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not just designed in Australia, made in Australia.
Lots of people ask us why we chose plastic. They don’t realise most disposable cups are lined with polyethylene and have a polystyrene lid so there is enough plastic in 20 disposable cups and lids to make one small KeepCup. So even though KeepCup is made from plastic - KeepCup is about less plastic.
Here is why :
Low embodied energy in manufacture.
The resources required to manufacture plastic are relatively low, this means that you only have to use it 15 times to break even with paper cups in terms of the energy manufacture and use.
Lightweight and unbreakable
For you to carry our product around it has to be lightweight, ergomonic and unbreakable.
The ability to choose a unique, personal colourway for yourself increases the desirability of the KeepCup, and increases your likelihood of remembering and reusing.
Makes cleaning easy.
Recyclable at end of life
The KeepCup is made from single component materials to facilitate recycling at end of life. Polypropylene is being targeted as a great material capable of being recycled into consumer goods. There are lots of clever people doing exciting things in this space.
Weight and freight
Being lightweight and stackable has a significant impact on the environmental costs of shipping and freight. The ability to ship components for local assembly also decreases the environmental impact of the KeepCup.
More KeepCup KeepCup vs. Disposable
Facts about Disposable Cups
- International Paper estimates that annually in the United States over 58 billion disposable cups are discarded to landfill; that is, 158 disposable cups for every US inhabitant.
- Annually 500 billion disposable cups are manufactured around the world; that’s about 75 disposable cups for every single person on the planet.
- Half of the plastic used in the world today is for single use items.
- On average, each disposable cup contains 5% of the raw materials involved in the process of making and delivering it.
- The 500 billion disposable cups we manufacture annually placed end to end could circumnavigate the earth 1,360 times.
- 4 billion trees or 35% of the total trees chopped down are used in paper industries on every continent.
- 1 tonne of paper consumes 98 tonnes of resources in manufacture.
- Globally, we go through about 300 million tonnes of paper each year. Most paper is made from virgin pulp.
- Very little recycled paper is used to make disposable cups due to health risk and contamination concerns. Because most disposable cups are coated with polyethylene, both composting and recycling of disposable cups is not common.
- 71% of the worlds paper supply comes from diminishing forests, not tree farms or the recycling bin.
- Consumer rubbish has increased tenfold over the twentieth century, from 92 to 1242 pounds of product waste per person per year. This means we discard approximately 14.4 times our body weight in waste annually.
- Taiwan discards 1.5 billion disposable cups annually. Landfill issues have given rise to new rules for establishments to give discounts to all reusable cups. The Taiwanese government has forecast a 30% reduction of disposable cup use annually, or 450 million cups.
- Disposable paper cups contain on average 5% polyurethane plastic.
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| 0.932692 | 698 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Make or become spread out from a rolled or folded state, especially in order to be open to the wind: [with object]: a man was unfurling a sail [no object]: the flags unfurl
More example sentences
- The boat suddenly lurched and spun about as the sail was unfurled and caught the wind.
- Tom, if you have to ask why there is a roll of toilet paper unfurled on Washington Street, obviously you don't have a clue.
- But most of the rolls will also be unfurled on new housing sites springing up all over the country.
For editors and proofreaders
Definition of unfurl in:
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed.
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| 0.940949 | 168 | 3.03125 | 3 |
December 10, 2008
Scientists record continental displacement
A U.S.-led international team of scientists says it has, for the first time, recorded a geological event that is considered key in shaping the Earth's crust.
Led by Purdue University Professor Eric Calais, the researchers said they measured ground displacements as two African tectonic plates moved apart and molten rock pushed its way toward the surface during the first so-called
dyking event ever recorded within the planet's continental crust. Calais said the event left a wall of magma 6 miles long and 5 feet wide wedged between the two plates.
The existence of the events provides a key element of how the Earth's rigid outer shell -- the lithosphere -- breaks apart and moves. Although the known forces pushing and pulling on continents are not powerful enough to break them apart, repeated dyking events could severely weaken the lithosphere, allowing it to shift and break under far less force, Calais said.
A paper detailing is to appear this week in the journal Nature.
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| 0.935544 | 207 | 3.953125 | 4 |
This is a very common question. It all began with a Jewish tradition
called the "ineffable name" doctrine.
Jews, for various reasons, started to substitute His name with the Hebrew title "Adonai". Adonai
is the Hebrew word for "Lord". This information can be easily verified
in many Bible dictionaries and various encyclopedias. For instance, the
Encyclopedia Britannica states:
the God of the Israelites, his name being revealed to Moses as four HebrewCONSONANTS (YHWH) CALLED THE TETRAGRAMMATON. AFTER THE EXILE (6TH CENTURY BC), and especially from the 3rd century BC on, Jews ceased to use the name Yahweh for two reasons. As Judaism became a universal religion through its proselytizing in the Greco-Roman world, the more common noun elohim, meaning "god," tended to replace Yahweh to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel's God over all others. At the same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered; it was thus replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai ("My Lord"), which was translated as Kyrios ("Lord") in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.
We see in the above quote that Jews started to vocally replace the name "Yahweh" with "Adonai" (Lord) for two reasons:
1. It was beginning to be believed that His name was too sacred to be uttered
2. They preferred to simply call Him "Elohim" rather than "Yahweh" to demonstrate to the world that He is the only true Elohim.
While on the surface these reasons may seem honorable, they are very unscriptural. They were and are attempts to improve on Yahweh's already perfect ways. If Yahweh really wanted a substitute, why would He have placed His name there to begin with? Though scripture says to follow Yahweh rather than man, we find that nearly 7,000 times the most important name of all is replaced with a another word that man has chosen.
This tradition was not practiced by the Messiah or the apostles, but it was adopted by some Christians during the early half of the 2nd Century CE/AD. By the 4th century, this practice was well established and widely practiced. Jerome, a 4th century "Church Father" who authored the Latin Vulgate version, substituted the name "Yahweh" throughout with the Latin word "Dominus" (meaning "Lord"). The tradition of replacing Yahweh's name with "the LORD" continues to this day. Most English translations substitute the name Yahweh with "the LORD" and translations into other languages will also commonly choose a title meaning "Lord" in their own language. More information on this can be found in the preface of many modern bibles.
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Exodus 3:22 – The Israelites Leave Egypt
As the Israelite people prepared to leave the land of Egypt, Moses charged:
“But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians” (Ex. 3:22, KJV).
There are three points that we wish to make regarding this passage.
Fulfillment of Prophecy
First, it is a striking example of the fulfillment of divine prophecy. Centuries earlier, Jehovah had promised Abraham that when his descendants finally left the bondage of Egypt, they would go out “with great possessions” (Gen. 15:14). As Exodus 3:21 suggested, the Hebrews would not “go empty.” Hence, note Genesis 15:14 in your margin and record: Prophecy fulfilled.
A Moral Lapse?
Second, this is not an example of a moral blemish in the Old Testament, as alleged by some critics. The KJV suggests that the Israelites were to “borrow” certain objects from the Egyptians. But there was never any intention of repayment.
The King James translation is poor here; later renditions, including the NKJV, translate the verb sa’al by “ask” (cf. Ex. 12:36; 1 Sam. 1:27). The same passage treats these goods a matter of “spoil.”
Actually, it was considered a form of payment for all the years the Hebrews had spent in slavery. The principle is set forth in Deuteronomy 15:12-18:
“If thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou lettest him go free from thee, thou shalt not let him go empty: thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy threshing-floor, and out of thy winepress; as Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to-day. And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go out from thee; because he loveth thee and thy house, because he is well with thee; then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maid-servant thou shalt do likewise. It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou lettest him go free from thee; for to the double of the hire of a hireling hath he served thee six years: and Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all that thou doest.”
In Exodus 3:22, underline the word “borrow” and write in the margin: payment for slavery; see Deut. 15:12-18.
The Providential Hand of God
Third, this incident provides a wonderful example of the mysterious ways of the providence of Almighty God. Moses subsequently writes:
“And Jehovah gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians” (Ex. 11:3).
A psalmist makes a contribution to this puzzle. He states that the Lord made his people “to be pitied of all those that carried them captive” (Psa. 106:46).
How did Jehovah accomplish that? We haven’t the remotest idea; nonetheless, it is a fact that we may accept because of the solid credibility of the Book in which the affirmation is found. And so, note these passages. Beside Exodus 11:3 write: Example of God’s providential care.
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| 0.933785 | 835 | 2.75 | 3 |
First lets quickly go over the basics. It all starts with electricity. Electricity is the flow of electrons through a conductor like metal. We can use electrical components to make a circuit that does things like lights up. One such component is the transistor. The transistor is a gate for electricity. We can set the gates to be opened or closed. Using lots and lots of these gates we can make complex interactions.
At the heart of the Arduino is a microcontroller. A microcontroller is a type of integrated circuit (IC). Which means it is an electronic circuit that has been shrunk down and covered in plastic. It is filled with transistors and when we program the Arduino we are setting the gates inside to be opened or closed. When we run the program through the chip we are running electricity through the gates to perform complex calculations. How can a bunch of gates perform complex calculations? Watch this video from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories to get an idea.
While our program is running on the chip we can use the pins to communicate. The chip can check to see if there is electricity connected to one of its pins. It can also put electricity on one of its pins. We must create the electronic circuit that the microcontroller works with. If we want our microcontroller to light an LED then we can only tell it to let electricity flow through one of its pins. We must put an LED circuit on that pin that will light up when electricity flows.
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| 0.950023 | 290 | 4.34375 | 4 |
Definition of Hip joint
1. Noun. The ball-and-socket joint between the head of the femur and the acetabulum.
Terms within: Ischial Bone, Ischium, Os Ischii
Group relationships: Thigh, Hip, Pelvic Arch, Pelvic Girdle, Pelvis
Generic synonyms: Articulatio Spheroidea, Ball-and-socket Joint, Cotyloid Joint, Enarthrodial Joint, Enarthrosis, Spheroid Joint
Medical Definition of Hip joint
1. The ball-and-socket synovial joint between the head of the femur and the acetabulum. Synonym: articulatio coxae, coxa, thigh joint. (05 Mar 2000)
Hip Joint Pictures
Click the following link to bring up a new window with an automated collection of images related to the term: Hip Joint Images
Lexicographical Neighbors of Hip Joint
Literary usage of Hip joint
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences by Southern Society for Clinical Investigation (U.S.) (1878)
"In both matter and form it is a creditable and useful book. BL И. ART. XXVII.—Surgical Observations on Gunshot Wounds of the Hip-joint. ..."
2. Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical by Henry Gray (1901)
"The articulations of the Lower Extremity comprise the following groups r I. The hip-joint. II. The knee-joint. III. The articulations between the tibia and ..."
3. Proceedings by Philadelphia County Medical Society (1891)
"THE profession of America is somewhat divided upon the subject of the treatment of hip-joint disease, and for the purpose of adding, if possible, ..."
4. The Outline of Science: A Plain Story Simply Told by John Arthur Thomson (1922)
"THE HIP-JOINT The thigh-bone or femur is shown with its rounded head fitted ... This hip-joint is a good example of a "ball and socket" joint with a deep ..."
5. The Science and art of surgery by John Eric Erichsen (1864)
"DISEASE OF THE HIP-JOINT. HIP-DISEASE presents so many points of peculiar and serious importance that it is usually, and not improperly, considered as a ..."
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| 0.865609 | 526 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Acids are materials that have certain properties in common. Bases (also called alkalis) are other substances with a different set of properties. In these experiments, you will investigate some of these properties with materials that are found around your home. In addition, you will learn how chemists use the pH scale to describe acids and bases.
The most striking property of both acids and bases is their ability to change the color of certain vegetable materials. A common vegetable whose color responds to acids and bases is red cabbage. The first step in this experiment is to prepare an extract of red cabbage, so you can investigate its color changes. Place about 500 milliliters (2 cups) of red cabbage cut into 2.5-centimeter (1-inch) cubes into a blender or food processor. Add about 250 milliliters (1 cup) of water and blend the mixture until the cabbage has been chopped into uniformly tiny pieces. Strain the mixture by pouring it through a sieve. This strained liquid, the red-cabbage extract, will be used for exploring acids and bases.
Examine the label of a bottle of white vinegar. The label probably says that it contains acetic acid. This indicates that vinegar is an acid and has properties of an acid. Let's see what effect an acid has on the color of the red cabbage extract. Pour 125 milliliters (½ cup) of vinegar into a colorless drinking glass. Add 5 milliliters (1 teaspoon) of red cabbage extract, stir the mixture, and note its color. What is the color of the mixture. (Write your answer in the box.)
The color of the cabbage extract with vinegar is the color the extract has when it is mixed with an acid. Save the mixture in this glass to use as a reference in the rest of the experiment.
Now examine the effect of laundry ammonia on the color of red cabbage. Pour 125 milliliters (½ cup) of laundry ammonia into another colorless drinking glass. Add 5 milliliters (1 teaspoon) of red cabbage extract and stir the mixture. Write the color of this mixture in the box.
Laundry ammonia is a base (alkali). The color of this mixture is the color of cabbage extract when it is mixed with a base. The color of cabbage extract indicates whether something mixed with it is an acid or a base. Cabbage extract can be called an acid-base indicator. Save the mixture in this second glass to use as a reference.
Now test the properties of a solid, baking soda. Place 5 cubic centimeters (1 teaspoon) of baking soda in a glass and add 125 milliliters (½ cup) of water. Stir the mixture until the baking soda has dissolved. Then, add 5 milliliters (1 teaspoon) of red cabbage extract to the solution. Write the color of the mixture in the box.
The color obtained with baking soda is different from the color obtained with vinegar and from the color obtained with ammonia.
Red cabbage extract can indicate whether a substance is an acid (like vinegar) or a base (like ammonia). It can also show how strong an acid or a base a substance is. Chemists use the pH scale to express how acidic (like an acid) or basic (like a base) a substance is. A pH value below 7 means that a substance is acidic, and the smaller the number, the more acidic it is. A pH value above 7 means that a substance is basic, and the larger the number, the more basic it is. Red cabbage extract has different colors at different pH values. These colors and approximate pH values are:
|color of extract:||red||purple||violet||blue||blue-green||green|
Based on this information, what is the approximate pH of vinegar?
What is the approximate pH of ammonia?
What is the approximate pH of the baking soda mixture?
Use the instructions for testing vinegar and ammonia to test the pH of several other nearly colorless liquids, such as lemon-lime soft drink (Sprite or 7-Up) and lemon juice. Record your observations. Liquids that are white, such as milk, can be tested in the same way. You can also test solids that dissolve in water by following the instructions for baking soda. This will also work with viscous liquids such as liquid detergents. Test other substances around the house, such as sugar, table salt, shampoo, hair rinse, milk of magnesia, antacid tablets, and aspirin.
|Material||Extract color||pH||Material||Extract color||pH|
CAUTION: Some household products can cause skin irritations. Do not allow these to contact skin; rinse thoroughly with water if they do.
|For additional information, see CHEMICAL DEMONSTRATIONS: A Handbook for Teachers of Chemistry, Volume 3, by Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2537 Daniels Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53704.|
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| 0.889788 | 1,026 | 3.96875 | 4 |
RECORD: Grant, R. E. 1827. Notice regarding the ova of the Pontobdella muricata, Lam. Edinburgh Journal of Science 7 (1): 160-161.
REVISION HISTORY: Scanned by John van Wyhe, OCRed and corrected by Adrian Desmond 9.2006. RN2
NOTE: Darwin's name first appeared in print here.
ART. XXXIV——Notice regarding the Ova of the Pontobdella muricata, Lam. By R. E. GRANT, M. D., F. R. S. Edin., &c. Communicated by the Author.
The ova of the Pontobdella. muricata or Skate-leech, (Fig. 6 and 7, PI. II.) consist of small dark coloured spheres attached by a narrow twisted neck to a spreading membranous base. Each sphere consists of a double capsule containing a thick gelatinous fluid, in the middle of which the young animal lies coiled up generally in one spiral turn. The ova have much the appearance of the seeds of the black pepper, being about two lines in diameter, and having a rough and dull external surface. On the opposite sides of the spheres there are two round prominences, which fall off when the animal is come to maturity, and leave two circular apertures to admit the sea water, or to allow the young Pontobdella to escape. The outer capsule, which has a dark greenish brown colour, is thicker and more porous than the inner membrane, which is smooth, thin, and very tough. The stalk which connects the sphere to the flat base is solid, of a black colour, and firm consistence internally, and is strongly marked with longitudinal prominent ridges, which have a twisted and fibrous appearance. The spreading base which adheres to stones, shells, or other hard bodies, consists of the same tough dark-coloured substance as the outer layer of the ovum and the stalk, and is marked with elevated radiating ridges like diverging roots. The ge-
latinous matter within is at first thick and of a milky colour, but becomes more colourless, transparent, and thinner, as the Pontobdella approaches maturity, as I have observed in the ova of many molluscous animals. The young animal is visible when only about half a line in length, in the middle of the gelatinous matter, and only one young Pontobdella. is found in each ovum. The animal is at first quite transparent and of a whitish colour; and when ready to escape, it is nearly an inch in length and has all its external characters distinctly marked. We find these ova generally in groups of thirty or forty adhering to solid bodies in deep water where the Pontobdella resides. The merit of having first ascertained them to belong to that animal is due to my zealous young friend Mr Charles Darwin of Shrewsbury, who kindly presented me with specimens of the ova exhibiting the animal in different stages of maturity. They nearly resemble the ova of the Amphitrite described and figured by Basterus, (Op. sub. Pl. V. Fig. 1. A, B, C, and p. 38.) The ova of the Pontobdella have probably escaped notice from the animal generally frequenting the bottom of deep water, where it lives by sucking the blood from the surface of flat fishes; or they may have been mistaken for young marine plants, such as the Fucus loreus, from the fibrous appearance and deep-green colour of their outer capsule. The description of the ova of the lower animals forms an interesting, though much neglected part of the history of the species; and an imperfect acquaintance with this part of zoology has sometimes led distinguished naturalists to mistake the ova of marine animals for zoophytes, and zoophytes for the ova of animals.
Plate II. Fig. 6, Entire ovum of the Pontobdella muricata, of the natural size, showing the two round lateral prominences, the narrow fibrous stem, and thin spreading base.
Fig. 7, Ovum of the P. muricata divided horizontally, to show its double covering, and the young animal coiled up in the gelatinous matter within.
VOL. VII. NO. 1. JULY 1827.
Return to homepage
Citation: John van Wyhe, editor. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 2 July, 2012
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| 0.915246 | 963 | 2.796875 | 3 |
The Nimrod was designed as a sea patrol and anti-submarine aircraft and entered service with the Royal Air Force in the UK over 30 years ago.
Its design is based on the de Havilland Comet, the first commercial jet airliner, with four jet engines integrated into the wings next to the fuselage.
In the early 1980s some RAF Nimrods were upgraded from the original MR1 design to the MR2, the main roles of which are sea surveillance, anti-submarine warfare and support for search and rescue operations.
17 November 1980: Bird strike at Roseisle Forest, near Kinloss, Scotland
3 June 1984: Fire on board at St Mawgan, Cornwall
16 May 1995: Engine fire at Lossiemouth, Scotland
2 September 1995: Crash at Toronto Air Show, Canada
2 September 2006: Crash near Kandahar, Afghanistan
Apart from the 1982 Falklands War, Nimrods served in both the 1990 and 2003 Gulf wars and helped enforce Nato's maritime blockade of the Balkans in 2001.
Increasingly since the operations in Kosovo at the end of the 1990s the Nimrod MR2 had been used overland.
"It has been very successful in that, particularly in Afghanistan, because it has a very sophisticated communications equipment on board," said defence analyst Paul Beaver.
The Nimrod is able to act as rebroadcasting centre, suitable for use over the rough hilly terrain of Afghanistan.
It can act as a large radio system that can pick up messages from troops on the ground and relay them. It is also able to scan the ground and send real time video back to commanders at base.
Crew - 13
Main equipment - Sonobuoys, radar, magnetic and acoustic detection equipment, torpedoes, bombs, depth charges, Sidewinder self-defence missiles
Max speed - 575mph (925 kph)
Length - 126ft 9in (38.63m)
Height - 29ft 8.5in (9m)
Wingspan - 114ft 10in (35m)
Powerplant - Four Rolls-Royce Spey turbofans
During the Cold War the Nimrod's main role was monitoring Soviet submarines and surface ships in the Baltic, North Atlantic and beyond.
In 1988 they supported rescue work after the Piper Alpha oil rig fire.
One the aircraft's greatest assets is flight range - even without refuelling it can remain airborne for 10 hours with an operating range of 3,800 miles (6,080 km). It has a top speed of 575 mph (925 kph).
Capable of carrying 25 people, the crew normally consists of two pilots and a flight engineer on the flight deck, two navigators, an air electronics officer (with overall responsibility for sensors and communications), three operators of search and listening detectors and four avionics and weapon system operators.
Nimrod MR2s fly mainly from RAF Kinloss in Scotland, although a programme to replace them with an up-dated version - the MRA4 - is under way.
It does not tend to act as a bomber aircraft although the latest version will have the ability to carry a range of weapons from its bomb bay.
All Nimrods were grounded by the Ministry of Defence as of 31 March 2009 pending a vital safety modification.
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| 0.954451 | 681 | 2.8125 | 3 |
A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America
A recent archaeological discovery suggests that a barbarian tribe known to the Chinese as the "Gold Teeth" may have acquired its name quite literally. Farmers in Halin, a first-millenium A.D. walled city 40 miles north of Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma), discovered a skeleton with eight upper teeth decorated with gold. Chinese historical records mention a "Gold Teeth" tribe living in the area between Burma and what is now the Chinese province of Yunnan over a thousand years ago.
Each of the eight teeth had been drilled with a pattern of tiny holes, and these were packed with gold foil. The pain of drilling must have been considerable. Earthenware containers thought to have been used for distilling alcohol have been found at Halin, suggesting a form of anaesthetic was available.
Discoveries of stone and bronze tools indicate that Halin has been continuously occupied for more than three thousand years. The city was part of an ancient trade route between China and India. The gold teeth and their owner most likely date to the first millennium A.D., when both the resources and technology were available to provide this elegant form of cosmetic dentistry. The gold foil inlays from Halin appear to be the earliest example of dental work from mainland Southeast Asia.
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The Moro War: How America Battled a Muslim Insurgency in the Philippine Jungle, 1902-1913by James R. Arnold
As the global war on terror enters its second decade, the United States military is engaged with militant Islamic insurgents on multiple fronts. But the post-9/11 war against terrorists is not the first time the United States has battled such ferocious foes. The forgotten Moro War, lasting from 1902 to 1913 in the islands of the southern Philippines, was the first
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As the global war on terror enters its second decade, the United States military is engaged with militant Islamic insurgents on multiple fronts. But the post-9/11 war against terrorists is not the first time the United States has battled such ferocious foes. The forgotten Moro War, lasting from 1902 to 1913 in the islands of the southern Philippines, was the first confrontation between American soldiers and their allies and a determined Muslim insurgency.
The Moro War prefigured American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan more than superficially: It was a bitter, drawn-out conflict in which American policy and aims were fiercely contested between advocates of punitive military measures and proponents of conciliation.
As in today's Middle East, American soldiers battled guerrillas in a foreign environment where the enemy knew the terrain and enjoyed local support. The deadliest challenge was distinguishing civilians from suicidal attackers. Moroland became a crucible of leadership for the U.S. Army, bringing the force that had fought the Civil War and the Plains Indian Wars into the twentieth century. The officer corps of the Moro campaign matured into the American generals of World War I. Chief among them was the future general John Pershing-who learned lessons in the island jungles that would guide his leadership in France.
Rich with relevance to today's news from the Middle East, and a gripping piece of storytelling, The Moro War is a must-read to understand a formative conflict too long overlooked and to anticipate the future of U.S. involvement overseas.
"Although The Moro War covers events a century ago, those seeking to wield influence in an Islamic land today would do well to study its lessons."—Wall Street Journal
"Drawing upon contemporaneous official U.S. sources and on participants’ letters and memoirs, [Arnold] skillfully weaves riveting and vigorous descriptions of the ferocious U.S.-Moro engagements"—Journal of Military History
"The story of this relatively unknown epoch in American history has long echoes."—Shelf Awareness
“[A] lucid political and military history … a fine history of an obscure colonial war in which both sides fought bravely, suffered cruelly, often behaved horribly and accomplished little.”—Military History
“[An] excellent mixture of political and military history…Highlighting the missteps of the U.S. counterinsurgency in Moroland, Arnold offers sharp lessons for today along with an insightful, often gruesome, and timely portrait of an insurgency.”—Publishers Weekly
"A lively, well-told chronicle of a conflict that commanders in more recent conflicts could well have [learned] from studying."—Kirkus
"[A] concise and readable history...An excellent summary of a forgotten war that offers many parallels to the present."—Library Journal
“The Moro War is a superb depiction of a small war of the past that is decidedly relevant to the present. James R. Arnold is a brilliant story teller who captures the gritty reality of this forgotten war along with fascinating portraits of leaders like Leonard Wood and John J. Pershing. All of this is enhanced by vintage photographs throughout the book that illustrate Arnold's prose. Although there are few tactical lessons from this war that are applicable today, the operational lesson of putting the force out with the population to provide security was crucial to the Iraq "surge" and is at the heart of today’s campaign in Afghanistan.”—John T. Fishel, Emeritus Professor, National Defense University, co-author of Uncomfortable Wars Revisited
The United States' war in the Philippines is largely forgotten; this account, drawing parallels with more recent conflicts, should help bring it back into focus.
Military historian Arnold (Jungle of Snakes: A Century of Counterinsurgency Warfare from the Philippines to Iraq, 2009, etc.), begins with the arrival in Manila of Gen. Leonard Wood, who had been appointed governor of Moro Province, the southernmost portion of the Philippines. The Spanish, who had governed the islands for nearly 500 years, had been able to do little with the province, where a predominantly Muslim population refused to be assimilated. Wood, like most of the Americans who would serve there, arrived with very little knowledge of his new post. The Moros, whose history was one of conflict between local leaders called datus, were wily close-range fighters whose chosen weapons were a variety of wicked blades, notably the kris, which every male carried in his sash. The American troops' superior firepower made it an unequal fight, but the intractable jungles often nullified that advantage. Arnold recounts how for 10 years, Wood and his successors, John J. Pershing and Tasker Bliss, searched for ways to pacify the Moros. The author also gives detailed accounts of the many battles. American troops faced violent attacks by individual Moros who had decided to become martyrs, killing as many Americans as possible in the process. But the Americans gradually began to gain control of the province, partly by enlisting both Moros and northern Filipinos as auxiliary troops, or "scouts." While the war as a whole was not a matter of set battles, the futility of the Moro resistance was most clearly shown in two actions—massacres, really—at Bud Dajo and Bud Bagsak. Ultimately, the Moro War became the main training ground for the officers who went to France in World War I, and Arnold concludes by tracing their subsequent careers.
A lively, well-told chronicle of a conflict that commanders in more recent conflicts could well have from studying.
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Meet the Author
James R. Arnold is the author of more than twenty books, including Jungle of Snakes: A Century of Counterinsurgency Warfare from the Philippines to Iraqknl (named one of the Best Books of 2009 by the St.Louis Post-Dispatch). He lives on a farm near Lexington, Virginia.
James Arnold is a Civil War and military historian and author of Tet Offensive 1968: Turning Point in Vietnam.
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Our book club selected this book for February and it was generally agreed to have been a good choice. I knew nothing about the Moro War before reading the book, but now have a good over view of the events and personalities involved. Many of them are to be heard of again during World War 1 and later. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in military history.
I live on the island of Mindanao so this was especially informative. The Moros have not changed all that much in the last 100 years. They do have better weapons now. The Sulu islands are still a major trouble spot. A peace agreement was signed with the government recently (again) which will grant the Moro some autonomy. I still don't go to the part of island that is mostly Muslim for safety reasons. The book is easy to read and not dull as many historical books tend to be. I read the entire book in one day
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Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. II. The Process of Circulation of Capital
We have seen in vol. I, chap. VIII, that a portion of the constant capital retains that form of the use-value, in which it entered into the process of production and does not share in the transfer to the products toward the creation of which it contributes. In other words, it performs for a longer or shorter period, in the ever repeated labor process, the same function. This applies, for instance, to buildings, machinery, etc., in short to all things which we comprise under the name of instruments of labor. This part of constant capital yields value to the product in proportion as it loses its own exchange-value with the dwindling of its use-value. This transfer of value from an instrument of production to the product which it helps to create is determined by a calculation of averages. It is measured by the average, duration of its function, from the moment that the instrument that it is completely spent and must be reproduced, or replaced by a new specimen of the same kind.
This, then is the peculiarity of this part of constant capital of the instruments of labor:
A certain part of capital has been advanced in the form of constant capital, of instruments of labor, which now perform their function in the labor-process so long as their own use-value lasts, which they bring with them into this process. The finished product, with the elements it absorbed from the instruments of production, is pushed out of the process of production and transferred as a commodity to the sphere of circulation. But the instruments of labor never leave the sphere of production, once that they have entered it. Their function holds them there. A certain portion of the advanced capital-value is fixed in this form by the function of the instruments of labor in the process of production. In the performance of this function, and thus by the wear and tear incidental to it, a part of the value of the instruments of labor is transferred to the product, while another remains fixed in the instruments of labor and thus in the process of production. The value thus fixed decreases constantly, until the instrument of labor is worn out, its value having been distributed during a shorter or longer period, over a mass of products which emanated from a series of currently repeated labor processes. But so long as an instrument of labor is still effective and has not been replaced by a new specimen of the same kind, a certain amount of constant capital-value remains fixed in it, while another part of the value originally fixed in it is transferred to the product and circulates as a component part of the commodity-supply. The longer an instrument lasts, the slower it wears out, the longer will its constant capital-value remain fixed in this form of use-value. But whatever may be its durability, the proportion in which it yields its value is always inverse to its entire time of service. If of two machines of equal value, one wears out in five years and the other in ten, then the first yields twice as much value in the same time as the second.
This value fixed in the instruments of labor circulates as well as any other. We have seen that all capital-value is constantly in circulation, and that in this sense all capital is circulating capital. But the circulation of the portion of capital which we are now studying is peculiar. In the first place, it does not circulate in its use-form, but it is merely its exchange-value which circulates, and this takes place gradually and piecemeal, in proportion as it is transferred to the product which circulates as a commodity. During the entire period of its service, a portion of its value always remains fixed in it, independent of the commodities which it helps to produce. It is this peculiarity which gives to this portion of capital the character of fixed capital. On the other hand, all other substantial parts of the capital advanced in the process of production form the circulating, or fluid, capital.
Some portions of the means of production do not yield their substance to the product. Such are auxiliary substances, which are consumed by the instruments of labor themselves in the performance of their function, such as coal consumed by a steam engine; or substances which merely assist in the operation, such as gas for lighting, etc. It is only their value which forms a part of the value of products. In circulating its own value, the product circulates theirs. To this extent they share the fate of the fixed capital. But they are entirely consumed in every labor-process which they enter, and must therefore be replaced by new specimens of their kind in every new labor-process. They do not preserve their own use-form while performing their function. Hence no portion of capital-value remains fixed in their natural use-value during their service. The fact that this portion of the auxiliary substances does not pass bodily into the product, but yields only its value to swell thereby the value of the product, although the function of these substance is confined to sphere of production, has misled some economists, for instance Ramsay—who also confounded fixed capital with constant capital—to class them among the fixed capital.
That part of the means of production which yields its substance to the product, in other words, the raw materials, may eventually assume forms which enable it to pass into individual consumption. The instruments of labor, properly so called, that is to say, the material bearers of the fixed capital, can be consumed only productively and cannot pass into individual consumption, because their substance does not enter into the product, into the use-value, which they help to create, but they rather retain their independent form until they are completely worn out. The means of transportation are an exception to this rule. The useful effect which they produce by their productive function during their stay in the sphere of production, that is to say, the change of location, passes simultaneously into the individual consumption, for instance into that of a traveler. He pays for its use in the same way in which he pays for the use of other articles of consumption. We have seen that sometimes the raw material and auxiliary substances pervade one another, for instance in the manufacture of chemicals. In the same way, instruments of labor, raw material and auxiliary substances may pervade one another. In agriculture, for instance, the substances employed for the improvement of the soil pass into the plants and help to form the product. On the other hand, their influence is distributed over a lengthy period, say four or five years. A portion of them, therefore, pass into the product and enhance its value, while another portion remains fixed in its old use-form and retains its value. It persists as an instrument of production and retains the form of fixed capital. An ox is fixed capital, so long as it is a beast of toil. If it is eaten, it does not perform the functions of an instrument of production, and is, therefore, not fixed capital.
That which determines whether a certain portion of the capital-value invested in means of production is fixed capital or not is exclusively the peculiar manner in which this value circulates. This peculiar manner of circulation arises from the peculiar manner in which the means of production yield their value to the product, that is to say the manner in which the means of production participate in the creation of values in the process of production. This, again, arises from the special nature of the function of these means of production in the labor-process.
We know that the same use-value, which comes as a product from one labor-process, passes as a means of production into another. It is only the function of a product as a means of production in the labor-process which stamps it as fixed capital. But to the extent that it arises itself out of such a process, it is not fixed capital. For instance, a machine, as a product, as a commodity of the machine manufacturer, belongs to his commodity-capital. It does not become fixed capital, until it is employed productively in the hands of its purchaser.
All other circumstances being equal, the degree of fixity increases with the durability of the means of production. This durability determines the magnitude of the difference between the capital-value fixed in the instruments of labor and between that part of its value which is yielded to the product in successive labor-processes. The slower this value is yielded—and some of it is given up in every repetition of the labor-process—the larger will be the fixed capital, and the greater will be the difference between the capital employed and the capital consumed in the process of production. As soon as this difference has disappeared, the instrument of labor has ceased to live and lost, with its use-value, also its exchange-value. It has ceased to be the bearer of value. Since an instrument of labor, the same as every other material bearer of constant capital, yields value only to the extent that its use-value is converted into exchange-value, it is evident that the period in which its constant capital-value remains fixed will be so much longer, the longer it lasts in the process of production, the more slowly its use-value is lost.
If any one means of production, which is not an instrument of labor, strictly speaking, such as auxiliary substances, raw material, partly finished articles, etc., yields and circulates its value in the same way as the instruments of production, then it is likewise the material bearer, the form of existence, of fixed capital. This is the case with the above-mentioned improvements of the soil, which add chemical substances to the soil, the influence of which is distributed over several periods of production, or years. In this case, a portion of the value continues to exist independently of the product, it persists in the form of fixed capital, while another portion has been transferred to the product and circulates with it. And in the latter case, it is not alone a portion of the value of the fixed capital which is transferred to the product, but also a portion of the use-value, the substance in which this portion of value is embodied.
Apart from the fundamental mistake—the confounding of the categories "fixed capital and circulating capital" with the categories "constant capital and variable capital"—the confusion of the economists in the matter of definitions is based on the following points:
They make of certain qualities, embodied in the substances of the instruments of labor, direct qualities of fixed capital, for instance, the physical immobility of a house. It is always easy in that case to prove that other instruments of labor, which are likewise fixed capital, have an opposite quality, for instance, physical mobility, such as a vessel's.
Or, they confound the definite economic form, which arises from the circulation of value, with some quality of the object itself, as though things which are not at all capital in themselves, but rather become so under given social conditions, could be of themselves and intrinsically capital in some definite forms, such as fixed or circulating capital. We have seen in volume I that the means of production in every labor-process, regardless of the social conditions in which it takes place, are divided into instruments of labor and objects of labor. But both of them do not become capital until the capitalist mode of production is introduced, and then they become "productive capital," as shown in the preceding part. Henceforth the distinction between instruments and objects of labor, based on the nature of the labor-process, is reflected in the new distinction between fixed and circulating capital. It is then only, that a thing which performs the function of an instrument of labor, becomes fixed capital. If it can serve also in other capacities, owing to its material composition, it may be fixed capital or not, according to the functions it performs. Cattle as beasts of toil are fixed capital; if they are fattened, they are raw material which finally enters into circulation as commodities, in other words, they are circulating, not fixed capital.
The mere fixation of some means of production for a certain length of time in repeated labor-processes, which are consecutively connected and form a period of production, that is to say, the entire period required to complete a certain product, demands advances from the capitalist for a longer or shorter term, just as fixed capital does, but this does not give to his capital the character of fixed capital. Seeds, for instance, are not fixed capital, but only raw material which is held for about a year in the process of production. All capital is held in the process of production, so long as it performs the function of productive capital, and so are, therefore, all elements of productive capital, whatever may be their substantial composition, their function and the mode of circulation of their value. Whether the period of fixation lasts a long or a short time, according to the manner of the process of production or the effect aimed at, it does not determine the distinction between fixed and circulating capital.*25
A portion of the instruments of labor, which determine the general conditions of labor, may be located in a fixed place, as soon as it enters on its duties in the process of production or is prepared for them, for instance, machinery. Or it is produced from the outset in its locally fixed form, such as improvements of the soil, factory buildings, kilns, canals, railroads, etc. The constant fixation of the instrument of labor in the process of production is in that case also due to its mode of material existence. On the other hand, an instrument of labor may continually be shifted bodily from place to place, may move about, and nevertheless be continually in the process of production, for instance, a locomotive, a ship, beasts of burden, etc. Neither does immobility in the one case bestow the character of fixed capital on the instrument of labor, nor does mobility in the other case deprive it of this character. But the fact that some instruments of labor are attached to the soil and remain so fixed, assigns to this portion of fixed capital a peculiar role in the economy of nations. They cannot be sent abroad, cannot circulate as commodities on the market of the world. The titles to this fixed capital may be exchanged, it may be bought and sold, and to this extent it may circulate ideally. These titles of ownership may even circulate on foreign markets, for instance in the form of stocks. But the change of the persons of the owners of this class of fixed capital does not alter the relation of the immobile, substantially fixed part of national wealth to its circulating part.*26
The peculiar circulation of fixed capital results in a peculiar turn-over. That part of value which is lost by wear and tear circulates as a part of the value of the product. The product converts itself by means of its circulation from commodities into money; hence the value of the instrument of labor circulated by the product does the same, and this value is precipitated in the form of money by the process of circulation in the same proportion in which the instrument of labor loses its value in the process of production. This value has then a double existence. One part of it remains attached to the form of its use-value in the process of production, another is detached from the instrument of labor and becomes money. In the performance of its function, that part of the value of an instrument of labor which exists in its natural form constantly decreases, while that which is transformed into money constantly increases, until at last the instrument is exhausted and its entire value, detached from its body, has assumed the form of money. Here the peculiarity in the turn-over of this element of productive capital becomes apparent. The transformation of its value into money keeps pace with the like transformation of the commodity which is its bearer. But its reconversion from the form of money into that of a use-value separates itself from the reconversion of the commodities into their other elements of production and is determined by its own period of reproduction, that is to say by the time during which the instrument of labor has worn out and must be replaced by another specimen of the same kind. If a machine lasts for, say, a period of ten years, then the period of turn-over of the value originally advanced for it amounts to ten years. It need not be replaced until this period has expired, and performs its function in this natural form until then. Its value circulates in the meantime piecemeal as a part of the value of the commodities which it turns out successively, and it is thus gradually transformed into money, until it has entirely assumed the form of money at the end of ten years and is reconverted from money into a machine, in other words, has completed its turn-over. Until this time arrives, its value is meanwhile accumulated in the form of a reserve fund of money.
The other elements of productive capital consist partly of those elements of constant capital which exist in auxiliary and raw materials, partly of variable capital which is invested in labor-power.
The analysis of the processes of labor and self-expansion (vol. I, chap. VII) showed that these different elements behave differently in their role of producers of commodities and values. The value of that part of constant capital which consists of auxiliary and raw materials—the same as of that part which consists of instruments of labor—reappears in the value of the product as transferred value, while labor-power actually adds the equivalent of its value to the product by means of the labor-process, in other words, actually reproduces its value. Furthermore, a part of the auxiliary material, fuel, gas, etc., is consumed in the process of labor without entering bodily into the product, while another part of them enters bodily into the product and forms a part of its substance. But all these differences are immaterial so far as the mode of circulation and turn-over is concerned. To the extent that auxiliary and raw materials are entirely consumed in the creation of the product, they transfer their value entirely to the product. Hence this value is entirely circulated by the product, transformed into money and from money back into the elements of production of the commodity. Its turn-over is not interrupted, as that of fixed capital is, but it rather passes uninterrupted through the entire cycle of its transformations, so that these elements of production are continually reproduced in substance.
As for the variable part of productive capital, which is invested in labor-power, it buys labor-power for a definite period of time. As soon as the capitalist has bought labor-power and embodied it in his process of production, it forms a component part of his capital, definitely speaking, the variable part of his capital. Labor-power performs its function daily during a period of time, in which it not only reproduces its own daily value, but also adds a surplus-value in excess of it to the product. We do not consider this surplus-value for the moment. After labor-power has been bought, say, for a week, and performed its function, its purchase must be continually renewed within the accustomed space of time. The equivalent of its value, which labor-power embodies in its product during its function and which is transformed into money by means of the circulation of the product, must be continually reconverted from money into labor-power, must continually pass through the complete cycle of its transformations, in other words, must be turned over, lest the continuous rotation of its production be interrupted.
That part of the value of capital, then, which has been advanced for labor-power, is entirely transferred to the product—we still leave the question of surplus-value out of consideration—passes with it through the two metamorphoses belonging to the circulation, and always remains in the process of production by means of this continual reproduction. Whatever may be the differences by which labor-power is distinguished, so far as the formation of value is concerned, from those parts of constant capital which do not represent fixed capital, it nevertheless has this manner of turn-over in common with them, as compared to the fixed capital. It is these elements of productive capital—the values invested in labor-power and in means of production which are not fixed capital—that by their common characteristics of turn-over constitute the circulating capital as opposed to the fixed capital.
We have already stated that the money which the capitalist pays to the laborer for the use of his labor-power is but the form of the general equivalent for the means of subsistence required by the laborer. To this extent, the variable capital consists in substance of means of existence. But in this case, where we are discussing the turn-over, it is a question of form. The capitalist does not buy the means of the existence of the laborer, but his labor-power. And that which forms the variable part of capital is not the subsistence of the laborer, but his active labor-power. The capitalist consumes productively in the labor-process the labor-power of the laborer, not his means of existence. It is the laborer himself who converts the money received for his labor-power into means of subsistence, in order to reproduce his labor-power, to keep alive, just as the capitalist converts a part of the surplus-value realized by the sale of commodities into means of existence for himself, and yet would not thereby justify the statement, that the purchaser of his commodities pays him with means of existence. Even if the laborer receives a part of his wages in the form of means of existence, this is still a second transaction in our days. He sells his labor-power at a certain price, with the understanding that he shall receive a part of this price in means of production. This changes merely the form of the payment, but not the fact that that which he actually sells is his labor-power. It is a second transaction, which does not take place between the parties in their capacity as laborer and capitalist, but on the part of the laborer as a buyer of commodities and on that of the capitalist as a seller of commodities; while in the first transaction, the laborer is a seller of a commodity (his labor-power) and the capitalist its buyer. It is the same with the capitalist who replaces his commodity by another, for instance when he takes iron for a machine which he sells to some iron-works. It is, therefore, not the means of subsistence of the laborer which determine the character of circulating capital as opposed to fixed capital. Nor is it his labor-power. It is rather that part of the value of productive capital which is invested in labor-power that receives this character in common with some other parts of constant capital by means of the manner of its turn-over.
The value of the circulating capital—invested in labor-power and means of production—is advanced only for the time during which the product is in process of formation, in harmony with the scale of production dependent on the volume of the fixed capital. This value enters entirely into the product, is therefore fully returned by the sale of the product in the circulation, and can be advanced anew. The labor-power and means of production carrying the circulating part of capital are withdrawn from the circulation to the extent that is required for the formation and sale of the finished product, but they must be continually replaced and reproduced by purchasing them back and reconverting them from money into elements of production. They are withdrawn from the market in smaller quantities at a time than the elements of fixed capital, but they must be withdrawn so much more frequently and the advance of capital invested in them must be repeated in shorter periods. This continual reproduction is promoted by the continuous conversion of the product which circulates the entire value of these elements. And finally, they pass through the entire cycle of metamorphoses, not only so far as their value is concerned, but also their material substance. They are continually reconverted from commodities into the elements of production of the same commodities.
Together with its value, labor-power always adds surplus-value to the product, and this surplus-value represents unpaid labor. This is just as continuously circulated by the finished product and converted into money as its other elements of value. But in this substance, where we are first concerned about the turn-over of capital-value, and not of the surplus-value turned over at the same time, we dismiss the latter for the present.
From the foregoing, the following deductions are made:
1. The definite distinctions of the forms of fixed and circulating capital arise merely from the different turnovers of the capital-value employed in the process of production, the productive capital. This difference of turn-over arises in its turn from the different manner in which the various elements of productive capital transfer their value to the product; they are not due to the different participation of these elements in the production of value, nor to their characteristic role in the process of self-expansion. The difference in the transfer of value to the product-—and therefore the different manner of circulating this value by means of the product and renewing it in its original material form by means of its metamorphoses—arises from the difference of the material forms in which the productive capital exists, one portion of it being entirely consumed during the creation of the individual product, and another being used up gradually. Hence it is only the productive capital, which can be divided into fixed and circulating capital. But this distinction does not apply to the other two modes of existence of industrial capital, that is to say commodity-capital and money-capital, nor does it express the difference of these two capitals as compared to productive capital. It applies only to productive capital and its internal processes. No matter how much money-capital and commodity-capital may perform the functions of capital and circulate, they cannot become circulating capital as distinguished from fixed capital, until they have been transformed into circulating elements of productive capital. But because these two forms of capital dwell in the circulation, the economists since the time of Adam Smith, as we shall presently see, have been misled into confounding them with the circulating parts of productive capital under the head of circulating capital. Money-capital and commodity-capital are indeed circulation capital as distinguished from productive capital, but they are not circulating capital as opposed to fixed capital.
2. The turn-over of the fixed part of capital and therefore also its time of turn-over, comprises several turn-overs of the circulating parts of capital. In the same tine, in which the fixed capital turns over once, the circulating capital turns over several times. One of the component parts of the value of productive capital acquires the definite form of fixed capital only in the case that the instrument of production in which it is embodied is not worn out in the time required for the finishing of the product and its removal from the process of production as a commodity. One part of its value must remain tied up in the form of the old use-value, while another part is circulated by the finished product, and this circulation simultaneously carries with it the entire value of the circulating parts of productive capital.
3. The value invested in the fixed part of productive capital is advanced in a lump-sum for the entire period of employment of that part of the instrument of labor which constitutes the fixed capital. Hence this value is thrown into the circulation by the capitalist all at one time. But it is withdrawn from the circulation only in portions corresponding to the degree in which those values are realized which the fixed capital yields successively to the commodities. On the other hand, the means of production themselves, in which a portion of the productive capital becomes fixed, are withdrawn from the circulation in one bulk and embodied in the process of circulation for the entire period which they last. But they do not require reproduction, they need not be replaced by new specimens of the same kind, until this time is gone by. They continue for a shorter or longer period to contribute to the creation of the commodities to be thrown into circulation, without withdrawing from circulation the elements of their own reproduction. Hence they do not require from the capitalist a renewal of his advances during this period. Finally, the capital-value invested in fixed capital passes through the cycle of its transformations, not in its bodily substance, but only with its ideal value, and even this it does only in successive portions and gradually. In other words, a portion of its value is continually circulated and converted into money as a part of the value of the commodities, without reconverting itself from money into its original bodily form. This reconversion of money into the natural form of an instrument of labor does not take place until at the end of its period of usefulness, when the instrument has been completely worn out.
4. The elements of circulating capital are as continually engaged in the process of production—provided it is to be uninterrupted—as the elements of fixed capital. But the elements of circulating capital held in this condition are continually reproduced in their natural form (the instruments of production by other specimens of the same kind, and labor-power by renewed purchases) while in the case of the elements of fixed capital, neither the substance has to be renewed during their employment, nor the purchases. There are always raw and auxiliary materials in the process of production, but always new specimens of the same kind, whenever the old elements have been consumed in the creation of the finished product. Labor-power is likewise always in the process of production, but only by means of ever new purchases, and frequently with changed individuals. But the same identical buildings, machinery, etc., continue their function during repeated turn-overs of the circulating capital in the same repeated processes of production.
In the same investment of capital, the individual elements of fixed capital have a different life-time, and therefore different periods of turn-over. In a railroad, for instance, the rails, ties, earthworks, station-buildings, bridges, tunnels, locomotives, and carriages have different periods of wear and of reproduction, hence the capital advanced for them has different periods of turn-over. For a long term of years, the buildings, platforms, water tanks, viaducts, tunnels, excavations, dams, in short everything called "works of art" in English railroading, do not require any reproduction. The things which wear out most are the rails, ties, and rolling stock.
Originally, in the construction of modern railways, it was the current opinion, nursed by the most prominent practical engineers, that a railroad would last a century and that the wear and tear of the rails was so imperceptible, that it could be ignored for all financial and practical purposes; from 100 to 150 years was supposed to be the life-time of good rails. But it was soon learned that the life-time of a rail, which naturally depends on the velocity of the locomotives, the weight and number of trains, the diameter of the rails themselves, and on a multitude of other minor circumstances, did not exceed an average of 20 years. In some railway-stations, which are centers of great traffic, the rails even wear out every year. About 1867, the introduction of steel rails began, which cost about twice as much as iron rails but which on the other hand last more than twice as long. The life-time of wooden ties was from 12 to 15 years. It was also found, that freight cars wear out faster then passenger cars. The life-time of a locomotive was calculated in 1867 at about 10 to 12 years.
The wear and tear is first of all a result of usage. As a rule, the rails wear out in proportion to the number of trains. (R.C. No. 17,645,)*27 If the speed was increased, the wear and tear increased faster in proportion than the square of the velocity, that is to say, if the speed of the trains increased twofold, the wear and tear increased more than fourfold. (R. C. No. 17,046.)
Wear and tear are furthermore caused by the influence of natural forces. For instance, the ties do not only suffer from actual wear, but also from mold. The cost of maintenance does not depend so much on the wear and tear incidental to the railway traffic, as on the quality of the wood, the iron, the masonry, which are exposed to the weather. One single month of hand winter will injure the track more than a whole year of traffic. (R. P. Williams, On the Maintenance of Permanent Way. Lecture given at the Institute of Civil Engineers, Autumn, 1867.)
Finally, here as everywhere else in great industry, the virtual wear and tear plays a role. After the lapse of ten years, one can generally buy the same quantity of cars and locomotives for 30,000 pounds sterling, which would have coat 40,000 pounds sterling at the beginning of that time. Thus one must calculate on a depreciation of 25 per cent on the market price of this material, even though no depreciation of its use-values taken place. (Lardner, Railway Economy.)
Tubular bridges in their present form will not be renewed, writes W. P. Adams in his "Roads and Rails," London, 1862. Ordinary repairs of them, removal and replacing of single parts, are not practicable. (There are now better forms for such bridges.) The instruments of labor are largely modified by the constant progress of industry. Hence they are not replaced in their original, but in their modified form. On the one hand, the quantity of the fixed capital invested in a certain natural form and endowed with a certain average vitality in that form constitutes one reason for the gradual pace of the introduction of new machinery, etc., and therefore an obstacle to the rapid general introduction of improved instruments of labor. On the other hand, competition enforces the introduction of new machinery before the old is worn out, especially in the case of important modifications. Such a premature reproduction of the instruments of labor on a large social scale is generally enforced by catastrophes or crises.
By wear and tear (excepting the so-called virtual wear) is meant that part of value which is yielded gradually by the fixed capital to the product in course of creation in proportion to the average degree in which it loses its use-value.
This wear and tear takes place partly in such a way that the fixed capital has a certain average life-time. It is advanced for this entire period in one sum. After the lapse of this period, it must be replaced. So far as living instruments of labor are concerned, for instance horses, their reproduction is timed by nature itself. Their average lifetime as means of production is determined by laws of nature. As soon as this term has expired, the worn-out specimens must be replaced by new ones. A horse cannot be replaced piecemeal, it must be replaced by another horse.
Other elements of fixed capital permit of a periodical or partial renewal. In this instance, the partial or periodical renewal must be distinguished from the gradual extension of the business.
The fixed capital consists in part of homogeneous elements, which do not, however, last the same length of time, but are renewed from time to time and piecemeal. This is true, for instance, of the rails in railway stations, which must be replaced more frequently than those of the remainder of the track. It also applies to the ties, which for instance on the Belgian railroads in the fifties had to be renewed at the rate of 8 per cent, according to Lardner, so that all the ties were renewed in the course of 12 years. Hence we have here the following proposition: A certain sum is advanced for a certain kind of fixed capital for, say, ten years. This expenditure is made at one time. But a certain part of this fixed capital, the value of which has been transferred to the value of the product and converted with it into money, is bodily renewed every year, while the remainder persists in its original natural form. It is this advance in one sum and the reproduction in natural form by small degrees, which distinguishes this capital in the role of fixed from circulating capital.
Other parts of the fixed capital consist of heterogeneous elements, which wear out in unequal periods of time and must be so replaced. This applies particularly to machines. What we have just said concerning the different life-times of different parts of fixed capital applies in this case to the life-time of different parts of the same machine, which performs a part of the function of this fixed capital.
With regard to the gradual extension of the business in the course of the partial renewal, we make the following remarks: Although we have seen that the fixed capital continues to perform its functions in the process of production in its natural state, a certain part of its value, proportionate to the average wear and tear, has circulated with the product, has been converted into money, and forms an element in the money reserve fund intended for the renewal of the capital pending its reproduction in the natural form. This part of the value of fixed capital transformed into money may serve to extend the business or to make improvements in machinery with a view to increasing the efficiency of the latter. Thus reproduction takes place in larger or smaller periods of time, and this is, from the standpoint of society, reproduction on an enlarged scale. It is extensive expansion, if the field of production is extended; it is intensive expansion, if the efficiency of the instruments of production is increased. This reproduction on an enlarged scale does not result from accumulation—not from the transformation of surplus-value into capital—but from the reconversion of the value which has detached itself in the form of money from the body of the fixed capital and has resumed the form of additional, or at least of more efficient, fixed capital of the same kind. Of course, it depends partly on the specific nature of the business, to what extent and in what proportion it is capable of such expansion, and to what amount, therefore, a reserve-fund must be collected, in order to be invested for this purpose; also, what period of time is required, before this can be done. To what extent, furthermore, improvements in the details of existing machinery can be made, depends, of course, on the nature of these improvements and the construction of the machine itself. That this is well considered from the very outset in the construction of railroads, is apparent from a statement of Adams to the effect that the entire construction should follow the principle of a beehive, that is to say, it should have a faculty for unlimited expansion. All oversolid and preconceived symmetrical structures are impracticable, because they must be torn down in the case of an extension. (Page 123 of the above-named work).
This depends largely on the available space. In the case of some buildings, additional stories may be built, in the case of others lateral extension and more land are required. Within capitalist production, there is on one side much waste of wealth, on the other much impractical lateral extension of this sort (frequently to the injury of labor-power) in the expansion of the business, because nothing is under-taken according to social plans, but everything depends on the infinitely different conditions, means, etc., with which the individual capitalist operates. This results in a great waste of the productive forces.
This piecemeal re-investment of the money-reserve fund, that is to say of that part of fixed capital which has been reconverted into money, is easiest in agriculture. A field of production of a given space is capable of the greatest possible absorption of capital. The same applies also to natural reproduction, for instance to stock raising.
The fixed capital requires special expenditures for its conservation. A part of this conservation is provided by the labor-process itself; the fixed capital spoils, if it is not employed in production. (See vol. I, chap. VIII; and chap. XV, on wear and tear of machinery when not in use.) The English law therefore explicitly regards it as a waste, if rented land is not used according to the custom of the country. (W. A. Holdsworth, barrister at law. "The Law of Landlord and Tenant." London, 1857, p. 96.) The conservation due to use in the labor-process is a natural and free gift of living labor. And the conservating power of labor is of a twofold character. On the one hand, is preserves the value of the materials of labor, by transferring it to the product, on the other hand it preserves the value of the instruments of labor, provided it does not transfer this value in part to the product, by preserving their use-value by means of their activity in the process of production.
The fixed capital requires also a positive expenditure of labor for its conservation. The machinery must be cleaned from time to time. This is additional labor, without which the machinery would become useless; it is labor required to ward off the injurious influences of the elements, which are inseparable from the process of production; it is expended for the purpose of keeping the machinery in perfect working order. The normal life-time of fixed capital is, of course, so calculated that all the conditions are fulfilled under which it can perform its functions normally during that time, just as we assume in placing a man's average life at 30 years that he will wash himself. Nor is it here a question of reproducing the labor contained in the machine, but of labor which must be constantly added in order to keep it in working order. It is not a question of the labor performed by the machine itself, but of labor spent on it in its capacity of raw material, not of an instrument of production. The capital expended for this labor belongs to the circulating capital, although it does not enter into the actual labor-process to which the product owes its existence. This labor must be continually expended in production, hence its value must be continually replaced by that of the product. The capital invested in it belongs to that part of circulating capital, which has to cover the general expenses and is distributed over the produced values according to an annual average. We have seen that in industry, properly so-called, this labor of cleaning is performed gratis by the working men during pauses, and thus frequently during the process of production itself, and many accidents are due to this custom. This labor is not counted in the price of the product. The consumer receives it free of charge to this extent. On the other hand, the capitalist thus receives the conservation of his machinery for nothing. The laborer pays this expense in his own person, and this is one of the mysteries of the self preservation of capital, which constitute in point of fact a legal claim of the laborer on the machinery, on the strength of which he is a part-owner of the machine even from the legal standpoint of the bourgeoisie. However, in various branches of production, in which the machinery must be taken out of the process of production for the purpose of cleaning, and where this labor of cleaning cannot be performed between pauses, for instance in the case of locomotives, this labor of conservation counts with the running expenses and is therefore an element of circulating capital. A locomotive must be taken to the shop after a maximum of three days' work in order to be cleaned; the boiler must cool off before it can be washed out without injury. (R. C. No. 17,823.)
The actual repairs, the small jobs, require expenditures of capital and labor, which are not contained in the originally advanced capital and cannot therefore be reproduced and covered, in the majority of cases, by the gradual replacement of the value of fixed capital. For instance, if the value of the fixed capital is 10,000 pounds sterling, and its total life-time 10 years, then these 10,000 pounds, having been entirely converted into money after the lapse of ten years, will replace only the value of the capital originally invested, but they do not replace the value of the capital, or labor, added in the meantime for repairs. This is an element of additional value which is not advanced all at one time, but rather whenever occasion arises for it, so that the terms of its various advances are accidental from the very nature of the conditions. All fixed capital demands such additional and occasional expenditures of capital for materials of labor and labor-power.
The injuries to which individual parts of the machinery are exposed are naturally accidental, and so are therefore the necessary repairs. Nevertheless two kinds of repairs are to be distinguished in the general mass, which have a more or less fixed character and fall within various periods of life of the fixed capital. These are the diseases of childhood and the far more numerous diseases in the period following the prime of life. A machine, for instance, may be placed in the process of production in ever so perfect a condition, still the actual work will always reveal shortcomings which must be remedied by additional labor. On the other hand, the more a machine passes beyond the prime of life, when, therefore, the normal wear and tear has accumulated and has rendered its material worn and weak, the more numerous and considerable will be the repairs required to keep it in order for the remainder of its average life-time; it is the same with an old man, who needs more medical care to keep from dying than a young and strong man. In spite of its accidental character, the labor of repairing is therefore unequally distributed over the various periods of life of fixed capital.
From the foregoing, and from the otherwise accidental character of the labor of repairing, we make the following deductions.
In one respect, the actual expenditure of labor-power and labor-material for repairs is an accidental as the conditions which cause these repairs; the amount of the necessary repairs is differently distributed over the various life-periods of fixed capital. In other respects, it is taken for granted in the calculation of the average life of fixed capital that it is constantly kept in good working order, partly by cleaning (including the cleaning of the rooms), partly by repairs such as the occasion may require. The transfer of value through wear and tear of fixed capital is calculated on its average life, but this average life itself is based on the assumption that the additional capital required for keeping machine in order is continually advanced.
On the other hand it is also evident that the value added by this extra expenditure of capital and labor cannot be transferred to the price of the products simultaneously as it is made. For instance, a manufacturer of yarn cannot sell his yarn dearer this week than last, merely because one of his machines broke a wheel or tore a belt this week. The general expenses of the spinning industry have not been changed by this accident in some individual factory. Here as in all determinations of value, the average decides. Experience teaches the average extent of such accidents and of the necessary labors of conservation and repair during the average life-time of the fixed capital invested in a given branch of industry. This average expense is distributed over the average life-time. It is added to the price of the product in corresponding aliquot parts and hence also reproduced by means of its sale.
The extra capital which is thus reproduced belongs to the circulating capital, although the manner of its expenditure is irregular. As it is highly important to remedy every injury to a machine immediately, every large factory employs in addition to the regular factory hands a number of other employees, such as engineers, wood-workers, mechanics, smiths, etc. The wages of these special employees are a part of the variable capital, and the value of their labor is distributed over their product. On the other hand, the expenses for means of production are calculated on the basis of the above-mentioned average, according to which they form continually a part of the value of the product, although they are actually advanced in irregular periods and therefore transferred in irregular periods to the product or the fixed capital. This capital, invested in regular repairs, is in many respects a peculiar capital, which can be classed neither with the circulating nor the fixed capital, but still belongs with more justification to the former, since it is a part of the running expenses.
The manner of bookkeeping does not, of course, change in any way the actual condition of the things of which an account is kept. But it is important to note that it is the custom of many businesses to class the expenses of repairing with the actual wear and tear of the fixed capital, in the following manner: Take it that the advanced fixed capital is 10,000 pounds sterling, its life-time 15 years; the annual wear and tear 666 and 2/3 pounds sterling. But the wear and tear is calculated at only ten years, in other words, 1,000 pounds sterling are added annually for wear and tear of the fixed capital to the prices of the produced commodities, instead of 666 and 2/3 pounds sterling. Thus 333 and 1/3 pounds sterling are reserved for repairs, etc. (The figures 10 and 15 are chosen at random.) This amount is spent on an average for repairs, in order that the fixed capital may last 15 years. This calculation does not alter the fact that the fixed capital and the additional capital invested in repairs belong to different categories. On the strength of this mode of calculation it was, for instance, assumed that the lowest estimate for the conservation and reproduction of steamship was 15 per cent, the time of reproduction therefore equal to 6 2/3 years. In the sixties, the English government indemnified the Peninsular and Oriental Co. for it at the rate of 16 per cent, making the time of reproduction equal to 6 1/3 years. On railroads, the average life-time of a locomotive is 10 years, but the wear and tear including repairs is assumed to be 12½ per cent, reducing the life-time down to 8 years. In the case of passenger and freight cars, 9 per cent are estimated, or a life-time of 11 1/9 years.
Legislation has everywhere made a distinction, in the leases of houses and other things, which represent fixed capital for their owners, between the normal wear and tear which is the result of time, the influence of the elements, and normal use and between those occasional repairs which are required for keeping up the normal life-time of the house during its normal use. As a rule, the former expenses are borne by the owner, the latter by the tenant. The repairs are further distinguished as ordinary and substantial. The last-named are partly a renewal of the fixed capital in its natural form, and they fall likewise on the shoulders of the owner, unless the lease explicitly states the contrary. For instance, the English law, according to Holdsworth (Law of Landlord and Tenant, pages 90 and 91), prescribes that a tenant from year to year is merely obliged to keep the buildings water-and-wind proof, so long as this is possible without substantial repairs, and to attend only to such repairs as are known as ordinary. And even in this respect the age and the general condition of the building at the time when the tenant took possession must be considered, for he is not obliged to replace either old or worn-out material by new, or to make up for the inevitable depreciation incidental to the lapse of time and normal usage.
Entirely different from the reproduction of wear and tear and from the work of preserving and repairing is the insurance, which relates to destruction caused by extraordinary phenomena of nature, fire, flood, etc. This must be made good out of the surplus-value and is a deduction from it. Or, considered from the point of view of the entire society, there must be a continuous overproduction, that is to say, a production on a larger scale than is necessary for the simple replacement and reproduction of the existing wealth, quite apart from an increase of the population, in order to be able to dispose of the means of production required for making good the extraordinary destruction caused by accidents and natural forces.
In point of fact, only the smallest part of the capital needed for making good such destruction consists of the money-reserve fund. The most important part consists in the extension of the scale of production itself, which is either actual expansion, or a part of the normal scope of the branches of production which manufacture the fixed capital. For instance, a machine factory is managed with a view to the fact that on the one side the factories of its customers are annually extended, and that on the other hand a number of them will always stand in need of total or partial reproduction.
In the determination of the wear and tear and of the cost of repairing, according to the social average, there are necessarily great discrepancies, even for investments of capital of equal size and in equal conditions, in the same branch of production. In practice, a machine lasts in the case of one capitalist longer than its average time, while in the case of another it does not last so long. The expenses of the one for repairs are above, of the other below the average, etc. But the addition to the price of the commodities resulting from wear and tear and from repairs is the same and is determined by the average. The one therefore gets more out of this additional price than he really spent, the other less. This as well as other circumstances which produce different gains for different capitalists in the same branch of industry with the same degree of the exploitation of labor-power renders an understanding of the true nature of surplus-value difficult.
The boundary between regular repairs and replacement, between expenses of repairing and expenses of renewal, is more or less shifting. Hence we see the continual dispute, for instance in railroading, whether certain expenses are for repairs or for reproduction, whether they must be paid from running expenses or from the capital itself. A transfer of expenses for repairs to capital-account instead of revenue-account is the familiar method by which railway managements artificially inflate their dividends. However, experience has already furnished the most important clues for this. According to Lardner, page 49 of the previously quoted work, the additional labor required during the first period of life of a railroad is not counted under the head of repairs, but must be regarded as an essential factor of railway construction, and is to be charged, therefore, to the account of capital, since it is not due to wear and tear or to the normal effect of the traffic, but to the original and inevitable imperfection of railway construction. On the other hand, it is the only correct method, according to Captain Fitzamaurice (Committee of Inquiry of Caledonian Railway, published in Money Market Review, 1867), to charge the revenue of each year with the depreciation, which is the necessary concomitant of the transactions by which this revenue has been earned, regardless of whether this sum has been spent or not.
The separation of the reproduction and conservation of fixed capital becomes practically impossible and useless in agriculture, at least in so far as it does not operate with steam. According to Kirchhoff (Handbuch der landwirthschaftlichen Betriebslehre, Berlin, 1862, page 137), "it is the custom to estimate on a general average the annual wear and tear and conservation of the implements, according to the differences of existing conditions, at from 15 to 20 per cent of the purchasing capital, wherever there is a complete, though not excessive, supply of implements on the farm."
In the case of the rolling stock of a railroad, repairs and reproduction cannot be separated. According to T. Gooch, Chairman of the Great Western Railway Co. (R. C. No. 17, 327-29), his company maintained its rolling stock numerically. Whatever number of locomotives they might have would be maintained. If one of them became worn out in the course of time, so that it was more profitable to build a new one, it was built at the expense of the revenue, in which case the value of the material remaining from the old locomotive was credited to the revenue. There always was a good deal of material left. The wheels, the axles, the boilers, in short, a good part of the old locomotive remained.
"To repair means of renew; for me there is no such word as 'replacement';...once that a railway company has bought a car or a locomotive, they ought to keep them in such repair that they will run for all eternity (17,784). We calculate 8½ d. per English freight mile for locomotive expenses. Out of this 8½ d. we maintain the locomotives forever. We renew our machines. If you want to buy a machine new, you spend more money than is necessary.... You can always find a few wheels, an axle, or some other part of an old machine in condition to be used, and that helps to construct cheaply a machine which is just as good as an entirely new one (17,790). I now produce every week one new locomotive, that is to say, one that is as good as new, for its boiler, cylinder, and frame are new." (17,843.) Archibald Sturrock, locomotive superintendent of Great Northern Railway, in R. C., 1867.
Lardner says likewise about cars, on page 116 of his work, that in the course of time, the supply of locomotives and cars is continually renewed; at one time new wheels are put on, at another a new frame is constructed. Those parts on which the motion is conditioned and which are most exposed to wear and tear are gradually renewed; the machines and cars may then undergo so many repairs that not a trace of the old material remains in them.... Even if the old cars and locomotives get so that they cannot be repaired any more, pieces of them are still worked into others, so that they never disappear wholly form the track. The rolling stock is therefore in process of continuous reproduction; that which must be done at one time for the track, takes place for the rolling stock gradually, from year to year. Its existence is perennial, it is in process of continuous rejuvenation.
This process, which Lardner here describes relative to a railroad, is not typical for an individual factory, but may serve as an illustration of continuous and partial reproduction of fixed capital intermingled with repairs, within an entire branch of production, or even within the aggregate production considered on a social scale.
Here is a proof, to what extent clever managers may manipulate the terms repairs and replacement for the purpose of making dividends. According to the above quoted lecture of R. B. Williams, various English railway companies deducted the following sums from the revenue-account, as averages of a period of years, for repairs and maintenance of the track and buildings, per English mile of track per year:
These differences arise only to a minor degree from differences in the actual expenses; they are due almost exclusively to different modes of calculation, according to whether expenses are charged to the account of capital or revenue. Williams says in so many words that the lesser charge is made, because this is necessary for a good dividend, and a high charge is made, because there is a greater revenue which can bear it.
In certain cases, the wear and tear, and therefore its replacement, is practically infinitesimal, so that nothing but expenses for repairs have to be charged. The statements of Lardner relative to works of art, which are given in substance below, also apply in general to all solid works, docks, canals, iron and stone bridges, etc. According to him, pages 38 and 39 of his work, the wear and tear which is the result of the influence of long periods of time on solid works, is almost imperceptible in short spaces of time; after the lapse of a long period, for instance of centuries, such influences will nevertheless require the partial or total renewal of even the most solid structures. This imperceptible wear and tear, compared to the more perceptible in other parts of the railroad, may be likened to the secular and periodical inequalities in the motions of world-bodies. The influence of time on the more massive structures of a railroad, such as bridges, tunnels, viaducts, etc., furnishes illustrations of that which might be called secular wear and tear. The more rapid and perceptible depreciation, which is compensated by repairs in shorter periods, is analogous to the periodical inequalities. The compensation of the accidental damages, such as the outer surface of even the most solid structures will suffer from time to time, is likewise included in the annual expenses for repairs; but apart from these repairs, age does not pass by such structures without leaving its marks, and the time must inevitably come, when their condition will require a new structure. From a financial and economic point of view, this time may indeed be too far off to be taken into practical consideration.
These statements of Lardner apply to all similar structures of a secular duration, in the case of which the capital advanced for them need not be reproduced according to their gradual wear and tear, but only the annual average expenses of conservation and repairs are to be transferred to the prices of the products.
Although, as we have seen, a greater part of the money returning for the compensation of the wear and tear of the fixed capital is annually, or even in shorter periods, reconverted into its natural form, nevertheless every capitalist requires a sinking fund for that part of his fixed capital, which becomes mature for complete reproduction only after the lapse of years and must then be entirely replaced. A considerable part of the fixed capital precludes gradual production by its composition. Besides, in cases where the reproduction takes place piecemeal in such a way that every now and then new pieces are added in compensation for worn-out ones, a previous accumulation of money is necessary to a greater or smaller degree, according to the specific character of the branch of production, before replacement can proceed. It is not any arbitrary sum of money which suffices for this purpose; a sum of a definite size is required for it.
If we study this question merely on the assumption that we have to deal with the simple circulation of commodities, without regard to the credit system, which we shall treat later, then the mechanism of this movement has the following aspect: We showed in Volume I, chapter III, 3a, that the proportion in which the total mass of money is distributed over a hoard and means of production varies continually, if one part of the money available in society lies fallow as a hoard, while another performs the functions of a medium of circulation or of an immediate reserve-fund of the directly circulating money. Now, in the present case, the money accumulated in the hands of a great capitalist in the form of a large-sized hoard is set free all at once in circulation for the purchase of mixed capital. It is on its part again distributed over the society as medium of circulation and hoard. By means of the sinking fund, through which the value of the fixed capital flows back to its starting point in proportion to its wear and tear, a part of the circulating money forms again a hoard, for a longer or shorter period, in the hands of the same capitalist whose hoard had been transformed into a medium of circulation and passed away from him by the purchase of fixed capital. It is a continually changing distribution of the hoard existing in society, which performs alternately the function of a medium of exchange and is again separated as a hoard from the mass of the circulating money. With the development of the credit-system, which necessarily runs parallel with the development of great industries and capitalist production, this money no longer serves as a hoard, but as capital, not in the hands of its owner, but of other capitalists who have borrowed it.
Notes for this chapter
On account of the difficulty of determining what constitutes the distinguishing mark of fixed and circulating capital, Mr. Lorenz Stein thinks that this distinction is suitable only for lighter study.
End of Manuscript IV, beginning of Manuscript II.
The quotations market R. C. are from the work: Royal Commission of Railways. Minutes of Evidence taken before the commissioners. Presented to both house of Parliament, London, 1867. The questions and answers are numbered, as indicated above.
Part II, Chapter IX.
End of Notes
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i. Terminology is important and labels can hurt people.
ii. The SPF uses the term “Street People” to describe a phenomenon not to describe individual people.
iii. The SPF encourages the use of the term “street-based people” to describe individuals who find themselves either living or earning a living on the streets of our urban centres.
iv. Many terms are used interchangeably by members of the public, government, civil society and street-based people themselves. While these terms can have problems, the SPF is not prescriptive about their use. What follows is a discussion of some of these terms and ideas worth considering in connection to their meaning:
• Street People: many people who live or earn a living on the street do not identify as “street people” and resent the term while others own the term with pride. The diversity of individuals in terms of their resilience and experience of social problems makes a single term problematic.
• Street-based people: this term refers to vulnerable individuals who are living or making a living on the streets. The use of “street-based” is an attempt to steer away from a diagnostic or pejorative label and towards a descriptor that recognises the person’s present situation whether or not that situation is perceived as good or bad. What is common to all the various people who live or make a living on the streets is a set of problems that compound their vulnerability and this set of problems arise specifically because they are street-based.
• Homeless: this describes someone without a home. A home is a place where a person feels they belong. Belonging is a fundamental human need and having no sense of belonging is extremely alienating. Despite dangers and problems they face, many people who live on the streets consider the streets their home in much the same way as someone who lives in a shack would also regard their abode as their home. While people who live in houses, find this difficult to understand, it is important to acknowledge people’s desire to create for themselves a sense of home.
• Houseless: this describes someone without a house. A house is a specific kind of structure used for living. It generally does not include informal types of housing. Someone who lives in a shack or on the streets may be described as houseless as a better way to acknowledge their situation without assuming that they do not belong.
• Stroller: this is a term used on the street to describe someone who has a house or shack but regularly commutes to urban centres to make a living on the streets by begging, guarding cars and so on. The various opportunistic income generating activities of street-based people are collectively referred to as skarrel in the slang of the streets. For the most part this term does not include criminal activity. Most people who identify as strollers do not consider themselves “street people” though they have close associations with street-based communities. Strollers are not homeless or houseless.
• Bergies: this is pejorative term for street-based people that has its origins in Apartheid South Africa. Urban centres were deemed white areas and non-whites were required to leave urban centres at night. Many of those who lived on the street found refuge at night on the mountain sides near urban centres leading to the term “bergies” from the Afrikaans word for “mountain” (berg). The term is infrequently used today.
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(Return to Menu)
© 1998 Henry L. Minton
All rights reserved.
Sir Francis Galton, who pioneered the study of individual differences in the late nineteenth century, was the first to attempt to measure intelligence. Following in the tradition of British empiricism, Galton believed that intelligence was a function of sensory acuity. Thus, individuals who exhibited high degrees of sensory discrimination were assumed to be highly intelligent. Moreover, because sensory acuity reflected native endowment, individual differences in intelligence were assumed to be primarily a function of heredity. In support of his hereditarian views, Galton had argued in his 1869 book, Hereditary Genius, that high levels of intellectual achievement followed genealogical lines; that is, eminent fathers tended to have eminent sons. In 1888, Galton set up an "anthropometric laboratory" in which he used such measures of sensory discrimination as visual acuity, auditory accuracy, and breathing capacity to assess levels of intelligence. Galton's efforts were followed up in the United States by psychologist James McKeen Cattell. Cattell coined the term, "mental tests" to refer to Galtonian measures. By 1901, however, after a series of studies by Cattell and his students that showed no relationship between sensory discrimination and indices of intellectual performance (academic grades), the Galtonian approach to measuring intelligence was generally abandoned. It appeared as though the "mental testing movement" was at an end.
It was against this backdrop of Galtonian measurement that Alfred Binet began his work on intelligence scales. Binet was a leading French psychologist with diverse interests in hypnosis, thinking, and individual differences. In contrast with Galton's use of sensory discrimination, Binet had argued in the 1890s that individual differences in intelligence had to be detected through measures of such complex processes as memory, imagination, attention, comprehension, and suggestibility. In 1904, Binet was appointed by the French minister of public instruction to a commission concerned with the problem of retardation among public schoolchildren in Paris. The early twentieth century was a period of time, both in Western Europe and North America, when public education was rapidly expanding in urban centers, a reflection of the increasing effects of urbanization and industrialization. School administrators turned to social scientists for expertise in reorganizing schools for more efficient classroom management. Such issues as how to handle slow learners was thus of paramount importance to educators.
It was clear to the commission that in order to address the problems of retarded children, special education programs had to be developed. It was therefore necessary to devise a means of identifying retarded children. Binet thus set about developing a scale that could differentiate those children who were slow learners from those who were able to keep pace with the level of instruction (normal children). He collaborated with Théodore Simon, a young physician who had worked with retarded children. Binet and Simon proceeded to assemble a scale composed of measures of the kinds of higher mental processes that Binet had argued were central to the assessment of intelligence. They constructed some of the specific cognitive tests themselves but they also modified a number of tests that had been developed by two French physicians, Drs. Blin and Damaye. Binet and Simon drew samples of "normal" children and children thought to be retarded from schools, hospitals, orphanages, and asylums. The children ranged in age from two to twelve. They used these samples to try out the various tests with the goal of selecting those tests that clearly discriminated between the two groups of children. By this means, they selected thirty tests arranged roughly in ascending order of difficulty.
In this 1905 paper, Binet and Simon spell out the rationale for their scale and provide guidelines for its administration. The scale, in its entirety (thirty tests) is included. Thus, this paper served as the source for disseminating information about the first Binet-Simon scale, as well as the source for the practical use of the scale. In the introduction, the authors state that the scale is intended to study the child's condition at the time of administration. The goal is to determine the child's present mental state so that a decision can be made about the appropriate curriculum placement; that is, special education or regular classroom instruction. The authors caution that in cases of retardation, it is irrelevant to consider etiology; that is, whether the retardation is acquired or congenital. In pioneering a new assessment method, the authors also make a point of distinguishing the target group the scale is aimed at. As they indicate, the scale is only appropriate for assessing the mental performance of children. It is thus not concerned with identifying the psychologically unstable, insane, or organically deteriorated; only in comparing inferior and normal intelligence.
In justifying the value of their method, Binet and Simon note that its objective grounding in normative data, it avoids the subjective bias inherent in the traditional practice of basing diagnoses of retardation on medical observation. The psychological method measures the state of general intelligence at the present moment. The child's mental capability is assessed through exercises of comprehension, judgment, reasoning, and invention. These tests reflect the nature of intelligence, which is based on the practical ability to adapt to one's circumstances. The scale thus does not assess special abilities or acquired information (achievement). Rounding out the introductory section, Binet and Simon provide guidelines for administration, underscoring the training necessary for being able to establish rapport and achieve unbiased test administration.
The major part of the paper is concerned with presenting the thirty tests, starting with the least difficult. For each test, the procedure of administration is spelled out and guidelines are provided with respect to the normative performance expected. The first six tests assess the earliest signs of attention and memory. These include the coordination of the head to follow a lighted match, hand coordination to tactile and visual stimuli, unwrapping food covered by paper, and the imitation of gestures and following simple commands. Normal two-year old children could pass all of these tests but severely retarded children (the category of idiocy) could pass only a few or none. Tests seven, eight, and nine assess communication skills beyond the two-year level. These tests distinguished between severe retardation (idiocy) and moderate retardation (imbecility). In tests ten and twelve , children are asked to compare lines and weights. Failure reflects the inability to understand what is required. In repeating three digits (test eleven) it is important to note the kind of error. Slight errors may simply indicate distraction, while totally wrong answers indicate a lapse of judgment that suggests retardation. Suggestibility (test thirteen) can also point to signs of retardation if the child responds without resistance to absurd requests by the examiner, such as asking for a button when such an object is not present. Definitions and repetition of sentences (tests fourteen and fifteen) differentiate between younger and older children.
As Binet and Simon reported in a later publication, test sixteen (differences between words, e.g. paper and cardboard) discriminated between moderately and slightly retarded children. Tests seventeen through twenty-six measure various cognitive abilities, including memory, similarities, and language usage. These tests discriminated between younger and older normal children. Test twenty-seven, assessing comprehension (responses to abstract questions like "When a person has offended you, and comes to offer his apologies, what should you do?"), was especially useful for differentiating between the slightly retarded and the normal. As Binet and Simon state, "any mind which is not apt in abstraction succumbs here." Tests twenty-eight and twenty-nine assess attention, reasoning, and visual ability. Test thirty, the final and most difficult, measures abstraction as reflected in accounting for the difference between abstract words, such as boredom and weariness.
The major intent of the 1905 scale was to differentiate the slightly
retarded (Henry H. Goddard's category of "moron") from
the normal school population. Children who were classified as
slightly retarded could then be targeted for special education.
In a 1907 book written for the general public, Binet provided
guidelines on the admission of retarded children to special education
classes and underscored the need for assessment. In 1908, Binet
and Simon revised their scale, arranging the tests by age levels.
This reorganization was based on the age norms that they had established
with the 1905 scale, which had been administered to a large sample
of normal children between the ages of three and thirteen. A criterion
of 75% passing was used to determine each test's placement. Thus,
if 75% or more of six-year-olds passed a given test, it was placed
at the six-year level. An especially useful aspect of the 1908
scale was that it provided for the possibility of expressing a
child's level of intelligence in relation to the age group whose
performance he or she matched. A six-year old child, for example,
who performed as well as the average eight-year old would have
a "mental level" of eight. The mental level represented
the averaging out of successes and failures that matched the given
age norm. When Binet's writings were translated by the American
mental testers, the term "mental age" was used and implied
an ordered developmental progression that Binet had not intended.
The Binet-Simon scale was revised again in 1911, the year of Binet's
death, and included normative data on an adult sample (fifteen-year
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| 0.968064 | 1,931 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Neck pain can be caused by irritation, inflammation, injury, or infection. Pain in the neck, shoulder, arm, hand, or head “most” frequently results from irritation of cervical nerve roots in the region of the intervertebral foramen, encroachment of the vascular supply as it courses through the vertebral canal, or invasion of the cord in the spinal canal.
If unhealthy, your neck’s normal forward curve may reduce, become straight or “military,” or even reverse its curve. Over time, arthritic changes in the vertebrae such as lipping or spurring (bony growths), disc-thinning or degeneration, or deterioration of muscles, ligaments and other structures may occur. However, in spite of all these changes, there may or may not be pain. In fact, studies show little or no correlation between the degree of pain felt in the neck and arthritis changes found on X-rays and MRI.
Lipping, spurring, and other irregularities (osteoarthritis) do not in themselves constitute a disease but are instead defense mechanisms that arise to stabilize an off-balance spine. Recent research has shown that manipulative care can reverse some of the effects of osteoarthritis – something that had previously been considered impossible.
I take a different approach to the treatment and prevention of neck pain. After a thorough neurological examination I determine which part of the nervous system is not functioning properly. In many neck pain patients I may find a high mesencephalic output.
There are three parts to the brain stem: top, middle, and lower. The mesencephalon is the top part of the brain stem. A high output of the mesencephalon will cause an increased pulse and heart rate, inability to sleep or waking up from fitful sleep, urinary tract infection, increase warmth or sweating, and sensitivity to light.
Along with a high mesenphalic output, the neck pain patient may have a decreased output of the cerebellum. The cerebellum is in the back part of the brain, and it controls all of the involuntary spinal musculature.
No matter what the condition, it is imperative that the doctor performs a thorough and comprehensive exam to determine the exact nature of the patient’s condition.
If you are interested in seeing if you are a candidate for our breakthrough procedures for treating neck pain give us a call at (252) 758-2222 to schedule a free consultation with Dr. McCarthy.
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The major political battle over wartime finance was the portion of the war costs to be funded by taxes and the portion through borrowing. Democrats tended to favor taxes and Republicans borrowing. Both parties realized that both taxes and borrowing had to be resorted to, but they differed over whether taxes should account for 20%, 33% or even 50% of the burden. Too much borrowing could create inflation, but too much taxation could reduce incentives to put the economy on a wartime footing. In the end, taxes financed a third of the war effort.
The best types of taxes to implement were also hotly debated. The national income tax was dropped after the Civil War in favor of reliance on tariffs. The Supreme Court ruled federal income taxes unconstitutional, but in 1909 under President Taft the political stars realigned and a constitutional amendment (the 16th) allowing imposition of an income tax was sent to the states and ratified by the necessary number (then 36) in 1913. Soon after, Congress enacted an income tax into law. About 15% of American households helped pay for the war with their income taxes, but most of the tax burden fell on corporations in the form of an “excess profits” tax. Estate taxes were also considerable.
To some extent the government also taxed interest payments on its own bonds as detailed in the accompanying document. Its evolving goal was to increase government revenues and reduce class antagonisms by taxing only the wealthiest bondholders, those subject to the highest income, estate and excess profit taxes. Tax exemptions had to be expanded, however, to attract more middle class bond investors caught in the tax “bracket creep” created by double digit wartime inflation.
(Click images for more information)
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On the road
It’s late, you’re tired, and all you want to do is get in the car so you can go home. But what if the driver is drunk? The answer is simple — don’t get into the car. If the driver is drunk, it's going to be a long time before it is safe for him or her to drive. To protect yourself, you must find another way home. Ask someone else to drive, call your parents/guardians, call another friend, or take a cab. Some cities have safe ride programs, where you can call a number and get a free ride home. Ask your parents/guardians for help finding out if your city has a safe ride program, before you need it.
If the driver is a parent/guardian or another adult, it may be hard for you to say that you won’t get in the car. Don’t be afraid to ask if the person has been drinking. He or she may be surprised or offended by the question, but it’s your right to have a safe ride home. If your parent/guardian is the one who is driving drunk, talk to another adult you trust or contact Alateen for help in the future.
Some of the same advice applies to taking rides from a driver who is over-tired. Ask someone else to drive or suggest that the driver stop to rest before continuing.
You may also be driving with friends or family members who recently got their driver’s licenses. New drivers may be too willing to take risks on the road, or may be careless and unsafe. Take notice and don’t be afraid to speak up for your safety or to find a different way to get to where you are going.
- Always wear your seat belt. Make sure your passengers buckle up, too.
- Never drive with more people in your car than you have seat belts for.
- Try not to drive with more than one passenger. The more passengers in your car, the more likely you are to get in an accident. More passengers mean more distractions.
- Don’t drink and drive.
- Don’t drive if you are sleepy.
- Don’t talk on the phone, text, put on make-up, brush your hair, or eat while driving.
- Don’t play with the radio while you’re driving. Wait until you are stopped or ask your passenger to change the station or adjust the volume.
- Always be aware of your surroundings. Be on the lookout for motorcycles, people crossing the street, and bikers.
- Don’t be an aggressive driver. Aggressive drivers speed, follow too closely, or weave in and out of lanes.
- Do be a defensive driver. Defensive drivers drive the speed limit, follow at a safe distance, and are alert and aware of their surroundings.
Keep your car in good working order
You may think of a car as simply a way to get from Point A to Point B, but cars need regular care to work properly. Make sure to review these items in your car regularly to keep your car safe and in good condition! Routine maintenance can save you money and keep you safe.
- Remember to change the oil. Your car’s oil should be changed every 3,000 – 5,000 miles. The oil level should be checked every few weeks, or monthly.
- Pay attention to the transmission. Trouble changing gears could mean a problem with the transmission. Have your transmission fluid checked when you get an oil change; low fluid could mean you have a leak.
- Be sure your car has coolant. Coolant is a mixture of antifreeze and water that keeps the temperature of your engine low.
- Check your tires. Learn how to check the pressure in your tires and keep them properly inflated. Overinflated and underinflated tires can be dangerous, and they also waste gas. Also, be sure your tires have enough tread. A penny is often the simplest way to check tire tread: Stick a penny into a groove with Lincoln’s head pointing down. If the tread is lower than Lincoln's hair, your tire level is unsafe.
- Brake safety. If you hear a whining, screeching, or grinding sound, or if you feel pulling or softness when you press the brakes, get your car looked at by a mechanic right away.
- Check belts for wear and tear. If you’re driving an older car, make sure the seat belts aren’t frayed or damaged in any way. You want to be sure they’re in working condition in case of an accident.
- Don’t forget to fill up! It may sound obvious, but don’t forget to keep gas in your car. Fill up when your car reaches one-quarter of a tank to keep your car in good working condition and so that you never run out while on the road.
Keep these safety tips in mind when riding on a bus or on the subway!
- Stay seated on all kinds of buses. Riding the school bus or a public bus can be a lot of fun, especially when you’re with your friends, but it’s important to stay seated. Leaning over the back of a seat to talk to your friend is distracting to the driver and dangerous in case of an accident. Always stay seated on a bus!
- If your bus has a seat belt, use it. Some school buses and most public buses do not have seat belts. However, if your bus does have one, buckle up! It will keep you safer in case there’s an accident.
- Watch out when exiting the bus. When you get off the school bus or a public bus, take five giant steps out of the door. Then pause for a moment and look around to make sure it is safe to cross the street. If you are exiting a school bus, the driver should wait for you to cross the road, if needed. Never cross in front of a public bus! Wait until the bus has pulled away and you can see when traffic has cleared so you can safely cross the street.
- Pay attention on the platform. If you ride a subway, don’t ever play on the subway platform. It would be easy to fall onto the tracks.
= This article, publication, website, or organization is from the U.S. government.
Content last reviewed September 22, 2009
Page last updated October 31, 2013
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Atkins v. Virginia
In Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited the death penalty for defendants having low IQ scores. Justice John Paul Stevens relied on an amicus brief from the European Union to reinterpret the Eighth Amendment in this manner:
- "within the world community, the imposition of the death penalty for crimes committed by mentally retarded offenders is overwhelmingly disapproved."
Justice Antonin Scalia, in dissent, observed:
- "The views of other nations cannot be imposed upon Americans."
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the court, joined by Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer. Justice William Rehnquist (joined by Justices Scalia and Clarence Thomas) and Scalia (joined by Justices Rehnquist and Thomas) filed dissenting opinions.
- Opinions at FindLaw (registration may be required)
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|Online Judge||Problem Set||Authors||Online Contests||User|
Being the only living descendant of his grandfather, Kamran the Believer inherited all of the grandpa's belongings. The most valuable one was a piece of convex polygon shaped farm in the grandpa's birth village. The farm was originally separated from the neighboring farms by a thick rope hooked to some spikes (big nails) placed on the boundary of the polygon. But, when Kamran went to visit his farm, he noticed that the rope and some spikes are missing. Your task is to write a program to help Kamran decide whether the boundary of his farm can be exactly determined only by the remaining spikes.
The first line of the input file contains a single integer t (1 <= t <= 10), the number of test cases, followed by the input data for each test case. The first line of each test case contains an integer n (1 <= n <= 1000) which is the number of remaining spikes. Next, there are n lines, one line per spike, each containing a pair of integers which are x and y coordinates of the spike.
There should be one output line per test case containing YES or NO depending on whether the boundary of the farm can be uniquely determined from the input.
1 6 0 0 1 2 3 4 2 0 2 4 5 0
[Submit] [Go Back] [Status] [Discuss]
Home Page Go Back To top
All Rights Reserved 2003-2013 Ying Fuchen,Xu Pengcheng,Xie Di
Any problem, Please Contact Administrator
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Bangladesh and the Ganges Brahmaputra Delta lies at the junction of three plates: the Indian Plate, the Eurasian Plate and the Burma Platelet. The long thin sliver of the Burma platelet (Fig. 1) is both advancing over the
Indian Plate and sliding sideways. Its exact motion in this region is still uncertain. Where the Platelet encounters the
Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta north of 18°N latitude, it widens into a broad
folded prism of offscraped sediments (Figs. 2, 3). To the north, at the corner of
Himalaya and Burma Arcs, the Shillong Plateau is advancing to the south (Fig. 4) and may represent the beginning of a forward jump of the Himalayas.
We use mapping of the sediment layers that record the tectonic history, geodesy, seismology and field geologic mapping to determine the nature of the faulting and active tectonics across these boundaries.
Figure 2. Schematic profile from the Indian Shield to the Burma Arc at Bangladesh. Pink is continental basement rock, purple is subducting oceanic basement, and yellow is sediment. The lines in the sediments show the folds and thrusts that are deforming the delta sediments.
Figure 3. Oblique view of topography across the Burma Arc foldbelt. Elevation profile is shown in blue. Higher, more rigid part of foldbelt is in Myanmar. Low elevation folds are made of recent delta sediments. Front of folbelt is buried benath the delta and extends to the yellow line. D = location of Dhaka.
In order to determine the structure of the region, we will employ a variety of geophysical methods.
1. Resistivity Imaging. To
aid correlation of sedimentary features between wells, we will use a resistivity system. Using an array of electrodes, the tool
induces electrical ground currents and measures voltage between pairs of points
on the surface. Making thousands of measurements with different electrode
distances and spacings, the data are inverted to image the spatial pattern of
subsurface resistivity, primarily controlled by sand:mud ratios of the
underlying strata (Fig. 5).
2. ‘Marine’ Multichannel
Seismics. We will image the
stratigraphy to a few hundred meters depth by conducting a marine multichannel seismic survey (Fig. 6). Our partners
from Bremen University will bring their portable micro-GI gun and a short streamer for a high-resolution survey from local boats on the rivers.
3. GPS geodesy. We have established a network of 18 sites where we continuously measure positions precise enough to see tectonic motions and ground subsidence (Fig. 7). We will also use precision GPS to measure locations of all well sites and topographic profiles of geologic features.
4. Seismology. We are operating both a 6-station permanent network and a 6-station portable network that is relocated every 1-2 years. The local seismicity (Fig. 8) comes from the basal detachment below
the accretionary wedge; imbricate thrust-folds and dextral faults rooted in
this detachment; the Dauki reverse fault; and intraplate faults in the Indian
basement, primarily near the hinge zone. We also using teleseismic earthquakes to obtain additional information on the sediment
and crustal thickness beneath Bangladesh.
5. Compaction measurements. To better understand the subsidence of the delta, we will measure sediment compaction versus depth at two sites (Fig. 9). To do this we have drilled suites of 4-6 boreholes to depths from 20 to 300 m at each site. Each well has stretched optical fibers installed whose length are measured weekly. With each fiber measuring
compaction to a different depth, together they provide a depth profile of
compaction for the duration of the experiment.
Figure 1. Plate tectonics of the area of Bangladesh. The thick black lines show the major plate boundaries. Thrust faults have triangles on the upper plate. The inset shows the outline of the Burma Platelet, a long this sliver between the larger Indian and Asian Plates. The rupture zones of major earthquakes along the subduction boundary is also shown. Figure 4. Westward view of the southern front of the Shillong Plateau. Indian Shield basement rock outcrops in the higher central part of the Plateau. It is covered by sedimentary strata including syntectonic sediments. The younger sediments in the Sylhet Basin steepen to the south suggesting that the Dauki Fault is probably blind and lies farther south than the Plateau within the Basin. Figure 5. Resistivity image from Bangladesh. High reistivity (red colors) layers correspond to sands and low resistivity (blue colors) layers correspond to clays. Figure 6. Example seismic image from Lake Balaton, Hungary collected using the Bremen portable seismic system showing sedimentary layers and river channels. Figure 7. Plot of daily GPS positions vs time from site DHAK at Dhaka University. The measurements show the site to be moving to the north and east with the Indian plate. The vertical shows seasonal loading from the monsoon and subsidence, mainly due to groundwater pumping beneath Dhaka.
Figure 8. Example of seismic records from local earthquake in Bangladesh.
Figure 9. Cartoon illustrating the plan for each compaction system. A local collaborator makes weekly measurements at each well. Wells will be periodically surveyed to GPS monument.
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A new study suggests that cherry flavored e-cigarettes may be the most harmful for your health. In fact, the cherry flavored vapors may even be more irritating to the airways than traditional cigarettes. A new study found that the cherry flavored vapes contained higher levels of benzaldehyde which is a known respiratory irritant.
The Daily Mail reports that e-cigarette users may want to steer clear of cherry flavored e-cig products. A new research study found that cherry flavored e-cigarettes contained higher levels of benzaldehyde than other flavors and more than traditional cigarettes. Therefore, the study warned e-cig users to avoid the flavor as the long-term effects of inhaling benzaldehyde are unknown.
E Cigarette UIpdate: Are cherry-flavored e-cigarettes more dangerous? – Medical News Today https://t.co/7YQqkvR90V
— Simon Wright (@WrightStuff18) January 30, 2016
According to Newsweek, benzaldehyde is used in many edible products that have fruit flavoring. Likewise, the “natural” flavoring is also used in e-cigarette products to produce a fruit flavor. Though the benzaldehyde is present in almost all flavors, the cherry flavored e-cigarettes contained the highest levels of inhalable benzaldehyde which has many scientists concerned about potential future risks.
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) January 29, 2016
Benzaldehyde is considered safe for use in food products when ingested; however, it has also been proven to cause respiratory issues when inhaled in animals as well as workplace studies. In fact, the MSDS safety sheet for benzaldehyde outlines concerns with breathing the product. The MSDS calls inhalation of benzaldehyde a “very hazardous” concern and also notes the compound as a known carcinogenic.
“Very hazardous in case of ingestion. Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of eye contact (irritant), of inhalation. Slightly hazardous in case of skin contact (permeator).”
The safety sheet goes on to explain that if benzaldehyde is inhaled, the room should be ventilated immediately and oxygen given to those who inhaled the compound. Furthermore, it is noted on the MSDS that “serious inhalation” has not been studied or is not available.
“Inhalation: If inhaled, remove to fresh air. If not breathing, give artificial respiration. If breathing is difficult, give oxygen. Get medical attention. Serious Inhalation: Not available.”
With the e-cigarettes being inhaled by users it is unclear why benzaldehyde is allowed in the product. However, it seems that the compound is used in low enough quantities that it does not cause immediate concern. Though there is not immediate risk, the researchers note that long-term risk is highly likely.
— MedPage Today (@medpagetoday) January 29, 2016
For the study, researchers performed tests on 145 different e-cigarette vapes in a variety of flavors. Flavors in the study included tropical, berry, tobacco, alcohol, chocolate, and candy, coffee and tea, menthol and cherry. The researchers then measured levels of benzaldehydes by creating aerosol vapors with an automatic smoking simulator and tested 30 puffs of each. They then calculated the levels of benzaldehydes for 163 puffs.
The researchers found that cherry flavored e-cigarettes contained 43 percent more benzaldehyde than other flavors. The result is a warning from researchers about using the cherry flavored e-vapors until further research can be performed.
Though researchers are warning about cherry flavored e-cigarettes, the vaping community says the research should be viewed with a grain of salt. The American Vaping Association president Gregory Conley notes that it would take an e-cigarette user three years to meet the exposure level a worker is exposed to in an eight-hour shift.
What do you think of the research and Conley’s response? Do you use e-cigarettes? If so, do you plan to exclude cherry flavored vapors from your vaping due to the new safety concerns? What do you think of the e-cigarette study?
[Photo by Dan Kitwood/ Getty Images]
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Origin: Sp. Mosquito, fr. Moscafly, L. Musca. Cf. Musket.
(Science: zoology) Any one of various species of gnats of the genus culex and allied genera. The females have a proboscis containing, within the sheathlike labium, six fine, sharp, needlelike organs with which they puncture the skin of man and animals to suck the blood. These bites, when numerous, cause, in many persons, considerable irritation and swelling, with some pain. The larvae and pupae, called wigglers, are aquatic.
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Social Bond TheorySelf-Control Theory Travis HirschiMichael Gottfredson
Social Bond TheoryTravis Hirschi Social Process Theories Social Control Theories Causes of Delinquency (1969) Social Bond Theory Attachment Commitment Involvement Belief
Social Bond TheoryTravis Hirschi Attachment refers to a person’s sensitivity to and interest in others.
Social Bond TheoryTravis Hirschi Commitment involves the time, energy, and effort expended in conventional lines of action, such as getting an education and saving money for the future.
Social Bond TheoryTravis Hirschi Heavy involvement in conventional activities leaves little time for il egal behavior.
Social Bond TheoryTravis Hirschi People who live in the same social settings often share common moral beliefs; they may adhere to such values as sharing, sensitivity to rights of others, and admiration for the legal code.
Testing Social Bond Theory Hirschi’s Supporting Research Youths who were strongly attached to their parents were less likely to commit criminal acts. Commitment to conventional values, such as striving to get a good education and refusing to drink alcohol and “cruise around,” was indicative of conventional behavior. Youths involved in conventional activity, such as homework, were less likely to engage in criminal behavior. Youths involved in unconventional behavior, such as smoking and drinking, were more delinquency prone. Youths who maintained weak and distant relationships with people tended toward delinquency. Those who shunned unconventional acts were attached to their peers. Delinquents and nondelinquents shared similar beliefs about society.
Testing Social Bond Theory Opposing Views Friendship Not al elements of the bond are equal Deviant peers and parents Restricted in scope Changing bonds Crime and social bonds
Self-Control Theory Travis Hirschi & Michael Gottfredson Latent Trait Theories General Theory of Crime (GTC) A General Theory of Crime (1990) Self-Control Theory
Self-Control Theory Travis Hirschi & Michael Gottfredson Differences of Social Bond Theory & Self-control Theory A General Theory of Crime (1990) Integration of: Biosocial Psychological Routine activities Rational Choice Theories
Self-Control Theory Travis Hirschi & Michael Gottfredson In GTC Gottfredson and Hirschi consider the criminal offender and the criminal act as separate concepts
Self-Control Theory Travis Hirschi & Michael Gottfredson Criticisms Tautological Different classes of criminals Ecological / Individual differences Racial and gender differences Moral beliefs Peer influence People change Modest relationship Cross-cultural differences Misreads Human nature
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and Book design image,
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(Return to Web Text-ures)
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First Bunker Hill Oration
“1775 belongs to Massachusetts, — Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill.”
An analysis of this address reveals in Mr. Webster a great historical art-painter, and a net unprofitable exercise might be suggested by the teacher in reproducing it as an historical painting of a memorable battle scene.
The contest is thus described by a lineal descendant of General Warren. “The re-enforcements moving over the water; the fire of the floating batteries and ships of war; the flames from three hundred houses in Charlestown; the ascent of the British troops, pausing from time to time as their artillery played upon the American works; the coolness and intrepidity with which that fire was sustained by our countrymen, and the fatal precision with which they returned it; the broken and recoiling lines of enemy; the final retreat of the gallant band who had withstood them; the tens of thousands looking on from the housetops, steeples, and hills of Boston and all the neighboring country, and beholding with conflicting emotions the awful struggle in their view. It would, perhaps, be difficult to select in history an event more entitled to celebration by the character of the exploits, its great national effects, its astonishing grandeur, and its affecting incidents.”
An Association called the Bunker Hill Monument Association, was formed in 1823, with the object to erect at Bunker Hill some lasting monument of the history, valor, and glory of June 17, 1775. Daniel Webster was the second President of this Association.1 During the three periods of its history, from the laying of the Corner-Stone to the completion of this first “Pillar of the Republic,” there were connected with it the names of many of the most famous Americans of the first half of the century.
As three great names, Warren, Prescott, Putnam, are forever connected with the historic battle-ground, so are three with this granite record: Horatio Greenough the famous American sculptor, whose model was essentially adopted, Loammi Baldwin, who calculated the proportions, and Solomon Willard who was architect and superintendent of the work. It is scarcely less interesting to note that during nearly a score of years, in the three periods of construction, total-abstinence men were invariably employed by the architect, who refused to have completed by those whom he deemed America’s curse, what had been begun by those who were her salvation.
It is also worthy of remembrance that but for the co-operation of the women of Boston, led by Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, it would have been left to our own generation to have placed the topmost stone, and to another than the orator who laid its Corner-Stone, to have heard the prophetic echo distinctly given back by the monument on that second2 festal day, as it gratulated itself with its own completion.3
NOTES. — Bunker Hill Monument, in 1850, was made to contribute to the interests of science, by Professors Eben Norton Horsford, and William C. Bond, of Harvard University, who successfully demonstrated there the diurnal rotation of the Earth on its axis, by the famous pendulum experiment. The ball used for this experiment was one of the ill-spent balls of the British.
The American Flag was displayed from the summit of Bunker Hill Monument with great ceremony for the first time, June 17, 1861. Colonel Fletcher Webster, son of Daniel Webster, who was present as a child at the laying of the Stone, made the speech._______________________
1 The first President was Gov. John Brooks, a “participant in the Battle of Bunker Hill.”
2 In the Charlestown City Library may be found a full length painting of Mr. Webster, represented as delivering this second address, and at the point of saying, “This column stands on Union.’“
3 A distinct echo of “Over the globe” was given back by the monument, as Mr. Webster in his second oration uttered the words which referred to the foundation principles of the government: “ I would that the fifty thousand voices present could proclaim it with a shout which should be heard over the globe.” The applause that followed was as deafening as the battle itself.
LINE 1. Delegations from all the New England States, most of the Middle States, and some of the Southern States, were present. So long was the procession, that when the vanguard of the line had reached Charlestown Square, the rear had not left Boston Common.
10, 11. Within a radius of ten miles, it is interesting to note that there are no less than ten places of historic interest.
15-20. Cf. Shakespeare’s King Henry the Fifth, Act. IV., Scene III., lines 56-67.
“This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother: be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”
38. Recent historical investigations might make the orator of to-day modify this epithet as applied to “Columbus.”
For a vivid and interesting enlargement of this description, see Washington Irving’s “Columbus.”
59-65. The most important early settlements were those of Virginia Colony, on the James River, 1607; Plymouth Colony, 1620; and Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1628.
83-85. The Corner-Stone of the Monument was laid on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill.
85-88. The Stone was laid with Masonic ceremonies, in which Lafayette assisted the Masonic officers. The other “solemnities” were a prayer by the Rev. Joseph Thaxter, who, as chaplain of Colonel Prescott’s regiment, half a century before, had stood on the same hill to pray for the detachment, and for the success of the battle; and an ode by Rev. John Pierpont.
94-96. There are deposited in the Corner-Stone, five different accounts of the Battle of Bunker Hill, a plan of the battle and of Charlestown, an address and letter connected with Bunker Hill Monument Association, a copy of Edward Everett’s oration on the Battle of Lexington, a copy of the “ Life of Josiah Quincy,” specimens of Continental currency, coins and medals of the United States, a fragment of Plymouth -Rock, and a copy of each of the Boston newspapers printed during the week of the celebration.
96-98. The height of Bunker Hill Monument is two hundred and twenty feet.
129-130. Mr. Webster doubtless emphasized the word “great” to distinguish this event from Lexington and Ticonderoga.
137-141. A wish which was a prophecy fulfilled during the years of the Civil War, 1861-1865.
145-148. A poetical expression not justified by fact. The first object seen in approaching Boston is the State House Dome.
152-193. The student will find an interesting comparison between the record of the succeeding years, i.e., from 1825 to the present day. For example, the present number of States is forty-two; the twelve- millions of people have been augmented to sixty-five millions; the country, which had extended itself to the Ohio and Mississippi, is now settled from ocean to ocean; the railroad which the erection of Bunker Hill Monument caused to be first constructed in the United States, is a network over the entire country; while the telegraphic and other electric systems have been both invented and applied. Add to these the Civil War; the abolishment of Slavery; the measures undertaken toward the citizenship of the Indian; the partial enfranchisement of women; the erection of new colleges, especially those for women; the countless political, philanthropic, and social institutions of America; — and Webster’s epitome becomes in turn, “a faint abstract.”
A broader and equally interesting comparison may also be made between Webster’s summary and a present review of foreign affairs. It is needless to add that lines 177-182 have reference to the French Revolution and the career of Napoleon, the succeeding lines to the South American Republics.
199-204. As the result of careful effort on the part of the committee, and a provision for their travelling expenses by the State, nearly two hundred Revolutionary soldiers, forty of whom were in the Battle of Bunker Hill, were present.
205, 206. It is amusing to note in the Memorials of Daniel Webster, that this oft-quoted passage, “Venerable men! you have come down to us from a former generation,” is associated with a trivial experience of a fishing excursion of the day before.
Vide Memorials of Daniel Webster.
215, 216. Next to the death of Joseph Warren, the firing of Charlestown was considered the most tragic event of the historic week.
241-243. Colonel Wm. Prescott,1 with a detachment of one thousand men, commanded and defended the fort; Gen. Israel Putnam re-enforced Prescott with the Connecticut troops of five hundred men, and with Pomeroy held the centre; Col. John Stark, who declared that there was no commander of the American troops on that hard-fought day, became afterward Brigadier-General of the Revolutionary Army; John Brooks became the Governor of Massachusetts; Colonel Read commanded Charlestown Neck; Colonel Bridge was severely wounded.
254, 255. Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” Book V., lines 310, 311.
256-275. Joseph Warren, the hero martyr of the Battle of Bunker Hill, was a graduate of Harvard University, a distinguished physician, and a natural leader, whose combined patriotism and wisdom prophesied at the outset his promotion. He had already been elected President of the Provincial Congress, had contributed to the success of Lexington, and had been made a Major-General by Congress on the 17th of June, 1775. His fine culture and exquisite beauty of character, joined to his true heroism, made him the first distinguished loss in the Revolutionary War.285-287. Battle of Trenton, Dec. 26, 1776.
Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778.
Battle of Yorktown, Oct. 10, 1781.
Battle of Camden, Aug. 6, 1780.
Battle of Bennington, Aug. 16, 1777.
Battle of Saratoga, Oct. 7, 1777.
322-324. The Boston Port Bill, 1774, closed that port to all commerce, and transferred the seat of Colonial Government to Salem, who rejected with scorn this opportunity for promotion at the expense of her old neighbor.
363-365. The first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in September, 1774. At this Congress fifty-one delegates were present, and every colony was represented except Georgia.
379. Lexington, April 19, 1775, gave the first eight men to the cause of Liberty in the Revolutionary war.
384, 385. Virgil’s “Æneid,” Book VI., lines 725, 726.
“Totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.”
“One soul is shed through all,
That quickeneth all the mass, and with the mighty thing is blent.”
395, 396. It was a grim joke of Franklin, when, at the suggestion of Hancock that they “must all hang together,” he responded, “ Yes, or we shall all hang separately.”
397, 398. Josiah Quincy, the orator and patriot, did valiant service to the Revolutionary cause by political essays and by his legal defence in the trial which attended the Boston Massacre; he died on a return voyage made in the service of his country, from England to America, April 17, 1775.
404, 405. The four New England Colonies were Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island.
407, 408. An instance of the threefold form alluded to on page nine.
418-420. The Colonial Congress of Massachusetts had presented after the Stamp Act of 1765, a petition to King George III., and a memorial to both Houses of Parliament. William Pitt had championed the cause of the colonists in England; yet, although the Stamp Act was repealed, the doctrine of Pitt was formally repudiated by a Declaratory Act, asserting the power of Parliament over the Colonies in all cases whatsoever. It was this Act that made their cause known to Europe.
425. Among the more important of these Revolutionary state papers are the “ Report of Franklin before the House of Commons,” 1767; Jonathan Mayhew’s discourse on the “ Righteousness of Rebellion; “ Samuel Adams’s “ Papers on the Rights of the Colonies ;” James Otis’s “ Letter to a Noble Lord ;” the “Address of Richard Henry Lee,” adopted by Congress, 1775; “ Patrick Henry’s Speech in the Virginia Convention,” 1775; Thomas Paine’s “ Separation of Britain and America;” Josiah Quincy’s Letters; and the Declaration of Independence.
436-438. About fifteen hundred were engaged on the American side, against twenty-five hundred of the British forces. The official record reads “Americans: killed, 115; wounded, 305; captured, 30; total, 450. British: killed, 206; wounded, 828; total, 1,054.” This disparity of numbers caused Edward Everett rightly to name this battle the “ American Marathon.”
440-445. The Marquis de Lafayette was the most distinguished foreign guest of this occasion. His name headed the subscription list for the monument, and such was his enthusiasm for the enterprise that he wrote, “In all my travels through the country, I have made Bunker Hill my Polar Star.” And when one reads the magnificent eulogy included between lines 445 and 493, one is disposed to believe that Webster, too, made this point the Polar Star of his oratory.
448, 449. The Marquis de Lafayette offered, not only his services, but a generous portion of his fortune to the American Colonists. He arrived in the United States in the spring of 1777, was given the commission of Major-General, was engaged in several battles of the Revolution, being wounded in one, and remained in the service until the war was virtually ended. His visit to the United States, 1824-5, was a triumphal progress of a Nation’s guest. His loyalty to the Republic continued throughout his life, as is evidenced by one of his latest sayings to Louis Philippe, “ You know that I am a Republican, and that I regard the Constitution of the United States as the most perfect that ever existed.”
485-487. General Greene was especially the hero of Eutaw Springs; Gates, of Saratoga; Sullivan, of Brandywine; and Lincoln, of Charleston.
490. “Serus in coelum redeas.” “Horace,” Book I., ode II., line 45.
“Late may you return to heaven.”
491-493. Lafayette, after experiencing many vicissitudes of fortune in his own country, died May 20, 1834.
495-497. The introduction to this second review of the half- century, savors too much of repetition (vide lines 157-193) to add to the value of the oration, while the simile of line 505 is rather clumsily carried out.
521-523. A poetic prophecy literally fulfilled in our own day by the laying of the Atlantic Cable.
510-535. In general, the beauty of Webster’s paragraphs owes much more to logic than to rhetoric. In this passage he reverses the case.
547-550. It is worth noting that this “incredible use of machinery” did not include most of the steam machinery in use to-day. At this time all our foreign intelligence came to us by way of sailing- vessels.
559-588. Probably, during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic dynasty, the nature of government was discussed as in no other age of the world. Thrones insecure by election or inheritance had tottered to their fall, while few had remained unshaken.
605-607. Another instance of the threefold, compound sentence.
646, 647. A famous antithetical sentence, frequently quoted in public speeches.
649. It was the ambition of Louis XIV. to make France great through an absolute monarchy. His policy is always referred to as “L’État, c’est Moi,” “The State, that is Myself!” the French rendering of the English principle of “the divine right of kings” which Charles I. expiated on the scaffold.
667, 668. Pope’s translation of Homer’s “Iliad,” Book XVII., lines 729, 730.
“Dispel this cloud,
the light of heaven restore,
685-708. From the capture of Constantinople, 1453, until 1829, Greece was oppressed to the last degree by the Mohammedan power. Mr. Webster refers to the struggle of 1820-1829, when Marco Bozzaris, the Leonidas of Modern Greece, had perished at Missolonghi, and when Lord Byron, in whom both England and America took sad interest, had died in tho same cause (1824). The temporary defeat that the brave Greeks suffered at this period, aroused the sympathy of all Europe, and by the aid of foreign allies, Greek independence was acknowledged by the Turkish Sultan in 1829.
720-723. The Revolution of the Spanish Colonies began in 1810, and the Republics were established in the following order: Chili, 1817; Colombia, 1819; La Plata, now Argentine Republic, 1810; Paraguay, 1810; Peru, 1821.
757. From this point to the end of the address, note the character of a perfect peroration.
912, 913. John Quincy Adams was inaugurated March 4, 1825.
917-919. Solon, one of the seven
wise men of Greece who remodelled the Constitution of Athens, 594 B.C. Alfred
the Great, who bears to authentic English history, as Arthur to mythic English
history, the relation of first recorded hero.
1 W. H. Prescott, the historian, was the grandson of Prescott of Revolutionary fame.
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This Hubble Space Telescope image shows 28 of the more than 500 young galaxies that existed when the universe was less than 1 billion years old. The galaxies were uncovered in a study of two of the most distant surveys of the cosmos, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), completed in 2004, and the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), made in 2003.
Just a few years ago, astronomers had not spotted any galaxies that existed significantly less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang. The galaxies spied in the HUDF and GOODS surveys are blue galaxies brimming with star birth.
The large image at left shows the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, taken by the Hubble telescope. The numbers next to the small boxes correspond to close-up views of 28 of the newly found galaxies at right. The galaxies in the postage-stamp size images appear red because of their tremendous distance from Earth. The blue light from their young stars took nearly 13 billion years to arrive at Earth. During the journey, the blue light was shifted to red light due to the expansion of space.
Object Name: HUDF
Image Type: Astronomical/Illustration
To access available information and downloadable versions of images in this news release, click on any of the images below:
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Most people already understand what makes plants such an important part of the environment — by absorbing light and carbon, they’re able to photosynthesize, releasing fresh oxygen into the atmosphere to keep animal life on Earth breathing. What you may not realize is that while plants serve a vitally important function, the process itself actually isn’t very efficient. Not only do most plants reflect green light rather than absorbing it, but they’re only able to use about 10% of the sunshine they receive. What else could we do with all that extra energy? A group of chemical engineers and biochemists at MIT is trying to answer that question by creating super-powered bionic plants that can use photosynthesis to harness solar energy, detect airborne pollutants, and more.
By embedding carbon nanotubes in the chloroplasts of the plants, researchers found they were able to create “artificial antennae” to help the plants capture wavelengths of light they normally don’t absorb, including ultraviolet and near-infrared light.
The team was able to insert the nanoparticles simply by applying a solution to the underside of the leaves of the Arabidopsis thaliana plant. The nanotubes penetrated the plants’ chloroplasts within seconds without damaging the leaves or killing the plant. After the tubes were absorbed, scientists found that the plants were able to capture about 30% more energy from the sunlight. Even better, when the plants were treated with nanotubes that could detect the pollutant nitric oxide, the plants were transformed into living sensors, and could detect molecules of the chemical at extremely low concentrations.
The full report has been published in the journal Nature Materials.
Photos © Bryce Vickmark
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Astronomy Packet: 2
In the last astronomy packet we began our observation by finding the constellation Ursa Major, also known as the Big Dipper. This week we are going to look for two things, Ursa Minor and a star named Polaris.
If Ursa Major is the Big Dipper, can you guess what Ursa Minor might be? If you guessed the Little Dipper you got it right. The star Polaris, which is one of the stars in Ursa Minor, is also called the North Star.
We will use Ursa Major to help us find Polaris (The North Star) and Ursa Minor. The two stars in the spoon end of the Big Dipper point right at Polaris. Once you find Polaris, which is the first star in Ursa Minor, you can then look for the rest of it.
Note: The stars turn over our heads all night long. Depending on what time you go out, Ursa Minor (Little Dipper) may not point upwards. You must first find Ursa Major again then follow the two stars in its spoon end to Polaris. Also remember that Ursa Minor will look much bigger in the sky than it does in this picture.
For help go to http://www.skymaps.com to print a free sky map.
Assignment # 6:
Find Ursa Minor.
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Arthritis in the Knee
What are the types and causes of arthritis in the knee?
* Osteoarthritis or Degenerative Joint Disease - The most common type of Arthritis. Osteoarthritis is also known as “wear and tear arthritis” since the cartilage simply wears out. When cartilage wears away, bone rubs on bone causing severe pain and disability. The most frequent reason for osteoarthritis is genetic, since the durability of each individual's cartilage is based on genetics.
* Trauma - Can also lead to osteoarthritis. A bad fall or blow to the knee can injure the joint. If the injury does not heal properly, extra force may be placed on the joint, which over time can cause the cartilage to wear away.
* Inflammatory Arthritis - Swelling and heat (inflammation) of the joint lining causes a release of enzymes which soften and eventually destroy the cartilage. Rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus and psoriatic arthritis are inflammatory in nature.
Arthroscopy of the Knee Joint
Arthroscopy is a surgical procedure in which an arthroscope is inserted into a joint. Arthroscopy is a term that comes from two Greek words, arthro-, meaning joint, and -skopein, meaning to examine.
The benefits of arthroscopy involve smaller incisions, faster healing, a more rapid recovery, and less scarring. Arthroscopic surgical procedures are often performed on an outpatient basis and the patient is able to return home on the same day.
Total Knee Replacement (TKR)
A total knee replacement (TKR) or total knee arthroplasty is a surgery that resurfaces an arthritic knee joint with an artificial metal or plastic replacement parts called the ‘prostheses'.
Anterior Cruciate Ligament ACL Reconstruction
The anterior cruciate ligament is one of the major stabilizing ligaments in the knee. It is a strong rope like structure located in the centre of the knee running from the femur to the tibia. When this ligament tears unfortunately it doesn't heal and often leads to the feeling of instability in the knee.
ACL reconstruction is a commonly performed surgical procedure and with recent advances in arthroscopic surgery can now be performed with minimal incisions and low complication rates.
Uni Condylar Knee Replacement
This simply means that only a part of the knee joint is replaced through a smaller incision than would normally be used for a total knee replacement. The knee joint is made up of 3 compartments, the patellofemoral and medial and lateral compartments between the femur and tibia (i.e. the long bones of the leg). Often only one of these compartments wears out, usually the medial one. If you have symptoms and X-ray findings suggestive of this then you may be suitable for this procedure.
Revision Knee Replacement
This means that part or all of your previous knee replacement needs to be revised. This operation varies from very minor adjustments to massive operations replacing significant amounts of bone and hence is difficult to describe in full.
Below are some useful links from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons:
Broken Bones and Injury
Tears and Instability
Diseases and Syndromes
Treatment and Rehabilitation
Anesthesia for Hip and Knee Replacement Surgery
Arthroscopy and Reconstruction
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New Dietary Guidelines: The Good, the Bad, and the Downright Confusing
Thu, 2015-02-19 13:15 Health and Nutrition
Today, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee released its report on what Americans should eat. When finalized, the Guidelines will be the basis for all federal programs, including school lunches. And the report is a huge step forward in several ways:
- The report singled out vegetarian diets as one of three healthful diet patterns. The other two healthy patterns were the Mediterranean diet and the “Healthy U.S.-style Pattern.” Vegetarian diets reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes, and other health problems and have gained greater prominence in each new edition of the Guidelines.
- The report was a rebuke for those who have suggested that saturated (“bad”) fat, common in meat and dairy products, is somehow not a danger. The report emphasized saturated fat’s risks and maintained the previous limit that no more than 10% of calories should come from saturated fat.
- The report deleted “lean meat” from its list of favored foods. Its authors were convinced by evidence showing that increased consumption of “lean meat” confers no health benefits.
- The report breaks new ground in reporting on food’s relationship to environmental health, which in turn affects human health.
But for all its good points, the new report has trouble spots:
- The report suggested that cholesterol in foods is not a major danger, contrasting with the Institute of Medicine, which found that cholesterol in foods does indeed raise blood cholesterol levels, especially in people whose diets are modest in cholesterol to start with. On this topic, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee did no original research and instead deferred to a 2014 report by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. However, the American Heart Association receives substantial cash payments for certifying food products, including cholesterol-containing food products as “heart healthy,” creating a financial incentive for discounting the relationship between dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol.
The Physicians Committee is concerned that exonerating dietary cholesterol will only confuse an already bewildered public. Most people do not differentiate fat from cholesterol, or dietary cholesterol from blood cholesterol. To suggest that cholesterol in foods is not a problem will lead many to imagine that fatty foods or an elevated blood cholesterol level carry no risk—two potentially disastrous notions.
Accordingly, the Physicians Committee has petitioned the USDA and DHHS to disregard the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s findings on dietary cholesterol. The reliance on the American Heart Association document does not comply with the spirit of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which sets standards for bias among federal advisory committees.
- The Committee report recommends fish, despite frequent contamination with mercury and PCBs, and despite evidence that vegetarians who avoid fish and shellfish are slimmer and have less risk of diabetes, compared with people who eat fish.
- The report continued to recommend dairy products, despite recent evidence that they do not “build strong bones” or protect against fractures.
Even with its flaws, the new Dietary Guidelines report is a major advance.
The Physician Committee’s own recommendations, represented graphically in The Power Plate (www.ThePowerPlate.org), focus on whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes as dietary staples. The Power Plate rests on hundreds of scientific studies showing that plant-based eating habits are associated with lower obesity rates and a reduced risk of heart disease, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes.
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Q-and-A: Author of WHO Processed Meats and Cancer Report - June 22, 2016
Where do you get your protein? - June 17, 2016
Sen. Joni Ernst: Military Needs Meatless Mondays - June 13, 2016
End the Sweet Talk. Meat and Cheese Cause Obesity. - June 9, 2016
We Asked the NFL’s Aaron Rodgers to Give Up Cheese in 2011 - June 8, 2016
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Freediver reveals breath-holding secrets
13 June 2013 Last updated at 17:41 BST
An international team of scientists has discovered how marine mammals store such vast amounts of oxygen in their muscles.
It is a key adaptation that lets them hold their breath for far longer than humans.
Scientists would now like to find out if their discovery might shed light on how people who can hold their breath for several minutes achieve this feat.
Professional freediver Adam Drzazga explains how he manages to hold his breath for more than six minutes at a time.
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Yes! Pets, just like people, can get a sunburn. Most pets have fur which does provide some protection from the sun’s burning rays, but pets don’t have fur on their noses or pads of their feet, and many pets have very thin or no hair on the tops of their snouts, the tips of their ears, their bellies, groins, and armpits. Dogs with pink skin and/or pink noses are especially prone to getting a painful and dangerous sunburn. Also just like people, sunburn puts pets at a higher risk of skin cancer. So what can you do to protect your pet from sunburn?
- Keep your pet indoors or enclosed in a shaded area during sunny hours of the day. In the summer, this may include the early morning and evening, as well as the middle of the day.
- Limit sunbathing. Even indoor pets are at risk if they like to sunbathe in sunny windows. If your pet is a sunbather, consider closing those shades, especially when the sun is strong.
- Use Sunscreen! Both cats and dogs can benefit from pet-safe sunscreen if you can’t keep them safely out of the sun. DO NOT USE HUMAN SUNSCREEN on a pet! Some have ingredients that are okay for humans but unsafe for pets. Ask your vet for a sunscreen recommendation.
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Will The 'Dolphin Speaker' Be The Key To Communicating With The Marine Mammals?
The quest to communicate with dolphins began the moment scientists realized how intelligent these marine mammals are. Over the years, researchers have experimented with various strategies, ranging from giving them iPads to even developing a two way Rosetta Stone like language translation system. Now, they have come up with yet another strategy - A Dolphin Speaker.
Developed by a team of scientists from the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology in collaboration with tech company Fusion, the underwater speaker is able to record not only the mammals' low frequency clicks, squeals and whistles, but also, the high frequency sounds that the human ear is unable to pick up. More importantly, it can play them all back at a frequency that is audible to humans - Something that has never been possible, until now.
Once they have recorded the entire range of sounds produced by dolphins, the scientists are planning to play it back to the mammals and try decipher what they are 'saying', by gauging their reaction to each squeal, whistle and click!
The prototype speaker currently in development, is capable of capturing this wide range thanks to piezoelectric elements that have never been used for underwater acoustic transducers, prior to this. Once complete, it will be capable of capturing and re-producing frequencies ranging from 7 Hz to 170 kHz - The entire span of sounds produced by the marine mammal that has one of the highest frequency ranges of hearing, amongst all living organisms. In comparison, humans can only hear frequencies that range from 20 Hz to 20 KHz.
While we are still trying to figure out what these smart animals are saying they have been fairly successful in learning the basic elements of the human language and can follow instructions even, when they are delivered on television.
Resources: dailymail.co.uk, gizmag.co.uk, pospsci.com
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The human genome has 100,000 genes. One gene makes one protein. Humans and
bacteria have entirely different genes.
These common beliefs were shattered earlier this year by the findings of the
International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, which includes the Department
of Energy Joint Genome Institute (JGI) to which ORNL contributes computational
analysis. On February 15, 2001, three days after a major announcement, the
consortium published the paper "Initial Sequencing and Analysis of the Human
Genome" in the journal Nature. The paper states that the human genome has "about
30,000 to 40,000 protein-coding genes, only about twice as many as in worm or fly";
each gene codes for an average of three proteins; and it is possible that hundreds of
genes were transferred from bacteria to the human genome.
Ed Uberbacher, head of the Computational Biology Section in
ORNL's Life Sciences Division, was one of the hundreds of
contributors to this landmark paper. He and his ORNL
colleagues performed computational analysis and annotation of
the DNA data produced by JGI to uncover evidence of the
existence of genes about which little or nothing was known.
Uberbacher and his colleagues also performed an analysis of
the complete, publicly available, human genome. The analysis,
funded by DOE, was performed by ORNL, University of
Tennessee, and University of Pennsylvania researchers using
three computational methods, the GenBank database, and the
IBM RS/6000 SP supercomputer at DOE's Center for
Computational Sciences at ORNL. One of the computational
methods used was the latest version of the Gene Recognition
and Analysis Internet Link (GRAIL), which was developed by
Uberbacher and others at ORNL in 1990 and rewritten as
GrailEXP for parallel supercomputers.
"We have found experimental and computational evidence for some 35,000 genes,"
says Uberbacher. "We have also provided information on how many genes are
expressed in different tissues and organs of the body. For example, we determined that
more than 20,000 genes are expressed in the central nervous system. About 10% of all
human genes are expressed only in the brain."
The researchers found 728 cell-signaling genes that tell cells when to divide and when to
grow. They identified "zinc fingers"—regulatory proteins that bind to DNA bases
composing genes to turn them on or off. These cell-signaling genes and zinc fingers are
unique to the human genome.
GrailEXP located almost 2600 genes exhibiting "alternative splicing"—the ability to
produce two or more proteins by combining the gene's dispersed protein-coding regions
(exons) in different ways.
Each human gene contains multiple exons separated by noncoding regions called
introns. Cellular machinery called a spliceosome strips out all the introns and joins the
exons together. Sometimes certain exons are skipped.
"We found a gene with 10 exons, but in different human tissues different individual
exons are not read, so part of the code is left out that directs the cell to make a protein,"
Uberbacher says. "This gene could have 10 different protein products."
Some of the genes are known, and detailed information on their sequences is found in
GenBank. Other genes are less well characterized but are similar to genes found in
model organisms, such as the mouse. Still other genes are inferred based on expressed
sequence tags (ESTs). An EST is a unique stretch of DNA within a coding region of a
gene that can be used to identify full-length genes. ESTs were used in computational
predictions to locate additional genes and predict the makeup, structure, and function of
the proteins they encode.
In addition to genes, the researchers found many DNA sequences that are repeated in
the human genome. This "junk" DNA may have a purpose: It lowers the probability
that random mutations in DNA strike the coding sections of important genes. "Although
the human and mouse genome are about the same size," Uberbacher says, "we found
longer stretches of repeated DNA sequences, making up 40 to 48% of the human
genome, separating clusters of genes like vast deserts between metropolitan areas."
The Department of Energy's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.
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A study, published in Green Chemistry by investigators of the CSIC and the universities Complutense and Autonomous of Madrid, shows the efficient capacity of a bacterial stump for metabolizar the carbon of commercial ionic liquids of extensive use in the chemical industry.
Ionic liquids are organic salts, liquid at room temperature, which are taking a special interest from the chemical industry. Because of their unique and excellent properties such as solvents, are being used to replace traditional organic solvents. However, these chemicals can be potentially problematic for their persistence in the environment. In fact, according to studies in recent years about the possible environmental impact, ionic liquids have a wide range of toxicities and, in general, a low biodegradability.
A recent joint study carried out of form by scientists of the Department of Molecular Biology and the Section of Chemical Engineering of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), the Department of Chemical Engineering of the University Complutense of Madrid (UCM), and the Institute of Science and Technology of Polymers of the Upper Counsel of Scientific Investigations (CSIC), opens possibilities of solution to this problem.
The study, published in the journal Green Chemistry, focused on selecting a microorganism capable of degrading commercial Ionic liquids efficiently the chemical industry. Thus, when used for the first time a bacterial strain Sphingomonas paucimobilis in studies of biodegradability of ionic liquids, scientists have found high efficiencies of biodegradation of great interest applied.
According to Dr. Concepcion Abrusci, Department of Molecular Biology, UAM, “the study was very broad, as it was performed on 37 commercial structures of imidazolium, pyridinium, pyrrolidinium, ammonium and phosphonium, and including 12 anion 14 different cations. 54% of the structures studied were biodegraded over 60% within 28 days of incubation at 45°C with the bacteria Sphingomonas paucimobilis”.
These results suggest the possibility of bio-treatments effective for fast and efficient mineralization of ionic liquids in wide industrial use, in previous trials with other microorganisms, were reluctant to biodegradation. The study also opens up possibilities for the development of processes for treatment of waters contaminated with ionic liquids, very important aspect in the current boom of this new type of solvents and large scale applications.
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Definition, Usage and a list of Prologue Examples in common speech and
literature. The prologue, Greek prologos (meaning: before word), is an opening of
Definition and a list of examples of prologue. A prologue is a separate
introductory section that comes before the main body of a poem, novel, or play.
How to use prologue in a sentence. Example sentences with the word prologue.
prologue example sentences.
For example, the prologue may be about the main character who is in her
eighties and who is remembering her childhood, which is when the story takes
Here will find a list literary devices with definitions and examples. ... A prologue
can be understood to be a sort of introduction to a story that usually sets the tone
A good example is "A House for Mr. Biswas", by V.S. Naipaul, where the prologue
begins several weeks before the protagonist's demise, while the first chapter ...
Oct 19, 2012 ... Your prologue is not your first chapter, it's not even the beginning. ... A good (and
very famous) example of this kind of prologue would be the ...
Jun 27, 2009 ... Pillars of the Earth: an example of a prologue done well. Nathan Bransford
posted a while ago on how prologues in books can be problematic.
Sep 27, 2010 ... The first Harry Potter book is a good example of a book that could have used a
prologue, but didn't (likely because Rowling knew it would likely ...
All too often we pick up a published book and read the prologue, then wonder
why it was there at all. It doesn't seem to do anything that Chapter One couldn't ...
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NAHIC and the Center for Adolescent Health and the Law (CAHL) have partnered to examine the Affordable Care Act’s impact on three special populations of adolescents and young adults: homeless youth, foster youth, and those in the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems.
These groups, with higher rates of morbidity than the general adolescent and young adult populations, face special challenges in accessing health care and services. This policy brief examined issues in their access to care as implementation of the Affordable Care Act proceeds. A short fact-sheet summarizing the brief is also available. The infographic below highlights the main points of the brief.
January 13, 2014
MORE NEWS AND ARTICLES BY SIMILAR TOPIC(S)
This 2014 original article by researchers in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine examines young adults’ health care utilization and expenditures prior to the Affordable Care Act. Using data from the 2009 Medical Expenditures Survey, Lau et al found that young adults had significantly lower rates of overall healthcare utilization that other age […]
This report by NAHIC and Child Trends starts off by describing the prevalence of different chronic conditions in the adolescent population including allergies, obesity, ADHD, asthma, learning disabilities, and more.
Protecting Adolescent Confidentiality Under Health Care Reform: The Special Case Regarding Explanation of Benefits (EOBs)
This report explores a number of strategies to balance the need of confidentiality with patient communication, and provides insights offered through interviews with experts on the subject.
In partnership with NAHIC, researchers at Child Trends used national longitudinal data to examine how high school policies shape substance use in young adulthood. The brief examines several policies, as well as individual, family and peer factors relevant to substance use. Research findings suggest that policies to promote a positive school environment are more likely […]
Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth this study: (1) identifies profiles of risky behaviors, (2) investigates how environmental characteristics predict these profiles of risky behaviors (e.g., delinquency, smoking, drug use, drinking, sexual behavior, and exercise), and (3) examines how these profiles of risky behaviors relate to positive and negative youth outcomes.
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| 0.888479 | 446 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Equine Navicular Disease:The causes, signs and treatment of navicular syndrome or navicular disease in horses.
Definition and Causes of Equine Navicular Disease
If it were possible to define equine navicular disease, it would be a simple matter to describe the cause. Navicular disease has never been adequately defined, thus the term navicular syndrome is used by veterinarians to denote this fact. From time to time various theories of development have been proposed. None of them answer all of the questions about the syndrome.
Probably the oldest idea of cause is that the navicular bone undergoes changes which bring about pathology and pain in the area. While it is true that the bone often undergoes changes which can be seen in radiographs, many cases of navicular disease have no evident bony change. A dozen years ago veterinarians generally believed that the condition could be diagnosed by careful study of radiographs of the navicular bone, and certain "tell tale" changes were "proof" of navicular disease. Now most veterinarians realize diagnosis is not that simple.
Changes in the navicular bone do occur from horse to horse, just as changes always occur in bone. Certain types of foot conformation causes more pressure to come to bear on the navicular bones, from the flexor tendon which presses hard against it. Continual heavy pressure on small bones cause them to harden up, or become more dense. As this occurs the blood supply to the inner part of the bone is shut off. A popular theory of cause of navicular disease is that ischemia (reduced blood supply) is produced and this causes more damage.
The ischemic theory was very popular a decade ago. It was thought that blood clots in the capillaries supplying the navicular area brought about the ischemia. The improvement many horses showed following treatment with drugs which improve capillary blood flow was proof enough for many. Over time, however, most veterinarians have come to believe that navicular ischemia is not the entire answer to the problem.
Another early theory of cause was that the navicular bursa was at fault. Like the bursa which causes "tennis elbow," loss of lubricating fluid and inflammation causes pain and can lead to permanent damage to the bursa. Of course this may be the only cause of the syndrome in some cases, but it is not the entire answer by any means.
Some cases of navicular syndrome in horses are caused by pathology in the coffin joint. With today's sophisticated diagnostics, however, this situation can usually be differentiated from navicular bone pathology. Sometimes navicular bone degeneration can occur along with degenerative joint disease in the coffin joint.
There is no doubt that fracture of the coffin bone will result in navicular disease, and it does sometimes happen- but not often. A fracture is easily diagnosed with x-ray. Usually, however, there are other causes of the syndrome.
When a horse is lame, you or the veterinarian begin a process of diagnosis to determine the cause of lameness. When it is suspected that the lameness is in the foot, usually the front foot, navicular disease is the first thing that comes to the mind of most people. There are other causes of foot lameness, however, and these must be eliminated before navicular disease can be pronounced as the cause. A crack in the coffin bone could be the cause. Radiographs will generally determine this. A simple sole bruise, or heal bruise, might be the cause.
Selective nerve blocks are the most important technique for differentiating various causes of foot lameness, but they have their limitations. Veterinarians who are adept at injecting the navicular bursa can eliminate that as a source of the problem if after injecting a local anesthetic in it there is still lameness. Generally speaking, however, the best veterinarians can do is to pinpoint the source of the pain to the central portion of the foot, surrounding the navicular bone.
A combination of nerve blocks and radiographs is the most commonly used diagnostic techniques. Even then, diagnosis of navicular disease is not certain. The best that can usually be hoped for is a pronouncement that the cause is the navicular syndrome, which could be one or more of a variety of pathologies in and/or around the navicular bone.
As difficult as it is to diagnose the navicular syndrome, it is even more difficult to determine if a horse is going to get navicular disease. This is why veterinarians do not generally prognosticate about a possible navicular problem when doing a pre-purchase veterinary exam. There is simply no way to tell for sure that a horse is going to have a problem.
There are predisposing factors for navicular disease. Younger horses tend to be effected more. Certain breeds of horses are more effected. This relates more to size of the feet in relation to the size of the body, than to breed. Quarter horses do have a higher incidence of the problem than other breeds. The smaller the foot on a large horse, the more likely the horse is to develop navicular disease. The activity of the horse may be an important factor.
Barrel racing, for example, puts a lot of stress on the horse's foot, and can tend to lead to navicular disease, some people believe. Contrary to the activity theory of predisposition is the genetics theory. There is at least one study which shows a genetic predisposition to navicular syndrome. This may relate to the conformation of the foot and the natural angle of the pastern. Some believe that the more upright the pastern is, the more likely the horse to develop navicular syndrome.
Bute is probably the most commonly used drug for not only navicular disease, but other common lamenesses in the horse. Bute tends to reduce the pain and inflammation in early stages, and is therefore effective.
When it is suspected that the pain originates in the navicular bursa or the coffin joint, injection with steroids is a common treatment. This is not really a cure, since steroids only reduce inflammation and do nothing to correct the underlying pathology.
Various techniques for increasing the circulation to the navicular area are effective in reducing the symptoms. The most commonly used is administration of isoxsuprine hydrochloride, a drug which causes dilation of the small blood vessels. This is a long course of regular drug therapy which can get expensive and time-consuming. Recently, a magnetic hoof pad has come on the market which is said to help relieve navicular pain. The theory behind its use is that magnetic therapy increases local circulation.
The anticoagulant warfarin is sometimes used for the same reason, to increase local circulation. It also is a rather permanent course of therapy. The horse must be watched carefully for bleeding problems, since the drug reduces clotting in the entire body.
Corrective shoeing is generally used, especially in the more chronic cases of navicular disease. Each horse should be trimmed according to the particular conformation that needs correct. A variety of shoe types have been used, including the egg bar shoe, the rolled toe shoe, the slippered heel shoe, the Tennessee navicular shoe, the wide web shoe, and others. All have been effective on specific horses, reflecting the fact that the navicular syndrome has multiple causes.
Neurectomy is a drastic treatment, but is often done in long-standing chronic cases of navicular disease. The nerve to the foot is cut above the fetlock, and the entire foot is permanently deadened. This causes the horse to stumble often because it cannot tell exactly where the feet are. Needless to say this is not a solution for a riding horse.
No other lameness in the horse invokes such a wide variety of opinions about definition, diagnosis, and treatment than does navicular disease. Ask a dozen veterinarians and you will get nearly a dozen opinions. The consensus, however, is moving towards a broad definition and the use of navicular syndrome for the problem.
Dr. David W Ramey writes, "Most likely no condition of the horse's limbs is as feared by horse owners as is navicular syndrome. Probably no condition is as frequently suspected as a cause of lameness in the horse as disease of the horse's navicular bone. Certainly, few conditions that cause lameness in the horse are as frequently diagnosed as is navicular syndrome."
© William E. Jones, DVM
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http://www.equinenaturaltherapy.com/navicular_syndrome.htm
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en
| 0.953298 | 1,804 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Sleep Disorders: Drug Treatments
In some cases, doctors will prescribe medicines for the
treatment of sleep
disorders. Medications should be used in combination with good sleep practices
and/or behavioral treatments.
Medications are often prescribed for short-term
Types of Medications Used to Treat Sleep Disorders
Listed below are some of
the types of drugs used to treat sleep disorders. Your doctor can prescribe the
appropriate medication for your particular sleep disorder.
- Anti-parkinsonian drugs (dopamine agonists) including
Larodopa, Sinemet, Parlodel, Requip, Permax, and Mirapex. These drugs may be
used to treat restless legs syndrome and periodic limb movement disorder (also
called nocturnal myoclonus syndrome).
- Benzodiazepines, which are included in a class of drugs called hypnotics. Some
types of benzodiazepines include Klonopin, Valium, Restoril, Xanax, and Ativan.
These drugs may be used to treat parasomnias. Occasionally, they are also used
to treat bruxism (teeth grinding) and
- Non-benzodiazepine hypnotics, including Ambien,
Sonata, and newly approved Lunesta (formerly called Estorra). These drugs are
used to treat short-term insomnia.
- Opiates, such as
codeine, oxycodone, methadone, dihydromorphone, and propoxyphene. These drugs
may be used to treat restless legs syndrome that is refractory or present in
- Anticonvulsants, such as Tegretol, Carbatrol; Depakene, Depakote; and
Neurontin. These drugs may be used to treat nocturnal eating syndrome, restless
legs syndrome, periodic limb movement disorder, and insomnia related to bipolar
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=47531
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en
| 0.825924 | 400 | 2.5625 | 3 |
|Jepson Flora Project: Jepson Interchange|
|TREATMENT FROM THE JEPSON MANUAL (1993)||
previous taxon |
Jepson Interchange (more information)
©Copyright 1993 by the Regents of the University of California
AND IS MAINTAINED FOR ARCHIVAL PURPOSES ONLY
Shrubs, trees, much-branched, often in saline habitats
Stem: trunk bark rough
Leaves alternate, sessile, entire
Inflorescence: racemes or spikes; bracts scale-like
Flower: sepals 46, generally free, overlapping; petals 45, overlapping, generally attached below nectary; stamens 410, attached to disk-like nectary; ovary 1-chambered, placentas parietal or basal, ovules 2many, styles 25
Fruit: capsule, loculicidal
Seeds many, hairy
Genera in family: ± 5 genera, 100 species: Eurasia, Africa, especially Medit.
Stems green, glabrous; twigs jointed, slender, often drooping
Leaves on twigs, generally overlapping, awl- to scale-like, generally excreting salt
Inflorescences generally in panicle-like clusters on current or previous year's twigs
Flower: sepals generally 5, persistent; petals generally 5, deciduous to ± persistent, white to reddish; stamens generally 5, filaments alternate or confluent with nectar disk lobes; nectar disk 45-lobed; placentas basal, styles 3
Etymology: (Latin: Tamaris River, Spain)
Reference: [Baum 1967 Baileya 15:1925]
Invasive weeds with deep roots that lower water table, especially along streams, irrigation canals. Most CA species cultivated for ornamental, windbreaks; some may hybridize.
Shrub or tree < 8 m
Leaf 1.52 mm, linear to narrowly lanceolate, acute
Inflorescence: spike 25 cm; bract oblong to lanceolate, acute to acuminate
Flower: sepals 0.51 mm, ovate, acute, outer slightly < inner; petals 1.52 mm, elliptic to ovate; nectar disk lobes longer than wide, confluent with filaments
Ecology: Uncommon. Washes, flats, roadsides
Elevation: < 300 m.
Bioregional distribution: s North Coast Ranges, San Joaquin Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, South Coast, n Mojave Desert (Death Valley)
Distribution outside California: to Texas; native to s Europe
Flowering time: JunAug
Plants with outer sepals narrower than inner, petals sometimes > 2 mm, have been called T. africana Poiret; native to Africa.
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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en
| 0.787983 | 624 | 2.734375 | 3 |
In Recital With Little Pieces For Little Fingers - Children's Songs
We aim to get back to you within the hour, during shop hours (please see store details), to confirm your reservation. If you do not hear from us then please resend the request.
In Recital With Little Pieces For Little Fingers
is a fun, motivational series for the beginner-level Piano student. It is the very first book in the In Recital
series, and is best used as a prepatory level book before students go on to Book 1. The In Recital
series offers terrific music that has been carefully leveled to ensure success. It complements other FJH publications and will help you plan student recital repertoire. In Recital With Little Pieces For Little Fingers
can be used in conjunction with any preparatory level of any method.
- Students reinforce reading by combining Middle C, intervallic, and C position reading approaches. Traditional note reading balanced with intervallic reading is the sure way for students to succeed!
- Students reinforce rhythm by playing pieces that are fun, cheerful, and motivational.
- Students learn how to play musically by experiencing pieces with contrasting moods and emotions. Playing music written by several composers helps students to expand their musical horizons and tap into the different composers' personalities!
- Students have a different and fun writing activity in each book that reinforces what they are learning in the preparatory level of their method.
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<urn:uuid:5fd8eb2e-a242-426e-8224-7ae2b05446f8>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/0706544/details.html
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en
| 0.928722 | 300 | 2.953125 | 3 |
"Preserving Public Safety: Role of Backup Generators in Emergency Preparedness And Disaster Relief and Recovery" Webinar Scheduled For March 18th
WASHINGTON, March 6, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The role of emergency power systems and their importance to public health and safety will be the focus of free webinar on March 18th sponsored by the Diesel Technology Forum.
Speakers will include representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - Homeland Infrastructure Threat and Risk Analysis Center (HITRAC), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and leading product, system and field experts representing Caterpillar and Cummins Power Generation.
There is no registration fee but space is limited so early registration is recommended.
Date: Monday, March 18th from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (ET).
Who should attend? Federal, state and local policymakers; elected officials; emergency planners; property managers; business owners; and media.
What will this webinar address?
- What lessons have we learned from the recent Superstorm Sandy about backup generators?
- What technologies are available to provide emergency backup electrical power?
- What are the differences between technologies?
- What are the limitations on use of each of these technologies?
Hospitals, Communications Centers, Airports and Emergency Services Are Dependent On Backup Generators During Disasters
Diesel-powered generators can save lives during a power crisis. Interruptions of electrical power, even of short duration, create situations that could imperil public health and safety. Emergency generators must be able to provide reliable, immediate and full strength electric power when there is a failure of the primary power supply system.
This webinar is designed to provide an understanding of the basic issues surrounding the use of emergency backup power systems, technology and fuel choices, operating conditions, and case studies
Major Storms and Natural Disasters Are Becoming More Common
The loss of electrical grid power due to storms, natural disasters or high power demands are increasingly common. With a growing dependence on technology and interconnected systems that rely on electricity, power reliability becomes increasingly critical. Hospitals, data centers, water and sewage facilities, fueling stations, and communication and transportation systems require continuous power to protect public health and safety.
As opposed to some other fuels and technologies, diesel-powered generators provide a steady supply of high-quality power and superior performance for transient or fluctuating power demands due to the high-torque characteristics of diesel engines. Beyond these most critical applications, the power needs for food and medical refrigeration, building operations such as elevators and sprinklers as well as banking and business networks further highlight the significant economic and other losses from power outages.
Connect with DTF
How do you keep up with the news on clean diesel? You can be a fan of DTF's Facebook page, follow us on Twitter @DieselTechForum, or subscribe to our YouTube channel @DieselTechForum. You can also subscribe to Diesel Direct, a monthly publication featuring the latest clean diesel news and activities of the Diesel Technology Forum by emailing [email protected].
ABOUT THE DIESEL TECHNOLOGY FORUM
The Diesel Technology Forum is a non-profit national organization dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of diesel engines, fuel and technology. Forum members are leaders in clean diesel technology and represent the three key elements of the modern clean-diesel system: advanced engines, vehicles and equipment, cleaner diesel fuel and emissions-control systems. For more information visit www.dieselforum.org.
Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.
(View this press release online here.)
SOURCE Diesel Technology Forum
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-department-of-homeland-security-army-corps-of-engineers-and-industry-experts-to-outline-importance-of-emergency-generators-to-public-safety-and-recovery-during-power-outages-195598211.html
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en
| 0.89304 | 776 | 2.625 | 3 |
A state whose only action is the accept action. The accepting state is thus a consistent state. See Understanding Your Parser.
Formal method of specifying context-free grammars originally proposed by John Backus, and slightly improved by Peter Naur in his 1960-01-02 committee document contributing to what became the Algol 60 report. See Languages and Context-Free Grammars.
A state containing only one possible action. See Default Reductions.
Grammars specified as rules that can be applied regardless of context. Thus, if there is a rule which says that an integer can be used as an expression, integers are allowed anywhere an expression is permitted. See Languages and Context-Free Grammars.
The reduction that a parser should perform if the current parser state contains no other action for the lookahead token. In permitted parser states, Bison declares the reduction with the largest lookahead set to be the default reduction and removes that lookahead set. See Default Reductions.
A consistent state with a default reduction. See Default Reductions.
Allocation of memory that occurs during execution, rather than at compile time or on entry to a function.
Analogous to the empty set in set theory, the empty string is a character string of length zero.
A “machine” that has discrete states in which it is said to exist at each instant in time. As input to the machine is processed, the machine moves from state to state as specified by the logic of the machine. In the case of the parser, the input is the language being parsed, and the states correspond to various stages in the grammar rules. See The Bison Parser Algorithm.
A parsing algorithm that can handle all context-free grammars, including those that are not LR(1). It resolves situations that Bison’s deterministic parsing algorithm cannot by effectively splitting off multiple parsers, trying all possible parsers, and discarding those that fail in the light of additional right context. See Generalized LR Parsing.
A language construct that is (in general) grammatically divisible; for example, ‘expression’ or ‘declaration’ in C. See Languages and Context-Free Grammars.
A minimal LR(1) parser table construction algorithm. That is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly, because canonical LR(1)’s extra parser states may contain duplicate conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can significantly reduce the complexity of developing a grammar. See LR Table Construction.
An arithmetic operator that is placed between the operands on which it performs some operation.
A continuous flow of data between devices or programs.
A parsing mechanism that fixes the problem of delayed syntax error
detection, which is caused by LR state merging, default reductions, and the
%nonassoc. Delayed syntax error detection results in
unexpected semantic actions, initiation of error recovery in the wrong
syntactic context, and an incorrect list of expected tokens in a verbose
syntax error message. See LAC.
One of the typical usage schemas of the language. For example, one of
the constructs of the C language is the
See Languages and Context-Free Grammars.
Operators having left associativity are analyzed from left to right: ‘a+b+c’ first computes ‘a+b’ and then combines with ‘c’. See Operator Precedence.
A rule whose result symbol is also its first component symbol; for example, ‘expseq1 : expseq1 ',' exp;’. See Recursive Rules.
Parsing a sentence of a language by analyzing it token by token from left to right. See The Bison Parser Algorithm.
A function that reads an input stream and returns tokens one by one.
See The Lexical Analyzer Function
A flag, set by actions in the grammar rules, which alters the way tokens are parsed. See Lexical Tie-ins.
A token which consists of two or more fixed characters. See Symbols.
A token already read but not yet shifted. See Lookahead Tokens.
The class of context-free grammars that Bison (like most other parser generators) can handle by default; a subset of LR(1). See Mysterious Conflicts.
The class of context-free grammars in which at most one token of lookahead is needed to disambiguate the parsing of any piece of input.
A grammar symbol standing for a grammatical construct that can be expressed through rules in terms of smaller constructs; in other words, a construct that is not a token. See Symbols.
A function that recognizes valid sentences of a language by analyzing the syntax structure of a set of tokens passed to it from a lexical analyzer.
An arithmetic operator that is placed after the operands upon which it performs some operation.
Replacing a string of nonterminals and/or terminals with a single nonterminal, according to a grammar rule. See The Bison Parser Algorithm.
A reentrant subprogram is a subprogram which can be in invoked any number of times in parallel, without interference between the various invocations. See A Pure (Reentrant) Parser.
A language in which all operators are postfix operators.
A rule whose result symbol is also its last component symbol; for example, ‘expseq1: exp ',' expseq1;’. See Recursive Rules.
In computer languages, the semantics are specified by the actions taken for each instance of the language, i.e., the meaning of each statement. See Defining Language Semantics.
A parser is said to shift when it makes the choice of analyzing further input from the stream rather than reducing immediately some already-recognized rule. See The Bison Parser Algorithm.
A single character that is recognized and interpreted as is. See From Formal Rules to Bison Input.
The nonterminal symbol that stands for a complete valid utterance in the language being parsed. The start symbol is usually listed as the first nonterminal symbol in a language specification. See The Start-Symbol.
A data structure where symbol names and associated data are stored during parsing to allow for recognition and use of existing information in repeated uses of a symbol. See Multi-function Calc.
An error encountered during parsing of an input stream due to invalid syntax. See Error Recovery.
A basic, grammatically indivisible unit of a language. The symbol that describes a token in the grammar is a terminal symbol. The input of the Bison parser is a stream of tokens which comes from the lexical analyzer. See Symbols.
A grammar symbol that has no rules in the grammar and therefore is grammatically indivisible. The piece of text it represents is a token. See Languages and Context-Free Grammars.
A parser state to which there does not exist a sequence of transitions from the parser’s start state. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution. See Unreachable States.
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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en
| 0.887042 | 1,567 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Dengue keeps advancing in Latam despite efforts to contain the disease
Dengue continues to claim lives in Latin America with over 400 deaths and nearly 161.000 infection cases according to this year’s reports from the different countries.
The disease which is endemic in parts of tropical Latinamerica is caused by a virus transmitted by the mosquito Aedes Aegypti and its symptoms are high fever, headache, vomiting and skin rashes. A more dangerous manifestation is the hemorrhagic strain which has a high mortality rate.
In 2010 the mosquito transmitted disease infected 1.5 million people and caused 1.020 deaths in Latam according to official reports.
So far this year dengue has killed 69 people in Paraguay out of 29.277 confirmed cases, with a mortality rate of 0.21%, but according to Health Minister Antonio Arbo the real contagion may range between 150.000 and 200.000 cases.
These numbers exceed those of 2011 when there were 62 deaths and 42.264 infections were reported. However the disturbing fact for Paraguay is that the disease had no fatal cases reported until 2007 (17 deaths and 9.040 infections) and since then has been expanding.
Although dengue is endemic in certain regions of Brazil, so far this year there has been a 49% reduction in fatal cases: 247 compared to 481 in the same period of 2011, according to an epidemiological report released this week by the Ministry of Health. The Ministry attributes the improved situation to the measures taken to assist the infected with a faster diagnosis and treatment.
According to the latest official health reports from the Dominican Republic, the country recorded 6.838 cases including 114 deaths with a death rate of 0.5%.
The dengue outbreak in Peru, which is present in 15 regions, has caused so far the death of 32 people and infected 21.445 according to a report from the Ministry of Health. As part of its mass media dengue awareness campaign, the Peruvian government declared a 60 days state of emergency in three provinces, fumigated 68.233 homes and implemented a plan with quick medical support for areas where outbreaks of the disease occur.
In Ecuador, where in early 2012 there was a very serious outbreak with 21 deaths and 14.000 infected cases according to the country’s Ministry of Health.
Bolivia has reported 56 cases in recent weeks most of them in counties bordering Brazil with no deaths, said Health minister Victor Maturano. However, the minister said that prevention measures remain in place, in anticipation of the rainy season, including rapid action groups in those areas of the country where the disease is endemic.
A dengue epidemic was declared in Puerto Rico last October and has claimed six deaths so far in 2012 as reported by the Department of Health.
Venezuela reported 40.635 cases of dengue, of which 1.511 hemorrhagic, according to the latest figures released by the Ministry of Health.
In Central America, Honduras reported two deaths and 15.000 infection cases. El Salvador claims five deaths and 12.124 confirmed cases of dengue until November 21 and Panama reports 899 cases and 5 of the fatal hemorrhagic strain. Costa Rica posted no deaths this year although dengue cases so far this year total 16.258, and increase of 36% over 2011. Guatemala and Nicaragua have not specified public information besides the fact that there have been “no dengue related deaths”.
Chile has no reported cased of dengue since the vector mosquito is not present in the country but nevertheless the country has a network of traps for insects and larvae in strategic places to keep control of a possible outbreak of the disease.
Uruguay is free of dengue, less than a dozen cases reported in recent years are exogenous meaning the persons were infected overseas.
Argentina so far this year has not reported any dengue cases although the disease is endemic in certain areas of the tropical north.
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<urn:uuid:86a6d79a-6e68-4f93-976f-8d26d1e4d56f>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://en.mercopress.com/2012/11/28/dengue-keeps-advancing-in-latam-despite-efforts-to-contain-the-disease
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en
| 0.959914 | 819 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The genus Juglans includes walnuts of different cultivated species, such as Juglans regia or European walnut tree, that is cultivated for example in California and Oregon; J. nigra or black walnut in the United States; J. Cinerea, cultivated in Arkansas, Georgia and Canada, etc.
The varieties that are cultivated in Europe belong to the species Juglans regia. There are early and late varieties. Within each group of varieties there is also a distinction between fruit of soft shell or hard shell, distinguishing them in subclasses, whether they are intended for consumption or for oil extraction. The walnuts which have a greater quantity of oil are less appreciated as dessert and they have a very hard and full up shell. Dessert walnuts must have a soft or semi soft shell, with a certain appearance and rather thick.
In the market we find Spanish, French and American varieties. Among the French varieties stand out Franquette, Grandjean, Marbot, Corne, Mayette, Parisienne, Chaberte, Candelou, Meylannaise, Ronde de Montignac, etc. The most adapted Californian varieties, of Mediterranean climate, are Serr, Hartley, Vina, Tehama, Payne, Pioneer, Chico, Amigo and Pedro. Walnut trees of Spanish selection are Mayor, Onteniente, Baldo II, Carcagente, Cerdá, Escrivá and Villena.
There are other varieties cultivated in the world which have diverse importance since they represent their countries of origin, such as Adams, Chambers, Chase and Spurgeon in Oregon, Sorrento, Malizia, Bleggiana and Feltrina in Italy, Sisibel in Rumania, Geisenheim in Germany, As-1 in Chile and Rego in Portugal.
Some walnut varieties:
It is a small walnut that requires severe pruning to obtain good sizes. The colour of the edible part is very good. The tree is also small and erect. It is very productive and of early harvesting in California.
The fruit is of average size and very tasty, but the edible part is difficult to remove. The tree is very vigorous and easy to form, with a tendency to loose the leaves. It has a good productivity, although of slow fruition and late maturation, in October. It is of French origin and cultivated in Dordoña.
The fruit is of good quality, thick, tasty and easy to remove. The tree is of average vigour and easily formed. It has good productivity and fast fruition, maturing in the middle of October, since it is of late maturation. It is original from the Valley of the river Isère (France).
The fruit is of average to very small size, with good taste and easily removed. The tree is vigorous, easy to form and with a tendency to loose the leaves of the base. It has good productivity, slow fruition and quite early maturation, during the first fortnight of October. Its origin is the region of Sarlat (Dordoña, France).
The quality of this fruit is high, the colour of the edible part is excellent, of great size and conical shape that makes it easy to recognize the fruit. The tree is vigorous. It has high yields from the 12th year. Concerning the period of harvesting, it is of mean season. It is the Californian variety par excellence.
The fruit is quite thick. The tree is of average vigour, easily formed. It has good productivity and fast fruition. It is of early maturation, from the end of September until the beginning of October. It has French origin and it is cultivated in the north of Lot and the south of Corrèze.
Fruit of great size, tasty and easy to remove. The tree is very vigorous, of average productivity and quite slow fruition. It matures during the second week of October. Original from Tullins (Isère, France).
Thick and very tasty fruit, easily removed from the shell. The tree is very vigorous and easy to form. The maturation is quite late, in the middle of October. It is of French origin and it is cultivated in Isère, Vercors.
This walnut is of mean-small size and the edible part is of pale colour. The tree is vigorous and rounded. The fruit is harvested early, maturing in the middle of September in areas such as California.
The nut’s shell is attractive because of its size and general appearance, but the kernel quickly darkens after the harvest. The tree is of average vigour and of very early production onset. It was obtained from the breeding program of Davis (California), where the harvest is from the middle to the end of the season.
The nut is of such a quality as to be consumed with the shell, of average size and similar in shape to "Hartley". The colour of the edible part is pale. The tree is of small or medium size and its shape is similar to " Payne’, of hanging growth habit. It was obtained in the breeding program of Davis; it is interesting because of its high productivity. It is from early to middle season.
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en
| 0.959977 | 1,084 | 2.84375 | 3 |
The reconstructed plane is too big for the main museum
The American aircraft that carried out the Hiroshima bombing in Japan, the Enola Gay, has been reassembled to be put on public display in Washington.
The restored B-29 bomber was unveiled to the media at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on Monday, and is due to go on public display in December.
The Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, leading to Japan's surrender six days later.
More than 140,000 people were killed as a direct result of the bombing. Many more suffered radiation illness, raising the eventual death toll to more than 220,000.
The National Air and Space Museum has spent months restoring the Enola Gay, which was one of 15 aircraft modified for the secret atomic bomb missions.
"Because of the work of some very talented men and women, future generations will sense first-hand the unalterable significance of this aircraft in World War II and human history. Let's learn from it," said museum director JR Daily.
Vetted by veterans
In 1995 the museum staged an exhibition about the atomic bomb, featuring the forward fuselage of the Enola Gay.
Controversy initially surrounded that event: US veterans objected to a draft script accompanying the exhibition, which they said portrayed the Japanese as victims of US aggression.
The bomb killed two thirds of Hiroshima's 350,000 people
The script was eventually revised and the exhibition ran for more than three years.
The latest exhibition is attracting no such criticism from veterans.
"We believe that it is historically accurate this time and we congratulate the Air and Space Museum," Napoleon Byars of the Air Force Association told Reuters news agency.
A Japanese-American also quoted by the Reuters, Aiko Herzig, said she hoped the exhibition would include scenes showing the devastation of the bomb.
"We need to remind ourselves about how terrible nuclear weapons are," she said.
With a wingspan of 43 metres (141 feet) the Enola Gay was too large and heavy to be housed at the museum's main building.
It will be on display at a giant hangar at the museum's Steven Udvar-Hazy Center, near Dulles International Airport in Washington.
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en
| 0.960506 | 459 | 2.59375 | 3 |
“Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons….In fact there was only one species on the planet more intelligent than dolphins, and they spent a lot of their time in behavioural research laboratories running round inside wheels and conducting frighteningly elegant and subtle experiments on man. The fact that once again man completely misinterpreted this relationship was entirely according to these creatures’ plans.” – Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
As tempting as it may be to believe the science fiction version of the intelligence rankings, real-life science has spoken and suggests (much to my displeasure) that humans may actually be the highest on the intelligence scale.
We have many different types of neurons within our peripheral somatosensory system. In addition to basic mechanoreceptors, we have neurons corresponding to pain sensations, and channels that are temperature sensitive. However, one phenomenon that was not explained at the neuronal level until recently, is the sensation of stroking. On the behavioral level, we know that stroking or grooming is pleasurable in such phenomenon as maternal care. But how is this transduced at the molecular level?
Researchers in David Anderson’s lab at Caltech recently discovered a class of neurons that selectively responds to “massage-like” stimulations. Experiments were performed in-vivo to directly measure the effect of certain stimulations. Calcium imaging, a type of imaging designed to study activity of neurons, was used in the spinal cord, where the cell bodies of neurons projecting to the periphery are located. After mice were pinched, poked, and light-touch stroked on their paws, the researchers found that a subset of neurons was selectively activated to only the light-touch stimulus.
We live in an era where the rapid advances in technology are constantly changing how we perceive and interact with the world around us. The question on everyone’s mind is always “what’s next?” The answer: brain-machine interfaces. For the average consumer, brain-computer interfaces are becoming increasingly available on the mass market and their current uses offer a wide range of fascinating opportunities.
A company that’s been in the news a lot lately is NeuroVigil. Their product known as the iBrain has been used to help world-renowned astrophysicist Steven Hawking communicate with a computer simply by thinking. Hawking, who suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease, developed his own solution to allow him to speak by twitching his cheek to select words from a computer. In its current state, the iBrain is still slower than Hawking’s solution, but NeuroVigil’s founder MD Philip Low hopes that it will eventually be possible to read thoughts aloud. NeuroVigil also made the news by signing a contract with Roche, a major Swiss pharmaceutical company, to use the iBrain in clinical studies for evaluating drugs for neurological diseases.
There are numerous brain imaging techniques that allow us to gain insight into what damage the brain may have incurred after a patient has a traumatic injury. The ever popular fMRI measures blood flow to infer neural activity. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) uses the magnetic properties of water to look at white matter in the brain, while positron emission tomography (PET) uses radiolabeling to look for a specific chemical in the brain. All of these are important for possible disease diagnosis, however, there is skepticism around how dependent we should be on this technology, as the results should never be taken as the absolute truth.
Now, a new type of brain imaging developed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh allows researchers to look for connections that have been broken as a result of traumatic brain injury, much like an X-Ray allows doctors to look for broken bones. It is called High Definition Fiber Tracking (HDFT). Although the technology is not specific at the cellular level, it is accurate in observing specific connections that have been lost as a result of injury. These lost connections act as a reliable predictor for cellular information, such as the percentage of axons that have been lost.
The accompanying publication in the Journal of Neurosurgery focuses on a case study of a man who sustained severe brain damage after crashing an all-terrain vehicle (public service announcement: this is why we wear helments!!!). Initial MRI scans showed hemorrhaging in the right basal ganglia, which was confirmed by a later DTI. The patient had extreme difficulty moving the left side of his body, and it was assumed to be a result of damage to the basal ganglia. It was not until the patient had a HDFT test that doctors could pinpoint the true problem: fiber tracts innervating the motor cortex had been lost. More
A decision is a fact of life. Both the good and the bad, the wrong and the right, one seemingly unjust turn waiting to happen amid the uncertain crossroads of life. Lets be honest, making a decision will always provide the answer, that is the ideal outcome, nothing goes wrong, everything is perfect, happily ever after. On the contrary, there is the undesirable result, which you would rather keep trapped in a cage and have thrown into a river in order to prevent ‘it’ from ruining your party. Now with making a decision comes the possibility for his arch-nemesis “regret” to appear in the equation. Lets look at it this way, if your friend ‘decision’ calls and asks if you want to see this movie which you assume is going to be terrible, you’d probably say “No,” thereby rejecting ‘decision.’ A week later ‘regret’ sends you a letter saying ‘decision’ went to the movie that day, saw your partner, they both hit it off, ‘decision’ slept with them, and now your partner never wants to see you again. See why you should have gone to the movie! That my friends is exactly, to a tee, the comic strip you will see when you look up decision in the dictionary. More
Research has been conducted that proves that our thoughts can control the rate of firing of neurons in our brain. This research reveals the crucial advancement of brain-operated machines in the field. John P. Donoghue at Brown University has conducted research that uses neural interface systems (NISs) to aid paraplegics. NISs allows people to control artificial limbs; individuals simply need to think about commanding their artificial limbs and signals are sent down from their brain to control the movement of these limbs! This great feat is not the only applicable result of current research done by brain-machine interfaces. Dr. Frank Guenther of Boston University uses implanted electrodes in a part of the brain that controls speech to tentatively give a voice back to those who have been struck mute by brain injuries. The signals produced from these electrodes are sent wirelessly to a machine that is able to synthesize and interpret these signals into speech. This is specifically useful for patients suffering from locked in syndrome, wherein an individual with a perfectly normal brain is unable to communicate due to specific brain damage, and thus allowing these individuals to communicate with the world! These discoveries are not only incredibly useful, but they also reveal the astonishing feats that the field of computational neuroscience is accomplishing in the world today.
Because of the brain’s amazing and incomprehensible complexity, there are billions of neurons that connect and network all the major areas of the brain with the small intricate parts as well. So how can we distinguish one of these neurons from the billions of others?
Well, within the past five years more advanced techniques have been discovered and used on various organisms. The most prevalent, and probably the most revolutionary, has been staining. This process was pioneered in the late nineteenth century by Camillo Golgi and allowed for the staining of whole, random cells.
Since then, much progress has been made and today the viewing of even more complex and minute parts that make up the brain is possible. One extraordinary technique was developed by a team of Harvard researchers a few years ago, and it is truly beautiful.
Known as the Brainbow technique, these investigators were able to use genetics to visualize complete neuronal circuits in unprecedented detail. Up to four differently colored fluorescent proteins were used, generating a palette of 100 distinct hues that labeled individual neurons.
Here are the fluorescent proteins in their full glory illuminating the many neurons that make up the brain of a mouse. More
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Recent advances in understanding haemochromatosis: A transition state
Mutations in the hepcidin gene HAPM and the hemojuvelin gene HJV have recently been shown to result in juvenile haemochromatosis (JH). Hepcidin is an antimicrobial peptide that plays a key role in regulating intestinal iron absorption. Hepcidin levels are reduced in patients with haemochromatosis due to mutations in the HFE and HJV genes. Digenic inheritance of mutations in HFE and HAMP can result in either JH or hereditary haemochromatosis (HH) depending upon the severity of the mutation in HAMP. Here we review these findings and discuss how understanding the different types of haemochromatosis and our increasing knowledge of iron metabolism may help to elucidate the host's response to infection.
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Help support New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99...
A titular see in Palaestina Prima. The former name of this city seems to have been Beth Gabra, "the house of the strong men", which later became Beît Djibrîn, "the house of Gabriel". Vespasian slaughtered almost all its inhabitants, according to Josephus, De Bell. Jud., IV., viii, 1, where its name is written Betaris. In A.D. 200 Septimius Severus, on his Syrian journey changed its name to Eleutheropolis, and it soon became one of the most important cities of Judea. Its special era, which figures on its coins and in many inscriptions, began 1 January, A.D. 200. (See Echos d'Orient, 1903, 310 sq.; 1904,215 sq.) Its first known bishop is Macrinus (325);five others are mentioned in the fourth and two in the sixth century (Lequien, Or. Christ., III, 631). In 393, during the episcopate of Zebennus, the relics of the Prophets Habakuk and Micah were found at Ceila and Tell Zakariya near Eleutheropolis (Sozomen, H.E., VII, xxix). At Eleutheropolis was born St. Epiphanius, the celebrated bishop of Salamis in Cyprus; at Ad in the neighbourhood he established a monastery which is often mentioned in the polemics of St. Jerome with Rufinus and John, Bishop of Jerusalem. The city was, moreover, an important monastic centre at least till the coming of the Arabs. The latter beheaded (638) at Eleutheropolis fifty soldiers of the garrison of Gaza who had refused to apostatize. They were buried in a church built in their honour. (See Anal. Bolland., 1904, 289 sq., and Echos d'Orient, 1905, 40 sq.) The city was destroyed by the Mussulmans in 796 in the civil wars. The Crusaders erected there a fortress, in 1134, under Fulco of Anjou; the Knights of St. John, to whom it was committed, restored at this time the beautiful Byzantine church at Sandahanna. The citadel was taken in 1187 by Saladin, conquered in 1191 by Richard Lion Heart, destroyed in 1264 by Sultan Bibars, and rebuilt in 1551 by the Turks. Today Beît Djibrîn is a village with about 1000 Mussulman inhabitants, on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, in a fertile and very healthy region. The medieval fortress still stand, about 180 feet square; there are also remains of the walls, ruins of a cloister, and of a medieval church. In the neighbourhood are remarkable grottoes, which filled St. Jerome with wonderment. Some of these grottoes were used in early Christian times as places of worship; others bear Arabic inscriptions.
Reland, Palaestina (Utrecht, 1714), 749-754; Smith, Diet. of Greek and Roman Geogr. (London, 1878)s.v. Bethograbis.
APA citation. (1909). Eleutheropolis. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05380a.htm
MLA citation. "Eleutheropolis." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05380a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Marjorie P. Godfrey.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.
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A simple test can quickly detect if a person is infected with a parasite that causes the diarrheal disease cryptosporidiosis.
Lines on paper strips show whether samples taken from the stool of a patient contain genetic DNA from the parasite.
The research is detailed online in a new paper in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
“Diarrheal illness is a leading cause of global mortality and morbidity,” says Rebecca Richards-Kortum, a bioengineer at Rice University and director of the Rice 360˚: Institute for Global Health Technologies. “Parasites such as cryptosporidium are more common causes of prolonged diarrhea. Current laboratory tests are not sensitive, are time-consuming, and require days before results are available.
“A rapid, affordable, accurate point-of-care test could greatly enhance care for the underserved populations who are most affected by parasites that cause diarrheal illness.”
A. Clinton White, director of the Infectious Disease Division at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, asked Richards-Kortum to help develop a diagnostic test for the parasite.
“I’ve been working with cryptosporidium for more than 20 years, so I wanted to combine her expertise in diagnosis with our clinical interest,” he says. “Recent studies in Africa and South Asia by people using sophisticated techniques show this organism is a very common, under-appreciated cause of diarrheal disease in under-resourced countries.”
The parasite is common in the United States, he says, but less than 5 percent of an estimated 750,000 cases are diagnosed every year. In 1993, an outbreak of cryptosporidium in the water supply sickened 400,000 people in Greater Milwaukee, he says.
Lead author Zachary Crannell, a graduate student based at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative, says the disease, usually transmitted through drinking water, accounts for 20 percent of childhood diarrheal deaths in developing countries.
Cryptosporidiosis is also a threat to people with HIV whose immune system is less able to fight it off, he adds.
“In the most recent global burden-of-disease study, diarrheal disease accounts for the loss of more disability-adjusted life years than any other infectious disease, and cryptosporidiosis is the second leading cause of diarrheal illness.” Crannell says. “Anybody, if it’s not treated, can get dehydrated to the point of death.
“There’s a lot of new evidence that even with asymptomatic cases or cases for which the symptoms have been resolved, there are long-term growth deficits,” he says.
Room or body temperature
Current specialized tests that depend on microscopic or fluorescent analysis of stool samples or polymerase chain reactions (PCR) that amplify pathogen DNA are considered impractical for deployment in developing countries because of the need for expensive equipment and/or the electricity to operate it.
The new test depends on recent developments in a recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) technique that gives similar “gold standard” results to PCR but operates between room and body temperatures.
In Rice’s experiments, samples were prepared with a commercial chemical kit that releases all the DNA and RNA in the small amount of stool tested. The purified nucleic acids are then combined with RPA primers and enzymes tuned to amplify the pathogen of interest, Crannell says.
“If the pathogen DNA is present, these primers will amplify it billions of times to a level that we can easily detect,” he explains. The sample is then flowed over the detection strip, which provides a positive or negative result.
The RPA enzymes are stable in their dried form and can be safely stored at the point of care without refrigeration for up to a year, he says.
Requires little equipment
While current tests might catch the disease in samples with thousands of the pathogens, the new technique detects the presence of very few—even one—parasite in a sample. In their experiments, the researchers reported the presence or absence of the disease was correctly identified in 27 of 28 infected and control-group mice and all 21 humans whose stool was tested.
Crannell says the method requires little equipment, because the enzymes that amplify DNA work best at or near body temperature. “You don’t need a thermal cycler (used for PCR analysis); you don’t need external heating equipment. You can hold the sample under your armpit, or put it in your pocket,” he says.
The research team’s goal is to produce a low-cost diagnostic that may also test for the presence of several other parasites, including giardia, the cause of another intestinal disease. The researchers are working to package the components for use in low-resource settings, Crannell says.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program supported the research.
Source: Rice University
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Adenoidectomy surgery facts
- Adenoidectomy is a surgical procedure performed to remove the adenoids.
- Adenoids are a mass of lymphoid tissue located behind the nasal passages.
- All surgical procedures have risks and potential complications.
- Understanding what is involved before, during, and after adenoidectomy can help your child (and you) recover from the surgery as easily as possible.
Your doctor has recommended an adenoidectomy for your child. The following information is provided to help you prepare for the surgery, and to help you understand more clearly the associated benefits, risks, and complications. You are encouraged to ask your doctor any questions that you feel necessary to help you better understand this procedure.
The adenoids are a mass of lymphoid tissue located behind the nasal passages. Infected adenoids may become enlarged or chronically infected, and subsequently lead to obstructed breathing, snoring/sleep apnea, sinus or ear infections, or other problems. Adenoidectomy is a surgical procedure performed to remove the adenoids.
These instructions are designed to help your child (and you) recover from the adenoidectomy as easily as possible. Taking care of your child can prevent complications. Your doctor will be happy to answer any questions that you have regarding this material. If your child is having ear tube surgery (myringotomies and tympanostomy tubes placed) in conjunction with his/her adenoidectomy, please visit the following article for further information: Myringotomy.
What are risks and complications of adenoidectomy?
Your child's surgery will be performed safely and with care in order to obtain the best possible results. You have the right to be informed that the surgery may involve risks of unsuccessful results, complications, or injury from both known and unforeseen causes. Because individuals differ in their response to surgery, their anesthetic reactions, and their healing outcomes, ultimately there can be no guarantee made as to the results or potential complications.
The following complications have been reported in the medical literature. This list is not meant to be inclusive of every possible complication. They are listed here for your information only, not to frighten you, but to make you aware and more knowledgeable concerning this surgical procedure.
- Failure to resolve the ear or sinus infections, or relieve nasal drainage.
- Bleeding. In very rare situations, the need for blood products or a blood transfusion. You have the right, should you choose, to have autologous (blood from yourself) or designated donor directed blood prepared in advance in case an emergency transfusion is necessary. You are encouraged to consult with your doctor if you are interested.
- A permanent change in voice or nasal regurgitation (rare).
- Need for further and more aggressive surgery such as sinus, nasal, or tonsil surgery.
- Failure to improve the nasal airway or resolve snoring, sleep apnea, or mouth breathing.
- Need for allergy evaluation, treatments, or environmental controls. Surgery is neither a cure nor a substitute for good allergy control or treatment.
Next: Before Surgery
Parenting and Pregnancy
Get tips for baby and you.
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Parents for Evidence Based Education is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization with the belief that education policy should be instituted based on high quality, mainstream, relevant research, rather than by the unsubstantiated "beliefs", "philosophies" and "ideas" that guide our current system.
Parents in the Marion Independent School District are displeased with the implementation of Core-Plus as its high school math curriculum.
Did you know:
*Source: The NAEP (the "Nation's Report Card")
THE JARGONOn your journey to understand education reform, you will need to learn the language. Here are several resources that will explain what the jargon REALLY means.
Education Terminology Everyone Must Understand
Education Buzzwords: Image and Reality A witty guide to the lingo. Terminology exposed by Martin Kozloff
What is an Educrat? Glossary
THE ISSUES Reading and Language Arts: The research is unequivocal: direct instruction in systematic, explicit phonics is the best way to teach children to read. And struggling readers need it the most. But many educators continue to resist this approach to reading instruction, because it contradicts their image of the child as a "natural" learner. Arm yourself with information about the "Great Debate" here.
Math: Cedar Rapids is finally taking notice of the math education controversy that has polarized communities across the nation for almost a decade. Since the adoption of "fuzzy" math curricula, computation scores have dropped while problem solving scores remain mediocre. Learn more about the state of math education locally and nationwide.
Evidence and Research in Education: One of the fundamental problems with contemporary education has been the refusal of educational decision makers to base policy on sound scientific research. This is slowly changing because of legislation and public pressure, but many educators continue to resist adoption of scientifically based teaching methods, such as Direct Instruction. Find out what the experts say about evidence and research.
Educational Philosophy and Pedagogy: Claims of "child-centered" learning, "progressive" schools following "best practices" and "constructivism" sound impressive to the uninitiated. However, the real research on pedagogy demonstrates that these practices are actually the least effective ways of fostering academic achievement.
Cedar Rapids Area School Issues: Includes information about local issues, links to Cedar Rapids Gazette articles, local test score data, and more.
Standards: Iowa is the only state in the nation that does not have statewide standards.
School Choice: School choice, in the form of vouchers and charter schools, have been very successful in many communities. Although Iowa now has a charter school law, it is among the weakest in the country, and will do little to improve choice for Iowans. Learn more about school choice issues here.
See what other communities are doing: Many other communities share similar concerns. This page provides a collection of links to websites created by other communities, as well as national organizations interested in education reform.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
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The Classical Theory of Integral Equations is a thorough, concise, and rigorous treatment of the essential aspects of the theory of integral equations. The book provides the background and insight necessary to facilitate a complete understanding of the fundamental results in the field. With a firm foundation for the theory in their grasp, students will be well prepared and motivated for further study. Included in the presentation are:
• A section entitled Tools of the Trade at the beginning of each chapter, providing necessary background information for comprehension of the results presented in that chapter;
• Thorough discussions of the analytical methods used to solve many types of integral equations;
• An introduction to the numerical methods that are commonly used to produce approximate solutions to integral equations;
• Over 80 illustrative examples that are explained in meticulous detail;
• Nearly 300 exercises specifically constructed to enhance the understanding of both routine and challenging concepts;
• Guides to Computation to assist the student with particularly complicated algorithmic procedures.
This unique textbook offers a comprehensive and balanced treatment of material needed for a general understanding of the theory of integral equations by using only the mathematical background that a typical undergraduate senior should have. The self-contained book will serve as a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate-level students as well as for independent study. Scientists and engineers who are working in the field will also find this text to be user friendly and informative.
Calculus and Analysis
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A VIEW FROM ABOVE WITHOUT LEAVING THE GROUND
- Created: Thursday, 01 January 2004
In order to deliver accurate geospatial data and imagery to the remote sensing community, NASA is constantly developing new image-processing algorithms while refining existing ones for technical improvement. For 8 years, the NASA Regional Applications Center at Florida International University has served as a test bed for implementing and validating many of these algorithms, helping the Space Program to fulfill its strategic and educational goals in the area of remote sensing. The algorithms in return have helped the NASA Regional Applications Center develop comprehensive semantic database systems for data management, as well as new tools for disseminating geospatial information via the Internet.
In 1996, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center formally agreed to establish a Regional Applications Center at Florida International University through a NASA Institutional Research Award titled High Performance Database Management with Applications to Earth Science (NASA's Institutional Research Award Program provides minority institutions the opportunity to enhance their research capabilities in NASA-related fields). This collaborative effort has since expanded the practical applications of NASA satellite sensor readings combined with other physical or logical data to benefit U.S. Government at all levels, students and universities, and private companies.
TerraFly one of the projects to stem from the Goddard/Florida International University collaboration makes it possible for users to fly over vast areas of land using only an ordinary Web browser. TerraFly does not require the installation or downloading of any specialized geographic information systems software, unlike many other data systems.
The Internet-based technology was developed to make geospatial data more accessible to the average user, with nearly $30 million in funding from NASA, the National Science Foundation, the United States Geological Survey, and private companies such as IBM and Space Imaging. It is currently one of the largest publicly accessible image repositories on the Web, hosting more than 30 terabytes of data, including land, urban, and coastal imagery collected by satellites, aerial photography, and other means of remote sensing. Whether it is sheer personal interest to navigate the American skies or map-planning for land development or zoning, TerraFly was designed to be a simple and convenient system for users of all levels (by simply typing in a street address or a zip code, one can obtain an overhead view of the desired location). TerraFly's database contains textual, remotely sensed, and graphical data which can be viewed and manipulated using any standard browser. Textual data is available for the description and location of specific areas of interest, while colorful graphical maps aid in the visualization of the data.
In flying over the imagery, the user can see various overlays, including road names, public buildings, and landmarks. The flight pattern over this spatial data is smooth and synchronized, so there are no pauses or interruptions as the user moves from one area to another, using a mouse cursor. Compass Control†further allows for 360-degree control of flight direction and speed. Even more, the user has the option of viewing the data at varying resolutions. For example, one can get close enough to see cars and trucks parked on the streets at 1-meter or better resolution, or far enough to view the land as it actually looks from high above the clouds.
By clicking on a point of interest on the TerraFly map like a city block the user can open a new browser window to access more specific information about the selected location, such as latitude and longitude; elevation; demographics (population and census information); number of residential homes; water usage; and proximity to the closest schools, hospitals, businesses, restaurants, and hotels. Much of this information is provided in URL links, so that the individual will only be a click away from retrieving even more information for a point of interest, such as the availability and rating of a hotel or the address and phone number of a restaurant.
All are welcomed to visit the TerraFly Web site and fly free of charge; however, flight time is limited so as not to jam up a network that hosts over 10,000 unique users per day. Florida International University offers monthly and yearly unlimited-flying subscriptions to individuals and organizations that intend to utilize the service more frequently than the casual user. Free subscriptions are available to staff members of TerraFly's government and industrial sponsors, as well as educators involved in NASA's Earth Sciences Program. TerraFly users also have the option of purchasing images. By dragging the mouse cursor and creating a rectangle around an area of interest, a user can order prints of the marked area. Prints include digital aerial and satellite photos, topographic maps, panoramic posters, and glossy postcards.
The Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches has subscribed its 9,000 members to TerraFly. Custom overlays for the Miami-based realtors include property lines and continuously refreshed multiple listings data.
In the fields of public health and epidemiology, Florida International University intends to draw correlations in lead poisoning cases affecting South Florida by overlaying incidences of lead poisoning, socio-economic data, and census information onto remotely sensed data. The university is aiming to scale the results to other geographic areas susceptible to this hazard.
Elsewhere, TerraFly could serve as a valuable tool for government agencies working in the fields of homeland security, environmental protection, forestry, natural resources conservation, U.S. National Parks, and ecology. Visual data for the entire country is available to officials and emergency managers so that they can more effectively plan for, respond to, and mitigate bioterrorism or other man-made or natural disasters.
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Indigeneity is an unusual way to think about International Relations (IR). Most studies of world politics ignore Indigenous perspectives, which are rarely treated as relevant to thinking about the international (Shaw 2008; Beier 2009). Yet Indigenous peoples are engaging in world politics with a dynamism and creativity that defies the silences of our discipline (Morgan 2011). In Latin America, Indigenous politics has gained international legitimacy, influencing policy for over two decades (Cott 2008; Madrid 2012). Now, Indigenous political movements are focused on resisting extractive projects on autonomous territory from the Arctic to the Amazon (Banerjee 2012; Sawyer and Gómez 2012). Resistance has led to large mobilized protests, invoked international law, and enabled alternative mechanisms of authority. In response, governments have been busy criminalizing Indigenous claims to consultation that challenge extractive models of development. Indigenous opposition to extractivism ultimately promotes self-determination rights, questioning the states’ authority over land by placing its sovereignty into historical context. In that sense, Indigeneity is a valuable approach to understanding world politics as much as it is a critical concept to move beyond state-centrism in the study of IR.
The Consolidation of Indigenous Resistance against Extractivism
Indigenous peoples are contesting extractive projects in various, complementary ways. Collective marches have multiplied as an immediate means of resistance throughout the Americas. In 2012, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador led thousands of people on a 15-day, 400-mile March for Life, Water, and the Dignity of Peoples, demanding a new water law, the end of open-pit mining, and a stop to the expansion of oil concessions. Within days, a similar mobilization took over Guatemala City. The Indigenous, Peasant, and Popular March in Defense of Mother Earth covered 212 kilometers to enter the capital with nearly 15,000 people protesting mining concessions, hydroelectric plants, and evictions. In Bolivia, various marches demanded consultation as the government prepared to build a highway within the Indigenous Territory and National Park Isidoro Sécure (TIPNIS). From Canada’s Idle No More movement to the protests against damming the Xingú River Basin in Brazil, Indigenous movements are rising and demanding they be allowed to participate in decisions affecting their territories.
Protests are at the core of global Indigenous agendas. In 2013, the Fifth Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples of the Abya Yala encouraged communities to step-up resistance in light of the threat posed by state-sponsored extractivism. This is what Indigenous women were doing when they walked from Amazon territories to Quito, Ecuador, denouncing government plans to drill without consultation in the Yasuní reserve. Local protests are not trivial or irrelevant in world politics. Rather, they are part of a larger effort to transform local concerns into international politics.
Indigenous peoples have remarkable expertise in international law and are savvily leveraging their rights to consultation and self-determination guaranteed in the ILO Convention 169 (1989) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) (UN General Assembly 2008). They have won emblematic legal battles at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), at times obliging states to recognize Indigenous territorial authority. In the decade-long case of Sarayaku v. Ecuador, the IACHR upheld the right of free, prior, and informed consent with a binding sentence against the Ecuadoran State for allowing a foreign oil company to encroach on ancestral lands without consultation during the 1990s. A 2011 petition by communities of the Xingú River basin led the IACHR to order Brazil’s government to halt the construction of the Belo Monte Dam. The Mayan Q’eqchi’ expanded jurisdiction by taking Hudbay Minerals to Court in Canada for crimes committed at an open-pit nickel mine in Guatemala. In Canada, two Manitoba First Nations used their own legal systems in 2013 to serve eviction notices to mining companies operating illegally on their land.
International pressure is significant, yet states frequently eschew what they perceive to be uncomfortable mechanisms of accountability. Courts may validate Indigenous resistance, and UN reports warn against the catastrophic impact of extractive industries, but Brazil continued to build the Belo Monte Dam and Peru’s government did not consider suspending the Camisea gas project of drilling 18 wells on protected territories that have been home to Amazonian peoples in voluntary isolation (Feather 2014). Nevertheless, states that evade prior consultation obligations only foster Indigenous inventiveness. In the absence of official mechanisms of consultation, people establish autonomous ones. Local communities of the Kimsacocha area took matters in their own hands after years of being ignored, demanding Ecuador’s government consult them on a mining project in the highlands. In 2011, they organized a community-based consultation without the authorization of the state that was nevertheless legitimized by the presence of international observers (Guartambel 2012). The community voted 93% in favour of defending water rights and against mining in the area. Autonomous forms of prior consultation are increasingly common in Latin America. In Guatemala alone, there have been over sixty community-based consultations since 2005 (MacLeod and Pérez 2013).
Contesting States of Extraction
Indigenous resistance has been the target of severe government repression, ranging from judicial intimidation to assassinations of activists. Mobilizations against the Congo mine in Cajamarca, Peru, led President Ollanta Humala to declare a state of emergency and unleash military repression. An estimated 200 activists were killed in Peru between 2006 and 2011 for resisting extractivism (Zibechi 2013). Colombia’s government, in turn, declared protests against the mining industry illegal. In Ecuador, about 200 people have been criminalized for contesting the corporatization of natural resources, many charged with terrorism. Violent repression against TIPNIS protesters in Bolivia revealed that even Evo Morales, Latin America’s first elected Indigenous president, is willing to use force to silence demands for consultation. Various activists opposing the multinational mining giant AngloGlod Ashanti have been assassinated. Argentina’s Plurinational Indigenous Council, which calls for an end to extractivism, has recorded eleven assassinations since 2010. The Observatory of Mining Conflicts in Latin America (OCMAL) estimates there are currently 195 active conflicts due to large-scale mining. Peru and Chile lead the list with 34 and 33 conflicts respectively, followed by Mexico with 28, Argentina with 26, Brazil with 20, and Colombia with 12. Mega-mining alone affects nearly 300 communities, many of which are located on Indigenous territories.
This wave of intense criminalization indicates the expansion of the extractive frontier. In Peru, where anti-extractivist unrest toppled two cabinets under the Humala government and led to the militarization of several provinces, mineral exploration expenditures increased tenfold in a decade. In 2002, 7.5 million hectares of land had been granted to mining companies; by 2012 the figure jumped to almost 26 million hectares, or 20% of the country’s land. Nearly 60% of the province of Apurímac has been granted to mining companies. In Colombia, about 40% of land is licensed to, or being solicited by, multinational companies for mineral and crude mining projects (Peace Brigades International 2011). According to OCMAL, 25% of the Chile’s territory was under exploration or operation as of 2010. In 2013, Mexico’s government opened the state‐controlled energy sector to foreign investment, changing legislation to allow private multinationals to prospect for the country’s oil and natural gas resources for the first time since 1938.
The problem is that governments are largely licensing Indigenous land. In 2010, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues reported that Colombian mining concessions had been awarded in 80% of the country’s legally recognized Indigenous territories. Colombia’s government has 8.8 million hectares of Indigenous reserves designated as oil areas and granted 168 mining licenses on Indigenous reserves in 2011. Extractive industries lead to evictions, toxic waste, and resource scarcity, creating conflicts over water, soil, and subsoil. Open-pit mining uses unsustainable amounts of water. The controversial Marlin mine, partly funded by the World Bank in 2004, and today fully owned by Goldcorp, uses in one hour the water that a local family uses over 22 years (Van de Sandt 2009). In Chile, mining consumes 37% of the electricity produced in the country – which will reach 50% in a few years – compared to 28% for industry and 16% for the residential sector. This requires the Chilean State to continually expand energy sources, thereby accelerating displacement and the transfer of agricultural land to hydroelectric projects.
Conflicts against extractivism should not be dismissed as only concerning Indigenous peoples. They encompass larger debates about the role of extractivism in politics and contest a development model based on the corporatization of natural resources. In particular, they reveal the continuous role of resource exploitation as a strategy to finance states. Governments are prioritizing extractive industries as key engines of growth, although there is ample evidence that extractive industries create relatively few jobs. President Juan Manuel Santos promised to turn Colombia into a mining powerhouse because it attracts quick investment. Opening Ecuador to mega-mining financed much of President Correa’s third re-election. In fact, his unexpected policy shift to approve drilling within the Yasuní Reserve is explained largely by his government’s urgent need for cash. China, which holds over 35% of Ecuador’s foreign debt and financed 12% of its budget in 2013, buys about 60% of the country’s oil and is expected to pre-buy Yasuní oil (Guevara 2013).
Indigenous claims against extractive projects contest a world system based on predation and usurpation. In Guatemala, mining is managed by long-standing political elites and inscribed in the colonial genealogy of power. In many instances, the entrepreneurs promoting mining today are the scions of the same oligarchical families that have controlled Indigenous land and peoples for centuries (Casaús 2007). The political economy of extractivism encompasses global inequalities of exploitation, within and among states. About 75% of the world’s mining companies are registered in Canada, and most operate in the so-called Global South (Deneault et al. 2012). Extractive industries in the North rely on alliances with national elites to exploit natural resources of peoples and places historically marginalized from power politics.
Indigeneity as a Way to Rethink International Relations
Claims against extractivism are ultimately claims to the right of self-determination. The unilateral expropriation of land for mining today is a continuation of the Doctrine of Discovery. It conceptualized the New World as terra nullis, authorizing colonial powers to conquest and exploit land in the Americas. It also paved the way for a paradigm of domination that outlasted colonial times to evolve into a broader – and more resilient – self-arrogated right of intervention embodied by the modern state (Wallerstein 2006). Today, the idea of “empty” lands survives in extractivist practices. Large-scale mining by multinational corporations perpetuates the human abuse and resource appropriation initiated by Spanish colonizers centuries ago in the Bolivian mines of Potosi. International rights to self-determination may have replaced Papal Bulls, yet the political economy of looting natural resources on Indigenous lands continues, now in the name of development.
In this context, Indigeneity is a privileged site for the study of international relations. First and foremost, the extent and sophistication of Indigenous political praxis is relevant to any explanation of world politics. The rise of anti-extractivism as a politics of contestation against state exploitation calls for alternative sites of governance, such as the Inuit Circumpolar Council (Shadian 2013). Indigenous claims are shaping political practice, framing international legislation, and destabilizing assumptions about stateness. They seek the redistribution of rights as much as the uprooting of the concentration of power in the state. In that sense, Indigenous claims to consultation challenge the authority of states over natural resources as much as the organization of world politics does around Westphalian principles of sovereignty.
Second, Indigeneity disrupts state sovereignty (Ryser 2012). The UNDRIP became the longest and most hotly debated human rights instrument in UN history because the expansion of Indigenous rights is intrinsically related to issues of state authority over territory. Rights to self-determination entail the recognition of plural forms of territorial authority in competition with states. Indigeneity is attributed to peoples who have historically been excluded from projects of state-making. Yet it contributes much more than making visible historically excluded groups. It refers to a politics that both precedes the state and lies outside of it. It is the constitutive “other” of the modern state, marked by a co-constitutive history that explains why Indigenous politics vary depending on different processes of state-formation. Consequently, Indigeneity is vital to a discipline dedicated to studying relations among states precisely because it is intrinsically related to state-formation. Standing outside of, and prior to, state making Indigenous standpoints are valuable ways to think critically about world politics. They permit to imagine what post-national political assemblages may look like (Sassen 2008).
Finally, Indigeneity is strategic to expand scholarly debates on what constitutes IR. Indigenous experiences complement and broaden official national histories with forgotten or repressed narratives (O’Brien 2010), thus expanding methodological assumptions on how to do IR (Jackson 2010). Its precedence over the modern state encompasses alternative worldviews to think about the international beyond stateness. Indigeneity thus defies core epistemological foundations about power. In particular, it historicizes the state and sovereignty, moving away from Eurocentric conceptions of the world (Hobson 2012) and breaking with the discipline’s unreflective tendencies (Tickner 2013). The vibrancy of Indigenous struggles not only confirms the inadequacy of the state, echoing calls to provincialize Europe’s political legacies (Chakrabarty 2000), but it also provides concrete experiences of what the international can actually look like within and beyond the state (Tickner and Blaney 2013). Indigeneity is therefore doubly valuable for world politics. In addition to contributing alternative praxis of the international, it instigates critical theory to expand disciplinary borders.
Indigeneity is a valuable category of analysis for world politics. Indigenous experiences offer a fuller understanding of the world we live in. Further, they provide critical insights into thinking critically about the international. Integrating indigenous perspectives in the study of IR speaks to the ability to extend our political practice beyond the ivory tower. It is not a category of analysis that concerns merely Indigenous peoples, just as racism is not a matter for people of African descent only, or post-colonial studies the domain of previously colonized societies. The entire thrust of Indigeneity is that the non-state is the business of the state, and that there are alternative pathways available to decolonize the discipline.
Stripping IR of its state-centrism invites us to reflect upon the entrenched coloniality of international relations. Indigenous perspectives will hopefully inspire scholars to adventure beyond the conventional borders of the discipline. After all, opening an alternative locus of authority is nothing short of revolutionary.
A delegation from the Red Sucker Lake First Nation descended on the work camp of Mega Precious Metals, Inc., a mineral exploration company, to stop them from working and vacate the land immediately. The Mathias Colomb First Nation issued a similar order to Hudbay Mining and Smelting Co., Ltd. and the Province of Manitoba.
According to the company’s own social and environmental impact report, the Marlin mine consumes about 250 thousand liters of water every hour (MacLeod and Pérez 2013).
Banerjee, S. (2012) Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point. New York: Seven Stories Press.
Beier, J.M. (2009) International Relations in Uncommon Places: Indigeneity, Cosmology, and the Limits of International Theory. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Casaús, M. E. (2007) Guatemala: Linaje y racismo. Guatemala: F&G Editores.
Chakrabarty, D. (2008) Provincializing Europe: postcolonial thought and historical difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Cott, D.L.V. (2008) Radical democracy in the Andes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Deneault, A., Denis, M. and Sacher, W. (2012) Paradis sous terre: comment le Canada est devenu la plaque tournante de l’industrie minière mondiale. Montréal: Écosociété.
Feather, C. (2014) Violating rights and threatening lives: The Camisea gas project and indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. Moreton-in-Marsh, UK: Forest Peoples Programme.
Guartambel, C.P. (2012) Agua u oro: Kimsacocha, la resistencia por el água. Cuenca, Ecuador: Universidad Estatal de Cuenca.
Guevara, F. E. (2013, December 10) “La explotación del Yasuní: reprimarizacioón de la economía del Ecuador.” Opción- Ecuador.
Hobson, J.M. (2012) The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics: Western International Theory 1760-2010. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jackson, P.T. (2010) The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations: Philosophy of Science and Its Implications for the Study of World Politics. New York: Routledge.
MacLeod, M. and Pérez C. (2013) Tu’n Tklet Qnan Tx’otx’, Q’ixkojalel, b’ix Tb’anil Qanq’ib’il, En defensa de la Madre Tierra, sentir lo que siente el otro, y el buen vivir. La lucha de Doña Crisanta contra Goldcorp. México: CeActl.
Madrid, R.L. (2012) The Rise of Ethnic Politics in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Morgan, R. (2011) Transforming Law and Institution: Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations and Human Rights. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
O’Brien, J.M. (2010) Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Peace Brigades International. (2011) “Mining in Colombia: At What Cost?” Colombia Newsletter, 18: 1-47.
Ryser, R.C. (2012) Indigenous Nations and Modern States: The Political Emergence of Nations Challenging State Power. New York: Routledge.
Sassen, S. (2008) Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sawyer, S. and Gomez, E.T. (2012) The Politics of Resource Extraction: Indigenous Peoples, Multinational Corporations and the State. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Shadian, J.M. (2013) The Politics of Arctic Sovereignty: Oil, Ice and Inuit Governance. New York: Routledge.
Shaw, K. (2008) Indigeneity and Political Theory: Sovereignty and the limits of the political. New York: Routledge.
Tickner, A.B. (2013) “Core, periphery and (neo)imperialist International Relations.” European Journal of International Relations, 19(3): 627-46.
Tickner, A.B. and Blaney, D.L. (2013) Claiming the International. New York: Routledge.
UN General Assembly. (2008) United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples resolution / adopted by the General Assembly. 2 October 2007, UN. Doc. A/RES/61/295.
Van de Sandt, J. (2009) Mining Conflicts and Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala. The Hague: Cordaid.
Wallerstein, I.M. (2006) European Universalism: The Rhetoric of Power. New York: The New Press.
Zibechi, R. (2013, October 27) “Latin America Rejects the Extractive Model in the Streets.” Americas Program. Available at: http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/10983 (Accessed 29 January 2014).
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He all alone, without disturbing his brothers and mother, challenged the demon chieftain. The ensuing fight was very terrible, to say the least. Both of them fought with great gusto, uprooting huge trees and using them as their weapons. The noise and din created by the two fighting giants awoke remaining Pandavas and Kunti. They rushed to the scene of fight and found Bhima engaged in very unusual battle. In the end Hidimba was killed and Bhima was victorious.
This pleased Kunti very much and was also proud of his son Bhima. But presence of an unknown but beautiful lady by the side of Bhima puzzled her. When she inquired abut the same, Hidimbi herself told everyone about her real identity and her desire to marry Bhima. Kunti realized that not only Hidimbi was in true love with her son, but also she was instrumental in saving their lives. Therefore, she asked Bhima to fulfill the desire of Hidimbi. Bhima agreed on one condition, that he would leave her after they had one son. Hidimbi agreed and they were married.
They were blessed with the most powerful and obedient son - Ghatotkacha. This son of Bhima stayed with her mother, and promised his father to appear before him as soon as he remembered him. Later in the war of Mahabharata, we shall see how Ghatotkacha played very important role in saving lives of his father and Pandavas at the cost of his own life.
Sri Krishna and Pandavas
Kunti and Pandavas decided to leave the forest and go to nearby city. Accordingly, in guise of a Brahmin family, they decided to stay in the city of Ekchakra begging for their food from door to door. It was decided that they would equally share whatever they get amongst themselves.
The days passed by, one day they came to know about the announcement of the marriage of the beautiful princess of Panchal - Draupadi. Arjuna knew about the bravery and beauty of Draupadi and in fact was desirous of marrying her.
Sri Krishna, King of Dwaraka, had meanwhile become friend and saviour of Pandavas.
Numerous legends describe Krishna's miracles and heroic exploits. He slew and defeated scores of evil demons and monsters. He appears prominently in the epic poem Mahabharata, in which he sides with the Pandavas and acts as the charioteer of the hero Arjuna. It is to Arjuna, troubled on the eve of the decisive battle (more about which later), that Krishna delivers the celebrated discourse on duty and life known as the Bhagavad-Gita.
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Amir is always beset by fear when he encounters the older bully, Assef. The son of a Pashtun father and German mother, Assef considers himself among the social elite of Kabul. Because of his German heritage, Assef worships Hitler; he also believes, as many Pashtuns do, that the ethnic Hazaras (like Ali and Hassan) are inferior. It sickens him to see Amir seemingly treating Hassan as an equal, and he perceives them as inseparable friends. His own relationship with Hassan is also troubling to Amir, who can never bring himself to call Hassan a true "friend." He wants to tell Assef this, too, but he fears Assef, and in some small way, he does not want to hurt Hassan's feelings.
But he's not my friend! I almost blurted. He's my servant! Had I really thought that? Of course I hadn't. I hadn't.
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Highlights of the Natural Resource Management Plan
As the county’s largest landowner, much of the responsibility for
preserving Fairfax County’s rich natural and cultural resource heritage
rests with the Fairfax County Park Authority. The Park Authority holds
this heritage as a public trust to preserve for current and future
And that's what the Natural Resource Management Plan is all about. In 2003, only about 26,000 acres of county land (excluding parkland) remained undeveloped. That's only about nine percent of Fairfax County. As this undeveloped land shrinks away, parklands play a critical role in preserving what's left.
Park Authority Leadership
Traditionally, resource management plans are done on a park-by-park basis. Preparing an agency-wide plan for a large,suburban park system is a fairly new concept. In addition to resource management,the plan also covers the vital role of volunteers and partnerships, as well as cooperative efforts with other county agencies; such as the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, and the Department of Planning and Zoning. Following are highlights of the plan's elements and goals.
Natural Resource Planning: This section talks about the “big picture.” It sets up the necessary policies and procedures for gathering vital information about parklands, such as natural resource inventories, along with establishing categories for natural and developed parkland. This enables the Park Authority to make the most effective and informed decisions about resource management, with an eye on best practice and effective partnerships.
Vegetation: Fairfax County retains areas of rich vegetative diversity, often found on parklands. This element of the plan is about knowing what kinds of plants are on parklands (taking inventories), monitoring their health,and managing vegetation for long-term vitality. This involves preserving rare and significant plants, and controlling invasive plants that threaten the natural environment.
Wildlife: Thanks to conservation efforts, Fairfax County still has a rich diversity of wildlife in our parks, including river otter, bald eagle, fox, deer, beaver, reptiles, amphibians and birds.This element involves assessing the health of parkland animal populations,helping to preserve rare and significant wildlife, promoting bird and other habitats, and using best practice to mitigate and resolve wildlife conflicts within the community.
Water Resources: Water resource preservation is one of the most important issues facing the county. Fairfax County has 980 miles of streams, many of which have been dramatically degraded over time by pollution, stormwater runoff and erosion. This element of the plan focuses on preserving water quality,rebuilding and revitalizing stream valleys, and protecting county streams,ponds,wetlands and rivers from further degradation or destruction.
Air Quality: With an increased number of Code Red air pollution days in Northern Virginia, increased attention is being given to air quality. This element covers ways and strategies by which the Fairfax County Park Authority can be a good partner and support the efforts of other government agencies striving to improve air quality.
Human Impact on Parkland: This part of the plan covers two areas.The first is how to plan parks for the comfort and enjoyment of citizens,while protecting natural, fragile resources at the same time.This latter part involves mitigating the damage done to parklands through overuse or improper use, such as encroachment (e.g., dumping grass clippings or cutting down plants on parklands), littering, and vandalism.
Education: Even though this is the last element listed in the plan, it is one of the most important.It involves stewardship education, ways to inform you and me, our children, Fairfax County employees and citizens of the simple things we can do to help the Park Authority protect our natural resources and quality of life in Fairfax County.
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AKA Gessius Bassianus Alexianus
Born: 208 AD
Died: 235 AD
Location of death: Gaul
Cause of death: unspecified
Race or Ethnicity: White
Nationality: Ancient Rome
Executive summary: Roman emperor, 222-35 AD
Roman emperor from AD 222 to 235, was born at Area Caesarea in Palestine on the 1st of October 208. His father, Gessius Marcianus, held office more than once as an imperial procurator; his mother, Julia Mamaea, was the daughter of Julia Maesa and the aunt of Elagabalus. His original name was Bassianus, but he changed it in 221 when his grandmother, Maesa, persuaded the emperor Elagabalus to adopt his cousin as successor and create him Caesar. In the next year, on the 11th of March, Elagabalus was murdered, and Alexander was proclaimed emperor by the Praetorians and accepted by the senate. He was then a mere lad, amiable, well-meaning, but entirely under the dominion of his mother, a woman of many virtues, who surrounded him with wise counsellors, watched over the development of his character and improved the tone of the administration, but on the other hand was inordinately jealous, and alienated the army by extreme parsimony, while neither she nor her son had a strong enough hand to keep tight the reins of military discipline. Mutinies became frequent in all parts of the empire; to one of them the life of the jurist and praetorian praefect Ulpian was sacrificed; another compelled the retirement of Dio Cassius from his command. On the whole, however, the reign of Alexander was prosperous until he was summoned to the East to face the new power of the Sassanians. Of the war that followed we have very various accounts; Theodor Mommsen leans to that which is least favorable to the Romans. According to Alexander's own despatch to the senate he gained great victories. At all events, though the Persians were checked for the time, the conduct of the Roman army showed an extraordinary lack of discipline. The emperor returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph (233), but next year he was called to face German invaders in Gaul, where he was slain (on the 18th or 19th of March 235), together with his mother, in a mutiny which was probably led by Maximinus, a Thracian legionary, and at any rate secured him the throne. Alexander was the last of the Syrian princes. During his reign, acting, as he did in most things, under the influence of his mother, he did much to improve the morals and condition of the people. His advisers were men like the famous jurist Ulpian, the historian Dio Cassius and a select board of sixteen senators; a municipal council of fourteen assisted the city praefect in administering the affairs of the fourteen districts of Rome. The luxury and extravagance that had formerly been so prevalent at the court were put down; the standard of the coinage was raised; taxes were lightened; literature, art and science were encouraged; the lot of the soldiers was improved; and, for the convenience of the people, loan offices were instituted for lending money at a moderate rate of interest. In religious matters Alexander preserved an open mind. In his private chapel he had busts of Orpheus, Abraham, Apollonius of Tyana and Jesus Christ. It is said that he was desirous of erecting a temple to the founder of Christianity, but was dissuaded by the pagan priests. There is no doubt that, had Alexander's many excellent qualities been supported by the energy and strength of will necessary for the government of a military empire, he would have been one of the greatest of the Roman emperors.
Father: Gessius Marcianus
Mother: Julia Mamaea
Roman Emperor 222 to 235
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At a glance, the Mayo Medical School curriculum is committed to:
- Active and cooperative learning styles, supported by a pass/fail evaluation system in Year 1 and Year 2 that encourages collaboration by eliminating competition for grades.
- A focus on patient care and clinical experiences that broaden and deepen classroom learning.
- Science of Health Care Delivery curriculum that prepares students for the challenges of working in an ever-changing health care environment. This new innovative curriculum enables students to learn about how health care systems work, examine health care policy and its impact on patient care, and understand health economics and its impact on patients and health care providers.
- Integration of daily topic presentations with clinic rotations. For example, students completing the hematology course will be in the hematology clinic that week shadowing doctors and learning firsthand the content being presented in class.
- Schedules that allow for optimal learning that leads to long-term understanding: repeated exposure to ideas, time to reflect on new information, remedial support when necessary, and time for rest and renewal.
- Continuous improvement, assessment and evaluation of the effectiveness of our curriculum through multiple feedback systems.
- Support and mentorship from interdisciplinary collaborative teams of physicians and staff who are dedicated to the personal and professional development of students.
Students study one topic at a time for three to seven weeks. These courses are known as subject "blocks." In the first year, students take a series of nine blocks. The blocks address three fundamental principles: basic structure, basic functions and basic principles.
For example, in the first year, students take blocks on a variety of topics, including basic doctoring (patient interviewing and physical examination skills), the Science of Health Care Delivery, ethics and basic structure, taught through molecular biology, basic gene expression, basic cell structure and microscopic anatomy.
In the second year, students take eight blocks that address organ systems, pathophysiology, and diagnostics and therapeutics. Morning sessions of the block are thematically reinforced in the afternoon during clinical integration sessions with patients, small groups of students or in facilitated sessions with faculty members.
These courses are dedicated one- to two-week blocks offered in the first and second years that enable the student to experience the self-directed approach behind the design of the medical curriculum, emphasizing personal responsibility for the learning experience.
Selective blocks may be utilized for career exploration, working in underserved communities, remedial activities, exploration of research interests, research presentations, achieving higher level learning objectives through reflection, enhancing clinical skills or any activity related to medical education that is not directly provided for in the medical curriculum.
Selectives can take place at any of Mayo Clinic's campuses in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida, as well as at other medical institutions both nationally and internationally.
Courses include basic and advanced doctoring, clinical clerkships, and electives. Throughout their training, students work with Mayo Clinic clinicians and researchers who are renowned experts in their fields.
Science of health care delivery
Through collaboration with Arizona State University (ASU), Mayo Medical School has created an innovative curriculum, called the Science of Health Care Delivery, which focuses on six key topic areas throughout all four years of training:
- Health policy, economics and technology
- Person-centered care
- Team-based care
- Population-centered care
- High-value care
Students will earn a certificate of completion in the Science of Health Care Delivery upon graduation and can pursue a master's degree in this area if desired.
Throughout their training, Mayo medical students are involved in community service. During the first year, students are introduced to community organizations. During the second year, students work in community health clinics.
For example, students work in the Rochester Education and Advocacy for Community Health (REACH) free clinic under Mayo consultant supervision. This clinic provides students with a clinical education, while offering an opportunity for community service.
Highest patient-to-student ratio anywhere
Embrace clinical immersion by taking full advantage of the 1.3 million people who seek care each year at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Medical School has the highest ratio of patients to medical students anywhere in the world, and clinical experiences are therefore abundant and easily available. If cardiac function is the morning classroom topic, Mayo Clinic's cardiology clinic is the afternoon clinical integration venue.
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http://www.mayo.edu/mms/programs/md/curriculum
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en
| 0.935838 | 876 | 2.515625 | 3 |
WHY a Vulture Fest?
Beginning in 2005, hundreds of Vultures (Turkey and Black) have made Wenonah, New Jersey their winter home, returning each evening to form a communal
roost in town (their previous winter roost was lost to development). The scientific name
for Turkey Vultures, Cathartes aura ("golden purifier"), refers to
their role of cleansing the environment. Yet the behavior and beneficial
contributions of vultures are not well understood by the public. In 2006, the East Coast Vulture Festival
was created as an annual event both to educate
the public about the gentle giants circling our skies, and to celebrate the
impending end of winter. Festival proceeds were and are used to support local environmental
The festival organizers have decided not to hold an event in March,
2015. The organizers are considering expanding the festival's theme
to create a Mid-Winter Festival in early 2016.
This short video report from 6ABC Action News provides a good overview of how the
Festival came into existence:
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<urn:uuid:cdf09fa4-2408-46a1-8bee-81d5d9698c12>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.eastcoastvulturefestival.org/about.htm
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en
| 0.92457 | 221 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Top: Experimentally measured emission attributable to fast electrons. Bottom: Corresponding contour plots of fuel mass density and electron temperature. Credit: High Energy Density Physics Group, UC San Diego
For laser-powered inertial confinement fusion (ICF) to succeed, scientists need to understand the details of energy transport within the compressed fuel target. A new technique involving X-ray imaging and copper tracers could help probe the secrets of these ultra-high temperatures and pressures (Nature Phys., doi:10.1038/nphys3614).
The researchers, based at the University of California San Diego and General Atomics (USA), studied a particular ICF scheme called fast ignition. First proposed more than 20 years ago, fast ignition separates the compression phase of the target implosion from the heating phase, thus avoiding a central hot spot in the fuel. Measuring only the neutron yield from ICF experiments does not tell scientists about the energy transport within the target.
For their experiments, the team used a target consisting of a hollow gold cone pointing into a two-layer plastic shell, with its interior doped with copper. The target was tiny, with a total radius of 435 μm and a total shell thickness of 38 μm. The 10-ps high-intensity infrared beam from the OMEGA-EP system at the University of Rochester (USA) was directed through the cone into the center of the target. The copper dopant emitted K-alpha radiation that could be picked up by an X-ray spectrometer and spherical Bragg crystal imager.
Modeling the results with computer simulations showed that, in the most efficient configuration, the laser delivered energy to the fuel with up to 7 percent efficiency. That may not sound like much, but it is almost four times higher than previous fast-ignition experiments. Scaling up the results could boost the delivery efficiency as high as 15 percent, but that has not been done experimentally.
The team suggested additional ways to improve the core energy coupling, such as increasing the core areal density or applying magnetic fields to the target.
Scientists from Japan, France, and three other U.S. laboratories also participated in the study.
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<urn:uuid:2469ed17-031a-4aea-ab5b-001e574256f5>
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http://www.osa-opn.org/home/newsroom/2016/january/a_clearer_view_of_fast_ignition/
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| 0.922097 | 445 | 3.3125 | 3 |
It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
The Harvard Microrobotics Lab has been working on its Micro Air Vehicles Project since early 2009. Borrowing from the biomechanics and social organization of bees, the team of researchers is undergoing the creation of tiny winged robots to fly from flower to flower, immune to the toxins dripping from petals, to spread pollen. They even believe that they will soon be able to program the robobees to live in an artificial hive, coordinate algorithms and communicate amongst themselves about methods of pollination and location of particular crops.
Originally posted by rickymouse
Bees do that for nothing. Why would anyone want to buy an expensive mechanical bee Do these mechanical bees make honey I'll stick to bee husbandry along with getting rid of dangerous chemicals and genetics that hurts the bees.
Bees aren't the only creatures capable of carrying pollen
the creation of tiny winged robots to fly from flower to flower, immune to the toxins dripping from petals,
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<urn:uuid:3f0611de-7e73-4944-86a7-3123ed1a986e>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread939837/pg1
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en
| 0.939498 | 246 | 3.71875 | 4 |
With underwater photography one of the biggest problems you face is backscatter - light being reflected back from the flash into the lens. This is most common in areas where there's a lot of sediment carried into the water from runoff or river sediment, but it can still be a factor in places without significant rain or river influx.
The way to avoid backscatter is to limit the amount of light coming straight back into the lens (ie use a diffuser) or set up your gear in such a way that the primary light source (for instance a remote strobe) angled so that light hitting the bits of sediment is reflected away from the lens. This is why you see underwater cameras with strobes on arms set away from the camera body, rather than tucked next to it.
However you then have the problem of getting the remote strobe to fire when needed. DSLRs will often have TTL cable ports built into their housings, so the camera's metering system can take charge of them, but the smaller cameras won't have that functionality.
Strobes built for these are designed to be fired in a slave mode - when the camera's internal flash fires, they detect the light flash and fire in response. You may (depending on the conditions) find that the internal flash itself doesn't produce enough light to trigger the external strobe. In that case you can buy fibre-optic cables that link the internal flash to the external strobe. These will increase (although not guarantee) that your external strobe will fire when needed.
So the short answer is that while you can theoretically remove the diffuser, in practice you risk getting too much backscatter as a result. An external strobe is not essential, but will help you get much better results, much more reliably.
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http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/3795/diffuser-for-underwater
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en
| 0.949991 | 364 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2002 July 10
Explanation: Follow the handle of the Big Dipper away from the dipper's bowl, until you get to the handle's last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you'll likely find this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula, the large galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy (left), NGC 5195. The pair are about 37 million light-years distant and officially lie within the boundaries of the small constellation Canes Venatici. While M51 is visible as a faint, fuzzy patch in binoculars, this sharp color picture was made with a 14 inch telescope and combines digital camera exposures totaling 3 hours and 42 minutes.
Authors & editors:
Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
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<urn:uuid:e35db42c-251d-4b3a-88b7-8a22db06f734>
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http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020710.html
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en
| 0.907557 | 258 | 3.296875 | 3 |
12/03/2014 - Precursor of European rhinos found in Vietnam
Tübingen, 12/03/2014. A team of scientists from the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment Tübingen was able to recover fossils of two previously unknown mammal species that lived about 37 million years ago. The newly described mammals show a surprisingly close relationship to prehistoric species known from fossil sites in Europe.
Southeast Asia is considered a particularly species-rich region, even in prehistoric times – a so-called hotspot of biodiversity. For several decades now, scientists have postulated close relationships that existed in the late Eocene (ca. 38-34 million years ago) between the faunas of that region and Europe. The recent findings by the research team under leadership of Prof. Dr. Madelaine Böhme serve as proof that some European species originated in Southeast Asia.
Rhinoceros and Coal beast
One of the newly described mammals is a rhinoceros, Epiaceratherium naduongense. The anatomy of the fossil teeth allows identifying this rhinoceros as a potential forest dweller. The other species is the so-called “Coal Beast”, Bakalovia orientalis. This pig-like ungulate, closely related to hippos, led a semi-aquatic lifestyle, i.e., it preferred the water close to bank areas. At that time, Na Duong was a forested swampland surrounding Lake Rhin Chua. The mammals’ remains bear signs of crocodile attacks. Indeed, the excavation site at Na Duong contains the fossilized remains of crocodiles up to 6 meters in length.
From island to island toward Europe
In the Late Eocene, the European mainland presented a very different aspect than it does today. Italy and Bulgaria were part of an island chain in the Tethys Sea. These islands spanned several thousand kilometers between what later became Europe and India. European fossils from that epoch are very rare, since little material has been preserved due to the folding of mountains and erosion. Yet, the two new species had relatives in this area: A rhinoceros Epiaceratherium bolcense closely resembling the one from Na Duong was found in Italy (Monteviale). Fossil finds of Epiaceratherium magnum from Bavaria indicate that rhinoceroses reached continental Europe no later than 33 million years ago and colonized the landmass. The coal beast did not quite make it to the European mainland – but it certainly reached the so-called Balkano-Rhodopen Island: a fossilized coal beast very similar to Bakalovia orientalis was unearthed in present-day Bulgaria.
Research among coal dust and excavators
The open mining pit Na Duong is still active. While the scientists conduct their excavations, lignite is being extracted nearby. Since 2008, the international research team around Prof. Dr. Madelaine Böhme from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (HEP) at the University of Tübingen has studied the prehistoric ecosystem and the fossils of Na Duong in Vietnam.
Böhme, M. et al.; Na Duong (northern Vietnam) – an exceptional window into Eocene ecosystems from Southeast Asia, Zitteliana A 53, 120 A 5 (2014).
Prof. Dr. Madeleine Böhme
Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung
University of Tübingen
The press images may be used at no cost for editorial reporting, provided that the original author’s name is published, as well. The images may only be passed on to third parties in the context of current reporting.
To study and understand nature with its limitless diversity of living creatures and to preserve and manage it in a sustainable fashion as the basis of life for future generations – this has been the goal of the Senckenberg Nature Research Society (Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung) for almost 200 years. Through its exhibits and museums Senckenberg showcases and shares the current results of its natural history research with the public and offers insights into the past and present changes in nature, their causes and effects. Additional information is available at www.senckenberg.de.
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<urn:uuid:d29d0264-706a-4c6a-87a3-4a02ceea9565>
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http://www.senckenberg.de/root/index.php?page_id=5210&year=2014&kid=2&id=3011
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en
| 0.924203 | 920 | 3.75 | 4 |
Happy 200th Birthday Uncle Sam!
The symbolic figure of the United States government, Uncle Sam, was “born” 200 years ago, on December 23, 1812. Uncle Sam, alongside the American flag and bald eagle, is perhaps the most recognizable personification of the United States that has been passed down by generations of Americans.
Although there is a great amount of misinformation about the origination of “Uncle Sam,” evidence suggests that the figure’s use started during the War of 1812.
Etymologist Barry Popik brought this anniversary to the attention to HUMAN EVENTS with evidence he recently uncovered about Uncle Sam’s origination. The common myth is Uncle Sam is actually Samuel Wilson, an American meat packer from Troy, New York during the War of 1812 who put “E. A. – U. S.” on the side of his meat packages. The tale goes that American soldiers saw this and jokingly referred to the U.S. as “Uncle Sam.”
Popik, however, argues that this story is myth and that name Uncle Sam came from “U.S.” being stamped on military material like ammunition cases and knapsacks. He discovered a Bennington, Vermont News-Letter dated Dec. 23, 1812 that is the first recorded description of Uncle Sam.
The newsletter said,
The conscripts from this town, amounting to about 40, have been dismissed and sent home, sickness, has made bad work among us—according to the best information I have been able to obtain, about one half of us, are, or have been sick, 3 or 4 are dead. Several are left behind, and not heard from. The expence [sic] to this town, or more properly to the unfortunate individuals who were drafted, cannot be less than from two to three thousand dollars, exclusive of the expence [sic] to the U. States of pay, clothing, rations &c. Now Mr. Editor—pray if you can inform me, what single solitary good thing will, or can acrue [sic] to (Uncle Sam.) the U.S. for all the expence [sic], marching and countermarching, pain, sickness, death &c among us?
This newsletter was printed before Samuel Wilson even began packaging and shipping meat to the military in January of 1813.
Uncle Sam’s real origin is difficult to trace, but the figure has undoubtedly endured through American history. Uncle Sam becomes especially prominent in times of war, when Americans rally for a higher, national cause. The popularity of the Uncle Sam image rose dramatically during the Civil War and it was increasingly seen in Union posters, cartoons and songs. The “Father of the American cartoon,” Thomas Nast, frequently drew images of Uncle Sam during the Civil and perhaps more than anybody else, stamped the image into the American mind.
A Thomas Nast depiction of Uncle Sam
Even the Union’s greatest general, Ulysses S. Grant, had a connection to Uncle Sam. During Grant’s time at West Point students often made nicknames for their fellow cadets. In the book, Grant and Sherman: The Friendship that Won the Civil War, the author, Charles Bracelen Flood quoted William Tecumseh Sherman about how Grant got the nickname “Sam.”
Sherman said, “I remember seeing [Grant’s] name on the bulletin board, where the names of all the newcomers were posted. I ran my eyes down the columns, and saw there, ‘U.S. Grant.’ A lot of us began to make up names to fit the initials. One said, ‘United State Grant.’ Another ‘Uncle Sam Grant.’ A third said ‘Sam Grant.’ That name stuck to him.”
After the Civil War, Uncle Sam continued to grow in prominence.
James Montgomery Flagg produced what is perhaps the most famous portrait of Uncle Sam for WWI in Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly Newspaper. Flagg used a composition of the British Lord Kitchener propaganda poster that points forward and calls for recruitment, and put an American twist on it. He drew Uncle Sam in red, white and blue colors pointing at the viewer and saying “I Want You for U.S. Army”. It became the most widely used propaganda poster of the war and was widely used again in WWII.
Although patriotic recruitment posters may seem antiquated in modern culture, there is no doubt most Americans at least recognize Uncle Sam. After 200 years, he remains alive as a symbol of the American spirit.
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<urn:uuid:241430af-7f8e-495a-bae7-fc0adb50557a>
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http://humanevents.com/2012/12/23/happy-200th-birthday-uncle-sam/
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en
| 0.964249 | 975 | 3.484375 | 3 |
|Music and the Humanities|
|MUS & THE HUM|
|CLASS CODE:||MUSIC 101||CREDITS: 3|
|DIVISION:||PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS|
|GENERAL EDUCATION:||This course fulfills a General Education - Arts requirement.|
|DESCRIPTION:||One section is a course designed to acquaint non-music majors with our classical musical heritage and its relationship to history and the other arts.
One section is a course designed to acquaint music and non-music majors with a truly original American art form: jazz. Its relationship to other arts, history, classical music, blues, R & B, pop and rock styles, its heritage, and the elements that comprise jazz is explored by means of listening, observation, discussion, reading, and demonstration.
|TAUGHT:||Fall, Winter, Summer|
|CONTENT AND TOPICS:||The jazz section discusses:
1. What is jazz? Interpretation, improvisation, rhythm, syncopation, timbre, form
2. How to listen to jazz
3. Jazz heritages: African and European, field hollers, work songs, religious music, marching bands, ragtime
4. The blues
5. Periods and styles: early New Orleans, Chicago, swing, bop, cool, hard-bop and funky jazz, modal, fusion, Latin
6. Significant figures: Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane
7. Eclecticism: rock, Latin, R & B, blues, boogie-woogie, stride, contemporary pop
|GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:||1. Gain an understanding of basic music concepts, vocabulary and jargon.
2. Develop an understanding of the history and development of Western Art Music and its relationship with the other.
3. Develop an appreciation for the aesthetics of music and its role in daily life, both past and present.
|REQUIREMENTS:||Varies according to instructor.|
|EFFECTIVE DATE:||August 1975|
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<urn:uuid:61a7326e-2756-4b48-9b5c-deb138c857ae>
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http://www2.byui.edu/catalog-archive/2004-2005/class.asp2387.htm
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| 0.810588 | 444 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Eyre, Lake, shallow salt lake, 3,430 sq mi (8,884 sq km), central South Australia state, Australia; largest lake in Australia. The lake, 39 ft (12 m) below sea level, is the continent's lowest point. Located in the arid interior of Australia, the lake is frequently dry. During the winter rainy season, numerous stream beds carry floodwaters into the lake. A move in 1995 to designate the lake's basin as a world heritage site pitted environmentalists and the federal government against the state government and parties concerned with pastoral and mining rights. In 2012 the Arabana aborigines' native title to Lake Eyre was recognized as part of a decision involving nearly 27,000 sq mi (70,000 sq km) of South Australia.
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<urn:uuid:9d770e77-393f-4c9e-8bc9-5fc6eb97ea47>
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http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/world/eyre-lake.html
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en
| 0.936674 | 158 | 3.109375 | 3 |
The word “restraint” and the First Amendment usually exist in uneasy tension.
The 45 words of the First Amendment don’t include it. The Pentagon Papers case in 1971 settled the issue of “prior restraint” by the government on what the press may publish: Nothing doing. Many critics of the news media slam news outlets for a lack of it, from graphic TV images beamed “live” from car chases to unrestrained “paparazzi” photographers stalking celebrities. And in the digital age, whole new ethical controversies have arisen over images being captured and distributed via the ubiquitous presence of cell phone cameras.
But consider the news decisions made — at least thus far — on the release of 911 tapes from the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings in Newtown one year ago. The violence was real, and callers were facing the horror of a shooter who eventually would kill 20 students and six educators.
Seven tapes of 911 calls from Sandy Hook teachers and staff were released at 2 p.m. last Wednesday under a court order following a request by The Associated Press, which had sought the tapes’ disclosure since the day of the shooting.
There is a difference between having public access to such calls and the public broadcast or online posting of the calls themselves.
There are strong First Amendment reasons for disclosure of 911 calls — from the plain fact that in many cases such recordings are public records in the first place, to holding police and other emergency responders accountable for their response, to in some cases debunking conspiracy theories or defusing wild rumors.
The First Amendment also protects news operations from government interference in what they do with 911 tapes. Fox News was the first cable outlet to air Newtown 911 audio clips, about one hour after their release, but only used short excerpts. CNN featured a reporter describing the audio. ABC and NBC said they would not use the audio, while CBS used some audio segments, but nothing in which gunshots could be heard.
Caution of a different sort was at play online: A variety of newspaper websites, online news reports and blogs provided “clickable” audio replays of all seven recordings — but generally with stories or stand-alone warnings about the graphic content. Clearly, the idea that online users could make their own decisions about hearing the tapes, as opposed to TV viewers or radio listeners who could not, was in play.
Editors have been faced with ethical calls on tragic imagery or audio since the invention of those mediums.
In 1911, many news outlets used photos of many of the 146 people — mainly young women — who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. There was the anguished voice in 1937 of WLS radio reporter Herbert Morrison, including his memorable phrase “Oh, the humanity ...” as the dirigible Hindenburg burst in flames.
Newspapers and newsreels in the 1930s and 1940s did not show President Franklin Roosevelt being carried or using a wheelchair or crutches. Famously, Life magazine withheld one frame — Frame 313 — of the 26-second “Zapruder film” from Nov. 22, 1963, because it graphically showed the impact of a bullet on President John F. Kennedy’s head.
Much of the most-graphic footage of the terror attacks in 2001 on the World Trade Center — even if broadcast “live” at the time — has not been used in later reporting around the annual anniversaries of the tragedy. More recently, a disclosed 911 call in which a struggle and a gunshot could be heard proved significant in the trial and national discussion over the Trayvon Martin shooting.
In the absence of government regulations, a free press properly is left to make its own decisions for its own reasons. But in at least eight states, according to a 2012 report by the First Amendment Center, legislatures have enacted bans or severe limits on the release of such calls — with proposals in a number of other states for a ban or transcriptonly disclosure.
There are professional guidelines on airing 911 tapes, including those produced by the Radio Television Digital News Association. In sum, the RTDNA guidelines call on journalists to consider whether using the actual audio is necessary for a complete and accurate report, to respectfully frame use of the sound if it is used and to consider how best to explain decisions once made.
A global controversy over satirical cartoons depicting Islam’s Muhammad a few years ago were fueled in part when European newspapers republished the images in defiance of blasphemy laws in their nations. In the U.S., virtually no news outlets published the cartoons, opting for descriptions in words — making what some editors said was a routine call on material that might offend even a small portion of their readers.
The difference then — and last Wednesday, with the Newtown 911 tapes — is that a free media makes a journalistic decision, with no need to show government what the news media could do instead of what editors independently felt they should do.
Gene Policinski is senior vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, 1207 18th Ave. S., Nashville, Tenn., 37212. Web: www. firstamendmentcenter.org. Email: gpolicinski@ fac.org.
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<urn:uuid:cbd60260-5a91-43d7-b5da-21c1694e99c3>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.thewesterlysun.com/opinion/columnguest/3107664-129/when-and-why-we-need-to-hear-911-calls.html
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en
| 0.95192 | 1,068 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Planted aquarium enthusiasts have long known that
carbon dioxide (CO2) is the limiting nutrient in their tanks, and that tanks with
CO2 supplementation can have aquatic plant growth that borders on the miraculous.
But adding CO2 means tracking its concentration — too low an addition rate or excessive
water movement can result in insufficient CO2 levels, whereas too much CO2 can stress
or even kill fish. A pH measurement and control system is the best way
to know and control CO2 and pH levels, but for many people the equipment required
has been prohibitively expensive.
The answer to this dilemma is to build your
own pH measurement and control system, something which is within the budget and
skill of many aquarists. This pH measurement and control system has been made
as simple and straightforward as possible. The idea was to make it an fun
and easy project, even for people without a lot of of electronics experience (but
see the disclaimer at the end of this article).
It was was designed to be reliable and forgiving. For example, electrical
"noise" from the aquarium lights and heaters (a common problem) is filtered
out in this circuit so that even an input with a lot of AC noise will give good
results. Finally (and importantly for many) this circuit was designed using
inexpensive and easy-to-find parts — everything for this project is available from
the local Radio Shack store. (The one exception is the pH probe, which is available for about $40 from Amazon.com.)
The less electronically skilled, the less ambitious,
and the busy may want to consider building
the simplest possible pH meter or just
buying a pH meter.
You can print a copy of this project's complete schematic diagram if you want to have it available
as you read the explanatory text.
There is a parts
list as well. Note that there aren't many parts: an inexpensive
ph probe, two op amp ICs, a voltage regulator IC, a power supply, some sort of display
(a voltmeter or panel display), and some passive components (resistors and capacitors).
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<urn:uuid:63f52f2b-c022-4921-bb47-06e4c840afc3>
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http://www.66pacific.com/ph/ph_1.htm
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| 0.941323 | 445 | 2.9375 | 3 |
The chip project closest to being tested is Rigel, a 1,024-core processor architecture aimed at high density, high throughput computing. It would be programmed via a task-level applications programming interface targeting jobs in imaging, computer vision, physics and simulations.
Researchers described Rigel as a kind of far-future variation of the Intel Larrabee graphics processor. Like Larrabee, Rigel will use a single address space, four or fewer threads and will be fully cached. However, unlike Larrabee, Rigel will be based on a MIMD engine and use software-based memory coherency.
Rigel will use 16 eight-core nodes per chip with a global shared L3 cache. Each core will be a simple "Tensilica-like" block with one single-precession floating point unit and minimal decode logic.
Early simulations show Rigel could deliver 8 GFlops per square millimeter of die space at 100W, matching or exceeding today's multicore graphics processors. If made in a 45nm process it could run at 1.2 GHz and take up 320 square millimeters of silicon.
Researchers published at least four papers on aspects of Rigel in 2009 and have an upcoming paper planned this year. "But there are still many open research problems in the Rigel design," said Daniel R. Johnson, one of the researchers working on the project.
A third chip design, called Bulk Architecture, is testing the concept of so-called atomic transactions. It defines a compilation stage that gathers groups of instructions into clusters and synchronizes when they are executed to create parallelism.
A simulation based on the HotSpot Java compiler provided an average 37 percent performance improvement over an unmodified compiler on a four-core Intel system, said Josep Torrellas, a University of Illinois computer science professor.
Noted Intel processor architects Glenn Hinton and Shekhar Borkar are working with the lab on a silicon prototype. It will be based on Intel's Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC), a 48-core x86-based research chip described at ISSCC in February.
"The best thing would be for Intel to prototype the Bulk Architecture [directly], but failing that I have to use SCC," said Torrellas.
| The Intel Single-chip Cloud Computer, a 48-core x86-based research vehicle, is being used as the basis for multiple prototypes in R&D projects on parallel architectures at the University of Illinois.|
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<urn:uuid:a05b2055-40f9-4473-9e1d-f54022775aa1>
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http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1173327&page_number=2
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| 0.911234 | 513 | 2.796875 | 3 |
The State Archives Department identifies, collects, and preserves the historically valuable records of almost 4,000 units of state and local government in Minnesota. These are records generated from the territorial period to the present day.
Materials preserved in the State Archives come from the Executive Branch of state government, including the constitutional officers and state departments, boards and commissions; the Legislative Branch, including the Minnesota Legislature and its committees, commissions and officers; and the Judicial Branch, including the Supreme and Appellate courts, 87 district courts, and antecedent probate, municipal and justice of the peace courts. Local government records include material from Minnesota counties, cities, school districts, townships and regional government organizations.
Government records document the fundamental events and aspects of our lives, both routine and extraordinary. These record types illustrate the rich variety of the collections: correspondence, reports, minutes, memoranda, published records, maps, photographs, architectural drawings, microfilm, sound recordings, ephemera, videotapes, and digital content.
Strengths of the Collection
- Minnesota territorial and state governor records such as correspondence, subject files, and other materials on a wide variety of topics, events and activities.
- Minnesota Session Laws, House and Senate committee meeting books, reports, and other records of the Legislature.
- Case files of the territorial and state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.
- Naturalization records, civil and criminal case files, will record books, and selected records of all of Minnesota’s 87 district courts.
- Muster rolls, bonus records and other selected records for Minnesota armed forces members for the U.S. Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.
- Selected records, such as admission and discharge registers, indexes and case files for the state’s correctional facilities, hospitals, and other public institutions operated by the state.
- Tax lists and assessment rolls for many of Minnesota’s 87 counties.
- Birth Certificates (dated 1900-1934); the Birth Certificates Index is available online at: http://people.mnhs.org/bci/
- Death Certificates (dated 1908-2001); the Death Certificates Index is available online at: http://people.mnhs.org/dci/
More information about the functions and activities of the State Archives, rather than the collection itself, can be found on the State Archives website
Searching the Collection
Search the online library catalog
for State Archives material. The main catalog page includes information on how to search for materials; for the State Archives collection it is often useful to enter the name of the government unit (i.e., county, township, city, school district) or a state agency and an associated topic.
is an online catalog that searches across multiple collecting areas of the Minnesota Historical Society. State Archives content includes an index to the WWI bonus records, an index to veterans’ graves registration reports, and a limited number of online finding aids.
While visiting the Gale Family Library, refer to the State Archives Inventory Notebooks
for detailed information on holdings for local and state government records and specific locator numbers. Reference staff is available for additional assistance in locating State Archives materials in the Society's collection.
Copies of most State Archives materials are available for purchase through the Library’s Copy Services unit
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| 0.876332 | 695 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Impact of climate change on food production could cause over 500,000 extra deaths in 2050
- By 2050, reduced fruit and vegetable intake could cause twice as many deaths as under-nutrition
- Three-quarters of all climate-related deaths due to changes in food production are estimated to occur in China and India
Read the accessible PDF here.
Climate change could kill more than 500,000 adults in 2050 worldwide due to changes in diets and bodyweight from reduced crop productivity. The research, published yesterday in The Lancet, is the strongest evidence yet that climate change could have damaging consequences for food production and health worldwide.
The modelling study, led by Dr Marco Springmann, is the first of its kind to assess the impact of climate change on diet composition and bodyweight. The study estimated the number of deaths these two factors will cause in 2050 in 155 countries.
The study reveals that, unless action is taken to reduce global emissions, climate change could cut the projected improvement in food availability by about a third by 2050, and lead to average per-person reductions in food availability of 3.2% (99 kcal per day), in fruit and vegetable intake of 4.0% (14.9g per day), and red meat consumption of 0.7% (0.5g per day).
“We found that in 2050, these changes could be responsible for around 529,000 extra deaths,” reveals Dr Springmann. “We looked at the health effects of changes in agricultural production that are likely to result from climate change and found that even modest reductions in the availability of food per person could lead to changes in the energy content and composition of diets, and these changes will have major consequences for health.”
The countries that are likely to be worst affected are low- and middle-income countries, predominantly those in the Western Pacific region (264,000 additional deaths) and Southeast Asia (164,000), with almost three-quarters of all climate-related deaths expected to occur in China (248,000) and India (136,000).
The model used by the researchers predicts that reductions in fruit and vegetable intake could lead to 534,000 climate-related deaths, far exceeding the health benefits of reductions in red meat consumption (29,000 deaths prevented).
The biggest impacts of changes in fruit and vegetable intake are likely to be felt across high-income countries (accounting for 58% of all changes in deaths), in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) of the Western Pacific (74%), Europe (60%), and the Eastern Mediterranean (42%). Southeast Asia and Africa top the list for underweight related-deaths in adults, accounting for 47% and 49% of all changes in deaths in 2050 respectively.
The authors say that cutting emissions could have substantial health benefits, reducing the number of climate-related deaths by 29–71% depending on the strength of the interventions. For example, in a medium emission scenario (increases in global average surface air temp of 1.3-1.4°C in 2046–65 compared to 1986–2005), the numbers of diet- and weight-related deaths could be reduced by about a third (30%) compared with the worst-case, high-emission scenario.
According to Dr Springmann, “Climate change is likely to have a substantial negative impact on future mortality, even under optimistic scenarios. Adaptation efforts need to be scaled up rapidly. Public-health programmes aimed at preventing and treating diet and weight-related risk factors, such as increasing fruit and vegetable intake, must be strengthened as a matter of priority to help mitigate climate-related health effects.”
Commenting on the implications of the study, Dr Alistair Woodward from the University of Auckland in New Zealand and Professor John Porter from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark write, “Restriction of our view of the consequences of climate change to what might happen in the next 30–40 years is understandable in terms of conventional concerns with data quality and model stability, but might underestimate the size of future risks, and therefore undervalue present actions needed to mitigate and adapt.” They conclude that “Springmann and colleagues have moved the climate and food debate in a necessary direction by highlighting both food and nutritional security, but a mountain of policy-relevant questions remain that require close scrutiny.”
Read the Lancet article here.
This study was funded by the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food.
Dr Springmann and colleagues used an agricultural economic model fitted with data on emission trajectories, socioeconomic pathways, and possible climate responses to evaluate the effects on global food production, trade, and consumption for 2050. They calculated the additional number of deaths linked to changes in diet and bodyweight under a middle-of-the road development scenario and four different climate change scenarios (high emission, two medium emission, and one low emission), compared to a world without climate change.
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| 0.946847 | 1,016 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Sunday 13 March 2016 2am local time
until Sunday 6 November 2016 2am local time
see: daylight saving time for details
USA and Canada Standard Time Date schedules here
Atlantic Time is the Atlantic Time Zone of Canada. Atlantic Standard Time (AST) is 4 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT-4).
In most provinces in Canada, Daylight-Saving Time (DST) is observed. During DST the time is shifted forward by 1 hour to ADT; which is 3 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT-3).
After the Summer months Atlantic Time is shifted back by 1 hour to Atlantic Standard Time (AST) or (GMT-4).
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| 0.839598 | 137 | 2.921875 | 3 |
The term "special needs" includes children who have:
All public school districts in the US are required to offer special services for children with these conditions.
Most states also provide special services for gifted and talented students. This is not required by law. School districts provide services for children ages 3 through 21, or until they graduate from high school, whichever comes first.
There are many types of services that schools offer through special education. These include:
Services can be provided in several ways. Common methods are:
Schools keep children in a regular classroom whenever possible.
The Special Education Department within each school district usually follows certain steps to evaluate a child with special needs. These steps may include:
There are several laws that apply to schools:
IDEA and ADA are federal laws. They define the disabilities that are eligible for special services. It also outlines the process to identify children in need. There may also be state laws that apply. Many states offer more services than what is required by IDEA.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the ADA, state that no agency that gets federal money can discriminate against disabled people. In schools this means that special-needs children must receive equal services to children without special needs.
The Vocational Education Act, often called the Carl Perkins Act, provides for job training skills to older children.
The No Child Left Behind federal law requires each state to test every public school student's progress in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and at least once during grades 10 through 12. If children with special needs have trouble taking tests due to their disabilities, they may not be required to take the national tests. Parents of children in underachieving schools are given the option of sending children to a different school. They also may qualify for services such as private tutoring for their children.
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| 0.977119 | 372 | 3.984375 | 4 |
Split the class into groups, and assign each group one of the chapters from this book. Have each group come up with a title and create a title page for their assigned scene.
Show some or all of the film version of this book in class. You could include candy boxes and popcorn for effect. Discuss with the class which parts fit their idea of the narrative while reading it.
Mike and Amelia take to communicating through comic strips. Have the students design a comic strip showing one of the important times in their life.
Have the students try to live an entire day in a voluntary mute state like the one Mike has lived with his entire life.
Have each student create one page of a children's picture book version of the story. Assign each student a...
This section contains 695 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page)
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| 0.945242 | 175 | 3.671875 | 4 |
The four decades of Portland's history that began in the late '60s established a record of sustainability unparalleled in this city — or most other American cities.
The 1970s opened with the election to the Portland City Council of 28-year-old Neil Goldschmidt who, as mayor from 1972 to 1979, would lead the city through the creation of a downtown transit mall and the initiation of plans for a network of light-rail lines that, today, tie much of the region together.
Goldschmidt's election was quickly followed, in 1971, with passage of a statewide Bottle Bill and Bicycle Bill. The former was the nation's first effort to impose a deposit on soda and beer bottles, leading to a recycling industry that became a national model. The Bicycle Bill required that all state investments in transportation include provisions for bicycle and pedestrian amenities and improvements. The bill helped lay the foundation for what would become, two decades later, the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act.
In 1972, Portland adopted a Downtown Plan that remains, more than 40 years later, a set of concepts and guidelines that continues to influence Portland planners and citizens. The Plan sought to stem the flow of residents from the city by creating a livable downtown, reinvigorating transit ridership, establishing new design standards, preserving historic resources, and re-energizing the city's commercial core, among other major goals.
Many of the goals have been achieved but, more significantly, they have continued to serve as benchmarks for continued work.
In 1973 the Oregon Legislature passed, and Gov. Tom McCall signed into law, Senate Bill 100, which established an ambitious land-use planning and regulation mechanism. Over the next decade, Oregon towns and cities began to craft local land-use plans and urban-growth boundaries that would help contain — though not necessarily prevent — urban sprawl while preserving adjacent farm and forest land. The same year, the Willamette River Greenway Act was passed, strengthening protection of fragile riverbanks along Oregon's major river.
City officials in 1974 convinced the federal government to transfer funds intended for the never-to-be-built Mount Hood Freeway to a Portland-to-Gresham light-rail line, blazing the trail for the region's rail transit system. The same year, workers began tearing up the 40-year-old Harbor Drive, which separated the downtown from the Willamette River: the beginning of Waterfront Park.
With its opening in 1979, the park helped reconnect the city with its river and has inspired Portlanders to proactively take the necessary steps toward restoring the basic functions of its principal waterway. The same year also saw the entrepreneurial PSU Portland Recycling Team launch Sunflower and Cloudburst recycling companies, in turn launching the city toward its nationally recognized waste-management program.
The 1970s ended with the creation of Metro, the nation's first and, to-date, longest-serving regional government. Among other sustainability functions, Metro is responsible for waste-disposal and recycling, regional green spaces and parks, assuring the maintenance of the region's urban growth boundary, and transportation planning.
Portland's next decade of sustainability opened with another regional event, the incorporation in 1981 of the 40-Mile Loop Land Trust. Inspired by the Olmsted Park Plan from early in the century, the Loop was envisioned as trail system that would link and encircle the region. Thirty years later, the Loop has lengthened to 150 miles and today connects more than 30 parks.
Portland's first modern light-rail line, to Gresham, opened in 1986 with great fanfare as well as predictions that few riders would ever use the system. Bucking the predictions, Portlanders have climbed on board as additional lines and trains, and now streetcars, have been added to the transit system. As Portlanders have regained the "riding habit" of mass transit that their grandparents had, as transit-oriented urban design has developed across the Portland region, and as gas prices rise, more and more riders will be climbing on board.
Building on the principles of the 1972 Downtown Plan and responding to the needs for an update, Portland completed a Central City Plan in 1988. Encompassing both the east and west side, the plan made the Willamette River the city's focus, laid out major transit corridors, and increased the goals for residential and commercial density.
With the Central City Plan, Portland embarked on a decade, the 1990s, in which the term "sustainability" entered the city's lexicon.
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http://www.pdx.edu/healthycampus/news/sustainable-business-oregon-modern-ideas-push-sustainability-needle-portland-part-2
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| 0.953755 | 930 | 2.53125 | 3 |
What is Open Access?
Quoting from the OASIS website:
"Open Access is the immediate, online, free availability of research outputs without the severe restrictions on use commonly imposed by publisher copyright agreements. It is definitely not vanity publishing or self-publishing, nor about the literature that scholars might normally expect to be paid for, such as books for which they hope to earn royalty payments. It concerns the outputs that scholars normally give away free to be published – peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers and datasets of various kinds."
More information on Open Access:
- The Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook (OASIS) at http://www.openoasis.org/ and Open Access Week athttp://www.openaccessweek.org provide a lot of information for better understanding of OA.
- A brief summary of OA
- OA information for Researchers and what University Faculties can do to promote OA
- OA information for publishers
- OA information for librarians; educational materials about OA and what librarians can do to promote OA
- OA information for administrators and policy-makers and what Universities and Administrators can do to promote OA
- OA information for students
- OA information for the public
Advantages of Open Access include:
- Open Access brings greater visibility and impact
- OA moves research along faster
- OA enables better management and assessment of research
- OA provides the material on which the new semantic web tools for data-mining and text-mining can work, generating new knowledge from existing findings
- OA provides access to the world’s research output, free of financial and other restrictions – a level playing field
- OA incorporates local research into interoperable network of global knowledge;
- OA increases impact of local research, providing new contacts and research partnerships for authors; removes professional isolation
- OA can strengthen economies through the development of a strong and independent national and international science base."
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| 0.88046 | 418 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Host selection behavior of the Douglas-fir pitch moth, Synanthedon novaroensis (Hy. Edwards) (Lepidoptera:Sesiidae), related to intermediate silvicultural activities
The Douglas-fir pitch moth (DFPM), Synanthedon novaroensis, is attracted to exudations of oleoresin and oviposits at wounds on the bole of host trees. Larvae then feed in subcortical regions of vigourously growing hosts. With the increase use of pruning in young stands of Douglas-fir, Pseudotsuga menzesii (Mirb.) Franco, the potential exists for the DFPM, attracted to pruning wounds, to create defects that would reduce the value of wood products and erode potential returns on this investment. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between host selection behavior of the DFPM related to intermediate silvicultural activities such as pruning. Specific objectives of this study were to determine if DFPM demonstrates an ovipositional preference between: individual pruned Douglas-fir trees; clones of Douglas-fir; branch pruning wounds and wounds on the bole of Douglas-fir; pruning wounds made through the branch collar and wounds made outside the branch collar; and wounds made during different seasons of the year.A series of field experiments were conducted in young Douglas-fir stands in Western Washington from 1991-1997. The principal conclusions from these experiments were: DFPM host preference varies significantly between individual Douglas-fir trees; DFPM host preference varies significantly between clones of Douglas-fir; DFPM oviposits at wounds on the bole of a host more often than at wounds made outside the branch collar; DFPM oviposits significantly more often at pruning wounds made through the branch collar than at pruning wounds made outside the branch collar; and DFPM oviposits significantly more often at pruning wounds made in the spring than at pruning wounds made in summer, autumn, or winter.
- Forestry
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https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/5486
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| 0.942241 | 435 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Grape vines are useful landscape plants as well as producers of delicious fruit. They can be grown in limited space as they can climb up and over porches and trellises. Grapes have few pests and diseases but must be cut back every year and trained for maximum fruit production. If using as a screen or a cover they can be allowed to grow naturally, trimming back occasionally for shape during the winter or early spring.
How to Plant Grape Vines
Locate a well-drained place in the garden that receives full sun next to a trellis or structure on which the grape vine can grow. For one vine an area 2 feet square is sufficient. Clear area of weeds.
Remove all plastic and packing material and rinse all packing material off the roots of bare root plants. Don't allow the roots to dry out before planting.
Dig hole deep enough so that the vine is planted to the same depth as it was in the nursery pot or in the ground. If plant is bare root, look for a soil line near the base of the plant where you can see how deep the vine was planted.
Place plant in hole spreading out roots and fill planting hole with garden soil enriched with one cup of granulated organic fertilizer, and two handfuls of compost. Slowly add water while filling planting hole to eliminate any air pockets.
Cut back vine to one or two nodes or leaf buds above the soil line and add a 1-inch layer of mulch around plant leaving a one inch space around plant stem. Avoid placing mulch next to the plant to reduce problems with mildew or fungus.
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| 0.939818 | 327 | 3.375 | 3 |
Here are some tips to help you stay healthy when you travel to other countries:
Before you go
- Plan ahead. If you need any immunizations or vaccinations, see your doctor at least 6 weeks before you leave. Some vaccines don't reach the highest protection until about 6 weeks after you get the shots.
- Have medical and dental check-ups before your trip, to be aware of problems and to find out about medicines you might need to take with you.
- Be prepared. Find out what your health insurance will pay for if you see a doctor while you're in another country. Carry enough of your regular medicines in their original containers, along with extra prescriptions for them. Also bring your eyewear prescriptions. Wear a medical information bracelet if needed. Take a first-aid kit (see suggestions below).
Vaccines you might need
Your doctor will review the plans for your trip and decide whether you need any vaccines. The vaccines you got when you were a child also may need to be updated if you are not fully protected. Vaccines that you may need include the following:
While you're traveling
- Eat carefully if you're going to a country with an increased risk of traveler's diarrhea. Steaming-hot, well-cooked food is usually safest. Avoid eating foods from street vendors, unpasteurized dairy products and raw or uncooked seafood. Peel fruits yourself. Drink water from commercially-sealed bottles or drink carbonated beverages. Avoid ice. Use bottled water when you brush your teeth.
- If you're going to a country with an increased risk of mosquito-borne disease, protect yourself against insects. Insect repellents that contain DEET work the best. Wear permethrin-coated clothing and use bed nets while you sleep.
- If you're going to a country with a risk of malaria, your doctor may prescribe preventive medicine for malaria. Remember to start taking your malaria medicine before you leave on your trip, take it during your travels and keep taking it for 4 weeks after you get home.
- Avoid swimming and other water activities in freshwater lakes and streams. Schistosomiasis (also called bilharziasis) is a disease you might be exposed to in some African streams and lakes.
- Try to avoid taking overcrowded transportation. Try not to ride in vehicles without safety belts. Wear a helmet if you'll be riding a motorcycle. Try to avoid driving at night or in unfamiliar areas without local help and directions.
Things to include in a first-aid kit for traveling
- Your prescription medicines, in their original containers.
- Medicine for diarrhea and upset stomach. Talk to your doctor about getting a prescription for an antibiotic you can take in case you get traveler's diarrhea. Pack bismuth subsalicylate (brand name: Pepto Bismol), loperamide (brand name: Imodium) and antacids.
- Cough and cold medicines.
- Pain medicines, such as aspirin, acetaminophen (one brand name: Tylenol), naproxen (brand name: Aleve) and ibuprofen (one brand name: Motrin).
- Decongestants and antihistamines for allergies. The kinds that don't cause sleepiness are better when you're traveling.
- Antibiotic ointment, adhesive bandages, hydrocortisone cream, moleskin for blisters, sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15 and lip balm.
- Medicine for motion sickness, such as dimenhydrinate (one brand name: Dramamine). The prescription medicines promethazine and acetazolamide may help prevent nausea and altitude sickness.
- Scissors, tweezers, nail clippers, pocket knife, thermometer and a mirror.
- Hand wipes and hand sanitizers.
Travel Medicine: Helping Patients Prepare for Trips Abroad by L Dick, M.D., M.P.H. (American Family Physician August 01, 1998, http://www.aafp.org/afp/980800ap/dick.html)
Written by familydoctor.org editorial staff
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- Poultry Farms search results
Popular Poultry Farm Phrases
Before you call upon the labor of a poultry farm, it is imperative that you understand the aspects that are involved in how a yard is run. Raising barnyard fowl is more than just watching an egg incubate and feeding the resultant chick until it is ready to eat or produce breakfast. To ensure that you conduct good business with the farmers, be prepared to learn much about their trade. Below are four terms which should be learned before purchasing bird for consumption.
Free Range - A practice that allows farmers to cultivate chickens and ducks in open-air environments with only coops for shelter. Since neither species can fly, this arrangement allows them to live as naturally as possible. Produce provided from such animals are considered of higher quality.
Coop - A structure in which chickens can find protection from weather effects and predators. Depending on the disposition of the owners, these can be open-air or closed.
Factory Farming - A manner of poultry husbandry, this method rears barnyard fowl in cages to provide large volumes of produce on small parcels of land. This has been controversial due to the confining conditions that the animals are subjected to.
Hatchery - An area where newborn chicks or turkey poults are incubated in high quantities. A hatchery is run mainly to provide factory farms with meat-providing fowl, although egg-producers are also hatched. Such facilities must guard against communicable diseases as they nourish the hatchlings to a state where they can be transferred.
In the agriculture world, poultry farms are a popular way to make money. Some people have poultry farms where they breed chickens to lay eggs. Other farmers may raise chicken and other birds for their meat. Sales of both meat and eggs can be very profitable.
A farmer who is looking to sell eggs needs to have an advanced hatchery. It is very important to incubate eggs properly. When it is time to incubate the eggs, the temperature in the hatchery needs to be at least 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit, but can not go over 103 degrees.
Some farmers choose to keep their flock of chickens in a coop. Chickens who live in a coop will nest, lay eggs and do just about everything in their special box. The other option farmers have is to raise free range poultry. Free range birds usually can run around the farm. One drawback is that farmers will have to search for egg nests.
Chickens are not the only bird that you will find running around a free range farm. Many also have turkey, roosters, hens, ducks and pheasant.
Some farmers raise their chicken so that the meat can be sold as organic. Organic chickens are fed better food, afforded more room in their cage, and are given no hormones. The organic market continues to grow. Some families will only allow organic meat and eggs to come into their houses. Many believe raising poultry organic benefits both the animals and the people who consume the animals and their eggs. Organic chicken is often broiled instead of fried.
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What’s the one thing majorities in many countries around the world see as absolutely essential to leading a moral life?
That’s the question the Pew Research Center set out to answer when it commissioned a study in 40 countries, finding that clear majorities in 22 of those nations think it is necessary to believe in God in order to have good values.
This belief is nearly universal in Africa and the Middle East, regions in which faith is often ingrained in culture. Interestingly, there is only one country surveyed in the Middle East in which majorities did not embrace this notion — Israel.
“At least three-quarters in all six countries surveyed in Africa say that faith in God is essential to morality. In the Middle East, roughly seven-in-ten or more agree in Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, the Palestinian territories, Tunisia and Lebanon,” according to Pew’s research. “Across the two regions, only in Israel does a majority think it is not necessary to believe in God to be an upright person.”
See the data below:
In many nations, though, only small minorities believe that it is necessary to believe in God in order to be a moral person.
Consider China, where only 14 percent of respondents said that it is necessary to embrace the almighty to be moral; 75 percent believe that the connection is not necessary. In France, the proportions are similar, with 15 percent answering affirmatively and 85 percent embracing the notion that a belief in a higher power isn’t required for one to live a moral life.
But in America, a majority of Americans (53 percent) do believe that embracing God is essential to being a good person, with 46 percent standing in disagreement. In 2007, these proportions were 57 percent and 41 percent, respectively.
While there may be an assumption fewer Americans believe that belief in God is essential to personal morality, it should be noted that only 47 percent of the nation believed that a higher power and morality were tied together when the question was asked back in 2002.
The U.S. stands apart from other wealthy nations as having a majority that still believes that morality is predicated upon belief in a higher power, as wealthier nations tend to not see as deeply a tie between the two paradigms.
(H/T: Huffington Post)
Featured image via Shutterstock.com
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An example of coordinate geometry is plotting points, lines and curves on an x and y axis.
Create and save customized word lists. Sign up today and start improving your vocabulary!
Please set a username for yourself.
People will see it as Author Name with your public word lists.
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| 0.889728 | 58 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Penyakit yang satu ini terkadang salah di-diagnosis sebagai jerawat. Padahal, rosacea membutuhkan terapi dan pencegahan yang berbeda dari jerawat. Hasilnya, bisa-bisa tidak terkontrol dan bertambah luas..
Jadi, yuk kita berkenalan dengan rosacea..
Sementara dalam bahasa Inggris dulu ya.. translate-an nyusul ya..
Rosacea is a common skin disease that causes redness, papules, and swelling on the face. Often referred to as "adult acne," rosacea frequently begins as a tendency to flush or blush easily. It may progress to persistent redness in the center of the face that may gradually involve the cheeks, forehead, chin, and nose. The eyes, ears, chest, and back may also be involved. With time, small blood vessels and tiny pimples begin to appear on and around the reddened area; however, unlike acne, there are no blackheads.
When rosacea first develops, the redness may come and go. Some people may flush or blush and never form pustules or papules. Small dilated vessels also may be present due to prolonged sun exposure. Then the skin doesn't return to its normal color, pimples and enlarged blood vessels become visible. The condition may last for years, rarely reverse itself, and can become worse without treatment.
About 50% of people with rosacea have eye involvement (ocular rosacea). Some rosacea patients experience burning and grittiness of the eyes, a common condition known as conjunctivitis. If this condition is not treated, it can lead to more serious eye complications.
How to Recognize Rosacea
Small red bumps, some of which may contain pus, appear on the face. These may be accompanied by persistent redness and the development of many tiny blood vessels on the surface of the skin.
In more advanced cases, a condition called rhinophyma may develop. The oil glands enlarge causing a bulbous, red nose, and puffy cheeks. Thick bumps may develop on the lower half of the nose and nearby cheeks. Rhinophyma occurs more commonly in men.
Who is at Risk for Rosacea?
Adults between the ages of 30 and 50 may develop rosacea. It affects men and women of any age, and even children. Since it may be associated with menopause, women are affected more often than men and may notice an extreme sensitivity to cosmetics. An occasional embarrassment or a tense moment also may trigger flushing.
Tips for Rosacea Patients
· Avoid triggers, including hot drinks, spicy foods, caffeine and alcoholic beverages that make the face red or flushed.
· Practice good sun protection. Seek shade when possible and limit exposure to sunlight, wear hats and use broad spectrum sunscreens with SPF of 15 or higher; reapply every 2 hours.
· Avoid extreme hot and cold temperatures which may exacerbate the symptoms of rosacea. Exercise in a cool environment. Do not overheat.
· Avoid rubbing, scrubbing or massaging the face.
· Avoid cosmetics and facial products that contain alcohol. Use hair sprays properly, avoiding contact with facial skin.
Many people with rosacea are unfamiliar with it and do not recognize it in its early stages. Identifying the disease is the first step to controlling it. Self-diagnosis and treatment are not recommended since some over-the-counter skin products may make the problem worse.
Dermatologists often recommend a combination of treatments tailored to the individual patient. These treatments can stop the progress of rosacea and sometimes reverse it.
Creams, lotions, foams, washes, gels, and pads that contain various topical antibiotics, metronidazole, sulfcetimide, benzoyl peroxide, and retinoids may be prescribed. A slight improvement can be seen in the first three to four weeks of use. Greater improvement is usually noticed in two months.
Oral antibiotics tend to produce faster results than topical medications. Cortisone creams may reduce the redness of rosacea; however, they should not be used for longer than two weeks since they can cause thinning of the skin and flare-ups upon discontinuation. It is best to use these creams only under the direction of a dermatologist.
The persistent redness may be treated with a small electric needle (electrodessication) or by laser surgery to close off the dilated blood vessels. Cosmetics may be helpful. Green tinted makeup may mask the redness.
Rhinophyma is usually treated with surgery using a scalpel, laser or electrosurgery. Dermabrasion, a surgical method that smoothes the top layer of the skin, will help improve the look of the scar tissue.
The key to successful management of rosacea is early diagnosis and treatment. It is important to follow all of your dermatologist's instructions. Rosacea can be treated and controlled if medical advice is sought in the early stages. When left untreated, rosacea will get worse and may be more difficult to treat.
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The Queen will make history today by becoming the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland.
There have already been protests as not everyone in Ireland is happy about the trip.
But the British and Irish governments say it will improve the relationship between the two countries.
A massive security operation involving thousands of police is under way in Dublin ahead of the Queen's arrival later today.
The army in Ireland say they have made safe a bomb found on a bus outside Dublin this morning.
Why hasn't a British monarch visited for so long?
Thousands of police are involved in the security operation
The Queen's visit is the first of its kind since the country's independence from the UK in 1922.
King George V was the last reigning monarch to visit, in 1911, when what is now the Republic of Ireland was then part of the UK.
The relationship between the UK and Ireland has been one of the longest and most difficult in the history of Britain's monarchy.
Hundreds of years ago in 1171, Henry II invaded Ireland, and for centuries English kings and queens saw it as part of their lands.
Irish parents make their feelings known using their baby's pushchair
In the mid 19th Century the potato crops in Ireland failed.
Much of the land there was owned by English landowners, most of whom ignored the situation.
This meant that about a million people in Ireland starved to death.
The monarch, as the biggest symbol of the British state, became one of the main targets of Irish anger.
Irish War of independence
By the early 1900s feelings of revolution against the Crown had built up.
This led to the Easter Rising in 1916 which was led by republicans - people who wanted Ireland to be completely separate from Britain.
Three years later the Irish War of independence began, a war between the Irish Republican Army and the British government.
In 1922 Ireland was split into the independent Irish Free State, whilst the United Kingdom kept six counties in the north - Northern Ireland.
Leaders hopeful for the future
Despite this troubled history, leaders in the two countries are hoping that the Queen's visit is a big step towards improving their relations.
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| 0.974234 | 441 | 2.875 | 3 |
The attack came on quite suddenly.
The French doll was sitting quietly in one of the little red chairs, smiling the prettiest of dimpling smiles at Raggedy Andy, and thinking of the romp the dolls would have that night after the house grew quiet, when Marcella discovered that the French doll had the “croup” and put her to bed.
The French doll closed her eyes when put to bed, but the rest of her face did not change expression. She still wore her happy smile.
[Illustration: Marcella caring for the sick]
Marcella mixed the medicine very “strong” and poured it into the French doll’s open mouth.
She was given a “dose” every minute or so.
It was during the “yellow fever” stage that Marcella was called to supper and left the dolls in the nursery alone.
Marcella did not play with them again that evening; so the dolls all remained in the same position until Marcella and the rest of the folks went to bed.
Then Raggedy Andy jumped from his chair and wound up the little music box. “Let’s start with a lively dance!” he cried.
When the music started tinkling he caught the French doll’s hand, and danced ’way across the nursery floor before he discovered that her soft brown eyes remained closed as they were when she lay upon the “sick” bed.
All the dolls gathered around Raggedy Andy and the French doll.
“I can’t open my eyes!” she said.
Raggedy Andy tried to open the French doll’s eyes with his soft rag hands, but it was no use.
They shook her. This sometimes has the desired effect when dolls do not open their eyes.
They shook her again and again. It was no use, her eyes remained closed.
“It must be the sticky, sugary ’medicine’!” said Uncle Clem.
“I really believe it must be!” the French doll replied. “The ‘medicine’ seemed to settle in the back of my head when I was lying down, and I can still feel it back there!”
“That must be it, and now it has hardened and keeps your pretty eyes from working!” said Raggedy Ann. “What shall we do?”
Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann walked over to a corner of the nursery and thought and thought. They pulled their foreheads down into wrinkles with their hands, so that they might think harder.
[Illustration: Raggedy Andy winds the music box]
Finally Raggedy Ann cried, “I’ve thought of a plan!” and went skipping from the corner out to where the other dolls sat about the French doll.
“We must stand her upon her head, then the ‘medicine’ will run up into her hair, for there is a hole in the top of her head. I remember seeing it when her hair came off one time!”
“No sooner said than done!” cried Uncle Clem, as he took the French doll by the waist and stood her upon her head.
“That should be long enough!” Raggedy Ann said, when Uncle Clem had held the French doll in this position for five minutes.
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What we can learn from Canadians
By Katharine Herrup
The opinions expressed are her own.
There is a debate, if that’s what you can even call it, raging in America about how to improve our public education system. While disparate groups rip each other apart, it would seem wise to look to our neighbors to the north. Americans love to casually pick on Canadians, but we should be seriously analyzing their public school system, which has emerged as one of the most successful school systems in the world.
Why? Because all constituents – teachers, teacher unions, school boards, the government — work together. At least, that is the explanation given by Canadian Teachers’ Federation President Paul Taillefer. It’s also because there is required rigorous training for teachers — not just before you can become a teacher, but throughout their entire career.
In Canada, there is a concurrent teacher training program for undergraduates who know that they want to be a teacher once they graduate or there are teacher colleges where you go for either a year or two of training, depending upon which Canadian province you live in, that Canadians must attend before they become a teacher.
“Good teacher development and ongoing development while you are a teacher is one of the key components in making our education system successful,” Taillefer said. “Making sure that teachers are well-prepared to face the challenges is very important.”
But it’s not just training teachers that makes the Canadian school system arguably better than America’s; it’s also because of how they train them. Taillefer believes his country’s system is so successful because they have been able to reduce the impact of socioeconomic status in their students’ education and they tailor their teaching to meet the needs of their diverse student population and communities:
Even though we have a large immigrant population, teachers are trained to meet the needs of the people that come into the country and the particular students in the classes. There are different learning needs and styles that have to be addressed.
While Americans may shy away from comparing our system to Finland’s, Andy Hargreaves at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College (in the U.S.) does not do so when it comes to Canada. What makes Finland and Canada’s school systems more successful, he argues, is that both countries value teachers and professional training for them. Moreover, Hargreaves says their pay is acceptable, working conditions are favorable, facilities are good and there are all kinds of opportunities for teachers to improve their practice. Most importantly, perhaps, there is discretion for teachers to make their own judgments.
Why that is perhaps the most important aspect of those two education systems is because teacher autonomy, or, at least, teachers’ voices, are crucial to education reform. Education reform has failed in countries where the teacher voice is absent – and also where teacher unions are absent. “When teacher morale is good, a lot more gets done,” Taillefer says.
He notes that Steven Brill, in his piece for Reuters.com on education reform, ultimately makes the same point – that teachers are the classroom experts and we have to keep them involved if we want to positively move things forward.
Where Brill’s argument falls down for Taillefer is his point about teacher unions being the main stumbling block of moving education reform forward. Quality teaching, which involves attracting and retaining strong teachers, and which Brill talks about in his piece and new book “Class Warfare” is a crucial aspect of any school system, and unions are critical to doing just that – attracting and retaining good teachers.
An Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report states the importance of teacher engagement in school reform. “School reform will not work unless it comes from the bottom up,” says Taillefer, “which means working with the people on the ground and those people are the teachers.”
But there are a number of points that Brill brings up in his piece that don’t make his case or fit his conclusion says Taillefer. While Brill does mention the importance of collaborative work, Taillefer does not agree with the way Brill suggests getting teachers, teacher unions and ministries of education to work together.
“Unions are definitely not the enemy,” says Taillefer, who was an English high school teacher for 20-plus years in Timmins, Canada. He says teacher unions definitely have a role to play and have a number of different hats to wear – not just a labor one:
Here in Canada, unions are additional qualification providers as well so teachers can take professional development courses through their union. We work on the labor side of things, but also in teacher upgrade and preparedness. We give teachers the tools to succeed in the classroom when it comes to facing the different challenges. When engaged positively, teacher unions will have a salutary effect on classroom and teacher experience.
What also makes the teacher experience different in Canada is that they are in a supportive environment says Taillefer. Part of where the contention comes in for teachers in America are teacher evaluations, which Brill talks about, and which can be tied to their pay. In Canada, it is not. Their teacher salaries there are not tied into student test scores. Instead, teacher evaluations are meant to help the teacher; not to intimidate or provoke fear. Taillefer explains:
What teacher evaluations are meant to do here in Canada is improve a teacher’s progress – it’s meant to support the teacher. The idea is that we want to make teachers have all the right support for what they were hired to do. There is even a teacher induction program for a teacher’s first year in some provinces that provide additional support for them and assign them mentors. It’s a very supportive process. It’s a process that’s meant to make them better teachers – not a system that’s meant to threaten or intimidate them.
That doesn’t mean teachers can’t be fired though, which is another area where Brill has a bone to pick in the U.S. system. If teachers in Canada don’t improve after help and training, they will get fired Taillefer says:
As a previous local union leader I’m aware of teachers that were let go by a school board after a teacher evaluation process. People who do not have the right stuff do not remain in the profession, but those that can be helped receive it.
What makes Canada’s teacher unions different from America’s, Taillefer says, is that they listen to all the rest of the organizations that make up the school system because the end goal – for everyone – is the education of the student.
In fact, that’s where most educators can – and do – agree. No matter what side of the debate they are on, education is (or should be) all about the students. Teachers are just one part of making sure children receive the education they deserve. Community involvement is another piece of the puzzle.
Schools are community schools. You need to make sure you have a connection to your community, especially when we have such a diverse one.
Where the U.S. school system falls down is that there’s no collegiality and communication among the community, the teachers, teacher unions, school boards and state legislatures.
One of the biggest challenges facing the American system is making sure all the stakeholders and partners show some good faith and deal with these problems head on in a less confrontational way. If we can’t collaborate, what’s our hope for the future? We’re all in it for the same reason – it’s for the benefit of the student.
Canada makes it well-known that education is a priority. After healthcare, education is where Canadian provinces spend most of their money.
Although the financing of education has come into question in every country now that there is a full-blown global economic crisis. What helps shield Canada from having to make drastic cuts in education spending is progressive taxation, an important part of their system. Taillefer elaborates:
We believe in strong public services and we are willing to pay for them such as health care and education. The couple of thousand dollars that I can keep in my pocket buys me nothing compared to what that money can do pooled together with everyone else’s. The Canadian school system teaches their students to be a part of a caring society, and the way to teach that is to model it.
Whereas the U.S. seems to be trying to solve the economic crises on the backs of students. Deciding where to spend and how much will be an ongoing challenge for a number of years, perhaps even decades, but there are too many good and critical reasons not to cut corners in education spending. So long as we can get past short-term thinking and start stressing long-term outcomes, this should be achievable.
Canada’s school system has not always been so hunky dory though. Between 1995 and 2003 many teachers retired because they were unhappy with the system. The reason for that Taillefer says was because the government wasn’t as progressive as it is now and teachers did not feel valued and appreciated – or as they say in French Canadian valorisation:
A lot of cuts were made to education during that time period and there was no communication between the government, teachers and teacher unions. Reform was imposed rather than done through collaboration and consultation. Which is why it is so important to make sure that everyone is part of the discussion and that all concerns are taken seriously.
This is quite disparate from how the U.S. system currently, and quite sadly, seems to be functioning:
Positions in the U.S. are so radically different there doesn’t seem to be an ability to work toward common ground right now. Everyone seems to be digging in their own heals and not dialoguing – and by that I mean not just the ability to verbalize and listen, but also the ability to change based on information. Things can change and new ideas can come out.
It happened in Canada. And it can happen in the U.S., too. Perhaps it will be America’s next lesson plan.
Photos, top to bottom: Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper (R) and Industry Minister Tony Clement attend a roundtable meeting at the Spencer Leadership Center, part of the Richard Ivey School of Business, in London, Ontario March 25, 2010. REUTERS/Geoff Robins; Jon Montgomery walks through past the students of Olympic Heights School after he was announced to the 2010 Winter Olympic skeleton team in Calgary, Alberta, January 27, 2009. REUTERS/Todd Korol; Custodian Doug Des Brisay cleans door handles as an extra precaution against the H1N1 virus in one of Lester B. Pearson School Board’s elementary schools in Montreal, October 29, 2009. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi; Students from Lord Roberts Elementary School visit the Hollow Tree in Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia April17, 2008. REUTERS/Andy Clark
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While evidence for early human occupation mounted in Spain, farther to the north, on the windblown coast of western France, there appeared hints of another surprisingly early European arrival: fire. In a gully in southern Brittany, anthropologist Jean-Laurent Monnier of the University of Rennes found what he believes is an ancient fire pit, tentatively dated as being nearly 500,000 years old, along with some simple stone tools. Conventionally, the first controlled use of fire is thought to have taken place only some 200,000 years ago.
That more recent date at least makes narrative sense: it credits the invention of fireplaces to Homo sapiens, those technological wizards who also came up with sophisticated weapons and tools. But Monnier’s find raises the possibility that fire was tamed not by clever sapiens but by a predecessor, perhaps one closer to Homo erectus, our conservative ancestor who spent millions of years knocking simple flakes off rocks.
There are many fireplaces since 200,000 years ago,’’ says Monnier. But earlier fireplaces have been less certain.’’ The difficulty has been to distinguish a fire pit from a natural fire, and charred areas at older sites such as Zhoukoudian in China and V´ertessz¨oll¨os in Hungary could have been either.
Monnier’s site, in a cave called Menez-Dregan, seems a safer bet. It has a deep concentration of charcoal and burned bones, he says, indicating repeated use over a long time. But the dates still have to be nailed down. This past year, Monnier’s team used a technique called electron spin resonance to date burned quartz from Menez-Dregan. The technique relies on the fact that normal radioactivity in the quartz is always knocking electrons out of their normal orbits and allowing some to become trapped within impurities in the crystal. When the quartz is heated, though, the trapped electrons return to their atomic orbits. So by counting the number of trapped electrons that had accumulated, the French researchers could measure how much time had elapsed since the quartz was burned by our early ancestors. The elapsed time they got was some 465,000 years. The team is now trying to confirm this date with other techniques.
But what Monnier would really like to puzzle out are the simple tools found at the site. They are cruder than other tools of similar age-- they are mainly choppers with irregular cutting edges--leading Monnier to wonder why creatures who may have tamed fire couldn’t refine their industrial methods as well.
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|Agroforestry in the Pacific Islands: Systems for Sustainability (UNU, 1993, 297 pages)|
84. Saccharum edule Haask. POACEAE/GRAMINAE
"edible sugar cane inflorescence," "Fiji asparagus," "pitpit" (PNG Pidgin)
Indigenous to Malesia and possibly New Guinea; probably an aboriginal introduction to the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji. Large, perennial, sugar-canelike grass, up to 2.5-4 m high, with erect, yellow or green to reddish stems; nodes marked but obscured by leaf sheaths; leaf blades tapering to a sharp point; a soft, fibrous, white to light yellow, cigar-shaped inflorescence enclosed in non-opening, leaf sheaths. Common in garden areas and widely naturalized, often in extensive stands; common in poorly drained valley bottoms, alluvial plains, or low-lying sites. Commonly cultivated or wild supplementary food plant in Melanesia; unopened (aborted) inflorescence eaten roasted over an open fire or cooked in an earthen oven in the leaf sheathes, cooked in coconut milk, and made into curries by Indians in Fiji; inflorescence a major seasonal cash crop; cooked inflorescence canned commercially in Fiji.
85. Saccharum officinarum L. POACEAE/GRAMINAE
"sugar cane," "noble sugar cane"
Indigenous to Malesia or New Guinea; an aboriginal introduction throughout island Melanesia and high-island Polynesia and Melanesia to as far east as Hawaii and Easter Island; a recent introduction to Nauru and some atolls. Large, perennial grass, up to 4 m tall, with erect, unbranched, yellow or green to dark red or almost black, sometimes striped, stems; nodes close together at base of stems and more widely spaced distally; leaves, long, broad, overlapping at base; and a dense, long, erect or drooping, branched panicle bearing silvery white to pinkish flowers. Common in rural garden areas, often in contiguous stands, as an intercrop or border planting; common in home gardens in both rural and urban areas; uncommonly naturalized; present, but not wellestablished, on atolls. Plant of important ceremonial or legendary importance in many areas of the Pacific, such as in Tonga, where it is presented along with kava in ritual offerings, or Hawaii, where its flowering signals the onset of the octopus season; common supplementary food plant throughout the Pacific, for which numerous named cultivars exist in most localities; juicy stems chewed as a source of refreshment and energy; stems chewed for medicinal purposes in New Britain; chewing the fibrous cellulose is believed to keep teeth and gums in good condition; a major commercial export crop or for industrial processing into sugar for local consumption in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Hawaii, where interspecific hybrid cultivars (often crosses between the noble caneslS. officinarum and woodier, more disease-resistant, wild canes such as S. spontaneum L. and S. robustum Brandes and Jeswiet ex Grassl) are cultivated for this purpose; formerly cultivated commercially by the Japanese in the Marianas Islands; by-products of commercial sugar manufacture include molasses, which is fed to livestock, alcohol, which is made into rum, gin, vodka, and whiskey for export and local sale in Fiji, and fertilizer (mill mud); leaves of some varieties are used as durable thatch for roofing; leaves provide fodder for cattle in commercial sugar-cane farming areas of Fiji; fibre from flower stalk used in braided hats in Hawaii.
86. Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr. MIMOSACEAE/LEGUMINOSAE
"rain tree," "monkey-pod tree"
syns. Albizia saman (Jacq.) F. v. Muell.; Mimosa saman Jacq.; Enterolobium saman (Jacq.) Prain ex King; Pithecellobium saman (Jacq.) Benth.; Inga saman (Jacq.) Willd.
Indigenous to tropical America; a post-European-contact introduction to the Pacific Islands. Large to massive tree, 7-25 m high, the trunk up to 1 m in diameter, the crown rounded, usually broader than tall, with bipinnate leaves; pink flowers with greenish or yellowish lobes; and straight or slightly curved pods containing sweet, sticky, brown pulp and brown seeds. Common in both rural and urban areas; commonly naturalized and invasive in some areas, such as Vanuatu, where it is a major weed in abandoned or poorly maintained plantations, and in Fiji, where it is among the most common trees on smallholder sugar-cane farms, particularly along stream banks; not found on atolls. Important ornamental, shade, or roadside tree; timber used in general construction and for firewood; a favoured species for wood carving and furniture such as small table tops; a nitrogen-fixing species of some value for Breen manure; pods occasionally fed to livestock.
87. Scaevola sericea Vahl. GOODENIACEAE
"scaevola," "saltbush, " "half-flower"
syns. S. taccada (Gaertn.) Roxb.; S. sericea var. raccada Makino; S. frutescens sensu auct. non (Mill.) Krause; S. frutescens var. sericea (Forst. f.) Merr. (nom. nud.); S. koenigii Vahl; S. lobelia Murr.; Lobelia taccada Gaertn.; L. koenigii (Vahl) Wight
Indigenous from East Africa through tropical Asia, southern Japan, northern Australia, and Malesia to eastern Polynesia, Micronesia, and Hawaii. Erect, freely branching, spreading, somewhat succulent, soft-wooded, pithy-stemmed shrub, up to about 2 m high, with slightly fleshy, light bright green leaves crowded near the ends of the branches; white or pale green flowers that appear to be split in two with only half the petals remaining; and grape-like bunches of fleshy, white, subglobose fruit. Very abundant in coastal strand vegetation, often bordering inland garden areas, throughout the Pacific; common in understorey vegetation in coconut plantations on atolls; dominant species and one of first colonizers on strip-mined areas of Nauru. Protected in garden areas on atolls and occasionally planted in home gardens; associated with phases of the moon in Kiribati; features in legends and chants in Hawaii; wood sometimes used for roofing strips, rafters, supports, and house decking, rafts, canoe paddles and poles, scoop-net handles, eel traps, reef markers, net gauges, shark rattles, throwing sticks, and toy darts; hollow branches used as popguns or blowguns in games in Tuvalu, Tokelau, Kiribati, and Nauru; pith of large trees cut into strips and made into paper-like garlands and headbands in Kiribati and Nauru, and to caulk canoes in Tuvalu; pith chewed as gum in Kiribati; leaves made into tuna lures in Tokelau; leaves boiled with women's grass skirts in Kiribati to dye them brown and make them durable; bark, white heartwood, roots, leaves, fruit, and seeds used medicinally; leaves used as a contraceptive in New Guinea; leaves used for wrapping penis in Vanuatu circumcision ceremony; leaves used to wrap food and to cover earthen ovens; leaves used as pig feed in Tokelau; fruits used in magic in Kiribati; fruit used in fishing magic in Ulithi; leaves used for cleansing diving goggles in Polynesia, for shelter in fish traps in Kiribati, to scent coconut oil in Micronesia, in head garlands, and worn in ear slits in Tuvalu, and occasionally for compost or fertilizer; flowers used in garlands in Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Nauru; fruit eaten by pigeons or fed to them in Tokelau.
88. Schizostachyam spp. POACEAE/GRAMINAE
"bamboo," "aboriginal bamboo," "native bamboo"
spp. S. glaucifolium (Rupr.) Munro; S. lima (Blanco) Merr. (syn. Bambusa lima Blanco); S. stenocladum A. Camus; S. tessellatum A. Camus
Indigenous species from tropical Asia through Melanesia (S. glaucifolium, S. stenocladum, and S. tessellatum) to Palau and Yap in the Caroline Islands (S. lima); S. glaucifolium probably an aboriginal introduction from Fiji into Polynesia as far east as the Marquesas and Hawaii; possibly a naturalized aboriginal introduction in parts of Melanesia. Tall, clump-forming bamboos, up to 15 m tall, with hollow, thinwalled stems with branches above the upper nodes; linear-oblong leaves; and inconspicuous flowers. Common to occasional in secondary vegetation, often dominant in intermediate climatic zones of Fiji; common in hillside thickets and along streams and rivers; occasional in garden areas, often in large stands; widely naturalized throughout the Pacific. Stems used in construction, for house walling, rafters, battens for affixing thatch, shelving and scaffolding, fencing and poultry pens, fishing rods, yam stakes or trellising, makeshift spears, cooking and water containers, nose flutes, and pillows; leaves used to cover cooking containers in the Solomon Islands. Widely being replaced in importance by the larger, recently introduced Bambusa vulgaris.
89. Securinega flexuosa Muell.-Arg. EUPHORBIACEAE
syns. S. samoana Croizat.; S. virosa ?; Flueggea flexuosa Muell.Arg.
Indigenous from the Moluccas and Philippines eastward to the Solomon Islands; also present, but probably an aboriginal introduction, in Vanuatu, Fiji, Rotuma, Uvea (Walks Island), Tonga, and Samoa; a recent introduction into Rarotonga in the
Cook Islands. Shrub or small tree, up to 15 m high, with rough bark; ovate leaves; small, petal-less flowers in axillary clusters; and globose berries with many small seeds. Common tree in forests, usually near villages, and in agricultural lands, and occasionally planted near villages and in home gardens, particularly in Samoa; important, apparently naturalized, pioneer species in abandoned gardens. Planted along boundaries; dark, heavy wood favoured for house posts, general construction, and fencing; occasionally used for firewood; shredded root used medicinally in New Guinea; fruit used as a source of dye on Uvea.
90. Spondias dulcis Park. ANACARDIACEAE
"Polynesian vi-apple," "Polynesian plum," "Otaheiti apple," "golden apple"
syn. S. cytherea Sonn.
Probably indigenous to tropical Asia; an aboriginal introduction to Melanesia, Polynesia as far east as the Marquesas, and to the Caroline Islands and Nauru in Micronesia; a post-European-contact introduction to Hawaii. Medium to large, stiffbranched, smooth, gray-barked, deciduous tree, up to 15 m or taller, with pinnately compound leaves; numerous, small, whitish flowers in particulate clusters; and ovalobovate, edible fruit with green to yellow-orange skin and light green to dark yellow pulp. Common tree in rural garden areas, fallow forests, and home gardens; sometimes growing in an almost wild or naturalized state in mature fallow forests; almost always preserved when clearing fallow vegetation for new gardens. Soft, light wood used for interior purposes in house building and formerly made into canoe hulls; immature and ripe fruit eaten throughout the Pacific, occasionally cooked in the Solomon Islands, and a minor seasonal cash crop for local sale; immature fruit grated and mixed with coconut as a refreshment or dessert and made into spiced pickles (achar) by Indians in Fiji; juice of fruit an important food for pregnant women in the Solomon Islands; young leaves eaten in some areas, often with pork or to flavour meat; bark, leaves, and fruit used medicinally.
91. Swierenia macrophylla King MELIACEAE
"West Indian mahogany," "large-leaved mahogany," "Honduras mahogany"
Indigenous to eastern Central and South America from Mexico southward to Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil; a recent introduction into the Pacific Islands. Large tree, up to 34 m high, with hard, heavy, reddish wood; pinnately compound leaves; panicles of numerous, small, white flowers; and ovoid, woody fruit. Major exotic species used in reforestation programmes in the wet zone of Fiji; occasionally planted as a timber tree in Niue, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and elsewhere; occasionally planted in agricultural areas, in and around villages, on sugar-cane farms, in home gardens, and as a street tree. Timber used for high quality construction, furniture, veneer, mouldings, panelling, general joinery work, boat planking and decking; other uses, depending on the grade, include carving, light handles, drawing boards, light construction and cases; waste wood used as firewood.
92. Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels MYRTACEAE
"jambolan," "Java plum"
syns. Myrtus cumini L.; Eugenia cumini (L.) Druce; E. jambolana Lam.
Indigenous or naturalized from India and Sri Lanka to Malesia; a recent introduction into the Pacific Islands. Medium-sized tree, up to 15 m high, with stiff, leathery, oblong to oblong-elliptic leaves; clustered, white flowers with numerous stamens; and small, oblong, thin-skinned, dark red or purple, tart, edible fruit. Occasional to common in rural areas and in home gardens; occasionally naturalized. Planted in some areas, such as Fiji, Niue, the Cook Islands, and French Polynesia, as a windbreak, street tree, or fruit or fuel-wood tree; timber used occasionally in light construction; a good firewood and one of the main sources of fuel in the Marquesas; ripe fruit eaten, usually by children, as snack food and sometimes made into preserves.
93. Syzygium malaccense (L.) Merr. and Perry MYRTACEAE
"Malay apple," "mountain apple"
syns. Eugenia malaccensis L.; Carophyllus malaccensis (L.) Stokes; Jambosa malaccensis (L.) DC.
Probably indigenous to tropical Asia, but now pantropical in cultivation; an aboriginal introduction into most islands of Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia. Medium tree, up to 10 m or higher, with glossy, oval- or elliptic-oblong leaves; flowers in dense, pedicellate cymes with numerous, scarlet to red-pink stamens; and subglobose to oblong, light green to reddish pink, fleshy, edible fruit containing a large seed. Common in mature fallow forests and open forests, and planted or protected in agricultural areas; protected when clearing for new gardens; common to occasional in home gardens; does not seem to grow on atolls. Planted or protected fruit-tree throughout the Pacific; fruit eaten green and ripe; timber occasionally used in construction; one of the most important medicinal plants in the Pacific, with its bark and leaves used medicinally as a general tonic and for a wide range of maladies.
94. Syzygium spp. (Eugenia spp.) MYRTACEAE
spp. S. brackenridgei (A. Gray) C. Muell.; S. carolinensis (Koidz.) Hosok.; S. clusiaefolium (A. Gray) C. Muell.; S. corynocarpum (A. Gray) C. Muell.; S. curvistylum (Gillesp.) Merr. and Perry; S. dealatum (Burkbill) A.C. Smith; S. diffusum (Turrill) Merr. and Perry; S. effusum (A. Gray) C. Muell.; S. gracilipes (A. Gray) Merr. and Perry; S. inophylloides (A. Gray) C. Muell.; S. myriadena Merr. and Perry; S. neurocalyx (A. Gray) Christoph.; S. onesima Merr. and Perry; S. palauensis Kaneh.; S. richii (A. Gray) Merr. and Perry; S. samarangense (Bl.) Merr. and Perry; S. stelechanthum (Diels) Glassman; Eugenia buettneriana K. Schaum.; E. fierneyana F. Muell.
Indigenous species from tropical Asia through Malesia and Melanesia to western Polynesia and the Caroline Islands in Micronesia; some species may have been aboriginal introductions to western Polynesia and some other islands because of their fruit or cultural importance for making leis and medicine (e.g. S. corynocarpum, S. neurocalyx, and S. samarangense). Variable shrubs to large trees, up to 20 m high, usually with prominently-veined leaves; variable, many-stamened flowers; and generally ovoid to fusiform fruit, both of which are often borne along the branches and trunk. Common in lowland forest, mature fallow forest, open forest, coastal forest, and thickets throughout the high-island Pacific; some species planted or protected in agricultural areas and home gardens. Some species very important timber trees for local use, with some being milled commercially; wood used in house construction, tools and handicrafts, and for firewood; bark, leaves, and buds of fruit used medicinally; fruit of some species eaten; fruit and flowers used in leis and garlands; fruits used to produce dyes and skin lotions.
95. Tamarindus indica L. CAESALPINIACEAE/LEGUMINOSAE
Probably indigenous to tropical Africa and Asia, although exact origin unknown due to its long existence in cultivation throughout this area; a post-Europeancontact introduction into the Pacific Islands. Medium to large, spreading tree, up to 25 m high, with a rounded crown; pinnately compound leaves with many small leaflets; pink to yellow or cream-coloured flowers with red or purple veins; and oblong, curved or straight, brittle-skinned, velvety brown fruit that are irregularly constricted between the seeds and contain hard, dark brown, obovate seeds embedded in greenish to yellow-brown, acid pulp. Commonly cultivated or protected in rural agricultural areas, particularly on smallholder Indian sugar-cane farms in Fiji; occasional in home gardens and in urban areas; uncommonly naturalized in secondary vegetation and near seashores. Commonly cultivated shade, ornamental, and fruit-tree; timber occasionally used for light construction and firewood; acid pulp of ripe fruit eaten uncooked and used in beverages and jams, and in chutneys by Indians in Fiji; balls of extracted pulp sold in produce markets in Fiji; used medicinally by Indians in Fiji.
96. Teminalia catappa L. COMBRETACEAE
"beach almond," "Indian almond," "Malabar almond," "tropical almond," "coastal almond," "sea almond"
Indigenous to tropical Asia through Malesia, northern Australia, and Melanesia to eastern Polynesia and Micronesia: probably an aboriginal introduction into many areas in the eastern parts of its range, such as Hawaii and some of the atolls. Medium to large, deciduous tree, up to 30 m tall, with whorled, horizontal, widespreading branches arranged in tiers; reddish timber; leathery, shiny, dark green leaves that turn red and yellow before dropping, the new leaves appearing almost immediately; and subobovoid, hard, flattened, two-keeled fruit, green turning yellow, then red, containing thin, fleshy pulp surrounding a single, edible, almond-like kernel. Occasional in coastal strand forests and coastal thickets; common in lowland, inland agricultural areas as a protected or cultivated tree; occasional in home gardens and as a roadside or tourist resort tree. Favourite tree of the ancestral goddess Nei Tituaabane in Kiribati; tree important in sorcery in Nauru; commonly cultivated as an ornamental shade and nut-tree; timber used in general construction and for canoe hulls, paddles, kava bowls, tool handles, war clubs, walking sticks, slit-gongs, and drums; used for firewood; bark and leaves occasionally used to make black dye for pandanus leaves in Fiji and Niue; bark of young stems used for cordage; leaves used for wrapping food for cooking in earthen ovens in Kiribati; roots, bark, young leaves, and fruit used medicinally; mature seed kernel widely eaten; seeds preserved twice yearly in the Solomon Islands for storage; ripe fruit surrounding seeds occasionally eaten in Nauru and Puluwat; fruit eaten by fruit bats; desiccated pith of fruit used to rub corpses in Kiribati; necklaces made of fruit in Nauru; seeds occasionally made into oil in Samoa for mixing with coconut oil.
97. Theobroma cacao L. STERCULIACEAE
Indigenous to tropical South America and long cultivated in Central America; a post-European-contact introduction to the Pacific Islands. Shrub or small tree, up to 8 m high, with fine, soft, pubescent, new branches; thin, leathery, oblong-ovate, acu minate leaves; white flowers with white to pale violaceous or reddish sepals and clawed, white petals with purplish or red nerves, a yellow blade and red or purplish stamens, borne on cauliflorous pedicles at the fallen leaf axils or on branches; and large, ovoid-ellipsoid, ridged, red, purple, or yellow (when ripe), indehiscent fruit (pods) containing ellipsoid, white to deep purple seeds embedded in sweet, edible, mucilaginous pulp. Common in smallholder monocultural plantations and sometimes on extensive estates in Melanesia and Samoa; occasionally intercropped with coconuts, bananas, other overstorey tree species or undercropped with shadetolerant food plants such as Xanthosoma taro; infrequent in rural and home gardens; occasionally naturalized near abandoned plantations; not found on atolls. Commercial export crop in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, and Western Samoa; minor or residual fruit-tree in some other areas; seeds (beans) fermented and roasted for export for the manufacture of chocolate; seeds dried and roasted on a small scale to make local cocoa in Samoa; pulp of mature fruit eaten as a refreshment or snack food; mature fruit and processed cocoa occasionally sold locally.
98. Thespesia populnea (L.) Sol. ex Correa MALVACEAE
syns. Hibiscus pulpulneus L.; Hibiscus bacciferus Forst. f.; Malvaviscus populneus (L.) Gaertn.
Indigenous from eastern Africa and southern Asia through Malesia to eastern Polynesia and the Marshall and Gilbert Islands in Micronesia; probably an aboriginal introduction into some areas, such as Hawaii, in the eastern part of its range. Shrub or medium tree, up to 20 m high, with leathery, heart-shaped leaves; yellow, cupshaped flowers with a crimson blotch at the base of the throat; and globose, capsular fruit containing a prominently-veined seed. Occasional along seashores, on the inner margins of mangroves, in disturbed habitats, and in rural gardens, home gardens, and urban areas. Believed to be the shadow and spirit medium of the god of prayer and chanting in Tahiti and Hawaii; planted in sacred places in Tahiti, surrounding the house of Kamehameha I of Hawaii, and along bunds between taro gardens in Tuvalu; occasionally cultivated as an ornamental shade or street tree; branches attached to masts of canoes in Tahiti as a token of peace; currently planted as part of a replanting programme in the Cook Islands; durable (especially under water) attractive wood highly esteemed for general construction and wood carving of calabashes, containers, pestles, kava bowls, paddles, drums, weapons, fishing poles and fish-net handles, and carved figures, spirit images, ceremonial thrones, and handicrafts throughout Polynesia; used for canoe hulls and floats in Papua New Guinea; provides sticks for stick games in Nauru; branches held by priests when praying and leaves offered to gods as a substitute for kava in Tahiti; leaves used in making fire by friction; bark used for tannin and dye; bark, stems, leaves, and green fruit used medicinally; young leaves edible; leaves provide black dye for pandanus in Tuvalu; inner bark used for cordage in Hawaii; fruit used for tops in eastern Polynesia; flowers used in garlands in Kiribati; leaves occasionally used in compost in Kiribati.
99. Tournefortia argentea L. f. BORAGINACEAE
syns. Messerschmidia argentea (L. f.) I.M. Johnst.; Argusia argentea (L. f.) Heine
Indigenous from eastern Africa, South-East Asia through Malesia to the Ryukyu Islands, eastern Polynesia, including Hawaii and the Marshall Islands and Kiribati in Micronesia. Small to medium, wide-spreading, short-bunked tree, 2-12 m tall, with rather stout twigs; deeply grooved bark; dense, silvery grey pubescent, leathery leaves; numerous, small, white flowers in branching, cymose clusters; and greenish white to brown, grape-like fruit. Common in coastal strand forests and beach thickets throughout the Pacific; occasional in agricultural areas, often surrounding excavated taro pits, on atolls; occasionally planted or protected in coastal home gardens on atolls and in coastal areas. Tree features in Tuamotuan and Kiribati mythology; timber occasionally used in light construction, occasionally for canoe hulls, connective and other parts, and for tools, cooking equipment, bailers, backrests, ladles, slit-gongs, diving goggles, carved masks, and rat traps, and for wood carving; a favoured firewood and formerly used in making fire by friction in Kiribati; leaves reportedly eaten raw in "salads" by boat crews in Kiribati; important pig feed in Tokelau and Micronesia; leaves, leaf buds, growing tips, roots, bark, stems, and fruit used medicinally; tender leaves and meristem used to cure fish poisoning in Nauru; leaves used as a female deodorant in Kiribati, in ceremonial dress in New Guinea, and as fish bait and to stuff pigs for cooking in Tokelau; seeds shot through hollow branch tubes in children's games; leaves used in compost and fertilizers in Kiribati; branches at ground surface and immature flower stalks used in voyaging and love magic in Micronesia.
100. Vitex spp. VERBENACEAE
"vitex," "beach vitex," "blue vitex"
spp. Vitex negundo L. (syns. V. incisa Lam.; V. paniculata Lam.); V. trifolia L. (syn. V. rotundifolia L. f.)
Indigenous from southern Africa and the Indian Ocean islands through southern Asia, Malesia, and northern Australia; possibly an aboriginal introduction into some islands in the easternmost parts of its range; probably a recent introduction to some of the atolls. Small, aromatic shrub or small, freely branching tree, up to 10 m high, with tri- to 5-foliate, downy, aromatic leaves, blueviolet flowers in narrow panicles, and small, drupe-like, blue to black fruit. Occasional in beach thickets, along margins of mangroves, in disturbed sites, often along roads near the sea, and in fallow areas; rarely in undisturbed forest; common weed in pastures in the dry zone of Fiji; occasional in home gardens. Sometimes cultivated in home gardens; V. trifolia widely planted as mosquito-repellent hedges and wind-breaks on Majuro and Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands; wood used in light construction and for tools and axe handles in Melanesia; used for firewood; branches used for fishing rods in Nauru; leaves burned as an insect/mosquito repellent; leaves, bark, and fruit used medicinally; leaves eaten with dried coconut and leaves and wood made into tea in Hawaii; flowers, fragrant leaves, and growing tips used in garlands.
General: Backer and Bakuizen van den Brink 1963; Mernll 1943,1945; Purseglove 1975a and 1975b; Sterly 1970; Whistler 1980a, 1983a, 1991; Yen 1991; and personal records, in-field observations and interpretation of available literature by the author.
Papua New Guinea: Clarke 1971; Henty 1982; Powell 1976a; Sterly 1970; Tarepe and Bourke 1982.
New Caledonia: Jardin 1974; Rageau 1973; Schmid 1981.
Solomon Islands: Kirch and Yen 1982; Sterly 1970; Whitmore 1966, 1969; Yen 1974.
Vanuatu: Cabalion 1984; Gowers 1976; Lebot and Cabalion 1986; Mescarm 1989; Sterly 1970.
Fiji: J.W. Parham 1972; Seemann 1873; Smith 1979, 1981, 1985, 1988, 1991.
Tonga: Sykes 1981; Thaman 1976; Yuncker 1959.
Samoa: Amerson et al. 1982; B.E.V. Parham 1972; Setchell 1924; Whistler 1980b, 1983a, 1983b, 1984.
Niue: Sykes 1970.
Wallis and Futuna: St. John and Smith 1971.
Cook Islands: Sykes 1976; Wilder 1931.
Tuvalu: Chambers 1975; Hedley 1896, 1897; Koch 1983; Woodroffe 1985.
Tokelau: Parham 1971; Whistler 1987.
French Polynesia: Decker 1971; Guerin 1982; Oliver 1974; Petard 1986; Sachet 1983.
Easter Island: Metraux 1940.
Hawaii: Handy et al. 1972; Kaaiakamanu and Akina 1922; Krauss 1974; Neal 1965; Rock 1974; St. John 1973.
Kiribati: Catala 1957; Fosberg and Sachet 1987; Koch 1986; Luomala 1953; Moul 1957; Overy et al. 1982; Polunin 1979; Thaman 1987b, 1990, 1992.
Nauru: Tharnan et al.1985; Thaman 1992.
Micronesia: Fosberg et al. 1979, 1982, 1987; Fosberg and Sachet 1984; Kanehira 1933; Lessa 1977;
Manner 1987; Stemmermann 1981; Wiens 1962.
Marshall Islands: Bryan 1972; Fosberg and Sachet 1975; Lamberson 1982.
Pohnpei: Lessa 1977; Niering 1956; St. John 1948.
Truk: Lessa 1977; Marshall and Fosberg 1975.
Palau: Alkire 1974; Fosberg et al. 1980.
Guam and Marianas: Fosberg et al. 1975; Stone, 1970.
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Updated 9 June, 2003
There is No Global Population Problem
by Garrett Hardin, 1989
For copyright permission, click here.
Almost two hundred years have passed since Malthus disturbed the world's slumber with his celebrated Essay on Population. Today, the world has more than five times as many people in it, and the rate of population increase is nearly four times as great as it was in Malthus's day. Each year, the globe must support 90 million more people. Population control is needed.
Many plans have been proposed, and some have been half- heartedly tried. Out of these trials has come the realization that we are caught in what novelist Joseph Heller called a "Catch-22" situation: if the proposal might work, it isn't acceptable; if it is acceptable, it won't work.
Unacceptable schemes to control numbers are easy to find. We could elect a dictator and let him shoot the excess population. But we won't. Such a solution would "work" only in a theoretical, beyond politics sense. (Homo sapiens, the political animal, as Aristotle called the human, does not live "beyond politics.") Or we might take no action while waiting for gross overpopulation to produce its own cure in the form of starvation and mass disease. But who is willing to call such inaction a "solution?"
Looking at the other fork of the population Catch-22 is more productive. When we understand exactly why acceptable proposals fail, we may be able to correct them. Humanists, committed to the rational analysis of problems, are in a favorable position to ferret out workable solutions. But a real solution to overpopulation may be as painful to humanists as to others. An effective solution will not be obvious, for, as Freud taught us, the preconscious mind protects its peace by blocking off painful avenues of thought.
The simplest defense against dangerous thinking is to presume a natural self-correcting mechanism. Such a presumption worked perfectly well in economics in Malthus's day. Hitherto, some governments had fixed prices to keep greedy merchants from fleecing their customers. Unfortunately, price-fixing caused more harm than good. Leaving prices free to fluctuate -- "Laissez-faire economics" -- worked better. Merchants who were too greedy got less business; some of them went broke. Overall, laissez-faire benefitted the consumer by producing low prices.
Reasoning by analogy, some optimists in the Twentieth Century have argued for a laissez-faire approach toward population growth. They postulate a "demographic transition" process that automatically stops population growth before it hurts. Since European fertility fell as the Europeans became richer, it was argued that all we need to do to help today's poor countries is to try to make them rich. The past half century has shown that a laissez-faire approach toward population growth fails. The needy poor greatly outnumber the charitable rich, and the poor breed faster. Africa's numbers are increasing more than ten times as fast as Europe's.
The argument that greater prosperity produces lower fertility has some support in rich countries, where the industrialized, urbanized way of life leads many couples to prefer a better automobile to another child. In poorly industrialized, rural nations, an increase in income translates into more medicine, less infant mortality, and a faster rate of population growth. The ancient saying, "The rich get richer, and the poor get children," has more wisdom in it than does the demographic transition theory.
China may have found a way out of the population trap. What is China doing and what can we learn from its experiments? We must begin by acknowledging that we don't know as much as we would like to about that huge country. China's population is four times as great as the United States'. Government policy seems not to be very stable; outsiders need almost daily quotations to know what is going on there. Nevertheless, some parts of China are governed in such a way that ultimate population control looks like a possibility.
In the large industrialized cities, an important decision making unit is the "production group" -- individuals work together in the same factory. In attempting to control population, the government has assigned a key role to female members of the production groups. The central government tells each group what its budget is for the next year -- how many bags of rice, for instance -- as well as how many babies the group as a whole can produce. It is made perfectly clear that exceeding the baby budget will not result in any increase in the food budget, either then or later. It is left to the local group to decide which of its members will be allowed to have babies in a given year.
There is no talk in China of a woman's "right" to reproduce or of married couples' "right to privacy." Decision-making is the right of the production group because the whole group has a budget to meet. The women of a production group meet together and decide, as a group, who shall and who shall not have babies during the year. Can you imagine such a scheme working in the United States?
In China it works, apparently pretty well. Chinese traditions and cultural ideals make it easier to put the good of the group ahead of individual desires. A woman who gets pregnant without permission is pressured by her sisters to have an abortion. Westerners react with horror to this, but such coercion in the East should be compared to forcing a Westerner to pick up the litter he or she has dropped on the ground in a public park. In both instances, the environment is seen as the possession of the group; littering it (with anything) is not a right of the individual.
Why are Chinese women controllable by coercion? The answer, in a word is shame. A truly socialized individual is ashamed to go against the expressed wishes of the group he or she lives and plans with. Shame is an effective control, provided the number in the group is small.
Those numbers play a role in shaping human behavior we know from experiences of the Hutterites on our own continent. This hard-working religious group lives by the Christian-Marxist ideal expressed so well by Karl Marx in 1875: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Two centuries of experience have taught the Hutterites that his ideal works only within small groups of about -- 100 to 150 as a maximum. When the number goes beyond 150, noncooperators destroy social unity. Hutterites respond to this threat by constant, amoebalike fissioning of their communities, thus minimizing the numbers involved in decisions.
The combined experiences of the Chinese and the Hutterites tell us that a voluntary system of population control, when it is not backed by legal sanctions, can work only with small groups of people who are intimately involved with one another daily. Shame works when "everybody lives in everybody else's pocket."
So, what are the chances that American society as a whole can achieve population control by voluntary means? Essentially zero, at present. We have nothing like the Chinese production groups to build upon. If we cannot or do not want to evolve in the Chinese direction, we will have to find a means of population control that builds on the traditions of our own society.
Let's look again at the Chinese system. I don't know whether the Chinese language has any equivalent for the word coercion, but if it does I see a way the Chinese could acknowledge the propriety of their population control without cringing at the word coercion as we Westerners do. Each woman in a production group must realize that the others need to be controlled by the coercion of shame and that she herself can be no exception. The control of all is achieved by mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon. Mutuality removes the sting that would come from being singled out of the group.
Can such coercion be generated in our society? Of course it can. In fact, it has been from time immemorial. "Mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon" is an apt description of any restrictive law passed by a democracy. I might want to rob banks, but I certainly don't want you to do so. So, since I know of no way to keep all others voluntarily from robbing banks, I will help pass a law that keeps everyone including myself from doing so.
Does mutual agreement have to be unanimous? Certainly not. Only a majority is required to pass a coercive law. In some cases, however -- remember Prohibition -- a very large majority may be required. But to demand unanimity would be to abandon all hope of a workable democracy.
By what means will Americans achieve real population control? We don't know yet. Americans are too comfortable to try hard to find an answer; poor countries -- more strongly motivated -- may beat us to it. Whatever methods prove effective must be grounded in human nature, as China's method is. Individuals must be rewarded for actions that benefit primarily the group (which includes all individuals). In China, freedom from shame is an effective reward. In America, we shall probably have to offer monetary rewards for relative sterility. For instance, we might limit the dependency deduction on income tax to two children, or maybe only one. Or the government might give an allowance to every female between the ages of twelve and twenty so long as she does not get pregnant. Ingenuity is called for.
In the meantime, one large step toward population control is already necessary and may be possible: we must bring immigration virtually to an end and do so soon. In the absence of immigration, present trends in fertility, if continued unchanged, would bring America to zero population growth in about fifty years. If needed then, the government could offer incentives to parenthood, thus producing population stability. But all that is so far in the future that there is no profit in trying to spell out the details.
It is more important that we know what continued immigration will do to America. For perspective, let us begin with a few facts. First, the United States takes in more immigrants than all the other 180-odd nations combined. Second, the United States is the highest population growth rate in the developed, industrialized world. Third, immigration to the United States is increasing, not decreasing. Fourth, when immigration is added to "natural increase" (births minus deaths), the resultant population increase shows no sign of leveling off before we are impoverished. All worries about the dangers of a decline in population are vacuous.
In recent years, the United States has taken in over a million immigrants a year. Any suggestion that we might put an end to immigration is met with the anguished cry, "But we are a nation of immigrants!" But so is every nation. The natural history of a nation is simple: first, outsiders move into a land virtually vacant of people; the land fills up; congestion is felt; then, the residents close the gates. Unrestricted immigration characterizes a new nation; restrictions are the mark of a mature nation.
Someone asks, "But is not variety a necessary component of a healthy nation?" Before we answer hastily, we should note that Japan admits essentially zero immigrants per year -- and what American would be so bold as to say that the Japanese are not doing very well in the modern world? They don't admit new bodies, but they do admit new ideas from everywhere. With modern methods of communication, ideas no longer have to be brought into a country wrapped in human bodies. A wise nation admits just the ideas, leaving the bodies to be taken care of by the nations that produced them. This is the way of survival. Patriotism is rather unfashionable in our time, but can a conscientious humanist be contemptuous of the survival of the people with whom he or she associates daily?
Lastly, someone cries, "But the population problem is a global problem. We need global solutions!" Before panicking , let us look at the word global. Some problems are certainly global. Take acid rain. Take the green house effect. Both cases involve the atmosphere, which is forever distributed and redistributed over the entire globe. Admittedly, it will be difficult to produce the global cooperation that is needed to solve such global problems, but no lesser solutions will work. Now, let's look at the potholes in the streets. There are potholes all over the civilized world, but is that any reason for setting up a global pothole authority to fix our potholes? Would the pothole in your street be filled sooner if we globalized the problem?
The moral is surely obvious: never globalize a problem if it can possibly be solved locally. It may be chic but it is not wise to tack the adjective global onto the names of problems that are merely widespread -- for example, "global hunger," "global poverty," and the global population problem."
We will make no progress with population problems, which are a root cause of both hunger and poverty, until we deglobalize them. Populations, like potholes, are produced locally, and, unlike atmospheric pollution, remain local unless some people are so unwise as to globalize them by permitting population excesses to migrate into the better-endowed countries. Marx's formula, "to each according to his needs" is a recipe for national suicide.
We are not faced with a single global population problem but, rather, with about 180 separate national population problems. All population controls must be applied locally; local governments are the agents best prepared to choose local means. Means must fit local traditions. For one nation to attempt to impose its ethical principles on another is to violate national sovereignty and endanger international peace. The only legitimate demand that nations can make on one another is this: "Don't try to solve your population problem by exporting your excess people to us." All nations should take this position, and most do. Unfortunately, many Americans seem to believe that our nation can solve everyone else's population problems.
I have presented no more than a sketch of "the population problem," but this is surely enough to show that humanists have some hard thinking to do in the near future. Humanism, like science, is a self-correcting system. Humanists should not cling to the error merely because it is traditional. With deeper insight into the nature of the world, humanists must reexamine their past attitudes toward rights in general, universal human rights, the primacy of the individual, coercion, the imperatives of the environment, human needs, generosity, and our duty toward posterity. The inquiry will be painful, but faith in the power of reason can give us strength to do what has to be done.
This article by Garrett Hardin first appeared in the July/August 1989 issue of The Humanist.
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Dr. Chandra Shekhar Venkata Raman, popularly known as C.V. Raman, is one of the most distinguished scientists of the 20th century. It was he who during a long sea voyage to Europe in 1921 as the representative of the Kolkata University at a science meet, wondered why the water in Maditerranean Sea was such a dark shade of blue.
And the time came when he gave the answers to this apparently simple question and won the world's most prestigious award-the Noble Prize in 1930.
Dr. C.V. Raman was born on November 7, 1888 in an orthodox South Indian Brahmin family in tirchurappalli, Tamilnadu. His father's name was Chandra Shekhar Aiyer who had special interest in science and mathematics. His mother Parvati was a pious lady. Raman was a very brilliant student since his early childhood.
He passed his matriculation at the age of 11 and at 15 graduated from the Presidency College, Chennai. He was the only student to get a first class. He completed his Master's degree in Physics from the same college and broke all previous records.
After this Raman took up a job in Calcutta (now Kolkata) as an assistant accountant general. While there, he was able to sustain his interest in science by working in his spare time, in the laboratories of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.
After ten years of Government services, Raman resigned to work as a professor of physics at the Kolkata University. He stayed there for fifteen years. It was the period when he received world wide recognition for his work in optics and scattering of light his pioneering research on the molecular scattering of light, the phenomenon that causes changes in the nature of light when it passes through a transparent medium-solid, liquid or gaseous-culminated in his getting the Noble Prize for Physics in 1930.
He carried out different types of experiments and researches on the sun rays passing through water, transparent ice blocks and other media. For these experiments, Raman used a mercury arc and a spectrograph. Raman obtained some new lines in the spectrum on passing the sun rays through different substances. These lines were called 'Raman Lines' and the discovery of 'Raman Effect'.
Raman was awarded the degree of 'Doctor of Science' in 1921 by the Kolkata University and in 1929; the British Gorvenment in India conferred on him the title of 'Sir'. He was also awarded Lenin Peace Prize in 1958. The government of India also honoured him with the highest honour of the country,'Bharat Ratna' (Jewel of India) in 1954.
In 1943, Raman set up the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore. There he served as its director and remained active until his death on November 21, 1970, at the age of eighty two. He was proud to be an Indian. Till the day he died, he did not give up his traditional Indian turban in favour of a European hat. Thus he was a great scientiest ever produced by India.
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At a recent parent meeting one mom insisted “there should be a minimum standard of services that ALL deaf and hard of hearing kids get, so that those of us who aren’t sure what a good quality program looks like won’t have to start from scratch.” Excellent point. Here are some efforts that have been made towards that end.
Broad Guidance from Federal Mandate
The IDEA (Individual Disabilities Education Act) requires that a student who is eligible for special education services receives a ‘free and appropriate public education’, also known as FAPE. Each student’s services are determined through the IEP (Individualized Education Program) process with a team that includes the input and participation of the student’s parents. It is the essence of the IDEA that supports and services for any student be individualized, based on their needs as deemed “appropriate” by the IEP team.
The process of determining what we mean by “appropriate” relative to students who are deaf or hard of hearing is often highly subjective. Where’s the model to work from? Can we as a group of parents….or a coalition of deaf education experts….or anybody, anywhere come up with a basic definition of what a good quality deaf education should look like?
Focused Directives at the State Level
In general, programming for students who are deaf and hard of hearing should encompass some common themes, quality standards and best practices that have been articulated over the years through the writing of documents, books, guidelines, and even a National Agenda. More often than not, these resources never filter down to a parent’s working knowledge of deaf education, and thus are not actively advocated for at the individual level.
(In Oregon we are part of a collaborative group of professionals looking at Early Intervention services and seeing how we might create statewide standards and help bridge a gap in services that are underfunded.
We are also involved on committees such as the State Interagency Coordinating Council, SACSE, and the Oregon Alliance for EI/ECSC bringing the voice of our families to the Early Learning Council and other state agencies.)
Standard 19: Staff Qualifications
Deaf and hard-of-hearing children and youth, birth through age twenty-one, including those with multiple disabilities and blindness, are instructed by early intervention providers and teachers who are specifically trained and/or licensed to teach these individuals
The early intervention provider or teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing should demonstrate competency in all of the state-identified knowledge and skill areas to provide instruction and services, birth to 21, that meet the developmental, linguistic, communication, academic, social-emotional and transition needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing children and youth and their families. Each early intervention provider must have the appropriate credential and each teacher must be licensed by the Colorado Department of Education in deaf education or other appropriate endorsement area.
Deaf and hard-of-hearing students for whom the IFSP/IEP team has determined that a generic early intervention program or the general education classroom is the most appropriate placement should receive sufficient consultative support, direct instruction, or both, from an early intervention provider or itinerant teacher of deaf and hard of hearing.
Early Education Provider
The development of positive family-child relationships during a child’s early years is critical to the child’s later cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional growth. The child’s full access to communication is integral to the development of a positive family-child relationship. Therefore, it is critical that teachers in early education deaf and hard-of-hearing programs focus their service delivery on the family as well as on the child. These teachers must be licensed teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, or early childhood providers and must also have the competencies related to the provision of services to infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and their families.
Typical duties may include but are not limited to:
- Working as a part of a multidisciplinary team in the assessment of the child’s needs and the development of the individualized family service plan (IFSP) or individualized education program (IEP)
- Providing direct and consultative services to the child and the family, as determined by the IFSP/IEP, to facilitate the development of communication and cognitive skills
- Providing ongoing access to informational programs that help the family learn about hearing loss, assessment, amplification options, communication options, education options, legal rights under state and federal special education laws, and resources and community services available for deaf and hard-of-hearing children.
Center-Based Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
The center-based program teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing is primarily responsible for the specialized direct instruction of assigned students. In addition to providing instruction, the center based program teacher should assume responsibility for the basic coordination of the students’ programs. This teacher also assists the general education teacher, the principal, and the parents of the students in the program. Furthermore, the center-based program teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing must respect and be proficient in the language mode(s) of the students s/he is responsible for.
Typical duties may include but not be limited to:
- Assessing students in pre-academic/academic achievement, making recommendations for academic goals and objectives for the IEP, and providing academic instruction to the students
- Assessing students in the area of language and communication skills, recommending goals and objectives for language/communication skills for the IEP, and providing instruction for language and communication skills to the students (may work in conjunction with the speech/language pathologist and/or educational audiologist)
- Teaching a deaf studies curriculum
- Assisting in the appropriate placement of students
- Collaborating with general education teachers and educational interpreters regarding the needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in the mainstream
- Monitoring students’ progress
- Coordinating required services for students
- Providing daily monitoring of individual hearing aids, cochlear implants, assistive listening devices and classroom amplification devices, as appropriate
- Providing information to teachers and parents regarding the education of deaf and hard of hearing students
- Providing Deaf awareness and Deaf culture in-service training to general education staff and students.
- Teaching daily living skills and independent living skills, as appropriate.
- Coordinating transition activities for students 14 years and older.
Itinerant Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
The itinerant teacher must ensure that deaf and hard-of-hearing students, like all students, have programs in which they have direct and appropriate access to all components of the education program, including but not limited to recess, lunch, and extracurricular social and athletic activities. Itinerant teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing may provide direct instruction and/or consultative services to deaf and hard-of-hearing students enrolled in general education classes, center based programs, state or charter school programs, or home or hospital programs. When appropriate caseloads for itinerant teachers are considered, factors such as mileage, direct service versus a consultation model, age of students, number of students with additional disabilities, and dynamics of the school climate must also be considered. A ratio of 1:10 to 1:24 is an appropriate caseload.
Typical responsibilities of the itinerant teacher may include but are not limited to:
- Providing in-service training for general education staff and students regarding the specific communication and educational needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing students and ways to include deaf and hard-of-hearing students in various situations and group settings.
- Obtaining specialized services, materials, or equipment for deaf and hard-of-hearing students to use in the general education classroom and providing specialized resources and visual aids.
- Ensuring the inclusion of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in activities.
- Providing instruction to deaf and hard-of-hearing students regarding their hearing loss, Deaf culture, assistive devices, and various communication methods used by deaf and hard-of –hearing individuals.
- Facilitating opportunities for deaf and hard-of-hearing students to interact socially with other deaf and hard-of-hearing students and with deaf and hard-of-hearing role models.
- Adapting curriculum to make subject matter accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
- Keeping parents informed of the school curriculum and methods and techniques to reinforce language and academic development.
- Evaluating and recommending appropriate environmental conditions, such as lighting and acoustics, to meet the unique communication needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
- Assessing students in the areas of academic achievement, language, and communication.
- Making recommendations for IEP goals and objectives for academic achievement, language, and communication and providing direct, specialized instruction in specific areas of need.
- Assisting in the appropriate placement of students
- Coordinating required services for students
- Monitoring individual hearing aids, cochlear implants, and assistive listening devices
- Meeting regularly with program coordinators or program specialists to discuss problems or concerns regarding programs for integrated students
- Meeting regularly with general education teachers and educational interpreters to discuss areas of concern and to ensure communication is effectiv
Applications for Advocacy
Just having access to this one standard, a parent can fight for the delivery of instruction by competent instructors who have expertise in deafness. Imagine applying all 36 standards to your child’s education!
The full document (pdf) can be downloaded at:
Even if you live outside of Colorado, these guidelines can be useful in determining programming for any student.
There are other national resources which articulate programming for students. The National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) created a book on essential program elements for students who are deaf/hard of hearing, entitled, “Meeting the Needs of Students Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Educational Services Guidelines.” This book describes considerations when designing appropriate services for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, including those students with multiple disabilities. A full continuum of options is included. The guidelines represent “best practices” from the field and the book is an outstanding resource for communication and coordination among organizations on behalf of students who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families. This is a particularly poignant document to utilize in determining services, as often special education directors in a district may not be aware of what their own organization recognizes as basic services for this population of students. This book can be purchased at: http://www.nasdse.org.
The National Agenda for Moving Forward on Achieving Educational Equality for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students promotes a set of priorities stated as goals that are designed to bring about considerable improvement in quality and nature of educational services and programs for deaf and hard of hearing students. It is brought forward as an “agenda” or a list of things to be done in order to close the achievement gap that exists for students. The National Agenda is organized around eight goals—each with a goal area, a goal statement, background information about the goal and a series of objectives to achieve the goal. For each objective there is a rationale for its selection. This document can be downloaded at http://www.ndepnow.org/pdfs/national_agenda.pdf.
No Resources…No Excuse
Deaf education reform movements around the country can be tracked at a Hands & Voices sponsored website at www.ndepnow.org
Many of the documents referenced in this article are sitting on a shelf somewhere collecting dust in your administrator’s office. Can you imagine what would happen if every family made it their business to read and understand them? What if every family walked through the door of their IEP meeting with a pile of these recommendations to lead the IEP discussion? Maybe then true reform could come to our children’s education in a way that some of us have never seen before. Imagine what could happen if we all stood together to improve programs and educational outcomes for our children who are deaf/hard of hearing. ~
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AIKEN, SC— On March 11, 2011, an earthquake and a tsunami wave triggered a string of disasters in Japan that created an outpouring of relief efforts to assist the Japanese people.
The Savannah River Site’s Environmental Bioassay Laboratory (EBL) was one U.S. asset that played a key role in the Department of Energy Consequence Management Home Team’s (CMHT) response to assist the Government of Japan, by analyzing soil and air filter samples for radiological contaminants related to the Fukushima Daiichi reactor incident. The EBL is one of the first SRS capabilities to play a specific role in the Japan effort.
"The staff at the Environmental Bioassay Laboratory is trained to perform this kind of emergency work smoothly and rapidly, and they’ve demonstrated that we have an asset that can provide high quality analytical work when it’s needed," said David Moody, DOE-Savannah River Manager. "Their service helped both the United States and Japanese governments have quick access to important radiological data."
"We have a number of other people – particularly some of the scientists at the Savannah River National Laboratory – whose professional expertise has helped to define how the U.S. may be able to assist," Moody added. "Going forward, I expect that SRS has specific skills, like our understanding of the technology associated with long-term cleanup, remediation and monitoring in a nuclear environment, that will be very pertinent to the recovery effort that’s ahead."
The primary objectives of the CMHT’s sample collection, sample analysis, and data assessment teams were to evaluate personnel exposure hazards, identify the nuclear power plant radiological source term and plume deposition, and assist the Government of Japan in assessing any environmental and agricultural impacts associated with the nuclear event. CMHT personnel and the Japanese government collected the samples for analysis and shipped them to the Savannah River Site for analysis.
The Environmental Bioassay Lab analyzed approximately 250 samples and reported approximately 500 analytical method determinations. Samples sent to the EBL were primarily soil samples from farmland surrounding the Fukushima reactors or air monitoring samples of national interest, including those collected at the U.S. Embassy and American military bases. Since the soil samples were from Japan and might contain foreign microbes, they had to be processed, treated, and analyzed under a special permit from the United States Department of Agriculture. Samples were analyzed for a wide range of radionuclides, including strontium-89, strontium-90, gamma-emitting radionuclides, and plutonium, uranium, americium and curium isotopes. The rapid reporting of high quality analytical data was critical to allow the government of Japan and CMHT to evaluate radiological impacts from the nuclear reactor incident to both personnel and the environment.
The Environmental Bioassay Lab was selected as one of four laboratories nationally to perform these sample analyses due to its expertise in rapid analytical methods for radiological contaminants in environmental samples. The Lab was contacted via Lawrence Livermore National Lab, because of its membership in the National Analytical Management Program, a DOE-sponsored organization that coordinates analytical services and capabilities within the DOE complex and within other federal agencies. EBL is an active member of a laboratory consortium that provides a nationwide, integrated system to assist with response to environmental and radiological emergencies such as the Japanese reactor incident.
The Environmental Bioassay Lab is operated by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the management and operations contractor at SRS.
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Diabetes and Foot Care
Very few Torontonians actually realize how important foot care is for the maintenance of overall good health and even fewer are aware of how many health issues can arise due to improper care of one's feet. Diabetes is one of these potential health hazards that may come to pass or be exacerbated by a lack of attention to two of the most important body parts responsible for our ability to interact with the world on a day to day basis.
You may find yourself asking, "How exactly do diabetes and your feet correlate?” To answer that we must first understand what diabetes is; a metabolic disorder where the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to sustain proper blood sugar or glucose levels. Without insulin our cells are not able to absorb the excess amounts of glucose in the blood stream. People who are diabetic are prone to poor blood circulation
which directly affects the feet with certain discomforts such as tingling or numbness as well as a harder time maintaining their warmth when faced with cold weather.
It Doesn't Stop There
People with diabetes should take extra precautions
with their feet as they are much more susceptible to a number of different afflictions some of which you can find below:
- Undetected nerve damage to the foot also known as Peripheral Neuropathy
Difficulty healing increasing the odds of rapid infection damaging the foot and making it difficult or painful to walk
Charcot's joints, a diabetic foot condition that means bones are weak and more likely to fracture
In some extreme cases if problems persist and proceed to worsen over time, amputation of the limbs is a very real possibility. Foot Solution offers a way out before it gets to that point with an assortment of specialized products and services all geared to the best treatment of your feet so that you never have to worry about the possibility of this happening to you. Your feet will be taken care of by our professionals and you can devote your time to other aspects of your life that need attention. Save your feet the trouble of walking and use that index finger to dial us up at (647)430-0756 or click on the following link http://www.footsolutions.to/ and take a look at what we have to offer. Your feet
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Open clusters are
found in the disk of the Galaxy, and therefore lie largely
in the plane of the Milky Way. Many
of the closer ones, including those presented here, are easily
visible to the naked eye (Messier 35 a fainter exception). Some
are angularly so large that they make constellations of their own, or at least
significant parts of them.
Though their sizes vary greatly, open clusters typically contain a
few hundred loosely arranged stars packed within a diameter 10 or
so light years across. And though bound together by their own
gravity (the false Coathanger below an exception), most open
clusters gradually break up as a result of random encounters among
stars that speed members to the escape velocity, and because of
stretching by tides raised by the Galaxy. Following the set of
naked-eye clusters is a link to a photo that shows the Hyades,
Pleiades, and Messier 35 in context, as well as 15 fainter clusters
near the Galaxy's anticenterin Taurus, Auriga, Gemini, and Orion.
At the bottom are three contrasting globular clusters:
Messier 13 in Hercules (which is also
visible to the naked eye, though just barely), more massive but
more distant (and thus visually fainter) Messier 15 in Pegasus, and less massive (and also
fainter) Messier 10 in Ophiuchus.
While there are thousands of open clusters in the Galaxy, there are
but 150 or so known globulars. Distinct from open clusters, their
home is in a huge spheroidal halo that surrounds the
Galactic disk. And while open clusters are sparse, loose, and
compartively young (the Alpha Persei cluster only 50 million years
old, the Pleiades just 130 million), globulars are compact, closely
spherical, and can contain over a million stars packed into a
volume only a hundred or so light years across. With ages of 11 to
12 billion years, formed when the metal content of the Galaxy was
much less than it is today (the increase the result of stellar
evolution), they are among the oldest things known and among the
first things to be created after the Big Bang, the event that
formed our Universe.
Return to STARS.
Open Clusters Visible to the Unaided Eye
Copyright © James B. Kaler, all rights reserved.
Except where otherwise indicated, these contents are the property
of the author and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without
the author's consent except in fair use for educational purposes.
Opening illustration: Chi Persei, courtesy of Mark Killion.
Thanks to visitor number .
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| 0.896839 | 578 | 3.953125 | 4 |
Type II Error in Two-Tailed Test of Population Mean with Unknown Variance
In a two-tailed test of the population mean, the null hypothesis claims that the true population mean μ is equal to a given hypothetical value μ0.
A type II error occurs if the hypothesis test based on a random sample fails to reject the null hypothesis even when the true population mean μ is in fact different from μ0.
Let s2 be the sample variance. For sufficiently large n, the population of the following statistics of all possible samples of size n is approximately a Student t distribution with n - 1 degrees of freedom.
This allows us to compute the range of sample means for which the null hypothesis will not be rejected, and to obtain the probability of type II error. We demonstrate the procedure with the following:
Suppose the mean weight of King Penguins found in an Antarctic colony last year was 15.4 kg. Assume in a random sample 35 penguins, the standard deviation of the weight is 2.5 kg. If actual mean penguin weight is 15.1 kg, what is the probability of type II error for a hypothesis test at .05 significance level?
We begin with computing the standard error estimate, SE.
> s = 2.5 # sample standard deviation
> SE = s/sqrt(n); SE # standard error estimate
We next compute the lower and upper bounds of sample means for which the null hypothesis μ = 15.4 would not be rejected.
> mu0 = 15.4 # hypothetical mean
> I = c(alpha/2, 1-alpha/2)
> q = mu0 + qt(I, df=n-1) * SE; q
14.541 16.259
Therefore, so long as the sample mean is between 14.541 and 16.259 in a hypothesis test, the null hypothesis will not be rejected. Since we assume that the actual population mean is 15.1, we can compute the lower tail probabilities of both end points.
Finally, the probability of type II error is the probability between the two end points.
If the penguin sample size is 35, the sample standard deviation of penguin weight is 2.5 kg and the actual mean population weight is 15.1 kg, then the probability of type II error for testing the null hypothesis μ = 15.4 at .05 significance level is 89.8%, and the power of the hypothesis test is 10.2%.
Under same assumptions as above, if actual mean population weight is 14.9 kg, what is the probability of type II errors? What is the power of the hypothesis test?
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| 0.878365 | 546 | 3.015625 | 3 |
HHMI investigator Gerald Crabtree and HHMI predoctoral fellow Monte Winslow report that slightly increasing the activity of a protein called NFATc1 causes massive bone accumulation, suggesting that NFATc1 or other proteins that regulate its activity will make good targets for drugs to treat osteoporosis. They report their findings in a study published in the June 6, 2006, issue of Developmental Cell.
In vertebrates, bone is constantly being formed and being broken down throughout life. Cells called osteoclasts continuously degrade bone, while cells called osteoblasts replenish it.
"Ideally, they are perfectly balanced," said Crabtree, the senior author of the study. "Over the course of a lifetime, if everything goes well, we'll maintain almost exactly identical bone mass." However, if the balance is upset, and more bone is destroyed than formed, osteoporosis results, increasing the risk of fractures.
The new study arose from the researchers' curiosity about reports that patients who were treated with the drug cyclosporine often given to suppress the immune system before organ transplants tended to lose bone mass. Those patients were also at increased risk of bone fractures, said first author Winslow, who led the study as an HHMI predoctoral fellow in Crabtree's lab. Winslow is now working as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of HHMI investigator Tyler Jacks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Cyclosporine inhibits a signaling protein complex known as calcineurin, which chemically modifies the NFATc family of proteins. This modification changes its shape. With its new shape, NFATc can move into the nucleus of the cell, where it can trigger the activation of many genes. Although initially shown to regulate immune cell function, NFATc also functi
Contact: Jennifer Donovan
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
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| 0.953551 | 383 | 2.78125 | 3 |
GENEVA - Scientists fired the first beam of protons around a 17-mile tunnel on Wednesday in science's next great step to understand the makeup of the universe.
The Large Hadron Collider — built since 2003 at a cost of $3.8 billion — will provide scientists with much greater power than ever before to smash the components of atoms in a bid to see how they are made.
Project leader Lyn Evans gave the go-ahead to send the protons into the accelerator below the Swiss-French border.
The startup — eagerly awaited by 9,000 physicists around the world who will conduct experiments here — comes over the objections of some skeptics who fear the collisions of protons could eventually imperil the earth.
The skeptics theorize that a byproduct of the collisions could be micro black holes, subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they can suck in planets and other stars.
"It's nonsense," said James Gillies, chief spokesman for CERN, the host European Organization for Nuclear Research, before early Wednesday's start.
CERN is backed by leading scientists like Britain's Stephen Hawking in dismissing the fears and declaring the experiments to be absolutely safe.
Gillies told the AP that the most dangerous thing that could happen would be if a beam at full power were to go out of control, and that would only damage the accelerator itself and burrow into the rock around the tunnel deep below the Swiss-French border.
And full power is probably a year away.
"On Wednesday we start small," said Gillies. "What we're putting in to start with is one single low intensity bunch at low energy and we thread that around. We get experience with low energy things and then we ramp up as we get to know the machine better."
He said a good result for Wednesday would be to have one beam going all the way around the tunnel in a counterclockwise direction. If that works, the scientists will then try to send a beam in the other direction.
"A really good result would be to have the other beam going around, too, because once you've got a beam around once in both directions you know that there is no show stopper," Gillies said. "It's going to work."
However, if there is some blockage in the machine, experts will have to go in and fix the problem, and that could take time.
The LHC, as the collider is known, will take scientists to within a split second of a laboratory recreation of the big bang, which they theorize was the massive explosion that created the universe.
The project organized by the 20 European member nations of CERN has attracted researchers of 80 nationalities. Some 1,200 are from the United States, an observer country which contributed $531 million. Japan, another observer, also is a major contributor.
The collider is designed to push the proton beam close to the speed of light, whizzing 11,000 times a second around the tunnel.
Smaller colliders have been used for decades to study the makeup of the atom. Less than 100 years ago scientists thought protons and neutrons were the smallest components of an atom's nucleus, but in stages since then experiments have shown they were made of still smaller quarks and gluons and that there were other forces and particles.
The CERN experiments could reveal more about "dark matter," antimatter and possibly hidden dimensions of space and time. It could also find evidence of the hypothetical particle — the Higgs boson — believed to give mass to all other particles, and thus to matter that makes up the universe.
Some scientists have been waiting for 20 years to use the LHC. But even their younger colleagues are excited that startup has finally arrived.
"I think it's a very important project," said Katie McAlpine, 23, a Michigan State University graduate who made a rap video about the project.
"It's mostly out of scientific curiosity, what is the universe made of? How does it work? What are the rules? That's very exciting and it's important to advance our knowledge," she told Associated Press Television News.
She said she was surprised by the success of the video, which has had more than a million views on YouTube and which has received approval from CERN for its scientific accuracy, especially in its success with young people.
"I was really hoping that this would get taken into classrooms," McAlpine said. "I don't imagine that elementary school and most middle school children will understand it very well, but a lot of parents have e-mailed me, saying I have a 9-year-old or a 7-year-old and showed them your rap and they really love it.
"If elementary kids can get excited about it, too, that's just great."
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| 0.978243 | 990 | 2.875 | 3 |
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