text
stringlengths 198
621k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 95
values | url
stringlengths 15
1.73k
| file_path
stringlengths 110
155
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.65
1
| token_count
int64 49
160k
| score
float64 2.52
5.03
| int_score
int64 3
5
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Freud spent his whole life attempting to fathom what was at the heart of the human psyche – if it’s not somewhat contradictory to use the metaphor ‘heart’ with respect to the mind. In doing so he constructed his famous archaeological or topographical or layer model of the psyche namely – conscious, preconscious and unconscious strata(depths or layers) of the mind. Needless to say, Freud had been obsessed with archaeology. Then, we are all possibly as well, if not more, acquainted with his structural model of the psyche – that is, the model with which practically everyone who knows even a little about Freud is acquainted with, at least with the terminology which has entered common parlance, namely Id, Ego and Superego. These according to Freud are the major components of the self or mind or personality, call it what you will for the moment. It is very important to note that this structural model puts these three major components in the unconscious. These Ego, Id and Superego are not topographical regions or layers as it were as we saw in his archaeological model. Rather they are distinct agencies at war or in conflict with one another. Indeed, for Freud human beings were not yet fully evolved. Hence there was a split or a rift in their very nature. In other words human beings were torn between their dark bestial motives (Id) and civilized conduct and demeanour (mores and manners and morals of society). On the one hand then there was humankind's animal nature (Id) and its cultural aspirations.(promoted by the Superego) Hence, humans are literally driven to seek pleasure, but society and civilization reign this rapaciousness in because control of passions is necessary - otherwise there would be murder, rape and strife of all kinds. In all of the above, I am conscious that when reading, and more specifically writing about the thought of John Gray in these posts, how closely the two men are to one another in their contentions. I was also surprised to note how little Gray referred to Freud in his work.
Freud was indeed a very complex man and I have written much on him in previous posts over the years in this blog. However, here I wish to refer to some insights into the man which I gleaned from the wonderful little book by the American literary scholar Mark Edmundson which I have been discussing in the last two posts. It also fascinates me how influential Freud has been outside the areas of psychiatry, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy where one would assume he has been most influential. However, he has also influenced sociology, politics and literature. Indeed, when it was mooted that the great man should get the Nobel Prize, scholars were divided on the issue as to whether he should get it for science, medicine or literature. In any event, he was never to receive it, though he should definitely have loved it given his penchant for public recognition and honours.
Freud loved cigars, and even though he suffered greatly from cancer of the jawbone for some sixteen years, pointed refused to give them up. At the height of his consumption, he smoked twenty a day. He even had to have an enormous prosthesis fitted, which he wittily called “the monster.” His nurse in these later years was his favourite daughter Anna who was also official heir to his intellectual work in being a psychoanalyst and the greatest proponent and exponent of his work. It was she who helped him take it out, wash it and replace it. Edmundson informs us that when things were “especially bad, he sometimes used a clothespin to open his frozen, aching jaw so as to wedge one more [cigar] into his jaw.” (Op.cit., 13-14)
Without a shadow of a doubt this is one of the essential attributes of the great psychiatrist and psychoanalyst that comes through in The Death of Sigmund Freud right from the beginning to the very end. One cannot but admire this inner strength. Courage is not the virtue that comes through in anything I have read about Carl Gustave Jung – he was more inclined to go with the current social and political situation. Right from the start of his life, Freud had an inner strength and the courage of his convictions. He really did not care whether his theories upset people or not. Now he never set out deliberately to upset people, but he always knew that the truth was always better than wafer-thin lies. If he was convinced of something being true, he told it straight and that was it. This, I also admire greatly in him, and from my reflective living and psychotherapeutic training, I can aver to be really and truly healing in the final analysis, if you forgive the dreadful pun. Take for example one of his early theories, viz., the Oedipus Complex which shocked the world with the view that all male children want to have sex with their mothers and do away with their fathers. Freud seemed incapable of holding back views if he held them strongly at all. As well as that, he would have pondered and researched them for much time, so anything that he might have said or written were done so with a determination solidly supported.
Freud on the United States:
Our learned founder of psychoanalysis was no lover of America, while fully realising and appreciating that he had many worthy and capable followers there. I find his views on the U.S. most interesting, indeed. Firstly, he abhorred its obsession with money – the sacred dollar. He believed that they suffered from a hideous disease called “dollaria.” There, he felt, all success is reduced to money solely. The society of the U.S. was far too commercial and far too superficial for him. He also believed that all the Americans were prudes and that, in this, moneymaking had somehow absorbed the libido. They also lacked a “passionate depth” for him. But most of all he abhorred American politics where the group had in effect disempowered the ordinary citizen’s individualism. I’ll finish with a wonderful anecdote from Edmundson’s wonderful book and let the reader chew over it:
“We are bringing them the plague,” Freud purportedly said when he and Jung and Ferenczi disembarked in New York in 1909. “We’re bringing them the plague, and they don’t even know it.” (Ibid., 32)
Above I have uploaded a picture of Freud's bookcases from the Freud Museum in London. This picture is in the public domain! | <urn:uuid:3cc26cc5-8f07-44f2-9fc7-dbd73b028470> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://hugesponge.blogspot.com/2009/04/fathoming-freud.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320243.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170624082900-20170624102900-00060.warc.gz | en | 0.984728 | 1,365 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Overview of Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis and is seen especially among older people. It is sometimes called degenerative joint disease.
People with osteoarthritis usually have joint pain and stiffness. The most commonly affected joints are in the hands (ends of the fingers and thumbs), neck, lower back, knees, and hips. Unlike some other forms of arthritis, osteoarthritis does not affect the skin, lungs, eyes, or blood vessels. It can also occur in only one joint or can affect a joint on one side of the body much more severely.
Osteoarthritis affects each person differently. For some people, osteoarthritis is relatively mild and interferes little with day-to-day life. For others, it causes significant pain and disability. Joint damage usually develops gradually over years, although it could worsen quickly in some people.
What Happens in Osteoarthritis?
Osteoarthritis damages cartilage, the tissue that covers the ends where two bones meet to form a joint. This allows the bones to rub together, causing pain, swelling, and loss of joint motion.
Over time, the joint may lose its normal shape. Also, small bone growths, called osteophytes or bone spurs, may grow on the edges of the joint. Bits of bone or cartilage can also break off and float inside the joint space. This causes more pain and damage.
Who Gets Osteoarthritis?
Osteoarthritis becomes more common with age. However, younger people can also develop it, usually as the result of a joint injury, an abnormal joint structure, or a genetic defect in joint cartilage.
Before age 45, more men than women have osteoarthritis. After age 45, it is more common in women. It is also more likely to occur in people who are overweight and in those with jobs that stress particular joints.
Symptoms of Osteoarthritis
Early in the disease, your joints may ache after physical work or exercise. Later on, joint pain may become more persistent. You may also experience joint stiffness, especially when you first wake up in the morning or have been in one position for a long time.
Joints often affected by osteoarthritis include:
If your mother or grandmother has or had osteoarthritis in their hands, you're at an increased risk of having it too. Women are more likely than men to have osteoarthritis in their hands. For most women, it develops after menopause.
Stiffness, swelling, and pain in the knees can make it hard to walk, climb, and get in and out of chairs and bathtubs. Osteoarthritis in the knees can lead to disability.
You might feel pain and stiffness in the hip joint or in the groin, inner thigh, buttocks, or even knees. Moving and bending may be limited, making daily activities such as dressing and putting on shoes a challenge.
You may feel stiffness and pain in the neck or lower back. In some cases, arthritis-related changes in the spine can cause pressure on the nerves where they exit the spinal column, resulting in weakness, tingling, or numbness of the arms and legs. In severe cases, this can even affect bladder and bowel function.
Causes of Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis usually happens gradually over time. Some things that might make it more likely include:
- Being overweight.
- Getting older.
- Joint injury.
- Joints that are not properly formed.
- A genetic defect in joint cartilage.
Tests for Osteoarthritis
Although there is no single test for osteoarthritis, your doctor may do the following to diagnosis you with the condition:
- Medical history to learn about your symptoms, any other medical problems you and your close family members have, and about any medications you are taking.
- Physical exam to check your general health, reflexes, and problem joints.
- Take pictures of your joint.
- X-rays can show things such as cartilage loss, bone damage, and bone spurs. Early damage may not show on x-rays.
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can show damage to connective tissues.
- Blood tests to rule out other causes for symptoms.
- Joint fluid samples to look for other causes of joint pain, such as infection or gout.
Treatment of Osteoarthritis
Treatment for osteoarthritis can include medications or surgery to reduce pain and improve functioning.
- Medications commonly used in treating osteoarthritis include:
- Over-the-counter pain relievers such as acetaminophen.
- Creams, rubs or sprays that are applied to the skin over sore joints to relieve pain.
- Corticosteroids are strong inflammation-fighting drugs that can be injected into the joint to temporarily relieve pain. This type of treatment is usually not recommended for more than two to four treatments per year. These types of drugs are not typically given by mouth to treat osteoarthritis unless treating inflammatory flares.
- Hyaluronic acid substitutes (viscosupplements) are injected into the knee to replace a normal component of the joint involved in lubrication and nutrition.
- Surgery may be a factor after considering a variety of factors, including your age, occupation, level of disability, pain intensity, and the degree to which arthritis interferes with your lifestyle. Surgeries can include one or more of the following:
- Arthroscopic debridement: Removal of loose pieces of bone and cartilage from the joint.
- Osteotomy: Repositioning of bones.
- Joint resurfacing: Smoothing out bones.
- Prostheses are artificial joints that replace affected joints. The artificial joints can be made from metals, high-density plastic, or ceramic material. Artificial joints can last 10 to 15 years or longer. In some cases, your surgeon may replace only the damaged part of the knee joint, leaving undamaged parts of the joint in place.
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) directs mild electric pulses to nerve endings that lie beneath the skin in the painful area. It seems to work by blocking pain messages to the brain and by changing pain perception.
- Alternative therapies for osteoarthritis can include:
- Massage can increase blood flow and bring warmth to a stressed area. However, arthritis-stressed joints are sensitive, so the therapist must be familiar with the problems of the disease.
- Acupuncture uses thin needles to relieve pain and restore health. Scientists think the needles stimulate the release of natural, pain-relieving chemicals produced by the nervous system.
Who Treats Osteoarthritis?
Treating osteoarthritis requires a team effort involving you and several types of health care professionals. These may include:
- Primary care doctors, such as a family physician or internal medicine specialist, who coordinates care between the different health providers and treats other problems as they arise.
- Rheumatologists, who specialize in arthritis and other diseases of the bones, joints, and muscles.
- Orthopaedists, who specialize in treatment and surgery for bone and joint diseases.
- Physical therapists, who help improve joint function.
- Occupational therapists, who teach ways to protect joints, minimize pain, perform activities of daily living, and conserve energy.
- Dietitians, who teach about good diets and maintaining a healthy weight.
- Nurse educators, who help you understand your condition and help start treatment plans.
- Physiatrists (rehabilitation specialists), who supervise exercise programs.
- Licensed acupuncture therapists, who reduce pain and improve physical functioning by inserting fine needles into the skin at specific points on the body.
- Psychologists or social workers, who help with social challenges caused by medical conditions.
- Chiropractors, who focus treatment on the relationship between the body's structure, mainly the spine, and its functioning.
- Massage therapists, who press, rub, and otherwise manipulate the muscles and other soft tissues of the body.
Living With Osteoarthritis
There are many things you can do to help you live with osteoarthritis, including:
- Exercise can reduce joint pain and stiffness and increase flexibility, muscle strength, and endurance. Exercise also helps people lose weight, which reduces stress on painful joints. You should speak to your doctor about a safe, well-rounded exercise program, which could include:
- Strengthening exercises: Performed by weights or exercise bands to strengthen muscles that support joints affected by arthritis.
- Aerobic activities: Exercises that keep your lungs and circulatory system healthy. Examples include brisk walking or low-impact aerobics.
- Range-of-motion activities keep your joints limber.
- Balance and agility exercises help you maintain daily living skills.
- Weight control: If overweight, losing weight can reduce stress on joints, limit further injury, increase mobility, and reduce the risk of associated health problems. A healthy diet and regular exercise help reduce weight.
- Heat and cold therapies can reduce joint pain. Heat therapy increases blood flow, tolerance for pain, and flexibility. Cold therapy numbs the nerves around the joint to reduce pain and may relieve inflammation.
- Nutritional supplements such as glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate have been reported to improve symptoms in some people with osteoarthritis, as have certain vitamins. | <urn:uuid:781d21f8-6d8b-428d-a853-c4f8e89c1364> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.tabletwise.net/health/osteoarthritis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334596.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925193816-20220925223816-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.934089 | 2,004 | 3.828125 | 4 |
Our eyes constantly make a fluid called aqueous humor. As new aqueous flows into your eye, the same amount should drain out through a tiny drainage area. This process keeps pressure in your eye (called intraocular pressure or IOP) stable. But if the drain is not working properly, fluid builds up. Pressure inside the eye rises, damaging the optic nerve. This is often how glaucoma develops.
In the past, you may have had an eye pressure test using a puff of air. Now most ophthalmologists use a more accurate device that measures pressure by direct contact with the eye.
How Is Eye Pressure Measured?
- Eye drops are put in your eyes to numb them.
- Then the doctor or assistant gently touches the front surface of your eye with a device that glows with a blue light. Other times a different handheld instrument is used.
- Both methods apply a small amount of pressure to the eye.
- This allows your ophthalmologist to measure the pressure inside each eye.
- During this test, it is very helpful to relax and breathe normally.
Each person’s eye pressure is different, and there is no single correct pressure for everyone. Generally, the range for normal pressure is between 10 and 21 mmHg (“mmHg” means “millimeters of mercury,” a scale used to record eye pressure).
Most people who have glaucoma will have an eye pressure higher than 21 mmHg. However, some people with pressures between 10 and 21 mmHg may have glaucoma.
Your ophthalmologist will determine the eye pressure range that is healthy specifically for you.
Content Provided by the AAO through the Eye Smart program. | <urn:uuid:9332c644-efdf-49c4-90b0-4fce3b852598> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://southern-eye.com/eye-pressure-testing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178363211.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20210302003534-20210302033534-00311.warc.gz | en | 0.93675 | 364 | 4.15625 | 4 |
SHIRETOKO PENINSULA, Japan - Lined up along the side of their boat, the fishermen hauled a huge, heavy net up from swelling waves. At first, a few small jellyfish emerged, then a piece of plastic. Then net, and more net. Finally, all the way at the bottom: a small thrashing mass of silvery salmon.
It was just after dawn at the height of the autumn fishing season, but something was wrong.
"When are the fish coming?" boat captain Teruhiko Miura asked himself.
The salmon catch is collapsing off Japan's northern coast, plummeting by about 70 percent in the past 15 years. The disappearance of the fish coincides with another striking development: the loss of a unique blanket of sea ice that dips far below the Arctic to reach this shore.
The twin impacts - less ice, fewer salmon - are the products of rapid warming in the Sea of Okhotsk, wedged between Siberia and Japan. The area has warmed in some places by as much as 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since preindustrial times, making it one of the fastest-warming spots in the world, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the nonprofit organization Berkeley Earth.
That increase far outstrips the global average and exceeds the limit policymakers set in Paris in 2015 when they aimed to keep Earth's average temperature rise "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
The rising temperatures are starting to shut down the single most dynamic sea ice factory on Earth. The intensity of ice generation in the northwestern Sea of Okhotsk exceeds that of any single place in the Arctic Ocean or Antarctica, and the sea ice reaches a lower latitude than anywhere else on the planet. Its decline has a cascade of consequences well beyond Japan as climate dominoes begin to fall.
When sea ice forms here, it expels huge amounts of salt into the frigid water below the surface, creating some of the densest ocean water on Earth. That water then sinks and travels east, carrying oxygen, iron and other key nutrients out into the northern Pacific Ocean, where marine life depends on it.
As the ice retreats, that nutrient-rich current is weakening, endangering the biological health of the vast northern Pacific - one of the most startling, and least discussed, effects of climate change so far observed.
"We call the Sea of Okhotsk the heart of the North Pacific," said Kay Ohshima, a polar oceanographer at the Institute of Low Temperature Science at Hokkaido University. "But the Sea of Okhotsk is significantly warming, three times faster than the global mean.
"That causes the power of the heart to weaken," he said.
The cascade starts more than a thousand miles away in a uniquely frigid area of Siberia known as the "Cold Pole," where the coldest temperature ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere (-67.7 degrees Celsius or-89.9 degrees Fahrenheit) was measured in 1933.
The Cold Pole, too, is warming rapidly, by about 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) since preindustrial times in the village of Oymyakon. That means the bitter north wind that blows down onto the Sea of Okhotsk is also warming.
The warmer wind inhibits the formation of sea ice. Across the Sea of Okhotsk, ice cover during the peak months of February and March has shrunk by nearly 30 percent in the past four decades, a vanishing of about 130,000 square miles of ice, an area larger than Arizona.
Masanori Ito, 67, recalls how, during his childhood, the ice would drift down from the sea's northern reaches - a thick, white carpet descending on Abashiri, a city on the northeastern shore of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost prefecture.
"The drift ice used to arrive with a force, pushed and pushed from behind, from far out at sea," said Ito, senior executive director at the Okhotsk Sightseeing Federation. It would pile up upon itself, forming "mountains over 10 meters high."
Today, those mountains are long gone, and the coast of Hokkaido is hemmed in by ice for fewer than 25 days a year on average, said Arctic scientist Shuhei Takahashi, who runs the Okhotsk Sea Ice Museum of Hokkaido in Mombetsu.
A century ago, the coast typically had ice for more than 50 days each winter, Takahashi said. Based on current trends, he said, the drift ice could disappear entirely by the end of this century.
Meanwhile, the ice itself is also changing. Those who know it well say it sounds different, less intense, no longer an indomitable winter colossus.
"Years ago, our nose hair froze and stuck out. And our eyelashes would get moist and go all white," said Shigeru Yamai, 66, captain of the icebreaker Garinko II. "When we walked on the ice, we heard squeaking sounds. The sound today is different. It hardly gets that severe anymore."
- - -
For fisherman Nobuo Sugimura, 63, the changing climate is evident in his steadily diminishing catch. At home after a fishing trip on Miura's vessel the Hokushin Maru, Sugimura brought out his logbooks and diaries, pulling records for his most recent catch in late September and for the same period seven years ago.
In 2012, Sugimura's records show he and fellow crew members brought in between 21 and 52 metric tons of fish per day. This year, the catch one day was a meager six tons.
"We had a bad time 30 or 40 years ago, and this reminds me of that," he said. "But that only lasted a year or two, not this long."
In the nation that invented sushi, there is no region better known for its seafood than Hokkaido. And there is no fish more synonymous with Hokkaido, more central to its culture, than the salmon.
The relationship stretches back as long as humans have lived here. The indigenous Ainu people had 133 words for salmon and used its skin to make boots. The fish and its orange roe are critical ingredients in Hokkaido's famous seafood sashimi rice bowl, savored by foodie tourists across this gourmet nation. The image of a bear clamping a salmon between its powerful jaws is an iconic symbol of Hokkaido, reproduced on T-shirts and in wood carvings on sale in almost every souvenir shop.
Though Hokkaido's salmon hatcheries are working harder than ever, releasing a billion juvenile fish into the island's rivers every spring, the number of returning chum salmon has declined sharply, from 68 million fish in 2003 to just 28 million in 2018. Nationwide, Japan's annual chum salmon catch has also fallen from 258,000 metric tons in 2003, when a sharp decline began, to 80,000 last year, according to the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission.
Salmon are highly sensitive to changes in water temperature. As they swim into the Sea of Okhotsk at the start of their long migration across the Pacific, the warmer waters act as a force field, pushing them off their ancient track.
Compelled to travel faster and farther to reach cooler northern waters, the young salmon use up stores of energy when they can least afford it. If they delay their departure date, they won't survive at all.
Masahide Kaeriyama, an emeritus professor in the Arctic Research Center at Hokkaido University, said Japanese salmon migrate up what he calls a "ladder" of suitable temperatures. For more than a decade, he has been predicting that climate change would cut Hokkaido's salmon catch in half. Now, he says global warming is happening even faster than he expected.
"As the optimal temperature moves away from Hokkaido, the ladder of migration is being taken away," he said.
Japan's loss has been Russia's gain. Waters near the Siberian coast - once too cold for salmon - are now in the optimum range for the fish. Even as Japan's catch began to decline in 2003, Russia's chum salmon quadrupled to a record high of nearly 144,000 metric tons in 2015. The same phenomenon is happening around the world, as warmer waters cause key species to seek cooler habitats closer to the poles. The lobster population off the Northeast coast in the United States is seeing a similar disruption.
If the Hokkaido salmon survive the first leg of their journey, they move into the Bering Sea, and then on to the Gulf of Alaska for their second winter. By the age of 4 or 5, they return to Japan, to the very same river where they hatched.
The smaller number of returning fish is keenly felt on Hokkaido's Shiretoko Peninsula, home to the largest concentration of brown bears in the world. Each fall, as the salmon amass offshore, the bears are waiting, splashing in the streams at the mouth of every river. Here, the iconic image of a bear catching a salmon comes to life.
Salmon nourish the bears, and the bears' leftovers discarded in the forest nourish birds, insects and plants, creating "one of the richest integrated ecosystems in the world," according to UNESCO, the educational, scientific and cultural agency of the United Nations.
UNESCO made Shiretoko National Park a World Heritage Site in 2005. But as the drift ice recedes and the salmon catch shrinks, UNESCO worries that the park's unique ecosystem will be irrevocably damaged.
"Japanese people see salmon as a source of food," Kaeriyama said. "But salmon is, in fact, the very foundation of the ecosystem where we live."
- - -
The link between sea ice and prosperity is not lost on the towns and cities of northern Hokkaido and the Shiretoko Peninsula, where the ice drives a vital tourism industry.
In the spring, as the ice melts and sunlight hits the water, the sea blooms with phytoplankton, the anchor of marine life and the base of the ocean's food web.
That makes the Sea of Okhotsk a spectacularly bountiful stretch of water, home to whales and dolphins, sea lions and seals, scallop and crabs, and hundreds of species of fish. Its shores provide homes to many migratory and sea birds, from the largest owl in the world - the endangered Blakiston's fish owl - to the heavy Steller's sea eagle.
In Abashiri alone, about 110,000 people, nearly half of them foreigners, took sightseeing cruises last year across the vast expanse of sea ice. On the eastern side of the peninsula, tourist boats set out from the town of Rausu every winter to gaze at eagles perched on the ice and seals bobbing through it, and in the spring, summer and fall to watch humpback, sperm and killer whales splash through the waves.
Meanwhile, key nutrients, especially iron, flow into the Sea of Okhotsk from Russia's Amur River. Undersea currents carry those nutrients into the North Pacific, forming an intermediate layer of water roughly 600 to 2,600 feet below the surface. Eventually, the water rises back up, bringing the iron that is vital for phytoplankton with it.
The Okhotsk sea ice decline jeopardizes that giant convection current. Ohshima, his fellow scientists from Hokkaido University and other institutions in Japan have documented a marked warming in the North Pacific's intermediate layer, much more rapid than the general warming of the ocean - a sign that less cold, dense water is being formed in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Scientists have also documented growing zones in the North Pacific, at depths of about 1,300 and 2,300 feet, where ocean oxygen levels are in fast decline.
In other words, the "heart of the Pacific" is indeed weakening. The scientists don't know all of the consequences yet, but they're worried because of the irreplaceable contribution of the Sea of Okhotsk to a much larger region.
- - -
Back on Hokkaido, the falling salmon catch is triggering cascading economic impacts.
Last year, salmon processors paid high prices for dwindling supplies of Japanese chum salmon, only to find that consumers weren't prepared to pay more. Japanese salmon was soon displaced by cheaper imports from places such as Norway, Chile, Russia and Alaska.
Tetsuya Shinya, head of the Abashiri Fisheries Cooperative, said he is reluctantly considering something once unthinkable: raising salmon on fish farms.
"It's still not the right time to do it," he said. "Even so, I feel we are getting into a pretty tough time."
Wild salmon tend to be hardier and more resistant to changing temperatures than salmon reared in the more-controlled environment of a hatchery. One solution is a campaign to reduce Hokkaido's dependence on salmon hatcheries by encouraging more wild salmon to return to the island's rivers.
Scientists and volunteers are clearing rivers along the Shiretoko Peninsula, where anything from silt to concrete dams can prevent wild salmon from returning to spawn.
Among the volunteers is Yuto Sugimura, 32, the son of the fisherman whose records document the salmon's startling decline.
Yuto said he never used to think much about climate change beyond what he saw on the news. But as he dove into the sea in September to set salmon nets, he didn't need any records to tell him the temperature is rising.
"I've been going under the water for 15 years, but these days it feels quite lukewarm," he said.
"Until you feel it on your skin or experience it in reality, you don't talk about it," Yuto said of climate change.
"Today, with the changes in the water, I am beginning to feel it on my skin, and I am beginning to think about it."
- - -
The Washington Post's Akiko Kashiwagi contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:ec285942-d2c3-497b-9787-5249a10ec884> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/washington-post/international/climate-change-triggers-a-chain-reaction-that-threatens-the-heart-of-the-pacific-1.24004713 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657129257.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20200711224142-20200712014142-00053.warc.gz | en | 0.950852 | 2,927 | 3.5625 | 4 |
Photo courtesy of the 8th Armored Division Association
ON MARCH 25, 1863, SIX UNION ARMY SOLDIERS BECAME THE FIRST Medal of Honor recipients for their participation in the “Great Locomotive Chase” the previous year. Fort Knox marked the centennial of that occasion and recognized those who had received the nation’s highest military honor with a wreath laying ceremony at Brooks Field. One Medal of Honor recipient commonly associated with Fort Knox is Master Sgt. Ernest Kouma, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroic action during the Korean War. He is buried in the Fort Knox post cemetery. In this photograph, Brig. Gen. William Grimes and Col. N. Butler Briscoe visited with famous World War II Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Alvin York during his visit to Fort Knox in April 1943. | <urn:uuid:9881956c-d17d-47be-a4b6-fcc8fe38a743> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.fkgoldstandard.com/content/fort-knox-scrapbook-87 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281226.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00341-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968866 | 172 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Analogue and Digital Communication Techniques
By: Grahame Smillie (author)Paperback
More than 4 weeks availability
The rapid expansion of digital communications, particularly in the fields of TV and mobile telephones does not overide the need for a clear understanding of analogue frequencies. Moreover, analogue technology will play an important role in communications well into the 21st century. Covering the principles behind analogue and digital communication systems, this book takes a less mathematical approach than is often found at this level. It begins with basic principles such as information systems, data compression and error detection before moving on to more advanced topics such as Pulse Code Modulation systems and digital microwave systems. Data protocols are also given so that the reader can gain a good understanding of more complex communication systems. 'Analogue and Digital Communication Techniques' has been designed for students studying HND electronic communication courses but will also be useful to junior undergraduates on similar courses. Some knowledge of basic elctronics is assumed.
Definition of terms * Analogue modulation principles * Spread spectrum systems * Digital modulation techniques * Pulse code modulation * Noise figure and noise temperature * Effects of noise and distortion on analogue and digital signals * Determination of bit error rates * Source coding techniques * Bit error detection and correction * Line and interface coding * ISO open systems interconnect seven-latyer model.
Number Of Pages:
- ID: 9780340731253
- Saver Delivery: Yes
- 1st Class Delivery: Yes
- Courier Delivery: Yes
- Store Delivery: Yes
Prices are for internet purchases only. Prices and availability in WHSmith Stores may vary significantly
© Copyright 2013 - 2017 WHSmith and its suppliers.
WHSmith High Street Limited Greenbridge Road, Swindon, Wiltshire, United Kingdom, SN3 3LD, VAT GB238 5548 36 | <urn:uuid:cde5679e-0014-4ed6-8857-7c06d8c01d55> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/analogue-and-digital-communication-techniques/9780340731253 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280280.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00382-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.845216 | 375 | 3 | 3 |
Jump to navigation Jump to search
- Mathematicians are used to game-playing according to a set of rules they lay down in advance, despite the fact that nature always writes her own. One acquires a great deal of humility by experienceing the real wiliness of nature.
- Philip Warren Anderson, More and Different: Notes from a Thoughtful Curmudgeon, 2011, World Scientific Publishing, p. 190
- Quapropter bono christiano, sive mathematici, sive quilibet impie divinantium... cavendi sunt, ne consortio daemoniorum irretiant.
- Translation: Therefore, a good Christian should beware that mathematicians, and any others who prophesy impiously... may be entangled in the companionship of demons.
- St. Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram
- Augustine uses "mathematicians" in this context to refer mainly to astrologers and occultists using numerology.
- A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.
- I united the majority of well-informed persons into a club, which we called by the name of the Junto, and the object of which was to improve our understandings. ... The first members of our club were...
Thomas Godfrey, a self-taught mathematician, and afterwards inventor of what is now called Hadley's dial; but he had little knowledge out of his own line, and was insupportable in company, always requiring, like the majority of mathematicians that have fallen in my way, an unusual precision in everything that is said, continually contradicting, or making trifling distinctions—a sure way of defeating all the ends of conversation. He very soon left us.
- Avec toute l’algèbre du monde on n’est souvent qu’un sot lorsqu’on ne sait pas autre chose. Peut-être dans dix ans la société tirera-t-elle de l’avantage des courbes que des songe-creux d’algébristes auront carrées laborieusement. J’en félicite d’avance la postérité; mais, à vous parler vrai, je ne vois dans tous ces calculs qu’une scientifique extravagance. Tout ce qui n’est ni utile ni agréable ne vaut rien. Quant aux choses utiles, elles sont toutes trouvées; et, pour les agréables, j’espère que le bon goût n’y admettra point d’algèbre.
- [A] man with all the algebra in the world is often only an ass when he knows nothing else. Perhaps in ten years society may derive advantage from the curves which these visionary algebraists will have laboriously squared. I congratulate posterity beforehand. But to tell you the truth I see nothing but a scientific extravagance in all these calculations. That which is neither useful nor agreeable is worthless. And as for useful things, they have all been discovered; and to those which are agreeable, I hope that good taste will not admit algebra among them.
- Letters of Voltaire and Frederick the Great (New York: Brentano's, 1927), trans. Richard Aldington, letter 93 from Frederick to Voltaire (1749-05-16)
- Die Mathematiker sind eine Art Franzosen; redet man zu ihnen, so übersetzen sie es in ihre Sprache, und dann ist es alsobald ganz etwas anders.
- The mathematician's best work is art, a high perfect art, as daring as the most secret dreams of imagination, clear and limpid. Mathematical genius and artistic genius touch one another.
- Gösta Mittag-Leffler
- Quoted in N. Rose Mathematical Maxims and Minims, Raleigh NC:Rome Press Inc., 1988.
- Mathematicians seem to have no difficulty in creating new concepts faster than the old ones become well understood.
- Edward Norton Lorenz (1991) "A scientist by choice". Speech by acceptance of the Kyoto Prize in 1991.
- I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.
- Plato, from Benjamin Jowett's interpretive vernacular translation (1871) of Plato's Republic, Book VII, 531-e. Plato actually has Socrates say that few mathematicians are dialecticians (διαλεκτικοί) (Jowett, Plato's Republic: The Greek Text, Vol. I "Text", 1894), by which he refers to step by step reasoning based on mutual agreement, (G. M. A. Grube, Plato's Republic (1974), Book VII, note 13). It is an accurate observation on the primitive mathematics of his day.
- Aristotle, so far as I know, was the first man to proclaim explicitly that man is a rational animal. His reason for this view was one which does not now seem very impressive; it was, that some people can do sums.
- Bertrand Russell, "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish", in Unpopular Essays (1950), p. 71
- Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted.
- Bertrand Russell, "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish", Unpopular Essays (1950).
- These experiences are not 'religious' in the ordinary sense. They are natural, and can be studied naturally. They are not 'ineffable' in the sense the sense of incommunicable by language. Maslow also came to believe that they are far commoner than one might expect, that many people tend to suppress them, to ignore them, and certain people seem actually afraid of them, as if they were somehow feminine, illogical, dangerous. 'One sees such attitudes more often in engineers, in mathematicians, in analytic philosophers, in book keepers and accountants, and generally in obsessional people'.
The peak experience tends to be a kind of bubbling-over of delight, a moment of pure happiness. 'For instance, a young mother scurrying around her kitchen and getting breakfast for her husband and young children. The sun was streaming in, the children clean and nicely dressed, were chattering as they ate. The husband was casually playing with the children: but as she looked at them she was suddenly so overwhelmed with their beauty and her great love for them, and her feeling of good fortune, that she went into a peak experience . . .
- Colin Wilson in New Pathways In Psychology, p. 17 (1972) | <urn:uuid:8d576adf-053d-4c1c-85d5-a36f18e37e22> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mathematicians?uselang=km | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583668324.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20190119135934-20190119161934-00370.warc.gz | en | 0.89037 | 1,451 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Beyond the typical underlying changes in money supply there are very important elements of demand that continue to push the price of physical silver higher and higher. This is despite the fact that silver has been money for much longer then gold.
One element is the elasticity of demand for silver, particularly in the manufacturing of electronics.
Silver is the best conductor of electricity known to man and even at a current prices, it is very inexpensive for use in consumer electronics.
Silver cannot and will not be replaced by the industrial sector as a conductor of electricity for two reasons:
1) it is relatively inexpensive, and
2) it is the best product for the job.
When a computer manufacturer begins to source components to build its consumer products, the company buys tons of glass, pounds of silicon, and tiny amounts of silver.
When you buy a computer that costs $500-$1000, it contains, at most, 1 gram of silver. Most computers contain fractions of that amount, for a maximum cost of $.60.
Even if silver were to explode in price from $18 per ounce to $180 per ounce (which is a dramatic change) the price of the silver component in a computer would grow from $.60 to $6.
Thus, even after silver explodes in price, the computer manufacturers will still be very much willing to use silver since $6 on a $500 computer is just 1.2% of the price.
Silver's demand can easily be contrasted with the emphasis on technology during the past half century.
Prior to World War II, very few homes owned electronic devices and silver's industrial use was limited to only photograph development.
In contrast, the post-war family owned microwaves, TVs, toasters and other appliances including washer and dryers – which all contain silver.
And even in the past decade, the average consumption of silver by the average person has grown.
Today, each person owns a cellular phone, TV, computer, monitor, printer, router, and a myriad of computing peripherals that all contain silver.
It is without question that demand for silver as an industrial metal has exploded with technological achievements - but the biggest use for silver is just now being uncovered.
Many argue that gold is held by government and central banks by proxy, as the line between the two becomes evermore foggy. Therefore, gold is the better monetary asset. Central banks and governments don't stockpile silver - mainly because there is not enough to accumulate. More importantly, silver isn’t stockpiled because the resulting price adjustment could break the financial system.
What is fascinating is that, even in the realm of vast money creation and decades of dangerous policy that threaten the world financial system and underlying economy, central banks are still held to such a high standard. In effect, they are deemed immutable. The fact is that central banks fail right alongside the currencies they create from nothing.
Today's biggest technological feats are all painting a pretty picture for silver. They also serve to aid in the establishment of a much higher market price in the future - with or without monetary inflation or the stockpiling of central banking gone awry. | <urn:uuid:ec32db08-172f-4479-bc82-408bde75a49e> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.silver-coin-investor.com/Circling-Back-to-Silver-Fundamentals.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320707.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626101322-20170626121322-00679.warc.gz | en | 0.962821 | 639 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Learning to save early on can lead to a healthy financial life. There are many benefits that result from saving which include the ability to reach your financial goals, being able to avoid going into debt when you have unplanned expenses and gaining a piece of mind knowing that you have a cushion in case you need money fast for an emergency!
How to start saving, pay yourself first. When you receive income, instantly contribute something toward your savings, no matter how small the amount. Saving on a regular basis (e.g. every week; once a month) will help you to develop a lifelong habit.
Set goals and make a plan. If you set financial goals along with a detailed plan on how to reach them, you will set yourself up for success.
Savings Account. This is an account offered by nearly every banking and credit institution in the United States. Be sure to get a bank that is insured (either FDIC or NCUA) so that if the bank fails, your money is protected.
U.S. Savings Bond. This is a product issued by the federal government in which you enter into an agreement to loan the government money for a specified period of time and in return you are paid interest up front. Most bonds can earn interest for up to 30 years from the time you buy them but you usually cannot cash them before 5 years without a penalty.
Ready, set, save. Step 1. Find out if your account type is FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) or NCUA (National CreditUnion Administration) insured; Step 2. Compare institutions interest rates, fees, and the frequency of compounding interest; Step 3.Check out the convenience services offered (e.g. online banking, ATM access); Step 4. Open your new account and start saving right away!
Acknowledgement: This fact sheet was originally developed by youth and staff at ReachOut.com, a website that helps teens get through tough times. | <urn:uuid:4ea05443-723e-4267-bc3b-34330aa2740c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.wernative.org/articles/becoming-a-savvy-saver | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571989.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813232744-20220814022744-00459.warc.gz | en | 0.952785 | 395 | 2.890625 | 3 |
A two-part series on heat and health published in The Lancet warns that heat-related morbidity and mortality will likely increase without investment in evidence-based research and risk-management strategies.
The series brings together academic experts from epidemiology, physiology, medicine, climate science, built environment, and sustainable development with contributions from 15 authors from eight countries spanning four continents.
Professor George Havenith, of Loughborough University’s Environmental Ergonomics Research Centre (EERC), is one of the contributing authors and his team’s research into heat exposure has helped shape the series.
The EERC team have examined the impact of ageing and the differences in temperature regulation in pre-pubertal children, the impact of heat on worker productivity in physical work with a focus on the impact of climate change, cooling interventions for workers in extreme conditions, and much more as part of the Heat-Shield project.
Co-led by Professor Ollie Jay from the University of Sydney (Australia) and Professor Kristie Ebi from the University of Washington (USA), the Lancet series argues prevention and planning must go together.
“This year’s hot weather in southern Europe and the US west coast has shown that climate change is not something that will happen only in the far future. The impacts are here today”, Professor Havenith explained.
“Loughborough’s research on the impact of heat and climate change on worker productivity has shown that apart from direct health effects, big economic effects can be expected with increasing heat, based on the substantial reductions in work output in the heat observed.
“That is why urgent action is needed on two fronts: one to fight further climate change occurring, and the second is to help regions and people affected by extreme weather to cope with the current and future temperature extremes.
“The paper’s overview of health impacts on one side and sustainable mitigating measures to cope with extreme heat, for different situations, like in schools, workplaces care homes, etc. will provide valuable information to those affected.”
What are the health risks of extreme heat?
Failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to develop and deploy heat action plans will mean a very different future awaits many people and communities around the world.
Day-to-day summer activities may change dramatically as increasing warming means people are at greater risk of exposure to intolerable heat far more often, particularly in tropical regions.
When exposed to extreme heat stress, the body’s ability to regulate its internal temperature can be overwhelmed, leading to heat stroke. In addition, physiological thermoregulatory responses that are engaged to protect body temperature induce other types of physiological strain and can lead to catastrophic cardiorespiratory events.
Effects from extreme heat are also associated with increased hospitalisations and emergency room visits, increased deaths from cardiorespiratory and other diseases, mental health issues, adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes, and increased healthcare costs.
Older people and other vulnerable people due to a limited behavioural adaptive capacity (e.g., isolated at home, poor mobility) are also more likely to experience the health effects of extreme heat.
Extreme heat also lessens worker productivity, especially among the more than 1 billion workers who are exposed to high heat on a regular basis. These workers often report reduced work output due to heat stress, many of whom are manual laborers who are unable to take rest breaks or other measure to lessen the effects of heat exposure.
“Extremely hot days or heat waves that were experienced approximately every 20 years will now be seen more frequently and could even occur every year by the end of this century if current greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated. These rising temperatures combined with a larger and older population, mean that even more people will be at risk for heat-related health effects,” said Professor Ebi.
Evidence-based and sustainable cooling strategies
The authors argue that the global community and policy makers should look beyond short-term solutions that might be convenient but do not promote long term resilience. Planning must also consider those that are most economically and clinically vulnerable to extreme heat.
While air conditioning is set to become the most widely adopted heat reduction strategy worldwide, it is unaffordable for many, and is financially and environmentally costly, potentially leaving many defenceless during power outages.
They highlight accessible and effective cooling strategies at the individual, building, and urban and landscape level and recommend tailored approaches for specific settings where people may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat including care homes, unplanned settlements, workplaces, schools, mass gatherings, refugee camps, and sports play.
In the series, the authors highlight actions individuals can take to cool themselves down and blunt other types of physiological strain that arise from regulating body temperature to combat health risks from extreme heat.
Effective and sustainable strategies include:
- electric and misting fans
- self-dousing with a water spray or sponge
- wearing wet clothing
- immersing feet in cold water
- short breaks from physical activity
- remaining well hydrated (the temperature of water consumed has little consequence)
- modifying clothing or protective equipment to improve ventilation.
'Sustainable and accessible ways to keep cool infographic' by The Lancet can be found here.
Adaptations to buildings can help cool indoor environments. These include external coatings to reflect heat away from buildings and green walls to reduce surface temperatures, improved insulation and glazing, and better ventilation through and around buildings.
Features of the urban environment and surrounding landscape also influence conditions in built-up areas. Lakes, large grasslands and parks, and shaded outdoor areas, as well as reducing pollution within cities, are important.
To protect populations, heat action plans, which include early warning and response systems and robust surveillance and monitoring, must include evidence-based cooling strategies.
Professor Jay said: “We are fortunate that advances in research and technology now allow physiologists to simulate human exposure to different heatwave scenarios in climate chambers, providing us with scientific evidence that can inform low cost and effective cooling strategies for different circumstances.
“Integrating this evidence-based information into heat action plans that are robust, communicated well to the public, and informed by real-time surveillance will provide optimal health protection into the future. Currently, many heat-health action plans are not supported by evidence, and this urgently needs to change – it will save lives.”
For more information on the series, click here.
To find out more about Loughborough University’s Environmental Ergonomics Research Centre, click here. | <urn:uuid:a9467b2c-5dd8-4983-b599-b973cf304bec> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.lboro.ac.uk/internal/news/2021/august/lancet-heat-and-health-series/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320300810.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20220118092443-20220118122443-00694.warc.gz | en | 0.941489 | 1,343 | 2.828125 | 3 |
When is it a good time to talk to kids about money and finances?
When is it a good time to have “the talk” with your kids? Early and often, if you are referring to money and finances.
Youth today might know what a credit card is, the price of the new PlayStation or a pair of Air Jordan’s, but have no clue what basic utilities run. They may not be aware of how much it is monthly to buy groceries, make a mortgage payment, heat or cool a home, finance an education or save for retirement. They are often unaware of credit card rates, hidden fees, late charges or how to protect themselves from identity theft. Many youth have no idea what it costs to run a household.
Youth often don’t speak the language either. There is jargon in the finance world involving 401(k)’s, annuities, Roth plans, taxes, etc. This can get confusing to most adults, so imagine what it would be like if you were on your own learning about money for the first time. Therefore, it is so beneficial to have conversations early with your children about these topics. Talk about money, budgeting, expenses, finances and how to manage them. It may be difficult at first, but there are some upsides to doing this.
Have you ever told your child to turn off the lights if they are not in the room, or shut the refrigerator door as they stare bewildering into the refrigerator? If you enlighten them on what it costs to keep those video games going and food in the refrigerator, it might just inspire them to shut that door and save a little. Becoming aware of what an electric bill looks like and what it might cost to supply a home is valuable. And it’s not just electricity bills, but heating, cooling, entertainment, Internet and home maintenance too. How much could you save if they mowed the lawn? These educational talks may also include phone bills, car payments, lunch money, mortgages and maybe even vacations.
Before they get out in the “real world” and on their own, youth should have an idea of the expenses of maintaining a home. Again, with this education, they may think twice about cranking up the air conditioner or leaving all the lights on in your house. Knowing and understanding these household expenses may turn a kinder eye on the use of those amenities. If they are aware of these costs and then ask for a new video game or $20 for the evening, you can inform them that it will take some savings in the household budget to swing that. That may help turn off the lights and limit the handouts.
You will need to find a comfortable balance as to what age to bring these topics up and to the amount of information you’d like to share with your child. The key is to talk about money at all stages of their life – from knowing the denominations for currencies to savings for retirement. Bankrate has some tips to raise money-savvy teens and some topics to bring up to with your middle schoolers.
The other benefits gained by these talks are a greater knowledge of the world of money management. Not only will your youth learn the language of money – the terms, concepts and jargon that they use – but also how to budget and save for themselves. Is it better to lease or buy a car? When should I start saving for retirement? How will I finance college? What is a good mortgage rate?
Your children can also be your advocate in researching a topic. Have them investigate the best phone plans, if solar panels would be cost-effective or what are the bond market products available. They will learn new terms and concepts and can help you learn what might be best for the family. It also exposes them to these money management concepts with no risk. They can see what it’s like to run a household and what it might take to be financially independent without losing money. Then when they are making the decisions for themselves, they will have the confidence and hopefully not the fear of their finances.
Having these talks opens up the conversation that can lead to more knowledge about money and finances. This will benefit your child in the future and maybe even you in the present. Youth may look at money or the household budget differently if they know what money is coming in and where it is going out. They may not ask for the new pair of $80 jeans when they know that money could be set aside for their college tuition. They may be thankful for what they have and grateful for how hard you work. Just talking about it really costs nothing. How’s that for cost-effective?
For more information on money management or youth development programs, please visit the Michigan State University Extension website. | <urn:uuid:442419e5-c3eb-4687-ae18-39d80b978d7b> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/when_is_it_a_good_time_to_talk_to_kids_about_money_and_finances | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662546071.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20220522190453-20220522220453-00098.warc.gz | en | 0.967343 | 979 | 2.75 | 3 |
It happens every year during peak flu season.
Many of your coworkers, friends or family members are battling the contagious virus.
You feel fine, showing no symptoms of the virus despite spending time with people that are sneezing and feverish. But, even though you don’t show any signs of the flu, it’s naive to think you escaped the virus.
As is the case for many people, you may be infected with the flu and just not know it. There could be some mild symptoms or even none at all.
But, despite never actually dealing with the illness, you are still contagious. Day-to-day you are unaware that you’re a carrier and take no precautions to stop its spread.
This situation poses a threat every year with common bugs like the flu.
In the case of latent Ebola, carrying the deadly epidemic with no symptoms, the risk is far greater.
After Sierra Leone’s Ebola outbreak in 2014, doctors closely monitored possible cases in the area.
The village Sukudu was home to 34 Ebola cases during the outbreak, causing 28 deaths. Nearly a quarter of the 800 village residents were quarantined after sharing space with a confirmed case.
One year after Ebola’s peak, the doctors tested the blood of quarantined locals. Most people were clear of the virus, but 14 tested positive for Ebola. The majority of the infected reported no symptoms during the epidemic or in the year since their quarantine.
It’s understandable for these results to make someone scared of an unstoppable outbreak. A deadly virus with no vaccine is just hanging around inside of people years after the outbreak.
But, doctors conducting the tests recommend waiting before suiting up in a hazmat suit and hiding in a bunker.
Since 2014, the World Health Organization reported nearly 30,000 confirmed Ebola cases in Africa. Doctors conducted the tests in a small village that, at the time, had 34 confirmed cases.
This is a small sample size for such a noteworthy outbreak.
Doctors and scientists are still unsure about the long-term risks for someone carrying latent Ebola.
Many viruses, like Epstein-Barr virus, can lie dormant in a person for decades. But, as is the case with EBV, latent Ebola could prove to be deadly over time.
While more testing and time must pass before we get a better idea of latent Ebola, these statistics clarify some things about the virus.
Fever, headaches, fatigue, vomiting and unexplained bleeding are common symptoms for Ebola. Despite carrying the disease, a person could show no signs or mild versions of these symptoms.
This could make the virus harder to track and stop for future outbreaks.
A milder case of Ebola would be less contagious. But, it could still spread through some kind of close or sexual contact. For the next dangerous viral epidemic, doctors now know to be more cautious with any potential cases.
This may lead to a wider net for quarantines and more testing labs in endemic areas. There could even be registries for survivors of the virus to provide better health support after an outbreak.
Although these tests could cause doctors and scientists to run scared and wait for a coming outbreak, many are being proactive. They’re choosing to attack the risks of a latent epidemic before it happens.
Leaving the country and looking to avoid any latent or active diseases? Passport Health can help! Call us at or book an appointment online. | <urn:uuid:08b45124-abdc-4e18-a15f-8afbe0cbf85f> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.passporthealthglobal.com/2017/02/asymptomatic-ebola-found-in-people-a-year-after-the-epidemic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195198.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20201128070431-20201128100431-00575.warc.gz | en | 0.954222 | 710 | 3.125 | 3 |
The Locrian mode belongs to the set of scales called the Major Modes. The Major Modes consist of seven scales derived from and using the same notes as one parent Major scale, but starting and ending on each of the different degrees of that parent scale. Locrian is the 7th Mode of the Major scale, so it starts and ends on the 7th degree of its parent scale. Locrian has a very dark, dissonant sound, and typically works best over min7(b5) chords. Locrian has two notes different from natural minor. We’ll learn the right and left hand Locrian mode fingerings in all twelve keys. | <urn:uuid:b6fea2e9-a7b5-4bfd-91b8-3cf498f8e6ba> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://totallyguitars.com/lessons/2440-locrian-mode-in-all-12-keys/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655878519.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20200702045758-20200702075758-00017.warc.gz | en | 0.943976 | 131 | 3.0625 | 3 |
|D. discoideum life cycle, from |
Weiss and Buchanan, 2009
When they reach greener pastures, they form a fruiting body, the stage in the life cycle that produces spores. Among other things these creatures do that requires cooperation, a fair number of the cells (20%, according to the Nature paper) of the fruiting body undergo apoptosis, programmed cell death, to sculpt the organism, which means that not every cell -- and the cells come from different clones, so are not all identical -- gets to donate genes to the next generation. Why a single-celled autonomous bacterium would apparently give up so much to contribute to the greater good is a bit of a mystery to strict Darwinians, just as altruism among primates remains a mystery, but it is certainly good for the group. There is some evidence (from Joan Strassmann's lab, the same lab that reports this farming behavior) that cells from some clones are more likely to 'cheat' than others, by contributing fewer cells to the part of the body that is most likely to undergo apoptosis, but this is apparently a rather complex trait genetically. Other investigators have looked for this kind of behavior (we think it is a big mistake to use culture-bound terms like 'cheating' -- or even 'farming', which is less loaded but still anthropomorphic -- but that's another matter).
In any case, all of this complex behavior requires signaling and communication -- cooperation -- and this has long been known. But the fact that they also practice bacterial husbandry has not.
We show that about one-third of wild-collected clones husband bacteria through the sporulation and dispersal process. We call these clones farmers because they carry, seed and prudently harvest their food, but the farming is primitive because no active cultivation is known.Strassmann et al. confirmed that infection of the amoebae they called farmers was not simply accidental by treating farmers and non-farmers with an antibiotic and then assessing their consequent behavior when placed in an infected site again. The farmers took up bacteria again, and the non-farmers remained bacteria-free.
Carrying bacteria seems to be a clone-specific trait, and there are other differences between farmer and non-farmer clones, such as that farmers consume less of the bacteria in a given site before they signal that it's ready to go, presumably to retain sufficient bacteria for transport to their next site. And, farmer clones migrate shorter distances than non-farmers.
This is all very interesting, in light of recent stories about leaf cutter ant colonies that accommodate their aging colony mates, and bees that can learn, and a recent story about dogs' ability to learn hundreds of words.
With this kind of demonstrated complexity -- 'well over 100 diverse genes' for cheating in tiny slime mold, for heavens' sake! -- it is surprising that anyone could find, much less would advocate the idea that there were genes 'for' behavior. And that is particularly true in an organism with culture and learning and the plasticity that comes with learning that is known to happen in humans. At the same time, with many contributing genes, the common story is that there may always be genes that if inactivated can 'break' the trait, or that can have minor effects on it. Working out the distribution and importance of such effects, and their evolution, is a substantial challenge now that we can identify the variation at the gene level. | <urn:uuid:866a059d-ebf4-4eb8-8797-e63b10bdfb83> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://ecodevoevo.blogspot.com/2011/01/bacterial-husbandry.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171070.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00248-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964192 | 709 | 3.21875 | 3 |
The language in the violence discourse is highly sensitive. That is why it is important that we use proper terminology.
We believe that experiences of violence do not define the individual, but rather are a piece of a larger self identity. Labels which focus on experiences of violence, presuppose an individual’s inability to change and to transform their identity into a peaceful, empowered personality. Therefore we try to use terms:
- person who has perpetrated violence
- person who has experienced violence
We realize it is sometimes difficult to use such long terms, therefore we also use terms:
- victims of violence (sl. žrtev nasilja)
It refers to a person who has been violated. We refer to this person as a victim because they have been the target of abuse.
- perpetrators of violence (sl. povzročitelji nasilja).
It refers to individuals who abuse or batter another person.
- violence in the family (sl. nasilje v družini)
It can be thought of as an umbrella term that covers all forms of violence that occur within the home (violence agains children, women, elderly ...)
- intimate partnership violence (sl. nasilje v intimnopartnerskih odnosih)
An intimate partnership is a term that describes the relationship that someone has with her/his significant other. It can include couples who are dating, living together in a common law relationship, or who are married.
- gender‐based violence
The term recognises that violence occurs within the context of women's and girl's subordinate status in society, and serves to maintain this unequal balance of power. It includes violence against women occurring within the family, geographically or culturally specific forms of abuse such as female genital mutilation, “honour killings” and dowry‐related violence as well as various forms of sexual violence, including rape during warfare, trafficking of women and forced prostitution.
- users (sl. uporabnice, uporabniki).
The term refers to people that we work with in all our programmes (persons who experience or perpetrate violence, general public ...). | <urn:uuid:596332de-4610-43fd-8d35-7bae8724da91> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | http://drustvo-dnk.si/en/about-violence/terminology.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540491491.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20191206222837-20191207010837-00163.warc.gz | en | 0.948771 | 450 | 3.359375 | 3 |
While some indications suggest childhood obesity rates could be leveling off nationally, disparities persist, especially among African-Americans and Latinos, and those who live in poverty. Using data from the California Health Interview Survey telephone survey, researchers tested that hypothesis among adolescents by socioeconomic status in California.
There was an inverse relationship between obesity and family income in each of the four years of the study (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007). Furthermore, obesity prevalence increased among adolescents in low-income families. In 2001, obesity prevalence was 17 percent among adolescents with family incomes below the poverty line, compared with 10 percent in adolescents from higher income families (income 300% of federal poverty level). In 2007, the gap widened and obesity prevalence was 23 percent in the lowest income group compared with 8 percent in the highest income group.
The results also indicate that:
- Male adolescents were more likely to be obese than females.
- African-Americans and Latinos were more likely to be obese than Whites.
- Asians were less likely than Whites to be obese.
Results suggest that efforts to prevent childhood obesity may be failing to help adolescents, especially at-risk boys from low-income families. | <urn:uuid:597e4410-5961-4cc8-a9ee-0dd60db11fb9> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2010/11/income-disparities-in-obesity-trends-among-california-adolescent.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701166739.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193926-00080-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955874 | 235 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Leaks in drain pipes and water supply pipes can be stopped up with epoxy glue. If possible, shut of the water to that section of the pipe either at the stop, or at the mains. Then clean around the leak and allow it to dry before applying the epoxy. Thorough drying is essential to get a good repair. If using a 2-part epoxy, mix it very thoroughly and paste on to a section of absorbent material such as cotton. Bandage the leak with this glue-soaked fabric. If using ordinary epoxy, wrap several layers of cloth soaked in plenty of glue, around the pipe. If water is still in the pipe you will have to wrap it securely to stop the leak until the epoxy has a chance to set. Same leaks may need to be reinforced with a C-clamp while they set. Bandage as described, then wrap a piece of rubber or other non-porous material around the repair and fix the clamp to the rubber. (This stops the clamp becoming glued to the repair.)
If you have no epoxy handy, a temporary measure is to wrap the crack or hole with several layers of rubber (even cut from a child’s balloon will do) and clamp tightly until a more permanent repair can be made. Use a block of timber to hold the rubber in place. Splitting a length of rubber house and clamping it in place with hose clamps, also helps. A small leak can be stopped for the time by bandaging the effected part with waterproof tape. Ensure that the tape covers several centimeters each side of the hole or crack.
Epoxy repairs cannot be used in joints, where leaks frequently occur. Sometimes the threads on galvanized pipe joints can work loose, allowing water to seep out. Wrap some Teflon tape around the treads of the pipe. This will tighten up the joint and may stop the leak.
Start to screw the pipes together by hand to ensure that the joint goes together freely and not cross-threaded. Use a pair of stilsons to tighten up the joint, one turned in each direction. If this doesn’t stop the leak, there is a special pipe sealing compound witch you can buy to reseal this joint. The compound helps form a water-tight seal and stops the fittings “freezing” together so they can be removed later on if required. A leaking joint should be gently loosened with a pipe wrench or stillsons, the compound applied and the joint re tightened. Also check any connections each side of the repair, as you work may have loosened other joints. A compression fitting may only need a slight tightening to stop a leak. However, if copper tubing leaks at a joint, the joint usually has to be re-soldered.
This involves shutting off the water supply, draining the pipe completely (this is very important as an explosion can occur if the steam is generated in the pipes), and cleaning away the old solder before applying new solder. Steel wool is good material to use, to insure the pipes are thoroughly clean. Always apply a flux to the pipe to ensure a good bound between solder and pipe. apply heat to the joint until the solder melts, ensuring the solder runs freely around the joint. Always fit the joint before heat is applied. Unless you are skilled at soldering, this probably best left to a plumber. | <urn:uuid:56bdf6d4-fd20-4ca8-bc85-08e920f283e4> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://www.handymanservicessydney.com.au/handyman-sydney/plumbing/fix-leaking-pipe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038092961.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20210416221552-20210417011552-00103.warc.gz | en | 0.940788 | 692 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Students identify some features on real seismograms and/or use these seismograms to consider differences in arrival times of P- and S-waves at different stations.
This could be done as a whole class using a data projector, as an individual or small group activity using printed versions of the resource sheets.
One side of the resource sheet gives the three seismograms, unmarked, so that students can identify the arrival times of P-waves and S-waves for themselves.
The student activity sheet refers only to the side with the arrival times of P-waves and S-waves marked.
You could ask students to use estimated arrival times and estimated distances to calculate approximate values for the speed of P-waves and S-waves. The values they arrive at will depend on which station they choose: you could use this to discuss the relative effects of errors in estimation for small time differences versus longer time differences, or perhaps to consider whether you would expect the speed of one type of wave to be constant over the three paths.
You might also go on to consider Looking at data from several stations, which show differences in P-wave and S-wave arrival time as a means of estimating distance.
Each group will need: | <urn:uuid:03c8d2d0-5821-4b7f-9cfc-74efef2289d8> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/hazards/earthquakes/activities/teachersNotes/kent2007.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247483873.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20190217233327-20190218015327-00151.warc.gz | en | 0.936816 | 247 | 4.15625 | 4 |
Wheat Diseases Conference – 22nd May 2015
Wheat is arguably the greatest crop on earth, with more than 650 million tonnes of grain produced each year making it the most widely-grown cereal grain. Safeguarding wheat production is essential to continue to feed a growing global population. Yet this crop, relied on by much of the world’s population, is at risk from a number of diseases which can reduce both the yield and nutritional quality of the grain.
Current scientific research strategies by world-leading scientists at The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL), the John Innes Centre and The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC) – all in Norwich, UK – will be highlighted at a conference dedicated to wheat disease resistance next month.
The day, at the John Innes Centre Conference Centre, will bring together scientists, plant breeders and farmers in a series of scientific seminars and networking.
Prof Cyril Zipfel, head of TSL, whose own research is on plant immunity to disease, said: “We need to keep two steps ahead of wheat diseases if we are to keep this essential food on our plates in this country and beyond.
“The complementary scientific and close geographical relationships between our three institutes on the Norwich Research Park means we are well placed to tackle these important issues.”
Wheat occupies 17% percent of all the cultivated land in the world, and is the main food for some 35% of the world’s population. More than half of the world’s wheat crop is planted in Asia, with consumption rising rapidly in Africa. | <urn:uuid:d4ddb9ff-2c53-44a1-ae21-90ce6827f406> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://www.tsl.ac.uk/news/wheat-diseases-conference-22nd-may-2015/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247494694.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20190220085318-20190220111318-00245.warc.gz | en | 0.932338 | 325 | 2.953125 | 3 |
i found this fascinating:
Most importantly from a social perspective, the pursuit of happiness is associated with selfish behavior — being, as mentioned, a “taker” rather than a “giver.” The psychologists give an evolutionary explanation for this: happiness is about drive reduction. If you have a need or a desire — like hunger — you satisfy it, and that makes you happy. People become happy, in other words, when they get what they want. Humans, then, are not the only ones who can feel happy. Animals have needs and drives, too, and when those drives are satisfied, animals also feel happy, the researchers point out. | <urn:uuid:4cfef7d8-6f53-419b-a25c-b7eca575efe4> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://niv.is/2013/01/30/meaning-and-happiness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400198287.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20200920161009-20200920191009-00191.warc.gz | en | 0.965728 | 135 | 2.625 | 3 |
University of Groningen neuroscientist Robbert Havekes and colleagues from Germany, South Korea and the US have secured a grant of EUR 1.25 million from the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), which funds interdisciplinary research in the life sciences. Their application on the role of the biological clock in the effects of sleep deprivation was one of nine applications, out of a total of 215, to be awarded a grant.
Havekes is pleased with the award: ‘This is a global competition, and anyone from the life sciences can enter, which makes it an achievement to be in the top four percent.’ The HFSP focuses on research at frontiers: ‘The group must be interdisciplinary and intercontinental, and the application must also be at the frontiers of science. High-risk research is welcomed.’
For Havekes this means research into the negative effects of sleep deprivation. He has studied the impact of too little sleep on memory and learning for some time now. He will employ a different approach in the new research: optogenetics. This technique allows researchers to modulate neuronal function using light-sensitive proteins. Havekes will use this approach to modulate the activity of ‘clock genes’.
‘My German colleague develops light-sensitive constructs that allow us to transiently and locally activate or inactivate genes in the mouse brain that are involved in the biological clock.’ The idea is that sleep deprivation disrupts these genes, and that this is one reason why we perform badly after a short night. ‘This technique allows us to manipulate the molecular clock, so we will be able to investigate for the first time whether changes in the molecular clock contribute to the negative impact sleep deprivation on brain function.’
Havekes will conduct experiments that involve shining a laser through a thin fibre optic into the hippocampus (the region of the brain that is important for memory). This will enable him to manipulate the clock genes specifically in this region. ‘It could be that if we give these clock genes in the hippocampus a nudge, the negative effects of sleep deprivation will disappear.’ And he will also be able disrupt the biological clock in mice without sleep deprivation. ‘The question is whether they too will develop memory problems.’
A researcher in the US will conduct similar experiments, but then on the visual cortex, the region of the brain that processes the images that we see. A researcher from South Korea is also involved: he is developing theoretical models for the preparation and analysis of the experiments.
Havekes, who works at the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, will receive about a quarter of the allocated funds. He will use these to appoint a PhD student and buy equipment for optogenetic experiments. Taken together, this work should provide a fundamental understanding of the effect of sleep deprivation on the brain. ‘We hope, of course, that we will be able to use all this knowledge to actually solve these problems. But that’s still a long way away to go.’
Apart from Havekes, the team consists of Prof. Dr. Matias Zurbriggen (Germany), Dr. Sara J. Aton (United States), Dr. Jae Kim (South Korea).
Helmi has thoroughly inspected the data with sophisticated statistical techniques to validate its quality for scientific use.
It isn’t just the wolf: humans too are responsible for creating a ‘landscape of fear’ in nature areas. Deer, for example, avoid paths that are used for recreation. As a consequence, the density of ticks in the proximity of these paths has been found...
The nominees for the 2022 Gratama Science Award have been announced: DrYuliya Hilevych (Faculty of Arts), Dr Hamidreza Kasaei (Faculty of Science and Engineering), and Dr Lieuwe Zijlstra (University College Groningen). The award is intended as an...
The UG website uses functional and anonymous analytics cookies. Please answer the question of whether or not you want to accept other cookies (such as tracking cookies).
If no choice is made, only basic cookies will be stored. More information | <urn:uuid:0bb3c840-7f3b-4950-a2cc-75d1e851092b> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.rug.nl/sciencelinx/nieuws/2017/03/20170322_havekes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103337962.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20220627164834-20220627194834-00734.warc.gz | en | 0.921247 | 859 | 2.859375 | 3 |
There is much well deserved media coverage on The Opiate Epidemic over the past few years. This is due to the huge increase in opiate related deaths in the US. Many Americans believe that Opiates are the most commonly abused or most deadly substance as a result of this, however, that isn’t the case. Rather, alcohol has held the title of the most abused and deadliest substance in the United States for years. This may come as a surprise to many. This is simply because the as a nation, we don’t talk about the dangers of alcohol abuse as often as other substances.
The CDC reports that:
Excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) each year in the United States from 2006 – 2010, shortening the lives of those who died by an average of 30 years.
On the contrary, opiate related deaths from those years totaled approximately 40,000. Additionally, between the years of 2007 and 2017, alcohol related deaths increased by 35% overall, and 85% among women. In 2017, opiate related deaths equaled approximately 70,000. This is still 18,000 fewer than deaths related to alcohol. So why are we not talking about this more?
Alcohol Is Legal
One reason is that alcohol is a legal substance in the United States. Therefore, we do not stigmatize alcohol in the same way that we do for illegal drugs are. Following the Prohibition Era, the United States constitution was ratified to once again make alcohol legal. Alcohol has remained legal as a result of this since 1933. Alcohol is widely used substance because it is legal. Americans consume millions of dollars in alcohol yearly. Yet, it is highly addictive and has serious potential health consequences.
Extreme use of alcohol can lead to Liver Cirrhosis, brain damage, and heart disease. Additionally, cancer and diabetes have links to alcohol abuse. Yet, we often overlook these dangers in spite of the facts. This is due to the idea that as long as we use alcohol responsibly, it is safe. However, few Americans really know what the limits are for safe alcohol consumption. The Mayo Clinic states:
Heavy drinking is defined as more than three drinks on any day or more than seven drinks a week for women and for men older than age 65, and more than four drinks on any day or more than 14 drinks a week for men age 65 and younger.
Many Americans may find themselves surprised the learn that as little as three drinks a day, or 7 drinks a week, is medically classified as heavy drinking. Furthermore, even fewer know that drinking this amount of alcohol can lead to the serious side effects discussed.
Society Encourages Drinking
Another key factor in why we don’t discuss the dangers of drinking more often is that consuming alcohol is American culture in many ways encourages drinking. Drinking a beer at a baseball game, or having a glass of champagne on your wedding night is not just common, but almost expected. Going out to dinner will nearly always begin with a drink menu. Similarly, even a backyard barbecue is likely to be fully stocked with alcohol. One on hand, drinking occasionally or socially can actually be relatively safe. However, Americans are frequently around alcohol, and thats where the danger begins. Anytime alcohol is around, raises the chances to make potentially bad choices.
On the other hand, even casual drinking can have negative effects. In the United States, the blood alcohol content limit for a DUI is .08%. This level can be reach after only one to two drinks, depending on the alcohol percentage in the beverage. As such, legal penalties for DUI’s can range extensively, from fines to jail time. In almost every DUI case, the driver will lose their license for some period of time. However, there are more serious risks. These include auto injury or death. For example, in the United States approximately 30 people a day die in drunk driving accidents, according to estimates. That works out to about in person every 48 minutes.
Drinking Excessively is Considered Cool
Furthermore, young people are especially at risk for drinking excessively or experiencing the dangers of alcohol abuse. This is because pop culture encourages partying. Everywhere you look in young society you will see examples of this. Young People are send the message that drinking and doing drugs is cool.
Specifically you will find music that glorifies the party lifestyle, reality TV shows that show scenes of drunken stars acting belligerent, and even movies making light of nights spent in blackouts. In other words, its easy to see why this behavior has become “acceptable”. Making poor decisions under the influence has become closely associated with youth. We pass this off by attributing it to kids being young and dumb. This may be the most dangerous of all the ways that alcohol culture affects young Americans.
For example, the University of Pittsburgh and Dartmouth University conducted a study of how music and culture affect substance abuse among teens. This study found that teenagers will hear 3 references to name-band alcohol for every one hour of music that they listen to. Additionally, teens that listen to music or watch television that has references to alcohol and marijuana are more likely to use these substances than teens who don’t.
Drinking is a Business
Finally, perhaps the biggest reason why Americans aren’t talking more about the dangers of alcohol abuse is that drinking is a huge business in the United States. In 2011, alcohol sales in America made manufacturers $187 Million dollars. Statista reports:
“Since 2011 sales have increased by 25 percent, averaging an increase of roughly 3.7 percent per year.”
That put alcohol sales on track to bring in $250 Million dollars in revenue by 2020. The reality is that as long as alcohol continues to be a major money maker, the danger that comes with drinking will probably not get the attention that it deserves.
Alcohol retailers and manufacturers will continue to push to get alcohol into establishments. They will try to make drinking a part of holidays, gathering, and celebrations in order to continue profiting from its sales. Americans are continuously introduced to, become familiar with, and become dependent on alcohol.
What is the Solution to the Dangers of Alcohol Abuse?
Just because alcohol is available doesn’t mean that every person who drinks alcohol has a problem with it. In fact, the majority of Americans drink alcohol responsibly. Most do not go on to develop addictions or suffer health consequences from their drinking. According to Project Know, the number of Americans over the age of 18 who develop a dependence on alcohol is about 7%.
Being informed is the best way to avoid becoming addicted to alcohol or becoming the victim of alcohol related accidents or diseases. Talk about the dangers of consuming alcohol- whether socially or excessively. Encourage others to talk about it as well. Try to do so openly and without judgement. Talking about alcohol abuse will become more comfortable the more that the stigma of addiction is broken. Specifically, doing this help deter the serious consequences and they can be avoided.
The good news is that there is help for the 7% who develop an addiction. From hospitals and therapists, to treatment centers and detoxes, there are multitudes of resources available to those who suffer from alcoholism. If you or someone that you know is suffering from an addiction to alcohol, reach out for help! Speaking to your primary care doctor, a trusted confidant, or a member of an addiction treatment facility can be the first step to overcoming the addiction and getting your life back on track. | <urn:uuid:13f1b6d0-887f-41ed-ba6c-6976f41f69d0> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://www.stonewallinstitute.com/dangers-alcohol-abuse/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178369512.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20210304174506-20210304204506-00532.warc.gz | en | 0.963343 | 1,543 | 2.9375 | 3 |
International Journal of Applied Research
Vol. 3, Issue 7, Part D (2017)
Synthesis, characterization and applications of some novel cationic surfactants
The word surfactant is a combination of three word “Surface Active Agent” that lowers the surface tension between a two liquid or between a liquid or solid. These are amphiphilic molecules containing both hydrophilic (water loving) hydrophobic part (water hating). Therefore the surfactant molecules contain both a water insoluble or oil soluble and oil insoluble and water soluble components. In general view, any material which affects the surface tension can be treated as a surfactant but in the practical view, it may act as a wetting agent, emulsifiers, foaming agents and dispersants also. The first surface active product was prepared by Scholar in Germany in 1930. The curiosity of science has formed the research work in surfactant are like organization of its molecules into some interesting shapes and structures having different and unique characteristics. This article deals with synthesis, properties and applications of new novel cationic surfactants.
How to cite this article:
Divya. Synthesis, characterization and applications of some novel cationic surfactants. Int J Appl Res 2017;3(7):278-284. | <urn:uuid:737f02fa-f119-4842-89ff-bfee4416d91f> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/?year=2017&vol=3&issue=7&part=D&ArticleId=6321 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964363337.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20211207075308-20211207105308-00199.warc.gz | en | 0.915276 | 276 | 2.546875 | 3 |
How Can Teachers Create Equitable Spaces for All Students?
This post is written by Alison Lee, Senior Research Scientist, and Meg Riordan, Director of External Research, at EL Education.
"Strong relationships that really foster a sense of belonging, that foster empathy and caring, really set a tenor and a tone that might be different from where [students] have come from previous places."
~Crew Leader, Expeditionary Learning Middle School, Syracuse, NY
In 2016, EL Education joined forces with a network of organizations working to close opportunity and achievement gaps for students of color and low socio-economic backgrounds to launch the Building Equitable Learning Environments (BELE) project, funded by the Raikes Foundation. For its part in the project, EL Education is focused on improving students' sense of belonging: the perception of having a rightful place in an academic setting and belonging in a community of learners.
Research shows that students who report a higher sense of belonging in school are more likely to persevere at challenging tasks--a key mindset for solving complex problems and learning how to learn. In EL Education, Crew supports students to learn deeply, about themselves and about one another. In Crew, a small group of students meets four to five times per week to develop and strengthen their socio-emotional skills. Crew also supports students to build their awareness of and practice habits of scholarship that enable students from all backgrounds to get to and succeed in college and careers. Yet, for all of our confidence in the power of Crew to build relationships and stoke students' capacity to learn and to lead, we wonder about Crew as an engine for equity. More specifically, though our organization is 25 years old, we haven't yet identified whether Crew serves allstudents equally and what practices are especially powerful for driving student belonging and inclusion. As part of BELE, we brought together six schools from across the country to tackle the question of how Crew can serve as an engine for equity.
How does this project differ from past research on student belonging? We believe that for our improvement work on student belonging and equity to have lasting impact, this work must be led by those positioned to impart change: the teachers/leaders who facilitate student Crews. Teachers (both in and out of Crew) are ideally situated as researcher-practitioners: they know their students, are well-situated to design and test interventions, and have access to (or can collect) a variety of telling data. However, teachers may lack sufficient authority, credit, professional support, or resources to impart schoolwide, systemic, and lasting change. What does it mean, exactly, to empower teachers with the agency, structures, and skill set to lead school improvements for and with their students?
Go to the Source: Ask the Students
A well designed survey can give teachers and students a bird's eye view of patterns emerging from students' experiences. In 2016-17, EL Education schools in our study piloted a 22-item "Crew belonging" student survey using an instrument co-developed with Project for Educational Research that Scales (PERTS) at Stanford University. Through this data, schools like Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School analyzed their students' perceptions of their experiences and sense of belonging in Crew, both as an affirmation of the power of Crew for their student body and as a driver for conversations about equity in their school.
In the fall of 2017, six schools self-identified teams of 4-6 teachers to lead improvement work. Teachers conducted the Crew belonging survey in the fall to get baseline data from their students and analyzed data from survey items like:
- I feel like I belong in my Crew
- If you share your opinion or ideas in Crew, people listen to and respect your thoughts
- I feel like the other students in Crew accept me for who I am
Teachers also analyzed "positive deviants"--specific Crews or items that had particularly high outcomes. Students responded anonymously to the electronic survey and provided demographic data (race, gender, English language learner and/or special education status) during one Crew period. This data propelled teachers' inquiry into students' sense of belonging and experience of Crew.
Get to the Root: What Prevents a Sense of Belonging?
After analyzing student data, teacher teams conducted a root cause analysis, asking:
- What are the conditions of our system or structures that diminish the sense of belonging and a positive experience of Crew?
- How might these conditions impact particular groups of students more than others?
- What key changes can we make to improve students' belonging?
In collaboration with the EL Education research team and our research partner, the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, teachers reviewed focus group data with students that probed how students think about belonging and what kinds of factors influence their willingness to participate in Crew or build relationships with others in their Crew. By considering conditions that contribute to lower or inequitable outcomes, teachers imagined ways to recreate and leverage Crew as a brave and safe space where all students experience a sense of voice and belonging while working toward academic success.
Teacher teams then launched their first Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle, testing their change ideas and measuring progress with student exit tickets or weekly teacher observations. These teacher teams met regularly after each cycle to discuss the impact of the practice on their students and analyze their data. Then they continued, revised, or implemented new practices in a subsequent PDSA cycle.
While these activities may represent what many teachers do intuitively--testing ideas in their classrooms, convening with other teachers to talk about common problems of practice, and assessing students--systematically structuring these activities in a larger framework of improvement (i.e. change cycles) was transformative. One teacher remarked, "This process allowed us to examine the ways we need to help all students to connect in more meaningful ways--not just hope for the best and get most of them to connect." On the process of looking at positive deviants, another teacher said, "It was useful to have exemplar teacher work that we could implement schoolwide to address these areas. ... It allowed us to celebrate some of the great work we do as Crew leaders." And finally, on the process of using PDSA cycles to drive improvement: "We had success using the data from the whole-group student analysis and creating meaningful targeted lessons that addressed specific targeted responses." This process was especially effective for improving novice teachers' capacity to lead Crew, with 100 percent of teachers in their first two years as a Crew Leader reporting considerable gains in their capacity to lead Crew.
When teachers are empowered to listen to and learn from their students, they can lead effective and lasting change. But teacher leadership isn't the only essential ingredient to increase belonging for all students. How does giving all students opportunities to speak and to lead impact their sense of belonging and their academic growth? In our next post in this series, we unpack what lifting student voice as a key condition for improvement looked like in our study schools.
Photo Credit: David Grant | <urn:uuid:6b5b48fa-37e4-4e5a-adab-aa3dba0cf75f> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning_deeply/2018/08/how_can_teachers_create_equitable_spaces_for_all_students.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107905965.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20201029214439-20201030004439-00293.warc.gz | en | 0.96175 | 1,432 | 3.15625 | 3 |
- Short report
- Open Access
Neurotensin is increased in serum of young children with autistic disorder
© Angelidou et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010
- Received: 9 July 2010
- Accepted: 23 August 2010
- Published: 23 August 2010
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of pervasive neurodevelopmental disorders diagnosed in early childhood. They are associated with a set of "core symptoms" that include disabilities in social interaction skills, verbal and non-verbal communication, as well as repetitive and stereotypic behaviors. There is no definite pathogenetic mechanism or diagnostic tests. Many children with ASD also have "allergic-like" symptoms, but test negative implying mast cell activation by non-allergic triggers. We measured by Milliplex arrays serum levels of 3 neuropeptides that could stimulate mast cells in children with autistic disorder (n = 19; 16 males and 3 females; mean age 3.0 ± 0.4 years) and healthy, unrelated controls (n = 16; 13 males and 3 females; mean age 3 ± 1.2 years). Only neurotensin (NT) was significantly increased from 60.5 ± 6.0 pg/ml in controls to 105.6 ± 12.4 pg/ml in autistic disorder (p = 0.004). There was no statistically significant difference in the serum levels of β-endorphin or substance P (SP). NT could stimulate immune cells, especially mast cells, and/or have direct effects on brain inflammation and ASD.
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Mast Cell
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Food Allergy
- Autistic Disorder
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that include autistic disorder, Asperger's disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) [1, 2]. These are diagnosed in early childhood and are characterized by a set of "core symptoms" that include various degrees of disability in social interaction skills, verbal and non-verbal communication, as well as limited interest in activities often associated with repetitive and stereotypic behaviors [1, 2]. The diagnosis of ASD has increased during the last decade to about 1/100 children [3, 4]. However, there is neither distinct pathogenesis, nor reliable biomarkers .
A number of papers have suggested that ASD may be associated with some immune dysfunction in the patient or the mother during gestation . More recently, evidence has been reviewed suggesting that ASD may have a neuroimmune component involving non-allergic activation of mast cells by triggers such as neuropeptides . However, few studies have measured levels of neuropeptides in autism. Most of the investigations have focused on oxytocin and vasopressin .
In one paper, archived neonatal blood was analyzed with immunoaffinity chromatography and serum levels of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and calcitonin-gene related peptide (CGRP) were higher in children with ASD (n = 69) and those with mental retardation without ASD (n = 60); in contrast, levels of substance P (SP) and nerve growth factor (NGF) were similar to those of controls . However, a subsequent study by the same author using Luminex immunoaffinity arrays showed no difference in any of these molecules between autistic subjects and controls . Another study showed significantly elevated levels of β-endorphin in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of children with infantile autism (n = 9), but serum levels were not measured .
We investigated serum levels of β-endorphin, neurotensin (NT) and SP, all of which are present both in the brain and the gut and are known mast cell triggers . Here we report that NT is the only neuropeptide significantly elevated in the serum of children with autistic disorder as compared to unrelated age-matched, normally developing, control children.
Patients came from the Second Department of Psychiatry at Attikon General Hospital, University of Athens Medical School (Athens, Greece), an NIH-approved site for biological samples under a collaboration agreement between Athens and Tufts Universities.
All children were assessed by trained ASD clinicians. Parents signed an appropriate consent form according to the Helsinki principles. The ADI-R and ADOS-G scales were used as they have also been validated in the Greek population . The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) was completed as a further measurement of the severity of ASD. A test for Fragile × syndrome was ordered and the subjects were screened with Wood's Lamp for tuberous sclerosis.
The inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study were as follows:
Must meet ICD-10 criteria for autistic disorder.
Any medical condition likely to be etiological for ASD (e.g. Rett syndrome, focal epilepsy).
Any neurologic disorder involving pathology above the brain stem, other than uncomplicated non-focal epilepsy.
Contemporaneous evidence, or unequivocal retrospective evidence, of probable neonatal brain damage.
Any genetic syndrome involving the CNS, even if the link with autism is uncertain.
Clinically significant visual or auditory impairment, even after correction.
Any circumstances that might possibly account for the picture of autism (e.g. severe nutritional or psychological deprivation).
Active treatment with pharmacological or other agents.
Mastocytosis (including urticaria pigmentosa).
History of upper airway diseases.
History of inflammatory diseases.
History of allergies.
There were no other apparent clinical differences (e.g. gastrointestinal problems) that may have allowed separation of the autistic patients in subgroups. The ASD sample consisted of 19 children with autistic disorder. The controls were normally developing, healthy children, unrelated to the autistic subjects, without any of the exclusion criteria (n = 16; 13 males and 3 females; mean age 3 years); these subjects were seen for routine health visits at the Pediatric Department of the Institute of Social Health Insurance, Greece. There were no identifiers except for age and sex.
Blood was obtained in the morning at least 2 hours after breakfast to minimize any diurnal or postprandial effects. Serum from patients and controls was aliquoted and frozen at -80°C until assayed. All samples were labeled only with a code number, as well as the age and sex of the respective subject. Samples were analyzed for neuropeptides and cytokines using Milliplex MAP, based on the Luminex xMAP technology by Millipore (Billerica, MA).
The results for serum neuropeptide levels are presented as scattergrams, with the horizontal lines indicating the means, in order to appreciate the distribution of the values. The ASD group was compared to the controls using unpaired, unequal, 2-tailed, Student's t-test, as well as the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test. Significance of comparisons between healthy subjects and subjects with ASD is denoted by p < 0.05.
The ASD group consisted of 19 patients (16 males and 3 females; mean age: 3.0 ± 0.4 years; range: 2.5-3.5 years) all with a diagnosis of autistic disorder. The control group consisted of 16 subjects (13 males and 3 females; mean age: 3 ± 1.2 years; range: 2-5.5 years). These were healthy, normally developing subjects, unrelated to the ASD patients.
We also investigated serum levels of cytokines usually associated with mast cells (IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-13, TNF), but there was no statistically significant difference (results not shown).
Our present results indicate that NT is elevated in the serum of young children with autistic disorder, as compared to unrelated, normally developing controls. All subjects were selected to exclude any allergic, inflammatory or neurologic diseases in order to avoid any confounding factors. The distribution of NT values in the ASD subjects suggests there may be two subgroups. However, nothing in the history or physical examination allowed such subdivision. SP was not elevated as also previously reported [10, 11]; β-endorphin was also not elevated, even though it had been reported to be increased in the CSF of a small group of children (n = 9) with infantile autism .
This is the first study to report measurements of NT in the serum of human subjects with Luminex microbead arrays. No physiological levels of NT have been established for any disease state yet. However, one study reported plasma NT levels measured by RIA in healthy neonates to be 59.1 ± 23.9 pg/ml . Another study evaluated the role of NT in growth regulation in subjects of different ages and reported that plasma levels gradually declined with increasing age with plasma levels in prepubertal children being 22.2 ± 4.8 pg/ml .
NT is a peptide originally isolated from the brain . It is present also in the gastrointestinal tract, where it can induce intestinal inflammation . NT can stimulate lymphocyte proliferation , activate T cells , and enhance IL-1 production from macrophages . NT is also a potent trigger of mast cells . These effects are relevant to the findings that many children with ASD also present with gastrointestinal and "allergic-like" symptoms . In particular, mast cells appear to be activated in ASD as suggested by more food allergies and increased atopic symptoms in Asperger patients . Such "allergic symptoms" often occur in the absence of elevated serum IgE or positive skin prick tests , suggesting mast cell activation by non-immune triggers . Moreover, a preliminary report indicated that ASD is 10-times more frequent in mastocytosis patients (1/10 children) than the general population (1/100 children) . Mastocytosis is a rare disorder, which presents with skin reactions, food allergies or food intolerance, diarrhea, anxiety , but also lack of concentration ("brain fog"), and hyperactivity .
NT could be released from the brain, the intestines or dorsal root ganglia and could act together with environmental triggers such as mercury or corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), secreted under stress, to stimulate mast cells and lead to neurogenic inflammation . The possible release of NT under stress may be relevant to the finding of higher incidence of prenatal stressors in mothers of children with ASD . The present study did not attempt to correlate serum NT to levels of stress. Future studies could employ the Hamilton Anxiety Scale or the Spielberger's State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory, as well as measure serum levels of cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and CRH. It is interesting that mast cells can degrade NT [33, 34]. This action suggests that mast cells have developed a rapid mechanism for limiting stimulation by NT that implies an important pathophysiological role.
Mast cells are involved in both innate and acquired immunity , as well as in inflammation . Moreover, mast cells can release some mediators "selectively", without concomitant secretion of either one of their "flagship" molecules histamine or tryptase , making serum measurement of these mediators as biomarkers irrelevant. Moreover, histamine is metabolized rapidly, while tryptase is elevated only in anaphylaxis and mastocytosis, conditions that were part of the exclusion criteria. It is not apparent at present which mast cell mediators are secreted in response to NT. Our preliminary findings on Luminex measurements of IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-13 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) did not show any significant difference (results not shown). Even though IL-6 expression was elevated in the brains of deceased ASD patients , and it was detected at low levels in the CSF in subjects with autism (n = 12), it was not significantly elevated in the serum of autistic subjects (n = 35) compared to control subjects with other neurologic disorders (n = 21) . Elsewhere, there was only a trend towards increased production of IL-6 and TNF-α in whole blood of autistic children as compared to normal controls . Another study reported that TNF-α levels in CSF of patients with ASD (n = 10) were significantly higher than concurrent serum levels . TNF is uniquely stored in mast cell granules , and brain mast cells were reported to secrete TNF . It may well be that NT levels are sufficient to activate only brain and gut mast cells, thus not significantly raising systemic levels. Alternatively, mast cells may release additional mediators that have not been identified so far.
The present results indicate that NT is increased in young children with autistic disorder and could participate in altered innate immunity and brain inflammation.
This work was funded in part by the National Autism Association, Autism Collaboration and Theta Biomedical Consulting and Development Co., Inc. (Brookline, MA). We thank Dr. Zoe Christoni for help with sample preparation. Asimenia Angelidou and Konstantinos-Dionysios Alysandratos are recipients of scholarships for post-graduate studies from the Hellenic State Scholarships Foundation (Athens, Greece). Bodi Zhang is partially supported by a graduate fellowship from Galenica, SA (Athens, Greece).
- Volkmar FR, State M, Klin A: Autism and autism spectrum disorders: diagnostic issues for the coming decade. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2009, 50: 108-115. 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.02010.x.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Johnson CP, Myers SM: Identification and evaluation of children with autism spectrum disorders. Pediatrics. 2007, 120: 1183-1215. 10.1542/peds.2007-2361.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Fombonne E: Epidemiology of pervasive developmental disorders. Pediatr Res. 2009, 65: 591-598. 10.1203/PDR.0b013e31819e7203.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Kogan MD, Blumberg SJ, Schieve LA, Boyle CA, Perrin JM, Ghandour RM, et al: Prevalence of parent-reported diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder among children in the US, 2007. Pediatrics. 2009, 5: 1395-1403. 10.1542/peds.2009-1522.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
- Theoharides TC, Doyle R, Francis K, Conti P, Kalogeromitros D: Novel therapeutic targets for autism. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2008, 29: 375-382. 10.1016/j.tips.2008.06.002.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Ashwood P, Wills S, Van de Water J: The immune response in autism: a new frontier for autism research. J Leukoc Biol. 2006, 80: 1-15. 10.1189/jlb.1205707.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Atladottir HO, Pedersen MG, Thorsen P, Mortensen PB, Deleuran B, Eaton WW, et al: Association of family history of autoimmune diseases and autism spectrum disorders. Pediatrics. 2009, 124: 687-694. 10.1542/peds.2008-2445.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Theoharides TC, Kempuraj D, Redwood L: Autism: an emerging 'neuroimmune disorder' in search of therapy. Exp Opinion on Pharmacotherapy. 2009, 10: 2127-2143. 10.1517/14656560903107789.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
- Heinrichs M, von DB, Domes G: Oxytocin, vasopressin, and human social behavior. Front Neuroendocrinol. 2009, 30: 548-557. 10.1016/j.yfrne.2009.05.005.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Nelson KB, Grether JK, Croen LA, Dambrosia JM, Dickens BF, Jelliffe LL, et al: Neuropeptides and neurotrophins in neonatal blood of children with autism or mental retardation. Ann Neurol. 2001, 49: 597-606. 10.1002/ana.1024.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Nelson PG, Kuddo T, Song EY, Dambrosia JM, Kohler S, Satyanarayana G, et al: Selected neurotrophins, neuropeptides, and cytokines: developmental trajectory and concentrations in neonatal blood of children with autism or Down syndrome. Int J Dev Neurosci. 2006, 24: 73-80. 10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2005.10.003.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Ross DL, Klykylo WM, Hitzemann R: Reduction of elevated CSF beta-endorphin by fenfluramine in infantile autism. Pediatr Neurol. 1987, 3: 83-86. 10.1016/0887-8994(87)90032-4.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Theoharides TC, Kalogeromitros D: The critical role of mast cell in allergy and inflammation. Ann NY Acad Sci. 2006, 1088: 78-99. 10.1196/annals.1366.025.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Papanikolaou K, Paliokosta E, Houliaras G, Vgenopoulou S, Giouroukou E, Pehlivanidis A, et al: Using the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic for the Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders in a Greek Sample with a Wide Range of Intellectual Abilities. J Autism Dev Disord. 2008, 39: 414-420. 10.1007/s10803-008-0639-6.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Liu J, Zhao J, Di YF, Guo XX, Zhai GR, Huang XH: The dynamic changes of plasma neuropeptide y and neurotensin and their role in regulating cerebral hemodynamics in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Am J Perinatol. 2007, 24: 435-440. 10.1055/s-2007-985047.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Bozzola M, Ntodou-Thome A, Bona G, Autelli M, Magnani ML, Radetti G, et al: Possible role of plasma neurotensin on growth hormone regulation in neonates. J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 1998, 11: 607-613.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Carraway R, Leeman SE: The isolation of a new hypotensive peptide, neurotensin, from bovine hypothalami. J Biol Chem. 1973, 248: 6854-6861.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Castagliuolo I, Leeman SE, Bartolac-Suki E, Nikulasson S, Qiu B, Carraway RE, et al: A neurotensin antagonist, SR 48692, inhibits colonic responses to immobilization stress in rats. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1996, 93: 12611-12615. 10.1073/pnas.93.22.12611.PubMed CentralView ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Evers BM, Bold RJ, Ehrenfried JA, Li J, Townsend CM, Klimpel GR: Characterization of functional neurotensin receptors on human lymphocytes. Surgery. 1994, 116: 134-139.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Ramez M, Bagot M, Nikolova M, Boumsell L, Vita N, Chalon P, et al: Functional characterization of neurotensin receptors in human cutaneous T cell lymphoma malignant lymphocytes. J Invest Dermatol. 2001, 117: 687-693. 10.1046/j.0022-202x.2001.01439.x.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Lemaire I: Neurotensin enhances IL-1 production by activated alveolar macrophages. J Immunol. 1988, 140: 2983-2988.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Carraway R, Cochrane DE, Lansman JB, Leeman SE, Paterson BM, Welch HJ: Neurotensin stimulates exocytotic histamine secretion from rat mast cells and elevates plasma histamine levels. J Physiol. 1982, 323: 403-414.PubMed CentralView ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Gurney JG, McPheeters ML, Davis MM: Parental report of health conditions and health care use among children with and without autism: National Survey of Children's Health. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006, 160: 825-830. 10.1001/archpedi.160.8.825.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Jyonouchi H, Geng L, Cushing-Ruby A, Quraishi H: Impact of innate immunity in a subset of children with autism spectrum disorders: a case control study. J Neuroinflammation. 2008, 5: 52-10.1186/1742-2094-5-52.PubMed CentralView ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Magalhaes ES, Pinto-Mariz F, Bastos-Pinto S, Pontes AT, Prado EA, Deazevedo LC: Immune allergic response in Asperger syndrome. J Neuroimmunol. 2009, 216: 108-112. 10.1016/j.jneuroim.2009.09.015.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Bakkaloglu B, Anlar B, Anlar FY, Oktem F, Pehlivanturk B, Unal F, et al: Atopic features in early childhood autism. Eur J Paediatr Neurol. 2008, 12: 476-479. 10.1016/j.ejpn.2007.12.008.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Theoharides TC: Autism spectrum disorders and mastocytosis. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2009, 22: 859-865.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Akin C, Valent P, Escribano L: Urticaria pigmentosa and mastocytosis: the role of immunophenotyping in diagnosis and determining response to treatment. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 2006, 6: 282-288. 10.1007/s11882-006-0061-0.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Castells M: Mast cell mediators in allergic inflammation and mastocytosis. Immunol Allergy Clin North Am. 2006, 26: 465-485. 10.1016/j.iac.2006.05.005.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Kempuraj D, Asadi S, Zhang B, Manola A, Hogan J, Peterson E, et al: Mercury induces inflammatory mediator release from human mast cells. J Neuroinflammation. 2010, 7: 10.1186/1742-2094-7-20.Google Scholar
- Donelan J, Boucher W, Papadopoulou N, Lytinas M, Papaliodis D, Theoharides TC: Corticotropin-releasing hormone induces skin vascular permeability through a neurotensin-dependent process. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2006, 103: 7759-7764. 10.1073/pnas.0602210103.PubMed CentralView ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Beversdorf DQ, Manning SE, Hillier A, Anderson SL, Nordgren RE, Walters SE, et al: Timing of prenatal stressors and autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 2005, 35: 471-478. 10.1007/s10803-005-5037-8.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Cochrane DE, Carraway RE, Boucher W, Feldberg RS: Rapid degradation of neutotensin by stimulated rat mast cells. Peptides. 1991, 12: 1187-1194. 10.1016/0196-9781(91)90193-S.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Piliponsky AM, Chen CC, Nishimura T, Metz M, Rios EJ, Dobner PR, et al: Neurotensin increases mortality and mast cells reduce neurotensin levels in a mouse model of sepsis. Nat Med. 2008, 14: 392-398. 10.1038/nm1738.PubMed CentralView ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Galli SJ, Kalesnikoff J, Grimbaldeston MA, Piliponsky AM, Williams CM, Tsai M: Mast cells as "tunable" effector and immunoregulatory cells: recent advances. Annu Rev Immunol. 2005, 23: 749-786. 10.1146/annurev.immunol.21.120601.141025.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Theoharides TC, Kempuraj D, Tagen M, Conti P, Kalogeromitros D: Differential release of mast cell mediators and the pathogenesis of inflammation. Immunol Rev. 2007, 217: 65-78. 10.1111/j.1600-065X.2007.00519.x.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Li X, Chauhan A, Sheikh AM, Patil S, Chauhan V, Li XM, et al: Elevated immune response in the brain of autistic patients. J Neuroimmunol. 2009, 207: 111-116. 10.1016/j.jneuroim.2008.12.002.PubMed CentralView ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Zimmerman AW, Jyonouchi H, Comi AM, Connors SL, Milstien S, Varsou A, et al: Cerebrospinal fluid and serum markers of inflammation in autism. Pediatr Neurol. 2005, 33: 195-201. 10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2005.03.014.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Croonenberghs J, Bosmans E, Deboutte D, Kenis G, Maes M: Activation of the inflammatory response system in autism. Neuropsychobiology. 2002, 45: 1-6. 10.1159/000048665.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Chez MG, Dowling T, Patel PB, Khanna P, Kominsky M: Elevation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha in cerebrospinal fluid of autistic children. Pediatr Neurol. 2007, 36: 361-365. 10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2007.01.012.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Gibbs BF, Wierecky J, Welker P, Henz BM, Wolff HH, Grabbe J: Human skin mast cells rapidly release preformed and newly generated TNF-alpha and IL-8 following stimulation with anti-IgE and other secretagogues. Exp Dermatol. 2001, 10: 312-320. 10.1034/j.1600-0625.2001.100503.x.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Cocchiara R, Albeggiani G, Lampiasi N, Bongiovanni A, Azzolina A, Geraci D: Histamine and tumor necrosis factor-a production from purified rat brain mast cells mediated by substance P. Neuroreport. 1999, 10: 575-578. 10.1097/00001756-199902250-00024.View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. | <urn:uuid:c8e1f884-bb6c-4a91-ad60-d251692bf414> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://jneuroinflammation.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1742-2094-7-48 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627998923.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20190619063711-20190619085711-00352.warc.gz | en | 0.851802 | 5,939 | 2.84375 | 3 |
June 12, 2005
June 12, 2005
June 15, 2005
10.1243.1 - 10.1243.8
Technical Aspects of Creating and Assessing a Learning Environment in Digital Electronics for High School Students
Adam S. El-Mansouri, Herbert L. Hess, Kevin M. Buck, Timothy Ewers
Microelectronics Research and Communications Institute Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Idaho Moscow, Idaho
To develop an interest and an understanding of digital electronics for high school students, we have created digital electronic projects using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The approach is module-based; the origin and application of those modules is described. The educational process is segmented into small learning projects, where the function of the modules is presented, and a main project. Our main project example is a digital clock with alarm. This paper addresses the development of the modules, uses the clock as an example of a project, and demonstrates the technical aspects of the methods.
Recently, engineering and education faculty members at the University of Idaho teamed with local high schools to create an integrated hardware/software environment to inspire high school students into electrical and computer engineering. Their intent was to develop a project- based learning environment that overcomes the learning curve often associated with introducing integrated software and digital hardware design. In that way, they could have the students creating new “things” quickly and with a “personal touch”, a strong motivator for them to begin to understand what engineering is. As such, we began with a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) learning system designed for college sophomores and juniors. In this environment, we developed some fundamental modules for a range of projects. Then we provided a few examples of increasing difficulty on how to assemble these modules to perform a useful function. After seeing these examples, the high school students are encouraged to try themselves, first at a specified project and then to create their own task and solution.
The development environment consists of a hardware portion and a software portion. For hardware, we chose a circuit board, designed at Washington State University and sold by Digilent® Corporation , to help teach digital logic with applications. This board consists of a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) mounted onto a standard-format printed circuit board. The pins of the FPGA connect to various input/output devices such as LEDs, switches, buttons, seven-segment displays, and standard connectors for interface to user-designed expansion interface boards. The Digilent® board contains a 50MHz oscillator which is used as the master Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education
El-Mansouri, A., & Buck, K., & Hess, H. (2005, June), Technical Aspects Of Creating And Assessing A Learning Environment In Digital Electronics For High School Students Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/14386
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2005 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015 | <urn:uuid:bdde607d-f54a-4837-b762-6f2a3c320259> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://peer.asee.org/technical-aspects-of-creating-and-assessing-a-learning-environment-in-digital-electronics-for-high-school-students | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514573988.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20190920092800-20190920114800-00320.warc.gz | en | 0.910897 | 724 | 2.953125 | 3 |
2.1.1 Pulmonary vein stenosis (narrowing) may be congenital or may be acquired after surgery to correct other congenital cardiac anomalies. It is rare and often associated with other cardiac abnormalities. Untreated, it leads to severe lung damage.
2.1.2 There is currently no reliable alternative treatment.
2.2.1 Balloon angioplasty of pulmonary vein stenosis, sometimes combined with stenting, is a palliative treatment for children with a very poor prognosis, or is sometimes a temporary measure for children awaiting further interventions. The procedure involves inserting a catheter into the narrowed area under radiological guidance. A balloon is then inflated to relieve the narrowing. A stent may be inserted after dilatation to maintain patency.
2.3.1 The evidence was limited to four very small, poor-quality case series, the largest including only five patients. The two largest studies found no benefit from the procedure in any patients. Another study of three patients found an immediate reduction in pulmonary vein pressure in all the patients, as well as angiographic evidence of relief of stenosis in one patient. However, this patient died of infection within 36 hours of surgery. For more details, refer to the Sources of evidence section.
2.3.2 The Specialist Advisors considered that this procedure may have only short-term efficacy (if any at all), and that recurrence rates may be high. They also noted, however, that there was almost no role for surgery in this condition, and that even a partial result from this procedure may offer palliation in this group of patients.
2.4.1 Some of the main adverse events reported in the studies included: venous tear leading to mediastinal haemorrhage in 20% (1/5) of patients; haemoptysis in 20% (1/5) of patients; death caused by infection in 33% (1/3) of patients; and puncture of the distal vein in 33% (1/3) of patients. For more details, refer to the Sources of evidence section.
2.4.2 The Specialist Advisors considered the main potential adverse events to be death, rupture of myocardium, rupture of pulmonary vein, cerebral or other systemic embolism, arrhythmias and sepsis. | <urn:uuid:0732077f-3e87-429b-9d0e-e600f21d2820> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ipg75/chapter/2-The-procedure | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370495413.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20200329171027-20200329201027-00247.warc.gz | en | 0.953445 | 485 | 2.546875 | 3 |
to Make Special Education Work
By Judith Canty Graves and Carson Graves
October 25, 2016
Parents who realize their child is struggling, who suspect something is amiss, will seek out the advice of a pediatrician, a psychologist, or perhaps another professional. At first, parents don’t want to notice that their child isn’t perfect. They may suppress their feelings, but eventually, if their child is not achieving the usual milestones, some professional they know may suggest testing. That person may diagnose a disability, which leads to the question: “Now what?”
Varied and Complex Reactions
Receiving a diagnosis of a learning disability or a developmental delay can be devastating and surprising news. Some parents deny that there is a problem and will not accept the diagnosis. Other embrace the diagnosis and research everything about it. Some will share it with other parents and some won’t.
The reasons for these varied reactions can be complex.
For some parents, a diagnosis of a disability brings out fear and shame. They refuse to let their school know about the diagnosis, believing that there is a stigma to having a child in special education. Fearing the label “disabled,” they refuse to explore the option of special education services, hoping their child will get by without additional help.
For other parents, a diagnosis brings a sense of relief. Once they understand what is behind their child’s issues, they can begin to plot a course of action to help their child more forward.
Grief, Disappointment and Acceptance
For most parents, there is an initial grieving process. Their beliefs about their child may be challenged. What if their child won’t be able to go to college and achieve in a similar fashion to themselves? What if the diagnosis means a new way of life and a change of plans and expectations?
Grief and disappointment are common reactions.
Some parents even feel anger toward the professional who made the diagnosis. Others blame each other for being the cause of the disability. Fatigue sets in as parents struggle to understand what professionals are telling them.
Receiving a diagnosis for a child is a hard experience, but accepting the diagnosis can eventually lead to a positive outcome for your child.
Working Through the Confusion
Because there are a variety of diagnoses that a child can receive, the process becomes confusing. Parents hear terminology that they have never heard before and feel even more confused. People they have never met before will be delivering complicated news about their child. Many parents wonder if they can trust the opinion of a stranger who doesn’t know their child the way they do.
Fortunately,there are things that parents can do to help them work through the confusionand put them on the road to becoming an advocate for their child’s education.
What You Can Do:
- Locate a Parent Training and Information Center: Each state in the United States has a federally funded Parent Training and Information Center. These centers can advise you of resources in your area. Go to The Yellow Pages for Kids at the Wrightslaw website to find a center near you.
- Ask for a Referral to Special Education: Contact the special education department in your child’s school district to request assessments in all the areas in which you suspect a disability. As long as your request is in writing, schools must comply with your request within a specific timeline set by your state’s department of education.
- Build a Team of Independent Professionals: Seek out independent experts who can do a comprehensive and objective assessment of your child’s special needs. Relying only on school testing can lead to a narrow view of your child, sometimes with important information missing.
- Understand the Terminology: Parents will hear many new terms for different disabilities such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Nonverbal Learning Disability, Cerebral Palsy, Tourette’s Syndrome, or Autism Spectrum Disorder. Be sure to ask the professional who gives you the diagnosis to be clear and explain the term so you can understand it.
- Locate Parent Support Groups: Seek out groups of parents who have children with disabilities. Other parents can be a great source of trusted information. Find local groups of national organizations that are pertinent to your child’s disability, such as such as CHADD or the Autism Society.
- Do What You Can in the Moment: We have discovered that mindful living is especially helpful when you have a child with special needs. It is pointless to project many years into the future and worry about your child’s well-being then. It is easier and healthier to focus on what you can do today, this week, or this month to help your child.
- Remember That You Are Not Alone: Thousands of parents have children who get a diagnosis of special needs every year. Consider family members, friends, neighbors, and clergy as sources of support. If you belong to a faith community, ask if there is a special needs ministry. Many churches have them to create accepting communities for children and teens with special needs. | <urn:uuid:d1d2a1d3-3723-45b0-90ed-5d3d52b9676c> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.specialneedsdigest.com/2016/10/after-diagnosis-then-what.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948587577.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20171216104016-20171216130016-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.955526 | 1,040 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Shih Tzu Breeders – The Shih Tzu’s anscestors were very close genetically to wolves. According to legend, a Shih Tzu would sleep at the edge of the Chinese emperor’s bed as Tzus were almost extinct! In 1930, there were only 14 Shih Tzus left Shih Tzus do not shed as much as other breeds, but still need daily brushing to maintain their coat. Shih Tzus are strictly indoor dogs, but still need daily exercise. Shih Tzus are great with other dogs and people, but can be stubborn or slower to train. Shih Tzus do not do well hot humid weather. Shih Tzus live 12 to 16 years (some as long as 20). | <urn:uuid:cf665968-43af-43d2-a134-01c7f09713ca> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | https://hudsonvalleyhomesguide.com/shih-tzu-breeders.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912201672.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20190318191656-20190318213656-00506.warc.gz | en | 0.98144 | 161 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Khodutinskiye Hot Springs is a unique geothermal object, located at the foot of Khodutka Volcano. It is the longest thermal watercourse on the peninsula (about one kilomemer long). The three pulsating gryphones run at temperatures between +700 and +900 C (+1580 F – +1940 F). Throughout the year one can take therapeutic baths here.
Ksudach Volcano (1079 m / 3540 ft) is a uniquely magnificent object. Several calderas with depths of up to 600 meters (1968 ft) had formed inside the 18 by 22 meter (59 by 72 ft) truncated cone. These calderas are filled with water. There is a «hot beach» at the waterside. Water temperature of fumaroles reach +70 centigrade (+1580 F). Cataclysmic eruption occurred in 1907. To this day, the volcanologists consider it the most impressive eruption occurring in historic times. | <urn:uuid:066699c8-19c0-4c15-a99a-4cda6e6c8f06> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://triptokamchatka.com/khodutinskiye-hot-springs-and-ksudach-volcano | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371612531.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20200406004220-20200406034720-00522.warc.gz | en | 0.902863 | 198 | 2.734375 | 3 |
It was not long ago that a bill was tabled in the US Congress in support of giving Balochistan – the land of the Baloch – the right to self-determination against their ‘forced accession’ into Pakistan on March 27, 1948. The day is still mourned as a Black Day throughout the Baloch land, including parts of the provincial capital, Quetta.
In the year 1971, the erstwhile East Pakistan had already witnessed a bloody independence war with Pakistan, which culminated in the creation of the country now known as Bangladesh – it was a real bloody war since hundreds of thousands of people were massacred in this ‘genocide’ to crush the Bengali freedom-fighters.
In the present times, however, it is not just Balochistan which has the separatist sentiments, but Sindh under the leadership of Mr. G.M. Syed, has also been fighting for independence soon after the creation of Pakistan. From the platform of various nationalist political parties, Sindhis demand separation from Pakistan and creation of proposed, Sindhudesh, the Land of Sindhu (River Indus). They support their demand with the arguments that, 1., the British had invaded the independent Sindh and, 2. that they have a distinct rich history and secular culture which dates back to 5000 years. …. | <urn:uuid:1e309d3f-3100-4f5a-9c95-e3b452f28ffd> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://iaoj.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/pakistan-demand-for-independence-of-sindh/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499646.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20230128153513-20230128183513-00557.warc.gz | en | 0.971775 | 273 | 3.734375 | 4 |
German Bundesbank Achieves Gold Repatriation Goal Ahead of Schedule.
Gold Repatriation from NY Fed Completed.
More Than Half of Germany’s Gold to Be in Germany by Year End.
Gold Represents about 2/3 of Germany’s Reserves.
Check out all the Smaulgld podcasts here.
Not a Smaulgld subscriber? Sign up here.
Please consider making a small donation to Smaulgld.com. Thanks!
Why Germany Has Much of its Gold Abroad
According to the World Gold Council Germany has 3,381 tons of gold, the second largest central bank gold holdings.
Until recently, Germany stored 69% of its gold abroad in London, Paris and New York. The German Bundesbank set a goal that by 2020 they would have half of their gold in Germany, 37% at the New York Federal Reserve and 13% in London at the Bank of England. (and none in Paris)
Jens Weidman, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank explains in this video from the Deutsche Bundesbank the historic reasons (Cold War concerns) for storing Germany’s gold abroad and the changed circumstances. He notes there is no need to have gold in France since Germany and France share the same currency, the Euro. London and New York provide geographic diversity and dollar and pound exchange capabilities.
Germany’s First Gold Repatriation Request
In January 2013, Germany made a gold repatriation request to United States Federal Reserve in New York and Banque de France in Paris regarding a portion of the gold they held on deposit at those entities. At the time, Germany cited the potential of a currency crisis and the need to have its gold close by.
Germany requested repatriation of a total of 674 tons of gold from the New York Fed and the Banque de France. The Fed notified Germany their gold would be delivered over a period of eight years, raising eyebrows as to why it would take so long to make the requested repatriation.
A Slow Start
In January 2014, it was reported that just 37 tons of gold had been returned to Germany, with 32 tons coming from Paris and just five tons from New York.
The Pace Picks Up
In January 2015, however, the German central bank the Bundesbank announced that it had received 120 tons of gold in 2014; 35 tons from Paris and 85 tons from New York.
In March of 2015, Henner Asche, deputy head of markets for the Bundesbank noted that 67 tons of gold had been transferred from Paris to Frankfurt and 90 tons from New York to Frankfort, reflecting an increase in the amounts reported at year end 2014 and bringing the total received to 157 tons.
Herr Asche also reported that 1,447 tons of the Bundesbank’s gold were held in New York, 438 tons in London and 307 tons in Paris.
On January 27, 2016, the Bundesbank announced that in 2015, 210 tonnes of gold were transferred to Frankfurt from Paris (110 tonnes) and New York (about 100 tonnes).
“With approximately 1,403 tonnes of gold, Frankfurt has been our largest storage location, ahead of New York, since the end of last year,” said Carl-Ludwig Thiele, Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank. Germany reported that its gold reserves held in Frankfurt were 1,402 tons, or 41.5% of Germany’s 3,381 tons of gold, with 1,347 tons or 39.9% of Germany’s gold remaining at the NY Fed.
In February 2017, it was reported that Germany had met its goal of repatriating its gold from the New York Fed ahead of schedule. As of January, 2017 the German Bundesbank reported:
The transfer of gold from New York was completed successfully last year,” said Carl-Ludwig Thiele, Member of the Bundesbank’s Executive Board. “The transfers were carried out without any disruptions or irregularities. The gold storage plan for New York, which envisaged the transfer of 300 tonnes of gold from New York to Frankfurt, was fully realised in 2016,” Mr Thiele stated.
Mr Thiele also noted “We will be able to complete the transfer of gold from Paris this year too,” Mr Thiele added. Consequently, there will no longer be any German gold reserves in Paris. The realisation of the gold storage plan is therefore considerably ahead of the original schedule.”
Here is a chart from the Bundesbank showing the current state of Germany’s gold reserves. Once they retrieve the rest of their gold from Paris they will have more than 50% of their gold in Germany.
The Bundesbank has promised to “publish an updated list of its gold bars on its website [on February 23, 2017]. This list contains the bar, melt or inventory numbers, the gross and fine weight as well as the fineness of the gold.”
The Real Question about Germany’s Gold Reserves – Why don’t they add more?
You can compare pricing and shipping charges on American Gold Eagles coins of all sizes at these web sites:
Golden Eagle Coins
Money Metals Exchange
If you have enjoyed this report, please consider sharing it, buying your precious metals through the Smaulgld affiliates linked to on this site* and subscribing (for free) to Smaulgld.com. | <urn:uuid:40b6727b-418e-4a60-9b6c-74743eefb7a9> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://smaulgld.com/germany-gets-gold-back-early/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103943339.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20220701155803-20220701185803-00560.warc.gz | en | 0.957995 | 1,143 | 2.71875 | 3 |
February 14, 2014 @ AboveTheFray
The Art of Natural Dyes
Despite the invention of chemical (aniline) dyes in the late 19th Century, the hilltribe artists represented by Above the Fray: Traditional Hilltribe Art largely use dyes and mordants exclusively derived from locally-collected natural materials and processed using traditional methods. The complex “recipes” for making these permanent dyes have been handed down for generations. The art is still alive today, and we have met master-dyers who are still developing new colors using traditional methods and materials.
Read the article and see the pictures @ AboveTheFray. | <urn:uuid:26e3dfcc-31a7-4b16-9ac8-ce063d4d2b09> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | https://ihueman.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/master-dyers-in-houaphon-province-laos/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676589350.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20180716135037-20180716155037-00152.warc.gz | en | 0.932462 | 138 | 3.03125 | 3 |
The smallpox virus, one of the biggest killers in history, has won a temporary stay from its planned execution next week because some scientists have begun to argue that the virus could yield useful medical knowledge about smallpox and maybe other diseases.
Health officials in the United States and Russia, who hold the last known stocks of the smallpox virus, had planned to destroy them simultaneously by New Year's Eve.
The recommendation was announced by the World Health Organization three years ago with the agreement of both countries. But both have now decided to delay destruction beyond the agreed deadline while some last-minute doubts about the wisdom of such a final step are debated. Eradication of Disease
The disease caused by the smallpox virus was declared eradicated in 1980. It was arguably public health's greatest triumph because smallpox is the only disease that has been wiped out. Stocks of the virus have been kept frozen in liquid nitrogen in two closely guarded laboratories in Atlanta and Moscow for research purposes where laboratory scientists have been amassing as much knowledge as possible about the virus's basic structure in anticipation of its destruction. The virus, known as variola, is expected to be destroyed by heating the remaining stocks to very high temperatures in devices called autoclaves.
The main focus of the research has been to create a genetic map of the variola, which belongs to the family of pox viruses.
If the stocks of the virus are destroyed, health officials say it would be the first time any species had been deliberately wiped out. Meeting in Switzerland
But with the deadline a week away, "there's no movement toward doing it the end of this year," Dr. Walter R. Dowdle, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview yesterday. The centers hold the American stocks of the virus.
A meeting is being planned at the health organization's headquarters in Geneva next month so virologists and other experts can review the progress made in genetically mapping the virus and determine whether other things still should be done, Dr. Dowdle said.
Health officials had planned to destroy the virus to reduce the security costs associated with preserving it and to avoid the threat that the stocks could accidentally escape from a laboratory, be seized by terrorists or sold by financially troubled researchers or political leaders.
But the execution has been postponed for several reasons.
One is a last-minute debate among scientists over the wisdom of destroying a virus for which scientists have little understanding. Scientists do not know why the variola virus infected humans and was so deadly, killing up to 40 percent of the people it infected. Smallpox began like the flu with nonspecific symptoms but then went on to cause a rash, usually first over the face and then on the body and limbs. The healed rash often left pockmarks and blinded victims. Good Virus, Bad Virus
Yet a closely related virus, vaccinia, is what led to the eradication of smallpox. The vaccinia virus formed the basis of the vaccine that was used since 1796 to prevent smallpox. In asking for a stay of execution, some experts have expressed hopes that additional research will help explain why one virus was lethal and the other beneficial.
Opponents of the virus's destruction also argue that further research could provide invaluable opportunities to learn about the way other viruses harm humans. In addition, some experts contend that studies of smallpox virus might provide clues in the battles against other scourges, including cancer.
"Everybody's feeling is, what's the hurry, give it a little more time and let's talk further about this," Dr. Dowdle said.
He added: "The Russians are going through the same process. There are camps that feel the virus should be destroyed and other camps that want to keep it." Recommendation Awaited
The expert committee that meets in Geneva next month is expected to make a recommendation to the health organization about the fate of the virus. If it recommends destruction, the final decision may be put to the annual meeting of the organization's membership in May.
Destruction could occur anytime afterward.
"No one is rushing to the autoclave," Dr. Dowdle said.
If the stocks of smallpox virus are destroyed and the disease ever returns from hidden stocks, health officials say that there are sufficient stores of vaccine and that more could easily be made. | <urn:uuid:6ddd15b9-1de6-4381-a40f-9c9446564690> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/25/us/smallpox-virus-frozen-in-2-labs-escapes-a-scalding-end-for-now.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540499439.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20191207132817-20191207160817-00546.warc.gz | en | 0.97065 | 886 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Catching the common cold or flu is very common in winter. Each year when fall comes, hundreds of people get affected by the influenza virus. In January 2018, Pakistan faced an outbreak of the flu which claimed a lot of lives. 35 people died because of the viral infection just in the course of a month. Although flu is caused by a virus and is not a direct consequence of the cold weather people are still more likely to catch it during winters. Have you ever wondered why?
Here are three possible causes for propagation of flu in cold weather and how you can avoid them or else you would have to book a doctor online!
Immunity is the ability of the body to protect itself from foreign, disease causing agents. To maintain a healthy body it is important to maintain a healthy immune system. A compromised immune system means that the body is vulnerable to all the diseases.
For a long time, it was believed that the reason for increased sickness in winters was a compromised immune system. There was no scientific proof for this belief and people considered it a myth until recently when a study, proved that cold temperatures are likely to weaken the immune system.
According to this study, during winter the temperature inside the nose drops. The low temperature inside the nose makes up for a favorable environment for the influenza virus to grow. The study also goes on to say that the immune cells are also unlikely to self-destruct to stop the spread of virus. Lack of vitamin D because of insufficient sunlight in winter is also linked to a depressed immune system.
One way to avoid flu this fall is to boost your immune system. A diet rich in vitamins and minerals, and fluids can work wonders in this regard. Sufficient sleep is also likely to help.
Another reason that a lot of people catch the flu in winters is proximity. People usually spend more time indoors in cold weather. Time spent indoors usually means close interactions with people who might already be suffering. Breathing the same air as sick people in a close proximity considerably increases the chance of catching the flu.
A good strategy to avoid viral transmission is to minimize physical contact with sick people. It is also a good practice to eat and drink in separate utensils at least for the first three days of the infection.
3-Better conditions for the virus:
In winter, the wind is dry and the weather is cold. These conditions have been identified by scientists, as ideal for the influenza virus growth. The virus not only grows in these conditions, it also has a longer life span. A study conducted by a researcher from New York has revealed that the spread of virus is also encouraged by the cold weather.
Tiny droplets are released into the air when we sneeze or cough. These droplets stay in the air as long as they are not heavy enough to drop down. During winter, the air is dry which means that the droplets remain in the air for a longer time. The more time these droplets spend in the air, more are the chances that they will be inhaled by other people.
To avoid inhaling influenza through others’ coughs and sneezes, it is best to wear a mask in flu season. The flu season is usually January to March in Pakistan.
If you or a loved one is experiencing flu, you should visit an ENT specialist as soon as possible. You can visit our website oladoc.com to look for top ENT specialists in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
You can also call our helpline at 042-3890-0939 to get directed to the specialists that are suitable for your specific concerns. | <urn:uuid:47bc5db0-bf32-4475-b12f-75d55d8bb66a> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://oladoc.com/health-zone/why-flu-is-so-common-in-winter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578528481.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20190420020937-20190420042037-00041.warc.gz | en | 0.973424 | 736 | 3.625 | 4 |
By Gwen Kilchherr, Master Gardener
Tomatoes need no introduction! Have you ever tried a vine-ripened tomato with the heat of the sun still upon it? If you have, then you will know why the tomato is the most commonly grown vegetable in the United States. May is the month for setting out tomatoes in the garden in Sonoma County. While it is always tempting to start them sooner, it is not until May that the soil and air temperatures warm up enough to get them started properly.
There seem to be almost as many tomato varieties as there are ways to eat them. When selecting a variety, keep in mind how you are going to use the tomatoes (eat them fresh, cook into sauces, etc), the length of your season, past experiences, the growing conditions of your area, and what you like in a tomato. Try different varieties. If gardeners in your area have had a problem with harmful diseases such as verticillium or fusarium wilts, you will need to shop for disease-resistant varieties, which are readily available. With our County's climatic diversity, gardeners in Bodega or Sebastopol will find that they have success with different varieties than gardeners in Sonoma or Healdsburg.
Where you plant your tomatoes in the garden is important. Tomatoes need at least 6 to 8 hours of sun a day to produce well. So, a sunny, well-drained part of the garden is the best spot for them.
Soil is important for tomatoes: like most vegetables, they like their soil pH around 6.0 to 6.5. By taking a sample of your soil, and using a soil test kit, you will be able to determine your soil pH. Soil test kits can be purchased at your local nursery, and Master Gardeners can recommend how much lime or sulfur (which will raise or lower the pH) to add based on your results. Soil texture is also important: in troublesome, sandy soils which drain too quickly or in heavy, clay soils which take forever to drain and warm up in the spring, you can either amend each individual planting hole, or you can amend the entire bed. Either way, it boils down to working plenty of fully composted organic matter into the soil. Organic matter will feed the millions of microscopic soil organisms who live and work in your soil. This active soil life breaks down organic matter into nutrient-rich humus - in effect, making fertilizer for your vegetable crops. You could add an all-purpose fertilizer into the planting holes at the time of planting so that the transplants get off to a good start. Follow the package directions. Add a bit of agricultural lime for calcium, to help prevent blossom-end rot. Once you've been adding organic matter for a few years, it might not be necessary to add additional fertilizer.
If you talk to 10 different gardeners, you'll get 10 different ways to plant a tomato! But despite all the variations, which give tomato growers much to talk about, there are just a couple basic ways to transplant- trenching or straight up and down. In trench planting (which works particularly well if your transplants are leggy), you simply pinch off all the lower leaves and lay the whole plant in a shallow trench horizontally. Cover the stem with 2 or 3 inches of soil and bring just the top cluster of leaves above the surface. Mark the location of the rootball so that you don't disturb it later on when cultivating. This method may slow the plants down at the start but will provide more roots and make the plants a bit more drought-tolerant. If planting with the straight up and down method, pinch off the lower set of leaves and then plant them deeply, almost up to the next set of leaves. Roots will form along any part of the stem that is buried, and the extra roots will give you a stronger plant.
It is often said that tomatoes will grow like weeds—they'll keep sending out new stems and branching out all over the place. Every time you turn around, the plants are bigger and bushier. Well, to keep them from taking over the garden, and to insure cleaner, healthier tomatoes, many gardeners support their plants, train them to grow a certain way and regularly pinch off unwanted growth. Stakes and cages are the most popular supports. Letting your tomato plants sprawl saves work - no tying, no training, and no pruning. However, the disadvantages of letting the plants sprawl is that you'll need to put down a light mulch to keep the tomatoes from sitting on the ground where they'll be prone to rot. And, this mulch will need to be kept dry. It is also difficult to find the ripe fruits underneath all of the foliage before the insects and the animals devour them.
Left unpruned, a tomato plant will produce a surprising number of stems. Tomato pruning means pinching off the shoots or suckers that grow out from the stem right above a leaf branch. If you let the sucker grow, it simply becomes another big stem with its own blossoms and fruits. If you have the room to allow the plants to get big, then don't worry about pruning. If you want to keep them contained, then prune.
Finally, mulch your tomatoes! Mulch is simply a covering over the soil that keeps moisture in, blocks weeds and protects low growing tomatoes from resting on the ground and developing rot. There's something extra in using organic materials such as grass clippings, leaves, hay, and aged manures, because unlike plastic and other synthetic mulches, they decompose and provide food for all those micro-organisms, and in time, will improve the structure of your soil.
Tomatoes like an even supply of water through the growing season. They'll need at least 1 inch of irrigation water per week for steady growth. In hotter, drier areas, they could benefit from at least 2 inches of water per week during the summer months. Uneven watering can result in blossom-end rot on the fruits. Over-watering can result in cracked skins.
Tomatoes can also be started from seed indoors in February, and then planted out in the garden in May. The advantage to using seed is that there are many more varieties available in seed than in transplants. Contact Master Gardeners for additional information about tomatoes or for specific recommendations about growing tomatoes in your area of the County.
For a pdf file of the Master Gardener Document "Growing Tomatoes in the Home Garden" Click Here | <urn:uuid:b57a2913-7ee7-4673-bd2b-060186b08df0> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | http://sonomamg.ucanr.edu/Vegetable_of_the_Month/Tomatoes-I/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806715.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20171123012207-20171123032207-00470.warc.gz | en | 0.946549 | 1,344 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Over the last two centuries Medical Scientists and Nutritionists have discovered 42 small molecule nutrients in foods and spices, which they have proven are essential for maintaining human health. Essential nutrients are very different from most chemicals found in foods and spices. They are small molecules and so very low in abundance that standard chemical analysis equipment cannot detect their presence. Our only source of these essential nutrients is diet because the human body does not synthesize or produce these necessary for health chemicals. Not consuming adequate amounts of essential nutrients results in the onset of debilitating and sometimes fatal disease conditions.
Examples of essential nutrients are Vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K. Regular consumption of these is needed to prevent the occurrence of a specific disease condition such as rickets, beriberi, scurvy, night blindness and uncontrolled bleeding. Multiple studies conducted by leading medical scientists have proven that plant based diets prevent the onset of many of today’s most difficult chronic disease conditions. Leading members of these groups have instructed that, like essential nutrients, the not yet identified small molecule nutrients in the plant based foods are responsible for the observed beneficial bioactivity. Which nutrients amongst the thousands of chemicals in a food or spice are responsible for the essential nutrient-like bioactivity noticed against other major disease conditions? An understanding of this very complex problem required new technologies to be developed.
HerbalScience seized the opportunity and developed the diverse technologies required to realize this breakthrough. The technologies were successfully integrated into BRILLIANT™, a proprietary technology platform that is bringing positive transformative change to global food and food related industries. In less than 2 years BRILLIANT™ identified and developed the methods and conditions to identify and capture, in whole food ingredients, over 3,000 not before identified bioactive small molecule nutrients. This achievement is remarkable in that these newly discovered nutrients represent less than 1/8th of 1% of the small molecule chemicals present in the 341 top consumed foods and spices that were the focus of the discovery effort. Medical scientists have demonstrated that the newly discovered nutrients are not only essential to enhancing human performance, but importantly, also essential to preventing many Infectious, Chronic Age and Lifestyle related disease conditions.
Medical scientists have also determined these newly discovered nutrients uniquely mimic the bioactivity of new generation biopharmaceuticals by engaging the disease condition related genes and enzymes within the human genome known to be involved in 8 major human health categories. Clinical studies verify that products containing these proprietary bioactive nutrients are safer and measurably more effective than current leading generic drugs. And that not all of the good news, when these newly discovered bioactive nutrients are combined or used as a co-therapy treatment they deliver a synergistic activity to many off-patent generic drugs enabling enhanced treatment outcomes, improved safety profiles and new long-life patents. Inexpensive GRAS Status food and spice based natural products containing these proprietary nutrients can now deliver clinically proven solutions for Enhanced Human Performance and many Infectious, Chronic Age and Lifestyle related disease conditions. | <urn:uuid:f5a9fd89-40e6-435b-afe8-b0a2413749b6> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | http://herbalsciencegroup.com/brillant-technologies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818687582.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20170920232245-20170921012245-00030.warc.gz | en | 0.944702 | 608 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Each child is unique and in the Formative Stage we provide a challenging, stimulating and supportive environment in which each child can achieve his/her full potential.
Our curriculum will enable your child to become an independent and active learner. Through a play-based curriculum children are encouraged to develop positive approach towards learning.
We build the foundations of life-long learning by encouraging children to think and cultivate their own ideas in safe surroundings. Our activities are planned carefully and children are supported by both the teachers and teaching assistants in order to personalise their learning. Children will grow in confidence as they make discoveries about the world around them.
Primary School life focuses on individuals, whether that is academically, emotionally or in the wide range of extra-curricular activities on offer.
Excellent teaching staff share their passion for the subjects they teach, with expectations and the motivation to learn set high. Levels of challenge ensure that every pupil is stimulated and encouraged to be the best that they can be.
Pupils are thoroughly prepared for Middle School life so that the transition to their next stage of education is seamless.
THE MIDDLE SCHOOL
In order to ensure “Success for Every Student,” we implement a guaranteed, viable and rigorous curriculum that meets the evolving needs of our students while prioritizing active engagement and reflective problem-solving. Our curriculum will encourage students to scrutinize evidence of their learning, challenge their thinking, and forge new understandings. We will help students gain confidence, discover their talents, and develop the skills they need to succeed in life.
THE HIGH SCHOOL
SASJ provides a balanced curriculum and we also provide ample opportunities to develop the talents of pupils in sport, music, drama and a wide range of other activities, whilst promoting their intellectual growth to the full. Our pupils have a wide range of choice and the timetable is flexible, being designed after pupil choices have been made so allowing them freedom of choice.
The breadth of opportunity given to our pupils and the special atmosphere of support and encouragement provided by a highly qualified and dedicated body of staff in all departments, creates the particular atmosphere of support and encouragement which are hallmarks of the School. | <urn:uuid:ff9bf2fc-9d95-498f-85d4-3b96af32b7b1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://sasjaipur.com/curriculum/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571483.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811164257-20220811194257-00328.warc.gz | en | 0.957391 | 448 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Of learning, teaching, and assessment (woolfolk, 2001) as a science, educational psychology rests 56 chapter 3: applying learning theories to healthcare practice. If you're considering a career in the education field, you should brush up on teaching theories a summary of 3 different theories of learning. This pages provides a summary of key learning theories learning approaches most learning theories fall to learning in training and teaching is to. The role of the student is that of a learner, a collaborator, and a team member there are a number of theories about learning which help us understand the role of a student or learner for. Learning theory: learning theory a learning theory is a coherent framework and set of integrated constructs and principles that describe, explain, or predict how people learn. Educational psychologists, theorists, researchers, and authors educational theories in teaching science general educational theories active learning - c bonwell.
Learning as a process – learning theory what is the difference a new critique of adult learning and teaching, leicester: niace 85 pages. The oxford dictionary defines learning as “the acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience, or being taught” however, before any teacher even begins to engage in this. Theories of learning this short paper has summarised a range of learning theories that can be applied in educational contexts teaching and learning activities. Eberly center teaching & learning principles to present current research and theory on student learning in a way that can inform and. Science of teaching and learning there is substantial research on teaching and learning theories and situated learning are three important learning theories. Learning principles theory and research-based principles of learning using quizzes and item analysis to inform teaching and learning reflective assessments.
Theory and research-based principles of learning from carnegie mellon university learning theories, learning models, learning theory summaries – in plain english learning to learn: by karl. The cognitive learning theory explains why the brain is the most incredible network of information processing and interpretation in the body as we learn things.
Ttuhsc school of pharmacy offers one of the most comprehensive pharmacy education and training programs in the us and ranked among the top 20 programs. Articulating your philosophy of teaching and learning knowledge, learning theory and philosophies learning theories and philosophies as applied to schooling. Chapter 2: learning theories overview of learning theories while behavioral therapists and special education teachers apply behavioral learning principles to. Learn how to adapt your teaching methods to accommodate different learning styles and help recognition in education theory and for teaching and learning.
The changing nhs: what does this mean for teachers and learners in the theory and practice paper you looked at some of key learning theories and how these might be used in clinical. In recent years, research into theories of learning has been gaining momentum as a majorly significant academic pursuit, sending ripples of influence over the realm of the social sciences. Defining, discussing, and analyzing how behaviorism impacts learning as well as teacher-student relationships.
Teaching theories there are three main categories into which learning theories fall: behaviorist theories | cognitivist theories | constructivist theories in addition to these main. This unit introduces pre-service teachers to different learning perspectives and how they relate to contemporary theories of learning the unit challenges them to reflect upon their own. Crlt is dedicated to the support and advancement of evidence-based learning and teaching practices and the professional development of all members of the campus teaching community. Education theories including major figures and important theories biographies, information, resources. | <urn:uuid:26fd6190-4dcd-464f-8f2b-82ddccc6a869> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://scessayraan.locksmith-everett.us/theories-of-teaching-and-learning.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221215523.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20180820023141-20180820043141-00640.warc.gz | en | 0.944409 | 706 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Meaning of Ruby name, name definition, origin of Ruby name, popularity and history of Ruby, name meaning in the Bible/Torah/Quran? Analysis, gender of Ruby, acrostic poem about Ruby other details;
- 1 Ruby Name Meaning and History
- 2 Origin of Ruby Name
- 3 Gender of Ruby
- 4 Analysis of Ruby
- 5 Ruby Statistics
- 6 What is the Numerology of Ruby?
- 7 Popularity of Ruby Name
- 8 Characteristics of Ruby
- 9 Acrostic Poem About Ruby
- 10 Is there Ruby name in the Bible/Torah/Quran?
- 11 Famous People and fact Named Ruby
- 12 Is Ruby name fit for baby name ?
- 13 Similar names and nicknames for Ruby
Ruby Name Meaning and History
What Does Ruby Mean and History? From the Latin ruber, meaning "red" or "ruddy". A ruby is a red gemstone.
Pronounced: ROO bee
Origin of Ruby Name
Gender of Ruby
Analysis of Ruby
Users of this name Hardworking , Calm , Energetic , Protective
- Color of Ruby name: Pink
- Number of letters of Ruby: 4
Specific analysis for each letter;
R : Dreamer
U : Attractive
B : Successful, Smart
Y : Powerful
What is the Numerology of Ruby?
Numerology offers an insight into the personality by assigning numeric values to the letters contained in names.
R : 18
U : 21
B : 2
Y : 25
Total = 66
Popularity of Ruby Name
UK, USA, Ireland, Australia.
Ruby has consistently appeared in the top 100 girls’ names in recent years. It was at number 21 in 2013.
Characteristics of Ruby
Ruby Numerology Analysis;Curious , Patriotic , Calm, Quiet , Fearless
Acrostic Poem About Ruby
R is for Rose, more beautiful as you unfold.
U is for Utopia, you take me to that place.
B is for Bountiful, you’re so rich to me,
Y is for Yes, we love you every day!
Is there a more beautiful poem for the name Ruby? Send us will publish it for you.
Is there Ruby name in the Bible/Torah/Quran?
Ruby name hasn’t been found in the Bible/Torah/Quran
A spelling alphabet, voice procedure alphabet telephone alphabet etc.
Famous People and fact Named Ruby
“Ruby Tuesday” is a song by the Rolling Stones. Dorothy, from the famous children’s book and film “The Wizard of Oz”, wore magical ruby slippers.
Is Ruby name fit for baby name ?
Our research results for the name of Ruby (Ruby name meaning, Origin of Ruby, Pronounced etc. ) is fit name.You can give to your baby with complacency. | <urn:uuid:60c26578-5203-430d-97f0-09acc7943147> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.meaningofname-baby.com/ruby/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154805.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20210804111738-20210804141738-00628.warc.gz | en | 0.827425 | 622 | 2.78125 | 3 |
What does it mean to think, believe, and act like an American?
The soul of America is far more than a concept--it is a people. Even the most sacred principles mean very little unless lived out passionately by an informed citizenry. In "The Portable Patriot "you'll find a carefully assembled sampling of American history's most formative words, written by the people who made that extraordinary history. Speeches and sermons, essays and extracts, poems and proclamations illumine such values as independence, virtue, humility, bravery, thrift, prayer, enterprise, liberty, and reliance on God. While peering back to the cradle of America's national identity, "The Portable Patriot "also points a way forward, compelling us to heed poet John Dickinson's plea to "rouse your bold hearts at fair Liberty's call."
"Nothing ignites a patriot's heart--or the hope that the truths of our founding era will prevail again--like the documents assembled in "The Portable Patriot." How grateful we should be, and how quick to make these historic words our own." ―Stephen Mansfield, author, "The Forgotten Founding ""Father "and "The Faith of the American Soldier"
"Our current struggles over taxation, federal debt, and limited government are part of a larger American story. Kudos to Miller and Parrish for highlighting these essential passages." ―Hon. Andrew P. Napolitano, "Senior Judicial Analyst, Fox News Channel" | <urn:uuid:1d33abf4-4621-4103-a8de-fe7015f99830> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.parable.com/i.Portable-Patriot-Miller-Joel.9781617074660 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997858581.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025738-00056-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918339 | 298 | 2.5625 | 3 |
|More than 100,000 reports of child abuse and neglect were made in Georgia in 2004, according to the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS). Of those reports, 36 percent were substantiated, representing more than 51,000 child victims. Eighty-three percent of the abusers were the child's biological parent, and 13 percent were a non-biological parent, other relative or live-in boyfriend or girlfriend of the parent.
The reports are alarming, and according to Nancy Fajman, MD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine and a pediatrician at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding, the statistics are an unfortunate and underestimated reality. Yet, Dr. Fajman says the month of April, widely recognized as National Child Abuse Prevention Month, is a perfect opportunity to educate parents, teachers, medical providers, and other caregivers on the importance of child abuse awareness and prevention.
Dr. Fajman says there are several steps parents, adults and caregivers can take to protect children from abuse and abusive situations. For starters, according to Dr. Fajman, the first step is for parents and other adults to acknowledge that they are capable of becoming abusers. She says children under the age of 5 are at higher risk for physical abuse.
"Anyone who is around children can potentially abuse them," explains Dr. Fajman, who is a governor-appointed member of the Georgia Child Fatality Review Panel and serves on the advisory board of Stop It Now! Georgia: The Campaign to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse. "We all love children, especially our own, but we all get tired and come to the end of our rope. I think just about everyone faces the possibility of injuring their child out of frustration, anger, or out of their own fears. "Although people may not mean to hurt their child, they just get to their wits end," adds Dr. Fajman, who is also an expert in child abuse evaluation. "I suggest putting children down in the crib if they're crying constantly, counting to 10, taking a few deep breaths, or calling a friend or crisis hotline to talk with someone to express your anger and frustration. Having a support group is particularly important, especially for parents of young children."
Here are several of Dr. Fajman's suggestions to both increase child abuse awareness and to prevent physical and sexual child abuse:
- Be willing to intervene at the grocery store or mall if you see a frustrated parent or caregiver. Be respectful if the parent tells you to mind your own business, but if you think a child is endangered, call the police or Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS).
- Acknowledge that child abuse exists, and that awareness is the first step of prevention. Abuse transcends racial, socio-economic and religious lines, which means no one is immune to child abuse.
- Be aware that sexual abuse is another form of abuse. It is frequently very silent, and many families do not like to talk about it. Although many children are encouraged to discuss if they have been sexually violated, a lot of them are afraid to tell their parents that something bad has happened. Some children have been bribed or threatened, while others may worry that they or their parents may get in trouble if they report a perpetrator.
- Take responsibility. If you suspect an adult is engaging in suspicious or inappropriate behavior with a child, tell him or her so.
- Know that children won't always come to you when something is wrong. Parents and caregivers should always be mindful of the possibility of sexual abusers, many of whom are either in the family or family acquaintances.
- Develop a healthy degree of suspicion relative to the people who care for your children. Frequently, there are no blatant warning signs. Sexual abuse, for example, doesn't always leave marks, cause diseases, bleeding, or infection. A child can be fondled, tickled, played with, or pornography can be shown or taken. It is always important to know who your children are with, such as a friend, babysitter, or older kids.
- Teach body safety and proper names of body parts so children can properly explain themselves using a universal language. Also, teach your child that no one is allowed to touch areas of their body covered by a swim suit.
- Look for signs of physical abuse. Bruises on back, buttocks, chest and genital area, etc., should be examined by a physician. A bruise or mark with a pattern is also suspicious. This may be a sign that someone used a belt, spoon, extension cord. If you leave a mark on a child, that can be seen as a sign of abuse.
- Although most pediatricians don't recommending spanking, if you do spank, only use an open hand on a child's clothed bottom.
- Be aware that neglect is another type of maltreatment. Neglect may include inadequate supervision; unsafe conditions that allow "accidents" to happen, such as leaving a curling iron plugged in or a pot of boiling water on the front of the stove; leaving a child unsupervised; allowing a child to sleep in an unsafe environment; leaving a child unattended in a bath tub; not requiring a child to wear a bike helmet, etc.
For more information on child abuse awareness and prevention, please visit www.preventchildabusega.org, or call Prevent Child Abuse Georgia's Helpline at 1-800-CHILDREN. | <urn:uuid:cf040007-2117-4f90-ad19-862ff28d44ca> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://whsc.emory.edu/press_releases2.cfm?announcement_id_seq=6240 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247504594.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20190221111943-20190221133943-00560.warc.gz | en | 0.959638 | 1,132 | 3 | 3 |
of scientists are undertaking research into all aspects of MS,
furthering our understanding of the disease and how to treat and manage
MS is an exceptionally difficult disease to research for a number of reasons:
cause is unknown, though it is generally believed to be a combination
of genetic, immunological and environmental factors. However, because it
often takes many years for someone to be diagnosed, and because there
are so many variables, it has so far been impossible to determine a
specific cause or trigger.
effects are within two of the most inaccessible parts of the body, the
brain and spinal cord. It is only since the advent of MRI, in the early
1980s, that scientists have actually been able to view the actual
lesions within the brain and spinal cord.
is no single pattern to the disease and the course of the disease is
unpredictable. The number and position of lesions on a patient's central
nervous system does not necessarily correlate with their relapse
occurrence or level of disability. There are no definitive tests for the
all the above reasons it is difficult to scientifically compare
people's experiences. To research disease patterns and the effectiveness
of new treatments, extensive placebo-controlled clinical trials are
these difficulties, a wide range of research is taking place by
thousands of scientists and researchers around the world. Found out more
about the main areas of MS research. | <urn:uuid:c0b3de2a-1e48-4fec-835a-fb5b1e1cea24> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://www.msif.org/global-ms-research/global-ms-research.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1409535919066.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20140901014519-00461-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933371 | 291 | 3.046875 | 3 |
By Jaak Daemen
With demand for imported minerals increasing, the last thing we need is to increase our dependence on foreign supplies, as happens when ever fewer domestic mining projects win approval within a reasonable time.
This is a growing concern to manufacturers. who cannot remain competitive for high-tech products without a reliable supply of minerals. Today, less than half of the mineral needs of U.S. manufacturing are met from domestically mined metals. Our dependence on foreign minerals has doubled in the past 20 years. The U.S. imports over 80 percent of the lithium used domestically, 100 percent of the rare earth minerals used in cell phones, catalytic converters, wind turbines, electronics, even though there are plenty of domestic lithium and rare earth deposits.
The U.S. has one of the most cumbersome mine-permitting processes in the world, marked by delays and redundancies. A mining permit typically takes seven to 10 years, five times longer than in Canada and Australia. And the U.S. restricts — or has an outright ban — on new mining operations on more than half of all federally owned public lands.
Our broken mining permit system is costing thousands of high-wage jobs and millions of dollars in revenue for governments at all levels. It also means that many minerals are mined in countries and conditions with far fewer, if any, environmental constraints.
The EPA now claims it can revoke a mining permit already granted, raising regulatory uncertainty to an entirely new level: How can one plan if the rules can be changed at any time? This creates major challenges for the environmental engineers and scientists trying to plan mines in compliance with EPA requirements.
This policy leads to “de-industrialization.” Halting any further de-industrialization is especially important for rural communities. If a mining project can be arbitrarily stopped, such action will scare away investors. Manufacturers will leave for countries where they can obtain a reliable supply of minerals.
Congress should pass legislation that streamlines the permitting, without interfering with environmental safeguards. The National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act would achieve that. Sponsored by Rep. Mark Amodei and co-sponsored by 28 House members from both parties, the measure was passed by the House last year. A companion bill is pending in the Senate.
The U.S. has vast resources of gold, copper, lithium, rare earths and many other minerals. Despite this, we import $119 billion in minerals annually. In 2013, base metals were among the fastest growing imports.
U.S. manufacturers are vulnerable to export restrictions. Indonesia, a major mineral producer and exporter, banned the foreign sale of bauxite, copper and nickel concentrates and raw ore. China banned the export of rare earth minerals, so important in electronics, saying that it needed to give priority to its own domestic manufacturers. Such bans lead to a two-tiered pricing system for minerals: U.S. manufacturers pay a higher price, undercutting the competitiveness of U.S. industry.
We have nothing to fear — and much to gain — from becoming more self-sufficient in minerals production. That will require passage of the proposed National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act.
Jaak Daemen is Professor Emeritus Of Mining Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. | <urn:uuid:7ce65db3-b732-4fad-83f7-31e4b2e11bed> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.rgj.com/story/opinion/columnists/2014/05/14/daemen-streamline-mine-permitting/8903843/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257832475.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071032-00300-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940547 | 672 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Scroll to Continue
Adult males range from 40 to 52 feet and can weigh up to 45 tons. Despite their size, humpback whales are graceful acrobats. Keep your eye on the ocean and you might see one breach, propelling up to 40 percent of its body out of the water and landing on its side with a spectacular splash.
Whales have great cultural significance for Native Hawaiians. They play a large role in Hawaiian legend—including one creation story—and appear in ancient petroglyphs on several islands. The return of the kohola (humpback whale) is considered more of a homecoming than a visit. Humpback whales are born in Hawaiian waters, making them kamaaina (native born). Some Native Hawaiians also believe the whales are aumakua (family guardians), so these gentle giants are treated with great respect.
Cultural Significance of Whales in Hawaii
Although humpback whales can be seen from all of the Hawaiian Islands, the shallow Auau Channel between Maui, Molokai and Lanai is one of the best whale-watching destinations in the world.
What's the Best Way to See Whales?
You may also spot kohola from the southern shores of Oahu, especially at Makapuu Lighthouse and along the seaside overlooks near Leahi (Diamond Head).
Kauai offers a range of whale-viewing opportunities, including Poipu Beach on the South Shore, Kilauea Lighthouse on the North Shore and Kapaa Overlook on the island’s Coconut Coast.
On the island of Hawaii, whales are often seen along the shores of the Kohala Coast, as well as Hilo Bay on the east side of the island. The Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site is another great viewing spot, with its sweeping, elevated views near Kawaihae Harbor. In fact, Puukohola literally means “hill of the whale” in Hawaiian.
Boat tours may be your best option for viewing whales up close. Hawaii has dozens of tour operators, including a few that lead kayak excursions—a thrilling way to experience these majestic mammals.
In respect for the kohola and the safety of sightseers, all watercraft must stay a minimum of 100 yards from the whales, but you'll be surprised how close you feel when a 45-ton behemoth lunges out of the sea. If a boat tour is not for you, the whales’ impressive acrobatic displays are often visible from miles away. If you're on land, keep a pair of binoculars handy because you never know when you'll see a humpback’s spout (which can be 10–20 feet tall).
Escape from the crowds, buses and tour boats and see Maui from the ocean perspective! Connect with your friends and family as our professional kayak guides take you paddling and snorkeling. You'll see amazing wildlife, enjoy special moments, views and hear stories of Maui.
From our two mile long Zipline Through Paradise, to the only volcano tour on the Big Island chosen “BEST” by Princess Cruises the adventure of your dreams awaits with KapohoKine Adventures!
Explore Maui Nui’s ocean environment with the experts at Pacific Whale Foundation through PacWhale Eco-Adventures top-rated Whalewatches, as well as award-winning snorkel cruises to Molokini & Turtle Arches, Lanai and Honolua Bay; Dolphin Watch ecotours; Sunset Dinner and Cocktail Cruises.
Experience Waikiki’s breathtaking coastline and stunning sunsets aboard Majestic by Atlantis Cruises. We offer daily sunset dinner cruises and seasonal whale watch cruises. Join us!
Hawaii's most complete beach and boat activities. Home of the world famous "Seasmoke" and luxurious "Alala" and Manu Iwa catamarans, offering Snorkel Cruises, Sunset Cruises, Whale Watching, Glass Bottom Boat, kayaks, and beach day packages.
Visit our beautiful Kona Coffee Estate overlooking Kailua Bay or roast your own private label 100% Kona Coffee. RSVP required for the Farm & Roastmaster Tours. Come and sample our "Crack-u-lated Kona coffee"
Vintage Tuscan villa frescoes and luscious aromas of classic Italian cuisine greet you. The floor to ceiling windows, elegant ambiance and classics made with a fresh twist will entice. The menu features all your favorites made with the freshest of ingredients. Indoor and lanai seating available.
Legacy Events Kauai is a full-service wedding & event planning company based on Kauai. We specialize in destination weddings, intimate elopements, and private and corporate events. We believe a great planning experience is equally important to a having a great event.
Take in the glow of Diamond head at golden hour and the magic of the Honolulu city lights from an all-new luxury powerboat! Ocean and You is the premier Oahu experience for an intimate and upscale sunset dinner cruise.
National Geographic winner! – Located at Wailua River Marina - Summer Na Pali sea kayak tours - Poipu Winter Whale Watching - Wailua River waterfall tour - Hanalei River paddle & snorkel adventure - Island wide hiking tours - Stand Up Boards Rentals - Camping outfitters - VACATION RENTALS. | <urn:uuid:e834165f-2618-46b9-9be8-44dde2e5066c> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.gohawaii.com/experiences/adventure/whale-watching?f%5B0%5D=field_categories%3A47&f%5B1%5D=field_categories%3A651&f%5B2%5D=field_categories%3A45&f%5B3%5D=field_categories%3A616&f%5B4%5D=field_categories%3A363&f%5B5%5D=field_categories%3A561&f%5B6%5D=field_categories%3A445&f%5B7%5D=field_categories%3A366&f%5B8%5D=field_categories%3A631&f%5B9%5D=field_categories%3A339&%3Bf%5B1%5D=field_categories%3A651&%3Bf%5B2%5D=field_island_ref%3A4&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B1%5D=field_categories%3A576&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B2%5D=field_categories%3A541&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B3%5D=field_categories%3A366&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B4%5D=field_categories%3A41&%3Bamp%3Bmodified=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703644033.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20210125185643-20210125215643-00203.warc.gz | en | 0.909347 | 1,141 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Yoga is a great way to burn calories and stay in shape. It increases flexibility and overall wellness of the body and mind. Today, intense yoga workouts are growing in popularity. Hot yoga is one amongst them.
As the name suggests, hot yoga refers to yogic practices performed in a room heated up to 110° F. The ideology behind hot yoga is that it helps the practitioner sweat out toxins profusely while indulging him/her deeper in the asanas. Read on about the benefits of hot yoga and the calories burnt with hot yoga.
Hot Yoga History and Styles
Drawn from various forms of yoga including Hatha and Vinyasa, hot yoga is practiced in many styles. The common styles of hot yoga include:
Among these, Bikram is the most commonly practiced hot yoga across the world. In 1973, Choudhry Bikram, practiced this form of yoga after an injury that shattered his knee. Doctors said he would never walk again. However, after intense yogic practice, he started walking again in six months.
He formulated hot yoga to mimic the climate of India, the birthplace of yoga. Most of India is tropical or subtropical and the summer temperatures can exceed 122° F while the rainfall can be 59 to 79 inches per year. His yogic method gained momentum over the years and paved way for several other methods of hot yoga. Bikram's hot yoga follows a sequence of 26 postures and focuses on endurance.
Principles of Hot Yoga
Heat: The room is heated to a temperature of to 43° C (85° to 110° F) while the humidity is maintained between 40% to 60%. The heat in the room warms the muscles and induces sweat. As the heat increases the pulse, the body burns more calories in its efforts to stay cool while exercising. Moreover, heat widens the capillaries, which distribute oxygen more effectively to tissues, muscles, glands and organs, to remove toxins.
Sweat and Detoxification: Excessive sweating cools overheated body through evaporation. It is claimed that hot yoga can remove waste from the body on a surface level (such as smog and dust from the pores) and an organic level (by carrying waste away from kidneys and liver).
Focus: Hot yoga helps to stay in focus by helping the body to stay cool in a heated environment and the mind to fight for focus in a challenging environment.
Breathing: Similar to any other form of yoga, hot yoga emphasizes on breathe or prana. Apart from calming the mind and body, deep breaths helps oxygen circulate through the body.
Benefits of Hot Yoga
You may wonder why people would deliberately put themselves into a rigorous yoga practices in a heated room. The key is quicker results. It is claimed that hot yoga provides actual benefits of yoga in a quicker pace. This has made this form of yoga popular among many. Few benefits of hot yoga include:
Improves blood circulation: Hot yoga improves the supply of oxygen to cellular levels; thereby increasing the circulation of blood to every cell of the body.
Detoxifies the body: A sequence of exercise and yogic postures generates enormous body heat. This released heat combined with the heat inside the room make you sweat profusely, thus releasing toxic and harmful substances from your body.
Beneficial for the muscles and heart: The exercise or yogic postures performed during hot yoga class works on each muscle of the body thus making them strong, agile and flexible. Hot yoga helps relieve stress levels thus lowering the heart rate and blood pressure.
Helps build immune system and relieve stress: The heat inside a hot yoga classroom simulates fever-like conditions in the body, increasing white blood cell production to combat viruses and bacteria. The deep breathing exercises of hot yoga relieve the practitioner from physical or mental stress, depression and anxiety. Stress weakens the immune system. Therefore, activities that reduce stress also reduce susceptibility to illness.
Improved Metabolism: Hot yoga increases the blood circulation and the movement of oxygen through out the body cells, resulting in better metabolism rate.
Helps curing aches, injuries and arthritis: As a person enters the thirties, many joints, especially the vertebrae, stop lubricating. Yoga promotes joint lubrication, which can alleviate general feelings of stiffness and discomfort.
Increased sports performance: Well-stretched muscles have better range of motion and are less prone to tearing or injury. In addition, the deep breathing control of hot yoga improves performance in cardiovascular and anaerobic activities. Hence, people involved in high impact sports often practice hot yoga.
Helps in weight loss: Yoga is a great way to burn calories, increase flexibility and increase overall wellness.
Hot yoga calories burnt
The calories burnt during a hot yoga session depend on the exertion during the poses. For instance, low intensity yogic postures burn fewer calories than high intensity yoga workouts.
Most of the hot yoga classes are created to combine yoga with other sources of workout that focus on heightened cardiovascular activity. Such classes may include a mixture of hip-hop, Pilates or just focus on the abdominal muscles.
Hot yoga can burn as much as seven hundred calories per hour as compared to hatha yoga, which burns two hundred calories per hour. Hatha yoga is compared to a low intensity walk while hot yoga is compared to jogging for an hour at a quick pace.
Asthanga yoga and Power yoga, helps in burning up to three hundred calories per hour. Asthanga yoga is compared to a brisk walk with a quick pace. Power yoga involves quick change of positions that focus on intense breathing. This is claimed as the western version of the yoga and is preferred especially by intense yogic practitioners. Beginners may find it difficult to cope with power yoga because of the quick pace.
Vinyasa yoga can be compared to a moderate bike ride in terms of the calories burnt. This form of yoga focuses on the flow of positions, and quick changes in postures to promote blood flow through the body. | <urn:uuid:8e3b551b-83fc-4335-b116-b332496aafd2> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.targetwoman.com/articles/benefits-of-hot-yoga.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549429417.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20170727182552-20170727202552-00661.warc.gz | en | 0.938009 | 1,237 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Want to learn the latest talent acquisition techniques?
Don't miss Recruitment Asia, the region's dedicated recruitment and talent acquisition strategy conference.
Happening Oct/Nov 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Philippines.
On some level, we all know we are harming our body by sitting all day in front of a computer, but for most Hong Kongers, it is not something they can avoid even if it is a matter of life and death
According to a new medical study published in UK-based medical journal Lancet, people who work 55 hours or more per week have a 33% greater risk of stroke, and a 13% greater risk of coronary heart disease, than those who work 35 to 40 hours per week.
The researchers had followed 600,000 individuals in Australia, the United States, and Europe for 8.5 years for the study.
These findings come as a wake-up call for people in Hong Kong, were in 2014, men averaged 47 hours a week while women worked for 44 hours a week, according to the Census and Statistics Department.
The study also found that the longer the working week, the higher was the risk of stroke. People working between 41 and 48 hours a week had a 10% higher risk of stroke, while for those working 49 to 54 hours, the risk jumped by 27% compared to people who work 35 to 40 hours each week.
Dr Tim Chico, reader in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Sheffield told The Guardian that the study in no way proved long working hours could cause stroke or heart disease.
“It is almost certainly impossible to prove whether there is a direct link as this would require thousands of people to be randomly allocated to work more or less hours and followed up for years to see if this changes the risk of stroke, while keeping all other behaviours the same between groups,” he said.
He suggested people to increase their physical activity and improve their diet, since cutting down on working hours would be difficult or impossible for most people.
“We should all consider how the working environment could be altered to promote healthy behaviour that will reduce strokes, irrespective of how long we work,” he said. | <urn:uuid:d46b616c-ef01-4058-94ba-7f012537e592> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://www.humanresourcesonline.net/working-long-hours-hitting-health/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187820700.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20171017033641-20171017053641-00577.warc.gz | en | 0.962984 | 445 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Listen to this article
At first blush, Charles Moore does not come across as the seafaring type. His woolly brown socks in open-toed sandals seem in perfect harmony with the abundance of broccoli, kale and lettuce growing at his home in Long Beach, California. As an organic gardener running a local urban farming project, he admits that he would be happy spending the rest of his days in the vegetable patch.
Yet for the past two decades, Moore has been associated first and foremost with another patch, which he discovered in 1997 after sailing in a race between Los Angeles and Honolulu: an area the size of France in the Pacific Ocean that is littered with plastic waste.
“It rubbed me the wrong way to have this new synthetic material that nature can’t digest floating all over the surface of the ocean,” he says of what has since been dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. “So, I began to be concerned.”
Working in isolation from the world’s leading scientific and environmental organisations, he devised an expedition to return to the North Pacific Gyre — a vast and rarely visited oceanic area of high atmospheric pressure — to gauge the extent of the pollution. His findings were shocking: the amount of plastic outweighed the zooplankton (a primary link in the marine food chain) by six to one. Recalling looking out on one of the remotest places on Earth and seeing man-made waste, he says, “it was an ‘Aha!’ moment”.
Moore has been on a mission to combat plastic waste ever since. Now 70, his research has won widespread praise, even as some academics scoff at his lack of scholarly credentials. Moore founded Algalita, a marine research foundation, in 1994.
On average, he spends 100 days a year at sea captaining a 50-foot research vessel, Alguita. But on this sunlit afternoon, the 25-tonne, aluminium-hulled catamaran is moored on a ribbon of calm water barely 100 feet from his childhood home — and where he lives again now, with Samala, his wife of 44 years.
The building’s modest, terracotta façade conceals a rabbit warren of rooms and corridors that make up the original house, built in 1939, and the equally large extension that the family added some 15 years later.
Childhood memories are everywhere. On the back patio, he shows me a small raised pond. “I remember going with my dad to collect those,” he says, pointing to some round stones set in its walls. “1951 CHARLES” is stamped into the concrete.
Much of the decor appears to have changed little over the years; Moore first moved here with his family at the age of two. The dining room is small and grandmotherly, with its fitted beige carpet and wooden dresser filled with ornamental plates and goblets. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the living room has a nautical theme and large windows that look out on to the street and Alguita moored beyond.
Moore leads me to the first floor via an external staircase and into the bedroom where his mother slept until her death in late 2000. Moore has left it more or less as it was — pale yellow walls, a wooden rocking chair and aged venetian blinds. Travel receipts and other paperwork are spread out over the bed.
Until plastic waste became the dominant theme in his life, Moore was a dabbler: mathematics, physics, car mechanics, landscape gardening and, for more than 20 years starting in the 1970s, he ran a cabinet-making, carpentry and furniture repair business. At the University of San Diego he majored in chemistry but was too interested in other things: “Sacrificing all the other subjects just to know one subject, that wasn’t me,” he says. “I didn’t want to learn more and more about less and less. I wanted to know everything about everything.”
Moore’s office is a tight space with shelves housing bound volumes of National Geographic going back decades. His latest work involves studying lanternfish that have eaten plastic.
I ask him about the consequences of having so much plastic floating in the sea — and what can be done about it.
One of the problems, he says, is that the sun breaks down the plastic detritus into small fragments that are easily ingested by birds and sea life. Worse, plastic absorbs other contaminants making it even more toxic to life forms. “Every creature in the ocean is on a plastic diet,” he says matter-of-factly. “And every time they eat it, it is subtracting from their nutritional needs while carrying pollutants with it.”
On a wall downstairs, there is a framed skeleton of a bird whose fragile rib cage is stuffed with confetti-like pieces of coloured plastic that ended up killing it. It stands as a tiny but tragic monument to the damage modern life has inflicted on nature. “Oh, that’s nothing,” says Moore. “You should see all the other things I’ve seen.”
Moore and his wife are conscious of their own plastic footprint. Around the house, there are no signs of the sort of throwaway plastic that pollutes the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
“We try to eliminate plastic in our lives where possible and go with things that are reusable,” he says.
In fact, Moore has become something of an anti-plastic crusader, travelling the world to raise awareness of the problem. Sadly, he sees “no solution in the foreseeable future. Humanity has chosen a different path — a path of expanding plastic production, especially throwaway plastics”.
“Millions of people know about plastic pollution but we need to reach billions,” he says. “Why? Because everyone is a contributor to the problem.”
The same year he founded Algalita, Moore started Long Beach Organic, a non-profit organisation whose original mission was to combat ocean pollution by reducing run-off from the land, but which today operates a string of community gardens in the area. Moore himself is a licensed vendor of organic produce, selling a long list of fruit and vegetables that he grows in his vegetable patch.
As we say our goodbyes, the captain gives me a lettuce and a handful of allspice leaves. “Here,” he says. “Take these for the journey.”
Moore thinks it’s “ridiculous” to pick out a favourite thing. But he goes to his garden where, among the avocado, bay, loquat and other varietals, he spies a small, heart-shaped fruit hanging from an upper branch of his cherimoya tree.
“To access online sites, I need to be quizzed and often the question is, ‘what is your favourite . . .’ ,” he explains. “I was asked on one of these, ‘what is your favourite fruit’, and I wanted one I could remember since I love all fruits. So I chose cherimoya. I am not sorry; it is a wonderful fruit that I grow.” | <urn:uuid:ef7896c0-5338-4460-a849-bbd954952fba> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://www.ft.com/content/bd03a504-793c-11e8-af48-190d103e32a4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247482347.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20190217172628-20190217194628-00337.warc.gz | en | 0.966515 | 1,525 | 2.59375 | 3 |
It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
This phenomenon has reportedly heightened concerns about 'supermoons' being linked to extreme weather events - such as earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. The last time the moon passed close to the Earth was on 10 January 2005, around the time of the Indonesian earthquake that measured 9.0 on the Richter scale.
Dr Tim O'Brien, a researcher at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester, said: "The dangers are really overplayed. You do get a bit higher than average tides than usual along coastlines as a result of the moon's gravitational pull, but nothing so significant that will cause a serious climatic disaster or anything for people to worry about." | <urn:uuid:d5cb3c47-4907-4b11-8f06-2b22a66a49ba> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread672137/pg1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257647649.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20180321121805-20180321141805-00371.warc.gz | en | 0.932057 | 195 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Imagine you’re at a cocktail party, and a couple comes up to you and introduces themselves. Though you try to remember their names, it’s difficult once the conversation has moved on.
In this common scenario, your working memory is the tool responsible for retaining names so you can address each person correctly. Working memory is a process psychologists are trying to understand better, though there are several theories about how it works. A new study from Nathan Rose, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame, examined a fundamental problem your brain has to solve, which is keeping information “in mind,” or active, so your brain can act accordingly.
The common theory is that the information is kept in mind by neurons related to the information actively firing throughout a delay period, a theory that’s been dominant since at least the 1940s, according to Rose.
However, in a new paper published in Science on Friday (Dec. 2), Rose and his team give weight to the synaptic theory, a less well-known and tested model. The synaptic theory suggests that information can be retained for short periods of time by specific changes in the links, or weights, between neurons.
Rose said this research advances the potential to understand a variety of higher-order cognitive functions including not only working memory but also perception, attention and long-term memory. Eventually, he said, this research could lay the groundwork for the potential to use noninvasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, to reactivate and potentially strengthen latent memories. Rose and his collaborators are currently working on extending these results to see how they relate to long-term memory.
Rose and his colleagues used a series of noninvasive procedures on healthy young adults to test the idea that certain information is retained in “activity-silent” neural mechanisms, an area of study previously tested largely on only mathematical modeling or rodents. Participants were hooked up to neural imaging machines that allow researchers to “see” what the brain is thinking about by capturing which areas of the brain are active at any given time, since different areas of the brain correspond to different thoughts. Participants were given two items to keep in mind throughout the experiment — for example, a word and a face. Each of these items activate different areas in the brain, making it easier for the researchers to identify which a person is thinking about. At first, Rose’s team saw neural evidence for the active representation of both items.
“Then, when we cued people about the item that was tested first, evidence for the cued item, or the attended memory item that was still in the focus of attention, remained elevated, but the neural evidence for the uncued item dropped all the way back to baseline levels of activation,” said Rose, “as if the item had been forgotten.”
In half of the tests, Rose’s team tested participants again on the second, uncued item – called the unattended memory item – to find out if the item was still in working memory, despite looking as if it had been forgotten. When the researchers cued participants to switch to thinking about the initially uncued item, “people accurately and rapidly did so,” said Rose. The researchers also saw a corresponding return of neural evidence for the active representation of the initially uncued item. This indicated that despite looking as if the second, unattended item had been forgotten, it remained in working memory.
“The unattended memory item seems to be represented without neural evidence of an active representation, but it’s still there, somehow,” Rose said.
In a second round of experiments, Rose’s team added TMS, the noninvasive brain stimulation, to the testing for the unattended memory item. The TMS provided a painless jolt of energy to specific areas of the brain to see how it affected neural activity, looking for signs of the unattended memory item resurfacing.
“Although the TMS activates a highly specific part of the brain, it is a relatively nonspecific form of information that is applied to the network. It’s just a burst of energy that goes through the network, but when it’s filtered through this potentiated network, the output of the neural activity that we’re recording appears structured, as if that information has suddenly been reactivated,” Rose said. “We’re using this brain stimulation to reactivate a specific memory.”
The researchers found that after the TMS is applied to the part of the brain where information about the unattended memory item is processed, the neural signals fired back up in the exact form of the “forgotten” item, going from baseline back to the level of neural activity for the word or face that the participant was keeping in mind. The team dubbed this reactivation of memory using TMS the “Frankenstein effect,” since the neural signals for the secondary item went from baseline activity – looking like it was forgotten – back to full activity.
In further testing, Rose’s team discovered that once participants knew they wouldn’t have to remember the unattended item any longer in the tests, the memory items truly were dropped from their working memory.
“Once the item is no longer relevant on the trial, we don’t see the same reactivation effect,” Rose said. “So that means this is really a dynamic maintenance mechanism that is actually under cognitive control. This is a strategic process. This is a more dynamic process than we had anticipated.”
The Science paper is the first study published in the journal from the Notre Dame Department of Psychology and the second from the College of Arts and Letters this semester. Co-authors are Joshua LaRocque, Adam Riggall, Olivia Gosseries, Michael Starrett, Emma Meyering and Bradley Postle, all at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Originally published by news.nd.edu on December 01, 2016.at | <urn:uuid:1bc040ee-dbc0-4c56-a633-7e0c9969d9ab> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | https://research.nd.edu/news/the-frankenstein-effect-of-working-memory-researchers-examine-how-brain-stimulation-affects-memory-reactivation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221210058.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20180815102653-20180815122653-00640.warc.gz | en | 0.954476 | 1,251 | 3.921875 | 4 |
For a short Navigation Slideshow by Capt. Linda Lewis,
click on your topic of interest.
(Be patient - long download.)
How to find the course you should steer when you know the current
You plot a course and speed for your destination.
You check the current table and find that you will encounter a strong, broad-side current.
How do you determine the course you should actually steer
and the speed you should actually make in order to get to your desired destination on time?
How to find your position using radar
You see two landmarks or buoys you can identify on your radar.
Using your radar's distance tools, you plot two "arcs of position" on your chart. Where they cross is your position.
OR - you can see only one identifiable landmark or buoy.
Using your radar's distance AND bearing tools, you plot your position from this one object.
The slideshow demonstrates how to do this kind of radar navigation work.
How to find your Estimated Position
Do you know how to navigate without your GPS?
What happens if you can only see ONE buoy or landmark and can't get a 'fix' using two lines of position?
How do you estimate where you 'most likely' are using only that one marker?
If you need a free PowerPoint *viewer, here is how to get it.
Download it for free at:
Free Power Point Viewer
• You only need to do this once.
• Instructions for the installation are given.
• The next time you encounter a ".pps" file, all you will have to do is
double-click that file and the free viewer will pop up with the slideshow.
*This Viewer will also work with files made on older versions of Power Point.
Back to home page | <urn:uuid:4bac6397-0d9f-490c-a2f1-2f9dc501915d> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://privateboatinginstruction.com/powerpt.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423785.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20170721142410-20170721162410-00478.warc.gz | en | 0.867777 | 372 | 2.859375 | 3 |
We define Participate in, overview the leading varieties of Participate in and their developmental Added benefits in numerous places.
Issue: What exactly is Participate in?
Perform is frequently defined as action finished for its individual sake, characterized by signifies rather than ends (the procedure is more crucial than any stop place or target), flexibility (objects are put in new mixtures or roles are acted out in new approaches), and favourable impact (little ones often smile, chuckle, and say they delight in it). These conditions contrast play with exploration (targeted investigation as a youngster receives much more accustomed to a completely new toy or natural environment, that may then guide into play), function (that has a definite target), and game titles (more organized pursuits by which there is some target, typically winning the game). Developmentally, game titles with rules tend to be frequent after about 6 many years of age, Whilst play is extremely frequent for two- to six-calendar year-olds.
The Investigate Context
Almost all kids Perform, besides those who are malnourished, deprived, or have serious disabilities. Among 3% and 20% of young little ones’s time and Electrical power is usually put in in Engage in,1 a lot more so in richly provisioned niches.2 If young little ones are quickly deprived of Enjoy prospects, one example is staying retained inside a classroom, they Enjoy for extended and much more vigorously afterwards.one
As small children spend time and Electricity in Engage in, and you can find options for Understanding after they do play, there is apparently a necessity for Engage in. This can be correct of young mammals normally, although other mammals show significantly less assortment of Engage in types than human children. These results recommend that Perform has developmental Advantages. Benefits may very well be immediate, extensive-expression, or equally. Nonetheless, the exact job of Enjoy in Understanding is still debated. A prevailing “play ethos”three,4 has tended to exaggerate the evidence for your vital function of Engage in. Nonetheless, correlational and experimental proof suggest significant great things about Engage in, even when some Gains can be obtained in other techniques.
Locomotor Participate in, like exercise Perform (functioning, climbing, etc.), consists of huge human body activity and is generally considered to assistance Bodily coaching of muscles, for power, endurance, and talent. Physical exercise Enjoy increases from toddlers to preschool and peaks at early Major faculty ages, when the neural and muscular basis of Bodily coordination and healthy progress is significant, and vigorous Participate in clearly delivers fantastic possibilities for this;five later on, it declines. There exists proof that Lively, playground-kind breaks may help younger little ones concentrate far better at subsequent sedentary responsibilities,one consistent with the cognitive immaturity hypothesis that the “really need to physical exercise will help youthful young children to House out cognitive demands for which they've got fewer mature capacities.”6
Social Engage in refers to playful interactions involving children and fogeys or caregivers in kids approximately two decades aged, but increasingly with other kids as social Engage in boosts considerably from two to six years of age. At the beginning, twiddling with one companion is sophisticated sufficient, but by 3 or 4 many years aged a play group can consist of three or more individuals, as youngsters get social coordination techniques and social scripts.
Parallel Enjoy, popular in two- and three-calendar year-olds, is when small children play next to others with out A great deal conversation. Some Participate in is solitary.seven Such a Participate in is usually Actual physical, include objects or language, be fake, or include things like every one of these features. Rough-and-tumble Participate in, together with Participate in battling and chasing, can look like real fighting, but in Perform fighting young children are sometimes laughing, kicks and blows will not be tough or usually do not make contact, and it is usually finished with close friends.
Object play refers to playful usage of objects like building blocks, jigsaw puzzles, autos, dolls, and so forth. With babies, this play is mouthing objects and dropping them. With toddlers, this is typically just manipulating the objects (e.g., assembling blocks), but often requires fake Enjoy (e.g., creating a home, feeding a doll). Participate in with objects lets young children to try out new combos of steps, free of exterior constraint, and may help acquire issue resolving capabilities. Any benefits of item Engage in need to be well balanced against Those people of instruction, bearing in your mind the ages of the children, the character in the undertaking, and whether or not learning is for certain skills, or a far more common inquisitive and artistic Perspective. The greater marked Positive aspects may very well be for independent and inventive thought,eight although the evidence is equivocal.9
Language Perform -- At all-around 2 decades old, toddlers generally speak with them selves ahead of about to slumber or upon waking up. This is often playful, with repetition and often laughter. Children use language humorously at 3 and four yrs aged. (“I’m a whale. This can be my tail.” “I’m a flamingo. Evaluate my wingo.”) Language skills--phonology (speech Seems), vocabulary and this means (semantics), grammar (syntax), and pragmatics (making use of language correctly in social circumstances)--are promptly establishing in the preschool several years. Some phonological techniques can be designed while in the solitary monologues when children babble to themselves within their cot, but most great things about language learning most likely can be found in sociodramatic Enjoy.
Fake play requires pretending an object or an motion is another thing than it truly is. A banana is really a telephone, one example is. This play develops from 15 months of age with straightforward steps, which include pretending to sleep or putting dolly to bed, producing into for a longer period story sequences and part Engage in. Sociodramatic Participate in, common from about 3 several years of age, is faux Enjoy with Many others, sustained function taking, as well as a narrative line. It could possibly contain knowledge Many others’ intent, sophisticated language constructions, and improvement of (at times) novel and intricate story lines. Youngsters negotiate meanings and roles (“You be daddy, proper?”) and argue about acceptable habits (“No, you don’t feed the child like that!”).
Quite a few Mastering capabilities are actually Highly developed for fake and particularly sociodramatic Perform.10 One hypothesis is that it's handy for producing preliteracy techniques, which include recognition of letters and print, and the goal of textbooks.11,12,13 The narrative structure of sociodramatic play sequences mirrors the narratives of Tale guides. For these Added benefits, some structuring by Grown ups is helpful (in sustaining a Tale line, acquiring suited resources which includes plastic letters, publications, and so on.).
An additional speculation is the fact pretend play boosts psychological safety. A baby who is emotionally upset, such as, by moms and dads arguing or perhaps the sickness or Loss of life of somebody inside the loved ones, can function in the anxieties by performing out this sort of themes in pretend Participate in, with dolls one example is. Engage in therapists use this kind of techniques that will help recognize youngsters’s anxieties; and many therapists think that it can help the kid function to a resolution of them.fourteen
A relatively recent speculation is that faux play boosts concept of intellect growth. Theory of intellect potential indicates with the ability to realize (represent) the know-how and beliefs of others; that is definitely, that another person might have a distinct perception or condition of data from oneself. This doesn't take place right until the age of late 3 or four many years previous. Social conversation with age-mates is apparently significant for this, and social pretend Engage in (with siblings or with other age-mates) may be In particular practical, as youngsters negotiate distinctive roles and understand that distinctive roles entail various behaviors.fifteen While these Rewards are plausible, You can find tiny experimental proof; the correlational proof implies that social pretend Enjoy is useful but is only one route to buying idea of thoughts.16 A new evaluation indicates that additional high-good quality experiments and evidence are needed just before we could be self-assured of what Advantages faux Enjoy has.seventeen
Important Study Inquiries and Gaps
We deficiency descriptive info on some time and Power put in in several varieties of play. Without having this we are unable to have an understanding of the putative great things about play. More, even though Enjoy can have lots of positive benefits, this is not usually so. Perform combating is viewed ambivalently by nursery employees as several workers uncover it noisy and disruptive, and believe that it generally causes authentic fights. In actual fact, investigate implies that during the primary faculty years, only about one% of tough-and-tumble Enjoy bouts change into authentic preventing. Even so, this is much more Regular for some children who deficiency social competencies and they are turned down by playmates. These young children typically respond to rough-and-tumble play aggressively.18-19
A similar space of worry has become war Engage in (Perform with toy guns, weapons, or fight superhero figures).20 Carlsson-Paige and Levin21 contrasted a developmental perspective that Participate in which include war Engage in is actually a Major car for youngsters to specific on their own, having a sociopolitical view that small children study militaristic political ideas and values via war play. There may be not a substantial analysis foundation on which for making knowledgeable judgments about whether the fears are justified. Dunn and Hughes22 located that 4-12 months-previous, hard-to-take care of young children showed Recurrent violent fantasy along with the extent of this was connected with poorer language and Perform competencies, additional antisocial behaviour, and fewer empathic knowing at the age of six many years. This psihomotorni razvoj deteta does counsel considerations for the effects of these Perform on disturbed small children.
In up to date societies, adults are frequently involved in little ones’s Perform, giving Perform environments and toys. Preliteracy great things about Perform is usually Improved by giving paper, crayons, and plastic letters. Workout great things about Perform is often enhanced by delivering challenging kinds of climbing equipment. Inventive Engage in can be Improved by giving lego-kind bricks to promote creative building functions.
Nursery staff can operate with children to construction their Enjoy and give it additional educational worth by which include actions for example jigsaw puzzles, coloration and pattern matching video games, and elements like h2o, sand, and clay that kids can manipulate and by boosting sociodramatic Enjoy.ten This kind of Engage in tutoring consists of providing appropriate props (Enjoy dwelling, clothes for part Enjoy, healthcare facility equipment, and so on.), using little ones on visits to encourage their creativity (to a clinic, zoo, and so forth.), and suggesting Enjoy themes and encouraging children to create them. Perform education is often just one pleasing and effective way of enhancing expertise in language growth, cognitive growth, creativeness, and purpose-having.23
Most industry experts in Participate in investigate feel that a well balanced solution is most effective.four,eighteen,19 There really should be fantastic prospects for authentic absolutely free Enjoy. Also, there really should be some Energetic involvement of Grown ups in structuring some Engage in, as in Engage in tutoring. And, more and more, as youngsters get older, there is a need for immediate instruction. The equilibrium involving sorts of Engage in is actually a issue of continuing discussion. As every kind of Enjoy give distinct possibilities, a blended program in preschool, with plenty of alternatives without cost and structured Engage in, is likely to be most effective for kids and to supply them with a happy and stimulating ecosystem through which they're able to flourish. | <urn:uuid:dd6fbb75-f207-43b6-aa9c-1d77df898473> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://alexisbccaz.tinyblogging.com/Learning-Through-Play-8504487 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948530841.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20171213201654-20171213221654-00541.warc.gz | en | 0.951405 | 2,521 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Jeanie Laube wasn't sure what her father was up to in India and Pakistan in the late 1960s. He was almost never home, and he wasn't in the habit of calling, she says. That's why she was stunned one morning in 1970. While listening to her car radio in Wisconsin she heard that her daddy had won the Nobel Peace Prize. "I couldn't believe it. I had no clue," she admits.
If Laube was clueless then, the rest of America is largely clueless now. While other American Nobel Peace Prize winners such as Dr. Martin Luther King (1964), Henry Kissinger (1973), Elie Wiesel (1986, Holocaust survivor and author) and Jody Williams (1997, anti-land mine activist) might at least spark vague recognition, Borlaug's name would most likely elicit blank stares. Yet among many who know him, mention of his name draws forth a different response. "I believe that Norman Borlaug will eventually be recognized as one of the 10 greatest contributors to humankind of the 20th century," says Bruce Chassy, professor of food microbiology at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
Yet the pith of his greatness is--at least to those whose bellies have never cramped from hunger--mundane: cereal grains. In the mid-'60s, Borlaug traveled to India and Pakistan in an attempt to avert massive disaster. The countries had plunged into one of the worst droughts in years. Millions teetered on the edge of starvation. For several frantic months, Borlaug and his team dodged war, struggled with bum seeds and battled entrenched bureaucrats. Yet by employing agricultural techniques he developed in Mexico, he was able to nearly double South Asian wheat harvests between 1965 and 1970. His work was coined the "Green Revolution," and it spread rapidly across Asia. Largely because of Borlaug's work, global food production outpaced surging population growth over the closing decades of the 20th century, averting the global calamity so many predicted.
When Borlaug was selected for the Nobel Peace Prize, Laube says, Norwegian officials phoned her mother in Mexico City at 4 a.m., but Borlaug had already left for the test fields in Toluca Valley, about 40 miles west of Mexico City. A chauffeur was dispatched to take her to the fields to meet her husband. "And my mom said, 'You won the Nobel Peace Prize,' and he said, 'No, I haven't.'" He refused to believe it. "'I'm not going in to talk to the press,'" Laube says her father insisted after finally accepting the news. "It took some convincing," she says. "He thought the whole thing was a hoax."
In the years since, many have struggled to frame Borlaug's accomplishments as just that: a hoax; a brown revolution that has wreaked far more environmental and cultural havoc on the planet than benefit; a Western public relations stunt designed to fatten the agro-industrial complex, not feed the hungry.
Physicist and eco-feminist Vandana Shiva, director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in New Delhi, decried this supposed disaster in her 1991 book The Violence of the Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology and Politics. She blames the Green Revolution for the destruction of Indian crop diversity, drought vulnerability, dependence on agrochemicals that poison soils and waterways and for generating "pseudo surpluses" reflecting boosts in wheat and rice production while concealing declines in the production of pulses, oilseeds, millets and maize. "There was great violence at the heart of the Green Revolution," Shiva wrote in a 1994 article published in The Guardian in London. "People were at each other's throats."
Jeanie Laube says she never knows where in the world her father is. He skims the globe--sub-Saharan Africa, Oslo, Mexico, Tokyo--attending conferences, giving speeches, conducting scientific research, teaching scientists from developing nations. As a child growing up in Mexico City, she only saw her father on holidays or for special events. Infrequent family picnics would take place in Mexico's experimental wheat fields, where Laube would help her father put plastic sleeves around wheat stems to facilitate cross-pollination. But now, she says, her father is home in Dallas more than he ever has been, maybe three weeks out of the year, though technically the 88-year-old Borlaug has lived here for more than 20 years. "He's never anywhere except in an airplane," she says. "I don't know how he does it. His sleep schedule is all messed up. He probably sleeps four hours per day."
Because her mother, Margaret, now 91, is blind, Laube manages the mail that flows into her North Dallas home. The stream is heavy, with thousands upon thousands of requests from around the world for her father's autograph. She once came across a postage stamp with her father's picture on it that someone had requested her father sign. Laube doesn't remember from what country the stamp originated, but India issued a postage stamp in 1968 honoring the Indian wheat revolution her father fomented.
What confounds Laube is how little of this mail comes from the United States. "They have Time magazine with pictures of people who don't do anything for humanity," she says. "They have stamps for people who don't do anything for humanity. And here's this person, an American...I think he's really underappreciated in America."
The reasons for this are not difficult to understand. Agriculture is not a sexy subject. The beneficiaries of his innovations and energies are primarily brown and yellow people from Third World countries. Then there is simply this: Desperate hunger is an alien affliction in the United States, where malnourishment is more likely to result in obesity than distended bellies.
Yet more than that is a prevailing criticism that a cadre of elites--from activists to academics to business and governmental organizations--has leveled against Borlaug since he embarked on a radical plan to feed the desperate millions in South Asia in the mid-'60s. They thought his program was pure madness, an example of reckless arrogance.
Borlaug wrote in 1988 that this faction of "clairvoyant doomsayers" was both surprised and dismayed when his success proved them wrong. During the 1980s as Borlaug turned his attention to Africa, some environmentalists took aim at high-yield agriculture as a global ecological threat and sought to starve him of funding by pressuring foundations and donor countries to steer clear of Borlaug's work, which utilized heavy doses of chemical fertilizers. The pressure repelled the Ford Foundation and the World Bank from Borlaug's efforts.
"These people have never been around hungry people," Borlaug says of his well-fed critics. "They're Utopians. They sit and philosophize. They don't live in the real world."
In 1999, the Texas A&M University Board of Regents named its Center for Southern Crop Improvement in honor of Borlaug, who has been a distinguished professor of international agriculture at the university since 1984. But the part-time professor didn't take an office in the handsome $16 million complex. Borlaug works in the Heep Center in a shadowy section of the building drenched in drab green. There is no plaque to indicate a Nobel laureate dwells among the papers, books and pictures from Mexico and Africa stuffed into a room barely larger than a broom closet. Instead, a slip of paper with his name printed on it is taped to a raised rectangle affixed to the wall.
Despite his age, Borlaug is sharp and articulate. His speech wavers but is vigorous, and he has never been one to shy away from physical danger or discomfort. For the past 60 years he has trekked through the globe's most desperate and backward corners--Peru, Guatemala, Egypt, sub-Saharan Africa, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan--in a relentless drive to teach people how to adequately feed themselves.
For most of his adult life Borlaug has rarely indulged in the comforts of the industrialized West for any extended period of time. His choice has been to immerse himself in locales where people stare death in the face every day.
"Traveling in the back country is not very pleasant," he admits. "The hotels were miserable. The food was bad. In any of these countries I'd never eat fresh food that wasn't cooked, unless I knew where that damn lettuce came from. Chances are pretty good it was irrigated with sewage water."
He was born in 1914 and grew up on a small farm in the northeastern corner of Iowa in a town called Cresco. He and his family raised corn, oats, timothy hay, cattle, pigs and chickens. Schooling was in a one-room schoolhouse that spanned kindergarten through eighth grade.
Borlaug's main diversion growing up was wrestling, and he was a feisty competitor who in 1992 was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He also loved baseball and had it fixed in his mind that he would one day play second base for the Chicago Cubs. His more practical dream was to be a high school science teacher and coach, but a lack of money kept that pursuit at bay.
"I am a product of the worst of the Depression," he says. "I didn't have any money to go to college." So after high school, Borlaug went to work, collecting wages working the harvests and cutting fence posts and wood, as well as trapping muskrats.
Through a Depression-era program known as the National Youth Administration, Borlaug was able to enroll in the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis to study forestry, working mostly as a waiter in a sorority house to earn his keep. What he saw when he first arrived in the city in 1933 shook him irrevocably. Huge numbers of desperate, hungry people huddled in the streets, begging for food, sleeping on newspapers spread over the sidewalks. He saw a riot sparked by a milk truckers' strike where milk trucks were stopped and their contents dumped into the street. The city was boiling with unrest. "That's how close we were to the breakdown of our whole government," he says. "Most people don't know how unstable everything was."
Instead of being repelled by the desperation, Borlaug was compelled by it. When his money ran out in 1935, he dropped out of school and got a job in the Civilian Conservation Corps supervising emergency work programs in forestry and soil conservation. The men under his charge, many 17 and 18 years old, were starving. "At the camps they were able to recover some semblance of health and self-confidence," Borlaug said in a 1991 interview published in the academic journal Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems. "I saw how food changed them...All of this left scars on me."
Borlaug was able to earn enough money to return to school, and after graduation his work with the Forestry Service brought him to the middle fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, the most isolated piece of wilderness in the lower 48 states at the time. Yet his career in forestry changed after he heard a lecture titled "These Shifty Little Enemies that Destroy our Food Crops" by E. Charles Stakman, the renowned plant pathologist from the University of Minnesota. Stakman studied the movement of rust spores that had devastated wheat, oat and barley production across the United States. His research on the hybridization of the rust and its movement via the jet stream compelled Borlaug. "Hell, I was flabbergasted," he says.
Borlaug entered graduate school in 1938 to study under Stakman. A few years later, he took a job as a microbiologist at du Pont de Nemours in Delaware to work on agricultural chemical development, just as he was beginning his coursework for a doctorate in plant pathology. Within months a torrent of Japanese planes rained devastation on Pearl Harbor, altering his plans.
His tasks changed from fertilizers and pesticides to camouflage, canteen disinfectants and insulation for small electronics. One of his first projects was to develop glue that could withstand the warm saltwater in the South Pacific. The Japanese had isolated Guadalcanal, controlling the air and seas by day. The only way U.S. naval forces could supply the Marines stranded there was by approaching the island by speedboat at night and pitching boxes of canned food and other supplies into the surf so that they could wash ashore, but the glue holding the containers together disintegrated in saltwater. Borlaug and his team developed the adhesive within weeks. It was his first major offensive against hunger.
Borlaug's largest battles were yet to come. In 1940, Vice President Henry Wallace received a request by Mexican government officials for assistance in developing a program to train a new generation of Mexican agricultural scientists. The agrarian reforms that had been instituted in the wake of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 had not been going well. Yields were abysmal, and the Mexican leadership believed their agricultural industry was being left behind.
In 1943 the Cooperative Mexican Agricultural Program was inaugurated. Its goal was to develop the three most crucial crops in Mexican culture--corn, wheat and beans--with one overriding mandate: boost yields. When Borlaug arrived in Mexico a year later with his wife and daughter Jeanie, just a year old, he was assigned to develop a wheat research and production program.
Borlaug says those first couple of years in Mexico were unbearable. There was an acute lack of trained scientists and equipment. The farmers were hostile toward the wheat program because of serious crop losses in 1939-1941 from stem rust. He also found himself pitted against elements of Mexican culture, most notably the conviction among some of his Mexican counterparts that they were above getting dirty. His inability to speak Spanish compounded his frustrations. "It often appeared to me that I had made a dreadful mistake in accepting the position in Mexico," Borlaug writes in the epilogue to his book Norman Borlaug on World Hunger.
But he found his stride and quickly embarked on a crash plan to develop an improved stem-rust resistant strain of tall wheat. His impatience led to the development of a "shuttle breeding system" whereby wheat varieties were tested and bred in two different environments and then shuttled back and forth between the winter and summer seasons, permitting two breeding cycles per year instead of one. As a result, Borlaug and his team were able to introduce several new varieties in less than four years.
But his rapid progress drew scowls from fellow wheat breeders and geneticists who maintained wheat strains could only be bred within one specific environment. This wouldn't be the last time Borlaug's sense of urgency drew carping from the establishment.
Dramatic progress came when Borlaug hit upon the idea of incorporating Japanese dwarf wheat varieties into his breeding program. Nature favored tall wheat grasses as they can better compete for sunlight. But tall wheat is inefficient from a grain standpoint and has a tendency to fall over, resulting in spoilage, especially when the plant sustains vigorous growth spurts from nitrogen fertilizer. So Borlaug bred his wheat for shorter, stronger stalks that could better support fatter seed heads, allowing growers to charge the plant with water and fertilizer. Yields tripled.
When Borlaug set foot in Mexico in 1944, it imported 60 percent of the wheat it consumed. By 1956, it was self-sufficient. This "quiet revolution" was the forebear of the Green Revolution that swept South Asia a decade later.
It's startling to consider that 30-plus years ago many prominent thinkers recommended abandoning famine-threatened India and Pakistan as hopeless causes. They advocated a "lifeboat" theory of survival, a sort of global triage whereby desperate basket cases would be allowed to perish so that precious resources could be funneled to those nations deemed salvageable.
Others believed more food would fuel escalating population growth and wreak greater damage on the environment. "Human population growth had become a cancer on the earth," says Dennis Avery, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues, where Borlaug serves as chairman emeritus. "We had removed the famine constraint. At that time we didn't know that affluence, particularly urban affluence, was going to lower birthrates the way it has."
Yet some appeared to have considerable intellectual capital invested in a catastrophic outcome. As Ronald Bailey of the Competitive Enterprise Institute points out, biologist Paul Ehrlich famously declared in his 1968 best seller The Population Bomb that "The battle to feed all of humanity is over." He predicted the '70s and '80s would bracket massive global famines where hundreds of millions would perish, rendering any crash aid programs futile. He insisted there was little hope for near-term food self-sufficiency in India, adding that the nation couldn't possibly feed its additional millions before the '70s came to a close. In fact, India achieved self-sufficiency in grain production in 1974 and, as Bailey has noted, Ehrlich "discreetly omitted his prediction [concerning India's food production crisis] from later editions of The Population Bomb."
In 1963, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican government sent Borlaug to India and Pakistan. Borlaug and his team set up test plots and evaluated the viability of his dwarf strains in South Asia. In the summer of 1965, food shortages and hunger had grown acute, and government officials were desperate to avert disaster, so Borlaug and his team embarked on a massive effort to import some 550 tons of his successful dwarf strain seeds.
Potentially devastating roadblocks threatened their efforts from the start. Because of bureaucratic snafus and tangles with customs officials, the order couldn't be shipped out of Mexican ports in time for proper planting, so the shipment was sent via a 30-truck convoy from Mexico to the port in Los Angeles where it faced delays crossing the U.S.-Mexican border. Once the trucks crossed into U.S. territory, they were forced to take a detour; the National Guard had closed the freeway because of Watts race riots in the city.
Impediments reached comic proportions once the seed hit Los Angeles. Because of three misspelled words in a $100,000 check drawn on the Pakistani treasury, a Mexican bank refused to honor payment. Yet somehow the seed was loaded onto a freighter destined for Bombay and Karachi.
That freighter was at sea 12 hours when war broke out between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. At that point Borlaug received a cable from the Pakistani minister of agriculture: "I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble with my check, but I've got troubles, too. Bombs are falling on my front lawn. Be patient, the money is in the bank..."
But the delays cost them: There was no time to conduct the germination tests needed to determine quality and proper seeding levels. Planting started immediately and Borlaug and his team worked feverishly, sometimes within sight of artillery flashes.
"We did a lot of praying," he remembers. "People were dying in big numbers."
After examining his plantings a week after they had begun, Borlaug confronted another setback: His seeds were germinating at less than half the normal rate. He immediately ordered all locations to double seeding rates.
Despite these problems, yields were better than any ever harvested in South Asia, and Borlaug's scientists believed the yields would have been as much as 20 percent greater had they not suffered problems with germination. Later tests in Mexico revealed that his seed had been severely damaged in a warehouse by over-fumigation with a pesticide.
India subsequently made a huge commitment to Mexican wheat, importing some 18,000 tons of seed, the largest purchase and import of any seed crop in the world up to that time. By 1968, it was clear that the Indian wheat harvest was nothing short of revolutionary. It was so prolific that there was a shortage of labor to harvest it, of bullock carts to haul it to the threshing floor, of jute bags, trucks, rail cars and grain storage facilities. Local governments in some areas were forced to shutter schools temporarily to use them for grain storage.
The effects of Borlaug's work across Asia have been nothing short of staggering. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), between 1961 and 2001 India more than doubled its population, from 452 million to more than 1 billion. At the same time, it nearly tripled its grain production from 87 million tons to 231 million tons. It accomplished this feat while increasing cultivated grain acreage a scant 8 percent. The results of Green Revolution applications have been just as dramatic as they have crept across the Asian continent. In 1961, Asian grain production stood at roughly 330 million tons. By 2001, that figure swelled to 985 million tons. At the same time the population in Asia surged from 1.7 billion to 3.7 billion: three times the grain output for 2.2 times the people. The "bomb" doomsayers with their projected millions of starvation deaths were proven wrong.
Still, Borlaug's work has met with derision. His critics, primarily from the environmental movement, charge his accomplishments have come at enormous ecological cost: the poisoning of soils and waterways where nitrogen fertilizer runoff has created "dead zones" from prolific algae blooms in many coastal waters; the loss of top soil; the disruption or destruction of crop diversity; and the creation of a costly dependence on pesticides, fertilizers and new technologies concentrated in the hands of a few corporations.
"It is a very myopic view of dealing with hunger," says Anuradha Mittal, co-director of Food First, a Berkeley, California-based food and development activist group. "The harm outweighs the benefit." Mittal argues that because of limited access and distribution, India faces a greater threat from starvation today than it did in the mid-'60s.
"Clearly the Green Revolution was not without problems," says C.S. Prakash, professor of plant genetics at Tuskegee University. "Some of that did lead to indiscriminate use of fertilizers and pesticides leading to environmental problems, but it is absurd to say that we have far more problems than before."
Indeed, the Green Revolution could be interpreted as a boon to environment. In 1961, according to the FAO, global grain stocks were generated on 1.6 billion acres of land. By 2001, grain production surged 2.3 times while the cropland used to produce it stood at 1.66 billion acres, an uptick of just 4 percent.
Still, Borlaug's critics take issue with the historical interpretation of his work. Far from a genuine humanitarian success of revolutionary proportions, they argue his efforts amount to little more than a propaganda ploy.
"A lot of people were writing in the '70s how this Green Revolution of Borlaug's was turning into a brown revolution," says plant scientist Neil Carman, who serves in Austin on the Sierra Club's Genetic Engineering Committee. "You were using chemicals that had harmful effects on the people who use them, on the environment and on the food."
"I think there are a lot of development experts who are now questioning whether the success of the Green Revolution was really a public relations campaign more than a success," adds Charles Margulis of Greenpeace. "His work is premised on the idea that if we can just produce more food, we'll avert hunger. That just hasn't been the case in the past 50 years, and it's unlikely to be the case as long as big corporations are in charge of the food supply."
What these critics overwhelmingly advocate is a global movement toward "organic" or "sustainable" farming practices that eschew chemicals and high technology in favor of natural fertilizers, cultivation and pest-control programs. This notion is gaining throngs of adherents, especially among consumers. The organic food market, though less than 2 percent of the nation's food supply, is expected to top $11 billion this year, and demand has been growing at a pace of 20 percent annually over the last decade. On October 21, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's national organic standards went into effect, permitting foods to be labeled "organic" if they are produced without hormones, antibiotics, herbicides, insecticides, chemical fertilizers, genetic modification or germ-killing radiation.
Proponents maintain organic agriculture is not only better for the environment but also better for public health. Yet to date there are no conclusive studies demonstrating that organic foods offer greater nutritional benefits than conventionally produced foods. Likewise, there is no conclusive evidence linking deleterious human health effects to trace pesticide residues in the food supply. In fact, a 1996 study from the National Academy of Sciences determined that cancer-causing chemicals occurring naturally in foods are far more numerous and concentrated in the human diet than synthetic carcinogens. Bruce Ames, toxicologist and one-time director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center at the University of California, Berkeley, says there are more carcinogens in a single cup of coffee than in the pesticide residues present in all the fruits and vegetables the typical American consumes in a year. Both are at such low levels they pose little or no threat.
But the most controversial claim proponents of organic farming have put forth is that its production is near or equal to that of conventional agrochemical farming. The only long-term comprehensive study coming close to substantiating this claim was released earlier this year: a 21-year effort from two Swiss agricultural research institutes comparing various farming methods. The researchers concluded that organic farming could be more efficient, more economical and better for the environment on small to midsize farms, but yields from their test plots were still off 20 percent on average. And the researchers pointed out that cereal yields, the food on which most of the world depends, were off by as much as 40 percent.
What does Borlaug say to those who advocate such agricultural methods? "God bless you," he says. "Use all of the organic matter you want. But don't deceive the world into believing that we can feed 6.2 billion people with organic matter alone. If we tried to do this, we would plow up all of these marginal lands, cut down much of our forests, and much of that would be productive for just a few years. Without chemical fertilizer, forget it."
Borlaug argues that the world consumes some 82 million metric tons of chemical fertilizer per annum to supply the nitrogen crucial to plant development. Replacing these nitrogen inputs would require some 3 billion tons of cattle manure, one of the most concentrated sources of organic nitrogen. According to the FAO, the global cattle population stands at roughly 1.34 billion head. To produce the required amount of manure to replace synthetic fertilizers would require that population to swell to between 8 and 10 billion, necessitating the destruction of huge swaths of wilderness to make room for grazing land.
"The maximum population that could be sustained with 'sustainable' agriculture is 4 billion people," Borlaug says. "And this would be accompanied by substantial ecological devastation."
Borlaug is also an enthusiastic proponent of biotechnology, not surprising for a plant breeder who has spent his life trying to tease out ever more yields through genetic manipulation. He believes biotech will be key to meeting the enormous demands that will strain the globe in the next 30 years, when global food production will have to nearly double to keep pace with the projected population of 10 billion people by 2050. Borlaug says biotechnology will be indispensable to farmers to help them meet the challenges of disease and pest control and drought, temperature and soil toxicity tolerance, the latter crucial as crop cultivation expands to inhospitable soils. While biotech has yet to improve yields by any appreciable level, it shows promise in alleviating global malnourishment through the engineering of vitamin- and mineral-enhancing characteristics into cereal crops.
But activists have lodged vociferous opposition to the commercialization of these crops. Their demands range from moratoriums to outright bans on the technology. Food First's Mittal calls biotech crops "weapons." The Sierra Club's Carmen classifies them as poisons. Mae-Wan Ho, geneticist and biophysicist at the Open University near London, says they're "worse than nuclear weapons or radioactive wastes."
Americans and much of the world have been consuming genetically modified (GM) crops since their introduction in 1995. Globally, farmers have devoted more than 109 million acres to biotech crops. More than 70 percent of processed foods in the United States contain at least some genetically modified ingredients.
But critics say these crops pose unacceptable risks to the environment and human health, including threats to biodiversity in agricultural areas, the potential for uncontrollable "super weeds" and the risk of toxins and allergens in the food supply. Precious few studies have lent credence to these claims, and the ones that have are inconclusive. In addition, no reported cases from health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have linked so much as a headache or a rash to genetically modified foods.
On the other hand, several studies have concluded that biotech foods are safe, most notably a massive survey released last year by the European Union, a continent generally hostile to GM foods. This 15-year, $64 million survey encompassing 81 separate research projects not only concluded that biotech crops posed no new risks to human health and the environment, but the more precise technology and intensified regulatory scrutiny incumbent in them "probably make them safer than conventional plant breeding."
In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, the American Dietetic Association, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization and scientific panels appointed by the National Academy of Sciences, the British Royal Society, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Third World Academy have all concluded that current biotech crops are safe.
"We need this. This serves a useful purpose," Borlaug says, rapping the table with a pen. "What's happened more and more, from my point of view, for the last seven or eight years since all of this biotechnology has been coming on, is that the gene for common sense and judgment has been eroded all to hell and it doesn't function anymore." Borlaug believes opposition to biotechnology stems more from fervent anti-corporate ideology than concern for human health or the environment.
Just as they did earlier with agrochemical farming controversies, Borlaug's critics have brought the biotech issue to sub-Saharan Africa to complicate his work. In Africa, Borlaug is working with former president and fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter through the Sasakawa Africa Association to spread modern agricultural technologies among small farmers in a region where yields are among the lowest in the world.
Last September, starving people in Zambia looted storage sheds filled with thousands of tons of U.S. corn donated to help alleviate southern Africa's worst food crisis in a decade. Some 14 million people in six countries are threatened with starvation, 2.3 million in Zambia alone. But Zambia's people won't be receiving the food aid. On October 29, after concerted lobbying by biotech opponents, the Zambian government rejected the food aid and padlocked it in warehouses when it was discovered the shipment had been blended with genetically modified corn.
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa reportedly referred to the food as poison, and the United Nations reports that many people have been reduced to eating leaves. The Christian Science Monitor interviewed Zambians who believed GM corn makes people sterile and even causes AIDS. "Please give us the food," pleaded an elderly man in a Los Angeles Times report. "We don't care if it is poisonous because we are dying anyway."
GM opponents in the United States support the decision of the Zambian government, alleging the United States is at fault in the crisis for "dumping" the GM blended corn, using it as an economic cudgel. "Some speculate that maybe they sent it over there in order to contaminate their food supply," says Neil Carmen of the Sierra Club. Anuradha Mittal of Food First says the U.S. move was nothing more than an attempt to find new markets for American agribusiness, though she doesn't say exactly how food aid would accomplish this.
"I absolutely agree and support their decision 100 percent," says Candace Boheme of Austin-based Say No to GMOs regarding the Zambian government's rejection. When asked if she would maintain her support in the face of thousands of deaths from starvation, Boheme replies, "Absolutely. I would like to see people get healthy food. There is uncontaminated corn available, and it's not being offered...It's morally reprehensible that they are not being offered an alternative...It's like giving a starving Jew some pork. There's absolutely no sensitivity in that."
For all the impact that Norman Borlaug has had around the globe, it's perhaps most troubling to the people of Iowa that this farm boy from Cresco isn't a household name, but they're working to change that. Iowa Public Television recently produced a half-hour documentary titled Out of Iowa: Borlaug and the Green Revolution. It aired October 16, a day designated as the first Norman E. Borlaug World Food Prize Day. Utilizing a $5 million private donation, the city of Des Moines will restore the Des Moines Public Library as a "World Food Prize Hall of Laureates in honor of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug."
In Cresco, Ted Behrens, Borlaug's nephew and founder of the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation, recently acquired his uncle's 106-acre farm along with the one-room schoolhouse Borlaug attended as a child. He is raising money to restore the farm. "It is a remarkable success story of a group of local people determined to preserve this modest 106-acre farm of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate--land considered hallowed ground by millions of less fortunate people in Third World countries," Behrens says. "Not only did he help save a billion people from starvation, but he also helped save 12 million miles of wildlife from being plowed down for low-yield crops," says the Hudson Institute's Dennis Avery. "That makes him not only the greatest humanitarian in the history of our time, and maybe all time, but also the greatest conservationist."
Get the ICYMI: Today's Top Stories Newsletter Our daily newsletter delivers quick clicks to keep you in the know
Catch up on the day's news and stay informed with our daily digest of the most popular news, music, food and arts stories in Dallas, delivered to your inbox Monday through Friday. | <urn:uuid:090946e8-5b35-4098-bb39-a3f3d2df1ab7> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/green-giant-6389547 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128319636.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170622161445-20170622181445-00667.warc.gz | en | 0.974355 | 7,212 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Urban forests are the trees that surround our homes, streets, parking lots, schools, and parks. Urban forests can be used to help mitigate the negative effects caused by urbanization and development. While urban forests have many benefits, some of the most notable community benefits include how they can: curb air pollution, improve water quality, decrease soil erosion, provide wildlife habitat, and buffer noise pollution. After a hurricane, many communities will lose trees in residential yards, city parks, and in the right of way. This blog post seeks to share information on recommended wind-resistant trees.
Planting Wind-Resistant Species After a Hurricane
As demonstrated by hurricane Irma, hurricane-force winds can cause extreme damage to communities and urban forests. Scientists at the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) have tracked and studied major hurricanes since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. One of the purposes of this study has been to compile a list of wind-resistant tree species. If you lost trees and plan on replanting, read on to learn about which trees are most hurricane-resistant.
Most Wind-Resistant Species
It is important to note that there is no such thing as a completely “wind-proof tree.” In addition to species choice, there are important environmental factors to consider when planting trees including: soil conditions, availability of water, and yard placement as it relates to sunlight.
According to research conducted by University of Florida scientists, the most resistant species to wind-related damage are: sand live oak (Quercus germinata), southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora), and live oak (Quercus virginiana). Other good species include: crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia indica), bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), and sabal or cabbage palm (Sabal palmetto).
In addition to planting strong, wind-resistant trees, there are other measures you can take to help with wind resistance, including:
- Ensure plenty of root space. The more space trees have for rooting, the more anchored and healthy they will be.
- Properly pruning your trees is important for not only their health, but also for wind-resistance.
- Trees that are planted and grow in groupings will be more wind-resistant than individual trees.
- Native trees have been proven to survive better than exotic trees.
Trees to Avoid Planting
Brittle branches, weak root systems, or poor structure can cause a tree to fail during a hurricane. Some of the tree species which were determined to be the least wind-resistant include:
- Sand pine (Pinus clausa)
- Chinese elm (Ulmus parvifolia)
- Water oak (Quercus nigra)
- Laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia)
In conclusion, it would be wise to select wind-resistant trees for planting for your home, business, or city park landscaping in order to be prepared for the next hurricane or strong summer storm.
To improve your future tree’s success, plant it in an area suitable for the species with adequate root space. Trees with more root space often form healthier and stronger root systems, and therefore, healthier and more wind-resistant trees.
For more information…
For more information on wind-resistant trees or planning for a hurricane resistant urban forest, please read the UF/IFAS document, “Trees and Wind: Lessons Learned from Hurricanes.”
You can also contact the UF/IFAS Polk County Extension’s Plant Clinic:
Monday – Friday
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Email a Polk County Master Gardener: [email protected]
This blog post was written by Natural Resources Extension Program Intern, Ms. Paxton Evans, under supervision by Natural Resources and Conservation Extension Agent, Mrs. Shannon Carnevale.
University of Florida IFAS Extension is committed to diversity of people, thought and opinion, to inclusiveness and to equal opportunity. UF/IFAS Extension is an Equal Opportunity Institution. | <urn:uuid:96161737-6cfc-4c05-a26d-c56e99335dba> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/polkco/2017/09/21/hurricane-recovery-wind-resistant-trees-for-home-business-and-park-landscaping/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103640328.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20220629150145-20220629180145-00450.warc.gz | en | 0.900639 | 1,002 | 3.5625 | 4 |
Creating User-Defined Types for DLL FunctionsThis content is no longer actively maintained. It is provided as is, for anyone who may still be using these technologies, with no warranties or claims of accuracy with regard to the most recent product version or service release.
A user-defined type is a data structure that can store multiple related variables of different types. It corresponds to a structure in C and C++. In some cases, you pass an empty user-defined type to a DLL function, and the function fills in the values for you; in other cases, you fill the user-defined type from VBA and pass it to the DLL function.
You can think of a user-defined type as a chest of drawers. Each drawer can contain different types of items, but together they can be treated as a single chest of related items. In addition, you can retrieve an item from any drawer without worrying about the items stored in any other drawer.
To create a user-defined type, use the Type…End Type statement. Within the Type…End Type statement, list each element that is to contain a value, along with its data type.
The following code fragment shows how to define the RECT user-defined type, which you use with several Microsoft® Windows® API functions that manage rectangles on the screen. For example, the GetWindowRect function takes a data structure of type RECT and fills it with information about a window's left, top, right, and bottom positions.
Type RECT Left As Long Top As Long Right As Long Bottom As Long End Type
To pass a user-defined type to a DLL function, you must create a variable of that type. For example, if you were planning to pass a user-defined type of type RECT to a DLL function, you could include a variable declaration, such as the following code fragment, in the module:
Private rectWindow As RECT
You can refer to an individual element within the user-defined type as shown in the following code fragment: | <urn:uuid:3a220168-eba2-48c9-a739-66551254b5ed> | CC-MAIN-2015-22 | https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa140951(v=office.10).aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207932737.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113212-00176-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894401 | 421 | 2.921875 | 3 |
The Minutemen and the Rape of Boston
OK. This year has a lot of moving parts.
- A Boston mob tars and feathers a customs agent, and pours hot tea down his throat. They wrap a rope around his neck and threaten to hang him from the Liberty Tree. Make no mistake... this customs agent is a total ass. He definitely deserves a beating, but he does not merit a hanging. He finally apologizes and resigns his post after they threaten to cut off his ears.
- Americans call it the Rape of Boston as the British Parliament passes the "Intolerable Acts". Boston Harbor is closed as a punishment for the Tea Party. A political cartoon shows the Earl of Sandwich lifting the skirt of "Boston" while Mother Britannia weeps. Parliament also suspends Massachusetts' royal charter, strengthens the Quartering Act and authorizes criminal trials of British officials to be held in England rather than the colonies. George Washington calls it "The Murder Act" since it lets British officials get away with murder. Washington is contemplating war.
- The First Continental Congress meets to petition the King but what they get are the Minutemen, and a successful boycott of British goods. They recognize the Committees of Safety as legitimate authorities to raise militias. Even though the colonies already have militias, the Congress sees the need for a private militia that can be gathered quickly. Thus the Minutemen are formed.
- The women of Edenton throw a Tea Party. They join Boston in boycotting English tea. They say, "It is a duty that we owe, not only to our near and dear connections... but to ourselves." It is one of the first women's political protests in America. The English press mocks them as old biddies.
Johnny Appleseed is Born
He is born John Chapman but he will best be known as Johnny Appleseed. Born in the midst of the American Revolution, his mother will die while his father is away fighting. Years later Johnny will apprentice to an orchard-grower where he will learn about tending apples. In these days, apples are used mostly for making applejack... an alcoholic beverage made from apple cider. "Jacking" is a method of freezing or evaporating in order to "jack up" the concentration of alcohol. It is safer than drinking water, especially in areas where water purity is questionable. People don't know about germs yet, but the alcohol kills off most of the germs that make people sick. (FYI, Puritans drink it and kids too. It is considered right and proper.) Johnny Appleseed will wander through Western Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley in the early 1800s setting up apple tree nurseries. He will use grafting as a method of propagating good apples... not planting random apple seeds. He will sell shares in the nurseries on a per-tree basis to colonists coming across the Allegheny Mountains. The colonists will tend them and he will return yearly to collect his share. Yes. It will be a business... a growing business with benefits for all. That is how he will gain such a good reputation. He will also do a bit of preaching. He will make a little money at this business and by the time he passes away, it will be a going concern, worth millions to his sister who will inherit it. Many of his established orchards will survive into the modern day.
This Year in Wikipedia
Year 1774, Wikipedia.
- John Malcolm (Loyalist) - Wikipedia (2016). Retrieved on 26 April 2016. “The crowd then took him to the Liberty Tree and told him to apologize for his behavior and renounce his customs commission. When Malcolm refused, the crowd put a rope around his neck and threatened to hang him. This did not break him, but when they threatened to cut off his ears, Malcolm relented and was sent home.”
- File:RapeBoston.jpg - Wikipedia (2016). Retrieved on 27 April 2016. “From the London Magazine, May 1, 1774. British Cartoon Collection. Prints and Photographs Division. LC-USZC4-5289. Prime Minister Lord North, author of the Boston Port Bill, forces the 'Intolerable Acts,' or tea, down the throat of America, a vulnerable Indian woman whose arms are restrained by Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, while Lord Sandwich, a notorious womanizer, pins down her feet and peers up her skirt. Behind them, Mother Britannia weeps helplessly. This British cartoon was quickly copied and distributed by Paul Revere”
- Intolerable Acts - Wikipedia (2016). Retrieved on 27 April 2016. “George Washington called this the 'Murder Act' because he believed that it allowed British officials to harass Americans and then escape justice. Many colonists believed the act was unnecessary because British soldiers had been given a fair trial following the Boston Massacre in 1770.”
- Minutemen - Wikipedia (2016). Retrieved on 22 April 2016. “Just before the American Revolutionary War, on October 26, 1774, after observing the British military buildup, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress found the colony's militia resources short, and that 'including the sick and absent, it amounted to about 17,000 men, far short of the number wanted, that the council recommended an immediate application to the New England governments to make up the deficiency,' resolving to organize the militia better:”
- Minutemen - Wikipedia (2016). Retrieved on 27 April 2016. “The royal authorities inadvertently gave the new Minuteman mobilization plans validation by several 'show the flag' demonstrations by General Gage through 1774.”
- Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance That Forged America. Sourcebooks, Inc.. “In the middle of this explosive situation, General Thomas Gage arrived in Boston on May 13, with orders from the king "to repel force and violence by every means within his reach." Gage replaced the defeated Thomas Hutchinson and had additional instructions to arrest patriot leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams.”
- Edenton Tea Party - North Carolina History Project. northcarolinahistory.org (2016). Retrieved on 27 April 2016. “The women of Edenton signed an agreement saying they were 'determined to give memorable proof of their patriotism' and could not be 'indifferent on any occasion that appears nearly to affect the peace and happiness of our country . . . it is a duty that we owe, not only to our near and dear connections . . . but to ourselves.'”
- Who Was Johnny Appleseed? About.com
- Note: According to Michael Pollan in The Botany of Desire, most settlers planted apple orchards mainly for the hard cider that resulted from pressing. Known as "applejack," this drink was a staple of Puritan times and beyond, as much of the water was often tainted or unpotable.
- Applejack (beverage) - Wikipedia (2016). Retrieved on 27 April 2016. “Applejack was historically made by concentrating cider, either by the traditional method of freeze distillation or by true evaporative distillation.”
- The Straight Dope: What's the story with Johnny Appleseed?. straightdope.com (2004). Retrieved on 27 April 2016. “Back to Johnny Appleseed. John Chapman was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, on September 26, 1774, the son of Nathaniel Chapman, a farmer and carpenter and later one of the 'Minute Men' who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill and elsewhere. His mother died in 1776. His father remarried and the family moved to Longmeadow, Massachusetts, along the Connecticut River. He had a half-sister, but there is no authenticated account of his childhood.” | <urn:uuid:e62897e1-cc56-4150-9ce4-b1ab03cbe40c> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | http://tspwiki.com/index.php?title=1774 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038077336.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20210414064832-20210414094832-00535.warc.gz | en | 0.960933 | 1,620 | 2.96875 | 3 |
by Matt Clarke
The COVID-19 pandemic, or rather government officials’ inept reaction to the pandemic, has led to unrest in prisons around the world—especially in South America and the Middle East. This has resulted in the escape of hundreds and the death of dozens of prisoners.
The typical initial response to the pandemic was for prisons to suspend visitation. Americans might see this as a minor inconvenience in an era of social isolation outside of prisons, but, in many poorer countries, visitors are a literal lifeline—bringing their loved ones food, clothing, and medicine. For those prisoners, suspension of visitation is life-threatening. It also causes the prisoners high levels of anxiety about the welfare of their families while simultaneously making the families worry about their incarcerated loved ones.
Often accompanying the suspension of visitation is a ban on phone calls (if they were available to begin with) and a slow down or stoppage of mail as guard shortages cause the prison administrations to shift staff away from the mail room and to higher priority areas or limit the personnel entering the prison to essential positions. This lack of communication, along with a frequent failure of prison administrations to inform prisoners about COVID-19 and the status of the prison with respect to the pandemic, generates additional anxiety and frustration that can boil over into rebellion.
On March 17, 2020, hundreds of prisoners escaped from four semi-open prisons or prison wings in Tremembe, Porto Feliz, and Mirandopolis in Sao Paulo state after the traditional Easter furloughs were canceled and visitation restricted. A statement by prison officials said it was necessary to cancel the furloughs to prevent the 34,000 prisoners under the semi-open regime from returning to prison and potentially bringing coronavirus with them.
The human rights news website Ponte estimated that 1,500 prisoners had escaped. Videos emerged showing hundreds of prisoners fleeing down streets and across a soccer field on a beach.
Although bloody prison disturbances and escapes are common in Brazil, the pandemic provided a whole new level of stress for the country’s 234,000 prisoners, a third of whom have no on-site healthcare facilities available and 9,000 of whom are over 60 years of age.
In March 2020, protests about the administration’s lack of response to the pandemic erupted in 13 penitentiaries across Colombia. There were violent clashes with prison guards in several prisons, the worst in Bogota’s Modelo prison where at least 23 prisoners were killed in what Justice Minister Margarita Cabello described as a “massive and criminal escape attempt.” She went on to claim that there was “no sanitation problem” in La Modelo.
Oscar Sanchez, 42, a prisoner at La Picota, another Bogota prison, described the protests as “a massacre that until now has taken more lives than coronavirus in Colombia,” which at that time had 231 confirmed cases and two deaths.
“We are trying to launch an SOS,” said Sanchez, who added that the prisons were overcrowded, the administration was not giving prisoners information on how to protect themselves from COVID-19, and they feared guards would introduce it into the prison. “If there is one infection, it would be a time bomb.”
A ban on prisoners’ families bringing them food during visitation ignited a disturbance at Los Llanos prison in Portuguesa that left at least 47 prisoners dead and 75 injured. The 4,000 prisoners at Los Lanos survive on food brought by relatives, but such deliveries have been banned since March, due to COVID-19 and food shortages across the country, partly due to U.S. sanctions against the leftist government. Guards have been stealing food and some prisoners have been eating stray animals. Desperate, prisoners crowded the prison entrance, demanding change. Prison Minister Maria Iris Varela claimed the uprising was an attempt to escape. Another COVID-19-related disturbance occurred in mid-March 2020 at the Reten de Caimas prison in Zulia state, resulting in 10 prisoners’ deaths and several escapes. The human rights group Venezuelan Prison Observatory said the prisons are severely overcrowded.
Nine prisoners were killed during what authorities described as an attempt to “facilitate a mass breakout” at the Miguel Castro Castro jail in Lima. The jail has a capacity of 2,000, but holds 5,500 prisoners. The disturbance was sparked by a huge wave of COVID-19 in Peru’s jails, infecting over 600 prisoners with two fatalities at Miguel Castro Castro just before the disturbance. Sixty guards, five police officers and two other prisoners also were injured.
The COVID-19-related deaths of five prisoners at the La Victoria National Penitentiary in Santa Domingo led to an uprising by prisoners seeking release from the 1,500-capacity prison that houses 9,000. Prisoners used smuggled cellphones to release video of them setting fire to mattresses and throwing objects at guards and police while being sprayed with rubber-coated bullets.
At least five prisoners and a guard were injured in the melee.
More than a dozen prisoners escaped during an uprising at a 6,000-bed medium-security prison in Foggia after prison officials announced plans to restrict visitors. Another dozen prisoners died of drug overdoses after breaking into the prison’s infirmary during the March 18, 2020, disturbance.
Egypt’s 114,000 prisoners live in filthy and severely overcrowded conditions without running water, adequate ventilation, or health care. Now they also live in fear of coronavirus. Some prisoners at Cairo’s sprawling Tora prison complex staged a week-long hunger strike to protest poor conditions, a lack of information about COVID-19, and a failure to disinfect cells, according to a human rights lawyer who helps prisoners.
Egypt’s prisons are overflowing with people who were arrested for protesting the government and charged with “misusing social media” and/or “helping a terrorist group.” When the family of one such prisoner, who was been held in Tora for over a year after he held up a placard saying “Freedom for prisoners” in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, protested prison conditions, they too were arrested and charged with “misusing social media.”
A protest against a ban on visitors, poor food quality, and overcrowding at the Anuradhapura prison in Columbo led to a scuffle with guards. The guards opened fire and eight prisoners were hit, two fatally. The prisoners depended on the visitors to bring adequate food. The country’s prisons have a capacity of 800, but hold up to 5,000 prisoners.
The prisoner unrest in counties that refuse to take steps to ameliorate the pandemic show that even the severely abused will only take so much before rebelling—even at the cost of their lives. Prison officials throughout the world are accustomed to withholding information and expecting blind obedience. The pandemic may introduce them to a new paradigm as prisoners fear mass incarceration will lead to mass death.
Sources: nytimes.com, bbc.com, theguardian.com, abcnews.go.com, aljezerra.com, reuters.com, newsl8.com, dailymail.com
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login | <urn:uuid:29901657-d903-44ac-9266-414db33f74f8> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2020/jul/1/covid-19-pandemic-leads-unrest-prisons-around-globe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038062492.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20210411115126-20210411145126-00636.warc.gz | en | 0.959269 | 1,551 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Rare species in the tank tracks
The main part of the protected landscape area "Adazi" is also Adazi military training area. Military training is carried out here for nearly 100 years, accordingly the area is little affected by the common economic activities – agriculture, forestry, construction, tourism.
Tracking by the tanks and armored vehicles, blasting, making of the artillery positions and frequent fires have created an open landscape of heath and dunes that is unique in Latvia.
Restrictions of the economic activity have allowed an undisturbed existence of clean lakes and old forests. Thanks to the unusual conditions many rare animal and plant species are found in the territory and specially protected nature area has been established for preservation of these nature values. Compromises are being sought and found in order to harmonize military and nature conservation needs.
The landscape of “Adazi” is diverse – forests, bogs, rivers, lakes and heath. Therefore, many species protected in Latvia are found here:
- 32 species of plants: Eastern Pasque Flower, Water Lobelia etc.
- 19 species of invertebrates: Rattle Grasshopper, Marsh Fritillary etc.
- 4 species of amphibians and reptiles: Smooth Snake, Natterjack Toad etc.
- 34 species of birds: Short-toed Snake-eagle, Black Stork etc.
- 13 species of mammals: Gray wolf, Eurasian Lynx, Nathusius' Pipistrelle etc. | <urn:uuid:769427bb-9ddb-4a05-9bb6-e96b7fa71690> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | http://putniadazos.lv/en/adazi-natura-2000-0/nature-values | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496670255.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20191119195450-20191119223450-00014.warc.gz | en | 0.91288 | 306 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Developed in the 1970s at Lincoln Hospital (Bronx, N.Y.),
the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
(NADA) protocol was originally used as a supportive
component in drug and alcohol treatment settings.
The 3-5 point ear acupuncture formula controlled
withdrawal symptoms and helped patients become
more clear-headed and comfortable. Nearly 1,000
licensed drug treatment programs use acupuncture in
the U.S. according to federal N-SSATS statistics.
The 21st century has brought a remarkable expansion
in the use of the NADA protocol. It is used in 130
prisons in England. Correction officers provide all the
treatments under a 5-year training contract by SmartUK.
The jail program was expanded because of an 80%
reduction in violent incidents. Post-trauma treatments
have been given to community members after 9/11 and
Katrina. Treatments for firemen have been permanently
institutionalized in both cities. Ear acupuncture for stress
has been used by thousands of military personnel in India
NADA acupuncture has changed the face of psychiatric
hospital care in Northern Europe. 3,000 nurses have
been trained in 100 different government facilities.
Refugee services in war-torn areas have been particularly
impressive. The DARE program in Thailand has provided
ear acupuncture for many years with a dozen different
Burmese tribes in border camps. NADA was introduced
during a 2-week training sponsored by Real Medicine
Foundation in refugee camps in East Africa in May
2008. By the end of the year, 18,000 treatments were
provided by the refugee trainees. Support was provided
for survivors of a violent land dispute.
NADA members have used magnetic beads to treat
children with ADHD and autism-spectrum disorders,
and violence-prone adolescents. The beads are placed on
the back of the ear opposite the shen men point. The
bead remains in place with an adhesive for 1-2 weeks at
a time. Many instances of prolonged improvement have
occurred, but this technique is only in an early stage of
NADA acupuncture is used on a public health model.
Treatments are commonly given in large groups on a
frequent basis. Patients sit quietly for 45 minutes in a
collective experience. Many jurisdictions have laws that
allow a wide range of clinical personnel to be trained to
use the NADA protocol in state approved facilities under
general supervision of a fully licensed acupuncturist or
physician. States that do not have this provision, such
as Florida and California, have few NADA programs
in comparison with states like Virginia and New York
which do have this arrangement.
NADA uses 5 ear acupuncture points: sympathetic, shen
men, lung, liver and kidney. In many settings only the
first 3 points listed above are used. Results seem to be
similar with 3 points, and there is less expense in Third
World settings. NADA training also involves sterile
precautions and social integration with other services.
Apprenticeship training is always necessary because the
clients are often troubled and distracted. NADA is a
non-verbal approach. There are no diagnostic procedures.
The ear points provide a balancing effect: some fall
asleep; some feel relief of depression; some seem to be
meditating. These balancing effects continue from one to
several days even though the patient may be exposed to
contrasting emergencies during that time. It is a coping
and preventive effect. As an added note, Lincoln used
electroacupuncture extensively in the ’70s. Symptom
relief lasted 6-8 hours. Our patients always preferred the
prolonged preventive effects of manual acupuncture.
NADA acupuncture adds a valuable component to
the behavioral health fields. Its worldwide validation
strengthens the entire acupuncture profession.
At Lincoln we began by copying Dr. Wen’s formula of
using electro acupuncture on the lung point. By accident,
our electrical stimulator broke, so we were able to learn
that manual stimulation provides a much more prolonged
and more preventive effect than electrical stimulation.
I started with Lung and Shen Men (the name says it
all). Then we took resistance values from dozens of ear
locations – with no clear outcome. I tested for tenderness
and sensitivity for all the lumbar to sacral points (choosing
these to build yin, rather than using the always tender
upper spinal and endocrine points).
The closer to the sacral location, the more tenderness
occurred – so I used the Sympathetic. We added the Liver
because of its stress and anger identity. The Kidney was
added to help methadone patients with chronic edema.
Sympathetic and Shen Men both link to the kidney level
of the spine.
I have never seen any evidence of usefulness for the EarKidney
in this formula. I use a Lung point which is close
to the stomach area – hence it is a diaphragm-oriented
lung point. Most everyone else uses a lung point adjacent
to the cervical spine.
In recent years I have encouraged a 3-point formula
(Sympathetic, Shen Men, Lung) for stress, outreach,
trauma, and non-U.S. settings. I have always felt 5
needles are too crowded.
The Lincoln Hospital Substance Abuse Division has been
detoxifying alcoholic clients with acupuncture for the
past 10 years. We combine these innovative methods with
the conventional modalities of counseling and in-patient
detoxification. We see more than 280 detoxification
clients daily in an inner city walk-in clinic. Our program
is nationally known: Alcoholic clients have flown here
from Cincinnati, New Orleans and Beverly Hills for the
1-2 week acupuncture regimen.
Acupuncture detoxification is relatively simple to
learn and apply. Small needles are inserted just under
the skin at several locations on the external ear.
Clients usually begin acupuncture out of curiosity or
desperation. They continue to come for treatments as
they appreciate the success of the treatment. Clients
who come in tremulous often fall asleep during
treatment. Clients who come daily for more than a
week find it easier to remain sober and are visibly more
relaxed, alert and confident. Some motivated as well as
poorly motivated clients report that daily acupuncture
treatments make it very difficult to keep drinking.
Several have told us that they still hang out with their
drinking buddies but "don’t feel like drinking”.
We have recently received a large funding increase from
the City of New York which enabled us to implement
sobriety agreements and breathalyzer testing on selected
“problem" clients. We have many clients referred by
Social Service or word of mouth who sober up relatively
early with acupuncture. Of 85 recent "problem" clients
(initial treatment failures, psychotic-alcoholic patients,
and child abuse referrals). 60 had a substantial period
of clean breathalyzer tests within 2-3 weeks of starting
acupuncture and a sobriety agreement. These patients
received relatively little counseling during this period.
An acupuncture detoxification clinic in Brooklyn was
set up in August '83 as part of Kings County Hospital
Substance Abuse Service. The director, Dr. Bernard Bihari,
and his acupuncture staff are students of ours. Their
results in sobering up chronic alcoholics have been very
impressive. This clinic is treating only long term patients
already enrolled in their program so they have very clear
records of their patients pre- and post-treatment status.
30 Kings County alcoholism clients have been referred
to acupuncture because of frequent positive breathalyzer
tests and recurrent need for in-patient detoxification. 24
of these patients have not had a positive breathalyzer test
since their first day of acupuncture! Testing is still done
daily. These acupuncture clients--prior misfits--have
become leading sobriety role models in the alcoholism
Counseling Support Is Necessary
Many people in this field burn themselves out trying
to use counseling methods only to cope with chronic
tension, craving and insomnia. These symptoms reflect
total body imbalance, not only psycho-social imbalance.
Nagging physical withdrawal symptoms and debilitating
fears of “white knuckle sobriety” respond quite well to
acupuncture and herbology combined with counseling
methods. Our treatment methods help the counselor’s
efforts to be much more fruitful.
Since acupuncture is inexpensive and non-addicting, we
can easily offer acupuncture treatments “on demand,"an
addict in withdrawal need not be placed on a waiting
list and be lost to follow-up. The cost of acupuncture
detoxification is much less than alternate protocols.
Acupuncture treatment can be provided within a general
medical setting so that treatment of significant others
and any concurrent psychiatric and abuse problems can
occur simultaneously. Repeat in-patient detoxification is
inappropriate for relapsing clients who have not yet built up
a substantial habit. By offering treatment “on demand,” the
acupuncture detoxification protocol minimizes the barriers
for the former client to reenter treatment. Discussions of
stressful psycho-social issues can be delayed until after the
client has received renewed relief and reassurance by the
effectiveness of acupuncture treatment.
Alcoholism clients are particularly appreciative of a
concerned, giving atmosphere. Acupuncture allows the
staff to help give relief without any security concerns or
financial risk. The acupuncturist wants to hear about any
additional physical symptoms because it helps modify
the point selection. We have had additional success in
treating nerve and liver disease which are secondary to
alcoholism. Physical complaints which are sources of
nagging irritation in the usual treatment setting thus
become a useful communication in the acupuncture
Herbal treatment has been used for alcohol detoxification
and nervous relaxation for thousands of years in many
parts of the world. The herb mixture that we rely on
contains chamomile, catnip, peppermint, skullcap, hops
and yarrow. The herbal mix is prepared exactly as tea is
prepared, using honey instead of sugar. The mixture is National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 9
less expensive than coffee. Our Lincoln “sleep-mix” can
be used for relaxation and insomnia in stable persons.
The same mixture is effective for alcohol detoxification
if taken on an hourly basis. These herbs are not habit
forming and do not have any risk of overdose or misuse.
Our "herbal formulary" explains the nature and effects of
these ingredients more completely.
Nation-Wide Acupuncture Training Program
In the past decade we have trained over fifty people
to be acupuncturists who were previously counselors,
nurses, social workers, psychologists and physicians in
conventional drug and alcohol treatment settings. Some of
these acupuncturists have continued their study of Chinese
medicine to become experts in general acupuncture therapy.
Other trainees have focused on learning ear acupuncture
for detoxification treatment. Our trainees are working in
numerous public and private substance abuse treatment
settings across the U.S. and in Europe. The first national
convention on acupuncture-detoxification is being held in
Washington, D.C., April 18-20.
In our specialty, a disproportionate amount of time and money
are spent on in-patient detoxification. Using acupuncture
treatment as an adjunct to outpatient alcoholism treatment
permits a much larger group of clients to be served and
enables all of us to invest more heavily in the interpersonal
and spiritual aspects of rehabilitation
In a placebo-controlled study, 80 severe recidivist
alcoholics received acupuncture either at points specific
for the treatment of substance abuse (treatment group) or
at nonspecific points (control group). 21 of 40 patients
in the treatment group completed the programme
compared with 1 of 40 controls. Significant treatment
effects persisted at the end of the six-month follow-up:
by comparison with treatment patients more control
patients expressed a moderate to strong need for alcohol,
and had more than twice the number of both drinking
episodes and admissions to a detoxification centre.
For centuries, acupuncture has been used in Far Eastern
countries for various human ailments.1
however, has acupuncture been used to treat addictive
disorders. Chinese textbooks on acupuncture1-3 do not
refer to addictive drugs or to the treatment of addictive
disorders, but the suggestion that acupuncture can be
effective in the treatment of alcoholism,4,5 has led to
its use with alcoholics and drug-addicts.6,7 Controlled
studies of the efficacy of acupuncture in alcoholism have
not been reported.
In a pilot study,8
we evaluated the efficacy of acupuncture
therapy in recidivist alcoholic subjects: patients receiving
acupuncture at points that were specific for substance
abuse were more likely to complete the course of therapy
than patients receiving acupuncture at nonspecific
(placebo) points. Moreover, "treated” patients had
substantially fewer drinking episodes and fewer
admissions to a detoxification centre. However, we did
not know whether these beneficial effects recorded during
therapy would persist during a follow-up period when
no scheduled therapy was given. We have now tested
the null hypothesis that such beneficial effects during
acupuncture therapy would not persist for six months.
Patients and Facilities
Between December, 1986, and October, 1987, patients
eligible for this study were identified by the chronic
case management division of the Hennepin County
Detoxification Center, an 88-bed establishment in
central Minneapolis where severe "skid-row" alcoholics
may receive care for up to 72 h without charge. At the
time of this study, treatment was based on the "medical"
model of detoxification: medications were given to
ease functional complaints and to control early signs
of alcohol withdrawal. Nursing staff were present at
all times and rounds were made daily by a resident in
internal medicine from the Hennepin County Medical
Center (HCMC), which provides medical backup for the
detoxification centre. Alcoholic patients are assigned to
the appropriate level of care by the nursing staff according
to protocols drawn up by the staff and medical director of
the detoxification centre. Patients may be referred to the
HCMC emergency room at any time for evaluation or
admission. The detoxification centre admits over 14,000
patients a year; 91% are male.
Patients were selected for this study by the nurses and
personnel of the detoxification centre: every patient
was considered as a possible study candidate. The
following criteria were established for entry to the study:
age over 18 years; ten or more total admissions to the
detoxification centre or five admissions in the most
recent calendar year; previous inpatient or outpatient
treatment failure (ie, patient left the programme); and
no full-time employment (according to history) for at
least the previous six months. Patients were excluded if
they had previously received acupuncture therapy or if
they were pregnant. The first 80 patients who satisfied
these criteria and who gave informed consent were,
after a standard 3-5 day detoxification, admitted to the
study and transferred to Mission Lodge — a long-term
chemical dependency treatment centre in Plymouth,
Minnesota, 11 miles from the detoxification centre. Each
Monday morning after arrival, Mission Lodge personnel
escorted patients to the treatment area where their
names were entered consecutively in a treatment ledger.
Patients were then assigned by pairs either to treatment
group or to control group by alternate selection. Neither
Mission Lodge personnel nor the acupuncturists had any
knowledge of the patient’s demographic profile obtained
during intake, and Mission Lodge personnel were never
aware of patient's treatment group status.
This was a blinded study. The acupuncturists knew which
patients were receiving true acupuncture treatments,
whereas the patients, the Mission Lodge personnel, and
the follow-up coordinator did not. All study patients
were housed and received their acupuncture therapy
at Mission Lodge. Individual counselling and group
therapy were not provided as part of the study; but all
residents at Mission Lodge must attend Alcoholics 12 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
Anonymous meetings twice a week and are discharged if
they do not. Study patients were free to come and go, and
transportation to and from Minneapolis was available at
no charge. The drinking of alcohol after study entry was
not regarded as grounds for dismissal from the study.
The treatment period was divided into three phases: in
phase I, patients received one acupuncture treatment
a day from Monday to Friday for two weeks; in phase
II, one treatment was given every Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday for four weeks and in phase III, acupuncture
was given on Mondays and Thursdays for two weeks.
Patients were then discharged from Mission Lodge and
were asked to return after one, three, and six months to
complete a follow-up summary sheet: this consisted of
six multiple-choice and check-off questions that were
designed to assess the subject's need for alcohol, ability to
stay sober, and ability to undertake productive initiatives
during the study period. Subjects answered the same
six questions at each of the three follow-up interviews.
All follow-up sessions were conducted by the study
coordinator, who was blinded to the subject's treatmentgroup.
Furthermore, his interaction with the subjects
was limited to evaluating their reading ability (all could
read) and collecting the completed questionnaires. When
subjects did not return for a scheduled follow-up visit, the
study coordinator organized searches in local bars, free
food centres, treatment programmes, and hospitals, and
questioned other street alcoholics. Also during follow-up
subjects could ask for additional acupuncture treatments.
Patients who completed the entire study received $100—
ie, $10 if they completed the intake process, $15 for each
of the three successfully completed treatment phases, and
$15 for each completed scheduled follow-up interview.
Traditional Chinese acupuncture1
was used: acupuncture
points are electrically discrete—ie, their location can be
confirmed by an ammeter.9
Standardised acupuncture treatments were given by two
experienced acupuncturists. Patients in the treatment
group received acupuncture treatment at ear points now
regarded by Wen10-12 and the Lincoln Hospital group
as specific for chemical dependency after
nearly 15 years of clinical experience. Three ear points
(Shen Men, lung, and sympathetic points) were used
in all treatment patients. Control patients were treated
at ear points not specific for chemical dependency
but close enough ( < 5 mm) to the specific points that
treatment and control patients could mingle in the same
room and yet not notice any differences in treatment.
A single specific hand point, LI4 Hoku,1
was also used
in treatment patients for anxiety, while control patients
received a nonspecific hand point. At each patient’s first
treatment session, the site of all points was confirmed by
a ‘Royer-Anderson’ neurometer (Cadre Corporation, San
Mateo, California): specific points gave a reading of > 50
mA, whereas nonspecific points always registered zero.
Acupuncture treatments were given in a group setting
with treatment and control patients seated side-by-side in
comfortable chairs in a large open room. After the site was
cleansed with an alcohol swab, fresh needles were inserted
to a subcutaneous depth of about 0.5 mm. All ear and
hand points were placed bilaterally. The treatments were
Table I-Demographic Characteristics
No of Patients
(n = 40)
(n = 40)
Other alcohol-related arrests
DWI = driving while intoxicatedNational Acupuncture Detoxification Association 13
given without manual or electrical stimulation and lasted
about 30 min. Interaction between the acupuncturists
and the patients was limited to the time required for
needle placement and casual group (never individual)
conversation. The acupuncturists were not involved in the
assignment of patients to treatment or control groups, data
collection, or evaluation of outcome measures.
Analysis was done according to initial treatment
assignment. Categorical variables were evaluated by c
analyses and Fisher’s exact test was carried out if cell sizes
were less than 10. A p value of less than 0.05 was regarded
as statistically significant for the comparison between the
treatment and control groups. Continuous data were
analyzed by Student’s t test. When the variances in the
two groups differed significantly, the t test for unequal
variance was done.
A power analysis was performed with the estimates from
our earlier work.8
We estimated that the acupuncture
group would have at least 20% more responders in
terms of the endpoints of decreased desire for alcohol,
decreased number of detoxification centre admissions,
and self-reported drinking episodes. We also assumed
that the loss to follow-up rate could be as high as 50%
in each group. We calculated that, to have a 0.90 power
and a type I error of p < 0.05, we would need 20 subjects
in each group at the end of the six months of follow-up.
Thus, to allow for a 50% loss to follow-up, the size of
each group was set at 40.13
Patient Population (Table I)
The mean age of the patients was 42.2 years (range 23-71);
75 (93.8%) were men. The patients were predominantly
white (61.3%); Native Americans were the second
largest group (27.5%). 92.5% of the patients were single,
separated, or divorced, and hardly any had a family or
support network at the time of study entry. Educational
levels of patients in the treatment and control groups
were comparable. All patients had been unemployed
at the time of study enrolment (mean 26.8 months).
50 patients received welfare assistance (mean duration
Table II—Alcohol/Drug Abuse and Treatment History
Before Study Entry
No of Patients
(n = 40)
(n = 40)
Pattern of Drinking
Mean Duration of
Alcohol Abuse (YR)
No of Inpatient
No of Outpatient
*2 yr before study entry.
AA = Alcoholics Anonymous.
Table III—Completion Rates for Each Treatment Phase
No of Patients (%)
(n = 40)
(n = 40)
I 37 (92.5) 21 (52.5)
II 26 (65.0) 3 (7.5)
III 21 (52.5) 1 (2.5)
*p < 0.001 for the difference between the completion rate for
each phase.14 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
11.4 months). There were no significant differences in
demographic characteristics between the treatment and
Substance Abuse and Treatment History (Table II)
All study patients said that alcohol was their primary drug
of abuse at the time of entry to the study, although 24
(30.0%) reported past episodic use of other drugs such
as sedatives, opioids, stimulants, tranquilizers, or cocaine.
However, there were no differences in drug use before
enrolment between the two groups. Patients who were
daily or binge drinkers were equally distributed in the two
groups. 40% of all patients had begun to abuse alcohol
by the age of 15; the mean years of alcohol abuse were
23 for the treatment group and 21 for the control group.
All patients had numerous previous admissions to alcohol
treatment programmes, but there was no significant
difference in treatment history between the two groups.
Completion of the Treatment Phase (Table III)
The completion rate for each phase of the treatment was
significantly higher for patients in the treatment group.
Only 3 (7.5%) treatment patients terminated therapy
during phase I, compared with 19 (47.5%) control
patients (p < 0.001), and a striking attrition of control
patients continued during phases II and III. Only 1
(2.5%) control patient completed all three phases of
treatment compared with 21 (52.5%) of the treatment
patients (p < 0.001).
Follow-up After Treatment
During the six-month follow-up, interview data were
obtained from 61 (77.5%) patients. Although some
patients did not return for their second and third
interviews, the third interview was completed by 27
(68%) and 23 (58%) of the treatment and control
Alcohol need (table IV)—At each of the follow-up
intervals, more control patients than treatment patients
expressed a moderate to strong need for alcohol.
Furthermore, treatment patients did not have an increased
need for alcohol as the follow~up period progressed.
Also, 12 patients in the treatment group asked for and
received additional acupuncture therapy during the
follow-up period, whereas only 1 control patient did so
(p < 0.001). Most of these patients asked for additional
treatments (mean 3.7, range 1.7) to help maintain their
sobriety usually during a single follow~up interval; 3
patients requested treatment during two consecutive
follow-up intervals. 9 of the 12 treatment patients that
had requested additional therapy completed all three
treatment phases, but 10 had had drinking episodes
and had been admitted to the detoxification centre. The
impact of this additional therapy on the patient’s course
is therefore difficult to assess.
Drinking episodes (tables V and VI)—The following indicators,
because of their possible relevance to treatment efficacy, were
Table IV—Assessment Of Need For Alcohol During
Each Follow Up Interval
No of patients
Table V—Self-Reported Drinking Episodes During Each
Follow Up Interval
Follow-up Interval No of Drinking
Treatment Group (34)
Control Group (28)
Treatment Group (32)
Control Group (25)
Treatment Group (27)
Control Group (22)
*Total = 308 for treatment group and 704 for control group
**No of patients available for interview during each follow-up
interval. Some patients refused to answer questions about no of
***p < 0.001
p < 0.01National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 15
recorded during the follow-up period: episodes of drinking,
as reported by the patient (an episode was defined as the
consumption of at least three drinks); admissions to the
detoxification centre; and hospital admissions and emergency
room visits. Control patients reported more than twice
the number of drinking episodes than treatment patients.
Furthermore, 39 control patients and all treatment patients
who did not complete all three phases of treatment reported
drinking episodes during the six-month follow-up. By
contrast, 6 (28.6%) of the 21 patients in the treatment group
who completed all three treatment phases claimed that they
had not taken any alcohol, and none of these were admitted
to the detoxification centre during this period. 4 treatment
patients who completed the treatment protocol reported only
one drinking episode and on follow-up had been admitted to
the detoxification centre only once. It is also noteworthy that
during all three follow-up intervals treatment patients were
more likely to report abstinence than controls.
Admissions to detoxification centre (table VII ).—There
was a pronounced difference between treatment and
control patients in the number of admissions to the
detoxification centre. At all three follow-up intervals, the
number of control patients admitted to the detoxification
centre was more than twice that of treatment patients: 15
of the 21 patients who had been admitted five times or
more were from the control group; 5 of the 6 treatment
patients with this many admissions did not complete all
three phases of treatment. The 7 patients who had been
admitted ten or more times to the centre during the sixmonth
period were from the control group; no treatment
patient was admitted to the detoxification centre this
often. Hospital admissions and emergency room visits
were few during follow-up and were not significantly
different for treatment and control patients.
Other possible indicators of treatment efficacy were also
monitored. 30 (75%) treatment patients compared with
19 (48%) control patients undertook productive initiatives
such as applying for employment, enrolling in classes,
or reconciling with a spouse or family. It was impossible,
however, to determine how sustained these efforts were.
Our findings show that acupuncture can be effective
for treatment of severe recidivist alcoholics. Some of
the limitations noted in our pilot study must again be
mentioned. For example, although more patients in the
treatment group than in the control group completed each
treatment phase, there was a high drop-out rate among
control patients, despite the promise of incentive payment.
We believe, however, that our analysis is valid since, as in
our pilot study, patients who terminated the treatment part
of the study did not differ in their baseline demographic
characteristics; and despite the reduced power to detect
group differences, statistically significant results were
obtained during phase III when the smallest number of
patients was available for study. Also, we realize that the
use of a breath analyzer to monitor drinking episodes
would have been desirable: drinking episodes during the
follow-up period were, of necessity, self-reported. The
validity of such self-reporting in alcohol studies remains
controversial.14 However the ratio of drinking episodes
reported by control compared with treatment patients
(> 2/1) is comparable with the ratio of admissions to the
detoxification centre in the two study groups. Could the
acupuncturists have inadvertently conveyed to the patients
whether treatment was correct or incorrect? We believe
that this is unlikely because acupuncturists were asked
Table VI—Self-Reported Abstinence Versus Continued
Drinking During Each Follow Up Interval
Follow-up Interval No of Drinking Episodes
Table VII—Admissions to the Detoxification Centre
During Each Follow Up Interval
Follow-up Interval No of
Mean (SEM) no
Treatment Group (36)
Control Group (31)
Treatment Group (33)
Control Group (26)
Treatment Group (29)
Control Group (24)
*Total = 75 for treatment group and 186 for control group
**p < 0.01
p < 0.0516 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
not to converse individually to the patients and because
treated and control patients were seated side-by-side when
receiving acupuncture. Although we did not ask patients if
they knew which treatment group they had been assigned
to, several volunteered accurate opinions.
This study may have relevance for various aspects of
alcoholism therapy. First, increased use of acupuncture
therapy not only may be an effective adjunct to therapy in
current programmes for patients with persistent craving
for alcohol, but also may allow treatment to be extended
to a large group of recidivist alcoholics for whom current
therapies are not effective. Second, the high retention rate
observed in the treatment periods of both the present and
the pilot studies was especially encouraging, since additional
time in therapy allows benefits to accumulate both from
acupuncture therapy and from other forms of intervention.
Third, acupuncture is highly cost-effective: overhead costs
are low, equipment needs are negligible, therapy is easily
given on an outpatient basis, and numerous patients
can be treated simultaneously by one acupuncturist
supported by a small ancillary staff. Also, increased use
of acupuncture therapy may eventually lead to a decrease
in the number of inpatient admissions to expensive
treatment centres. For example, the total cost for
admissions to the detoxification centre (average stay 30 h)
for control patients over the six-month follow-up period
was $20,424 higher than that of treatment patients.
Alcoholism is a major health problem in American
society;15 it is also the most expensive with an annual
estimated cost of 117 thousand million dollars. 16
Psycho-social treatment with minimum participation
of the physician community is the standard of care for
alcoholic patients. However, the efficacy of psycho-social
alcohol therapy, has been questioned.17,18 The drop out
rate in all programmes is high-probably over 50%. Clearly,
therefore, alternative treatments must be investigated and
developed to increase the percentage of severe alcoholics
who can be successfully treated. We believe that our
results are encouraging enough for other research groups
to validate the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of
various subsets of the alcoholic population.
We thank Dr. Morrison Hodges, Dr. Phillip K. Peterson, Dr. Thomas
J. Kiresuk, and Dr. Burt Sharp for their support and careful review of
the manuscript; and Diane Loudon for preparation of the manuscript.
This study was supported by the Hennepin County Department of
Community Services, Chemical Health Division, and by a research
grant from Hennepin Faculty Associates.
Correspondence should be addressed to M. L. B., Hennepin
County Medical Center, Department of Medicine, 701 Park
Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415, USA.
1. O’Connor J, Bensky D. 1981. Acupuncture, a
comprehensive text (Shanghai College of Traditional
Medicine) Seattle: Eastland Press.
2. Anonymous. Huangdi Neijing (Canon of Medicine;
compiled 500-300 BC) Lu H, translator. Vancouver:
Academy of Oriental Heritage, 1978.
3. Anonymous. Essentials of chinese acupuncture. Beijing:
Foreign Language Press, 1980.
4. Shakur, M and Smith, M. The use of acupuncture in the
treatment of drug addiction. Am J Acupuncture 7 (1979),
5. Smith MO, Squires R, Aponte J, Rabinowitz N, Rodriguez
RB. Acupuncture treatment of drug addiction and alcohol
abuse. Am J Acupuncture 1982; 10: 161-63.
6. Kerr P. Acupuncture experiment in New York is said to ease
addiction to crack. New York Times Sept 30 1988, p 9.
7. Kurtz H. Cracking drug addiction. Washington Post Sept
5 1988, p 1.
8. Bullock, M.L., Umen, A.J. Culliton, P.D., Olander, R.T.,
Acupuncture treatment of alcoholic recidivism: a pilot
study. Alcoholism (NY) 1987; 11: 292-95.
9. Steiner RP. Acupuncture-cultural perspectives 1. The
western view. Postgrad Med 1983; 74:60-67.
10. Wen HI., Cheung SYC. Treatment of drug addiction by
acupuncture and electrical stimulation. Asian J Med 1973;
11. Wen HI., Teo SW. Experience in the treatment of drug
addiction by electro-acupuncture. Mod Med Asia 1975;
12. Wen HI., Acupuncture and electrical stimulation (AES)
outpatient detoxification. Mod Med Asia 1979; 15: 39-43.
13. Siegal S. Non-parametric statistics. San Francisco: W.H.
14. Fuller RK, Lee KK, Gordis E. Validity of self-report in
alcoholism research: results of a Veterans Administration
cooperative study. Alcoholism (NY) 1988; 12: 201-05.
15. West LJ, Maxwell DS, Noble EP, Solomon DH.
Alcoholism (UCLA Conference). Ann Intern Med 1984;
16. Holden C. Alcoholism and the medical cost crunch.
Science 1987; 235: 1132-33.
17. Miller WR, Hester RK. Inpatient alcoholism treatment:
who benefits? Am Psychol 1986; 41: 794-805.
18. Holden C. Is alcoholism treatment effectiv
We all know that most substance abusers do not have
access to treatment. Our recent experience in New York
City highlights the inadequacy of our therapeutic system.
The 1984 police sweeps on the Lower East Side exposed
one particular group of 4,000 addicts. Only very few
of those people were able to enter treatment programs.
Most were simply returned to the streets because no
treatment and/or correctional program was available. The
most widespread forms of current abuse — (1) cocaine
abuse and (2) poly-drug abuse — are not in any way
susceptible to the most available form of treatment which
is methadone maintenance. Furthermore, most people
who currently enter treatment do so only after years of
abuse, debilitation, and consequent social tragedy.
We desperately need a form of treatment that will (1) be
readily acceptable with abusers of all social classes, (2)
lead to effective long term psycho-social rehabilitation,
(3) be inexpensive and convenient to establish and (4)
not involve diversion, or other individual and social
side effects. The Substance Abuse Division of Lincoln
Hospital has spent the past ten years developing an
acupuncture-based treatment protocol to satisfy these
The Acupuncture Clinic at Lincoln Hospital has been
operating for 11 years in the South Bronx, a Black
and Latin “ghetto” community in New York City. Our
program began using acupuncture as an effort to provide
better treatment for drug addicted clients receiving
methadone detoxification. 6 years ago we eliminated
methadone as a treatment modality. We have expanded
to serve 300 acupuncture patients daily with an average
of 15 intakes each day. 75% of our patients are drug and
alcohol detoxification clients. The remainder are general
medicine clients, including a number with psychiatric
problems. Nearly all of our patients receive acupuncture
while seated in a large open treatment area. As needed,
patients are provided with supportive psycho-social
counseling as well as a wide range of native American
and European herbal preparations.
Hard-core addicts are usually shocked to discover that
daily acupuncture can relieve withdrawal symptoms as
reliably as the drugs they use. Acupuncture can prevent
the sensations of drug craving even if none of their
personal problems are resolved. The severity of acute
withdrawal symptoms is independent of psycho-social
issues; whereas the continuation of long term escapist
drug seeking behavior is usually dependent on psychosocial
balance. Therefore it is very important to integrate
the acupuncture treatment with counseling and other
psycho-social services. Merely establishing a room staffed
by acupuncturists who do not have personal experience
in substance abuse treatment and on-going support from
staff in other program components has been shown to be
Acupuncture has been used for more than 2,000 years.
It was a primary component of drug abuse therapy in
post-war Viet Nam. It is extremely safe and convenient
to establish in virtually any setting. We primarily use ear
points in detoxification treatment. Sessions cost $5-10
each in actual expenditure. An average client might have
15 short term crisis treatments and then another 10-15
treatments over the next year.
Since acupuncture is inexpensive and non-addicting, we
can easily offer acupuncture treatments “on demand.” An
addict in withdrawal need not be placed on a waiting
list and be lost to follow-up. The cost of acupuncture
detoxification is much less than alternate protocols.
Acupuncture treatment can be provided within a general
medical setting so that treatment of significant others
and any concurrent psychiatric and abuse problems can
occur simultaneously. Repeat in-patient detoxification
is inappropriate for relapsing clients who have not yet
built up a substantial habit. By offering treatment “on
demand,” the acupuncture detoxification protocol
minimizes the barriers for the former client to re-enter
treatment. Discussions of stressful psycho-social issues
can be delayed until after the client has received renewed
relief and reassurance by the effectiveness of acupuncture
Acupuncture detoxification enhances the overall patienttherapist
relationship in many ways. Acupuncture points
are selected according to the overall status of the patient so
that it is not necessary to know the patient's current drug
using status to apply treatment successfully. Therefore
we can avoid pressurized encounters with clients about
recent drug use. These confrontations — relatively
necessary to other modalities — often produce such a
climate of guilt and aggression that cooperative treatment
efforts are difficult to attain. When a client returns after
missing a few days (or weeks) of detoxification treatment
we ask how they are feeling; but we can institute effective
treatment even though the client gives a vague, evasive
In our clinic, clients request counseling sessions frequently
during the acute detoxification process. Since they learn to
rely on acupuncture for symptomatic relief of anxiety and
depression, these clients frequently return for treatments National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 19
during the first months of treatment. This process creates
an avenue of easy and frequent communication between
the client and therapists precisely during the crisis periods
of early treatment. Acupuncture clients frequently say that
they can concentrate better during counseling sessions.
However, it was not until our 100% budget increase of
September 1984 that we were able to hire counseling and
research-oriented staff and have the funds for frequent
testing for abstinence. Our paper “An Innovative
Approach to Chemical Dependency” (by Bliss and
Oliveira) documents the effectiveness of acupuncture
detoxification for the first time in a substantial statistical
sample. The figures for non-treatment agreement
detoxification can be said to represent the success of
acupuncture detoxification of difficult, non-screened
patients with minimal non-structured counseling. 44%
gained consistent abstinence and 12% gained a period
of abstinence of at least 3 testing days (often considered
a positive goal in conventional detoxification protocols).
Even these figures represent considerable success
relative to other detoxification protocols. The treatment
agreement figures indicate the significant advantage we
gained by using our version of an abstinence contract
with these usually troublesome patients. 57% gained
consistent abstinence and 16% gained a period of
abstinence of at least 3 testing days and maintained a
continuing therapeutic relationship during this usually
chaotic and nihilistic period. By using acupuncture
and treatment agreements we have been able to help
73% of a group of patients who are usually considered
untreatable enter the therapeutic process and achieve
clearly documented success. Later in this paper we will
describe case studies reflecting this non-screened, usually
"untreatable" population. Chemical abusers who are
impulsively violent and provocative are well represented
in our long term treatment population.
The Lincoln Acupuncture Program is a successful
revenue-producing unit which is fully integrated within
the public hospital system of New York City. It has served
as a model for the programs in Brooklyn and Minneapolis
described below as well as others in the U.S. and abroad.
The experience of these other programs indicates that our
approach can be taught and implemented successfully in
a wide range of programs.
An acupuncture detoxification clinic in Brooklyn was
set up in August ‘83 as part of Kings County Hospital
Substance Abuse Service. Their results in sobering up
chronic alcoholics have been very impressive. This clinic
is treating only long term patients already enrolled
in their program so they have very clear records of
their patients pre- and post- treatment status. 90
Kings County alcoholism clients have been referred to
acupuncture because of frequent positive breathalyzer
tests and recurrent need for in-patient detoxification.
60 of these patients have not had a positive breathalyzer
test since their first day of acupuncture! Testing is still
done three times weekly. Most of the clients discontinue
frequent acupuncture treatments after several months
but they continue to attend therapy and testing. These
acupuncture clients — prior misfits — have become
leading sobriety role models in the alcoholism counseling
The alcoholism program in Hennepin County (Minneapolis)
has treated 120 severe, chronic alcoholics in their acupuncture
program. About 20% have stayed sober for six months and
55 percent have shown marked improvement. A previous
study comparing sensitive acupuncture points to placebo
points also showed impressive evidence that acupuncture
treats alcoholism effectively.
The international community has responded favorably.
So far, visitors from 35 foreign countries, including a
United Nations director, a World Health Organization
representative, and government officials from Asia,
Europe and the Caribbean, have come to the South
Bronx to observe and learn from our experience.
Acupuncture detoxification clients at Lincoln include
abusers of alcohol, heroin, cocaine, methadone,
sedatives, stimulants, and hallucinogens alone or in
combination. Some of these patients have a primary
psychiatric diagnosis, and others have psychotic toxicity
resulting from acute and chronic drug use. The following
examples illustrate the challenge of treatment that we
We have many intensely disturbed people who come to
our building for help. One 42 y/o man, A.B., had pages of
the bible taped to his chest, and had a large knife extending
out of his pocket. He was currently sober but had been
referred by a local hospital for alcoholism treatment. As
we hesitantly spoke to A.B. in the acupuncture area, he
turned his head around and asked "can I get some of
this?” We were surprised at his interest but administered
ear acupuncture treatment. A.B. slept for a while and 20 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
then was quite willing to be accompanied to a hospital
emergency room for admission.
F.C. is a 23 y/o woman who abused PCP and various
prescription drugs. She was reported to the Bureau of
Child Welfare for placing her infant child in the oven.
F.C. had been hospitalized in an in-patient psychiatric
unit for 3 weeks with no engagement in therapy. She
had been very rude and negative toward any type of
outpatient follow-up. As she left a social worker's office,
F.C. accidentally caught a glimpse of the acupuncture
treatment area. She pointed to the room where dozens
of patients were sitting quietly alone and said I’ll take
that kind of treatment." F.C. had many scars and tattoos
on her body. She was quite self-conscious, often behaved
in a bizarre manner, and continued to drop hints about
feeling suicidal. At first she flinched when taking the
acupuncture and for a time she wanted to leave the
room before the relaxation effect became operative.
Throughout her course F.C. was reluctant to establish
any regular verbal relationship. She often tried to provoke
the hospital police into expelling and hurting her. In the
spring of 1983 F.C. received acupuncture treatment for
56 days consecutively. She felt comfortable enough to
fall asleep with the treatment only on Sunday--when the
clinic was quite empty. Subsequently, without telling us,
F.C. located a psychiatric day hospital in another part of
the city and became a patient there for several months.
F.C. has given us numerous clean urines recently.
Acupuncture helped her face the need for psychotherapy
in a productive manner.
We have treated many patients who were brought in
by their families with acute psychosis from cocaine or
PCP. The initial acupuncture treatment is usually able
to calm these patients so that they do not need to be
hospitalized and are motivated to return for acupuncture
and counseling on the next day.
Paranoid And Homicidal Behavior
H.W. came to our clinic in September 1984 with a
drug habit and an obviously paranoid condition. He
had a history of LSD psychosis in 1972 and at least 3
state psychiatric hospitalizations. H.W. was evidently
hearing voices and reported bizarre somatic delusions.
H.W. attended acupuncture 5-6 days a week for the
next 6 months. After the first day he said that his voices
“went away.” Use of heroin and cocaine continued
intermittently. H. W. was so guarded that no individual
verbal sessions were attempted until April 1985. H.W.
is now readily communicative, working part-time, and
attends acupuncture weekly. We have consistently been
able to stabilize chronic paranoid patients even those
with active hostility and a history of violence.
D.G. is a 36 y/o man who requested treatment for
"anxiety" in 1984. He had used heroin in Vietnam and
the U.S., and has remained on methadone maintenance
for 5 years as well as abusing pills and alcohol. D.G. said
he enjoyed killing in Vietnam and had several weapons
in his house. During the first months of treatment he
usually entered the clinic in an aggressive manner. He
was frequently high and perspired actively. Often when
acupuncture was administered, he would recede into a
state of calm detachment. D.G. was more lonely and
intolerant of relationship than most of our patients.
He began to attend acupuncture daily, tapered his
methadone dose, and markedly reduced his pattern of
alcohol and pill abuse. He attempted to offer gifts to
clinic staff members. In May 1985 D.G. located and
obtained a job offer with a utility company. This patient
required many months of acupuncture treatment,
punctuated by various crisis encounters before he was
able to participate in constructive verbal interchange
with our staff. D.G. had not been helped by methadone
and his manner was so disruptive as to preclude other
forms of treatment. Acupuncture seems to have been the
only path to reach this homicidal person and begin the
process of rehabilitation.
Support For Other Therapy
R.R., referred by a family court social worker, had a
long record of alcoholism and child abuse. She had been
attending therapy sessions weekly for the past year with
no change in her behavior. R.R. was labeled a poorly
motivated patient. After the first week of acupuncture, her
children and neighbors came to the clinic and reported a
very agreeable change in her behavior. R.R. said this time
the impulse hadn't been as strong and she “had been
able to remember what her therapist had told her." This
patient had not been poorly motivated; she had attended
weekly sessions even though there had been no progress.
She did not have a poor memory; on the contrary she had
been distracted from remembering effective suggestions
by an impulse disorder and alcohol abuse. R.R. only took
acupuncture for 2-3 weeks nevertheless the treatments
helped her use the therapy sessions more effectively so
that the past year's effort was not wasted. The court
agency reports R.R. continued therapy for a while and
no longer shows a tendency toward child abuse.National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 21
Management Of Violence Between
K.D. had been a patient in our alcoholism program
before serving 2 ½ years in jail. He was a bizarre, visibly
troubled 40 y/o man who was quite socially isolated.
K.D. stabbed one of our other patients, F.P., away from
the clinic site in 1984. K.D.'s parole officer was not able
to return him to prison and was not able to transfer him
to another treatment program. K.D. had such a troublemaking
reputation that he was rejected by wardens and
clinicians alike. K.D. and F.P. often received acupuncture
in the same room simultaneously. Both relaxed easily
with the treatment. There was never a hint of any
disturbance. K.D. has experienced substantial periods of
sobriety in 1985. His mind has become so much stronger
and clearer that he has been able to be interviewed by
clinicians visiting our facility.
Usually the possibility of violence between patients would
paralyze the treatment process. Acupuncture has helped
us treat clients within their existing environment of
social turmoil. It is much too expensive and impractical
to institutionalize every troubled violent person in a
city such as New York. As a society we must develop
community-based methods of coping with widespread
substance abuse and violence.
Staff Attitudes And Strengths
Clinical staff who work with acupuncture detoxification
patients understand the special opportunities and
requirements that we have described in this paper. They are
able to foster autonomy and work in a calm atmosphere.
Flexibility and tolerance of failure are important so that the
staff person can work with recently relapsing clients. Skills
involving touching and other non-verbal support are also
valuable in this setting. Staff members who use relatively
authoritarian, judgmental or guilt-producing techniques
do not adjust well to the necessarily gentle and permissive
atmosphere of an acupuncture detoxification setting. In the
large group setting we do not emphasize authority symbols
such as desks and signs. The patients are able to watch the
acupuncturists and counselors work so that they can feel like
they are participating in the treatment procedure.
Many substance abuse clients are obsessed with guilt and
self-deprecation. They must try to learn not to link every
withdrawal symptom and craving with psychological
issues. Even though substance abuse is an overall psychosocial
matter, it is not helpful to psychologize every step
of the detoxification process. When a detoxing client
starts to cry, teach them not to ask or worry about the
"cause" of the tears. Clients should expect to face the
psycho-social problems gradually as they gain strength
and after the basic cleansing and balancing process.
Our patients are usually unable to tolerate intense one-toone
relationships. We disarm them by coping with their
turmoil in a non-attached, gentle manner. This form of
interaction protects the patient from their own feelings
of inadequacy and allows the gradual development of a
relaxed, flexible basis for their personality. The relaxation
effect of acupuncture is not comparable to the sedative
effects of drugs. Acupuncture helps the body develop a
healthy neutral state similar to that of meditation or yoga.
This condition leads to healing and growth, not merely the
control of symptoms. In Chinese medicine the lack of calm
inner tone in a person is described as a condition of empty
fire (xu huo), because the heat of aggressiveness burns out of
control when the calm inner tone is lost.
It is easy to be confused by the false fire (Xu huo) that
many addicts present and to conclude that the main goal
should be sedation of excess fire. In fact the addict himself
takes this approach in the extreme by use of sedative
narcotics. The hostile, paranoid, hustling climate of our
inner city communities exemplifies an energy-depleted
condition with false fire burning out of control. Our
patients seek greater power and control over their lives.
The empty fire condition represents the illusion of power.
An illusion that leads to more desperate chemical abuse
and senseless violence. Acupuncture provides an effective
treatment for these empty fire conditions. The patient is
empowered, but in a soft and easy manner.
Let me conclude by describing the cheerful and cooperative
atmosphere that acupuncture detoxification engenders.
We are a crowded walk-in clinic in the South Bronx, one
of the poorest sections of the city. Our former methadone
component was always filled with argumentative and
hyperactive behavior. The acupuncture component has
always had a calm and cooperate atmosphere even though
it was staffed by precisely the same people in the same
confines. In addition to detoxification clients, we have
numerous general medicine acupuncture clients who
receive treatment in the same settings. Visitors to our
clinic see middle-aged housewives, young professional
people and working class people--all sitting side by side
together with many substance abusers in a harmonious
atmosphere. Social bonds become re-established because
the treatment modality does not further isolate
The crack/cocaine epidemic raging in this country
has evoked one hopeful response from an otherwise
overwhelmed treatment community: a renewed interest
in acupuncture treatment, for detoxification, preparation
for counseling, and relapse prevention.
Usually administered in an outpatient setting, with
needles inserted on the outside of the ear — therefore
the term "auricular" — auricular (ear) acupuncture is an
accessible treatment which allows individuals to withdraw
from drugs and/or alcohol and to pursue recovery
without having to leave their families, equipping them
to maintain abstinence in the face of everyday pressures.
Acupuncture is a valuable entry point for chemical
dependency treatment and provides a bridge from active
substance abuse to readiness for counseling and other
support services via its calming and focusing effects.
Acupuncture Treatment for
Developed by the Chinese more than 2500 years ago,
acupuncture is a technique to relieve pain and stress by
inserting needles into specific points on the body believed
to correspond to structures and functions within the body.
Auricular acupuncture was first applied as a treatment for
opiate addiction in 1972 by H.L. Wen, M.D. in Hong
Kong (Smith & Kahn, 1988; Wen & Chueng, 1973).
Acupuncture procedures based on Wen's initial protocol
which used electroacupuncture on two ear points
have become varied and diverse. Different numbers
of acupuncture points and types of stimulation have
been used. These include needling with and without
electrical stimulation, surgical staples or tacks, and
transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)
using surface electrodes without needles (Katims, Ng &
Lowinson, 1992). Although ear points have been used
predominantly, body points have been used as well.
Acupuncture detoxification was first used on a large
scale beginning in 1974 at Lincoln Clinic, Bronx, New
York. The community sought an alternative to straight
methadone detoxification. Acupuncture promised an
alternative to the "demoralizing and stupefying effects of
trying to solve a problem of drug abuse by administrating
more abusive drugs" (Smith, 1979, p. 98). When
acupuncture was first introduced into the program,
the protocol established by Wen was followed using
electroacupuncture. Budgetary restraints preventing
replacement of broken equipment and an extended
power shortage led to the discovery that manual needling
on auricular acupuncture points was more effective
than electroacupuncture. It was more successful, easier
to administer, and less expensive. Lincoln Clinic has
continued to use manual acupuncture and has developed
a standardized three to five point protocol that is the most
commonly used treatment protocol (American Hospital
Association [AHA], 1991).
Auricular points (kidney, liver, lung, sympathetic and
shenmen) located on the outer ear are manually stimulated
with half inch stainless steel sterile/disposable needles
which remain in place 45 to 60 minutes. In the case of
pregnant women, only three points are used: liver, lung and
sympathetic. Treatment is administered to clients seated
in a quiet group setting. Withdrawal symptoms gradually
improve within 15 minutes. Patients initially receive daily
treatment for two weeks, then decrease the frequency.
After a treatment session, patients seem more alert, relaxed,
and report the ability to think clearly. They also tend to be
more verbal. These effects last from many hours to several
days, depending on the severity of addiction. Once beyond
the immediate symptoms of withdrawal, they receive
regular counseling and are encouraged to attend 12-step
meetings. Daily urine samples are collected. The cost per
patient averages $21 per treatment including counseling
and urinalysis (AHA, 1991).
A non-profit organization has been established to
teach and annually recertify practitioners who utilize
the auricular acupuncture detoxification protocol
developed at Lincoln Clinic. The National Acupuncture
Detoxification Association [NADA] is known by the
acronym NADA, which means "nothing" in Spanish
and symbolizes the commitment to a drug free response
to addiction. NADA consults with communities and
other groups interested in starting similar treatment
programs, provides training and certification in the
treatment protocol developed at Lincoln, and provides
cross training for chemical dependency specialists and
acupuncturists to enhance treatment collaboration.
Since the founding of NADA anecdotal reports on the
application of NADA protocol acupuncture have been
consistently encouraging (Smith & Kahn, 1988). More
than 100 publicly funded clinics in 14 states and another 24 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
25 in Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia
have been established explicitly on the model of the
South Bronx clinic (AHA, 1991). The treatment settings
are diverse and include psychiatric outpatient clinics,
chemical dependency inpatient and outpatient programs,
homeless shelters and criminal justice settings (Pittman,
1992; Smith, 1987; Smith, 1990; Smith, Alvarez &
Small, 1987; Smith & Kahn, 1988).
Acupuncture Treatment for Pregnant
Since 1974 more than 1000 pregnant women have
received manual auricular acupuncture, without
incidence of uterine seizures or spontaneous abortion
(M. O. Smith, personal communication, November
23, 1990). Ignorance about acupuncture leads many to
assume that any acupuncture treatment administered
during pregnancy places the fetus at risk (Becke, 1988).
In fact, acupuncture has been used for thousands of years
to treat morning sickness, premature labor, malposition
of fetus, toxemia, and labor pain (Academy of Traditional
Chinese Medicine, 1975; Shanghai College of Traditional
Medicine, 1981). Electroacupuncture is contraindicated
during pregnancy, however manual stimulation of
acupuncture points has long been used beneficially for
conditions related to pregnancy.
Lincoln Clinic has treated more than 750 pregnant
women since 1988 in its special program for pregnant
substance abusers (N. Smalls, personal communication,
February 23, 1991). The program combines the services of
an obstetrician-gynecologist, psychiatrist, acupuncturist,
and nurse-midwife as well as counseling support staff
(Smith, 1988, c; Smith, 1990c). Similar programs have
been established in many locations in the United States
By providing supportive acupuncture during the process
of gradual reduction of the use of addictive substances, this
treatment mitigates elements of drug and alcohol withdrawal
during pregnancy which may be damaging to the mother
and/or infant such as seizures (Fitzgerald, 1988).
Acupressure for Newborns and Infants
Babies exposed to drugs during gestation have been
treated with acupressure with dramatic success (Keenan,
1990). The infants were treated for withdrawal symptoms
with acupressure to the outer ear. Herbal seeds (semen
vicarae) were taped to one to three ear points specific
to addiction and selected according to the degree of the
infants' development. The mothers and/or other care
givers were instructed to press the seeds several times a
day. In this way the mother could contribute directly
to the recovery of her baby. This procedure afforded an
opportunity to address maternal guilt about having used
substances during pregnancy. By relieving withdrawal
symptoms and reducing the "dulling" seen in substance
affected newborns, acupressure stimulation enhanced
"focusing" and maternal-infant bonding. Acupressure
may be an important tool to assist the newborn through
the neonatal abstinence syndrome and should be
evaluated as soon as possible. Now widely described as
"seed therapy" this method of treating infants is being
used in many locations in this and other countries (P.
Keenan, personal communication, August, 1992).
Methadone, a synthetic opiate which decreases the
craving for heroin, is commonly recommended for all
heroin addicts including pregnant addicts in spite of its
known toxic effects (Finnegan, Connaughton, Emich &
Wieland, 1972). A dose level of 20 milligrams (mg) or less
per day is currently recommended to avoid teratogenic
effects (Kosten, 1989). In practice, pregnant women are
regularly maintained on doses of 40 mg or higher.
The addict who is detoxified from heroin, even if
maintained on methadone, is very likely to increase his
or her use of alcohol and/or cocaine (Anglin, 1989) or to
continue to use heroin and/or larger doses of methadone.
Studies have shown that half of all addicts on methadone
maintenance test positive for other substances of abuse
and more than 50% of methadone maintenance clients
typically drop out of treatment (Clark, 1990). One
obvious problem with methadone treatment is that
only one substance, heroin, is being addressed. This is
problematic, since most addicts are polyabusers (Lipton
& Miranda, 1983; Zuckennan & Alpert, 1988).
Acupuncture has been found to be as clinically effective
and more cost efficient than methadone treatment (Clark,
1990). Acupuncture relieves withdrawal symptoms for
all substances of abuse simultaneously. "Acupuncture
relieves withdrawal symptoms and craving, promotes
general relaxation, systemic rebalancing, and enhances
mental and physical functioning" (Smith & Kahn, 1988).National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 25
Current Therapies for Addiction
Numerous therapies for addictive problems exist, each
claiming success (Frances, 1989). The cost effectiveness
and accuracy of these claims is questionable and generates
much debate in the field of chemical dependency (Shaffer,
1986). Rival positions from inpatient as opposed to
outpatient settings (Hayshiada et al, 1989) and from 12-
Step and social-model to aversion therapy claim success.
However, they are difficult if not possible to compare
because there is no uniformity in standards for outcome
measures (Frawley, 1990). For a comprehensive overview
of current therapies see Donovan and Marlatt (1988) and
Lowinson, Ruiz, Millman and Langrog (1992).
According to Trachtenberg and Blum (1989), therapeutic
approaches can be categorized as follows: (1) traditional
verbal psychotherapy and/or 12-Step group processes,
education and activity; (2) medication or neurochemical
support with little education or therapy; (3) Verbal
therapy with medication; and (4) aversion therapy, with
or without medication.
In the first category, most are inpatient programs which
had typically scheduled for thirty days, the amount of
time previously supported by insurance. Recently, the
average length of stay funded by insurance has been
reduced to five to ten days. These programs typically
require that the client complete detoxification before
admission. Such detoxification is usually medication
based, using a three-day inpatient protocol which entails
sedation. Whether 28-day inpatient programming is
more successful than other methods is doubtful since it
is estimated that 40-50% of alcoholics are believed to
relapse within a one year and 50-80% of cocaine abusers
relapse in the first year (Gawin & Ellinwood, 1988). The
effects of psychotherapy have been favorably reported in
spite of conflicting outcomes in studies of opiate addicts.
See Kaufman and McNaul (1992) for a thorough review
of recent findings.
Medication and/or neurochemical support modalities
with minimal education and counseling comprise the
second category. The chemical agents utilized include
antidepressants, neuroleptics, anti-Parkinson agents, and
amino acids. Trachtenberg and Blum (1988) reviewed the use
of antidepressant medication and concluded that generally
antidepressant medications have not been significantly
successful in preventing relapse to cocaine addiction.
Although researchers are clearly looking for “cocaine's
methadone" (Scientists say .... , 1993) the search for cocaine
antagonists has not been successful (Gawin & Kleber,
1986; Kosten, Kleber & Morgan, 1989). Medications are
prescribed for cocaine withdrawal to ward off a cocaine
"crash." Problems stemming from these medications are the
generation of side effects and the risk of drug dependence.
Studies in this area have shown inconclusive outcomes
(Cosser, Brower & Bresford, 1990; Dackis & Gold, 1985;
Dakis, Gold, Sweeney, Byron & Climko, 1987).
Whether medication is really necessary during withdrawal
from a variety of substances is itself controversial. For
example, in a report on cocaine treatment in 12-month
follow up study (Summer, 1990) cocaine withdrawal
without medication was found successful.
Alternate therapies including acupuncture are
incorporated in the category of neurochemical support.
This would also include modalities such as biofeedback,
Vitamin C therapy and amino acid supplementation.
A summary of alternate modalities can be found in
Lowinson, Ruiz, Millman and Langrod (1992), Kleber
(1977), Kleber and Riordan (1982).
In the third category, verbal therapy plus medication and/
or nutritional and neurochemical support modalities,
psychotherapy alone was found to have disappointing
results: only 17% of the group studied were able to
abstain and improvement was limited to only half of the
group (Gawin and Kleber, 1986).
Aversion therapy with and without medication and/
or nutritional and neurochemical support is the final
category. Usually administered in a two week inpatient
setting, there has been controversy regarding the claims
for its success (Barbor, Stephens & Marlatt, 1987).
Theories of Addiction
While the issues regarding conditions which increase
risk for substance abuse such as poverty, unemployment,
severe deprivation in childhood, and physical and sexual
abuse all need to be addressed (Hellert, 1988), it is not
within the scope of this overview to do so. However,
many theoretical models have been created to explain
the phenomena of addiction and heavy drinking. These
theories include anthropological, availability, conditioning
aversion, economic, genetic, neurobehavioral,
neurobiological, personality, psychoanalytic, social
learning and social systems (Chaudron & Wilkinson,
1988; Fingerette, 1988). An excellent summary of these
and other theoretical models can be found in Chaudron
and Wilkinson (1988).26 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
Although this literature review is focused primarily on
detoxification and prevention of relapse on a physiologic
basis during pregnancy, thus falling into the category of
neurobiological theory, the theoretical model that more
accurately applies to the, phenomenon of acupuncture
detoxification is the biopsychosocial model (Wallace,
1989). As the name implies, the biopsychosocial theory
suggests that this illness involves biological, psychological
and sociocultural factors. For a comprehensive discussion
of the implications of this model, see Donovan (1988).
The value of acupuncture as a preparation for psychological
and social change has been suggested by clinicians (Clark,
1990; Kao & Lu, 1974; Newmeyer, Johnson & Klot,
1984; Smith, 1988a; Smith, 1988c; Smith, 1989b; Smith,
1990a). It is essential that social and psychological aspects
in addition to neurobiochemical issues be addressed both
theoretically and clinically to obtain maximum results
in chemical dependency treatment. Acupuncture is best
understood as an entry point into a larger system of
recovery that requires psychological and social change to
prevent relapse. Further research regarding these aspects
related to acupuncture detoxification is needed.
Support for studies on the genetic and biological basis
of alcoholism has increased from $41 million in 1989 to
$53 million for 1991 (Goleman, 1990). Researchers have
identified a gene linked to the receptors for dopamine, a
brain chemical involved in the sensation of pleasure. In
the chronic alcoholics autopsied in the study, 77% were
identified as having this genetic marker compared to
none of the controls (Blum, 1990a; Blum et al, 1990b).
Research on alcoholism also suggests that imbalance
in the brain's receptors for the neurotransmitter
gamma-aminobutyric acid [GABA] result in increased
anxiety; the less GABA present, the greater the anxiety.
It has also been shown that sons of alcoholic fathers
had lower levels of GABA and higher tension levels
than men whose fathers were not alcoholic. When
given a glass of vodka, the GABA levels of the first
group rose to levels equivalent to those of controls
and their tension levels declined. It was hypothesized
that GABA irregularity is a trait marker link to the
genetic vulnerability for alcoholism (Blum, 1990b).
Genetic research relevant to drug abuse is just
beginning to be studied in five critical areas: animal
selective breeding studies, adoption studies, twin
studies, family studies and high risk situations. See
Kaufman & McNaul, (1992) for a thorough review.
A neurobiochemical theory illustrating cocaine dependency
suggests that the stimulating effects of cocaine are the result
of its potentiation of the catecholamine neurotransmitters
norepenephrine [NE] and d-phenelalynine [DA]
(Trachtenberg & Blum, 1988). To understand how this
addiction model works, it is first necessary to understand how
brain neurotransmitters normally operate.
Cells using NE and DA as neurotransmitters occur
in discrete locations in the brain stem and project to
higher brain areas including the basal ganglia (effecting
motor dysfunction), limbic system (effecting arousal
and basic appetite drives and aggression), and
hypothalamus (effecting hormone function). These
diffuse projections of nerve cell axons contribute to
the general state of arousal. These neuronal systems
exert their effects by releasing DA or NE into the
synapse, the very narrow space between the neurons.
Once released into the synapse, the neurotransmitter
interacts with specific DA or NE receptors on the next
neuron to exert central physiological effects. Under
normal conditions, DA or NE is rapidly removed
from the synapse by an uptake mechanism, resulting
in the neurotransmitter having a brief pulsatile effect
on the target receptors (p. 5).
Cocaine has powerful effects on the DA and NE synapses
and inhibits the reuptake of DA and NE (Gawin, 1988).
By blocking the normal mechanism, the impact of these
neurotransmitters is increased many times over. Instead
of the brief pulse of transmission there is continued
stimulation which is associated with cocaine intoxication.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter providing many
functions including arousal, mood, and endocrine
regulation. Repeated use of cocaine effects the serotonin
system by reducing the concentration of serotonin
and its metabolytes (Gold, Washton & Dackis, 1985).
Recidivism may reflect adaptive, long lasting central
nervous system [CNS] change which physiologic
withdrawal fails to reverse (Katims, et aI, 1992).
With this in mind, the impact of acupuncture on the
process of addiction may be better understood.National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 27
Theory of Acupuncture Detoxification
Western Medicine Model
Kroening and Oleson (1985) offered this succinct
description of the neurochemical theory of acupuncture
The mechanism by which the acupuncture effects
withdrawal from narcotic addiction is not yet fully
understood but similar theories have been proposed
by several observers ... .In drug addiction exogenous
opiates bond with receptor sites normally occupied
by endogenous endorphins. The occupation of these
opiate receptor sites by narcotic drugs leads to the
inhibition of natural endorphins while the body's
own internal mechanisms oppose the external drug
therapy, resulting in intolerance and addiction.
Abrupt withdrawal from the exogenous drug leaves
the body's defense mechanism still geared to offset
the narcotic action. Acupuncture may facilitate
withdrawal by activating the release of previously
suppressed natural endorphins which can then
occupy the receptor sites formally dominated by the
narcotic drug (p. 5).
Western medicine has been reluctant to accept
acupuncture (Diamond, 1971; Kroeger, 1973; Lau,
1976; Moyers, 1993), although basic science research has
documented the phenomenon. Recordings have been
made of the electrical flow along the meridians (Becker
& Selden, 1985) energy flow along the meridians
(Dumitrescu & Kenyon, 1983), and radioisotope flow
along meridians (Darras & De Vemejoul, 1986). The
physics of Chi energy continues to be researched in the
West (Fetzer, 1989; Navach, 1989).
An increasing number of physicians outside of China are
using acupuncture to treat chronic pain. Approximately
50,000 physicians in Germany, 30,000 in France, and
60,000 in Japan use acupuncture along with drugs,
nerve blocks, and other approaches to treat patients with
chronic pain. The numbers are much lower in Great
Britain and North America, but have increased since the
discovery of the acupuncture-endorphine relationship
which provided evidence for the neurochemical theory
of acupuncture (Pomeranz, 1987).
As early as 1973, Lei had proposed the neurological
basis of pain and its possible relationship to acupuncture
analgesia. Omura (1976, 1978) demonstrated the
pathophysiologic mechanisms of acupuncture while
Jacobs, Anderson, Bailey, Ottaviano and McCarthy
(1977) described the analgesic phenomenon in the
limbic and thalmic responses in the brain. Wen and
his associates conducted a series of studies which also
demonstrated the connection between acupuncture and
neurotransmitters (Wen, 1977 ; Wen, 1980; Wen et aI,
1978; Wen et al, 1979; Wen, Ho, Ling & Choa, 1979).
A rise in levels of endorphins in human narcotic addicts
was shown as early as 1979 (Clement-Jones et al).
The work of Pomeranz and Chieu (1976) provided early
evidence of the endorphin mechanisms in acupuncture.
Mice, given electrical stimulation at "real" acupuncture
points, exhibited higher pain thresholds than mice
given "sham" electroacupuncture-stimulation of nonspecific
points. When "real" acupuncture was followed
by naloxone--an opiate antagonist-- the analgesic effects
were absent, while powerful analgesic effects were
found when electroacupuncture was followed by saline
(Kroening & Oleson, 1985).
There is a growing body of scientific evidence to explain
the behavioral and physiologic effects of acupuncture
(All China Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion,
1984). Since acupuncture reduces opiate withdrawal
symptoms in rodents (Ng, Donthill, Thoa & Albert,
1975; Ng, Thoa, Donthill & Albert, 1975) these effects
cannot be attributed to suggestibility or placebo effects in
human subjects. The action of acupuncture was described
in a study entitled "Endorphine release: a possible
mechanism of acupuncture analgesia" (Peng, Yang, Kok
& Woo, 1978). This was subsequently documented when
researchers injected brain and blood serum extracted
from rabbits which had received acupuncture into rabbits
which had not been acupunctured (Wu & Hsu, 1979).
This produced a marked analgesic effect on the recipient
rabbits as shown by a significant increase in their pain
threshold. The effect was counteracted by naloxone. It
was then hypothesized that the release of endorphins is
increased by acupuncture stimulation, thereby inhibiting
pain. This is similar to the reciprocal relationship between
heroin and naloxone.
Electrical stimulation at acupuncture body points has
been shown to release endorphins and enkephalins in
animals (Pomeranz, 1981). Studies have indicated that
serum ACTH and cortisol levels were significantly
reduced in human addicts after acupuncture treatment
(Wen et al, 1978). Similarities between the mechanisms
of acupuncture and morphine analgesia have also been
shown (Han, Li & Tang, 1981).
In 1979, endorphin levels were directly measured
during acupuncture, demonstrating the elevation
of endorphins in cerebral spinal fluid (Han, Tang, 28 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
Huang, Liang & Zhang, 1979). Cheng and Pomeranz
(1979) demonstrated that amino acid and acupuncture
produced greater analgesia than either treatment alone
and naloxone reversed those effects.
Similar findings have been demonstrated regarding the
release of endorphins in humans following auricular
acupuncture (Pert et al, 1981). This evidence supports
earlier findings that the blockade of the analgesic effect of
acupuncture by naloxone establishes the relationship of
acupuncture to the endorphine system (Liao, Seto, Saito,
Fugita & Kawakami, 1979; Mayer, Price & Raffi, 1977;
Peets & Pomeranz, 1978).
Oriental Medicine Model
Acupuncture is part of an Eastern tradition which embraces
a systemic/holistic perspective (Macek, 1984; Mann,
1973). Drug dependence is seen as a symptom of a system
or society which is out of balance. For a comprehensive
overview of the philosophical and historical context of
Oriental Medicine, see The Web That Has No Weaver
The mechanisms of acupuncture detoxification from
the perspective of Oriental Medicine can be described
metaphorically. The lack of inner calm tone due to intense and
frequent use of chemical substances is described as a condition
of "empty fire" (Smith, 1985) wherein heat of aggressiveness
overcompensates and the calm inner tone is lost.
It is easy to be confused by empty fire and to conclude
that the main treatment goal should be sedation of
excess fire. Addicts themselves take this approach to
the extreme by using sedative drugs. The empty fire
condition represents the illusion of power, an illusion
that leads to more desperate chemical use and senseless
violence. Acupuncture helps patients with this condition
by stimulating "yin" points to restore inner calm tone
(Smith & Ra,1985). "Patients often consider these
prolonged symptoms as permanent results of their past
activities. They are amazed that fresh, clear, youthful life
is still possible" (Smith, 1985, p. 3).
According to Traditional Oriental Medicine, the same
acupuncture points seem to be effective for various
substances of abuse suggesting that the critical energy
disturbance is similar regardless of the substance of abuse
The procedure of stimulating points on the external ear
links the ear which is shaped like a fetus or a kidney to
kidney function. Frequent repetition of kidney-related
ear (auricular) treatments works even with severely
debilitated alcoholics and addicts. When the kidney
energy has been damaged, the recovery period is slow
and undulating in intensity. Even patients with severe
paranoia respond well to this protocol. Paranoia involves
fear — a kidney related and yin depleted emotion — and
a hollow, aggressive ego structure that is an expression
of empty fire. The more desperate antagonistic patients
who have suffered more yin depletion seem to benefit
most from these treatments. "In addition, many socially
functioning empty fire patients who may or may not be
abusers benefit greatly from these treatments" (p. 2).
Patients with moderate chemical dependency or who have
completed most of their recovery from severe addiction do
not respond as well to the kidney-ear protocol alone and
often need additional body point acupuncture according
to the conventional principles of Chinese medicine. The
distinction of treatment protocols between moderate
and severe abusers is critical. Smith observed (1985) that
severe abusers are most in need of better health care and
are most resistant to virtually all forms of intervention.
By strengthening the kidney, these deficient patients are
rehabilitated to return to the commonly expected level
of yin function. Severely addicted clients need auricularkidney
treatment before they are able to respond to
other forms of acupuncture or psychological and social
Acupuncture Detoxification Studies
Anecdotal Reports and Clinical Trials
The usefulness of auricular acupuncture to reduce
withdrawal symptoms during opiate detoxification
was accidently discovered in 1972 by H.L. Wen (Wen
& Cheung, 1973). While administering auricular
acupuncture for pain control to a surgical patient who
was an opiate addict, the patient reported relief from
opioid withdrawal symptoms (Katims et al, 1992).
Wen then studied forty opium addicts who were treated
with electrostimulation of the lung points on both
ears. Sessions ran 15-30 minutes, two or three times
a day for the first two or three days and once daily for
the next four to five days. Patients were freed of most
of the characteristic symptoms of withdrawal such as
irritability, runny nose, nervousness, aching bones, and
cramps. They were discharged after eight days. Standard
medical practice at that time was to gradually withdraw
addicts over a three to five month period to prevent
occurrence of withdrawal symptoms (Kleber, 1977).
Abrupt cessation of opiates — kicking the habit cold National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 29
turkey — takes several days and is usually accompanied by
severe flu-like symptoms (Whitehead, 1978). Therefore,
the 8-day length of treatment time was not by itself
remarkable. However, of the 22 patients for whom urine
samples were available, only two were positive for heroin
at follow up. These urine sample results were remarkable
as was the observation that craving for opium ceased after
The discovery that acupuncture with its 3000 year
history now had a new application coincided with the
several events that marked the opening of the United
States to acupuncture. President Richard Nixon travelled
to China in 1972. The work of the French physician, Paul
Nogier who developed the technique known as auricular
medicine utilizing acupuncture points on the ear became
available in English. Nogier's discovery of auricular
medicine had reached China and was substantiated and
embraced there (Kenyon, 1983; Nogier, 1983). The "war
on drugs" under Nixon was initiated, focusing on "the
heroin plague" (Ford-Geiger, 1986).
The reaction to the news of acupuncture as a treatment
for heroin addiction was mixed: enthusiasm from those
who projected a cure for heroin addiction (Patterson,
1974, 1976), curiosity (Lau, 1976) and wide spread
skepticism (Whitehead, 1978).
Following the initial studies by Wen, there were many
anecdotal reports of auricular electroacupuncture for
detoxification from settings world-wide: Australia (Sainsbury,
1974), Canada (MacQuarrie, 1974), Great Britain (Patterson,
1974, 1976), Italy (Cocchi, Lorini, Fusari & Carrossino,
1979; Lorini, Fazio, Cocchi, Fusari & Roccia, 1979),
Malaysia (Heggenhoughen, 1984), Mauritius (Shaowanasai,
1975), Pakistan (Shaiub, 1976), Southeast Asia (Spencer,
Heggenhougen & Navaratam, 1980), Thailand (Shaowanasai
& Visuthima, 1975), and the United States (Kao & Lu, 1974;
Severson, Markhoff & Chun-Hoon, 1977; Smith et al, 1979-
90; Tennant, 1977).
In an attempt to duplicate the work of Wen and Cheung
(1973), a clinical trial of 23 cases was conducted (Kao and
Lu, 1974). All patients had previously been on methadone
for at least one year and were considered well motivated
to terminate methadone maintenance. Detoxification
treatment included direct needling of auricular points
for cramps, headache, backache, and anxiety. Bilateral
electrostimulation was also applied to the lung and heart
points. After the first few days of treatment, patients
were taught to use the electrical stimulator themselves
and could thus regulate the intensity and frequency of
their own treatments. As was true in most early studies,
treatment was administered in an inpatient hospital
setting. Daily urine testing was done to insure that no
drugs were being used surreptitiously. The procedure was
found to be "extremely successful" (p. 207). However, no
summary data was presented. This research was the first
to elaborate the concern for the psychological and social
aspects required for continued abstinence. The model
proposed a multi-faceted program aimed at helping the
drug addict achieve a "'lasting cure, including a fully
staffed acupuncture clinic to be open 24-hours a day, a
full service rehabilitation center and a 24-hour hotline"
Other early trials of electroacupuncture included diverse
and contradictory findings. MacQuarrie (1974) reported
the work of L. K. Ding of the Discharge Prisoners
Aid Society of Hong Kong. After several clinical trials
Ding concluded that electroacupuncture by itself was
often not sufficient to relieve withdrawal symptoms.
He used it on a "voluntary basis" for some patients
as well as making it part of his standard treatment in
conjunction with methadone withdrawal. Sainsbury
(1974) reported a detailed case study of an 18 year old
Australian woman withdrawn successfully from heroin
Patterson (1974, 1976), a British surgeon who worked
with Wen in Hong Kong and returned to London,
observed that electrical stimulation was of greater
significance in the treatment than the needling of
acupuncture points. She continues to work on the
intensity and frequency of the electrical current in
electrostimulation treatment (Patterson, 1991).
The use of electrostimulation has been studied more
extensively than manual acupuncture, although the
latter is more widely used clinically. Researchers using
TENS apparatus for symptoms of withdrawal (Gomez &
Mikhail, 1974; Patterson, 1991; Smith & O'Neil, 1975)
suggest that it is the electrical frequency used during
stimulation rather than the specific acupuncture points
stimulated that has greater medicinal effect (Katims et
In Honolulu, Severson et al (1977) followed eight outpatient
heroin addicts who were administered electrostimulation
for four to seven days. Five of these clients were successfully
detoxified on a short term basis but only one remained drug
free at four-month follow-up.
In a landmark clinical trial, Wen (1977) treated
51 heroin addicts with the combined approach of
Auricular-Electrostimulation (AES) plus naloxone. He
used the naloxone to flush opiates from receptor sites 30 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
in the brain, speeding the detoxification process to a
few days rather than the three weeks to six months
recommended in standard methadone detoxification
(Anglin & McGlothlin, 1985). The AES successfully
suppressed withdrawal symptoms. Forty-one of the 51
heroin addicts in the study were successfully detoxified.
This surpassed AES alone and was more successful
than detoxification with methadone. Small amounts of
naloxone could suppress acupuncture analgesia. This
suggested a similarity in the neurochemical sites of action
of acupuncture and heroin, since the pain relief aspect of
both could be blocked by naloxone. Wen hypothesized
that the pain reducing capacity of acupuncture may be
due to the brain releasing endorphins.
Lewenberg (1985) reported a clinical trial on 106
addicts using a combination of treatments. He used
electrical stimulation, TENS and medication with small
doses of antidepressant and Clonidine – a chemical
compound used for treatment of high blood pressure
and other medical problems, which was given only to
severely addicted patients suffering from chills. Fifty-six
attended more than four treatments; 35 of these were
heroin users and 21 were methadone users; 33 of these
stopped or “substantially reduced" their opiate use by the
end of the third week of treatment. Long term recovery
recommendations included psycho-social support and
lifestyle changes. Although this study had no follow-up
and no control group, it has been cited as a rationale
against using acupuncture alone by those more supportive
of using medications to accomplish detoxification.
In his article "Acupuncture and Addiction: An Overview"
Lau (1976) described several addiction treatment programs
in Canada which offered auricular electroacupuncture
detoxification. Although he mentioned seven locations
including several clinics in Toronto and single clinics in
North York, Ontario, and Winnipeg, these were anecdotal
reports of very few cases. Lau also described a film called
"Acupuncture — A Technique for Treating Alcoholism"
prepared by D. Kubitz, a psychiatrist, marketed by Faces
West Productions, San Francisco.
Staplepuncture, a variation of auricular acupuncture
which did not use electrostimulation, was described by
Sachs (1975) and Tennant (1977) of Los Angeles. This
technique involved the placing of surgical staples on the
ears up to six months. Sachs treated 170 cases using the
lung points. Eighteen patients were totally detoxified with
no withdrawal symptoms, 97 patients were detoxified
successfully with minimal remaining symptoms, and 67
patients were unaffected.
A clinical trial that changed the attitude of many Western
scientists was conducted at the University of California,
Los Angeles [UCLA] Medical School, Department of
Anesthesiology Pain Clinic (Kroening & Oleson, 1985).
Chronic pain inpatients who had become addicted to
opioids were rapidly detoxified using both auricular
electroacupuncture and naloxone, the treatment reported
by Wen in 1977. Of the 14 subjects in the study, 12
of them (85%) were completely withdrawn from high
doses of methadone within 2-7 days. These patients
exhibited minimal or no withdrawal symptoms during
the detoxification procedure and remained off narcotic
medication for follow-up periods of over one year.
Although there was no control group, this study showed
a higher success rate than previous studies of methadone
detoxification (Jaffe, 1985; Kleber, 1977). The authors
themselves observed that the subjects studied were
inpatient pain patients rather than street addicts which
may have accounted for the very positive results.
When Lincoln Clinic was still using electroacupuncture,
it reported a study on the largest number of subjects
followed up at that time (Shakur & Smith, 1979). More
than 3,000 outpatient heroin addicts had been treated
by electrostimulation. In follow-up interviews with the
first 200 clients, 80% reported that acupuncture relieved
some withdrawal symptoms. Long term follow-up was
Smith, Squires, Aponte, Rabinowitz and BonillaRodriguez,
(1982) and Smith and Kahn (1988) reported
that auricular acupuncture without electrostimulation
was successful in the treatment of all substances of abuse
including heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine and alcohol. Most
reports of treatment at Lincoln Clinic have been primarily
anecdotal, such as the following survey results reported in
1982 (Smith, et aI, 1982): (a) 90% relief of symptoms in
acute withdrawal clients following acupuncture according
to symptom surveys; (b) 90% of all detoxification intake
clients returned for further acupuncture treatment with
no ancillary incentives such as other medications, welfare
credit or probation merits; (c) an estimated 60% of all
acupuncture clients receiving the full series of treatments
remained drug and alcohol free for at least several months.
Smith cited budgetary limitations and an ever increasing
patient load as the reasons no formal statistical studies had
been undertaken up to that time. Similarly, Traditional
Chinese Medicine [TCM] resists the investment in Western
style research at the expense of treatment availability
(Ford-Geiger, 1986). In 1990 a placebo control study was
completed at Lincoln demonstrating the efficacy of this National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 31
treatment modality for crack/cocaine addiction (Lipton,
Brewington, & Smith, 1990).
The results of manual auricular acupuncture treatment at
the Hooper Center in Portland Oregon, a county funded
treatment center based on Lincoln Clinic which offers
a full spectrum of inpatient and outpatient modalities
were reported (Lane, 1988). Acupuncture was used as an
adjunct in all phases of treatment. Inpatients receiving
acupuncture had a higher detoxification program
completion rate than those receiving traditional treatment.
Clients interviewed were very positive about remaining
substance free and about the role of acupuncture in their
efforts. They generally reported great relief of withdrawal
symptoms. Acupuncture was also found to be remarkably
inexpensive at approximately $2.00 per treatment when
added to the existing chemical dependency programs.
Acupuncture has been mentioned frequently in overviews
of treatment interventions for addiction. As early as 1974
a letter had appeared in The Lancet describing auricular
electroacupuncture as a possible treatment intervention
for drug addiction (Tseung, 1974). Whitehead (1978)
called for controlled studies and single blind studies
which would allow easier evaluation of acupuncture
treatment in terms of Western medicine. He criticized
the acupuncture clinical trials described up to 1976
for their lack of clarity and follow-up. Lau (1976) in
an overview, "Acupuncture and Addiction,” described
possible mechanisms of acupuncture and encouraged
continued research. Lipton and Maranda (1983)
suggested acupuncture detoxification as an entry
point to methadone maintenance. Other overviews of
treatment which included acupuncture suggested further
investigation (Colvin, 1983; Katmins et al, 1992; Kleber
& Riordan 1982; Resnick, 1983).
Auricular acupuncture detoxification has been recognized
for its value in AIDS prevention (Konefal, 1989) and
appears in a summary of available treatments (Citizens
Commission on AIDS, 1989). The Family Therapy
Networker featured acupuncture in an issue devoted to
the crack epidemic (Morley, 1990).
Many feature stories on acupuncture treatment for
chemical dependency have appeared in the lay press
and on television. Most of the coverage has focused on
Lincoln Clinic. Under the leadership of Michael Smith,
M.D., current director of Lincoln Clinic, the program
has become a large scale treatment provider and the
model for other program throughout the United States
and abroad (Lane, 1988; Smith, 1987).
Although eagerly examined by a treatment community
desperate for a cure for opiate addiction, the shortcomings
of the initial report by Wen and Chueng (1973) are
representative of the conceptual flaws which continue
to plague the literature on acupuncture detoxification.
The first report was criticized as "an inadequate and
inconclusive clinical trial that suggested a need for
further research" (Whitehead, 1978, p. 9). Measured by
Western scientific research standards, the following were
lacking: (a) there was no control or alternate treatment
group; (b) follow-up beyond discharge was unclear, (c)
the difference between a "cure" as opposed to reduction
of withdrawal symptoms was unclear, (d) severity of
addiction (how much, how long), and (e) substances
abused (opium vs. heroin vs. alcohol) were unclear, (f)
placebo tests had not yet been done; and (g) there was
no comparison of points used. The first and last two
issues have been addressed in subsequent research on
acupuncture detoxification. The other issues are the same
as the methodological problems that need to be addressed
in the field of chemical dependency research in general.
Wen and Teo (1974) provided the first comparison study
of acupuncture and methadone. In a group of 70 male
addicts, half were administered AES to the lung point
and the remainder were treated with methadone. Fiftyone
percent of the AES group, compared to 28.6% of
the methadone group, remained abstinent for one year.
They speculated that effectiveness of AES would be
considerably higher with follow-up outpatient treatment.
Tennant (1977) observed that while all 18 patients in
an auricular staplepuncture group he treated reported
significant reduction of withdrawal scores on the first
day of treatment, only 3 of these patients returned for at
least 5 sessions; only 1 addict was successfully detoxified.
Many patients in the methadone comparison group
did complete their treatment and 13 were able to be
withdrawn from narcotics.
Man and Chuang (1980) concluded that acupuncture
was as effective as methadone for detoxification when 3 of
18 electroacupuncture compared to 3 of 17 methadone
clients were detoxified and remained in treatment.
In the Netherlands, Geerlings, Bos, Schakin and Wouters
(1985) compared electrostimulation to oral methadone
with a group of 93 heroin addicts admitted to an inpatient
drug detoxification unit. More drop-outs were found
among electrostimulation patients than methadone
detoxification patients. Logistic regression analysis found
that electrostimulation was more successful with older, 32 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
severely addicted female heroin addicts.
A large scale comparison study with an 18-month
follow-up was reported by Newmeyer, et al (1984). This
outpatient study, conducted at the Haight-Ashbury Free
Medical Clinic in San Francisco, compared auricular
electroacupuncture detoxification to the combination
of auricular electroacupuncture plus medication and to
medication only. Of the 460 clients in the initial research
sample, only 72 chose auricular electroacupuncture
alone. In 30-minute sessions electrostimulation was
administered to the lung and shen-men ear points.
Clients who chose acupuncture were more likely to be
white, better educated and employed compared to the
general opiate treatment population of San Francisco
at the time. In comparison with methadone treatment
generally, auricular electroacupuncture clients were more
likely to drop out and on readmission were more likely to
choose methadone as opposed to choosing acupuncture
treatment again. However, auricular electroacupuncture
clients exhibited a dramatic improvement compared to
the methadone clients in symptomatology and mood
states, particularly anxiety and depression. They tended
to provide more negative urine tests and self reported
less heroin use than the medications group. Cost benefit
analysis found that acupuncture detoxification was
much less expensive than the medication and counseling
combination. The follow-up of successfully detoxified
subjects suggested that less severely addicted heroin addicts
were more amenable to the auricular electroacupuncture
treatment compared to longer term addicts. However,
findings at Lincoln Clinic suggest that severely addicted
users benefit most from manual auricular acupuncture
which helps to restore systemic balance (Smith, 1985).
Many confounding variables shade the outcome of the
Haight-Ashbury Clinic study, although it received much
attention at the time of its publication and has since been
cited as demonstrating that the outcome of acupuncture
treatment is questionable. Treatment consisted of
electroacupuncture using only two ear points which
produced an unexpectedly high level of pain for addicts.
The Lincoln Clinic five-point manual acupuncture
protocol now in use is relatively painless and has been
found much more effective than electroacupuncture
(Smith & Kahn, 1988). Acupuncture treatments at the
Haight-Ashbury Clinic were also less convenient than
medication treatments in terms of time and accessibility.
In addition, a peer support component was missing.
Clients were seen on an individual basis, missing the
group support that was available to those receiving
medication and counseling in the control section of the
study. Territorial disputes among the staff also contributed
to a non-supportive atmosphere. A class phenomenon
seemed to exist whereby "middle class whites" responded
to acupuncture on an intellectual level while "lower
class minority" clients were ostensibly alienated by the
approach. The appeal to diverse ethnic communities,
particularly to those who are economically disadvantaged
has since been substantiated, particularly for the Puerto
Rican, African-American, Native American, and Latino
communities (Chao, Smith & Davidson, 1990; Clark,
1990; Lane, 1989).
Promising results from a large comparison study have
also been reported from Dade County Florida (Konefal,
1990). In an unpublished report of the first phase of a
three year study in progress, auricular acupuncture was
found to be more beneficial than urine testing alone
in treatment of nonpregnant polydrug abusers in the
criminal justice system.
Placebo Control Studies
Was the success of acupuncture treatment due to a placebo
effect? Studies were needed to address this possibility. Leung
(1977) conducted an early placebo study and found that
narcotic addicts whose lung points were stimulated with
electroacupuncture exhibited fewer withdrawal symptoms
than subjects given placebo acupuncture. However, there
was such a high dropout rate for both groups that statistical
analysis was not possible.
A randomized single blind control study was conducted
by researchers at the University of Minnesota (Bullock,
Yumen, Culleton & Olander, 1987). This rigorous placebo
study used manual acupuncture detoxification treatment
on chronic recidivistic male alcoholics on an inpatient
treatment unit. Fifty-four severe alcoholics were randomly
assigned to one of two groups. Group 1 received manual
auricular acupuncture on points specific to the treatment
of addiction (shen-men, lung, kidney or liver) and two
wrist points (hoku and weiguan). Group 2 received sham
manual auricular acupuncture on points known to have
no relation to relief of withdrawal symptoms. Treatment
was divided into three phases: Phase I--daily treatment for
five days; Phase II--three treatments per week for 28 days;
Phase III --treatment twice per week for 45 days. Thirtyseven
percent of the treatment group (N=10) compared
to 7.4 % of the control group (N=2), completed all three
phases of the study. There were highly significant differences
between the two groups across all treatment phases on self
assessment of desire to drink, number of drinking episodes National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 33
and readmission for subsequent redetoxification. The
study also confirmed earlier observations that acupuncture
detoxification was cost effective: overhead costs were low,
minimal equipment was needed, and many patients were
treated simultaneously by one acupuncturist (Clark, 1990).
A second larger placebo study was conducted by Bullock,
Culleton and Olander (1989) and reported in The Lancet.
This study of 80 subjects employed a single blind random
assignment design to compare sham and real manual
auricular acupuncture in the treatment of recidivistic
chronic male alcoholic inpatients. The treatment for this
second trial was divided into slightly different phases:
Phase 1 — five times a week for two weeks; Phase 2 —
three times a week for four weeks; and Phase 3 — twice
a week for two weeks. The completion rate was higher
for this study than for the pilot: 21 (52.3%) of the 40
patients in the treatment group completed all phases of
the program compared to one (2.5%) of the 40 controls.
Only three (7.5%) treatment patients left the program
during Phase 1; 19 (47.5%) control patients terminated
treatment during the first phase. This was a very high
dropout rate among the control patients despite the
promise of incentive payments. At six month followup,
6 of the 21 patients in the treatment group who
had completed the program reported that they had not
taken any alcohol in the interim. In addition, none had
been readmitted to the detoxification center, whereas
39 control patients and all treatment patients who
had failed to complete the program reported drinking
episodes. Cost effectiveness was again found to be
significant. The encouraging results in program retention
with the acupuncture treatment group suggested a
valuable treatment tool had been found for this difficult
Another large control study of acupuncture treatment, this
time comparing acupuncture and methadone in relation
to heroin addiction, was reported August 15, 1990, from
the MIRA Outpatient Clinic at Bay View Hunter's Point,
San Francisco (Clark, 1990). This one and one half year
study, commissioned by the California State Legislature
has not yet been published but the results have been
reported to the State Legislature. Newmeyer participated
as one of the co-investigators on this study addressing
many of the issues raised by Newmeyer et al (1984).
The first phase of the study sought to assess the efficacy
of manual auricular acupuncture, using a randomized
single blind placebo design similar to the Bullock studies
(1987; 1989). During the 21 day detoxification trial,
100 subjects were followed for withdrawal signs and
symptoms, as well as attendance patterns and periodic
The treatment group, which received authentic auricular
acupuncture, attended the clinic more days and stayed
in treatment significantly longer than the control group,
which received sham auricular acupuncture. Sixteen
treatment as opposed to four control subjects remained
in the study beyond 21 days. However, fewer than 25%
of the treatment group remained in the study beyond
two weeks and only 33% of this group produced negative
urine tests at 15 days.
After this comparison was completed, another 50 addicts
were recruited and treated using true acupuncture points
for phase two of the study. This second phase compared
clients choosing acupuncture detoxification to clients
choosing methadone detoxification. Cross sectional
comparison was made of demographic characteristics and
treatment patterns of all detoxification clients choosing
acupuncture treatment compared to all detoxification
clients choosing methadone or other treatment modalities
throughout San Francisco during the time of the study.
Participants choosing acupuncture tended to be older. A
higher proportion was African American, as opposed to
the earlier findings of Newmeyer et al (1984).
The study's third phase investigated the treatment outcome
of acupuncture compared to methadone detoxification.
Thirty-three acupuncture and 30 methadone clients were
compared as to urine test results and self reports at the end
of 30 days. Nine of the acupuncture clients, or 27%, and
three of the methadone clients, or 10%, had negative urines.
Of the acupuncture clients with positive urine tests, 54%
were positive for heroin and 21% for cocaine. Similarly,
for the methadone clients who tested positive, 62% tested
positive for heroin although they were receiving methadone
maintenance and 21% tested positive for cocaine. Only one
subject, an acupuncture client, reported no use of drugs
or alcohol in the 30 day period prior to follow-up. It was
concluded that auricular acupuncture clients did at least as
well as methadone clients at follow-up. Acupuncture clients
were more likely to have negative urinalyses and report
longer periods of abstinence with fewer problem days than
their methadone controls. This was especially significant
because methadone treatment has several drawbacks not
found with acupuncture: methadone is an addictive drug,
has side effects, and is teratogenic (Cregler & Mark, 1986).
Clients reported the following responses to acupuncture
detoxification: they felt relaxed and comfortable during
the 20 to 40 minutes of the procedure, treatment
prevented withdrawal symptoms for about 8 hours with 34 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
effects lasting increasingly longer as days in treatment
increased, and at one week they felt less irritable and
their thinking was more clear. Clients with many
previous detoxification experiences using other treatment
modalities appreciated the simplicity of the acupuncture
treatment. They felt they were not "just trading one
addiction for another" as was the case with methadone
maintenance (Washburn, Kennan & Nazareno, 1990).
Finally, clients reported that the group setting, where as
many as 40 people were seen at one time, was their one
consistently positive social interaction and found it a
pleasant way to begin the day.
Crack/cocaine users were the focus of a placebo control
experiment designed by Lipton et al (1990) following
the protocol established by Bullock et al (1989). One
hundred fifty subjects were randomly assigned to receive
experimental acupuncture or placebo acupuncture only
in an outpatient setting for one month. Although it
usually recommended that acupuncture treatment be
administered in conjunction with counseling and other
recovery services, for the purposes of research clarity these
subjects received acupuncture only. Outcome measures
included urinalysis profiles, self reports including the
Addiction Severity Index (McLellan, Luborsky, O'Brien
& Woody, 1980) and treatment retention. Urinalysis
results indicated that after two weeks of treatment
experimental subjects had significantly lower cocaine
metabolite levels than the placebo controls subjects.
The researchers noted that "no specific pharmacologic
treatment for cocaine abuse is currently widely used or
generally recognized as effective" (p. 27). They further
observed that acupuncture seems to be the most widely
used medical treatment for crack/cocaine abuse in New
York City. Lincoln Clinic alone has treated more than
8,000 such patients.
Studies Regarding Pregnant Addicts
Although no research has been published as yet specifically
addressing auricular acupuncture detoxification of
pregnant women, one recent pilot program demonstrated
the success of acupuncture treatment with substance
abusing pregnant women. Fifteen cocaine addicted
women receiving treatment during pregnancy at a high
risk prenatal clinic at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in
New York City were treated with acupuncture for chemical
dependency. They all received at least five prenatal care
visits as well as supportive counseling. When the birth
weights of infants born to these women were compared
to birth weights of fifteen infants born to women who
received comparable care without the acupuncture
treatment, the birth weights in the treatment group
were found to be significantly higher than those who
did not receive acupuncture, 3400 grams compared to
2800 grams. The women who did not originally receive
acupuncture due to its unavailability at their particular
clinic in the multilevel structure of clinics at this hospital
chose to receive acupuncture after delivery (M. Smith,
M.D. personal communication, October 23, 1992).
Another study of pregnant substance abusers receiving
acupuncture treatment is currently underway at Saint
Raphael's Hospital in New Haven, CT. More than
300 women have been treated, with only 50 having
positive drug toxicologies at delivery. There have been no
untoward effects from the acupuncture, no deaths, and
no Intensive Care Unit [ICU] admissions (W. Rugero,
personal communication, February 11, 1992).
In 1989 an outcome study on postpartum women was
reported (Chao et aI, 1989). The treatment of 290
postpartum substance abusing women whose babies had
been held in the hospital because of positive cocaine
toxicologies at delivery yielded positive results. Seventy
percent of all postpartum referrals attended acupuncture
treatment and counseling on the prescribed schedule
for at least two consecutive weeks. Fifty percent of all
referrals provided an average of 10 or more negative daily
urine tests. It was on this basis that more than half of
the infants retained at the hospital after delivery due to
the addiction of the mother — boarder-babies — were
returned to the custody of their mothers. Women who
were referred immediately postpartum had significantly
fewer positive urine tests than women referred two
months or more after delivery. The latter group had only
a 37% return of infants as opposed to 58% in the entire
sample. The savings in foster care expenses alone make
this a compelling treatment consideration.
Two innovative perinatal substance abuse treatment
programs incorporating acupuncture as a primary
treatment component have been recognized for their
The first, the Maternal Substance Abuse Acupuncture
Services of Lincoln Hospital, an outpatient clinic
established in 1986, treats primarily crack/cocaine
dependant women. They have developed a six-week
program and a six month protocol for the 80% of
their clients who are referred by the Child Welfare
Administration. According to director Nancy Small,
the program recognizes that "women are busy people"
(Ackerman, 1992), the program is organized so that National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 35
clients need be in the clinic no longer than two hours
per day. In depth counseling is provided after 10 days
of negative urine toxicologies. Counseling, 12-Step
meetings, "Women's Rap Group" group education/
discussion sessions and parenting classes are all
mandatory treatment components. The success rate with
court referred clients, defined as drug free for at least two
months is greater than 50% (AHA, 1991).
The second program, the Ramsey County Maternal/
Child Project, is located in St. Paul, MN. This unique
program provides acupuncture treatment for its clients in
their own home as well as in a group/clinic setting. Based
on a family preservation model, treatment is provided
for twelve weeks or more in the home by a team which
includes the acupuncturist, child protection specialist,
family therapist, chemical dependency counselor and
a public health nurse. In this way all the members of
the woman's immediate support environment can be
addressed. The prevention impact of these services has
been widely recognized and results in a reduction in
emergency use of medical and social services lot only
for the identified client but also for the extended family.
A program modeled on this protocol has recently been
licensed as an institutional care provider, although all
services are all home-based, and is contracting with
private insurance companies as well as public social
service agencies (K. Ganley, personal communication,
October 3, 1992).
The literature regarding acupuncture detoxification has
revealed many anecdotal clinical reports, comparison
studies, and four recent placebo control studies. In the
early studies, two auricular acupuncture points (lung
and shen-men) were treated by electrostimulation.
Electroacupuncture was found to be only moderately
satisfactory. It was also expensive, since electroacupuncture
involved costly equipment and was usually administered
on an inpatient basis. In more recent studies, manual
stimulation of three to five points (shen-men,
sympathetic, kidney, liver and lung ) has been used
with greater clinical and cost effectiveness. Reports on
perinatal application of acupuncture treatment were also
described, including two scientific control studies not
yet published. Documentation of this ground swell/grass
roots treatment phenomenon is clearly progressing.
1. Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine. ( 1975).
An outline of Chinese acupuncture. Peking: Foreign
2. Ackerman, R. (1992). Treating pregnant and
postpartum substance abusing women with acupuncture
for detoxification. preparation for counseling and relapse
prevention. [Video]. (Available from 2417 Castillo St.
Santa Barbara, CA 93105).
3. All-China Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion.
(1984). The second national symposium on acupuncture
and moxibustion and acupuncture anesthesia. Bejing,
4. American Hospital Association (1991). Hospital and
community partnerships: prenatal, infant care, and
pediatric models for underserved women. (Available
from The American Hospital Association, 840 North
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL. 60611)
5. Anglin, M. D. (1989). Alcohol use by heroin addicts:
Evidence for an inverse relationship. American Journal
of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. 15, 191-207.
6. Anglin, M.D., & McGlothlin, W. H. (1985).
Methadone maintenance in California. In L. Brill &
C. Winick (Eds.) The Yearbook of Substance Use and
Abuse, 3 (pp. 219-280). New York: Human Science
7. Barbor, T. F., Stephens R.S., & Marlatt, G.A.
(1987). Verbal report methods in clinical research
on alcoholism: Response bias and its minimization.
Journal of Studies on Alcohol. 48, (5), 410-424.
8. Becke, H. (1988, October). Dangerous acupuncture
points in pregnancy. Deutsche Zeitschrift fur
Akupunktur, 5. 110-111.
9. Becker, R.O. & Selden, G. (1985). The Body Electric.
New York: William Morrow.
10. Blum, K. (1990). Alcohol and the addictive brain. The
New Free Press News.
11. Blum, K. (1990, September-October). The 'Alcoholic'
Gene. Professional Counselor.
12. Bullock, M.L., Culliton, P.O., & Olander, R.T. (1989,
June 24). Controlled trial of acupuncture for severe
recidivistic alcoholism. The Lancet. 1435-439.
13. Bullock, M.L, Ymen, A.J., Culliton, P.O., & Olander,
R.T. (1987, May-June). Acupuncture treatment of
alcoholic recidivism: A pilot study. Alcoholism: Clinical
and Experimental Research, 11(3), 292-295.
14. Chao, C.B., Smith, M.O., & Davidson, R. (1989).
Evaluation of the effectiveness of acupuncture on maternal
substance abuse clients. New York: New York City
Department of Health, Health Research Training
15. Chaudron, C., & Wilkinson, D. (Eds.) (1988).
Theories on Alcoholism. Toronto: Addiction Research
16. Cheng, R.S., & Pomeranz, B. (1979). 36 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
Electroacupuncture analgesia could be mediated by at
least two pain-relieving mechanisms: Endorphin and
non-endorphin systems. Life Sciences, 2. 1957 -1962.
17. Clark, W. (1990, August 15). Trial of acupuncture
detoxification (TRIAD) Final report. (Available from
California State Legislature )
18. Clement-Jones, V., McLoughlin, L., Lowry, P.J.,
Bresser, G.M., Rees, L.H., & Wen, H.L. (1979).
Acupuncture in heroin addicts: Changes in
metenkephalin and beta-endorphin in blood and
cerebrospinal fluid. Lancet 2, 380-383.
19. Cocchi, R.t Lorini, G., Fusari, A. & Carrossino, R.
(1979). Experience with detoxification and weaning
of heroin addicts by means of acupuncture, gabergic
drugs and psychopharmalogic agents in low doses.
Minerva Med. 70(24), 1735-1744.
20. Colvin, M. (1983, January - June). A counseling
approach to outpatient benzodiazapine detoxification.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 15( 1-2), 105-108.
21. Cosser, M.H., Brower, KJ., & Bersford, T.P. (1990,
April). Treatment of alprazolam withdrawal with
substitution and gradual reduction of chloridazepoxide.
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American
Society for Addiction Medicine, Phoenix, AZ.
22. Cregler, L.L. & Mark, H. (1986). Medical
complications of drug abuse. New England Journal of
Medicine. 315, 1495-1500.
23. Dackis, C.A. & Gold, M.S. ( 1985). New concepts
in cocaine addiction: The dopamine depletion
hypothesis. Neuroscience and Bio-Behavioral Reviews.
24. Dackis, C.A., Gold, M.S., Sweeney, D.R., Byron,
J.P., & Climko, R. (1987). Single dose bromacriptine
reverses cocaine craving. Psychiatric Research. 20. 261-
25. Darras & De Vernejoul. (1986). Visualization of
acupuncture pathways. World Research foundation
Congress of Bio-Energetic Medicine. Los Angeles.
26. Diamond, E. (1971). Acupuncture anesthesia. Journal
of American Medical Association, 218. 1558-1563.
27. Donovan, D. & Marlatt, G. (1988). Assessment of
Addictive Behaviors. NY: Guildford Press.
28. Donovan, D. (1988). Assessment of addictive
behaviors: Implications of an emerging biopsychosocial
model. In D. Donovan & G. Marlatt (Eds.) Assessment
of addictive behaviors (pp. 3-50). New York: Guilford
29. Dumitrescu, I., & Kenyon, J. (1983). Electrographic
imaging in medicine and biology. Sudburry, Suffolk,
Great Britain: Neville Spearman Limited.
30. Fetzer Foundation. (1989). Energy fields in medicine:
A study of device technology based on acupuncture
meridians and chi energy. Kalamazoo, MI: John E.
31. Fingerette, H. (1988). Heavy drinking. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
32. Finnegan, LP., Connaughton, J.F., Emich, J.P. &
Wieland, W.F. (1972). Comprehensive care of the
pregnancy addict and its effect on maternal and infant
outcome. Contemporary Drug Problems: It 794-81
33. Fitzgerald, K. W. (1988). Alcoholism: The genetic
inheritance. NY: Doubleday.
34. Ford-Geiger, E. (1986). The psychotherapeutic
utilization of acupuncture. (Doctoral dissertation,
University of Massachusetts.
35. Frances, R. (1989). Concise Guide to Treatment
of Alcoholism and Addictions. Washington, D.C.:
American Psychiatric Press.
36. Frawley, P.J. (1990, April 23). Private sector research
studies on alcoholism treatment. Paper presented at
the meeting of the American Society of Addiction
Research Medicine Symposium, Phoenix, AZ.
37. Gawin, F. H. (1988). Chronic neuropharmacology
of cocaine: Progress in pharmacotherapy. Journal of
Clinical Psychiatry. 49, 11-16.
38. Gawin, F.H., & Ellinwood, E., Jr. (1988). Cocaine
and other stimulates: Action, abuse and treatment.
New England Journal of Medicine. 318. 1173-1182.
39. Gawin, F.H., & Kleber, H.D. (1986b). Medical
management of cocaine withdrawal. New Haven, CT:
40. Geerlings, P.J., Bos, T.W., Schakin, H.F., & Wouters,
L.F. (1985). Detoxification of heroin addicts with
electrostimulation or methadone. Tijdschrift Voor
Alcohol, Drugs, En Andere Psychotrope Stoffen. 11 (2),
41. Gold, M.S., Washton, A., & Dackis, C.A. (1985).
Cocaine abuse, neurochemistry, phenomenology
and treatment. In N.J. Kozel & E.H. Adams (Eds.).
Cocaine use in America: Epidemiologic and clinical
perspectives. (NIDA Research Monograph No. 61.)
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.
42. Goleman, D. (1990, July 7). Drug addiction linked to
brain irregularities. Santa Barbara News Press. p. A15.
43. Gomez, E. & Mikhail, A. (1974). Treatment of
methadone withdrawal with cerebral electrotherapy
(electrosleep) Paper presented at the annual meeting of
the American Psychiatric Association, Detroit, MI.
44. Han, J., Li, S., & Tang, J. (1981). Tolerance to
electroacupuncture and its cross tolerance to
morphine. Neuropharmacology. 6, 593-596.National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 37
45. Han, J., Tang, J., Huang, B., Liang, X. & Zhang, N.
(1979). Acupuncture tolerance in rats: Antiopiate
substrate implicated. Chinese Medical Journal 9(9),
46. Hayshiada, M., Alterman, A., McLellan, T., O'Brien,
C., Purtill, J., Volpicelli, J., Raphaelson, A. & Hall,
C. (1989, February 9). Comparative effectiveness and
costs of in-patient and out-patient detoxification of
patients with mild to moderate alcohol withdrawal
syndrome. New England Journal of Medicine, 320(6),
47. Heggenbougen, H.K. (1984). Traditional medicine
and the treatment of drug addicts: 3 examples from
Southeast Asia. Medical Anthropology Quarterly,
48. Jacobs, S., Anderson, G., Bailey, S., Ottaviano, J. &
McCarthy, V. (1977). Neurophysiological correlates
of acupuncture: Limbic and thalamic responses to
analgesic studies in nonhuman primates. Journal of
Life Sciences. 7(3), 37-42.
49. Jaffe, J.H. (1985). Drug addiction and drug abuse. In
A. Goodman, L.S. Goodman, & Y. Gilman (Eds.) The
Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. 7th ed. (pp.550-
554). New York: MacMillan.
50. Kao, A. H. & Lu, L.Y.C. (1974). Acupuncture
procedure for treating drug addiction. American
Journal of Acupuncture. 2: 201-207.
51. Kaptchuk, T. (1983). The web that has no weaver:
Understanding Chinese medicine. New York: Congdon
52. Katims, J.J., Ng, L.K.Y., & Lowinson, J.H. (1992).
Acupuncture and transcutaneous electrical nerve
stimulation: Afferent nerve stimulation (ANS) in the
treatment of addiction. In J. H. Lowinson, P. Ruiz,
R.B. Millman & J. G. Langrod (Eds.), Substance abuse:
A comprehensive textbook (pp. 574-583). Philadelphia:
Williams & Wilkins.
53. Kaufman, E., & McNaul, I. P. (1992). Recent
development in understanding and treating drug
abuse and dependence. Hospital and Community
Psychiatry, 43 (3), 223-236.
54. Keenan, P. (1990, February). Treatment of pregnant
substance abusers. Paper presented at the National
Acupuncture Detoxification Association Conference,
Research Subsection, Miami, Florida.
55. Kenyon, J. (1983). Modern technologies of acupuncture,
volume 2: A practical scientific guide to electroacupuncture.
New York: Thorsons Publishers Limited.
56. Kleber, H. (1977). Detoxification from methadone
maintenance: The state of the art. International Journal
of Addiction. 12, 897-920.
57. Kleber, H.D. & Riordan, C.E. (1982, June). The
treatment of narcotic withdrawal: Historical review.
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 43. 30-34.
58. Konefal, J. (1989, March 10). Drug abuse detoxification
study for risk behavior of AIDS. Grant application to the
Department of Health and Human Services, Public
Health Service. (Available from Dept. of Psychiatry,
University of Miami, Miami, FL)
59. Konefal, J. (1990, September). Acupuncture program
services: Mid-year progress report — 1990. (Available
from University of Miami, School of Medicine, Dept.
of Psychiatry, Miami, FL)
60. Kosten, T. R. (1989, July). Pharmacotherapeutic
interventions for cocaine abuse: Matching patients to
treatment. J. of Nervous and Mental Disease, 177 (7),
61. Kosten, T.R., Kleber, H.D. & Morgan C. (1989).
Treatment of cocaine abuse with buprenorphine.
Biologic Psychiatry. 26. 637-639.
62. Kroening, R.J., & Oleson, T.D. (1985). Rapid
narcotic detoxification in chronic pain patients treated
with auricular electroacupuncture and naloxone. The
International Journal of the Addictions, 20.(9), 1347-
63. Kroger, W.S. (1973). The scientific rationale for
acupunctural analgesia. Psychosomatics 14(4), 191-
64. Lane, C.A. (1988). Final evaluation report: Acupuncture
detoxification research demonstration project. (Available
from Alcohol and Drug Program, Multnomah
65. Lau, M.P. (1976). Acupuncture and addiction: An
overview. Addictive Diseases, L449-463.
66. Lei, C. (1973). Neurological basis of pain and its
possible relationship to acupuncture analgesia.
American Journal of Chinese Medicine. 1, 61-72.
67. Leung, A.J.H. (1977). Acupuncture treatment
and withdrawal symptoms. American Journal of
Acupuncture, 5. 43-50.
68. Lewenberg, A. ( 1985). The utility of acupuncture in
combination with antidepressants or clonidine in the
treatment of opiate addiction. Advances in Therapy.
69. Liao, Y.Y., Seto, K., Saito, H., Fugita, M., &
Kawakami, M. (1979). Effects of acupuncture on
adrenocortical hormone production: I. Variation
in the ability for adrenocortical production for the
duration of acupuncture stimulation. American
Journal of Chinese Medicine.( 4), 362-371.
70. Lipton, D.S., & Miranda, M.J. (1983). Detoxification
from heroin dependency: an overview of method and
effectiveness. Evaluation of Drug Treatment Programs. 38 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
(pp. 31-55). New York: The Haworth Press.
71. Lipton, D.S., Brewington, V. de Smith, M.O. (1990).
Acupuncture and crack addicts: A single blind placebo
test of efficacy. Paper presented at the National Institute
on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Technical review meeting,
Advances in Cocaine Treatment. National Institutes
of Health Campus. Bethesda, MD.
72. Lorini, G., Fazio, L., Cocchi, R.t Fusari, A. & Roccia,
L. (1979). Acupuncture as a part of a program of
detoxification and weaning from opiates: 25 cases.
Minerva Medica. 70(56), 3831-3836.
73. Lowinson, J. H., Ruiz, P. Millman, R. B., & Langrod,
J. G. (Eds.). (1992). Substance abuse: A comprehensive
textbook. Philadelphia: Williams & Wilkins.
74. Macek, C. (1984, January 27). East meets west to
balance immunologic yin and yang. JAMA. 251(4),
75. MacQuarrie, L. (1974). In Hong Kong, acupuncture:
It still has a place. J. of Addictions Research Foundation
of Ontario. 3 (11) 10.
76. Man, P.L., & Chuang, M. Y. (1980). Acupuncture
in methadone withdrawal. International Journal of
Addiction. 15. 921-926.
77. Mann, F. (1973). Acupuncture: The ancient Chinese art
of healing and how it works scientifically. New York:
78. Mayer, D.J., Price, D.O., & Raffi , A. (l977).
Antagonism of acupuncture and analgesia in man by
the narcotic antagonist naloxone. Brain Research. 121,
79. McLellan, A., Luborsky, L., O'Brien, C., & Woody,
G. (1980). An Improved Evaluation Instrument for
Substance Abuse Patients: The Addiction Severity
Index. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 1968.
80. Morley, J. (1990, November-December). The War
on Crack: Deescalating the War. Family Therapy
Networker, 14 (6), 24-36.
81. Moyers, W. (1993). Healing and the mind. NY:
82. Navach, J. (1989). Thermodynamic, biochemical
and electromagnetic views of chi. Energy Fields in
Medicine: A Device Technology Based on Acupuncture
Meridians and Chi Energy, 193 .. 122. The John E.
Fetzer Foundation, 929 West KL Avenue, Kalamazoo,
83. Newmeyer, J.A., Johnson, G., & Klot, S. (1984, JulySeptember).
Acupuncture as a detoxification modality.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 16(3), 241-261.
84. Ng, L.K.Y., Donthill, T.C., Thoa, N.B. & Albert,
C.A. (1975a). Modification of morphine syndrome
in rats following transauricular electrostimulation:
An experimental paradigm for auricular
electroacupuncture. Biological Psychiatry, 10. 575-
85. Ng, L.K.Y., Thoa, N.B, Donthill, T.C., & Albert, C.A.
(197Sb). Experimental "auricular electroacupuncture"
in morphine dependent rats: behavioral and
biochemical observations. American Journal of Chinese
Medicine. 3, 335-341.
86. Nogier, P.F.M. (1983). From Auriculotherapy
to Auriculo-medicine. Sainte-Ruffine, France:
87. Omura, Y. (1976). Patho-physiology of acupuncture
effects, ACTH and brain morphine-like substances,
pain, phantom sensations (phantom pain, itch and
coldness), brain micro-circulation, and memory.
Acupuncture and Electrotherapeutics Res. International
Journal, 2, 1-31.
88. Omura, Y. (1978). Pain threshold measurement
before and after acupuncture. Acupuncture and Electro
Therapeutic Research. 3, 1-22.
89. Patterson, M.A. (1974). Electroacupuncture and
alcohol and drug addictions. Clinical Medicine. 81,
90. Patterson, M.A. (1976). Effects of neuroelectric
therapy (N.E.T.) in drug addiction: Interim report.
Bulletin of Narcotics. 28, 55-62.
91. Patterson, M.A. (1991). Neuroelectric therapy: the new
approach to drug treatment and its scientific basis. Paper
presented at the first annual meeting of the Subtle
Energies and Energy Medicine Society. (pp. 76-79)
Available from the International Society for the Study
of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine. First Annual
Conference. June 21-25, 1991. Boulder, CO)
92. Peets, J.M. & Pomeranz, B. (1978). CXBK-mice
deficient in opiate receptors show poor electroacupuncture
analgesia. Nature. 273, 675-676.
93. Peng, C.H., Yang, M.M., Kok, S.H., & Woo, Y.K.
(1978). Endorphin release: A possible mechanism of
acupuncture analgesia. Comparative Medicine East and
West. 6( 1), 57-60.
94. Pert, A., Dionne, R., Ng, L.t Bragin, E., Moody,
T.W. & Pert, C.B. (1981). Alterations in rat central
nervous system endorphins following transauricular
electroacupuncture. Brain Research. 224, 83-93.
95. Pittman, L. ( 1992). Acupuncture detoxification for
homeless substance abusers. Report for the Department
of Human Resources, Jersey City, NJ.
96. Pomeranz, B. & Chieu, D. (1976). Naloxone blockade
of acupuncture analgesia: Endorphin implicated. Life
Sciences. 19. 1757-1762.National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 39
97. Pomeranz, B. (1981). Neural mechanisms of
acupuncture and analgesia. In S. Lipton & J. Miles
(Eds.). Persistent Pain, Modern Methods of Treatment.
(pp. 241-257). London: Academic Press.
98. Pomeranz, B. (1987). Acupuncture neurophysiology.
In G. Adelman (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. 1
(pp. 6-7). Boston: Brikhauser.
99. Resnick, R. (1983). Methadone detoxification from
illicit opiates and methadone maintenance. New York
College Division of Drug Abuse and Treatment,
National Institute on Drug Abuse: Treatment and
Research Monographs, (No. 83-1281), 160-167.
100.Sachs, L.L. (1975). Drug addiction, alcoholism,
smoking, obesity treated by auricular staplepuncture.
American Journal of Acupuncture, 3, (2), 147-150.
101.Sainsbury, M.J. (1974). Acupuncture in heroin
withdrawal. Medical Journal of Australia. 3, 102-105.
102."Scientists say enzyme could combat cocaine" (1993,
March 26). Santa Barbara News Press.
103.Severson, L., Markoff, R.A. & Chun-Hoon, H.
(1977). Heroin detoxification with acupuncture
and electrical stimulation. International Journal of
Addiction, 12, 911-922.
104.Shaffer, H. ( 1986). Conceptual crises and the
addictions: Philosophy of science perspective. Journal
of Substance Abuse Treatment. 3. 285-296.
105.Shaiub, M. (1976). Acupuncture treatment of drug
dependence in Pakistan. American Journal of Chinese
Medicine. 4, 403-407.
106.Shakur, M., & Smith, M. (1979). The use of
acupuncture in the treatment of drug addiction.
American Journal of Acupuncture, 7. 223-234.
107.Shanghai College of Traditional Medicine. (1981).
Acupuncture: A comprehensive text. J. O'Connor & D.
Bensky, (Eds.). Chicago: Eastland Press.
108.Shaowanasai, A. & Visuthima, H. (1975). Acupuncture
and the treatment of heroin addiction. Paper presented
at the 31st International Congress on Alcoholism and
Drug Dependence: Bangkok, Thailand.
109.Shaowanasai, A. (1975). Report on acupuncture
detoxification in Mauritius. In P. Bourne (Ed.).
Acupuncture and the Detoxification of Opiate Addicts.
Unpublished report. Washington, D.C.: Drug Abuse
110.Smith, M. (1987). Acupuncture Treatment for
Substance Abuse. (Available from Lincoln Hospital
Division of Substance Abuse, 349 East 140th Street,
Bronx, NY 10454)
111.Smith, M. (1989a, November). The Challenge
of Treating Maternal Substance Abuse. National
Acupuncture Detoxification Association, 3115
Broadway #51, New York, New York 10027.
112.Smith, M. O. (1989b, July 5). The Lincoln Hospital
Drug Abuse Program. Testimony Presented to the
Select Committee on Narcotics of the House of
Representatives of the United States. Washington,
113.Smith, M.O., Alvarez, C. & Smalls, N. (1987,
September 10). Criminal justice referrals to acupuncture
detoxification: Pilot program shows encouraging results.
(Available from Substance Abuse Division, Lincoln
Hospital, Bronx, NY)
114.Smith, M.O. (1979). Acupuncture and natural
healing in drug detoxification. American Journal of
Acupuncture, 7. 97-107.
115.Smith, M.O. (1985). Chinese theory of acupuncture
detoxification. American Journal of Acupuncture.
116.Smith, M.O. (1988a, April 11). Acupuncture as a
treatment for drug dependent mothers. Testimony
presented to the New York City Council, New York,
117.Smith, M.O. (1988b). Acupuncture treatment for
crack: clinical survey of 1,500 patients. American
Journal of Acupuncture. 16(3), 241-247.
118.Smith, M.O. (1988c). The pregnant substance abuser:
Recognizing and treating the patient. (Available from
March of Dimes Birth Defect Foundation. Greater
New York Chapter, 233 Park Avenue South, NewYork,
New York 10003)
119.Smith, M.O. (1990a, September). NADA Newsletter.
1-3. (Available through Lincoln Hospital, Maternal
Substance Abuse Services. 349 East 140th Street,
Bronx, New York 10454.)
120.Smith, M.O. (1990b, September). The Miami success
story: Transforming the criminal justice system with
an acupuncture based diversion program. National
Acupuncture Detoxification Association Newsletter,
Available from NADA, 3115 Broadway, #51, New
York, New York 10027, 1-3.
121.Smith, M.O. (1990c). Raising Healthy Babies for the
90's. (Available through Lincoln Hospital, Maternal
Substance Abuse Services. 349 East 140th Street,
Bronx, New York 10454)
122.Smith, M.O., & Khan, I. (1988). An acupuncture
programme for the treatment of drug-addicted
persons. Bulletin on Narcotics. XL(1), 35-41.
123.Smith, M.O., & Ra, K. (1985, July 22-26).
Acupuncture and the treatment of chemical dependency
and violence. Paper presented at the Caribbean Mental
Health Conference, Nassau, Bahamas.
124.Smith, M.O., Squires, R., Aponte, J., Rabinowitz, 40 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
N., & Bonilla-Rodriguez, R. (1982). Acupuncture
treatment of drug addiction and alcohol abuse.
American Journal of Acupuncture. 10(2), 161-163.
125.Smith, R. B., O'Neil, L.A. (1975). Electrosleep in the
management of alcoholism. Biological Psychiatry, 10
126.Spencer, C.P., Heggenbougen, H.K., & Navaratam,
V. (1980). American Journal of Chinese Medicine 8(3),
127.Summer, G.L. (1990, April). Cocaine treatment: The
first twelve months. (Available from Hanley-Hazelden
Center, St. Mary's Hospital, P. O. Box 4424, West
Palm Beach, FL 14302)
128.Tennant, F.S. (1977). Outpatient heroin detoxification
with acupuncture and staplepuncture. Western Journal
of Medicine, 125, 141-144.
129.Trachtenberg, M. and Blum, K. (1988). Improvements
of cocaine induced neuromodulator deficits by the
neuronutrient Tropamine. Journal of Psychoactive
Drugs, 20(3), July-September.
130.Wallace, J. (1989,June). A biopsychosocial model of
alcoholism. Social Casework. 70(6), 325-332.
131.Washburn, A.N., Keenan, P.A., & Nazareno, J.P.
(1990). Preliminary findings: Study of acupuncture
assisted detoxification. MIRA Newsletter. (Available
from Bay View Hunters Point Foundation for
Community Improvement, U.C.S.F. Center for Aids
Prevention Studies, P.O. Box 0886, University of
California, San Francisco, CA 94143)
132.Wen, H.L. & Cheung, S. Y.C. (1973). Treatment
of drug addiction by acupuncture and electrical
stimulation. Asian Journal of Medicine, 9. 138-141.
133.Wen, H.L. (1977). Fast detoxification of heroin
addicts by acupuncture and electrical stimulation
(AES) in combination with naloxone. Compo Med.
East-West. 5, 257-263.
134.Wen, H.L. (1980, Winter). Clinical experience and
mechanisms of acupuncture and electrical stimulation
(AES) in the treatment of drug abuse. American
Journal of Chinese Medicine, 8(4), 349-353.
135.Wen, H.L, & Teo, S.W. (1974). Experience in the
treatment of drug addiction by electroacupuncture.
Modern Medicine of Asia, 11, 23-24.
136.Wen, H.L., Ho, W.K., Wong, H.K., Mehal, Z.O., Ng,
Y.H. & Ma, L (1979). Changes in adrenocorticotropic
hormone (ACTH) and cortisol levels in drug addicts
treated by a new and rapid detoxification procedure
during acupuncture and naloxone. Comp Med EastWest.
137.Wen, H.L., Ho, W.K.K., Ling, N., Ma, L. & Choa,
G.H. (1979). The influence of electroacupuncture on
naloxone induced morphine withdrawal. II. Elevation
of immunoassayable beta-endorphin activity in the
brain but not in the blood. American Journal of Chinese
Medicine, 7(3), 237-240.
138.Wen, H.L, Ho, W.K.K., Wong, H.K., Mehal,
Z.O., Ng, W.H. & Ma, L. (1978). Reduction of
adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and corticol
and drug addicts treated by acupuncture and electrical
stimulation. Compo Med.East-West, 61-66.
139.Whitehead, O. (1978). Acupuncture and the
treatment of addiction: A review and analysis.
International Journal of Addictions, 13(1), 1-16.
140.Wu, C. & Hsu, C. (1979). Neurogenic regulation of lipid
metabolism in the rabbit. Atherosclerosis, 33,153-164.
141.Zuckerman, B. & Alpert, J. (1988, March 9).
Commentary: Alcohol and psychoactive drug use
during pregnancy. Pediatrics in Re
The use of auricular acupuncture in treating acute drug
withdrawal began in Hong Kong in 1972. Its practical
application in the traditional drug treatment setting evolved
at New York City’s Lincoln Hospital during the 1970s,
and over 250 acupuncture programs in diverse treatment
settings have since been established world wide, based on
the Lincoln protocol. Acupuncture treatment offers the
client support during acute and postacute withdrawal
through relief of classic symptoms. It has also been found
useful as an entry point to treatment and/or recovery in
such nontreatment settings as jails and shelters, and has
particular efficacy in the treatment of resistant clients, and of
prepartum and postpartum women. Though acceptance of
the legitimacy of acupuncture by the chemical dependency
community has been guarded, both research and outcome
studies indicate that it holds promise as a complement to
traditional substance abuse modalities.
The medical historian Manfred Porkert has called
Chinese medicine “an intellectual treasure trove”
(Porkert & Ullman, 1988; p. 268). Indeed, apart from
whatever specific clinical efficacy it may have, which is
still not well understood in the west. A study of Chinese
medicine in general, and its most publicized component,
acupuncture, can be most instructive in the nature of
life, disease, and recovery. This ancient wisdom is now
coming to shed much needed light on the field of drug
and alcohol treatment.
Acupuncture has, according to Porkert and Ullman (1988,
p. 37), “stubbornly and successfully resisted assimilation”
into Western medical science. This is perhaps less the case in
Europe. In fact, auricular (ear) acupuncture, which is used
in the chemical dependency treatment setting, is in part a
European as well as a Chinese development. Acupuncture
as it came to be used in Europe is itself a hybrid of Chinese
acupuncture, which is only a small part of traditional
Chinese medicine, whose primary emphasis is on herbs.
Acupuncture protocols were passed along in Europe
beginning in the early 17th century in pamphlets that were
filled with contradictory information concerning point
location and diagnoses. Curiously, during the post World
War I period, when the popularity of acupuncture was
spreading in Europe and gaining the attention of European
medical societies, Western medicine itself was replacing
Oriental medicine in China. During this Westernizing
“open door” Nationalist Period in China, under Chiang
Kai-shek and the influence of the Rockefellers, acupuncture
and other ancient Chinese medical traditions came under
attack as primitive and their practice became temporarily
outlawed. Clinical knowledge went “underground” until,
with Mao Tse-tung’s Cultural Revolution of the 1940s and
‘50s, there was a revision and a revitalization of traditional
These revised texts poured into Europe and gained a
degree of popularity in France, where, in 1955, Dr. Paul
Nogier (1983), using an instrument to measure the level
of electrical activity on the surface of the skin, discovered
that all of the traditional Chinese acupuncture meridians
or arterial pathways were accessible at points of the ear.
Clinical experimentation and research in China soon
confirmed this, and both Chinese and “Nogier” ear
charts began to appear and find clinical application. This
was fortuitous for treatment in a public setting, since a
large group of individuals can be treated simultaneously
without the need for private treatment rooms, which are
required for the full body treatment normally associated
It is of some historical irony that this very specialized
hybrid form of acupuncture as it has evolved in the drug
and alcohol treatment setting in the United States is now
being “exported” to Japan and Hong Kong to address the
growing drug problem in that part of the world where
acupuncture originated over 2,500 years ago.
In 1991, interest in acupuncture in general in the United
States was piqued by an article written by the syndicated
American newspaper columnist James Reston. He had
visited China and been stricken with acute appendicitis.
He underwent surgery there, and acupuncture was used
as an anesthetic. His experience with this very specialized
application of acupuncture, and that of physicians and
others who visited China with President Richard Nixon in
1972, resulted in a sprinkling of Western research involving
pain (Man, 1972; Melzack, 1973, 1974; Wall, 1978) and
in the eventual discovery that acupuncture prompts the
production of beta-endorphins, the body’s “endogenous
opiates,” in animals. The transmitter or “information”
substances for which research data has established a
connection with acupuncture include alpha- and betaendorphins,
leu- and met-enkephalins, dynorphin A and
B, substance P, serotonin, epinephrine, noradrenalin,
dopamine, acetylcholine, adrenocorticotrophic hormone
(ACTH), glycine, glutamic acid, the prostaglandins, and
cyclic AMP and GMP (Bensoussan, 1990, pp. 101-126).
Despite the fairly extensive research in this area, precisely
how acupuncture works remains a mystery, at least to the
Western scientific mind. Most simply, it can be said that
acupuncture moves energy. In the Chinese view of the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 43
body, life energy, or chi, circulates through pathways that
are called, in the West, “meridians.” “Disease” is seen as
a stagnation, blockage, or deficiency of this energy. The
acupuncturist places needles which, based upon diagnosis,
will stimulate an opening of and, therefore, a movement
of energy through the appropriate pathways. The effect
is homeostatic. For example, a person with an excess of
stomach acid who is needled at a point called “Stomach
36” will experience a decrease in the amount of acid in the
stomach; a person with a stomach acid deficiency, needled
at the same point, will experience an increase in stomach
acid (Sodipo & Falaiye, 1979). Again, the mechanism of
action involved in this phenomenon is not known.
Acupuncture is not a panacea, and it loses much of its
efficacy in the treatment of chemical dependency when
practiced in isolation from the more traditional Western
modalities of counseling, pharmaceutical therapies, 12-
step programs, and urine testing. It is best seen as an
adjunct or a complement to these other forms, and, in
this regard, it is an exceedingly fluid modality. We are
beginning to see that, properly used, it can enhance and
support the program goals of virtually any traditional
chemical dependency treatment setting.
When used in an inpatient detoxification setting, alcoholic
seizures virtually disappear, even without the use of
pharmaceutical intervention. One of the first residential
detox programs to implement acupuncture was Portland,
Oregon’s, Hooper Memorial Detox Center in 1987.
Clients entering this 5-day residential detox-to-referral
program were 6 times less likely to return in the following
6 months than clients who entered the facility prior to
the implementation of twice-daily acupuncture, and the
program’s overall completion rate increased from 60% to
92% (Lane, 1988). A residential, social model, detox-toreferral
program operated by Santa Barbara, California’s,
Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse opened in
June of 1991, offering twice-daily acupuncture. Only 2
alcoholic seizures were reported out of the first 150 clients,
the majority of whom were late stage, chronic alcoholics,
and completion rates for the program are comparable
to Hooper’s (Brumbaugh, 1992). In the treatment of
acute heroin withdrawal, acupuncture is also effective,
the symptoms of “kicking” often resembling a mild flu.
And the cravings, anxiety, and depression of crack cocaine
withdrawal become manageable.
Subjectively, acupuncture treatment offers to the client
support during acute withdrawal through relief of classic
withdrawal symptoms. According to Michael Smith,
M.D. (1979), the body’s response to acute withdrawal
from toxic drugs is a “crisis in elimination,” which is
seen as a “healing crisis.” He suggests (Smith & Kahn,
1988) that “acupuncture works by releasing blockages
of energy and correcting imbalances of energy flow,”
and that its physiologic effects also likely involve
homeostatic action on the autonomic nervous system,
various neurotransmitters, and elements in the pituitary
In an outpatient, residential, or day treatment setting,
counseling sessions are greatly enhanced by the relaxed and
nonhostile ambience created by the acupuncture treatments,
and it provides a useful tool in dealing with the otherwise
virtually nontreatable symptoms of “protracted abstinence
syndrome” or “postacute” withdrawal. Used in conjunction
with daily urine testing in the outpatient setting, it provides
a higher ground for the counselor in dealing with the
perplexing issues of relapse and relapse prevention.
Acupuncture is also well suited as an entry point to
treatment and/or recovery in such diverse nontreatment
settings as jails, public defender’s offices, homeless
and battered women’s shelters, and neighborhood
community centers and medical clinics. In this latter
arena, it is providing not only an entry point into
treatment/recovery for the chemically dependent client,
but also a long awaited entry point into general medicine
for acupuncture itself. For example, a program of the
Multicultural Inquiry and Research on AIDS (MIRA)
Clinic located in Bayview-Hunter’s Point, San Francisco,
under the auspices of the University of California San
Francisco Center for AIDS Prevention and San Francisco
General Hospital, was started to study the effects of
acupuncture on the detoxification of heroin addicts, and
has subsequently expanded to include general medicine.
Acupuncture is also now in use in general medical
treatment at Lincoln Hospital in The Bronx, New York,
where it began as a treatment for acute drug withdrawal.
It is important to note in this regard that acupuncture
offers the unique feature of more expansive protocols to
address physical and psychological conditions that may
have been precipitative factors in the chemical dependency,
such as chronic pain or depression, conditions which
may have discouraged clients in chemical dependency
recovery. With acupuncture, integrated and drug-free
treatment options are immediately available for such
“relapse trigger” pathologies that may become unmasked
as chemical abstinence is achieved. This can be especially
helpful in the treatment of dual diagnosis clients, since
Chinese Medicine has been shown to be effective in
the treatment of depression, chronic anxiety, mania, 44 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
insomnia, schizophrenia, and other mental disorders
(Bensoussan, 1990, pp. 39-41, 109).
The use of auricular acupuncture in treating acute drug
withdrawal began in Hong Kong in 1972. It was used
sporadically throughout the United States during the
1970s, and some experimentation with the method was
done at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in San Francisco
(Seymour & Smith, 1987). But it has been at Lincoln
Hospital in New York, under the guidance of Michael
O. Smith, M.D., Director of the Hospital’s Division of
Substance Abuse, that the protocol has been refined and
expanded, and has taken its firmer root.
Lincoln is located in the South Bronx where alcoholism
and drug addiction have been endemic for many years.
Smith’s clinic was primarily a methadone program in
1973 when he first read of Dr. H.L. Wen’s research in
Hong Kong (Wen & Cheung, 1973) concerning the
treatment of heroin withdrawal with acupuncture. Dr.
Wen, a neurosurgeon, had made his initial discovery while
administering acupuncture anesthesia to a patient who
happened to be in heroin withdrawal. The withdrawal
symptoms disappeared, and Wen subsequently conducted
a formalized study. By 1980, Wen had replicated the
positive outcomes of his research and published no fewer
than 10 additional studies (Bensoussan, 1990, pp. 101-
126) concerning narcotic withdrawal symptoms and
acupuncture, including research on the adjunctive use of
the opiate block naloxone to essentially flush opiates from
receptor sites in the brain to speed up the detoxification
process. It was discovered that naloxone also partially
blocked the effects of acupuncture itself. This led to
additional research on the relationship of acupuncture to
the production of endogenous opiates.
Smith, interested in potential alternatives to methadone
treatment, began employing Chinese doctors at Lincoln
to experiment with different protocols in the treatment of
heroin addiction. Wen’s research had involved electrical
stimulation as well, and Lincoln Hospital experimented
extensively with electrostimulation protocols, eventually
discontinuing its use when it was discovered that
manual acupuncture resulted in more consistent clinical
outcomes. A 5-point auricular protocol was eventually
established, consisting of 4 to 5 points in each ear,
including kidney, liver, lung (or heart), sympathetic, and
shenmen. By 1975, acupuncture had become a permanent
feature of the Lincoln program, not only for heroin
dependence, but for alcoholic patients as well. And,
in 1985, when the “crack” cocaine epidemic reached
New York, it was discovered that the same protocol was
effective in addressing the cravings, anxiety, and dysphoria
accompanying “crack” withdrawal (Lipton, Brewington,
& Smith, 1990; Smith, 1988).
In 1985, Smith founded the National Acupuncture
Detoxification Association (NADA, 3115 Broadway,
#51, New York NY 10027), an organization representative
of experts in chemical dependency as well as Oriental
Medicine. NADA’s function is to provide training and
consultation to treatment programs that have begun
throughout the world and to assure specific clinical and
ethical standards in the certification of “acupuncture
Though much of NADA’s focus as well as the research has
been upon the acute detoxification phase of withdrawal,
clinical experience since NADA was established has
shown that acupuncture has applications as well for
postacute or “latent” withdrawal. Clients return to the
acupuncture clinic months and even years into recovery
for “tune-ups.” Many clients find the far more expansive
application of traditional Chinese medicine to be a
valuable tool in treating the anxiety-depression-craving
phenomenon that Edward Brecher (1972) termed the
“post-addiction syndrome.” These symptoms, as well as
the majority of Terence Gorski’s symptoms that forebode
alcoholic relapse (1987) correspond with “disorders of
the spirit” in the classic Chinese medical texts and are
very responsive to traditional Chinese medical treatment,
which includes herbs as well as acupuncture (Kaptchuk,
1983, pp. 45-46).
Oriental medical schools, however, in which
acupuncturists receive their education and training, are
generally as deficient in chemical dependency curricula
as are their Western counterparts. Therefore, a primary
role of NADA is to provide acupuncturists with basic
education in chemical dependency and recovery through
intensive 3-day NADA certification training coupled with
a clinical internship. Chemical dependency professionals
working in the acupuncture program also benefit from this
training, since clinical success requires a complementary
relationship between the counseling and acupuncture
aspects of the treatment program. In regions of the
country where the number of licensed acupuncturists has
been insufficient to meet the demand for service levels,
state laws governing the practice of acupuncture have
been modified to allow for “acupuncture detoxification
specialists” generally chemical dependency counselors
or nurses who are specially trained to perform auricular
treatment only when working under the supervision of
a licensed or certified acupuncturist. This has created National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 45
a new level of professional supervisory positions for
acupuncturists as well as a potential entry point into
the acupuncture profession for people working in the
The NADA protocol has a precise focus, elegant in its
simplicity. In its original application in the outpatient,
drop-in setting, the clinic is to be, like the 12-step
program, “barrier-free” in that there are no motivational
or other screening requirements for entering or continuing
acupuncture treatment. Clients are instructed to come as
“clean and sober as they can” for treatment, and treatment
is recommended daily, in the same “one day at a time”
rhythm as recovery, so that the treatment, as Michael
Smith has said, “will be as reliable as the drug was.” While
12-step meetings are frequently held in proximity to
the clinic, and while group and individual counseling is
generally available on site, participation in these activities
is not a condition of receiving acupuncture treatment.
The clinic protocol is to be “empowering, “ in that clients
do everything they can for themselves, such as “prepping”
their own ears with an alcohol solution and cotton. In
some NADA clinics, clients select their own personal
autoclaved or pre-packaged disposable needles. Often,
clients even use a mirror to remove their own needles
upon leaving. The acupuncture staff are counseled not to
“fuss” with clients, question them as to relapse, or lecture
or confront them in any way. Clinic rules are minimal,
and clients are barred from treatment only for disruptive
behavior. Such instances are rare in this setting.
The NADA protocol includes “sleep mix” tea, a recipe also
developed at Lincoln (Smith, 1979), using the Western
herbs chamomile, hops, catnip (sometimes substituted
with valerian root), scullcap, peppermint, and yarrow.
Clients drink it during or following treatment and are
encouraged to take it home to help them sleep.
Clients are treated for 45 minutes in a group setting,
seated. Talking — especially drug-talk and “war stories”
— is discouraged. In observing this process, where there
are no behavioral or cognitive expectations placed on the
clients, where clients are “free to do nothing,” one gets a
sense of some of the more discreet resonances between
this modality and the form and structure of the 12-step
meeting. There is an implicit trust established in the
client’s ability to find his own way in recovery, and the
responsibility of the clinic is to make available the most
helpful tools for the task.
This clinical ambience is often unsettling at first for new
clients, especially the more “treatment-seasoned” ones.
They may spend the first few days of treatment waiting
for “the program” to begin. They will perhaps “test” the
program by “chipping” or coming under the influence,
and find that they are welcomed back just the same.
While traditional alcohol and other drug treatment
strategies require an external focus, here, in the NADA
clinic, the attention of the client is invited inward, where
the ultimate responsibility for recovery lies.
According to John D. McPeake, B.P. Kennedy, and S.M.
Gordon (1991), a shortcoming of traditional alcohol and
drug treatment is that it ignores a primary motivation
for drug use, which is mood modification. One aspect
of the efficacy of acupuncture may be that, to degrees
that vary with individual clients, the treatment elicits
an experience of altered consciousness. Heroin addicts
often self-report euphoria as an altered mood response to
acupuncture, induction of which has shown a tendency
to reduce baseline withdrawal and craving (Childress,
McLellan, Natale, & O’Brien, 1986).
An additional subjective effect of the treatment is a
feeling of relaxation and stress-reduction. For this reason,
it is not unusual in acupuncture clinics to see counselors
or other staff receiving treatment with the clients.
NADA held its first annual convention in February,
1991, in Santa Barbara, California. The roster was
dominated not by chemical dependency professionals
nor by acupuncturists but by representatives of the
criminal justice community, including Superior Court
Judge Herbert Kelin, former “Drug Czar” of Dade
County, Florida; Mark Cunniff, Executive Director of
the National Association of Criminal Justice Planners in
Washington, D.C.; and Orville Pung, Commissioner of
Corrections, and James Bruton, Director of Adult Release,
of the Minnesota State Department of Corrections.
Local presenters included the Santa Barbara Chief of
Police, and the Director of Administrative Services for
the Santa Barbara County Department of Probation.
They came, as advertised in the conference brochure, to
herald the arrival of a “new beacon on the dark landscape
of chemical dependency treatment.”
That the strongest advocates for acupuncture treatment
for chemical dependency are members of the criminal
justice community is echoed by the fact that much of
the funding for acupuncture-based chemical dependency
programs in the United States comes not through
traditional drug and alcohol sources but through criminal
justice sources. There are clinical reasons for this, and they
reveal a great deal about the efficacy of acupuncture, and
have resulted in a growing bias among practitioners in
this field that the premier “window of opportunity” for 46 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
intervention in drug treatment lies on the continuum of
arrest, judication, incarceration, and probation or parole
of the drug offender.
The standard scepticism about drug and alcohol
treatment in general in the law and justice community
derives from the fact that law enforcement and treatment
have traditionally labored under conflicting definitions
of alcoholism and drug addiction. The clinical (and
recovering) community has long accepted the disease
of alcoholism/addiction as a chronic relapsing disorder
in which recovery is typically achieved only through a
process of “slips and starts.” For this reason, there has been
a shift in chemical dependency treatment away from the
concept of detoxification and toward relapse prevention
or “sobriety maintenance.” Clinical experience is clear
that rare is the addict or alcoholic who negotiates the
transition from use to non-use in a single movement.
While individual judges, probation, or parole officers
may indeed be personally aware of this relapsing nature
of typical early recovery, the criminal justice system itself
has not been able to tolerate relapse since its charge
is not to bring about recovery per se, but to prevent
the resumption of the criminal behavior that relapse
precipitates. This “hard line” either/or definition of
recovery as requiring total and continuing abstinence
has been justified, for in traditional drug and alcohol
treatment, relapse is generally catastrophic, resulting in
treatment drop-out. This is true of course in residential
intensive or social model treatment, often the “treatment
of choice” for the most chronic addicts and alcoholics,
because a “clean and sober” living environment is
tantamount to the program’s success. But it is also true
of outpatient treatment modalities because of the special
difficulties of the chemical dependency counselor in
dealing with the problems of relapse.
In the highly successful acupuncture-based drug
diversion programs, however, in such varied locations
as New York City; Miami; Portland, Oregon; and Santa
Barbara and Santa Maria, California; a higher ground
can be taken by the judge or probation or parole officer,
because the acupuncture-based program is able to keep
the client in treatment during the early relapsing period.
Relapses here tend to be shallow and noncatastrophic.
Clients “keep coming back,” and, over time, abstinence
is achieved. Dade County Judge Stanley Goldstein, who
presides in Miami over a “drug court” that hears only first
and second cocaine offenses, began diverting offenders
to a 3-phase treatment program in October 1989. The
first phase of the program involves daily acupuncture
and urine testing. Defendants return to court during
this phase, and Judge Goldstein reviews their urinalysis
records. His response to intermittent positive tests is
not punitive; rather, he encourages defendants in their
struggle and commends them for the “clean” days they
have achieved. This unusual posture of relapse tolerance
is well justified, for of the first 1,200 defendants to
complete the first phase of the program, only 7 were
rearrested during the first 6 months (Konefal, 1990),
compared with an average 2-week re-arrest time for this
population prior to implementation of the program.
The concept of daily urine testing as it is used in
Miami was also a development of the Lincoln Hospital
program. The notion of urine testing in a therapeutic
setting may seem at first an anathema, since urine
testing is traditionally punitive, a clear manifestation of
judgmentalism, giving the treatment program the role
of critic rather than supporter of the client’s recovery
process. In practice, however, quite the opposite turns
out to be the case. The goal is not punitive disclosure
but education and therapeutic feedback. Unlike urine
testing in a law enforcement setting, clients assume much
of the responsibility for self-monitoring the urinalysis
process. Fears that clients will provide fraudulent test
results under these conditions have not been justified. As
Michael Smith has aptly said, “drug addicts lie, but they
don’t lie every day.” Once the daily treatment rhythm has
been established, and once the client has learned that a
positive urine test will not result in program expulsion,
attempts to deliver “false negatives” are uncommon.
To fully understand the utility of such testing, a brief
examination of the dynamics of relapse may be helpful.
In the traditional relationship between a chemical
dependency counselor and client, there is an implicit
trap surrounding the issue of relapse. In the Rogerian and
other generally accepted models of chemical dependency
counseling, the appropriate posture of the counselor is
one of nonjudgmental acceptance. The overt agenda is to
validate the experience and feelings of the client. Trust is,
of course, a necessary prerequisite for this stance. Honesty,
particularly self-honesty, is the hallmark of recovery. The
counselor wants the client to be honest about his or her
feelings and behavior. And, if the counselor is skilled,
the trust and honesty will come early in the relationship,
because the client desires it as well. It will become part
of what is called in recovery the “honeymoon” period -
generally the first 30 days.
The difficulty, of course, is that both counselor and client
know that addiction is a disease characterized by relapse. National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 47
The counselor cannot, in good conscience, validate relapse
when it happens because the overriding covert agenda in
the relationship is for the client to stop relapsing. This
agenda implies, of course, judgement, which is contrary
to the goal of therapy.
This is a bind, and one to which the client is not
insensitive. If the counselor has done a particularly good
job and has won the trust of the client, then, when the
generally inevitable relapse occurs, the client’s usual move
will be to drop out of treatment so as to “protect the
counselor from disappointment.”
Daily urine testing in a therapeutic acupuncture-based
setting discharges this dilemma. At Lincoln, and in
other similar programs, the computer software interfaces
with an on-site urine testing machine. With substantial
client numbers, the cost of urinalysis for the single drug
for which the client has been referred to treatment can
be reduced to as little as a dollar and a half per test.
Multiple client urines are tested at once, and the data is
downloaded to the client’s attendance file. A print-out
of urine toxicity patterns over the period of the client’s
treatment attendance can be generated while the client
is having acupuncture. A subsequent counseling session
that begins with the client having this print-out in hand
can commence at an entirely different therapeutic level,
free from the potentially codependent “how are you
doing?”, because “how the client is doing” is already
objectively established. The content of the answer to the
question, “how are you doing?” is not being elicited by
the counselor. Nor does the answer depend upon the
client’s best recollection of when he or she last used, but
rather has been provided by the client’s own body, so one
important element of denial is also dispelled. Clinical
experience shows that clients come to enjoy this daily
feedback. It can perhaps be likened to a person who is
trying to lose weight stepping on the scale each morning.
A significant barrier to treatment in criminal justice
settings is that acupuncture is designated by Federal law as
an “experimental procedure,” thus precluding mandated
application among incarcerated, probated, and paroled
populations. Its current use is therefore limited to those
who “volunteer” for treatment. Even so, the use of the
auricular acupuncture protocol in incarcerated settings
illustrates its application beyond the detoxification phase
and its potential for addressing some of the social and
economic problems attending chemical dependency.
In Minnesota, it has been integrated into 4 state prison
treatment programs, one of which is a research program.
Elsewhere, the protocol has been to treat inmates with a
history of chemical dependency daily for 30 days prior
to their release. In the Dade County Stockade in Miami,
from late 1989 to the present, the number of inmates
treated in this manner has grown from 140 to 527. An
independent research project to study the impact of this
treatment on re-arrest has just begun as of this writing.
Similar programs have begun in Santa Clara, San Luis
Obispo, and Santa Barbara Counties in California. A
preliminary study of Santa Barbara County Jail inmates
indicates that those receiving 24 or more treatments during
the last 30 days of their incarceration are two-thirds less
likely to be re-arrested in the 2 months following release
than those receiving 6 or fewer treatments (Brumbaugh
& Wheeler, 1991). In that an acupuncturist can treat as
many as 35 inmates in an hour, this treatment modality
shows great promise as a cost-effective method of inmate
reduction in our vastly overcrowded jails.
Also promising is the use of acupuncture in homeless
shelters, where alcohol and drug treatment is often resisted
due to the unmanageability of withdrawal symptoms in
such a setting, and where shelter client safety has become
an increasing concern. A Santa Barbara program operates
an acute detoxification program with clients who are
under the custodial care of a homeless shelter at night.
Clients receive two acupuncture treatments daily, and
the program has had a minimum of withdrawal-related
medical emergencies, seizures, or social altercations.
Shelter staff report that the program has had a positive
effect on management of the facility in general. The
program has a 90% program completion and aftercare
program placement rate (Brumbaugh, 1992).
Acupuncture treatment has also found successful
application in the treatment of chemically dependent
prepartum and postpartum women (Ackerman, 1991),
and a variation of the protocol is being used to treat
chemically exposed infants (Keenan, 1991). Clinics that
use acupuncture as part of the treatment design and
that are specifically focused on the needs of pregnant
women are now in operation at Lincoln Hospital (Smith,
1990), at the MIRA Clinic at Bayview-Hunter’s Point
in San Francisco, in Miami at the Metro/Dade Office of
Rehabilitation Services, and in St. Paul, Minnesota, at
the Maternal Child Project.
Acupuncture is of particular efficacy with prenatal
women, because, while it is well known that the common
substances of abuse such as alcohol, cocaine, heroin,
amphetamines, PCP, and marijuana have documented
teratogenic potential for the fetus (NAPARE, 1989),
medications used to accomplish detoxification are also 48 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
teratogenic (Cregler & Mark, 1986). There is concern
that abrupt withdrawal during pregnancy may be
damaging to the mother and fetus. Acupuncture reduces
this risk by supporting the process of withdrawal and
avoiding the impact of sudden abstinence.
The enthusiastic law enforcement speakers at the 1991
NADA conference were, unfortunately, “preaching to the
converted,” for the small audience was comprised largely of
people already working in this frontier field. Although there
are now over 175 acupuncture-based chemical dependency
programs operating in the United States, and dozens
more elsewhere in the world, acceptance of acupuncture
as a legitimate treatment component by the chemical
dependency community has been, at best, guarded. In the
areas of the country where acupuncture has flourished, it is
highly localized. While it has a firm foothold, for example,
in the chemical dependency treatment delivery systems in
the cities and regions mentioned above, it has failed to gain
acceptance with the departments of drugs and alcohol in any
of the states where these programs exist. The single exception
as of this writing is New York, where the State’s Division
of Substance Abuse Services recently released a concept
paper (Puccio, 1991) strongly advocating acupuncture as a
“threshold technology,” most effective in “assisting cocaine
and/or alcohol addicted clients who resist initial treatment.”
Acupuncture, according to the paper, “works in concert with
traditional drug abuse treatment approaches (and) transcends
the barriers to all treatment components.”
Acceptance at the Federal level is also reserved. A February
1991 memo from the National Institute on Drug Abuse
(NIDA) to the U.S. Congress Select Committee on
Narcotics Abuse, states that they feel this treatment
modality “shows some promise,” but that more research
is required (Egertson, 1991). The only acupuncture
research they are currently funding is a new cocaine
treatment research project in Minneapolis and a 3-year
study in Miami focussed on IV needle use. At less than
$1,000,000 each, these are among the smallest of NIDA’s
current research grants. Miami is a 3-phase grant. The first
phase has been completed, and the experimental group
receiving acupuncture has demonstrated a faster rate of
delivering clean urines than groups receiving counseling
only. Also of interest is that, with acupuncture, court
referred clients responded more favorably than selfreferred
clients (Grossman, National Institute on Drug
Abuse, personal interview, July 1992).
The Federal Office of Treatment Improvement (OTI), in
their first funding cycle in 1990, received one application
that included acupuncture. They denied the application
by a 5-to-4 vote, questioning “the efficacy of the use
of acupuncture in (the treatment of high risk narcotics
addict probationers)” (OTI, 1990). Due in part to the
lobbying efforts of the National Association of Criminal
Justice Planners, OTI’s director Beny Primm has since
been quoted as stating that future funding applications
to OTI will not be denied “solely on the basis that they
contain acupuncture components” (Cunniff, Executive
Director, The National Association of Criminal Justice
Planners, 1331 H Street N.W., Suite 401, Washington,
DC 20005; 1991). Charles Rangel (1990), Chairman of
the Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control,
in a letter to Beny Primm in July of 1990, perhaps also
contributed to the softening of OTI’s position by stating
that “acupuncture (though) not, as yet, fully understood
... should not be overlooked or rejected offhand.” Citing
the dramatic success of the cocaine diversion program in
Miami, Rangel went on to say that “This is precisely the
kind of innovative experiment that Congress has provided
for through demonstration grant funds. I strongly urge
you to look into this program, to consider it objectively,
with an open mind and without prejudgment.”
But again, such support is isolated. In the voluminous
triennial report of the Department of Health and
Human Resources (DHHS, 1991) to Congress, in their
cataloging of innovative new drug treatment modalities,
mention is made of such experimental treatment tools as
pocket computers· by which nicotine addicts can keep
track of the number of cigarettes smoked during the day,
but there is no mention of acupuncture in the document.
This resistance, often tacit, like the Western cultural
resistance to acupuncture in general, is understandable.
Acupuncture, and the “invisible circulatory energy”
paradigm of the organism upon which it is based, is
implicitly nonrational. In that its basic premises about
the body are based upon energic rather than somatic
considerations (Porkert & Ullman, 1988, pp. 13-63, 265-
278), it is in fundamental conflict with Western medical and
scientific philosophy, from which current drug treatment
strategies and theories have developed. Like Alcoholics
Anonymous, itself a historical and cultural reaction against
Western “scientism” (Kurtz, 1979, p. 171), acupuncture
addresses addictive disorder on a “nonrationalistic” and
subjective plane where the issues of recovery lie not in
the relationship of the addict with the external world or
“fix,” but rather in relationship with self, in the possibility
of healing from within. Oriental medicine characterizes
addiction in terms such as “yin deficiency,” “stuck liver
chi,” and “empty fire syndrome.” Such unfamiliar and National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 49
“nonmedical” tautology is not easily embraced by the
“rational” Western drug treatment establishment.
However, in addition to the studies already cited, some
research under the parameters of Western scientific
investigation has been achieved. In 1987 in a medically
supervised study of chronic homeless alcoholic men in
Hennepin County, Minnesota, 80 subjects were divided
into 2 groups matched for drinking history and prior
treatment experience. The control group were given
sham acupuncture, needled at nontherapeutic points a
few millimeters away from standard treatment points;
53% of the treatment group completed the 8-week
treatment regimen, compared with 2.5% of the control
group. During the 6-month follow-up of the 2 groups,
the control group had more than twice as many drinking
episodes and had to be re-admitted to detox more than
twice as often as the experimental group (Bullock,
Culliton, & Olander, 1989). These same researchers
are currently comparing acupuncture with Valium in
treating the symptoms of acute alcohol withdrawal, and
are the recipients of the new NIDA cocaine treatment
A similar placebo-type study was done at Bayview-Hunter’s
Point Clinic comparing methadone and acupuncture in
the detoxification from heroin. This 3-phase, 11
study was commissioned by the California legislature. A
report to the legislature indicates that acupuncture clients
were more likely to have clean urinalysis and reported
longer periods of abstinence with fewer problem days
than their methadone controls (TRIAD, 1991).
One of the non-criminal-justice speakers at the 1991
NADA Conference was Robert Olander, Commissioner
of Chemical Health for Hennepin County, Minnesota,
and one of the active NIDA researchers there. He
suggested that there have been three “benchmarks”
in the history of alcohol and drug treatment in the
United States, three things that have revolutionized
the way we do alcohol and drug therapy: first was the
founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935; second was
the development of pharmaceuticals in the late 1950s
and early ‘60s, and the third is acupuncture. Whether
acupuncture indeed deserves a place on this exclusive
list remains to be seen. Given the economic and social
devastation of the current drug and addiction problem in
the United States, however, we are perhaps well advised
to reflect upon Rangel’s urging, “to consider it objectively,
with an open mind and without prejudgment.”
1. Ackerman. R. (1991). Acupuncture detoxification for
pregnant substance abusers. (Available from Project
Recovery, Santa Barbara Council on Alcoholism and
Drug Abuse. P.O. Box 28, Santa Barbara. CA 93102)
2. Bensoussan, A. (1990). The vital meridian. Edinburgh:
3. Brecher, E.M. (1972). Licit and Illicit Drugs: The Consumer
Union Report. Boston: Little, Brown.
4. Brumbaugh. A. (1992). Acute care program: First year
report. (Available from Project Recovery, Santa Barbara
Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, P.O. Box 28.
Santa Barbara, CA 93(02)
5. Brumbaugh, A., & Wheeler, S. (1991). Six month jail
demonstration project: A preliminary analysis. (Available
from Project Recovery. Santa Barbara Council on
Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. P.O. Box 28. Santa Barbara.
6. Bullock, M., Culliton. P, & Olander. R. (1989).
Controlled trial of acupuncture for severe recidivistic
alcoholism. Lancet, 143S-1439.
7. Childress. A.R., McLellan, A.T., Natale. M., & O’Brien,
C.P. (1986). Mood states can elicit conditioned withdrawal
and craving in opiate abuse patients (National Institute
on Drug Abuse Research Monograph Series, No. 76).
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
8. Cregler, L. & Mark, H. (1986). Medical complications
of drug abuse. New England Journal of Medicine, 315.
9. DHHS. (1991). Drug abuse and drug abuse research: The
third triennial report to CongressJrom the Secretary. U.S.
Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHS
Publication No. ADM 91-1704).
10. Egertson. J.A. (1991, February 4). Chief, Government
and Constituent Relations Branch, National Institute on
Drug Abuse. Memorandum to Rod Weich. United States
11. Gorski, T. (1987). Staying sober-A guide to relapse
prevention. New York: Harper and Row.
12. Kaptchuk. T. (1983). The web that has no weaver. New
York: Congdon and Weed.
13. Keenan, P. (1991). Treatment for babies in the face of
the crack epidemic. MIRA: The Quarterly Newsleuer
of Multicultural Inquiry and Research on AIDS, 5 (2).
(Available from MIRA, S81S 3rd Street, San Francisco
14. Konefal, J. (1990). Acupuncture program services:
Mid-year progress report. (Available from University
of Miami. School of Medicine, Department of
Psychiatry, P.O. Box 016069. Miami FL 33101)50 National Acupuncture Detoxification Association
15. Kurtz, E. (1979). Not God—A history of Alcoholics
Anonymous. Center City, MN: Hazelden Press.
16. Lane, C. (1988). Final evaluation report: Acupuncture
Detoxification Project, Hooper Center. Central City
Concern, Multnomah County, Oregon. Alcohol and
17. Lipton, D.S., Brewington, V., & Smith. M. (1990).
Acupuncture and crack addicts: A single-blind placebo
test of efficacy (NIDA Grant No.1 ROI DAOS632-01;
available from Narcotic and Drug Research. Inc., 11
Beach Street, New York, NY 10010).
18. Man, C. (1972a). Mechanisms of acupunctural anesthesia:
The two gate control theory. Diseases of the Nervous System,
19. Man, C. (l972b). Acupuncture “anesthesia”: A new theory
and clinical study. Current Therapeutic Research, 14, 390-
20. McPeake, J.D. et al. (1991). Altered states of consciousness
therapy: A missing component in alcohol and drug
rehabilitation treatment. Journal of Substance Abuse
Treatment, 8. 75-82.
21. Melzack. J.R. (1973). How acupuncture can block pain.
Impact of Science on Society. UNESCO, 13. 6S.
22. Melzack. J.R. (1974). Acupuncture analgesia: A
psychophysiological explanation. Minnesota Medicine, 57,
23. NAPARE. (1989). Substances most commonly abused
during pregnancy and their risks to mother and baby.
National Association for Perinatal Addiction Research and
Education Newsletter, Chicago.
24. Nogier, P.F.M. (1983). From auriculotherapy to
auriculomedicine. Sainte-Ruffine. France: Maisonneuve.
25. OTI. (1990). Summary statement for Application
Number: 1 H8ITI 00112-0103 by the Office of Treatment
Improvement, United States Department of Health and
Human Services,to Santa Barbara County Drug and
Alcohol Program, cover letter dated September 21, 1990.
26. Porkert, M., & Ullman. C. (1988). Chinese Medicine-Its
history, philosophy and practice (translated and adapted by
Mark Howson). New York: William Morrow.
27. Puccio, P.S. (1991). Acupuncture detoxification and
relapse service: A concept paper. New York: New York Slate
Division of Substance Abuse Services.
28. Rangel. C. (1990, July 11). Chairman. United States
House of Representatives Select Committee on
Narcotics Abuse and Control, letter to Beny J. Primm,
M.D., Associate Administrator, Office of Treatment
29. Seymour, R., & Smith, D.E. (1987). Drugfree. New York:
Sarah Larin Books.
30. Smith, M. (1979). Acupuncture and natural healing in
drug detoxification. American Journal of Acupuncture, 2,
31. Smith, M. (1988). Acupuncture treatment for crack:
Clinical survey of 1.500 patients. American Journal of
Acupuncture. 16. 241-247.
32. Smith. M. & Kahn, I. (1988). An acupuncture programme
for the treatment of drug addicted persons. Bulletin on
Narcotics, 40, 35-41.
33. Smith, M. (1990). Raising healthy babies for the 90’s.
(Available through Lincoln Hospital, Maternal Substance
Abuse Services. 349 East I40th Street. Bronx NY 10454)
34. Sodipo, J., & Falaiye, J. (1979). Acupuncture and gastric
acid studies. American Journal of Chinese Medicine. 7,356-
35. TRIAD. (1991). Trial of acupuncture detoxification:
Final report (Delivered to California State Legislature).
36. Wall, P.O. (1978). The gate control theory of pain
mechanisms; a re-examination and restatement. Brain,
37. Wen, H.L.. & Cheung, S.Y.C. (1973). How acupuncture
can help addicts. Drugs and Society, 2, 8-18.
Alex G. Brumbaugh, BA, CAC
Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse | <urn:uuid:25c26f3d-85fe-40a4-9982-35853ccf7d96> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://acupanc.jimdo.com/nada-protoc%EF%BD%8C/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549425407.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20170725222357-20170726002357-00656.warc.gz | en | 0.89851 | 43,757 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Political, Social And Moral Messages In The Works Of Dr. Seuss Essay, Research Paper
Theodore Seuss Geisel, better known to coevalss of readers all over the universe as & # 8220 ; Dr. Seuss, & # 8221 ; is the American writer of many popular kids s books. Dr. Seuss & # 8220 ; deft combination of easy words, fleet rimes and balmy bunk & # 8221 ; ( Horn 69 ) has convinced many kids that reading does non hold to be a deadening job, but alternatively can be fun and entertaining. Amidst these cockamamie drawings of zany characters spurting off brainsick rhetoric, there is much concealed symbolism. Many of Dr. Seuss works incorporate political, societal, and moral messages.
Political messages in Dr. Seuss works include war, economic and environmental subjects. Two of Dr. Seuss subsequently works, The Butter Battle Book and The Lorax, & # 8220 ; take strong bases on the dangers of indifference to universe affairs. & # 8221 ; ( Horn 70 ) In The Butter Battle Book, Seuss takes atomic war as his subject. Two groups of animate beings live on either side of a rock wall. One side eats their bread butter side up, while the other side chows their bread butter side down. Because of each group s uneven ways, neither side trusts the other. Each side sets up a boundary line patrol with mild protection. Over the class of the book, the arms get more complicated and powerful until each side invents & # 8220 ; the bitsy big-boy boomeroo, & # 8221 ; a really powerful bomb. Each side is ready to destruct the other when the books ends. These groups could stand for the atomic oppositions of the clip, chiefly the United States and Russia. & # 8220 ; In this book Dr. Seuss turns didactic and calls up many moral statements grownups make against atomic proliferation. & # 8221 ; ( Lystad 1 ) This book & # 8220 ; ends without declaration of the issues & # 8221 ; ( Lystad 2 ) and leaves it up to the reader to make up one’s mind his or her ain beliefs on atomic war.
Political issues originate once more in Green Eggs and Ham. In this book & # 8220 ; Sam-I-Am s continuity convinces a friend to seek an unusual & # 8211 ; but tasty & # 8211 ; dish. & # 8221 ; ( Horn 67 ) This confrontation between Sam-I-Am and his friend is & # 8220 ; so evidently a parable about the battle between capitalist and socialist ideologies. & # 8221 ; ( Atkinson 132 ) It can be said that Sam-I-Am represents the capitalist United States seeking to convert communist states to seek the new, unusual and unusual dish of green eggs and jambon, which represents capitalist economy.
Political messages can besides be found in The Lorax, in which & # 8220 ; the menace is environmental. & # 8221 ; ( Lystad 4 ) In this book the Once-ler, an evil character, comes to the beautiful land where the Truffula trees grow. The Once-Ler sees the trees merely as a commercial net income and chops them down to do merchandises. The Lorax, the amusing brown hero who wants to salvage the trees and animate beings, preaches against this, but the Once-Ler does non listen. He builds a elephantine mill which fills the air with smog. No 1 listens until all of the animate beings and fish dice from pollution and all of the trees are chopped down. In the terminal, the Once-Ler realizes his errors and gives the last leftover Truffula seed to a male child. He tells the male child that the Lorax was right after all, and that if the male child workss the seed and treats it with attention, there is hope for the environment and for those who live in it.
A societal issue Dr. Seuss trades with is fascism. In many of his books characters & # 8220 ; extol friendly relationship between differing racial, cultural and national groups. & # 8221 ; ( Lystad 4 ) Dr. Seuss book The Sneetches is a book about a notional group of animals, the Sneetches. These Sneetches are of two sorts, & # 8221 ; the plain-bellied and the star-bellied, the latter sing
themselves superior to the former.” ( Morite 70 ) Because of this apparently fiddling physical difference, these two groups do non acquire along. Because they are looked down upon, the starless Sneetches stars engage person to topographic point stars upon their abdomens. As a consequence, the other group of Sneetches has their stars removed. Because of all the confusion, none of the Sneetches know who belongs to what group. By the terminal of the narrative these two groups come to the decision that, “stars or no stars, they are all the same sort of Sneetch deep down, and one is non better than the other.” ( Reading Today 7 )
Even though Dr. Seuss wrote The Sneetches in 1953, its societal message advancing cultural tolerance is being used today. It has been said that, & # 8220 ; this book will be used to mend a war-worn country. & # 8221 ; ( Reading Today 7 ) Whether or non it may mend remains to be seen, but its value in this instance can barely be disputed. The Sneetches, written by Dr. Seuss in 1953, & # 8220 ; will be translated by NATO into Serbo-Croatian and distributed to 500,000 kids in Bosnia and Herzegovina as portion of an information run to assist promote cultural tolerance. & # 8221 ; ( Reading Today 7 ) The thought to make this came from & # 8220 ; a NATO soldier who read the book as a kid and remembered the message of tolerance in The Sneetches. & # 8221 ; ( Reading Today 7 ) Dr. Seuss characters & # 8220 ; now have the chance to learn their lessons of tolerance in a far more of import theatre of operations: the heads of the kids of Bosnia. & # 8221 ; ( Reading Today 7 ) This usage of The Sneetches shows how the societal messages built-in in his work non merely supersede boundaries of clip, but besides of nationality and ethnicity.
Moral duty & # 8220 ; is a theme Geisel has warmed to over the old ages in the face of environmental impairment and menace of atomic attack. & # 8221 ; Several of Dr. Seuss books leave a message of duty for others in society. ( Horn 70 ) In Thidwick The Big-Hearted Moose, moral duty arises once more as a cardinal thought. Thidwick allows the other animate beings to populate in his horns even though it is quite inconvenient and really uncomfortable for him. Thidwick looses these freeloaders when his horns shed. The animate beings, caught in the horns, are bagged and stuffed by huntsmans. Thidwick, on the other manus, swims to safety. This narrative implies the message that immoral people might derive temporarily, but moral people will win in the terminal. In Horton Hatches the Egg, Horton the kindhearted elephant agrees to assist a lazy bird by sitting on her egg while she flies off for a holiday. The female parent bird decides to ne’er come back. Horton suffers through many jobs such as bad conditions and being ridiculed by the other animate beings. In the terminal, Horton is rewarded when the egg hatches into an elephant-bird. All of these plants & # 8220 ; suggest to the reader that single can and should be responsible for the public assistance of others. & # 8221 ; ( Horn 70 )
Within the playful graphics and inventive linguistic communication, Dr. Seuss kids s books convey thoughts about atomic proliferation, environmental jeopardies, economic sciences, fascism, and morality. Despite the fact that some of these plants are more than fifty old ages old, the of import messages within them still keep true today. Whether or non the parents who buy the books of Dr. Seuss recognize the value placed in them, their value as instruction tools for kids can non be disputed. In all, the messages given by Dr. Seuss through his plants could be the very kernel of this authors popularity. The messages are basic and widely applicable, guaranting that his work can be utile to and enjoyed by all. | <urn:uuid:a8631220-78a1-4302-a287-12947505f5ac> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://artcitysigns.com/political-social-and-moral-messages-in-the/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027317113.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20190822110215-20190822132215-00041.warc.gz | en | 0.926318 | 1,773 | 2.828125 | 3 |
New way found to combat brain cancer spread
News Sep 22, 2015
Scientists at the University of Toledo Health Science Campus (UT) and Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) have discovered an innovative way that may stop the spread of the most lethal and aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). In laboratory studies, scientists demonstrated that activating a specific family of proteins halted cancer cell migration into healthy tissue.
GBM is the most common brain tumor in adults; in 2010, there were 22,000 cases in the U.S. People with GBM often live fewer than 15 months following diagnosis because, despite surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, individual cancer cells escape and invade healthy surrounding tissue, making additional treatment attempts increasingly difficult.
“New therapies for GBM are desperately needed,” said UT Assistant Professor Kathryn Eisenmann, Ph.D., corresponding author on the study. “We hope our latest finding will lead to a novel and effective treatment for this extremely aggressive cancer.”
The study, published online by the American Society of Cell Biology in the journal Molecular Biology of the Cell, expands upon an earlier discovery by VARI Professor Arthur Alberts, Ph.D., of a bioactive peptide called DAD and small molecules called intramimics.
Both DAD and intramimics activate a family of proteins called DIAPHs or mDIA, which are known to play vital roles in GBM spread. Eisenmann’s team, led by first author and M.D./Ph.D. graduate student Jessica Arden, showed that locking DIAPH into an “on” state using DAD, intramimic-01 and intramimic-02 stops GBM cells from invading normal brain tissue.
“Metastatic tumor cells are like any moving vehicle—all of the wheels need to be pointed in the right direction when power is applied,” said Alberts, a senior author on the study. “DIAPHs build the structures that hold and point all the wheels moving cells in the right direction. Dr. Eisenmann’s data suggests that DIAPH activation or ‘agonism’ locks all wheels into arbitrary directions, so no matter how hard you push the pedal down, the tumor cells won’t move.”
Historically, therapies aimed at combating the spread of GBM focused on inhibiting mDIA, a member of the DIAPH family that is integrally involved in cell structure and tumor motility. Earlier work in the the Alberts Laboratory also showed that intramimics could impair tumor growth in colon cancer cells and that they could be a potential therapeutic option for other cancers as well. Little work had been done on molecules that activate mDIA as an anti-GBM therapy, prompting the recent study comparing mDIA activation versus inhibition in GBM.
Alberts and Eisenmann hope to soon evaluate the effectiveness of this new strategy in preclinical models, a crucial step in translating this discovery to the clinic and patients.
“GBM is lethal because it so effectively escapes and evades therapy,” Eisenmann said. “Our hope is this discovery will prove to be an anti-tumor strategy and one that will be safe and effective for patients.”
Note: Material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.
Eisenmann KM et al. Small molecule agonists of mammalian Diaphanous-related (mDia) formins reveal an effective glioblastoma anti-invasion strategy. Molecular Biology of the Cell, Published Online September 9 2015. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E14-11-1502
Inside cells, where DNA is packed tightly in the nucleus and rigid proteins keep intricate transport systems on track, some molecules can simply self-organize, find one another in crowded spaces, and quickly coalesce into droplets. Now, new research shows how proteins that organize into liquid droplets inside cells make certain biological functions possible. | <urn:uuid:ea27c7fc-ab53-422f-9ac1-4285b15b7ede> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | https://www.technologynetworks.com/proteomics/news/new-way-found-combat-brain-cancer-spread-283619 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221211664.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20180817025907-20180817045907-00522.warc.gz | en | 0.921744 | 848 | 2.59375 | 3 |
By Candace Cortiella, The Advocacy Institute
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), the latest version of the largest federal law governing public education in the U.S., contains several key provisions important to students with learning disabilities (LD) and their parents. Understanding these opportunities is critical to maximizing the potential they hold for students with LD.
NCLB is intended to improve the academic achievement of all students attending the nation's public schools, with a particular focus on children of low-income families. As such, the Act's requirements regarding parental options apply to schools that accept federal grants under Title I of NCLB.
Recently, Candace Cortiella, founding director of The Advocacy Institute, and an expert on legislative issues that affect people with learning disabilities, talked about opportunities for supplemental services under NCLB.
A: Any school that is eligible for and accepts funds under any programs authorized by Title I of NCLB is a "Title I school" for purposes of the parental choice provisions of the law. Schools may receive grants to support targeted services for specific children or school-wide programs that include all children in the school. Parents can determine if their child's school is a "Title I school" by searching the Public Schools database supplied by the National Center for Education Statistics.
A: NCLB requires that schools make steady progress toward the ultimate goal of all students performing at a "proficient" level in reading, math, and science by the year 2014. This progress is defined as "adequate yearly progress," or AYP. Title I schools that do not achieve AYP for three or more consecutive years must notify parents and make available "supplemental educational services" to students from low-income families, including those with disabilities.
Supplemental educational services are additional academic instruction designed to increase the academic achievement of students in low-performing schools. Services may include tutoring, remediation, and other educational interventions. Services must be provided outside of the regular school day and must be aligned with the State's academic content standards. Eligibility for supplemental services is not dependent on whether the student is a member of a subgroup whose performance resulted in the school not making AYP.
States must provide a list of providers who are "approved" to provide such services and the parents select a provider from the list. States must insure that approved providers have a "demonstrated record of effectiveness in increasing the academic proficiency of students."
A: States must insure that eligible students with disabilities have access to supplemental educational services. Accommodations must be available, but not necessarily from each provider. If no provider is able to offer the supplemental services with the necessary accommodations, the school district must provide such services, with necessary accommodations, either directly or through a contract.
Sign up for our free newsletter and we'll send you
more just like it every week.
Thank you! You will begin to receive newsletters from us shortly.
Thanks for verifying your updated email address.
Oops! That email verification link has expired. Please click the button below to receive a new one.
Create an account to submit your answers.
Sign in with an existing GreatSchools account or using Facebook:
Your review has been posted to GreatSchools.
Share with friends! Post your opinion of on Facebook.
Welcome to GreatSchools!
Thanks! We just sent you an email – please click on the link in the email to post your answers.
Get timely updates for , including performance data and recently posted user reviews. | <urn:uuid:4382ce48-2a24-42b0-a7f7-9c2308bc2a1c> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/legal-rights/871-supplemental-educational-services-under-no-child-left-behind.gs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1409535917463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20140901014517-00405-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949079 | 726 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Joshua: An Introduction ‘These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfilment of the ages has come. (1 Cor 10:11)
Today we begin a 5-week series from the Book of Joshua. The aim is to read one chapter each day – so the set readings will occasionally be quite long. Some of the chapters even seem to make quite boring reading – just long lists of place names. It is worth reading through each chapter however, rather than just taking note of the verse for the day. This is because the book is not a theological treatise, revealing profound truths about God and the human condition, as are for example many of the New Testament letters. It is a history, telling of the way the Hebrew people entered the Land of Promise, taking possession of it, demonstrating over and over again the faithfulness of God. The central character is of course Joshua. From the very first verse of the book when God speaks to him and Joshua is seen as successor to Moses, right to the last few verses that describe the spiritual condition of the nation as Joshua dies, there is no doubt about Joshua’s authority, leadership and total dependence on God. So while Joshua is central to the story, even more so is the character, plan and purpose of God unfolded as we read the stories carefully.
So take time over your readings in this series! Be prepared to ask yourself questions such as ‘What do I see of the character of God in this story?’ Or ‘Is there an example to be followed, or a mistake to be avoided?’ Consider the stories well to see if the issues they deal with and the circumstances surrounding them have any bearing on life as we face it in the 21st Century.
More than most series of readings it raises questions of life and practice that need to be faced, and qualities of character that need serious reflection.
One writer compares the book to the New Testament story of Acts, suggesting that just as the Four Gospels lead on to Church expansion in Acts, so the Pentateuch (Genesis – Deuteronomy) prepares the way for the Hebrew expansion into the Promised Land recorded here in Joshua. Acts and Joshua both record the faithfulness of God as the people expand their horizons.
It has been hard to find many suitable or helpful commentaries on Joshua – and nothing in the way of a study guide that might suggest questions and lines of thought. So come to the book and these daily readings asking questions of your own.
More than ever before too, be prepared to add your comments about the stories you read! Send them to me at and I will collate any comments I receive and perhaps add them to the daily readings for others to look at too! Our passage for further consideration today reflects a significant purpose for reading the Old Testament. It certainly lies behind the approach that I have taken in preparing them. | <urn:uuid:1005959d-8314-45cf-8bdb-b53f9e758806> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://www.thehubbeeding.org/2020/04/27/monday-27th-april-hub-daily-notes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780055808.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20210917212307-20210918002307-00070.warc.gz | en | 0.967486 | 599 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Thinking about starting vegetable seeds indoors? If yes, here’s a complete stepwise guide that will help you understand the procedure thoroughly!
So you have finally decided to establish your own mini-vegetable garden? Well, that’s really a great idea since homegrown veggies and fruits are way richer in flavour and nutrients than those available in groceries stores. If you are new to growing vegetables, you might get confused between two options; whether you should go with the transplant or start from seeds? Your answer lies in the motive behind the task!
Remember, you have decided to move towards growing vegetables within the home just for enjoying a wide variety, richer flavours and to get access to 100% organic edibles. Now, if you buy the transplants, you will be doing nothing but fooling yourself with a delusion.
Most of the transplants you buy from the nurseries are usually of average or below-average quality, so the veggies they produce would be nothing different. Plus, nurseries also keep a limited stock of transplants when it comes to variety.
On the other hand, while starting from seeds, you won’t only be able to get high-quality seeds to get premium quality veggies effortlessly but you’ll also be able to customise your growing conditions to make the yield 100% natural and chemical-free. And don’t forget to add the brownie points of being affordable – even the superior-grade seeds with a 100% germination rate will be much cheaper than transplants.
The list of pros continues and seems like it will never end. So, here we are, with our how-to guide about starting vegetable seeds indoors. Keep on reading the article and unravel the easy steps so you could say HOLA to a healthier and organic lifestyle sooner.
How to Start Vegetable Seeds Indoors: A stepwise guide
Step 1: Gather the supplies
From seeds to seed mix and pots, you need to get too many things to start vegetable seeds indoors. The good thing is all these supplies are not too extravagant and can be bought in a few dollars.
If you have been associated with gardening ever before, then odds are you might already have most of the supplies. Start with the seeds. You can either buy the commercially available seed packets or preserve them out of the produce.
Some vegetables like potatoes, tomatoes, and carrots can be easily grown from the vegetable itself so, in that case, you just need to visit your local grocery stores to purchase veggies. On the other hand, while pushing seeds, try to get only the freshest ones. Remember, the older the seeds are, the lesser their germination rate.
After getting seeds, get the seed mix that is developed mainly for growing seeds and seedlings. Our experts strongly recommend not to use your garden soil seeds indoors since it contains an abrupt quantity of nutrients and comes with a higher risk of diseases.
On the other hand, soil mix is not the soil itself, but a mixture of nutrients and essential components which let your seeds sprout faster, without making them prone to diseases. Also, soil mix also holds better water-absorbing capacity and better drainage to prevent your pot from pooling.
After soil mix, the next thing you need to get is a pot or container wherein you will grow your vegetable seeds. There’s no need to get fancy, high-grade pots. You can just recycle the plastic or cardboard food containers and cans like yoghurt can or egg cartons. Whatever type of container you use, don’t forget to poke holes at its bottom. Through these holes, the excessive water will drain out.
Once the seedlings will emerge, you need to get half-power fertiliser to add to the soil mix. Such fertilisers help seedlings to grow stronger and longer roots and shoot in less time. Also, since you are growing seeds indoors, you also have to purchase fluorescent lights to fulfil the plant’s sunlight needs. However, if you indoors get 6-8 hours of sunlight within your house, you don’t need to purchase fluorescent lights.
Step 2: Sow your seeds
Now, since you’ve collected all the essentials needed to start seeds indoors, you can move toward the most fun part: sowing the seeds. First of all, fill your pots or container with the potting mix fully.
Remember, the pots you are using should be deep enough to bury the seed completely. After filling the potting mix into the containers, make some depressions using your fingers, where you’ll bury the seeds.
If you don’t want to use fingers, you can do the same using an unsharpened pencil or the rear end of a ballpoint. Usually, the answer to How deep you should bury your seeds is stated over the seed packet. If not, you can use the general rule of thumb according to which, the sowing depth should be thrice the width of the seed.
In this case, to grow smaller seeds like those of tomatoes, you can use even the flat trays, filled with potting mix. On the other hand, for bigger seeds like peas and beans, you need relatively bigger and deeper pots.
Remember, you have to choose only the biggest and healthiest seeds to grow inside the pot to ensure 100% germination. Also, sow numerous seeds, at a time, within a single pot so one of them would grow for sure. After burying the seeds, cover the surface with another layer of soil mix and water it.
Do not use a tap or watering can since it will deteriorate the entire soil surface and even can damage the seed and delicate seedling. Get a water sprayer or turkey baster to dampen the growing medium and puke a toothpick into the pot for ventilation purposes.
Step 3: Wait for the seedling to sprout out
Now, most of the work has been done and all you need to do is wait and take care of a few things. Seeds need warmer soil to sprout so you need to place your pot in a hotter room or above the refrigerator or another all-time-functional appliance.
In this way, the soil mix within the container would stay warm and the seed would transform into seedlings earlier. To keep the heat inside the system, cover the mouth of the pot with a plastic sheet. Doing so will also help to prevent dehydration.
Don’t worry about the airflow since the toothpick-based ventilation will allow sufficient air to pass through the system and discard all chances of mould and fungus growth. However, you need to make sure that the soil mix stays damp 24/7 and whenever you detect a lower moisture level, water it.
Once the seedlings start to sprout out, remove all the covering sheets and place the pot in a window or terrace to absorb sunlight. Also, discard all the additional seedlings from the pot and choose only the healthiest and biggest one to keep growing.
Step 4: Maintain your seedlings
Most gardeners get completely relieved as soon as they see their seedlings bursting the topmost soil layer; however, that’s the point where your plants need most of your attention and care.
Especially when you are growing indoor plants, there are way too many risks of catching diseases due to overwatering or over-nurturing. Thus, to maintain your seedlings and let them flourish into flavorful veggies, you need to make sure about some aspects.
First of all, you need to provide longer and stronger hours of sunlight to your plant. Even if your window gets 6-8 hours of direct sunlight, it will not be sufficient for some vegetable plants. Also, since most of the spring days are cloudy, foggy, or rainy, you need to acquire a man-made grow light where you can place your seedlings during nights and cloudy days.
Besides sunlight, also make sure to water your seedlings after every few days but don’t overwater since it can lead to damping diseases. The best time to water your seedling is when the topmost layer of soil gets slightly dry.
If you detect any mould growth within the pot, try to scrape it out using a spoon or a knife. But be careful so you don’t damage the delicate roots of your seedling. After your seedlings develop two to three leaves, add another dosage of half-strength fertiliser and keep on adding one after another, every week, to fulfil its nutritional content.
Don’t forget, there’s no need to add any supplemental feed into the pot until there are prominent sets of leaves. Otherwise, the mighty components of the formula might burn the entire little plant in a few minutes.
Try to maintain the temperature of the room between 21°C-26°C. Remember that the higher temperatures may lead to stunning root and shoot growth so, the room temperature should never exceed 37°C in any way. Once the seedlings start turning into mature plants, you should start preparing them for transplanting into garden beds or huge plant pots.
Use the hardening off technique to prepare them for outdoor transplanting. In this method, we bring the potted plants into the outside environment for a few hours daily, to introduce them to new conditions. However, if you are not planning on shifting your plants into an outdoor environment, there’s no need to undergo this technique. | <urn:uuid:9cce7917-cfde-4921-a917-0ed93cce978e> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://gardenconcern.com/how-to-start-vegetable-seeds-indoors/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338280.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007210452-20221008000452-00581.warc.gz | en | 0.937212 | 1,942 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Why travellers prefer Blue Cross
“Working on my tan” is one of the most popular activities for people during the summer and when on vacation somewhere south in the winter. Canadians love to spend time outdoors and soak up the sun. However, as research continues to show that it’s vital to protect the skin from too much sun exposure, many of us still get caught up in the desire to get a great tan.
Here are some common misconceptions about sun exposure that may increase your risk of skin cancer:
Unfortunately, it is not. “Skin cancer in Canada is just becoming an epidemic right now,” says dermatologist Dr. Jennifer Beecker in theloop.ca. “One in 50 people will have melanoma and that’s the really potentially deadly type. It’s really increased in frequency the last 50 to 100 years.”
Yes, this is true. However, there are other ways you can get vitamin D. If you have a deficiency, you can take a supplement. Even if you are in the sun frequently, it does not necessarily mean your body will properly synthesize the vitamin.
Whether you have olive skin and rarely burn or are pale and burn easily, everyone is at risk when exposed to the sun.
“The risk of melanoma is 75% greater for people who use tanning beds before the age of 30,” says the Canadian Skin Cancer Foundation. In fact, skin cancer is the second-most common cancer in people 15 to 34 years of age, making it even more important for young people to take sun safety seriously.
According to the Canadian Skin Cancer Foundation:
Before you head outside or to the beach to work on your tan, make sure you take the necessary steps to protect yourself:
Taking these steps will reduce your risk of getting skin cancer, and they can help your skin look healthier as you age.
If you notice a change in your skin or you have general concerns, book an appointment to see your doctor. Most forms of skin cancer are treatable. | <urn:uuid:596a48c7-7d71-4d0e-8147-c68d9115b2c0> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://on.bluecross.ca/travel-insurance/travel-tips/434-sun-safety-and-misconceptions-about-skin-cancer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506528.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20230923194908-20230923224908-00221.warc.gz | en | 0.956258 | 421 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Options for disposing of leaves
Fall clean-up usually means having to deal with an abundance of leaves. State law now bans this material from landfills and burning facilities in Minnesota. The options still available to homeowners include off-site disposal or use of leaves in the home landscape.
Options for off-site disposal include:
- having them hauled away for a fee by your private refuse hauler.
- having them hauled away by a community pick-up program (if available).
- disposal of them at a community composting or drop-off site (if available).
- disposal of them at a commercial yard waste processing site in your area.
For information on community programs or sites, contact the Recycling Coordinator in your city. Contact your refuse hauler for their policies and rates, and check the Yellow Pages or your city office for the names of commercial yard waste processors near you. Shredding leaves can reduce volume by 50% or more and may result in reduced disposal costs.
Options for using leaves at home include:
- spreading them as a mulch around trees, shrubs, and in planting beds.
- adding them to your compost pile.
- leaving some of them where they fall.
Leaves make an excellent mulch for use around trees and shrubs, or in flower and vegetable gardens. They help retard the growth of weeds, help retain soil moisture, help maintain lower soil temperatures in the summer, and protect against temperature fluctuations and some types of low temperature injury during winter. They eventually decompose, adding their nutrients to the soil and improving soil structure.
Leaves make a good addition to your compost pile. Shredding is not required, but it may speed their rate of decomposition. Leaves are difficult to compost alone and will require extra nitrogen in the form of a commercial fertilizer (no weed 'n' feed products), or materials high in nitrogen such as grass clippings. If you have room, you can save leaves to mix with green materials next summer. As a general rule, grass clippings should be left on the lawn, but for those times when you need to collect clippings, it is useful to have leaves to mix with the grass for better composting results. For more detailed information on composting, see Extension publication FO-3296, Composting and Mulching: A Guide to Managing Organic Yard Wastes.
If you plan to allow leaves to remain on the lawn, it must be done cautiously and should be confined to lawns with only a light covering of leaves. (Grass blades should still be visible through leaves before shredding.) Shredding is recommended; several passes using a mower with or without a leaf shredding attachment will improve your chances for success. Even when shredded, it does not take a very heavy layer of leaves to smother the grass, causing partial die-back, or making it more susceptible to diseases. It is often necessary to remove at least some of the fallen leaves from the lawn.
Leaves from trees with leaf diseases such as apple scab, anthracnose, or leaf spot should be removed or destroyed to prevent over-wintering of the disease organisms in the debris and possible re-infection of new leaves next year. Oak leaves decompose more slowly than other types of leaves and it is best to use them for mulch or compost. In fact, their slower rate of decomposition makes them well suited for use as mulch.
The decision to shred or not shred leaves for composting or mulching is a matter of personal preference and is related to the homeowner's willingness to spend money for the purchase or rental of appropriate equipment. The ability and willingness to perform physical labor and to accept the potential physical risks may also be a factor in this decision. It is best in some cases to hire a landscape maintenance company to do your shredding.
You can shred leaves by running them through a shredder/chipper. This equipment is relatively expensive to purchase (several hundred dollars), and you should be sure to buy a machine that is large enough to handle your volume of leaves. Many of the smaller, less expensive machines require much more time to handle a large volume of material. Even some of the larger machines will become clogged if the leaves are wet, so it is better to only shred leaves when they are dry. Always use proper safety equipment and practices. (See Extension publication FS-3949, Home Yard Waste Chippers/Shredders: Safety Is Important!)
Another shredding option, which may be less effective but is more readily available to homeowners, is using a lawn mower to chop leaves. Most unmodified rotary mowers will at least partially shred leaves. Use of a mulching blade may improve results. Special leaf shredding attachments are available for some major brands of mowers and cost from $20 to $60. Some are more effective than others and may include a screen that helps reduce particle size. Always follow the manufacturer's recommendations when using this equipment in order to avoid damage to your mower. Use good safety practices since debris may be thrown from the mower with considerable force and could cause serious injury.
For more information on yard waste management and composting, check with your local County Extension Office.
Information for Options for Disposing of Leaves was initially compiled by Jack Porter, former Education Coordinator-Yard Waste Management, University of Minnesota Extension-Hennepin County. | <urn:uuid:d2008b1a-5dc4-4bdf-be3a-01d03fad6587> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.extension.umn.edu/Garden/yard-garden/soils/options-for-disposing-of-leaves/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721558.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00038-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950263 | 1,114 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Add your company website/link
to this blog page for only $40 Purchase now!Continue
FutureStarrWhat Is a Massor
Mass is an unnecessary word with an ugly history. The word comes from Latin, where it originally meant large amounts of wet clay.
joule second. One joule is equal to one kilogram times metre squared per second squared. With the second and the metre already defined in terms of other physical constants, the kilogram is determined by accurate measurements of Planck’s constant. (Until 2019 the kilogram was defined by a platinum-iridium cylinder called the International Prototype Kilogram kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sèvres, France.) In the English system of measurement, the unit of mass is the
Weight, though related to mass, nonetheless differs from the latter. Weight essentially constitutes the force exerted on matter by the gravitational attraction of Earth, and so it varies slightly from place to place. In contrast, mass remains constant regardless of its location under ordinary circumstances. A satellite launched into space, for example, weighs increasingly less the farther it travels away from Earth. Its mass, however, stays the same. (Source: www.britannica.com)
metres per second, or 186,000 miles per second). The total energy of an object was understood to comprise its rest mass as well as its increase of mass caused by high speed. The rest mass of an atomic nucleus was discovered to be measurably smaller than the sum of the rest masses of its constituent neutrons and protons. Mass was no longer considered constant, or unchangeable. In both chemical and nuclear reactions, some conversion between mass and energy occurs, so that the products generally have smaller or greater mass than the reactants. The difference in mass is so slight for ordinary chemical reactions that mass conservation may be invoked as a practical principle for predicting the mass of products. Mass conservation is invalid, however, for the behaviour of masses actively involved in nuclear reactors, in particle accelerators, and in the thermonuclear reactions in the Sun and stars. The new conservation principle is the conservation of mass-energy. See also energy, conservation of; energy; Einstein’s mass-energy relation.
The SI base unit of mass is the kilogram (kg). In physics, mass is not the same as weight, even though mass is often determined by measuring the object's weight using a spring scale, rather than balance scale comparing it directly with known masses. An object on the Moon would weigh less than it does on Earth because of the lower gravity, but it would still have the same mass. This is because weight is a force, while mass is the property that (along with gravity) determines the strength of this force. (Source: en.wikipedia.org) | <urn:uuid:7df949a0-ff9b-4779-87e6-63fc1258cc60> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.futurestarr.com/blog/science/what-is-a-massor | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572174.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815115129-20220815145129-00015.warc.gz | en | 0.945008 | 577 | 3.875 | 4 |
What is a director?
A director is someone that manages and controls the operations of a company. They ensure the company operates at the highest possible standards and complies with the relevant legislation. The director is appointed by the shareholders (owners) of a company. In most cases, the director is also a shareholder of the company. There can be more than one director.
A director has many responsibilities and legal obligations to uphold, including:
- Keeping records and registers
- Paying the annual review fee
- Corporate governance
- Active communication with managers and staff
- Ensuring financial data is up-to-date
- Explain the company’s financial position and performance
What are members/shareholders?
Shareholders are the owners of a company. They can be a person, corporate body or a body politic. A Pty Ltd company must have at least one shareholder but no more than fifty. Ownership of the company is split by the amount of shares that you receive. As a shareholder, you are not personally liable for the company’s debts. Shareholders make decisions by passing resolutions in the company meetings.
Share classes are used to assign different rights to shareholders. The two main types are ordinary and preferential. Ordinary shares are the most popular and give you the basic rights as set out in the Corporations Act 2001.
Number of Shares
The number of shares that you choose should reflect the ownership of the company. For example if there are 100 shares issued and two individuals hold 50 shares, they each own 50% of the company. Most companies typically choose between 1-100 shares.
Amount paid per share
In addition to choosing the number of shares in your company, you must also set the price of each share. This price represents the limit of the shareholders legal obligation to pay the debts of the company. For example, if you had 100 shares valued at $1 each, you would only be obligated to pay up to $100 if your company were to go bankrupt. It is fairly typical that company shares are initially priced between 1c and $1. | <urn:uuid:51292df3-9036-4598-a679-8005b04745fd> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://honcho.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204346324-What-is-the-difference-between-a-director-and-shareholder- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964363301.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20211206133552-20211206163552-00017.warc.gz | en | 0.964571 | 428 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Such was the success of UK Biobank recruitment all those years ago, that in the last phase we received extra money to take detailed eye measurements. This visionary decision has created a rich and exciting seam of data that has an impact not just on eye health – but many other disorders as well.
- Could routine eye tests be a cheap, quick and simple way to identify diseases like dementia earlier? Researchers certainly think so, and hope such tests will become commonplace in the near future. Eye examination can identify risk of stroke, heart attack, hypertension, dementia and other health problems. Now, UK Biobank data have shown that thinning of the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) is linked to cognitive decline.
- Glaucoma is the world’s leading cause of incurable blindness. It affects more than 500,000 people in the UK and millions worldwide. An international collaboration has used UK Biobank to identify more than 100 genetic changes linked to high eye pressure that could pave the way for a genetic-based screening programme for those at greatest risk.
- Education and short-sightedness are linked. But it is not clear whether it’s down to more time spent studying, myopic children being more studious, or something else. So researchers used UK Biobank data to find out – and discovered that every additional year of education was associated with more short-sightedness. They said this‘strong evidence’ has ‘important implications for educational practices’.
- Pictures of the eye could be used to identify people at higher risk of heart attack or stroke. The Google Research brain team showed that images can accurately predict a major cardiovascular event. With many thousands of images to study and detailed follow-up of participants’ health, the sheer volume of UK Biobank data is bringing important advances in to focus.
UK Biobank encourages experts to work together. With a vast array of eye data to analyse, leading scientists formed the UK Biobank eye & vision consortium – and are targeting 12 areas of eye research including nutrition, cataracts, genetics, retinal detachment and visual acuity.
Read more: www.ukbiobankeyeconsortium.org.uk/ | <urn:uuid:1e22e1ef-9d37-4316-a8c6-0b2ed0224f76> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/newsletter-2018-the-eyes-have-it/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560628000164.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20190626033520-20190626055520-00470.warc.gz | en | 0.928407 | 457 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Erik Sass is covering the events of the war exactly 100 years after they happened. This is the 267th installment in the series.
February 13, 1917: French Arrest Mata Hari
It’s strangely fitting that the most notorious spy of the First World War was probably guilty of nothing more than self-aggrandizement and bad judgment.
The exotic dancer and courtesan known as Mata Hari was born Margaretha Geertruida in 1876, to a middle-class Dutch family with aspirations to social refinement; her father was a struggling hat-maker and her mother a low-ranking aristocrat with expensive tastes. Although citizens of the Netherlands their ancestry traced back to northern Germany, giving “Margreet” a cosmopolitan air, which was only reinforced by her dark features and “ethnic” appearance, fueling racist rumors of ancestors from India or Indonesia (echoing a scandalous allegation leveled at Britain’s former First Sea Lord and the inventor of the dreadnought, Jackie Fisher).
Two years after her father declared bankruptcy, when Margreet was 15 her mother died and she was sent to live with her godfather. Noticing the effect her “exotic” appearance seemed to have on men, when she was 19 years old she responded to a newspaper personals ad placed by a Dutch colonial officer, Rudolf MacLeod, serving in the Dutch East Indies (today Indonesia), seeking a wife. She moved to the Indies to be with MacLeod, married, and had two children by him, but tragically her older son was fatally poisoned, apparently by an angry servant.
This tragedy spelled the end of their brief, tumultuous marriage, and following their return to Europe in 1901 Margreet left for Paris, where she parlayed her (mostly fictional) exotic background and appearance into a career as a dancer, supposedly performing the ritual dances of the libidinous Far East – naturally involving a good deal of nudity – under the name “Mata Hari,” translating as “Eye of the Day” in Malay. As expected of someone with such a scandalous occupation, she also worked as a high-class prostitute as she toured the capitals of Europe’s cosmopolitan pre-war social scene, notching up countless lovers, including assignations with many of the continent’s most famous and powerful men.
As it happened, May 1914 found Mata Hari in Berlin, where she had a brief affair with a German officer in the “morals” (vice) division. On the outbreak of war she tried to return to Paris, hoping to reconnect with old patrons there, arousing the suspicions of German officials who confiscated all her property, leaving her destitute. Undaunted as always, she managed to reestablish herself in the Netherlands as the mistress of a Dutch baron, and by December 1915 she was back in Paris, visiting all her old haunts and patrons. There she met and fell in love with a much younger Russian officer, the 21-year-old Vladimir de Masloff, who seemed to be equally infatuated with the aging dancer.
Fake Spy, Real Spy
However Mata Hari was also already falling under suspicion from Allied intelligence agencies. The chief French counterintelligence officer, George Ladoux, believed (with no evidence beyond her amorous encounter with the German police officer) that she had accepted an offer from German intelligence to become a paid operative, using her liaisons with powerful men to gain access to key secrets, which she would pass back via unidentified handlers.
In fact, Mata Hari had been approached by a German agent in May 1916 in the Netherlands, and accepted an offer of 20,000 francs to work for Germany, along with a codename, “H21” – but all in bad faith, she would later insist, claiming she went along chiefly out of a desire to recoup the earlier loss of her property at the hands of German officials. Unfortunately for her, this misstep would come to light when France’s fortunes were at a particularly low ebb.
The suspicion of Mata Hari was part of a new wave of spy mania that swept France in 1917, as politicians, the press, and government propaganda sought answers (or excuses) for the nation’s continuing inability to expel foreign invaders, who always seemed to be one step ahead of them – literally, in the case of the German Army’s impending strategic withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. Amid growing social unrest at home and mutinous rumblings at the front, the logical scapegoat was internal betrayal by people of dubious background, reviving the xenophobic and anti-Semitic themes of the Dreyfus Affair from 1894-1906.
The demonization also reflected a number of overlapping fears and insecurities resulting from social and cultural trends, which had gripped France and the rest of Europe by the third year of the war. These included widespread distrust of foreigners, including not just the enemy but also unreliable Allies and potentially treacherous neutrals, as well as unease over women’s growing economic power, and moral panic over the changing sexual mores of the younger generations (typified by parental concern about young women volunteering at hospitals where they could mix with men, and over young men at the front visiting prostitutes and contracting venereal disease). Deviant sex, espionage and blackmail were closely entwined in the popular imagination, thanks in part to the pre-war Redl affair and Caillaux affair.
Although surveillance turned up nothing incriminating, Ladoux was so convinced that Mata Hari was a spy that he offered to make her a double agent in return for large sums of money, with a new mission of infiltrating Germany’s web of spies in France and abroad. Already under suspicion of being a German spy, in constant need of money, and with her lucrative dancing career mostly behind her, Mata Hari happily accepted the offer to become a real spy for France.
Unfortunately for her this glamorous new career proved brief and fatal. On her first and only “mission” she traveled to Belgium and then Spain, and in November 1916 she continued her journey via Britain. When the ship put in at Cornwall, however, British agents arrested her on suspicion of being a spy and took her back to London. Here she told interrogators that she was indeed a spy – but one working for French counterintelligence.
For some reason (perhaps excessive secrecy, or just fear of looking amateurish to his British colleagues) Ladoux now denied any connection with Mata Hari. Nevertheless the Brits, probably concluding that a washed-up exotic dancer was too implausible to be a real spy, released her and shipped her back to Spain. In December 1916, still hoping to prove her worth to Ladoux, she seduced the German military attaché in Madrid, Major Arnold Kalle, stringing him along with worthless gossip and made-up secrets about French politics, and eliciting what she believed were important military secrets in return.
This piece of extracurricular espionage proved her undoing. The amateur spy failed to deduce that Kalle had realized exactly what she was up to, and was feeding her out-of-date and made-up information, deceiving her just as she believed she was deceiving him. When she passed these bogus “secrets” on to Ladoux, it only seemed to confirm that she was in fact a German double agent, as he’d originally suspected. Worse still, on December 13, 1916 French spies monitoring German radio traffic detected a secret transmission from Kalle to Berlin, in which he passed along secrets he attributed to her, using her codename “H21” – even though she claimed that she only received this codename recently. For this codename to already be known to Berlin, Ladoux concluded, she must have been in communication with German intelligence long before, and had therefore been hoodwinking the French all along.
However Ladoux failed to see that this was was all in fact an elaborate counterintelligence gambit perpetrated by Germany’s spymasters. The Germans were aware that the Allies had cracked this particular cipher, and were using it with the knowledge any messages they sent would be decoded, all in an attempt to sow confusion and hopefully trick the French into revealing some of their intelligence assets. Caught in the middle of this war of deceit was Mata Hari, a cheerful opportunist who now found herself far out of her depth.
After she returned to France, on February 13, 1917, at Ladoux’s order French counterintelligence agents arrested Mata Hari as a German agent. Taken to military prison, she immediately denied the charges, writing, “I am innocent. Someone is fooling with me,” and blaming “French counterespionage, since I am in its service, and I have only acted on its instructions.” Nonetheless her notorious reputation, and her habit of embellishing or fictionalizing parts of her own past, effectively signed her death warrant: the French press and public were all too ready to believe that a foreign woman, famed for her loose morals and ability to seduce powerful men, had sold out the Republic, leading to the deaths of thousands of brave young Frenchmen.
Mata Hari’s trial began on July 24, 1917, but with cards stacked against the 41-year old former exotic dancer, its outcome was never really in doubt. The prosecutors never presented any proof that she had actually been working for German intelligence, except for a mysterious receipt showing a payment of 5,000 francs, which it turned out was actually a gift from her old lover the baron (sent anonymously, of course, to protect his reputation). The court also prevented her defense lawyers from calling the baron or Mata Hari’s maid in the Netherlands to testify to clear up this apparently incriminating detail.
The government did present evidence of her numerous encounters with French officers and officials – suggesting (but hardly proving) that she had extracted secrets from them; unsurprisingly, virtually none of her old lovers came forward to testify on her behalf, as this would have tarnished their reputation as well. Then the court heard of the ill-fated trip to Spain, the arrest by British intelligence in Cornwall, and the intercepted radio messages in a cracked cipher, which nobody knew had been sent on purpose to seal her doom. Most damning, Mata Hari herself admitted to receiving the codename “H21” earlier than she had previously stated, at the May 1916 meeting.
Duly convicted on eight charges of espionage, on October 15, 1917, “the greatest woman spy of the century,” who was in reality no such thing, was shot at 5 a.m. by a firing squad of twelve men at a barracks in Vincennes, a suburb of Paris. Her final words: “It is unbelievable.” | <urn:uuid:682d250f-7db5-48f0-ad40-7233c63bf3f1> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/92203/wwi-centennial-french-arrest-mata-hari | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474676.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227121318-20240227151318-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.981106 | 2,252 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Among growing demands for data security and encryption technologies in today’s connected world, random number generation remains a critical security element to ensure our safety and trusted communications.
Randomness, quantitatively measured by entropy, is the measure of uncertainty or disorder within a set of data. The higher the level of unpredictability, the more random the data is and the more valuable it becomes, particularly for cryptographic operations.
To that end, the QuRunner project, led by Nuno Silva (IT/UA), aims to design and integrate a fast, secure, and cost-effective quantum random number generator (QRNG) into IT’s internal network.
Quantum-based technologies rely on QRNGs for securing the communications on telecommunication networks, since these generators have proven to maintain security at the highest possible level.
However, “in typical QRNGs schemes, random numbers are generated slowly and with very expensive equipment” says Nuno Silva.
“With this project, our goal is to explore the quantum uncertainty of the quadrature amplitudes of the vacuum state, so we can use the unpredictability and unrepeatability inherent in quantum mechanics to implement a truly random number generator.
“This technique avoids having to use expensive equipment, such as single-photon detectors, and opens the door to higher generation rates of random numbers, with simple integration with classical technology”.
The QuRunner project is a joint effort between the Optical Quantum Communications and Technologies Group, at IT in Aveiro, and the Security and Quantum Information Group at IT in Lisbon. Their research is funded by the FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) and the MCTES (Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior).
The project will implement a QRNG prototype, giving IT researchers acess to truly random number strings which they can use in computer simulations and in classical or quantum cryptography.
The research team will also make “considerable theoretical efforts to model the experimental devices, design efficient randomness extractors, and study new source device-independent protocols for the QRNG”.
As companies increase the digitalization of their business operations and virtual services expand in the COVID-19 era, new validated QRNG services are an important step towards the development of quantum computing technology. | <urn:uuid:930cf1a3-7cb6-4729-bec0-23915c1cd79f> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://www.it.pt/News/NewsPost/4635 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038061562.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20210411055903-20210411085903-00339.warc.gz | en | 0.902743 | 489 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Root vegetables are a family of strong, hardy plants that grow in the ground. They’re typically sweet and starchy, which makes them a very delicious ingredient in all types of recipes – especially those cozy comfort foods we all know and love (we’re looking at you, baked sweet potato fries). Fortunately, root vegetables are also very nutritious because they contain phytochemicals that protect them from the challenging environment underneath the earth. When we consume these roots, we also receive this protection: it’s like eating your own defense shield! In this guide to root vegetables, you’ll learn the full scoop about this fantastic veggie family and loads of inspiration for how you can use them in your diet.
Culinary Nutrition Benefits of Root Vegetables
Root vegetables are rich in:
- Fibre: Important for balancing blood sugar levels, improving digestion and reducing constipation, lowering cholesterol and boosting satiety.
- Antioxidants: Dampen the production of free radicals and protect our bodies from damage.
- Complex Carbohydrates: Some complain about root vegetables being too sweet and starchy. Yes, some of them are sweet – but the effects of that sweetness is mitigated by their high amount of fibre, as well as their content of vitamins and minerals. You can also offset any potential rise in blood sugar by pairing them with nutritious fats and good quality protein sources.
- Vitamins A + C: Vitamin A supports immunity, vision, inflammation and tissue healing, while Vitamin C helps to fight the common cold, support collagen production, boost immunity and reduce inflammation.
- B Vitamins: Helps with energy levels and nourishes the nervous system.
- Anti-Inflammatory Nutrients: Root vegetables contain a variety of anti-inflammatory compounds that prevent or address inflammation in the body.
How to Use Root Vegetables
Root vegetables can be enjoyed in a variety of ways! They are wonderful roasted, baked, grilled, steamed or mashed, and can be incorporated in a variety of recipes including:
- Soups – leave them chunky, or blend until smooth
- Dips and Hummus – puréed root vegetables make for a thicker texture and flavour to hummus, dressings, dips and more
- Homemade Sauces – puréed root vegetables add extra oomph and nutrition to sauces
- Burgers, Meatballs and Patties – use a root vegetable purée, or grate them for texture
- Baked Goods – use the purée or grate them into gluten-free breads, muffins, crackers or cookies
- Noodles Dishes – spiralize root veggies and make them into noodles for Paleo dieters
- Breakfast Hashes – pair with eggs or tofu in savory breakfast recipes, or incorporate them into pancakes and waffles
- Baked French Fries
- Smoothies and Smoothie Bowls – fresh carrots, beets and sweet potato add natural sweetness to smoothie recipes
- Instant Pot recipes – some root vegetables take a long time to cook, and the Instant Pot can greatly quicken the cooking process
Can I Eat Root Vegetables Raw?
Most veggies in this guide to root vegetables can be eaten raw, with the exception of white potato (we really don’t recommend that). When eating raw root vegetables, it’s helpful to grate them, cut them into fine matchsticks, or slice thinly to make them easier to chew and digest. You can also juice them.
If digestion is an issue, cooking them will make your stomach much happier.
The flavour of root vegetables will change depending on how you cook it; when kept raw, they will have a hint of bitterness but should be quite sweet when roasted, steamed or boiled.
How To Store Root Vegetables
Not everything needs to be stored in the fridge! Root veggies are best stored in a cool, dark place – but that doesn’t always have to mean the refrigerator. Use a wire or wooden basket to store your root veggies to encourage air circulation, and check them regularly to ensure there is no mold or sogginess.
The root veggies best stored in the fridge include carrots, turnips, radishes and beets. If you live in a warmer climate, however, you might want to store all your root veggies in the fridge.
If your root veggies come with greens, don’t toss them! Chop the greens up and add them to soups, stews, stir-fries, omelettes, pestos – basically, use ’em like any other dark leafy greens.
For detailed information about how to store vegetables and fruits, grab our Produce Storage Guide.
Culinary Nutrition Guide to Root Vegetables
Image: Pexels from Pixabay
Flavour Profile: Sweet.
Key Health Benefits: Carrots contain antioxidant nutrients called carotenoids that help support vision, liver health and immunity, and they have anti-cancer properties.
Recipe to Try: Vegan Cashew Carrot Ginger Soup by Sondi Bruner (*Academy of Culinary Nutrition Head Program Coach)
Image: Ulrike Leone from Pixabay
Flavour Profile: Similar to carrots (they’re often called the blonde carrot), but a little earthier.
Recipe to Try: Parsnip Cumin Soup by Jessica Mitton (*Culinary Nutrition Expert)
Flavour Profile: Very sweet, candy-like when mashed or roasted.
Key Health Benefits: Sweet potatoes are considered a staple crop in many places because they contain so many nutrients, including carotenoids that support eye health, Vitamin C for immunity, anti-inflammatory compounds, and a wealth of antioxidants like anthocyanins. They are low glycemic, aid digestion and some research on animals show that they can even trigger digestive enzymes.
Recipe to Try: Sweet Potato Lentil Goulash by Candra Reynolds (*Culinary Nutrition Expert)
Flavour Profile: Some describe beets as having a ‘dirt like’ flavour, but we find them very sweet.
Key Health Benefits: Beets contain betalain pigments, which are responsible for their bright colours and offer us anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and detoxifying health benefits. They are also helpful for PMS symptoms.
Recipe to Try: Golden Beet + Berry Salad by Jessica Pecush (*Culinary Nutrition Expert)
Celery Root (Celeriac)
Image: Wolfgang Eckert from Pixabay
Flavour Profile: Celery-like, mild, sweet and nutty – some also describe it as having undertones of parsley.
Key Health Benefits: Celery root is a great source of Vitamin K, which supports our bone health and prevents blood clots.
Recipe to Try: Vegan Celery Root and Apple Soup by Meghan Telpner (*Academy of Culinary Nutrition Founder + Director)
Image: bvoyles4 from Pixabay
Flavour Profile: Cabbage-like, slightly sweet, can be slightly bitter depending on the variety.
Key Health Benefits: Turnips are also a member of the cruciferous family, so they contain compounds called glucosinolates and isothiocyanates that have anti-tumor and anti-cancer properties, and help protect the liver and kidneys.
Recipe to Try: Roasted Turnips and Pears by It’s a Veg World After All
Image: utroja0 from Pixabay
Flavour Profile: Slightly sweet, cabbage-like and broccoli-like.
Key Health Benefits: Kohlrabi has anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties, can help prevent colon and prostate cancer, and is rich in minerals like calcium, iron, potassium and magnesium.
Flavour Profile: Rutabagas are a cross of cabbage and turnip, so they have a mild cabbage-turnip flavour.
Key Health Benefits: Rich in antioxidants and have a very strong ability to inhibit and destroy cancer cells.
Recipe to Try: Mashed Rutabaga with Spinach by Suzy Larsen (*Culinary Nutrition Expert)
Image: PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
Flavour Profile: It depends on the variety – they may be sharp and spicy, or mild and sweet.
Recipe to Try: Rainbow Celebration Salad by Angela Simpson (*Culinary Nutrition Expert)
Image: Monica Grabkowska from UnSplash
Flavour Profile: Mild and creamy.
Key Health Benefits: Potatoes have been forsaken in the health world due to their higher glycemic index and because they are usually eaten as junk food (potato chips, French fries, etc.). Emerging research lauds potatoes for their vitamin and mineral content (especially B vitamins) and a specific carbohydrate called resistant starch, which can aid digestion by feeding the beneficial bacteria in the gut and help with sleep. Potatoes that have been boiled and cooled are higher in resistant starch.
Recipe to Try: Herbed Potato Salad by Cookie and Kate
Flavour Profile: Spicy and peppery.
Recipe to Try: Fire Cider by Academy of Culinary Nutrition
Flavour Profile: Spicy.
Recipe to Try: Energizing Pineapple Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie by Carla Matthews (*Culinary Nutrition Expert)
Onion and Garlic
Image: Thomas Martinsen from Pixabay
Flavour Profile: Can be very pungent, bitter or spicy depending on the type of onions and garlic used – some onions like shallot or green onion are milder.
Recipe to Try: Vegan Leek and Onion Frittata by Vancouver with Love | <urn:uuid:8cff185e-435d-4e2c-a807-b206b8efd6f0> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.culinarynutrition.com/culinary-nutrition-guide-to-root-vegetables/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141182794.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20201125125427-20201125155427-00654.warc.gz | en | 0.89824 | 1,996 | 3.078125 | 3 |
||Last Updated: Nov 17th, 2006 - 22:35:04
Adult beachgoers participating in research study accurately report their sun habits
Adult beachgoers participating in a research study accurately report their sun habits, including sunscreen use and clothing worn on the beach, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The skin cancer cutaneous melanoma has become much more common and deadly in the United States over the past few decades, according to background information in the article. To reduce the risk of developing skin cancer, physicians recommend limiting the amount of time spent in the sun; seeking shade, especially during the hours at which ultraviolet rays are strongest; applying sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 or higher; and wearing protective clothing, such as a hat, shirt, pants and sunglasses. Research on skin cancer prevention generally depends on the honesty of study participants reporting their behaviors.
Oct 17, 2006, 14:26
Psoriasis increases risk for heart attack
Adults with psoriasis, especially younger patients with severe psoriasis, appear to be at increased risk for a heart attack, according to a study in the October 11 issue of JAMA. Psoriasis is a common, chronic disease that affects about 2 percent to 3 percent of the adult population. It is associated with markers of systemic inflammation, such as increased C-reactive protein levels, which have been linked to the development of atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction (MI; heart attack), according to background information in the article. Several hospital-based studies have indicated that psoriasis is associated with a higher prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, including heart attack, but these studies did not control for major cardiovascular risk factors.
Oct 11, 2006, 04:44
How do you use your sunscreen?
WHEN out in the sun, how often do you apply sunscreen? If it's anything less than once every 2 hours, you might be better off not using any in the first place.
Sep 7, 2006, 00:49
Skin Cells Found to Use a Coordinate System to Deduct their Positional Identity
Global-positioning system aficionados know that it's possible to precisely define any location in the world with just three geographic coordinates: latitude, longitude and altitude. Now scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that specialized skin cells use a similar mapping system to identify where they belong in the body and how to act once they arrive. These cellular cornerstones direct embryonic patterning and wound healing by sending vital location cues to their neighbors, and may help in growing tissue for transplant or understanding metastatic cancer.
Aug 3, 2006, 17:53
UV-A therapy more effective than narrowband UV-B therapy in chronic plaque psoriasis
UV-A therapy was found to be more effective than narrowband UV-B therapy in treating patients with chronic plaque psoriasis, according to an article in the July issue of Archives of Dermatology. It is unclear whether narrowband UV-B (NB-UVB) therapy is as effective as psoralen-UV-A (PUVA) therapy in treating psoriasis, according to background information in the article. PUVA therapy includes the combination of 8-methoxypsoralen medication (taken orally) and exposure to UV-A (long-wave) radiation. NB-UVB involves exposure to UV-B (short-wave) radiation and is thought to be safer than PUVA.
Jul 31, 2006, 17:31
Distress due to eczema very worrying
Children with serious skin conditions feel their quality of life is impaired to the same extent as those with chronic illnesses such as epilepsy, renal disease and diabetes, according to research published in the July issue of British Journal of Dermatology.
Jul 19, 2006, 03:55
Glucosamine can stop formation of new age spots
For many women, accumulated sun exposure has already permanently damaged their skin cells, causing them to overproduce pigment that shows up as unsightly dark splotches and uneven skin tone over time. But new research indicates that glucosamine - a compound best known for treating arthritis – can actually help stop the formation of new age spots, and help fade existing ones.
Jul 1, 2006, 16:19
Low-dose Arsenic in drinking water increases risk of premalignant skin lesions
Millions of persons around the world are exposed to low doses of arsenic through drinking water. However, up until now estimates of the health effects associated with low-dose exposure had been based on research from high-dose levels. In a study of more than 11,000 people in Bangladesh, research conducted by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health clearly provides evidence that a population exposed to well water with arsenic concentrations of as little as 50 ug/l is at risk for skin lesions. The report also concludes that older, male, and thinner participants were more likely to be affected by arsenic exposure.
Jun 15, 2006, 17:19
Atorvastatin may increase new blood vessel formation
Systemic sclerosis (SSc), also known as scleroderma, is an uncommon and confounding disease characterized by excessive fibrous tissue formation and vascular abnormalities. Primarily affecting the small arties, SSc decreases blood flow to the body's extremities. This can lead to Raynaud's phenomenon, a condition that causes the hands and feet to feel extremely cold and numb; ulcers on the fingers and toes; and gangrene. SSc can also restrict blood flow to internal organs, resulting in lung, kidney, and heart damage. While its cause and cure have yet to be found, SSc is generally viewed and treated as an autoimmune inflammatory disorder.
May 25, 2006, 12:40
Ineffective skin barrier may trigger immune reaction, illness
A genetic finding by researchers at the National Institutes of Health provides new insight into the cause of a series of related, common and complex illnesses – including hay fever and asthma as well as the skin disorders eczema and psoriasis – and suggests a novel therapeutic approach. These illnesses are essentially inflammatory disorders of the tissues that separate the inside of the body from the outside world, such as the skin and the linings of the throat and lungs.
Apr 25, 2006, 20:11
Recurrent melanoma may be more common than previously thought
Approximately 8 percent of patients with melanoma skin cancer may develop an additional melanoma within two years of their initial diagnosis, and those with atypical moles appear to be at higher risk, according to an article in the April issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Apr 18, 2006, 14:23
Dark skin needs more sun exposure for Vitamin D
Dark-skinned people need up to six times as much sunlight as those with fair skin to produce the same levels of Vitamin D, says a new study.
Apr 5, 2006, 14:21
Addictive effects of frequent tanning - Study
Frequent users of tanning beds may be getting more out of the experience than darker skin, according to researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. New evidence suggests that ultraviolet light has "feel-good" effects that may be similar to those of some addictive drugs.
Mar 29, 2006, 06:36
Eczema Producing Gene Discovered
Experts on genetic skin disorders at the University of Dundee, with collaborators in Dublin, Glasgow, Seattle and Copenhagen, have discovered the gene that causes dry, scaly skin and predisposes individuals to atopic dermatitis (eczema). Some of these individuals also develop a form of asthma that occurs in association with eczema. This work has been published in two consecutive papers in the March and April editions of the top genetics journal, Nature Genetics.
Mar 22, 2006, 11:08
Imiquimod cream reduces fine lines and wrinkles
Results from a new study show that Aldara (imiquimod) Cream, 5%, a topical skin cancer treatment, improved the structure and appearance of prematurely aged skin, including fine lines, wrinkles, dyspigmentations and texture. The findings, from researchers at S.K.I.N. Incorporated, a dermatology research facility, are presented as a poster this weekend at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in San Francisco.
Mar 6, 2006, 17:29
Antibiotics For Acne May Increase Risk Of Common Infectious Illness
Individuals treated with antibiotics for acne for more than six weeks were more than twice as likely to develop an upper respiratory tract infection within one year as individuals with acne who were not treated with antibiotics, according to an article in the September issue of the Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Sep 23, 2005, 15:26
Dithranol may hold more hope for psoriasis sufferers
Scientists at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, studying the effects of a drug used in the treatment of a distressing skin condition, have found that it is actually killing off the cells which are the cause of the problem.
Sep 6, 2005, 00:20
Immune protection factor (IPF) in sunscreens is essential in determining cancer prevention ability
Immune protection factor (IPF) in sunscreens and its relation to sun protection factor (SPF) is essential in determining skin cancer prevention ability, researchers found.
Aug 29, 2005, 22:10
Immunotherapy Used Successfully to Treat Warts
Injection of skin test antigens (preparations used in skin tests for immunity) into warts appears to stimulate the immune system and successfully treat the injected wart and also helps to treat distant non-injected warts, according to a study in the May issue of the Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
May 18, 2005, 16:59
Increased levels of estrogen may improve psoriasis
Increased levels of estrogen that occur during pregnancy may be associated with improvement in psoriasis, according to a study in the May issue of the Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
May 18, 2005, 16:59
A cause for skin blistering disease pops up
Pemphigus is a skin blistering disease that causes separation of the layers of the skin, along with inflammation.
Apr 3, 2005, 13:44
A pool of undifferentiated melanocyte stem cells resides in the hair follicle
Few things about growing older are as inevitable and obvious as “going gray,” yet scientists have been unable to explain the precise cause of this usually unwelcome transformation.
In a report posted today on the Web site of the journal Science, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston say they have found the cellular cause of graying hair while investigating the origins of malignant melanoma, the potentially deadly skin cancer
Dec 26, 2004, 05:24
Home-based treatment as effective as hospital-based treatment for hand eczema
An at-home hand dermatitis treatment with oral medication and use of a portable tanning unit appears to be as effective as a hospital-based treatment in reducing the symptoms of hand dermatitis, according to an article in the December issue of The Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Dec 21, 2004, 16:51
Patients with moderate or severe hand dermatitis responsive to drug therapy
Use of the oral medication alitretinoin was effective in treating moderate or severe hand dermatitis in nearly half of patients previously unresponsive to standard treatment, according to an article in the December issue of The Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Dec 21, 2004, 16:45 | <urn:uuid:0a62f106-33d8-4316-a3b6-621becfb4834> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.rxpgnews.com/dermatology.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282140.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00489-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943386 | 2,474 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The Daily Grind of Wearing Down Your Teeth
Even though teeth are built to last a lifetime, and in general are very tough it is important to realize that daily wear and tear like chewing food, brushing and grinding can take a toll on teeth. There are three primary threats to teeth that you should avoid if at all possible. The threats to teeth include not tending to chipped, fractured or broken teeth, the next threat is grinding your teeth (called bruxism) and the third threat to teeth is enamel erosion from acid.
There are a number of things that cause teeth to chip, break or fracture. Broken or chipped teeth are easier for your dentist to fix than a tooth with a fracture. Deep fractures that go below the gum line can be difficult to fix, and sometimes the tooth must be pulled. Chips, breaks and fractures are sometimes caused by biting down on something hard, but more often are caused by an accident involving the mouth. Sporting injuries are common reasons for the a fore mentioned problems with teeth. Teeth that have fillings are more likely to break or crack since the tooth is already compromised. In your effort to maintain healthy teeth, it is important to see your dentist if you have a crack, break or fracture.
There is a difference between normal daily chewing that your teeth are designed to do and bruxism, or teeth grinding or clenching. Micro-cracks in your teeth can be caused by grinding. Grinding can also wear down the points on your teeth and molars, as well as loosen teeth. Jaw injuries, headaches and muscle pain are also side effects of bruxism. Seek help from your dentist if you grind or clench your teeth.
Acidic bacteria in your mouth and food and drinks that are high in acids can break down your tooth enamel and leave teeth more susceptible to decay. People who suffer from acid reflux, bulimia, or frequent vomiting from pregnancy hormones are also susceptible to accelerated enamel erosion. Be sure to speak with your dentist about any medical condition that may make you more susceptible to advanced acid erosion, and help prevent any unwarranted stress added to the daily grind your teeth endure through normal wear and tear. | <urn:uuid:4668830f-a4fb-437e-8331-dba6a378a075> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.gratefuldentalga.com/blog/three-things-that-wear-down-your-teeth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703507971.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20210116225820-20210117015820-00061.warc.gz | en | 0.957947 | 447 | 2.953125 | 3 |
John (Pommers) of Riga
Our father among the saints, the holy martyr John (Pommers) of Riga, also Jānis (Pommers) of Riga (Latvian: Svētais svētmoceklis Rīgas Jānis; Russian: Святой Священномученик Иоанн Рижский) was Archbishop of Riga and Latvia (1921-1934).
He was born Jānis Pommers in 1876 to a Latvian peasant family in the area of Lazdona, a village in the Vidzeme region of Latvia, near the town of Madona. St. John was a highly energetic pastor whose service as Archbishop of Riga and Latvia often bridged Latvia's ethnic divisions, particularly those between Russians and Latvians, and included political engagement even to the extent that he became a Member of Parliament in Latvia's national assembly, the Saeima.
St. John was martyred brutally in the night of October 12, 1934, at the archbishop's residence at Kish Lake (Latvian: Ķīšezers) outside Riga's city center. Although his assassins were never apprehended, they have widely been assumed to be agents of the Bolshevik regime in neighboring Soviet Russia, whose persecutions of the Orthodox Church the saint had already suffered earlier during a turbulent period of service as Archbishop of Penza and Saransk (1918-1921). Earlier still, he served as Bishop of Slutsk (1911-1912) and Bishop of Taganrog and Priazovye (1913-1917).
In 1921, the year St. John returned to Latvia, St. Tikhon of Moscow, then Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, granted independence to the Latvian Orthodox Church. Therefore St. John became the first Latvian archbishop. Jurisdictional difficulties followed his martyrdom, lasting from 1936 to 1940, and the suffering of the Latvian Orthodox Church increased again during Latvia's Soviet occupation, which lasted from the Second World War until 1991. In 1992, the Latvian Orthodox Church became semi-autonomous, with a high degree of independence but lacking autocephaly. Thus, the contemporary pastoral successor to St. John of Riga bears the title Metropolitan.
The day of the St. John's martyrdom is his feast day, October 12. His canonization occurred locally in 2001, having been recognized already many years before by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
Despite the terrible nature of the saint's martyrdom, during which he suffered both bullet wounds and burning, St. John's body was found intact in 2003.
Links to Orthodoxy in America and China
St. Tikhon of Moscow, who as Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church blessed and strengthened St. John's service in Riga and Latvia, was one of the first Orthodox bishops to do major work in North America.
One of St. John's early successors in Riga was John Garklavs (Latvian: Jānis Garklavs), who became Bishop of Riga and All Latvia in 1943 before fleeing the violence of war with his family one year later. He later served as Bishop of Detroit and Cleveland (1949-1955) and Archbishop of Chicago (1957-1978) in the American Metropolia (now the Orthodox Church in America).
In addition to those relics of St. John which remain in the keeping of the Latvian Orthodox Church, relics of the saint were also laid in the altar of the Dormition church in Beijing, China, which was consecrated on October 13, 2009 and is located on the grounds of the old Russian Orthodox Mission in China.
Homilies and Writings of St. John
- "The Inevitability of Suffering" (English translation)
- "Pray for the Reposed!" (English translation)
- "A New Place" (English translation)
- "Новое Место" (Russian)
Predecessors and Successors in the Episcopate
John (Pommers) of Riga
|Bishop of Slutsk
|Bishop of Taganrog and Priazovye
|Archbishop of Penza and Saransk
Archbishop John (Smirnovs)
|Archbishop of Riga and All Latvia
Metropolitan Augustine (Petersons)
- John Archbishop and Hieromartyr of Riga
- St. John of Riga
- "St. John of Riga and His Icon," article (in Latvian) published by the Latvian Christian Academy
- "Holy Martyr John (Pommers), Archbishop of Riga and Latvia," article (in Russian) and photographs published by Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate
- Latvian Orthodox Church (official website)
- A Thousand Years of Orthodox Latvia (1010-2010)
- Latvian Orthodox Church at Wikipedia.
E-archived newspaper reports on St. John of Riga
- E-archival pages of Latvian newspaper "Rīts," Saturday, October 13, 1934
- E-archival pages of Latvian newspaper "Rīts," Sunday, October 14, 1934
- E-archival pages of Latvian newspaper "Rīts," Monday, October 15, 1934
- E-archival pages of Latvian newspaper "Rīts," Tuesday, October 16, 1934
- E-archival pages of Latvian newspaper "Rīts," Wednesday, October 17, 1934
- E-archival pages of Latvian newspaper "Rīts," Thursday, October 18, 1934
- E-archival pages of Latvian newspaper "Rīts," Friday, October 19, 1934
- E-archival pages of Latvian newspaper "Rīts," Saturday, October 20, 1934
- E-archival pages of Latvian newspaper "Rīts," Sunday, October 21, 1934
- E-archival pages of Latvian newspaper "Latvijas Kareivis," October 14, 1934
- E-archival page of Latvian newspaper "Jaunākās Ziņas," July 15, 1936
- E-archival page of Latvian newspaper "Jaunākās Ziņas," October 12, 1936 | <urn:uuid:96194f7e-71aa-4998-9da2-e84344ab9248> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | https://orthodoxwiki.org/index.php?title=John_(Pommers)_of_Riga&oldid=94738 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738661087.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173741-00236-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969045 | 1,375 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Chechyna: What You Need to KnowNews Abroad
tags: Russia, Boston Marathon bombing, Chechnya, David R. Stone, Chechen Wars
Russian artillery bombarding a Chechen village in 2000, during the Second Chechen War. Credit: Wiki Commons.
Editor's Note: With the identification of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings -- Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, killed by police; and his brother Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19 -- as immigrants of Chechen origin, it's worth taking a look back at Chechnya's bloody history.
Walt Richmond, professor of Russian at Occidental College, wrote an article for HNN last month about the blood-soaked, possibly genocidal Russian conquest of the Caucasus region in the nineteenth century -- a campaign that included the conquest of what is now Chechnya. Norman Naimark, Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor in Eastern European Studies at Stanford University, wrote about Soviet atrocities under Stalin -- including the deportation of the Chechen population from their ancestral homelands to Central Asia in 1944 -- for HNN in 2010, and Thomas R. Mockaitis, professor at DePaul University in Chicago, has written about Chechen suicide bombings in Moscow.
Here, David R. Stone, a professor of Russian history at Kansas State University, has written extensively on Soviet and Russian military history, explains what you need to know about recent Chechen history, in particular the two bloody wars fought between Russia and Chechen rebels in the 1990s.
* * * * *
When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, one of the chief causes was the power of local nationalists who resented rule from Moscow. But there were limits to what those nationalist sentiments could achieve. The end of Moscow’s authority meant that power and sovereignty flowed to the Soviet Union’s fifteen union republics, roughly analogous to American states. KGB veteran Nikolai Leonov once remarked that the Soviet Union was like a chocolate bar, already marked with lines that made it easy to break apart. Those fifteen pieces of the chocolate bar themselves had internal divisions, but Soviet ethnic groups which lacked their own union republic found that the breaking apart stopped short of independence for them. The Chechen people, well-equipped with historical grievances to drive their discontent, found themselves in the Russian Federation due to the accidents of history and map, but badly wanted out.
Under the leadership of President Dzhokhar Dudaev, Chechnya worked from 1991 to 1994 to assert its independence from Boris Yeltsin’s Russia. Both Chechen autonomy, and the breakdown of law and order that accompanied it, were more than Yeltsin’s government could accept. When efforts at a political compromise failed, Russian troops invaded Chechnya in December 1994.
The horrors of that First Chechen War transformed the Chechen cause. It drove hundreds of thousands of Chechens out of Chechnya itself as refugees into other parts of the Caucasus: Ingushetia or Dagestan (where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev attended school). Others went further afield: the United States, Europe, or even Central Asia. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where the Tsarnaev brothers lived for several years, still have a substantial population of Chechens dating back to Joseph Stalin’s deportation of the Chechen people from their historic homeland in 1944.
The First Chechen War had pernicious effects that lasted well beyond the uneasy 1996 settlement that gave Chechnya de facto autonomy. The traditional family and clan links that tied Chechen society together frayed and broke as a result of death and displacement. Chechen refugees within the Caucasus moved into environments that were less ethnically Chechen, but still largely Muslim. Ethnic and clan identity mattered less, and religious identity mattered more.
Islam in the North Caucasus had generally been tolerant in its practice and not especially strict, but the pressure of war made it increasingly fundamentalist. While refugees flowed out of Chechnya, foreign Islamist fighters flowed in to aid what they saw as a Muslim fight against infidel Russians. The result was that the Chechen resistance became increasingly internationalized and radicalized. The relative importance of Chechen independence shrank. Instead, jihad became a far more important element of the Chechen cause.
The Chechen leadership, facing a horrendous task of reconstruction after 1996, thus began to split. Relative moderates, capable of accepting some form of association with Russia, were increasingly at odds with radicals, inspired by the Wahhabi branch of Islam and eager to spread their struggle beyond Chechnya. On the more moderate side, Aslan Maskhadov, president of Chechnya from 1997, tried to find some form of working relationship with Moscow but found his efforts undermined by more violent elements in his own movement. As Chechnya descended into rampant lawlessness, the Saudi militant known as Khattab and the Chechen Shamil Basayev engineered an August 1999 invasion of Dagestan. They no longer aimed at Chechen independence but instead spreading their form of radical Islam to the rest of the North Caucasus. When combined with a series of controversial and still mysterious apartment bombings, the Dagestan invasion gave Boris Yeltsin and his newly-appointed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the grounds they needed to launch a Second Chechen War in October 1999.
This second war went far better for Russians than the first. Maskhadov made several abortive attempts to cut a deal with the Russians, but found himself dismissed by Moscow and increasingly ignored by his own compatriots before being killed by Russian special forces in March 2005. Basayev engineered more and more horrific terrorist attacks, including the seizure of a Moscow theater in October 2002 and the massacre of a school full of children in Beslan in September 2004. This ended whatever hope might have still existed of winning broad international support for the cause of full Chechen independence. The Russian government was then able to find Chechens willing to accept Russian hegemony in return for local autonomy. In 1999, Chechen religious authority Akhmad Kadyrov broke with the anti-Russian resistance movement, in part over its increasing religious radicalism, and began working with Russian authorities. After serving as chief administrator of Chechnya on Putin’s behalf, he became Chechen president in October 2003. Though Kadyrov was assassinated the next year, his son Ramzan Kadyrov became Chechen president in turn in February 2007. Kadyrov has continued his father’s policy of cooperating with Moscow and smashing any resistance to his own control with brutal efficiency.
The result has been the death of old Chechen nationalism. The current Chechen government accepts that leaving Russia may never be an option. The activist remnant of the Chechen movement has been left with little besides radical Islamism, a vision that goes far beyond a concrete local struggle for specific, attainable goals to see instead a worldwide struggle between good and evil.
On Topic: Chechnya
- Thomas R. Mockaitis: A Brief History of Chechen Terrorism
- Norman M. Naimark: Russia, Stalin's Crimes, and Genocide
- Walt Richmond: Russia's Forgotten Caucasian Genocide
On Topic: Boston Marathon Bombing
comments powered by Disqus
- Secret CIA Report: Pinochet "Personally Ordered" Washington Car-Bombing
- Mike Huckabee’s 1998 Book Is Full Of Fake Quotes From America’s Founders
- Children should be taught about suffering under the British Empire, Jeremy Corbyn says
- Collateral damage: A brief history of U.S. mistakes at war
- East Germany's secrets are slowly being revealed
- NYT History Book Reviews: Who Got Noticed this Week?
- NC student’s senior thesis selected as top paper sheds light on little-known victory over Jim Crow
- Historian Who Probed Austria’s Nazi Past Begins Sentence for Defrauding State
- Daniel Pipes says we should be worried that immigrants don’t share western values
- Nobel Prize in Literature Awarded to journalist Svetlana Alexievich | <urn:uuid:01adb4f5-bbbd-4068-88a6-35b1a1dea99e> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/151609 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737940789.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221900-00042-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947668 | 1,649 | 3 | 3 |
The distribution of designs on Mesopotamian terracottas can provide clues to the relationship between symbols and meaning at different localities. Unlike other Mesopotamian terracottas whose iconography reflects pan-Mesopotamian beliefs, the designs on model chariots are site-specific. While Mesopotamian religious symbols should probably be interpreted as representing aspects of divine power rather than individual deities, combinations of symbols serve to identify particular gods. When these are found on model chariots, they can be related to the titular deities of the specific city in which they were found. Examination of the findspots of these objects, especially those from Mashkanshapir, suggests a possible link between model chariots and the centralizing institutions of the city.
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this journal to your organisation's collection.
* Views captured on Cambridge Core between September 2016 - 23rd March 2017. This data will be updated every 24 hours. | <urn:uuid:9f01db44-ac40-4afd-ad03-3a5a28488c25> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/div-classtitlechariots-of-the-gods-in-old-babylonian-mesopotamia-span-classitaliccspan-20001600-bcdiv/8BB95B5179348208E6DBB82425427675 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218187113.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212947-00207-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928129 | 200 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Standing more linked to reduced chances of obesity
The American Cancer Society, in conjunction with other institutions, has found a correlation between standing for a minimum of a quarter of the day and a reduced likelihood of obesity.
For women, the proportion of the day they reported being on their feet tended to align with lower waist circumferences, also called abdominal obesity—standing for a quarter of the time was linked to a 35 percent reduction, half the time to a 47 percent reduction, and three-quarters of the time to a 57 percent reduction.
For men, standing for a quarter and half of the day resulted in a 32 percent and 59 percent reduction in the odds of being obese, respectively; however, no weight benefit was found when they reported standing for three-quarters of the day.
The team made these determinations based on a survey of more than 7,000 adult patients of a Dallas clinic who went for preventative reasons between 2010 and 2015.
Participants completed a questionnaire about their regular activities and time spent standing. Their obesity levels were then determined through waist measurements, body fat assessments, and BMI calculations.
Despite these findings, the researchers caution in the press release that "it is unclear whether less standing leads to more obesity or whether in fact obese individuals stand less."
More from AOL.com:
Google will soon write your emails for you
The best skin care you can find in the drugstore aisle
Girl Scout cookie prices are trending toward $5 a box | <urn:uuid:ce20ef43-7095-465b-b9c3-9604b9c80c7d> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | https://www.aol.com/article/2015/11/04/standing-more-linked-to-reduced-chances-of-obesity/21259042/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794865702.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20180523180641-20180523200641-00605.warc.gz | en | 0.952759 | 300 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Worm snakes are a genus of nonvenomous snakes that live primarily in soil and leaves. They are proficient diggers and eat earthworms and insects. Georgia is home to one species of worm snake, the Eastern worm snake. Though many people panic upon first seeing one of these snakes, they play a vital role in Georgia's ecosystem, and are mostly harmless to humans.
The Eastern worm snake is named for its worm-like appearance. It is only one to two inches in diameter and 10 to 13 inches long. The Savannah River Ecology Laboratory reports that Georgia's worm snake has a brown body with a white or pink belly. The belly's color may partially extend to the sides of the snake, creating an appearance of light-colored stripes on either side of the snake. Babies are similar in color to adults but with smaller bodies.
The Eastern worm snake is neither venomous nor aggressive. However, it does have a slightly pointed tail tip that it presses against attackers. Some species of worm snake use this tail tip like a stinger, though the Eastern worm snake is incapable of inflicting harm with the tip of its tail. Females lay about a dozen eggs in the spring or summer. Worm snakes eat a variety of insects, snails and earthworms. They are also prey to several larger animals.
Worm snakes live in most areas east of the Mississippi River. They avoid very cold climates like northern New England and very warm climates like southern Florida. They spend most of their lives underground and are most frequently encountered by humans during gardening projects. They prefer moist environments and are most common in forests near wetlands and swamps. These snakes are neither endangered nor threatened.
Like many North American reptiles and amphibians, worms snakes are occasionally kept as pets. They are not prone to illness, but their underground lifestyle is difficult to mimic in captivity. They can become friendly to humans but will not bond strongly with their owners. It is illegal to keep native species, including the Eastern worm snake, as pets in Georgia | <urn:uuid:40762641-6533-49d0-9e82-a9ed0ded3f61> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | https://sciencing.com/worm-snakes-georgia-8591755.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221210735.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20180816113217-20180816133217-00577.warc.gz | en | 0.967343 | 406 | 3.921875 | 4 |
Contributor disclosures are reviewed for conflicts of interest by the editorial group. When found, these are addressed by vetting through a multi-level review process, and through requirements for references to be provided to support the content. Appropriately referenced content is required of all authors and must conform to UpToDate standards of evidence.
INTRODUCTION — Clostridium difficile is a spore-forming, toxin-producing, gram-positive anaerobic bacterium that causes antibiotic-associated colitis. It colonizes the human intestinal tract after the normal gut flora has been altered by antibiotic therapy. C. difficile infection is one of the most common healthcare-associated infections and a significant cause of morbidity and mortality among older adult hospitalized patients.
The clinical manifestations and diagnosis of C. difficile infection will be reviewed here. The treatment, epidemiology, and prevention of C. difficile infection are discussed separately. (See "Clostridium difficile in adults: Treatment" and "Clostridium difficile in adults: Epidemiology, microbiology, and pathophysiology" and "Clostridium difficile infection: Prevention and control".)
CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS — C. difficile infection (CDI) can cause a spectrum of manifestations ranging from an asymptomatic carriage to fulminant disease with toxic megacolon (table 1) [1,2]. The basis for this range of clinical manifestations is not fully understood but may be related to various host and pathogen factors. (See "Clostridium difficile in adults: Epidemiology, microbiology, and pathophysiology".)
Diarrhea with colitis — Watery diarrhea is the cardinal symptom of C. difficile–associated diarrhea (CDAD) with colitis (≥3 loose stools in 24 hours). Other manifestations include lower abdominal pain and cramping, low-grade fever, nausea, anorexia, and leukocytosis [2,3]. Diarrhea may be associated with mucus or occult blood, but melena or hematochezia are rare . Fever is associated with CDAD in about 15 percent of cases; temperature >38.5°C is a sign of severe C. difficile–associated diarrhea. Leukocytosis, elevated creatinine, and elevated lactate in the setting of CDAD are common; CDAD is routinely associated with an average white blood cell count of 15,000/microL.
Symptoms of CDI typically occur in the setting of antibiotic therapy; they may begin during antibiotic therapy or 5 to 10 days following antibiotic therapy. Rarely, symptoms present as late as 10 weeks after cessation of antibiotic therapy . The antibiotics most frequently implicated in predisposition to CDI are fluoroquinolones, clindamycin, cephalosporins, and penicillins, though virtually any antibiotic can predispose to CDI (table 2). Additional risk factors for CDI include age >65, recent hospitalization and use of proton pump inhibitors. (See "Clostridium difficile in adults: Epidemiology, microbiology, and pathophysiology", section on 'Risk factors'.)
Physical examination generally demonstrates lower abdominal tenderness. Lower gastrointestinal endoscopy (flexible proctoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, or colonoscopy) examination may demonstrate a spectrum of findings, from patchy mild erythema and friability to severe pseudomembranous colitis (severe inflammation of the inner lining of the bowel). (See 'Endoscopy' below.)
Unexplained leukocytosis in hospitalized patients (even in the absence of diarrhea) may reflect underlying CDI. In a prospective study of 60 patients with unexplained leukocytosis (white blood cell count >15,000/microL), positive stool C. difficile toxin was observed in 58 percent of cases compared with 12 percent in controls . When unexplained leukocytosis is due to CDI, diarrhea typically develops one to two days later. (See "Approach to the patient with neutrophilia", section on 'Infection'.)
Fulminant colitis — Clinical manifestations of fulminant colitis include diarrhea, lower quadrant or diffuse abdominal pain, abdominal distention, fever, hypovolemia, lactic acidosis, hypoalbuminemia, elevated creatinine, and marked leukocytosis (up to 40,000 white blood cells/microL or higher) [6-8].
Occasionally, CDI presents acutely as ileus, with little or no diarrhea. Diarrhea may be less prominent or absent due to pooling of secretions in a dilated, atonic colon. Such patients are usually severely ill, with colonic (and possibly small bowel) dilatation, often with colonic thickening, fever, and leukocytosis. In some cases, this presentation seems benign initially but progresses rapidly.
Complications of fulminant colitis include hypotension, sepsis, renal failure, toxic megacolon, and bowel perforation with peritonitis . Severe hypotension may occur in the setting of severe CDI and/or in the setting of bowel perforation with peritonitis. In addition, CDI may develop during antibiotic treatment for septic shock caused by a separate bacterial infection.
The diagnosis of toxic megacolon is established based on severe systemic toxicity together with radiographic evidence of colonic dilatation (>7 cm in its greatest diameter). Bowel perforation presents with abdominal rigidity, involuntary guarding, diminished bowel sounds, rebound tenderness, and severe localized tenderness in the left or right lower quadrants; abdominal radiographs may demonstrate free abdominal air. (See 'Radiographic imaging' below and "Toxic megacolon".)
Recurrent disease — Recurrent C. difficile infection is defined by complete abatement of CDI symptoms while on appropriate therapy, followed by subsequent reappearance of symptoms after treatment has been stopped. Up to 25 percent of patients experience recurrent C. difficile within 30 days of treatment . Less commonly, recurrent CDI can occur as late as three months after discontinuation of treatment. Once patients have experienced one recurrence, they are at significantly increased risk for further recurrences. (See "Clostridium difficile in adults: Epidemiology, microbiology, and pathophysiology", section on 'Recurrent infection'.)
Recurrent disease may be mild or severe . One study including more than 1500 patients with CDI noted 34 percent of patients with recurrent infection needed admission, 28 percent developed severe disease, and 4 percent developed a complication .
Risk factors for recurrence include age >65 years, severe underlying medical disorders, need for ongoing therapy with concomitant antibiotics during treatment for CDI, and lack of an antibody-mediated immune response to toxin B [13-17].
Recurrent symptoms may be due to relapse of the initial infecting strain or reinfection with a new strain [18-20]. Recurrent CDI often represents relapse rather than reinfection, regardless of the interval between episodes. Among 134 paired stool isolates from 102 patients with recurrent C. difficile infections, isolates obtained 2 to 8 weeks apart were identical in 88 percent of cases; isolates obtained 8 weeks to 11 months apart were identical in 65 percent of cases .
Persistent diarrhea without resolution during initial therapy should prompt an evaluation for other causes and should not be considered recurrent disease. In the absence of an alternative diagnosis, such patients should be considered to have refractory CDI.
Patients with recurrent diarrhea, cramping, and bloating following treatment of CDI may have postinfectious irritable bowel syndrome or another inflammatory colitis. (See 'Differential diagnosis' below.)
Asymptomatic carriage — Asymptomatic C. difficile carriage occurs in about 20 percent of hospitalized adults; these patients shed C. difficile in stool but do not have diarrhea or other clinical symptoms [22-24]. In long-term care facilities, the rate of asymptomatic colonization may approach 50 percent. These individuals serve as a reservoir for environmental contamination [23,24]. The host immune response to C. difficile may play a role in determining colonization status. Individuals with asymptomatic carriage of C. difficile do not warrant treatment, and there is no role for pursuing diagnostic evaluation for C. difficile infection in the absence of significant diarrhea. (See "Clostridium difficile in adults: Epidemiology, microbiology, and pathophysiology" and "Clostridium difficile infection: Prevention and control".)
Unusual presentations — Unusual manifestations of C. difficile include protein-losing enteropathy and extracolonic involvement.
●Protein-losing enteropathy – Protein-losing enteropathy with hypoalbuminemia has been described in association with acute C. difficile infection in the absence of fulminant colitis [25,26]. Inflammation of the bowel wall allows leakage of albumin into the lumen, causing colonic loss of albumin with inadequate compensatory hepatic synthesis. As a result, serum albumin levels may drop below 2.0 g/dL (20 g/L). Ascites and peripheral edema may be observed. The protein-losing enteropathy responds to appropriate medical therapy of the infection. (See "Protein-losing gastroenteropathy" and "Clostridium difficile in adults: Treatment".)
●Extracolonic involvement – Rare cases of C. difficile appendicitis, small bowel enteritis, and extraintestinal involvement have been described .
•Appendicitis due to C. difficile infection has been described in a few case reports; it may be underdiagnosed since relatively mild cases may respond to antibiotic therapy alone .
•Small bowel involvement with C. difficile enteritis typically occurs in older adults and/or patients with multiple comorbidities [29-31]. In some cases, patients have had prior colectomy with ileostomy; manifestations may include increased ileostomy output, and it may be possible to visualize pseudomembranes (severe inflammation of the inner lining of the bowel) on the ileostomy mucosa. Therefore, such patients may be at increased risk for fulminant disease with a high mortality rate [30,31].
•Rare cases of C. difficile cellulitis, soft tissue infection, bacteremia, and reactive arthritis have been described [29,32,33].
Overview of diagnostic approach — The diagnosis of C. difficile infection should be suspected in patients with clinically significant diarrhea (≥3 loose stools in 24 hours) or ileus in the setting of relevant risk factors (including recent antibiotic use, hospitalization, and advanced age). The diagnosis is established via a positive laboratory stool test for C. difficile toxins or C. difficile toxin gene. The diagnostic approach for suspected recurrent C. difficile is the same as the approach for initial infection. (See 'Diarrhea with colitis' above and "Clostridium difficile in adults: Epidemiology, microbiology, and pathophysiology", section on 'Risk factors'.)
For patients with diarrhea and suspected C. difficile infection, liquid stool should be sent for C. difficile testing. Laboratory testing does not distinguish between C. difficile–associated diarrhea (CDAD) and asymptomatic carriage (which does not warrant treatment); therefore, diagnostic laboratory testing should be pursued only in patients with clinically significant diarrhea [4,34-37].
For patients with ileus and suspected C. difficile infection, laboratory diagnosis via perirectal swab for toxin assay or anaerobic culture may be performed; the sensitivity of rectal swab for C. difficile culture in the setting of ileus is high (although takes time) [4,34,38,39].
Findings of pseudomembranous colitis (severe inflammation of the inner lining of the bowel) on radiographic or endoscopic examination are highly suggestive of C. difficile infection and should prompt laboratory testing [2,40-43].
There are several diagnostic tests available for the laboratory diagnosis of C. difficile infection, each with advantages and limitations. We favor use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for laboratory diagnosis of C. difficile, either alone or as part of an algorithm including initial enzyme immunoassay (EIA) screening for glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) antigen and toxins A and B (algorithm 1) . A positive test result for C. difficile infection may be presumed in the setting of positive EIA for GDH antigen and toxin A or B, a negative result may be presumed if both EIAs are negative, and confirmatory PCR may be used if the EIA results are discordant [45-49]. An algorithmic approach may be less expensive but take slightly longer and has lower sensitivity than PCR alone . However, exclusive reliance on molecular testing may result in overdiagnosis and overtreatment, since laboratory testing cannot distinguish between CDAD and asymptomatic carriage (which does not warrant treatment) . Only one stool sample is needed for diagnosis of C. difficile with PCR (either alone or as part of an algorithm).
There is no role for repeat laboratory testing or testing for cure [4,51-57]. There is also no role for laboratory testing in asymptomatic patients or in patients receiving treatment for acute C. difficile infection; stool assays may remain positive during or after clinical recovery.
Radiographic imaging of the abdomen and pelvis is warranted for patients with clinical manifestations of severe illness or fulminant colitis (severe abdominal pain, abdominal distention with apparent ileus, fever, hypovolemia, lactic acidosis, hypoalbuminemia, and/or marked leukocytosis) to evaluate for presence of toxic megacolon, bowel perforation, or other findings warranting surgical intervention. Findings of pseudomembranous colitis on radiographic examination are highly suggestive of C. difficile infection and should prompt laboratory testing. (See 'Fulminant colitis' above and 'Radiographic imaging' below.)
Lower gastrointestinal endoscopy is not warranted in patients with classic clinical manifestations of C. difficile infection, a positive laboratory test, and/or clinical response to empiric treatment. In general, endoscopy may be pursued for circumstances in which an alternative diagnosis is suspected that requires direct visualization and/or biopsy of the bowel mucosa. It may also be helpful for patients with ileus or fulminant colitis in the absence of diarrhea since it may allow visualization of pseudomembranes (severe inflammation of the inner lining of the bowel), a finding that is highly suggestive of C. difficile infection. However, not all patients with CDAD have pseudomembranes, particularly patients with mild or partially treated infection, and absence of pseudomembranes does not rule out C. difficile infection. (See 'Endoscopy' below.)
Laboratory assays — Laboratory diagnosis of C. difficile infection requires demonstration of C. difficile toxin(s) or detection of toxigenic C. difficile organism(s) . We favor use of PCR for diagnosis of C. difficile on a single stool sample, either alone or as part of an algorithm including initial EIA screening for GDH antigen and toxins A and B (algorithm 1) [4,58-62]. A systematic review noted that single-step PCR or multistep algorithms using PCR for toxin gene(s) on liquid stool samples have the best test performance characteristics (single step testing: sensitivity 0.86 to 0.92 and specificity 0.94 to 0.97; multistep testing: sensitivity 0.68 to 1.0 and specificity 0.92 to 1.0) .
A number of laboratory stool tests are available, including [4,63]:
●Polymerase chain reaction
●Enzyme immunoassay for C. difficile glutamate dehydrogenase
●Enzyme immunoassay for C. difficile toxins A and B
●Cell culture cytotoxicity assay
●Selective anaerobic culture
These tests are discussed in further detail below.
●PCR testing – Real-time PCR tests detect one or more genes specific to toxigenic strains; the critical gene is tcdB, which encodes for toxin B. PCR is highly sensitive and specific [64-68]. The sensitivity of PCR is greater than EIA and comparable with cytotoxicity assay [4,69-73]. PCR is specific for toxigenic strains but does not test for active toxin production and is capable of detecting asymptomatic carriers of C. difficile; therefore, only liquid stool samples from patients with ≥3 loose stools in 24 hours should be tested. Only a single stool sample should be tested. PCR results can be available within as little as one hour. Given its high sensitivity and its inability to distinguish C. difficile infection from asymptomatic carriage, some favor use of PCR in an algorithm together with other assays such as EIA for GDH and EIA for toxins A and B. PCR results may be falsely negative if stool specimen collection is delayed and the patient treated empirically for suspected C. difficile infection . (See 'Overview of diagnostic approach' above.)
●EIA for C. difficile GDH antigen – GDH antigen is an essential enzyme produced constitutively by all C. difficile isolates; however, its detection cannot distinguish between toxigenic and nontoxigenic strains [60-62]. Therefore, testing for GDH antigen is useful as an initial screening step in a multistep approach, which also consists of subsequent testing with more specific assays such as toxin A and B EIA or PCR on specimens that are GDH antigen positive [4,59]. GDH antigen testing has good sensitivity, and results are available in less than one hour.
●EIA for C. difficile toxins A and B – Most C. difficile strains produce both toxins A and B, although some strains produce toxin A or B only [75-79]. Toxin B is the clinically important toxin; no CDAD due to toxin A alone has been reported. However, testing for both toxins by EIA gives a higher sensitivity than testing for toxin B alone. The sensitivity of EIA for toxins A and B is about 75 percent; the specificity is high (up to 99 percent) [4,80,81]. There is a relatively high false-negative rate since 100 to 1000 pg of toxin must be present for the test to be positive . A number of inexpensive assays are commercially available, and test results are available within hours . More than one stool sample may be tested.
●Selective anaerobic culture – Culture on selective medium with toxin testing of isolated C. difficile is the most sensitive diagnostic method, although culture cannot distinguish toxin-producing strains from non–toxin-producing strains . Use of a second test (EIA, PCR) is required to detect toxin production by cultured C. difficile strains. Culture followed by strain testing for toxin is considered by most to be the gold standard for diagnosis of C. difficile. Treatment of stool with heat or alcohol to shock spores (to increase vegetative growth) is sometimes used to improve yield. Culture is useful for epidemiologic studies but is generally too slow and labor intensive for routine clinical use . Perirectal swab for toxin assay or anaerobic culture can be a useful diagnostic tool for patients with ileus and suspected C. difficile infection.
●Cell culture cytotoxicity assay – The cell culture cytotoxicity assay was developed contemporaneously with the discovery of C. difficile and has been used as a gold standard test for diagnosis of C. difficile; it is more sensitive than enzyme immunoassay, although it is limited by lack of standardization and slow turnaround time (approximately two days) [83,84]. The cell culture cytotoxicity assay is performed by adding a prepared stool sample (diluted, buffered, and filtered) to a monolayer of cultured cells [40,85,86]. If C. difficile toxin is present, it exerts a cytopathic effect characterized by rounding of fibroblasts in tissue culture; specificity of the cytotoxicity is then demonstrated by neutralization of the cytopathic effect with specific antiserum.
It is important to note that C. difficile toxin degrades at room temperature and may be undetectable within two hours after collection; therefore, specimens for testing based on toxin detection (EIA for C. difficile toxins and cell culture cytotoxicity assay) should be kept at 4ºC if delay in laboratory testing is anticipated. In addition, a suspected outbreak should prompt freezing of stool samples for later investigation.
Fecal leukocyte testing is not helpful for diagnosis of C. difficile infection .
Adjunctive diagnostic tools — Adjunctive diagnostic tools for evaluating patients with suspected C. difficile infection include radiographic imaging and endoscopy.
Radiographic imaging — Radiographic imaging of the abdomen and pelvis is warranted for patients with clinical manifestations of severe illness or fulminant colitis (severe abdominal pain, abdominal distention with apparent ileus, fever, hypovolemia, lactic acidosis, hypoalbuminemia, and/or marked leukocytosis), to evaluate for presence of toxic megacolon, bowel perforation, or other findings warranting surgical intervention. Computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen and pelvis with oral and intravenous contrast is the preferred imaging modality; plain films may be useful for circumstances in which CT is not readily available.
Radiographic evidence of colonic dilatation (>7 cm in diameter) is diagnostic of toxic megacolon. Other radiographic findings consistent with toxic megacolon include small bowel dilatation, air-fluid levels (mimicking an intestinal obstruction or ischemia), and "thumb printing" (scalloping of the bowel wall) due to submucosal edema (image 1 and image 2). In the setting of bowel perforation, free abdominal air may be observed. (See "Toxic megacolon".)
Other radiographic findings associated with C. difficile colitis include pronounced colonic wall thickening (image 3) and low-attenuation mural thickening, corresponding with mucosal and submucosal edema (which may be visible as a "target sign" or "double halo sign" consisting of two or three concentric rings of different attenuation) . Pericolonic stranding and ascites may be seen but are not specific for C. difficile infection.
Findings consistent with pseudomembranous colitis (severe inflammation of the inner lining of the bowel) on radiographic examination are highly suggestive of C. difficile infection and should prompt laboratory testing if not already performed. The "accordion sign" is highly suggestive of pseudomembranous colitis; it consists of mucosal edema and inflammation involving the large bowel and is seen when orally administered contrast material becomes trapped between thickened haustral folds, giving the appearance of alternating bands of high attenuation (contrast material) and low attenuation (edematous haustra) [88-90]. (See 'Overview of diagnostic approach' above.)
Endoscopy — Lower gastrointestinal endoscopy is not warranted in patients with classic clinical manifestations of C. difficile infection, a positive laboratory test and/or clinical response to empiric treatment. In general, endoscopy may be pursued for circumstances in which an alternative diagnosis is suspected that requires direct visualization and/or biopsy of the bowel mucosa. It may also be helpful for patients with ileus or fulminant colitis in the absence of diarrhea since it may allow visualization of pseudomembranes (severe inflammation of the inner lining of the bowel), a finding that is highly suggestive of C. difficile infection. The decision to proceed with endoscopy should be made carefully; if pursued, flexible proctoscopy is preferred since insufflation with sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy may damage potentially friable bowel tissue with increased risk for perforation.
Findings on lower gastrointestinal endoscopy in the setting of C. difficile infection include bowel wall edema, erythema, friability, and inflammation. When visible, findings of pseudomembranous colitis are highly suggestive of C. difficile infection and should prompt diagnostic laboratory confirmation if not already performed (via stool assay or, in the setting of ileus, a perirectal swab for toxin assay or anaerobic culture) . However, not all patients with CDAD have pseudomembranes, particularly patients with mild or partially treated infection, and absence of pseudomembranes does not rule out C. difficile infection. Pseudomembranes are rarely observed in the setting of recurrent C. difficile infection or inflammatory bowel disease [92,93]. There are rare reports of other pathogens also capable of causing pseudomembranous colitis (see 'Differential diagnosis' below).
Formation of pseudomembranes occurs following C difficile toxin–induced ulcer formation on the mucosal surface of the intestine, which facilitates release of serum proteins, mucus, and inflammatory cells . Pseudomembranes manifest as raised yellow or off-white plaques up to 2 cm in diameter scattered over the colonic mucosa (picture 1 and picture 2). Some patients with pseudomembranous colitis have scattered lesions with relatively normal-appearing intervening mucosa, while others have a confluent pseudomembrane covering the entire mucosa. Pseudomembranes may be absent in the rectosigmoid area but present more proximally, although colonoscopy for proximal evaluation of the colon is not warranted for diagnosis of C. difficile given potential bowel tissue friability and risk of perforation [91,95].
Biopsy is not needed for diagnosis of C. difficile. Biopsy may be warranted to establish an alternative diagnosis, particularly for patients who are not responding clinically to appropriate therapy for presumed C. difficile infection. (See 'Differential diagnosis' below.)
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS — C. difficile must be distinguished from other infectious and noninfectious causes of diarrhea. Most antibiotic-associated diarrhea is not attributable to C. difficile infection (but rather to osmotic mechanisms), whereas antibiotic-associated diarrhea associated with colitis is nearly always C. difficile–associated diarrhea (CDAD).
●Acute abdomen – C. difficile may present as abdominal distension mimicking small bowel ileus, Ogilvie's syndrome, volvulus, or ischemia . The approach to diagnosis varies by age, gender and condition; tools include history and physical examination, surgical consultation, and radiographic imaging. (See "Evaluation of the adult with abdominal pain in the emergency department".)
●Shock – Severe hypotension may occur in the setting of severe C. difficile infection and/or in the setting of bowel perforation with peritonitis. In addition, C. difficile infection may develop during antibiotic treatment for septic shock caused by a separate bacterial infection. Shock due to other causes (such as septic shock or cardiogenic shock) must be distinguished from severe hypotension due to C. difficile infection via cardiac and hemodynamic assessment. (See "Evaluation of and initial approach to the adult patient with undifferentiated hypotension and shock".)
●Infectious diarrhea – Other organisms that have been implicated as causes of antibiotic-associated diarrhea include Staphylococcus aureus , Klebsiella oxytoca , Clostridium perfringens , and possibly Candida albicans . Salmonella can present as a pseudomembranous colitis (severe inflammation of the inner lining of the bowel) . The clinical manifestations are similar to that of C. difficile infection; the diagnosis is distinguished by stool culture.
●Noninfectious diarrhea – Causes of noninfectious diarrhea that may mimic C. difficile infection include postinfectious irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, and collagenous colitis. Differentiation of noninfectious antibiotic-associated diarrhea from C. difficile infection may be difficult, especially in patients who are asymptomatic C. difficile carriers; this is most relevant among patients in nursing homes or hospitals where the rate of asymptomatic carriage is 10 to 50 percent (in community populations, the rate of asymptomatic carriage is ≤5 percent). Cessation of symptoms with discontinuation of oral intake is a distinguishing feature of osmotic diarrhea (figure 1). The presence of fever and leukocytosis favors C. difficile or other infectious etiology. (See "Approach to the adult with chronic diarrhea in resource-rich settings".)
•Postinfectious irritable bowel syndrome – Postinfectious irritable bowel syndrome occurs in about 10 percent of patients who have been successfully treated for an initial episode of C. difficile. These patients may have up to 10 watery stools per day; this must be distinguished from a relapse of the original C. difficile infection based on established criteria (table 3). (See "Clinical manifestations and diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome in adults".)
•Inflammatory bowel disease – Infection with C. difficile may complicate the course of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) [101,102]. Enteric infections account for about 10 percent of symptomatic relapses in patients with IBD; C. difficile accounts for about half of these infections . Rates of C. difficile among patients with IBD appear to be increasing [104,105]. The association between IBD and C. difficile may be due to a variety of factors, including antibiotic use for treatment of other gastrointestinal pathogens and frequent hospitalization for management of IBD flares. Rarely, C. difficile can trigger an initial bout of IBD .
C. difficile infection in patients with IBD requires prompt diagnosis and management, since failure to diagnose the infection can lead to inappropriate treatment with glucocorticoids or immunosuppressive therapy. Furthermore, C. difficile may be difficult to distinguish from an IBD relapse given the similar symptoms of diarrhea, abdominal pain, and low-grade fever. Thus, a high index of suspicion is required when evaluating IBD patients with apparent flares, especially those who have recently received antibiotics and/or been hospitalized.
The diagnosis requires laboratory testing; endoscopy is usually not helpful because IBD patients generally do not develop pseudomembranes. Given preexisting colonic pathology, patients with IBD who develop C. difficile colitis require colectomy more frequently (20 percent in one series) .
There is a high prevalence of C. difficile carriage in patients with IBD. This was illustrated in a study of 122 patients with longstanding IBD in which the frequency of C. difficile carriage was higher in IBD patients than in healthy volunteers (8 versus 1 percent, respectively), in the absence of recent antibiotics or hospitalization . Despite this observation, none developed symptomatic disease in the subsequent six months. The reason for this observation is not certain; possibilities include altered colonic microbial flora, mucosal inflammation, and impaired mucosal innate immunity.
•Collagenous colitis – Collagenous colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the colon characterized by chronic, watery diarrhea. The diagnosis is established via colonoscopy with biopsy. (See "Lymphocytic and collagenous colitis (microscopic colitis): Clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and management".)
•Celiac disease – Celiac disease is a small bowel disease associated with dietary gluten exposure; gastrointestinal symptoms including chronic or recurrent diarrhea, malabsorption, weight loss, and abdominal distension or bloating. The diagnosis is established via serology and/or biopsy. (See "Diagnosis of celiac disease in adults".)
SOCIETY GUIDELINE LINKS — Links to society and government-sponsored guidelines from selected countries and regions around the world are provided separately. (See "Society guideline links: Clostridium difficile infection".)
INFORMATION FOR PATIENTS — UpToDate offers two types of patient education materials, “The Basics” and “Beyond the Basics.” The Basics patient education pieces are written in plain language, at the 5th to 6th grade reading level, and they answer the four or five key questions a patient might have about a given condition. These articles are best for patients who want a general overview and who prefer short, easy-to-read materials. Beyond the Basics patient education pieces are longer, more sophisticated, and more detailed. These articles are written at the 10th to 12th grade reading level and are best for patients who want in-depth information and are comfortable with some medical jargon.
Here are the patient education articles that are relevant to this topic. We encourage you to print or e-mail these topics to your patients. (You can also locate patient education articles on a variety of subjects by searching on “patient info” and the keyword(s) of interest.)
●Beyond the Basics topics (see "Patient education: Antibiotic-associated diarrhea caused by Clostridium difficile (Beyond the Basics)")
●Clostridium difficile colonizes the human intestinal tract after the normal gut flora has been altered by antibiotic therapy and causes antibiotic-associated colitis. The antibiotics most frequently implicated in predisposition to C. difficile infection are fluoroquinolones, clindamycin, cephalosporins, and penicillins (table 2). Additional risk factors include age >65 and recent hospitalization. (See 'Diarrhea with colitis' above.)
•Clinical manifestations of C. difficile–associated diarrhea (CDAD) with colitis include watery diarrhea (≥3 loose stools in 24 hours) with lower abdominal pain and cramping, low-grade fever, and leukocytosis. (See 'Diarrhea with colitis' above.)
•Clinical manifestations of fulminant colitis include diarrhea, severe lower quadrant or diffuse abdominal pain, abdominal distention, fever, hypovolemia, lactic acidosis, hypoalbuminemia, and marked leukocytosis. Diarrhea may be less prominent or absent in patients with prolonged ileus due to pooling of secretions in the dilated, atonic colon. Potential complications include toxic megacolon and bowel perforation. (See 'Fulminant colitis' above.)
●Recurrence C. difficile infection is defined by complete abatement of symptoms while on appropriate therapy, followed by subsequent reappearance of diarrhea and other symptoms after treatment has ended. Relapse may present within days or weeks of completing treatment for C. difficile; the clinical presentation may be similar to or more severe than the initial presentation. (See 'Recurrent disease' above.)
●The diagnosis of C. difficile infection is established via a positive stool test for C. difficile toxins or C. difficile toxin gene. We favor use of polymerase chain reaction for laboratory diagnosis of C. difficile, either alone or as part of an algorithm including initial enzyme immunoassay screening for glutamate dehydrogenase antigen and toxins A and B (algorithm 1). The diagnostic approach for suspected recurrent C. difficile is the same as the approach for initial infection. (See 'Overview of diagnostic approach' above.)
●Laboratory testing should be pursued only in patients with clinically significant diarrhea, since testing cannot distinguish between CDAD and asymptomatic carriage (which does not warrant treatment). For patients with ileus, laboratory diagnosis via perirectal swab for toxin assay or anaerobic culture may be performed. (See 'Overview of diagnostic approach' above.)
●Radiographic imaging of the abdomen and pelvis is warranted for patients with clinical manifestations of severe illness or fulminant colitis to evaluate for presence of toxic megacolon, bowel perforation, or other findings warranting surgical intervention. (See 'Overview of diagnostic approach' above and 'Radiographic imaging' above.)
●Lower gastrointestinal endoscopy is not warranted in patients with classic clinical manifestations of C. difficile infection, a positive laboratory test, and/or clinical response to empiric treatment. In general, endoscopy may be pursued for circumstances in which an alternative diagnosis is suspected that requires direct visualization and/or biopsy of the bowel mucosa. It may also be helpful for patients with ileus or fulminant colitis in the absence of diarrhea since it may allow visualization of pseudomembranes (severe inflammation of the inner lining of the bowel), a finding that is highly suggestive of C. difficile infection. (See 'Endoscopy' above.)
●Findings of pseudomembranous colitis (severe inflammation of the inner lining of the bowel) on radiographic or endoscopic examination are highly suggestive of C. difficile infection and should prompt laboratory testing if not already performed. (See 'Radiographic imaging' above and 'Endoscopy' above.)
- Kelly CP, LaMont JT. Clostridium difficile--more difficult than ever. N Engl J Med 2008; 359:1932.
- Bagdasarian N, Rao K, Malani PN. Diagnosis and treatment of Clostridium difficile in adults: a systematic review. JAMA 2015; 313:398.
- Wanahita A, Goldsmith EA, Musher DM. Conditions associated with leukocytosis in a tertiary care hospital, with particular attention to the role of infection caused by clostridium difficile. Clin Infect Dis 2002; 34:1585.
- Cohen SH, Gerding DN, Johnson S, et al. Clinical practice guidelines for Clostridium difficile infection in adults: 2010 update by the society for healthcare epidemiology of America (SHEA) and the infectious diseases society of America (IDSA). Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2010; 31:431.
- Tedesco FJ. Pseudomembranous colitis: pathogenesis and therapy. Med Clin North Am 1982; 66:655.
- Wanahita A, Goldsmith EA, Marino BJ, Musher DM. Clostridium difficile infection in patients with unexplained leukocytosis. Am J Med 2003; 115:543.
- Bulusu M, Narayan S, Shetler K, Triadafilopoulos G. Leukocytosis as a harbinger and surrogate marker of Clostridium difficile infection in hospitalized patients with diarrhea. Am J Gastroenterol 2000; 95:3137.
- Walk ST, Micic D, Jain R, et al. Clostridium difficile ribotype does not predict severe infection. Clin Infect Dis 2012; 55:1661.
- Rubin MS, Bodenstein LE, Kent KC. Severe Clostridium difficile colitis. Dis Colon Rectum 1995; 38:350.
- Kelly CP. Can we identify patients at high risk of recurrent Clostridium difficile infection? Clin Microbiol Infect 2012; 18 Suppl 6:21.
- Fekety R, McFarland LV, Surawicz CM, et al. Recurrent Clostridium difficile diarrhea: characteristics of and risk factors for patients enrolled in a prospective, randomized, double-blinded trial. Clin Infect Dis 1997; 24:324.
- Sheitoyan-Pesant C, Abou Chakra CN, Pépin J, et al. Clinical and Healthcare Burden of Multiple Recurrences of Clostridium difficile Infection. Clin Infect Dis 2016; 62:574.
- Hu MY, Katchar K, Kyne L, et al. Prospective derivation and validation of a clinical prediction rule for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection. Gastroenterology 2009; 136:1206.
- Tedesco FJ, Gordon D, Fortson WC. Approach to patients with multiple relapses of antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis. Am J Gastroenterol 1985; 80:867.
- Kyne L, Warny M, Qamar A, Kelly CP. Association between antibody response to toxin A and protection against recurrent Clostridium difficile diarrhoea. Lancet 2001; 357:189.
- Pépin J, Routhier S, Gagnon S, Brazeau I. Management and outcomes of a first recurrence of Clostridium difficile-associated disease in Quebec, Canada. Clin Infect Dis 2006; 42:758.
- Gupta SB, Mehta V, Dubberke ER, et al. Antibodies to Toxin B Are Protective Against Clostridium difficile Infection Recurrence. Clin Infect Dis 2016; 63:730.
- Walters BA, Roberts R, Stafford R, Seneviratne E. Relapse of antibiotic associated colitis: endogenous persistence of Clostridium difficile during vancomycin therapy. Gut 1983; 24:206.
- Young G, McDonald M. Antibiotic-associated colitis: why do patients relapse? Gastroenterology 1986; 90:1098.
- Wilcox MH, Fawley WN, Settle CD, Davidson A. Recurrence of symptoms in Clostridium difficile infection--relapse or reinfection? J Hosp Infect 1998; 38:93.
- Kamboj M, Khosa P, Kaltsas A, et al. Relapse versus reinfection: surveillance of Clostridium difficile infection. Clin Infect Dis 2011; 53:1003.
- Kyne L, Warny M, Qamar A, Kelly CP. Asymptomatic carriage of Clostridium difficile and serum levels of IgG antibody against toxin A. N Engl J Med 2000; 342:390.
- McFarland LV, Mulligan ME, Kwok RY, Stamm WE. Nosocomial acquisition of Clostridium difficile infection. N Engl J Med 1989; 320:204.
- Riggs MM, Sethi AK, Zabarsky TF, et al. Asymptomatic carriers are a potential source for transmission of epidemic and nonepidemic Clostridium difficile strains among long-term care facility residents. Clin Infect Dis 2007; 45:992.
- Dansinger ML, Johnson S, Jansen PC, et al. Protein-losing enteropathy is associated with Clostridium difficile diarrhea but not with asymptomatic colonization: a prospective, case-control study. Clin Infect Dis 1996; 22:932.
- Rybolt AH, Bennett RG, Laughon BE, et al. Protein-losing enteropathy associated with Clostridium difficile infection. Lancet 1989; 1:1353.
- Mattila E, Arkkila P, Mattila PS, et al. Extraintestinal Clostridium difficile infections. Clin Infect Dis 2013; 57:e148.
- Brown TA, Rajappannair L, Dalton AB, et al. Acute appendicitis in the setting of Clostridium difficile colitis: case report and review of the literature. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2007; 5:969.
- Jacobs A, Barnard K, Fishel R, Gradon JD. Extracolonic manifestations of Clostridium difficile infections. Presentation of 2 cases and review of the literature. Medicine (Baltimore) 2001; 80:88.
- Hayetian FD, Read TE, Brozovich M, et al. Ileal perforation secondary to Clostridium difficile enteritis: report of 2 cases. Arch Surg 2006; 141:97.
- Vesoulis Z, Williams G, Matthews B. Pseudomembranous enteritis after proctocolectomy: report of a case. Dis Colon Rectum 2000; 43:551.
- Case records of the Massachusetts General Hospital. Weekly clinicopathological exercises. Case 19-1998. A 70-year-old man with diarrhea, polyarthritis, and a history of Reiter's syndrome. N Engl J Med 1998; 338:1830.
- Gupta A, Patel R, Baddour LM, et al. Extraintestinal Clostridium difficile infections: a single-center experience. Mayo Clin Proc 2014; 89:1525.
- Gerding DN, Johnson S, Peterson LR, et al. Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea and colitis. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1995; 16:459.
- Sunenshine RH, McDonald LC. Clostridium difficile-associated disease: new challenges from an established pathogen. Cleve Clin J Med 2006; 73:187.
- Gerding DN. Diagnosis of Clostridium difficile--associated disease: patient selection and test perfection. Am J Med 1996; 100:485.
- Katz DA, Lynch ME, Littenberg B. Clinical prediction rules to optimize cytotoxin testing for Clostridium difficile in hospitalized patients with diarrhea. Am J Med 1996; 100:487.
- Peterson LR, Robicsek A. Does my patient have Clostridium difficile infection? Ann Intern Med 2009; 151:176.
- Kundrapu S, Sunkesula VC, Jury LA, et al. Utility of perirectal swab specimens for diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection. Clin Infect Dis 2012; 55:1527.
- Kelly CP, Pothoulakis C, LaMont JT. Clostridium difficile colitis. N Engl J Med 1994; 330:257.
- Dubberke ER, Gerding DN, Classen D, et al. Strategies to prevent clostridium difficile infections in acute care hospitals. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2008; 29 Suppl 1:S81.
- Crobach MJ, Dekkers OM, Wilcox MH, Kuijper EJ. European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID): data review and recommendations for diagnosing Clostridium difficile-infection (CDI). Clin Microbiol Infect 2009; 15:1053.
- Department of Health. Health Protection Agency. Clostridium difficile infection: How to deal with the problem. Department of Health London 2008. Available at: www.hpa.org.uk/webw/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1204186173530?p=1263812760663 (Accessed on April 01, 2010).
- Leffler DA, Lamont JT. Clostridium difficile infection. N Engl J Med 2015; 372:1539.
- Goldenberg SD, Cliff PR, Smith S, et al. Two-step glutamate dehydrogenase antigen real-time polymerase chain reaction assay for detection of toxigenic Clostridium difficile. J Hosp Infect 2010; 74:48.
- Novak-Weekley SM, Marlowe EM, Miller JM, et al. Clostridium difficile testing in the clinical laboratory by use of multiple testing algorithms. J Clin Microbiol 2010; 48:889.
- Brecher SM, Novak-Weekley SM, Nagy E. Laboratory diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infections: there is light at the end of the colon. Clin Infect Dis 2013; 57:1175.
- Debast SB, Bauer MP, Kuijper EJ, European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases: update of the treatment guidance document for Clostridium difficile infection. Clin Microbiol Infect 2014; 20 Suppl 2:1.
- Planche TD, Davies KA, Coen PG, et al. Differences in outcome according to Clostridium difficile testing method: a prospective multicentre diagnostic validation study of C difficile infection. Lancet Infect Dis 2013; 13:936.
- Polage CR, Gyorke CE, Kennedy MA, et al. Overdiagnosis of Clostridium difficile Infection in the Molecular Test Era. JAMA Intern Med 2015; 175:1792.
- Manabe YC, Vinetz JM, Moore RD, et al. Clostridium difficile colitis: an efficient clinical approach to diagnosis. Ann Intern Med 1995; 123:835.
- Deshpande A, Pasupuleti V, Patel P, et al. Repeat stool testing to diagnose Clostridium difficile infection using enzyme immunoassay does not increase diagnostic yield. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2011; 9:665.
- Cardona DM, Rand KH. Evaluation of repeat Clostridium difficile enzyme immunoassay testing. J Clin Microbiol 2008; 46:3686.
- Mohan SS, McDermott BP, Parchuri S, Cunha BA. Lack of value of repeat stool testing for Clostridium difficile toxin. Am J Med 2006; 119:356.e7.
- Renshaw AA, Stelling JM, Doolittle MH. The lack of value of repeated Clostridium difficile cytotoxicity assays. Arch Pathol Lab Med 1996; 120:49.
- Aichinger E, Schleck CD, Harmsen WS, et al. Nonutility of repeat laboratory testing for detection of Clostridium difficile by use of PCR or enzyme immunoassay. J Clin Microbiol 2008; 46:3795.
- Gade R, Turett G. The utility of repeated stool toxin testing for diagnosing Clostridium difficile colitis. South Med J 2009; 102:1007.
- Ferry G, Versalovic J. Antibiotic-associated colitis. In: Textbook of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, 6th ed, Feigin RD, Cherry JD, Demmler-Harrison GJ, Kaplan SL (Eds), Saunders, Philadelphia 2009. p.653.
- Wilkins TD, Lyerly DM. Clostridium difficile testing: after 20 years, still challenging. J Clin Microbiol 2003; 41:531.
- Ticehurst JR, Aird DZ, Dam LM, et al. Effective detection of toxigenic Clostridium difficile by a two-step algorithm including tests for antigen and cytotoxin. J Clin Microbiol 2006; 44:1145.
- Reller ME, Lema CA, Perl TM, et al. Yield of stool culture with isolate toxin testing versus a two-step algorithm including stool toxin testing for detection of toxigenic Clostridium difficile. J Clin Microbiol 2007; 45:3601.
- Fenner L, Widmer AF, Goy G, et al. Rapid and reliable diagnostic algorithm for detection of Clostridium difficile. J Clin Microbiol 2008; 46:328.
- Kufelnicka AM, Kirn TJ. Effective utilization of evolving methods for the laboratory diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection. Clin Infect Dis 2011; 52:1451.
- Luo RF, Banaei N. Is repeat PCR needed for diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection? J Clin Microbiol 2010; 48:3738.
- Bélanger SD, Boissinot M, Clairoux N, et al. Rapid detection of Clostridium difficile in feces by real-time PCR. J Clin Microbiol 2003; 41:730.
- van den Berg RJ, Bruijnesteijn van Coppenraet LS, Gerritsen HJ, et al. Prospective multicenter evaluation of a new immunoassay and real-time PCR for rapid diagnosis of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea in hospitalized patients. J Clin Microbiol 2005; 43:5338.
- Longtin Y, Trottier S, Brochu G, et al. Impact of the type of diagnostic assay on Clostridium difficile infection and complication rates in a mandatory reporting program. Clin Infect Dis 2013; 56:67.
- Surawicz CM, Brandt LJ, Binion DG, et al. Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of Clostridium difficile infections. Am J Gastroenterol 2013; 108:478.
- Kvach EJ, Ferguson D, Riska PF, Landry ML. Comparison of BD GeneOhm Cdiff real-time PCR assay with a two-step algorithm and a toxin A/B enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for diagnosis of toxigenic Clostridium difficile infection. J Clin Microbiol 2010; 48:109.
- Stamper PD, Babiker W, Alcabasa R, et al. Evaluation of a new commercial TaqMan PCR assay for direct detection of the clostridium difficile toxin B gene in clinical stool specimens. J Clin Microbiol 2009; 47:3846.
- Eastwood K, Else P, Charlett A, Wilcox M. Comparison of nine commercially available Clostridium difficile toxin detection assays, a real-time PCR assay for C. difficile tcdB, and a glutamate dehydrogenase detection assay to cytotoxin testing and cytotoxigenic culture methods. J Clin Microbiol 2009; 47:3211.
- Stamper PD, Alcabasa R, Aird D, et al. Comparison of a commercial real-time PCR assay for tcdB detection to a cell culture cytotoxicity assay and toxigenic culture for direct detection of toxin-producing Clostridium difficile in clinical samples. J Clin Microbiol 2009; 47:373.
- van den Berg RJ, Vaessen N, Endtz HP, et al. Evaluation of real-time PCR and conventional diagnostic methods for the detection of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea in a prospective multicentre study. J Med Microbiol 2007; 56:36.
- Sunkesula VC, Kundrapu S, Muganda C, et al. Does empirical Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) therapy result in false-negative CDI diagnostic test results? Clin Infect Dis 2013; 57:494.
- Limaye AP, Turgeon DK, Cookson BT, Fritsche TR. Pseudomembranous colitis caused by a toxin A(-) B(+) strain of Clostridium difficile. J Clin Microbiol 2000; 38:1696.
- Barbut F, Lalande V, Burghoffer B, et al. Prevalence and genetic characterization of toxin A variant strains of Clostridium difficile among adults and children with diarrhea in France. J Clin Microbiol 2002; 40:2079.
- Johnson S, Kent SA, O'Leary KJ, et al. Fatal pseudomembranous colitis associated with a variant clostridium difficile strain not detected by toxin A immunoassay. Ann Intern Med 2001; 135:434.
- Knapp CC, Sandin RL, Hall GS, et al. Comparison of vidas Clostridium difficile toxin-A assay and premier C. difficile toxin-A assay to cytotoxin-B tissue culture assay for the detection of toxins of C. difficile. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis 1993; 17:7.
- Lyras D, O'Connor JR, Howarth PM, et al. Toxin B is essential for virulence of Clostridium difficile. Nature 2009; 458:1176.
- Blossom DB, McDonald LC. The challenges posed by reemerging Clostridium difficile infection. Clin Infect Dis 2007; 45:222.
- Swindells J, Brenwald N, Reading N, Oppenheim B. Evaluation of diagnostic tests for Clostridium difficile infection. J Clin Microbiol 2010; 48:606.
- Bartlett JG. Clinical practice. Antibiotic-associated diarrhea. N Engl J Med 2002; 346:334.
- Shanholtzer CJ, Willard KE, Holter JJ, et al. Comparison of the VIDAS Clostridium difficile toxin A immunoassay with C. difficile culture and cytotoxin and latex tests. J Clin Microbiol 1992; 30:1837.
- Laughon BE, Viscidi RP, Gdovin SL, et al. Enzyme immunoassays for detection of Clostridium difficile toxins A and B in fecal specimens. J Infect Dis 1984; 149:781.
- Shannon-Lowe J, Matheson NJ, Cooke FJ, Aliyu SH. Prevention and medical management of Clostridium difficile infection. BMJ 2010; 340:c1296.
- Singh N, Hyun DY. Clostridium difficile. In: Principles and Practice of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, 4th ed, Long SS, Pickering LK, Prober CG (Eds), Elsevier Saunders, Edinburgh 2012. p.977.
- Reddymasu S, Sheth A, Banks DE. Is Fecal Leukocyte Test a good predictor of Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea? Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob 2006; 5:9.
- Kawamoto S, Horton KM, Fishman EK. Pseudomembranous colitis: spectrum of imaging findings with clinical and pathologic correlation. Radiographics 1999; 19:887.
- Valiquette L, Pépin J, Do XV, et al. Prediction of complicated Clostridium difficile infection by pleural effusion and increased wall thickness on computed tomography. Clin Infect Dis 2009; 49:554.
- Lim J, Phillips AW, Thomson WL. An unexpected CT finding in a patient with abdominal pain. BMJ Case Rep 2013; 2013.
- Tedesco FJ. Antibiotic associated pseudomembranous colitis with negative proctosigmoidoscopy examination. Gastroenterology 1979; 77:295.
- Goodhand JR, Alazawi W, Rampton DS. Systematic review: Clostridium difficile and inflammatory bowel disease. Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2011; 33:428.
- Ananthakrishnan AN, Binion DG. Impact of Clostridium difficile on inflammatory bowel disease. Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 2010; 4:589.
- Riegler M, Sedivy R, Pothoulakis C, et al. Clostridium difficile toxin B is more potent than toxin A in damaging human colonic epithelium in vitro. J Clin Invest 1995; 95:2004.
- Seppälä K, Hjelt L, Sipponen P. Colonoscopy in the diagnosis of antibiotic-associated colitis. A prospective study. Scand J Gastroenterol 1981; 16:465.
- Triadafilopoulos G, Hallstone AE. Acute abdomen as the first presentation of pseudomembranous colitis. Gastroenterology 1991; 101:685.
- Gravet A, Rondeau M, Harf-Monteil C, et al. Predominant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from antibiotic-associated diarrhea is clinically relevant and produces enterotoxin A and the bicomponent toxin LukE-lukD. J Clin Microbiol 1999; 37:4012.
- Högenauer C, Langner C, Beubler E, et al. Klebsiella oxytoca as a causative organism of antibiotic-associated hemorrhagic colitis. N Engl J Med 2006; 355:2418.
- Sparks SG, Carman RJ, Sarker MR, McClane BA. Genotyping of enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringens fecal isolates associated with antibiotic-associated diarrhea and food poisoning in North America. J Clin Microbiol 2001; 39:883.
- Hovius SE, Rietra PJ. Salmonella colitis clinically presenting as a pseudomembranous colitis. Neth J Surg 1982; 34:81.
- LaMont JT, Trnka YM. Therapeutic implications of Clostridium difficile toxin during relapse of chronic inflammatory bowel disease. Lancet 1980; 1:381.
- Greenfield C, Aguilar Ramirez JR, Pounder RE, et al. Clostridium difficile and inflammatory bowel disease. Gut 1983; 24:713.
- Mylonaki M, Langmead L, Pantes A, et al. Enteric infection in relapse of inflammatory bowel disease: importance of microbiological examination of stool. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2004; 16:775.
- Rodemann JF, Dubberke ER, Reske KA, et al. Incidence of Clostridium difficile infection in inflammatory bowel disease. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2007; 5:339.
- Issa M, Vijayapal A, Graham MB, et al. Impact of Clostridium difficile on inflammatory bowel disease. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2007; 5:345.
- Clayton EM, Rea MC, Shanahan F, et al. The vexed relationship between Clostridium difficile and inflammatory bowel disease: an assessment of carriage in an outpatient setting among patients in remission. Am J Gastroenterol 2009; 104:1162. | <urn:uuid:7226c93f-bd62-4ce3-99b7-5706e47f4138> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | https://www.uptodate.com/contents/clostridium-difficile-infection-in-adults-clinical-manifestations-and-diagnosis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948585297.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20171216065121-20171216091121-00687.warc.gz | en | 0.83246 | 13,323 | 3.015625 | 3 |
In my opinion the terms inducible and conditional are synonyms. Together with the term constitutive they refer to how transcription takes place, that is, the second phase in the central dogma that states that genetic information is propagated from replication to transcription to translation. The proteins that are produced during translation by ribosomes can have a feedback effect on replication and transcription.
When proteins bind to the promoter region of genes, they can induce or inhibit transcription. If a gene is preceded by a promoter region that always promotes transcription, it is said that the gene has a constitutive promoter. If the gene is transcribed conditionally, it may refer to proteins having to bind to the promoter region so that transcription can take place. There could be inverse situations and I believe the Cre/Lox technology is an example of such a situation.
Take the following as an example. A gene could be lethal meaning that if the protein it encodes is expressed it will kill the cell. It could have a promoter that promotes expression if a protein with an inhibitory effect is not bound to the promoter. Suppose I have these cells in a culture plate and I add some compound to the culture plate. The compound diffuses into the cells and binds to the inhibitory protein that is bound to the promoter region. With this binding of the compound to the protein that is in turn bound to the promoter region, the protein loses its ability to bind to the promoter region and inhibition of transcription is uplifted. Transcription then continues and expression of the lethal protein takes place after which the cell dies.
This could be used in practice as follow: if you were selling seeds to farmers, you would want them to buy seeds next year again, so you want the plant not to be able to produce viable seeds.
Coming back to your question, if you want to know more about the mice in question, you should contact the breeder as nomenclatures differ. See this article on interpreting mouse genetic nomenclature: | <urn:uuid:c0922b6d-3674-41d7-bf8c-5d95113d2e59> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/40373/what-is-the-difference-between-conditional-and-inducible-activation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487614006.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20210614232115-20210615022115-00144.warc.gz | en | 0.960941 | 404 | 3.296875 | 3 |
When a continuum body is acted upon by external forces, internal forces will appear and they will act upon each single particles in the medium. By ideally removing a portion of the continuum body, we could observe the distribution of internal forces: for each infinitesimal surface AA there is a corresponding infinitesimal force ΔF acting upon it.
The stress vector is defined as T(n) = , which varies with the orientation of AA. Applying the stress upon a materiel causes a change of shape: any single point in the body is subject to a displacement. The resulting shape change or deformation is called strain. Strain is a function of body properties such as density, rigidity (or shear resistance) and compressibility (resistance to volume change). These properties are known as elastic moduli.
The study of the relationships between applied stress and subsequent strain is called “reology“. | <urn:uuid:51dee7c2-6334-4bc9-bec5-9ee34bbb3d95> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.pasqualerobustini.com/en/geologia/elementi-di-geodinamica/sforzo-e-deformazione/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656104141372.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20220702131941-20220702161941-00192.warc.gz | en | 0.937784 | 187 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Could you please explain how to do question #7 from math section #3 from the Official SAT Test #3? Thanks so much! Your book rocks my socks off.
You bet, and thanks for the compliment! 🙂
The thing to recognize here is that when (x – a) is a factor of a polynomial, then that polynomial has a zero at x = a, and when a polynomial has a zero at x = a, then (x – a) is a factor of that polynomial. (In other words, it works both ways.)
Since the table in this question tells you that f(4) = 0, you know that (x – 4) is a factor of f(x). | <urn:uuid:1fa2a6fb-5f17-4e33-8bed-bf41ae4a41ce> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://pwntestprep.com/2016/06/could-you-please-explain-how-to-do-question-7-from-math-section-3-from-the-official-sat-test-3-thanks-so-much-your-book-rocks-my-socks-off/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100677.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20231207153748-20231207183748-00154.warc.gz | en | 0.952265 | 153 | 3.125 | 3 |
A diet rich in walnuts and walnut oil may prepare the body to deal better with stress, according to a team of Penn State researchers who looked at how these foods, which contain polyunsaturated fats, influence blood pressure at rest and under stress.
Previous studies have shown that omega-3 fatty acids–like the alpha linolenic acid found in walnuts and flax seeds–can reduce low density lipoproteins (LDL)–bad cholesterol. These foods may also reduce c-reactive protein and other markers of inflammation.
“People who show an exaggerated biological response to stress are at higher risk of heart disease,” said Sheila G. West, associate professor of biobehavioral health. “We wanted to find out if omega 3-fatty acids from plant sources would blunt cardiovascular responses to stress.”
The researchers studied 22 healthy adults with elevated LDL cholesterol. All meals and snacks were provided during three diet periods of six weeks each.
The researchers found including walnuts and walnut oil in the diet lowered both resting blood pressure and blood pressure responses to stress in the laboratory. Participants gave a speech or immersed their foot in cold water as a stressor. Adding flax seed oil to the walnut diet did not further lower blood pressure. They report their findings in the current issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
“This is the first study to show that walnuts and walnut oil reduce blood pressure during stress,” said West. “This is important because we can’t avoid all of the stressors in our daily lives. This study shows that a dietary change could help our bodies better respond to stress.”
A subset of the participants also underwent a vascular ultrasound in order to measure artery dilation. Results showed that adding flax oil to the walnut diet significantly improved this test of vascular health. The flax plus walnuts diet also lowered c-reactive protein, indicating an anti-inflammatory effect. According to West, that could also reduce risk of cardiovascular disease.
The researchers used a randomized, crossover study design. Tests were conducted at the end of each six-week diet, and every participant consumed each of the three diets in random order, with a one-week break between. Diets included an “average” American diet–a diet without nuts that reflects what the typical person in the U.S. consumes each day. The second diet included 1.3 ounces of walnuts and a tablespoon of walnut oil substituted for some of the fat and protein in the average American diet. The third diet included walnuts, walnut oil and 1.5 tablespoons of flaxseed oil. The three diets were matched for calories and were specifically designed for each participant so that no weight loss or gain occurred. The walnuts, walnut oil and flax oil were either mixed into the food in such offerings as muffins or salad dressing or eaten as a snack. About 18 walnut halves or 9 walnuts make up the average serving used by the researchers.
After each diet, the participants underwent two stress tests. In the first test, they received a topic; and they were given two minutes to prepare a three-minute speech, which they presented while being videotaped. The second stressor was a standard physical test of stress consisting of submerging one foot in ice-cold water. Throughout these tests, the researchers took blood pressure readings from the participants.
Results showed that average diastolic blood pressure–the “bottom number” or the pressure in the arteries when the heart is resting–was significantly reduced during the diets containing walnuts and walnut oil.
Walnuts are a rich source of fiber, antioxidants and unsaturated fatty acids, particularly alpha linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid, and these compounds could be responsible for the beneficial effects on blood pressure. Flax oil is a more concentrated source of omega-3 fatty acids than walnut oil, but this study did not test whether flax oil alone could blunt cardiovascular responses to stress.
“These results are in agreement with several recent studies showing that walnuts can reduce cholesterol and blood pressure,” noted West. “This work suggests that blood pressure is also reduced when a person is exposed to stress in their daily life.” | <urn:uuid:1f52f3b5-c8db-4651-b784-697c9248fac4> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | https://www.massagemag.com/walnuts-walnut-oil-improve-reaction-to-stress-8013/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267157351.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20180921170920-20180921191320-00090.warc.gz | en | 0.964098 | 888 | 2.9375 | 3 |
At key stage 4, there are 2 courses to choose from in the Business Studies department plus one course that will be no longer available once the current year 11 complete in 2019. In each of the courses students are encouraged to always be aware of business events that are happening in the local and national news, to help them put what they have been learning in the classroom into a real context.
GCSE Business Studies
We follow the AQA GCSE Business Studies course. This comprises of the following units:-
Business in the real world
Looking at why people start a business and the skills required.
- Different business types.
- How to plan a business and why it is so important
- Stakeholders of a business
- How businesses choose the best location
- How businesses grow
Influences on business
Looking at how things that are beyond the business’ control can affect them for example:
- The economy
- Ethical Considerations in running a business
- How new technology can affect business
- How a business can deal with competition.
- How the law effects business
Methods of producing goods and choosing the best method
- Stock control
- Picking the best supplier
- Logistics and supply chains
- How to maintain good quality in the business.
- How businesses organise their staff
- How they recruit and train effective staff
- How to keep staff motivated
- Different types of contracts
- How businesses choose their target market
- How businesses promote their products and services
- How businesses decide their prices
- Theory such as the product life cycle and Boston Matrix
- The marketing mix (product, price place and promotion)
- Market Research
- Calculating revenue, costs, profit and break even.
- The financial documents a business has to produce
- How to find out if a business is doing well financially or might run into trouble.
There are two exams at the end of year 11. Each is 1 hour 45 minutes.
For more information go to https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/business-subjects or speak to the teachers in the Business Studies department.
The Cambridge National in Enterprise and Marketing
Some students take the Cambridge National in Enterprise and Marketing.
This course covers a lot of the same content as the GCSE but is assessed in a different way.
Unit RO64 – Enterprise and Marketing Concepts
This is an exam worth 50% of your overall grade. It will be taken in January of year 11.
In this unit you will learn about:
- Different types of business
- Market Research and how businesses choose who to target their products to
- Calculating revenues, costs, profit and break even
- How products change over time and how businesses can keep them popular
- How outside influences affect the products a business produces
- Pricing products
- Promoting products and services
- Good customer service
- Types of business
- How to raise money for your business
- Business plans
- The different departments (functional areas) of a business and what they do.
Unit RO65 – Design a Business Proposal
This unit is all coursework and is worth 25% of the overall grade.
Students are given a business challenge and they must come up with a product idea. They must research it, design it and make sure it will make them money!
Unit RO66 – Market and Pitch a Business Proposal
This unit is coursework and is worth 25% of the overall grade.
The students have to come up with a brand identity and advertising for their business idea.
They must also produce a dragons den style pitch for their business idea and present it!
BTEC First Award in Business
The current year 11 (year 2018-2019) are the last group to study this course.
Students will learn about a number of business topics including finance, marketing, types of business, national and local factors affecting business, applying for jobs, training and business organisations.
The BTEC Award is assessed with a portfolio of written assignments throughout the two years along with a computer based finance exam.
More information can be found on www.edexcel.co.uk | <urn:uuid:772becf8-186b-4ec7-a42b-e00b1022fcdb> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.wcsc.org.uk/curriculum-business-studies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578643556.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20190424134457-20190424160457-00103.warc.gz | en | 0.936195 | 859 | 2.59375 | 3 |
A massive pair of animal horns is found near the Rocky Mountains. Is it a bison—or a Triceratops? Welcome to the exciting world of paleontology! This book is about the discovery of the Triceratops dinosaur, including information about the dinosaur's appearance, movement, and diet before it became extinct.
This series introduces readers to the study of dinosaurs. Each book covers what scientists know and what they are still working to learn about these prehistoric beasts. Each book includes a glossary, comprehension questions, and an extension activity.
|Guided Reading Level||R|
|Page Count||32 Pages| | <urn:uuid:a34cdf8d-dbe9-4ba4-8af9-ecfc049523f6> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://rourkeeducationalmedia.com/products/triceratops-ebook-2020 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949035.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20230329213541-20230330003541-00274.warc.gz | en | 0.824619 | 221 | 3.375 | 3 |
A flame arrester functions by absorbing the heat from a flame front traveling at sub-sonic velocities, thus dropping the burning gas/air mixture below its auto-ignition temperature.
Consequently, the flame cannot survive. The heat is absorbed through channels (passages) designed into an element.
These channels are chosen and measured as the MESG (maximum experimental safe gap) of the gas for a particular installation.
The required size of the channels needed to stop the flame front can vary significantly, depending on the flammability of the fuel mixture. | <urn:uuid:380207f9-b0a0-41f9-9dce-bfaff08ffae5> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | https://www.acatglobal.com/motorcycle-flame-arrestors/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170884.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00497-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911636 | 119 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the U.S. Navy has used divers on the salvage and repair of ships, construction, and other military operations. During the Civil War’s Battle of Mobile Bay, swimmers were sent ahead of Adm. David Farragut’s ships to locate and disarm Confederate mines, and in 1898, Navy divers investigated the mysterious explosion of USS Maine while anchored in the harbor of Havana, Cuba.
The beginning of the twentieth century marked the development of a weapon of immense potential—the submarine. With the growth of the U.S. submarine force also came with it an increase in accidents, collisions, and sinkings. Until 1912, U.S. Navy divers rarely went below 60 fsw (feet of seawater), and that was a real problem for submarine rescue operations. In that year, Chief Gunner George D. Stillson set up a program to test diving tables and methods of stage decompression. One goal of the program was to develop better Navy diving equipment as well. Throughout the three-year program, divers went progressively deeper, eventually reaching 274 fsw. As a direct result of the program, the first U.S. Navy Diving Manual was published, and the Navy Diving School at Newport, Rhode Island, was established. After World War I, diver-training programs were cut and the school was not reinstituted.
In 1927, USS S-4 (SS-109) was lost in a collision with the Coast Guard cutter USS Paulding. The first divers to reach the submarine at 102 fsw were able to make contact with the men trapped inside, but were unable to rescue them due to a hose connection that was feasible in theory but in reality could not provide the men in the submarine with oxygen. The incident, along with other submarine accidents, sparked new interest in diving operations. The Naval School, Diving and Salvage, was re-established at the Washington Navy Yard during that year, and a rescue chamber that was essentially a diving bell with special fittings for connection to a submarine deck hatch was developed. The apparatus, called the McCann-Erickson Rescue Chamber, was proven somewhat effective in 1939 when it was used to rescue the crew of USS Squalus (SS-192) that suffered a catastrophic valve failure off the Isle of Shoals.
Navy divers plunged into World War II with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. By 0915 on 7 December 1941, salvage teams were already at work cutting through the hull of overturned battle ship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) in an attempt to save Sailors trapped inside the ship. Salvage operations were not the only missions assigned to Navy divers during the war. Many dives were made to inspect sunken enemy ships in an attempt to recover materials of intelligence value. The Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) were created when bomb disposal experts and Seabees (combat engineers) teamed together in 1943 to devise methods for removing obstacles the Germans were placing off the beaches of France. In the Pacific, the first combat mission for UDT’s was a daylight reconnaissance and demolition project off the beaches of Saipan in June 1944. During the Battle for Okinawa, one UDT removed 1,200 underwater obstacles in two days, under heavy fire, without a single casualty.
Navy diving, of course, is not limited to combat and salvage operations. Increasingly, a major part of the diving mission is the inspection and repair of naval vessels to decrease downtime, and the need for dry-docking. Other aspects include recovery and research of torpedoes, installation and repair of electronic arrays, underwater construction, and the recovery of downed aircraft.
In April 1963, the loss of USS Thresher (SSN-593) had a profound effect on the development of new diving equipment and techniques. The submarine and her crew sank to 8,400 fsw, a depth beyond the survival limit of the hull and far beyond the capability of existing rescue apparatus. The loss sparked two special study groups whose recommendations called for the vast improvement in the Navy’s undersea capabilities. In 1970s, the development of the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV), capable of rescue to a depth of 5,000 fsw, vastly improved the Navy’s submarine rescue capabilities. Three additional significant areas of improvement included saturation diving, the development of deep diving systems, and progress in advanced diving equipment design.
Today, U.S. Navy divers are part of an extraordinary community that takes them from the darkest depths of the world’s oceans to freezing arctic-like conditions underneath icebergs, accomplishing tasks that can only be performed by this highly trained naval community. | <urn:uuid:73536436-c9f2-45b8-b791-116e7d2f9058> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/communities/divers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986707990.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20191020105426-20191020132926-00227.warc.gz | en | 0.961365 | 966 | 3.84375 | 4 |
Platelets, the tiny cell fragments whose job it is to stop bleeding, are very simple. They don't have a cell nucleus. But they can "feel" the physical environment around them, researchers at Emory and Georgia Tech have discovered.
Platelets respond to surfaces with greater stiffness by increasing their stickiness, the degree to which they "turn on" other platelets and other components of the clotting system, the researchers found.
"Platelets are smarter than we give them credit for, in that they are able to sense the physical characteristics of their environment and respond in a graduated way," says Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.
The results are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The first author of the paper is research associate Yongzhi Qiu. Lam is also a physician in the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
The researchers' findings could influence the design of medical devices, because when platelets grab onto the surfaces of catheters and medical implants, they tend to form clots, a major problem for patient care.
Modifying the stiffness of materials used in these devices could reduce clot formation, the authors suggest. The results could also guide the refinement of blood thinning drugs, which are prescribed to millions to reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke.
The team was able to separate physical and biochemical effects on platelet behavior by forming polymer gels with different degrees of stiffness, and then overlaying them each with the same coating of fibrinogen, a sticky protein critical for blood clotting. Fibrinogen is the precursor for fibrin, which forms a mesh of insoluble strands in a blood clot.
With stiffer gels, platelets spread out more and become more activated. This behavior is most pronounced when the concentration of fibrinogen is relatively low, the researchers found.
"This variability helps to explain platelet behavior in the 3D context of a clot in the body, which can be quite heterogenous in makeup," Lam says.
Qiu and colleagues were also able to dissect platelet biochemistry by allowing the platelets to adhere and then spread on the various gels under the influence of drugs that interfere with different biochemical steps.
Proteins called integrins, which engage the fibrinogen, and the protein Rac1 are involved in the initial mechanical sensing during adhesion, while myosin and actin, components of the cytoskeleton, are responsible for platelet spreading.
"We found that the initial adhesion and later spreading are separable, because different biochemical pathways are involved in each step," Lam says. "Our data show that mechanosensing can occur and plays important roles even when the cellular structural building blocks are fairly basic, even when the nucleus is absent." | <urn:uuid:722b1333-4584-4549-825c-e9421827f2f6> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/ehs-pmc092214.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107893011.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20201027023251-20201027053251-00098.warc.gz | en | 0.954287 | 615 | 3.484375 | 3 |
A complex condition deserves comprehensive treatment
Type 2 diabetes has become increasingly common in Western countries. This form of diabetes frequently results from sustained high levels of insulin in the bloodstream as a result of chronic exposure to blood sugar-raising foods, such as refined sugar and other processed foods. Over time, the cells in the body become less sensitive to insulin, a condition called insulin resistance.
Diabetes can damage blood vessels and nerves, leading to heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, and circulation problems.
What works, what doesn’t
The study reviewed articles that evaluated the effect of various nutritional supplements for diabetes published over three years. It is never advisable to add a new supplement to your routine or make changes to your medication without discussing it with your doctor.
Their review of studies showed an association between certain nutrients and improved diabetes-related symptoms:
- Vitamin C may help manage blood sugar and blood fat levels. Most people seem to safely tolerate less than 10 grams per day.
- Vitamin E and CoQ10, given together, significantly reduced a measure of long-term blood sugar control (hemoglobin A1c levels) in animal studies. Vitamin E alone decreased blood sugar and hemoglobin A1c levels, and also had protective effects in the nervous systems of diabetic animals.
- ALA may reduce oxidative stress and improve diabetic complications, such as neuropathy and cardiovascular impairment. ALA also reduces cholesterol levels and protects insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
These might work:
- Melatonin, the sleep hormone, is another antioxidant that seems to play a role in carbohydrate metabolism and insulin secretion.
- Astragalus is a Chinese herb that might reduce blood sugar levels and improve insulin resistance.
- Red yeast rice is a popular supplement for reducing cholesterol levels. It also seems to protect against free radical damage and to lower blood sugar and triglyceride levels. Many safety concerns, however, limit the usefulness of red yeast rice supplements.
- Emodin is a compound found in Aloe vera juice and the root of the rhubarb plant. In animal studies, emodin helped lower cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood sugar levels.
- Cinnamon may help decrease blood fats, blood sugar, and hemoglobin A1c, but research is conflicting. The study’s authors emphasized that studies conducted prior to the past three years are also relevant. “The absence of these nutritional supplements in this article should not be viewed as them being a poor treatment choice or as being based on poor evidence, rather a methodologic decision to focus on recent studies,” commented lead study author, Tanya Lee, ND.
Other popular diabetes supplements
These supplements have a good track record in diabetes management.
- Chromium: This mineral, which occurs naturally in brewer’s yeast, helps improve glucose tolerance. It may also help lower levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, lowering the risk of heart disease.
- Magnesium: This mineral is often lacking in diabetics, and supplementing with it can help improve insulin production. It may also help lower blood sugar levels and improve insulin sensitivity, warding off diabetes in those at risk for the disease.
(Curr Diab Rep 2011;11:142–8) | <urn:uuid:b75755ff-0dd2-4a67-8fd7-08245ba0ea56> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | https://www.luckyvitamin.com/HealthLibrary/us/assets/feature/promising-nutrition-for-diabetes/~default | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738660436.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173740-00100-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926277 | 667 | 3 | 3 |
Everyone needs to understand the concepts of influence and relationship building at some stage in their life, be it at work, at home or in social environments. Influencing with integrity, building trust-based relationships and understanding the process could mean the difference between success and failure. The manner in which you deal with others and influence their behaviour and decisions can have a profound effect on your personal and business life. Each of us has it in them to improve the way they deal with relationships and influence with integrity.
This course introduces you to the concepts of Influence, Trust, Building relationships, The Influence Process, Power and the Value of First Impressions.
- Understanding and appreciating the power of influence
- Appreciating the different ways in which we influence others
- Taking stock of our personal influence
- Learning the influence model and stages
- Understanding the win-win concept in influence
- Determining the key aspects of influence, power and successful relationships
- Understanding the value of first impressions and persuasion
- The applicability of influence to consulting and coaching.
- Why do we want to influence?
- What is Influence?
- What impact does influence have on your success?
- What do you need to be successful?
- Human action and interaction
- The 7 Habits of highly effective people (Covey)
- Make them happy about getting what YOU want
- Self Confidence
- The KEYS to successful influence
- Ways to make people feel important
- What assets do you possess?
- Influential people
- The Client – Consultant Relationship
- The EDICT model
- Influence/ Intervention
- Transition to Action
- Related Concepts
- The Speed of Trust | <urn:uuid:571b2795-b26e-43de-9ab8-72ec8a5b8fbb> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://profweb.net/influence-relationship-building/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710916.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20221202183117-20221202213117-00291.warc.gz | en | 0.927993 | 372 | 2.515625 | 3 |
I’ll give you the correct answer.
Intelligence: Capability(Potential) vs Smart: Demonstrated(Existential).
But why can Potential and Existential differ?
1 – Measured Intelligence, or Intellectual Capability is equivalent to a personality trait. There is such a high correlation between openness to experience and intelligence that this idea will go mainstream in the next decade if it has not already. Intelligence may be the most important personality trait.
2 – The remaining personality traits, (five or six factors, and ten or twelve dimensions) and their predictable gender biases, affect the application of intelligence.
So like Anna Karenina’s “all healthy families are the same, and all unhealthy families are different”, or like the domestication of animals, which requires a certain combination of behaviors are present, demonstrated intelligence requires not only its presence as an ability, but the absence of traits that interfere with its expression.
In other words, many things must go right, and if any one goes wrong, we do not demonstrate that intelligence (or at least do not demonstrate it beneficially).
3) So, demonstrated intelligence depends upon the following:
- a) What we call ‘g’, or general intelligence (which has many components but all scale together), which is a loose measure of the rate at which you accumulate information and identify patterns – the obvious differences being the female verbal and the male spatial biases in brain structure. Despite claims as far as I know, it is not possible to alter it.
- b) What we call ‘short term memory’ – the ability to preserve states over time (I do not possess this and am constantly aware of it) As far as I know, despite claims, it is not possible to alter it.
- c) General Knowledge – the totality of knowledge (information and experience) that we can draw from in identifying opportunities for patterns. (Hence why being well read and are the best things that you can do to improve your demonstrated intelligence. )
- d) What we call “personality traits” that do not negatively interfere with the expression of one’s intellectual capacity/measured intelligence/g.
- e) And the wildcard of “beliefs and wants”. One can increase the correspondence of one’s thoughts with the universe, or one can decrease the correspondence of one’s thoughts with the universe. If you want something that is impossible, or you believe something is false, you will constantly err, and accumulate errors. The more false and impossible beliefs and wants, the more error you will accumulate.
As I currently understand mankind, our primary drive is status, whether shelf image or reputation, or behavior of others toward us despite our self image and reputation.
And the majority of failures of intelligence are caused by the inability to develop, or lack of training in, the mindfulness (stoicism) to judge one’s value in the markets for communication, association, friendship, productive cooperation, reproduction(family), commons production, political production, and military production.
So many of us wish the world were different, and go slightly foolish, anxious, depressed, or entirely mad, because we cannot tolerate a self image that corresponds with reality. Meaning, we cannot develop a self image that accurately describes our market value to others: Our Status.
Otherwise, trauma causes similar dysfunctions, since trauma forces us to work constantly to avoid activating parts of our memories ( minds, brains), via association. This becomes exhausting. Which is why hallucinogens work so effectively at allowing us to observe experiences rather than feel them, and therefore create alternative pathways and weights that allow us to circumvent those traumas (land mines).
The Propertarian Institute | <urn:uuid:a4096a96-aae0-4377-b287-6b8126e80397> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://naturallawinstitute.com/2018/02/why-doesnt-a-high-iq-mean-youre-smart/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662606992.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20220526131456-20220526161456-00557.warc.gz | en | 0.912554 | 831 | 3.03125 | 3 |
I read the Chinese version of a econimic book named “The Economic Naturalist in Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas”. When it was published in China main land, the title of this book is translated into “牛奶可乐经济学”， which means the ecomony about mike and coca.
Based on Chinese version, the publisher pick up a very interesting question from the book as a special selling point:”Why the container of milk is a rectangular paper box but of coca is a round metal can?” Robert H. Frank, the author of this work, answered it in details.
Generally, as i remembered, milk is always pilled into cups as breakfast. People purchase a big volumn of milk several times a month and drink them everyday. Therefore, putting milk into a paper box can allow a bigger volumn. However, people usually do not pill coca into a cup, instead, they just hold it by hands and drink it directly. The round shape is much easier to hold than rectangular.
More importantly, milk has to be stored in a ice-box, otherwise, it will be spoiled soon. In contract, coca is not easy to get spoiled and do not require special conditions to store. Because the cost of ice-boxs is high and they maintenance is costly, every inch in the ice-box is precious. Rectangular paper boxs allow a greater quantity and save operating spendings. However, the normal display racks is much cheaper compared to ice-boxs. The space of them is not a determinant. Therefore, the container designed to be round cans.
This is an example of the decision making of distribution strantegy and packaging. Retailer and manufactures are all involved in this case. Hence, we can tell that distribution needs cooperations and interactions between individual business aspect.
Although this book is about economy but not commerce or marketin, I still high recommand it. It provide a method of thinking which is also can be used in commerce.
Get it in Amozon, click http://www.amazon.com/Economic-Naturalist-Explanations-Everyday-Enigmas/dp/046500217X
Know more about it, click http://www.robert-h-frank.com/book.html | <urn:uuid:35fdd7d0-996e-4aff-9702-2dc8269a0725> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | http://blogs.ubc.ca/rita/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737913406.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221833-00134-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948791 | 498 | 2.734375 | 3 |
ACCLIMATIZATION TO HOT, HUMID ENVIRONMENTS
Adapting to differing environmental conditions is called acclimatization.
People who are newly introduced to a hot, humid climate and
are moderately active in it can acclimatize in 8 to 14 days. People
who are sedentary take much longer. Until they are acclimatized,
people are much more likely to develop heat injuries.
A person's ability to perform
effectively in hot, humid conditions depends on both his acclimatization
and level of fitness. The degree of heat stress directly depends
on the relative workload. When two people do the same task,
the heat stress is less for the person who is in better physical
condition, and his performance is likely to be better. Therefore,
it is important to maintain high levels of fitness.
Increased temperatures and
humidity cause increased heart rates. Consequently, it takes much
less effort to elevate the heart rate into the training zone,
but the training effect is the same.
Some important changes occur
as a result of acclimatization to a hot climate. The following
physical adaptations help the body cope with a hot environment:
- Sweating occurs at a lower body temperature.
- Sweat production is increased.
- Blood volume is increased.
- Heart rate is less at any given work rate. | <urn:uuid:8d035141-ae64-4886-836d-0733b98b8430> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.survivaliq.com/physical_fitness/environmental-considerations_12-3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549427750.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20170727082427-20170727102427-00418.warc.gz | en | 0.937008 | 288 | 3.78125 | 4 |
Some ideas for middle school science projects include finding out what plants grow in which soil pH level and discovering the electrical conductivity of certain soil types, says Live Science. Other science projects include discovering natural water filters and the most effective plastic wrap to prevent evaporation, according to About.com.Continue Reading
A student can find out the best soil pH for certain plants by gathering soil samples in different areas and testing it, explains Live Science. The student chooses different areas for soil testing such as a garden, a field, a lawn and underneath pine trees. Upon choosing the areas, soil is collected from a hole and placed in labeled plastic zip bags. The label needs to contain the location of the soil and the type of plants found in the area. The student allows the soil samples to dry out before the pH test by buying a soil test or using a vinegar and baking soda solution.
Another project is to decide whether potting soil with fertilizer, sand, clay or potting soil has the highest conductivity, states Live Science. Each of these soil types is gathered and dried out, then placed in separate beakers. The student adds distilled water to each soil sample and allows it to soak for 30 minutes before attaching the jumper cables. After attaching the jumper cables, read the milliamp gauge on the ammeter for the necessary conductivity information.Learn more about Homework Help | <urn:uuid:4960f222-b7ff-40dc-863b-568c97f0f08d> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://www.reference.com/education/ideas-middle-school-science-project-59a92c4a91d0987b | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424296.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20170723082652-20170723102652-00390.warc.gz | en | 0.911861 | 278 | 4 | 4 |
The speaker of the poem, "Rabbi Ben Ezra" begins by telling his audience to trust in God and not be afraid of anything. The speaker is an older man who is more content now that he is in his senior years. He feels wiser and more knowing because of his age. He tells the audience that they should not be concerned with anything that happens to them, for everything is the will of God and God has his reasons. By doing this, however, the speaker finds a contradiction that he must look into.
For thence, — a paradox
Which comforts while it mocks, —
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
What I aspired to be,
And was not, comforts me:
A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.
What is he but a brute
Whose flesh has soul to suit,
Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?
To man, propose this test--
Thy body at its best,
How far can that project thy soul on its lone way?
1. When the speaker questions whether life can succeed in the places that it fails, is he questioning life's failures in the work world (realism) or its failures in the spiritual world (fantastic)?
2. In the second stanza of this passage, the speaker turns things inside out by saying that a man's soul suits his body as well that soul is doing work while the arms and legs play. Does the speaker state this to express his belief that the spirit must be satisfied before anything else?
3. The question the speaker asks at the end of the second stanza asks whether the soul can or cannot function while the body is at its best. Is the speaker questioning this is a spiritual context wondering if someone can go far with no soul? Or is he asking how strong the soul is in comparison to the body?
Last modified 8 October 2007 | <urn:uuid:93090b00-d89f-49ca-b284-a2c5d95f6c7b> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/authors/rb/friedman6.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422115865430.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124161105-00121-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972687 | 403 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Socioeconomic and Political Context of the
(An excerpt from a chapter called "The Plot To Seize Washington," in A Man in His Time, pp. 294-298.)
By John Spivak
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was first sworn in as President, the country was teetering on the brink of economic chaos and in the grip of a fear that almost paralyzed it. The capitalist system had collapsed. Almost every bank in the country was closed, millions were jobless, citizens were being dispossessed from their homes and their farms and bankruptcies were reaching a torrential stage. There was no sign of relief.
In desperate efforts to get the economy moving again, the President asked for and received from the Congress more powers than any President had ever been given in peacetime. He surrounded himself with advisers ranging from liberal theoreticians to spokesmen for big business. The loose coalition which formed around him soon became known as the "Brain Trust." The President assured the people that his administration would give them a new deal. Nazi agents who were busy trying to split Americans into snarling racial and religious groups promptly dubbed the New Deal a "Jew Deal," because the Brain Trust was "packed with Jews and communists" out to destroy capitalism.
Roosevelt created Government work projects so that the unemployed would be paid wages, their new purchasing power would enable manufacturers to produce again and stores would once more see what customers looked like. But to the rich this program was betrayal by a Government which in the past had always protected them. It was interfering with the law of supply and demand; it was taxing the rich and using their money to wreck the going wage scale in a glutted labor market. A former high official of the du Pont Company wrote to John J. Raskob, former Chairman of the Democratic Party and then a high du Pont officer, a heart-wrenching complaint:
"Five Negroes on my place in South Carolina refused work this Spring ... saying they had easy jobs with the government.... A cook on my houseboat at Fort Myers quit because the government was paying him a dollar an hour as a painter."
Raskob, who like other rich men was genuinely perturbed by what was being done to the way of life the rich had known, advised his correspondent to join with others in setting up an organization which would educate America "to the value of encouraging people to work; encouraging people to get rich." The tragedy in this advice was that he and others like him did not recognize that the old homilies we had accepted and honored from schooldays on just did not stand up when Americans were being buffeted by the greatest economic storm that had ever swirled about them. He simply could not see that the people did not need encouragement to work. They were wearing out their shoes in search of work. To tell a man who cannot find a job to feed himself and his family that he should strive to become rich was tragic for the jobless and pathetic for the wealthy. Yet many rich men honestly believed that if only the people adopted this outlook the devastating national problem would be solved.
Urgency was in the air; something had to be done before it was too late; and the President accepted a Chamber of Commerce suggestion that a body be established to direct "cooperative action among trade groups." The result was known as the National Recovery Administration. When business urged that the anti-trust laws be relaxed so it could function more freely, the President listened and was willing to try. The NRA practically turned the "fair competition codes" over to business. Price-fixing was encouraged.
The codes formulated by the NRA seemed to indicate a trend towards government control of organized labor, which was the fascist way of handling trade unions. Apprehension over this trend was not allayed when the NRA Advisory Board suggested that "to have peace and equity ... the strike and lockout should be absolutely eliminated." The small-businessman found himself being pushed to the wall. The sum total of the measures adopted by Roosevelt seemed designed to strengthen monopoly capitalism. Frightened trade unionists, liberals, the middle class and small business all saw them as moves toward fascism, which was widely accepted as the ultimate response of a capitalist system fighting to survive. Where fascism had taken over, it was apparently achieving the objectives business and finance wanted. What with labor having little to say about wage scales, 1933 and 1934 were notable for interminable strikes. Unions wanted more money; they also wanted the right to bargain collectively which the NRA had promised them. At the head of the NRA was a crotchety, blustering don't-tell-me-what-to-do general named Hugh S. Johnson. To him, use of the strike when he disapproved of it was practically insubordination, and he threatened to outlaw the right to strike altogether. This convinced trade unionists that establishing the NRA was really a major maneuver towards fascism. One member of the National Recovery Review Board resigned in protest against the NRA because, "Its development day by day reveals more clearly a trend toward fascism in the United States." When the President moved to give labor its promised collective bargaining right, major industries which had kept their plants non-union by employing armies of labor spies and strikebreakers were faced with law-supported intensive organizing drives. The spirit spread to the farming population. In areas where farm lands and buildings were being auctioned for non-payment of taxes or other debts, the men who fed America joined with their neighbors to resist. When a neighbor's place was to be auctioned publicly, they sometimes took guns in hand and set up roadblocks to keep outsiders from taking part in the public bidding; only those in open collusion with the farmer were permitted to bid, and the farmer got back his property for a nominal sum.
Such collusion among farmers, the organizing drives by trade unions and the use of tax money from the rich to pay many of the unemployed on makeshift Government work, frightened business and the banks. The President's acts alienated former supporters. John J. Raskob wrote to an acquaintance complaining of "the Democratic Party being headed by such 'radicals as Roosevelt, Huey Long, Hearst, McAdoo. . . ." Alfred E. Smith, a man of the people who had been an excellent Governor of New York State, was cultivated by men like Raskob; their attentions, coupled with disappointments in his personal political ambitions, led the former Governor away from the President. William Randolph Hearst, an utterly cynical man who sought to use the people for his own political advancement, denounced the President as a dictator. While communists worked ceaselessly to persuade the people that the answer to our economic problems was a planned society-production for use, and not for profit-fascist and Nazi propagandists worked with almost equal fervor to convince America that what this country needed was a strongman such as Italy and Germany had, a man who would put an end to a decadent democracy and replace it with the new, young and vibrant political philosophy of fascism. Some rich men, angry at labor's demands and Roosevelt's friendly attitude towards them, looked with favor on ending a political system which gave a man on relief as big a voice in who should run the country as a millionaire. Many industrialists were convinced that Roosevelt was a socialist, if not actually a card-carrying communist, and their hatred of the President was at times apoplectic-as when they denounced him as "that cripple in the White House."
It was in this period that the fascist plot developed.
During the depth of the Depression, the growing talk of revolution prompted me to conduct a six-months survey of the country for a book I eventually published as America Faces the Barricades. I went to representative areas and talked with all classes, from those whose feet ached from the daily search for any kind of work to big landowners, industrialists and bankers. In the newspapers, over the radio and on street corners there was talk of revolution, but among the people themselves, no matter where I went, I found no such popular sentiment. Americans were in real trouble, but they did not want a revolution; they wanted jobs. I found only three groups who talked of the imminent revolution. One consisted of the big industrialists who were frightened by what aggressive trade unions were doing. The second included those pariahs of the social system who operated labor spy and strikebreaking organizations and fed employers reports that workers were talking of seizing the factories; when a union demanded more pay to meet rising living costs, its leaders were accused of being communists, communist-led, communist-dominated or communist dupes. The third group was the communists themselves, a very small organization with a maximum membership at its most influential period of about 80,000. These were the only groups that actually talked of revolution.
Hundreds of thousands-perhaps millions-of bewildered, frustrated and sometimes despairing people listened to the communists, but very few were interested in joining them. Like poverty-stricken people everywhere, Americans suffered in apathy. To them, communism and fascism were just words with connotations of un-Americanism; they did not know what the words stood for, but they knew they did not like either one. They believed in Americanism-though very few could have told you what that word stood for. Americans no more wanted a revolution than they did in 1776. I wrote articles on what I found for both conservative publications, such as the American Mercury, and for communist ones. I must say this for the communist leaders and editors: though my findings often contradicted reports sent in by their own district organizers in the field, no attempt was made "to edit or cut them or insert anything to slant my stories to fit the "party line."
Source: Excerpts from a chapter in John Spivak's A Man in His Time, "The Plot To Seize Washington" pp. 294-298. | <urn:uuid:cecedca0-82f2-42f2-8cd1-338d414f0334> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/53/spivak-excerpt.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510265454.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011745-00009-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987324 | 2,031 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Social teachings of the papacy
|Part of a series on the|
|Catholic social teaching|
Social teachings of the papacy gives a succinct review of salient features in the papal social encyclicals beginning with Rerum novarum, the groundbreaking encyclical of Pope Leo XIII in 1891, and going to the present time.
Pope Leo XIII, amidst the Industrial Revolution and concerns about the deteriorating working and living conditions of urban workers wrote the first social encyclical of modern times, Rerum novarum ("Of new things"), in 1891, under the influence of the German Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler. This 1891 encyclical set the tone for the Catholic Church's social teaching to follow. It rejected socialism but advocated the regulation of working conditions. It argued for the establishment of a living wage and for the right of workers to form trade unions.:240
Pope Pius XI would carry the theme forward in 1931 in his encyclical Quadragesimo anno ("Forty years later"). Unlike Leo XIII, who addressed mainly the condition of workers, Pius XI concentrated on the ethical implications of the social and economic order. He called for the reconstruction of the social order based on the principle of solidarity and subsidiarity.:260 He noted major dangers for human freedom and dignity, arising from unrestrained capitalism and totalitarian communism.
Vatican II and after
Pope John XXIII in 1961, after calling the Second Vatican Council and on the 70th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, published the encyclical Mater et Magistra ("Mother and teacher") to encourage Christians to respect human dignity and the community of all peoples. Special focus was given to people leaving the farming sector where the standard of living was far below that in the cities (123-149). The Food and Agriculture Organization is acclaimed for its work in improvement of agriculture and in developing international collaboration (156). Food surplus should be shared with nations in need and help given toward improvement of farming methods (154f), but always with respect for the local culture and control (151). The word "balance" occurs 16 times in the encyclical as the Pope encourages governments to work for the common good and a reduction in inequalities (65). On this eve of Vatican II new challenges are mentioned: the age of space and of telecommunications (47) and the passage from colonialism to neocolonialism (172).
Pope Paul VI began with an apostolic letter (Octogesima adveniens) on "arriving at the eightieth" year after Rerum Novarum. It reflects on the growing disparities between industrialized nations and those "struggling against starvation" and "engaged in eliminating illiteracy" (2). It recalls John XXIII decrying the discrepancies between urban and rural life, along with the squalid conditions that await those who flee to the cities (8). It introduces the topic of ecology to Catholic social teaching with the statement that by man's "ill-considered exploitation of nature he risks destroying it and becoming in his turn the victim of this degradation" (21). Then in his 1967 encyclical Populorum progressio ("On the development of peoples") he emphasizes that "lay people must consider it their task to improve the temporal order" (81). He decries the tyranny that comes from "unbridled liberalism" and from a type of capitalism with "pernicious economic concepts" that leads to "fratricidal conflicts" (26) amidst the accumulation of superfluous wealth (49). He goes on to comment that "haughty pride in one's own nation disunites nations and poses obstacles to their true welfare" (62). He gives his closing comments a title that would echo over the years: "Development, the New Name for Peace" (76).
Pope John Paul II in 1981 on the 90th anniversary of Rerum novarum produced Laborem exercens ("Through work"). Reflecting on increasing mechanization, with workers like cogs in the employer's machine, he cites proposals like joint ownership and profit-sharing for the more personal involvement of the worker (14). He speaks of companies and states as "indirect employers", where workers are dependent on the prices paid for primary products and where the policies of governments should protect the livelihood of workers (17). Then in 1991 Centesimus annus honored the "Hundredth year" of Leo's encyclical. It criticizes Marxist ideology as atheistic and declares that "exploitation, at least in the forms analyzed and described by Karl Marx, has been overcome in Western society" (41). But it also warns about the excesses of capitalism, pointing out that "it is the task of the State to provide for the defence and preservation of common goods such as the natural and human environments, which cannot be safeguarded simply by market forces.... Now, with the new capitalism, the State and all of society have the duty of defending those collective goods which, among others, constitute the essential framework for the legitimate pursuit of personal goals on the part of each individual" (40).
Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 produced the encyclical Caritas in Veritate ("Charity in Truth") in which he argued that love and truth are essential in our response to global development and to progress towards the common good. He explains the moral principles necessary for all the diverse actors in addressing the problems of hunger, the environment, migration, sexual tourism, bioethics, cultural relativism, social solidarity, energy, and population growth. He first reiterates major points made by Paul VI in Populorum Progressio. He then describes globalization (mentioned 21 times) as the major feature of the current time, along with wealth (14 times), its generation and distribution within nations and among nations.
Pope Francis just eight months after his election wrote the Apostolic Letter Evangelii gaudium ("Joy of the Gospel") which was "the programmatic text of the Church today and represents the vision that Pope Francis has given for the years to come." He described "trickle-down theories... [as expressing] a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power" and leading to a "globalization of indifference" (54). Then in 2015 he produced his encyclical Laudato si' ("Praise be to you") with subtitle "On care for our common home." Francis gives all of Chapter Three to "The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis." The encyclical critiques development (61 times) that is not sustainable (21 times), integral (25 times), and shared (11 times). He criticizes our throwaway culture (5 times) and consumerism (15 times) and calls the warming of the planet a symptom of a greater problem: the developed world's indifference (7 times) to the destruction of the planet "to produce short-term growth" (178). Most of the encyclical's 172 references are to Catholic church sources and its comments on climate change are consistent with the scientific consensus. Francis calls for people of the world to take "swift and unified global action."
- Duffy, Eamon (1997), Saints and Sinners, a History of the Popes, Yale University Press in association with S4C, Library of Congress Catalog card number 97-60897.
- Franzen, August; Bäumer, Remigius (1988), Kleine Kirchengeschichte, Freiburg: Herder, p.368.
- "XX World Day for Peace 1987, Development and solidarity: two keys to peace | John Paul II, #1". w2.vatican.va. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
- "Evangelii Gaudium: Programmatic Text".
- Gillis, Justin (18 June 2015). "Pope Francis Aligns Himself With Mainstream Science on Climate". New York Times.
- Yardley, Jim; Goodstein, Laurie (18 June 2015). "Pope Francis, in Sweeping Encyclical, Calls for Swift Action on Climate Change". The New York Times.
- Catholic Social Teaching - Provides a comprehensive index of Papal teaching on Social Doctrine as well as articles by Catholic scholars. | <urn:uuid:a61c6a1d-cef5-4ce6-b47a-870f5b55bbf6> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_teachings_of_the_papacy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267863830.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20180620163310-20180620183310-00587.warc.gz | en | 0.919971 | 1,690 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Constituents of Concrete:
•Cement + water = cement paste
•Cement + water + sand cement = mortar
•Cement + water + sand + lime = masonry mortar
•Cement + water + sand + coarse aggregate = concrete
Importance of Cement in Concrete:
A hydraulic cement capable of setting, hardening and remaining stable under water.The cement (dry powder of very fine particles) powder, when mixed with water, forms a paste.This paste acts like glue and holds or bonds the aggregates together.
The cement has as many as 1.1 x 10 12 particles per kilogram.
The amount of coal required to manufacture one tonne (2200lb) of cement is between 100 kg and 350 kg depending upon the process used. | <urn:uuid:abeeaeb8-36aa-409f-8404-c1f97de58e2a> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.civilengineeringterms.com/articles/constituents-of-concrete-importance-of-cement-paste-in-concrete/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103947269.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20220701220150-20220702010150-00018.warc.gz | en | 0.901767 | 163 | 3.578125 | 4 |
A new study has found out that in people with schizophrenia, it is the level of negative emotion that is high or otherwise they also show the same level of positive emotion and enjoyment as those without the disease.
Amy H Sanchez and her colleagues from the psychology department at the San Francisco State University gave cell phone to 47 people with schizophrenia and 41 people without schizophrenia.
Participants were telephoned four times a day for a week and inquired about their emotional state and level of enjoyment at any current activity. There was no marked difference in their positive emotion. However, people with schizophrenia were fond to show more negative emotion (P = .003) and a weaker relationship between current enjoyment and negative emotion, compared to people without the disease.
"An increase in activity enjoyment is connected to a decrease in negative emotion for people without schizophrenia, while there was less of a connection between appraisals of the environment and negative emotion for people with schizophrenia," the report said.
To get negative emotions is very natural and we should learn to make it a part of our lives and use it to the best of our advantage, says psychologist Todd Kashdan.
"The science is very clear that when we try to conceal the distress we feel, we are less productive and less effective, and we end up feeling emotionally worse," Kashdan said. Thus, we should understand the negative feeling and utilise that moment in giving our best.
Kashdan said that our belief of being happy all the time forces us to steer away from all negativity and discomfort without realising the fact that negative feeling goes a long way in making us psychologically strong.
in his new book, The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Being Your Whole Self -- Not Just Your 'Good' Self -- Drives Success And Fulfillment, co-authored by Robert Biswas-Diener, Kashdan favours negative and bad feeling.
According to the book, guilt makes us better people. "Guilt adds to our moral fibre, motivating us to be more socially sensitive and caring citizens than we would be otherwise. If character is reflected in what you do when nobody's looking, then this moral emotion called guilt is one of its building blocks."
The book goes on to explain how self-doubt adds to our performance and in some way is healthy.
When we are in doubt about ourselves, we are forced to go for our introspection and look for ways to improve the situation. Karl Wheatley, a researcher at Cleveland State University, says that when teachers have doubt their performance, they automatically get into the mode of finding ways of personal development, collaborate with others and preparing himself to accept the change.
Kashdan's book also says that anxiety helps us in solving a problem. "In danger zones, anxiety prevails over positivity. In such cases, anxious people quickly discover solutions, and when there is a team around them (friends, family, co-workers), they share the problem and the solutions."
The book goes onto say that mindlessness makes us more creative. When we are not so thoughtful, it happens that a sudden burst of idea just solves a problem. So it is possible that unfocused attention gives us some new idea or thought. "It turns out that research supports the idea of creativity sneaking up on us." | <urn:uuid:a7971cfa-4d1f-4856-85bb-9a3ada0a6b27> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.medindia.net/news/level-of-negative-emotion-higher-in-schizophrenia-study-143677-1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948542031.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20171214074533-20171214094533-00303.warc.gz | en | 0.961505 | 670 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.