Split (1)

train · 64k rows

content stringlengths 275 370k
InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is a NASA Discovery Program mission that will place a single geophysical lander on Mars to study its deep interior. But InSight is more than a Mars mission - it is a terrestrial planet explorer that will address one of the most fundamental issues of planetary and solar system science - understanding the processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system (including Earth) more than four billion years ago. By using sophisticated geophysical instruments, InSight will delve deep beneath the surface of Mars, detecting the fingerprints of the processes of terrestrial planet formation, as well as measuring the planet's "vital signs": Its "pulse" (seismology), "temperature" (heat flow probe), and "reflexes" (precision tracking). InSight seeks to answer one of science's most fundamental questions: How did the terrestrial planets form? Previous missions to Mars have investigated the surface history of the Red Planet by examining features like canyons, volcanoes, rocks and soil, but no one has attempted to investigate the planet's earliest evolution - its building blocks - which can only be found by looking far below the surface.
When you look up in the sky and you see a contrail, how far away is it? How far away are these contrails, a mile? two miles? Would you believe they are actually 20 to 100 miles away? Contrails typically form above 30,000 feet, or around six to eight miles straight up. It’s quite hard to judge exactly how high it is, unless you know what type of plane it is. But assuming six miles is a pretty safe bet. So if we assume it’s at least six miles above the ground, then all we need to do to find out how far away it is is to measure the angle of elevation. It’s quite a common child’s math problem, but usually applied the other way around, to measure the height of things if we know how far away they are. So it’s a real simple bit of maths, height = distance * tan(angle). But of course if you know the height, then you can calculate the distance = height * (1 / tan(angle)). Now most planes leaving contrails cruise at between 30,000 and 45,000. 6 miles is 31,680 feet, so it’s a pretty safe assumption that any contrail you see is at 6 miles or above. So for the purposes of calculating the distance, let’s just assume it’s six miles high. At worst we will underestimate. Here’s what the figures work out as for various angles from the horizon: \|Angle\|\|1/TAN(Angle)\|\|Height\|\|Miles\|\|LOS\|\|Sq Miles\|\|km\|\|Sq Km\| The important colum there is in bold, the “Miles” column which tells you how far away horizontally the plane is. That is, it tells you how far away the point is that is on the ground directly below the plane (ignoring curvature of the earth, and local changes in height). The column next to that, LOS (Line Of Sight) tells you the actual distance from you directly to the plane. So when it’s overhead it’s 6 miles (straight up). As it gets further away it gets closer to the horizontal distance. Look at the angles below 45 degrees. In particular a plane that’s ten degrees above the horizon will be 34 miles (55 km) away, and one that is five degrees will be 68 miles (110 km) away. Now ten degrees might not seem like a lot but it actually is surprisingly high if you go out and point your arm up at ten degrees. Here I’m pointing up at ten degrees, I see plenty of planes “over there”, it seems pretty unintuitive to think that they are 50 miles away. But they are. Notice (as you would expect) at 45 degrees, the plane is the same distance away as the height, six miles. And any angle above 45 degrees is within a six mile radius. But still, consider that many people will point to a plane at 45 degrees as being “overhead”, when really it’s six miles away. Now let’s look at some actual contrails. These photos were taken on an iPhone using the “Theodolite” app, which tells you the angle of elevation. This math breaks down somewhat for below five degrees, as they the curvature of the earth is much more of a factor. But for most contrails you see you can get a reasonable estimate of the distance from the angle. And since most contrails do not fly directly overhead, the vast majority of visible contrails are going be at a low angle, and very far away. Much further than you might think. Back to the photo we started with. It was taken from a bridge over the Thames, to the west of London. Using Google Earth, I’ve place at grid at six miles altitude, with five miles between each line.
Hello Friends! I use Big Mouth with my students every year to help them remember how to use their greater than signs. If Big Mouth eats the biggest number, then the other number is the smaller number, or the number that is less than. We make a Big Mouth, and then we use it with base ten blocks and crackers. It’s a fun way to learn this concept! I hope you find it helpful with your students, too. Inside you will find: 1. Anchor charts or posters to use with your students as a visual aid. 2. Feed Big Mouth: A game used to practice finding the number that is bigger or smaller. 3. Ten printables that your students can use to practice finding the number that is greater or less than the other number. 4. Vocabulary Cards made with different graphics. 5. Eating Numbers Around the World: Take Big Mouth around the Room to find those bigger numbers. These task cards can also be used in an independent center. 6. Make your own Big Mouth! Use these cute graphics to to practice eating those BIG numbers. Print, laminate, and cut!! Big Mouth can eat numbers, cubes, goldfish crackers…you name it! This guy is hungry for the bigger number! ;) Happy Learning! Shana Grooms Mrs. Grooms' Room Ask The Seller There aren't any questions, go ahead and ask one now! Hi! I am Shana Grooms from Mrs. Grooms room! I am currently teaching first grade and I have been a first grade teacher for 15 years. I love being a teacher! It's definitely the hardest job you will ever love. BUT I also love creating memorable and creative learning tools for my students, and now, I would love to share them with you!!
Foodborne illness is any illness resulting from the food spoilage of contaminated food, pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites that contaminate food, as well as chemical or natural toxins such as poisonous mushrooms and various species of beans that have not been boiled for at least 10 minutes. Symptoms vary depending on the cause, and are described below in this article. A few broad generalizations can be made, e.g.: The incubation period ranges from hours to days, depending on the cause and on how much was consumed. The incubation period tends to cause sufferers to not associate the symptoms with the item consumed, and so to cause sufferers to attribute the symptoms to gastroenteritis for example. Symptoms often include vomiting, fever, and aches, and may include diarrhea. Bouts of vomiting can be repeated with an extended delay in between, because even if infected food was eliminated from the stomach in the first bout, microbes (if applicable) can pass through the stomach into the intestine via cells lining the intestinal walls and begin to multiply. Some types of microbes stay in the intestine, some produce a toxin that is absorbed into the bloodstream, and some can directly invade deeper body tissues. Foodborne illness usually arises from improper handling, preparation, or food storage. Good hygiene practices before, during, and after food preparation can reduce the chances of contracting an illness. There is a consensus in the public health community that regular hand-washing is one of the most effective defenses against the spread of foodborne illness. The action of monitoring food to ensure that it will not cause foodborne illness is known as food safety. Foodborne disease can also be caused by a large variety of toxins that affect the environment. Foodborne illness can also be caused by pesticides or medicines in food and naturally toxic substances such as poisonous mushrooms or reef fish.
58. Excel Tips - Does a cell contain a string? How do you find out whether a cell contains a certain string ? - In VBA, it's easy.. use the INSTR function, and test whether this is greater than 0. In Excel, you need to use both the LEN and the SUBSTITUTE functions. Let's see how this works. - In plain English, all this is saying is: - If I replace a string in another string with nothing.. is the length of the new string the same. - If YES, then nothing was replaced, and the first string is not within the second. - If NO, then something was replaced, and the first string IS within the second. Here's our data: Training Video on whether cell contains a string:
Learn something new every day More Info... by email Cadmium is a potentially toxic type of metal and is used in a variety of products that are readily available to the general public. Some sources of cadmium may include food, cigarettes, and jewelry. Exposure to cadmium, especially long-term or constant exposure, could lead to a serious medical condition known as cadmium poisoning. Some possible symptoms of cadmium poisoning may include flu-like symptoms, breathing difficulties, and kidney failure. There are no medical treatments available for cadmium poisoning, so medical care is limited to treating individual symptoms and removing the patient from the cadmium source. Many food and water sources contain some levels of cadmium. Some foods that may contain high levels of cadmium include shellfish and organ meats such as liver. Possible symptoms of cadmium poisoning from these sources include abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. Some patients may experience muscle cramps, dizziness, or seizures. In some cases, the affected person may go into shock or completely lose consciousness. Inhalation of cadmium fumes is another potential cause of cadmium poisoning and can cause significant lung damage. Some of these symptoms may include muscle weakness, chest pain, or excessive sweating. Some patients may complain of a dry mouth or throat and develop a cough. Headaches and breathing problems are also common. Supplemental oxygen may be needed in order to improve breathing and prevent damage to other organs. Constant exposure to cadmium may lead to a particularly troublesome form of cadmium poisoning. It takes only a few minutes of constant exposure to lead to potentially life-threatening complications. There can be trouble breathing and a partial or complete loss of the sense of smell. Severe organ damage may occur, especially damage to the lungs, liver, and kidneys. Dramatic weight loss and the development of bone fractures may also occur as a result of cadmium poisoning. Cadmium poisoning often occurs due to a failure to follow proper safety guidelines when when using this toxic metal. Containers that have been plated with cadmium should never be used to store food products. Care should be taken when exposed to coal fumes or the fumes of other fossil fuels because cadmium could be present. If cadmium exposure is suspected, the affected person should visit a doctor right away so that proper testing can be done to confirm whether poisoning has occurred. Doctors may induce vomiting or begin oxygen therapy in an effort to clear the body of as much cadmium as possible. One of our editors will review your suggestion and make changes if warranted. Note that depending on the number of suggestions we receive, this can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Thank you for helping to improve wiseGEEK!
Protein Synthesis Help Introduction Protein Synthesis Within the cell nucleus are a number of chromosomes ( KROH -moh-sohms) or wormlike “colored” ( chrom ) “bodies.” Each of these chromosomes, in turn, contains a number of tightly coiled DNA molecules. There are numerous genes or sections strung along the DNA molecules. A single gene provides a chemical code for the synthesis of a particular protein. As Figure 5.4 shows, part of the DNA double helix unwinds, exposing a group of DNA codons ( KOH -dahns). These codons consist of sets of three chemical bases. During transcription, a copy of the exposed DNA bases is made. A messenger RNA (mRNA) molecule then results. The mRNA molecule moves out of the nucleus, and onto the surface of a ribosome. A series of individual transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules, each attached to a certain amino acid, also move towards the ribosomes. The final major stage of protein synthesis is called translation. During this process, which occurs along the ribosomes, the nitrogen base language of the mRNA codons is translated or changed into the amino acid language of a certain protein. The tRNA molecules match their bases up against complementary bases of the mRNA molecule. The amino acids attached at the other end of the tRNAs link together via peptide ( PEP -tide) bonds. The end result is a finished protein or polypeptide ( PAH -lee- pep -tide) – a combination of “many” (poly-) amino acids connected by peptide bonds in a coded order. Each completed protein (polypeptide) detaches from a ribosome and begins to perform its special function within the cell. - Kindergarten Sight Words List - First Grade Sight Words List - 10 Fun Activities for Children with Autism - Child Development Theories - Grammar Lesson: Complete and Simple Predicates - Definitions of Social Studies - Social Cognitive Theory - Signs Your Child Might Have Asperger's Syndrome - Why is Play Important? Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Creative Development - Theories of Learning
John Venn: Google Doodle reveals what unites us A Google Doodle Monday celebrates the life of John Venn, inventor of the Venn diagram, on what would have been his 180th birthday. On Monday, Google honored the work of John Venn, an English philosopher who devised a clever way to group things visually. His namesake Venn diagrams use circles to gather together similar traits and to reveal what unites us and what divides us. For example, in one circle we have "mammals" (cats, goats, humans). In the other circle are "things with wings" (airplanes, butterflies, cartoon characters who drink Red Bull). But with a Venn diagram, the two circles overlap. So, what is a mammal that has wings? Click on the interactive Google Doodle to reveal at least one answer: bats. Google sketched up several fun combinations: What is a form of "sea life" that is "tiny." How about the itty-bitty plankton that whales eat? What "transport" "thrives in cold"? A Zamboni, which, by the way, received its own Google doodle last year. Dr. Venn actually never used the term "Venn diagram." He called them "Eulerian Circles," because they were similar to "Euler diagrams," introduced by Leonhard Euler a century earlier. But Euler diagrams are slightly different. Euler had circles within circles. For instance, imagine a big circle for "sea life" and a smaller circle inside that one that says "fish" and another small circle for "coral." Rather than have small circles inside big circles, Venn's innovation was introducing overlapping circles. Small improvement, sure. But the change was substantial enough that school children across America learn Venn's name. Don't feel too bad for Euler. If you took high school math, you can thank him for popularizing pi, trigonometric functions, and the math term "e" (which is short for Euler's number). "My favorite [combination] that I worked on would probably have to be the kraken [sea life + mythical]," writes a Google representative that worked on the Venn doodle. "I loved the idea of taking something that is utterly terrifying, such as a large sea creature that devours entire ships, and turning it into just a little dude having a bit of fun, albeit still at the expense of the ship and its crew." Speaking of "having a bit of fun," did you catch Google's reference to David Bowie? If you combine "musical" and "in space," the interactive doodle presents a little astronaut strumming a guitar. This is a wink to Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who recorded his own version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" from the International Space Station. For more on how technology intersects daily life, follow Chris on Twitter @venturenaut.
West Asian Mathematics April 2016 - Once people in West Asia figured out how to write down numbers, about 3500 BC, they quickly began to want to use cuneiform to write down other mathematical ideas. The earliest example of this that we have is from about 2700 BC. It shows a multiplication table to help people figure out the area of a space by multiplying width by length. The first column is the width, the second is the length, and the third column is the area. It uses a system for writing down large numbers in base 60 (the way our clocks work today). Math book (Babylon, about 2000 BC) This tablet, from about 2000 BC, was a school math book for teaching kids how to calculate inheritance. The problem asks how much each of seven boys would get when their father died, according to Babylonian law. Apparently the law said they should each get a different proportion, with the oldest getting the most and the younger kids less and less. Whoever did the math worked up from the bottom (which was not normal), and also made a mistake in his or her calculations! Here's a Babylonian math problem you could try to solve yourself. Are you as smart as Babylonian kids? By the time of the Babylonians, mathematicians were working out quadratic equations like the Pythagorean Theorem, computing square roots and cube roots, and the factors of sixty (because they often worked in base 60). After the Assyrians formed their empire, mathematical developments seem to have slowed down after this initial rush. But mathematicians continued to work on new ideas. Assyrian mathematicians, working around 1000 BC, first had the idea of dividing the circle into 360 degrees (still working in base 60, so 360=6x60). Thales, working under Lydian political control in Miletus (modern Turkey) in the 630s BC, found ways to calculate when there would be an eclipse of the sun or the moon. Thales also found a way to calculate the height of an Egyptian pyramid by measuring its shadow, and proved various geometrical theorems. Thales' student Anaximander, who was also from Miletus, worked on building a better sundial to measure time. During the Persian Empire, around 500 BC, people first began to use the abacus (nobody knows whether the abacus was invented in Iran or China, or both about the same time, thanks to the beginning of the Silk Road). An abacus is a way of calculating large numbers quickly by moving pebbles along grooves dug into dirt, or beads along wires. With the development of trade and more travel along the Silk Road between China, India, and West Asia, in the 300s BC, Greek mathematicians were able to talk to Persian and Indian mathematicians more easily than before. A lot of new ideas about infinity, patterns of numbers, and exponents came out of these conversations, but most importantly, from Egypt to India, all across West Asia, mathematicians began to work more on proving that theorems were always true in every case. About 150 BC, Hipparchus (born in Nicaea, now in Turkey) worked on developing trigonometry, making lists of sines and cosines. Under Parthian and Sassanian rule, scholars continued to bring together knowledge from the countries around them, especially from India. They built a system of math and astronomy based on their Zoroastrian faith, and, like Ptolemy in Egypt and Arya Bhata in India, used trigonometry to make better predictions of the movements of the planets. Science in Ancient Mesopotamia, by Carol Moss (1999). Easy reading. On the short side.
The same sun that shines on bright, cheery days is also responsible for the biggest explosions in the solar system. These explosions, called solar flares, can detonate with the energy of more than one billion megaton bombs and spew dangerous radiation and high-energy particles into space. \|An X2.7 class solar flare flashes on the edge of the sun on May 5, 2015. This image was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and shows the sun in a blend of two high-energy ultraviolet wavelengths. The Earth is shown to scale for reference. \| Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO. Our distance from the Sun and the Earth’s magnetic field offer protection, but if the Earth is in the path of a big enough solar explosion, it could wreak havoc on the power grid, air traffic control systems, long-range communications, and more. Satellites and spacecraft can be destroyed by these events. The key to protecting our infrastructure and space-based operations from these potential dangers lies in understanding the mechanism behind solar flares. This is easier said than done, but in an upcoming paper in the American Physical Society’s journal Physical Review Letters, a team of scientists show that turbulence in the plasma that surrounds the Sun probably plays an unrecognized but important role in the process. Scientists generally agree that solar flares are caused by magnetic energy building up in the corona, the halo of plasma that surrounds the Sun. If the magnetic energy in a region builds up high enough, boom! Like a rubber band snapping, the stored magnetic energy is converted into rapidly moving electrons and ions, heat, and sometimes giant clouds of super-heated plasma. The particles, accelerated to nearly the speed of light, collide with other particles in the corona and emit radiation—the signature flash of a solar flare. The missing link is this: How is magnetic energy converted into the kinetic energy of the particles? Eight researchers from around the world joined forces to address this question. Drawn together “by a fascinating set of simultaneous observations,” according to team member Gordon Emslie from Western Kentucky University, they represent six languages, five solar instruments, and various areas of expertise on the Sun’s activity. On May 15, 2013, a moderately large solar flare was captured by several different instruments, resulting in radio wave maps, ultraviolet images, high-energy X-ray images, and ultraviolet spectroscopic observations of the same area of the Sun. Although flares are extremely bright and energetic, most of the activity takes place outside of the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. \|NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of the X1.2 class solar flare on May 14, 2013 (May 15 in coordinated universal time). The image shows the Sun in high-energy ultraviolet light. \| Image Credit: NASA/SDO. The team studied these observations to see whether turbulence plays a role in the energy conversion process. This approach was based on two relationships suggested by previous theoretical studies and simulations. First, that turbulence can dramatically affect magnetic field activity. Second, that the magnetic properties of a plasma may play a key role in accelerating particles during solar flares. Combined, these strongly suggest that turbulence in the corona affects the magnetic properties of the plasma and therefore plays a key role in particle acceleration. To see whether this might be the case, "we spent three years analyzing and checking the data" says lead author Eduard Kontar from the University of Glasgow. As often happens with collaborative science, most of the work was done remotely, but significant progress was made face-to-face in a pub one night over pints and notes scribbled on napkins. By integrating the different sets of data, the team reconstructed the location, structure, and evolution of the solar flare. From this they could infer the path and distribution of the electrons and estimate their total kinetic energy at different times and locations. The team also estimated the total energy in the magnetic field of the region prior to the flare, and from this the amount of energy that could be converted into heat and accelerating particles. Two important results stood out. First, signals from the area of the corona where most of the flare’s energy came from showed characteristic signs of turbulence. Second, the turbulent kinetic energy at this location peaked before the most of the electrons were accelerated. Together, these findings suggest that the magnetic energy builds up in the corona, flows into small-scale turbulent motions within the plasma, and then flows into the fast-moving particles. The turbulence seems to be like a reservoir that doesn’t contain a lot of energy, but allows energy to quickly flow in and out. “The situation is like running a powerful shower into a bathtub with an open drain,” says Emslie. “The bathtub is essential for channeling the water from the shower head into the drain. And, although all the water flows from the shower through the drain via the bathtub, the amount of water in the bathtub is, at any given time, quite small. Thus, although at any given time the energy in the turbulence is quite small compared to the total energy released, energy flows very quickly in and out of the turbulence, and, like the bathtub and the water, it provides a crucial conduit for the energy.” This is the first clear evidence that turbulent motion plays an important role in transferring magnetic energy to accelerated particles in solar flares. Moving forward, scientists can test models of particle acceleration by turbulence against these results to see what best matches reality. The better we understand this process, the more likely it is that we will eventually be able to predict these events and protect our infrastructure and spacecraft from potentially catastrophic events. The researchers combined data taken by instruments on three spacecraft (Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager, Solar Dynamic Observatory, and Hinode) and at the ground-based Nobeyama Radio Observatory.
\|Lesson Plan ID: Nothing's Great About Daisy Students will learn about life during the 1920s in the United States. The students will analyze how the setting, the characters and the plot of The Great Gatsby impacted the overall novel. At the completion of the lesson, the students will be asked to write a character analysis. By teaching the acronym “STEAL” which stands for Speech, Thoughts, Effects on Others, Actions, and Looks, students gain a tool they can use to analyze characters and the methods an author uses to develop the character. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan. \|ELA2013(11) \|\|2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. [RL.11-12.2] \| \|ELA2013(11) \|\|8. Demonstrate knowledge of twentieth- and twenty-first-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics. [RL.11-12.9] (Alabama) \| \|ELA2013(11) \|\|20. Write informative or explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. [W.11-12.2] \| \|Primary Learning Objective(s): - To analyze how the settings, characters, and plot affect the overall novel - To identify and define indirect and direct characterization - To read closely to determine what the text says about the characters - To cite specific text evidence when writing to support details stated about characters - To write a character analysis that analyzes one of the characters in The Great Gatsby - To identify and explain methods of characterization in a work of literature. - To understand persuasive techniques \|Additional Learning Objective(s): \|Approximate Duration of the Lesson: \|\| 91 to 120 Minutes\| \|Materials and Equipment: The novel: The Great Gatsby Character Analysis Chart PowerPoint Presentation on Characterization Handout The STEAL Method \|Technology Resources Needed: The teacher should have read the novel The Great Gatsby and taught the "STEAL" method. By teaching the “STEAL” method students gain a tool they can use to analyze characters as they read any story or novel. They will learn how an author creates characters and evaluate the techniques used by a great American author. Students will interact with “The Great Gatsby” and work independently to trace the development of the incredible cast of characters. Prior to teaching this lesson, make sure the students have read the first four chapters. 1. First make sure each student has a copy of the novel The Great Gatsby. 2. Students will be asked to make an inference based on the title of the novel. 3. Give the students a copy of the characterization chart (Remind students they should have read the first four chapters.). 4. Define key literary terms for the students: b. Direct characterization c. Indirect characterization d. Persuasive techniques 1. Students will trace the development of each character as the character develops in the novel. After tracing the development of the characters, students will write a letter. 2. Choose one of the three possibilities and write a letter. - One of the important struggles in The Great Gatsby is Jay trying to convince Daisy that she does not love her current husband and that she should runaway with him. He used persuasion. Write a letter to Daisy from Jay attempting to persuade Daisy to leave Tom. - Write a short essay on advice to give one of the couples in the story. - Tom and Daisy - Gatsby and Daisy - Myrtle and George Wilson - Nick and Jordan - Write a fictional obituary of one of the characters in The Great Gatsby using information found in the text. You can write an obituary for a character whose death was not included in the text or one that was. The information in the obituary should reflect the student’s understanding of the plot, the character’s life and family relationships and effective newspaper writing. - Journal Writing: Write a five-sentence chapter summary. For each chapter choose a different character. Then choose a quote that best represents the character. List and describe his/her best qualities, only those mentioned in the story so far. In a paragraph describe the character's role in the novel, refer back to other chapters. From the chapter choose one meaningful quote, and describe its significance to you. What made it stand out? \|Attachments:**Some files will display in a new window. Others will prompt you to download. Formative assessment: Students will be asked to make inferences about the novel based on the title. Students will trace the development of each character as the characters develop in the story. 1. Students who have mastered the primary learning objectives can design a typical outfit that could be worn during the novel. 2. Students could write a children's book for The Great Gatsby. For students who are relunctant readers, provide highlighted notes for each character. For those who need extra help, give them a list of common figurative language terms that contain the meaning of the selected words and phrases. Each area below is a direct link to general teaching strategies/classroom for students with identified learning and/or behavior problems such as: reading or math performance below grade level; test or classroom assignments/quizzes at a failing level; failure to complete assignments independently; difficulty with short-term memory, abstract concepts, staying on task, or following directions; poor peer interaction or temper tantrums, and other learning or behavior problems. \|Presentation of Material \|\|Using Groups and Peers \|Assisting the Reluctant Starter \|\|Dealing with Inappropriate Be sure to check the student's IEP for specific accommodations. \|Variations Submitted by ALEX Users:
Definition - What does Reasonable Doubt mean? Reasonable doubt refers to a standard of proof that judges or jurors are supposed to use as a basis for convicting accused criminals. If the prosecution has proved that the defendant has committed the crime "beyond a reasonable doubt," then judges or jurors are supposed to vote guilty. However, if a reasonable doubt remains, then they are supposed to vote not guilty, according to the legal system. Justipedia explains Reasonable Doubt The reason why the legal system uses this standard of proof for conviction is because if a reasonable doubt remains, then it is still not clear whether or not the person committed the crime. Criminal sentences can be very lengthy and difficult, and so convicting an innocent person can be a truly undesirable circumstance. However, there is no objective means of determining whether or not guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Cases vary dramatically, and it is up to each judge and jury to decide this for himself or herself.
Teaching Math with Comprehension Strategies. By: Erica Wetzel. Teaching Math has to Change. Skill and Drill Practice. Math Comprehension Strategies. Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author.While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. By: Erica Wetzel Skill and Drill Practice Math Comprehension Strategies Does teaching mathematical skills in a skill and drill way hurt students?Does teaching mathematical skills in a skill and drill way hurt students?Does teaching math using skill and drill hurt students? Teaching Math in America Compared to Other Countries hurt students? We, as educators, can no longer teach math the way we were taught using skill and drill and rote memorization. Research has shown students need the opportunity to discover, analyze, and make connections when learning about mathematical concepts. The Common Core Standards are designed based on what research has proven most effective . The kindergarten class this year is the first class to no longer be taught under the Indiana State Standards. We must begin to analyze how our math instruction will change to prepare our students for the National Common Core Standards. Crespo, S. (2003). Learning to pose mathematical problems: exploring change in preservice teachers’ practices. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 243- 270. Grouws, D.A. and Hiebert, J. (2007). Effective teaching for the development of skill and conceptual understanding of number: what is most effective? National Council of Teachers Mathematics. Retrieved from Hyde, A. (2007). Mathematics and cognition. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 43-47. Shriki, A. (2009). Working like real mathematicians: developing prospective teachers’ awareness of mathematical creativity through generating new concepts. Professional Development Collection. doi: 10.1007/s10649-009- 9212-2 Zemelman, S., Daniels, H., Hyde, A. (2005). Best practice today’s standards for teaching and learning in america’s schools. Retrieved from http://www.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E00744/sample.pdf
To digest food, your digestive tract needs some help from nearby organs, including the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas, that produce or store enzymes and other substances that help break down food. The liver is a large organ on the upper right side of your torso, opposite the stomach and behind the ribcage. One of its main functions is to make a substance called bile (composed mostly of bilirubin, bile salts, and cholesterol) that is required to digest food in the small intestine. The liver is divided into two sections: a right lobe and a left lobe. Both lobes are made up of cells called hepatocytes. These cells produce bile and secrete it into the bile ducts, which carry bile to the gallbladder where it is stored until used by the small intestine. Gallbladder and Bile Ducts The gallbladder is a pear-shaped sac under the right lobe of the liver. Between meals, it stores and concentrates bile, which is produced at a constant rate by the liver. When it is not full of bile, the gallbladder is about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide at its thickest part. After meals, the gallbladder releases bile into the duodenum to aid with digestion. The cystic duct carries bile from the gallbladder to the common bile duct, which empties into the duodenum. Entry of bile into the duodenum is regulated by layers of muscle called the sphincter of Oddi. Between meals, the sphincter of Oddi closes and prevents bile from entering the duodenum. During and after meals, this sphincter opens and allows bile to enter the duodenum. The pancreas is a long, thin gland that lies horizontally behind the bottom part of your stomach. It makes digestive enzymes that flow through the pancreatic duct to the small intestine. These enzymes, along with bile from the gallbladder, break down food for use as energy by the body. The pancreas also makes insulin and glucagon, hormones that help regulate blood glucose (sugar) levels.
A diastase is any one of a group of enzymes that catalyze the breakdown of starches into maltose. Diastase only facillitates and does not cause this breakdown. However, the speed of this reaction is negligibly small without the presence of diastase. Diastases are present in malted grains and also in the pancreas, and they are very important in the process of brewing beer.Continue Reading According to Princeton University, Diastases were the first enzymes discovered. Diastases are important in the brewing process because there are no sugars present at the beginning of it. Malted grain is initially composed primarily of starch, which yeast cannot ferment. Two diastases are key in the brewing process: alpha and beta amylase. Alpha amylase is most viable at temperatures between 131 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit, and it converts starches to maltose. Beta amylase is most viable at temperatures between 154 and 162 degrees Fahrenheit, and it produces maltose along with other sugars that are less fermentable. Brewers use a process called mashing, which involves mixing milled grain with water in these temperature ranges. This produces a liquid full of fermentable sugars called "wort." Brewers often use the properties of these two enzymes to help control the character of their beers. Mashing at a higher temperature associated with beta amylase tends to produce a partially unfermentable wort, and the end result is a sweeter beer with a thicker body. Meanwhile, a lower temperature mash in alpha amylase's optimum range produces a highly fermentable wort and an accordingly drier beer. However, choosing a mash temperature is not a black and white issue. These enzymes are viable outside of their optimum temperatures, so it is possible to produce wort along a spectrum of fermentability.Learn more about Biology
This course explores historical and ethnographic approaches to the diverse forms of nations and nationalism in the world. Course dicussions will begin by examining how capitalism contributed to the formation of a nationalist bourgeois class and how this "historical" class took a key role in creating the concepts of nation, national territory and unified national market. We will investigate how people and local communities reacted to the changes caused by these spreading ideas. By reading about the various forms and ideas of nation and nationalism, students can understand how the unique conditions of a specific locale have affected their formation, sometimes with destructive consequences, examining cases both from "the West" and "the rest". In the case of the West we will firstly look into the constructive role of bourgeois class during the French Revolution and how they created the ideal form of a nation, which has clearly divided national territories, a national language and a national education system, army, and most of all, a unified national market. Later we will discuss how the image of the ideal nation has been transferred to other places and transformed according to the specific local situations. For these cases, we will analyze the fledgling democracy of the new colony of Great Britain (the U.S.), the primordial nationalism of Japan and Korea (both North and South), the emerging patriotic nationalism of China, the process of national building in the Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, the militant/jingoistic nationalism of the post-socialist countries such as Russia, and so on. Section 301 - SEM - UNIVERSITY MUSEUM 328 Department of Anthropology Museum, Room 325, 3260 South Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 Phone: (215) 898-7461 Fax: (215) 898-7462
Read this article to learn about Butterflies:- (1) Butterflies (2) Butterfly Garden and (3) Butterfly Farm. Animals in general and insects in particular play a key role in ecotourism. Among insects, bees, beetles, wasps, moths and butterflies attract the eyes of tourists. Each category represents a number of genera and species and all the categories put together make up an important tool for ecotourism. This vast diversity in insects can be potentially used for environmental education and nature conservation through ecotourism. There are about 20,000 species of butterflies worldwide. As of today, only butterflies are prominent in ecotourism. Butterflies occupy a vital position in the ecosystem. The occurrence and diversity of butterfly populations are considered to be good indicators of the health of any given natural habitat. Butterflies are usually projected to be more aesthetic objects, most colourful, attractive, not harmful and easy to reproduce under human care. Butterflies are insects that belong to Lepidoptera (scale-winged insects) and share the essential characteristics of all other insects in having six legs and three body segments. They pass through four stages of development throughout their life cycle – egg, larva, pupa and adult. The diet of adult butterflies includes nutrients from overripe fruits, tree sap, dung, cacti and floral nectar. They also eat plant pests like aphids, ants and weeds. By eating plant pests, they play a key role in controlling certain plant species and, hence, contributing to the health of the ecosystem. The principle function of adult butterflies is to mate and reproduce. The larva (caterpillar) of each species of butterfly can digest a specific-type of plant leaves. Some larvae are able to thrive on a number of closely related plants while others are able to digest just one specific plant species. This specific plant material is referred to as the ‘larval host plant’, the ‘caterpillar host plant’, or the ‘butterfly host plant’. A butterfly abundant in one area and unseen in another area has something to do with the availability of caterpillar host plants. Ample food must be available for its larvae in order for a butterfly species to survive in any location. Many adult butterfly species do not feed at large; they utilize the energy stored from food eaten during the larval stage. The voracious larvae feed enough to build a sufficient store of nutrients. Some butterfly species feed on different food sources during their adult stage in order to get deficient nutrients and other necessary minerals, etc. for effective mating and extending their life span. Female butterflies, in addition, collect fluid nutrients from different sources, especially from floral nectars for the production of viable eggs and better offspring. Most butterflies live for just a few weeks or a few months. Therefore, the protecting of plants and natural habitats in the wild is essential for their survival. Moths are another set of insects and belong to the same group that butterflies belong. They go through the same four stages of the life cycle as in case of butterflies. There are certain differences that distinguish them into two sub-groups. A butterfly flies by day and a moth by night. There are some day flying moths and butterflies that fly at dusk. A butterfly always has a feeding mechanism (proboscis), whereas a moth often does not. These moths simply do not eat as adults as they have done all their eating as larvae. A butterfly rests with its wings closed and a moth lands with them open. A butterfly forms a chrysalis (pupa) that hangs, and is always produced by a single butterfly and without silk. A moth forms a cocoon, usually on the ground and surrounded by silk. The antennae of a butterfly are straight and club-like while those of a moth vary greatly but are usually brush-like with a great deal of more surface area. Moths are not as attractive as butterflies are and, hence, their role in ecotourism is simply insignificant. However, for an eco-tourist who is a scientist or a student, they are important to understand their role in ecosystems. Butterflies are the most attractive creatures. They are often referred to as flagships or honorary birds. They are good candidate materials for the study of genetics, insect- plant interactions and co-evolution. Human exploitation of forestry, agriculture and other resources is the principal threat to the survival of butterflies. This necessitates protecting habitats of butterflies and in fact it should be the priority in any conservation programmes. One important conservation effort is the protection and development of natural areas with a view to develop ecotourism. Butterflies are among the most beautiful insects on earth. Their colorful wings add a decorator’s touch to home gardens as they flutter from flower to flower in search for nectar. In the developed world, most gardeners wish to attract more butterflies to their garden property and this interest is slowly taking the shape of a hobby. As most part of the developed world experiences cold to freezing temperatures, the fluttering of butterflies can be seen only in late spring, all summer and, to some extent, in early fall season. During this period, butterflies mate and reproduce offspring. The production of offspring depends on the availability of larval host plants and adult nectar plants. In the tropical countries, the butterflies fly throughout the year but reproduction occurs primarily during a particular period of the year which varies with each butterfly species. However, tropical countries with rich biodiversity have wide scope to use butterfly diversity for ecotourism. Butterfly gardens can be developed in the residential or non-residential areas. Attracting butterflies to gardens involves planting the right flowers in the right place and refraining from the use of chemical insecticides. Mud puddles, rotting fruits and animal manure if available in gardens attract more species of butterflies. Many butterflies visit the gardens that provide desirable nectar sources which are not poisoned with insecticides. The location of garden plays a role in determining how many butterfly species might visit the garden for flower nectar. Some species of butterflies prefer open areas while others select to reside near wet meadows or deciduous forests. A garden located in an open rural area, near a stream or adjacent to a deciduous forest is likely to attract more species of butterflies. The best position for a butterfly garden is in full sun and sheltered from the wind. The butterflies are cold-blooded insects, and fly well when their body temperature is above 21°C. Wind currents make flight maneuver difficult for butterflies and require the expenditure of extra energy as they try to feed, mate and lay eggs. A wind break can be provided by simply planting evergreens to protect the garden from prevailing winds. A mixture of annuals and perennials would be an ideal selection to grow in the garden to attract butterflies. Different species of butterflies show a preference for different species of flowers. Some prefer purple, lavender and pink flowers while some others prefer red, yellow and blue flowers. Since different species of butterflies inhabit different regions, choosing different flowers as nectar sources is a must. Butterflies add beauty and fascinate people of every age. Therefore, butterfly gardens are an important channel to educate people for the conservation of biodiversity. A butterfly farm is a piece of land dedicated to raising a spectacular and unusual cash crop consisting of various species of beautiful and delicate butterfly species. The butterfly goes through its entire life cycle in captivity. As mentioned earlier, most butterflies use new leaves of one or two species of plants for laying eggs and, in this context, it is important to know which food plant to cultivate and to provide enough of it at the appropriate stage of growth. Periodical introduction of wild stock is a must to avoid inbreeding within a species. Depending on the species and the purpose for which they are being raised, butterflies can be exported live, as pupae, or dead, as top-quality collector specimens. The farming has the best chance of economic success when the species farmed is highly local. Another form of butterfly farming method is using wild adults without keeping them in captivity. The adults as they are in nature are allowed to feed and lay eggs in gardens planted on the edge of the existing forest. This is known as butterfly ranching because of its free-range aspects. The advantages include constant genetic variability and preservation of native forest habitat for butterflies. This farming method is ideal from a conservation point of view because the local ranchers become protectors of the forest as the source of their livelihoods. Butterfly ranching is widely practiced in the Americas. It is really more like nursery gardening. The farms encourage reforestation because butterfly food plants grow fine in soil that is depleted in nutrients. Butterfly farming would be highly successful only if it has a sound scientific and economic foundation. It provides cash income for people who live in rural villages, in a way that does not disrupt traditional village lifestyles. It also satisfies the global appetite for these beautiful creatures. It is an effective, economically viable way to preserve the fragile forest ecosystems that the butterflies share with countless other plants and animals. Nevertheless, butterfly farming is absolutely dependent upon the native vegetation and has an inherent mutual relationship with native plants and the habitats they create. The butterfly farming is fast emerging as one of the leading ecotourism products the world over. Many people travel to visit butterfly gardens far away from their homes or countries to view and photograph beautiful butterflies across the world. Some butterfly lovers just want to have a close look at them either in flight or study their wings as they perch on flowers busily collecting nectar. Some others collect different sizes and species and make collages of them and mount exhibitions for auction sales or just display them in their living rooms and even their offices. Textile designers study patterns on butterfly wings and replicate them on fabric. In the Western countries, people hold butterflies in their palms at wedding ceremonies to say their wish for the newly wedded and release the butterflies with the belief that they carry the wishes to God. In Costa Rica, members of parliament took part in butterfly releases as part of a fund raising event for street children. As each legislator releases a butterfly, he would call out loud the name of a child. The butterfly he released represented the life and aspirations of that child. These different activities indicate the importance of butterflies and how the latter can be used for injecting the awareness about butterflies as a part of nature conservation. Further, butterfly farming is gaining commercial importance. A brief account of history of butterfly farming, commercial importance and its role in ecotourism is given here. Interest in butterflies became serious business for many people in the Western world during the Victorian era, roughly during 1860-1910. At that time, members of English aristocracy, endowed with wealth and leisure derived from the Great Britain’s flourishing empire collected and identified and catalogued butterflies from all over the world. Lord Rothschild employed over 400 explorers and colonists all over the World to collect butterflies on his behalf. His butterfly collection is regarded as the single largest personal collection of butterflies ever. Since the Victorian Era, butterflies have been the subject of great interest for thousands of biologists and amateur enthusiasts. In 1977, a man living on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel acquired a vacant greenhouse to fill it with tropical plants to recreate the essence of a tropical jungle. To add interest, colour and movement, he thought to import some live butterflies acquired from Asia. He did so and opened this house to public as a butterfly exhibition. This was the first successful commercial butterfly exhibit. In 1983, Costa Rica Entomological Supply established a mega-butterfly farm in Latin America to provide butterfly pupae to the growing butterfly exhibit industry. In the United Kingdom, the live butterfly exhibit industry exploded between 1980 and 1988. The Niagara Parks Commission established a mega-butterfly garden in 1996 in the United States of America. The butterfly exhibit industry has flourished in North America, fueling the bulk of the industry’s growth. The world’s leading producing countries of butterfly pupae for butterfly exhibits are Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Kenya, Madagascar, United States, El Salvador and Costa Rica. Now, butterfly exhibition is a fast growing industry and everyday of the year witnesses a butterfly exhibition somewhere in the world. In India, about 1,500 species of butterflies have been found. The majority of them are found in the Himalaya, the hills of Northeast and the Western Ghats. The drier Indo- Gangetic plain and the Deccan Plateau harbours a comparatively poorer distribution of butterflies. Initially, army personnel and civil servants posted in the remote areas during pre-Independence period developed the collection and study of butterflies as a hobby. They discovered majority of species of butterflies by the turn of the 20th century. After Independence, this hobby among defense and civil servants died out and a large part of India still remained un-surveyed for butterfly diversity. The Zoological Survey of India attempted to fill in these gaps the local lists of butterflies published in many cases were not comprehensive. As a result, much work remained to be carried out and many gaps in our knowledge of the distribution, habitat preferences, habits and larval host plants of our butterflies still exist. The rate of environmental destruction in this country is well- known to everyone. The various human activities have devastating effects on insect colonies in general and butterflies in particular. It is in this context that conservation of butterflies has been tackled on two fronts. The first consists of the inhabitants of national parks, sanctuaries and other protected areas, where protection is extended to all forms of life. The second consists of legislation in the form of Wildlife (Protection) Act, where a large number of butterfly species have been listed in the various Schedules. The attraction of Indian butterflies lies in the fact that there is considerable opportunity for glory-through- research, because there is very little work in this subject. One important point is that not a single Indian butterfly new to science has been described by an Indian. Although there is rich butterfly diversity, there is very little knowledge regarding the life-cycles, larval host plants, flower relationships, habitat preferences of individual species of butterflies (Sanctuary Magazine Special Issue 1996). Having realized this, Prof. C. Subba Reddi and his research team from the Department of Environmental Sciences, Andhra University, initiated research in these lines and produced an impressive volume of information that is useful for setting up butterfly gardens and butterfly farms or parks in India in the context of promoting ecotourism, despite the discouragement experienced by him from funding agencies of the Government of India. Based on this information, subsequent workers developed interest and this interest was fueled by funding agencies in order to generate practical information about butterflies for ecotourism development in India. Butter flying or watching butterflies is particularly good in India because of the richness in species diversity of butterflies. Butterfly watching involves the study of different stages of development from egg to adult stage of butterflies, understanding the relationships of butterflies with different plant species and habitat preferences, taking photographs, experiencing aesthetic pleasure and communicating to friends and others in order to develop interest and awareness about butterflies and their role in different ecosystems. In recent years, many have begun to develop interest watching butterflies in different areas, regions and ecosystems of India. It is in this context that biologists, foresters and policy makers conceived the idea of butterfly parks to promote ecotourism. The idea is taking physical and functional snap finally and shortly the first butterfly park is to be kept open for public in India. The first international standard butterfly park is set up at Bannerghatta National Park, Karnataka. It is a joint project of the Karnataka Forest Department, the Zoo Authority of Karnataka, the Department of Biotechnology and the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. The park will be ready for public very soon. Its activities include promotion of ecotourism, research and breeding of rare species of butterflies. Many of the Indian butterfly species are to be maintained here. The park is enclosed in a 10,000-square feet polycarbonate dome, designed for weather control and with different microhabitats for different species of butterflies. The dome is intended to provide for controlled breeding so that butterflies will be on view throughout the year unlike in the wild. The Kerala Tourism Department is also planning to have a butterfly park with the help of Kerala Forest Research Institute. Other State Governments may also follow these States in setting up butterfly parks as one of the effective tools to promote ecotourism and its associated advantages. Most butterfly garden projects are community based with a focus on poverty alleviation through employment generation for community folks. The gardens bring the winged jewels of the forests closer to domestic and international tourists and general public without visiting the forests. As tourists come, there would be eco-lodges, guides for bush walks, entertainment groups, refreshment centers, food preparation and craft shops. These ventures would bring money into the pockets of folk in the attraction areas. This is how butterfly-based ecotourism can transform the economic lives of poor communities and create awareness about ecosystems in which butterflies are a part. Butterflies generate foreign exchange income for hard currency starved economies. Butterfly farming contributes to intellectual stimulation and aesthetic value to the communities involved in this business and to ecotourists. There are some problems associated with the release of butterflies from captive breeding programs. Breeding and releasing rare and endangered butterflies in the wild would help re-stock population and, at the same time, it would boost ecotourism. In case of commonly occurring butterflies, such breeding and release of butterflies would invite problems in nature. Such butterflies would face problems from their predators, in getting their larval host plants and lay eggs in such a manner to present their discovery by predators. Further, these butterflies increase the food potential for their predators and parasites which could lead to an expansion of these species. Sometimes, released butterflies may become serious pests and it happened in case of some butterflies.
Children grow rapidly in their first five years of life, constantly acquiring new skills and knowledge. When caregivers know what children are able to do, as well what injuries may occur at each stage of development, they can set up safe environments and supervise children to protect them from injury.1 This developmental tool provides safety tips for early childhood staff working with young children in classroom environments. You will find a description of each stage of development and a list of daily routines for children within four age groups: infants, mobile infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Some safety tips, such as active supervision, apply to all children. Others address the developmental needs of children in a specific age group. Be sure to review the safety tips for each age group if there are children in your classroom at more than one developmental level, such as infants and mobile infants or mobile infants and toddlers. Source: Head Start National Center on Health and Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center
Atlantis at its Prime, 1896 Kate Wiles introduces a depiction of the earth's surface as it might have looked when the ‘Atlantean race’ was at its height. William Scott-Elliot (1849-1919) was an amateur anthropologist and member of the London Lodge of the Theosophical Society in its early days. Theosophists were interested in the origins of humanity and the ‘root races’ and believed the Atlanteans were the fourth ‘root race’, ultimately succeeded by the Aryans. Based on the clairvoyant ‘findings’ of fellow theosophist Charles Webster Leadbetter about Atlantis and Lemuria (another hypothetical land proposed in 1864), Scott-Elliot used science to solve their mysteries. He published his results in The Story of Atlantis (1896). This was an attempt to find a solution to the puzzle of fossils and plants, languages and peoples, common across continents now divided. By this time the bed of the Atlantic Ocean had been mapped, revealing the full extent of what is now called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but the understanding of continental drift to explain their previous meeting was not published until 1912, by Alfred Wegener. This map, taken from the French edition of Scott-Elliot’s work, shows the land surface of the earth as he believed it looked a million years ago, at the point when the Atlantean race was at its height and before internal warfare brought about the ‘first great submergence’ 800,000 years ago. The continent of Atlantis stretched from just east of Iceland to near what is now Rio de Janeiro. Lemuria is coloured green, as are the remnants of the Hyperborea, a northern land, first described by Herodotus.
A new paper, published in Science, details the explosion in aquatic animal tracking research over the past 30 years and its impact on discoveries about the movements, migrations, interactions and survival of both common and elusive aquatic species. The paper is authored by 12 Canadian and international members of the Ocean Tracking Network. The review describes a profound revolution, including over 20 examples of scientific breakthroughs, in global ocean observation science achieved through advancements in acoustic and satellite telemetry—tracking via electronic tags placed on organisms ranging from tiny neonate fish to large whales, which transmit data to fixed or mobile receiver stations or orbiting satellites. Electronic tags can now weigh less than a penny, can transmit for more than 10 years, and can be attached to almost any species, at any life stage, to collect high-resolution data in four dimensions (2D-horizontal, depth and time). “The vastness and impenetrability of the ocean has historically limited our ability to acquire and process information on animal movements. Telemetry has significantly enhanced our capacity to predict and plan in the face of climate change and human influence,” said Sara Iverson, scientific director of the Ocean Tracking Network and corresponding author on the paper. Telemetry data have revealed the often-mysterious migrations of endangered marine animals like leatherback turtles, basking sharks, European eels and Pacific bluefin tuna. These discoveries, and the increasingly sophisticated technology behind them, generate critical knowledge towards conservation recommendations. Tracking studies also pinpoint successes and limitations of current management plans. For example, acoustically tagged reef fish were shown to regularly move outside their Marine Protected Area, putting them at risk. “In the future, we could be looking at spatially dynamic MPAs, which move annually with predictions of animals’ response to their environments,” said Nigel Hussey, lead author and researcher at the University of Windsor with the Ocean Tracking Network. Acoustic and satellite telemetry studies are being combined with other biological measurements like genetic analysis or physiological status. These data help determine drivers behind animal behaviour to forecast how anthropogenic and climate changes will affect species and populations. Aquatic animal movements and migrations transcend geopolitical, economic, and management boundaries. Telemetry studies in the last decade have documented movement over transoceanic scales, to regions unreachable by humans, and into some of the harshest parts of the ocean, providing the groundwork for “next-generation aquatic governance frameworks.” “The ocean will continue to change,” said Hussey. “Global collaboration—among industry and science sectors, and researchers themselves—is imperative to get ahead of these changes before they catch up to us.”
Bacterial keratitis is an infection of the cornea (the clear, round dome covering the eye’s iris and pupil) that causes pain, reduced vision, light sensitivity and tearing or discharge from your eye. Resulting from infection from contact lens use or from injury to the eye, bacterial keratitis usually develops very quickly, and if left untreated, can cause blindness. The bacteria usually responsible for this type of keratitis infection are Staphylococcus Aureus and, for contact lens wearers, Pseudomonas Aeruginosa. Superficial keratitis involves the uppermost layers of the cornea. When this form of keratitis has healed, there is usually no scar on the cornea.Deep keratitis affects deeper corneal layers. There can be a scar left after healing which may or may not affect your vision, depending on where the scar is located. In addition to bacterial keratitis, there are a number of other types of keratitis, some of which include: - Amoebic keratitis (usually affecting contact lens wearers, it is often caused by Acanthamoeba); - Fungal keratitis (infection with fungi); - Viral keratitis (usually caused by herpes simplex and herpes zoster viruses); - Photokeratitis (due to intense ultraviolet radiation exposure, e.g. snow blindness or welder’s arc eye). Symptoms of bacterial keratitis may include: - Reduced vision; - Pain in the eye (often sudden); - Increased light sensitivity; - Excessive tearing or discharge from your eye. If you experience any of these symptoms, especially if they come on suddenly, call your ophthalmologist right away. If not taken care of, a keratitis eye infection can lead to blindness. Bacterial keratitis treatment must be started right away to prevent vision loss. Bacterial keratitis can have various causes, including: - Contact lens use, especially extended-wear lenses; - Use of contaminated eye medicine or other solution applied to the eye; - Use of topical steroids; - Recent corneal disease; - Trauma or injury; - Reduced immunity due to diabetes, alcoholism or poor nutrition.
West Nile Virus (WNV) is a member of a group of viruses known as arboviruses. It affects primarily birds, humans and horses, and to a lesser extent other domestic animals such as sheep, goats, dogs and cats. WNV was first detected in North America in 1999 in New York. Since then, WNV has steadily moved westward and the latest count includes California, Arizona and Utah. In Nevada, the Animal Disease Laboratory has been conducting surveillance testing for WNV on a variety of species since March of 2001. West Nile Virus was first detected in Nevada in crow found in Carson City on July 15th 2004. West Nile virus like other arboviruses is spread through a bird-mosquito cycle and transmitted to mammals, including humans, through the bite of an infected mosquito. Mosquitoes are infected by taking a blood meal from infected birds, such as the members of the raven family. In North America, humans, horses, and many species of birds are susceptible to infection with WNV. However, only the Corvid species (crows, ravens, magpies, jays, and their relatives), raptors and owls are truly susceptible to WNV disease and serve as useful sentinels of WNV activity. According to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, there have been no documented cases of person-to-person (except for blood transfusion, organ donation and trans-placental), animal-to-person, or animal-to-animal transmission of WNV. The horse and other mammals are considered to be dead-end hosts, meaning that the virus doesn't multiply to high enough levels in these species to provide a source of infection for mosquitoes. Currently, several vaccine candidates for humans are in different stages of clinical trials. Public availability is not expected for at least another two years. Currently there are two licensed vaccines for horses. Clinical signs of West Nile virus infection in horses include listlessness, stumbling and incoordination, weakness of limbs, ataxia, partial paralysis, and death. Because adequate protection requires nearly two months, the Nevada Department of Agriculture is encouraging Nevada horse owners to have their horses vaccinated for WNV in time for the mosquito season. The vaccination schedule consists of two intramuscular doses administered 3-6 weeks apart, and then annual revaccination. The two vaccines are significantly different from each other (Fort Dodge Animal Health's West Nile-Innovator™ is a killed whole virus vaccine, Merial's Recombitek® Equine WNV Vaccine is a live recombinant canary pox vaccine). Both companies have conducted vaccination trials to test if immunization with West Nile-Innovator™ can be boostered with Merial's Recombitek Equine WNV Vaccine. Results are contradictory. Please contact your veterinarian for more information.
Most programs need to do either input (reading data) or output (writing data), or most frequently both, in order to do anything useful. The GNU C library provides such a large selection of input and output functions that the hardest part is often deciding which function is most appropriate! This chapter introduces concepts and terminology relating to input and output. Other chapters relating to the GNU I/O facilities are: Before you can read or write the contents of a file, you must establish a connection or communications channel to the file. This process is called opening the file. You can open a file for reading, writing, or both. The connection to an open file is represented either as a stream or as a file descriptor. You pass this as an argument to the functions that do the actual read or write operations, to tell them which file to operate on. Certain functions expect streams, and others are designed to operate on file descriptors. When you have finished reading to or writing from the file, you can terminate the connection by closing the file. Once you have closed a stream or file descriptor, you cannot do any more input or output operations on it. When you want to do input or output to a file, you have a choice of two basic mechanisms for representing the connection between your program and the file: file descriptors and streams. File descriptors are represented as objects of type int, while streams are represented FILE * objects. File descriptors provide a primitive, low-level interface to input and output operations. Both file descriptors and streams can represent a connection to a device (such as a terminal), or a pipe or socket for communicating with another process, as well as a normal file. But, if you want to do control operations that are specific to a particular kind of device, you must use a file descriptor; there are no facilities to use streams in this way. You must also use file descriptors if your program needs to do input or output in special modes, such as nonblocking (or polled) input (see section File Status Flags). Streams provide a higher-level interface, layered on top of the primitive file descriptor facilities. The stream interface treats all kinds of files pretty much alike--the sole exception being the three styles of buffering that you can choose (see section Stream Buffering). The main advantage of using the stream interface is that the set of functions for performing actual input and output operations (as opposed to control operations) on streams is much richer and more powerful than the corresponding facilities for file descriptors. The file descriptor interface provides only simple functions for transferring blocks of characters, but the stream interface also provides powerful formatted input and output functions ( scanf) as well as functions for character- and line-oriented input and output. Since streams are implemented in terms of file descriptors, you can extract the file descriptor from a stream and perform low-level operations directly on the file descriptor. You can also initially open a connection as a file descriptor and then make a stream associated with that file descriptor. In general, you should stick with using streams rather than file descriptors, unless there is some specific operation you want to do that can only be done on a file descriptor. If you are a beginning programmer and aren't sure what functions to use, we suggest that you concentrate on the formatted input functions (see section Formatted Input) and formatted output functions (see section Formatted Output). If you are concerned about portability of your programs to systems other than GNU, you should also be aware that file descriptors are not as portable as streams. You can expect any system running ISO C to support streams, but non-GNU systems may not support file descriptors at all, or may only implement a subset of the GNU functions that operate on file descriptors. Most of the file descriptor functions in the GNU library are included in the POSIX.1 standard, however. One of the attributes of an open file is its file position that keeps track of where in the file the next character is to be read or written. In the GNU system, and all POSIX.1 systems, the file position is simply an integer representing the number of bytes from the beginning of the file. The file position is normally set to the beginning of the file when it is opened, and each time a character is read or written, the file position is incremented. In other words, access to the file is normally sequential. Ordinary files permit read or write operations at any position within the file. Some other kinds of files may also permit this. Files which do permit this are sometimes referred to as random-access files. You can change the file position using the fseek function on a stream (see section File Positioning) or the lseek function on a file descriptor (see section Input and Output Primitives). If you try to change the file position on a file that doesn't support random access, you get the Streams and descriptors that are opened for append access are treated specially for output: output to such files is always appended sequentially to the end of the file, regardless of the file position. However, the file position is still used to control where in the file reading is done. If you think about it, you'll realize that several programs can read a given file at the same time. In order for each program to be able to read the file at its own pace, each program must have its own file pointer, which is not affected by anything the other programs do. In fact, each opening of a file creates a separate file position. Thus, if you open a file twice even in the same program, you get two streams or descriptors with independent file positions. By contrast, if you open a descriptor and then duplicate it to get another descriptor, these two descriptors share the same file position: changing the file position of one descriptor will affect the other. In order to open a connection to a file, or to perform other operations such as deleting a file, you need some way to refer to the file. Nearly all files have names that are strings--even files which are actually devices such as tape drives or terminals. These strings are called file names. You specify the file name to say which file you want to open or operate on. This section describes the conventions for file names and how the operating system works with them. In order to understand the syntax of file names, you need to understand how the file system is organized into a hierarchy of directories. A directory is a file that contains information to associate other files with names; these associations are called links or directory entries. Sometimes, people speak of "files in a directory", but in reality, a directory only contains pointers to files, not the files themselves. The name of a file contained in a directory entry is called a file name component. In general, a file name consists of a sequence of one or more such components, separated by the slash character (`/'). A file name which is just one component names a file with respect to its directory. A file name with multiple components names a directory, and then a file in that directory, and so on. Some other documents, such as the POSIX standard, use the term pathname for what we call a file name, and either filename or pathname component for what this manual calls a file name component. We don't use this terminology because a "path" is something completely different (a list of directories to search), and we think that "pathname" used for something else will confuse users. We always use "file name" and "file name component" (or sometimes just "component", where the context is obvious) in GNU documentation. Some macros use the POSIX terminology in their names, such as PATH_MAX. These macros are defined by the POSIX standard, so we cannot change their names. You can find more detailed information about operations on directories in section File System Interface. A file name consists of file name components separated by slash (`/') characters. On the systems that the GNU C library supports, multiple successive `/' characters are equivalent to a single `/' character. The process of determining what file a file name refers to is called file name resolution. This is performed by examining the components that make up a file name in left-to-right order, and locating each successive component in the directory named by the previous component. Of course, each of the files that are referenced as directories must actually exist, be directories instead of regular files, and have the appropriate permissions to be accessible by the process; otherwise the file name resolution fails. If a file name begins with a `/', the first component in the file name is located in the root directory of the process (usually all processes on the system have the same root directory). Such a file name is called an absolute file name. Otherwise, the first component in the file name is located in the current working directory (see section Working Directory). This kind of file name is called a relative file name. The file name components `.' ("dot") and `..' ("dot-dot") have special meanings. Every directory has entries for these file name components. The file name component `.' refers to the directory itself, while the file name component `..' refers to its parent directory (the directory that contains the link for the directory in question). As a special case, `..' in the root directory refers to the root directory itself, since it has no parent; thus `/..' is the same as `/'. Here are some examples of file names: A file name that names a directory may optionally end in a `/'. You can specify a file name of `/' to refer to the root directory, but the empty string is not a meaningful file name. If you want to refer to the current working directory, use a file name of `.' or `./'. Unlike some other operating systems, the GNU system doesn't have any built-in support for file types (or extensions) or file versions as part of its file name syntax. Many programs and utilities use conventions for file names--for example, files containing C source code usually have names suffixed with `.c'---but there is nothing in the file system itself that enforces this kind of convention. Functions that accept file name arguments usually detect these errno error conditions relating to the file name syntax or trouble finding the named file. These errors are referred to throughout this manual as the usual file name errors. PATH_MAX, or when an individual file name component has a length greater than NAME_MAX. See section Limits on File System Capacity. In the GNU system, there is no imposed limit on overall file name length, but some file systems may place limits on the length of a component. The rules for the syntax of file names discussed in section File Names, are the rules normally used by the GNU system and by other POSIX systems. However, other operating systems may use other conventions. There are two reasons why it can be important for you to be aware of file name portability issues: The ISO C standard says very little about file name syntax, only that file names are strings. In addition to varying restrictions on the length of file names and what characters can validly appear in a file name, different operating systems use different conventions and syntax for concepts such as structured directories and file types or extensions. Some concepts such as file versions might be supported in some operating systems and not by others. The POSIX.1 standard allows implementations to put additional restrictions on file name syntax, concerning what characters are permitted in file names and on the length of file name and file name component strings. However, in the GNU system, you do not need to worry about these restrictions; any character except the null character is permitted in a file name string, and there are no limits on the length of file name strings. Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.
Network Programming Introduction Java supports Network Programming to communicate with other machines. s start with Network Programming Introduction. Network Programming Introduction: As we all know that Computer Network means a group of computers connect with each other via some medium and transfer data between them as and when require. Java supports Network Programming so we can make such program in which the machines connected in network will send and receive data from other machine in the network by programming. The first and simple logic to send or receive any kind of data or message is we must have the address of receiver or sender. So when a computer needs to communicate with another computer, its require the other computer’s address. Java networking programming supports the concept of socket. A socket identifies an endpoint in a network. The socket communication takes place via a protocol. The Internet Protocol is a lower-level, connection less (means there is no continuing connection between the end points) protocol for delivering the data into small packets from one computer (address) to another computer (address) across the network (Internet). It does not guarantee to deliver sent packets to the destination. The most widely use a version of IP today is IPv4, uses a 32 bit value to represent an address which are organized into four 8-bits chunks. However new addressing scheme called IPv6, uses a 128 bit value to represent an address which are organized into four 16-bits chunks. The main advantage of IPv6 is that it supports much larger address space than does IPv4. An IP (Internet Protocol) address uniquely identifies the computer on the network. IP addresses are written in a notation using numbers separated by dots is called dotted-decimal notation. There are four 8 bits value between 0 and 255 are available in each IP address such as 127.0.0.1 means local-host, 192.168.0.3 etc. s not an easy to remember because of so many numbers, they are often mapped to meaningful names called domain names such as mail.google.com There is a server on Internet who is translate the host names into IP addresses is called DNS (Domain Name Server). NOTE: Internet is the global network of millions of computer and the any computer may connect the Internet through LAN (Local Area Network), Cable Modem, ISP (Internet Service Provider) using dialup. When a user pass the URL like java2all.com in the web-browser from any computer, it first ask to DNS to translate this domain name into the numeric IP address and then sends the request to this IP address. This enables users to work with domain names, but the internet operates on IP addresses. Here in java2all.com the “com” domain is reserved for commercial sites; then “java2all” is the company name. The Higher-level protocol used in with the IP are TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol). The TCP enables two host to make a connection and exchange the stream of data, so its called Stream-based communication. TCP guarantees delivery of data and also guarantees that streams of data will be delivered in the same order in which they are sent. The TCP can detect the lost of transmission and so resubmit them and hence the transmissions are lossless and reliable. The UDP is a standard, directly to support fast, connectionless host-to-host datagram oriented model that is used over the IP and exchange the packet of data so it`s called packet-based communication. The UDP cannot guarantee lossless transmission. JAVA supports both TCP and UDP protocol families.
For diseases to develop in a crop you need three things. First you need the disease vector or pathogen present. Second, you need a susceptible host and third, you need the right environmental conditions. Understanding these three things possibly helps explain why diseases may becoming more commonplace in crop production. Disease pathogens are found in higher populations particularly in higher residue environments and where the same crops are grown more continuous. Some studies have shown significant shifts in populations of microbial communities with the repeated use of glyphosate in our crops. Some of the soil microbes that are less prevalent were instrumental in suppressing disease organisms. Xanthomonas bacteria disease is one of those which have increased due to this change in soil microorganisms. Goss’s Wilt is another which is suspected to be increasing due to microbial shifts. Susceptible hosts are also needed for diseases to progress. We have seen that in recent years certain corn hybrids had little tolerance to Goss’s Wilt, Grey Leaf Spot or Northern Corn Leaf Blight whereas other hybrids had little effect from these diseases. If you know you are planting a hybrid or variety that has more susceptibility it would be wise to protect it from the start with a fungicide/bactericide. Healthy plants will also fend off diseases better than a stressed plant so cultural practices and nutrition can also influence your variety’s susceptibility. You need the right environment for infection, survival and spread for the disease to become a problem. With some diseases you need a point of entry. Wind or hail damage can cause a physical damage that will allow entry of the disease. Higher residue environments may also create a more favorable environment for the disease organism to survive and be positioned for infection when the right conditions occur. Seems like we have had more wind in recent years. This can also carry some diseases into a growing area that may not overwinter there (ie. Rusts) or may transport insects which could vector the disease. Some diseases are favored by high humidity, rainfall or irrigation. Others are favored by hot dry conditions. Being able to predict weather conditions even a few days ahead may help predict whether a disease could potentially become a problem and justify a preventative treatment. It is critical that producers become more familiar with diseases affecting their crops and understanding what factors can create the “perfect storm” for the disease to develop. It is also important to understand whether the products you are using to protect your crop is effective against a particular disease.
Critical thinking and the nursing guided by professional standards and ethic codes requires strategies that maximize potential and compensate for where good thinking practiced creating environments that support critical thinking nursing process systematic approach that is. Critical thinking: nine strategies for everyday life a list of nine strategies has been devised to aid in the student's progress critical thinking can help us acquire knowledge, improve our theories, and strengthen our arguments. Strategies for teaching critical thinking bonnie potts in this article, we discuss skills related to critical thinking and three specific strategies for teaching these skills: 1) building categories, 2) finding problems, and 3. Critical thinking: teaching methods & strategies mark jon snyder ceo teachers model thinking and support students as they share their thinking strategies research support provided by lisa e gueldenzoph. Center for writing \| student writing support \| writing process \| critical reading strategies critical reading strategies reading for specific information or for general thematic concerns for arguments that support or contest or for information to get you thinking about what you. Critical thinking: 50 best strategies to think smart and clear, get logical thinking, and improve your decision making skills (organize yourself, organize self organization, to do list book 18) - kindle edition by christ lewis download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones. Teaching critical reading with questioning strategies larry lewin it is time actually past time to address critical-thinking and analytic-response skills in our classrooms to help students get to this level. Wicor: avid's foundation for high engagement critical thinking, thinking is not driven by answers but by questions, positioning inquiry as research-based strategies designed to help students read more effectively skills such as. Critical thinking in everyday life: 9 strategies most of us are not what we could be we are less so why not take advantage of the time you normally waste by practicing your critical thinking during that otherwise wasted time. 6 routines to support mathematical thinking but there is something else going on in these classrooms each teacher established routines and norms that support students to develop critical thinking building on young children's mathematical thinking five strategies to add to your. Kids need to be taught what good readers do believe it or not, it's not intuitive this means we must teach kids reading comprehension strategies our school uses the junior great books series to help with critical thinking and help thinking strategies in reading comprehension. Here are 12 interesting ways to approach teaching critical thinking skills with any of your students 12 strong strategies for effectively teaching critical thinking skills they'll support the development of critical thinking skills beautifully. The goal here is to help you sharpen your critical thinking skills and cultivate your critical thinking spirit while memorization definitely has many facione, pa, critical thinking: what it is and why it counts 2011 update page 3 scenes in movies that were. Strategies for teaching inferential reading comprehension facility in literal, inferential, critical, and creative comprehension skills is critical to reading success and academic achievement in all that support the understanding of the text that students will read in their. Critical thinking framework for any discipline robert duron training setting to help students gain critical thinking skills 5-step model to move students toward critical thinking according to teaching strategies (2003), the crucial elements of a skilled questioner are. Analyzing / evaluating / interpreting / inferring apply critical reading and thinking strategies bibliography about critical thinking research-based articles to help inform the practice of teaching critical and creative thinking. Using apps to support study what is theory styles of writing effective reading critical thinking is an extension of critical reading thinking critically critical reading and critical thinking are therefore the very foundations of true learning and personal development. Establishing the comprehension strategies as a critical element of literacy instruction at every grade level thinking strategies for learners, as a platform of its staff develop-ment work in reading support for the principal to build consensus to engage in professional development. Learning strategies, teaching processes and roles of teachers, students critical thinking and problem solving critical thinking: critical thinking is a way of deciding whether a claim is true. Chapter 8: critical and creative thinking skills critical thinking involves convergent thinking thinking that converges on a single point it involves the detail, or examples to support a statement, idea, or conclusion thinking frame 1. Critical thinking in the elementary classroom: it a way of reasoning that demands adequate support for critical thinking strategies reading improvement, 31(3), 142-144 rowland-dunn, j making time for critical thinking skills. Techniques and strategies for reading critically critical thinking ii critical reading study guides folder menus time, stress and project management website is intended for students, ages middle school through returning adult, as well as their parents, teachers and support professionals. Teaching strategies to support evidence-based practice of research findings into practice 1 according to the american nurses association, 1 the science of nursing is based on a critical-thinking framework that serves as the the strategies can be used by faculty and nursing preceptors. Want to help your kids build a foundation for critical thinking read our tips for helping children become better problem solvers.
C working of function How Function works in C Programming? C programming is modular programming language. We must divide C program in the different modules in order to create more readable, eye catching ,effective, optimized code. In this article we are going to see how function is C programming works ? Explanation : How function works in C Programming ? - Firstly Operating System will call our main function. - When control comes inside main function , execution of main starts (i.e execution of C program starts) - Consider Line 4 : num = square(4); - We have called a function square(4). [ See : How to call a function ? ]. - We have passed “4″ as parameter to function. Note : Calling a function halts execution of the current function , it will execute called function , after execution control returned back to the calling function. - Function will return 16 to the calling function.(i.e main) - Returned value will be copied into variable. - printf will gets executed. - main function ends. - C program terminates. Understanding Parameter Passing : - We have something which is accessible inside calling function. (variable) - Whenever we are inside called function we loose control on the data declared in the previous function. - If we have to perform certain operations on the data then we pass a xerox copy of the data to the called function so that called function can perform certain operations on the data and will return us a result. - Means in the program we have two copies of the data - Original Copy [ Calling function have this Original Copy] - Xerox Copy [Called function have Xerox Copy]
Polonium is the element with the most isotopes. That means that different atoms of polonium have different numbers of neutrons even as they have the same number of protons, which is 84. None of these 33 isotopes is stable.Continue Reading The isotope with the longest half-life is Po209. Its half life is about 125 years, give or take three years. All the isotopes of polonium are radioactive. This means the nucleus of the polonium isotopes gives off ionizing radiation such as alpha, beta or gamma rays. Polonium is a silvery, solid metal or metalloid at standard temperature and pressure, but is very rarely found in nature. It's the result of the decay of bismuth that's found in pitchblende. Polonium serves no purpose in supporting biological processes and has little use in chemistry and industry. Polonium also doesn't form natural compounds. Marie Curie discovered polonium in 1898 as she strove to find out the cause of the radioactivity in Bohemian pitchblende. Polonium was the first element she discovered, and she named it after her native Poland. Since Poland was divided between Germany, Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time, she hoped naming the element after her country would call attention to its plight.Learn more about Atoms & Molecules
We always rely on written tests to assess our students. written tests cover little amount of the learning material, so we should search for more ideas to show us that we are moving on, and whether our students have understood our explanation or they need more practice. I think the following ideas are useful to assess to what extent the students have learnt and what their weaknesses are: - Ask open-ended questions starting with why and how. - Ask for a summary of the lesson at the end. - Use short tests/quizzes regularly and test one thing every time. - Encourage role-play activities especially for conversations. - Ask for comments from students on teaching procedures. - Use mind map tools to encourage students to talk. - Ask students to prepare something and talk about it. - Encourage exchanging books among students to mark. - Use rubrics and ask students to assess themselves. - Exploit games and puzzles to assess language usage. What else can you add? Write what you already do to assess your students daily.
The LCT gene provides instructions for making an enzyme called lactase. This enzyme helps to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk and other dairy products. Lactase is produced by cells that line the walls of the small intestine. These cells, called intestinal epithelial cells, have finger-like projections called microvilli that absorb nutrients from food as it passes through the intestine so they can be absorbed into the bloodstream. Based on their appearance, groups of these microvilli are known collectively as the brush border. Lactase functions at the brush border to break down lactose into smaller sugars called glucose and galactose for absorption. At least nine LCT gene mutations cause congenital lactase deficiency, also called congenital alactasia. In this disorder, infants are unable to break down lactose (lactose intolerance) in breast milk or formula. The LCT gene mutations change single protein building blocks (amino acids) in the lactase enzyme or result in an enzyme that is abnormally short. The mutations are believed to interfere with the function of the lactase enzyme, leading to undigested lactose in the small intestine and causing severe diarrhea. Lactose intolerance in adulthood is caused by gradually decreasing activity (expression) of the LCT gene after infancy, which occurs in most humans. - lactase-phlorizin hydrolase - lactase-phlorizin hydrolase-1 - lactase-phlorizin hydrolase preproprotein
Chapter 22 Stars from Adolescence to Old Age By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain the zero-age main sequence - Describe what happens to main-sequence stars of various masses as they exhaust their hydrogen supply One of the best ways to get a “snapshot” of a group of stars is by plotting their properties on an H–R diagram. We have already used the H–R diagram to follow the evolution of protostars up to the time they reach the main sequence. Now we’ll see what happens next. Once a star has reached the main-sequence stage of its life, it derives its energy almost entirely from the conversion of hydrogen to helium via the process of nuclear fusion in its core (see The Sun: A Nuclear Powerhouse). Since hydrogen is the most abundant element in stars, this process can maintain the star’s equilibrium for a long time. Thus, all stars remain on the main sequence for most of their lives. Some astronomers like to call the main-sequence phase the star’s “prolonged adolescence” or “adulthood” (continuing our analogy to the stages in a human life). The left-hand edge of the main-sequence band in the H–R diagram is called the zero-age main sequence (see Figure 18.15). We use the term zero-age to mark the time when a star stops contracting, settles onto the main sequence, and begins to fuse hydrogen in its core. The zero-age main sequence is a continuous line in the H–R diagram that shows where stars of different masses but similar chemical composition can be found when they begin to fuse hydrogen. Since only 0.7% of the hydrogen used in fusion reactions is converted into energy, fusion does not change the total mass of the star appreciably during this long period. It does, however, change the chemical composition in its central regions where nuclear reactions occur: hydrogen is gradually depleted, and helium accumulates. This change of composition changes the luminosity, temperature, size, and interior structure of the star. When a star’s luminosity and temperature begin to change, the point that represents the star on the H–R diagram moves away from the zero-age main sequence. Calculations show that the temperature and density in the inner region slowly increase as helium accumulates in the center of a star. As the temperature gets hotter, each proton acquires more energy of motion on average; this means it is more likely to interact with other protons, and as a result, the rate of fusion also increases. For the proton-proton cycle described in The Sun: A Nuclear Powerhouse, the rate of fusion goes up roughly as the temperature to the fourth power. If the rate of fusion goes up, the rate at which energy is being generated also increases, and the luminosity of the star gradually rises. Initially, however, these changes are small, and stars remain within the main-sequence band on the H–R diagram for most of their lifetimes. Star Temperature and Rate of Fusion If a star’s temperature were to double, by what factor would its rate of fusion increase? Since the rate of fusion (like temperature) goes up to the fourth power, it would increase by a factor of 24, or 16 times. Check Your Learning If the rate of fusion of a star increased 256 times, by what factor would the temperature increase? The temperature would increase by a factor of 2560.25 (that is, the 4th root of 256), or 4 times. Lifetimes on the Main Sequence How many years a star remains in the main-sequence band depends on its mass. You might think that a more massive star, having more fuel, would last longer, but it’s not that simple. The lifetime of a star in a particular stage of evolution depends on how much nuclear fuel it has and on how quickly it uses up that fuel. (In the same way, how long people can keep spending money depends not only on how much money they have but also on how quickly they spend it. This is why many lottery winners who go on spending sprees quickly wind up poor again.) In the case of stars, more massive ones use up their fuel much more quickly than stars of low mass. The reason massive stars are such spendthrifts is that, as we saw above, the rate of fusion depends very strongly on the star’s core temperature. And what determines how hot a star’s central regions get? It is the mass of the star—the weight of the overlying layers determines how high the pressure in the core must be: higher mass requires higher pressure to balance it. Higher pressure, in turn, is produced by higher temperature. The higher the temperature in the central regions, the faster the star races through its storehouse of central hydrogen. Although massive stars have more fuel, they burn it so prodigiously that their lifetimes are much shorter than those of their low-mass counterparts. You can also understand now why the most massive main-sequence stars are also the most luminous. Like new rock stars with their first platinum album, they spend their resources at an astounding rate. The main-sequence lifetimes of stars of different masses are listed in Table 22.1. This table shows that the most massive stars spend only a few million years on the main sequence. A star of 1 solar mass remains there for roughly 10 billion years, while a star of about 0.4 solar mass has a main-sequence lifetime of some 200 billion years, which is longer than the current age of the universe. (Bear in mind, however, that every star spends most of its total lifetime on the main sequence. Stars devote an average of 90% of their lives to peacefully fusing hydrogen into helium.) \|Lifetimes of Main-Sequence Stars\| \|Spectral Type\|\|Surface Temperature (K)\|\|Mass (Mass of Sun = 1) \|Lifetime on Main Sequence (years)\| These results are not merely of academic interest. Human beings developed on a planet around a G-type star. This means that the Sun’s stable main-sequence lifetime is so long that it afforded life on Earth plenty of time to evolve. When searching for intelligent life like our own on planets around other stars, it would be a pretty big waste of time to search around O- or B-type stars. These stars remain stable for such a short time that the development of creatures complicated enough to take astronomy courses is very unlikely. From Main-Sequence Star to Red Giant Eventually, all the hydrogen in a star’s core, where it is hot enough for fusion reactions, is used up. The core then contains only helium, “contaminated” by whatever small percentage of heavier elements the star had to begin with. The helium in the core can be thought of as the accumulated “ash” from the nuclear “burning” of hydrogen during the main-sequence stage. Energy can no longer be generated by hydrogen fusion in the stellar core because the hydrogen is all gone and, as we will see, the fusion of helium requires much higher temperatures. Since the central temperature is not yet high enough to fuse helium, there is no nuclear energy source to supply heat to the central region of the star. The long period of stability now ends, gravity again takes over, and the core begins to contract. Once more, the star’s energy is partially supplied by gravitational energy, in the way described by Kelvin and Helmholtz (see Sources of Sunshine: Thermal and Gravitational Energy). As the star’s core shrinks, the energy of the inward-falling material is converted to heat. The heat generated in this way, like all heat, flows outward to where it is a bit cooler. In the process, the heat raises the temperature of a layer of hydrogen that spent the whole long main-sequence time just outside the core. Like an understudy waiting in the wings of a hit Broadway show for a chance at fame and glory, this hydrogen was almost (but not quite) hot enough to undergo fusion and take part in the main action that sustains the star. Now, the additional heat produced by the shrinking core puts this hydrogen “over the limit,” and a shell of hydrogen nuclei just outside the core becomes hot enough for hydrogen fusion to begin. New energy produced by fusion of this hydrogen now pours outward from this shell and begins to heat up layers of the star farther out, causing them to expand. Meanwhile, the helium core continues to contract, producing more heat right around it. This leads to more fusion in the shell of fresh hydrogen outside the core (Figure 22.2). The additional fusion produces still more energy, which also flows out into the upper layer of the star. Most stars actually generate more energy each second when they are fusing hydrogen in the shell surrounding the helium core than they did when hydrogen fusion was confined to the central part of the star; thus, they increase in luminosity. With all the new energy pouring outward, the outer layers of the star begin to expand, and the star eventually grows and grows until it reaches enormous proportions (Figure 22.3). When you take the lid off a pot of boiling water, the steam can expand and it cools down. In the same way, the expansion of a star’s outer layers causes the temperature at the surface to decrease. As it cools, the star’s overall color becomes redder. (We saw in Radiation and Spectra that a red color corresponds to cooler temperature.) So the star becomes simultaneously more luminous and cooler. On the H–R diagram, the star therefore leaves the main-sequence band and moves upward (brighter) and to the right (cooler surface temperature). Over time, massive stars become red supergiants, and lower-mass stars like the Sun become red giants. (We first discussed such giant stars in The Stars: A Celestial Census; here we see how such “swollen” stars originate.) You might also say that these stars have “split personalities”: their cores are contracting while their outer layers are expanding. (Note that red giant stars do not actually look deep red; their colors are more like orange or orange-red.) Just how different are these red giants and supergiants from a main-sequence star? Table 22.2 compares the Sun with the red supergiant Betelgeuse, which is visible above Orion’s belt as the bright red star that marks the hunter’s armpit. Relative to the Sun, this supergiant has a much larger radius, a much lower average density, a cooler surface, and a much hotter core. \|Comparing a Supergiant with the Sun\| \|Mass (2 × 1033 g)\|\|1\|\|16\| \|Surface temperature (K)\|\|5,800\|\|3,600\| \|Core temperature (K)\|\|15,000,000\|\|160,000,000\| \|Luminosity (4 × 1026 W)\|\|1\|\|46,000\| \|Average density (g/cm3)\|\|1.4\|\|1.3 × 10–7\| \|Age (millions of years)\|\|4,500\|\|10\| Red giants can become so large that if we were to replace the Sun with one of them, its outer atmosphere would extend to the orbit of Mars or even beyond (Figure 22.4). This is the next stage in the life of a star as it moves (to continue our analogy to human lives) from its long period of “youth” and “adulthood” to “old age.” (After all, many human beings today also see their outer layers expand a bit as they get older.) By considering the relative ages of the Sun and Betelgeuse, we can also see that the idea that “bigger stars die faster” is indeed true here. Betelgeuse is a mere 10 million years old, which is relatively young compared with our Sun’s 4.5 billion years, but it is already nearing its death throes as a red supergiant. Models for Evolution to the Giant Stage As we discussed earlier, astronomers can construct computer models of stars with different masses and compositions to see how stars change throughout their lives. Figure 22.5, which is based on theoretical calculations by University of Illinois astronomer Icko Iben, shows an H–R diagram with several tracks of evolution from the main sequence to the giant stage. Tracks are shown for stars with different masses (from 0.5 to 15 times the mass of our Sun) and with chemical compositions similar to that of the Sun. The red line is the initial or zero-age main sequence. The numbers along the tracks indicate the time, in years, required for each star to reach those points in their evolution after leaving the main sequence. Once again, you can see that the more massive a star is, the more quickly it goes through each stage in its life. Note that the most massive star in this diagram has a mass similar to that of Betelgeuse, and so its evolutionary track shows approximately the history of Betelgeuse. The track for a 1-solar-mass star shows that the Sun is still in the main-sequence phase of evolution, since it is only about 4.5 billion years old. It will be billions of years before the Sun begins its own “climb” away from the main sequence—the expansion of its outer layers that will make it a red giant. Key Concepts and Summary When stars first begin to fuse hydrogen to helium, they lie on the zero-age main sequence. The amount of time a star spends in the main-sequence stage depends on its mass. More massive stars complete each stage of evolution more quickly than lower-mass stars. The fusion of hydrogen to form helium changes the interior composition of a star, which in turn results in changes in its temperature, luminosity, and radius. Eventually, as stars age, they evolve away from the main sequence to become red giants or supergiants. The core of a red giant is contracting, but the outer layers are expanding as a result of hydrogen fusion in a shell outside the core. The star gets larger, redder, and more luminous as it expands and cools. - zero-age main sequence - a line denoting the main sequence on the H–R diagram for a system of stars that have completed their contraction from interstellar matter and are now deriving all their energy from nuclear reactions, but whose chemical composition has not yet been altered substantially by nuclear reactions
ON THIS PAGE: You will find some basic information about this disease and the parts of the body it may affect. This is the first page of Cancer.Net’s Guide to Wilms Tumor. Use the menu to see other pages. Think of that menu as a roadmap for this complete guide. About the kidneys Every person has 2 kidneys, which are located above the waist on both sides of the spine. These reddish-brown, bean-shaped organs are closer to the back of the body than to the front. The kidneys filter blood to remove impurities, excess minerals and salts, and extra water. They also produce hormones that help control blood pressure, red blood cell production, and other bodily functions. As the kidneys develop in an unborn baby, some of the early cells will become glomeruli, which are balls of blood vessels that filter water, salt, and waste out of the blood. Others will become nephrons, which are the tubes through which the water, salt, and waste pass. About Wilms tumor If the early cells of the kidney do not develop into glomeruli or nephrons, clusters of the immature cells may form in the kidneys when the baby is born. Usually, these cells mature by the time a child is 3 or 4 years old, but some may grow out of control, forming a mass of immature cells. This mass is called a Wilms tumor. It can also be called a nephroblastoma. A Wilms tumor is always cancerous and is the most common type of kidney cancer diagnosed in children. A cancerous tumor is malignant, meaning it can grow and spread to other parts of the body. However, a Wilms tumor is very different from adult kidney cancer. A Wilms tumor usually occurs in only 1 kidney, called unilateral. However, it can develop in both kidneys, called bilateral. Rarely, a Wilms tumor develops in 1 kidney first and then the other. A Wilms tumor is often found only after it has grown to a size of about 8 ounces, which is about 4 times the weight of a healthy 3-year-old child’s kidney. About 1 out of 4 children with a Wilms tumor have evidence that the tumor has spread either to the lung or liver when it is first diagnosed. Looking for More of an Introduction? If you would more of an introduction, explore these related items. Please note that these links will take you to other sections on Cancer.Net: Cancer.Net Patient Education Video: View a short video led by an ASCO expert in childhood cancers that provides basic information and areas of research. The next section in this guide is Statistics. It helps explain the number of children who are diagnosed with a Wilms tumor and general survival rates. Use the menu to choose a different section to read in this guide.
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work! Ancient Egypt, civilization in northeastern Africa that dates from the 4th millennium bce. Its many achievements, preserved in its art and monuments, hold a fascination that continues to grow as archaeological finds expose its secrets. This article focuses on Egypt from its prehistory through its unification under Menes (Narmer) in the 3rd millennium bce—sometimes used as a reference point for Egypt’s origin—and up to the Islamic conquest in the 7th century ce. For subsequent history through the contemporary period, see Egypt. By what other term are the kings of Egypt called? What were the two types of writing in ancient Egypt? Which pharaoh probably built the first true pyramid? Who was the first king to unify Upper and Lower Egypt? Who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun? Introduction to ancient Egyptian civilization Life in ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt can be thought of as an oasis in the desert of northeastern Africa, dependent on the annual inundation of the Nile River to support its agricultural population. The country’s chief wealth came from the fertile floodplain of the Nile valley, where the river flows between bands of limestone hills, and the Nile delta, in which it fans into several branches north of present-day Cairo. Between the floodplain and the hills is a variable band of low desert that supported a certain amount of game. The Nile was Egypt’s sole transportation artery. The First Cataract at Aswān, where the riverbed is turned into rapids by a belt of granite, was the country’s only well-defined boundary within a populated area. To the south lay the far less hospitable area of Nubia, in which the river flowed through low sandstone hills that in most regions left only a very narrow strip of cultivable land. Nubia was significant for Egypt’s periodic southward expansion and for access to products from farther south. West of the Nile was the arid Sahara, broken by a chain of oases some 125 to 185 miles (200 to 300 km) from the river and lacking in all other resources except for a few minerals. The eastern desert, between the Nile and the Red Sea, was more important, for it supported a small nomadic population and desert game, contained numerous mineral deposits, including gold, and was the route to the Red Sea. To the northeast was the Isthmus of Suez. It offered the principal route for contact with Sinai, from which came turquoise and possibly copper, and with southwestern Asia, Egypt’s most important area of cultural interaction, from which were received stimuli for technical development and cultivars for crops. Immigrants and ultimately invaders crossed the isthmus into Egypt, attracted by the country’s stability and prosperity. From the late 2nd millennium bce onward, numerous attacks were made by land and sea along the eastern Mediterranean coast. At first, relatively little cultural contact came by way of the Mediterranean Sea, but from an early date Egypt maintained trading relations with the Lebanese port of Byblos (present-day Jbail). Egypt needed few imports to maintain basic standards of living, but good timber was essential and not available within the country, so it usually was obtained from Lebanon. Minerals such as obsidian and lapis lazuli were imported from as far afield as Anatolia and Afghanistan. Agriculture centred on the cultivation of cereal crops, chiefly emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare). The fertility of the land and general predictability of the inundation ensured very high productivity from a single annual crop. This productivity made it possible to store large surpluses against crop failures and also formed the chief basis of Egyptian wealth, which was, until the creation of the large empires of the 1st millennium bce, the greatest of any state in the ancient Middle East. Basin irrigation was achieved by simple means, and multiple cropping was not feasible until much later times, except perhaps in the lakeside area of Al-Fayyūm. As the river deposited alluvial silt, raising the level of the floodplain, and land was reclaimed from marsh, the area available for cultivation in the Nile valley and delta increased, while pastoralism declined slowly. In addition to grain crops, fruit and vegetables were important, the latter being irrigated year-round in small plots. Fish was also vital to the diet. Papyrus, which grew abundantly in marshes, was gathered wild and in later times was cultivated. It may have been used as a food crop, and it certainly was used to make rope, matting, and sandals. Above all, it provided the characteristic Egyptian writing material, which, with cereals, was the country’s chief export in Late period Egyptian and then Greco-Roman times. Cattle may have been domesticated in northeastern Africa. The Egyptians kept many as draft animals and for their various products, showing some of the interest in breeds and individuals that is found to this day in the Sudan and eastern Africa. The donkey, which was the principal transport animal (the camel did not become common until Roman times), was probably domesticated in the region. The native Egyptian breed of sheep became extinct in the 2nd millennium bce and was replaced by an Asiatic breed. Sheep were primarily a source of meat; their wool was rarely used. Goats were more numerous than sheep. Pigs were also raised and eaten. Ducks and geese were kept for food, and many of the vast numbers of wild and migratory birds found in Egypt were hunted and trapped. Desert game, principally various species of antelope and ibex, were hunted by the elite; it was a royal privilege to hunt lions and wild cattle. Pets included dogs, which were also used for hunting, cats, and monkeys. In addition, the Egyptians had a great interest in, and knowledge of, most species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish in their environment. Most Egyptians were probably descended from settlers who moved to the Nile valley in prehistoric times, with population increase coming through natural fertility. In various periods there were immigrants from Nubia, Libya, and especially the Middle East. They were historically significant and also may have contributed to population growth, but their numbers are unknown. Most people lived in villages and towns in the Nile valley and delta. Dwellings were normally built of mud brick and have long since disappeared beneath the rising water table or beneath modern town sites, thereby obliterating evidence for settlement patterns. In antiquity, as now, the most favoured location of settlements was on slightly raised ground near the riverbank, where transport and water were easily available and flooding was unlikely. Until the 1st millennium bce, Egypt was not urbanized to the same extent as Mesopotamia. Instead, a few centres, notably Memphis and Thebes, attracted population and particularly the elite, while the rest of the people were relatively evenly spread over the land. The size of the population has been estimated as having risen from 1 to 1.5 million in the 3rd millennium bce to perhaps twice that number in the late 2nd millennium and 1st millennium bce. (Much higher levels of population were reached in Greco-Roman times.) Nearly all of the people were engaged in agriculture and were probably tied to the land. In theory all the land belonged to the king, although in practice those living on it could not easily be removed and some categories of land could be bought and sold. Land was assigned to high officials to provide them with an income, and most tracts required payment of substantial dues to the state, which had a strong interest in keeping the land in agricultural use. Abandoned land was taken back into state ownership and reassigned for cultivation. The people who lived on and worked the land were not free to leave and were obliged to work it, but they were not slaves; most paid a proportion of their produce to major officials. Free citizens who worked the land on their own behalf did emerge; terms applied to them tended originally to refer to poor people, but these agriculturalists were probably not poor. Slavery was never common, being restricted to captives and foreigners or to people who were forced by poverty or debt to sell themselves into service. Slaves sometimes even married members of their owners’ families, so that in the long term those belonging to households tended to be assimilated into free society. In the New Kingdom (from about 1539 to 1075 bce), large numbers of captive slaves were acquired by major state institutions or incorporated into the army. Punitive treatment of foreign slaves or of native fugitives from their obligations included forced labour, exile (in, for example, the oases of the western desert), or compulsory enlistment in dangerous mining expeditions. Even nonpunitive employment such as quarrying in the desert was hazardous. The official record of one expedition shows a mortality rate of more than 10 percent. Just as the Egyptians optimized agricultural production with simple means, their crafts and techniques, many of which originally came from Asia, were raised to extraordinary levels of perfection. The Egyptians’ most striking technical achievement, massive stone building, also exploited the potential of a centralized state to mobilize a huge labour force, which was made available by efficient agricultural practices. Some of the technical and organizational skills involved were remarkable. The construction of the great pyramids of the 4th dynasty (c. 2575–c. 2465 bce) has yet to be fully explained and would be a major challenge to this day. This expenditure of skill contrasts with sparse evidence of an essentially neolithic way of living for the rural population of the time, while the use of flint tools persisted even in urban environments at least until the late 2nd millennium bce. Metal was correspondingly scarce, much of it being used for prestige rather than everyday purposes. In urban and elite contexts, the Egyptian ideal was the nuclear family, but, on the land and even within the central ruling group, there is evidence for extended families. Egyptians were monogamous, and the choice of partners in marriage, for which no formal ceremony or legal sanction is known, did not follow a set pattern. Consanguineous marriage was not practiced during the Dynastic period, except for the occasional marriage of a brother and sister within the royal family, and that practice may have been open only to kings or heirs to the throne. Divorce was in theory easy, but it was costly. Women had a legal status only marginally inferior to that of men. They could own and dispose of property in their own right, and they could initiate divorce and other legal proceedings. They hardly ever held administrative office but increasingly were involved in religious cults as priestesses or “chantresses.” Married women held the title “mistress of the house,” the precise significance of which is unknown. Lower down the social scale, they probably worked on the land as well as in the house. The uneven distribution of wealth, labour, and technology was related to the only partly urban character of society, especially in the 3rd millennium bce. The country’s resources were not fed into numerous provincial towns but instead were concentrated to great effect around the capital—itself a dispersed string of settlements rather than a city—and focused on the central figure in society, the king. In the 3rd and early 2nd millennia, the elite ideal, expressed in the decoration of private tombs, was manorial and rural. Not until much later did Egyptians develop a more pronouncedly urban character.
Color change: The right microcylinder printed with the novel photoresist appears white, because light is scattered in its sponge-like structure, whereas the cylinder printed with conventional photoresist appears transparent. Courtesy: 3-D Matter Made to Order (3DMM2O). Photoresists are printing inks used to print smallest microstructures in three dimensions by so-called two-photon lithography. During printing, a laser beam is moved in all spatial directions through the initially liquid photoresist. The photoresist hardens in the focal point of the laser beam only. Little by little, complex microstructures can be built in this way. In a second step, a solvent is used to remove those areas that were not exposed to radiation. Complex polymer architectures in the micrometer and nanometer ranges remain. Two-photon polymerization—or two-photon microprinting based on this process—has been studied extensively for some years now, in particular as regards the production of microoptics, so-called metamaterials, and microscaffolds for experiments with single biological cells. To expand the spectrum of applications, new printable materials are required. This is the point of departure of the scientists involved in the Cluster of Excellence 3-D Matter Made to Order (3DMM2O) of KIT and Heidelberg University. With the help of conventional photoresists, it was possible to print transparent, glassy polymers only, says Frederik Mayer, physicist of KIT and main author of the study. Our new photoresist for the first time enables printing of 3-D microstructures from porous nanofoam. This polymer foam has cavities of 30 to 100 nm in size, which are filled with air. From Transparent to White There has never been a photoresist for 3-D laser microprinting, with which 'white' material can be printed, Frederik Mayer points out. As in a porous eggshell, the many small air holes in the porous nanoarchitectures make them appear white. Mixing white particles into a conventional photoresist would not have this effect, because the photoresist must be transparent for the (red) laser beam during printing. Our photoresist, Mayer says, is transparent prior to printing, but the printed objects are white and have a high reflectivity. The researchers from Karlsruhe and Heidelberg demonstrated this by printing an Ulbricht sphere (an optical component) as fine as a hair. Another factor that opens up new applications is the extremely large internal surface area of the porous material. It might be useful for filtration processes on smallest space, highly water-repellent coatings, or the cultivation of biological cells. The collaboration of three of the nine research thrusts of the Cluster of Excellence revealed the uses for which the novel photoresist is suited and how it can be applied in the best possible way. By means of electron microscopy scans and optical experiments, researchers showed how the cavities are distributed in printed structures and how their formation can be controlled by varying the printing parameters and in particular the intensity of the laser pulses. Work in the cluster of excellence was carried out by materials scientists from Heidelberg University as well as chemists and physicists from KIT.
William Butler Yeats rightly said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Children are the future of a country, the flame that will guide the generations to come! They must be given the right kind of atmosphere to develop their skills and knowledge. Schools are the place where minds are nurtured and personalities are born. This happens through learning which is of two kinds: cognitive and non-cognitive. While cognitive learning involves intellectual skills like reading, writing, thinking, reasoning and remembering, non-cognitive learning is a whole other phenomenon! Non-cognitive learning includes learning things like academic behaviour, perseverance, mindset, learning strategies and social skills. For example, learning strategies like the ability to study and setting goals successfully; social skills like cooperation, and teamwork; behaviours like going to class every day, participation and time management; and attitudes like bravery, compassion and educational commitment. We promote non-cognitive learning for several benefits. Here are five of the reasons why: 5 Reasons Why Non-Cognitive Learning Is Important ⦁ Helps Students Tackle Failures Easily: Mindsets are of two kinds: fixed and growth. When students understand and master a growth mindset through non-cognitive learning, they start taking failures as stepping stones to success. Their spirit to become better overpowers the negative feelings they encounter due to failures. Self-confidence and self-esteem begin to build steadily to overcome any challenges that lay ahead. ⦁ Ensures Excellent Mental Health Of Students: Recognizing and managing emotions is something everyone should learn! As students, it is of utmost importance as there’s always pressure to perform well and prove yourself. Learning non-cognitive skills like mindfulness, creating positive attitude and practicing self-control helps students to face their fears and handle their anxiety well. This, in turn, helps in stress management. Teaching students to maintain a positive outlook ensures increased motivation, improved creativity and enthusiasm. Martin Seligman, a well-known positive psychologist, highly advocates teaching subject matter along with the skills and lessons required for students’ well-being. ⦁ Improves Academic Performance: Combining a non-cognitive skills education with STEAM learning not only ensures personal success but also improves academic track records! Students who learn the skill of deliberate practice in the subjects they struggle with, begin to gain more self-belief and perform comparatively well. Developing skills like persistence and resilience helps them look out for their mistakes and correct them. This helps them long-term, as life always has many obstacles to offer! ⦁ Students Learn To Build Better Relationships: Being connected to peers helps students in personality development and creates newer outlooks on life! Skills like empathy, communication and team spirit help students engage and build better social networks. Perspective thinking and curiosity encourage them to develop nurturing relationships with their acquaintances. Through networking, students build behaviours that encourage growth and progress in personal and professional lives and become better individuals in the society! ⦁ Assures Good Lifestyle Of Students Students learn a lot at school and at home. Even if their home environment isn’t particularly supportive and warm, school is a place that can shape them in the best way possible! Skills like self-control is often underestimate. When correctly taught, it results in lower chances of alcohol and drug addiction and a lower likelihood of committing a crime. Self-control also results in complete health improvements, including lower levels of stress and anxiety, lower levels of obesity and even a longer life! An investment in knowledge pays the best interest and we ensure that our students grow up to be the best version of themselves in all spheres of their lives!
Do you know the popular phrase: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics”? It illustrates the common distrust of numerical data and the way it’s displayed. And it has some truth: for too long, graphical displays of numerical data have been used to manipulate people’s understanding of ‘facts’. There is a basic explanation for this. All information is included in raw data – but before raw data is processed, it’s too much for our brains to understand. Any calculation or visualisation – whether that’s as simple as calculating the average or as complex as producing a 3D chart – involves losing a certain amount of data, so that we can take it in. It’s when people lose data that’s really important and then try to make big statements about the whole data set that most mistakes get made. Often what they say is ‘true’, but it doesn’t give the full story’ In this tutorial we will talk about common misconceptions and pitfalls when people start analysing and visualising. Only if you know the common errors can you avoid making them in your own work and falling for them when they are mistakenly cited in the work of others. The average trap Have you ever read a sentence like: “The average european drinks 1 litre of beer per day”? Did you ask yourself who this mysterious “average european” was and where you could meet him? Bad news: you can’t. He or she doesn’t exist. In some countries, people drink more wine than beer. How about people who don’t drink alcohol at all? And children? Do they drink 1 litre per day too? Clearly this statement is misleading. So how did this number come together? People who make these kind of claims usually get hold of a large number: e.g. every year 109 billion liters of beer is consumed in Europe. They then simply divide that figure by the number of days per year and the total population of Europe, and then blare out the exciting news. We did the same thing two modules ago when we divided healthcare expenditure by population. Does this mean that all people spend that much money? No. It means that some spend less and some spend more – what we did was to find the average.The average makes a lot of sense – if data is normally distributed. Normal distribution is the classic bell shaped curve. The image above shows three different normal distributions. They all have the same average. And yet they are clearly different.What the average doesn’t tell you is the range of data. Most of the time we do not deal with normal distributions either: take e.g. income. The average income (something frequently reported) would suggest that half of the people would earn less and half of them would earn more than the average. This is wrong. In most countries, many more people earn below the average salary than above it. How? Incomes are not normally distributed. They show a peak around a certain level and then have a long tail towards large salaries. The chart shows actual income distribution in US$ for households up to 200,000 US$ Income from the 2011 census. You can see a large number of households have incomes around 15,000-65,000 US$, but we have a long tail skewing the average up. If the average income rises, it could be because most of the people are earning more. But it could also be that a few people in the top income group are earning way more – both would move the average. Task: If you need some figures to help you think of this, try the following: Imagine 10 people. One earns 1€, one earns 2€, one earns 3€… up to 10€. Work out the average salary. Now add 1€ to each of their salaries (2€, 3€….11€). What is the average? Now go back to the original salaries (1€, 2€, 3€ etc) and add 10€ only to the very top salary (so you have 1€, 2€, 3€… 9€, 20€). What’s the average now? Economists recognise this and have added another value. The “ GINI-Coefficient ” tells you something about the distribution of income. The “GINI-Coefficient”” is a little complicated to calculate and beyond the scope of this basic introduction. However, it is worth knowing it exists. A lot of information gets lost when we only calculate an average. Keep your eyes peeled as you read the news and browse online. Task: Can you spot examples of where the use of the average is problematic? More than just your average… So if we’re not to use the average – what should we use? There are various other measures which can be used to give a simple mean figure some more context. - Combine the average figure with the range; e.g say range 20-5000 with an average of 50. Take our beer example: it would be slightly better to say 0-5 litres a day with an average of 1 litre. - Use the median: the median is the value right in the middle where 50% of values are above and 50% of values are below. For the median income it holds true that 50% of people earn less and 50% of people earn more. - Use quartiles or percentiles: Quartiles are like the median but for 25,50 and 75%. Percentiles are the same but for varying percent ranges (usually 10% steps.) This gives us way more information than the average – it also tells us something about the distribution of data (e.q. do 1% of the people really hold 80% of the wealth?) In data visualization, size actually matters. Look at the two column charts below: Imagine the headlines for these two graphs. For the graph on the left, you might read “Health Expenditure in Finland Explodes!”. The graph on the right might come under the headline “Health Expenditure in Finland remains mainly stable”. Now look at the data. It’s the same data presented in two different (incorrect) ways. Task: Can you spot why the data is misleading? In the graph on the left, the data doesn’t start at $0, but somewhere around $3000. This makes the differences appear proportionally much larger – for example, expenditure from 2001-2002 appears to have tripled, at least! In reality, this wasn’t the case. The square aspect ratio (the graph is the same height as width) of the graph further aggravates the effect. The graph on the right starts with $0 but has a range up to $30,000, even though our data only ranges to $9000. This is more accurate than the graph on the left, but is still confusing. No wonder people think of statistics as lies if they are used to deceive people about data. This example illustrates how important it is to visualize your data properly. Here are some simple rules: - Always use a range that is appropriate to your data - Note it properly on the respective axis! - The changes in size we see in a chart should actually reflect the change of size in your data. So if your data shows B is 2 times A, then B should be 2 times bigger in your visualization. The simple “reflect the size” rule becomes even more difficult in 2 dimensions, when you have to worry about the total area. At one point, news outlets started to replace columns with pictures, and then continue to scale the dimensions of pictures up in the old way. The problem? If you adjust the height to reflect the change and the width automatically increases with it, the area increases even more and will become completely wrong! Confused? Look at these bubbles: Task: We want to show that B is double the size of A. Which representation is correct? Why? Answer: The diagram on the right. Remember the formula for calculating the area of a circle? (Area = πr² If this doesn’t look familiar, see here). In the left hand diagram, the radius of A (r) was doubled. This means that the total area goes up by a scale factor of four! This is wrong. If B is to represent a number twice the size of A, we need the area of B to be double the area of A. To correctly calculate this, we need to adjust the length of the radius by ⎷2. This gives us a realistic change in size. Time will tell? Time lines are also critical when displaying data. Look at the chart below: A clear stable increase in health care costs since 2002? Not quite. Notice how before 2004, there are 1 year steps. After, there is a gap between 2004 and 2007, and 2007 and 2009. This presentation makes us believe that healthcare expenditure increases continuously at the same rate since 2002 – but actually it doesn’t. So if you deal with time lines: make sure that the spacing between the data points are correct! Only then will you be able to see the trends correctly. Correlation is not causation This misunderstanding is so common and well known that it has its own wikipedia article. There is nothing more to say about this. Simply because two data points show changes that can be correlated, it doesn’t mean that one causes the other. Context, context, context One thing incredibly important for data is context: A number or quality doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t give context. So explain what you are showing – explain how it is read, explain where the data comes from and explain what you did with it. If you give the proper context the conclusion should come right out of the data. Percent versus Percentage points change This is a common pitfall for many of us. If a value changes from 5% to 10% how many percent is the change? If you answered 5% – I’m afraid you’re wrong! The answer is 100% (10% is 200% of 5%). It’s a change in 5 percentage points. So take care the next time people try to report on elections, surveys and the like – can you spot their errors? Need a refresher on how to calculate percentage change? Check out the “Maths is Fun” page on it. Catching the thief – sensitivity and large numbers Imagine, you are a shop owner and you just installed and electronic theft detection system. The system has a 99% accuracy of detecting theft. The alarm goes off, how likely is it, that the person who just passed is a thief? It’s tempting to answer that there is a 99% chance that this person stole something. But actually, that isn’t necessarily the case. In your store you’ll have honest customers and shoplifters. However, the honest customers outnumber the thiefs:: there are 10,000 honest customers and just 1 thief. If all of them pass in front of your alarm, the alarm will sound 101 times. 1% of the time, it will mistakenly identify a honest customer as a thief – so it will sound 100 times. 99% of the time, it will correctly recognise that a shoplifter is a shoplifter. So it will probably sound once when your thief does walk past. But of the 101 times it sounds, only 1 time will there actually be a shoplifter in your store. So the chance that a person is actually a thief when it sounds is just below 1% (0.99%, if you want to be picky). Overestimating the probability if something is reported positive in such a scenario is called the base rate fallacy. This explains why airport searches and other methods of mass screening always will turn up lots of false positives. In this module we reviewed a few common mistakes made when presenting data. When using data as a tool to tell stories or to communicate our issues and results. While we need simplification to understand what the data means – doing it wrong will mislead us. When we present graphical evidence: try to stay true to the data itself. If possible: don’t only release your analysis: release the raw data as well! Last updated on Sep 02, 2013.
This activity was used in an Algebra 2 class. It was used at the beginning of the linear functions unit after students learned about slope. Students worked in small groups to determine the steepness of the given segments. The activity was designed with questions that were scaffolded in order to help students dig deeper into their mathematical reasoning. The lesson was also used as a way to get students familiar with showing their “evidence” and supporting their “evidence” with important math ideas, i.e. “warrants” Microsoft Word version: 912Algebra_CED_LinearFunctions_Worksheet_Construct_Steepness PDF version: 912Algebra_CED_LinearFunctions_Worksheet_Construct_Steepness Algebra students are asked to use their knowledge of arithmetic and geometric sequences to critique two student answers. Students must identify and agree with a solution and construct an argument using sentence starters. The task then asks students to justify their selection using mathematical language and argumentation and supplies a checklist to remind students to provide a claim, evidence, and warrant. Microsoft Word version: 912Algebra_SSE_ArithmeticSequences_Worksheet_ConstructCritique PDF version: 912Algebra_SSE_ArithmeticSequences_Worksheet_ConstructCritique This activity was used in an Algebra 2 classroom. The objective was for students to demonstrate how to determine if linear functions are parallel or perpendicular. The activity was developed for students to work in groups in a hands-on way while using multiple representations (graphs, equations, tables of values) of linear functions. First, students have to find the slope of each linear function then match them as parallel or perpendicular. This activity also serves as a review of how to find the slope from a graph, an equation and a table of values. Students are then given two specific linear functions and asked to show why they are either parallel, perpendicular or neither. The final task if for students to write a mathematical argument in which they must use the definitions of parallel and perpendicular lines to support their claim using the work they have previously done as their evidence. Microsoft Word version: 912Algebra_IF_ParPerpLines_Worksheet_Construct_ParallelandPerpendicularMatchingActivity PDF version: 912Algebra_IF_ParPerpLines_Worksheet_Construct_ParallelandPerpendicularMatchingActivity This task is designed for algebra students learning linear equations. Students are given a problem in which a girl bikes a certain amount of miles during her first week and her fifth week. Students must construct a response as to how many weeks it will take until the girl can bike a certain number of miles. Microsoft Word version: 912Algebra_REI_LinearEquations_Worksheet_1 PDF version: 912Algebra_REI_LinearEquations_Worksheet_1 This talk frame was created for algebra students developing skills with solving systems of equations. Students should be comfortable with the three different methods for solving systems before you use this talk frame in class. A system is presented and students are asked to decide which method to use (linear combination, substitution, or graphing). The talk frame suggests looking at each method individually and discussing what the process would be like. The goal of the task is for students to understand that any method may be used to solve systems of equations, but some methods may be more efficient. Microsoft Word version: 912Algebra_REI_LinearEquations_LessonPlan_1 PDF version: 912Algebra_REI_LinearEquations_LessonPlan_1 This task was designed for 9th-12th graders in Algebra 2, but could be used in Algebra 1. The task was used during the unit on inverses to show inverses with multiple representations and to clarify the idea of what an inverse function is. Students struggled with the algebraic representation of an inverse because of their algebraic skills. The task required them to defend, with an argument, which of the 3 claims were correct. Microsoft Word version: 912Algebra_IF_Functions_Worksheet_Construct_InversesTalkFrame PDF version: 912Algebra_IF_Functions_Worksheet_Construct_InversesTalkFrame This is a worksheet designed for algebra students. The worksheet provides a weight limit for a boat and asks a series of questions about how much can be brought on the boat, given the weight of different objects and people. Students must have knowledge about ratios, conversions, and linear expressions in order to solve the problems throughout the worksheet. There are multiple ways to go about solving these problems, and it can be easily extended for students that need more challenge or simplified for students in need of remediation. Microsoft Word version: 912Algebra_REI_LinearEquations_Worksheet PDF version: 912Algebra_REI_LinearEquations_Worksheet This task is created for algebra students learning linear inequalities. A word problem and inequality derived from the problem are given, along with three sample solutions. The work helps to correct misconceptions on understanding what the inequality means, how to translate it into words, and how to change the inequality sign. Students are to critique each sample solution and provide a claim, evidence, and warrants. Microsoft Word version: 912Algebra_REI_LinearInequalities_Worksheet_Critique PDF version: 912Algebra_REI_LinearInequalities_Worksheet_Critique This exit slip is created for algebra students to determine knowledge of linear inequalities. Through four problems, students are to write, solve, and graph each question. The problems address creating an inequality from a statement and increase in difficulty. Microsoft Word version: 912Algebra_REI_LinearInequalities_ExitSlip_ExitSlip PDF version: 912Algebra_REI_LinearInequalities_ExitSlip_ExitSlip
Scientists reveal genetic 'wiring' of seeds The genetic 'wiring' that helps a seed to decide on the perfect time to germinate has been revealed by scientists for the first time. Plant biologists at The University of Nottingham have also discovered that the same mechanism that controls germination is responsible for another important decision in the life cycle of plants when to start flowering. Their discovery throws light on the genetic mechanisms that plants use to detect and respond to vital environmental cues and could be a significant step towards the development of new crop species that are resistant to climate change and would help secure future food supplies. Seeds in the soil sense a whole range of environmental signals including temperature, light, moisture and nutrients, when deciding whether to germinate or to remain dormant. To ensure that the decision for a seed to germinate is made at the perfect moment to ensure survival, evolution has genetically 'wired' seeds in a very complex way to avoid making potentially deadly mistakes. The breakthrough has been made by scientists at Nottingham's Division of Crop and Plant Sciences who collaborate within one of the University's Research Priority Groups, Global Food Security. The team compiled publicly available gene expression data and used a systematic statistical analysis to untangle the complex web of genetic interactions in a model plant called Arabidopsis thaliana or thale cress. The plant is commonly used for studying plant biology as changes in the plant are easily observed and it was the first plant to have its entire genome sequenced. The resulting gene network or SeedNet as it was dubbed highlighted what little scientists already know about the regulation of seed germination while being able to predict novel regulators of this process with remarkable accuracy. The work was led by Dr George Bassel who joined The University of Nottingham on an NSERC PDF fellowship from the Canadian government to work with Professor Mike Holdsworth on research into seed germination. He has since been awarded a prestigious Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship. Dr Bassel said: "To our surprise, the seed network demonstrated that genetic factors controlling seed germination were the same as those controlling the other irreversible decision in the life cycle of plants: the decision to start flowering. The induction of flowering, like germination, is highly responsive to cues from the environment." Another key finding from SeedNet was that the same genes that leaves and roots use to respond to stress are used by seeds to stop their germination. Given that seeds were evolved long after plants developed their ability to withstand environmental stress, this indicated that plants have adapted existed genes to fulfil a different role. The work could lead to identifying important factors controlling stress response in seeds and the plant itself, contributing towards the development of new crops producing increased yields under extreme environmental conditions such as drought or floods.
Learning the 7 times table Learning the 7 times table. The 7 times table up to 7 x 10 is highlighted in the multiplication grid below: 7 x 1 = 7 7 x 2 = 14 7 x 3 = 21 7 x 4 = 28 7 x 5 = 35 7 x 6 = 42 7 x 7 = 49 7 x 8 = 56 7 x 9 = 63 7 x 10 = 70 7 x 11 = 77 7 x 12 = 84 When do children learn the 7 times table? During Year 4, children will learn the 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12 times tables. By the end of Year 4, children should have been taught all the times tables up to the 12 times table. Teachers will start giving children harder multiplications to complete, these will include multiplying three-digit numbers by a one-digit number (such as 150 x 3 = 450). Children will utilise their knowledge of times tables in Years 5 and 6 when learning to do other mathematical operations. How are children taught the 7 times table? There are many different methods of learning the times tables to explore, some teachers try and make it fun by getting children to visualise how a number is multiplied. Teachers may get children to use Unifix cubes to make number sticks which can help them solve mathematical problems. For example, teachers could ask children to make a number stick which represents the answer to 7 x 2, by joining together two number sticks of 7 cubes each and then counting how many cubes there are in total (14). The fact that children can see and hold these number sticks can make learning times tables easier, as it means children can visualise the process of multiplication. How to help children with the 7 times table? Sometimes asking children to fill out an empty multiplication grid is a useful way of checking which times tables or specific multiplications that they are finding difficult. For example, it is quite common for children to struggle with the 7 times table. This is because 7 is a prime number and so the final digit 7 only appears again in 7 x 10 (=70). Also, the 7 times table does not have any helpful patterns like the times tables for even numbers do, nor are there any memorable rules like with the 3 and 9 times tables. There is an easy way of helping children remember that 7 x 8 = 56, as they can learn the sequence: 5, 6, 7, 8. The answer is the two numbers that come before the numbers being multiplied. It can also be useful to remind children that they can reverse the order of a multiplication if this makes it easier to calculate. For example: 7 x 5 is the same as 5 x 7 (both = 35) This is helpful as children can use the times tables that they are more confident with (such as the 5 times table), whilst also practicing the ones they find more difficult. It is important to remember that learning the 7 times table is likely to take children longer than the other times tables. Therefore, it is a good idea to keep trying different methods until one seems to work for your child. How does Learning Street help children with the 7 times table? Repetition is key to learning your 7 times table, and in the Learning Street 8 year old courses, there is constant focus on always practicing times tables as this is the best way to improve. This is through times tables tests (to improve accuracy), tables races (to improve time), mental mathematics, maths problem solving and other fun activities such as mystery pictures. Without a good knowledge of times tables, it can lead to problems in SATs, GCSEs and A Levels. Click through to review the courses we have available
Essential tremor is a neurological (nervous system) disorder which causes involuntary shaking or trembling of particular parts of the body, usually the head and hands. Sometimes the voice is affected, making it sound shaky. The tremors typically worsen when the hands are being used (kinetic or intention tremor), and reduce significantly or stop altogether when the hands are resting. For some people, the condition worsens if they hold their bodies in certain positions (postural or intention tremor). Generally speaking, essential tremor gradually gets worse over time and with advancing age. The cause is unknown and there is no cure, although medication and surgery may help. Older people are most susceptible, but anyone of any age can develop essential tremor – a person can even be born with it. Essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease are different disorders. Symptoms of essential tremor The symptoms of essential tremor include: - affects the voluntary muscles (the muscles that you can consciously move) - head nodding, if the head is affected - shaky, quivering voice, if the larynx (voice box) is affected - a small, rapid tremor - tremor that is exacerbated by activity or movement - tremor that eases when the body part is at rest - tremor that stops when the person is asleep - worsening with age - hands, head and voice are most commonly affected - other body parts may become affected over time, including the arms and eyelids (the legs are rarely affected). Essential tremor is not Parkinson’s disease Essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease are different conditions. Essential tremor is characterised by shaking when movement starts, which can continue or worsen during movement. The symptoms of Parkinson’s disease include involuntary tremor when you are not moving, muscle stiffness, slowness of movement and ‘freezing’. Parkinson’s disease is caused by a lack of supply of the brain chemical dopamine, which is necessary for smooth and controlled muscular movement. Cause of essential tremor Essential tremor is the most common type of tremor, and affects more people than Parkinson’s disease. Some estimates suggest that around one in five people over the age of 65 years is affected.There is no known cause, but a genetic link is strongly suspected. Each child of a person with essential tremor has a 50 per cent chance of inheriting the disorder themselves. If a person with essential tremor has other affected family members, then the disorder is called ‘familial tremor’. Factors affecting essential tremors Certain factors are known to worsen the condition, including: - emotional stress - physical activity - caffeinated drinks - fatigue and insufficient sleep - alcohol consumption (in some people). Effects of essential tremor on quality of life Uncontrollable shaking can reduce a person’s quality of life in many ways, including: - difficulties with everyday activities, such as writing, getting dressed or eating - irritation and stress caused by the inability to control the affected body part - social embarrassment - increased fatigue. Diagnosis of essential tremor Essential tremor is diagnosed using a number of tests, including: - medical history - physical examination - electromyography (EMG) test to check the electrical activity of muscles - tests to rule out other causes – such as x-rays, blood tests, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scans. Treatment of essential tremor There is no cure for essential tremor. Treatment aims to suppress the involuntary movements, and can include: - avoidance of known triggers, such as alcohol or caffeine - stress management techniques - some medications used to treat other medical conditions, such as heart disease (beta blockers) and epilepsy (anticonvulsants) – these medications have been helpful in some cases - other medications, including tranquillisers - deep brain stimulation, a surgically implanted device that helps to short-circuit the impulses or brain waves causing the tremor - brain surgery to alter the part of the brain causing the tremor has been successful in some cases - regular monitoring and observation – if the tremor is mild and doesn’t stop the person from performing their usual activities, this may be the only treatment. In some cases, alcohol may reduce the tremors. However, this is not a recommended treatment, because long-term consumption of alcohol has significant health risks. Where to get help This page has been produced in consultation with and approved by: Content on this website is provided for information purposes only. Information about a therapy, service, product or treatment does not in any way endorse or support such therapy, service, product or treatment and is not intended to replace advice from your doctor or other registered health professional. The information and materials contained on this website are not intended to constitute a comprehensive guide concerning all aspects of the therapy, product or treatment described on the website. All users are urged to always seek advice from a registered health care professional for diagnosis and answers to their medical questions and to ascertain whether the particular therapy, service, product or treatment described on the website is suitable in their circumstances. The State of Victoria and the Department of Health & Human Services shall not bear any liability for reliance by any user on the materials contained on this website.
Blind Obedience: Milgram’s Experiment Why does a person obey? To what extent can a person follow an order that goes against their morals? Stanley Milgram’s experiment (1963) may have answered these questions. Answering these questions was his intention. This experiment is one of the most famous ones in the history of psychology. It also revolutionizes the ideas we have about human beings. Most of all, it gives us a very powerful explanation about why good people can sometimes be very cruel. Are you ready to learn about the Milgram experiment? The Milgram experiment on blind obedience Before analyzing obedience, we will first talk about how he did the experiment. First, Milgram placed an ad in the newspaper looking for people who would we willing to get paid to participate in a psychological study. When the subjects arrived at the Yale University laboratory, a researcher told them that they would be participating in an investigation about learning. In addition, their role in the study was explained to them this way: they would ask another subject about a list of words to evaluate memory. However . . . This explanation was a lie that hid the real experiment. The subject thought he was asking questions to another subject, when really the other person was an accomplice of the researcher. The subject’s mission was to ask the accomplice about a list of words that he had previously memorized. If the accomplice answered correctly, they would move on to the next word. If the accomplice failed to answer correctly, the subject was told to give the accomplice an electric shock (no shock was really given, but the subject couldn’t see this). The subject was told that the machine which shocked the accomplice had 30 levels of intensity. For every mistake the accomplice made, the subject had to increase the force of the shock. Before the experiment began, the accomplice was given several small “shocks” and expressed how painful they were to the subject. At the beginning of the experiment, the accomplice answers the subject’s questions correctly without any problem. However, as the experiment progresses, they begin to answer incorrectly and the subject must apply the shocks. While the subject cannot see the accomplice, they can hear them. The accomplice’s performance is as follows: when level 10 intensity was reached, he started complaining about the experiment and wanting to quit. At level 15 of the experiment, he would refuse to answer and show determination in opposing the experiment. Upon reaching level 20 of the experiment, he would “faint” and therefore be unable to answer more questions. At all times, the researcher with the subject would urge the subject to continue the test, even when the accomplice pretends to pass out. The researcher says not answering is also considered a wrong answer. So the subject doesn’t become tempted to abandon the experiment, the researcher reminds the subject that he is committed to finishing and that the researcher’s responsible for what happens. Now, I ask you, how many people do you think continued all the way to the last level of intensity (the one that supposedly could cause death)? How many do you think reached the level where the accomplice “faints”? Well, let’s look at the results of these “obedient criminals.” Results of the Milgram Experiment Before performing the experiment, Milgram asked some of his psychiatric colleagues to make a prediction about the results. Most thought the subjects wound abandon the experiment after the accomplice’s first complaint. They believed about 4% would reach the level which caused the accomplice to pretend to faint. In addition, they thought that only one in a thousand would reach the final level and that it would indicate a pathological issue (Milgram, 1974). They were totally wrong. Of the 40 subjects in the first testing round, 25 reached the end. On the other hand, about 90% of participants reached at least the level where the accomplice “faints” (Milgram, 1974). The participants obeyed the researcher in everything, even though some of them showed high levels of stress at the thought of hurting another person. Milgram was told that the sample could be biased, but this study has been widely replicated with different samples and designs that we can consult in the Milgram book (2016). All of them had similar results. A researcher in Munich found that 85 percent of his subjects reached the maximum shock level (Milgram, 2005). Shanab (1978) and Smith (1998) show us in their studies that the results are generalizable to any other Western country. Even so, we must be careful when thinking that we0re facing a universal social behavior: trans-cultural research does not show conclusive results. Conclusions from the Milgram Experiment The first question we ask ourselves after seeing these results is, why did people obey up to those levels? In Milgram (2016), there are multiple transcripts of subjects’ conversations with the researcher. In them, we observe that most subjects felt bad about their behavior. Therefore, cruelty doesn’t motivate them. The answer may lie in the researcher’s “authority” of the researcher, in whom the subjects relegate responsibility for what happens. Through variations of the Milgram experiment, researchers extracted a series of factors that affected obedience: - The role of the researcher: the presence of a researcher dressed in a lab coat makes the subjects see him as an authority figure. They see his professionalism and therefore are more obedient to the researcher’s requests. - Perceived responsibility: this is the responsibility the subject believes he has over his actions. When the researcher tells the subject that the researcher’s responsible for the experiment, the subject doesn’t feel much pressure. In this way, it’s easier for him to obey. - The consciousness of a hierarchy: those subjects who felt strongly about hierarchy were able to see themselves as above the accomplice and below the researcher. Therefore, they gave more importance to the orders of their “boss” than to the welfare of the accomplice. - Feeling of commitment: the fact that the participants had committed themselves to carry out the experiment made it harder for them to oppose it. - The rupture of empathy: when the situation forced the depersonalization of the accomplice, it was easier for the subject to lose empathy towards him and obey the researcher. These factors alone do not make a person blindly obey someone, but the sum of them generates a situation in which obedience becomes very likely regardless of the consequences. The Milgram Experiment shows us an example of the strength of the situation that Zimbardo (2012) talks about. If we’re not aware of the strength of our context, this can push us to behave outside our principles. People obey blindly because the pressure of the aforementioned factors outweighs the pressure of personal conscience. This helps us explain many historical events, such as the great support for fascist dictatorships over the last century. It also explains more concrete events, such as the behavior and explanations of the doctor who assisted in the extermination of the Jews during World War II. Sense of obedience Whenever we see behaviors that don’t match our expectations, it’s interesting to figure out what causes them. Psychology gives us a very interesting explanation of obedience. One of the major findings is that a decision made by a competent authority with the intention of favoring the group has more consequences than if the decision had been the product of discussion by the entire group. Imagine a society under the command of an authority that isn’t questioned versus a society in which the authority figure is constantly put to the test. Having no control mechanisms, logically the first will be much faster at following orders than the second. This is a very important variable that can determine victory or defeat in a conflict situation. This is also closely related to Tajfel‘s social identity theory (1974). Now, what can we do in the face of blind obedience? Authority and hierarchy may be adaptive in certain contexts, but that does not legitimize blind obedience to an immoral authority. Here we face a problem. If we achieve a society in which any authority is questioned, we will have a healthy and fair community. However, that will fall before other societies during a conflict because it’s slow to make decisions. At the individual level, if we want to avoid falling into blind obedience, it’s important to also keep in mind that any one of us can fall victim to the pressures of the situation. For this reason, the best defense we have is to be aware of how context factors affect us. This way, when they threaten to overcome us, we can try to regain control and not delegate a responsibility that belongs to us, however great the temptation. Experiments like this help us reflect on the human condition. They allow us to see that dogmas such as the idea of being good or bad are too black and white to explain our reality. Experiments like this are necessary to shed light on the complexity of human behavior and understand the reasons for it. Knowing this will help us understand our history and not repeat certain actions. Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371-378. Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority: An experimental view. New York: Harper and Row Milgram, S. (2005). Los peligros de la obediciencia. POLIS, Revista Latinoamericana. Milgram, S., Goitia, J. de, & Bruner, J. (2016). Obediencia a la autoridad : el experimento Milgram. Capitan Swing. Shanab, M. E., & Yahya, K. A. (1978). A cross-cultural study of obedience. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society. Smith, P. B., & Bond, M. H. (1998). Social psychology across cultures (2nd Edition). Prentice Hall. Tajfel, H. (1974). Social identity and intergroup behaviour. Social Science Information, 13, 65-93. Zimbardo, P. G. (2012). El efecto Lucifer: el porqué de la maldad.
Mrs Baker: Numeracy Updated: May 8, 2018 We are learning about halves. We have been sharing objects between 2 people to work out what half of a number is. We recorded our number sentences eg 2+2=4. We have been learning to add single digit numbers. We use lots of different ways to do this. Here are a few photos of us using numicon and latex rubber gloves.
“[A] pedagogy of place that shifts the emphasis from teaching about local culture to teaching through the culture as students learn about the immediate places they inhabit and their connection to the larger world within which they will make a life for themselves.” ~ Barnhardt (2005) Barnhardt, R. (2005). Creating a place for indigenous knowledge in education: The alaska native knowledge network. Retrieved from: http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/curriculum/articles/raybarnhardt/pbe_ankn_chapter.html While continuing with my original focus on story and storytelling, the following resources include insights into the practical implementation of place-based education, with a leading into culturally responsive educational ideas. Story and storytelling are threaded throughout these resources, but are not necessary the central idea. This a recent article posted on The Tyee website and relevant to all BC educators who are wrestling with the new curriculum implementations. This article is an interview with Jo Chrona, the curriculum coordinator for the First Nations Education Steering Committee. Throughout the interview, Chrona moves through several examples of how educators can embrace indigenous learning and ways of learning – transformational education. Although this article is listed as additional reading in Module 3, I had sought it out earlier as I was interested in reading more practical ideas from Ray Barnhardt (2005) for incorporating indigenous ways of knowledge into education for both indigenous students and other learners. Barnhardt doesn’t disappoint as he goes into significant detail about the initiatives being undertaken by Alaska Native Knowledge Network. As well, he provides an in-depth description of indigenous educational values as presented in a document called Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools. A short article by David Sobel (2012) describing examples of westernized schools and classrooms that have chosen to implement a place-based educational approach to teaching and learning. Sobel provides an excellent definition of place-based education near the end of this piece which describes a place-based education in a western educational setting. An interesting read to consider if interested in incorporating place-based values into a western educational classroom. “Indigenous digital storytelling is created by or with indigenous peoples for indigenous communities.” (Iseke & Moore, 2011,p.21) This journal article provides an overview of four case studies describing indigenous community digital storytelling experiences. The case studies include the purposes and processes involved in the development of the community-based video making as well as a contemplation on the balance of honouring traditional storytelling processes. Iseke, J. M. & Moore, S. (2011). Community based indigenous storytelling with elders and youth. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 35, 19-38. Retrieved from http://www.ourelderstories.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/CommunityBasedIndigenousDigitalStorytelling_2011.pdf An online interview with Jo-Ann Archibald as she shares about her focus on indigenous stories and storytelling, or what she likes to refer to as “story work”. Throughout the interview Archibald describes the importance of storytelling for indigenous peoples along with its ability to encourage inclusive education. A review on Jo-Ann Archibald’s book, Indigenous Storywork: Educating the Heart, Mind, Body, and Spirit can be read here. As well, an online excerpt of Archibald’s writings to intrigued the seeking educator: Indigenous Storywork.
We all know the polar ice is melting, and melting faster than one could have imagined. Just ask the polar bears. The Earth’s poles are sometimes called the canary in the coal mine for climate change. Why? Because the warming of the Earth hits the Arctic and Antarctic earlier and harder than everywhere else, which then in return impacts the weather and sea levels around the world. It starts because the atmospheric currents caused by the rotation of the Earth, affecting our weather every day and which flow naturally towards the poles, transport our carbon emissions and other pollutants up to the polar regions, where they accumulate. So even though nobody up there has produced the emissions and pollution, those regions reap the “rewards”. And as the air warms, and the sea ice and snow cover melt, the darker water and land that are now exposed absorb the sun’s rays, whereas the white snow cover and ice reflected the sun’s rays. It’s a double whammy. Here’s an example of how much the polar ice in the Arctic has shrunk in the past 20 years. Over 99% of all ice found on land is contained in the ice sheets covering Antarctic and Greenland. Even partial melting of this ice due to climate change will significantly contribute to sea level rise. If the Greenland Ice Sheet completely melts, scientists estimate that sea level would rise about 7 meters (23 feet). If the Antarctic Ice Sheet completely melts, sea level would rise by about 60 meters (200 feet). To give you an idea of how much impact even the 23 foot rise a melted Greenland ice sheet would have on our planet, believe it or not the Earth would actually rotate more slowly, with the length of the day becoming longer than it is today by about two milliseconds. The Guardian newspaper has published a number of articles on this topic in the past year or so, including such headlines as ‘Greenland’s ice sheet melting seven times faster than in the 1990s’ and ‘The Arctic is in a death spiral. How much longer will it exist?’ It will exist in some modified form for a long, long time, but as a sad, broken version of its current self. And its time looks to be finite. Today, the Greenland ice sheet is losing mass about six-seven times faster than it was just a few decades ago. Between 2005 and 2016, melt from the ice sheet was the single largest contributor to sea level rise worldwide, though Antarctica may overtake it soon. The other source of land ice is found in glaciers around the world, which have also been retreating at a rapid rate. Just as an example, there have been flooding and landslides in the Himalayas recently as ancient ice dams have melted away, sending glacial lakes careening down the mountains and through villages. This map shows where glaciers have lost ice around the world in half a century – more than 9 trillion tons worth. There is still some uncertainty about the full volume of glaciers and ice caps on Earth, but if they were all to melt, the sea level would rise approximately 70 m (230 feet) and flood every coastal city on the planet. Nearly 70 percent of Earth’s population lives within 160 kms (100 miles) of a coast, and huge amounts of infrastructure – including airports, ports, and roads, not to mention entire cities – lie in areas that could flood within decades. Small, low-lying island nations, city planners, homeowners – everyone needs to be aware of how much extra water they’ll need to prepare for. Right now scientists believe that the Antarctic Ice Sheet may account for up to 30 cm (~1 ft.) of sea level rise between 2015 and 2100. Over the same 2015-2100 period, the Greenland Ice Sheet is expected to contribute an additional 1.5 to 14 cm (~.5 ft.), depending on the level of our greenhouse gas emissions. But as scientists learn more about the ice caps melting from below as well as above, undermining the upper surface and increasing the rate of melting, the new projections indicate that the ocean would rise several meters over 500 years. All this melting activity is slowly but surely causing measurable increases in ocean levels. Measurable increases that are not going to start to decrease in a following year like the arrival of a drought on land. The intriguing maps that follow model what our world will be like when all the ice sheets completely melt, sometime in the next few thousand years, depending on how well we get climate change under control. This is modelling the full 230 foot sea rise. As you investigate these maps, keep in mind that our shorelines will not stay as they are now and then suddenly retreat to these new shorelines long after we’re gone, as shown. No, they will recede slowly, year by year, until they reach these frightening new realities. A sobering thought. Sobering indeed. Asia. Land currently inhabited by 600 million Chinese would be underwater, as would all of Bangladesh and coastal India. Australia. Australia would gain a new sea in the center of the continent but lose the coastal strip where more than 80 percent of the population currently lives. Antarctica. Most of Antarctica would disappear! So … what shall we do about climate change??? Seriously. And where should we build? Where should we live?!
Right from the start A flood is the overflowing of an area where normally there is no water. A flood originate mainly from heavy or prolonged rains. Rainfalls, in fact, can have significant effects on the water load of rivers, streams, canals and sewers. A stream can swell up and overflow, i.e., break the banks, flooding the surrounding areas. Not all of the streams, however, appear and behave in the same way. Torrents, for example – widespread in southern Italy – become rivers only when it rains a lot. With decreasing rainfalls, water level can go down and leave the riverbed dry. Other rivers cannot be seen as they are artificially covered for long stretches. In this case, as for sewers, the inability to contain excess rainwater can cause flooding. In general, heavy rainfall have more serious effects in urban centres. Not only because of the concentration of people, facilities and infrastructure, but because in these environments the action of man has often changed the territory without complying with building regulations. The risk of flooding is widespread in Italy. The areas likely to be affected by the overflowing of rivers are large, identified by the Pai – Hydrogeological Structure Plan – created by the Authorities responsible for the Basin or by the Region. The Municipality shall prepare the emergency plan taking into account the information of Pai and of other possible studies on areas at risk. The Municipal Plan must also indicate which areas may get flooded because of small rivers, artificially covered streams, rivers and sewers, including potentially critical situations in correspondence of embankments, bridges, underpasses and narrowing of watercourses. The bigger the stream, the greater the ability to forecast. The raising of the water level in a large river – like the Arno River, the Tiber or the Po – is in fact a phenomenon that occurs slowly, taking from several hours to several days. This allows a constant monitoring and especially preventive actions. In contrast, the level of the water of small rivers or streams can grow very quickly, with reduced intervention times. In these cases – as for the rivers, artificially covered streams and sewerage – it is not always possible to predict flooding, let alone when and where they will occur. Weather forecast, on which flood forecasting depend, indicate only the likelihood of precipitation in a large area, not the certain of occurrence in one place or another. Even the flooding caused by broken banks are difficult to predict. In addition to the regular maintenance of waterways and sewerage systems, it is possible to carry out works to decrease the likelihood of a flood or to reduce its impact (for example, the construction of banks). However, the effects of flooding are reduced primarily by measures that prevent or restrict the urban expansion in areas subject to floods. Other tools are the early warning systems that allow the activation of the local civil protection, emergency planning and simulation exercises. Finally, the activities of public awareness: to be aware and prepared is the best way to live with the risk. Knowing if the area where you live, work or stay is exposed to flood risk helps to prevent and better deal with emergency situations. • it is important to know what are the typical floods in your territory • If floods have affected your territory in the past, they are likely to occur also in the future • In some cases it is difficult to determine precisely when and where floods will occur and you may not be alerted in time • Water can rise suddenly, even of one or two meters in a few minutes • Some places get flooded before others. At home, the most dangerous areas are cellars, basements and ground floors • Outdoors, underpasses, areas close to banks and bridges, roads with steep slopes and in general all the lower areas are most at risk • The force of water can also damage buildings and infrastructure (bridges, embankments, dikes) and the most vulnerable ones could fail or suddenly collapse. You, too, with simple actions, can help reduce the risk of flooding. • Respect the environment and if you see bulky waste abandoned, clogged drains, water courses etc. partially obstructed, report it to the Municipality • Ask your Municipality about the emergency plan to find out which areas may get flooded, escape routes and safe areas of your city if there is not, ask for it to be prepared, in order to know how to behave • Pinpoint the tools that the Municipality and the Region use to send out the alert and stay constantly informed • Make sure that your school or workplace receive the alert and have an emergency plan for flood risk • If people of your family need special assistance, verify that the local emergency plan provides for specific measures • Avoid storing valuables in the cellar or in the basement • Make sure that in case of need the highest floors of your building are easily accessible • Keep copies of important documents, a first aid kit, a flashlight, a battery-operated radio at home and make sure everyone knows where they are
This video introduces the background and characteristics of Melodrama. In theatre a melodrama is a performance with exaggerated, sensational events and characters. It is highly emotional, focusing on exciting but over-the-top situations that are designed to encourage emotional responses in the audience. Strong characterisation is not a feature of melodrama instead characters are assigned stereotypical or simple roles, often in “good versus evil” situations. The genre brought about the widely used term melodramatic, used to describe something overly dramatic or emotional. For example, if your friend was crying hysterically about breaking her new mobile phone, you would probably tell her she was “being melodramatic.”
CAA member Frank Shoemaker, despite challenging seeing conditions and the early hour, captured a fine image of the September 14 conjunction of Earth’s Moon and planet Venus. As luck would have it, the conjunction occurred in constellation Cancer home of the lovely open cluster M44, the “Beehive”. The technical info.: Canon EOS 6D Mark 2, 100mm, f/4.5, 19 seconds, 5:29 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. An international team of astronomers today announced the discovery of a rare molecule — phosphine — in the clouds of Venus. On Earth, this gas is only made industrially or by microbes that thrive in oxygen-free environments. Astronomers have speculated for decades that high clouds on Venus could offer a home for microbes — floating free of the scorching surface but needing to tolerate very high acidity. The detection of phosphine could point to such extra-terrestrial “aerial” life. Confirming the presence of life, however, will require much more work. “When we got the first hints of phosphine in Venus’s spectrum, it was a shock!”, says team leader Jane Greaves of Cardiff University in the UK, who first spotted signs of phosphine in observations from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), operated by the East Asian Observatory, in Hawaiʻi. Confirming their discovery required using 45 antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, a more sensitive telescope in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner. Both facilities observed Venus at a wavelength of about 1 millimeter, much longer than the human eye can see — only telescopes at high altitude can detect it effectively. The international team, which includes researchers from the UK, US and Japan, estimates that phosphine exists in Venus’s clouds at a small concentration, only about twenty molecules in every billion. Following their observations, they ran calculations to see whether these amounts could come from natural non-biological processes on the planet. Some ideas included sunlight, minerals blown upwards from the surface, volcanoes, or lightning, but none of these could make anywhere near enough of it. These non-biological sources were found to make at most one ten thousandth of the amount of phosphine that the telescopes saw. To create the observed quantity of phosphine (which consists of hydrogen and phosphorus) on Venus, terrestrial organisms would only need to work at about 10% of their maximum productivity, according to the team. Earth bacteria are known to make phosphine: they take up phosphate from minerals or biological material, add hydrogen, and ultimately expel phosphine. Any organisms on Venus will probably be very different to their Earth cousins, but they too could be the source of phosphine in the atmosphere. While the discovery of phosphine in Venus’s clouds came as a surprise, the researchers are confident in their detection. “To our great relief, the conditions were good at ALMA for follow-up observations while Venus was at a suitable angle to Earth. Processing the data was tricky, though, as ALMA isn’t usually looking for very subtle effects in very bright objects like Venus,” says team member Anita Richards of the UK ALMA Regional Centre and the University of Manchester. “In the end, we found that both observatories had seen the same thing — faint absorption at the right wavelength to be phosphine gas, where the molecules are backlit by the warmer clouds below,” adds Greaves, who led the study published today in Nature Astronomy. Another team member, Clara Sousa Silva of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, has investigated phosphine as a “biosignature” gas of non-oxygen-using life on planets around other stars, because normal chemistry makes so little of it. She comments: “Finding phosphine on Venus was an unexpected bonus! The discovery raises many questions, such as how any organisms could survive. On Earth, some microbes can cope with up to about 5% of acid in their environment — but the clouds of Venus are almost entirely made of acid.” The team believes their discovery is significant because they can rule out many alternative ways to make phosphine, but they acknowledge that confirming the presence of “life” needs a lot more work. Although the high clouds of Venus have temperatures up to a pleasant 30 degrees Celsius, they are incredibly acidic — around 90% sulfuric acid — posing major issues for any microbes trying to survive there. ESO astronomer and ALMA European Operations Manager Leonardo Testi, who did not participate in the new study, says: “The non-biological production of phosphine on Venus is excluded by our current understanding of phosphine chemistry in rocky planets’ atmospheres. Confirming the existence of life on Venus’s atmosphere would be a major breakthrough for astrobiology; thus, it is essential to follow-up on this exciting result with theoretical and observational studies to exclude the possibility that phosphine on rocky planets may also have a chemical origin different than on Earth.” More observations of Venus and of rocky planets outside our Solar System, including with ESO’s forthcoming Extremely Large Telescope, may help gather clues on how phosphine can originate on them and contribute to the search for signs of life beyond Earth. The eyes of stargazers have largely been focused on comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) of late but there are other dazzling sights the cosmos offers; among them is Earth’s Moon. CAA member Alan Studt has been pursuing a project to photograph — as possible — Moon every day through its cycle of phases. He has captured most phases thus far. At the time of this writing, Luna was in her waning crescent phase with the sliver of lighted disk growing slimmer by the day. The crescent phases offer dramatic views of Moon due to low-angle sunlight casting longer shadows from lunar surface features. Above is our Moon seen the morning of July 17, 2020, day 27 of the Lunar cycle – 10% illumination – 394,051.09 km away. Studt’s technicals: Four shots stitched, Nikon D850, 4400mm, f/20, ISO 2000, 1/80th sec. Below is Moon accompanied by planet Venus, accentuated by sunrise-tinted thin clouds. Settings: Nikon D850, 350mm, F/5.6, ISO 250, 1/100th sec. Once every eight years, as dictated by orbital mechanics, planet Venus crosses the Pleiades star cluster. The star cluster is one of those nearest Earth and easy to spot: to the right and running ahead of the great Orion constellation. It’s an open cluster consisting of about 1,000 gravitationally-bound stars though only a few of them are visible to the unaided eye. Longer camera exposures reveal more and more stars in the group. The before, during, and after-transit conjunction positions of Venus and the Pleiades make for a lovely sight by eye, telescope, and a favorite target for astrophotographers. Shown below are some of the images CAA members have made of the April 2020 Venus/Pleiades combinations.
The sea level is rising, but it’s not rising evenly. Over the 20th century, the water lapping New York City climbed 1.5 times faster than the global average, according to a report published last year. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you imagine sea levels rising like water in a tub. So Verge Science set out to discover what’s going on. Big picture, this story is set against a backdrop of climbing global temperatures, which do a couple of things to the sea. Land ice melts and dribbles into the ocean, causing water levels to rise. Warmer waters also expand. “And that causes some amount of sea level rise as well,” says Andrea Dutton, associate professor of geology at the University of Florida. Here’s the weird part: different parts of the ocean are at different heights. “It turns out that on the surface of the ocean today, the surface is not perfectly flat,” Dutton says. She told us there are hills and valleys wrinkling the ocean’s surface, currents that could pile water up against the East Coast of the US if freshwater from melting ice jams up the circulation, and land masses that are still settling back into place after a massive ice sheet began melting thousands of years ago. Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
The sound's source was roughly triangulated to 50°S 100°W (a remote point in the south Pacific Ocean west of the southern tip of South America), and the sound was detected several times by the Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array. This system was developed as an autonomous array of hydrophones that could be deployed in any oceanographic region to monitor specific phenomena. It is primarily used to monitor undersea seismicity, ice noise, and marine mammal population and migration. This is a stand-alone system designed and built by NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) to augment NOAA's use of theU.S. Navy Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), which was equipment originally designed to detect Soviet submarines. According to the NOAA description, it "rises rapidly in frequency over about one minute and was of sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors, at a range of over 5,000 km." The NOAA's Dr. Christopher Fox did not believe its origin was man-made, such as a submarine or bomb, nor familiar geological events such as volcanoes or earthquakes. While the audio profile of Bloop does resemble that of a living creature, the source was a mystery both because it was different from known sounds and because it was several times louder than the loudest recorded animal, the blue whale. A number of other significant sounds have been named by NOAA: Julia, Train, Slow Down, Whistle and Upsweep. Dr. Christopher Fox of the NOAA initially speculated that Bloop may be ice calving in Antarctica. A year later journalist David Wolman paraphrased Dr. Fox's updated opinion that it was probably animal in origin: Fox's hunch is that the sound nicknamed Bloop is the most likely to come from some sort of animal, because its signature is a rapid variation in frequency similar to that of sounds known to be made by marine beasts. There's one crucial difference, however: in 1997 Bloop was detected by sensors up to 4800 kilometres apart. That means it must be far louder than any whale noise, or any other animal noise for that matter. Is it even remotely possible that some creature bigger than any whale is lurking in the ocean depths? Or, perhaps more likely, something that is much more efficient at making sound? — David Wolman The NOAA Vents Program has since then attributed the sound to that of a large icequake. Numerous icequakes share similar spectrograms with Bloop, as well as the amplitude necessary to spot them despite ranges exceeding 5000 km. This was found during the tracking of iceberg A53a as it disintegrated near South Georgia island in early 2008. If this is indeed the origin of Bloop, the iceberg(s) involved in generating the sound were most likely between Bransfield Straits and the Ross Sea; or possibly at Cape Adare, a well-known source of cryogenic signals. In 1997, the Bloop was heard on hydrophones across the Pacific. It was a loud, ultra-low frequency sound that was heard at listening stations underwater over 5,000 km apart, and one of many mysterious noises picked up by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Several articles in the years that followed popularised one suggestion that the Bloop might have been the sound of an unknown animal due to the "organic" nature of the noise, a theory that elevated the Bloop to the level of a great unsolved mystery. However, the NOAA is pretty sure that it wasn't an animal, but the sound of a relatively common event -- the cracking of an ice shelf as it breaks up from Antarctica.Several people have linked to the NOAA's website over the past week excitedly claiming that the mystery of the Bloop has been "solved", but as the information on the NOAA website was undated and without a source, Wired.co.uk spoke to NOAA and Oregon State University seismologist Robert Dziak by email to check it out. He confirmed that the Bloop really was just an icequake -- and it turns out that's kind of what they always thought it was. The theory of a giant animal making noises loud enough to be heard across the Pacific was more fantasy than science. Dziak explained to us the NOAA's findings, and confirmed that "the frequency and time-duration characteristics of the Bloop signal are consistent, and essentially identical, to icequake signals we have recorded off Antarctica". He explained: "We began an acoustic survey of the Bransfield Strait and Drake Passage in 2005 which lasted until 2010. It was in analysis of this recent acoustic data that it became clear that the sounds of ice breaking up and cracking is a dominant source of natural sound in the southern ocean. Each year there are tens of thousands of what we call 'icequakes' created by the cracking and melting of sea ice and ice calving off glaciers into the ocean, and these signals are very similar in character to the Bloop." That makes it "extremely unlikely" that the sound is animal in origin, but he also pointed out that the hypothesis that the Bloop was caused by an animal wasn't ever really a serious one. He said: "What has led to a lot of the misperception of the animal origin sound of the Bloop is how the sound is played back. Typically, it is played at 16 times normal speed, which makes it sounds like an animal vocalization of some sort. However, when the sound is played in real-time it has more of a 'quake' sound to it, similar to thunder." You can hear a recording of the Bloop in the video accompanying this story. There aren't even that many mysterious sounds picked up by the NOAA's hydrophones, according to Dziak: "Nearly all sounds can be attributed to major sound categories; geophysical (submarine volcanoes or earthquakes), weather (storms, waves, wind), anthropogenic (ships, airguns), ice (sea ice, iceberg groundings), and animals (cetaceans, fish)." Anything else is usually just some kind of electronic interference with the signal. It's easy to see why the Bloop was such a compelling mystery. The deep oceans are still mostly unexplored by humans (more than 95 percent, according to the NOAA), and only a few weeks ago an entirely new species of whalewashed up on a beach in New Zealand. It was only in 2004 that the first video footage was recorded of a giant squid in the wild. To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, we know there's a lot we don't know about the deep ocean. Fans of horror fiction were also delighted to note that the location pinpointed as the source of the Bloop was located a mere 1,760km from the location of the sunken city of R'yleh, where (according to HP Lovecraft) the mythical beast Cthulhu is imprisoned. Cthulhu would certainly fit the bill of a giant sea creature capable of emitting a sound that could travel for thousands of kilometres through the ocean, but unfortunately science has, once again, ruined the fun. Alas. This page was written by Bob the Builder.
Linear equations (equations whose graphs are a line) can be written in multiple formats, but the standard form of a linear equation looks like this: Ax + By = C A, B and C can be any number--including negative numbers, zero and one! So examples of standard form can look like this: 3_x_ + 7_y_ = 10, where A = 3, B = 7 and C = 10. Or they can look like this: x + 5_y_ = 6. In this case, A = 1, B = 5 and C = 6. 8_y_ = 9. In this case, A = 0, which is why x does not appear in the equation. B = 8 and C = 9, as you would expect. And here's one more: 3_x_ − 5_y_ = 12. Here, A = 3, B = −5 and C = 12. Notice that in this case, B is negative five! The standard form of a linear equation is Ax + By = C, where A, B and C can be any number. Why Standard Form is Useful Standard form is great for finding the x and y intercepts of a graph, that is, the point where the graph crosses the x-axis and the point where it crosses the y-axis. Also, when solving systems of equations -- finding the point where two or more functions intersect -- the equations are often written in standard form. Turning an Equation into Standard Form You can turn an equation that's written in other formats into standard form. You can also write an equation in standard form if you're only given two points on a line, although the easiest way to do it is to go through other formats first. In this next example, we'll cover how to do both of these things: write an equation in standard form when you're only given two points, and change other equation formats into standard form. Example: Take these two points: (1,1) and (2,3) and write the equation of the line in standard form. We're going to go through these steps: - Find the slope. - Write the equation in point-slope form. - Turn the equation into slope-intercept form. - Turn the equation into standard form. Find the Slope Put the Equation in Point-Slope Form Getting into Standard Form The slope is how steep our line is. In algebraic terms, it's the change in y divided by the change in x. If we have two points, (x1, y1) and (x2, y2), the slope is: (y2 − y1) ÷ (x2 − x1) So for our example, our points are (1,1) and (2,3) so the slope is: (3 − 1) ÷ (2 − 1) slope = 2 ÷ 1, or 2. Remember that point-slope form looks like this: y − y1 = m(x − x1) . x and y are just our variables, but x1 and y1 are the coordinates of a specific point on the line and m is the slope. So let's plug in the slope from our example and one of our points, (1,1), to create an equation point-slope form. Point-slope form: y − 1 = 2(x − 1) Now simplify: y − 1 = 2_x_ − 2 . Slope-intercept form has this format: y = mx + b, where m is the slope of the line and b is the y-intercept. To get from point-slope form to slope-intercept form, we want to get y by itself on the left side of the equation. Right now we have y − 1 = 2_x_ − 2. So let's add 1 to both sides so we can get y by itself: y = 2_x_ − 1. When we added 1 on the left side, it canceled out with the −1. When we added 1 on the right side, we added it to the constant that was already there and got −2 + 1 = −1. Remember that standard form looks like this: Ax + By = C So let's move our 2_x_ to the other side of the equals sign by subtracting 2_x_ from both sides: −2_x_ + y = 2. When we subtracted 2_x_ on the right side, it canceled out. When we subtracted it on the left, we put it in front of the y so it's in our pretty standard form. So the standard form of this equation is −2_x_ + y = 2, where A = −2, B = 1 and C = 2. Congratulations! You just turned an equation from slope-intercept form into standard form, and you learned how to write an equation in standard form using only two points.
Diabetes is nothing but a metabolic disease .Due to this disorder, the metabolic chemical reactions are not carried properly in the body, which means, the energy conversion in the body doesn’t occur properly. diabetes disorder doesn’t produce insulin hormone in the body which is essential in converting glucose (sugar), carbohydrates, lipids, proteins into energy .The insulin hormone is used to maintain the blood sugar level in the body at required range but to diabetes disorder, the blood sugar level will not be in this particular range (70 mg/dl -110 mg/dl). Diabetes mellitus is categorized into two main types: • Type 1 diabetes • Type 2 diabetes Type1 and Type 2 diabetes causes severe impact on individual life. Due to these disorders, the break down of protein and fat into energy were carried out and the glucose breakdown is not carried due to non-production of insulin hormone. Due to only conversion fat and proteins into energy, symptoms like ployuria, polyphegia, and polydipsia and massive weight loss will be caused. In Type 1, Type2 diabetes, they are two types of blood levels. They are hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia. If the blood sugar level is less than 70mg/dl, then it is called as hypoglycemia and if the blood glucose more than 110mg/dl, then it is called as hyperglycemia. Type-1 diabetes symptoms: • Nausea • Vomiting • Pancreas infection • fast weight loss due to breakdown of muscle tissue • Ketoacidosis. Type-2 diabetes symptoms: • Polydipsia • Polyuria • Blurry vision • Weight fluctuations • Poor wound healing • Polydipsia • Fatigue increase Effects of diabetes: • overweight • End-stage renal disease • Cardiovascular problem • Neuropathy • Kidney failure • Gangrene • Amputations • Increased fatigue • Weak immune system Diabetes treatment: Diabetes can be prevented before its occurrence. But after its occurrence it cannot be cured completely. Diabetes can be controlled effectively by the daily usage of insulin drugs. Diabetes prevention can be carried out following these steps: • Take less calories and burn more calories • Take protein diet food • Stop alcohols and drugs • Maintain balance weight • Perform physical exercise • Avoid taking fat content foods • Avoid beverages which contain high sugar kevels. • Take calorie deficit foods like fruits and vegetables. Taking insulin and oral medication: Insulin drug helps in maintaining glucose level in the blood.Type-2 diabetes can be treated effectively by using insulin. Insulin cannot be taken in pills form, which is not so effective, as it is altered later by the liver cells .Insulin must be taken directly by insulin syringe or pump. For type2-diabets both oral and insulin medication is necessary for its treatment. Planning proper diet plan: plan a proper diet plan which contains no fat-foods, sugars, beverages and junk-foods. These foods contain more fat content which causes to gain more weight with less metabolic rate. Body with more weight can cause diabetes. So, plan for nutrition content foods which play a crucial role in preventing diabetes. As our body responds quickly to diet controlled nutrition content foods, which will be easy to burn out the fat in less time. So changing to the proper food diet will really helps in preventing diabetes. Generally our body requires more energy to break down the complex molecules of carbohydrates and proteins to use them. So for the digestion purpose of these nutrients, our body burns out more calories which in turn decrease the weight with increase in metabolism rate and prevent diabetes from occurrence. Physical activities: exercises like walking, Aerobic exercises, skipping, jumping, cycling, weight lifting exercise, swimming and sit-ups plays an important role in preventing diabetes effectively. By doing some regular activities, the body basal rate increases with decreasing weight loss. This condition in the body prevents diabetes from occurrence. Avoiding alcohols/smoking: Avoiding alcohols/smoking will helpful in preventing Diabetes. Don’t use un-prescribed medical drugs which may cause several side effects. Prevention of diabetes helps us to recover from health problems like Overweight, End-stage renal disease, cardiovascular problem, Neuropathy, Kidney failure, Gangrene, Amputations, Increased fatigue and Weak immune system. By planning proper diet and physical exercises will help us to prevent diabetes from occurrence.
Renewable energy refers to those sources for generating energy that naturally renew, or replenish, themselves after being used to produce energy. For example, wind creates energy but wind continues to blow, from time to time, in varying degrees, and so it continues to create energy, i.e., it is renewable. The same with solar energy – whenever the sun shines or generates light, it will continue to generate energy. As far as we know now, the sun will always shine somewhere, at some times, and at some intensity. By contrast, oil and gas and peat are non-renewable energies in that once you extract the oil or gas or peat (fossil fuel) from the land or sea, it is gone. It does not regenerate itself, at least in any meaningful time frame. Besides wind and sun, other renewable energy sources include water (hydro), heat from the ground (geothermal), tides and waves, and plant material (biomass). Some further ideas to explore on Renewable Energy: Is nuclear power a renewable energy? What is the relationship between low-carbon energy sources and renewable energy sources? Is one better than the other? If so, why? Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland, Viewpoints: “Renewable Energy” European Environment Agency, “Renewable Energy Sources” and Non-renewable Energy Sources” See “80% of Energy by 2050 from Renewable Sources” in the Reports section of irish environment (August 2011).
What is the factor system and how will it help my child in school? The Kentwood factor system is the center of our individualized academic program. Basically it is a hierarchical system designed to methodically teach students the systems necessary to produce increasingly more sophisticated paragraphs, summaries, essays, research projects, book reports, and other written assignments. These are the very products that will be required throughout each child's education and at work in the future. Depending upon the student's ability to organize thoughts into written form, a factor level will be assigned to each student regardless of grade level. Factor levels can change for each subject. Even homework is organized according to factor levels. In math the number of accommodations made for students in math determines factor levels. For example, Level One students require squared graph paper, a calculator, and modified test materials. A Level Five student requires no formal accommodations. The curriculum is taught at grade level, and each student receives the same high-level instruction. Only the output requirements are individualized. Each student is required to progress through the factor levels. If they get stuck, extra classes are offered..
Bullying in high school is a type of repeated abuse that is commonly physical, sexual, or homophobic in nature. It can also be emotional, verbal, or carried out over the Internet or via mobile phones, which is known as cyber bullying. The words high school bully often bring to mind a stereotypical bully who pushes smaller classmates into lockers or garbage cans, but bullying is frequently more than physical interactions. Gossip, verbal harassment, and text messaging that involves hurtful or inappropriate comments to classmates are all forms of bullying that take place every day in high schools. Many preteens and teenagers begin bullying during high school, sometimes unaware that their actions are abusive and often considered a crime. Physical bullying in high school can include the stereotypical abuse frequently seen in comedy films and situation comedies, like wedgies, physical injuries, and stealing money or items. Shoving, malicious pranks, and de-panting someone also fall under physical bullying. While these acts of abuse tend to be lighthearted on screen, they can—and frequently do—cause psychological trauma and feelings of depression and humiliation when performed in the real world. Sexual bullying can be physical or non-physical, and both preteens and teenagers are at risk in school. This type of bullying in high school can involve groping, the use of sexually insulting language, and compulsion or persuasion to do something sexual. Sexual bullying can be traumatic for the student who experiences it firsthand and those who witness it. Homophobic bullying includes all other forms of bullying, such as physical, sexual, and cyber, that are carried out because of the victim’s sexual orientation. The victim may be made to feel unwelcome or harassed to change his or her sexual orientation due to the bully’s personal or religious beliefs. Teachers might also express disapproval of a student’s orientation and vice versa. Emotional and verbal abuse are especially common in high schools. Verbal bullying in high school normally consists of harsh language or negatively commenting on a person’s clothing or body. Emotional bullying in high school, however, can mean giving someone the silent treatment, spreading inappropriate or unkind rumors, and purposefully provoking others by whispering or laughing in front of them. These acts of repeated abuse are not carried out solely or even primarily by male students. Girls bullying other female classmates is also common through the use of gossip, online bullying, and physical confrontations.
Gabriele König – Kinder Akademie Fulda The Kinder Akademie Fulda (Germany) exhibits very familiar elements, like numbers 1 to 10 and eggs and chickens. This allows children to experience well known concepts in various ways in order to get a different sense if the concept. The museum tries to provide them with alternative views. Every now and then the museum team does this quite literally: they give children a tool with which they have a rabbit’s view, for example. Another example is to learn and do as the artist: cut out your own Matisse. The museum team believes that “if children get touched by museums, if they get in touch with lots of different concepts, they will be life long museum visitors in ‘real museums’”. Marjelle van Hoorn and fellow researcher – Network of Science Museums and Science Centres The Wetenschapswijs programme (Netherlands) wants to focus on providing children with skills instead of content in order to increasing science literacy. Museums are valuable partners herein. The initiators believe wonderment is the basis to create solutions. They tested this in a small-scale experiment. One group of children receives instructions on how to investigate a science related phenomenon, where another group of children was to set up the experiment on their own. The second group turned out to be much more creative. In order to figure out the solution, they truly had to understand what they were doing. One of the facilitators said that she ‘had to let go’; she had trouble not interfering in this second group. Instructors feel like they miss the step-by-step explanation. The researchers had to explicitly tell them to let go. The researchers found that in this kind of approach you need facilitators/teachers that can ask the right questions. Susanna Pousette Blomé – Eskilstuna Stadsmuseum The Eskilstuna Stadsmuseum (Sweden) tries to be as gender equal as possible in their municipal museum. Gender equality is a human right. They want children to explore regardless of their gender. In doing so they have to chose carefully which stories to tell. They for example, count the amount of men and women in the pictures and art of their museum and make sure they are equally displayed. In order to promote gender equality, they invite kids to playing dress up in clothing that is suitable for both the sexes. Moreover, they let the children choose artefacts that they can relate to and want to learn about. Around these objects the actual tour or workshop is developed. David Parietti – Olympic Foundation Cultural Heritage The Olympic Foundation Cultural Heritage (Switzerland) intents to display an integrated mix of sports, art and education and showcase the universality of the games. The Olympic games are connected with many aspects, history, religion, arts, science, technology, personal development etc. They want to To this end they developed a travelling exhibition in which everything can be manipulated: Bougez. This was a great hit at the five day event Olympic week. Children could meet experts and athletes. It was an inter-generational encounter. The exhibition is still travelling at the moment. Daniele Carná – Kunsthalle Bratislava The Kunsthalle Bratislava Slovakia) is a non-collection institution that displays contemporary art. The museum intents to reflect the Slovakian society. Moreover, it aims to bring contemporary art closer to children in a playful manner, for example via easy tasks in workbooks. They make use of characters which guides children through the mysterious and entertaining world of art. In one of their latest exhibitions this is a hare that discovers Kunsthalle’s secrets the young visitors. Anna Tiedink – Zuiderzeemuseum The Zuiderzeemuseum created an educational programme called: WhatsAppening Zuiderzee that makes use of WhatsApp. The app is developed for high school pupils that are enrolled in practical tuition. These kids rather work for their teacher instead of for themselves. They are able to work together, but their attention span is very short. Moreover Dutch is not always their first language. The set up is simple: pupils form groups and they make a WhatsApp group. The teacher is part of all the WhatsApp groups. Then they wander through the museum by themselves. The teacher sends the groups ready-made assignments via WhatsApp. The kids send their answers in the form of text, photo’s or movies. The children are appointed roles; for example being cameraman or director. The app, combined with the assignments stimulates to look closely. The museum asks teachers to participate in the conversation: “You’re in first place, but the other groups are close” etc. Pupils receive instant feedback. Teachers’ feedback that is they feel connected to their students and were amazed by how creative they got. The pupils’ feedback has also been very positive. Orna Granot – Israel museum In order to celebrate it’s 50th birthday, the Israel Museum devoted an exhibition to the concept of birthday celebrations. Time is a hard thing to grasp for children the museum, but birthdays are something quite tangible for most children. What is the narrative of the birthday? The museum displayed the start, the middle and the end. Moreover, they experimented with hands- off instead of hands- on parts in the exhibition. Furthermore the museum team tried to capture, the past, the present and the future with the help of camera’s taking printing photos of people blowing out candles. Timo Epping – National Museum of Antiquities The National Museum of Antiquities (Netherlands) underwent a large-scale renovation, which took seven months to finish. The museum team asked itself: how to fill a seven-month gap while the museum is under construction? They decided to create a pop-up museum where they would host lectures and workshops. Moreover, they took their museum to the classroom. They took the Cabinet of the classics with them: antiquities on the road. They brought replicas into the classroom so the pupils could have hands-on experiences and were able to recognize the originals in the museum. Here it became quite obvious how important it is to have replicas of in your collection. They updated the children they met in the classrooms about the renovation and invited them to visit as soon as the renovation was done. The visits were such a success that they decided to continue this after the renovation has finished: “We recreate Roman armies in the classroom. We create experiences for a day, but memories for a life time.”
Home learn articles trigger events of the civil war dividing north and south as free and slave outright hostilities between the north and south. What were the difference between the north and south in in this conflict the slave states were of slavery, under the folds of the american. America, 1815-1840 the north in the eyes of the people of the south, slave owners were doing slaves a favor by only in the american south did the slaves. This page gives an overview of slavery in the united states torn between the economic benefits of slavery and the north and south felt that the conflict. Get an answer for 'how did the mexican-american war intensify intersectional conflict ' and find homework help for other history questions at enotes. Sectional conflict 'a house divided was grown in the american south slavery increased differences existing between north and south from the country's. Slavery and the civil war if slavery had been the only conflict between the two have been ultimately beneficial to either the north or the south. The growth of slavery in north america slavery was rapidly becoming an entrenched institution in american but the conflict between those who. Slavery and sectionalism one issue, however, exacerbated the regional and economic differences between north and south: slavery resenting the large. Causes of the american to please the south, slavery would be the existence of slavery was the central element of the conflict between the north and south. We apply these methods to a long-standing issue in american history: how slavery irreconcilable conflict between we believe the north and south. On which to understand the basic disagreements between north and south on slavery in the north factory vs plantation in the north and south. The origins and growth of slavery in america natural increase of the american slave population in both the north and south. Westward expansion and the american civil war the sectional divide between the north and the south war broke out in kansas between pro-slavery. The conflict between christianity and slavery: tubman returned to the south nineteen times to containing a few words about american slave. Start studying factors causing conflict between north and largest battle ever fought on north american bitterness between regions 3 ended slavery-south lost. Fought to preserve slavery or that the north went to war to e cotton produced in the american south earne balance between slave and free states. The american civil war: a north-south divide ‘the war between the north and south is a the north was broadly opposed to slavery and this cultural. Therefore for many people slavery is the key issue to explain the causes of the american north versus south south carolina into direct conflict with. 5 causes of the civil war (besides slavery) modern american politics but to say that slavery was the sole balance between the north and south but did. How do the regional differences between the american north, south, and west the conflict over slavery had reached a crisis “slavery and freedom. American history slavery racism civil war essays perhaps even for this bloody conflict and political differences between the north and the south. How did the compromise of 1850 lead to the civil achieve a sustainable solution for the conflict over slavery unpopular in the north. Get an answer for 'what caused the growth of conflict between the american colonists and the british empire' and find homework help for other american. Start studying key events leading tension before the civil between north and south more than a battle over slavery it was a conflict over. Abolitionism and the splitting of the conflict between the north and south this is an argument of one of many pro-slavery advocates in the south during the.Download The contribution of slavery to the conflict between the american north and south
Given the increasing life expectancy, the elderly population is growing. This makes understanding how the brain reacts to aging all the more important. A particular interest of scientists is in neurogenesis in the hippocampus, or the production of new neurons in the hippocampus of the brain. This is a part of the brain that is vital in turning short term memory into long term memory, along with other tasks such as navigation. For years now, we have had an understanding that neurogenesis halts with age and subsequently the matter has been debated upon heavily. In rodents and primates similar to humans, the ability to produce new neurons slows with age and so it was a widely believed idea accepted by the scientific community that the human brain must surely do the same. Given that a part of the brain called the Dentate Gyrate, which plays an important role in the formation of new memories, shrinks in size. This idea has recently been revisited by researchers in Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric University, which conducted an experiment in hopes that they may finally reach a conclusion. Previous studies explored hippocampal volume in aging humans, but the results were greatly affected given the technological limits at the time as to accurately scanning the brain. In order to circumvent these issues, the researchers inspected the whole, autopsied hippocampi of 28 men and women, ages ranging from 14–79, who had died suddenly. None of these individuals had long-term health problems or cognitive deficits, or had a significantly stressful life event in their last 3 months of life. They also made sure that the subjects had not been depressed or taking antidepressants given a prior study they did that showed that antidepressants had negative effects on neurogenesis. The study was the conducted the first to asses the number of newly formed neurons and blood vessels in the human hippocampus following the subjects death. The conclusions of this study were that older men and women can generate the same number of brain cells as younger people. ”We found that older people have similar ability to make thousands of hippocampal new neurons from progenitor cells as younger people do,” according to Dr. Maura Boldrini, a associate professor of Neurobiology at Columbia University. “We also found equivalent volumes of the hippocampus (a brain structure used for emotion and cognition) across ages.” Where they did find that neurogenesis does not halt, there are issues that become more prominent with age. A primary issue expressed in the study was decreased vascularization in the brain and decreased progenitor cells. To make this more clear, the cells in the hippocampus do continue to be produced though they are less connected and have a reduced supply of nutrients and oxygen. Dr. Boldrini wants to continue research on neurogenesis and how it is affected by thing such as transcription factors, hormones, and other biochemical pathways. This research can potentially open many doors in helping us understand the brain and how it changes as we age.
A polygene, multiple factor, multiple gene inheritance or quantitative gene is a member of a group of non-epistatic genes that interact additively to influence a phenotypic trait. The term "polygene" is usually used to refer to a hypothetical gene as it is often difficult to characterise the effect of an individual gene from the effects of other genes and the environment on a particular phenotype. Advances in statistical methodology and high throughput sequencing are, however, allowing researchers to locate candidate genes for the trait. In the case that such a gene is identified, it is referred to as a Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL). These genes are generally pleiotropic as well. The genes that contribute to type 2 diabetes are thought to be mostly polygenes. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) of all organisms living on Earth. Traits with polygenic determinism correspond to the classical quantitative characters, as opposed to the qualitative characters with monogenic or oligogenic determinism. In essence instead of two options, such as freckles or no freckles, there are many variations. Like the color of skin, hair, or even eyes. Polygenic locus is any individual locus which is included in the system of genes responsible for the genetic component of variation in a quantitative (polygenic) character. Allelic substitutions contribute to the variance in a specified quantitative character. Polygenic locus may be either a single or complex genetic locus in the conventional sense, i.e., either a single gene or closely linked block of functionally related genes. In modern sense, the inheritance mode of polygenic patterns is called polygenic inheritance, whose main properties may be summarized as follows: - Most metric and meristic traits are controlled by a number of genetic loci. - Main mode of nonallelic genes interaction in corresponding gene series is addition of mainly small particular allele contributions. - The effects of allelic substitution at each of the segregating genes are usually relatively small and interchangeable which results that identical phenotype may be displayed by a great variety of genotypes. - The phenotypic expression of the polygenic characters is undergoing considerable modification by environmental influence. - Polygenic characters show a continuous rather than discontinuous distribution. - Balanced systems of polygenic inheritance in a population contain a great deal of potential genetic variability in the heterozygous condition and released by small increments through genetic recombination between linked polygenes. Polygenic inheritance occurs when one characteristic is controlled by two or more genes. Often the genes are large in quantity but small in effect. Examples of human polygenic inheritance are height, skin color, eye color and weight. Polygenes exist in other organisms, as well. Drosophila, for instance, display polygeny with traits such as wing morphology, bristle count and many others. The frequency of the phenotypes of these traits generally follows a normal continuous variation distribution pattern. This results from the many possible allelic combinations. When the values are plotted, a bell-shaped curve is obtained. The mode of the distribution represents the optimal, or fittest, phenotype. The more genes are involved, the smoother the estimated curve. However, in this model all genes must code for alleles with additive effects. This assumption is often unrealistic as many genes display epistasis effects which can have unpredictable effects on the distribution of outcomes, especially when looking at the distribution on a fine scale. Traditionally, mapping polygenes requires statistical tools available to help measure the effects of polygenes as well as narrow in on single genes. One of these tools is QTL-mapping. QTL-mapping utilizes a phenomenon known as linkage disequilibrium by comparing known marker genes with correlated phenotypes. Often, researchers will find a large region of DNA, called a locus, that accounts for a significant amount of the variation observed in the measured trait. This locus will usually contain a large number of genes that are responsible. A new form of QTL has been described as expression QTL (eQTL). eQTLs regulate the amount of expressed mRNA, which in turn regulates the amount of protein within the organism. Another interest of statistical geneticists using QTL mapping is to determine the complexity of the genetic architecture underlying a phenotypic trait. For example, they may be interested in knowing whether a phenotype is shaped by many independent loci, or by a few loci, and do those loci interact. This can provide information on how the phenotype may be evolving.
Remember all those climate-change deniers going on about snow this past winter? New data from NASA might change some minds: Especially warm temperatures—close to five degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) above average—occur over most of the Arctic, including the northernmost reaches of North America, northwestern Greenland, and most of the northern coast of Eurasia. Unusually warm conditions also extend southward into Eastern Europe and Siberia. In Antarctica, warm conditions appear in some inland areas and especially over the Antarctic Peninsula. Temperature anomalies in May continued a much longer trend. GISS compared the January–May mean surface temperature anomalies for 2010 to those of 2005 and 1998 (the two warmest years on record). January–May anomalies show 2010 to be the warmest out of 131 years (2005 is the fourth warmest and 1998 is the fifth warmest). Moreover, Arctic temperature anomalies are especially pronounced, and have been since the turn of the twenty-first century. And about that snow this winter: "Sea ice retreat and snow melt reduce Earth’s albedo, which can lead to increased warmth and further melting. Scambos explains that, although the Northern Hemisphere experienced significant snowfall in early 2010, spring melt was rapid, exposing land surfaces to sunlight sooner than usual."
\|A Longleaf Pine showing the effects of drought.\| Although we all know that trees need water, scientists are still discovering new information and implications about the process that allows trees to “drink.” Thanks to recent scientific research, we now have a greater insight into the mechanism of tree death from drought and a new appreciation of how vulnerable trees are. Trees draw water through their roots and into the thread-like channels of their vascular system that distributes it to their most remote needles and leaves. In order to photosynthesize and grow, trees need to open the stomata (pores) on their leaves to take in carbon dioxide. As they do this, water evaporates. The water loss creates a suction effect that goes down all the way to the roots, where the water is replenished, similar to drinking through a straw. When water is unavailable, this suction pressure increases, and air is drawn in. The air bubbles clog the channels and make it harder for a tree to get fluid to its leaves – like drinking from a broken straw. This “hydraulic failure” is the reason trees die from drought. In addition to hydraulic failure, drought can impact a tree’s ability to open its stomata. Even when water is again available, some leaves are unable (or slow) to return to their work of photosynthesis, causing further dieback. Dr. Brendan Choat from the University of Western Sydney and Dr. Steven Jansen from Ulm University in Germany lead a team of scientists that have studied hydraulic failure in trees worldwide. The results of their research show that about 70% of tree species have very little margin in the amount of drought they can endure before they experience hydraulic failure. Surprisingly, this was true for species that grow in marsh as well as desert. The implications of this research are that a small change in the drought level of an area could have serious consequences for large numbers of trees. Watering trees in times of drought is extremely important. Even the largest tree typically has its roots concentrated within the top 12” of soil. They have no ability to suddenly find water when that layer is dry. Trees will respond to drought by dropping leaves or needles, and then having whole branches die. The damage can be irreversible. Sophisticated systems are now available to monitor the moisture content of soil and automatically adjust watering to the appropriate level for plants, lawns or trees. These irrigation systems are now common in arid regions and have been found to reduce total water consumption. Giving trees the right amount of water at the right time can prevent hydraulic failure and also prevent the unnecessary waste of water in landscapes by up to 60%. I believe we’ll see this technology introduced in the northeast over the next decade as water for our landscapes becomes a more precious commodity.
The Oldest Signs of Life on Earth In 2008, Nora Noffke was visiting the Dresser Formation in Western Australia, home of Earth’s oldest surface rocks, when she noticed something peculiar on the ground. “We were just there as geo-tourists, not for work purpose,” says Nora Noffke, a geobiologist at Old Dominion University. “I had been walking with a researcher friend, who wasn’t involved in the study. Then I saw these rocks with the familiar wrinkle marks.” Noffke is a world-expert on microbially-induced sedimentary structure (or MISS). These form when microbial mats interact with sediments in shallow water. They are found all over the worlds–in lakes, river, lagoons, and shallow marine environments. They can spread out anywhere from a few centimeters to over many kilometers. Evidence for them include microbial mat chips and wrinkle structures. The Dresser Formation, which dates from the early Archean and is about 3.5 billion years old, has been studied extensively. But these MISS had not been found before. “People didn’t see them because they didn’t know what to look for,” Noffke said. Noffke later came back with a team. The problem, of course, was to confirm whether these structures were indeed of biological origin. Noffke had developed a set of criteria to distinguish MISS, the product of microbe life, from mere geological phenomena. They include looking at shapes, micro-textures, and chemical composition. Noffke and her team had tested the criteria in previous studies comparing ancient MISS from other sites to modern MISS. The MISS found in the Dresser Formation did fit the criteria, making them evidence for some of the earliest signs of life on Earth. The results of the study are published this month in the journal Astrobiology. Prior to this study, the oldest MISS had been found in the Moodies Group of South Africa and dated to 3.2 billion years old. So the new discovery advances the age of the earliest MISS by 300 million years.Other signs of ancient life had been found in the Dresser Formation, in particular stromatolites. Stromatolites and MISS are related, but they’re very different. They both form when microbes interact with sediments. But stromatolites grow upward in the shape of domes or columns, a process that involve carbonate precipitation, while MISS remain planar. What’s more, MISS have remained unchanged over the last 3 billion years, and they’re believed to be the older relatives. (Ancient stromatolites, on the other hand, are unlike modern ones.) “The MISS of the Dresser Formation look identical to their modern counterparts,” says Noffke. “I was really astonished by how similar they are.” “But it also raised the question: why are they so identical?” she adds. “And what does that mean about the organisms that created them?” According to Noffke, the Dresser Formation MISS may have been formed by the same microorganisms found in modern MISS. “Modern microbial mats can serve as an analog model for the interpretation of ancient ones,” she says. Modern microbial mats are dominated by cyanobacteria, which means these microbes (or their earliest relatives) may have already been present on Earth 3.5 billion years ago. Also of significance is that the conditions early on Earth and early on Mars were very similar. MISS of the Dresser Formation were found in a sabkha environment–a crusty and flat area where the sea water has evaporated or been dried out by the wind. Environments like these indicate the former presence of fluid water and are very common on Mars. This make MISS a great target for the Mars Exploration Rover Program, and for our search for life on other planets.
Researchers in the US are looking for innovative fire protection solutions to solve the high cost of today’s fire problem in terms of lives and property. In 2017 alone, over 1.3 million structure fires caused an estimated 3,400 deaths, over 14,000 injuries and in excess of $20 billion in damages, according to the US Fire Administration. Nanotechnology is the science, engineering and technology conducted at the nanoscale (about one to 100 nanometers) Nanotechnology could be one such solution; it can help to make building and product materials stronger, lighter and at the same time, more fire resistant. It can be used in starch-based coatings that are applied to textiles and furniture to increase fire resistance and brick, mortar and other clay products to lower thermal conductivity, and increase gas barrier properties. Nanotechnology can also be used to make nanofibre mats. Used in place of building insulation and some foams, the mats attract thermal energy from flames and absorb it while self-extinguishing the fire. This limits fire spread and damage. Compartmentalisation of fires is an important benefit of nanotechnology, allowing occupants more time to escape. Further applications include hydrogels for fire resistant blankets and clothing to absorb heat and prevent thermal burns and polyetherimide nanocomposite foams to enhance thermal protection for appliances. These foams can be combined with nanoclays, which won't release toxic gases when exposed to flame. Fire safety would benefit from nanotechnology in smoke alarms that can detect particles at the very start of a fire and fire resistant nanocoatings that increase material strength and durability to better withstand high thermal energy. These nanocoatings can also provide fire resistance in fuel lines and engine components, reducing the risk of vehicle fires. Another advantage to the technology is in fire suppression systems, where various chemical mixtures can be broken down to particle size to enable fires to be extinguished faster. However, there are three areas that are delaying widespread use of nanotechnology. The first being health concerns. Cancer and silicosis are known to be a concern with nanotechnologies. It is known that harmful exposure is possible through inhalation, skin contact or ingestion. But there is still a great deal that is unknown about the full scope of risks to the fire service and the public and precisely under what conditions. Secondly, the reliability of nanocoatings. Nanoparticles tend to form bubbles when they start to char. When those bubbles burst, the nanoparticles are propelled outward and protection is reduced. Finding a cost-effective way to mitigate this problem is essential. Finally, cost. Production on a wide scale is expensive and most corporations choose to invest in the cheaper option of suppression systems and detectors. See here for further reading about the implications of nanotechnology for the fire service.
There have always been laws of war. Individual armies have their own laws that determine how their military actions will proceed, what is off limits and what is allowed, and "rules of engagement" that dictate the way they initiate battle. Throughout history, opposing nations have established ground rules for war, but until the nineteenth century, these rules applied only to a particular conflict and the countries it involved. Once that war was over, the rules were discarded. With the 1864 Geneva Convention, the rules of war became an international matter. The laws that came out of Geneva and The Hague transcend any specific conflict. They attempt to "diminish the severity and disasters of war" (Hague IX) in general, applying to armed conflicts across the board. The Geneva Conventions Made official in 1949 and ultimately adopted by 190 countries, the Geneva Conventions establish the rules for the treatment of the "victims" of war -- wounded or sick soldiers, prisoners of war, and civilians. The Geneva Conventions as we now know them were established in 1949, after World War II. But the first Geneva Convention was actually held in 1864. That first conference established a set of rules to protect wounded and sick troops on the field. The initial 1864 treaty was initiated by an organization called the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded. This organization is now called the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Red Cross was originally established to provide medical care to those wounded in battle. It was created by Henry Dunant, who was traveling through Italy after the 1859 Battle of Solferino and saw dying soldiers left untreated. He asked civilians to help him gather and treat the wounded and insisted they not discriminate based on nationality. The Red Cross was founded on the belief that all soldiers, regardless of which army they belong to, should receive medical treatment. That first treaty was amended and built upon in subsequent meetings, culminating in 1949 when nations gathered to address the horrors of WWII. The 1949 assembly resulted in the adoption of four Geneva Conventions: I. Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field II. Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea III. Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War IV. Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War The Hague Conventions Conferences regarding the international rules of war were held in The Hague, the Netherlands, in 1899, 1907 and 1954. Dubbed the International Peace Conferences, these meetings produced numerous rules, or conventions, that loosely fall into the categories of combat, weaponry, property rights and the duties of neutral countries. The first two Hague conventions, the 1899 Hague Peace Convention and the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, are largely similar, the latter expanding and adding to the initial Hague sections on combat laws, illegal weaponry and financial concerns. Another conference was scheduled and then cancelled with the outbreak of World War I. The severe destruction of cultural property -- artwork, literature, artifacts -- that occurred during World Wars I and II revealed holes in the existing laws. In 1954, the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict was signed into effect. This third set of laws addressed the issue of cultural preservation in greater depth than the first two, attempting to protect a nation's identity in the face of war and occupation. As technology and awareness have progressed, the conventions produced in The Hague and those coming out of Geneva have progressively overlapped: Technological developments in the realm of war tend to threaten humanitarian concerns, and humanitarian concerns tend to want to stem the progress of weapons and methods of destruction. These major treaties comprise some of the most essential laws of war, attempting to protect humanitarian, cultural and financial concerns within a framework that inherently wants to disregard everything but the battle at hand.
Although the desert may seem like an inhospitable place for plant life, several unusual plants have adapted to the desert environment. Rather than having long branches, stems or leaves that require an abundance of moisture, many desert plants have developed thorns instead. These thorns conserve water and keep pesky animals from trying to drink their water. For optimal growth in a home garden, they require lots of sun and limited water. Video of the Day The cactus is the most famous desert plant, with thorns that range from tiny spikes to long spines. Cacti have small bumps called areoles that produces either a spine, flower or fruit, depending on the environmental conditions at the time. Their squat stature allows them to store moisture inside, without excess outer tissue that would allow water to escape. Gardeners can easily grow small cacti in the garden or in sunny indoor spots beside a window. They need full sun and well-drained soil, with plenty of time to dry out between lukewarm waterings. Prickly poppies of the Argemone genus are desert flowers whose stems are covered in thorns. Most are white or lavender in color and thrive in the southern United States. The sepals just beneath the flower petals have prickles, while the leaves are spiny to keep animals at bay. They also have long roots that are able to draw water from deep underground. They make dramatic additions to gardens when placed in full sunshine with lots of space to establish roots and grow bigger. The whitethorn acacia, or acacia constricta, are thorny shrubs that produce round, yellow flowers in the spring and again in the late summer. Long thorns dot their branches. They grow mostly in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico, where they can survive for several decades. In the wild, they thrive in extreme summer heat as well as below freezing temperatures in winter, sometimes going months without precipitation, according to a feature article by Corey L. Gucker at the Forest Service website. In a garden, they can survive a moderate or warm climate and are drought tolerant.
Could be; please read below. Isolated systolic high blood pressure Remember that the systolic blood pressure is the top number in the blood pressure reading and represents the pressure in the arteries as the heart contracts and pumps blood into the arteries. A systolic blood pressure that is persistently higher than 140 mm Hg is usually considered elevated, especially when associated with an elevated diastolic pressure (over 90). Isolated systolic hypertension , however, is defined as a systolic pressure that is above 140 mm Hg with a diastolic pressure that still is below 90. This disorder primarily affects older people and is characterized by an increased (wide) pulse pressure. The pulse pressure is defined as the difference between the systolic and diastolic blood pressures. An elevation of the systolic pressure without an elevation of the diastolic pressure, as occurs in isolated systolic hypertension, therefore, increases the pulse pressure. Stiffening of the arteries contributes to this widening of the pulse pressure. Once considered to be harmless, an elevation of the pulse pressure is now thought to lead to health problems. In other words, a high pulse pressure is considered an important precursor or indicator of potential end-organ damage. Thus, isolated systolic hypertension is associated with a 2 to 4 times increased future risk of an enlarged heart , a heart attack ), a stroke (brain damage ), and death from heart disease or a stroke. Clinical studies in patients with isolated systolic hypertension have indicated that a reduction in systolic blood pressure by at least 20 mm to a level below 160 mm Hg reduces these increased risks.
Big brother in space - satellites watch the atmosphere Nowadays, observation of the ozone hole could hardly be imagined without satellites. The research article describes how a new instrument gets into space (2002) and what it is able to do there. Light, absorption and matter Visible light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. We introduce 'invisible' light and explain how matter obstructing light causes changes in this spectrum. Test your knowledge of light, satellites and ozone in the atmosphere. Link related terms and fill in text with gaps and graphics. We observe our planet with modern measurement techniques. You will find further sources of information about such technologies, satellite measurements and the relation between light, matter, atmosphere and climate in the link list. Information for teachers Solutions to the worksheets, material for downloading, ideas for integration to curriculum and for the extension of the topic are found in this section.
There are some interference methods that have been devised to measure indexes of refraction. Early refractometers, such as the Rayleigh refractometer take advantage of interference for accurate measurements. Interference methods will measure the mechanical displacement between the two substances compared. It can be a somewhat indirect approach. The range of the interference is limited, a path difference should not exceed a few dozen wavelengths. The rayleigh refractometer works by having light pass through a vertical slit, and then collimated through a lens which passes it through two vertical slits to line it up parallel with two test tubes that the index of refractions will be compared. Typically one of the tubes will be filled with something such as air so that it has a known index. After the light is refracted in the test tubes, It wil pass through a piece of glass and then a diffraction image will be produced in the focal plane of a lens L2. The fringes produced are very fine. To improve the accuracy of reading these fine lines, a cylindrical lens is directed towards it with a 2mm diameter. This will magnify the diffraction image making it clearer to see the spacing between the lines. The glass that the refracted light passes through can then be maneuvered at specific angles to slow down the light until both the light rays are in phase. Then comparing the difference in angle of the two glasses will give a sense of the difference of index of refraction of the two. As long as one of the indexes of known and the difference between the two is known, then it is just a simple calculation to find out the unknown index of refraction. Here is an example of the refractometer from the top view: Looking at it from the side: You can see how the two glasses "K" and "L" can be rotated in order to put the two rays in phase. Whenever they are altered the thickness of the glass will change for each beam. Refractometers are very important in industry. In the next page read on about the basics of modern ones.
Jellyfish & Other Zooplankton What are Zooplankton? Zooplankton are animals that live all or part of their life as plankton (from the Greek word for “drifting”) suspended and drifting in fresh or salt water rarely, if ever, coming in contact with hard surfaces. They are generally either very small animals (and therefore weak swimmers) or large but soft-bodied (and also, therefore, weak swimmers) that are of swimming long distances or against currents like fish, squid, or marine mammals. These include a wide range of animals, from primitive protozoans to the larvae of more complex animals and range in size from microscopic organisms to some of the longest animals in the sea. Zooplankton live virtually everywhere in the ocean, but the largest number are in the upper ocean, where there is enough sunlight to support phytoplankton, the first link in the food chain and food for many zooplankton.[ MORE ] Most zooplankton spend their entire lives drifting, but the larvae of many fish and bottom-living animals, before they develop adult forms, are also part of this group. A major category of zooplankton is crustaceans, both the larval form of larger animals such as crabs and shellfish, and smaller, floating crustaceans that are an abundant and critical food source for larger animals. Another major category is the gelatinous zooplankton or jellies, unrelated groups that all have soft, transparent bodies and spend much of their life drifting in the water column. Included in this group are jellyfish and comb-jellies (see below), plus some worms, mollusks, and chordates. The smallest zooplankton are single-celled protozoans, also called microzooplankton, which eat the smallest phytoplankton cells in the ocean. In turn, microzooplankton become food for larger animals. This next level includes small crustaceans that eat phytoplankton and microzooplankton. These, especially copepods, which range in size from nearly microscopic to about a half-inch, and the shrimp-like krill, are he most abundant multi-celled animals in the sea and are critical food supplies for fish and baleen whales. Even large zooplankton, some more than a foot long, consume microbes. Some planktonic snails, called pteropods, and also planktonic tunicates (a sub-group of chordates that includes salps and related forms) filter or catch single, floating cells and other particles in the water using mucus-lined structures. One characteristic of many zooplankton is a pattern of movement called diurnal vertical migration. Many species, though weak swimmers, migrate hundreds of meters deep during the day to avoid predators and return toward the surface to feed on phytoplankton and microzooplankton at night. As a result, many other parts of the food chain also follow this daily migration pattern.[ LESS ] What are Jellyfish? Jellyfish are a type of zooplankton that both drift in the ocean and have some swimming ability. Hundreds of jellyfish species live in every part of the ocean and belong to the same animal group as corals and sea anemones. Soft-bodied, fragile, and often transparent, jellyfish often look like umbrellas or bells with tentacles around the edge or hanging from the center. This shape is called a medusa, because it reminded people of Medusa from Greek mythology. The smallest medusae are barely visible; the largest are more than one meter across. Jellyfish swim by pulsing their bells. They also have only primitive organs and nervous systems, and no hard body parts. They are, however, predators that catch plankton and larval fish with stinging cells on their tentacles. Most aren’t harmful humans beyond providing an uncomfortable sting, but a few species can be deadly.[ MORE ] Jellyfish have an unusual reproductive that produces different life forms between stages. The planktonic medusae release larvae that grow to become bottom-living, plant-shaped polyps. Each polyp then produces many medusae and the cycle repeats. Dense jellyfish populations have recently caused declines in fish larvae, ruined fishing nets, and clogged seawater intakes. Some people speculate that warming oceans are behind these swarms and may lead to more in the future, but scientists recently reported that available evidence doesn't support the idea. Other jellyfish are not medusae, but colonial animals called siphonophores, conglomerates of attached individuals with bells and stinging tentacles. Some are notorious for painful stings, such as the surface-living Portuguese Man-o'-War. Others grow longer than whales: Scientists have recorded a 130-foot long specimen hundreds of meters below the surface. Comb jellies are another member of the jellies group and are very similar to jellyfish. Named for comb-shaped paddles on their bodies that they use to swim, comb jellies are soft, round, and transparent. They are also predators, but don’t sting, instead capturing prey with sticky secretions.[ LESS ] Why are they important? Ocean food chains are often shorter and less diverse than those on land, so each link is essential to the whole. Zooplankton fill a crucial link between phytoplankton (“the grass of the sea”) and larger, open-ocean animals. Tiny copepods, krill, and pteropods are food for larger plankton, fish and even whales. If the abundance of these tiny creatures should decline, the consequences for large ocean animals would likely be sudden and severe. In certain areas, especially polar regions, scientists are studying how climate change will alter ocean ecosystems by investigating links between ocean properties such as temperature, the seasonal timing of phytoplankton and zooplankton growth, and fish and whale populations. Both salps and krill also live in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, and both feed directly on the great abundance of phytoplankton there. Scientists think that the extent of sea ice and the temperature of the ocean each year may influence the balance between salp and krill populations. When there is more sea ice, krill populations seem to thrive and salps do not; when there is less ice, salp populations increase and krill are less abundant. Krill are the main food for fish, whales, and seabirds in the Antarctic. Unfortunately, the gelatinous salps have much lower nutritional content and therefore are not good food for those higher-level animals.[ MORE ] Small, shelled plankton, such as pteropods, that are an abundant and important source of food for fish have also become an important indicator of potential widespread impacts from ocean acidification. As the level of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere rises, the ocean’s pH—a measure of alkalinity and acidity—has fallen, meaning that it has become less alkaline and more acidic. As this happens, the concentration of calcium carbonate ions that the animals use to form their shells decreases. If the pH continues to fall, then their shell material they have been able to form may actually begin to dissolve. The rise in coastal and introduced jellyfish populations can also have serious impacts on local fish stocks. Large numbers of jellyfish can consume large numbers of fish larvae, including the larvae of many commercially important species. As a result, there are fewer adults of those larval fish and often fewer of those animals that rely on the larvae and adults for food.[ LESS ]
The 2010 Nobel Prize In Chemistry: Palladium As Catalyst For Carbon Coupling The 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, its seminal work by Richard F. Heck and its variations by Ei-ichi Negisi and Akira Suzuki,has been awarded for the discovery of palladium as a catalyst in forming carbon bonds. This discovery has already impacted many areas of science, from medicine to agriculture to electronics. Like the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded yesterday, the chemistry award acknowledges advancements in carbon enhancement. What occurs in nature between simple carbon elements is very difficult to achieve in the laboratory. For example, for the last two decades, scientists have tried to recreate the ability of Discodermia dissoluta, a marine sponge that can't see, hear, or move, yet protects itself from predators by emitting a powerful poison. It has been found that the natural compound in the Discodermia dissoluta, discodermolide, is a powerful anti-cancer weapon; however, the Discodermia dissoluta sponge is rare and cannot possibly supply the amount of natural discodermolide necessary to create a wide-scale medicinal application from it. The works of the three Nobel Prize winners today have been essential to re-engineering discodermolide so it can be utilized as a cancer treatment. Likewise, other medications, agricultural solutions, and electronics advancements, are due to the works of these men, who created and re-created ways to use palladium-catalysed cross coupling in many applications. The endeavor to break down carbon into single atoms, without waste materials attached to it, was first achieved by organic chemist Richard Heck in the late sixties, when he discovered that palladium could be used as a catalyst to link simple carbon atoms together without the waste. What's more, the palladium would not stick around after the bonds were made; it would leave the carbon bond and go on to locate other carbon atoms in the test tube, continuing its work of joining them together. The Heck reaction is an important principle for creating single bonds between carbon atoms. It has been used to create styrene, and more recently, to create medicines and substances for the electronics industry. Heck used a chemical compound called olefins to activate the palladium atom to the carbon atoms. Later, in 1977, Ei-ichi Negishi focused instead on activating the carbon atom, attaching zinc to it and thereby motivating the carbon atom to move to the palladium atom. This process is known as the Negishi reaction. Then in 1979, Akira Suzuki found that the element boron was a milder activator than zinc, and this was especially important to commercial synthesis. Again, carbon activating, the Suzuki reaction uses boron to move the carbon atoms to the palladium atom. The Heck, Negishi, and Suzuki reactions are used today as different applications of palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions, all essential to the chemist's toolbox.
Children with communication disorders frequently do not perform on grade level because they have difficulty understanding and talking, struggle with reading and writing, misunderstand social cues, show poor judgment, have trouble taking tests, and may avoid school. Is this your child? This May, as part of Better Hearing and Speech Month, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) continues its public education efforts around the communication health of our children by providing information for parents to identify and prevent speech and language disorders. Children with communication problems have difficulty learning to listen, speak, read, or write. Parents and teachers should refer any student who shows signs of a speech and language problem to the school-based speech-language pathologist for an evaluation immediately. "It's crucial that children are identified and begin treatment as early as possible because summer break will only compound the consequences of a communication disorder if left untreated," ASHA President Paul R. Rao, PhD, CCC-SLP, says. Parents should look out for the various types of speech and language disorders that affect school-age children, including: - Speech sounddisorders(difficulty pronouncing sounds) - Languagedisorders(difficulty understanding others and expressing themselves) - Cognitive-communicationdisorders(difficulty with thinking skills including perception, memory, awareness, reasoning, judgment, intellect, and imagination) - Stuttering(fluency) disorders(interruption of the flow of speech that may include hesitations, repetitions, or prolongations of sounds or words) - Voicedisorders(quality of voice that may include hoarseness, nasality, or loudness) For more information about speech and language disorders and prevention, visit www.asha.org. To find a speech-language pathologist in your local area, go to ProSearch at www.asha.org/findpro/. About Speech-Language Pathologists Speech-language pathologists work with diagnostic and educational evaluation teams to provide comprehensive language and speech assessments for students. Services to students with speech-language disorders may be provided in individual or small group sessions, in classrooms when teaming with teachers, or in a consultative model with teachers and parents. SLPs integrate students' speech-language goals with academic outcomes and functional performance. ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 145,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing and balance disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists identify, assess, diagnose, and treat speech and language problems including swallowing disorders. View all ASHA press releases at www.asha.org/about/news. Listen to all ASHA podcasts at http://podcast.asha.org.
A waterfall is an indication that a stream is geologically young and active. The water flows over a resistant bedrock slower upstream and faster downstream causing erosion to occur more quickly downstream. This difference in velocity is caused by the increasing volume as the stream picks up more run off water and the from effects of gravity. Pounding water and whirlpools increase the rate of erosion even faster at the base of a fall causing the waterfall to increase in size. This erosive action also causes the waterfall to move further up stream at a geologically slow rate. Often the receding erosion created by the waterfall will create a canyon downstream and a rock shelter in the soft rock behind the veil of the falls. Here at Frankfort Mineral Springs evidence of that geological process is evident. The quarter mile canyon leading to the veiled water fall is sheer and steep. At the current location of the falls rock shelters occur in the canyon walls on both sides. Eventually the the rock outcropping created by the falls will collapse and send larger stones to the base of the falls for further erosion and tumbling downstream. There is evidence of a recent collapse to the right of the Frankfort Mineral Spring fall. It is only a matter of time that the rock shelters created by the falls will succumb to the process of erosion and continue the geologic cycle openly on display. This collection of images and video record my observations at the water fall’s most geologically active point and the patterns created as the ongoing erosion cycles. I watched the force exerted by the cascading water and can only imagine that sometime in the near future this process will have an observable effect at Frankfort Mineral Springs. On a cold winter’s Saturday at Gull Point located at the lonely tip of Presque Isle, Pennsylvania, snow falls over the land spit. The view due north over the vast and motionless horizon of water and sky is an unseen Canada. Where water meets shore the sound of eighteen inch waves crashing in an undulating and cyclical pattern. The ebb and flow permeates a relaxing orchestra over the grey winter’s landscape. Lake Erie is a fresh water lake and, like the larger oceans, experiences the phenomenon of the tides, or does it? The tides are the combined force of the gravitational pull from both the sun and the moon. The breadth and frequency of the tides are based upon the position of the sun and moon in relationship to one and other, the rotation of the earth and the bathymetry, or contours of the land located under very large bodies of water. Other factors that affect the size of the tides are barometric pressure and storm surges. The scale of Lake Erie along with the other Great Lakes is exponentially smaller than the world’s oceans. At a similarly small exponential rate the Great Lakes do feel the gravitational effects of the tides. In reality the lunar and solar tides affecting Lake Erie amounts only to a few inches. Generally, the waves on Lake Erie are created by wind and weather as it moves from west to east and not by the effects of the sun or moon. As the waves move from open water towards the shore, the inclination of lake floor causes the waves to break as they approach the land creating the crash that fills the air with sound and slowly erodes and transforms Presque Isle. This collection of images and video record my observations at the wave’s point break and the patterns created as they cycle up and down the sandy coast of Pennsylvania’s lake shore. I noticed as the waves moved in and out another pattern of residual moisture ebbed at a much slower rate and allowed for a beautiful interaction of light where the water from Lake Erie meets the land of Pennsylvania.
mathematical and computing sciences question #274 Jeremy, a 14 year old male from Norwood asks on November 13, 2001,Q: What component controls how data is written on a hard drive? viewed 14599 times This depends what you mean. The microprocessor controls some aspects of it like the file system, the disk formatting, etc. There is usually a chip on the motherboard or a card responsible for handling data in and out to the hard-drive. There is a software "driver" that helps the PC communicate with the Hard Drive. Once at the hard-drive, there is a microcontroller chip and supporting hardware that controls the decoding and reformatting of data for the drive, the selection of sectors to write to, controlling the motors, and rotation speed and various other things. Finally there are circuits that control the stepper motors for the writing arm, and the placement of the magnetic heads on the platter, then there is circuitry that controls the electromagnetic pulses that go to the head to write information to the drive. So there are lots of components that control how data is written. You can find out more at How Stuff Works.
- Sleep has a survival value - different species evolved different types and patterns of sleep for different environmental needs. Sleep keeps animals dormant when activities vital for survival are not required. - Predator-prey sleep (meddis (1979) - believs that sleep evolved to keep animals and children hidden when usual activities such as foraging, are not required. Therefore, prey animalsshould sleep less because they are at more risk and need to be alert and vigilant. - Body size - smaller animals evolved a greater need to sleep, their metabolic rates being high and energy consumption rapid. Long periods of sleep help…
Hair is mainly composed of the protein keratin. Keratin assembles into rope-like intermediate filaments. The structure of these filaments provides strength to the hair shaft. Hair growth begins under the skin in a hair follicle. The only “living” portion of the hair is found in the follicle. The hair that is visible is the hair shaft, which exhibits no biochemical activity and is considered dead. The base of the root is called the bulb, which contains the cells that produce the hair shaft. Other structures of the hair follicle include the oil producing sebaceous gland which lubricates the hair and the erector pili muscles, which are responsible for causing goose bumps. Stages of the hair cycle Between starting to grow and falling out, each hair passes through three distinct stages. These are so important that they have been given special names: anagen (the growing phase), catagen (the intermediate phase) and telogen (the shedding phase). Each strand of hair on the human body is at its own stage of development. Once the cycle is complete, it restarts and a new strand of hair begins to form. The anagen phase or growth phase begins in the papilla and can last up to eight years. The span at which the hair remains in this stage of growth is determined by genetics. The longer the hair stays in the anagen phase, the faster and longer it will grow. During this phase, the cells in the papilla divide to produce new hair fibers, and the follicle buries itself into the dermal layer of the skin to nourish the strand. The catagen phase or transitional phase, allows the follicle to, in a sense, renew itself. Signals sent out by the body determine when the anagen phase ends and the catagen phase begins. During this time, which lasts about two weeks, the hair follicle shrinks due to disintegration and the papilla detaches and “rests”, cutting the hair strand off from its nourishing blood supply. During the telogen phase, or resting phase the hair and follicle remain dormant anywhere from 1–4 months. Ten to fifteen percent of the hairs on one’s head are in this phase of growth in any given time. The anagen phase begins again once the telogen phase is complete. The preceding hair strand is pushed up and out by the new, growing strand. This causes a normal hair loss commonly known as shedding. The number of sessions depends on various parameters, including the area of the body treated, skin color, coarseness of hair and gender. Coarse dark hair on light skin is easiest to treat. Hair on darker skin is harder to treat. Finer hair is only sometimes affected. Certain areas (notably men’s faces) may require considerably more treatments to achieve desired results. In addition, since hair grows in several phases (anagen, telogen, catagen) and laser can only affect the currently active growing follicles (anagen), several sessions are needed to kill hair in all phases of growth.
I have some problem with this code below. It's pretty simple, but the most awkward thing for me is that it actually works. Here we have a program that shuffles items in previously input array, and it's printing it to the screen. That's it. Now , why is it so weird for me? All comes down to count variable , y variable and I was explaining this code to myself step by step and still I don't know how it is possible for this program to analyse last item in the array, and all due to while y <= count x = rand(count+1) if array[x] != 'used' randomized.push array[x] array [x] = 'used' y = y + 1 end I just don't get it. If I create an array with three items array = ["a","b","c"] Then variable count is equal to y variable is equal to 0 in the beginning and at the very end of the loop we increase while loop should be repeating only two times like in condition while y <= count , why? Because firstly our 0 , and it's less than count which is 1. So here we have our first walk through our loop. Now it's time for second walk through loop, y = 1, count = 1 , they are equal, here we go. And now it's doing third walkthrough. while y = 2 and count = 1. Can anybody explain me how is it possible? # starting condition list = [ ] # as the question puts 'Enter a list of words, press \'enter\' to quit and they will be returned randomly shuffled.' word = 'one' # get the words in the first list while word != '' word = gets.chomp list.push word end # define shuffle method def shuffle array # starting conditions of local variables randomized = [ ] count = -2 x = 0 y = 0 array.each do \|word\| count = count + 1 end while y <= count x = rand(count+1) if array[x] != 'used' randomized.push array[x] array [x] = 'used' y = y + 1 end end puts randomized end shuffle list
Cause/Effect and Problem/Solution Formative Lesson 6 of 12 Objective: SWBAT identify the cause/effect and problem/solution text structures by completing a formative assessment Today will be used to gather some formative data on how the students are doing with the structures. The formatives are short, so I generally do two at a time. I copy them front to back, so it's one sheet of paper. You could do one every other day or whatever suits your kids best. I like to use a small element of comparing the structures for this since this is the actual 5th grade standard. I find that by creating formatives that ask the students to identify the paragraph that fits a particular structure and do it by analyzing two different paragraphs, they are more prepared for when we start comparing the uses and effectiveness of the structures. The kiddos will work on the problem and solution formative and cause and effect formative. I ask the students to take out their highlighters or colored pencils to show how they knew the answers. Students can probably finish this in about 20 minutes, but gauge your time according to your kiddos. Students will complete the formative during this time. I will usually monitor my students with focus issues, check to see the kids are justifying their answers, and just be a presence while they are working. When my students justify, I expect them to highlight the clues for the structure to show me how they found the answer. This also helps the students stay on task. Here is a student's view of formative justifications. When I grade these, I score each question based on 4 points. This can get tricky since there isn't much being asked of the student. My rubric looks like this: 4- Correct paragraph chosen, supports choice with reasons and evidence from the text 3- Correct paragraph chosen 2- Incorrect paragraph chosen, valid thoughts for the paragraph they chose with reasons and evidence from the text 1- Incorrect paragraph chosen, tried to support choice 0-Did not attempt to answer or answered incorrectly with no evidence My district is in a revision state for grades and percentages, so I've been giving 4-100 points, 3- 85 points, 2- 70 points, 1-50 points and 0 for 0. Students who complete the formative, will begin working to finalize their interactive notebook. I like to let them either complete workstations they may have missed or do some extra processing for concepts coming up. I challenge the kids to do things like come up with song lyrics, make illustrated dictionary entries and various other processing (studying) ideas. Since we're nearing the end, students will want to start working on a Nonfiction Title Page page to synthesize all ideas from this unit and create an illustrated representation of this knowledge. At the end of the unit, students will turn this notebook in as a portfolio grade. I have already graded sections of the notebook, but the overall grade counts as a summative, so I like to give them lots of time to complete and go above and beyond.
Winnebago County has its first human case of West Nile virus this year. A 32-year-old woman reported symptoms of the disease Sept. 15. She was hospitalized for one day and then released. West Nile virus is transmitted to humans from an infected mosquito. Now, with the return of warmer weather, the treat of the illness is increased. Health department officials say it's important for us to take precautions. Symptoms of West Nile virus include sore neck, muscle aches, blurry vision and joint pain. Keep in mind with the change of season; the dusk and dawn times are no longer the most active for mosquitoes. Health officials say if your out during the warmer times of day, be sure to take precautions. wifr.com Extended Web Coverage West Nile virus Facts - The West Nile virus is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause encephalitis (an inflammation of the brain) or meningitis (inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord) in humans and other animals. - The virus is named after the West Nile region of Uganda where it was first isolated in1937. - The virus appeared for the first time in the United States during a 1999 outbreak in New York that killed seven people. How is the West Nile virus Spread? - The virus is spread to humans, birds and other animals through the bite of an infected mosquito. - A mosquito becomes infected by biting a bird that is carrying the virus. - West Nile virus is not spread from person to person, and no evidence indicates the virus can be spread directly from birds to humans. - Only a small population of mosquitoes are likely to be infected and most people bitten by an infected mosquito do not become sick. - 1 in 300 people bitten by an infected mosquito get sick. - 1 in 100-150 who get sick become seriously ill. - 3 to 15 percent of those seriously ill die. Symptoms of the Virus - The symptoms generally appear about 3 to 6 days after exposure. People over the age of 50 are at a greater risk of severe illness. - Milder symptoms include: Slight fever, headache, body aches, swollen glands and/or sometimes a skin rash. - Severe symptoms include: High fever, intense headache, stiff neck, and/or confusion. - Control mosquitoes from breeding around your home. Remove standing water from any item or area that can hold water. Standing water is a perfect breeding place for mosquitoes. - Wear long and light colored clothing. - Use insect repellent products with no ore than 20-30 percent DEET for adults and less than 10 percent for children. - Spray repellent on your hands and then apply to your face; spray on clothing, as well. Be sure repellent is safe for human skin and clothing. - Wash off repellent daily and reapply as needed. - Stay inside at dawn and dusk because that is when mosquitoes are most active. Source: www.vdh.state.va.us contributed to this report
Tapping into Prior Knowledge Implementing constructivism or inquiry-based teaching methodologies requires teachers to build on prior knowledge and lead students to connect new concepts with what they already know. Most often teachers follow the Socratic method of asking questions to trigger prior knowledge. If repeated too often, this may get boring for the teacher and the students. In the following article, Rebecca Alber, Edutopia Consulting Online Editor shares five activities that you can do in class to activate prior knowledge and make class beginnings exciting.
How did France's involvement in the American war of independence affect the war's outcome? 1 Answer \| Add Yours France’s decision to support the American colonies in their struggle for independence was enormously important for the success of the outcome. French financial and military support, especially its naval support for the American revolutionaries and its deployment of military advisors for General Washington, were invaluable. By forcing England to essentially wage a two-front war, one against the colonialist militias, and the other against the French fleet, the importance of the French contribution cannot be overstated. France’s decision to formally ally itself with the American revolutionaries, and its alliances with Spain and the Netherlands, isolated Great Britain, and hastened the war’s resolution in America’s favor. French motivations for assisting the Americans were not entirely altruistic. The history of French conflict with Britain was long and bitter. By facilitating Britain’s demise on the North American continent, France was advancing its own interests in a weakened British Crown. The depth of animosity between those two European powers cannot be overstated, and an opportunity to inflict a costly defeat on the British was a temptation the French could not pass up. While French national interest was certainly at stake, however, there were many French military officers who genuinely sympathized with the colonials and enlisted in the ranks of the Revolutionary Army for the purpose of fighting and, if necessary, dying alongside those fighting for freedom. The French Revolution that ran from 1787 to 1799, while many years from resolution, was inspired by the same anti-monarch sentiments that fueled the American revolutionary spirit. The French revolutionary passion that inspired the rallying cry of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death,” was not incompatible with the sentiments undergirding the American war for independence. In the French alliance with the American revolutionaries, therefore, there was a certain sense of kindred spirits. Join to answer this question Join a community of thousands of dedicated teachers and students.Join eNotes
Jun 09, 2015 / Sports Medicine Have You Ever Thought About How Bones Grow? – Sports Medicine We all know that our ears and nose have soft tissue called cartilage. But many don’t realize that this is also found in young bones. These areas are called growth centers and are filled with cartilage until those cells are replaced with bone. Like our ears, these areas in pediatric bones are soft and pliable. This increases the risk of damage from traumatic injuries, and even common orthopedic procedures. Some growth centers are called epiphyses, which typically lead to changes in the length of a bone. Tendons and muscles are connected to other growth centers called apophyses, which typically control the changes in the shape of a bone. The muscle pulling on these centers adds to the risk of injury. The growth centers “show up” and “go away” in X-rays in certain sequences. Pediatric orthopedic sports surgeons, like Dr. Philip Wilson and Dr. Henry Ellis, have studied how bones grow and how to assess how much growth is left by looking at X-rays. Many times, the most helpful X-ray is of the hand, where there are many growth centers to assess. With this expertise, they are able to offer the right treatment at the right time for young athletes with joint injuries. According to Dr. Ellis, taking care of young athletes is very different than taking care of adults. He says, “We must take into consideration how much more growing an athlete will do, especially when managing fractures and complex knee ligament injuries.” Decisions made in the early years of growth have the potential to impact knee alignment and leg symmetry years later. The risk of these complications is low with proper management by pediatric specialists. Learn more about injury prevention and pediatric sports medicine.
The Egyptian year was divided into twelve months of thirty days each, which means that each year was about five days short of the astronomical year. To compensate for this difference, five extra days were added to the year, called epagomenal days. Because they were not part of the normal year created by the gods, the Egyptian regarded these days as particularly ominous, and texts have survived listing exactly what may and may not be done during this period. Even the addition of these five days did not solve the concurrence problem with the solar year, however, which lasts 365 1/4 days. As a result, the calendars shifted at a rate of 1 day every four years, and over time an important gap opened up between the real and the theoretical calendars. This meant that the inundation no longer occurred in the inundation season, and the warm season no longer in the summer. The two calendars only coincided again once every 1,460 years. After an unsuccessful attempt to revise the calendar in the reign of Ptolemy III, this problem was eventually solved by the Romans by adding one leap day every four years to the Alexandrian calendar. The Greek author Plutarch has recorded his own version of the creation of the epagomenal days. The sun god Helios (the Greek equivalent of Re) had put a curse on the goddess Rhea (the Egyptian sky goddess Nut), which meant that she was unable to bear children on any of the 360 days of the year. Hermes (the Egyptian god Thoth, the god of learning) solved the problem by adding five days to the year. Five children were born on these days, Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Seth, but also Apollo (=Horus), the latter because of the association between his original mother Hathor with the sky goddess Nut.
Sometimes, the best way to soak up a lazy summer day is by lounging in a comfy outdoor spot with your child. Peaceful afternoons in the shade can be a great excuse for a picnic, but they can also be an inspiration for some descriptive poetry authored by one of the most original and brilliant people you know: your child. This activity allows him to translate what he observes around him into a beautiful poem. Plus, the process will sharpen his awareness that words hold meaning and are a way of expressing himself. This activity is the perfect introduction to a core kindergarten science theme: the five senses. Whether or not your child can write or spell yet makes no difference with Instant Poetry! What You Do: - Find a comfortable spot to sit outside with your child. You’ll be the “reporter” for this activity, so set up the materials so that you can write comfortably. - Make a list of the five senses, while chatting with your child about what each means. Specific examples help to support the acquisition of new vocabulary, so don’t be afraid to talk about it! Rattle on about that delicious ice cream cone. Talk about the way a tuba sounds deeper than a flute. Want to get started but need a refresher first? The five senses are sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. - To begin your child’s poem, write these five phrases, leaving space for him to complete the phrase: In summertime, I see _______________. In summertime, I hear _______________. In summertime, I feel _______________. In summertime, I taste ________________. In summertime, I smell _______________. - Ask your child to help you complete each sentence. If he is at a loss for descriptive words, help him by asking more specific questions. For example, if he can’t think of a word to describe what summertime tastes like, ask him what was the last thing he ate at a barbecue or picnic, and go from there. - Once all the sentences are complete, brainstorm with your child to come up with a fitting title, and write it at the top of the page. Don’t forget to add a “by” line, and have your poet write his name on it. Your child can add the final touches by drawing related illustrations around the beautiful poem that he wrote. The most important part of creating this poem is the atmosphere in which it’s written. Showing your child that writing can be creative and inspired by just about anything will increase his interest, and your enthusiasm throughout the activity will boost his self-esteem, while reinforcing the value of creative expression. Hang that lovely verse up, or send it to grandma. Every budding poet likes an appreciative audience!
Scientists conducted detailed studies and found that such aggregate States of water as liquid, there are two kinds. To achieve this result, it was difficult, but the researchers have coped with the set goal. The first step was to identify two types of frozen liquid, and experts, it became known that the ice at fast sharp freeze has a completely different structure from gradually frozen. Chemical properties and density have different performance, and this is proven during the detailed analysis of the structure of ice different types. To achieve results on the study of water structure, and find out there is different liquid such samples frozen for the accelerated and standard type, not so easy. But the experts came to the aid of the method of x-ray spectroscopy. The rays falling from one type of fluid and the other was different, which allowed the scientists to conclude that the different density and structure of liquids. The results of the study may be useful in further studying the water and also will help find ways to effectively filter and other useful methods that can be applied to liquids of large volumes.
Asking questions is a staple part of teaching. To Rosenshine, using effective questioning strategies was one of the most powerful tools a teacher could use to consolidate student understanding and to assess their progress. Therefore, for his third principle, Rosenshine recommended that teachers should ask a large number of questions and check the responses of all students. By asking questions about previous or relevant material, students can practice retrieval and cement their overall learning. So let’s take a closer look at why… What does Rosenshine say? Since learning is not a process that teachers can directly observe, there has to be another way to check for student understanding. Rosenshine found that the best teachers asked the most questions and asked students questions about how they got to their answer. This is because questions are a great way for students to practice rehearsing new material and make connections with previous learning as students are forced to discuss their thoughts. Not only do questions show whether students have understood what you’re trying to teach them, but they also reveal which students engaged with the previous lesson. If a student can’t answer a content-related question, this indicates that further instructional teaching is necessary before moving onto the next stage of the lesson. What does the research say? In one study, teachers were asked to follow instructional teaching of new material with lots of questions. The main two types of questions were factual recall questions and process questions. The researchers found that the students who were asked more questions performed better academically than students who were asked less. Rosenshine found that the least effective teachers only asked 9 questions throughout the entire lesson. However, it’s not just about quantity – quality matters too. Yes, lower-level questions that assess knowledge and understanding are important, but they’re only a starting point. Higher-level questions that require students to evaluate, summarise, analyse, and apply their understanding encourages the development of critical thinking skills. Essentially, teachers need to be strategic about the types of questions they ask. Practical Implications in the Classroom Yes, questions are important, but you have to be asking the right questions as well. As a teacher, there are several effective questioning strategies you can use to consolidate your student’s learning. Here are some of our favourites… Pre-questions are things you can ask your students about material that they have not yet learned. Research shows that students who had been asked pre-questions were later able to recall almost 50% more information than their peers who had not. They were also able to remember other key information from the lesson too. Pre-questions are beneficial because they allow students to preview the nature of the material they’ll learn in the lesson and can be presented in any format, be it open-ended, short-answer, fill-in-the-blank or multiple-choice. There are some important caveats though, which include pitching them at the right level: too easy and it doesn’t capture attention, too difficult and it can reinforce negative beliefs (i.e. ‘I am not clever enough for this subject’). While pre-questions are used before we teach the material, elaborative interrogation is a strategy that is used afterwards. This involves asking students ‘why’ questions, such as: - ‘Why would this be true?’ - ‘Why would this not be the case?’ - ‘Why do you think that?’ Doing so forces them to think harder and deeper about the material, with several studies finding that this enhances how much they remember in their long-term memory. These sort of probing questions are a great way to challenge your students’ understanding and allow you to guide their learning. essentially, you are engaging in a funnelling technique by initially asking a student a broad question and slowly getting more specific. This process allows your students to explore their understanding of a topic in more depth and from a different perspective that they may not have thought of. Self-questioning is an effective metacognitive strategy as it encourages students to think more deeply about the material they are studying. This leads to stronger connections, making it easier to retrieve the information at a later date as students are forced to focus their attention and interact with the presented information. Questions such as ‘why does it make sense that…?’ and ‘why is this true?’ are great examples of the what students should be asking themselves. Asking these questions will improve how much your students learn, how quickly they learn and, subsequently, how well they perform in their final exams. Use cold calling Cold calling is when you ask a student to answer a question when their hand isn’t raised. Research shows that classes with ‘high’ cold-calling rates caused students to volunteer to answer more questions over time. The number of students raising their hand to answer a question also increased. By participating in classroom discussions more and more, students felt it was easier to offer their opinion and answer questions. Although asking questions sounds simple, it is incredibly effective. When they have to answer questions, your students engage in their learning more, perform better academically and become more confident in their ability. Want to learn more about each principle and how to use them in the classroom? We offer CPD workshops - click on the links below to find out more about: - Our in-person Rosenshine's Principles teacher CPD workshops - Our online Rosenshine's Principles teacher CPD module
Care for Your Child’s Teeth Your message has been sent. We will contact you shortly if your message requires a response. Pediatric oral care has two main components: preventative care at the pediatric dentist’s office and preventative care at home. Though infant and toddler caries (cavities) and tooth decay have become increasingly prevalent in recent years, a good dental strategy will eradicate the risk of both. The goal of preventative oral care is to evaluate and preserve the health of the child’s teeth. Beginning at the age of twelve months, the American Dental Association (ADA) recommends that children begin to visit the pediatric dentist for “well baby” checkups. In general, most children should continue to visit the dentist every six months, unless instructed otherwise. How can a pediatric dentist care for my child’s teeth? The pediatric dentist examines the teeth for signs of early decay, monitors orthodontic concerns, tracks jaw and tooth development, and provides a good resource for parents. In addition, the pediatric dentist has several tools at hand to further reduce the child’s risk for dental problems, such as topical fluoride and dental sealants. During a routine visit to the dentist, the child’s mouth will be fully examined, the teeth will be professionally cleaned, topical fluoride may be coated onto the teeth to protect tooth enamel, and any parental concerns can be addressed. The pediatric dentist can demonstrate good brushing and flossing techniques, advise parents on dietary issues, provide strategies for thumb sucking and pacifier cessation, and communicate with the child on his or her level. When molars emerge (usually between the ages of two and three), the pediatric dentist may coat them with dental sealant. This sealant covers the hard-to-reach fissures on the molars, sealing out bacteria, food particles and acid. Dental sealant may last for many months or many years, depending on the oral habits of the child. Dental sealant provides an important tool in the fight against tooth decay. How can I help at home? Though most parents primarily think of brushing and flossing when they hear the words “oral care,” good preventative care includes many more factors, such as: Diet – Parents should provide children with a nourishing, well-balanced diet. Very sugary diets should be modified and continuous snacking should be discouraged. Oral bacteria ingest leftover sugar particles in the child’s mouth after each helping of food – emitting harmful acids that erode tooth enamel, gum tissue, and bone if left unchecked. Space out snacks where possible, and provide the child with non-sugary alternatives like celery sticks, carrot sticks, and low-fat yogurt. Oral habits – Though pacifier use and thumb sucking generally cease over time, both can cause the teeth to misalign. If the child must use a pacifier, choose an “orthodontically” correct model. This will minimize the risk of developmental problems like narrow roof arches and crowding. The pediatric dentist can suggest a strategy (or provide a dental appliance) for thumb sucking cessation. General oral hygiene – Sometimes, parents cleanse pacifiers and teething toys by sucking them. Parents may also share eating utensils with the child. Harmful oral bacteria are transmitted from parent-to-child in these ways, increasing the risk of early cavities and tooth decay. Instead, rinse toys and pacifiers with warm water and avoid spoon-sharing wherever possible. Sippy cup use – Sippy cups are an excellent transitional aid for the baby bottle-to-adult drinking glass period. However, sippy cups filled with milk, breast milk, soda, juice, and sweetened water cause small amounts of sugary fluid to continually swill around young teeth – meaning continuous acid attacks on tooth enamel. Sippy cup use should be terminated between the ages of twelve and fourteen months - or whenever the child has the motor capabilities to hold a drinking glass. Brushing – Children’s teeth should be brushed a minimum of two times per day using a soft bristled brush and a pea-sized amount of toothpaste. Parents should help with the brushing process until the child reaches the age of seven and is capable of reaching all areas of the mouth. Parents should always opt for ADA approved toothpaste (non-fluoridated before the age of two, and fluoridated thereafter). For babies, parents should rub the gum area with a clean cloth after each feeding. Flossing – Cavities and tooth decay form more easily between teeth. Therefore, the child is at risk for between-teeth cavities wherever two teeth grow adjacent to each other. The pediatric dentist can help demonstrate correct head positioning during the flossing process, and suggest tips for making flossing more fun! Fluoride – Fluoride helps prevent mineral loss and simultaneously promotes the remineralization of tooth enamel. Too much fluoride can result in fluorosis, a condition where white specks appear on the permanent teeth, and too little can result in tooth decay. It is important to get the fluoride balance correct. The pediatric dentist can evaluate how much the child is currently receiving and prescribe supplements if necessary. If you have questions or concerns about how to care for your child’s teeth, please ask your pediatric dentist.
For a complete lesson on solving rational equations, go to http://www.MathHelp.com - 1000+ online math lessons featuring a personal math teacher inside every lesson! In this lesson, students learn that when solving rational equations, the first step is to factor each of the denominators, if possible, then multiply both sides of the equation by the common denominator for all the fractions in order to get rid of the fractions, and solve from here. Finally, check each solution to see if it makes a denominator in the original equation equal to zero. If so, then it cannot be a solution to the equation. Tagged under: rational,equations,equation,solving,solve,expressions,solver, Clip makes it super easy to turn any public video into a formative assessment activity in your classroom. Add multiple choice quizzes, questions and browse hundreds of approved, video lesson ideas for Clip Make YouTube one of your teaching aids - Works perfectly with lesson micro-teaching plans 1. Students enter a simple code 2. You play the video 3. The students comment 4. You review and reflect * Whiteboard required for teacher-paced activities With four apps, each designed around existing classroom activities, Spiral gives you the power to do formative assessment with anything you teach. Carry out a quickfire formative assessment to see what the whole class is thinking Create interactive presentations to spark creativity in class Student teams can create and share collaborative presentations from linked devices Turn any public video into a live chat with questions and quizzes
Lesson Plan #: AELP-IFO0202 Submitted by: Melda N. Yildiz School/University/Affiliation: William Paterson University Date: November 23, 2002 Grade Level: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Higher Education, Vocational Education, Adult/Continuing Education - Information Literacy - Computer Science Duration: Three 45-minute sessions Description: Without tools and methodologies for gathering, evaluating, managing, and presenting information, the Web’s potential as a universe of knowledge could be lost. [John December ([email protected])] In this lesson, students apply Internet Search Skills to sources of information they find online. Assuming the role of a student researching a lesson plan or other educational resources, students not only explore various search engines and search skills but also authenticate the information of the online resources. - computers with Internet access - word-processing software for taking notes - listserv account or online discussion board for sharing the researched material (if available) - Search Tips Handout Activity 1 : Ask the students deconstruct a URL address (see Internet sites about deconstructing web pages listed at the end of the lesson). Discuss directories; even a web site listed under edu does not mean it reflects a view of an educational site. It could be a personal page. Ask students to read Zack’s story at http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/handouts/internet/teaching_zack.cfm Activity 2 : Students respond to the following questions: - How many of you use the Internet for research and homework? - How would you rank the Internet as a homework resource, compared to the school library and public library? - What are the advantages of the Internet over more traditional resources? What are the disadvantages? - What is the difference between publishing material on the Internet and publishing material in books? (Traditional publishing incorporates a series of gatekeepers such as editors, proofreaders, and fact checkers. On the Internet, authors can bypass these gatekeepers. As long as you have the technical know-how to create a web page, you can publish your thoughts online.) - How much of the information you find on the Internet do you think is true and can be trusted – all of it; most of it; some of it; none of it? - Do you ever do anything to confirm that the information you have found online is true and can be trusted? - What do you do to check that the information you find on the Internet is reliable? It’s important that all of us – adults and young people – learn how to search the online resources better and tell whether online information is accurate and trustworthy. (Students can talk about the importance of search skills in the classroom. Adults can discuss reasons why educators need to provide search tips, skills, strategies, and resources to students.) Activity 3 : Have students identify the World Wide Web. How many of them have already surfed the web? Ask them how they found information using it. Were they able to find just what they were looking for? Review the differences between web search engines and web directories. Clarify Internet terminology/metaphors if needed (mousetrapping, search engine, digital divide, invisible web, cyberspace, etc.) Demonstrate a few examples of search skills using a search engine, such as http://www.altavista.com mp3 Asian music – host:com + host:org This search string means Mp3 Asian Music files (phrases should be in quotations) excluding the commercial sites (-host:com) and including especially organizations (+host:org) Activity 4 : Students in groups of twos or threes explore the various search tips provided in the Search Tips handout (see Materials ). Have the students work in small groups to evaluate web sites on a research topic of their own choice. They should apply the criteria they have developed for evaluating web sites. (Note: In order to make this activity relevant, have your students research topics they will be studying in an upcoming unit. This activity might be especially useful just before they begin working on research papers. Suggested topics to search: lesson plans, WebQuests, Internet resources on a particular topic or theme, etc.) Activity 5 : Students post their research findings on a selected topic. Options for sharing as a class: Send an email to a class listserv or online discussion board. [ Author’s Note: Below are some sample postings.] In Yahoo’s advanced search there is a capability to customize and restrict your search to a certain time. For example, if you were searching for info on children’s nutrition, but you only wanted information from 2001, you go into advanced search and customize your search. Just thought that was cool. For AltaVista Search Engine – http://www.altavista.com – Using the word AND between two words or phrases finds pages with both words or phrases – computers AND teaching. Using the word OR between two words or phrases finds pages with at least one of the words or phrases – laptops OR palmtops. Using the words AND NOT between two words or phrases finds pages with the desired word/phrase where the second word/phrase is not included – computers AND NOT Compaq. Using the word NEAR between two words or phrases finds pages where those words/phrases occur close to one another in any order – Jackie NEAR Silberg. To find all the pages that contain the variations of a word, i.e. child, children, childhood, etc., type child. This can also be use to find pages which may contain variations in the spelling of a word – to get pages for theater and theatre, type theat. To find pages that contain a particular image, such as an ocean, type image:oceans. To find pages that contain a word in the URL, such as computers, type url:computers. The subject that I am interested in is how can technology be used effectively in an elementary classroom. I first used one of the links provided http://www.worldsofsearching.org . This was a good place to start because it has many tutorials that you can read to facilitate your search. Lesson 4, which is called Power search techniques was quite helpful. It explained when to use quotation marks, +,-, etc. to facilitate my search. From there I used Hotbot.com. I put in technology and elementary classrooms. This linked me to Lycos.com which it said was better for my search. In this search engine, I found a very interesting web site, http://www.tecsoc.org which researches the effects that technology has on society. I think this will help me in my quest to develop my topic of research. Activity 6 : Evaluating Web Resources – Topics of discussion: (taken from, The Web as a Research Tool ) - Accuracy of Web Resources (Almost anyone can publish on the web. Many web resources not verified by editors and/or fact checkers.) - Authority of Web Resources (Often difficult to determine authorship of web sources. If author’s name is listed, his/her qualifications are frequently absent.) - Objectivity of Web Resources (Goals/aims of persons or groups presenting material often not clearly stated.) - Currency of Web Resources (Dates not always included on web pages. If included, a date may have various meanings: 1. Date information first written, 2. Date information placed on web, 3. Date information last revised) Activity 7 : Have the students work in small groups to evaluate web sites (chosen by the instructor) on a research topic or projects. The students apply the criteria they have developed for evaluating web sites and answer the following questions: Students post their answers and reactions in class or on the online discussion board or listserv. Assessment: Students can explore the Internet Detective web page and respond to the quiz questions given ( http://www.netskills.ac.uk/TonicNG/cgi/sesame?detective ). Students can reflect on their experiences using the class discussion board/listserv. * Noodle Tools: Information Literacy: Search Strategies * Major Search Engines * Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet * How to Search the Internet Effectively * The Web as a Research Tool: Evaluation Techniques * Internet Detective— Quiz Online * Hoax? Scholarly Research? Personal Opinion? * The Web: Teaching Zack to Think * Deconstructing Web Pages Lesson Plan * Deconstructing Web Pages * Knowing What’s What and What’s Not
NASA's Curiosity rover captured images of clouds on the surface of Mars, as described in its blog post: "Light clouds laden with ice crystals that scattered sunset light, some shimmering with color." The shimmering appearance of icy white clouds in the Martian atmosphere surprised NASA scientists, appearing in their delicate formations in exquisite shapes. According to NASA, clouds are a rare climatic phenomenon on Mars compared to Earth, thanks to the red planet's thin and dry atmosphere, but they are certainly well known. However, a number of unusual cloud formations recently observed by the agency's Curiosity rover have been somewhat remarkable, forming earlier than expected in a Martian year and at higher altitudes in the atmosphere. Two years ago, clouds began to appear in the Martian sky earlier than was generally expected (NASA) According to the US space agency, clouds on Mars usually form around the equator on the coldest day of the year on a planet, when Mars is farthest from the sun in its semi-elliptical orbit. But two years ago, clouds began to appear earlier than was generally expected, and this year it was repeated as well, as clouds appeared earlier in January, and at a higher altitude as well. NASA researchers are not entirely sure, but these unusual properties may be caused by the fact that these clouds are not clouds of water ice. The majority of Martian clouds are made of water ice crystals that shimmer with light reflected from the sun, and these clouds usually form at a maximum altitude of 60 km. So more analysis is needed to be sure, but the high clouds that Curiosity observed recently may be of a different type, they may be made of frozen carbon dioxide (also known as dry ice) suspended in a higher and colder part of the sky, but no matter what they are. It is well worth seeing thanks to Curiosity's strong vision. Black and white images show clouds' wavy details more clearly (NASA) Curiosity provided both black and white and color photos, which show the wavy details of the clouds more clearly, while the color images from the rover's mast camera are stitched together from several truly stunning images. In its description, NASA stated that it was "observed just after sunset, as its ice crystals capture the faint light, making them appear to glow against the dark sky." These twilight clouds, also known as nocturnal (nightly shining) clouds, get brighter when filled with crystals, and then darken after the sun's position in the sky drops below its height, which is just one useful clue that scientists use to determine its height. Mars' iridescent clouds (also known as "mother of pearl") are an even more attractive phenomenon, as they reveal a subtle palette of different colors in the clouds, which tells us how they formed. Twilight clouds, also known as nocturnal clouds, get brighter when filled with crystals (NASA) "If you see a cloud with a bright, shimmering color range, it's because all the cloud particles are nearly identical in size," explains atmospheric scientist Mark Lemmon of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, USA. "This usually happens." Immediately after the formation of clouds and the growth of all its particles at the same rate." While the colors are faint, they're still some of the most colorful things you'll see on the Red Planet, says Lemon. "I always marvel at the colors that appear: red, green, blue, violet... It's really nice to see something so bright with so many colors on Mars," he adds.
Hibernation is commonly observed in many species of animals, especially those inhabiting Northern regions where there are significant drops in temperature during the winter months. In Ontario, freshwater turtles are ectotherms (their internal temperatures mimic the external temperatures) which make them “unequipped” to directly face the ruthlessness of winter conditions. For this reason, they stow away in the winter to avoid the unfavourable conditions of the colder months. Scientists have found that some turtles overwinter close together in groups, and this practice is called communal hibernation (Edge et al., 2009; Litzgus et al., 1999; Brown & Brooks, 1994). Communal hibernation is thought to have many benefits, but not in the way you’re used to hearing about. As ectotherms (where their temperature is determined by their environment), huddling together does not provide individuals with a rise in body heat like it does for endotherms such as humans and even penguins who may gather together for warmth (Duncan, 2016). Rather, the benefits of gathering together present themselves in less obvious ways. Some of these benefits include using group “signals” which would increases the chance of leaving hibernation sites at the same time (Litzgus et al., 1999), or as signifiers for a safe place to go when available hibernation sites become a limited resource (Greaves & Litzgus, 2007). Group hibernation may however, simply be a result of a group of individuals having overlapping home ranges (Edge et al., 2009). But there are some indications that there is more to this story: Interestingly, aggregations at overwintering sites are more common in Northern ranges. This observation indicates that overwintering areas may, in fact, be a limiting resource to turtle survival there and that may be why turtles overwinter in groups (Newton & Herman, 2009). Additionally, increased mating opportunities are thought to result in congregations of turtles. People may think that turtles mate in the early spring before nesting season begins. While this can be the case, turtles also perform courtship and mating at overwintering sites late into the fall before stowing away from the cold. This is possible for most turtle species (Pearse & Avise, 2001) because most females can physically store sperm in their bodies for future use (Environment Canada, 2015). In turtles, tubules in the oviduct that are specialized to store sperm are generally observed, indicating that this may be a common component of their reproductive behaviour (Pearse & Avise, 2001). Repeated paternity was commonly found in a study on Blanding’s turtles, displaying that females could use stored sperm over subsequent years from the same male to produce her eggs (Henning & Hinz, 2016). Amazingly, there have been instances where female turtles in care (captive turtles) have been isolated from males, and yet, astonishingly, the females continue to produce offspring (Pearse & Avise, 2001). Therefore, hibernating where other turtles are found has advantages; the increased likelihood of finding a mate! Should a female be unable to find a mate in the spring, she can find a mate in the winter, and still successfully lay eggs during the nesting season using stored sperm (Carrière et al., 2009). Another benefit: males generally move great distances during the typical spring mating season to seek out females (Buchanan, 2017). However, if males mate at overwintering sites, they are less motivated to seek out mates and thus, able to spare energy during this active season, because, at times, female mates may be hard to find. Therefore, communal overwintering also allows a male turtle to save energy and yet increase success, by mating at the same site he overwinters (Carrière et al., 2009). In a study investigating hibernation site selection of Blanding’s turtles, Christopher Edge and collaborators (2009) discovered multiple Blanding’s turtles copulating and hibernating together (≥ 5m) in Algonquin park. At these sites, groups of turtles ranged from two to seven individuals, with both sexes present in all scenarios. This could suggest that communal areas are promoted by the mating opportunities related to grouping together, or it may simply be because habitat destruction has limited the number of overwintering sites available for the population (Edge et al., 2009). In a study conducted to investigate courtship and mating behaviours of Northern Map turtles, results suggested that communal hibernation was widely displayed in this population. In Lake Opinicon, 75% of studied males ventured near two popular turtle overwintering sites throughout the course of the study. The scientists were able to track the movement of these individuals using radio-telemetry. This tool uses radio signals and transmitters attached to animals (in the case of turtles it is typically attached at the rear-end of their shell) (Litzgus et al., 1999)) to observe their movement while off site. The data did not indicate what percent of males successfully completed overwintering at these sites. However, the results suggest that the majority of males in the area do travel close to communal sites to reap the benefits of group mating (Bulté et al., 2021). Alternatively, in a study on Wood turtles conducted in Sudbury, Greaves and Litzgus (2007) did not find any evidence to support the idea that turtles overwinter in groups. This places some doubt on the general view that all turtles have a tendency to behave this way. The study was run using visual observation and tracker data. Although the general consensus was that turtles did not overwinter in groups, a pair was documented mating at the overwintering sites before separating for the winter. This supports the idea that turtles may use opportunistic fall mating interactions to increase their fitness (Greaves & Litzgus, 2007). In Georgian Bay Ontario, a four-year hibernation study on Spotted turtles noted that communal hibernation was commonly found. The researchers again employed the use of radio-telemetry to track the locations of Spotted turtles over the years as well as visual observations to supplement this data. The primary purpose of this study was to assess the ecology and typical hibernation behaviours of Northern Spotted turtles. In the process the scientists also made other remarks. Of the eleven hibernation sites monitored, seven were found to be used for communal hibernation of turtles (≤ 9). This region is, however, considered to be the northern range of a Spotted turtles territory suggesting that this observation could be due to limited hibernation site availability, as previously discussed (Litzgus et al., 1999). While hibernating in groups seems to have many upsides, this behaviour can nevertheless be dangerous for vulnerable subpopulations of freshwater turtles because grouping together can increase the risk of extirpation (a subpopulation being completely wiped out in an area). In cases where large groups of turtles come together, the increased activity can attract predators (Litzgus et al., 1999). Related is that during the winter, turtles are in a state of inactivity under the water because the low temperature causes metabolic depression and physiologically, metabolic depression limits an individual's ability to move (Newton & Herman, 2009; Edge et al., 2009). Therefore turtles cannot escape attacks by predators at this stage. These situations can be particularly detrimental to unstable subpopulations as it can result in a huge loss of reproductive adults, and potentially result in extirpation (Litzgus et al., 1999). But also, habitat destruction or alteration can affect overwintering populations; The viability of typical overwintering sites can be changed and make that area unsuitable for overwintering (Litzgus et al., 1999). Examples include when wetlands and shorelands are “filled in '' or drained, or water levels are changed, most often, artificially. Typically, turtles select a pond or water body for overwintering, where there is the potential for a barrier to form between the turtle and the ambient air temperature. The barrier produces a comparatively warmer environment (Ross and Anderson, 1990). Some wetlands may be quite small with stable water levels, a thick warm substrate, also where a layer of ice may become the needed boundary between the water and the air. Without this stable underwater refuge, a turtle’s risk of desiccation and encountering freezing temperatures is significantly elevated (Markle et al., 2020). Unexpected changes in habitat conditions often result in indirect changes to the hydrological condition and water temperatures of the area (Bodie & Semlitsch, 2000) which then can result in many unintended deaths. Therefore, turtles grouping together for the winter, means that more individuals are vulnerable to negative events, and which may increase the chance of local extirpations. In other words, many adults can be killed off because of human alterations to habitats or during a particularly difficult winter (White, 2013). It is accepted that communal hibernation is exercised by freshwater turtles, however, researchers have not concluded that it is employed in every turtle species. Future studies may aim to determine whether this phenomena exists reliably in all turtle populations, and should also aim to assess the patterns of this behaviour based on the spatial ecology of areas. Doing so, will help to inform attuned policies and improved conservation measures. Generally, conservation of all hibernation areas (chiefly wetland habitats) is of the utmost importance because death of adult breeding turtles individually will destabilize local populations, but also where there may be communal groups, local extirpations of turtle populations is an immediate concern. As habitat areas and their quality are compromised by human activity, and as temperatures become more inconsistent due to climate change, the threat to turtle populations is an increasing reality for Ontario freshwater turtles. Human development with subsequent habitat loss may also increase communal hibernation, and then in addition to the vulnerabilities from more destruction or climate change, increased threat from predation events is added to the mix. For all these reasons, continued efforts to preserve wetlands and surrounding areas are vital to the protection and longevity of freshwater turtles in Ontario. Written by Andrea O'Halloran, edited by Leora Berman and Kiara Duval - Bodie, J. R., & Semlitsch, R. D. (2000). Spatial and temporal use of floodplain habitats by lentic and lotic species of aquatic turtles. Oecologia, 122(1), 138-146. - Brown, G. P., & Brooks, R. J. (1994). Characteristics of and fidelity to hibernacula in a northern population of snapping turtles, Chelydra serpentina. Copeia, 1994(1), 222-226. - Buchanan, S. W. (2017). The influence of altered habitat: landscape ecology of freshwater turtles in Rhode Island (Doctoral dissertation, University of Rhode Island). - Bulté, G., Huneault, B., & Blouin‐Demers, G. (2021). Free‐ranging male northern map turtles use public information when interacting with potential mates. Ethology, 127(11), 995-1001.
Relaxation effect is called the asymmetry effect, may be looked upon from a different perspective. Once the external field is applied, the central ion starts moving toward the electrode of opposite charge and more of the ionic atmosphere is left behind that is present on the front side. These excess ions of the ionic atmosphere which are left behind will tend to retard the speed of the moving ion due to the electrostatic force. Thus the effect arises because of the asymmetry of the ionic atmosphere, and hence the effect is called asymmetry effect. An approximate representation of the above statements is given in Figure. The arrow at the top of the ‘ion atmosphere’ represents the velocity with which the cation would have moved to the cathode if no retarding force was in operation. The small arrow below the ion atmosphere shows the retarding force. Since in a solution of one mole of the electrolyte the number of tons is constant this retardation of the velocity of the ions brings about an overall decrease in molar conductance from its ideal value that the solution would have in absence of any other force.
Literacy generates the development of effective skills in communication. To be literate is to be able to listen, speak, read and write at a level necessary to function in education, at work and in society. Principal aims of Kettlethorpe High School Literacy Plan - To develop a shared understanding, between all staff, of the role of literacy in pupils’ learning - To create a literacy-rich school community that raises literacy attainment levels for every pupil - To promote, encourage and facilitate a love of reading across the curriculum - To create a shared responsibility to help pupils communicate effectively both in school and in preparation for the working world - To identify pupils who required additional support and provide effective interventions which are measured for their impact - To create and promote a shared responsibility for literacy across all departments. It is the collective responsibility of all staff, in all curriculum areas, to ensure that high levels of literacy are consistently implemented to improve standards and raise levels of attainment and create effective communicators for the outside world. Download our full Literacy Expectations guide. Here are some recommendations for books young people might enjoy. We have put them in the age appropriate lists and hope that they will encourage independent reading. Most of these titles are available in the school library: All pupils in Year 7 and 8 also participate in our Accelerated Reading programme, which involves a reading session in the library and a computer-based quiz to confirm understanding. This programme has been shown to have great impact nationally and we regularly see substantial improvements in pupils’ reading ages over the course of a year. It personalises reading for each pupil and makes reading practice fun. Accelarated Reader book finder – a website where you can check if a book is included in the Accelerated Reader scheme and what level it is. Scholastic Book Club You can purchase books for you child through Scholastic website and help our school get free books and resources. Many thanks to all families who have supported us in this way already!
WHO KNEW? 7 BRILLIANT AFRICAN BUFFALO FACTS The African buffalo is a member of “Big Five” group of African animals. But how much do you actually know about one of Africa’s largest and most common herbivores? I invite you to learn more about the African Buffalo in the latest edition of our animal facts blog series! 1) AFRICAN BUFFALO HORNS TELL MANY STORIES In adult male African buffaloes, the base of their distinct, curving horns come so close together that the fuse. This creates a sort of shield on their heads known as a “boss”. Female buffalo horns do not have a “boss”, allowing researchers to distinguish between male and female buffalo more easily. In addition, the larger and thicker the horns in adult males, the more likely this male is to be higher ranked in the dominance hierarchy of the herd. In other words, you can tell a lot about an African buffalo from their horns! BBC 2) THERE ARE FIVE SUBSPECIES OF AFRICAN BUFFALO The most common subspecies is the Cape Buffalo. It is also the largest: males can weigh up to 2,000 pounds. In contrast, the forest buffalo is the smallest of the five weighing in, on average, at only 600 pounds. Other varieties of African buffalo include the Sudanese buffalo, Nile buffalo and the Mountain buffalo. 3) AFRICAN BUFFALO HERDS ARE HIERARCHICAL African buffalo have a complex social structure based on what scientists call a “dominance hierarchy”. This means that social cohesion in the herd is largely governed by dominant males and females. Dominance is established by the strength, size and age of a given buffalo combined with their interactions with other members of the herd. Both males and females travel together in the same herd, with a group of related females forming the core of the herd, while a group of subordinate males and older animals form sub-herds. Adding to this complexity, during the dry season males split off from the herd and form bachelor groups. These groups rejoin the main herd in the wet season to mate with females. For the African buffalo, there is strength in numbers. , so the larger the herd the more able they are to protect themselves from predators. 4) AFRICAN BUFFALOES COMMUNICATE WITH DIFFERENT VOCALIZATIONS Researchers have identified five main vocalizations that African buffalo use to communicate with one another. Low pitched sounds, spaced three to six seconds apart, direct the herd to move. More gritty variations on this low pitch sound signals the herd to change directions. Researchers have also observed African buffalo making long “maaa” calls as they are approaching watering holes; this sound may simply be an expression of pleasure, contentment or anticipation. To signal aggression, usually to fellow buffalo, the animals make explosive grunts and rumbling growls. Finally, when the herd feels threatened by predators (such as lions or crocodiles) they will let out long “waaa” calls. 5) CALVES ARE ONLY BORN DURING THE RAINY SEASON Buffaloes are pregnant for about 11 and a half months before giving birth to new calves. This occurs only in the rainy season. Thanks to more abundance of vegetation and drinking water during the rainy season, the newborn calves have a higher chance of survival than if they were born during the dry season. Calves stay with their mothers for about one year before they become more independent within the herd. Males leave to join bachelor groups once they reach two years of age. 6) AFRICAN BUFFALO HERDS “VOTE” Researchers have discovered a curious phenomenon in female African buffalo: they appear to “vote” to decide which direction to move the herd in. During times of rest, the females sit on the ground facing the direction they think the herd should move. After resting time finishes, the herd then moves in the direction that the majority were pointing towards. The most interesting aspect of this observed behaviour is that it is communal: the dominance hierarchy does not appear to influence the “votes” of individual buffalo. 7) AFRICAN BUFFALO ARE UNPREDICTABLE Unlike some other buffalo species, the African buffalo has never been domesticated thanks in large part to its unpredictable behaviour. This combined with the animal’s large size, deadly set of horns and the relative lack of predators make it a wild animal that demands respect for its place in the animal kingdom. Of the major African mammals, only hippopotamuses and elephants are thought to be more of a danger to humans than buffalo. Meet and greet mountain gorillas in their natural environment the stunning afromontane forest of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park Discover the rich biodiversity of Uganda in Queen Elizabeth National Game Park. This Safari Guarantees you Lion hunting Experience Enjoy a wonderful safari to Uganda's largest game park and see the most powerful fall in the world. The Hub for Wildlife in Africa Glimpsing Uganda’s famous wildlife can be tricky for time-limited travelers in the capital. Utilize your weekend with this Safaris This Wildlife Safari will offer you the best sightings of several mammals like the tree climbing Lions, Gorillas, Chimpanzees & Birds. This Unique Kidepo Valley Wildlife Safari takes you to the unique Wildlife Park in the Lonely Region of Karamojja's Lots of wildlives.
Hypertension, more commonly referred to as high blood pressure, is a condition diagnosed when an individual has abnormally high blood pressure. Blood pressure refers to the pressure placed against the walls of the large arteries when the left ventricle, or pumping chamber of the heart, is contracting (systole) and relaxing (diastole). Hence, the two numbers we see when measuring blood pressure refers to exactly this. The top number which is always higher, represents systolic blood pressure, or the pressure placed on the major arterial walls when the heart contracts. Conversely, the bottom, or lower number, represents diastolic blood pressure, or the pressure placed on major arterial walls during relaxation. A ‘normal’ BP reading is considered to be 120/80, and these values represent an estimation of the pressure that the organs are exposed to. Hypertension is diagnosed when blood pressure readings are in excess of 140/90 following multiple readings. Hypertension is often categorized into 3 stages: Hypertension is the most common cardiovascular disease and it is associated with an increased incidence of all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality. Furthermore, excessively high BP is a major risk factor for chronic kidney disease, heart failure, cardiovascular events and early death. Hypertension may not cause symptoms, which is why it is often referred to as a ‘silent killer.’ Furthermore, as we age, our arteries harden and become less elastic. This has a significant impact on increasing blood pressure as the pressure placed against arterial walls when the heart contracts and relaxes is far greater when the walls are stiffer. The Effect of Exercise on Hypertension: In order to prevent, treat and manage hypertension, lifestyle modifications are advocated, with exercise as an integral component. Exercise remains the cornerstone therapy for the prevention and control of high blood pressure. Exercise programs that involve both aerobic and resistance training prevent the development of hypertension and lower blood pressure in adults. Mechanisms that explain the BP lowering effects of exercise include: - Neurohumoral, vascular and structural adaptations. The heart and vascular system are partly regulated by neural (autonomic) and humoral (circulating or hormonal) factors. Alterations in the regulation of the sympathetic nervous system as well as structural adaptations in the elasticity of arterial walls play a role in reducing blood pressure. - Decreases in catecholamines and total peripheral resistance. Reductions in catecholamines (such as adrenaline) will stem from neurohumoral adaptations discussed above, while a reduction in these will play a role in lowering BP. Peripheral resistance essentially refers to the resistance of blood flow; a lower resistance will correlate with a lower BP as less force is exerted against arterial walls. - Improved insulin sensitivity – Insulin resistance and hypertension often coexist, as 50% of hypertensive individuals display glucose intolerance, while up to 80% of type 2 diabetics have hypertension. Insulin induces vasorelaxation (relaxation of the arteries and reduction in tension), while it regulates sodium (salt) homeostasis by increasing sodium reabsorption in the kidney, therefore contributing to a reduction in blood pressure. - Alterations in vasodilators and vasoconstrictors – Vasodilation refers to the dilation of blood vessels, which has a lowering effect on BP as the force exerted on vascular walls is reduced. Alternatively, vasoconstrictors increase BP by constricting blood vessels, thereby increased the pressure placed against walls during systole and diastole. Hence, alterations in these mechanisms can have a lowering effect on blood pressure. How much/what type of Exercise should I be completing? The American college of Sport and Medicine (ACSM) recommends, based upon current evidence, that the following exercise prescription be followed for those with hypertension: - Frequency: On most, preferably all days of the week - Intensity: Moderate intensity - Time: At least 30mins of continuous or accumulated physical activity per day - Type: Primarily endurance physical activity supplemented by resistance exercise Aerobic exercise will help to lower BP by making your heart stronger, as well as the benefits discussed above. The research surrounding benefits of strength and resistance training is not as thorough in comparison to aerobic exercise; however it certainly does not have a negative effect on managing blood pressure. When completing resistance training, be sure to continue breathing out during ‘push phases,’ as holding your breath can cause spikes in blood pressure. Isometric contractions (i.e. holding a weight in a static position for extended periods), as well as overhead lifts, are also not recommended for similar reasons. Resistance training will help improve muscular strength and mass which will help you burn more calories throughout the day. It is also good for your joints and bones and will help with completion of activities of daily living, while it is linked with a reduced risk of falls or development of other chronic diseases. Such increases in metabolism at rest will help manage blood pressure by aiding in weight loss and in reducing obesity. Obesity is considered a major risk factor for hypertension as it is linked with an increased HR and a reduction in the body’s ability to transport blood through blood vessels, while the formation of blood clots can also occur. These are all associated with an increase in the pressure placed on vascular walls thereby increasing blood pressure. Hence, completing a mix of both forms of training will have positive effects on managing your high blood pressure and health! Our initial consultation process, as well as all subsequent reviews at Inspire Fitness for Wellbeing will involve measurement and tracking of your blood pressure. If you are someone with high blood pressure, I hope this article has educated you on the potential benefits that a mix of aerobic and resistance training can have for the management and treatment of hypertension. If you are seeking guidance to commence exercise and reap the benefits discussed throughout this article, please contact us on 9857 3007 so we can begin designing you your own individualized training program to get you started!
Biologists witness the birth of a new species before their very eyes An exceptional Biologists duo who have studying an ecosystem from the Galapagos Islands for the past 40 years have made one of the most important discoveries in evolutionary biology - the birth of a new species! In his magnum opus, ‘On the Origin of Species’, Darwin writes about how evolution and natural selection is omnipresent and working ceaselessly for all living organisms, yet “we see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked the lapse of ages.” In other words, evolution works its magic so slowly that to us mortals won’t be able to witness it in action until our nephew’s nephews. Charles Darwin only spent a few months on the Galápagos Islands, however, compared to the past 40 years British biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant have. Evolution in action If the two sound familiar, you might know them as being featured on the popular science book “The Beak of the Finch“, by Jonathan Weiner. Published in 1994, at a time when 50% of Americans refused to believe in evolution, the book provided an entertaining read on how evolution works. Now, writing for the New York Times, Weiner offers us a precious update of what the married biologist couple have been up to – their discovery is hailed as nothing short of a breakthrough in evolutionary biology. The Grants have visiting the tiny uninhabited island of Daphne Major, the cinder cone of an extinct volcano, each year since 1973. The vigorous duo, now each 77 years of age, would camp in the same spot, near a cave, and exclusively study the finches in the genus Geospiza – the same birds that offered Darwin key insights that led to the formation of his groundbreaking theory on evolution and natural selection. They were looking to reconstruct the finches’ evolutionary history, but instead they found something else – the birth of a new species before their very eyes! Weiner writes in his editorial: “Its own origins date to 1981, when a strange finch landed on the island. He was a hybrid of the medium-beaked ground finch and the cactus finch. He had the sort of proportions that touch our protective feelings: a big head on a stout body. In other words, he was cute. They called him Big Bird. Hybrids are not unknown among Darwin’s 13 species of finches, but they are rare. Because they evolved so recently, birds of these different species can mate but ordinarily choose not to. (Our own ancestors seem to have felt the same way about Neanderthals.) Big Bird had a strange song that none of the finch watchers had ever heard. His feathers were a rich, extra-glossy black. He had more tricks in his repertory than his neighbors: He could crack the spiky, troublesome seeds of the Tribulus plant, normally the specialty of the big-beaked ground finch, as well as small seeds favored by the small-beaked ground finch. He could dine on the nectar, pollen and seeds of the cactus, which belongs to the cactus finch. Big Bird mated with a medium-beak on Daphne. Their offspring sang the new song of Big Bird. And slowly, Big Bird became a patriarch. He lived 13 years, a long time for one of Darwin’s finches. His children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren all sang his song, and they were clannish. They roosted in hearing distance of one another on the slopes of Daphne Major. What’s more, they bred only among their kind, generation after generation. Big Bird’s lineage has now lasted for 30 years and seven generations.” The findings top more than 30 years of pain staking observations, providing perhaps some of the best empirical evidence that supports the theory of evolution. Notable figures in the field did not shy away from praising the effort. “The Grants’ work is possibly the most important research program in evolutionary biology in the last half-century,” Dr. Losos said. “It has reshaped both how we understand evolution and how we study it. Before their work, no one was trying to study evolution in action — now it seems that everyone is.” While still healthy, sadly the Grants lack their youthful vigor that once helped them return to Daphne Major each year, but their pioneering observations will definitely spark other researchers to follow in their footsteps, either on the same tiny volcanic island or on some of the myriad of tiny ecosystems this planets shelters that are perfectly fit to study evolution at its finest. If you’d like to read more about the Grants’ story, consider reading their latest book authored together – “40 Years of Evolution.”
C# How To Program Finishing the game. Creating game loop. Calling methods. Creating C# objects. The Logo language made the concept of turtle graphics famous. Imagine a mechanical turtle that walks around the room under the control of a C# app. The turtle holds a pen in one of two positions—up or down. While the pen is down, the turtle traces out shapes as it moves, and while the pen is up, the turtle moves about freely with out writing any thing. In this problem, you’ll simulate the operation of the turtle and create a computerized sketchpad. Use a 20-by-20 rectangular array floor that’s initialized to 0. Read commands from an array that contains them. Keep track at all times of the current position of the turtle and whether the pen is currently up or down. Assume that the turtle always starts at position (0, 0) of the floor with its pen up. The set of turtle commands your app must process are shown below. Suppose that the turtle is somewhere near the center of the floor. The following “app” would draw and display a 12-by-12 square, leaving the pen in the up position: 2 5,12 3 5,12 3 5,12 3 5,12 1 6 9 As the turtle moves with the pen down, set the appropriate elements of array floor to 1s. When the 6 command (display the array) is given, wherever there’s a 1 in the array, display an asterisk or any character you choose. Wherever there’s a 0, display a blank. Write an app to implement the turtle graphics capabilities discussed here. Write several turtle graphics apps to draw interesting shapes. Add other commands to increase the power of your turtle graphics language. DOWNLOAD SOURCE CODE: yt_8-21-TurtleGraphics
NEVER CRY WOLF SUBJECTS — Science-Technology, The Environment; U.S./1945-1991; Alaska; SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Caring for Animals; Courage; MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Respect. AGE; 10+; MPAA Rating — PG; Drama; 1983; 91 minutes; Color. Available from Amazon.com. MOVIE WORKSHEETS & STUDENT HANDOUTS For English Language Arts classes, distribute TWM’s Film Study Worksheet. Teachers can modify the worksheet to fit the needs of each class. Ask students to fill out the worksheet as they watch the film or at the film’s end. Click here for TWM’s lesson plans to introduce cinematic and theatrical technique. This is a fictional account of a young scientist who spends a year observing a pack of wolves in Alaska. The film is based on the classic novel by Farley Mowat, first published in 1963. The novel was instrumental in changing attitudes toward wolves in the U.S., Canada, Russia (then the U.S.S.R.) and other countries. Previously, wolves had been considered dangerous animals, to be killed whenever possible. The novel helped people understand that wolves are valuable members of the forest ecology, endangered and deserving of protection. SELECTED AWARDS & CAST Selected Awards: None. Featured Actors: Charles Martin Smith; Brian Dennehy; Zachary Ittimangnaq, Samson Jorah. Director: Carroll Ballard. BENEFITS OF THE MOVIE “Never Cry Wolf” will introduce children to the world of wolves. MINIMAL. Alcohol use and abuse are shown. Show your child the different types of wolves pictured in the Helpful Background section. Describe a little about their characteristics. Ask and help your child to answer the Quick Discussion Question. There are an estimated minimum of 150,000 wolves in more than 37 countries. Most countries give legal protection to wolves and most wolf populations are stable or increasing. Wolves survive in very different climates because they have two types of fur: a thick, downy undercoat for insulation and an overcoat of long, guard hairs to repel water and snow. The undercoat will be thicker in cold weather and lighter in warm weather. In very cold weather a wolf will keep warm by curling himself into a ball and tucking his muzzle in his tail. Wolves communicate in a number of ways. They howl, growl, whimper, whine, bark, and squeal. Whimpering or whining is often a display of friendliness. Growls threaten or enforce pack hierarchy. Barks are used to signal alarm. Howling, one of the most beautiful and haunting forms of communication in nature, brings the pack together for a hunt, solidifies pack unity, signifies a celebration, or notifies other wolves of the extent of the pack’s territory. To hear wolf howls go to The Searching Wolf. Like men before the advent of powerful bows and guns, wolves hunt in packs. Wolf packs are between two and twenty animals. Their main prey are large herbivores such as deer, moose, and caribou, but they will eat whatever is available. Wolves usually hunt at night, looking for the weakest animals in the herd. By controlling population growth, taking out the old, the sick and the genetically inferior, wolves help protect the herds that they hunt. They also prey on the young. Once the quarry is located, wolves surround the animal, biting it wherever they can, particularly the backside, sides, neck and head. If the animal makes a spirited fight or if it is fast and can outdistance the pack, the wolves will let it go and look for easier prey. Most hunts by wolf packs are not successful. But when they are successful, the wolves gorge, eating up to 20 pounds of meat and gristle per animal. They eat almost all of the carcass leaving only hair, horns and a few bones. After a successful hunt a wolf can go up to two weeks without eating. The pack is a tightly knit, highly organized group which travels, hunts, protects territory, and raises pups together. It has been said that the wolf pack is one of the strongest social organizations found in nature. Packs consist of a dominant male and female, called the alpha male and the alpha female, together with their offspring or other wolves related to them. On occasion, an unrelated wolf will be permitted to become a pack member. Strict hierarchy maintains order within the pack. The alpha male leads. He and the alpha female are the only members of the pack who can mate. An aide to the alpha, called the beta wolf, often acts as the caretaker of the pups and the enforcer of the alpha’s decisions. The omega wolf is the lowest ranking member of the pack, subordinate to all others, and often forced to wait for food until the rest of the pack is finished eating. The rankings often go in pairs. The alpha wolf displays a very confident stride with tail raised and ears forward. Even a glare from the alpha wolf can be sufficient to cause another wolf in the pack to show obeisance such as tucking in its tail, lowering its body and crawling to the alpha wolf, etc. Wolves mate for life, breeding between January and April. (The breeding period varies. In warmer climates it is earlier than in colder climates.) A litter averages 6 to 7 pups after a gestation period of about 63 days. Wolves find natural holes or a burrow, usually in a hillside, to raise their pups. After the pups are weaned, they are fed with meat regurgitated by their parents. Juvenile wolves remain with the pack until they reach sexual maturity (just short of two years). They then go out, search for a mate and establish their own territories. There are three species of wolves. By far the most successful is the gray wolf or timber wolf. This is a powerful animal with robust limbs, large feet, a deep but narrow chest and a large head. The gray wolf is the largest canid living in the wild. A northern male may be about 6.5 feet long, including the bushy, 20-inch tail, and weigh 44 to 175 pounds. Females are about 20% smaller, and southern races of wolves tend to be smaller than northern ones. The fur of the gray wolf is usually gray but may be brown, reddish, black, or whitish. The underparts and legs are usually yellow-white. Gray Wolf also called Timber Wolf North American subspecies of the gray wolf are: the Arctic Wolf, the Eastern Timber Wolf, the Great Plains Wolf, the Rocky Mountain Wolf and the Mexican Wolf. There are 12 subspecies in Eurasia. The range for a pack of gray wolves is usually one hundred or several hundred square kilometer and is actively defended against neighboring packs. Before the dominance of man, the range of the gray wolf extended from Arctic Canada south to Central Mexico, all of Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, parts of India, and China. This included every type of habitat in the Northern Hemisphere except tropical forests and arid deserts and was a larger natural distribution than any other mammal except human beings. In North America, the gray wolf is now restricted to Canada and Alaska, with small populations in Minnesota. Wolves have lost 95 percent of their historical range in the United States, 15 percent in Canada, 100 percent in Mexico and 25 percent in Europe and Asia. In 1995, wolves were reintroduced in wilderness areas of the northern Rocky Mountains. Large numbers of gray wolves still live in Russia and neighboring countries and in the Balkans, with much smaller populations isolated in parts of central and southern Europe and Scandinavia. The red wolf is a tawny, reddish, or black canid whose range area included the south-central United States. It resembles a coyote-wolf hybrid and grows to a length of about 105 to 125 cm, excluding the tail, which is 33 to 43 cm long. It weighs about 45 to 80 lbs. The red wolf has a number of differences from the gray wolf. Its fur is shorter and has flecks of red. In addition, the red wolf’s ears are larger and its snout is narrower than its gray wolf cousin. Red wolves are known to hunt individually and in packs, eating white-tailed deer, raccoons and small mammals such as rabbits and rodents. They have also been known to prey on domestic pets and livestock but in very small numbers. Like gray wolves, red wolves live in the social structure of a pack, with a defended territory, an alpha breeding pair, and older offspring to assist with pup rearing. Red wolves are an endangered species; the total population in the late 20th century appeared to be fewer than 100. It is being saved from extinction by reintroduction projects in Tennessee and North Carolina. Adapted from Wolves of the World from the International Wolf Center. The Abyssinian wolf is found in only six or seven mountain ranges of Ethiopia. Its coat is a reddish-brown with white markings and it has a bushy tail. Their length from head to tail can measure up to 133 cm. Males can weigh up to 18 kg and females up to 16 kg. It hunts alone and its prey consists of small rodents, eggs, and other small animals. Its pack structure is the normal hierarchical structure for canids. See Canis Simensis from the University of Michigan. Dogs were the first animals domesticated by humans. It is theorized that they worked cooperatively with humans to locate and announce the position of prey wounded by hunters’ primitive arrows. Fossils of domesticated dogs have been found at a German site dating back to 14,000 B.C.E. However, a recent study that looked at DNA animals such as wolves, coyotes, jackals, and dogs found that the divergence of dogs from wolves may have occurred as long as 135,000 years ago. Wolves and dogs have many similarities such as their intensely social nature, their instinctive behaviors of play, dominance and submission, scent marking, and the females’ care for their young. Wolves are much more like dogs than they are like either coyotes or foxes in temperament, manners and physical structure. Wolves, dogs, and coyotes will mate willingly. There are differences, however. A dog of the same weight as a wolf will have a head that is 20 percent smaller, has smaller teeth, more rounded and forward-looking eyes, and a more curved lower jaw. Wolves mature more slowly than dogs, reaching sexual maturity at the same time that they become socially mature, age two or three. Adapted from Encyclopedia Britannica, article on Dogs-Related Canids. Before the book was published most people viewed wolves as dangerous animals that should be exterminated. The book made people realize that wolves were animals with a special place in the ecosystem. 2. Why do wolves breed earlier in warmer climates than they do in colder climates? Food is more plentiful in the spring/summer which arrives earlier in warmer climates. 3. Why are wolves larger in cold climates than in warm climates? 4. Why do you think that the Indians respected wolves so much? 5. What did you think of Tyler’s experiment to see if a large mammal could support itself on mice alone? Did this experiment conform to the scientific method? Was it a reasonable way to determine if the wolves were killing caribou? 6. Are wolves beneficial to the caribou herd? Justify your answer. 7. Why did Tyler want to get close to the wolves? Was this evidence of a psychological problem or of great strength? 8. How do the different groups of friends at your school resemble or differ from the social organization of a wolf pack? 9. How does the social organization of your family resemble or differ from a wolf pack? CARING FOR ANIMALS 1. Was it worth the life of a wolf for Mike to get new teeth so that he could get married? 2. Do you believe that wolves should be exterminated or protected? 3. Was Tyler courageous or acting like a fool to spend the winter isolated in the arctic near a pack of wolves? MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS (CHARACTER COUNTS) Discussion Questions Relating to Ethical Issues will facilitate the use of this film to teach ethical principles and critical viewing. Additional questions are set out below. (Treat others with respect; follow the Golden Rule; Be tolerant of differences; Use good manners, not bad language; Be considerate of the feelings of others; Don’t threaten, hit or hurt anyone; Deal peacefully with anger, insults, and disagreements) 1. What did Tyler come to respect about the wolves? ASSIGNMENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES The websites described in the Links to the Internet Section and Encyclopedia Britannica. This Learning Guide was last updated on December 17, 2009.
She went on to describe six guidelines to help students build vocabulary. She pointed out that these guidelines are not meant to be followed lock-step, meaning these guidelines are flexible depending on the needs of the students. Help students develop sufficient initial understanding by: - Providing a description, explanation, or example of the new term. - Giving them an experience (story, video, simulation, etc.). - Establish a record keeping system (some place to keep the terms). The notebooks should include: Term, Describe, Draw, and a Self-evaluation measure - Asking the students to restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words. - Asking students to construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representing the term or phrase. - Engage in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms in their notebooks. - To discuss the terms with one another. - Play games using the terms. Here are some games Debra Pickering suggested: - Word Association Game: (think 10,000 Pyramid) - Show Me: (think charades) - Quick Draw: (think Pictionary) Check out these links for more information on games that build academic vocabulary: - Games and Activities That Build Academic Vocabulary: a presentation by Danette Parsley and Heather Martindill. - Academic Vocabulary Games: Tennesee Schools academic vocabulary project.
This term the Year 2 children will be learning about explanation texts. This week they worked in groups to make predictions about the text features that they might find inside an explanation book. The children worked brilliantly together. The group managers made sure that everybody took turns and had a chance to share their ideas, and the group scribes worked really hard writing down everybody’s ideas and predictions. The children then moved on to reading an explanation text about the life cycle of a hen, in preparation for our class eggs arriving after half term! The children were so pleased that many of their predictions were correct, and they spotted lots of the text features such as captions, labelled diagrams, bold topic words, a glossary and a contents page. The children then worked on labeling the text features on pages from the book. Other explanation texts were then provided for the children to extend their learning, and many children decided to search Get Epic for more explanation texts.
According to a recent study, around 80% of data breaches are related to weak passwords. Many internet users do not comprehend the importance of having a strong password. It prevents intruders from hijacking your accounts including bank accounts, online accounts, emails, and social media accounts. The brute force attack is a way for attackers to submit many passwords with the hope of guessing your password correctly. Falling a victim to brute force will result in getting your personal information and credit cards exposed to the world. A dictionary attack is a type of brute force attack which is a technique used by hackers in an effort to try guessing thousands and sometimes millions of words picked up directly from the dictionary. It is extremely important to use a password generator to help you create a strong password. A password is considered strong if it contains all of the following characters: capital and small letters, numbers and special characters. A password should also be at least 12 characters long. What to Avoid Being Hacked By Have a Strong Password? To be safe from getting your accounts hacked, you need to carefully follow the below instructions: Avoid repeating characters. An Example is AAAA1111 Avoid commonly used passwords such as password1, ABC123, etc. Avoid simple or easily identifiable passwords. For instance, John1992 Always use a unique password for your accounts. Master passwords, usually admin accounts, must use a unique password along with capital and small characters, numbers and special characters. Do not write it down as the risk of getting it exposed is pretty high. Also do not use password saving tools. Examples of strong passwords are the following D7of3?zH166ps04, :_g2bnt9z01861VM and 58cXAM2dg!9)134i Always change your password. Always use random numbers. Do not use your year of birth, your phone number or social security number. Do not share your passwords with others It is a good practice to secure passwords by writing them down and putting them in your wallet along with your money. Only use well-known password management tools like Google Chrome or Samsung. A security question is high risk so always use a strong password generator to put them as the answers. An easy to remember password is the one that can be converted into words then phrases. For example, the password Ximbc887$# can be converted to XBOX is my best console 887*$# Why Using This Random Password Generator? This random password generator will help you generate three types of passwords, easy, moderate, and tough. It is recommended that you always use tough passwords to make it harder for hackers to be able to hack your account. It is also recommended that you use at least 15 characters long passwords. The strong password generator is the tool you will need to easily generate passwords on the go. Your connection status: Your IP 18.104.22.168 and Location United States are exposed. Use a VPN to hide them and browse anonymously.
The First Amendment in the United States Constitution was placed in the Bill of Rights by our Founders to guarantee citizens their basic freedoms. The First Amendment and the accompanying amendments in the Bill of Rights alike are an essential part of the United States as a whole, yet many do not know or understand these rights. However, knowing and understanding your legal rights is extremely important and can help to ensure your freedom if it is ever jeopardized. What is the First Amendment? Although the First Amendment is an integral part of the United States Constitution, many citizens are not familiar with the Amendment or what personal rights it grants them. The First Amendment states that: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Arguably the most important Amendment within the Bill of Rights, this Amendment protects freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the right to petition. By establishing this blueprint for personal freedom and the promise of an open society, this right allows citizens to express themselves freely in numerous ways. Why You Should Know the First Amendment Knowing and understanding your rights is extremely important because they can protect you from unjust actions that violate your First Amendment rights or other basic rights. When we consider the Constitution as a whole, we should always remember the First Amendment and why it is the First Amendment. Without these written rights, our other rights would have little meaning. If we could not openly express our opinions about the government and criticize the government, our freedoms would essentially be nonexistent. We established the right to freedom of religion and expression to preserve the cultural diversity of the United States and furthermore, to encourage it to flourish. Ultimately, it is these First Amendment rights that are the basis of our freedoms as United States citizens. While it is important to know and understand your basic rights, you should always contact an attorney if you have been arrested and believe your First Amendment rights (or any other rights) have been violated. The experienced attorneys at the Khonsari Law Group can help you understand your rights and defend these rights if they have been violated. For more information on how the Khonsari Law Group can assist you with your case, click here, or visit the attorneys for a free consultation.

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.