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Locations of asbestos in a residential dwelling
Asbestos can be located in a variety of places in a residential dwelling. As it’s a fire-resistant and hard-wearing material, it is commonly found in places that may get hot or wet.
- The walls behind stoves in kitchens
- Interior and exterior walls
- Flooring, especially lino flooring in wet areas (bathrooms, laundry, toilet, kitchen)
- Hot water tanks
- Insulation and lagging
- Gutters and downpipes
- Fireplace surrounds and chimneys
- Electrical fuse boards
- Water pipes internally
- Around windows and door frames.
It can also be found outside a residential dwelling as part of fencing, pipes running water to the dwelling, and in soil.
Asbestos was also commonly used in bonding agents; so lino may not contain asbestos, the glue it’s stuck down with may contain asbestos.
Check out the image below to view other places where asbestos may be hiding in your building.
What to do if you suspect asbestos
In a sound and contained state, it is not dangerous. It is only once the fibres become airborne that asbestos becomes a risk to our health. If you suspect that you have asbestos and it’s in good condition keep a close on eye on it..
However, if the condition changes or you want to do any work, then we recommend that you contact an Asbestos Surveyor to get samples taken and analysed by an IANZ accredited lab to ascertain whether asbestos is present or not. |
The average American household uses about 400 gallons of water per day. Multiply that by the total amount of households and you get… well, let’s just say that’s a lot of water! With that in mind, we need to remember that water is indeed a precious commodity. Most times it’s not thought of it in those terms, but there is a responsibility to conserve water whenever you can. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, and most are easier than you think. Here’s how to save water at home.
First, take care of the obvious causes of water waste: repair leaking faucets, toilets and outdoor water spouts. Once you do that, here are some other tips that can lead to a significant reduction in your water usage:
- Turn off the tap when you brush your teeth – this can save about 1.5 gallons of of water per minute.
- Take a shorter shower. Showers can use between 2 and 12 gallons of water per minute. Or better yet, cut down on the amount of showers you take per week. Do you really need two showers a day?
- Always use full loads in your washing machine and dishwasher – this eliminates unnecessary washes in between.
- If you must water your garden or plants, do so with a watering can rather than a hose. A garden hose can use as much as 250 gallons per hour. Watering the mulch around your plants in the early morning and late afternoon will reduce evaporation and also save water.
- When household replacements are needed, buy water-efficient showerheads, taps, toilets, washing machines, dishwashers and many other water-saving products.
- Hot water recirculation pumps are not only a convenient way to ensure hot water when you want it, but it can also reduce the amount of water waste. These systems slowly pump hot water through your hot water pipes and back to the water heater, providing a constant circulation of hot water. Because hot water is delivered much faster you waste less water while you wait for it to heat up.
For plumbing service to help with your water conservation issues or two learn more about water-efficient products and systems, call Dixie, and it’s done! |
"Changing Neural Pathways Every Class Period"
"Anyone can talk, but few do so strategically"
working in groups will be part of your life
- The links above will lead you to most of the forms that will be used in the class. You will receive a course packet in every class, but if you need extra copies, or lose your book, you can survive by printing off these forms.
should be striving for excellence by: 1) continuously improving personal communication skills such as listening, public speaking, writing and managing conflict, 2) developing effective group communication skills by knowing how to effectively and efficiently solve problems, 3) becoming critical thinkers by understanding how to analytically and strategically address communication problems and 4) developing communication expertise by learning fundamental communication principles, practices and theories. Concentrating on these four critical areas puts every student in the best possible position to become a thoughtful, strategic, and professional communicator. Such individuals glisten like rare gems – coveted by friends, colleagues and organizations.
7 Questions to guide your thinking...
Can you prove it?
What are your assumptions?
What is effectiveness?
What is the pattern?
What can you do about it?
Is it ethical?
- "Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." - Will Durant |
PAD Newsclip #6
One in four children will live with water scarcity by 2040
Unicef report says climate change and conflict are intensifying risks to children of living without enough water, and that the poorest will suffer most
One in four of the world’s children will be living in areas with extremely limited water resources by 2040 as a result of climate change, the UN has warned.
Within two decades, 600 million children will be in regions enduring extreme water stress, with a great deal of competition for the available supply. The poorest and most disadvantaged will suffer most, according to research published by the children’s agency, Unicef, to mark World Water Day on Wednesday.
Drought conditions and conflict are driving deadly water scarcity in parts of Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. Unicef anticipates that more than 9 million people will be without safe drinking water this year in Ethiopia alone. Nearly 1.4 million children face imminent risk of death from acute malnutrition in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen.
The report, , looked at the threats to children’s lives and wellbeing caused by depleted sources of safe water and the ways in which climate change will intensify these risks.
As industrialisation and demographic shifts increase consumption, areas of south Asia and the Middle East will be particularly affected, according to one of the report’s authors, Nicholas Rees. “Where demand is extremely high then water stress will increase. It will go up in areas of rapid urbanisation, and we are already seeing that throughout sub-Saharan Africa and Asia,” he said.
Another report published on Wednesday warned that Iran is grappling with an unprecedented water crisis, and faces a greater threat from its environmental challenges than those arising from regional political issues or terrorism. The study, from London-based NGO Small Media, said that shortages could transform vast swaths of the country into near-uninhabitable areas in the coming decades.
“Iran is facing a water crisis that is unparallelled in its modern history. Lakes and rivers are dying, droughts are increasing in frequency, and even Iran’s deepest groundwater reserves are being sucked dry by Iran’s growing population and its thirsty agricultural sector,” the report said.
“Resultant soil erosion is accelerating the destruction of forest ranges across the country, and contributing to a sharp increase in dust storms and air pollution.”
It warned that ecosystems were collapsing, with some species of wildlife on the brink of extinction. Lake Urmia, the country’s largest lake, is a biosphere reserve recognised by Unesco: the report says it has shrunk to 12% of its size since the 1970s, “owing to frequent droughts, and aggressive, poorly implemented water management policies upstream”.
Across the world, the UN’s report says that 36 countries are facing extremely high levels of water stress, which occurs when demand far exceeds the renewable supply available. Warmer temperatures, rising sea levels, increased floods, droughts and melting ice affect the quality and availability of water, as do sanitation systems.
The impact of climate change on water sources is not inevitable, according to the report, which made a series of recommendations designed to help curb the impact of climate change on the lives of children. These include calls for governments to prioritise access to safe water for the most vulnerable children above other water needs, and for communities to diversify water sources.
“We want to reduce child deaths. That is the goal. But we are not going to end child deaths without addressing environmental threats that they face,” said Rees.
“We focus on their susceptibility to disease but if we don’t also address the broad environmental risks we are going to fall short. Climate change is often felt through a change in the water – whether it’s a flood, rising sea levels or something else – and the effect of a changing climate is often felt by children through water first.”
The NGO WaterAid published findings on Tuesday of how vulnerable rural communities’ struggles to access clean water were being compounded by extreme weather events and climate change.
India, one of the fastest growing economies and home to almost a fifth of the world’s population, was ranked in an annual WaterAid survey as having the greatest number of people living rurally without access to clean water: 63 million.
In terms of those making progress, the report said, Paraguay has achieved the biggest improvements in getting water to rural dwellers. More than 94% of its rural population now has access to safe water, compared with 51.6% in 2000.
Papua New Guinea, Madagascar and Mozambique were among the worst performing countries for rural access to clean water.
WaterAid’s chief executive, Barbara Frost, said many of the countries featured in the report were already being hit regularly by severe cyclones, floods and drought. “Rural communities – which are marginalised by their remote location and a continued lack of funding for basic services – often bear the greatest burden of these events,” she said.
WaterAid is calling on international and national leaders to deliver on promises to meet the sustainable development goals, including a goal to ensure access to safe water and sanitation.
#Newsclip edited by Plant A Douce, Original article by Ben Quinn and Saeed Kamali Dehghan, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/mar/22/world-water-day-one-in-four-children-will-live-with-water-scarcity-by-2040-unicef-report, (accessed 27th April 2018) © 2018 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Timberland progresses towards 2020 sustainability goals
Global outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland is progressing steadily towards its sustainability goals for 2020, which fall into three core pillars: make products responsibly; protect and enhance the outdoors; and serve communities, says its corporate social responsibility report.
Timberland set aims to have 100 percent organic cotton apparel of US origin or Better Cotton Initiative certified sources by 2020. In 2017, Timberland raised the bar and changed its method of reporting the use of material containing recycled, organic or renewable (ROR) content. The company remains confident it will reach its 2020 goal for 100 percent of footwear to include at least one significant component containing ROR content, even with these more stringent requirements, and believes this change in reporting will lead to increased overall usage of ROR content across the business.
Timberland also continued to increase its use of recycled PET, incorporating over 890,232 pounds of recycled PET into its footwear in 2017, or the equivalent of 40 million plastic bottles. This reflects an increase of 3 million plastic bottles over 2016.
"We’re proud to celebrate the progress we’ve made in the past year, especially our efforts to incorporate more sustainable cotton in our apparel. But at Timberland, we have a commitment to sustainability and responsibility that goes well beyond the products we make. That’s what makes us Earthkeepers. In our view, responsibility also means protecting and enhancing the outdoors, and the communities around the world where we live, work and explore," said Colleen Vien, director of sustainability for Timberland.
#Newsclip edited by Plant A Douce, Original article by Fashion NetWork, available at: http://us.fashionnetwork.com/news/Timberland-progresses-towards-2020-sustainability-goals,971377.html#utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email, (accessed 26 April 2018) © Copyright 2018 Fibre2Fashion. All rights reserved.
'Infinitely' recyclable polymer shows practical properties of plastics
Chemists make a major step toward waste-free, sustainable materials that could one day compete with conventional plastics
The world fell in love with plastics because they're cheap, convenient, lightweight and long- lasting. For these same reasons, plastics are now trashing the Earth.
Colorado State University chemists have announced in the journal Science another major step toward waste-free, sustainable materials that could one day compete with conventional plastics. Led by Eugene Chen, professor in the Department of Chemistry, they have discovered a polymer with many of the same characteristics we enjoy in plastics, such as light weight, heat resistance, strength and durability. But the new polymer, unlike typical petroleum plastics, can be converted back to its original small-molecule state for complete chemical recyclability. This can be accomplished without the use of toxic chemicals or intensive lab procedures.
The work builds on a previous generation of a chemically recyclable polymer Chen's lab first demonstrated in 2015. The previous polymer also had low heat resistance and molecular weight, and, while plastic-like, was relatively soft.
The new, much-improved polymer structure resolves the issues of the first-generation material. The monomer can be conveniently polymerized under environmentally friendly, industrially realistic conditions: solvent-free, at room temperature, with just a few minutes of reaction time and only a trace amount of catalyst. The resulting material has a high molecular weight, thermal stability and crystallinity, and mechanical properties that perform very much like a plastic. Most importantly, the polymer can be recycled back to its original, monomeric state under mild lab conditions, using a catalyst. Without need for further purification, the monomer can be re-polymerized, thus establishing what Chen calls a circular materials life cycle.
This piece of innovative chemistry has Chen and his colleagues excited for a future in which new, green plastics, rather than surviving in landfills and oceans for millions of years, can be simply placed in a reactor and, in chemical parlance, de-polymerized to recover their value -- not possible for today's petroleum plastics. Back at its chemical starting point, the material could be used over and over again -- completely redefining what it means to "recycle”.
"It would be our dream to see this chemically recyclable polymer technology materialize in the marketplace," Chen said.
#Newsclip edited by Plant A Douce, Original article by Colorado State University, available at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180426141530.htm, (accessed 26 April 2018) © Copyright ScienceDaily. All rights reserved. |
OBJECTIVE: It remains unclear whether school environments can influence the emotional health of adolescents. In this large-scale prospective study, we use multilevel modeling to examine whether the school socioeducational environment contributes to the risk of developing depressive symptoms in secondary school students.
METHODS: As part of a longitudinal study on school success in disadvantaged communities, 5262 adolescents from 71 secondary schools were followed annually. Socioeducational environment was assessed by a composite measure of social climate, learning opportunities, fairness and clarity of rules, and safety. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. Multilevel regressions tested the association between school socioeducational environment in grade 8 and depressive symptoms in grades 10 to 11, adjusting for previous depressive symptoms in grade 7 and potential confounders at the individual and school levels.
RESULTS: Modest but significant variation in depressive symptoms was found between schools (intraclass correlation = 3.3%). School-level socioeducational environment in grade 8 was predictive of student depressive symptoms in grades 10 to 11, even after adjusting for potential school and individual confounders. This association was slightly stronger for girls. Student perceptions of school socioeducational environment were also predictive of depressive symptoms. Other school-level factors, including school size, were not predictive of depressive symptoms once socioeducational environment was taken into account.
CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents who attend a secondary school with a better socioeducational environment are at reduced risk of developing depressive symptoms. School environments appear to have a greater influence on risk in adolescent girls than boys.
- school socioeducational environment
- school climate
- school context
- depressive symptoms
- CES-D —
- Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression
- NANS —
- New Approaches, New Solutions
- Accepted November 7, 2012.
- Copyright © 2013 by the American Academy of Pediatrics |
Space is so hard to fathom, but thanks to this image, painstakingly compiled and combined by a musician and artist, one get start to get a sense of it within a single visual frame.
Pablo Carlos Budassi used photos from NASA rovers, orbiting satellites and other astronomical footage, then combined them into a singular shot of the known universe, using Earth as a center point.
The key to the image’s success is the use of a logarithmic scale, which helps viewers understand large numbers and distances more easily, each ring covering vastly greater space than the last. Our world and solar system look relatively large, a helpful jumping off point as the rings expand. The trick works somewhat like the classic Powers of 10 video, a classic educational device for understanding universal and microscopic scales, executed by zooming way out and way in, but with time frames likewise set in a log scale (film shown below, and well worth watching!).
From Colossal: “Budassi was aided by similar (though less visually stunning) logarithmic maps produced by astronomers at Princeton back in 2005. In this map, our sun and solar system are seen in the middle, followed by the Milky Way Galaxy, another ring of nearby galaxies like Andromeda, all the way out to cosmic radiation and plasma generated by the big bang on the furthest outskirts of the image.” |
After last week’s article on Green Bond and the funding gap, we want to explore Artificial Intelligence (AI)! There isn’t a day that goes by without the mention of AI and how it will disrupt our lives. Researchers and companies are exploring ways to leverage artificial intelligence and improve the efficiency and accessibility of renewable energy technology.
We cannot avoid this buzz word, so today let’s look at some of the top renewable energy technologies which incorporate AI. These technologies operate within three renewable energy spheres: Energy Forecasting, Energy Efficiency and Energy Accessibility.
Applications for Energy Forecasting
Who can predict the weather with 100% accuracy? No one, right? As it varies, it affects the power supply generated from the weather-dependent energy such as wind and solar. This is one of the main challenges of renewable energy.
Nnergix is a data mining and web-based energy forecasting application. Nnergix company uses both satellite data from weather forecasts and machine learning (ML) algorithms trained to analyze the industry’s data to make more accurate forecasting. The high-resolution weather forecasting is generated from satellite images. These images are then used to generate both large-scale and small-scale weather models. The ML algorithms analyze such data and predicts the state of the atmosphere in a particular region.
Xcel is implementing an AI that aims at addressing the challenges associated with the unreliability of the weather-dependent energy sources such as solar and wind. This application can tell whether the power source will fluctuate in strength (which is influenced by the varying weather). Xcel is used in accessing weather reports with higher accuracy and well detailed. The company gives the opportunity to employ greater precautions when harnessing and preserving the generated energy. To provide such a detailed report, the AI system mines data from local satellite reports, wind firms, and weather stations. The ML algorithm that drives the system is trained to identify patterns using these data sets to predict the generation of energy.
AI Applications for Energy Forecasting
DeepMind AI is an application Google bought in 2014 that works to improve energy usage. DeepMind’s aim is to reduce energy consumption as well as the emissions resulting when energy is used. The application managed to cool off Google’s data servers by 40%, reducing the energy consumption and the bill that goes with it. The graph below shows energy usage when the model is switched on and when it is switched off.
The company claims they applied machine learning for two years to achieve that level of energy usage improvement. A system of neural networks was trained using a set of data center operating scenarios and parameters. This system “Learned” how the data center functioned and was able to identify opportunities for optimization.
According to Google, this system manages to pull data from numerous sensors located in the data centers. Some of the information that it collected are power consumption and temperature. The neural networks were trained using Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) which is defined as the ratio of total building energy usage to IT usage. The PUE model ensures efficiency by not exceeding operation constraints when the neural network system provide a recommendation.
Verdigris Technologies offers a software platform that leverages AI to optimize energy consumption. This application is designed for large commercial buildings and managers of enterprise facilities. The installation process begins with Internet of Things (IoT) hardware installation. Smart sensors are directly attached to the client’s electrical circuits to track energy consumption. The data collected by sensors are sent to the cloud and presented to the client through a dashboard. Some of the companies using this application include W Hotel San Francisco. The hotel uses the app to identify energy insufficiency in its commercial kitchen. The hotel confirmed that within three months of using the application it identified inefficiencies that were costing them over $13,000 in preventable annual losses.
AI Applications for Energy Accessibility
Verv is AI-powered and is used as a home assistant in energy management. This application supplies the data on home appliances energy consumption. This application enables the user to see the records on how each appliance in their home uses energy. It also helps the user to regulate their energy expenses.
When the connected appliances are turned on, the algorithm that drives the AI assistant recognise patterns hence capable of automating a running tally of the energy cost generated by the item. This application will also have safety features that send notifications when devices are left on for prolonged periods of time. It also provides tips for reducing a household’s carbon footprint.
PowerScout aims at improving consumer education and access to renewable energy technologies. This application uses AI to model potential savings on utility costs using industry data. PowerScout leverages data analytics to identify “smart home improvement project” that is based on unique features and energy usage in the home of clients. Basically, the AI acts as a market advisor by providing recommendations to help clients in making informed decisions when purchasing renewable energy technologies for their homes. By 2017, this system had overseen the installation of solar capacity that is nearly enough to power 250,000 homes. Some of PowerScout partners are the US Department of energy and Google.
AI applications can transform the renewable energy through increased efficiency, which in turn will fuel growth of the sector and hopefully accelerates its adoption. We can also use AI to help mitigating the challenges posed by inconsistent weather condition to the green energy sources.
If you know other AI applications in the renewable energy that we could add to this list, comment below.
Which one of these applications would be most useful for Africa? Let us know what you think and comment below. |
GSM is a globally accepted standard for digital cellular communications.
GSM uses narrowband Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) for providing voice and text based services over mobile phone networks.
This tutorial has been designed for readers who want to understand the basics of GSM in very simple terms. This tutorial provides just about enough material to have a solid foundation on GSM from where you can move on to higher levels of expertise.
A general awareness of some basics of telecommunications is sufficient to understand the concepts explained in this tutorial. |
Throughout Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice interacts with creatures and objects that normally inhabit her Victorian world. The natives of Wonderland , who who all have distinct personalities and the capacity to speak, dictate Alice's behavior. In this final scene, however, Alice turns the table on the bossy inhabitants of Wonderland. Rather than continuing to accept their behavior, she recognizes that they do not behave as they should in Victorian society. Upon exclaiming to the army of cards that they are, indeed, "nothing but a pack of cards," Alice immediately wakes up to find that she has returned from Wonderland. Once she treats the cards as she should in her own society, simply as objects, then Alice is allowed to return to it . She has learned the lesson that a girl in Victorian England must control the objects around her, rather than be controlled by them.
Off with her head!" the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.
"Who cares for you ?" said Alice (she had grown to her full size by this time). "You're nothing but a pack of cards!"
At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her; she gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank with her head in the lap of her sister....
"Oh, I've had such a curious dream!" said Alice. (Norton Critical Edition, 97)
This code of behavior that Alice learns at the end of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, parallels that of the Victorian gentleman. (This code is also apparent in the final scene of Through the Looking Glass, when Alice wakes up from her dream upon controlling the chaos that erupts at her banquet). In other words, the concept of the gentleman in Victorian England had a female counterpart whose behavior Carroll defines in the Alice books.
According to David Cody, the definition of the Victorian gentleman encompassed social class status and moral code, and he meets Ruskin's definition of a gentleman as a man with the following characteristics: "perfectly bred. After that, gentleness and sympathy, or kind disposition and fine imagination." In addition, the definition of a gentleman eventually evolved to reflect a certain type of education.
The code of behavior that Alice exemplifies at the conclusions of Through the Looking Glassand Alice's Adventures in Wonderland differs from that for a Victorian gentleman. Altrhough an education was emphasized for Victorian men, Carroll did not do the same in his creation of Alice and her experiences. Despite the fact that she is clearly educated — at least for a seven-year old --Alice consistently reBs her lessons incorrectly, often aware that something is not quite right about them. Alice's mistakes frequently go unnoticed by those around her and are always left uncorrected. Rather than emphasizing her studies, and having the event that enables Alice's return to England involve correcting her academic errors, Carroll instead chooses an episode involving correcting her behavior. In order for her to return to England, Alice learns to control her material surroundings.
The final passage of the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland describes Alice imagined by her older sister in a vision of her as a young woman recounting "the dream of Wonderland of long ago" (99) to a gathering of wide-eyed, young listeners. The future Alice exhibits the Victorian code of behavior learned from her experiences in Wonderland. Her means for controlling the objects from her dream is to recognize them as fantasy (entertainment for children); their bizarre relationships to her are unacceptable in reality.
[For another view of this subject]
Last modified December 1995
Last modified 8 June 2007 |
Curriculum scholars and teachers working for social justice and equity have been caught up in acrimonious and polarizing political debates over content, ideology, and disciplinary knowledge. At the forefront in cutting through these debates and addressing the practical questions involved, this book is distinctive in looking to the technical form of the curriculum rather than its content for solutions. The editors and contributors, all leading international scholars, advance a unified, principled approach to the design of curriculum and syllabus documents that aims for high quality/high equity educational outcomes and enhances teacher professionalism with appropriate system prescription.
Stressing local curriculum development capacity and teacher professional responses to specific community and student contexts, this useful, practical primer introduces and unpacks definitions of curriculum, syllabus, the school subject, and informed professionalism; presents key principles of design; discusses a range of approaches; and offers clear, realistic guidelines for the tasks of writing curriculum documents and designing official syllabi and professional development programs at system and school levels. Providing a foundational structure for syllabus design work, Curriculum, Syllabus Design, and Equity is relevant for teachers, teacher educators, and curriculum policy workers everywhere who are engaged in the real work of curriculum writing and implementation.
Table of Contents
Preface 1. Introduction: The practical problem of curriculum making Allan Luke 2. Curriculum Design, Equity and the Technical Form of the Curriculum Allan Luke, Annette Woods & Katie Weir 3. School subjects and academic disciplines: The differences Zongyi Deng 4. Curriculum policy guidelines: Context, structures and functions F. Michael Connelly & Gerry Connelly 5. The technological solution to reading education: A century of frustration Patrick Shannon 6. Sustaining teacher professionalism in the context of standards referenced assessment reform Val Klenowski 7. Social justice visions and curriculum realities in the early years of education Susan Grieshaber 8. Curricular Conversations: Literacy teaching and learning in the middle years Donna E. Alvermann & James Marshall 9. Improving secondary schools Ben Levin 10. Generalizing curriculum policy across boarders: Crossing boundaries Allan Luke
Allan Luke is Research Professor in the Faculty of Education at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
Annette Woods is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.
Katie Weir is Senior Lecturer at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus in Queensland, Australia. |
Breast milk donated by Australian mothers will for the first time be used to create a “milk fortifier” prototype – a nutrient dense supplement that can help premature and low-weight babies grow.
Lifeblood Milk and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) are today announcing the development of a prototype in collaboration with CSIRO.
Mother’s own milk is the best nutrition, but babies born less than 1500g and before 32 weeks gestation often need extra nutrients for rapid growth at a time important for brain and gut development.
Australian hospitals offer milk fortifier made from cow’s milk, but there is no fortifier made from breast milk currently available in Australia.
“Cow’s milk proteins are difficult for tiny guts to digest, and may increase the risk of a deadly gut disease known as necrotising enterocolitis,” said neonatologist and SAHMRI researcher, Dr Amy Keir.
“A fortifier made from human milk could give these babies the extra nutrition they need, without exposing them to cow’s milk products.”
Lifeblood Milk has so far provided 3513 litres of milk donated by 575 mothers to feed around 2000 preterm babies in 11 NICUs in South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland.
“We have so many generous donors that we have the capability to investigate new ways we can help babies while still ensuring that we can supply donor milk to babies who need it,” said Lifeblood Milk researcher Laura Klein
“We’re partnering with SAHMRI to lead an exciting initiative to explore new products that can be made from donated breast milk, to help vulnerable babies get the nutrition they need in early life,”
“We know the clinicians who care for premature and low-weight babies are concerned about their nutrition and growth, and health benefits created in early weeks can last a lifetime,”
“We’ve worked with CSIRO’s Food Innovation Centre to produce a fortifier prototype. Our next steps are to perfect the process and scale up production in order to start clinical trials in 2021.”
Associate Professor Alice Rumbold, the head of SAHMRI’s Milk and Lactation Research Group, says a diverse consortium that includes parents as well as researchers, clinicians and other experts is committed to developing a range of human donor milk-based products, with the fortifier being the first goal.
“There will be challenges along the way but we have the support of industry experts and advocates including Miracle Babies, the Australian and New Zealand Neonatal Network and Australian Breastfeeding Association,”
“Ultimately, the goal of this partnership is to make products from voluntary breast milk donations widely available for the first time in Australia, to improve health outcomes for our tiniest and most vulnerable babies.” |
When David Curry established Camp Curry in 1899, he heard about the Fire Fall and beginning in 1900 he re-established the tradition. The Fire Fall was a major nightly attraction in the summer months until 1968, when the National Park Service ended it.
Overhanging Rock itself was used as a site for photographs of the “I was there” variety from the early days. The first automobile to enter Yosemite Valley was a 1900 Locomobile steam car driven by Oliver Lippincott. It was driven up the steep, winding road to Glacier Point, and the next morning it was hauled out onto Overhanging Rock by ropes for a famous photograph. This photograph was duplicated by many people after that, and many early automobile manufacturers had advertising photos done there with their cars. Some of the earliest images were done by Yosemite’s first resident photographer, George Fiske, in the 1880s and 1890s. After Fiske died in 1918, the young Ansel Adams made prints from his negatives. During the early years (and later), many people used Overhanging Rock as a location for group shots (sometimes with horses or cars), but there were also many people who performed numerous antics on the rock, perched 3200 feet over the valley. High kicks and handstands were made into early postcards, and there is even one with a worried-looking riderless horse peeking over the edge.
Below are some vintage photographs from the early days.
|Man and woman standing on rock extending from top of cliff; woman is raising her right leg as though to step off.|
|A 1916 Publicity shot of a Studebaker Roadster.|
|Kitty Tatch and Katherine Hazelston were waitresses in Yosemite’s Sentinel Hotel in the 1890s. They danced atop Overhanging Rock at Glacier Point for George Fiske’s famous photograph.|
|A man poses atop Overhanging Rock at Yosemite National Park’s Glacier Point, circa 1920s.|
|Tourists with an American flag at Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park, 1890’s.|
|Galen Clark, first guardian of Yosemite Park, standing on Overhanging Rock, Glacier Point.|
|Man standing on Glacier Point, facing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, California, ca. 1901.|
|A female tourist stands on the edge of Overhanging rock, nearly a mile straight down and only a step–from Glacier Point (N.W.) across valley to Yosemite Falls, Yosemite, Cal., circa 1902.|
|Unidentified photographer, Overhanging Rock, Yosemite Valley.|
|Man sitting on Glacier Point, January 2, 1909.|
(via Digital Images and History By Zim) |
Taking A "Wait-And-See" Approach To Childhood Ear Infections Is As Effective As Immediate Antibiotic
09/12/06 Portland, Ore.
A new study reveals children whose parents take a "wait-and-see" approach to treating childhood ear infections get better at the same rate as children whose parents administer antibiotics. The research was led by the Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Oregon Health & Science University, and will be published in the Sept. 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
"Most pediatricians have been trained to routinely prescribe antibiotics for ear infections and believe many parents expect a prescription. In fact, some 15 million such prescriptions are written each year," said David Spiro, M.D., M.P.H., principal investigator and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and of Pediatrics, OHSU School of Medicine. "In this study, we found taking a wait-and-see approach is as safe, effective and quick as antibiotics in resolving most childhood ear infections.
"Ear infections, or otitis media, are the most common reason for which antibiotics are prescribed and, after a time, they are rendered useless in some patients as bacteria mutate and become resistant. Antibiotic resistance is a global public health concern and overprescribing them for ear infections is part of that problem," Spiro said.
To conduct this research, Spiro and colleagues at Yale University School of Medicine examined children aged 6 months to 12 years who came to the Emergency Department between July 2004 and July 2005. No other study on antibiotic use and ear infections has been conducted in an emergency department.
Participants diagnosed as having an ear infection were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group was given a standard prescription for an antibiotic and told to fill it right away. The other group was given a prescription for an antibiotic and told to wait-and-see. Participants who received the wait-and-see prescription, or WASP, were told not to fill the prescription for 48 hours unless the child was either not feeling better or feeling worse. All participants were given medication for ear pain.
During the study enrollment period, 776 children were diagnosed with new ear infections. Of those, 138 were randomly placed in the WASP group and 145 were randomly placed in the standard prescription group. The participants were then interviewed at four- to six-, 11- to 14- and 30- to 40-day intervals. Parents were asked to provide the name and location of the pharmacy at which they filled the prescription. The researchers then called to confirm whether the prescription had been filled.
At the end of the year-long study, Spiro found two-thirds of participants in the WASP group did not fill the prescription and got better at the same rate as children whose parents filled the prescription. There was no significant difference between the two groups with regard to fever, ear pain or return visits for medical care.
Because Spiro and colleagues are emergency room physicians who typically do not have established relationships with the patients they treat, they were surprised to learn that such a large percentage of study participants, who did not have a prior relationship with the treating physician, followed their instructions and did not fill the prescription.
"Pediatricians and family practitioners everywhere should consider the wait-and-see, or WASP, approach for uncomplicated childhood ear infections," said Spiro. "Our study found WASP substantially reduced the need for antibiotics in children with ear infections seen in an emergency department and may be an alternative to routine use of antibiotics," Spiro said. |
Using inexpensive parts to build your own drone is a great idea, but the elements are capable of tearing your machine to bits, if they feel so inclined. This is why Ran D. St. Clair, an electronics engineer based in California, built a nine-piece drone that plies the air by flexing and flapping its components, floating along even as wind threatens to derail its path.
Borrowing slight inspiration from the already flexible wings of a commercial airliner, St. Clair calls his creation a "Flex-Plane," owing to its fluid movements as it navigates a gale. A video of one of his test flights recently caught some traction on Reddit, and it's not hard to see why the plane's pterodactyl-like flight resonates:
St. Clair says his machine is a work in progress. It's modeled after Boeing's solar-powered Odysseus aircraft—the lightweight vessel capable of soaring at altitudes of 100,000feet for months on end. "This led to the idea of making the aircraft modular with flexible joints that reduce the stresses on the relatively rigid modules," St. Clair tells Popular Mechanics.
After achieving flight with a gargantuan, 33-foot flexible aircraft last year, St. Clair has been slowly tinkering with the Flex-Plane concept. His earlier exploits with the particular model enjoyed mixed success, as his first three-module Flex-Plane struggled to stay aloft:
As for how the aircraft operates, St. Clair details the mechanics in a handy explainer video. In a sense, it's a complex system belied by simple hardware: "The planes themselves are extremely simple and inexpensive, made of hobby-grade parts and foam board," he says.
But the aircraft's flight is made possible through a main receiver and flight transmitter, hooked up to wires that transfer a signal to each of the nine components. St. Clair harnessed his engineering prowess to bring the project to reality, developing a special, open-source firmware called Open Aero VTOL alongside a friend. The system enables communication between the modules, and ultimately, flight.
St. Clair is pleased with his exploits, but notes the work isn't finished:
This is only the first flight of the x9 configuration, and it is clearly not tuned properly yet. The various flapping and oscillation modes make the video more interesting, but the goal is to make it fly smoothly and well damped, even in modest turbulence.
Turbulence is aviation's perennial foe, no matter the aircraft. |
Letter: Why Stopping Tar Sands Is Critical
To the Editor:
Two weekends ago, seven of us from the Upper Valley marched in Washington, D.C., alongside about 50,000 others in the Forward on Climate Rally. We carried a banner that said, “Tar Sands Oil = Game Over for Planet Earth,” and a poster that said, “Stop the New England Tar Sands Pipeline” with a map of its projected path from Montreal through Vermont and New Hampshire to Portland, Maine.
Some of you may ask: Just when our country can achieve fossil-fuel energy independence by using tar sands oil from Canada and fracked shale oil from the Midwest, why would people brave the cold and a 10-hour bus ride to protest?
We believe climate change is a serious issue that our country must face if humanity is to survive, and that we must begin immediately transitioning to a clean-energy future. Our foremost climate scientist, James Hansen, says that if we use the tar sands oil, it will increase atmospheric carbon dioxide by 120 parts per million — more than humans have increased it since the industrial revolution. This could mean “game over” for the planet.
The near-solid bitumen that produces tar sands oil creates three times as much pollution as conventional oil and must be mixed with all kinds of lethal solvents to move it through pipelines. To mine it, they are clear-cutting a section of the boreal forest the size of Florida and will leave behind a pool of poisoned water the size of Lake Superior. Native people in the area are already dying from mysterious diseases.
We invite you to come see for yourself. The Upper Valley Sierra Club, Occupy the Upper Valley and Transition Five Villages are sponsoring a free film called Tipping Point: The Age of the Tar Sands on Friday, March 8, at 7 p.m. at St. Paul’s Church on Route 5 in Hartford (near The Haven). It tells the tar sands story from the perspective of a Native tribe. Those of us who went to D.C. will lead a discussion after the film and provide information for you to take home. For more information, email [email protected]. |
We associate acne with our troubled teenage years but actually adult acne is more common than people think. It is not unusual for some adults to develop acne just as everyone else is outgrowing it – or even into their 40s and 50s – and it can be just as unpleasant and difficult to deal with.
What is Acne?
Acne is a breakout of pimples, papules and pustules. A pimple is formed by a collection of fat, skin and keratin stuck in a hair follicle. When this is open, it is a blackhead, and when it is closed, it is a whitehead. Whiteheads can cause the walls of the hair follicle to rupture – and this causes the redness, irritation, inflammation and infection we associate with acne. It is most common on the face but can also occur on the neck, back, shoulders and upper arms. It can be embarrassing and painful for sufferers, irrespective of age.
So what causes it in adults and how can you make it go away?
There are a few different factors that could trigger a breakout of acne as an adult. It is not poor hygiene, a common misconception. Hormonal changes are one – when your body experiences a spike in hormones it can cause more oil production, which clogs the pores of your skin leading to pimples forming. Stress is another important factor – an increase in stress can cause more cortisol to be released in your body. Cortisol a steroid hormone that tells your body to produce oil that in turn clogs your pores. Your diet is an obvious one. Food that causes your blood sugar to spike – generally carbs and sugar, as in bread, pasta, and desserts – can lead to inflammation of the skin, triggering a breakout. Some people also have a reaction to dairy due to the hormones that are found in many dairy products. When it comes to dairy, buying organic where possible can often help. But oftentimes, unfortunately, it is nothing you have done – it is just a reaction of your body that you have to deal with as best you can.
Don’t forget a few key facts when dealing with acne, and these are true for both adults and teenagers. Hard scrubbing, or washing too often, does not make acne go away and the irritation may in fact make it worse. So clean your skin gently a couple of times a day and pat dry afterwards. Keep your hands and hair clean – it is best not to touch your skin at all, which is almost impossible, but make sure your hands are clean and your hair is washed regularly. Tanning can temporarily mask acne but too much exposure to the sun can cause dryness and irritation, making breakouts more severe. And don’t pop and squeeze – this only pushes more bacteria to the surface.
In addition to these day-to-day actions you can take to limit the appearance of acne, there are plenty of products available on the aesthetic market that can both limit the appearance, and treat the root causes. The difficult comes in knowing what is best for your skin.
pHformula’s innovative products for treating acne
pHformula understands how unpleasant acne can be – for teenagers and adults. And pHformula’s range of innovative and effective products are designed with both treatment and appearance in mind.
Firstly, a strong barrier function is one of the most important qualities of healthy skin. A compromised barrier function can lead to breakouts, dehydration, sensitization and premature ageing. Your skin’s barrier function is weakened when you use harsh products that over exfoliate the skin, and when you are exposed to environmental factors such as extreme temperatures or pollution. So avoid potential irritants, like harsh chemicals and soap-based cleansers, don’t exfoliate too often, and protect your skin against the environment and excessive heat, dry air, cold wind, by wearing sunscreen for example. The more you protect your skin, the less likely it is to be susceptible to irritation and breakouts.
pHformula has developed a unique acne treatment protocol suitable for anyone suffering from acne (grades I, II and III), from excess sebum, from enlarged pores, or from superficial scarring. The protocol is a seven-step formula: cleanse, degrease, skin permeability, occlusive, resurface, calm & hydrate, and protect.
pHformula’s acne resurfacing treatment solutions, penetrate the pores to correct the main manifestations of acne – pimples, papules and pustules – as well as to act on the four main factors that can trigger acne – seborrhea (the excessive discharge of sebum from sebaceous glands), hyperkeratinisation (the name given to the disorder of the cells lining a hair follicle), microbial colonization (the first sign of infection), and inflammation. To be applied by a skin specialist, the active ingredients include pyruvic acid to penetrate the skin deeply and slowly, azeloglycine, which reduces and inhibits the growth of microbes in hair follicles, and mandelic acid, which kills the microbes, associated with acne breakouts. The treatment works to normalize your skin as quickly and effectively as possible.
The resurfacing treatment is complemented by a tailored homecare prescription – the E.X.F.O Cleanse for soothing cleansing and exfoliation, containing vitamin B5 to calm and hydrate and rooibos extract to scavenge free radicals; A.C.N.E Recovery, which speeds up skin recovery post-resurfacing, maintaining the overall health of the skin and preventing future skin damage; and U.V. protect 30+ or 50+ to protect your skin from harmful radiation while ensuring hydration.
A breakout of adult acne can be upsetting and embarrassing – you thought those days were behind you, after all. But it is more common than you think and there are many different treatment options available. pHformula understands that you want to get rid of your acne quickly, painlessly, and without scarring and the range of unique and effective products are designed to do just that. |
Based on historical 21770 data, solar panels that are tilted towards the equator at an angle equal to the latitude will produce the maximum solar energy output in 21770.
The region associated with 21770 has an average monthly Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) of 4.1 kilowatt hours per square meter per day (kWh/m2/day), which is approximately 0% greater than the average monthly Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) of 4.09 kWh/m2/day.
Solar installations in 21770 that are always titled at the latitude of Monrovia (Average Tilt at Latitude or ATaL) average 4.77 kWh/m2/day, or about 16% greater than the average monthly GHI of 4.1 kWh/m2/day and approximately 17% greater than the average monthly DNI of 4.09 kWh/m2/day.
Global Horizontal Irradiance: The total amount of solar radiation that is received per unit area by a surface that is always positioned in a horizontal manner.
Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI)
Direct Normal Irradiance: The total amount of solar radiation received per unit area by a surface that is always perpendicular to the sun rays that come in a straight line from the direction of the sun at its current position in the sky.
Average Tilt at Latitude (ATaL)
Average Tilt at Latitude: The total amount of solar radiation received per unit area by a surface that is tilted toward the equator at an angle equal to the current latitude. ATaL will often produce the optimum energy output.
Solar Radiation Levels in 21770
Solar Radiation Data in 21770
See the chart below for monthly solar radiation levels in 21770.
* Amounts listed in kWh/m2/day (kilowatt hours per square meter per day)
Solar Radiation Analysis for 21770
Sorry, it is not possible to complete our solar radiation analysis for 21770 at this time.
Historical solar radiation data for 21770 is not currently available.
Please check back later.
Solar Power Comparison: 21770 vs. the U.S.
Solar Power Levels in 21770
Sorry, solar radiation data for 21770 is not currently available. Please try again later.
Solar Power: 21770 vs. the U.S.
Below is a month-by-month comparison of how average 21770 solar radiation levels compare to average levels in a city with historcially high levels (NV) and a city with historically low levels (WA).
→ k/m/d = kWh/m2/day = kilowatt hours per square meter per day.
→ Values listed as 0 (zero) are not available (N/A). |
Established in 1921, the Signalman (SM) rating was absorbed into the Quartermaster (QM) rating in 1948, only to be re-established eight years later. Its status remained unchanged, with no service ratings or other additions, until 2003, when it was once again included in the Quartermaster rating.
Specializing in visual communications using flags and powerful lamps, Signalmen transmitted and received messages—sometimes encoding and decoding them in the process—from line-of-sight sources. Such a system might seem primitive in today’s world of digital telecommunications, and the very fact that it was limited to only what could be seen, it still has one advantage: Unlike wireless transmissions, messages sent via visual communications are almost always seen only by the intended recipients.
Sailors in the SM rating employed three main methods of communications: Semaphore, Morse code, and flaghoist signaling. Semaphore is a system where each arm can be positioned to point in one of eight directions (similar to the eight main points on a compass); the combination indicates a numeral or letter. Visual Morse code works identically to the original telegraph version but uses flashes of light of varying lengths to replicate dots and dashes. Flaghoist signaling relies on flags of different colors, patterns, and sometimes shapes to indicate numbers and letters.
When the Navy disestablished the Signalman rating in 2003 and shuttered the doors to the Signalman Class “A” Schools around the country, the duties of the rating were given Quartermasters. Although such a move had been rumored for years, many were surprised by the decision because the current crop of Quartermasters at the time was completely unfamiliar with the tasks performed by Signalmen. Sailors in the SM rating when the decision was announced were given the opportunity to convert to another rating, with many choosing to select Master-at-Arms due to the increasing need for them that was an unexpected result of the Global War on Terror.
I wrote this about three years ago:
Arms and Lights and Flags
By: Garland Davis
My grandfather could talk with his arms and lights and flags.
I asked him why.
He said it was the sailor’s way through time.
I begged him to teach me how.
I worked so hard at school to learn.
And the letters and words finally came.
Now I too can talk with my arms.
It makes him laugh, easy in himself.
That is what grandsons do.
It would be many years before I found his maps and log books.
Mildewed and stained. Strange names and places.
Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa.
The final log entry, “War over; Surrender, Tokyo bay; Going home.”
I would go to the Navy, as my grandfather did,
I would talk with my arms and lights and flags.
I would be as my grandfather, visit strange places with strange names.
Electronic waves have made the ability to talk with one’s arms obsolete.
Now I talk with the radio and plot courses and names on an electric map.
There is no longer the need to talk with arms and lights and flags.
I imagine my grandfather’s spirit standing alone on the signal bridge.
Semaphore flags clutched in his hand.
Tears slowly running from his eyes. |
A record number of England's beaches are at risk of failing to meet EU water quality standards this year, the Environment Agency has warned.
It suggests new EU regulations will make it much harder for beaches to attain the top "excellent" rating.
More than 99% of English beaches passed last year's tests, but this is forecast to drop by 6%, with the water of 25 beaches possibly classed as "poor".
Among those at risk are ones in Margate, Ilfracombe and Blackpool.
Others at risk are in Lancing, Lyme Regis and Fleetwood.
1: Allonby, Cumbria
2: Blackpool Central
3: Blackpool North
4: Budleigh Salterton, Devon
5: Burnham Jetty North, Somerset
6: Clacton (Groyne 41), Essex
7: Cleveleys, Lancashire
8: Fleetwood, Lancashire
9: Hastings, Sussex
10: Haverigg, Cumbria
11: Henleaze Lake, Bristol
12: Ilfracombe Wildersmouth, Devon
13: Instow, Devon
14: Lancing, Beach Green, West Sussex
15: Lyme Regis Church Cliff Beach, West Dorset
16: Morecambe South, Lancashire
17: Mothecombe, Devon
18: Porth, Cornwall
19: Porthluney, Cornwall
20: Seaton, Cornwall
21: Silloth, Cumbria
22: Spittal, Northumberland
23: Staithes, North Yorkshire
24: Teignmouth Town, Devon
25: Walpole Bay, Margate, Kent
Fit to bathe?
Each week until the end of September, Environment Agency (EA) officials will wade in to the sea and in to lakes to take water samples at 400 locations across England.
The samples will be analysed within 24 hours at a laboratory near Exeter.
The agency's results will be available on a new website.
At the end of the summer, sites will have to display signs at all bathing areas showing if the standards have been passed and whether or not people should swim.
The measurements upon which ratings are based assess the levels of certain bacteria, including E. coli and intestinal enterococci, per 100ml of water.
Under the new EU regulations, in order to attain the "excellent" rating, the concentration level of bacteria can be only half of what used to be allowed.
It will also be harder to avoid the bottom "poor rating" under the regulations, introduced in January.
According to the EA, the two most significant sources of pollution that reduce water quality are sewage from water company infrastructure and pollution from agriculture.
The weather can also have a significant impact, with heavy rainfall washing pollution into the sea.
The hot, dry summer of 2013 saw lots of beaches getting an excellent rating, while the downpours of the second wettest summer on record, in 2012, reduced water quality.
This is on top of local issues such as mess created by dogs and seagulls, misconnected drains, or fats being poured down the drains.
However, the condition of the waters of the English coastline has dramatically improved.
In 1988 only 65% of beaches were declared fit for bathers.
'Essential for health'
Water companies have invested heavily, pouring £2bn into direct improvements to bathing water quality since 1990.
They have also pledged to spend £350bn over the next 15 years.
Ed Mitchell, executive director of environment and business at the EA, said: "Good bathing water is essential for people's health, local tourism and economic growth, and these new higher standards for bathing water will further protect the public."
Dr Stephen Bird, chief operating officer of South West Water, said that last year only one beach in the region failed the standards. With the new tests, this could now be nine.
He said: "We have already invested a huge amount in the bathing waters if you look in to our previous investment of £2bn.
"We are talking about another £20m to achieve these tighter standards, so in terms of additional investment, there's virtually no significant impact on the bill at all for these extra standards."
Follow Claire on Twitter. |
Is the universe symmetric? It’s a really useful question to have the answer to when doing calculations, because symmetries tend to make the math much easier. Most of the physics discovered over the last century, including general relativity and quantum mechanics, is based on three main symmetries: charge, parity, and time.
Charge symmetry means that we could swap all the universe’s positive charges for negative charges and vice versa without changing anything important. Parity symmetry means we could flip the universe right-to-left like a mirror and nothing would change. And time symmetry means that we could run the universe backward in time without changing any of the laws of physics.
Of course, not all of these symmetries hold. Time symmetry, for instance, is broken by the laws of thermodynamics, which state that entropy can only increase forward in time. But what about charge and parity symmetries? As it turns out, these symmetries are also broken in specific circumstances, which can complicate a lot of established physics:
For decades, the charge and parity symmetries seemed pretty solid, but in 1956 they began to fall apart. The first to fall was parity: An experiment by Chien-Shiung Wu found a case where this symmetry didn’t hold. The experiment involved rotating cobalt atoms that gave off photons, which flew off in certain directions. The photons followed parity symmetry, but the rotating cobalt atoms didn’t, because the rotations don’t change when you flip left and right.
The result was that this experiment proved that parity symmetry doesn’t always hold, so physicists proposed combining parity symmetry with charge symmetry, to form a charge-parity symmetry. According to this theory, if you flip left and right along with positive and negative charges, physics should still work the same way.
Unfortunately, that turned out also to not be true. An experiment in 1964 involving exotic particles called kaons violated charge-parity symmetry. So physicists had only one option left: to combine charge-parity symmetry with time symmetry to form charge-parity-time symmetry. Surely this symmetry can’t be broken, right?
So far, it actually looks like this final type of symmetry might be safe. Physicists have been trying for over half a century to break it, and they’ve been unsuccessful. But all it takes is one instance where charge-parity symmetry doesn’t hold, and all of physics might have to be rewritten. Hopefully this last symmetry stays safe. |
A summary family history
The Ducal House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is a branch of the German noble house of Wettin and has its ancestral seat in Coburg. Its progenitors ruled from 1423 to 1547 as Electoral Princes of Saxony and later as Dukes of Coburg. The Saxon duchy of Gotha was acquired in 1826 and since that time the family bears the name of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
The 19th century was the golden age of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. During that era, through diplomacy and shrewd marriage politics, it became one of the most significant European ruling dynasties up to the end of the monarchies in 1918.The “Coburgs” were closely related to almost all European princely families and furnished the sovereigns of four royal dynasties: Belgium, Portugal, Great Britain and Bulgaria.
The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha’s family relations with Europe’s ruling nobility came, in a large part, from Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his wife, Queen Victoria of England. It is through their nine children and 39 grandchildren that the current dynastic lines of Great Britain and Coburg were continued. Furthermore, the progeny of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert also ruled in the German Empire, Russia, Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece, Spain, Norway, Sweden and Denmark – and still do today in the latter four. Please also see the attached PDF (German and English) for additional information.
This spectacular family history of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is at home in Castle Callenberg and is highlighted via the Ducal Art Museum. The present head of the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is Prince Andreas. He descends from the British line established by his great great grandfather Prince Albert.
For more information about the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, please visit the family’s website at: www.sachsen-coburg-gotha.de. |
Growth Trends for Related Jobs
Employers mired in conflicts can experience high rates of absenteeism, employee turnover and litigation associated with harassment or bullying. The first step to preventing conflict or stopping it before it escalates is recognizing potential causes. A study by assessment company Psychometrics found that work-related conflict is most often linked to competing egos, personalities and values, or a lack of strong leadership. Dishonesty and stress can also lead to conflict.
Weak leaders can set unclear expectations. When goals and priorities are not clearly defined and communicated, team members make incorrect assumptions. They may work against one another's efforts, creating conflict and preventing tasks and projects from being completed. If assigned roles are not clear, some key tasks may remain undone while others are done more than once. Team members might even try to outdo one another. This kind of situation builds frustration and shifts a team task from collaborative to combative as coworkers blame one another for project failures or costly problems.
Leadership bias can also ignite conflict. Leaders are just as likely as everyone else to be drawn to some people over others, but they can’t let that natural tendency cloud their judgment. Too much focus on some staff members over others can lead managers to award opportunities for special assignments and promotions without fairly considering all team members’ skills or interests. Even if fair assessment is given, other staff members won’t perceive fairness in the process. The manager’s bias can turn the rest of the staff against that "favorite" person.
Diversity might mean cultural differences, varied business perspectives or even different professions. Cross-functional or multidisciplinary teams involve multiple departments, with each member focusing on different aspects of a project. Whatever is behind a team’s diversity, a variety of backgrounds can mean either innovation or exasperation. Team members might not agree on the best path to achieving objectives or solving problems. Leaders of diverse teams who do focus on communication and team-building can find themselves managing more conflicts than projects.
Some coworkers encounter power struggles, particularly when roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined or when the boss does not have the respect of all team members. In a power struggle, more than one coworker attempts to take on the leadership role. A team with many leaders has no leader at all and cannot move forward. Teams comprised heavily of managers are more likely to experience power struggles. Organizational leaders should assign qualified team leadership as well as document and communicate each team member’s role, responsibility to the project and level of authority.
A careers content writer, Debra Kraft is a former English teacher whose 25-plus year corporate career includes training and mentoring. She holds a senior management position with a global automotive supplier and is a senior member of the American Society for Quality. Her areas of expertise include quality auditing, corporate compliance, Lean, ERP and IT business analysis. |
A method used to enhance the flavor of food by using smoldering wood at high temperatures during the curing process. The food absorbs the smoke that is created from smoldering wood and becomes seasoned with the smoked flavor, while also deepening the color of the food. During hot smoking the food is smoked for 6 to 12 hours at a temperature ranging from 100°F to 200°F, which partially or fully cooks the food. Another form of smoking is cold smoking during which the food is smoked for several days or up to almost a month in temperatures ranging from 70ºF to 90°F, which prevents the food from cooking. The smoking process can be used for foods such as meat, poultry, fish, cheese, and vegetables. |
Capitol Reef National Park was established to preserve the geologic features of an area created 65 million years ago. Known as the Waterpocket Fold, this giant wrinkle in the Earth’s crust extends almost 100 miles. Ongoing erosion has created the park as we know it today.
The wind picked up and the landscape began to change once again as we continued west towards Capitol Reef National Park.
Gusts were expected to blow at thirty miles per hour or more. They were strong enough to push our car about while kicking up some mighty big dust clouds.
We never saw the Capitol Reef park boundaries, but when we came upon this towering display we were pretty sure we had arrived. |
The Oscar-nominated actor Robert Downey Jr., star of countless films including Chaplin, the Iron Man series, Tropic Thunder and Zodiac, started making movies when he was just five years old. He’s also famous for his descent into drug addiction, which he says started even earlier than age five.
Downey has told a number of interviewers that he believes he has an addictive personality, and that he may have passed that personality on to his son, Indio, who recently pled guilty to felony cocaine possession and entered a rehabilitation program. Meanwhile, Downey (the elder) has talked about how his own father introduced him to drugs.
Downey’s stories beg critical questions about how humans handle drugs and addiction:
- Is addiction inherited, and genetic?
- Is addiction more a cultural and environmental phenomenon?
- Is there such a thing as an addictive personality?
Drug rehabilitation, medical and psychological treatments and even the criminal justice system depend heavily on the right answers to those questions.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (one of the National Institutes of Health), illegal drug abuse costs the United States more than $181 billion each year “in health care, productivity loss, crime, incarceration and drug enforcement.” And these costs are based on an assumption that drug addiction, as NIDA puts it, “is a chronic, relapsing brain disease.”
But that doesn’t necessarily make it genetic. Nor does a pattern of heritability for, say, alcoholism, make that disorder entirely genetic. Researchers are looking at addiction as a complex interaction of genes, metabolism, environment and behavior. This has come a long way from the early 20th century, when addiction was seen more as a morality problem, or even since the 1980s, when we witnessed the primitive eggs-on-a-frying pan “this is your brain on drugs” advertisements. Researchers have largely abandoned the search for an overarching “addictive personality,” in which a person shows an archetypal vulnerability for any addiction, be it cigarettes, alcohol, heroin, or gambling.
Case for genes
Of all the people who try alcohol or illegal drugs, only 10 to 20 percent get addicted. No single gene has ever been isolated for people who get hooked on alcohol, drugs or other substances. But a number of studies show that genetics does play some significant role:
- Identical twin studies have shown a fairly strong concordance (sharing a behavior and genetic trait), but even these show some variability. For example, a Medical College of Virginia twin study on cocaine use showed a 54 concordance rate for identical twins versus 42 percent for fraternal twins, but for cocaine abuse showed a 47 percent concordance for identical twins and only eight percent for fraternal twins.
- Other studies showed some differences depending on type of substance. A Washington University, St. Louis, review showed that 33 to 71 percent of the variation in nicotine addiction was inherited, while 48 to 66 percent of variation in alcohol addiction was inherited, and 49 percent of variation in gambling addiction was inherited.
- A search for genes has uncovered a number of genetic clusters that affect behavior and mood, and could be connected with addiction. Genes on no fewer than eight chromosomes have been tagged for some role in chemical dependence.
Case for the environment
Also taking a step away from the early focus on moral fiber, behavioral scientists have been examining external factors that could lead to addiction:
- Twin studies, this time looking at identical twins who did not have the exact same upbringing, showed that the twin who had experienced childhood sexual abuse did show a strong tendency toward substance abuse, while the twin who did not have these experiences did not share this addiction.
- Some researchers have pointed to social structures as a key factor in addiction. Monkey studies have shown that those who were dominated by other monkeys are more likely to take cocaine than more socially powerful monkeys. Others have looked at poverty, and living on the fringes of society as something that prods addiction.
- Certain behavioral disorders, like anxiety or impulsive behavior, have been suspected of driving addiction. Feeling anxious can fuel the need to consume drugs that alleviate these feelings and other social fears, while teenagers may become addicted because they can’t yet control their emotions effectively.
Case for nature and nurture
- Many alcohol abuse studies have focused on the gene ALDH2, which controls the conversion of acetaldehyde, a rather toxic metabolite of alcohol. Some variants of ALDH2 don’t convert acetaldehyde into acetate very well, particularly in Asian populations. While some studies show that people with this version of ALDH2 were far less likely to get addicted to alcohol, the heavy-drinking business culture that developed in Japan and other Asian nations in the 1980s and 1990s forced businessmen (mostly men) to drink anyway.
- While addicts may behave as if they have a disease state (compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences), and addiction does change how certain neurotransmitters like dopamine are metabolized, they also can completely recover on their own, at rates up to 80 percent.
- Epigenetic changes, as we’ve written about in the Genetic Literacy Project, have been shown to also affect who becomes an addict and why. Excessive cocaine and alcohol use can determine how genes that protect against addiction are regulated, while increases in dopamine receptor numbers (and activity) can help prevent addiction.
Was Robert Downey Jr. right?
Recently, a NIDA director estimated that the genetic risk of addiction averages about 50 percent. So, Downey may have passed on a tendency for substance abuse to his son, but it may have just as much been the same way he was influenced by his father as it was through his own DNA.
A version of this article originally ran on the GLP on December 8, 2016. |
Passenger Pigeon – The Most Numerous Bird Ever
It is not possible to give an accurate estimate of the population of Passenger Pigeon, North American bird (Ectopistes migratorius), as it became extinct in the wild in about 1900, and the position is complicated further through American definition of a billion – a thousand million, whereas in Britain it is a million million.
History of Passenger Pigeon
Nonetheless, there are so many reports about this remarkable bird, Passenger Pigeon, we are safe in suggesting that its population was in the region of 5—10,000 million in the first half of the 19th century before hunting with guns was very extensive. It might well have provided 45% of the total bird population of America, though a lower figure is more likely. Even the most conservative estimates talk of ‘hundreds of millions’, and 3,000 million are thought to have been alive at the time of Columbus so its great success cannot be attributed entirely to agriculture or other human interference with habitat.
Facts about this most numerous bird
The extinction of this prolific continental species in such a short time is probably the most dramatic decline of all time. The bird was hunted relentlessly in vast quantities for the table and no one could ever conceive that total extermination was possible.
Yet the eventual disappearance remains puzzling as the last few millions went with such suddenness. Some authorities suggest that a migratory disaster or even disease contributed to the demise over the last 20 or so years. Another theory is that the bird’s breeding success might have been dependent on its gregarious habits.
It has been suggested that the reproductive rate could have dropped with the size of the colonies, some of which were several square kilometres in extent with a hundred or more nests in a single tree. Physical and chemical damage to trees was great.
When and how Passenger Pigeon bird completely vanished from the earth?
The species bred throughout the northern forests from Manitoba to Nova Scotia and south to Kansas and West Virginia. Passenger Pigeon wintered from Arkansas and North Carolina south to central Texas and northern Florida. Many reports tell of migrating flocks of 1—2,000 million birds.
The famous author and artist Audubon (qev.) estimated a flock near Louisville at 1,115,136,000. Fellow ornithologist Alexander Wilson estimated an even larger flock in Kentucky to contain 2,230,272,000 birds, yet considered this to be far below the true number.
He suggested that if each Passenger pigeon bird ate 1/2Pt of acorns a day their daily consumption would be 17,424,000 bushels. This single massive flock would have outnumbered 10 to 1 all the birds in the British Isles as once estimated by James Fisher.
The last immense nesting took place in 1878 at a time when vast acreages of the bird’s forest habitat were being converted to farmland. Quite apart from sport and some local subsistence shooting, market gunning took its toll. Countless barrels of birds were shipped to the big cities where they often rotted on the sidewalks for want of buyers.
The last well-verified shooting took place in Wisconsin in 1899. The last recorded passenger pigeon of all, ‘Martha Washington’, died in Cincinnati Zoo, Ohio, USA at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on 1 September 1914. She had been hatched at the zoo and died aged 29. The mounted specimen is exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. |
Walk into nearly any supermarket in the United States, and you are immediately confronted with abundance — bok choy, mangos, melons and avocados from across the globe — where a couple of varieties of apples and carrots once struggled to fill shelf space.
But not everyone has easy access to this fruity phantasmagoria. If you’re picking up ingredients for dinner at a gas station or a convenience store, you probably live in what eggheads have taken to calling a “food desert” — an ill-defined concept with powerful policy implications. A commonly cited 2009 statistic from the U.S. Department of Agriculture has 23.5 million Americans living in poor urban and rural areas with limited access to fresh food.
Making those food deserts bloom is a centerpiece of Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity agenda. This January found the first lady smiling for the cameras with Wal-Mart executives in Southeast Washington and declaring herself “more hopeful than ever” as she tours the nation’s produce sections.
But the prevalence of food deserts is almost certainly overstated. Not having a supermarket in your Zip code isn’t the last word in access to healthy food. According to the USDA, 93 percent of “desert” dwellers have access to a car. And farmers markets, often overlooked in surveys of rich and poor neighborhoods alike, have tripled since 1994.
Still, it does seem reasonable that making it easier to buy fresh food would improve what people eat. However, a study published this year in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the first to measure the impact of access to fresh food on diet, followed 5,000 people for over 15 years and found something surprising: Proximity to a grocery store or supermarket doesn’t increase consumption of healthy food. That suggests that a lack of convenient leafy greens isn’t the problem. Dinner menus are the product of subtle and pervasive food cultures, which can’t be tweaked from the East Wing.
The primary beneficiaries of tax incentives and other nudges aimed at abolishing food deserts are big grocery chains, not poor shoppers.
2. Advertising forces people to make unhealthy choices.
Television-bound children, their eyes awhirl with images of Tony the Tiger and his high-fructose friends, haunt the debate about junk-food advertising. And any parent who has ever experienced a 2-year-old’s grocery store meltdown would certainly like to have someone to blame. But the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, has concluded that “current evidence is not sufficient to arrive at any finding about a causal relationship from television advertising to adiposity [excess weight] among children and youth.” Similar findings hold true for adults.
We don’t need advertisers to tell us that candy is delicious. Humans were big fans of fat and sugar long before the idiot box was invented. We’re programmed to go for the good (bad) stuff. Sure, Kellogg’s and General Mills have big advertising budgets, but they’re nowhere near as powerful as Darwin. Cracking down on advertisers gives politicians a scapegoat, but it doesn’t make kids, or their parents, healthier.
3. Eating healthy is too expensive.
A dinner of hot dogs and Devil Dogs is undeniably cheap. But a bowl of beans and rice with a banana on the side is cheaper. A survey by the USDA found that, by weight, bottled water is cheaper than soda, low-fat milk is cheaper than high-fat, and whole fruit is cheaper than processed sweet snacks. Preparing a big pot of lentils for the week may be not be glamorous, but it’s much cheaper and not much more time-consuming than cooking up frozen pizza or mac and cheese.
The New York Times’ Mark Bittman — no fan of Frito-Lay — writes that the idea that junk food is cheaper than real food is “just plain wrong” and that blaming unhealthy habits on cost is incorrect. People who eat lots of unhealthy food aren’t doing so because they lack cheap, healthy options. Instead, it’s because they like junk food. Making junk food comparatively more pricey by tacking on taxes — a proposal that has been revived many
times by Yale’s Kelly Brownell (and recently made into law in Denmark) — mostly means that people will pay more taxes, not eat more kale.
4. People need more information about what they eat.
It’s hard to argue against rules that give consumers more information. Perhaps for that reason, proposals to require restaurants to jam calorie, fat and other nutrition statistics onto already crowded signs and menus pop up over and over — most recently as part of the health-care reform law — despite the fact that virtually all major fast-food chains already provide such information on handouts and online.
Knowing that a chocolate shake at Shake Shack has 740 calories doesn’t stop me — or the first lady— from ordering one occasionally. We’re not alone: Studies consistently find that menu labeling doesn’t result in healthier choices. A recent study from Ghent University in Belgium found that labels made no difference in the consumption patterns of students there, backing up a 2009 New York University study that found no improvement in poor New Yorkers’ eating habits after the introduction of mandatory menu labeling in the Big Apple.
5. There are too many fast-food restaurants in low-income neighborhoods.
In many urban neighborhoods, it’s easier to get permission to open a sex shop than a Taco Bell, thanks to aggressive policies by local zoning boards. But zoning out fast-food restaurants in cities is a lost cause — they are probably already too thick on the ground for new restrictions to alter the culinary mix. The same study that found no effect on diet from increased access to fruits and vegetables also found that proximity to fast-food restaurants had only a small effect, and it was limited to young, low-income men.
In a commentary accompanying the study, Jonathan E. Fielding and Paul A. Simon of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health wrote that “policy efforts to reduce access to [junk food], though politically challenging, will likely have a greater impact on reducing the obesity epidemic than efforts focused solely on increasing access to fresh produce and other healthy options.” “Politically challenging” is code for “virtually impossible.”
And for good reason. Eliminating access to fast food and other junk food means taking away choices, something Americans don’t tend to like, even (or perhaps especially) when it’s for their own good.
Katherine Mangu-Ward is the managing editor of Reason magazine.
Read additional Outlook coverage of food and politics: Eric Schlosser on “Why being a foodie isn’t elitist” and Janet Poppendieck on “Five Myths about school food.”
Read more from our “Five myths” archive.
Read more from Outlook, friend us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. |
By William Hudson & Ilana DeBare
The new two-mile McCosker Loop Trail in Orinda is a short trail with a long story behind it – a story that could easily be called “Golden Gate Audubon Society and the 1,300 acres.”
The trail is part of Gateway Valley, an area now known as Wilder, located south of Highway 24 and just east of the Caldecott Tunnel. The area is critical wildlife habitat – a key link in the north-south wildlife corridor that runs from Wildcat Canyon to Lake Chabot. Thanks to GGAS’s expertise, counsel, and resources, over 1,300 strategically-located acres of Gateway Valley were added to our protected wildlands.
The story began in the 1980s, as open spaces around the Bay Area came under increasing development pressure. The northern reaches of Gateway Valley — across Highway 24 from the California Shakespeare Theater — belonged to Ed Daly, owner of World Airways, known for its government contracts during the Vietnam war.
Daly was supposedly in the process of donating his land to the East Bay Regional Park District when he passed away in 1984. His family then sold it to a development group, setting the stage for years of contention. With the later addition of land to the south owned by Daly’s financial officer, the total project area was 978 acres. Homes were the main focus but a 27-hole golf course was included in every proposal until a settlement was ultimately reached, driven by GGAS.
Despite its prime location, the valley had not been developed in prior decades for a good reason. The hillsides were unstable, and studies revealed problems even deeper than expected, with hidden landslides in the underlying bedrock. The extensive grading and drainage needed to support roads and construction could not be done without destroying existing creeks, wetlands, and seeps, and numerous old growth trees, a variety of habitats home to species including endangered California Red-legged Frogs and Alameda Whipsnakes, as well as majestic Golden Eagles.
The valley’s natural attributes made it a resource of national importance. This was significant, because it meant that, in addition to obtaining approval by the City of Orinda, any development had to be also vetted by state and federal environmental agencies, a process coordinated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that provided numerous opportunities to advocate for the environment.
Opposition to the development plan in Orinda was widespread and well organized. Residents formed a group called Save Open Space – Gateway Valley (“SOS”). A 300-copy, four-page publication explaining the issue and arguing for preservation grew into a newletter, the Golden Eagle, with 6,000 copies distributed monthly by 125 citizens in their neighborhoods for years. Local citizens and representatives of environmental groups, including Golden Gate Aububon, spoke at the numerous public meetings and wrote constantly to the relevant government bodies.
The SOS-led opposition managed to halt plans by three successive development groups between 1987 and 2002, including, in 1994, overturning by referendum the Orinda City Council’s approval of 425 homes, a 27-hole golf course and massive regional hotel conference center.
Then, in 2002, Farallon Capital Management acquired the development rights to the Gateway area. Farallon approached GGAS’s Executive Director, Arthur Feinstein, and asked him to bring SOS into discussions towards a compromise. Farallon was familiar with Arthur’s successful track record in brokering similar agreements elsewhere. On the strength of Arthur’s role as one of their closest and longest-term advisors, SOS joined GGAS and the Sierra Club at the negotiating table with Farallon.
GGAS also provided a second necessary ingredient – funding for the attorney who represented the conservation alliance during two years of bargaining.
The effort was successful. The conservationists agreed not to oppose 245 houses together with playfields, roads, etc. on 230 acres. Farallon eliminated the golf course, agreed to permanent protection for over 1,300 acres (the balance of the 978 acres plus adjacent land acquired for mitigation in previous years), and provided for $1 million in funds for additional conservation.
Removal of the golf course significantly reduced habitat disruption from grading. For example, some efforts to preserve existing watercourses could be done by working between them, and work did not have to take place as high up the hillsides as initially proposed.
Responsibility for the 1,300 protected acres was subsequently assumed by the East Bay Municipal Utility District, the East Bay Regional Park District, and a small Geologic Hazard Abatement District funded by Wilder homeowners.
Today EBRPD’s share is 640 acres that are in the early stages of annexation to Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. The McCosker Parcel, a 250-acre former quarry, was partially opened this spring with access to the two-mile McCosker Loop Trail.
And, following a series of public meetings last year, EBRPD is developing an integrated plan for McCosker and the remaining 390 acres, know as the Western Hills Open Space.
The McCosker Loop Trail may be only two miles long… but it was thirty years in the making. And preservation of those 1,300 wild acres is one of the proudest achievements of Golden Gate Audubon’s first century.
Join William Hudson, Arthur Feinstein, and GGAS birding instructor Bob Lewis on a special GGAS Centennial field trip to the McCosker Loop Trail on Sunday, October 22, 2017. Experience this important habitat and learn about its history firsthand! See our Field Trips web page for details and directions.
William Hudson was an early volunteer and later board member for Save Open Space-Gateway Valley, and is currently treasurer of the Gateway Settlement Fund Alliance, a related organization with representatives from SOS-GV, Golden Gate Audubon Society, and the Sierra Club. He is also on the board of Golden Gate Audubon. |
In mechanically interlocked compounds, such as rotaxanes and catenanes, the molecules are held together by mechanical rather than chemical bonds. These compounds can be engineered to have several well-defined mechanical states by incorporating recognition sites between the different components. The rates of the transitions between the recognition sites can be controlled by introducing steric "speed bumps" or electrostatically switchable gates. A mechanism for the absorption of energy can also be included by adding photoactive, catalytically active, or redox-active recognition sites, or even charges and dipoles. At equilibrium, these Mechanically Interlocked Molecules (MIMs) undergo thermally activated transitions continuously between their different mechanical states where every transition is as likely as its microscopic reverse. External energy, for example, light, external modulation of the chemical and/or physical environment or catalysis of an exergonic reaction, drives the system away from equilibrium. The absorption of energy from these processes can be used to favour some, and suppress other, transitions so that completion of a mechanical cycle in a direction in which work is done on the environment-the requisite of a molecular machine-is more likely than completion in a direction in which work is absorbed from the environment. In this Tutorial Review, we discuss the different design principles by which molecular machines can be engineered to use different sources of energy to carry out self-organization and the performance of work in their environments.
ASJC Scopus subject areas |
Treating bedsores early is important because bedsores can advance from one stage to the next rapidly. If stage I symptoms occur, then steps to relieve pressure on the area should be taken immediately. It's also important to keep the affected skin clean by washing it with mild soap and water and drying the area gently [source: University of Washington School of Medicine].
Once the bedsore has moved beyond stage I, seek medical advice from a doctor. If the skin is already broken, the wound requires a dressing to protect the damaged area. See-through dressings are best, and specially treated dressings, such as hydrocolloid patches, provide added healing and protection for deeper sores [source: Collison]. Dressings should be changed often, and the wound should be cleaned to avoid infection.
Extremely damaged and infected skin, such as that found in stages III and IV, requires special attention. Dead skin around the wound prevents skin from healing and must be removed through a process called debridement [source American Geriatrics Society Foundation for Health in Aging]. Medical professionals use several methods of debridement and will evaluate each patient to determine the best process.
A doctor may also prescribe a medicated ointment or antibiotics to ward off infection. Antibiotics can be taken orally or by injection [source: University of Washington School of Medicine]. If infection of internal tissues or the blood occurs, then patients may require prolonged antibiotic treatment.
There are products that make bed rest easier for people who have bedsores, including cushions and pillows that relieve pressure on the body where a sore is developing [source: Mayo Clinic]. If symptoms are caught in the early stages, they can heal on their own and medical intervention can be avoided [source: Mayo Clinic].
Read on to learn how to prevent bedsores. |
About Croatian language
Croatian language (hrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic language which is used primarily by the inhabitants of Croatia and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of the Croatian diaspora. It is one of the standard versions of the Central-South Slavic diasystem.
Croatian is based on the Ijekavian pronunciation of Štokavian dialect (with some influence from Čakavian and Kajkavian) and written with the Croatian alphabet.
The modern Croatian standard language is a continuous outgrowth of more than nine hundred years of literature written in a mixture of Croatian Church Slavonic and the vernacular language. If the subject is narrowed out, Croatian Church Slavonic had been abandoned by the mid-1400s, and Croatian “purely” vernacular literature has existed for more than five centuries.
Croatian language is today the official language of the Republic of Croatia and, along with Bosnian and Serbian, one of three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also official in the regions of Burgenland (Austria), Molise (Italy) and Vojvodina (Serbia). Additionally, it has co-official status alongside Romanian in the communes of Caraşova and Lupac, Romania. In these localities, Croats or Krashovani make up the majority of the population, and education, signage and access to public administration and the justice system are provided in Croatian, alongside Romanian.
There is at present no sole regulatory body which determines correct usage of the Croatian language. There is however an Institute for the Croatian language and linguistics with a prescription department. Judging by the patterns of the neighbouring South Slavic languages, it is most likely that Croatian will remain a language of academy and not a demotic language (eg. English, Greek).
The current language standard is generally laid out in the grammar books and dictionaries used in education facilities, such as the school curriculum prescribed by the Ministry of Education and the university programmes of the Faculty of Philosophy at the four main universities. The most prominent recent editions describing the Croatian standard language are:
Hrvatski pravopis by Babić, Finka, Moguš
Rječnik hrvatskoga jezika by Anić
Rječnik hrvatskoga jezika by Šonje et al.
Hrvatski enciklopedijski rječnik, by a group of authors,
Hrvatska gramatika by Barić et al
Also notable are the recommendations of Matica hrvatska, the national publisher and promoter of Croatian heritage, the Lexicographical institute “Miroslav Krleža”, as well as the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. |
Pedagogical Principles In Sex Education
( Originally Published 1923 )
Training is the Modification of the Child's Impulses. -All of our deliberate efforts to "educate" or train the child, all of our efforts at reformation, all of our rewards and punishments, are based on the assumption that there is something in the natural scheme of behavior which is subject to change. How far is this assumption warranted?
There is no question that habits result from repetition, that training produces results, that skill emerges from practice. Moreover, when it comes to knowledge it is very evident that what we know comes at least in large part from the outside. But how is it with the feelings, the tastes, the thinking, the ideals and purposes? These parts of our character or constitution are so prominent in the attitudes, and they are so important in determining how the child will in the end behave with respect to all the important issues of life, including sex, that the extent to which they can be modified or controlled is of vital concern to us. As already suggested (page 37), the child's impulses and feelings are not, to begin with, in any sense either good or bad. We must accept the child and his impulses without prejudice, and we must look upon all the elements in his make-up as having a legitimate place in life. Whether later in life the feelings and tastes, the ideals and purposes, turn out to be "good" or "bad" will depend for the most part on what happens during the intervening years. At any rate, this appears, from all the knowledge we now have upon the subject, to be the most helpful and profitable way of considering the nature of the living being with which we are concerned. For the vast majority of infants, whatever he does spontaneously or in response to stimuli and disturbances is "normal."
From the very beginning of the child's life we can see the primitive impulses and feelings undergoing change. The infant cries for food; we say he is "hungry." Now nothing can still his hunger but food, and therefore he should continue to cry until he is fed. We notice indeed that at first he does continue to cry, until the mother's breast or the nipple of the bottle touches his lips. But before long we observe that the sound of the mother's voice, or even of her footsteps, will make him suspend crying, if the voice or the foot-steps have for a number of times regularly preceded the arrival of his food supply. And just as he has automatically opened his mouth when the nipple touched the region of his mouth, he now opens his mouth in anticipation of the nipple, merely on hearing the appropriate sound. We say that he "associates" the sound with the coming of food. In this way, that is, by "association," a certain sensation—sound—has come to take the place of another sensation—touch-in getting him to open his mouth wide. And in the same way a sensation-sound again—has taken the place of taste and the satisfactions that go with that taste in making him stop crying. In short, his mode of behaving has been modified, and his way of feeling has been modified.
A few weeks later we may have an opportunity to see the child open his mouth, and smile, not merely at the sound of the voice, but at the sight of his mother, or of the bottle. Here we have another sensation substituted for the original one; and the satisfaction coming originally from stilling hunger, or tasting food, is transferred to the bottle or the mother. We say that the child "recognizes" his mother or the bottle. Let us recognize the fact that he has begun to develop affections from the constant association of satisfactions, pleasant feelings, with certain tastes and touches and sights and sounds.
This illustrates what is meant by the modification of primary instincts or feelings. Long before the child can be considered conscious or reflective, he establishes pleasant associations with certain sensations, and unpleasant associations with other sensations. This is unquestionably the beginning of his discrimination between what is likable or nice, and what is not likable, or disgusting, or nasty; that is to say, his first steps in the formation of tastes.
The actions which the child comes to perform as a result of the various experiences that come to him, as distinguished from the actions he performs in every situation before having had any experience, we call habits. To stop crying on hearing one sound, but not another, is a habit. To open the mouth or smile at the sight of the bottle but not at the sight of the dog, is a habit. To come at the sight of outstretched arms, or at a noise which sounds like "come here," is a habit. But with most actions, especially at first, there go various feelings, feelings of satisfaction, of comfort or discomfort; and the feelings become part of the habit.
In time, the feeling and the action may become separated, so that we can perform the action without having the original feelings, and we can have the feelings without performing the action. When the child is learning to walk, every step may mean a strain, an adventure; when the art of walking has been mastered, the process can be carried out not only without taking thought, but without feelings of effort. In the same way, after we have learned to write, we no longer feel effort with each stroke, and no longer feel relief at the conclusion of each word; such thoughts and feelings as we experience have to do altogether with the subject matter or purpose of the writing, and not with the muscular movements. On the other hand, the thrill which comes from tasting and chewing food that is liked may be experienced, though perhaps in a diluted degree, from recalling the last good meal, or anticipating in thought the next one—or even from hearing the dinner bell. Here we have the feelings with practically no muscular activity, or actual sensation. The habit, as we call it, or the association, has transferred satisfactions or strains or pleasure from the original sensations and actions to the ideas or memories. In this way the manner of thinking becomes a habit, just as does the mode of acting or of feeling.
There is much more to the forming of these various kinds of habit than mere repetition or association. It is apparently essential that satisfying or pleasurable feelings be a part of the experience, if the habit is to become definitely fixed. This is to some extent recognized in the practice of rewarding the child when he has done what we consider right. The pleasurable feeling may come from praise or approval, or from other manifestations that suggest a glow of satisfaction. Or it may come from a material reward or indulgence. Rewards are legitimate enough, but like punishments, they very often carry with them suggestions that we do not intend. For example, the candy which we give the child for having performed some little service or courtesy will make him feel glad that he has performed as he has; ut it may also get him into the habit of calculating his conduct in terms of the candy with which he will be recompensed. It would be much better for him to get he habit of feeling that candy and other good things come out of a happy environment, which includes parents and friends; and that the happiness of the environment ornes out of everybody's, including himself, doing helpul and kind acts.
It may be said incidentally that the chief effects of punishments are to block the flow of feeling as well as f action; and that while punishments do indeed pre-vent children from doing what is forbidden, at least where they can be caught, they also operate to establish antagonistic feelings, fears, and antipathies toward the persons with whom they are associated, so that they may o more harm than good.
It is upon the healthy growth and the everyday experiences that the emotional habits and attitudes at last !depend. Direct instruction will have some effect, especially when the child is old enough to carry ideas over into his own ideals and purposes. But the chief reliance of the early years must be upon the incidental and casual events, the suggestion made in passing, and often upon the intelligent recognition and use of situations that cannot be anticipated in any way. Through the effects of association, through the substitution and recombination of feelings and ideas, the whole scheme of habits will be formed, the preferences and prejudices, the suspicions and confidences, no less than the outward movements which we usually consider as alone subject to ,training. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we should keep before us a large plan of growth and living that will make use of the child's impulses as basic forces in the development of his whole character. |
Today, we fire a shot, and it's heard round the
world. The University of Houston's College of
Engineering presents this series about the machines
that make our civilization run, and the people
whose ingenuity created them.
If you're my age, you'll
remember an old song lyric:
How deep is the ocean? How high is the
Well, I'll tell you how deep and how high. Relative
to your 16-inch globe, the ocean is no deeper than
the layer of blue paint that represents it. The sky
reaches only 1/32 of an inch above the surface. Our
water and air are so thin and fragile!
That brings us to the question of global warming.
When the composition of our thin atmosphere
changes, the flow of solar energy through it
changes just a little. Yet it's enough to affect
the ocean -- that mere layer of paint upon our
So if we could measure overall changes in the
ocean's temperature, we'd know how much warming has
occured. People at the Scripps Institution in La
Jolla are trying to do that. And they're using the
thinness of the ocean.
The ocean averages a little over two miles deep.
The density of its water varies with depth. The
salinity, temperature, and pressure all change. And
they change the density. Finally, the density of
water determines how sound travels through it.
Those density variations do a strange thing to the
spread of sound in the ocean. Sounds go out in all
directions in air. But sound that originates at a
particular ocean depth spreads only outward. Sound
stays in a plane, if it has a certain density
pattern. Sound also travels five times faster in
water than in air. And it doesn't attenuate as
So they'll lower a loudspeaker near an island in
the South Indian Ocean. They'll broadcast a
low-frequency tone. Listening posts will pick up
the sound three hours later, when it reaches all
the way to America. It'll be very weak but still
perceivable. Understand: this is no radio signal.
It's pure acoustic sound. We'll literally hear
halfway round the world.
The precise speed of the sound reflects a global
average temperature in the ocean. By doing the
experiment each year, we'll find out how much Earth
is really warming.
The experiment bends my mind. It stretches my
perception of both size and sound. The oddest
wrinkle of all is that this stratum in the ocean is
a communications channel for whales. They use it to
sing to each other over huge distances. We've
already garbled the channel with submarine noise
and geophysical soundings. Now this! There's a
danger that this strange experiment will interfere
with the whales' party line.
Finally, you won't believe the name of the island
that's going to be heard all the way to America.
It's name is H-E-A-R-D -- Heard Island.
I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston,
where we're interested in the way inventive minds |
At ShineAll our number goal is to keep our clients and staff safe and protected from the covid-19 virus.
Our staff have been trained in the CDC Protocols specific to covid-19 cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing.
We have the latest equipment and approved chemicals for virus cleaning in schools.
Our Sani-School program offers daily, weekly, monthly "common touch" sensitization and disinfecting as well as HVAC and air system disinfecting and maintenance.
We can even install plexiglass dividers in classrooms, lunchrooms, principals offices and more.
Crews are available 24-7 so work can be done during off hours.
Copied from the CDC webpage
Know the difference between cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing
Cleaning removes germs, dirt, and impurities from surfaces or objects. Cleaning works by using soap (or detergent) and water to physically remove germs from surfaces. This process does not necessarily kill germs, but by removing them, it lowers their numbers and the risk of spreading infection.
Disinfecting kills germs on surfaces or objects. Disinfecting works by using chemicals to kill germs on surfaces or objects. This process does not necessarily clean dirty surfaces or remove germs, but by killing germs on a surface after cleaning, it can further lower the risk of spreading infection.
Sanitizing lowers the number of germs on surfaces or objects to a safe level, as judged by public health standards or requirements. This process works by either cleaning or disinfecting surfaces or objects to lower the risk of spreading infection.
Clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that are touched often
Follow your school’s standard procedures for routine cleaning and disinfecting. Typically, this means daily sanitizing surfaces and objects that are touched often, such as desks, counter tops, doorknobs, computer keyboards, hands-on learning items, faucet handles, phones, and toys. Some schools may also require daily disinfecting these items. Standard procedures often call for disinfecting specific areas of the school, like bathrooms.
Immediately clean surfaces and objects that are visibly soiled. If surfaces or objects are soiled with body fluids or blood, use gloves and other standard precautions to avoid coming into contact with the fluid. Remove the spill, and then clean and disinfect the surface.
Simply do routine cleaning and disinfecting
It is important to match your cleaning and disinfecting activities to the types of germs you want to remove or kill. Most studies have shown that the flu virus can live and potentially infect a person for up to 48 hours after being deposited on a surface. However, it is not necessary to close schools to clean or disinfect every surface in the building to slow the spread of flu. Also, if students and staff are dismissed because the school cannot function normally (e.g., high absenteeism during a flu outbreak), it is not necessary to do extra cleaning and disinfecting.
Flu viruses are relatively fragile, so standard cleaning and disinfecting practices are sufficient to remove or kill them. Special cleaning and disinfecting processes, including wiping down walls and ceilings, frequently using room air deodorizers, and fumigating, are not necessary or recommended. These processes can irritate eyes, noses, throats, and skin; aggravate asthma; and cause other serious side effects. |
May 4, 2017
OUTER BANKS, N.C. -- Erosion of North Carolina's shoreline is a growing problem, as development, boating traffic and extreme weather deplete the natural protections of estuaries and marine habitat. But the newest technology in artificial reefs is set to change that, and it's already being used in parts of the state.
Reefmaker is a trademarked product made of natural limestone recently used in the Bonner Bridge mitigation on Pamlico Sound near Cape Hatteras. Darrell Westmoreland, owner of Atlantic Reefmaker, said the invention fills a big gap in shoreline protection.
"All of our sounds, all of our estuaries are being heavily impacted due to sea-level rise. The other is more boating traffic, more fishing pressure,” Westmoreland said. "There's just not the cover that's there, so the Reefmaker systems create shoreline protection."
Westmoreland and his company are beginning a project in Brunswick to protect Fort Anderson.
More than 40,000 Reefmakers have been installed around the country, but these are the first two systems in North Carolina. The nonprofit Resource Institute - an organization that connects public dollars with private enterprise - is in the process of finding additional public funds to finance future projects.
Other versions of artificial reefs are placed on the sea floor, but they can damage the habitat for the animals that live there. Reefmakers are suspended at varying heights to work best with the local ecosystem.
Westmoreland said in addition to providing shield for marine life, there are other benefits for the shoreline and the community.
"We can get these installed on our inlets for inlet protection, protect marinas to break up the wind and wake action that hits our marinas where our commercial and recreational boaters keep their boats,” he explained. "So there's an endless amount of things that we can do with the system. "
There are 3,300 miles of tidal shoreline in North Carolina. The north-south pattern of sand and sediment created by the position in the Atlantic Ocean creates extra wear and tear on the shoreline, and the Outer and Core Banks take extra erosion with their exposure to high winds.
Stephanie Carson, Public News Service - NC
From Public News Service - http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2017-05-04/water/nc-shore-getting-help-from-newest-technology/a57554-1 |
Modern-day Manhattan has a distinct soundscape, a din of car horns and sirens and overheard cell-phone conversations and trash trucks. Once upon a time, however, the dull roar was dominated by frogs, at least at night: “They frequently make such a noise that it is difficult for a person to make himself heard,” wrote naturalist Peter Kalm in 1748.
The New York Times draws our attention to the debut of “Calling Thunder,” a project attempting to recreate what the island might’ve sounded like when Henry Hudson arrived in 1609. The work of Bill McQuay, an audio producer at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and David Al-Ibrahim, a grad student at the School of Visual Arts, it blends the work of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Eric W. Sanderson in Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City with audio from Cornell University’s Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds.
They’ve taken specific spots and, with an eye to Sanderson’s reconstructions, produced clips where the modern-day noises slide into what they think the natural landscape might have sounded like. You can listen to straightforward audio on the site Unsung.NYC, or you can check out 360 videos at YouTube or the Times.
They’ve done spots like the Collect Pond, once the city’s water source, and the High Line. But perhaps most striking is the lobby of the Natural History Museum, because it stresses the ways in which the massive building interiors where New Yorkers now spend their days were once open spaces full of birds and other creatures. The effect is profoundly soothing and now I need a nap, preferably outdoors under a tree in the sunshine. |
This exhibit was created in collaboration with Emily Nelson, an undergraduate History major at UW-Madison graduating in May 2015. She’s volunteering with Recollection Wisconsin in order to gain experience in historical writing and social media. Emily is a native of Ladysmith, Wisconsin and her Norwegian heritage inspired her to explore the art of rosemaling.
Rosemaling is an art style preserved thanks in part to 19th century immigration from Norway’s farming communities to those of Wisconsin. Since that journey, rosemaling has worked its way into the identity of the state. Made famous by Per Lysne of Stoughton, Wisconsin, in the early 20th century, the art continues to impact cultural media today. The winner of the 2014 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Disney’s Frozen, draws heavily on rosemaling traditions to create the fictional world of Arendelle, inspired by Norwegian culture and history.
A common misinterpretation of the meaning of the word rosemaling is that “rose” refers to the flower of the same name. The word is actually derived from the Norwegian term rosut, or applied decoration. The translation gets to core of the art: painting a floral design with great liberty in creativity. There are no specific flowers that inspire rosemaling artists – many plants are completely made up.
Rosemaling grew out of the flowing styles of the Baroque and Rococo, which reached the valleys of rural Norway in the 18th century. Guilds taught techniques of decorative painting to artists who then traveled the countryside to earn their bread. Some farmers also took up rosemaling to supplement their incomes, especially during the winter.
Norwegians immigrants to the United States in the 19th century carried rosemaling with them across the ocean. In addition to small painted wooden pieces like plates and jewelry boxes, these immigrants traveled with trunks covered with the art of their homeland. Rosemaled art objects found their resting place in the cupboards and on the shelves of many Wisconsin homes. The state was a popular destination for settlers from Norway, who were attracted by the similar climate, excellent opportunities for farming, and the pamphlets and newspaper ads distributed in Norwegian by the Wisconsin Commission of Emigration. By 1850, Norwegians made up the second largest ethnic group in Wisconsin.
For the most part, the challenges of adapting to life in America meant that the tradition of rosemaling faded. But a revival of the art in the United States was launched by Per Lysne of Stoughton, Wisconsin beginning in the 1930s. Lysne was trained in rosemaling in Norway before immigrating to Stoughton in 1907. His artistic talent helped him get a job painting wagons in a factory, but when the Great Depression slowed business, he turned to his roots for support. His skilled and intricate designs soon popularized the tradition worldwide.
Lysne first gained recognition for his painted smorgasbord platters. Smorgasbord is a Swedish term referring to a large meal consisting of a variety of foodstuffs, both hot and cold, on the same surface (the Norwegian word for the same practice is Koldtbord).
One of Lysne’s earliest major commissions was several works for Ten Chimneys, the summer retreat of celebrated film and theater actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne outside Genesee Depot, Wisconsin. A feature on Ten Chimneys published in Vogue in 1933 highlighted Lysne’s work, including one of his smorgasbord platters. The American public associated the art style with the sophistication of the Hollywood couple, and demand for Lysne’s creations went through the roof.
The rosemaling revival inspired many hopefuls to start their own painting businesses, while others took up the craft as a hobby. Artists painted common household items other than just dinnerware. As Lysne had shown, chairs, cabinets, boxes were fair game – if it was wooden, it could be painted.
Rosemaling continues to be popular throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest. A second revival of the rosemaling trend occurred following the opening of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American museum in Decorah, Iowa, in the late 1960s. Vesterheim continues to offer rosemaling classes, exhibitions and competitions today. The Wisconsin State Rosemaling Association teaches and exhibits the craft in Stoughton, and the Stoughton Historical Society holds a large collection of work by Lysne and other Wisconsin rosemalers.
The images in this online exhibit come from the following digital collections. Click the links to browse the full collections.
- Skare Collection, McFarland Historical Society
- Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database
- Wisconsin Historical Images, Wisconsin Historical Society
- Richard J. Fapso, Norwegians in Wisconsin (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2001)
- Julia Pferdehirt, They Came to Wisconsin (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2002)
- “Lois Mueller: Norwegian Rosemaling,” Wisconsin Folks, Wisconsin Arts Board
- Rosemaling in the Upper Midwest Collection, 1987-1995 (finding aid), Wisconsin Folk Museum |
The violent crime rate in the U.S. hit a high in approximately 1990 and then began to taper off. That trend continued until 2015 and 2016, when the violent crime rate rose slightly. In 2017 and 2018, however, the violent crime rate resumed its downward trend. Now, the violent crime rate is half of what it was in the early 90s.
Crime rates are significant to criminal defense attorneys because politicians, police and prosecutors play close attention to them. When crime rates are high, it’s easier to justify cracking down on potential offenders. That sometimes means acting in ways that curtail the constitutional protections guaranteed to criminal suspects and defendants.
High crime rates make people afraid. When people are afraid, they sometimes dehumanize the source of their fear, and that can be costly to criminal suspects and defendants. Therefore, it’s important for the public to know when violent crime rates are at historic lows, as they are now.
How is the crime rate tracked?
Each year, the FBI collects crime data from thousands of state and local law enforcement agencies about how many crimes have been reported, charged, and resolved. This is called the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. At the same time, a survey called the National Criminal Victimization Survey (NCVS) seeks information about unreported crimes.
Four types of crimes make up the violent crime rate: Murder, rape, robbery and assault. (Property crimes are also tracked, and they have also consistently trended downward since the early 90s.)
Of those four types, murder and robbery were clearly down. Rape is up, and this may actually mean that there are more rapes occurring. However, in 2013 the FBI modernized its definition of rape to include non-forcible yet still non-consensual sex. That may have prompted people to report more rapes, as their actual experiences now fit within the definition used by the FBI. The assault rate over the past few years has been flat. Also, while murder is down overall, it did rise in some cities.
One takeaway from these crime statistics is that we can take comfort. While many were concerned that crime might be rising again after upticks in 2015 and 2016, fears of a lasting increase in violent crime appear to have been overblown.
Another takeaway is that we are not in a position to need a crackdown on crime. Lawmakers, police and prosecutors should keep in mind that the violent crime rate continues to dwindle and refrain from applying additional pressure on the public. |
What Causes Cramp?
Muscle cramp has a number of main causes, the most frequent of these are fatigue, low sodium and potassium, low blood sugar. Loss of electrolytes through sweat is the most common one for athletes.
Sodium and potassium are macrominerals (organic compounds found in the earth’s crust). Along with carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamins and water, they are one of the 6 essential dietary nutrients. They are ‘dietary constituents essential to the life process’ (Jeukendrup and Gleeson, 2010) and their function is to provide energy, structure and regulation. All bodily processes rely on the action and presence of minerals, they aid tissue rebuilding, but are difficult to absorb unless consumed in the right quantities.
The more exercise you do, the more minerals you will require. In theory, athletes could be at risk of mineral deficiency because many are lost through sweat, etc. rather than absorbed into the body. Increased endurance and strength training will also increase the mineral requirement.
How do I avoid mineral deficiency – and help avoid cramp?
- Include three servings a day of dairy, served with carbs if possible (e.g. milk on cereal)
- Eat fish with bones (shellfish are a good source of potassium)
- Eat leafy green vegetables e.g. cabbage, broccoli, spinach (and also carrots are a good source too)
- Eat fortified foods (e.g. breakfast cereals)
- Avoid drinking tea with meals, tea and coffee are diuretics.
4 signs of dehydration:
- Dry mouth
- Flushed skin
- Decreased urine / darker urine
How do I avoid dehydration – and help avoid cramp?
- Casual exercisers: 2 litres of water 4-1 hour before exercise, 250ml water every 15 mins during exercise
- Moderate exercisers: 2 litres of water 4-1 hour before exercise, 250ml isotonic sports drink every 15 mins during exercise (isotonic drinks have the same glucose concentration as the blood)
- Endurance athletes: 2 litres of water 4-1 hour before exercise, 250ml hypotonic sports drink every 15 mins during exercise (hypotonic drinks have a higher glucose concentration than the blood, use carefully, useful to maintain glucose levels in endurance athletes, has a very slow absorption)
For more nutrition information and to book your own personal assessment visit my web site http://www.ryding2health.com. |
06 September 2018
Many teenagers participate in sports activities in and out of school and like any athlete at every level, they can pick up injuries.
Whilst teen athletes sustain injuries at a similar rate to adults, the injuries affecting adolescents are different from those affecting adults, because they are still growing. It is important therefore that they are treated by specialists experienced in paediatrics, that is, those who are trained to treat children and adolescents up to the age of 18.
Spire Leeds is home to the region’s largest team of consultants who are experienced in treating sports injuries. Working in partnership with the hospital’s own nursing, scanning and physiotherapy teams, the specialists help return younger patients to full fitness and get them back to their sporting activities.
Teenage sports injuries
As children reach puberty and adolescence, they generally experience a significant growth spurt. This growth is usually uneven. The bones grow first and may pull excessively on the muscles and tendons, causing pain and inflammation. This uneven growth pattern makes teenagers more susceptible to muscle, tendon and growth plate injuries. The main types of injury tend to fall into two categories – acute and overuse injuries.
Acute injuries are caused by sudden trauma such as collisions, fractures, falls, sprains and strains. Overuse injuries tend to occur gradually over time either due to poor technique or when an activity is repeated so often, the body does not have enough time to recover between sporting activity. A stress fracture is a common overuse injury in young athletes.
Adolescents can also experience growth plate injuries. Growth plates are the last part of the bones to stop developing. Situated near the ends of the long bones, the growth plates are areas of cartilage which harden into bone once growth is complete. They are particularly vulnerable to fractures in contact or high impact sports.
Prompt medical attention
Regardless of whether an injury is acute or due to overuse, it is important that a teen who has developed symptoms is seen and examined by a medical professional to avoid any long-term damage or disability.
The treatment required will depend on the individual injury but typical treatment includes physiotherapy, strength and conditioning, bracing, splinting or surgery.
Sports injuries treated at Spire Leeds include:
- Stress fractures
- Tendon and ligament injuries
- Muscle tears
- Overuse injuries
- Knee pain
- Shoulder and elbow pain
- Ankle, foot, heel and shoulder pain
- Sever’s disease
- Osgood-Schlatter disease
- Larsen-Johansson disease
Spire Leeds’ specialist sports service for young people
At Spire Leeds we offer a comprehensive service – treating everything from growth plate and knee injuries to fractures and ligament damage. Our patients benefit from:
- Consultations with leading consultant orthopaedic, musculoskeletal and sports medicine specialists
- Flexible appointments including early morning, evenings and weekends
- Rapid assessment, diagnosis, treatment and surgery (if required)
- On-site MRI and CT scanning, ultrasound and X-Ray
- GP referral not always required
- No waiting lists – appointments often within 24 hours
- Option to self-fund for any treatment for those without medical insurance
For more information or to book an appointment email [email protected] or call 0113 218 5977. |
Don’t let furtive Mercury slip through your fingers this spring. The next two and a half weeks will be the best time this year for observers north of the tropics to spot the sun-hugging planet. If you’ve never seen Mercury, you might be surprised how bright it can be. This is especially true early in its apparition when the planet looks like a miniature ‘full moon’.
Both Venus and Mercury pass through phases identical to those of the moon. When between us and the sun, Mercury’s a thin crescent, when off to one side, a ‘half-moon’ and when on the far side of the sun, a full moon. This apparition of the planet is excellent because Mercury’s path it steeply tilted to the horizon in mid-spring.
We start the weekend with Mercury nearly full and brighter than the star Arcturus. Twilight tempers its radiance, but :
* Find a location with a wide open view to the northwest as far down to the horizon as possible.
* Click HERE to get your sunset time and begin looking for the planet about 30-40 minutes after sunset in the direction of the sunset afterglow.
* Reach your arm out to the northwestern horizon and look a little more than one vertically-held fist (10-12 degrees) above it for a singular, star-like object. Found it? Congratulations – that’s Mercury!
* No luck? Start with binoculars instead and sweep the bright sunset glow until you find Mercury. Once you know exactly where to look, lower the binoculars from your eyes and you should see the planet without optical aid. And before I forget – be sure to focus the binoculars on a distant object like a cloud or the moon before beginning your sweeps. I guarantee you won’t find Mercury if it’s out of focus.
Through a telescope, Mercury looks like a gibbous moon right now but its phase will lessen as it moves farther to the ‘left’ or east of the sun. Greatest eastern elongation happens on May 24. On and around that date the planet will be farthest from the sun, standing 12-14 degrees high 40 minutes after sundown from most mid-northern locales.
The planet fades in late May and become difficult to see by early June. Inferior conjunction, when Mercury passes between the Earth and sun, occurs on June 19. Unlike Venus, which remains brilliant right up through its crescent phase, Mercury loses so much reflective surface area as a crescent that it fades to magnitude +3. Its greater distance from Earth, lack of reflective clouds and smaller size can’t compete with closer, brighter and bigger Venus.
Mercury’s 7-degree inclined orbit means it typically glides well above or below the sun’s disk at inferior conjunction. But anywhere from 3 up to 13 years in either November or May the planet passes directly between the Earth and sun at inferior conjunction and we witness a transit. This last happened for U.S. observers on Nov. 8, 2006; the next transit occurs exactly two years from today on May 9, 2016. That event will be widely visible across the Americas, Western Europe and Africa. After having so much fun watching the June 2012 transit of Venus I can’t wait. |
Sunday 18 December was a very sad day for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Václav Havel, the first post-communist president of Czechoslovakia, and the first president of the Czech Republic, passed away after a long illness. Havel was an immensely popular figure, and his courage, dignity, humanity and wisdom were widely admired.
Havel’s death is also very significant for everyone who cares about freedom and democracy because he dedicated his life to promoting these universal concepts. This culminated in his leading role in the Velvet Revolution in 1989, which overthrew the loathed communists, in power in Czechoslovakia since 1948. Despite being regularly persecuted by a regime that put him in prison several times, Havel acted with complete integrity. He consistently refused to compromise or to do things simply to please the communist government and gain an easy life in return.
Such behaviour was based on a phrase he often used: “Live in Truth”. Although he was regularly jailed, Havel always acted as if he was a free man. He loathed the lies, empty phrases and doublespeak of the regime, and argued that those acting according to their conscience, despite being punished for doing so, were truly free. And he urged Czechs, Slovaks and everyone else to “Live in Truth” too.
Just a few weeks ago, Czechs and Slovaks commemorated the Velvet Revolution of 1989. They looked back at the Czechoslovak chapter of the life-changing period 22 years ago, when the battle for democracy in the former Eastern Bloc was finally won. They looked back at the days when a humble playwright helped to change Czechoslovakia for ever.
Although Havel is no longer with us, his legacy remains. His moral authority, decency and integrity will continue to be an inspiration to many, not just in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And as human rights and justice continue to be denied to millions of people across the globe, Havel’s call to respect freedom and fairness is still as relevant today as it was in November 1989. |
June 18, 2015 (Saint Petersburg, Fla.) — Music therapy is defined to be: “The clinical and evidence-based use of music to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship.”Music is used to help manage physical, emotional, or psychological issues. With music a person suffering from an addiction can find peace and serenity.
The Pros And Cons
Studies on addiction and music have shown there are benefits and downsides for an addict listening to music. Music may generate cravings within the addict, because of the association with their previous substance use. However, many addicts are likely to say that music is a quintessential part of their life in recovery.
Benefits of Music Therapy
There are a number of purported benefits for this type of therapy including:
- It can and does help individuals reduce stress. Appropriate music will generate a state of relaxation.
- Addicts who are newcomers that may be dealing with depression can benefit from a lessening of their symptoms.
- Music can be utilized as a form of meditation. Some people may use music as a way to create a state of solitude and peace. Steady rhythms may allow the person to bring their mind into a consistent state of relaxation.
- It can promote an positive state of being. This affect may continue on past the listening session.
- It may reduce the feelings of loneliness when appropriate selections are made by the listener.
- May allow the listener to further progress along their spiritual path. There are some people who use music as a way to form spiritual enlightenment.
- It may help provide an emotional release from new found feelings.
- It can help people overcome trials and tribulations in addiction this can be a useful tool in recovery.
Music’s Therapeutic Value With Addiction
Music as a therapeutic technique can be a wonderful tool while battling an addiction. It is unlikely to be end all of tools during the road of recovery from substance abuse. Yet it can be a powerful enhancement while using other types of addiction treatment. The benefits of music as a therapy for people in recovery can be any of the following:
- When addicts first try to get clean, emotions come roaring in. Creating or listening to music can help the addict learn to regress from their more destructive emotions.
- Relapse is common among addicts and can happen when an addict is unable to manage their feelings. Producing or enjoying music can be a wonderful way to experience these new feelings.
- Boredom is a major trigger for those in early recovery. Music can relieve their sense of boredom.
- When people first get clean they may experience a loneliness and depression from the sudden change of life.
- Losing friends and making hard choices for the benefit of the addicts future can leave them feeling awkward and uncomfortable. Music has always been a way that unity and fellowship can be brought among a group of people.
- Music therapy can be all about enjoyment and so should be recovery from an addiction.
- Meditation is a widely accepted and important part for some people in recovery. Music can help a newcomer get excited about meditating. Most people have trouble finding the patience for such things in early recovery.
- When people first become sober they can struggle with mental fuzziness. Music may help to improve their concentration levels.
- If people are dealing with symptoms of depression they may find that listening to music can help with this.
Negative impacts of music
If the individual spends a great deal of time listening to those tracks that they associate with drinking or using drugs it could increase the risk of relapse. This is because it will trigger memories of the times when the individual felt that their substance abuse was pleasurable – this is referred to as romancing the drink. It is possible to associate fresh memories with old music favorites, but this is probably best left until people are more secure in their sobriety. |
"Follow the President" is designed to help school children learn about
the geographies and cultures of Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa,
Botswana and Senegal so that they can better understand and follow
President Clinton's historic trip to Africa.
The activities included in this section can be used to underscore the
five geographic themes set out in the National Geography Standards:
location, place, human/environment interaction, population movement, and
regions. The activities can also be used to stimulate students to think
geographically and globally, to use effective research methods and tools,
and to seek out answers for themselves about the important and difficult
issues in today's headlines.
"Follow the President" materials were prepared by the White House in
partnership with the Peace Corps' World Wise Schools program and the
State Department's Global Learning Site. The activities' content was
written by Peace Corps Volunteers and others, and represent their
individual views. These views are not official White House or Peace Corps
policy, nor do they represent the views of the United States Government.
Activities have been written for three grade levels: 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12.
Teachers are encouraged to select those tasks most appropriate for the
interest and experience levels of their particular students, as well as
those for which their schedules allow.
Using "Follow the President" in Class
In order for your students to obtain the greatest possible benefit from
"Follow the President" activities we suggest you:
Before using the site with your students:
1. Read this Information Guide for Teachers;
2. Explore the Africa Trip Web Site at least once, noting areas your
students may find difficult to understand or which cover topics your
class has previously studied.
3. Choose activities from this guide or develop activities of your own,
that you can use with your class before and after visiting the web site.
With your class:
4. Conduct the pre-use activities of your choice.
5. Give a thumbnail sketch of the web site's contents.
6. Assign a "while you use" task.
7. Follow-up on pre-use or "while you use" tasks.
8. Conduct a post-use activity. |
Bush Family Crest, Coat of Arms and Name History
Don’t know which Coat of Arms is yours?
We can do a genealogical research. Find out the exact history of your family!Learn More
Surname Name Origin
This English surname is local meaning “at the Bush”. It is a topographic name assigned to a person who lived by a bushy area or thicket. Alternatively, it is possible the surname may be a Viking name derived from Old Norse personal name Buski. In his book, English Surnames, published in 1875, Mark Antony Lower writes “Although it may seem exceedingly trivial that so insignificant an object should name one of the lords of the creation, there is little doubt of the fact.”
Surname Meaning and Etymology
The surname is derived from either the Old English word busc (bush) or the Old Norse word buskr (bush). In his book, Patronymica Britannica, Mark Antony Lower writes, “This word, now applied to a low thick tree, formerly meant a whole wood or grove (sylva, nemus), and this proper sense is retained in America and Australia. Atte-Busche therefore, in medieval writings, is equivalent to De Bosco, while the singular name Cutbush is simply a translation of Tailgebosch, Tallebosc, (Taille-bois) so common in Domesday. There is nothing clearer in the etymology of surnames than that the dissimilar appellations Cutbush and Talboys mean one and the same thing, or that Bush and Boys are identical”.
Spelling variants include Bushe, Bysh, Busche, Buscche, Bysshe, Buscher, Bosch, and Boush. Foreign equivalents include Busche (German) and Busck (Swedish).
Early Bearers of the Surname
There are numerous early people bearing this surname: 1) Roger ate Busche recorded in the Suffolk Pipe Rolls of 1305 AD and 2) Richard de la Busce recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire in 1181 AD. The name Bushy in the Roll of Battell Abbey (a commemorative list of the Companisons of William the Conquered). There are numerous listings in the Domesday Book, including De Bosch, a tenant in chief, and Busch, in Hertfordshire, a Saxon tenant. Early marriages involving this surname Thomas Bush to Ann Chambers in Canterbury in 1600 AD, as well as Luke Bush to Isabel Fleck in St. George’s Chapel in Mayfair in 1747 AD.
Early American and New World Settlers
Several early Americans are discussed in the book, “Genealogical Guide to The Early Settlers of America”, authored by Henry Whittemore in 1833. The first is Edward Bush, of Salem, who married Mary Hyde in October of 1665 and had one son named Edward (1667) and later married the widow Elizabeth Pittman and had the following issue with her: Elizabeth (1668), Edward (1682), Ann (1683), Benjamin (1685), Edward (1687), and Esewick (1693). The second person mentioned is John Bush, of Cambrige, MA, who took an oath of fidelity in 1652, and with his wife Elizabeth, had the following issue: Joseph (1654), Elizabeth (1657), Daniel (1659), Abiah (1661), and Mary (1662). Other sources document other bearers, including1) Jospeh Bush, who came to Barbadoes in 1635 from the port of London aboard the Alexander, 2) another Joseph Bush, who came to Virginia aboard the Transport in July of 1635, 3) John Bush, who was recorded living in Virginia in February 1628, 4) Susan Bush, aged 20, who came to Virginia in 1617 aboard the George, 5) John Bush, recorded as being buried in Elizabeth City in 1624, and 6) Walter Bush, who was recorded as being buried in the parish of St. Michael’s in Barbados. There are numerous others including Thomas Bush (Virginia 1637) and Sarah and William Bush (North Carolina 1701). Ebenezer Bush Jr. (son of Ebenezer) married Miriam Noble in 1737 and had the following issue: Hannah, Ruth, Mary, Ebenezer, and Stephen.
Genealogy and Ancestry
The Bush family held a family seat (the principal residence of the landed gentry and aristocracy) in Yorkshire, Northern England. The famous genealogist Bernard Burke, in his book, mentions one branch of this family: Bushe of Glencairne. Burke traces the lineage back to John Bushe, a Colonel in the army, that had a grant of land in Kilfane in county Kilkenny in 1670. With his wife Mary Grey, he had four daughters (Elizabeth, Ann, Mrs. Woodroffe, and Mrs. Berkeley) and two sons (Amias and Arthur). Arthur was on Dangen, and was Secretary to the Commissioners of Revenue. He married Ann Worsop and had the following children: Arthur (1692), William (1696), John (1705), Thomas, Mary, and Letitia (d. 1757).
Amias Bushe, the heir of Colonel John Bush, was High Sheriff of county Kilkenny in 1706, and married Eleanor Wandesford, the daughter of Sir Christopher Wandesford (the first baronet of Kikrlington) and by her has children: Christopher (who had a son named Amias) and Arthur. Arthur was High Sheriff in county Kilkenny in 1736 and was born in 1691. He attended Trinity Dublin College and married Martin and left the following issue with her: Amias (1716) and Reverened Thomas of Kilmurry (1627), Amias (1706), Elinor (who married Christopher Hewtson), and Elizabeth (who married Edward Deane of Terenure). Arthur was succeeded by his grandson, Amias. Amias married Elizabeth, the daughter and heir of Gervaise Parker, and died in 1773 leaving only one son and heir: Gervase Parker Bushe, High Sheriff of Kilkenny in 1768, who marries Mary Grattan and had eight children: Henry Amias (his heir), Reverend William of Templepoint (who has daughters Isabella and Letitia), Gervase Parker, Robert, Charlotte, Frances, Harriett, and Maria. Henry Amias Bushe was an Esquire of Glencairne High Sheriff of county Waterford in 1826 and married Lavinina Gumbleton. He was in turn succeeded by his brother-in-law, Richard Edward Gumbleton who died in 1819. He in turn was succeeded by Gervase Bush, of Glencairne in county Waterford, who was High Sheriff in 1837, and was a Lieutenant Colonel in the army of the 15th Hussars. He was born in 1806 and in 1857 married Georgina Agnes, the daughter of Lieutenant William Smart, with whom he had two issue: Francis Maria and Agnes Charlotte.
The most famous use of the name was by the Bush family political dynasty that by Prescott Bush (1895-1972), the son of Samuel Prescott Bush (1863-1948), who was a United States Senator from Connecticut. His son, George H. Bush was the 41st President of the United States, and his grandson, George H.W. Bush was the 43rd President of the United States, and his other grandson, Jeb Bush, was the governor of the state of Texas. They descend from John Bush (1593-1670) who was born in Messing, Essex.
Other notables who bore the last name include: 1) Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) who was an American engineer and inventory, 2) Sarah Bush (1788-1869) who was the stepmother of Abraham Lincoln, and 3) Irving Tar Bush (1869-1948) who was an American businessman involved in the oil and motion picture industry.
Mottoes for this family include 1) tandem fit surculus arbor, meaning “a shoot (or bush) at length becomes a tree” and 2) moderata durant, meaning “moderate things are lasting”.
Blazons & Genealogy Notes
1) (Paul Bush, first Bishop of Bristol, 1542-54, granted by Barker, Garter). Ar. on a fesse gu. betw. three boars pass. sa. a rose betw. two eagles displ. or.
2) (Dylton, co. Wilts, granted by Barker, Garter, to John Bush, brother of Paul, Bishop of Bristol). Ar. on a fesse betw. three boars pass. sa. a fleur-de-lis betw. two eagles displ. or. Crest—A goat’s head erased ar. armed or.
3) (formerly Daylwyn, co. Carmarthen, the name changed to Bushe when the family removed to England temp. Henry VIII). Az. a wolf ramp. ar. collared and chained or, in chief three crosses pattee fitchee of the second. Crest—A goat’s head ar. attired sa. a crescent for diff. Motto—Hope me encourageth.
4) (Wiltshire). Ar. on a fesse gu. betw. three boars pass. sa. a fleur-de-lis betw. two eagles displ. or.
5) or Busse – (Heather, co. Lincoln). Ar. three bars sa. Crest—A sea wolf paly wavy of ten ar. and sa.
6) (Glencairne Abbey, co. Waterford, formerly of Kilfane, co. Kilkenny, of which family was Charles Kendal Bushe, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland). Quarterly, 1st and 4th, az. a wolf ramp. ar. collared and chained or, in chief three crosses pattee fitchee of the second: 2nd and 3rd, barry of six ar. and az. a bend compony or and gu. Crest—A goat’s head couped ar. attired or. Motto—Moderata durant.
7) (granted In 1845 to Charles Bushe, Esq., of Kingstown, co. Dublin). Per pale. az. and sa., a wolf ramp. ar. ducally gorged and chained or, in chief three crosses formee fitchee of the last. Crest—A goat’s head erased per fess ar. and az. armed or. Motto—Nil metuens superavi.
8) or Bush – Ar. out of a mount in base, a forest of trees vert. Crest—The trunk of a tree shooting out new branches ppr. and pendent therefrom an escutcheon ar. |
You’ve been told to wash your hands since you were a child. It may seem like a simple thing and it is most important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Germs can live on surfaces for days and the only way to make sure you don’t get sick is to wash your hands frequently. It is recommended to wash your hands and use a hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol when you don’t have access to water. This will keep you from picking up germs on your hands and spreading them to others.
The Importance of Hand Washing
Hand washing is the first step in stopping the spread of germs and bacteria that cause sickness. Washing the hands with soap and water is the most effective way to eliminate dirt and germs. Doctors discovered how important hand washing was in the 1800s when patient mortality rates were much higher than they are today. People were dying from infections caused by doctors who went from patient to patient without washing their hands in between.
Ignaz Semmelweis, a 19th-century Hungarian doctor, is known as the father of infection control since he proposed hand washing as a way to keep down on germs when working in a hospital maternity ward in Vienna in 1847. It was his theory that unwashed hands could be the cause of death from infection in many of the patients treated in their hospital. Unfortunately, the doctors didn’t heed his recommendations and it was only after his death that his theory was proven to be true.
Why Didn’t They Take His Advice?
The times were different and things were not as accessible as they are today. In the 1800s water had to be pumped in and washing their hands with soap and water before treating patients was thought to be a waste of time and precious resources. While working at the hospital he observed that babies delivered by physicians and medical students had a higher mortality rate from a sickness called childbed fever than babies delivered by midwives and their trainees.
It wasn’t until Dr. Semmelweis discovered that the babies being delivered by the hospital midwives survived because the midwives washed their hands before delivering the babies. The infant mortality rate dropped and people began to see that hand washing was important. After his death, the hospital in Vienna changed its name to the Semmelweis Hospital, in honor of the father of infection control.
Hand washing became the single most effective way to eliminate germs and bacteria. Hospital protocols changed to require physicians to wash their hands before each patient, before, and after wearing gloves. Eliminating the possibility of germs getting into people’s bodies is the best way to fight disease.
It would be unheard of today for a doctor to die from an infection obtained from a cut with a dirty scalpel but it happened in the old days before the surgical instruments were cleaned and sanitized as they are now. Thank goodness for modern technology and germ-killing disinfectants.
Different Levels of Cleanliness
There are 3 types of handwashing procedures. From the regular hand washing that we teach children, to the meticulous scrubbing of surgeons’ hands before an operation.
- Routine Hand Washing. This type of handwashing with soap and warm water is to remove dirt and germs that you may not see with the naked eye but they are still there. Just because your hands don’t look dirty doesn’t mean they are clean.
- Antiseptic Handwashing. This is washing your hands with the use of an antiseptic cleaning solution. This is used in hospitals and other health care settings.
- Surgical Hand washing. This type of handwashing is the most intense and thorough to get rid of dirt and kill the germs that cause infection. The hands and fingernails are scrubbed up to the elbows with an antimicrobial soap and then gloves are put on immediately after to ensure that no germs get back on the hands.
There is a right way to wash hands that ensures they get clean and germs are removed. Follow these recommendations from the CDC on the proper way to wash hands for infection control.
The Right Way to Wash Your Hands
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends the public follow these guidelines when washing hands to stop the spread of germs.
- Wash hands in running water and apply soap. It doesn’t matter what type of soap you use. It can be any kind as long as it makes a lather and washes away dirt.
- Create a good lather by rubbing your soapy hands together. The friction caused by rubbing the hands together removes the germs and dirt.
- Scrub the hands in this manner for at least 20 seconds, or the amount of time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice.
- When clean, rinse the hands in running water and use a paper towel or your elbow to turn off the faucet. Make sure not to touch any surfaces with your clean hands.
- Dry your hands on either a clean hand towel or paper towel. Keeping the hands clean is one of the most important things we can do to avoid getting sick and making others sick as well.
Many diseases are spread by not washing hands enough. The CDC recommends washing your hands in the manner outlined above to avoid spreading germs to others. When access to soap and water is limited, the use of hand sanitizer with 60% alcohol content is an acceptable substitute.
The Use of Hand Sanitizer Gel
In fact, hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol is one of the three essential items the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends having on hand when venturing out.
Keeping the hands clean is so important that the CDC recommends having hand sanitizer gel with you when going out in public. You may or may not always have access to running water and soap, so this is the next best thing.
Does Hand Sanitizer Work?
It works exceedingly well for most bacteria and viruses. It is less drying to skin because it has built-in emollients that moisturize the skin on the hands. Those who work in occupations that require frequent hand washing will appreciate that. When hands are washed often the skin tends to dry out and crack leaving an opening for bacteria. Soap and water washing is number one, especially when hands get dirty. Wash hands and follow up with hand sanitizer to eliminate germs that lead to infection.
How Does Hand Sanitizer Gel Work?
Perfect for having in your purse or car, hand sanitizers contain ethyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol or both to kill germs and viruses on your hands. Alcohol kills germs by destroying the outer layer of microbes and dissolves their membranes.
How Effective Are Hand Sanitizers?
The main ingredient in most hand sanitizers is isopropanol (rubbing alcohol) or ethanol. Alcohols have been used for many years as an effective disinfectant against viruses and bacteria. It kills germs by destroying the outer layer of microbes and drying it out. The main point is washing your hands with soap and water, but when water isn’t available, hand sanitizer will work as long as it contains a sufficient amount of alcohol and you use enough of it.
A report based on a study was published in “Emerging Infectious Diseases,” a journal by the CDC, discovered that using hand sanitizer gel for at least 30 seconds can effectively neutralize the corona virus pathogens. The study was based on hand sanitizers that contained either 80 percent ethanol or 75 percent isopropyl alcohol. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the hand sanitizers.
Hand washing and hand sanitizer gel helps stop the spread of germs but you must make sure to use them properly. Hand sanitizer won’t do you much good if you don’t use it correctly. There is a right way and a wrong way to use hand sanitizer gel.
What Germs Do Alcohol-based Disinfectants Kill?
Alcohol kills bacteria by altering or changing the protein needed for it to survive. It is therefore neutralized and no longer infectious. Alcohol is a disinfectant capable of killing hepatitis B, influenza, rotavirus, E. coli, and salmonella typhosa. It is also effective at wiping out fungus and other pathogens.
To use it correctly, the CDC recommends adding a few drops of the hand sanitizer gel to the palm of one hand, then rub both hands together making sure the gel covers the surface of your hands and fingers and rub until dry. This should take a minimum of 30 seconds.
When Should You Use Hand Sanitizer Gel?
Hand washing is preferred because hand sanitizer may not work as well when hands are visibly dirty. It may not remove all germs. If access to running water is not available, hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol is an acceptable alternative. Use it whenever soap and water are not available.
What Should You Look for in a Hand Sanitizer Gel?
Alcohol-based sanitizers should contain 60% alcohol or more to be effective. Formulations between 60 to 95% are ideal. Anything less than 60% won’t kill germs effectively and doesn’t offer enough protection. Avoid hand sanitizers that use an alcohol substitute to prevent drying out the skin. These are not as effective and are made for people with sensitive skin that tends to dry out easily.
Hand Washing and COVID-19
As important as hand washing is, it has never been more important than right now with the current COVID-19 pandemic. Germs and bacteria are invisible to the naked eye and that is what makes washing your hands so important. If bacteria had a color you could tell when you had touched something dirty and would know to wash it off immediately. But without color to indicate infectious material, we touch a million and one things in a day (door knobs, counters, telephones, steering wheels, shopping carts, etc) never knowing what we could be picking up and spreading to others.
An Effective Combination
Wash your hands as often as possible and use hand sanitizer gel when water is not available. If you want to pack a double punch, use a few drops of hand sanitizer after washing to make sure hands are clean and sanitized. Follow these tips to slow the spread of COVID -19:
- When out in public, and when you can’t observe the 6 ft. rule, wear a mask.
- Stay home and keep away from other family members when you’re sick.
- Cover coughs and sneezes
- Clean and disinfect surfaces in your home
More Ways to Eliminate Germs in Your House
Besides hand washing and the use of hand sanitizer, keeping the surfaces of your home clean is way to get rid of germs that cause sickness. Bacteria can live on surfaces for days but proper cleaning with disinfectants containing bleach will eliminate them from kitchen counters, handrails, and doorknobs.
- Wear disposable gloves when cleaning. Discard used gloves after cleaning. Use special care if using reusable gloves and wash hands immediately after removing them.
- Wipe down telephones, light switches, handles, toilets, sinks, electronics, and even kid’s toys to reduce the possibility of infection.
- If tables or counters are dirty, they should be cleaned prior to disinfection.
- Wash laundry and linens in hot, soapy water
- Mop and disinfect floors daily
Soap and water effectively remove germs from hands due to friction (rubbing the hands) and running water. Hand sanitizers kills germs on the hands but doesn’t remove them so washing the hands along with hand sanitizer is an effective combination for killing and eliminating germs and bacteria.
Hand washing is still the best defense against germs. Wash your hands before preparing or eating food, after you use the restroom, after blowing your nose, or taking out the garbage. If you are looking after someone who is sick, take extra special care to prevent spreading the illness to others. |
Indonesia is home to diverse ethnic and social groups, ranging from rural villagers to modern urban elites. There are over 300 local languages in Indonesia. Before the Dutch united the archipelago in around 1900, Indonesia was home to many sophisticated kingdoms. In 1945, after Japan’s wartime occupation ended, Indonesia proclaimed independence, and finally, following an armed struggle in 1949, the Dutch recognized Indonesian sovereignty.
Rich natural resources and political stability in recent years have led to an increase in investments and a more stable economy. There has been a rapid increase in gross domestic product and GDP per capita over the past decade. The inflation rate has also come down to a healthy level, projected to stabilize under 4 percent. Indonesia’s growing economy is further boosted by a trade surplus achieved in recent years, as well as decreasing unemployment. |
Common Nutritional Challenges for Teenagers: Adolescent Diabetes
Diabetes is a chronic disease that impairs the body's ability to use food properly. This occurs because the body cannot make enough insulin or cannot use the insulin properly. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that converts food into energy. When the body doesn't produce enough insulin it causes blood glucose (sugar) levels to rise. In the short term, high blood glucose levels can cause a range of negative effects from irritability, stomach pains, mood swings, or even a coma that may lead to death. Chronically high levels of blood glucose have long-term, cumulative effects including vision loss, amputations, kidney failure, and death. But high blood glucose is only one half of the diabetes equation. Low blood sugar can also occur when food and medications are not timed and balanced correctly. Mild low blood sugar levels can cause shakiness, irritability, and slurred speech. Severely low blood sugar will result in seizures, a loss of consciousness, and an inability to swallow.
Youth who have diabetes need to carefully monitor what they eat, so as not to eat foods that will flood their bloodstream with sugar in a short amount of time, such as cakes, cookies, heavily breaded foods, or processed food items. Instead, they should be eating lots of fresh produce, lean protein, and whole-grain breads, as these food items will give them the nutrients they need and will break down slowly and steadily in their digestive system. Some diabetic youth may need to "count carbs" (calculate exactly how many grams of carbohydrates are in their foods) before they eat them, so they know how many units of insulin to give themselves. Making these choices about food selections and counting carbs can be extremely difficult for teens.
Adolescents eat much of their daily food away from home. They have to find food options in the school cafeteria, at the fast-food restaurant their friends want to go to, at their friends' houses, or even in their own dorm room or kitchen, if they're living on their own for the first time. Finding healthy choices can be extremely difficult in places that don't normally serve healthy fare. Not only do teens need to be able to know what to eat, they need to be able to deny temptations that their friends or classmates are indulging in. So, even if there is a green salad with grilled chicken on the restaurant's menu, it may become too tempting for youth to go ahead and order the greasy burger dripping with cheese and sugary barbecue sauce that's served with a mound of French fries filled with simple carbohydrates that will later cause a blood sugar spike.
Beyond food choices, adolescents can struggle with how to fit blood sugar monitoring and medication and/or insulin into their daily routine. In order to test blood sugar levels, people have to take a drop of blood from some part of the body, normally a finger or forearm, and input that into a hand-held device that reads the blood sugar concentration. Diabetic people use this information to know what or when to eat, how much insulin to give themselves, or if they need to treat their blood sugar levels in another way, such as drinking extra water or briefly avoiding intense physical exertion. Some diabetic people can treat their diabetes with balanced nutrition and prescribed daily oral medications only. Others need to give themselves synthetic insulin several times throughout the day. The synthetic insulin has to be injected so that it can enter the bloodstream and break down the excess blood sugar their so the body can use it. Some youth inject the insulin every time they have to administer it. Other youth have a computerized pump surgically implanted, and the computer on that pump continuously provides the body with the insulin it needs. However, youth may still need to problem-solve a pump that's clogged or out of insulin or give themselves a booster insulin shot if their blood sugar readings are off.
For more basic information about diabetes in children, go to the Middle Child Stage Parenting article, and the American Diabetes Association. Here we focus on just a few of the problems that are unique to adolescents with diabetes.
Early Adolescence and Diabetes
Early adolescence is characterized by self-consciousness. Many teens can become embarrassed or annoyed to have to stop at the nurse's office at school throughout the day or to have to slip away from their friends during a day of fun or a party to test their blood or to administer insulin. During early adolescence teens place a high premium on peer relationships. Teens do not want to seem to be too different from their friends and peers, and the need to regularly test blood sugar levels and administer insulin injections can cause young, diabetic teens to feel very different from their peers. They may not want anyone other than their family or closest friends knowing about their condition. Therefore, they may skip monitoring or insulin shots to avoid that discomfort. Caring for diabetes also requires a lot of planning and forethought, which many teens struggle with naturally, as their frontal lobes in their brains are still forming. For instance, when youth leave their home they must remember to bring their blood sugar monitoring kit and sufficient medication. If they use insulin, they need to have a plan about how to keep the insulin cold, as it needs to be kept at a certain temperature to keep the insulin working. Early adolescents are often rebellious and defiant, and this may include rebellion against a disease over which they have no control. They may begin taking more risks with their eating, blood sugar monitoring, and insulin habits as a form of rebellion against the disease, their parents, or their doctors. Youth who were first diagnosed with the condition during their teen years may rebel from the beginning, if they do not fully appreciate the long-term consequences to their actions. But even youth who were successfully managing their disease during childhood may suddenly become defiant about the strict regimen they must follow to properly care for their disease. |
- Introduction: Sleep and learning
- Research: First conclusions
- Invitation: Submit your data
Sleep and learning
Why is sleep important?
If I was to bet on the top two factors that hinder learning in industrialized nations, these would be (1) stress and (2) poor sleep:
- Stress takes away your focus, stifles creativity, and can contribute to poor sleep
- Sleep is needed for consolidating and optimizing memories. Without sleep, you cannot even experience the sense of a "good day"
Health is important too, but, statistically, it is stress and bad sleep that affect nearly everyone, and take the largest toll. Reduce stress and improve sleep, and you might see a society changed beyond recognition!
For healthy people, all other factors in learning seem to be somewhat secondary. Self-discipline improves greatly if you are rested and happy. The fun of learning follows. The way you approach learning, tools and techniques, the way you represent knowledge in your mind, they can all be improved gradually and consistently. If you are on a steady path ahead, success is nearly guaranteed. Metaphorically speaking, your brain comes with a solid warranty of progress that you can easily void with stress and/or poor sleep.
Given the importance of sleep, unless you are a "natural" and never get a bad night sleep, you should understand the basics of sleep physiology and the impact of your sleep habits on learning. Moreover, even if you sleep well today, you are always in danger of ruining your sleep patterns through the use of computers, Internet, mobile phones, SuperMemo, etc. In short, the human brain has not yet got enough time to evolve and adapt to the stimuli of the modern lifestyle. That's why we witness an epidemic of sleep disorders in industrialized nations.
Sleep and Learning Research
Everyone knows that without a good night in bed, the next day can be ruined. When sleepy, you can easily shovel the garden in fresh air, but if you try some creative work in front of your computer in a warm room, your brain will tend to switch off and stifle any creative progress.
It is quite evident that mental functions and learning are the primary victims of sleep deprivation. Scientists have for long suspected that the main function of sleep is related to learning and memory. Even in 17th century, John Locke campaigned for good sleep for kids for those reasons. However, only recent decades and years brought an exponential increase in evidence demonstrating the role of sleep in memory. There are still prominent sleep researchers that dispute the link. Some insist that only a conscious brain can be involved in memory. Others claim that sleep is like eating, if you can get more, you will always want to. Outside scientific community, sleep is held in amazing disregard. Many people do not want to waste time on sleep to economize more time for work and "creativity". Others try to get "best" sleep in minimum time (see polyphasic sleep).
The worst part of that disregard is that little kids worldwide are woken up early in the morning to go to school to "learn". Not only does their learning suffer, or even becomes futile; not only do those kids get stressed and cranky; their health can be affected. Their immune systems undermined. Their long-term development stunted. Some sleep researchers try to battle the establishment for more rational school schedules (hats off to Dr Mary Carskadon; interview). At the same time, the ever-present rat race produces forces in the US, in Europe, and beyond, that insist on even earlier school hours. That comes from both parents and from the authorities. They all bring up a spurious and biologically untenable excuse: the kids can just go to sleep earlier.
In this gloom and doom scenario, there is still a ray of hope though. Science is slow to percolate into social awareness; however, in the end, it wins most of the time (except where it needs to combat stronger forces; e.g. intelligent design theories will keep strong with the backing of religion). My optimistic prediction is that, sooner or later, governments, school authorities, and parents, will realize that the use of an alarm clock contradicts the goals of education that makes them rip their kids from their beds in the first place!
How SuperMemo and SleepChart can contribute to sleep research?
Having been involved in the subject of memory and learning for 20 years now, I have spotted an opportunity to produce some solid evidence that could contribute to the cause of demonstrating the importance of sleep in learning. One of beautiful things about SuperMemo, is that it keeps a detailed record of memory performance while you learn. If that record could be combined with measurements of sleep quality before and after learning, an ocean of research opportunities would emerge. In 2003, SleepChart freeware was released. That application provided the missing link. With SuperMemo and SleepChart, we can collect data that can provide answers to a virtually infinite set of questions about sleep and learning.
My first, most atavistic, and raw intuition was that it should be easy to show that short sleep produces poor learning. I took my own sleep-and-learning data to quickly investigate such a correlation. However, nearly a reverse relationship could be demonstrated. In retrospect, the paradox is very easy to explain: in free running sleep (which I practise religiously), there is a correlation between the quality of sleep and its length: the better the alignment of the sleep block with the circadian rhythm, the shorter the sleep, and the better its quality. It became apparent that little evidence can be garnered without considering the circadian timing of learning (i.e. the time of learning in reference to the waking hour). Sadly, earlier versions of SuperMemo kept only the date of the repetition, not its precise time. That has changed with SuperMemo 2006 released a few months ago. Now it is possible to correlate sleep data with learning in precise time frames!
Over the last few months, I tried to see what conclusions could be drawn from the newly available data, which I collected from a few early adopters of SuperMemo 2006. The data is scarce, the period was short, however, the potential value of correlative investigations can already be seen. Here are a few cursory glimpses at the data:
Recall: This is an exemplary graph that demonstrates a decline in recall throughout a waking day:
As the day goes on, our ability to recall facts from memory is getting worse and worse. Interestingly, even a short nap seems to bring back the recall to the baseline level. In other words, there seems to be a direct link between recall and alertness. Recall seems to be reversely correlated with the homeostatic drive to sleep. A slight increase in recall around the 12th hour of wakefulness is a reflection of the circadian component of alertness. The waviness at later waking hours seen in the graph comes from scarcity of data as learning at later hours makes little sense (of total 31,000 repetitions used to plot the graph, only 684 fell beyond the 10th hour of waking).
Consolidation: Nearly identical relationships holds true for memory consolidation:
As the day goes on, your ability to store facts in memory declines. The graph has been constructed by correlating the time of learning (in reference to waking time), and the grade scored in the next repetition (often months after the original learning). Again, naps seem to restore the consolidation power to baseline. As much as recall, consolidation seems to be reversely correlated with the homeostatic drive to sleep. A slight increase in the quality of learning can also be seen around the 12th hour of natural waking.
The conclusion, which you have probably observed yourself (assuming you do not use an alarm clock), is that in free running sleep, we can get best learning results if we learn early in the morning shortly after awakening. The same holds for exams. You can show best recall if your exam is held in the morning (assuming you do not need the alarm clock to wake up for the exam). Good sleep is needed as much before learning (for the sake of recall), as it is needed after learning (for the sake of consolidation).
Alarm clock: There is an urgent need to collect sleep data from subjects who disrespect healthy sleep in various ways. The most interesting area for further investigation is how poor sleep hygiene affects learning. As an example, let's have a peek at an interesting graph showing the average recall of a teenager who often needs to get up early for school, far ahead of his natural waking time. If grades are converted to the forgetting index, we can see that this students forgets 53% more on schooldays when he needs to get up early. This is a very preliminary sample that should not be used to draw far-reaching conclusion (for example, more learning occurred in earlier hours on days free from school), however, it is my hope that with more data pouring in, we can tangibly demonstrate the disastrous impact of alarm clocks on learning:
In other data sets, it has also be found that later waking up (after 11 am) often correlates with lower grades again (perhaps as a result of weekend late "partying" that results in poorer sleep and later awakening).
Daily alertness cycle: For a busy father of two kids with little chance to catch a nap, the homeostatic decline in grades throughout the day is superimposed on the circadian components of sleepiness with a substantial dip at 12:00-14:00 o'clock. Good morning performance is amplified in the morning by a cup of coffee. At the same time, a habit of drinking beer in the evening finds also its reflection in lowest grades after midnight.
Free running sleep: The above graph should not be used as an absolute guideline for optimum learning. Everyone will have his own optimum hours that depend on one's circadian rhythm. For most people, optimum learning occurs in the morning and after a siesta. Non-nappers also improve their learning in the evening due to a circadian upswing. However, the exact timing of those optimum periods can only be determined on an individual basis. The disconnect between the optimum learning time and the absolute clock can be seen in a regular free running sleep rhythm as in the analogous graph below that does not show any hours in which learning is more efficient:
However, when the free-running sleep data presented in the graph above is processed using the circadian phase rather than the clock phase, a typical two-peak circadian pattern re-emerges with good grades in the morning, siesta dip, and an evening upswing. The circadian phase estimations have been generated with SleepChart. The peak learning times are usually separated by 10-13 hours:
Learning overload: The more time you spend learning on a given day, the lower your learning capacity. Recall decreases along a homeostatic increase in sleepiness. However, it decreases much faster if you continue learning. That observation agrees nicely with complementary encoding theories that explain how the brain copes with catastrophic forgetting that occurs in artificial neural networks. Those theories speak of secondary memory systems used to redistribute knowledge stored with low-interference short-term networks. The act of storage redistribution is hypothesized to occur during sleep. In other words, as you keep loading your memory with knowledge, your brain turns on a defense mechanism, makes you drowsy and sends you to an earlier sleep. This is why, against conventional advise of sleep experts, I recommend SuperMemo to insomniacs. Except where the circadian component of sleepiness is missing, learning is a good tool for boosting homeostatic sleepiness (except in cases like learning before an exam, which may subconsciously be associated with stress).
Alertness multiplier: It is obvious that alertness improves learning. However, it is worth noting that even marginal improvements to high alertness can yield major benefits to learning. Once you are sleepy, your learning results are poor. However, it is not enough to be alert. Crisp alertness might substantially improve learning as compared with just being ok. In the graph below, sleep propensity has been estimated with SleepChart:
Submit your data
Invitation to submit your data
As I tried to show above, many interesting conclusions can be drawn when analyzing sleep and learning data. What we need now is a more comprehensive analysis of larger datasets from individuals with disparate lifestyles, sleep and learning habits.
If you use SuperMemo 2006 and have your sleep data collected with SleepChart, please submit your learning data as suggested below. The more you learn, the more valuable the data is. The more unusual your lifestyle, the greater the chance your data could uncover precious truths.
If you keep your sleep data in another format, it could be equally valuable. If you use older SuperMemos, your data could still be used to draw conclusions.
Your contribution will be particularly precious if you are on any kind of a crazy sleep schedule: short sleep, irregular schedule, shift work, polyphasic experiment, etc. The messier your sleep, the greater its research value. In addition to the research value of your data, if I manage to generate an individual assessment for you, you can boost your understanding of your own sleep and learning.
If you do not have any sleep data (only your SuperMemo learning results), your data can still make a contribution, especially, if your sleeping habits are very regular and well defined (as in the graph of daily alertness cycle above).
How to submit
Send your (1) sleep.tim, (2) <collection>.kno and (3) RepetitionHist.dat files via e-mail. For detail see: How to submit your sleep and learning data.
If this research program is as successful as I predict, it should affect future versions of SuperMemo. You may know, there is a substantial opposition against making SuperMemo yet more complex. Therefore, I will need to demonstrate black-on-white how important sleep data is for optimizing the learning process. Integrating those basic self-research tools with SuperMemo will help push the learning efficiency to a new level, esp. in people who experience problems with sleep.
Although the conclusions drawn above are preliminary, and the correlations shown not always exactly prove the points below, sleep research literature makes the following tenets look solid:
- after healthy well-timed sleep, best recall occurs in the early morning hours
- after healthy well-timed sleep, best memory consolidation (best learning) occurs in the early morning hours
- for best learning results, you need good sleep before and after learning
- naps are great for learning (do not confuse natural naps with polyphasic sleep!)
- people may experience a substantial siesta dip in their learning performance
- learning performance depends on your own circadian cycle, not on the clock
- heavy learning impedes learning itself making cramming doubly counterproductive: (1) cramming leaves few long-term memory traces, (2) cramming quickly inhibits short-term memory
- alarm clocks are bad for learning!
- there is a big difference between being just alert and being crisply alert
- if you want to contribute to sleep research, or to find more about your own sleep and learning, or if have new ideas in the subject, please write to me |
--Activity-based costing (ABC) is a costing methodology that identifies activities in an organization and assigns the cost of each activity with resources to all products and services according to the actual consumption by each. --This model assigns more indirect costs (overhead) into direct costs compared to conventional costing. --ABC as an approach to the costing and monitoring of activities which involves tracing resource consumption and costing final outputs. Resources are assigned to activities, and activities to cost objects based on consumption estimates. The latter utilize cost drivers to attach activity costs to outputs. **--Objectives** --With ABC, a company can soundly estimate the cost elements of entire products, activities and services. That may help inform a company's decision to either: -Identify and eliminate those products and services that are unprofitable and lower the prices of those that are overpriced (product and service portfolio aim)Or, - identify and eliminate production or service processes that are ineffective and allocate processing concepts that lead to the very same product at a better yield (process re-engineering aim). In a business organization, the ABC methodology assigns an organization's resource costs through activities to the products and services provided to its customers. ABC is generally used as a tool for understanding product and customer cost and profitability based on the production or performing processes. As such, ABC has predominantly been used to support strategic decisions such as pricing, outsourcing, identification and measurement of process improvement initiatives. **--Methodology** Methodology of ABC focuses on cost allocation in operational management. ABC helps to segregate -Fixed cost -Variable cost -Overhead cost --The split of cost helps to identify cost drivers, if achieved. Direct labour and materials are relatively easy to trace directly to products, but it is more difficult to directly allocate indirect costs to products. Where products use common resources differently, some sort of weighting is needed in the cost allocation process. The cost driver is a factor that creates or drives the cost of the activity. For example, the cost of the activity of bank tellers can be ascribed to each product by measuring how long each product's transactions (cost driver) takes at the counter and then by measuring the number of each type of transaction. For the activity of running machinery, the driver is likely to be machine operating hours. That is, machine operating hours drive labor, maintenance, and power cost during the running machinery activity.
Under Conventional / Traditional costing Overheads are allocated to the products on volume based measures e.g. labour hours, machine hours, units produced. With the change in business environment, a) Amount of direct labour cost used in many Industries has decreased. b) Total overhead from depreciation on equipment utilities repairs maintenance has incurred.
Hai uma The traditional system of costing suffers from certain limitations. It fails to precisely assign the overhead costs into product units. Therefore activity-based costing system has recently been developed to overcome the limitations of traditional costing system. The activity costing system is based on premise that activities make a product. Activity- based costing (ABC) is the determination of product cost based on the activity needed for producing a product. The activities required to produce a product or render service consume a cost. Therefore, an insight into the expenses consumed by all those activities performed for the manufacturing of finished products and sale is very important. A number of researched studies have shown the increasing utility of activity-based costing on overheads allocation and apportionment for product cost determination. Product cost determination under activity-based costing is made on the basis of cost driver required for producing goods or delivering services. Activity-based costing is becoming more effective in costing of multi-products produced by industries and executing customers' orders. Activity-based costing (ABC) is an effective management approach for distributing and controlling the overhead costs. Overhead analysis can be made more accurate by using ABC techniques for a wide range of products, for product costing and profitability analysis and for distribution and control of the overheads appropriately.
Hello Uma, **Activity Based Costing** is an overhead Cost allocation system that allocates overhead to multiple **activity cost pools** and assigns the activity cost pools to product or services by means of **Cost Drivers** that represents the activities used. **Need for introduction of ABC** Under Conventional / Traditional costing Overheads are allocated to the products on volume based measures e.g. labour hours, machine hours, units produced. With the change in business environment, a) Amount of direct labour cost used in many Industries has decreased. b) Total overhead from depreciation on equipment utilities repairs maintenance has incurred. Now, **Activity** means any event, action, transaction, or work sequence that causes a Cost to be incurred in producing a product or providing a service. **Activity Cost Pool** means the overhead cost allocated to a distinct type of activity or related activities. Examples :- • Painting cost Pool • Setting Up of machines • Inspecting and testing **Cost Driver** means The Overhead Cost allocated to a distinct type of activity or related activities. Examples :- • Painting cost Pool • Setting Up of machines • Inspecting and testing **Basics of ABC :-** 1. Cost of a product is the sum of the costs of all activities required to manufacture and deliver the product. 2. Products do not consume costs directly. 3. Money is spent on activities. 4. Activities are consumed by product/services. 5. ABC assigns Costs to Products by tracing expenses to “activities”. Each Product is charged based on the extent to which it used an activity. 6. The primary objective of ABC is to assign costs that reflect/mirror the physical dynamics of the business. 7. Provides ways of assigning the costs of indirect support resources to activities, business processes, customers, products. 8. It recognizes that many organisational resources are required not for physical production of units of product but to provide a broad array of support activities. Regards Bharat Makhija
Hie Uma, **Definition of 'Activity-Based Costing - ABC'** An accounting method that identifies the activities that a firm performs, and then assigns indirect costs to products. An activity based costing (ABC) system recognizes the relationship between costs, activities and products, and through this relationship assigns indirect costs to products less arbitrarily than traditional methods.
**ACTIVITY BASED COSTING* Hi, Activity based costing is a method for assigning costs to products, services, projects, tasks, or acquisitions to all products and services according to the actual consumption by each. It is a technique for assigning costs to products service customers etc The traditional costing system suffers from drawbacks so ABC costing came . ABC costing assigns cost to all the resources based on the consumption by them. Thanks
Name suggests that, it is based on the Activity For example, Your organization doing some project or work it may contains various activities, for assign the cost of each activity with resource to the project or services Note that, Your organization provides catering Services, the catering service includes many activities like, a. Preparation of foods b. Delivery of foods c. serving of food Each one is call it as activity which incure the cost to the company As per Wiki: Activity-based costing (ABC) is a costing methodology that identifies activities in an organization and assigns the cost of each activity with resources to all products and services according to the actual consumption by each. |
Taking on Legion
First Presbyterian Church
June 20, 2010
First Presbyterian Church
June 20, 2010
The Jesus Seminar determined that Jesus probably was an exorcist. He was believed to be successful in casting out demons. Now that doesn't mean the Jesus Seminar thinks there are or ever were demons, but the pre-modern culture in which he lived did. Afflictions that we might understand as mental illness would have been in Jesus' time and place caused by unclean spirits. People who could get rid of these unclean spirits would be holy men and women. Jesus apparently had skills at this.
However, the Jesus Seminar voted this particular account as a fiction. It has the feel of a horror movie. A horror movie that ends with a comic twist. Demons named Legion asking for and taking up temporary residence in the pigs and drowning them in the sea must have been an amusing detail for those who saw pigs as unclean.
The author of Luke copied this story from Mark. Mark has more detail that Luke left aside. Here is how Mark describes the man:
He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.Mark also provides a detail of the number of pigs, 2000.
That number, that Luke misses, is interesting. I think it is one of a number of clues that the original storyteller was telling us a story. The demon is named Legion and Legion enters 2000 pigs and is drowned in the sea. Wink. Wink.
Legion was the name of a Roman fighting force. A legion could contain anywhere from 1,000 to 6,000 soldiers. Palestine was occupied by the Roman army. Jesus was killed on a Roman cross. The New Testament is a response to this Roman occupation. Jesus is drowning the Roman army in the sea.
Mark, as crafty storytellers will do, shows us without telling us what this story is really about. The story is not about Jesus casting out a demon as if that is all that is wrong. It is a story of resistance to and liberation from Roman oppression.
The Roman occupation is the unclean spirit. The shackles and chains, the howling and the bruising, are the effects of this occupation. This is the human suffering, the toll that is taken on the people of Palestine by this occupation.
For Mark it is a battle between Jesus and Caesar and Mark throws down the gauntlet in the first sentence of his gospel:
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.Proclamations throughout the Empire would begin with good news from the emperor, son of God. Mark spoofs that pompous proclamation.
Mark is taking head on Roman Imperial Theology. The real son of God, the real power, is not in Caesar and his standing armies and his weaponry and his legions and his economic system based on slavery and his unsustainable lust for land and his abuse of people and of Earth. No, the real son of God, who represents the empire of God, of justice and peace, is in this peasant-teacher-exorcist--rabble-rouser, Jesus, and his movement of non-violent resistance.
Even the demon, Legion, knows who Jesus is, according to the story. When the demon sees Jesus coming, shouts out,
"Don't torment me!"
Don't torment Roman occupation? That's funny. Jesus had told the unclean spirit to leave. The 2000 pigs represent a legion of soldiers (pigs!) drowning in the sea as YHWH drowned Pharoah's army in the exodus from Egypt. That is the power of the good news Mark and Luke are telling us.
Who are the people who own the pigs and who ask Jesus to leave because they are afraid? Maybe they are those who benefit economically from the oppression of their own kin. In the logic of this story they are not innocent farmers, they represent the interests of the occupation. They are doing just fine with Rome and with Legion and they don't take kindly to Jesus messing up the good thing they have going.
Another detail. The man possessed by the unclean spirit lives in the tombs. The land of the dead. Being occupied is death. It is being shackled. At the end of the story, the tomb is empty. This living person is no longer in the tomb.
Fast forward to the end of Mark's gospel. After Jesus' crucifixion, the women go to the tomb to cover his body in spices. When they get there the tomb is empty. The tomb that the Roman occupation put Jesus in cannot contain him. The man or angel at the empty tomb tells the woman that Jesus of Nazareth has been raised and has gone ahead to Galilee. Follow him. The woman run away afraid and that is how the gospel ends. It ends with a question mark. Will we be afraid like the owners of the pigs, or will we follow? Will we continue the resistance?
None of this is literal or supernatural. It is symbol and metaphor.
And it is true.
Well it could be true.
It is true to the extent that we trust that it is true and act on its truth.
It is true if we use our imagination and our courage and bring this story to the present.
This is where Bible class ends and preaching begins, I suppose. You can apply the story of Jesus casting out Legion to the present in many different ways. That is the power of a symbolic story.
The story of the man in the tombs is a great story for coming to terms with addiction. Drugs, alcohol, and other addictive behavior keep us in the tombs howling and hurting. The only solution is to name the demon and send it away. That requires brutal honesty. No denial, no anger and blame, no depression or feeling sorry for oneself will help. Legion is an unclean spirit that won't stop until you are dead. Get rid of it. It can be done. No excuses. Anyone who is in recovery knows that. Those for whom recovery does not work are those as the AA manual says:
"constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves."The story of the man in the tombs is a great story for recovery from addiction on the individual level. With honesty and help that is available immediately, addicts can rise from the dead and lead healthy, whole, productive, unclean spirit-free lives.
It is also a great story for recovery from addiction on the collective level.
We, and particularly Americans, who at 4% of the population use 25% of the world's oil, are addicted to fossil fuels. President Obama told us that a few days ago from the Oval Office. Addicted. That is not a figure of speech. That is a reality.
We are possessed by an unclean spirit.
For the past 150 years the human population of Earth has increased from under 2 billion to over 6 and one-half billion because of fossil fuels, particularly oil, the elixir of the depths.
It isn't so much that we are addicted to oil as we are addicted to the economy of oil which is unlimited growth and consumption. Food, housing, transportation, everything is based on the abundance of cheap oil. It is a lifestyle that a former president said is non-negotiable. That is an addict talking. That is Legion.
Oh, yes it is negotiable and Mother Earth will negotiate on her terms.
The numbers are telling us that global oil production has peaked. This means Earth will provide less and less oil as we demand more. The implications for Peak Oil are sobering. There are plenty of books, videos, and websites that tell what these implications are.
But we are in denial. We are addicts. Addicts lie to themselves and to others.
Oh, when the time comes we will switch over to solar power, or wind, or we'll drive those cute little hydrogen powered cars, or we'll burn corn in our tanks.Addicts will believe anything as long as they don't have to change. None of that is feasible. Not even close. We will need alternative sources in a post-peak world for human survival, but nothing will replace fossil fuels and keep us on our current addictive lifestyle or anywhere close to it.
Watching on our computer screen 60,000 barrels of oil pour into the Gulf each day because of our desperate drilling adventures should be the bottom that addicts need to hit before they realize they need to change. But so far, no.
Rome fell because it overextended itself. Its energy was slavery and in order to expand it had to continually conquer more land and hence more slaves. It was a military-slavery economy. It finally reached its limit, its peak, and it imploded.
We have a military--fossil fuel--consumptive economy. Infinite growth and finite resources yield collapse. We are there.
Folks may check out at this point because it is too depressing. My answer to that, in my most pastoral voice possible, is tough. You need to stay with us. We do not have the luxury to be depressed.
We need to buck up and face it. We cannot stop the grieving process at denial, or depression, or anger, or bargaining. We have to move to acceptance of reality. Only then can we face the decisions we need to make.
We can cast this demon out.
We can get rid of Legion.
We can change pro-actively our addictive lifestyle.
It will take brutal honesty.
As Americans we no longer have the luxury of denying reality. We live in a representative democracy. For it to function, every citizen must be informed. Each of us must act as if we were president and realistically think through the options. We need to know the numbers and the facts, not the corporate spin, not the blind patriotism, not the polarization of left and right, but the facts.
The future is going to be local. Local food. Local energy. Little driving. We need to prepare our local governments for this. We need to use our influence in Carter County and Washington County and Sullivan County, wherever we live, to prepare ourselves realistically for a post-petroleum world. This is not for some time in the future. Now.
In our Bible story, when Jesus casts out Legion, the people were afraid and they told him to leave. We need to accept that telling the truth will anger folks. Addicts can't handle the truth. It is no use directing anger at the oil companies. They supply our addiction. It is no use directing anger at the government. We are the government.
Now remember, and this is most important. The story in Mark’s gospel is a story of good news.
The man possessed, shackled and hurting found his right mind.
He didn't solve all of his problems.
He found a clear head in order to face them.
He found a mind of peace and joy.
Waking up, naming our addiction, and facing the future realistically is good news.Ending our unsustainable addiction is good news.
It will result in clean water.
In healthy food.
We really have no idea what this new life free of addiction look like.
Our great-grandchildren will.
We need to live for them now.
We cannot poison their waters, their food, and their air for our addiction.
We need to live for them.
There will be a new Earth on the other side of this great change.
It only looks scary from this end.
Addicts cannot imagine how they will live without their drug.
When they recover they recover day by day.
They don't magically solve the problems.
They are clear thinking enough to face them.
It is time to wake up and face our addiction and begin the road to recovery.
The story in the Bible is a story of courage.
It is the story of honesty and trust.
I believe it is a true story.
It is a story of the power of truth to set us free.
Let us live it. |
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- This photochrome print of the Notre Dame d’Afrique church in Algiers is part of “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” from the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company (1905). Notre Dame d’Afrique was described in the 1911 edition of Baedeker’s The Mediterranean, seaports and sea routes: Handbook for Travellers as “a pilgrimage-church for sick persons and mariners, founded by Card. Lavigerie in 1872, [which] rises conspicuously on a spur of the N.E. slope of Mont Bouzaréah, above the Christian and the Jewish burial-grounds.” The church’s significance as a symbol of tolerance was evident in the inscription over the apse: Notre Dame d’Afrique priez pour nous et pour les Musulmans (Our Lady of Africa, pray for us and for the Muslims). The print shows a part of the Carmelite Convent in the left foreground, its large garden surrounded by walls, and the church beyond perched on a cliff above the Bay of Algiers.
Detroit Photographic Company, Detroit, Michigan
Type of Item
- 1 photomechanical print : photochrom, color
- The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s by Detroit businessman and publisher William A. Livingstone, Jr., and photographer and photo-publisher Edwin H. Husher. They obtained exclusive rights to use the Swiss "Photochrom" process for converting black-and-white photographs into color images and printing them by photolithography. This innovative process was applied to the mass production of color postcards, prints, and albums for sale to the American market. The firm became the Detroit Publishing Company in 1905.
- Print no. "8497". |
The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has joined forces with telescopes located in North America, South America, Europe and Africa to create the observing power of a radio telescope 6,800 miles (nearly 11,000 kilometres) in diameter. This collaboration is called the Express Production Real-time e-VLBI Service (EXPReS) project, and on May 22nd, the system went “live” with all antennae observing the same part of the sky. This is an historic project where international collaboration has resulted in the most powerful radio telescope system available to date…
May 22nd heralded the first live demonstration of the EXPReS project that used radio telescopes from four continents. e-VLBI stands for “electronic Very Long Baseline Interferometery” and the system has the huge benefit of taking real-time observations. Data from the EXPReS project is transmitted to the central signal processor at the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) in Holland, where speeds of data-streaming have exceeded Arecibo’s previous record four times over. Apart from being an acronym fest, the e-VLBI, EXPReS, JIVE collaboration will observe the cosmos with a resolution of 100 times better than the worlds most advanced optical telescopes.
So how can a single radio telescope dish with a diameter of 6,800 miles be simulated if the project has telescopes scattered around the planet? This is where the clever technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometery (VLBI) comes in. If you have multiple telescopes observing the same radio source in the cosmos simultaneously (and using very precise atomic clocks as a guide), the distance (or base-line) between observatories will simulate the effect of using a telescope with a diameter of that distance. The resolution of the observation is improved when the interferometer has several observatories working as one. Traditionally, the radio signal received at each antenna was recorded on a magnetic tape and then shipped to a central processing facility. The results of a campaign usually took weeks to be compiled. By using the e-VLBI system, recording data at the telescope site can be bypassed and transmitted real-time to the central processing facility along with the other telescopes observing the same source. Results are now available in a matter of hours – essential rapid processing when fast astronomical processes (such as supernovae) are in progress.
“These results are very significant for the advance of radio astronomy. It shows not only that telescopes of the future can be developed in worldwide collaboration, but that they can also be operated as truly global instruments.” – Huib Jan van Langevelde, JIVE Director.
The EXPReS project is funded by the European Commission and aims to connect 16 of the world’s most sensitive radio observatories. In the middle of this collaboration is the JIVE processor so real-time data processing can help astronomers achieve very quick results and react to transient radio sources. |
Thank you for your interest in learning more about the issue of world hunger — education and awareness are the first steps to understanding and solving any issue. Fortunately, there are many resources available to deepen your understanding of this complex yet solvable problem.
Global Leadership in the Fight Against Hunger
- Check out statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- Read more about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, including goal 2, to eradicate hunger and poverty by the year 2030. |
We can tell a lot about how the world changes with land cover change maps, the 2010-2015 update of which was published in November 2020 by the North American Land Change Monitoring System — an initiative of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation.
These maps tell a story of a changing world, with major events altering the landscape. The large areas around Yellowknife depict land cover transition from forest to mainly grassland and barren lands, thanks to the 2014 forest fires in the surrounding area. Unusually warm conditions and lack of rain triggered more than 130 forest fires in the Great Slave Lake region in the Northwest Territories. The forest fire season for that year has been classified as one of the most extreme in the region over the last three decades, with lasting impacts on vegetation and wildlife as well as human populations.
The maps, created from a composite of images assembled from satellite observations at a 30-metre spatial resolution, are the result of a collaborative effort that harmonized land cover classification systems from Canada, Mexico and the United States — no small feat, according to the team working on the project.
“We are, in a way, the forum through which the mapping agencies come together,” says Orlando Cabrera-Rivera, head of unit for environmental quality for CEC, which oversees the NALCMS initiative. “We put together the continental product based on what [each organization] is doing at home.”
The goal is to produce a map that’s useful for “addressing issues at the continental level,” says Cabrera-Rivera.
“Watersheds, ecosystems ... they don’t know political boundaries. We need to be managing these at the continental level.”
But Zakir Jafry, environmental information coordinator and GIS specialist at the CEC, says the NALCMS group is very open and collaborative and that all the scientists involved see the bigger picture.
Jafry also says putting the maps together requires a lot of processing and conversations — sometimes there are “mismatches” in land use designations that require some back and forth.
“In B.C. and Washington for example, on the B.C. side you have a lot of activity but in Washington it’s just forest,” says Jafry. “In Canada that area is being used for skiing, but in the U.S. it has protective status. We have to adjust those misclassifications.”
One of the biggest transitions seen in the data is forest loss, which Jafry says is mostly occurring in Canada.
“Impacts of wildlife, insects, logging … you can see those changes occurring.”
Cabrera-Rivera says now the work begins to see how to use the data to prevent or control changes in the future — to mitigate damages we might be inflicting on the earth.
“We have to look at these changes and the consequences that they have,” says Cabrera-Rivera. “We’re all connected through the environment in which we live, despite countries and borders. |
"I was delighted to take part in a clinical trial as it has the potential to really help others in the future.”
A trial of gefitinib (Iressa) for advanced synovial sarcoma (EORTC 62022)
Synovial sarcoma is a type of soft tissue sarcoma. Doctors usually treat it with surgery, sometimes followed by radiotherapy. But sometimes this treatment doesn’t work very well and the sarcoma starts to grow again, or spreads to another part of the body (metastasises). When this happens it is called advanced sarcoma and is more difficult to treat. Doctors may offer chemotherapy to help control the cancer. But in time, it will start to grow again.
Gefitinib is a type of drug called a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). Cells have ‘epidermal growth factor receptors’ (EGFR) on them. When these receptors are triggered, it sets off a chain of events that tells the cell to grow and divide. Gefitinib blocks tyrosine kinase, which is part of this process.
If gefitinib can stop tyrosine kinase from working, it could stop the cancer from growing. But as this is a relatively new treatment, doctors were not sure how well it would work for synovial sarcoma.
The aims of this trial were to
- See how well gefitinib works for advanced synovial sarcoma
- Find out more about the side effects
Summary of results
The research team found that gefitinib did not help patients with advanced synovial sarcoma.
46 patients with advanced synovial sarcoma were recruited on to the trial. They all had cancer that was no longer responding to chemotherapy. They were all treated with gefitinib
- The cancer did not disappear (
complete response) or get smaller ( partial response) in any of the patients
- 6 weeks after treatment started, the cancer had continued to grow in 32 patients (70%)
- In 10 patients (22%) there was no change in the size of the cancer (
- 3 months after treatment started, only 5 patients had stable disease
They concluded that gefitinib should not be used on its own to treat synovial sarcoma. But they suggested that it may still have a role in combination with other treatments in the future.
We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (
How to join a clinical trial
Dr M Leahy
European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) |
Lesson 1 - Numbers to 10,000
Create some 4-digit numbers and write them in numerals and words.
Lesson 2 - Numbers to 10,000
Lesson 3 - Numbers to 100,000
Create some 5-digit number and write them in numbers and words.
Lesson 4 - Numbers to 100,000
Lesson 5 - Numbers to 1 million.
Create some 6-digit numbers and write them in numerals and words. |
The purpose of this lesson: to give an example of a quality of David being a man after God's heart. The quality: the nature of God, not the injustice of Saul, determined how David treated Saul.
The purpose of this lesson does not center on a chronological timeline concerning the earliest contacts between King Saul and David. Three factors are suggested for consideration of those earliest contacts: (1) the purpose of the writer in that material; (2) the nature of servant/royalty relationship at that time; and (3) the author's condensing of material of interest to us but not of interest to the intended original readers. Today we need to avoid the temptation to make scripture say more than scripture says. Often our motives for knowing are not identical to the author's motives in revealing.
There are many questions that can be raised in the earliest history concerning David and Saul's interaction and relationship. The author of 1 Samuel did not include enough information to answer those questions. Most answers include significant speculation. We do not need the answer to all those questions to see the qualities/characteristics that created the closeness between David and God.
Obviously, after David killed Goliath he rose to prominence quickly as an important person among Saul's valiant men. Though David declared he was a son of Saul's servant (1 Samuel 17:58), he rapidly became a close friend of Saul's son, Jonathan. What began as an amiable relationship between friends became a relationship Saul held in contempt.
David's rise in significance began with his killing Goliath. Remember, this young man did something with confidence in God that no other warrior in the Israelite army would attempt. Everyone else was too afraid! A person with the faith and courage of David would be an obvious asset to Saul's military efforts. David's continued success would increase his importance to Saul as he resisted the domination of the Philistines. While David became a person that a suspicious King Saul should "keep an eye on," David at the same time became a person that Saul's son, Jonathan, admired and loved. Evil looks with suspicion on godly motives; godliness looks with love on godly motives.
Each student is asked to consider this reality: the problems that existed between Saul and David were instigated by Saul's weak faith and character flaws, not by David. Saul came to hate and fear David, but David only served Saul. Though David had many "self" justifications for despising Saul, David kept only a sense of respect for Saul because King Saul was chosen by God to be Israel's king. Though Saul attempted to provoke and destroy David in numerous ways, David refused to act as Saul's enemy. Literally, Saul lived as long as he did because David refused to function as Saul's enemy.
Make certain that your students understand that the tension in the Saul-David association was generated by Saul, not David. David would not let Saul determine who he was or how he acted. David chose to determine who he was and how he acted instead of reacting to King Saul's godless behavior. The moment a person starts reacting, he or she places the control of himself or herself in another person's hands. That person determines who "I am" rather than God and me determining who "I am."
The problem in the King Saul-David association began with Saul's jealousy. David served a dual role to Saul: (1) a valiant man in Saul's military (especially in trying to break the Philistine's control over Israel); and (2) a musical comforter to Saul when he was controlled by the depression of his dark moments. Once as David returned from a victory over Philistine forces, he was greeted by some Israelite women singing and dancing. Their song declared Saul had killed thousands and David had killed ten thousands. David was popular with and admired by many of the Israelite people.
The godly person functions in many roles to ungodly people. While the ungodly seek to "use" people, the godly seek to "serve" people for their benefit to awaken them to God's greatness. Ungodly users feel danger and threat from godly servers. The more you serve the more you are appreciated by other honest people who see the situation for what it is, yet your service is of no threat to the ungodly. Jesus himself is an example of that truth.
King Saul was deeply offended by David's reception. He wanted to be seen and honored by the Israelite people as Israel's deliverer. The fact that these Israelite women made David more prominent than King Saul angered the king. From the moment of that incident onward, King Saul looked at David with suspicion.
Ungodly people feel threatened when their personal ambitions do not achieve what service rendered by faith in God accomplishes.
Amazingly, we always use our attitudes and motives to explain the actions of people we distrust. If "that" would have been "my" motive, "that" must be "his or her" motive. If "I" would have acted in "that" way, "he or she" must be acting in "that" way. Though King Saul had nothing to fear from David, King Saul's suspicion became jealousy and anger, his jealousy and anger became hate, his hate become imagined danger, and imagined danger made David an enemy to be destroyed. He intended to destroy David before David could destroy King Saul and his family.
Among Satan's greatest deceptions is the personal conviction that other people's actions can be explained by "my" motives and attitudes. David's same characteristics produced jealousy and hate in Saul but love and devotion in Jonathan, Saul's son.
David was the opposite of Saul. David had absolute confidence in God (as demonstrated in his facing Goliath). Saul did not include God as a factor in his decisions (all he wanted was God's protection; he did not think in terms of honoring God). David was a man of faith who placed matters in God's hands. Saul was faithless and took matters in his own hands. David had such confidence in God that he believed God was at work in his dire distress--he often asked for more faith and protection, but he frequently declared his God knew what He was doing. Saul commonly questioned God's decisions/actions and sought to justify his own. King Saul seemed to think God operated capriciously, but he (Saul) functioned on the basis of reality.
Seeing why David was "a man after God's own heart" becomes more obvious by seeing the contrast between King Saul and David. Emphasize those contrasts. Note Saul's behavior was that of a person who wanted to use God to compensate for his own insecurity. David's behavior was that of a secure person who wanted to serve God.
It was obvious to the fearful King Saul that God was with David (1 Samuel 18:12). Samuel earlier told King Saul in unmistakable terms that God was no longer with him, and God's decision was not reversible (1 Samuel 15:26-29). As the situation unfolded, King Saul knew David, not his son Jonathan, would be the next king of Israel (see 1 Samuel 20:30, 31 and 24:16-20).
The person who experiences God's withdrawal recognizes God's presence in others. The negative attitudes of the one who experienced God's withdrawal are irritated by God's presence in others.
Though King Saul made David's life miserable, David refused to function as King Saul's enemy. Though King Saul sought opportunity to kill David, David showed nothing but respect for King Saul. Though David had opportunities to kill King Saul, David refused to kill the king. David also prevented his followers from killing King Saul.
David illustrates that basically we are in charge of who and what we are as a person. David would not give King Saul the right to determine who or what he was as a person. King Saul's behavior might necessitate David's actions as one who fled, but King Saul would not make David a hate-filled, hostile person.
It is essential for us to understand that David's attitude toward King Saul was founded on his attitude toward God. David's attitude toward God: "God knows what He is doing; a person must not 'second guess' God!" Thus, when God makes Saul King of Israel, that was God's decision, not David's. Though David was anointed by Samuel to be Israel's future king, his anointing did not give David the right to kill God's present anointed.
A second attitude that made David a "man after God's own heart": the guiding conviction that God knows what He is doing.
On the two occasions David had opportunity to kill King Saul (who was seeking to kill David). David declared that he could not kill God's anointed (1 Samuel 24:8-12; 26:6-12). The fact that King Saul served as King of Israel was God's business, not David's. David understood that in spite of King Saul's actions, there was no justification for David killing King Saul.
Even though David was anointed by Samuel to be Israel's future king, he refused to take matters in his own hands. He did not look for a self-justification for eliminating Saul as Israel's king. David's attitude: God made Saul king. God would end Saul's kingship. God would do it in His own way by His own decision.
David understood this truth: leave God's affairs in God's hands!
Satan is very successful in tempting us to believe that we are doing God's will--especially when we are more concerned about our desires than God's purposes!
For Thought and Discussion:
He quickly rose to a place of prominence among King Saul's valiant men.
The problems in the King Saul-David association were caused by King Saul's character weakness and flaws, not David's.
King Saul's jealousy expressed itself as a result of the Israelite women who welcomed David's return from a successful battle with the Philistines. The women sang that Saul had killed thousands of Philistines, but David had killed ten thousands of Philistines. Saul was offended that they honored David's acts above his acts.
David played music for Saul when Saul was controlled by depression, and David was a warrior in Saul's army that fought against the Philistines.
He wanted to be honored as Israel's deliverer. He wanted no rival to that position.
People often use their own attitudes and emotions to explain/understand other people's motives and actions.
Ways in which David was opposite to King Saul: He trusted God enough to render service to God's great name whereas Saul tried to use God for his own purposes; David accepted God's decision while Saul took matters into his own hands; David trusted God even when he was distressed, but Saul trusted only himself when he was distressed; David knew God was in charge and acted with purpose, but Saul often thought there was no reason for God's actions.
David refused to become Saul's enemy.
David's attitude toward God was the foundation of David's attitude toward Saul.
At the center of the discussion should be this truth: God knows what He is doing. God's actions are not determined by my desires, but by His purposes.
Link to Student Guide Lesson 3
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Definition of chapel of ease in English:
A chapel situated for the convenience of parishioners living a long distance from the parish church.
- St Joseph's Church was consecrated in April 1904 as a chapel of ease for St Michael's parish.
- In 1860, this was extended to accommodate a school and chapel of ease for the local Church of Ireland community.
- It was laid by the monks themselves, and the church at the top was a chapel of ease, where pilgrims would rest on the way to seeing Hailes's phial of holy blood.
Definition of chapel of ease in:
- British & World English dictionary
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
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Wednesday Home Learning- Hobbits Class
TODAY IS NATIONAL UPSIDE DOWN DAY!
This day comes with strict instructions that mean you have to attempt to be upside down for as long as you can.
This can be achieved by a grown up holding you by your ankles, laying on the sofa upside down and head/handstands. I look forward to getting pictures of you upside down!
Join in with Joe Wicks! He is doing live PE lessons on his YouTube Channel every morning at 9am. Don’t worry if you miss it- they are available all day.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR2Zb7TbiOA - have a go at learning British Sign Language too. She puts up a video every day.
- 30 minutes of Times Tables Rockstars- I shall be monitoring your progress!
- Today’s Maths Learning
Lesson 5- Watch the video and complete the questions in your books. (We are still on Week 1 lessons just so you know!)
Read your reading book for half an hour.
How many nouns can you find and write down the examples.
Can you classify them into the different types of nouns too as a challenge?
Keep practicing the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g96AWLV_670
Can you come up with a dance or movements that help you remember the words.
Please can all the grown ups at home, who wish to, send photos to [email protected] so I can put pictures on the website of all the amazing learning you have been doing together!
Stay safe and missing you all so much!
Lots of love,
Miss Storti xx
P.S. April Fool's! Please don't be upside down for too long! |
The radio-frequency quadrupole Maurizio Vretenar CERN, Geneva, Switzerland Abstract Radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linear accelerators appeared on the accelerator scene in the late 1970s and have since revolutionized the domain of low-energy proton and ion acceleration. The RFQ makes the reliable production of unprecedented ion beam intensities possible within a compact radio-frequency (RF) resonator which concentrates the three main functions of the low-energy linac section: focusing, bunching and accelerating. Its sophisticated electrode structure and strict beam dynamics and RF requirements, however, impose severe constraints on the mechanical and RF layout, making the construction of RFQs particularly challenging. This lecture will introduce the main beam optics, RF and mechanical features of a RFQ emphasizing how these three aspects are interrelated and how they contribute to the final performance of the RFQ. 1 The challenges of low-energy acceleration of hadron beams The low-energy section, between the ion source and the first drift-tube-based accelerating structure, is probably the most complicated part of any hadron linear accelerator. It is in this part of the linac that the following conditions are met: (a) Defocusing due to space charge forces (mutually repulsive Coulomb forces between beam particles) is the highest. The space charge force acting on a single particle is inversely proportional to 2 ( is the relativistic parameter here) and starts decreasing as soon as the beam becomes relativistic and the attraction between particles travelling close to the speed of light compensates for the Coulomb repulsion. The reduction will become perceptible only above few megaelectronvolts beam energy, however, leaving space charge at its maximum at energies below. To compensate for space charge, external focusing must be the highest in the low-energy range: in the usual approach, this means short focusing periods and a large number of high-gradient quadrupoles. A strong limitation to the focusing achievable at low energy, however, comes from the small dimensions of the accelerating cells. In a drift-tube structure, the distance between the centres of two quadrupoles placed inside drift tubes is considering that some length on the beam axis is taken by the gap and by the metal of the tubes, the space available for the quadrupole is only about . At 1 MeV, = 4.6% and for ~ 1 m the maximum length of a quadrupole is about 20 mm, nearly the same as the required aperture. The quadrupole would be dominated by fringe fields and it would be impossible to achieve on the axis a gradient sufficient to control high space charge forces. (b) The continuous beam coming out of the source has to be bunched to be accelerated in the first radio-frequency (RF) accelerating structure. The process of bunching by means of longitudinally focusing RF forces is a critical operation: it defines the longitudinal beam emittance and can lead to the loss of a large fraction of the particles if the resulting emittance is not matched to the acceptance of the first accelerating structure. (c) Usual low-energy accelerating structures have reduced RF efficiency and high mechanical complexity, because of the need to adapt the length of every cell to the beam velocity. Short cells have high stray capacitances that for a given power dissipation reduce the effective voltage available for the beam, or in other terms they are particularly ineffective in concentrating on the axis the electric field required for acceleration. The result is that the accelerator cost per meter (or per megaelectronvolt acceleration) in this section tends to be the highest of all of the parts of the linac and needs to be carefully optimized. Before the invention of the radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQs), the classical solution to cover this critical energy range was to extend as much as possible the extraction voltage from the ion source and to start the first accelerating structure, usually a drift-tube linac (DTL), from the lowest possible energy. The use of large high-voltage (HV) generators, at the limit of technology, allowed extracting from the source a beam with sufficient velocity to be injected into a DTL of relatively low frequency (to increase ) equipped with special short quadrupoles in the first drift tubes. In these systems, however, the maximum beam current was limited by the size and aperture of the first quadrupoles and by the space charge in the transport line between the source and the DTL. Moreover, the need for a low RF frequency reduced the overall acceleration efficiency. In the old low-energy beam transport (LEBT) lines bunching was provided by a single-gap RF cavity followed by a drift space before the DTL. The RF cavity applies a small sinusoidal modulation to the energy and velocity of the beam; after the drift, particles that were on the rising slope of the modulating voltage tend to group together, the particles that arrived first in the cavity being slower and those arriving later being faster. This will result in a higher density of particles around the particle whose energy was not changed (on the rising part of the voltage), which will be maximum at a given distance from the RF cavity. If the first accelerating gap of the DTL is placed exactly in this position, a large fraction of the beam will lie within the acceptance (“bucket”) of the DTL and will be accelerated, but another fraction will be outside and will be lost in the first gaps of the DTL. A single cavity bunching section has a low transmission, of the order of 50%, and requires long drift distances where space charge can easily lead to emittance growth. To increase transmission, many bunching systems included a second harmonic cavity after the first, to linearize the overall voltage seen by the beam and extend the capture region. As an example of low-energy section before the RFQ, Figs. 1 and 2 show the Linac2 installation at CERN as it looked between construction (in 1976) and the installation of a new RFQ replacing the original injector (in 1993). At the time of construction this was one of the proton linacs with the highest beam current in the world, 150 mA. The beam was extracted from the ion source at 750 keV, a voltage produced by a large Cockcroft–Walton generator placed in a separate HV room (Fig. 1). The 750 keV line (Fig. 2) was 5.6 m long and included four quadrupole triplets, diagnostics equipment and a double-harmonic bunching system, made of a first single-gap cavity at 202 MHz frequency followed by another at 404 MHz. The trapping efficiency of this line (ratio between current accelerated in the DTL and current extracted from the source) was as high as 80%, thanks to a careful design and to the double-harmonic bunching . In spite of its sophisticated design and construction, for all operating linacs the low-energy section was not only the bottleneck in terms of beam current because of space charge limitations and of low bunching efficiency, but was also one of the main limitations in terms of reliability, the HV required for the injector being the origin of a large fraction of machine downtime. Fig. 1: The old (1976–1993) HV installation of CERN Linac2, with the 750 kV Cockcroft–Walton in the front, the ion source electronics in its HV cabin in the background, and the sphere containing the proton source and the HV insulation to the right. The linac is in another room to the right. 5.6m Double harmonic buncher (200-400 MHz) DTL Fig. 2: Scheme of the old (1976–1993) 750 keV line of CERN Linac2, between the source of Fig. 1 and the DTL 2 The invention of the RFQ During the 1960s and 1970s the need to build higher current proton accelerators pushed several teams, in particular in the USA and USSR, towards studying solutions to overcome the current limitations of conventional low-energy linac sections. In particular, Ilya Kapchinsky of the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) in Moscow made a significant progress in understanding the behaviour of space charge dominated linac beams and in the frame of his studies started to develop the idea of using at low energy an electric quadrupole focusing channel excited at RF frequency as an alternative to standard electromagnetic quadrupoles. Electric quadrupole forces do not decrease for low particle velocity as the Lorentz force of a magnetic quadrupole field; if the electric field is generated by a RF wave, a beam of particles travelling on the axis of the electric quadrupole will see an alternating gradient resulting in a net focusing force. Kapchinsky’s revolutionary idea was to add to the electrodes producing the quadrupole field a longitudinal “modulation” (i.e. a sinus-like profile) which generates an additional longitudinal electric field component. By matching this longitudinal time-varying field with the velocity and phase of the particle beam it was possible to use this structure for bunching and for a moderate acceleration (more on the functioning of the RFQ will be presented in the next section). The problem of generating the quadrupole RF field was not at all trivial, and it was tackled by another Russian scientist, Vladimir Teplyakov of the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Protvino. Together, Kapchinsky and Teplyakov published a first paper in 1969 which was the starting point for the development of the RFQ and resulted in the construction of a first experimental device in 1974 . Although not classified, Kapchinsky and Teplyakov papers were published only in Russian and their work was not known in the West until 1977 when a Czech refugee brought a copy of their original paper to the linac team at Los Alamos in the USA and translated it into English. The Kapchinsky and Teplyakov device immediately looked like the long-time sought idea for generating very high currents at low energy. The Los Alamos team immediately embraced this idea and started a programme to improve it and to produce a first technological test. Los Alamos contributions consisted mainly in the development of an input radial matching section to the focusing channel and in a new resonator design that greatly reduced the non-quadrupole field components. A first proof-of-principle (POP) RFQ aimed at fusion material testing was built at Los Alamos and successfully commissioned in 1980 ; although it operated only for a few hours before being damaged while increasing the duty cycle, this first operational RFQ demonstrated the validity of the principle and paved the way for the successive developments. During the 1980s, the RFQ design was constantly improved and made more reliable, and RFQs started to replace the HV injectors of the main accelerator laboratories. At CERN, a first RFQ was built already in 1984, and in 1993 a second more powerful RFQ, the 200 mA RFQ2, eventually replaced the Cockcroft–Walton injector and the transport line of Linac2 . Figure 3 shows the new RFQ2 (202 MHz, 1.8 m length) in front of the Linac2 DTL, with its proton source and LEBT. This new compact system occupies the same floor surface as the old 750 keV transport line of Fig. 2; the installation of the RFQ allowed decommissioning the entire HV injector of Fig. 1. Fig. 3: The new 750 keV RFQ2 (1993) installed in front of CERN Linac2 3 The three RFQ functions The reason why the RFQ became so popular is that it fulfils at the same time three different functions: (i) focusing of the particle beam by an electric quadrupole field, particularly valuable at low energy where space charge forces are strong and conventional magnetic quadrupoles are less effective; (ii) adiabatic bunching of the beam: starting from the continuous beam produced by the source it creates with minimum beam loss the bunches at the basic RF frequency that are required for acceleration in the subsequent structures; (iii) acceleration of the beam from the extraction energy of the source to the minimum required for injection into the following structure. In modern systems the ion source is followed by a short LEBT required to match transversally the beam coming from the source to the acceptance of the RFQ. Extraction from the ion source (and injection into the RFQ) is usually done at an energy of a few tens of kiloelectronvolts, achievable with small size HV installations. The RFQ follows the LEBT, and accelerates the beam up to entrance of the following structure, usually a DTL. Although a RFQ could accelerate the beam to any energy, most of the RF power delivered to the resonator goes to establishing the focusing and bunching field, with the consequence that its acceleration efficiency is very poor. For this reason, RFQs are used only in the low-energy range, up to few megaelectronvolts for protons, and their length usually reaches a maximum of a few metres. As soon as the beam is bunched and the energy is sufficiently high, it is economically convenient to pass to another type of accelerating structure. Figure 4 shows a photograph of the inside of a RFQ (CERN RFQ1, 202 MHz) and a three-dimensional view of the CERN RFQ for Linac4 (352 MHz), presently under construction. Fig. 4: The CERN RFQ1 (left) and Linac4 RFQ (right) The generation of the quadrupole electric field requires four electrodes, visible in the left-hand side photograph of Fig. 4, which in this particular type of RFQ are called “vanes”. They are positioned inside a cylindrical tank forming a RF cavity which resonates in a mode that generates a quadrupole RF voltage between the vane tips (Fig. 5). A particle travelling through the channel formed by the four vanes will see a quadrupole electric field with polarity changing with time, at the period of the RF. Every half RF period the particle will see the polarity of the quadrupole reversed, i.e. it will see an alternating gradient focusing channel, with periodicity corresponding to the distance travelled by the particle during half RF period, i.e. /2. The physics of this electric quadrupole channel is the same as for a magnetic focusing channel where the quadrupole gradient is replaced by the RF voltage and the space periodicity is /2. + − − + Fig. 5: Voltages and electric fields across RFQ vanes The longitudinal focusing required for bunching and acceleration is provided by a small longitudinal modulation of the vane tips (barely visible in Fig. 4 left). On the tip of the vanes is machined a sinusoidal profile, with period (Fig. 6). The important point, necessary to obtain a longitudinal field component, is that on opposite vanes peaks and valleys of the modulation correspond, whereas on adjacent (at 90°) vanes peaks correspond to valleys and vice versa (Fig. 6, with adjacent vanes presented on the same plane for convenience). The arrows in the scheme for adjacent vanes of Fig. 6 represent at a given time the electric field between the two adjacent vanes which have opposite polarity (voltage difference V). On the axis, the electric field vectors can be decomposed into a transverse component, perpendicular to the direction of the beam, and in a small longitudinal component, parallel to the beam direction. The transverse component is constant along the length and represents the focusing field. The longitudinal component instead changes sign (direction) every /2: a particle travelling with velocity will see an accelerating field (or, in more general terms, the same RF phase) in every cell, exactly as in a standard mode accelerating structure. − + Opposite vanes (180º) Adjacent vanes (90º) Fig. 6: RFQ vanes, field polarity and modulation parameters As a result, from the longitudinal point of view a RFQ will be made of a large number of small accelerating cells ( being very small at the beginning of the acceleration), with the additional flexibility with respect to conventional structures that it is possible to change from cell to cell: (a) the amplitude of the modulation and therefore the intensity of the longitudinal electric field; and (b) the length of the cell and therefore the RF phase seen by the beam in its centre. It is then possible to keep the vanes flat in the initial part of a RFQ (no modulation and only focusing) and after a certain length start ramping up slowly the modulation and the longitudinal field. After the first modulated cells, the particle density will start increasing around the phase at which the RF voltage passes through zero and the bunch will be slowly formed. Over many cells, the bunching process can be carefully controlled and made “adiabatic”, with the result of capturing a large fraction of the beam inside the RFQ “bucket”. When the bunch is formed, the acceleration can start, and the RFQ designer can slowly modify the cell length to bring the centre of the bunch towards the crest of the RF wave. As an example, Fig. 7 shows the evolution of the longitudinal beam emittance (energy versus phase) in 8 selected cells out of the 126 that make the CERN RFQ2 of Fig. 3 (90 keV to 750 keV): in one of the first modulated cells (top left) the continuous beam coming out of the source sees the first sinusoidal energy modulation; in the following cells (first line) the bunching proceeds until a sufficient density is achieved in the centre (second line) and the acceleration process can start. A few particles are lost in the process, corresponding to the tails visible in the fourth and fifth plots. In the last cells, a bunch is formed, ready for injection into the DTL. Fig. 7: Evolution of longitudinal emittance along the CERN RFQ2, in 8 representative cells out of 126 Again, it must be observed that in a RFQ only the last cells are devoted to acceleration; a RFQ is mainly a focusing and bunching device. By correctly defining the parameters of the modulation and the RF voltage, the beam dynamics designer is able to match and transport intense beams, at the same time bunching the beam with minimal particle loss. The drawback is that the beam focusing parameters are frozen forever in the beam modulation and cannot be changed during operation; the RFQ is a “one-button” machine, where only the RF voltage can be varied during operation. Its design relies completely on the beam transport codes, and it is not by coincidence that the development of the RFQs has gone in parallel with the development of the modern powerful beam simulation codes which are able to correctly treat the space charge regime. 4 A brief introduction to RFQ beam dynamics As seen in the previous section, from the point of view of the beam a RFQ is made of a sequence of hundreds of cells with the simplified shape shown in Fig. 8. The dimensions of the region between the electrodes is small compared with the RF wavelength, thus the electric field between the vanes can be calculated in quasi-static approximation and depends only on the geometry of the electrodes. For each RFQ cell, the beam dynamics designer can use three parameters to define the action of the cell on the beam: 1. the aperture a, which defines the focusing strength; 2. the modulation factor m, which defines the intensity of the longitudinal field component; 3. the phase , which is given by the difference between the ideal modulation period (/2) and the real one, and defines the bunching and/or accelerating action. These parameters are specific to each cell, and can be changed, although smoothly, between one cell and the next. On top of them, the designer can act on another parameter that is common to all cells (or can be changed in more sophisticated designs, but with limited freedom), the RF voltage V. 2 (1 ) 2 longitudinal radius of curvature ma a beam axis Fig. 8: Parameters of a RFQ cell Designing a RFQ modulation consists of finding an appropriate set of (a, m, i for each cell i together with a voltage V which allows realizing in the minimum possible number of cells the following functions: - matching of the beam out of the LEBT into the RFQ focusing channel; - transporting the beam (transversally) with minimum emittance growth; - bunching the beam with minimum beam loss, generating a longitudinal emittance matched to the acceptance of the following accelerator; - accelerating the beam from the source extraction energy up to the energy required for injection into the following accelerator; - for some more modern designs, matching the beam to the following structure using the last cells of the RFQ. This design is usually done by computer codes. Several programs exist that from a set of input parameters and for a given voltage define the (a, m, sequence and calculate the output beam parameters, the first and most famous being PARMTEQ, developed at Los Alamos for the POP RFQ . The experience of the designer remains particularly important, however, in determining the impact of a given set of parameters on the other aspects of the RFQ, its RF and mechanical design and construction. In particular, large voltages increase the focusing but increase as well the risk of voltage breakdowns between the electrodes, too small apertures could lead to unrealistic tolerances in the electrode machining and alignment, etc. Moreover, the designer needs to devote particular care in simulating the beam evolution in presence of realistic error distributions, in particular on the positioning of the electrodes. Often the best design is not the one that gives the best performance (short RFQ, small emittance growth, small beam loss) but the one that is less sensitive to mechanical and RF errors. Before analysing how the modulation parameters translate into beam dynamics parameters, it is important to consider how the two-dimensional treatment considered so far translates into the fully three-dimensional shape of a real electrode. In particular, we consider the vanes of a “four-vane” RFQ (Fig. 4). The original approach developed by Kapchinsky was purely analytical, at a time when powerful computer codes were not available, and allows a good insight of the RFQ field. The starting assumption is that in the static approximation that we are allowed to use the potential must be a solution of the Laplace equation, which in cylindrical coordinates can be represented by a series of Bessel functions. The basic Kapchinsky’s idea was that of all of the terms in the series of Bessel functions only two were required for a focusing and accelerating beam channel: a transverse quadrupole term and a longitudinal sinusoidal term. In mathematical form, this means that the voltage in cylindrical coordinates has to be written as the sum of the two Bessel components: V ( r, , z ) A0 r 2 cos 2 A10 I 0 ( kr ) cos kz (1) with k=. The voltage on the surface of the metallic electrodes must be constant, and this means that the three-dimensional profile of a RFQ electrode must correspond to an equipotential surface of V(r, , z). Such surfaces are hyperbolae in the transverse plane, presenting longitudinally the characteristic sinusoidal modulation. The electrode profile is still defined by the parameters of Fig. 7; a detailed mathematical analysis shows that the constants A0 and A10 can be expressed in terms of the modulation parameters and of modified Bessel functions as A0 V0 I 0 ( ka ) I 0 ( kma ) 2a 2 m 2 I 0 ( ka ) I 0 ( kma ) A10 V0 m2 1 2 m 2 I 0 ( ka ) I 0 ( kma ) (2) To provide a pure quadrupole field the transverse faces of the four electrodes have to follow a hyperbolic shape; however, the electrode cannot extend indefinitely, and the hyperbola has to be truncated at a certain position. In this respect, different configurations are possible. In early RFQ designs as the RFQ1 of Fig. 7, the transverse profile followed precisely the hyperbolic shape up to a few centimetres from the vane tip, introducing only a small negligible deviation from the pure quadrupole potential. In later designs, the mechanical construction has been greatly simplified by either taking a circular cross-section for the vane tips or by even taking as electrode a circular rod instead of a vane. Such mechanical simplifications introduce multipole components that can be calculated by computer codes and whose effect on the beam can be minimized. A complete treatment of the RFQ beam dynamics can be found in several books and reports [5– 7]; here, to understand the main features of the RFQ design it is important to give the main relations that connect the RFQ design parameters (a, m, and V with the conventional beam dynamics parameters used in a linear focusing and accelerating channel, transverse focusing coefficient B and longitudinal field E0T: q V B m0 a E0T 1 1 I o ka I o mka 2 2 f a m I o ka I o mka m2 1 2 V 2 m I o ( ka ) I o ( mka ) 4 (3) (4) An example of RFQ beam dynamics design is presented in Fig. 9; here are shown the profiles of (a, m, along the length of the new Linac4 RFQ at CERN . The Linac4 RFQ operates at 352 MHz frequency, accelerating a 70 mA beam from 45 keV up to 3 MeV energy. It is made of 303 cells for a total length of 3 m. The RF phase seen by the beam at the entrance of the RFQ is –90° (in the linac convention, counted from the crest of the wave), but soon as the bunching process starts the phase is slowly increased to reach –30° after about 120 cm. At that point the modulation factor which is very small at the beginning can be increased, ramping up the longitudinal field and starting the actual acceleration process, which takes place in the second half of the RFQ. Owing to the requirements on the length of this particular RFQ, which could not exceed 3 m for manufacturing reasons, the bunching process takes places relatively quickly and the design beam transmission is only 95%. A theoretical transmission close to 100% is possible, but at the cost of having a longer RFQ with tight mechanical requirements. Fig. 9: Modulation parameters along the CERN Linac4 RFQ 5 The RFQ RF resonator From the RF point of view, the problem of building a RFQ consists in creating a time-varying quadrupole-type electric field between four electrodes, keeping the voltage constant (or following a pre-defined law) along its length. To generate this field, the electrodes must be part of a RF resonator; different resonator types can be used, the most commonly used being the “four-vane” resonator, developed at Los Alamos for the POP RFQ. It can be considered as a cylindrical resonator where is excited the TE210 mode, i.e. a quadrupole mode (mode index 2 in the angular polar coordinate) with only transverse electric field components and constant fields along its length (mode index 0 longitudinally). The TE210 mode of the empty cylinder, whose electric and magnetic field symmetry is shown on the left side of Fig. 10, is transversally “loaded” by the four vanes that concentrate the electric field on the axis (Fig. 9, right). The RFQ will result in cylinder containing the four vanes, which must be connected to the cylinder all along their length. B-field E-field Fig. 10: Four-vane RFQ The vanes have a twofold effect on the TE210 mode: on the one hand, they concentrate the quadrupole field on the axis, increasing the RF power efficiency of the structure and the focusing term V/a in Eq. (3); and, on the other hand, they increase the capacitance for this particular mode, decreasing its frequency well below that of the many other modes of the cylindrical resonator; this separation has a positive effect on the stability of the resonator. Unfortunately, the presence of the vanes decreases in the same way as the frequency of the TE110 mode, the dipole whose field pattern is shown in Fig. 11: the RFQ resonator will present at a frequency slightly below that of the operating TE210 mode two dipole modes of TE110 type, corresponding to the two orthogonal polarizations of this mode. Fig. 11: Dipole modes in a cylindrical cavity After having connected the vanes to the cylinder, it is important to terminate correctly the resonator at its two ends. Longitudinally, the voltage between the vanes must be constant, meaning that the mode of operation must be a pure TE210. The problem is that in normal conditions the TE210 is forbidden in a closed cylindrical resonator: its electric field is directed transversally to the axis, and on the end discs closing the resonator the electric field would be parallel to a metallic wall. To allow the excitation of this mode, the two end regions of the RFQ must be modified, by cutting an opening at the end of each vane (the vane “undercuts”) as shown in Fig. 12. The undercuts allow the magnetic field which goes longitudinally in each quadrant to turn around the vanes and continue in the next quadrants. The ends of the vanes do not touch the covers, but leave a small gap where the turning magnetic field excites an electric field. If the resulting “end cell” is made resonant at the frequency of the TE210 mode, the electromagnetic field of the mode will see an infinitely long RFQ (i.e. will not see the presence of the end cells) and the voltage along the vanes will be constant. It should be mentioned that the correct design of the RFQ end cells requires an extensive use of three-dimensional RF simulation codes. B-field Fig. 12: End-cell of a four-vane RFQ. The arrows show the direction of the magnetic field. The length of the RFQ, as defined by the beam optics, has an important impact on the number and distribution of high-order modes in the RFQ cavity, which will eventually determine the sensitivity of the RFQ voltage to errors in the positioning of the vanes. In a cylindrical resonator each zero-order mode, such as the TE210 and TE110, gives rise to a family of high-order modes of increasing frequency, each one characterized by a longitudinal voltage distribution with a number of nodes (transitions through zero) equal to the order of the mode. The presence of the vanes will lower the frequency of all of the modes of the TE21n and TE11n families, bringing them in a frequency range close to the operating frequency. In particular, the distance between each high-order mode and its zero mode will be inversely proportional to (l/)2, the square of the ratio between the RFQ length and the RF wavelength of the zero mode, as can be easily derived from waveguide theory. The consequence is that the longer the RFQ the lower will be the spacing between the operating mode and the higher-order modes, opening the possibility of harmful effects on the field stability of the resonator. Although the RFQ operates at fixed frequency on the TE210 mode, the presence of mechanical errors in the machining and/or positioning of the vanes will give rise to field components of the adjacent modes appearing at the operating mode frequency, whose amplitude will be proportional to the mechanical error and inversely proportional to the difference in frequency between operating and perturbing mode. The consequence is that the longer the RFQ, the more stringent will be the mechanical tolerances. To keep the construction tolerances at a reasonable level, RFQs that are longer than about 2 are usually equipped with special compensation devices, e.g. tuning volumes inserted inside the quadrants at different longitudinal positions allow the mechanical errors on the vanes to be compensated for by a local variation of the quadrant inductance. For RFQs that are even longer, from about 4, the local compensation is not sufficient and a stabilization scheme is usually implemented, under the form of a resonant or non-resonant device mounted inside the RFQ which moves the frequency of the perturbing modes away from the operating mode. As an example of a long RFQ using only compensation schemes, Fig. 13 shows the measured mode spectrum of a 425 MHz fourvane RFQ, 2.75 m long. For this RFQ, l/=3.9: the zero quadrupole (TE210) is surrounded by a large number of modes, with as many as three dipole modes (TE110, TE111 and TE112) at frequencies lower than the operating frequency. Each dipole mode has two polarizations, corresponding to orthogonal orientations of the electric field (see Fig. 11). These can have slightly different frequencies, each one generating its own high-order band; the notations 1-3 and 3-4 in Fig. 13 refer to the polarizations corresponding to field concentrated in pairs of opposite quadrants. Fig. 13: Measured mode spectrum of a 425 MHz four-vane RFQ, 2.75 m long. The notations 1-3 and 3-4 refer to pairs of opposite quadrants. Excitation was in quadrant 1. Operating mode is quadrupole 0. The high sensitivity to errors of the RFQ resonator coming from the presence of perturbing modes has to be correctly taken into account in the design, construction and tuning of the RFQ. As a first step, the length of the RFQ and the design of the end terminations have to be chosen in such a way as to avoid having dipole modes too close to the operating quadrupole mode. In the case of a RFQ with compensation scheme, as are most of the existing RFQs, an extensive series of voltage measurements is required after construction and assembly. The measurements are then entered into an algorithm that allows the correct dimensioning of the compensation devices: this is the so-called “tuning” of the RFQ, which on top of bringing the quadrupole frequency at the required design value aims at achieving a flat (or following a predefined law) voltage along the RFQ, equal in the four quadrants. Accurate field measurements in the RFQ can be performed via “bead-pull” techniques, where a perturbing metallic bead on a plastic wire is slowly moved inside the four quadrants, to register the frequency shift which is proportional to the square of the local field. To reduce the error sensitivity of the RFQ field, resonator designs alternative to the four-vane have been developed and are in use in many laboratories; of these, the most widely used is the socalled “four-rod” RFQ (Fig. 14) originally developed by A. Schempp at the IAP of Frankfurt University . Fig. 14: Four-rod RFQ In this device, the four electrodes are either circular rods with a modulated diameter or small rectangular bars with a modulated profile on one side; they are connected to an array of quarterwavelength parallel plate transmission lines generating a voltage difference between the two plates (Fig. 15). Opposite pairs of electrodes are connected to the two plates of a line, resulting in a quadrupole voltage being generated between the rods. Several quarter-wavelength cells are used to cover the required RFQ length; their magnetic field couples from each cell to the next, forming a single long resonator. This “open” RFQ structure is then placed inside a tank, which forms the vacuum and RF envelope of the structure. + </4 Fig. 15: The four-rod RFQ structure RFQs of this type are free from dipole modes; however, in the standard single-support structure of Fig. 14 the transverse slope in the cut on the plate needs to be carefully defined to ensure that the voltage on two pairs of opposite rods is the same, to compensate for their different distances from the bottom plate. In other RFQ designs, such as that shown in Fig. 16, a double plate supports the electrodes, to completely eliminate dipole components. From the point of view of the longitudinal modes a four-rod RFQ is no different to a four-vane RFQ: for long RFQ structures an error compensation is required, achieved by placing short-circuiting plates or metallic volumes inside some cells to reduce the transmission line length. The main advantages of the four-rod RFQ are the absence of dipole modes (which reduces the sensitivity to mechanical errors and simplifies the tuning), the reduced transverse dimensions as compared with the four-vane RFQ, and the simple and easy to access construction. These advantages are particularly evident for the low-frequency RFQs (up to about 100 MHz) used for heavy ions. For the higher frequencies required for protons, from about 200 MHz, the transverse dimensions of the four-rod RFQ become very small and the current and power densities reach high values in some parts of the resonator, in particular at the critical connection between the rods and the supports; cooling can be difficult, in particular for RFQs operating at high duty cycle, with the risk of excessive deformations of the rods and reduced beam transmission. For these reasons, RFQs operating at frequencies above 200 MHz or at high duty cycle are usually of the four-vane type. Fig. 16: The antiproton decelerating RFQ at CERN (202 MHz) 6 Mechanical construction The mechanical design and construction of a RFQ is a challenge in itself, for two main reasons: first of all, tight tolerances in the machining and positioning of the electrodes need to be achieved and maintained during operation; and, second, because many different mechanical parts need to be joined together respecting the tolerances and providing an excellent electrical and thermal contact, to avoid excessive RF power consumption and/or overheating. On top of that, the mechanical structure has to provide sufficient access points for RF tuning and for vacuum pumping. Usual beam dynamics tolerances in the machining and positioning of the RFQ electrodes are of the order of few tens of micrometres, a value that corresponds to about 1 % of the minimum radius of the beam channel (a in Fig. 7). For larger errors, multipoles appear in Eq. (1) resulting in a perturbation of the beam optics and in increasing beam loss in the RFQ. In four-vane RFQs the RF can generate additional dipole and higher-order mode components again proportional to the errors in the positioning of the vanes through complex RF-related algorithms. RF-related errors can be compensated for by the compensation system (tuners or other); nevertheless, the maximum permitted vane positioning errors define the size of the compensation system (number and dimension of the tuners, for example). The compromise usually adopted in this type of RFQs is to define for the RF a maximum error smaller or of the same level as the beam dynamics one, and then dimension consequently the compensation system. To give an example, Table 1 reports the permitted error budget of the CERN Linac4 RFQ, defined after a series of beam dynamics calculations in presence of random errors. The RF compensation system (tuners) is dimensioned to fully absorb the mechanical errors, leaving a residual field error of ±1 %. The electrode gap represents the distance between the vane ends at the connection between the three RFQ segments. Table 1: Error budget of the CERN Linac4 RFQ Linac4 RFQ Mechanical Tolerances Value Units Machining error ± 20 m Vane modulation error ± 20 m Vane tilt over 1 m ± 100 m Vane positioning error (displacement h+v) ± 30 m Vane thickness error ± 10 m 100 ± 15 m Section tilt over 1 m ± 30 m Electromagnetic field error ±1 % Gap between vanes (contiguous modules) Joining the different parts is the next problem to be faced; RFQs tend to use a large variety of joining techniques, including brazing, electron-beam welding, TIG welding and simple bolting of parts using different types of gaskets and contacts. Four-rod RFQs are usually made out of parts bolted together; low- and medium-frequency four-vane RFQs are bolted or welded, and high-frequency fourvane RFQs are usually made of brazed copper elements following the scheme of Fig. 17. The RFQ is divided into longitudinal segments of about 1 m length (Fig. 4, right); the segments are composed of four copper elements brazed together, each made of a vane and of a part of the external tank to minimize the brazing surface. Cooling channels are machined inside the copper; the brazing ensures the vacuum tightness of the structure, providing at the same time a high thermal and electrical conductivity. Fig. 17: Construction scheme of two European 352 MHz continuous wave RFQs: TRASCO of INFN, Italy (left) and IPHI of CEA, France (right) An important requirement is that the precise alignment of the electrodes does not change when the structure is heated by the RF power dissipated on the walls and supports; this is particularly demanding for high duty cycle or continuous wave RFQs, where the power to dissipate can be of the order of 1 kW/cm. The number size and position of the water cooling channels need to be carefully dimensioned; the corresponding deformations have to be calculated and translated into beam dynamics and RF errors. In addition, a precise control of the water temperature is required, at the level of 0.1°. As an example, Fig. 18 summarizes the thermal studies performed for the design of the TRASCO RFQ of INFN. Here the deformations are translated into frequency errors in the individual RFQ quadrants. 21.5 C 22.5 C 22 C Temperature Map @ Inlet Water section 19C Displacement @ Water Inlet section DF=-4 kHz 22 C Temperature Map @ Final section Displacement @ Final section DF=+13 kHz Fig. 18: Calculated temperature (top) and displacement (bottom) distributions in the TRASCO RFQ at the beginning (left) and at the end (right) of a section 7 Putting it all together In the previous sections the main aspects of RFQ theory and construction practice have been presented. What remains to be underlined now is that a RFQ is a highly multidisciplinary object, whose performance relies on a complex equilibrium between three fundamental disciplines, beam dynamics, electrodynamics and accelerator mechanics, and with important inputs from other aspects of accelerator technology such as vacuum, RF power production, survey, etc. On the one hand, mechanical errors or deformations and deviations from the ideal RF field distribution would result immediately in reductions of the RFQ beam transmission; on the other hand, an excessively demanding tolerance budget would increase the complexity of the construction leading to unnecessary challenges and sky-scraping costs. On top of that, the performance of a RFQ depends critically on its input beam parameters and therefore on the performance of the ion source and LEBT: any deviation from the design emittance or error in the input beam alignment result again in a reduction of the RFQ transmission. The real challenge of building a RFQ is not in each single aspects of its design, but lies in putting it all together: if teamwork and good communication between the different competencies required to build an accelerator are nowadays crucial to any project, this is even more true for RFQs where the different aspects are closely interrelated. The fact that often projects are based on international or inter-laboratory collaborations and/or rely heavily on industrial partners adds another degree of complexity that needs to be correctly managed. If the construction of a RFQ represents a challenge, it can also be extremely rewarding. RFQs in particular for extreme parameters tend to be difficult to design and construct, but once they have been commissioned they tend to be very reliable (as far as their thermal equilibrium is not altered), operating steadily and without need for adjustment for several years: after all, they are “one-button” accelerators. Acknowledgements The preparation of this lecture has profited from the support and advice of A.M. Lombardi, A. Pisent, C. Rossi and J. Stovall. To all of them goes my gratitude. References E. Boltezar, et al., The new CERN 50-MeV Linac, Proc. of the 1979 Linac Conference. I.M. Kapchinsky and V.A. Tepliakov, Prib. Tekh. Eksp. 2 (1970) 19-22. R.W. Hamm, et al., Proc. of the International Conference on Low Energy Ion Beams 2, University of Bath, April 1980, p. 54. E. Tanke, M. Vretenar and M. Weiss, Measurement of the CERN high intensity RFQ, Proc. of the European Particle Accelerator Conference, Berlin, 1992. K.R. Crandall, R.H. Stokes and T.P. Wangler, RF quadrupole beam dynamics design studies, Proc. of the 1979 Linear Accelerator Conference, Montauk, NY. T. Wangler, Principles of RF linear accelerators (Wiley, New York, 1998), p. 225. M. Weiss, Radio frequency quadrupole, Proc. of the 1986 CAS School, Aarhus. C. Rossi, et al., The radiofrequency quadrupole accelerator for the CERN Linac4, Proc. of the 2008 Linac Conference, Victoria. A. Schempp, H. Deitinghoff, M. Ferch, P. Junior and H. Klein, /2 RFQ for light ion acceleration, IAP Report, 1984. A. Pisent, M. Comunian, A. Palmieri, G.V. Lamanna and D. Barni, TRASCO RFQ, Proc. of Linac 2000, Monterey, CA. R. Ferdinand and P.Y. Beauvais, AIP Conf. Proc. 773 (2005) 84. |
Lipid nanoparticles are a vital component of the new Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, playing a key role in protecting and transporting the mRNA effectively to the right place in cells. They are next generation liposomes that use nanotechnology and are well suited to stable and efficient delivery of various therapeutics.
Although mRNA vaccines have received much global interest as they are a new type of drug, lipid nanoparticles have held a recognised position in the mainstream of drug delivery systems (DDS) since the discovery of liposomes in the 1960s. Let us take a closer look at what liposomes are, their evolution and potential for use in other industries.
What do the immunology and vaccine experts have to say? Watch a recent Q&A panel discussion and read this review article recently published by CAS scientists in ACS Central Science
Liposomes – the precursor to lipid nanoparticles
Liposomes are closed lipid bilayer vesicles that spontaneously form in water (see fig. 1A) – essentially a fatty capsule. They were discovered in the 1960s and their potential as effective drug delivery systems was almost immediately recognized. Throughout the last few decades scientists have worked on the design of liposomes to control where they act, how long they circulate in the body, and where and when their contents are released.
Liposomes have proven to be an extremely versatile nanocarrier platform because they can transport either hydrophilic drugs within the enclosed aqueous interior, or hydrophobic drugs within the hydrocarbon chain region of the lipid bilayer (see fig. 1B).
They are enormously important in therapeutics, driving medicine forward, and have been used in numerous clinical trials for anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, antifungal, and anaesthetic drug delivery as well as for the delivery of gene therapies. In fact, liposomes are the first nanomedicine delivery platform to successfully move from concept to clinical application. There are a number of approved pharmaceutical preparations, for example, Doxil for the delivery of the chemical inhibitor doxorubicin to treat ovarian cancer and Epaxal for the delivery of protein antigen as a hepatitis vaccine, and many more in the pipeline. Understanding how they have been developed will help us unlock potential future uses.
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of: (A) liposome; (B) liposome encapsulating hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs; (C) immunoliposome functionalized with targeting ligands; (D) sterically stabilized ("stealth") liposome functionalized with inert polymers such as PEG.
Evolution as a targeted drug delivery system
Despite their benefits, liposomes have a couple of disadvantages: they have a short circulation time in blood stream, are unstable in the human body, and lack selective targeting. There have been several key developments to their construction to overcome these challenges:
- To enhance tissue targeting, the liposomes’ surface has been modified with ligands or antibodies which allow the liposome to recognise and bind to specific receptors on the cells (Fig 1C). These are referred to as immunoliposomes.
- To improve their longevity in the blood stream, the surface has been coated in biocompatible inert polymers such as PEG (Fig 1D), which goes undetected.
- To provide controlled release of the encapsulated drug, scientists have designed stimuli-responsive liposomes which are sensitive to temperature and pH levels. The membrane permeability is enhanced during a stimuli-triggered phase transition of the lipids in formulations.
Lipid nanoparticles have a more complex internal lipid architecture and minimal internal aqueous presence than traditional liposomes. Further enhanced physical stability has been achieved by the development of solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC), addressing one of the main limitations of emulsion-based formulations. Cubosomes are the most recent improvement which are highly stable nanoparticles formed from a lipid in cubic phase and stabilised by a polymer-based outer corona.
Cationic Lipid Nanoparticles as carriers for nucleic acids
Many of today’s drug molecules are small molecules and biologics. However, increasingly scientists are moving beyond traditional biopharmaceuticals to more complex and specialized therapies including oligonucleotides (RNA, mRNA, siRNA, and DNA-based molecules) that can fight disease at a genetic level.
Nucleic acid-based drugs are a highly interesting new category of biologics that has emerged and a major challenge to their adoption has been ensuring their efficient delivery. This is because the physiochemical properties of the nucleic acids, such as a negative charge and hydrophilicity, prevent passive diffusion across the plasma membrane. They are also susceptible to nuclease degradation. For example, free mRNA, breaks down quickly in the body, thereby diminishing its effectiveness.
To prevent this, and improve stability, advanced technology is required, and this is where lipid nanoparticles come into play. Presently, the most widely used non-viral vector system includes a synthetic positively charged (cationic) lipid. These form stable complexes known as lipoplexes with negatively charged (anionic) nucleic acids. Decorated by positively charged lipids (see fig. 2), nucleic acids are more stable and resistant to nuclease degradation.
Allergic reactions to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines
Despite their clear advantages for drug delivery, lipid nanoparticles have an unwanted side-effect; they have the potential to induce an allergic reaction, particularly for those who suffer with severe allergies. However, reactions are rare and researchers estimate a rate of 1.1 cases of anaphylaxis for every million first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
The compositions of the lipid nanoparticles are very similar for the two vaccines (Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna): an ionizable cationic lipid, a PEGylated lipid, cholesterol, and the phospholipid distearoylphosphatidylcholine (DSPC) as a helper lipid. Scientists believe these reactions are related to the PEG-lipid component of the vaccine as the risk of sensitization appears to be higher with formulations comprising higher-molecule-weight PEG such as PEG3350 – PEG5000. It should be noted that mRNA vaccines contain only MW PEG2000.
or Lab Code
|CAS Registry Number|
|Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine 1, 21-22|
|Moderna vaccine 2, 22-23|
Fig. 3. Structures of lipids of the mRNA delivery LNPs
Future applications for Lipid Nanoparticles
While lipid nanoparticles are pushing boundaries for drug delivery, they could also have huge potential in cosmeceuticals, cosmetics and nutrition industries as an alternative carrier to emulsions.
There are many promising applications, for example, they are ideal for dermal applications of cosmetics, giving controlled release of actives and enhanced penetration to increase skin hydration. Furthermore, their excellent physical stability and compatibility with other ingredients means they can be added to existing formulations easily. Using these systems means emulsifiers are unnecessary, enabling scientists to create higher-quality products.
1Kulkarni, J. A., Thomson, S. B., Zaifman, J., Leung, J., Wagner, P. K., et al. (2020) Spontaneous, solvent-free entrapment of siRNA within lipid nanoparticles. Nanoscale 12, 23959-23966. |
Visiting the dentist may sound like a nightmare. Prole has often said that dental treatments are painful and expensive. This happens because people don’t take good care of their dental health. Bad habits of not brushing properly, eating inappropriately, and skipping dental cleanings can lead to severe dental problems.
Dentists say that gum problems and diseases can lead to severe health problems, heart diseases, diabetes, and kidney problems. It is not easy to get dentist comfort in your first appointment of dental care, but it gets better if you choose the right ways to deal with the dentist. Everyone shall need a dentist in their life in the early or later stages, so it is better to build comfort with your dentist to get the treatment.
Build communication with your dentist
One easy solution to getting comfortable with your dentist is by building communication. If you have a good connection with your dentist, then it not only creates comfort but also helps to ease out the pain from dental treatments. It is significant to communicate with the dentist what dental problems you have and how painful they are.
You can even tell them you are getting any side effects in the body due to the treatments. Even during the routine checkups, you must tell your dentist if you are feeling uncomfortable during the treatment so that an alternative can be suggested. In entirety, communication is the key to avoid discomfort.
Keep a proactive approach towards oral health
When it comes to your health, you have to maintain a proactive approach to avoid the discomfort. Whether it is a doctor or dentist or any other professional, you need to note that health problems will not resolve themselves. People need to visit doctors to keep their health in check from time to time. If you think that dental problems can be cured by themselves, then you are wrong.
You have to fix an appointment with the dentist to diagnose the disease and get the treatment required. Even a minor cavity can lead to serious oral diseases, which can later be seen in your ill health. Reaching out to your dentist and telling them exact symptoms can be of great help.
Using advanced technology to get comfort
Science has been growing rapidly, and so is technology. Professionals have started incorporating scientific methods to help their patients get relief from pain and cure their diseases. Dentistry has come a long way with advanced technology too. Sedation is the only answer for people who feel anxiety and stress during dental treatments.
Patients often get nervous before getting such treatments; hence sedating the patient through medications is the safest way to relieve them of their anxiety and make them feel comfortable. Sedatives given by the dentists help the patients to relax during the treatment and perform the treatment smoothly. Sedation dentistry is a boon to those who avoid visiting the dentist due to painful procedures. Even after taking sedatives, you remain wide awake without feeling anything in your mouth.
Research thoroughly before setting an appointment
In dental emergencies, people tend to fix appointments with any dentist nearby without checking for their specifications. That is why it is suggested to get routine checkups and treatments for cleaning and scaling from time to time. Ignoring dental diseases for a long time can result in dental emergencies, and you will have to rush to the nearby dentist. Researching online before reaching out to a reliable dental clinic like Suave Dental is a better option.
You can assess the reviews of other visitors and the price for the treatment beforehand. This can help you to make a better decision to visit the dentist of your choice and to get in a comfortable space. |
Passover 5771 may be past, but its lessons return in last week’s parashah (B’ha’alot’kha). Of all our holidays, Passover ranks supreme in that we were delivered from Egypt specifically with Passover in mind. Whatever else we do as Jews follows from this singular event in our past. In Temple days, therefore, the Passover sacrifice was the sole calendrical obligation whose purposeful neglect merited a form of capital punishment called karet – the divine sentence of being “cut off” from family ties after we die.
That point is moot now that the sacrificial cult is gone, but the Talmudic debate on it remains instructive.
Although everyone was supposed to offer the Passover sacrifice, not everyone could – hence the stipulation “purposeful (!)” neglect. Among the circumstances that exempted a person from offering it was being “a long way away” (derekh r’chokah),” too far distant to get to the Temple on time.
But what counts as “a long way away”? How long is “long”?
The Mishnah provides two views: either as far away from Jerusalem as the city of Modi’in with not enough time to make the journey by Passover; or at the very entrance to the Temple, but not yet inside it. The first is logical; the second is not. If the individual is already just outside, asks the Gemara, why don’t we say “Come in!” and expect the person to cross the threshold or suffer the punitive consequences?
At this point, the appearance of the word “long” (r’chokah) in the Torah becomes relevant. In antiquity, and all the way through the Middle Ages, there was no way for a scribe writing with indelible ink on parchment to erase an error. A common convention for noting the mistake was to add a dot or other superlinear mark above the mistaken letter. Now it happens that the Masoretic text (the way the Torah is pointed) displays the word “long” (r’chokah) with a dot over the final heh. The Yerushalmi, therefore, considers the possibility of treating the heh as a mistake, thus reading the word as rachok, the masculine equivalent of r’chokah. Read as a masculine adjective, it can no longer modify the noun “way.” It must, therefore, modify the only other noun in question, not the “journey” that the individual is on, but the “individual” who is on the journey! The Yerushalmi’s conclusion is profound. “It is the person who is distant, not the way.”
Now we understand the Mishnah’s second interpretation. We do not say to those standing right outside the door, “Just come in!” because it would sound more like a threat than an invitation, the assumption being that if they refuse, they will be punished by karet. In actuality, however, they are not sinners; they are just too alienated to take the final step inside. The gemara describes them as “able to do the sacrifice but not doing it” – not out of ill will but (in Maharam’s words) “because of some impediment” that gets in the way.
This rabbinic reading of halakhah effectively removes the punishment of karet altogether, since anyone can claim “some impediment” that gets in the way. Anyone at all can thereby opt instead to keep the second Passover one month later. But the second Passover (unlike the first) is optional. So even if the individual misses the second Passover too, no punishment results.
By analogy, we may say that today, the obligation to hold or attend a seder is absolute – the single most telling expression of identification as a Jew. But Jews who do not keep it should be understood as suffering from “some impediment” that psychologically distances them from their people, not as sinners who deserve our scorn.
If that is true of the seder, which most Jews love attending and for which so many opportunities exist, all the more so is it true of the rest of Jewish life. Take Jews who belong to no synagogue, even though we reach out and say, “Come in.” We should be that welcoming, and many of us are, but when they fail to take us up on our offer, we become defensive and blame them instead of seeing, as the gemara does, that even though they are at our doorstep, they may still be a long distance off.
The most important lesson here is to drop our self-righteousness and keep the door open. Jews with complex relationships to Judaism deserve our support as they figure things out. Passover will come round next year and who knows? Maybe if we are patient, their psychological distance may lessen and they will come in then. |
At any given time, two to three overseers/under-overseers were employed on the plantation. They, along with their families, would have lived in the overseers' home. This house would have faced south and was positioned in such a way as to allow the overseers the ability to monitor both the enslaved community and the owners' compound. The current structure is a conjectural reconstruction built in 1955. Also in front of the Overseers' Home are the reconstructed plantation stocks. Stocks were used as a means of public humiliation and punishment for members of the enslaved community. When a person was placed in the stocks, his/her feet were locked into place, forcing them to sit on the very uncomfortable bench.
Backstory and Context
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The overseers were part of the plantation’s hired labor force. At any given time, there were 2-3 white overseers and under-overseers living with their family members and working at Somerset Place. This structure was large enough for two overseers and their families to live in, with each family living in half of the house. That’s why there’s two front doors on this structure. The Overseers’ House you see here was reconstructed in 1955 to serve as a modern residence, so the building itself is conjectural, although it was built to the size of the original home. The overseers who lived in the house that stood here were in direct control of the enslaved community, and it was through these men that the enslaved families felt the authority, power, and control of Josiah Collins. The overseers implemented the reward and punishment system to control the hundreds of enslaved people who were forced to live and work here. According to former enslaved field hand Uriah Bennett, who lived at Somerset Place as a child, “the overseers were pretty cruel sometimes.”
Self-Guided Tour Brochure, Somerset Place State Historic Site.
Somerset Place State Historic Site |
The history of jazz in New Orleans has a poorly documented subtext of musicians who bravely crossed racial boundaries to play together for the love of the music itself. Jazz grew and flourished during a time of racial apartheid in the Jim Crow south, and New Orleans officials took a dim view of racial intermixing. But the vibrant sounds of gospel, blues and jazz coming out of the black community made an irresistible impact on many white musicians who braved censure and arrest to pursue an artistic dialog with black music. "Mosaic Records Presents the Complete Brunswick and Vocalion Recordings of Louis Prima and Wingy Manone (1924-37)" is a crucial document in this history.
Both trumpeters grew up in New Orleans during the early part of the 20th century when the influence of trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong had the kind of effect Chuck Berry exerted on early rock 'n' roll.
Born in 1904 and 1911 respectively, Manone and Prima both came up during a time when black and white musicians were forbidden by law to share a public bandstand, yet Italian-Americans and African-Americans frequently interacted on and off stage.
Black bands would perform opposite white bands in the clubs, many owned by Italians, and would often perform together in informal and unpublicized sessions. Prima, whose dark complexion and kinky hair would later cost him jobs at segregated clubs, also took inspiration from the music in the black churches of his youth, instilling the exuberant gospel spirit that would always be a part of his performing persona. Manone, who at the age of 9 was told by his trumpet teacher that black bands were "faking it," wisely took that as a clue to end his formal lessons and immersed himself in this exciting new music.
The 64 selections by Prima were all recorded between the years 1934 and 1937. Although Prima flirted briefly with a big band in 1936, 11 of the 13 sessions included here feature smaller groups ranging from quintet to octet. The brilliant clarinetist Pee Wee Russell is a featured soloist on more than half the tracks. Prima's trademark vocals share the spotlight with his hot trumpet playing on all but two tracks, including his classic composition "Sing Sing Sing."
Among his other hit records featured in this set are "Chinatown, My Chinatown," "Dinah" and "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans." Other great New Orleans musicians on these tracks include George Brunies and Sidney Arodin, along with George Van Eps and a very young Claude Thornhill.
While Prima (along with his vocalist wife Keely Smith) became a top attraction in Las Vegas and a mainstay in television and the movies, Manone was probably best known for his work with Bing Crosby. However, Manone's 83 tracks contained in this set are a powerful testament to his stature as a great jazzman in his own right -- and his still-existing reputation as one of the finest trumpeters in the New Orleans tradition.
Like Prima, Manone, who lost the name Joseph along with his right arm in a streetcar accident at the age of ten, was a superb showman, with a ruggedly hot trumpet style matched by his rough-hewn voice.
This set includes his first recording in 1924 with the Arcadian Serenaders and an appearance on one tune of a 1927 Red Nichols session, as well as his first recording as a leader earlier that same year.
Most of the sessions, however, took place between 1934 and 1936 and feature members of the defunct Ben Pollack Band that would eventually become the nucleus of Bob Crosby's band, a group whose direct influence can be heard today in the current version of the Dukes of Dixieland. These included tenorman Eddie Miller, clarinetist Matty Matlock, pianist Gil Bowers, guitarist Nappy Lamare and drummer Ray Bauduc ... all playing powerful small band swing with a heavy New Orleans flavor.
Also like Prima's band, this group was an early fixture on "Swing Street." Manone's biggest hit, 1935's "The Isle of Capri," is included here, and it led to numerous recording sessions for Vocalion over the next year featuring such luminaries as Bud Freeman, Joe Marsala, George Brunies and Sidney Arodin.
One of the great treasures contained here is a wonderful 1934 pickup session that had once been thought lost, featuring such giants as Jelly Roll Morton, Artie Shaw, Dicky Wells, Teddy Wilson, John Kirby and Freeman. Other interesting items include a number with Russ Morgan and his Orchestra; a previously unissued "demo" by vocalist Jeanne Burns; and an infamous session with Jack Teagarden and a young vocalist named Johnny Mercer, that was so whisky-laden that the band had to be re-assembled a week later to cut the final track.
Most of the tracks on this release are issued for the first time on CD in the United States (many unreleased even on LP) and 12 are previously unissued in any form. The album is available solely through Mosaic Records; 35 Melrose Place, Stamford, Conn. 06902; (203) 327-7111. Check the company's Web site at mosaicrecords.com for more information. |
- Pre Occupation Forces History
- Occupation Forces History
- Post Occupation Forces History
LocationThe compound was located on the Teufelsberg in the north of the Grunewald forest in the district of Wilmersdorf.
Pre Occupation Forces HistoryIn 1937 construction works for the Wehrtechnische Fakultät (military-technical college) started. The plans for the compund were made by Albert Speer Hitler's major architect.
When World War II broke out only the shell of the compound was finnished. Since resources were now needed for more important military projects work on the facility was put to halt.
During the war the place was used to store ammunition. Allied bombing raids damaged the unfinnished buildings. After the war it remains were torn down. In 1950 the site was used to dump rubble from Berlin's ruins. The hill grew to 55 meters and became the highest point next to the Müggelberge (located in East-Berlin).
Occupation Forces History...
Post Occupation Forces History...
This picture was taken in 1995. See more Images of Field Station Berlin taken on the same day. |
Macrotermessp. is a tropical species of termite that build mounds with a “natural air conditioning” system. Their main food source is a fungus they cultivate inside the mound, so a constant internal temperature is needed for that fungus to grow. But under the hot tropical sun, that can be difficult to achieve.
Don’t worry. The termites have it all figured out. They employ a process called convection – this is where heat is transferred from one place to another. Hot air is less dense than cool air, so warmer air moves to the top of a space, while cooler air tends to sink. In the case of Macrotermes mounds, as the air warms inside the mound, it rises and is released through the tall chimneys. By doing this, it creates a vacuum in the tunnels. This allows cool air to be sucked in their little microhabitat by creating air currents. Voila! Nature’s A/C.
For this podcast, world renowned architect Mick Pearce joins us from Zimbabwe to talk about the design of the Eastgate Center in Harare. There are no electrical AC units in the building – instead, Pearce used termite mound structure as inspiration for the ventilation system! |
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors. With the May 2013 publication of the DSM-5 diagnostic manual, all autism disorders were merged into one umbrella diagnosis of ASD. Previously, they were recognized as distinct subtypes, including autistic disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger syndrome. ASD can be associated with intellectual disability, difficulties in motor coordination and attention and physical health issues such as sleep and gastrointestinal disturbances. Some persons with ASD excel in visual skills, music, math and art. Autism appears to have its roots in very early brain development. However, the most obvious signs of autism and symptoms of autism tend to emerge between 2 and 3 years of age. (Source: http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism)
- About 1 percent of the world population has autism spectrum disorder.
- Prevalence in the United States is estimated at 1 in 68 births.
- More than 3.5 million Americans live with an autism spectrum disorder.
- Prevalence of autism in U.S. children increased by 119.4 percent from 2000 (1 in 150) to 2010 (1 in 68). Autism is the fastest-growing developmental disability.
- Prevalence has increased by 6-15 percent each year from 2002 to 2010. (Based on biennial numbers from the CDC)
- Autism services cost U.S. citizens $236-262 billion annually.
- A majority of costs in the U.S. are in adult services – $175-196 billion, compared to $61-66 billion for children.
- In 10 years, the annual cost will be $200-400 billion. (Autism Society estimate)
- Cost of lifelong care can be reduced by 2/3 with early diagnosis and intervention. (Autism Society estimate based on Government Accounting Office Report on Autism, 2006)
- 1 percent of the adult population of the United Kingdom has autism spectrum disorder.
- The U.S. cost of autism over the lifespan is about $2.4 million for a person with an intellectual disability, or $1.4 million for a person without intellectual disability.
- 35 percent of young adults (ages 19-23) with autism have not had a job or received postgraduate education after leaving high school.
- It costs more than $8,600 extra per year to educate a student with autism. (The average cost of educating a student is about $12,000)
- In June 2014, only 19.3 percent of people with disabilities in the U.S. were participating in the labor force – working or seeking work. Of those, 12.9 percent were unemployed; meaning only 16.8 percent of the population with disabilities was employed. (By contrast, 69.3 percent of people without disabilities were in the labor force, and 65 percent of the population without disabilities was employed.)
Above Key Points found at: http://www.autism-society.org
- Autism now affects 1 in 68 children and 1 in 42 boys.
- Autism prevalence figures are growing.
- Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.
- Autism costs a family $60,000 a year on average.
- Boys are nearly five times more likely than girls to have autism.
- There is no medical detection or cure for autism.
Above Key points found at: http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/facts-about-autism
- Q: We have an autistic girl who keeps rubbing herself. She had an infection in K and this is when it started. Now, in 2nd, she is rubbing herself constantly. It has increased dramatically during this year. Any ideas on how to get her to stop?
- A: Visuals, social stories and positive reinforcement for staying on task. There are a lot of social stories regarding private parts that talk about where it is acceptable to touch your own private parts-bathroom, home, etc. I would give the least amount of attention possible when she starts the behaviors since that could unintentionally be reinforcing the behavior.
- Q: How common is Autism? A: Around 1 in 68 American children as on the autism spectrum, which is a ten-fold increase in prevalence over the last 40 years. Studies also show that autism is four to five times more common among boys than girls. An estimated 1 out of 42 boys and 1 in 189 girls are diagnosed with autism in the United States.
- What I have learned: Q: What causes Autism? A: There is no one cause of autism just as there is no one type of autism. Over the last five years, scientists have identified a number of rare gene changes, or mutations, associated with autism. Research has identified more than a hundred autism risk genes. In around 15 percent of cases, a specific genetic cause of a person’s autism can be identified. However, most cases involve a complex and variable combination of genetic risk and environmental factors that influence early brain development.
- What I have learned: Q: What does it mean to be “on the spectrum?” A: Each individual with autism is unique. Many of those on the autism spectrum have exceptional abilities in visual skills, music and academic skills. About 40 percent have intellectual disability (IQ less than 70), and many have normal to above average intelligence. Indeed, many persons on the spectrum take deserved pride in their distinctive abilities and “atypical” ways of viewing the world. Others with autism have significant disability and are unable to live independently. About 25 percent of individuals with ASD are nonverbal but can learn to communicate using other means.
- What I have learned: Q: How does a child develop Autism? A: Research suggests that the development of autism is rooted in very early brain development. However, in most cases, no one cause can be identified. Research has identified several genes that can cause autism in and of themselves. These account for about 15 percent of cases of autism spectrum disorders. Research has identified more than 100 genes or gene changes (mutations) that increase the risk that a child will develop autism. In most cases, genetics alone can’t distinguish why one person has autism and another does not.
- What I have learned: Q: Are vaccines to blame? A: Over the last two decades, extensive research has asked whether there is any link between childhood vaccinations and autism. The results of this research are clear: Vaccines do not cause autism.
- What I have learned: Q: How do you tell if a child has Autism? A: Though autism cannot be definitively diagnosed until around 18 to 24 months, research shows that children as young as 8 to 12 months may exhibit early signs. Parents should look for symptoms such as no back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles or other facial expressions by 9 months; no babbling or back-and-forth gestures (e.g. pointing) by 12 months; or any loss of babbling, speech or social skills at any age.
- What I have learned: Q: What should you do if you suspect a child has Autism? A: Don’t wait. Talk to your doctor or contact your state’s Early Intervention Services department about getting your child screened for autism.
- What I have learned: Q: Can a child with Autism attend school? A: Absolutely. In fact, it’s a child’s right: According to the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1990, your child deserves access to a “free and appropriate” education funded by the government, whether it be in a mainstream or special education classroom.
- Above Q’s and A’s can be found at: http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/faq
- Autism Spectrum Disorder Health Center (WebMD)
- Autism Speaks
- CDC on Autism
- Teens Health on Autism
- Autism Society
- Autism Source (online data system for the Autism Society)
- Autism Anti-Bullying Guide
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Why Are We Involved
The Early Years of CDC’s Fight against Polio
Thirty years of a Unique Partnership to End Polio-GPEI
In 1988, CDC partnered with GPEI to eradicate polio. We are on the “last mile” of the road to zero cases of polio globally.
While the global push to eradicate polio is the latest chapter in CDC’s polio efforts, the fight against polio has been part of CDC’s mission since the 1950s. Shortly after the agency’s creation, CDC established a national polio surveillance unit (PSU) headed by CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) founder Alex Langmuir. CDC worked collaboratively with Dr. Jonas Salk, of the University of Pittsburgh, who developed the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) in the early 1950s, and Dr. Albert Sabin, who developed the oral polio vaccine (OPV) in the early 1960s. CDC’s PSU staff and EIS officers worked to administer both the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines in the field, and also to gather and analyze surveillance data.
Elimination in the U.S.
Polio was once considered one of the most feared diseases in the United States. In the early 1950s, before polio vaccines were available, polio outbreaks caused more than 15,000 cases of paralysis each year in the United States. Following introduction of vaccines—specifically, trivalent inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) in 1955 and trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) in 1963—the number of polio cases fell rapidly to less than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s.
Polio has been eliminated from the United States thanks to widespread polio vaccination in this country. This means that there is no year-round transmission of poliovirus in the United States. Since 1979, no cases of polio have originated in the United States. However, the virus has been brought into the country by travelers with polio. The last time this happened was in 1993. It takes only one traveler with polio to bring the disease into the United States. The best way to keep the United States polio-free is to maintain high immunity (protection) in the population against polio through vaccination.
Call to Action
The eradication of polio is an important priority for the CDC. We are closer than we have ever been to eradicating polio and it is critical that we take advantage of this opportunity.
On December 2, 2011, CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to strengthen the agency’s partnership engagement through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)external icon, which is committed to completing the eradication of polio. On December 14, 2011, the support of the entire CDC community was enlisted to become active participants in an intensified effort to eradicate polio worldwide.
In the final push toward global polio eradication, CDC continues its close collaboration with partners, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Rotary International, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to ensure a coordinated global and country-level response.
CDC polio eradication activities and staff have moved into the EOC operational structure to ensure maximum use of CDC resources to support polio eradication, and to scale up timely technical expertise and support for polio-infected countries and for countries at risk of polio outbreaks, in coordination with GPEI partners.
From December 2011 to December 2018, over 650 staff have supported CDC’s polio eradication efforts in the EOC and in the field. Of these, 208 staff have completed 2,120 field deployments worldwide.
The EOC has provided enhanced capacity to scale up in-country technical expertise and support for polio surveillance, planning, implementation, and monitoring of polio vaccination campaigns, strengthening routine immunization, strengthening management and accountability.
A few additional examples of CDC polio eradication activities include:
- An in-depth review of priority countries’ polio eradication plans to assess program gaps and training needs, and elaboration of plans for CDC’s engagement in those countries.
- Publication of several joint CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR)/World Health Organization Weekly Epidemiologic Records highlighting progress towards polio eradication worldwide; polio eradication progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan; CDC surge response to expanding outbreaks of Type 2 vaccine-derived poliovirus in Africa and the Phillipines; and updates on vaccine-derived polio outbreaks.
- Collaboration with GPEI partners on detailed country-plans for expanded technical and management support, including assistance with outbreak responses, surveillance reviews, vaccination campaign planning and monitoring, and data management.
- The development of indicators for monitoring polio vaccination campaign performance in the areas of planning, implementation, and evaluation
- Review of WHO proposed outbreak response protocols for all polio-affected and at-risk countries.
- The Stop Transmission of Polio Program (STOP) deploys approximately 250 volunteers to approximately 40 countries around the world. These volunteers support polio eradication, routine immunization, measles elimination and strengthening surveillance within these countries.
Polio incidence has dropped more than 99 percent since the launch of global polio eradication efforts in 1988. In 2018, 33 wild polio virus cases were reported, 12 in Pakistan, and 21 in Afghanistan. On May 5, 2014, WHO declared the 2014 international spread of poliovirus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005), issued Temporary Recommendations to reduce the international spread of poliovirus, and requested a reassessment of this situation by the Emergency Committee every three months. The 21st meeting of the Emergency Committee was held in May 2019, and WHO extended the Temporary Recommendationsexternal icon under the IHR (2005), effective May 2019. |
PHAST step-by-step guide
A participatory approach for the control of diarrhoeal diseases
The PHAST approach helps people to feel more confident about themselves and their ability to take action and make improvements in their communities. Feelings of empowerment and personal growth are as important as the physical changes, such as cleaning up the environment or building latrines.
The guide has seven steps. The first five help take the community group through the process of developing a plan to prevent diarrhoeal diseases by improving water supply, hygiene behaviours and sanitation. The sixth and seventh steps involve monitoring and evaluation. |
Celebrate July 4th with fun activities and crafts for kids. Here are some ways to put sparkle in your celebration, without handing your kids tubes of fireworks.
To make two dozen, place 4 ounces chopped semisweet chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir the chocolate occasionally until it has melted then, remove from heat.
Give each child a pretzel rod and let them dip it in the chocolate, then roll the rod in sprinkles.
Allow the pretzels to sit upright in a glass to dry, then eat!
Cut out different sizes and colors of stars (blue, red, white, silver, gold) and glue them onto a red, white or blue ribbon. Use a flat ribbon, and glue stars on both sides. Then, hang the garland around the door, window, or party table!
- Acrylic paint
- Drinking straw
- Paper (or card stock)
- For each color, in a paper cup, dilute some acrylic paint with water to a runny consistency.
- Using a paintbrush, drip a few drops of paint onto a piece of paper or card stock (be sure to rinse the brush between colors), then hold a drinking straw directly over each puddle of paint and blow gently to create a spectacular starburst effect.
- Buckets of sand
- Small American flags
- To set up the race, divide the group into 2 teams. For each team, place a bucket of sand filled with small American flags (1 per teammate) on the opposite end of the yard.
- When the race starts, the first child from each team races to the appropriate bucket, plucks a flag, and marches back to his team as quickly as possible (no running allowed!) to tag the next person.
- The game continues in this way until all the members of one team have returned to the starting line with a flag in hand. The first team to finish should win a small prize, like bubbles for everyone.
Play “The Stars and Stripes Forever” and other July 4th music while the race is happening.
To make these fun, non-flammable fireworks, pull a red, white or blue balloon over a funnel. Pour in red, white and blue confetti until the balloon is a quarter full (while deflated); Then either inflate with a hand pump, or blow up the balloon. Use a sharpened pencil for popping. (Pop where you’re happy to have a lot of confetti!)
Stars and Stripes Windsock
Glue patriotic paper around a frozen juice-concentrate container, making sure that the paper extends a few inches beyond each end of the can. Then, tape or glue crepe paper streamers to the inside of the paper. On the inside of the can, tape fishing line or ribbon on equal sides of the can so that the windsock will hang evenly. Hang from a tree or the front porch for a patriotic welcome.
I hope these ideas help out with your Fourth of July party, and have a great celebration! |
Creating an opportunity for people to ask the questions they’re afraid to ask — with less risk.
20 mins Activities
Necessary supplies Participant handout sheet One piece of scrap paper (optional) Pens/pencils Goals & objectives To provide an opportunity for participants to empathetically connect and reflect on the experience of having (or not having) privilege To acknowledge and investigate privilege. Most commonly people see this as heterosexual privilege but this can be used to explore… Read more »
Utilizing a handy handout explaining the LGBTQ acronym followed by a mini lecture using the Genderbread Person as a guide, this activity ensures participants understand the important difference between gender, sex, and sexual orientation.
The opportunity to ask questions anonymously is key to creating an open discussion and eliciting the topics that participants are most interested in.
This small group activity asks participants to “Imagine you live in a world without any privileges.” Then “Which would you choose to buy access to?”
An activity to get to know common (and some less common) LGBTQ related vocabulary!
An opportunity for participants to practice and game plan how they would handle particular situations regarding gender, sexuality and LGBTQ issues in everyday life.
This activity focuses on what are our salient identities in particular circumstances. How do our different identities intersect, interact, and affect our daily lives. |
The U.S. has lost 5 million jobs since the beginning of the new millennium. And while many people believe this is the work of robots, economists actually report that this fear is relatively unfounded. Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped professionals in the manufacturing and tech industry from voicing their concerns.
Vivek Wadhwa, software entrepreneur and Carnegie Mellon engineer, spoke with Reason.com about the evolving world and what it’s doing for companies.
“The reality is that we are facing a jobless future: one in which most of the work done by humans will be done by machines,” Wadhwa said. “Robots will drive our cars, manufacture our goods, and do our chores, but there won’t be much work for human beings.”
Though many people may feel their fear is a reasonable one, many economists have assured manufacturing employees that technology will not harm the economy.
Robots aren’t hurting us; they’re helping us, said David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a lecture last year. Automation is actually bringing more jobs into our economy instead of taking them away.
“Of course, this time is different; every time is different. On numerous occasions in the last 200 years scholars and activists have raised the alarm that we are running out of work and making ourselves obsolete,” Autor said. “These predictions strike me as arrogant.”
The loss and gain of jobs
The truth of the matter is that robots are able to do what normal humans can’t. At times, that may lead to fewer humans doing the work that robots can now do.
That said, 3.5 million advanced manufacturing positions have actually been opened due to the implementation of technology for those who are good at working with computers and advanced machinery. We did lose jobs, but more jobs have been created and need to be filled, according to the White House.
The fourth industrial revolution
For those who still may be fearful, keep in mind the fact that the fourth industrial revolution isn’t solely about who can best accomplish a task, the robot or the human. Rather, it’s more focused on how the skills of both can be combined to do something greater.
Robots are able to complete repetitive tasks correctly and efficiently. They can assemble things faster than any human ever could.
Humans, on the other hand, have the expertise, experience, and knowledge that robots will never possess. The combination of robot and human in a manufacturing environment could truly create something better than anyone could have ever imagined.
Positions humans will hold forever
Even with technological advancements, there are some jobs that robots simply cannot perform. Funeral directors, psychologists, therapists, human resources managers, and countless other professionals require a certain amount of feeling and emotion.
Regardless of their skills and speed, robots are so far unable to relate to people on a more personal level than humans can. Countless positions require thoughtful responses, which is something only humans can provide.
Changing times mean changing technology. And as this automated technology becomes more advanced, people fear that robots are going to take their jobs, leaving them unemployed with nowhere to go.
However, that isn’t actually the case.
While robots are programmed and automated to do specific tasks, humans are equipped with experience and feelings, which is something robots may never achieve. There is always room for failure and mistakes in regards to robots completing jobs. With humans, it’s a whole different ball game.
More About Robots and Jobs:
- Qihan Robot Provides Legal Services at Chinese Courthouse
- Pick and Place for Profit: Using Robot Labor to Save Money
- Robot Labor Day Update: Sewbot Speeds Textile Production, Taiwan Focuses on AI
- Robot Cluster Focus Keeps Massachusetts in the Lead
- Skills Gap: Training Exists, But Automate Experts Say More Is Needed
- EU, U.K. Automation Expert Says Robots Aren’t the Enemy
- Fears of Robots Taking Jobs Require Response, Says LivePerson |
1200-1300 The Danes built a castle at Narva.
(WSJ, 1/25/99, p.A1)
1270 Feb 16, In the Karusa Ice
war in Estonia, Lithuanian forces defeated the Livonian Knights of
1300-1400 The town hall of Tallinn, Estonia, was
(BN, 10/96, p.2)
1341 German Knights of the
Cross negotiated the acquisition of Tallinn from Denmark and took
over all of Estonia.
(Ist. L.H., 1948, p. 61)
1561 Poland-Lithuania gaining
control over Livonia. In response Sweden seized the territory of
Estonia with the major port of Reval. Denmark, also invested
in the war, seized the Livonian Islands.
1582 Jan 15, Russia ceded
Livonia and Estonia to Poland, and lost access to Baltic.
1632 Estonia’s Tartu Univ. was
founded in Tartu, on the banks of the Emajogi River.
(Hem, 4/96, p.23)
c1669 The King of Sweden took
over Estonia and cast his eye over to Livonija, then under
Lithuanian control. Jonas Karolis Katkus (Chodkevicius), a military
leader, gathered a small army and moved to stop the Swedish advance.
He approached Riga with some 4,000 men against a Swedish force of
14,000 and was able to repel them successfully.
(H of L, 1931, p.76-78)
1718-1736 Russian Czar Peter the Great, having
conquered Estonia in the Great Northern War, constructed the
baroque, peach and white Kadriorg Palace on the outskirts of
(Hem, 4/96, p.23)(CNT, 3/04, p.145)
1870 The Vanemuine Theater was
founded in Tartu, Estonia.
(Hem, 4/96, p.23)
1901 Nov 19, Louis Kahn
(d.1974), architect, was born in Saarama, Estonia. His designs
included the capital building of Bangladesh, completed in 1983.
1905 Herman Ammende, a rich
merchant, built the Ammende Villa at Parnu beach.
(CNT, 3/04, p.150)
1918 Feb 15, Estonia, Latvia
& Lithuania adopted the Gregorian calendar.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1918 Feb 22, Germany claimed
the Baltic states, Finland and Ukraine from Russia.
1918 Feb 24, Estonia's
Independence Day. Estonia proclaimed independence from Russia.
1918 Mar 3, Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Russia signed the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russian participation in World
War I. Germany and Austria forced Soviet Russia to sign the Peace of
Brest, which called for the establishment of 5 independent
countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. The
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russian participation in World
War I, was annulled by the November 1918 armistice. The treaty
deprived the Soviets of White Russia.
(HN, 3/3/99)(LHC, 3/1/03)(AP, 3/3/08)
1918 Nov 19, An agreement was
signed in Riga between the chief commissioner of the German
government in Estonia and Latvia, August Winnig, and representatives
of the Estonian Provisional Government, whereby Germany transferred
supreme power in Estonia to the provisional government.
1918 Nov 28, Soviet Russia
massed Red Army units at the Estonian border and attacked Narva.
1918 Nov 29, The Provisional
Government of the Republic of Estonia declared a general
mobilization. The Estonian War of Independence began.
1918 Idel-Ural (Volga-Ural), a
1917 union of Finno-Ugric people in the middle of Russia, was
crushed by the Bolsheviks. Its foreign minister Sadri Maqsudi Arsal
was welcomed in Finland and then Estonia.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.73)
1919 Jan-1919 Feb, Red Army
units were driven out of Estonia.
1919 Estonia established the
kroon as its currency. It continued until soviet occupation in 1940
and was restored following independence in 1992.
(Econ, 1/1/11, p.44)
1920 Estonia adopted a
1921 Feb 2, The Tartu Peace
Treaty between Estonia and the Soviet Union recognized a free and
independent Estonian Republic in perpetuity with fixed borders
recognized in the treaty.
(BN, V.15, No.55,
1921 Sep 22, Estonia became a
member of the League of Nations.
1924 Dec 1, Estonian communists
attempted a rebellion under the guidance of agents sent from the
Soviet Union. It was put down the same day.
1925 The Estonia Parliament
passed the national minorities cultural autonomy act. It allowed
Russians, Germans, Jews and Swedes to complete secondary school
education in their own language.
1928 Newspapers across the US
published “Visiting the World Children," a geography aid for
American kids with pictures that were to be colored and clipped.
Book No.34 was titled “Some Children in Esthonia, the Potato
(BN, V.15, No.55, p.1)
1934 Jan 24, Estonia’s new
Constitution went into effect. It was backed by the right-wing Vaps
Movement and gave the president sweeping powers.
1934 Mar 12, PM Konstantin Päts
declared a state of national emergency and asked the leader of the
Estonian Army, Lt. General Johan Laidoner, to accept the position of
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Vaps organizations were shut
down and their leaders were jailed.
1934 Sep 12, Estonia, Latvia
& Lithuania signed the Baltic Entente in Geneva against the
(LC, 1998, p.24)(MC, 9/12/01)
1934 Oct 2, Estonia’s
government dissolved the parliament.
1937 Estonia’s Rahvuskogu
(National Assembly) was convoked and worked out a new Constitution.
1938 Jan 1, Estonia’s new
Constitution went into effect.
1938 Apr, Konstantin Päts was
elected president of Estonia.
1938 May, Estonia’s Pres.
Konstantin Päts granted an amnesty to release 183 political
prisoners from prison.
1939 Aug 23, German Foreign
Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Commissar for Foreign
Affairs Vyacheslav M. Molotov signed a Treaty of Non-Aggression, the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact freeing Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin
to invade Finland. Secret protocols, made public years later, were
added that assigned Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia to be
within the Soviet sphere of influence. Poland was partitioned along
the rivers Narev, Vistula and San. Germany retained Lithuania
enlarged by the inclusion of Vilnius. Just days after the signing,
Germany invaded Poland, and by the end of September, both powers had
claimed sections of Poland.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A16)(AP, 8/23/97) (HNPD,
1939 Sep 28, The Boundary and
Friendship Treaty between the USSR and Germany was supplemented by
secret protocols to amend the secret protocols of Aug 23. Among
other things Lithuania was reassigned to the Soviet sphere of
influence. Poland’s partition line was moved eastwards from the
Vistula line to the line of the Bug. Germany kept a small part of
south-west Lithuania, the Uznemune region. A separate Soviet mutual
defense pact was signed with Estonia that allowed 25,000 Soviet
troops to be stationed there.
(DrEE, 9/28/96, p.3)(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)(DrEE,
1939 Oct 6, Adolph Hitler
called upon all Germans living in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy
and Russia to relocate to Germany.
1939 Oct-1940 May, Some 14,000
Germans in Estonia left for resettlement Germany.
1940 Jun 16, Soviet Foreign
Minister Molotov presented August Rei, Estonia’s envoy in Moscow, an
ultimatum to allow an unlimited number of Soviet troops, which was
accepted. Latvia received a similar ultimatum.
1940 Jun 17, The Soviet Union
occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
1940 Jun 18, The Soviet
occupation of Estonia was completed. The government of PM Jüri
1940 Jun 21, Estonia’s Pres.
Päts appointed a new government led by PM Johannes Vares under
pressure from Andrei Zhdanov, head of the Leningrad branch of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1940 Jun-1941 Jul, After a
Communist coup leading Estonian Republic officials were
mass-murdered in Tallinn.
(BN, 10/97, p.3)
1940 Jul 17, General Laidoner,
the last Commander-in-Chief of the Estonian Armed Forces, was
deported with his wife to banishment in Penza. He died in Vladimir
Prison in 1953.
1940 Jul 21, The new
USSR-organized parliaments of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania held
simultaneous sessions. They declared their countries to be soviet
socialist republics and applied for admission to the USSR.
1940 Jul 30, President Päts was
deported with his son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons to
banishment in Ufa. Päts died in a special mental hospital in Kalinin
oblast in 1956.
1940 Aug 3, The Supreme Soviet
officially registered the acceptance of Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania into the USSR.
1940 Aug 25, The ‘parliaments’
of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania declared themselves ‘provisional
Supreme Soviets’ and adopted new constitutions that were composed
according to the example of the constitutions of already existing
union republics of the USSR.
1940 Aug, The Armies of
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were reorganized as territorial rifle
corps of the Red Army and placed under the control of the political
leaders of the Red Army.
1940 Russia seized Estonia’s
presidential seal and regalia as it annexed the country. As of 2010
Russia continued to refuse to hand the items back.
(Econ, 4/10/10, p.64)
1940-1941 The NKVD imprisoned nearly 1000 citizens
and residents of the Republic of Estonia in 1940. The NKVD and NKGB
imprisoned nearly 6000 in 1941. The overwhelming majority of them
were convicted and sent to prison camps in the USSR where most of
1941 Jan-1941 Apr, Another
7,500 individuals left Estonia for resettlement in Germany.
1941 Jun 14, The Russian secret
police gathered up some 40,000 men, women and children and exiled
them to Siberia in cattle cars. This was the first of many
shipments. Some 10,000 Estonians, more than 15,000 Latvians and
between 16,000 and 18,000 Lithuanians were herded onto cattle trains
and transported to the far eastern reaches of the Soviet Union,
where many of them died.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A16)(http://tinyurl.com/5jxmas)
1941 Jun 14, Over 10,000 people
(10,861 according to some sources) were deported as whole families
from Estonia. About 230 Estonian officers serving in the 22nd
Estonian Territorial Corps of the Red Army were imprisoned at the
summer camp of the Estonian Army in southeastern Estonia. Most of
them were sent to the Norilsk prison camp, where most of them either
died or were executed.
1941 Jun 22, Estonians started
armed resistance against Soviet occupation.
1941 Jun-1941 Oct, Over 2000
civilians were killed in Estonia. This includes up to a hundred
so-called ‘forest brothers’ (Estonian patriotic partisans) who put
up armed resistance to retreating units of the NKVD, NKGB or Red
1941 Jul 8, Under Nazi
occupation all Jews living in the Baltic States were obligated to
wear the Star of David.
1941 Jul-1941 Aug, Some
32,000–33,000 Estonian men were gathered and taken to the USSR.
About 3000 perished on the way.
1941 Aug 19, The final German
assault on Tallinn began.
1941 Aug 27, The Soviet armada
began to move out of Tallinn. By the next day 5 ships were sunk by
German bombers and Soviet ships began to encounter minefields set by
the Kriegsmarine and Finnish Navy. The Soviets succeeded in
evacuating 165 ships, 28,000 passengers and 66,000 tons of equipment
1941 Oct, Some 243 Estonian
Roma (Gypsies) were killed in Estonia.
1942 Aug 7, The Nazi 36th
Police Battalion, made up of ethnic Estonians, massacred some 2,500
Jews at Novogrudok, Belarus (according to the Simon Wiesenthal
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.A4)
1942 A labor camp was
established at Jägala, commanded by Aleksander Laak, an Estonian.
During 1942 several transports arrived from Terezin. Some 3,000 Jews
not selected for work were taken to Kalevi-Liiva and shot. The
Jägala camp was liquidated in the spring of 1943: most of the
prisoners were shot.
1943 Sep, A camp complex based
at Vaivara, Estonia, was established, commanded by German officers
(Hans Aumeier, Otto Brennais and Franz von Bodman). The complex
consisted of approximately twenty field camps, some of which existed
only for short periods. As the Russians advanced in autumn 1944, a
number of prisoners were evacuated by sea to the concentration camp
in Stutthof, near Danzig. At Klooga, approximately 2,000 prisoners
were shot, their bodies stacked on pyres and burned.
1943 The ballet “Kratt" (The
Goblin) by Eduard Tubin was first performed in Estonia. Tubin left
the country in 1944 and took up residence in Stockholm.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.C8)
1943 Michael Gorshkow,
Estonian-Nazi interrogator, helped round up some 3,000 Jewish men,
women and children at Slutsk, Belarus, where they were shot to
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.A4)
1944 Gustav Ernesaks, father of
modern Estonian choral music, founded the State Academic Male Chorus
(RAM). He directed it until 1975.
(BN, 10/96, p.3)
c1946 After WW II Narva,
Estonia, was rebuilt as a giant Soviet industrial park and tens of
thousands of immigrants came to work in the regions metal factories
and nuclear-power plant.
(WSJ, 12/2/04, p.A11)
1949 Mar, Some 20,000 Estonian
civilians were rounded up and deported to Siberia under orders from
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.A10)
1953-1954 Members of the Estonian Forest Brothers
resistance movement were killed by Stalin's NKVD secret police.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.A10)
1962 Estonia convicted US
resident Karl Linnas in absentia of being a Nazi war criminal and
sentenced him to death.
1982 Composer Eduard Tubin died
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.C8)
1987 Jul 2, Karl Linnas,
accused Nazi, died of heart failure in Leningrad Russia. In 1962 he
was convicted in Estonia of being a Nazi war criminal and sentenced
to death in absentia.
1989 Aug 23, Approximately two
million people joined their hands to form an over 600 km (373 mi)
long human chain across the three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia,
and Lithuania. This original demonstration was organized to draw the
world's attention to the common historical fate which these three
countries suffered. It marked the 50th anniversary of August 23,
1939, when the Soviet Union and Germany in the secret protocol of
the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact divided spheres of interest in Eastern
Europe, which led to the occupation of these three states.
1990 May 12, The presidents of
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania forged a united front by reviving a
1934 political alliance in hopes of enhancing their drive for
independence from the Soviet Union.
1990 May 14, In separate
decrees, Soviet President Gorbachev declared that the republics of
Estonia and Latvia had no legal basis for moving toward
1991 Mar 3, Latvia and Estonia
voted to become independent of the USSR.
1991 Sep 6, In the Soviet
Union, the State Council, a new executive body composed of President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev and republic leaders, recognized the
independence of the Baltic states. All three were admitted into the
UN later this month.
1991 Sep 14, US Secretary of
State James A. Baker III met with leaders of the Baltic nations,
which had declared independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 Sep 17, The U.N. General
Assembly opened its 46th session, welcoming new members Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, North and South Korea, the Marshall Islands and
1991 City Paper was founded in
Tallinn shortly after independence.
(USAT, 6/11/04, p.5D)
1992 Mar 5, In Copenhagen the
Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany,
Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden, in the
presence of the representative from the European Commission, opened
a 2-day meeting and decided to establish a Council of the Baltic Sea
States to serve as a forum for guidance and overall coordination
among the participating states. Iceland joined the CBSS in 1995
1992 In Estonia Mart Laar (32)
was sworn in as prime minister. The fiscal conservative led the
1992-94 and 1999-2002 governments.
1992 Estonia began to mint its
own legal tender, the kroon.
(Hem, 4/96, p.23)
1992 Estonia revamped its
intelligence service with a small British-trained unit.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.74)
1993 Aleksander Einseln
returned to Estonia from the Bay Area and became commander of the
military. He planned to run for parliament in 1999.
(BN, 10/98, p.6)
1994 Jun, In the infamous “June
Agreement" Estonia Pres. Meri bypassed lawmakers when he signed a
deal on the withdrawal of Russian troops and social guarantees for
Russian military retirees.
(SFC, 9/21/96, p.A10)(BN, 10/96, p.3)
1994 Aug 31, Russia officially
ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the
Baltics after a half-century.
1994 Sep 28, More than 900
people died when the ferry Estonia capsized and sank Off the Finnish
coast in the Baltic sea. 852 people of 989 onboard were killed. In
1999 evidence was reported that 3 explosive devices had been placed
on the ship's visor-like bow door.
(AP, 9/28/99)(SFC, 12/31/99, p.A16)
1994 Estonia became the 1st
European country to introduce a flat tax (26%) on personal and
corporate income. Latvia and Lithuania soon followed suit.
(Econ, 3/5/05, p.54)
1995 Royalists in Estonia
invited Prince Edward of the British Royal family to wear the
(Hem, 4/96, p.23)
1996 Sep 16, The US cut off aid
and the Estonian government threw a party.
(BN, 10/96, p.2)
1996 Sep 20, Estonia’s Pres.
Lennart Meri was re-elected to a second term of 5 years in the
largely ceremonial post.
(SFC, 9/21/96, p.A10)(BN, 10/96, p.3)
1996 Sep 27, US Defense Sec.
William Perry said the 3 Baltic nations would not be among the first
new NATO members drawn from Eastern Europe. The Estonian armed
forces number only 4,500 troops.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)
1996 Nov, In Estonia Foreign
Minister Siim Kallas of the right-of-center Reform Party was
replaced by Toomas Hendrik Ilves by Prime Minister Tiit Vahi. Kallas
had led a coalition with the Centrist Union Party and the
left-of-center Farmers Union until the “Tape-gate" scandal in the
spring of Center party leader Edgar Savisaar.
(BN, V.15, No.55, p.4)
1997 Apr, Three container ships
with military hardware were unloaded in Tallinn. They were donations
from the US of automatic weapons and small arms as well as
ammunition for the Estonian Defense Forces.
(BN, 7/97, p.3)
1997 Jun, Terms of the Baltnet
Group, an Air Surveillance System for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia,
were established in Oslo, Norway.
1997 Oct, The Estonian
Philharmonic and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra toured the US and
performed music by composer Arvo Part.
(WSJ, 10/14/97, p.A20)
1998 Jan 16, Baltic leaders
signed an agreement, the US-Baltics Charter of Partnership, at the
White House strengthening US and NATO ties with Latvia, Lithuania,
and Estonia. The leaders also established a $15 million fund with
equal contributions from the Agency for Int’l. Development and
George Soros to promote nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
(WSJ, 1/16/98, p.A1)(SFC, 1/17/98, p.A8)
1998 Jul 4, In the annual Wife
Carrying World Championships in Finland, 2 Estonian couples won top
honors in the 278 yard course in Sonkajarvi.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A2)
1998 Jul, After the failure of
Estonia’s Maabank, a partly government-owned “country bank," a third
of its deposits was turned over to Iuhispank, another bank with
(BN, 10/98, p.4)
1998 Nov 18, The Swedish bank
Skandinavska Enskilda acquired a 32% stake in Eesti Uhispank, as
well as a 36% stake in Latvia’s Latvijas Unibanka.
(WSJ, 11/19/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 8, Estonia’s
Parliament approved an amendment to its citizenship law that made it
easier for its Russian-speaking minority to become citizens. It
granted citizenship to some 6,500 children born in Estonia of
Russian parents following the 1991 independence.
(SFC, 12/9/98, p.B8)
1998 A documentary video on the
Baltic States: “Seven years of Success and Still Growing" was
(BN, 10/98, p.6)
1999 Feb 11, The Estonian Bowed
Piano Ensemble performed in San Francisco with the Colorado Bowed
(BN, 3/99, p.5)
1999 Mar 5, Elections in
Estonia were held for the 101 seats of the Riigikogu (parliament).
(BN, 3/99, p.4)
1999 Jul 30, Mikhail Neverovsky
(79), a former KGB agent, was convicted of crimes against humanity
and sentenced to 4 years in prison in Estonia. He had participated
in mass deportations during the Soviet era 50 years earlier.
(SFC, 7/31/99, p.A7)
2000 Nov, Estonia planned a
rail transport system with Asia to replace declining Russian oil
products shipped from Tallinn.
(WSJ, 11/13/00, p.B19B)
2000 Dec 15, Under Estonian law
the cryptographic signature became legally equivalent to a manual
2000 Estonia’s government
decided to go paperless and conduct as much business as possible
online. Estonia made internet access a human right.
(NW, 5/13/02, p.72)(Econ, 2/12/11, p.68)
2001 Sep 13, The death toll
from tainted alcohol, consumed in or near the seaside resort of
Parnu, Estonia, rose to 51. At least 85 more remained hospitalized
and methanol was blamed.
(SFC, 9/14/01, p.A32)
2001 Sep 21, Arnold Ruutel
(73), a former Communist leader in Estonia, was chosen as president
by a special government assembly.
(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A20)
2001 Estonia sold its entire
rail network (Eesti Raudtee) to an int’l. consortium of investors.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.63)
2001 A UN world population
report showed that Estonia was one of the fastest shrinking nations
on earth, with a fertility rate of 1.3.
(WSJ, 10/20/06, p.A1)
2002 May 25, The Eurovision
Song Contest was set to take place in Tallinn, Estonia.
(NW, 5/13/02, p.72)
2002 Jun 8-2002 Jun 9, A
weekend meeting was held in Tallinn for Baltic and Nordic defense
ministers. Donald Rumsfeld, US Sec. of Defense, attended.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A13)
2002 Oct 9, The European
Union's executive Commission declared Bulgaria, the Czech Republic,
Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania,
Slovenia, and Slovakia nearly ready for EU membership and
recommended they be invited to join in 2004. Romania and Bulgaria
likely will be delayed until 2007 because of weak economies, the
Commission said, adding Turkey was the weakest link among
2002 Nov 21, The Baltic nations
of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania joined former communist states
Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia as the next wave of NATO
2002 Dec 13, The EU reached
agreement to accept 10 new countries in 2004. These included Czech
Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta,
Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
(SFC, 12/14/02, p.A3)
2002 Estonia’s government began
issuing electronic ID cards.
2003 Mar 2, In Estonia a
center-left party depicting itself as a champion of the poor barely
won the popular vote in parliamentary elections, which could make it
difficult to form a coalition government.
2003 Apr 10, In Estonia Juhan
Parts, a 36-year-old former auditor, took over as prime minister,
becoming Europe's youngest leader.
2003 Apr 21, Estonia was
reported to rank No. 2 in Internet banking and 3rd in e-government.
(SFC, 4/21/03, p.E3)
2003 Jul 6, The annual Wife
Carrying World Championship took place in Sonkajarvi, Finland. An
Estonian team was again favored to win.
(WSJ, 7/2/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug, Skype released the
1st version of its software which allowed people to make free voice
and video calls over the internet. Niklas Zennstrom (b.1966) of
Sweden and Janus Friis (b.1976) of Denmark co-founded Skype, an
internet telephony company shortly after moving to London. The Skype
software was developed by Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and
Jaan Tallinn, who were also behind the peer-to-peer file sharing
(Econ, 9/16/06, p.79)(Econ, 8/6/11,
2003 Sep 14, Estonians passed a
referendum to join the European Union.
2003 Estonia’s GDP for the year
was 9.2 billion euros.
(WSJ, 12/14/04, p.A13)
2004 Jan 9, Estonian
prosecutors said they have launched an investigation into whether
Michael Gorshkow, an 80-year-old former U.S. resident, took part in
the massacre of 3,000 Jews during World War II. Gorshkow (19)
allegedly helped murder Jews in the Slutsk ghetto of Belarus in 1943
while serving as an interpreter and interrogator for the Gestapo.
2004 Mar 29, Pres. Bush hosted
a White House ceremony to welcome Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania,
Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(WSJ, 3/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 2, In Brussels an
official ceremony welcomed Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.A11)
2004 Apr 27, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov and EU officials signed an accord extending
the EU-Russia partnership accord to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and
Malta, which join May 1.
2004 May 1, Revelers across
ex-communist eastern Europe celebrated their historic entry to the
European Union. 10 new members (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia)
joined. Malta joined with 70 exemptions to EU rules. Poland had 43
exemptions. Latvia had 32. The Turkish occupied area of Cyprus was
suspended from entry.
(AP, 5/1/04)(Econ, 2/28/04, p.50)(Econ, 4/16/05,
2004 Jul 3, Two Estonian
students clinched the country's seventh straight wife-carrying world
championship on Saturday, winning the "wife's" weight in beer and a
2004 Sep 2, A controversial
monument commemorating Estonians who fought in the German army
against Soviet troops during World War II was removed, after the
government said it damaged the Baltic state's image.
2004 Oct 25, In Iraq bombs hit
4 coalition and Iraqi convoys killing at least 12 including an
American and Estonian. Saboteurs blew up a pipeline feeding Iraq’s
(WSJ, 10/26/04, p.A1)
2004 Estonia began paying women
up to $1,560 for 15 months to have babies, in order to help reverse
a trend of declining population.
(WSJ, 10/20/06, p.A1)
2004-2006 Estonia expected to receive €253 million
in EU subsidies.
(WSJ, 12/14/04, p.A13)
2005 Jan 1, Estonia was
forecast for 6% GDP growth with a population at 1.3 million and GDP
per head at $9,310.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.88)
2005 Jan 20, Estonia's Jewish
community broke ground on a new synagogue to replace the house of
worship destroyed by bombing in World War II.
2005 Mar 21, In Estonia PM
Juhan parts (38) resigned after lawmakers said they had no
confidence in his justice minister, Ken-Marti Vaher, due to an
anti-corruption plan. Pres. Arnold Ruutel had 2 weeks to nominate a
new prime minister.
(SFC, 3/22/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 10, The Sikorsky 76
helicopter on a scheduled flight from Tallinn to Helsinki, Finland,
went down with 2 pilots and 12 passengers about 3 miles off the
coast of Estonia.
2005 Sep 12, EBay has agreed to
buy fast-growing Internet start-up Skype for up to $4.1 billion in
cash and shares, in a move to tap new sources of growth and add free
Web telephone calls to its online auctions. Niklos Zennstrom of
Sweden and Janus Friis of Denmark founded Skype using a programming
team from Estonia.
(AP, 9/12/05)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.69)
2005 Sep 23, Maarike Harro,
director of the National Institute for Health Development said the
World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in every 100
people in Estonia in the 15 to 49 age group may be infected with
2005 Estonia became the first
country to implement Internet voting in a nationwide election.
2006 Mar 14, Lennart Meri
(b.1929), Estonia’s former president (1992-2001), died overnight in
Tallinn. The writer, film director and statesman’s relentless
struggle against communist oppression helped the Baltic nation break
free from the Soviet Union in 1991. Among his most well-known films
is the 1977 documentary "The Winds of the Milky Way," describing the
lives of Finno-Ugric people, which won a silver medal at the New
York Film Festival but was banned in the Soviet Union for its
culturally sensitive content.
(AP, 3/14/06)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.90)
2006 May 26, The government of
Estonia banned rallies near a statue in Tallinn marking the Red
Army's victory over Nazi Germany, moving to ease recent tensions
between some ethnic Estonians and native Russian speakers.
2006 Aug 22, Kristjan Lepik of
Tallinn, Estonia, settled theft charges with the SEC. He agreed to
return over $550,000 in trading profits and pay a $15,000 penalty
for illegally trading on corporate information. The SEC said Lepik
and co-worker Oliver Peek made at least $7.8 million trading on
advanced looks at hundreds of press releases.
(SFC, 8/23/06, p.C2)
2006 Aug 28, Ene Ergma (62), a
Soviet-trained astronomer, failed to win enough votes in parliament
to become Estonia's next president, forcing a new vote on a second
2006 Sep 23, Toomas Hendrik
Ilves (52), a Western-leaning former diplomat and journalist, was
narrowly elected Estonia's president, ousting the incumbent who was
favored in the race.
2006 Oct 19, Queen Elizabeth II
arrived in Estonia on the last leg of a landmark trip to the Baltic
states, during which the 80-year-old monarch has repeatedly praised
the Baltic people for their determined fight for freedom.
2006 Nov 27, Pres. Bush flew to
Estonia on his way to a NATO meeting centered on Afghanistan in
(WSJ, 11/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 4, The Estlink cable
connected power grids of the Baltic States with Finland. The cost of
Estlink, which measures 100 kilometers (60 miles), was around 110
million euros (132 million dollars). It was built by Swiss-Swedish
2007 Jan 17, Russian lawmakers
sharply criticized Estonia for possible plans to remove a 1947
statue that honors Red Army soldiers who helped drive Nazi forces
from the Baltic nation. Last week the Estonian president signed into
law a bill allowing for the removal of the statue. The monument
upset many in the country that suffered five decades of Soviet
2007 Feb 15, Estonian lawmakers
narrowly approved a bill calling for the removal of a Soviet war
memorial from their capital, ignoring Moscow's warning of
"irreversible consequences" for relations between the two countries.
2007 Feb 22, Estonia's
president vetoed legislation calling for the removal of a Soviet war
memorial, averting at least temporarily a confrontation with Russia.
Estonia chose Baltic herring over the pike in a government-sponsored
contest to find a fish suitable to join the blue, black and white
flag, the blue cornflower, limestone, and chimney swallow as
2007 Feb, Estonia became the
first country in the world to institute electronic voting for
2007 Mar 4, Voting stations
opened in Estonia's first Parliamentary election since joining the
EU. PM Andrus Ansip's center-right Reform Party narrowly won
parliamentary elections. Ansip's party had 27.8% of the votes, ahead
of the left-leaning Center Party led by political veteran Edgar
Savisaar, which had 26.1%. Ansip pledged to preserve the
market-friendly policies credited with the Baltic nation's
impressive growth. President Toomas Hendrik Ilves likely will ask
Ansip to form the next government of the country of 1.3 million.
2007 Apr 26, In Estonia
protesters gathered at a Soviet war grave in downtown Tallinn, as
authorities prepared to remove the bodies despite Russia's angry
objections. Estonia's government intends to relocate the Soviet
grave, believed to contain the remains of 14 soldiers, and the
Bronze Soldier statue next to it.
2007 Apr 27, Estonia removed a
Soviet war memorial from downtown Tallinn under cover of darkness,
carrying out a plan that has rankled Russia and provoked protests
that left one person dead and dozens injured.
2007 Apr 28, In Estonia
minority Russian youths angry over the government's decision to
remove a Soviet war memorial from Tallinn rioted for a second night,
with unrest spreading to at least two other towns. 66 people were
injured in the capital, including six policemen. More than 500
people, many of them adolescents, were detained overnight as vandals
prowled the streets, breaking shop windows and looting stores.
2007 May 2, Russian oil firms
rushed to re-route a quarter of their refined products exports away
from ports in Estonia after Russia's railways halted the route amid
a political dispute with Tallinn. Young Russians staged raucous
protests in Moscow to denounce neighboring Estonia for removing a
Soviet war memorial from its capital, and the Estonian ambassador
said pro-Kremlin activists tried to attack her as she arrived at a
2007 May 3, Russia lashed out
at the EU and NATO for supporting Estonia in its row with Moscow
over the relocation of a Soviet war monument.
2007 May 9, In the early hours
Internet traffic in Estonia spiked to thousands of times the normal
flow. May 10 was heavier still, forcing Estonia’s biggest bank to
shut down its online service for more than an hour. Hansabank
continued under assault and worked to block access to 300 suspect
Internet addresses. On March 12, 2009, Konstantin Goloskokov, an
activist with Russia's Nashi youth group and aide to a pro-Kremlin
member of parliament, said he had organized a network of
sympathizers who bombarded Estonian Internet sites with electronic
requests, causing them to crash.
2007 May 16, Following a
six-decade wait, Estonia's 3,000-strong Jewish community inaugurated
its new and only synagogue in Tallinn in the presence of top Israeli
2007 May 17, Estonia's defense
minister said that the massive cyber attacks that have crippled the
high-tech country's Web sites are a threat to national security, and
that it's possible the Russian government was behind them.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.65)(AP, 5/17/07)
2007 May 24, Japanese Emperor
Akihito and Empress Michiko arrived in Estonia's seaside capital on
their first-ever visit to a former Soviet republic.
2007 Jun 6, PM Andrus Ansip
said Estonia is seeking help from Russia to find the culprits behind
a massive wave of attacks on the country's Internet infrastructure.
2007 Jun 6, Housing prices in
the major cities of Estonia, Latia and Lithuania were reported to
average around $202,375.
(WSJ, 6/6/07, p.B9)
2007 Aug 22, In Estonia
prosecutors said Arnold Meri (88), cousin of Estonia's late
president Lennart Meri, committed genocide by helping deport his
countrymen to Siberia in 1949.
2007 Sep 20, Estonia decided it
will not allow a German-Russian consortium to conduct a survey of
its exclusive economic zone in the Baltic Sea for a planned
underwater gas pipeline.
2007 Dec 20, Estonia, Latvia
and Lithuania along with 6 other EU members halted land and sea
border controls at midnight, becoming the first in a wave of new
members of Europe's passport-free Schengen zone.
(AFP, 12/20/07)(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2007 James and Maureen Tusty
produced “The Singing Revolution," a film that covered the Estonian
people’s move to re-establish independence. The film begins with
independence in 1918 and then moves to Soviet and German occupation
during WWII. The spirit of the nation is then captured with a focus
on how the singing nation moved re-establish itself in its
non-violent “singing revolution" (1987-1991).
2008 Mar 12, The United States
signed agreements with EU members Latvia and Estonia that will
enable the tiny Baltic nations to join the U.S. visa waiver program
2008 Jul 25, Estonia urged the
EU to take stronger action against Somali pirates attacking cargo
ships bound for Europe, after an Estonian sailor was held hostage
for 41 days.
2008 Jul 25, Energy companies
in the three Baltic states and Poland agreed to set up a joint
venture to develop a nuclear power plant in Lithuania.
2008 Sep 21, Hermann Simm, a
middle ranking civil servant in Estonia’s defense ministry, was
arrested along with his wife and charged with spying for an unnamed
foreign power. He had set up and run a system for handling top
secret documents from NATO allies and handled security clearances
for Estonian officials in the military, security and intelligence
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.68)
2008 Dec 12, Estonia’s
parliament passed a law making it the first country to allow
(WSJ, 12/13/08, p.A1)
2009 Jan 22, Estonia said it
will end its nearly six-year military mission in Iraq after it
failed to agree with the Iraqi government on terms for its troop
2009 Feb 25, An Estonian court
convicted a former top security official of treason for passing
domestic and NATO secrets to Russia, the Baltic country's biggest
espionage scandal since the Cold War. Herman Simm (61), the former
head of security at the Estonian Defense Ministry, pleaded guilty
and was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison. Russia’s
foreign service (SVR) had recruited Mr. Simm on his holiday in
Tunisia in 1995.
(AP, 2/25/09)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.56)
2010 Apr 23, NATO ministers
meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, agreed to begin handing over control of
Afghanistan to the Afghan government this year, a process that if
successful would enable President Barack Obama to meet his target
date of July 2011 for starting to bring US troops home.
2010 May 27, Israel officially
joined the OECD club of rich economies. PM Benjamin Netanyahu
attended a ceremony at the Paris headquarters of the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development as it welcomed Israel along
with Estonia, Slovenia and Chile to the 31-nation grouping.
2010 Aug 30, In southern
Afghanistan 7 US troops were killed in two Taliban-style bomb
attacks. An 8th soldier, a 20-year-old Estonian, died of his
injuries after insurgents set off an improvised explosive device
(IED) in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand province. A bomb blast in Jalalabad
killed a district chief and wounded up to five others. A French
soldier was killed when the armored vehicle he was travelling in
tumbled into a ravine.
(AFP, 8/30/10)(AP, 8/31/10)
2011 Jan 1, Estonia became the
first former Soviet republic to join the euro, Europe’s common
(SFC, 1/1/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 20, In Estonia 8
disabled children (7-16) and 2 adults (20-21) were killed in an
orphanage fire in the coastal town of Haapsalu. The orphanage was
built in 1996 with help from Swedish and Finnish donations.
(AP, 2/20/11)(AP, 2/21/11)
2011 Mar 6, Estonia’s
center-right, 2-party coalition government of PM Andrus Ansip won
elections. Ansip’s free-market Reform Party gained 2 seats giving it
33 in the 101-seat parliament.
(SSFC, 3/6/11, p.A4)(SFC, 3/7/11, p.A2)(Econ,
2011 Mar 23, In Lebanon 7
Estonian tourists were kidnapped while cycling in Zahle.
(SFC, 3/24/11, p.A2)
2011 May 20, The Embassy of the
United States of America announced the official opening of the
Office of the U.S. Secret Service in Estonia. The Secret Service
office will work closely with its law enforcement partners within
the criminal investigative infrastructure in the Baltic nations of
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
2011 Jul 14, In Lebanon 7
Estonian tourists abducted nearly four months ago while cycling
through Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley were released in good health.
Harakat al-Nahda wal-Islah, or the Movement for Renewal and Reform,
had claimed responsibility for the March 23 abduction and demanded
an unspecified ransom. Two men suspected of involvement in the
kidnapping were killed in a September 20 shootout with police.
(AP, 7/14/11)(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Aug 11, In Estonia a
gunman armed with explosives entered the Defense Ministry and opened
fire, but police stormed the building and killed him. No one else
was hurt. Officials identified the attacker as Karen Drambjan, an
Armenian-born lawyer who has held Estonian citizenship since the
early 1990s. He was a member of the small, left-wing Estonian United
Left Party that is not represented in Parliament.
2011 Aug 29, Estonia's
parliament re-elected US-educated President Toomas Hendrik Ilves
(57) for a second 5-year term as head of state. It was the first
time a presidential candidate has managed to get the required
two-thirds majority since Estonia declared independence in 1991.
2011 Nov 2, A Syrian security
official said Syria has arrested Wael Abbas, a top suspect in the
kidnapping of 7 Estonians, freed four months after their abduction
in Lebanon, and handed him over to Beirut.
2011 Nov 9, US federal
officials said an Eastern European pack of cyber thieves, known as
the Rove group, hijacked at least four million computers in over 100
countries, including at least half a million computers in the US, to
make off with $14 million in "illegitimate income" before they were
caught. The accused hackers, six Estonian nationals and a Russian
national, rerouted the internet traffic illegally on the infected
computers for the last four years in order to reap profits from
internet advertisement deals.
2012 Jan 13, In Estonia
volunteers from 83 countries converged on Tallinn to launch World
Cleanup 2012, a voluntary 6-monthy rubbish collection effort to
begin on March 24.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.52)
2012 Jan 20, In Japan Estonian
sumo wrestler Baruto won his first tournament, logging an unbeatable
13th straight victory with only two bouts to go in the New Year
2012 Feb 8, NATO said it has
decided to extend until 2018 an operation to protect the airspace of
Baltic members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with fighter jets.
2012 Mar 3, In Libya Estonian
technician Kaido Keerdo (31) working for Danish church Aid was
killed while examining unexploded munitions scattered near a police
compound in Ad Dafniyah.
2012 Mar 21, Estonia
legislators passed measures to make human trafficking a crime
punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
(SFC, 3/22/12, p.A)
2012 Jun 2, In Latvia several
hundred activists from the Baltic states and neighboring countries
braved rain and hail to participate in an annual parade in defense
of gay and lesbian rights. The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania have largely proven to be intolerant toward gays and
lesbians despite having joined the European Union in 2004.
2013 Jan 1, Tallinn, Estonia,
launched free public transport for all of its citizens.
2013 May 30, It was reported
that Estonia, a country of 1.3 million people, gets more than 90% of
its electricity needs from oil shale — by far the world's most
shale-dependent country. A board member at Eesti Energia said the
country has 100 years' experience working with oil shale.
2013 Oct 15, Eurocrats and
transport industry folk began a two day train ride from Vilnius to
Talinn. Rail Baltica, an idea to build a proper rail way connection
from Helsinki to Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas, Warsaw and continuing on to
Berlin was on the agenda in a conference onboard the train.
(www.balticsea-region-strategy.eu/item/486861)(Econ, 10/19/13, p.60)
2014 Feb 26, Estonian Foreign
Minister Urmas Paet told EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in
a phone call that the Ukrainian opposition to president Viktor
Yanukovych may have been involved in sniper attacks (Feb 18-20).
News of the call was leaked in early March and prompted Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to call for an OSCE investigation.
(AFP, 3/8/14)(SFC, 3/8/14, p.A4)
2014 Mar 4, Estonia's
three-term PM Andrus Ansip submitted his resignation in a
long-planned move to pave the way for his successor to lead a new
government into a general election next year.
2014 Mar 14, Estonia's
President Toomas Hendrik Ilves nominated cabinet minister Taavi
Roivas (34) to form a new government and seek approval from
parliament to lead the small euro zone country. Roivas is set to
take over from PM Andrus Ansip, who resigned on March 4.
2014 Mar 21, France said it is
suspending military cooperation with Russia as Defense Minister
Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Baltic states in a trip designed to
reassure them as tensions mount with Russia over its seizure of
Ukraine's Crimea region.
2014 Jun 12, Jordan said it has
reached an agreement with Enefit, an Estonian firm, and its partners
on a $2.1 billion contract to build a 540 MW shale-fuelded power
(Econ, 6/28/14, p.58)
2014 Jun 20, Estonian PM Taavi
Roivas urged NATO to establish a permanent presence in the Baltic
state in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine.
2014 Sigrid Rausing authored
“Everything is Wonderful: Memories of a Collective Farm in Estonia."
(Econ, 5/10/14, p.82) |
Vascular dementia is the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer's disease. This condition occurs when the brain does not get sufficient oxygen and nutrients due to a blockage or narrowing of the blood vessels. Vascular dementia results in problems with general reasoning, memory and other thought processes. Vascular dementia stroke, a potentially life-threatening situation where a blood vessel to the brain becomes completely blocked, is another concern with this disease. Because there is no cure for the disorder at this time, learning how to prevent vascular dementia is essential.
1Monitor your blood pressure. Most people diagnosed with vascular dementia are first diagnosed with high blood pressure, making this one of the greatest risk factors for the disease.
- High blood pressure is also a risk factor for many other serious medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease and heart attack, so it is very important to manage this condition. Maintain a healthy blood pressure through a healthy diet and daily exercise and by eliminating smoking and excess alcohol consumption. If you cannot effectively lower blood pressure through lifestyle choices, medication may be required as well.
2Maintain healthy cholesterol levels. This will serve as effective vascular dementia prevention and lower the risk for other serious medical conditions.
- Blood cholesterol levels indicate the amount of plaque build-up inside the arteries. By keeping these numbers at healthy levels, you ensure blood flow to the brain remains unhindered. Cholesterol is typically managed through a low-fat diet and daily exercise, but some people also need a cholesterol-lowering medication to keep numbers in check.
3Exercise daily to keep weight, blood pressure and cholesterol in check. Aerobic exercise has also been shown in recent studies to preserve cognitive abilities, and may even slow the progression of dementia once it starts.
4Take steps to prevent or manage diabetes. Diabetes can directly affect brain health. If you already have diabetes, keeping glucose levels under control can prevent damage to blood vessels that might contribute to the onset of dementia symptoms.
- You can also take steps to prevent type 2 diabetes, by maintaining a healthy weight, adhering to a nutritious, low-fat diet and exercising daily. If you are at risk of diabetes, due to a family history or being overweight, monitor blood glucose levels regularly with your doctor.
5Kick the smoking habit. Cigarettes are highly damaging to the entire cardiovascular system, which can increase the risk of many related conditions, including vascular dementia.
6Take steps to minimize dementia symptoms, even if you have already been diagnosed with the disorder. Those at any vascular dementia stage can still enjoy a high quality of life despite their diagnosis.
- Remain active as much and as long as you can. Continue to eat a healthy diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein and whole grains. This menu will keep your heart and cardiovascular system healthy, which may slow the progression of vascular dementia. Seek support of family and friends, and stick to a regular daily routine as much as possible to keep stress and anxiety to a minimum.
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Definition of peine forte et dure in English:
A medieval form of torture in which the body was pressed with heavy weights.
- By some error this section came to be interpreted as ‘peine forte et dure’, which in turn came to be literally interpreted as the placing of weights upon the hapless prisoner, increasing until he either consented to jury trial or perished.
- Pressing to death, the peine forte et dure, was a well-known form of medieval interrogation still largely in use during Elizabeth's reign.
- He himself was apprehended whilst on his way to try to kill the youngest child, who was at nurse a few miles away, and died under the peine forte et dure at York on 5 August 1605.
French, literally 'strong and hard suffering'.
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After a successful liftoff this morning, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is on its way to rendezvous with the International Space Station.
"Very excited to be back here. We're a launch company and we love to launch," said Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, before launch. "We're prepared to fly."
However, the flight hasn't been without issue.
Shortly after Dragon reached orbit, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk reported on Twitter that there was a problem with the Dragon spacecraft's thruster pods, delaying the deployment of the craft's solar array, which powers it.
"Issue with Dragon thruster pods. System inhibiting three of four from initializing. About to command inhibit override," Musk tweeted. "Holding on solar array deployment until at least two thruster pods are active."
At approximately 11:50 a.m. ET, the Dragon's solar arrays were successfully deployed.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the unmanned Dragon capsule, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 10:10 a.m. ET today. The spacecraft, which is scheduled to rendezvous with the space station on Saturday, is ferrying 1,268 pounds of scientific experiments and supplies for the space station crew to the orbiter.
Using a robotic arm onboard the space station, two astronauts on Saturday are set to grab hold of the Dragon capsule and attach it to the station. The capsule will stay attached for about three weeks, returning to Earth on March 25.
Today's launch is the U.S. commercial mission"> second of 12 SpaceX flights contracted by NASA to resupply the space station. It also will be the third trip by a Dragon capsule to the orbiting laboratory.
After SpaceX made a demonstration flight in May 2012, it then launched the first official resupply mission last October, delivering 882 pounds of supplies.
Another successful commercial launch is an important milestone for NASA, which now depends on commercial flights since retiring the agency's fleet of space shuttles in the summer of 2011. For the foreseeable future, NASA will need commercial missions to ferry supplies, and possibly even astronauts, to the space station, while the space agency focuses on developing robotics and big engines in preparation for missions to the moon, asteroids and Mars.
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, on Google+ or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed. Her email address is [email protected].
Read more about emerging technologies in Computerworld's Emerging Technologies Topic Center. |
When you find yourself trying to remember something that has slipped your mind, sometimes something you were just thinking about three seconds ago, doesn't it annoy you? there are a few steps that may assist you in remembering.This article will teach you how to remember something that you have forgotten.
1Retrace your steps! If you were just walking down the hallway, do that again! Maybe you will remember along the way.Ad
2Think about closely related things then you will remember what you are trying to remember before. For example, if you are trying to remember what you were about to say ten seconds ago think of the topics you were talking or listening about around the same time that story or idea popped into your head.
3Hold that topic or general idea in your mind for about 10-30 seconds. Just analyze it any way you like.
4Think and/or talk about something else that's not related. Your subconscious should "connect the dots" sooner or later. If not, simply repeat the process until it does.
5Within a few minutes, sometimes almost instantly, you should be able to recall exactly where or what you have forgotten!
6If you rest a little bit you might remember what you were thinking.Ad
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- Don't try to think too hard about it, often that makes people feel as if it's being pushed further to the back of their brain.
- Try writing down what you do remember, if you remember anything, on a piece of paper or a flashcard step by step. Then once you get to the point where there's nothing else in your brain to remember, you can stop writing. Now, you have something to remember by. Because time is an important issue with remembering. After a while, the details and specifics fade away, so you better write it all down fast, so you at least have a basic guide to what you did before. (This is directed to people who lost an item.)
- If you are going to have to remember the spelling of a word, make up a song or acronym. The crazier the better, that song about "Uncle Joe's Ugly Toes" will work better than "I like to breathe air". Try it out, It really works!
- Tie a string around your fingers. When you see it, you will wonder why it's there and remember the reason you tied it.
- Saying to yourself, "Ok, let's talk about something else, I'll remember it in a bit." may help speed up the process.
- You can also do "Visual Memory" to remember things. This is when you think of something you want to remember, and give it a physical appearance. So if you wanted to remember what you wanted to buy at the supermarket, you would imagine going through your house, and think: "You go through the door and see the refrigerator, put your fruits in the fridge, apples and oranges! The microwave; you put my Soup-In-A-Cup in there, time to buy noodles! Throw the empty cup in the garbage. You hate rice with eggs, how can someone stand to eat that garbage worthy combination?" And so on.
- Don't get frustrated if you can't seem to remember something. It's in there somewhere, it just doesn't have a big enough "imprint" in your brain, so you have to help your subconscious put the puzzle together. You'll eventually find it.
Categories: Memorization Skills
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Includes a Teacher Book, a Student Activity Book, and six readers all in eBooks
THE RED BOOK
2ND GRADE SKILLS FOR BEGINNING READERSThe Common Sense Press second grade reading program continues phonics instruction that will bring confidence and fluency to the beginning reader. The updated third edition is even easier to use with the new readers that give your student more practice in mastering phonics. Students will enjoy the exciting stories in the readers and use them to learn grammar, creative writing, higher-order thinking skills, and much more. The program includes a Teacher Book, a Student Activity Book, and 6 readers, each containing several stories all packaged in a convenient, attractive full-color box. There are three supplemental readers that can be used for additional practice, but are not necessary for the program.
- 36 weekly lessons divided into easy-to-use daily plans. Lessons require little or NO preparation! Instructions and activities for phonics, reading skills, grammar, creative writing, and higher-order thinking skills taken from six delightful readers! Includes a quick review of first grade phonics and instruction in advanced phonics.
- The "real book" read alouds needed for this program may be obtained through your library or purchased from bookstores or catalogs.
- Enrichment Activities included in The Red Book Program will challenge your student with thinking, writing, and creative activities that are ideal for the fluent reader and easily adaptable for the nonreader.
- Handwriting instruction teaches upper and lower case letters, numbers, PLUS punctuation! Illustrated practice sheets encourage your student to do his best.
- Phonics Facts, Grammar Guides, and Punctuation Pointers keep students on track.
- Games, word-wheels, flip books, and MORE hands-on projects and activities are effective for ALL types of learners.
- Spelling lessons include spelling lists, word puzzles, and spelling tips.
- Assessments enable teachers to evaluate progress. Phonics Facts, Grammar Guides, Syllable Sense, and Punctuation Pointers aid students in remembering the tricks of the trade for reading, grammar, and spelling.
- Essential to the program, additional consumable Student Activity Books may be purchased separately
eBook LLATL 3rd Ed: Red Book Program 2nd Grade
Continuing the excellent phonics, reading, and language arts instruction of the LLATL Blue Program, the Red Program incorporates the same effective methodologies and teaching strategies. The user-friendly teacher's manual (Red Book) with 36 weekly lesson plans is comprehensive and thorough with little teacher preparation needed. The heftier Student Activity Book reviews skills taught in the first grade program and reinforces new skills with a similar assortment of excellent activities: word wheels, flip books, games, and cut and paste activities. More emphasis is placed on poetry, sentence structure, grammar and writing - all learned in the context of stories. Spelling is also emphasized more with weekly word lists, visual representation of words, and puzzles and games for review/reinforcement. The six readers are longer but just as engaging with soft-hued color print rather than black & white. Periodic skill assessments give the teacher the tools to decide what the student needs to review. The program includes the eBook Red Book (teacher's manual), the eBook Student Activity Book, and eBook Six Readers. |
Spanish guitar is another name for a nylon-string
guitar (strings which used to be made out of sheep intestines, but commonly
called cat-gut). Nylon string guitars are either what we call
"classical" guitars or "flamenco" guitars (there are some
differences even between these two).
Both "Spanish" guitars and acoustic guitars are acoustic instruments, generally made of tone woods, usually consisting of spruce or cedar tops, mahogany or rosewood backs (or often cypress for Flamenco), and many other varieties.
One cannot simply put steel strings on a classical or nylon strings on an acoustic. If you observe closely, the distance between the strings is more when compared to the latter and the neck of the guitar is taller than an acoustic guitar.
Spanish guitar is more to do with finger picking with your right hand and hence more gap between the strings. Styles of playing are flamenco and classical for a Spanish guitar. However, people normally use plectrums while playing an acoustic guitar as it is mainly used for strumming chords. |
System Accelerator – Collaborative Processes for Critical Problem Solving in School Communities
Think outside the box! This training will use design thinking tools and facilitation techniques to develop strategic school community partnerships for generating and testing innovations. You will learn how to gather data, create school buy-in, and design wellness programs that can accommodate different school needs. The goal of this training is to increase awareness of the opportunities and resources available to support schools in applying innovative solutions to complex problems. We will provide an introduction to concepts including design thinking, prototyping, and strategies for building evidence for new ideas in school health and wellness.
Participants will engage in an innovation generation process that facilitates sharing problems, exploring potential solutions, and generating newly developed strategies to pursue. |
Knowing your body isn’t an easy task. A lot of people are concerned about being healthy, but do not understand the role of essential vitamins in keeping a body healthy. The challenge for many people is to know where to begin. This article will help provide you with this understanding.
For the building and maintenance of strong bones, take calcium. If you want your body to take in the calcium, you must have enough vitamin D. Sunlight, certain foods, and vitamin D supplements can help with absorption. These all improve your body’s ability to absorb calcium.
Vitamins and minerals, as part of a healthy diet, can help you maintain better health. Better health can save on those medical costs, too. Vitamins will improve your mood and keep your body stable and healthy.
Vitamin A is very important; it boost the immune system, betters vision and lowers heart disease risk. An overdose can be fatal, so only take 2300 International Units each day. Carrots, squash, and dark leafy greens are great sources of Vitamin A.
Supplements for minerals and vitamins are highly important these days. Because many of the foods found in supermarkets have been highly processed, much of the nutritional value has been depleted. One way to make up for it is by taking daily multivitamins.
Avoid prenatals if you’ve already gone through menopause. Non-pregnant women often take these types of vitamins for their nails and hair. While this is safe in general, they often have more iron than a post menopausal woman needs.
As an adult, if you are interested in trying gummy vitamins that you serve your kids, take more than one. Children need less vitamins and minerals than adults, so one will not give you all the nutrition you need. At the same time, you must take care not to take too many.
Canned produce, though better than fried foods, still does not contain as many nutrients as fresh fruits and veggies. Not only should you get nutrients from what you eat, but taking mineral supplements and vitamins without chemicals is also important.
Your body is important to you, which means you need to focus on exactly what it needs. It is important to understand the benefits of each vitamin. This was an excellent starting point. By doing so, you will be closer to achieving optimal health. |
The Peoples of the World Foundation
Education for and about Indigenous Peoples
The Chewa People
Countries inhabited: Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Language family: Niger-Congo
Language branch: Bantoid
The text and photographs on this page are copyright by Amy Gough. Please contact us if you are interested in her work.
There are presently over 1.5 million Chewa throughout Malawi and Zambia, however the Chewa are not considered people of Malawi, nor people of Zambia, but people from the Nyanja group of Bantu. The history of the Chewa people includes a number of stories of fact, tradition, ancestral beliefs, and spiritual influence creating the modern day Chewa culture. Legend holds that over one thousand years ago, Bantu speaking people of Nigeria and Cameroon migrated to — among other places — the Luba area of Zaire, or what is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Nyanja group of Bantu settled within the Luba area known as Malambo and conquered more and more land from other Bantu peoples. Eventually their central locale shifted from Malambo to the region of Choma; a vast mountainous and plateau region known today as northeastern Zambia and northern Malawi (formerly Nyasaland). In Malawi, the Chewa are predominantly concentrated within the central region, surrounding the capital city of Lilongwe, in areas such as Dedza, Kasungu, Dowa, Ntchisi, Mchinjui, Ntcheu, Salima, and Nkhota Kota.
In the 1700s various ethnic groups began to occupy Malawi. The Chewa people, according to tradition, have remained outwardly peaceful with these groups. Rather than battle other ethnic groups, the Chewa have chosen to distinguish themselves from other groups through region, language, and culture. Chewa, defined as "Bantu speaking people" and classified as the Nyanja group of Bantu, speak what is known in Malawi as "Chichewa". Although English has been the official language in Malawi since 1968, Chichewa has remained the national language, meaning present day Malawian culture includes significant Chewa influence. For the Chewa, this is empowering — meaning education systems, healthcare, publications, governing boards, and radio broadcasts all utilize Chichewa, opening a wide opportunity of exposure to an outside world. The Banda woman pictured dancing on the right, for example, has watched four of her children attend school in the closest major city.
Man-made borders are useless to people whose culture originates from descendants of a different type of unity. Perhaps Chewa now consider their identity as Malawian and Bantu, or perhaps they have simply learned to fulfill the duties of a number of identities in order to better their own livelihood. Although Malawians demonstrate comparatively strong national unity, the Chewa have not lost their tribal unifications and divisions. Within the Chewa there exist various clans; cousins if you will. The Banda and Phiri clans, for example, represent some of the largest groups, evident through the popularity of this clan name as a surname. Traditionally, stories also hold that the Chewa themselves came from a merge of the Banda and Phiri clans.
In 1891, the Queen of Britain proclaimed what is now Malawi as a protectorate. Malawi received independence in 1964, and fell under the leadership of Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). Dr. Banda, a Chewa himself, declared himself president for life and ruled until 1994. Dr. Banda's leadership style had often been criticized for its similarities to dictatorship. He did, however, maintain peaceful relations with many non-African and African countries — notably South Africa. Taking no stand on the events permeating South Africa, Dr. Banda's leadership style created opportunities for many Malawians to venture outside Malawi in search of work. Since 1994 the country has remained under the leadership of Bakili Muluzi and the United Democratic Front, in what is titled a multiparty democracy. In addition to the Malawi Congress Party and the United Democratic Front, the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) emerged after the country's democracy as a significant political party. The political boundaries are simplistically the south, central, and northern regions, with the central, Chewa, region predominately supporting the MCP.
The Chewa believe that living things were created by God — Chiuta — on the mountain of Kapirintiwa, which borders present day Malawi and Mozambique. Ancestors and spirits of other living creatures play an important part in present day society by being in constant contact with the living world, predominately through dance of those initiated to "Nyau", or secret societies.
"Gule Wamkulu", literally meaning "big dance", have become a sort of title for secret societies of traditional Chewa religious practices. The Gule Wamkulu ceremonies consist of formally organized dances to admire the remarkable physical abilities of these individuals — considered to be adept at their dance as a result of their spiritual state. Informally, Gule Wamkulu, or "Gule" is a term associated with anyone who participates in the rituals of these secret societies. The peak season for Gule occurs in July, with young men dressed as ancestral animals, trees, or in masks of ancestral spirits. The Gule themselves are initiated through formal ceremony into this society. Gule are considered to be in 'animal state' when they are dressed in such attire, and are not to be approached. If one has the misfortune of passing a Gule on the road, traditional behavior consists of dropping a few coins for the Gule — never handing them the money directly for fear they will grab you and take you to the cemetery for ritual purposes. Generally, it is best to avoid Gule in informal situations. In their animal or ancestral state, they are unpredictable.
Within the village, Gule may appear in small groups of 4 or 5 and villagers do their best to avoid any encounters. Gule are common in the afternoons, a strong incentive for tending to all business outside the home in the early hours. These secret societies have allowed for a close knit kinship between members of the Chewa — and equally divided them from neighbor groups.
In a village known for its abundance of Gule's, I once made the mistake of making my way back home in the late afternoon. As the Gule's ran through the village, I ran too — into the opening door of a stranger. A local village woman who did not know me flung open her door offering her home as a sanctuary. Together we watched — unable to speak each other's language — as the Gule ran past her window. I understood that it is not only the Gule Wamkulu themselves who receive the feeling of community, and solidarity, but also they who provide such to the rest of us.
The following day I planned to leave the village, but villagers suggested I wait a few more days until the festivities of Gule's had passed. By doing so, it was anticipated that during my two-mile journey to the main road I would encounter fewer Gule's. In my urgency to leave, I summoned the help of a middle-aged man who had an 'exemption' from Gule harm. The man was lucky enough to own a bicycle and he traveled quite frequently to town. Because he was at risk for increased interaction with Gule, he had requested to witness the Gule ceremonies. After paying a small sum of money, he had become a sort of honorary Gule, to whom no harm would come. He had "bought the way". But he still would not accompany me on my journey to the main road. "I will take you in two days; I don't want money to take you now... wait two days and we will go". Take me in two days he did — and our trip was Gule free!
Formally, the Gule Wamkulu dance is performed when the headman requests such festivities, generally corresponding with weddings, funerals, or initiation rite ceremonies. The dances are a great source of celebration, and although the mystery and excitement still surrounds the presence of the Gule Wamkulu, the community reacts to their show with great giddiness and giggles. There are a number of traditional dances of the Gule Wamkulu, all performed for various events. The "Zilombo", or masked dancers, perform with extraordinary movements and energy, wearing elaborate traditional masks and attire. According to local folklore, It is said that the Queen of England witnessed a traditional Gule Wamkulu celebration, and was so captivated she asked to take some home; a request that was unfulfilled.
Masks worn by the Gule Wamkulu include thousands of different representations — generally each developed hundreds of years ago by unique tribes, and accented with their own individual touch - for example one accenting bright colors, one dark. Today, these masks, with their different origins, are part of what is now the Chewa culture.
The female version of Gule Wamkulu, called Chisamba, occurs for female initiation rituals. During this ceremony a woman is taken into a private room, and instructed by her elders of how to be a proper woman. The solidarity of these women does not diminish after the ceremony, but rather is rooted during this event. The celebratory Chisamba dance accompanies this event. Historically, a number of initiation practices have been involved — today these words of wisdom and celebratory event comprise the event.
The presence of Christian missionaries has resulted in large numbers of converts throughout Malawi — although this was not always the case. In the 19th century, converts to Christianity from all tribes were often asked to cut all ties with other Chewa. It is believed that Christianity among the Chewa has increased in part because of the Dutch missionary influence since the mid 1980's. However, the Gule Wamkulu, the Chewa language, and the Chewa traditions appear deep rooted among these people, and changing their spiritual beliefs doesn't appear to have taken away their traditional ceremony — maybe it's only taken away those willing to do so publicly.
Within a Chewa village the chiefs are a central unit of rule. Village life is somewhat self-contained, although not independent. Typical homes have numerous commodities that are purchased or obtained through bartering. Lamps, chairs, oil, salt, mats for sitting, pots and pans, and jewelry are commonly seen within the homes of some villagers. Chewa communities cover a vast land area and individual communities have progressed at their own pace. Those near the main road, for example, have increasingly adjusted to outside influence while those closer to the lake have developed a dependency and connection to utilization of this body of water.
Chewa rural life revolves around agricultural activities geared towards increasing production of maize (corn), vegetables, and groundnuts. All of these crops are used for consumption, and any excess is sold either within the village or occasionally at the increasing markets scattered along the roadside. The only crop produced predominately for sale in Chewa villages in central Malawi is tobacco. Tobacco is started slightly before maize, however the two crops are produced during the same season. This time of year, during land preparation, planting and maintaining crops, and of course the tremendously important harvest, provide focal points for the year.
Because of the physical structure of the village, most farmland is located on the outskirts of the village, often requiring long walks to and from the fields. Because of this, there are generally small gardens, known as "dimba", located nearby the home where vegetables and small amounts of maize are grown. If any of these crops are sold, the income usually belongs to the woman of the house.
Land ownership is determined by the village headman, and is constantly changing. With births, marriages, and deaths come changes in one's land allotment. Sometimes a husband and wife will have their own land, while sometimes they will share, in which case the husband decides if and how to sell the excess. Traditionally, the Chewa were described as a matrilineal society, however the Chewa today include influences of both matrilineal and patrilineal leadership. Landowners are considered to be of higher status, however owning more land means working more land, and this often requires hiring additional labor. This informal employment consists of hiring neighbors to work as "Ganyu" or informal laborers. Women and men are hired as Ganyu labor, and payment is usually made in maize itself, and is often given upon completion of a particular project. Ganyu labor is essential to the functioning of the village, and creates a strong interdependency on one another.
Children are also a valuable source of labor, with young boys beginning to assist in farm activities around the age of six or seven. Young girls are also valuable to the functioning of these activities, as they are responsible for the laborious chores of fetching water, caring for younger children, helping their mothers cook, clean, take maize to the mill, and look after the sick. In addition, women and children laboriously process the staple crop of maize into the commonly eaten "Nsima". Nsima requires much preparation; first the maize is dried, sorted, pounded, and finally cooked into a pasty patty. Routinely prepared with whatever vegetables are available, Nsima is eaten with the hands and used as a palate with which to scoop up the rest of the meal. Shown left is an elderly woman, a proud grandmother or "Agogo", in her routine of pounding maize.
Since planting generally occurs around November, with the harvest seen near June, the days in between are filled with laborious work for adults and children. From June to October, however, the days are sometimes long and filled with much more free time. All households are required to spend a certain amount of time participating in activities that enhance village life — sometimes construction of the church, work on an elderly person's land, or simply assisting as instructed by the village headman. In today's modern day Chewa villages, the option exists to replace the community service hours with a simple payment to the village headman, intended as a contribution towards the community project. Aside from community service, some village women will engage in additional income generating activities, such as the sale of small goods (usually from the house garden), or occasionally crafted or handmade goods.
Men sometimes will seek outside employment, perhaps working for daily salary in the nearby tea plantations of central Malawi, or involve in making and selling bricks, which are burned in ovens like the one shown to the right. Often times, however, these months are filled with hardship. Households struggle to make sure their maize supply will last through these months, and to avoid the downfall of disease.
Formal village events generally include typical celebratory and mourning activities — birthdays, weddings, ritual transitions into adulthood, and the ever increasing funerals. All celebrations are elaborate, and it is at these events that the spirit of traditional Chewa culture comes to life — that is, the spirits of Chewa ancestors, and revered animals — come to life.
Within Malawi itself, children are provided free education — excluding uniforms, books, pens, paper, and other school supplies. Within rural schools the qualifications of teachers varies, with a recent emphasis on promoting a requirement for all teachers to be college educated. A majority of Chewa girls and boys participate in school activities when they are not involved in other activities. Children are not in school during the harvest time, as they are a valuable source of labor. Before planting, however, school is in full swing — often without many of the students. Predominately, male students are instead found participating in activities of the Gule Wamkulu. Due to the secretive nature of the Gule Wamkulu group itself, it is inappropriate for parents or teachers to scold children for not going to school during this time.
The picture on the left shows a group of young Gule Wamkulu celebrating their ancestry through costumes reflecting their spiritual relationship to the animal world. Just before planting season, the Gule Wamkulu presence is most abundant and the festivities are ablaze. In this village, not even the teacher, pictured below, could confront these students, her own students, about their absence from school that very day. Presently, schools do not formally consider the schedule of the Gule Wamkulu in curriculum design.
Chewa children are responsible for a number of important household responsibilities. They are also responsible for a number of cultural activities — and wouldn't consider rejecting these responsibilities! Since the arrival of free education, the numbers of children in school for at least part of the year has dramatically increased. In fact, children have even been graduating from high school.
What will happen now? In these villages, prestige is measured by the amount of maize you can produce. Finding employment often means leaving one's village for nearby urban havens. With an education, will these people be able to find work? Perhaps not in the village, but instead in the town. What then will happen to the village, and the culture that is carried on inside the village?
Photographs and text © 2004, Amy Gough. To cite this article, for example in a term paper or school project, using the American Psychological Association citation style, copy and paste the following:
Gough, A. (2004), The Chewa People. The Peoples of the World Foundation. Retrieved
February 27, 2015,
from The Peoples of the World Foundation. |
In a world where kids can be exposed to pornography, online predators, sexting and bullying by social media, it’s high time to modernize sex ed, experts say.
Sexual health educators Meg Hickling and Saleema Noon have written a new book on the subject — Talk Sex Today. It’s an updated version of Hickling’s 1997 book Speaking of Sex, which was last revised in 2005.
“Even in that time, the Internet and use of social media have changed tremendously,”said Hickling, who has been teaching B.C. kids about the birds and the bees since 1974. “Something else that has changed is our whole understanding of gender and sexual orientation. LGBT used to be quite simple and straightforward … but now there is an alphabet soup of letters.”
Noon, who updated Hickling’s book, said sexual education on the topic of gender identity and attraction is really all about teaching respect for all types of people.
“We want to create a culture of inclusion so that everyone feels respected and free to express themselves,” Noon said.
Both Noon and Hickling said if kids are old enough to ask questions about certain topics, they are old enough to have the science, health and safety information about the topic.
“If one kid in the class has the question, you can bet they all have the question,” Hickling said.
Pornography is now so pervasive that elementary schoolchildren can access it on their phones in the playground, Noon said.
“It makes me sad to think that a young person’s first exposure to sex is to watch some disgusting, humiliating hard core porn,” Noon said. “The more we can educate our kids and make them need to go to pornography less, the better.”
Hickling said it’s important for kids to know that pornography is not real.
“I want to impress on young children that pornography is like a fairy tale,” Hickling said. “Women and men’s bodies don’t look like that in real life. Nobody has breasts that big or penises that long. I want them to know that this is acting. These people do not love each other and this is a business.”
Noon said teaching kids about sexual health is one part of changing societal attitudes, but another part is changing the rape culture.
“(Society) teaches kids and teens that guys are the hunters and girls are the prize,” Noon said. “Our girls learn at a very young age, exactly how they have to dress, act and be in order to get noticed or in order to be seen as attractive, sexy or girlfriend material.”
Hickling said changing that has to start when children are very young.
“If you start when they’re little that their bodies are their own and that no one has the right to touch them without their permission (it will help),” Hickling said. “We teach them to respect themselves and to speak up when someone transgresses them. If we had some real intention about that when they were young, it would go a long way toward stopping the rape culture.”
Noon said society has got to start teaching girls that their value is not in their appearance and teach boys that they don’t have to get the girl to be cool to get that approval from their peers.
“With social media, girls are pressured to post provocative photos to get the likes and the follows. Boys get those photos and of course they’re going to share them with their friends because that makes them cool,” Noon said.
One step in the right direction, Noon and Hickling said, is the movement in schools and workplaces to have gender neutral bathrooms.
“I think the world would be a whole lot more civilized if we just had unisex bathrooms,” Hickling said. “It’s a basic human right to have a cubicle. It’s ridiculous — I don’t understand why men need to pee in public.”
Hickling and Noon encourage setting Internet limits when kids are very young so that they will be easier to enforce when kids are teenagers. They say parents should have all kids’ passwords so that they can monitor their activity and that if the passwords don’t work, the devices should be taken away.
“I’m not suggesting parents troll their kids’ social media accounts every morning, but we need to make sure that our kids have a healthy dose of paranoia,” Noon said.
Noon said in the past, sex education was problem-focused and fear-based.
“I want kids of all ages to know that in most circumstances, sex is a wonderful thing,” Noon said. “Between two consenting adults in a healthy relationship, sex is a way that people not only reproduce, but show love and affection for each other. It feels good … however, it comes with a lot of adult responsibilities.”
There is one thing hasn’t changed when it comes to sex ed — it’s all about health, science and safety.
“If you stick to the science, there is nothing to fear,” Hickling said. |
A study by Spanish researchers found that eco-friendly LED lights can be damaging to your retinas, which cannot regrow or be replaced.
The lights produce high levels of radiation in the "blue band" of the light ray rainbow, which, over time, can damage retinas, ThinkSpain reported.
Dr. Celia Sanchez Ramos, an investigator at Madrid's Complutense University, said that the retina -- a highly-sensitive tissue covering the eye -- never regrow itself or be replaced once it has become damaged.
Sanchez Ramos said damaged retinas is likely to become an epidemic sometime soon because of the use of computer, mobile phone and TV screens, and even traffic lights and street lights, which have been gradually replaced with LED.
"This problem is going to get worse, because humans are living longer and children are using electronic devices from a young age, particularly for schoolwork, instead of paper," Sanchez Ramos said. "Eyes are not designed to look directly at light -- they are designed to see with light."
However, people can fight the effects of the dangerous rays by wearing "adequate protection," and by closing "our eyes often to soften the impact."
Adding foods to your diet that are rich in vitamin A, such as spinach and peppers, will protect the eyes, Ramos said.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
|Cold and Flu|
|Hair, Skin, Nails| |
USGBC and human health
USGBC has started exploring how to clearly link the market transformation that the green building movement has inspired to its opportunity to create an equally transformational impact on human health. In Health is a Human Right. Green Building Can Help, a report from USGBC’s Green Building & Human Health Summit in early 2013, we examine ways to promote and protect human health in relation to the built environment.
Additionally, we have put forth a set of principles around green building and human health. Our intent is that they serve as a trail map towards a number of initiatives and efforts to advance this critical aspect of green building.
Because if there is one thing we know to be true: If health is a human right, and green building can help, we’ve got a lot of work to do.
Additional materials relating to human health and green building:
A Review of the Health Language in the LEED Rating System
Greenbuilders: Taking on Health and the Built Environment
Greenbuild 2013: The Built Environment and Human Health
USGBC-NCC Launches Building Health Initiative
The Case for Habitat Protection – Benefits to the Economy and Human Health
Study: Extra Costs Minimal for LEED-Certified Hospitals
Summit on Green Building and Human Health
Health is a Human Right – Green Building Can Help |
Age Appropriate - Preschool Age
The following section contains introductory information for parents of preschool children with Williams syndrome.
This information is provided from the Fulfilling Dreams book.
The average toddler with WS is lively, playful, affectionate and full of smiles and "Hi's" for everyone. Trips to the doctor and medical concerns won�t keep them from being delightful little people, curious about their world and adding warmth to your family.
Now is the time to get started with an "early intervention" program to help address developmental delays. Early Intervention programs are guaranteed in every state. In many states, formal intervention programs won�t begin until age 3, while in others they are available to your child as soon as a diagnosis is made. The idea of teaching by playing, is at the heart of early intervention. Formal programs will assist you in ways to foster your child�s development while you are having fun together. Whatever "delay" in development might be present can be helped by doing things that are pleasurable.
Formal early intervention programs begin with developmental evaluations that may lead to the onset of therapeutic intervention programs in physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and sometimes music therapy. Many children with WS receive all 3 basic therapies at various times during their early childhood - often receiving all 3 at the same time. Music therapy is lesser known in many areas of the country and not always available. However, if available, a music therapy assessment is advisable for your child. Music therapy can often help children with WS overcome developmental obstacles.
There are many resources that can help you learn more about developmental therapies.
See the following areas: |
When do they flower?
The further north you go, the later the blooms are. On average you'll see them mid to late March from Kagoshima to Tokyo, and pushing into April in Kanazawa all the way through to early May in Sapporo. In the south, the blooms start around mid-January on Okinawa island, but it can start even earlier – flowering began in late December in Naha in 2013.
The map below shows the average flowering dates for "Sakura", the Japanese cherry blossom, for the six years to 2016.
The cherry blossom resonates strongly in Japan, with crowds gathering in parks and temples during flowering times. The symbol is used in art, anime, film, music, and on kimonos and stationery. In World War II Japanese pilots painted cherry blossoms on their planes or took branches of the trees with them on their missions.
In each city a representative tree is chosen to signal the opening of the first blossoms, with the Japanese Meteorological Agency monitoring the cherry blossom front annually. Full bloom occurs about a week after the first bloom, and another week later blossoms start falling from the trees. Weather conditions like wind and rain can hasten the blooming period so if you're going to "Hanami", that is, picnic under a blossoming tree, plan for about a week after the first flower. |
Pinot noir is a red wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French words for pine and black. The word pine alludes to the grape variety having tightly clustered, pine cone-shaped bunches of fruit.
Pinot noir grapes are grown around the world, mostly in the cooler climates, and the grape is chiefly associated with the Burgundy region of France. Pinot noir is now used to make red wines around the world, as well as Champagne, and such sparkling white wines as the Italian Franciacorta, and English sparkling wines. Regions that have gained a reputation for red pinot noir wines include: the Willamette Valley of Oregon, the Carneros, Central Coast, Sonoma Coast and Russian River AVAs of California, the Elgin and Walker Bay wine regions of South Africa, Mornington Peninsula, Adelaide Hills, Great Southern, Tasmania and Yarra Valley in Australia and the Central Otago, Martinborough and Marlborough wine regions of New Zealand. Pinot noir is the most-planted varietal (38%) used in sparkling wine production in Champagne and other wine regions.
Pinot noir is a difficult variety to cultivate and transform into wine. The grape's tendency to produce tightly packed clusters makes it susceptible to several viticultural hazards involving rot that require diligent canopy management. The thin skins and low levels of phenolic compounds lends pinot to producing mostly lightly colored, medium-bodied and low-tannin wines that can often go through phases of uneven and unpredictable aging. When young, wines made from pinot noir tend to have red fruit aromas of cherries, raspberries and strawberries. As the wine ages, pinot has the potential to develop more vegetal and "barnyard" aromas that can contribute to the complexity of the wine. |
BETWEEN THE WARS
During the interwar period, France was one of the more liberal countries in welcoming Jewish immigrants, many of them from eastern Europe. After World War I, thousands of Jews viewed France as a European land of equality and opportunity and helped to make its capital, Paris, a thriving center of Jewish cultural life.
In the 1930s, however, unnerved by a significant influx of refugees fleeing Nazi Germany and the Spanish Civil War, the leaders of the French Third Republic (1870-1940) began to reassess this “open-door” policy. By 1939 French authorities had imposed strict limitations on immigration and set up a number of internment and detention camps for refugees, such as Gurs and Rivesaltes, in southern France.
When the Third Republic collapsed under German attack in the early summer of 1940, there were approximately 350,000 Jews in France. Less than half of them were French citizens. Seventy-five thousand resident Jews did not hold French citizenship. Many of these individuals were refugees who had fled Nazi persecution in the Third Reich; Jews and other endangered persons fleeing oppression in German-occupied Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands soon joined them in the summer of 1940.
German forces invaded France on May 10, 1940. On June 22, 1940, France signed an armistice with Germany which went into effect on June 25, 1940. Under the terms of the armistice, Germany annexed the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine which shared borders with Germany and had long been a bone of contention between the two countries.
The German army occupied the remainder of northern and western France and administered this occupied zone in conjunction with occupied Belgium under the leadership of a “military commander” (Militärbefehlshaber). From October 1940 until March 1942, General Otto von Stülpnagel held this position. His cousin, General Karl-Heinrich Stülpnagel, became Military Commander of Belgium and Northern France in March 1942 and held this position until his arrest after the July 20, 1944, attempt to assassinate Hitler.
As early as the winter of 1940-1941, however, the SS and police had established an apparatus on von Stülpnagel's staff in occupied France. SS Colonel Helmut Knochen served as Commander of Security Police and SD (Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, BdS); and SS Captain Theodor Dannecker represented the Jewish affairs office of the Reich Central Office for Security (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA), under command of SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann. In March 1942, with the replacement of the Military Commander in occupied France and Belgium and in preparation for the deportation of the French Jews, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler appointed SS Major General Carl Oberg as Higher SS and Police Header (Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer, HSSPF) for German-occupied France.
Until November 1942, southern and eastern France remained unoccupied. A French collaborationist government, headquartered in the city of Vichy, in the Auvergne, governed unoccupied France.
In July 1940, the French National Assembly voted to suspend the constitution of the Third Republic and placed the new “Vichy regime” under the leadership of the aging Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, French hero of the Battle of Verdun in World War I. Pierre Laval, a former Socialist politician who cultivated good relations with Otto Abetz (the German Foreign Office representative in Paris), functioned as the acting chief of government for most of the period of German occupation.
In theory, measures of the Vichy government applied to all of France. However, only in unoccupied France could the new government actually govern autonomously. Officially neutral, Vichy France collaborated closely with Germany. Under Petain and Laval, the Vichy government followed a nationalist and “pre-French Revolutionary” agenda, replacing the ideals of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” [“Liberté, equalité, fraternité!”] with “work, family, and country.”
In the autumn of 1940, Vichy administrators promulgated antisemitic legislation, closely patterned on that of German anti-Jewish decrees and ordinances in place in the German-occupied zone. The so-called "Statut des Juifs" (“Jewish Statute”), passed in two sections in October 1940 and June 1941, excluded Jews from public life, regulated their dismissal from positions in the civil service and the military, and barred them from occupations in industry, commerce, and the free professions (including medicine, law, and teaching).
In March 1941, the Vichy government created a central agency, the General Commissariat for Jewish Affairs (Commissariat Général aux Questions Juives), to coordinate anti-Jewish legislation and policy. Anxious to ensure that material goods and assets confiscated from the Jewish population did not fall into German hands, the Laval government, in July 1941, instituted an extensive program of "Aryanization," appropriating Jewish-owned property for the French state. Aryanization left most Jews in France destitute, affecting foreign Jews particularly severely. French authorities interned thousands of Jews under deplorable conditions in French-administered detention camps—Gurs, Saint-Cyprien, Rivesaltes, Le Vernet, and Les Milles—where at least 3,000 individuals died during the war years.
Following the Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942, German authorities prepared for the deportation of Jews from France and other western European countries. The appointment of Oberg in March 1942 accelerated the process: an initial transport of more than 1,000 Jews left from Compiègne for Auschwitz on March 27, 1942. On May 29, 1942, German authorities issued a decree—to take effect on June 7—that Jews in occupied France wear the yellow star.
After securing the agreement of the Vichy government, German officials and French police conducted round-ups of Jews in both occupied and unoccupied zones of France throughout the summer of 1942. Under the direction of Rene Bousquet, Secretary General of the Vichy police, French police arrested 13,000 Jews in Paris on July 16 and 17, 1942, interning them for several days under appalling conditions in the Velodrome d'Hiver sports arena. As Vichy policy dictated that initial deportation convoys from France carry only adult Jews to the East, police razzias literally tore families apart, as parents, grandparents, and elder siblings were separated from younger children at collection points and at French or German assembly camps.
By late summer, French authorities altered their policy in favor of deporting whole families. After this time transports included children and juveniles in convoys to the east.
By the autumn of 1942, some 42,000 Jews had passed through the Drancy transit camp on the outskirts of Paris. Nearly one third of these individuals came from unoccupied France. A significant percentage of these victims were foreign or stateless Jews, sacrificed by the Vichy government in a vain attempt to spare France's indigenous Jewish population. The final destination of these deportees was Auschwitz, where the SS murdered the vast majority by means of poison gas shortly after their arrival.
Deportations of Jews from France in the summer and fall of 1942 spurred significant protest within the Catholic Church, a mainstay of the Petain regime, and among the general population. The brutal nature of the roundups, such as the razzia and incarceration in the Velodrome d'Hiver, stirred public anger. The initial decision to separate children from their families during the deportation process met with particular criticism.
The calculated strategy of the Vichy administration to collaborate with German deportation efforts in order to gain more independence for unoccupied France had failed. The Petain government's willingness to surrender foreign Jews in hopes of shielding French Jewish nationals had increasingly obligated Vichy officials to fill all deportation quotas demanded by German authorities, who did not concern themselves with the niceties of nationality and citizenship.
In November 1942, German troops occupied Vichy's formerly “free zone.” As German allies, Italian forces had occupied the southeastern corner of France in 1940. As elsewhere in territories they controlled, Italian authorities refused to enforce antisemitic legislation seriously, or to hand over Jews to Germans officials, despite repeated German demands. Thousands of Jews sought and received protection in the Italian zone until its occupation by German forces with Italy's surrender in September 1943.
RESUMPTION OF DEPORTATIONS
German authorities reinstituted transports of Jews from France in January 1943 and continued the deportations until August 1944. In all, some 77,000 Jews living on French territory perished in concentration camps and killing centers—the overwhelming majority of them at Auschwitz—or died in detention on French soil. One third of these victims were French citizens.
While French officials did not hesitate to meet German quotas for deportations with foreign or stateless Jews living on their soil, they were less enthusiastic in sacrificing French Jews to German demands. As deportations resumed in 1943, German administrators noted that French police seemed less committed to rounding up indigenous Jews, while Laval himself refused to strip French Jews of their citizenship to facilitate deportation. Thanks to the obstruction of French officials, the vast majority of Jews with French citizenship survived the Holocaust.
Yet the cost paid in lives was still enormous. Historian Michael Marrus has noted that although the “'Final Solution' in France was a Nazi project from beginning to end,” it is unlikely that German authorities would have been successful in deporting such a large number of Jews from France without the aid and cooperation of French police and administrators.
LIBERATION OF FRANCE
The Allied landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944, initiated the liberation of France. The French Résistance played a significant role in aiding Allied armies in this effort. Members of the French resistance movement came from every economic milieu and from every element of the political spectrum: conservative nationalists; Catholic and Protestant clergymen; members of the beleaguered Jewish community; liberal republicans, and activists from the socialist and communist Left.
During the time of the occupation, resistance cells had carried out sabotage and guerilla actions against German and collaborationist authorities, circulated identification papers and documents for Jews and other persecutees, and maintained escape networks for Jews, forced laborers, and Allied POWs and troops trapped behind German lines. Now resistance groups helped to speed the Allied advance against German forces. Within three months the country was free.
On August 25, 1944, German forces in Paris surrendered; on the following day, General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French Forces (Forces Françaises Libres, or FFL) and President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, marched triumphantly into the French capital.
Directly after liberation, the provisional government disbanded many of the collaborationist organizations, such as the Milice Francaise (French Militia), the most significant paramilitary group created to combat the French Resistance movement.
Following a wave of popular judgments and summary executions of collaborators, the provisional government began a series of trials against leading Vichy officials. Pierre Laval, French Minister of State under Petain, and Joseph Darnand, leader of the Milice, were convicted of treason and executed in October 1945. On August 15, 1945, Marshall Petain was also condemned to death on treason charges. Due to his services in World War I and to his advanced age (Petain was 89 at the time), de Gaulle commuted Petain's sentence to life imprisonment; he would die in 1951.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, French jurisprudence undertook efforts to prosecute several individuals on charges of crimes against humanity for their respective roles in the Nazi genocide. The first successful outcome of these efforts was the 1987 trial of Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyons,” whom a French court convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment primarily for his role in the deportation and death of Jewish refugee children hidden in the village of Izieu.
More significant, perhaps, were those proceedings against three Frenchmen and former Vichy officials involved in crimes against Jews or in the implementation of the “Final Solution” in France. In 1991, French justice authorities in Paris indicted Rene Bousquet, former Secretary General of the Vichy police, who in July 1942 negotiated the deportation of some 10,000 foreign Jews from the Unoccupied Zone and who in that same month ordered the notorious round-up by French police of some 13,000 Jews at the Vélodrome d'hiver in Paris. Christian Didier, a mentally ill individual who claimed to have made an attempt on the life of Klaus Barbie, assassinated Bousquet in his home in Paris on June 8, 1993, shortly before Bousquet's trial was to take place.
In 1994, a Versailles court convicted Paul Touvier, head of the Milice's Second Service, or intelligence branch, for the Lyons region, to life imprisonment for the murder of seven Jewish hostages at Rillieux-la-Pape, near Lyon. Touvier died of prostate cancer in 1996 in Fresnes prison near Paris.
In 1998, a court in Bordeaux convicted Maurice Papon for crimes against humanity for his participation in the deportation of over 1,600 Jews between 1942 and 1944 in his capacity as Secretary General for Police of the Prefecture of Bordeaux. Papon initially fled to Switzerland to elude his ten-year prison sentence, but was interned after his extradition to France in 1999. The 92-year-old was released on medical grounds in September 2002, and died in February 2007.
These proceedings suggest that the legacy of collaboration during “les années noires,” the “Dark Years” of the German occupation, still casts its shadow upon French politics and culture in the present day.
Adler, Jacques. The Jews of Paris and the Final Solution: Communal Response and Internal Conflicts, 1940-1944. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Caron, Vicki. Uneasy Asylum: France and the Jewish Refugee Crisis, 1933-1942. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.
Marrus, Michael R., and Robert O. Paxton. Vichy France and the Jews. New York: Basic Books, 1981.
Paxton, Robert. Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1972.
Poznanski, Renée. Jews in France During World War II, trans. Nathan Bracher. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2001.
Rayski, Adam. The Choice of the Jews Under Vichy: Between Submission and Resistance. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005.
Zuccotti, Susan. The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. |
which is right?
The conference took place in hotel.
The conference was held in hotel.
Both of your examples requite an article before the word hotel. If you used either a hotel or the hotel, both examples would work.Originally Posted by imany
I'm not a teacher, so please consider any advice I give in that context. |
“Best way to prevent measles is through the MMR vaccination”
Measles is a highly infectious viral illness which spreads very easily. People with measles can get a cough, runny nose, rash and fever.
It can be very unpleasant and can sometimes lead to serious complications. Especially for people whose immune system is not working normally.
Bedford Borough director of Public Health, Muriel Scott, said:
“Last year there were several measles outbreaks across the country and the total number of measles cases quadrupled to 966. 1 in 3 of those infected with measles were admitted to hospital.
“The best way to prevent measles is through the MMR vaccination, which is safe and highly effective; however 1 in 10 five year olds in Bedford Borough have not had both doses of MMR.”
The MMR vaccine is available to all adults and children who are not up to date with their 2 doses. Anyone who is not sure if they are fully vaccinated should check with their GP practice. If you would like more information on measles visit the NHS website. |
Abstract in Mathematics. How to begin and exactly how to publish?
The training procedure in universities, universities and schools involves the control of knowledge on any phase of training. The curriculum for every single control additionally provides time for the separate work of students and Students, thanks to which teachers can assess the known degree of knowledge gained, the amount of mastering of a specific subject, and additionally figure out the points that pupils discovered aren’t sufficient. The most popular methods to test knowledge is always to write an abstract. For the duration of separate work, pupils need certainly to finish tasks that are certain disclose a topic, convey information. Nearly after each subject, pupils need certainly to satisfy a minumum of one sort of project.
Abstract is really a type or sort of clinical work of tiny size, the quantity of which can be set by the instructor. additionally they approve the theme best essay writing service, plan, and order of enrollment of written material based on all needs. For instance, generally in most colleges that are technical pupils of various characteristics compose an abstract on math. Evaluation rating of the task affects the general evaluation of real information.
Simple tips to compose a math abstract?
Before you begin composing an abstract, the pupil must produce a strategy. There is a classic instance on which to target, whatever the topic of systematic work. It should include:
• Main part.
• set of recommendations found in composing the abstract.
The abstract in math, along with the abstract in physics, includes the perfect solution is of issues, the evidence of particular facts and theories, or their refutation. In addition, pupils should be able to get yourself a score that is high in whose work you will have tables, pictures, diagrams, as well as other elements that unveil the topic since commonly as you are able to.
The quantity of these sections as “Introduction” and “Conclusion” is roughly a part that is third associated with the total level of the abstract. The amount that is remaining regarding the primary component, where, in reality, there clearly was a disclosure of an interest or a remedy to a challenge. In this right component there may be as much as four sub-paragraphs, because of that the work acquires structuredness and meaning.
Organizational information on focus on writing an abstract
Never genuinely believe that composing an abstract is really a solely individual work. Each Adequate teacher will help the learning pupil, will prompt and orient in the primary Directions of disclosing the topic if the learning pupil requires it and certainly will require assistance. Besides, a combined band of pupils could be assigned to produce an abstract together. The leader of the group must have good in this case organizational skills and manage the job. Pupils may either work together the time that is whole the job might be split into pieces and soon after linked together. In just about any situation, one individual should be in control and look at the completed paper.
The primary thing is to not postpone the writing regarding the abstract in the final minute, to review the literary works at length, to emphasize the points that are key and to approach this little work that is scientific. That way, success is guaranteed in full! And now we desire you best of luck in writing an abstract and hope that our article has aided you. |
MARCOS MÉNDEZ / 29 AUGUST 2013
During the last few days there has been a lot of talk about how a likely military intervention in Syria by the US and its allies against the Bashar al-Assad’s regime would be carried out. In this context, many analysts have talked about the risks of carrying out a purely punitive operation in retaliation for the chemical attacks that occurred on Wednesday, August 22 in the outskirts of Damascus.
The punitive interventions have an inherent flaw: they lack a long-term vision; they are merely tactical, not strategic. After all, as indicated by its own name, these are interventions with very limited and concrete goals. They do not intend anything beyond the direct punishment and, depending on their magnitude, they can have more or less deterrent effects. What they seek is to coerce an actor to ensure non-repetition of bad behavior, in this case the use of chemical weapons by al-Assad’s regime.
Many analysts look back at the US bombings against Libya in 1986 and Iraq in 1998 as examples of punitive interventions commended as very successful in the short term, but with no significant deterrent effect over time. As noted by Ken Dilanian in the Los Angeles Times,
Two years after the U.S. bombed Tripoli, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 passengers and crew. Investigators later concluded that the U.S. attack was a primary motive for Kadafi to support the Lockerbie bombing.
But that is not all: one of the most serious consequences (and unfortunately one of the most significant as well) of the aerial attack against Libya was that Qaddafi changed his mind regarding the acquisition of a nuclear bomb. This unintended outcome has been thoroughly analyzed by Maalfrid Braut-Hegghammer in the article Libya’s Nuclear Intentions: Ambition and Ambivalence,
The 1986 bombings demonstrated that Libyan forces were unable to effectively defend and protect the capital (including al-Qadhafi’s residence). Subsequently, national security appears to have become the main motivation for the regime’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. The 1986 attacks appear to have shocked the leadership. In the aftermath of these attacks, al-Qadhafi said “if we had possessed a deterrent—missiles that could reach New York—we would have hit it at the same moment. Consequently, we should build this force so that they and others will no longer think about an attack… the world has a nuclear bomb, we should have a nuclear bomb.” According to a Libyan official, the regime’s desire to create a nuclear deterrent to prevent foreign (and, in particular, American) intervention in Libya surged after the 1986 attacks.
So, the attack did not bring about the expected deterrence, not even real punishment. On the one hand, the Libyan leaders were still alive and the bombing did not put the regime on the brink to collapse; on the other, it intensified Qaddafi’s desire to get an atomic bomb—for many then, a counter-intuitive consequence. 42 people were killed in the attack, and the Libyan dictatorship remained intact until 2011.
On the bombing campaign against Iraq in 1998 (code-named “Operation Desert Fox”) Dilanian quotes the paper Operation DESERT FOX: Effectiveness With Unintended Effects by Mark Conversino, whose main findings are highly illuminating for the Syrian case (here I share an expanded excerpt):
When DESERT FOX ended a mere 70 hours after it began, Saddam remained firmly in power—minus some of his infrastructure—and the Iraqi dictator could claim to his people and to the world that once again, he had withstood an onslaught from the most powerful form of America’s and the West’s armed might—airpower. The status of Iraq’s WMD programs would remain a mystery and these programs were now beyond the scrutiny of the UN. (…) Many airpower theorists had long cautioned against using airpower in penny-packets or in hyper-constrained political environments.
In Syria, the political choices are extremely limited for different reasons (i.e. the meager results of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US policy of “retreat” from the Middle East and its pivot to the Asia-Pacific region, the obstacles in finding a credible interlocutor among the opposition groups, the rising radical extremism and sectarianism over Syria and other Arab countries in the region, the role played by regional actors such as Iran or Hezbollah, the enormous risk of intervening militarily without the United Nations Security Council’s endorsement…), and none of the options available guarantees an improvement of the situation of the Syrian population.
Actually, Obama has been very cautious even after the latest chemical attacks, and it appears that any kind of intervention is going to be at a small scale and without deployment of ground forces. That is, it will not cause, at least in the short term, the collapse of the Syrian regime—in fact, the extreme prudence displayed until now by the Obama administration regarding the possibility of sending lethal aid to “some” rebels makes that outcome even more remote.
However, if the main goal of the intervention is to prevent more chemical attacks, then why do they not just attack the chemical weapons’ arsenal, as some people in Israel are calling for? Because, as noted by Dina Esfandiary, from the International Institute for Strategic Studies:
Air strikes targeting CW facilities, at best, risk leaving a few canisters and agents untouched, leaving them vulnerable to looting. At worst, they risk releasing chemical agents into the atmosphere.
Finally, Brandon D. Newton adds another risk is his monograph Punishment, Revenge, and Retribution: A Historical Analysis of Punitive Operations:
The objective of punitive strike is to punish. If there is not sufficient proof that some injury or damage has occurred, it will be increasingly difficult to justify. The passage of time will compound this.
The most likely behavior of the Syrian regime under attack is difficult to predict and it also will be necessary to look at the reactions from other countries within the region which exercise a great amount of influence over the warring parties in order to draw any conclusion.
Any substantive diplomatic or military move will ultimately depend on the size of the intervention and its direct effects on the conflict (its effects on the balance of forces.) However, as I said above, purely punitive interventions do not usually carry on a bigger strategy beyond the military action. With such a limited sight, it will be very hard to force the actors to sit and negotiate a ceasefire. |
Amzie Moore House
Amzie Moore was a prominent civil rights leader in the Delta beginning in the 1940s. Moore built the house in 1941, the first brick home owned by an African American in Cleveland. Moore is often referred to as a “civil rights giant.” In 1950, he founded the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL). The RNCL hosted public meetings where prominent speakers, including Thurgood Marshall, addressed Delta audiences. RCNL also held voter registration classes, including some in Moore’s home. Along with Herman Perry, Moore started the Bolivar County Voters League. He served as the first president of the Cleveland NAACP chapter as well Vice-President of the State Conference of the NAACP.
Backstory and Context
Moore started the first Head Start program in Bolivar County. He worked for voting rights, social justice, economic development, education and better employment for African Americans.
The many people who visited with Amzie Moore in his Cleveland home include Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses, Medger Evers, Stokely Carmichael, Thurgood Marshall and Dr. Martin Luther King.
Interview with Amzie Moore by Michael Garvey, March 29 & April 13, 1977, Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage, University of Southern Mississippi. |
Visiting Our Past: Vanderbilt among families with toes in Bent Creek
The pop-up village of Glencoe marked the middle point in Bent Creek history between its first 70 years as a self-sufficient community and its current status as a U.S. experimental forest.
In 1866, Col. Hatch established Glencoe, an Episcopal mission named after a Celtic hero’s homeland, on Wilson Boyd’s huge tract where Lake Powhatan is now. The village lasted 21 years.
In 1887, Hatch and his family relocated to Asheville, nearer to Ravenscroft, the mission’s headquarters. Glencoe’s mill, workshop, factory, school and church were abandoned.
Remaining Bent Creek families tapped the new lumber market, if they wished. Residents also sought to preserve the forest and its herbs, mast and game.
In the 1890s, the forest attracted George Washington Vanderbilt, looking to attach a game preserve and hunting grounds to his estate. He started buying hundreds of properties in what would become the Pisgah National Forest.
On June 26, 1900, heirs of Col. Hatch, who’d died three years before, sold 1,383 acres in Bent Creek to Vanderbilt at $5 an acre, the market price.
Vanderbilt had already started taking people on trips to the Pisgah forest down to the Pink Beds.
On the road with George
“To all the native folk near and far,” Col. Fred Olds, one of Vanderbilt’s party, wrote for Forest and Stream, “Pisgah Forest is ‘Mr. Vanderbilt’s place.’”
Olds stopped and asked a local elder about Vanderbilt, and the source responded, “He is a mighty common man; real common,” a compliment in local lingo.
Olds asked another passerby if Pink Beds had been named after rhododendron flowers.
“I don’t rightly know where the name comes from,” the man said. “but I have heard 'em say a man one time had a cow here named Pink, and she got bogged up in a ma’shy place and died there.”
One wonders if the mountaineers had been playing with Olds.
Olds proceeded to the hunting part of his excursion.
“Though Mr. Vanderbilt is not a sportsman, but a student,” Olds observed, “all things are made ready for him… On his last visit he only caught one trout, nor did he fire a gun. His wife was with him. She is a good horsewoman, and rode a pony up and down the steepest trails.”
Change and conservation
On July 4, 1900, Dr. E.M. Berry of the Louisville College of Medicine came home after 36 years to address “his old-time friends of antebellum days” in the Bent Creek/Avery Creek area.
The Asheville of his youth had “nearly all disappeared” and become an “Aladdin’s palace,” he observed. “As my old-time friend and school mate of boyhood days, Major Rollins, and I were driving through the splendid streets of Biltmore I was reminded of the saying of the wise King of Israel: ‘A feast is made for laughter; and wine maketh merry; but money answereth all things.’”
When Berry had seen “several hundred hands busily at work upon (Vanderbilt’s) splendid estate,” he’d exclaimed that Vanderbilt “should be loved and respected for his benevolence to the poor.”
Pisgah was a visionary vista, Berry noted, and Southern Appalachia was God’s “great treasure house” of stone and minerals, mixing metaphors of pleasure and business.
It was a mix that Vanderbilt knew. There was enough drama, both joyous and difficult, in his life in 1900 to overfill "Downton Abbey."
He’d been buying land in Transylvania County in the 1890s, and then, in 1900, focused on Bent Creek, starting with Boyd’s place and properties adjacent to it.
He bought 191 acres from William Cothran at $5 an acre. Apparently Cothran continued to live there, for the land around his “house site on the east tract,” Nesbitt says in his 1941 report for the Forest Service, “was continued under cultivation until 1920.”
Cultivation is an important issue. Bent Creek farm families used methods intended to support generations of subsistence. This included land management, home economy, some cash-making and wilderness conservation.
Russell “Pinkney” Lance, Deborah Hamlin says of her husband Keith’s great-grandfather, “had a self-sufficient farm. They didn’t sell wood. They kept what wood they needed for their own purposes, to build their houses, to help their neighbors. It wasn’t a company. They had their reason for doing everything up there, and the government come in and made them move, so they moved everything down here to Wesley Branch Road.”
Lance, Nesbitt’s report documented, used an uncleared area for a “stock range and as a timber source to supply the saw mill.”
Pinkney “never had a saw mill,” Keith Hamlin says. “He had a grist mill to grind corn… The first Bent Creek Lake is where he put his grist mill, and when he moved off of it, he moved it right down here at the bottom of the hill in the little creek.”
Nesbitt said Lance “planted corn on his dam for the grist mill.”
“So, it went from saw mill to grist mill,” Keith observes with bemusement.
“He planted corn on his own dam,” said Nesbitt.
“He didn’t have to grow corn,” Keith says. “He would grind (people’s) corn for a portion… He got paid off that way, and he didn’t have to grow corn.”
Frederick Law Olmsted, Biltmore landscape architect, writing to architect Richard Morris Hunt in 1890, said that the soil was “extremely poor and intractable.” A planted landscape, he said, would have to be made “out of whole cloth.”
Olmsted is talking about a fraction of Vanderbilt’s land, the part closest to the main road. His characterization does not include the Pisgah National Forest, whose virgin timber was so remote that Carl Schenk, Vanderbilt’s forester, starting in 1895, proclaimed, “Forestry is a problem of transportation.”
And it does not include the Bent Creek settlement, which, according to Nesbitt, showed few signs of exhausted or eroded soil, even in the most cultivated portions.
Salaries, turkeys and juries
In 1900, Schenck went to Vanderbilt to tell him he had to return to Germany. Schenck’s house on the estate had just been completed. Regrettably, his country had told him if he didn’t return, he’d lose his citizenship and pension.
Vanderbilt raised Schenck’s salary to cover his losses and gave him a life insurance policy plus, Schenck wrote in his memoir, “the sum of ten thousand dollars to my wife, should I die while in Vanderbilt’s employment.”
Vanderbilt initiated a game restoration program in 1900. It resulted in more deer and fewer turkeys. “The Old Settlers assert that the absence of woods-burning,” Nesbitt relates, had stopped the fires that had destroyed “insects which would prey on and destroy the ‘turkey-chicks.’”
An important court case came to trial in September of 1900 just a few weeks after the joyous occasion of Cornelia Vanderbilt’s birth.
“The case under trial,” the Brevard News reported, “was supposed to settle the status of all title within the boundary” where possession by habitation “had not followed on securing a title.” After three days, the judge took the case from the jury and ruled in favor of Vanderbilt.
The Vanderbilts, north and south, were automobile enthusiasts and leaders in the Good Roads Movement. The approach road to the Biltmore House was one of the first macadam paving jobs in Asheville. Vanderbilt also helped fund the paving of South Main, between Asheville and the Biltmore Estate.
“Instead of having spring fever this year, Asheville seems likely to have a beneficent attack of paving fever,” an Asheville Citizen editorial proclaimed on April 7, 1900.
By this time, the Vanderbilts had taken up permanent residence in Biltmore House, except for a winter vacation, when according to reports, baby Cornelia could be seen being perambulated around Manhattan’s Central Park.
Sellers and stayers
Vanderbilt paid good prices for Bent Creek land. Schenck was one of his agents, and the Old Settlers objected to his methods of enforcing contract language to force evictions. “I have yet to find any occasion where there was coercion, strong-arming or unfair dealings,” historian Bill Alexander says. Schenck’s wrongdoing, he surmises, was not letting sellers renege on options Schenck had secured but not acted on.
One of Vanderbilt’s dealings had been with a widow with a small home place and three young children, Alexander relates. Charles McNamee, Vanderbilt’s primary agent, Alexander says, “bought her a 17-acre property in the Beaverdam section of North Asheville.”
By the time Vanderbilt had completed his purchases, around 1909, there were seven Bent Creek hold-outs. After the federal government bought the Pisgah Forest land for an Experimental Forest Station in 1925, there were three.
Today, several households of descendants of early settlers live on land adjacent to the forest, carrying on family traditions.
They’re engaged in talks with the Forest Service about the protection and maintenance of an old church cemetery in the Experimental Forest woods.
Keith and Deborah Hamlin teach wilderness, farm and traditional skills to teenagers.
When the ice storms hit the east on New Year’s Eve, Louise Cook and members of the Bent Creek Baptist Church provided lodging to three busloads of stranded students.
Threats persist — not just clear-cutting, but also roads and developments, high density and exclusive.
The NCDOT is forging ahead with an NC 191 widening that would eat into a large, old family cemetery in Sandy Bottoms. The community is trying to restore the Venable Community Center, a mile north on 191, and make it a community asset.
Keith Hamlin recalls his great-grandfather Pinkney’s last mill location in Bent Creek. “I remember the barn standing, when I was a kid, beside the creek,” he said. “They (his great-grandparents) were done dead and gone, and the mill was gone.” But a cemetery serves as a touchpoint for a surviving ethic.
Rob Neufeld writes the weekly “Visiting Our Past” column for the Citizen-Times. He is the author of books on history and literature, and manages the WNC book and heritage website, “The Read on WNC.” Follow him on Twitter @WNC_chronicler; email him at [email protected]. |
Harmful practices are common in some communities and societies that still carry out some traditional practices, which they present as a part of accepted norms, some of these practices include, Forced or early marriages, female genital mutilation (FMG), and marriage by abduction.
The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that: is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and/or
Interferes with their schooling by: depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work. Globally there is already an estimated number of 152 million children in child labour, says International Labour Organization (ILO).
Thegreenchild’s ongoing campaign, “the child’s future first campaign” against child abuse, which covers child labour and other related matters. Thegreenchild is also reaching children who are in homes, schools and streets, taking reports directly from these children about their social welfare.
Child trafficking is about taking children out of their protective environment and preying on their vulnerability for the purpose of exploitation. Although no precise figures exist, the ILO (in 2005) estimated that 980,000 to 1,225,000 children - both boys and girls - are in a forced labour situation as a result of trafficking, says International Labor Organization (ILO). In Nigeria children have been taken from their parents to live in the city for domestic labor, with no opportunity to education. Child trafficking in Nigeria comes in the form luring a child in a rural area to the city with hopes of a greener future. Report has shown that nearly eight in ten children below the age of 18 who left their families where they had access to local community schools, did not have the opportunity to continue their education; the few who did were overworked, serving as victims of domestic labor and other forms of child maltreatment. |
Answer: Henry Grier Bryant
Henry Grier Bryant was born in Allegheny, PA in 1859, but lived much of his life in Philadelphia. A graduate of Princeton and University of Pennsylvania Law School, Bryant became an explorer and an esteemed member of the geographical community. He explored the Grand Falls of Labrador in 1891, served as second in command of the Peary relief expedition of 1892, and was commander of the 1894 Peary auxiliary expedition. Additionally, Bryant served as commander of the Mt. St. Elias, Alaska, expedition of 1897, and he explored the St. Augustine River in Labrador, Canada, in 1912. Bryant held memberships with the Association of American Geographers, the American Alpin Club, and the Contemporary Club, and was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London. From 1897 till his death in 1923, Bryant served as president of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia.
HSP has a small collection of Henry Grier Bryant’s papers (#3192) that primarily includes his correspondence from 1858-1926, though some of the letters discuss his various expeditions, and a scrapbook contains photographs and additional correspondence. |
Vocabulary refers to the words a creature knows. Usually, only proper words are included and not bibble. For example if a creature knows the words "eat", "come", "run", "hand" and "grendel" it is said to have a vocabulary of five words.
Vocabulary can also refer to a predetermined list of words in the game. Instant vocabulary means to teach a creature all these words at once. Agents such as the Holistic Learning Machine can do this.
|This stub could use .| |
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