-mange" -- not a very positive image to associate with baldness!
Antigen: A substance that the immune system perceives as being foreign or dangerous. The body combats an antigen with the production of an antibody.
Baldness: Medically known as alopecia. There are many types of baldness, each with a different cause. Baldness may be localized to the front and top of the head, as in the very common type of male-pattern baldness; baldness may be patchy, a condition called alopecia areata; or it may involve the entire head, as in alopecia capitis totalis. The word "alopecia" comes from the Greek "alopex" for "fox." Foxes are less furry when afflicted with a skin disease called the "mange" which causes them to lose their hair. When a fancier word for "baldness" was sought, the mangy fox supplied it, "alopecia" or, if you wish, "fox-mange", not a very positive image to associate with baldness!
Breathing: The process of respiration, during which air is inhaled into the lungs through the mouth or nose due to muscle contraction and then exhaled due to muscle relaxation.
Cancer: An abnormal growth of cells which tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled way and, in some cases, to metastasize (spread).
Crown: 1. In dentistry, the portion of the tooth that is covered by enamel. 2. Also in dentistry, a type of restoration that covers all or most of the natural tooth. 3. In anatomy, the top of the head, as in the crown-rump length of a fetus. 4. In obstetrics, when a generous portion of the fetal scalp (the crown) become visible at the vaginal opening during labor. Soon after the baby crowns, delivery usually occurs.
Discharge: 1.The flow of fluid from part of the body, such as from the nose or vagina.
Dizziness: Painless head discomfort with many possible causes including disturbances of vision, the brain, balance (vestibular) system of the inner ear, and gastrointestinal system. Dizziness is a medically indistinct term which laypersons use to describe a variety of conditions ranging from lightheadedness, unsteadiness to vertigo.
Drain: A device for removing fluid from a cavity or wound. A drain is typically a tube or wick. As a verb, to allow fluid to be released from a confined area.
FDA: Food and Drug Administration.
Flush: (1) A redness of the skin, typically over the cheeks or neck. A flush is usually temporary and brought on by excitement, exercise, fever, or embarrassment. Flushing is an involuntary (uncontrollable) response of the nervous system leading to widening of the capillaries of the involved skin. Also referred to as a blush (or, as a verb, to blush). Flushing may also be caused by medications or other substances that cause widening of the capillaries, such as niacin. (2) Flush also means to wash out a wound or body area.
Generic: 1. The chemical name of a drug. 2. A term referring to the chemical makeup of a drug rather than to the advertised brand name under which the drug may be sold. 3.A term referring to any drug marketed under its chemical name without advertising.
Hair loss: Hair loss is the thinning of hair on the scalp. The medical term for hair loss is alopecia. Alopecia can be temporary or permanent. The most common form of hair loss occurs gradually and is referred to as "androgenetic alopecia," meaning that a combination of hormones (androgens are male hormones) and heredity (genetics) is needed to develop the condition. Other types of hair loss include alopecia areata (patches of baldness that usually grow back), telogen effluvium (rapid shedding after childbirth, fever, or sudden weight loss); and traction alopecia (thinning from tight braids or ponytails).
Hormone: A chemical substance produced in the body that controls and regulates the activity of certain cells or organs. Many hormones are secreted by special glands, such as thyroid hormone produced by the thyroid gland. Hormones are essential for every activity of life, including the processes of digestion, metabolism, growth, reproduction, and mood control. Many hormones, such as neurotransmitters, are active in more than one physical process.
Infant: A young baby, from birth to 12 months of age.
Itching: An uncomfortable sensation in the skin that feels as if something is crawling on the skin and makes the person want to scratch the affected area. Itching is medically known as pruritis; something that is itchy is pruritic.
Laboratory: A place for doing tests and research procedures, and for preparing chemicals and some medications. Also known as lab.
Liver: The largest solid organ in the body, situated in the upper part of the abdomen on the right side. The liver has a multitude of important and complex functions, including to manufacture proteins, including albumin (to help maintain the volume of blood) and blood clotting factors; to synthesize, store, and process fats, including fatty acids (used for energy) and cholesterol; to metabolize and store carbohydrates (used as the source for the sugar in blood); to form and secrete bile that contains bile acids to aid in the intestinal absorption of fats and the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K; to eliminate, by metabolizing or secreting, the potentially harmful biochemical products produced by the body, such as bilirubin, from the breakdown of old red blood cells and ammonia from the breakdown of proteins; and to detoxify, by metabolizing and/or secreting, drugs, alcohol, and environmental toxins.
Liver disease: Liver disease refers to any disorder of the liver. The liver is a large organ in the upper right abdomen that aids in digestion and removes waste products from the blood.
Medical history: 1. In clinical medicine, the patient's past and present which may contain relevant information bearing on their health past, present, and future. The medical history, being an account of all medical events and problems a person has experienced is an important tool in the management of the patient.
Mouth: 1. The upper opening of the digestive tract, beginning with the lips and containing the teeth, gums, and tongue. Foodstuffs are broken down mechanically in the mouth by chewing and saliva is added as a lubricant. Saliva contains amylase, an enzyme that digests starch. 2. Any opening or aperture in the body. The mouth in both senses of the word is also called the os, the Latin word for an opening, or mouth. The o in os is pronounced as in hope. The genitive form of os is oris from which comes the word oral.
Nipple discharge: See: Breast discharge.
Pain: An unpleasant sensation that can range from mild, localized discomfort to agony. Pain has both physical and emotional components. The physical part of pain results from nerve stimulation. Pain may be contained to a discrete area, as in an injury, or it can be more diffuse, as in disorders like fibromyalgia. Pain is mediated by specific nerve fibers that carry the pain impulses to the brain where their conscious appreciation may be modified by many factors.
Pharmacist: A professional who fills prescriptions and, in the case of a compounding pharmacist, makes them. Pharmacists are very familiar with medication ingredients, interactions, and cautions.
Poison: Any substance that can cause severe organ damage or death if ingested, breathed in, or absorbed through the skin. Many substances that normally cause no problems, including water and most vitamins, can be poisonous if taken in excessive quantity. Poison treatment depends on the 'substance.
Poison control center: A special information center set up to inform people about how to respond to potential poisoning. These centers maintain databases of poisons and appropriate emergency treatment. Local poison control centers should be listed with other community-service numbers in the front of the telephone book, and they can also be reached immediately through any telephone operator.
Pregnancy: The state of carrying a developing embryo or fetus within the female body. This condition can be indicated by positive results on an over-the-counter urine test, and confirmed through a blood test, ultrasound, detection of fetal heartbeat, or an X-ray. Pregnancy lasts for about nine months, measured from the date of the woman's last menstrual period (LMP). It is conventionally divided into three trimesters, each roughly three months long.
Pregnant: The state of carrying a developing fetus within the body.
Prescription: A physician's order for the preparation and administration of a drug or device for a patient. A prescription has several parts. They include the superscription or heading with the symbol "R" or "Rx", which stands for the word recipe (meaning, in Latin, to take); the inscription, which contains the names and quantities of the ingredients; the subscription or directions for compounding the drug; and the signature which is often preceded by the sign "s" standing for signa (Latin for mark), giving the directions to be marked on the container.
Prostate: A gland within the male reproductive system that is located just below the bladder. Chestnut shaped, the prostate surrounds the beginning of the urethra, the canal that empties the bladder.
Prostate cancer: A malignant tumor of the prostate, the gland that produces some of the components of semen. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death of males in the US. It is often first detected as a hard nodule found during a routine rectal examination. The PSA blood test is a screening test for prostate cancer. Diagnosis of prostate cancer is established when cancer cells are identified in prostate tissue obtained via biopsy. In some patients, prostate cancer is life threatening. In many others, prostate cancer can exist for years without causing any health problems. Treatment options for prostate cancer include observation, radiation therapy, surgery, hormone therapy, and chemotherapy.
PSA: Prostate specific antigen. A test for PSA may be used to screen for cancer of the prostate and to monitor treatment of the disease.
Rash: Breaking out (eruption) of the skin. A rash can be caused by an underlying medical condition, hormonal cycles, allergies, or contact with irritating substances. Treatment depends on the underlying cause of the rash. Medically, a rash is referred to as an exanthem.
Semen: The fluid that is released through the penis during orgasm. Semen is made up of fluid and sperm. The fluid comes from the prostate, seminal vesicles, and other sex glands. The sperm are manufactured in the testicles. The seminal fluid helps transport the sperm during orgasm. Seminal fluid contains sugar as an energy source for sperm.
Testicles: The testicles (also called testes or gonads) are the male sex glands. They are located behind the penis in a pouch of skin called the scrotum. The testicles produce and store sperm, and they are also the body's main source of male hormones (testosterone). These hormones control the development of the reproductive organs and other male characteristics, such as body and facial hair, low voice, and wide shoulders.
Urinary: Having to do with the function or anatomy of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, or urethra. For example, the urinary tract is the collection of organs of the body that produce, store, and discharge urine.
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For study guides, learning objectives, and more please click the image or detail link.
Number of Parts:
1) To teach the student about the musical alphabet.
2) To educate the student about how to play the piano.
3) To teach the student about the ways music can enrich ones life.
Study Guide: View Guide
Discover the importance of music in our lives. Learn about the essentials of reading music through state-of-the-art computer animation. Experience what music can do for you.
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SINGING to babies helps them rise up the charts of childhood development, says UniSA early childhood education Associate Professor Susan Hill.
"Babies are born with a natural ability to appreciate music," she said.
"Early exposure can help 'wire' the brain for future learning about creativity, patterns and sequence, language and literacy."
She said nursery rhymes, songs and chants helped babies to relax and be receptive to learning new things.
"Later singing and dancing to nursery rhymes not only increases vocabulary, but also helps our memory develop," Dr Hill said.
"Singing songs and nursery rhymes may be just as important as talking and reading to your child."
Adelaide singer/songwriter Fiona Munro created the Poppy and Patch it's fun to sing CD to fill a gap in the availability of age-appropriate baby music.
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Sleep is a power-saving state that allows a computer to quickly resume full-power operation (typically within several seconds) when you want to start working again. Putting your computer into the sleep state is like pausing a DVD player—the computer
immediately stops what it’s doing and is ready to start again when you want to resume working.
Hibernation is a power-saving state designed primarily for laptops. While sleep puts your work and settings in memory and draws a small amount of power, hibernation puts your open documents and programs on your hard disk, and then turns off your computer. Of all the power-saving states in Windows, hibernation uses the least amount of power. On a laptop, use hibernation when you know that you won’t use your laptop for an extended period and won’t have an opportunity to charge the battery during that time.
Hybrid sleep is designed primarily for desktop computers. Hybrid sleep is a combination of sleep and hibernate—it puts any open documents and programs in memory and on your hard disk, and then puts your computer into a low-power state so that you can quickly resume your work. That way, if a power failure occurs, Windows can restore your work from your hard disk. When hybrid sleep is turned on, putting your computer into sleep automatically puts your computer into hybrid sleep. Hybrid sleep is typically turned on by default on desktop computers.
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http://www.windowsreference.com/windows-7/whats-the-difference-between-sleep-hibernate-and-hybrid-sleep-in-windows-7/comment-page-1/
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2013-05-24T01:59:05Z
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en
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Yesterday, Terrafugia, Inc. announced that its proof-of-concept flying car had successfully taken off and landed at Plattsburgh International Airport in upstate New York. This vehiclewhich requires a Sport Pilot license to flytakes 30 seconds to switch between flying and driving, making it a "roadable aircraft." Its wings fold up automatically and all parts, including the propeller, are stored on the vehicle when its takes to the road. The company claims this car was the first road-ready aircraft ever to take flight. While this might be technically true, the flight of Terrafugia's vehicle (which was a runway test flightmore of a hop than a full flight.) has a lot more to prove to make a big splash in the long history of the pursuit of a production-ready flying car. In light of this news, we look back at some of our favorite, quirkiest and most innovative flying cars ever made.
The First! (Approved to Fly)
The first flying car to be certified to fly by the governmentthen in the hands of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, now known as the Federal Aviation Administrationwas designed by Robert Fulton and developed by Continental, a company that he formed in 1945. His version of the flying car was called the Airphibian; it was a plane with detachable wings, adapted for the road. The prototype was first flown on Nov. 7, 1946. The Airphibian never made it in the light aircraft market and the company eventually fell apart in 1954.
Flying Cars for the Military
Sure, flying cars are every civilian's dream, but they're likely going to first be used by the militaryat least that is what Paul Moller, Chairman of the Board at Moller International, is counting on. The Moller Skycar M400 is an Osprey-cum-Camaro that is designed to take off and land vertically. Moller has taken the XM-4 and M200X models for more than 200 manned and unmanned flights since 1970. The latest version, the M400 model, uses a principle similar to that of the British Harrier jump jet: redirecting thrust. Though a separate model hasn't been specifically designed for civilian use, Moller International says that the vehicle can also be used in a multitude of other ways such as chartered travel, express delivery, border patrol, police and fire work and search and rescue. Though the M400 has received its share of rave reviews, Moller is still having trouble securing funding.
(Photo by Ralph Crane//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Throughout the history of the pursuit of the flying car, it seems, the Aerocar has had a foot in the door. Moulton Taylor's first idea for a road-ready airplane came to him in 1946 when he was inspired by the Fulton's Airphibian. His inspiration soon became a working prototypein 1949consisting of a vehicle that stored its wings in a trailer while traveling on the road. Over two decades later, in 1971, the Aerocar III was featured in Popular Mechanics.
The latest Aerocar, the Aerocar 2000, came into being after Ed Sweeney, who was part of the Monster Garage team that built Jesse James's flying car, was inspired by Moulton Taylor's flying craft. Sweeney's version is a modern take on Taylor's 1950s Aerocar. This vehicle uses a "flight module" which has to be attached to the car by being backed into it and connected.
The DIY Flying Car
Practically as long as people have been building cars in their garages, they've been sinking moneylots of itinto flying DIY road vehicles. Even with hefty upfront costs and huge time commitment, plenty of DIYers have pursued of the dream of the flying car.
Eighty-eight years ago, one such tinkerer, an Argentinian inventor, built a hovering flying machine that was featured in a 1921 issue of Popular Mechanics. The vehicle was constructed using two propellers mounted one above the other that rotated in opposite directions. By using dual propellers, the vehicle was capable of rising or descending in a straight line, flying forward at any angle and hovering over one spot.
The Flying Car as a Work of Art
While the goal of most flying cars is to push them to the commercial market, thus jump-starting a Jetsons-like world of flying vehicles and sky-high garages, some mechanics are happy just dabbling in flying vehicles for the fun of it. In a cover story for Popular Mechanics in 2005, Jesse James looked to make flying cars an art form by using a Panoz Esperante GT to build a vehicle he had dreamed of constructing since he was 7 years old.
Taking just five days to build the vehicle, James painted his flying car a "shiny Red Baron red" and went out on the track with the editors to take it for a test flight. Surprisingly enough, the GT with wings was able to stay a good 3 feet off the ground for a 300-foot-long flight. While this was not a record distance for a flying car, it gets top marks for best-looking flying car, everso far.
The Modern-Day Push for the Flying Car
Today, there continue to be companies competing to make a modern, factory-ready, flying road vehicle. Still, with few working prototypes and cash flow at an all-time low, these companies have a number of hurdles before being able to bring a vehicle to market. The FSC-1, made by Labiche Aerospace, is one car that has been in development since the 1980s. A nonfunctional prototype was seen on display in Los Angeles in 2007.
The X-Hawk, made by Urban Aeronautics, is another modern concepta flying car with a "rotorless" vehicle that takes off and lands vertically. We have yet to see much beyond plastic moldings and computer simulations for this vehicle (see below).
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1830s A short Historical Back drop of Victorian Britain
- Slavery is abolished in the British Empire
- Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist is published
- London to Birmingham line opens starting the railway boom
- George IV dies and is succeeded by William IV
- Queen Victoria's coronation
William Webb Ellis receives his MA degree at Oxford.
Thomas Hughes author of "Tom Brown's School days" started at Rugby School.
In 1839 at Cambridge University, an old Rugbeian, Mr Arthur Pell (a Cambridge under graduate who later became a member of Parliament) got a rugby team together. The Old Rugbeians challenged the Old Etonians to a game of football and controversy at the Rugbeians' use of hands led to representatives of the major public schools meeting to draw up the 'Cambridge Rules'.
At Rugby School, the 1839 School House team was the first side to adopt a uniform. All their players wore red velvet caps during a match that Princess Adelaide daughter of the duke of Saxe-Meiningen (wife of the future King William IV), is thought to have watched. Note William ascended to the throne in 1830.
These velvet caps, together with white trousers and jerseys, became accepted for players ‘following up’ although each wore his own favourite colours and carried a personal motto on his shirt (equivalent to today's Tee-shirt slogan).
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Mechanics: Vectors and Projectiles
Vectors and Projectiles: Problem Set Overview
This set of 34 problems targets your ability to perform basic vector operations such as vector addition and vector resolution, to use right angle trigonometry and vector addition principles to analyze physical situations involving displacement vectors, and to combine a conceptual understanding of projectile motion with an ability to use kinematic equations in order to solve horizontally and non-horizontally launched projectile problems. Problems range in difficulty from the very easy and straight-forward to the very difficult and complex. The more difficult problems are color-coded as blue problems.
Direction: The Counter-Clockwise From East Convention
A vector is a quantity which has magnitude and direction. The direction can be described as being east, west, north, or south using the typical map convention. Most of us are familiar with the map convention for the direction of a vector. On a map, up on the page is usually in the direction of North and to the right on the page is usually in the direction of east. In Physics, we utilize the map convention to express the direction of a vector. When a vector is neither north or south or east or west, an additional convention must be used. One convention commonly used for expressing the direction of vectors is the counter-clockwise from east convention (CCW). The direction of a vector is represented as the counter-clockwise angle of rotation which the vector makes with due East.
Often times a motion involves several segments or legs. For instance, a person in a maze makes several individual displacements in order to finish some distance out of place from the starting position. Such individual displacement vectors can be added using a head-to-tail method of vector addition. If adding vector B to vector A, then vector A should first be drawn; then vector B should be added to it by drawing it so that the tail of vector B starts at the location that the head of vector A ends. The resultant vector is then drawn from the tail of A (starting point) to the head of B (finishing point). The resultant is equivalent to the sum of the individual vectors. In this set of problems, you will have to be able to read the word story problem and sketch an appropriate vector addition diagram.
Adding Right Angle Vectors
Two vectors which are added at right angles to each other will sum to a resultant vector which is the hypotenuse of a right triangle. The Pythagorean theorem can be used to relate the magnitude of the hypotenuse to the magnitudes of the other two sides of the triangle. The angles within the right triangle can be determined from knowledge of the length of the sides using trigonometric functions. The mnemonic SOH CAH TOA can help one remember how the lengths of the opposite, adjacent and hypotenuse sides of the right triangle are related to the angle value.
Resolving an Angled Vector into Right Angle Components
If one of the vectors to be added is not directed due east, west, north or south, then vector resolution can be employed in order to simply the addition process. Any vector which makes an angle to one of the axes can be projected onto the axes to determine its components. Trigonometric functions (remembered by SOH CAH TOA) can be used to resolve such a vector and to determine the magnitudes of its x- and y- components. By resolving an angled vector into x- and y-components, the components of the vector can be substituted for the actual vector itself and used in solving a vector addition diagram. The resolution of angled vectors into x- and y-components allows a student to determine the magnitude of the sides of the resultant vector by summing up all the east-west and north-south components.
Relative Velocity Situations
Often times an object is moving within a medium which is moving relative to its surroundings. For instance, a plane moves through air which (due to winds) is moving relative to the land below. And a boat moves through water which (due to currents) is moving relative to the land on the shore. In such situations, an observer on land will observe the plane or the boat to move at a different velocity than an observer in the boat or the plane would observe. It's a matter of reference frame. One's perception of a motion is dependent upon one's reference frame - whether the person is in the boat, the plane or on land.
In a relative velocity problem, information is typically stated about the motion of the plane relative to the air (plane velocity) or the motion of the boat relative to the water (boat velocity). And information about the motion of the air relative to the ground (wind velocity or air velocity) or the motion of the water relative to the shore (water velocity or river velocity ) is typically stated. The problem centers around relating these two components of the plane or boat motion to the resulting velocity. The resulting velocity of the plane or boat relative to the land is simply the vector sum of the plane or boat velocity and the wind or river velocity.
The approach to such problems demands a careful reading (and re-reading) of the problem statement and a careful sketch of the physical situation. Efforts must be made to avoid mis-interpreting the physical situation. Once properly set-up, the algebraic manipulations become relatively simply and straight-forward. The crux of the problem is typically associated with the reading, interpreting and understanding of the problem statement.
A projectile is an object which upon which the only force of influence is the force of gravity. As a projectile moves through the air, its trajectory is effected by the force of gravity; air resistance is assumed to have a negligible effect upon the motion. Because gravity is the only force, the acceleration of a projectile is the acceleration of gravity - 9.8 m/s/s, down. As such, projectiles travel along their trajectory with a constant horizontal velocity and a changing vertical velocity. The vertical velocity changes by -9.8 m/s each second. (Here the - sign indicates that an upward velocity value would be decreasing and a downward velocity value would be increasing.)
A projectile has a motion which is both horizontal and vertical at the same time. These two components of motion can be described by kinematic equations. Since perpendicular components of motion are independent of each other, any motion in the horizontal direction is unaffected by a motion in a vertical direction (and vice versa). As such, two separate sets of equations are used to describe the horizontal and the vertical components of a projectile's motion. These equations are described below.
The VoxVoy Equations
Projectile problems in this set of problems can be divided into two types - those which are launched in a strictly horizontal direction and those which are launched at an angle to the horizontal. A horizontally launched projectile has an original velocity which is directed only horizontally; there is no vertical component to the original velocity. It is sometimes said that voy = 0 m/s for such problems. (The voy is the y-component of the original velocity.)
A non-horizontally launched projectile (or angled-launched projectile) is a projectile which is launched at an angle to the horizontal. Such a projectile has both a horizontal and vertical component to its original velocity. The magnitudes of the horizontal and vertical components of the original velocity can be calculated from knowledge of the original velocity and the angle of launch (theta or ) using trigonometric functions. The equations for such calculations are
The quantities vox and voy are the x- and y-components of the original velocity. The values of vox and voy are related to the original velocity (vo) and the angle of launch (). Here the angle of launch is defined as the angle with respect to the horizontal. This relationship is depicted in the diagram and equations shown below.
The Known and Unknown Variables
It is suggested that you utilize an x-y table to organize your known and unknown information. An x-y table lists kinematic quantities in terms of horizontal and vertical components of motion. The horizontal displacement, initial horizontal velocity. and horizontal acceleration are all listed in the same column. A separate column is used for the vertical components of displacement, initial velocity and acceleration. In this problem set, you will have to give attention to the following kinematic quantities and their corresponding symbols.
|horizontal displacement||x or dx||vertical displacement||y or dy|
|original horizontal velocity||vox||original vertical velocity||voy|
|horizontal acceleration||ax||vertical acceleration||ay|
|final horizontal velocity||vfx||final vertical velocity||vfy|
Given these symbols for the basic kinematic quantities, an x-y table for a projectile problem would have the following form:
x = __________________
vox = __________________
ax = __________________
vfx = __________________
t = __________________
y = __________________
voy = __________________
ay = __________________
vfy = __________________
t = __________________
Of the nine quantities listed above, eight are vectors which have a specific direction associated with them. Time is the only quantity which is a scalar. As a scalar, time can be listed in an x-y table in either the horizontal or the vertical columns. In a sense, time is the one quantity which bridges the gap between the two columns. While horizontal and vertical components of motion are independent of each other, both types of quantities are dependent upon time. This is best illustrated when inspecting the kinematic equations which are used to solve projectile motion problems.
If the understanding that a projectile is an object upon which the only force is gravity is applied to these projectile situations, then it is clear that there is no horizontal acceleration. Gravity only accelerates projectiles vertically, so the horizontal acceleration is 0 m/s/s. Any term containing the ax variable will thus cancel. There are three equations in the top row of horizontal motion equations which contain the ax variable; these have thus been greyed out.
Trajectory Diagram and Characteristics
Non-horizontally launched projectiles (or angle-launched projectiles) move horizontally above the ground as they move upward and downward through the air. One special case is a projectile which is launched from ground level, moves upwards towards a peak position, and subsequently fall from the peak position back to the ground. A trajectory diagram is often used to depict the motion of such a projectile. The diagram below depicts the path of the projectile and also displays the components of its velocity at regular time intervals.
The vx and vy vectors in the diagram represent the horizontal and vertical components of the velocity at each instant during the trajectory. A careful inspection shows that the vx values remain constant throughout the trajectory. The vy values decrease as the projectile rises from its initial location towards the peak position. As the projectile falls from its peak position back to the ground, the vy values increase. In other words, the projectile slows down as it rises upward and speeds up as it falls downward. This information is consistent with the definition of a projectile - an object whose motion is influenced solely by the force of gravity; such an object will experience a vertical acceleration only.
At least three other principles are observed in the trajectory diagram which apply to this special case of an angle-launched projectile problem.
The time for a projectile to rise to the peak is equal to the time for it to fall to the peak. The total time (ttotal) is thus the time up (tup) to the peak multiplied by two:
ttotal = 2 • tup
At the peak of the trajectory, there is no vertical velocity for a projectile. The equation vfy = voy + ay • t can be applied to the first half of the trajectory of the projectile. In such a case, t represents tup and the vfy at this instant in time is 0 m/s. By substituting and re-arranging, the following derivation is performed.
vfy = voy + ay • t
0 m/s = voy + (-9.8 m/s/s) • tup
tup = voy / (9.8 m/s/s)
The projectile strikes the ground with a vertical velocity which is equal in magnitude to the vertical velocity with which it left the ground. That is,
vfy = voy
The Basic Strategy
The basic approach to solving projectile problems involves reading the problem carefully and visualizing the physical situation. A well-constructed diagram is often a useful means of visualizing the situation. Then list and organize all known and unknown information in terms of the symbols used in the projectile motion equations. An x-y table is a useful organizing scheme for listing such information. Inspect all known quantities, looking for either three pieces of horizontal information or three pieces of vertical information. Since all kinematic equations list four variables, knowledge of three variables allows you to determine the value of a fourth variable. For instance, if three pieces of vertical information are known, then the vertical equations can be used to determine a fourth (and a fifth) piece of vertical information. Often times, the fourth piece of information is the time. In such instances, the time can then be combined with two pieces of horizontal information to calculate another horizontal variable using the ...
Habits of an Effective Problem-Solver
An effective problem solver by habit approaches a physics problem in a manner that reflects a collection of disciplined habits. While not every effective problem solver employs the same approach, they all have habits which they share in common. These habits are described briefly here. An effective problem-solver...
- ...reads the problem carefully and develops a mental picture of the physical situation. If needed, they sketch a simple diagram of the physical situation to help visualize it.
- ...identifies the known and unknown quantities in an organized manner, often times recording them on the diagram iteself. They equate given values to the symbols used to represent the corresponding quantity (e.g., vox = 12.4 m/s, voy = 0.0 m/s, dx = 32.7 m, dy = ???).
- ...plots a strategy for solving for the unknown quantity; the strategy will typically center around the use of physics equations be heavily dependent upon an understaning of physics principles.
- ...identifies the appropriate formula(s) to use, often times writing them down. Where needed, they perform the needed conversion of quantities into the proper unit.
- ...performs substitutions and algebraic manipulations in order to solve for the unknown quantity.
Additional Readings/Study Aids:
The following pages from The Physics Classroom tutorial may serve to be useful in assisting you in the understanding of the concepts and mathematics associated with these problems.
- Vectors and Direction
- Vector Addition
- Vector Components
- Vector Resolution
- Relative Velocity and Riverboat Problems
- Independence of Perpendicular Components
- What is a Projectile?
- Characteristics of a Projectile's Trajectory
- Horizontal and Vertical Velocity Components
- Horizontal and Vertical Displacement
- Calculating Initial Velocity Components
- Horizontally Launched Projectiles Problems
- Non-Horizontally Launched Projectiles Problems
Problem Sets and Audio Guided Solutions
Vectors and Projectiles Problem Set
Vectors and Projectiles Audio Guided Solutions
View the audio guided solution for problem:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34
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http://www.physicsclassroom.com/calcpad/vecproj/
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2013-06-18T22:51:02Z
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Through education, enforcement, and outreach, NHTSA's pedestrian safety programs are directed toward reducing pedestrian injuries and fatalities, improving the safety of elderly pedestrians, and reaching diverse communities.
Did you know?
Everyone Is A Pedestrian!
Safety tips for pedestrians and drivers. Whenever you are not in your vehicle, you are a pedestrian!
Traffic Safety Facts - Pedestrians [August 2012]
4,280 pedestrians died in traffic crashes in 2010, a 4% increase from the number reported in 2009.
Traffic Safety Facts - Children [May 2013]
In 2011, an estimated 69,000 pedestrians were injured, 11,000 of those injured were age 14 and younger, and males accounted for 65% (7,000) of those 11,000 injured.
Traffic Safety Facts - Older Population
In 2009, 16 percent of all traffic fatalities in the United States were among people age 65 and older.
Highway Safety Program Guideline No. 14
Each State should develop and implement a comprehensive pedestrian safety program that promotes safe pedestrian practices, and educates drivers to share the road safely with other road users.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.nhtsa.gov/Pedestrians
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2013-06-20T09:16:32Z
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Teaching is so much easier if you get kids singing and moving. My students always loved this little Money Rap. It’s just the ticket for teaching coin denomination. Use a rap cadence and have fun with it. Follow up by using actual coins while singing the rap.
The Money Rap
Well, I know a song, it’s really kind of funny,
It’s all about coins and learning to count money.
Chorus: Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
Now a penny means one (hold out 1 finger)
And a nickel means five (hold out 5 fingers)
Dimes are worth ten (hold out 10 fingers
Quarters twenty five (flash 10 twice and then 5)
Five pennies in a nickel (1 hand fingers stretched)
Two nickels in a dime (hold out 2 fingers)
Five nickels in a quarter (1 hand fingers stretched)
You’ll know it every time.(downward motion both hands)
Five pennies make a nickel, Two nickels make a dime
Two dimes and a nickel, make a quarter every time.
Four quarters make a dollar and that is quite a lot,
And a dollar in my pocket is exactly what I’ve got.
June 30, 2010 Comments Off
I ran across this silly video and thought it demonstrates how learning takes place with audio and kinesthetic learners. As you know, audio learners must speak or sing the information aloud to remember it. Kinesthetic learners need to get their bodies involved and moving. When I teach zero times any number, I use this same idea. The zero is round and looks like a mouth. And what does a mouth do? It eats things. In fact when you are multiplying zero times any number, that hungry mouth gobbles up the other number and nothing is left except the mouth (0). Make it into a game to see who can write the largest number and then gobble it up so all that is left is zero.
In my multiplication system I used “Sticky Gum” for “one times any other number.” When you chew a stick of gum it gets very sticky and when it touches (or is multiplied) by another number, it sticks to that other number. So 1 x 5 = 5. The gum stuck to the five. This could be put to song similar to the sticky gum song in the video. In place of it getting stuck to the nose or face, it could get stuck to numbers. Children are memorizing while having fun singing and clapping!
February 23, 2010 Comments Off
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http://memoryjoggers.com/tag/kinesthetic-learners/
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This famous temple to the god of healing and the sun was built towards the middle of the 5th century B.C. in the lonely heights of the Arcadian mountains. The temple, which has the oldest Corinthian capital yet found, combines the Archaic style and the serenity of the Doric style with some daring architectural features.
Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae
Isolated as it is in a conserved environment, the Temple of Bassae is an outstanding example of a Hellenic votive sanctuary in a rural setting. It represents a unique artistic achievement, remarkable for its archaic features (elongated surface, an exceptional proportion of 15 columns on the longer side and 6 columns on the facade, and a north-south exposure), and for its daring innovations (the use of Ionic and Corinthian orders for a Doric edifice, the variety of materials used, and the originality of the layout of the cella and the adyton).
The Temple was dedicated by the inhabitants of Philagia to Apollo Epicurius, the god-healer who had come to their aid when they were beset by the plague. Its ruins rise majestically to 1,130 m high in the mountainous region of Arcadia in the heart of the Peloponnese, near Andritsaina. Built in the second half of the 5th century BC (c. 420-410 BC?), it belongs to the first generation of post-Parthenonian edifices. Pausanias admired its beauty and harmony and, moreover, attributed it to the architect Ictinos, although contemporary archaeologists have been unable to provide confirmation.
With its elongated dimensions (39.87 m by 16.13 m), the peripteral structure is built mainly in grey limestone of local origin. The outer colonnade of the hexastyle temple respects an extremely strict Doric order (the metopes are not sculptured). Inside, however, fine-quality sculpturing blends with a more sophisticated architectural style. The front of the pronaos and the opisthodomos, with two in antis columns, restate the Doric order. In the cella, however, a series of embedded Ionic columns stand against low support walls. On the southern side, where an adyton is located, the last two Ionic columns standing in the cella at the far end of the oblique walls flank one Corinthian column which stands alone in the centre of the temple. The decoration is notable, particularly by virtue of the different materials used: the walls and the bases and tambours of the columns are limestone, and the Ionic capitals and the Corinthian capital are in Doliana marble, as are the sculptured metopes of the exterior frieze of the cella, the plates of the Ionic frieze which runs along the inside of the sanctuary, the guttae, the roof supports and the roofing tiles.
The capital of the central column of the Temple of Bassae is the most ancient conserved Corinthian capital, and as such the temple may be considered a model for all 'Corinthian' monuments of Greek, Roman and subsequent civilizations.
Being located away from the city, the temple long remained undiscovered. A French architect came upon it accidentally in 1765 and brought it to the attention of the academic world. The first archaeological investigation in 1812 was profitable but at the same time prejudicial for the integrity of the site. The discovery of the Ionic frieze's 22 sculptured plates ultimately divested the site of these remarkable sculptures, which were acquired in 1814 by order of the future King George IV of England and transferred to the British Museum along with the Corinthian capital. Deprived of decorations of exceptional quality (a Centauromachy and an Amazonomachy), the Temple of Bassae was carefully restored in 1902, but in 1965 the critical state of the monument called for renewed renovation. Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC
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In cryptography, Camellia is a 128-bit block cipher jointly developed by Mitsubishi and NTT. The cipher has been approved for use by the ISO/IEC, the European Union's NESSIE project and the Japanese CRYPTREC project. The cipher has security levels and processing abilities comparable to the Advanced Encryption Standard.
Camellia's block size is 16 bytes (128 bits), and can use 128-bit, 192-bit or 256-bit keys. The block cipher was designed to be suitable for both software and hardware implementations, from low-cost smart cards to high-speed network systems.
Camellia is a Feistel cipher with either 18 rounds (when using 128-bit keys) or 24 rounds (when using 192 or 256-bit keys). Every six rounds, a logical transformation layer is applied: the so-called "FL-function" or its inverse. Camellia uses four 8 x 8-bit S-boxes with input and output affine transformations and logical operations. The cipher also uses input and output key whitening. The diffusion layer uses a linear transformation based on a matrix with a branch number of 5.
Security analysis
Camellia is a block cipher which can be completely defined by minimal systems of multivariate polynomials.
- The Camellia (as well as AES) S-boxes can be described by a system of 23 quadratic equations in 80 terms.
- The key schedule can be described by 1120 equations in 768 variables using 3328 linear and quadratic terms.
- The entire block cipher can be described by 5104 equations in 2816 variables using 14592 linear and quadratic terms.
- In total, 6224 equations in 3584 variables using 17920 linear and quadratic terms are required.
- The number of free terms is 11696, which is approximately the same number as for AES.
Theoretically, such properties might make it possible to break Camellia (and AES) using an algebraic attack, such as Extended Sparse Linearisation, in the future (provided that the attack becomes feasible). With today's technology, such an attack would take years to compute, and thus is not realistic.
Patent status
Although Camellia is patented, it is available under a royalty-free license. This has allowed the Camellia cipher to become part of the OpenSSL Project, under an open-source license, since November 2006. It has also allowed it to become part of the Mozilla's NSS (Network Security Services) module.
Support for Camellia was added to the final release of Mozilla Firefox 3 in 2008.
Later in the same year, the FreeBSD Release Engineering Team announced that the cipher had also been included in the FreeBSD 6.4-RELEASE. Also, support for the Camellia cipher was added to the disk encryption storage class geli of FreeBSD by Yoshisato Yanagisawa.
In September 2009, GNU Privacy Guard added support for Camellia in version 1.4.10.
Moreover, various popular security libraries, such as Crypto++, GnuTLS, PolarSSL and OpenSSL also include support for Camellia.
See also
External links
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camellia_(cipher)
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2013-05-21T10:24:29Z
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Teach Comprehension Strategies
Teach students reading comprehension strategies using carefully selected texts.
Many young readers learn to decode text but do not construct meaning with text. It’s important to teach beginning readers the strategies and mental actions that good readers use to construct meaning from text. Strategies such as activating prior knowledge or predicting, questioning, visualizing, monitoring, drawing inferences, and summarizing can be taught one by one or in combination. These strategies should be taught through explicit instruction and modeling, opportunities for guided and independent practice, and a gradual release of responsibility to apply the practice from teacher to students. When selecting texts for teaching reading comprehension strategies, teachers should draw from different genres, paying close attention to text quality and difficulty level. Selected texts should support the specific aim of the instruction.
Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies and Selecting Appropriate Text
This multimedia overview introduces central ideas in comprehension strategy instruction, offers some examples of specific instructional approaches, and describes the importance of text selection when teaching comprehension strategies. (5:28 min)
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http://dww.ed.gov/Reading-Comprehension/Teach-Comprehension-Strategies/practice/?T_ID=36&P_ID=97
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2013-06-18T22:37:55Z
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A step change for biodiversity knowledge
04 July 2012 | Article
"The hopes are high for IPBES to become an authoritative global mechanism recognized by scientists and policy makers alike to pull together dispersed information, syntheses and analyses on biodiversity and ecosystems. By building on existing processes and initiatives, and only creating new ones as a last resort in case of glaring gaps, the intention is that decisions and research investment will be more efficient," writes Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN Director General.
"There is no question that there is an impressive amount of knowledge already out there – generated by a wide variety of actors, including governments, academia, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and indigenous communities."
"As a Union comprising government and civil society Members, IUCN is well placed to bring together key actors at all levels. IUCN is a leading provider of biodiversity knowledge, tools and standards used to influence policy, undertake conservation planning and guide action on the ground," says Ms Marton-Lefèvre in a recent article.
"Of course, the biggest challenge for IPBES remains bridging the gap between science and policy makers. As we have seen in the climate change arena, unless we actually follow the recommendations of scientific bodies, we have little hope of tackling the accelerating worldwide loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystem services. Only then can we truly achieve a step change in the way we generate, distribute and use biodiversity knowledge," she concludes.
Read the full article A Step Change for Biodiversity Knowledge written by Ms Marton-Lefèvre on the IISD Biodiversity Policy & Practice knowledgebase.
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http://www.iucn.org/news_homepage/?10366/A-step-change-for-biodiversity-knowledge
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Christopher Dolinsky, MD and Christine Hill-Kayser, MD
Updated By Lara Bonner Millar, MD
Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: January 16, 2011
The cervix is the name for the lowest part of the uterus. The uterus is an organ that only women have, and it is where a baby grows and develops when a woman is pregnant. During pregnancy, the uterus has an enormous increase in size. When a woman is not pregnant, the uterus is a small, pear-shaped organ that sits between a woman's rectum and her bladder. The cervix connects the uterus with the birth canal (the vagina). The cervix can both be visualized and sampled by your doctor during a routine pelvic examination in his or her office.
Cervical cancer develops when cells in the cervix begin to grow out of control and can then invade nearby tissues or spread throughout the body. Large collections of cells that grow abnormally are called tumors. Some tumors are not cancer, because they cannot spread or threaten someone's life. These are called benign tumors. The tumors that can spread throughout the body or invade nearby tissues are considered cancer and are called malignant tumors. Usually, cervix cancer is very slow growing, although in certain circumstances it can grow and spread quickly.
Cancers are characterized by the cells that they originally form from. The most common type of cervical cancer is called squamous cell carcinoma; it comes from cells that lie on the surface of the cervix known as squamous cells. Squamous cell cervical cancer compromises about 80% of all cervical cancers. The second most common form is adenocarcinoma; it comes from cells that make up glands in the cervix. The percentage of cervical cancers that are adenocarcinomas has risen since the 1970s, although no one knows exactly why. About 3% to 5% of cervical cancers have characteristics of both squamous and adenocarcinomas and are called adenosquamous carcinomas. There are a few other very rare types like small cell and neuroendocrine carcinoma that are so infrequent that they will not be discussed further here.
Cervical cancer is vastly more common in developing nations than it is in developed nations, and it is fairly rare in the United States. In the U.S. in 2007, 12,280 women in the United States were diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,021 women in the United States died from cervical cancer. This puts cervical cancer as the 12th most common cancer that women develop, and the 14th most common cause of cancer death for women in the U.S. However, cervical cancer is the 2nd most common cause of cancer death in developing nations, with about 370,000 new cases annually having a 50% mortality rate. Decades ago, cervical cancer was the number one cause of cancer deaths in women in the U.S. There has been a 75% decrease in incidence and mortality from cervical cancer in developed nations over the past 50 years. Most of this decrease is attributed to the effective institution of cervical cancer screening programs in the wealthier nations.
Although there are several known risk factors for getting cervical cancer, no one knows exactly why one woman gets it and another doesn't. One of the most important risk factors for cervical cancer is infection with a virus called HPV (human papilloma virus). HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that is incredibly common in the population; most college-aged men and women have been exposed to HPV. HPV is the virus that causes genital warts, but having genital warts doesn't necessarily mean you are going to get cervical cancer. There are different subtypes, or strains, of HPV. Only certain subtypes are likely to cause cervical cancer, and the subtypes that cause warts are unlikely to cause a cancer. Often, infection with HPV causes no symptoms at all, until a woman develops a pre-cancerous lesion of the cervix. It should be stressed that only a very small percentage of women who have HPV will develop cervical cancer; so simply having HPV doesn't mean that you will get sick. However, almost all cervical cancers have evidence of HPV virus in them, so infection is a major risk factor for developing it.
Because infection with a sexually transmitted disease is a risk factor for cervical cancer, any risk factors for developing sexually transmitted diseases are also risk factors for developing cervical cancer. Women who have had multiple male sexual partners, began having sexual intercourse at an early age, or have had male sexual partners who are considered high risk (meaning that they have had many sexual partners and/or began having sexual intercourse at an early age) are at a higher risk for developing cervical cancer. Also, contracting any other sexually transmitted diseases (like herpes, gonorrhea, syphilis, or Chlamydia) increases a woman's risk. HIV infection is another risk factor for cervical cancer, but it may be so for a slightly different reason. It seems that any condition that weakens your immune system also increases your risk for developing cervical cancer. Conditions that weaken your immune system include HIV, having had an organ transplantation, and Hodgkin's disease. Another important risk factor for developing cervical cancer is smoking. Smokers are at least twice as likely as non-smokers to develop cervix tumors. Smoking may also increase the importance of the other risk factors for cancer. Finally, being in a low socioeconomic group seems to increase the likelihood for developing and dying from cervical cancer. This may be because of increased smoking rates, or perhaps because there are more barriers to getting annual screening exams. Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers that affects young women (in their twenties and even their teens), so no one who is sexually active is really too young to begin screening. Additionally, the risk for cervical cancer doesn't ever decline, so no one is too old to continue screening. Remember that all risk factors are based on probabilities, and even someone without any risk factors can still get cervical cancer. Proper screening and early detection are our best weapons in reducing the mortality associated with this disease.
Fortunately, there are several actions that women can take to decrease the risk of dying from cervix cancer. The first of these is undergoing regular Pap testing. Pap tests will be discussed further in the next section, but the reason that women have had such a drastic drop in cervical cancer cases and deaths in this country has been because of the Pap test and annual screening.
Recently, two vaccines, called Gardasil and Ceravix have been developed. These vaccines have been demonstrated to be effective in preventing infection with some strains of HPV, when given before a person is exposed to HPV. For this reason, is the vaccines are recommended and approved for girls and young women ages 9 – 26 years. Vaccination can also be given to boys, ages 9-26, to prevent genital warts and further spread of HPV in women and men. HPV is also a cause of penile and anal cancers and head & neck cancers.
For further prevention, women should try to reduce risk factors as much as possible. Don't start smoking, and if you are already a smoker, it is time to quit. Smoking has been shown to decrease the immune system’s ability to clear an HPV infection. Women can limit their numbers of sexual partners, and delay the onset of sexual activity to reduce risk, as more partners increases the likelihood of infection. Unfortunately, condoms do not protect you from developing HPV, so even though they can protect you from other sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, they cannot help lower your risk for being infected with HPV.
Many people are interested in preventing cervical cancer with vitamins or diets. Studies looking at beta-carotene and folic acid for preventing cervical cancer have shown no benefit. Some people think that anti-oxidants (like vitamin A and vitamin E) may play a role in cervical cancer prevention, but there is currently no convincing data that would suggest so. Further studies need to be performed before any nutritional recommendations can be made regarding cervix cancer prevention.
Cervical cancer is considered a preventable disease. It usually takes a very long time for pre-cancerous lesions to progress to invasive cancers and we have effective screening methods that can detect pre-cancerous lesions that can generally be cured without serious side effects. Effective screening programs in the United States have led to the drastic decline in the numbers of cervical cancer deaths in the last 50 years. For women who do end up with cervical cancer in developed nations, 60% of them either have never been screened or haven't been screened in the last five years. The importance of regular cervical cancer screening cannot be overstated.
The current hallmark of cervical cancer screening is the Pap test. Pap is short for Papanicolaou, the inventor of the test, who published a breakthrough paper back in 1941. A Pap test is easily performed in your doctor's office. During a pelvic examination, your doctor uses a wooden spatula and/or a brush to get samples of cervical cells. These cells are placed on a slide, fixed, and sent to a laboratory where an expert in examining cells under a microscope can look for cancerous changes. Many women find the exam uncomfortable, but rarely painful. Depending on the results of the test, your doctor may need to perform further examinations.
Although the Pap test is highly effective, it isn't a perfect test. Sometimes, the test may miss cells that have potential to become an invasive cancer. The test shouldn't be performed when you are menstruating; and if collection goes perfectly, even the best laboratories can miss abnormal cells. This is why women need to have the tests performed on a regular basis.
In November 2009, the America College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) released updated guidelines which recommend that women have their first Pap test at age 21. From ages 21 to 30, screening should be done every 2 years. Women 30 years and older, who have had three consecutive normal Paps, may decrease the screening to every three years. However, after having a new sexual partner, these women need to go back to yearly Pap testing. The ACOG guidelines also note that women with certain risk factors may need more frequent screening. These risk factors include being infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), being immunosuppressed, having been exposed to diethylstilbestrol (DES) before birth, and having previously been treated for certain cervical abnormalities or cancer.
Women aged 65 to 70 years who have had at least three normal Pap tests and no abnormal Pap tests in the last 10 years may decide, after talking with their doctor, to stop having Pap tests. Women who have had a hysterectomy (surgery to remove the uterus and cervix) do not need to have a Pap test, unless the surgery was done as a treatment for a precancerous condition or cancer. Women who have had a "subtotal or supracervical" hysterectomy still have a cervix, and need to continue Pap testing. Women who have received the HPV vaccine should follow the same guidelines as unvaccinated women, as the vaccine does not prevent infection with all strains of HPV.
HPV testing is frequently done along with the Pap test. HPV testing can theoretically find the vast majority of women who are at risk for developing cervical cancer. The subtype of HPV predicts how likely it is to lead to a cervical cancer. The DNA of cervical cells can be tested to identify high-risk types of HPV that may be present. The FDA has approved HPV DNA tests for follow-up testing of women with abnormalities on a pap test. HPV DNA tests are also approved for general cervical cancer screening of women over the age of 30 when done together with a Pap test. Talk to your doctor about your options and the availability of HPV testing in your area. There are currently no approved tests to detect HPV infections in men.
Unfortunately, the early stages of cervical cancer usually do not have any symptoms. This is why it is important to have screening Pap tests. As a tumor grows in size, it can produce a variety of symptoms including:
Many of these symptoms are non-specific, and could represent a variety of different conditions; however, your doctor needs to see you if you have any of these problems.
The most common reason for your doctor to pursue the diagnosis of cervical cancer is if you have an abnormal Pap test. Pap tests exist to find pre-cancerous lesions in your cervix. A pre-cancerous lesion means that there are abnormal appearing cancer cells, but they haven't invaded past a tissue barrier in your cervix; thus a pre-cancerous lesion cannot spread or harm you. However, if left untreated, a pre-cancerous lesion can evolve to an invasive cancer. Pap tests are reported as no abnormal cells, abnormal cells of undetermined significance, low risk abnormal cells or high risk abnormal cells. Depending on your specific case, your doctor will decide how to proceed.
A report of no abnormal cells equates to a negative test, meaning you simply need to follow-up in one year. The abnormal cells of undetermined significance can be handled in three different ways. Women can either get a repeat Pap test in 4-6 months, they can get HPV testing, or they can be referred for colposcopy. Colposcopy is a procedure done during a pelvic exam with the aide of a colposcope, which is like a microscope. By using acetic acid on the cervix and examining it with a colposcope, your doctor can look for abnormal areas of your cervix. Then, the most abnormal areas can be biopsied. A biopsy is the only way to know for sure if you have cancer, because it allows your doctors to get cells that can be examined under a microscope. Once the tissue is removed, a doctor known as a pathologist will review the specimen. Colposcopy is uncomfortable, but not painful, and can be done in your gynecologist's office. Your doctor will decide how to proceed with the workup of a Pap test showing abnormal cells of undetermined significance depending on the details of your case. If repeat Pap tests are not normal, then you will be referred for colposcopy. If you test positive for HPV, you will be referred for colposcopy. Generally, most patients with low risk abnormal cells, or high risk abnormal cells will be immediately referred for colposcopy. If you are pregnant, an adolescent, HIV positive, or post-menopausal, your doctor may have slightly different recommendations. Also, sometimes your Pap test will show cells that look abnormal but could have come from higher in your uterus. There is a chance that if this happens, you will need to have your uterine lining sampled. Talk to your doctor about your Pap test results, and what you need to do next after an abnormal Pap smear.
If you are having symptoms (bleeding/discharge) from a cervical cancer, then it can probably be visualized during a pelvic exam. Any time your doctor can see a cervical tumor on pelvic exam, it will be immediately biopsied. When abnormal appearing tissue is noticed during a colposcopy, then it needs to be biopsied as well. There are a few different ways to do a biopsy. A punch biopsy may be used to remove a small section of the cervix. A LEEP (loop electrosurgical excision procedure) is another method to do a biopsy where a thin slice of the cervix is removed. Finally, a conization or cone biopsy may be performed. A cone biopsy removes a thicker section of the cervix, and allows the pathologist to see if malignant cells have invaded underneath the surface. The cone biopsy has the added value of sometimes being able to cure a pre-cancerous lesion that is localized to a small area. Treatments for cervical cancer and pre-cancerous lesions will be discussed further in the next section.
In order to guide treatment and offer some insight into prognosis, cervical cancer is staged into different groups. There are a few different staging systems, but the most popular one for cervical cancer is the FIGO system (International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians). The FIGO system is a clinical staging system which means that the cancer is staged by a doctor's physical examination and the results of a biopsy. The FIGO staging system is for invasive cervical cancers, not pre-cancerous lesions. A simplified version of the FIGO staging system is:
Because the physical exam is so important for staging a cervical cancer, your doctors may want to do the most thorough examination while you are under anesthesia Other times, your doctors will want the results of other radiologic tests to better characterize your specific cancer. Tests like CAT scans (3-D x-rays) or MRIs (like a CAT scans but done with magnets) can examine the cervix and localized lymph nodes. X-rays may be taken of your bones and/or chest. Sometimes, your doctors may want to have a look in your bladder and do a cystoscopy, in which a lighted scope is inserted through your urethra into your bladder. You may get also get a proctosigmoidoscopy, which uses a lighted scope to examine your rectum and colon. Each patient is an individual so the specific tests people get will vary; but overall, your doctors want to know as much about your particular tumor as possible so that they can plan the best available treatments.
Women who have pre-cancerous lesions demonstrated on biopsy after colposcopy have a few different options how to proceed. A woman may decide on a specific option depending on whether or not she plans to have children in the future, her current health status and life expectancy, and her concerns about the future and the possibility of having a cancer come back. You should talk to your doctor about you fears, concerns and preferences. Sometimes, women with low grade lesions may choose to not have any further treatment, especially if the biopsy removed the entire lesion. If you decide to do this, you will need frequent pelvic exams and Pap tests. There are several; different ways to remove pre-cancerous lesions without removing the entire uterus (and thus preserving a woman's ability to have a baby in the future). Women can have cryosurgery (freezing off the abnormal lesion), a LEEP (the same type of electrosurgical procedure used for biopsies), a conization (the thicker type of biopsy that gets tissue under the surface), or have the cells removed with a laser. Your doctor can discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each of these modalities. Women who do not have any plans to have children in the future and are particularly worried about their chances of getting an invasive cancer may elect to have a hysterectomy (a surgery that removes your uterus and cervix). This procedure is much more invasive than any of the previous treatment modalities, but can provide peace of mind to women finished with childbearing.
Surgery is generally only employed in early stage cervical cancers. The purpose of surgery is to remove as much disease as possible, but it usually isn't used unless all of the cancer can be removed at the time of surgery. Cancers that have a high chance of already being in the lymph nodes are not treated with surgery (lymph nodes are small, pea-sized pieces of tissue that filter and clean lymph, a liquid waste product). There are a few different types of surgeries that can be performed. The earliest stage IA tumors can sometimes be treated with only a hysterectomy (removal of the uterus and cervix). Bigger stage IA, stage IB, and occasionally stage IIA tumors can be treated with more extensive hysterectomies coupled with lymphadenectomies (procedures that remove lymph nodes in the pelvis). Depending on the amount of disease, your surgeon may have to remove tissues around the uterus, as well as part of the vagina and the fallopian tubes. One of the benefits of surgery in young women is that sometimes their ovaries can be left, so that they do not go through menopause at an early age. Higher stage disease is usually treated with radiation and chemotherapy, but sometimes surgery is employed if cervical cancer comes back after it has already been treated. A pelvic exenteration is reserved for recurrent cervical cancers. A pelvic exenteration is a major surgery in which the uterus, cervix, fallopian tubes, ovaries, vagina, bladder, rectum and part of the colon are removed. This surgery is not commonly employed, but is occasionally used for recurrent cancers.
Radiation therapy has proven very effective in treating cervical cancer. Radiation therapy uses high energy x-rays to kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy is another option besides surgery for early stage cervical cancer; and when advanced stage cervical cancer needs to be treated, it is usually done with radiation therapy. Surgery and radiation have been shown to be equivalent treatments for early stage cervical cancers, and radiation helps avoid surgery in patients who are too ill to risk having anesthesia. Radiation has the benefit of being able to treat all of the disease in the radiation field; thus lymph nodes can be treated as well as the primary tumor in the course of the same treatment.
Radiation therapy for cervical cancer either comes from an external source (outside of the patient, known as external beam radiation) or an internal source (inside the patient, known as brachytherapy). External beam radiation therapy requires patients to come in 5 days a week for up 6-8 weeks to a radiation therapy treatment center. The treatment takes just a few minutes, and it is painless. With all cervical cancers above stage IB, the standard approach with radiotherapy is to use external beam radiation coupled with internal brachytherapy. Brachytherapy (also called intracavitary irradiation) allows your radiation oncologist to "boost" the radiation dose to the tumor site. This provides an added impact to the tumor, while sparing your normal tissues. This is done by inserting a hollow, metal tube with two egg shaped cartridges into your vagina. Then a small radioactive source is placed in the tube and cartridges. A computer has calculated how long the source needs to be there, but usually for what is called low dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy, you will need to have the source in for a few days. This procedure is done in the hospital, because for those few days you have to remain in bed. Another type of brachytherapy, called high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy, uses more powerful sources that only stay in for a few minutes. Although this option usually sounds more appealing to patients, there is debate as to which type is more effective and some institutions favor one over the other. Talk to your radiation oncologist about your options and your doctor’s opinions as to HDR versus LDR for cervical cancer treatment.
Another use of radiation is for palliation - meaning that patients with very advanced cases of cervical cancer are treated with the intent of easing their pain or symptoms, rather than trying to cure their disease.
Sometimes, women with early stage are treated with surgery, but after the results of the surgery, it becomes clear that they will need radiation as well. In any setting, radiation is often combined with chemotherapy, and, depending on your case, your doctor will decide on the best possible treatment arrangement for your lifestyle and wishes.
Despite the fact that tumors are removed by surgery or treated with radiation, there is always a risk of recurrence because there may be microscopic cancer cells left in the body. In order to decrease a patient's risk of a recurrence, she may be offered chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is the use of anti-cancer drugs that go throughout the entire body. Practically all patients who are in good medical condition and receiving radiation for stage IIA or higher cervical cancer will be offered chemotherapy in addition to their radiation. It may even be offered for earlier stage cases depending individual aspects of the patient and her disease. There have been many studies that demonstrate the usefulness of adding chemotherapy to radiation in terms of decreasing mortality from cervical cancer.
There are many different chemotherapy drugs, and they are often given in combinations for a series of months. Depending on the type of chemotherapy regimen you receive, you may get medication every week or few weeks; and you usually have to go to a clinic to get the chemotherapy because many of the drugs have to be given through a vein. The most commonly employed regimens use a drug called Cisplatin, but other drugs like 5-FU, Hydroxyurea, Ifosfamide, and Paclitaxel may also be employed. There are advantages and disadvantages to each of the different regimens that your gynecologic oncologist or medical oncologist will discuss with you. Based on your own health, your personal values and wishes, and side effects you may wish to avoid, you can work with your doctors to come up with the best regimen for your lifestyle.
Once a patient has been treated for cervix cancer, she needs to be closely followed for a recurrence. At first, you will have follow-up visits fairly often. The longer you are free of disease, the less often you will have to go for checkups. Your doctor will tell you when he or she wants follow-up visits, Pap tests, and/ or scans depending on your case. Your doctor will also do pelvic exams regularly during your office visits. It is very important that you let your doctor know about any symptoms you are experiencing and that you keep all of your follow-up appointments.
Clinical trials are extremely important in furthering our knowledge of this disease. It is through clinical trials that we know what we do today, and many exciting new therapies are currently being tested. Talk to your doctor about participating in clinical trials in your area.
This article is meant to give you a better understanding of cervical cancer. Use this knowledge when meeting with your physician, making treatment decisions, and continuing your search for information. You can learn more about cervical cancer on OncoLink through the related links to the left.
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First Siege of Zaragoza
|First Siege of Zaragoza|
|Part of the Peninsular War|
Assault on the walls of Saragossa by January Suchodolski, oil on canvas, 1845. (National Museum in Warsaw)
| First French Empire
Duchy of Warsaw
|Kingdom of Spain|
|Commanders and leaders|
| Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes
|| José de Palafox y Melzi
|Casualties and losses|
The First Siege of Zaragoza (also called Saragossa) was a bloody struggle in the Peninsular War (1807–1814). A French army under General Lefebvre-Desnouettes and subsequently commanded by General Jean-Antoine Verdier besieged, repeatedly stormed, and was repulsed from the Spanish city of Zaragoza in the summer of 1808.
Historical context
When the Dos de Mayo (2 May) uprisings took place in Spain in 1808, Napoleon at first thought that they were a series of isolated uprisings and despatched a number of small columns to quell them. In North Eastern Spain Marshall Bessières assigned General Lefebvre-Desnouettes to quell the revolt in Aragon. Eventually his column included 5,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry and two artillery batteries. Lefebvre quickly discovered, however, that the revolt was much more widespread than had been believed.
The Spanish side was led by General José de Palafox who was the second son in an aristocratic Spanish family. He was appointed Captain-General of Aragon in late May. He successfully raised a force of 7,500 troops but was handicapped by the lack of experience of these troops with only about 300 experienced cavalry and a few gunners.
Palafox made a few attempts to stop the French from even reaching Zaragoza. His elder brother the Marquis of Lazan attempted to stop them at Tudela on 8 June 1808 and again at Mallen on 13 June 1808. Palafax then sent out a force of 6,000 but was defeated again at Alagon on 14 June 1808 and Palafox himself was wounded. Finally the remaining Spanish forces retreated into Zaragoza.
The siege
Zaragoza itself was protected by two medieval walls and two rivers - the Ebro river to the north-east and the Huerva to the south - but the west was exposed to attack. The strength of the city, though, was in its maze of strongly built defensible buildings with narrow lanes easy to block with barricades.
Lefebvre reached Zaragoza on 15 June 1808. At this time he was badly outnumbered by the Spanish, who had around 11,000 troops although only half had experience of battle from the Alagon defeat.
The next day Lefebvre assaulted the western wall of the city expecting that the Spanish would collapse quickly.
In the first assault the French broke into the western part of the city and their Polish cavalry broke through the Santa Engracia gate but could make no progress inside the city and were forced to retreat. The French suffered around 700 casualties in this first assault.
Palafox himself was not present on that day. He had left to raise additional troops in Upper Aragon to attack Lefebvre's lines of communication. Palafox raised an additional force of 5,000 troops but these were defeated at Épila on the 23–24 June 1808 and Palafox returned to Zaragoza with only an additional 1,000 troops.
The French, however, received more substantial reinforcements with a force of 3,000 led by General Jean-Antoine Verdier arriving on 26 June 1808. As General Verdier was senior to Lefebvre he took over command of all the troops. Further reinforcements continued to arrive including some siege artillery.
On 28 June 1808 Verdier attacked Monte Terrero on the southern bank of the Huerva river. Monte Terrero was a hill that dominated the south of Zaragoza and should have been strongly fortified but was not. As a result the hill was captured with ease and the Spanish commander, Colonel Vincento Falco, was subsequently court-martialled and shot.
Now that Monte Terrero was in his hands, Verdier was able to use it as a base for his siege artillery. Starting from midnight on 30 June 1808 thirty siege guns, four mortars, and twelve howitzers opened fire on Zaragoza and kept firing continuously.
A second assault was made by the French on 2 July 1808 with twice the strength of the first assault. Although the fixed defences in Zaragoza had suffered heavily from the bombardment, the barricades were still intact and Palafox had returned to take command.
The French penetrated the city in several places but were unable to make any further progress and once again were forced to retreat. This assault became famous for the story of the Maid of Zaragoza: Agustina Zaragoza. Her lover was an artillery sergeant at the Portillo Gate. The entire crew of his gun were killed before they could fire off their last round. Agostina ran forward taking the lighted match from her dead lover's hands and fired the cannon. The French were hit by a round of grapeshot at close range and their attack was broken. Palafox said he personally witnessed this event and Agostina was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant.
During this assault on 2 July 1808 the French suffered 200 dead and 300 wounded. Verdier therefore decided not to make any further assaults and settled down for a siege. Unfortunately for him he had insufficient men to fully blockade the city and the Spanish were able to be supplied from the north bank of the Ebro river most of the time.
In the second half of July the French concentrated on capturing the Caouchin and Trinitarian convents of San Jose, which were to the west of Zaragoza. By 24 July 1808 these were all captured by the French.
On 4 August the French began a heavy artillery bombardment and silenced the Spanish guns and made several breaches in the walls. At 2pm Verdier launched a massive assault with thirteen battalions in three columns and penetrated deep into Zaragoza. Verdier demanded Palafox's surrender to which he replied "War to the knife".
By evening the French had taken half of the city but the Spanish counter-attacked and pushed the French out except for a small wedge surrounded by the Spanish.
By this time the French had suffered around 462 killed and 1,505 wounded. The Spanish had suffered similar or even higher losses but still outnumbered the French.
The fighting continued for several days but the assault had effectively failed ensuring the failure of the siege. On 19 July 1808 a French army under General Dupont were forced to surrender at Bailén and this made both sides realise the French would have to retreat. Palafox halted his offensive operations, but Verdier responded with an artillery bombardment to use up all the ammunition he could not carry away.
Finally on 14 August 1808 Verdier blew up all the strongpoints he held and withdrew. This was the end of the First Siege of Zaragoza.
In total the French had 3,500 casualties during the siege. Spanish losses of 2,000 were admitted at the time; however, a figure of 5,000 is more probable.
Palafox's resistance made him a national hero, a glory he shared with Agustina Zaragoza and many other ordinary civilians. Zaragoza would endure a second, longer, more famous siege starting in late December. When it finally fell to the French in 1809, Zaragoza had become a city of corpses and smoking rubble: 12,000 people would remain of a prewar population of over 100,000.
- Charles J. Esdaile in The Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars by Gregory Fremont-Barnes (main editor) (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006) 871.
- Charles J. Esdaile in The Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars by Gregory Fremont-Barnes (main editor) (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006) 872.
- "Guerra y cuchillo", which words later went on the back of the medal issued to the defenders of Zaragoza
- this section based on Rickard, J (17 January 2008), First siege of Saragossa, 15 June-14 August 1808
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|
en
| 0.980067
| 1,785
|
Finials dating from the Anatolian Seljuk period
that have survived to the present day are all
carved from solid blocks of white marble. In
the Ottoman period, on the other hand, with
the exception of a few ceramic finials found
on buildings in and around the city of Tokat,
they were always made from bronze, iron, copper
or gilded copper. Hollow inside, they consist
of separate base, body and crest riveted together.
The base is generally hemispherical and either
ribbed or fluted, and the body knopped. The
crest is the most eye catching part, and may
be in the form of horns, a crescent, a horseshoe
or a lily. One face is always turned in the
direction of Mecca, and in some cases they are
engraved with verses from the Koran. Standards
used by the mystic orders were usually surmounted
by the symbol of the order.
An interesting example of an Ottoman Turkish
finial is to be seen on a church in Hungary
near to the tomb of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent.
|
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|
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|
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|
en
| 0.961908
| 238
|
International Day for Biological Diversity
The International Day for Biological Diversity is celebrated each year on 22 May to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues and to commemorate the adoption of the text of the Convention on Biological Diversity on 22 May 1992.
In the resolution proclaiming the day (55/201, 20 December 2000), the UN General Assembly expressed its deep concern about the continuing loss of the world’s biological diversity, and reaffirmed the commitment to the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources,
Every day tells us the story of the importance of biodiversity. Biodiversity is the foundation for healthy ecosystems and sustainable human development. It touches on most parts of our lives -- from our security to our welfare, from our social relations to our health.
Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General on the International Day for Biological Diversity 2011
including by appropriate access to genetic resources and the appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and technologies, and by appropriate funding.
- 2013 - Water & Biodiversity
- 2012 - Marine Biodiversity
- 2011 - Forest Biodiversity, Earth's living Treasure
- 2010 - Biodiversity, Development and Poverty Alleviation
- 2009 - Invasive Alien Species
- 2008 - Biodiversity and Agriculture
- 2007 - Biodiversity and Climate Change
- 2006 - Protect Biodiversity in Drylands
- 2005 - Biodiversity: Life Insurance for our Changing World
- 2004 - Biodiversity: Food, Water and Health for All
- 2003 - Biodiversity and poverty alleviation - challenges for sustainable development
- 2002 - Dedicated to forest biodiversity
|
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|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
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|
2013-05-24T08:45:42Z
|
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|
en
| 0.840939
| 355
|
The rough idea of what is being said
A machine translation that is used to get the essential information from a document. A gist is useful even if it contains serious errors in vocabulary, syntax, and grammar.
the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience; "the gist of the prosecutor's argument"; "the heart and soul of the Republican Party"; "the nub of the story"
The gist of an article is the overall idea of it; what it is basically about and the point it makes.
Summary of the meaning and essential points of a communication
|
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|
http://metaglossary.com/meanings/706500/
|
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|
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|
en
| 0.922096
| 122
|
Slavery in Sudan has a long history. The first recorded account of the acquisition of slaves from the Sudan was inscribed in stone near the second cataract of the Nile during the reign of Egypt’s First Dynasty Pharaoh Djer (c. 2900 BCE). The modern history of slavery begins with the conquest of the Sudan by Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1821 and the enslavement of Africans in the southern Sudan by Muslim Arabs from the north.
The independence of the Sudan in 1956 brought to a head the deep tensions between the African traditionalist and Christian southern Sudanese and the northern Sudanese oriented to the Arab world and Islam. Their irreconcilable differences in culture, religion, and race precipitated a fifty-year spiral of violence that has revived the slave trade and slavery, killed more than two million southern Sudanese, and produced another four million refugees by ethnic cleansing, war, famine, and accusations of genocide.
The decision by the Sudan government in 1984 to distribute automatic weapons to the Baggara tribesmen of Darfur and Kordofan, members of the Arab militia or murahileen, combined to escalate war-related deaths of the southern Sudanese into the hundreds of thousands.
In Darfur, villages would be surrounded before dawn and attacked at first light by an Arab militia known as the janjaweed. The women, children, and teenage males that did not escape were collected with the cattle. The men were indiscriminately killed, often accompanied by mutilation, and the village and cultivations were then methodically destroyed and the cattle, women, and children divided among the Baggara to serve or to be sold.
On June 30, 1989, a coup d’état by Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir installed the first theocratic Islamist government in the Sudan. TYhe new government of the National Islamic Front were more determined than ever to defeat the southern Sudanese insurgents in order to impose Islam and Arab culture on the Africans of the southern Sudan.
In 1990 the air force began indiscriminate aerial bombing of civilians in the southern Sudan; its only targets were villages, cattle, churches, schools, and hospitals. An estimated eleven thousand Sudanese were either killed or wounded. The offensive was symbolic of more demonstrable efforts by the Sudanese government to use premeditated ethnic cleansing. Between 1990 and 2000 the jihad in the Nuba Mountains had killed more than an estimated 100,000 and resettled another 170,000 Nuba in so-called peace villages on the Sahilean plains of Kordofan where they labored in fields and towns for northern Sudanese entrepreneurs (slaves).
Military offensives during the 90′s resulted in the death of another estimated 200,000 Dinka and Nuer in the Bahr al-Ghazal by killing and famine. Others were displaced by the hundreds of thousands. During the drought of 1993 and 1994 the Sudan government deliberately intervened in the distribution of humanitarian food aid by Operation Lifeline, a Western organization. The Sudan effectively utilized famine as a weapon of war to depopulate large areas of the Bahr al-Ghazal by starvation, forcing its inhabitants to become internally displaced persons (IDP). The southern Sudanese casualties from 1991 to 2000 are estimated at approximately 250,000, and an equal number of southerners were displaced.
It is estimated that more than 1.3 million southern Sudanese perished in the conflict between 1983 and 1993 in a population, according to the 1983 national census, of some 5 million in the southern provinces of Sudan. The total war-related deaths of southern Sudanese during the twenty years from 1983 to 2003 numbers more than 2.5 million.
There is evidence that the Sudan government officially adopted a policy to eliminate particular ethnic groups in the southern Sudan, which would be an act of genocide. Their policies have involved the indiscriminate aerial bombing of civilians, the withholding of humanitarian aid to cause death by starvation, and silent indifference to the activities by government-supported militias to loot, kidnap, rape, torture and enslave civilian populations.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
DO THESE CONSTITUTE WAR CRIMES OR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY?
SHOULD ANYONE BE PROSECUTED FOR THEM?
IF SO, WHO?
|
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|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://internationalwarcrimesreport.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/sudan/
|
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|
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|
en
| 0.962281
| 878
|
The Responsive Classroom® Approach
The Responsive Classroom approach is an innovative way of teaching developed by the Northeast Foundation for Children (NEFC). Since the 1990s it has emerged as a nationally renowned method of teaching. The NEFC is a nonprofit organization founded in 1981 by a group of public school educators seeking to share the knowledge, skills, and philosophies they had acquired through years of teaching. The result of their combined experiences is the Responsive Classroom approach, which emphasizes the social, emotional, and academic growth of elementary school students in a strong and safe learning environment. The Responsive Classroom approach incorporates the students’ social and emotional growth into their academic learning, stemming from the notion that children learn best through social interaction and when they are explicitly taught social and emotional skills along with their academic lessons. The goal is to enable optimal student learning, and through the implementation and refining of classroom and school-wide practices, the Responsive Classroom approach has been shown to increase academic achievement in elementary school students, decrease problem behaviors, improve social skills, and raise the quality of instruction.
Inside The Responsive Classroom Approach
What does the Responsive Classroom approach look like? Across the country, this method of teaching is being incorporated into classrooms. Any elementary school can incorporate these principles and practices into their curriculum, thus reaching the widest range of students and transforming already existing classrooms into spaces of optimal learning. The Responsive Classroom approach builds social and emotional growth into an academic curriculum so that students’ education becomes truly well rounded--shaping every aspect of their lives.
Teachers incorporate practices designed to make the classroom more stimulating, challenging, safer, and happier. Some of these practices directly foster a sense of community, such as Morning Meetings to start the day, or increased communication with parents to involve the entire family in their child’s education. The classroom is also often physically rearranged to fit where children are developmentally and also to be conducive to safe, challenging, and joyful learning.
Elements of this approach also offer students a level of autonomy that involves them more in their own learning and helps them feel better about their classroom and their place in it. Students partake in shaping the rules of the classroom, and teachers engage children in discussions that help them understand what will happen when they forget or choose not to follow classroom rules. No matter which of several techniques teachers choose when responding to a child’s misbehavior, their goal is always to protect the child’s dignity while quickly stopping the misbehavior and restoring positive behavior so that all the children can continue learning.
To increase motivation and help get students excited about learning, teachers also give them some structured, developmentally appropriate choices about what and how they will learn. For example, for an insect study, third graders may be invited to choose which insect they want to study and whether they will represent what they learn by making a clay model or a poster.
A classroom where the teacher follows the Responsive Classroom approach is a positive space where students’ voices are heard and where they play an active role in their education. The teacher also becomes a facilitator, and through listening to the students and helping them work together, the values of cooperation, independence, responsibility, and accountability are further instilled.
Implementing the Responsive Classroom Approach
Who uses the Responsive Classroom approach? How can you learn the Responsive Classroom approach? Schools across the nation from every sort of environment have experienced its benefits. The quality of education, the increased engagement and performance of their students, and the decline in disciplinary problems all attest to the fact that this approach works. The NEFC, together with its Midwest affiliate, Origins, trains over 7,000 teachers each year. There are Responsive Classroom consultants working in over half of all states in the country. Through the Responsive Classroom Newsletter, a plethora of books and DVDs, and other amazing resources, many more people each year are learning more about it.
For schools and school districts interested in implementing the Responsive Classroom approach, NEFC offers a variety of services. Teachers (and administrators) can attend one-day workshops that introduce them to the approach or focus on particular aspects of it. They can also attend weeklong institutes that enable them to interactively explore Responsive Classroom principles and practices in depth. NEFC also offers contractual professional development services that can be adapted to a school’s or district’s needs, assistance in developing Responsive Classroom teacher leaders, a national conference, and resources for site-based study.
The Effectiveness of the Responsive Classroom Approach
So how well does it work? The Responsive Classroom approach has been researched by the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education, and the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 considers the University’s findings from its first study to meet its rigorous standards for evaluation. Dr. Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, who led the Social and Emotional Learning Study, or SALS, found that the Responsive Classroom approach had a noticeable impact on the academic and social skills of students. Specifically, she found that children in classrooms where teachers were using the approach had higher test scores in reading and math, better social skills, and a more positive outlook on school. Teachers also benefited. They felt better about themselves and more positive about teaching because of the effect they had on their students, and they collaborated with each other more. Both of these outcomes resulted in teachers delivering more high-quality instruction that ultimately benefited both students and teachers.
Dr. Rimm-Kaufman is currently conducting the Responsive Classroom Efficacy Study (RCES), a multi-year, $2.9 million randomized controlled trial involving 24 elementary schools, with special emphasis on math teaching and learning.
|
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|
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|
http://teach.com/responsive-classroom-approach
|
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|
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|
en
| 0.968884
| 1,189
|
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