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HEALTH TIPS FROM THE EXPERTS
WHEN TO SEE A DOCTOR
Regular medical care is important to maintaining good health. Especially in an emergency, it is reassuring to be able to call someone who knows you and your medical history. Whether you belong to an HMO or other health plan, or you receive medical care through a clinic, Downstate Family Practitioners Eve Faber, MD, and Daisy Arce, MD, recommend identifying one person with whom you feel comfortable, and keep going back. Here are some tips:
A yearly exam with extensive tests may not be necessary if you are healthy. But do have periodic checkups, including a chest x-ray and tests for heart function and colon cancer.
Discuss with your doctor how often you should be seenEspecially if you smoke or have a family history of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, cancer or other serious disorder.
Keep all regularly scheduled appointments. Children and infants should see a doctor or nurse practitioner regularly to ensure that they meet growth and development milestones and receive all necessary vaccinations. There are now 20 diseases against which children can be inoculated. Be aware that children with asthma and HIV are at special risk.
Children who are depressed or have a serious behavior problem could have an underlying medical condition; schedule an appointment with a doctor and/or psychologist.
Teenage girls should see a gynecologist or family practitioner for checkups and counseling around the passage into womanhood.
Pregnant women and those contemplating pregnancy should get regular medical care and counseling, and take a vitamin supplement including folic acid.
All women need a pap smear every one to three years to test for cervical cancerpuberty through the senior years; and blood pressure should be checked at least yearly.
Women in their 40s and early 50s should have a mammogram every two years to check for breast cancer. After age 50, this should be done yearly.
Women 65 and older should receive annually one immunization against pneumonia, plus flu shot and professional breast exam.
Any woman who is depressed, extremely stressed, or experiencing pronounced mood swings linked to her menstrual cycle, should seek the counsel of a sympathetic doctor or psychologist.
Most people understand that obesity (being more than 30 percent over your ideal body weight) is a major threat to health. But being even somewhat overweight (20 to 30 pounds, depending on your height and body build) can also increase your risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Women concerned about this may be able to get back to a healthier weight just by changing old habits. Concentrate on exercising and cutting back fat and calories.
If serious dieting is in order, dont try to go it alone, and dont fall into the "fad diet" trap, advises Downstate Family Practitioner Daisy Arce, MD. Get help from a well- established weight-loss program, such as Weight Watchers, and the supervision of a physician. For major obesity, there are now good drugs that a doctor can prescribe.
Weight Loss Tips
Dont lose weight too quickly; be patient. Weight lost through crash diets is almost invariably regained. It probably took you a long time to get where you are; it will take time to get back. Dont be discouraged.
Keep a food diary. Learn about calories and fat (from a doctor, a book, or a weight control program), along with what foods contain how much. Determine where you have to cut back. Read food labels. Keep track of your daily intake, and adjust quantities accordingly.
Be realistic. Losing 1-1/2 to 2 pounds weekly is an achievable goal. The quick weight-loss claimed by fad diets is often comprised primarily of fluidnot fat. Set a weight-loss schedule based on monthly and yearly targets.
Change habits. Drink water and eat vegetables to fill up. Start and maintain an exercise routine. Dont eat a large meal or snack close to bedtimecalories consumed earlier in the day are more likely to be burned up.
Seek support from others, and give yourself credit for your accomplishments. "Smile," Dr. Arce says.
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June marks the start of summertime when school breaks for many across the country and vacations are in sight. However, many people may not realize June also marks the hurricane season, which lasts through November. And while many of us are planning to go on a fun vacation, planning for a hurricane may seem far from focus.
According to the National Hurricane Center, lack of hurricane awareness and preparation is common among all major hurricane disasters. Being aware of what to do before and during a storm can help reduce hazards from a hurricane’s disastrous effects, which range from storm surges, heavy rainfall, flooding, high winds, tornadoes, and rip currents.
As history has shown, the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastal areas are susceptible to hurricanes; however, each year parts of the Southwest and the Pacific Coast also experience heavy rains and floods from hurricanes off of Mexico. The Eastern Pacific hurricane season actually began in May and ends in late November. In Atlantic areas, the season peaks in mid-August to late October.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA)’s readiness website has a wealth of information on hurricane preparedness at home and in your community.
Homeowners living in hurricane-prone areas shouldn’t underestimate the potential for storm damage. Georgia-Pacific offers a few tips for home preparedness this hurricane season:
- First pre-measure the windows and doors you want to protect. Don’t forget to consider openings, such as roof and gable vents, skylights and garage doors. Eighty percent of residential hurricane damage starts with wind entry through garage doors.
- To help your home withstand wind and debris, look for exterior grade plywood at least five-eighths of an inch thick. Plan to have a four inch overlap on each opening.
- Wearing the proper safety gear, apply fasteners every four inches to secure plywood panels. For the right type of plywood and other supplies you may need, ask the experts at your local home improvement store.
- For a step-by-step video on protecting your home before a storm, click here, and for additional hurricane preparedness resources visit www.gpplywood.com.
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If you've ever wondered, "What do chickens eat?" then wonder no more, because here is the answer.
It doesn't take much study around my chicken yard to figure out that chickens aren't that picky about what they eat. For the most part, chickens are omnivorous, and they're also blood thirsty. They love blood. Yuk!
One thing they don't eat is onions.
There are a few other off limits items, but otherwise just about everything is fair game for a chicken - even dirt and pebbles.
Let's take a look.
Naturally grown food is just fine for your flock of chickens. My preference is to feed my flock that which I grow. What could be easier and more economical?
Grass is a favorite of chickens. If you have a patch of grass that you want removed, just fence in a bunch of chickens, and you'll have bare dirt in a couple of days - stems, leaves, roots and all. It's also excellent food for them.
Green leaves are soon devoured if you surround them with chickens. Weeds, flowers, vegetables, bushes and low hanging tree branches are all fair game for chickens. If it's green, they'll at least try it.
Vegetables can satisfy a chicken's interest in food. They like summer and winter squash just fine, and will generally try to eat any vegetable that can be pulverized or torn apart easily. Photo left shows a few of our girls enjoying vegetable discards from a local organic food store.
Kitchen scraps are also
a favorite for my chickens. They'll strip the meat off of a carcass or
bone, clean up whatever you left on your plate, and eagerly devour
vegetable peelings and cuttings from the kitchen. They are two-legged garbage disposals and compost makers. Photo right shows chickens eating scrap potatoes, cooked.
Seeds are the main diet of chickens largely because that's what we have decided to feed them. If you asked someone what do chickens eat, they'll likely say "grain" as their first response. It's true, chickens will naturally find seeds (grain) on the surface of the soil and just under the surface when they scratch things up, but they eat much more than just grain.
When we think about what do chickens eat, we usually consider stationary foods like what we might feed them out of a bag, but their natural animal instincts can have them chasing down their dinner as well.
Mice can be eaten by chickens. If it scurries across the ground, chances are good that a chicken will be right behind it looking to turn it into a meal.
Worms are a favorite of chickens. It's one of the reasons they scratch at the ground, and it's the main reason they enjoy a nice patch of freshly tilled earth.
Bugs are spotted by the watchful eye of the chicken and sampled for taste. If the bug isn't a large hard shelled beetle, it probably won't last long with a chicken.
When considering what do chickens eat, we're likely to think about food items...things we'd consider to be food. Well, that's not always the case with chickens.
Blood seems to be an odd thing for chickens to eat, but they do. They love blood. If you butcher an animal with chickens nearby, they will come over to drink the blood and eat the ground that the blood has soaked into.
Even if it's the blood from one of their buddies, they don't care - they're there to feast on it.
Chickens are blood thirsty and can be cruel to one another. They will peck another chicken and basically eat it alive. You want to know what do chicken eat? I'm here to tell you that sometimes it's their own kind and even one of their kin. If the wounded bird is still alive and bleeding, they will continue to peck at it and eat it's flesh and blood.
Grit and soil are also part of a chicken's diet. It doesn't seem natural, but chickens eat small stones and pebbles so they can grind up seeds/grain in their gizzard. When you butcher a chicken and cut open it's gizzard, you are bound to find small stones and pebbles in there.
Notice the denuded soil in the photo above. Outside the chicken yard there is plenty of vegetation, but inside it's been stripped and scratched down to nothing at all. There should be no question about what do chickens eat, this photo makes one of their favorite meals very clear.
As far as I can tell, there are only a handful of things that chickens don't or won't eat. Here they are:
a pretty short list, but that's been my experience as I have raised
many a chicken to provide meat and eggs here at Best of Both Worlds. As you can see, when you think about what do chickens eat, it's easier to list what they don't eat.
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| 0.978501 | 1,032 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Plugins / Web
Apps & Tools
Character reordering, contextual shaping, ligatures, positioning adjustments...##@$! Rendering complex Unicode scripts can be complex indeed. Except that D-Type Text Layout Extension makes it simple!
(Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android etc.)
(Windows, Linux, Mac)
Download Demo Version
See What's New
Commonly used scripts such as Latin, Greek or Cyrillic are easy to display. All you need to do is render their characters in a simple linear progression from left to right and the resulting text is correctly displayed. Unfortunately, not all world's scripts are that simple. Many scripts, just to be displayed correctly, require special processing such as character reordering, contextual shaping, ligatures, positioning adjustments etc. These scripts are also known as complex scripts. Arabic, Indic and Thai are among those scripts. And even Latin scripts often use ligatures and various types of positioning adjustments (e.g. kerning) to enhance the appearance of displayed text.
The Unicode Standard alone does not help software developers with the task of laying out text. Unicode deals with the units of textual content (characters) and provides a good solution for the computer representation, storage and interchange of text. However, Unicode does not deal with the units of textual display (glyphs) and does not provide a solution to the problem of actual text layout, shaping and advanced typography. Obviously, a global, efficient and portable Unicode based text layout/shaping engine is necessary to help developers with this quite challenging task.
To better understand the problems that layout/shaping engines must overcome, here are just some of the complications associated with the display of various world's scripts:
Directionality — Arabic and Hebrew are read from right to left. Consequently, the order of characters differs in presentation from storage. Character positioning, cursor movement and text selection in bidirectional context (the context in which left-to-right and right-to-left text runs coexist) is typically the biggest challenge to overcome. The characters are not laid out in a simple linear progression from left to right. In other words, the logical order of characters (the order in which the user enters text as a sequence of keystrokes) can be different from the visual order (the order in which glyphs are represented to the user)
In bidirectional text the trailing edge of one character is not necessarily adjacent to the leading edge of the next character. The above example shows one logically contiguous selection of characters (but visually disjointed).
Contextual Forms — Arabic scripts are not only read from right to left; they also require special processing necessary to display contextual forms properly. For example, the visual appearance of a character in Arabic scripts can change greatly depending on its position within a word and the characters that surround it. Most (but not all) characters have four different visual forms: isolated (when the character is alone), initial (beginning of a word), middle (within the word) and final (end of word). This means that layout/shaping engines must not only shape those forms properly but also detect word boundaries within a given run of text.
The above example shows an Arabic text sample without any special processing (in which characters are in their isolated form) and then the same text sample again with contextual shaping enabled (in which characters take their proper form depending on whether they are at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the word).
Ligatures — With Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and even Chinese/Korean/Japanese scripts, there is often a direct one-to-one mapping between a character and its glyph. However, in Arabic, Indic and other complex scripts, several characters can combine together to create a whole new glyph. These special glyphs are then called ligatures. Although Latin scripts can also make use of ligatures, most Latin ligatures are optional and designed to improve the aesthetic appearance of certain character combinations. However, in Arabic and many other complex scripts, certain ligatures are mandatory. In those cases it is unacceptable to present certain character combinations without using the appropriate ligature.
Ligatures are not only used in complex scripts such as Arabic but sometimes in Latin scripts too. The first ligature in the above illustration is the Arabic Lam-Alef ligature which is mandatory for Arabic scripts. The remaining ligatures are some of the Latin standard and discretionary ligatures.
Glyph Reordering — The South Asian family of scripts (Indic) exhibit rendering complications that are not found in any other script. Letters are drawn in a different order from that in which they are typed or stored in memory, glyphs are inserted or rearranged and complex ligatures are formed. The actual amount of pre-processing necessary to convert a series of Unicode Devanagari characters into a series of glyphs is vast. It should therefore come as no surprise that the Unicode Standard had to dedicate more than twelve pages just describing the proper processing of Devanagari characters!
Contextual shaping for Indic scripts must deal with complex glyph rearrangements and ligatures.
Multiple Code Points — The difficulty with contextual shaping is that a given character, for all of its various glyph forms, usually has only one defined code point in the Unicode Standard. Similarly, ligatures often do not have a Unicode code point. It is the responsibility of the layout/shaping engine to determine, at run time depending on the context, the appropriate visual form of each character in the text.
D-Type Text Layout Extension thanks to the underlying ICU LayoutEngine solves all of these problems in a simple and straightforward way. All complex script rendering is done in a uniform and consistent manner. The application is responsible for supplying to the Text Layout Extension an array of Unicode character codes in reading or logical order while the extension returns an array of glyphs to display in the correct visual order along with the coordinates necessary to properly position those glyphs and, additionally, character indices to map each glyph back to the input text array. Then, these positioned glyphs can be very easily rendered using D-Type Font Engine.
The benefit of this approach is that software developers do not have to be familiar with various complex scripts or any of the shaping rules that might be applicable to each script. Regardless of the script, the Text Layout Extension is always utilized in the same consistent way. It is only important to be aware of the following basic concepts:
The Text Layout Extension, or more precisely the underlying ICU LayoutEngine, is designed to process a sequence of Unicode characters which is in a single font, script and direction. Developers can use the Unicode bidirectional algorithm built into the Text Layout Extension to determine the direction of the text or give the user direct control over bidirectional text layout.
The sequence of input characters is always passed to the Text Layout Extension in reading or logical order.
Developers should not assume a simple one-to-one mapping between input characters and output glyphs. In other words, the size of the resulting glyph array can be (and with complex scripts usually is) different than the size of the input Unicode character array.
When it is necessary to map output glyphs back to the initial sequence of input characters (e.g. for cursor movement and text selection), developers should use the returned array of character indices.
As mentioned above, D-Type Text Layout Extension internally relies on the ICU LayoutEngine, a popular open source portable and platform independent layout engine capable of shaping many complex Unicode scripts including Arabic, Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Han, Hebrew, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu and Thai. The ICU LayoutEngine uses layout tables found in font files and the knowledge of generic script shaping rules to lay out complex scripts.
The ICU LayoutEngine supports complex scripts in the following ways:
For more information about the ICU LayoutEngine, please visit the ICU LayoutEngine web site and take a look at the applicable documentation.
The ICU LayoutEngine itself, however, does not provide an interface to access the necessary layout tables in the font files. Depending on how the fonts are accessed, this interface must be written by the client (developer). In other words, the developer is responsible for opening, closing and managing the actual fonts (e.g. from file or memory), accessing and, optionally, caching their layout tables and supplying those tables to the ICU LayoutEngine when requested. In the past, this was the only way for software developers to use the ICU LayoutEngine in conjunction with D-Type Font Engine.
With D-Type Text Layout Extension, fortunately, this is no longer necessary. D-Type Text Layout Extension takes care of all the font specific tasks and interaction with the ICU LayoutEngine. Software developers can now use one simple extension to display all supported complex scripts without the need to write their own font access interfaces. D-Type Text Layout Extension is an extension of D-Type Font Engine that makes it possible to easily render complex scripts, hiding from the developer all the complexity associated with this process and the need to interface with the ICU LayoutEngine directly.
For software developers who use or plan to use D-Type rendering technology, D-Type Text Layout Extension brings the following benefits:
The most recent D-Type Text Layout Extension includes the ICU LayoutEngine that was released on October 9, 2013 (ICU 52 release). As new ICU releases become available, the Text Layout Extension will be updated to support the most recent version of the ICU LayoutEngine.________________
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Magnetic Field Strength H
The magnetic fields generated by currents and calculated from Ampere's Law or the Biot-Savart Law are characterized by the magnetic field B measured in Tesla. But when the generated fields pass through magnetic materials which themselves contribute internal magnetic fields, ambiguities can arise about what part of the field comes from the external currents and what comes from the material itself. It has been common practice to define another magnetic field quantity, usually called the "magnetic field strength" designated by H. It can be defined by the relationship
and has the value of unambiguously designating the driving magnetic influence from external currents in a material, independent of the material's magnetic response. The relationship for B can be written in the equivalent form
H and M will have the same units, amperes/meter. To further distinguish B from H, B is sometimes called the magnetic flux density or the magnetic induction. The quantity M in these relationships is called the magnetization of the material.
Another commonly used form for the relationship between B and H is
μ0 being the magnetic permeability of space and Km the relative permeability of the material. If the material does not respond to the external magnetic field by producing any magnetization, then Km = 1. Another commonly used magnetic quantity is the magnetic susceptibility which specifies how much the relative permeability differs from one.
For paramagnetic and diamagnetic materials the relative permeability is very close to 1 and the magnetic susceptibility very close to zero. For ferromagnetic materials, these quantities may be very large.
The unit for the magnetic field strength H can be derived from its relationship to the magnetic field B, B=μH. Since the unit of magnetic permeability μ is N/A2, then the unit for the magnetic field strength is:
An older unit for magnetic field strength is the oersted: 1 A/m = 0.01257 oersted
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|A sundial has a shadow casting device called a gnomon, attached to a dial plate
which has markings. The actual shadow used to read the time is created by a
part of the gnomon called the"style". The markings almost always have hours,
and may or may not be legal clock mean time, often it is local sun time. Local
sun time (local apparent time or L.A.T.) must have the longitude factored in,
typically somewhere between -30 to +30 minutes. Also, the clock and the sun
are not in synch, the difference is called the equation of time (EOT) and varies
predictably throughout the year, the limits being about plus or minus 16 minutes.
Other markings may appear on a sundial, the date (declination lines or curves)
is common. Sometimes the hours until the next sunset (Italian lines) is another.
Yet another is the Islamic prayer times. The analemma, and so on.
|EOT for 2013 EOT for 2014
EOT for 2015
EOT for 2016 EOT for 2017 EOT for 2018
EOT for 2019 EOT for 2020
Simple Shadows talks about building a sundial and
explains how it works. Free.
This web site is financed by sales of Illustrating
Time's Shadow, and online download
see paypal page here for details.
|Also see here:
|the author has a rather
interesting family, so do check it
out! He is the great grandson of
Harry Gordon Selfridge and
custodian of his personal effects
(currently on loan in Wisconsin:
2016), worked with Lindy
Woodhead on "Shopping,
Seduction, and Mr Selfridge"
over a period of 2 years, and on
"Secrets of Selfridge" (PBS), and
various news paper and
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| 0.908781 | 400 | 2.859375 | 3 |
On "December Among the Vanished"
"December among the Vanished" is one of the major poems addressed to the texture of absence.
The atmosphere of this poem offers snow, but no reviving moisture. Change is only loss; the snow "gets up"--it drifts or evaporates with the insistence of inanimate force, the winter birds (or their tracks) following its course. The beasts hiding in knitted walls anticipate the unprotected sheep of the last stanza, since we may take "knitted walls" as an image of sheep's coats, but the phrase also suggests predators in a forest, or even an animal furtiveness inhering in all matter, as when he wrote of "the night green with beasts as April with grass." In any case, the sense of threat and tension is clear. The winter is a "lipless man," sere and skeletal. The next line, "Hinges echo but nothing opens," is intended to be a complete sentence; the rattling door frames, or even the hinge of potential seasonal change, are the empty vestiges of possibilities now extinct. Yet Merwin's unpunctuated poems often create syntactical ambiguities, so we may also read that "lipless man Hinges" echo the winter. But this human presence, perhaps the hinged jaws of a skull, can neither speak, nor alter the landscape. The second stanza begins with an image of broken huts, belonging by virtue of their common origin to a silence receding into the past. We cannot remember if this silence once followed Armageddon; we suspect that it has a historical cause, but we can no longer isolate one. The lines also imply, more metaphorically, that even silence is now unhoused, even nothingness is exposed and unprotected. The pastures are no vista of openness but an encroaching distance. There are no barriers against fortune; with insensible willfulness, the snow and darkness "walk" down through shattered roofs. Everything is penetrated by loss.
The poem to this point is directed toward the last lines, where the tension becomes intolerable. They are among the most anguished lines in contemporary poetry, and their pain has no outlet. In one of those vacant huts, he writes, "I sit with a dead shepherd / And watch his lambs." The ceremony of shepherding, whether that of gods or of men, is gone out of the world; the lambs are born too late to understand their danger. The poem's tone makes the speaker seem a powerless witness, brought forward to watch in paralysis. Yet the resonances of the final verb are very complicated. "Watch" suggests not only mere observation but also protective vigilance, as in "watch over." We are not, however, convinced that the speaker could intervene if the lambs were threatened. The verb also implies the watch kept over the dead, an association which makes the lambs appear even more helpless. What is definitely missing here, what will never return, is the particular, secure relationship between the shepherd and his flock, a relationship Christianity ordinarily renews each December. The act of writing the poem is perhaps an act of witness, though the poet cannot quite become the new shepherd. Inevitably, too, our own loyalties are torn. We yearn to reach out and care for the lambs, but we are also part of that flock whose shepherd is dead.
In a larger sense, the poem itself is very nearly paralyzed. As the poem proceeds, its imagery is filled out, its emotional resonance intensified and newly dramatized, but the poem is also nothing more than another fragment of the world The Lice has evoked for forty pages. From that perspective, its broad tonal consistency suggests stasis rather than creative variation. Like so many of Merwin's recent poems, or like Rich's "Shooting Script," it is a sequence of equivalences impinging on one another; if there is a definitive key to their similarities, the poem both desires and evades it. Even the title, "December among the Vanished," straddles redundancy and contradiction--suggesting at once a double extinction and the inconceivable winter of those no longer present.
By Cary Nelson. From W.S. Merwin: Essays on the Poetry. Ed. Cary Nelsona and Ed Folsom. Copyright © 1987 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.
Return to W.S. Merwin
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| 0.966259 | 916 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Are women underrepresented in news coverage?
Tags: January 4, 2016| Last updated:
Last updated: January 4, 2016
News leaders regularly discuss and scrutinize their news agencies’ work to gauge how well it reflects the diversity of the communities they cover. Journalists often are encouraged to seek an array of perspectives and interview sources representing a variety of racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. A number of journalism-related organizations offer workshops and guidance aimed at helping reporters engage diverse communities and better represent these communities via multimedia platforms that include photos and video.
But is the same attention given to news agencies’ coverage of women — a group that often is underrepresented in media accounts despite the fact that women make up slightly more than half of the U.S. population? From a global perspective, there is evidence of significant gender gaps in news content. The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), a grassroots monitoring, research and advocacy project, has released several reports highlighting a worldwide disparity. Data from the GMMP show that in 2010, women made up only 24 percent of the people heard, read about or seen in the news. A report the organization released in 2015 indicates that the number remains unchanged. Academic research offers additional insight. Multiple studies, including a 2013 study published in Communication & Sport, have focused on differences in the media’s coverage of women’s sports. A 2011 study by a political sociologist at Purdue University looks at patterns of “gendered reporting” and how these patterns played out in the reporting of Sarah Palin’s 2008 bid for vice president of the United States.
Some media scholars, leaders and observers think part of the problem is a shortage of women in newsroom leadership positions. That means decisions about news content are made primarily by male editors. In 2015, women made up 35.3 percent of newspaper supervisors, according to the American Society of News Editors. Disparities persist in other areas of newsroom staffing, including editorial board representation. A 2014 report from the Women’s Media Center found that “64 percent of bylines and on-camera appearances went to men at the nation’s top 20 TV networks, newspapers, online news sites and news.”
Scholars from McGill University and Stony Brook University took an in-depth look at the reasons women receive less media coverage than men. The authors say their research, published in October 2015 in the American Sociological Review, is the most comprehensive analysis to date of the factors that explain this imbalance. They also state that they are the first to test whether the gender of news professionals has a significant impact on how men and women are treated in news reports. For the study, “A Paper Ceiling: Explaining the Persistent Underrepresentation of Women in Printed News,” the five authors performed a computerized analysis of the coverage rates of millions of female and male names in 13 major newspapers in the U.S. between 1983 and 2008, and in about 2,000 English-language newspapers and online news websites between 2004 and 2009. They matched that data with information collected about the gender of editors and top executives at some of the news agencies that were involved in the study.
Key findings include:
- An analysis of content in 13 major U.S. newspapers between 1983 and 2008 found that about 40 percent of all coverage went to 1 percent of the names. People who received thousands of mentions were almost only male.
- Male names received at least four times as much exposure as female names in the 13 major U.S. newspapers that were analyzed.
- When looking at data collected from the approximately 2,000 English-language newspapers and online news websites, the ratio is nearly 5:1.
- Inequities in media coverage are due largely to social realities and everyday societal inequalities. One of the primary reasons women are underrepresented in news articles is that they are underrepresented in key power positions in areas such as politics, business, entertainment and sports.
- Media coverage patterns also play a key role in the disparity. News agencies give the most attention to a small number of people who dominate the top of occupational and social hierarchies.
- The gender of news professionals does not appear to make much difference in how often women appear in news articles. When the study’s authors compared the content of news sections that were overseen by male and female editors, they found “very small” differences.
- Simply having a female publisher or a female executive editor at a newspaper was not enough to noticeably increase its coverage of women.
- Liberal and conservative newspapers and male and female editors are all significantly more likely to cover male names.
The study suggests that as long as the individuals who hold the most powerful positions remain overwhelmingly male, journalists have a limited ability to make substantial changes in how often women appear in news reports. The authors also note that while this study analyzed the representation of female names from a quantitative standpoint, it did not look into the ways women are portrayed or the roles they play in news articles. Previous research has suggested that women are often mentioned as wives or mothers of well-known figures instead of the main sources of news. “Considering this tendency, the ratios of newspaper articles that actually focus on women and their independent actions and ideas may in fact be even lower than the ratios found in the present study,” the authors state.
Related research: A 2011 study published in Media, Culture & Society, “Women and News: A Long and Winding Road,” explores women’s representation as news actors, sources and journalists in the news media. A 2012 study by a communications scholar at the University of Washington, “Is She ‘Man Enough’? Women Candidates, Executive Political Offices, and News Coverage,” examines news coverage of four female political candidates — Elizabeth Dole, Claire McCaskill, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin — and their male competitors in elections between 1999 and 2008.
Keywords: gender bias, gender gap, women in news, newsroom culture, media monitoring, news content, gender norms, gender identity, mixed-gender, gender congruence, gendered news coverage, inequality
Read the Nieman Reports article titled "Where Are the Women?”
- What key insights from the news article and the study in this lesson should reporters be aware of as they cover these issues?
Read the full study titled "A Paper Ceiling: Explaining the Persistent Underrepresentation of Women in Printed News.”
- What are the study's key technical terms? Which ones need to be put into language a lay audience can understand?
- Do the study’s authors put the research into context and show how they are advancing the state of knowledge about the subject? If so, what did the previous research indicate?
- What is the study’s research method? If there are statistical results, how did the scholars arrive at them?
- Evaluate the study's limitations. (For example, are there weaknesses in the study's data or research design?)
- How could the findings be misreported or misinterpreted by a reporter? In other words, what are the difficulties in conveying the data accurately? Give an example of a faulty headline or story lead.
Newswriting and digital reporting assignments
- Write a lead, headline or nut graph based on the study.
- Spend 60 minutes exploring the issue by accessing sources of information other than the study. Write a lead (or headline or nut graph) based on the study but informed by the new information. Does the new information significantly change what one would write based on the study alone?
- Compose two Twitter messages of 140 characters or fewer accurately conveying the study’s findings to a general audience. Make sure to use appropriate hashtags.
- Choose several key quotations from the study and show how they would be set up and used in a brief blog post.
- Map out the structure for a 60-second video segment about the study. What combination of study findings and visual aids could be used?
- Find pictures and graphics that might run with a story about the study. If appropriate, also find two related videos to embed in an online posting. Be sure to evaluate the credibility and appropriateness of any materials you would aggregate and repurpose.
Class discussion questions
- What is the study’s most important finding?
- Would members of the public intuitively understand the study’s findings? If not, what would be the most effective way to relate them?
- What kinds of knowledgeable sources you would interview to report the study in context?
- How could the study be “localized” and shown to have community implications?
- How might the study be explained through the stories of representative individuals? What kinds of people might a reporter feature to make such a story about the study come alive?
- What sorts of stories might be generated out of secondary information or ideas discussed in the study?
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3-D forms link antibiotic resistance and brain disease
St. Jude uses computer-generated images of different types of same enzyme to unlock mysteries of antibiotic resistance and a rare form of brain degeneration
The story of what makes certain types of bacteria resistant to a specific antibiotic has a sub-plot that gives insight into the cause of a rare form of brain degeneration among children, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The story takes a twist as key differences among the structures of its main molecular characters disappear and reappear as they are assembled in the cell.
A report on this study appears in the August 16 issue of the journal Structure.
The story is based on a study of the 3-D structure of an enzyme called pantothenate kinase, which triggers the first step in the production coenzyme A (CoA), a molecule that is indispensable to all forms of life. Enzymes are proteins that speed up biochemical reactions. CoA plays a pivotal role in the cells' ability to extract energy from fatty acids and carbohydrates; bacteria need CoA to make their cell walls. The job of pantothenate kinase is to grab a molecule of pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5) and another molecule that contains a chemical group called "phosphate." The enzyme then removes the phosphate group from that molecule and sticks it onto pantothenic acid.
In humans, certain mutations in this enzyme block its ability to put the phosphate group onto pantothenic acid. That diminishes the production of CoA by this route and causes the neurodegenerative disease called pantothenate kinase associated neurodegeneration (PKAN), according to Suzanne Jackowski, Ph.D., a member of the St. Jude Department of Infectious Diseases and a co-author of the paper. "We also know that certain antibiotics called pantothenamides work by impersonating vitamin B-5 and slipping into the enzyme," Jackowski said. "This blocks the bacteria's ability to produce fatty acids." The researchers already knew that different types of bacteria build their own versions of the enzyme pantothenate kinase, which are called Types I, II and III. For example, bacteria called Escherichia coli, found in the intestines and polluted water, produce Type I; Staphylococcus aureus, which causes skin infections and serious blood infections, makes type II; and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is an important cause of hospital-based infections, especially in burn patients, makes Type III. Types I, II and III each consist of two identical molecules called monomers, which bind together to form the enzyme. The groups had previously identified the structure and role of the Type I enzymes in pantothenamide inhibition of bacterial growth. What intrigued the St. Jude investigators now was the mystery of how Types II and III manage to do the same job even though they are constructed so differently; and why bacteria with the Type III enzyme are resistant to pantothenamide antibiotics. They also wanted to better understand the cause of PKAN in humans by comparing bacterial pantothenate kinase with the various types found in humans.
"Like all proteins, these enzymes are made up of long chains of amino acids, like beads on a string, and each type of amino acid has a unique shape and size," said Stephen White, D.Phil., chair of the St. Jude Department of Structural Biology and a co-author of the paper. The pantothenate kinase enzymes consist of two strands of amino acids that fold into various twists and turns to make a complex 3-D structure, White said. These modules, called monomers, snap together to form the enzyme. The researchers used a technique called X-ray crystallography to produce 3-D images of Types II and III and their interactions with panthothenic acid and ATP, a molecule that supplies the phosphate that the enzyme puts onto pantothenic acid.
First, the researchers crystallized a sample of the enzyme and bombarded it with X-rays using the facilities at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Then they used the pattern formed by the beams as they bounced off the crystals to create computer-generated, 3-D images of the patterns of twisting and folding amino acid chains that make up the different types of pantothenate kinase and their interactions with the other molecules.
"These images added a fascinating twist to the story of the enzymes," White said. When they studied the images, the St. Jude team realized that the monomers making up each type of enzyme were made from quite different 'strings' of amino acids. But they fold up into virtually identical looking 3-D monomers. "It was as if the uniqueness of each structure disappeared--each string folded up into the same shape as the other ones," White said. "This is very surprising because the different amino acids on each string have different sizes and different biochemical characteristics. So it would usually be impossible for them to form the same three-dimensional shapes."
But the twist to the story did not stop there. The identically shaped monomers in each pair bind to each other in novel ways to make two versions of the same enzyme that do not look alike and yet perform the same job differently. "In other words, the differences in the 'beads on a string' shapes that disappear when the strings fold into monomers suddenly reappear when the monomers combine to form even larger structures," White said. He explained that the genes for both types of enzyme evolved from a common gene ancestor. That common gene evolved so that the final Type II and III enzyme structures look and work differently, but can still do the same job--no matter what their amino acid chains look like.
"These images explained how the different types of the enzyme did the same job in different ways," said Mi Kyung Yun, M.S., research scientist in the St. Jude Structural Biology department and co-first author of the paper. "For example, the images showed that pantothenic acid binds to the Type III enzyme first, followed by ATP," said Yun, who was one of the investigators who created the X-ray crystallography images of the enzymes. "But with Type II enzyme, the ATP enters the enzyme from one direction, while pantothenic acid enters from another direction, in no particular sequence."
The images also suggested that Type II enzyme in Staphylococcus aureus has a "hole" within the loops and twists of its amino acid chains that allow pantothenamide antibiotics to slip inside the enzyme, White noted. But the Type III enzyme of Pseudomonas does not have this hole, so the antibiotic cannot slip into the enzyme. A further study confirmed that the structure of Type III made Pseudomonas resistant to the antibiotics, according to Roberta Leonardi, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Jackowski's laboratory and the paper's senior author. Leonardi removed the gene for the Type I enzyme from Escherichia coli, which is normally sensitive to the antibiotic and replaced it with the gene for the Type III enzyme used by Pseudomonas. "The gene for the Type III enzyme made Escherichia coli resistant to the antibiotics," Leonardi said. "This showed that our 3-D images of the enzymes correctly predicted that pantothenamide antibiotics couldn't get into the Type III enzyme."
In addition, test tube studies of the enzyme showed that Types I and II enzymes required different minerals than Type III in order to work. "One of the discoveries was that the Type III enzyme absolutely required potassium chloride, whereas Types I and II did not," Leonardi said. The study also showed that Type II pantothenate kinase in bacteria is similar to the human version, PanK2, according to Jackowski. Therefore, the structure of the Type II enzyme helps to explain how specific mutations in PanK2 disable this enzyme and cause the neurodegeneration disease called PKAN. "This holds promise that such insights will one day lead to the development of drugs designed to prevent or treat this disease," Jackowski said.
Other authors of the article include Bum Soo Hong (co-first author with Yun; University of Toronto, Canada); Yong-Mei Zhang, Charles O. Rock and Shigeru Chohnan (St. Jude); and Hee-Won Park (University of Toronto).
This work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, a Cancer Center (CORE) Support Grant and ALSAC.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Founded by late entertainer Danny Thomas and based in Memphis, Tenn., St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world. No family ever pays for treatments not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. St. Jude is financially supported by ALSAC, its fund-raising organization. For more information, please visit www.stjude.org.
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Apr 2016
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
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Health Benefits of Lime
The health benefits of lime include weight loss, skin care, good digestion, relief from constipation, eye care, and treatment of scurvy, piles, peptic ulcer, respiratory disorders, gout, gums, urinary disorders, etc.
The first fruit that comes to our minds when it comes to medicinal uses is perhaps the good old lime. This sour citrus fruit can do what many specialist medicines cannot. Lime, bearing the scientific name Citrus Aurantifolia, is being used for ages for treatment of various ailments.
Lime is consumed throughout the world in sorbets, beverages, refreshing drinks, pickles, jams, jellies, snacks, candies, sugar boiled confectionaries and culinary and the oil extracted from its peel or skin is extensively used in soft drink concentrates, body oils, cosmetics, hair oils, tooth pastes, toilet and beauty soaps, disinfectants, mouth washes, deodorants and innumerable other products. There are many varieties of lime found all over the world, particularly in the tropical and the Mediterranean climates.
Let us have a glance over the benefits and medicinal uses of lime.
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One of our recent after school activities was to be "Chicleros". Using the sap of the Sapodilla tree we made our own chewing gum. The sap is called Chicle. The Sapodilla trees grow in the rain forest and the sap is tapped out of the tree annually for 4 or 5 years.
To make our sticky mess we melted chicle and added corn syrup, confectioners sugar and tutti frutti flavoring.
We continued to work in the confectioners sugar and flavoring until we could roll it out and then cut it into chicklet size gum squares to be enjoyed by all. Most gum today is made by synthetic gum bases and other chemicals so this chewing gum kit was a clever glimpse into the past and fun way to help the rainforest.
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UC Berkeley Press Release
Abalones may owe their huge size to otters
BERKELEY – Abalone divers, who typically despise the California sea otter because of its voracious appetite for the largest and tastiest of the shellfish, may actually have otters to thank for the dinner-plate size of the prized delicacy.
Worldwide, abalones tend to be small, in the range of 2 to 4 inches across, according to evolutionary biologist David Lindberg, professor and chair of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a former abalone diver himself. Along the California and Pacific Northwest coast, however, abalones have grown much bigger, culminating in the 12-inch diameter red abalone, Haliotis rufescens, avidly sought by divers and once the center of a thriving commercial fishery.
(Photo by David Lindberg)
A surge in the last century in the sea otter population, however, killed off the commercial abalone industry along the central and southern California coast and made it hard for sport divers to find any abalones, let alone large, 12-inch ones. Many divers, fishermen and even wildlife biologists worry that the otter is driving the abalone to extinction.
A new study of the interaction between abalones and California's coastal kelp forests, however, suggests that the sea otter played a key role in driving up the size of the abalones. Unlike kelp and algae in tropical waters, kelp in cold waters like those along the California coast have not developed toxic chemicals to ward off voracious grazers like sea urchins and snails. As a result, abalones, which live off the drifting, dead kelp so abundant along the Pacific coast, thrive and grow huge on the highly nutritious food.
The researchers speculate that the sea otter helped set up this state of affairs. By ruthlessly preying on sea urchins and smaller snails, otters kept the herbivores at bay, and the kelp had no need to develop chemical deterrents. Abalones could, for the most part, hide from otters in rock crevices while gorging like couch potatoes on the tasty kelp washed up on their doorstep.
(Fred Mertz photo, courtesy Howard Hughes Medical Institute)
"We realized with this study that most abalones are small, averaging two inches across, and live on coral reefs in the tropical Indopacific," Lindberg said. "So why does the world's largest abalone live in the same place as this major predator, the sea otter? We think the abundance of kelp, the ability of abalones to stay hidden in crevices and the predation of otters set up an ideal system to ratchet up the size of abalones."
"There is very little doubt that in the old days, before people were part of the system and when otters were abundant along this coast, anywhere abalones occurred, the otters had a very limiting effect on their distribution and abundance," said James Estes, a research scientist and marine ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.), who works out of UC Santa Cruz's Long Marine Laboratory in Monterey. "I think what was really going on was a dynamic equilibrium, where the populations in the crevices built up and the abalone would be pushed out to the point where otters could get them on the edges of the crevice. There were still lots of them there, but there was still a fair production that was being exploited by sea otters as well."
Estes, Lindberg and Charlie Wray, a former UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow, published their findings in the current issue of the journal Paleobiology.
Lindberg has always been puzzled by claims that the otters are driving the abalones to extinction, since it is known that sea otters and abalones have shared coastal waters for the past 5 million years. The newcomers to the area, he said, are humans. Middens or refuse piles along the coast show that, historically, the California Indians also loved abalone and were the first to deplete the abalone population along segments of the coast.
"Since we can demonstrate that the large size increase took place in the presence of otters, the only hypothesis left as to the cause of the demise of a lot of abalone stock is human overfishing and probably destruction by humans of habitat," Lindberg said. "Getting an evolutionary grasp on a system gives us power in understanding its ecology and physiology, even if you are talking about management of wildlife stocks."
Colleagues for more than 20 years, Lindberg and Estes had often talked about the interactions along the coast between sea otters, abalones and the abalone's principal food, kelp. Lindberg, a malacologist and former director of UC Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology, specializes in the evolution of mollusks. Estes, who has studied otters for some 35 years, has had a long-standing interest in the history of the kelp forests off the California coast. The two teamed up with Wray, a molecular geneticist, to look at the evolution of abalone size and how abalones may have affected the evolution of kelp.
Estes earlier had suggested that, as the Earth began to cool 45 million years ago, kelp moved out of their tropical homes into cooler waters in temperate regions of the northern and southern hemispheres. The first radiation was into southern oceans 42 million years ago as the Antarctic ice sheet developed, followed much later, perhaps 10 million years ago, by radiation into the northern oceans as the Arctic froze over.
The current study, in which Wray used DNA comparisons to determine the family tree of the abalones, supports these dates. The abalones, which originated about the time the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, moved into the same temperate areas around the same time as the kelp. Perhaps because the kelp left behind many of the grazers that keep tropical kelp and macroalgae down, the temperate, cold-water kelp never developed the toxic chemicals that are typical of tropical kelp, and abalones were able to grow large on the abundant food.
"In tropical systems, abalones are little bitty things. But wherever one looks around the world where there are kelp forest systems in cold oceans, that's where the bigger abalones occur," said Estes. "One of our major conclusions is that this has happened relatively recently in evolutionary time, starting around 5 million years ago."
Of eight abalone species now living along the Pacific coast from Baja California to British Columbia, six - the red, black, pink, white, green and flat - are all 7 inches across or larger. Several species off the Japanese coast and in Antarctic waters also are significantly bigger than tropical species, which have remained small.
Interestingly, tropical kelp and algae have developed such toxic tissues that abalones no longer feed on them, but instead have turned nocturnal and feed on blue green algae and diatoms that form a scum on reef surfaces. Over time, kelp from the north has even returned to southern waters, yet abalones still avoid it as if it contained the same toxins as the original tropical kelp.
To both Lindberg and Estes, though, the California sea otter stood out as an intriguing member of the kelp/abalone community. Fossil evidence shows that otters have long lived along the coast and eaten the biggest and best of the abalone. Otters today take stones and pound on the underwater abalones until the shell margins break, then pry the abalones off the rocks with their paws. Or, they cave in the shells with a rock and come back later to peel the weakened abalones off the rocks. While in some situations, predators can drive prey to become larger to better fight off attacks, in the case of abalones, getting bigger just made them more attractive as a food source.
"If size is not a refuge, why would you get big, especially where you have a convenient predator taking you out at the same time?" Lindberg asked.
Hence the researchers' speculation that abalones grew large, in part, because of otters. The system lost its balance in the 1700s, when Russians first began slaughtering otters and fur seal for their pelts. By the time otter and seal harvesting was outlawed in the early 1900s, the otter was thought to be extinct. Abalone populations rose, and abalones moved into more open spots, even developing a more peaked shell since they no longer needed a slim shell to hide in crevices.
"We got a taste for abalone in the absence of otters, and now that the otter has come back, we're blaming the otter as a threat to the abalone," Lindberg said.
A remnant population of otters off Big Sur eventually grew to populate the entire central California coast, though it has yet to move south in numbers to the Channel Islands, or north beyond San Francisco. Divers fear that the California abalone sport fishery is doomed if otters do move towards the Mendocino coast.
"If otters spread into northern California, which is entirely a sport fishery now, a recreational fishery, a free diving activity - you can't exploit them using scuba, just breath-hold free diving - it will be pretty much over," Estes said.
The good news is that sharks may be keeping them from spreading that far north, Estes said. He noted, too, that killer whales seem to have decimated otter populations along Alaska's Aleutian chain.
Lindberg said that the abalone/otter conflict is one of several unforeseen consequences of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which was signed in 1972 and has led to a rapid rise in sea mammal populations off the California coast. Seabird nesting areas are being impacted by a burgeoning sea elephant population, while sharks drawn by the mammals increasingly are attacking humans.
"We make management decisions all the time without an evolutionary perspective on how the system assembled over time," Lindberg said. "An evolutionary perspective is critical for understanding ecological context."
The work was funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the U.S.G.S.
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Definition of Feculas
1. fecula [n] - See also: fecula
Click the following link to bring up a new window with an automated collection of images related to the term: Feculas Images
Lexicographical Neighbors of Feculas
feculas (current term)
Literary usage of Feculas
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Pharmaceutical Journal by Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (1844)
"It may be readily distinguished by the naked eye of an experienced person from all other commercial feculas, tous les mois alone excepted. ..."
2. The elements of materia medica and therapeutics by Jonathan Pereira (1842)
"The grains of most, if not of all, feculas, have a laminated texture. To the concentric layers is owing the appearance of concentric rings on the surface of ..."
3. Rural Economy: In Its Relations with Chemistry, Physics, and Meteorology by Jean Baptiste Boussingault, George Law (1865)
"None of the amylaceous principles or feculas obtained by the processes which I have mentioned are absolutely pure ; even supposing all the soluble ..."
4. Rural Economy, in Its Relations with Chemistry, Physics, and Meteorology by Jean Baptiste Boussingault (1845)
"None of the amylaceous principles or feculas obtained by the processes which I have ... By slight roasting, amylaceous feculas undergo considerable changes; ..."
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Manatees were killed in record numbers by collisions with watercraft in Florida in 2002, according to the state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The commission found that 95 manatees were killed by watercraft last year, or 14 more than in 2001. By contrast, overall manatee deaths in the state fell, from 325 in 2001 to 305 in 2002. The findings are likely to add fuel to an already fiery debate in Florida about whether the manatee’s status should be changed from endangered to threatened on state listings, a matter that will be considered by the commission on Jan. 23. Advocates of the change — mainly members of the Florida boating community — say the increased deaths simply reflect a larger overall manatee population, but conservationists say the species is still at risk and deserves the stricter protection. Since 1999, 902 Florida manatees have died, 254 of them from collisions with watercraft, out of a total known population of 3,276.
Donate now to support our work.
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This FAQ explains the purpose of the Mars Society, answers questions about Mars Direct and the general feasibility of a
humans-to-Mars mission, gives some rationale for human Mars exploration and provides information on how to join us.
A: Mars Direct is a sustained humans-to-Mars plan developed by Dr. Robert Zubrinthat advocates a minimalist, live-off-the-land approach to space exploration, allowing for maximum results with minimum investment. Using existing launch technology and making use of the Martian atmosphere to generate rocket fuel, extracting water from the Martian soil, and eventually using the abundant mineral supplies of Mars for construction purposes, the plan drastically lowers the amount of material which must be launched from Earth to Mars, thus sidestepping the primary stumbling block to space exploration and rapidly accelerating the timetable for human exploration of the solar system.
The general outline of Mars Direct is simple. In the first year of implementation, an Earth Return Vehicle (ERV) is launched to Mars, arriving 6 months later. Upon landing, a rover is deployed that contains the reactors necessary to generate rocket fuel for the return trip. After 13 months, a fully-fueled return vehicle will be sitting on the surface of Mars.
During the next launch window, 26 months after the ERV was launched, two more craft are sent up: a second ERV and a habitat module (hab), the astronauts' ship. This time the ERV is sent on a low-power trajectory, designed to make it to Mars in 8 months -- so that it can be landed at the same site as the hab if the first ERV experiences any problems. Assuming that the first ERV works correctly, the second ERV is landed at a different site, thus opening up another area of Mars for exploration by the next crew.
After a year and a half on the Martian surface, the first crew returns to Earth, leaving behind the hab, the rovers associated with it, and any ongoing experiments conducted there. They land on Earth 6 months later to a hero's welcome, with the next hab/ERV already on the way to Mars.
With two launches during each launch window -- one ERV and one hab -- more and more of Mars will be opened to human exploration. Eventually, multiple habs can be sent to the same site and linked together, allowing for the beginnings of a permanent Mars base.
Q: How much will sending humans to Mars cost?
A: Estimates of the cost of a human Mars exploration program over the years have been wildly disparate, leaving much confusion in their wake. On the high end of the scale was the Space Exploration Initiative proposed by President George H. W. Bush in 1989 at $450 billion; Mars Direct occupies the low end of the scale at roughly $30 billion.
Q: Why are cost estimates for a Mars mission so different?
A: The differences in cost estimates are mainly due to the amount of new hardware which must be developed and used under any given proposal. Some Mars exploration programs have advocated assembly of large spacecraft either in orbit or on the Moon, while others have called for advanced propulsion systems such as nuclear engines. Developing these new technologies and the infrastructure necessary to support them drives costs up rapidly. Mars Direct achieves its low cost in two ways: by using only existing technologies, adapted for the specifics of a Mars mission, and by generating rocket fuel for the return mission -- by far the largest mass component, and therefore most costly non-development expense of any Mars mission -- on the surface of Mars.
Q: Sending humans to Mars is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
A: If done in a cost-effective manner such as Mars Direct, human exploration of Mars can be accomplished easily under the existing NASA budget -- which currently accounts for less than 1% of federal discretionary spending. A total mission cost of $30 billion, when spread out over the 20 years envisioned by Mars Direct (10 years to first flight, 10 years afterwards during which five missions are flown), represents approximately 10% of the $300 billion NASA budget for that time frame (based upon current annual funding levels of $15 billion).
Funds allocated to a Mars exploration program are not simply disappearing from the American economy, either -- indeed, the vast majority of those $30 billion goes to pay the salaries of engineers, support staff, even factory workers whose plants would assemble the hardware necessary for Mars missions. Meanwhile, the technological advances that are a natural by-product of space exploration programs -- which in the past have included MRIs, velcro, and the microwave oven, to name a few -- will help drive economic activity for years to come.
Q: Why should we go to Mars at all?
Q: Why not just send robots? They're cheaper and there's no risk of death.
A: Sending humans to Mars is undeniably more expensive and dangerous than simply sending robotic probes. However, the benefits to be gained from sending humans -- in addition to appropriate robots -- are so dramatic that it is easy to justify the added issues involved in doing so.
Before we can even answer the question of why humans are better explorers than robots, we first need to answer the question of whether it's too dangerous to send humans to Mars. In answering that question, we first need to consider the secondary question: too dangerous for whom? There are many of people who, if told that they could be part of an expedition to Mars only if they abandoned all hope of returning to Earth, would jump at the chance. Thousands more would sign up for a trip where their chances of returning were only 50/50 (including the writer of this piece). Looking back over time, people have always been willing to risk their lives for things they care about, for great missions of exploration -- why should today be any different? More importantly, why should people who will be staying safely here on Earth deny the people who wish to take that chance the opportunity, just because the explorers might die?
Given, however, that those who will eventually venture to Mars would prefer to come back safe and sound, it is still in the best interests of everyone involved in such a trip to minimize risk to the astronauts. In order to do so, one must first understand the largest risks explorers will face going to Mars (keeping in mind that every single risk cannot be forseen or understood -- this is not the case in day-to-day life, let alone a trip to another planet). In no particular order, these are radiation poisoning, low-to-zero gravity, psychological problems, equipment failure, and supplies running out.
Thankfully, there are excellent ways to mitigate or entirely annihilate the risks posed by each of these problems. Radiation issues are addressed elsewhere in this FAQ, as well as in this response to a New York Times article on the subject. Zero-g on the trip there and back is not the way the mission is designed, and given the amount of time cosmonauts have spent in zero-g with no long-term effects, Mars gravity should pose few, if any, problems. Mental health issues are likely overstated, and are already being researched in Mars simulations across the world. Equipment failure and a lack of supplies are both nullified as issues, as the mission architecture calls for redundancy in both equipment and supplies. Chances are, whatever the potential problem, the issue has either already been addressed, or can easily be addressed during the course of proper mission planning.
Now that we know that going to Mars is not "too dangerous," we can look at why humans are much, much better explorers than robots. First, consider the difference in the effective range and mobility of a human vs. a robot. Whereas in their first several months on Mars, the Spirit & Opportunity rovers were happy to go 2 kilometers each, a human could travel considerably greater distances in the course of an afternoon. Humans can simply step over rocks, gullies, or other obstacles that present robots with daunting, perhaps insurmountable challenges. This difference becomes particularly relevant if, for example, the interesting piece of Martian real estate happens to be just over the horizon of the landing site -- somewhere a human could likely get to in a matter of hours, or possibly days, but that a robot might not be able to reach at all.
Humans are also considerably better at going beyond pre-programmed objectives, techniques, etc. than robots. If mission objectives change due to a new discovery, there is no need to reprogram a human. This saves time, money, and a chance at disaster -- after all, a human will never enter a cycle of infinite reboots because a programmer forgot to clear out their memory. Even in cases where there is no change in the mission profile, a human is superior to a robot: for example, a trained geologist would be considerably better at identifying specimens which are worth investigating than would a robot. Perhaps most important of all, though, humans bring along their instincts about what lines of research are worth following up on -- something no robot could ever bring to the table.
Best of all, human missions are virtually guaranteed to last much longer than current rover missions: while the minimum duration for the Mars rovers to be considered a success was 90 days, a successful human mission -- i.e. one which returned the astronauts to earth -- would take 910 days (roughly 2.5 years), with 550 of those days (about 1.5 years) spent on the surface of Mars.
Even with all of these advantages, however, it still makes sense to send robots to work alongside humans. Robots deployed by humans are excellent at reaching spots which could be dangerous or inaccessible to humans -- for example, they can be lowered down a sheer rock face, or placed into a canyon that they might not return from. Robots can also be used to maximize exploration value on expeditions -- if an interesting spot is noticed along the day's path, a robot can be deployed to spend as much time as is necessary in the area while the humans press on towards their original goal. Manually controlled robots can even be used to perform minor repairs on the habitat, including repairs on objects underneath the habitat -- something that can be a cumbersome process in a spacesuit, or perhaps entirely impossible.
If we want to get the most out of missions to Mars, we should send humans *and* robots.
Q: Why concentrate on Mars when there are so many problems on Earth?
A: Many prominent people, such as actor Patrick Stewart (who depicted Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek), have argued that it makes more sense to use government resources to solve Earthly problems, and that we should only attempt a humans to Mars mission after Earth's problems have been solved.
Given the imperfect nature of humanity, however, this simply amounts to a cheap cop-out. Humanity will never solve all of its problems, even given an infinite amount of time -- much less within the time each of us has remaining on Earth.
Equally important is the fact that humans to Mars missions could actually help solve some of those very same problems. For example, long-term plans for space exploration currently include development of nuclear propulsion systems, which when combined with the abundant supplies of helium isotope H-3 available on the Moon and Mars, could provide a practically pollution-free, virtually inexhaustible supply of cheap power for all of Earth that would end our dependence on fossil fuels.
Q: Won't sending humans to Mars distract NASA from other important work?
A: A properly managed humans to Mars program can be accomplished without unduly burdening NASA resources, budgetary or otherwise. This can be best illustrated in terms of the percentage of launches -- expressed in terms of current Shuttle launches -- necessary to support Mars Direct. Before the Columbia disaster, NASA averaged six Shuttle launches per year. Mars Direct requires two launches per Mars launch window-- roughly one launch per year. This means that a sustained human Mars exploration program can be accomplished using 16% of NASA launch capability, leaving plenty of room for other projects.
Additionally, if the hardware necessary for Mars exploration is constructed in a modular fashion, subsets or recombinations thereof could be used to support other programs, such as the Lunar base envisioned in President Bush's recently announced initiative. Using one design in multiple missions drastically cuts costs and development times, and could thus actually accelerate other exploration programs.
Q: What is meant by the terms "conjunction-class" and "opposition-class" missions?
A: There are two basic possibilities for a practical Earth-Mars trajectory: opposition- and conjunction-class trajectories. The two are so named because they are based on the relative positions of Earth and Mars at launch: opposition occurs when Mars is closest to Earth, and conjunction occurs when Mars is furthest from Earth. These positions can be visualized best when thinking of the Sun, Earth, and Mars lying across a straight line. At opposition, the Sun is in the middle, Earth is to the right, and Mars is further right. At conjunction, Mars is on the far left, the Sun is in the middle, and Earth is on the right.
Q: What is meant by a Mars "launch window"?
A: Due to the trajectories ships must follow when going from Earth to Mars, certain relative positions of the two planets allow for maximum speed with minimum propulsion costs. Whenever such a set of relative positions occurs -- approximately once every 26 months -- a "window" of opportunity opens for a "launch" to Mars. The most recent window was in August of 2005; the next one will open in October of 2007.
Q: Do we need to go to the Moon first to prepare for a Mars mission?
A: While valuable in its own right, human Lunar exploration will teach us very little about how to survive on Mars. The two are drastically different environments:
- The Moon has no atmosphere, which means that testing methods of generating rocket fuel from the atmosphere cannot be tested at all.
- Temperatures on the two bodies are wildly different: Mars ranges from roughly -90C (-130F) to +10C (50F), while the Moon, during its 672-hour day, averages +100C (212F).
- Mars has a 24.65-hour day, very similar to Earth; the Moon has a 672-hour day.
- Water exists in abundance on Mars -- as ice seen at the poles by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and frozen into the Martian soil. While water may exist on the Moon, it is nowhere near as available there, and would require considerably more effort to obtain.
- Mars' gravity is roughly 1/3 of Earth's; the Moon's is roughly 1/6 of Earth's.
Indeed, comparing the two environments, it might actually be said that we need to go to Mars to prepare for the considerably more harsh environment of the Moon!
It is useful to practice for Mars before we go, but this can be done in the Arctic at 1/1000th the cost of a Lunar training facility.
Q: Wouldn't launches from or refueling stops at a Moon base be easier than going straight from Earth to Mars?
A: As it turns out, the Delta-V (change in velocity; the energy needs of a mission go up as the Delta-V required goes up) required to get from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to the surface of the Moon is actually greater than to get from LEO to the surface of Mars! This is because spaceships going to Mars can use a technique called aerobraking -- using the resistance from a planet's atmosphere to slow a moving body -- whereas Moon ships must expend more energy to slow themselves down.
In order to get to the surface of the Moon, a Delta-V of 6 km/s is required -- 3.2 km/s to get from LEO to the Moon, 0.9 km/s to slow into Lunar orbit, and 1.9 km/s to slow from orbit into actual landing. To get to the surface of Mars (given a launch with Mars at conjunction), a Delta-V of 4.5 km/s is required -- 4.1 km/s to get to Mars, 0.1 km/s for post-aerocapture orbit adjustments, and 0.4 km/s to slow from post-atmospheric-entry speeds. Therefore, using the Moon as a refueling point is pointless, as simply getting there is more difficult than going straight to Mars.
Since the raw materials and infrastructure necessary to construct spaceships do not exist on the Moon, everything that would be launched from the Moon would have to come from Earth to start with. Again, given the fact that stopping by the Moon is more difficult than going straight to Mars, it makes no sense to move the necessary materials to the Moon on their way to Mars.
Q: How can you reliably make rocket fuel on Mars? What is "in-situ resource utilization"?
A: In-situ ("on site") resource utilization is simply the process of using the materials available to you in the environment you are exploring. For Mars missions, this typically refers to using the atmosphere to make rocket fuel.
Generating fuel for a return flight is simpler than it would appear at first. Rocket fuel is typically made of a methane/oxygen mixture, or CH4 + O2. Hydrogen, being an extremely light element, makes up only about 5% of the weight of a rocket fuel mixture, and can thus be imported from Earth; heavy insulation and some gelling of the mixture with methane (as the hydrogen will not be fed directly into an engine) will reduce in-space boil-off to negligible levels.
The remaining elements in rocket fuel -- namely carbon and oxygen -- are abundant in an easily obtainable form on Mars, which has an atmosphere of 95% carbon dioxide, or CO2.The fact that this atmosphere is at an average of 7 to 10 millibar (1 bar is Earth's air pressure at sea level; 1 millibar is thus 0.1% of that pressure), as measured over the course of several years by the Viking probes, is not a problem; simply exposing activated carbon or zeolite to the Martian atmosphere at night, with temperatures as low as -90C (-130F), will cause the material to absorb 20% of its weight in carbon dioxide. When warmed to 10C (50F) during the Martian day, the carbon dioxide will outgas, giving high-pressure carbon dioxide with almost no moving parts or energy input. The gas obtained can be purified first by adding a simple air filter to remove most of the Martian dust; once this is done, pressurizing it to 7 bar will cause the carbon dioxide to liquefy, allowing easy separation of any remaining dust, nitrogen or argon (the other gases present in the Martian atmosphere in measurable quantities, which will remain gas at that pressure) through distillation processes that have been widely used on Earth since their introduction by Benjamin Franklin in the 1700's. The end result of this process is 100% pure carbon dioxide, suitable for use in reactions used to make rocket fuel.
From this point, the carbon dioxide can be reacted directly with the hydrogen brought from Earth in the following reaction:
3CO2 + 6H2 --> CH4 + 2CO + 4H2O
This reaction is mildly exothermic, meaning that it produces heat instead of requiring heat (and therefore power) to run.
If the water obtained from this reaction is run through a simple electrolysis process, i.e.:
2H20 --> 2H2 + O2
The hydrogen trapped in the water as a result of our first equation can be brought back to produce more and more methane, with a large amount of oxygen being produced that could serve as a huge backup to the life-support system of the Mars habitat.
The final result of running these two reactions in combination is an oxygen:methane ratio of 4:1, for a propellant mass leverage of 18:1, the optimum goal for rocket fuel. The leverage ratio would jump as high as 34:1 if the extra oxygen was not used for life support backup, but instead was combined with the carbon monoxide produced in the first reaction for use in combustion devices or fuel cells.
A working device has already been produced for this exact purpose. NASA's Johnson Space Center contracted with Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin) in 1993 to have a prototype built. Dr. Robert Zubrin's team created a unit that demonstrated efficiency rates as high as 94% within 3 months. Additional funding by JSC and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory allowed for further improvements, with a resulting unit that operated at 96% efficiency for 10 days straight with no outside intervention, generating 400 kilograms of propellant on 300 watts; the unit itself weighed only 20 kilograms. Studies indicate that when scaled up, the propellant:unit mass ratio would go up significantly, as the percentage of system mass taken up by non-productive elements such as sensors would be reduced to negligible levels.
Q: Isn't it risky to send the crew of a Mars mission separately from their return fuel?
A: Actually, it turns out to be safer to send the fuel and the astronauts separately. Sending out the first Earth Return Vehicle (ERV) one launch window before the first crew ensures that a fully functional, fueled return system exists before the astronauts ever leave Earth; if problems were to occur, their mission could simply be delayed. By comparison, a crew landing with their return system has no way of guaranteeing that damage does not occur to that system during descent onto Mars.
Landing close enough to that fuel supply will be easy, as the rendezvous with the ERV will have a wide margin for error. Contained within the habitat module will be a fully fueled, pressurized rover with a one-way range of 1,000 kilometers; therefore, if the crew lands within that distance, they will be safe. Given a skilled pilot, a homing beacon in the ERV, and modern computer guidance systems, the chance that astronauts would land outside their safety zone is practically nonexistent. This is particularly true considering that, during the Apollo program, one crew landed within 200 meters of a Surveyor probe launched several years previously.
Additionally, sending the second ERV envisioned under Mars Direct on a slower trajectory than the astronauts -- in essence putting it two months behind them -- means that if problems are discovered with the first ERV after landing, or if the astronauts for some reason land so far away from the first ERV that they cannot reach it, the second ERV can serve as a functional backup.
Q: How long would a Mars mission last?
A: This depends on the trajectory taken to Mars, i.e. whether an opposition-class or conjunction-class mission is chosen.
In both missions, Earth to Mars transit time is roughly 180 days. However, since the two planets must also be aligned properly for the return flight from Mars to Earth, this is where their similarity ends. In an opposition-class mission, astronauts would stay on Mars for 30 days, followed by a 430-day return mission that would swing by Venus for a gravity assist, for a total round-trip of 640 days. In a conjunction-class mission, astronauts would spend 550 days on Mars, followed by a another 180-day return leg along roughly the same route as Earth to Mars, for a total round-trip of 910 days.
While on the surface a shorter round-trip time might seem safer, because the astronauts on an opposition-class mission actually spend more time in interplanetary space (610 days vs. 360 days for a conjunction-class mission), hazards associated with a zero-gravity environment and cosmic radiation actually increase. Additionally, life support systems have a considerably higher possibility of failing on an opposition-class mission, as they must run for an extra 250 consecutive days.
Considering that the hazards of an opposition-class mission are actually greater, and that the science and exploration return on such a relatively short stay on Mars is considerably lower than in conjunction-class missions, the Mars Society, along with many scientists, support conjunction-class missions.
Q: When will the first humans set foot on Mars under Mars Direct?
A: If implementation of the plan began immediately, the first phase of the mission -- the Earth Return Vehicle -- would launch in April of 2014, with the first human crew leaving Earth at the next launch window 26 months later, in June of 2016. They would reach Mars 6 months later, in December of 2016.
Q: What are the dangers from radiation in transit and on the surface of Mars?
A: Life on Earth is actually exposed to constant background radiation; as such, humans actually require some radiation to live. For example, someone living near sea level in the United States is exposed to roughly 150 millirem (where 1 rem is the standard unit of radiation measurement in the US, a millirem is one thousandth of a rem, and 1 Sievert, the European measure of radiation, is 100 rem), per year and those living in high-elevation locales such as parts of Colorado receive 300 millirem annually due to the smaller amount of atmosphere shielding them.
Radiation only becomes dangerous when absorbed in large quantities, particularly so if those doses come over short periods of time. A prompt dose, such as would be delivered by an atomic bomb or a meltdown at a nuclear plant, can be as high as 75 rem without any apparent effects. Longer-term doses have much lower effects: according to the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council, a dose of 100 rem causes a 1.81% increase in the likelihood of cancer in the next 30 years of a person's life. Russian cosmonauts aboard Mir have taken doses as high as approximately 150 rem, with no apparent side effects to date.
There are two types of radiation which concern astronauts: solar flares and cosmic rays. Solar flares, irregular discharges of radiation from the Sun, are made up of particles with roughly 1 million volts of energy, and can be shielded effectively. Astronauts inside a spaceship during any of the last 3 large recorded solar flares would have experienced doses of 38 rem; if they were inside of the storm shelter designed into the Mars Direct habitat, the dose would have been 8 rem. On the surface of Mars, which offers much radiation protection due to its atmosphere, the unshielded dose would have been 10 rem, the shielded dose 3 rem.
Cosmic rays, which constantly bombard space with an average energy of roughly 1 billion volts, are much more difficult to shield against. However, they occur in considerably lower concentrations than the radiation from a solar flare. In fact, on a conjunction-class flight, astronauts would take an average of 31.8 rem from cosmic rays over the course of a year; on a longer opposition-class flight, they would take 47.7 rem over 1.75 years.
In total, radiation doses of 52.0 and 58.4 rem taken on conjunction- and opposition-class missions, respectively, are well below dangerous thresholds -- even were they to come all at once, instead of over the course of years.
Q: Won't the lack of gravity during the trip to Mars hurt the astronauts?
A: The problem of zero gravity during the trip to Mars is actually not a problem at all: zero-gravity conditions can be eliminated altogether during the trip, as artificial gravity can be created through the use of centrifugal force. After launch from LEO, the upper-stage booster would be used as a counterweight to the habitat module, with a long, durable, multi-thread tether in between. With the two rotating around a central axis, Earth gravity could be mimicked for the duration of the trip; upon reaching Mars orbit, the tether could be cut (as there's no use for the burnt-out upper stage booster). The same process would apply to the return trip.
Q: What are the effects of Mars gravity on humans?
A: Obviously, nothing can be done to alter gravity on the surface of Mars. However, at 38% of Earth's gravity, the effects associated with microgravity are reduced considerably. Considering that Mir cosmonauts have experienced comparable times in zero gravity with no long-term negative impacts -- Sergei Avdev spent a total of 748 days in zero-gravity over 3 missions, and Valeri Polyakov spent 438 consecutive days without gravity -- there is no reason to believe that the maximum stay of 550 days on Mars associated with conjunction-class missions would cause long-term health problems.
A privately funded program to study the effects of Mars gravity, the Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program, is currently underway. The Mars Society was the initiator of the project.
Q: What about the "human problem"?
A: The objection is often raised that no group of people can live in such tight quarters for such a long period of time as required by a Mars mission without either going crazy or fighting endlessly, making necessary cooperation impossible. However, on close examination, this argument falls apart quickly.
For the 6-month flight to Mars, the crew of a Mars Direct mission will have a little over 1,000 square feet to live in -- a space that's somewhat small for the average American, but which is luxuriously large for, say, the average Japanese citizen. Once on the surface of Mars, the crew will have that space, the roughly 500-square-foot Earth Return Vehicle, and of course the entire surface of Mars to roam through. Combined with the immense amount of scientific work the crew will be conducting, boredom and cramped living quarters will not be a problem on Mars. The return flight, in the smaller ERV, is the roughest leg of the trip -- but the combination of ample reading material, games, etc., along with the anticipation of a return home to fame and fortune, will make that trip perfectly bearable.
Q: What are the risks of contaminating Mars with Earth life forms, or vice versa?
A: Actually, it is arguable that this has already been happening for billions of years. During his study of known Martian meteorite ALH84001, Cal Tech's Joseph Kirschvink showed that large parts of the rock were never heated above 40C (104F), proving the theory of University of Arizona researcher Jay Melosh that it is possible for rocks to be ejected from one planet's surface and land on another's surface without being excessively heated. More importantly, this discovery showed that not all rocks ejected from either Mars or Earth are sterilized -- a fact that, when combined with the known ability of microorganisms to remain alive in a dormant state for millions of years, means that Earth life has probably already traveled to Mars, and if life ever existed on Mars, it has already traveled to Earth.
Q: What is the Mars Society doing to prepare for humans to Mars missions?
A: The Mars Society is currently conducting two major simulated Mars missions, in order to test supply requirements, mission hardware, and the ability of crew members to work together under Mars-like settings.
The first of these is the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, located on Devon Island at 75 degrees North in the Canadian Arctic. This location was chosen because it is one of the most Mars-like locales on the face of the Earth: the island is completely uninhabited and unvegetated; it receives almost no precipitation, and is thus nearly as dry as Mars; temperature extremes approach those of Mars; the impact crater where the station is located is similar to many such craters on Mars. The second site is the Mars Desert Research Station, located near the southern Utah town of Hanksville. This site was chosen because it too resembles Mars -- though not as closely as Devon Island -- and is considerably cheaper and easier to maintain and reach than the FMARS outpost. Additionally, the Mars Society is the initiator of the Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program, which will test the effects of Mars gravity on mice in order to better understand its effects on living creatures.
Q: What is the Mars Society doing politically to push for humans to Mars missions?
The Mars Society is conducting ongoing effort to reach out to Congress, the President, and other important political figures. This is done at both the local and the national level -- with everything from individual members writing their representatives to Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin testifying before Congress and meeting with leaders of the political establishment in Washington.
Members -- or anyone else interested in seeing the cause of space and Mars exploration succeed -- are strongly encouraged to make contact with their Congressional representatives. In order to assist with this effort, sample materials are available for those who may be uncertain how to proceed when attempting to meet with their Congresspersons.
Q: How can I join the Mars Society?
For questions regarding this FAQ, please contact: [email protected]
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The process by which Thermal Insulation is installed.
- Fiberglass Insulation
- Vapor Barrier
Note: R-13 recommended for exterior walls. R-19 recommended for ceilings.
- Tape Measure
- Utility Knife
- Dust Mask
- Staple Gun
Note: Only install insulation on exterior walls. Paper side facing the interior of the house.
- Measure height of wall or length of ceiling
- Measure and cut length of insulation equal measurement from step 1
- Place cut piece between studs
- Cut around outlets, light-switches, and other fixtures
- Repeat steps 2-4 for each gap between studs throughout house
- Staple all flaps to face of studs
- Staple vapor barrier to face of studs
Note: R-13 Wall insulation is typically produced as a continuous roll. R-19 ceiling insulation is typically produced in 7 ft sections. Multiple pieces may be used to fill a gap. Gaps are typically 15 inches wide.
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Digestive and Liver Disorders Overview
Food and drink must be changed into smaller molecules of nutrients to be absorbed into the blood and carried to cells throughout the body. Digestion is the process by which food and drink are broken down into smaller parts so that the body can use them to build and nourish cells, and to provide energy.
Click Image to Enlarge
- the mixing of food.
- the movement of food through the digestive tract.
- a chemical breakdown of large molecules of food into smaller molecules.
Digestion begins in the mouth, where food and drink is taken in, and is completed in the small intestine.
The digestive tract is a series of hollow organs joined in a long, twisting tube from the mouth to the anus, consisting of the following:
- small intestine
- large intestine
Organs that help with digestion, but are not part of the digestive tract, include the following:
- glands in the mouth that make saliva
Parts of other organ systems, like nerves and blood, also play a major role in the digestive process.
In a wave-like movement, called peristalsis, muscles propel food and liquid along the digestive tract.
Hormones of pregnancy can affect the digestive system. The hormone progesterone, which causes smooth muscle relaxation, often causes relaxation and slowing of digestion in the stomach and the small and large intestines. The gallbladder is also affected with delayed emptying that can increase the chances of gallstone formation. Many of the digestive discomforts of pregnancy, such as morning sickness (nausea or vomiting), constipation, and heartburn are all related to the relaxed tone and slowed action of the digestive system.
The growing uterus itself can affect the digestive system. As the uterus grows, it can compress or even obstruct some of the parts of the digestive tract. This can lead to slowed movement of food and constipation. Increasing fluids, regular exercise, and increasing the fiber in your diet are some of the ways to prevent constipation. Always consult your physician before taking any medication for this condition.
Many women have appetite changes in pregnancy, including increased hunger, decreased appetite, cravings, aversions, nausea, and vomiting. A few women develop pica, a rare craving to eat substances other than food, such as dirt, clay, or coal. The craving may indicate a nutritional deficiency.
Click here to view the
Online Resources of High-Risk Pregnancy
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Happy Birthday, Women’s Bureau!June 04, 2010
When it comes to the history of American women, 1920 was a seminal year. That August, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — the granting of women’s suffrage — was officially ratified and became the law of the land. I would imagine that in a couple of months, we’ll have plenty to say on the anniversary of that historic victory. Today, however, I want to talk about different watershed moment for American women from that very same year.
On June 5, 1920 — 90 years ago today — the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau was created. The Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor is the only federal agency devoted solely to the needs of working women. Since its founding, the Women’s Bureau has, time and again, been on the frontlines fighting for working women and their families on the big issues of the day. From fighting discrimination against African American women workers in the 1920s, to advocating for the landmark Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, to encouraging green and other nontraditional jobs for women in the present day, the Women’s Bureau has a long and storied history of promoting gender equity in the workforce.
Here’s some cool trivia: AAUW and the Women’s Bureau go back almost as far as the agency’s founding. As early as 1922, AAUW’s legislative program called for a reclassification of the U.S. Civil Service and for a repeal of salary restrictions in the Women’s Bureau. In the decades that have followed, we’ve been close partners and loyal allies. In fact, just last month, AAUW hosted a welcome reception for the newest director of the Women’s Bureau, Sara Manzano-Diaz, with several leaders of various women’s organizations. Joined by such luminaries as Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement Tina Tchen, we were proud to celebrate those ties that have bound us for so long.
Unfortunately, under the previous administration, the Women’s Bureau was not accorded the resources, staff, or respect it deserved. Today, however, represents a new day and new era. Under the leadership of President Obama, Secretary Solis, and now Director Manzano-Diaz, the Women’s Bureau is being restored to its previous role as a committed and determined advocate for working women and their families. That, to say the least, is very good news.
For 90 years, the Women’s Bureau has been a beacon of hope for those of us who care a great deal about achieving gender equity in the American workforce. Let’s hope the next 90 years are even better.
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Plotting the Wöhler Curves
Plotting S-N curve includes plotting initial strain against life to failure. In the laboratory, a sinusoidal stress is applied and the process is known as the Coupon Testing process. These curves are also known as a Stress-Life diagram. For example, let us consider fatigue behavior of compression members like springs. The following figure has been divided into three different regions. Region 1 denotes the area of ogilocyclic fatigue. In this region, rupture occurs at very small alternations and the material is often subjected to plastic deformations.
Region 2 denotes the area of limited endurance.
Region 3 is known as the security zone under low constraint.
Now let us consider an ideal S-N curve, which would be a straight line. By approximating a stress curve, we can calculate the value of stress amplitude. The curve is used to determine the Basquin Slope. N1 = N2 (S1 / S2)1/b is the general relationship between two failure cycles at different time intervals.
and the Basquin Slope is determined by the equation:
b = -[(logS1 – logS2)/ (log N2 - logN1)], where
S1, S2 are stress values for corresponding number of failure cycles denoted by N1 and N2. b denotes slope of the S-N curve.
Once slope of the curve is determined, it becomes very easy to find out the value of stress amplitude for any two S-N values on the curve.
Wöhler Curves can also be used to determine the values of fatigue ratio for different materials. Fatigue Limit can be defined as ratio of ultimate strength (Su) and endurance limit (Se) of a material. The value of fatigue limit usually varies between 0.25 and 0.60.
For instance, steel's fatigue ratio is expressed as Se = 0.55 Su.
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One of the first ways to discover the identity of a tree is by examining its leaves. According to Fairfax County Public Schools, the identity of many trees can be determined just by looking at the shape of a tree leaf. On the other hand, other trees can be are harder to identify, so you need to look for other distinctive traits that can lead to a tree's identity, such as a tree's leaf arrangement.
The blade of a leaf is the whole leaf unit and sometimes is composed of many smaller leaflets. Leaf margins are the edges of leaves. A leaf base is the term for the portion of the blade closet to the stem. The apex refers to the tip of a leaf. The petiole is the thin stalk connecting the stem to the leaf blade. Stipules are tiny formations at the bottom of the petiole, although sometimes they're not present, says Pennsylvania State University.
Tree leaves come in various shapes. The leaves of a cabbage palmetto are fan-shaped, notes the Clemson University website. The eastern hemlock has fernlike leaves. The leaf of an alder tree is almost round, according to Schools Liaison. A hazel leaf is also almost round, but has a pointed tip. The shape of a maple tree leaf is three-lobed with wavy edges, while willow leaves are long and thin.
According to North Dakota State University, deciduous leaves are classified into four groups determined by leaf type and arrangement. Simple leaves that grow opposite from each other comprise one group. Common examples are maple and lilac trees. Simple leaves, growing in an alternate arrangement, are a group that includes poplars, birches and willows. Compound leaves found opposite from each other is a third group, in which ash and buckeye trees are included. Compound leaves that grow alternately compose a fourth group that includes walnut and locust trees.
Sometimes determining whether a tree has simple or compound leaves can be tricky, warns Texas A&M. This is because a leaflet can look like a leaf. Whether a leaf is a leaf or a leaflet can be decided by looking for the bud. At the bottom of a single leaf there's a bud, but there is no bud at the base of a leaflet, notes North Dakota State University.
When determining the species of a conifer tree, count the number of needles on each bundle, known as a fascicle. For example, the white pine tree has five needles per bundle, according to Tree ID. Needles come in pairs on red or Norway pine trees and are 3 to 4 inches long. Tamaracks have bundles of two to five needles per bundle.
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Where's That Lemonade Recipe?
Even in the best of times, most of us would like to pretend a failed project never happened. And when something goes wrong in an economic downturn, there's an even stronger urge to ignore the misstep. But if you sweep a failure under the rug, you'll never learn what it can teach you, says Rita McGrath at Harvard Business Online.
"Failures show you where your assumptions are wrong," she argues. "Failures demonstrate where future investment would be wasted. And failures can help you identify those among your team with the mettle to persevere and creatively change direction as opposed to pig-headedly charging blindly ahead."
Your worst-case-scenario goal, therefore, might be an "intelligent" failure, McGrath suggests—with parameters like those defined by her colleague Sim Sitkin:
- The outcome is genuinely uncertain, and cannot be known ahead of time.
- Since the project is carefully planned, you know why something went wrong.
- The damage is not so great that it spells disaster for the organization.
- With a short time between outcome and interpretation, fallout from the failure can be quickly managed.
- What you learn benefits other areas of the business.
"If your organization can approach uncertain decisions as experiments and adopt the idea of intelligently failing," concludes McGrath, "so much more can be learned (so much more quickly) than if failures or disappointments are covered up."
→ end article preview
Read the Full Article
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Reviving a Progressive Agenda in America
by Achieving Gender Balance in Politics
April 29, 2005
By Karyn Strickler
My grandmothers were not born with the right to vote in the United
States of America. My mother's was the first generation of American
women whose life commenced with the right to vote.
It was only 85 years ago that women won the hard-fought battle
for suffrage. The federal amendment to the U.S. Constitution for
women's suffrage was not even introduced in the U.S. Congress until
1868. The amendment passed on August 26, 1920. Women fought the
formal battle for suffrage for half a century. Women had to make
a case to men for why they should have a right to vote.
Here's what Susan B. Anthony said in 1872, upon being convicted
of voting in the Presidential election: "I stand before you tonight
under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last
presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It
shall be my work this evening to prove... that in thus voting, I...
committed no crime, but, ...simply exercised my citizen's rights,
guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the... Constitution,
beyond the power of any state to deny."
In reference to the preamble of the U.S. Constitution, Susan B.
Anthony insisted, "It was we, the people; not we, the white
male citizens... but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.
And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure
them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity,
but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright
mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of
liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing
them provided by this democratic-republican government - the ballot."
That evening, Anthony argued that in fact women were persons as
defined by the Constitution and "entitled to vote and hold
office." She made a good case, but why should she have had
to make a case for something that should have so obviously been
every woman's birthright as a U.S. citizen - the right to vote?
It should have been obvious that women must be full participants
in the decisions made by our government - the decisions that profoundly
affected their lives.
It should be equally obvious today that women ought to be represented
in elected office in proportion to their numbers in the population
on the local, state and national levels - a concept that I call
gender balance in politics.
Suffrage was not simply a movement to secure women's right to
vote. It was a movement to make women full participants in society,
thereby transforming society. Achieving gender balance in politics
is the logical extension of the suffrage movement - the fulfillment
of the still unrealized dream of the suffrage movement. As path
breaking feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft said in 1792, "Women ought
to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without
any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government"
Over two hundred years later women are still arbitrarily governed
with little direct share in the deliberations of government because
men make up 78% of state legislatures; 85% of the U.S. House of
Representatives and 86% of the U.S. Senate and about 90% of Governors.
Women as Decision Makers
Without the achievement of gender balance in politics, women will
be forever in the status of petitioner, not decision maker.
Until we achieve gender balance, women will have to petition men
to implement and enforce laws and societal ethics against sexual
harassment, instead of deciding, as members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary
Committee that sexual harassment will not be rewarded with a seat
on the U.S. Supreme Court, as happened in the case of Clarence Thomas.
Unless we achieve gender balance, women will have to petition
men to allow women access to emergency contraceptive pills - ordinary
birth control pills taken in a higher than normal dose - without
a prescription. Emergency contraception, also known as Plan B, is
safe and can prevent fertilization, ovulation or implantation. It
has an effectiveness rate of 75%- 89% if used within 72 hours of
unprotected intercourse, after contraceptive methods fail or in
the case of rape. Over-the-counter availability is necessary partly
because access to contraception in most states today is abysmal.
Thirty-two thousand women become pregnant each year because of
rape or incest. Tragically, very few states in the United States
mandate that emergency room treatment for victims include services
related to emergency contraception. All women are entitled to easy
access to emergency contraceptives; it's basic health care. But
we're not going to get it by petitioning men, we tried recently
and we lost.
If there were more women in the U.S. Congress, the Bush Administration
would not dare to weaken the protections of the Family and Medical
Leave Act (FMLA), as they have threatened to do. The Act guarantees
"eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected
leave for a serious illness, to care for a seriously ill family
member, or to care for a newborn or newly adopted child. Since 1993,
more than 50 million people have taken job-protected leave, and,
as a result, fewer people have had to choose between job and family,"
according to the National Organization for Women.
Until women achieve gender balance, women will have to petition
men to find a cure for breast cancer, the disease which takes the
life of one American woman every twelve minutes.
Alice Paul submitted the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to U.S.
Congress in 1923. The first section of the ERA says: "Equality of
rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any state on account of sex." The second and third
sections of the ERA consist of one sentence each, saying that Congress
shall have the power to enforce the amendment and that it will take
effect 2 years after ratification. That's the entirety of the ERA.
It's only threatening to those who want to control and impede the
progress of women.
It's 2005 and the ERA is still not part of the U.S. Constitution.
Unless women achieve gender balance in politics, we will have to
petition men to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. We tried petitioning
male-dominated state legislatures to ratify the ERA in the 1970's
and we lost. Women need to decide, as members of the U.S. Congress
to revive the ERA and as members of state legislatures to ratify
it in every state house across this country.
The number of women in elected office on the national level has
not changed significantly in more than a quarter of a century. There
were 20 women in the U.S. House in 1961 and there are 66 today.
There are only 14 women in the U.S. Senate. The Center for American
Women in Politics reports that, "Since the first Congress,
11,699 people have served in the House or Senate. Of these, 215
(less than 2%) have been women." While the number of women
on the state level is better, men still comprise almost 80 percent
of state legislatures on the average.
History has proven repeatedly and definitively that if women want
to achieve social, economic and political justice, by trying to
influence men, we will not succeed. We must do so by achieving gender
balance in politics.
How Gender Balance Will Change Politics
Why do religious political extremists control so much of our national
public policy agenda? The answer is simple - progressives have provided
no affirmative counterpart to the Christian Coalition and other
powerful, reactionary groups. While there is sporadic reaction to
the agenda of religious political extremists in America, progressives
are simply not setting and implementing a pro-active public policy
agenda. Unless progressives act quickly and forcefully it may soon
be too late to regain control of American politics.
The golden boy of the religious political extremists, Ralph Reed
is now running for public office himself, but he left the Christian
Coalition to start a firm whose focus "will be on building a farm
team of state legislators, school board members and other local
officeholders who, [Ralph Reed] believes hold the key to the future
of our country." (Washington Post, April 24, 1997)
Their ultimate goal is control - at all levels of government.
But they're starting at the local and state level because it's easier
to get into office without having their extremist views exposed.
In Ralph Reed's words, "I want to be invisible. I paint my face
and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a
body bag. You don't know until election night."
Achieving gender balance in politics is one way to change our
direction and revive a progressive agenda in America on a mass scale.
Women, regardless of party, are a major progressive force in politics.
During the last two decades, there was a consistent gender gap on
certain issues related to women, families and social well–being.
Such issues include: defense of the right to choose safe and legal
abortion; environmental protection; support for child-care programs
and the achievement of racial equality.
In a study called "How Women Legislate," by Sue Thomas published
by Oxford University Press in 1994, only 26 percent of women legislators
agreed that abortion should be prohibited in almost all circumstances
compared with 39 percent of male legislators. Seventy nine percent
of women state legislators supported the Equal Rights Amendment
compared with 61 percent of men.
In an NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll taken during the 1996
presidential election, 54% of women thought that the main issues
facing the nation were social problems such as education and poverty,
versus 37% of men.
While all issues are women's issues, until women are represented
in politics in proportion to their percentage in the population,
the political system will not adequately address issues of particular
concern to women.
Study by the Center for American Women in Politics
The Center for the American Woman in Politics (CAWP) says, "When
compared with men, women are: less militaristic...; more likely
to favor measures to protect the environment and to check the growth
of nuclear power; more often supportive of programs to help the
economically disadvantaged [and] more often supportive of efforts
to achieve racial equality..."
A more recent study by CAWP of the Democratic-controlled 103rd
Congress and the Republican-controlled 104th said that, "Democratic
and Republican women legislators of widely differing ideological
views and representing markedly different constituents seek to promote
legislation that they believe will serve women and are willing to
cooperate across party lines to accomplish their legislative objectives
Across party lines, women share common interests. Senator Barbara
Boxer (D-CA) said, "[W]omen from all over the country really
do follow what you do and rely on you to speak for them on issues
of women's health care, reproductive choice, condition of families,
domestic priorities, equal pay for equal work..."
Deborah Pryce (R-OH) Ohio said, "I think women have to speak
up for things that affect women, because men don't; not out of malice,
but because it's just not of interest to them."
Congresswoman Nancy Johnson (R-CT) said that regarding legislation
she thinks, "How will this effect women who are at home taking
care of children and who will need to re-enter the workforce later
on? How does this affect women who did not go beyond high school
because they thought only boys should go to college and now they're
stuck? I know a lot more about the shape of women's lives and the
patterns of women's lives, so I need to look and see: How will the
public policy affect those patterns?"
The differences women bring often strengthen the institution.
Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) said, "They elected me because I am
an African American woman who has a certain set of life experiences
that differentiate me from the typical male member of Congress...
[T]he institution is...enhanced because of the difference I bring."
The study was very clear and said, "Despite differences in
party control, political climate and ideology between the 103rd
and 104th congress, the presence of women made a difference in shaping
the terms of the debate and in the public policy outcomes in both
Skirting the Issue
I once asked a progressive women's community leader where she
stood on the need for gender balance in politics. She said she was
not interested in electing someone just because they "wore
a skirt," implying that flooding the political pipeline with
women would result in the election of some right-wing women, a thorny
Granted, in individual cases, we will sometimes find that the
man is the better candidate on the issues. But generally, if we
want to avoid electing right-wing women, we can work to elect only
those who support the right to choose safe and legal abortion. Abortion
rights is an issue that effectively separates progressive and moderate
women from their right-wing counterparts. If we work to achieve
gender balance in politics by electing pro-choice women, we would
eliminate most of those women who align politically with the right
Whether or not the abortion issue is used to separate out right-wing
women, the CAWP study found that in the 103rd and 104th Congresses,
"Most congresswomen, Democratic and Republican, believe they
have an obligation to represent women." There is little doubt
that more women in elective office would lead to a national reordering
of priorities and would likely thwart religious political extremist's
efforts to define politics of the 21st century in their terms.
It's high time that women took their rightful place as leaders
of this country defining and reordering our national priorities.
It took suffragists many decades to discover the only successful
model for women's participation in the system – women doing it for
What's the Problem?
A major obstacle to achieving gender balance in politics is that
American women lack a sense of entitlement to political power, a
baffling phenomenon. By contrast, I found when I went to Botswana
in 1999 to train women to run for public office, that the women
of that fledgling democracy were very serious about their claims
to political power.
Trainings there contributed to a 100% increase in the number of
women in Parliament in a single election cycle - from 9% in 1994
to 18% in 1999. These African women exceeded proportionately, the
representation of women in the U.S. Senate in a much shorter timeframe
– because they were determined to do so.
Even today in Iraq, women are demanding a greater role for women
in politics. Twenty-five percent of the seats in the new national
Assembly were reserved for women and women took 31 percent of the
seats. That's about double the percentage of women in the either
the U.S. House or Senate and Iraqi women are not satisfied. These
kind of numbers would be a major advance for American women in politics
when compared with our current role, but Leila Abdul Latif, Minister
of Labour and Social Affairs, said "31 percent doesn't satisfy us
when you consider than Iraqi women make up more than 50 percent
of the population," according to Agence France-Presse.
It's an attitude, a sense of entitlement to political power that
simply does not exist among American women elected officials, women's
organizations, individual women and foundation funders. If American
women got serious about achieving political power, they could do
so on a dramatically shortened timeline.
Women's organizations generally do not see it as a priority to
support the election of more women to public office. The influence
of the few groups like the National Women's Political Caucus that
train women to run for office, is marginal and fading. Instead of
encouraging others, they like to stamp out new organizations that
try to help. EMILY's list, with its vast resources, hand selects
a few women to promote to higher office instead of flooding the
political gates with women at all levels of government.
Existing organizations are not impacting young women in large
numbers. While lecturing at American University in Washington, DC
in a class called "Women in Modern America," I was surprised
by women, about 20 years old saying that they had no idea that men
dominated the decision-making positions in America. These young
women said they had never been encouraged to consider a run for
While there were some enlightened members of the class, others
shared worn-out stereotypes that should have been long-ago eliminated
about the physical weakness and emotional instability of women making
them unfit for public office. Of the few young men in the class,
their reaction ranged from open hostility to grudging acceptance
of the idea of gender balance in politics.
We talked about how to reach young women on the issue. Participants
thought that education had to start in elementary and middle school.
Few of these young women had heard the stories of the struggles
of the Suffragists or any of the early feminists that I highlighted
in my lecture. In their experience, the history of women is still
missing from the textbooks in early education - not under-represented,
but absent from our history books.
Moving Forward: Run Women Run
Some progress has been made, but advancement is happening at a
glacial pace, even when compared to repressive countries like Iraq.
I am unwilling to wait 333 years which is the time it has been estimated
it will take to achieve gender balance if we continue at the current
I am unwilling to wait that long for legislatures which favor
environmental protection, support programs to guarantee quality
health care and fulfill the dream of the civil rights movement.
Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman in Congress and
to run for U.S. President, envisioned a world led by women and she
said, "It is women who can bring empathy, tolerance, insight, patience
and persistence to government...The women of a nation mold its morals...and
its politics by the lives they live. At present our country needs
women's idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than
That was a long time ago. Women need to make-up some lost ground.
There is much work to do toward achieving gender balance in politics
and reviving a progressive agenda in America. So, if you've ever
looked at a politician and thought, "I could do that and I could
do it better," then run for public office. Follow the example of
Victoria Woodhull, who ran for president in 1872 and said, "While
others argued the equality of men with women, I proved it...I boldly
entered the arena."
When women get elected they change the status quo. The San Jose
City Council had a majority of women on the council and a woman
mayor. They became the first city council in America to negotiate
a comparable worth settlement to rectify the historical pattern
of lower pay for women.
When you run for public office, you will need a simple, compelling
message which is easily communicated. Your message defines your
campaign and tells people why they should vote for you. When you
feel as though you can never repeat your message again, voters will
be hearing it for the first time.
Running an effective campaign involves identifying your voters
and communicating your message through grassroots voter contact
and the media in order to mobilize people to vote for you. Nothing
can replace direct contact with voters at their doors and on the
phones. Be prepared to ask everyone you know, and many people you
don't know to contribute money to your campaign. Ask people to give
as much as they are capable of giving within the limits of the law.
Proving that campaigning is not always serious business, In 1992,
a Pennsylvania Democrat flippantly remarked that all U.S. Senate
candidate Lynn Yeakel had going for her was that she "had breasts."
This generated a media frenzy. In response, Senate hopeful Claire
Sargent of Arizona suggested that "It's about time we voted
for senators with breasts. After all, we've been voting for boobs
Karyn Strickler is a writer, campaign expert and political activist,
and dedicates this article to her mom. You can reach Karyn at [email protected].
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Q. 1. I was reading in a book that the biblical verse "There was no room in the inn," found in Luke 2:7, is not an accurate reflection of what actually happened regarding the birth of Jesus. Do you know anything about this matter?
A. 1. According to the Greek text, the word kataluma was translated to mean inn. In reality, the word kataluma actually means a "guest room," not an inn.
The word kataluma is the same word that Jesus used in Luke 22:11 when he said to His disciples, "Then you shall say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says to you, "where is the guest room [Kataluma] where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"'".
The Greek word for an "inn" is pandokheion. This word is found in the parable of the Good Samaritan. [Lk. 10:34] That is where Jesus made reference to the injured man who was taken to an inn. "He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him."
Having explained this, the Holy Family was not turned away from the inn but rather from the guest room. The next question is, "What is a guest room?"
Based on archaeological findings and written records of the day, the houses in Judea usually had a guest room next to the family common room or upstairs on the second floor. On the lower floor, near the door, there was an area, often with a dirt floor, where the family animals were kept at night. This served two purposes. First of all, it protected the animals from being stolen or killed by wild animals. Secondly, the body heat of the animals helped to warm up the home on cool nights. Because animals were kept in the lower area by the door, there you found a manger for food and/or water. The manger, elevated above the ground, was hollowed in solid stone.
Why did the houses of those days have a guest room? The Jewish Law demanded that hospitality be given to visitors. Such a practice finds its origin in Deuteronomy 10:19 where God said, "And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt." And again in Leviticus 19:33 where it states, "When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him." And that hospitality towards strangers has not changed to this day.
Because of the Roman census that was taking place, there was a large number of people travelling. Consequently, all the guest rooms in Bethlehem were occupied throughout the town. This is common sense.
Keeping in mind that Bethlehem was Joseph's ancestral home, most likely he had relatives living in the town. Surely, someone would have invited the Holy Family into their home, especially when we consider the fact that Joseph was a descendant of King David. Forget the guest room! Come into our home! That is how it had to happen.
When the time had come for Jesus to be born, the Holy Family had already been in Jerusalem for a few days. Pay close attention to the following biblical passage:
"(This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born..." [Luke 2:2-6]
I repeat those word, "While they were there." It does not say that they had just arrived. It does not say that they were travelling on the road. It says while they were there. Joseph and Mary were already staying in Bethlehem. They already had a place to stay in a home, as previously mentioned.
When the time came for the Virgin Mary to give birth, it was not appropriate for her to do so in the guest room that was occupied by others. Nor was it appropriate to do so in the home which was one open room. If it was during the day, the animal shelter was available as a private area. If it was at night, the animals could have been moved out. All we know is that the child Jesus was laid in a manger, most likely on a straw bed.
It should be noted that the inn in those days was not like a modern day hotel. It was one large room. In view of the type of people who travelled, it would never have been appropriate for the Holy Family to seek such a place during their stay in Bethlehem while they had family in that town.
As I have shown above, Jesus was not born in a stable as we have been led to believe regarding the nativity scene. In our search for the truth, we have to set aside the Western way of thinking, that farm animals cannot possibly dwell in a house. In those days, that is the way that it was.
Accordingly, we have no reason to doubt that the birth of Jesus was similar to the birth of all the Jewish children of those days, in a natural setting of any village boy. Jesus was born among His people, in an environment of helping hands from relatives.
You may ask, "Where does it say in the Holy Bible that there were other people present at the birth of Jesus?" Such is found in the following passage, "And all that heard, wondered; and at those things that were told them by the shepherds." [Luke. 2:18] When the shepherds told everyone that the angels had told them, they wondered. "Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart." [Luke 2:19]
The above passage specifically makes a reference to how Mary reacted. It then refers to "all," this meaning more people than just Joseph. Others were present. It had to consist at a minimum of the family that owned the house and those who were in the guest room.
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en
| 0.993447 | 1,295 | 3.40625 | 3 |
From Middle English [Term?] (late 14th century), from Old French zodiaque, from Latin zōdiacus, from Ancient Greek ζωδιακός [κύκλος] (zōdiakós [kúklos], “circle of little animals”), from ζώδι(αι)ον (zṓdi(ai)on), the diminutive of ζῶον (zôon, “animal”).
zodiac (plural zodiacs)
- (astrology) The belt-like region of the celestial sphere approximately eight degrees north and south of the ecliptic, which thousands of years ago included the apparent path of the sun, moon, and planets.
- (astrology) The twelve equal divisions of the astrological zodiacal region into signs, or houses, of the zodiac, each sign named after a constellation in this region.
- (astronomy) The belt-like region of the celestial sphere corresponding to the apparent path of the sun over the course of a year, the ecliptic.
- (countable) A circle decorated with the signs of the zodiac.
- Any of various astrological systems considered similar to the above.
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
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| 0.818793 | 325 | 3.203125 | 3 |
This meteor shower occurs exclusively during daylight hours during the period May 7 to June 9. Maximum may occur during the period of May 14 to 25, with a maximum hourly radio-echo rate of 18. The average position of the radiant near maximum is α=28°, δ=-3°. The meteor shower seems to occur annually, but may be prone to periodic or irregular increases in activity.
The Omicron Cetids were first detected on May 14, 1950, when A. Aspinall and Gerald S. Hawkins of Jodrell Bank radio observatory detected meteors at a rate of 18 per hour coming from RA=27.5°, DECL=-3.5°. Despite a 24-hour-a-day operation, this stream was again detected only on May 16 (RA=28.5°, DECL=+0.0°), 21 (RA=29.5°, DECL=-5.0°) and 23 (RA=34.0°, DECL=+1.0°), with hourly rates ranging from 18 to 22 per hour. The radiant diameter was less than 3° on each day, except for the 21st, when it was estimated as 10 deg across.
The Omicron Cetids were again detected at Jodrell Bank observers during May 14 to 17, 1951 (activity levels of 18 to 25 per hour), but were missed during 1952. Since the stream had generally produced activity levels greater than those observed for the Eta Aquarids, this prompted Mary Almond, K. Bullough and Hawkins to conclude that if the stream was present it "must have been less active than in 1950 or 1951."
The stream was possibly observed again at Jodrell Bank on May 17, 1953. Bullough gave the radiant as RA=11°, DECL=-2° and the hourly rate as 8. The radiant was less than 3° across. No further observations were made at this radio observatory during the period 1954 to 1958.
The next observation of this stream was made during 1961, by radio equipment at Adelaide Observatory in Australia. C. S. Nilsson noted three Omicron Cetids during the period of May 23-28, from an average radiant of RA=35.5°, DECL=+1.0°.
The true extent of this stream was finally realized during the two sessions of the Radio Meteor Project conducted during the 1960's by Zdenek Sekanina at Havana, Illinois. During 1962-1965, 11 meteors were detected during May 19-June 9, from an average radiant of RA=20.6°, DECL=+1.2°. The probable date of maximum was given as May 27.9. During 1969, 11 meteors were detected during the period of May 7-21, with the average radiant being RA=21.5°, DECL=-4.0°. The probable date of maximum was then given as May 9.0.
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en
| 0.976287 | 617 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Publications about Suicide Prevention
- Suicide: A Major, Preventable Mental Health Problem
Facts about suicide and suicide prevention among teens and young adults.
- Suicide in America: Frequently Asked Questions (2015)
Suicide is a major public health concern. Over 41,000 people die by suicide each year in the United States. Knowing the risk factors for suicide and who is at risk can help reduce the suicide rate.
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en
| 0.907489 | 87 | 2.875 | 3 |
- Rheumatoid Arthritis Slideshow
- Take the Lupus Quiz
- Multiple Sclerosis Slideshow
- Patient Comments: Sjögren&39;s Syndrome - Describe Your Experience
- Patient Comments: Sjögren's Syndrome - Symptoms and Signs
- Patient Comments: Sjögren&39;s Syndrome - Prognosis
- Patient Comments: Sjögren's Syndrome - Treatment and Diet
- Find a local Rheumatologist in your town
- Sjögren's syndrome facts
- What is Sjögren's syndrome?
- What causes Sjögren's syndrome?
- What are risk factors for developing Sjögren's syndrome?
- What are Sjögren's syndrome symptoms and signs?
- How is Sjögren's syndrome diagnosed?
- What is the treatment for Sjögren's syndrome? Will dietary changes improve Sjögren's syndrome symptoms and signs?
- What are complications of Sjögren's syndrome?
- Is it possible to prevent Sjögren's syndrome?
- What is the prognosis for patients with Sjögren's syndrome?
- What types of doctors treat Sjögren's syndrome?
Quick GuideRheumatoid Arthritis (RA) Pictures Slideshow
What are complications of Sjögren's syndrome?
It is not uncommon for people with Sjögren's syndrome to have complications of infections. Infections that are common in these patients include dental infections, eye infections, sinusitis, bronchitis, and vaginitis. Close monitoring and early treatment of these infections are keys to optimal outcomes.
Some people with Sjögren's syndrome can develop inflammation of the parotid gland in the cheeks. This can lead to dryness of the ducts that drain the gland and stones can form that block these drainage tubes. This can be serious and require aggressive antibiotics and surgery.
A small percentage of patients with Sjögren's syndrome develop cancer of the lymph glands (lymphoma). This usually develops only after many years with the illness. Unusual lymph node swelling should be reported to the physician.
A rare and serious disease that is uncommonly associated with Sjögren's syndrome is primary biliary cirrhosis, an autoimmune disease of the liver that leads to scarring of the liver tissue.
Another rare serious complication of Sjögren's syndrome is inflammation of the blood vessels (vasculitis), which can damage the tissues of the body that are supplied by these vessels.
Is it possible to prevent Sjögren's syndrome?
Because Sjögren's syndrome is felt to be inherited, there is no particular way to prevent developing the disease. However, preventing complications of Sjögren's syndrome, such as infection, eye irritation, etc., can be achieved using the methods described above.
What is the prognosis for patients with Sjögren's syndrome?
With proper attention to eye and oral care, the outlook for patients with Sjögren's syndrome is generally excellent. Eye dryness can lead to serious injury to the eye, particularly the cornea, and this should be avoided by consultation with an eye specialist. Mouth dryness can lead to dental decay and parotid gland infection and parotid stones. Optimal oral hygiene is essential.
The serious complications of primary biliary cirrhosis and lymphoma can dramatically affect prognosis and are monitored for in routine regular office visits.
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en
| 0.917497 | 729 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Parallelogram: opposite sides are parallel and equal in length. Opposite angles are equal.
Hawaiian Translation: Huinahā Pilipā
Check to see what the Maths Dictionary says by clicking on this link, then clicking on the L category, then clicking on the word "lines (types of)", then "parallelogram".
Returning to WebQuest? Close this window to continue
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en
| 0.812431 | 85 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Bullying on the rise in Gauteng
Bullying of young people between Grades 8 and 12 was on the rise, especially cyber-bullying, according to a study released by Unisa's Youth Research Unit (YRU).
"The YRU research study highlighted that almost three in every 10 learners (34.4%) who participated in the study were victims of bullying," stated the study.
"Whereas four in 10 learners (38.1%) were aware of a friend being bullied, approximately a quarter (23.3%) admitted to having bullied other learners."
The study included a total of 3 371 Gauteng high school pupils and formed part the Schools Community Engagement research project.
It showed high rates of traditional forms of bullying and the emergence of cyber bullying as a new phenomenon.
"This was evident from 55.3% of learners who had experienced emotional bullying while almost one in every five (16.9%) had experienced cyber bullying."
The authors of the study believed the emergence of cyber bullying needed to be noted as having an impact on the lives of young people, families and communities.
If ignored it could reach "crisis levels" which would impact negatively on broader society.
The study found that 67.7% of participants felt bullying had increased over the past two years, with 40.3% feeling cyber bullying in particular had increased in the same period.
Of the pupils who were cyber bullied, 53.6% received upsetting messages, 49% had rumours and gossip spread about them, and 48% were called names.
"Other cyber bullying incidents reported includes exposure to sexual remarks (24.5%), unflattering and suggestive personal photos spread online (13.3%) and being bullied, recorded and photos/ videos distributed online (8.7%)."
The figures also showed evidence of ‘sexting’ as a new phenomenon emerging among young people, according to the study.
The result of cyber bulling saw 74.5% of victims avoid chat rooms and 25.5% of victims avoided Mxit.
The majority of bullying took place through text messages and cellphone-accessed social networking.
Traditional bullying took place through name calling, physical encounters, threats and intimidation, with the majority of bullying taking place off school premises.
Professor Deon Tustin, executive director of the Bureau of Market Research in which the YRU was situated, said the depression and sadness caused by bullying affected young person's emotional development and functioning.
This could contribute to youth being trapped in a vicious cycle of exploitation and not being able to cope psychologically within the learning environment and broader society, he said
It could also lead to self-destructive behaviour.
The study did find that 51.6% of victims told their parents, peers, teachers or NGOs, while 48.7% said appropriate action was taken to prevent bullying.
"However, a concerning statistic emerging from the research shows that 44.0% of learners who were bullied reported that no action was taken to reprimand the perpetrator or deal with the bullying incident."
Lack of action perpetuated violence as bullies faced no consequences, potentially increasing risk for victims.
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http://www.timeslive.co.za/lifestyle/family/2012/07/23/bullying-on-the-rise-in-gauteng
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en
| 0.978083 | 649 | 2.515625 | 3 |
An African cereal which is cultivated almost exclusively in Ethiopia, used mainly to make flour.
- Eragrostis tef, family Gramineae.
- It takes only one application to the seed of monocotyledonous crops such as wheat, rice, maize, teff, and sorghum to increase overall basic food production in any country where it is needed,’ he explains.
- The chief staple crops include a variety of grains, such as teff, wheat, barley, corn, sorghum, and millet; coffee; pulses; and oilseed.
- Corn, rice, wheat, quinoa, teff, and other grains provide steady energy and filling fiber.
Late 18th century: from Amharic ṭêf.
Words that rhyme with teffchef, clef, deaf, def, eff, Geoff, Jeff, Kiev, ref, tone-deaf
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: teff
Definition of teff 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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http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/teff
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en
| 0.893992 | 244 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Basic browser skills
- To show the parts of a URL
- To show how URLs are created
- To explain the difference between relative and absolute links in a Web page
The ability to travel from one site to another with the ease of a single click is perhaps the most elegant and captivating aspect of the World Wide Web. This Internet magic is made possible through the use of the Internet addressing structure known as URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
URLs make it possible to direct both people and software applications to a variety of information, available from a number of different Internet protocols. Most commonly, you will run into URLs when using a World Wide Web (WWW) client. In your WWW browser's "location" box, the item that generally starts with "http:" is a URL. Files available over protocols besides HTTP, such as FTP and Gopher can be referenced by URLs. Even Telnet sessions to remote hosts on the Internet and someone's Internet e-mail address can be referred to by a URL.
A URL is like your mailing address; it specifies all the information necessary for someone to address an envelope to you. However, they are much more than that, since URLs can refer to a variety of very different types of resources. A more fitting analogy would be a system for specifying your mailing address, your phone number, or the location of the book you just read from the public library, all in the same format.
Local links let you browse items contained locally on your hard drive or a floppy disk. The line below is a URL for a local file. The part in red is the name of the file. Notice it contains no spaces in the name and it ends with the html suffix.
This URL is known as a relative address. A Relative URL is one in which the link states only the file or image name. If the Web browser is given no other addressing information, it looks for this file or image in the folder that holds the current file or image. However, if someone wished to access this file from some other page or somewhere else on the Web, they would need to use the complete address or the Absolute URL as shown below.
The U.S. Postal Service and the Internet
Lets take another look at how the URLs are like the postal address that you find on your mail. When the mail is delivered to your home address (assuming it has not been burned or stuffed in a sewer), it has been done so only because the sender has included all of the critical routing information. This information includes:
Your street number; your street name.
Your city name; your state; and lastly your zip code.
The information on the envelope is arranged from the specific to the general--your name being very specific to your state being very general. This is very much like how an Absolute URL is set up. The first information (http) tells you the protocol that is being used, then the name of the computer and next the domain information.
The domain refers to the name and type of institution that operates the computer.
However, when you reach in your mailbox and pull out the mail, you disregard all of the address information except for the name. You check to see if the mail was sent to you, your spouse, your child, or occupant. This is like a Relative URL. Since you know the people you live with, it is not nessecary for you to read the entire address, you merely need to see who specifically this piece of mail is addressed to.
Computers don't have streets or states dividing up their hard drives, but they do have information stored in different folders and some large institutions have different servers. Managers of servers store files, images, sounds, movies and more in various folders on their computers. These folders may be placed in other folders. Since a server may have thousands of files to offer clients, this system of folders in folders makes it actually quicker for the client's browser (Netscape, for example) to locate a desired file than to have all files in one folder. The price paid for this improved retrieval system is that the URL must include accurate and complete folder references.
A tip for moving from one folder to another
One of the more tricky URLs to write is one that directs the browser to look for a file that is above (hierarchically) the current html page you are viewing. Already in your browsing and looking at source pages you may have come across "../" in various URLs. This entry in the URL directs the browser to move up one folder. Thus, a relative URL like <IMG SRC="../../graphics/linc_topichome.gif" </A>, tells the browser that the desired graphic will be found two folders up in the chain.
To see how a URL is formed
I have a server set up at Highlands School in Naperville where I teach. My partner and I have set up several folders, one for each classroom. Our class is called PIPlus, and we have split all of our files into two folders: one for the science and math topics labeled science, and one for the humanities labeled lit. The science folder has other folders inside of it.
Notice how the name of the computer server and the domain it resides in is separated by dots. The folders and the file itself are separated by slashes "/".
I am trying to link to lever.html; can you write the URL to link to this file?
Here is another situation you should try your linking skills on. I want to place a link on my lever.html page that links to a page on gravity in my earth folder. The page I want to link to is called gravity.html. What would this link look like?
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en
| 0.942375 | 1,177 | 4.53125 | 5 |
Greenwood County is located in the southeastern section of Kansas, and was one of the original counties formed in 1855 when the Kansas Territory was formed. Eureka is the largest city and county seat of Greenwood County. It is bordered by Lyon and Coffey counties to the north and northeast; Woodson and Wilson counties to the east and southeast; Elk and Butler to the south and west; and Chase county to the northwest.
The first settlement was made in 1856 by southerners who espoused pro-slavery sentiments. During the Civil War years Greenwood county was subjected to much violence, mostly over the slavery issue, and there were some Indian attacks during this time frame as well. Railroad negotiations began as early as 1870, but it would be almost 10 years before this area saw any railroad lines.
We will be building this web site over time to include information and records to assist you as you research your Cloud County families. Below, you will note a table which includes the types of documents and information we hope to have available for you as quickly as we can. Should you have any information that you wish to include here, please contact me at [email protected] and let me know. Copy and paste my email address into your email template.
|Church Records||Families||History||Land Records|
|Letters & Diaries||Military Records||Newspapers||Obituaries|
|Pensions||Tax Records||Vital Records||Wills and Probate|
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http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kstttp/greenwood.html
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en
| 0.966438 | 312 | 2.6875 | 3 |
For primary classes.
1. Close both hands.
2. Raise the forefinger of the right hand, as the index or pointing finger.
3. Place the index finger upon the lower thumb joint of the left hand.
4. Draw the index finger down to the wrist, over the bone between the thumb knuckle and the wrist, and count “One.”
5. Place the index finger on the knuckle of the first finger.
6. Draw the index finger down to the wrist, over the bone leading from the first finger to the wrist, and count “Two.”
7. So on, for each of the three other bones of the hand. Repeat until no mistake is made in touching or counting.
1. Raise the thumb, and place the index finger of the right hand on the middle of the upper part of the thumb for bone “Six”; then
2. On the lower part of the thumb for bone “Seven.” Repeat from the beginning, until the children can touch and count each bone properly.
1. Keep the thumb erect; raise the first finger of the left hand.
2. Place the index finger on the bone between the tip and the first joint of the first finger for bone “Eight.”
3. Between the first and middle joint for bone “Nine.”
4. Between the middle and third joint for bone “Ten.” Review, from the beginning, until the class can touch and count every bone as directed.
1. Keep the thumb and forefinger erect; raise the second finger and touch, as in the lesson on the first finger bones, “Eleven,” “Twelve,” and “Thirteen.” Review.
2. Proceed in the same manner for the third and fourth fingers, always beginning with the bone nearest the tip of the finger, and touching that at the lowest part last.
If the exercise has been properly performed, every child will say “Nineteen” as its index finger touches the lowest bone of the little finger, and all the fingers of every left hand will be outspread.
* * * * *
Of the head:
Face, including the lower jaw 14
of the trunk:
Shoulder blades 2
Collar bones 2
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en
| 0.882474 | 489 | 3.5 | 4 |
torah | Pharaoh repaid our kindness with destructive aimby rabbi judah dardik
|Follow j. on||and|
Had Pharaoh been a cartoon character, I might have pegged him as the Wile E. Coyote of his day. That Looney Tunes character, in his obsessive pursuit of the Roadrunner, would build elaborate contraptions and traps, only to have them backfire and blow up on him, often leaving him flattened and completely “shmushed.” But then he would reinflate, and start the chase all over again. Albert Einstein surely didn’t watch cartoons, but he did offer an apt definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
After all the plagues, all the destruction wrought upon Egypt for refusing to free the Jewish slaves, Pharaoh finally relented and sent the children of Israel away. But why did he then turn around and chase us to bring us back? Was he insane? Shouldn’t he have given up already?
One way to approach the issue would be to begin with an analysis of the initial motivation for enslaving the Jewish people. Was it simply for slave labor? That wouldn’t make sense, because they wouldn’t want to kill the baby boys who would grow into strong laborers. Was it simply an anti-Semitic urge to wipe us from the face of the Earth? That doesn’t make sense either, because then they would have killed the little girls as well. So what did they have in mind?
The Pharaoh who enslaved the Jews is described as a new king “who did not know of Joseph” (1:8). Wait a second, here. How is it possible that a new king could possibly take the throne who did not know of the man who had saved the entire country? He was a national hero! The Talmud (Sotah 11A) wrestles with this wording, and one opinion in that text suggests that this Pharaoh of course knew who Joseph was, but deliberately turned a blind eye and pretended he did not.
Why would he ignore Joseph’s accomplishments? Because their legacy was complex. A careful reading of an often overlooked section, Bereshit 47:13–27, is in order. It reveals that Joseph’s administration stripped the Egyptian people of all of their wealth, property, land and even their personal freedom, and gave it to Pharaoh. For the Egyptian people, this was a massive loss, and it likely made Joseph’s family far less welcome.
For Pharaoh however, this was great. And perhaps that was exactly the problem. He knew that Egypt, and especially he himself as monarch, owed Joseph and the Jews a deep debt of gratitude. And that was difficult, because it is highly uncomfortable to feel indebted to others. He was desperate to bury the presence of Joseph, the evidence that Egyptian success was based on a Jewish contribution.
So what did Pharaoh do? He tried to eliminate the problem. His first approach was to try and co-opt them: Absorb and become the Jewish people by killing the men and marrying the women. But this failed because the Jewish midwives refuse to comply.
His next approach was to make us subhuman and unworthy of gratitude by enslaving us. But this, too, failed when the Ten Plagues struck Egypt. And then came the slaying of the first-born, with its message that every family, including that of the king, was vulnerable.
So his final approach was to attempt to destroy us, to chase us into the sea, because the notion of having a people out there who “made Egypt great” was completely untenable.
Pharaoh was uncomfortable with having people do great kindnesses for him, kindnesses that he could not properly repay. He was not alone in is discomfort, but there was an alternative to his approach: being gracious.
It pays to remember that the people who do for us actually love us, and it is we who are the ones feeling the discomfort. Secondly, one can “pay it forward”; if the other person doesn’t need you, then do something because of them for someone else who does. And finally, admit that it is OK to have needs. Do we really think we are perfect and completely self-sufficient?
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Vectors do not have a basis. A vector space has a basis. A vector is represented in a vector space as a linear combination of basis elements uniquely. So if you are asking if two vectors in a vector space share the same coefficients under the same basis, then yes, they are the same.
Alternatively, perhaps you were asking if two vector spaces have the same basis, are they the same? This too is true if the vector spaces are over the same field, because they would then span the same set.
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This category contains books on electronic games: games that employ electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. The most common form of electronic game today is the video game, and for this reason the terms are often mistakenly used synonymously. Books include information on the cultural significance of specific electronic games, and application of electronic games as learning and education tools. For games part of the same series, one book is preferred. Wikibooks is not for walkthroughs and strategy guides—use StrategyWiki instead.
The following 7 related categories may be of interest, out of 7 total.
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Fuel cells are high efficient energy production systems producing heat and electrical power. Especially PEM fuel cells (Polymeric Electrolyte Membrane) require pure hydrogen for operation. Hydrogen is produced e.g. by reforming of hydrocarbons like natural gas or ethanol. During the production of hydrogen carbon monoxide is formed. CO is a harmful poison for the platinum catalsyst of the fuel cell electrodes. Therefore hydrogen has to be purified. The goal of this work was to develop a pressure swing adsorption for small scale fuel cell systems. The hydrogen to be purified is produced by reforming bio-ethanol. The PSA is designed for a quite low adsorption pressure of 7 bar and a small thermal hydrogen power for fuel cell systems in a range of 1 kW electrical. For the design of the PSA a simplified method of calculating the bed height of the adsorbers was developed. Most scientists working in the field of pressure swing adsorption use mathematical models of breakthrough curves for PSA calculations. But these models can only be solved numerically. The results of these simulations are approved by performing test at lab-scale PSA. Main focus on the tests is set to the breakthrough time and the shape of the breakthrough curves. The calculation method developed in this work is also verified by test. But no breakthrough curves were taken up and no breakthrough time of the unwished gas component (CO) was measured. Only the hydrogen quality and the hydrogen recovery rate even after several adsorption cycles were the dominating criteria for the approval of the calculation model. The PSA tests showed that the required hydrogen quality (less than 10 ppmv CO in hydrogen) for PEM-fuel cells was reached even after a 20 adsorption cycles (one cycle lasted 12 minutes with 3 minutes adsorption). The tests were performed on several days in series without changing the adsorbents or purging them for a longer time.
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Itayi, a Zimbabwean mother, is one of six clinical trial volunteers featured in a Global Campaign for Microbicides photo exhibit. Photo: Martha Rial.
Global Campaign for Microbicides advanced HIV prevention options and women's role in research
Itayi sees the funerals each weekend. Her neighbors are dying from HIV, but the 35-year-old mother dreams of a different future for her three daughters. “Women all over the world are fighting against HIV, fighting to protect themselves,” she says. “My hope is for my daughters not to have HIV.”
Itayi, who does not have the virus, is among the thousands of women who have volunteered for clinical trials to study new types of HIV prevention tools. Called microbicides, the tools have the potential to offer protection from HIV and possibly other sexually transmitted infections.
The Global Campaign for Microbicides, housed at PATH from 2001 until its closure in 2012, led an unprecedented effort to build international support for these new, woman-initiated tools for HIV prevention. Along the way, the campaign fought to give women like Itayi a prominent place in discussions about how to prevent HIV, fostering new conversations and understanding among scientists, advocates, and the people involved in clinical trials of microbicides.
Tools that women can use
Worldwide, nearly half of all new HIV infections occur among women. Women are biologically more vulnerable to HIV infection during heterosexual sex than men, and they often have less power to protect themselves against infection. Microbicides, such as vaginal gels or a daily pill called pre-exposure prophylaxis, could offer women new options for protection.
In 1998, members of the women’s health movement and the HIV community launched the Global Campaign for Microbicides to focus world attention on the critical need for new HIV prevention options, especially for women. With limited funding and an ambitious vision, campaign staff handed out flyers at international AIDS conferences, supplied grassroots advocates with action kits and training to raise awareness and generate demand for new products, and developed a network that eventually grew to more than 300 partner groups worldwide. In Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, they mobilized funding and support for research into microbicides to further their development.
As microbicides moved into larger-scale trials, the campaign expanded its work in Africa to engage clinical trial researchers and communities in effective microbicides research. The campaign’s staff authored policy briefs for national decision-makers, conducted media outreach to families and communities, and created an online course to help clinical trial staff and advocates explain the science and trials to others.
When trials found several microbicide candidates to be ineffective, campaign staff advised patience and reminded all those involved in the field that every outcome—even if the product didn’t work—builds information for future trials.
In 2010, thanks to the participation of women across Africa, a landmark announcement jolted new energy into microbicide research. Results from the CAPRISA 004 clinical trial in South Africa showed that a vaginal gel called tenofovir provided women with moderate protection from sexually transmitted HIV.
The trial results proved to be a milestone for the HIV prevention field, and for women and advocates who had long sought a new tool in the fight against AIDS. Building on its decade of experience in working with all parts of the field, the Global Campaign for Microbicides helped explain what this milestone meant for women. For the first time, CAPRISA 004 showed that a microbicide can help prevent HIV, and the study results set the stage for ongoing efforts to develop an effective product.
Making gains for prevention
As the microbicides field grew, the campaign continued to represent women’s interests and used a variety of approaches to draw attention to the need for new prevention options. Through media outreach, policy briefs, an online learning course, newsletters, and other materials, the campaign kept advocates and decision-makers informed and successfully built support for the development of new HIV prevention products. In Kenya and South Africa, the campaign influenced the countries’ decisions to include women and microbicides in their national AIDS strategic plans.
In 2011, the campaign launched a photo exhibition depicting the lives of Itayi and five other women who have participated in microbicides trials. The powerful images in “A Day in the Life” present a unique view of the real people who have contributed to advancing microbicides research and who have a deep interest in seeing microbicides become a tool that they or their children can use. These images have introduced policymakers and researchers to the women at the heart of their work.
Today, as more women’s stories are heard, researchers are closer than ever to developing an effective microbicide. Several candidate microbicides are in various stages of clinical study, and the campaign’s work has helped researchers and advocates better understand women’s needs and desires to avoid HIV infection. Numerous groups are carrying forward the work of the campaign, and advocates continue to fight for options that will put the power of HIV prevention into women’s hands.
Over more than a decade, the Global Campaign for Microbicides produced a wide variety of materials to support the development of women-initiated tools for prevention of HIV infections. Several are available in PATH’s publications catalog; highlighted resources are below.
In Women's Hands video on YouTube
First launched on World AIDS Day in 2004, this 11-minute film captures what it means to be women in a world of AIDS—a world where many women have little say about relationships. About sex. About condoms. And few ways to protect themselves against HIV. The film introduces its audience to a handful of scientists and advocates who are racing to curb the loss of future generations from this epidemic through the development of microbicides.
Mapping the Standards of Care at Microbicide Clinical Trial Sites
Global Campaign for Microbicides, 2008
In 2006, the Global Campaign for Microbicides began to map the standards of care and prevention provided to participants in late-stage microbicide trials. The resulting report provides an independent assessment of the health care and prevention services provided to women in the trials. It explores the factors that inform care-related decisions at trial sites, and it offers recommendations to strengthen the HIV prevention research field’s ability to respond to care-related challenges in the future.
Standards of Prevention in HIV Prevention Trials
Global Campaign for Microbicides and PATH, 2010
This report covers a 2009 consultation in Kampala, Uganda, that was convened by the Global Campaign for Microbicides, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It includes recommendations related to key ethical and practical questions on the design and implementation of clinical trials.
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The pace of human clinical trials does seem to be picking up. Two groups of researchers are studying resveratrol's effects in prostate cancer patients, and several trials are currently in progress with a proprietary form of resveratrol, testing its usefulness in preventing and treating diabetes.
An 'elixir' in rodents
If studies of resveratrol in people are few and far between, studies of resveratrol in mice and rats have been coming in right and left.
Perhaps the most famous is a study published in Nature last year that had some people calling resveratrol the "elixir of youth." Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging found that obese mice could eat high-fat, high-calorie diets and still live as long as mice fed a usual mouse diet if their pig-outs also included big doses of resveratrol.
And they lived months longer than fellow over-indulgers whose diets did not include resveratrol. (A month in the life of a mouse is equivalent to about three years in the life of a person.)
The mice who lived large also grew large regardless of whether they took resveratrol or not. But if they did take it, they didn't develop the pre-diabetes symptoms of oversized livers and high blood levels of glucose and insulin.
Researchers on this study -- led by David Sinclair and Joseph Baur at Harvard Medical School and Rafael de Cabo at the National Institute on Aging -- suspect that resveratrol works by activating the SIRT1 gene, which they believe is also switched on when mice are fed extremely low-calorie, or famine-level, diets.
Such extreme diets increase the life spans of mice and other animals, and many hypothesize the same is true in people.
Other scientists aren't convinced that resveratrol activates SIRT1, but believe it could work in other ways.
"It would be important to know whether resveratrol has an effect on mice on a normal diet," says Brian Kennedy, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington.
"If not, then it isn't mimicking caloric restriction," adds Matt Kaeberlein, a professor of pathology at the University of Washington.
Some researchers are tackling age-related diseases one at a time. "Day by day a new property of resveratrol is being added," says Dr. Dipak Das, a professor of surgery at the University of Connecticut, referring to reports on new uses for resveratrol.
For example, in a study now in press in the journal ARS, Das and others report for the first time that resveratrol lessens the sensitivity of rats to pain.
Other recent resveratrol success stories include these findings: Resveratrol in combination with statins works better than either one alone in improving lipid levels in rats with high cholesterol and in improving their recovery after heart attacks (Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology); resveratrol can greatly reduce the risk that mice will develop the most deadly kind of prostate tumors (August online edition of Carcinogenesis); fairly low doses of resveratrol are enough to increase the sensitivity of mice to insulin, which could lead to new therapies for type 2 diabetes (October issue of Cell Metabolism).
Of course, the scientists who are studying resveratrol to a fare-thee-well aren't simply interested in the welfare of rodents. They hope the benefits they're finding in animals will translate into benefits for humans, too.
But though resveratrol doesn't appear to be toxic to people, some research implies there could be problems if it's taken in excess or by people with particular sensitivities.
Resveratrol has been shown to mimic the action of estrogen in some situations and to block it in others. Similarly, in low concentrations, resveratrol has been shown to stimulate angiogenesis -- growth of new blood vessels -- while at high concentrations it can have the opposite effect. Sometimes angiogenesis is good -- e.g., in recovery from a heart attack. And sometimes it's not -- e.g., when trying to stop the growth of a tumor.
In short, many researchers believe, testing in people has been too limited to truly establish resveratrol's safety. (The supplement can be sold without FDA approval because it's a natural compound, not a drug.)
Mystery of red wine
The theory that resveratrol explains the French paradox was the beginning of the resveratrol craze, and the theory is not unsupported. "There's evidence resveratrol can affect platelet aggregation and mediate the spasming of blood vessels," says Holcombe of UC Irvine.
But is there enough resveratrol in red wine to have such a major effect? There have always been plenty of naysayers.
And a study in Nature last year claimed the French do owe their healthy hearts to some miracle-working chemicals in red wine -- but they're called procyanidins, not resveratrol.
Of course, some researchers question whether red wine has anything to do with the paradox at all.
It's quite possible that the red-hot field of resveratrol research is based on some unfounded jumping to a conclusion.
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Woodrow Wilson entered Princeton as a member of the Class of 1879. “Tommy,” as his classmates called him, was an eager student and an acknowledged leader. Not satisfied with the courses offered by the College, he supplemented the formal curriculum with an ambitious program of independent reading. Still feeling less than fully occupied, he became managing editor of the Daily Princetonian and organized a student club for discussion of public affairs. His classmates elected him speaker of the American Whig Society, one of two principal campus groups. Pursuing athletic interests, he became secretary of the Football Association and president of the Baseball Association.
After graduation, he went to law school at the University of Virginia and practiced in Atlanta. Disillusioned by the tedium and materialism of legal damage suits, he enrolled in Johns Hopkins for graduate work in political science and history. His doctoral dissertation, “Congressional Government,” led to teaching positions at Bryn Mawr, Wesleyan, and finally Princeton.
As professor of jurisprudence, Wilson built up a strong prelaw curriculum. He was soon voted most popular teacher and became friend and counselor to countless students who were attracted by his warmth and high-mindedness. During the sesquicentennial celebration of 1896, he delivered the keynote address: “Princeton in the Nation’s Service.”
When the trustees elected him president, Wilson proposed a $12.5 million program to transform Princeton into a full-scale university.
At the time this was a staggering sum, almost 25 times greater than the annual budget, but the trustees approved it immediately.
He began by creating an administrative structure — departments of instruction with heads that reported directly to him. In place of the aimless elective system, he substituted a unified curriculum of general studies during the freshman and sophomore years, capped by concentrated study in one discipline (the academic “major”) during the junior and senior years. He also added an honors program for able and ambitious students. Wilson tightened academic standards so severely that enrollment declined sharply until 1907.
Supported by the first all-out alumni fundraising campaign in Princeton’s history, he doubled the faculty overnight through the appointment of almost 50 young assistant professors, called “preceptors,” charged with guiding students through assigned reading and small group discussion. With a remarkable eye for quality, he assembled a youthful faculty with unusual talent and zest for teaching.
In strengthening the science program, Wilson called for basic, unfettered, “pure” research. In the field of religion, he made biblical instruction a scholarly subject. He broke the hold of conservative Presbyterians over the board of trustees, and appointed the first Jew and the first Roman Catholic to the faculty.
Before the end of his term, he authorized fellow members of the Class of 1879 to cast two heroic bronze tigers for the front steps of Nassau Hall. (Tigers appeared as mascots during McCosh’s tenure.) After modernizing the administration, the curriculum, and teaching methods, Wilson proposed the creation of quadrangles, or “colleges,” in which undergraduates of all four classes would live with their own recreational facilities and resident faculty masters. Membership would be by assignment or lot.
Twenty-five years after his death, the trustees named the School of Public and International Affairs for him. Sixty years after the defeat of his “quad plan,” they carved out an area of the campus — six dormitories and a dining and social center — as a distinct residential complex known as Woodrow Wilson College. The trustees also created the Woodrow Wilson Award — the highest honor the University bestows upon an alumnus in recognition of his or her distinguished public service.
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Post Author: Bill Pratt
Continuing from the first post on this topic, we will look at two more methods that physicists and astronomers use to determine the age of the universe. Again, this information has been gathered from Hugh Ross’ A Matter of Days.
The third method physicists use to calculate the age of the universe is to measure the age of stars throughout the universe. Stars are simple objects, composed of 100% gas, that burn through the process of nuclear fusion, which, according to Ross, is very well understood and experimentally verified.
Because the process of stellar burning is so well understood, the physicist or astronomer can determine the age of a star if he knows the mass, color, and brightness of the star (all characteristics that can be measured from earth). From this data, the astronomer can know how long the star has been burning, which places a boundary on how old the universe must be (it can’t be any younger than the oldest star).
The fourth method physicists use to calculate the age of the universe is to measure the relative quantities of radioactive isotopes in the universe. Radioactive isotopes are only produced by supernovae, which are supergiant stars in their last stage of burning.
It turns out that radioactive isotopes decay at rates (half-lives) that are well understood. Uranium and thorium, for example, have half-lives of billions of years. Since we still find uranium and thorium in the universe, we know that the universe cannot be so old that these isotopes had completely decayed out of existence. That sets an upper limit of a few hundred billion years.
On the other hand, those isotopes with half-lives of millions of years or less (e.g., plutonium, neptunium, technetium) cannot be found on the earth, so we know that at least a billion years have gone by for them to have disappeared. Since astronomers know how much of these isotopes were produced by ancient supernovae, and they know the decay half-lives, by measuring the amounts of these isotopes in existence today, they can calculate how much time has passed since the first supernovae produced the first isotopes. Obviously the universe must be older than this.
Summary and Conclusion
I hope you were able to follow, at least at a basic level, these four methods. Ross claims that there are many other independent methods that have been used to calculate the age of the universe, but that these four are the most simple for lay people to understand. What strikes me about these methods is that they rely on different and independent measurement techniques, but they all arrive at the same answer for the age of the universe – around 13.7 billion years.
It’s easy to attack one measurement technique as being inaccurate, but when four independent methods give you the same answer, you need to pay attention. And remember, it’s actually more than 4 techniques. The laws of physics used to date the universe are very well understood and experimentally verified to a great degree of precision. To dismiss all of these independent measurements as erroneous betrays a lack of understanding of physics and mathematics.
If you find yourself still questioning these findings, ask yourself why. The age of the universe does not at all undermine Scripture. Whether the universe is 13.7 billion years old or 6,000 years old has no bearing on the truths taught in the Bible. As Christians, we are to seek out the truth, no matter what it may be. The true findings of science will never the contradict the Word of God, so engage with science and enjoy the discoveries that lie ahead of us. We have nothing to fear!!
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Readings on freedom - four readings on different aspects of liberty - one from Tommy Lapid (in the words of his son Yair), two from Amos Oz, and one from Barack Obama. What different (or similar) aspects of freedom do they emphasize? Click here for the source sheet.
Dayenu. Would it really have been 'enough'? Would it really have been enough for us if some parts of the liberation experience would have happenned but others would not have (the song Dayenu)? Sources from the Talmud, Jonathan Sacks, Amos Oz and others look at the issue of showing gratitude over partial redemption.
In addition, a New York Times piece touches on the challenges of freedom in the form of a North Korean who escaped a concentration camp to flee to the South who sometimes wishes he was back in the camp.
If each of us needs to see ourselves as leaving Egypt, then each of us also need to deal with the challenges that being free poses. How should we do this? I think it begins with eating Matza - that food which is 'on its way' to becoming bread but isnt yet. We deal with the challenges of freedom by celebrating the current partialness of redemption and showing gratitude for it (while still remembering what the end of the story - full redemption - should look like) Click here for the source sheet.
Does our 'victimhood complex' stop us from being free? One idea of full liberating ourselves from slavery is letting go of hate (if we hate our enemies for what they did to us, we cant be fully free). But might the fact that our tradition often reminds us of the past (in every generation they rise up to destroy u) make it harder for us to fully liberate ourselves? Do we focus too much on the negative parts of our history? Do we facilitate a victim complex? (Etgar Keret once said that he left high school knowing all the places in Europe where pogroms happened but without realizing that Kafka was Jewish). And to what extent, might this prevent us from fully being free? Click here for the source sheet.
Rejoicing in our enemies' downfall (The Plagues and the Price of Freedom) - To what extent can we / should we rejoice in the downfall of our enemies? 3 different stories from the Midrash / Talmud which emphasise different viewpoints.
Writing in the new American Hagaddah, Jeffrey Goldberg has an interesting reading on the plagues. "There is no such thing as an immaculate liberation. From time to time, in the Velvet revolution of the former Czechoslovakia for example – the liberation has been achieved without the shedding of blood. But it is naïve to think that the defeat of evil comes without cost. The Exodus story ends in freedom for Jews; the Civil War ended with freedom for African Americans; World War 2 ended with fascism utterly vanquished; and the death camps liberated. Can we say that the ends don’t justify the means?" Click here for the source sheet.
Pour out your wrath? How can we understand the 'pour out your wrath on the nations' part of the hagaddah. And how should we relate to the 'other' in general? Sources from Deborah Lipstadt (who says its his favourite part of the Hagaddah) and from Jonathan Sacks on the 'transference' of violence from humans onto God.
Perhaps we're left with the question of how to best channel our (often justified anger). Goldberg argues that "Anger channelled destructively, can lead to vindictiveness, to a kind of constricting tribalism that sees everyone on the other side of our circles wagons as an enemy. Destructive anger is one of the great dangers of our age…
But isn’t anger also a useful motivator? Isn’t there such a thing as righteous anger? The abolitionists were angry; the suffragists were angry; Herzl was angry; Gandhi was angry. But they poured their wrath not into vengeful violence but into new foundations of justice...
how do we know when our constructive anger becomes dangerous?" Click here for the source sheet
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Get ready to be amazed: NASA today unveiled the best-ever images of Pluto, revealing the dwarf planet's varied and exotic landscape in amazing detail.
The spectacular photos, which were captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its historic Pluto flyby on July 14, show close-up views of the dwarf planet's towering water-ice mountains and vast plains, resolving fine details such as layering on individual crater walls. You can see the images in this dazzling flyover video from NASA, which was stitched together by mission team members.
"These new images give us a breathtaking, super-high-resolution window into Pluto's geology," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, said in a statement today (Dec. 4). [See more Pluto photos by NASA's New Horizons probe]
"Nothing of this quality was available for Venus or Mars until decades after their first flybys, yet at Pluto, we're there already — down among the craters, mountains and ice fields — less than five months after flyby!" Stern added. "The science we can do with these images is simply unbelievable."
New Horizons took the new photos with its long-range camera when the probe was just 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) from Pluto's surface. At its closest approach, which occurred 15 minutes after the images were captured, New Horizons came within about 7,800 miles (12,550 km) of the dwarf planet.
The images boast a resolution of 250 to 280 feet (77 to 85 meters) per pixel, allowing features half the size of a city block to be seen, NASA officials said. The photos form a strip about 50 miles (80 km) wide that encompasses some of Pluto's ice mountains and a section of the vast nitrogen-ice plain known as Sputnik Planum.
"The mountains bordering Sputnik Planum are absolutely stunning at this resolution," New Horizons science team member John Spencer, also of SwRI, said in the same statement. "The new details revealed here, particularly the crumpled ridges in the rubbly material surrounding several of the mountains, reinforce our earlier impression that the mountains are huge ice blocks that have been jostled and tumbled and somehow transported to their present locations."
New Horizons beamed home a small fraction of its flyby observations shortly after the July close encounter but kept the vast majority onboard for later transmission. That data dump began in earnest in September, and should continue through August 2016 or so, mission team members have said.
The newly released photos are just the first of New Horizons' best-resolution views to reach mission control. More of these images should come down to Earth in the next few days, NASA officials said.
New Horizons is likely not done exploring the frigid ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune known as the Kuiper Belt. The spacecraft has set a course for a small Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69 and will observe it up close in January 2019, if NASA approves and funds an extended mission.
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In 1958, a young scientist called Stanley Miller electrified a mixture of simple gases, designed to mimic the atmosphere of our primordial lifeless planet. It was a sequel to one of the most evocative experiments in history, one that Miller himself had carried five years earlier. But for some reason, he never finished his follow-up. He dutifully collected his samples and stored them in vials but, whether for ill health or dissatisfaction, he never analysed them.
The vials languished in obscurity, sitting unopened in a cardboard box in Miller’s office. But possessed by the meticulousness of a scientist, he never threw them away. In 1999, the vials changed owners. Miller had suffered a stroke and bequeathed his old equipment, archives and notebooks to Jeffrey Bada, one of his former students. Bada only twigged to the historical treasures that he had inherited in 2007. “Inside, were all these tiny glass vials carefully labeled, with page numbers referring Stanley’s laboratory notes. I was dumbstruck. We were looking at history,” he said in a New York Times interview.
By then, Miller was completely incapacitated. He died of heart failure shortly after, but his legacy continues. Bada’s own student Eric Parker has finally analysed Miller’s samples using modern technology and published the results, completing an experiment that began 53 years earlier.
Miller conducted his original 1953 experiment as a graduate student, working with his mentor Harold Urey. It was one of the first to tackle the seemingly insurmountable question of how life began. In their laboratory, the pair tried to recreate the conditions on early lifeless Earth, with an atmosphere full of simple gases and laced with lightning storms. They filled a flask with water, methane, ammonia and hydrogen and sent sparks of electricity through them.
The result, both literally and figuratively, was lightning in a bottle. When Miller looked at the samples from the flask, he found five different amino acids – the building blocks of proteins and essential components of life.
The relevance of these results to the origins of life is debatable, but there’s no denying their influence. They kicked off an entire field of research, graced the cover of Time magazine and made a celebrity of Miller. Nick Lane beautifully describes the reaction to the experiment in his book, Life Ascending: “Miller electrified a simple mixture of gases, and the basic building blocks of life all congealed out of the mix. It was as if they were waiting to be bidden into existence. Suddenly the origin of life looked easy.”
Over the next decade, Miller repeated his original experiment with several twists. He injected hot steam into the electrified chamber to simulate an erupting volcano, another mainstay of our primordial planet. The samples from this experiment were among the unexamined vials that Bada inherited. In 2008, Bada’s student Adam Johnson showed that the vials contained a wider range of amino acids than Miller had originally reported in 1953.
Miller also tweaked the gases in his electrified flasks. He tried the experiment again with two newcomers – hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide – joining ammonia and methane. It would be all too easy to repeat the same experiment now. But Parker and Bada wanted to look at the original samples that Miller had himself collected, if only for their “considerable historical interest”.
Using modern techniques, around a billion times more sensitive than those Miller would have used, Parker identified 23 different amino acids in the vials, far more than the five that Miller had originally described. Seven of these contained sulphur, which is either a first for science or old news, depending on how you look at it. Other scientists have since produced sulphurous amino acids in similar experiments, including Carl Sagan. But unbeknownst to all of them, Miller had beaten them to it by several years. He had even scooped himself – it took him till 1972 to publish results where he produced sulphur amino acids!
The amino acids in Miller’s vials all come in an equal mix of two forms, each the mirror image of the other. You only see that in laboratory reactions – in nature, amino acids come almost entirely in one version. As such, Parker, like Miller before him, was sure that the amino acids hadn’t come from a contaminating source, like a stray bacterium that had crept into the vials.
Imagine then, a young and violent planet, wracked with exploding volcanoes, noxious gases and lightning strikes. These ingredients combined to brew a “primordial soup”, fashioning the precursors of life in pools of water. On top of that, meteorites raining down from space could have added to the accumulating molecules. After all, Parker found that the amino acid cocktail in Miller’s samples is very similar to that found on the Murchison meteorite, which landed in Australia in 1969.
These are powerful images, so why aren’t people more excited? Echoing many sources I spoke to, Jim Kasting, who studies the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere, said, “I am underwhelmed by it.” The main problem with the study is that Miller was probably wrong about the conditions on early Earth.
By analysing ancient rocks, scientists have since found that Earth was never particularly teeming in hydrogen-rich gases like methane, hydrogen sulphide or hydrogen itself. If you repeat Miller’s experiment with a more realistic mixture – heavy in carbon dioxide and nitrogen, with just trace amounts of other gases – you’d have a hard time finding amino acids in the resulting brew.
Parker accepts the problem, but he suggests that a few specific places on the planet may have had the right conditions. Exploding volcanoes, for example, throw up masses of sulphurous compounds, as well as methane and ammonia. These gases, belched forth into lightning storms, could have produced amino acids that rained out and gathered in tidal pools. But Kasting still isn’t convinced. “Even then the reduced gases would not be as concentrated as they are in this experiment.”
Even if our young planet had the right conditions to produce amino acids, that’s a less impressive feat than it appeared in the 1950s. “Amino acids are old hat and are a million miles from life,” says Nick Lane. Indeed, as Miller’s experiments showed, it’s not difficult to create amino acids. The far bigger challenge is to create nucleic acids – the building blocks of molecules like RNA and DNA. The origin of life lies in the origin of these “replicators”, molecules that can make copies of themselves. Lane says, “Even if you can make amino acids (and nucleic acids) under soup conditions, it has little if any bearing on the origin of life.”
The problem is that replicators don’t spontaneously emerge from a mixture of their building blocks, just as you wouldn’t hope to build a car by throwing some parts into a swimming pool. Nucleic acids are innately “shy”. They need to be strong-armed into forming more complex molecules, and it’s unlikely that the odd bolt of lightning would have been enough. The molecules must have been concentrated in the same place, with a constant supply of energy and catalysts to speed things up. “Without that lot, life will never get started, and a soup can’t provide much if any of that,” says Lane.
Deep-sea vents are a better location for the origins of life. Deep under the ocean’s surface, these rocky chimneys spew out superheated water and hydrogen-rich gases. Their rocky structures contain a labyrinth of small compartments that could have concentrated life’s building blocks into dense crowds, and minerals that would have catalysed their get-togethers. Far away from visions of languid soups, these churning environments are the current best guess for the site of life’s hatchery.
So Miller’s iconic experiment, and its now-completed follow-ups, probably won’t lay out the first steps of life. As Adam Rutherford, who is writing a book on the origin of life, says, “It’s really a historical piece, like finding that Darwin had described a Velociraptor in one of his notebooks.”
If anything, the analysis of Miller’s vials is a testament to the value of meticulous scientific work. Here was a man who prepared his samples so cleanly, who recorded his notes so thoroughly, and who stored everything so carefully, that his contemporaries could pick up where he left off five decades later.
Reference: Parker, Cleaves, Dworkin, Glavin, Callahan, Aubrey, Lazcano & Bada. 2011. Primordial synthesis of amines and amino acids in a 1958 Miller H2S-rich spark discharge experiment. PNAS http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1019191108
Photos by Carlos Gutierrez and Marco Fulle
More on origins:
- A possible icy start for life
- Tree or ring: the origin of complex cells
- The origin of complex life – it was all about energy
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Engineering Statics[Enter Course]
Statics is the study of methods for quantifying the forces between bodies. Forces are responsible for maintaining balance and causing motion of bodies, or changes in their shape. You encounter a great number and variety of examples of forces every day, such as when you press a button, turn a doorknob, or run your hands through your hair. Motion and changes in shape are critical to the functionality of man-made objects as well as objects the nature.
Statics is an essential prerequisite for many branches of engineering, such as mechanical, civil, aeronautical, and bioengineering, which address the various consequences of forces.
This course contains many interactive elements, including: simulations; “walk-throughs” that integrate voice and graphics to explain a procedure or a difficult concept; and, most prominently, computer tutors in which students practice problem solving with hints and feedback.
This course uses algebra and trigonometry and is suitable for use with either calculus- or non-calculus-based academic statics courses. Completion of a beginning physics course is helpful for success in statics, but not required. Many key physics concepts are included in this course.
Additional Course Details
- Topics Covered:
- Forces; Free Body Diagrams; Equilibrium of Simple Objects; and Machines and Structures Joined by Engineering Connections, Trusses, Friction, and Moments of Inertia.
- Estimated Time to Complete Course:
- Approximately 3 hours per module for a total of approximately 60 hours.
- Additional Software or Materials Required:
- You will need to have Flash, Java, and MathML installed. These programs are free. More detailed information is provided in the course under “Test and Configure Your System.”
- Maintenance Fee (per student):
- Free for both independent learners and academic students.
- Course Last Updated Date:
- January 2012
- Changes in This Update Include:
- New module 15: Annotated Practice Problems – Machines.
- Maintenance Fee (per student):
- Free to both independent learners and academic students.
OLI Engineering Statics covers the essential topics contained in most Statics textbooks (except it does not currently have 3-D statics or shear force and bending moment diagrams in beams). By module 12 (out of 20), the course has covered equilibrium of bodies with engineering connections (pin joints, rollers, etc.) that require a single free body diagram. However, the sequence of topics in modules 1 – 12 departs slightly from textbooks and reflects the authors’ teaching strategy of statics.
- Unit 1 (Modules 1 – 5)
- Forces, free body diagrams, moment due to a force, and then equilibrium for bodies loaded with simple concentrated forces (no couples, distributed loads, or engineering connections).The authors believe a first exposure to equilibrium with attention to free body diagrams and the summation of forces and moments is valuable before introducing the couple, static equivalence, and engineering connections. In any event, we think the couple and static equivalence are far easier to understand if the concept of equilibrium is handled first.
- Unit 2 (Modules 6 – 9)
- Couples (torques), distributed loads, static equivalence and modeling of engineering connections.
- Unit 3 (Modules 10 – 12)
- Equilibrium of bodies with engineering connections (separated into free body diagrams, equilibrium conditions, and strategies for choosing subsystems to isolate).
The remaining units cover frames and machines, trusses, friction, and moments of inertia.
Throughout the course, to promote conceptual understanding and problem solving skills, the course contains many interactive elements. These include: simulations; some with adjustable parameters controlled by the student to help visualize concepts; “walk-throughs” that integrate voice and graphics to explain an example of the procedure or a difficult concept; and, most prominently, computer tutors in which students practice problem solving, with hints and feedback.
The course is built around a series of carefully devised learning objectives that are independently assessed. Most of the interactive tutors are tagged by learning objective and skill, and so student work is tracked by the system and reported to the instructor via the Learning Dashboard. This data on student activity gives the instructor insight into mastery of learning objectives and skills, both for the class as a whole and for individual students.
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Image courtesy Norman Kuring, SeaWiFS Project
A massive sandstorm blowing off the northwest African desert has blanketed hundreds of thousands of square miles of the eastern Atlantic Ocean with a dense cloud of Saharan sand. The massive nature of this particular storm was first seen in this SeaWiFS image acquired February 26, 2000 when it reached over 1000 miles into the Atlantic.
These storms and the rising warm air can lift dust 15,000 feet or so above the African deserts and then out across the Atlantic, many times reaching as far as the Caribbean where they often require the local weather services to issue air pollution alerts as was recently the case in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Recent studies by the U.S.G.S. have linked the decline of the coral reefs in the Caribbean to the increasing frequency and intensity of Saharan Dust events. Additionally, other studies suggest that Sahalian Dust may play a role in determining the frequency and intensity of hurricanes formed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Note: Often times, due to the size, browsers have a difficult time opening and displaying images. If you experiece an error when clicking on an image link, please try directly downloading the image (using a right click, save as method) to view it locally.
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The Matching Game
by J. Mark Scearce*
Music and philosophy have a long history together - from Pythagoras and the foundations of tonality to Plato and his invectives against the dangers of art and music, in particular, to sway a society. Nietzsche and Wagner weighed in on the powers of music, at least until one night in Sorrento when Friedrich couldn't take the overbearing Richard any longer.
The 20th century is filled with philosophical dialogue about music, and that is probably why I, as a composer, chose to take time off from my music-making to study philosophy - and why, later on, early in my teaching career, I developed a matching game - for both musicians and non-musicians alike - to provide a better understanding about this elusive art form we are always having to talk about with audiences before listening.
Music and philosophy have a lot in common, and I want audiences and musicians alike to think about this, about the creation of music, through philosophical introspection and all that it reveals about what it is that we do.
In the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , under the heading of Analysis , there are listed five categories or aspects of music that can be analyzed, or torn apart, to view just how they work. In other words, there are five ways of looking at music, calling it music, and thinking about it as music.
No. 5 is the Experience of Music. It is probably the aspect with which we are most comfortable but also least likely to attribute to the word. Sure, the Experience is Music, but we refer to it as listening to music - and what is Music, really?
It is No. 4, Performance, the aspect with which we are most familiar . This is what our symphony does, what rock and country and jazz bands do. It is the only way we can experience electro-acoustic musics or improvisation. What is Music? Performance .
But these - the performance and your own personal experience - are aspects that I, a composer, have very little control over. Imagine that. As a composer, you are judged not by what you do but how others reinterpret what you do. The next three aspects, however, are the composer's domain.
Let's take them out of order, back to the top. What is Music? No. 1 - the idea in the mind of the composer at the moment of conception. When does my work become music? When I have the idea for it. But only composers, like philosophers, can give an idea any credence. So, what must happen to that idea?
The composer must create No. 2, a score, using a language of communication. What is Music? It is the scrawl on the page. A cellist leans over and says to her stand partner, "Let me see the music ." That's physical; that's No. 2, the score or part, the written language.
Now No. 3, the only one left to define, is a heady concept. How does a performer know how to make a performance (No. 4) out of a score (No. 2)? By No. 3: the sound-image of the score. If the composer has done his or her job right, the sound-image will be the idea projected into a score, so the conductor or the performers will be able to hear - in the mind's ear - what the piece is to sound like before they actually play it.
Thus I read a score, like a book, so it projects a sound-image. I can hear a symphony, all 100 performers, in my mind. The trick is getting it out of my head and onto the page in a language that others can read, can "hear" in the mind, and can recreate for the audience to hear in the hall.
I am often asked how this is done. Is it a gift or a learned trait? Clearly, some people are naturally capable of reading music and hearing it in the mind. Yet I believe that every serious student of music - and of composition, in particular - can be taught - and can learn - to hear music in the mind.
Everyone knows we are visual animals. Suggest a pink and purple-polka-dotted elephant or a dancing banana and we all have immediate visual images in our mind's eyes. And yet, to suggest something as simple as a C-major chord played by a bassoon, an oboe, and a muted trumpet sends even the most serious musician into paroxysms of constipated imaginings!
The Mental Ear must be exercised. It is far less developed than our Mental Eye but just as real. This concept of sound-image - which should be central to music - is the least understood of our five aspects and is often ignored altogether in the process. This lack of understanding of a Mental Ear, I posit, puts Music at risk. It is a subject music educators need to address, and soon.
So our five aspects of music are as follows:
1. The Idea
That's Music: The idea, the score, the sound-image of the score, the performance, and your experience. Now, bear with me for a moment.
I studied philosophy in college to have a broader handle on the world. In philosophy there are five basic areas of study.
Aesthetics is the study of the beautiful - actually, it is the judging of quality. Ethics is the study of right, wrong, good, evil - choices of morality. Epistemology is the study of how we learn - and how we know. Logic is the study of order - syntax and categories of thought. And metaphysics is the study of those things beyond the physical - the concept of God, Love, and Concepts with capitol Cs.
We can match up the definitions of music and the areas of philosophy by finding which one is closest to defining or representing the other and - in the process - learn more about both. This is an exercise in abstract thinking, assuring a better quality by a more complete examination, regardless of the discipline or art form.
Here goes. The idea of a composition is in the composer's mind. Which philosophical category comes close to expressing a concept? Metaphysics. Which philosophical discipline implies a language akin to the score or language system? Only one discipline of philosophy is actually constructed as a language: Logic. And the sound-image of the score, or the way performers know how to interpret, equates quite well with Epistemology, the system of knowledge.
Up to this point, there is seemingly little discussion. A metaphysical process is confronted by a logical process to create language. Embedded in this language, if the processes are handled with care, is not only the information to be conveyed but also the key to unraveling the puzzle, the epistemology, the ways of knowing.
These are the hooks and handles performers need to accurately recreate the idea out of the language. More on that in a moment, when the performer's role is brought to light.
What we have lost in our educational methods is the way to recognize this underlying code. And if we have lost the ability to find the code, we are certainly not taught to embed the code in our creative efforts. To do this, one must hear in the mind's ear the idea as it is being translated into language.
But with these three philosophical aspects assigned, we are left with the two value systems, Ethics and Aesthetics. One determines right or wrong and the other, quality. How can we determine if a thing is beauty, is art? Only through experience. Thus the experience is best judged with Aesthetics, leaving the choices the performer makes in performance to Ethics. This is no simple concept - and it is absolved by current education. There is a responsibility in performance, and Ethics represents this well.
1. The Idea = e. Metaphysics
That the idea is metaphysical is not earth-shattering. That sound is conveyed in a kind of symbolic logic is also not arguable. But that the concept of a sound-image is acknowledged and yet ignored in the educational process is something music educators would do well to ponder and discuss.
That aesthetic judgment requires experience is not the issue here, but that aesthetic judgment itself is rarely ever considered as a genuine part of the experience is worthy of dialogue. And just who is equipped to do the judging - and why?
And then there remains the problem of Ethics. It is a problem in the society at large and no less a problem in the making of music. Abdicating one's ethical role in performance creates bad performance, plain and simple. So just what is the ethics of music, and how is it equitably applied?
For the composer, this matching game provides a system, a framework in which to place his or her work. It provides an understanding of the mutual responsibilities all participants in the musical endeavor share. And it underscores the fact that, when all is said and done, it is the composer who is ultimately responsible .
*J. Mark Scearce has five degrees in Music and Philosophy, including the doctorate in composition from Indiana University. He is the Director of the Music Department at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
Note : This is the first of what we hope will be a series of guest columns by the heads of our college/university music departments and other distinguished artists and educators. Reader feedback is welcome.
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Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.
Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Ever been in the middle of an assignment and had the feeling that you just can't write anymore? Like, there's just no way you can keep writing that essay on Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"? Your brain just won't go there?
Yeah, that happens to Shmoop, too.
In literature, authors sometimes acknowledge these doubts using a rhetorical strategy known as aporia. It's a Greek word, meaning "impassable path". Aporia is writing that's about how you just can't write anymore. Or, in an aporia, the writer can openly express doubt about the current topic about which they're writing.
Aporia plays a big part in the work of deconstruction theorists like Jacques Derrida, who use the term to describe a text's most doubtful or contradictory moment. It's the point at which the text has hit a brick wall when it comes to meaning. It has contradicted itself one too many times, and now it's at an impasse. Oops.
But there's also a more rhetorical side to aporia; it can be useful. It can just refer to a useful expression of doubt when you want to convince someone of something. As in, "Do you really think juggling hand grenades is the best idea?"
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on pricing for classes.
There are a number of reasons some online programs failed because of pricing. But the prime factor seems to be choice. Offer a pricey course on Shakespeare and Net-savvy students might just look for similar content on the Web that costs little or nothing to download and read.
"Remember, this is a new world order where the clientele interested in online education really have choices," said Green.
The Western Governors University (WGU) used to add a surcharge to fees for classes it provided through its system but were developed and maintained by other colleges. Students quickly learned that by going directly to the school where the course was created, they could bypass the surcharge. WGU now has dropped the surcharge.
"You've got to remember online students are savvy consumers," said Robert Mendenhall, president of WGU. "These are adults who know how to shop for what they want."
Another mistake made by academic institutions was to offer content but not enough infrastructure for the online students and their faculty. One of the biggest criticisms of online education has been the high dropout rate. Students often feel isolated taking a course online, while teachers can be overwhelmed in their attempts to migrate courses from classrooms to the Internet.
"People who are looking for courses online are not just looking for dry content, they want some level of interaction, a little bit of high-touch," said Green. He said Phoenix University and Jones International understand that online learning isn't just about content, but it's about creating infrastructure that supports content.
WGU also has learned that lesson. Incoming students are given an orientation course about online learning, showing them how threaded discussions and online chats can help them interact and learn. To create a sense of community, faculty mentors stay in touch with students, who also are encouraged to form support groups.
The support groups are important, according to Mendenhall. Occasionally, students will withdraw from the class work for a week to a month, then find it very hard to return because they feel isolated. Support groups help the student stay part of the community of learners, even if they pause in their studies.
Colleges and universities also underestimated the cost of starting and operating online courses. Developing an online course can be significantly more expensive than a classroom course, according to experts. Some dot-com firms that tried to launch for-profit online education programs spent hundreds of thousands of dollars developing a single course.
Faculty hired to teach online courses often receive a fixed payment for teaching the class. What's overlooked is the effort the professor must make to move the class online. That can drive up the cost significantly, but colleges don't always factor those additional costs, according to Green. "Higher education doesn't have a good sense of cost accounting," he remarked.
Online education does work when colleges and universities take the time to figure out their own strengths and assess the market they want to serve. The adult higher education market is quite large, Green pointed out. At the same time, technology continues to get better and demand for individual courses and degrees keeps growing. As a result, online learning is a way to expand the education market, says Green. Just make sure that online education projects are tied to the economies of the market.
Nor should institutions of higher learning assume that what we know now about online education will become the status quo.
"It's still evolving," continued Green. "What was true two years ago isn't true today. What's true today isn't going to be what we know in the next four years."
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PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT
NAVAL UNDERSEA WARFARE CENTER (NUWC) DIVISION
(a/k/a NAVAL UNDERSEA WAREFARE ENGINEERING STATION)
KEYPORT, KITSAP COUNTY, WASHINGTON
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) prepared this public healthassessment to evaluate exposure pathways and to respond to community concerns about past,current, and potential future exposures to contaminants associated with the Naval UnderseaWarfare Center Division (NUWC) Keyport. ATSDR evaluated environmental information for allareas of contamination on and adjacent to the base and identified four exposure pathways wherethe potential for human exposure existed: 1) past, current, and future exposures to contaminantsin the foodchain; 2) past, current, and future exposures to contaminants in private drinking waterwells; 3) past, current, and future exposures to contaminants in on-base drinking water wells; and4) past exposure to contaminants in indoor air. On the basis of the most currently availableinformation, ATSDR has determined that exposures to contaminants in the groundwaterunderneath and adjacent to NUWC Keyport and in shellfish in marine waters surroundingNUWC Keyport do not pose a public health hazard. ATSDR also evaluated past exposures tovolatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor air in modular offices on Keyport Landfill and determined that past exposures did not pose a public health hazard.
NUWC Keyport is an active naval facility occupying approximately 340 acres in Kitsap County,Washington. It is located on the Kitsap Peninsula in Puget Sound near the town of Keyport. TheKeyport property, originally referred to as the Pacific Coast Torpedo Station, Keyport, wasacquired by the Navy in 1913. The facility became known as the Naval Torpedo Station,Keyport. It was first used as a still water range for torpedo testing. The base generates hazardouswastes through various activities including painting operations; the maintenance and testing oftorpedoes; and through the use of fuels for torpedoes. Past waste disposal practices resulted in thecontamination of soil, groundwater, and marine surface waters at NUWC Keyport. In addition toroutine disposal activities, several fuel spills and pipeline leaks occurred resulting incontamination of soil, marine surface water, and groundwater at NUWC Keyport.
An initial assessment study (IAS) of NUWC Keyport was released in September 1984. In May1986, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommended that NUWC Keyport beincluded on the National Priorities List, which is part of Superfund. In 1988, under the Navy'sInstallation Restoration Program, a remedial investigation and feasibility study was conducted tofurther characterize the extent of contamination at the base and determine what, if any,remediation was necessary. As a result of environmental contamination, NUWC Keyport waslisted on EPA's National Priorities List in October 1989. As a result of the IAS, six areas ofcontamination were recommended for further investigation: Area 1- Keyport Landfill, Area 2 -Van Meter Road Spill/Drum Storage Area, Area 3 - Otto Fuel Leak Area, Area 5 - Sludge Disposal Area, Area 8 - Plating Shop Waste/Oil Spill Area, and Area 9 - Liberty Bay shorelines.NUWC Keyport was organized into two operable units (OUs). OU 1 includes the KeyportLandfill (Area 1) and OU 2 contains the other five areas (Areas 2,3,5, 8, and 9).
Foodchain - shellfish
Four source areas at NUWC Keyport, Area 1 (Keyport Landfill), Area 3 (Otto Fuel Pipeline Leak), Area 8 (Plating Shop) and Area 9 (Liberty Bay - Shorelines), have released contaminants into marine waters. People who live or fish in the area around NUWC Keyport may have been exposed to very low levels of site-related contaminants if they consumed contaminated shellfish. ATSDR evaluated past, current, and potential future exposures from consuming shellfish near Areas 1, 3, 8, and 9. Most contaminants detected in shellfish samples from all four source areas were found at very low concentrations and none of the contaminants were detected at levels that are known to result in adverse health effects. Based on available sampling data collected from 1989 through 2000, ATSDR concludes that shellfish harvested from marine waters near these areas do not pose a past or current public health hazard to subsistence or recreational fishers. Shellfish sampling is currently conducted under the long-term monitoring plan. Although the June 2000 shellfish contaminant levels do not indicate levels likely to result in adverse health effects, due to inconsistences in the June 2000 analysis of metals in shellfish, ATSDR is not able to compare the June 2000 sampling results with past shellfish data. Therefore, we could not evaluate any possible trends over time in the contaminant concentration of shellfish from Areas 1 and 8. To evaluate temporal trends, ATSDR recommends that shellfish sampling continue for a minimum of three additional sampling rounds.
Private Drinking water wells - groundwater
An inventory of private wells located west, northwest, and north of Area 1 (Keyport Landfill) identified 57 active private drinking water wells, four in the town of Keyport. The Keyport Landfill has contaminated two aquifers, referred to as the upper aquifer and the intermediate aquifer. Landfill contaminants in the upper aquifer have not migrated off base. However, contaminants in the intermediate aquifer have migrated off base as far north as the Highway 308 causeway between the Tide Flats and Dogfish Bay. Groundwater in the area of NUWC Keyport flows towards the northwest, in the direction of the Tide Flats. The private wells are, therefore, upgradient and away from site related contamination. Groundwater samples collected from seven private wells did not contain any site-related contaminants. One sample contained two VOCs, chloroform (1.6 parts per billion [ppb]) and trichloroethylene (TCE) (0.42 ppb). The source of the chloroform is likely a result of the chlorine that was added to the well water. The source of the TCE is unknown, however, it is very unlikely groundwater contaminants have migrated from off base because the well is upgradient of Area 1 (Keyport Landfill). Private wells located south of NUWC Keyport are upgradient from any potential sources of contamination. Based on this information, ATSDR concludes that drinking water from private wells around NUWC Keyport does not pose a past, current, or future public health hazard.
Base Drinking water wells - groundwater
NUWC Keyport obtains its drinking water from one supply well (Base well [BW] 5). This well is screened in the deep aquifer below the Clover Park Unit aquitard at approximately 800 feet below the ground surface. The aquitard prevents contamination in the upper and intermediate aquifers from reaching the deep aquifer. The well is routinely tested for inorganics and VOCs. All monitoring tests have met state and federal drinking water standards. For these reasons, ATSDR concludes that drinking water from BW 5 does not pose a past, current, or future public health hazard.
People who worked in modular offices that were constructed during the mid-1980s above Keyport Landfill may have been exposed to VOCs in indoor air. These modular offices were occupied for about 8 years before being torn down or vacated. VOCs were measured during the time these offices were being used. Using conservative exposure assumptions, ATSDR evaluated exposures to VOCs in indoor air and found that detected levels of contaminants are not at levels associated with adverse health effects. Therefore, ATSDR concludes that past exposure to VOCs posed no public health hazard. Since these buildings have been removed or are no longer occupied, current and future exposures to VOCs do not pose a public health hazard.
|No Public Health Hazards|| |
The Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division (NUWC), Keyport is an active naval facilityoccupying approximately 340 acres in Kitsap County, Washington. It is located on the KitsapPeninsula in Puget Sound near the town of Keyport. The facility is bounded on the north byLiberty Bay; on the east by the Port Orchard Reach (an extension of Liberty Bay); on thesoutheast by Port Orchard; on the northwest by the incorporated town of Keyport; on the west bythe Tide Flats, which are part of Dogfish Bay (an extension of Liberty Bay); and on the southwestand south by largely rural areas and some small residential communities that are part of KitsapCounty (URS 1993a) (Vicinity Map).
A number of buildings and industrial areas are situated all around the base; the base itself is notdivided into designated land use areas. The topography of the base rises gently from the shorelineto an average of 25 to 30 feet above sea level. At the southeast corner of NUWC Keyport, a morerapid rise in elevation occurs to a maximum 185 feet above sea level in the southern most portionof the base (SCS and Landau Associates 1984).
The NUWC Keyport property, originally referred to as the Naval Torpedo Station, Keyport, wasacquired by the Navy in 1913 and first used as a still water range for torpedo testing. DuringWorld War II (between 1942 and 1943), the base acquired 62 acres of land and added 25facilities and 200 housing units. The new facilities were used to test and overhaul torpedoes, andincrease the overall capacity to design and test new torpedoes (SCS Engineers 1987).
In 1978, the facility changed its name to the Naval Undersea Warfare Engineering Station in recognition of its expanded functions, including the testing of various undersea warfare weapons as well as systems engineering and development activities. In 1992, the name of the facility was changed again to its present name, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division (URS 1993a). Many of the NUWC Keyport facilities are used for multiple purposes, often combining office, industrial, research, and support functions under one roof (SCS Engineers 1987). The base generates hazardous wastes through various activities, including painting operations; the manufacture, maintenance, and testing of torpedoes; and the use of fuels for torpedoes (SCS and Landau Associates 1984).
Past waste disposal practices resulted in the contamination of soil, groundwater, and marinesurface waters at NUWC Keyport. In addition to routine disposal activities, several fuel spillsand pipeline leaks occurred resulting in contamination of soil, marine surface water, andgroundwater at NUWC Keyport. Most of the spills involved small quantities, up to 700 gallons,of torpedo fuel (Otto Fuel), 5000 gallons of plating solution, and as much as 30 gallons ofchromate. A description of each of the areas of contamination at NUWC Keyport are described in Appendix A.
The first environmental assessment at NUWC Keyport dates back to October 1976 when a waterquality monitoring study consisting of marine water and sediment sampling was conducted. Aninitial assessment study (IAS) of NUWC Keyport was released in September 1984. During theIAS, a total of 10 sites were identified at NUWC Keyport as potential sources of contaminationbased on historical records, aerial photos, surface and aerial surveys, and personnel interviews(SCS and Landau Associates 1984)
In May 1986, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommended that NUWCKeyport be placed on the National Priorities List (NPL), which is part of Superfund. A CurrentSituation Report, released in December 1987, was used to help prioritize specific areas forfurther investigation (SCS Engineers 1987). In 1988, under the Navy's Installation RestorationProgram, a remedial investigation (RI) and feasibility study were conducted to furthercharacterize the extent of contamination at the base and determine what, if any, remediation wasnecessary. As a result of the IAS and the Current Situation Report, six areas of contamination were recommended for further investigation:
Area 1 -- Keyport Landfill. The former Keyport landfill comprises about 9 acres in thewest-central part of NUWC Keyport. Most of the landfill area was formerly marshlandthat extended from the tidal flats to the shallow lagoon . It was the base's primary disposalarea for both domestic and industrial wastes from the 1930s to 1973. Wastes disposed ofat the landfill included paints, thinners, strippers, solvents, heavy metals from platingshops, cutting oils, pesticide rinsate from pest control shops, and wastewater treatment plant sludges (URS 1997b; URS 1997c).
Area 2 -- Van Meter Road Spill/Drum Storage Area. This area covers approximately 1.3acres on both sides of Van Meter Road near where it crosses a stream that empties to theshallow lagoon. There are three distinct waste disposal or spill areas: 1) Van Meter Roadspill area, 2) former Building 957 drum storage area, and 3) former Building 734 drumstorage area. Contaminants at these areas include heavy metals from plating shop wastes,methyl ethyl ketone, trichloroethylene (TCE), carbon tetrachloride, pesticides, Otto fuel(a liquid torpedo fuel), paints, strippers, and thinners (URS 1997b; 1997c).
Area 3 -- Otto Fuel Leak Area. This area, located near the shallow lagoon and Buildings106 and 499, covers approximately 800 square feet. Building 106 is used to test torpedomotors. Prior to 1984, wastewater containing Otto fuel from testing, washdown, and tankflushing from Building 106 was piped into a 1,000-gallon underground sump southeast ofBuilding 499 which has been removed under the underground storage tank program (URS1997b; 1997c).
Area 5 -- Sludge Disposal Area. This area is a former wastewater treatment sludge disposalarea covering approximately 0.4 acre near Building 94 in the northeastern part of the base. Contaminants include metals and some organic compounds (URS 1997b; 1997c).
Area 8 -- Plating Shop Waste/Oil Spill Area. This area occupies about 1 acre on the easternportion of the base near the plating shop. A number of releases have taken place at this areaincluding a chromate spill during the 1970s, an oil release in 1987, and a plating waste spill in 1988 (URS 1997b; 1997c).
Area 9 -- Liberty Bay-shoreline. This area includes approximately 5,000 feet of shorelinearound the NUWC Keyport peninsula, including near shore areas around piers 1 and 2. Avariety of substances were discharged to Liberty Bay through drainage pipes and stormsewers from 1915 to about 1980, including metal and cyanide wastes, strippers, thinners,solvents, paints, and Otto fuel (URS 1997b; 1997c).
NUWC Keyport was officially placed on the NPL in October 1989 as a result of contaminationidentified in these six areas. The final RI report was released in October 1993 and the finalfeasibility study report was released in November 1993 (URS and SAIC 1998). During the summerof 1994, following the public comment period on the proposed cleanup plan for the six areas,NUWC Keyport was organized into two operable units (OUs). OU 1 includes the Keyport Landfill(Area 1) and OU 2 contains the other five areas (Areas 2, 3, 5, 8, and 9) (Vicinity Map).
A record of decision (ROD) for OU 2 was released in September 1994. The proposed remedialaction for Area 2 (Van Meter Road Spill/Drum Storage Area) consists of institutional controls,which will prevent residential use of the site and construction of domestic drinking water wells,preclude the use of groundwater except for remediation purposes, and groundwater monitoring,which will be used to monitor groundwater contaminant concentrations. The proposed remedy forArea 8 (Plating Shop Waste/Oil Spill Area) includes continued groundwater monitoring, sedimentand biological (marine tissue) monitoring, institutional controls to restrict residential use of thesite, and removal and off-site disposal of highly contaminated soils in the saturated zones, justabove the water table.
No remedial actions were recommended for Area 3 (Otto Fuel Leak Area), Area 5 (SludgeDisposal Area), and Area 9 (Liberty Bay) because levels of site-related contaminants were deemedtoo low to pose human health risks. Confirmatory sampling was conducted in Area 5 and Area 9 inorder to ensure that these two areas do not pose dangers to human health. Again the results showedcontaminant levels too low to pose a health hazard.
A ROD for OU 1 was released in September 1998. The selected remedial actions for OU 1 include:1) planting poplar trees to filter contaminants; 2) removing PCB-contaminated sediment; 3)upgrading the tide gate; 4) upgrading and maintaining the landfill cover; 5) long-term monitoring;6) contingent actions for off-base domestic wells (if long-term monitoring shows that off-basedomestic wells could become contaminated in the future); and 7) institutional controls (URS and SAIC 1998).
As part of the public health assessment (PHA) process, the Agency for Toxic Substances andDisease Registry (ATSDR) conducted an initial site visit on May 22 - 24, 1991. The purpose ofthis trip was to meet with NUWC Keyport representatives and other federal, state, and localofficials and obtain information to assist in preparing the PHA. Other site visits were conducted onSeptember 13, 1994, May 27, 1995, and June 12, 1997. ATSDR also attended a public availabilitysession on May 27, 1995 and restoration advisory board meetings in June and September 1997.
ATSDR prepared two health consultations for NUWC Keyport to evaluate the safety of consumingshellfish taken from waters bordering the facility. The first health consultation was released August21, 1995 (Appendix B), and a follow-up health consultation was released February 5, 1997(Appendix C). ATSDR concluded in the August 1995 health consultation that the chemicalconcentrations detected in shellfish sampled in Liberty Bay and the Shallow Lagoon are not likelyto cause adverse health effects and are safe for consumption by subsistence, commercial,ceremonial, and recreational harvesters. ATSDR was unable to make a public health determinationabout shellfish taken from Dogfish Bay because the tests did not include polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs) and because discrepancies in sampling results for lead did not allow for a public healthdetermination. In the February 1997 follow-up health consultation, ATSDR evaluated newsampling data that included PCB analyses. ATSDR determined that PCB and lead concentrationsdo not pose a public health hazard to individuals who consume native littleneck clams collected from Dogfish Bay.
Additional shellfish data was collected in June 2000 and evaluated in this public health assessment.
ATSDR examines demographic information or population information to identify the presence ofsensitive populations, such as young children and the elderly, in the vicinity of a site. Demographicinformation also provides details on residential history in a particular area, information that helpsATSDR assess time frames of potential human exposure to contaminants. Demographicinformation for the base and residential areas surrounding NUWC Keyport is presented in thissection.
As of December 1999, over 1,800 civilian and military personnel were employed at NUWCKeyport. This total includes 27 military personnel, 1,268 civil service personnel, andapproximately 600 contractors (D. Jennings, NUWC Keyport, personal communication, November1999). On-base residential areas are located in the north-central portion and south-east portions ofNUWC Keyport (URS and SAIC 1997a). Approximately 80 individuals, including 21 children,live in this residential area. About half of the residents live in officers quarters located just north ofthe center of the base and the other on-site residents live in enlisted quarters located on Radio Hill,which is the southeast portion of NUWC Keyport (D. Jennings, NUWC Keyport, personalcommunication, April 2000). There are no schools or daycare facilities on base. Several areas onthe base are used for recreation, including a park area near the shallow lagoon on the south side ofthe base, which is used for picnics. The main recreational area, however, is the Shallow LagoonPicnic Area.
Nearby off-base residential areas include the town of Keyport (population 350), which is immediately adjacent to the base; the city of Poulsbo (population 4,850), which is about 2 miles northwest of NUWC Keyport across Liberty Bay; the town of Silverdale (population 7,660), which is about 6 miles southwest of the base; and the Port Madison Indian Reservation (population 4,834), which is located about one-half mile northeast of the base across Liberty Bay. The reservation is home to the Suquamish people, a fishing tribe whose leader was Chief Sealth, after whom the city took its name.
Port Madison Indian Reservation and the Suquamish Tribe
The original inhabitants of the Port Madison Reservation were primarily of the Suquamish Tribe and a few from other tribes represented in the Point Elliott Treaty. The Tribe's 1996 membership roll lists over 780 enrolled members. However, the Reservation accommodates tribal members, other Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, and non-Indians.
The Reservation consists of over 7,486 acres that contain tribal trust lands, individually andcollectively owned trust lands, historic allotments held in trust, and fee lands owned by Indians and non-Indians.
NUWC Keyport is entirely fenced and access to the base is restricted. A security policeman isposted at the gate for additional security. Land uses at NUWC Keyport include industrial facilities,operation support areas, on-base residential areas, forest lands (approximately 60 acres), wetlands,tidal flats, and a shallow lagoon used for row and paddle boating, sailing, and picnicking.
Most land use in the vicinity of NUWC Keyport is rural/agricultural, residential, or light industrial.Directly south of the base is a very rural residential and agricultural area which has not beenincorporated as a city or town and is part of Kitsap County. More than half of NUWC Keyportborders marine water, either Liberty Bay, the Shallow Lagoon, or Dogfish Bay and Tide Flats.There is little or no commercial fin fishing in Liberty Bay. However, a small number of people fishfor recreation. Commercial and private clam and oyster (shellfish) beds are abundant in the LibertyBay/Port Orchard area (URS 1994). In 1987, NUWC Keyport closed its own beaches on LibertyBay to shellfish harvesting because the Bremerton-Kitsap County Health District issued a PublicHealth Advisory for harvesting shellfish in Liberty Bay due to inconsistent water quality frombiological contamination (i.e., fecal coliforms) caused by septic and sewer discharges (ATSDR1995; URS 1994).
Dogfish Bay, located northwest of the base, is used for recreational fin fishing and for commercialoyster harvesting. Commercial oyster beds in Dogfish Bay are owned by the Coast OysterCompany (URS 1994). Recreational shellfish harvesting has historically taken place in the TideFlats, which are an extension of Dogfish Bay. Members of the Suquamish Indian Tribe harvest finfish and shellfish for ceremonial, subsistence, and economic purposes in Dogfish Bay and LibertyBay (URS 1994). The Tribe raise chum and chinook salmon as part of a fisheries enhancementprogram, in and near Liberty Bay (URS and SAIC 1993b).
The Suquamish people have lived, gathered food, ceremonial, and spiritual items, and hunted andfished for thousands of years in western Washington. The Tribe used lands and waters north intoCanada, Whidbey, Blake and Bainbridge islands, and most of Kitsap County. The usual andaccustomed (U and A) fishing places of the Suquamish Tribe extends well beyond Reservationboundaries and includes marine waters of Puget Sound from the northern tip of Vashon Island tothe Fraser River in Canada, including Haro and Rosario Straits, the streams draining into thewestern side of Puget Sound and also Hood Canal. The U and A of the Suquamish Tribe extendswest into Jefferson County, south into Mason County, and includes most of Kitsap County(Suquamish 1999).
NUWC Keyport is characterized by multiple water-bearing zones separated by aquitards(impermeable layers). The Clover Park Unit constitutes a thick aquitard comprised of silt/clay non-glacial deposits and is present throughout NUWC Keyport (URS 1993a). The Clover Park Unitvaries in thickness, but generally ranges between 100 to 200 feet thick in the region, except in theeastern part of NUWC Keyport, near Area 8, where most of it is only about 16 feet thick. TheClover Park Unit is generally considered impermeable and is found between 25 and 75 feet belowground surface (bgs) in most areas of NUWC Keyport (URS and SAIC 1993).
Above and below the Clover Park Unit are multiple water bearing zones separated by otheraquitards. Water bearing zones above the Clover Park Unit are referred to as the shallow aquifersand those below are called the deep aquifers (EA Engineering 1999). The shallow aquifers abovethe Clover Park aquifer generally are less than 50 feet below ground surface, except in outwashareas where they extend as much as 100 feet below ground surface.
In Area 1, an unconfined (water table) aquifer with a maximum depth of approximately 15 feetbelow ground surface and a confined aquifer with a maximum depth between 40 and 60 feet belowground surface have been identified above the uppermost clay of the Clover Park Unit. These waterbearing zones are referred to as the "shallow aquifer" and "intermediate aquifer." In Area 2, oneunconfined (water table) aquifer was identified above the Clover Park Unit. The depth of theaquifer ranges from just below ground surface to approximately 40 feet below ground surface. InArea 3, an unconfined (water table) aquifer ranging from just below ground surface toapproximately 6 feet below ground surface and a partially confined aquifer between 10 and 20 feetbelow ground surface have been identified above the Clover Park Unit. Area 5 has a very thick till(sand and silt) layer which confines the uppermost aquifer. Besides a very shallow moist zone justbelow ground surface, the uppermost aquifer at Area 5 is found approximately 50 feet belowground surface. In Area 8, one unconfined aquifer and one confined aquifer were identified. Theunconfined aquifer is a thick shallow aquifer near Area 8. This unconfined aquifer may extendnearly 200 feet below ground surface. The confined aquifer begins between 125 and 150 feet below ground surface (URS and SAIC 1993).
Groundwater flow direction in the shallow aquifer at NUWC Keyport generally follows surfacewater topography. In Area 1, groundwater flow converges from the southwest and the northeasttowards the low-lying marsh and Tide Flats area (URS 1993a). Groundwater in Area 2 flowsnortheasterly and discharges into the shallow lagoon. Groundwater near Area 3 generally flowssouthward and discharges into the shallow lagoon and an adjacent marsh. In Area 5 and Area 8,groundwater flow is strongly influenced by tidal fluctuations in Liberty Bay, however, the overallflow direction is towards Liberty Bay (URS 1993a;1994). Groundwater flow direction in the deep aquifers beneath NUWC Keyport has not been determined.
On-Base Groundwater Use
One supply well (Base well [BW] 5) supplies NUWC Keyport with drinking water (R. Beynum,NUWC Keyport, personal communication, December 1999). BW 5 is located about 500 feetnortheast of Area 3. This well is screened in the deep aquifer below the Clover Park Unit aquitardat approximately 800 feet below ground surface.
The water is chlorinated prior to being released into two 50,000 gallon tanks. The tanks areprimarily used as a mixing and detention basin. There is no other treatment for the system. Thewater from both tanks is then pumped into a 500,000 gallon underground holding reservoir whereit is ready to be distributed throughout the base. The system serves approximately 1,800 employeesand approximately 100 residents of NUWC Keyport. There are no backup wells on base, however,there is a metered connection with the Kitsap County Public Utility District that can supply up to500,000 gallons of water per day (R. Beynum, NUWC Keyport, personal communication, January2000). The NUWC Keyport drinking water is routinely sampled in accordance with the SafeDrinking Water Act and meets all applicable drinking water standards.
Off-Base Groundwater Use
An inventory and sampling of private water wells in the area around NUWC Keyport wasconducted by the U.S. Navy between March 1996 and May 1997. The private well inventory area,which focused on regions west, northwest, and north of Area 1, the former landfill, identified atotal of 57 private active drinking water wells, four in the town of Keyport. Most of the upperaquifer wells were located between 500 and 1,500 feet west-northwest of Area 1. In addition to thewells identified during the inventory, a small number of private shallow wells are located south ofNUWC Keyport (URS 1997b).
Two Kitsap public utility district (PUD) water wells that supply much of the town of Keyport andthe surrounding area are screened in the deep aquifers (at depths of 700 to 800 feet below groundsurface) below the Clover Park Unit aquitard (URS 1994). One of these PUD wells is a backupdrinking water well for the Keyport area and is located just outside the NUWC Keyport main gatenear Dogfish Bay. This well is screened in the deep aquifer at about 780 feet below ground surface.The other PUD well is located about 2,000 feet southwest of NUWC Keyport (URS 1993a).
In preparing this public health assessment, ATSDR relied on the information provided in thereferenced documents. Documents prepared for the CERCLA and RCRA programs must meetspecific standards for adequate quality assurance and quality control measures for chain-of-custodyprocedures, laboratory procedures, and data reporting. The validity of the analyses and conclusionsdrawn in this document are dependent upon the availability and reliability of the referencedinformation. The environmental data presented in this public health assessment are from the Navy and NUWC Keyport contractor's reports.
In this section, ATSDR evaluates whether community members have been (past), are (current), orcould be (future) exposed to harmful levels of chemicals. ATSDR considers how people mightcome into contact with, or be exposed to, contaminated media. Specifically, ATSDR determineswhether an exposure could occur through ingestion, dermal (skin) contact with contaminatedmedia, or inhalation (breathing) of vapors, and also considers the likely length (duration) andfrequency of the exposure.
If exposure was or is possible, ATSDR then considers whether chemicals were or are present atlevels that might be harmful to people. ATSDR does this by screening the concentrations ofcontaminants in an environmental medium against health-based comparison values (Appendix D).Health based comparison values are the amount of chemical per body weight that health scientistshave determined are not likely to cause adverse effects, even when assuming very conservativeexposure scenarios that over-estimate exposure. ATSDR emphasizes that regardless of the level ofcontamination, a public health hazard exists only if people come in contact with, or are otherwiseexposed to, harmful levels of contaminated media.
Following the strategy outlined above, ATSDR examined whether human exposure to harmfullevels of contaminants via these pathways existed in the past, exists now, or could potentially existin the future. ATSDR summarizes its evaluation of these exposure pathways in Table 1 anddescribes it in more detail in the discussion that follows. Past exposures are evaluated based on theperiod of time prior to 2000 when sampling data is available. For the purposes of this pubic healthassessment ATSDR has used the term "past" as pertaining to the time at which environmentalsampling was first collected - the late 1980s. However, true past exposures prior to the late 1980scannot be accurately assessed without sampling data. Exposures were most likely greater before the1980s when less stringent environmental waste regulations were in place and hazardous materialuse was increased due to greater on-base activities.
ATSDR has reviewed the environmental data generated from preliminary site evaluations and RIsof the 10 source areas identified at NUWC Keyport to determine if there are any associated past,current, or future public health hazards. ATSDR also evaluated other environmental data such asdrinking water monitoring data. From this review, ATSDR identified the following four completed or potential exposure pathways of concern.
- Past, current, and future exposures to base-related contaminants in shellfish and other marine biota.
- Past, current, and future exposures to groundwater contaminants in upper (shallow) aquifer and intermediate aquifer private wells located west and northwest of the Keyport Landfill.
- Past, current, and future exposures to contaminants in on-base drinking water supply wells.
- Past exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from indoor air in modular offices at the Keyport Landfill.
Four source areas at NUWC Keyport, Area 1 (Keyport Landfill), Area 3 (Otto Fuel Leak Area),Area 8 (Plating Shop Waste/Oil Spill Area) and Area 9 (Liberty Bay - Shoreline), have releasedcontaminants, either through groundwater or storm sewer and sanitary sewer system discharge, intomarine waters. The marine waters adjacent to these areas were sampled in 1991, 1994 and 1996. In2000, marine waters adjacent to Area 8 (Plating Shop Waste/Oil Spill Area) and Area 1 weresampled.
The Keyport facility has been in existence since 1931, but clam tissue samples were not collecteduntil 1989. The majority of chemical releases from the site likely occurred before 1989. Suquamishconsumption of these resources was also likely higher prior to 1989 because potential health riskswere not recognized. Without tissue data from this period (1931-1989) it is difficult to make anyinferences regarding public health hazards at the site before 1989.
Shellfish gather food by filtering nutrients from the water. Contaminants from the land and watermay be taken up through this filtration mechanism and concentrated in shellfish tissue. People whoharvest and consume shellfish from the Tide Flats or Dogfish Bay, the Shallow Lagoon, and/orLiberty Bay may be exposed to contaminants that have migrated off base into the shallow marinewaters surrounding NUWC Keyport.
Area 1: Wastes disposed of at the Keyport Landfill included paints, thinners, solvents, heavymetals from plating shops, cutting oils, pesticide rinsate, and wastewater treatment plant sludges.Contaminants have been detected in the upper and intermediate aquifer below the landfill.Groundwater beneath Area 1 flows toward and discharges into adjacent surface water bodies,primarily the Tide Flats, which in turn empty into Dogfish Bay. Several species of clams have beenidentified in these marine habitats, including native littleneck clams, bent-nosed clams, mud clams,and manila clams.
Area 3: The Shallow Lagoon adjacent to Area 3 may have received site-related contaminantsthrough groundwater migration. The primary source of contamination was wastewater containingOtto fuel. Shellfish are limited to a small population of mussels which are not readily consumed bypeople because it is not a popular fishing area. This is due to the limited edible fish/shellfish and tothe limited access to people off site. Some species of fish and crabs are found in the ShallowLagoon, but they are generally too small to consume.
Area 8: Plating Shop Waste/Oil Spill Area occupies about 1 acre on the eastern portion of the basenear the plating shop. A number of releases have taken place at this area including a chromate spillduring the 1970s, an oil release in 1987, and a plating waste spill in 1988 (URS 1997b; 1997c).Additionally, a variety of substances, including metal and cyanide wastes, solvents, paints andpaint residues, and Otto fuel, were discharged into Liberty Bay from 1915 until approximately1980. Area 8 is included in NUWC Keyport's long-term monitoring program. Commonlyconsumed biota found in the portion of Liberty Bay closest to NUWC Keyport include clams,crabs, mussels, rough piddocks, herring, sole, flounder, and salmon. Repeated sampling
Area 9: The Liberty Bay area comprises approximately 5,000 feet of shoreline. Originally, Area 9was the entire shoreline area of NUWC Keyport. The area was included in the Operable Unit 2along with Area 8. Divisions were made to focus environmental investigations more on Area 8 atdischarge points. Repeated sampling of the entire shoreline found the locations near Area 8 toshow contamination while the shoreline further away did not show contamination. Area 9 wassubsequently considered for No Further Action.
People who live or fish in the area around NUWC Keyport may have been exposed to very lowlevels of site-related contaminants if they consumed shellfish obtained near these source areasbecause shellfish and other marine biota may concentrate some of the contaminants in edibletissues. ATSDR evaluated past, current, and future exposures from consuming shellfish in Areas 1,3, 8, and 9. Concentrations of chemical contaminants detected in shellfish samples from all foursource areas were found to be below levels that are known to result in any adverse health effects.
Nature and Extent of Contamination in Shellfish
Area 1: Shellfish tissue samples were collected in June 2000. Native littleneck clams (Protothacastaminea), a prevalent and widely consumed species of clams, were collected for the June 2000long-term monitoring effort. Many clams from three Dogfish Bay locations and from three Tidalflats locations were analyzed as part of Area I. Chemical analyses of the clam tissue wereperformed using dry weight methodology for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and inorganicchemicals (metals) in Area 1 and wet weight methodology for semi-volatile organic compounds(SVOCs) and pesticides/polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
One VOC (naphthalene) and three pesticides were detected at low concentrations in the shellfishtissue samples. Several SVOCs were detected at low concentrations in the tissue samples,including phenol, benzyl alcohol, and benzoic acid in all six tissue samples.PCBs were detected at23 g/kg, wet weight. Six of the seven prescribed metals were detected in all six tissue samples.
In 1989, native littleneck clams were collected from nine locations in the Tide Flats and eightlocations in Dogfish Bay close to the Tide Flats area. Contaminants were generally detected at verylow concentrations. Bis (2-ethyl- hexyl) phthalate (BEHP) (32 parts per million [ppm]) -a semi-volatile organic compound- and arsenic (4.5 ppm) were among the contaminants detected inshellfish (See Appendix B).
In April 1996, one additional clam tissue sample was collected from each of three locations in theTide Flats, three locations in Dogfish Bay, and two samples were collected from a reference stationat Agate Pass, an approved area for harvesting shellfish which is approximately 3 miles northeastof NUWC Keyport. These samples were analyzed for PCBs, lead, and cadmium. Arochlor 1254was detected slightly above its detection limit in only one sample in the Tide Flats (0.013 ppm) andone sample in Dogfish Bay (0.005 ppm). The one sample containing detectable concentrations ofArochlor 1254 in the Tide Flats was closest to the landfill. Lead was detected in all six samplescollected near the landfill at levels ranging from 0.109 to 0.189 ppm. These concentrations wereslightly above the background/reference samples (0.085 to 0.094 ppm) collected from Agate Pass.Cadmium was also detected in all six samples collected (0.230 to 0.280 ppm), however, the levelswere very similar to the background/reference samples (0.202 ppm to 0.233 ppm) collected fromAgate Pass.
Area 3: Shellfish tissue samples were collected in 1989. Pacific staghorn sculpin (Leptocottusarmatus) and bay blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) were collected from the northern shore of the on-base shallow lagoon. Arsenic (0.97 ppm), was detected in shellfish tissue samples as well as a fewother metals at very low concentrations. Propylene glycol dinitrite, a primary component of liquidtorpedo fuel, was also detected at very low concentrations (0.00041 ppm) in one Pacific staghornsculpin tissue sample.
Area 8 and 9: For the Liberty Bay shoreline referred to as Area 8 for the June 2000 samplinground, native littleneck clams were collected from nine locations along NUWC Keyport shorelinebetween Piers 1 and 2. Chemical analyses of the clam tissue were performed using dry weightmethodology for metals and cyanide. Chemical analyses of the clam tissue were performed usingwet weight methodology for SVOCs. No pesticide/PCB or VOC analysis was performed for thisarea as was conducted at Area 1. Levels of total polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were belowlevels likely to result in adverse health effects. Concentrations of metals such as cadmium,chromium, lead, nickel, silver, and lead were detected at low levels. However, dry weightmethodology requires conversion to a wet weight prior to comparison with health guidelines.Conversions at levels near detection limits is likely to introduce unreliability to the values.
Shellfish tissue samples were collected in 1989 and 1992. In 1989, samples, primarily littleneckclams (Protothaca staminea), were collected from 19 stations in or near Liberty Bay. Areas 8 and 9combined. In 1992, the native littleneck clam (Protothaca staminea) and rough piddocks (Zirfaeapilsbryi) were collected from two stations in Liberty bay. Some metals and semivolatile organiccompounds were detected at very low concentrations. Pentachlorophenol (4.3 ppm), was detectedin one of 17 marine shellfish tissue samples (Protothaca staminea). The source ofpentachlorophenol, a common wood preservative, may be from the wooden pilings used for piersor other treated wood (URS and SAIC 1993).
Evaluation of Potential Public Health Hazards
From the August 2000 Fish Consumption Survey of the Suquamish Indian Tribe of the PortMadison Indian Reservation, Puget Sound Region, ATSDR obtained the ingestion rates of adultsand children who eat shellfish. ATSDR used consumption values of shellfish between 142 and 292grams per day for a 79 kilogram adult and 24 grams per day for a 30 kilogram child. We evaluatedthe likelihood of this subsistence population to experience adverse health effects from theconsumption of native littleneck clams collected solely from Areas 1, 3, 8 and 9 adjacent to theshores of NUWC Keyport even though the usual and accustomed (U and A) fishing places of theSuquamish Tribe extends well beyond Reservation boundaries including marine waters of PugetSound from the northern tip of Vashon Island to the Fraser River in Canada (Suquamish 2000).Although the U and A areas for clamming may include many miles of shoreline, ATSDR overestimated the exposures to be protective of even the greatest seafood consumers by assuming that100 percent consumption of the clams from the shoreline adjacent to NUWC Keyport.
Based on these over-estimations of exposures, ATSDR determined that chemical contaminantspresent in native littleneck clams along the shoreline of NUWC Keyport do not present a publichealth hazard to subsistence seafood consumers (adults and children).
ATSDR was not able to evaluate the trends of chemical contaminant concentrations in nativelittleneck clams over time because of the inconsistency in the data analyses and reporting of theJune 2000 clams tissue analyses data. That data reported some chemical contaminantconcentrations using dry weight methodology instead of the more desirable wet weightmethodology. Contaminant levels using dry weight methodology need to be converted to wetweight values in order to be compared with health guidelines as well as compared with past data.Because much of the data was below, at, or only marginally above the detection limits, conversionto wet weight concentrations at those low levels would inherently introduce significant error.
Conversion of the contaminant values does allow for public health evaluation. However, becausemost of the contaminant concentration values are so low and so close to detection limits, reliabilityof those low values as to whether the chemical contaminants are actually present or not comes intoquestion after converting from dry to wet weight at these low levels. If larger amounts ofcontaminants were present, conversion to wet weight would not introduce noticeable error. So,from a pubic health standpoint, low detection values are good and indicate the safety of theshellfish. ATSDR has not included a data table with the sampling results, conversions, and comparisons of the June 2000 data because of the inherent errors associated with the conversionprocess of chemical quantitation at such low or barely detectable levels. Instead, we recommendthat future shellfish sampling for all chemical constituents be consistent with those prior to June2000 sampling and report results in a wet weight format.
Area 1 (Keyport Landfill)
Based on sampling information from 1989 and supplemental sampling conducted in 1996, it isvery unlikely that shellfish harvested and consumed from Dogfish Bay or the Tide Flats containedharmful levels of contaminants at that time. BEHP (32 ppm) was detected in two shellfish samples,but not at levels likely to result in adverse health effects (ATSDR 1993). ATSDR evaluated thepotential health effects of ingesting BEHP detected in shellfish by estimating the maximumexposure dose using very conservative exposure scenarios (See Appendix D). The maximumpotential dose slightly exceeded EPAs non-carcinogenic health guideline value for subsistencefishers and exceeded the carcinogenic risk guideline for subsistence and recreational fishers.However, these health guidelines are very conservative and the estimated maximum potential doseis well below levels that are known to cause health effects in humans (ATSDR 1993).Additionally, BEHP was only detected in the samples collected in 1989 and not in any of thesamples collected in 1996. Arochlor 1254, lead, and cadmium were not detected in clam tissuesamples from Dogfish Bay or the Tide Flats at levels of expected to result in adverse health effects(ATSDR 1997c) (Appendix A) and, therefore, did not pose a past public health hazard.
Arsenic was detected in most of the shellfish tissue samples collected. The maximumconcentration of total arsenic (inorganic plus organic concentrations) was 4.5 ppm. While organicforms of arsenic are relatively nontoxic, the inorganic form can produce a variety of adverse healtheffects (ATSDR 1998a). For evaluating potential health effects, ATSDR assumed that 10% of thetotal arsenic concentration detected (0.45 ppm) was in the inorganic form. This assumption isbased on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's findings that the inorganic component of totalarsenic in shellfish comprises approximately 10 percent of total arsenic (FDA 1993). Based onATSDR's evaluation, the estimated maximum exposure dose of inorganic arsenic was slightlyhigher than the non-carcinogenic health guideline for subsistence fishers and exceeded thecarcinogenic health guideline for subsistence and recreational fishers (See Appendix D). However,it is very unlikely that even heavy consumers of shellfish (i.e., subsistence fishers) would haveexperienced any adverse health effects from ingesting shellfish in the past from Dogfish Bay or theTide Flats. ATSDR reviewed the toxicologic and epidemiologic literature and found that theestimated ingestion exposure dose using the maximum concentration detected and the ingestionrates equivalent to a subsistence fisher are generally two orders of magnitude lower than the levelsthat are known to cause adverse health effects in humans (ATSDR 1998a). Therefore, consumptionof contaminated shellfish from Dogfish Bay or the Tide Flats in the past did not pose a publichealth hazard.
In 1997, ATSDR evaluated additional shellfish samples collected in 1996 from Dogfish Bay andthe Tide Flats. This supplemental sampling effort was in response to ATSDR's initial healthconsultation concluding that there was insufficient sampling information to determine the safety ofconsuming shellfish from Dogfish Bay (ATSDR 1995). ATSDR recommended that additionalshellfish samples be collected and analyzed for PCBs and lead. This evaluation was completed andATSDR determined that shellfish collected in Dogfish Bay and in the adjacent Tide Flats area donot contain contaminants at levels likely to cause adverse health effects. As long as the source ofcontamination, Keyport Landfill, is contained, concentrations of PCBs and lead, as well as otherchemicals that were present as a result of past use or disposal at NUWC Keyport, do not pose acurrent or future health hazard to people who consume shellfish collected from Dogfish Bay andthe Tide Flats (ATSDR 1997). Dogfish Bay and the Tide Flats have been restricted tofishing/shellfishing in the past because of biological contamination. ATSDR considers the shellfishfrom Dogfish Bay and the Tide Flats to be safe to consume, as long as the shellfish in these areasmeet all state and federal health guidelines regarding biological contaminants.
Current and future exposures
Based on the June 2000 sampling event of Area 1, chemical contaminant levels in native littleneckclams are at low levels not likely to result in adverse health effect in those adults or children whoingest even the highest amounts of clams on a subsistence basis. Therefore, chemical contaminantspresent in native littleneck clams do not present a public health hazard.
Although contaminant levels were barely detected, inconsistencies in laboratory methodologymakes comparison with previous sampling events difficult and unreliable. Typically, laboratoriesuse wet weight methodology to determine chemical contaminant levels in seafood species. Becausesome analytes were determined using wet weight and some dry weight methodology, conversion ofall analytes to wet weight values would need to be done. When converting contaminant levels ofthose contaminants barely above laboratory method detection limits, significant uncertainty aboutthe true value of the chemical analytes present are introduced making comparability unreliable.Therefore, trends of whether contaminant levels are increasing or decreasing over time cannot beevaluated. For that reason, ATSDR recommends that the Navy provide set methodologyparameters to the laboratory similar to previous sampling events and that wet weight methodologybe used in the future to determine chemical analyte levels in seafood. Additionally, the Navyshould conduct a minimum of three consecutive sampling events.
Area 3 (Otto Fuel Leak Area)
The Shallow Lagoon has not been a source of edible fish/shellfish in the past because of the limitednumber of edible species that are found in this lagoon. Even if mussels were harvested andconsumed from the Shallow Lagoon, contaminants were not detected in tissue samples at levels that would have posed a past public health hazard.
Current and future exposures
In 1995, ATSDR evaluated contaminant exposure from the potential consumption of two speciesin the Shallow Lagoon, bay blue mussels and Pacific staghorn sculpin, by subsistence, recreational,and commercial harvesters. ATSDR determined that chemicals most likely to be released in Area 3(e.g., Otto fuel and heavy metals) are present below levels likely to cause adverse health effects.Therefore, based on chemical contaminants, the shellfish are safe for all consumers (ATSDR1995). In addition, the Shallow Lagoon is not currently and is not expected in the future to be asignificant source of edible shellfish because few edible fish, crabs, or other organisms wereidentified during a biological survey of the lagoon conducted in June 1991 (URS 1993a). Thispotential exposure pathway does not pose a current or future public health hazard.
Area 8 (Plating Shop Waste/ Oil Spill Area) and Area 9 (Liberty Bay - Shoreline)
Pentachlorophenol was detected in one shellfish tissue from Liberty Bay. Pentachlorophenol is acommon preservative in wood and the numerous piers around Liberty Bay are the likely source.Since this chemical was only detected in 1 of 17 shellfish samples, however, it is not likely thatpast consumption of shellfish from Liberty Bay posed a public health hazard. In addition, ATSDRhas not identified any studies that suggest adverse health effects would occur at the estimated doseassuming the maximum concentration detected, even for subsistence fishers (ATSDR 1999).
In 1995, ATSDR evaluated potential exposures from the consumption of native littleneck clamsand rough piddock clams by subsistence, commercial, and recreational harvesters. ATSDRdetermined that the list of chemicals for which the Liberty Bay shellfish were analyzed wascomplete, the sampling location and number of samples collected were adequate to evaluatepotential health effects, and that these shellfish are safe for all consumers (ATSDR 1995).Contaminant levels were not found to be at levels expected to cause adverse health effects and donot pose a current or future health hazard to people who consume the most commonly harvestedshellfish, native littleneck and rough piddock clams, from Liberty Bay.
Current and future exposures
Based on the June 2000 sampling event of Area 8 in the Liberty Bay shoreline area, chemicalcontaminant levels in native littleneck clams are at low levels not likely to result in adverse healtheffect in those adults or children who ingest even the highest amounts of clams on a subsistencebasis. Therefore, chemical contaminants present in native littleneck clams do not present a publichealth hazard.
Although contaminant levels were barely detected, inconsistencies in laboratory methodologymakes comparison with previous sampling events unreliable. Therefore, trends of whethercontaminant levels are increasing or decreasing over time cannot be evaluated. For that reason,ATSDR recommends that the Navy provide set methodology parameters to the laboratory similarto previous sampling events and that wet weight methodology be used in the future to determinechemical analyte levels in seafood. Additionally, the Navy should conduct a minimum of threeconsecutive sampling events.
Private wells located west, northwest, and north of the former Keyport Landfill
The Keyport Landfill (OU 1) has contaminated two aquifers, referred to as the upper aquifer andthe intermediate aquifer. Landfill contaminants in the upper aquifer have not migrated off base.However, the intermediate aquifer is contaminated as far north as the Highway 308 causewaybetween the Tide Flats and Dogfish Bay. People who drank water in the past or who currentlydrink water from private wells screened in the intermediate aquifer may have been or may currentlybe exposed to site-related contaminants. An inventory and sampling of private wells to the west,northwest, and north of OU 1 was conducted by the Navy between March 1996 and May 1997(URS 1997b). According to the Keyport Area and Private Well Sampling Report, there are noknown private wells in the upper or intermediate aquifers located in a downgradient pathway fromKeyport Landfill (URS 1997b). Since groundwater samples collected from private wells did notshow any site-related contaminants and groundwater flow data show that groundwater reaching theprivate wells in the inventory area does not originate from the Keyport Landfill (URS 1997b),drinking water from private wells in the inventory area does not pose a past, current, or futurepublic health hazard.
Nature and Extent of Groundwater Contamination
The inventory of private wells was comprehensive and identified 10 private wells withinapproximately 1,500 feet west of Keyport Landfill. A total of 73 private wells were identified inthe inventory area. The Navy sampled seven private water wells during 1997, five in February andtwo in May. Three upper aquifer wells close to NUWC Keyport were sampled, the nearestintermediate aquifer well was sampled, and three more-distant deep aquifer wells were alsosampled. All samples were analyzed for VOCs.
None of the wells contained VOCs above EPA's maximum contaminant levels. Only one well,which is screened in the upper aquifer, contained detectable levels of chloroform (1.6 parts perbillion [ppb]) and TCE (0.42 ppb). The chloroform may be from bleach that the owner used in thewell to disinfect the well water. The source of TCE is not known, however, groundwater flowpatterns in the upper aquifer would make it very unlikely that these chemicals originated fromNUWC Keyport (URS 1997b). The groundwater flowing beneath the landfill discharges intoDogfish Bay rather than migrating to onshore areas where drinking water wells are located (URS1997b). Based on groundwater flow data, groundwater reaching all the private wells directly north(Keyport) and south of Dogfish Bay does not originate from the Keyport Landfill and according tothe United States Geologic Survey, groundwater from the landfill flows under the center ofDogfish Bay and does not reach any land areas (URS 1997b).
Evaluation of Potential Public Health Hazards
Groundwater contamination did not pose a past public health hazard for residents using privatedrinking water wells. The private wells to the west, northwest, and north of Keyport Landfill havenot been impacted by landfill contaminants and groundwater flow models indicate thatgroundwater flowing under the Keyport Landfill would not reach private wells in the inventory area.
Current and future exposures
Groundwater does not pose a current or future public health hazard for residents living to the west,northwest, and north of Keyport Landfill using private drinking water wells because private wellsaround the inventory area are not downgradient of Keyport Landfill and associated contaminantplumes.
On-base drinking water supply well
There is one active base supply well (BW 5) that provides NUWC Keyport with potable water.People who work and reside on base and who obtain drinking water from this well could bepotentially exposed to site-related contaminants if the shallow groundwater were impacting BW 5.The well is tested routinely for inorganics and VOCs. All monitoring results have met state andfederal drinking water standards. The drinking water well is screened in the deep aquifer below theClover Park Unit and is not very susceptible to contamination from source areas on base.Therefore, drinking water from this well does not pose a past, current, or future public healthhazard.
Nature and Extent of Groundwater Contamination
The NUWC Keyport supply well is tested annually for inorganic compounds and every 3 years forVOCs. Drinking water from the base supply well was tested for synthetic organics (e.g., pesticides)in 1993, but a waiver was issued by the Washington Department of Health and monitoring forsynthetic organics is no longer required (R. Beynum, NUWC Keyport, personal communication,January 2000). All recent monitoring results have met state and federal safe drinking waterstandards.
As part of site investigations, two groundwater samples were collected from BW 5 (June 1991 andJune 1992). One sample contained lead at a concentration of 15.2 ppb, which is slightly aboveEPA's action level of 15 ppb for lead. The May 1997 sampling reported lead levels at 1.0 ppb.Lead is not currently detected in the drinking water at or close to the level identified during the siteinvestigations. It is possible that the earlier sample was contaminated, however, this can not beconfirmed. The two samples did not contain any other contaminants above state and federal safedrinking water standards (URS 1993a; SAIC 1993b).
Recent monitoring of the base drinking water supply did not identify any site-related VOCs. Threetrihalomethanes-chloroform (9.7 ppb), bromodichloromethane (4.0 ppb), andchlorodibromomethane (1.4 ppb)-were detected in the drinking water, however, these are commonbyproducts of chlorination and are not related to environmental contamination on base. In May1997 and September 1998, all inorganic compounds analyzed met state and federal safe drinkingwater standards (R. Beynum, NUWC Keyport, Personal communication, January 2000). The back-up drinking water system for NUWC Keyport is the Kitsap County Public Utility District waterwell (PUD # 1). This well is screened in the deep aquifers below the Clover Park Aquitard,approximately 980 feet below ground surface. The results of October 1996 water quality testing forPUD # 1 did not identify any contaminants that exceeded state or federal drinking water standards(Kitsap PUD 1996).
Evaluation of Potential Public Health Hazards
The drinking water well for the base is screened in the deep aquifers below the Clover ParkAquitard. Because of the Clover Park aquitard's low permeability, it is very unlikely thatcontaminants on base could have penetrated the aquitard and contaminated the deeper aquifers. Inaddition, groundwater flow from the Keyport Landfill, which is located to the east of BW 5, istowards the west away from BW 5, further minimizing any potential contamination of the drinkingwater source. Therefore, drinking water from BW 5 at NUWC Keyport did not pose a past public health hazard.
Current and future exposures
Drinking water from BW 5 at NUWC Keyport does not pose a current or future public healthhazard. Recent monitoring results for VOCs and inorganics have met all state and federal safedrinking water standards and contamination of the groundwater is very unlikely since BW 5 is drawn from deep aquifers below the Clover Park Aquitard.
People who worked in modular offices that were constructed during the mid-1980s above KeyportLandfill may have been exposed to VOCs in indoor air. These modular offices were occupied forabout 8 years before being torn down or vacated. Sampling of VOCs at OU 1 was initiated becausethe landfill was known to have released methane and solvent gases and there was some concernabout potential exposure to these gases (D. Jennings, NUWC Keyport, personal communication,April 2000).
VOCs were measured during the time these offices were being used. Soil vapor measurementswere also taken at OU 1. It is possible that occupants of these modular offices were exposed, in thepast, to VOCs in indoor air, however they were not at harmful levels and did not pose a publichealth hazard. Since these buildings have been removed or are no longer occupied, current andfuture exposures to VOCs do not pose a public health hazard.
Nature and Extent of Air Contamination
Indoor air samples were collected in September 1991 to assess potential exposures to VOCs inmodular office units that were used from 1986 until 1994 at Area 1- Keyport Landfill (OU 1). Themodular units sampled represented different workplace environments. Modular Units 1 and 2reflected more typical office workplaces; Modular Unit 4 was an electronic maintenance and repairfacility, where computer equipment was refurbished; and Building 884 was the office trailer for thehazardous waste storage facility.
Indoor samples were collected at each sampling location on three consecutive workdays inSeptember 1991 (URS 1993a). A total of 18 air samples (3 replicate samples) were collected fromfive sampling locations (4 indoor and 1 outdoor) and analyzed for VOCs. These samples wereanalyzed for organic compounds, primarily VOCs and methane. Twenty-six VOCs were detectedin ambient and indoor air samples at OU 1. Air samples collected inside the modular officescontained many VOCs including chloromethane (1,800 ug/m3), 1,4-dichlorobenzene (1,923 ug/m3),1,1-dichloroethylene (6 ug/m3), methylene chloride (521 ug/m3), tetrachloroethylene (12 ug/m3),1,1,1-trichloroethane (2,457 ug/m3), and TCE (156 ug/m3) (URS 1993a; URS and SAIC 1993b).
The landfill is a potential source of some of the VOCs detected indoors since some contaminantswere detected in both the ambient air and soil vapor samples. However, some of the mostfrequently detected compounds in soil vapor samples collected at the landfill (such as vinylchloride and methane) were either not detected or were detected infrequently in indoor air samples.It is possible that some of the VOCs detected in the modular offices were from activities conductedin the offices and unrelated to the landfill (e.g., use of common office equipment and cleaningcompounds) (URS 1993a). Indoor air samples also showed very high day-to-day variability incontaminant concentrations (URS 1993a).
Evaluation of Potential Public Health Hazards
ATSDR looked at the most conservative exposure scenario for exposure to VOCs in the indoor airof modular offices. Individuals who worked in the modular offices on Keyport Landfill could havebeen exposed to VOCs in indoor air for a maximum of 8 years. Even assuming individuals wereexposed to the highest concentrations of VOCs detected in indoor air, it is very unlikely that suchexposures would have resulted in any adverse health effects. ATSDR reviewed the VOCs presentin ambient and indoor air samples: maximum exposure dose estimates of VOCs in indoor air wereseveral orders of magnitude lower than concentrations that are known to cause health effects inhumans (ATSDR 1992; 1994a; 1994b; 1997a; 1997b; 1998b; 1998c; 1998d). Therefore, pastexposure to VOCs poses no public health hazard.
Current and future exposures
The modular buildings and trailers that were present on the landfill at the time the RI wasconducted have since been removed or are no longer occupied. Therefore, current and future exposures to VOCs do not pose a public health hazard.
In April 1996, NUWC Keyport conducted 26 community interviews to help the base develop aplan responsive to community concerns. General concerns included clean water in Liberty Bay,shellfish contamination, clean air, general pollution and hazardous waste, clean drinking water, andtorpedo fuel pollution.
ATSDR has evaluated the past releases of hazardous materials at NUWC Keyport and addressed these community concerns in the body of this document.
ATSDR recognizes that infants and children may be more sensitive than adults to environmentalexposures in communities faced with contamination of their water, soil, air, or food. Thissensitivity is a result of the following factors: (1) children are more likely to be exposed to certainmedia like soil when they play outdoors; (2) children are shorter and therefore may be more likelyto breathe dust, soil, and vapors close to the ground; and (3) children are smaller than adults andtherefore may receive a higher dose of chemical exposure relative to their body weight. Childrenalso can sustain permanent damage if exposed to toxic substances during critical growth stages.ATSDR is committed to evaluating children's special interests at sites such as NUWC Keyport aspart of its Child Health Initiative. ATSDR evaluated the likelihood of children to experienceadverse health effects from eating shellfish caught at the shoreline areas of NUWC Keyport.ATSDR identified no situations in which children are likely to be exposed to harmful levelsof contaminants associated with NUWC Keyport.
ATSDR evaluated the likelihood that children living at or near NUWC Keyport, may have been(past) or are currently being exposed to contaminants at levels of health concern. There arecurrently two children under the age of five years and 23 children of school age living at NUWCKeyport. ATSDR determined that children living on base have not been and are not currently beingexposed to contamination that would be harmful because access to areas that contain hazardouscontaminants, including Keyport Landfill, are restricted and not accessible to children (D.Jennings, NUWC Keyport, personal communication, May 2000). There are no schools or day carecenters on base and the picnic area and playgrounds are not located near any sources ofcontamination. The water supply on base is from a deep well that has not been impacted by anysite-related contaminants. ATSDR did not identify any situations where children residing on basehave been, are being, or could be exposed to contaminants that could pose a public health hazard.
ATSDR also did not identify any situations where children living off site near NUWC Keyport,would have been, are currently, or could be exposed to site-related contaminants, either throughsoil, drinking water, or surface water. Based on data from 1989 through 2000, children who eat fishor shellfish from waters near NUWC Keyport are not expected to experience adverse health effects from that activity.
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- An example of may is when you admit that it is possible you are wrong.
- An example of may is when you are given permission to go somewhere.
- used to express ability or power: now generally replaced by can
- used to express possibility or likelihood: it may rain
- used to express permission: you may go
- used to express contingency, as in clauses of purpose, result, concession, or condition: they died that we may be free
- used in exclamations and apostrophes to express a wish, hope, or prayer: may he rest in peace
- Law shall; must
Origin of mayMiddle English ; from Old English mæg, akin to German mag, Old High German and amp; Gothic magan, literally , to be physically capable of doing ; from Indo-European base an unverified form m?gh-, to be able from source might
- used to express possibility or likelihood
- used to express permission: yes, you may
Origin of mayMiddle English ; from Old English mæg, kinswoman, woman (? merged with Old Norse mær, maiden)
- the fifth month of the year, having 31 days: abbrev. M or My
- the springtime of life; youth; prime
- the English hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha) with small, lobed leaves and white, pink, or red flowers
- its branches or flowers
- the festivities of May Day
Origin of MayOld French mai ; from Classical Latin (mensis) Maius, (month) of Maius: see Maia
Origin of Maycontr. of Mary, Margaret, often associated, association with the name of the month
Origin of Mayafter C. J. Mey, 17th-c. Dutch explorer
aux.v.Past tense might
- To be allowed or permitted to: May I take a swim? Yes, you may.
- Used to indicate a certain measure of likelihood or possibility: It may rain this afternoon.
- Used to express a desire or fervent wish: Long may he live!
- Used to express contingency, purpose, or result in clauses introduced by that or so that: expressing ideas so that the average person may understand.
- To be obliged, as where rules of construction or legal doctrine call for a specified interpretation of a word used in a law or legal document. See Usage Note at can1.
Origin of mayMiddle English, to be able, from Old English mæg, first and third person sing. of magan, to be strong, be able; see magh- in Indo-European roots.
Origin of mayFrench mai, hawthorn, from Mai, May (so called because it blooms in May); see May.
- The fifth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar. See Table at calendar.
- The springtime of life; youth.
- The celebration of May Day.
Origin of MayMiddle English, from Old French Mai, from Latin Maius (m&emacron;nsis), (the month) of Maia, from Maia, an Italic goddess; see meg- in Indo-European roots.
(third-person singular simple present may, present participle -, simple past might, past participle -)
- (intransitive, poetic) To be able to go. [from 9th c.]
- (modal auxiliary verb, defective) To have permission to, be allowed. Used in granting permission and in questions to make polite requests. [from 9th c.]
- you may smoke outside; may I sit there?
- (modal auxiliary verb, defective) Expressing a present possibility; possibly. [from 13th c.]
- he may be lying; Schrödinger's cat may or may not be in the box
- (subjunctive present, defective) Expressing a wish (with present subjunctive effect). [from 16th c.]
- may you win; may the weather be sunny
- Used in modesty, courtesy, or concession, or to soften a question or remark.
- May is now a defective verb. It has no infinitive, no past participle, and no future tense. Forms of to be allowed to are used to replace these missing tenses.
- The simple past (both indicative and subjunctive) of may is might
- The present tense is negated as may not, which can be contracted to mayn't, although this is old-fashioned; the simple past is negated as might not, which can be contracted to mightn't.
- May has archaic second-person singular present indicative forms mayest and mayst.
- Usage of this word in the sense of possibly is considered incorrect by some speakers and writers, as it blurs the meaning of the word in the sense have permission to. These speakers and writers prefer to use the word might instead.
- Wishes are often cast in the imperative rather than the subjunctive mood, not using the word may, as in Have a great day! rather than May you have a great day.
From Old English magan, from Proto-Germanic *maganą, from Proto-Indo-European *magʰ, *megʰ. Cognate with Dutch mogen, Low German mægen, German mögen, Swedish må, Icelandic mega, megum. See also might.
(third-person singular simple present mays, present participle maying, simple past and past participle mayed)
- To gather may.
- May (Mae) is often used in conjoined names (e.g., Lillie Mae, Katie Mae, Fannie Mae).
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A polyhedron is a solid with flat faces
(from Greek poly- meaning "many" and -edron meaning "face").
Each face is a polygon (a flat shape with straight sides).
So: no curved surfaces!
Examples of Polyhedra:
|Its faces are all squares||Its faces are triangles
|What faces does it have?|
Explore 100s of Animated Polyhedron Models.
You can also see some Images of Polyhedra if you want.
Counting Faces, Vertices and Edges
When we count the number of faces (the flat surfaces), vertices (corner points), and edges of a polyhedron we discover an interesting thing:
The number of faces plus the number of vertices
minus the number of edges equals 2
This can be written neatly as a little equation:
F + V − E = 2
It is known as Euler's Formula (or the "Polyhedral Formula") and is very useful to make sure we have counted correctly!
Let's try some examples:
This cube has:
|F + V − E = 6 + 8 − 12 = 2|
This prism has:
|F + V − E = 5 + 6 − 9 = 2|
But there are cases where it does not work! Read Euler's Formula for more.
Note: the plural of polyhedron is either polyhedrons or polyhedra
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| 0.870891 | 300 | 4.0625 | 4 |
English setter, breed of large sporting dog developed over hundreds of years in England. It stands about 25 in. (63.5 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs about 60 lb (27.2 kg). Its flat or slightly wavy coat of medium-length, silky hair forms fringes of longer hair, or feathers, on the dog's underside, ears, chest, legs, and tail. Its coat may be colored black, tan, and white; combinations of lemon, liver, orange, blue, or black with white; and solid white. A coloration composed of white flecked with another color is called belton. Although setters were originally trained to crouch down, or set, in front of game to allow the hunter to capture it with a net, the increasing popularity of shooting game birds on the wing led to the training of setters to point. They are so trained today. See dog.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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| 0.949434 | 212 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
feverfew (plural feverfews)
- A European aromatic perennial herb, Tanacetum parthenium (or Chrysanthemum parthenium or Pyrethrum parthenium), having daisy-like flowers; valued as a traditional medicine especially for headaches
- "Feverfew" in Michael Quinion, Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds, 2004.
- "Feverfew" in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged
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| 0.681164 | 111 | 2.625 | 3 |
- Download PDF
1 Answer | Add Yours
What was new about the New Deal was that it injected government into many more areas of life than ever before. For example, the government got involved in people's retirement savings by the creation of the Social Security program. It also became involved in regulating how much people produced, as in the AAA. It came to be involved in ensuring that people did not lose their savings if their banks failed (this was the FDIC). In other words, the New Deal gave the government a role in many areas of life where it had not been involved before.
We’ve answered 327,493 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question
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Definition of Gloriosas
1. gloriosa [n] - See also: gloriosa
Click the following link to bring up a new window with an automated collection of images related to the term: Gloriosas Images
Lexicographical Neighbors of Gloriosas
Literary usage of Gloriosas
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Florist and Pomologist: A Pictorial Monthly Magazine of Flowers, Fruits by Robert Hogg (1883)
"... of Westminster — elegans — Fanny Mason (Vincenti gloriosas) — Favourite — Fides — Flora McDonald — Flora — Gem — grandis— Grand Duchess—Grand Duke—Hon. ..."
2. The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture: A Discussion for the Amateur, and by Liberty Hyde Bailey (1915)
"gloriosas are not difficult to grow. The brightest flowers are produced in sunlight. ... gloriosas are sometimes grown outdoors in summer in Massachusetts, ..."
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| 0.7904 | 226 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The European Space Agency announced Wednesday the Planetary Transits and Oscillations of stars, PLATO, mission to find new exoplanets, planets outside of our solar system. The PLATO mission will observe a million stars using 34 telescopes and cameras and will launch in 2024.
The "medium-class" science mission is part of the ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Program. The University of Warwick in England will be a partner in the PLATO mission and said one of the key goals will be to find an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a star similar to the sun at distance similar to Earth's and within the star’s habitable zone, defined as the area where liquid water would be possible. The PLATO mission will spend six years observing stars in search of new exoplanets.
Don Pollacco, from the University of Warwick and PLATO Science Consortium leader, said in a statement, “PLATO will allow the first systematic survey of nearby planets for indications from advanced life forms (as well as slime). A few years ago this would have been science fiction and now it’s coming to pass as science fact.”
According to the space agency, the program will focus on the evolution of planet formation as well as the function of the solar system itself. Learning how the solar system works and how planets form can lead to new insights into the conditions necessary for life to form.
The telescopes observing the stars will look for changes in brightness, known as the transit method. This process involves measuring the change in brightness as a planet orbits in front of its host star. The PLATO will also measure the density, composition, mass, radius and age of host stars. Using the data collected from the PLATO mission, researchers can then compare other planetary systems to our own.
Continue Reading Below
Hundreds of European institutions are collaborating in PLATO to develop the spacecraft and coordinate research efforts. The 34 telescopes will be mounted on a space probe and its camera will feature a 0.9-meter sensor.
Alvaro Giménez, ESA’s director of science and robotic exploration, said in a statement, "Its discoveries will help to place our own solar system’s architecture in the context of other planetary systems."
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CHICAGO (September 18, 2013) With the evolving changes in the delivery of healthcare to children worldwide, which frequently include long-distance travel and lodging for specialized medical treatments, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) partnered with Ronald McDonald House Charities to release the first-ever infection prevention and control guidelines for "home away from home" pediatric residential facilities to help prevent the spread of infectious pathogens among vulnerable pediatric populations. The new guidelines were published in the October issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of SHEA.
"Preventing transmission of infectious agents among patients, families and healthcare personnel is a challenge in all settings where care is being delivered," said Judith A. Guzman-Cottrill, DO, lead author of the guidelines. "Although these settings are not healthcare facilities, there is a duty to protect patients and their families who increasingly utilize these family-centered facilities that were developed to meet growing needs and improve the quality of life of children worldwide."
Pediatric residential settings, including Ronald McDonald Houses, provide support services and lodging for injured or ill children and their families, but staff at these facilities do not provide medical services. Although the annual incidence of infections acquired in pediatric residential facilities is unknown, patients vulnerable to infection and their families are at risk of exposure to infectious pathogens in common areas, such as family lounges and community kitchens.
With existing infection control guidelines from hospital and long-term care facilities considered too stringent to apply to pediatric residential settings, the new guidelines provide standardized guidance and educate staff and volunteers on the principles of infection prevention to reduce the risk of infection for children and families.
Practices include standard precautions, including hand hygiene and glove use, respiratory hygiene etiquette, and safe injection practices. Additional protocols to prevent transmission of infection include health screening of house guests and visitors, management of ill staff and volunteers, and mandatory vaccination practices by staff, volunteers, and house guests.
The guidelines have been endorsed by the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society. Key points and information from the guidelines have been adapted in educational materials for patients and families planning to stay at a family-centered residential facility. These patient guides are available on the SHEA website.
|Contact: Tamara Moore|
Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
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The Wavertree. 1885. Constructed at Southhampton for R. W. Leyland & Co. of Liverpool. Extreme length: 325; length on deck: 263; beam: 49,2'. South Street Seaport Museum, New York, New York.
Photograph and text 2006 by George P. Landow. [This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose.] Accordng to the dockside information panel provided by the South Street Seaport Museum,
She was first employed to carry jute, using in making rope and birlap bags, between eastern India (now Bangladesh) and Scotland. . . . By the time Wavertree was built, she was nearly obsolete. Steam engines suitable for effiiently propelling ships acrioss th eocean had been introduced in the 170s, and were being used on nearkly sall the shorter trade routes. While this was taking place, iron — long the choice of ship builders in iron-producing countries, such as England — was giving way to steel. Wavertree was one of the last large sailing ships built of wrought iron. Today she is the largest afloat.
Most countries stoped building large sailing ships in the first decade of the twentiieth century. The last large cargo-carrying sailing ship was launched in Germany in 1826, The last two to round Cape Horn with cargo did so in 1949, carrying grain from Australia to Europe.
The masts appearing behind the Wavertree belong to the even larger black-hulled four-masted bark Peking (1911) built in Germany a quarter century after the Wavertree.
Last modified Last modified 21 December 2006
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| 0.959589 | 354 | 3.078125 | 3 |
According to a new CDC report, only 1 in 3 doctors advise their adult patients to exercise. The survey-based findings are limited, in part, because they rely on people’s recollection of whether they’d visited a physician in the previous year and what they were told. Nonetheless, the study revealed some clear trends:
1. In 2010, 32.4% of adults who’d seen a health care professional were advised to begin or continue with exercise or other physical activity. That fraction’s up significantly from 2000, when a slim 22.6% of patients recalled their doctors telling them to get a move on.
2. Among folks over 85 years, nearly 29% say they were told to exercise. That number’s nearly doubled since 2000, when only 15.3% of elderly patients reportedly received this kind of advice.
3. Adults with diabetes were told to increase their activity more often than those with high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Compared with healthy weight adults, obese people were twice as likely to have been told to exercise by a physician or other health professional.
An underlying message is that doctors should be prodding their patients to exercise. From the report:
Research points to the benefits of physical activity for reducing the risk of chronic health conditions (1–4). Engaging in regular physical activity can reduce medication dependence, help maintain functional independence, and improve the quality of life for older adults (5,6). Physicians and other health professionals can be influential sources of health information, and exercise counseling by primary care physicians has been shown to increase patients’ participation in physical activity (6–9).
There was discussion about this yesterday on Twitter, stemming in part from a USA Today article on the report. And here’s the essence of the short-form debate:
Some suggested that doctors don’t tell patients to exercise because they, themselves, are overweight. Or it’s because they don’t feel comfortable recommending for others what they don’t do themselves. While this might explain some physicians’ behavior or discomfort with the topic, it can’t explain that of the majority.
So why don’t more doctors prescribe exercise for their patients?
Reasons I wonder about include a lack of time for “non-essential” communication, especially in clinics. In specialists’ offices, the omission of exercise could have to do with the visit’s purpose. A gastroenterologist or internist who evaluates a patient for a problem like diarrhea, say, might not think to ask about exercise. For some doctors it might be, problematically, an attitude issue – that they just don’t care that much, or think it would be a waste of time to discuss the matter of exercise.
Whatever the reasons are that most doctors don’t bring up the issue, one might ask this: Why do adults need doctors to tell them about the health benefits of regular exercise? After all, it’s common knowledge – the kind of thing taught in elementary school, like nutrition should be – that regular exercise is good for most people. As we age, being out of condition makes every task in life, like walking a few blocks, harder.
In an ideal world, we’d have most adults exercising regularly, and doctors who’d occasionally intervene and counsel patients about what they shouldn’t do because of a particular medical condition, like arthritis or heart limitation. I guess we’re not there yet –
All for this week,
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The centuries-old debate over the profitability of slavery has flared again, prompted by a recent article in The Economist.
It's a debate that has been discussed in academic circles for more than 150 years, with one of the most notable evaluations done by economist Thomas Gowan in 1942. Gowan concluded that plantation slavery was indeed most often profitable to the larger class of slave owners, despite his efforts to prove it was not, and many economists have supported Gowan’s theory over the years, with little evidence to suggest otherwise forthcoming.
Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman wrote in their 1974 book, "Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery," that slavery was perhaps more profitable than other investment opportunities in similar industries, such as farming. Slavery was “generally a highly profitable investment that yielded rates of return that compared favorably with the most outstanding investment opportunities in manufacturing,” they wrote.
Instinctively it would make sense that free labor would bring more profits than paid labor, but many authors on the subject suggest that slavery was not as lucrative as has been thought.
Irishman John Elliott Cairnes, often referred to as the last great classical economist, believed that slavery had an overall negative impact on the economy of the South in 19th century America. His basic argument was that reluctant workers had no interest in learning new farming techniques and therefore weakened soils much quicker because they didn’t have the basic requisites for farming.
Continue Reading Below
This meant that the South was less competitive than the North, where free slaves were being paid to learn and maintain farms to a better standard, thus growing more and better crops.
There is also a school of thought, written about by Ralph Anderson and Robert Gallman in the Journal of Ameican History in 1977, that suggests the South found it difficult to establish trading networks because the skill base of its slaves dictated what crops they were able to grow effectively. And in the case of bumper crops or weak demand, planters would suffer big losses.
The free states in the North not only were able to recruit the relevant employees for the correct season, they could also train the workers to adapt. Slaves in the Southern states were long-term investments and in that respect, did not have the flexibility that the open employment market of the North did.
Perhaps the most tenuous of all claims was the sociological theory of Eugene Genovese, who in 1961 claimed that the antebellum Southern planters were not out to make profits but rather to flaunt their huge plantations and large numbers of slaves.
The modern thinking that slavery was not profitable appears to make more sense, and it was perhaps this that led to its demise.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Douglass North, a professor at the University of California, writes that even though slavery may not have benefitted the planters of the South, it did have major consequences in other areas of America. He believes that the Midwest was a direct benefactor of the South’s slavery, primarily because it provides certain foodstuffs that the failing plantations were unable to provide. In the same vain, James Walvin concluded that modern banking techniques were developed out of the long-distance Atlantic slave trade, namely the need for credit.
But perhaps most importantly, slavery helped drive economic expansion of America and the United Kingdom. Eric Williams, former president of Trinidad and Tobago and an expert on the slave trade, believed that slavery was essentially used as global commodity by the British – it helped forge new trade routes and economic opportunities, a major precursor for British industrialization. He also believed that slave profits went directly toward financing the railways, the most important part of the industrial revolution.
So while slavery wasn't as lucrative for planters as it might have promised, it did seem to benefit the nation as a whole by facilitating expansion and industrial growth.
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Health Conditions and Diseases Musculoskeletal Disorders Congenital Anomalies Clubfoot Support Groups
These groups, communities, or meeting places provide an opportunity for people with a common experience (such as a condition or disease, or a care-giving role) to share their concerns, and to seek and offer information and advice.
Related categories 1
Group for information and support for parents of children born with Talipes (Club Foot) living in Australia and New Zealand.
Offers information and support, as part of the International Rare Disease Support Network.
A support group for parents of children with clubfoot, adults with clubfoot or anyone needing support with this condition.
A support group for parents of children with bilateral and unilateral clubfoot.
Clubfoot French Method
A discussion/support group for parents of children using the French Physiotherapy Method of treatment.
To discuss non-surgical methods of treatment, but specifically the Ponseti Method.
To offer support, encouragement, and information to people in the UK who have children with talipes, or who have been affected themselves.
A group to share stories, prayer requests, news and encouragement. Not limited to those with clubfoot.
Last update:September 22, 2011 at 11:46:17 UTC
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| 0.879091 | 262 | 2.578125 | 3 |
HIV-related stigmatisation and discrimination by young children towards their peers have important consequences at the individual level and for our response to the epidemic, yet research on this area is limited.
We used nationally representative data to examine discrimination of HIV-positive children by grade six students (n = 39,664) across nine countries in Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Descriptive statistics are used to compare discrimination by country, gender, geographic location and socioeconomic status. Multivariate logistic regression is employed to assess potential determinants of discrimination.
The levels and determinants of discrimination varied significantly between the nine countries. While one in ten students in Botswana, Malawi, South Africa and Swaziland would “avoid or shun” an HIV positive friend, the proportions in Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe were twice as high (approximately 20%). A large proportion of students believed that HIV positive children should not be allowed to continue to attend school, particularly in Zambia (33%), Lesotho (37%) and Zimbabwe (42%). The corresponding figures for Malawi and Swaziland were significantly lower at 13% and 12% respectively. Small differences were found by gender. Children from rural areas and poorer schools were much more likely to discriminate than those from urban areas and wealthier schools. Importantly, we identified factors consistently associated with discrimination across the region: students with greater exposure to HIV information, better general HIV knowledge and fewer misconceptions about transmission of HIV via casual contact were less likely to report discrimination.
Our study points toward the need for early interventions (grade six or before) to reduce stigma and discrimination among children, especially in schools situated in rural areas and poorer communities. In particular, interventions should focus on correcting misconceptions that HIV can be transmitted via casual contact.
Citation: Maughan-Brown B, Spaull N (2014) HIV-Related Discrimination among Grade Six Students in Nine Southern African Countries. PLoS ONE 9(8): e102981. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102981
Editor: Rashida A. Ferrand, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
Received: February 10, 2014; Accepted: June 26, 2014; Published: August 8, 2014
Copyright: © 2014 Maughan-Brown, Spaull. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
HIV-related stigmatisation and discrimination by young children towards their peers have important consequences at the individual level and for our response to the epidemic, yet research on this area is limited . Stigma is a risk factor for bullying, victimisation and poorer mental health outcomes among HIV-affected and infected children –. Fear of stigma affects disclosure decisions among children living with HIV , and can reduce the desire of children to attend school . Recent qualitative research has also found that fear of stigma may discourage caregivers' disclosure of a child's HIV status to them, resulting in delays in treatment and care for children living with HIV . An understanding of stigmatising attitudes and tendencies to discriminate among young children, as well as the factors that shape these tendencies, is therefore important for the design of stigma reduction interventions. Such interventions can help minimise the negative impact that the epidemic has on the growing numbers of HIV-infected children and their families. Interventions that reduce stigma at an early age may also improve future health outcomes as stigma can influence self-perceived HIV-risk , , and thus sexual behaviour decisions, and act as a deterrent to HIV-related services, such as HIV-testing –.
In this paper, we draw on sociological models of stigma that define stigmatisation as a social process of devaluation within a particular culture or setting, whereby human differences are identified and labelled, and devaluation occurs based on stereotypes associated with those labels –. Discrimination, which is defined as any negative form of distinction, exclusion or restriction affecting an individual , is sometimes included as the end point of the stigmatisation process . Here, we situate HIV-related discrimination as a potential outcome of stigmatisation, and since there is not always a direct one-to-one relationship between these concepts , we make a clear distinction between them.
Research on attitudes of children towards people living with HIV has focussed on attitudes towards people in general and not specifically towards their peers. Qualitative research in Mali found that 10–13 year old children held many misconceptions about HIV, and a high level of discrimination towards people living with HIV, with a strong link between incorrect knowledge of transmission routes and social stigmatisation . Among fifth grade students in the United States of America, children's desire for a greater social distance from people living with HIV was found to be associated with prejudicial attitudes their mothers held towards homosexuals . In Southern Africa, adolescents in Botswana were found to express a desire for social distance from people living with HIV with the majority of participants having reported that a HIV-positive teacher should not be allowed to teach . In Swaziland, evidence was found among 12–18 year old school students that stigma could be gendered, with boys reporting greater stigmatising attitudes than girls . Their study also concluded that individual and environmental factors shape social stigma, but that individual factors played a more significant role. Cognizant of the need to examine child-on-child stigma specifically , a recent study in Zimbabwe explored children's stigmatisation of AIDS-affected children through drawings and stories . While 10–12 year old children in their study were often found to express empathy and respect for AIDS-affected children, findings pointed towards a high degree of stigmatisation with frequent references to bullying, exclusion and desire for social distance.
In this paper we examine discrimination towards HIV-positive children, as measured by the desire for social distance, by grade six students across nine countries in Southern Africa, namely Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Comparisons between countries contribute to our understanding of variation in discrimination across community contexts and geographical regions . Individual level and contextual factors that may influence discrimination are assessed to increase our knowledge for the targeting of interventions to reduce discrimination and the content of such interventions.
The Ministry of Education in each country granted ethical approval for the study and the data is publicly available upon request to The Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) Coordinating Centre (http://www.sacmeq.org/).
The Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) is a consortium of education ministries, policy-makers and researchers who, in conjunction with UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), aims to improve the research capacity and technical skills of educational planners , and to provide policy-relevant information on the quality of education in participating countries. To date, it has conducted three nationally representative school surveys in participating countries, specifically SACMEQ I (1996), SACMEQ II (2000), and SACMEQ III (2007). These surveys collected extensive background information on the schooling and home environments of grade 6 students, and tested students and teachers in both numeracy and literacy . In addition, SACMEQ III included a number of attitudinal questions relating to HIV and an HIV-AIDS Knowledge Test (HAKT) comprising 86 true-or-false test items assessing knowledge over five domains: (1) definitions and terminology, (2) transmission mechanisms, (3) avoidance behaviours, (4) diagnosis and treatment, and (5) myths and misconceptions . The SACMEQ student surveys (including the HIV-AIDS Knowledge Test) were written in the same language as the medium of instruction in grade 6 in each country . In most countries this is English, with some exceptions being Mozambique (Portuguese) and Tanzania/Zanzibar (Kiswahili). The surveys were completed by the students themselves.
Our study uses data from SACMEQ III, which interviewed 61,396 grade six students in 2,779 schools in 14 countries, and represents the most recent and comprehensive survey on educational quality in sub-Saharan Africa. The SACMEQ III data is available upon request to the SACMEQ Coordinating Centre (http://www.sacmeq.org/). The SACMEQ sample design was selected so as to meet the standards set down by the International Association of Educational Achievement (IEA) . This ensures that important student level parameters have sampling accuracy at least equivalent to a simple random sample of 400 students, guaranteeing a 95 percent confidence interval of sample means of plus or minus one tenth of a student standard deviation . The SACMEQ III survey used complex two-stage cluster sampling including weighting adjustments to compensate for variations in the probability of selection . We restricted the data to the nine countries, all in Southern Africa, with HIV prevalence rates in excess of 10% to focus on the epicentre of the epidemic. Within these nine countries, SACMEQ III surveyed 39,664 grade six students from 1,807 schools.
Two different measures of HIV-related discrimination towards children living with HIV were used. The first from the question: “A close friend of yours has told you that he or she is infected with HIV. How would you behave towards him or her?” with the options being “1) I would be more friendly than before; 2) I would behave the same as before, 3) I would avoid or shun him/her, 4) I am not sure how I would behave”. The second from the question: “Should a pupil who is infected with HIV be allowed to continue to attend school?” with the available options being “No”, “Yes” and “I am not sure.” For our regression analysis we created a binary variable ( = 1) denoting students who reported they would avoid or shun a friend with HIV compared to those who would behave the same or be more friendly ( = 0). Similarly, we created a binary variable ( = 1) for students who believed that an HIV-positive student should not be allowed to attend school compared to children who believed they should be allowed. As both of these main dependent variables excluded individuals who reported being “unsure” we also created ordinal variables that included the “unsure” responses for the purposes of sensitivity analysis. For these variables, a non-discriminatory response was coded as the base category (0), unsure as the middle value (1) and discriminatory responses = 2.
We first computed descriptive statistics for our main outcome measures by country. Levels of discrimination are also presented by urban vs rural, poorest vs richest quartiles (index of household assets) and gender, as previous studies have found variation in HIV-related stigma and discrimination by geographic location , , socioeconomic status , and gender . We then utilised multivariate logistic regression analysis to assess factors associated with our two binary measures of discrimination. In addition to geographic location (rural vs urban) and gender, several other explanatory variables were created and included in the models. Children's understanding of illness causation, contamination and contagion will differ at different stages of development . HIV-related stigma and discrimination may therefore vary with age as beliefs about HIV and how it is transmitted change as children grow up. While the majority of the SACMEQ sample was between the ages of 12 and 14, the age range of students was wide, with 15% younger than 12 and eight percent older than 15. A continuous measure of age was accordingly included in our models to assess whether there was an association between age and discrimination. A measure of household wealth was formed using 31 questions regarding asset ownership. To create the index we used the first component from a principal component analysis of the 31 assets for each country. The average household asset score within each school was used as a proxy for the wealth level of the school. A binary variable was formed to indicate whether the student was an orphan (at least one deceased parent) as experiences of discrimination and bullying are often affected by orphan status and these experiences could influence discrimination towards others. We also included a measure of mothers' education to control for intergenerational education and learning effects. Education, for example, is often negatively correlated with levels of stigma and discriminatory attitudes , . Children of more educated mothers may therefore have grown up in a less stigmatising environment. We created dummy variables to compare students whose mother had less than secondary schooling to those whose mother had completed some secondary schooling and those whose mother had completed more than secondary school. Given the large percentage of “don't know” responses (12%) to mother's education we included an indicator of those who did not know their mother's education to avoid a substantial reduction in sample size.
As general levels of education and HIV knowledge have been found to be negatively associated with stigma we first included the SACMEQ reading score (range: 63–966) as a measure of ability/intelligence. The reading score was created by SACMEQ using standard Rasch scaling procedures on the 55 reading questions . We then formed a measure of general HIV knowledge based on five true or false questions on transmission knowledge and five on HIV prevention knowledge drawn from the SACMEQ HIV knowledge test. Questions were selected if they measured transmission or prevention knowledge and the underlying construct had not been measured by a previous question (according to independent assessment by both authors). The transmission knowledge questions were (1) “A person can get HIV the first time he or she has unprotected sex with a person who has HIV”, (2) “A person can get HIV by having sex once without using a condom”, (3) “HIV can be transmitted by vaginal fluids”, (4) “HIV can be transmitted by semen/sperm”, (5) “Having more than one sexual partner could increase the risk of getting HIV”. The HIV prevention questions included (1) “One way to prevent getting HIV is abstaining from sex”, (2) “Having sex only with people who look healthy is one way to prevent getting HIV”, (3) “Delaying starting to have sex is one way to reduce the risk of getting HIV”, (4) “The correct use of condoms offers protection against HIV”, (5) “A person can be protected from getting HIV by having only one sex partner who is not infected and also has no other sex partners.” Correct responses to these questions were summed and divided by the number of questions for which data was given (minimum of 50% required) so the HIV knowledge measure represents the proportion of correct responses. We also included an index which was formed as a count of the number of sources (0–23) from which students reported receiving information about HIV and AIDS, such as radio, TV, and internet (see Digital Content S1 for a full list of potential sources of information included in the survey).
Negative attitudes towards people living with HIV that are driven by fears of contracting HIV via casual contact (often referred to as instrumental stigma) have been shown to be a powerful driver of discrimination (or enacted stigma) among adults . Accordingly, to test this relationship among children, we formed a measure of the degree to which students believed that HIV could be contracted via casual contact using eight questions from the HIV test. The following true and false questions were used: (1) “A person can get HIV from mosquito bites”, (2) “A person can get HIV by sitting next to a person who has AIDS”, (3) “A person can get HIV by swimming in the same water as a person who has AIDS”, (4) “A person can get HIV by sitting on a toilet seat that has been used by a person who has AIDS”, (5) “A person can get HIV by sharing food with a person who has AIDS”, (6) “A person can get HIV by hugging a person who has AIDS”, (7) “A person can get HIV by wearing clothes used by a person who has AIDS”, (8) “A person can spread HIV by coughing.” Similar to the creation of the HIV knowledge measure, correct responses to these questions were summed and divided by the number of questions for which data was given (minimum of 50% required) so the casual contact measure represents the proportion of responses for which students indicated that HIV could be spread via casual contact.
Qualitative research in Zambia concluded that adults often believe that individuals living with HIV are bewitched . The findings of this qualitative research indicated that this belief may transfer blame away from sick individuals and to the bewitcher, and consequently, reduce stigma toward HIV positive individuals. On the other hand, ethnographic research conducted in Botswana found that instead of decreasing blame and stigma, occult explanations of HIV infection furthered the social marginalisation of HIV-infected children and their family . Quantitative research, also from Botswana, found that women who believed that a person could get HIV through witchcraft were more likely to express discriminatory attitudes towards a teacher with HIV . The relationship between HIV-related stigma and discrimination and beliefs about a link between witchcraft and HIV is, therefore, unclear. To assess this relationship among students we included a binary variable to identify students who held such beliefs as measured by the question “A person with AIDS is bewitched.” Finally, previous studies have found that contact with people living with HIV has been associated with greater acceptance of people living with HIV . Accordingly, we created a binary variable to identify students who had met someone living with HIV as measured by whether the student reported receiving information about HIV from an HIV positive individual.
All analyses were conducted with Stata 12.0 (Stata Corporation, College Station, Texas, United States of America). All standard errors have been adjusted to account for the two-stage survey design with stratification by province and clustering by school.
Table 1 presents summary statistics of sample characteristics, including knowledge and beliefs about HIV. The sample of 39,664 students comprised roughly equal proportions of girls and boys, with a median age range across countries of between 12 and 14 years old. There was a high degree of variation in geographic location across countries (as reported by the School Head) with the proportion from rural areas being 37% in Mozambique and 70% and greater in Malawi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. More than one in four students in all countries reported the loss of at least one parent. In terms of HIV information and knowledge, students reported receiving information about HIV from a variety of sources (averages between 10 sources in Lesotho and 13.5 sources in Botswana and Swaziland). The most common cited sources of information were classes at school, radio, clinic, magazines/newspapers and books. On average, respondents answered 71% of the HIV knowledge questions correctly with a range from around 67% in Lesotho and Zimbabwe, to 75% in Swaziland. Respondents scored lowest on the question “Having sex only with people who look healthy is one way to prevent getting HIV”, with around half or more answering true to this statement in Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. The vast majority (72%) reported that HIV could be transmitted via some form of casual contact, with the average respondent reporting that transmission was possible in two of the eight scenarios. Beliefs that HIV could be spread via casual contact were most widespread in Lesotho, where respondents, on average, reported in 35% of the questions that casual contact was possible, and least common in Swaziland. More than a quarter of respondents in all countries and around 40% in Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe, answered true to the statement that a person can spread HIV by coughing. Finally, Table 1 shows that a significant minority of students in all countries had received information about HIV from someone living with HIV.
Table 2 displays levels of discrimination in each country. Levels of discrimination varied significantly between the nine countries. While only one in ten grade six students in Botswana, Malawi, South Africa and Swaziland would “avoid or shun” a close friend who was HIV positive, the proportions in Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe were twice as high (20%). As expected, the percentage of children who believed that HIV positive students should not be allowed to continue to attend school was, on average, considerably higher than the proportion that would avoid or shun a close friend who was HIV positive, the latter being the more severe manifestation of stigma. Of note, large proportions of students believed that HIV positive children should not be allowed to continue to attend school, particularly in Zambia (33%), Lesotho (37%) and Zimbabwe (42%). The corresponding figures for Malawi and Swaziland were considerably lower at 13% and 12% respectively. See Digital Content S2 and S3, for exact percentages and standard errors for each of the response options for our two questions on discrimination by country, gender, rural vs urban and richest vs poorest quartiles.
Figure 1 illustrates the differences in proportions who would shun a close friend with HIV by gender (Figure 1A), by those attending schools situated in rural areas compared to large cities (Figure 1B), and between the richest and poorest 25% of students (Figure 1C). Generally, differences between boys and girls were small with slightly more boys than girls who reported discrimination, although these differences are only statistically significant in Botswana and South Africa. Much larger differences were found by geographic location and socioeconomic status. In most countries, significantly greater proportions of students living in rural areas compared to urban areas and poorer students compared to richer students reported discrimination. In Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, discrimination appeared to be concentrated in the rural areas and among the poor with relatively few students in urban areas and in the top socioeconomic quartile in these countries reporting discrimination.
Proportion of grade 6 students that would “avoid or shun” a close friend who revealed that they were living with HIV by gender (Figure 1A), geographic location (Figure 1B) and wealth quartile (Figure 1C) including 95% confidence interval).
In Figure 2 we see similar patterns in the proportions who reported that an HIV-positive student should not be allowed to attend school by gender (Figure 2A), geographic location (Figure 2B) and socioeconomic quartile (Figure 2C) as Figure 1 displayed. These figures emphasised variation in discrimination by subpopulations across the region. In Figure 2B, for example, results show that 8% of the urban sample in Swaziland reported that an HIV-positive student should not be allowed to attend school compared to 50% in the rural sample from Zimbabwe.
Proportion of grade 6 students who believed that students living with HIV should not be allowed to continue to attend school, by gender (Figure 2A), geographic location (Figure 2B) and wealth quartile (Figure 2C) including 95% confidence interval.
Table 3 presents the results from the multivariate regression models for our binary dependent variable of whether students believed they would avoid or shun a close friend with HIV. Variation was evident in both the factors influencing discrimination in each country and the direction of the relationship between these factors and discrimination. Controlling for other factors, girls were less likely to report discrimination in Botswana (OR = 0.70; p<0.01), Lesotho (OR = 0.82; p<0.05) and South Africa (OR = 0.76; p<0.01), but more likely in Malawi (OR = 1.3; p<0.1). The direction of the association between age and discrimination (as measured by whether students believed they would avoid or shun a close friend with HIV) varied between countries, but the relationship was not statistically significant in any country. Mixed results were also found for the effect of orphan status, mother's education and having met a person living with HIV. Discrimination was less likely to be reported by students from rural areas in Zambia as compared to their urban counterparts. In Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland students attending more affluent schools were less likely to report discrimination than their peers in poorer schools. In Botswana, Malawi and South Africa, exposure to a greater number of sources of HIV information (and in South Africa, greater levels of general HIV knowledge) was associated with lower odds of reporting discrimination. The factors with the most consistent relationship with discrimination across all countries were reading ability and beliefs about HIV transmission via casual contact. In all countries, except Mozambique, increased reading ability was associated with lower levels of reporting discrimination and in all countries except Swaziland there was a strong positive association between beliefs about HIV being spread via casual contact and increased reported discrimination with the largest effect found for students in Malawi.
Table 4 presents the results from the multivariate regression models for our binary dependent variable of whether participants believed that an HIV-positive student should not be allowed to attend school. Consistent with the results above, the models in Table 4, show that factors significantly associated with discrimination varied by country. But, in contrast to the previous models, the factors that were significantly associated with discrimination tended to have a similar direction of association. The relationship between gender and discrimination was only significant in South Africa with girls less likely to report that a student living with HIV should not be allowed to attend school (OR = 0.88, p<0.1). The relationship between age and the belief that an HIV-positive student should not be allowed to attend school was significant in Namibia (OR = 0.94, p<0.05), South Africa (OR = 0.95, p<0.1) and Swaziland (OR = 0.94, p<0.05), with older individuals less likely to report that a student living with HIV should not be allowed to attend school. Additional analysis (available upon request) indicated little difference between the two younger age groups (10–12 years old vs 12–14 years old) in these countries, and that the association by age was driven by lower levels of reported discrimination among students 15 years and older. In Malawi (OR = 3.1), Mozambique (OR = 1.7) and Swaziland (OR = 2.4) students in rural areas were significantly (p<0.01) more likely to report discrimination than students in urban areas. For students in Namibia, South Africa and Zambia, there was a negative association between mother's education and levels of discrimination. Generally, there was a negative association between discrimination and reading ability, exposure to HIV information and general HIV knowledge. No statistically significant relationship was found between discrimination and beliefs that a person with AIDS is bewitched. Finally, consistent with the previous models, the greater the misconception that HIV can be transmitted via casual contact the greater the odds of students reporting discrimination. Sensitivity analysis showed that results are robust to the inclusion of the “don't know” responses as a middle category in the dependent variable (ordinal logistic regression models; results available upon request).
This study contributes to an emerging literature on child-on-child HIV-related discrimination by examining levels of discrimination and associated factors among a large sample of grade six students across nine countries in southern Africa. Results showed that levels of discrimination were high in particular sub-groups across the region and varied significantly between countries, all of which supports previous research on stigma and discrimination , as well as more recent qualitative findings indicating that stigma and discrimination of children by children may be relatively common . Similarly, factors associated with discrimination varied widely between countries. More than one in five students from rural areas in Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho reported that they would shun or avoid a close friend if that friend disclosed an HIV-positive status. Furthermore, in all countries except Malawi and Swaziland, more than one in four students from rural areas reported the belief that an HIV-positive student should not be allowed to attend school.
The implications of these results should be considered in conjunction with the limitations of this study. Mainly, that the SACMEQ questionnaire was not designed specifically to assess factors associated with discrimination and thus there is the potential for unobserved confounding factors. Given that statements relating to HIV knowledge and beliefs were structured in true-or-false format, and without a “don't know” response option, student guessing may affect measures created from these statements. Furthermore, we did not have a direct measure of stigmatising attitudes (i.e. negative moral judgement) or actual discriminatory behaviours towards children living with HIV and therefore we do not know to what degree the reported preferences for social distance are associated with these factors among children. In addition, the study sample frame was grade six students currently attending school and therefore our results are not generalisable to more marginalised populations who were not attending school. The experience of, and propensity to stigmatise may differ significantly between more marginalised children (i.e. the un-enrolled) than those attending school. It would therefore be informative for future research on stigma among children to include these marginalised populations.
Our findings reiterate that stigmatisation and discrimination are complex social processes, which are clearly influenced by local context, and therefore vary widely by country, school location and socioeconomic status. Results from one setting may not translate to neighbouring areas and this highlights the importance of context specific research and programming. Previous research found that stigma among school students could be gendered, with boys in Swaziland reporting greater stigmatising attitudes than girls . Our study found relatively small differences in HIV-related discrimination between girls and boys, and although in most countries girls reported slightly less discrimination, in Malawi the opposite was true. Therefore, our evidence does not point towards the need for gender specific interventions. Overall, our study also found relatively small differences in HIV-related discrimination by age, which suggests that interventions aimed at grade 6 students also do not need to be tailored to different age groups. In a few countries there was some evidence that older children may be less discriminatory. It would be informative for future research to assess changes in HIV-related stigma and discrimination as children progress through school and the underlying mechanisms of change.
One of the strengths of the multi-country nature of our study is that we could determine factors that influence HIV-related discrimination that traverse different contexts. Findings show that beliefs that HIV can be transmitted via casual contact could be a strong factor that influences discriminatory outcomes across the region. Our results indicate that reductions in HIV-related discrimination among children may be achieved through interventions to correct these misconceptions around casual contact. Notwithstanding the above, we are also aware that improving knowledge and beliefs regarding the spread of HIV via casual contact with people living with HIV will not be sufficient to eliminate HIV-related discrimination. We did not find evidence that children who believed that a person with AIDS is bewitched would be less discriminating towards a child with HIV. This suggests that the hypothesis of such a relationship among adults may not extend to young children. However, further research should assess the relationship between beliefs about witchcraft and stigmatising attitudes among children, especially given the substantial proportion of children in our study who reported the belief that a person with AIDS is bewitched.
Overall, our study points toward the need for early interventions (grade six or before) to reduce stigma and discrimination among children, especially in schools in rural and poorer areas. In particular, interventions should aim to correct misconceptions that HIV can be transmitted via casual contact with people living with HIV.
List of sources from which students reported receiving information about HIV and AIDS.
Table: Student responses to “A close friend of yours has told you that he or she is infected with HIV. How would you behave towards him/her?” by sub-groups.
Table: Student responses to “Should a pupil who is infected with HIV be allowed to continue to attend school?” by sub-groups.
The authors would like to thank Nicholas Atmore for useful research assistance related to the study. The SACMEQ III data was collected by the fifteen SACMEQ ministries of Education under the guidance of the SACMEQ Secretariat at the IIEP headquarters in Paris.
Analyzed the data: BMB NS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: BMB NS. Wrote the paper: BMB NS.
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implementations in this collection (this one is slightly faster than
Data.HashTablefrom the base library in most cases)
- have a soft real-time or interactive application for which the risk of introducing a long pause on insert while all of the keys are rehashed is unacceptable.
Linear hashing allows for the expansion of the hash table one slot at a time, by moving a "split" pointer across an array of pointers to buckets. The number of buckets is always a power of two, and the bucket to look in is defined as:
bucket(level,key) = hash(key) mod (2^level)
The "split pointer" controls the expansion of the hash table. If the hash
table is at level
2^k buckets have been allocated), we first
b < splitptr, the destination bucket is
b'=bucket(level,key), otherwise the original value
b is used.
The split pointer is incremented once an insert causes some bucket to become fuller than some predetermined threshold; the bucket at the split pointer (*not* the bucket which triggered the split!) is then rehashed, and half of its keys can be expected to be rehashed into the upper half of the table.
When the split pointer reaches the middle of the bucket array, the size of the bucket array is doubled, the level increases, and the split pointer is reset to zero.
Linear hashing, although not quite as fast for inserts or lookups as the implementation of linear probing included in this package, is well suited for interactive applications because it has much better worst case behaviour on inserts. Other hash table implementations can suffer from long pauses, because it is occasionally necessary to rehash all of the keys when the table grows. Linear hashing, on the other hand, only ever rehashes a bounded (effectively constant) number of keys when an insert forces a bucket split.
Space overhead: experimental results
In randomized testing (see
test/compute-overhead/ComputeOverhead.hs in the
source distribution), mean overhead is approximately 1.51 machine words per
key-value mapping with a very low standard deviation of about 0.06 words, 1.60
words per mapping at the 95th percentile.
unsafe-tricks flag is on when this package is built (and it is on by
default), we use some unsafe tricks (namely
reallyUnsafePtrEquality#) to save indirections in this table. These
techniques rely on assumptions about the behaviour of the GHC runtime system
and, although they've been tested and should be safe under normal conditions,
are slightly dangerous. Caveat emptor. In particular, these techniques are
incompatible with HPC code coverage reports.
- W. Litwin. Linear hashing: a new tool for file and table addressing. In Proc. 6th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, Volume 6, pp. 212-223, 1980.
- P-A. Larson. Dynamic hash tables. Communications of the ACM 31: 446-457, 1988.
- data HashTable s k v
- new :: ST s (HashTable s k v)
- newSized :: Int -> ST s (HashTable s k v)
- delete :: (Hashable k, Eq k) => HashTable s k v -> k -> ST s ()
- lookup :: (Eq k, Hashable k) => HashTable s k v -> k -> ST s (Maybe v)
- insert :: (Eq k, Hashable k) => HashTable s k v -> k -> v -> ST s ()
- mapM_ :: ((k, v) -> ST s b) -> HashTable s k v -> ST s ()
- foldM :: (a -> (k, v) -> ST s a) -> a -> HashTable s k v -> ST s a
- computeOverhead :: HashTable s k v -> ST s Double
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| 0.855224 | 913 | 2.625 | 3 |
The substitution method is one of two ways to solve systems of equations without graphing.
You might ask yourself, "Why wouldn't I just want to graph the equations to find the solution?" Well there are many reasons...
You may not have graph paper or an accurate way to graph the equations, thus making it hard to identify the solution.
Or, as the equations become more difficult, the solution is not always an identifiable point on the graph. This means that the solution may contain decimals or fractions, which is not easy to identify on a graph.
Once you learn the algebraic method for solving a system of equations, you will probably find that it becomes your preferred method. Graphing becomes too tedious.
The good news is that there are two methods, which makes this process easier depending on the problems you are given.
So, let's get to it!
The following steps can be used as a guide as you read through the examples for using the substitution method.
These directions will make a lot more sense when you study the examples below.
The next example demonstrates a situation where it is easier to solve for x initially.
Let's take a look at another example. You'll find this very interesting! Pay close attention to the very last step of the solution.
Ok... one more unique example. Again, pay attention to the end result.
Try this calculator for step by step answers (with subscription)
To ask a question, please visit my Math Forum.
Sign Up for Algebra Class E-courses
Copyright © 2009-2015 Karin Hutchinson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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| 0.939502 | 333 | 4.03125 | 4 |
SELF MICROEMULSIFYING DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM : SELF MICROEMULSIFYING DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM INTRODUCTION :
1. Self micro emulsifying drug delivery system (SMEDDS) or self micro emulsifying oil formulation is defined as the isotropic mixtures of oil and surfactants or one or more hydrophilic solvents and co-solvents.
2.Upon mild agitation followed by dilution in aq media such as Gastrointestinal (GI) fluid , these systems form fine oil in water (o/w) emulsions or micro emulsions i.e SMEDDS. Slide 2: 3. Self micro emulsifying formulations spread readily in the GI tract & the digestive motility of the stomach & intestine provide the agitation necessary for self emulsification.
4. Self emulsifying drug delivery systems(SEDDS) produce emulsions with a droplet size between 100 -300 nm while SMEEDS form transparent micro emulsions with a droplet size of less than 50 nm.
5. SEDDS & SMEDDS are physically stable formulations and are easy to manufacture. Slide 3: 6. SMEDDS can be formulated to give sustained release dosage form by adding polymeric matrix which is non ionizable at physiological pH & after ingestion in contact with GI fluids forms a gelled polymer making it possible to release the micro emulsified agent in a continuous & sustained matter by diffusion.
7. Bases of self micro emulsifying system have been formulated using medium chain triglyceride oils & non ionic surfactant which are acceptable for oral ingestion. Slide 4: 8.The lipophilic (poorly water soluble) drugs such as nifedipine,cyclosporin,digoxin,ibuprofen,carbamazepine,steroids,diazepam, etc. are formulated in SMEDDS to improve efficacy & safety.
9.This system can be liquid but also semisolid depending on the excipient’s choice. These are designed traditionally for oral route.
10.These preparations can be give as soft/hard gelatin capsules for easy administration & precise dosage. FORMULATION OF SMEDDS : : FORMULATION OF SMEDDS : 1. Drugs with low aq solubility present a major challenge during formulation as their high hydrophobicity prevents them from being dissolved in most approved solvents.
2. The novel synthetic hydrophilic oils & surfactants usually dissolve hydrophobic drugs to a greater extent than conventional vegetable oils.
3. The addition of solvents such as ethanol,PG, & PEG may also contribute to the improvement of drug solubility in the lipid vehicle. Slide 6: The following should be considered in the formulation of SMEDDS :
1 : The solubility of the drug in different oils , surfactants , co solvents.
2 : The selection of oil, surfactant and co solvent based on the solubility of the drug.
3 : Preparation of the phase diagram.
4 : The preparation of SMEDDS formulation by dissolving the drug in a mixture of oil, surfactant & co solvent. COMPOSITION : : COMPOSITION : 1. Oils
3.Co solvents/Co surfactants OILS : : OILS : The oils represent the most important excepient in the SMEEDS formulation.It can solubilize relevant amount of the poorly water soluble drug. Both long chain trigyceride (LCT) and medium chain triglyceride(MCT) oils with different degrees of saturation have been used in in the design of SMEDDS.
E.g.- Corn oil, soybean oil, hydrolysed corn oil. SURFACTANTS : SURFACTANTS Surfactant molecules can be classified based on the nature of hydrophilic group within the moleecule. The four main group of surfactants are defined as follows,
4.Nonionic surfactants Slide 10: 1 . Anionic surfactants, where the hydrophilic group carries a negative charge such as carboxyl(RCOO-),sulphonate(RSO3-) or sulphate(ROSO3-).
E.g: Potassium laurate, sodium lauryl sulphate.
2. Cationic surfactants where the hydrophlic group carries a positive charge.
E.g: Quarternary ammonium halide.
3. Ampholytic ( zwitterionic) surfactants contain both positive & a negative charge.
E.g: Sulfobetaines . Slide 11: 4. Nonionic surfactants, where the hydrophilic group carries no charge but derives its water solubility fro highly polar groups such as hydroxyl or polyoxyethylene(OCH2CH2O).
E.g.: Sorbitan esters(spans),polysorbates (Tweens).
Nonionic surfactants with high hydrophilic lipophilic balance(HLB) values are used in the formulation of SMEDDS. The usual surfactant strength ranges between 30-60% w/w of the formulation in order to form a stable SMEDDS. COSOLVENTS : COSOLVENTS Organic solvents such as ethanol,propylene glycol(PG) and polyethylene glycol(PEG) are suitable for oral delivery and they enable the dissolution of large quantities of either the hydrophilic surfactant or the drug in the lipid base.
These solvents can even act as as co surfactants micro emulsion systems. OTHER COMPONENTS : : OTHER COMPONENTS : These may be pH adjusters, flavors,and antioxidant agents. Lipophilic antioxidants(E.g. alpha tocopherol, propyl gallate,ascorbyl palmitate ) may be required to stabilize the oily content of SMEDDS formulation. CHARACTERIZATION OF SMEEDS : CHARACTERIZATION OF SMEEDS Physical Appearance
Particle Size Determination
Photon Correlation Spectroscopy
Transmission Electron Microscopy
Scanning Electron Microscopy Slide 15: Polarised Light Microscopy
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| 0.804613 | 1,330 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The day of Easter falls on a Sunday based on the lunisolar calendar, not a fixed date on the Gregorian or Julian calendar. It has been determined to fall on the Sunday after the full moon following March 21 for Western Christians. Thus Easter will fall between March 22nd and April 25th each year. Although it is not a federal U.S. holiday, many stores are closed or operate minimal hours on this day.
Numerous churches hold Easter services celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from his crucifixion. The Easter lily is a symbol of the resurrection. Easter eggs are made using hard boiled eggs dipped in colored dye on the outside. Easter candy is hidden in plastic eggs. Both are used in Easter egg hunts organized by churches, local businesses or families. An Easter basket is used to collect the eggs. The Easter bunny is also a symbol of the holiday.
The foundation of the Christian faith from the New Testament is the resurrection of Jesus from his crucifixion 3 days earlier which is observed as Good Friday. This establishes Jesus as the Son of God. Those who believe in Jesus' death and resurrection are given "a new birth" and receive eternal salvation. Jewish Christians were the first to observe Easter.
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| 0.961735 | 255 | 3.171875 | 3 |
The Great Recession has revealed that our social safety net--primarily established by Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression--is more hole than net. For many Americans, this is not news. Low-income families have spent decades dealing with economic insecurity and a system that provides little buffer on the way down. The current downturn has only made matters worse.
The latest unemployment numbers bear this out. For workers with the least education, the May unemployment rates jumped to 15.5 percent, up from 6.7 percent in 2007. Job seekers now average nearly 6 months without a job. Hidden behind these numbers, however, are the underemployed--those lucky enough to still have a job, but a job that is offering fewer hours than what they are willing to work. Bureau of Labor Statistics data suggest that nearly 9 million workers are in part-time positions but want full-time jobs--an increase of 4 million workers since the recession started.
This dramatic collapse of the low-wage job market takes place against the backdrop of a 10-year shift in poverty policy away from income support for the very poor and toward programs that emphasize work and supports for those who are working, often under the label "Work First." As a result, the fundamental income-support programs for those in need--unemployment insurance, cash welfare through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps)--have been off the front burner in the policy debate and are in need of reforms.
How threadbare is the net? Urban Institute researchers found that low-income programs in 2005 lifted fewer families out of deep poverty (those living at below half the official poverty line) than programs in 1995. Of the major programs, SNAP seems to be working the best in providing for basic needs. Caseload data from March shows that participation in this program has increased 28 percent since 2007. Still, a recent study shows that in 2006, the program served about two-thirds of those eligible, but rates vary widely by state: California, for example, serves only half of its eligible food-stamp population. Further, some eligible populations, like low-income seniors and individuals in working families, are less likely to be enrolled. Despite these challenges, SNAP provides an instructive model because eligibility for this program is based primarily on financial need, not tied to work or past work efforts.
TANF and unemployment insurance, on the other hand, do not seem as well suited to buffering low-income families during recessions. TANF, where the work-first principle is the most entrenched, is particularly ill-suited to helping the poorest Americans. Despite rising unemployment and increasing poverty, initial reports show that states' cash-assistance programs have remained flat or experienced only small increases in the number of people they serve in the early stages of the recession (more recent data is not yet available). Even before the economic nosedive, there were signs that the TANF program was not meeting its mission. Less than half of all eligible families receive TANF, and studies show that one in five adult recipients who left welfare is not working.
Unemployment insurance is also disconnected from the current labor market and the needs of low-wage workers. This program reportedly provides benefits to about one-third of all those unemployed and an even smaller percentage of low-wage unemployed workers. Additionally, the benefit amount participants receive is typically capped, so that the average replacement rate is under half of average earnings. While unemployment insurance was greatly enhanced through provisions by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), some states are not taking advantage of these resources because of the required policy expansions tied to the federal dollars. In addition, seven states have borrowed more than $2 billion from the U.S. Treasury to cover their unemployment-insurance systems, and experts project that up to 20 states might need federal loans by the end of 2009 to cover trust-fund losses.
The combination of changes in policy, the economy, and our lives has led to a shift from a safety net that once primarily lifted the very destitute to a level somewhat higher, to one that now focuses benefits heavily on people who are employed year round. While there are advantages to that approach, it leaves the vast majority of poor people without a net when work is inconsistent or when life gets in the way of full-time employment. To fully address the realities of the low-wage labor market and the needs of low-income families, a modern safety net would take into account today's economy, in which workers tend to stay with individual employers five years instead of 40, in which nearly half of the work force is made up of women (including single parents), and in which more than a quarter of the work force is part-time, temporary, or contract workers. It would address the fact that many workers struggle to find employment that allows them to earn enough to support their families, and only one-quarter advance to jobs that move them out of their low-income status. And it would acknowledge that all of these pressures exist within a 24/7 economy that moves at a pace unimaginable to the architects of the current social safety net nearly 80 years ago.
A new safety net would also account for changes to workers' "life course," an approach touted by European researchers and policy-makers as they examine the social welfare state. European policy-makers have begun to examine their labor markets, social-security systems, and working-time regulations with the need to find, as the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions notes, "a new deal combining sufficient flexibility and competitiveness of companies with higher levels of flexibility and employment/income security for workers." This would mean incorporating security systems that buffer not only economic shocks but also account for times when a person might need to exit the work force to care for a new child, to handle a disability or illness, or for learning and skill development. These transitions happen much more frequently than our systems admit.
A stronger net of programs for workers and their families could build on the systems we already have. SNAP could make jobless adults without children permanently eligible for food assistance (a temporary policy under ARRA). We could streamline the application process and coordinate SNAP with other benefit programs such as unemployment insurance to help ensure that eligible families are enrolled. Also, states could work to develop relationships with employers, both to help with outreach to working poor families and to target those experiencing layoffs.
Unemployment insurance could be updated both to address the structural inequities of the programs (including varying benefit levels from state to state) and the financing issues that have left many programs on the brink of bankruptcy. We could also greatly expand federal requirements to ensure that unemployment insurance covers part-time and temporary workers and to provide a greater benefit amount to low-wage workers. The National Employment Law Project estimates that another 500,000 workers would be eligible for unemployment insurance if all of the provisions outlined in ARRA were passed in the states.
Additionally, as unemployment--insurance expert Wayne Vroman has noted, "out of 61 nations providing unemployment compensation, only one nation finances the program by 'experience rating'"--that is, by applying a higher tax rate to businesses that have more layoffs. The goal of this rating system is to discourage layoffs and encourage companies to retrain their own work force to meet changing production needs. But this system encourages employers to deny unemployment-insurance claims lest they face increased tax liabilities. Employers contest one in four unemployment insurance claims, leaving many employees with the burden of a legal fight to access the benefits they need. A system of no-fault unemployment benefits, funded by a level and fair tax on all employers (perhaps shared with workers) would strip out these incentives and create a uniform safety net for all workers.
We should also revisit the TANF provisions that reward states for pushing people out of the program even when poverty and need are rising. Education and training should count as work activity, especially in periods of high unemployment when building skills for better jobs later makes sense. The federal government should also encourage states to provide more services to those with significant employment barriers. And penalizing states for failing to meet work participation requirements should be lifted when unemployment makes them impossible targets.
The next generation of safety-net policies will certainly need to connect workers to an improved and expanded system of education and training. This system would provide significant new and targeted investments in financial aid, particularly for part-time, certificate-oriented programs that target low-income individuals. The Workforce Investment Act (WIA), the cornerstone of our job-training system, should be retooled--funded at adequate levels and directly linked to industry needs. Additionally, given that many in need of training are also trying to keep food on the table and care for children, we need to ensure that they have financial support and child care while they are attending training.
Finally, the safety net should acknowledge that for the vast majority of workers, there will be short spells of non-work driven by personal circumstances and family needs. Five states and Puerto Rico in fact recognized early on--some as early as the 1940s--that there was a need for temporary-disability insurance programs to help support workers and their families during brief periods of illness and disability. However, since the 1960s no additional states have adopted this coverage. Recent policy innovations, though, in two states with temporary-disability insurance programs, California and New Jersey, have expanded beyond disability insurance to also address paid family leave--or wage replacement for the times when workers need to exit employment temporarily to care for a new baby or sick relative.
These two state programs have laid the groundwork for a national Family Security Insurance program. This short-term safety net could be built on the foundation of our national Social Security system, following the lead of many other industrialized nations. Specifically, a nominal tax added to current Social Security payroll taxes would provide a base of funding to support workers who need to temporarily leave the workplace--for their own short-term illness, a sick family member, or to care for a new baby. By providing 12 weeks per year, (to align with current Family and Medical Leave Act requirements), even low-income workers who are less likely to have paid time off could afford the much needed time to provide care. As in other states with temporary-disability insurance, workers would need some work history to be eligible for the program. For low-income workers, job protection must also be extended to help ensure that they can access the payments without the fear of losing their job.
Particularly in times of economic crisis, we need a safety net that supports all people: those who are unemployed but able to work, those who cannot work, and those who are currently working. There is more to do beyond these core programs, but fixing them would create an important and fundamentally new fabric for our safety net. While it is true that the Obama administration is not lacking in things to reform, the president should take his cues from another leader in a time of national crisis: Franklin Roosevelt. "It is childish to speak of recovery first and reconstruction afterward," Roosevelt said. "In the very nature of the processes of recovery we must avoid the destructive influences of the past."
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Wire Antenna Tips
The ham radio wire antenna is the most common form of antenna used by ham radio operators.
Here is what aspiring and novice ham radio operators should know about what makes them reliable.
The main reasons for its popularity are that it is affordable and relatively easy to install.
In many cases, a wire antenna may be the best solution (compromise) for your specific location ... especially if you build it yourself!
The amateur radio wire antenna is especially economical when it is homemade! There are a few reasons for this.
- You can use the parts you have in your "spare parts box".
- You can buy parts at flea markets and hamfests for next to nothing (compared to buying new).
- You can use various non-conducting materials as insulators.
- You can make (otherwise expensive) coaxial transmission line current chokes by coiling your coax. Learn how here.
- You learn a lot about antennas in the process!
Before selecting a given wire type for your ham radio wire antenna,
you should take the following recommendations into consideration...
- Antenna length: obviously, a 160 meter dipole
will require much stronger wire (#14 Stranded (7x22) Copper-Clad Steel)
than a 10 meter dipole (where #14 Stranded (7x22) Hard-drawn copper
- Solidity of supports: a dipole strung between two trees will require special considerations (#13 19 strand VariFlex Insulated) whereas a dipole between two solid buildings will not as much.
- Wind: a notoriously windy location will require stronger wire than a sheltered location.
- Ice storms: go for the strongest wire you can afford if you live in an area where an ice storm is likely to occur.
- Salty air: you should use wire with a polyethylene or PVC jacket to prevent corrosion from weakening your antenna wire.
- Heavy industrial pollution: the recommendation is the same as for a salty air environment. Use jacketed wire.
- "Stealthiness": use strong and very thin wire (such as #26 VariFlex Insulated (19 strand) CW) with sky colored button insulators ... and your antenna will be nearly invisible!
- Quads, Wire Beams: I would recommend Flex-Weave™ wire by RF Davis. They offer #14 168 strand and #12 259 strand (!), bare or insulated (PVC or polyethylene).
- Portable antennas: strong and very thin wire such as #26 19 strand VariFlex™ Insulated is perfect for this application. Light, durable and very flexible.
- Center insulator: With a ham radio wire
antenna that do not require a balun, I recommend a glass-filled ABS
insulator with built-in drip lip around SO-239 connector. It comes with a
hole on top to anchor inverted-Vs. Also, you might consider the
excellent, but slightly more expensive, DELTA-C Center Insulator by
Alpha Delta Communications.
- End insulators: For trouble free service, I
recommend the Delta-CIN End Insulator. The Delta-C components are molded
of high impact UV and RF resistant materials called Deltalloy™
When old army surplus ceramic insulators were abundantly available,
many of us would use clothesline. It is quite strong and usually fairly
UV resistant. Unfortunately, it is too "fat" to fit in the new center
and end insulators recommended above! :-(
But big (heavy) ceramic insulators have become harder to find ... as well as (non-conducting) clothesline rope!
Dacron® type rope has come to our rescue. It is extremely strong as well as UV and abrasion resistant.
Use the 3/8" size for the center insulator and pulley and the 3/16" to tie the end insulators to end supports.
Take down and carefully inspect all parts of your ham radio wire antenna at least one a year for damage.
Ham Radio Wire Antenna
Commercially assembled wire antennas do have the advantage that they are...
- generally made with quality, durable parts and
- designed and pre-tuned for best performance (although admittedly under ideal conditions).
For example, I have been using a Carolina Windom™ for 80-10 meters for years. It is the best commercially made multi-band (no traps) single wire antenna that I have ever used.
I do get much better results than any commercially built wire antenna for 160 meters with my homemade wire antenna. But I must admit that I have not tried the Carolina Windom™ 160 yet!
The Performance Aspect
Will the homemade wire antenna perform as well or better than a commercially built wire antenna of the same type?
Often it will ... when you design it to fit your specific surroundings and ground conductivity.
Lets face it. Most hams buying a commercially made ham radio wire antenna will be reluctant to modify it to better fit theirs surroundings and ground conductivity!
73 de VE2DPE
7, Rue de la Rive, Notre-Dame-des-Prairies, Québec, Canada J6E 1M9
QTH Locator: FN36gb
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Given all the new electric vehicles (EVs) hitting the road soon, including the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, one might think they are some sort of new-fangled concept. Yet the invention of the EV actually predates the iconic gasoline-fueled Model T Ford that began mass production in 1908.
Early in the 20th century, EVs had themselves a bit of a heyday. But the greater traveling distance, higher top speed and easier refueling provided by the internal combustion engine, among other factors, put EVs in the rear view for decades. And until recently, with rising environmental and economic concerns, carmakers and consumers had never looked back.
In the spirit of what's old being new again, modern automakers are in some ways correcting for — and repeating — the mistakes of the EVs of yesteryear. Only time will tell if the 21st century electric revolution ends up short-circuiting as well.
The (first) ascent of EVs
Various small vehicles powered by electricity were independently invented a number of times in Europe and the United States in the first half of the 19th century.
EVs began to pop up in the U.S. in the 1890s, and peaked with 28 percent of the (admittedly small) passenger vehicle market in 1900, according to research by Michael Brian Schiffer, a professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona and author of "Taking Charge: The Electric Automobile in America."
Well over half of these early EVs were hired out for delivery services and social chauffeuring for "gentlemen and gentlewomen of means," said David Kirsch, a professor of capitalism studies at the University of Maryland and author of "The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History."
Dozens of manufacturers produced EVs. Many looked "basically like horseless carriages," Kirsch said. The first EVs were not cheap, and owning one was a status symbol.
Why EVs petered out
The affordability of the mass-produced Model T Ford, however, made owning a car a very realistic prospect for the middle class.
Sales of EVs peaked at about 6,000 units in 1913 and 1914, but by then the market share for electrics had dwindled to just one percent as annual sales of the Model T Ford soared to 200,000, Schiffer's research showed.
The far greater range and speed permitted by the internal combustion engine compared to electronic propulsion, then as now, are often cited as key reasons why EVs of yore faded away.
A goodly number of EVs by 1910 boasted a range between 50 and 100 miles per charge, Schiffer wrote — as good as EVs of today, and practical in nearly all driving situations — but gasoline vehicles could go well beyond this distance. Making matters worse: the EVs' speed topped out at around 15 to 20 mph.
Taken together, these limitations meant that only the internal combustion engine could allow shopkeepers, for example, to make timely deliveries or pickups deep into the countryside.
Refueling gas-powered vehicles also became easier as filling stations began to appear alongside roads in the 1910s, while charging and battery swap-out stations for EVs did not emerge.
From an economic standpoint, the average American family and business could not afford multiple cars in the early 20th century, and given the EVs' hang-ups, "if you can only have one vehicle, it's going to be an internal combustion one," Kirsch said.
Another significant factor: Early internal combustion engine vehicles had to be hand-cranked to start, a laborious and even dangerous process. EVs, on the other hand, were a cinch — "turn a switch and you drove away," said Jon Bereisa, a retired General Motors engineer who worked on EV drive systems for decades and heads Auto Lectrifcation, an EV consultancy.
As such, EVs were often marketed toward women. But that changed in 1912 when Charles Kettering invented, ironically, the electric starter for gasoline vehicles.
"That little motor did in the electric car," Bereisa said.
Past is prologue
Technology has made up for some of the old-school EV problems, such as maximum speed. (Yes, conventional gasoline vehicles reach 100-mile-per-hour-plus speeds — the Volt and Leaf do not — but that is not a practical concern.)
But as far as batteries have come, they remain expensive. Much like in the 1910s after relatively cheap Model T Fords came on the scene, in today's mature automobile marketplace the Volt, Leaf and other full-size electric vehicles cost substantially more than conventional vehicles of similar size and equipment.
(The car-buying calculus will get easier for consumers moving ahead, though; according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the price of EV batteries should drop by half in five years, courtesy of government investments in domestic manufacturing and deployment.)
So-called range anxiety will also remain a bugaboo for batteries-only electric vehicles such as the Leaf; that is, until public recharging facilities are established, which for now are a rarity outside of a few regions in California and some major cities.
"All-electrics appeal to a very limited market and one in which most households can’t participate because the cost is prohibitive and range is still a factor — a second vehicle is often needed," Curtis and Judy Anderson, the authors of "Electric and Hybrid Cars: A History," wrote in an e-mail.
The Chevy Volt, however, offers a solution to the range problem by being an electric hybrid: A gasoline generator kicks in to power the electric drive unit after the batteries are exhausted at around 40 miles for another 300 miles of coverage; the batteries-only Nissan Leaf, meanwhile, claims a range of 100 miles per charge.
GM wanted to avoid the range pitfall that helped doom the EVs of a century ago, Bereisa said, who also worked on the architecture of Volt's propulsion system. "The Volt can be your single car," Bereisa told TechNewsDaily.
Batteries-only EVs will still mainly appeal to a niche group of people for whom both range and cost are not a problem. But they do represent the overall goal, perhaps, of the EV revolution: to rid transportation of fossil fuels.
"The interesting question is which path will be more successful: the all-electric transformational path" — that taken by Nissan with the Leaf — "or the hybrid, more incremental path," that taken by GM with its Volt, Kirsch said.
A different era
At least out of the gate, GM is producing small runs of the Volt; 10,000 in 2001 and 30,000 in 2012. Nissan, for its part, has capped Leaf reservations at 20,000 in the U.S. so far. (Around 12 million cars are sold a year in the U.S. nowadays, down from a pre-recession 17 million or so.)
But in recognition of the promise of EVs, especially as urban populations boom in the decades ahead, both GM and Nissan are making their EVs in plants that can ramp up production to 50,000 to 100,000 vehicles per year.
In significant ways, the world and its car-buying public are different from 100 years ago, and the 2010s might be just the right time for the EV from a zeitgeist perspective, Bereisa said.
In an era of climate change and economic and national security woes, Bereisa said, "people want to drive a guilt-free product and do something good for the neighborhood, the city and the planet."
- 5 Reasons to Buy an Electric Vehicle Later
- 5 Reasons to Buy an Electric Vehicle Now
- Zap: 10 All-Electric Vehicles Gearing Up to Hit the Streets
© 2012 TechNewsDaily
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Marine Animals: Coming in on the Tides
The oceans teem with fearsome wildlife like powerful sharks, jaw-dropping anglerfish and venomous stonefish.
But the sea-faring species that are most likely to disrupt daily life in South Carolina are diminutive crustaceans and mollusks.
Just two months apart in the fall of 2006, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources announced the discovery of two exotic invasive species in Charleston Harbor, despite predictions that neither the mussel nor the barnacle would be able to survive so far from tropical waters.
The first unlikely pilgrim was the Asian green mussel, which left a trail of dead shells surrounding its handiwork: clogged supply lines at a DNR Marine Resources Division facility in Charleston.
“The Asian green mussel has caused big problems along the Florida coast, and it’s in South Carolina now,” says David Knott, a DNR marine biologist. “It remains to be seen whether it will be able to acclimate to our winter temperatures.”
It’s usually comfortable in temperatures ranging from 79 to 82 degrees, but tests in Florida have shown that the Asian green mussel can function well in water as cool as 54 degrees. Even after two weeks of exposure to 50-degree water, roughly half of the experimental population survived.
Since DNR temperature records show that Charleston-area water rarely dips below 50 degrees for more than two weeks, the Asian green mussel may prove to be more than just another Lowcountry tourist here for a visit.
Considered a nuisance by power-plant managers even in its native Indo-Pacific waters, the Asian green mussel has a reputation for growing quickly and reaching reproductive maturity at a young age. Because it can spawn at the tender age of two months, moderate mussel populations can produce a progeny of millions.
“These abilities are what make this mussel such a potential threat to coastal structures and enterprises,” says Knott.
Planting themselves on almost any hard surface, Asian green mussels can infest buoys, floating docks, piers and pilings. They also settle on intertidal oyster reefs, displacing adult oysters and killing juveniles.
The second new settler, a gigantic barnacle, arrived at the same Folly River dock where the Asian green mussel had taken root. With the onomatopoeic scientific name Megabalanus coccopoma, this stubborn filter feeder dwarfs native coastal barnacles.
Equipped with a strong grip and defensive beak, the species can grow and release larvae in waters with moderate temperatures and high salinity. Giant barnacles thrive in the warm currents surrounding the area of Baja California, Ecuador and Brazil, and recent increases in water temperatures on the South Carolina coast could make it a more attractive destination for these tenacious invaders.
The giant barnacle was first spotted in Texas and Louisiana before moving to the Atlantic Coast, where tennis ball-sized broods create significant drag on boat hulls, propellers and drive shafts. It also prefers to attach to new vessels, leading to potentially devastating economic implications.
“Since it reaches a much larger size than native barnacles in South Carolina, significant settlement and growth of the giant barnacle would require greater maintenance efforts in coastal and high-salinity estuarine areas,” Knott says.
Another crustacean nuisance is a tiny isopod, a creature whose strange taxonomy is still the subject of scientific debate. Regardless of whether it hails from the eastern (Synidotea laticauda) or western (S. laevidorsalis) Pacific, the isopod’s isolated appearances in both South Carolina and New Jersey in 1999 suggest that it was probably introduced by the maritime industry. With seasonal population surges, it can reach densities of more than 30,000 (fitting, thankfully, in the space of a 2’ x 3’ tray) in as little as one week.
Two invasive crabs also have scampered onto the beach scene: the green porcelain crab and the swimming spiny hands crab. The tiny green porcelain crab encompasses a broad territory from Peru in the eastern Pacific to tropical western Africa and the Caribbean. It has gained headway in Florida since the 1970s, but its arrival on St. Catherines Island in Georgia in 1994 served as an ecological wake-up call. In less than a year, the green porcelain crab had become the dominant decapod crustacean in its preferred habitat, reigning from the island’s rocky substrates to its intertidal oyster bars.
Meanwhile, the larger spiny hands crab was probably introduced to the Caribbean Basin from the Indo-Pacific via shipping routes through the Suez Canal. The crab first reached Florida’s Indian River in 1995, but a specimen found at the Southeastern Regional Taxonomic Center (SERTC) dating from 1986 has forced scientists to rethink its pathway into the country. The most documented infestation of spiny hands crabs in South Carolina can be found in Winyah Bay, but their environmental impact remains unknown.
Scientists are also on the trail of an unwelcome relative of the Asian green mussel known as the charrua mussel. Though it has yet to be cataloged in South Carolina waters, the infestation patterns of similar creatures may foreshadow a northward movement in the near future. The United States was spared a massive outbreak when cold winters eliminated the species from Jacksonville, Florida in 1987, but it has since returned to the Indian River Lagoon and Liberty County, Georgia.
Thanks to a voracious appetite and competition with native shellfish, the charrua mussel could leave a wake of economic damage if it migrates to South Carolina.
As for marine fish, the DNR is most concerned about a venomous scorpionfish called the red lionfish. It was first reported in 1992 off the Florida coastline, but a juvenile population ranging from estuaries in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Bermuda indicate that the red lionfish is probably spawning off the southeastern coastline, where larvae can hitch a ride on the Gulf Stream. The red lionfish is the first known non-native marine fish to become a fully established species from an aquarium release.
Invasive marine species of all sorts are continuously cataloged by the SERTC (www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/sertc), which is constructing a searchable database of native and invasive species found from Cape Hatteras to Cape Canaveral. Presently these data are being contributed to a global program that records distributional information on ocean life, but eventually the information will be directly available to scientists worldwide and also to the public. “By becoming familiar with native and non-native species, citizens can help scientists monitor infestations and slow their spread,” says Chris Page, the DNR’s Aquatic Nuisance Species Program coordinator. “We’re asking everyone to learn more about these invaders, and then become part of the solution.”
- Invasion of the Aquatic Exotics
- Freshwater Animals: Invaders on Feet and Fins
- Aquatic Invasive Species: SC’s Most Wanted
- Freshwater Plants: Tenacious Tendrils
- Tiny Enemy Hiding In Hydrilla
- Marine Animals: Coming in on the Tides
- Marine Plants: Commanding the Coastline
- Get the Complete document in PDF format
Text for this supplement by Marc Rapport, free-lance writer and senior writer for the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism.
© 2007 South Carolina Wildlife magazine, July - August 2007
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While at Cozumel, Cortez had the good fortune to pick up a Spaniard, who, having been wrecked in his passage from Darien to Hispaniola in the year 1511, had for seven years been detained as a slave among the Indians of Yucatan. The name of this poor man was Jeronimo de Aguilar; he had been educated for the church; and as he could speak the language of Yucatan, his services as an interpreter were likely to be very valuable.
On the 4th of March 1519, the fleet, consisting of eleven vessels, commanded respectively by Cortez, Pedro de Alvarado, Alonzo Puerto Carrero, Francisco de Montejo, Christoval de Olid, Diego de Ordaz, Velasquez de Leon, Juan de Escalante, Francisco de Monla, Escobar, and Gines Nortes, set sail from Cozumel, and on the 13th it anchored at the mouth of the river Tabasco or Grijalva, flowing into the south of the Bay of Cam peachy.
The expedition had now reached the scene of active operations; it had arrived on the coast of the American continent. Cortez does not appear to have been naturally a bloodily-disposed man. He was only what a perverted education and the vices of his times had made him - a man full of mighty notions of the Spanish authority; of its right to take, by foul or fair means, any country it liked; and not without an excuse from religion. to rob and kill the unfortunate natives who dared to defend their territories.
We have now therefore, to record the beginning of a most unjust and merciless war of aggression. As Cortez, with his followers, sailed up the river as far as Tabasco, he everywhere Observed the natives preparing to repel his attack, and at length he was brought into collision with them - of course overpowering them by the force of arms, with immense slaughter. On reaching Tabasco, his soldiers fought their way through dense masses of Indians, who discharged among them perfect clouds of arrows and stones. Pushing through the streets, which were lined with houses, some of mud, and some of stone, the victors reached a large open square in the centre, where temples of large size were erected. Here the troops were drawn up; and Cortez, advancing to a large ceiba-tree which grew in the middle, gave it three;lashes with his sword, and took possession of the city and country in the name of his royal master Don Carlos, king of Castile.
Next day another battle was fought between the Spaniards and the Tabascans on the plain of Ceutla, a few miles distant from the city. For an hour the Spanish infantry fought in the midst of an ocean of enemies, battling on all sides, beating one wave back, only that another might advance a little islet encircled by the savage breakers. At length, with the assistance of their horse - a terrible sight to the Indians - the Spaniards were victorious. The spirit of the Tabascans was now completely subdued. Their chiefs came to the camp of Cortez with faces and gestures expressive of contrition, and brought him presents of fowls, fish, maize, and numerous gold toys representing many kinds of animals in miniature. For the horses, they brought a feast of turkeys and roses! They also gave Cortez twenty Indian girls to attend the army. To his inquiries respecting the country whence they obtained the gold, they replied by repetitions of the words Culua 'and Mexico,' and pointing to the west. Having obtained all the information the Tabascans could give him, Cortez resolved to proceed on his voyage. Accordingly, after a solemn mass, which the Indians attended, the armament left Tabasco, and after a short sail, arrived off the coast of St. Juan de Ulua, the site of the modern Vera Cruz. It was on Holy Thursday (April 20th), in the year 1519, that they arrived at the port of St. Juan de Ulua, the extreme eastern province of the Mexican dominions properly so called. The royal flag was floating from the mast of Cortez's ship. The Spaniards could see the beach crowded with natives, who had come down to gaze at the strange 'water-houses,' of which they had formerly seen specimens. At length a light pirogue, filled with natives, some of them evidently men of rank, pushed off from the shore, and steered for the ship of Cortez. The Indians went on board without any symptoms of fear, and, what was more striking, with an air of ease and perfect good-breeding. They spoke a different language from that of the inhabitants of Cozumel or the Tabascans - a language, too, which Aguilar did not understand. Fortunately, one of the twenty Indian girls presented by the Tabascans to the Spaniards was a Mexican by birth. This girl, whose Spanish name of Donna Marina is imperishably associated with the history of the conquest of Mexico, was the daughter of a chief, but, by a singular course of events, had become a slave in Tabasco. She had already attracted attention by her beauty, sweetness, and gentleness, and she had been mentioned to Cortez. Her services now became valuable. The Mexican was her native language; but by her residence in Tabasco, she had acquired the Tabascan, which language was also familiar to Aguilar. Interpreting, therefore, what the Mexicans said into Tabascan to Aguilar, Aguilar in turn interpreted the Tabascan into Spanish; and thus, though somewhat circuitously, Cortez could hold communication with his visitors.
The Aztec visitors who came on board the ship of Cortez, informed him that they were instructed by the governor of the province to ask what he wanted on their coast, and to promise that whatever he required should be supplied. Cortez replied that his object was to make the acquaintance of the people of those countries, and that he would do them no injury. He then presented them with some beads of cut glass, and after an entertainment of wine, they took their departure, promising that Teuthlille, the governor of the province under their great emperor, should visit him the next day.
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|PRAHA-LIBEN: Praha, Bohemia|
cemetery photo [February 2009]
Old Cemetery US Commission No. CZCE000385A
Alternate name: Lieben in German, now Prague in English. The old cemetery is located 3.4 km NE of center of Prague, close to eastern end of "Libensky Most" [bridge] at 50º07' 14º30'. The cemetery dates from the middle of 16th century and was more or less demolished around 1964.
Earliest known Jewish community was 16th century. 1930 Jewish population was 801 people in Liben. First privileges of Jewish community were granted in 1656. Population was about 800, or approximately 30% of total population, in mid-19th century but decreased in second half of 19th century as population moved to Prague or Vienna. Town of Liben was incorporated into Greater Prague in 1901; increase of both total and Jewish population in Liben in 20th century. Writer Voytech Rakous 1862-1935 lived here in this native town of Naftali Herz Homberg, pioneer of Haskalah 1749-1841; conductor Rudolf Pekarek 1900-1974; and writer Arnost Lustig, resident in Washington, D.C. b. 1926.The Jewish cemetery originated probably in 16th century. Buried in the cemetery are regional rabbi Jakov Haller 1808-1890 and founders of industry in Liben and Karlin with last known Jewish burial about 1892. Karlin (German: Karolinenthal) 2 km used this cemetery landmarked in 1962. The isolated urban flat land on hillside has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all via a broken masonry wall without gate. The pre- and post-WWII size of cemetery is 0.4136 ha.
17th to 19th century stones were buried. The marble, granite, limestone and sandstone flat shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed stones, flat stones with carved relief decoration, multi-stone monuments or obelisks with traces of painting on their surfaces and portraits on stones have Hebrew, German and Czech inscriptions. The cemetery contains no known mass graves or structures. The municipality owns the property used for waste dumping. Adjacent properties are commercial or industrial and municipal transport. Rarely, private visitors and local residents stop. Vandalism occurred prior to World War II: northern part liquidated for building of new bridge in 1925-1928, never in 1981-91 and 1945-1981, and covered by earth about 1965. There is no maintenance.
Jiri Fiedler, z"l, Brdickova 1916, 155 00 Praha 5; tel. 02/553340 completed survey on 31 Aug 1992. Documentation: census 1849, 1930; cadastre and maps of 1828, 1841, 1876, 1900, 1929; Josef Polak: Zide v Libni. in Kalendar cesko-zidovsky, 1912-1913; and Bedrich Nosek: Die juedische Kultusgemeinde in Liben in Judaica; Bohemiae, year 16. No site visits or interviews occurred.
PRAHA-LIBEN -New Cemetery: US Commission No. CZCE000386
The new cemetery is located 5.5 km NE of center of Prague, in "Na malém klínu" Street. The cemetery dates from 1892 and was used until 1975. See Praha Liben (old cemetery) for information about the town. The probably unlandmarked flat urban location has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open with permission via continuous masonry wall and locking gate. The approximate size of cemetery before WWII was 0.7956 and is now approximately 0.2 ha.
100-500 stones, all in original locations, date from 1892-20th century. The marble, granite, limestone, sandstone and slate flat shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed stones, sculpted monuments or multi-stone monuments have Hebrew, German and Czech inscriptions. Some have metal fences around graves. The cemetery has no special sections or known mass graves. Within site is a pre-burial house (sold). Buried in the cemetery is V. Rakous. Praha Jewish community owns the site used only for a Jewish cemetery. Properties adjacent are recreational and residential. The boundaries are smaller than 1939 because of a sports ground. Rarely, private visitors stop. Vandalism occurred occasionally 1945-1991. Jewish groups within country did restoration before 1985. There is no maintenance. Moderate threat: vegetation. Slight threats: uncontrolled access, weather erosion and vandalism.
Vlastmila Hamackova, Zabelska 37, Martina Chmelikova, Nad Ondrejovem 16, 140 00 Praha 4; tel. 02/69-20-350 and Jiri Fiedler, z"l, Brdickova 1916, 155 00 Praha 5; tel. 02/553340 completed survey on 31 Aug 92. Documentation: census 1849, 1930; notes of Statni Zidovske Muzeum Praha; Josef Polak: "Zide v Libni" in Kalendar cesko-zidovsky, 1912-1913; Bedrich Nosek: Die juedische Kultusgemeinde in Liben in Judaica Bohemiae, year 16. Other documentation was inaccessible. No site visits or interviews occurred.
|Last Updated on Sunday, 30 August 2009 11:57|
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If you're on social media, you've likely seen the ALS Association's ice bucket challenge spreading like wildfire through the Internet. ALSA's website said that it has reached $70.2 million from the ice bucket challenge, compared to $2.5 million during the same period last year.
Many farmers are taking the task to an extreme using tractor or skidloader buckets to get the job done. But one Nebraska farmer, Justin Poulas of Beatrice, Neb., used a grain cart and gets doused with an auger full of water for nearly 20 seconds.
Other farmers have been inventive in their own ways, including...
A full payloader bucket of ice from two Canadian dairy farmers:
A "crappy" dairy farm challenge in Pennsylvania:
Bucket full of milk in Arizona at Crow's Dairy:
If you're not aware of ALS, here is the quick description from the ALSA website:
ALS was first found in 1869 by French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, but it wasn’t until 1939 that Lou Gehrig brought national and international attention to the disease. Ending the career of one of the most beloved baseball players of all time, the disease is still most closely associated with his name. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.
For more information on ALS or ALSA visit http://www.alsa.org/about-als/.
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We are investigating methods of improving the performance of writes in the middle of files by decoupling the order of the bytes in the encoded file from their order in the original file. By decoupling their order, we could move writes in the middle of files elsewhere--say the end of the file (similar to a journal) or an auxiliary file. Another alternative is to structure the file differently internally: instead of a sequential set of blocks, it could be organized as a B-tree or hash table where the complexity order of insertions in the middle is sub-linear [Bender, Demaine, and Farach-ColtonBender et al.2000]. These methods would allow us to avoid having to shift bytes outward to make space for larger encoded units, and we could support busy large databases more effectively. However, if we begin storing many encoded chunks out of order, large files could get fragmented. We would need a method for compaction or coalescing all these chunks into a single sequential order.
A related and important optimization we plan to implement is to avoid extra copying of data into temporary buffers. This is only needed when an encoded buffer is written in the middle of a file and its encoded length is greater than its decoded length; in that case we must shift outward some data in the encoded data file to make room for the new encoded data. We can optimize this code and avoid making the temporary copies when files are appended to or being newly created and written sequentially.
Finally, we plan on taking advantage of the type of SCA to further improve performance. Some SCAs, such as compression, include a dictionary at the head of each compressed data chunk. This dictionary is needed to decode the compressed data chunk--much like a key used to decrypt a piece of ciphertext. Furthermore, each dictionary is unique to its data chunk. For this reason, one cannot append two compressed data chunks together and treat them as one: decoding such a concatenated data chunk with the first chunk's dictionary will result in data corruption. In other words, compression algorithms are not concatenateable. However, some SCAs are concatenateable. For example, unicoding or even Uuencodefs use algorithms that convert a small number of bits to another small number of bits. Such algorithms do not use a key or dictionary, and are therefore concatenateable. The knowledge that an algorithm is concatenateable can help FiST to produce code that would avoid decoding two data chunks and then concatenating them (often useful when appending data to the end of a file). Instead, an SCA file system that uses a concatenateable algorithm could simply append the data bytes without decoding prior bytes.
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Advancing digital literacy in the US
There is little consensus on the definition of “digital literacy.” One participant on a panel about it here at a Safer Internet Day conference in Moscow threw everything into the definition – media literacy, online safety, computer literacy, etc. Wikipedia basically defines it as “the ability to locate, organize, understand, evaluate, and analyze information using digital technology,” suggesting those skills constitute digital citizenship (see this). Definitions hardly matter as long as the elements are in place, but when digital-literacy education is only about information, not expression and behavior, it doesn’t improve anyone’s Internet safety in today’s user-driven social media environment.
Several digital literacy projects that do address current safety issues and marked Safer Internet Day today are worth mentioning. I’ve been a participant in two, so I’m biased but even so think they express advanced digital-literacy thinking:
ConnectSafely.org, which I run with Larry Magid, was a partner with Google, Common Sense Media, and the National Consumers League in developing ThinkB4U.com. As Google describes it, “together we are tackling some of the biggest learning curves thrown at the average user in a fun and interactive way.” With video snapshots of a stereotypical North American family’s digital ups and down – scenarios that users can choose to complete for positive or negative outcomes and pick up on important digital life lessons – parents, educators, and students are encouraged to think before they share, click, multi-task, post, chat, respond, and buy online and on mobile phones.
A whole coalition of international companies and nonprofits led by TrendMicro launched this year’s award-winning “What’s Your Story” video contest for the third year running. What’s digitally literate about this is that it’s learning by doing for student video producers. There’s a $10,000 grand prize for the winning entry. “Trend Micro is introducing new categories in the U.S. and Canada that challenge anyone 13 and older, including teachers with their classrooms, to create videos that offer thoughtful and compelling solutions to… 1) Take action against bullying: How would you help a friend being bullied online? 2) Keep a good rep online: What’s the right way to share? And 3) Be cell smart: How can someone new to cell phones use it wisely?
Marking the day here in Moscow with us is a third digital literacy project that was founded in 2003 by Daniel Kent when he was in middle school: NetLiteracy.org. He recently wrote in the Huffington Post, “On October 12, 2011, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski first announced Connect to Compete, a national program to promote broadband adoption and digital literacy. It’s a big step in the right direction. The Chairman then continued: ‘Building on a big idea developed in the National Broadband Plan, we’re proposing to work with America’s schools and public libraries to launch a Digital Literacy Corps to help promote and teach digital literacy.'” Net Literacy aims to be the kernel of that program. Based in Indiana, the all-student-volunteer digital-literacy nonprofit organization claims to have benefitted 150,000 people older than them (senior citizens) and younger than them by teaching them about the Net and digital technology. Its student participants teach, provide teachers with tech support, and refurbish computers for school and community computer labs. All this sounds like a very viable National Digital Literacy Corps kernel to me!
- IBM too is providing digital-literacy ed resources for “Controlling Your Online Identity” for teens and an Online Safety Coaching and Cyberbullying information kit for teachers and others who work with young people.
- Larry’s article on Safer Internet Day on CNET
- “Next step: Crowd-source digital citizenship”
- “‘Digital literacy’ defined – by students”
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This new edition of Bart Ehrman's highly successful introduction approaches the New Testament from a consistently historical and comparative perspective, emphasizing the rich diversity of the earliest Christian literature. Rather than shying away from the critical problems presented by these books, Ehrman addresses the historical and literary challenges they pose and shows why scholars continue to argue over such significant issues as how the books of the New Testament came into being, what they mean, how they relate to contemporary Christian and non-Christian literature, and how they came to be collected into a canon of Scripture. Distinctive to this study is its emphasis on the historical, literary, and religious milieu of the Greco-Roman world, including early Judaism. As part of its historical orientation, this text also discusses works by other Christian writers who were roughly contemporary with the New Testament, such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the letters of Ignatius. This second edition features expanded coverage of the historical Jesus, adds new boxes on various topics (e.g., women in the New Testament and alternative approaches to the historical Jesus), incorporates a twelve-page color photo essay on illuminated manuscripts, and includes several important organizational changes. Ideal for undergraduate and seminary classes in the New Testament, Biblical Studies, and Christian Origins, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, Second Edition, is an accessible, clearly written introduction that encourages students to consider the historical issues surrounding these writings.
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Designing an effective emergency communication system
Catastrophic events have changed the way fire protection engineers design emergency communication systems and mass notification systems.
May I have your attention please, may I have your attention please, there has been:
- a fire emergency reported in the building
- a bomb threat alert issued for this building
- dangerous weather conditions reported in this area
- an intruder sighted in or around the building
- a hazardous chemical release reported.
- leave the building by the nearest exit or exit stairway—do not use the elevators
- evacuate immediately using the nearest exit; further instructions will be issued outside the building
- stand by for further instructions
- report any suspicious activity
- defend in place.
These are examples of messages broadcast to occupants in a building with a voice emergency communication system (ECS) that incorporates mass notification capabilities. They are examples of prerecorded messages, but new ECSs have the ability to override the prerecorded messages and provide a live voice broadcast via a handheld microphone located at the fire alarm control panel. Not too long ago, only the first message—“a fire emergency has been reported”—would have been broadcast from a fire alarm system.
Mass notification systems (MNS) have been around for as long as mankind. From messengers in the Roman Empire, to smoke signals for Native Americans, to town criers in Colonial days, there has always been a need to broadcast messages to a great number of people simultaneously. As technology improved, so has the ability and need to reach broader audiences with accurate and current information to reduce the risk of mass causalities from an event.
Several catastrophic events have changed the landscape for ECSs. After the 1996 attack on Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that claimed the lives of 19 servicemen and injured hundreds, the Secretary of Defense issued a report that identified there was no effective system to warn the occupants. Although a service member had become aware of the impending danger, and his efforts to run from floor to floor warning the occupants saved many lives, he was unable to reach everyone in a timely manner. This prompted the military to develop a force protection standard under the Unified Facilities Criteria, UFC 4-010-01 Minimum Antiterrorism Standards for Buildings, defining the need for mass notification. In its definition, specific direction was given to “providing a timely means to notify building occupants of threats and what should be done in response to those threats to reduce the risk of mass casualties.” Certainly other significant catastrophes also impacted the need for the further development of communicating during emergencies, including the World Trade Center collapse in 2001 and the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.
The Khobar Towers bombing prompted the development of UFC 04-021-01 – Design and O & M: Mass Notification Systems. The U.S. Air Force petitioned the National Fire Protection Assn. (NFPA) to develop a national standard for MNS. This task was accepted by NFPA 72 and then referred to as The National Fire Alarm Code. NFPA expanded the scope of the Signaling Systems for the Protection of Life and Property to include mass notification. Through the efforts of this task group, the 2007 Edition of NFPA 72 was able to include provisions to use the fire alarm notification system for other uses, such as warning of dangers other than fire. This was a big step, as fire alarm systems were always considered somewhat “sacred” and not to be mixed with any other functions.
The 2007 edition of NFPA 72 included some milestone revisions related to ECS. Most importantly, the definition of emergency voice/alarm communication systems was changed to no longer reference fire emergencies, but more generically a system to provide voice instructions. This version also included the first definition of MNS: “A system used to provide information and instructions to people, in a building, area site, or other space.”
NFPA 72 2007 edition Chapter 6 - Protected Premises Fire Alarm Systems, contained three important factors for using a combined system. A combined system was any system that contained non-fire-related components. This was the foundation for the MNS requirements. Speakers could now be used for MNS, and setting mass notifications as a priority during emergencies was acceptable if the items in Table 1 were followed.
Table 1 - NFPA 72, Chapter 6 References
NFPA 72 (2007 Edition) section
“Speakers used as alarm notification appliances on fire alarm systems shall also be permitted to be used for MNS.”
“In combination systems, fire alarm signals shall be distinctive, clearly recognizable, and, with the exception of mass notification inputs, take precedence over any other signal even when a non–fire alarm signal is initiated first and shall be indicated as follows in descending order of priority unless otherwise permitted by this code:”
“Live voice instructions originating from the protected premises fire or MNS shall override all previously initiated signals….”
Annex E, although not enforceable as a requirement, provided extensive information and discussion on the use and design of MNS. Although not written in a standard’s enforcing format, Annex E introduced many significant ideas and technologies related to MNS. Chapters introduced included: Fundamentals of Mass Notification Systems, System Fundamentals, Documentation, and System Features.
Developing an ECSFollowing the publication of the 2007 Edition of NFPA 72, the National Fire Alarm Code underwent an extreme makeover in the scope and organization of the document, at which time a new Technical Committee was formed for ECS (SIG-ECS). The committee of 28 professionals and 12 alternates created an entirely new chapter to address requirements for communicating information using a variety of systems during any multitude of events. Along with the changes, the NFPA 72 document was renamed for the 2010 Edition as the National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code, which exemplifies the scope change from fire emergencies to all forms of warning systems and communication systems that are used during emergencies. The committee, as with all committees within NFPA technical code development, was purposely made up of professionals from a variety of backgrounds and experience including special expert, installer/maintainer, enforcing authority, manufacturer, user, labor, and research/testing.
During the writing and development of the new chapter, the committee decided to organize the material into sections on Application, Purpose, General, One-Way ECS, Two-Way In-Building ECS, Information Command and Control, and Performance-Based Design, which includes the Risk Analysis (see Figure 1).
NFPA 72, Chapter 24 required that prior to the design and installation of an ECS, a risk analysis and emergency response plan be developed to assist in the design and operation of the system. The risk analysis is supposed to help the end user identify potential risks and vulnerabilities that the system may need to address in the time of an emergency. The risk analysis needs to be completed on a site-by-site basis with specific information gathered about the site, site operations, and the construction of the building(s) identified as part of the ECS.
One of the most critical aspects of an ECS is how the system will function and who will coordinate the activation, communication, and management of response efforts related to the emergency event. For a successful system design, the risk analysis must be established before any equipment is specified.
The risk analysis requires careful planning and implementation. An effective risk analysis is conducted by either an internal or external assessment team that understands the operations of the site. This team should include various functions related to site operations, engineering, maintenance, and management. The goal of the risk analysis is to identify current and potential risks/threats to a site and also identify elements that need to be addressed in the emergency response plan and the design of the ECS.
Risks that could potentially affect the site include:
- Building systems
All of these emergencies could have an impact on the site and how the ECS is designed and operated.
Designing and specifying an ECS or MNS requires significant planning and analysis. For a basic ECS, determining factors should include such variables as:
- Location of control equipment and the emergency control center
- Defining inputs, such as smoke, heat, manual stations
- Defining the zones for notification appliances
- Determining accessible features, such as the need for and location of visual appliances (strobes)
- Speaker placement for audibility and intelligibility
- Survivability of circuits if staged evacuation is desired.
When adding MNS features, many more variables need to be considered, which should be addressed in the risk analysis. These include features such as:
- Will the MNS be combined with the fire alarm? And if combined, will they be different or from the same manufacturer?
- What speakers will be used for the MNS? A fire alarm, or additional speakers such as a PA system?
- Will notification be provided outside the building?
- Who will have access to live paging? If multiple microphones are provided, who will have priority over messages?
- Will other visible notification appliances be needed, such as different colored or labeled strobes, textural messages (LED signs), video monitors, pagers, e-mails, or text messages?
- Will messages be prerecorded and if so, how many messages, and what will they convey?
- How will the messages be prioritized?
- What other inputs, besides fire detectors, will be used, such as chemical monitors, weather alerts, or emergency broadcast alerts?
- How will occupants be directed? Will they be told to evacuate, relocate, defend in place, or a combination of the above?
The risk analysis is also a key component to the proper development of an emergency response plan for a specific site. The emergency response plan should include the following elements:
- Team structure and responsibilities
- Standard operating procedures (SOPs)
- Training and exercises.
Information on the proper elements to be included in the emergency response plan is identified in NFPA 1600, Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs.
Bringing it together
The team structure should be developed based on the site’s operational capabilities and identified specific roles and responsibilities to address key aspects of the site operations. Team members should include personnel from operations, security and life safety, finance and legal, public relations, infrastructure, and systems. Each group should have clearly identified responsibilities and coordination steps outlined for the various emergencies that could affect the site and/or operations. Clear lines of communications between the team members are essential.
The SOPs should be developed as a site-specific response strategy to assist the site manager during the initial minutes/hours of an emergency until the arrival of the local authorities and hand-over of command from the site to these authorities. SOPs should be developed in accordance with the threats and potential emergencies identified in the risk analysis and should provide team members with specific tasks to complete in the various phases of an emergency. Specific attention should be paid to how these SOPs coordinate with the local authorities’ capabilities and response strategies to limit potential confusion during the initial phase, prior to the arrival of the authorities.
The emergency response plan should include operational strategies for the use of an ECS before, during, and after an emergency affects a site. In addition, the operators of the ECSs need to have clear operational instructions on how and when the ECS is to be used during an emergency.
Documentation and follow-up are critical to the success of an emergency response plan. The documentation is required to track the response efforts that are taken before, during, and after an emergency. Also it provides the site with the ability to review response steps taken and modify the overall strategy based on issues noted during or after the response. Documentation is also valuable to the local authorities who arrive on-site and need an understanding of what has been done and how the site operates. Documentation could include team structure information, site operations information, occupant information, special assistance required information, site system information, and other documents and drawings that could aid the response efforts.
The emergency response plan needs to be developed as a living document that is continually updated and managed to ensure the accuracy of the information in the plan. Out-of-date or wrong information could create vulnerabilities in the site emergency response plan’s effectiveness both during and after an emergency.
Continual training is key
The effectiveness of the emergency response plan is based on two factors: (1) risk analysis information and (2) training and education of team members. The risk analysis will assist in the design of the emergency response plan and ECS, but the training and education of team members is vital to the smooth implementation of the emergency response plan. The training and education of team members, and even building occupants, will assist in a coordinated approach to identify, coordinate, respond, and recover from an emergency affecting the site.
Training and education should include a tier approach to train and test team members. Training should include classroom training, ECS operational training, table-top exercises (TTX), and full-scale exercises (FSE). Each of these training tiers has positives and negatives, but a good combination of these tiers will result in a comprehensive emergency response training and education program that will prepare team members to respond appropriately in an emergency.
Classroom training is ideal to provide emergency response plan information in a basic format with little interaction or role-playing. This type of training is ideal for introducing the plan and discussing the core elements of the plan with large groups.
ECS operational training is essential for those team members who are responsible for the activation and management of the ECS before, during, and after an on-site emergency. The proper use of the system before, during, and after an emergency can limit the negative impacts on the site operations, occupant notifications, and initial response. The plan and operation of the systems needs to be practiced by the team members responsible for the systems. In addition, this type of training can also identify if the ECS is in proper working order and capable of providing clear, intelligible notifications to team members and occupants.
TTXs are designed to provide the core team members with a site-specific emergency situation and allow them to walk through the response steps in a controlled environment. TTXs are an ideal way to test a team’s capabilities and responsibilities without interrupting the site’s normal operations.
FSEs are live drills to test the team members’ capabilities in a real-life setting. FSEs provide valuable insight into issues and concerns that could adversely affect the response due to site conditions or operational challenges. FSEs are more difficult to coordinate due to the interruption to normal site operations, but can provide the most benefit if properly designed and implemented.
Finally, involving the local authorities during the risk analysis and emergency response plan development and training is an important aspect. The local authorities are those professionals that are involved with emergency response on a daily basis and will provide professional response assistance when notified. Their involvement in the planning and training portions of the emergency response plan can create a good working relationship and teach them about the site and the daily operations. Coordinate response strategies are aimed to minimize response times and maximize the effectiveness of the emergency response plan and ECS.
As ECS technology continues to advance, specific care must be taken to address the operational and educational aspects of emergency response to ensure the response strategies and responsibilities also continue to evolve. Failure to address the operational and educational sides of ECSs may open up liabilities and create unsafe/unsecure conditions for building occupants and staff.
What can we expect for the future? First it must be noted that with the exception of the military, MNS are not required. Whereas NFPA 72 provides excellent guidance on the design and installation, including development of the risk analysis for MNS, the document is a design tool and not enforceable unless it is required by a building or fire code. Current building and fire codes require ECSs in certain occupancies, such as high-rise buildings, large assembly occupancies, and malls, but the requirements generally are limited to one-way ECSs, such as those provided by a fire alarm system.
Universities currently are required to provide timely notification to students, faculty, staff, and visitors in the event of an emergency under the guidelines outlined in the Jeanne Clery Act. The Clery Act is one of the driving forces for universities to examine their current emergency response and communication capabilities. The act requires universities to report, on an annual basis, their crime statistics. As of July 2010, amendments to the Clery Act require universities to identify their emergency response planning and communications capabilities. In addition, the amendments require universities to report their method of testing of their emergency communication capabilities and training of staff in emergency response planning.
If a school fails to comply with the requirements outlined in the Clery Act, it may be subject to fines and other negative ramifications, including loss of federal financial aid. Universities should use the NFPA 72 requirements outlined in Chapter 24 to review and enhance their current emergency response and communication capabilities.
Libby serves as the executive vice president of the western Pacific region for RJA. He is actively involved in the design and installation of numerous MNS and serves on the NFPA 72 - National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code, and on the ECS committee. Evenson serves as the director of emergency management for RJA. He is actively involved in the development and implementation of emergency response programs and ECSs. He is currently a technical member of NFPA 72, 99, 730/731, and 1620.
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A global, clean energy revolution is coming to deal with climate change and Canada needs to get on board or get left behind, says Ian Bruce, science and policy manager at the David Suzuki Foundation, a leading environmental group.
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change focuses on the changes countries need to make to mitigate the devastating impacts of climate change and extreme weather. The scientists on the panel say the cost of limiting keeping global warming in check is relatively modest but only if the world acts quickly to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Canada has one of the highest per capita emissions in the world, says Bruce. “As far as Canada’s record on reducing greenhouse gas emissions (go) we have fallen to the back of the pack as far as industrialized countries in the world.” However he adds that provincial and municipal governments have made some progress.
Ontario making strides
The province of Ontario decided to phase out coal as a source of electricity and became the first jurisdiction in North America to do so. It is also prioritizing sustainable energy with its Green Energy Act. “That action alone has been the single largest elimination of carbon pollution in all of North America,” says Bruce.
Canada has moved up in terms of investment in green technologies, he says, largely because of the actions of provinces and cities. It’s time the national government take action to invest in green technology, adds Bruce, noting that developing nations are seeking ways to reduce pollution and there is money to be made in answering that need.
Bruce says the Canadian government also should stop subsidizing fossil fuel companies to the tune of $1.3 billion annually and invest in better public transportation which would not only reduce carbon emissions, but would also increase the quality of life of citizens.
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| 0.955639 | 361 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Globe And Mail Examines Sustainability Of Sierra Leone’s Free Health Care System
The Globe and Mail examines the sustainability of Sierra Leone’s free health care system, writing, “The reform has been hugely successful and the death rate has dropped sharply. … [But t]he country’s hospitals are overwhelmed with new patients, the drug supply can’t keep up, the medical staff are overloaded, and it’s unclear if the $36-million program would survive without foreign donations.” According to the newspaper, “The principle of free health care is a sharp break from earlier ideology” that supported “‘cost recovery’ — a system of user fees in hospitals” — which leaders thought “would generate money to fix their badly underfunded health systems.” However, the user fees “were widely criticized, they failed to solve the funding problems, and they created a new barrier to health care” for many without the means to pay, the Globe and Mail writes.
“At least 10 African countries have now moved to some form of free health care in recent years, and others are introducing low-priced insurance schemes. Some, such as Burundi, have reported an impressive rise in the number of hospital births after eliminating fees. The most spectacular results have been in Sierra Leone, where the challenges were steepest,” the newspaper continues. “Health experts are hoping that Sierra Leone could be a model for solving the global crisis in maternal and child health,” the Globe and Mail notes, adding, “But now the country must battle to keep the new system afloat” (York, 5/9). The Globe and Mail also features a gallery of photographs taken inside Sierra Leone’s largest maternal hospital (Power, 5/9).
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Deprivation in Glasgow, 2014
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is the main source for measuring relative deprivation in Scotland. In the graph below the latest SIMD revision (SIMD 2012) has been applied to population estimates for 2014.
Click on graph to expand
Over 197,000 Glaswegians (33% of the city’s population) reside in the 10% of most deprived areas in Scotland. Almost half of Glasgow’s residents - 287,000 people - reside in the 20% of most deprived areas in Scotland. In contrast, just less than 21,000 people (less than 4% of the population) live in 10% of least deprived areas in Scotland. Despite these stark figures, the level of relative deprivation in Glasgow has reduced over recent years.
Beyond the official statistics, there is an independent blog that provides a more detailed explanation of deprivation trends in Glasgow.
Notes on data
SIMD – Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation provides a relative measure of deprivation based on indicators from 7 domains – income, employment, health, education, access, housing and crime. The index identifies multiple deprivation for 6505 small areas (datazones) across Scotland. There have been four versions of SIMD to date. The initial index of 2004 (SIMD 2004) has been revised three times in 2006 (SIMD 2006), 2009 (SIMD 2009) and 2012 (SIMD 2012). For more information go to the SIMD site.
Deprivation deciles - the term ‘deprivation decile’ is used to represent 10% of a population with a particular level of deprivation. Thus, the most deprived decile equates to the most deprived 10% within a population, while the least deprived decile represents the 10% of a population living in the least deprived circumstances.
Datazones - Small areas of between 500 and 1000 residents used by the Scottish Government for statistical comparison. Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics and the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation provide information at data zone level. There are 6505 datazones in Scotland, 694 of which are in Glasgow.
ResourceWednesday, 2 June 2010An analysis of the reasons behind the recent decline of deprivation in Glasgow, with tend projections towards 2015.
ResourceSunday, 1 November 2009An extension of the GCPH's work profiling Glasgow's health, produced in collaboration with the International Future Forum.
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| 0.896454 | 496 | 2.921875 | 3 |
This chapter explores motivational and cognitive effects of more neutral or androgynous-looking versus more feminine-looking and masculine-looking virtual characters. A user study is presented, in which 158 students, aged 17-19, encountered four virtual characters that were visually manipulated to represent gender stereotypicality versus androgyny. On the one hand we explored students’ attitudes towards the different characters as seen in how they ranked them as preferred presenters and articulated their arguments for doing so. On the other hand we looked for patterns as to which character(s) influenced female and male students most positively with respect to their attitude towards a university level computer engineering programme. Results from the study are presented and discussed. We conclude by pointing towards future research and potential within the area.
A long-standing issue in higher education in engineering and other technical fields has been that of recruitment and retention of female students. The arguments for this are many, and here we will restrict our interest to recruitment with the support of virtual coaches. Baylor and collaborators demonstrated (Baylor & Plant, 2005; Baylor, Rosenberg-Kima, & Plant, 2006) that the use of virtual coaches portrayed as young and attractive females can increase the willingness of female students to chose technically oriented courses and help increase their belief in their own ability in technical domains. Processes of role modelling and identification (cf. Bandura, 1977, 2000) seem to be involved. The female students could more easily match these coaches with their personal identity compared to a virtual coach portrayed as a “typical male engineer” (see Figure 1).
Example of two alternative engineering coaches (young, attractive female versus “typical” male engineer) in Baylor et al. (2006). (© 2006, State University of Florida. Used with permission.)
When the results of Baylor and collaborators are analysed in detail it appears, however, that the increase in their belief in their own abilities partly stems from a conception of a “female, feminine, young and attractive” engineer as less competent than a “real, typical male engineer”. The prejudice that females, and in particular females with a strongly feminine appearance, are less competent in technical domains seems to spill over to the virtual area, generating increased self-efficacy of the kind ‘If she is able to do it, I can do it!’.
Now, this implies a potential conflict between a short-term pedagogical goal of recruitment and boosted self-efficacy in female students, and a long-term pedagogical goal of changing rather than reproducing gender prejudices and stereotypes. Attempting to avoid this conflict, the present study explores motivational and cognitive effects of more neutral- or androgynous-looking virtual characters versus more typically feminine-looking and masculine-looking ones – in a recruitment context. A multimedia presentation was developed, featuring four different virtual presenters of a university programme in computer engineering. The characters (presenters) were visually manipulated – and pre-validated during the design process – to represent a young feminine woman, a more androgynous young woman, a more androgynous young man, and a young masculine man. (The characters are depicted and described in detail later in the article.)
Participants encountered one of the four characters in the role as presenter (see Figure 2) and were afterwards asked whether and how the presentation had affected their attitude towards the computer engineering programme as well as what they thought of the presenter. Finally they were presented with all four characters and asked to rank them in terms of which one they themselves would prefer as the presenter of the computer engineering programme, and to motivate their ranking.
Screenshot from the multimedia presentation with the “more androgynous young woman” presenting the programme in computer engineering at Lund University. (© 2007, Magnus Haake. Used with permission.)
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The right of child victims of armed conflict to reintegration and recovery
Robinson, J A
MetadataShow full item record
Article 39 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for the right to recovery and reintegration of child victims of armed conflict. In this publication an explanation is tendered of when children are considered to be victims of armed conflict. Specific reference is made to the question of whether or not a former child soldier may be viewed as such a child victim. In addition the question is addressed of how a monist or dualist approach in terms of which treaty law is incorporated into municipal law influences the rights of child victims in terms of article 39 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child. Thirdly, article 39 is discussed against the background of the international human rights instrument, the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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| 0.929597 | 173 | 2.703125 | 3 |
The Lord said to Oliver Cowdery, “Therefore be diligent; stand by my servant Joseph, faithfully, in whatsoever difficult circumstances he may be for the word’s sake” (D&C 6:18).
What did the phrase “stand by my servant Joseph” mean to Oliver, and what should it mean to us?
Even before the Church was organized, it became clear that Joseph Smith was no ordinary young man. Although born into modest means and circumstances, he was quickly identified as someone special. The First Vision was an unexpected occurrence that not only changed his life forever but also changed the history of the world. His initial interview with the angel Moroni, occurring while he was just 17 years old, taught him that his life and work would not be usual by any measure.
“He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people” (Joseph Smith—History 1:33).
That is an amazing prophecy for any 17-year-old. Think of the statistical improbability of the assertion that his “name should be had for good and evil” around the world. Yet the name Joseph Smith is becoming widely known among virtually all of the nations of the earth.
For those who have heard of Joseph, their knowledge and understanding are usually incomplete in important ways. The Church and its leaders, missionaries, and other representatives are doing much to improve what the world knows and understands of Joseph Smith. All of us will have parts to play, and our roles will be important.
The understanding people have of Joseph occurs at different levels. As I mention a few, mentally note where you stand and which level best describes you.
Recognition: Increasingly, people recognize the name Joseph Smith and are able to relate him to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Book of Mormon, and other basics of our faith. Some know enough, or believe they know enough, to have developed opinions about him—positive or negative. Most people throughout the world who have heard of Joseph Smith fit into this category and are not exercised about him sufficiently to try to learn more.
Appreciation: Of those who recognize the Prophet Joseph Smith by name, some know that he accomplished things that have made a difference. They know he organized a church and movement that has grown dramatically and has influenced many lives. Although they may not believe in his work or admire his contributions, they acknowledge that the world is different because of his life and efforts.
Admiration: Many who appreciate that Joseph made a difference also admire many of his accomplishments and contributions. Although still not necessarily subscribing to his teachings or his mission, they admire what he did in Kirtland, Ohio; Missouri; and Nauvoo, Illinois. They admire his ability to enlist a following and to inspire people to sacrifice greatly for the cause he espoused. Again, not all who admire his accomplishments necessarily endorse his positions.
Testimony: A subset of those who recognize, appreciate, and admire Joseph are those who have a testimony of the truthfulness of his mission, teachings, and accounts of encounters with heavenly beings. They have no reservations about him or the doctrines he revealed, but they may not have fully internalized what this should mean to them.
Loyalty: To those who have a testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his unique and special mission, I frame this question: What does it mean to “stand by my servant Joseph”? It means more than just recognition, appreciation, admiration, and testimony. The counsel given to Oliver Cowdery to faithfully stand by Joseph illustrates what I mean. To Oliver’s great credit, he never denied his testimony of the events and experiences he had with the Prophet. Unfortunately, he did not live up to what the Lord required of him, and he lost his place (see D&C 124:95).
The one called to replace Oliver and enjoy the privileges, responsibilities, and destiny with the Prophet Joseph was his brother Hyrum. Even before the Church was organized, Hyrum knew the truthfulness of what Joseph was teaching and reporting. He wanted to do his part and hoped and pled to be called as a missionary. The Lord, in answering Hyrum’s entreaty, said, “Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word” (D&C 11:21).
To Hyrum’s everlasting credit, despite his disappointment at not being called as a missionary at that time, he stood by Joseph and received the blessings God reserves for those loyal to Him. These blessings included, less than a year later, the exact opportunity Hyrum had sought (see D&C 23:3).
Another who stood by Joseph was Brigham Young. “Of the Twelve Apostles chosen in Kirtland,” the Prophet said, “… there have been but two but what have lifted their heel against me—namely Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball.”1 Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball were the only two members of the Twelve at that time who had never opposed Joseph.
Grateful we are that others besides Hyrum, Brigham, and Heber stood by Joseph even when it might have seemed folly to do so. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, replacements for the Twelve and other key leadership responsibilities were later selected from this group of faithful friends to Joseph.
John Taylor, who would follow Brigham Young as Joseph’s successor, was stalwart from the time of his baptism in 1836. During the dark days in Kirtland, he attended a meeting where Joseph Smith, not in attendance, was severely criticized by apostates who once had been Joseph’s friends and associates. Elder Taylor courageously offered this defense:
“It was Joseph Smith, under the Almighty, who developed the first principles, and to him we must look for further instructions. If the spirit which he manifests does not bring blessings, I am very much afraid that the one manifested by those who have spoken, will not be very likely to secure them. The children of Israel, formerly, after seeing the power of God manifested in their midst, fell into rebellion and idolatry, and there is certainly very great danger of us doing the same thing.”2
John Taylor saw what had happened to his colleagues and recognized the attendant spiritual risks they faced. I submit that the danger to us as well is both great and real should we also fail to stand by Joseph.
Another who stood steadfast in the chilling wind of a contagious apostasy was Wilford Woodruff. He, like John Taylor, was called to replace one who had fallen, and he later succeeded President Taylor as President of the Church. In discussing these matters and the instruction given to him at the time of his call to the Twelve, he said:
“Brother Joseph laid before us the cause of those men turning away from the commandments of God. He hoped we would learn wisdom by what we saw with the eye and heard with the ear, and that we would be able to discern the spirits of other men without being compelled to learn by sad experience.
“He then remarked that any man … who pursued a course whereby he would ignore or, in other words, refuse to obey any known law or commandment or duty—whenever a man did this, neglected any duty God required at his hand in attending meetings, filling missions, or obeying counsel, he laid a foundation to lead him to apostasy and this was the reason those men had fallen.”3
On another occasion, President Woodruff bore this testimony of Joseph, which was consistent throughout his life:
“It has been my faith and belief from the time that I was made acquainted with the gospel that no greater prophet than Joseph Smith ever lived on the face of the earth save Jesus Christ. [Joseph Smith] was raised up to stand at the head of this great dispensation—the greatest of all dispensations God has ever given to man.”4
This testimony is beautiful and clear, but what is even more impressive and helpful is the steady and stalwart behavior Wilford Woodruff demonstrated in clearly and consistently standing by Joseph Smith.
A Conviction of the Prophet
What does it mean to us to stand by Joseph? We do not have a doctrine of infallibility. Joseph himself was quick to admit his own shortcomings, but he was a good and stable boy and man. In describing his situation and personal errors, he said: “No one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature” (Joseph Smith—History 1:28). His openness on these matters was lifelong, and shortly before his death he said, “I never told you I was perfect; but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught.”5
Our testimonies are vital but not sufficient by themselves. The Bible reminds us that even the devils believe in Jesus Christ (see James 2:19). Our love and respect for Joseph Smith are important, but if they are not incorporated into our lives internally and consistently, we cannot stand by Joseph. We may not have the same experiences Oliver Cowdery and others had with Joseph Smith, but we can expect to have the same convictions—and to demonstrate them in the same way Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and countless others have since the Restoration of the gospel.
Such conviction comes to us by study, by faith, and by always acting appropriately—and it is hard work. Those whom I have named, as well as legions of others, obtained this witness and internalized it through the manifestations of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is eager to confer this sustaining knowledge upon us because the testimony of Joseph’s work and mission is key and central to our testimony of the knowledge that is most important of all: that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, the literal living Son of our living Heavenly Father.
How grateful we are to Joseph for his worthiness to witness what he did for us. How grateful we should be that we are allowed to stand by Joseph with our own actions and testimonies of the Father and the Son.
I return to the counsel of the Lord to Oliver Cowdery: “Therefore be diligent; stand by my servant Joseph, faithfully, in whatsoever difficult circumstances he may be for the word’s sake” (D&C 6:18). In that context, Oliver was given additional counsel that I share to help us incorporate into our lives the necessary characteristics and determination that will allow us to always stand by Joseph: “Be patient; be sober; be temperate; have patience, faith, hope and charity” (D&C 6:19).
To these I add the necessity of the “mighty change” of heart (see Alma 5:12–14) that gives one the perspective and conviction to stand by Joseph always—to be true constantly and consistently to the principles he taught and to the Church of Jesus Christ, which the Lord restored through him.
Joseph Smith, in History of the Church, 5:412.
John Taylor, in B. H. Roberts, The Life of John Taylor (1963), 41.
Wilford Woodruff, in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 319.
Wilford Woodruff, in Deseret News Weekly, Dec. 29, 1880, 754.
Teachings: Joseph Smith, 522.
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The weather isn’t cooperating at the moment, but NASA is poised to launch its highly-anticipated Ares I-X rocket this morning. As Space.com reports, the rocket is designed both to replace the aging space shuttle and–perhaps one day–transport humans to Mars.
To commemorate the event, NASA built the booster stage from parts previously flown on 30 shuttle missions, including the one that launched the Hubble Space Telescope, according to the report.
Currently, winds are a little heavy at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But NASA has until noon today to launch the rocket before rescheduling. The rocket won’t actually enter space; instead, it will follow a 28-mile-high, five minute flight profile while over 700 sensors record its performance, according to the report. (Image credit: NASA)
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Last week, Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said he wants Brisbane to put in a bid for the 2028 Olympic Games. Any bid would be costly and would need the backing of all the councils in South East Queensland and support from both State and federal governments. The bid alone could cost up to A$100 million, and that's before the Games are even awarded. So, before any money is spent, we might want to ask why Brisbane would want the Olympic Games anyway.
There are strong economic arguments to suggest hosting the Olympics could be a good thing. The economic impact would certainly be significant. The London Olympics claims to have brought in 800,000 overseas visitors with an economic impact of £890 million. They also argue it created around 70,000 permanent and temporary jobs.
The global media coverage of mega-events (such as the Olympics or Commonwealth Games) is also an important factor, resulting in more visitors travelling to the city after the event, as the figures from the UK suggest.
Mega events are also a great way to showcase the host city on social media. During the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the city was mentioned over a million times on social media. This publicity would be hard to come by any other way.
The Olympic Games could also be a catalyst for improved transport links and sporting infrastructure throughout South East Queensland, similar to those improvements currently being made on the Gold Coast in advance of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. These include the new Gold Coast tram network, the Commonwealth swimming complex and road improvements around the new athletes village.
Money well spent?
However, let's look at this more carefully. According to The Guardian, underestimating Olympic costs has almost become an Olympic sport in itself.
The budget for the Winter Olympics held in Sochi in early 2014 was around US$10 billion, but the Games eventually cost around US$51 billion. This makes it the most expensive Olympics ever. It is likely that hosting the Games in Australia would cost considerably less, as much of the basic infrastructure is already in place. But could Brisbane, or even Australia, contemplate a cost of this order of magnitude?
And what about the opportunity costs? Shouldn't the State and federal governments be spending taxpayer money on domestic priorities, such as health and education, rather than on bidding for the Olympic Games? One of the strongest ground-roots anti-Olympic movements to date, the Bread not Circuses movement based in Toronto, successfully stopped a bid by Toronto to host the Olympic Games in 2008. They argued it was wrong to spend money bidding for the Olympic Games when there were public sector budget cuts and a shortage of housing. A similar popular movement in Brisbane could be equally damaging to any potential Olympic bid.
There is also a danger that publicly funded sporting infrastructure may become a "white elephant" - following the Olympics in Athens, many of the purpose-built venues now lie empty, unused and decaying. Of course, presumably some of the new Gold Coast facilities, created for the Commonwealth Games in 2018, would form part of any Olympics Bid. This would certainly allay fears of these facilities becoming white elephants, at least in the short term. But this is a long-term game.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of a Brisbane Olympic Games would not be the temporary economic boost from visitors, or the global showcasing opportunity, but rather the opportunity to create a better and more liveable South East Queensland for the people who live there. This is the legacy of a successful mega-event. But this is also problematic in the case of Brisbane.
Mega events have often been the catalyst for redeveloping deprived inner-city areas. Hosting such events has also spurred on improvements in transport and infrastructure for disadvantaged or marginalised sections of the population. This urban regeneration formed a key part of the London Olympic bid. But, South East Queensland does not have the large areas of urban wastelands that were to be found in other Victorian cities, such as London and Glasgow. In fact, Brisbane prides itself on being a "new world city".
Other Olympic host cities, such as Rio de Janiero in Brazil,have used the opportunity offered by the Olympics to address long-standing poverty and disadvantage, with some degree of success. But South-East Queensland arguably does not need to stage an Olympic Games to address these issues.
So what can the Olympics offer Brisbane in the long term? Any worthwhile legacy must be planned - it doesn't happen by itself. If planned well, the long term benefits for local residents may be worth the enormous costs of bidding for and staging the Games. As yet, that remains a big "if".
* Judith Mair is a senior lecturer in event management at the University of Queensland.
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Archaeologist “Bobbie” Greenwood displays bone dagger. More than 1,000 Indian artifacts have been recovered at Diablo Canyon.
Major construction at Diablo Canyon was about a year away. Before it began a crew of archeologists worked to document the site.
Financed by PG&E, 15 to 18 people worked at various sites in the construction zone.
Roberta “Bobbie” Greenwood, research archaeologist for the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History talked to the media about the project.
Veteran reporter Elliot Curry’s lede:
“Significant evidence of Indian life along Diablo Canyon far into the pre-historic past is being uncovered in an archaeological project now nearing completion.”
If you have ever toured the area you know that it is a spectacular stretch of coastline and a logical place for a Chumash settlement.
Today there would be Native American representatives present but that was not the case in 1968.
A related story said that construction of the access road to the plant site was about to begin.
Estimates at the time had the plant opening by 1972 and the cost was pegged at $184 million. Both estimates proved to be wildly optimistic.
Future blog posts will cover the construction phase.
Nuclear power is a part of the national conversation this election year as oil prices rise to record levels.
You can calculate your carbon footprint at this PG&E link.
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Summary of the Argument Unit
You have now completed the unit on argument. You should be able to do the following:
The discourse you study is often part of a broader dispute. People are having an argument about something. What is that broader argument about? To what broader argument does this piece of discourse contribute?
What is the proposition?
Remember propositions are best stated as questions. What is at dispute in the argument2?
- What are the potential issues?
This analysis generates the issues which any prudent speaker thinks through in regard to the claim.
- From stock issues
- From rhetorical situation
- From your analysis of the proposition
- What are the actual issues for this audience?
Depends on your audience analysis. Identifies what issues a prudent speaker selects to make a part of his/her presentation.
- What is the speaker's thesis? The thesis captures the speaker's position on the proposition.
- What reasons does the speaker give for your accepting his/her thesis? Many reasons will be presented, each supporting a position on an issue, and presented as several individual argument1s.
- Evaluate: How thoroughly do the speaker's claims address the actual issues?
Analyze an Argument1
Identify claim and support. It all begins with being able to differentiate claim and support.
- Evaluate the warranting of the claim. You now have multiple ways of doing so:
- Using Toulmin. The Toulmin method fundamentally asks whether the support warrants the claim. You must have command of the warranting relationship between support and claim.
- Does the speaker offer support for the claim?
- Does the support warrant the claim for you? Why or why not? This is the logical analysis.
- Is the support likely to warrant the claim for the audience? Why or why not?
Rooted in your audience analysis.
- Using Fallacies. Using fallacies depends on your being able to recognize the fallacies when they occur in arguments.
- By analyzing the evidence . The heart of this method is your memorizing the argument types and the tests. You must be able to recognize the argument types and the types of evidence presented by the speaker.
- Identify the source of the credibility of the evidence
- Apply the general tests
- Identify the type(s) of support for the claim
- Apply the specific tests for that type(s)
- With what strategies might the speaker have improved the argument?
To do these things you need to
- Master the vocabulary such as argument1, argument2, claim, support, issues, etc.
- Master the systems of vocabulary such as the tests of stories or the stock issues for claims of action
- Be able to deploy the vocabulary and the systems to do the evaluations that are at the heart of what this unit is about.
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view a plan
An interesting lesson for creating Phone Number Melodies
Title – Phone Number Melodies
By – jDarla
Subject – Music
Grade Level – 4th
I use this in the Melody Unit, once children realize that melodies move up or down by step or leap or stay the same.
It is the first day of composing our own melodies.
1. I make a chart on the board of a C scale. I assign low “C” number “1”, “D” is number “2” and so on until high “C” is “8”. I put my phone number on the board, explaining that it has some “nines” in it, so we will double up the LOW C with “9” and the HIGH C with “0”. Underneath my phone number, I put the names of the notes that correspond.
2. Using a xylophone or metalophone, I demonstrate what my phone number melody sounds like. After repeated playings, we always decide it would sound better if it ended differently. We edit the ending and “Voila! A Melody is Born!”
3. Small group of three or four students, armed with paper, pencil and xylophone. They each write out their phone numbers as I had modeled and practice playing them until they are memorized.
4. We take turns playing for the class and analyzing the musicality of the melody. Sometimes we edit to make the melody sound better.
In an extended lesson, I make phrases out of the most tuneful ones and hook a few together to teach FORM. Add some ostinati or percussion instruments to accompany. There’s a lot to be made out of this creative composition beginning!
E-Mail jDarla !
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This is my second blog today. The only reason I'm blogging a second time today is because of what day it is:
65 years ago today, in Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, NY, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American baseball player to ever play the sport professionally. He broke the color barrier for baseball, and since then, African-Americans have flourished in the MLB. But today, I wanted to talk about the person who started it all:
Jackie Robinson, from 1947-1956, prospered for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He had a lifetime batting average of .311, and helped the Dodgers win a World Series in 1955. He also won the MVP Award in 1949. Jackie may not have been treated so nicely because of the color of his skin, but he made an impact on baseball and the world.
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Development Account Projects
Strengthening the capacity of national governments to promote the social inclusion of youth in a context of increasing violence and insecurity, through innovative and evidence-based policies and programmes
All young people aspire to fully participate in social life. Young people represent agents, beneficiaries and victims of major societal changes and are generally confronted by a paradox: to seek integration into an existing order or to serve as a force to transform that order. Youth inclusion is thus one of the challenges that societies in Latin America and the Caribbean are experiencing, and one of the key aspects needed to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other Internationally Agreed Development Goals (IADGs). Social inclusion of youth means reducing their poverty levels through productive employment and decent work (MDG1), promoting gender equality and the empowerment of young women (MDG3), fostering access to reproductive health and improving maternal health (MDG5), as well as reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among this age group (MDG6).
To promote the social inclusion of youth, the countries of the region must develop comprehensive approaches that combine the dimensions of risk, capabilities, opportunities, belonging and values systems and social participation. Human security –understood as the context under which people can make their choices safely and freely while being relatively confident that the opportunities they have today are not lost tomorrow– must also be considered, as there are few aspects more important for development than security from violence.
Effective youth inclusion must combine the recognition of human rights and the appropriation and exercise of such rights by young people. Several efforts have indeed been undertaken to ensure youth inclusion in the region in the last decades. Nevertheless, the changing socio-economic and political context –which includes increasing youth unemployment and violent environments– has made more difficult to achieve youth inclusion in many countries.
All Latin American and Caribbean countries have a National Youth Institute or other governmental body specifically devoted to the development of public policies for youth, that are identified as the main potential promoters of youth social inclusion if having enough capacity and authority for policy coordination with other governmental ministers or bodies. These institutions, however, often lack appropriate funding or the necessary human resources to sustain effective youth development policies and programmes and to develop the referred policy coordination. Through the course of the years, ECLAC has provided much technical assistance and set up long-standing relations with these bodies, often in collaboration with OIJ (Iberoamerican Youth Organization), in order to strengthen their capacities.
Furthermore, ECLAC has disseminated knowledge through its RISALC (Network of Social Institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean) online website, which has a specific portal on youth issues, providing comprehensive access to statistical and policy information on youth in the region. ECLAC has also produced several ground-breaking reports on youth development issues. These include the 2008 ECLAC/OIJ report titled “Youth and social cohesion in Iberoamerica” (launched as main technical document in the Iberoamerican Presidents Summit 2008), as well as the 2011 ECLAC/UNFPA report that will be launched during first semester 2012.
With the support of OIJ, ECLAC has been developing an on-line system of indicators to monitor social and economic situation of youth in all Iberoamerican countries. This instrument, supported by further virtual updating and training-in-use will allow policy-makers, researchers, journalists, youth leaders and other audience to download and consult all specific, relevant and updated information in the most diverse and disaggregated subjects and countries.
More recently, through its contest on social innovation financed by the Kellogg Foundation, ECLAC has been able to collect information and evaluate more than 500 youth development projects and programmes throughout the region (mainly locally grass-rooted but gaining broader success and replicability). Many of these projects and programmes have been awarded as good practices and their systematization may feed and enrich youth oriented public policy.
These initiatives constitute a strong basis on which ECLAC can build a comprehensive project to strengthen the capacity of national governments, and in particular of National Youth Institutes. Capacity building will be provided in the processing and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data on youth issues, and knowledge dissemination will be improved through the use of online tools, as well as by the organization of workshops and seminars. Particular efforts will be made to reach out to Caribbean countries, as demonstrated by inclusion of a section on youth development issues in the sub-region in the 2011 edition of ECLAC’s Social Panorama of Latin America, as well as Central American countries.
The necessity to reinforce these initiatives is more important than ever, due to an increasing context of violence associated with crime, which is a common problem of Latin American societies, and an increased priority of Central American governments, as this subregion has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Apart from the high economic costs that violence levels produce in these countries, they have a negative impact on peoples´ wellbeing, particularly on young people. This population group is overrepresented among both victims and perpetrators of crime and violence. Young people are those most at risk due to their more likely participation in violent activities like street crime, gang membership, drug consumption, possession of weapons, street fighting, etc. Recent data indicate that the problems associated with this situation deserve a prominent place on the agenda of governments in Central America.
As many of the challenges of youth inclusion described above share common threads with developing countries from other regions of the world, efforts will be undertaken to reach out and link this project with similar initiatives by other Regional Commissions and other UN entities.
To promote public policies for youth development and the achievement of MDGs/IADGs in Latin America and the Caribbean, incorporating the consideration of social inclusion, human security and violence prevention
- To strengthen the capacity of governments to assess and design inclusive youth development policies
- To promote the exchange of experiences and good practices regarding innovative youth development policies and programmes, with a particular focus on social inclusion and the achievement of MDGs/IADGs
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, B cells are "white blood cells that help the body defend itself against infection. These cells are produced in bone marrow and develop into plasma cells that produce antibodies. B cells are also known as B lymphocytes.
A B cell produces a range of antibodies that are displayed on its cell surface. When the cell takes up a pathogen or foreign antigens by endocytosis, these select which antibody the cell will produce and stimulate it to secrete these proteins into the blood. This process is called "B cell activation".
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Do you feel unsteady? Or does the room feel like its “spinning” around you? Or perhaps you feel like you’re moving when you know you’re not? You might be experiencing vertigo as a result of a balance disorders.
Your symptoms of vertigo might be hard to describe. You might find yourself saying things like “dizzy,” “woozy,” or “lightheaded” to describe what you are feeling. Perhaps this difficult to describe feeling happens only brief, or lasts a long time.
Other descriptions of vertigo might sound something like:
- feel disoriented
- feel “lightheaded”
- feel like you’re falling
- loss of balance and fall
- vision becomes blurred
- feel like you might faint
- losing sense of time, place, identity
Vertigo, dizziness, room spinning and lightheadedness cause a loss of balance. Some causes of vertigo have the potential to be resolved.
Balance disorders are very serious for the elderly because they have a real potential to cause falls. For this reason alone, it is important to have your vertigo diagnosed and treated as soon as possible.
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Marriage Not Enough to Guarantee Economic Security
Publication Date: October 2005
Recent public policy initiatives have encouraged low-income parents to marry as a way to become economically stable. But, the data tell a more complex story. Marriage does not guarantee economic security. Not only do the majority of children in single-parent families have parents who were previously married, more than one in four children with married parents is low income.
Even when married, some demographic groups are particularly likely to be low income, which is defined as earning less than twice the poverty level—the minimum necessary to meet families’ most basic needs 1. Among Latinos, more than half of children with married parents are low income 2. In rural and suburban areas, the majority of low-income children have married parents. Despite high levels of employment, many married parents remain low income. Among children with low-income married parents, a full 95 percent have at least one parent who is employed, and 41 percent have two employed parents 3.
More than One in Four Children with Married Parents Is Low Income
Figure 1: Percent of children with married parents who are low income or poor
Although children with single parents are more likely to be low income (66 percent), more than one in four children living with married parents 4 is low income, and almost one in 10 is poor. The percent of children with married parents who are low income and poor declined until 2000, but has since risen (see Figure 1).
Divorce Main Reason for Single Parenthood
Most children (58 percent) in single-parent families have parents who were previously married 5, and this percentage has remained fairly stable for much of the last decade. Among children living in single-parent families, the percent with never-married parents rose from 36 percent in 1993 to 41 percent in 1996, but since then has remained fairly constant. This mirrors national nonmarital birth rates, which rose until the mid-1990s and then leveled off 6.
Economic Insecurity Common Among Some Married-Parent Families
Figure 2: Percent of children who are low income, by race/ethnicity, 2003
Within some demographic groups, children of married parents are at particularly high risk of low income. More than half (56 percent) of Latino children with married parents are low income—a much higher percentage than other racial and ethnic groups (see Figure 2). This is due, in large part, to the proportion of Latino parents who are recent immigrants. Recent immigrants tend to have low incomes, regardless of employment status or family structure 7.
Figure 3: Percent of low-income children living with married parents, by residential area, 2003
In suburban and rural areas, the majority of low-income children live with married parents. Only in urban areas do most low-income children live with single parents (see Figure 3).
Employment Levels Very High
Figure 4: Parental employment among children of low-income, married parents, 2003
Ninety-five percent of children with low-income, married parents have at least one employed parent, and 73 percent have at least one parent who is employed full-time, year-round 8. Close to half (41 percent) of children with low-income, married parents have two working parents.
Figure 5: Percent of children with married parents who are low income or poor
Children with employed, low-income, married parents may experience more economic insecurity than children with higher-income, married parents because of the types of jobs their parents hold. These parents are more than twice as likely as higher-income, married parents (26 percent versus 11 percent) to hold jobs in the service industry 9, which tend to be lower paid and less likely to offer benefits, such as health insurance or paid vacation time, than jobs in other industries 10.
Figure 6: Reasons for unemployment among married parents, 2003
The primary reasons for unemployment among the few married parents who are not working are illness and disability (36 percent), followed by caring for family (32 percent) 11. (See Figure 5.)
Children with low-income, married parents have parents with lower educational attainment than those with higher-earning parents. Fewer than half (45 percent) of children with low-income, married parents have a parent with at least some college education, compared to 82 percent of children in higher-income, married parent families (see Figure 6). Not only are parents with higher educational attainment more likely to have children who obtain more education themselves, higher education is one of the strongest predictors of securing a high paying, stable job 12.
More Residential Instability
Children with low-income, married parents experience greater residential instability than do children with higher-earning, married parents. Moving frequently is associated with family turbulence and difficulties in school 13. Children with low-income, married parents are almost 80 percent more likely than children of higher-income, married parents to have moved in the previous year (16 percent versus 9 percent).
Similarly, children with low-income married parents are about 60 percent less likely to live in owner-occupied homes compared to children with higher-income, married parents (55 percent versus 88 percent). Homeownership gives a measure of economic security to families by providing a means to build wealth, an asset during economic crisis, and tax breaks not available to renters.
Public Health Insurance and Food Stamp Use Rising
Figure 7: Public benefits utilization among children of low-income, married parents
Close to half of children with low-income, married parents receive public health insurance 14. Public health insurance coverage has risen dramatically among children with low-income, married parents, rising from just over 30 percent in 2000 to almost 45 percent in 2003 15. This timing coincides with decreasing availability of employer-based coverage 16. In the late 1990s, SCHIP expanded and states eased Medicaid eligibility requirements for married-parent families, suggesting that these programs are filling an important and growing need of families headed by married parents. Receipt of food stamps and TANF dropped sharply in the 1990s among these families, likely because of the expanding economy and welfare reform (see Figure 7). However, since 2000, the use of food stamps has begun to rise.
Given that more than one in four children with married parents is low income and that almost 60 percent of children in single-parent families have previously married parents, promoting marriage alone will not eliminate economic insecurity among America’s families. The majority of low-income, married-parent families include at least one parent who is employed full-time, year-round and almost half (41 percent) include two employed parents. Since low-income parents are more likely to have low-paying service jobs, increasing the minimum wage will increase earnings. Programs that increase working families’ incomes, such as the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, further boost wages to help parents support their families through employment. Low-income parents’ job opportunities may be limited by their lower education levels. Reversing the recent trend toward tax subsidies for education, which favor higher-income families, over traditional subsidized loans and grants 17 could make education more accessible to low-income families.
Because illness and disability are the most common reasons for lack of employment among low-income, married parents, safety nets, such as Social Security Disability Insurance 18, disability protection for individuals who qualify through the Social Security system, and Supplemental Security Income, a means-tested disability program, remain an important source of support for families with disabled parents.
In recent years, the percent of children covered by their parents’ employer-based health insurance has fallen. The sharp increase in receipt of public health insurance suggests that increasing access to Medicaid and SCHIP filled an important and growing need of low-income families headed by married parents. States can continue to ensure that more children of low-income, married parents receive the supports they need by easing the Medicaid eligibility requirements for married parents to match the requirements for single-parent families 19.
In sum, policymakers should not assume that the financial and health insurance needs of children will be met simply because their parents are married.
1. Bernstein, J.; Brocht, C.; & Spade-Aguilar, M. (2000). How much is enough? Basic family budgets for working families. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. The poverty level in 2005 for a family of four is $19,350.
3. This includes all married parents who worked full-time or part-time. Thirty-five percent of low-income married couples include two employed parents with at least one parent employed full-time, year-round; 8 percent include two parents, both employed part-time/part-year.
7. Douglas-Hall, A. & Koball, H. (2004). Children of recent immigrants: National and regional trends. New York, NY: National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
8. Parental employment is the employment level of the parent in the household who maintained the highest level of employment in the previous year. Full-time/year-round is defined as working at least 50 weeks and 35 hours per week for the majority of those weeks. Part-time is defined as working less than 35 hours per week for the majority of weeks worked. Full-time, part-year is defined as working fewer than 50 weeks and working full-time in the majority of weeks worked.
9. This figure includes all parents who reported any work in the previous year. The estimate is based on different calculations than those used in previous NCCP publications and should not be compared with those estimates.
11. This estimate includes both parents in families in which neither parent was employed. The estimate is based on a different calculation than used in previous NCCP publications and should not be compared.
13. Pribesh, S. & Downey, D. B. (1999). Why are residential and school moves associated with poor school performance. Demography, 36(4), pp. 521-534. Stoneman, Z.; Brody, G. H.; Churchill, S.; & Winn, L. (1999). Effects of residential instability on Head Start children and their relationship with older siblings. Child Development, 70(5). pp. 1246-62.
14. Rates of receipt of public benefits derived from survey data are not comparable to those derived from administrative data (e.g., the figures reported in NCCP’s 50-State Policy Database).
15. Beginning in the 2001 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the U.S. Current Population Survey, which collected data for 2000, new questions on SCHIP were added which more accurately measured health insurance coverage. Comparisons to coverage rates prior to 2000 may not be accurate.
16. DeNavas-Walt, C.; Proctor, B.; & Mills, R. J. (2004). Income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States: 2003. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau <www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/p60-226.pdf> See also, Historical Health Insurance Tables <www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/historic/hihistt3.html>
18. Cauthen, N. (2005). Whose security? What social security means to children and families. New York, NY: National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
19. See the 50-State Policy Database for information about two-parent families’ Medicaid eligibility requirements.
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The National Cancer Institute has awarded, in total, $19.3 million to a group of researchers to explore racial disparities in breast cancer in the U.S.
And this funding is urgently needed: African-American women are less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, we are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer at a younger age and at a later stage, and have more aggressive features associated with poor prognosis. As to why this is the case remains a mystery to researchers.
This project is a collaborative effort between many researchers from around the U.S., which include four studies: The Women’s Circle of Health Study, the Carolina Breast Cancer Study, the Black Women’s Health Study and the Multiethnic Cohort Study. In total, these studies will examine 5,500 women with breast cancer and 5,500 women without cancer — the largest study to date on this type of research.
Clickhere to read the rest of the story.
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Asthma Treatment: Steroids and Other Anti-Inflammatory Drugs
What Are the Side Effects of Inhaled Steroids? continued...
Inhaled steroids (asthma inhalers) are safe for adults and children. Side effects with these anti-inflammatory asthma inhalers are minimal. Your doctor will prescribe the lowest dose that effectively controls your child's or your asthma.
On a side note, many parents are concerned about giving their children "steroids." The inhaled steroids are not the same as anabolic steroids that some athletes take to build muscle. These steroids are anti-inflammatory drugs, the cornerstone of asthma therapy. There are many benefits of using anti-inflammatory asthma inhalers to manage asthma.
To learn more about using inhaled steroids in children, see WebMD's article on Childhood Asthma.
What Are the Benefits of Using Inhaled Steroids?
The benefits of inhaled steroids for better asthma control far exceed their risks, and include:
Reduced frequency of asthma attacks
Decreased use of beta-agonist bronchodilators (quick relief or rescue inhalers)
Improved lung function
Reduced emergency room visits and hospitalizations for life-threatening asthma
How Do Prednisone and Systemic Steroids Work to Increase Asthma Control?
Using systemic steroids (steroids taken by mouth or by injection that can affect the entire body) such as
, prednisolone, and methylprednisolone helps to treat severe asthma episodes, allowing people to gain better asthma control. Prednisone and other steroid drugs may be used to help control sudden and severe asthma attacks or in rare cases to treat long-term, hard-to-control asthma.
Most often, prednisone or another steroid is taken in high doses for a few days (called a steroid burst) for more a severe asthma attack.
Side effects of systemic steroids can include weakness,
weight gain , mood or behavior changes, upset stomach, bone loss, eye changes, and slowing of growth. These side effects rarely occur with short-term use, such as for an acute asthma attack.
For in-depth information, see WebMD's article on
Prednisone and Asthma
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Using If/Else on a data frame
I have a data set which looks something like
I now want to create a new variable within this data frame. If the column "data" reports a number of 2 or more, I want it to have "2" in that row, and if there is a 1 or 0 (e.g. the first two observations), I want the new variable to have a "1" for that observation.
I am trying to do this using the following code:
However if I run these 3 lines of script, every observation in the column "twohouses" is coded with a 2. However a number of them should be coded with a 1.
So my question: what am I doing wrong with my if else line or script? Or is there an alternative way to do this.
My question is similar to this one:
Using ifelse on factor in R
but no one has answered that question.
Many thanks in advance!
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INDIANAPOLIS-With weather forecasts calling for extreme heat in Indiana this week, state health officials are offering hot weather tips to cope with the rising temperatures.
"We are in for a very hot time this month and it's very important that people take these heat advisories seriously," said State Health Commissioner Gregory N. Larkin, M.D. "I do encourage all Hoosiers to be extremely careful and to take all precautions necessary to protect themselves during these hot summer days."
To avoid heat related health problems, the Indiana State Department of Health recommends the following:
· Drink plenty of cool water.
· Avoid prolonged exposure to high temperature.
· Attempt to get in air conditioning, even for brief periods. If you do not have air conditioning, move to a location that is air-conditioned.
· Fans are a source of relief when there is low humidity.
· Cool down with cool baths or showers.
· Wear loose-fitting, light colored clothing.
· Slow down from your normal pace.
· Avoid alcohol.
· Draw shades, blinds and curtains in rooms exposed to direct sunlight.
When temperatures reach 90 degrees (Fahrenheit) or greater, health officials caution that overexposure to the heat can be a concern. Young children and the elderly are at greater risk for such heat-related illnesses as heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Children and pets should never be left in parked cars, even with windows cracked open.
Heat cramps are muscular pains in the abdomen, legs, and arms that occur from strenuous activity and increased sweating. Heat exhaustion can develop after several days of high temperatures and low fluid intake. Heat stroke, also known as sunstroke or hyperthermia, is a life-threatening situation in which the body is unable to regulate its temperature and cannot cool itself down.
« Back to News Release List
Link to this event:
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The CRCgene database, which gathers all genetic association studies on colorectal cancer, allows for researchers to accurately interpret the risk factors of the disease and provides insight into the direction of further colorectal cancer research, according to a study published September 27 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Approximately 950,000 new cases of colorectal cancer are diagnosed each year. The risk of developing the disease also increases with age, and as life expectancy rises, the incidence continues to grow. These factors paired with rising health care costs have made both diagnosis and treatments for the disease costly. While diet and lifestyle may affect colorectal cancer incidence, so may genetic factors, and it is important to determine which genetic factors are most heavily associated with colorectal cancer incidence.
In order to determine the genetic factors associated with colorectal cancer, Julian Little, Ph.D., of the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa and colleagues, gathered data from previously published guidelines for assessing cumulative evidence on genetic association studies, and performed meta-analyses on all the data, compiling all genetic association studies published in the field. The credibility of the studies was determined by the Venice criteria and the Bayesian False Discovery Probability (BFDP) test.
The researchers found 16 independent gene variants had the most highly credible links to colorectal cancer, with 23 variants. "The number of common, low-penetrance variants that appear to be associated with colorectal cancer is very much less than anticipated, therefore decreasing the feasibility of combining variants as a profile in a prediction tool for stratifying screening modalities on primary prevention approaches," the authors write. Still, they feel that, "the analysis here provides a resource for mining available data and puts into context the sample sizes required for the identification of true associations."
Julian Little, Ph.D., [email protected]
Evi Theodoratou, Ph.D., [email protected]
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The Murder that Changed American History
The murder of 15 year old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955 ignited the civil rights movement and changed American history.
Emmett Till grew up in a middle class neighborhood on Chicago's south side. By all accounts he was a lovable, popular, funny, bright and intelligent kid, and his mother, Mamie Till, was an accomplished and amazing woman. Mamie was only the fourth African-American to graduate from Chicago's prestigious Argo Community High School and the first black student to earn an all "A" average, earning her a place on the school's honor roll.
Emmett was stricken with polio when he was five, but he made a full recovery, and only a slight stutter remained as a mark of his illness. His mother was working twelve-hour days to make ends meet, and Emmett told his mother that if she would earn the money, he would "do everything else," and he did. Recalled his mother, "Emmett had all the house responsibility. I mean everything was really on his shoulders. Emmett cleaned, and he cooked a quite a lot. And he even took over the laundry."
In August, 1955, Emmett's great uncle Moses Wright visited from Mississippi, and he planned to take Emmett's cousin Wheeler Parker back to Mississippi. When Emmett learned of this he begged his mother to let him go as well. She was reluctant at first but everntually gave in to her son's pleading and allowed him to make the trip. Emmett boarded a train and headed south, carrying the signet ring Mamie gave him that had belonged to his father, which was engraved with his initials - L.T.
Three days after his arrival, Emmett and his cousins from Money, Mississippi entered Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market after a day of picking cotton in the brutal Mississippi sun, where he bought some bubble gum. No one will ever know exactly what transpired in the grocery store that day, but the kids with him would later report that Emmett either whistled at, flirted with, or lightly touched the hand of the owner's wife, Carolyn Bryant.
Four days after the incident at the store, on the morning of August 28, 1955, Carolyn's husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J. W. Milam, entered Moses Wright's home and kidnapped Emmett. He was taken out and brutally beaten, dragged to the banks of the Tallahatchie River, shot in the head, bound with barbed wire, whereupon his mutilated corpse was duimped into the water. When Till's body was dragged out of the river four days later it was unrecognizable. Only from his father's ring on his finger was he able to be identified.
Till's body was shipped to Chicago, where his mother decided to have an open-casket funeral. Thousands upon thousands filed past the mutilated body of the fifteen year old at the Roberts Temple Church, all witness to one of the most brutal hate crimes in American history. Although it caused her unimaginable pain to see his body like this, Mamie Till wanted her son's body to be seen, to "let the world see what has happened, because there is no way I could describe this. And I needed somebody to help me tell what this was like."
In spite of the overwhelming evidence of their guilt, Bryant and Milam faced an all-white jury, since blacks were not allowed to serve as jurors in Mississippi at that time, and they were duly acquitted. The jury's deliberations lasted a total of one hour and seven minutes. A few months later Bryant and White confessed to the killing and gleefully described all of their brutal, unspeakeable actions. They then sold their story to Look Magazine for $4,000.
There was widespread outrage across the entire country at the injusice of the verdict, and people all over the country took to the streets to protest, but it is what inspired the beginning of the civil rights movement in our nation. One hundred days after Till's murder, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus in Birmingham, Alabama, the civil rights movement was born, and the rest is history.
Link: The Trail of Tears
Emmett Till and Rosa Parks photos from wikimedia commons
Acquittal photo from biography.com
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