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This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Ethiopia has become warmer over the past century and human induced climate change will bring further warming over the next century at unprecedented rates. On the average, climate models show a tendency for higher mean annual rainfall and for wetter conditions, in particular during October, November and December, but there is much uncertainty about the future amount, distribution, timing and intensity of rainfall. Ethiopia's low level of economic development, combined with its heavy dependence on agriculture and high population growth rate make the country particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of climate change. Nearly 90% of Ethiopia's population lives in the Highlands, which include the critical Blue Nile (Abay) Highlands—a region that holds special importance due to its role in domestic agricultural production and international water resources. A five year study of climate vulnerability and adaptation strategies in communities of Choke Mountain, located in the center of the Abay Highlands, has informed a proposed framework for enhancing climate resilience in communities across the region. The framework is motivated by the critical need to enhance capacity to cope with climate change and, subsequently, to advance a carbon neutral and climate resilient economy in Ethiopia. The implicit hypothesis in applying a research framework for this effort is that science-based information, generated through improved understanding of impacts and vulnerabilities of local communities, can contribute to enhanced resilience strategies. We view adaptation to climate change in a wider context of changes, including, among others, market conditions, the political-institutional framework, and population dynamics. From a livelihood perspective, culture, historical settings, the diversity of income generation strategies, knowledge, and education are important factors that contribute to adaptive capacities. This paper reviews key findings of the Choke Mountain study, describes the principles of the climate resilience framework, and proposes an implementation strategy for climate resilient development to be applied in the Abay Highlands, with potential expansion to agricultural communities across the region and beyond.
The 4th Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 2007, projects that the global temperature of the planet's atmosphere will likely have increased 1.1 °C to 6.4 °C by the end of this century, relative to 1980–1999 baseline data. These temperature rises are linked to changes in precipitation patterns: some regions will see marked decreases in precipitation, while others will be affected by increases in total precipitation or changes in seasonality. An increase in the incidence and severity of extreme events (e.g., hurricanes and floods) has been reported as very likely as well [
Ethiopia has become warmer over the past century and human-induced climate change is expected to bring further warming at unprecedented rates over the next century. On the average, climate model projections included in the IPCC 4th Assessment Report show a tendency for increased rainfall, in particular during October, November and December. However, there was no clear model consensus in this prediction, with some models predicting a large increase and others a significant decrease in mean annual precipitation. Beyond the matter of changes in average annual precipitation, there is much uncertainty about the future distribution, timing and intensity of rainfall in the country [
The frequency and intensity of droughts has increased in recent years, severely affecting the livelihoods of millions of people [
In this paper
Like elsewhere in Ethiopia, in the Abay Highlands there is misunderstanding and confusion about the impacts of climate change and how to deal with them, both amongst local development administrators and within the wider community. Institutions at different levels and communities with different adaptive capacities perceive the impact of climate change differently and each face different challenges in adapting to climate change effects. Additionally, experts have differing perspectives on where effort should be focused depending on the field of their specialization and the mandates of their institutions. This makes the planning process of building climate resilient economies complex, particularly when adaptation requires proactive investment in addition to reactive response [
The primary purpose of this paper is to present a framework for building resilience to climate change at a local level in the Blue Nile/Abay Highlands. Drawing on the findings of detailed studies in the communities of Choke Mountain, located at the center of the Blue Nile/Abay Highlands, it is argued that a
The paper proceeds as follows:
In November 2011, the Government of Ethiopia initiated the Climate–Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) initiative to protect the country from the adverse effects of climate change and to build a green economy that will help realize its ambition of reaching middle-income status before 2025. Meeting this ambition requires understanding the causes and consequences of climate change as well as opportunities for climate change adaptation and mitigation. This is an extraordinarily complex problem, on account of the diversity of biophysical and socioeconomic conditions across the country. Ethiopia's 80 million people are spread non-uniformly across approximately 1.13 million square kilometers, ranging from densely populated highlands (about 35% of total land area) to sparsely populated lowlands. Some 68 million rural people pursue predominantly agricultural livelihood strategies under conditions that vary widely in terms of moisture, temperature, disease, land quality and availability, remoteness from markets and services,
From the agricultural development perspective in the rural areas of Ethiopia, absolute and comparative advantages of different ecosystems and communities are fundamentally important frames for designing a climate resilient economy. Many studies of the impacts of different kinds of investments in east African highland production systems have shown the importance of biophysical and socioeconomic contexts for understanding impacts [
Motivated by this need for an organizing framework, a five year study of climate vulnerability and adaptation strategies was undertaken in the communities of Choke Mountain. The results of this study indicate that a
The framework begins with classification and analysis of major
The third step of the framework posits that building climate resilience is possible through appropriate
A critical outcome of the research and consultations that informed this framework is that innovation platforms (IP) should be established in the Blue Nile/Abay Highlands. These innovation platforms, which are described further in
The process described here recognizes that development interventions in agricultural regions are, generally speaking, inherently location-specific on account of the connection between economic development and the local natural resource base. In Ethiopia, however, there has been a long experience of top-down, technologically based solutions that have not given adequate consideration to the diversity of farming systems active in the country. These interventions have a poor record of success in terms of agricultural productivity or development gains, and in many cases a retreat to pre-intervention practices has been observed. In presenting a locally–oriented, empirically based framework for adaptation strategy that is endemic to the Ethiopian Highlands, we hope to establish a basis for better informed adaptation activities in the country.
A conceptual framework for building resilience:
Building a climate resilient economy is about adapting effectively to climate change to minimize the potential damage and to maximize the potential benefits. A resilient community is well placed to manage hazards to minimize their effects and/or to recover quickly from any negative impacts, resulting in a similar or improved state as compared to before the hazard occurred. There are strong linkages between resilience and adaptive capacity; consequently, resilience also varies greatly for different groups within a community. One of the most important factors shaping the adaptive capacity of individuals, households and communities is their access to and control over natural, human, social, physical, and financial resources. Access to and control over the resources necessary for adaptation varies within countries, communities and even households.
The analysis and classification of Agro-ecosystems/Farming Systems in the Choke Mountain Watersheds was undertaken to support agricultural policy makers and development experts at Kebele, Woreda and Zonal levels in East Gojjam, the Amhara National Regional State [
These AES show a remarkable degree of differentiation in terms of constraints, opportunities, production orientation and socio-economic characteristics of farmers. All further analysis presented in this paper follow these classifications.
The six agro-ecosystems of the Choke Mountains watersheds.
Adaptation to climate change requires that farmers first notice that the climate has changed, and then that they identify useful adaptation options and implement them [
Analysis of perception of farmers across the agro-ecological systems of Choke Mountain showed no statistically significant variation in perception of temperature change: about 90% of the respondents perceived that the temperature has increased over the last 20 and 30 years (
Farmers' perception of long-term change in temperature and precipitation.
These results are consistent with climate trends reported in Ethiopia's First National Communications to the UNFCCC. As documented in that communication, climate change evidence is most clearly visible in temperature in Ethiopia, with an increasing trend in time (0.37 °C/decade). There is no clear trend in total annual rainfall observed at national level, but local changes in variability have been reported. These general patterns have held true for the Abay Highlands as well. Changes in timing and distribution of precipitation in the Abay Highlands are a subject of future research effort.
In response to perceived changes in timing and variability of precipitation, farmers in the Choke Mountain Watersheds have tried to make some adjustments by shifting the cropping calendar, particularly in response to changes in the beginning and end of the rainy season. Many households have made adjustments in response to increased temperatures as well (e.g., changing crop species, timing of agronomic practices). Overall, 74.4% of sample households surveyed in the Choke Mountain study report that they have taken adjustment measures against climate change (
Farmers that have taken adjustment measures to climate change (%).
|Yes (%)
|No (%)
|ANOVA test
|Choke Mountain watersheds
|0.075 *
|AES 5 (Very cold sub-moist mid highlands )
|AES 4 (Cool sub-moist mid highlands)
|AES 3 (Temperate moist mid highlands )
|AES 2 (Cool -Moist Mid highlands )
|AES 1 (Warm sub-moist lowlands )
* Significant at 10%.
Vulnerability assessment was conducted for the five major agro-ecosystems in the Choke Mountain Watersheds with extensive agricultural activity (AES 1–5). Data on 29 socio-economic, climatic and soil related variables were collected for communities across the five assessed agro-ecosystems, and, through regression analysis, 13 indicators were identified as explanatory of adaptive capacity at the community level (
Conceptualising vulnerability: From adaptive capacities to adaptation.
We identified four indicators related to
Land suitability of Choke Mountain watersheds by agroecosystems.
The second indicator is the severity of
Human-induced land degradation of Choke Mountain watersheds by agroecosystems.
The third indicator of natural capital is the
The fourth indicator relating to natural capital is the availability of
We included two indicators of
Average size of household farmlands of the Choke Mountains by agroecosystem.
Percentage of farmers practicing irrigation.
Percentage of farmers applying chemical fertilizer.
Percentage of farmers applying improved seeds in the Choke Mountains.
On the average, 63.6% of the farmers in the Choke Mountain use improved seeds (
Farmers' use of improved soil conservation practices for crop production.
|Soil conservation (%)
|ANOVA test
|Choke Mountain watersheds
|Very cold sub-moist mid highlands (AES 5)
|Cold sub-moist mid highlands (AES 4)
|Cool -Moist Mid highlands (AES 3)
|Temperate moist mid highlands (AES 2)
|Warm sub-moist lowlands (AES 1)
* Significant at 10%.
We identified two indicators of
We identified four indicators of
Adaptive capacity indices of the Choke Mountain watersheds.
Adaptive capacity analysis was conducted using access to and control over natural, human, social, physical, and financial resources [
There are growing opportunities for local level development projects targeted to adapt and manage climate change risks, supported by national and international investments. However, a major obstacle to integrating climate and development at community level stems from lack of capable local institutions to coordinate and lead local efforts. This is matched by a lack of active participation by local communities and lack of technically skilled manpower at the local level. In recognition of these limitations, a 5-step planning tool on
A participation index analysis of farmers' participation level in all watershed management activities verified that the vast majority of the farmers (96.4%) have participated in fewer than 60% of intended activities. Furthermore, over half of the farmers were found to participate in fewer than 40% percent of intended activities. Looking at participation in project stages, it was found that 51%, 43% and 1% of respondents participated in planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) phases of the intervention, respectively. Regression results revealed that training, frequency of visit by extension workers, farmers' perception about the benefit of participatory watershed management, and farmers' perception of responsibility for watershed resource conservation have statistically significant and positive relationships with farmer participation. The presence of these community–base projects, in its own right, was found to increase community participation in natural resources governance, providing momentum for resilience building activities [
It should be noted that the Choke Mountain experience argues for a broad definition of what constitutes "adaptation technologies." Technologies, in this context, include physical equipment, but they also include techniques, practical knowledge, or skills for performing a particular activity. Adaptation technologies can thus be defined as the application of technology in order to reduce the vulnerability, or enhance the resilience, of a natural or human system to the impacts of climate change. At the broadest level of classification, then, adaptation technologies can include hard technologies, such as irrigation technologies, fertilizer, and improved varieties of crops, as well as soft technologies such as crop rotation patterns, knowledge of varieties, and organizational capacity. A successful adaptation strategy will in general utilize both hard and soft technologies, which, rather than applied in a one-off activity, will involve the application of a combination of these technologies in an ongoing interactive process [
In application, research at the Choke Mountain Watersheds has indicated that there are a number of important opportunities and equally significant challenges for these communities as they transition to climate resilient economies. These opportunities and challenges are summarized below.
The concept of Community and Ecosystem-based Adaptation in rural areas of Ethiopia encompasses a wide range of strategies at local and landscape scales, enabling communities to address climate change in an effective way. It is envisioned that ecosystem-based adaptation interventions will be developed and implemented by community-based IPs, and that they will be a component of a broader adaptation strategy that includes education, training, awareness rising, and the development of early warning systems and technology measures as required.
As described above, 21 targeted Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) development projects have been implemented in Choke Mountain watersheds over the last 5 years. The approach has centered on individual households within target micro-watersheds, with a focus on empowering vulnerable people with the knowledge, skills and resources they need to take action on the climate change adaptation strategies appropriate for their lives and livelihoods. In all projects, preservation of the natural resource base was taken as an entry point for planning adaptive actions [
While much has been learned through these projects, the sustainability of projects that take the natural resource base as an entry point has come into question. Interventions that are effective during the active project period, when external investments in adaptation capacity are made available, often fail to establish the link to markets that is required to sustain efforts after the project comes to a close. Based on this experience, participants have concluded that markets are a more appropriate entry and exit point for future resilience building efforts. This recognition has yielded a model that centers on the establishment and implementation of community-based IP, devoted to achieving a climate resilient green economy through dissemination and uptake of proven technologies and practices (
The four pillars of innovation platforms (NRM: Natural Resource Management). Following experience from Choke Mountain, all IP assessments will be approached on an agroecosystem by community basis.
Inherent to the IP concept is the fact that innovation is driven by broad stakeholder involvement: farmers and their organizations, representatives of (national and international) research and extension, the private sector (input and output markets, food processing, transport, rural credit), local government (policy, subsidies, and rural credit), NGOs and others. These stakeholders must begin by analyzing challenges and limitations to livelihood improvement at the household and community level and by defining priority issues to address. Then, collectively, participants in an IP will identify and rigorously test proposed solutions. Finally, the IP is also responsible for implementing promising solutions, monitoring the implementation, and addressing problems or new challenges that arise in the course of time.
A detailed description of the IP model is beyond the scope of the current paper, but is available elsewhere [
In the coming years, a total of 30 Innovation Platforms (three IP per agroecosystem) will be established in the Blue Nile Highlands. Modalities for implementation and funding have been developed by the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority in close consultation with academics and stakeholder groups. Experience at Choke Mountain has provided a strong foundation for this effort, but it will be critical to maintain active analysis and a flexible approach to implementation as the IP experiment moves forward.
The major activities of these IPs focus on transforming the agriculture sector based on agroecosystem and vulnerability assessment through: (1) establishing voluntary local institutions (IP); (2) accelerating access to technology and investment; (3) improving market mechanisms for climate resilient and sustainable products and practices; (4) defining environmental management as a community-level issue; and (5) empowering community members to address governance matters at the local level, and empowering communities to identify broader governance needs.
Climate change adaptation in agricultural communities—and, for that matter, agriculture oriented development more broadly—is an enormously complex process. Discrepancies in adaptive capacity within and between communities are a product of ethnic interactions, government policies, family histories, and evolving natural resource conditions. Ability to adapt is also influenced by phenomena that lie far beyond a community's control, including the rate of anthropogenic climate change, shocks to global commodity markets, and the cost of credit due to national and international economic dynamics. In this context, community-level adaptation analysis and interventions must be designed for local conditions while anticipating the need for flexibility in response to change at national and global scale.
This paper has presented an overview of findings from five years of climate impact and adaptation studies undertaken with communities of Choke Mountain. These communities represent a wide range of socioeconomic and biophysical conditions, such that the experiences of these studies can be scaled to other communities in the Ethiopian Highlands and, perhaps, beyond.
The main conclusions and recommendations that result from an analysis of these studies and of three workshop discussions on the subject are the following.
The natural resources that are the foundation for the economy of the country are under intense pressure from population growth and inappropriate traditional farming and management practices. The quality of land management has become an increasing matter of concern due to the additional stresses of climate change and population growth. Although there are many approaches used,
The Choke Mountain watersheds are characterized by considerable biophysical and socio-economic diversity. Biophysical diversity in micro-climate, soil properties, vegetation types and water resources results in high spatial variability in climate impacts and associated response measures. Socio-economic diversity adds an additional set of considerations relevant to vulnerability and adaptation options. The ecosystem and livelihood framework applied at Choke Mountain is a useful tool for planning, monitoring and evaluation of climate impacts and adaptation strategies.
In the Blue Nile Highlands, understanding of climate change, both its manifestation and its impacts, is limited to a few experts and decision-makers. Therefore,
Informed adaptation strategies must take into account available scientific data on climate change impacts and also the vulnerability and perceptions of stakeholders; at present, information on both physical and social aspects of climate adaptation is limited, as are strategies for adapting in the context of uncertainty within the climate resilience framework. To address this limitation,
Due to a lack of information on the impacts of climate variability and climate change on ecosystems and community livelihoods, and due to our limited knowledge of socioecological dynamics,
Research results from Choke Mountain and elsewhere indicate that
Due to the aforementioned uncertainty,
These conclusions are presently being integrated to climate resilience initiatives in the Blue Nile/Abay Highlands, most notably through the establishment of Innovation Platforms in support of a Climate Resilient and Green Economy. Experiences with these IP will provide a continuously growing body of knowledge and analysis to support the design of climate resilience building activities in the Ethiopian Highlands and in other agricultural economies striving to build resilience in an evolving climate.
The authors thank the Johns Hopkins University Global Water Program and Addis Ababa University for providing funds for the workshop in Bahir Dar. All 70+ workshop participants are also acknowledged for their contribution to the ideas presented in this paper. The research results presented here involved several graduate students and were supported by Addis Ababa University Thematic Research Fund programme.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.


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by Rob Beck and Caroline Ketron
On December 1, 1566, Captain Juan Pardo departed from Santa Elena, the capital of Spanish La Florida, with a company of 125 men. Pardo's command was to explore the deep interior, to claim this territory for Spain while pacifying local Indians, and to forge a route from Santa Elena to the Spanish silver mines in northern Mexico. In January 1567, Pardo arrived at Joara, a large native town situated near the base of the mountains. Documentary and archaeological data indicate that Joara was in the upper Catawba basin of what is now western North Carolina. Pardo renamed this town Cuenca, after his native city in Spain; here he built a fort, San Juan, and left thirty men to defend the fort and to occupy the town. Earlier European expeditions into the interior had erected short-term, seasonal encampments, for example the winter camps that Soto built near modern Tallahassee, Florida, and in northeast Mississippi, and that Jaques Cartier built near modern Montreal, Quebec. Pardo, however, founded Cuenca and Fort San Juan in order to permanently expand the colony of Santa Elena into the northern frontiers of La Florida. In so doing, he founded the earliest European settlement in the interior of North America, north of the Rio Grande. Fort San Juan was occupied by Pardo's soldiers for nearly a year and a half, until shortly after May 1568, when news arrived at Santa Elena that this as well as Pardo's five other forts had fallen to Indian attack. With the fall of these forts ended Spain's only attempt to colonize the deep interior of northern La Florida.
Our research indicates that the Berry site--located along the upper Catawba River in Burke County, North Carolina--is the native town of Joara, location of Pardo's Cuenca and Fort San Juan. Since 1986, we have recovered numerous utilitarian Spanish artifacts at this site, including Olive Jars, majolica, lead shot and lead sprue, brass lacing tips, several wrought iron nails, and just this summer, fragments of what is probably chain mail armor. The only other identified site in the interior Southeast with a similar assemblage of sixteenth-century Spanish materials is the Governor Martin site in Tallahassee, Florida, location of Hernando de Soto's winter camp in 1539.
The Berry site covers about 12 acres, suggesting that Joara was one of the largest native towns in North Carolina during the mid-sixteenth century. Spanish artifacts, however, are restricted to a 1.5 acre section north of the mound, shown here; given this distribution of Spanish artifacts, we have focused our recent investigations in this area of the site. Our research in this area, including both magnetometer surveys and extensive excavations, have revealed at least four burned buildings that form an arc which may be open to the west. All four of the buildings are rectangular, measure at least eight meters on a side, and while unusually large, appear to have been built in an overall style typical of local, Native American structures. Our excavations suggest that all of these buildings were constructed at about the same time, used for a short period, then destroyed by fire. We believe that these buildings represent the Spanish settlement of Cuenca, and that these are perhaps the houses that quartered Pardo's soldiers stationed at Fort San Juan. That all four of the buildings were burned may serve as a chilling testament to how relations between the Spaniards and the people of Joara ended tumultuously in the Spring of 1568.
During our field school this past summer, we exposed a cross-section of one of these burned buildings, Structure 1; Tom Hargrove and Rob Beck identified this building through magnetometer survey and auger testing in 1997, and during our 2001 and 2002 field schools we defined all four of its edges as part of the Upper Catawba Valley Archaeological Project. In this paper, we report our preliminary excavations inside Structure 1, which turned out to be far better preserved than we had imagined. As we'll show, our excavations yielded abundant information about the building's construction and use, including evidence of architectural furniture such as wall benches, and artifacts that rest where they fell or lay when the burning structure collapsed. These data lend support to our hypothesis that Berry is the native town of Joara and that these burned buildings are the ruins of Fort San Juan.
The Pardo documents themselves offer tantalizingly few clues as to what kinds of material correlates we might find in association with the archaeological remains of Fort San Juan. The documents do, however, indicate two kinds of structures the company used at Joara: the fort itself, and houses where the soldiers may have lived. Here we will focus on the soldiers' houses. During his first expedition, Pardo instructed the leaders of several native towns, including Joara, to construct houses and lay up stores of grain for the soldiers to use when manning the forts and traveling on the planned route from Santa Elena across the Piedmont and mountains. When Pardo returned to Joara during his second expedition, Bandera noted that he "found built a new house of wood with a large elevated room full of maize, which the cacique of the village, who is called Joada Mico, had built by the command of the captain." Bandera noted that the structures Pardo ordered built at several of the native towns were large, and one suspects that they were considered large in comparison with the Indians' own houses. We would expect these houses to reflect native construction techniques and technologies, but it is likely that Pardo's soldiers contributed their labor and experience, as well.
Structure 1 at the Berry site is a large, rectangular or square building that measures about 8 meters on a side; it is considerably larger than most native buildings in the North Carolina piedmont and mountains, but may be the smallest of the four burned buildings we've identified at the north end of the site. Our plan this summer was to excavate a cross-section of the building across the area that appears to have been its entryway--during our 2002 excavations, we identified doorway trenches on the building's west corner. We excavated three contiguous 2 by 2 meter units across the interior of the building, from north to south, approximately one meter inside the doorway trenches. One of our most pressing questions leading into these excavations was the depth of Structure 1's preserved remains. From Beck's auger testing during the 1997 season, it seemed clear that all of the burned buildings were semi-subterranean structures, but due to subsequent plowing from 1998-1999, it was unclear how much of the house basin fill remained intact. Suffice it to say that Structure 1 exceeded all of our expectations, in this and many other regards.
We began along the north edge of the building, and proceeded to remove what we interpreted as a fill between the outer, wooden walls of the building and the edge of the basin cut. In this and all other excavations inside the building, we excavated 1 x 1 meter quadrants within 2 by 2 meter units, and all of the deposits were waterscreened, save those taken for soil and flotation samples. Excavation of this 'foundation fill' showed that the basin fill was intact to an average depth of 20 cm, and demonstrated that the foundations of the building were indeed constructed in a basin, with upright timbers forming the walls of the structure. The timbers seem to have been placed at regular intervals, about 40 centimeters, very near the bottom edge of the basin cut; after the timbers were in place, the builders of the house filled the space between the timbers and the slightly sloping walls of the cut with a very clean, homogenous soil--some of this soil may have been left over from when the builders dug out the basin itself.
After removing this outer fill, we moved to the actual architectural remains. With the plowzone removed from the top of the basin fill, we could clearly distinguish the wall area from the inner portion of the building: the walls area was marked by bright red, highly fired soil, and we could see the tops of what appeared to be intact posts. The area immediately inside the walls, while still characterized by fired soil, charcoal, and wood, was more homogenous and brown. As we worked our way through the basin fill in this unit, we began exposing numerous carbonized posts and fallen timbers. Some of the posts were still upright, and many of the horizontal timbers appear to have fallen from the roof. The upright post stumps were puzzling at first, as they do not actually continue down to the floor of the building; rather, they seem to rest on pedestals of soil. We now believe that--when the building was destroyed--those parts of the posts of that were above the structure floor burned quickly and carbonized; those parts that were below the floor received too little oxygen to burn, and as such rotted into the 'pedestals' of soil upon which the carbonized stumps now rest.
Amidst the horizontal timbers--again, probably roof beams--we found large, broken sections of two soapstone-tempered pots: one of these is a typical Burke-style, complicated-stamped jar with a folded rim and stamped with a figure-9 design; the other is a plain burnished pot with a flared rim. Both seem to have been smashed when the roof collapsed, and at first we assumed that they either had been sitting on the floor or hanging from the rafters, but subsequent excavations along the south edge of the building suggest that they were sitting upon a wall bench when the structure burned.
Our excavations in the center of the structure suggest that the collapsed remains slumped shortly after the building burned to the ground, and that they were subsequently covered with a layer of homogenous fill that leveled the surface over Structure 1. The excavation profiles from the center of the structure's interior suggest that these deposits of post-collapse soil were basket loaded fill. This fill may, as noted, have served the functional purpose of leveling the slumped center of Structure 1, but it also served to bury the building's remains, and probably to remove its traces from view. It may be significant, in this regard, that there is no evidence of any subsequent construction activity in or around this building. Sarah Sherwood of the University of Tennessee removed several soil profile columns from Structure 1 this summer, and we hope that her microstratigraphic analysis of these soils will shed more light on the process and nature of their deposition.
As along the north edge of the building, burned timbers and fired sand continue in thick deposits beneath this primary layer of homogenous fill. We uncovered one of what was probably one of four center posts in this area, directly across from the doorway. This large post was carbonized upright in the ground, and measured approximately 20 centimeters across. The horizontal timbers, many of which still have their bark intact, are probably white pine and are positioned as they fell when the walls and roof caved in towards the center of the structure during burning. The orientation of the timbers of the roof and walls illustrate how the building collapsed inward: they radiate towards the center of the building.
We had initially intended to excavate all of this two- by six-meter section of Structure 1 down to the floor of the building. However, we had not expected the quantity of preserved wood and plant remains within the collapse fill, and thus were only able to expose a single one by one meter unit, just inside the doorway, through the floor of the structure. In this doorway area, we found large intact sections of vegetable fiber, possible leaves from cane plants, that appear to have been sandwiched between shafts of split oak; these fiber sections and wooden elements are either roof fall or a parts of a rectangular doorframe. We encountered subsoil immediately under the floor, and the floor itself was covered by a very thin lens of organic staining or deposition, suggesting that the house was occupied for a relatively brief period of time.
We found some of the most remarkable elements of Structure 1 in the southernmost of our excavation units. In the western part of this unit, near the center of the structure, we found two timbers that appear to have been cut by metal tools. The first of these is cut by a deep groove, V-shaped in profile, which looks strikingly similar to a metal axe cut. The second timber is marked by two notches, a round notch on one end and a square cut notch on the other. The round notch corresponds to a very similar notch cut in a timber on the other side of the structure, suggesting that these two timbers were complements of one another, serving similar needs on opposite sides of the building. The square cut notch has very straight, regular edges, and would probably have been difficult to achieve with stone axes. What is more, this technique of timber notching seems more likely to have been a European construction practice. Thus, while the overall plan and organization of Structure 1 match native practices, conceptions, and technologies of house construction, the probable metal cut timbers suggest that Europeans--probably members of the Pardo expedition--may have worked together with native craftsmen to build this structure.
Even by the standards of preservation we had seen thus far in Structure 1, the architectural furniture was unexpectedly well-preserved along the south wall of the building. The split oak elements of the wall bench, carbonized when the building burned, are laying where they collapsed, their orientations either perpendicular to, or parallel with, the orientation of the wall posts. Also in this area, several sections of the split cane matting that covered the wall bench are carbonized and intact. Here, the matting is still attached to a wooden element of the wall bench, and here, a ceramic pipestem fragment is still resting on the seat of the bench, where it must have been left before the building burned.
Less than a meter away from the pipe, we found these two wooden shafts, also on the bench, that appear to be prepared tools, or tool handles--that is, their wooden surfaces are well-finished and smoothed, possibly even planed, and as such they are not structural debris. We were amazed to find that the wooden shafts were laying next to a large fragment of carbonized animal hide with long, course hairs--probably bear--that may have been a blanket left on the bench. The thickness of the fragment suggests that it was folded at the time of the fire. We removed the hide and the wooden shafts in a single pedestal block, and they are awaiting laboratory analysis. We also removed this section of a wooden plank, seen here in situ draped with vegetable fiber, possibly from the wall of the building; it, too, awaits lab analysis.
Although most of the artifacts we recovered inside Structure 1 are clearly native items (the ceramic pots and the pipe, for example), we did find two small pieces of twisted iron wire in the waterscreened materials from this section of the house. Stan South and Chester DePratter have identified these as fragments of chain mail armor. Individual chain mail links routinely separated from their coats of armor--archaeologists found many such fragments, for example, at the site of Soto's first winter encampment at the Governor Martin site--and our fragments may well have been lost on the seat of the bench, or else ended up under the bench on the floor of the building. In any event, our recovery of the chain mail, together with the metal cut timbers, strongly supports our interpretation of this building as a soldiers' quarters for the Pardo expedition. The timbers suggest that soldiers helped to build the structure, and the mail fragments suggest that they lived within it before its destruction.
To sum up, our excavations this summer show that Structure 1 was built in a style that was typical of native buildings, but that certain elements of its construction exhibit non-native, European techniques and technologies. Also, while most of the building's contents are native, the chain mail links suggest that Spanish soldiers may have spent time inside the structure. These details are what we would expect for the soldiers' houses built during the Pardo expedition: these men brought only those items of European material culture that they could carry on their backs, and thus most of their material possessions at Joara were probably native in origin. Also, while the documents indicate that Pardo commanded the Indians to build the houses, it is reasonable to expect that the soldiers of the expedition participated in their construction.
This summer, we exposed but 12 square meters of Structure 1, a building that covers at least 64 square meters. What is more, there are three other burned buildings like Structure 1, and we have no reason to doubt that these others are any less remarkable in their contents and preservation.


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The Shore Leave fan convention is getting ready to kick off it's thirty-fifth year next week in Hunt Valley, Maryland (a suburb of Baltimore). The convention runs from August 2 to 4, 2013.
Started by a group of Star Trek fans in 1978, Shore Leave is a long running, fan-run convention with over three decades of history. The convention has expanded to cover a multitude of shows and fan groups, offering a diversity of guests from television and movies to authors and "real science" personalities.
Featured guests this year include William Shatner (Saturday Only), Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1, Sanctuary, Supernatural), Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Saul Rubinek (Warehouse 13, plus SG-1's "Heroes"), Eddie McClintock (Warehouse 13), Neil Graystone (Eureka), Julie Caitlin Brown (Babylon 5), and more.
Among the authors attending this year are Ann C. Crispin, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Jo Graham, Melissa Scott, Howard Weinstein, and others. In addition there are several "real science" guests.
The event includes fan panels, gaming, writing workshops, autograph and photo ops, and more.
Saturday and full weekend passes are already sold out, but fans can still purchase memberships for Friday and Sunday.
For more information on guests and the convention visit the official website at Shore-Leave.com!
I so can't wait to go :-)
Would love to go but work and eating come before fun, sad to say love her hope someday before I die of old age I can see her.
I would love to attend a convention where a number of female scifi stars would be attending(Mostly, because their my favorite). Like: Amanda Tapping, Torri Higginson, Rachael Luttrell, and Teryl Rothery.
I think I would camp-out for days if necessary to get tickets for a convention like that!
karicarter: Two of those at least will be at the Chicago convention this month :)
Remember Me
Will you watch the new Devlin/Emmerich Stargate movie?
View Results


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Stop By the MTR this evening at 6PM for a Yards Brewery event. Fishtown's session beer house will be pouring several Yards favorites, including: Philly Pale Ale, Yards IPA (on cask), Love Stout, and the very special Trubbel de Yards.
Get em while they last, when they're gone, you'll have to find something else to wash down your fried pickles.
The Memphis Taproom, 2331 E. Cumberland Street, (215) 425-4460


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Andy Zupan, M.D., practiced medicine at the Mercy Medical Building North for 10 years and was among the area's most beloved pediatricians.
Dr. Zupan, 50, passed away Feb. 15, and has been greatly missed, Mercy Hospital Washington said.
"Patients loved Dr. Zupan, and Dr. Zupan loved his patients. He took his time with them and got to know them and the entire family. He treated them with respect and compassion, and if he could include games to distract a patient or get a patient's attention, he did that, and the kids just loved it," said Mercy Clinic physician Todd Craig, M.D. Dr. Craig worked with Dr. Zupan for four years at the McAuley Clinic, which serves families who cannot afford to pay for medical care on their own.
Dr. Zupan came to Mercy in Washington to serve children at the McAuley Clinic. He and his family, wife Lori and their three children, spent part of that time living in Washington. Dr. Zupan made a reputation of living the Mercy value of serving others. He was passionate about serving those in need and especially serving the most vulnerable children.
"He was a true advocate for children. He reached out to families facing hardships from poverty and drug abuse to chronic illness and social stigma," said Michelle L. Beumer, M.D., Dr. Zupan's partner at Riverside Pediatrics. "He offered help to kids and families who often don't receive the help they need."
Dr. Zupan established a pediatrics program in the emergency department at Mercy Hospital Washington, served as the chairperson for pediatrics services at the hospital and also volunteered in the community.
"He is someone so many people feel a connection to; a great colleague, a caring friend and a pillar of the community," said Dr. Craig. "As a tribute, many people wanted to create something lasting in his memory, something that would reflect who he was as a person."
With the blessing of Dr. Zupan's family and their input, Mercy Hospital Washington Foundation established the Dr. Andy Zupan Memorial Fund. Committee members are Dr. Beumer, Dr. Craig, Chandra Alsop, Stacy Ayers, Dr. David Brunworth, Mark Covington, Rachel Covington, Sharon Grimes, Dr. Gregory Potts, and Sandi Hillermann-McDonald. The committee is raising money for programs, services and equipment that will enhance pediatric care at Mercy Hospital Washington and the McAuley Clinic. Its goal is to raise $100,000 to:
Provide medical and social services to the neediest pediatric patients.
Purchase an infant intubation device.
Support an educational program that will help providers better respond to the medical, social and emotional well-being of children in need.
"We're excited to share this opportunity with everyone who cared about Dr. Zupan," said Dr. Craig. "It's a chance for all of us to keep his memory alive and make a difference to the kids he loved and served."
The committee has raised $54,800. For more information, or to contribute to the Andy Zupan Memorial Fund, people may call 636-239-8882.


text: WIND Mobile has released another affordable Android smartphone from Huawei namely the Huawei U8651. Priced at $149 CAD outright, the handset offers a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 capacitive touchscreen display, a microSD card slot (up to 32GB), a 3.2MP camera with video recorder, WiFi and runs on Android 2.3 OS. [Product Page]


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I DM out of necessity. There. I said it.
I need to get out from behind the screen. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the role (roll?) and find great enjoyment in gathering my comrades together to give them their D&D fix but deep down inside I long to roll a character, slay baddies, find nifty magical items, and save the day.
When I started playing D&D, which really wasn't all that long ago, 4 years? Or.. 1 year B.C. (before child), I found a local group that was playing 3.5e and rolled me up a Dwarven Paladin. We had a few sessions and the group fell apart. I managed to get in on another group, only this time it was online with a friend of mine. It too was 3.5 (4 wasn't out yet) and he set the adventures in the Diablo II realm. Fun indeed! That group also fell apart and I found myself again without a group to play with.
So I decided to make my own group with me as the DM since no others were available. I even found a chap online who was very dedicated to the game and even DM'ed a weekly session that included me as a PC. It was great! Engaging story line. Great DM…but then he disappeared. Didn't show up to one session online. Stopped logging on instant messengers. Didn't respond to email. Missed the session after that. Just plain disappeared. I have my theories. Either he died or was arrested. Unfortunately I didn't know too much about him prior to his disappearance. Only that he went by the online handle Yevold and that his real name was Brian and that he lived in Elkridge, MD. (Anyone know him..?)
Anywho..The bottom line is that I'm itching to get out from behind the screen now and again. I've offered my current PCs the option to DM a session or two with my assistance. No takers yet. Some are completely new to D&D so I can imagine the prospect may be a bit overwhelming.
So..DM's. If you can't be a PC in a game, how are you getting your fix? Do you treat the monsters as your character? Drink to excess?
Does anyone have room for a Caeseropapist Monarch such as myself in their group that meets Thursday, Friday, or Saturday nights starting at 9pm Eastern?


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It's called an Ashera and it's a mixture of exotic creatures the Asian Leopard cat and the African Serval combined with a normal pet cat.
At around 4ft tall standing on its back legs, it's bigger than the average cat and with a life span of about 25 years, it lives for longer too.
The Ashera doesn't come cheap, costing up to £13,000 - but there's already a list of people wanting to get one!


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3 packs
by Dneproman.
Downloaded 561 times.
Tags of sounds inside the pack: trailer film horror film-music deep movie cinema dneproman scary trailer-end dance dark fx intro loop movie-trailer mystic trailer-music ambient creepy ...
by Headphaze.
Downloaded 136 times.
Tags of sounds inside the pack: ambiance ambience anxious atmos atmosphere background dark drama drone film-sound haunted horror sci-fi science-fiction sound-design soundscape spooky suspense tension
by StarRock.
Downloaded 144 times.
Tags of sounds inside the pack: burning gas noise hiss kitchen stove burner crackling fire water-heater
3 packs


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A Justice Site
All jeanne's classes cancelled for Thursday, December 2, 2004.
The Naked Space Gallery Show was wonderful. Thank you all.
We'll work on the Virtual Gallery and learning records next week.
See you next Tuesday and Thursday.
Since our Gallery show is over, the Wednesday Class wont' meet on December 8.
jeanne and Pat.
And the Families and Communities Are Victims, Too
California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: November 19, 2004
Latest Update: December 2, 2004
Topic of the Week:
Frozen Actions: The Families Are Frozen, Too
Jessica Graham came across a poem about a young woman who died in a car crash caused by a young driver who was drinking. The dominant discourse has had a strong tendency over all genders, races, and classes to accept drunk driving as socially acceptable. It's not. It kills. Now there's a piece of dominant discourse we can change, each one of us, by keeping each other aware of the dangers, and by not accepting them as trivial or socially acceptable. And this is one of those social issues on which we are NOT a people divided. Talk to your friends, your neighbors, express your disapproval. Make them aware.
You'll find the poem and suggestions for using it in a project on Sometimes What's Done Cannot Be Undone. WAR is not the only kind of killing we need to stop.
Note that the painting has changed. Peter Aguilera made me realize how very deep the harm and pain go:
I was reading the project ideas on drunk driving, as well as this week's post on Dear Habermas and felt I had to share this.
Obviously, when there is a drunk driving accident, both the victim and the driver must undergo a lot. But I watched someone suffer who had no part in the accident, my mother. My mother's husband was driving under the influence and hit someone else who ended up dying. He was taken into custody, and although he was guilty, it was a year and a half before he was actually sentenced. During that year and a half I watched the torment the legal processes placed upon my mother. She has spent a fortune paying legal bills, collect phone calls, and basically supporting a husband in jail. She in no way condones his actions, and her whole heart went out to the victim's family, but she still loves her husband who caused the life of another to be no more. Her husband was recently sentenced to life in prison. I literally watched her heart ache. Prior to this marriage, my father left her a widow. I've seen my mother struggle my whole life, and now she continues to, because her husband did not think when he got behind the wheel of that vehicle. I guess what it boils to is that drunk driving is such a grand scale problem. It clearly does not only impact the victim and the drunk driver, but like many other social problems, it spreads like wildfire to effect many others who were not even involved.
Peter A. Aguilera, 595
Message No. 1596
To which Penny responded in Message No. 1701:I just wanted to say how i feel for u and your family. it's traumatic because it's an indirect way that she suffers for the actions of someone else and what do u do to take away the pain? it's similar to that of watching my mom deal with the child that she brought into this world that she'll probably never see outside of prison again. there is so much involved in these types of situations and the impact they can have on the lives of so many people. Many people don't understand it, but like u, i've lived and still am.....Penny
To which Delphene responded in Message No. 1739:Nobody can imagine the pain that drunk drivers, and people driving under the influence can cause. My great niece was six years old when she was hit by a car, that was being driven by a man that was under the influence of PCP . The results of the accident caused so much damage to her little body. All of her cousins and aunties suffered depression, grief and sorrow. Her leg had to be amputated due to the damage that was done by the truck that hit her. This man drove into the tire station where her and my sister, which is her grandmother were waiting to have the tire changed on my sister's car. To this day, she suffers also from bladder disfunction and must wear diapers. The accident happend two years ago and I can not tell you what it has done to me as well. My daughter made a story that she reads often. The name of the story she wrote is called, "The girl with the Barbie leg. My great niece name is Selenia, she is such a beautiful little girl. God has blessed her with an exceptional spirit. She had finished her treatment at Shriner's Hospital and has recieved her prosthesis (leg). She is such a trooper. Her mother suffers depression. We are constantly praying for the family. My sister was sufferig from deep depression because she feels like it was her fault that her granddaughter was hurt in her care. I must admit, I was very hesitant about babysitting my grand children. I could not visit my little grand niece in the hospital and it was a year before I could even face her. I can not tell you how my heart hurt when I did see her. This man was not accountable for the privilege that he had been given to drive. Driving is a privilege that comes with a great responsibility. I think a person that drives drunk or under the influence is showing disrespect for life. There should be stiffer penalities for people that are this irresponsible and have no understanding of how precious life is. Defensive diving, does anyone know what this entails? Yes, we are our brothers keeper. We need to restore some type of humankindness. This is what respect is really about. If you drink, don't drive!! If you smoke some type of chemicals, don't drive!!! If you don't have a drivers licenses, don't drive!!! This lack of respect causes pain that doesn't go away, it takes years to adjust to the damage that has been done.
If we provide enough naked space forums in which people are welcomed in good faith to understand one another, we learn how much we have shared of human experience. In the same community in which we find our victims we find our perpetrators, and all their families trying to put the pieces back together. This, my friends, is called restorative justice, this putting the pieces back together and healing together.
NEWS, Announcements, and
Current Discussion Topics:
Freeing Dominant Discourse
A Site Map: Click on Divisions for Table of Contents Sections
Plans for Promoting the Naked Space Exhibit:Ben Plaisted wrote:
"Ok, so we have an idea to try and drive some traffic to the exhibit on Dec. 1 and 2nd. Jeanne can you please put this on Habermas so that people there can see what we are trying to do. I agree with Penny, that we need to make some catch phrases or statements (see article below on exhibit in Austria) that will make people stop and question what they are reading. The statements don't even need to relate to the Naked Space, a sign could say "Beheaded in America?" and at the bottom naked space this way with an arrow or directions.
"The posters only need to catch people's attention. This way we are promoting the Gallery Exhibit along with making an artistic statement. So far Penny, Sawson, and Nancy have expressed an interest. All we need to do is collect phrases off of Transform from classmates (all who are interested please help) and then meet for a short time before Dec 1st and create our posters. I would estimate we need at least 20 posters to make an impact. Maybe Jeanne can give us some insight as to whether or not we will encounter resistance from administrators for our promotional campaign."
I can't see why there would be any resistance to such a noteworthy academic undertaking. Go for it. jeanne
My Weekend and Weclome to It:
jeanne and Arnold and Funny Face and Black Pharaoh and Talking Cat, all in the space where their waterbed used to be. That's virtual water around the bed (oops, NOT-bed). We mopped it all up before we laid down all the blankets and pillows and stuffed animals and whatever we could find for camping outdoors. (oops, indoors)
- Wednesday, November 17, jeanne and Pat will be available in SBS E104 for project work and activity from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.,
- then upstairs in our office from 4:00 to around 7:30 p.m. and in our office on Tuesady and Thursday from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. When we get desperate for something to eat we go to the cafeteria (the soup and pizza side), so come find us there, if you need us.
Exhibit Projects
- First Version of Table of Contents for Hypertext Poem: Freeing the Dominant Discourse
- Proposed Issues for Inclusion in Exhibit
- Exhibit Projects on Respect
- Exhibit Projects on A Nation Not Divided
- Exhibit on Campus Parking
- Exhibit Projects On Building Effective Bridges to Awareness with Agencies
- How to Produce a Project for the Naked Space Exhibit
- Coordinating Collaborative Naked Space Exhibit Project Work
- Syllabus for Graduate Seminar in Women and Poverty, Fall 2004 Sample syllabus instructions on exhibit.
Last Spring's Online Naked Space Exhibit
Freeing the Feminine Other:
Hypertext Gallery Exhibit from Fall 2004
Hypertext Project Map
Link on Section Titles for Hypertext Poem and Different Sections of Table of Contents.
- Debriefing Readings for the Hypertext Project: "Freeing the Feminine Other" Many new readings added. The discourse goes on. This material is later presented at conferences and in articles.
Joining and Participating in the Yahoo Groups
on Transforming Dominant Discourse
I know that the elections have taken time from our traditional class activities. They are important. I accept that. But PLEASE do not forget that you are responsible for following the weekly issue of Dear Habermas, AND for participating in some manner in the class and/or Transforming Dominant Discourse discussions. AND the day after the elections is the day to start getting your project for Naked Space ready. You are also responsible for checking the class rosters on Collaborative Learning Reports:
- 328cllst.htm
what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Agencies Class.
- 367cllst.htm
what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Sociology of Law Class.
- 370cllst.htm
what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Moot Court Class.
- 395cllst.htm
what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Women and Poverty Class.
- 595cllst.htm
what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Grad. Women and Poverty Class.
- Home Page for transform-dom You can read all the messageson Transforming Dominant Discourse from this page. Just click on messages in the left hand frame. You can read the messages, even if you're having difficulty signing up.
- Home Page for transspan You can read all the messages in spanish on Transforming Dominant Discourse from this page. Just click on messages in the left hand frame. You can read the messages, even if you're having difficulty signing up. And you're welcome to put up messages for friends, relatives, community messages, who want to join the discussion but are not used to the computer. You can print the responses for them later. Make technology work for freedom and democracy
- Home Page for Obesity Support
- Instructions page for joining transform_dom and transspan
- Link for joining tranform_dom:
Shared Projects for Transforming Discourse:
I Lost my Answerability Somewhere
Understanding social justice and criminal justice: Telling Police What They Want to Hear, Even if It's False Backup of Los Angeles Times Article on Confessions. Where is the naked space in the criminal justice system? Does that matter?
Life Space and The Front Porch Art Crawl
My Psychological Life Space and Welcome To It! (Thurber reference)
I have no idea why the dairy cow is there; I just know that she's important.
As we weather this election, lots of life spaces, with lots of different issues and lots of different valences or priorities, are coming together in what could become the seeds of newly transformed dominant discourse. Try using this image to color your preferences differently, resize them, rename them, and generally redraw your own life space. Then asked parents, spouses, children, friends to join with you and create a whole scrapbook of life spaces out of this election and our coming together.
Review the theory on Kurt Lewin and Psychological Life Space. It helps me understand communication lots of times. There are myriad other theories that work. As you come across them, pick the one that works best for you. You can locate stuff on James Thurber by entering James Thurber "My life and welcome to it" as a Google search. And youll find more on this topic under Rhetoric and Reason and Ideology and Governance Discourse and . . . where I accidentally started over after Halloween Trick or Treat.
The Front Porch Art Crawl Here is an example in which our Naked Space Exhibit takes on some of the same concern for an academy-community bridge as a Learning Center in St.Paul, Minnesota. This project will revolve around contacting them, adapting as much as we can from their project, and sharing our project with them.
jeanne's Lecture Notes:
Academic Support
- A Range of Sources on Global Events
Left/Right Perspectives - Cursor - New York Times - The National Review
Arts and Letters Daily - The Economist - The Sierra Club - The Guardian
Wall Street Journal - The Weekly Standard - The Nation - BBC NEWS | Americas
Indymedia - Mother Jones - BBC News - New Profile - KPFK Progressive Radio
Progressive Sociologists Network Environmental Working Group
Resource Literacy
Shared Reading Suggestions, many with templates already filled in.
Using Academic Language Effectively
|Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:
and Careers
- jeanne and the 2004 election
minor modification of Ward Sutton's NY Times drawing
- Human's Ancestral Tree Adds a Twig
See how much we "know!" So Munchkins could have been some of our ancestors. Happy Halloween and Day of the Dead.
- Tales of Halloween
Visit National Geographic for Learning and Fun
Sneaky Strokes and Flying Good Dogs
Flying Dog is also a painting by Zhang Kai. Best I've every come across to illustrate our site with magic numbers and unicorns and whipped cream cats and now, flying dogs:
Flying Good Dogs: Whenever something happens in class that works out well, that inspires you, that helps in studying, whatever, take a few minutes to send us an e-mail. We'll post it where all of us can learn from it, including other teachers.
You can also send an email to the Who to Take Site:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Individual copyrights by other authors may apply.
Flying Dog is also a painting by Zhang Kai. Best I've every come across to illustrate our site with magic numbers and unicorns and whipped cream cats and now, flying dogs:
Flying Good Dogs: Whenever something happens in class that works out well, that inspires you, that helps in studying, whatever, take a few minutes to send us an e-mail. We'll post it where all of us can learn from it, including other teachers.
You can also send an email to the Who to Take Site:


text:
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Bluff's success comes from its style of being written for real players by real poker professionals and readers enjoy the honesty and clarity in the magazine that has achieved an impressive US circulation of 250,000 in just two years.
Bluff Europe will be available in the UK and mainland Europe from March, making it Europe's first and only lifestyle magazine dedicated to the poker enthusiast.
The publishers of Bluff Europe are also in the process of acquiring additional distribution partners so that anyone in Europe can purchase a copy at major book sellers.
Features Editor, Philip Conneller, said, "We are confident that we can replicate the success achieved in the US for our readers and our advertisers."
Editor in Chief, Michael Caselli, added, "The poker lifestyle in Europe is a different animal to that in the US. Bluff Europe reflects that. Where poker goes, we will follow."


text:
|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Mar 7, 2006
|Filing date
|Nov 26, 2003
|Priority date
|Mar 29, 2000
|Fee status
|Also published as
|Publication number
|Leonid Kazakevich, Patrick Cabrol
|Original Assignee
|Interdigital Technology Corporation
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (15), Referenced by (14), Classifications (34), Legal Events (3)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/773,857, filed on Feb. 1, 2001, now Pat. No. 6,684,064 and claims priority from Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/192,528, filed on Mar. 28, 2000.
The present invention relates generally to wireless digital communication systems. More specifically, the invention relates to a system and method for dynamically biasing a radio frequency (RF) power amplifier used for transmitting wireless communications.
A digital communication system typically transmits information or data using a continuous frequency carrier with modulation techniques that vary its amplitude, frequency or phase. After modulation, the signal is amplified and transmitted over a communication medium.
A multiple-access communication system allows a plurality of subscriber units to access the same communication medium to transmit or receive information. The communication medium is commonly referred to as the communication channel, conveying information from one location to another. For RF communications, the channel is the electromagnetic frequency spectrum which extends from very low frequencies of several kHz, through the short waves of several MHz, to very high frequencies and ultrahigh frequencies extending up to several hundred MHz and into the microwave region beginning approximately at 1 GHz.
A prior art multiple access communication system is shown in
An example prior art CDMA wireless communication system is shown in
As shown, a single subchannel of a given bandwidth is mixed with a unique spreading code which repeats a predetermined pattern generated by a wide bandwidth PN sequence generator. These unique spreading codes are typically pseudo-orthogonal to one another such that the cross-correlation between the spreading codes is close to zero. A data signal is modulated with the PN sequence to produce a digital spread spectrum signal. A carrier signal is then modulated with the digital spread spectrum signal and transmitted. A receiver demodulates the transmission to extract the digital spread spectrum signal. The transmitted data is reproduced after correlation with the matching PN sequence. When the spreading codes are orthogonal to one another, the received signal can be correlated with a particular subscriber unit signal related to the particular spreading code such that only the desired subscriber unit signal related to the particular spreading code is enhanced, while the other signals for all other subscriber units are not enhanced.
Since many subchannels in a CDMA system share the same bandwidth, most prior art wireless communication systems use some form of adaptive transmit power control (TPC) to prevent one subchannel from jamming another. When a subscriber unit or a base station is receiving a specific signal, all other subchannels or subscriber units' signals appear as noise. Therefore, increasing the power level of one subscriber unit's signal increases the noise presented to all other subscriber units.
In prior art CDMA communication systems, a base station transmits a communication signal on a downlink to a particular subscriber unit. Upon reception, a qualitative signal measurement is taken and compared. Based on the comparison, a TPC signal is sent in an uplink to the base station, ordering the base station to either increase or decrease its transmit power to that particular subscriber unit. This methodology is known as forward channel power control. Conversely, power control for the transmissions sent from a subscriber unit to the base station is known as reverse channel power control.
The power level of a signal output for transmission is affected by adjusting the signal amplitude input to an RF amplifier with the TPC signal using a pre-driver stage, a variable gain amplifier, an attenuator or the like. However, the gain and bias of the amplifier remain fixed. Therefore, while the transmitted signal amplitude is increased or decreased, the operating point of the amplifier is constant.
The proposed 3rd generation wireless protocols provide wide bandwidth, high data rate communication. The proposed bandwidths are a 5 to 10 MHz communication channel. However, it is known that approximately 10 to 15 dB of fast fading occurs. For example, if a mobile subscriber unit is located at the border of a defined cell and is transmitting at maximum power, a 10 to 15 dB transmit output power margin is required for momentary increments of time. Such a condition is graphically represented in
The most common method for modulating data signals is quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) which varies a predefined carrier frequency amplitude and phase according to an input signal. The reason for the popularity is the many types of QAM (64 QAM, 256 QAM, etc.) and quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) use the available bandwidth more efficiently by including amplitude information as part of the modulation unlike frequency modulation (FM), frequency shift keying (FSK), phase shift keying (PSK), or binary phase shift keying (BPSK) that contain little or no amplitude information. In order to amplify the signal properly, the transmitter power amplifier must operate in a linear mode. The dynamic range of input signals at the modulator port can be very large. For example, in 3rd generation wireless protocols, the input signal peak to average ratio may be greater than 10 dB.
Large transient peaks are undesirable. For every 3 dB increase in transmit output power, twice the base RF amplification power in Watts is required, which may force the amplifier into a nonlinear operating region of its response curve. This results in increased out-of-band emissions and reduced amplifier efficiency. In addition, the amplifier's power source must have a capacity greater than the maximum transient that may be expected. This is particularly undesirable in hand-held battery operated devices. To design for higher power levels resulting from high transients, more complex amplifier circuitry is required. Otherwise, compromises between amplifier gain, battery life and communication time will result.
The prior art discloses many techniques to increase the efficiency of RF power amplifiers such as pre-distortion generators, envelope feedback correction and feed forward error correction. However, the remedies used in the prior art to increase RF power amplifier efficiency exacerbate existing design problems.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an RF amplifier that addresses the problems associated with the prior art.
The present invention is a subscriber unit and method that dynamically adjusts the operating bias of an RF amplifier of the subscriber unit's transmitter in response to a transmit power control (TPC) signal. The invention provides high-efficiency RF power amplification for applications where the available power source is limited. The invention uses a TPC signal resident in certain communication architectures with a detector and voltage-to-current converter to arrive at an amplifier operating bias in direct correspondence with transmitting power demand.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to dynamically adjust the operating bias of an RF amplifier in dependence upon signal amplification demand.
Other objects and advantages of the system and method will become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the detailed description of the preferred embodiment.
The embodiments will be described with reference to the drawing figures where like numerals represent like elements throughout.
Shown in
The communication signal input 20 provides an input wireless communication signal 32 ready for transmission. This input wireless communication signal 32 can comprise voice, data or any other type of wireless signal that may be transmitted by a wireless communication system.
RF amplifier 12 receives the input signal 32 and linearly increases the power of the input signal 32 to provide an output signal 38 at a greater power level. The RF amplifier 12 may comprise one or a plurality of gain stages, one or a plurality of bias adjustment means for each stage, input scaling, etc. The circuit topology of the RF amplifier 12 is beyond the scope of this disclosure.
The detector 14 removes the modulation component from the spread communication signal and provides a dc voltage output signal 28 that varies slowly with time. The detector 14 output is coupled to the first input of a voltage-to-current converter 16.
The control input 22 provides a TPC signal 26. The details regarding generation of the TPC signal 26 and/or TPC process is beyond the scope of this disclosure. Generally, however, the TPC signal 26 is derived from the base station, (or subscriber unit), performing a quantitative measurement on the transmission power of the subscriber unit, (or base station), respectively (i.e., a corresponding communicating entity). The base station or subscriber unit will transmit the TPC signal 26 to the corresponding communicating entity to direct the corresponding communicating entity to increase or decrease its power in accordance with the calculations performed by the base station or subscriber unit.
The voltage-to-current converter 16 accepts two inputs, scales the inputs and combines them to generate current output signal 30. The first input is the detector output signal 28. The second input is the TPC signal 26. The voltage-to-current converter 16 receives these inputs 26, 28 and scales, or weights, the inputs 26, 28 and combines the inputs 26, 28 in accordance with the following predetermined formula to form a current output signal 30:
VC Output Signal=(W 1 * log P)+(W 2 * log V) Equation (1)
where: P=detector output 28 signal
The current output signal 30 is coupled to one input of a current mirror 18. A feedback line 36 from the output 38 of the RF amplifier 12 is coupled to a second input of the current mirror 18. The current mirror 18 makes a comparison between the two input signals 30, 36 and outputs a bias current signal 34. As shown, the output bias current signal 34 is related both to the TPC signal 26 and the output 38 of the amplifier 12. For example, when the TPC signal 26 is high, it indicates that the base station is requesting greater transmitting power from the subscriber unit. As discussed in the prior art, the TPC signal 26 causes an appropriate increase or decrease in the power of the signals transmitted by the subscriber unit. Both the input signals 30, 36 are scaled for comparison. If the current output signal 30 is higher than the output 38 of the RF amplifier 12, the current mirror 18 increases the bias current signal 34. Likewise, if the current output signal 30 is lower than the output 38 of the RF amplifier 12, the current mirror 18 decreases the bias current signal 34.
Through the comparison process, the current mirror 18 produces greater or lesser bias current, thereby affecting the linear operating region of the RF amplifier 12. This provides additional headroom while maintaining the RF amplifier 12 in the linear operating region. When the TPC signal 26 decreases, the amplifier 12 does not require a large bias current, since high bias equates with higher power consumption. Therefore, the bias current is reduced to decrease power consumption.
Shown in
The present invention statistically outperforms prior art compensation techniques. Since the maximum power called on by the transmitter is only a small percentage of total transmit time, by dynamically tracking the TPC signal, the dynamically biased RF power amplifier of the present invention greatly improves power consumption.
While the present invention has been described in terms of the preferred embodiments, other variations which are within the scope of the invention as outlined in the claims below will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
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|Riku Ikonen
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|Feb 10, 2009
|General Electric Company
|Circuit and method for reducing bias noise in amplifier circuits
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|National Taiwan University
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|Powerwave Technologies, Inc.
|Feed forward amplifier system and method using the pilot frequency from a positive feedback pilot generation and detection circuit to improve second loop convergence
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|Feb 26, 2013
|Skyworks Solutions, Inc.
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|Skyworks Solutions, Inc.
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|System And Method For Power Detection In A Power Amplifier
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|U.S. Classification
|455/127.1, 455/69, 455/127.2, 455/126
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Nov 14, 2006
|Certificate of correction
|Aug 5, 2009
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
|Mar 14, 2013
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 8


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While many new non-invasive procedures focus on the face, Zerona® is for patients seeking body reshaping without surgery. "Zerona® utilizes cold laser technology to emulsify fat by opening pores in the fat cells and allowing the fat within the cell to be carried away by normal bodily processes," explains Dr. Richard Moore of The Lifestyle Center. "It is the first non-invasive procedure to effectively remove excess fat." Patients are scheduled for six treatments, every other day, for 45 minutes each session. Like other non-invasive technologies, Zerona is painless, requires no anesthesia and no recovery time. "The laser treatment is augmented with nutritional supplements for the best results," says Moore. "Patients are guaranteed to lose a minimum of three inches over the course of treatment, but a loss of 6-8 inches is more common. Maintenance of the results depends on an individual's lifestyle following the procedure."


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Father: Henry Leamer b: ABT 1805 in Morrison Cove, Blair County, Pennsylvania
Mother: Catherine Ketner b: ABT 1807 in Morrison Cove, Blair County, Pennsylvania
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