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Vitamin D deficiency: Beyond bone health
Each month, Clinical Advisor makes one new clinical feature available ahead of print. Don't forget to take the poll and leave comments. The results will be published in the next month's issue.
At a glance
Over the past several years, there has been much talk about vitamin D deficiency, with the debate centering around optimal levels of vitamin D; who should be screened; and, after screening, how to treat. In the past, vitamin D deficiency was associated with persons who had inadequate exposure to sunlight or who lacked access to sufficient amounts of foods containing calcium, resulting in rickets.
Over the past decade, information in the literature suggests that vitamin D deficiency may be more prevalent than first suspected and that the adverse health effects of low vitamin D levels may be far-reaching.
Vitamin D has been implicated in a variety of health-related disorders. Although the primary indication for vitamin D is maintenance of bone health, vitamin D also factors into a number of physiologic processes, such as immunity, calcium absorption, and homeostasis of various organs. Adults whose low vitamin D levels remain unresolved may experience muscle weakness, osteoporosis, osteomalacia, and increased risk of falls. Decreased vitamin D intake and lower levels of serum vitamin D have been associated with some autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, systemic lupus erythematosus, and psoriasis. In addition, low serum vitamin D levels have been linked to increased risk of hypertension, MI, and death due to cardiovascular disease (CVD).¹ Table 1 presents a list of diseases in which vitamin D has been implicated.2 According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), however, the evidence related to these diseases has been inconsistent and further research is needed. While the investigative work continues, any adverse effects of vitamin D deficiency can be avoided if persons at risk are identified, screened, and treated appropriately in a timely fashion.
Vitamin D was discovered in 1922 during the quest to cure rickets. Originally classified as a vitamin, vitamin D is actually a prohormone in the endocrine system of the skin. Vitamin D comprises a group of fat-soluble sterol compounds that includes ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3). Vitamin D2 can be obtained from UV irradiation of the yeast sterol ergosterol. It is found naturally in sun-exposed mushrooms and may be ingested from plant or fish sources. Vitamin D3 is synthesized by the skin from cholesterol under the influence of UV light and is present in oil-rich fish, such as mackerel and salmon.3 In the liver, vitamin D is hydroxylated to 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D), or calcidiol. In the kidney, calcidiol is hyroxylated to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25[OH]2D), or calcitriol. In turn, calcitriol increases intestinal absorption of calcium, enchances bone resorption, and decreases renal calcium and phosphate excretion. The function of vitamin D is to promote absorption of calcium in the intestine and to maintain adequate serum phosphate and calcium concentration in order to ensure normal bone mineralization. Without vitamin D, only 10%-15% of dietary calcium and only 60% of phosphorus is absorbed. When the level of vitamin D is sufficient, these amounts increase to 30%-40% for calcium and 80% for phosphorus. Vitamin D is also needed for bone growth and remodeling by osteoblasts and osteoclasts. The vitamin D content of various foods is presented in Table 2.
Definition and prevalence
The diagnostic test used to assess for vitamin D deficiency is a serum 25[OH]D determination. Deficiency has been defined as a serum 25(OH)D level of <20 ng/mL and insufficiency is defined as a serum 25(OH)D level of 21-29 ng/mL. According to recent estimates reported by The Endocrine Society, 20%-100% of U.S., Canadian, and European elderly men and women have vitamin D deficiency, 50% of Hispanic and black adolescents in Boston are deficient, 48% of white preadolescent girls in Maine have vitamin D levels <20 ng/mL, and 42% of black females aged 15-49 years have levels of <15 ng/mL by the end of winter.3 Other levels of vitamin D and the associated health implications are shown in Table 3.
The primary cause of vitamin D deficiency is lack of exposure to sunlight, with exposure defined as sun shining on the arms and legs for five to 30 minutes between the hours of 10 AM and 3 PM twice a week. Keep in mind that application of sunscreen with a sun protective factor (SPF) of 30 decreases the synthesis of vitamin D by 95%. Other causes of vitamin D deficiency include obesity (BMI >30), fat malabsorption syndromes, nephrotic syndrome, hyperparathyroidism, some lymphomas, and HIV/AIDS.
Among the primary benefits of adequate amounts of vitamin D are decreased risk of fracture and prevention of falls in older adults. According to research from Canada, inadequate levels of vitamin D (levels <20 ng/mL) have been linked an increased risk (30%-50%) of colon, breast, and prostate cancer.4
Guidelines for evaluation of vitamin D deficiency
In 2009, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) published guidelines on the evaluation and treatment of vitamin D deficiency,5 and in 2011, The Endocrine Society provided its own recommendations that also included prevention of vitamin D deficiency.3 Both organizations provided comprehensive guidelines on which patients to screen. However, a side-by-side comparison of these recommendations (Table 4) reveals some distinct differences. Also included in Table 4 are this author's recommendations of which of the patients seen in general practice should be screened. The AHRQ included in its recommendations the assessments that comprise an appropriate physical examination. These include general appearance, height and weight, vital signs, overall skin evaluation, skin color, and assessment of bone pain by pressing on the area over the sternum or shin. In addition to a serum 25(OH)D level, other laboratory studies that should be obtained to assess general bone health include a comprehensive metabolic panel, liver function tests, and thyroid-stimulating hormone, calcium phosphorus, protein, intact parathyroid hormone, albumin, alkaline phosphatase, creatinine, total testosterone, serum C-telopeptide, urinary N-telopeptide, and serum osteocalcin determinations. | <urn:uuid:da5bb333-a11f-483f-a9a1-5b6f6488ae42> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/features/vitamin-d-deficiency-beyond-bone-health/article/254682/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818689823.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20170924010628-20170924030628-00196.warc.gz | en | 0.922117 | 1,384 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Tell el-Rub’a (Mendes)
Near to the modern village of el-Simbellawin, to the south-east of el-Mansura, are the ruins of a double city known to the Greeks as Mendes and Thmuis and today called Tell el-Rub’a and Tell el-Timai. Mendes was the capital of the 16th Lower Egyptian nome, known in ancient Egyptian as Per-Banebdjedet. The city was the cult centre of the ram-god Banebdjedet, (literally, ‘Ram [or manifestation], Lord of Djedet’) and was said to be the home of Dynasty XXIX kings, who may have had their royal residence there. Today the sites are represented by two mounds, several hundred metres apart, the southern and more ruined mound covering the city of Thmuis which replaced Mendes as nome capital in Graeco-Roman times.
The nome capital of Per-Banebdjedet is mentioned as early as Dynasty IV in ancient texts – the original deity being the goddess Hat-mehit (mother of Horus in the Triad of Mendes), who was increasingly replaced during the Old Kingdom by her consort Banebdjedet. The oldest surviving monuments date to the late Old Kingdom and consist of a settlement, including remains of a temple and a necropolis of mastaba tombs. Herodotus, the Greek historian who visited Egypt around 450 BC, mentioned the sacrifice of goats at Mendes, in contrast to the use of sheep elsewhere in Egypt, though it is possible that he mistook the sacred ram for a goat.
The temple precinct of the ram-god at Tell el-Rub’a was recorded by an Arab geographer, Subh el-A’sha in the 15th century AD, as being intact up to the roof, but there are now few remains. The only part of the temple to be seen today is dated to Ahmose II (Amasis) of Dynasty XXVI, and attested from foundation deposits found at the site. It is now suggested that this may have been built over earlier temples, as foundation pits of Dynasty XVIII and a few isolated granite blocks bearing the names of Rameses II, Merenptah and Rameses III have been found around the precinct as well as remains possibly dating to the Middle Kingdom or First Intermediate Period. A fortress known as ‘Rawaty’ is known to have been constructed at Mendes during the reign of Amenemhet I of Dynasty XII. The main temple building was oriented north to south and covered an area of 70m by 120m, where a monolithic red granite naos, almost 8m high, survives alone standing above its surrounding pavement to mark the once sacred site. This was one of four shrines in the temple dedicated by Ahmose II to Re, Geb, Shu and Osiris, gods with which the Ram of Mendes became associated. The temple was later restored by Ptolemy II Philadelphus and papyrus capitals of red granite and a granite Hathor capital (now in Cairo Museum), belonged to a birth-house at the side of the temple. A sacred lake was situated to the south-east outside the main temple enclosure and there is also evidence of a harbour complex.
Little else is left of the temple, its enclosure walls are not well-preserved and only a few fragments have been found. Excavations during the 1970s and 1980s revealed settlement remains from Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods and several North American expeditions including the University of Toronto (led by Professor Donald Redford) and the University of Pennsylvania have continued work at Mendes, uncovering much of the Old Kingdom necropolis. There have also been a number of New Kingdom fragments found in the surrounding area – but it is possible that these may have been removed from Per-Rameses (Qantir) after the abandonment of that city.
At the south-east corner of the temple precinct are remains of royal tombs of Dynasty XXIX, including Nephrites I (Baenre Merynetjeru), which were subsequently destroyed by the Persians.
Around 12km to the north of Tell el-Rub’a another archaeological site at the village of Tell Tebilla is currently undergoing excavation. The mound dates from at least as early as the Old Kingdom, when the town may have provided a harbour for Mendes with access to the coast, and appears to have been occupied as a settlement during many periods of Egyptian history. Excavations by a team from the University of Toronto under the direction of Dr Gregory Mumford have uncovered settlement areas with a temple and several cemeteries. The temple appears to have been dedicated to the Osirian Triad as well as other deities.
For full excavation details of Tell Tebilla see the SEPE (Survey and Excavation Projects in Egypt) website.
How to get there
The easiest route to Tell el-Rub’a is by the road leading south-east of el-Mansura, about 25km to the village of el-Simbellawin. From here, follow a track for around 15km to Tell el-Rub’a. | <urn:uuid:15f1d89e-66ba-4b3e-b14d-e4ad8a03228f> | CC-MAIN-2016-50 | https://egyptsites.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/tell-el-ruba-mendes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698542693.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170902-00234-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977707 | 1,095 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Use this PowerPoint slide show to play "Is it a Forest" in your classroom!
Complete with forest and non-forest photos, try your student's out as to what makes a forest. Perfect for introducing concepts around forests, mapping, distributions, landscapes, sustainability, environmental adaptations and more! All forests are then used within the forests of Australia distribution map to show where they are found around Australia.
Acknowledgement - Thanks to our friends at the University of Melbourne, School of Environment for providing the inspiration for this gameshow.
The different types of landscapes and their distinctive landform features.
The distribution and characteristics of biomes as regions with distinctive climates, soils, vegetation and productivity.
Present findings, arguments and ideas in a range of communication forms selected to suit a particular audience and purpose, using geographical terminology and digital technologies as appropriate.
The human-induced environmental changes that challenge sustainability.
The application of systems thinking to understanding the causes and likely consequences of the environmental change being investigated
The application of geographical concepts and methods to the management of the environmental change being investigated
The application of environmental economic and social criteria in evaluating management responses to the change
Develop geographically significant questions and plan an inquiry that identifies and applies appropriate geographical methodologies and concepts. | <urn:uuid:e74dc12f-f78f-416a-a5a9-af72106e1923> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://forestlearning.edu.au/find-a-resource/article/101/is-it-a-forest-gameshow.html?session=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710777.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20221130225142-20221201015142-00327.warc.gz | en | 0.900271 | 312 | 3.890625 | 4 |
Stress Management Therapy and Stress Counseling
Stress Management Therapy: Stress can be defined as a state of mental and emotional strain resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances. Stress can also come from within – for example, from experiencing negative thoughts or anxiety.
Severe and long-term stress can have a negative effect on your daily life. Chronic stress for years can cause significant mental strain and long-term health problems, which is why it’s important to seek help if you’re experiencing severe or chronic stress.
Treatments include stress management therapy, stress counseling and stress management counseling, CBT for stress, and other stress relief therapy.
What is stress?
Stress is a natural bodily reaction that occurs in response to any changes in your life that require a response or adjustment. Stress can come in many forms such as emotional, physical and mental stress. Experiencing stress is a normal part of life, and you can feel stressed from a range of situations such as your environment, your thoughts, and your body. It is not only negative situations which cause stress. You can experience stress in relation to positive life changes as well, such as the birth of a baby, getting a mortgage, or getting a promotion.
Everyone experiences stress and stressful situations in their lives. But how you are affected by these depend on your ability to learn to manage them and get through tough times in your life.
The causes of stress
As every person is a unique individual, we all perceive and manifest stress in different ways. However, research has shown that over 85% of adults in the UK experience stress regularly, and 39% admitted that they feel overwhelmed by stress in their day to day lives.
With over a third of UK residents stating that they feel stressed for a least one full day a week, it is clear that stress plays a big part in our lives. The most common cause of stress in the UK are finances. This is followed by work, health concerns, failing to get enough sleep, and household chores.
Some other common causes of stress include:
- Illness and injury
- Emotional problems
- Caring commitments
- Traumatic events
- Unrealistic expectations of yourself
- Uncertainty about the future
- Your attitude and perceptions about your life
- Not adapting well to changes
The symptoms of stress
The symptoms of stress present themselves differently from person to person. However, the most common symptoms of stress include an increase in breathing rate, muscle tension and a slower metabolism. Chronic stress and high blood pressure is also common. Additional physical symptoms include:
- Feeling sick
- Weight changes
- Lack of sleep
- Muscle pain
- Hair loss
- Digestive troubles
- Chest pain
- High blood pressure
- Pins and needles
- Getting ill more often
If you are stressed, you may also experience emotional reactions as well. These emotional reactions may include:
- Difficulties concentrating
- Feeling insecure
- Being forgetful
The effects of chronic stress on your health
When you feel stressed your body produces a hormone called cortisol. Stress becomes chronic when you face continuous challenges without relaxation or relief between feeling stressed. With chronic stress for years, cortisol builds up in your body and the body’s autonomic nervous system becomes activated. This stress response is also called the “fight or flight response”. This fight or flight response is often activated in the event of an emergency, however, it can also be chronically activated during long periods of feeling stressed. This causes emotional and physical wear and tear on the body.
Chronic stress for years can also lead to a condition that is called distress. Distress is defined as a negative stress reaction. If you are experiencing distress your body’s internal balance, or equilibrium, will be affected. This can lead you to experience physical symptoms such as chest pain, headaches, stomach-ache, high blood pressure, problems sleeping and sexual problems. Distress can also lead to emotional problems such as panic attacks, depression, anxiety and worry.
Research suggests that long-term stress can also bring on or worsen certain symptoms or diseases. Stress can exacerbate heart problems, respiratory conditions and digestive issues. Stress is seen to be linked to six leading causes of death such as cancer, heart disease, accidents, lung problems, liver cirrhosis, and suicide. It can also cause long-term muscle tension, leading to a higher chance of getting injured during physical exertion.
If you engage in compulsive behaviours or use of substances to relieve your stress, you may be making your stress worse and more harmful. Substances and behaviours include alcohol, food, tobacco, drugs, gambling, sex, and shopping. These items tend to cause more problems and keeps the body in a state of stress. This then causes you to become trapped in a vicious cycle.
Online stress counseling and stress management therapy
Online stress counseling and stress management counseling allows you to seek out the root cause of your chronic stress and high blood pressure and to work on ways to manage it. Stress counseling and stress relief therapy works to help you explore the causes of your stress, such as stress created by family, work, and past experiences. With stress therapy, counsellors work with you to understand what you are doing to maintain your high stress levels and work with you to develop stress reduction techniques. This is to promote healthier patterns of living.
As the causes and symptoms of your stress are unique to you, during your stress management counseling, your stress therapist should tailor your therapy to you and what you are experiencing. Research has shown that online therapy is just as effective as traditional face-to-face therapy and comes with added benefits such as there being no need to travel or to book time off from other commitments such as work.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for stress
One of the most widely used types of stress therapy is cognitive behavioural therapy. The focus of cognitive behavioural therapy is not on external events, but instead on the way in which our thoughts affect how we feel. For example, it’s not the situation that determines how you feel, but your perception of it.
Your stress therapist will help you to address the negative patterns and distortions in how you look at yourself and the world. Seeing a stress therapist with this type of therapy can enable you to explore how your negative thoughts contribute and build on your stress levels, along with how your behaviour and reactions can also trigger it. CBT for stress can also enable you to challenge your thoughts. This is where your stress therapist helps you to challenge your negative thinking patterns and replace them with more positive ones which helps to lower your stress levels. This involves working with your therapist to identify any key negative thoughts that you experience when you start to feel stress. With CBT for stress, you then evaluate the thoughts and question the evidence of them, for example, is the thought realistic? The last step is to then replace the negative thoughts with more positive and accurate ones.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
This approach of stress relief therapy uses methods such as yoga, meditation, and mind-body exercises to help you to learn how to cope with stress. It aims to give you greater clarity on what if happening in your life and enable you to explore patterns of thinking, feeling, behaviour and action. MSBR has been shown to have beneficial effects such as relaxation, stress reduction, and improved quality of life. MSBR usually takes place as weekly group sessions, however, you may be able to find sessions online.
If you’re experiencing chronic stress, you may find it useful to spend more time in nature. Spending time outdoors, exercising outdoors, and being around animals have been proven to have multiple positive effects. These effects include improvements in mood, reduction in stress and anger, feeling more relaxed, improved self-esteem and confidence, and improved physical health. You may find it useful to go for a walk through woodland, do some gardening, or help with conservation efforts. You may also find complementary therapies such as yoga and massage useful in reducing your stress levels. These complementary therapies are designed to work alongside your stress therapy.
There are also various medications which are available to help to reduce and manage your symptoms of stress. These include sleeping tablets if you’re having trouble sleeping, antidepressants if you’re also experiencing depression or anxiety, and medication to treat the physical symptoms of stress such as high blood pressure or irritable bowl syndrome.
How Psychologyhelp can help you
At Psychologyhelp, you can speak with a therapist online about stress therapy within 24 hours of sending your request. However, responses to completed forms on the website and initial emails are likely to be replied to faster than this.
At Psychologyhelp, we will always match you with a qualified therapist who specialises in the issue that you’re experiencing. This is so you know that you’re receiving the best therapy possible for your stress. We have therapists that are especially experienced in dealing with stress and the symptoms of stress. Some of the other areas that our therapists have experience in also include: | <urn:uuid:4883e805-22a4-4d9e-a8b5-b83c237e114c> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://www.psychologyhelp.com/stress-management-counseling-therapy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347439213.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20200604063532-20200604093532-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.95291 | 1,859 | 2.8125 | 3 |
This International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating women inventors, how they’ve changed the world, and how they’re inspiring the next generation. Microsoft is marking this year’s celebration with the #MakeWhatsNext campaign, which aims to inspire young women around the world to become the next great inventors. A new campaign video shows the lack of awareness girls today have about women inventors, reminding them to celebrate those women’s accomplishments and to be encouraged to follow in their footsteps. You can also learn more about this on Microsoft News Center. In addition to this campaign, we’ve rounded up a list of ways you can join in and celebrate the day with us.
International Women’s Day 2016: What are you going to make?
Ask Cortana to give you a fact about women’s history
Cortana knows a lot of interesting facts about women’s history. Simply say, “Give me a women’s history fact” and Cortana will deliver an inspirational fact about an awesome woman.
Take a quiz about famous firsts in women’s history
Bing put together a quiz to test your knowledge in famous firsts for Women’s History Month—check it out here. Feel free to share your results on Facebook or Twitter, and invite your friends to take the quiz, too.
Jump into action with these women-led films
From the pages of history to the silver screen, and historical fiction to science fiction, strong female characters have led the charge, taken care of business, and inspired generations in every era. The Women of Action movie collection in the Windows Store brings together a powerful group of titles from ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ to ‘Alien,’ ‘Lucy,’ and ‘The Hunger Games’ franchise.
Celebrate women in music
When it comes to music, women have always brought us incredibly rich songs of love, heartache, defiance, optimism, and friendship. Whether you’re a Taylor Swift super-fan, an Adele aficionado, or can’t get enough of Beyoncé, our Women Who Rock music collection delivers the best of today and yesterday from some of the world’s top female artists.
Learn with Bing in the Classroom
In honor of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, Bing is celebrating the monumental contribution women have made in a host of industries. The Bing team created a series of exciting lesson plans designed to enlighten students about the impact women are making in fields such as world leaders, computer science, and aviation, to name a few. Check out Bing in the Classroom for Teachers and Students.
Check out the Bing homepage
A memorial wall to women in Konak, Izmir, Turkey (© Cem Oksuz/Getty Images)
As part of International Women’s Day activities last year, a wall in the shape of a woman’s face was built along the Gulf of Izmir in Konak, Turkey. This aerial image will grace the Bing homepage in Brazil, Mexico, Great Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Canada, and Spain.
It’s important to recognize the achievements and contributions women have made around the world, and it’s just as important to encourage young women to know they can be among the next generation of inventors. To learn more about the #MakeWhatsNextCampaign visit MakeWhatsNext.com. | <urn:uuid:f78e2e9b-1fe6-4298-a623-76b71eae883c> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/03/08/celebrating-international-womens-day/?WT.mc_id=DX_MVP4025064 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662522309.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20220518183254-20220518213254-00708.warc.gz | en | 0.920329 | 731 | 2.859375 | 3 |
As an educator, you’re training students to become the engineers who build the future and find ways to sustain and improve life through technology. Students need to produce professional results from design exercises without sacrificing theoretical learning. Good educators foster a rich learning environment while providing tools for students and researchers to use that help rather than hinder. You need cutting edge tools and technology to be prepared for a new tomorrow.
Build a Consistent Lab Program
When principles of electronics design and analyses are being taught, students need to be able to focus on theory while reinforcing what they are learning through experience. The tool can’t get in the way and must be stress-free and intuitive to use. Built-in simulation and stress-free design capture are key to learning success; you need EDA software that supports student activity without being a barrier.
Get rapid results in circuit analysis and simulation
With all the essential simulation models, our design tools allow users to rapidly build and reuse simulation-ready circuits
- Everything needed to carry a design from concept, through simulation and analysis, to PCB design implementation is linked and synced.
Learn More about Unified Components
- Try different circuit configurations quickly and easily for experimentation, right inside the project schematics.
Learn More about Compile Masks
- Quickly and easily add new SPICE2, SPICE3, SPICE3f5, XSPICE, Digital SimCode, and PSPICE models to any components.
Learn More about Adding SPICE Models to Components
- Simulate different circuit variations and confirm technical analyses with circuit behavior. From Parameter Sweep, DC, Steady State, and more. Vary circuit parameters using simple to complex dependant formulas.
Learn More about Global Parameters and Parametric Hierarchy
Get Designing Fast
Final research and design projects can be exciting, but getting all the design math, modeling, and technical analyses done and documented fully is stressful enough. The last thing you need is to be bogged down with having to learn difficult design software when you’re on a time crunch to get your assignments handed in.
Get design work done without losing project focus
Altium Designer is built from the ground up to speed up the design process and lower barriers to productivity
- Intuitive shortcuts and commands that match common desktop software.
Learn More about the Altium Designer Environment
- Interactive help system that tracks the current operation and provides context sensitive help and shortcut lists.
Learn More about Getting Help
- A plethora of free online videos to show you how to get the most out of the software.
Learn More about the Training Center
Design for the Real World
All the theory in the world doesn’t do any good until it’s applied to real-world problems. Today’s design and engineering students are in this business to solve problems, make the world a better place, and pursue the thrill of creating something new. It makes sense to leverage tools built with the same goal in mind to constantly improve and make things better in electronics design.
Keep pushing the boundaries of technology
A history and tradition of innovation, introducing new technology years ahead of our competition that makes a huge difference to the productivity of our customers, while enabling cutting edge technology to be developed.
- Mechanical and electronic co-design (mechatronics), with Native 3D PCB design and 3D video simulation and outputs.
Learn More about Native 3D
- Flexible circuit and rigid-flex PCB design.
Learn More about Rigid-Flex
- Embedded components and multi-layer complex stackups.
Learn More about Embedded Components and Advanced Layer Stacks | <urn:uuid:03ba2fdc-12c8-4f40-8612-9fd761bd3c69> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.altium.com/solutions/by-industry/education | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281426.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00514-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.887786 | 745 | 3.046875 | 3 |
This past week the Kindergarten and First grade stepped out of their shells to learn all about our friends in the reptile and amphibian community. As part of a special program at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park, the students spoke with a nature expert about the variety of amphibious and reptilian wildlife in our communities. We learned about the differences between the animal cousins and used to visuals to develop a further understanding of the frog lifestyle. Following our lesson in the classroom, we went on a nature hike to put our knowledge to the test! It was a wonderful morning of biological learning! Check out the pictures on our Facebook page! | <urn:uuid:8071c139-7846-450e-a4b7-41d92364d444> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://www.thenewtonschool.org/news/reptiles-amphibians/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250604397.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20200121132900-20200121161900-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.947527 | 128 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Search The Library's Lexicon
Special damages are one actually sustained, rather than implied by law. They are either added to general damages arising from an act injurious in itself; such as when some particular loss arises from the uttering of slanderous words, actionable in themselves; or are such as arise from an act not actionable in itself, but injurious only in its consequences; such as when the words become actionable only by reason of special damage ensuing. To constitute special damage, the legal and natural consequence must arise from the tort - not from a mere wrongful act of a third person or a remote consequence.
Pleading. As distinguished from the gist of the action, signify that special damage which is stated to result from the gist; e.g., if a plaintiff in an action of trespass for breaking his close, entering his house, and tossing his goods about were to state that he was obliged to seek lodging elsewhere due to the damage done to his house.
Sometimes the special damage is said to constitute the gist of the action itself; e.g., in an action wherein the plaintiff declares for slanderous words which of themselves are not a sufficient ground or foundation for the suit, but if any particular damage result to the plaintiff from the speaking of them, that damage is properly said to be the gist of the action.
But whether special damage be the gist of the action, or only collateral to it, it must be particularly stated, as the plaintiff will not otherwise be permitted to go into evidence of it at the trial, because the defendant cannot also be prepared to answer it. | <urn:uuid:998764f5-27b1-4f08-8154-e199343330f3> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.lectlaw.com/def/d099.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997888216.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025808-00221-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967872 | 324 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Unpaid Work (Census 96) 1996
A full list of the definitions and terms used in the 1996 Census of Population and Dwellings is contained in the report An Introduction to the Census of Population and Dwellings. Refer to Statistics New Zealand for a complete list of concepts, definitions and classifications.
Access to a telephone
Area of usual residence
Available for work
Census night address
Cigarette smoking behaviour
Country of birth
De facto marriage
De facto population
Duration of residence in New Zealand
A dwelling is any building or structure, or part thereof, that is used (or intended to be used) for the purpose of human habitation. It can be of a permanent, temporary or even mobile nature and includes structures such as motels, hotels, hospitals, prisons, motor homes, huts, and tents.
At the highest level, dwellings are classified as private or non-private. A private dwelling accommodates a person or a group of people, but is not available to the public. Included are: houses, flats, and apartments; residences attached to a business or institution; baches, cribs and huts; garages; caravans, cabins and tents; vehicles; vessels; or dwellings of the above types that are under construction.
All other dwellings are non-private and are available to the public. They may be available for use either generally, or by virtue of occupation or study, special need, or legal requirement. Such dwellings may have facilities (such as a dining room) which are for shared use. These dwellings include: hotels and motels; guest houses and boarding houses; hostels; public and private hospitals; homes for the elderly; educational, welfare, religious and charitable institutions; prisons and penal institutions; defence establishments; work camps, staff quarters and seasonal quarters; motor camps; and other communal dwellings. If this type of accommodation includes units that are designed for the exclusive use (temporarily) of one or more people, the units are considered to be part of the non-private dwelling and not separate non-private dwellings. Private residences that are attached to non-private dwellings are, however, considered to be separate private dwellings.
Highest school qualification
Hours of unpaid work outside the home
Hours worked in employment
Income (total income)
Inlets and harbours, oceanic waters and islands
Job search methods
Labour force participation rate
Labour force status
The relationships (marital, familial, and non-familial) the respondent has to all the people with whom he or she usually resides.
Living arrangements response categories:
· legal husband or wife
· partner or de facto, girlfriend or boyfriend
· other persons (such as flatmates)
· none of these.
Looked for paid work
Main means of travel to work
Means of cooking in a dwelling
Means of cooking in a dwelling refers to the types of fuel or energy used for cooking in a dwelling.
Means of heating dwelling
Means of water heating in a dwelling
A non-private dwelling is one in which a number of generally unrelated people (either individuals or families) live. Such dwellings are available to the public and include institutions and group-living quarters. Examples of non-private dwellings are hotels, motels, hospitals, prisons, school hostels, motor camps, boarding houses, ships and trains. Non-private establishments usually have common cooking and dining facilities. Lounge room and dormitories can also be shared by the occupants. Refer definition of Dwelling.
Number of children
Number of inmates or guest occupants
Number of occupants
Number of rooms/bedrooms
Overseas visitor population
Permanent private dwelling
Place of residence
Population resident in New Zealand
Population usually resident in area
Post school qualifications
A private dwelling is any building or structure that is used (or intended to be used) for the purpose of human habitation, but is not available to the public, A private dwelling (either permanent or temporary) accommodates a person or a group of persons. Included are: houses, flats, and apartments; residences attached to a business or institution; baches, cribs and huts; garages; caravans, cabins and tents; vehicles; vessels; or dwellings of the above types that are under construction. Refer definition of Dwelling.
Sector of landlord
Sector of landlord is the section of the economy which best describes the owner of the dwelling (as selected by the respondent from the options listed in the question).
Status in employment
Temporarily absent (household and family statistics)
Temporary private dwelling
Tenure of dwelling
Total fertility rate
Total household income
The basis of total population statistics is the de facto "population present" at the place of enumeration on census night. Members of the New Zealand armed forces serving overseas at the census date are excluded, as well as New Zealand residents who are temporarily out of the country on census night. Visitors from overseas in New Zealand on census night are included in the census count.
Unemployed and seeking work
A person's usual residence is the address of the dwelling or place where the person considers himself or herself to live except in the specific cases listed below:
· A person from another country who has lived, or intends to live, in New Zealand for 12 months or more is considered to usually reside at his or her address in New Zealand.
· People who board at another residence to attend primary or secondary school, and return to their parents' or guardians' home for the holidays, are considered to usually reside at the address of their parent(s) or guardian(s). Post-secondary students are considered to usually reside at the address where they live while studying.
· People who are in a rest home, hospital, prison or other institution, are considered to usually reside where they consider themselves to live.
· A person whose home is on any ship, boat or vessel permanently located in any harbour is considered to usually reside at the wharf or landing place (or main wharf or landing place) of the harbour.
· People who spend time residing at more than one residence are recorded as usually resident where they consider themselves to live. Children in joint custody are considered to usually reside at the place where they spend most nights, or if they spend equal amounts of time at each residence, they usually reside at the place where they are on census night.
People of no fixed abode are considered to have no usual residence.
Usual residence five years ago
Year of arrival in New Zealand
Years lived at usual residence | <urn:uuid:091d3fd4-9447-4aa1-b308-894b9e37af30> | CC-MAIN-2015-27 | http://www2.stats.govt.nz/domino/external/pasfull/pasfull.nsf/7cf46ae26dcb6800cc256a62000a2248/4c2567ef00247c6acc256b6d000301b5?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=107%2C102%2C64%2C57%2C23%2C80%2C90%2C52 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375095270.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031815-00026-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928298 | 1,356 | 2.84375 | 3 |
The United States driving population is steadily aging, with reports estimating that there will be approximately 38 million drivers older than age 70 on roads in the U.S. by the year 2020 (5). Mature driver involvement in fatal crashes is projected to increase 155% by 2030, accounting for over half (54%) of the total projected increase in fatal crashes among drivers of all ages (5). Getting older can be seen as a handicap to some, especially in terms of driving ability. Mature drivers are often at a disadvantage cognitively, socially and physically in comparison to other drivers. Because of declining health, it can be increasingly difficult for older drivers to safely perform necessary driving tasks. Common challenges that can arise include poor depth perception, slow reaction times and pedal errors. However, many older drivers do not want to give up the independence that possessing a driver’s license affords them and therefore may fail to acknowledge any difficulties they face while driving.
Previous research has provided numerous variables as possible explanations for the over-representation of this population in crash statistics, be it behavioral, physical or neurological. An individual’s executive function, which is described as cognitive processing in which actions are organized in goal-oriented behavior, declines as they get older, which can make mentally challenging tasks such as driving, much more difficult. Freund and Smith (2011) point out that, “driving presents an interesting set of conditions… requiring the driver to have intact abilities to make novel and sometimes split-second judgments and decisions” (p. 342). In their assessment of the relationships between cognitive abilities and simulated driving performance in drivers age 55 and older, Anderson, Rizzo, Shi, Uc, and Dawson (2005) found that “weaknesses in certain cognitive abilities, including visuomotor abilities, executive functions, and memory, were particularly associated with poorer driving and increased the risk of crashing” (pp. 289).
Older drivers’ decline in physical abilities is also thought to contribute a great deal to this populations’ crash risk, with possible countermeasures suggesting avoidance of highways and more complex driving environments by this group. Freund and Smith (2011) explain that muscle strength and tone deteriorate with decreased physical activity, which is common in older adults, can cause “slowed reaction time and additional loss of coordination” (pp. 348). Also, joint conditions, which are common in older adults, can affect a driver’s ability to move certain parts of their bodies, turn the steering wheel or use the pedals. Changes in vision are common in older adults because the lens of the eye loses elasticity over time. Around one-third (30%) of adults 65 years old or older, have some level of visual impairment (7). This can make it difficult to focus on objects that are close by and adapt to changes in the light. Eye diseases are also much more frequent in this age population. Roughly 20% of adults over the age of 65 has a cataract and the risk of developing one is 50% after the age of 75 (8).
In terms of behavior, Trick, Toxopeus and Wilson (2010) found that older driver’s driving speed was significantly reduced during events where fog was present, in high-density traffic and general navigation. This may speak to older drivers’ diminished ability to handle complex driving situations. However, because those variables could potentially negatively affect the driving of even the most well-trained motorists, it highlights the fact that the potential collision risks are most likely exacerbated among mature drivers. Interestingly, Adrian, Postal, Moessinger, Rascle and Charles (2011) found that cognitive score was in fact, not predictive of driving performance, but did note that in terms of personality, older drivers with a high level of extroversion exhibited worse driving performance. The researchers go on to explain that extroverted mature drivers may take more risks, display an over confidence in their abilities and “act more hurriedly” when operating their vehicle (p. 1656).
Left-hand turn maneuvers at intersections in particular, seem to be present in many of the collisions for this driving population. Because these crash types are not as prevalent in other age groups of drivers, research has been aimed towards analyzing the behavior of mature drivers for an explanation. Charlton, Catchlove, Scully, Koppel and Newstead (2012) examined the behaviors of older drivers in a naturalistic driving study in Australia and concluded that this driving population were selective in their behavior and, “engaged less in secondary activities at uncontrolled intersections…compared with less demanding maneuvers”(pp. 276). While this may suggest that mature drivers are self-regulating their behavior and therefore lessening distraction, results may differ in an environment with a signalized intersection. Signalized intersections lessen the burden on the driver by informing them when to go and when to stop, and this can lower driver’s awareness and present the opportunity for distraction. However, Chichino and McCartt (2015) found the most common older driver errors to be “inadequate surveillance and misjudgment of the length of a gap between vehicles or of another vehicle’s speed” and noted that about “66% of older drivers’ inadequate surveillance errors and 77% of their gap or speed misjudgment errors, were made when turning left at intersections” (pp. 211).
Various training techniques have been explored and considered for their potential to improve the driving performance of mature adults. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2013) reported on the findings of a research study that examined the effectiveness of occupational therapy, classroom driver education, physical conditioning and computer-based exercises on improving the driving technique of older adults. The occupational therapy based visual skills training was found to have the greatest effect in terms of improvement in driving ability (10). However, the report also notes that physical conditioning can result in benefits to a person’s health and wellness that extends well beyond improved driving performance and computer-based exercises may appeal to mature drivers because they are convenient and fairly inexpensive.
The success of graduated licensing for other driving groups, such as teen drivers, serves as a foundation of support of the potential for reducing crash frequency and severity among older drivers (9). Establishing licensing policies within states that focuses on the specific cognitive and physical assessment of older drivers, may help to reduce crashes in this population. State’s programs could begin with a systematic approach, that identifies high risk drivers by age, but then offer case-by-case reviews that are based on a driver’s current individual ability. Seeking input from the mature driving population would be helpful in the development of these policies, to ensure the needs of these drivers are being met. Many states have already adopted some version of graduated licensing (or de-licensing) as an option for improving older driver safety. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, a total of 33 states and the District of Columbia have special provisions in place for mature drivers (Connecticut is one of these states). They include things such as restriction of online renewals and the requirement of reoccurring vision tests.
National organizations have also begun to develop programs and provide resources that can help keep mature drivers safe on the road. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s website contains an online database of state’s driver licensing policies and practices affecting older or medically-at-risk drivers. Users can select from a drop down list to view how each state addresses various issues that can affect older drivers (6). AARP also provides state specific information to drivers on their website, such as how to drive safely during the winter time and holiday traffic. In addition, links display the latest news on emerging autonomous vehicles and the potential for utilizing them as alternative methods of transportation (6). Resources such as these can serve two purposes: 1) the education of mature drivers; and 2) support and encouragement of their independence. Some older drivers may continue to operate their vehicle despite issues of safety because they are not aware that there are resources available to them. With these online tools, they can not only recognize for themselves what limitations they have in terms of driving ability but make their own decision to find alternatives that best suit their needs and lifestyle.
2 thoughts on “Mature Drivers”
Lovely bblog you have | <urn:uuid:c954636d-b4b5-4948-b6f1-6066a5b195f8> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://driversbehavingbadly.blog/2017/01/23/mature-drivers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949181.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20230330101355-20230330131355-00204.warc.gz | en | 0.96318 | 1,719 | 3.203125 | 3 |
THE RELEVANCE OF BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS IN MODERN ERA IS TREMENDOUS. These teachings are always relevant. These are never outdated.
RELEVANCE OF BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS IN MODERN ERA.
Recently a friend asked this question. In order to arrive at a conclusion, we will analyze the teachings in detail. These teachings are a way to solve the problems of suffering in day to day life.
All the feelings of pleasure and suffering arise and cease in every human mind.
Actually, the problem is that due to ignorance we fail to understand the actual reasons for suffering. Lord Buddha taught to contemplate the following four conditions.
1. What is suffering?
2. What is it causes.
3. How to end them.
4. The way leading to end them.
The suffering arises from the human nature of grasping and attach. Certainly, the worldly phenomena have a nature of constant changes. Due to ignorance to accept this universal reality we try to cling the conditions we like. On the other hand, we develop a feeling of aversion for the conditions which we dislike. Specifically, we do not accept this universal nature of all the worldly phenomena. Therefore, a mental feeling of suffering arises and cease constantly.
CAUSES OF SUFFERING:
He had taught the perception of not self. He emphasizes that neither our body nor the other things belong to us. All the human being are attached to the idea of self. The attachment of self-caused the mental feeling of suffering.
END OF SUFFERING:
In order to end suffering, we would have to accept the fact of not-self. It is a true fact that every human body belongs to nature. It comprises the five aggregates of earth, water, air, fire, and space. This true understanding will certainly help us to end all of the mental feelings of suffering.
THE WAY LEADING TO END THEM:
We would certainly, be able to overcome this problem by following THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH taught by him.
We would have to follow the path by developing the right awareness and wisdom. | <urn:uuid:5ab6bd99-f20e-40b0-bf80-750543f82a13> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://krishnalakhotia.com/relevance-buddha-teaching/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195525524.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20190718063305-20190718085305-00552.warc.gz | en | 0.939925 | 447 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The Leeb (also known as an Equotip) test is a modern electronic version of the Scleroscope. It uses a carbide ball hammer that is spring rather than gravity powered. An electronic sensor measures the velocity of the hammer as it travels toward and away from the surface of the sample. The Leeb value is the hammer's rebound velocity divided by the impact velocity times 1000. The result is Leeb hardness from 0 to 1000 that can be related to other hardness scales such as Rockwell and Vickers.
Since the devise is electronic in nature, most instruments are designed to automatically convert from the Leeb number to a more conventional hardness scale. By using a variety of different conversions to suit the modulus of different materials, a wide range of metallic parts can be tested. The main limitations are that the parts must have a good finish and a minimum weight of 5kg. Leeb testers are portable and can be used at different angles as long as they are perpendicular to the test surface.
Leeb test methods are defined in the ASTM A 956 standard. | <urn:uuid:af6f6900-f666-4dc2-88bf-3cbfa8af9f71> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://www.instron.co.uk/en-gb/our-company/library/test-types/hardness-test/leeb-hardness-test | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187822822.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20171018070528-20171018090528-00692.warc.gz | en | 0.932186 | 218 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Collegiate churches are so called because they housed a college, or community, of priests. The religious leaders would be brought together by the local landowner to pray for his and his family’s salvation. Seton is one of the finest medieval collegiate churches to survive in Scotland.
Seton’s story begins in the 1100s, when the site was chosen for a new church to serve the parish of Seton. In the 1400s, the church was increasingly used as the private place of worship and burial vault of local landowners, the Seton family.
The 1st Lord Seton set up the college of priests in 1470, and his son secured papal approval for full collegiate status in 1492. But the Protestant Reformation of 1560 effectively put paid to the church being used for masses for the souls of the Setons.
Seton remained the parish kirk for a while, but fell out of use after the parishes of Seton and Tranent merged in 1580. The kirk was ransacked and the Seton tombs broken into after the 1715 Jacobite Rising – the Setons had supported the exiled James Edward Stuart.
Later that century, the estate passed to the Earl of Wemyss, who restored what was left of the kirk to serve as his family’s burial place.
College of priests
The Setons – whose residence, Seton Castle, lay just to the west, on a site now occupied by Seton Palace – began the process of raising their parish church to collegiate status in the 1400s.
After the death of Lord John Seton in 1434, Lady Catherine added a small side-chapel to the south side of the church, to house her late husband’s tomb and a private altar. (The chapel no longer exists.)
In 1470, her grandson, George, 1st Lord Seton, founded the college of priests – though the Pope died before granting him permission to do so. Even so, George began building the splendid new choir that now dominates the site, and a small sacristy, where the priests prepared for the Mass.
His son finally gained the Pope’s blessing in 1492, and completed his father’s building programme. The church was dedicated to St Mary and the Holy Cross, and the college had a provost, six priests, a clerk and two choirboys. The foundations of their domestic quarters survive, to the north-west of the church.
During the Wars of the Rough Wooing in the 1540s, the English burned Seton’s timberwork and stole its bells and organ.
Lady Janet, widow of the 3rd Lord Seton, did her best to repair the damage, demolishing Lady Catherine’s chapel and building the present transepts and bell tower. But the Reformation of 1560 effectively brought an end to collegiate life. | <urn:uuid:8e3fd7b6-ec8a-4e58-9ea2-2366c13fe230> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/seton-collegiate-church/history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662522556.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20220518215138-20220519005138-00685.warc.gz | en | 0.972582 | 607 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Farmer John's pastoral neighborhood has N farms (2 <= N <= 40,000), usually numbered/labeled 1..N. A series of M (1 <= M < 40,000) vertical and horizontal roads each of varying lengths (1 <= length <= 1000) connect the farms. A map of these farms might look something like the illustration below in which farms are labeled F1..F7 for clarity and lengths between connected farms are shown as (n):
F1 --- (13) ---- F6 --- (9) ----- F3
F4 --- (20) -------- F2 |
Being an ASCII diagram, it is not precisely to scale, of course.
Each farm can connect directly to at most four other farms via roads that lead exactly north, south, east, and/or west. Moreover, farms are only located at the endpoints of roads, and some farm can be found at every endpoint of every road. No two roads cross, and precisely one path
(sequence of roads) links every pair of farms.
FJ lost his paper copy of the farm map and he wants to reconstruct it from backup information on his computer. This data contains lines like the following, one for every road:
There is a road of length 10 running north from Farm #23 to Farm #17
There is a road of length 7 running east from Farm #1 to Farm #17
As FJ is retrieving this data, he is occasionally interrupted by questions such as the following that he receives from his navigationally-challenged neighbor, farmer Bob:
What is the Manhattan distance between farms #1 and #23?
FJ answers Bob, when he can (sometimes he doesn't yet have enough data yet). In the example above, the answer would be 17, since Bob wants to know the "Manhattan" distance between the pair of farms.
The Manhattan distance between two points (x1,y1) and (x2,y2) is just |x1-x2| + |y1-y2| (which is the distance a taxicab in a large city must travel over city streets in a perfect grid to connect two x,y points).
When Bob asks about a particular pair of farms, FJ might not yet have enough information to deduce the distance between them; in this case, FJ apologizes profusely and replies with "-1".
* Line 1: Two space-separated integers: N and M
* Lines 2..M+1: Each line contains four space-separated entities, F1,
F2, L, and D that describe a road. F1 and F2 are numbers of
two farms connected by a road, L is its length, and D is a
character that is either 'N', 'E', 'S', or 'W' giving the
direction of the road from F1 to F2.
* Line M+2: A single integer, K (1 <= K <= 10,000), the number of FB's
* Lines M+3..M+K+2: Each line corresponds to a query from Farmer Bob
and contains three space-separated integers: F1, F2, and I. F1
and F2 are numbers of the two farms in the query and I is the
index (1 <= I <= M) in the data after which Bob asks the
query. Data index 1 is on line 2 of the input data, and so on.
* Lines 1..K: One integer per line, the response to each of Bob's
queries. Each line should contain either a distance
measurement or -1, if it is impossible to determine the
1 6 13 E
6 3 9 E
3 5 7 S
4 1 3 N
2 4 20 W
4 7 2 S
1 6 1
1 4 3
2 6 6
At time 1, FJ knows the distance between 1 and 6 is 13.
At time 3, the distance between 1 and 4 is still unknown.
At the end, location 6 is 3 units west and 7 north of 2, so the distance is 10. | <urn:uuid:97e65d3f-5e93-45a6-bb08-78a278072e3a> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://acm.njupt.edu.cn/problem/POJ1984 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662521883.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20220518083841-20220518113841-00215.warc.gz | en | 0.948412 | 934 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Researchers have found yet another benefit of eating a vegetarian diet: it may prevent diverticular disease.
Diverticular disease is the inflammation of small pouches in the intestine, which can cause abdominal pain, fever, nausea and irregular bowel movements, among other symptoms—sounds fun, right? It occurs most often in societies where consumption of high-fiber foods is low, such as the U.S. and the U.K. Your chances of developing the disease increase greatly as you age. In fact, more than half of people over 70 have the disease. However, individuals who are obese or eat foods low in fiber regularly are also at risk.
The study may have found a way to prevent the disease’s inevitable onset, however. When compared with their meat-eating peers, vegetarians were 30 percent less likely to develop diverticular disease, most likely because their diets were higher in fiber.
This isn’t the only advantage found in recent years that supports a vegetarian diet. The health benefits are usually what convince people to make the switch to begin with. Because their diets are lower in saturated fat and cholesterol, vegetarians are less likely to become obese or develop diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and even some cancers.
There are many different ways you can incorporate a vegetarian diet into your lifestyle. You may be surprised to find that there are many different types of diets considered “vegetarian” that you can choose from if you’re interested in making the switch. Here are four I found in my research:
• Vegan: This is the most restrictive of the diets. It excludes meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products, and also any foods that contain these products.
• Lacto-vegetarian diets: This diet is similar to a vegan diet. However, it allows dairy products.
• Lacto-ovo vegetarian diets: This diet is also similar to a vegan diet, except it allows eggs and dairy products.
• Semivegetarian diet: This diet is primarily plant-based, but it includes meat, dairy, eggs, poultry and fish in small quantities.
Substituting vegetables for meat, like in the vegetable stir-fry pictured above,
is a great way to transition to a vegetarian diet.
Photo by babe_kl/Courtesy Flickr
If you’re thinking of adding more fruits and veggies to your diet or jumping on the vegetarian bandwagon, read these suggestions from the folks at the Mayo Clinic:
• Ramp up. Each week, increase the number of meatless meals you already enjoy, such as spaghetti with tomato sauce or vegetable stir-fry.
• Learn to substitute. Take favorite recipes and try them without meat. For example, make vegetarian chili by leaving out the ground beef and adding an extra can of black beans.
• Branch out. Scan the Internet for vegetarian menus. Buy or borrow vegetarian cookbooks, or check out ethnic restaurants to sample vegetarian cuisines. The more variety you bring to your vegetarian diet, the more likely you’ll be to meet all your nutritional needs. | <urn:uuid:9c337dbe-0b21-42e8-9eb5-f39f24ff7b17> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.motherearthliving.com/Natural-Health/Enjoy-a-Vegetarian-Diet-To-Prevent-Diverticular-Disease.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422115926735.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124161206-00059-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952283 | 644 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Assemble Tree Blocks
1. Using a pencil, mark a diagonal line on wrong side of each gold print 2-1/2" square.
2. Referring to Diagram 1, align a marked gold print square with one end of a green print 2-1/2x4-1/2" rectangle. Stitch on marked line. Trim seam allowance to 1/4". Press attached triangle open, pressing seam toward green print.
3. In the same manner, align a second marked gold print square with remaining end of Step 2 green print rectangle. Stitch, trim, and press as before to make a Flying Geese unit (Diagram 1). The Flying Geese unit should be 4-1/2x2-1/2" including seam allowances.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to make seven Flying Geese units total.
5. Referring to Diagram 2, join two gold print 2x2-1/2" rectangles and a brown tone-on-tone 1-1/2x2-1/2" rectangle to make a short stem unit. Press seams toward brown tone-on-tone. The short stem unit should be 4-1/2x2-1/2" including seam allowances. Repeat to make two short stem units total.
6. Referring to Diagram 3, sew together a gold print 2-1/2x4-1/2" rectangle, three Flying Geese units, and a short stem unit to make a tree block A. Press all seams open. Tree block A should be 4-1/2x10-1/2" including seam allowances.
7. Referring to Diagram 4, sew together remaining Flying Geese units and a short stem unit to make tree block B. Press all seams open. Tree block B should be 4-1/2x10-1/2" including seam allowances. | <urn:uuid:820b0b47-022c-4543-a004-76c62315df4e> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/quilt-patterns/wall-quilts/house-and-trees-wall-hanging?page=0%2C2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042988860.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002308-00121-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.843476 | 399 | 2.890625 | 3 |
When you are old
for soprano, flute, violin, cello, & piano
words by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
While Yeats allegedly wrote this now-classic poem to warn a lover against jilting him, this musical interpretation takes the lover’s point of view and focuses on the reminiscent quality of the situation described in the text. In other words, the poem’s addressee now is old and grey and reflecting on loves gone by, but (contrary to what Yeats may have intended) calmly and without regret. | <urn:uuid:4c4922f0-1893-4e02-9670-b9dfdeac6b66> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | http://www.nicholasryankelly.com/when-you-are-old.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912202161.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20190319224005-20190320010005-00084.warc.gz | en | 0.92755 | 122 | 2.625 | 3 |
- We purposely use “pattern language” to reflect that the field of Deep Learning is a nascent, but rapidly evolving, field that is not as mature as other topics in computer science.
- Each pattern describes a problem and offers alternative solutions.
- You can find more details on this book at: A Pattern Language for Deep Learning
- Pattern Languages are languages derived from entities called patterns that when combined form solutions to complex problems.
- There are patterns that we describe that are not actually patterns, but rather may be fundamental concepts.
Read the full article, click here.
@gp_pulipaka: “Design Patterns for #DeepLearning #Architectures. #BigData #MachineLearning #DataScience #AI”
Deep Learning can be described as a new machine learning toolkit that has a high likelihood to lead to more advanced forms of artificial intelligence. The evidence for this is in the sheer number of breakthroughs that had occurred since the beginning of this decade. There is a new found optimism in the air and we are now again in a new AI spring. Unfortunately, the current state of deep learning appears to many ways to be akin to alchemy. Everybody seems to have their own black-magic methods of designing architectures. The field thus needs to move forward and strive towards chemistry, or perhaps even a periodic table for deep learning. Although deep learning is still in its early infancy of development, this book strives towards some kind of unification of the ideas in deep learning. It leverages a method of description called pattern languages.
Design Patterns for Deep Learning Architectures | <urn:uuid:30c3f6e9-c437-4c8b-8d6f-06ec9a6bb14f> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://ai.icymi.email/design-patterns-for-deeplearning-architectures-bigdata-machinelearning-datascience-ai/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886108264.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20170821095257-20170821115257-00356.warc.gz | en | 0.947838 | 325 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Inhaled Corticosteriods: Keep Airways Open
GIP Priority Message: Use Inhaled Corticosteroids
Inhaled corticosteroids are the most effective medications for long-term management of persistent asthma and should be utilized by patients and clinicians as is recommended in the guidelines for treatment of asthma.
Use inhaled corticosteroids for better asthma control and fewer flare-ups
Because asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder, persistent asthma is most effectively controlled with daily long-term control medication directed toward suppressing inflammation. Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are the most effective long-term therapy available for mild, moderate, or severe persistent asthma. ICS are anti-inflammatory medications that reduce airway hyperresponsiveness, inhibit inflammatory cell migration and activation, and block late phase reaction to allergen. In general, ICS are well tolerated and safe at the recommended dosages.
Generally, ICS improve asthma control more effectively, in both children and adults, than any other single long-term control medication. However, alternative options for medications are available to tailor treatment to individual patient circumstances, needs, and preferences. The benefits of ICS outweigh the concerns about the potential risk of a small, non-progressive reduction in growth velocity in children, or other possible adverse effects.
Educate patients on the role of ICS in long-term asthma management
Communicating the effectiveness, safety, and importance of ICS for asthma control and addressing concerns about their long-term use should occur at all levels of health care. It is also important for clinicians and educators to tailor their communications based on consideration of the patient’s health literacy level. As well, it is crucial to develop a heightened awareness of health disparities and cultural barriers that facilitate more effective communication with minority (ethnic or racial) or economically disadvantaged patients regarding the use of asthma medications that may improve asthma outcomes.
Last Updated January 2013 | <urn:uuid:e9196bf1-6c10-41ec-9b49-e4cdbedeae5f> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-pro/resources/lung/naci/discover/corticosteriods.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440644064517.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827025424-00022-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905149 | 393 | 3 | 3 |
This is the first part from the aliens / ufos in the third reich.
For all the role of science, mathematics, and new inventions in earlier wars, no war had as profound an effect on the technologies of our current lives than World War II (1939-45). And no war was as profoundly affected by science, math, and technology than WWII.
We can point to numerous new inventions and scientific principles that emerged during the war. These include advances in rocketry, pioneered by Nazi Germany. The V-1 or “buzz bomb” was an automatic aircraft (today known as a “cruise missile”) and the V-2 was a “ballistic missile” that flew into space before falling down on its target (both were rained on London during 1944-45, killing thousands of civilians). The “rocket team” that developed these weapons for Germany were brought to the United States after World War II, settled in Huntsville, Alabama, under their leader Wernher von Braun, and then helped to build the rockets that sent American astronauts into space and to the moon. Electronic computers were developed by the British for breaking the Nazi “Enigma” codes, and by the Americans for calculating ballistics and other battlefield equations. Numerous small “computers”—from hand-held calculating tables made out of cardboard, to mechanical trajectory calculators, to some of the earliest electronic digital computers, could be found in everything from soldiers’ pockets to large command and control centers. Early control centers aboard ships and aircraft pioneered the networked, interactive computing that is so central to our lives today.
Where did all this technology came from? | <urn:uuid:c04fb810-5c1f-46f8-8af5-8422efd68ae3> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | http://www.webelieveinaliens.com/aliens-and-the-third-reich-tv/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146176.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20200225233214-20200226023214-00335.warc.gz | en | 0.970944 | 349 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Interpretation - Welds
In addition to producing high quality radiographs,
the radiographer must also be skilled in radiographic interpretation.
Interpretation of radiographs takes place in three basic steps: (1) detection, (2) interpretation, and (3) evaluation.
All of these steps make use of the radiographer's visual acuity.
Visual acuity is the ability to resolve a spatial pattern in
an image. The ability of an individual to detect discontinuities
in radiography is also affected by the lighting condition in
the place of viewing, and the experience level for recognizing
various features in the image. The following material was developed
to help students develop an understanding of the types of defects
found in weldments and how they appear in a radiograph.
Discontinuities are interruptions in the typical
structure of a material. These interruptions may occur in the
base metal, weld material or "heat affected" zones.
Discontinuities, which do not meet the requirements of the codes
or specifications used to invoke and control an inspection, are
referred to as defects.
General Welding Discontinuities
The following discontinuities are typical of all
types of welding.
Cold lap is a condition where the weld
filler metal does not properly fuse with the base metal or the
previous weld pass material (interpass cold lap). The arc does
not melt the base metal sufficiently and causes the slightly
molten puddle to flow into the base material without bonding.
Porosity is the result of gas entrapment
in the solidifying metal. Porosity can take many shapes on a
radiograph but often appears as dark round or irregular spots
or specks appearing singularly, in clusters, or in rows. Sometimes,
porosity is elongated and may appear to have a tail. This is the result of gas attempting to escape while
the metal is still in a liquid state and is called wormhole
porosity. All porosity is a void in the material and it will have
a higher radiographic density than the surrounding area.
Cluster porosity is caused when flux coated
electrodes are contaminated with moisture. The moisture turns
into a gas when heated and becomes trapped in the weld during
the welding process. Cluster porosity appear just like regular
porosity in the radiograph but the indications will be grouped
Slag inclusions are nonmetallic solid material
entrapped in weld metal or between weld and base metal. In a
radiograph, dark, jagged asymmetrical shapes within the weld
or along the weld joint areas are indicative of slag inclusions.
Incomplete penetration (IP) or lack of penetration
(LOP) occurs when the weld metal fails to penetrate the
joint. It is one of the most objectionable weld discontinuities.
Lack of penetration allows a natural stress riser from which
a crack may propagate. The appearance on a radiograph is a dark
area with well-defined, straight edges that follows the land
or root face down the center of the weldment.
Incomplete fusion is a condition where
the weld filler metal does not properly fuse with the base metal.
Appearance on radiograph: usually appears as a dark line or
lines oriented in the direction of the weld seam along the weld
preparation or joining area.
Internal concavity or suck back is a condition
where the weld metal has contracted as it cools and has been
drawn up into the root of the weld. On a radiograph it looks
similar to a lack of penetration but the line has irregular edges
and it is often quite wide in the center of the weld image.
Internal or root undercut is an erosion
of the base metal next to the root of the weld. In the radiographic
image it appears as a dark irregular line offset from the centerline
of the weldment. Undercutting is not as straight edged as LOP
because it does not follow a ground edge.
External or crown undercut is an erosion
of the base metal next to the crown of the weld. In the radiograph,
it appears as a dark irregular line along the outside edge of
the weld area.
Offset or mismatch are terms associated
with a condition where two pieces being welded together are
not properly aligned. The radiographic image shows a noticeable difference in density between the two pieces. The difference
in density is caused by the difference in material thickness.
The dark, straight line is caused by the failure of the weld metal
to fuse with the land area.
Inadequate weld reinforcement is an area
of a weld where the thickness of weld metal deposited is less
than the thickness of the base material. It is very easy to
determine by radiograph if the weld has inadequate reinforcement,
because the image density in the area of suspected inadequacy
will be higher (darker) than the image density of the surrounding
Excess weld reinforcement is an area of
a weld that has weld metal added in excess of that specified
by engineering drawings and codes. The appearance on a radiograph
is a localized, lighter area in the weld. A visual inspection
will easily determine if the weld reinforcement is in excess
of that specified by the engineering requirements.
Cracks can be detected in a radiograph
only when they are propagating in a direction that produces
a change in thickness that is parallel to the x-ray beam. Cracks
will appear as jagged and often very faint irregular lines.
Cracks can sometimes appear as "tails" on inclusions
Discontinuities in TIG welds
The following discontinuities are unique to
the TIG welding process. These discontinuities occur in most
metals welded by the process, including aluminum and stainless
steels. The TIG method of welding produces a clean homogeneous
weld which when radiographed is easily interpreted.
Tungsten inclusions. Tungsten is a brittle
and inherently dense material used in the electrode in tungsten
inert gas welding. If improper welding procedures are used,
tungsten may be entrapped in the weld. Radiographically, tungsten
is more dense than aluminum or steel, therefore it shows up as
a lighter area with a distinct outline on the radiograph.
Oxide inclusions are usually visible on
the surface of material being welded (especially aluminum). Oxide inclusions are less dense than the surrounding material
and, therefore, appear as dark irregularly shaped discontinuities
in the radiograph.
Discontinuities in Gas Metal Arc Welds (GMAW)
The following discontinuities are most commonly
found in GMAW welds.
Whiskers are short lengths of weld electrode
wire, visible on the top or bottom surface of the weld or contained
within the weld. On a radiograph they appear as light, "wire
Burn-Through results when too much heat
causes excessive weld metal to penetrate the weld zone. Often
lumps of metal sag through the weld, creating a thick globular
condition on the back of the weld. These globs of metal are
referred to as icicles. On a radiograph, burn-through appears
as dark spots, which are often surrounded by light globular | <urn:uuid:fc6ed64f-6326-439b-94b6-1bcee6283662> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.ndt-ed.org/EducationResources/CommunityCollege/Radiography/TechCalibrations/RadiographInterp.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163848048/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204133048-00007-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908437 | 1,550 | 3.375 | 3 |
Gaul (Latin: Gallia) was the name given in ancient times to the area of Western Europe that included northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine river. Many Celtic tribes lived in the region and were known by the Romans simply as "Gauls".
In English, the word Gaul (French: Gaulois) may mean a Celtic inhabitant of that region or for all ancient speakers of the Gaulish language. In this way, "Gaul" and "Celt" are sometimes used in the same sense.
Trivia[change | change source]
In Greek, modern-day France is called Γαλλία (same as the Latin Gallia) and the term for a Gaulish person is Γαλατία (Galatia). | <urn:uuid:8da3f195-84f8-4763-810c-ecafba5b2269> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauls | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103036363.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20220626010644-20220626040644-00049.warc.gz | en | 0.956324 | 184 | 3.625 | 4 |
Blanket Bog - Border Mires, Butterburn Flow - Duncan Bridges
What is it?
Wild areas with spiky rushes, carpets of moss and wet, peaty soils, blanket bogs are a familiar feature of our dramatic upland landscapes. They smother large areas of level or gently sloping ground under a ‘blanket’ of peat. Also known as ‘flow’ or ‘floe’, they are the most extensive type of mire fed entirely by rainfall and snowmelt rather than groundwater. As a result, blanket bogs are typically found in the wetter north and west of the UK from Devon to Shetland. In the far north, blanket bogs even extend down to sea level.
Where is it found?
About 1.5 million hectares of blanket bog – representing up to 15% of the total area worldwide – are found in the UK, the majority of which is in Scotland.
Why is it important?
Although blanket bog is naturally species-poor because of its acidity, both its name and appearance belies its considerable wildlife interest. Growing among the wispy strands of deergrass and cotton-grass can be found a variety of unusual plants and animals adapted to this specialised habitat, including bog rosemary, cranberry and insectivorous sundews.
Peaty pools separated by drier hummocks of heather, bilberry and crowberry are as common features as the sphagnum moss-dominated flats. Sphagnum mosses play a very important role in the creation of peat: they hold water in their spongy forms, providing essential nutrients to the soil and preventing the decay of dead plant material which eventually gets compressed to form peat.
Golden plover, dunlin and greenshank are some of the many bird species which nest on blanket bog, alongside a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates. Approximately 40% of the UK’s large heath butterfly population is found on blanket bog.
Like other peatlands, blanket bogs also play another important role. Preserved by the constant waterlogging and acidic conditions, a wealth of fascinating evidence from the past, such as pollen, seeds, insects, wooden structures, organic artefacts and even human remains, have been found stored in chronological order in the layers of peat.
Is it threatened?
Peat is a precious resource that can take thousands of years to form and peat bogs are important habitats for a whole range of species from bog bush-crickets to hen harriers. However, our peat bogs have been overexploited by the commercial extraction of peat, particularly for horticulture, and have been irreparably damaged by drainage, afforestation and inappropriate management.
Peat is still growing on some active bogs, but the rate of formation is greatly exceeded by the rate of loss. Poorly managed grazing, intensive burning and acid rain all cause erosion, while peat-cutting exposes the underlying bedrock. The subsequent loss of sponge-like blanket bog causes flash flooding and erosion downstream.
How are The Wildlife Trusts helping?
The Wildlife Trusts are working to prevent further loss of our blanket bogs by looking after areas of blanket bog as nature reserves. We use traditional management techniques, such as grazing and burning, to maintain them, and we are restoring areas that have deteriorated.
Wildlife Trusts also provide advice and guidance for landowners and farmers on wildlife-friendly practices in these areas. By ensuring that the land surrounding our reserves is looked after sympathetically for wildlife, we can create A Living Landscape: a network of habitats and wildlife corridors across town and country, which are good for both wildlife and people.
What can I do to help?
- Most importantly, buy peat-free products for your garden, make your own compost and don't buy plants grown in peat.
- Take part in conservation measures on your land – ask your local Wildlife Trust for advice on grazing and management of blanket bog.
Across the UK several Wildlife Trusts are actively involved with the conservation and restoration of blanket bog habitats – you can support the work of your local Wildlife Trust by becoming a member. | <urn:uuid:f9cc6305-efed-43cf-9f6a-c27d6f7b7dc0> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife/habitats/blanket-bog | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042986451.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002306-00276-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94619 | 875 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Digestion and Absorption of Lipids
Lipids are hydrophobic and therefore, it is hard to break them down in the hydrophilic environment of our body. Bile salts are used to separate lipids and increase their surface area for better digestion and absorption. They are excellent at separating lipids thanks to being amphipathic, having both hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups. Lipid digestion begins in the tongue and is completed in the small intestine with the help of pancreatic enzymes. Bile salts allow lipids to form micelles and penetrate the water layer surrounding small intestine cells. The contents of micelles (lipids, cholesterol, and cholesterol esters) diffuse out of micelles and into the enterocytes. Bile salts do not diffuse through but rather are returned to the liver.
After being absorbed, long fatty acids come together to reform triacylglycerides and cholesterol esters. Short fatty acids pass directly into the blood where they bind albumin protein and get transported to the liver.
Lipids that are resynthesizes form big fat particles in the endoplasmic reticulum and are covered with lipoprotein. They then get send to the golgi apparatus where a carbohydrate gets attached to them, forming a chylomicron (a compound from the family of lipoproteins). Chylomicrons exit the cell and travel from tissue to tissue to supply needed lipids for different cells. The protein portion of lipoprotein is called apolipoprotein and functions to stabilize lipoproteins are they circulate the aqueous environment.
At Transformation Tutoring, our biology and biochemistry tutors are here to help you ace you biology class. We are available in Brooklyn, Staten Island, NYC and online. Please call 646-407-9078 to speak to our amazing biology tutors today! | <urn:uuid:843780e6-7d4f-46c9-ad11-f6a34f3b1bda> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.transformationtutoring.com/single-post/2019/03/05/digestion-and-absorption-of-lipids | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046153892.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20210729172022-20210729202022-00185.warc.gz | en | 0.918635 | 389 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Cancer immunotherapy has emerged as one of the most exciting directions in cancer treatment. But the approach only works in a fraction of patients and can cause nasty side effects. Now, in the journal ACS Nano, scientists report the development of the first dual-cell targeting immunotherapy nanoparticle that slows tumor growth in mice with different cancers. In their study, up to half the mice in one cancer group went into full remission after the treatment.
Immunotherapy works by giving the body’s own immune system a boost in its fight against disease. In cancer patients, there are two main lines of immunotherapy: One disables cancer cells’ ability to hide from the immune system, and the other recruits the body’s T cells to destroy tumors. Jonathan P. Schneck and colleagues wanted to see if they could combine these two tactics with one nanoparticle-based platform.
To incorporate these two functions into one system, the researchers developed “immunoswitch” nanoparticles. They’re designed to simultaneously turn off a pathway on tumor cells that would otherwise be used to become invisible to the immune system, and turn on a specific T cell process that launches them into action against cancer cells. Testing on mouse models of melanoma and colon cancer showed that animals injected with the nanoparticles lived longer than those that did not receive the nanoparticles, and their tumor growth was delayed or even reversed in some cases. That the nanoparticles were effective against two different cancers suggests that they could help treat a variety of tumor types. Further analysis found that the platform created a synergistic effect, which researchers say allowed them to use low treatment concentrations to potentially reduce the severe side effects that dual immunotherapy is known for.
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation, the Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at the Johns Hopkins Institute, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the TEDCO/Maryland Innovation Initiative and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.
The American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, is a not-for-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. | <urn:uuid:32655fd6-cabf-4ec7-8067-2c52b7b33ea7> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2017/june/first-dual-targeting-nanoparticles-lower-cancers-defenses-and-attack-tumors.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806609.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20171122141600-20171122161600-00052.warc.gz | en | 0.946604 | 494 | 3.0625 | 3 |
The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), an umbrella organization founded in 2004 has published a report ‘Turning the Plastic Tide’ that contains current data and facts on the problem of plastic. The authors find that if the production of plastic continues as it has, all the efforts of the EU to protect people and the environment from dangerous chemicals will come to naught.
In a press release launched in tandem with the report, the NGO called upon the EU to recognize this reality in its chemical strategy for greater sustainability. The strategy that is expected in the autumn holds a key role in the context of the Green Deal. The strategy could have the same ground-breaking consequences as the implementation of REACH in 2006.
The recycling of waste is a central component of sustainability. According to the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (German only), the rate of recycling in Germany is 46% and is slightly lower globally. According to the HEAL report, 79% of the more than 6 billion tons of plastic waste created in 2015 ended up in landfills or the environment. Some 12% was incinerated, and only 9% was recycled.
At the end of the report, the authors call upon regulatory agencies to pay particular attention to limiting the use of substances of very high concern and plastic additives and advancing the use of substitutes.
If you have any questions about plastics or the safety of your products, please contact us at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:a0ea09a4-fe5e-4b11-b184-ffdd993cef7f> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.kft.de/en/ngo-plastic-production-endangers-chemical-safety/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511424.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20231004220037-20231005010037-00296.warc.gz | en | 0.952978 | 300 | 3.109375 | 3 |
It’s been a royal fortnight for Australians, with many celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Monday is a public holiday across most states of Australia to mark the Queen’s Birthday.
However, Australia as we know it today is radically different to how it looked when Queen Elizabeth II was first crowned. The speed of change socially, demographically and technologically continues to accelerate. This demographic snapshot maps out three of the biggest demographic shifts that we have seen over the past 60 years.
Letters from the mother land: our ageing population
One of the Queen’s most famous duties is to write a letter of congratulations to Commonwealth residents when they hit their centenary. When she was first crowned this task was not too demanding with just 40 Australians turning 100 in 1952. Flash forwards 60 years and this number has increased 50 fold, with 2000 Australians turning 100 in 2012 alone. In fact, in the first 30 years of her reign Australia had 4,830 becoming centenarians, while the last 30 years has seen 37,717 achieving their century.
Growth in this part of her job description is of course linked to our ageing population. In 1952 Australia had 30,506 citizens over 85, while 60 years on this number is 14 times more at 415,331!
Australia’s population has increased by 261% since 1952, making us more than two and a half times bigger than we used to be. This is dramatic growth compared to the Queen’s own backyard, with the UK having only seen a 24% increase over the same period of time (from 50.2 million to 62.2 million).
More young people...but comparatively less
With our ageing population, many people have the misconception that there are fewer young people in Australia today, when in fact there are more than ever in our history. In the peak of the baby boom, when the Queen was first crowned, there were 2.94 million people under the age of 20, while today there 5.75 million babies, children and teenagers in Australia.
Yet this increase in birth numbers hasn’t kept pace with total population growth. In 1952, those under 20 made up 34% of the population, while today they make up just 25%. With these 1950’s baby boomers now approaching retirement the challenge is on to attract, recruit and retain Gen Y and Z staff who are now meeting the demands of a population that is 14 million people larger.
Shifting gender profiles...or the man drought!
While there is discussion today about a man drought, in 1952 there was far from a drought with 114,803 more males than females in Australia! Today this has shifted to 99,604 more women than men. The “man drought” is mostly related to longevity, with the older demographics experiencing the real disparity. The Builder generation (66+) is 55% comprised of females, moving to 61% of females in the over 80 demographic.
However this “man drought” has little effect on relationship formation because during the key years of this lifestage (the 20-39 year old age bracket where 92% of first marriages and 80% of all marriages occur) there are currently 3.3 million males aged 20-39, compared to 3.2 million females, showing a slight feminine advantage!
SOURCE: ABS Data and McCrindle Research 2012.
For further analysis: For more information or to organise an interview with demographer and social analyst Mark McCrindle, please contact Francesca Dalton on 02 8824 3422 or email [email protected]
McCrindle Research has an established reputation for conducting relevant, world class and cost-effective research and communicating the insights in innovative ways.
Our clients include some of our region’s largest multinationals, some of the nation’s best known brands, many government organisations and agencies, and some of Australia’s most recognised not for profits.
Our profession is designing and deploying best practice research. Our expertise is analysing findings to communicate insights and strategies. Our passion is empowering organisations to thrive in changing times.
Francesca DaltonP: 02 8824 3422 | <urn:uuid:4da1eb42-81c7-4dde-8dac-5e96cfb418e5> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://www.newsmaker.com.au/news/17372/the-diamond-jubilee-and-60-years-of-change-in-australia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424945.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20170725002242-20170725022242-00002.warc.gz | en | 0.946154 | 849 | 2.8125 | 3 |
There are many methods of essential oil extraction, the most popular being steam distillation. Other methods include expression, enfleurage, maceration, and solvent extraction.
Essential oils are extracted from many different parts of their plants. For example, Lavender is extracted from its flowers, Orange from the rind of its fruit, Frankincense from the resin of its tree, Cinnamon from its bark, Pine from its needles, and so on.
Depending on the method of extraction and the quantity of the raw materials used, the price and quality of the oil are determined. As an example, it takes roughly 12,000 Rose blossoms to produce 5 ml of Rose. Whereas it take 100 kilos of Lavender leaves to produce 3 liters of Lavender. As a result Rose is roughly 24 times more expensive than Lavender.
There are many other factors to be taken into consideration when producing a good quality essential oil, which is important for its full benefit. Soil quality, climatic and geographic conditions all contribute to the overall quality of the essential oil.
In some cases the length of cultivation is most important. Jasmine flowers must be picked by hand at dawn on the very first day they open. A Sandalwood tree must be 30 years old and 30 feet high before it is ready to produce its best quality oil.
Various methods of essential oil extraction in detail
As mentioned earlier, distillation is by far the most popular method for essential oil extraction. This is mostly used for leaves, flowers, seeds, roots, and stems.
Stills are believed to date back to the eighth century where they were used by the Arabs. Many diverse methods have been used since, the best method is using a ‘low-pressure’ still which produces the best quality essential oil for aromatherapy purposes.
Two large containers are used. The first container has an inlet at the bottom, in which steamed water, heated at low pressure, is sent in. This container is loaded with the aromatic raw materials (the part of the plant to be distilled). The steam rises, gently simmering the contents.
The heat causes the essential oils to be released from the plant by evaporation and to travel, as part of the steam, towards an outlet at the top of the container. This outlet carries on into another container and coils itself all the way down. This coil is called a serpentine.
The second large container is filled with cold water and the serpentine is immersed into it. As the aromatic vapors rush through the coil, the water acts as a cooling agent and the essential oil begins to separate from the cooled steam. At the bottom of this second container is another tube connected to a vessel called an alembic, in which the essential oil and the water collect. Usually essential oils have a density lighter than water so they will float on top of the water.
After this the essential oil is separated from the water. The by-product of distillation is called a floral water, examples are rose water, orange water and lavender water.
The essential oils of citrus fruits such as Orange, Lemon, Mandarin, Bergamot, and Lime are extracted from their fruits using a method called expression. This is a simple method in which machines using a centrifugal force, squeeze the rind which produces the essential oil.
Enfleurage involves using a fixed oil, usually a vegetable oil, animal fat, or lard. A sheet of glass mounted on a wooden frame, is spread with the fixed oil. The raw materials, flower petals, are then placed on this. A number of these can be stacked on top of each other. These are then placed in the sun until the fixed oil is saturated with the essential oil.
This is then dissolved in alcohol then the alcohol is evaporated from the essential oil. This method is mainly used for delicate flowers such as Rose, Jasmine, Neroli, and Violet. These will be labeled ‘absolute’ rather than ‘essential oil’. Enfleurage is quite rare as it is very expensive.
Very similar to enfleurage, maceration differs only in that the fixed oil is heated up to facilitate the release of the essential oil.
Solvent extraction is another method used to extract essential oils from delicate flowers such as Rose, Jasmine, Violet, and Mimosa. This method uses volatile solvents such as petroleum ether. The flower petals are placed on perforated metal trays. These are then sprayed with the solvent which is absorbed by the flowers to make them release their essences. Alcohol is then added to extract the essence. These are also called ‘absolutes’ but are a slightly less expensive essential oil extraction method than enfleurage. | <urn:uuid:ed0c9300-8b19-4f85-af93-2dde536d10cc> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.essential-oil-recipes.com/about-aromatherapy-and-essential-oils/essential-oil-extraction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573197.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818124424-20220818154424-00796.warc.gz | en | 0.960403 | 1,001 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Scoliosis is an excessive backwards or sideways curvature of the spine.
What to look for
the entire body seems to tilt to one side.
the shoulders, hips and legs appear uneven.
from the front the ribs appear more prominent.
Scoliosis is a progressive sideways curvature of the spine. People with scoliosis have an S bend curve to their spine.
This is not usually a painful condition but it can cause problems later on if not treated such as - arthritis, disk and other back problems. In severe cases the heart and lungs are affected.
it is not known exactly what causes this condition but genetics may play a part according to researchers. Children who have suffered from diseases of the muscles, bones, or nervous system, such as polio or cerebral palsy, may also develop scoliosis.
The standard treatments for scoliosis are exercise, orthopaedic bracing, and in severe cases, surgery. It is important for treatment to begin early.
Only conventional medical treatment seems to help these patients at this stage. It is vital that your child wear the brace as instructed in order for the treatment to be successful. It may be hard for them, and they will need your support and the support of other family members and friends. Help your child adhere to exercise programs written by your physical therapist or doctor in order to keep their muscles toned and supple.
When to seek further professional advice
you see any of the symptoms listed in the description section. | <urn:uuid:f8afe2e2-8cab-4a9e-a881-cf245cff325b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.chemistdirect.com.au/ailmentsanddiseases/scoliosis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280888.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00002-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958905 | 306 | 3.625 | 4 |
By Leah Binkovitz, Kinder Institute for Urban Research
There is growing evidence that the country’s worsening income segregation is, in part, linked to wealthy families choosing where to live based on school quality — a reality most any parent searching for a home recognizes.
But the divides are not just within a single district. A new study from the nonprofit, education-funding-focused group EdBuild finds that “the majority of income segregation in schools is based on sorting between districts rather than within them.” High-poverty schools districts, the study says, end up with less funding per pupil on average, largely because property taxes are often linked to school funding.
The study, “Fault Lines: America’s Most Segregating School District Borders,” looked at differences in childhood poverty rates and charted the biggest gaps between neighboring school districts. The 50 most “segregating borders,” as the study calls them, were concentrated in only 14 states, starting with Ohio, which had nine, and followed by Alabama with seven.
According to the EdBuild report, the average difference in childhood poverty rate between bordering school districts was just 7 percentage points nationally. Among the 50 most segregated pairs of districts, the average difference was 37 percentage points.
Though the report from EdBuild looks at income segregation, other studies have confirmed increasing racial segregation between cities and their suburbs. A recent study of 222 metro areas, "Toward a New Macro-Segregation? Decomposing Segregation within and between Metropolitan Cities and Suburbs," notes that even as cities and nearby suburbs become more diverse, white communities continue to find ways to segregate themselves, moving to "the open countryside, unincorporated housing developments, and gated communities."
Instead of racial segregation within cities, the authors described "emerging patterns of macro-segregation, that is, to the sorting of racial and ethnic groups between places within U.S. metropolitan areas."
The view from Houston
None of the EdBuild study's 50 most divided pairs of districts were located in Texas. But analysis of districts in the Houston area shows significant differences for both childhood poverty rates and the percentage of economically disadvantaged students.
Houston ISD, for example, has a childhood poverty rate of 37 percent, and 76.4 of its students are considered economically disadvantaged, according to district data from 2014 from the Texas Education Agency. Just to the west, Katy ISD has a childhood poverty rate of 8.4 percent, and only 28.3 percent of its students are economically disadvantaged.
That's nearly a 30-point gap, well above the 7-point national average between neighboring districts.
MAP: HOUSTON'S DIVIDED DISTRICTS
For information on a school district's demographics, click on the district.
Map by Leah BinkovitzSource: American Community Survey 2014 5-Year Estimates, Texas Education Agency 2014 District Snapshots
Similar differences emerge when looking at the race of bordering districts. Alief ISD, which has the second highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students of the 14 Houston-area school districts, has a student body that is 30.5 percent black. Next door, Katy ISD’s student population is only 9.5 black, according to the most recent data available from the Texas Education Agency.
But the divide isn’t as clear as suburb-versus-city, perhaps unsurprising for a sprawling city whose territory isn’t always even contiguous. To the east of Houston, districts largely outside the city but in industrial areas like Galena Park and Sheldon have high percentages of economically disadvantaged students. And one of the biggest divides is between Aldine and Humble ISD, both of which lie partly outside the city of Houston. Aldine ISD has a childhood poverty rate of 41.9 percent, compared to Humble’s of just 10.2 percent.
Clearly, Houston’s suburbs tell more than one story about income equality and reflect the growing suburbanization of poverty. Between 1970 and 2012, the population of poor people living in Houston suburbs increased 10.5 percent, according to Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube of the Brookings Institution.
And though the Houston metro area is lauded for its diversity, there’s also evidence that many districts don’t always reflect the demographics of the area they serve, possibly because some categories of residents are opting for private, charter or home school options instead. In all of the Houston-are districts but one — Galena Park ISD — the population of white, student-age children is larger than the population of white students enrolled in the public school district. In the small municipality of Stafford, for example, though 21.1 percent of all school-age children living there are white, its school district is only 4.8 percent white.
Houston isn’t the only Texas metro with big wealth divides. According to the EdBuild report the average difference in childhood poverty rates between bordering districts in the state was 7.7 percentage points, near the national average.
But several are well above that. Dallas ISD, which surrounds the tiny Highland Park ISD, has a childhood poverty rate of 38.8 percent, according to the most recent estimates from the American Community Survey. Highland Park ISD’s childhood poverty rate is more than 35 percentage points lower at 3.4 percent. And that doesn’t take into account the income levels of students who actually attend public schools versus private schools.
Meanwhile in Austin, Austin ISD had a childhood poverty rate of 29.1 percent, while the smaller Eanes ISD, to the west of Austin ISD, has a childhood poverty rate of just 4.5 percent.
And in San Antonio, the district behind several state Supreme Court cases protesting unequal funding and the reliance on property taxes, Edgewood ISD, has a childhood poverty rate of 49.1 percent, compared to its neighbor, Lackland ISD, with a childhood poverty rate of 15.2 percent, according to census numbers.
At the state level, Texas funding formulas do attempt to account for the disparities between districts by weighing the number of economically disadvantaged students more heavily. But the amount of weight given has repeatedly been challenged in court as insufficient, most recently in a case decided in favor of the state in May.
But the report from EdBuild shows that income segregation between districts is also linked to disparities in school funding across the country. “These divisions are harmful for all students, but especially for those who reside on the wrong side of these borders,” argues the report. “In effect, school district boundaries have become the new status quo for separate but unequal.”
To read this article in one of Houston's most-spoken languages, click on the button below.
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Leah Binkovitz (@leahbink), formerly of the Houston Chronicle, is now a staff writer for Rice University's Kinder Institute. A longer version of this story first appeared in the institute's "Urban Edge" blog.
Bookmark Gray Matters. The divide isn't as clear as suburb-versus-city.
© 2017 Hearst Newspapers, LLC. | <urn:uuid:0ca26d31-fa9a-48df-80c8-6b9dada8547b> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/In-Houston-and-elsewhere-segregation-along-9193549.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320669.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626032235-20170626052235-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.955305 | 1,492 | 3.3125 | 3 |
When Helen Elizabeth Stone was born on 5 August 1905, in Fenton, Genesee, Michigan, United States, her father, Ernest M. Stone, was 29 and her mother, Nellie B Somers, was 23. She died on 8 February 1942, in Flint, Genesee, Michigan, United States, at the age of 36.
English: from Middle English ston(e) ‘stone, rock’ (Old English stān). The surname may be topographic, for someone who lived on stony ground, by a notable outcrop of rock, or by a stone boundary-marker or monument, or habitational, from a place called Stone, such as those in Buckinghamshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Somerset, Staffordshire, and Worcestershire.
Irish (Kilkenny): adopted for Irish Ó Clochartaigh (see Clougherty ) and/or Ó Clochasaigh (see Clohessy ), and possibly several other names containing or thought to contain the element cloch ‘stone’.
Americanized form (translation into English) of various surnames in other languages, meaning ‘stone’, including Jewish Stein , Norwegian Steine, French Lapierre . | <urn:uuid:60c5e411-5b6d-4a38-a25a-eaf07d7305f7> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LTXV-TW6/helen-elizabeth-stone-1905-1942 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510994.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20231002100910-20231002130910-00880.warc.gz | en | 0.951346 | 264 | 2.6875 | 3 |
People love to complain about the death of manners. When we talk about modern manners, we seem to always wax nostalgic about how folks were more polite “back in the day.” It’s unclear where that means things were better in the 1870s, the 1950s, or just the era before smartphones.
Either way, from what you read about the kids these days, it seems the good times are long behind us. The British Psychological Society released a report in 2016 indicating that people might just perceive more rudeness from strangers nowadays – because we’re kind of full of ourselves.
What we’re truly discussing is the decline of formality, which can’t necessarily be conflated with good manners – or basic human decency. People have always been nice and rude, and just about everything in between. Manners simply change with time and context.
Here are some old-fashioned manners that have fallen by the wayside:
1. Leaving calling cards
Back in the day, people would leave each other calling cards, to introduce themselves or let absent friends know they’d visited. There were all sorts of complicated rules surrounding the practice.
Then, phones were invented and social media exploded onto the scene. Etiquette experts agree that leaving calling cards is effectively dead nowadays, Business Insider reported.
2. Addressing people by their last name and title
Throughout much of modern history, it would have been considered catastrophically impertinent to address a new acquaintance — especially one of higher social rank — by their first name. Today, in some situations, it’s best to stick to a level of formality.
A 2013 survey in the UK found people really don’t like telemarketers calling them by their first names, the Daily Mail reported.
However, it’s becoming less common for people to insist on being addressed by their title and last name, Business Insider’s Shana Lebowitz reported. A 1992 study from the National Center for Biotechnology Information found 45% of patients preferred to be called by their first names when meeting a physician for the first time — and 26% of respondents had no preference.
When it came to doctors whom they knew well, 78% of patients wanted to be called by their first names.
3. Dressing up to go on a plane
There’s a keen sense of nostalgia for the glamorous air travel of decades past. People used to dress up for flights like they were going out for a nice dinner or fancy event. Some airlines even had dress codes. In a thread reflecting on past air travel norms, Quora users remembered smartly dressed passengers, cabins thick with cigarette smoke, and even casual visits to the cockpit.
The deregulation of the airlines in the 1970s led to fewer perks, according to the Boston Globe’s Christopher Muther. It also helped lower flight costs and democratize air travel. Today, most people try to keep things casual, in terms of what they wear on the plane. But there’s still a small incentive for dressing up. According to INSIDER’s Sophie-Claire Hoeller, fashionably dressed customers are more likely to get an upgrade.
Continue to the final page to see some customs going out of style… (possibly for the best) | <urn:uuid:afcb7246-0d67-4e3a-8e91-d381753e69e7> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://doyouremember.com/49363/5-basic-manners-people-no-longer-practice | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370508367.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20200402204908-20200402234908-00240.warc.gz | en | 0.964431 | 681 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Water bridges are architectural marvels that are just amazing. These don’t just give an extreme aesthetic delight to all the viewers, in addition, they also connect distant lands. Furthermore, they also provide passage to boats and ships. In fact, just like the rest of the architecture, these bridges also have a historical tradition that goes back to the antiquity. In fact, the most impressive water bridges of the world would not be possible without what our architectural achievements of the past.
The extraordinarily long bridges of the world are also known as aqueducts and have been used for centuries, but only to supply cities with water. Only from the 17th century have they been used as canal systems. The Magdeburg Water Bridge is considered the longest water bridge in the world. Check out some of the most unusual and most beautiful water bridges in the world:
8 – Most impressive water bridges of the world
1. Magdeburg Water Bridge
The Canal Lateral a la Loire going over the Loire River in France was the longest and one of the most impressive water bridges of the world, until the Magdeburg Bridge was built. It held the title of the longest water bridge for almost 150 years from the time it was built. The Magdeburg Bridge opened in October 2003. It connects the Mittellandkanal to the Elbe-Havel Canal, over the river Elbe. It is a whopping 912 meters long and is until now, the longest navigable water bridge/aqueduct worldwide.
The experience of going over this magnificent water bridge is unforgettable. It saves the time of many ships, which had to earlier take a detour of 12 kms, and sometimes could not make the crossing due to low tide. As a result, they had to offload cargo, which meant more wastage of time. The cost of building the Magdeburg water bridge was 500 million Euros and the time taken was six years. It now performs the major function of connecting the inland harbor network of Berlin to the ports on the river Rhine. It’s undoubtedly one of the most impressive water bridges of the world.
2. Barton Swing Water Bridge
Image Source : regmedia.co.uk
This aqueduct is a fascinating, moveable bridge in Barton, situated in England’s Greater Manchester. This aqueduct is a feat of architecture of the Victorian times, making it one of the most impressive water bridges of the world. Sir Edward Williams designed the bridge. Derbyshire’s Andrew Handyside built it in 1894; and it is regularly used even now. Earlier, a stone bridge hampered the passing of bigger, modern ships. The swing aqueduct was built to allow ships of all sizes to cross over.
The water bridge swings open at 90 degrees to allow bigger ships to pass through, and small ships can pass easily over the bridge. The bridge weighs 1,450 tones and each end of the bridge holds an incredible 800 tones water.
3. Ringvaart Aqueduct
Image Source : i.imgur.com
This water bridge Holland is a remarkable achievement of Dutch civil engineers. It is located in the Haarlemmermeer Municipality; Ringvaart Aqueduct is the oldest water bridge in Netherlands. Though built in 1965, two portions were added in the year 2006, and the bridge is now 5905 ft long.
4. Avon Aqueduct
One of the most impressive water bridges of the world was built in 1821, which makes it the oldest and longest water bridge in Scotland. In the UK, it is the second longest water bridge. It is 810 ft long, 86 ft high and 50 ft wide. It is named Avon as it crosses the Avon River at Linlithgow, Scotland.
5. Veluwemeer Aqueduct, Netherland
Image Source : cdn.themindcircle.com
This amazing waterway has to be experienced and if you’re ever in Holland, you must make it a point to go over this bridge. It’s a unique road as well as water bridge. The water bridge goes over N302 road in the eastern Netherlands, near Harderwijk. It is 19 m wide and 25 m long, and links Flevoland to mainland Holland. Flevoland happens to be the biggest artificial (or man-made / reclaimed) island on Earth.
This water bridge Holland is certainly one of the most impressive water bridges of the world. The bridge design is unusual, as it allows for continuous, pedestrian, vehicle and boat passage. The design is admired by architects all over the world, as it was made in a small budget, and solved both water and road traffic problems.
6. Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
Another name in the list of the most impressive water bridges of the world; this water bridge is situated in Wrexham Country in Britain. Built between years 1795 to 1805, it carries Ellesmere Canal over Dee River and was originally built to connect Denbighshire coalmines to Britain’s canal system during the roaring industrial revolution.
This awesome bridge is now considered a World Heritage Site and provides you with one of the most scenic landscapes in Britain. It was built using both wrought iron and cast iron and the iron-arched ribs are carried elegantly on 19 hollow pipes. The use of iron made the bridge strong and able to endure the ravages of time. This wonderful water bridge is no longer used to move limestone and coal or any other cargo, but has been maintained as a tourist attraction by the British Waterways.
7. Oresund Bridge
The Oresund bridge is a remarkable underwater bridge which connects Sweden and Denmark. The bridge is for railway, motorway and waterway, and half of the bridge is under water to enable boats to pass. It runs from the Swedish artificial island Peberholm to Amager, a Danish island.
The bridge is also the backbone for transmission of internet data between Sweden and Central Europe. The Euro route E20, an international roadway crosses the bridge via road, and the Oresund line is the railway line that crosses this phenomenal bridge. The underground tunnel section was built so that air traffic would not be hampered, and also because ships could move easily pass, in all kinds of water. The Danish firm COWI designed this amazing bridge. It has also won the IABSE Outstanding Structure Award.
8. Krabbersgat Naviduct, Netherlands
Image Source : img.marinas.com
This is the first naviduct in the world, meaning a waterway that has a lock, near Enkhuizen Holland. It is an ingenious construction as it was built in order to connect two nearby lakes on different levels.
The water bridges of the world are architectural wonders, which are extremely beautiful as well. They perform a useful function of enabling a smooth passage for boats and ships. The design of water bridges has evolved over time, and we can only admire the technical expertise and aesthetic design sense of the architects. | <urn:uuid:17f9a48a-0801-4cc6-965f-82e4ee16ce30> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://designbuzz.com/8-most-impressive-water-bridges-of-the-world/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335444.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930051717-20220930081717-00028.warc.gz | en | 0.958819 | 1,461 | 3.125 | 3 |
General information about Ukraine. Ukraine became independent again after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This began a transition period to a market economy. Industry and agriculture. Economy of Ukraine. The Interesting places in Kyiv.
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Table of contents
Table of contents
I. General information about Ukraine
II. Industry and agriculture
III. Economy of Ukraine
IV. The Interesting places in Kyiv
The utillized literature
I. The nation's history began with that of the East Slavs. From at least the 9th century, the territory of Ukraine was a center of the medieval East Slavic civilization forming the state of Kievan Rus', which disintegrated in the 12th century. From the 14th century on, the territory of Ukraine was divided among a number of regional powers and by the 19th century the largest part of Ukraine was integrated into the Russian Empire with the rest under Austro-Hungarian control. After a chaotic period of incessant warfare and several attempts at independence (1917-1921) following the Russian Revolution and the Great War, Ukraine emerged in 1922 as one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's territory was enlarged westward shortly before and after the Second World War, and again in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the co-founding members of the United Nations. Ukraine became independent again after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This began a transition period to a market economy, in which Ukraine was stricken with eight straight years of economic decline. But since about the turn of the century, the economy has been experiencing a stable increase, with real GDP growth averaging about seven percent annually.
Ukraine is a unitary state composed of 24 oblasts (provinces), one autonomous republic (Crimea), and two cities with special status: Kiev, its capital, and Sevastopol, which houses the Russian Black Sea Fleet under a leasing agreement. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. At the end of 2004, the country underwent an extensive constitutional reform that has changed the balance of power among the parliament, the prime minister, and the cabinet, as well as their relationship with the president.
At 603,700 kmІ (233,074 sq mi) and with a coastline of 2,782 km (1,729 sq mi), Ukraine is the world's 44th-largest country (after the Central African Republic, before Madagascar). It is the second largest country in Europe (after the European part of Russia, before metropolitan France).
The Ukrainian landscape consists mostly of fertile plains (or steppes) and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the Dnieper (Dnipro), Seversky Donets, Dniester and the Southern Buh as they flow south into the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. To the southwest, the delta of the Danube forms the border with Romania. The country's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest is the Hora Hoverla at 2,061 m (6,762 ft), and those on the Crimean peninsula, in the extreme south along the coast.
Ukraine has a mostly temperate continental climate, although a more Mediterranean climate is found on the southern Crimean coast. Precipitation is disproportionately distributed; it is highest in the west and north and lesser in the east and southeast. Western Ukraine, receives around 1,200 mm of precipitation, annually. While Crimea, receives around 400 mm of precipitation. Winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland. Average annual temperatures range from 5.5-7 °C in the north, to 11-13 °C in the south.
According to 1887 estimates by Austro-Hungarian geographers, the Ukrainian city of Rakhiv (48°45?N, 18°55?E) is the site of the geographical centre of Europe. However, this is disputed by other European cities and the question has not yet been answered.
II. By the mid-80s a multi-branch, developed industry was created in Ukraine covering about 20 major industries, namely power generating, fuel, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, chemical and petrochemical and gas, machine-building and metal-working, forest, wood-working and wood pulp and paper, construction materials, light, food and others. In 1990, for instance, approximately 300 billion kWh of energy, approximately 40 million tons of ferrous metals rolled stock, and 6.5 million tons of steel pipes were produced; more than 100 million tons of iron ore were mined; 37 thousand metal cutting machine-tools, and more than 100 thousand tractors were manufactured in Ukraine.
Ukraine has five nuclear power stations with fifteen reactors with a total power output of 13.6 thousand MW (13 reactors of WWR type and 2 reactors of RBMK type in the Chernobyl NPS). In addition there are 47 thermal power stations with a total power output of 32.4 thousand MW, 6 large hydraulic power stations on the Dnieper and 55 small stations on other rivers.
In the coal-mining industry, more than 300 mines are operated in three coal-mining regions. Ukraine produces only 5.5 million tons of its own oil, but the ramified network of oil pipelines supports the operation of 10 petroleum plants. The Ukrainian gas pipelines transport the Russian gas to Central and Western Europe.
Approximately 200 large enterprises are operating in ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, pipe and rolling industry. These include the world largest complexes for the production of cast iron, steel, rolled stock and pipes in Dniepropetrovsk, Zaporozhje, Donetsk, Makeevka, Mariupol and other cities.
The mechanical engineering sector is represented by enterprises producing metallurgical, oil, chemical, mining, power generating, railway (locomotives, carriages, tank-cars, etc.), road construction and transportation (ships, aircraft, cars, city transport) equipment, machinery for agriculture, light and food industry, metal-cutting machine tools, instrumentation.
The Zaporozhje `Motor-Sich' plant manufactures aircraft engines for all the CIS countries. One of the world largest aerospace concerns - `Pivdenny' - is functioning in Dniepropet-rovsk; Kharkov turbines are known in many countries. A high-capacity chemical production complex is located in the city of Kaloush.
Altogether, the industry of Ukraine includes more than 10000 state and joint stock enterprises, and hundreds of private and collectively owned small and medium-sized businesses have been established over the last years, which operate in various industries.
Historically Ukraine was an agro-industrial country. Black-earth soil, which occupies 60% of Ukrainian land, is natural wealth of Ukraine. More, than 40% of all agricultural production of Ukraine is grown without using of any pesticides and, as a result, Ukrainian food is the most natural and safely in Europe. Among all the European countries Ukraine is a leader of growing of sugar beet, buckwheat and carrot; second place of growing of wheat (after Russia) and of tomato (after Poland). Ukraine is also famous because of corn, watermelon, tomato, apple and pear. 28% of all population of Ukraine works in agriculture sector. After destruction of USSR in Ukraine appear farms (average 350 hectares) and family households (0.3 - 5 hectares). Every year quantity of farms increases and, as a result, increases productivity. Farms are able to buy modern techniques and enough pesticides, but the food, which they produce, is not as natural as the food of family households.
There are many problems in agriculture in my country, but 4 - 5 of them are global, and their solution is very difficult. There are problems of land degradation, technological problem, pollution of environment and irrational using of lands.
High percentage of humus (more than 7 %) helped farmers to gather high harvest without using of any fertilizers. But about 60 years ago fertility of earth suddenly declined because of process of industrialization, which took place in Ukraine. As a result, now we have only 3,5% of humus and the process of land degradation is very actual problem in my country. Many farms still do not care that renovation of productivity of land will take hundreds or thousands of years, and they continue using land in incorrect way. We have also many problems with technology in farms. Many farms, which do not have enough money to buy new techniques, use old machines with low productivity. Those machines pollute environment much more, than the new ones. The system of recycling is not developed in Ukraine at all and it negatively influences on agriculture too. Farms throw out a lot of different things, which can be successfully used in other farms or in plants. In this case it appear many hills of rubbish which have negative influence not only on environment, but also on agriculture of areas which are closely located to those hills. But the biggest problem of agriculture in Ukraine is irrational using of land. After destruction of USSR collective farms were distributed completely incorrectly. Many households (family farms) have area more than 2 hectares, even more than 5 hectares, but their owners use only 1 hectare, and the other part of land is not in use.
Agricultural system in Ukraine is characterized as instable. Now Ukrainian government tries to realize Main Agriculture Law, according to which it will be possible to buy and sell land and also to rent land for long period. This law will increase in agriculture much and will allow foreign investors to organize farms with the highest productivity and profit. Owners, which do not use bigger part of their land, will be able to sell it. It will be very useful for both foreign investors and Ukrainian government.
III. In Soviet times, the economy of Ukraine was the second largest in the Soviet Union, being an important industrial and agricultural component of the country's planned economy. With the collapse of the Soviet system, the country moved from a planned economy to a market economy. The transition process was difficult for the majority of the population which plunged into poverty. Ukraine's economy contracted severely following the years after the Soviet collapse. Day to day life for the average person living in Ukraine was a struggle. A significant number of citizens in rural Ukraine survived by growing their own food, often working two or more jobs and buying the basic necessities through the barter economy.
In 1991, the government liberalized most prices to combat widespread product shortages, and was successful in overcoming the problem. At the same time, the government continued to subsidize government-owned industries and agriculture by uncovered monetary emission. The loose monetary policies of the early 1990s pushed inflation to hyperinflationary levels. For the year 1993, Ukraine holds the world record for inflation in one calendar year. Those living on fixed incomes suffered the most. Prices stabilized only after the introduction of new currency, the hryvnia, in 1996.
The country was also slow in implementing structural reforms. Following independence, the government formed a legal framework for privatization. However, widespread resistance to reforms within the government and from a significant part of the population soon stalled the reform efforts. A large number of government-owned enterprises were exempt from the privatization process. In the meantime, by 1999, the output had fallen to less than 40 percent of the 1991 level, but recovered to slightly above the 100 percent mark by the end of 2006.
Ukraine's 2006 GDP (PPP) is ranked 28th in the world and estimated at $364.3 billion.Nominal GDP (in U.S. dollars, calculated at market exchange rate) was $106.11 billion, ranked 51st in the world.
In the early 2000s, the economy showed strong export-based growth of 5 to 10 percent, with industrial production growing more than 10 percent per year. The growth was largely attributed to a surge in exports of metals and chemicals to China.
The World Bank classifies Ukraine as a middle-income state. Significant issues include underdeveloped infrastructure and transportation, corruption and bureaucracy. But the rapidly growing Ukrainian economy has a very interesting emerging market with a relatively big population, and large profits associated with the high risks. The Ukrainian stock market grew 10 times between 2000 and 2006, including 341 percent growth in 2004, 28 percent in 2005, and 24 percent in 2006. According to the CIA, in 2006 the market capitalization of the Ukrainian stock market was $42.87 billion. Growing sectors of the Ukrainian economy include the IT Outsourcing market, which was expected to grow over 25 percent in 2007.
By December 2007 the average nominal salary in Ukraine reached 1,675 hryvnias per month. Despite remaining lower than in neighboring central European countries, the annual growth of average salary income in real terms is about 20 percent for several years (2001-2006) in a row.
Ukraine produces nearly all types of transportation vehicles and spacecraft. Antonov airplanes and KrAZ trucks are exported to many countries. The majority of Ukrainian exports are marketed to the European Union and CIS.
The country imports most energy supplies, especially oil and natural gas, and to a large extent depends on Russia as an energy supplier. While 25 percent of the natural gas in Ukraine comes from internal sources, about 35 percent comes from Russia and the remaining 40 percent from Central Asia through transit routes that Russia controls. At the same time, 85 percent of the Russian gas is delivered to Western Europe through Ukraine.
After 15 years of negotiations, Ukraine was invited to join the World Trade Organization on February 5, 2008. Ukraine will have to ratify the agreements by July 4, 2008, and will become a WTO member 30 days after the ratification. It will become the 152nd member of the organization.
IV. It is said that one can walk from one end of Kiev to the other in the summertime without leaving the shade of its many trees. Most characteristic are the horse-chestnuts (Ukrainian: каштани, kashtany).
Kiev is known as a green city with two botanical gardens and numerous large and small parks. The green nature of the city is probably most notable by the green hills of the right bank along the Dnieper river that have been relatively untouched by development. The World War II Museum is located here, which offers both indoor and outdoor displays of military history and equipment surrounded by verdant hills overlooking the Dnieper river.
Among the numerous islands, Venetsianskyi (or Hidropark) is the most developed. It is accessible by metro or by car, and includes an amusement park, swimming beaches, boat rentals, and night clubs. The Victory Park (Park Peremohy) located near Darnytsia subway station is a popular destination for strollers, joggers, and cyclists.
Boating, fishing, and water sports are popular pastimes in Kiev. The area lakes and rivers freeze over in the winter and ice fishermen are a frequent sight, as are children with their ice skates. However, the peak of summer draws out a greater mass of people to the shores for swimming or sunbathing, with daytime high temperatures sometimes reaching 30 to 34 °C (86-93 °F).
The centre of Kiev (Independence Square and Khreschatyk Street) becomes a large outdoor party place at night during summer months, with thousands of people having a good time in nearby restaurants, clubs and outdoor cafes. The central streets are closed for auto traffic on weekends and holidays.
A wide variety of farm produce is available in many of Kiev's farmer markets with the Besarabsky Market located in the very centre of the city being most famous. Each residential region has its own market, or rynok. Here one will find table after table of individuals hawking everything imaginable: vegetables, fresh and smoked meats, fish, cheese, honey, dairy products such as milk and home-made smetana (sour cream), caviar, cut flowers, housewares, tools and hardware, and clothing. Each of the markets has its own unique mix of products with some markets devoted solely to specific wares such as automobiles, car parts, pets, clothing, flowers, etc.. There is also a popular book market by the Petrivka metro station.
At the city's southern outskirts, near the historic Pyrohiv village, there is an outdoor museum, officially called the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine It has an area of 1.5 square kilometres (1 sq mi). This territory houses several "mini-villages" that represent by region the traditional rural architecture of Ukraine.
Kiev also has numerous recreational attractions like bowling alleys, go-cart tracks, paintball venues, billiard halls and even shooting ranges. 100-year-old Kiev Zoo is located on 40 hectares and carries over 2,000 specimens.
The utillized literature
1. “Wikipedia”, the free encyclopedia.
The Climate of Ukraine. The Capital of Ukraine. Ukraine Traditions, ukrainian Places of Interest. The education System in Ukraine. Ukrainian Youth Nowadays. The problem of Environmental Protection in Ukraine. Ukraine and English-speaking Countries.
реферат [944,5 K], добавлен 13.11.2010
Сharacteristics of the current state of agriculture in Ukraine, including an analysis of its potential, problems and prospects of development. Description of major agricultural equipment used in Ukraine. Features of investment in agriculture in Ukraine.
реферат [23,8 K], добавлен 28.06.2010
Kyiv - the capital of Ukraine and one of the biggest cities in Europe. St. Sophia Cathedral. Mariyinsky Palace. Andriyivsky Uzviz (Andriyivsky Descent). Ukraine Kyiv Funicular. Horodetskyi Building. Volodymyr Cathedral. Khreschatyk - the main street in Ky
реферат [7,3 K], добавлен 26.03.2007
The Ukrainian fashion: in expectation of a miracle. Fashion event boosts Ukraine’s nascent fashion industry. Made in Ukraine becomes fashionable. The 17th Pret-a-Porter Seasons of Fashion Week. 27th UFW: a spicy treat for European fashionistas.
реферат [25,7 K], добавлен 26.02.2011
Every day the world economy becomes more global. This tendency hasn't avoided Ukraine. Many domestic companies have already felt on themselves negative consequences of this process. New conditions of business dealing is first of all new possibilities.
реферат [26,9 K], добавлен 27.10.2010
National treasures of Ukraine: orthodox Кyiv-Pechersky Monastery, Saint Sophia. The building of Ukrainian parliament, Verkhovna Rada, Palace Mariinsky, Khreshchatyk and other more than 2000 streets of capital. Economic and industrial centre of Kyiv.
контрольная работа [23,0 K], добавлен 20.10.2012
The Structure of Ukrainian Government. Rights and Duties of the Ukrainian Citizens. The Constitution of Ukraine. The state language. The Verkhovna Rada's main function is making laws. The Cabinet of Ministers is the highest body of the executive power.
контрольная работа [15,3 K], добавлен 13.11.2010
Educational text from English with translation about history of Ukraine. Some information about history of Ukraine, its independence, Zaporizka Sich, activity of the Dnipro Cossacks. Short dictionary, list of questions to the text and answers to them.
контрольная работа [1,4 M], добавлен 21.11.2010
One of determinant national foreign policy priorities is European and Euroatlantic integration. Relationship between Ukraine and NATO was established in 1991, when Ukraine proclaimed sovereignty right after the fall of the USSR and joined the Council.
статья [32,6 K], добавлен 29.12.2009
Ukraine is an energy-rich republic. Renewable energy installed capacities. Geothermal energy refers to the heat within the earth’s surface that can be recovered and used for practical purposes. Potential for wind power and Solar energy, their use.
эссе [146,3 K], добавлен 20.03.2011 | <urn:uuid:e75c92cd-8d99-4149-9b9d-6b27f82c30aa> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://knowledge.allbest.ru/languages/2c0b65625b2ad68b5d53b88421216c27_0.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514574765.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20190922012344-20190922034344-00044.warc.gz | en | 0.93813 | 4,658 | 3.03125 | 3 |
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DoEdu IT Educations primary goal is to provide professional couching with very low price tag, so helping the people who wants quality training with low cost, We are group of people working in top MNC in india who wants to create online tutorials on various software languages which contains the real time scenarios. | <urn:uuid:33fcfe6c-9846-4d5d-a1de-32f8703e25aa> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://shop.ibtimes.com/sales/c-c-python-and-ruby-programming | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572286.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816090541-20220816120541-00095.warc.gz | en | 0.920904 | 278 | 2.734375 | 3 |
As I am endeavoring to communicate in unequivocal terms in the work-in-progress Axioms (and as is already well known by mathematicians and logicians8), there is very, very little that can be considered to be a priori truth in the entire realm of human intellectual endeavor. Most of what was once considered a priori truth from the time of the early Greek mathematicians and geometers has slowly, painfully been revealed to be contingent truth, truth that can only be derived from unprovable axioms - assumptions that are necessary to the development of logical arguments. Modern mathematics is developed from sets of propositions that are no longer advanced as self-evident truth, but rather as just that - propositions. If you change the propositions you get a different, but quite possibly equally valid contingent theory.
For us to use reason in addressing questions about God, we therefore will require a common set of assumptions and a consistent set of definitions. Otherwise, with different assumptions or contradictory assumptions who could be surprised if one arrives at different conclusions (or any conclusion at all, given that one can prove anything from a contradiction)?
The theorem concerning God that this short work will state and prove therefore follows from a set of axioms and definitions, as any theorem must. This theorem concerns God and the Universe, so it seems suitable to start by precisely defining these two terms. Otherwise you could fail to understand the proof simply because the words used mean something different to you in your everyday discourse, perhaps because you speak a different language than English, perhaps because you simply never thought about their precise meaning.
The Universe: The Universe is defined to be everything that exists. This definition must be carefully qualified because we must not take the narrow viewpoint that everything that exists is the single space-time in which we appear to live. We must allow for the possibility of multiple space-time continua, or larger spaces in which our space-time is embedded. This is not to allege that we know whether or not such a larger space exists, only that when we use the term Universe we are referring to the union of all dimensions that have objective existence, known or unknown, simply connected, multiply connected, or disjoint, together with all of their contents. It is time-independent (obviously so, given that what we call ``time'' is a single dimension in our space-time continuum).
The point is that any assertion such as `` exists (or existed, or will exist) but is not a part of the Universe'' is a direct contradiction of the term Universe for any . If a thing has objective being, it is in the set of all things that have objective being. Note well that this existential definition of the set itself completely avoids all difficulties with e.g. Russell paradoxes (for those that know what they are) as ``sets'' do not have objective being, they are merely figments of our imagination where the Universe is precisely the set of what is real whether or not we can correctly or precisely imagine it. Nor does this existential set have the problems associated with infinite Universal abstract sets for much the same reason - the Universe is precisely what it is, infinite or not, and our beliefs concerning it will not affect the reality in any way.
God: Our proof requires that we associate with the term God only four of the various qualities often associated with Deity. There may be other properties one wishes to assert, but in order to build a consistent rational theory of God, one must begin somewhere with a minimal set that everybody can agree on and then see if the others can be consistently asserted or asserted in a way that agrees with experience. The term ``God'' in this work refers to something that possesses that following qualities, that are common to nearly all monotheistic or monistic religious faiths
We will stop here. Most of the rest of the properties theistic religions ascribe to God - Creator of the Universe, omnibenificence, perfectly just, perfectly jealous, perfectly cruel, perfectly loving - are either (as we shall see) directly self-contradictory of the definitions and properties already listed above or fairly obvious anthropomorphic projections of human traits onto the Godhead (and are even more contradictory in combination with each other, as we contemplate an all-loving God who consigns self-aware creations to eternal fiery torment). Perhaps we will in the end have some room for more properties, perhaps not, but we must not introduce contradictions from the beginning.
Finally, we need a single assertion each from information theory and physics. From physics we need the idea that things that exist have properties. Properties we typically ascribe to things like quarks and electrons in physics (elementary particles out of which larger objects are built) include things like:
The theorem below doesn't rely on any particular set of these properties, the independence or relationships between the properties, or whether or not we know what a complete set of the properties are, only that things that exist have them. It is valid whether or not we know what they are, it is valid however they might be ``causally'' entertwined and interrelated. It is valid whether or not they are classical or quantum properties or something else altogether.
I don't know what it would mean to say that a thing exists but has no properties at all - that it has no properties of its own and isn't made up of things that have properties of their own that it inherits in aggregate, that it cannot be correlated in any way with things that have properties (as that correlation would be a property). Such a thing would presumably ``exist'' at no place and at no time (in any generalized sense) and would in no way affect anything that did exist at some place and some time. I'd be pretty comfortable redefining the meaning of the word ``exist'' so that it excluded such a thing, if need be, but I don't think that it is.
We need to carefully bear in mind that coordinates we might use to symbolically represent those properties are not the properties themselves but rather our semantic or mathematical description of those properties. Given that the Universe is the set of all things that exist, and that things that exist have properties, and that properties can be represented in the abstract as coordinates, physics posits a coordinate description of the Universe that is the set of all of the coordinates corresponding to all of the properties of all of the things that actually exist.
This ``Universal set'' of coordinates is at its most abstract information, and we can use information theory to deduce certain very important conclusions concerning it and the Universe of actual things with actual properties that this coordinate description represents. We will need only one of these deductions below. We begin by mentally compressing the coordinate description - eliminating all redundant information. This leads us to an irreducible specification of the state of the Universe as a complete set of non-redundant coordinates (where a lot of the reduction will appear in the form of exact or approximate coordinate relationships, a.k.a. ``the laws of nature''). This information is self-encoded in the actual things that exist in the actual Universe.
We cannot represent this fully reduced coordinate description (which might well be infinite in size) within any system with less information content (where if infinite, we would require no less cardinality, since compressed it might well still be infinite in size). If we could, it wouldn't be fully reduced! Note that we are pretty safe in insisting on the existence of a maximum compression (or minimal representation of the information) because there is an information-theoretic strict lower bound of "no information" that is insufficient to reconstruct any non-empty coordinate description at all. There is no guarantee that our original, sufficient coordinatization of the state of the Universe is minimal, but somewhere between it and zero there must be one (possibly even more than one) that is minimal, a state of maximum compression.
That's all we really need below, I'm sorry I went so tediously about arriving at this simple statement but I wanted to make sure that it was clear. | <urn:uuid:ddd78f74-03df-4ecc-9356-25cc227a2115> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/Philosophy/god_theorem/god_theorem/node5.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1412037662882.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20140930004102-00452-ip-10-234-18-248.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952541 | 1,651 | 2.734375 | 3 |
How Should Athletes Rehydrate?
I frequently get questions from athletes and parents alike about energy and sports drinks: are they good for you? Do they work? Will they help me perform better? Are energy and sports drinks the same?
All are excellent questions and I am here to help debunk the myths! Many children and adolescents confuse these two types of drinks, which can have serious health consequences.
Sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade contain mostly carbohydrates, minerals, and electrolytes. Their job is to help replace fluid and electrolytes lost when sweating heavily. Energy drinks may list similar ingredients, but they typically also contain stimulants like caffeine or guarana, and other potentially dangerous substances. Monitoring both sports and energy drinks is important because they are heavily marketed toward children and adolescents.
Generally, children and adolescents should drink water to replace fluid lost during exercise lasting less than an hour. If exercise lasts longer than an hour, or occurs in a hot and humid environment, then sports drinks may be used to replace both fluid and electrolyte losses. Sports drinks should not be consumed at meals as a casual beverage. Water is likely adequate before and during exercise for fluid replacement. At meal times, stick with the recommended amount of 100% fruit juice, low fat milk, or water.
Coaches will often say to me, “my players walk on the field before a game with an energy drink instead of eating a well-balanced meal, and then they wonder why they are crashing by halftime!” The bottom line is this: energy drinks have not been proven to be safe or effective and are in no way recommended for use among children and adolescents. The stimulants in energy drinks can cause sleep disturbance, mood alteration, GI upset, and anxiety which have the potential to negatively affect athletic performance. In worst cases, arrhythmias or interactions with medications can occur. Water should be your main source of hydration and sports drinks such as Gatorade and Powerade can be used in certain situations.
Have a healthy, hydrated, and active summer! | <urn:uuid:e3d77cf7-b3fc-446d-9645-292a1a324ac4> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://700childrens.nationwidechildrens.org/how-should-athletes-rehydrate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720737.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00505-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941554 | 430 | 2.84375 | 3 |
(RedirectedfromMagallanesandAntarticaChilenaRegion) Jumptonavigation Jumptosearch RegionofChileinChileMagallanesandCh..">
|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|
Región de Magallanes y
de la Antártica Chilena
|Region of Chile|
Map of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region
|Provinces||Magellan, Chilean Antarctica, Tierra del Fuego, Última Esperanza|
|• Intendant||Christian Matheson|
|• Total||132,291.1 km2 (51,077.9 sq mi)|
|Lowest elevation||0 m (0 ft)|
|Population (2017 census)|
|• Density||1.3/km2 (3.2/sq mi)|
|ISO 3166 code||CL-MA|
|Website||Official website (in Spanish)|
The Region of Magallanes (locally [maɣaˈʝanes]), officially the XII Region of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica (Spanish: Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena), is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions. It is the southernmost, largest, and second least populated region of Chile. It comprises four provinces: Última Esperanza, Magallanes, Tierra del Fuego, and Antártica Chilena.
Magallanes's geographical features include Torres del Paine, Cape Horn, Tierra del Fuego island, and the Strait of Magellan. It also includes the Antarctic territory claimed by Chile. Despite its large area, much of the land in the region is rugged or closed off for sheep farming, and is unsuitable for settlement. 80% of the population lives in the capital Punta Arenas, a major market city and one of the main hubs for Antarctic exploration.
The main economic activities are sheep farming, oil extraction, and tourism. It is also the region with the lowest poverty level in Chile (5.8%); households in Magallanes have the highest income of any region in Chile.
Since 2017, the region has had its own time zone. It uses the summer time for the whole year (UTC−3).
This region contains mountainous peaks and glaciers in the far north, including elements of the Patagonian Ice Sheet. Further south there are other mountain ranges such as the Cerro Toro and numerous surface waters including the Seno Última Esperanza, Eberhard Fjord and Lago Grey. Protected areas include the Torres del Paine National Park and the Cueva del Milodon Natural Monument. At the latter, remains have been discovered of the extinct ground sloth as well as of prehistoric man dating to circa 10,000 BC.
The topography can be divided in four regions: an outer archipelago region (Spanish: Región Archipielágica) to the west and south, a mountain region in the west and south (Spanish: Región Cordillerana), a plains region (Spanish: Región de las Planicies Orientales) in the northeast plus a sub-Andean zone in-between the last two zones (Spanish: Región Sub-Andina Oriental).
The region is characterized by low temperatures and strong winds throughout the year. The region has five different climatic types, owing to the diversity in altitudes and the width of the region. Owing to its proximity to 60oS (a zone characterized by low pressure systems and subpolar cyclones), frontal systems regularly pass through the region.
The westernmost islands have a cold, humid and rainy climate, being exposed to strong winds and low temperatures throughout the year. Precipitation averages 3,500 mm (140 in) per year, while the mean annual temperature on these islands is 9 °C (48.2 °F) with a low thermal amplitude due to the maritime influences and the strong winds. Precipitation decreases eastwards while temperatures increases eastwards. These islands are the wettest places in Chile, particularly on Guarello Island where it can record 9,000 mm (350 in) during the wettest years. Precipitation is high throughout the year though fall tends to be the wettest season.
Immediately to the east of the westernmost islands, east of the Andes and bordered by the Cordillera Paine to the north and the Brunswick Peninsula to the south, the climate is much drier. The Andes to the west block most of the precipitation, causing most of the air coming in to be dry. Mean annual precipitation ranges between 250 to 400 mm (9.8 to 15.7 in) which is fairly evenly distributed through the year. During winters, precipitation mainly falls as snow. Mean annual temperatures are between 6 to 7 °C (42.8 to 44.6 °F). Due to the close proximity to the ocean, winters are not cold and snow cover does not last long.
In the easternmost parts of the region, including much of Tierra del Fuego province, a cold steppe climate prevails. Temperatures are cold while precipitation is lower than areas to the west. Mean precipitation is between 250 to 500 mm (9.8 to 19.7 in), decreasing eastwards and is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year. Mean annual temperatures range between 8 to 9 °C (46.4 to 48.2 °F). From December to March, mean temperatures exceed 10 °C (50.0 °F) while during winter, they reach down to 2 °C (35.6 °F).
Corresponding to the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, located at higher altitudes, temperatures are cold enough to maintain permanent ice fields. Mean temperatures are below 0 °C (32.0 °F) in all months while precipitation (mostly as snow) is abundant year round, receiving 2,000 mm (79 in). These areas have a polar climate.
In the southernmost islands, south of Tierra del Fuego and the Strait of Magellan, a tundra climate prevails. These islands are strongly influenced by the surrounding Pacific ocean to the west and southwest and the Drake Passage to the south, resulting in constant temperatures throughout the year. Mean annual temperatures are between 5 to 7 °C (41.0 to 44.6 °F) while precipitation is high, with most places receiving 1,000 mm (39 in). In sheltered areas, precipitation is below 600 mm (24 in). Summers are the warmest and the wettest season in these islands.
|Antártica Chilena||Cabo de Hornos||15,854||2,262||1,677||link|
|Tierra del Fuego||Timaukel||10,996||423||204||link|
|Tierra del Fuego||Primavera||4,614||1,016||545||link|
|Tierra del Fuego||Porvenir||6,983||5,465||5,907||link|
|Última Esperanza||Torres del Paine||6,470||739||180||link|
The population of Magellan is one of the lowest in Chile, as one of the last regions colonized and populated.
In the 1854 census counted 158 settlers, who belonged to the people of Punta Arenas, the native population, according to King, amounted in 1830, approximately 2,200 (about 400 in western Patagonia and south approximately 1,600 Strait).
The census of 1875 was aware of 1,144 inhabitants and in 1895 the population had risen to 5,170 inhabitants, mostly concentrated in the city of Punta Arenas and its surroundings.
The installation of the cattle ranches attracted people from Europe (mostly Croats, British, Swiss and Italians) and southern Chile (mostly from Chiloé), which greatly increased the population of the region.
Punta Arenas is said to have the largest percentage of Croatians in the world outside Croatia and the former Yugoslavia. There is a higher proportion of non-Spanish Europeans there as well (esp. Scots and Greeks), and descendants of Germans, Dutch, Danes and other Scandinavians, Russians and Portuguese peoples.
From the late 18th century to the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, thousands of trans-oceanic voyages stopped by Punta Arenas as the most convenient strait between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The settlement of Punta Arenas and the Magellan and Chilean Antarctica Region is a result of its past being a hub to international travel.
Already in the 1907 census, the Territory of Magellan had 17,330 inhabitants, distributed as follows: - City of Punta Arenas: 12,785 hab. - Patagonia Chilena: 1,094 hab. - Pen. of Brunswick: 1,062 hab. - Tierra del Fuego: 1,626 hab. - Beagle Channel: 184 inhabitants. - Last Hope: 392 inhabitants. - Baker River: 187 inhabitants.
This proportion has persisted, the bulk of the regional population in the city of Punta Arenas, and in the provincial capital Puerto Natales, Porvenir (Spanish for "future") and Puerto Williams, one of the world's southernmost cities.
In the past 50 years the population has maintained a moderate increase, as shown below, keeping one of the lowest population densities in the country and since this is mostly urban, mostly concentrated in Punta Arenas.
The most populated cities (2002 census) are Punta Arenas (116,005 inhabitants), Puerto Natales (16,978) Porvenir (4,734), Puerto Williams (1,952), and Cerro Sombrero (687).
University of Magellan (UMAG) is a university in the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas. It is part of the Chilean Traditional Universities. The University of Magellan was established in 1981 during the economic reforms of Chile's military regime as the successor of Universidad Técnica del Estado's Punta Arenas section. Universidad Técnica del Estado had established the Punta Arenas section in 1961. The University of Magellan have campuses in Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales as well as a university centre in Puerto Williams. University of Magellan publishes the humanities and social sciences journal Magallania twice a year.
Map showing the Chilean Antarctic Territory
Media related to Category:Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region at Wikimedia Commons | <urn:uuid:715a40aa-bd27-4b4d-a999-b37ce9f37274> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | http://wikiomni.com/pages/Magallanes_and_Antartica_Chilena_Region | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676589932.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20180717222930-20180718002930-00232.warc.gz | en | 0.858309 | 2,230 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Since their emergence in the second half of the seventeenth century, scholarly journals and newspapers – usually called 'Ephemerides' by contemporaries – have functioned as 'diaries of the scholarly world'. Containing advertisements, descriptions and reviews of new books, reports about scientific discoveries and projects, as well as news from scholars and scholarly institutions, they informed about nearly everything that took place in the world of academic and popular knowledge, including the fine arts. As they were published soon after the events and were widely accessible, they not only allowed scholars to participate in the scientific discourse of the time, but also enabled anyone sufficiently educated to engage in such debates. Thus scholarly journals and newspapers operated as 'networks' and prepared the way for public, comprehensive and critical exchange and debates, not bound by any language or national borders. Very rightly, journals are considered today to be 'key works' of the Enlightenment.
From 1682 on a tradition of Ephemerides began to develop in the German-speaking world, two decades after scholarly papers had appeared, almost simultaneously, in France, England and Italy. In the world of scholarly journals this quantitatively and qualitatively remarkable tradition can be called unique. This exceptional flowering of the domestic 'scholarly press' can, not in the least, be attributed to the variety of territorial centers in Germany. By the end of the eighteenth century, up to 1,000 scholarly journals and newspapers had been founded – ranging from short-lived one-man-projects to major journals published for several decades. From the beginning on, the protestant lands in central and northern Germany, with their famous printing centers, established themselves as the cradle and core area of the scholarly periodicals. But other regions of the empire, as well as neighboring German-speaking areas, equally produced numerous renowned journals. This is particularly the case for the southern, catholic part of the empire, where large independent scholarly journals and newspapers developed, albeit with some delay. Even in non-German-speaking areas abroad – Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Russia or the Netherlands for example – German-language Ephemerides were published.
Gelehrte Journale und Zeitungen ('Scholarly Journals and Newspapers'), a long-term research project at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences, cooperates with the State and University Library of Lower Saxony in Göttingen, the University Library in Leipzig and the Bavarian State Library in Munich. The aim of the project not only consists in indexing and digitizing the main German representatives of this massive corpus of scholarly journals, it also intends to make visible the papers' eminent role in the emergence of the 'Enlightened scientific community' and its structures. The project focusses on interdisciplinary polyhistoric Ephemerides, which consider the humanities and social sciences as well as the natural sciences, and contain original contributions, book reviews and scholarly news as well as all facets of critique.
Including the data of two previous Göttingen academy projects – "Index of German-language Periodicals" (IdZ 18, ca. 97,000 records) and "Systematic Index of German-language Review Journals" (IdRZ 18, ca. 76,000 records) –, the research database will, in 2025, eventually provide access to 323 periodicals (ca. 2,775 volumes and ca. 1,260,000 pages), and thus unite the research and indexing work of five decades.
As the selection of the journals to be analyzed and indexed takes into consideration geographical and confessional aspects, the project is carried out in Göttingen, Leipzig and Munich, each of these sites representing in its own way a center of the Enlightenment.
The resulting index is made accessible via an interactive online database offering detailed possibilities for advanced search, links to each article, to library catalogues and – if possible – to the digitized images of the reviewed books. The data should not, however, only be considered as a mere collection of facts and material; they also provide a wealth of interconnected information augmenting and deepening the current knowledge about the Century of Enlightenment. Thus the project is equally important for research on a general 'topography of knowledge' and networks of knowledge in the eighteenth century, as for questions pertaining to the reception history of individual works and the development of specialized disciplines. | <urn:uuid:dc26a8c1-ced1-4cb5-b02d-21f6ba72c799> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://gelehrte-journale.de/en/about/project-description/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514575515.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190922135356-20190922161356-00198.warc.gz | en | 0.947677 | 885 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Interactive map: Countries' climate targets beyond 2020
What are countries really bringing to the negotiating table when the world meets to thrash out a greenhouse deal in Paris this year?
The stakes are high – the hoped-for deal at the 2015 summit will be the first since the landmark Kyoto Protocol in 1992, and could commit countries to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2020.
Throughout the year, countries will submit draft contributions known as INDCs or Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. These may be baselines and targets (such as 40% below 1990 levels by 2030), but may also take other forms.
Contributions will be submitted through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change here. To read an explainer of INDCs and how they fit into a global climate deal, click here. The Conversation will be tracking these contributions as they are submitted through the interactive map below. Click on countries to view contributions and other climate stats.
This map was compiled with the assistance of Pep Canadell, Executive Director of the Global Carbon Project.
Emissions (all greenhouse gases): total greenhouse gas emissions within a country, expressed in CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent). This excludes emissions from land use, land use change, and forestry. Source: EDGAR
Emissions per capita (all greenhouse gases): total greenhouse emissions within a country for each person, expressed in CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent). Source: EDGAR
Emissions growth (CO2 only): growth in total carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuel 2010-2011. Source: Global Carbon Project
Emissions transfer (CO2 only): fossil fuel emissions minus consumption emissions (carbon dioxide emissions generated elsewhere in the production of goods and services consumed within a country). A negative value shows that a country “outsources” some of its carbon dioxide emissions to other countries, and a positive value means the country is exporting more carbon in goods and services than it imports. Source: Global Carbon Project | <urn:uuid:7d12c012-834e-465e-83d3-a067b57c3815> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://green-blog.org/news/politics/interactive-map-countries-climate-targets-beyond-2020-r1104/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250592394.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20200118081234-20200118105234-00482.warc.gz | en | 0.894774 | 402 | 3.609375 | 4 |
The Java� Programming Language (3rd Ed.) has this to say:
A thread's priority is initially the same as the priority of the thread that created it. The priority can be changed using setPriority with a value between Thread's constants MIN_PRIORITY and MAX_PRIORITY. The standard priority for the default thread is NORM_PRIORITY. The priority of a running thread can be changed at any time. If you assign a thread a priority lower than its current one, the system may let another thread run, because the original thread may no longer be among those with the highest priority. The getPriority method returns the priority of a thread.
Note: Do *not* - I repeat do *not* - rely on the behavior of the thread scheduler. | <urn:uuid:df598cb1-ddec-46d9-8fe6-22a0e9433a78> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.coderanch.com/t/251019/java-programmer-SCJP/certification/Threads | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422115864313.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124161104-00167-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912502 | 163 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Expensive MAYO CLINIC: I was not long ago diagnosed with osteoporosis and my health treatment crew recommended that I take in a bone-healthful food plan to avert far more challenges and keep robust bones as I age. What is osteoporosis, and how can I keep a bone-balanced food plan?
Answer: Osteoporosis is a condition that will cause the bones to skinny and reduce their energy. When bones turn into weaker, sudden fractures can come about, even with minimum trauma. A calcium-rich diet is significant to maintain best bone well being and stop osteoporosis. So, way too, is vitamin D, which can help the system soak up calcium to deposit it into bones. The quantity of calcium and vitamin D essential to optimize bone wellbeing will increase with age.
Bones need to have vitamins so they can mature and keep that expansion. A bone-healthier diet can be a superior method to protect against ongoing bone loss. This diet regime must be part of an general healthier way of life that includes work out and ideal calcium and vitamin D amounts.
In this article are 5 techniques to consuming very well for robust bones:
1. Consume more vegetables, fruits and whole grains.
Studies demonstrate that having extra vegetables and fruits will increase bone wellbeing. These food items are typically decrease in calories and fat, and they are significant in fiber and crucial nutritional vitamins and minerals. They also consist of phytochemicals, which are substances that can guard from various illnesses, like osteoporosis.
Aim to eat four or more servings of veggies and a few servings of fruit each day. Fruits and greens are superb sources of magnesium and potassium, as well as natural vitamins C, K and A. All participate in a purpose in protecting bone health.
Also, take in 4 servings of grains each day. Decide on total grains when probable since complete grains include extra vitamins, in particular magnesium and fiber, than refined grains do.
2. Opt for wholesome resources of protein and unwanted fat.
Protein is vital for bone overall health for the reason that it can be a important part of bone tissue and plays a purpose in protecting bone. The best possibilities include things like plant proteins, this sort of as beans and nuts, as perfectly as fish, skinless poultry and lean cuts of meat.
Plant proteins are wealthy in natural vitamins, minerals and estrogen-like plant compounds that aid protect bone. Very low-unwanted fat dairy items, together with milk and simple yogurt, are yet another fantastic resource of protein. These solutions offer calcium, which benefits bone overall health. Protein should account for 25% to 35% of your overall day by day energy.
You will need some fat in your diet program for your body to purpose thoroughly. The most effective selections are monounsaturated fat, this sort of as these uncovered in olive oil, nuts and seeds. Cold-h2o fish also give critical omega-3 fatty acids. Be aware to steer clear of saturated fat, which have been demonstrated to be detrimental to bone wellbeing in older people.
3. Get plenty of calcium.
Calcium is vital to bone overall health. This mineral is a important setting up block of bone, and it aids prevent bone loss and osteoporotic fractures in older men and women. Although the recommended each day consumption for older people frequently ranges from 1,000 to 1,200 milligrams, the common eating plan presents substantially much less.
If you’re not having sufficient calcium, test to maximize your consumption of foodstuff that are high in the mineral.
Conventional dairy products, these as milk, yogurt and cheese. are the richest foodstuff resources. For case in point, one particular 8-ounce serving of skim, low-fats or total milk contains about 300 milligrams of calcium.
Calcium is also discovered in:
• Plant-based milk, including almond, cashew and oat.
• Food resources abundant in calcium, including kale and broccoli.
• Calcium-fortified foods, these as juices, cereals and tofu products.
It can be difficult to take in the everyday need of calcium by means of diet on your own. A calcium nutritional supplement may be recommended. But calcium must not be taken alone. Vitamin D is important for right calcium absorption, and magnesium assists immediate the calcium to the bone, maintaining it out of the tender tissues. Seem for a calcium health supplement that contains both equally ingredients.
4. Restrict sugar, salt and phosphate additives.
Foods that consist of sugars extra during processing commonly provide a lot of energy, additives and preservatives, but they present few health and fitness advantages. Restrict your consumption of processed foodstuff and drinks, such as smooth beverages.
Aim to decrease the sum of salt in your diet regime, as effectively. Not only can salt trigger substantial blood strain, but also it can raise the total of calcium you excrete from your system with urination. Intention for a limit of 2,300 milligrams of salt daily—the equal of about 1 teaspoon.
Phosphorus is employed as an additive in quite a few processed foods. Also considerably phosphorus in your diet plan can interfere with how much calcium is absorbed via your smaller intestine.
Examine labels on processed foodstuff, but goal to decide on fresh foodstuff each time feasible.
5. Limit alcohol and caffeine usage.
Consuming more than one particular or two alcoholic beverages for each day hastens bone decline and decreases your body’s skill to take up calcium. If you choose to consume liquor, do so in moderation. For nutritious older people, that signifies up to a single drink per day for girls of all ages and males more mature than 65, and up to two beverages a working day for males 65 and more youthful. And consuming alcohol with meals will slow calcium’s absorption, as properly.
Caffeine can a bit maximize calcium decline through urination. But a great deal of its perhaps hazardous outcome stems from substituting caffeinated drinks for milk and other healthy drinks. Average caffeine consumption—about two to three cups of espresso for each day—won’t be hazardous as lengthy as your diet is made up of suitable calcium.
With the proper way of life modifications, you really should be able to manage powerful, healthful bones as you age.
Online video: What girls really should know about osteoporosis possibility
2022 Mayo Clinic Information Community. Distributed by Tribune Written content Company, LLC.
Osteoporosis and a bone-wholesome diet program (2022, May well 23)
retrieved 24 Might 2022
from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-osteoporosis-bone-healthful-diet regime.html
This document is issue to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the function of non-public analyze or investigate, no
section may well be reproduced with no the composed authorization. The content material is delivered for data uses only. | <urn:uuid:e6234919-3de3-4783-bd4c-b9c5206e9819> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://tritonsindustries.com/osteoporosis-and-a-bone-healthy-diet.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334992.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927064738-20220927094738-00111.warc.gz | en | 0.937984 | 1,457 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Francesca Caccini (1587-1640)
This image appears in the gallery:
21 of the greatest women composers in classical music
2. Francesca Caccini (1587-1640)
Singer, lutenist, poet and teacher, Caccini was the daughter of the great Renaissance composer, Giulio Caccini. She became one of the most influential female European composers but very little of her music survives. Her stage work, 'La liberazione di Ruggiero', is considered to be the first opera by a woman. | <urn:uuid:36f3b7bc-a43a-48a9-a03a-f0e249d719b4> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/great-women-composers/francesca-caccini/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370500482.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20200331115844-20200331145844-00351.warc.gz | en | 0.945774 | 122 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Underground Injection Control (UIC)
Definition - What does Underground Injection Control (UIC) mean?
Underground Injection Control, abbreviated as UIC is a program by the United States Environmental Protection Agency that contains a set of instructions and regulations which protect water sources and aquifers from the large amount of oil and gas drilling activities. The regulations also ensure that any toxic fluids produced are injected into underground zones that do not pollute the groundwater.
Petropedia explains Underground Injection Control (UIC)
Underground Injection Control policies developed by most countries define the depth of disposal of waste or treatment fluids used or developed during the drilling of oil or gas wells. Most of the policies are in line with the policies recommended by EPA. As per the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), underground injection control is done by defining six classes of injection wells, i.e., Class I, Class II, Class III, Class IV, Class V and Class VI.
- Class I injection well – It is used for injecting either hazardous or non-hazardous industrial and municipal waste into deep confined rock formations which are drilled thousands of feet below the lowermost underground source of drinking water.
- Class II injection well – It is primarily used for injecting fluids produced during oil and gas activities.
- Class III injection well – It is used to inject fluids that are used in mineral solution mining.
- Class IV injection well – This is basically a shallow well used for the disposal of hazardous or radioactive wastes above a geologic formation that contains an underground source of drinking water.
- Class V injection well – This well is used for the disposal of non-hazardous waste into or above an underground source of drinking water.
- Class VI injection well – This well is used to inject carbon dioxide (CO2) into deep rock formations. This long-term underground storage is called geologic sequestration and helps in lowering the carbon dioxide emissions in the environment thereby reducing greenhouse effect. | <urn:uuid:a1e4cf41-be47-47b3-8d26-fd737dc5b478> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.petropedia.com/definition/9680/underground-injection-control-uic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578527865.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20190419161226-20190419183226-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.919631 | 407 | 2.875 | 3 |
Nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) denticles: A photograph of the skin of a nurse shark taken with a scanning electron microscope. The nurse shark is one of the common Florida sharks. It is also a common shark in aquariums. It is a large shark, often reaching 8 ½ ft. and some 250 pounds. Reports of nurse sharks twice that size are mythological. The nurse shark is very common around the Florida coral reefs, where it feeds mainly on fishes. Nurse sharks are active by night. They spend the day peacefully resting in coral reefs, often with their heads in a hole.
These beautiful nurse shark denticle images are 8″ X 10″, black and white prints on archival quality paper suitable for framing. We are delighted to bring you these prints from The Sharks of North America- which serves as a standard reference on sharks for the twenty-first century. | <urn:uuid:430fd6c2-a95d-4954-9d65-b35ad4c12156> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://sharkthings.net/shop/prints/nurse-shark-denticles-print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243991648.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20210511153555-20210511183555-00100.warc.gz | en | 0.962306 | 182 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Dormant (Winter) pruning has many positives! Depending on the tree or shrub, Zone 6 Winter pruning usually happens as early as February. Not only does the removal of dead/diseased wood help reduce the risk of falling branches, it improves the overall health and appearance of your trees. Plus, fresh pruning cuts and bruises typically heal faster during the dormant season.
Winters in Pittsburgh are tough! However, Winter does make one thing easier — pruning! Leafless trees allow Arborists to see their entire structure. Because each tree is different, pruning at the wrong time or in an incorrect way can cause irreversible damage.
Dormant Pruning has it’s Benefits!
One benefit of dormant pruning is that it enables us to correct disease problems when fungal/bacteria levels are lower in the colder months. For example, it is difficult to prune Fire blight from trees or shrubs during the highly infectious Spring or early Summer without spreading the disease to other limbs. During Winter, bacterial populations in trees are much lower and less likely to transmit by pruning utensils. Another example is Oak wilt. Oak wilt has become a disease of major significance in Michigan because of its pruning connection. Open wounds on trees during warmer seasons attract insects that carry these deadly fungal spores. Red oaks are often killed within a month or two after coming in contact with the fungus. Members of the white oak family may succumb in several years.
Dormant Pruning Saves Time & Money
Experts value time-efficient pruning solutions as much as you do! When the dormant season arrives, arborists have optimal access to trees that need pruning. Limbs are lighter and easier to handle, and leafless tree structures are easier to see. Since branching patterns are most visible in the winter, the core of the tree or shrub can be pruned to maintain a structurally sound form.
Gardenalia Tip: Pruning during the Winter months reduces the risk of fungal infections in trees and shrubs. The cost of replacing trees and shrubs is not cheap, so investing now can save you money later! We are committed to providing consistent pruning services during optimal dormant periods. Give us a call with any questions or schedule a consultation!
Oak Wilt Management Through Winter Pruning:
While many professional plant (“health care”) providers are aware of oak wilt and its potentially lethal effects on the trees, many are either unfamiliar with it or simply ignore the potential for oak wilt. Pruning during the summer months can actually promote disease transmission and the development of disease epicenters which can then devastate your landscape. The mechanism of disease transmission is that insect vectors (primarily sap beetles & picnic beetles) are attracted to wound sites, and they carry fungal spores from infected trees or dead logs to recently pruned trees. Luckily, some companies (like us!) have instituted winter pruning programs aimed at oak wilt management and other diseases.
When to Prune Oaks
From our perspective, the safest and most appropriate time to prune oaks is during dormancy — late October to early March. Timelines can vary from year-to-year depending on weather conditions, the type of tree or shrub, and other factors. One time variation surprise occurred during early March in 2000 Minnesota. Experts reported unexpected picnic beetle activity on March 1st. During most years they wouldn’t expect much (if any) picnic beetle activity during the first week of the month (or even through the rest of the March). This situation could have posed a problem for fungal outbreaks if the weather had remained warm. Keep in mind that during freezing/near freezing conditions, transmission of oak wilt is almost impossible.
Pruning Times Differ
Someone may recommend pruning during April, May, and June, and someone else — February and March. A common scenario with many oak trees is that they are large, 100+ years old, and in very prominent locations. They are simply irreplaceable. Ultimately, the likelihood of oak wilt transmission declines sharply after the three primary months. However, many scientists admit that they don’t understand all of the mechanisms or vectors of the fungal disease. Plus, no one will admit that the transmission of oak wilt is impossible; i.e., during the month of August. To add, a previous USDA bulletin noted that oak bark beetles may ALSO transmit oak wilt. Ultimately, these are a few reasons why we believe it’s smart to avoid any possibility of oak wilt and limit pruning periods to the dormant season.
Sanitization and Pruning
Oak wilt fungus can be transmitted by pruning utensils because of fungal material residing in sawdust or chips. This is especially true during the warm season when fungal growth is at its maximum. Sanitizing equipment between cutting trees is important too. However, there is no need to sanitize utensils between cuts on the same tree because it is either infected or not.
Benefits of Proper Pruning
The occurrence of dead wood is a common reason to prune oaks. It is not possible to prune dead wood without the exposure of a tree’s live tissue — which is why pruning needs to be completed dormancy vs. Spring or Summer to reduce fungal spread. Plus, proper pruning can help trees to become more storm-resistant.
Winterizing Plants for Better/New Growth
Ultimately, trees are healthiest when maintained during the dormant season and before new growth begins next Spring. Pruning after the onset of new growth can limit the plant’s bloom potential for the year. Also, dormant pruning pulls double-duty by causing less stress on trees and allowing for robust new growth in plants that bloom in the Spring and Summer.
• Trees are healthiest when maintained during dormant season
• Winter pruning has a smaller chance of spreading infectious disease or insects
• Removal of dead or diseased wood greatly reduces risk of falling branches
• Winter pruning saves time and money
• Pruning during winter improves the health and appearance of trees
• Dormant pruning prepares trees for Spring
[Excerpts from The Davey Tree Expert Company website (URL: www.davey.com) & http://treedoctor.anr.msu.edu/pruning/] | <urn:uuid:818bb108-d099-4820-889a-7dfdb4cdf13e> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://gardenaliapgh.com/uncategorized/winter-pruning/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128319943.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623012730-20170623032730-00367.warc.gz | en | 0.951958 | 1,321 | 2.609375 | 3 |
This full-color manual gives wildlife specialists a step-by-step guide to dispersing birds from the site of an oil spill so they do not become oiled or contaminated. Sections include a discussion of initial considerations; bird dispersal techniques including auditory, visual, and combination techniques; exclusion deterrents; and suggested hazing techniques.
Also included are an evaluation guide, suggestions on how to format a hazing program, and a guide to materials and supplies. The guide, developed originally for response in California, also includes a brief description of the birds likely to be found in California that could be subject to an oil spill. The general information is relevant to bird hazing anywhere in the world. | <urn:uuid:1fafbe84-7957-4493-acd1-55b731e25e74> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://www.oiledwildlife.eu/publications/bird-hazing-manual-techniques-and-strategies-dispersing-birds-spill-sites | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487617599.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20210615053457-20210615083457-00013.warc.gz | en | 0.935346 | 140 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Football Special Teams: Field Goals and PATs
In football, most special teams involve the placekicker or field goal kicker. But other members of a football team participate in field goal and extra point attempts. Read on to see what makes a kick count and the rules regarding both types of kicks.
Who does what during kicks
On field goal and extra point (PAT) attempts, the following players are on the field:
A holder and a snapper.
A wall of nine blockers in front of the kicker, including the snapper, who’s sometimes the offensive center.
Here’s how the kick happens:
The snapper snaps the ball.
On many teams, the player who snaps the ball for punts also snaps for these kicks. The snap takes approximately 1.3 seconds to reach the holder.
The holder, kneeling on his right knee about 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage, catches the ball with his right hand and places the ball directly on the playing surface.
Placekicking tees are allowed in high school football but not in college and the NFL.
The holder uses his left index finger to hold the ball in place.
The kicker kicks the ball.
The kicker’s leg action, the striking motion, takes about 1.5 milliseconds, and the ball is usually airborne about 2 seconds after being snapped.
For an extra point or a field goal try to be ruled good, the kicked ball must clear the crossbar (by going over it) and pass between (or directly above one of) the uprights of the goalpost. Two officials, one on each side of the goalpost, stand by to visually judge whether points have been scored on the kick.
The rules of football's kicking game
A few rules pertain strictly to the kicking game. Most of them decide what happens when a kick is blocked or touched by the defensive team. Because three points are so valuable, special teams place a great emphasis on making a strong effort to block these kicks. The team kicking the ball works just as diligently to protect its kicker, making sure he has a chance to score.
Here are some rules regarding field goals and extra points:
A blocked field goal recovered behind the line of scrimmage may be advanced by either team.
A blocked field goal that crosses the line of scrimmage may be advanced only by the defense. If the ball is muffed or fumbled, however, it’s a free ball.
On a blocked PAT in an NFL game, the ball is immediately dead. Neither team is allowed to advance it. In college football, the defense can pick up the ball and return it to the kicking team’s end zone for a two-point score (if they’re lucky).
The guards may lock legs with the snapper only. The right guard places his left foot inside the snapper’s right foot after both players assume a stance so that their legs cross, or lock. The left guard places his right foot on the opposite side of the center.
By locking legs, the guards help stabilize the snapper from an all-out rush on his head and shoulders while he leans down over the ball. All other players on the line of scrimmage must have their feet outside the feet of the players next to them.
The holder or kicker may not be roughed or run into during or after a kick. The penalty for running into the kicker is 5 yards; the penalty for roughing the kicker is 15 yards and an automatic first down.
However, roughing the holder or kicker is legal if the kick is blocked, the ball touches the ground during the snap, or the holder fumbles the ball before it’s kicked.
On a missed field goal, the ball returns to the line of scrimmage if it rolls dead in the field of play, is touched by the receiving team, goes into the end zone, or hits the goalpost. The defensive team assumes possession at that time. | <urn:uuid:e91f39ff-8c8d-4c9b-bb75-932283517bfd> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/football-special-teams-field-goals-and-pats.navId-611931.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246647589.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045727-00056-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96059 | 820 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Existing Medication Has Been Found to Prevent the Onset of DiabetesElizabeth Nelson
Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the University of Florida in Gainesville knew that people who possessed the DQ8 molecule were at an increased risk of developing diabetes, and that 60 percent of type 1 diabetes cases could likely be prevented if they could find a way to inhibit that molecule. So they developed a supercomputer program that could analyze different drugs to determine whether one of them could block DQ8.
“We took every FDA approved small-molecule drug and analyzed HLA-DQ8 binding through a supercomputer,” says Aaron Michels, MD, a researcher at the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes and associate professor of medicine at CU Anschutz. “We searched a thousand orientations for each drug to identify those that would fit within the DQ8 molecule binding groove.”
And after running countless different medications for a variety of ailments through the machine, they came across methyldopa, an oral medication usually used to treat high blood pressure. The drug is listed on the World Health Organization’s list of essential drugs because of its usefulness and safety, as it can even be prescribed to children and pregnant women.
Thanks to mouse lab studies, a 20-patient clinical trial, and the ten years’ worth of work by this team of scientists, methyldopa is also now known to prevent the onset of type 1 diabetes in people with the DQ8 molecule. Not only that, but it also manages not to harm the function of healthy cells in the process, which is a common problem with most other immunosuppressant drugs.
Michels says this is the first personalized treatment known to prevent type 1 diabetes. It also has very minimal side effects compared to many other drugs on the market today.
“We can now predict with almost 100 percent accuracy who is likely to get type 1 diabetes,” Michels says. “The goal with this drug is to delay or prevent the onset of the disease among those at risk.”
The next step is for methyldopa to go through larger clinical trials before it can be used by the general public in the prevention of type 1 diabetes.
The researchers hope that the same approach they used to find a drug for diabetes prevention could be applied to the prevention and treatment of other autoimmune diseases, as well as continue to help scientists work toward treating and curing diabetes.
Did you know type 1 diabetes isn’t just for kids? Click “next” below to read about the nearly half of type 1 diabetes cases that are diagnosed after age 30. | <urn:uuid:76dc0f68-8726-4cb1-9bca-edb6591045b4> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | https://blog.thediabetessite.greatergood.com/methyldopa-type-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912204736.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20190325234449-20190326020449-00275.warc.gz | en | 0.943054 | 551 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Domestic disturbances Page: 69
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
their aimed fire, and causes confusion. However, it is not
advisable to attempt to disperse a disorderly assemblage with
smoke. Since smoke produces no physiological reaction, it
will restrain a mob only momentarily, and may be interpreted
as a bluff.
71. GOVERNING TACTICAL FACTORS. Although
other physical factors of weather and atmospheric conditions
influence the particular situation in varying degrees, the tac-
tics and technique of placing gas clouds are governed
primarily by wind, area occupied by the mob, and munitions
a. Wind. The direction of the wind fixes the general po-
sition of the line from which the cloud must be released in
order to drift across the occupied area. The velocity of the
wind must be considered in determining the distance between
the line of release and the mob; strong winds indicate in-
creased distance. This distance in turn affects the amount of
chemicals which mustbe released in order to place an effec-
tive concentration on the mob.
b. Area. The area occupied by the mob determines the
length of the line along which the cloud is released. This
line is usually at right angles to the direction of the wind
and should be sufficiently long to insure the creation of a
cloud which, when it reaches the mob will include consider-
ably more than the area actually occupied. The length of
the line should be roughly equal to the average width of the
target plus one-fifth of the distance from the line to the
target. (See FM 3-5.)
c. Munitions. Chemical munitions are always used in
sufficient quantities to produce an immediate and decisive
efect. Sufficient ammunition must be available for (I) prop-
erly producing the cloud, and (2) maintaining it until the
mob has been dispersed.
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United States. War Department. Domestic disturbances, book, July 30, 1945; Washington D.C.. (digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc96652/m1/75/: accessed May 21, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, Digital Library, digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department. | <urn:uuid:38449826-2d4e-4e1f-810f-b1a91b5c7bfc> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc96652/m1/75/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794864186.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20180521122245-20180521142245-00170.warc.gz | en | 0.896054 | 586 | 2.625 | 3 |
Archive for February, 2018
Ear infections are simply inflammations of the middle ear, and they are generally triggered by bacteria which accumulate behind the eardrum. People of any age can be subject to ear infections, but children have them at a more frequent rate than do adults. By the time of a child’s third birthday, five out of six children will have had an ear infection at least once, and that makes it the single most common cause for children to be taken to a doctor.
One of the problems with this is that some children are just too young to verbalize what they are experiencing, and can’t really tell you that their ear hurts. In this situation, a parent should be on the lookout for symptoms that characterize an ear infection, such as pulling at the ears, balance problems, fevers, difficulty with sleeping, excessive crying, drainage from the ears, and non-responsiveness to quiet sounds.
Causes of Ear Infections
One of the most common causes of an ear infection in a child is an upper respiratory infection, a cold, or a sore throat. In the case of the upper respiratory infection, related bacteria can easily spread to the middle ear, and with a cold, the virus can be drawn into the middle ear as an offshoot of the main infection. In any of these cases, fluid begins to build up around the eardrum.
The reason that children are more susceptible to ear infections than adults relates to the fact that the eustachian tubes in a child’s ear are smaller than an adult’s, and that makes it more difficult for any fluids to exit the middle ear, even in the absence of any kind of infection. When those eustachian tubes become swollen by a cold or other illness, drainage may slow down to almost nothing, and blockage will be the likely result. Complicating matters, the immune system for a child is not nearly as developed or robust as an adult’s, and that makes it much harder for children to fend off the effects of any kind of infection.
Diagnosing a Middle Ear Infection
When you take your child to see a doctor about a possible ear infection, the doctor’s first question will be about your child’s recent medical conditions. Your doctor will try and find out if your child has had a sore throat or a head cold recently. Then the doctor will ask about any of the other common symptoms associated with an ear infection, to see if your child has been experiencing any of these. After gaining this kind of information, your doctor will probably use an instrument called an otoscope, which is a lighted instrument that can see inside the eardrum to determine whether it is red and/or swollen with an infection. If this is inconclusive, your doctor might then use a diagnostic test known as tympanometry to measure eardrum sensitivity at various points.
Treatment for Middle Ear Infections
One of the most common treatments for a middle ear infection is an antibiotic called amoxicillin, which is generally prescribed over a period of 7 to 10 days. If your child is experiencing an inordinate amount of pain or discomfort, your doctor may also recommend pain relievers such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen, and possibly even eardrops which can be delivered directly into the ear.
In cases where an ear infection cannot be definitively diagnosed, your doctor may want to adopt a wait-and-see attitude about the condition, to see if it worsens into an actual ear infection. This is more common in very young children, between the ages of six months and two years. However, even when the wait-and-see approach is adopted, your doctor will probably ask to have your child returned within three days to check on whether symptoms have worsened.
If definitive diagnosis is still lacking, it is likely that a program of antibiotic treatment will be initiated, to be sure it gets no worse. When antibiotics are prescribed, it’s very important that the child takes the prescribed dosage throughout the entire period of the prescription, so that bacteria do not have the chance to develop resistance to the medication.
Preventing Middle Ear Infections
There is no rock-solid way to prevent middle ear infections in children, and the best approach that can be adapted calls for limiting the risk factors which may trigger an ear infection. Vaccinating your child against influenza is one good track to take, and limiting your child’s exposure to children known to be sick is a good idea as well, although obviously this is not 100% enforceable.
Good hygiene for everyone in the household is important: for instance washing hands and sneezing into your elbow, to help prevent the spread of germs to your child. It’s not a good idea for anyone in the household to be smoking, and statistics bear out the fact that where at least one person at home smokes, there are more ear infections than in smokeless homes. One last method of limiting the risk factor for developing ear infections is to make sure that your infant is never put down for a long period of time, such as overnight, with a bottle in hand.
When it comes to the sinuses, the most common issue seems to be excess mucus. When the sinuses aren’t acting as they should and sinusitis (a sinus infection) is experienced, it generally leads to mucus overproduction and this can be a difficult issue to live with. However, as many will tell you, dry sinuses are an equally difficult problem.
During the colder months especially, we tend to look towards artificial sources of heat to stay warm. With a pellet stove, for example, we’ve found a solution that keeps costs to a minimum while also not getting too hot for any children or pets in the house. However, one of the biggest benefits of this system is also one of its greatest downfalls.
Back in the day, people would keep a pot of water on the stove to keep moisture in the air. Today, we’re doing the opposite because the stoves are sucking all the moisture from the room for every second they’re working away. For many, this lack of humidity dries the sinuses and causes all sorts of problems as a result.
Is This a Problem?
First and foremost, having dry sinuses is unpleasant so it quickly becomes uncomfortable. The longer the problem goes untreated, the bigger it becomes. Additionally, the sinuses need moisture because bacteria, fungi, and viruses are normally kept at bay by a protective layer of mucus. If this mucus has disappeared, the protection does the same and the sinuses are left vulnerable.
As you may know, this all leads to many problems, one of the biggest being a lack of smell. At first, people tend to attribute the loss of smell to something else because they can’t imagine that a stove (or any other source of artificial heat without the ability to keep moisture in the air) would cause the damage. Soon enough, a medical professional will assess their sinuses and find the problem.
Over the years, people have developed their own solutions for this issue and we have three of the most popular here today. If one doesn’t work for you, try another because the theory behind them is very positive!
- Anti-Fungal Tea: If you’re suffering from a dry nose or dry sinuses, your liquid intake should be increased anyway so long as the liquid is water or any other responsible drink. If you can get your hands on it, there’s also anti-fungal tea and this just might prove to be a fantastic addition to your diet.Known as calendula tea, it comes from the orange calendula flower and offers all sorts of advantageous properties. For example, it acts as an anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, and antiseptic solution. Alone, the tea should start to improve your sinuses but it becomes even more valuable when partnered with some herbs of your choosing.Since all the ingredients are natural, you can have this tea two or three times in a single day and you should notice a change to your breathing as the day goes on. If this doesn’t work, play around with the herbs you’re using or move on to another suggestion.
- Steam Inhalation and Room Humidifiers: As we addressed earlier, they had a simple solution back in the day and it came from a pot of water. Therefore, why not take from their lead and do the same thing? Nowadays, the market holds some fantastic room humidifiers (and even whole home humidifiers!) to add moisture to the air.If you feel comfortable, you could even try steam inhalation in combination with a neti pot. Before we get ahead of ourselves, steam inhalation is where you hold your face as close to hot water as possible. With a towel over your head to increase the intensity, the idea is to inhale the steam without getting so close you harm yourself. To improve the results, add some essential oils whether this comes from tea tree oil, eucalyptus, lemon, or peppermint. As a starting point, this steam should make the walls of the sinuses a little softer (and looser).From here, you can finish with a neti pot and this is a small container used to rinse any debris you may have from the nasal cavity. With a simple saltwater solution, you leave your sinuses in a great position to become healthy once again.
- Anti-Bacterial Tincture: If you want to fight infection and improve your sinuses, we recommend echinacea and boneset as a two-herb tincture. With a little of the tincture added to water, this should allow you to fight active infection. If you’ve never made a tincture previously, there are plenty of guides online that’ll show you how to get it right.
Regardless of which solution you try first, we urge you to keep going even if you don’t see any results the first time. Over the many years of people suffering with this issue, all three of these solutions have fantastic support in the community so they’re worth your persistence. Typically, you’ll notice a change within a few days and you don’t have to contend with the loss of smell any longer!
Quite often, the term ‘sinuses’ is used in relation to certain medical conditions. However, there aren’t too many people who know the role of the sinuses or how they’re made up. Today, our goal is to answer both of these questions so you’re aware the next time the term is used in conversation!
Commonly shortened to ‘the sinuses’, the paranasal sinuses are small cavities filled with air inside the bones of the face; the bones of note are also found in the eyes and nasal cavity. With each sinus, it has a name that represents the bone in which it can be found.
- Frontal: With one per side, the frontal sinuses can be located in the forehead right above the nasal bridge and eyes.
- Maxillary: Found on each side, the maxillary sinus is inside the bone in the cheek.
- Ethmoid: With the ethmoid sinuses, they sit just under the corner of each eye where the bone lies. In many medical diagrams, they’ll show the ethmoid sinus as one sinus but it’s actually made up of several smaller sinuses in a honeycomb shape; it can only be seen properly in CT scan images of the face.
- Sphenoid: Again, the sphenoid sinus is located on both sides but this time behind the ethmoid sinuses. When looking head-on, they won’t be visible so a side view is required instead.
Physiology of the Sinuses
For each sinus, pink membrane will line the outside and it’s responsible for producing mucus to flush the sinus cavities. With a plate of bone and cartilage commonly known as the nasal septum, the two nasal passages are separated. However, the biology of each passage is the same starting with three small ridges of tissue which can be called a concha or turbinate. Depending on whether it’s referring to the upper, middle, or lower structure, they’re designated as superior, middle, or inferior.
When it comes to the draining, the majority of sinuses use the middle turbinate and the drainage occurs below this point. From here, it goes into the osteomeatal complex. For the system to work correctly, air needs to flow uninterrupted through both sides of the nasal passage since this allows for streaming between the nasal septum and turbinates (via the crevices).
For both the mucus and the airflow that started the process, they should end up in the nasopharynx which is a connecting part of the throat towards the back of the nose. As air continues its journey through the windpipes and into the lungs, the mucus takes a different journey and is swallowed instead.
Structures within the Nasal and Sinus Tract
As you probably know, the human body is quite simply amazing and evolution has allowed it to survive on a day-to-day basis using complex scientific principles. Therefore, it probably won’t surprise you to hear that there are some fascinating structures inside the nasal and sinus tract. Below, we have three very important examples:
- Adenoids: As a collection of tissue much like the tonsils, the adenoids are found behind the farthest nasal cavity accessible at the very top of the nasopharynx. While most body parts and important features of the body grow as we get older, this tissue actually starts larger and then disappears during puberty. However, discrepancies in this process can leave it in tact which has the potential to require surgery.
- Tear Duct: Often called the nasolacrimal duct, this is important for our eyes since, without it, tears would continue to build on the inside corners. When it’s in place and functioning as expected, the tears drain into the nasal cavity and this prevents excess moisture within the eyes.
- Eustachian Tube: As our last example, the eustachian tube is required for removing any build-ups that occur within the ears; with the system all interconnected, the opening is found towards the back of the nasopharynx sidewall.
The Role of the Sinuses
Ultimately, the sinuses have many responsibilities within the ear, nose, throat, and beyond but their main role is to produce mucus. When the system is working as it should, the mucus creates a lining on the inside of the nose and this keeps it free from bacteria, fungi, and viruses. If you were to experience dry sinuses, the lack of mucus would leave the nose vulnerable to these pollutants and this leads to irritation and illness.
Over time, cilia, which are tiny hair cells, gradually move the mucus backwards towards the throat where it’s swallowed. Therefore, the steady supply of mucus always takes the same journey while protecting your nose and remaining clean at all times.
After this main function, we should also note that the sinuses are also important for our voices and to lighten the skull. With everything having a purpose, we’re able to enjoy life without consciously worrying about replacing the mucus or producing the right amounts at the right times. As we learn more about the sinuses and how they work, we get an insight into just how fascinating the human body can be!
Single-sided deafness, or SSD, is a condition in which a person has good hearing in one ear, and non-functional hearing in the other ear. By ‘non-functional hearing’, it is meant that even with the help of some system of sound amplification, the bad ear cannot be made functional again. The most common reason for this is that a person with SSD has sustained damage to the inner ear, so amplification has no effect whatsoever on hearing ability in that ear.
Problems Presented by SSD
One of the most serious issues presented by single-sided deafness is the loss of spatial hearing. Spatial hearing allows a person to identify sounds both distant and nearby, in addition to all those that occur within 360° of the head area. Because our two-tiered auditory system is oriented to evaluate very specific information that can localize and pinpoint sounds, there is a big loss sustained when one ear is completely subtracted from that model.
It creates some difficulties for the brain, in terms of evaluating the information it receives and trying to assess what kind of information is missing. When the non-functional ear is in the acoustic shadow of the functional ear on the other side of the head, there can be significant difficulty with interpreting speech and other sounds, versus normal background noises.
This is especially true when speech or other distinctive sounds reach the non-functional ear first, and are not really ‘heard’ until the sound signal travels around to the other side of the head, to be received by the good ear. The net effects of this kind of sound reception are: a serious degradation in listening quality, difficulty with the interpretation of sounds and speech, and in a broader context, lowering of a person’s quality of life.
Another of the difficulties with single-sided deafness, alluded to above, is the condition known as ‘head shadow’ effect. What is meant by head shadow effect is a situation where sounds originating on the side of the head where the non-functioning ear is, are actually obstructed by the head itself in traveling to the other side of the head where the good ear is.
The main problem with this is that some kinds of sounds become very difficult to hear with the good ear. Low-frequency sounds are mostly unaffected in this scenario, because they have a long wavelength and they can move around the head more readily to the good ear. High-frequency sounds on the other hand, are characterized by much shorter wavelengths, and many of these are typically reflected by the head, and become altered before they reach the good ear.
Since consonant sounds occur largely in the high-frequency wavelengths, this can have a big impact on communication, because it is much more difficult to differentiate those sounds from background noises. Therefore, the biggest impact of this head shadow effect is on communication, and it causes a person with SSD to miss a great deal of what may have been said by someone, even if they’re standing close by.
Causes of SSD
One of the more common causes of single-sided deafness occurs is when surgery is necessary to remove a tumor growing in the ear. This kind of surgical removal sometimes causes such damage to the auditory nerve that a patient loses most or all hearing in that ear. If such tumors are not removed, they will continue to grow slowly, and will eventually cause damage to the ear anyway, including possible loss of hearing. However, surgical treatment can end up being just as harmful, if the auditory nerve becomes damaged.
A secondary cause of SSD is known as sudden idiopathic hearing loss, which is generally attributable to some kind of viral infection. In this scenario, a virus infects the cochlea, which eventually leads to swelling and permanent damage to the delicate structure of the cochlea. It happens fairly frequently that the ear cannot recover from this kind of damage, and the person is left with no hearing in that ear.
A third cause for SSD stems from some kind of blunt trauma to the head. In such cases, there can be a transverse fracture of the critical temporal bone, which has the effect of rendering the cochlea non-functional from that point forward. It is also possible for people to be born with hearing loss in one ear, while having perfectly good hearing in the other ear.
Solutions for SSD
One of the most effective solutions for SSD is known as a Contralateral Routing of Signal (CROS) configuration, in which a microphone is placed in the non-functioning ear, and transmits received sound signals over to a receptor in the good ear. The first of these configurations relied on a tiny wiring system for the transmission of sound between ears, but this has now been improved and refined with a wireless system that makes the whole arrangement less bulky and more effective.
There are now also two additional high-tech solutions which build upon the idea that sound received on the non-functioning side is somehow transported to the good side so that relatively normal hearing is possible. These two processes are known as bone conduction solutions and bone anchored solutions.
In the first, sound is actually transmitted through the bone of the skull to the other side of the head, and in the second, sound is transmitted by a subcutaneous implant which transmits sound through the skin to the good ear. As you might expect, these solutions can be relatively costly, but they can also be a very effective means of restoring normal hearing to someone who has completely lost hearing in one ear. | <urn:uuid:1198812d-84d0-4e2a-9ce1-551dc63035a1> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | https://www.entnyc.info/2018/02/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676591150.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20180719164439-20180719184439-00586.warc.gz | en | 0.95851 | 4,396 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Have you ever wondered, “How can I stop my child from misbehaving?” The first step is to build and keep a great relationship with your child.
Young children have a lot to learn about what “good behavior” is. Very often, the poor behavior choices that children make come from their not knowing a better way. When your child makes mistakes, he needs you to teach him what to do instead.
You will be more successful in teaching good behavior choices if you have a strong and loving relationship with your child. Consider these suggestions for ways to strengthen your relationship with your child.
Spend time together.
Find time to play together. Let your child choose what to do together and be excited about it!
Talk with your child about something she is interested in.
There are lots of cheap, fun games and activities to do together like a go on a picnic, play at a park, or play a board game. No money required!
Listen to your child.
Ask your child to tell you about what he is doing or thinking, and then just listen. When you talk and listen, be sure to:
Respond to your child in a way that lets him know you were listening. For example, “It sounds like you are really excited about playing with your friend!”
Be careful not to criticize or judge.
Express affection in word and action.
Tell your child how happy you are to see her.
Let your child know every day that you love her.
Show affection often in the way your child most likes.
These tips will help your relationship grow stronger by building trust, good will, and positive feelings. It’s important to be realistic, though. Even in strong relationships, children will do things their parents don’t want them to do. But because your child has learned to trust you, you will be more effective in teaching him better ways to behave.
For further information:
Author: Allen Sabey, Dept. Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University | <urn:uuid:8ef8b08c-90a6-4a04-baff-e8202bb7d5da> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://www.extension.org/pages/65236/encouraging-good-behavior | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500830834.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021350-00159-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96505 | 422 | 3.203125 | 3 |
By spending so much time reading about the insect’s life, readers are likely going to feel close to it. This is despite the use of personal pronouns of any kind. Finch uses short lines and stanzas that ensure the reader moves quickly through the lines and gets as much detail as quickly as possible.
Explore The Insect
‘Insect’ by Annie Finch is a complex, image-rich poem that describes an insect’s will, appearance, and alludes to its broader existence.
Throughout this short poem, the speaker uses hyphenated compound words, like “orchard-legged” and “wedge-contorted” to describe an insect. They never state what kind of insect this is or exactly what it’s doing while they’re watching it. But, from context clues, it seems likely the insect is hunting its prey.
You can read the full poem here.
In the first stanza of ‘Insect,’ the speaker begins providing the first of several interesting words to describe an insect. It’s “hour-glass-backed” in the first line. This is fairly easy to imagine image, one that should bring to mind a clear shape. As the lines progress, things get more complicated. The insect is also “orchard-legged.” This could bring to mind the winding and gnarled branches of orchard trees or perhaps another specific image.
It’s in the third line that the insect is personified for the first time. It has a “heavy-headed will.” This is another curious description. It might make one wonder what it is about the insect that makes the speaker feel this way. Perhaps how it continually goes after what it wants? It might be persistent in a way that the speaker admires.
savage—dense to kill—
The next lines make the imagery even more complicated and interesting. The insect is also “paper-folded” and “wedge-contorted, / savage […]” These lines are likely going to bring to mind different images for different readers. It might be reminding the speaker of the shapes of folded paper and the way it can be contorted into different shapes. The word “dense” in the third line is another interesting choice. “Savage” and “kill” also stick out as darker, more intense words that evoke a more dangerous side to the insect.
pulls back on backward-moving,
The third stanza describes the insect’s movements, perhaps as it’s preparing to kill its prey. It arches back on “backward-moving” and high, arching legs. This is a very evocative section of the poem. It’s easy and compelling to imagine this movement and what it might entail.
Stanzas Four and Five
lowered through a deep, knees-reaching,
carpeted as if with skill,
The following stanza adds in more detail about the same movement. It lowers down, bending to its own will as is focusing on its intended prey. It is hard to read these lines separately from the previous and following stanzas. The poet’s style works as stream-of-consciousness writing, with words flowing freely, and sometimes without clear definition between one thought and the next.
The last line of the fifth stanza rhyme with the last of the fourth (as it does with the final line of the poem).
Stanzas Six and Seven
tracing, killing will.
The final stanza is only two lines long and is a rhyming couplet. It provides two more compound words that define the insect before the final line reminds readers of its “killing will.” It’s focused, sober, ready for anything. Its will is leading it towards one final action that does not occur within the lines of the poem.
Structure and Form
‘Insect’ by Annie Finch is a seven-stanza poem that’s divided into six tercets, or sets of three lines and one final single-line stanza. The lines do not follow a specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern, and they range in length from one word up to six. Despite the lack of structure, there are numerous literary devices at play that help to make this poem feel cohesive and unified.
Throughout ‘Insect,’ Finch makes use of several literary devices. These include but are not limited to:
- Alliteration: occurs when the poet repeats the same consonant sounds at the beginning of multiple words. For example, “back” and “backward-moving” in stanza three.
- Caesura: can be seen when the poet inserts a pause into the middle of a line. There are several examples in this short poem. For example, “lowered through a deep, knees-reaching.”
- Enjambment: occurs when the poet cuts off a line before its natural stopping point. For example, the transition between lines two and three of the second stanza and lines two and three of the fourth stanza.
- Imagery: is one of the most important literary devices at work in ‘Insect.’ It occurs when the poet uses especially effective descriptions. These are meant to trigger the reader’s senses, helping them to imagine a vibrant and interesting event, scene, feeling, etc. For example: “paper-folded, / wedge-contorted.”
The meaning is that insects live complex and interesting lives. It would benefit human beings to pay closer attention to the ins and outs of their existence, it might even teach one something about how humanity behaves.
The tone is curious and excited. The lines flow quickly with one adjective following the next with very little pause. This helps maintain a hurried pace and keeps the reader interested in what’s going to happen next.
It’s likely that Annie Finch wrote this piece in order to celebrate the nature of an insect. Although it’s never clearly stated which insect she’s thinking about, the text provides a great overview of how these creatures live their lives.
The speaker is someone who is very interested in the lives of insects. They’re patient as is seen through the detailed descriptions of the insect’s movements and appearance. They’re likely someone who cares about creatures of all shapes and sizes.
The themes in ‘Insect’ include an appreciation for the natural world. The poet spends the poem using language that elevates the insect’s simple actions and relatively simple existence.
Readers who enjoyed ‘Insect’ should also consider reading some related poems. For example:
- ‘The Fly’ by Ogden Nash – is a short poem in which the speaker speaks amusingly about a fly and how it is perceived by most people.
- ‘Ode to a Butterfly’ by Thomas Wentworth Higginson – a thoughtful meditation on nature’s one of the daintiest creations, the butterfly. Higginson glorifies this tiny insect by using several metaphors and symbols.
- ‘The Spider and the Fly’ by Mary Howitt – describes the entrapment of a silly fly who gives in to her own vanity and loses her life to a cunning spider. | <urn:uuid:b36cc298-73e1-419e-9364-65ffedb28c88> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://poemanalysis.com/annie-finch/insect/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224648322.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20230602040003-20230602070003-00271.warc.gz | en | 0.949356 | 1,625 | 3.359375 | 3 |
During the life of your PC you most probably will be adding more physical RAM to it, in which case you may want to also increase the amount of swap space, swap space is disk space that is reserved for memory usage, the same as a paging file in Windows.
If your kernel needs more memory than what your physical RAM can produce it will write data to your swap space and use it as RAM, people will argue on how much swap space you should make available, some seem to think that if you add enough ram you don't even need swap space however this is not a good idea since swap space is always used no matter how much RAM your system has, Linux will always move infrequently used programs and data to swap space even if you have Gigabytes of Ram. Since Hard disk costs are so low I always stick to the rule of thumb with regards to how much swap space is enough, no matter how much physical Ram I add to my system I always increase my swap space accordingly up to a maximum of 4Gb (I never make swap space bigger than 4GB no matter how much RAM I have). The rule of thumb is that you should have double the amount of swap space available as the physical RAM on your computer. If you have 1GB of physical RAM then you should allocate 2GB of your hard drive to swap space.
Swap space is configured during installation but you can easily add more at anytime.
There are 2 methods of adding swap space to your system the one method is to create a partition of the swap space type and allocate that partition to swap space. The other way is to create a file of the required size (like a paging file) and then allocate that file to swap space.
To use the partition method you will need to create the partition using fdisk
create the partition to the size that you want to allocate as swap space and then set the partition id to type 82
once the partition is created issue the following command
mkswap -L SWAP-hda7 /dev/hda7
were hda7 is the the partition that you created
edit your /etc/fstab file and add the following entry
LABEL=SWAP-hda7 swap swap defaults 0 0
Save your /etc/fstab file and then issue the following command to read it into memory and turn it on
Option 2,: To use a file instead of a partition, lets say you want to add a 2GB swapfile to your system
dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024M count=2
this will create a 2GB sized file called /swapfile
mkswap -L SWAPFILE /swapfile
then edit your /etc/fstab file and add the following entry
LABEL=SWAPFILE swap swap defaults 0 0
save your /etc/fstab file
and then type
swapon -a to read the file into memory and turn on all swap entries
you can check your swap status by typing | <urn:uuid:a3533c0b-c0bf-42d6-9285-c028dc00eabe> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://cgerada.blogspot.com/2008/08/swap-space.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320201.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623220935-20170624000935-00377.warc.gz | en | 0.911245 | 625 | 2.90625 | 3 |
(Part 1 in a three part series on God and Political influence.)
Warning, heavy religious content.
The earliest evidence of God, comes from the Old Testament. Adam spoke with God in the Garden of Eden. Enoch walked and talked with him man-to-man. Noah was instructed of him. Moses met and was instructed of him at the burning bush on Mount Sinai. Samuel heard his voice. Numerous Old Testament prophets saw, spoke with and were instructed by God. The records of the Old Testament witness and provide testimonial evidence that God talks and interacts with man. Prophets and Patriarchs of the Old Testament saw God and testified of it. It is from these recorded accounts we learn God does in fact interact with us, he is involved in his creation. In fact, he refers to us as his “sons and daughters.”
Often, the most important part of these revelations is overlooked and is even denied. In their writings, these Old Testament prophets act as a witness. A witness is someone who has seen and can therefore provide living evidence. I know of no religion, not based on the Old Testament, which offers any evidentiary witness of God the Creator. The testimony of these witnesses are first introduced to us within the realms of the Old Testament.
The concept of witness is central to finding, knowing and understanding God in our times. To find true religion, you simply need to follow the testimony of witnesses; for God has said “in the mouths of two or three witnesses shall all things be established.” The first modern, post resurrection, witnesses are found in the New Testament. Christ called twelve apostles which were set apart and instructed by the living and the resurrected Christ. Many people after the crucifixion saw the resurrected Christ, the Son of God, but the Apostles were given the charge to testify, to bear “witness” of his death and resurrection. Continuing on from the prophets of old, they provide us evidentiary witness not only of the reality of God but of the resurrected Christ. The Book of Acts tells us that the resurrected Christ not only visited his disciples but that he taught them concerning the kingdom of God for forty days. (Acts 1:3) They spoke with him and were instructed by him. The Apostles became witnesses of the resurrection of Christ with a charge to share that witness. This is the calling of an Apostle, to be a witness.
Mathias was chosen to fill the void left in the twelve apostles by Judas who betrayed Christ. The requirements for apostleship are stated in Acts as a “witness” of Christ’s ministry and resurrection and they must have gone “in and out among us” or have been part of the discipleship and a participant in the work. (Acts 1:21-22)
It was the same with Paul. After the death of James there was again a vacancy in the twelve apostles. Saul was chosen by Christ to the apostleship. However, Saul had not been present when the resurrected Christ visited his disciples. In Acts chapter 9, he receives that witness. Jesus appeared to Saul, afterwards renamed Paul, on the road to Damascus, and he becomes a witness of Christ and of the resurrection. He then spends time becoming a disciple versed in building the kingdom of God and eventually becomes an Apostle with the divine mission to testify and to witness. A mission which Paul faithfully performed bearing his witness to the gentiles and in the end, to Caesar.
History however, teaches us that rather quickly the Apostles were rejected and/or murdered and eventually disappear. With the Apostles gone, their special apostolic witness was no longer with us. The church had apostatized and mankind was left without the witnesses which God had so willingly blessed us with. To fill that void, the intellectual works of great philosophers were integrated with the writings of the Apostles; the philosophies of men were intermingled with scripture. This combining of ideas created what formally became the Catholic Church and eventually modern-day Christianity.
Today however, God has reestablished the same model of evidentiary witness to guide us in finding the truth. He has once again provided us with Prophets and a quorum of twelve Apostles who have been called, as was Paul, to give “special witness” that Jesus is the resurrected Christ.
These modern witnesses not only provide evidence of the reality of the resurrection to us in this day but, in so doing, acknowledge the veracity of ancient witnesses. They provide a contemporary contextual evidence of God and of the resurrected Christ.
Today, many say, you cannot prove there is a God. While the evidence of witnesses can be dismissed by those who choose not to believe, we nevertheless continue to have special evidence. We are provided witnesses today just as was given by Prophets and Apostles in days of old.
God the Father through his resurrected son, Jesus the Christ, continues to this day to interact with man in a very real and personal way. He has provided evidence in a way where only those who seek after it will find it. For God will not force us to turn to him. He will encourage us but we have been left, for the time, with a choice.
For those who truly seek and wish to find God, the evidence is there.
I have looked for this evidence and found it. Through the administration of the spirit, that evidence for me has become proof. Even should I wish to, I can no longer deny the reality that: Christ lives.
Samuel Waen Jensen | <urn:uuid:0bfea6ca-02f5-4c8d-ad91-5e9bc58ec8e0> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | http://themoralmiddle.com/gods-witnesses/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794867140.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20180525160652-20180525180652-00178.warc.gz | en | 0.98272 | 1,129 | 2.78125 | 3 |
free port, port, or section of a port, exempt from customs regulations (see tariff). Goods may be landed at a free port for storage and handling, and they may even be processed into manufactured goods. Duty is charged only if the goods are moved from the free port into the adjacent territory. Free ports originated in the late Middle Ages, when the burdensome tariffs charged by many petty states threatened the reemerging maritime commerce. The high tariffs later levied in the period of mercantilism necessitated additional free ports. In the 19th cent. the danger of smuggling caused the closing of many free ports. In Europe, Copenhagen, Danzig, and Hamburg were free ports until 1939; in East Asia, Hong Kong and Singapore still are. In the United States, bonded warehouses serve some of the functions of the free port, permitting goods to be stored and processed in specially licensed warehouses if a bond exceeding the amount of the customs duties is first posted. In 1934 the Foreign Trade Zones Act authorized the establishment of free ports in the United States, but with a prohibition on manufacturing. The first American free port was opened in New York City in 1937, and others have since been added. Many international airports have free ports.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
More on free port from Fact Monster:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: International Law | <urn:uuid:ed16d57f-a826-4658-b671-83c692c8b819> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/society/free-port.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394010883242/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305091443-00027-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941639 | 287 | 3.953125 | 4 |
Radiation, thoracic imaging, and children: radiation safety.
The chest is the most frequently evaluated region of the body in children. The majority of thoracic diagnostic imaging, namely "conventional" radiography (film screen, computed radiography and direct/digital radiography), fluoroscopy and angiography, and computed tomography, depends on ionizing radiation. Since errors, oversights, and inattention to radiation exposure continue to be extremely visible issue for radiology in the public eye it is incumbent on the imaging community to maximize the yield and minimize both the real and potential radiation risks with diagnostic imaging. Technical (e.g. equipment and technique) strategies can reduce exposure risk and improve study quality, but these must be matched with efforts to optimize appropriate utilization for safe and effective healthcare in thoracic imaging in children. To these ends, material in this chapter will review practice patterns, dose measures and modality doses, radiation biology and risks, and radiation risk reduction strategies for thoracic imaging in children.
Volume / Issue
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“If you look at Fred Korematsu, you see a very ordinary man who just wanted to be left alone, but who defied the United States government because he knew it [the government] was wrong,” says John Tateishi, Executive Director Japanese American Citizens League. Of Civil Wrongs and Rights recounts the events that led a quiet, unassuming man to defy the United States government and wait almost 40 years to prove his innocence.
Born in Oakland, California in 1919, Fred Korematsu is the son of Japanese immigrants. Until December 7, 1941, Korematsu had been living the life of a typical American man: he worked as welder in the San Francisco shipyards, owned a convertible and was very much in love with his girlfriend. However, as he was enjoying a picnic with his girlfriend on the eve of December 7, news of the Pearl Harbor attack started pouring out of his radio. Although he didn’t know it at the time, Korematsu’s life would never be the same again.
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which ordered the internment of all Japanese Americans. The Korematsu family was taken to Tanforan, a former racetrack south of San Francisco for processing. Korematsu decided to stay behind because he did not want to be separated from his Italian-American girlfriend.
Korematsu refused to relinquish his freedom and tried to remain unnoticed, to no avail. On May 30,1942, Korematsu was arrested and sent to join Tanforan. Later, all the detainees were transferred to the Topaz internment camp in Utah.
Persuaded by Ernest Besig, then Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, Korematsu filed a case on June 12, 1942. The premise of the lawsuit was that Korematsu’s constitutional rights had been violated and he had suffered racial discrimination. However, the court ruled against Korematsu and he was sentenced to 5 years probation. Determined to pursue his cause, Korematsu filed an appeal with Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and, later, to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, in December 1944, the Supreme Court ruled against him, stating that Korematsu “was not excluded from the military area because of hostility to him or his race.”
In Of Civil Wrongs and Rights, Korematsu says he felt that, “I’m an American and just as long as I’m in this country that I will keep on going and if there is a chance of reopening the case, I will do it.” This chance came in the form of Peter Irons, a law professor, researching the internment for a book. Irons discovered long-forgotten documents that proved that the Justice Department had misrepresented the facts to the Supreme Court. He took this evidence to Fred Korematsu, and they both decided to re-open the case.
Peter Irons then enlisted a legal team consisting mainly of Asian-American lawyers. Of Civil Wrongs and Rights is, in part, the story of these idealistic young lawyers and their own fight to end the discrimination that also touched the lives of their family and community members. Their efforts ultimately uncovered documents that clearly showed the government concealed evidence in the 1944 case that racism — not military necessity — motivated the internment order. More than 39 years after the fact, a federal judge reversed Fred Korematsu’s conviction, acknowledging the “great wrong” done to him.
In 1998, Fred Korematsu was awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom award, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Former President Clinton praised Korematsu at the ceremony, stating that “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stands for millions of souls — Plessy, Brown, Parks. To that distinguished list today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.” | <urn:uuid:72dd3937-e6fe-433c-9b6c-b37b3f5307c6> | CC-MAIN-2016-36 | http://www.pbs.org/pov/ofcivilwrongsandrights/film-description/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982292975.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823195812-00247-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979767 | 830 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Boy, were they wrong. All the naysayers and gloom-and-doomers who said biotech crops would never succeed are now dining on heaping helpings of crow.
Not since the herbicide revolution of the '70s have farmers so rapidly embraced a new technology. And despite all the fuss in Europe and a few other countries over “Frankenfoods,” biotech crops are pretty much a non-issue with most of the general public. If the crops weren't finding markets and being used, you can bet farmers wouldn't be growing them.
The 2003 crop season marked the seventh consecutive year that biotech crop acreage worldwide grew by double digits — 15 percent last year, for a global total of 167.2 million acres. The United States had by far the majority of the biotech acres, 105.7 million; it and five other countries (Brazil, South Africa, Argentina, Canada, and China) planted 99 percent of the acreage worldwide.
During the eight-year period 1996 to 2003, global acreage of transgenic crops increased 40-fold.
Almost one-third of the global biotech crop area was in developing countries, thus debunking opponents' contention that resource-poor farmers couldn't afford the cost of participating in the new technology. An estimated 7 million farmers in 18 countries of the developing world planted the crops in 2003.
“Farmers have made up their minds: They continue to rapidly adopt biotech crops because of significant agronomic, economic, environmental, and social advantages, says Clive James, chairman of International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).
Biotech soybeans continue to lead in acreage planted globally, increasing 13 percent last year to 102.2 million acres — 55 percent of the crop worldwide. The biggest increase, though, was for biotech corn/maize, up 25 percent to 38.3 million acres. Canola had the second largest increase, 20 percent, and cotton was third with 6 percent.
“Despite the ongoing debate in the European Union, there is cautious optimism that the global area of biotech crops and the number of farmers planting them will continue to grow in 2004 and beyond,” James says.
U.S. soybean farmer Ray Bardole puts it succinctly: “Current biotech crops are to agriculture what the Model T Ford is to modern transportation — we're only beginning to see the benefits.”
During the eight-year period 1996-2003, herbicide tolerance has consistently been the dominant trait in transgenic crops, followed by insect resistance. In 2003, herbicide-tolerant crops comprised 73 percent of the worldwide total, with 18 percent planted to Bt crops. Stacked genes for herbicide tolerance and insect resistance in both cotton and corn continued to increase, account for 8 percent of the combined acreage. The global market value of genetically modified crops in 2003 is estimated at $4.5 billion to $4.75 billion, up from $4 billion in 2002. For 2005, the global market value is projected at $5 billion or more.
“The experience of those eight years shows biotech crops have “met the expectations of millions of large and small farmers in both industrial and developing countries,” says an ISAAA report.
“The adoption of this technology is nothing short of phenomenal,” says Linda Thrane, executive director of the Council for Biotechnology Information. “The more people know, the more they support biotechnology.” | <urn:uuid:0c60c855-f4d8-475c-b33d-d6c0c395e57c> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://www.deltafarmpress.com/biotech-crops-continue-rapid-growth-worldwide | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891813608.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20180221103712-20180221123712-00286.warc.gz | en | 0.932023 | 721 | 2.546875 | 3 |
What Is Sushi?
Sushi is a popular Japanese snack and is one of the most famous Japanese dishes across the globe. Sushi consists of cold cooked rice seasoned with vinegar and is shaped into bite-sized rolls with raw or cooked fish, egg or vegetables and wrapped in seaweed.
Nutrition Analysis -
Total calories in a single piece of rice-fish sushi are about 35 calories with 1 gm protein, 4 gm carbohydrates, 0.3 gm fat and 0.0 5 gm sodium.
A piece of vegetable-rice sushi contains 28 calories with 0.5 gm protein, 6 gm carbohydrate, negligible fat and 0.01 gm sodium.
Depending on preparations and the type of main ingredients, a single sushi may contain 28 to 60 calories. One sushi meal contains about 10 pieces so the total calories in a sushi meal can range from 280 to 600 calories.
It is low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Low fat fishes are used like tuna, salmon & halibut. Fruits like avocado are rich sources of omega 3 fatty acids. Sushi provides a balance of carbohydrates and lean proteins. Vegetables, which are used as main ingredient also add fiber. Protein and fat content varies with the type of main ingredients used with rice.
Sushi and Weight Loss -
Depending upon the choice of main ingredients, method of preparation and seasonings, sushi can be a part of a healthy diet, but certain choices can hamper your weight loss efforts too. It is a low fat meal but with the wrong choices it can be a high calorie meal too.
Choose sushi preparations with raw or cooked low fat fishes as main ingredients instead of fried rolls. Fried rolls with their high oil content contain more fat than protein. The less fancy the roll, the better and healthy it is.
Soy sauce seasoning is a staple with sushi. Soy sauce contains high sodium content which is not suitable for people with hypertension and can lead to water retention too. Also rice has a tendency to soak a lot when dipped in soy sauce.
Processed white rice in sushi has a high glycemic index of 100, higher than white bread. So, it is not the right food choice for people with insulin sensitivity or diabetes. However, brown rice varieties are also available now which is a much healthier option over white rice.
One should avoid sushi rolls with addition of mayo and cream cheese as these add fat and calories.
Incorporating vegetable sushi rolls is also a great option. Sea vegetables, cauliflower, tofu and avocados are widely used. Avocados are source of good fat but it should be consumed in moderation as 1 cup sliced avocado contains 234 calories and 21 gm fat and increasing the quantity can add up to total calories in a meal.
People generally eat sushi meals as appetizers followed by a main course which can take total calorie intake to as high as 2000 calories. Taking care of portion size is the key rule of a healthy lifestyle. 5 to 6 pieces of sushi is a healthy portion size for a meal at one time. One should avoid adding any other main course dishes to the plate and can start with a clear soup to add bulk and avoid overeating. | <urn:uuid:5b35e430-d633-4c19-84c5-ac1fff30c999> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | https://www.practo.com/healthfeed/is-sushi-good-for-weight-loss-5494/post | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218193716.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212953-00556-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930613 | 653 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Resettling Refugee Children: Building Inclusivity
Children from refugee backgrounds need special programs to foster inclusivity.
Posted Dec 05, 2018
This post was co-authored by Dr. Sasha Mackay, Research Officer in the Faculties of Health and Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology. Her expertise lies in oral history and digital storytelling with children and youth.
Humanity in flux
Global health is defined as “an area for study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving health equity for all people worldwide." Global health is particularly salient in the context of current migration patterns and, in particular, the impact of forced migration.
According to the latest report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are 68.5 million refugees in the world, 52 percent of whom are under age 18. Australia accepts 20,000 refugees annually.
Our research team has been involved in a series of studies aimed at understanding the experiences of people from refugee backgrounds, including consequences on mental health. More recently, we have focused on children from refugee backgrounds and have worked with a specialized school in Queensland, Australia, which has been established to address the needs of children from refugee and migrant backgrounds. An overarching question of our recent research project was ‘What are the responsibilities of education in the context of an increasingly multicultural society?’
Students of refugee backgrounds resettled in Australia face significant challenges and barriers to achieving the English language, educational success, post-school options, social participation and settlement enjoyed by their Anglo Australian peers. Not only are these students managing a range of stressors – for instance, pre-migration trauma, educational discontinuity, and challenges associated with resettlement in the new country, to name a few — they are often entering an educational system that is under significant resource pressures, impacting schools’ abilities to provide intensive English language learning support and settlement support services.
Our research was motivated in part by school teachers and staff members who highlight the challenges resulting from disengaged children from refugee and migrant backgrounds.
About Milpera State High School
Through a multi-year collaboration with Milpera State High School in Brisbane, our research team at QUT has been investigating the individual factors and systems-level processes that can support the acculturation, settlement and school engagement of students from refugee backgrounds.
Milpera is a specialized school focusing on English-language development and the settlement needs of students from non-English speaking migrant and refugee backgrounds (Our School, Milpera 2018). The school is rich in cultural and linguistic diversity. In 2018, about 200 students aged between 11 and 18 years attended Milpera, representing over 30 countries. This diversity is also reflected among the school staff members, many of whom are bilingual or have also made the journey to Australia from other backgrounds. Students spend between six and 18 months at Milpera where they develop foundational skills enabling them to transition into mainstream Australian schools.
We have been working with Milpera on this and other projects since 2013. One of the most surprising and gratifying findings of our previous research was that children of refugee and migrant backgrounds are doing far better than one might expect in terms of the broader descriptions of the impact of trauma upon children. More specifically, we have reported elsewhere that approximately 80 percent of children in this particular cohort do not evidence difficulties within clinical ranges. Building on these highly positive findings, our recent research project Towards Inclusive Classrooms sought to identify precisely ‘what works’ at this particular school.
School-based factors associated with positive outcomes
For students from refugee and migrant backgrounds, schools are one of the first and most influential service systems after resettlement. School-based programs, processes, and activities can thus play an integral role in students’ overall adjustment to a new environment.
Supporting acculturation and settlement
Supporting students to value their heritage and culture, while simultaneously developing their capacity to understand the values, beliefs, and practices of their country of resettlement is an important process in facilitating settlement. Staff members from Milpera describe the ways dedicated settlement programs, along with whole-school events and activities celebrating cultural diversity, and public acknowledgments of each students’ culture, help students ‘balance’ or ‘merge’ their life from their first country or life in refugee camps with their new life in Australia. In other words, maintaining and continuing to acknowledge a first culture while learning to belong in Australia are equally important components which contribute to students’ overall adjustment.
Fostering socially supportive relationships
Feeling socially included and supported in the school environment promotes students’ general well-being. Developing a sense of connectivity and fostering supportive relationships between all members of a school community – students, parents, and school staff – can protect against the numerous challenges associated with settlement, such as disruption to family networks, insecure housing, and discrimination. School communities don’t necessarily evolve naturally – especially, perhaps, in schools with extremely diverse student cohorts – and so dedicated personnel and programs to support newly-arrived families and students can help create a sense of cohesion, mutual respect, safety, and community.
The basic definition of belonging – ‘to be connected with’ – stresses the importance of artifacts and infrastructures in the facilitation of a sense of belonging. The physical environment of Milpera State High School is constructed in a way that encourages students to lay claim to the space, to feel comfortable, and – in the words of school staff and parents – regard it as their “second home." Art and decorations around the school comprise objects from each students’ country and reflect their diverse languages and cultures, enabling them to feel a degree of familiarity, even in a new place.
The resettlement of children in high-income countries poses particular challenges for the children, their families, and the providers of services addressing the needs of a potentially vulnerable group. While our research is at an early stage, the findings do suggest that with effective support and innovative interventions as required, it is feasible to provide a solid foundation for the future development of children who may have experienced extreme adversity. | <urn:uuid:300df7b4-fa5f-4077-89d7-0dfab5751787> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/global-events/201812/resettling-refugee-children-building-inclusivity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400245109.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20200926200523-20200926230523-00656.warc.gz | en | 0.959384 | 1,246 | 3.171875 | 3 |
This Page Last Updated October 25, 2011
By the time the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights were drafted and ratified, the institution of trial by jury was almost universally revered.
"Those who emigrated to this country from England brought with them this great privilege 'as their birthright and inheritance, as a part of that admirable common law which had fenced around and interposed barriers on every side against the approaches of arbitrary power.' "Its history has been traced back to Magna Carta. The jury began in the form of a grand or presentment jury with the role of inquest and was started by Frankish conquerors to discover the King's rights. Henry II regularized this type of proceeding to establish royal control over the machinery of justice, first in civil trials and then in criminal trials. Trial by petit jury was not employed until the reign of Henry III, in which the jury was first essentially a body of witnesses, called for their knowledge of the case. Not until the reign of Henry VI did the jury become the trier of evidence. It was during the Seventeenth Century that the jury emerged as a safeguard for the criminally accused.
Thus, in the Eighteenth Century, Blackstone could commemorate the institution as part of a "strong and two-fold barrier . . . between the liberties of the people and the prerogative of the crown" because "the truth of every accusation . . . . [must] be confirmed by the unanimous suffrage of twelve of his equals and neighbors indifferently chosen and superior to all suspicion." The right to a jury trial was guaranteed in the constitutions of the original 13 States, and in the body of the Constitution and in the Sixth Amendment. The constitution of every State entering the Union thereafter protected the right to jury trial in criminal cases.
Magistrate Judge Position Available | <urn:uuid:80e5b0e5-87c3-409b-bb8d-45c77c649df2> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.gand.uscourts.gov/jury/jury-history.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119646944.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030046-00162-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975776 | 371 | 4.5625 | 5 |
Nkisi or Nkishi (plural varies: minkisi, zinkisi, or nkisi) are spirits, or an object that a spirit inhabits. It is frequently applied to a variety of objects used throughout the Congo Basin in Central Africa that are believed to contain spiritual powers or spirits. The term and its concept have passed with the Atlantic slave trade to the Americas.
The current meaning of the term derives from the root, *-kitį- referring to a spiritual entity, or material objects in which it is manifested or inhabits in Proto-Njila, an ancient subdivision of the Bantu language family.
In its earliest attestations in Kikongo dialects in the early seventeenth century it was transliterated as "mokissie" (in Dutch), as the mu- prefix in this noun class were still pronounced. It was reported by Dutch visitors to Loango in the 1668 book Description of Africa as referring both to a material item and the spiritual entity that inhabits it. In the sixteenth century, when the Kingdom of Kongo was converted to Christianity, ukisi (a substance having characteristics of nkisi) was used to translate "holy" in the Kikongo Catechism of 1624.
In the eighteenth century, the mu- prefix evolved into a simple nasal n-, so the modern spelling is properly n'kisi, but many orthographies spell it nkisi (there is no language-wide accepted orthography of Kikongo).
Close communication with ancestors and belief in the efficacy of their powers are closely associated with minkisi in Kongo tradition. Among the peoples of the Congo Basin, especially the Bakongo and the Songye people of Kasai, exceptional human powers are frequently believed to result from some sort of communication with the dead. People known as banganga (singular: nganga) work as healers, diviners, and mediators who defend the living against black magic (witchcraft) and provide them with remedies against diseases resulting either from witchcraft or the demands of bakisi (spirits), emissaries from the land of the dead.
Banganga harness the powers of bakisi and the dead by making minkisi. Minkisi are primarily containers - ceramic vessels, gourds, animal horns, shells, bundles, or any other object that can contain spiritually-charged substances. Even graves themselves, as the home of the dead and hence the home of bakisi, can be considered as minkisi. In fact, minkisi have even been described as portable graves, and many include earth or relics from the grave of a powerful individual as a prime ingredient. The powers of the dead thus infuse the object and allow the nganga to control it. The metal objects commonly pounded into the surface of the power figures represent the minkisis' active roles during ritual or ceremony. Each nail or metal piece represents a vow, a signed treaty, and efforts to abolish evil. Ultimately, these figures most commonly represent reflections upon socially unacceptable behaviors and efforts to correct them.
The substances chosen for inclusion in minkisi are frequently called "bilongo" or "milongo" (singular nlongo) a word often translated as "medicine." However, their operation is not primarily pharmaceutical, as they are not applied to or ingested by those who are sick, and perhaps bilongo is more accurately translated as "therapeutic substances". Rather they are frequently chosen for metaphoric reasons, for example, bird claws in order to catch wrongdoers, or because their names resemble characteristics of spirits in question.
Among the many common materials used in the minkisi were fruit ("luyala" in Kikongo), charcoal ("kalazima"), and mushrooms ("tondo"). Minerals were collected from various places associated with the dead, such as earth collected from graves and riverbeds. White clay was also very important in the composition of minkisi due to the symbolic relationship of the color white and the physical aspects of dead skin as well as their moral rightness and spiritual positivity. White contrasted with black, the color of negativity. Some minkisi use red ochre as a coloring agent. The use of red is symbolic of the mediation of the powers of the dead.
Minkisi serve many purposes. Some are used in divination practices, rituals to eradicate evil or punish wrong-doers, and ceremonies for protective installments. Many are also used for healing, while others provide success in hunting or trade, among other things. Important minkisi are often credited with powers in multiple domains. Most famously, minkisi may also take the form of anthropomorphic or zoomorphic wooden carvings.
Minkisi and the afflictions associated with them are generally classified into two types; the "of the above" and the "of the below". The above minkisi are associated with the sky, rain, and thunderstorms. The below minkisi are associated with the earth and waters on land. The above minkisi were considered masculine and were closely tied to violence and violent forces. The minkisi of the above were largely used to maintain order, serve justice, and seal treaties.
Birds of prey, lightning, weapons, and fire are all common themes among the minkisi of the above. They also affected the upper body. Head, neck, and chest pains were said to be caused by these nkisi figures. Some figures were in the form of animals. Most often these were dogs ("kozo"). Dogs are closely tied to the spiritual world in Kongo mythology. They live in two separate worlds; the village of the living, and the forest of the dead. Kozo figures were often portrayed as having two heads – this was symbolic of their ability to see both worlds.
Nkondi (plural varies minkondi, zinkondi) are a subclass of minkisi that are considered aggressive. Because many of the nkondi collected in the nineteenth century were activated by having nails driven into them, they were often called "nail fetishes" in travel writing, museum catalogs, and art history literature. Many nkondi also feature reflective surfaces, such as mirrors, on their stomach areas or the eyes, which are held to be the means of vision in the spirit world. Although they can be made in many forms, the ones featuring a human statue with nails are the best described in anthropological and scholarly literature.
Nkondi are invoked to search out wrongdoing, enforce oaths, and cause or cure sicknesses. Perhaps the most common use was the locating and punishing of criminals, by hunting down wrongdoers and to avenging their crimes. An oath taker may declare him or herself vulnerable to the disease caused by an nkondi should he or she violate the oath. People who fall sick with diseases known to be associated with a particular nkondi may need to consult the nganga responsible for mediating with that spirit to determine how to be cured.
Although nkisi nkondi have probably been made since at least the sixteenth century, the specifically nailed figures, which have been the object of collection in Western museums, nailed nkondi were probably made primarily in the northern part of the Kongo cultural zone in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The nkisi figures brought back to Europe in the nineteenth century caused great interest in stimulating emerging trends in modern art, and Bantu themes previously considered primitive or gruesome were now viewed as aesthetically interesting. The pieces became influential in art circles and many were acquired by art museums. The intentions of the banganga who created minkisi were practical, that is their characteristics were dictated by the need of the object to do the work it was required to do—hence the nails which caused a sensation were never seen as decorative items but as a requirement of awakening the spirit; or the gestures were part of a substantial metaphor of gestures found in Kongo culture.
Recently some modern artists have also been interested in creating nkisi of their own, most notably Renee Stout, whose exhibition "Astonishment and Power" at the Smithsonian Institution coupled her own versions of nkisi with a commentary by noted anthropologist Wyatt MacGaffey.
- "Palo Deities". 13 April 2008. Archived from the original on 13 April 2008.
- Jan Vansina, Paths in the Rainforest: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990), p. 146 and 297; but see also Vansina's corrective statements in How Societies Are Born: Governance in West Central Africa Before 1600 (Charlottesville, VA and London: University of Virginia Press, 2004), pp. 51-52.
- Olfert Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Africa Gewesten (Amsterdam, 1668), p. 548 (see English translation in John Ogilby, Africa (London, 1670), p. 514).
- John Thornton, "The Development of an African Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Kongo, 1491-1750," Journal of African History 25 (1984): 156-57.
- The plural varies according to dialect, can also be nganga with class 2 concords or zinganga.
- Moncia Blackmun Visona, Robin Poynor, Herbert M Cole, A History of Art in Africa (New York: Prentice-Hall, 2000.
- "The Metropolitan Museum of Art". Power Figure (Nkisi N'Kondi: Mangaaka). Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- Wyatt MacGaffey, "Complexity, Astonishment and Power: The Visual Vocabulary of Kongo Minkisi" Journal of Southern African Studies14: 188-204
- Marie-Claude Dupré,"Les système des forces nkisi chez le Kongo d'après le troisième volume de K. Laman," Africa 45 (1975): 12-28
- Wyatt MacGaffey, "'Magic, or as we usually say 'Art': A Framework for Comparing African and European Art," in Enid Schildkrout and Curtis Keim, eds. The Scramble for Art in Central Africa, (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998) pp. 217-235.
- Michael Harris and Wyatt MacGaffey. eds. Astonishment and Power (London and Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993)
- Bassani, Ezio (1977). "Kongo Nail Fetishes from the Chiloango River Area," African Arts 10: 36-40
- Doutreloux, A. (1961). "Magie Yombe," Zaire 15: 45-57.
- Dupré, Marie-Claude (1975). "Les système des forces nkisi chez le Kongo d'après le troisième volume de K. Laman," Africa 45: 12-28.
- Janzen, John and Wyatt MacGaffey (1974). An Anthology of Kongo Religion Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press.
- Laman, Karl (1953–68). The Kongo 4 volumes, Uppsala: Studia Ethnografica Uppsaliensia.
- Lecomte Alain.Raoul Lehuard. Arts,Magie te Médecine en Afrique noire. Edition A. Lecomte. 2008
- Lehuard, Raoul. (1980). Fétiches à clou a Bas-Zaire. Arnouville.
- MacGaffey, Wyatt, and John Janzen (1974). "Nkisi Figures of the BaKongo," African Arts 7: 87-89.
- MacGaffey, Wyatt (1977). "Fetishism Revisted: Kongo nkisi in Sociological Perspective." Africa 47: 140-152.
- MacGaffey, Wyatt (1988). "Complexity, Astonishment and Power: The Visual Vocabulary of Kongo Minkisi" Journal of Southern African Studies14: 188-204.
- MacGaffey, Wyatt, ed. and transl. (1991), Art and Healing of the Bakongo Commented Upon by Themselves Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
- MacGaffey, Wyatt. "The Eyes of Understanding: Kongo Minkisi," in Wyatt MacGaffey and M. Harris, eds, Astonishment and Power Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 21–103.
- MacGaffey, Wyatt (1998). "'Magic, or as we usually say 'Art': A Framework for Comparing African and European Art," in Enid Schildkrout and Curtis Keim, eds. The Scramble for Art in Central Africa. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 217–235.
- MacGaffey, Wyatt (2000). Religion and Society in Central Africa: The BaKongo of Lower Zaire Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- MacGaffey, Wyatt (2000). Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- Vanhee, Hein (2000). "Agents of Order and Disorder: Kongo Minkisi," in Karel Arnaut, ed. Revisions: New Perspectives on African Collections of the Horniman Museum. London and Coimbra, pp. 89–106.
- Van Wing, Joseph (1959). Etudes Bakongo Brussels: Descleė de Brouwer.
- Volavkova, Zdenka (1972). "Nkisi Figures of the Lower Congo" African Arts 5: 52-89. | <urn:uuid:a7824553-67ab-4c0c-8c61-52847109bb0c> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nkisi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583515041.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20181022113301-20181022134801-00155.warc.gz | en | 0.917627 | 2,898 | 3.296875 | 3 |
A team of Chinese scientists has discovered a giant new sinkhole with a forest at its bottom.
The sinkhole is 630 feet (192 meters) deep, according to the Xinhua news agency, deep enough to just swallow St. Louis’ Gateway Arch.
A team of speleologists and spelunkers rappelled into the sinkhole on Friday (May 6), discovering that there are three cave entrances in the chasm, as well as ancient trees 131 feet (40 meters) tall, stretching their branches toward the sunlight that filters through the sinkhole entrance.
“This is cool news,” said George Veni, the executive director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) in the US, and an international expert on caves.
Veni was not involved in the exploration of the cave, but the organization that was, the Institute of Karst Geology of the China Geological Survey, is NCKRI’s sister institute.
A site for sinkholes
The discovery is no surprise, Veni told Live Science, because southern China is home to karst topography, a landscape prone to dramatic sinkholes and otherworldly caves.
Karst landscapes are formed primarily by the dissolution of bedrock, Veni said. Rainwater, which is slightly acidic, picks up carbon dioxide as it runs through the soil, becoming more acidic. It then trickles, rushes and flows through cracks in the bedrock, slowly widening them into tunnels and voids.
Over time, if a cave chamber gets large enough, the ceiling can gradually collapse, opening up huge sinkholes.
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“Because of local differences in geology, climate and other factors, the way karst appears at the surface can be dramatically different,” he said.
“So in China you have this incredibly visually spectacular karst with enormous sinkholes and giant cave entrances and so forth. In other parts of the world you walk out on the karst and you really don’t notice anything. Sinkholes might be quite subdued, only a meter or two in diameter. Cave entrances might be very small, so you have to squeeze your way into them.”
In fact, 25 percent of the United States is karst or pseudokarst, which features caves carved by factors other than dissolution, such as volcanics or wind, Veni said. About 20 percent of the world’s landmass is made of one of these two cave-rich landscapes.
The new discovery took place in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, near Ping’e village in the county of Leye, according to Xinhua. Guangxi is known for its fabulous karst formations, which range from sinkholes to rock pillars to natural bridges and have earned the region UNESCO world heritage site designation.
Why sinkholes matter
The sinkhole’s interior is 1,004 feet (306 meters) long and 492 feet (150 meters) wide, Zhang Yuanhai, a senior engineer with the Institute of Karst Geology, told Xinhua.
The Mandarin word for such enormous sinkholes is “tiankeng”, or “heavenly pit”, and the bottom of the sinkhole did indeed seem like another world.
Chen Lixin, who led the cave expedition team, told Xinhua that the dense undergrowth on the sinkhole floor was as high as a person’s shoulders. Karst caves and sinkholes can provide an oasis for life, Veni said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to know that there are species found in these caves that have never been reported or described by science until now,” Lixin said.
In one West Texas cave, Veni said, tropical ferns grow abundantly; the spores of the ferns were apparently carried to the sheltered spot by bats that migrate to South and Central America.
Not only do sinkholes and caves offer refuge for life, they are also a conduit to aquifers, or deep stores of underground water. Karst aquifers provide the sole or primary water source for 700 million people worldwide, Veni said. But they’re easily accessed and drained – or polluted.
“Karst aquifers are the only types of aquifers that you can pollute with solid waste,” Veni said. “I’ve pulled car batteries and car bodies and barrels of God-knows-what and bottles of God-knows-what out of the active cave stream.”
The new discovery brings the number of sinkholes in Leye County to 30, according to Xinhua. The same researchers have previously discovered dozens of sinkholes in Northwest China’s Shaanxi province and a cluster of interconnected sinkholes in Guangxi, China Daily reported.
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This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here. | <urn:uuid:d3e0efd6-fb6d-4ca0-81bc-2959992bf746> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.sciencenewslab.com/nature/a-giant-sinkhole-has-been-discovered-in-china-with-its-very-own-forest/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943809.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20230322114226-20230322144226-00406.warc.gz | en | 0.940919 | 1,086 | 3.375 | 3 |
Speaking over the not-so-distant hum of chainsaws in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, Briv*, an indigenous Bunong forest guide at Jahoo Gibbon Camp, admits that he would prefer that schools teach in both Khmer and Bunong. According to World Hope International (WHI), an international NGO doing community development work in Andong Kralong, a majority Bunong village by Jahoo Gibbon Camp, it is difficult for minorities to find public education in their own languages. This in turn makes learning an uphill battle for Bunong children who may have never spoken Khmer in their life – a marginalisation experienced by many ethnic minorities across Southeast Asia.
Briv values Khmer as “the language of the law”. Often caught up in land disputes over forested ancestral lands, the Bunong must know the law in order to protect the forest and their culture.
But, he adds, “Bunong culture is the law to protect the forest.”
This past week, images of the fires ravaging the Amazon to clear land for cultivation have shocked the international public. But for the Bunong, over the last 40 years, a less publicised blaze has been eating away at the jungles in which they had lived for an estimated two thousand years.
In 1973, 13.1 million hectares of forest blanketed Cambodia. By 2014, this had dropped to 8.7 million – marking the first time Cambodia had less forest cover than non-forest cover in that period, according to Open Development Cambodia (ODC), a Southeast Asia-based online open data source, using information from the Cambodian Department of Forestry Administration and analysis by a mapping team. According to 2017 NASA satellite imagery, only 3% of Cambodia’s primary forest still stands.
A voracious hunger for land and precious timber has gobbled up over half of Cambodia’s dense woodland, leaving the country the ninth most deforested in the world, going by an index drawn up by Maplecroft, a UK-based global risk and strategic consulting firm.
“If there is no forest, there are no more Bunong”Briv, a Bunong forest guide
Since 2001, the Cambodian government has granted at least a million hectares of land to foreign investors and elites through its controversial scheme of Economic Land Concessions (ELCs). According to a 2015 report by Forest Trends, a Washington DC-based international NGO that works towards conservation through environmental finance, 80% of this leased land falls within the boundaries of protected forest, but those protections do not hinder agro-businesses from clearing thousands of hectares of forest. When this land is already occupied by local communities, disputes quickly flare up.
Three forest rangers were killed in Mondulkiri early last year in a showdown with loggers near the Vietnam border.
One of the three was a young Bunong man with two young children. For Briv, another forest guide, his young counterpart’s untimely death defending the very forest to which Bunong identity is inextricably linked highlights how logging is literally putting his people’s survival at risk.
The Bunong have found themselves at the crossroads of intense international interest in such natural resources – cornering them into bargaining just to remain on land they have lived on for millennia.
“If there is no forest,” says Briv, “there are no more Bunong.” He predicts the forest will be gone in a century – suggesting a precarious future for his people.
“If we are strong enough we can try to defend ourselves,” says Mane Yun, a human rights activist who in 2001 became the first Bunong to earn a Bachelor’s degree in law. “But some communities are not agreeing with each other.”
She likens the situation to a dam with too much water. “It came too quickly,” she says. For Yun, it is as if the Bunong had no “anti-viral” to protect themselves.
“There is very limited support from the government,” she says. “There are development partners, communities, activists, but it seems like we don’t have enough energy and power. Affecting everything is land and resource loss. This affects cultural identity and livelihood.”
The Bunong, also known as the Phnong, number approximately 50,000 and represent the largest indigenous group living in Cambodia’s northeastern Mondulkiri province. Their culture is based on an interdependent relationship with the forest, as seen in their belief that objects in nature – mountains, water, animals and of course forests – all carry spirits that retaliate when disrespected, even bringing illness and other misfortunes to communities.
The Bunong belief system decrees that certain sacred pockets of wilderness, called spirit forests, must never be cut. The lives of animals such as elephants and gibbons are seen as equal to those of humans – they must never be hunted or eaten.
But the traditional Bunong way of life runs contrary to the law of the land in modern Cambodia. A number of their practices – such as hunting animals, and their traditional rotational swidden agriculture that relies on limited slash and burn practices – have been outlawed, the latter replaced by cash crops. Their best-known custom, the domestication of elephants, is not only illegal but impractical – there just aren’t enough wild elephants left to capture.
For better or worse, the introduction of the Cambodian legal system has complicated the Bunong’s ancient system of self-government in which elders solve community disputes internally.
“Some Khmer people think the Khmer Rouge only affected the Khmer, but indigenous people were affected too”Sreyneang Loek, a Bunong graduate in Phnom Penh,
Despite the Bunong living in Mondulkiri for what historians believe to be two millennia, the question of who owns their ancestral land is still highly contested. Bunong tradition holds that the forest is owned by everyone. Nowadays, however, they have to contend with the concept of private land ownership. Some communities have succeeded in acquiring communal land titles to protect against land-grabbing from the state and international companies, a problem that human rights NGO Licadho in 2012 estimated had affected 420,000 Cambodians since 2003. But this arduous process of formalising collective land ownership can take many years and is rife with legal hurdles.
Before and after
“Before the Khmer Rouge, in my village, nobody spoke Khmer,” says Lorang*, a 58-year old survivor of the regime’s depredations.
“My parents wore Bunong traditional clothes, but I and other young people wore a mix.”
Khmer Rouge militias first came into Lorang’s village in 1971 or 1972, after US bombing had ravaged the province and driven many from their homes – a time which, according to Briv, the Bunong recall as “boom”.
“In 1975, all the people from my area moved to live in Koh Nhek district,” he says. “Different minorities – Bunong, Jarai, Kurung – were together.” There, Lorang claims, they worked as labourers in communes, speaking a mix of languages.
Before the Vietnam War, a million indigenous people inhabited the highlands of Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. By the time the Khmer Rouge was ousted, at least half the adult male population had died.
“Some Khmer people think the Khmer Rouge only affected the Khmer,” says Sreyneang Loek, a young Bunong graduate in Phnom Penh, “but indigenous people were affected too.”
“Afterwards, our people still followed the culture,” says Lorang. “But some of the materials were lost.”
Among the vestiges of Bunong culture that were almost lost to the Khmer Rouge included their revered elephants.
“After the Khmer Rouge, the elephants were gone,” he continues. The Khmer Rouge took away the elephant shared by his family and many others. He never found out where it went, and after the war, he moved to a new village in search of a livelihood, finding trees with resin he could sell.
Few domesticated elephants remain in Mondulkiri. Jemma Bullock is programme manager of Elephant Livelihood Initiative Environment at Elephant Valley Project, an elephant sanctuary NGO in Mondulkiri. It is here that Bunong and Khmer mahouts raise the last generation of Cambodia’s domesticated elephants – ten of the 36 remaining in the province at the EVP sanctuary.
While before the war, Jemma estimates, most Bunong communities kept about 20 elephants each, the conflict wrought a terrible toll: some elephants were killed and eaten, some worked to death. Others escaped into the forest, with only a handful ever found again.
But some continued to cherish the creatures, despite the dangers. “During the civil war some Bunong people managed to survived the war by hiding in the forest with their elephants,” she says.
In Lorang’s view, before the Khmer Rouge, people still “fully respected” Bunong culture.
“All people wanted to learn and practice… Today, it’s very changed,” she says.
But the historic record contradicts this idyllic vision of the past: the Bunong had been struggling with meddling outsiders for decades.
“Young people don’t try to learn. They don’t know how to talk to the spirits. They don’t know where the spirits live”Lorang, a 58 year old Bunong man
During the colonial era, Bunong resistance against the French, who were forcing Bunong men to build a major road and other infrastructure projects, earned them a reputation as fierce warriors. During his reign, Prince Norodom Sihanouk took it upon himself to attempt a perceived modernisation of Cambodia’s indigenous peoples, who he named the “Khmer Loeu” or “Upper Khmer.”
His “Khmerisation” campaign urged indigenous people to move closer to the French road and live like Khmer people – even going so far as distributing Khmer traditional cloth to locals.
Many Khmer words have been injected into colloquial Bunong – such as “rean” (to study), “prochum” (meeting), or “sala” (school) – leading Briv to worry his great-grandchildren will not know how to speak Bunong.
Missionaries adapted the Bunong language to Khmer script, but some Bunong, like Briv, do not know how to use this Khmer-style written version of Bunong. He and his friends text one another in Khmer.
This century of cultural overhaul has undermined traditional notions of Bunong identity, opening an enormous generation gap between elders and youth, the latter blamed by older Bunong for the crisis facing Bunong culture.
“Young people don’t try to learn,” says Lorang, who tries to teach them traditional basket weaving. “They don’t know how to talk to the spirits. They don’t know where the spirits live.”
“Young people focus on materialism,” says Briv. “They don’t really care about existing resources.”
To him, if young people would collect medicine in the forest like their ancestors, that would help protect the forest. Instead, he says, they take up illegal logging to buy the “material things they are chasing”.
“Currently, young people can’t make rice wine,” Briv claims about the traditional Bunong iteration of the drink. “They don’t know the recipe.”
Although the internal criticisms of Bunong youth sound typical of any community – partying, drugs, a lack of respect for elders – their actions, given the threat the Bunong community faces, are read as “leaving their culture behind”.
The expectations that Bunong youth should support their families financially weighs heavily, with many of the young compelled to leave home due to a dearth of job and educational opportunities. In turn, pressure grows on the Bunong to assimilate to Khmer culture as economic interdependence increases.
But when confronted by the sometimes conflicting strains of overcoming poverty versus passing the cultural torch, many will put the former first.
An ongoing multimillion dollar illegal rosewood logging industry and lucrative wildlife trade has led many to turn to illegal logging and poaching.
But the work is dangerous and costly. People can get hurt or caught by police, and the work smacks more of desperation rather than a chance to get rich.
In a 2018 report by the School of Field Studies, an environmental international research programme, Bunong interviewees complained that police targeted their small-scale cutting but left the logging operations of “rich people” alone. Many reported feelings of helplessness, with half the respondents saying “If I don’t cut the trees in the forest, others will.”
“There is more business for us because of illegal logging,” says one youth quoted in the study. “But this business is good for rich people and bad for us. We cut trees to fulfill life necessities.”
“Only men go and cut the forest,” says Payat*, a 23-year old Bunong woman in Andong Kralong. “They do it for livelihoods and to support their families.” For her, the community’s own tree-cutting practices are sustainable.
“If we just cut for buildings, it’s okay,” agrees Lorang.
But young loggers drive in and out of the protected forest towing more logs than are needed for just house-building. The men, or more often teenage boys, hide their faces as they skid down slippery mud roads on motorbikes gutted to bear as much weight as possible.
Andong Kralong has been transformed in recent years. Kyle Winney, a conservationist with WHI who did environmental research in the village a decade ago, does not remember the houses as large and high-quality. The improvements go beyond logging for sustenance, and the culprit, he believes, is almost certainly logging money.
Yun, the activist, acknowledges the unsustainable actions of indigenous people but ultimately views these as livelihood issues. For her, the real problem is “not because of them, but because of globalisation”.
“The development plans of the government in terms of economy” and the “demand to fulfil the needs of a growing population” leads to an issue of “land and natural resource management,” she says.
Specifically, Yun says, “the development problem is mining companies and social land concessions”, or SLCs. By the latter, she is referring to a government programme where land is granted to the landless poor. However, many indigenous people from Mondulkiri, activists, and land rights groups are critical of SLCs, claiming the government has given away already-occupied land and is furthering forest loss through this re-categorisation of territory.
“The concessions of Chinese, Vietnamese, and European companies make a lot of challenges and problems,” Yun says.
“The challenge is bigger than the resources you’re trying to protect.”
A 2012 ODC dataset charts 34 different ELCs in Mondulkiri, ranging from 500 to 9,773 hectares in size for leases up to 70 years. The majority are for agro-industries. Developers hail from Cambodia, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, and France. Some ELCs lie on ancestral lands.
One such case is Socfin-KCD, a 2,386 hectare French rubber plantation operating in Mondulkiri since 2008 with a 70-year lease. According to Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR), a human rights organisation, the ELC affected over 800 families, the majority of them Bunong. Mondulkiri officials allege the dispute is settled. The villagers claim the lawsuits continue.
“When you look at the law, it’s good at protecting indigenous people’s rights,” says Yun. “It’s good at protecting the forest. But in reality, it’s only the law. When communities use the law to protect themselves, they are made to look like villains themselves.”
The spirits are angry
Payat believes that deforestation is causing climate change. For her, it has to do with water and forest spirits, something echoed in the SFS report, which found that many Bunong viewed themselves as “protectors of the forest and therefore spirits are angry at them for deforestation.”
“When all the resources are gone, their spirits will be gone as well,” says Briv, referring to his prediction that the forest will be no more, a century from now.
“Bunong is human the same as other countries,” says Briv, “If you kill our culture, it is like killing your culture the same.”
Briv compares his people’s experience to that of the southern yellow-cheeked crested gibbon, an endangered primate. Unlike the Duc Langur, a monkey that will flee to other forest when its territory is cleared, the gibbon will die with the jungle it was born in.
Sylvain Vogel, a linguist who lived with the Bunong for many years, echoed Briv’s ominous prediction. In 2018 he told The Diplomat, an Asia Pacific-focused magazine and website, that he saw little hope for the Bunong.
“I offer no solutions,” he said. “No wishful thinking, no politically correct language, or bleeding hearts can change a thing. I was only a witness who watched, with great sadness and a feeling of helplessness, the disappearance of a culture.”
While such predictions may sound premature, last year’s legal dissolution of the Snoul Wildlife Sanctuary to the south suggests that an unsettling precedent can be set by forest loss. Because the forest was erased, the state could no longer list the location as a sanctuary.
But not all Bunong are pessimistic: neither Lorang or Payat think the forest will disappear. Others do not see the future of the Bunong as tied to the forest. Instead, they look to education and activism as paths for Bunong culture to adapt to a globalising Cambodia, with Yun and Loek personifying this worldview as trilingual law graduates working as activists for their communities.
“People complain that when young people get educated in Phnom Penh, they lose their identity,” says Yun, one of the founders of Cambodia Indigenous People’s Association (CIYA), an activist group in the capital. “But it’s not that simple. For example, some wear our indigenous clothes to school and work in Phnom Penh.”
“Now a lot of the young generation is starting to be interested in their culture, but they are in Phnom Penh.”
To feed this revived interest, and to rebut what she described as Khmer derision about Bunong food, Yun opened indigenous peoples’ restaurants in Sen Monorom and Phnom Penh in 2011 – “the best she can do” for Bunong culture, she says.
“It’s more social work than business,” she says, listing her aims as “to preserve and protect cultural identity” and to “awaken indigenous people.”
“Living here, many of us become activists,” Loek says, echoing Yun’s determination to counter derogatory Khmer claims about Bunong culture.
“We raise our voice to be heard by the state,” she says, acknowledging that the big city offers opportunities to young Bunong, who are “able to learn English, learn how people in the city live, learn how to know about the issues of country”.
Bunong in Phnom Penh can also find out more about how their people relate “around the world to other indigenous people,” she says. And Loek is concerned about the “huge impact to indigenous people and culture” deforestation is having.
“As we live depends on the forest,” she says. “Our culture is connected.” In her view, forest loss has particular impact on women and children. “In our culture, women are the people who carry on traditional livelihoods.”
Losing forest means losing medicinal plants – and this affects children’s well-being. “Health, mental issues, physical problems,” she says, ”are all tied to deforestation.”
“There are 370 million indigenous people around the world. Half are affected by this issue.”
For Loek, the Bunong cannot depend on the forest for a sustainable future. “People are moving forward,” she says. “People are developing. This impacts youth. We are thinking about the future. We can’t stick to traditional livelihoods.”
At the same time, these realities do not mean Bunong identity should fade away, with Loek adamant that “we cannot abandon our culture.”
“If people get educated, our culture will be protected,” she says, eschewing Briv’s fatalism. “We are not going to depend on the forest but education. But we have to have a shared idea of conservation.”
Loek hopes some Bunong can become anthropologists, doctors and lawyers before returning to help preserve their culture. She wants that Bunong girls “have more opportunity to study, to be a lawyer, lecturer, a star, if they want to.”
“They can have more opportunity than me,” she says. Her optimism is cautious but based on evidence of change – she cites the fact that several Bunong have found positions in provincial government.
Loek sees the Bunong as having the same capacity to develop as any other culture.
In Andong Kralong primary school, Bunong teachers and parents have collaborated on strengthening Bunong language and culture in children from early years – as well as a food programme.
WHI reports show a 24% increase in enrollment over 2016-2017, with provincial test scores up from among the lowest to among the highest.
“My message,” says Loek, “[is] nobody can help us besides ourselves. We are the only ones to be documenters.”
But neither Loek nor Yun think indigenous people should be solely responsible for protecting forests. “I don’t think it matters if you’re non-indigenous,” says Yun. “If you want to support – we need support.”
*pseudonyms used at request of interviewees | <urn:uuid:2da18c60-e9d2-40c7-8e0e-dd26eaaa333f> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://southeastasiaglobe.com/uprooted/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251684146.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20200126013015-20200126043015-00176.warc.gz | en | 0.959722 | 4,881 | 2.875 | 3 |
Burkina Faso is working hard to emerge from the large-scale political and social upheaval that characterized the 18 months following the popular uprising that resulted in the resignation of President Blaise Compaoré in October 2014. In view of the presidential and legislative elections held in November 2015, and the largely successful municipal elections in May 2016, the country appears to have reached a positive turning point, although governing institutions remain in transition and fragile.
Burkina Faso is a land-locked country with agro-ecological conditions ranging from the Sahelian North, where pastoralism and agro-pastoralism predominate, to the Sudanian Central and Southern portions of the countries that contain the largest share of cultivable land. Agricultural land constitutes approximately 39-45 percent of the country’s total land area, and about 0.55 percent of total land area is equipped for irrigated agricultural production. Based on interpretation of satellite imagery produced in 2013, the United States Geological Survey concludes that less than 2 percent of the national territory features true, natural forest cover.1 The same study estimates that agricultural land covers 39 percent of the country’s total area; savanna, 31 percent; steppe, 16 percent and Sahelian short grass savanna, 5 percent.
A rural land tenure reform process in Burkina Faso culminated in a pioneering Rural Land Law adopted in 2009, and in substantial revisions, adopted in 2012, to the long-standing framework land tenure law, the Réorganisation Agraire et Foncière (RAF). The 2009 Rural Land Law recognizes customary land rights and provides legal mechanisms for their formalization. The revised RAF serves as the “umbrella” land tenure law, upholds and reinforces the mechanisms introduced by the 2009 Rural Land Law. The 2012 RAF also clearly breaks with previous policies that asserted a monopoly of state ownership rights to all land by establishing property rights domains for both municipalities and private actors. Implementation of the new policies is proving to be challenging given the broad scope of the targeted changes, which require significant institutional capacity. A period of political and social instability in 2015-2016 also slowed implementation of some aspects of the new land tenure legislation.
Competition for available land and natural resources is fueling conflict in Burkina Faso. Supply-side constraints include periodic drought that has exacerbated the loss of vegetation and biodiversity. Other environmental threats include erosion from wind and water, loss of soil nutrients and uncontrolled bush fires. Demand-side drivers of conflict include a fast-growing population, the expansion of agriculture (still mostly led by small-scale farmers but with an increasing incidence of industrial-scale production), large- scale migration within Burkina Faso and in the sub-region, increasing acquisition of land in rural areas by urban-based elites, and an expanding mining sector spearheaded by a boom in gold mining beginning about 2009/2010 and including both industrial and artisanal gold mining. Although the most pervasive category of conflict is that between settled farmers and transhumant herders, an increasingly diversified mix of economic activities and production systems, along with population growth and migration, are leading to a corresponding diversity of types of conflict.
Key Issues and Intervention Constraints
Donors should consider providing support for the following programming options:
The Millennium Challenge Corporation provided substantial support during the period of 2009-2014 for implementation of the major provisions of the 2009 Rural Land Tenure law, as well as for development and adoption in 2012 of revised RAF legislation. MCC project results included establishment of decentralized land tenure services (SFR) in 47 of Burkina Faso’s 302 rural communes, delivery of 2,167 rural land possession certificates (APFR), and training provided to 61,057 stakeholders on themes related to implementation of land policies and laws. More recently other donors, led by the Agence Française de Devéloppement (AFD) and the World Bank, have made commitments to support expanded application of land tenure laws to additional communes. These efforts are being coordinated by GOBF through the General Directorate for Land Tenure, Training and Organization of Rural Populations (DGFOMR) housed in the Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulic Development. USAID is supporting the Observatoire National du Foncier – Burkina Faso (National Land Tenure Observatory, or ONF), which is studying implementation of land tenure legislation and is responsible for formulation of policy recommendations to improve policy and its application. A Land Tenure Research Group (GRAF) was established in 2001 to study land tenure issues, including application of policy. GRAF remains to this day a well-known and respected research agency in Burkina Faso that specializes in rural development, gender and land tenure issues.
The scale for implementation of the relatively recent land tenure laws is immense providing significant space for additional donor support in terms of:
- Geographical reach of decentralized reforms, targeting eventual establishment and permanent operation of new land services in 302 rural and 49 urban communes;
- Needed adjustments within the central government and agencies involved in land governance;
- Number of innovations being introduced, such as rural land certificates, rural land charters, land registries and information management systems;
- New institutions, procedures and processes for conflict resolution; and
- Needs for education and awareness-raising of rural and urban populations.
Donors should consider working collaboratively among themselves, as well as at the national level with governmental and non-governmental agencies, to expand implementation of Burkina Faso land tenure laws, and also to improve the quality of implementation – and possibly to improve the quality of the policies themselves. In other words, equally important to application of the laws is the need to develop local capacity not only to improve land governance, but also to effectively monitor and evaluate land governance in th objective of continually working toward improvement. This could be furthered through development of strategic partnerships with specialized government agencies, such as DGFOMR, and/or with autonomous research or monitoring and evaluation “watchdog” organizations, such as GRAF or the ONF.
Much of the motivation that drove development of the 2009 Rural Land Law was the desire to mitigate the risk of land conflict, and implementation of the Law provides the primary avenue to achieve this objective. However, international sponsors of rural development programs in Burkina do not necessarily need to develop new or unique programs in order to make a serious contribution to mitigation of the risk of land conflict. The venues and types of land conflict in Burkina Faso are as varied as the country itself, with conflicts driven by the unique circumstances of locality, including evolving production systems and market relations, and the changing motivations of both local and non-local actors. Donors sponsoring development programs should take measures not only to mitigate the risk they may inadvertently introduce, but could also contribute broadly to enhance local capacity to manage land conflict in their intervention zones.
Donors sponsoring programs in any sector of rural development in Burkina Faso should consider including a robust land conflict and risk mitigation component within larger projects, whether the development target is construction of irrigation infrastructure, more sustainable forest management, improved pasture resources or enhanced capacity to manage the mining sector. Design of the land conflict risk mitigation component should be informed by serious research into local conflict occurrence, existing management structures and risk factors, and local, regional and national capacities to manage existing and anticipated project-driven land conflict.
Burkina Faso has systematically developed sector strategies for the environment and for rural development, but there appears to be a level of compartmentalization with respect to the domains of environmental management and rural development. On the environmental side: Burkina Faso launched its strategy for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in 2010 and the Readiness Preparation Plan for REDD+ was completed in 2012. In 2013 the National Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development (CONEDD) was established and placed under the tutelage of the ministry in charge of the environment to coordinate development and implementation of national global and sector strategies for the environment and sustainable development. On the rural development side, in 2010 GOBF adopted a National Rural Sector Program (PNSR), currently in its second phase, which serves as the coordinating framework for programming and implementing the interventions in rural areas in Burkina Faso and constitutes a clear institutional framework for the proposed interventions. As of January 2017, the PNSR II is being drafted with stakeholders. The first PNSR assumes a multi-sector approach to rural development built on the programs of the ministries in charge of agriculture, animal resources and the environment. The centerpiece program for implementation of the PNSR is the National Village Development Program (PNGT), administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulic Development. The challenge is to achieve and maintain a true multi-sector approach. Finally, rounding out the government’s strategic framework for economic and social development nationally, the government developed and approved its 2016-2020 National Economic and Social Development Plan (PNDES) in July 2016. The PNDES is the reference framework for interventions by various national and international partners, an instrument for political dialogue with technical and financial partners, and a medium for mobilizing resources to finance development.
Donors could consider increasing integration of rural development and forest management programs, particularly where the two sectors come together at the local level. The 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law, along with legislation mandating decentralization of management authority to local governments, provide legal and institutional frameworks whereby shifting land uses can be more effectively planned or managed. Particular attention needs to be paid to the impact and opportunities of the different sector policies on pastoral communities. The Rural Land Charters authorized and defined in the 2009 Law and its implementing legislation provide an ideal tool for integrating rural development strategies and adaptation to climate change.
Burkina Faso’s gold mining activities, accurately referred to as a “boom” since 2009/2010, are contributing to rapid changes to national and local economies and to local social organization. The speed of the changes has overwhelmed existing regulatory capacity and presents significant dangers to miners’ personal safety, the environment and especially women and children. Both artisanal and industrial gold mining are expanding in land surface area at the expense of existing agricultural and forest lands.
Donors should support efforts to curb child labor at artisanal mines and to help increase the level of organization by artisanal miners. Donors should also support research into land acquisition patterns and the resettlement policies of investors in industrial mining.
Burkina Faso is a land-locked country located in West Africa’s Sahelian zone. The population is largely rural and the economy is primarily based on agriculture and livestock, but also features a growing mining sector. With over 90 percent of the country’s workforce
engaged in agricultural activities, small, family farms remain the norm. However, there has been an acceleration in recent decades of urban-based, and to a lesser extent international, investment in agricultural production suggesting some movement toward larger-scale and more commercially oriented production. During the same period the country has experienced significant levels of internal migration, in large part motivated by young farmers from densely populated central Burkina Faso seeking opportunities to produce cash crops, particularly cotton, in the western and southern zones of the country, as well as by families seeking land for production of food crops (Ouédraogo 2006; Mathieu et al. 2003; Ouédraogo et al 2012; Kima 2016).
Upper Volta peacefully gained independence from France in 1960. In 1966 the first of a series of military governments took charge through a coup d’état. Thomas Sankara came to power by coup in 1983 and the country was renamed Burkina Faso the following year. Sankara, was assassinated in 1987 and succeeded by Blaise Compaoré who held the office of president for 29 years before fleeing in the face of a popular uprising in October 2014. Under Compaoré Burkina Faso underwent a transition from the pan-African socialist model championed by Sankara to more market-oriented economic policies. While the economy was growing in excess of 6 percent annually from 2010-2013, political and social instability since 2014, along with lower world prices for gold and cotton since 2015, slowed growth to a still respectable 4.8 percent in 2015 and an estimated 5.4 percent in 2016. Economic and social inequalities, poverty, unemployment and under-employment among urban youth and women continue to pose economic and political risks (IDA 2007; World Bank 2013; Wynne 2014; Dayo et al 2016).
Among recent drivers of internal migration is a gold mining boom that began to have widespread economic and social implications by about 2009/2010. Production of gold plays an increasingly prominent role in the country’s economy, and in some rural areas has reorganized social structures. At the same time, along with small-scale farming, livestock production remains an important economic activity and way of life for large numbers of rural people. However, transhumant patterns and grazing practices have become unstable in response to reduced access to traditional grazing lands caused by a combination of expanded farming, degrading natural resources and climate disruption. While land transactions are becoming increasingly common in rural areas, they take place in a context dominated by informal, customary land tenure management systems that afford ample opportunity for unauthorized participation in, or varying interpretations of, land transaction agreements. Each of these trends – including shifting populations, evolving or competing production systems, climate instability and the changing nature of land transactions – has been associated with land and natural resource-based conflict (FAO 2013; Hochet 2014; FAO 2014 (FAPDA); Koussoubé 2015; COPAGEN-REDTAC 2015; Kima 2016).
The land tenure regime in Burkina Faso is defined and regulated by two framework laws: the 2009 Rural Land Tenure law and the Agrarian and Land Tenure (RAF) law most recently revised in 2012. Land laws enable legal recognition of rights legitimated by customary rules and practices, and provide for formalization of individual and collective use rights through rural land certificates and charters, and include the option of transforming certified rights into private titles. The laws also promote alternative forms of conflict resolution by requiring that attempts be made to resolve conflicts at the local level before recourse to the court system and establishing village-level commissions responsible for conciliation of conflicts. The 2009 Rural Land Law further codifies principles of customary land rights by enabling communities to draft local land charters (Chartes Foncières Rurales – CFR). These land charters integrate customary rules relating to conservation or shared natural resources, the process of giving and receiving land loans, and land dispute management (FAO 2014; Mansion 2014; Ouédraogo 2014; MEDD 2015; GOBF 2009; GOBF 2012).
Burkina Faso is a West African country with 105,638 square miles (273,600 square kilometers) of land and no coastline. Of the 17.5 million inhabitants (2014), 73 percent are rural. In 2014 the GDP was US$ 24.5 billion (WB), of which agriculture comprised 34.2 percent, industry 23.1 percent and services 42.7 percent (WB). Crop production, livestock, forestry and mining are the dominant rural sector activities, with the agricultural sector accounting for over 90 percent of the workforce (FAO 2012). In 2009 gold surpassed cotton as the country’s leading commodity export, with livestock third on the list. Burkina Faso ranks 183 out of 188 countries on the Human Development Index (Winkler and Straumann 2016; CIA 2016; UNDP 2015).
Burkina Faso’s agro-ecological zones range from the Sahelian zone in the North, where nomadic pastoralism is evolving towards agro-pastoralism, to the Sudanian zones in the center and south of the country, which holds the majority of cultivable land. Agricultural land is nearly 45 percent of the total land area. In 2012 only 55,000 ha of agricultural land (0.5 percent) was equipped for irrigation out of an estimated potential total of 233,500 ha located near river systems and an additional 500,000 hectares of valley-bottom lands that potentially could lend themselves to small-scale irrigation. In 2014, an additional 10,000 irrigated hectares were categorized as “small-scale irrigation.” According to World Bank statistics, forests cover 20 percent of national surface area, with an average annual deforestation rate estimated at 1 percent over the period 2005-2010. However, a recent USGS study based on satellite imagery produced in 2013 determined that the extent of remaining naturally forested land in Burkina Faso is negligible. Nevertheless, approximately 14 percent (3,815,000 ha) of the national territory is protected as forest or nature reserves (FAOSTAT; GOBF 2011; Timetoré 2015; Mongabay; GOBF 2011; Tappan et al 2016).
Livestock production remains the dominant livelihood for a significant portion of Burkina Faso’s rural population and plays an important in the country’s economy, constituting 12 percent of GDP and over 19 percent of export value. Livestock production is also the leading strategy for farmers throughout the country to diversify their livelihoods, with 80 percent of households engaging to some degree in production of livestock. Livestock production systems are extensive, with a total land surface need estimated at 65,637 square miles (170,000 km2), or 61 percent of the country’s total surface area. The GOBF’s efforts to encourage sedentarization of transhumant herders and their herds by legally establishing large areas designated as “pastoral zones” following the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s has so far met with limited success (MEDD 2015; FAO 2013; Nelen et al 2004; PNDEL 2010).
Mining – particularly gold mining – has become a significant and growing consumer of land in some rural areas. At least six large industrial mines are currently operating in the country, the largest of which covers over 38 square miles (100 square kilometers). Artisanal gold mining takes place over wide expanses of land, usually at the expense of former agricultural land. Estimates of the number of Burkinabè now working in the artisanal mining sector for at least part of the year range from 600,000 to approximately 1,000,000. Oxfam and the Publish What You Pay coalition in Burkina Faso supported civil society organizations in a successful campaign to increase payments made to local communities for development projects from 0.5 percent to 1 percent of mining revenues, as included in a new mining code adopted June 26, 2015 (Winkler and Straumann 2016; Tetra Tech 2014; Reuters 2015).
Traditional agricultural and livestock production systems in rural zones are facing increasing levels of stress resulting from environmental and climatic challenges. Since the 1970s, Burkina Faso has experienced endemic drought, with the most serious droughts occurring in the periods 1972-1974 and 1983-1984. Drought has exacerbated the loss of vegetation and biodiversity and is caused in part by the pressure on land resources from demographic growth, increasing population density, expansion of agriculture, and periodic overstocking and overgrazing of livestock. Other environmental threats include uncontrolled bush fires, erosion from wind and water and loss of soil nutrients (UNDP 2006; Dorlöchter-Sulser et al. 2001; Kagone 2001).
In addition, serious climate challenges may be emerging: there is evidence that the country is experiencing increasing temperatures as well as greater rainfall intensity and variability. Government rural development strategies assume that during the period 2010-2015 Burkina Faso entered a period of permanent water stress during which water demand is increasingly likely to outstrip supply in dry years (Tetra Tech 2014a; GWP 2015; PAGIRE 2009; SCADD 2009; Newborn and Tucker 2015).
Agriculture in Burkina Faso has historically been dominated by small family farms of between three and six hectares. Generally, only a portion of total family holdings are cultivated in any given year. Although the small family farm continues to be the most common form of agricultural production, as sales of land have become more common, especially since the early-1990s, there is movement toward concentration of rural land holdings among the urban elite, especially in the proximity of population centers. Tendencies toward more concentrated land holdings are also reinforced by increasing international investment in agribusiness and mining (Ouédraogo 2002; AH Consulting 2010; GRAF 2011; Sanou 2012; Hilhorst et al 2011; FAO 2013; Zongo 2013; COPAGEN-REDTAC 2015).
Agricultural land has been expanding steadily in Burkina Faso in recent decades, increasing by over 60 percent between 1990 and 2011. The expansion of the agricultural area has been at the expense of pasturelands and forests, and has benefited farmers over herders. Drought has also played a role in reducing the quantity and quality of pasture available to herders (AGRA 2013; GRAF 2011; Barry 2012; Mathieu et al 2003; Hamade 2001; Kamuanga et al 2008; Kima et al 2016; Tappan et al 2016).
For several decades, the government has encouraged migration from the drought-affected regions to the sparsely populated regions of the south and southwest. Beginning in 1969-70 migration was dominated by young farmers fleeing the densely-populated Yatenga and Central Plateau zones of Burkina Faso to seek opportunity in the “cotton fronts” of the North-West and South-West, but since that time the southern and eastern zones of the country have also received large number of migrants. This has swollen local populations and increased the amount of land cleared for agriculture, hastening the reduction of forests (IIED 1999; Mathieu et al. 2003; Ouédraogo et al 2012; Hochet 2014; Koussoubé 2015; Ouédraogo et al 2015).
Both industrial and artisanal miners are claiming increasing amounts of land in rural areas for gold production. At least six large industrial gold mines have been established since 1991, and wide expanses of former agricultural land, as well as associated water resources, are now used by artisanal gold miners (Tetra Tech 2014; Winkler and Straumann 2016).
The current land tenure regime in Burkina Faso follows a history of land tenure policy that has oscillated between recognition and denial of the legitimacy of customary land rights. After independence, land management in rural settings was largely left to customary institutions and governed according to customary law, with government involvement mainly limited to classified or protected lands. This legal and political approach to land governance underwent a decisive reversal in 1984 when all land and management rights were vested in the state. Since 1987 there has been a much more gradual swing back in the opposite direction. This shift began to pick up steam over the past decade (Hochet 2014).
Burkina Faso launched an agrarian and land tenure reorganization (RAF) law in 1984 that has since undergone three revisions, most recently in 2012. The RAF legislation governs land and land tenure throughout the country. The 1984 RAF denied the legitimacy and even recognition of customary land rights. The RAF vested all land throughout the country in the state and outlawed sales of land. The intent was to require all Burkinabé citizens to gain access to land through government-determined rules of access and end the authority of customary chiefs. Individuals could apply for permits allocating use rights to rural land for cash crops. The law was widely interpreted by farmers to mean that land belonged to whoever cultivated it regardless of customary rules (Ouédraogo 2002; Ouédraogo 2006; Paré 2001; Cotula 2006; Hochet 2014).
The 2012 revision to the RAF represents a new direction, although it nevertheless is not an entirely clean break from previous RAF legislation. The 2012 RAF establishes a National Land Domain (domaine foncier national) composed of the State Domain (domaine foncier de l’Etat), the Domain of Local Collectives (domaine foncier des collectivités territoriales), and the Patrimony of Private Actors (patrimoine foncier des particuliers). This tri-partite legal categorization of land rights is roughly equivalent to establishing that property rights to land may be held by the State, by municipalities and by private actors. The latter two categories – local collectives/municipalities and private actors – are the result of a relatively recent innovation, given that from 1984 the state held a monopoly over land rights.4 Also prior to the 2012 revision, customary land rights and land tenure management systems had no legal recognition or standing but are now eligible for protection through delivery of land certificates (APFR). In addition to defining the legal status of land rights across the different domains, the 2012 RAF, similar to its predecessors, provides the legal framework for local land use planning. The RAF law defines the legal instruments and development structures at different levels of local planning and sets preconditions for urban and rural development as well as conditions for development in areas designated for agricultural use (Ouédraogo 2014; GOBF 2012; Kaboré et al 2014).
In the early 2000s, in light of limited application of RAF laws and growing recognition of the impracticality of some of its fundamental tenets, a participatory process was launched to define a land tenure legal regime unique to rural areas. The process culminated in adoption of a Rural Land Policy in 2007 and a Rural Land Tenure Law (034-2009/AN) adopted in 2009. The law applies to rural lands, understood as any territory located within the administrative boundaries of rural communes, that is designated for agricultural or conservation activities. Also, subject to this law are village lands attached to urban communes – these lands are areas where some agricultural or conversation activity is taking place but within the borders of the urban commune. The 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law defines state property boundaries as well as the delimitations of land zoned for agricultural production. The law also outlines the principles of land security for rural landholders. In a legal domain model that would later be echoed in the 2012 revision of RAF legislation, rural lands comprise three legal domains: state-owned rural land, rural land managed by the local collectives, and the inherited rural lands of private actors (Kaboré et al 2014; GOBF 2009).
The land tenure regime complements and reinforces Burkina Faso’s ongoing initiative to decentralize a broad array of political and administrative responsibilities. In 1993 Burkina Faso adopted its first decentralization laws, and in 2004, Burkina Faso established its current legal framework for decentralization with Law No. 55-2004/AN regarding local government (Code de Général des Collectivités Territoriales, or CCGT), revised in 2009. This law targets the regional and communal levels of the administrative hierarchy, establishing the principles and means to transfer authority and finances to local governments, and defines the relationship between the central government and municipalities and regions. In addition, the CCGT provides a legal basis for the local planning processes by defining the different levels of planning, identifying the key structures in the local planning processes, and organizing the support of the central government. The 2009 Rural Land Law promotes and builds on decentralization laws by establishing or further defining such institutions as land services at the communal-level (Services Fonciers Ruraux – SFR) and village-level Development Committees (Comités Villageois de Développement – CVD), Village Land Commissions (Commissions Foncières Villageoises – CFV) and Village Land Conflict Conciliation Committees (Commissions de Conciliation Foncière Villageoises – CCFV) (Kabore et al 2014; Hughes 2014).
Pastoralism is governed by the 2002 Law Orienting Use and Access to Pastures (034-2002/AN). The Law underscores the importance of sustainable management of pastoral resources, and at the same time guarantees pastoralists the right to pastoral land and to maintain the mobility of livestock. The Law explicitly points out that pastoral resources are shared among different actors and different uses, and that the legitimate rights of all actors must be respected (GOBF 2002; MARH 2010).
A number of government-sponsored action plans and livestock production policies have been adopted in Burkina Faso of which the most recent is the National Policy for Sustainable Development of Livestock in Burkina Faso (PNDEL) adopted in 2010 and covering the period 2010-2025. Among the objectives of the PNDEL are: to improve the traditional livestock production system by moving it from extensive production toward semi-intensive and intensive production systems; and to increase the contribution of livestock production to food security (Hughes 2014; MARH 2010; GOBF 2002).
Burkina Faso also has a Code for Urbanism and Construction that was adopted in 2006 (Loi 017-2006 du 18 mai 2006). The Code establishes the Master Plan for Urban Development (SDAU) as the planning instrument for the medium and long-terms that defines development priorities in urban zones. A Land Occupation Plan (POS) provides the general rules for the different zones consistent with the SDAU, and may restrict construction as necessary (GOBF 2006).
Following revisions to the RAF adopted in 2012 the National Land Domain, which is equivalent to the national territory of Burkina Faso, is organized under the categories “urban lands” and “rural lands.” Urban lands are located within administrative boundaries or defined in the SDAU and principally used for residences, commerce, industry, artisanal activities and public services. Rural lands are principally used for agriculture, livestock production, forestry, wildlife, fisheries and conservation. Urban communes may, however, also contain some “rural lands” – lands on which agricultural or conservation activities are taking place within one of the country’s 49 urban communes.
Cross-cutting rural and urban lands, as noted above, are the three legal land rights domains: State Domain, Domain of local collectives (Regions and Communes), and the Land Tenure Patrimony of Private Actors (Patrimoine Foncier des Particuliers). The domains of the State and Local Collectives include both public and private sub-domains (see below), while the Patrimony of Private Actors comprises land subject to private land rights.
Some categories of rural land held by the State and by local collectives (e.g., forested land, land featuring mineral deposits or land developed for irrigated agricultural production) needs to be made available to private actors in the interest of increased production and economic development. Private actors can gain access to the lands under the public domains (whether the state domain or the domain of local collectives) including, for example, lands developed for irrigation, via temporary concessions, short and long-term leases, or definitive transfer of property rights. Land laws also provide actors with the option of obtaining a full land title, although the process for doing so is relatively long and expensive.
Although the instruments to formalize land property rights have long existed, they have not been broadly or uniformly applied. The options of individual farmer long-term leases and property titles in a government-sponsored irrigation perimeter were exercised, probably for the first time, following completion in 2014 of the MCC-financed 2,240-hectare perimeter in the Sourou Valley at Di. The majority of the beneficiaries of parcels at Di formalized their rights either through long-term leases or full land titles (GOBF 2012; MCC 2014c; Ouédraogo 2014).
The Rural Land Certificate of Possession (APFR), introduced in the 2009 Rural Land Law and mandated in the 2012 RAF as an instrument to secure customary land rights, appears to be something of a hybrid between full title and defined use rights. Notably, the APFR is designed to serve as a preliminary step toward acquisition of a full land title, and thus provides an opportunity for formalization and expansion of private land rights (GOBF 2012; Ouédraogo 2014; Hughes 2014).
Although the 2009 Rural Land Law and the 2012 RAF provide the mandate and mechanisms to formalize and secure a variety of tenure types in rural Burkina Faso, most rural land continues to be governed according to customary, informal rules, which differ between communities. In general, customary land tenure types are one of the following (from Hughes 2014):
- Rights of permanent use are granted to members of the corporate group (family clans).
- Rights of permanent use are acquired by claiming unclaimed deforested land.
- Rights of limited use are extended to members of the corporate group who need to borrow land. Depending on the group, these may become rights of permanent use if held for more than one generation.
- Rights of limited use are granted to ‘strangers’ who are borrowing the land. These rights can become permanent after generations of being passed down, particularly if the borrower has improved the land with the permission of the lender.
SECURING LAND RIGHTS
Although the 2009 Rural Land Law and the 2012 RAF provide mechanisms for formalizing and securing rural land rights, and mechanisms for establishing full land titles have been in place since the early part of the 20th century, relatively little of the rural and urban surface areas in Burkina Faso have been formalized. Between 19065 and 2013 only 15,753 land titles were registered, the vast majority in the urban centers of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. Since establishment of the Rural Land Rights Certificate, or APFR (introduced in the 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law as a means to secure land rights based on customary land tenure), with the support of the Compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation, by late-2014 some 13,000 applications and 4,500 APFR had been delivered. However, distribution of application for the APFR is strikingly uneven, with slightly more than one-half of all applications originating in the single commune of Boudry (one of the 17 first generation communes hosting decentralized land services (SFR) as established by the 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law). By the end of the MCC Compact in July 2014, a total of 47 SFR had been established (Burkina Faso has a total of 302 rural communes and 49 urban communes) (Ouédraogo 2014; MCC 2014b). Additional initiatives by the World Bank, AFD and other donors to increase the number communes with SFR were put on hold throughout much of 2015 and into early 2016 as a result of political and social unrest.
Parallel to the formal system for securing land rights in rural Burkina Faso, customary land tenure systems continue to provide the primary means for securing these rights. Many communities do not acknowledge that anyone “owns” the land, but rather grant primary rights of use to family groups who first settle a plot of land. In other communities, while a village chief is the formal arbitrator of village land, he does not have authority to control lands other than those belonging to his family. Among the Mossi, the largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso, an individual can only claim rights to land specifically granted by a land chief (chef de terre). Chefs de terre have authority because their ancestors were the “first” people to settle there. They act as intermediaries to their dead ancestors and to spirits, guaranteeing that local lineage groups maintain rights to the land their ancestors settled (Cotula 2006; Opoku-Ankomah 2006; Hughes 2014).
As a result of pressures including population growth, migration and land sales, customary land tenure systems in Burkina Faso are evolving. There is a tendency toward management of land rights by increasingly smaller units, such as households and individuals as compared to extended families and lineages. Land transactions, including loans, gifts, sales and rentals, increasingly are managed at the family or individual level and by-pass the involvement of customary land tenure authorities. Land sales, normally not allowed in the context of customary land tenure systems, are becoming common, especially in areas with irrigated perimeters where land values have risen. Another trend is the shortening time period of loans and informal leases in areas such as those where cotton is grown. Within customary systems land loans granted to migrants were usually open-ended and could remain in effect over very long periods. As land reserves are exhausted in some parts of the country it is becoming more common for locals to withdraw land from migrants without following traditional rules.
Non-respect of customary rules increases the risk of land conflict (Hochet 2014; Tetra Tech 2014; Mathieu et al 2003; Opoku-Ankomah 2006).
The 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law’s founding principle of equal access to land on the part of all Burkinabé has been cited as a factor that may, paradoxically, benefit urban-based elites disproportionately, because they may have superior l access to information and to the means to formalize land rights. Land acquisitions in rural areas by urban based elites or other advantaged actors can increase the risk of conflict as land that was previously governed under informal, customary land tenure systems becomes subject to more formal titling options (Sanou 2012).
A possible counter-balance to uneven access to the means for obtaining formal land rights is the Rural Land Tenure Charter (Charte Foncière Rurale – CFR). The CFR is intended to empower rural populations to set the rules that govern local land tenure, including, for example, guidelines defining the acceptable duration of land loans (Ouédraogo 2014; Hughes 2014). However, implementation of the CFR remains somewhat of a pilot activity limited to just a handful of communes.
Without legally recognized rights, rural land users are at risk of the state removing them from their land, which happens as part of projects to improve lands for water infrastructure schemes. The RAF does not require compensation for expropriation of customary rights, but the 2001 Water Management Policy Act (Loi d’Orientation relative à la Gestion de l’Eau) does provide compensation for the impairment of existing rights in the process of irrigation projects (Mathieu et al 2003; GOBF 2001).
INTRA-HOUSEHOLD RIGHTS TO LAND AND GENDER DIFFERENCES
Burkina Faso has a strong record of international agreements and national legislation intended to protect the rights of women, promote women’s health and encourage the participation of women in domains such as economics and politics. However, the country’s record of translating legal protections into real, measurable gains is somewhat uneven and difficult to discern.
Burkina Faso ratified the International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1987 and its optional protocol in 2005. Burkina Faso also ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) in 2006.
The 1991 Constitution (revised in 2012) stipulates that all citizens of Burkina Faso have equal rights and prohibits discrimination based on sex. The Constitution also guarantees the right to property making no distinction on the basis of sex/gender, the right to freely consent to marriage, and prohibits sex discrimination within marriage (RECIF ND; FAO 2011; GOBF 2012). Female circumcision was outlawed in Burkina Faso in1996, but the ban is unevenly enforced and in some areas, there were worries of an upsurge of the practice during the social turbulence that followed the overthrow of Blaise Compaoré in October 2014 (FAO 2007; Voice of America 2015).
Family and succession law is embodied in the Persons and Family Code of 1990. Article 234 prohibits levirate, i.e. forced remarriage of the widow with the heir of her deceased husband. An important exception to the western norms regarding gender equality is the legality of polygamy, which was prohibited in the original draft code but was subsequently allowed following intense popular pressures. The matrimonial regime is community of property in case of monogamy, and separation of property in case of polygamy. Widows have legal rights to inherit their husbands’ property, albeit only if their marriage was a recognized civil marriage. There are calls to revise the Persons and Family Code of 1990 to increase its compatibility with international conventions. RAF laws generally reinforce the treatment of gender under the Persons and Family Code in that men and women are guaranteed equal land rights. Article 75 of the 2009 Rural Land Tenure law mandates “specific programs” such as drafting perimeter- specific by-laws to ensure minimum allocations to women (FAO 2007; Ouédroago 2012; Kaboré et al 2014).
Burkina Faso developed a National Policy on the Advancement of Women that was officially adopted in 2004 (Decree 486). This was followed in July 2009 by adoption of a National Gender Policy (PNG) along with a 3-year work plan for its implementation. The PNG targets “a society free of all forms of inequalities and injustices, guaranteeing essential security to all male and female citizens toward full self- fulfillment” (GOBF 2012; Ouédraogo 2015).
Providing support and a degree of operational capacity to the generally positive policy and legislative environment for gender equality in Burkina Faso are several policy and institutional developments beginning in the mid-1990s. A Ministry for the Advancement of Women (MPF) was established in 1997 by Decree 270. The five-year Action Plan adopted by the MPF for 2003-2007 included an advocacy component entitled “Reduction of the Inequalities Suffered by Women. Gender focal points have been designated in all the ministries involved in gender-related policies and programs. Implementation of the National Gender Policy was reinforced through an accelerated program implemented in 2011-2012 to reinforce the capacity of actors to implement the Policy (FAO 2007; GOBF 2004; Ouédraogo 2015).
To reinforce women’s participation in governing structures, Burkina Faso adopted Law 010-2009 in April 2009 requiring that women constitute 30 percent of the candidates included on ballot lists. Even prior to the revision women accounted for higher percentages of local elected councils than neighboring countries such as Mali and Niger, reaching 26 percent in the elections of 2009. However, despite the new law, the percentage of women on local elected councils dropped to 21 percent following the elections of December 2012. Nevertheless, the percentage of women deputies in the National Assembly improved somewhat over the same period from 15 percent in 2007 to 19 percent in 2012 (Thiemounou 2013; Pambazuka 2015; Kaboré et al 2014; RECIF ND).
Despite the favorable policies, legislative and institutional reform adopted in recent decades that promote gender equality, the reality is that nearly 80 percent of Burkina Faso’s population lives in rural areas where customary land tenure systems are nearly universally dominant over statutory laws and national strategic policies. Although women contribute slightly more than one-half of agricultural labor in Burkina Faso, the notion that land is sacred and that management rights should exclusively be held by men is only gradually losing its grip on the rural mentality. As articulated by a staff member of a Burkinabé NGO, “Since land is sacred, women cannot manage it. If women were to have access to the land, all records of land tenure would be lost. We would no longer know to which family a certain piece of land had belonged. It would be the death of tradition” (FAO 2011; Yoda 2008).
Changing family structures in rural areas is certainly having an impact on how customary land tenure management is evolving. Extended families are splintering and giving rise to the empowerment of member households and emergence of nuclear families. Likewise, farmland is fracturing (Diarra-Doka 2014). While the substance of these changes is clear, it’s less clear how all these changes are affecting customary land tenure rules, or with what speed rules may be evolving.
In general, women continue to gain access to land through their husbands, who by custom are required to make a portion of their agricultural plots available to their wife or wives. Women’s plots have a mixed status, between a gift and a loan. In some cases, they become the property of the women, particularly on the death of their husbands or on their own death, since their children inherit these plots. In other cases, the plot is ploughed back into the bulk of the inheritance to be shared on the death of the husband, or it reverts to the husband in the event of the wife’s passing. Most often the statutory right to inherit is superseded by the customary practice of a man’s property passing to the male members of his family. (Diarra-Doka 2014; Kaboré et al 2014).
Further complicating the land tenure security of women are the sometimes-unanticipated practical requirements to formalize and protect land rights. For example, to obtain an APFR one must first possess a national identify card. The government is now in the process of replacing national ID cards with biometric cards issued by the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) organization.6 While approximately 90% of men had national ID cards, only 30-40 percent of women had these cards. It is unclear if women will still hold fewer biometric ID cards than men. However, if extra time and expense is required to obtain appropriate documentation in support of formalized land rights this often disproportionately impacts women, making it more difficult for them to pursue legal protection of informally recognized rights (ONF personal communication 2016).
In 2009/2010 the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) commissioned AH Consulting to conduct a baseline agricultural survey prior to AGRA-sponsored interventions. Among many other items the survey includes information on how property rights to land are distributed within households. The survey sample size is 1,040 households in three regions (Boucle du Mouhoun, Région de l’Est and Les Cascades). The global result is that 96 percent of household parcels are “owned” by the head of the household, between 0.7 and 1.8 percent of the parcels are owned by the “spouse”, and 5.2, 3.5 and 0 percent (depending on the region) are owned by the “head and spouse”; and 5.6, 1.6 and 0.2 percent (depending on the region) are owned by the “head, spouse and children (AGRA 2014).
While the AGRA study suggested that women faced obstacles to becoming proprietors of land, women sometimes find it easier than men to access loaned or borrowed land. Landholders are more willing to lend to women because women cannot claim permanent rights to land and are easier to evict. Married women usually have more avenues to access land than unmarried women, who often can only access their mothers’ fields. A widow can choose to be ‘inherited’ by one of her husband’s brothers and thus stay on the land, although the practice of levirate marriage is prohibited by law in Burkina Faso. Access to land loans may become easier and more secure for women as contracts are formalized through writing. Similarly, as the land market develops, an increase in the use of written transactions may provide women with more secure avenues to access land ownership (Kaboré et al 2014; Hughes 2014).
Another evolving influence on women’s access to land is the role played by the government and its partners sponsoring programs to increase agricultural development. Some examples suggest that development projects have undermined women’s rights by reinforcing traditional tenure institutions and ignoring the existing rights of women. Operation Rice, a water infrastructure project, undertook to improve lowland areas and then allocated the improved plots to household heads. Those lowlands had been controlled by the women to grow rice; when allocated to male household heads, the land was no longer accessible to women. In subsequent phases of the project, this gender bias was removed. Other development projects, such as the MCC Agriculture Development Project implemented in the Sourou Valley between 2009-2014, has ensured that significant proportions of newly-developed irrigation plots are assigned to women and women’s groups whose land rights are formally secured (FAO 2007; Davis 2014).
For the time being and into the foreseeable future women’s access to land in rural areas remains constrained relative to that of men. Moreover, constrained access to land parallels the obstacles women face when they attempting to access the inputs needed to make land more productive. In Burkina Faso studies, have shown that women use less fertilizer and other farm inputs than men, and that relative yields suffer as a result. Overall agricultural output also suffers as a result of women’s constrained access to land and productive inputs. Interestingly, another study conducted in Burkina Faso found that areas suffering from drought tended to allocate resources between male- and female-managed plots more efficiently than households in more favorable areas, perhaps because the risk associated with being inefficient was higher (FAO 2011; Diarro-Doka 2014). Whether this result is generalizable across the wider rural population may eventually be revealed if the environmental instabilities witnessed over the past couple of decades continue into the future.
LAND ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
There are several government institutions governing land in Burkina Faso, but the fundamental responsibilities for land administration, land registration and property taxation are assigned to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). The MEF implements its land administration policies through the General Directorate for Taxation (DGI), which includes a Directorate for Legal Registration of Land and Land Tenure (Direction des Affaires Domaniales et Foncières – DADF) and a Directorate of the Cadaster (Direction du Cadastre). MEF is the premiere agency for implementation of RAF legislation, which is the foundation of land law in the country. MEF has also established a “one-stop shop” (guichet unique) for provision of land registration services (Ouédraogo 2014; GOBF 2016a).
Since 2007, with adoption of a distinct Rural Land Tenure Policy, land tenure management responsibilities are held by the ministry in charge of agriculture, currently the Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulic Development (MAAH). MAAH is responsible for the productivity of land and related natural resources. MAAH includes the General Directorate for Land Tenure, Training and Organization of Rural Populations (DGFOMR), which is responsible for coordinating and monitoring implementation of the 2009 Rural Land Tenure law. MAAH also serves as Permanent Secretary to the Permanent National Committee for Land Tenure Security in Rural Areas (SP/CONASFR). MAAH is the seat of the National Program for Rural Development (PNGT). Finally, MAAH is responsible for developing and managing irrigation infrastructure and perimeters (Ouédraogo 2014). The MAAH has something of a symbiotic relationship with the Ministry of Water and Sanitation (MEA), especially given that until December 2015 the two entities operated as units within a single ministry, the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources, Sanitation and Food Security (MARHASA).
The Ministry for Regional Development and Decentralization (MATD) plays a central role in land tenure management in that it oversees and supports local governments to increasingly assume the land
management duties assigned through the 2012 revised RAF and the 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law. MATD includes a General Directorate for Local Development (DGAT-DL) and a Directorate for Land Tenure of Local Collectives. The Ministry of Justice (MJ) plays a similar role in supporting local capacity- building for land dispute mediation. The Ministry of Habitat and Urbanism houses the Directorate of Topography and Land Surveying (DGUTF), which is responsible for providing surveying services for land registration throughout the country in both urban and rural zones.
The Ministry of the Environment, Green Economy and Climate Change (MEEVCC – former Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development, MEDD) manages public and private forests and fauna, and regulates environmental measures such as pollution control throughout the country. MEEVCC includes a General Directorate of Forests and Fauna. The MEEVCC also serves as the Permanent Secretary of the National Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development (SP/CONEDD), which coordinates implementation and international sponsorship of forestry, environmental and carbon sequestration programs.
The Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries (MRAH) assumes broad authority for establishment and regulation of pastoral zones and protection of animal resources in streams, rivers and lakes. MRAH hosts the General Directorate for Development of Pastoral Perimeters (DGEAP). The Ministry of Mines, Quarries and Energy is responsible for governance of the mining sector including delivery of mining permits and authorizations and maintenance of a mining cadaster. Rounding out the list of ministries claiming a measure of authority over land tenure management is the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Security (MATS), which plays a role in conflict resolution. The Burkina Geographical Institute (IGB), a non-ministerial technical agency at the national level, provides services for mapping, analysis and interpretation of remote imagery and other geographical technical services (Ouédraogo 2014; Kaboré et al 2014; IGB 2017).
In light of ongoing commitment to decentralization policies local governments and actors are increasingly involved in local land tenure governance. Burkina Faso is composed of 13 regions, 49 urban communes and 302 rural communes established in 2006 in accordance with the General Code of Local Authorities. Each region has a legal identity and functions as an economic unit that is expected to have an appropriate framework policy for land use, planning, and coordination of development activities. Each region is composed of communes, the basic unit of local governance. Each commune is divided into sectors and/ or villages.
The first line of deconcentrated or decentralized land governance institutions and administrators at the regional, commune and village levels are, respectively, High Commissioners, municipal governments presided over by a Mayor and technically assisted by Rural Land Tenure Services (SFR), and Village Development Councils (CVD) assisted by Village Land Commissions (CVF) and Village Conflict Conciliation Commissions (CCFV). The Association of Municipalities of Burkina Faso (AMBF) represents the communes at the national level, and the Association of Regions of Burkina Faso (ARBF) performs the equivalent function for regions (Kaboré et al 2014; Hochet 2014; LGAF 2014). Customary and religious authorities are also generally represented in national forums but appear to be only loosely organized into associations.
LAND MARKETS AND INVESTMENTS
Framework land legislation, intended by the colonial government to pave the way for individualization and commodification of land and the emergence of a land market, has been in place since early in the 20th century (Hochet 2014; Ouédraogo 2014). Procedures for obtaining private land titles were established in 1906. The Civil Code (article 544) defines property in the most absolute terms reflecting the Roman Law notions of usus, fructus and abusus,7 and Article 15 of the Burkinabé Constitution guarantees property rights.8 Although less absolute in terms of defined property rights, the APFR introduced by the 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law is convertible to a private land title where legal and procedural qualifications are met (GOBF 2009).
In spite of availability of legal mechanisms providing for establishment and commercial exchange of private land rights, most land transactions remain informal. Land markets remain localized, undeveloped and are often discouraged – or even prohibited – by customary laws. This 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law requires approval of customary chiefs and/or family members or other people enjoying use and/or property rights in order for land transactions to be considered legal. High costs often discourage the registration of land and of land transactions. At the same time, however, pressures cited above are making sales of land in rural areas increasingly common. The sellers are usually young male locals who have come into possession of family or ancestral land, or older males facing financial problems. The purchasers are generally businessmen, traders, politicians, or migrants with sufficient cash. In addition to outright purchases of land, informal leases have become common in many parts of the country, particularly in areas that host large numbers of migrants (Koussoubé 2015; Mathieu 2003; AU-IBAR 2013; Sanou 2012; Zongo 2010).
The development of land markets in some parts of Burkina Faso has been associated with an influx of migrants. In Comoé Province the mass return of Burkinabé fleeing the civil war in Côte d’Ivoire in the late-1990s/early2000s led to a radical modification of the conditions of access to land, which swiftly passed from the traditional mode of integrating migrants (tutorat) to monetarized forms of access to land. In other areas of rural Burkina Faso high levels of internal migration, particularly since the 1980s, have been associated with a weakening of the customary land management systems that formerly discouraged commercial land transactions, and contributed to more individualized systems of land management. The transition from customary to monetized systems of regulating access to land is a source of conflict between indigenous lineages as well as between local populations and migrants (Mathieu et al 2003; Zongo 2010; Chauveau et al 2006; Hochet 2014; Engels 2014).
COMPULSORY ACQUISITION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS BY GOVERNMENT
The government is empowered to expropriate existing land and natural resource property rights for the public good, but prior to expropriation must render just compensation. However, where the expropriation is located within the Private Domain of the State, or on the urban lands of the Private Domain of a local collective, compensation is dependent on the land-holder’s possession of land title. In cases where the expropriated property is located within the Public Domain of the State compensation is not required. Neither the central nor local governments are required to compensate investments or improvements made on lands subject to a long-term lease between the occupant and the government following expiration of the lease. Expropriations conducted for public utility must follow a legally-defined process beginning with timely notification of the intention to expropriate, and require public investigations and negotiations. Holders of APFR enjoy the same protection from expropriation for public utility and rights to compensation as holders of full land titles (GOBF 2012; Hochet 2015).
The government is also empowered to expropriate the private property rights to mining operations where public utility has been determined. Such expropriations are subject to preliminary and just compensation. Article 11 of Burkina Faso’s Water Management Policy Act (2001) establishes that the issues of expropriation and compensation of land rights for the purposes of creating, improving or maintaining the water infrastructure may be addressed through legislative provisions. Whether such legislative provisions would require pre-existing land title in order to benefit from compensation is not specified in the Water Management Policy Act. In general, because of the lack of a unified, coherent government resettlement policy, in development settings resettlement policies are guided by international agreements and the policies of project donors (GOBF 2001; MAHRH/GOBF 2015; Cotula 2006; Ouédroaogo 2014).
LAND DISPUTES AND CONFLICTS
Disputes over land are a widespread problem across Burkina Faso and may be increasing in frequency and scale. Primary drivers of conflict include population pressure, degradation of natural resources through mismanagement and possibly as a result of climate change, and multiple land tenure regimes – both legal and customary – that create confusion and openings for opportunism. A non-exhaustive typology of land conflicts in Burkina Faso based on the sets of opposing actors includes: farmers versus herders; indigenous populations versus migrants; family members versus each other; community against community; and the State versus private individuals and groups (Nakoulma 2014; AU-IBAR 2013).
In some rural communes, there is a strong sense that local people are losing their stocks of available agricultural land. At the household level, the future of the younger generations is under threat, particularly since agriculture remains the only employment prospect for rural youth. On the social side, an increase in tensions has been noted between indigenous people, migrants and agro-pastoralists on the one hand, and on the other, difficulties in accessing land by women and youth. Conflicts following withdrawals of land use rights pit local people against migrants and locals against pastoralists. Conflicts also arise over the blocking of the transhumance corridors, river banks, and pastures, etc. Intra-family conflicts are often linked to the sale of lineage land reserves by individual members of the family (GRAF 2011).
Conflicts between farmers and herders are almost certainly the most prevalent type of conflict. Drought, resource degradation and farmer encroachment on pastures and cattle trails have disrupted transhumant routes and reduced herder access to pasture and water resources, increasing the likelihood of clashing with other rural production systems, especially farming. The Ministry of Animal Resources estimates that 700 conflicts/year, or approximately 4,000 farmer-herder conflicts, took place between 2005 and 2011. The most serious of these conflicts are marked by violence and sometimes result in fatalities (Bonkoungou 2012; Tetra Tech 2014a).
The challenges presented by land degradation and climate variability affect farmers as well as herders, and have spurred internal migration to more developed areas of the south and southwest, where irrigated agriculture and commercial investments are increasingly found, and to less developed areas in the east, where available land is relatively more abundant. In both instances, these demographic reconfigurations have contributed to conflicts over land. In the south, intra-familial disputes occur over the sale of land to “outsiders” from elsewhere in the country, while in the east disagreements are common over the duration and validity of tacit agreements allowing newcomers to cultivate unused plots of land (Zongo 2010; Tetra Tech 2014a).
Land transactions between migrants and indigenous populations tend to follow customary rather than formal rules. Relatively unregulated and fluid transactions often lead to conflict that government authorities have shown themselves to be unprepared to resolve or effectively manage. The entry of urban-based elites, ready to press their economic advantages and relative legal fluency, into rural land tenure markets has only increased land pressure and local social volatility, as has the return of large numbers of refugees from the Cote d’Ivoire beginning in 2002 (GRAF 2011; Zongo 2010).
Certain opportunities for external investors result from relatively recent changes in land use, such as growing production of biofuels, particularly Jatropha, and the boom in goldmining in response to new or growing markets. At a national level 288,044 ha were acquired (by purchase or rental) between 2000 and 2012, mostly for production of cash crops. Over 113,500 ha were put to production of Jatropha. Much more land has changed hands for gold production. These newer land uses are recent additions to the long-standing “cotton fronts” in the northwestern and southwestern parts of the country, areas in which conflicts arising from changing land-uses, migration patterns, growing population pressures and urban-based investment in rural production have long been documented (Boulouvi 2009; COPAGEN- RED T AC 2015; T etra T ech 2014; Mathieu et al 2003).
To some extent government policies have also encouraged migration. For example, the legal declaration in place since the first RAF in 1984 that “land belongs to all the people of Burkina Faso” has encouraged people of means to seek opportunities beyond their natal regions, and has instilled a sense of powerlessness among local populations who might wish to assert their customary claims. The sentiment is echoed today in the declared objective of the 2009 Rural Land Law to promote equal access to land on the part of all Burkinabé. In addition, government agricultural policies have at times promoted “professionalization” of agriculture by increasing external investment to remedy the shortcomings of family farming (Sanou 2012; Zongo 2010).
Regional conflicts, including Islamic extremism, may also be exacerbated by climate stress, which is anticipated to be an increasingly serious phenomenon in the future. In poor, vulnerable, and culturally diverse societies divergent climate adaptation strategies adopted by different groups (e.g., farmers and herders) also may generate conflict (Tetra Tech 2014a).
The impact of pervasive land conflict in Burkina Faso is far-reaching, it provokes social discord and spills over into the realms of food security and economics. In Burkina Faso, there is a significant, and negative, correlation between “perceptions of conflict” and investment in agricultural production (Linkow 2011).
Current land policy and legislation is fully cognizant of the pervasive risk of land conflict and has developed a series of measures in response. Article 94 of the 2009 Rural Land Tenure law requires that “the State takes and implements all necessary measures to prevent and reduce land conflicts in the rural milieu.” Article 95 adds that customary authorities, civil society and resource persons (actors recognized locally for their unique status or mediation capacity, often informal, or possessing specialized knowledge) must take part in the prevention of rural land conflicts. Inclusion of customary and other local authorities is based on lessons drawn from experience: often conflicts have been settled by traditional chiefs and local institutions. The Law’s requirement that attempts be made to conciliate conflicts prior to undertaking formal litigation is also based on experience: The judicial system is not equipped to deal with local-level land disputes. Judges base their decisions on the RAF, but since rural communities are not basing their decisions on the RAF judicial decisions are often contested and rarely implemented (Kaboré et al 2014; Mathieu et al. 2003; Lund 1997; H. Ouédraogo 2006; M. Ouédraogo 2002).
The 2009 Law establishes that Local Charters are to determine the forms and procedures for conciliation. The Charters may also establish local conflict resolution commissions that are given 45 days to mediate disputes. Addressing the courts and initiating litigation should be used only as a last resort. As of March 2014, 995 village-level conflict resolution commissions had been established with support of various projects and programs (USAID 2010; Hughes 2014; Kaboré et al 2014; Hochet 2014).
Whether or not the policy response will be sufficient to manage and eventually reduced the level of land conflict in Burkina Faso is unclear. Even if it is successful it seems possible that the situation will worsen before it improves. While application of the conflict management tools of the 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law has, to some extent, been effective in preventing conflicts where it has been applied, it may also has led to new conflicts where it opens up latent disputes among family members or internal migrants. Uncertainties about its provisions and intent have raised questions for some families unsure about the future security of their land. Should they worry about losing the land? Should they consider selling it or taking other actions before new, unwanted arrangements are imposed on them? The decisions discussed or taken by family members can lead to new disputes or intensify existing ones. The existing land tenure domain may be simultaneously an area of institutional weakness and of institutional promise (Tetra Tech 2014).
KEY LAND ISSUES AND GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS
Burkina Faso has been effective in developing coherent and often innovative sectoral policies and legislation to address interdependent governance domains and intersecting objectives, including: land tenure, (RAF 2012), Rural Land Tenure (Law 034-2009/AN), decentralization (Law No. 55-2004/AN), rural development (the PNSR), the environment (REDD+ Strategy and REDD+ Implementation Plan), and pasture resource conservation and management (PNDEL). Many of these strategies, policies and laws, at least on paper, lend themselves to mutual coordination and a degree of integration. All of them require a minimum level of technical, administrative, governance and financial capacity for their effective implementation.
Burkina Faso’s rural sector policies, laws and strategies all meet at the local level in villages and communes. Thus, effective implementation depends on local capacity for local governance and service provision. As noted by Kaboré et al (2014) regarding establishment of local land services in communes as mandated in the 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law, “[t]he policy takes into consideration land rights and usage that have been largely held by customary means, as well as the contextual diversity – ecological, economic, social, and cultural – of land in the rural milieu.” Despite the adoption of the rural land tenure law, this legislation has yet to be implemented, mainly due to the lack of administrative capacity, especially in terms of personnel at the local government level, which is essential for making rural land services operational.” The National Municipal Association of Burkina Faso (AMBF) blames the slow implementation of new, decentralized land services on the lack of autonomy allowed to local governments to use funds transferred from the central government as they see fit, and on the reluctance of deconcentrated technical services to support local empowerment (Kaboré et al 2014).
In July 2014 Burkina Faso completed implementation of a 5-year Compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). The Compact included the $60 million Rural Land Governance Project. The RLG project sought to increase investment in land and thus rural productivity through: legal and procedural changes with associated training and public outreach; institutional development and capacity building for delivery of land services; and site-specific land tenure interventions in selected communes. Project results included establishment of decentralized land tenure services (SFR) in 47 communes, delivery of 2,167 rural land possession certificates (APFR), and training provided to 61,057 stakeholders on themes related to implementation of land policies and laws. The RLG made a major contribution to efforts to implement the 2009 Rural Land Tenure law and was instrumental in facilitating the 2012 revision of the RAF (MCC 2014a; MCC 2014b).
In June 2013, the US Government and the GOBF entered a partnership, as part of the G-8 Transparency Initiative, to establish and operate a National Land Tenure Observatory (ONF) and build government capacity for increasing transparency and tracking of land transactions. The Transparency Initiative was developed within the framework of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition that was launched by the G-8 in 2012. In addition to the US, other G-8 partners pledging funds in support of the Initiatives of the New Alliance include France, Germany, Japan and the EU. The New Alliance also features substantial private sector participation. New Alliance initiatives are coordinated through the GOBF investment plan – the National Program for the Rural Sector (PNSR) – and will also take account of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of Food Security (VGGT).
The specific US partnership with Burkina Faso within the Transparency Initiative is spearheaded by USAID and builds on progress achieved by GOBF in implementing elements of the Rural Land Tenure Law and the VGGT. The partnership focuses on two primary activities: establishing and operating a National Land Observatory, and building capacity for tracking transparency of land transactions. The National Land Observatory achieved legal recognition in Burkina Faso on July 3, 2014. Following nearly a year of participatory program development the ONF 5-year observation program was adopted in May 2015 and officially launched the following month (DOS 2013; MCC 2014b; ONF 2015; G-8 2012).
The Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced (RISE) initiative, announced in February 2014, is a USAID initiative that brings together our humanitarian and development assistance to address the root causes of persistent vulnerability. RISE commits more than $130 million in new assistance over the first two years of a five-year effort to build resilience in targeted zones in Niger and Burkina Faso. The multi-year, multi-sectoral RISE programs will increase sustainable economic well-being through increased agricultural productivity, income diversification and increased access to markets and financial services. It is also supporting the MAST pilot project in Boudry Commune and will support additional land tenure work in five other communes in 2017. RISE also seeks to improve health and nutrition and strengthen institutions and governance critical to resilience, in order to improve natural resource management and mitigation of resource-related conflict (USAID 2015a; USAID 2015b; DOS 2014).
The third phase of the second National Village Development Program (PNGT 2) in Burkina Faso was launched in 2014 and scheduled to complete in 2018 and is financed by the World Bank/IDA, the Global Environmental Facility, and GOBF. Phase 3 of PNGT 2 targets reinforcement of the capacity of decentralized governments and local actors to implement local development plans targeting sustainable development of natural resources. The PNGT 2 is the centerpiece program and umbrella for internationally-sponsored support for implementation of the PNSR, and is also a vehicle for furthering application of the 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law. Funds committed for PNGT implementation total 46.7 billion francs CFA or approximately $US85 million. PNGT 2 Phase 3 targets establishment of decentralized land services (SFR) in 150 communes, installation of village land commissions and conflict conciliation commissions, facilitated delivery of rural land certificates (APFR) in the targeted communes and 50 rural land charters (CFR) (MEDD 2015; Le Faso.net 2013; PNGT 2015; World Bank 2013).
Political instability (which began in October 2014) has delayed implementation of some aspects of PNGT 2 Phase 3. The AFD has long supported programs and projects in Burkina Faso targeting land tenure security and implementation of the national land policy. In 2014 AFD launched the Project to Support Communes in Land Tenure and Natural Resource Management (PACOF/GRN) in 15 western communes and is providing 8 million euros for its implementation. PACOF/GRN supports implementation of the 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law and has the following specific targets: establishment of decentralized land services (SFR) in 15 communes; installation of 230 village-level land tenure commissions (CFV); development of 15 master zoning plans; completion of 30 rural land tenure charters (CFR); and one hundred productive investments (AFD ND; Kaboré et al 2014).
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has committed $80 million to the Neer Tamba Project, launched in 2014. Neer Tamba targets enhanced resilience of households in villages facing climate disruption. The project may support application of some aspects of the 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law through an awareness-raising program and by facilitating installation of village-level land tenure management committees (CFV) and/or conflict conciliation commissions (CCFV). GOBF is also providing financing for Neer Tamba. Approximately 200,000 households are expected to be impacted during the project (IFAD 2014).
Burkina Faso provides evidence that the diffusion of soil and vegetation restoration techniques as sponsored by International sponsors and local NGOs can have a positive outcome on a wide scale. There is considerable evidence that the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices has played an important role in increasing productivity. Between 1995 and 2006, nine studies measured the impact of the new agricultural practices on yields in the Central Plateau under various conditions, and all recorded positive impacts – ranging from an increase of 40% to more than 100%. Credit is given to serious dissemination efforts made by international NGOs that began in the early 1980s and continue today, though the efforts are now largely supported by local NGOs. Oxfam Great Britain supported an agroforestry project which used a participatory village-level approach to promote the use of stone bunds. Pilot projects supported by the German Federal Enterprise for International Co-operation (GIZ), the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) and others validated the bunds and zaï techniques as the most attractive options for farmers. A project funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development helped to promote demi-lunes, whose use continues to grow to this day (Lenhardt et al 2014).
Freshwater (Lakes, Rivers, Groundwater)
RESOURCE QUANTITY, QUALITY, USE AND DISTRIBUTION
The three major river systems in Burkina Faso are tributaries of the Volta River, specifically the Black, White and Red Volta Rivers. The Volta River system drains approximately two-thirds of the country. Burkina Faso benefits from two other international river systems: the Niger River, draining 30 percent of the country’s land area in the east and north, and the Comoé River, draining 7 percent of the country’s surface area on the southwest border with Côte d’Ivoire. Total exploitable surface water resources were estimated to be 4,750 km3 per year, or 280 m3 per year per capita in 2013. In 2014 groundwater resources were estimated to be 9,500 km3 per year (FAO AQUASTAT; Andreino 2002; UC Davis 2015).
Surface water availability and quality is increasingly in demand due to mining activities, for urban and industrial uses and agricultural development. In 2005 about 51.5 percent of water was used for agriculture, 46 percent went to municipalities and less than 3 percent was used by industry. Although more recent statistics are not available it is likely that these relative proportions have shifted given the huge increase in gold mining over the past decade. Eventually demand for water from the mining industry could threaten the quality of the existing water supply, potentially rendering it unsuitable for agriculture. (FAO AQUASTAT; GWP 2015).
The proportion of the national population using an improved water source is 97 percent in urban zones and 76 percent in rural areas. Overall 82 percent of the population has access to water through improved facilities. Tube wells are common in rural areas but only 25 percent of rural populations have access to clean water.9 Pollution is becoming more common through excessive use of agrochemicals. Arsenic occurs naturally in rock formations in northern Burkina Faso and poses a contamination threat. Twenty percent of rural populations and 50 percent of urban populations have access to improved sanitation facilities (World Bank 2014/2015; Newborn and Tucker 2015; UC-Davis 2015; Savadogo et al 2013).
Water legislation in Burkina Faso builds on the water policy framework which consists of the National Water Policy adopted in 1998, the National Public Hygiene Policy adopted in 2004; the National Environmental Policy adopted in 2007; and the National Sanitation Policy adopted in 2007. Together these policies define the orientation, objectives and judicial instruments for development of the water sector. These national policies adopt an approach to water management based on natural water catchments. Integrated management of water resources at the level of water basins is intended to ensure efficiency and to mitigate the risk of water catastrophes. This integrated water management approach, or GIRE, was encoded into the framework legislation governing the water sector with adoption of the Water Management Policy Act of 2001 (Law 002-2001/AN) (Zoungrana 2011; GOBF 2001; GOBF 2009).
The 2001 Act mandates the principles of integrated water resources management as the law of the land. The GIRE approach, built on decentralized management, was further reinforced with adoption in 2004 of the General Charter of Territorial Collectives (CGCT) which dictated that water supply service in rural areas would become the responsibility of local communities. An action plan for implementation of IWRM (Decree 220, PAGIRE) was adopted in 2003. The action plan laid out the decentralization of the Water Supply and Sanitation sector over the next six years, and subsequently for a second phase that was implemented beginning 2010 and through 2015. An increasing imbalance between supply and demand of water since adoption of the first phase action plan is recognized in subsequent water sector planning. For example, the Phase 2 PAGIRE struck an increasingly urgent tone stating that uneven sharing of water resources along with weak knowledge of water management are contributing to high levels of water stress in the country (GOBF (PNSR) 2011; Sidwaya 2015).
GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
The ministries responsible for water resources, hydraulic works and sanitation have undergone frequent reorganizations in recent years. Under the transition government put into place following the departure of Burkina Faso’s president in October 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulic (irrigation) Development (MAAH) and the Ministry of Water, Hydraulic Works and Sanitation (MEAHA) were fused into a single Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources, Sanitation and Food Security (MARHASA). More recently, under the government elected in December 2015, the ministries were decoupled and once again stand as separate ministries: the Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulic Development (MAAH) and the Ministry of Water and Sanitation (MEA). Of the technical units that operated under MARHASA, MEA retains the General Directorate for Water Resources (DGRE), the General Directorate for Sanitation, Waste Water and Disposal, and control over the state-owned company, the National Office for Water and Sanitation (ONEA). MEA maintains Regional Directorates for Water and Sanitation in each of the 13 administrative regions of the country. At the commune level, decentralized management units (AEP) are responsible for the functioning and maintenance of drinking water supply facilities (Zoungrana 2011; Tiemtore 2015; Eauburkina 2016; ONF 2016).
MAAH water responsibilities center on irrigation. MAAH includes a General Directorate for Development of Irrigation (DGADI). It houses the Permanent Secretariat for the Integrated Water Resources Action Plan (SP-PAGIRE). Without status as a directorate but nevertheless under the control of MAAH, the Authority for Development of the Sourou Valley (AMVS) is in charge of the irrigation structures within the Sourou Valley. MAAH is the lead ministry for development of water infrastructure for production purposes and shares responsibilities for specific areas of rural development with ministries such as those responsible for animal resources, the environment and fishery resources. These ministries also may design and implement water and land development projects and programs. MAAH and its partner ministries working in the rural sector maintain branch offices at the regional level, and sometimes at the commune level (Cotula 2006; Tiemtore 2015).
The 2001 Water Management Act maintains the long-standing principle that water is public property held by the central government and therefore under the control of the central government. Permits are generally required to withdraw water, with exceptions if water is used for domestic purposes. The state reserves the right to expropriate existing resource rights, including water, and to reallocate rights over improved resources (such as irrigation schemes on land). Small-scale farmers can apply for plots of irrigated land as can agribusinesses, on the condition that they pay water fees and put the land to productive use. The instrument for securing tenure rights is a long-term lease, which lasts between 25 and 99 years. Irrigation perimeters developed through public sponsorship must be registered as the property of the state with a formal land title (GOBF 2001; Garané 2007; GOBF 2009; GOBF 2012; Cotula 2006).
In practice, these requirements have rarely been applied. Historically there has been little demand on the part of rural populations to buy in to the formal land tenure system defined for irrigation perimeters. People prefer to operate under informal, customary rules. Nor has the central government had the capacity to implement the formal land tenure system in irrigation perimeters, which is designed to be realized through land titles held by the State and long-term leases held by producers. An exception is the MCC-sponsored 2,240 ha irrigation perimeter in the Sourou Valley at Di, at which Project Affected Persons (PAPs) were allocated parcels and received full land titles (a project-negotiated exception to existing legislation) and non-PAPs received long-term leases, preceded by acquisition by the government of full land titles to the perimeters (MEDD 2015; MCC 2014a; MCC 2014b; Ouédraogo 2014).
GOVERNMENT REFORMS, INTERVENTIONS AND INVESTMENTS
The 2001 Water Management Policy Act and associated national strategies target a transition to decentralized management of water resources through local public-private agencies representing the full range of local stakeholders, and the 2003 Action Plan for Integrated Management of Water Resources serves as a blue print for implementation of the new policies. In December 2006, the GOBF launched the National Program for Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation (PN-AEPA) targeting achievement of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to halve the number of persons without access to potable water by 2015. The PN-AEPA is founded on the 2011 SCADD (Phase 2), the 2001 Water Management Act, and the 2003 PANGIRE. To achieve its goal Burkina Faso would have had to achieve access rates to potable water of 87 percent in urban areas and 76 percent in rural areas. While the program achieved its target in urban areas of 87 percent access to water, its result as of December 31, 2014 in rural areas was 64.1 percent, significantly short of its target of 76 percent in rural areas by that date (Tall 2012; Eauburkina 2016; Sidwaya 2015b).
In the agricultural sector GOBF is focused on increasing agricultural production by expanding irrigation. The Accelerated Growth Strategy for Sustainable Development (SCADD) aimed to increase irrigated production by 50 percent over the period 2011-2015. The SCADD target was consistent with the National Strategy for Sustainable Development of irrigated agriculture (SNDDAI) that was developed in 2003 to increase irrigated agricultural production and increase farmers’ income, including an action plan that targeted the development of 5,000 ha of lowlands and 55,000 ha of irrigated areas by 2015. While available information suggests that these targets were not fully reached within the specified period, substantial progress was achieved with support from MCC, The World Bank and other donors. In 2016 the GOBF continued to focus on development of irrigation perimeters: in March 2016, the Prime Minister announced a target for 2016-2017 of 20,000 total newly irrigated hectares, to include 12,000 lowland hectares, 5,000 additional hectares of small-scale irrigation, 2,500 hectares of large-scale irrigation and 500 hectares of existing perimeters that were to be rehabilitated (Tiemtore 2015; GOBF 2011a; GWP 2015; Lefaso 2016; GOBF 2016b).
The SNDDAI adopts an approach based on integrated development of “growth poles.” The growth pole approach is designed to increased economic activity in the Project Area, resulting in an increase in private investment, employment generation, and agricultural production. The government has invested heavily in implementation of this approach around the Samendéni dam in Ouest province and the Bagré Growth Pole project in the Center East region of Burkina Faso. The Bagré Growth Pole, which was launched in 2012 with the objective of creating an area of integrated development, mixing agricultural production, fish farming, processing industries, tourism and trade and financial services in a 50,000 hectare-wide area may face challenges completing activities due to funding issues. (Tiemtore 2015; GOBF 2011; GWP 2015; World Bank 2011).
DONOR INTERVENTIONS AND INVESTMENTS
USAID is funding the $24 million West Africa Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Program (WA- WASH) in Northern Ghana, Burkina Faso and Niger during the period 2011-2017. WA-WASH introduces innovative and low-cost water and sanitation technologies, and promotes appropriate hygienic behaviors at the community level. The program is developing practical models of sustainable WASH service delivery and will increase the capacity of national and regional institutions to replicate these approaches and models throughout the region. WA-WASH is partnering with the African Water Association to serve as a knowledge dissemination platform (USAID 2016).
The Millennium Challenge Corporation’s 5-year $481 million Compact with Burkina Faso, implemented 2009-2014, included a $142 million Agriculture Development Project (ADP). The ADP aimed to expand the productive use of land in order to increase the volume and value of agricultural production in project zones and included three activities: water management and irrigation; diversified agriculture and access to rural finance. By the end of the Compact the project had increased land under irrigation by 2,240 hectares through infrastructure and water management improvements in the Sourou Valley, specifically through the construction of the Di Irrigation Perimeter. In addition, the project advanced implementation of Burkina Faso’s 2003 PAGIRE, which defines a decentralized water management institutional framework composed of Water Management Committees at the level of major water basins and Local Water Committees (CLE) at the local level, by establishing two Basin Water Resources Development and Management Master Plans (SDAGE), and twelve Water User Associations with a total of 207 trained members (MCC 2014a; MCC 2014b).
More than $240 million had been mobilized through a variety of development partners for development of the irrigation sector over the decade leading up to 2013. Partners include The World Bank (sponsor of the Support Program for Agro-Silvo-Pastoral Value Chains, or PAFASP, and a principal sponsor of the Bagré Growth Pole), IFAD, (sponsor of Irrigation and Small-Scale Water Management Project, PIGEPE), AfDB (sponsor of the Community-Investment in Agricultural Fertility Project, PICOFA), and AfDB (sponsor of the Project to Intensify Agricultural by Management of Water, PIAME). Taiwan has pledged to finance development of 6,000 hectares of irrigated land over a period of five years (Tiemtore 2015; FAO 2013; MEDD 2012; GOBF 2016b).
The 2012 G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (NASAN) in Burkina Faso seeks to improve food and nutritional security by helping 1.6 million people emerge from poverty by 2022, in part through a partnership with six international companies and ten Burkina Faso companies, in cooperation with the government and with international donors. However, NASAN has been criticized in the Burkinabè press and by some international donors and NGOs as overly friendly to business interests to the detriment of small and family farms, and as a repackaging of activities already underway, leading to little new investment. The Bagré Growth Pole is a core element of the New Alliance, which also aims to support the Rural Sector National Programme (PNSR). Another growth pole is being developed through the Integrated Development Program for the Samendéni Dam (Ouest Province) at a total cost of more than 181 billion FCFA, which targets 21,000 hectares of newly irrigated land and development of fisheries among other objectives (GWP 2015; OXFAM 2014; Sidwaya 2015c; FAO 2013).
Trees and Forests
RESOURCE QUANTITY, QUALITY, USE AND DISTRIBUTION
In 2013, 5,469,600 hectares, comprising about 20 percent of Burkina Faso’s surface area, were classified as forest area. None of the forest is classified as primary, while 98 percent is considered “naturally regenerated,” and the remaining 2 percent planted forest (World Bank 2014/2015; Mongabay 2010).
Forests are disappearing at a rate of 1 percent to 1.5 percent per year. Drivers of deforestation include: agricultural expansion, overgrazing, bush fires, increasing demand for fuel-wood and charcoal, over- harvesting of non-timber forest products and mining. Poor governance is also seen as an important cause of deforestation and poses risks to implementation of program solutions such as the Forest Investment Plan sponsored by the World Bank (Mongabay 2010; MEDD 2012).
The primary form of renewable energy in Burkina Faso is wood, which meets 85 percent of household energy demand. This situation is not expected to change substantially in coming decades. While the potential sustainable wood production under current practices is 9.2 million cubic meters, households consume 7.945 cubic meters and businesses consume an additional 1.728 million cubic meters, thus posing a risk to sustainability and quality of woodlands. Although the cumulative area of managed forests is officially 880,000 ha, most of the wood production comes from unmanaged forests, where communities are not organized but where the Forest Service exerts partial control by issuing wood harvesting permits. The permits are not generally linked to assessments of regenerative capacity, which explains why the system has been referred to as “unorganized but authorized.” There also exists a category of logging that is both “unorganized and unauthorized,” referring to a lack of linkage between harvesting activities and regenerative capacity coupled with wood harvesters who choose not to obtain a harvesting permit (CIFOR 2015).
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are also an important component of the rural economy, especially for women, who are often engaged in harvesting, processing and, increasingly, commercializing products such as shea nuts, forest honey and baobab leaves. Shea butter in particular has become an important revenue generator and export, earning $20 million in annual exports but with the potential to earn much more if policies, organization and incentive structures are improved (Paulson et al 2012; MEDD 2012).
The first forest code for French West Africa, including the area now known as Burkina Faso, was adopted by the colonial government in 1935. The 1935 decree established the State as owner of all forests and of all natural forest products. The legislation gave the State the power to control commercial use of forest resources by requiring that all actors engaging in harvesting, transport or trade of forest products obtain the appropriate permit. Indigenous populations were allowed to exploit forest resources for domestic, non-commercial use without permits (MEDD 2012). The assumption by the state of exclusive property and management rights to forest resources continued well into the era of national independence in the RAF of 1984, which extended government property and management rights over resources to the realms of land and other natural resources. This proclivity for concentrating property and management rights over natural resources in the hands of the state has been moderated through successive revisions to the RAF (especially the revised RAF of 2012), and reinforced by decentralization legislation and the forest codes of 1997 and 2011 (MEDD 2012; GOBF 2004; GOBF 2012).
The Constitution of Burkina Faso (revised in 2012) states that the country’s natural wealth and resources are to be utilized to improve living conditions and also that the protection of the environment is everyone’s duty (arts. 14 and 29). Following the lead of the Constitution, most of the legislation governing the different natural resources sectors such as land, water, pastures, forests, fauna, fisheries and mining, is founded on the dual objectives of development and conservation (GOBF 2012).
The current forest code was adopted in 2011. The fundamental objective of the Code is to both protect and develop forest, water and fish resources. The State is responsible for developing a national forest policy and defining the global objectives of that policy. The national forest policy guarantees concerted and complementary participation on the part of all stakeholders (GOBF 2011). The 2011 Forest Code fits within the National Program for the Rural Sector (PNSR), which provides a framework for development objectives in rural areas to strengthen coherence and coordination among sectoral interventions in rural development. The 2011 Forest Code, complemented by the 2004 decentralization law and the 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law, is viewed as a step forward in the ongoing process toward decentralized governance of land and natural resources that encourages local governments and private actors to participate in development and preservation of woodlands (MEDD 2012; World Bank 2014).
A related sector code with significant overlap to the forest code is the Orientation Law for Pastoralism in Burkina Faso (Loi n° 034-2002/AN portant Loi d’orientation Relative au Pastoralisme au Burkina Faso du 14 novembre 2002) adopted in 2002. The Pastoral Orientation Law promotes the development of the livestock sector in a balance with the sustainable management of natural resources. The law obligates national and local governments to ensure access rights to pastoral zones to herders. It specifies that all categories of natural resource users are to equitably share natural resources. Herders have an automatic use right to pasture their animals in the areas within the forest domain that take the form of pasture.
Burkina Faso adopted an Environmental Code (Loi 006-2013/AN du 02 avril 2013 portant Code de l’environnement au Burkina Faso) in 2013 that defines the principles for environmental preservation. The Code directs public authorities to oversee: sustainable management of natural resources, improved living conditions of all living beings; prevention or management of technological risks and natural disasters, and restoration of the environment.
Forest, fauna and fish resources are integral to the national patrimony and subject to the national forest policy established by the State. All zones with a predominantly forest character (vocation forestière) are subject to the central government’s forestry regime, as are classified as restoration perimeters, reforestation perimeters, agroforestry parks and trees outside of forests (GOBF 2011). The national forest domain is divided into public and private forest domains. Public forests are either classified (subject to a specific legal document establishing the classified zone) or protected (without a classifying document), and both classified and non-classified forests may be placed under the management authority of either the State or of local collectives (GOBF 2011). Private ownership of forests is permitted, by either people or corporations who have legally acquired forested areas or planted the trees. Private holders of property rights to forests are required to hold a legally valid title. The State, as well as local collectives, can delegate the management of forest resources to third parties, based on a management plan and a contract of concession with terms of reference. The terms of reference must include a strategy to reconstitute exploited resources (GOBF 2011; MEDD 2012).
However, forest authorities lack human, material, and financial resources to effectively implement forest policy and legislation. This is true at both the national and local levels. Private investment in forestry has not yet materialized on a large scale – in spite of favorable legislative provisions, as of 2015 there were no natural private forests in Burkina Faso. Arbitrary enforcement of restrictions of use of forest resources has both strained relationships between local populations and the forest service and weakened customary forest management and tenure systems. Lack of forest and land tenure security has been cited as a contributing factor to deforestation and forest degradation, and the public-private/local- national networks of cooperation foreseen in current forest policy and legislation may be challenging to achieve (CIFOR 2015; Paulson et al 2012; MEDD 2012).
While most wood production is managed by Forest Management Groups (GGFs – authorized under Law 014/99/AN and decree 2004-040), women are usually not members of the GGFs. Yet women – similarly to men – have become increasingly dependent on diversified income generation given erratic rainfall patterns and unreliable income from agricultural activities and so having access to forests is important for their livelihoods. Women tend to favor exploitation of NTFPs rather than wood products. While women often have limited rights to access to land and forest resources (due to traditional land inheritance practices) they are, nonetheless, often the main collectors and producers of NTPFs, so within the household NTFPs can provide women with control over a key source of income. Notably, female access to NTFPs also varies with the resource (World Bank 2014; MEDD 2012).
GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
The State Forestry Services (known as the, General Direction of Water and Forests or DGEF), a unit within the Ministry of the Environment, Green Economy and Climate Change (MEEVCC10), is responsible for preservation of forest resources included in the national patrimony. MEEVCC is also responsible for coordinating the different national and local public agencies and private actors engaged in sustainable development. Local governments are responsible for translating the national sustainable development objectives into local objectives and operational tools such as local development plans (GOBF 2013).
GOVERNMENT REFORMS, INTERVENTIONS AND INVESTMENTS
The forestry and rural sectors have long been prominent components of Burkina Faso’s global development programs. In 2011 Burkina Faso replaced its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (in effect from 2000 through 2010) with its Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Sustainable Development (SCADD), scheduled for implementation during the period 2011-2015. Among the guiding principles of SCADD are national ownership of the development agenda and setting of priorities, and sustainable development. Environmental sustainability is cited in the SCADD as one of its eight objectives. A review of SCADD in April 26, 2016 during a conference of Burkina Faso’s development partners, the private sector, civil society and local governments determined that targeted results fell significantly short of targets, but attributed much of the shortfall to the social and political turbulence that has dominated the country in recent years. In January 2016, the government decided to develop a 2016-2020 National Economic and Social Development Plan (PNDES), which was scheduled for adoption May 2016 as a replacement for the SCADD. The PNDES will thus become the reference framework for interventions by various national and international partners, an instrument for political dialogue with technical and financial partners (TFPs), and a medium for mobilizing resources to finance development. (IMF 2012; Lefaso.net 2016; GOBF 2016c).
A more sector-specific follow-up to SCADD targeting rural sector development is the National Program for the Rural Sector (PNSR), adopted in 2010, that provides a framework for development objectives in rural areas to strengthen coherence and coordination among sectoral interventions. The PNSR specifically seeks to integrate livestock management, agriculture development and environment policies into a multisector programmatic approach to development. The PNSR is now the coordinating framework for programming and implementing the interventions in rural areas in Burkina Faso and provides a clear institutional framework for the proposed interventions under this grant (World Bank 2014).
In 2013 a National Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development (CONEDD) was established and placed under the tutelage of the MEEVCC (named MEDD at that time) to coordinate development and implementation of national, global and sector strategies for the environment and sustainable development. CONEDD has broad membership including the office of the Prime Minister (the titular president of the Council), several technical ministries in addition to MEEVCC, local elected officials and representatives of the private sector, civil society organizations, religious or customary authorities, producer groups and other resource persons as deemed appropriate (Décret No 2013- 151/PRES/PM/MEDD du 21 mars 2013 portant attributions, organization et fonctionnement du Conseil National pour l’Environnement et le Développement Durable – CONEDD).
DONOR INTERVENTIONS AND INVESTMENTS
The relatively low level of donor support for forestry programs in recent years in Burkina Faso began to change following establishment of the World Bank’s Forest Investment Program (FIP) in 2009. FIP provides an opportunity to capitalize on Burkina Faso’s growing commitment to decentralized decision- making, including in relation to decentralized forest management. In Burkina Faso, AfDB and the World Bank are sponsoring complementary programs under the FIP framework, one aiming to conserve and rehabilitate specific forests, and the other targeting creation of income generating opportunities for nearby village dependent peoples so that they do not seek out forests elsewhere to sustain their livelihoods (UNEP 2014; CIF 2014).
Another global initiative toward greener economies is contributing to integration of Burkina Faso into international programs seeking to reduce carbon emissions: Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD), in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), recently completed a Green Economy Assessment to support government policies with the objectives of achieving sustainable economic development with low dependences and impacts on the environment. Similar to programs financed through FIP, progress toward achieving a Green Economy is said to have the added benefit of contributing to social equity (UNEP 2014; Paulson et al 2012; MEDD 2012).
With support from the World Bank and the African Development Bank, Burkina Faso launched its strategy for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in 2010 and the Readiness Preparation Plan for REDD+ was completed in 2012. Burkina Faso had also developed a 10- year investment plan for the environment, forestry, and climate adaptation and mitigation that was approved by a sub-committee of FIP in 2011. The investment plan will be implemented through two projects: the Decentralized Management of Forests and Wooded Areas Project (PGDFEB) financed through the World Bank, and the Participatory Management of Classified Forests Project (PGPFC) financed through AfDB. Total financing for the two projects is approximately $30 million. The projects, scheduled for implementation during the period 2014-2018, will promote an adaptation-based mitigation path that would both reduce poverty and limit deforestation and the degradation of forests and woodlands, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A third project, the Project to Support Forest- Dependent Populations (PAPF) was being prepared in 2015. PAPF seeks to reinforce participation of local populations in REDD+ activities (UNEPS 2014; AfDB 2013; MEDD 2012; AGRA 2014; MEDD 2015; CIFOR 2015).
The USAID sponsored Resilience and Economic Growth in the Sahel – Enhanced Resilience project (REGIS-ER), with an implementation timeframe of November 2013 – November 2018, includes a Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) component that began achieving results in 2014-2015. FMNR has been shown to increase tree populations and access to resources such as forage and tree products rural zones, generate revenues through sales of secondary tree products, and enhance the volume of organic matter in the soil. The component began achieving results in 2014-2015 by training 4,594 producers in combined Conservation Forestry-FMNR techniques, applied to a total surface area of 2,286 ha. In addition, technical agents and animators in select zones of the country were trained in FMNR, and learning visits to producers’ fields were organized, to further promote adoption of tree- enhancing techniques throughout project intervention villages (USAID 2015).
The third phase of the second National Village Development Program (PNGT 2) was launched in 2014 and is scheduled to be completed in 2018; it is financed by the World Bank, the Global Environmental Facility and the GOBF. Phase 3 of PNGT 2 targets reinforcement of the capacity of decentralized governments and local actors to implement local development plans supporting the sustainable development of natural resources. The PNGT 2 is the centerpiece program and umbrella for internationally sponsored support for implementation of the PNSR. Of the 46.7 million francs CFA committed by the World Bank for PNGT 2, Phase 3, 11,7 billion francs CFA are earmarked for management of forests and natural resources (MEDD 2015; Lefaso 2013; Lefaso 2014; Sidwaya 2015).
The NGO Tree Aid has been working in Burkina Faso since 1994 and maintains a regional office in Ouagadougou. Tree Aid recently contributed to a FAO-sponsored case study of smallholder households’ consumption of non-timber forest products (NFTPs), which details the important contribution of NFTPs to household nutrition (FAO 2015). In addition to forest research, Tree Aid has conducted related projects in Burkina Faso. Trees for Change Burkina has been working to facilitate the transfer of access and control rights over forest resources from centralized authorities to local governments and user groups by helping local populations to develop resource use conventions and community forest management plans. Forest Connect Burkina (2007-2011), with initial funding from DFID and follow-up funding (beginning in 2012) from SIDA, focuses on awareness-raising regarding NFTPs. In 2011 Tree Aid hosted the Forest Dialogue on Locally Controlled Forestry in Burkina Faso (Tree Aid 2011; Bonkoungou 2011).
RESOURCE QUANTITY, QUALITY, USE AND DISTRIBUTION
Mineral commodities produced in Burkina Faso include gold, cement, lead, manganese, silver and zinc. Other industrial minerals produced in the country are dolomite, granite, marble, phosphate rock, salt, sand and gravel. However, because the value and economic importance of gold is far and away the most important of the minerals mined in the country. Gold dominates the mining sector and in 2009 it surpassed cotton as Burkina Faso’s leading export. Gold accounted for 71 percent of the country’s total exports by value in 2013 and nearly 16 percent of Government revenues. Gold is produced at 7 industrial mining sites and at artisanal mining sites, which are scattered throughout rural areas and may cover broad swaths of land. The importance of gold to the Burkinabé economy is relatively recent: production rose from 11,581 kilograms in 2009 to 32,714 kilograms in 2013, and during the period 2007 to 2010 increased nearly 15-fold. This is in spite of the fact that artisanal production of gold is probably under-reported (Bermúdez-Lugo 2013; Tetra Tech 2014a; MEDD 2015).
The GOBF adopted a new Mining Code on June 26, 2015 (Law no. 036-2015/CNT). Key regulatory legislation that remains in effect and, with the new Mining Code, constitute the framework for legislative regulation of the mining sector are: Decree no. 2005-047/PRES/PM/MCE adopted February 3, 2005 regulating issuance and conditions for mining permits; and Decree no. 2005-049/PRES/PM/MCE also adopted February 3, 2005 to regulate mining conventions and prospecting and operating licenses (ALB 2015). The new Mining Code seeks to correct a perceived bias of the previous Mining Code (adopted in 2003) toward investors to the detriment of the GOBF and local communities. The new code amends the tax regime of the mining sector in general to collect more revenue to both increase public revenue as a whole and to fund local social development programs. Thus, a previous tax advantage granted to mining firms was abolished and replaced by a new tax of one percent of monthly turnover. In addition, mining activity profits are subject to income tax under the regular taxation regime. Twenty percent of government revenues from the mining industry are to be deposited in regional development funds. After a campaign by civil society, the GOBF passed a law in June, 2015 that requires that 1 percent of mining revenues must be allocated to local development efforts for mining-impacted communities (Oxfam 2015). Additional provisions of the new Mining Code require mining firms to consult with local populations and to include them in negotiations before engaging in exploratory activities, and to establish funds that will be used to rehabilitate the mining sites following closure of the mine (Zeldin 2015; Winkler and Straumann 2016; GOBF 2015).
Parties interested in large-scale mining are required to obtain an exploration permit to conduct exploration, and an exploitation permit to conduct mining. Holders of mining permits must consult with local populations prior to large-scale operations and contribute to regional development funds. The newly-adopted mining code requires the consent of a community in cases where there is a well on the land, a cemetery or a holy place (GOBF 2015; Roesch 2016).
Artisanal mining, defined as “manual and traditional” and without use of heavy equipment using mechanical energy, is also subject to formal authorization. Permits are valid for two years and renewable in increments of two years. The holder of an artisanal permit is required to physically delimit the mining site with markers and this survey work needs to be conducted by a licensed surveyor. Artisanal miners must not extend their mines into agricultural areas without the permission of the land-holding farmer, and must not interfere with existing irrigation systems. Dangerous chemicals, specifically mercury, are prohibited from use in artisanal mining operations. Artisanal permits are heritable in case of death or incapacitation (GOBF 2015).
In spite of legislative safeguards, the mining industry has had negative impacts on Burkina Faso’s environment and natural resources. According to one study, the costs of environmental damage (water, soil, inefficiencies) from the gold industry alone could be in the region of 0.28 percent of the country’s national GDP (UNEP 2014).
The rapid expansion of gold production is having a significant impact on rural populations. Industrial- scale mining requires large land surface areas that usually were previously used for agriculture or pastures. The largest industrial gold mine in Burkina Faso, the Essakane mine located in the north of Burkina Faso near the border with Mali, covers 100 square kilometers and displaced 2,500 families, or more than 11,000 individuals. This displacement generated numerous conflicts and the Essakane mine is only one of at least 7 large-scale mining operations in Burkina Faso. Approximately 6,820 Burkinabé were employed in the entire industrial mining sector in 2012 (Winkler and Straumann 2016).
Artisanal gold mining also increasingly adds to the conversion of agricultural and pasture lands to mines, and to resulting land conflicts. In the dry season, which is the off-season for agricultural activities, some villages in Burkina Faso are seeing as much as 60 percent of their population leave to engage in artisanal gold mining. Estimates of the number of Burkinabé now working in the artisanal mining sector for part of the year range from 600,000 to approximately 1,000,000, yet only about 200 artisanal permits were delivered in 2013. Between 30 and 50 percent of those working in artisanal gold mining are estimated to be children (Winkler and Straumann 2016; Tetra Tech 2014b).
GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
The Ministry of Mines, Energy and Quarries (MMCE) includes the General Directorate of Mines, Geology and Quarries (DGMGC), which is responsible for development and application of mining policy. The DGMGC is composed of four directorates which include: Geology and the Mining Cadaster; Mines; Quarries; and Small-Scale Mining Operations.
The MMCE periodically organizes workshops called “PROMIN” under the theme “Mining and Community Development.” PROMIN is a framework for discussion between mining professionals, investors and policymakers (MMCE 2016).
GOVERNMENT REFORMS, INTERVENTIONS AND INVESTMENTS
The government’s policy and legislative reform associated with the new Mining Code adopted in 2015 is discussed above. This legislative reform is complemented by other GOBF initiatives that contribute to increased transparency in the mining sector. For example, in 2014 Burkina Faso became a member country both of the Kimberley Process and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The Kimberley Process is a multi-sectoral initiative of governments, industry and civil society to stem the flow of conflict diamonds through a certification and verification system of diamond markets. EITI is a global Standard to promote open and accountable management of natural resources (Moore Stephens LLP 2016).
DONOR INTERVENTIONS AND INVESTMENTS
Neither USAID nor the MCC currently program around mining issues in Burkina Faso.
The World Bank has been providing support to Burkina Faso targeting improved mining sector governance since 1997. More recently, in 2012 the World Bank approved an International Development Association (IDA) grant of $90 million targeting, in addition to increased cotton exports and domestic food reserves, an increase in mining revenues from 1.8 percent of GDP in 2011 to 3 percent of GDP. The initiative’s adopted approach to increasing mining revenues is to provide a framework for greater transparency in the mining sector (World Bank 2005; McMahon 2010; World Bank 2012b).
Also in 2012 the World Bank launched the $33 million Mineral Support Development Project for which the revised closing date is September 30, 2016. The project objective is to strengthen the capacity of key institutions of Burkina Faso to manage the industrial mineral sector. A midterm report gave a rating of “moderately satisfactory” regarding progress toward achieving project objectives, but an overall rating of “moderately unsatisfactory” with respect to project implementation (World Bank 2012a).
At the beginning of 2017 Burkina Faso appears potentially to be in a position to achieve significant progress in implementing rural and urban land tenure policies that have been decades in the making and are now encoded in land laws. The national government (executive and legislative branches) voted into office in November 2015, and the more recently elected Mayors (elections held in May 2016) in each of the country’s 351 rural and urban communes, have now had some time to settle into their duties and assume their responsibilities. Following several turbulent years culminating in the toppling of the former president in October 2014, the country may be embarking on a period of relative political and social stability . ).
The 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law and the 2012 revision to the global land tenure legislative framework (RAF) embody bold reforms such as recognition of customary land tenure, encouragement of women’s land property rights, and introduction of new tools to secure both individual and collective land rights. Introduction of new concepts and tools requires considerable institutional capacity, the building of which poses a significant challenge in a context of limited resources coupled with political instability that can distract or discourage both national actors and international partners. At this time Burkina Faso needs to focus simultaneously on adjusting and equipping land governance agencies to fully assume their roles under current land tenure policies, expand decentralized land governance institutions, implement new land titling tools and procedures, and monitoring and evaluating land governance on an ongoing basis to protect against unintended consequences and make adjustments as needed. In order to effectively face these challenges GOBF will to a significant extent rely on development partners. Fortunately (and again, assuming a continuing and acceptable level of political and social stability), several international donors appear willing to partner with Burkina Faso in support of increasing implementation of current land laws, as well as in the crucial domains of water, forest, and mineral resources management.11
The bottom line is that Burkina Faso has over the past decade made some bold and pioneering policy choices favorable to land tenure security and responsible natural resource management. The overriding challenge at this time is to implement the policies. Successful implementation is clearly in the interest of furthering the country’s economic development. But just as importantly, successful land governance will accomplish the goal of avoiding or managing the sorts of land conflicts, exacerbated by populations growth, mobile populations and resource degradation, that have increasingly threatened the country, and that have so disastrously unfolded in a growing number of neighboring West and Central African countries. If successful in its implementation of the new policies, Burkina Faso will be well placed to serve as a model in the region for inclusive, transparent and participatory land governance. | <urn:uuid:11f80f04-978a-4280-839e-05b6e89283e9> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://www.land-links.org/country-profile/burkina-faso/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232257605.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20190524104501-20190524130501-00467.warc.gz | en | 0.931019 | 24,943 | 3.25 | 3 |
Washington, August 18 (ANI): Vaccination for the prevention of H1N1 influenza virus should be given top priority just in case disease patterns in the northern hemisphere follow those in the southern hemisphere, says an editorial.
Written by Paul Hebert, the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), the editorial points out that Canada and many other Western countries lack experience in mass immunization campaigns.
The author suggests that scientists start planning how to overcome these problems.
In Canada, leadership is needed to ensure access to vaccines and to the expertise and equipment to help deal with this pandemic.
The write-up even stresses the need for a national champion who has proper powers across all jurisdictions, and accountability to the highest office in the country.
It further says that there is a need for local leaders, and other champions who will collaborate and cooperate to ensure rapid response.
"In countries such as Canada that have shared responsibilities between many levels of government, collaboration and clear communication are essential as a first line of defence. To see that this happens, governments need to have or enact laws to provide the necessary power to ensure rapid action on complex issues," write Dr. Hébert and the CMAJ editorial writing team.
If disease patterns in the northern hemisphere follow those in the southern hemisphere, Europe and North America will most likely experience a second wave of H1N1 cases this fall and our resources could be overwhelmed.
In most areas, planning has not yet included how to secure experienced health care professionals to deliver technologies to help patients survive.
"This is not a time for complacency. The health czar and other national leaders should immediately convene a summit to link public health officials, the critical care community, first responders, and other health care providers, decision-makers, community planners and the public, to communicate next steps and to ensure that actions taken by leaders will work at the ground level," concludes the editorial. (ANI) | <urn:uuid:4bc1135a-7a38-4f51-a603-fd57d3dbdabc> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.oneindia.com/2009/08/18/vaccinationprogrammes-experts-top-priority-to-fight-h1n1p.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279468.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00542-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942917 | 402 | 2.75 | 3 |
This is a post of what rational and irrational are. As we all now a Rational thought is conducted by reason and logic, as an irrational thought is the exact opposite. In this I will give you a scenario that will explain the ideas I am using behind these two words. Aside from their actual definition they are also words that can describe an action or a scenario. Take a town that was built under a cliff next to the ocean, there are people there, there are many different jobs and many different professions that make it into a community. Now you have your town imagine the peaceful serenity of people living in harmony.
Suddenly one day a massive tidal wave emerges from the ocean unexpectedly threatening to destroy the town and the lives of the people; a mass panic arises turning citizen against civil servant mass hysteria. . This is an irrational Scenario so the question is brought to the town officials, how do we save the town? Hmm, this is where the ideas of rational and irrational come into play. The rational thought is we take the people and evacuate the town. Simple effective solution found, however that was not the question. The question is how do we save the town? You cannot answer an irrational question with a rational answer. The argument may come to “The people are the town” That is irrational, a town is made of buildings and community, a community broken by this tragedy. The only answer is irrational; move the town. Yes this is irrational yet it is the answer to the question. Imagine how they would go about moving the town, is it a rational thing that can be done in the time it would take for the tidal wave to reach the city. Take into account that these are people, who have dreams and ambitions and built connections with their accomplishments so simply saving the people won’t do in some cases.
This is another form of irrational thought people making irrational connections to material things and disregarding the importance of their own lives. Granted most of you who are reading this will likely say save the people over the town but the question was “How do you save the town” Put simply you cannot since the ideas in this world are built off of logical happening, in the future maybe it would be possible to save the entire town but as of now the idea is so far-fetched it is never taken into thought. This may have seemed like a long and pointless read but it does have a reason to it as to explain that irrational problems cannot be solved rationally, yet there will always be irrational things in rational ideas.
A rational idea can be played with in the same way take the game of chess for instance there is an irrationality in chess it is known as Zuzwang, it is a German word basically saying every move you make is a bad move from here on out, meaning by extension every move you make is irrational , though there may be rational thought behind the move the fact you have not yet resigned itself is irrational. This is an example of entirely rational ideas being invaded by irrational things.
The point of this post is to illustrate that there are times your mind will jump to irrational conclusions in a rational situation and rational conclusions in an irrational situation. Thank You I am Voolish. Stay tuned for more, if you have ay questions or rebuttals please leave them in the comment section. | <urn:uuid:10355196-c00d-46af-a164-cdc6bdbc5d7e> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://formulaoflife.wordpress.com/2016/12/17/rational-and-irrational/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540510336.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20191208122818-20191208150818-00434.warc.gz | en | 0.978811 | 675 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Sensational abolitionist novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Written in response the the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, it was first published serially from June 1851 to April 1852 in The National Era (D.C.). Within a year of the book's publication in 1852, sales records had been shattered: nearly 300,000 books sold in the U.S. and a staggering 1.5 million in Great Britain.
This edition is based on the first edition two-volume illustrated edition. It includes the original illustrations as well as documents which help readers understand the cultural context in which the novel appeared.
Edited and published by Paul L. Hebert,
The Graduate Center, CUNY | <urn:uuid:246c14e1-e4c9-422c-8950-e2ed81821545> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/projects/uncle-tom | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514572439.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20190915235555-20190916021555-00156.warc.gz | en | 0.969141 | 149 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Scientists were looking for objects on the fringes of the solar system previous year when they pointed their telescopes close to Jupiter's backyard, according to Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington. Unfortunately, they couldn't find the hypothesized planet using the Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American in Chile, but they did manage to unearth a treasure trove of new satellites around our largest planet.
The moonlets mostly follow Jupiter's known patterns: Located far beyond the planet's large primary moons (purple), two of the new moonlets belong to a grouping (blue) that spins in the same direction as the planet, all of which are believed to be the fragments of one large shattered moon. These moons orbit Jupiter in the opposite direction.
Nine of the newly discovered moons have retrograde orbits, meaning that they orbit in the opposite direction of the planet's spin. The irregular satellites didn't form around Jupiter in the same way that the planets formed around the Sun, or the regular satellites around Jupiter, from a flat disc in a prograde orbit.
They're calling one moon an "oddball" because of its unusual orbit.
But what's particularly wild about these newly discovered moons is that researchers weren't even looking for them.
A team of astronomers has been working since spring 2017 to confirm the dozen new outer moons, bringing Jupiter's total number of satellites to 79. In their recent observations, Sheppard's team documented nine of these (along with two prograde, closer-in moons). So a telescope isn't able to capture much more than the moons' orbits. Confirmation came with help from a variety of observatories, including the 6.5-metre Magellan telescope at Carnegie's Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, the 4-metre Discovery Channel Telescope at Lowell Observatory in Arizona, the 2.2-metre University of Hawaii telescope and the 8-metre Subaru and Gemini Telescopes, also in Hawaii.
Vladimir Putin Again Insists He Has No Compromising Information on President Trump
Instead, Trump spoke defensively of his electoral victory and insisted that he won fair and square without Russian help. Angry criticism of his disavowal of his own intelligence agencies came even from within Trump's Republican Party.
Theresa May avoids major Brexit defeat on customs union amendment
LabourList has more readers than ever before - but we need your support. "There is absolutely no way that I'm voting for it". Simon Clarke, a Conservative backbencher, said: "The (Chequers) deal is holed below the waterline".
Iraqi police arresting protesters in the south
A coalition of Communists and a bloc led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr won the most votes on an anti-corruption platform. In response, Abadi traveled from a summit in Brussels to Basra, where he asked the Basra Oil Company to hire more locals.
Sheppard and his colleagues have proposed naming the oddball moon Valetudo, after a minor goddess and great-granddaughter of the Roman god Jupiter.
Because Valetudo's orbit crosses the orbits of some of the outer retrograde moons, it's possible that it suffered a head-on collision in the past. It's out where the outer, retrograde moons are, but it's orbiting Jupiter in the prograde direction, driving into the oncoming traffic. The largest Galilean moon, Ganymede, is bigger than the planet Mercury.
Jupiter's moons are arranged in a specific pattern that the giant planet has worked out over time. "Head-on collisions would quickly break apart and grind the objects down to dust".
Elucidating the complex influences that shaped a moon's orbital history can teach scientists about our Solar System's early years. We already have a classification for dwarf planets.
Over the weeks following full opposition, Jupiter will reach its highest point in the sky four minutes earlier each night, appearing as a bright, star-like object. We're not just talking about one or two stragglers, either. They also include a cluster of moons beyond Callisto, shown in blue in the image above. So hey, why not look for some more moons? So they were likely formed after they had dissipated. | <urn:uuid:72ab8a38-6ad0-4b76-8be1-0f691f1cbd89> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://fishinghd.com/2018/07/18/one-oddball-among-12-newfound-moons-discovered-orbiting.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550249406966.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20190222220601-20190223002601-00432.warc.gz | en | 0.949445 | 874 | 2.765625 | 3 |
A team of MIT researchers led by Alán Aspuru-Guzik developed an artificial intelligence (AI) program that could change the way pharmaceutical research is conducted.
Usually, drug development research relies on simulations that attempt to identify or predict useful molecular structures based on rules written by chemists for pools of candidate molecules. This approach is often limited by human involvement, the accuracy of available simulations, and required processing power.
The new AI is more independent, and does away with tiresome simulations using deep learning. This is applied through a generative model, which takes in a ton of data and uses it to create plausible new data.
“Continuous representations allow us to automatically generate novel chemical structures by performing simple operations in the latent space, such as decoding random vectors, perturbing known chemical structures, or interpolating between molecules,” according to the study.
“It explores more intuitively, using chemical knowledge it learned, like a chemist would,” says Aspuru-Guzik.
The AI’s generative model used was trained on 250,000 drug-like molecules. It’s able to generate plausible new structures using knowledge of properties of existing drug compounds and combining them. It could even suggest which molecules strongly showed certain properties, like solubility and being synthesized with ease.
“I think this could be very broadly applicable,” says Vijay Pande from Stanford, who wasn’t involved in the study. “It could play a role in finding or optimizing lead drug candidates, or other areas like solar cells or catalysts.”
Aspuru-Guzik thinks the AI’s chemical knowledge will improve given more data. It will also increase its power, similar to how generative models improve with databases of millions of photos to perform image recognition.
Nowadays, we hear a lot about how AI will be disruptive, in terms of being misused, robots taking over human jobs, and the hypothetical Singularity. Here’s an actual AI that’s disruptive in a good way: it can help save lives. | <urn:uuid:2f724395-7ea3-43e4-bb84-88c5380e784b> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://futurism.com/robo-pharmacist-this-ai-is-designing-structures-for-futuristic-wonder-drugs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232256778.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20190522083227-20190522105227-00224.warc.gz | en | 0.929929 | 434 | 3.03125 | 3 |
By: The Working Forest Staff
The Architects Newspaper — Oregon — Freres Lumber moved into wood veneers some 60 years ago and in 1998 purchased a plywood plant. Now, its made another step: getting U.S. and Canadian patents on its mass plywood panel (MPP), the first veneer-based mass timber panel in the world, and fire approvals to build up to 18 stories high with the panel.
According to a report in The Architects Newspaper, the mass plywood panel has already been put to the test on a smaller scale—this past year Freres worked with design-build startup BuildHouse to construct an A-frame house with the panel in Snoqualmie, Washington.
The company has also seen its product used in larger projects. Oregon State University’s new Peavy Hall, a forestry science center designed by Michael Green Architecture (a Katerra partner), featured Freres Lumber’s product on the roof, while the nearby A.A. “Red” Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Laboratory shows off the panels on its interior and exterior walls. Both buildings are part of OSU’s forestry complex, which is designed to display an array of new mass timber technologies. Freres also maintains a relationship with the TallWood Design Institute, a partnership between OSU and the University of Oregon, working with the institute to test its products.
The company claims that MPPs have a number of benefits when compared to the cross-laminated timber products that have taken off in recent years—it was a CLT product that collapsed this past summer in the Peavy Hall Project, not Freres’s. Freres noted that MPPs offer better structural support and design flexibility. CLT can only be built out in orthogonal layers and is generally confined to standard lumber dimensions and shapes, whereas MPPs have greater flexibility in form and dimension (the panels and their thin veneer layers can be very small, but they can also scale up to as much as 48 feet long and 1 foot thick), giving designers and builders a greater range to work and experiment with. Prefab plywood panels are also an option, but they can easily be cut by a CNC machine to spec.
See more HERE. | <urn:uuid:5b785c48-e84d-42c7-a8f7-6aa07c5096e5> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.workingforest.com/worlds-first-mass-plywood-panel-approved-for-18-story-buildings/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662527626.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20220519105247-20220519135247-00133.warc.gz | en | 0.959917 | 465 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Ponce de Leon Springs State Park
At Ponce de Leon Springs State Park
In 1513, the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon came to Florida in search of a legendary "Fountain of Youth." He found lots of springs but never quite what he was looking for.
This spring in the northern part of Florida's panhandle occurs at the convergence of two underground water flows, and the output is a steady 14 million gallons of water per day at a steady 68°F year-round.
The springs are surrounded by a lush hardwood forest, and there are two nature trails that wind around the woods allowing an up-close exploration. In season the Park Rangers even offer guided tours where you can learn all about the local flora and fauna. The state park offers picnic shelters with grills for those who are so inclined. Fishing, swimming and snorkeling are also common activities here. Anglers will find largemouth bass, catfish, chain pickerel and panfish in the warm water.
This is a day use only park, and day use hours run from 8 am to sunset, 365 days a year. To get there: the springs are located 1/2 mile south of US Highway 90 on County Road 181A, between Ponce de Leon and Caryville.
Florida State Parks: Ponce de Leon Springs State Park
Upper left photo of Ponce de Leon Springs courtesy of Margret Hildreth
- Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park
- Apalachee Savannahs Scenic Byway
- Apalachicola National Forest
- Bald Point State Park
- Big Bend Scenic Byway
- Bradwell Bay Wilderness
- Camp Helen State Park
- Constitution Convention Museum State Park
- Econfina River State Park
- Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park
- Falling Waters State Park
- Florida Caverns State Park
- Fort Gadsden Historic Site
- John Gorrie Museum State Park
- Lake Jackson Mounds State Park
- Lake Talquin State Forest
- Lake Talquin State Park
- Letchworth-Love Mounds Archaeological State Park
- Mud Swamp-New River Wilderness
- Natural Bridge Battlefield State Park
- Ochlocknee River State Park
- Orman House State Park
- Pine Log State Forest | <urn:uuid:e00f9f59-50f2-4aaa-bc74-03411114abfc> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.thearmchairexplorer.com/florida/ponce-de-leon-springs-state-park.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224646076.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20230530163210-20230530193210-00344.warc.gz | en | 0.875743 | 485 | 2.875 | 3 |
A criminologist has developed a test to measure self-control. The test is normed so that it has a mean of 70 and a standard deviation of 20. The scores are normally distributed in the population of college students used to develop the test.
a. What is the percentile rank of a score of 40?
b What percentage of scores falls between 35 and 90?
c. What is the standard score for a test score of 65?
d. What proportion of students should score above 115?
e. What is the cutoff score below which 87% of all scores fall?
Neat and step-by-step solutions are provided for all the parts of the question. | <urn:uuid:049222fa-b636-4cca-9d8b-8be7c104f766> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://brainmass.com/statistics/normal-distribution/a-test-to-measure-self-control-188984 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280891.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00286-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945567 | 141 | 2.90625 | 3 |
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As long as I have been a Christian, I can remember people arguing and debating about tithing.
Some say it was only an Old Testament Law that doesn’t need to be followed as believers under the New Covenant.
And some say that tithing is just as relevant to New Testament Christians as it was in the Old Covenant.
My goal with this page is to shine a light on the truth about tithing and answer many questions you may have about it.
I tapped into the wisdom of others who have studied this subject out to great depths and hopefully we can better see what we as New Testament Christians need to know about tithing.
Additionally, since this page is nearly the length of a Kindle book, I decided to create an index to help you navigate through.
What is tithing?
Let’s start by looking at a few tithing definitions:
Wikipedia defines the tithe:
“A tithe (/taɪð/; from Old English: teogoþa “tenth”) is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products.”
Google defines tithing like this:
And Webster’s Dictionary defines tithe like this:
“a tenth part of something paid as a voluntary contribution or as a tax especially for the support of a religious establishment”
What the Bible says about tithing
For the sake of brevity, I won’t list them all here, but these are a few of the most popular Bible verses about tithing:
The first mention of tithing in the Bible
“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.”
– Gen 14:18-20 NIV
The most popular Tithing scripture
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.”
– Mal 3:10 NASB
The New Testament scripture on tithing
“But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”
– Luke 11:42 NASB
It is pretty clear from all the Bible verses on money and tithing (let alone the three above), that tithing is a Biblical idea. Now, what it means for us today is a hotly debated topic that we will explore in a bit.
Tithing Isn’t A Means Of Salvation
This is incredibly important to understand. Our salvation is based on Jesus’ finished work on the cross, not on works.
You can’t earn your way to Heaven by giving, and you won’t be excluded from Heaven by your lack of tithing.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
–Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
Out of our Faith, our good works manifest. So, in my opinion, if someone truly understands how great of a gift they have been given, they will expend a lot of energy giving back.
Tithing Verses In The New Testament
There are plenty of verses about tithing in the Old Testament and a lot fewer in the New Testament. So it is true that tithing isn’t talked about nearly as much in the New Testament as the Old Testament.
Personally, I don’t believe that in any way nullifies the value of it as a practice.
Under the New Covenant, our salvation is not based upon our obedience to the 10 Commandments, but does that mean that we shouldn’t still follow them? Are they suddenly of no value? I think the same can be said of tithing.
While you can debate all day long about whether or not it is a command for New Testament believers, I don’t see any reason why it would not still provide a blessing just like it did in the Old Covenant.
Do The New Testament Tithing Scriptures Command It?
Is tithing a new testament principle? In the next section, you can see what Jesus says about tithing, and He clearly does NOT command us to tithe. But, that in no way means that we shouldn’t do it!
As Rev. Bill Miller puts it in his Biblical Financial Newsletter:
“Many believers who don’t want to tithe say that there are no scriptures in the New Testament that tell us we (must) tithe. And I say there weren’t any scriptures for Abram and Jacob either. Why would there be scriptures to repeat for us to do something that God has ALREADY said can be done of one’s FREE WILL in exchange for a blessing?
For those who don’t tithe, what are you doing that is scripturally superior to honor God sufficiently enough to warrant His favor and blessing in return?”
What Did Jesus Say About Tithing?
Blogger FMF brings up a great point about New Testament tithing (Jesus words himself)…
Jesus Endorsed The Tithe
In Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42 Jesus referred to tithing as something that should not be neglected…
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”
So if you have been wondering what Jesus said about tithing or if “tithe” is in the New Testament, you have it right there in Luke 11:42.
Tithing BEFORE the Old Covenant
The concept of tithing was actually around before the old covenant was established.
“The first person to make a TITHE, which means a tenth (ten percent) of one’s INCREASE, was Abram (Genesis 14:20) … Notice please: Abram’s TITHE was not under the LAW which came more than six hundred years later. It wasn’t requested by anybody. It wasn’t suggested by anybody. It wasn’t coerced by anybody. It was purely a VOLUNTARY act of gratitude to HONOR “the Most High God, Possessor of heaven and earth.” Abram simply appreciated God’s FAVOR and gave up something of value in order to HONOR the One who had helped him get the victory.”
– Rev. Bill Miller (source)
Is tithing required for Christians today?
Like mentioned above, tithing is NOT a requirement for salvation, God’s love for you, or even God being pleased with you.
There are many leaders who I greatly respect who would answer this question differently, but I really like how Rev. Bill Miller (source) answers it:
“There is only one time in your Bible where tithing was a REQUIREMENT and that was during the fifteen hundred years before Jesus came while Israel was under the LAW.
Before that, there was a bigger picture of HONORING God with one’s substance. An honoring occurs when something that is of value to the one doing the giving is freely or voluntarily giving to someone as a sacrificial gesture of thanksgiving or appreciation. Is God worthy to be highly esteemed for what He has done and what He still does in our lives that we would specially HONOR Him for it? If it was that way before the LAW, how much more should He be esteemed under the New Covenant where we have been given a BETTER Covenant with all things in Christ (Hebrews 8:6)?
Even during the LAW where a specific form of tithing was REQUIRED, it was only for some of the people. There was never a universal tenth that was REQUIRED from everybody. In addition, even during that time after the tithe was instituted at the beginning of the Israelites’ second year in the wilderness, God PREFERRED freewill offerings. Study all this out for yourself starting in Exodus 35:5.
Friend, giving to God is about HONORING Him for the great things He has done in our lives. It ALWAYS has been that way even under the LAW. We are not REQUIRED to tithe under the New Covenant. But where is the scripture that says we can stop honoring God under the New Covenant?”
Billy Graham on Tithing
It comes as no surprise to me that Billy Graham has a succinct, yet powerful quote about tithing in his life that I believe to be 100% true as well:
“We have found in our own home…that God’s blessing upon the nine-tenths, when we tithe, helps it to go farther than ten-tenths without His blessing.” –Rev. Billy Graham
He Said We Could Test Him
Do we have any better invitation than to actually test it out and see if it really works? Most of us who do tithe were non-tithers at one point and had to step out in faith and overcome our fears to try it.
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
-Malachi 3:10 (NIV)
It really is like all the other areas of our walk with God – it requires FAITH.
Every tither that I can recall talking to has had times where it required lots of FAITH to tithe. And when we are stepping out in faith, that is when we get to see God do the miraculous.
And that my friend is what makes the Christian life so fun. Being a part of the amazing adventure that God leads us on if we obey His voice is one of my favorite things about being a Christian.
No, it doesn’t make sense that when we give all this money away, things will actually be better – but I have found it to be true in my own life and from the countless other tithing testimonies I have heard, clearly, others have as well.
“I Never Would Have Been Able To Tithe The First Million Dollars I Ever Made If I Had Not Tithed My First Salary, Which Was $1.50 Per Week.”
I don’t tithe because the preacher is just trying to get my money
Years ago I worked at a bank as a teller, and I witnessed a local pastor do some things with tithe checks that didn’t quite sit right with me. There was nothing illegal going on (that I knew of any way) and there was no proof that he wasn’t using the money as he should.
But it definitely didn’t look good.
As a young Christian trying to wrap my brain around all this, it was definitely a struggle.
But as I wrestled with that, God showed me that when I give to the church, I am giving to God. Not to man.
So it doesn’t matter if he is stealing from the Church. It doesn’t matter if he is using the funds wisely.
That is between him and God, but my job is to give and give in faith to God.
It is similar to how we are called to work heartily unto the Lord (Col 3:23) regardless of how terrible a boss we have because God is our promoter (Ps 75:6-7) who gets us where we need to be.
God sees our hard work, and he honors that and promotes us at the right time. I believe it is no different with giving to the church. Our job is to give in faith and trust God to take care of the rest.
Are you cursed for NOT tithing?
Here is the verse from which this question arises:
Malachi 3:8-9: “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you.”
As Christians, we have to understand that the Old Testament verses like these have to be viewed in light of Jesus’ work on the cross.
In this case, Galatians 3:13 clearly states that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”
“Christian believers have been specifically REDEEMED from the Curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13)…If we have been redeemed from the curse of the law, then there is no way we can be cursed for not tithing…So under an entirely New Covenant, it seems to me unscriptural to be telling people that if they don’t tithe, they’re going to fall under a curse because the Curse of the Law no longer applies to believers…”
–Rev. Bill Miller (source)
Can You Be Blessed Without Tithing?
The short answer is yes.
Just do a quick search for the word “blessed” over at Blue Letter Bible and see for yourself all the opportunities we have to be blessed by God.
But, just like any other opportunity that we have to be blessed, tithing is no different.
It is just a promise that we have available to us in Malachi 3:10 that God will bless those who tithe.
The bottom line is that there is undoubtedly a blessing that comes to givers.
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
–Luke 6:38 (NIV)
God Loves A Cheerful Giver
The fact is that HOW we give is of utmost importance. As with everything, man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.
If we are giving to impress people, we are wasting our time.
If we are giving because we are being pressured or coerced to give, we are missing it.
2 Corinthians 9:7 (NIV) makes this as clear as day:
“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
What if you aren’t cheerful about your giving?
Over the years of my giving journey, I have had plenty of moments where I was giving in faith. Moments where I could tell God was asking me to give beyond my comfort level.
Many of these times I wasn’t smiling and jumping up and down in excitement, because it was a huge step of faith and I was battling fear.
If we look at 2 Cor 9:7 again it specifically says that we should NOT give out of compulsion, but it doesn’t say that if we aren’t cheerful about it, we shouldn’t give. It just says that God loves it when we are.
And as I have given in faith over and over through the years, I have found myself becoming more cheerful in those tough moments of obedience.
Each time you step out in faith and see God come through, it just makes it that much easier to get excited (and cheerful) about what God is going to do.
Last year God called me to take a 1-year Sabbatical. And initially, I fought a lot of feelings of fear of how I was going to provide for my family if I didn’t work at all. But as I recounted all the times that God had called me to takes bold steps of faith – and how every single time He had come through – I began to get excited about it.
For me, every major blessing in my life was preceded by a step of faith. And it seems that the bigger the step of faith, the bigger the blessing on the other side.
And as I began to let that dominate my thoughts, instead of the fear I began to get really excited about what God was going to do. I would even say that I was “cheerful” about taking that step of faith.
Bottom line, if you give in faith, and meditate on what the Bible says about giving you will begin to see it more from God’s perspective, and I am convinced that as we do, we become cheerful givers.
Tithing the first fruits
I first got ahold of the power of tithing from our first fruits from Chapter 2 of Robert Morris’ “The Blessed Life.”
A discussion about the first fruits could be a whole book by itself, but suffice it to say: to me, it is clear scripturally that God wants us to give from the first of our income.
Not giving from what is leftover, but rather a deliberate and intentional giving of the first of our income that comes in.
Robert Morris puts it like this:
“It always requires faith to give the first. That’s why so few Christians experience the blessings of tithing. It means giving to God before you see if you are going to have enough. By tithing, it is as if we are saying to God, ‘I recognize You first. I am putting You first in my life, and I trust You to take care of the rest of the things in my life.’ That is why tithing is so important. It is the primary way we acknowledge that God is first.”
Here are a few scriptures for you to dive into for more on this:
- Exodus 13
- Deut 18:4
- Romans 11:16
- Exodus 23:19
Tithing is a heart test
Earlier on this page, we see how tithing is the one area where God says that we can test Him.
But, tithing is really a test for us. If you do a Bible study on the number 10, you will see a pattern with it: it often represents a form of testing.
Robert Morris says it like this:
“How many times did God test Pharaoh’s heart? The answer is 10. How many commandments are there? … How many times did God test Israel while they were wandering in the wilderness? And how many times did God test Jacob’s heart (by allowing his wages to be changed) when he was working for Laban? Or how many days was Daniel tested in (Daniel 1)? In each case, the answer is, of course, 10…
In Matthew 25, 10 virgins had their preparedness tested. Ten days of testing are mentioned in Rev 2:10… the number 10 is associated with testing throughout the Bible. And the tithe represents the ultimate ‘heart test’ for the believer.”
Tithing vs. Giving
I once heard someone say, “Tithing isn’t giving, it is simply returning to God what is His”. While I think you could find a Biblical argument to support this, I think for most of us giving (or returning) 10% of our income is a big step of faith and it certainly (at least) FEELS like giving.
So many of us are living paycheck-to-paycheck and squeezing out just 1% of our income feels like a stretch, that I don’t personally don’t want insult someone who steps out in faith to tithe by essentially saying, “that’s nice, but you really haven’t done anything yet.”
Additionally, you could argue that not only is the 10% rightfully God’s but actually, 100% if you use the Parable of the Talents as a guide.
So, for me, the bottom line is that I think the best thing we can do as Christians is to view ourselves as stewards and always be GROWING in our giving and never being complacent regardless of what percentage we are giving.
What to do when Tithing doesn’t seem to be “working”
For as many tithing testimonies as I have gotten from readers over the years, I get a fair share of readers who say that “tithing didn’t work” for them.
I decided to write a whole article on this topic, which you can read here.
It Is So Much Bigger Than Us
The Much Bigger Issue Here Is That God’s Kingdom Needs To Be Advanced!
Who does He use to do that? Us, the believers! If we aren’t funding and financing Kingdom activities, then who will? How are the lost going to be reached if we don’t send those to preach? (Romans 10:15)
We shouldn’t be getting all caught up in percentages and what we “have to do” according to the Bible – what we (as God’s people) need to do is to forget about our ambitions, goals, and motives and pick up God’s plan. We have been saved from eternal separation from God by grace! With all that we have been given, how can we do anything else but give all we have?
What if we could get our minds off of our earthly bank accounts and focus instead on sowing things that will have eternal value.
“I judge all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity.”
Not sure if you know, but eternity is a LONG TIME! 😉
We can either be doing things with our time and money that may benefit us for a few years down here, or we can see ourselves as the eternal beings that we are, get our priorities lined up with God’s, and start giving in a way that will actually last for eternity!
“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
–Matthew 6:20 (NIV)
When we give tithes and offerings into our churches and into ministries that are reaching the world, we get to be included in their eternal reward. We are the BODY of Christ, we all have a part to play.
“…from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
The amazing thing is that as we start getting our focus off of ourselves and on meeting the needs of others, we will have our needs taken care of.
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33 (NIV)
It is just the way God set it up. He is so good, isn’t He?
Some practical FAQs about Tithing
Is tithing tax deductible?
In theory, tithing is tax-deductible. But whether or not you can do it depends on your tax situation. Tithing comes under the tax deduction category of charitable contributions. That makes it tax-deductible.
But there’s a glitch. It’s only deductible if the amount of your tithe, plus other tax-deductible expenses, exceeds the standard deduction. For 2018, that deduction is $12,000 for single taxpayers, $18,000 for heads of household, and $24,000 if you’re married filing jointly.
The 2018 standard deductions are a lot higher than what they were for previous years. But there’s also a bit of sleight-of-hand. The new standard deductions have been dramatically increased due to the elimination of the personal exemption. The 2018 standard deduction is higher than the combination of the previous standard deduction, plus one or two personal exemptions, that apply for 2017.
But at the same time, the new standard deduction limits are so high that far fewer people will be able to itemize.
For more on the specifics of this check out is tithing tax deductible?
Should you tithe on your tax refund?
Technically, if you are tithing on your gross income rather than net income, then you would have already tithed on that income, and it is simply money coming back to you.
But I truly believe that we can’t go wrong giving more. We cannot outgive God.
As LG Tourneau says “I shovel it out, and God shovels it back, but God has a bigger shovel.”
But for more discussion on this, check out this post: do you tithe on your tax refund?
A Tithing Calculator?
God in his infinite wisdom made the math so simple that we don’t really need a calculator to calculate our tithe amount.
My wife says I am good at math, so this is pretty simple to me, but I can sympathize with those who HATE math as much as she does. 😉
Your own tithing calculator right there in your brain!
To calculate the tithe amount, all you need to do is just move the decimal place 1 to the left.
For example: if you earned $1,234.56 you would just move that decimal one place over, and you would get a tithing amount of $123.45.
See how simple that is? I’m sure, even the worst among us at math can do that – right?
Can you give tithes online?
Many churches are making online, mobile, and text giving available, and according to the statistics, all these options are actually increasing giving amounts.
According to one study, “Churches that accept tithing online increase overall donations by 32%.”
If your church doesn’t offer this option, you might want to point them to a few tools that will help them make it possible. Here are a few:
Should you automate tithing?
Using some of the tools listed in the section above, you can make tithing automatic by automating it. While I am thrilled that technology is making it easier for us all to give, I personally like making a bit more of an “event” and use it as an opportunity to give in faith.
So even though we don’t use checks anymore to tithe, we use the app on our phone and Linda and I do it together and pray over our giving each time we do.
It is just a simple way that we can still stay (somewhat) connected to our giving.
That said, for some people creating a set-it-and-forget-it approach to giving is the easiest way for them to stay consistent with it.
So if that is what you need to do, by all means, go for it. I would just encourage you to regularly remind yourself of what is happening automatically and pray over your giving.
If you have read this far, it should be clear as day to you that I am an advocate of tithing.
For years I always thought the preacher was trying to get my money when he talked about tithing, but if you are a skeptic (like I was) then let me remind you that I have nothing to gain by encouraging you to tithe.
The ONLY reason I would be banging the drum about this so much is that I legitimately care for you and absolutely want God’s best for you!
You see, as a fellow believer, we are brothers and sisters in Christ, and we are on the same team. And God has put a fire in my heart to see His children get ahold of what the Bible says about money.
The fact of the matter is that my life has been changed so dramatically by tithing and giving that I can’t help but encourage others to do the same.
We have some radical financial testimonies as a result, but It goes so far beyond money.
God has done a work in my heart. Submitting to Him and yielding and trusting Him in this area has brought me so much closer to Him and I have gotten to be part of some miraculous adventures.
Like a child jumping into his father’s arms who knows without a shadow of a doubt that he will catch him, I pray that we would learn to trust God in the area of tithing as well as all areas of life!
I would love to hear your comments – so please share them below. Differing viewpoints are absolutely okay, just please be civil. Deal? | <urn:uuid:774f7e31-7494-43d0-9fc1-2396f64d568d> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://christianpf.com/tithing-in-the-new-testament/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514574665.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20190921211246-20190921233246-00194.warc.gz | en | 0.964858 | 6,204 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Prince Josias of Coburg
||This article has many issues. Please help fix them or discuss these issues on the talk page.
Prince Frederick Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duke in Saxony (December 26, 1737-February 26, 1815), was a famous general of the Habsburg Emperors.
Josias joined the Habsburg military as Colonel in 1759. After participating in the Seven Years' War, he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Field Marshal by 1773. In the Russo-Turkish-Austrian war of 1788, he commanded an army under Freiherr von Laudon, occupying Moldavia, capturing Khotyn in Bessarabia and sharing in Aleksandr Suvorov's success in the Battle of Focşani (August 1, 1789). Having completely beaten the main Ottoman army under Grand Vizier Koca Yusuf Pasha in the Battle of Rymnik, he captured the greater part of Wallachia, including Bucharest, being welcomed by the population after the flight of Prince Nicholas Mavrogenes. Soon after that, he became a Field General.
During the occupation of Moldavia, Josias met Therese Stroffeck, a regular person. On September 24, 1789, in the town of Roman, she gave birth to a son. The son's name was Frederick. Josias married Therese after their return to Coburg, on December 24. He then said that he was the father of Frederick. Frederick was ennobled by the Austrian Emperor on August 25, 1808. On February 17, 1853 the Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha created him Freiherr von Rohmann, named after the place of his birth. But Frederick, because he was born before his parents were married, did not inherit the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
In 1793 and 1794, Josias commanded the army in the Austrian Netherlands during the Flanders Campaign. Because of his victories in the French Revolutionary Wars (in the Battle of Neerwinden (1793) and the Battle of Aldenhoven (1794)), he returned the region to Austrian control. Entering France, he took Condé, Valenciennes, Quesnoy and Landrecies. However, due to poor positioning he suffered a string of minor setbacks. This poor positioning was caused by amongst the Allied powers and their forces. His army than suffered a defeat at the Battle of Fleurus (26 June).
After these losses, Josias left the Netherlands. Habsburg diplomats had already decided to give up the region, anyway. Upset by both this and the policies of the Baron Thugut, Josias resigned as Field Marshal. The Count of Clerfayt took over the position. Josias then went to Coburg, where he later died. | <urn:uuid:fbba372d-7647-4394-b3d6-3befdf00cffc> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Josias_of_Coburg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049288709.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002128-00061-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974583 | 613 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The American public has ranked nursing the most honest and ethical profession for 17 consecutive years. These results reflect the deep trust that the public has in nurses and underscore the urgency to promote realistic images of nurses.
As the first man to be elected president of the American Nurses Association, I work to elevate the nursing profession and increase the diversity of nursing across ethnicities and genders. The statistics on demographics in the nursing workforce vary, but they do reveal that the profession is lacking balanced representation across genders.
Previously, decades of legal barriers kept men out of the field, and nursing schools often refused to admit men, a practice deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Women currently make up 90 percent of the nursing workforce, while about 9 percent of nurses in the U.S. are men. That share has grown steadily since 1960 when men accounted for just 2 percent of the nursing workforce. When looking at nursing roles, the highest representation was in nurse anesthetists, with men occupying 41 percent of those positions.
It’s important that the nursing profession better reflect society and our patients. Often, nurses are the first line of defense in providing lifesaving care and treatment in underserved communities and to under-represented populations that are disproportionately affected by health and health care disparities. A nursing workforce with strong diversity ensures that all patients and populations receive optimal, empathic care that improves health literacy. Nearly half of all American adults – 90 million people – have difficulty understanding and using health information. Nurses play an active role in fostering health literacy so patients can make informed health decisions.
It’s time to be deliberate in recruiting more men into the nursing profession to further dispel many stereotypes of nurses. Efforts should begin early, starting at the grade school level by letting boys see men who are nurses. “Here’s somebody who I can identify with,” they will think. This should be reemphasized at the high school level by guidance counselors or health occupation programs. In those programs, boys and young men can obtain more exposure to nursing or apply for admission into a baccalaureate program. In 2016, 12 percent of baccalaureate and graduate nursing students were men.
I encourage men in nursing to visit K-12 public and private schools and take every opportunity to be thought of or seen as model nurses within their communities such as neighborhood gatherings, houses of worship, and local civic organizations.
There were many stereotypes about men in nursing and fortunately, you don’t hear them as much anymore. People know that men can provide quality, safe patient care, and that you can be masculine and still care. | <urn:uuid:03afec07-123b-4eed-a4cd-00007d8062b3> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.educationandcareernews.com/men-in-nursing/shattering-myths-about-men-in-nursing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655921988.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20200711032932-20200711062932-00553.warc.gz | en | 0.963832 | 540 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Checks for the existence of a file or folder and returns its attributes.
AttributeString := FileExist(FilePattern)
The path, filename, or file pattern to check. FilePattern is assumed to be in %A_WorkingDir% if an absolute path isn't specified.
This function returns the attribute string (a subset of "RASHNDOCT") of the first matching file or folder:
If the file has no attributes (rare), "X" is returned. If no file is found, an empty string is returned.
This function is a combination of IfExist and FileGetAttrib.
Since an empty string is seen as "false", the function's return value can always be used as a quasi-boolean value. For example, the statement
if FileExist("C:\My File.txt") would be true if the file exists and false otherwise. Similarly, the statement
if InStr(FileExist("C:\My Folder"), "D") would be true only if the file exists and is a directory.
Since FilePattern may contain wildcards, FileExist may be unsuitable for validating a file path which is to be used with another function or program. For example,
FileExist("*.txt") may return attributes even though "*.txt" is not a valid filename. In such cases, FileGetAttrib is preferred.
IfExist, FileGetAttrib, Blocks, Else, File-loops
if FileExist("D:\") MsgBox, The drive exists. if FileExist("D:\Docs\*.txt") MsgBox, At least one .txt file exists. if !FileExist("C:\Temp\FlagFile.txt") MsgBox, The target file does not exist.
#2: The following example shows how to check the file for a particular attribute:
if InStr(FileExist("C:\My File.txt"), "H") MsgBox The file is hidden. | <urn:uuid:4c90302d-446d-4546-9f25-e48bf1fad094> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/FileExist.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986707990.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20191020105426-20191020132926-00023.warc.gz | en | 0.764973 | 422 | 3.265625 | 3 |
- When dogs are at a settled medium speed trot, the leading front foot sets down at the moment the lagging front foot is lifting up. The distance between the two front feet is called 'cross step'. In an optimum sense, the fore and rear cross step should be close to equal. In the German Shepherd Show Dog, as a consequence of its generous hind angulation, the rear cross step is a bit longer longer than the fore cross step. This can be seen in the above photo/diagram where the red line stops a little short of the pad of the forward placed rear foot. In dogs that are too deep in hind angulation, the rear cross step distance relative to the fore cross step distance is excessive and this is seen in excessive fore/rear foot crossover that causes the rear pastern to make contact with the ground.
- 'Cross step ratio' is the length of the cross step divided by the height at the withers. German Shepherd Show Dogs have a long step - high cross step ratio of about 1:2 whereas in most trotting breeds, including the Grey Wolf, it is about 1:1 - this variation relates to the dogs fore and hindquarter angulations.
- Speed is increased in the trot by either lengthening the stride and or increasing the strides frequency. At some point, stride length cannot increase any further and stride frequency is then activated - this is how under angulated dogs can keep up with well angulated dogs in the show ring and it is a judges job to be able to differentiate between the two, i.e. within reason and for locomotive efficiency/powers of endurance, stride length should be favoured over stride frequency.
- Hind thrust - the generation of energy, of thrust, commences only when the rear foot is directly under the hip joint and thrust continues from that point until that foot comes to the end of its rear swing at which time the opposite foot takes over the cycle. The same applies in the forehand and the axis trigger point there is the shoulder blade.
- Hind thrust moves the dogs centre of gravity forward and this is what activates the need for the forelegs to respond - to capture/catch the centre of gravity's forward shift.
- During trotting, the maximum rear thrust is generated at a point that is two-thirds the way through the rear swing cycle and the maximum forward thrust is only achieved if the hock is extended backward to about 60 degrees off the horizontal, not short of this angle, not exceeding this angle.
- Whilst the vast majority of the power comes from the rear quarter muscles in the trot, during galloping the lumbar back muscles contribute 'significantly' to forward movement.
- When the forward reaching foot, both front and rear, make contact with the ground it creates a breaking effect. Until that foot on its rearward cycle passes the shoulder or hip axis point it creates a slowdown effect. As it is in a no gravity environment, if this didn't happen the dog would never stop moving forward.
- At the trot, at the forward reaching mid-point, the pad of the foot and not any part of the back of the rear pastern should make contact with the ground and on the back sweep the rear pastern should not stop and commence its forward step until it attains the earlier quoted angle of about 60 degrees.
- Both the femur and tibia should be long, but not overlong; nor should they be too short and most importantly they must be in balance to themselves and the scapula and upper arm.
- The croup, more specifically the pelvis must be long and correctly angled to the horizontal plane in order to provide a good balance between uplift and forward drive.
- Muscles and ligaments throughout the whole body must be well developed, taught and hard.
- The back, both thoracic and lumbar, must be straight, in stance slightly sloping and in the trot level. The back must be moderately long, well-muscled, tight, and should not have a curve, deflection or a peak which is the manifestation of a now commonly seen downward lumbar spine bend
- The withers must be high, long and flowing into the back and in relation to the back when the dog is standing four square they must not be visually level with it and definitely not below it.
- The neck must not be short, but nor should it be too long as this shifts the dogs centre of gravity too far forward thereby overloading the hindquarter; it must have good length but be of proportionate length to the overall dog.
- The scapula and upperarm must be long, well angled and proportionately balanced to the length and angle of the femur and tibia.
- The depth of the chest measured withers to the underchest [not the elbows] should be about 45% to 48% of the withers height. More and more dogs are moving toward 50%, I prefer 45%. This means the forelegs should be a little longer then the chest depth and when assessing chest depth especially on long stock coats it is important to read this at the dogs underchest and not at its underchest guard hairs.
- The front feet, during gaiting ideally should not rise above the ground any more than the height of the dog’s wrist [carpus] as measured when the dog is standing. Having a foreleg that during the trot ends up almost vertical with the ground might be visually dramatic and it is often interpreted as great forehand reach but this is highly undesirable.
- The front paw should extend forward during the trot to about the dogs eye and definitely no further than its nose.
- Because of its structure the feet of a German Shepherd Dog cross over at the body’s mid point, the less cross-over of the fore and rear feet the better.
- Whilst there should be a gently curved uninterrupted line from the ear tips over the neck and back to the end of the tail the dog should travel flat over the ground not travel at an angle to it.
- The dog must be fit.
- Finally, all of the above means ‘absolutely nothing’ if the dog is not trustworthy, if it does not have the right attitude, protective instincts, character, abundant energy, instinctive drive, firm nerves, sound outgoing self assured temperament and inherent eager willingness to run, work and please.
In life, anyone who tries to deceive another is not well regarded. However, in the show dog world, where a handlers talent is in part based on him or her (and their double handlers) trying to hide the faults of their dog from the judge, deception is both admired and encouraged. I mention this not as a criticism of handlers, but as a preface to the following key point analysis of assessing movement because how a dog is presented to the viewer and how learned/experienced/astute the viewer might be, is critical to assessing movement, i.e. you have to understand canine construction and the fundamentals of locomotion in order that you can asses it. An analogy might be; in the flesh or in a photo, a dog is presented poorly, it is propped in front and overstretched in the rear, but you can still make an accurate assessment of that dogs construction regardless of how it is standing because you understand canine construction; how it is stood is irrelevant - if you know your subject matter!
Movement - locomotion: | <urn:uuid:715714ed-22da-46d8-a4ba-6b74ea3e5ec8> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | https://www.louisdonald.com/blog/fundamentals-of-movement-in-the-german-shepherd-dog | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891816370.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20180225110552-20180225130552-00396.warc.gz | en | 0.946724 | 1,542 | 3.125 | 3 |
Structural Biochemistry/Membrane Proteins/Ion Channels/Patch Clamp
To measure what's happening in or on a single, living cell, scientists use a technique called the patch clamp which requires an extremely fine pipet held tightly against the cell membrane. The technique was introduced by Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann in 1976. This powerful technique enables the measurement of the ion conductance through a small patch of cell membrane. The stepwise changes in membrane conductance are observed. These changes correspond to the opening and closing of individual ion channels. In this technique, a clean glass pipette with a tip diameter of about 1 micro m is pressed against an intact cell to form a seal. The slight suction from the pipette leads to the formation of a very tight seal. Therefore, the resistance between the inside of the pipette and the bathing solution is many gigaohms. Thus, a gigaohm seal known as a gigaseal ensures that an electric current flowing through the pipette is identical with the current flowing through the membrane covered by the pipette. The gigaseal makes possible high - resolution current measurement while a known voltage is applied across the membrane. A time resolution of microseconds monitors the flow of ions through a single channel and transition between the open and the closed states of a channel.
Patch clamp is a powerful technique in electrophysiology for studying ion channels in cells. This technique is very useful in the study of neutrons, muscle fibers, pancreatic beta cells, etc. Patch clamp can be applied and used to study bacterial ion channels. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann developed the patch clamp technique and were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1991. Their discovery made it possible to record and measure currents of single ion channels.
Patch - clamp modes
The patch - clamp technique for monitoring channel activity is highly versatile. A high - resistance seal (gigaseal) is formed between the pipette and a small patch of plasma membrane. This configuration is called cell attached mode. The breaking of membrane patch by increased suction produces a low - resistance pathway between the pipette and the interior of the cell. The activity of the channels in the entire plasma membrane can be monitored in this whole - cell mode. To prepare a membrane in the excised - patch mode, the pipette is pulled away from the cell. A piece of plasma membrane with its cytoplasmic side now facing the medium is monitored by the patch pipette.
Depending on what is wanted to be study, variations of the patch clamp can be applied.
Cell-attached (on-cell patch)
The pipette is pressed against the cell to form a gigaseal by sucking a small area of the membrane to break both the membrane and cytoplasm off the cell. This leaves the patch of membrane attached to the pipette and exposes the interior of the membrane to the external solution. A voltage is applied across the patch, allowing experimenters to see recordings of discrete current steps through single ion channels without disrupting the cell’s interior.
This is an excised patch technique because the patch is excised or removed from the main body of the cell. The internal membrane surface faces the bath solution (the pipette solution). The intracellular space of the membrane is exposed to the bath to allow testing of various intracellular channel modulators.
Whole-cell recording (whole-cell patch)
Fresh glass pipette with a tip diameter of only a few micrometers is pressed on the cell membrane gently to form a gigaseal. Suction is applied to break the membrane and the cytoplasm. The pipette solution starts to mix in to make the cell have a similar ionic environment as the saline filling the pipette uses.
Using the whole-cell mode, the pipette is pulled away from the cell which excises a patch with the extracellular side of the membrane facing the bath solution (the pipette filling solution). The patch is superfused on the extracellular side with the solution. The solution contains agonists (i.e. GABA or glutamate) which activate the receptor channels in the patch.
Once the whole-cell is established, instead of using suction to rupture the patch membrane, an electrode solution that contains antibiotics diffuses into the membrane patch forming small perforations that provides electrical access to the intracellular side of the cell.
This employs a loose seal rather than a tight gigaseal. An advantage of loose seal is that the pipette can be removed from the membrane without rupturing the membrane, the membrane will still remain intact. This allows repeated measurements on the same cell without destroying the membrane’s integrity. A disadvantage is the resistance between the pipette and the membrane is reduced, thus allowing current to leak through the seal. | <urn:uuid:dde126f7-2b8d-4b35-bb0a-9a9a9c20774e> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Structural_Biochemistry/Membrane_Proteins/Ion_Channels/Patch_Clamp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948592202.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20171217000422-20171217022422-00747.warc.gz | en | 0.922794 | 1,004 | 3.640625 | 4 |
But a flu epidemic does not mean that Pestilence, everyone's favorite Horseman of the Apocalypse, has ridden into town on his white horse and is busily cutting down healthy humans like so much grass.
Many of those flu epidemic cases can be mild, especially if caught early enough to treat with an antiviral like Tamiflu, or are lethal predominantly to the elderly, very young children, or individuals with already compromised immune systems.
A "flu pandemic," however, does mean that Pestilence has moved in and is setting up shop. A flu pandemic has two main characteristics: That it's a new strain of the virus, meaning that few people, if any, have resistance to it, and that it's managed to work its way to more than one continent.
For those reasons, a flu pandemic can be extremely deadly. The World Health Organization has defined six stages of progression leading to a pandemic flu: Phases 1 through 3 see largely animal infection, with minimal human sickness; Phase 4 is sustained human infection; Phase 5 is human-to-human contact in at least two regions; and Phase 6 is pandemic, with widespread human infection. Right now, with this current bout of swine flu,
we're at Phase 3, where the flu is causing sporadic outbreaks in limited areas "“ meaning things aren't too bad. we're at Phase 4.
"Limited transmission under such restricted circumstances does not indicate that the virus has gained the level of transmissibility among humans necessary to cause a pandemic," says WHO. Moreover, we've been at Phase 3 before, in the recent past, and Flu pandemics have actually occurred about three times every century since the 1500s. But with globalization having exploded in the years since the last one, a flu pandemic now has to the potential to kill 2 to 7.4 million people worldwide, according to WHO.
(If you want to take your mind off that scary sentence, let's talk etymology. The word "epidemic" was first used by the poet Homer, the Greek preposition "epi," meaning "on," married to "demos," the noun for "people," meaning something like residence, or living in one's country. It later took on its medical meaning after Hippocrates employed the word as the title of one of his medical treatises. For awhile, epidemic was a handle given to any collection of symptoms, from diarrhea to fevers, that affected a single area over a discrete period of time, but after the Middle Ages and the epidemics of the plague, it came to mean the outbreak a single, defined disease in an area.) | <urn:uuid:413d7d93-8e97-47fd-b0bf-d4b2c3872a21> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/21566/flu-epidemic-vs-flu-pandemic-whats-difference | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500837.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20230208155417-20230208185417-00419.warc.gz | en | 0.979073 | 546 | 3.171875 | 3 |
SUMPTER, TEXAS. Sumpter, a ghost town five miles east of Groveton in central Trinity County, served as the first seat of government after the county was established in February 1850. The home of Solomon Adams, the first white settler in the area, was designated the temporary site for various courts until permanent facilities could be erected. Meanwhile, the state legislature appointed the first commissioners to organize the town, which the legislators named for either the community or the county of Sumpter, Alabama. Although a post office opened in December 1851, the town was not formally laid out until November 20, 1855. With the hope that the area would become a railroad center, business and professional men flocked to Sumpter, which was incorporated on January 11, 1862.
Following the Civil War the railroad bypassed Sumpter, and the businesses began to leave. The courthouse burned on November 2, 1872, and the town of Trinity became county seat on May 30, 1873. The post office at Sumpter closed in 1874. The lumber companies, having cut down the forests, departed, and farmers sold out and moved. The number of school children decreased to twenty-six in 1884 and twelve in 1895. Even houses were moved. Sumpter, once the largest town in the county and sometime home of outlaw John Wesley Hardin, became a ghost town. A cemetery, a few large trees, and a historical marker in a field remain at the site.
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.Handbook of Texas Online, Patricia B. Hensley, "Sumpter, TX," accessed February 26, 2017, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hvsdb.
Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. | <urn:uuid:fb2de7a5-4455-4b43-9006-fc3f98c6704b> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hvsdb | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501172404.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104612-00641-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963367 | 546 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Genetic engineering is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including the transfer of genes within and across species boundaries to produce improved or novel organisms. The techniques involve sophisticated manipulations of genetic material and other biologically important chemicals.
Genes are the chemical blueprints that determine an organism's traits. Moving genes from one organism to another transfers those traits. Through genetic engineering, organisms can be given targeted combinations of new genes—and therefore new combinations of traits—that do not occur in nature and, indeed, cannot be developed by natural means. Such an approach is different from classical plant and animal breeding, which operates through selection across many generations for traits of interest. Classical breeding operates on traits, only indirectly selecting genes, whereas biotechnology targets genes, attempting to influence traits. The potential of biotechnology is to rapidly accelerate the rate of progress and efficiency of breeding.
Nature can produce organisms with new gene combinations through sexual reproduction. A brown cow bred to a yellow cow may produce a calf of a completely new color. But reproductive mechanisms limit the number of new combinations. Cows must breed with other cows (or very near relatives). A breeder who wants a purple cow would be able to breed toward one only if the necessary purple genes were available somewhere in a cow or a near relative to cows. A genetic engineer has no such restriction. If purple genes are available anywhere in nature—in a sea urchin or an iris—those genes could be used in attempts to produce purple cows. This unprecedented ability to shuffle genes means that genetic engineers can concoct gene combinations that would never be found in nature. | <urn:uuid:11be5541-4544-44e7-8353-5b6de70a69fe> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | http://paniit2008.org/AgriculturalEngineering/what-is-genetic-engineering-in-agriculture | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710771.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20221130192708-20221130222708-00647.warc.gz | en | 0.934523 | 331 | 3.9375 | 4 |
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that one of the main sources of pesticide exposure for U.S. children comes from the food they eat.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, half of produce currently tested in grocery stores contains measurable residues of pesticides. Laboratory tests of eight industry-leader baby foods reveal the presence of 16 pesticides, including three carcinogens.
According to EPA's "Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment," children receive 50% of their lifetime cancer risks in the first two years of life.
In blood samples of children aged 2 to 4, concentrations of pesticide residues are six times higher in children eating conventionally farmed fruits and vegetables compared with those eating organic food.
(Sources and more facts here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/wic-faq.pdf)
Enviroshop is maintained by dedicated NetSys Interactive Inc. owners & employees who generously contribute their time to maintenance & editing, web design, custom programming, & website hosting for Enviroshop. | <urn:uuid:53e5bc17-0eac-485f-817f-1f9fabbdb429> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | http://enviroshop.com/u-s-government-issued-facts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540484477.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20191206023204-20191206051204-00524.warc.gz | en | 0.932684 | 213 | 2.875 | 3 |
What is sterling silver? Doesn’t “sterling” mean it is pure silver?
Sterling silver is 92.5% silver. The other 7.5% is copper. Sterling is the silver alloy most common throughout the entire world. It’s so common that many people use the word sterling and think it means pure silver. (This is a common misconception because sterling is used to differentiate between sterling silver and silver plate. We’ll talk about plating another day.) If you melt two or more metals together, it makes an alloy. Any silver alloy with a minimum of 92.5% pure silver can be called sterling. Jewelry metallurgists are experimenting with substituting germanium and other metals such as nickel and zinc for the copper. If heated hot enough a fine film of tarnish reducing germanium forms on the surface of the jewelry, but in my experience it makes the silver brittle. More people are allergic to nickel than any other metal.
What is fine silver? Is it too soft to be used for jewelry?
Fine silver is pure silver, 99.9%. You’ll see it marked .999, .999FS, or 99.9%. In the science world nothing is pure so you should never see fine silver marked pure or 100%. Sometimes pure silver is too soft. It’s great in earrings and pendants. I wouldn’t use it for the main part of a bracelet or a ring. We bang them around too much. BUT, if you wear a ring or bracelet with a bezel set stone you probably are wearing some fine silver because fine silver is soft enough to mould to a stone and hold it in place. It is the “go to” metal for bezels. I prefer to use sterling silver for ear wires and posts, anywhere the metal might be bent by hard wear.
In the MJSA Journal article “The Metal Underneath” Stewart Grice, a jewelry metallurgist says “Enameling on fine gold or fine silver has obvious advantages: These elements do not generate oxides that can interfere with enamel adhesion. Base metal additions, which form alloys of gold and silver, complicate matters. For example, copper oxide prevents enamel adhesion and also results in color problems. Worse yet are the complications that arise when enameling precious metal jewelry alloys that contain zinc, which may be present in both karat gold and deox (deoxygenated) sterling silver alloys.
What are German silver, nickel silver and alpacca?
German silver, nickel silver and alpacca (in Latin America) are also known as maillechort, argentan, new silver, nickel brass and albata. Its usual formula is 60% copper, 20% nickel, and 20% zinc. It contains no silver. It is silver colored, not silver metal. Beyond that, nickel is highly allergenic. I would recommend never wearing anything made of this alloy on your skin.
Will your sterling or fine silver turn black?
It’s probably an inaccurate description to say any jewelry “turns black,” but nearly every metal tarnishes, even gold. (That’s for another day too.) In the case of silver it’s not the silver that tarnishes but the other metals that are added to the silver to make it “sterling.” If you store your silver jewelry in a silver chest with your silverware, it won’t tarnish.
So it tarnishes, what should I do about it?
Here are a few things that help. I keep an anti-tarnish paper which you can use to wrap your jewelry when you’re not wearing it. There are anti-tarnish bags and cloths. I sell Sunshine Cloths which are great for polishing tarnish away. You can remove tarnish using a bowl, lining it with aluminum foil, dissolving baking soda and salt in hot (some say boiling) water, and laying your jewelry on the foil for a short time. Perhaps the best thing here is to let you watch it happen on YouTube.
Some jewelry sales people say “The silver I sell doesn’t tarnish.”
A few things may be at work here why silver or silver colored jewelry does not tarnish.
1. The silver may have been “deoxygenated.” In this case zinc has been added to the alloy and the jewelry you are looking at was mass produced by casting. It’s not a good idea for handmade jewelry because of the zinc.
2. The jewelry may have been “dipped.” In this case the silver has either been dipped in a lacquer or lacquer like bath, or electro-plated with another metal. In time these wear off or even chip. I know of one jeweler who paints her jewelry with clear fingernail polish.
3. It may not be silver metal at all, only silver colored.
There is no substitute for handmade artisan jewelry made using centuries old techniques with quality metals and stones. Know your jeweler. It’s the only way to insure you are buying quality jewelry. | <urn:uuid:53a79a95-81ab-414a-b4e9-7dcc82ed9e9e> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://dickstromberg.com/news/questions-customers-ask-about-silver/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320302723.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20220121040956-20220121070956-00620.warc.gz | en | 0.937138 | 1,092 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The fava bean, alternatively known as broad bean, is a large, flat, green leguminous vegetable.
The earliest record of its cultivation dates back to Old World Agriculture prevalent in the Neolithic times, about 6000 years ago, probably in Persia and Egypt. Traces of fava beans have also been unearthed in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs, indicating that these legumes enjoyed royal patronage even in that era. No wonder then that fava beans became somewhat of a staple food all over the in the region thereafter.
Fava beans, along with a wide array of other legumes such as lentils and chickpea, continue to dominate Mediterranean and North African cuisines.
However, the acclaim for these beans that thrive in warm climates is no longer limited to their place of origin. In fact, a lot of people grow this winter season crop in their own backyard or kitchen garden.
Today, fresh fava beans, as well as their canned, frozen, dry, salted, and roasted variants, are easily available in the global market. Easy-to-cook fava beans have a mildly sweet and earthy flavor and melt like butter in the mouth. It is on account of this understated texture and taste that fava beans make for a versatile addition to any diet as part of dips, salads, stews, and soups.
When buying fresh fava beans, look for tender, bright-green pods that have recently matured and are evenly shaped. Springtime, ideally between March and June, is the best season for buying fresh fava beans.
Unlike regular green beans, fava beans cannot be consumed along with their thick indigestible peel. To eat, shuck the beans to remove their thick pods. Then, the beans need to be blanched in order to loosen the tough skin. Once the seeds have been unshelled, place them in a perforated plastic bag and store them in the refrigerator that has been set at relatively high humidity.
It’s best to consume the refrigerated beans over the next week.
Nutritional Content of Fava Beans
Like all other beans and legumes, fava beans are a source of protein and provide essential amino acids required by the body. There’s much more to the nutrient-dense composition of fava beans, which accounts for the various health perks ascribed to these green legumes.
Not only do they boast of rich fibrous content, but fava beans are also a source of minerals, B vitamins, and vitamins A, C, and K.
Nutritional value of mature, raw fava beans per 100 grams:
Preparing Fava Beans
Fava Beans Salad
You can simply add fresh fava beans to any salad. In particular, fava beans would pair well with a typical Italian spring salad, which includes cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, and a little hot pepper. Besides salads, fava beans can be enjoyed in many ways including the recipes below.
Fava Bean Purée
- 3 pounds fresh fava beans or about 2 cups of shelled beans
- 2 large cloves of garlic
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
- ¼ cup chopped fresh mint
- 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon of red chili flakes (optional)
- ½ cup of olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- First, blanch the fava beans and then peel them to extract the kernels. Set aside ½ cup of unshelled fava beans, and roughly chop them.
- The remaining beans go into a food processor, along with the garlic cloves, parsley, mint, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes, if using.
- Pulse to combine.
- Taste, and add salt and pepper as needed.
- While the processor is still running, gradually drizzle in the olive oil and purée until the contents mix together well and acquire a smooth consistency.
- Transfer the paste out of the processor into a bowl and garnish it with the roughly chopped beans that had been saved.
- Use the fava bean purée as a toast spread or as a dip with raw vegetables. You can even eat it by spooning the paste onto fresh mozzarella or burrata.
- Refrigerate the purée so it can last you up to five days.
Fava Beans and English Pea Panzanella
- 1 loaf of your favorite variety of bread, preferably a day old
- 1 cup of olive oil, set aside half of which to be used for dressing
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 cup arugula
- ½ cup English peas, which have been shelled and blanched
- ½ cup of shelled, blanched and peeled fava beans
- ½ a bunch of green onions, sliced
- 3 large tomatoes, chopped
- ½ a bunch of basil, chiffonade
- 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat your oven to 350 F.
- Break the bread loaf into bite-size pieces and soak them in ½ cup of olive oil.
- Sprinkle the chopped garlic on top of the chunks, and then toast them in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Put all the veggies-the favas, arugula, peas, tomatoes, onions, and basil – in a bowl and give them a gentle mix.
- Add the toasted pieces of bread to the vegetable bowl.
- Use balsamic vinegar and the remaining ½ cup of olive oil as dressing
- Finish with a sprinkling of salt and pepper over the top of the dish, according to your taste.
Risk Factors and Precautions with Fava Beans
- People suffering from a rare genetic disorder of favism are advised against consuming fava beans as it can cause potentially toxic side effects. One of the most commonly reported threats is acute hemolytic anemia, which essentially involves the destruction of your red blood cells at such an accelerated rate that your body can’t easily replace them. The sustained loss of oxygen-carrying red blood cells eventually paves the way for anemia. People grappling with this disease have insufficient amounts of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) enzyme in their body.
- Infants and young children may not tolerate high doses of fava beans due to the high fiber content. Incorporate fava beans in small doses and as part of a balanced diet.
- Eating fava beans as part of a mixed meal may lower risk for any discomfort from bloating or flatulence from fava bean’s high fiber amount.
- People on monoamine oxidase (MAOI) inhibitors are advised against consuming fava beans due to its rich tyramine content.
- Fava beans contain significant amounts of levodopa (L-dopa), a chemical that can interfere with your body’s ability to metabolize vitamin B6. Thus, people who are already running low on this vital nutrient should stay off fava beans as it can worsen their condition.
Why are Fava Beans Good for You?
Here are 10 benefits of fava beans for health.
1. Promotes Heart Health and Reduces Cholesterol
Fava beans are celebrated by health enthusiasts as a rich source of dietary fiber, both soluble and insoluble. Besides keeping your digestive system working smoothly, the fibrous nature of this mighty legume can benefit your cardiovascular health.
There is enough research-based evidence that would suggest that the soluble fiber in foods, such as in fava beans, binds to low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or bad cholesterol) in the bloodstream and facilitates its elimination from the body.
One animal study that lends support to these claims was published in the British Journal of Nutrition. Researchers fed a diet containing fava bean seeds or their protein isolate to hypercholesterolemic rat subjects, which led to a significant decrease in cholesterol levels without any effect on the high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or good cholesterol).
2. May Reduce Parkinson’s Symptoms
Parkinson’s disease is a progressively degenerative neurological disorder that compromises the motor system. This disease is associated with the death of dopamine-producing cells in the brain, which leads to difficulty in initiating, coordinating, and controlling movement.
The conventional treatment for Parkinson’s rests primarily on drugs containing L-dopa, an amino acid that aids in the synthesis of neurotransmitters in the brain, such as dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine.
Given that fava beans boast a bountiful supply of L-dopa, eating fava beans may help supplement this chemical in the blood and thereby relieve some symptoms of Parkinson’s in the early stages. It could also be beneficial for Alzheimer’s disease.
The potential efficacy of fava beans as a natural alternative to the synthetic drugs used for treating Parkinson’s has been corroborated to a certain extent by evidential research; however, further studies are warranted.
One such study found that the inclusion of fava beans in the diet of patients with Parkinson’s can significantly improve their motor performance by increasing the levels of L-dopa and C-dopa in their blood, without engendering any harmful side effects.
Another study found that fava beans may help manage Parkinsonian motor oscillations in patients with Parkinson’s disease similar to L-dopa drugs.
3. May Help Prevent Birth Defects
The primordial importance of a wholesome and nutrient-rich diet to ensure a healthy pregnancy is not news to anybody. While all of us need a steady supply of folate and vitamin B12 for the synthesis of DNA, RNA, and red blood cells, expecting mothers are recommended additional supplementation of these critical nutrients.
Adequate folate intake around conception and during pregnancy is associated with a reduced risk of neural tube defects, spina bifida, and anencephaly in the newborn baby.
For this reason alone, pregnant women are advised to eat a variety of folate-rich foods such as fava beans. Just 1 cup of cooked beans can make up for 44 percent of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of folate for an adult man or woman. One hundred grams of fresh fava beans provides 106 percent RDA folate.
4. May Help with Weight Management
Fava beans are a weight-watcher’s delight in more ways than one. Not only do they help promote feelings of satiety, but these healthful legumes can also pave the way for weight loss.
Fava beans have all the characteristics in order to be part of a nutrient-dense low-calorie diet. They have both soluble and insoluble fiber as well as plenty of proteins. Fiber and protein together help keep you full for a very long period of time, thereby staving off overeating or unnecessary snacking.
If you want to indulge in a light snack between meals, just nibble on some smash-boiled fava beans without the guilt of calorie overload.
Eating more of fava beans is an easy way to meet your energy needs without piling on the extra calories and the extra weight. Such fibrous and protein-rich intake works better than the high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet model, as far as total fat loss is concerned.
Moreover, people who regularly consume fava beans might even benefit from their cholesterol-lowering effects.
A study published in Advances in Nutrition supported the claim that legumes such as fava beans may help increase satiety, at least in the short term. The study also highlights the positive impact of pulse consumption on weight loss when coupled with energy restriction, but not without energy restriction.
However, additional, longer-term (≥1 y), randomized controlled trials are needed to determine the optimal amount of pulses to consume for weight control.
Another 2018 study published in Nutrients compared the effects of meals based on animal and vegetable proteins on appetite sensations and ad libitum energy intake. The findings showed that the fava bean and split pea meal led to higher satiety and fullness ratings and lower prospective food intake and hunger ratings compared with the veal and pork meal.
Furthermore, participants had a lower energy intake after the fava bean and split pea meal compared with the veal and pork meal at the ad libitum (as desired or needed) lunch served three hours after the test meal.
5. Source of Antioxidants and Immune Booster
Fava beans are replete with antioxidant nutrients such as vitamin E, vitamin C, beta-carotene, copper, iron, and zinc, all of which enhance the functioning of the immune system in their respective ways.
A substantial part of its antioxidant effects can also be attributed to the high contents of L-dopa, and various compounds called kaempferol glycosides found in fava bean sprouts.
In general terms, these antioxidants help counter free radical activity that is at the crux of cellular aging and damage. Moreover, they play an important protective role by bolstering the body’s natural defenses against infections caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
6. May Help Combat Depression and Anxiety
Fava beans can also qualify as a feel-good food, all thanks to the concentrated amounts of L-dopa as well as B vitamins present in them. The former is a chemical agent that acts as a precursor of certain neurochemicals in the brain such as dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine.
All these neurotransmitters play important roles in the facilitation of good mood and stress relief.
Similarly, the high levels of B vitamins in fava beans may also contribute to positive mental health. A 2012 study concluded that a low intake of B vitamins in adolescents is associated with depressive feelings.
7. May Work as a Diabetic-Friendly Food
Beans are a godsend for people with problematic blood sugar levels as they check all the boxes for a diabetic-friendly food. They are considered low on the glycemic index, which means they release a slow, steady source of glucose rather than the instant sugar high associated with the consumption of simple carbohydrates.
The high fibrous content only adds to the glycemic-control prowess of these mighty greens. Moreover, fava beans also boast impressive amounts of polyphenols, which may protect against the development of type 2 diabetes through their antioxidant effects.
In a 2012 study, diabetic subjects were asked to increase their legume intake by at least 1 cup/day. Their glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) values decreased by 0.5 percent. These results were more significant than those obtained by supplementing wheat fiber to the subjects, which recorded a decrease of 0.3 percent in their glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) values.
8. Helps Improve High Blood Pressure
Broad beans are one of the best plant sources of potassium, an essential electrolyte that performs a number of vital functions within the body.
Not only does potassium ensure the proper functioning of cells, nerves, and muscles, but it is also tasked with the responsibility of keeping our blood pressure in check by countering the effects of sodium. This balancing act is, in turn, is conducive to maintaining optimum kidney and heart functions.
Fava beans are considered to be a good source of L-dopa, a chemical that gets converted into the neurotransmitter dopamine once it reaches the brain. This natriuretic agent can be potentially helpful in controlling hypertension, according to a 1991 study with young patients with hypertension.
Ways to add more fava beans to your diet include:
- A homemade sandwich spread using broad beans (like the fava bean puree) can be an easy way to increase your fava bean intake.
- Simply blend equal amounts of boiled broad beans and yogurt, following which add salt and spices to the mix according to your taste. This can be used as a sauce for meat, veggie, or grain dishes.
- Instead of using your regular sandwich spread, cheese, jam, or butter, smear your breakfast toast with this wholesome paste.
- Peel, boil, and store fava beans in the refrigerator. Add a handful of fava beans to your salads.
9. Helps Preserve Bone Health
Fava beans may be a surprising source of bone-building nutrients, including copper and manganese.
Inadequate intake of manganese and copper has been associated with reduced bone mass and increased calcium excretion.
Eating more fava beans can supplement your body with manganese and copper, which can increase bone matrix strength, and collagen, which is needed to make bone cells.
10. Helps Combat Anemia
Fava beans are a source of iron, which is an essential prerequisite for hemoglobin synthesis. Hemoglobin is a protein that allows red blood cells to transport oxygen throughout the body and to the cells. Thus, it is essential for you to maintain an adequate intake of iron to keep your cells and body sufficiently energized and active.
On the contrary, if your diet runs insufficiently low on iron, you run the risk of developing anemia, which is characterized by constant sluggishness, fatigue, faint-headedness, and shortness of breath.
Needless to say, eating more iron-rich foods such as this legume can help safeguard you from the potential threat of hemoglobin deficiency or anemia.
However, one must bear in mind that the iron found in fava beans is of the nonheme variant, which is not absorbed by the body as readily as the heme-form iron found in poultry, meat, and fish.
In order to maximize its absorption, you are recommended to consume fava beans with meat or foods rich in vitamin C, such as tomatoes, peppers, citrus fruits, and berries.
Another factor to make note of is that eating broad beans can be detrimental if you suffer from glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency.
Fava beans are said to contain considerable amounts of highly oxidative chemicals, namely, divicine, convicine, and isouramil, which can precipitate another form of a blood disorder called hemolytic anemia in people with a preexisting glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency.
- Basic Report: 16052, Broadbeans (fava beans), mature seeds, raw. USDA Food Composition Databases. https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/4791. Published April 2018.
- Reading NS, Sirdah MM, Shubair ME, et al. Favism, the commonest form of severe hemolytic anemia in Palestinian children, varies in severity with three different variants of G6PD deficiency within the same community. Blood Cells, Molecules, and Diseases. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27519946. Published September 2016.
- Jenkins DJA, Kendall CWC, Augustin LSA. Effect of Legumes as Part of a Low Glycemic Index Diet on Glycemic Control and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1384247. Published November 26, 2012.
- Polak R, Phillips EM, Campbell A. Legumes: Health Benefits and Culinary Approaches to Increase Intake. Clinical Diabetes. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4608274/. Published October 2015.
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- PA K, Z B, W SJ. Simultaneous Determination of Levodopa and Carbidopa from … Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition. https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/24352104/Motor_effects_of_broad_beans__Vicia_faba__in_Parkinson%27s_disease:_single_dose_studies. Published 1993.
- Salih MA, Murshid WR, Seidahmed MZ. Epidemiology, prenatal management, and prevention of neural tube defects. Saudi Medical Journal. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4362104/. Published 2014.
- Crory MAM, Hamaker BR, Lovejoy JC. Pulse Consumption, Satiety, and Weight Management. Advances in Nutrition. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3042778/. Published November 16, 2010.
- Nielsen LV, Kristensen MD, Klingenberg L. Protein from Meat or Vegetable Sources in Meals Matched for Fiber Content has Similar Effects on Subjective Appetite Sensations and Energy Intake—A Randomized Acute Cross-Over Meal Test Study. Nutrients. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5793324/. Published January 16, 2018.
- Okumura K, Hosoya T, Kawarazaki K, Izawa N, Kumazawa S. Antioxidant Activity of Phenolic Compounds from Fava Bean Sprouts. Food Chemistry. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1750-3841.13330. Published May 6, 2016.
- MA P, E P, GÁ de C. Dietary antioxidants: immunity and host defense. Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21506934. Published 2011.
- Popa TA, Ladea M. Nutrition and depression at the forefront of progress. Journal of Medicine and Life. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3539842/. Published December 25, 2012.
- Rao TSS, Asha MR, Ramesh BN. Understanding nutrition, depression, and mental illnesses. Indian Journal of Psychiatry. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2738337/. Published 2008.
- Messina V. Nutritional and health benefits of dried beans. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/100/suppl_1/437S/4576589. Published July 1, 2014.
- Jenkins DJA, Kendall CWC. Effect of Legumes as Part of a Low Glycemic Index Diet on Glycemic Control and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1384247. Published November 26, 2012.
- Singh AK, Bharati R, Pedapati A. An assessment of fava bean (Vicia faba L.) current status and future prospect. African Journal of agricultural research. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259388898. Published December 2013.
- Saito I, Kawabe H, Hasegawa C. Effect of L-dopa in Young Patients with Hypertension. Angiology. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/000331979104200902. Published September 1, 1991.
- Nutritional Info: Fava beans (raw in pod). The Nutrition Search Engine – SkipThePie.org. https://skipthepie.org/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/beans-fava-in-pod-raw/.
- Mahendri NV. Nutrition for Bone Health. Current Medical Issues Journal. https://cmijournal.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/nutrition-for-bone-health/. Published April 28, 2016.
- Fiedorowicz JG, Swartz KL. The Role of Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors in Current Psychiatric Practice. Journal of Psychiatric Practice. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2075358/. Published July 2004.
- Herbison CE, Hickling S, Allen KL. Low intake of B-vitamins is associated with poor adolescent mental health and behavior. Preventive Medicine. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091743512004616. Published September 23, 2012. | <urn:uuid:a608f1df-7caf-4a67-a3cc-c0d8c9a21e74> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.top10homeremedies.com/kitchen-ingredients/fava-beans-health-benefits.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571284.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811103305-20220811133305-00309.warc.gz | en | 0.904763 | 5,639 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The Evolution of Border Controls as a Mechanism to Prevent Illegal Immigration
Effective border control in the United States has become an increasing challenge over the past few decades. Faced with enormous political pressure to stop illegal immigration and to prevent the entry of potential terrorists, the U.S. government has devoted ever more resources to enforcing border policies. It remains unclear, the author argues, whether the efficacy of these programs warrants their enormous costs.
Efforts to prevent entries at unauthorized locations have mainly targeted the U.S.-Mexico land border, and have included the construction of physical fencing; a controversial and ultimately unsuccessful “virtual fence” program with an array of radars, ground sensors, and unmanned aerial vehicles; and a fivefold increase in the number of agents deployed at the Southwest border. U.S. policymakers have also designed various systems to collect more extensive data on incoming travelers before they reach the United States. Certain programs have been executed with relative ease, while implementation has proved more difficult for other programs—as has the challenge of managing ports of entry, spurring the creation and development of systems intended to both provide more intensive screening and to facilitate international trade and the movement of people. At the same time, Congress has a history of setting immigration enforcement goals that are not always realistic or feasible.
Though political support remains strong for border management efforts, the programs’ varying levels of success calls into question whether they are worth their extraordinary cost or whether resources could be more productively employed elsewhere.
II. The Challenges of Border Security
A. Legal and Illegal Entries to the United States
B. Increasing Resources for Border Security
C. Chasing a Moving Target?
D. Facilitating and Securing International Trade and Mobility
III. U.S. Border Security Systems: Development, Implementation, and Effectiveness
A. Surveillance Between Ports of Entry and the Secure Border Initiative
B. Border-Control Processes at Ports of Entry
C. Registered-Traveler Programs
D. Entry-Exit Systems
E. Visa Waiver Program Reform, ESTA, and US-VISIT Air Exit
F. Challenges Implementing US Border Policies | <urn:uuid:b3d155c5-27b3-49b8-9d6f-894f67deb5dd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/evolution-US-border-controls-illegal-immigration | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922234 | 437 | 2.8125 | 3 |
- Why does clock run clockwise?
- Which way does anti clockwise run?
- Does the moon orbit clockwise or counter clockwise?
- Why do clocks have hands?
- Why the clock is rotating in clockwise direction?
- What is a 90 degree rotation clockwise?
- What is the difference between clockwise and counterclockwise on a ceiling fan?
- What does clockwise mean?
- What is the difference between clockwise and anticlockwise?
- How do you know clockwise?
- What is mean by counter clockwise?
- Is clockwise to the right?
- Which way is counterclockwise on a fan?
- Does blood flow clockwise or counterclockwise?
- What does counterclockwise mean in math?
- Is clockwise positive or negative?
Why does clock run clockwise?
A big part of the reason clock hands move in the direction they do is because of the direction the Earth rotates, as well as the fact that a significant portion of civilization happened to develop in the Northern Hemisphere.
Which way does anti clockwise run?
As the heart is on the left side, for humans and animals, running anticlockwise makes the centrifugal force in the body to act from left to right. Whereas it is from right to left for clockwise running.
Does the moon orbit clockwise or counter clockwise?
When viewed from the north celestial pole (i.e., from the approximate direction of the star Polaris) the Moon orbits Earth anticlockwise and Earth orbits the Sun anticlockwise, and the Moon and Earth rotate on their own axes anticlockwise.
Why do clocks have hands?
The point is that they point, like a hand. Human hands can be used as a sundial, dividing daytime into 12 equal “hours.” You have to go outside to do this: Strerch one arm straight out in front of you. … My guess is the pointers on the clock got their name from their being a timekeeping replacement for the human hand.
Why the clock is rotating in clockwise direction?
Some of the earliest timepieces were sundials. In the northern hemisphere, the shadow of the dial traces clockwise as the sun moves through the sky, so when clocks were being developed in medieval times, their hands were made to turn in the same direction.
What is a 90 degree rotation clockwise?
Rotation of point through 90° about the origin in clockwise direction when point M (h, k) is rotated about the origin O through 90° in clockwise direction. … The new position of point M (h, k) will become M’ (k, -h). Worked-out examples on 90 degree clockwise rotation about the origin: 1.
What is the difference between clockwise and counterclockwise on a ceiling fan?
The ceiling fan direction in summer should be counterclockwise to help create a downdraft, which creates that direct, cooling breeze. Your fan direction in winter needs to be clockwise to create an updraft and circulate warm air around the room.
What does clockwise mean?
: in the direction in which the hands of a clock rotate as viewed from in front or as if standing on a clock face.
What is the difference between clockwise and anticlockwise?
Clockwise, involves a turn to the right as it follows the hands of a clock and anti-clockwise involves a turn to the left, against the direction of a clock’s hands.
How do you know clockwise?
Clockwise means moving in the direction of the hands on a clock. Imagine you walk around something and always keep it on your right. Most screws and bolts are tightened, and faucets/taps are closed, by turning clockwise.
What is mean by counter clockwise?
: in a direction opposite to that in which the hands of a clock rotate as viewed from in front.
Is clockwise to the right?
Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock’s hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite sense of rotation or revolution is (in Commonwealth English) anticlockwise (ACW) or (in North American English) counterclockwise (CCW).
Which way is counterclockwise on a fan?
By default, your ceiling fan will turn to the left (counterclockwise) and push air down. This is the direction ceiling fans should turn during summer months.
Does blood flow clockwise or counterclockwise?
The streams of blood entering the right atrium from the superior and inferior caval veins do not collide, but turn forward and rotate clockwise, forming a vortex. The blood streaming into the left atrium also forms a vortex, but it turns counterclockwise.
What does counterclockwise mean in math?
Moving in the opposite direction to the hands on a clock. Also called Anticlockwise (British English). Angles from a line are usually measured counterclockwise.
Is clockwise positive or negative?
Counterclockwise is the positive rotation direction and clockwise is the negative direction. For example, a torque that rotates an object counterclockwise is a positive torque (see figure 6 below). | <urn:uuid:5b992860-fe4d-40c4-9c70-bd2e31e9d213> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://adainteraktif.com/qa/why-do-clocks-move-clockwise.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703547475.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20210124075754-20210124105754-00028.warc.gz | en | 0.919934 | 1,116 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Soviet ruling that unless it shared power with the Soviet people it would lose all of it. L Even before Reagan became president he had come a spokesperson for General Electric and a television personality where he would speak out against communism and the Soviet Union. In 1 950 he joined a group called the “Crusade for Freedom”2 that fought for the end of the Soviet Empire in the east of Europe. He had given many speeches at anti-Communist events and even made documentaries to relay the message. He had always anticipated to bring down the Berlin Wall and consistently continued the fight against communism when he became president.
Throughout the Cold War the Reagan Administration developed and believed n a number of policies that led to IIS victory. Reggae’s determination helped him confront the Soviet Union and challenge them in every way possible. The Containment Policy was one that Reagan believed would work against the Soviet Union. This policy was to prevent the spread of communism and was a response to the Soviet Union’s attempt to enlarge communism throughout Europe.
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Reagan never hesitated to enlighten the world and president of the Soviet Union, Cockroaches, about the evil of communism. Ever since Reggae’s first meeting with Cockroaches in November 1985 he had shrugged off all hearts by the Soviets. Reagan took political initiative and used his power to communicate his messages to lead to the destruction of the Soviets. He used Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Marti and made broadcasts that contained coded messages for leaders of resistance movements, distributing Koran’s that described the Soviet abuse of Muslims.
He changed radio stations in Poland by providing a Catholic mass and in Soviet Central Asia the radio programs voiced the incompatibility between Islam and the forced ideology of communism that ended up being good influences on these Mounties. Reagan was the one to realize Poland was disrupting the Soviet’s influence on in the east of Europe and thought if Poland broke away from their hold then other countries would follow.
Reagan had set up in seven years around 1 ,500 underground newspapers, journals and 2,400 books and pamphlets to be circulated to relay his message. Even at soccer matches there would be anti-Communist messages that would pop up during the breaks. Reagan knew the power and value of human freedom and that is what helped guide his vision and beliefs on politics throughout the world. He new how to deal with the Soviet Union and always had a large strategic vision.
Reagan fought for 40 years against communism and during those years it cost him many things in his life such as his first marriage, the relationship he had with his children, death threats and even three assassination attempts against him but he never stopped. He believed that his purpose in life was to defeat communism. He once challenged Cockroaches in a speech he gave at the Berlin Wall in Germany on June 12th 1987 where he said “Tear down this wall. “3, something that will be remembered as one of he most important moments in the Cold war history and said to be “The four most famous words of Ronald Reggae’s Presidency. 4 Reggae’s passion and political initiatives of spreading the ideology of Western Democracy and stopping the spread of communism was a key concept in putting an end to the Cold War and another president was as committed as Ronald Reagan to ending the cold war At the beginning Ronald Reagan realized a planned economy could not go up against a market economy and made a plan to bankrupt the Soviet Union. CIA analysis had estimated the 1980 per capita GAP of the Soviet Union at forty six percent of the United States. Another way of looking at it is the Soviet Union’s economy was around the same size as Californians economy and Reagan knew this.
United States had a much larger economy than the Soviet Union having 2. 5 trillion dollars to 500 billion dollars. Reagan hired Herb Meyer, someone who had written about the problems of the Soviet economy and in a report he said that their economy was terribly vulnerable. You could say Reagan made the U. S dollar a “weapon” against the Soviet’s Kremlin. The Soviets had always used the Kremlin to have the West help them out ever since their system had been in crisis since 1917. The Soviet Union’s main income came from its wealth in oil and natural gas.
Reagan saw that a partnership with Saudi Arabia would work at ending this source of income. He secretly sent the Director of Central Intelligence and managed to get the Saudi to go along in an agreement that tripled oil production and cut prices by fifty percent. This made the U. S economy boom and had a bad effect on the Soviets economy. Poland was also a key factor in he Soviet’s economy so Reagan knew that controlling Poland was important in ending communism and Soviet power. Reagan funded Solidarity which was one of the first anti-Communist parties in Poland.
He cut trade agreements, made sales harder and restricted credit between Poland and the Soviet Union. By suspending their trading status Poland lost 6 billion dollars a year in sales. This made Poland fall in line with his regime because they knew he would not give in. After that on December 29th 1981 Reagan ordered all U. S firms to put an end to any contracts that involved the Siberian dual pipeline ND no new contracts were to be formed. This put an end to a Japanese and Soviet oil and gas contract as well which meant four billion dollars would be cut from Soviet income which they were counting on.
The Siberian pipeline was a very important moment in the Cold war and a turning point. The deal cost the Soviets more than 15 billion dollars. Reggae’s breakdown of the Soviets economy was a key factor in ending the Cold War. Their economy already being vulnerable could not handle all the losses and fight against America’s economy and it was more than the Soviet system could take. It forced them to give up when the West finally stopped aid for the Soviet Empire and just put a strain on their economy. Before Reagan entered office the U . S defense tech oenology was falling behind the Soviets during the administration of Jimmy Carter.
When Reagan became president he began a large re-armament that was based on high-technology and his massive military buildup was the last thing that helped lead to U. S victory. In 1980 the Soviets thought they were far ahead of the United States and they wanted peace groups to campaign for nuclear freeze and disarmament. The Reagan administration decided to make even more weapons in quantity than the Soviets had built up already. The military build up would force the Soviets to do the same on their side and damage their economy even more.
A 600 ship Navy, new Army divisions, tanks, planes and missiles were all a part of the defense upgrade. Reagan ordered the Secretary of Defense Spare Weinberg to clear out the Carter Defense Department and rebuild the whole military. There were incursions into Soviet airspace and they even sent up B-go’s, a military aircraft, over the North Pole. It made the Soviet Union fear the Ignited States and allowed the CIA to cause damage to the Soviets in Afghanistan and Central America. The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization was proposed by Reagan in 1983 and formed in 1984.
It was created to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. New anti-tank weapons and anti-submarine weapons were being moved into position for military action. At this point a Soviet defense official stated that the new weapons being brought in meant that the West of Europe loud no longer be overrun by the Soviets weapons and the West would fall In line with the United States. The Soviets thought since they had more weapons in quantity that they could win but did not realize what Reagan realized; that military strength is not based on quantity it is based on the superiority of the weapon.
Cockroaches kept spending more money on military buildup to try and match the Ignited States and Reagan did not want to let up on anything he was doing. He offered Reagan to make cuts in missiles and a reduction in the Soviet military if Reagan would put an end to the Strategic Defense Organization but Reagan refused so Cockroaches gave up on that aspect of the war. In 1 982 the U. S still wanted more restrictions on technology and weapons in the communist countries of Europe and In 1984 an agreement was ratified.
Sweden had been selling technical hardware to the Soviets and even though they did not like the approach the united States had taken they knew United States was a stronger country and they needed their technology and market so they stopped all their sales of technology to the Soviet Union and supplied them to Solidarity. The U. S military buildup during the Reagan ears was definitely a key factor in the West’s victory during the Cold War because it made the Kremlin keep pace and was a justification for the Soviets that the United States was the more powerful side in this war. | <urn:uuid:dd029d85-2236-41a3-96dc-4f97e2bcbc0c> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://anyassignment.com/history/how-ronald-reagan-won-the-cold-war-assignment-38349/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243991904.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20210511060441-20210511090441-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.98454 | 1,821 | 3 | 3 |
Title: Groundwaters of New Zealand
Groundwaters of New Zealand is the definitive new source for information
on the groundwater resources of New Zealand. Written by many of New Zealands
leading experts, the book covers varied aspects of groundwater research, assessment,
use, and management in New Zealand.
This book is divided into two parts. The first part documents the history of groundwater development in New Zealand, and current research on interactions between groundwater systems and other components of the hydrological cycle such as health, processes (recharge and groundwater-surface water interaction) and techniques (isotopic methods). The second part of the book provides up-to-date regional summaries of groundwater resources and quality in every region of the country. Groundwater quality is explored in chapters on groundwater chemistry and microbiology, and the health aspects of groundwater. The book also contains detailed regional summaries, covering the location, use, quality, and management of groundwater resources, for the entire country.
This book will be the essential reference text for all environmental, engineering, and resource management professionals working with groundwater, and students of the many scientific and engineering disciplines that contribute to groundwater investigations. Many groundwater users, both practicing and in school will find this book a valuable reference that adds significantly to their understanding of groundwater resources.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface 1. Introduction - P.A. White and M.R. Rosen.
PART I: GROUNDWATER RESEARCH IN NEW ZEALAND
2. A history of groundwater development in New Zealand -- J.H. Weeber, L.J. Brown, P.A. White, W.J. Russell and H.R. Thorpe.
3. Groundwater resources in New Zealand -- P.A. White.
4. Hydrochemistry of New Zealands aquifers - M.R. Rosen.
5. Rainfall and irrigation recharge to groundwater -- H.R. Thorpe.
6. Groundwater-surface water interaction -- P.A. White, B. Clausen, B. Hunt, S. Cameron and J. Weir.
7. Age and source of groundwater from isotope tracers -- M. Stewart and U. Morgenstern.
8. Fate and transport of nitrates and pesticides in New Zealands aquifers -- M.E. Close, M.R. Rosen and V.R. Smith.
9. Microbial contamination of New Zealands aquifers -- L.W. Sinton.
10. Groundwater and health -- H. Davies.
11. Groundwater management in New Zealand -- A.D. Fenemor and C.A. Robb.
PART II: REGIONAL GROUNDWATER SUMMARIES
12. Northland -- S. Camerson, S. Osbaldiston, G. Skuse and C. Revfem.
13. Auckland -- G. Crowcroft and A. Smaill.
14. Waikato -- J. Hadfield.
15. Bay of Plenty -- D. Gordon.
16. Gisborne -- D. Gordon.
17. Hawkes Bay -- L.D. Luba.
18. Taranaki -- G. Stevens.
19. Manawatu-Wanganui -- G. Bekesi.
20. Wellington --M. Morgan and B. Hughes.
21. Tasman -- J. Thomas.
22. Marlborough --P. Davidson.
23. Canterbury -- L.J. Brown.
24. West Coast -- T. James.
25. Otago -- T. Heller.
26. Southland -- B. Hughes. | <urn:uuid:58a4eca7-6c54-4359-85a9-9464116e2380> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://wrpllc.com/books/gnz.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084888302.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20180119224212-20180120004212-00552.warc.gz | en | 0.796827 | 762 | 3.140625 | 3 |
In clinical trials, the polymerase inhibitor, the first used in hepatitis C treatment, has shown a more than 90 percent success rate in curing the deadly virus that causes liver failure and cancer of the liver.
"It has gone from there being no treatment to almost complete eradication in 23 years," said Mitchell Shiffman, the medical director of the Liver Institute of Virginia, which has offices at Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News and Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond.
Shiffman has been researching hepatitis C since 1990. At that time, in the first interferon trials, the cure rate was 5 percent, he said. Over the past two years, Shiffman has treated more than 80 hepatitis C patients — more than half on the Peninsula — with sofosbuvir.
"Nearly all of them are cured," he said in a phone interview from Nashville, Tenn., where he was presenting a paper on the topic. "It's very, very potent."
The oral antiviral, manufactured by Gilead, also has a low resistance profile, meaning the virus doesn't return in most people. It is also the first drug found to be effective against some strains of hepatitis C without the need for co-administration with interferon. Interferon is widely known for its harsh side effects.
More than 3.2 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C.
"The challenge now is to identify the patients," said Shiffman, as fully 75 percent of those affected are unaware and may therefore seek treatment too late.
Last year the Centers for Disease Control recommended that everyone born between 1945 and 1965, who account for the vast majority of cases, be automatically screened for the disease. Early diagnosis and treatment can now prevent fatal liver damage.
"It's a challenge for primary care physicians. Every week an individual comes to the Liver Institute with advanced cirrhosis or incurable liver disease. They're not identified until they have a catastrophic illness. At that point treatment doesn't help," he said.
Hepatitis C is spread mostly through tainted blood. Often it is caught by the American Red Cross when screening blood donors. That's how Chesapeake resident Ken Mitchell, 55, learned that he was infected with type 1 — both the most common, accounting for 70 percent of infections, and the most difficult to treat — in 2000. He had no symptoms and initially chose to modify his lifestyle — avoiding alcohol, Tylenol, and anything that might stress his liver — rather than submitting to the harsh treatment regimen.
More than a decade later, in 2011, Mitchell joined a clinical trial with Shiffman to test an experimental drug. It didn't work. Then he tried a "rescue" regimen, 48 weeks of the same drug combination he'd been offered originally. The virus came back. Six months ago, he tried sofosbuvir, taking the oral antiviral pill daily in combination with ribavirin and once-weekly shots of interferon for 12 weeks. In the three months since, he continues to test clear of the disease that he contracted as a high school senior.
"This is an incredible breakthrough. It's going to rock the world," said Mitchell, noting the relatively short duration of treatment compared to the typical year-long regimen.
The success rates shown by sofosbuvir, a once-daily pill taken in combination with other drugs, was such that the FDA dubbed it a "breakthrough therapy" — just the third drug to receive the designation — and fast-tracked its review, according to Carol Billingsley, a public relations agent with Free Agents Marketing.
Two weeks ago, the FDA approved Olysio, simeprevir, a protease inhibitor for use in hepatitis C treatment; it joined others in the class, telaprevir and boceprevir. Those are only effective with genotype 1, require up to a year of treatment, and have a cure rate between 75 and 80 percent, according to Shiffman. In contrast, sofosbuvir works with all strains in just three months. Its cure rate with types 2 and 3, when used just with ribavirin, is 95 percent.
Shiffman anticipates that in the next two years there will also be an oral interferon-free treatment for type 1 as well.
"The future of hepatitis C treatment is incredibly bright and promising. The key is identifying it," he said. "We're on the verge of curing it 95 percent of the time."
Salasky can be reached by phone at 757-247-4784. | <urn:uuid:20872db2-9641-4066-8d32-0b40ec2795e8> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-20131206-2013-12-06-dp-nws-hepatitis-1207-20131206-story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038072180.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20210413092418-20210413122418-00273.warc.gz | en | 0.963646 | 955 | 2.765625 | 3 |
3D e-learning comes to local classrooms Daily News On the potential benefits of adapting multimedia technology in learning, TIE Director for Research, Publications and Information, Makoye Wangeleja, pointed out the education sector can benefit...
ClassBadges is a free online tool where teachers can award badges to students for accomplishments or academic mastery. Through your teacher account, you can award badges customized for your classroom or school. Badges can easily be aligned to academic goals or associated with existing school awards.
The inclusion of integrated hardware sensors in mobile devices provides the possibility of augmenting learning activities with sensor data. Technology enhanced learning activities, such as those created with the mobile authoring tool in this project, capture spatially distributed physical sensory data, such as video, photos, audio recordings, and GPS locations. Vogel, Spikol, Kurti, and Milrad (2010) state that there are ongoing research challenges related to integrating this collected sensor data to support learning but conclude that “mobile learning can best provide support for learning in context” (p. 65). Thus, the proposed tool must promote capturing contextual experiences via multimedia examples of the environment and their locations. Context is defined as any information illustrating the situation of a learner such as location, time, activities, and surrounding environmental characteristics (Vogel, Spikol, Kurti, & Milrad, 2010). As a result, the proposed tool will capture a representation of these contextual attributes.
Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.
How to integrate my topics' content to my website?
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Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy. | <urn:uuid:7d47d6dc-ed11-4ffe-82ff-3f9ef0058cd2> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://www.scoop.it/t/edtechsharing/p/3383307825/2012/11/18/52-tips-and-tricks-for-google-docs-in-the-classroom | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440645298065.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827031458-00070-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929199 | 454 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The ___ of the propellers could be hear for many miles.
Direct vs. Indirect SpeechEmbedded QuestionsThe First Conditional
Other quiz: Mixed General Quiz
Did you know that Australia has more than 1500 species ___ spiders?
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Tips : If this page always shows the same questions, make sure you correct the question first by pressing the "check answer" button. | <urn:uuid:9d21648f-2de0-4c97-9aed-12ab59faa699> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://grammarquiz.net/14634/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703524270.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20210121070324-20210121100324-00015.warc.gz | en | 0.851075 | 95 | 3.15625 | 3 |
William Guthrie Spence, Labour Pioneer
By Harry Knowles*
William Guthrie Spence
William Guthrie Spence remains a legendary figure in the history of the Australian labour movement. As much maligned in recent times as he was celebrated by earlier historians of the movement, Spence continues to sustain a position of dominance in any account of the growth and development of trade unionism in Australia. Spence was a prominent player both industrially and politically for working people. His achievement of securing a federal ministry between 1914 and 15 was the symbolic consummation of his long-held belief that the ultimate salvation of the worker lay in the implementation of “the larger reforms absolutely necessary to effect social reconstruction”.
William Guthrie Spence (third from right) at the first Commonwealth Trade Union Congress, Sydney 1902. The labour movement's nationwide political and industrial growth following Federation in 1901 owed a considerable debt to Spence's role, from the 1870s, in mobilising workers into both unions and political organisation.
Photo credit: State Library of NSW
W. G. Spence was born at Eday, a village in the Orkney Isles off the coast of Scotland, in August 1846, the son of James Maxwell Spence, a stonemason and staunch Presbyterian, and his wife, Jane (nee Guthrie). Not a lot is known of William’s early childhood, but it seems that the family emigrated to the Victorian goldfields in early 1852, settling first in Geelong and then moving to Spring Hill, near Creswick early in the following year. Spence had no formal schooling although his mother had taught he and his brother to read from the bible before they reached the age of six. Later, Spence received occasional lessons from a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin but most of his beliefs were shaped by reading the works of the early social reformers such as Bellamy, Blatchford, Ruskin and Morris. He began his working life as a shepherd but by the age of nine was toiling down the pit in Victorian mines. (1)
By age twelve, he was earning a man’s wage but miners then were paid very low wages for the privilege of working in an environment where the air was rank and foul due to a lack of ventilation. Spence later recalled that he “worked many an eight hour shift where no candle would burn” and soon contracted silicosis or ‘miners’ lung’ which troubled him throughout his life eventually developing into pulmonary pneumonia. Spence married Anne Jane, daughter of William Savage of Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in June 1871 who bore him nine children. In these early years, Spence was a prominent figure in the Creswick community; he became secretary and Sunday School superintendent for Creswick Presbyterian Church and during the 1880s often preached with the Primitive Methodists and Bible Christians. A teetotaller, Spence was a leading Temperance advocate and became and an influential member of the local debating society. He was a borough councillor from 1884 and became a justice of the peace in 1888. He remained closely attached to Creswick and held the office of vice-president of the Old Creswickian Society at the time of his death in 1926. (2)
Spence and the Amalgamated Mining Association
Spence is more commonly known as the ‘father’ of the Amalgamated Shearers’ Union however his career in unionism began in the metaliferous mining industry.
Mining unionism in Victoria developed as a consequence of company mining from the 1860s. Spence talked about the formation of a Miners’ Association in 1872 but gives no other details. It seems likely than there was no viable mining union presence in the Colony until the successful strike for an eight hour day in Stawell in 1874 led to the emergence of a number of unions in other mining centres. It was shortly after this event and in the same year that a conference of miners held in Bendigo resolved to consolidate these small associations of goldminers under the banner of an Amalgamated Miners’ Association of Victoria (AMA). The AMA adopted rules based on the those of the National Miners’ Association of Great Britain and had some success in persuading the colonial government to legislate for better hours and working conditions for its members. Within a few years however, the Association had declined to the extent that it consisted of only three branches with a total of two hundred and fifty members. (3)
An attempt to reduce the wages of miners in the Creswick district proved the catalyst in the resurgence of mining unionism. The Creswick miners, including Spence, rallied against the mine owners and at a well-attended meeting held on 11 July 1878, a Creswick branch of the AMA was formed with Spence elected secretary, a position he was to hold for sixteen years. The miners won and, having learnt from previous attempts to form a viable union, agreed that a change in organising principles was necessary if the union was to secure a permanent membership base. The Creswick organisation became an accident society as well as a trade union and took over the existing company accident funds as well as providing a more liberal benefits scheme. If any compulsion was needed to secure the membership of all miners in this district, this was the tactic which achieved it. A closed shop was enforced and sustained for over thirty years. (4)
Led by Spence, the Creswick miners became essentially the organisers for the AMA. He became general secretary of the AMA in 1882 and straightway worked to expand the movement.. His ambition was to consolidate all miners, gold, silver, copper and coal, under the one umbrella organisation and to form an Intercolonial Council to tackle the big issues and arrange financial aid in cases of need. The respective colonial districts would remain self-governing bodies in their own sphere. Within eleven years, Spence had achieved his goal. AMA branches were established in every colony, including Tasmania and both islands of New Zealand. All miners, irrespective of the form of mining involved, were united, albeit loosely, and the AMA boasted a membership of 23,500. However, it did not last. Spence severed links with the AMA in 1891-2 and the intercolonial organisation broke up shortly after. Spence attributed the break-up to the increasing conservatism within the union hierarchy. (5)
Spence brought to the AMA a leader who was “moderate and conciliatory, but firm on fundamentals”. He was not a great orator – in fact he was somewhat awkward as a speaker. He was not a theorist but was “amiable and patient”. Importantly, he was a most attentive listener, a trait which endeared him to those of all political persuasions. He claimed later in his career that he had never refused a conference. Nevertheless, his firmness on the fundamentals remained a constant, demonstrated by the fact that the AMA was involved in twenty-nine strikes by 1890. (6)
Spence and the shearers. The Formation of the Amalgamated Shearers’ Union
Prior to 1886 there had been a number of unsuccessful attempts to unionise shearers. As Spence himself suggests, the prime reason for this lack of success was the fact that itinerant workers who work in an occupation for only part of the year are notoriously difficult to organise. (7) The events leading to the foundation of the Amalgamated Shearers’ Union (ASU) have been well-documented. (8) The catalyst was a newspaper advertisement placed by pastoralists in western New South Wales advising of a cut in the shearing rate. From this point, Spence places himself firmly in the centre of activities surrounding the formation of the ASU. However, there is little doubt that the impetus came from the enthusiasm and persistence of a young Victorian shearer named David Temple. Temple’s indignation at the pastoralists’ action led him to invest his own hard-earned money and energy into securing allies to form a union of shearers. (9)
What does seem clear is that Temple sought the experience and expertise of W. G. Spence at an early stage of the union formation. Temple would have been well aware of Spence’s leadership role in the AMA as he also worked as a miner and was a member of that union. The debate over the role played by Temple and Spence in the formation of the ASU should in no way detract from Spence’s important role in concerted recruitment drive for members of the emerging ASU during 1886 and 1887. Temple himselfrealised that Spence was “a respected and well-known figure in central Victoria” and possessed the credibility Temple needed to sell his fledgling union to potentially sceptical shearers.
In April 1889, an unnamed correspondent (possibly Temple) who had visited many sheds in the year of the union’s inception (1886) reported of Spence in the Shearers’ Record :
Everywhere he was received with open arms, and in very few instances indeed did he meet with a refusal to join the new Union. The fact of Mr Spence being connected with it gave the shearers confidence in the outcome as several of them had heard of the good work he had done in furthering the cause of trades’ unionism, and as the leading executive officer of the Amalgamated Miners’ Association. …. The name of Mr Spence… had its effect and I have no doubt the success the movement has attained is in no small measure due to the confidence felt by the shearers in the integrity of the gentleman who has so worthily and ably filled the presidency from its inception.
As ASU president, Spence was not merely a figurehead. The mere fact that he was part of the union leadership group gave the union, in John Merritt’s words, ‘an aura of solidarity.’ Spence did much valuable organising in the towns, speaking to shearers who had been mobilised by resident agents and union branch secretaries. He would first discuss their grievances, then argue their right as respectable hard-working men to improved working conditions. He would then tell them that the union was their only means of salvation. He was also a frequent writer to newspapers, explaining the union’s objectives and contesting the arguments of its opponents. (12)
Spence would tell public meetings, often attended by pastoralists as well as by townspeople that unionism was a means by which social change could be accomplished. He emphasised the moral impropriety of cheating and defrauding working people and leaving them constantly at the dictates of the forces of the market.
In the shearer’s union Spence could begin to see the shape of the trade union which would accommodate the structure for the new society. (13) Spence wrote some years later in Australia’s Awakening: “In organising a new society … it is well to watch for a favourable opportunity. There are waves of feeling which pass over men’s minds, and it is best to take one of those occasions when something has arisen to arouse a feeling either of discontent or of a desire to become a part of a big movement. It is best for some experienced officer of a Union already in existence in the same trade to get the new society under way”. (14) This then, is how Spence saw his role, not as an organiser in the field but as the organiser of the organisers – the one who would drive both the AMA and the ASU into association with unions in other trades to form his inter-colonial congress.
Others, particularly Temple, helped to establish the union in major pastoral areas and the early branch secretaries did more than Spence to foster the growth of the ASU. Spence was not blind to the work and the worth of others and acknowledged as much in Australia’s Awakening. (15)
Yet Spence’s reputation and proven ability as a union leader was undeniably critical in the ASU’s survival and development. His public addresses always drew good audiences and were accorded comprehensive coverage by the local newspapers and occasionally his words would receive favourable editorial commentary. Even the Melbourne Argus, a committed supporter of pastoralists and no friend of the emerging trade union movement, conceded that Spence was indeed well-meaning in his proselytising. He was imperturbable even when provoked although his friendly and agreeable disposition concealed a ‘calculating’ mind. (16)
Spence and the 1890 Maritime Strike
The ASU involvement in the Maritime Strike has been more than adequately documented elsewhere (17) however discussion over Spence’s role in the dispute and its consequences for his reputation as a labour movement leader has been the subject of some controversy. Pastoralists were becoming increasingly united in a campaign to force ‘freedom of contract’ against the ASU’s unwavering determination to force a ‘closed shop’ in the shearing industry. In rejecting a somewhat open-ended offer of compromise from the Pastoralists’ Union of New South Wales (PUNSW), Spence had forwarded it a copy of the ASU manifesto which included a threat ‘to draw such a cordon around the Australian continent as will effectively prevent a bale of wool leaving unless shorn by union shearers’. Although presumably unintended, this had the consequence of ensuring the ascendancy of the anti-union faction within the PUNSW and marginalising those pastoralists who were advocating an accommodation with the union and an acceptance of its role within the industry. (18)
Spence believed it was the role of the ‘Employers’ Federation’ (19) in galvanising the support of all ‘anti-Labor forces’ which ensured ‘the whole of the organised forces of capitalists and workers were driven into two hostile camps’. (20) As the non-union wool began arriving in Sydney, the Mercantile Marine Officers’ Association struck in protest against the ship owners’ refusal to countenance their affiliation with labour councils. The Association was able to call-in promises of support from combined union organisations and the non-union wool issue fuelled the situation. By 20 August 1890, seamen, wharf labourers and coal lumpers were on strike in sympathy with the marine officers or in protest against the loading of non-union wool. The dispute escalated and, over all, as many as 50,000 workers downed tools for periods of a few days up to two months. (21)
The maritime unions were losing the battle. In every port, there was always a surfeit of unemployed men willing to act as strike breakers but as well as contending with scab labour, the unions were faced -off by the police, the military, Parliament, the conservative press and the combined employers. The ASU had been involved in the organisation of the dispute since Spence’s appointment as head of the Labour Defence Committee on 11 August but as time went on the union came under increasing pressure to join the dispute. On 24 September 1890 the membership was called on to strike. The Australian Town and Country Journal reported an estimated 35,000 shearers and shedhands obeyed the order. (22) But it may never have been Spence’s intention to involve the ASU in such a wide dispute. It seems he had intended any dispute be confined and easily controlled. However, instead, he found himself caught up in a much wider struggle, ‘beyond his control and his comprehension’. (23)
Spence’s role in the dispute tarnished his reputation as “ a man of genius in his organising and negotiating skills” (24), at least among labour movement historians. Spence had devoted his time and industry to the AMA and the ASU for over twenty years and it is more than likely that “he knew nothing of maritime conditions and little of maritime unions”. As the ‘effective head’ of the Labour Defence Committee, Spence must carry much of the responsibility for the committee’s strategy and tactics. But whatever judgements might be made about Spence’s role in the 1890 dispute, the reality for Spence was that he was never again given a general leadership position in the industrial labour movement. (25)
Spence and the lessons of 1890
Nevertheless, Spence did learn from the strike. The survival of the Australian labour movement lay in the unionisation of all workers and their subsequent enrolment on colonial electoral rolls. The union wasted little time announcing a campaign to enrol ASU members to vote for working-class candidates in the 1892 Victorian elections at the same time it notified the strike’s collapse. Unions had to work harder, said Spence as they “lacked that federation which not only ensures united action when necessary, but checks hasty action which often leads to serious trouble”. Poor unionisation meant that shearers union would be continually out-manoeuvred by capital so long it could employ non-union labour during strikes. (26)
Spence and Temple understood that the first move in this direction must come in the organisation of all those workers who laboured beside the shearers in the sheds and on the stations. The ASU had decided to form a General Woolshed Labourers’ Union (later renamed the General Labourers’ Union – GLU) in July 1890 and by its inaugural conference in February 1891(at which Spence was elected Secretary), ASU organisers had managed to recruit over 5000 members. It was to be another two years, in February 1894, following two defeats at the hands of ASU members before Spence and the ASU leadership could announce the amalgamation of the ASU and the GLU to form an Australian Workers’ Union. Spence was unanimously elected the new secretary. (27)
Only weeks after the end of the Maritime Strike, Spence declared that its failure “should stir every member of the ASU to a sense of the importance of securing a place on the electoral lists”. Spence had been promoting political representation as a means of redressing social injustice since 1884. To Spence, political Labor meant nothing more than “carrying Unionism into politics.” (28)
Following the debacle of 1890, Spence directed his energies into turning the ASU/AWU into the flagship of the Australian trade union movement. These were difficult years for the union- years of economic crisis and confrontation by a more confident, aggressive and organised pastoralist opposition. A number of strikes in the pastoral industry between 1891 and 1894 had placed the union under strain both financially and in terms of leadership and membership tensions. However, through Spence’s tenacity and the resourcefulness of organisers of the like of Macdonnell and a young Edward Grayndler, both of whom would later become general secretary, the union survived. In 1898, Spence won the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Cobar and passed the mantle of the general secretary’s position to Macdonell in exchange for the AWU presidency which he held until 1917. In 1901, he was elected to the first Australian Federal parliament as the member for Darling in the far west of New South Wales. (29)
The Final Years
Spence’s entry into the world of federal politics did not signify the end of industrial activity although as time went on there are suggestions that his presidency of the AWU became more insecure. By 1902, the AWU executive increasingly viewed Spence as a ‘spent force in the active prosecution of the union’s affairs’ and there were concerns about his poor health and failing memory. (30)
In 1909, in the face of growing opposition to his presidency and a growing threat to the union from the International Workers of the World (IWW), (31) Spence, with the help of his son-in-law and Worker manager, Henry Lamond, published Australia’s Awakening which promoted the organisation of bushworkers and the 1890 strike as the keystone of Australian trade unionism. In 1911 he wrote his History of the AWU and subsequently published several pamphlets. Spence finally broke with the AWU during the anti-conscription crisis during 1916-17. Prior to 1916 Spence was a staunch anti-conscriptionist along with the rest of his colleagues on the AWU Executive. However, as Commonwealth Postmaster-General, he voted along with his parliamentary leader, W. M. Hughes for conscription. He was known to be ill and there are suggestions that he was either tricked or badgered by Hughes and Lamond to change his view. In deference to his prior service to the union, he was the only AWU member allowed to resign from the union over the vote – the remainder were expelled. (32)
Spence’s rejection by the party he helped to found resulted in the loss of his seat in 1917 but he won the seat of Darwin (Tasmania) that same year in a by-election as a Nationalist candidate. He stood unsuccessfully for the Victorian seat of Batman in 1919. He died in December 1926 of pulmonary oedema at the age of eighty. (33)
Although only one of the founders of the ASU/AWU, Spence’s experience and drive was fundamental to the union’s survival in its formative years. His experience in organising miners and later leading the AMA was critical to the successful organisation of pastoral workers, similarly dispersed and migratory.
Spence was a visionary leader. The AWU needed to exercise a powerful influence in Australian affairs so Spence’s vision for the transformation of Australian society could be achieved. Undeterred by the crushing defeats of the early 1890s, He played a prominent role in rebuilding the AWU and in the progressive march of the labour movement’s political wing. He was the first leader of the union charged with the preservation of the values and principles which had shaped its foundation in 1886. His stumble during the Maritime Strike suggests that his power base was weakened after the 1890 defeats.
Spence also had his weaknesses. He was far from a great orator yet he understood the bushworker – after all, he had been one himself. He was capable of misjudgment – his role in the Maritime Strike bears testament to this - and self-aggrandisement on occasions. Yet for the most part, his organising and industrial strategies were successful. He was responsible in no small way for the formation, the growth and the industrial success of a union which dominated the political and industrial relations landscape of Australia for over fifty years and remains influential in both fields today.
1. W.G. Spence, Australia’s Awakening. Thirty Years in the Life of An Australian Agitator, The Worker Trustees, Sydney, 1909, p. 355.
Spence, Australia’s Awakening, p. 20; C. Lansbury, ‘William Guthrie Spence’, Labour History, No. 13, November 1967, p.4; Lansbury and Nairn, op. cit., pp. 168-9; John A Graham, Early Creswick: the first century, Melbourne, Arbuckle, Waddell, 1942, p. 139.
Frank Bongiorno, The People’s Party. Victorian Labour and the Radical Tradition 1875-1914, Melbourne University Press, 1996, p. 27.
It would seem that the branch formed in Creswick in 1878 was a new branch and not ‘revived’ as Spence claimed. H. H. Pearce ,The “Amalgamated Miners’ Association” and the Creswick Gold Fields’, Recorder, vol. 3, no. 4 June 1968, Melbourne Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, pp. 1-2; Spence, Australia’s Awakening, pp. 21-24.
Spence, Australia’s Awakening, pp. 23-24; Lansbury and Nairn, op.cit., p. 169.
Lansbury and Nairn, op. cit., p. 168; Ross McMullin, A Light on the Hill. The Australian Labor Party 1891-1991, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1991, p.1; Lansbury, op. cit., p. 4.
John Merritt, The Making of the AWU, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1986, pp. 86-9; Spence, Australia’s Awakening, p. 47.
See W. G. Spence, History of the AWU, The Worker Trustees, Sydney, 1961; Merritt, op. cit. ; M Hearn and H Knowles, One Big Union. A History of the Australian Workers Union 1886-1994, Cambridge University Press, 1996.
See Merritt, pp. 92-100; Hearn and Knowles, pp. 23-4; Clyde R. Cameron, “‘A man is never dead until he is forgotten’ David Temple: Founder of the ASU”, Labour History (60), May 1991, pp. 93-4.
Merritt, p. 95; Hearn and Knowles, p. 28.
Shearers’ Record, April 1889.
Merritt, p. 104.
Lansbury, op.cit., p. 5.
Spence, Australia’s Awakening, p. 337.
Spence, Australia’s Awakening, pp. 53-4.
Merritt, p. 105.
Merritt, The Making of the AWU, pp. 154-164; Hearn and Knowles, pp. 43-8.
Merritt, pp. 159-62.
Presumably either the New South Wales Employers’ Union which was coordinating plans to ensure the movement of non-union wool or the Sydney-based Employers’ Mutual Defence Association which Merritt notes was formed during the Maritime Strike, Merritt, p. 162, 192.
Spence, History of the AWU, pp. 33-4.
Merritt, p. 163.
Hearn and Knowles, pp. 43-4; Merritt, p. 166.
Serle, G., The Rush to be Rich. A History of the Colony of Victoria 1883-1889, Melbourne University Press, 1971, p. 112.
Nairn, N. B., Some aspects of the development of the Labor movement in New South Wales 1870-1900: and the effects of the development on the formation and early history of the Labor Party in New South Wales 1889-1900, unpublished M. A. thesis, University of Sydney, 1955, pp. 199, 212.
Hearn and Knowles, pp. 46-7.
Hearn and Knowles, pp. 47, 70-2.
Minutes of Evidence of the NSW Royal Commission on the Strike, 1891, p. 367; Lansbury, ‘William Guthrie Spence’, p. 6.
Hearn and Knowles, pp. 78-93; Lansbury and Nairn, ‘William Guthrie Spence’ pp. 169-170.
Hearn and Knowles, p. 95; Lansbury, pp. 6-7.
Lansbury, p. 8 although Lansbury does not source this allegation.
Lansbury and Nairn, p. 170; Hearn and Knowles, p. 122.
Lansbury and Nairn, p. 170.
Copyright. Do not cite without the permission of the author.
* Dr Harry Knowles, Research Associate, Work and Organisational Studies
University of Sydney.
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The towers and belfries of the monastery!
The monastery is built in a bay near the Xenophontos monastery, from the side of Siggitikos and is dedicated to its namesake Saint. It gives the impression of a small city with its many-stored buildings and the churches' tall cupolas. The Katholicon is built in the early 19th c. and its frescoes are typical of the russian art. The monastery has 15 chapels and 5 kellia, 2 of them at Karyes. The monastery also owns the Chromitsa metochion, the Bogoroditsa (or the Carpenter's) Skete, the Nea Thebais or Gournoskete and Paleomonastiro.
In the 13th c. the monastery is burnt and rebuilt with the financial support of the emperor Andronicus II Paleologus and Serbian rulers. The monastery knows alternatively periods of prosperity and great misery. The monks are Greek and Russian, which outnumber the first after 1497. In the 18th c. the monastery is again in greek hands, only to fall back to the Russians in 1875.
In the monastery there are many portable icons, heirlooms and liturgical vestments. The library contains 1320 greek and 600 slavic manuscripts and over 20,000 greek and russian books.
The monastery in inhabited by a brotherhood of 40 monks
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Critiques | Translate
tenretin (2408) 2014-05-10 11:38
I love your POV is interesting and does not lack originality. The colors are natural.
Thank you for sharing and good weekend.
Silvio1953 (122099) 2014-05-11 6:52
Ciao Saša, lovely composition with beautiful architectuires, splendid light, excellent perspective and wonderful colors, very well done, my friend, ciao Silvio
- Copyright: Aleksandar Dekanski (dekanski) (3262)
- Genre: Places
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- Date Taken: 2011-06-08
- Categories: Architecture
- Camera: Sony HX200v
- Exposure: f/4
- More Photo Info: view
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- Photo Version: Original Version
- Travelogue: The first pilgrimage to Mount Athos
- Date Submitted: 2014-05-10 9:19 | <urn:uuid:ed45241e-1201-460f-a8eb-59c1428587fd> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Greece/Macedonia/Agion_Oros/Agios_Panteleimon/photo1460791.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422122222204.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124175702-00089-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.899488 | 516 | 2.671875 | 3 |
A website, also written as web site,or simply site,is a set of related web pages typically served from a single web domain. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet address known as a uniform resource locator (URL). All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web.
Web pages, which are the building blocks of websites, are documents, typically written in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). They may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable markup anchors. Web-pages are accessed and transported with the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which may optionally employ encryption (HTTP Secure, HTTPS) to provide security and privacy for the user of the web-page content. The user’s application, often a web browser, renders the page content according to its HTML markup instructions onto a display terminal.
The pages of a website can usually be accessed from a simple Uniform Resource Locater (URL) called the web address. The URLs of the pages organize them into a hierarchy, although hyper linking between them conveys the reader’s perceived site structure and guides the reader’s navigation of the site which generally includes a home page with most of the links to the site’s web content, and a supplementary about, contact and link page. | <urn:uuid:8bac997a-f753-480d-838e-3ac946d81b6f> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://vinayakwebsite.com/blog/2016/01/21/website/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221210105.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20180815122304-20180815142304-00466.warc.gz | en | 0.897242 | 289 | 3.46875 | 3 |
Before starting a game of D&D, you must first choose an alignment for your character. But, what exactly does alignment mean? The alignment of your character is your character’s morals and ethics and how they make their decisions in their life.
Simply put, it can mean good or evil, but there are also mixes of alignments. Some may be all good, all evil, somewhat evil, and the list goes on. Similar to the real world, we all have our own way of thinking and dealing with situations. This is where alignment comes into play.
Choosing an alignment for your character in Dungeons and Dragons is a necessity, but before you can choose, you must understand the ramifications of each type of alignment. So, let us take a look at the nine different types of alignments so that you can better understand what each one means to your character.
The Nine Alignments in Dungeons and Dragons
There are nine alignments in Dungeons and Dragons. Each of these alignment types shapes how your character responds to different situations. Think of an alignment as a set of guiding rules that you can reference when roleplaying as your D&D character.
The nine alignments in D&D are
- Lawful Good
- Neutral Good
- Chaotic Good
- Lawful Neutral
- Chaotic Neutral
- Lawful Evil
- Neutral Evil
- Chaotic Evil
You may notice that some of the alignments mentioned above have two terms – this is because they refer to two aspects of your character.
The first term refers to your characters ethical standing – do they follow the masses, or are they an anarchist?
The second term refers to your character’s moral ground. Does your character take advantage of others to get what they want? Or does your character treat others in a way that they would like to be treated?
How Does the Alignment Chart Work?
When determining the alignment of your character in D&D, it is helpful to reference the alignment chart. The alignment chart sets out the different alignment possibilities from the far left to the far right – and of course, the good old middle ground.
On the left side of the chart, we have the characters with legal ethics. This is a character who follows the rules and respects the established hierarchy of society.
This character is also one who firmly adheres to their beliefs and who values adherence to the rules above all else.
Lawful characters can be very judgmental, even though they are trustworthy.
In the middle of the chart, we have characters with neutral ethics. This is the character who wavers between both sides of the ethical coin. This is also a character that generally follows the rules and acts lawfully, but if breaking the rules has a more beneficial outcome, they will do it.
Neutral characters are free to decide as they see fit, but this does create a sense of superiority that can make them unlikeable.
On the right side of the chart, we have characters with chaotic ethics. This is the character who best fits the term “anarchist”. This character does not follow the rules – they do what they want to when it suits them.
Chaotic characters are difficult, and they make choices just to go against convention even when the consequences of those choices can be devastating to everyone else.
On top of the chart, we have characters that have good morals. This is the character who will always choose to do what is best for others. This is the charitable character who would “give the shirt off their back.”
Good characters are always willing to go out of their way for others, but they will not hesitate to call out a friend for doing something they consider evil.
In the middle of the chart, we have characters with neutral morals. This is the character who will always choose diplomacy and the middle ground. This is the character who would rather not “rock the boat”.
Neutral characters can be frustrating in their diplomacy and indecisiveness, but they will always do what is in the best interest of those they love.
Few characters can remain truly neutral throughout their development – there always tends to be a preference toward good or evil.
At the bottom of the chart, we have characters with evil morals. This is the character who is a psychopath. They are more than willing to make the masses suffer for their personal gain, and they do not think twice about causing the demise of anyone else.
Evil characters are a force to be reckoned with (both for those who follow them and for those who do not) because they have no true allegiance to anyone but themselves.
Examining the Nine Alignments
Let’s take a deep dive at all nine alignments in D&D along with examples of some of the most famous characters in history.
This Set of 25 Miniatures has a mix of Characters, great for an assortment of alignmentsImagination has no limit
“I DO WHAT IS GOOD AND RIGHT.”
The lawful good character is the one who follows the rules for the greater good and believes in holding everyone to the same standard. This is a character who does not break the rules. They are easily angered and frustrated when people do not follow the rules or when they are selfish.
The lawful good character is rigid in their beliefs and will sacrifice themselves to save another. This character believes in following order, and that there are just consequences for breaking the rules. This is the archetypal crusader.
Examples of the lawful good character include:
- Obi-Wan Kenobi
- Hermione Granger
- Eddard Stark
“I DO WHAT IS GOOD.”
The neutral good character follows the rules but not so rigidly that they are not willing to break them if the greater good requires that they be broken. For the neutral good character, doing what is good will always be a priority even when it means making ethically questionable choices.
The neutral good character values the end over the means. These characters devote themselves to helping other people and generally progress to the chaotic or lawful end of the spectrum. This is the archetypal benefactor.
Examples of the Neutral good character include:
- Harry Potter
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Jon Stark
- Luke Skywalker
“I DO WHAT I THINK IS GOOD WHETHER IT’S RIGHT OR WRONG.”
The chaotic good character does what their own beliefs tell them to be for the greater good. The chaotic good character’s behavior is always dictated by what they believe to be the “right thing.” This type of character believes in logic and reasoning and does not follow a leader blindly.
The chaotic good character has good intentions, but they may use questionable means to get positive ends. This is a character with strong personal morals who usually takes on a fight that is far too big for them to win. This is the archetypal rebel.
Examples of the chaotic good character include:
- Robin Hood
- Tywin Lannister
“I FOLLOW THE LAW BECAUSE IT IS THE LAW.”
The lawful neutral character is the character who follows blindly doing what is expected of them by the ruling authority. A robotic soldier, the lawful and neutral character is dedicated to order and will do good and bad deeds to uphold that order.
The lawful neutral character is always focused on doing what the law dictates they do, and they cannot be swayed by right or wrong. This character is usually a member of a larger organization like a military group or professional organization. This is the archetypal judge.
Examples of the lawful neutral character include:
- Jean Luc Piccard
- James Bond
- Dwight Schrute
- Stannis Baratheon
“I DON’T KNOW.”
The neutral character is one who cannot be swayed by emotional pleas rather, they choose what is logical for them at the moment they make the decision. For the neutral character, everything is about convenience and benefit.
Neutral characters are frustrating and will always take the path of least resistance even if it is not the right option to take or the path that benefits the greater good. This is the character who frequently answers: “I don’t know.” This is the archetypal wild card.
Examples of the neutral character include:
- Professor Snape
- Jaqen H’ghar
- Doctor Manhattan
- Sheldon Cooper
“I DO WHAT’S GOOD FOR ME.”
Chaotic neutral characters make decisions based on how the outcome of a situation will influence them. Chaotic neutral characters do not like to be dictated to, and while they are more likely to make good decisions rather than bad, they are not afraid of shaking things up a bit!
Chaotic neutral characters are all about self-preservation, but they can be antagonistic which makes them difficult to get along with. This is a character who values their freedom above all else. This is the archetypal free spirit.
Examples of the chaotic neutral good character include:
- Jack Sparrow
- Han Solo
- Robert Baratheon
“I BELIEVE THAT LAW AND ORDER IS A WAY TO HELP ME CARRY OUT MY EVIL PLAN.”
The lawful evil character is one who abides by a designated set of rules, traditions, and laws. Everything that this character does is dictated by these rules and they are not afraid to use force and threats to get what they want.
The lawful evil character is evil with structure and this leaves no “wiggle room” for negotiation. This character believes in the power of the law, but the needs of the individual are irrelevant. This character is the archetypal dominator.
Examples of the lawful evil character include:
- Darth Vader
- Lord Petyr Baelish
- Lucius Malfoy
“I DO WHAT’S EVIL BECAUSE I CAN.”
Neutral evil characters do what they want to get what they want. Neutral evil characters cannot be governed by rules as they are willing to do ANYTHING to satisfy their own ambition – including breaking rules and breaking necks.
The neutral evil character will use anyone and anything to satisfy their greed and when that person or thing is no longer useful to them it will be cast aside. This is a character who is evil simply to be evil. This is the archetypal malefactor.
Examples of the neutral evil character include:
- Lex Luthor
- Emperor Palpatine
- Tony Montana
“I DO ANYTHING TO GET WHAT I WANT.”
A chaotic evil character has no qualms about breaking the law or doing what is wrong so long as they feel good and get what they want. Chaotic evil characters are loners with a penchant for destruction.
The Chaotic evil character is an untrusting and untrustworthy character who would destroy the world just to watch it burn. This is not a character most people would freely associate with. This is the archetypal destroyer.
Examples of the chaotic evil character include:
- The Joker
- Darth Maul
- Ramsay Bolton
- Red Skull
What Is the Evilest Alignment?
Of all of the alignments in Dungeons and Dragons, the one to fear the most is the neutral evil character.
A neutral evil character is willing to do anything to benefit themselves, they will align themselves with anyone if it advances their position. This character will simply do what they want when they want regardless of the fallout. This is a character that is thoroughly unpredictable and cannot be trusted by anyone – they are selfish to the core.
Some also argue that the chaotic evil alignment is the evilest because most chaotic evil characters are psychopaths who do what they want and what they want is to spread death, destruction, and evil. Unlike the neutral evil character, the chaotic evil character is paranoid – they do not trust authority, they do not follow the rules, and they always choose what is wrong.
Comparing these two alignments, it is really a matter of how you look at it. You can choose the unpredictable character who is only out for themselves and who will do anything to satisfy their needs or the paranoid character bent on destruction who will do anything for misery. Whichever way you choose, you are stuck with a whole lot of evildoing and a person that cannot be trusted.
What Is the Most Common Moral Alignment?
This classic starter set of miniatures has a good mix of characters good for many alignments
The most common moral alignment in Dungeons and Dragons is the Chaotic Good character. The character that has good morals but who is willing to break the rules to do what they deem to be the “right thing.”
What Is the Rarest Alignment?
The rarest alignment in Dungeons and Dragons is the Chaotic Evil character. The character that is out for themselves and only themselves. The character who does not work well with others and who will not be controlled by anything or anyone.
Choosing Your Alignment
There are different methods of choosing your character alignment
Take a Quiz
There are many online quizzes that you can take to help you to decide which character alignment suits you best. This is a good option if you want someone else to do the thinking for you.
Talk to Your Group
Playing with a group? Talk with your group members about the group dynamics. To form a solid group, you want to have a group of characters that share similarities. That does not mean that everyone in your group has to be of the exact same alignment, but there is going to be a certain amount of discord if your characters fall all over the spectrum.
Think About Your Favorite Characters
Whether you are a movie lover or a book reader, anime lover, or graphic novel fan, every main character falls into one of the nine alignments. They may not fit flawlessly, but they do fit.
If you are not quite sure where to settle for your character, try thinking of some of your favorite characters like in the examples above.
Be Yourself Or the Antithesis of Yourself
Create a character that is based on yourself and you will know exactly how to roleplay them. Or you could go to the other extreme and choose a character who is everything that you are not!
Remember, It’s Not About Unquestionable Alignment
When you choose an alignment for your character it is important to remember that your alignment is a guide and not a rigid mold. Just like you, your character is sometimes going to do things or say things that are out of character for their alignment and that is okay!
Do you always follow every rule? Do you always do what is right for the greater good? Or do you sometimes break the rules or prioritize your needs and wants?
Many players further categorize each of the alignments to include more specificity. Using this system, the nine alignments become twenty-five alignments. This system includes the original nine alignments and adds social good, rebel good, lawful moral, social moral, neutral moral, rebel moral, chaotic moral, social neutral, rebel neutral, lawful impure, social impure, neutral impure, rebel impure, chaotic impure, social evil, and rebel evil.
The newer alignments added to the twenty-five-alignment system represent midpoints between the original nine alignments.
Alignments May Change Over Time
It is also worth noting that as your character progresses, their alignment may change through experience. As your character develops, for example, they may go from lawful neutral to lawful good. The same goes for other neutral character alignments too.
Choosing your characters alignment is one of the first steps in creating your D&D character. Your character’s morals and ethics will play a big role on their fate during your adventure. Remember, looks aren’t everything.
Although your character may have an evil appearance, they can be morally good and lawful. On the complete opposite end, you can have a character that looks noble and heroic, but deep down can be the most evil character alive.
In the end, your character is what you make of them. Give them life, morals, and ethics, and you will soon find yourself immersed in this awesome fantasy game. | <urn:uuid:6d3b61d2-b0e5-4fa0-a794-b81ef65d8405> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://indoorgamebunker.com/what-does-alignment-mean-in-dd/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320301063.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20220118213028-20220119003028-00128.warc.gz | en | 0.947645 | 3,834 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Borders can encompass diverse roles existing as both natural features like rivers and human-made constructs such as walls. And border regions are fascinating as they can exhibit interconnections among different landscapes, geopolitical zones, and the diverse societies that inhabit them.
The interplay between geopolitical borders and landscape reflects the philosophy of yin and yang, where opposing forces interdependently balance each other. Life exists on a spectrum, not confined to black and white but residing in the grey of life. Geopolitical landscapes represent politics, power dynamics, and territorial arrangements, while geographical landscapes encompass physical features, resources, and environmental conditions. Border regions contribute to the diverse genetic and cultural tapestry observed today.
Geopolitics and landscapes also influence each other. Landscapes are shaped by geopolitical factors as nations strive for control over resources and strategic locations. Access to waterways, arable land, energy reserves, and natural barriers greatly impacts geopolitical strategies.
Similarly, the geopolitical landscape leaves its mark on the earth. Political decisions, territorial disputes, and power struggles reshape borders, divide land, and alter resource allocation. Conflicts over oil reserves have turned deserts into battlegrounds, while alliances and trade agreements reshape transportation networks and economies.
Ultimately, the yin and yang philosophy underscores a reciprocal relationship between geopolitical and geographical landscapes. Both shape and are shaped by one another, necessitating recognition for better comprehending the complexities of borders. This understanding is vital in grasping international relations, resource conflicts, and human impacts on the natural world.
The Australian desert landscapes featured in this essay symbolizes the yin and yang concept. This desert can conjure fear and misconceptions. However, beneath its seemingly desolate facade lies intricate details, deep emotions, and enduring cultural significance. Responses to the absence of visible human evidence include powerful emotions of hope. Only through recognizing and harmonizing the interplay between these realms can we strive for a balanced and sustainable world, we call home.
Patrick Brown is an Australian photographer who was based in Thailand for nearly twenty years to cover the region. His photographs have featured in The New Yorker, TIME, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, National Geographic, Stern Magazine, The New York Times and other leading outlets. His work on the illegal trade in endangered animals won a 2004 World Press Photo award and his book, Trading to Extinction, was nominated as one of the ten best documentary books of 2014 by American Photo. In 2019, Patrick won the FotoEvidence Book Award for No Place on Earth, his book covering the Rohingya crisis. Patrick received an Emmy Award for camera operator on the Alex Gibney HBO film The Forever Prisoner which won Outstanding Investigative Documentary. | <urn:uuid:55a1fde6-e74b-4a10-880c-2198f784d7f8> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://borderlab.eu/galleries/photo-essay-hope/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510676.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20230930113949-20230930143949-00135.warc.gz | en | 0.92999 | 542 | 3.171875 | 3 |
About the book, from the publisher:
For those who own it, wealth can have extraordinary advantages. High levels of wealth can enhance educational attainment, create occupational opportunities, generate social influence, and provide a buffer against financial emergencies. Even a small amount of savings can improve security, mitigate the effects of job loss and other financial setbacks, and improve well-being dramatically. Although the benefits of wealth are significant, they are not enjoyed uniformly throughout the United States. In the United States, because religion is an important part of cultural orientation, religious beliefs should affect material well-being. This book explores the way religious orientations and beliefs affect Americans' incomes, savings, and net worth.Learn more about Faith and Money at the Cambridge University Press website.
Lisa A. Keister is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Markets and Management Studies Program at Duke University.
The Page 99 Test: Faith and Money. | <urn:uuid:cf903458-62f2-42c0-bf13-9a1ac2468854> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://americareads.blogspot.com/2011/10/pg-99-lisa-keisters-faith-and-money.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718311.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00349-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916815 | 188 | 2.5625 | 3 |
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