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Research at NCEAS relies on access to existing data on a broad variety of topics, and these data usually are very difficult to locate, access, interpret, and analyze. Our approach to informatics uses extensive documentation about data (i.e., metadata) to overcome many of these data management challenges. Thus, most of our tools utilize metadata to effectively handle the complexity of ecological data sources.
Our emphasis on metadata-driven systems comes from an ongoing analysis of the capabilities of existing metadata standards that are relevant to ecology. Some of the standards we have examined include the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC), the NBII Biological Data Profile (key sections of which we helped to author), the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, and the Directory Interchange Format (DIF). While several of these standards are relevant, none comprehensively addressed the needs of ecology, particularly in terms of allowing automated data processing on heterogeneous ecological data sources. Thus, we believed there was a need for a new metadata specification with the following properties:
- Extensible at run-time
- Highly structured for machine parsing
- Supports automated data processing
- Supports non-geospatial data
- Incorporates important biological metadata (e.g., taxonomy)
- Practical adoption by the ecological community
We designed and developed Ecological Metadata Language (EML) to satisfy these design requirements and to be compatible with metadata recommendations originally developed by the Ecological Society of America's Future of Long-term Ecological Data (FLED) committee and associated efforts (Michener et al., 1997, Ecological Applications). EML is a flexible, highly structured metadata markup language that allows scientists to fully describe their data, while maintaining a light footprint for those scientists not yet ready to invest the time needed to more comprehensively preserve their data. An EML description provides all of the information found in other roughly comparable standards (e.g., Biological Data Profile) but also provides details about both the logical and physical structure of data to allow them to be machine processed by automated systems.
Building these automated systems has been the focus of many of our informatics research projects. Our projects span the whole scientific process, including automating data collection in the field using metadata-driven form generation (Jalama ), desktop data and metadata editing (Morpho ), data discovery on the network (Morpho ), schema-independent data and metadata storage, search, and preservation (Metacat ), and metadata-enabled analytical tools for capturing and executing ecological analyses and models as scientific workflows (Monarch, Kepler ). Each of these tools relies on metadata, and moves us closer to our goal of an information management solution that allows synthetic re-use of data to flourish.
Advances in ecological informatics will enhance our ability to discover, access, integrate, and appropriately apply the growing body of ecological and other data that are needed to inform integrative environmental research. The informatics projects undertaken by NCEAS staff and collaborators address key challenges in the storage and management of environmental data registries and repositories, discovery and preparation of these data for further analysis and synthesis, advanced automated machine processing of information and models through knowledge representation and semantic mediation approaches, and powerful visualization and intuitive access of these capabilities to the practicing research scientist. | <urn:uuid:2e98235b-88c1-431c-8003-120197f9b1ba> | {
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Fort Fisher is a sand beach marked by a low rocky outcrop.
This is a remnant from an old
Pleistocene headland and is a unique feature of the southern North Carolina coast.
This beach rock, called coquina, is composed of
cemented together with shells.
How do you think this coquina rock outcrop affects sand movements on the nearby beaches?
How is a rocky habitat different from a sandy habitat?
Here is a series of QuickTime Panoramas of the Fort Fisher beach.
Panorama 1 (Interactive) (922 K)
Panorama 2 (631 K)
Panorama 3 (631 K)
These photographs and panoramas were taken at:
33 58' 25 N, 77 54' 51 W
Click on a thumbnail photo to view a full screen image.
©1998, Alec M. Bodzin for the Science Junction, NC State University. All rights reserved.
| Teacher Terminal | Science Junction | NC State University | | <urn:uuid:d0c02e56-2ca5-4728-b281-74df16c0f30a> | {
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Cherry County Divided
A map published by the Cody Cow Boy on November 3, 1911, depicted a proposed division of the present Cherry County into five sections: a new, smaller Cherry County to the east; two new counties, Lake and Green, in the north; and the remaining territory on the south to be added to Grant and Hooker counties. The Cow Boy said: "On next Tuesday the voters of Cherry county will say by their votes whether or not they wish to have the county remain the same unwieldy shape as at present or have it divided in a way that will place its citizens within easy reach of a county seat and will have a tendency to decrease the taxes."
The Cow Boy maintained that a smaller county could be administered more cheaply than a larger one. "The most tangible proof of this can be found in comparing the county levies which shows that the taxes for county purposes are almost invariably less in the smaller counties than in the large ones. Cherry county is now and for a number of years has been paying the largest county levy that the law will allow, and how could it be any larger in a smaller county?"
The Cow Boy also maintained that property values in the western two-thirds of the present Cherry County would be enhanced if county division was approved. "One man with whom we have talked estimates that it will about double the price of the land near the two [new] county seats [in the proposed Green and Lake counties]." Residents would save travel time and money in visiting closer county seat towns. The paper asked, "How much is it worth to the average voter and property owner to have a county seat from forty to sixty-five miles closer to him than it is at present?"
Election results on the county division question were not what the Cody Cow Boy had desired. On November 10, the paper said: "County Division lost out by a large majority, and Cherry County will, for the present, remain as before, the largest county east of the Rocky Mountains with the county seat [Valentine] at one corner."
The Valentine Democrat several weeks later, on November 23, 1911, ascribed the Cow Boy's support of the failed county division plan to self interest: "The Cow Boy had everything its own way this fall and unchallenged went about its great and noble work of moulding [sic] public opinion in order that it might get all the countv printing in and for 'Lake county.' We believe that in such matters it is the people and the tax payers who must mould public opinion according to their own welfare and not a newspaper which would hugely profit by the location of a county seat within its jurisdiction."
One factor behind a proposed division of Cherry County in 1911 was the distance of isolated ranches, such as that of Charles S. Hoyt (above) near Pullman, from the county seat at Valentine. NSHS RG2608-3297
Return to Timeline Index | <urn:uuid:18da0f53-01ae-47c3-b0dc-19ae717a54ba> | {
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What are dentures?
Dentures replace missing teeth and their adjacent tissues with a removable dental appliance made of acrylic resin and, in some cases, a combination of metals.
What are the different types of dentures?
There are two primary types of dentures:
Complete. This type of denture replaces all of the teeth and their adjacent tissues.
Partial. Partial dentures act as dental bridges as they "bridge" the gap between a missing tooth or teeth.
The complete or partial dentures can be placed either after the teeth are removed and gums have healed (conventional) or immediately after the teeth are removed:
Conventional. Conventional dentures allow a recovery time (usually four to eight weeks) after all of the teeth are extracted before the dentures are placed in the mouth.
Immediate. This type of denture does not allow a healing period after all of the teeth are removed. The denture is immediately fit into the mouth after all teeth are removed. Additional adjustments in the fitting of this type of denture procedure may be necessary as healing occurs.
Occasionally, select roots are retained and the complete or partial denture is made to fit over these roots. The appliance is called an overdenture. Saving some key roots can help retain the bone in the jaw that supports the denture.
Oral health care and dentures
Daily remove and brush the denture carefully with a brush and toothpaste, both specifically designed for denture cleaning.
Avoid the use of harsh abrasive cleaners on your denture.
Avoid cleaning and/or sterilizing your denture in hot or boiling water. This can damage the denture.
If a partial denture is in place, remove it before brushing your natural teeth.
Once removed, keep the denture in a safe place, out of the reach of children and pets.
Once removed, soak the denture in a proper cleansing solution or water. Do not use bleach solutions. They will attack the metal and bleach the color out of the resin.
Do not wear your dentures at night while you are sleeping. This will irritate the tissues and promote growth of fungus.
Have your teeth cleaned every six months by an oral health professional. | <urn:uuid:87f439c6-fcf5-47d5-be68-6beecac89773> | {
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Sleep appears necessary for our nervous systems to work properly. Too little sleep leaves us drowsy and unable to concentrate the next day. It also leads to impaired memory and physical performance and reduced ability to carry out maths calculations. If sleep deprivation continues, hallucinations and mood swings may develop. Some experts believe sleep gives neurons used while we are awake a chance to shut down and repair themselves. Without sleep, neurons may become so depleted in energy or so polluted with by-products of normal cellular activities that they begin to malfunction. Sleep also may give the brain a chance to exercise important neuronal connections that might otherwise deteriorate from lack of activity.
Deep sleep coincides with the release of growth hormone in children and young adults. Many of the body’s cells also show increased production and reduced breakdown of proteins during deep sleep. Since proteins are the building blocks needed for cell growth and for repair of damage from factors like stress and ultraviolet rays, deep sleep may truly be "beauty sleep." Activity in parts of the brain that control emotions, decision-making processes and social interactions is drastically reduced during deep sleep, suggesting that this type of sleep may help people maintain optimal emotional and social functioning while they are awake. A study in rats also showed that certain nerve-signalling patterns which the rats generated during the day were repeated during deep sleep. This pattern repetition may help encode memories and improve learning.
Dreaming and REM sleep
We typically spend more than 2 hours each night dreaming. Scientists do not know much about how or why we dream. Sigmund Freud, who greatly influenced the field of psychology, believed dreaming was a "safety valve" for unconscious desires. Only after 1953, when researchers first described REM in sleeping infants, did scientists begin to methodically study sleep and dreaming. They soon realized that the strange, illogical experiences we call dreams almost always occur during REM sleep. While most mammals and birds show signs of REM sleep, reptiles and other cold-blooded animals do not.
REM sleep begins with signals from an area at the base of the brain called the pons. These signals travel to a brain region called the thalamus which relays them to the cerebral cortex — the outer layer of the brain that is responsible for learning, thinking, and organising information. The pons also sends signals that shut off neurons in the spinal cord, causing temporary paralysis of the limb muscles. If something interferes with this paralysis, people will begin to physically "act out" their dreams — a rare, dangerous problem called REM sleep behaviour disorder. A person dreaming about a ball game, for example, may run headlong into furniture or blindly strike someone sleeping nearby while trying to catch a ball in the dream.
REM sleep stimulates the brain regions used in learning. This may be important for normal brain development during infancy, which would explain why infants spend much more time in REM sleep than adults. Like deep sleep, REM sleep is associated with increased production of proteins. One study found that REM sleep affects learning of certain mental skills. People taught a skill and then deprived of non-REM sleep could recall what they had learned after sleeping, while people deprived of REM sleep could not.
Some scientists believe dreams are the cortex’s attempt to find meaning in the random signals that it receives during REM sleep. The cortex is the part of the brain that interprets and organises information from the environment during consciousness. It may be that, given random signals from the pons during REM sleep, the cortex tries to interpret these signals as well, creating a "story" out of fragmented brain activity.
This material is based on information supplied by the US Government’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke.
Practice good sleep hygiene using these simple rules:
Consume less or no caffeine and avoid alcohol
Drink fewer fluids before going to sleep
Avoid heavy meals close to bedtime
Exercise regularly, but do so in the daytime and not too close to bedtime
Try a relaxing routine, like soaking in hot water (a hot tub or bath) before bedtime
Establish a regular bedtime and wake-time schedule. | <urn:uuid:dfde4108-7a55-440f-b708-986f1001601f> | {
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Diabetes self-management education is an integral component of medical care. Among adults with diagnosed diabetes, 12% take both insulin and oral medications, 19% take insulin only, 53% take oral medications only, and 15% do not take either insulin or oral medications.
Traditionally, information regarding diabetes would be obtained from a family physician . However, with access to the internet so widely available now , people are able to educate themselves through websites . This information can be beneficial, but care must be taken to ensure the information is medically sound . Several of the external links below provide information about diabetes and its management, including self-management.
In September 2007, a joint randomized controlled trial by the University of Calgary and the University of Ottawa found that "Either aerobic or resistance training alone improves glycemic control in type 2 diabetes, but the improvements are greatest with combined aerobic and resistance training than either alone." The combined program reduced the HbA1c by 0.5 percentage point. Other studies have established that the amount of exercise needed is not large or extreme, but must be consistent and continuing. Examples might include a brisk 45 minute walk every other day.
Theoretically, exercise does have benefits in that exercise would stimulate the release of certain ligands that cause GLUT4 to be released from internal endosomes to the cell membrane. Insulin though, which no longer works effectively in those afflicted with type 2 diabetes, causes GLUT1 to be placed into the membrane. Though they have different structures, they both perform the same function of increasing intake of glucose into the cell from the blood serum. Exercise also allows for the uptake of glucose independently of insulin, ie by adrenaline.
There are several drugs available for type 2 diabetics—most are unsuitable or even dangerous for use by type 1 diabetics. They fall into several classes and are not equivalent, nor can they be simply substituted one for another. All are prescription drugs.
One of the most widely used drugs now used for type 2 diabetes is the biguanide metformin; it works primarily by reducing liver release of blood glucose from glycogen stores and secondarily by provoking some increase in cellular uptake of glucose in body tissues. Both historically, and currently, the most commonly used drugs are in the Sulfonylurea group, of which several members (including glibenclamide and gliclazide) are widely used; these increase glucose stimulated insulin secretion by the pancreas and so lower blood glucose even in the face of insulin resistance.
Newer drug classes include:
- Testosterone treatment is very efficient to reduce insulin resistance without digestive problems (a very common side effect of other anti-diabetes drugs)
- Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) (rosiglitazone, pioglitazone, and troglitazone -- the last, as Rezulin, was withdrawn from the US market because of an increased risk of systemic acidosis). These increase tissue insulin sensitivity by affecting gene expression
- α-glucosidase inhibitors (acarbose and miglitol) which interfere with absorption of some glucose containing nutrients, reducing (or at least slowing) the amount of glucose absorbed
- Meglitinides which stimulate insulin release (nateglinide, repaglinide, and their analogs) quickly; they can be taken with food, unlike the sulfonylureas which must be taken prior to food (sometimes some hours before, depending on the drug)
- Peptide analogs which work in a variety of ways:
- Incretin mimetics which increase insulin output from the beta cells among other effects. These includes the Glucagon-like peptide (GLP) analog exenatide, sometimes referred to as ''lizard spit'' as it was first identified in Gila monster saliva
- Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors increase Incretin levels (sitagliptin) by decreasing their deactivation rates
- Amylin agonist analog, which slows gastric emptying and suppresses glucagon (pramlintide)
Diabetes mellitus type 2 is tightly associated with hypogonadism.
A systematic review of randomized controlled trials found that metformin and second-generation sulfonylureas are the preferred choices for most with type 2 diabetes, especially those early in the course of the disease. Failure of response after a time is not unknown with most of these agents: the initial choice of anti-diabetic drug has been compared in a randomized controlled trial which found "cumulative incidence of monotherapy failure at 5 years to be 15% with rosiglitazone, 21% with metformin, and 34% with glyburide". Of these, rosiglitazone users showed more weight gain and edema than did non-users. Pioglitazone and rosiglitazone may also increase the risk of fractures.
For patients who also have heart failure, metformin may be the best tolerated drug.
The variety of available agents can be confusing, and the clinical differences among type 2 diabetics compounds the problem. At present, choice of drugs for type 2 diabetics is rarely straightforward and in most instances has elements of repeated trial and adjustment.
Injectable peptide analogs
DPP-4 inhibitors lowered A1c by 0.74%, comparable to other antidiabetic drugs. GLP-1 analogs resulted in weight loss and had more gastrointestinal side effects, while DPP-4 inhibitors were weight neutral and increased risk for infection and headache, but both classes appear to present an alternative to other antidiabetic drugs.
If antidiabetic drugs fail (ie, the clinical benefit stops), insulin therapy may be necessary – usually in addition to oral medication therapy – to maintain normal or near normal glucose levels.
Typical total daily dosage of insulin is 0.6 U/kg.
- For men, plasma glucose [mmol/liter–5)x2] x (weight [m)–height For women, [(fasting plasma glucose [mmol/liter–5)x2] x (weight [m)–height initial insulin regimen are often chosen based on the patient's blood glucose profile. Initially, adding nightly insulin to patients failing oral medications may be best. Nightly insulin combines better with metformin than with sulfonylureas. The initial dose of nightly insulin (measured in IU/d) should be equal to the fasting blood glucose level (measured in mmol/L). If the fasting glucose is reported in mg/dl, multiply by 0.05551 to convert to mmol/L.
When nightly insulin is insufficient, choices include:
- Premixed insulin with a fixed ratio of short and intermediate acting insulin; this tends to be more effective than long acting insulin, but is associated with increased hypoglycemia.. Initial total daily dosage of biphasic insulin can be 10 units if the fasting plasma glucose values are less than 180 mg/dl or 12 units when the fasting plasma glucose is above 180 mg/dl". More recently, a randomized controlled trial found that although long acting insulins were less effective, they were associated with reduced hypoglycemic episodes.
The goal blood pressure is 130/80 which is lower than in non-diabetic patients.
The HOPE study suggests that diabetics should be treated with ACE inhibitors (specifically ramipril 10 mg/d) if they have one of the following :
After treatment with ramipril for 5 years the number needed to treat was 50 patients to prevent one cardiovascular death. Other ACE inhibitors may not be as effective.
Gastric bypass surgery
Gastric Bypass procedures are currently considered an elective procedure with no universally accepted algorithm to decide who should have the surgery. In the diabetic patient, certain types result in 99-100% prevention of insulin resistance and 80-90% clinical resolution or remission of type 2 diabetes. In 1991, the NIH (National Institute of Health) Consensus Development Conference on Gastrointestinal Surgery for Obesity proposed that the body mass index (BMI) threshold to consider surgery should drop from 40 to 35 in the appropriate patient. More recently, the American Society for Bariatric Surgery (ASBS) and the ASBS Foundation suggested that the BMI threshold be lowered to 30 in the presence of severe co-morbidities. More debate has flourished about the role of gastric bypass surgery in type 2 diabetics since the publication of The Swedish Obese Subjects Study. The largest prospective series showed a large decrease in the occurrence of type 2 diabetes in the post-gastric bypass patient at both 2 years (odds ratio was 0.14) and at 10 years (odds ratio was 0.25).
A study of 20-years of Greenville (US) gastric bypass patients found that 80% of those with type 2 diabetes before surgery no longer required insulin or oral agents to maintain normal glucose levels. Weight loss occurred rapidly in many people in the study who had had the surgery. The 20% who did not respond to bypass surgery were, typically, those who were older and had had diabetes for over 20 years.
In January 2008, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published the first randomized controlled trial comparing the efficacy of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding against conventional medical therapy in the obese patient with type 2 diabetes. Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding results in remission of type 2 diabetes among affected patients diagnosed within the previous two years according to a randomized controlled trial. The relative risk reduction was 69.0%. For patients at similar risk to those in this study (87.0% had type 2), this leads to an absolute risk reduction of 60%. 1.7 patients must be treated for one to benefit (number needed to treat = 1.7). [http://medinformatics.uthscsa.edu/calculator/calc.shtml?calc_rx_rates.shtml?eer=27.0&cer=87.0 Click here to adjust these results for patients at higher or lower risk of type 2 diabetics.
These results have not yet produced a clinical standard for surgical treatment of diabetic patients, as the mechanism, if any, is currently obscure. Surgical cure of Type 2 diabetes must be, as a result, considered currently experimental.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article on
"Diabetes mellitus type 2"
All material adapted used from Wikipedia is available under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Wikipedia® itself is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. | <urn:uuid:5b2d5ece-5137-49ce-8dbe-5d5bc44c4088> | {
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An expedition is gathering new, crisp images of the Titanic, which lays about 2.5 miles below the ocean surface.
The team of scientists used a pair of robots to take thousand of photographs as well as video of the wreckage. The high-resolution images show shots of the ship's bow. Researchers can even make out the railings and anchors.
The project is a partnership between the RMS Titanic, Inc. and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. RMS Titanic, Inc. has exclusive rights salvage the wreck.
No artifacts are being salvaged during this project. Instead, scientists are using new technology including imaging and sonar devices as they try to take a full inventory of the ship's artifacts.
The mission is being delayed a couple of days because of high seas caused by the remnants of Hurricane Danielle. The group will return after the ocean calms down.
More than 1500 passengers and crew perished when the ship hit and iceberg and sank during its maiden voyage in April 1912.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Latest News Headlines
A confirmed tornado touched down near Denver International Airport Tuesday afternoon, sending travelers on the concourse, on planes and in the terminal scrambling to get into tornado shelters. | <urn:uuid:dd2eaffc-e153-4a02-be6b-0158a685bf45> | {
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Nature Bulletin No. 106 March 8, 1947
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
William N. Erickson, President
Roberts Mann, Supt. of Conservation
The sea lamprey is another marine animal which, like the smelt, has
invaded the Great Lakes and threatens irreparable damage to native
fish. The Atlantic sea lampreys do not breed until about 8 years old.
Then they stop feeding and, in spring travel up streams, lay eggs, linger
a few weeks, then die. Centuries ago, certain of these penetrated the
Lake Ontario and some of the Finger Lakes in New York, notably
Cayuga Lake. Their progeny did not return to the sea but became
adapted to total existence in fresh water. Niagara Falls stopped them
until about 1921, when they appeared in Lake Erie, presumably by way
of the Welland Canal. By 1936 they were established in Lake Michigan.
These large blood-sucking parasites have now become a serious menace
to lake trout, whitefish and other commercial fishes in the Great Lakes.
The federal and state governments are being urged to spend millions of
dollars in constructing traps to prevent the lampreys from reaching their
spawning grounds in any of the tributary streams. There are several
native lampreys, some of them parasitic, but these are only from 4 to 13
inches long and do little damage to fish. The sea lampreys range from
15 inches to 2 feet in length and are killers.
This strange fish-like slimy creature has no scales, no paired fins, and is
not a fish -- as is the true eel. It is one of the most primitive of the
backboned animals. It has only one nostril, two beady eyes, and 7
pulsating portholes down each side that pump water over its internal
gills. It has a round funnel-shaped sucking mouth equipped with row
after row of sharp horny teeth. Clamping onto a big lake trout, a sea
lamprey rasps a hole through the skin, injects a chemical which keeps
the blood from clotting, and gorges itself until full or until the fish dies.
Although esteemed as food since ancient times, Alexander the Great,
and Henry I of England, are said to have died from eating too much of
the rich meat of the lamprey. Since they will attach themselves to any
moving object in the water, sea lampreys are accused of breaking up
swimming races in Lake Ontario at Toronto, and handicapping the
racing shell of a Cornell crew in Cayuga Lake.
To return to the Nature Bulletins Click Here!
Update: June 2012 | <urn:uuid:d95878f9-e8c5-40fe-8610-fbe07c09d455> | {
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South America is a continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the western hemisphere and mostly in the southern hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean. North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest. The continent was named in 1507 by cartographs Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann after Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a New World unknown to Europeans.
South America has a land area of 17,840,000 square kilometers (6,890,000 sq mi), or almost 3.5 percent of the Earth's surface. As of 2005, its population was estimated at more than 371,000,000. South America ranks fourth in area (after Asia, Africa, and North America) and fifth in population (after Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America).
It is a continent of incredible biodiversity, home to the great Amazon River and rainforest as well as to the Pantanal wetland system. It also has the world's highest waterfall (Angel Falls), longest mountain range (the Andes), and driest desert (the Atacama).
South America comprises the major southern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the Western Hemisphere or the Americas. It is south and east of the Panama Canal, which transects the Isthmus of Panama. Geologically, almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate. Geopolitically, all of Panama—including the segment east of the Panama Canal in the isthmus—is often considered a part of North America alone and among the countries of Central America, not South America.
Geologically, the continent became attached to North America only recently with the formation of the Isthmus of Panama approximately 3 million years ago, which resulted in the Great American Interchange. The Andes, likewise a comparatively young and seismically restless mountain range, run down the western edge of the continent; the land to the east of the Andes is largely tropical rainforest, the vast Amazon River basin. The continent also contains drier regions such as East Patagonia and the extremely arid Atacama Desert.
The South American continent also includes various islands, many of which belong to countries on the continent. Many of the islands of the Caribbean (or West Indies)—for example the Lesser Antilles—sit atop the Caribbean Plate, a tectonic plate with a diffuse topography. The islands of Aruba, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago sit on the northerly South American continental shelf. The Netherlands Antilles and the federal dependencies of Venezuela lie along the northerly South American. Geopolitically, the island states and overseas territories of the Caribbean are generally grouped as a part or subregion of North America. The South American nations that border the Caribbean Sea—including Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana—are also known as Caribbean South America. Other islands are the Galápagos, Easter Island (in Oceania but belongs to Chile), Robinson Crusoe Island, Chiloé Island, Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands.
South America is a continent of extremes, home to:
- the world's highest waterfall, Angel Falls in Venezuela,
- the largest river (by volume), the Amazon River,
- the longest mountain range, the Andes,
- the driest desert, Atacama Desert,
- the largest rainforest, the Amazon Rainforest,
- the highest railroad, Ticlio Peru,
- the highest capital city, La Paz, Bolivia,
- the highest commercially navigable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca,
- and the world's southernmost town, Puerto Toro, Chile.
South America's major natural resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and oil. The many resources of South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid economic growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies. The inevitable fluctuation in the price of commodities in the international markets has led historically to major highs and lows in the economies of South American states, often also causing extreme political instability. This is leading to efforts to diversify their production to drive them away from remaining as economies dedicated to one major export.
South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a major proportion of the Earth's species.
The largest country in South America by far, in both area and population, is Brazil, followed by Argentina. Regions in South America include the Andean States, the Guianas, the Southern Cone, and Brazil.
Among people in some English-speaking countries, there is a tendency to confuse the linguistic and geographic divisions of the Americas: thus, Mexico, some Central American and Caribbean territories, despite their location in North America, are mistakenly included in South America.
The term Latin America is used when referring to those territories whose official or national languages come from Latin (namely Portuguese, Spanish, and French). Conversely, Anglo-America is used to refer to areas whose major languages are Germanic (namely English) such as Guyana, Suriname, Belize, Jamaica, and much of the West Indies. Similarly, areas where English is prominent are considered part of the Anglosphere.
South America is thought to have been first inhabited by people crossing the Bering Land Bridge, which is now the Bering Strait. Some archaeological finds do not fit this theory, and have led to an alternative theory, Pre-Siberian American Aborigines. The first evidence for the existence of agricultural practices in South America date back to circa 6500 B.C.E., when potatoes, chillies and beans began to be cultivated for food in the highlands of the Amazon Basin. Pottery evidence further suggests that manioc, which remains a staple foodstuff today, was being cultivated as early as 2000 B.C.E. .
By 2000 B.C.E. many agrarian village communities had been settled throughout the Andes and the surrounding regions. Fishing became a widespread practice along the coast which helped to establish fish as a primary source of food. Irrigation systems were also developed at this time, which aided in the rise of an agrarian society .
South American cultures began domesticating llamass, vicuñas, guanacoss, and alpacas in the highlands of the Andes circa 3500 B.C.E. Besides their use as sources of meat and wool, these animals were used for transportation of goods. .
The rise of agriculture and the subsequent appearance of permanent human settlements allowed for the multiple and overlapping beginnings of civilizations in South America.
The earliest known South American civilization was at Norte Chico, on the central Peruvian coast. Though a pre-ceramic culture, the monumental architecture of Norte Chico is contemporaneous with the pyramids of Ancient Egypt. The Chavín established a trade network and developed agriculture by 900 B.C.E., according to some estimates and archaeological finds. Artifacts were found at a site called Chavín de Huantar in modern Peru at an elevation of 3,177 meters. Chavín civilization spanned 900 B.C.E. to 300 B.C.E..
From their capital city of Cusco, the Inca civilization dominated the Andes region from 1438 to 1533. Known as Tawantinsuyu, or "the land of the four regions," in Quechua, the Inca culture was highly distinct and developed. Cities were built with precise, unmatched stonework, constructed over many levels of mountain terrain. Terrace farming was a useful form of agriculture. There is evidence of excellent metalwork in Inca civilization. Nevertheless, the Inca never discovered the wheel, and there is no evidence that they utilized written language, although they did use the quipu for record-keeping and communication.
The Muisca were the main indigenous civilization in what is now modern Colombia. They established a confederation of many clans, or cacicazgos, that had a free trade network among themselves. They were goldsmiths and farmers.
Other important Pre-Columbian cultures include: Valdivia (Ecuador), Moche (100 B.C.E. - 700 C.E., at the northern coast of Peru); Tiuahuanaco or Tiwanaku (100 B.C.E. - 1200 B.C.E., Bolivia); Paracas - Nazca (400 B.C.E. - 800 C.E., Peru); Wari or Huari Empire (600 C.E. - 1200 C.E., Central and northern Peru); Chimu Empire (1300 C.E. - 1470 C.E., Peruvian northern coast); Chachapoyas; and the Aymaran kingdoms (1000 C.E.- 1450 C.E., Bolivia and southern Peru).
In 1494, Portugal and Spain, the two great maritime powers of that time, on the expectation of new lands being discovered in the west, signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, by which they agreed that all the land outside Europe should be an exclusive duopoly between the two countries.
The Treaty established an imaginary line along a north-south meridian 370 leagues west of Cape Verde Islands, roughly 46° 37' W. In terms of the treaty, all land to the west of the line (which is now known to comprehend most of the South American soil), would belong to Spain, and all land to the east, to Portugal. As accurate measurements of longitude were impossible at that time, the line was not strictly enforced, resulting in a Portuguese expansion of Brazil across the meridian.
Beginning in the 1530s, the people and natural resources of South America were repeatedly exploited by foreign conquistadors, first from Spain and later from Portugal. These competing colonial nations claimed the land and resources as their own and divided it into colonies.
European infectious diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles, and typhus) to which the native populations had no immune resistance, and systems of forced labor, such as the haciendas and mining industry's mita, decimated the native population under Spanish control. After this, African slaves, who had developed immunities to these diseases, were quickly brought in to replace them.
The Spaniards were committed to converting their native subjects to Christianity, and were quick to purge any native cultural practices that hindered this end. However, most initial attempts at this were only partially successful, as native groups simply blended Catholicism with traditional idolatry and their polytheistic beliefs. Furthermore, the Spaniards did impose their language to the degree they did their religion, although the Roman Catholic Church's evangelizing in Quechua, Aymara and Guaraní actually contributed to the continuous use of these native languages albeit only in the oral form.
Eventually the natives and the Spaniards interbred, forming a mestizo class. Essentially all of the mestizos of the Andean region were offspring of an Amerindian mothers and Spanish fathers. Mestizos and the Indian natives were often forced to pay extraordinary taxes to the Spanish government and were punished harshly for disobeying their laws. Many native artworks were considered pagan idols and destroyed by Spanish explorers. This included the many gold and silver sculptures and artifacts found in South America, which were melted down before their transport to Spain or Portugal.
The Spanish colonies won their independence between 1804 and 1824 in the South American Wars of Independence. Simón Bolívar of Venezuela and José de San Martín of Argentina led the independence struggle. Bolívar led a great army southward while San Martín led an army across the Andes Mountains, meeting up with General Bernardo O'Higgins in Chile, and marched northward. The two armies finally met in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where they cornered the royal army of Spain and forced its surrender.
In Brazil, a Portuguese colony, Dom Pedro I (also Pedro IV of Portugal), son of the Portuguese king Dom João VI, proclaimed the country's independence in 1822 and became Brazil's first Emperor. This was peacefully accepted by the crown in Portugal. Although Bolivar attempted to keep the Spanish-speaking parts of the continent politically unified, they rapidly became independent of one another as well, and several further wars were fought, such as the War of the Triple Alliance and the War of the Pacific.
A few countries did not gain independence until the twentieth century. Guyana, from the United Kingdom in 1966 and Suriname, from Dutch control in 1975. French Guiana remains part of France as of 2007, and hosts the European Space Agency's principal spaceport, the Guiana Space Center.
The continent, like many others, became a battlefield of the Cold War in the late twentieth century. Some governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay were overthrown or displaced by United States-aligned military dictatorships in the 1960s and 1970s. To curtail opposition, their governments detained tens of thousands of political prisoners, many of whom were tortured and/or killed (on inter-state collaboration).
Economically, they began a transition to neoliberal economic policies. They placed their own actions within the U.S. Cold War doctrine of "National Security" against internal subversion. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Peru suffered from an internal conflict (Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and Shining Path). Revolutionary movements and right-wing military dictatorships have been common, but starting in the 1980s a wave of democratization came through the continent, and democratic rule is now widespread. Nonetheless, allegations of corruption remain common, and several nations have developed crises which forced the resignation of their presidents, although in general, normal civilian succession has continued.
International indebtedness became a notable problem, as most recently illustrated by Argentina's default in the early twenty-first century.
In the first decade of the twenty-first century, South American governments have drifted to the political left, with socialist leaders being elected in Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, and leftist presidents in Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay. Despite the tendency to move to the left of the political spectrum, most of South America's governments are in practical terms societies embracing free-market capitalism.
With the founding of the Union of South American Nations, South America will intend to start down the road of economic, social and political integration, with plans for European Union-style integration in the non-distant future.
The countries in this table are categorized according to the scheme for geographic regions and subregions used by the United Nations, and data included are per sources in cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos are clearly indicated.
|Name of territory,
(1 July 2005 est.)
per km² (per sq mi)
|Argentina||2,766,890 km² (1,068,302 sq mi)||39,537,943||14.3/km² (37/sq mi)||Buenos Aires|
|Bolivia||1,098,580 km² (424,164 sq mi)||8,857,870||8.1/km² (21/sq mi)||La Paz, Sucre|
|Brazil||8,514,877 km² (3,287,612 sq mi)||187,550,726||22.0/km² (57/sq mi)||Brasília|
|Chile||756,950 km² (292,260 sq mi)||15,980,912||21.1/km² (54.6/sq mi)||Santiago|
|Colombia||1,138,910 km² (439,736 sq mi)||42,954,279||37.7/km² (97.6/sq mi)||Bogotá|
|Ecuador||283,560 km² (109,483 sq mi)||13,363,593||47.1/km² (122/sq mi)||Quito|
|Falkland Islands (UK)||12,173 km² (4,700 sq mi)||2,967||0.24/km² (0.6/sq mi)||Stanley|
|French Guiana (France)||91,000 km² (35,135 sq mi)||195,506||2.1/km² (5.4/sq mi)||Cayenne|
|Guyana||214,970 km² (83,000 sq mi)||765,283||3.6/km² (9.3/sq mi)||Georgetown|
|Paraguay||406,750 km² (157,047 sq mi)||6,347,884||15.6/km² (40.4/sq mi)||Asunción|
|Peru||1,285,220 km² (496,226 sq mi)||27,925,628||21.7/km² (56.2/sq mi)||Lima|
|South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands (UK)||3,093 km² (1,194 sq mi)||0||0/km² (0/sq mi)||Grytviken|
|Suriname||163,270 km² (63,039 sq mi)||438,144||2.7/km² (7/sq mi)||Paramaribo|
|Uruguay||176,220 km² (68,039 sq mi)||3,415,920||19.4/km² (50.2/sq mi)||Montevideo|
|Venezuela||912,050 km² (352,144 sq mi)||25,375,281||27.8/km² (72/sq mi)||Caracas|
Due to histories of high inflation in nearly all South American countries interest-rates remain high, and thus investment remains low. Interest rates are usually twice that of the United States. The exception is Chile, which has been successfully implementing free market economic policies since the 1980s and increased its social spending since the return of democratic rule in the early 1990s. This has led to economic stability and interest rates in the low single digits.
The Union of South American Nations is a planned continent-wide free trade zone to unite two existing free-trade organizations—Mercosur and the Andean Community.
The economic gap between the rich and poor in most South American nations is considered to be larger than in most other continents. In Venezuela, Paraguay, Bolivia and many other South American countries, the richest 20 percent may own over 60 percent of the nation's wealth, while the poorest 20 percent may own less than 5 percent. This wide gap can be seen in many large South American cities where makeshift shacks and slums lie next to skyscrapers and upper-class luxury apartments.
|Country||GDP (nominal) of 2006||GDP (PPP) of 2005||GDP (PPP) per capita of 2005||HDI of 2004|
Spanish is the most widespread language of the continent, as Spanish is the official language of most South American nations. However, the majority of South Americans (51 percent) speak Portuguese, the official language of Brazil. Dutch is the official language of Suriname; English the official language of Guyana; and French the official language of French Guiana.
Just a few of the many indigenous languages of South America include: Quechua (in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador); Aymara (Bolivia, Chile and Peru); Guaraní (in Paraguay and Bolivia); and Mapudungun (Chile and certain pockets of Argentina).
Other languages to be found in South America include: Hindi and Indonesian in Suriname; Italian in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela and Colombia; German in certain pockets in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia and Paraguay; Welsh remains spoken and written in the historic towns of Trelew and Rawson in Patagonia, Argentina; small cluster groups of Japanese speakers in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador; Arabic speakers, often of Lebanese and Syrian descent, in Arab communities of Chile, Brazil and Argentina.
In some countries the continent's upper classes and well-educated people study English and French, and in areas with much tourist commerce English is readily spoken. There are also small Spanish speaking areas of Southernmost Brazil, due to the proximity to Uruguay.
Music and literature
South American nations have a rich variety of music. Some of the most famous genres include cumbia from Colombia, samba and bossa nova from Brazil, and tango from Argentina and Uruguay. Also well known is the non-commercial folk genre Nueva Canción movement which was founded in Argentina and Chile and quickly spread to the rest of the Latin America. People on the Peruvian coast created the fine guitar and cajon duos or trios in the most mestizo (mixed) of South American rhythms such as the Zamacueca (from Lima), the Tondero (from Piura), the nineteenth century popular Creole Valse or Peruvian Valse and the soulful Arequipan Yaravi. In the late twentieth century, Rock en español emerged by young hipsters influenced by British pop and American rock in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Brazil has a Portuguese-language pop rock industry as well a great variety of other music genres.
The literature of South America has attracted considerable critical and popular acclaim, especially with the Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s, and the rise of authors such as Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa.
Because of South America's broad ethnic mix, South American cuisine takes on African, American Indian, Asian and European influences. The cuisine of Argentina for example is distinctive in South America because of its strong resemblance to Italian, Spanish, French and other European cuisines rather than the other Latin American cuisines. The cuisine of Brazil, like Brazil itself, varies greatly by region. This diversity reflects the country's mix of native Amerindians, Portuguese, Africans, Italians, Spaniards, Germans, Syrians, Lebanese, and Japanese among others. This has created a national cooking style marked by the preservation of regional differences. Many of the other South American nations have similar varied cuisines influenced by region. Rice and beans is an extremely popular dish, considered a basic staple in many South American countries.
Argentineans, Chileans, and Uruguayans regularly consume wine, while Argentina along with Paraguay, Uruguay and people in southern Chile and Brazil enjoy a sip of Mate, a regional brewed herb cultivated for its drink. Pisco is a liquor distilled from grapevine produced in Peru and Chile, however, there is a recurring dispute between those countries regarding its origins. Peruvian cuisine mixes elements from both Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Inca, and Amazonic food.
Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion of the region as a whole; however Protestantism is growing steadily. Guyana and Suriname have significant Hindu, and Muslim communities. Jewish communities are found across South America; the largest are in São Paulo, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina. There is also a significant community in Montevideo, Uruguay. There are significant numbers of Eastern Orthodox churches founded by immigrants from the Middle East.
Descendants of Indigenous peoples, such as the Quechua and Aymara, make up the majority of the population in Peru and Bolivia, and are a significant element in most other former Spanish colonies. Exceptions to this include Argentina and Uruguay. At least three South American indigenous languages (Quechua in Peru and Bolivia, Aymara also in Bolivia, and Guarani in Paraguay) are recognized along with Spanish as national languages.
- ↑ Patrick Karl O'Brien, 2002, Atlas of world history. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195215672
- ↑ Patrick Karl O'Brien, 2002. Atlas of world history. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195215672
- ↑ Patrick Karl O'Brien, 2002. Atlas of world history. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195215672
- ↑ La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia; Sucre is the judicial seat.
- ↑ Includes Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean, a Chilean territory frequently reckoned in Oceania. Santiago is the administrative capital of Chile; Valparaíso is the site of legislative meetings.
- ↑ Claimed by Argentina.
- ↑ Also claimed by Argentina, the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean are commonly associated with Antarctica (due to proximity) and have no permanent population, only hosting a periodic contingent of about 100 researchers and visitors.
- Bakewell, P. J. 1997. A history of Latin America: empires and sequels, 1450-1930. The Blackwell history of the world. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0631167919
- Chasteen, John Charles. 2006. Born in blood and fire: a concise history of Latin America. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0393927695
- Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. 2003. The Americas: a hemispheric history. New York: Modern Library. ISBN 0375504761
- O'Brien, Patrick Karl. 2002. Atlas of world history. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195215672
- Skidmore, Thomas E., and Peter H. Smith. 2005. Modern Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019517013X
- The population of continents, regions and countries. GeoHive Retrieved August 11, 2007.
- (Spanish) Infolatam. Information and analysis of Latin America Retrieved August 11, 2007.
- (English) The Council on Hemispheric Affairs – An independent source of Latin American news and opinion Retrieved August 11, 2007.
- (Spanish)/(Portuguese) CONMEBOL—Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol – The South American Football Confederation Retrieved August 11, 2007.
- (French) Information about South American Music. Retrieved August 11, 2007.
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Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed. | <urn:uuid:7c393986-1e29-4de2-80c8-141af3a1a209> | {
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The Nature Lab is a hub of investigation where visitors of all ages can participate in real science research, learn scientific methods, and engage in hands-on activities that build their observation skills. They will learn, in other words, to see nature through new eyes.
The lab features live animals, touchable specimens, citizen science projects, and multi-media. It is a place to explore the stories "behind" the extraordinary specimens, animals, and live nature — or as we say at the Museum, the “how we know what we know.” It is a bridge between the Museum’s indoor research and collections, and our new outdoor space.
Project completion: 2013
Long-term urban biodiversity studies in the world: 1 (ours)
Chance of finding species new to science: 100 percent
“ Inspiring wonder, discovery, and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds is at the core of what we do for our visitors. What will change is that we will do those things outside. We will become, for the first time, a museum of both natural history and living nature. ”
– Dr. Jane Pisano,
NHM President and Director | <urn:uuid:265dcd1a-b947-4071-95c7-8cc0df8a8fc3> | {
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because accumulation exceeds ablation in a location. This
accumulation zone after it thickens to more than 30 m begins to
For a glacier to survive it must have a consistent and
persistent accumulation zone.
To diagnose a glacier
that is disappearing look for
1) Emergence of rock
outcrops in upper region of the glacier.
2) Recession of the
margin of the glacier in upper reaches of the glacier.
3) Lack of consistent
snowcover at the end of the summer in the accumulation zone of
Published Paper in The Cyrosphere 2010
Quaternary International Paper 2011
Why these criteria?
Glaciers respond to climate in an attempt to achieve
equilibrium. A glacier advances due to a climate
cooling/snowfall increase that causes positive mass balance.
A climate warming/snowfall decrease leads to negative mass
balances and glacier retreat. To reestablish equilibrium a
retreating glacier must lose enough of its highest ablating
sections, usually at the lowest elevations, so that accumulating
snows in the near the head of the glacier once again are
equivalent to overall ablation, and an equilibrium balance is
approached. If a glacier cannot retreat to a point where
equilibrium is established, it is in disequilibrium with the
climate system. A glacier that is in disequilibrium with present
climate will melt away with a continuation of this climate.
We often focus on
terminus change of a glacier which tells us how the glacier is
currently responding to recent climate. A glacier can retreat
rapidly and still survive if it has an accumulation zone.
Thus, to forecast survival we need to focus on the accumulation
zone, not just the terminus. If the accumulation zone no
longer retains accumulation consistently it will begin to thin.
A glacier needs 50-70% of its surface area to be snowcovered
event at the end of the summer to be healthy. A thinning accumulation zone is evident when the margins of
the glacier in this accumulation zone-upper potion of the glacier recede.
Also new outcrops of rock maybe exposed in the accumulation
zone due to thinning. This has been
observed both in the North Cascades and on Swiss glaciers.
Below are examples
of glaciers that have disappeared, will disappear and that can
retreat to a new position of equilibrium with current climate.
This is not to say that further warming will not eliminate many of
the the glaciers that have an accumulation zone today. Sometimes adjacent glaciers can have
differing forecasts based on their varied response to recent
climate. It is unusual for an entire mountain range to be
inhospitable to glaciers today.
of the rapid loss of all glaciers in Glacier National Park or the
Nepal Himalaya are exaggerated. In each case the glaciers
are retreating notably, but some of the glaciers still have
persistent accumulation zones. In the Himalaya the most
photographed glacier is probably the
Glacier on the south
side of Mount Everest. Above the famed Khumbu Icefall
there is a persistent accumulation zone, indicating it can
retreat to a new point of equilibrium with current climate.
Above is Foss Glacier in 1985, still
covering a large area of the east slope of Mount Hinman. | <urn:uuid:f43774c9-7747-41d3-8bfc-66df060ce147> | {
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Goolwa/Toowoomba Basin Bytes
Goolwa/Toowoomba Basin Bytes is a community-based project using digital photography and text to encourage members of the community to explore issues that relate to cultural heritage and natural resource management in their location.
Goolwa has a population of 7500 people and is located 83 km and one hours drive southeast from Adelaide, South Australia. Goolwa is a historic port with a rich history of local industries connected with the river and the sea.
Toowoomba has a population of around 90,000 and is 128 km west of Brisbane. It is also known as the 'Garden City of Queensland' and is the main commercial centre for the fertile Darling Downs region.
These two locations are at extreme ends of the Murray-Darling Basin catchment system. This system extends from Queensland to South Australia and includes three quarters of New South Wales and half of Victoria. It is the heartland and the economic centre of rural Australia, covering one-seventh of the Australian continent with a population of nearly two million people. The basin is a system that faces considerable environmental challenges which have a direct impact upon the lives and lifestyles of many rural communities.
The two groups decided to organise their images and text into six thematic areas: industry, environment, water, living, people, recreation and indigenous to illustrate the perspectives of two distinct but connected communities.
Disclaimer: The Goolwa-Toowoomba Basin Bytes gallery is a community generated website. The stories and opinions expressed here are those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the position of the National Museum of Australia nor the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. They are presented to inform discussion about the Basin's natural resources. | <urn:uuid:143395b9-f343-4bfb-8079-0b8c0f533ad9> | {
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There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently dominating society, rooted in unlimited economic growth unperceptive to its social and environmental impact, cannot resolve the converging environmental, social and economic crises we now face. The primary aim of this unit is to encourage the shift away from reductionist and human centred thinking towards a holistic and ecological worldview.
Exercise in Register and Style
Exercise for students concerning the idea of writing in a specific register and style for a specific readership.
Honeybee Venom Detected by Enzyme Immunoassay
The venom of the honeybee, Apis mellifera, contains numerous enzymes, volatiles, and other components. Allergic individuals develop anti-venom antibodies which may cause hives, anaphylactic shock, and death. In this exercise students detect concentrations of bee venom on nitrocellulose membranes following incubation of membranes with anti-venom antibodies, enzyme-conjugated secondary antibodies, and a colorimetric substrate. The intensity of the colored substrate deposited on the membrane is pro
The long neck and beak allow the chicken to peck at food to eat it. The large breastbone of birds is indicative a large, volumous chest that fills with air while flying. Thin legs makes the animal lighter in weight, which also aids in flight.
Cactus wren in the Sonora desert
The beak of the cactus wren looks like a miniature version of the roadrunner beak. The beak is suited for eating insects. The narrow beak allows the cactus wren to get a tight grasp of insects.
Global Cloud Cover with Fly Away
This animated sequence is a one month sample of composited images from cloud cover data collected from a suite of U.S., European, and Japanese geostationary satellites and U.S. polar orbiting meteorological satellites. This data was composited under the auspices of ISCCP, the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Program
Clouds over North America from GOES-11: August 3, 2000
This animation is one of a series showing the first data from GOES-11. The data shown was taken at one-minute intervals.
The Visual Datasets text module discusses the concept of visual learning and presents some suggestions for ways to design learning environments that support students in developing visual literacy skills. Three visual datasets that can be used for problem solving activities in evolution, classification, development, and botany are included: Caminacules: A dataset of imaginary animals that can be used as the basis for a variety of problem-posing and problem-solving activities in evolution, classi
Module 5: Selecting Payment Methods
Select appropriate methods, terms, and currency of payment to agents, sales representatives, distributors, suppliers, and international joint ventures. MSU Global has teamed with experts in the international finance field to create resources to help increase international skills in the business community. These materials address the need of the international trade practitioner for knowledge and information that is specific to trade finance by providing a means for educators and business practit
The purpose of this course is to introduce you to entrepreneurship as a process of creating something new that has economic value to others. We will examine entrepreneurship from the vantage point of history, society, and the individual. Most importantly, I hope to expand your awareness of entrepreneurship as a career option. This course has a substantial communications component. Entrepreneurial ideas are useless without the ability to communicate them clearly and concisely. Our focus will be o
Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest
This online exhibition highlights resources for the study of Robin Hood in the collections held by Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham. It includes examples from printed versions of the Robin Hood story in collections of traditional ballad literature, in popular chap books and in stories for children. It also features documents which can be used for the study of the historical Sherwood Forest and its laws.
Individualized Reading Instruction in the Elementary Grades, Winter 2008
Explores techniques for assessment of reading and writing skills and for development of individualized instruction in classroom settings; develops strategies for meeting the needs of individual students through the evaluation, utilization, and adaptation of commercial reading materials and through the formation of principles and techniques for producing effective teacher-prepared materials.
Greco-Roman Origin Myths
Mythology is a powerful vehicle for teaching students about symbols and the ways people have sought to explain their relationships to nature and to each other. Teachers can use this lesson to introduce or examine the role of myths in explaining human customs, mysteries about nature, or the reasons why things exist in the world. Students will discuss works of art that illustrate ancient Greco-Roman myths and various symbols used in them. So students do not judge the "truthfulness" of another cult
Northeastern Research Expo 2011
The NU Smarts Reporter talks to the students behind the cutting-edge research presented at this year's Research Expo.
GoNU.TV Game Recap - Baseball vs. URI - April 6, 2011
The Northeastern University baseball team fell to the Rhode Island Rams by a score of 7-6 on a cloudy Wednesday afternoon at Friedman Diamond in Brookline, Mass.
What is a Recession?
This two minute video explains what a recession is, the basic economic terms, and the psychological factor that often fuels a recession. It moves very rapidly so the teacher should be prepared to stop the video at times to review terms. A list of terms would also be helpful. The three ways to handle a recession are mentioned as well.
Break the Science Barrier - Richard Dawkins - Part 1 of 3
Break the Science Barrier follows the Oxford Biologist Richard Dawkins as he meets with people who have experienced the wonders of science first-hand. We meet the astronomer who first discovered pulsars, the geneticist who invented DNA fingerprinting, a scientist who discovered a protein that causes cancer, and others. Dawkins interviews famous admirers of science such as Douglas Adams and David Attenborough, and asks them why science means so much to them. We also see how dangerous ignorance of
Essential Tremor - Station and Gait Exam - Gait Sub-exam - Patient 12
The patient is a 70-year-old Caucasian female who first noticed voice and head tremor about 15 years ago. She has had a gradual progression of this tremor that now causes her head to shake, her voice to tremor and her bilateral arm to tremor. The tremor is most noticed when the limbs maintain a posture or are in motion. Her writing is affected especially when she attempts to write small. Fine motor tasks have become more effortful as the years have passed. The tremor is worsened by fatigue. She
The week ahead: April 7th 2011
France enforces a burqa ban, Europe frets over immigration, Britain's banks await regulation proposals and Peru holds an election
270 GG Commas with Participial Phrases
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Rising River Waters Can Kill!
Watch for rapidly rising river levels on the Chattahoochee River and its tributaries. Water released from dams and heavy rain can turn a day on the river into a tragedy! More »
Call for Water Release Schedule
With colder temperatures you can expect longer and more frequent water releases. For water release schedule info, call 1-855-DAM-FLOW (1-855-326-3569) for Buford Dam and 404-329-1455 for Morgan Falls Dam. Save numbers to your cell! More »
The Asian Clam, Corbicula fluminea, native to Asia and parts of Africa, was first discovered in the United States in 1924 and has been spreading rapidly since then. It is now found in 38 states and Washington, DC, and is known mostly for being a biofouler of complex pipe structures in power plants and industrial water systems. High concentrations of the Asian Clam can lead to green algae blooms as a result of their waste.
This mollusk is capable of self-fertilizing. When they mature they begin producing eggs and then immediately being producing sperm. Later in life they produce eggs and sperm simultaneously, releasing up to 2,000 juveniles per day. Because they can reproduce at such a prolific rate, they contribute to the decline of native mollusks.
In the aquarium and koi pond trade, these are sometimes known as the golden clam or golden freshwater clam. It is important to never dump aquariums into bodies of water to prevent the introduction of nonindigenous species, both plants and animals.
Did You Know?
Jones Bridge spanned the Chattahoochee River from 1904-1922, falling into disrepair in the 1930's. Half of the bridge was "stolen" in 1940, neighbors didn't know the workers cutting the bridge were not authorized to do so until it was too late. | <urn:uuid:f67a5253-86f7-4851-a94d-963d9ba7c63b> | {
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Information found on this page has been archived and is for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. Please visit NRC's new site for the most recent information.
Information identified as archived on the Web is for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It has not been altered or updated after the date of archiving. Web pages that are archived on the Web are not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards. As per the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, you can request alternate formats by contacting us.
Silicon is a semiconducting element. It behaves physically and chemically as a non-metal but is able to conduct electricity although not as well as the metals.
Silicon is used to make the "chips" or tiny circuits found in everything from computers to VCRs. Scientists at the National Research Council Canada (NRC) have now developed a way to "wire" the surface of a silicon crystal with a single strand of molecules.
Their goal is to produce nano-structures, molecular electronic devices one thousand times smaller than a single bacterium. | <urn:uuid:58cd456e-130d-479b-b5fd-0302bc9fa692> | {
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Science Objects are two hour on-line interactive inquiry-based content modules that help teachers better understand the science content they teach. This Science Object is the first of three Science Objects in the Heredity and Variation SciPack. It explores the historical perspective and experiments of Mendel.
Sexual reproduction results in the continuity of species accompanied with a great deal of variation in physical traits. One familiar observation is that offspring are very much like their parents but still show some variation— differing somewhat from their parents and from one another. People have long been curious about heredity, using even the most primitive understanding of inheritance to cultivate desirable traits in domesticated species. In the 1800s, Gregor Mendel took his observations of heredity and variation to new heights through carefully designed and executed breeding experiments that generated repeatable inheritance patterns. Mendel developed a model for explaining the patterns he observed, describing discrete units or “particles,” which both segregate and assort independently of one another during inheritance. This model offered a foundational explanation for how variation is generated through sexual reproduction. Although Mendel’s model over-simplified how traits are inherited and expressed, it set the stage for the discoveries of chromosomes and genes from which contemporary genetics grew.
[hide full abstract]
- Explain how domestication of plants and animals produced an early understanding of inheritance.
- Use Mendel’s model to explain patterns of inheritance represented in graphic form (for example, data tables, histograms, etc.).
- Identify the conditions required for an inheritance pattern to be explained correctly by Mendel’s model.
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NutriWatch Home Page
The digestive tract -- also called the gastrointestinal tract or alimentary canal -- provides the pathway through which foods move through the body. During this process, foods are broken down into their component nutrients to be available for absorption.
Digestion actually begins in the mouth, as the enzymes in saliva begin to break down carbohydrate (starch). As food is chewed, it becomes lubricated, warmer, and easier to swallow and digest. The teeth and mouth work together to convert each bite of food into a bolus that can readily move into the esophagus ("the food pipe"). In the meantime, taste buds located in the mouth help you to enjoy each mouthful -- or to find the food distasteful, as is sometimes the case. After the bolus is swallowed, it enters the esophagus where it continues to be warmed and lubricated as it moves toward the stomach.
The acidic environment of the stomach and the action of gastric enzymes convert the bolus into chyme, a liquefied mass that is squirted from the stomach into the small intestine. Carbohydrates tend to leave the stomach rapidly and enter the small intestine; proteins leave the stomach less rapidly; and fats linger there the longest.
The small intestine is the principal site of digestion and absorption. There, enzymes and secretions from the pancreas, liver, gallbladder, and the small intestine itself combine to break down nutrients so that they can be absorbed. The pancreas is a veritable enzyme factory, supplying enzymes to digest proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Intestinal cells also supply some enzymes. The liver produces the bile required for the emulsification of fat, and the gallbladder stores the bile until it is needed. The absorption of nutrients in the small intestine is facilitated by tiny projections called villi, which provide more surface area for absorption. The nutrients pass through the intestinal membranes into the circulatory system, which transports them to body tissues. Nutrients are then absorbed into the cells, where they are used for growth, repair, and the release or storage of energy. The overall process -- called metabolism -- is highly complex.
Undigested chyme proceeds from the small intestine into the large intestine (colon), where it becomes concentrated, as liquid is absorbed in preparation for excretion. Bacteria cause fermentation, which facilitates further breakdown, but absorption of nutrients from the large intestine is minimal.
The key points to remember about digestion are:
NutriWatch Home Page
This article was revised on May 23, 2000 | <urn:uuid:717e9577-6598-49af-b42a-0a957fbc2dbb> | {
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Every weekday of the school year, Karen Bryner's students wake up before dawn. As the sun rises, they leave their homes for a walk to the Mormon church in Harlem for religious classes. They sing hymns, study verses, and share their spiritual journeys together.
Bryner, a volunteer who leads the Harlem educational program, is a fifth generation Mormon from Utah with the church’s scriptures in her blood. Her ancestors are intertwined with the development of Mormon doctrine and education from almost the beginning. She is a soft spoken woman with salt and pepper brown hair and thick rimmed glasses. While she is not married, she experiences her classroom of youngsters as a large Mormon family under her wing.
Year after year, Bryner and thousands of other volunteer teachers across the world lead the way for over a million Mormon youths.
Historically, faith-based education has been the vanguard of cultural development and scholarship in the United States. In 19th Century towns the local learned person was usually the pastor. Physicians, who are now most often the mostly highly educated persons in local communities, were then likely to be local barbers who had added surgery to their offerings. In the 21stCentury theologically conservative religious groups like the Mormons, evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jews place a high emphasis on education. One researcher, Rebecca Kim, referred to the Asian American Christians on UCLA’s campus as “God’s whiz kids.” In New York City students at Orthodox yeshivas hardly skipped a beat during Hurricane Sandy, missing only one day of class.
Mormon churches organize four-year programs called “seminaries" to supplement the secular education of their teenage youth (ages 14-18). Forty-five minute classes are usually taught by an adult teachers who volunteer their time. Over four years, the students review the Bible, Book of Mormon, and the Mormon Doctrine and Covenants (which has scriptural like status). They memorize at least 100 verses for quizzes that cover basic doctrine and injunctions to learn such as:
Cease to be idle; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated. (Doctrine and Covenants 88:124);
And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint. (Doctrine and Covenants 89:18-20); and
Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come. (Doctrince and Covenants 130:18-19).
For a high schooler already balancing the demands of adolescence, the additional classes in the seminary and Sunday school adds a heap on a full plate of after-school sports, extracurriculars, and regular homework. None of the youths' seminary studies get high school credit. One must be self-disciplined and sacrificial at a time when their peers are busy prepping to be "cool" and college-bound.
However, the benefits of the Mormon seminaries are like a educational cram school. Young Mormons develop a disciplined life that is used to working as a community. In August 2011, LDS General President Thomas S. Monson wrote to the seminary students about this Mormon tradition: “Seminary for me was held at an early hour in a little house across the street from my high school. I thought, if my teacher can get up that early, I can get up that early.”
The Mormons educational network is worldwide and encompasses three universities, one college, seventeen elementary and secondary schools, and 8,039 seminary and institute programs serving approximately 1.2 million students.
The figures are smaller than those of other religious denominations, though the Mormon church is a much smaller, younger denomination. For example, Roman Catholicism dates back 2100 years and has 78 million members in the United States, over a billion in the world. Its elementary and junior high schools in America alone enrolled 2 million students for the 2010-2011 school years, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.
Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Jr. recounted that the revelations given to him by God emphasized the importance of education. These revelations are part of the codebook of the Mormons, the Doctrine and Covenant. The book (section 93, verse 36) recounts that on May 6, 1833 Smith had an epiphany in Kirkland, Ohio that “the glory of God is intelligence, or in other words, light and truth.”
In more recent times, while serving as Commissioner of Church Education in 1971, Neal A. Maxwell
explained in a yearly summation that “Literacy and basic education are gospel needs.” Mormons believe education is necessary to maintain good spiritual standing with the Lord.
A Mormon seminarian turns into a Mormon leader
Bryner, 40, grew up in Provo, Utah in a close-knit Mormon family. She attended the church's seminary program in high school and stayed closed to home for college, eventually obtaining a Bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in Early Childhood Education. She could have stopped her academic career there, but she didn't. Bryner kept going and moved to Boston.
In 2000, she enrolled in the masters program in international education at Harvard University. Five years later, she came to New York City to enroll in a doctoral program at Columbia University to study comparative international education. Her interest in Islamic education in Indonesia complements the Mormon focus on missions. More than 60% of the BYU student body speak a language other than their native tongue. Furthermore, approximately half have served in church missions around the world, acquiring fluency in a second language.
While studying at Columbia, she goes to the Mormon church in Harlem, which is a short walk from her home. She finds that teaching students at the early morning classes give her a high satisfaction. She admires the efforts that the students put into their classes. She speaks fondly of one dedicated student in particular named Bachir. He hasn’t missed a single lesson at dawn’s early hour. He seems to do his classes with ease without without any prodding from his parents.
Bryner has twice been president of the local church Relief Society. This distaff group focuses on charity with teaching. One of its programs is visiting teaching. Members of the Relief Society are paired to “visit teach” ailing and needy church members. They give moral support, material aid and instruction on how to overcome life’s problems. “Teaching” is more like a exemplary “buddy system” than a strict educational enterprise.
Last March, A Journey attended a Relief Society meeting. There, people gave testimonies on how the “visiting teachers” had helped them. One woman who had recently moved into the city talked about her love for the program. She was very lonely in this large city, but the visiting teachers provided friendship and crucial support. Bryner nodded her head in agreement. Like her, over half of the women in the Harlem congregation are single with lingering feelings that come from isolation.
The "visiting teaching" program also has the unannounced effect of tying Mormons together in deep empathy with other people.
During Hurricane Sandy, Lorianne Updike Toler, a Mormon in Manhattan, recounted inDeseret News, "What has added to my level of comfort is knowing LDS visiting and home teachers are at the ready. In sacrament meeting yesterday, all were encouraged to reach out to their home and visiting teachers to find out if they were prepared for the storm and if they needed anything. I received no fewer than four contacts from home and visiting teachers and from my Relief Society president."
Mormon education controversies
Some academics clash Mormon theology. Several professors have recounted how their questioning the veracity of Mormon scriptures, the supreme authority of the church or Mormon morality faced censure. English teacher Cecilia Konchar Farr opposed the church’s position on abortion and lost her job in 1994. In 2006, Jeffrey Nielsen, a visiting lecturer of philosophy, did not receive a contract renewal after submitting an editorial to the Salt Lake Tribune opposing the church's opposition to same-sex marriage.
The university denies that they fired the professors for their moral ideas but for other unrelated issues. The Northwest Association of Schools of Colleges and Universities continues to warrant accreditation to BYU. Nor have the controversies hurt BYU’s reputation. According to the U.S. News & World Report 2012, BYU ranks 71st in the Best Colleges category.
What the public can learn from the Mormons
The general feeling within the Mormon Church is that education never stops. The main lesson for the general public is to keep improving yourself, keep reaching out for knowledge, and keep committing yourself to a higher cause. It's not just the efforts put in, but also the consistency of the efforts.
Some Harlem residents say that the Mormon messages of self-reliance and improvement strike a cord with their values. They are concerned that Harlem young people need to be taught those values to do better in school and work. A survey by the U.S. Census found that of those 25 years and over in Upper Manhattan including Harlem, only 18.6% hold Bachelor's degrees. The rate of unemployment is greater than 50% among people between ages 16-25 in Harlem, according to Community Board 10 which covers Central Harlem. School dropouts and unemployed youth in Harlem are in a troubling idleness.
There's an old adage that rings true among Harlem adults and Mormons alike: idle hands do the devil's work. | <urn:uuid:9f2f0352-db8b-4807-a42f-1950a065a0ec> | {
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- Aquatic Plants
- Terrestrial Plants
- Aquatic Animals
- Terrestrial Animals
- Pathogens & Parasites
- Agricultural Invaders
SearchResources Materials Related Sites
Hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata (L.f.) Royle)
[Profile revised October 3, 2012]
Hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata), also commonly called water thyme, is a submersed perennial herb. The plant is rooted in the bed of the waterbody and has long stems (up to 25 feet in length) that branch at the surface where growth becomes horizontal and forms dense mats. Small (2 - 4 mm wide, 6 - 20 mm long), pointed, often serrated leaves are arranged around the stem in whorls of 3 to 10. Southern populations are predominantly dioecious female (plants having only female flowers) that overwinter as perennials. Populations north of South Carolina, including populations in New York, are essentially monoecious (having both male and female flowers on the same plant) that set some fertile seed, and depend on tubers for overwintering. These monoecious plants produce female flowers with three translucent petals 10 - 50 mm long by 4 - 8 mm wide, and male flowers with three white to red narrow petals about 2 mm long.
Close-up of Hydrilla. Photo: Chris Evans, River to River CWMA, Bugwood.org
The dioecious form of Hydrilla is believed to originate from the Indian subcontinent, specifically the island of Sri Lanka, although random DNA analysis also indicates India's southern mainland as a possible source location. The monoecious form is believed to have arrived on our shores from Korea.
Hydrilla can be found infesting freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers, impoundments and canals.
Hydrilla infestation of small lake. Photo: Tim Murphy, University of Georgia, Bugwood.org
The dioecious strain of H. verticillata was imported as an aquarium plant in the early 1950s. Discarded (or intentionally planted ) colonies were found in canals in Miami and Tampa shortly after. The monoecious strain was introduced separately decades later in the Potomac Basin.
Both dioecious and monoecious Hydrilla propagate primarily by stem fragments, although turions (buds) and subterranean tubers also play an important role. The main means of introduction of Hydrilla is as castaway fragments on recreational boats and trailers and in their live wells. New colonies can often be found near boat ramps as such stem pieces become rooted in the substrate (even very, very small fragments can become the start of new populations). Boat traffic through established populations can shatter and spread Hydrilla throughout the waterbody, similar to the spread of Eurasian watermilfoil.
Hydrilla is often a contaminant on popular watergarden plants and may be unwittingly transported and established in private ponds in this manner. As with most invasive aquatic plant species, Hydrilla is a very opportunistic organism and can often be found taking over waters that have had populations of Eurasian watermilfoil chemically removed without a management plan for reestablishing native vegetation.
Hydrilla can invade deep, dark waters where most native plants cannot grow. The plant’s aggressive growth (hydrilla’s 20 - 30 foot stems can add up to an inch per day) can spread into shallow water areas and form thick mats that block sunlight to native plants below, effectively displacing the native vegetation of a waterbody. Major colonies of hydrilla can alter the physical and chemical characteristics of lakes:
- It is one of the world's worst aquatic invasive plants
- It blocks sunlight and displaces native plants below with its thick, dense surface mats
- Stratification of the water column and decreased dissolved oxygen levels can lead to fish kills
- The weight and size of sportfish can be reduced when open water and natural vegetation are lost
- Waterfowl feeding areas and fish spawning sites are eliminating by dense surface mats
- Thick mats of vegation can obstruct boating, swimming and fishing
- The value of shorefront property can be significantly reduced, hurting both homeowners and the communities that rely on taxation of shoreline property
- In severe infestations, intakes at water treatment, power generation, and industrial facilities can be blocked
Emergent stems and leaves of Hydrilla. Photo: David J. Moorhead, University of Georgia, Bugwood.org
Hydrilla has pointed, bright green leaves about 5/8 inches long. The leaves grow in whorls of 3 - 10 along the stem, 5 being most common. The margins of the leaves are serrated (toothed). Thin stalks from the stem end in a single, small, floating white flower at the water's surface. A key identifying feature is the presence of small (up to half inch long), dull-white to yellowish, potato-like tubers which grow 2 to 12 inches below the surface of the sediment at the ends of underground stems. These tubers form at the end of the growing season and serve to store food to allow Hydrilla to overwinter.
Illustration: Cayuga Lake Watershed Network (Rev. October 3, 2012, CCE ISP)
Close-up of H. verticillata stem and leaves. Photo: Robert Vidéki, Doronicum Kft., Bugwood.org
|Hydrilla is often confused with the common native water weed, Elodea Canadensis, which has whorls of 3 smooth-edged leaves as opposed to whorls of 4 to 10 serrated and spined leaves.|
Line art: University of Florida Center for Aquatic Plants
The best way to help prevent the spread of Hydrilla is to follow basic clean boating techniques:
For All Types of Watercraft:
- Be aware of and, if possible, avoid passing through dense beds of aquatic vegetation
- Inspect your watercraft, all equipment, and trailers after each use for any plant material
- Remove and dispose of all plant matter, dirt, mud and other material in a trash can or above the waterline on dry land well away from where it might get washed back into the lake
- Clean and dry all equipment thoroughly before visiting other water bodies (including anything that got wet, such as fishing gear and the family dog)
For Non-Motorized Craft Such as rowing shells, canoes, kayaks, and sailboards:
Open airlocks on shells or air bladders on kayaks after use and allow to dry thoroughly, as plant fragments can survive moist conditions for many days
Around Docks, Launch Sites, and Other Areas:
If plant fragments are piling up around dock areas, use a rake to remove plant material and dispose in the trash
Mechanical harvesting and herbicide spraying are common control methods of controlling Hydrilla. Both are expensive and only moderately effective.
- Power weed cutters mow underwater weeds below the water surface and gather them onto a conveyor. The harvesting process is expensive, costing over $1,000 per acre. Because of Hydrilla’s rapid growth, mechanical harvesting needs to be performed several times per growing season. Since the mowing and removal process cannot capture every single fragment of Hydrilla stem and leaf, water and wind currents moving away from the harvest area can easily carry these fragments to uninfested areas of a waterbody and result in new populations taking root.
- Chemicals are easier to apply, but also costly. Herbicide spraying works best in small, enclosed bodies of water, and does not work at all in larger bodies the size of a Finger Lake, or in moving water such as a stream, river or canal. Herbicides can also have unintended impacts on native flora, as well. For those reasons, permits for chemical control of Hydrilla are difficult to obtain in New York.
- Biological control insects as part of efforts to control Hydrilla have been attempted in Florida with mixed results. Leaf-mining flies from Australia and India and a tuber-feeding weevil from India have been used overseas. The insects released are not native to NY, nor are they currently permitted for release in the State. The use of non-native species to attempt to control another non-native species can be risky if the newly released species out-competes native insects, causing a new invasive species problem. The use of sterile grass carp has been used with some success in small lakes in the southern US but would be impractical in lakes the size of the Finger Lakes.
- Another method of dealing with Hydrilla infestations is the control of water levels. Temporary control of Hydrilla has been shown to result from large-scale, long-term water drawdowns. However, since new plants can grow from the buried tubers, regrowth can take place when water levels are allowed to return to normal. Drawdowns also can have negative environmental impacts on native plant species and on fish populations.
- Suction harvesting of Hydrilla growth by divers using very strong vacuum hoses can be used to remove Hydrilla from confined areas. However, as with drawdowns, if the underground tubers are not removed by dredging following the suction harvesting, regrowth can take place from the tubers during the next growing season. Further, any fragments that might escape during vacuum activities can float away to root and start new infestations.
The “best”, most effective way to control Hydrilla is the prevention of new Hydrilla infestations.
Waterbodies infested with Hydrilla can be found in 70% of Florida's freshwater drainage basins, making it the most abundant aquatic plant in that state’s waters. Hydrilla is also widespread throughout Alabama; impoundments on the Tennessee River; eastern Mississippi; southeastern Tennessee; southwestern Georgia; South Carolina; eastern North Carolina; in Virginia’s Potomac, Rappahannock, and Appomattox Rivers and into the piedmont, in the tidal freshwater reaches of the Potomac River on the Virginia/Maryland border; along the western and northeastern shores of the Chesapeake Bay, including the Pautuxent River, where it is the most abundant plant species; Pennsylvania (in the Schuylkill River near downtown Philadelphia); eastern Kentucky; in ponds in Delaware; southeastern Connecticut; in a Cape Cod pond in Massachusetts; in southwestern Maine; in New Jersey’s Lower Delaware drainage; Indiana's Lake Manitou; Wisconsin; and since 2008, in three New York lakes in Suffolk and Orange Counties, and in Cayuga Lake in NY's Finger Lakes.
Hydrilla can also be found at numerous sites west of the Mississippi River.
H. verticillata was detected in the Cayuga Lake Inlet in Ithaca, New York in mid-August 2011 by staff of the Cayuga Lake Floating Classroom. A follow-up survey by Robert L. Johnson, a former researcher with the Cornell University Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, now with Racine-Johnson Aquatic Ecologists, located extensive Hydrilla populations in several areas of the Inlet. As of early-September 2011, the Hydrilla appears to be localized to the Inlet, with no evidence of the plant in Cayuga Lake proper. This is the first detection of Hydrilla in upstate New York. The risk of the plant spreading to the rest of Cayuga Lake and other regional waterbodies in the Finger Lakes region is considered to be substantial. State, regional, and local officials and organizations, along with biologists from Cornell University are developing plans to control, manage, and prevent the spread of the invader, as well as outreach efforts to enlist the public's help in preventing the plant's spread.
Menninger, H. 2011. Hydrilla verticillata in the Cayuga Inlet: A science‐based review to guide management actions. NY Invasive Species Research Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. 11 pp.
Northeast Aquatic Nuisance Species Panel. 2013. Monoecious Hydrilla – A Review of the Literature
Northeast Aquatic Nuisance Species Panel. 2013. Cited Articles and Abstracts
NOT WANTED! Hydrilla verticillata, Rev. 3. NY Invasive Species Clearinghouse and Cornell Cooperative Extension Invasive Species Program. Rev. October 5, 2012. 6-panel, tri-fold brochure for statewide distribution. General information brochure for boaters statewide
Hydrilla verticillata: What Marinas Need to Know. NY Invasive Species Clearinghouse/Cornell Cooperative Extension Invasive Species Program/New York Sea Grant. April 4, 2012. 2-page factsheet. Specific information for marinas
NOT WANTED IN THE ERIE CANAL! NY Invasive Species Clearinghouse and Cornell Cooperative Extension Invasive Species Program. Rev. 2, October 17, 2012. 4-page, bi-fold brochure. Erie Canal/Tonawanda Creek specific.
NOT WANTED! Hydrilla verticillata in the Cayuga Inlet. NY Invasive Species Clearinghouse and Cornell Cooperative Extension Invasive Species Program. August 30, 2011. 4-page, bi-fold brochure. Cayuga Lake Inlet specific.
Lake George Invasive Species Fact Sheet 34: Hydrilla. Lake George Waterkeeper. January 2010. Two-page general information publication.
Stop The Invasion: Hydrilla. August 2010. State of Washington Invasive Species Council. Two-page general information publication.
HEADING OFF HYDRILLA: Another invasive species is heading towards the Great Lakes: Hydrilla verticillata. 2006. Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Two-page general information publication.
Invasive Weed Identification Guide: Weeds Watch Out!. A guide to identifying aquatic invasive weeds in the Central New York region and how to recognize the difference between the invaders and their native look-alikes. Cayuga Lake Watershed Network and Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association. 2005
Vermont Invasive Exotic Plant Fact Sheet: Hydrilla. Spring 1998. Departments of Environmental Conservation and Fish & Wildlife, of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and The Nature Conservancy of Vermont. Two-page general information publication.
C.C. Jacono, M.M. Richerson), and V. Howard Morgan. 2011. Hydrilla verticillata. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL. US Geological Survey, US Department of the Interior. http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?speciesid=6 | <urn:uuid:5ec99b52-22ec-4b03-b4c8-ef62b47cfb74> | {
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|IDNDR - Informs - Number 13, 1998 (IDNDR-DIRDN, 1998)|
Disaster prevention begins with timely and accurate
information. When there is clarity in the perception of risk, we tend to
minimize the possible consequences event. By means of sounds, images, and the
printed word, the mass media report on what is going on in the world, but they
can do much more. They can explain the significance of events; they can serve as
guides through an uncertain terrain, an teachers in a world where a high penalty
must be paid for ignorance.
If providing information means conveying the most complete available knowledge of an event, in this case natural phenomena, reporters and media outlets should not give in to sensationalism, which essentially means communicating only the most alarming information, not the most illuminating. They should explain what is going on in the clearest and simplest manner, and provide the data and background the public needs to respond effectively to an emergency.
When disasters strike, information diversifies and increases in volume. In journalistic terms, there are many more stories, and many more "angles to each story. Therefore, communicators have the right to receive training about the sensitive handling of natural phenomena, and should strive to get such training. The information in question is delicate, and requires specialized skills that cannot be learned in the middle of a crisis. The media may give in to tabloid-inspired pictures of devastation and chaos, or they may cooperate responsibly to reduce the impact of the tragedy and promote the most effective public response.
Scientific and technological advances now enable us to predict many natural phenomena. The media can play a key role in prevention and early warning by educating large numbers of people through radio, television, newspapers, magazines and even leaflets, clarifying the issues, and providing guidance. New technologies such as E-mail, Usenet, and the World-Wide Web (WWW) provide additional feedback, optimizing human resources and helping reporters do a better job.
Social communication for prevention is a process that requires the coordinated efforts of many disciplines. The mass media must play their part, by informing the public of existing hazards, and by educating the population on practical measures they can take to reduce their vulnerability. At the same time, public information departments can launch campaigns to raise public awareness and contribute to a culture of disaster prevention, a culture that has not yet taken hold in our region. Another key component is the existence of efficient, comprehensive information systems that can support policy- and decision-makers.
The media have a social responsibility to provide accurate and useful information about disasters, not only while they are taking place, or when the tragic consequences of such events come to light but also before they occur. A culture of prevention must first take hold among reporters and commentators. They will then act as amplifiers to make sure the message reaches the audience that ultimately matters most: those who are directly threatened by natural hazards, but who can also do the most to prevent and mitigate emergencies.
Its geography has made Latin America and the Caribbean vulnerable to natural disasters both climatological (such as floods, drought and hurricanes) and geological (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis). As if that were not enough, people's behaviour is modifying the environment, altering ecological cycles through excessive deforestation, overgrazing, and farming, as well as through the establishment of settlements in high-risk areas. However, if human beings can change their environment for ill, their values and actions can also play a key role in the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters.
The relevance of this issue explains why the 1998 IDNDR campaign slogan is "Natural disaster prevention begins with information". The goal is to recruit communicators and media outlets as partners in promoting preventive measures to protect the public from the consequences of natural disasters.
In this issue of IDNDR Informs, we include a series of papers, expert opinions and experiences on the subject of social communication and disaster prevention and response throughout the region. | <urn:uuid:6b171c1f-f4da-4365-94e1-1b04b1958061> | {
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Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Students explore dynamics of local, organic food productionBy Katie Land, news editor
|Students in OU's Food Quest course learn about the dynamics of local and organic food production at Earthworks Urban Farm in Detroit.
In all its capacities, food has long played a role in human social and cultural systems. The consumption and preparation of food defines nations, unites traditions, builds families. And as the world has continued to develop and change, so too does the food industry and various food-philosophy movements.
The Food Quest, an anthropology course at Oakland University explores the ways in which humans produce, consume and relate to food in a global, cross-cultural perspective.
“Understanding the human relationship to food illuminates the relationship we have with our larger environment,” said Tara Deubel, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology. “From a global perspective, we need to address why people continue to die of hunger and malnutrition in 2012 when adequate food resources exist.”
“Locally, we need to ask similar questions about why many residents of Detroit are unable to access healthy food on a daily basis in an area now considered to be a "food desert" due to its lack of food resources,” Dr. Deubel continued. “It is critical to re-examine the local and global systems we have put in place and advocate more sustainable alternatives that encourage smaller-scale, local food production and more healthy eating habits.”
The course covers a wide range of topics including changes in human eating patterns, the globalization of the food industry, transnational food politics, debates concerning genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the organic and local food movements, malnutrition and hunger in developing countries, food rituals and eating disorders.
Housed in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work, and Criminal Justice, Dr. Deubel’s Food Quest course forces students to examine their own eating habits, and to learn about local food production and the factors that determine the food they eat.
|OU's Student Organic Farm grows organic produce each year.
This semester, the course’s emphasis is on food sustainability in the Metro Detroit Area. Student research includes community food banks, urban gardens, "farm to table" business models, local farmers' markets, and problems of food availability and access in Detroit.
These topics hit home for several students after a recent trip to the Earthworks Urban Farm in Detroit. Students were able to see global issues enacted on the local level.
"The Earthworks visit was a real eye opener for me,” said junior Kristopher Kildow, Environmental Sciences major. “Before this visit, I never realized how much politics plays a part in what we eat and I ended up learning quite a bit. I was very interested in the cost associated with becoming a certified organic grower and was shocked to learn that someone wanting to sell their organic crops would have to pay so much money and wait so long in order to label their produce for what it is.”
As they learn about the local and global impact of the food industry, several students have developed passions for the local and organic food movements.
"I would like to see the concept of urban gardening spread throughout Detroit and for more people to get involved and to start eating real food, not processed food from the gas stations and little grocers,” said Katherine VanBelle, a senior student majoring in Environmental Sciences. “I found it sad to hear that some city kids think food comes from a gas station. I feel that it's reasons like this that make us one of the unhealthiest cities in America.”
The Food Quest course is cross-listed in anthropology and the Environmental Science Program. It will be available online in the summer 2013 semester and as a full course next fall.
For more information about courses and programs in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work, and Criminal Justice, view the website | <urn:uuid:4355e219-ed61-446a-9a9f-a970ba0c6c9b> | {
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In The Gambia, free computer courses lead to jobs and self-respect
BANJUL , The Gambia — A graduation ceremony last month has boosted the number of computer graduates from classes offered free by the local Bahá'í community to more than 900.
Since 1998, the Bahá'ís have arranged the classes to help people who cannot otherwise obtain computer skills to get a job.
Students have ranged from teenagers to the middle-aged, and include both men and women, said local Bahá'í spokesman Faramarz Shams.
Many graduates use their newly-gained skills in jobs that they have obtained after completing the courses, Mr. Shams said.
“The students come from the Islamic, Christian, and Bahá'í communities and include teachers, students, and business people,” he said.
The courses, offered at basic and advanced levels, usually involve two sessions of two hours per week for three months. The teachers are Gambian Bahá'ís and Bahá'í youth volunteers from the United Kingdom , the United States , and Canada .
The country's only television station and both its major newspapers regularly cover the graduation ceremonies. On 18 December 2005, 56 students received their graduation certificates.
In a speech at the ceremony, one of the graduates, Fatou Cham, 24, expressed her gratitude for the courses.
“I would like to thank the entire Bahá'í community for their tireless efforts to disseminate knowledge in The Gambia at no cost,” said Ms. Cham, a Muslim.
“I can remember back in 2000 when I attended the basic Bahá'í computer training I could not even move a mouse, but after the course I built up a lot of interest in computing,” she said.
“I hope that other institutions will emulate (the Bahá'í) efforts and empower people with more ‘IT' knowledge.”
The computers used in the training were donated by Bahá'ís of The Gambia, the United States , and the United Kingdom .
Classes were initially held in a rental property but they have moved to a specially designed room in the new national Bahá'í centre, which opened last year.
— Bahá'í World News Service | <urn:uuid:fd22fed8-822f-43b1-804d-b52a473b3a99> | {
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Riparian and Wetland Management
Riparian areas are lands adjacent to creeks, streams, lakes, and rivers that support vegetation dependent upon free water in the soil. They are sometimes called "Ribbon-of-Green" because the vegetation on waterway banks forms a ribbon-like pattern when seen from the air. These areas, containing water and vegetation in the otherwise arid Western United States, are important to fish and wildlife species, as well as to livestock. Since they dissipate water energy and filter the water flowing through them, riparian-wetland areas can affect the health of entire watersheds. Wetlands are generally defined as areas inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support vegetation this is typically adapted for life in saturated soil. Wetlands include bogs, marshes, shallows, muskegs, wet meadows, estuaries, and riparian areas.
A riparian-wetland area is healthy and functioning when adequate vegetation, landform, or large woody debris is present to dissipate energy associated with high water flow. A healthy riparian-wetland area exhibits certain characteristics, such as:
- Purifying water by filtering sediments as water moves through;
- Reducing the risk of flood damage;
- Reducing streambank erosion;
- Increasing water holding water in streambanks;
- Maintaining instream flows and streambanks;
- Increasing ground water supplies;
- Supporting a diversity of wildlife and plant species;
- Maintaining habitat for healthy fish populations;
- Providing water, forage, and shade for livestock;
- And creating opportunities for recreationists to fish, camp, picnic, and relax.
The BLM's National Science and Technology Center in Denver has a The technical reference library with a listing of available publications for integrated resource management, inventory and monitoring classification, riparian area management, stream channel surveys, and rangeland inventory monitoring and evaluation.
The Reference Guides section of this website has documents concerning wetlands identification, activities, and financial and technical assistance for conservation and management. | <urn:uuid:6d09527b-2b18-4bc1-a4e3-5c64e490c504> | {
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Alexander Ross (1782-1856)
Born in the Scottish Highlands, schoolteacher Alexander Ross immigrated to Canada’s St. Lawrence River Valley in 1804. Befriended by fellow Scot Alexander McKay, a veteran Montreal-based fur trader, both men found work in American John Jacob Astor’s boldly conceived Pacific Fur Company enterprise in 1810.
The two voyaged around the Horn on the Tonquin, arriving at the mouth of the Columbia in March 1811. Ross, engaged as a clerk, remained to help build Fort Astoria, while McKay sailed on the doomed ship to commence trade with the Natives of Vancouver Island, a trip that ended with the death of all aboard. As a result, Astor’s plans for a transcontinental, trans-Pacific fur-trade empire were crippled.
Ross was sent more than 400 miles up the Columbia to establish a trading post at the mouth of the Okanogan River. There he married a local Indian woman named Sarah, or Sally. They had a large family and remained devoted partners for the rest of Ross’s life.
In addition to writing copious official correspondence, Ross kept personal journals (now lost). His journals later became the basis for his very popular memoirs, Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River (1849) and The Fur Hunters of the Far West (1855).
Staying on after the forced sale of Fort Astoria to the British-owned North West Company during the War of 1812, Ross served as that firm’s second-in-command at Fort George (Astoria). Later promoted to chief trader at Fort Kamloops on the Thompson River (in present-day British Columbia), in 1818 Ross was placed in command of the North West Company's new Fort Nez Perce, strategically situated on the east bank of the Columbia about one-half mile above the mouth of the Walla Walla River.
Following the amalgamation of the company with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, HBC Governor George Simpson persuaded Ross to remain on the scene for a few more years. Ross led the 1824 Snake Country Brigade out of Flathead Post to explore and trap the streams of western Montana. Anxious about his health and concerned for the education of his sons, he left the Pacific Northwest for the HBC’s Red River settlement (present-day Winnipeg). There he helped found the colony’s Presbyterian church and began philanthropies to aid the growing number of displaced Indian and Métis inhabitants.
Although criticized by some colleagues for writing official reports "full of marvelous nonsense," Alexander Ross has earned lasting recognition as a close observer of Native cultures and the fur-trade society. His memoirs remain indispensable sources on the history of the early Oregon Country.
Written by:Jeff LaLande
Ronda, James. Astoria and Empire. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.
Stewart, Edgar. “Alexander Ross." In Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West: Biographical sketches of the participants by scholars of the subject and with introductions by the editor. Vol. 6. Edited by Leroy R. Hafen. Norman, Okla.: Arthur H. Clark, 1965-1972. | <urn:uuid:45fa2c01-7e2d-49cc-b019-9525f2296d79> | {
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||This page describes a concept which is part of our glossary
are known for their robustness and reliability. The way peers connect with other instances to form the network creates a peer-to-peer infrastructure. It enables users to connect directly with each other as desired to exchange products and services without having to employ middlemen as in the current centralised 'client-server' approach.
In general, peer-to-peer networks can be formed directly between people or organisations or can be formed from many different computers and devices communicating together through the same peer-to-peer networking software. At OrganicDesign we're developing the Platform specification which allows people and organisations to operate as part of a unified ontology which contains both the Platform network of people and organisations aligned with the specification, and also the Network of informational devices.
Transcending centralisation is a necessity
It's a commonly known meme nowadays that our survival as a species depends on us figuring out how to live and work together as a single organism. Another well known concept is the fractal nature of life that allows us to equate the biological cell with a person, and a single person with the planetary organism. In his book Spontaneous Evolution, Bruce Lipton shows us that we can learn from our cells how to live together in peace and harmony as a single organism since they're a living example of it, and have been doing it for millions of years.
Many people who are strong believers in this idea of humans living fully in accord with nature think that technology has no place in this vision. But by looking at how the cells in the human body are able to live together as a community with a population of over fifty trillion reveals that technology is essential. The cells manufacture and maintain huge infrastructures including the equivalent of buildings that are tens of thousands of stories high, sophisticated networking systems and even an energy based financial and banking system.
We know that somehow the Internet must be used to achieve this goal since it allows people all over the world to connect and share knowledge directly. But for us to use the Internet to organise into a community together, we need to change the way we use it. The currently dominant method of viewing and collaborating on the Internet, the World Wide Web, is not structured in a way that promotes the formation of people into a community from the bottom up, it doesn't match the way that cells organise themselves. The web is a centralised top-down structure, but it's the peer-to-peer networks that offer a foundation to work from which really mimics cellular organisation.
Handbook of Peer-to-Peer Networking
- Xuemin Shen, Heather Yu, John Buford, Mursalin Akon,
- Springer | 2009 | ISBN: 0387097503 | 1403 pages | PDF | 10,2 MB
- torrent hash: C3BA9770 7C9E3C80 019DD55E 2207529A B876700D
- blocked in US? | <urn:uuid:9fbef8c0-69de-4d17-a997-1ac8a4f9cb95> | {
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These rings (20 µm across) have color created by the width of the slits (see black and white inset). For example, yellow is produced with slits that are each 90 nm wide. The technique uses light funneling to catch and trap particular wavelengths.
Researchers at the University of Michigan (U.S.A.) have found a way to lock in structural color using sub-wavelength structures (Scientific Reports 3, 1194). If the technique can be developed further, it could be used with e-readers and other reflective displays, as well as for sensors and hyperspectral imagers.
Diffraction gratings provide structural color, but the predominant color changes with viewing angle. Instead of using gratings on the order of the wavelengths, and on the surface of the material, the researchers went vertical. Group leader Jay Guo explains, "Light is funneled into the nanocavity, whose width is much, much smaller than the wavelength of the light." Surprisingly the longer wavelengths of light get trapped in narrower grooves.
To demonstrate their device, the researchers etched nanoscale grooves in glass and coated the grooved glass plate with a thin layer of silver. When light hits the grooved surface, the transverse electric component creates a polarization charge at the metal slit surface, boosting the local electric field near the slit, which preferentially pulls in the transverse magnetic component of a particular wavelength of light.
The demonstrated optical device has high absorption, as large as 96 percent in the visible spectrum, with colors that don’t change over a +/- 80 degree viewing angle. The device also demonstrated wide color tunability throughout the entire visible spectrum and pixel sizes smaller than the diffraction limit.
Right now, the new device can make static pictures. Even static displays, however, can be attractive with bright sunlight-visible color in low-energy-consumption reflective displays. | <urn:uuid:3585216f-c5f8-40c4-b9a6-0132a5dd3ff7> | {
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Therapy: New Breakthrough for Back Treatment
by Gaetano Morello, ND
Ozone, the gas that protects us from the sun's damaging rays
but becomes toxic when inhaled, is experiencing a resurgence
on the North American medical community. We are all familiar
with the ozone layer and how it's thinning due to chloroflourocarbons.
But the reality is that ozone production in the upper atmosphere
depends on the amount energy coming from the sun. During peaks
of solar activity, ozone is created at a greater rate. During
low periods in the sunspot cycle, the ozone layer is thinner.
At night, on the dark side of the planet, the ozone layer disappears
over a period of a few hours.
The layer is reformed as the sun rises in the morning. There
is no ozone over the poles in the winter, because there is no
sunlight. Ozone is continuously being produced in the upper atmosphere
as long as sunlight is present, and since ozone is heavier than
air, it begins to fall towards the earth. As it falls, it combines
with any pollutant it contacts, cleaning the air. When ozone
contacts water vapor as it falls, it forms hydrogen peroxide,
a component of rain water, and that is the reason why rainwater
causes plants to grow better then irrigation. Ozone is also created
by lightning; it is the ozone that gives air that fresh smell
after a rainfall.
Therapeutic action of ozone
In medicine, ozone has a number of well-established properties:
It is antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal. The largest commercial
use of ozone is in the purification of water. When you buy your
next gallon jug of water at the grocery store, the label will
say "ozone treated." Both the FDA and EPA certify that
ozone destroys 99.9992 percent of all pathogenic germs, while
oxidizing (destroying) 99.9992 percent of all pollutants in the
water at the same time.
A new discovery for the treatment of herniated disc: The Discosan
In Germany, over 7,000 doctors utilize ozone in the treatment
of various diseases.
In Italy, orthopedic surgeons who used to perform surgery on
herniated discs are now using a special mixture of ozone to treat
the pathology of this condition. Dr. Cesare Verga (orthopedic
surgeon) developed the system in 1984 and has treated over 6,000
patients. Dr. Verga claims that surgery really doesn't address
the underlying cause. As a matter of fact, it offsets the biomechanics
of the spine. Ozone, or the "Discosan method" (as it
is known in Italy), represents a new approach in the treatment
of herniated discs which resolves both the biological and biomedical
aspect of the pathology. Dr. Verga states that this approach
has a success rate of over 95 percent. Some of the principal
characteristics that make this method so unique are the following:
1. No contraindications.
2. Over 95 percent success rate.
3. Virtually zero recovery time.
4. No side effects.
The treatment consists of injections of a special mixture of ozone and oxygen
applied around the herniated zone. At the beginning, the therapy requires two
treatments per week for a period of one to two months.
On average, a total of 14 treatments are required, depending on the patient.
The Discosan method has even been shown efficacious in cases where surgery
couldn't even alleviate the discomfort. An interesting analogy used in the
Italian medical circles is that ozone will mean for herniated discs is what "ranitidine'meant
One of the main questions often asked about the Discosan method is: "How
does this method work?" When we look at the anatomy of an intervertebral
disc, we see an outer fibrous covering and an inner soft (pulposis) nucleus,
much like a ripe cantaloupe with a hard outer shell and soft fruit inside.
A herniation occurs when trauma ruptures a part of this outer fibrous covering,
most commonly in the lumbosacral and cervical regions. This then causes the
inner soft region to protrude and compress a nerve root, causing the pain associated
with a herniated disc. The Discosan method addresses this pathology by three
different modes of action:
1. The ozone-oxygen mixture has specific action on the protruding pulposus,
by acting on a molecular level on the bonds holding this herniation together.
This in turn causes a reduction in the herniation.
2. The method brings about a microvascularization to this area, therefore bringing
more blood supply and oxygen to the region, all essential for healing. Dr.
Verga also claims that ozone brings more fibroblasts to the area, which will
help heal the pathology around the annulus fibrosus.
3. Reduces the edema in the area which can also contribute to the compression
The whole concept of treating a herniated disc without surgery is an exciting
one. The fact that the Discosan method has some sound scientific principals
gives real hope to people suffering from this debilitating condition.
2011 :: Privacy
Information posted on this website has not been reviewed or approved
by the FDA. Oxygen Healing Therapies.com makes no claims regarding
the equipment, instruments, books, or courses advertisers on this website
may advertise. The Supreme Court has also confirmed that websites posting
advertising or links to other websites are not responsible for the
information posted on the other websites. This area and these pages
are for information only, and should not be considered
as medical advice. We are an information source only, and are making
claims regarding any medical benefit or outcome to any disease state.
Ozone Therapy, EWOT Therapy, and UV Therapy are not approved for human
or animal use in USA, Canada, nor in many countries around the world
(which is rather unfortunate because they are approved in many other
countries such as Germany and Italy..but we digress). This information
is supplied so that you can make an informed decision regarding altervatives.
consult with your
any therapy or therapy protocols. | <urn:uuid:a5fda113-a864-4af3-8d42-d57912e83b7e> | {
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Birth Defects Testing
- Reference Triple or quadruple (quad) blood tests. These tests check the amounts of three or four substances in a pregnant woman's blood. The triple screen checks the levels of Reference alpha-fetoprotein protein (AFP), Reference beta human chorionic gonadotropin (beta-hCG), and a type of Reference estrogen (estriol, or uE3). The quad screen checks those three substances, plus the level of the Reference hormone inhibin A. The doctor looks at these test results—along with your age and other factors—to find out the chance that your baby may have certain problems. Second-trimester tests can be done between 15 and 20 weeks of pregnancy. The triple and quad blood tests may be called the expanded AFP test, the AFP plus test, or the multiple marker screening test. Either of these tests may be done as the second part of the Reference integrated screening test Opens New Window.
- Reference Ultrasound. This test allows your doctor to see an image of your developing baby. It is often done at 18 to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Doctors can use ultrasound to look for certain features that are related to some problems, such as Down syndrome. The test also can be used to find problems of the heart, spine, belly, or other areas.
- Reference Amniocentesis. Doctors use this test to look for chromosomal problems in the baby's cells. A doctor puts a needle through the belly and into the uterus to collect some of the Reference amniotic fluid Opens New Window that surrounds the baby. This fluid contains some of the baby's cells. The test is done between 15 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, usually around week 16. This test also can help find neural tube defects, such as spina bifida.
|By:||Reference Healthwise Staff||Last Revised: Reference April 4, 2012|
|Medical Review:||Reference Sarah Marshall, MD - Family Medicine
Reference Siobhan M. Dolan, MD, MPH - Reproductive Genetics | <urn:uuid:87592e8e-9629-4714-8cbc-151ee9040287> | {
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PANNA: OP’s in Children, Failed Court Order on Pesticides, Community Monitoring of Pesticides and more
See PANUPS updates service, for complete information.
Hazardous Language Barrier: Over two thousand farmworkers in Hawaii cannot read warning labels on harmful pesticides, according to a study conducted by the National Agriculture Statistics Service field office. Over 40% of them speak Ilocano from their native Phillipines, not English. Other workers speak only Tagalog, Chinese, or Spanish. Since the labels are printed only in English, the workers can't follow safety precautions when using dangerous pesticide chemicals--a common situation around the world. Pacific Business News reported the story.
Irresponsible Businesses: Although a federal judge in Seattle ruled over two years ago that Washington retailers must post warnings to their customers regarding the risks to salmon and other aquatic life posed by pesticides, the retail business community has not been complying with the order, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claims it has no authority to enforce the rule. Due to pressure from the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, Washington Toxics Coalition and other concerned groups, EPA is now handing out signs to some home and garden stores that sell pesticides so they can post warnings. All pesticides with the ingredients malathion, carbaryl, 2,4-D, diazinon, diuron, triclopyr, or trifluralin must carry the warning. Read more in the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
Poisonous pyrethroids: A UC Berkeley study reveals that an entire class of pesticides -- pyrethroids -- has contaminated Northern California streams and waterways, wiping out "crustaceans and insects vital to ecosystems," according to the Los Angeles Times. The state Department of Pesticide Regulations will be notifying pyrethroid manufacturers that their products will be re-evaluated, and that some bans may be imposed. "This is a shot across the bow to the manufacturers that we found a reason for concern and you need to provide us with data to either eliminate the concern, reformulate your products or consider taking them off the market," said Mary-Ann Warmerdam, Department Director.
Community Empowered: Residents of Lindsey, California, presented evidence of dangerous pesticide drift in the air around their homes in a press conference on July 17. Lindsey is one of several rural San Joaquin Valley communities that have suffered multiple pesticide exposure incidents in recent years. Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR), a statewide coalition that coordinates the Safe Air For Everyone campaign, helped organize a poll on pesticide exposure with Valley groups. The Lindsey study is part of a collaboration between community group El Quinto Sol, Commonweal, CPR and Pesticide Action Network. Residents collected data using the "Drift Catcher," an air monitoring device developed by PAN senior scientist Dr. Susan Kegley. Read the results of the Lindsey Drift Catcher report. Fresno TV station KFSN has the story.
PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides and reporting on pesticide issues that don't always get coverage by the mainstream media. It's produced by Pesticide Action Network North America, a non-profit and non-governmental organization working to advance sustainable alternatives to pesticides worldwide. | <urn:uuid:0c8e76a0-9d7f-41da-af16-b18b8c154738> | {
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Anemia is a fancy word for iron deficiency. It's fairly common pregnancy nutrition issue, since you and your developing baby need a lot more iron than usual. You are at even greater risk of developing anemia if:
You often drink tea or coffee right before (or right after) you eat. This can make it tricky for your body to absorb the iron it should be getting from the food.
You have a history of heavy menstrual bleeding (as if you needed another reason to dislike that!).
You don't eat enough meat, fish or poultry - which are great sources of iron. Not getting enough vitamin C is a related pregnancy nutrition issue, as vitamin C helps the body absorb iron.
You have had two or more back-to-back pregnancies.
You donate blood at least three times a year.report abuse | <urn:uuid:8aa39449-0e30-486d-98f3-c58856564d77> | {
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Issue | Canada engages in a new approach to resolve specific claims made by First Nations.
Synopsis | The Specific Claims Tribunal Act established an administrative tribunal with the authority to make binding decisions on claims and to award monetary compensation up to $150 million per claim. Claims over $150 million will be dealt with through a specially mandated Cabinet process.
Timing | Under the Specific Claims Tribunal Act, certain claims will be eligible for filing with the Specific Claims Tribunal as of 16 October 2011.
Federal policy divides Aboriginal land claims into two broad categories: specific claims and comprehensive claims. Specific claims arise from the alleged non-fulfillment of historic treaties between First Nations and the Crown, or improper administration of First Nations lands and other assets by the Crown. Comprehensive claims are based on the assertion of continuing Aboriginal rights and title that have not been dealt with by treaty or other legal means. This overview focuses on the specific claims process.
Between April 2010 and April 2011, 18 specific claims were settled at a total value of approximately $666 million. The monetary value of the claims settled in this period ranged from $134,283 to $231.4 million. As of 5 April 2011, 503 specific claims remain in the federal inventory of claims under assessment or in negotiations.1
Over the past several years, the federal specific claims process has been the subject of legal and policy reform initiatives intended to reduce the backlog of outstanding claims. In response to a 2006 report of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, which highlighted the need for reforms to the specific claims process in several areas, the federal government launched Specific Claims: Justice at Last – Canada’s Specific Claims Action Plan in June 2007. The reforms proposed in the action plan included an independent tribunal to make binding decisions on claims that cannot be resolved by negotiations, dedicated funding for specific claims settlements, and practical measures to improve the processing of both small and large claims.2
|Location of Specific Claims Under Assessment or in Negotiations (as of 5 April 2011)|
|Source: Figure prepared by the Library of Parliament using data obtained from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.|
The Specific Claims Tribunal Act was introduced in the House of Commons on 27 November 2007 and came into force on 16 October 2008. The Act creates the Specific Claims Tribunal, an administrative tribunal composed of Superior Court judges with authority to make binding decisions on claims and to award monetary compensation up to a maximum of $150 million per claim.
The Act stipulates that a First Nation may file a claim with the tribunal if the claim has been previously filed with the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and if:
In effect, the Specific Claims Tribunal Act introduces three-year timelines for the assessment and negotiation of specific claims. As a result of these timelines, certain cases will become eligible for filing with the tribunal as of 16 October 2011.
With this deadline in view, the Specific Claims Tribunal is currently preparing for the commencement of operations. Between November 2009 and November 2010, several Superior Court judges were appointed to the tribunal, and Justice Harry Slade was appointed as its chairperson. Draft Rules of Practice and Procedure were made public in June 2010 and are currently under review by the Department of Justice. The tribunal’s first annual report, dated 30 September 2010, provides a synopsis of work undertaken to that date and of anticipated activities through the current and following fiscal years.3
The introduction of the Specific Claims Tribunal Act in November 2007 was accompanied by the signing of a political agreement between the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. The political agreement provides for additional discussion on improvements in the resolution of specific claims not directly addressed in the legislation, including matters related to claims that exceed the monetary cap of $150 million. The development of a Cabinet process to address claims over $150 million is ongoing.
© Library of Parliament 2011 | <urn:uuid:ad04e71a-9059-4ecb-bf71-7557f0c48d3d> | {
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Software engineer/developer/programmers may work in one major industry or in a vast array of different industries. Some may work for companies that produce and sell exactly what they work with. Many others work in other types of industries that do not sell these products but make use of their own. So, one could work for Microsoft designing computer programs to sell, while another may work for a large business and be responsible for designing the private computer programs that employees use within their office.
Software engineer/developer/programmers may work alone or with a team. It depends on the size of a company and the computer programs and networks they use. If it is an office with just 15 employees, there will probably only be one person working in this field. If it is an office building with hundreds of employees, there will likely be a team of people working in this position. People who work in this field must be trained to read different computer languages that are made up of mathematical symbols and different letter sequences or algorithms. It is completely different from any language people speak. Software engineer/developer/programmers must be very intelligent and are required to specialize in a field about which outsiders usually do not have any knowledge. The working environment for a software engineer/developer/programmer is in an office setting. Most software engineer/developer/programmers work Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. They use computers, software, telephones, pens and paper, and other typical office supplies. Some serve a dual role as an information technology specialist and are also required to fix any computer or network problems within an office. Workers of this position report to an information technology manager when in a team, or to a general manager when working the lone position of its type in a company.
A bachelor's degree in computer science, computer programming, or information technology is required for this position. Several years of experience in this field are also required by many companies.
Software engineer/developer/programmers work to develop technical tools to make everyone else's job easier. Without their expertise, people would be much more reliant on more difficult manual methods to complete a job. Computers are everywhere these days, and these are the people who develop the tools that computers use.
Software Engineer / Developer / Programmer Tasks
- Write code to create single-threaded or user interface event driven applications, either stand-alone and those which access servers or services.
- Use source debuggers and visual development environments.
- Test and document software for client applications.
- Write, modify, and debug software for client applications. | <urn:uuid:4690c3fc-08e7-4238-89fb-23bca57ec45c> | {
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More than three decades after the Clean Water Act, iconic American waterways like the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound are in perilous condition and facing new sources of contamination.
With polluted runoff still flowing in from industry, agriculture and massive suburban development, scientists note that many new pollutants and toxins from modern everyday life are already being found in the drinking water of millions of people across the country and pose a threat to fish, wildlife and, potentially, human health. (more »)
In Poisoned Waters, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith examines the growing hazards to human health and the ecosystem.
"The '70s were a lot about, 'We're the good guys; we're the environmentalists; we're going to go after the polluters,' and it's not really about that anymore," Jay Manning, director of ecology for Washington state, tells FRONTLINE. "It's about the way we all live. And unfortunately, we are all polluters. I am; you are; all of us are."
Through interviews with scientists, environmental activists, corporate executives and average citizens impacted by the burgeoning pollution problem, Smith reveals startling new evidence that today's growing environmental threat comes not from the giant industrial polluters of old, but from chemicals in consumers' face creams, deodorants, prescription medicines and household cleaners that find their way into sewers, storm drains, and eventually into America's waterways and drinking water.
"The environment has slipped off our radar screen because it's not a hot crisis like the financial meltdown, war or terrorism," Smith says. "But pollution is a ticking time bomb. It's a chronic cancer that is slowly eating away the natural resources that are vital to our very lives."
In Poisoned Waters, Smith speaks with researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), who report finding genetically mutated marine life in the Potomac River. In addition to finding frogs with six legs and other mutations, the researchers have found male amphibians with ovaries and female frogs with male genitalia. Scientists tell FRONTLINE that the mutations are likely caused by exposure to "endocrine disruptors," chemical compounds that mimic the body's natural hormones.
The USGS research on the Potomac River poses some troubling questions for the 2 million people who rely on the Washington Aqueduct for their drinking water.
"The endocrine system of fish is very similar to the endocrine system of humans," USGS fish pathologist Vicki Blazer says. "They pretty much have all the same hormone systems as humans, which is why we use them as sort of indicator species. ... We can't help but make that jump to ask the question, 'How are these things influencing people?'"
"The long-term, slow-motion risk is already being spelled out in epidemiologic data, studies -- large population studies," says Dr. Robert Lawrence of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. "There are 5 million people being exposed to endocrine disruptors just in the Mid-Atlantic region, and yet we don't know precisely how many of them are going to develop premature breast cancer, going to have problems with reproduction, going to have all kinds of congenital anomalies of the male genitalia, things that are happening at a broad low level so that they don't raise the alarm in the general public."
Smith also investigates the state of Puget Sound's environment, where decades of pollution have endangered such species as orca whales, whose carcasses have shown high levels of cancer-causing PCBs.
"We thought all the way along that [Puget Sound] was like a toilet: What you put in, you flush out," says Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, who notes that about 150,000 pounds of untreated toxins find their way into Puget Sound each day. "We [now] know that's not true. It's like a bathtub: What you put in stays there."
Smith reveals that some of today's greatest pollution threats stem from urban sprawl and overdevelopment, as new housing and commercial developments send contaminated stormwater into rivers and bays, polluting local drinking-water supplies.
Smith speaks with scuba diver Mike Racine, who describes runoff into the depths of Seattle's Elliott Bay as a "brown, noxious soup of nastiness that is unbelievable."
"The irony is that everybody looks at that [picturesque] scene and thinks that it's great; everything is right with the world in Elliott Bay," Racine says. "But in point of fact, not 100 feet away from where they are drinking a nice glass of wine off their white linen, there is this unbelievable gunk coming out of the end of this pipe."
In addition to assessing the scope of America's polluted-water problem, Poisoned Waters highlights several cases in which grassroots citizens' groups succeeded in effecting environmental change: In South Park, Wash., incensed residents pushed for better cleanup of PCB contamination that remained from an old asphalt plant. In Loudon County, Va., residents prevented a large-scale housing development that would have overwhelmed already-strained stormwater systems believed to contribute to the contamination in Chesapeake Bay.
Reversing decades of pollution and preventing the irreversible annihilation of the nation's waterways, however, will require a seismic shift in the way Americans live their lives and use natural resources, experts say.
"You have to change the way you live in the ecosystem and the place that you share with other living things," says William Ruckelshaus, founding director of the Environmental Protection Agency. "You've got to learn to live in such a way that it doesn't destroy other living things. It's got to become part of our culture." | <urn:uuid:39036837-743d-48c2-adfe-10c4a1a73946> | {
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Clouds and cosmos
J'ai découvert par hazard les travaux de Henrik Svensmark sur le processus de formation des nuages.
Ces derniers remettaient en cause les thèses défendues par les tenants du réchauffement climatique du aux activités humaines. En effectuant quelques recherches sur Internet j'ai pu mesurer l'incroyable fourvoiement de ceux qui conseillent les gouvernements sur les décisions à prendre. Et pas uniquement fourvoiement mais aussi manipulation des informations, intoxication et enfumage des foules.
Les derniers travaux du Cern sur le sujet confirment les conclusions de Svensmark.
Affaire à suivre, car une remise au pas del'IPCC/GIEC s'avère nécessaire.
I discovered by chance the research conducted by Henrik Svensmark on the process of cloud formation.
The results called into question the policies advocated by the proponents of global warming due to human activities. In doing some research online I could measure the incredible misdirection of those who advise governments on decisions. And not just misdirection but also manipulation of information, intoxication and smoking crowd.
The latest work on the subject of Cern confirm the findings of Svensmark.
Stay tuned, because in depth analysis of IPCC / GIEC turpitudes is necessary. Aug 30
"If it is an unusually warm winter in New York, it is probably also warm in Washington, D.C., for example," Hansen explained. "At high- and mid-latitudes Rossby Waves are the dominant cause of short-term temperature variations. And since those are fairly long waves we didn't think we needed a station at every one degree of separation."
5 October 2012 ESO celebrates its 50th anniversary
The Cosmics Leaving Outdoor Droplets (CLOUD) experiment uses a special cloud chamber to study the possible link between galactic cosmic rays and cloud formation. Based at the Proton Synchrotron (PS) at CERN, this is the first time a high-energy physics accelerator has been used to study atmospheric and climate science. The results should contribute much to our understanding of clouds and climate. Cosmic rays are charged particles that bombard the Earth's atmosphere from outer space. Studies suggest they may have an influence on the amount of cloud cover through the formation of new aerosols (tiny particles suspended in the air that seed cloud droplets). This is supported by satellite measurements, which show a possible correlation between cosmic-ray intensity and the amount of low cloud cover.
CERN Finds “Significant” Cosmic Ray Cloud Effect Best known for its studies of the fundamental constituents of matter, the CERN particle-physics laboratory in Geneva is now also being used to study the climate. Researchers in the CLOUD collaboration have released the first results from their experiment designed to mimic conditions in the Earth’s atmosphere. By firing beams of particles from the lab’s Proton Synchrotron accelerator into a gas-filled chamber, they have discovered that cosmic rays could have a role to play in climate by enhancing the production of potentially cloud-seeding aerosols. – Physics World, 24 August 2011 If Henrik Svensmark is right, then we are going down the wrong path of taking all these expensive measures to cut carbon emissions; if he is right, we could carry on with carbon emissions as normal.
Jasper Kirkby is a superb scientist, but he has been a lousy politician. In 1998, anticipating he'd be leading a path-breaking experiment into the sun's role in global warming, he made the mistake of stating that the sun and cosmic rays "will probably be able to account for somewhere between a half and the whole of the increase in the Earth's temperature that we have seen in the last century." Global warming, he theorized, may be part of a natural cycle in the Earth's temperature.
CHURCHVILLE, VA—Get ready for the next big bombshell in the man-made warming debate.
Climate Change: News and Comments
e physicien danois Henrik Swensmark ne se doutait probablement pas, en fournissant ses données et en faisant part de ses remarques aux réalisateurs de l'expérience "CLOUD" au CERN à Genève, que les résultats de cette expérience soulèveraient des problèmes politiques importants.
WUWT reader Max_B tips us off to this article and video. According to Nigel Calder’s Blog , CERN’s CLOUD experiment (testing Svensmarks’s cosmic-ray theory) shows a large enhancement of aerosol production and the results are due for release in 2 or 3 months’ time. There is a short Physics World interview with Jasper Kirkby which is worthwhile viewing and was published a couple of days ago…
J.A. performed the nucleation rate analysis. S.S. conducted the APi-TOF analysis.
Results paper published in GIGS (January 2013)
- Article posté le 07 avril 2010 - “La pluralité des voix n’est pas une preuve qui vaille. Car lorsqu’une vérité est quelque peu difficile à découvrir, il serait étonnant que tout un peuple l’ait rencontrée plutôt qu’un homme seul”.
The Climatic Research Unit email controversy (also known as "Climategate" ) [ 2 ] [ 3 ] began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) by an external attacker. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] Several weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change, an unknown individual or group breached CRU's server and copied thousands of emails and computer files to various locations on the Internet. | <urn:uuid:57ca599a-245e-40c8-95d4-d743e3a8f855> | {
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1. Basic Drawing Equipment - 1 2.
Pencil Drawing : How to Draw with Pencils Lesson Learn the basics of learning to draw with pencils...techniques and what you need. Learn techniques for drawing with pencils with the following lesson for how to draw and shade with pencils. How to Hold Your Pencil Correctly in Many Positions When Drawing Pictures Lesson Learn the correct positions for holding pencils while drawing.
The second bit of advice a beginning artist usually gets is “ draw from life ”. And it is excellent advice! After all, if you can't draw what is right in front of you, you certainly won't be able to draw what you see in your imagination either. But the advice is a bit short, and will usually leave the artist behind unsure of what to do next.
Painters do not have the apparatus problems of a photographer, but they do face a similar value design problem: anchoring the middle value of a painting in a way that communicates the intended feeling of light or dark without sacrificing a complete representation of the tonal range. Our visual system naturally adjusts to the average luminance in our environment to produce the best visual representation. Because this adaptation also affects the appearance of any physical gray scale, the key to the value design of a painting lies in the distribution of gray values across the luminance range.
Pen and Ink Drawing Lessons Art Books Online How to Draw Watercolors Oil Painting Lessons When I first got serious about cartooning for a career, one of the things I was most concerned about was inking. That seemed to me like a skill and art that would take a really long time to master, and worse yet there seemed to be no good sources of learning the art of inking out there. I found one book I still heartily recommend, called The Art of Comic Book Inking by Gary Martin, which is to date the best book on the subject. There used to be a great website on inking with input from many great inkers but I think it’s defunct.
The Rules of Perspective Christopher W. Tyler
Our Pencil Portrait Lesson offers an illustrated step by step tutorial that guides you through Drawing a Pencil Portrait from start to finish. Our other lessons in this section focus on the Proportions of the Head , the difficulties you encounter in drawing the eyes , nose , mouth and ear , and the Pencil Shading Exercises that you should practice to develop your drawing technique. Our lesson on 'Painting Portraits with Acrylics' illustrates the step by step skills and techniques of acrylic painting. As an example we use our painting of Robert Burns to guide you through the entire process of portraiture exploring such stages as: The Preparatory Drawing , Starting the Painting , Painting the Eyes , Painting the Skin , Painting the Hair , Painting the Clothes , Materials for Acrylic Painting and Framing the Portrait .
Work In Progress Title: "Inner Beauty" Size: 18" x 14" Medium: Charcoal, Graphite, Carbon on White Paper Step One: I am using charcoal for the background and graphite for the subject. I'm using Arches 140 lbs hot press watercolor paper for this drawing. This is one of my favorite papers. It has enough tooth to create dark values yet is smooth enough for very delicate textures.
Boy, I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I started this. I've had requests for some sort of expressions tutorial dating back a while now, so I figured, "Sure! I can explain expression drawing...and it'll be way better than all those tutorials out there that are nothing but charts of generic expressions. Yeah! Just give me a day or two to whip something up..." Um.
Learn how to draw what you see, with these step by step beginner drawing lessons. Discover essential drawing skills from how to hold a pencil through to perspective, pencil shading, and sketching. Progress into portraiture and figure drawing.
Sight-size or right-size drawing is a traditional method of observing the subject, still taught in classical ateliers. Mainly used for portraiture but applicable to other subjects, sight-sizing will help you attain great accuracy when drawing from life. Ben Rathbone, a graduate of the School of Representational Art in Chicago, wrote this explanation of the sight-size method.
I'm forced to agree with you, Patti. Bear in mind that the editors at publishing companies are not experts in art. In my books, I could have spoken of the benefits of mixing peanut butter with paint (or something equally stupid, like soaking brushes in cooking oil to clean them in a fantasy belief in environmental purity).
By Maery Drawing hair is hard work. It's complicated, time consuming, and often the results are terrible, and trust me, I speak from personal experience when I say that. So, why bother? I used to skip it all together when drawing portraits, thinking I'd never be able to do it well, so I didn't do it at all. Witness exhibits A and B from early 2000: | <urn:uuid:8e2b3100-2b38-46e4-a0ad-00e800a2043e> | {
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Poor Oral Hygiene
Being under extreme stress may affect your mood and cause you to skip oral hygiene habits such as flossing and brushing.
If you don’t take care of your mouth, your teeth and overall oral health can suffer. If you already have gum disease, skipping daily hygiene may worsen the problem. If your mouth is in relatively good health, falling down on brushing, flossing, and rinsing can lead to gum disease or increase your risk of cavities.
When under stress, you may also develop unhealthy eating habits, such as snacking on large amounts of sugary foods or drinks. These habits increase the risk for tooth decay and other problems.
Just reminding yourself of the importance of hygiene and healthy eating may help. Boosting or resuming your exercise routine can help you relieve stress and feel energized enough to tend to your oral hygiene and cook healthier meals. Exercise will also boost your immune system — and that, too, is good for your oral health.
Stress can cause an increase in dental plaque, even when the high stress levels are short term. That’s according to a study that evaluated people who cared for loved ones with dementia and who experienced stress.
Long-term, the stress these caregivers felt boosted their risk of bleeding gums, or gingivitis, which can progress to serious gum disease.
Stress can lead to depression. And depressed patients, according to recent research, have twice the risk of an unfavorable outcome from gum disease treatment compared to those who aren’t depressed.
You can’t make depression or the stress disappear, of course. But experts say that learning healthy coping strategies can help reduce the risk of gum problems getting worse. Healthy coping is “problem-focused” with active and practical strategies to deal with the stress and depression, experts say.
Remember, eating a balanced diet, seeing your dentist regularly, and good oral hygiene help reduce your risks of periodontal disease. Make sure you brush twice a day and floss daily. Antibacterial mouth rinses also help reduce plaque-causing bacteria.
Excess stress may give you a headache, a stomachache, or just a feeling of being “on edge.” But too much stress could also be doing a number on your mouth, teeth, gums, and overall health.
The potential fallout from stress and anxiety that can affect your oral health includes:
- Mouth sores, including canker sores and cold sores
- Clenching of teeth and teeth grinding (bruxism)
- Poor oral hygiene and unhealthy eating routines
- Periodontal (gum) disease or worsening of existing periodontal disease
So how can you prevent these oral health problems?
Canker sores — small ulcers with a white or grayish base and bordered in red — appear inside the mouth, sometimes in pairs or even greater numbers. Although experts aren’t sure what causes them — it could be immune system problems, bacteria, or viruses — they do think that stress, as well as fatigue and allergies, can increase the risk of getting them. Canker sores are not contagious.
Most canker sores disappear in a week to 10 days. For relief from the irritation, try over-the-counter topical anesthetics. To reduce irritation, don’t eat spicy, hot foods or foods with a high acid content, such as tomatoes or citrus fruits.
Cold sores, also called fever blisters, are caused by the herpes simplex virus and are contagious. Cold sores are fluid-filled blisters that often appear on or around the lips, but can also crop up under the nose or around the chin area.
Emotional upset can trigger an outbreak. So can a fever, a sunburn, or skin abrasion.
Like canker sores, fever blisters often heal on their own in a week or so. Treatment is available, including over-the-counter remedies and prescription antiviral drugs. Ask your doctor or dentist if you could benefit from either. It’s important to start treatment as soon as you notice the cold sore forming.
Stress may make you clench and grind your teeth — during the day or at night, and often unconsciously. Teeth grinding is also known as bruxism.
If you already clench and grind your teeth, stress could make the habit worse. And, grinding your teeth can lead to problems with the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), located in front of the ear where the skull and lower jaw meet.
See your doctor and ask what can be done for the clenching and grinding. Your dentist may recommend a night guard, worn as you sleep, or another appliance to help you stop or minimize the actions.
An abscessed tooth is a painful infection at the root of a tooth or between the gum and a tooth. It’s most commonly caused by severe tooth decay. Other causes of tooth abscess are trauma to the tooth, such as when it is broken or chipped, and gingivitis or gum disease.
These problems can cause openings in the tooth enamel, which allows bacteria to infect the center of the tooth (called the pulp). The infection may also spread from the root of the tooth to the bones supporting the tooth.
What are the symptoms of an abscessed tooth?
A toothache that is severe and continuous and results in gnawing or throbbing pain or sharp or shooting pain are common symptoms of an abscessed tooth. Other symptoms may include:
- Pain when chewing
- Sensitivity of the teeth to hot or cold
- Bitter taste in the mouth
- Foul smell to the breath
- Swollen neck glands
- General discomfort, uneasiness, or ill feeling
- Redness and swelling of the gums
- Swollen area of the upper or lower jaw
- An open, draining sore on the side of the gum
If the root of the tooth dies as a result of infection, the toothache may stop. However, this doesn’t mean the infection has healed; the infection remains active and continues to spread and destroy tissue. Therefore, if you experience any of the above listed symptoms, it is important to see a dentist even if the pain subsides.
How is an abscessed tooth diagnosed?
Your dentist will probe your teeth with a dental instrument. If you have an abscessed tooth, you will feel pain when the tooth is tapped by your dentist’s probe. Your dentist will also ask you if your pain increases when you bite down or when you close your mouth tightly. In addition, your dentist may suspect an abscessed tooth because your gums may be swollen and red.
Your dentist may also take X-Rays to look for erosion of the bone around the abscess.
Regardless of how long you have used tobacco products, quitting now can greatly reduce serious risks to your health. Eleven years after quitting, former smokers’ likelihood of having periodontal (gum) disease was not significantly different from people who never smoked.
Even reducing the amount you smoke appears to help. One study found that smokers who reduced their smoking habit to less than half a pack a day had only three times the risk of developing gum disease compared with nonsmokers, which was significantly lower than the six times higher risk seen in those who smoked more than a pack and a half per day. Another study published in the Journal of the AmericanDental Association found that the mouth lesion leukoplakia completely resolved within 6 weeks of quitting in 97.5% of patients who used smokeless tobacco products.
Some statistics from the American Cancer Society present some other sobering reasons to quit smoking. They state that:
- About 90% of people with cancer of the mouth, lips, tongue, and throat use tobacco, and the risk of developing these cancers increases with the amount smoked or chewed and the duration of the habit. Smokers are six times more likely than nonsmokers to develop these cancers.
- About 37% of patients who persist in smoking after apparent cure of their cancer will develop second cancers of the mouth, lips, tongue, and throat, compared with only 6% of those who stop smoking.
Smoking can cause dry socket, a painful condition when a blood clot dislodges after a tooth extraction. The sucking motion of cigarette smoking can pull the clot from the hole in your gum. Also, the chemicals in cigarettes prevent your body from healing quickly. When you smoke, you inhale harmful toxins that decrease your supply of red blood cells to the wound. When having a tooth removed, it’s best to avoid smoking both before and after the procedure.
You probably already know how important regular dental visits are for keeping your teeth and gums in good shape — besides brushing and flossing, a biannual checkup might be the best thing you can do for your oral health. But what you might not know is that there’s a strong relationship between your oral health and your overall health, so taking good care of your mouth is a big part of taking care of your whole body.
What to Expect
A typical checkup and dental cleaning appointment involves a careful inspection of your mouth, teeth and gums, looking for any signs of gum disease, loose or broken teeth, a damaged tooth filling or tooth decay.
Dental X-rays will likely be taken. Some exams may include an examination of your head and neck, your bite and the movement of your jaw.
Your teeth will also be thoroughly cleaned, polished and flossed, leaving them fresh and gleaming.
Thinking Outside the Mouth
The benefits of maintaining that wholesome smile are plain to see, boosting confidence and improving your overall sense of well-being. But a healthy mouth is good for you in other ways, too.
Bacteria from untreated gum disease can actually spread infection to other parts of your body. Pregnant women may be at particular risk. If necessary, your dentist may ask you to return more frequently for gum disease treatment.
Also, some non-dental conditions have symptoms that appear in the mouth. A dental examination can reveal signs of vitamin deficiencies, osteoporosis or more serious conditions such as diabetes or oral cancer.
Finally, a regular checkup can even be good for your pocketbook. Identifying and treating minor problems like cavities early on can spare you the time and expense of more complicated dentistry procedures such as a tooth extraction or root canal.
Women who are menopausal or post-menopausal may experience changes in their mouths.
Recent studies suggest that estrogen deficiency could place post-menopausal women at higher risk for severe periodontal disease and tooth loss.
In addition, hormonal changes in older women may result in discomfort in the mouth, including dry mouth, pain and burning sensations in the gum tissue and altered taste, especially salty, peppery or sour.
In addition, menopausal gingivostomatitis affects a small percentage of women. Gums that look dry or shiny, bleed easily and range from abnormally pale to deep red mark this condition.
Most women find that estrogen supplements help to relieve these symptoms.
Bone loss is associated with both periodontal disease and osteoporosis. Osteoporosis could lead to tooth loss because the density of the bone that supports the teeth may be decreased. More research is being done to determine if and how a relationship between osteoporosis and periodontal disease exists. Women considering Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) to help fight osteoporosis should note that this may help protect their teeth as well as other parts of the body.
To prevent cavities, you need to remove plaque, the transparent layer of bacteria that coats the teeth. The best way to do this is by brushing your teeth twice a day and flossing at least once a day. Brushing also stimulates the gums, which helps to keep them healthy and prevent gum disease. Brushing and flossing are the most important things that you can do to keep your teeth and gums healthy.
Toothpastes contain abrasives, detergents, and foaming agents. Fluoride, the most common active ingredient in toothpaste, is what prevents cavities. So you should always be sure your toothpaste contains fluoride.
About 1 person in 10 has a tendency to accumulate tartar quickly. Tartar is plaque in a hardened form that is more damaging and difficult to remove. Using anti-tartar toothpastes and mouthwashes, as well as spending extra time brushing the teeth near the salivary glands (the inside of the lower front teeth and the outside of the upper back teeth) may slow the development of new tartar.
If you have teeth that are sensitive to heat, cold, and pressure, you may want to try a special toothpaste for sensitive teeth. But you’ll still need to talk to your dentist about your sensitivity because it may indicate a more serious problem, such as a cavity or nerve inflammation (irritation).
Sometimes when you lose one or more teeth, you can get an indention in your gums and jawbone where the tooth used to be. This happens because the jawbone recedes when it no longer is holding a tooth in place.
Not only is this indentation unnatural looking, it also causes the replacement tooth to look too long compared to the adjacent teeth.
A periodontist can fill in this “defect” with a procedure called ridge augmentation, recapturing the natural contour of your gums and jaw. A new tooth can then be created that is natural looking, easy-to-clean and beautiful.
Periodontal (gum) diseases, including gingivitis and periodontitis, are serious infections that, left untreated, can lead to tooth loss. The word periodontal literally means “around the tooth.” Periodontal disease is a chronic bacterial infection that affects the gums and bone supporting the teeth. Periodontal disease can affect one tooth or many teeth. It begins when the bacteria in plaque (the sticky, colorless film that constantly forms on your teeth) causes the gums to become inflamed.
Gingivitis is the mildest form of periodontal disease. It causes the gums to become red, swollen, and bleed easily. There is usually little or no discomfort at this stage. Gingivitis is often caused by inadequate oral hygiene. Gingivitis is reversible with professional treatment and good oral home care.
Untreated gingivitis can advance to periodontitis. With time, plaque can spread and grow below the gum line. Toxins produced by the bacteria in plaque irritate the gums. The toxins stimulate a chronic inflammatory response in which the body in essence turns on itself, and the tissues and bone that support the teeth are broken down and destroyed. Gums separate from the teeth, forming pockets (spaces between the teeth and gums) that become infected. As the disease progresses, the pockets deepen and more gum tissue and bone are destroyed. Often, this destructive process has very mild symptoms. Eventually, teeth can become loose and may have to be removed.
There are many forms of periodontitis. The most common ones include the following.
- Aggressive periodontitis occurs in patients who are otherwise clinically healthy. Common features include rapid attachment loss and bone destruction and familial aggregation.
- Chronic periodontitis results in inflammation within the supporting tissues of the teeth, progressive attachment and bone loss. This is the most frequently occurring form of periodontitis and is characterized by pocket formation and/or recession of the gingiva. It is prevalent in adults, but can occur at any age. Progression of attachment loss usually occurs slowly, but periods of rapid progression can occur.
- Periodontitis as a manifestation of systemic diseases often begins at a young age. Systemic conditions such as heart disease, respiratory disease, and diabetes are associated with this form of periodontitis.
- Necrotizing periodontal disease is an infection characterized by necrosis of gingival tissues, periodontal ligament and alveolar bone. These lesions are most commonly observed in individuals with systemic conditions such as HIV infection, malnutrition and immunosuppression. | <urn:uuid:f1bb6292-e6ef-4e59-b472-785931ca18b1> | {
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Recognizing septicemia in goldfish is difficult because more often than not, little or no symptoms occur to indicate infection. It is one of the fish diseases that causes harm from within.
What is Hemorrhagic Septicemia in Goldfish?
- Most common indication of septicemia in koi and goldfish are Blood Streaks
- While it is not a communicable fish disease, the chances of it spreading is high if an infected fish shares the same tank with healthy fishes.
- The most probable cause for such disease is the buildup of nitrite in the tank due to the remaining excrement of fishes in the water. Overfeeding and overstocking have also been included as reasons.
Causes, Symptoms and Treatment of Septicemia
- It is difficult to recognize septicemia symptoms. There are only few significant signs that can guide the aquarist. To be sure about the diagnosis, it is best to consult a veterinarian.
- Some of the most widely reported symptoms include skin ulcers, deteriorating fins, bulging eyes, lethargy, staying on the surface or corners of the tank and anemia.
- The cause of septicemia has been traced to many factors such as:
- Stressful conditions
- Poor water quality
- Improper handling of the fish
- The remedy for septicemia is treating the infection as quickly as possible. The pet owner should feed the fish with triple-strength antibiotic food and nothing else.
- The infected fish undergoing treatment must be kept within a warm environment above 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Salt solution added to the treatment tank can help heal the scales back to their natural texture.
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Home > Phrasal Verb Dictionary: Letter F
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T W Z
music, sound, light, hope) When something fades away, it gradually
becomes weaker until it disappears; it fades. Die away
a moment the noise faded away, and only the sound of a light breeze,
and ringing, filled my ears.
(insep) (family, life, marriage, relationship,
house, car, business, deal) When something falls apart, it desintegrates
or falls to pieces.
- The building is falling apart.
- His marriage fell apart when he cheated
on his wife.
on [Fall back on somebody, fall back on something] .- (insep) When you fall back on somebody or something, you turn
to them or use it when in difficulty or because no other choice is available;
- It's great to have a friend to fall
- People fall back on alternative
medicine when modern drugs don't work.
had no money to fall back on.
(insep) When you fall behind or something falls behind, it remains at the
same level or standard.
- Your schoolwork has fallen
- He fell behind with the rent
and was asked to leave the flat.
(insep) When you fall down, you fall
accidentallly or because something is in a poor state of repair.
fell down and hurt her knees.
- She tripped
and fell down
Fall for [Fall for somebody].-(insep)
When you fall for somebody, you fall in love with them.
fell for him in a big way.
- Why does he
always fall for the wrong women.
Fall for [Fall for something].- When you fall for something, you are tricked or deceived.
could you fall for such an old trick?
fell for his talk and bought the encyclopedia.
Fall off.- 1 (insep) (bike,
horse, button) When you fall off something, you separate from it and
- He fell off his bike and hurt himself.
2 (insep) (attendance,
interest, quality, profits) When something falls off, it decreases
or becomes less or fewer. Drop off
- Attendance has fallen
off this term.
(insep) (a situation, somebody) When
two people fall out, they quarrel or have an argument and stop being
- They've fallen out over some stupid misunderstanding.
- I don't like Bill - I fell out with him when he sold me a car that didn't work.
Fall over.- (insep) When you fall over, you fall to the ground.
- She slipped on the ice and fell over.
- He fell over and broke his leg.
- My daughter is learning to walk so she falls over quite a lot.
(insep) (idea, plan, project, arrangement,
scheme, proposal) When something falls through, it fails and it's abandoned.
- The deal fell through for reasons that are not clear.
- The sale fell through at the last minute.
- The employees decided not to work for him and his plan fell through.
with something [Be fed up with something / somebody] .- (insep) When you are fed up with something or somebody, you are tired, depressed,
bored or no longer interested in them.
- Are you
as fed up with what's going on in Washington as I am? I've become increasingly
concerned about the current direction of our country.
Ferret out [Ferret something out].- (secret, the truth, details,
error, facts, information) When you ferret something out, you succeed
in finding some difficult or secret information. Dig out
managed to ferret out the secret.
Fight off [Fight something off].- (infection, cold, illness, attack,
enemy, competition) When you fight something off, you try to avoid
or get rid of it.
- I'm taking lots of vitamin C
to help me fight off this cold.
weakens your immune system, making it harder for your body to fight
Figure out [Figure something out].- When you figure something out, you manage to understand.
- Have you figured out what the problem is?
- I just can't figure her out.
for [Fill in for somebody].- (insep) When you fill in for somebody, you do their job temporarily
because they can't. Cover for, sit in for, stand
- Colleen was pleased that Gwen
Swick was able to fill in for her, as Gwen was an old friend and they
had worked together many times.
Fill in [Fill somebody in, fill somebody in on something].- (details) When you fill somebody in, or fill somebody in on something, you give them information.
- My assistant will fill you in on the details.
- For those who haven't see it, let me fill you in on some of the highlights.
Fill in [Fill something in].- (form,
cheque, name, coupon, space, questionnaire,hole) When you fill
something in, you complete it with the correct information.
gave me a form and told me to fill it in.
- You will be asked to fill in a questionnaire designed to measure your quality of life.
Fill up [Fill up, fill something up].- (glass, car, tank, bottle,
container, theater) When you fill something up or something fills up, it
- You should always switch off the
engine before you fill up with petrol.
filled up the kettle with water and made everyone a cup of tea.
Find out [Find out, find something out].- When you find something out, you discover or get
- What will she say when she finds
- When you lose everything you find
out who your real friends are.
(insep) When you fit in, you get on with a group of people or you feel
as if belonging to a group.
difficult for them to fit in with the way of life here.
Flake out .-
(insep, informal) When you flake out, you fall asleep.
- He flaked out on the sofa.
Flare up.- (insep) When you flare up, you become angry.
- He was an alcoholic and would flare up at anything.
Flick through [Flick through something].- (insep) (magazine, book,
album, article, channels, cards) When you flick through something,
you read or look quickly at the pages of a magazine or book. It also
means to change repeatedly from one station or channel to another. Flip through, glance over, leaf through
flicked through the channels on the TV, hoping for some news.
- I was flicking through the channels when I saw her on the telly. I couldn't believe it.
Flip through [Flip through something].- (insep) The same as flick through.
Flush out [Flush somebody out].- (rebels, resistance, militants,
guerrillas, criminals) When you flush somebody out, you force them
to leave a place.
- The Angolan armed forces have recently flushed out the rebels from the area.
- In the port of Umm Qasr, to the south, royal marines have been flashing out the last pockets of resistance.
Fob off [Fob somebody off].- (patient, creditor) When you fob somebody
off, you stop somebody complaining by giving them silly answers.
keep ringing them and complaining but they just fob me off ! They couldnt
Fob off [Fob something off].- (responsibility) When you fob something off, you manage to make somebody
accept something faulty, worthless or difficult to deal with.
try to fob off your responsibility on others!
- I don't want to be fobbed off with excuses, I want to know who is responsible for this problem!
out [Freak out, freak somebody out].- When you freak out, you react in an anxious,
excited and wild manner to something.
- My parents would
freak out if I talked to them about this.
freak out and do something stupid every time something bad happens.
Frighten away [Frighten something away].- When you frighten somebody or an animal away,
you make them leave using fear. Scare away, scare off
- They feel a refinery
would frighten away tourists and potential tourism investors.
Frighten off.- the same as frighten away.
Fuck about.- (taboo, slang) When you fuck around, you behave
in a stupid way which annoys people.
- After a ridiculous
amount of fucking about and watching crap on TV, I eventually persuaded
them to leave.
Fuck around.- The same as fuck about.
Fuck off.- (taboo) (insep) When you tell somebody to fuck off, you tell
them in a very offensive way to leave you alone. Bugger off, sod off, piss off
started yelling at me again and then told me to fuck off.
Fuck up [Fuck something up].- When you fuck something up, you make of mess of it. Balls up, cock up, mess up
- Every time we win, we go and fuck up the next match with a stupid result. | <urn:uuid:22d82573-156a-47ad-8db3-7de6a61759df> | {
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When the Highlands and Islands of Scotland adopted the bagpipe, perhaps some six hundred years ago, they began to develop the instrument and its music to suit their needs and tastes.
What emerged was the instrument we know today as the Great Highland Bagpipe, and a form of music, piobaireachd (pronounced Pee-broch), which is unique to the instrument. The music consists of a theme (ground) and variations on this theme. The theme can express joy, sadness, or sometimes in the “gathering” tunes , a peremptory warning or call to arms.
The theme is developed in a series of variations, which usually progress to the “crunluath” variation, where the piper’s fingers give a dazzling technical display of embellishment or gracenotes.
The Piobaireachd Society was founded in 1901 to encourage the playing teaching and study of this music.
1) Iain Speirs - In Praise of Morag | <urn:uuid:81540448-7c88-402b-949d-9eb824cf0a4f> | {
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The chitarrone is one of the more spectacular instruments of the early baroque. The name probably means ‘large kithara’, after the instrument played by the Classical Greek poets, and it was first developed as a bass lute to accompany singing and recitative
Between 1604 and 1640, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger (also known as Johann Hieronymus Kapsberger), Alessandro Piccinini and Bellerofonte Castaldi published a number of collections of chitarrone music, from which Jakob Lindberg has chosen some favourite dances, arias, toccatas and passacaglias.
Combined into seven suites, they provide rich opportunity to enjoy the particular timbre and the special playing techniques of this instrument.
Jakob Lindberg has a long-standing interest in the many varieties of lutes and has now dedicated himself to researching their relative – research which informs both the performances and Lindberg’s own liner notes. | <urn:uuid:6c56897a-faba-4849-ae44-33f3e70e36b6> | {
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Famous tree-lined French Canal du Midi in danger of losing all its trees
The 42,000 plane trees lining France's historic Canal du Midi are being felled because of a fungus brought to Europe by US soldiers in World War II. Will the planes that decorate the streets of cities such as Paris and London share the same fate?
Story from PRI's The World. Listen to the above audio for a full report.
It's noon in the farmlands outside Toulouse, but the light on the Canal du Midi is dim, almost like twilight.
The deep shade is created by the leafy branches of huge plane trees that tower above both banks, and arch across the water creating a dense canopy.
It's an exquisitely beautiful scene. And one that runs the length of the canal on its 150 mile course from Toulouse to the port of Sete on the Mediterranean.
It was five years ago that Jacques Noisette realized something was wrong.
"In the spring of 2006, I began to notice that some of the plane trees were dying," says Mr Noisette, who works for the French government agency that manages the canal.
"Their new leaves should have been opening up, but they weren't. We asked ourselves why."
Specialists soon identified the deadly fungus, Ceratocystis platani, for which there is no apparent cure.
"Even a small scratch or cut on a plane tree is enough for the fungus to get inside and attack. It thrives deep in the tree trunk," says Mr Noisette. "Within three to five years the tree is fully infected. There's nothing we can do except cut the trees down, and burn them on the spot."
Researchers say the trees must be felled before they die. Otherwise they could fall on boaters, who travel along the canal - spreading the fungus as they go.
"We know the fungus travels through the canal water," says Mr Noisette. "The trees can get infected when boats scrape up against the roots. Or when uninformed boaters tie-off their boats to the plane trees themselves."
French agronomist Andre Vigouroux, who has been studying the fungus for years, says it's been traced to the munition boxes American soldiers brought over to Europe in World War II, which were made from North American plane trees.
It's been spreading through Europe, from Italy, and Steve Woodward from the University of Aberdeen, says it is likely eventually to kill the planted planes that line the streets of cities such as London, Paris and Berlin.
"There really are millions of these trees planted in non-native areas.
"We are talking about a massive disaster if the disease continues to spread," he says.
Along the canal tree-felling has begun - 1,000 trees were cut down last winter, 2,000 more will be felled in the coming months.
It will take years to clear all 42,000 of them, but once the trees have gone, so may the two million tourists who visit the canal every year.
"It is so hot in the Midi that it would just change it totally without the trees," says retired British tourist Graham Barley, who has been travelling up the canal from the Mediterranean in a wooden houseboat.
His wife Linda agrees. "In practical terms, it would make cruising between noon and 4pm unbearable," she says, even in September.
The Canal du Midi wasn't originally designed for pleasure boats.
Completed in 1681, it was designed to link up with another waterway further west - now known as the Canal de Garonne - to allow merchants to move between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, without having to sail around Spain and Portugal. The sea route was long and arduous, and ships could fall victim to storms and pirates.
The plane trees were a later addition, planted in the 1830s in part to provide shade to those using the waterway.
UNESCO declared the canal a world heritage site in 1996, saying it had "provided the model for the flowering of technology that led directly to the Industrial Revolution and the modern technological age". To retain this status, however, France will have to replant the trees it chops down.
So that's the plan. To replant a variety of trees where the plane trees now stand. Trees with strong root systems to maintain the canal banks, and with thick leaves to create shade.
And ironically, given that American GIs brought the fungus to Europe in the first place, among the new trees to replace the old are 7,000 disease-resistant plane trees - all the way from Mississippi.
Whether colder parts of Europe will be able to use the Mississippi strain to replant any planes they lose in the future, is as yet unknown.
PRI's "The World" is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. "The World" is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston. More about The World. | <urn:uuid:b288ec91-9d3e-4968-81ad-365f66b69259> | {
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In a video highlighting her research in plastic electronics, Princeton engineering professor Yueh-Lin (Lynn) Loo describes some of the potentially life-changing uses for these malleable materials.
Play the "Plastic Electronics" video
Video stills courtesy of Volker Steger
Video feature: 'Plastic Electronics'
Posted October 14, 2010; 12:00 p.m.
New developments in plastic electronics potentially could change the quality of human life in a wide range of ways, according to Princeton engineering professor Yueh-Lin (Lynn) Loo.
"Imagine tinted windows that can also generate power during the day," Loo says in this video highlighting her research in plastic electronics. "Imagine disposable sensors that would change color if the water source is contaminated, or yet think of smart plastic patches that can monitor your health and deliver medication when you're sick. The possibilities are endless."
Loo was one of five young scientists who spoke in September at the World Economic Forum's "Annual Meeting of the New Champions" in Tianjin, China. She is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
Loo's research is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research and the Sloan Foundation. This video was funded by a grant from the High Meadows Foundation.
Loo and her laboratory group investigate how the unique attributes of plastics, including their light weight, mechanical flexibility and low cost, can be incorporated into electronics. | <urn:uuid:1f642d5f-07c8-4654-93f9-e0d245363755> | {
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What is an NSF Math and Science Partnership?
Because improved student achievement in mathematics and science is so important to us as individuals and as a nation, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded a dozen comprehensive Mathematics and Science Partnerships (MSPs) and 23 targeted MSPs around the country. Visit www.MSPnet.org for more information.
These multi-year projects are meant to answer some of the most difficult questions facing education in America:
- How do we draw upon mathematicians and scientists to improve the quality of the mathematics and science taught in our schools?
- How do we improve teaching and learning for all students?
- How do we improve cooperation between higher education and the K-12 community?
- How do we successfully create and sustain change on a large scale?
You and PROM/SE are part of a national effort to answer these questions. | <urn:uuid:b65370bc-3baf-4053-9390-77d092119def> | {
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History of the Jigsaw Puzzle
Its generally agreed that London print shop owner and map maker, John Spilsbury created the first jigsaw puzzle, about 1760. He mounted a map onto mahogany, and cut along the borders of the countries, as a way to teach children about geography.
Early puzzles were called dissections. The introduction of the treadle saw in 1880, saw the name change to the now familiar jigsaw puzzle.
Jigsaw puzzles remained primarily a teaching tool until they moved into the adult market, about 1907. By 1908 a full blown craze had developed starting in the Eastern United States. The golden age of jigsaw puzzles started in the 1920's peaking in 1933. The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 caused people to spend more time at home, and completing a jigsaw puzzle gave a feeling of accomplishment. Something that was hard to come by at that time. This was also the first time that puzzles were used for advertising purposes - a tooth brush company was the first to supply free puzzles for druggists to give to toothbrush buyers. Other commercial enterprises soon jumped on the band wagon - what better way to advertise , than have someone spend hours assembling a picture of the product.
In the early days puzzles made of wood or plywood were expensive - costing as much as a weeks wages for the average worker. Each piece was cut individually. Early puzzles did not interlock and a careless bump or sneeze could undo an entire evenings work. The 1930's saw the development of mass produced die-cut cardboard puzzles, cut on giant industrial presses by companies such as Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley. Libraries and drugstores then started offering puzzle rentals at 25 cents for 3 days.
Small run cardboard puzzles were still not economically feasible, primarily due to equipment costs. A flourishing business still exists for hand cut personal and custom puzzles, as is evidenced by the numerous web sites that offer this service. These mainly use photographs glued to plywood and are cut with either scroll saws or water jets.
Colour photocopiers and recent developments in ink jet printer technology, have reduced printing costs, thereby replacing the necessity for photographic enlargements. The huge industrial press problem was solved with the advent of our roller press. Pressures required are enormous. The 308 piece puzzle requires 150 tons of pressure to cut 60 point chipboard. This pressure is achieved over the entire die surface by applying pressure one small area at a time.
© 2005 Graffiti Graphics Ltd. | <urn:uuid:dd7c20bd-d78d-4043-abba-cb7451afb872> | {
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In the alley-center infiltration approach, permeable material (asphalt, concrete, or pavers) is placed in the center of the alley and high-albedo concrete is placed along the outer edges. This way, water soaks through the center of the alley, but truck tires roll on top of the stronger pavement.
Each of Chicago's four pervious-pavement designs can be tweaked to fit just about any alley in the city. This is an example of full-alley infiltration using permeable pavement. Source: Chicago DOT
Here's a little-known fact about Chicago: The Midwest city has more miles of alleys—1900 in all—than any other city in the world. That's the equivalent surface area of five mid-sized airports.
That's also 3500 acres of impermeable surface in a city that's committed to going green.
But going green isn't the sole reason for the city's $900,000 alley-renovation pilot program, funded by general funds.
“One of residents' biggest complaints is flooding,” says Janet Attarian, project director of the city's streetscape and urban design program. Heavy rainfalls, or rain events that last for days, flood alleys. The water spills off into—and overwhelms—the city's combined sewer/stormwater system, causing basements to flood and the system to overflow into the Chicago River.
“Basements become short-term retaining ponds until the system clears enough for them to be emptied out,” says Attarian. “Plus, we're discharging contaminated water into the river because our system can't handle it.”
According to Attarian, the city's in-place solutions weren't good enough. For example, repaving a puddle-prone alley with asphalt worsens the ponding, causing excess water to run off into back yards instead of into the street where it's properly drained into the combined sewer system. And connecting sewer mains from the alleys to the city's sewer system is cost-prohibitive.
Other options were needed.
The answer: Reconstruct alleys with permeable surfaces that allow water to pass through and infiltrate the soil below. Made of either porous asphalt and/or concrete or paving stones shaped to leave gaps at the corners, these pavements would reduce flooding, recharge groundwater, and save taxpayer dollars that would otherwise be spent treating stormwater or tearing up streets to install stormwater collection systems.
The Chicago DOT chose five alleys with maintenance problems and ideal soil conditions to test four anti-flood paving models, each incorporating high-albedo concrete and either recycled concrete or permeable pavement (concrete, asphalt, or pavers) as a base material. Surfaces are pitched and graded to direct excess storm-water toward the center of the alley, where it drains into the existing street sewer system. Underneath is 1 foot of either gravel or crushed stone that traps water until it soaks into the ground. Naturally occurring iodes attack pollutants such as oils and antifreeze, helping to break them down before the water reaches aquifiers. Optional inlet structures or stormwater infiltration trenches are also installed to store and dispense water while the soil absorbs it. To see a diagram of Chicago's pervious pavement design, click here. | <urn:uuid:40562f23-27d1-4c96-b4ba-524cfcf3edc6> | {
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In this video from the Excel 2010 Tutorial series, School of Technology Program Coordinator, Justin Denton, teaches us about VLookup in Microsoft Excel 2010. This tutorial video is a great beginning step to your courses in technology at Rasmussen College.
The next formula, per se, is what's called a value look up. If you want to look up a given value based on a code-- we know that we've got product codes. We know that we have an item name. But I want to know what those details are about each given item.
We have our product codes in a different tab which lists the product name, the product code, and the actual product details. So we know it's a spoon, but what kind of spoon it is. It's a six inch dinner spoon with a gold tone.
Well, I want to return those on the fly back to my inventory list. And if this spoon changes, maybe the code changes, I want it to automatically update. To do that, there's a VLOOKUP function. So equals VLOOKUP, which basically stands for value look up.
You'll do your open bracket. And then you'll see this really long screen tip up here, value look up, or look up value, your table array, your column index, your range look up, all this stuff that you actually have to input in to make it work. But it is not horribly hard to do.
So when we look up our look up value, which-- all it is is the value we want to look up right now. Well, all I want to look up is find out what's the product code. So I just select D4, or the product code next to the formula I'm creating. So now I have V equals VLOOKUP, open bracket, D4.
I'll put a comma in after D4 because that's the value I'm looking up. There's nothing else I'm looking up in this specific scenario. Now I need to select the table array that I'm going to look that value up from. Well, the table array happens to be on a totally different sheet. So at this point, the easiest way is to stay right here, click on the product code sheet.
I'll see at the top of the screen here where it has the formula that I'm building up on the top of the screen. I will now notice that it's automatically changed product codes. And now I'm going to select the cell range of B2 through C7, which has the product code as well as the product details next to each code.
So that gives my look up table. I'm going to now look up from that table. Once I've done that, I can go ahead and hit comma. And then I'll notice the next highlighted field is column index number. And the column index number is-- after I've looked up that value-- so I'm looking up SPN right now-- what do I want to return? What column out of that table do I want to return?
Well, I want to return the product details column, which we would typically associate with the C column. But in this instance, in the small table we've defined, it's actually column two. So we want to return column two, whatever the value is in column two. And then we put the next comma in, which is asking for a range look up. And do we want an approximate match?
So if SPN's not found, do we want to give the next closest value? Or do we want an exact match? So if SPN's not found, we'll give some sort of error.
The best thing to do is doing a exact match, because approximate match isn't always the most reliable in the world. So we'll select false, or double click on exact match. I'll close my formula. And I've basically created the entire formula the way I need it.
So then when I hit Enter, I get an error. What did I do? Product codes-- oh, I know what I did. I clicked too many times when I was in there. Good troubleshooting.
So I had clicked too many times when I was in there. I got click happy. And it inserted product codes table twice.
So basically, after I've done this, it's smart enough now to look up SPN, verify that table in that other worksheet, and then return the details of what an SPN product code is, which happens to be a six inch dinner spoon, gold tone. | <urn:uuid:c573550a-3111-4c3d-9947-f2ac1a4d95d4> | {
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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you.
Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.
Teacher Resources by Grade
|1st - 2nd||3rd - 4th|
|5th - 6th||7th - 8th|
|9th - 10th||11th - 12th|
Characters in Because of Winn-Dixie: Making Lists of Ten
|Grades||3 – 5|
|Lesson Plan Type||Standard Lesson|
|Estimated Time||Five 50-minute sessions plus independent reading time|
In Kate DiCamillo’s book Because of Winn-Dixie, the protagonist, Opal, learns about her absent mother when her father shares ten things about her. Working as a class, students match items from the list of ten things describing Opal's mother in the novel with the basic elements of characterization. Next, they work in small groups to go through the same process with the list of ten things describing Winn-Dixie. Students then create an individual list describing another character in the book. Finally, students extend this process to another book they are reading by recording ten characteristics on a printable bookmark, ranking those characteristics in terms of importance, and then publishing them in a flip book format.
Three Elements of Characterization: This resource introduces students to the three elements of characterization, as well as some basic vocabulary terms related to characters.
Flip Book Interactive: This online tool allows students to type and illustrate tabbed flip books up to ten pages long.
In her "Teaching Ideas" column, Diana Mitchell states, "Students tire of responding to novels in the same ways. They want new ways to think about a piece of literature and new ways to dig into it" (92). Mitchell provides fifty suggestions on exploring new directions and responding with greater depth to the books read by students. This lesson plan provides a similar alternative by asking students to identify key details from the book in a way that goes beyond the ordinary while still focusing on comprehension.
Mitchell, Diana. "Fifty Alternatives to the Book Report." English Journal 87.1 (January 1998): 92-95. | <urn:uuid:ace6606c-e8d1-463c-a274-0589b2439c8b> | {
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Synthetic Biology: TUM Researchers Develop Novel Kind Of Fluorescent Protein
Proteins are the most important functional biomolecules in nature with numerous applications in life science research, biotechnology and medicine. So how can they be modified in the most effective way to attain certain desired properties? In the past, the modifications were usually carried out either chemically or via genetic engineering. The team of Professor Arne Skerra from the TUM Chair of Biological Chemistry has now developed a more elegant combined solution: By extending the otherwise universal genetic code, the scientists are able to coerce bacterial cells to produce tailored proteins with synthetic functional groups. To put their idea to the test, they set out to crack a particularly hard nut: The scientists wanted to incorporate a non-natural amino acid at a specific site into a widely used natural protein.
In bioresearch this protein is commonly known as "GFP" (= green fluorescent protein). It emits a bright green glow and stems originally from a jellyfish that uses the protein to make itself visible in the darkness of the deep sea. The team chose a pale lavender coumarin pigment, serving as side chain of a non-natural amino acid, as the synthetic group. The scientists "fed" this artificial amino acid to a laboratory culture of Escherichia coli bacteria ““ the microorganism workhorses of genetic engineering, whose natural siblings are also found in the human intestine. Since the team had transferred the modified genetic blueprints for the GFP to the bacteria ““ including the necessary biosynthesis machinery ““ it incorporated the coumarin amino acid at a very specific site into the fluorescent protein.
This spot in the GFP was carefully chosen, explains Professor Skerra: "We positioned the synthetic amino acid at a very close distance from the fluorescence center of the natural protein." The scientists employed the principle of the so-called Foerster resonance energy transfer, or FRET for short. Under favorable conditions, this process of physical energy transfer, named after the German physical chemist Theodor Foerster, allows energy to be conveyed from one stimulated pigment to another in a radiation-less manner.
It was precisely this FRET effect that the scientists implemented very elegantly in the new fluorescent protein. They defined the distance between the imported chemical pigment and the biological blue-green (cyan, to be more precise) pigment of the jellyfish protein in such a way that the interplay between the two dyes resulted in a completely novel kind of fluorescent chimeric biomolecule. Because of the extreme proximity of the two luminescent groups the pale lavender of the synthetic amino acid can no longer be detected; instead, the typical blue-green color of the fluorescent protein dominates. "What is special here, and different from the natural GFP, is that, thanks to the synthetically incorporated amino acid, the fluorescence can be excited with a commercially available black-light lamp in place of an expensive dedicated LASER apparatus," explains Sebastian Kuhn, who conducted these groundbreaking experiments as part of his doctoral thesis.
According to Skerra, the design principle of the novel bio-molecule, which is characterized by a particularly large and hard to achieve wavelength difference between excitation and emitted light, should open numerous interesting applications: "We have now demonstrated that the technology works. Our strategy will enable the preparation of customized fluorescent proteins in various colors for manifold future purposes." This research project was financially supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Excellence Cluster "Munich Center for Integrated Protein Science" (CIPS-M).
On the Net: | <urn:uuid:d3ef8be8-d68b-4d8f-bea4-d1248144d3a5> | {
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GRAFTON -- There is a mountain's worth of historical and cultural significance in the presidential re-inauguration slated for today.
President Barack Obama, the first black commander-in-chief in American history, is set to take the oath of his office to begin his second term on a day designated to honor a man who made Obama's journey possible.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day, named after the late civil rights pioneer, was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and though some states were reluctant to recognize it at first, the holiday is now federally celebrated. Though controversial in his time, King has become a hero to many Americans of all races and backgrounds and different regions of the country find their own unique way to preserve his message and memory.
Last week the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing opened an African-American Heritage Trail with several sites (including Grafton) of importance to black history in the state. Curtiss Reed Jr., the executive director of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, said the trail is intended to boost cultural tourism in the Green Mountain State and increase awareness of its track record of racial tolerance.
"The trail is the result of a conversation we've had over the last several years with the state government about how do we grow the economic pie in the state given the demographics," he told the Reformer, adding that there are also several
The department did not reply to a request seeking comment by presstime.
Reed said Vermont is one of the whitest states in the nation in terms of population but has a rich history of acceptance, opportunity and social justice. It is home to the first state constitution banning slavery within its borders, a strong abolitionist movement and the first African-American to earn a degree from an American university and get elected to a state legislature.
One of the stops on the heritage trail is the Grafton Historical Society. The town was once home to Daisy Turner, who Reed "called probably the most enthusiastic and insightful storyteller that Vermont has ever seen."
The daughter of former slaves, Turner's family settled in Grafton many years ago and her father Alexander -- a Civil War veteran -- slowly bought land bit by bit.
"Her father was a larger-than-life figure in Grafton," Reed said. "They were a part of the fabric of Grafton life."
Daisy, Reed said, was famous for her gripping stories about her family origins in Africa, enslavement and eventual emancipation. Reed said there are a lot of audio recordings and videos of her stories. He also said Daisy was the oldest living person in Vermont (roughly 105 years old) when she died in the 1980s.
Society President Patsy Ellis said one of the group's central themes has been the families whose history define the character of the town.
"Over the years we have focused attention on Daisy Turner and the Turner family, whose story in so many ways represents our heritage in their struggle to carve out a life on a Vermont hill farm," she said in an e-mail to the Reformer. "We are now proud to be able to share their story as part of The African American Heritage Trail."
The Turner family's homestead is still in Grafton, as is the Daisy Turner Loop -- a 8.5-mile bicycle trail near the Grafton Pond. There is also an exhibit in her honor at the town's historical society and at the Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury, a town which also is on the heritage trail.
Alexander Twilight received a bachelor's degree from Middlebury College in 1823 and eventually served in the Vermont General Assembly.
The other towns on the trail are Woodstock, Manchester, Brandon, Windsor, Strafford, Browington, Ferrisburgh and Strafford.
"These are all sites that have particular interest to history buffs. They say, ‘Come to Vermont. There's a reason to come to Vermont,'" Reed said. "These sites have existed for a long time but there was no sort of brand identity for them."
Ferrisburgh includes the Rokeby Museum, a site of the Underground Railroad that led escaped slaves to freedom, and Strafford was the home of Sen. Justin Smith Morrill, who sponsored the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act. That legislation paved the path for black (now historically-black) colleges and universities, which educated former slaves and their descendants.
"Out of the black colleges and universities came the intellectual powerhouses for the Civil Rights Movement," Reed said. "If a Vermont senator had not had the foresight to seek the education of former slaves, there'd no black colleges and the Civil Rights Movement would have taken on a totally different shape."
Reed grew up in St. Louis, Mo., but has called Vermont his home since 1978. He thought the state is not a racial utopia (citing an incident in Bellows Falls a few years ago when a white barber allegedly lied to a visiting black physician to avoid having to cut his hair, later saying it's difficult to cut a black person's hair) but said an incredible amount of historically significant events have taken place in the state. He said many of Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys were black.
Reed said appealing to the multi-cultural marketplace is vital to the sustainability of Vermont's hospitality and tourism industry. He cited the Census Bureau as reporting there were more babies of color born last year than white babies and said demographers believe the United States will become a minority-majority nation within 29 years. Reed said Americans of color know about Vermont's white demographics and might shy away from vacationing here because they fear how they would be treated. He said that mindset needs to change if Vermont is going to prosper in a changing world.
"(The trail) will increase the number of tourists coming to the state. The profile of those tourists are likely to be black or African-American or Latino or whites who have (an appreciation) for history."
He said Vermont is a beautiful destination for professional and amateur black associations to hold their annual conferences. He mentioned specifically the National Brotherhood of Skiers, a non-profit organization made up of over 45 active African-American ski clubs that could hold their events here, adding that the NBS has not come to the Northeast since visiting Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1984.
"If your vision of who could enjoy Vermont is limited to just white people, then you're losing out on the fastest growing market in the United States," he said.
Domenic Poli can be reached at [email protected], or 802-254-2311, ext. 277. | <urn:uuid:10a30103-fc63-4ecf-8c28-45d4c2fc73af> | {
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2003 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Antigua and Barbuda
|Publisher||United States Department of Labor|
|Author||Bureau of International Labor Affairs|
|Publication Date||29 April 2004|
|Cite as||United States Department of Labor, 2003 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Antigua and Barbuda, 29 April 2004, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/48c8ca0120.html [accessed 19 June 2013]|
|Disclaimer||This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.|
Government Policies and Programs to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor
The Government of Antigua and Barbuda created a committee to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2000. The government has also expressed its commitment to conducting research on child labor. Based upon a UNICEF supported study on the needs of children and families, the government is developing a National Plan of Action on Child Survival, Development, and Protection while simultaneously implementing a public education campaign on child labor through the print and electronic media.
In 1994, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda revised its educational policy to improve the effectiveness of schooling. Key achievements in terms of education in recent years include ensuring broad-based access to primary education for most children and providing a growing number of pre-primary education facilities for children. The government has employed officers to monitor school attendance and report their findings biweekly to the Chief Education Officer and Education Officers. Children who are repeatedly absent from school may be placed in foster care, and the parents or guardians of these children may be prosecuted in court. The government plans to improve data collection, monitoring, and assessment systems for education; upgrade school facilities; provide support to improve education efficiency; and make education available to children with special needs, like the growing number of bilingual children in Antigua and Barbuda, children with disabilities, and children in conflict with the law.
Incidence and Nature of Child Labor
Statistics on the number of working children under the age of 15 years in Antigua and Barbuda are unavailable, and there is limited information on the incidence and nature of child labor in the country. In 2001, children as young as 13 years old were reportedly involved in an organized prostitution and pornography ring.
Education is compulsory and free for children between the ages of 5 and 16 years.
According to UNICEF, most children enjoy access to primary education, however there are no nationally available enrollment statistics for Antigua and Barbuda. Spanish-speaking children, children with disabilities, young mothers, and other children with special educational needs, face barriers to accessing primary education.
Child Labor Laws and Enforcement
The Labor Code, Division E of 1975, sets the minimum age for employment at 16 years. The provisions also establish that children less than 16 years of age cannot work more than 8 hours in a 24-hour time period or during school hours. Children between the ages of 14 and 18 years must obtain a medical examination prior to employment. The Constitution prohibits slavery and forced labor.
The Sexual Offences Act of 1995 raised the age of consent in Antigua and Barbuda from 14 to 16 years of age. The Sexual Offences Act also prohibits prostitution, including child prostitution and makes the offense punishable with a sentence of up to 15 years imprisonement. There is no comprehensive law prohibiting trafficking in persons; however, existing laws on prostitution and labor provide a legal framework to prosecute individuals for trafficking offenses. In addition, the Offences Against the Person Act, Cap. 58 offers some protection to children who are sold, trafficked, or abducted against their own will and wishes of their parents.
The Ministry of Labor is required to conduct periodic inspections of workplaces. The police and social welfare departments investigate the criminal and social aspects of child labor. In August 2001, a case implicating high-ranking members of society in a child pornography and prostitution ring was prosecuted in court.
Antigua and Barbuda ratified ILO Convention 138 on March 17, 1983 and ILO Convention 182 on September 16, 2002.
U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2002: Antigua and Barbuda, Washington, D.C., March 31, 2003, Section 5; available from http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18316.htm.
Representatives from Antigua and Barbuda attended the ILO Caribbean Tripartite Meeting on the Worst Forms of Child Labor in December 1999, and based on what was learned at the meeting, they expressed a need to reassess the country's situation with regard to child labor sectors in prostitution and drug trafficking. See U.S. Embassy-Bridgetown, unclassified telegram 1773, September 11, 2001. See also Labour Commissioner of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, letter to USDOL official, October 18, 2001.
U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2002: Antigua and Barbuda, Section 5. See also Lionel Hurst, letter to USDOL official, October 18, 2001.
In 1990 Ministers of Education from the eight member countries that make up the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) met and established a regional educational reform agenda. According to the OECS Reform Strategy, areas for reform included education management, teacher and administrator training, and inadequate educational facilities including textbooks and learning materials. Ministry of Education, Youth, Sport, and Community Development official, Education for All 2000 Assessment: Country Reports – Antigua and Barbuda, UNESCO, 2000 [cited June 28, 2003], Analytic Section 2.2.4; available from http://www2.unesco.org/wef/countryreports/antigua_barbuda/rapport_1.html.
UNICEF, Antigua and Barbuda, Caribbean Area Office, [online] 2001 [cited August 14, 2002]; available from http://www.unicef-cao.org/publications/Reports/PromiseToCaribbeanChildren/AntiguaBarbuda.html.
Ministry of Education, Youth, Sport, and official, EFA 2000 Report: Antigua and Barbuda, Analytic Section 2.2.1.
UNICEF, Antigua and Barbuda. See also Ministry of Education, Youth, Sport, and official, EFA 2000 Report: Antigua and Barbuda, Sections 18.104.22.168, 2.2.3.
World Bank, World Development Indicators 2003 [CD-ROM], Washington, D.C., 2003. From general observation, children over twelve years old do engage in part time employment particularly during summer holidays, generally with parental consent and with the right to utilize their earnings independently. See Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Antigua and Barbuda National Report on Follow Up to the World Summit for Children and Lima Accord, St. Johns, 2000, 7.
Given the economy's heavy reliance on tourism, government officials could not rule out the possibility of child prostitution or the involvement of children in drug trafficking. See Hurst, letter dated October 18, 2001. See also U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2002: Antigua and Barbuda, Section 5.
According to the 1973 Education Act, it is mandatory for government to provide education to children between the ages of five and sixteen years. Thirty of the 55 primary schools in Antigua and Barbuda are public schools where schooling is free. The government also provides free textbooks and schooling supplies to private schools through the Board of Education. See Ministry of Education, Youth, Sport, and official, EFA 2000 Report: Antigua and Barbuda, Descriptive Section 1.0, 1.3.
Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Antigua and Barbuda National Report, 13.
UNICEF, Antigua and Barbuda.
Hurst, letter dated October 18, 2001, U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, Initial Report 2001: Antigua and Barbuda, Government of Antigua and Barbuda, West Indies, 2001, 54-55; available from http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/crc/doc/report/srf-a&b-1.pdf.
U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, Initial Report 2001: Antigua and Barbuda, 55.
Constitution of Antigua and Barbuda, Chapter II, Article 6, (1981); available from http://www.georgetown.edu/pdba/Constitutions/Antigua/ab81.html.
Sexual Offenses Act, Part II, 1995 1995; available from http://www.protectionproject.org/vt/2.htm. U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, Initial Report 2001: Antigua and Barbuda, 12.
U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2002: Antigua and Barbuda, Section 6f.
U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, Initial Report 2001: Antigua and Barbuda, 57.
There is an Inspectorate in the Labor Commissioner's Office that handles exploitative child labor matters. U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2002: Antigua and Barbuda, Section 6d.
Hurst, letter dated October 18, 2001.
Ibid. See also U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2002: Antigua and Barbuda, Section 5.
ILO, Ratifications by Country, in ILOLEX, [database online] [cited August 25, 2003]; available from http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/english/newratframeE.htm. | <urn:uuid:67692a6d-43d5-4e26-895f-ffba562ac5c7> | {
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Bill Scanlon, NREL
January 02, 2013 | 3 Comments
It takes outside-the-box thinking to outsmart the solar spectrum and set a world record for solar cell efficiency. The solar spectrum has boundaries and immutable rules. No matter how much solar cell manufacturers want to bend those rules, they can't.
So how can we make a solar cell that has a higher efficiency than the rules allow?
That's the question scientists in the III-V Multijunction Photovoltaics Group at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) faced 15 years ago as they searched for materials they could grow easily that also have the ideal combinations of band gaps for converting photons from the sun into electricity with unprecedented efficiency.
A band gap is an energy that characterizes how a semiconductor material absorbs photons, and how efficiently a solar cell made from that material can extract the useful energy from those photons.
"The ideal band gaps for a solar cell are determined by the solar spectrum," said Daniel Friedman, manager of the NREL III-V Multijunction Photovoltaics Group. "There's no way around that."
But this year, Friedman's team succeeded so spectacularly in bending the rules of the solar spectrum that NREL and its industry partner, Solar Junction, won a coveted R&D 100 award from R&D Magazine for a world-record multijunction solar cell. The three-layered cell, SJ3, converted 43.5% of the energy in sunlight into electrical energy — a rate that has stimulated demand for the cell to be used in concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) arrays for utility-scale energy production.
Last month, that record of 43.5% efficiency at 415 suns was eclipsed with a 44% efficiency at 947 suns. Both records were verified by NREL. This is NREL's third R&D 100 award for advances in ultra-high-efficiency multijunction cells. CPV technology gains efficiency by using low-cost lenses to multiply the sun's intensity, which scientists refer to as numbers of suns.
Friedman says earlier success with multijunction cells — layered semiconductors each optimized to capture different wavelengths of light at their junctions — gave NREL a head start.
The SJ3 cells fit into the market for utility-scale CPV projects. They're designed for application under sunlight concentrated to 1,000 times its normal intensity by low-cost lenses that gather the light and direct it at each cell. In regions of clear atmosphere and intense sunlight, such as the U.S. desert Southwest, CPV has outstanding potential for lowest-cost solar electricity. There is enough available sunlight in these areas to supply the electrical energy needs of the entire United States many times over.
Bending Material to the Band Gaps on the Solar Spectrum
Sunlight is made up of photons of a wide range of energies from roughly zero to four electron volts (eV). This broad range of energies presents a fundamental challenge to conventional solar cells, which have a single photovoltaic junction with a single characteristic band gap energy.
Conventional cells most efficiently convert those photons that very nearly match the band gap of the semiconductors in the cell. Higher-energy photons give up their excess energy to the solar cell as waste heat, while lower-energy photons are not collected by the solar cell, and their energy is completely lost.
This behavior sets a fundamental limit on the efficiency of a conventional solar cell. Scientists overcome this limitation by using multijunction solar cells. Using multiple layers of materials in the cells, they create multiple junctions, each with different band gap energies. Each converts a different energy range of the solar spectrum. An invention in the mid-1980s by NREL's Jerry Olson and Sarah Kurtz led to the first practical, commercial multijunction solar cell, a GaInP/GaAs two-junction cell with 1.85-eV and 1.4-eV bandgaps that was recognized with an R&D 100 award in 1990, and later to the three-junction commercial cell based on GaInP/GaAs/Ge that won an R&D 100 award in 2001.
The researchers at NREL knew that if they could replace the 0.67-eV third junction with one better tuned to the solar spectrum, the resulting cell would capture more of the sun's light throughout the day. But they needed a material that had an atomic structure that matched the lattice of the layer above it — and that also had the ideal band gap.
"We knew from the shape of the solar spectrum and modeling solar cells that what we wanted was a third junction that has a band gap of about 1.0 electron volt, lattice-matched to gallium arsenide," Friedman said. "The lattice match makes materials easier to grow."
They concentrated on materials from the third and fifth columns of the periodic table because these so-called III-V semiconductors have similar crystal structures and ideal diffusion, absorption, and mobility properties for solar cells.
But there was seemingly no way to capture the benefits of the gallium arsenide material while matching the lattice of the layer below, because no known III-V material compatible with gallium arsenide growth had both the desired 1-eV band gap and the lattice-constant match to gallium arsenide.
That changed in the early 1990s, when a research group at NTT Laboratories in Tokyo working on an unrelated problem made an unexpected discovery. Even though gallium nitride has a higher band gap than gallium arsenide, when you add a bit of nitrogen to gallium arsenide, the band gap shrinks — exactly the opposite of what was expected to happen.
"That was very surprising, and it stimulated a great deal of work all over the world, including here at NREL," Friedman said. "It helped push us to start making solar cells with this new dilute nitride material."
Good Band Gaps, but Not So Good Solar Material
The new solar cells NREL developed had two things going for them — and one big issue.
"The good things were that we could make the material very easily, and we did get the band gap and the lattice match that we wanted," Friedman said. "The bad thing was that it wasn't a good solar cell material. It wasn't very good at converting absorbed photons into electrical energy. Materials quality is critical for high-performance solar cells, so this was a big problem."
Still, NREL continued to search for a solution.
"We worked on it for quite a while, and we got to a point where we realized we had to choose between two ways of collecting current from a solar cell," Friedman said. "One way is to let the electrical carriers just diffuse along without the aid of an electric field. That's what you do if you have good material." | <urn:uuid:27f26aae-a3e4-42ab-933d-39c486196c55> | {
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Regulations and Husbandry
CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between Governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/what.shtml
See the list of New Zealand species on CITES go to http://www.cites.org/eng/resources/species.html . These Appendix III lists species are nominated by the NZ authorities, as we already regulate trade in the species and need the cooperation of other countries to prevent unsustainable or illegal exploitation.
The Department of Conservation has some fact sheets and guidelines for people to follow by.
Click here to read DOC Fact Sheet
Would you like to find out about building cages? Catching live food for reptiles? Turtle health? Frog care? Tips for lizard keeprs? Then join the NZHS, and see the information on the Members' Forum
Click here to read the Permit List
Wildlife to be protected
Subject to the provisions of this Act, all wildlife is hereby declared to be subject to this Act and to be absolutely protected throughout New Zealand. | <urn:uuid:c9957553-469a-4af4-963f-fedb47925753> | {
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1815 – She was born this year.
1840 – She married Henry Staton this year.
1848 – She is believed to be the driving force behind this year’s Convention, and for the next fifty years played a leadership role in the women's rights movement. Soon after their marriage they traveled to London, where Henry Stanton was a delegate to the World Anti-Slavery Convention. There she met Lucretia Mott, the Quaker teacher who served in many of the associated Temperance, Anti-Slavery, and Women's Rights organizations with which Stanton is associated.
1876 - Almost thirty years after the Seneca Falls Convention, Stanton and Gage authored the Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States, which Anthony presented, uninvited, at the Centennial celebration in Washington in this year.
1902 – This year Elizabeth Cady Standon died and like Anthony and Gage, did not live to see women's suffrage in the United States. She is nonetheless regarded as one of the true major forces in the drive toward equal rights for women in the United States and throughout the world.
1995 - The statue of Stanton, Mott and Anthony housed in the US Capitol was used as the symbol of the American Delegation to the 1995 Peking Conference.
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Sun Lore of All Ages, by William Tyler Olcott, , at sacred-texts.com
p. 52 p. 53
SOME one has said: "If no other knowledge deserves to be called useful but that which helps to enlarge our possessions or to raise our station in society, then mythology has no claim to usefulness. But if that which tends to make us happier and better can be called useful, a knowledge of mythology is useful, for it is the handmaid of literature, and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness."
The solar myth, above all others, commands the attention and interest of the student of mythology, for it is the very basis of the science; it permeates the early history of all people, its influence has made itself felt in every age, and many of the customs that govern our lives to-day are of solar origin.
The sun, above all that human eyes behold, is the chief element in life, the very essence of our existence, and to its beneficent influences we owe all that we possess to-day, that is of worth. How
few realise this fact. "'Differentiated sun-shine,' is the striking and suggestive phrase used by John Fiske in his Cosmic Philosophy to stand for all things whatsoever to be found in this great world of ours; from the tiny sun-dew, hid in the secret abiding places of spreading swamp lands, and the inconsequent midget it opens its sticky little fist to grasp, to the great forest tree, and all-consequent man armed with his conquering broadaxe. It is merely a terse symbolic way of describing the processes of cosmic evolution from the sun as the original source and continuous guiding power of our own special universe."
"Back of the present sun figures in primitive and culture lore are the animistic conceptions of the sun such as that of Manabozho, or the great white hare, of Algonquin legend, or Indra the bull sun of India. In course of time the zoömorphic sun gives place to the anthropomorphic sun, and finally we arrive at such personifications of the sun as Osiris in Egypt, Apollo in Greece, and Balder in Norse mythology. Indeed it might almost be said that all the great steps in the onward march of the human race could be found recorded in the various and multiple personifications of the sun." 1
Our ideas concerning natural phenomena are
but the result of past ages of research in the fields of science; but when we come to a consideration of the phenomena that day and night present, in their ever-changing phases, we find it extremely difficult to clearly understand the mental viewpoint of primitive man regarding this continual change, for the uninterrupted sequence and constant repetition of this phenomena has dulled our faculties and it escapes our attention.
In ancient times, however, this continual daily process was closely observed and seriously considered, and the sun in all its aspects became at an early date in certain countries a personified godhead.
The expression "swallowed up by night" is now a mere metaphor, but the idea it conveys, that of the setting sun, was a matter of great importance to the ancients. However, the daily aspects of the sun were not alone matters of concern, the seasonable changes were closely observed, and the spring-tide sun, returning with youthful vigour after the long sleep in the night of winter, had a different name from the summer and autumnal sun. There are consequently, a multiplicity of names for the sun to be found in a study of primitive history and mythology, and an enormous mass of sun myths depicting the adventures of a primitive sun hero in terms of the varying aspects which the sun assumes during the day and year.
There was simply no limit to the images suggested by these aspects, as Sir George Cox puts it 1:
"In the thought of these early ages the sun was the child of night or darkness, the dawn came before he was born, and died as he rose in the heavens. He strangled the serpents of the night, he went forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber, and like a giant to run his course. He had to do battle with clouds and storms, sometimes his light grew dim under their gloomy veil, and the children of men shuddered at the wrath of the hidden sun. His course might be brilliant and beneficent, or gloomy, sullen, and capricious. He might be a warrior, a friend, or a destroyer. The rays of the sun were changed into golden hair, into spears and lances, and robes of light."
From this play of the imagination the great fundamental solar myths sprang, and these furnished the theme for whole epics, and elaborate allegories. Out of this enduring thread there came to be woven the cloth of golden legend, and the wondrous tapestry of myth that illuminates the pages of man's history.
It is our pleasant task to review this variegated tapestry that fancy displays, and inspect the great treasure-house of tradition where the people of all
ages have stored the richest gift of their imagination, the solar myth.
Perhaps the earliest sun myths are those founded on the phenomena of its rising and setting. The ancient dwellers by the seashore believed that at nightfall, when the sun disappeared in the sea, it was swallowed up by a monster. In the morning the monster disgorged its prey in the eastern sky. The story of Jonah is thought to be of solar origin, his adventure with the whale bearing a striking analogy to the daily mythical fate of the sun.
Goldhizer, 1 an eminent mythologist, claims that the Biblical story of Isaac is a sun myth, and the first Enoch, the son of Cain, is of pure solar significance. He is a famous builder of cities, a distinct solar feature, but the fact that he lived exactly 365 days, the length of the solar year, proclaims his solar character. Cain is a sun hero and among his descendants none but solar figures are to be found. Noah is clearly a mythical figure of the sun resting, the word Nôach denoting "him who rests."
The word which pre-eminently denotes the sun in the Semitic languages, the Hebrew "Shemesh," conveys the idea of rapid motion, or busy running about. Thus we see in the Psalms the sun likened to a giant or hero running a course.
Swift steeds were associated with the sun in
[paragraph continues] Classical, Indian, Persian, and Hebrew mythologies, and in the Hebrew worship in Canaan, horses were dedicated to the sun, as indeed they were in Greece at a later date.
In the Veda the sun is frequently called "the runner," "the quick racer," or simply "the horse." This idea of the swift flight of the sun is further carried out by attributing wings to the sun, or dawn, and on the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments we find the winged solar disk inscribed.
From this it was but a step of the imagination to regard the sun as a bird, and when the sun set the ancients said: "The bird of day is weary, and has fallen into the sea." It is even thought that the hare is symbolic of Eastertide, for the very reason that fleetness of foot was its chief attribute. It is also a significant fact that the solar personification of the North American Indians was called "the Great White Hare."
"The more the Babylonian mythology is examined," says Sayce, "the more solar is its origin found to be, thus confirming the results arrived at in the Aryan and Semitic fields of research. With two exceptions only the great deities seem all to go back to the sun."
Of the mythology of Egypt, the eminent authority Renouf makes the statement: "Whatever may be the case in other mythologies, I look upon the
sunrise and sunset, on the daily return of day and night, on the battle between light and darkness, on the whole solar drama in all its details that is acted every day, every month, every year, in heaven and in earth as the principal subject of Egyptian mythology."
The predominant mythological figures of Egypt were so much involved in the sun worship of that country, and to such an extent Sun-Gods, that a discussion of their personality and deeds pertains more properly to the chapter on Sun Worship, and is omitted therefore in this place.
There is one feature of solar mythology that is striking because of its universality, and that is the connection which the figures personifying the sun in various lands have with navigation. The Jewish Midrash compares the course of the sun to that of a ship, and curiously enough to a ship coming from Britain, which is rigged with 365 ropes (the number of days in the solar year), and to a ship coming from Alexandria which has 354 ropes (the number of days of the lunar year).
In Egypt we see on the monuments the figure of Ra, the Sun-God, in his boat sailing over the ocean of heaven. "The sun king Apollo is with the Greeks," says Goldhizer, 1 "the founder of navigation," and even the legendary Charon, the ferry-man
of the underworld, is a development of the solar myth. The Roman Sun-God, Janus, is also brought into connection with navigation, and the Peruvian sun deity came to them from the sea, and took his leave of them in a ship which floated down a river to the sea where it vanished.
The ancient Egyptians called the sun "the Cat," for, "like the sun," says Horapollo, "the pupil of the cat's eye grows larger with the advance of day." The Egyptians imagined that a great cat stood behind the sun which was the pupil of the cat's eye.
The following sun myth found in India is quoted from Anthropology by Edward B. Tylor. It relates that: ''Vâmana, the tiny Brahman, to humble the pride of King Bali, begs of him as much land as he can measure in three steps, but when the boon is granted, the little dwarf expands into the gigantic form of Vishnu, and striding with one step across the earth, another across the air, and a third across the sky, drives Bali into the infernal regions, where he still reigns. This most remarkable of all Tom Thumb stories seems really a myth of the sun, rising tiny above the horizon, then swelling into majestic power, and crossing the universe. For Vâmana the dwarf is one of the incarnations of Vishnu, and Vishnu was originally the sun. In the hymns of the Veda the idea of
his three steps is to be found before it had become a story, when it was as yet only a poetic metaphor of the sun crossing the airy regions in his three strides."
The ancient Hindus enthroned the Sun-God in a burning chariot, and saw in his flashing rays spirited and fiery steeds arrayed in resplendent and gleaming trappings. Where we would say, "the sun is rising," or, "he is high in the heavens," they remarked, "the sun has yoked his steeds for his journey."
One of the common appellations for the sun in mythology is "the cow," and the sun's rays are described as the cow's milk. In the Veda this is one of the most familiar conceptions. These are good examples of the part imagination has played in the development of solar mythology. Given the notion that the sun is a chariot, the rays are seen immediately to resemble steeds, and, likewise, if the sun be likened to a cow, the rays must peradventure represent milk.
The sun's rays are compared more consistently with locks of hair or hair on the face or head of the sun. The Sun-God Helios is called by the Greeks "the yellow-haired," and long locks of hair and a flowing beard are mythological attributes of the sun in many lands. In an American Indian myth the Sun-God is described as an old man with a
full beard, and the long beards of the Peruvian and Toltec Sun-Gods are often referred to in the mythological references concerning them.
If mythology is regarded as a wondrous piece of tapestry, wrought by imagination and fancy, displaying in many hues the noble deeds of gods and heroes of the ancient world, then, the part woven by the Greeks may well be considered the most conspicuous for brilliancy of conception and beauty of design of all that enters into this marvellous and priceless fabric.
It has been said that Greek mythology, in its dynastic series of ruling gods, shows an evolution from a worship of the forces of nature to a worship of the powers of the mind. It is beyond question the most complete in its details, the most perfect viewed from an artistic standpoint, the most beautiful and enduring of all the world's store of legendary lore that has come down to us, and in this wealth of mythology, the solar myth stands out supreme, as the central figure, clothed in the matchless imagery of a naturally poetical and highly artistic people.
In the following discussion of the Greek sun myths, there is much that seems so grotesque and fanciful as to border on absurdity, but the seriousness of the subject cannot be doubted, and, in order to understand it fully, with a true sense of
appreciation, we must ever regard the legends as interpreting the natural phenomena of day and night. Bearing this fact in mind will enable us to grasp the significance of much that would otherwise be meaningless.
The daily motions and varying aspects of the living and energetic sun hero may be said to comprise the motif of almost every legend and myth bequeathed to us by the ancients.
As in the study of sun worship, the Sun-God Helios first occupies the scene as the central figure in a widely spread and popular cultus, we will first consider the legends that cluster about this mythical personage whom the Greek nation once revered and worshipped with all the fire of religious ardour.
The most interesting myth concerning Helios is that told of him in the Odyssey. It relates that when the hero Odysseus was returning to his home in Ithaca, the goddess told him of the verdant island of Trinacria, where the Sun-God Helios pastured his sacred herds, consisting of seven herds of cows and seven herds of lambs, fifty in each herd, a number which ever remained constant. Odysseus, desirous of visiting this fair isle, set out forthwith, having been warned by Circe to leave the herds of the Sun unmolested lest he suffer evil consequences. Having landed on the island, his
companions enjoyed to the full the delightful climate, but as food was short, they ignored the warning of the goddess, slaughtered the Sun's best cattle, and feasted on them for six days, when they took their departure.
Helios, deeply incensed by their conduct, and grieving for his lost herds, in which he had taken great pride and pleasure, besought Jove's aid to punish them:
The cloud-compelling Jupiter replied:
"Still shine, O sun: among the deathless gods
And mortal men, upon the nourishing earth,
Soon will I cleave, with a white thunderbolt
Their galley in the midst of the black sea."
[paragraph continues] And so it came about that through the might of Jove a frightful storm arose, which well-nigh wrecked the vessel of the wanton adventurers; but Odysseus, resorting to heroic measures, prevented the loss of the ship, and his companions thus escaped with their lives.
"Nothing is so common in Aryan Mythology," says Paley, "as the mention of cows or oxen in connection with the Sun. They seem to represent bright forms that appear to go forth in the form of luminous fleeting clouds from the home of the Sun in the east. The stealing, and recovering, or killing of these oxen is the subject of many tales in the early Greek legends."
We come now to the most conspicuous figure in Grecian mythology, the redoubtable hero, whose life-deeds furnish the theme for innumerable legends, songs, poems, epics, and many of the noblest and most beautiful conceptions in the world of art.
The fact that this distinguished and exalted personage personifies the sun, stamps Phœbus Apollo as the greatest and most widely known Sun-God that mythology and history have produced.
The story of his glorious birth at Delos, and his successful combat with the great serpent that Hera set in his path in the vale of Crissa, and the establishment of his oracle at Delphi, is related
in the Chapter on Sun Worship as pertaining more particularly to his deification.
In the mythological biography of such a distinguished character as Phœbus Apollo we should expect, of course, to find allusions to his love affairs, and one of these is described in the myth of Daphne which follows:
Daphne, the personified Dawn, springs from the waters at the first flush of morning light, and as the beautiful tints of early day fade gradually in the light of the rising orb, Daphne flees from Apollo as he seeks to win her. In her flight she prays the gods to assist her, and it is related that, in answer to her prayer, she was transformed into a laurel tree, which was ever thereafter sacred to Apollo.
Another myth refers to a hunting trip in which Apollo was accompanied by his friend Hyacinthus. They engaged in a game of quoits, and Apollo cast a quoit which rebounded and struck Hyacinthus a fatal blow. Filled with remorse at the untimely death of his friend by his hand, he transformed Hyacinthus into a beautiful flower which ever after bore his name.
According to Murray 1 "the object of this myth was to point to the alternating decay and return of life in nature, which in this instance is conceived
under the form of a youth, the disc which was thrown by Apollo being clearly a symbol of the sun which scorches vegetation."
It is further related of Apollo that incensed at Zeus for causing the death of his son Æsculapius by a thunderbolt, he shot some of the Cyclopes, the forgers of thunderbolts. This brought down upon him the wrath of the Supreme Being, and Apollo was banished from Olympus. During his period of exile he served Admetus as a herdsman.
Keary 1 claims that Admetus is really one of the names for Hades, and this reference to his service under him indicates his descent into the underworld for the sake of purification. Here again we find the belief current that the sun at nightfall descends into the realms beneath the earth and waters.
During his term of banishment Apollo served Laomedon, the prince of Troy. As this master did not pay him the agreed amount Apollo brought down upon the city a dreadful pestilence which depopulated the entire neighbourhood. Vexed at his exile, Apollo joined with Poseidon in an effort to dethrone Zeus. The plot failed, and both gods were sentenced to assist in building the walls of Troy.
Apollo was far famed as a musician, and once
had a quarrel with Pan who claimed that the flute was a sweeter instrument than the lyre, which was Apollo's favourite instrument. They agreed to refer the matter to Midas, King of Lydia, who favoured Pan, and Apollo, in his displeasure at the verdict, punished Midas by causing his ears to lengthen till they resembled those of an ass. Apollo apparently brooked no rivalry in his musical accomplishments, for when Marsyas boasted that he excelled Apollo in flute playing, the latter had him flayed alive.
As a mighty warrior Apollo distinguished himself in the Trojan war when he took part against the Greeks. His fury was irresistible, and it is said whole ranks of fighting men fell as he charged into their midst.
Being possessed of eternal youth, and the most accomplished of athletes, Apollo came to be regarded as the patron of youthful athletic contests, and the Pythian games he instituted to commemorate his victory over the Python were celebrated in all lands.
Space does not permit of a complete recital of the many deeds of this famous sun hero. His favourite animals were the hawk and the swan; his tree, the bay. He was represented in the perfection of united manly strength and beauty. His long hair hangs loose, his brows are wreathed
with bay, and in his hands he bears his bow and lyre.
The wonderful and famous Apollo Belvedere shows at the same time the conception which the ancients had of this benign deity, and the high degree of perfection to which they had attained in sculpture.
Few deities had more appellations than Phœbus Apollo. He was called Delian, Delphian, Clarian, etc., from the places of his worship. He was also referred to as "the Loxian God," from the ambiguity of many of his oracular predictions. Another appellation which the god bore was "Lycius" which means either the Wolf-God, or the Golden God of Light. He is also called "the Mouse-God," because he was regarded either as the protector or as the destroyer of mice. Other names for Apollo were "Silver-bowed," "Far Shooter," "Light Producer," "Well haired," "Gold-haired," "Gold-sworded."
"The likeness between Apollo and Achilles scarcely needs to be pointed out," says Keary. 1 "Each is the ideal youth, the representative of young Greece, that which was to become in after years Hellas."
In contrasting the character of the Sun-Gods, Helios and Apollo, we note a striking similarity.
[paragraph continues] Both are conspicuous for their brilliant appearance, both possess powers of producing and destroying life, and weapons that are invulnerable. They are endowed alike with inexhaustible powers of creating happiness or sorrow, pleasure or torment, health or sickness. The exercise of these versatile faculties furnishes the theme for the major portion of that great mass of legends which constitute the essential elements of Aryan Mythology.
In the figure of Herakles we have a Sun-God and hero whose fame has gone afar into all lands, and every age since his time has likened its greatest deeds to the power and might he displayed in the accomplishment of his superhuman deeds.
Even to-day, the construction of the Panama Canal is often alluded to as a deed worthy of Hercules, and the adjective herculean has a firm place in the literature and phraseology of modern times.
The key to the sun myths that relate to the life and deeds of Hercules is found in the idea of the sun's subservience to nature's immutable laws. The sun has a daily task which it must perform. It has a path to travel from which it must not deviate. It has ever before it a life of toil from which it cannot swerve. "Nowhere," says Cox, 1 "is the unutterable toil and scanty reward of the sun brought out so prominently as in the whole
legend, or rather in the mass of unconnected legends which is gathered round the person of Herakles."
Herakles was a son of Zeus and Alcmene. Through the malignant hate of Hera he was doomed from his birth to serve Eurystheus, and, not content by thus consigning him to a life of servitude, the goddess sent serpents to strangle him while he was but an infant. The hero, however, possessed godlike strength even in his tender years, and easily destroyed the serpents, much to the amazement of those in charge of him.
This struggle and triumph of the god over the serpents, is very like the successful combat Apollo waged against Python. It represents the great battle that the mythology of all lands presents, the subduing of the powers of darkness by the might of the omnipotent sun, the regent of light. This irresistible power, which is the chief attribute of the sun, is the predominant element in the character of the sun hero Herakles, and enables him to perform at the bidding of his master the twelve stupendous tasks that brought him endless and imperishable fame.
It is unnecessary to recite in detail these various labours. Every mythology does justice to the subject, and allusions to them appear in the arts and letters of every subsequent age. It remains,
however, to point out the solar significance of these mighty deeds, and how, even in many details, they represent the sun's triumph over the obstacles that nature ever imposes.
The first labour was that of the conquest of the Nemean lion. The myth relates that, after slaying the ferocious beast, Herakles tore its skin off with his fingers, and thereafter it figured as his shield in many a fierce contest. The lion's skin has been likened to the "raiment of tawny cloud which the sun seems to trail behind him as he fights his way through the vapours whom he is said to overcome."
Herakles is next called upon to subdue the hideous Lernean hydra. This creature was possessed of many heads, one of which was immortal. The hero succeeded in this task by burning off the heads whenever they were raised to attack him. The immortal head he buried beneath a stone. As the beast was possessed of many heads, so the stogy nu-wind must continually supply new clouds to vanquish the sun; but the lighter vapour and mist, the immortal head, is only conquered for a time. The sun easily burns up the heavy clouds, the mortal heads, but only hides temporarily the immortal head which rises again and again to daunt him. In this fight Herakles was attended by his friend Iolaus,—this name recalls that of
[paragraph continues] Iolê, signifying the violet-tinted clouds, the attendants of the sun in its serene moments.
"In the third month the sun enters the sign Libra, when the constellation of the Centaur rises, and in his third labour Herakles encountered and slew the Centaur. These comparisons are traceable throughout the year." For a detailed treatment of these myths the reader is referred to Anthon's Classical Dictionary.
In the madness of Herakles we see a further proof that he personifies the sun, for, as the sun rises, it increases in power until its heat destroys the fruits of the earth it loves. Herakles in his insanity kills his own children.
The marriage of Herakles with Hebe, the Goddess of youth, which took place after the performance of his twelve labours, denotes the renewal of the year at the end of each solar revolution.
It is in the last act of his life that Herakles best portrays his solar character. The poisoned coat presented by his wife Dejaneira is donned. It represents the clouds which rise from the waters and surround the sun like a dark raiment. Soon the poison infects the hero's system, inflicting pangs of anguish. Herakles tries in vain to cast it off, but the " fiery mists embrace him, and are mingled with the parting rays of the sun, and the dying hero is seen through the scattered clouds
of the sky, tearing his own body to pieces till at last his bright form is consumed in a general conflagration."
In this death scene of the solar hero, and in the glories of his funeral pyre, we have the most famous sunset scene that has ever been presented for our contemplation. All the wondrous colouring that adorns the western sky at set of sun illuminates the canvas, and the reflection of the scene streams afar, lighting the waves of the Ægean with its clustering isles, and painting in enduring hues a scene that all nations proclaim the sublimest that nature offers to man's vision.
Anthon thus writes of the sun hero: "If Herakles be regarded as having actually existed, nothing can be more monstrous, nothing more at variance with every principle of chronology, nothing more replete with contradictions than the adventures of such an individual as poetry makes him to have been. But considered as the luminary that gives light to the world, as the god who impregnates all nature with his fertilising rays, every part of the legend teems with animation and beauty, and is marked by a pleasing and perfect harmony."
The Latin Hercules is indubitably identified with the Greek Herakles, and the legend of his life is identical with that of the Hellenic hero. It sets forth the same great struggle between the
powers of light and darkness that we find in the primitive Hindu myth of Indra and Ahi, the source from which it sprang.
One of the solar legends which has come down to us in the simplest form is that of Sisyphus, who, so the myth relates, was condemned to spend his days in laboriously rolling a great stone to the summit of a hill. No sooner was the task accomplished than the stone rolled of its own volition to the base of the hill and his task began anew.
If we regard this as a sun myth, we see how closely the details of the legend apply to the daily course of the sun. It appears as a great sphere or ball which gradually mounts to the zenith each day as if laboriously propelled upward, on reaching the meridian it immediately begins its descent to the horizon.
Again, the sun by reason of its penetrating rays and its commanding position, suggests a power and a light from which nothing can be hid. The personification of this all-seeing eye would therefore be an all-wise being. "The Greek name Sisyphus," says Cox, "is simply a reduplicated form of Sophos, the wise, and so we have the image of a wise being compelled to ascend the heaven or mountain, and obliged in spite of his wisdom, his strength, and his power to come down as he had gone up. The idea of compulsion may soon pass into that of toil,
and the latter into the thought of punishment, and thus the sun becomes a criminal under sentence."
In the myth of Ixîôn we have another solar legend. Ixîôn was condemned to a life of torture, being bound to a four-spoked and ever-revolving wheel. The name Ixîôn probably means "visitor," an appropriate name for the sun deity. The wheel revolves ceaselessly as the sun, and the condemned one is alternately raised into the high heavens, and lowered into the depths of the underworld. Cox 1 points out a curious but well-known characteristic of solar myths. "It is the identification of the sun both with the agent or patient, and with the thing or object by which the act is exercised. Ixîôn is the sun, and so is Ixîôn's wheel. Hercules is the sun who expires in the flames on the summit of Mount Œta, but the fiery robe which scorches him to death is the sun cloud."
The legend of Tantalus again reveals the fact that at one stage in the history of man, anthropomorphic ideas concerning the sun were prevalent. Tantalus was another victim of his misdeeds and consigned to eternal torture. It is related that he stood immersed in water to his chin, and yet dying of thirst, for as he lowered his head to drink, the water withdrew from him, and the earth appeared
under his feet. To add to his torment luscious fruits hung alluringly from branches almost within his grasp, but no sooner did he stretch out his hands to pluck them than the wind blew them out of his reach, and their sight and that of the water only served to tantalise him.
The figure of the tortured Tantalus standing with his head alone exposed above the surface of the water clearly represents the sun setting in the western sea.
"The ancients speculated," says Paley, "on the hissing and steaming caused by the red hot orb being cooled down and extinguished in the sea. Fire and water could not co-exist, but in this myth the sun has the mastery, and it is the water that retires before the fire. Hence Homer says it was dried up by the god to punish Tantalus."
The word "Tantalus" means "the Poiser," the suspender in air of the huge disk of the sun, and one myth concerning Tantalus relates that, as a punishment for his evil deeds, he was suspended in mid air with a huge stone hanging over his head ever ready to fall and crush him, like a sword of Damocles. The ancients believed that the sun and earth were connected by a chain, and this fact reveals clearly the solar significance of the myth.
It is further related that Tantalus had had the honour of dining with Zeus. This signifies that
the sun ascended from the mundane sphere to the upper regions.
Primitive man believed as the Bible teaches that all that exists will come to an end in a mighty conflagration, and that some day Tantalus himself would be hurled from his throne in the heavens and consume the earth. Paley says: "If Sisyphus and Tantalus do not represent the Sun-Gods, the deeds and sufferings attributed to them have no intellectual point or meaning, the origin of such wild fables is quite incapable of explanation. On the other hand, if they do, every detail in the narrative becomes simple and significant. And if it can be shown even by a single example that the sun must be meant, then the doctrine of the solar myth is established."
Another beautiful myth of solar significance is that of Kephalos and Prokris of which the following is a brief version:
"Kephalos, a Phocian chief, coming to Athens won the love of Prokris, and plighted his faith to her. But Kephalos was loved also by Eos, who sought to weaken his love for Prokris with a purpose so persistent that at last she induced him to make trial of her affection. He therefore deserts Prokris to whom after a time he returns in disguise. When in this shape he has won her love, he reveals himself, and Prokris in an agony of grief
and shame flies to Crete where she obtains from Artemis the gift of a spear which shall never miss its mark, and of a hound which can never fail to seize its prey. With these gifts she returns to Kephalos, who after seeing her success in the chase longs to possess them. But they can be yielded only in return for his love, and thus Prokris brings home to him the wrong done to herself, and Eos is for a time discomfited.
"But Prokris still fears the jealousy of Eos, and watches Kephalos as he goes forth to hunt, until one day while she lurked among the thick bushes, she was fatally wounded accidentally by the unerring dart hurled by Kephalos.
"This myth explains itself. Kephalos is the head of the Sun, and Kephalos loved Prokris, in other words the Sun loves the dew, but Eos also loves Kephalos, i.e., the dawn loves the Sun, and thus at once we have the groundwork for her envy of Prokris. So again when we are told that though Prokris breaks her faith, yet her love is still given to the same Kephalos different though he may appear. We have here only a myth formed from phrases, which told how the dew seems to reflect many suns which are yet the same sun. The gifts of Artemis are the rays which flash from each dewdrop, and which Prokris is described as being obliged to yield up to Kephalos, who slays her as
unwittingly as Phoibos causes the death of Daphne. The spot where she dies is a thicket in which the last dewdrops would linger before the approach of the mid-day heats." 1
In the legend of Phaeton we have a more familiar sun myth. Phaeton, the son of Apollo, obtains his father's reluctant consent to drive for one day the chariot of the Sun. Hardly does he start upon his course, however, when the fiery steeds, realising that the reins are in inexperienced hands, run away, and the destruction of the world was threatened. Zeus hurled a thunderbolt at the unfortunate youth, and precipitated him into the river Eridanus.
"This myth reveals," says Cox, "the plague of drought, which made men say: 'Surely another, who cannot guide the horses, is driving the chariot of the sun.'"
The legend of Orpheus is akin to that of Daphne in its solar significance, as in this case Eurydice, although loved by the Sun, falls a victim to his radiancy, as he seeks to embrace her.
The myth of Meleagros reveals the capricious nature of the sun, its variations of light and shade being expressed by the alternate succession of swift deeds and moody fits of the hero when he retires sullenly from the sight of men.
In the legend of Niobe the consuming power of the sun is manifested as aimed at those who have the temerity to face his dazzling brightness.
The tale of Althaia, regarded as a solar myth, relates to the destiny of the sun. In spite of its power and glory, it must die when the twilight hours usher in the night, but in the legend of Perseus we see once more in the slaying of the Medusa the victory of the sun over the powers of darkness. Perseus, the sun hero, is another Sun-God like Apollo, and Herakles. He has laborious tasks to perform for a tyrant master, invincible weapons, and a victorious career.
In the figure of Œdipus, the national hero of the Thebans, we have another Sun-God whose life and deeds were identical in many respects with those of the great sun heroes already referred to.
Orion, the mighty hunter, immortalised with Perseus and Herakles in the constellations, is also a personification of the sun, and in the splendour of his deeds exhibits the characteristics that made his predecessors famous.
The ancients attributed sudden deaths by sunstroke to the shafts of the angered Sun-Gods, and the sun was thought to seek the sea each night for the purpose of bathing, so that thus purified it would rise to shine the next day with renewed lustre.
Paley tells us that there is a well-known legend,
the subject of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, which is considered to have a solar significance. "That cunning god, the patron of rogues and thieves of every description, the Mercurius of the Romans, is said to have stolen and driven off a herd of cows while yet an infant. To prevent the theft being discovered by the traces of the animals, he fixed bundles of brushwood to their feet so that none could tell the direction they had taken. Now these cows are the clouds, the 'oxen of the sun' which figure so conspicuously in the Odyssey. It is a question of interest whether the Roman legend of the fire-breathing monster and robber Cacus, who stole the oxen of Hercules (the Sun-God), on his return from the west, is not in its origin identical. The story is told by Virgil, Propertius, and Ovid. It is said that one of the cows confined in the cave suddenly lowed, and led Hercules to the spot where he killed the robber and released the herd. The return of the lost sun after a thunder-storm explains the whole story very simply. The fire-breathing Cacus is the lightning, and the voice of the cow is the muttering of the thunder."
Space does not permit us to examine and discuss in detail the argument for the solar origin of the two great Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. The prayer of Thetis to Zeus to do honour to her son, on which much of the action of the Iliad
turns, is clearly the ascent of the Sun-God to heaven. "The might, the invincible prowess, the unwearied strength of the hero, and his powers of destruction and devastation, nay, even his divinely made shield, are merely attributes of the sun in his midday splendour."
The very fact that the sun myths have been so prolific is significant, and this is probably due to the fact that, as Fiske 1 points out, "the dramatic types to which they have given rise are of surpassing human interest." Thus they have endured through the ages, and in these myths and legends which adorn the rich pages of Grecian mythology we see man's effort to explain natural phenomena in human terms, to endow deity with man's heroic attributes, and to translate physical laws in the light of man's comprehension.
As for proofs that most of the Greek legends about the gods and heroes are of solar origin, it is pointed out that the same actions are attributed to them all. As Paley puts it: "They are all slayers of monsters or powerful foes; all court, or carry off, or return a bride; all grow up brave, all perform some wonderful feat, all go in quest of some lost treasure; generally they are exposed in infancy but survive to cause the death of their own parents. They perform set tasks or labours.
[paragraph continues] They are faithless to their first loves, they are reunited to them in the end. The simple fact, as it appears to the sense, that the sun leaves the east, and yet is found there again on the very next day, was spoken of under the figure of a bridegroom torn from his bride, soon to be reunited. In the childhood of mankind the daily death of the sun was regarded as a reality. If he was born again it was not from any astronomical necessity so to say, but from the sufferance of nature or of Varuna, the sky god, or from his own benevolence to men, either of which might fail, and the casual eclipses and obscurations might become perpetual.
"The birth and death of the sun, his connection with the dawn, and his tremendous and victorious efforts to regain it were the one theme and topic of regard. He was talked about (though in a different sort of language) just as we are always talking and are never tired of talking of the weather. Hence it is that solar myths seem all in all."
Grecian mythology in its solar aspects is reflected in the legends and traditions of the Latins. Perhaps the most typical instance of this, and certainly the most familiar Roman myth that has come down to us of this nature, is portrayed in Guido Reni's beautiful fresco of Aurora. Properly it should have been designated "Apollo," for the central figure is that of the noble Sun-God, and
he dominates the scene. "Surrounded by all the light tripping Hours, each a very queen of loveliness, Aurora the goddess of the dawn leads the throng."
The Romans actually believed that the sun was the wheel of Apollo's chariot. Each morning the god rose from the eastern sea, and drove his four spirited steeds across the sky, and in the evening he descended into the western sea. At night, he reposed in a golden boat which was borne along the northern edge of the earth to the rising point in the east.
"Antiquity," says the Abbé Banier, 1 "has transmitted to us the names of the four horses that drew the chariot of the sun. They were Erythous or the red, Acteon, the luminous, Lampos the resplendent, and Philogœus, the earth loving. The first denotes the sun rising, whose rays are then reddish. Acteon represents the time when the same rays shot through the atmosphere are more clear, that is about the ninth or tenth hour of the morning. Lampos figures noonday when this luminary is in all his strength and glory, and Philogœus represents the setting sun that seems to kiss the earth."
In the sun myths of all nations we find allusions to the capricious nature of the sun. Now it
smiles and gladdens the earth with its golden light, and, presently, displeased at man, shuns his presence, and hides sullenly for a time in gloomy solitude.
In a famous Japanese legend we have a description of the efforts of man to appease the Sun-Goddess when for a time she had absented herself from the sky.
The Sun-Goddess had taken refuge in a cave, and the earth knew not her light, and was dark and gloomy. The eight hundred of lesser deities took counsel as to the best means to propitiate the Goddess, and win once more her favour and her light. A great round copper mirror was procured to represent the sun's disk, and this was surrounded by a circle of saplings that indicated the rays of the radiant sun.
In the upper branches of the trees were hung balls representing the sacred jewel, and in the lower branches, blue and white pendants. A prayer was then recited by the chief priest who acted for the Emperor, and the service ended with a dance and the lighting of many fires. After a time, the Sun-Goddess yielded to the entreaties of man and left her gloomy cave for her heavenly throne, where her presence ever brings joy to the hearts of all mankind.
In another version of this myth the Sun-Goddess
is said to have waxed inquisitive at the noise of the singing and dancing at the entrance of her retreat, and ventured forth to see what was taking place. Beholding her beautiful self in the mirror, she stepped forth into the world once more, and "her glory filled the air with rosy radiance."
The propitiatory service is akin in many respects to the ceremonial, common among many primitive tribes, of producing sunshine. The first requisite of this rite was a mock sun, and the idea seems to have been that, by instituting an unusual ceremony, the curiosity of the hidden Sun would be aroused and she would come forth to see what was taking place.
54:1 Ancient Myths in Modern Poets, Helen A. Clarke.
56:1 The Mythology of the Aryan Nations, Sir George Cox.
57:1 Mythology Among the Hebrews, Ignaz Goldhizer.
59:1 Mythology Among the Hebrews, Ignaz Goldhizer.
66:1 Manual of Mythology, Alexander S. Murray.
67:1 Outlines of Primitive Belief, Charles F. Keary.
69:1 Outlines of Primitive Belief, C. F. Keary.
70:1 The Mythology of the Aryan Nations, Sir George W. Cox.
76:1 The Mythology of the Aryan Nations, Sir George W. Cox.
80:1 The Mythology of the Aryan Nations, Sir George W. Cox.
83:1 Myths and Myth Makers, John Fiske.
85:1 The Mythology and Fables of the Ancients, Abbé Banier. | <urn:uuid:b9730496-b2cd-44b6-af79-a593a122f0bc> | {
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What is Breathalyzer False Positive?
Before we discuss some possible reasons for a false positive test, one must first consider the breathalyzer percentage of accuracy. With most Breathalyzers having accuracy range of
±10% which is ±.01% BAC (on the scale of zero to .10% BAC), some false positive readings may fall within the manufacturer's specification.
Having said that, beside alcohol, the sensor inside the breathalyzer deals with gases such as Acetone, Ketones and etc. These gases are normally radiated from our lungs and have very close and some overlap the alcohol detection curve.
These side gases are much higher in people with higher level of fatty acids. Folks on hi protein diet tends to produce higher level of acetone in their breath while a higher
level of ketones may indicate a possible diabetic condition. In case of a diabetics situation Breathalyzers can falsely read as high as .03% BAC.
Although most Breathalyzers are designed to be very selective to alcohol, but unfortunately in some users these side gases are significant enough to interfere with the test. We have also learned that subjects with false positive
do not always blow positive but only in certain times of the day when their metabolism is most active.
To confirm a false positive, always try your device with friends or family members to see if the majority of them produce false positive. In that case, contact the device manufacturer for
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PHILADELPHIA--More than 200,000 people are treated for cardiac arrest in United States hospitals each year, a rate that may be on the rise. The findings are reported online this week in Critical Care Medicine in a University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine-led study.
Though cardiac arrest is known to be a chief contributor to in-hospital deaths, no uniform reporting requirements exist across the nation, leaving experts previously unable to calculate its true incidence and study trends in cardiac arrest mortality and best practices in resuscitation care.
The authors, led by Raina M. Merchant, MD, MS, an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine, used three different approaches – involving the American Heart Association's Get With the Guidelines data, a voluntary registry of hospital resuscitation events –to estimate the total number of treated cardiac arrests that take place in United States hospitals each year.
While some of these events occur among terminally ill patients, the authors suggest that many of the cardiac arrests they catalogued may be preventable through better monitoring of patients, quicker response time to administer CPR and defibrillation, and improved adherence to best practices in resuscitation guidelines.
Patients who suffer in-hospital cardiac arrests are more than twice as likely to survive than those who arrest in public settings -- 21 percent survive to go home, compared to less than 10 percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients – but both areas suggest opportunities to improve and standardize care.
"Our study proves that cardiac arrest represents a tremendous problem for hospitals in the United States," Merchant says. "Until now, we could only guess about how many patients were suffering these events. It's impossible to make improvements in something we can't measure. These numbers finally provide us with a roadmap for improving allocation of resources to care for these critically ill patients and further our study of ways to identify patients who are at risk of cardiac arrest in the hospital and improve survival." | <urn:uuid:b52fc936-2ed7-4b7b-9036-c443edcfc743> | {
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|Product #: EMC3714035_TQ|
A History Map: The United States in 1861 (Resource Book Only) eBookGrade 5
Please Note: This ebook is a digital download, NOT a physical product. After purchase, you will be provided a one time link to download ebooks to your computer. Orders paid by PayPal require up to 8 business hours to verify payment and release electronic media. For immediate downloads, payment with credit card is required.
Based on National Geography Standards, this 5th-grade unit presents activities using a history map of the United States in 1861. Includes facts about the regions of the country, vocabulary, and questions and answers for each day of the week. (Skill: Interpreting the Past. Essential Element 6: Standard 17) Grade 5 Week 35
Submit a review | <urn:uuid:1345bd8a-ac9d-4c23-9756-402baaa0a0b7> | {
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In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson: A Novel-Ties Study Guide (Enhanced eBookGrade 4|Grade 5|Grade 6|Grade 7
Please Note: This ebook is a digital download, NOT a physical product. After purchase, you will be provided a one time link to download ebooks to your computer. Orders paid by PayPal require up to 8 business hours to verify payment and release electronic media. For immediate downloads, payment with credit card is required.
This Novel-Ties study guide accompanies In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, the story of Shirley Temple Wong who in 1947 encounters a strange, new society as she arrives in America and falls in love with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
This Novel-Ties guide is a teacher/student literature unit organized in chapter-by-chapter format. There are pre-reading activities, vocabulary activities, comprehension questions, writing activities, literary devices, graphic organizers, cross-curricular connections, and post-reading activities. A summary and answer key are provided for the teacher.
The Novel-Ties study guide for In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson is great for guided reading, differentiated reading, and literature circles.
This enhanced eBook gives you the freedom to copy and paste the content of each page into the format that fits your needs. You can post lessons on your class website, make student copies, extract or rotate pages, and edit the contents of the file. For more information on enhanced eBooks, Click Here.
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Law Would Clamp Down On Bullying Over The InternetHARTFORD, Conn. — Victims of cyberbullying publicly discussed their pain Friday in an effort to strengthen the state’s anti-bullying laws. Alexa Berman could not tell her story Friday. The Brookfield teenage took her own life because of cyberbullying in 2008, her mother said. “They’d go on and on in the e-mails trying to tell her how her behavior was horrible,” said Deborah Berman. Lawmakers have introduced a bill that would expand the definition of school bullying to include cyberbulling, which includes texting, Facebook, and other social media sites. “If a child is feeling threatened in school, if their ability to learn is affected, then it’s bullying,” said state Rep. Andrew Fleischman, D-West Hartford. “As hard as it’s been rehashing the story, its helps us because we know that other children will not have to go through what my daughter went through,” Berman said. The bill also includes a mandate requiring school districts to have their schools adopt a safe environment plan aimed at preventing any type of bullying. E-mail news tips to Eyewitness News, or dial: 866-289-0333.
Connecticut’s latest breaking news is on WFSB.com and Channel 3 Eyewitness News.Be The First To Know: Breaking News, Weather, Sports E-mail From WFSB.com Weekdays
© 2011 by WFSB.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:1a4d4de5-5e58-4a5c-8485-3fe564e09922> | {
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Deforestation monitoring needs better capacity and access to technologies
Most tropical developing countries are struggling to monitor and report their greenhouse gas emissions from forest loss, and will need international support to implement the UN REDD+ scheme, according to a study.
The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) scheme aims to reverse forest cover loss and curb related carbon emissions by putting a financial value on stored carbon.
Countries voluntarily report back on their implementation of REDD+, but many lack the capacity to monitor forest loss and carbon emissions using key technologies such as satellite remote sensing, according to a paper in the May–June issue of Environmental Science and Policy.
The study ranked tropical developing countries according to their ability to implement REDD+, and found that few such countries had improved their monitoring capacity between 2005 and 2010, with some even losing capacity, such as Burkina Faso and Mozambique.
African countries were of most concern, as poor Internet connections and satellite coverage limit access to data. Meanwhile, mountainous countries such as Ecuador and Peru face technical challenges in analysing satellite images in areas with significant variations in altitude.
Just four of the 99 analysed countries — Argentina, China, India and Mexico — had very small capacity gaps. These countries had also managed to increase their total forest cover between 2005 and 2010, unlike countries with larger gaps, where there was a net loss of forests in the same period.
The paper recommends that the former group of countries could serve as advisors in South-South capacity building activities and regional collaboration efforts that could reduce the cost of accessing, processing and analysing remote sensing data.
The international community should invest in better access to satellite data, especially for Central African and American countries, the study further recommended. Monitoring of forest fires and vulnerable high-carbon areas, such as tropical peatland systems in South-East Asia which are being lost to oil palm and pulpwood plantations, was also identified as a priority.
Louis Verchot, a co-author of the study from the Center for International Forestry Research in Bogor, Indonesia, called for swift efforts to close capacity gaps.
He told SciDev.Net that investment in countries suffering such gaps could yield high returns.
"We laid out the study on a country by country basis, so this should help investors to lay out priorities and help target different types of intervention," Verchot added.
The study provides useful insights on developing a steady emission reduction scheme for REDD+, said Nirarta Samadhi from Indonesia's REDD+ Task Force. He said it highlighted important details about capability gaps that would be valuable to global supporters.
Environmental Science and Policy doi: 10.1016/j.envsci.2012.01.005 (2012)
pdjmoo ( The Natural Eye Project | United States of America )
6 May 2012
There is no time left to be fooling about with more reports on greenhouse gas relative to forest loss and the REDD+ programs. We all know enough now to demand that we cease and desist from any further deforestation for many reasons, the least of which is climate change, not to mention all the life and ecosystems being devastated that ultimately impact we humans and indigenous peoples. Further deforestation is a no-win for life and the planet. The only win is for profits and we just have to find a biodegradable alternative to timber for consumer needs. The palm oil and agriculture can be addressed without destruction of forests. A better use of our time and money. We can continue to kick the bucket down the road with dates like 2020 or find a way to have a global moratorium on forest destruction NOW...and that will require courage and cooperation from all levels. The matter is urgent. Then you can do all the reports, analysis and studies you want, once the destruction has ceased. A lot of food for thought here and willingness to move beyond our vested interests and old positions for the betterment and good of all life on this planet.
Jorge Laine ( Venezuela )
8 May 2012
Tropical deforestation does not necessarily mean eventual greenhouse gas increment. Scientists must look for land use changes promoting atmospheric carbon capture and storage: for example greening of deserts constituting almost 1/3 of earth nonpermafrost land.
All SciDev.Net material is free to reproduce providing that the source and author are appropriately credited. For further details see Creative Commons. | <urn:uuid:a39a2d08-01a8-4cfd-a64b-30208373568d> | {
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How better to learn the Special Theory of Relativity and the General Theory of Relativity than directly from their creator, Albert Einstein himself? In Relativity: The Special and the General Theory, Einstein describes the theories that made him famous, illuminating his case with numerous examples and a smattering of math (nothing more complex than high-school algebra).
Einstein's book is not casual reading, but for those who appreciate his work without diving into the arcana of theoretical physics, Relativity will prove a stimulating read..
For more information about the title Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (Penguin Classics), read the full description at Amazon.com, or see the following related books:
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Oct. 22, 1998 Oct. 21, 1998 -- A vibrant celestial photo album of some of NASA Hubble Space Telescope's most stunning views of the universe is being unveiled today on the Internet.
Called the Hubble Heritage Program, this Technicolor gallery is being assembled by a team of astronomers at Hubble's science operations center, the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, MD.
The Hubble Heritage program is intended to provide the public with some of the very best celestial views the Space Telescope has to offer. A "newly processed" Hubble "picture of the month" will be shared with the public on an ongoing basis at a dedicated web site: http://heritage.stsci.edu. A new image will be posted on the first Thursday of every month.
The STScI team is sifting through Hubble telescope's treasure trove of space images to uncover some of the most striking pictures ever taken by the orbiting observatory.
The Hubble images were originally taken for astronomical research. The images are digitally stored on optical disks in the Hubble archives for other scientists to retrieve for further research.
Aside from scientific value, the images offer compelling views of the universe's infinite wonders. They include all types of astronomical phenomena, from nearby planets, to colorful nebulae, to remote galaxies.
The first batch of pictures released today includes a view into the star-studded hub of our galaxy; Saturn in "natural color"; a stellar-wind sculpted bubble carved by a massive hot star; and an overhead view of a magnificent spiral galaxy, dubbed "sunny side up."
Since its launch in 1990 the Hubble Space Telescope has taken pictures of over 10,000 celestial objects. The most scientifically interesting observations have been released to news organizations routinely. A large number of pictures have not previously been presented to the public.
The task of selecting images for the Hubble Heritage project involves more than just flipping through Hubble's 5.4-terabyte scrapbook of over 130,000 space pictures. Beautiful color pictures have been meticulously assembled by skilled image processing specialists at STScI.
The images selected from the archive are originally black and white and must be combined with other pictures of the same object, taken through different filters. Photographic film, home video cameras, and even the human eye reconstruct color views in a similar manner.
The Institute's image processing specialists carefully selected colors to bring out the most detail in the pictures. These aesthetic pictures can also yield new insights into the nature of a celestial object.
The team continues working away on Hubble images, and assembling enticing new views of celestial wonders for the public.
"These images communicate, at a visceral level, the awe and excitement that we experience when exploring the universe with Hubble. It is our chance to repay the public that supports us," says Heritage program scientist Keith Noll.
-- end --
The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
EDITOR'S NOTE: Images and photo captions associated with this release are available on the Internet at: http://heritage.stsci.edu and http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/1998/28 or via links in http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html or http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pictures.html.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Space Telescope Science Institute.
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Sep. 3, 2001 For all the promise of crops genetically modified to resist pests, the miracles of the laboratory are only good until the bugs outsmart them.
Mark Whalon, a Michigan State University entomology professor, says that farmers and those marketing genetically modified seeds shouldn’t become complacent because so far there has been no documented evidence that insects have developed resistance to crops engineered to repel them.
Instead, in a presentation at the 222nd National Conference of the American Chemical Society (ACS) on Wednesday, Aug. 29, he said precautions should be taken to explore ways to combat resistance to genetically modified organism (GMO) crops before the bugs develop it.
“We’d like to think that science could manage resistance, but in truth, historically we’ve been pretty ineffective,” Whalon said. “I think what’s going on in the big GMO crops – corn and cotton – is that growers haven’t yet gotten a high enough percentage of GMO plants in the field such that sufficient selection pressure has been mounted against the pests for resistance to develop.”
Whalon’s ACS presentation – “Insect resistance to GMOs: What have we learned?” – explores speculation on whether pests will evolve to defend themselves from crops that produce defenses against them. Insects and mites already have proven deft at developing resistance to applied insecticides, with 540 arthropods resistant to more than 310 insecticides and miticides.
These speculations and deductive arguments have resulted in the first-ever requirement by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for resistance management plans as a part of the GMO registration process
Whalon is a proponent of working now to head off resistance in the field by learning to live with some of the insects. He argues that a certain number of crop-eating pests need to be treasured – protected for the susceptibility genes they pass on to the next generation.
“It has never been good just to kill everything you can,” Whalon said. “We should be trying to preserve a sufficient number of insects that are susceptible to the GMO crops. These bugs that normally would be killed need to be allowed to survive so they can provide susceptible genes to the population pool. Otherwise, we will select a strain of resistant bugs to destroy or mitigate the value of a promising new technology.”
The process of letting a few otherwise doomed bugs survive and pass their vulnerability or “susceptibility” on to future generations is called the “refugia strategy” – the practice of providing a GMO-free refuge for the bugs to happily grow, develop and breed. Give the more fragile, yet genetically valuable pests a place to call their own – even if they munch away at the crops in a minor way – and they will pay farmers and society back for many, many years to come.
The practice of refugia is still experimental – and can be a tough sell to farmers skeptical of showing mercy to any crop-eating pests.
“Susceptibility is a natural resource,” Whalon said. “Just like there’s only so much water and air, there’s only so much susceptibility to be grabbed up and exploited. It’s a natural resource that could be critical to the future of feeding generation of people to come.”
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July 20, 2012 A team led by Harvard computer scientists, including two undergraduate students, has developed a new tool that could lead to increased security and enhanced performance for commonly used web and mobile applications.
Called RockSalt, the clever bit of code can verify that native computer programming languages comply with a particular security policy.
Presented at the ACM Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI) in Beijing, in June, RockSalt was created by Greg Morrisett, Allen B. Cutting Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), two of his undergraduate students Edward Gan '13 and Joseph Tassarotti '13, former postdoctoral fellow Jean-Baptiste Tristan (now at Oracle), and Gang Tan of Lehigh University.
The use of native code, especially in an online environment, however, opens up the door to hackers who can exploit vulnerabilities and readily gain access to other parts of a computer or device. An initial solution to this problem was offered over a decade ago by computer scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, who developed software fault isolation (SFI).
SFI forces native code to "behave" by rewriting machine code to limit itself to functions that fall within particular parameters. This "sandbox process" sets up a contained environment for running native code. A separate "checker" program can then ensure that the executable code adheres to regulations before running the program.
While considered a major breakthrough, the solution was limited to devices using RISC chips, a processor more common in research than in consumer computing. In 2006, Morrisett developed a way to implement SFI on the more popular CISC-based chips, like the Intel x86 processor. The technique was adopted widely. Google modified the routine for Google Chrome, eventually developing it into Google Native Client (or "NaCl").
When bugs and vulnerabilities were found in the checker for NaCl, Google sent out a call to arms. Morrissett once again took on the challenge, turning the problem into an opportunity for his students. The result was RockSalt, an improvement over NaCl, built using Coq, a proof development system.
"We built a simple but incredibly powerful system for proving a hypothesis -- so powerful that it's likely to be overlooked. We want to prove that if the checker says 'yes,' the code will indeed respect the sandbox security policy," says Joseph Tassarotti '13, who built and tested a model of the execution of x86 instructions. "We wanted to get a guarantee that there are no bugs in the checker, so we set out to construct a rigorous, machine-checked proof that the checker is correct."
"Our proofs about the correctness of our own tool say that if you run the tool on a program, and it says it's safe to run, then according to the model, this program can only do certain things," Tassarotti adds. "Our proof, however, was only as good as this model. If the model was wrong, then the tool could potentially have an error."
In other words, he explains, think of an analogy in physics. While you might mathematically prove that according to Newton's laws, a moving object will follow a certain trajectory, the proof is only meaningful to the degree that Newton's laws accurately model the world.
"Since the x86 architecture is very complicated, it was essential to test the model by running programs on a real chip, then simulating them with the model, and seeing whether the results matched. I specified the meanings of many of these instructions and developed the testing infrastructure to check for errors in the model," Tassarotti says.
"The biggest benefit may be that users can have more peace of mind that a piece of software works as they want it to," says Morrisett. "For users, the impact of such a tool is slightly more tangible; it allows users to safely run, for example, games, in a web browser without the painfully slow speeds that translated code traditionally provides."
Previous efforts to develop a robust, error-free checker have resulted in some success, but RockSalt has the potential to be scaled to software widely used by the general public. The researchers expect that their tool might end up being adopted and integrated into future versions of common web browsers. Morrisett and his team also have plans to adapt the tool for use in a broader variety of processors.
Reflecting on how the class project has been transformative, Tassarotti says, "I plan to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science, and I hope to work on projects like this that can improve the correctness of software. As computers are so prevalent now in fields like avionics and medical devices, I believe that this type of research is essential to ensure safety."
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:1c8a60da-d71c-4c8d-b0c7-dd467e7b88bc> | {
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Web edition: June 28, 2012
Print edition: July 28, 2012; Vol.182 #2 (p. 15)
Pottery making got off to an ancient, icy start in East Asia. Pieces of ceramic containers found in a Chinese cave date to between 19,000 and 20,000 years ago, making these finds from the peak of the last ice age the oldest known examples of pottery.
This new discovery suggests that hunter-gatherers in East Asia used pottery for cooking at least 10,000 years before farming appeared in that part of the world, say archaeologist Xiaohong Wu of Peking University in Beijing, China, and her colleagues. Cooking would have increased energy obtained from starchy foods and meat, a big plus in frigid areas with limited food opportunities, the researchers report in the June 29 Science.
“The early onset of pottery making meant that food preparation intensified during the last glacial maximum,” says Harvard University archaeologist and study coauthor Ofer Bar-Yosef.
Wu, Bar-Yosef and colleagues gathered 45 samples of bone and charcoal from previously excavated soil layers at Xianrendong Cave. Radiocarbon measurements of bone and charcoal generated by three labs — one in China and two in the United States — point to initial human use of the cave from about 29,000 to 17,500 years ago. Xianrendong Cave pottery contains burn marks from being placed over fires and is 2,000 to 3,000 years older than pottery from another Chinese cave, which had previously held the age record.
Until about a decade ago, scientists assumed that heating clay to make ceramic containers began about 10,000 years ago with the rise of farming (SN: 2/5/05, p. 88).
“Chinese pottery appeared long before animal domestication and has no obvious connection to the origins of agriculture or sedentary living,” remarks archaeologist T. Douglas Price of the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
East Asian hunter-gatherers may have set up seasonal camps 20,000 years ago, where they made pottery, proposes archaeologist Zhijun Zhao of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. “Xianrendong pottery probably had many purposes, including boiling clams and snails,” says Zhao, who participated in a 1993 excavation of the cave.
Numerous clam and snail shells were unearthed in pottery-bearing soil at Xianrendong Cave and at other ancient Chinese sites, Zhao says.
Ice age people could also have used pottery to boil bones for grease and marrow and to brew alcoholic drinks, the Chinese researcher suggests.
Discovering 20,000-year-old pottery in China doesn’t mean that people outside East Asia at that time didn’t know about ceramic techniques, comments archaeologist Anna Belfer-Cohen of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. East Europeans baked clay figurines 23,000 years ago, and Middle Easterners made simple pottery between 14,500 and 11,500 years ago, Belfer-Cohen points out.
“The concept of pottery making was introduced in different parts of the world at different times,” she says.
X. Wu et al. Early pottery at 20,000 years ago in Xianrendong Cave, China. Science. Vol. 336, June 29, 2012, p. 1696. doi:10.1126/science.1218643.
B. Bower. Cultivating revolutions. Science News. Vol. 167, February 5, 2005, p. 88. Available online to subscribers: [Go to] | <urn:uuid:0263eb0c-6440-4e14-b39f-0b0ded1241fd> | {
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In the fall of 2005, the Dalai Lama gave the inaugural Dialogues between Neuroscience and Society lecture at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, DC. There were over 30,000 neuroscientists registered for the meeting, and it seemed as if most of them attended the talk. The Dalai Lama’s address was designed to highlight the areas of convergence between neuroscience and Buddhist thought about the mind, and to many in the audience he clearly achieved his objective. There was some controversy over his being invited to deliver this lecture insofar as he is both a head of state and a religious leader, and for that reason he largely stuck to his prepared text. But he strayed from the text at least once, reminding the audience that not only was he a Buddhist monk but also an enthusiastic proponent of modern technology.
Elaborating, he shared a confidence with the audience, telling the audience of scientists that meditating was hard work for him (even though he meditates for 4 hours every morning), and that if neuroscientists were able to find a way to put electrodes in his brain and provide him with the same outcome as he gets from meditating, he would be an enthusiastic volunteer. It turns out that a recent set of experiments, from researchers at MIT and Stanford, moves us a step closer to making his wish a reality.
The Dalai Lama’s interest in neuroscience has been reciprocated by at least some members of the neuroscience community. Reasoning that studying the brains of people who meditate might lead to novel insights about the human brain, investigations of long-term meditators has been fertile ground for scientific investigation, with some of the more rigorous work emerging from Richard Davidson’s laboratory at the University of Wisconsin. From the perspective of neuroscience, meditation can be characterized as a series of mental exercises by which one strengthens one’s control over the workings of their own brain. The simplest of these meditation practices is ‘focused attention’ where one concentrates on a single object, for example one’s breath. When expert meditators practiced focused attention meditation, demonstrable changes were seen using fMRI in the networks of the brain that are known to modulate attention. A second set of experiments studied long-term meditators practicing ‘open monitoring meditation’, a more advanced meditation practice which in many ways is a form of metacognition: the objective is not to focus one’s attention but rather to use one’s brain to monitor the universe of mental experience without directing attention to any one task. The unexpected result of this experiment was that the EEG of long-term meditators exhibited much more gamma-synchrony than that of naive meditators. Moreover, normally human brains produce only short bursts of gamma-synchrony. What was most remarkable about this study was that long-term meditators were able to produce sustained gamma-activity in a manner that had never previously been observed in any other human. As such, sustained gamma activity has emerged as a proxy for at least some aspects of the meditative state.
But what causes gamma rhythm? And are there any potential benefits of sustained gamma-activity? The strongest hypothesis for the cellular mechanisms underlying generation of the gamma rhythm is that it is due to the activation of fast-spiking interneurons in the cerebral cortex. In two new papers to be published in Nature, the laboratories of Christopher Moore and Li-Huei Tsai at MIT and Karl Deisseroth at Stanford tested this hypothesis directly. The experimenters utilized optogenetics, developing custom-designed viruses to infect only the fast-spiking interneurons of either the prefrontal or barrel cortex in mice with genetically engineered, light-sensitive cation channels. Then, they inserted fine optical fibers into the relevant region of the cortex, allowing light to be delivered to the infected neurons and thereby activating only the fast-spiking interneurons. (In essence, this allowed them to switch particular brain cells on and off.) In both experiments, selectively stimulating the fast-spiking interneurons evoked gamma oscillations, thereby confirming the hypothesis that these neurons drive the gamma rhythm. | <urn:uuid:87f47178-ed82-4e5e-8f65-e0ccb7a172fc> | {
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Tell Time Like Early Navigators
Flash back to the 15th century with this model of the very first star dials used by navigators to tell time. This ancient tool still works accurately, because is based on the North Star, which is almost directly on the axis of the Earth’s axis of rotation and always appears in the same position in the sky.
Simply set the middle wheel to the month, hold the dial upside down, and sight the North Star through the center hole. Move the top of the dial’s arm to align with the uppermost stars of the Big Dipper, and read the time on the inner dial where the arm crosses the hour mark. The reverse side is outlines of the major constellations. Pewter finishes; comes with instructions. | <urn:uuid:4b660bcc-3cab-4e10-a835-57066fc80805> | {
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Our Hematology Program treats a wide range of blood disorders as well as cancer for children of all ages.
One disease that we treat fits into both groups: leukemia, cancer of the blood – the most common childhood cancer.
Children with any type of cancer may develop problems with their blood because of the treatments they need to receive. But many blood disorders have nothing to do with cancer.
They arise from other types of problems in the body. They include problems with red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, clotting factors and bone marrow, where the body makes blood cells.
What conditions do you treat?
Here are the main types of blood disorders that we diagnose and treat.
Red blood cell problems
These include many types of anemia, such as iron-deficiency anemia, thalassemia syndromes, hereditary spherocytosis and sickle cell anemia.
White blood cell problems
The most common white blood cell problem we treat is neutropenia, or low levels of white blood cells. It can range from mild to severe.
Platelet problems include a disease known as ITP, or immune thrombocytopenic purpura.
These are problems in which the blood does not clot well to stop bleeding. They include hemophilia, von Willebrand disease and other rare clotting problems.
These are problems in which blood clots form when or where they are not needed. There are many causes for thrombosis. Some people are born with a risk for excess clotting, called thrombophilia, because of genes passed down from their parents.
Bone marrow failure
Sometimes bone marrow stops working. In aplastic anemia, the bone marrow stops making stem cells, which develop into red and white blood cells and platelets. There are other forms of bone marrow failure, too. Learn about our Bone Marrow Failure Program.
Our hematology doctors, nurses and other team members can help children and their families in many ways, including diagnosis, testing, treatment and counseling.
We can diagnose a blood problem if your child has signs or symptoms that something may be wrong. Sometimes a blood problem is a symptom of some other illness. We work with doctors in other departments to help identify and treat these illnesses.
We can test your child for a blood problem that you know runs in the family. If your child has a blood problem that is inherited, we can test others in your family. We can also talk with you about the risk of having another child with the same condition.
We have a full range of current options to treat blood problems. The right treatments depend on your child, the condition, the severity and other factors. For example:
We can counsel you about the best ways to help your child recover from a blood problem. In the case of blood problems that cannot be cured, we can counsel you about the best ways to help your child live the healthiest, fullest life possible.
What's special about the Hematology Program at Children’s?
Our Hematology Program brings together healthcare professionals from many fields. We can address all aspects of your child's health.
Our goals are to achieve the best possible outcome for your child and to decrease the impact of the illness on your child's life. We work with you, your child, your family and your child's primary doctor to get your child the right care and services, even if you don't live nearby.
All of our attending physicians who work in the Hematology/Oncology Division — the division that handles blood disorders and cancer — are board-certified. This means they're approved to give the specialized care needed for these diseases.
For some of them, hematology is an area of special interest. These doctors work closely with other team members, such as physical therapists, orthopedic doctors, social workers, pain medicine specialists and doctors and staff in our specialized dental clinic to help meet your child's needs.
We are a Hemophilia Treatment Center, one of only three in Washington. We also work closely with the Puget Sound Blood Center for transfusion services and for patients who need specialized treatment with clotting factors.
Our Sickle Cell Program is based at our Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic in Seattle's Central District.
In the rare case when a child needs a hematopoietic cell transplant, we work closely with the Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance to provide this. Young patients who have a transplant spend their hospital stay in Children’s Cancer Care Unit.
Who needs the Hematology Program?
Children with blood problems and their families visit us for many reasons.
Some of them come for only one or two visits to get a diagnosis and advice about what the illness means for the child and family. Some need care from us only for the short term because the child has an illness that responds to treatment or simply heals over time. Some of our young patients have more complex blood problems that require lifelong treatment.
Whatever level of care your child needs, Seattle Children’s can help. | <urn:uuid:f1dd92a7-6cec-407f-8b8c-183132e8f259> | {
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Gallery: Images of Mars from the Curiosity rover
Curiosity has stopped in its tracks on Mars as scientists investigate a shiny object on the planet surface that probably came from the rover itself.
Images from a sandy area called Rocknest, where Curiosity began scooping soil samples last weekend, show a small, oblong object.
"The rover team's assessment is that the bright object is something from the rover, not Martian material," JPL's Mars Science Laboratory team wrote in a status report on Tuesday. "It appears to be a shred of plastic material, likely benign, but it has not been definitively identified."
Scientists are now taking more photos in hopes of identifying the object.
In the meantime, the rover has stopped mid-action, with a soil sample still sitting in its scoop. The team suspended scientific activities on the 62nd Martian day of the mission (or sol 62), including use of the rover's robotic arm.
"To proceed cautiously, the team is continuing the investigation for another day before deciding whether to resume processing of the sample in the scoop. Plans include imaging of surroundings with the Mastcam," the JPL team wrote.
A press conference is planned Thursday.
Speculation about the object was rampant on Twitter and message boards,
A Twitter account dedicated to the object, @benignplastic, also popped up Tuesday:
"I'm a little insulted @NASA seems to think I am so benign...that's how all the SciFi movies start you know..."
Curiosity's soil sampling will likely resume once scientists are confident the object won't contaminate testing.
The rover had stopped at Rocknest to begin its first major analysis, determining the chemical and mineralogical composition of the sand.
But Curiosity never got to the first stage, depositing the sand into its internal mechanism and shaking it out in a cleaning process.
Once the soil sampling is completed, Curiosity will drive about 100 yards further to Glenelg, an area where three different types of terrain converge.
626-578-6300, ext. 4475 | <urn:uuid:a8b822e2-df2c-4df1-a699-aae55a3a25de> | {
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ANTHOCYANIN: The pigment that gives red wine its color, which is found in the skin of the grape. The thicker the grape’s skin, the more color and opacity it delivers to the wine.
AROMATICS: The floral term for the scents you perceive in a wine.
BERRY: Winemaker and grower’s term for an individual grape. BOTRYTIS CINEREA: A fungus that affects fruits, including grapes. Often referred to as “noble rot” when particularly wet conditions are followed by dry. Botrytis cinerea doesn’t destroy the grapes but rather produces higher sugar content that can lend a honey flavor to wines. In solely wet conditions, it can destroy the bunches.
BLENDING TRIALS: process used by vintners whereby they blend wines with different characteristics to produce a single, balanced wine with a strong beginning, middle and end on the palette.
BLIND TEST: A format for wine tasting where the tasters have no information about the wines other than what they can determine with their senses.
BRIX: The unit of measure for the amount of sugar within a grape. It is measured with a refractometer and used to determine ripeness and harvest date.
BUD BREAK: The point when new shoots emerge, or break out, from the buds on a grapevine. This takes place in early spring and begins the grapevines' growth cycle for the year.
ESTATE WINES/ESTATE WINERY: By U.S. government standards, for a wine to be labeled “estate” 100 percent of it must be made from grapes grown on land owned by the winery (or controlled by the winery).
LOIRE: Referring to the Loire Valley wine region in France that stretches east from the Atlantic coast at Nantes to within 90 miles of Chinon, Bourgeuil and Samur-Champigny most especially. Like the Finger Lakes region, Cabernet Franc is grown in abundance here and is renowned and respected by wine aficionados.
MERITAGE (rhymes with “heritage”): Created by a group of vintners and registered with the U.S. Department of Trademarks and Patents, the term refers to a category of American blended wines made from Bordeaux grape varieties. Wines termed Meritage must meet a specific set of standards.
NOSE: Aromas perceived in a particular wine; also called bouquet.
SORTING: Removing the diseased grapes from those of the quality you want to keep. At Sheldrake, sorting is done first in the vineyard when pickers are told to leave affected fruit on the vine. Then, grapes are moved slowly along a conveyor belt while we remove whatever grapes don't represent the quality we want to use.
TANNINS: Compounds that give wine its mouth feel and combine with anthocyanins to play a role in the color of red wine. | <urn:uuid:f482bc0a-5a18-48d5-91b6-eb05bf2ea20b> | {
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Technically, Yeats died in a hospital. We know this because, well, the first section spends a good bit of time talking about the mundane details of dying in a hospital. But that's really the boring part of this poem – and intentionally so. Auden's language makes it clear to us that death is often mundane and boring and, well, full of hospitals and other not-so-fun stuff.
But that's only the beginning. See, the imaginative scope of the poem takes in a whole lot more than just the setting of Yeats's actual death. It pans out to rove over the whole landscape of his life, including his deep love for his home country, Ireland. Remember the bit where the speaker announces that "Mad Ireland hurt" Yeats into poetry? OK, so the poem is not "set" in Ireland in the traditional sense. We don't get descriptions of rolling hills and leprechauns. But it is the emotional heart of the poem, which, in our book, is every bit as interesting.
Panning out even further, the setting expands to include the events that were going on in the world in 1939. Auden manages to paint a vivid picture of a world built of isolationists. (Hmm...sounds like the foreign-policy agenda of the US at the time.) Oh, and don't forget the nightmarish oncoming of World War II.
Combine all three settings and you've got a poem that can talk about the nitty-gritty, mundane details of life at the same time as it philosophizes on the state of world affairs. Pretty impressive, huh? | <urn:uuid:8d70bc1c-b5ad-4171-9b92-53b705621d77> | {
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Almost everyone today must have paid a visit to a doctor or to a hospital. ‘Health is wealth’ says one old wise saying. And ‘an apple a day, keeps the doctor away’ says another saying. These sayings are great in themselves, but a fact that cannot be altered is that we all need doctors.
From the time we are born, in the modern world today, we are delivered with help from doctors. If we fall ill we go to a doctor to be treated. Like it or not a doctor is the one who checks us and pronounces us as dead. The entire circle of life from birth to death sees a doctor playing a very important role.
Doctors perform their duties with the help of a plethora of medical equipments. We have seen them often and dislike some of them like the injection that is painful but essential to get well soon. An injection is generally made up of a syringe and a needle. Injections are administered to ones muscles, veins, etc as per the need and are used in immunizations, blood transfusions and to administer medicinal fluids.
The stethoscope is another instrument that one has often seen with the doctor. The stethoscope is an instrument that one often associates with the medical profession. The stethoscope was first used in the early Greek period. The name is an amalgamation of two Greek words stetho meaning chest and scope meaning examination.
The instrument is acoustic and is used to hear the internal sounds in the body. Doctors have been using it for many years to listen to the sound of blood flowing in the arteries and veins, the sound of the intestines, the heart, lungs and other internal organs and process that go on in the body.
Sometimes doctors use stethoscopes with sphygmomanometer or the blood pressure machine to measure ones blood pressure. The machine has a pump and a mercury manometer or pressure meter which it uses to measure ones blood pressure in terms of mercury millimeters.
The thermometer is another common medical instrument that one finds at the doctor. Today, with coughs, colds and fevers becoming a daily affair this instrument is not only restricted to a doctor’s dispensary or a hospital but is even seen in many homes.
This instrument like the stethoscope has Greek origins and gets its name from thermos that means hot and metros that means to measure. The thermometer has mercury in its bulb and shows readings as per the hotness of one’s body. A temperature reading of 100 and above on the thermometer indicates that one has developed a fever.
The weighing scale is yet another medical equipment that is used by doctors. With health becoming a very important facet in the world today and people keeping a check on their weight often, many homes have weighing scales.
Based on the simple principle of the spring balance the weighing scale is used by doctors to check patients BMI or body mass index. This is very important for a patient to be healthy, since today a number of diseases are lifestyle based.
These five are basic medical equipment that one sees on a visit to the doctor, our doctor may use one more than the other but on a routine checkup these are basic equipment that doctors from physicians to specialists to surgeons all use to detect diseases and treat patients.
Jerry Kurtz, an enthusiast blogger and a specialist in medical silicone design and molding provides news and discussion on medical silicone design, prototyping, manufacturing, and quality control through his site Silicone Pro. | <urn:uuid:fcc4453f-fb57-442e-80ed-89703cd8449a> | {
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The Mediterranean-style diet has fewer meats and carbohydrates and more plant-based foods and monounsaturated (good) fat than a typical American diet. Many people who live in Italy, Spain, and other countries in the Mediterranean region have eaten this way for centuries.
Following the Mediterranean diet may lead to more stable blood sugars, lower cholesterol and triglycerides, and a lower risk of heart disease and other health problems.
How to Follow the Diet
The Mediterranean diet is based on:
Plant-based meals, with just small amounts of meat and chicken, when they are used
More servings of grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, and legumes
Foods that naturally contain high amounts of fiber
Plenty of fish and other seafood rather than red meat
Olive oil, a healthy, monounsaturated fat, as the main source of fat used to flavor and prepare foods
Food that is prepared and seasoned simply, without sauces and gravies
Foods Not in the Diet
Foods that are eaten in small amounts or NOT at all in the Mediterranean diet include:
Sweets and other desserts
Possible Health Concerns
Possible health concerns with the Mediterranean include:
Weight gain, from the fats in olive oil and nuts
Reduced iron levels. If you choose to follow the Mediterranean diet, be sure to eat some foods rich in iron or in vitamin C, which helps your body absorb iron.
Calcium loss from eating fewer dairy products. Ask your doctor if you should take a calcium supplement.
It is common to drink wine with meals, though it is not an essential part of the Mediterranean diet. Avoid wine if you are prone to alcohol abuse, pregnant, at risk for breast cancer, or have other conditions that alcohol could make worse.
David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M. Health Solutions, Ebix, Inc. | <urn:uuid:f1386f4a-c6d8-48af-a949-3e81bf3cd51a> | {
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Fall is rapidly approaching and will be official on the 22nd of September. The leaves are already changing in the high country and the typically dry and mild fall weather creates a great opportunity to get outside and enjoy some of the beauty Colorado has to offer. My favorite place to go in the state in near the Twin Lakes area just south of Leadville and of course the San Juan Mountains in SW Colorado and areas in and surrounding Estes Park. Typically the second or third week of September is prime for maximum color in the mountainous regions of the state. The great colors do not last long as wind and rain/snow will strip the trees of their leaves. The NWS in Grand Junction has a news of the day subject covering why leaves change their color in the fall. Lets leave it to the NWS to best describe how leaves change their color:
In the Autumn, the decrease in the intensity and duration of sunlight, as well as cooler temperatures, causes the leaves to stop their food-making process (photosynthesis). The chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down, causing the green color to disappear, and the yellowish pigments, known as carotenoids, become visible. The Autumn foliage of some trees, including aspen, birch and ash, are mostly yellowish colors. Also, the reddish pigments, the anthocyanins, become more visible in the leaf veins and cells in some leaves, such as maples.
The whole web page with additional information can be found by clicking here.
If you have fall foliage pictures you would like to share with others please send them to us so we can add them to our gallery or even post on our website. Thanks! | <urn:uuid:31ee238b-2eb6-4bf0-81eb-2982bf03c17e> | {
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1. Macro and micro sociological perspectives both see cultures as specifying the ground rules for peoples' social behaviour.
· By the establishment, teaching and learning of these basic rules of behaviour, social interaction is made possible, orderly and reasonably predictable.
2. Macro perspectives focus more on how these rules affect our behaviour by placing restrictions (constraints) on our possible range and choices of behaviour. The focus here is upon large social groups and institutions in society.
3. Micro perspectives focus more on how and why these rules are created. That is, the focus is on small-scale interaction between conscious individuals.
4. Both perspectives have their advantages and disadvantages in terms of how completely or incompletely they are able to produce theories that explain human behaviour. For the moment, it is probably easier to see these sociological perspectives as complimentary, in the sense that each explains some aspects of our behaviour plausibly. As the course develops the differences between each of the perspectives will become more apparent and so will the basis for seeing these perspectives as having fundamental differences that make them incompatible with each other. | <urn:uuid:d8916e3f-8e65-4d70-857e-508e51da425f> | {
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7. A point is on the perpendicular bisector of a line segment if and only if it lies the same distance from the two endpoints.
There are two things that need to be proved here. The first is that if a point is on the perpendicular bisector of a line segment, then it is equidistant from the two endpoints of the segment.
If we only use two column proofs, the student might get the idea that all proofs have to be two column proofs. This is not so. It is just that two column proofs work very well for congruent triangle proofs. In a congruent triangle proof, we first need to get the three parts of one triangle congruent to the corresponding three parts in the other triangle, note that we have congruent triangles, then conclude that the things we are trying to prove to be congruent will then be corresponding parts of the congruent triangles. That is a minimum of five steps, each step having a reason, which is a previously established statement. The two column format helps the student to keep all of these ideas straight and organized.
However, the fact of the matter is, that when we get away from congruent triangle proofs, the two column format does not always work as well. This result is an example. While it is possible to devise a two column proof, a prose proof using the isosceles triangle theorems might prove to be simpler.
If the point is on the perpendicular bisector of the line segment between the two points, then in the triangle formed by the base being the line segment, and the point being the vertex, the line from the vertex of the triangle to the midpoint of the base is perpendicular to the base, so the triangle is isosceles, and the point is equidistant from the endpoints of the line segment.
For the converse - if the point is equidistant from the endpoints of the line segment, then we again have an isosceles triangle, and the line from the vertex to the midpoint of the base will be perpendicular to the base, and thus be the perpendicular bisector of the base. | <urn:uuid:f8b49205-6972-49a9-83ab-a66cb2a926a1> | {
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Emmeline Pethick, the daughter of Henry Pethick, a businessman in Bristol, was born in Clifton on 21st October 1867. She later recalled: "My mother bore thirteen children, of whom five died in infancy. My youngest brother was born seventeen years after me. Those were the days of large families. I never heard my mother make any complaint about this excessive childbearing. She accepted it with complete surrender and even with satisfaction."
Henry Pethick was a devout Methodist. "As children we were all taken to Church as soon as we could walk and we had to sit very still indeed, because if not, we would be slapped afterwards. When we were older we had to remember and repeat the text at dinner-time, and if we failed to do this we were set to learn pieces of Scripture by heart."
Emmeline was sent away to boarding school in Devizes at the age of eight. A rebellious child, she was constantly in trouble with her teachers. After being transferred to a Quaker school she was accused of being "a corrupting influence on other children". Her biographer, Brian Harrison has argued: "Her lifelong instinctive sympathy with children was striking... She portrayed herself later as a truthful and rational child, but to adults she must have seemed wilful and stubborn."
In 1891 Emmeline became a voluntary social worker at the West London Methodist Mission. Emmeline helped organise a club for young working-class girls. Emmeline was shocked by the poverty she encountered and it was during this time she was converted to socialism. Emmeline believed it was important to give these girls a practical example of socialism in action. In 1895 Emmeline joined with Mary Neal to form the Esperance Club that was influenced by the ideas of William Morris, Edward Carpenter, and Walt Whitman. This involved helping a group of young women establish a co-operative dressmaking business.
In 1899 Emmeline met the wealthy lawyer, Frederick Lawrence. The couple fell in love but Emmeline refused to marry Frederick because he did not share her socialist beliefs. In 1900 she developed a hostel at Littlehampton for working girls' holidays. It was not until 1901, when Frederick had been converted to socialism, that Emmeline agreed to marry him. Frederick agreed to adopt Pethick-Lawrence as their joint name. Brian Harrison has pointed out: "It was the start of an unusual lifelong partnership in which each annexed the surname of the other, while each retained separate bank accounts and considerable autonomy within a marriage whose harmony was much advertised and celebrated."
Soon after her marriage Emmeline thought she was pregnant. Frederick wrote that the birth "will make us both extra happy". He added: "Isn't it splendid dear. My heart just singing and singing and won't keep quiet." However, Emmeline suffered a miscarriage and received news that she could not have children. Frederick wrote to her: "I am to you a splendid husband and you to me a splendid wife and it is enough!"
In 1901 Frederick Pethick-Lawrence became the owner of The Echo, a left-wing evening newspaper. He recruited friends from the socialist movement such as Ramsay MacDonald and H. N. Brailsford to write for the newspaper. Frederick also published and edited the monthly, Labour Record and Review (1905-07). Emmeline later argued: "His outstanding qualities of intellect, balanced judgment and practical administration in business and finance became the rock upon which I have built, since then, the structure of my life."
For the next four years Emmeline spent her time helping the Independent Labour Party and developing her ideas with the Esperance Club. However, when Emmeline read about the arrest and imprisonment of Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney in October 1905, she decided to take an interest in the suffrage movement. The following year she met Kenney and after a long discussion with her she decided to join the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).
A few months after joining the WSPU Emmeline was arrested while trying to make a speech in the lobby of the House of Commons. Emmeline was sent to prison, the first of six terms of imprisonment that she served for her political activities. She later recalled in her autobiography, My Part in a Changing World (1938): "When the morning newspaper brought the unexpected news of my first arrest in the Suffrage Movement, my father reacted to it in precisely the same way as I should have reacted had our positions been reversed. He was proud that a child of his hand not hesitated to make a stand for the extension of democratic liberty."
Frederick Pethick-Lawrence also became involved in the struggle for the franchise. In 1907 Frederick and Emmeline started the journal Votes for Women. The Pethick-Lawrence's large home in London also became the office of the WSPU. It was also used as a kind of hospital where women made ill by their prison experiences could recover their strength before embarking on further militant acts. The couple also contributed more than £6000 to the funds of WSPU.
In 1912 the WSPU organised a new campaign that involved the large-scale smashing of shop-windows. Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence had disagreed with this strategy but Christabel Pankhurst ignored her objections. As soon as this wholesale smashing of shop windows began, the government ordered the arrest of the leaders of the WSPU. Christabel escaped to France but Frederick and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence were arrested, tried and sentenced to nine months imprisonment. They were also successfully sued for the cost of the damage caused by the WSPU.
Both Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence went on hunger strike and had to face the full rigours of forcible feeding twice a day for several days. He later recalled the experience in his memoirs, Fate Has Been Kind (1943): "The head doctor, a most sensitive man, was visibly distressed by what he had to do. It certainly was an unpleasant and painful process and a sufficient number of warders had to be called in to prevent my moving while a rubber tube was pushed up my nostril and down into my throat and liquid was poured through it into my stomach. Twice a day thereafter one of the doctors fed me in this way. I was not allowed to leave my cell in the hospital and for the most part I had to stay in bed. There was nothing to do but to read; and the days were very long and went very slowly."
Christabel Pankhurst later recorded: "Mother and Mr. and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence went on hunger-strike. The Government retaliated by forcible feeding. This was actually carried out in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence. The doctors and wardresses came to Mother's cell armed with forcible-feeding apparatus. Forewarned by the cries of Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence Mother received them with all her majestic indignation. They fell back and left her. Neither then nor at any time in her log and dreadful conflict with the government was she forcibly fed."
After Emmeline and Frederick were released from prison they began to speak openly about the possibility that this window-smashing campaign would lose support for the WSPU. At a meeting in France, in October 1912, Christabel Pankhurst told Emmeline and Frederick about the proposed arson campaign. When Emmeline and Frederick objected, Christabel arranged for them to be expelled from the the organisation. Emmeline later recalled in her autobiography, My Part in a Changing World (1938): "My husband and I were not prepared to accept this decision as final. We felt that Christabel, who had lived for so many years with us in closest intimacy, could not be party to it. But when we met again to go further into the question Christabel made it quite clear that she had no further use for us."
Fran Abrams the author of Freedom's Cause: Lives of the Suffragettes (2003) wrote: "Even the split with the WSPU did not end of this agony - the Pethick-Lawrences were still facing bankruptcy proceedings. An auction of their belongings was held at The Mascot, but raised only £300 towards their £1,100 court costs even though many friends arrived to buy personal possessions and give them back to the couple. Even the auctioneer returned to them a trinket he had bought as a keepsake. The rest of the costs were later taken from Fred's estate, plus a further £5,000 for repairs to shop windows damaged in the raids. Fortunately he had deep pockets and did not have to sell his home."
Pethick-Lawrence continued to work for the suffrage cause and spent most of her energies after 1912 writing for her journal, Votes for Women. She also joined the Women's Freedom League (WFL). Other members included Teresa Billington-Greig, Elizabeth How-Martyn, Dora Marsden, Helena Normanton, Margaret Nevinson and Charlotte Despard.
During the First World War Emmeline was a prominent member of the Women's International League for Peace. After the passing of the Qualification of Women Act in 1918 Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence stood as Labour candidate for Rusholme. As Brian Harrison pointed out: "she championing nationalization, a capital levy, equal pay, and an equal moral standard, but she came bottom of the poll with only a sixth of the votes cast."
In the 1920s and 1930s Emmeline worked for the Women's International League, an organisation committed to world peace. Emmeline also became involved in the campaign led by Marie Stopes to provide birth-control information to working class women. From 1926 to 1935 was president of the Women's Freedom League.
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence published her autobiography, My Part in a Changing World, in 1938. The book is dedicated to her husband, "my unchanging comrade and my best friend". One critic argued: "Though impressively fair-minded and at times perceptive, her account of the suffragettes is essentially an uncritical and largely impersonal chronology. Nowhere did she convincingly justify the contradiction between her humanitarian and democratic instincts on the one hand, and her promotion of violent tactics and authoritarian suffrage structures on the other."
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence remained active in politics until 1950 when she had a serious accident that left her immobilized. Frederick Pethick-Lawrence looked after Emmeline until she died of a heart attack at her home at Gomshall, Surrey, on 11th March 1954. He wrote to a friend: "I feel a bit dazed. It is as though I was at a violin concerto with the violinist absent."
My mother bore thirteen children, of whom five died in infancy. My youngest brother was born seventeen years after me. Those were the days of large families. I never heard my mother make any complaint about this excessive childbearing. She accepted it with complete surrender and even with satisfaction.
As children we were all taken to Church as soon as we could walk and we had to sit very still indeed, because if not, we would be slapped afterwards. When we were older we had to remember and repeat the text at dinner-time, and if we failed to do this we were set to learn pieces of Scripture by heart
My father is still part of me still. He imparted to me so much of his own nature that as long as his blood is still flowing in my veins, I feel he is still alive. He was a born rebel The closest bond between my father and me was his passionate love of justice, which I inherited from him. So long as there existed within the realm of his personal knowledge any wronged individual my father could not rest inactive. My mother thought he went too far; and perhaps he did He was often in the bad books of people in authority who believed in the status quo, and wanted peace at any price.
When the morning newspaper brought the unexpected news of my first arrest in the Suffrage Movement, my father reacted to it in precisely the same way as I should have reacted had our positions been reversed. He was proud that a child of his hand not hesitated to make a stand for the extension of democratic liberty. Later that morning he was met by one of his colleagues on the Bench with expressions of sympathy. "Sympathy, my dear fellow," he replied, "I don't need sympathy. Give me your congratulations! I'm the proudest man in England!'
The idea of the higher education had not, when I was young, reached as far as our small seaside town. I never knew of any girl in Weston-Super-Mare who aspired to go to College or University It was my mother's wish that I should be sent, when fifteen years of age, for a year or two to what in those days was called a "Finishing School". She thought that my manners and my deportment needed polishing up, as no doubt they did.
Drunkenness was extremely common It seemed for many the only refuge from depression and misery. The effect of drunkenness upon the ordinary relationship of husband and wife, parents and children, was disastrous. There was a woman whose husband used to knock her about badly when in drink. But he went to the Mission Hall in the district, was converted and signed the pledge. All went well for some time until she again turned up with several bruises. "Oh, Mrs. Smith, has your husband taken to drink again?" She replied: "Oh, no, that was another lady what done that! Since my husband went to the Misson Hall, he ain't like a husband at all - he is more like a friend!"
There was a particular point of view with regard to wife-beating. A friend of mine was once walking along the street and she passed a woman with a black eye. At the same time two other women passed, and one of them remarked: "Well, all I can say is, she is a lucky woman to have a husband to take that trouble with her." Another woman who had gone through a similar experience remarked: "Well, it ain't pleasant to be knocked about, but the making-up is lovely."
That autumn (1906) saw, the beginning of the Monday afternoon 'At Homes', which went on continuously year in year out during the militant campaign. They were intended principally for women, but men were not excluded. Strategy was explained, militant demonstrations were announced, a collection was taken and members were enrolled. I generally came and sold literature - books, pamphlets and, later, the Votes for Women newspaper. When the attendance grew too big to be accounted in the office in Clement's Inn the venue was changed to the Portman Rooms in Baker Street, and later to the Queen's Hall.
At the end of October 1906 events occured which brought me into far closer association with the movement. My wife was arrested. She had gone, with other members of the Women's Social and Political Union to the House of Commons on the day that Parliament opened; and in accordance with a preconcerted plan she had jumped up on to one of the seats in the Central Lobby and started to address the M.P.s and others who were present. Pulled down and bundled out into the street, along with a number of other women who had made a similar protest, she had tried to re-enter the House and had been taken into custody.
I went with her to the Court next morning, and she surrendered to her bail, together with nine other women, including Mrs. Cobden Sanderson, daughter of Richard Cobden. The magistrate bound them all over to enter into their own recognizances to keep the peace for six months. This they unanimously refused to do. In default, they were committed to prison for two months. They were accordingly packed off the Holloway.
I determined at once that during my wife's absence her side of the work should not suffer. I agreed to look after the finances, and at a public meeting that very afternoon I made an appeal for funds. By way of setting the ball rolling I promised to contribute £10 for every day of her imprisonment.
May I respectfully ask if it is not possible to break up the Suffragette movement by taking action against Mr and Mrs Pethick Lawrence for conspiring and inciting to serious breaches of the peace. It can very easily be proved that Mr Pethick Lawrence went to East Ham on one occasion and hired a number of women at two shillings per day plus their expenses. These women were drilled into their work by Mr Lawrence and his assistants and took part in very disorderly scenes... These women (and many of the women agitators who are paid £2-£5 per week) know nothing of politics or Votes for Women questions and are paid for creating disturbance at command of the leaders.
Police had been drafted in from the East End of London. They knew nothing about the suffrage agitation and were accustomed to dealing with drunks and roughs. Also large and well-nourished bullies had been imported into the district. They may have been police in plain clothes. An order had evidently been given that the police were not to arrest; the alternative was a six-hours' battle between unarmed women who attempted to stand their ground, and police who fought with methods of torture. Women were lifted and thrown to the ground and kicked - they were deliberately beaten on the breasts and were subjected to such terrible violence that a short time afterwards two of them, Mrs. Mary Clarke and Miss Henria Williams, died suddenly from heart attacks. Fifty women were laid up with the injuries they had received Dr. Jessie Murray collected evidence regarding the methods of violence used This evidence was classified under: (1) Unnecessary violence. (2) Methods of torture, i.e. bending thumbs backwards, twisting arms, pinching, gripping the throat and forcing back the head with violence, forcing fingers up nostrils, and so on. (3) Acts of indecency.
It was mainly from young men, and often entirely from students, that opposition came We had one meeting in the Town Hall in Birmingham. University students came en masse in order to prevent the audience from hearing the speakers. They kept up a stampede for over an hour, stamping, yelling and singing. Christabel stood on the platform apparently amused at their antics, and every now and then addressed the youths as if they were children, while she turned her main attention to the reporters, who thronged the press table, and was able to get her whole speech over to them. A box of mice was emptied on the table beside her. She took them gently into her hand and let them run up and down her bare arms and spoke to the thoughtless boys of the cruelty of frightening small and helpless creatures for the sake of fun.
I went to the Suffragette Office to see Mrs. Lawrence and to congratulate her on the meeting of the day before, inquire the latest news, and finally say: "You know my reservations as to some of your methods, but my sympathies are much more with you than with any of your opponents I want to be of use if I can. Is there anything I can possibly do to help you?" A good deal of talk ensued. She said, "Yes," I could help them. Could I see to it that Herbert Gladstone was asked to treat the Suffragettes as political offenders, which they are, and not as common criminals, which they are not?
Eighty-one women were still in prison, some for terms of six months Mother and Mr. and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence went on hunger-strike. The Government retaliated by forcible feeding. This was actually carried out in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence. The doctors and wardresses came to Mother's cell armed with forcible-feeding apparatus. Forewarned by the cries of Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence Mother received them with all her majestic indignation. They fell back and left her. Neither then nor at any time in her log and dreadful conflict with the government was she forcibly fed.
On the return from Canada of Mr. and Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence there was a consultation in France. The outcome of this and a further meeting was the serious announcement that they and we had parted company owing to a difference of opinion as to the policy of the WSPU. This separation on a matter of policy was a cause of deep regret to all concerned.
Christabel Pankhurst was in Paris as soon as Emmeline could travel she joined her in Paris. They asked us (Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence) to come to Boulogne to confer with them. Mrs. Pankhurst met us with the announcement that she and Christabel had determined upon a new kind of campaign. Henceforward she said there was to be a widespread attack upon public and private property This project came as a shock to us both. We considered it sheer madness to throw away the immense publicity and propaganda value of our present policy They were wrong in supposing that a more revolutionary form of militancy, which attacks directed more and more on the property of individuals, would strengthen the movement and bring it to more speedy victory.
Emmeline Pankhurst agreed with Christabel Excitement, drama and danger were the conditions in which her temperament found full scope. She had the qualities of a leader on the battlefield The idea of a 'civil war' which Mrs. Pankhurst outlined in Boulogne and declared a few months later was repellent to me.
When we arrived back in London we were met by a friend. Instead of the smiles that we expected, sadness was written upon her face "Is anything the matter? What is it?" I demanded. "They are going to turn you out of the Women's Social and Political Union."
My husband and I were not prepared to accept this decision as final. We felt that Christabel, who had lived for so many years with us in closest intimacy, could not be party to it. But when we met again to go further into the question Christabel made it quite clear that she had no further use for us.
Mrs. Pankhurst and Miss Christabel Pankhurst outlined a new militant policy which Mr. and Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence found themselves altogether unable to approve. Mrs. Pankhurst and Miss Christabel recommended that Mr. and Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence should leave the Women's Social and Political Union.
Even the split with the WSPU did not end of this agony - the Pethick-Lawrences were still facing bankruptcy proceedings. An auction of their belongings was held at The Mascot, but raised only £300 towards their £1,100 court costs even though many friends arrived to buy personal possessions and give them back to the couple. Even the auctioneer returned to them a trinket he had bought as a keepsake. The rest of the costs were later taken from Fred's estate, plus a further £5,000 for repairs to shop windows damaged in the raids. Fortunately he had deep pockets and did not have to sell his home.
Mrs. Pankhurst invited us to her room. She then told us that she had decided to sever our connection with the WSPU. We saw, then, that the breach between ourselves and the Pankhursts was complete and irrevocable. There was, further, no appeal against our exclusion from the WSPU. Mrs. Pankhurst was the acknowledged autocrat of the Union. We had ourselves supported her in acquiring this position several years previously; we could not dispute it now. | <urn:uuid:648e7e26-7864-4239-8713-ba1f42868009> | {
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Importance of the Resource Database
SQL Server 2005 introduced a new read-only, hidden system database named Resource (RDB). The Resource database contains copies of all system objects that are shipped with SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008.
Resource Database Overview
The Resource database is a read only, hidden system database that contains all the SQL Server system objects such as sys.objects which are physically available only in the Resource database, even though they logically appear in the SYS schema of every database. The Resource Database does not contain any user data or any user metadata. By design, the Resource database is not visible under SQL Server Management Studio’s Object Explorer | Databases | System Databases Node. The physical file names of the Resource database is mssqlsystemresource.mdf and mssqlsystemresource.ldf. The important thing to be noted is that each instance of SQL Server has one and only one associated mssqlsystemresource.mdf & mssqlsystemresource.ldf file and that instances do not share this file. In a clustered environment, the Resource database exists in the Data folder on a shared disk drive. The ID for the Resource Database will be always 32767. The DBA shouldn’t rename or move the Resource Database file. If the files are renamed or moved from their respective locations then SQL Server will not start. The other important thing to be considered is not to put the Resource Database files in a compressed or encrypted NTFS file system folders as it will hinder the performance and will also possibly prevent upgrades.
Resource Database File Location in SQL Server 2005
In SQL Server 2005 the Resource Database related MDF and LDF files will be available in <drive>:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL.1MSSQLData directory. The important thing to be noted is that the Resource Database related MDF & LDF file need to be available in the same directory where the Master Databases MDF & LDF files are located. By default during the installation of SQL Server 2005 both the Resource and the Master database files will be available in the same Data directory.
Resource Database File Location in SQL Server 2008
In SQL Server 2008 the Resource Database related MDF and LDF files will be available in <drive>: Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL10.<instance_name>MSSQLBinn. The important thing to be noted is that the Resource Database related MDF & LDF file are in the Binn directory and the Master Databases MDF & LDF files will be located in the <drive>: Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL10.<instance_name>MSSQLData directory. In SQL Server 2008 it is not mandatory to keep both the Resource and Master Database files in the same directory.
Advantages of Resource Database
In previous versions of SQL Server whenever service packs are applied all the system objects that are residing within the system and user databases gets updated which makes it very difficult to rollback the changes.
- The only way to rollback the changes is to uninstall the instance of SQL Server and reinstall SQL Server followed by applying any Service Packs or Hotfixes to revert it to the previous version of the SQL Server Instance
- In SQL Server 2005 onwards the changes will be made to the Resource Database, which will indeed reflect the changes in all the system and user database of the particular instance
- If the DBA needs to apply a Service Pack to multiple instances, then the mssqlsystemresource.mdf and mssqlsystemresource.ldf needs to be copied by the DBA to the target instance
- If the DBA needs to rollback the changes performed by the Service Packs then they need to replace the Resource Database related MDF and LDF files with that of the previous backed up version
TSQL Query to determine the version of Resource Database
TSQL Query to determine when the Resource Database was last backed up
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Ever wonder how you would – or should – respond to someone suffering cardiac arrest?
Well, now you can go online and participate in the “Save-a-Life Simulator,” an interactive tool to “promote proper and timely bystander response to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).”
According to the Medtronic Foundation, point-of-view videos put the viewer in the shoes of an everyday mallgoer who witnesses a person suffering sudden cardiac arrest. The simulator allows viewers to decide the fate of the victim by making critical choices – beginning with deciding on whether to help the victim.
The basic response Medtronic’s HeartRescue Project is hoping for: call 911, start chest compressions immediately and use an AED if available.
According to the American Heart Association, sudden cardiac arrest strikes nearly 400,000 Americans each year. Research shows that communities with higher bystander CPR participation show higher survival rates for sudden cardiac arrest. However, overall survival rates in the United States have not improved in more than 30 years – hovering around 8 percent.
"When it comes to responding to SCA, the worst thing you can do is nothing," says Dr. Michael Sayre, an associate professor and emergency physician with The Ohio State University and medical director of the HeartRescue Project. "This experience was designed to provide a new way of engaging people, encouraging them to learn about SCA and how to respond by immersing them in a virtual, yet life-like experience."
To test your response skills and learn what you can do to save a life, go to HeartRescueNow.com. You can also find the HeartRescue Project on Twitter and YouTube. | <urn:uuid:098ea8d7-e6f7-4bdb-972f-9853c06a4185> | {
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Documented proof of Darwin's natural selection
Westminster Abbey is a Gothic and cavernous place of cloisters, chambers, nooks, and crannies that has served as Britain's royal crowning place and national ossuary since the time of William the Conqueror, a thousand years ago. Adjacent to the House of Commons in London, the abbey, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is filled with statues of generals, monuments to statesmen, poets, and martyrs, and the chest tombs of dead kings and queens.
There is also a humble white marble slab, on the floor of the north side of the nave, near the quire. It's easy to miss because it's in a kind of corner, where it's dark, and it's also almost in the shadow of a garishly splendid monument to Sir Isaac Newton, which tends to hold the visitor's attention.
But if you look for it, you'll find it easily enough.
Charles Robert Darwin. Born 12 February 1809. Died 19 April 1882.
No stirring elegy. No moving psalm.
I'd gone to see that marble slab recently, partly because I just never had, and partly because it had been occurring to me for some while that of all the great thinkers among the Enlightenment's first-born, from John Stuart Mill to Karl Marx, there was no one whose star still shines as bright in the firmament as Darwin's. Of them all, Darwin remains indispensable. But not, oddly enough, for his work as a scientist.
Darwin was a great scientist, of course. He made important contributions to natural history, and even geology, but his most important contribution was not, strictly speaking, a scientific achievement.
It was a way of explaining the "mystery of mysteries", the origin and diversity of the world's living things. But Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life presents not a single case of evolution by natural selection. Instead, it was, in Darwin's words, "one long argument".
It was a theory with no hard science, no firsthand observation, to back it up. It was a work of exposition and logic. What Darwin had going for him, though, was a fine command of plain language and a body of evidence developed over more than two decades of investigation, observation, and reflection.
Darwin's quarry was the deeply entrenched conviction that each of the Earth's myriad life forms was created by divine intervention only a few thousand years ago. Darwin argued that the living things of the world had evolved from, at most, a handful of ancestors of almost unimaginable antiquity.
Darwin wasn't alone in this heresy, but what distinguished his argument was the contention that evolution occurred by a process of minute variation in type and form, caused by natural factors that constantly "selected" those heritable traits in animals and plants that favour advantage and survival.
Evolution occurred at a glacial pace but it occurred nonetheless, and it was still going on, "daily and hourly", in life all around us, Darwin insisted. That was his resolution of the great mystery. God, maybe, but not necessarily. And, ultimately, it meant there was no reason to imagine that humanity was at the centre of any divine plan after all.
For the time, this was a very dangerous idea.
Darwin had gathered all manner of evidence from fossils, from pigeon breeders, and from his discoveries during his five-year tour as the naturalist aboard the survey ship HMS Beagle. But because evolution occurred so slowly, his thinking went, it wasn't possible to demonstrate its workings in case studies.
Darwin had his defenders and champions, and he also had in his corner the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, sometimes referred to as the "codiscoverer" of what came to be called Darwin's theory. But Wallace, too, despite years of fieldwork, relied on inference and logic to make his case, in the form of a table of "proved facts" and "necessary consequences".
Although Darwin could show that evolution by natural selection must be the answer, he couldn't present evidence for that answer in even a single case of evolution by natural selection, observed and documented in the "natural" world. No one, least of all Darwin, had ever seen it actually happen.
As a consequence, long after Darwin's theory had come to form the theoretical basis for the biological sciences, there was still an embarrassing dearth of experimental research into evolution. It was still, outside of science, just an "opinion". While Darwin explained how the "natural" world worked in theory, no one, even into the 1970s, had been able to fully and methodically document and describe having actually seen it work that way in practice.
This is where Peter and Rosemary Grant come in.
Peter and Rosemary, both from England, met at the University of British Columbia in 1960. They soon married, and both went on to work as professors of evolutionary biology at Princeton University. Now both 71, the Grants are among the most successful and important collaborations in the history of science. In 2005 they won the coveted Balzan Prize, which is equal in prestige to the Nobel Prize and brings almost three times the cash: the equivalent of about $3 million in Swiss francs.
The Grants have produced a body of research that is so exhaustive, so exacting and thorough, that many ornithologists fear it will never be replicated. The object of the Grants' obsessions is Galápagos finches. These are the birds so closely associated with Darwin that they're commonly called Darwin's finches.
It was Darwin's encounter with the archipelago's 13 finch species in 1835, during his five-week Galápagos sojourn as the naturalist aboard the Beagle, that caused his epiphany and produced evolution's great eureka moment. That's the legend, anyway.
The truth is it was long after his return to England, and after the specimens he'd collected had been properly classified by British taxonomists, that the significance of the birds, and of all those other peculiar endemic species he'd found on the Galápagos Islands, began to dawn on Darwin.
It wasn't until Peter and Rosemary Grant began making their annual pilgrimages to the Galápagos island of Daphne Major, a forbidding place of black lava and hellish summers, that the finches began to fully reveal themselves to science.
The Grants began their fieldwork on Daphne Major in 1973. They've put in 35 field seasons, and they're still at it. (The Grants will be presenting an overview of their most recent findings in a free lecture at the University of British Columbia on November 20.)
The Grants have documented the phenomenon that Darwin could only surmise by deduction and conjecture. It turns out that the mechanism of evolution can be observed moving through nature, not just in a laboratory or in a human-altered environment, and it doesn't always move at a glacial pace. The Grants have watched it happen, up close.
Biologists Rosemary and Peter Grant have spent 35 field seasons observing how natural selection has resulted in the evolution of Galápagos finches.
Specifically, what Peter and Rosemary have done is present the world with a rare and dramatic glimpse of variation caused by natural selection from one generation of animals to the next. And down through several generations of Galápagos finches, from different species, they've shown how heritable traits are "selected" so as to result in evolution.
As evolution occurs, even when it occurs quickly, it's usually barely detectable. The tiniest change can mean survival or extinction. In the case of the Galápagos finches, what matters is often barely measurable changes in the size and shape of the finches' beaks.
"That's the really difficult thing to do," Peter told me the other day. "You don't want to try it with earthworms."
It isn't that Darwin's theory had not been shown to work in practice before the Grants. It's just that no one had documented it in nature so completely and methodically.
Before the Grants, the case of the English peppered moth was one of the best-known studies of natural selection driving evolution. But the story of the peppered moth unfolds in a completely human-altered environment. Its observed evolution was in response to the rise and decline of the Industrial Revolution.
Prior to the advent of the "dark satanic mills" and the clouds of coal smoke and ash that settled over the English countryside, peppered moths were light-coloured, with specks and streaks of black, a colour scheme suited perfectly to camouflage because of the moths' habit of alighting and resting on tree trunks, on similarly coloured lichens.
In the poisoned air of the Industrial Revolution, the lichens diminished in abundance and trees were commonly blackened with soot. This trend favoured a black-coloured mutation in peppered moths and caused the light-coloured moths to nearly disappear. In recent years, however, with the decline of both factories and coal power, the light-coloured moths have become dominant again.
Nowadays, evolution by natural selection is being observed in "the wild" among sticklebacks in British Columbia coastal lakes, among fruit flies in South America, and also in laboratories, on an hourly basis, around the world.
In his Pulitzer Prize–winning The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time, a 1994 book about the Grants and the significance of their work, author Jonathan Weiner sets out the paradox of the persistent hostility to Darwin's "theory". Evolution denial is a common habit of some of Darwin's most privileged beneficiaries in the United States, almost always evangelical Protestants, whose wealth often depends solely upon Darwin being right.
The paradox occurs in an especially bizarre way in the American South, in the "cotton belt", where the health of the cotton crop and the wealth that derives from it depend completely upon the application of Darwinian principles in the laboratory. It is only by the close observation of evolution by natural selection occurring in various cotton blights and pests that science has managed to devise at least temporarily effective pesticides and herbicides.
The paradox deepens in the recurring failure of those blight and pest remedies. There are now moths in Louisiana that can ruin cotton crops, and they're now 200 times more resistant to pesticides than they were before they first encountered them. Reject Darwin and you'll never understand why that happens. You'll continue to employ pesticides, and you'll find yourself in a losing battle, precisely because evolution happens.
It happens by natural selection. Resistant strains emerge by natural selection for certain heritable traits. Life is not static. Species are not fixed and unchanging. They evolve, and if Darwin were wrong, the branches of science known as immunology, bacteriology, and virology would never produce any results. It would all be quack science.
"There is no new theoretical structure that has come along since Darwin," Grant told me. "His ideas have been extended through genetics and have been modified and elaborated upon, but his ideas and observations and explanations have withstood the test of time."
And so Darwin prevails. Evolution is driven by hybridization and by sex selection, but the main engine is natural selection. It is how the earth ended up so rich in the diversity and abundance of life. It is evidence against the founding texts of all the world's great religions. It is evidence for life as a phenomenon that is constantly changing, constantly innovating, all on its own.
It is a rational explanation, subject to testable hypotheses. It is free for the asking and available to everyone, regardless of culture or class. It can account for everything from the virulence of diseases to the complexity of the human eye to the origin of humankind itself. No stirring elegy. No moving psalm.
Darwin prevails, more than anyone else. Charles Robert Darwin. Born 12 February 1809. Died 19 April 1882.
UBC's Beaty Biodiversity Museum will host Peter and Rosemary Grant, who will present their lecture Evolution of Darwin's Finches at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday (November 20) in Room 100 of the Wesbrook Building (6174 University Boulevard). Admission is free. | <urn:uuid:6c9b928b-c27f-4be8-8f9a-e6bb2a0d5824> | {
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From the time of Aristotle (384-322 BC) until the late 1500’s, gravity was believed to act differently on different objects.
- Drop a metal bar and a feather at the same time… which one hits the ground first?
- Obviously, common sense will tell you that the bar will hit first, while the feather slowly flutters to the ground.
- In Aristotle’s view, this was because the bar was being pulled harder (and faster) by gravity because of its physical properties.
- Because everyone sees this when they drop different objects, it wasn’t questioned for almost 2000 years.
Galileo Galilei was the first major scientist to refute (prove wrong) Aristotle’s theories.
- In his famous (at least to Physicists!) experiment, Galileo went to the top of the leaning tower of Pisa and dropped a wooden ball and a lead ball, both the same size, but different masses.
- They both hit the ground at the same time, even though Aristotle would say that the heavier metal ball should hit first.
- Galileo had shown that the different rates at which some objects fall is due to air resistance, a type of friction.
- Get rid of friction (air resistance) and all objects will fall at the same rate.
- Galileo said that the acceleration of any object (in the absence of air resistance) is the same.
- To this day we follow the model that Galileo created.
ag = g = 9.81m/s2
ag = g = acceleration due to gravity
Since gravity is just an acceleration like any other, it can be used in any of the formulas that we have used so far.
- Just be careful about using the correct sign (positive or negative) depending on the problem.
Examples of Calculations with Gravity
Example 1: A ball is thrown up into the air at an initial velocity of 56.3m/s. Determine its velocity after 4.52s have passed.
In the question the velocity upwards is positive, and I’ll keep it that way. That just means that I have to make sure that I use gravity as a negative number, since gravity always acts down.
vf = vi + at
= 56.3m/s + (-9.81m/s2)(4.52s)
vf = 12.0 m/s
This value is still positive, but smaller. The ball is slowing down as it rises into the air.
Example 2: I throw a ball down off the top of a cliff so that it leaves my hand at 12m/s. Determine how fast is it going 3.47 seconds later.
In this question I gave a downward velocity as positive. I might as well stick with this, but that means I have defined down as positive. That means gravity will be positive as well.vf = vi + at
= 12m/s + (9.81m/s2)(3.47s)
vf = 46 m/s
Here the number is getting bigger. It’s positive, but in this question I’ve defined down as positive, so it’s speeding up in the positive direction.
Example 3: I throw up a ball at 56.3 m/s again. Determine how fast is it going after 8.0s.
We’re defining up as positive again.
vf = vi + at
= 56.3m/s + (-9.81m/s2)(8.0s)
vf = -22 m/s
Why did I get a negative answer?
- The ball reached its maximum height, where it stopped, and then started to fall down.
- Falling down means a negative velocity.
There’s a few rules that you have to keep track of. Let’s look at the way an object thrown up into the air moves.
As the ball is going up…
- It starts at the bottom at the maximum speed.
- As it rises, it slows down.
- It finally reaches it’s maximum height, where for a moment its velocity is zero.
- This is exactly half ways through the flight time.
As the ball is coming down…
- The ball begins to speed up, but downwards.
- When it reaches the same height that it started from, it will be going at the same speed as it was originally moving at.
- It takes just as long to go up as it takes to come down.
Example 4: I throw my ball up into the (again) at a velocity of 56.3 m/s.
a) Determine how much time does it take to reach its maximum height.
- It reaches its maximum height when its velocity is zero. We’ll use that as the final velocity.
- Also, if we define up as positive, we need to remember to define down (like gravity) as negative.
a = (vf - vi) / t
t = (vf - vi) / a
= (0 - 56.3m/s) / -9.81m/s2
t = 5.74s
b) Determine how high it goes.
- It’s best to try to avoid using the number you calculated in part (a), since if you made a mistake, this answer will be wrong also.
- If you can’t avoid it, then go ahead and use it.
vf2 = vi2 + 2ad
d = (vf2 = vi2) / 2a
= (0 - 56.32) / 2(-9.81m/s2)
d = 1.62e2 m
c) Determine how fast is it going when it reaches my hand again.
- Ignoring air resistance, it will be going as fast coming down as it was going up.
You might have heard people in movies say how many "gee’s" they were feeling.
- All this means is that they are comparing the acceleration they are feeling to regular gravity.
- So, right now, you are experiencing 1g… regular gravity.
- During lift-off the astronauts in the space shuttle experience about 4g’s.
- That works out to about 39m/s2.
- Gravity on the moon is about 1.7m/s2 = 0.17g | <urn:uuid:43ce7457-915e-4a8a-b78f-fca95b28656c> | {
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HOST (IN AMHARIC):
The Queen of Sheba was a legendary monarch of ancient Ethiopia who is referred to in just four sources: the history of the ancient Habeshan people of Ethiopia， the Hebrew
Bible (Old Testament of the Christian Bible)， the New Testament of the Christian Bible， and the Holy Qur’an. Who is she， the famous yet mysterious Queen of Sheba of Ethiopia?
Today’s program will explore the story of an individual whose life is not known in full detail. What we do see clearly is that Makeda， as she is known in Ethiopia， was single-minded in her life.
That is， she was in single-minded pursuit of one goal: wisdom.
The following words are attributed to the Queen of Sheba， or Makeda， in the Kebra Nagast.
The Kebra Nagast is a historical account of the ancient rulers of Ethiopia and is also called
“The Book of the Glory of Kings.” Makeda， whose name means “Greatness，” is said to have explained to her subjects why she was departing the land in order to seek out the wise King Solomon of Jerusalem. She said， “I desire wisdom and my heart seeks to find understanding.
I am smitten with the love of wisdom.... for wisdom is far better than treasure of
gold and silver... It is a source of joy for the heart， and a bright and shining light
for the eyes， and a giver of speed to the feet， and a shield for the chest， and a helmet for the head... It makes the ears to hear and hearts to understand.”
“...And as for a kingdom， it cannot stand without wisdom， and riches cannot be preserved without wisdom.... He who heapeth up gold and silver doeth so to no profit without wisdom， but he who heapeth up wisdom – no man can steal it from his heart... I will follow the footprints of wisdom and she shall protect me forever. I will seek asylum with her， and she shall be unto me power and strength.” According to the Kebra Nagast， the queen’s loyal subjects understood and valued her pursuit of the intangible and answered her in this way: “O our Lady， as for wisdom， it is not lacking in thee， and it is because of thy wisdom that thou loved wisdom. And as for us， if thou goest we will go with thee， and if thou sittest down we will sit down with thee; our death shall be with thy death， and our life with thy life.” The Queen of Sheba is thought to have lived in the １０th century BC. | <urn:uuid:3250261a-ef91-405e-8d72-7adf92d7d445> | {
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Clinial trials are medical research studies carried out under very strict guidelines and they are the building blocks of scientific progress. Researchers, physicians and other healthcare professionals rely on these studies for scientifically sound information on whether or not treatments are safe and effective.
To start, the research team must first determine the objective of the study - for example, whether an experimental treatment is safe or whether a treatment known to work for hyperhidrosis on one part of the body will work for hyperhidrosis on another part of the body. The research team then designs the study to answer that question, including developing a protocol for the trial.
Clinical trials with human subjects follow only after the completion of tests using laboratory animals. These trials fall into four categories called phases. In Phase I a trial tests a potential new treatment with a small number of volunteers (20-80 individuals) to determine the treatment’s safety and potential side effects. Phase II studies test a treatment with known dose and side effects with a larger number of volunteers to learn more about side effects, how the body responds to the treatment, and whether the treatment is effective in treating the condition. The new treatment is compared with commonly used treatments and monitored for long-term side effects in Phase III and IV trials. Phase IV trials are done after the treatment is marketed.
Clinical researchers call the standard scientific approach for trying out treatments a “double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial.” Such trials are "grade A" research because the researcher has taken precautions to get the most unbiased results possible. Ideally, such research can also be replicated; that is, another researcher using the same protocol would get similar results.
The "control" aspect refers to the fact that researchers are usually looking at how one treatment stacks up against another or even against no treatment at all. To make the comparison useful, the investigator must try both methods on similar groups of subjects. Researchers call the treatment with the predictable, or known effect, the control. The control may be a standard, commonly used treatment, or it may be a placebo. A placebo is an inactive pill, liquid, powder, or other modality with no treatment value (commonly referred to as a "sugar pill"). Some studies use both a standard treatment and a placebo as controls. The control helps an investigator find out if any changes in the experimental group are, in fact, due to the new treatment.
Trials are randomized because researchers assign patients by chance either to the group getting the new treatment (called the treatment group) or to the group receiving a standard treatment or placebo (called the control group). This randomization keeps the study's results from being affected by human choices or other factors not related to the treatments being tested.
In some studies, the patient does not know whether he or she is in the treatment or control group (a single-blind study); in others, neither the patient nor the researcher know (a double-blind study). This, again, is a way of avoiding bias in the results. Sometimes when people know what treatment they are getting, it changes the way they react; similarly, the researchers' own expectations about the treatment could influence how they perceive patients' reactions, side effects, and progress during the study.
Participants in clinical trials are randomly assigned once they've been accepted into the study and have agreed to participate by signing an informed consent.
All clinical trials have guidelines about who can participate. These guidelines are an important part of medical research that helps to produce reliable results. The factors that allow someone to participate in a clinical trial are called "inclusion criteria" and those that disallow someone from participating are called "exclusion criteria". The criteria are based on such factors as age, gender, the type and stage of a disease or condition, previous treatment history, and other medical conditions. Before joining a clinical trial, a participant must qualify for the study. Some research studies seek participants with illnesses or conditions to be studied in the clinical trial, while others need healthy participants. It is important to note that inclusion and exclusion criteria are not used to reject people personally. Instead, the criteria are used to identify appropriate participants and keep them safe. The criteria help ensure that researchers will be able to answer the questions they plan to study.
The exact clinical trial process depends on the kind of trial being conducted. In general, the clinical trial team includes doctors and nurses as well as social workers and other healthcare professionals. They check the health of the participant at the beginning of the trial, give specific instructions for participating in the trial, monitor the participant carefully during the trial, and stay in touch after the trial is completed.
Some clinical trials involve more tests and doctor visits than the participant would normally have for an illness or condition. For all types of trials, the participant works with a research team. Clinical trial participation is most successful when the trial’s specific instructions (or protocol) are carefully followed and there is frequent contact with the research staff.
Informed consent is the process of learning the key facts about a clinical trial before deciding whether or not to participate. It is also a continuing process throughout the study to provide information for participants. To help someone decide whether or not to participate, the doctors and nurses involved in the trial explain the details of the study. If the participant's native language is not English, translation assistance can be provided. Then the research team provides an “informed consent document” that includes details about the study, such as its purpose, duration, required procedures, and key contacts. Risks and potential benefits are explained in the informed consent document. The participant then decides whether or not to sign the document. Informed consent is not a contract, and the participant may withdraw from the trial at any time.
Clinical trials that are well-designed and well-executed can help eligible participants to:
There are risks to clinical trials.
The ethical and legal codes that govern medical practice also apply to clinical trials. In addition, most clinical research is federally regulated with built in safeguards to protect the participants. The trial follows a carefully controlled protocol which is a set of instructions or a study plan which details what researchers will do in the study. As a clinical trial progresses, researchers report the results of the trial at scientific meetings, to medical journals, and to various government agencies. Individual participants' names will remain secret and will not be mentioned in these reports.
Every clinical trial in the U.S. must be approved and monitored by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) to make sure the risks are as low as possible and are worth any potential benefits. An IRB is an independent committee of physicians, statisticians, community advocates, and others that ensures that a clinical trial is ethical and the rights of study participants are protected. All institutions that conduct or support biomedical research involving people must, by federal regulation, have an IRB that initially approves and periodically reviews the research.
If you are considering participating in a clinical trial, talk to a physician who knows your medical history and is familiar with hyperhidrosis (preferably a dermatologist). For help finding a physician, visit our Physician Finder. Also discuss clinical trial options with your loved ones. Before making any decisions, you should know as much as possible about the clinical trial and feel comfortable asking the members of the healthcare team questions about it - such as the care you may expect while in a trial, and the cost of the trial. The following additional questions might be helpful to you if you decide to discuss participation in a trial with its healthcare team. Some of the answers to these questions will also be found on the trial's informed consent document.
Yes. Most clinical trials provide short-term treatments related to a designated illness or condition, but do not provide extended or complete primary health care. In addition, by including your healthcare provider in your clinical trial experience and getting him/her involved with the research team can help to ensure that any other medications or treatments you may be using will not conflict with the study or pose any additional risks.
Yes. A participant can leave a clinical trial at any time. When withdrawing from the trial, the participant should let the research team know about it, and the reasons for leaving the study.
Clinical trials are sponsored or funded by a variety of organizations or individuals such as physicians, medical institutions, foundations, voluntary groups, and pharmaceutical companies, in addition to federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA). Trials can take place in a variety of locations, such as hospitals, universities, doctors' offices, or community clinics. | <urn:uuid:b314f3a7-b68b-435a-a2ce-73e3323504d9> | {
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SEATTLE - Relocating is stressful, even for a microbe. Knowing how a microorganism can quickly adapt to challenges of a new habitat helps researchers better understand how commensals (good microbes) and pathogens colonize diverse environments including soil, plant roots, and the human gut. Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) researchers are the first to discover that a protein once thought to have no regulatory function in microbes actually helps them to rapidly adapt to new environments.
ISB scientists had previously discovered that the gene encoding this protein, called transcription factor B (TFB), is present in multiple copies in many microorganisms called archaea – especially those that are known to live in environments that are constantly changing. To understand why, the researchers used an interdisciplinary systems approach that systematically analyzed across many environments the consequences of deleting each copy of the gene or introducing a mutated copy on the health of one such organism, Halobacterium salinarum, that lives in saturate brine.
Simultaneously, they observed how all of the other genes and the complex molecular networks in H. salinarum responded to these genetic manipulations. They integrated millions of data points generated from thousands of such experiments and analyzed patterns in these data across evolutionary timescales by analyzing genome sequences of diverse organisms. They made the remarkable discovery that the microbe gained capability for acclimating to new environments by simply transferring genetic information from one copy of the TFB gene to another, akin to cutting and replacing text in one copy of a document from an edited version. Because it has seven variant copies of TFBs, H. salinarum could perform a large array of such mix-and-match experiments to explore new solutions for adaptation.
How does this work? Nitin Baliga, Professor and Director of ISB and senior author on the paper, explained that "TFBs bind to different locations in the genome and function like wires inside the cell to execute programs that determine which genes in the genome need to be turned on or off and when." In other words, by transferring information across TFBs, an organism can rapidly rewire its networks to generate new programs that enable new capabilities with the same set of genes.
"It´s astounding," remarked Dr. Baliga.
This discovery helps us to understand how archaea colonize diverse environments to give structure and function to microbial communities. This is important for two reasons: First, archaea make up 20 percent of biomass on earth and serve important roles in biogeochemical cycles, which are similar to our circulatory systems and necessary to maintain a health planet. Second, understanding the mechanics of adaptation will help us better understand and predict how microbes and communities might respond to pollution or climate change due to anthropogenic activities. Furthermore, because they have similar functions in eukaryotic organisms we can also begin to understand how duplicated copies of TFIIB proteins reorganize networks for development of body plans in animals.
Understanding that this family of proteins in archaea have regulatory consequences for adaptation into new environments is "knowledge that can be applied to understanding how the TFIIB proteins might have come to mediate the encoding and execution of regulatory programs in humans," said Serdar Turkarslan, the lead author of the paper, which was published on Nov. 22 in "Molecular Systems Biology."
This study was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy´s Genomic Science Funding, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation.
About the Institute for Systems Biology
The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) is an internationally renowned, non-profit research institute headquartered in Seattle and dedicated to the study and application of systems biology. Founded by Leroy Hood, Alan Aderem and Ruedi Aebersold, ISB seeks to unravel the mysteries of human biology and identify strategies for predicting and preventing diseases such as cancer, diabetes and AIDS. ISB's systems approach integrates biology, computation and technological development, enabling scientists to analyze all elements in a biological system rather than one gene or protein at a time. Founded in 2000, the Institute has grown to 13 faculty and more than 300 staff members; an annual budget of more than $50 million; and an extensive network of academic and industrial partners. For more information about ISB, visit www.systemsbiology.org | <urn:uuid:d7eb0b34-44df-4277-83dc-95246fd5100e> | {
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Recent years have seen an upsurge of interest in knowledge. Leading organisations now recognise the importance of identifying what they know, sharing what they know and using what they know for maximum benefit. Many organisations employ knowledge engineers to capture knowledge from experts using the principles and techniques of knowledge engineering. The emphasis is on a structured approach built on a sound understanding of the psychology of expertise and making use of knowledge modelling methods and the latest web technologies.
Knowledge Acquisition in Practice is the first book to provide a detailed step-by-step guide to the methods and practical aspects of acquiring, modelling, storing and sharing knowledge. The reader is led through 47 steps from the inception of a project to its successful conclusion. Each step is described in terms of the reasons for the step, the required resources, the activities to be undertaken, and the solutions to common problems. In addition, each step has a checklist which lists the key items that should be achieved during the step.
Knowledge Acquisition in Practice will be of value to knowledge engineers, knowledge workers, knowledge officers and ontological engineers. The book will also be of interest to students and researchers of AI, computer science and business studies.
Several technologies are emerging that provide new ways to capture, store, present and use knowledge. This book is the first to provide a comprehensive introduction to five of the most important of these technologies:
Knowledge Engineering, Knowledge Based Engineering, Knowledge Webs, Ontologies and Semantic Webs.
For each of these, answers are given to a number of key questions (What is it? How does it operate? How is a system developed? What can it be used for? What tools are available? What are the main issues?).
The book is aimed at students, researchers and practitioners interested in Knowledge Management, Artificial Intelligence, Design Engineering and Web Technologies.
"They [the two books] are both very readable and very informative."
Engineering Manager, USA
"They are excellent as you manage to explain a complex subject with great clarity."
Editor of IT Magazine, UK
"I believe that it will be very useful for the students."
Paperback: 138 pages
Publisher: Polimetrica, International Scientific Publisher (March 3, 2008)
Hard copies are available from Polimetrica and most good bookshops.
A FREE softcopy of the book is available at the E-LIS and arXiv repositories.
KNOWLEDGE PRACTITIONERS' REFERENCE BOOKS
For those who want to find out more about Knowledge Technologies or the steps involved in capturing, structuring and publishing knowledge, here are two recently published books written by Dr Nick Milton, Chief Knowledge Architect at Tacit Connexions.
During the 1990s, Nick worked at the University of Nottingham on the application of AI techniques to knowledge management and on various knowledge acquisition projects to develop expert systems for military applications. In 1999, he joined Epistemics where he worked on numerous knowledge projects and helped establish knowledge management programmes at large organisations in the engineering, technology and legal sectors.
He is author of the book "Knowledge Acquisition in Practice", which describes a step-by-step procedure for acquiring and implementing expertise. He maintains strong links with leading research organisations working on knowledge technologies, such as knowledge-based engineering, ontologies and semantic technologies. | <urn:uuid:12e663a2-24ae-45de-b626-7c9c83843c7b> | {
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This Shared Reading PowerPoint (or printed color book) will help young students practice early reading skills, while reading about a favorite subject: Halloween.
On each page of this page, there is a child in a Halloween costume. There is a speech bubble in which the child says, "I am a _____." Costumes included are cat, bat, witch, vampire, princess, pumpkin, rabbit, fireman, and frog.
I am also adding an emergent reader little book that would accompany this Shared Reading PowerPoint perfectly!! Click here for the emergent reader little book. | <urn:uuid:4fa63089-4b34-469d-97c9-4470238df74d> | {
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What to Expect from 802.11ac
Source: Aruba Networks
The new technologies that will make up the final IEEE 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard are extensions of the physical-layer wireless techniques pioneered in 802.11n. These extensions include the use of multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver to exploit Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO) for parallel delivery of multiple spatial streams. Although consumer and residential Wi-Fi applications are a primary focus for these 802.11ac technologies, they will also have a considerable impact on enterprise wireless LANs (WLANs). 802.11ac increases the amount of wireless bandwidth in a cell, allowing a single access point (AP) to serve the same number of Wi-Fi clients with greater per-client throughput. Alternatively, a single AP will serve more Wi-Fi clients with the same throughput. This is a crucial capability in environments that serve high densities of Wi-Fi clients, such as lecture halls, conference centers,stadiums and other large public venues. The trend toward more antennas - from small devices like tablets and smartphones to larger APs packed with more than four antennas - will make MIMO and beamforming more prevalent than ever and vastly improve the reliability of Wi-Fi connections. Consequently, it will be easier to provide Wi-Fi coverage around physical obstructions like elevator shafts and stair wells. These features also deliver signal range improvements and signifcantly increase the reliability of wireless connections. | <urn:uuid:a4f0bef7-bd4a-4243-a7c5-13b3e7deb8f0> | {
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Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is the most commonly performed operation for weight loss in the United States, according to the American Society for Bariatric Surgery.
In this procedure, the surgeon creates a small pouch at the top of the stomach to restrict food intake. Then, a Y-shaped section of the small intestine is attached to the pouch to allow food to bypass the lower stomach and the first part of the small intestine. This reduces the amount of calories and nutrients the body absorbs.
Physicians on the medical staff at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano often perform Roux-en-Y gastric bypass laparoscopically. With laparoscopy, the surgeon makes one or more small incisions through which slender surgical instruments are passed. This technique eliminates the need for a large incision and allows for a faster recovery.
Patients who have undergone Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery must modify their food choices because of a "dumping syndrome" often caused by the surgery. When patients eat a meal high in simple carbohydrates, which contain sugars that are rapidly absorbed by the body, they may experience an unpleasant reaction. Stomach contents move too quickly through the small intestine causing symptoms such as nausea, bloating, abdominal pain, weakness, sweating, faintness and sometimes diarrhea.
Lifelong mineral supplementation is also required for gastric bypass patients as the bypassed portion of the intestine is where the majority of calcium and iron absorption takes place.
The Roux-en-Y gastric bypass has been proven in numerous studies to result in durable weight loss and an improvement in weight-related medical illnesses, according to the American Society for Bariatric Surgery. Half of the weight loss often occurs during the first six months after surgery; weight loss usually peaks at 18 to 24 months. The obesity-related conditions that may be improved or cured with this gastric bypass procedure include type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, arthritis, venous statis disease, bladder incontinence, liver disease, certain types of headaches, heartburn, sleep apnea and many other disorders.
The negatives associated with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass include a higher initial complication rate, the need to supplement vitamins and minerals for the rest of the patient's life; and the potential for malnutrition if the patient doesn't comply with their doctor's recommendations. Discuss these and other potential complications with your physician.
Sources: American Society for Bariatric Surgery, National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases | <urn:uuid:5439841a-996d-4427-b38d-92a7bcf2f1df> | {
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Conservatives blame poor government policy for causing the housing bubble, while progressives blame the financial industry. While most arguments on the right focus on the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, its stance actually might not need to rely on them. Data indicates that the government's broader efforts to make housing an attractive investment has funneled money away from business and into the housing sector.
This analysis comes from University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan, via the New York Times Economix blog. He analyzed the value of housing capital, as a measure of profitability, in the U.S. from 1950 to 2000. He calculates it to be average out to 5.7% over the period. Here's his chart:
It was 6.4% in 2000.
He then did a separate calculation to determine the value of business capital. At 15.3% over the 50-year period, excluding taxes, it was much higher. This implies overinvestment in housing. Mulligan explains:
Business capital has been so profitable to the economy because it is more scarce. It's the law of demand: the less business capital there is, the higher the rate of return that remaining business capital earns because each unit of capital serves more customers. A low profit rate for housing is a symptom of its abundance.
This would seem to imply that prudent investors would be better off investing in business than housing, since business capital is more productive than housing capital. So what happened? The government made housing look like a more attractive investment. Mulligan also calculated profitability with taxes taken into account:
The business-residential profitability gap is almost 10 percent, but our attempts to adjust both profit rates for applicable taxes show that the after-tax profitability gap is zero to five percentage points.
In other words, tax differences sweeten residential real estate investment. They result in it looking nearly as profitable as business investment.
There are a few things to note about this finding. First, it's important to bear in mind that this was all before the housing bubble; Mulligan's analysis ends in the year 2000. In other words, the overinvestment in housing obviously got much, much, worse in the seven years that followed. This begins to show one reason why so much money flowed to real estate instead of to other investment options.
The second implication is arguably even more important. Business growth in the U.S. during that decade was weaker than it could have been because so much investment was coaxed towards real estate by the government instead of towards other more technology-driven industries. If the U.S. wonders why it's having so much trouble with economic growth now, it can look to the overinvestment in real estate over the past decade, which ultimately resulted in a tragic amount of capital destruction.
Third, this analysis shows the extent to which residential real estate benefits from favorable tax treatment and business suffers from relatively unfavorable tax treatment. If the government wants to figure out how to create jobs, there's its answer. It should reduce the tax benefits provided to real estate and provide them to businesses instead.
Up to now the government has had a dual-rationale for its preference for housing investment. One end it appreciates is promoting homeownership, because it has long (wrongly) viewed owning a home as a part of the American Dream. Second, the housing industry lobby is very powerful, as is evidenced by the ridiculously expensive but politically untouchable mortgage interest deduction. It's time for Washington to challenge this status quo and begin to encourage Americans to put their money in more productive investments that will facilitate stronger long-term economic growth. | <urn:uuid:8e8f595f-e2ae-4344-8f5f-4668ae0e6766> | {
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Body Composition Tests
December 19, 2011
The tests and measurements described in this fact sheet provide detailed measurements of fat and lean body mass. Repeated measurements can be helpful in monitoring body shape changes associated with lipodystrophy (see Fact Sheet 553) or with wasting syndrome (see Fact Sheet 519).
Some of these measurements are used to determine if someone is overweight. Excess weight is associated with a higher risk of heart disease. Low weight, including an unintended weight loss of 5% or more, may also be a sign of health problems (see Fact Sheet 519).
There are pluses and minuses for each method. Some have to do with cost. Also, a trained technician can often make a big difference in measurements. Try to use the same technique and technician if you are tracking changes over time.
This word just means measuring the body. Anthropometry is the simplest technology. It involves using a tape measure to take key readings, such as biceps, thigh, waist, and hips. A trained technician is very important for this method.
Calipers (a metal tool) are used to "pinch" body tissue in several places. The measurements are compared to standards. People doing the measurement should be trained so that the measurements are standardized.
Divide your waist measurement (at the narrowest point) by your hip measurement (at the widest point.)In general, a healthy waist to hip ratio is below 0.9 for men and below 0.8 for women. These may not hold true for people with HIV who have fat accumulation around the waist.
In general, a waist size over 40" for men or over 35" for women is associated with greater health risk.
In BIA, a person is weighed. Age, height, gender and weight or other physical characteristics such as body type, physical activity level, ethnicity, etc. are entered in a computer. While the person is lying down, electrodes are attached to various parts of the body and a small electric signal is circulated. This signal cannot be felt.
BIA measures the resistance (impedance) to the signal as it travels through the body muscle and fat. The more muscle a person has, the more water their body can hold. The greater the amount of water in a person's body, the easier it is for the current to pass through it. Higher fat levels result in more resistance to the current. Fat tissue is about 10% - 20% water, while fat-free mass (which includes muscle, bone, and water outside muscles) averages 70% - 75% water.
BIA values depend on a person's age. Normally you can get an analysis of your results when the test is done.
This is a calculation based on your weight and height. The formula is:
(weight in kilograms) divided by (height in meters squared; or multiplied by itself). To convert pounds to kilograms, divide by 2.2. To convert height to meters, first convert height to inches (12 x feet, plus extra inches). Then divide by 39.4.
For example, let's say that someone weighing 165 pounds is 5' 8" tall.
BMI result categories are:
For more information and a convenient BMI calculator that uses pounds and inches, see the web site "Calculate your BMI" at http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
Tomography means looking at slices of the body. CAT scanning uses x-rays to do this. It is helpful in calculating the ratio of fat within the abdomen compared to fat under the skin. The equipment is expensive.
This x-ray technique divides the body into fat-free (lean) mass, bone mineral content, and fat. Different amounts of the x-ray energy are absorbed by different types of tissue. DEXA scans are very accurate but can be expensive due to the cost of the machine. DEXA scans are also used to measure bone density (see Fact Sheet 557.)
This technique uses a magnetic field to create an image of the body. The image shows the location and amount of fat. This is very expensive due to the cost of the machine and reading the scans.
This method determines body volume. First the person is weighed dry. Then they are immersed in water in a tank and weighed again. Bone and muscle are more dense than water, and fat is less dense than water. A person with more bone and muscle will weigh more in water than a person with less bone and muscle. The volume of the body is calculated and body density and body fat percentage are calculated.
This technique may underestimate the body fat percentage of athletes, and overestimate body fat in elderly people.
Body composition measurements can be helpful, over time, in tracking changes due to HIV or its treatments. The different techniques have pluses and minuses in terms of reliability, cost, and availability. If you are concerned about your body shape and composition, be sure to ask your health care provider to record baseline readings before you start treatment.
This article was provided by AIDS InfoNet. Visit AIDS InfoNet's website to find out more about their activities and publications. | <urn:uuid:703f20c3-3c8d-4311-8ef1-fa85d8011f16> | {
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January 13, 2012
Raltegravir (Isentress) is a drug used for antiviral therapy against HIV. It was formerly known as MK-0518. It is manufactured by Merck.
Raltegravir is the first "integrase inhibitor" drug. When HIV infects a cell, it combines its genetic code into the cell's own code. This is shown in Fact Sheet 106, step 5. Raltegravir blocks this process. When raltegravir blocks integration, HIV infects a cell but cannot make more copies of itself.
Raltegravir was approved in 2007 as an antiretroviral drug against HIV as part of an antiretroviral regimen. It was studied first in adults who had used antiretroviral therapy for some time whose virus had already developed resistance (see Fact Sheet 126) to existing antiretroviral drugs. Late in 2008 it was approved for use in patients just starting antiretroviral therapy. Raltegravir has not been studied in children, pregnant women or older adults.
There are no absolute rules about when to start antiretroviral drugs. You and your health care provider should consider your CD4 cell count, your viral load, any symptoms you are having, and your attitude about taking HIV medications. Fact Sheet 404 has more information about guidelines for the use of antiretroviral medications.
Raltegravir is taken twice a day. It will most likely be used by people who have very few choices of antiretroviral medications in pill form. If you take raltegravir with other antiretroviral drugs, you can reduce your viral load and increase your CD4 cells. This should mean staying healthier longer.
The HIV virus is sloppy when it makes copies of its genetic code (RNA). Many new copies of HIV are mutations: they are slightly different from the original virus. Some mutations can continue to multiply even when you are taking an antiretroviral drug. When this happens, the drug will stop working. This is called "developing resistance" to the drug. See Fact Sheet 126 for more information on resistance.
Raltegravir has shown activity against HIV that already has resistance to several other HIV medications.
Resistance to raltegravir is not well understood. With combination therapy (taking more than one antiretroviral drug at the same time), HIV mutates much more slowly. Resistance takes longer to develop. It is very important to take antiretroviral medications according to instructions, on schedule, and not to skip or reduce doses.
Sometimes, if you develop resistance to one drug, you will also have resistance to other antiretroviral drugs. This is called "cross-resistance". Because raltegravir is in a new class of antiretroviral drugs, it seems to have almost no cross resistance with antiretroviral drugs in older classes.
Raltegravir may be taken with or without food. It is provided as 400 mg tablets. The adult dosage of raltegravir is 400 mg twice daily. There is also a 300 mg chewable tablet that is taken twice daily.
Raltegravir may also be used by children. Dosage for children less than 12 years old is based on their weight.
Merck studied a once-daily dose of 800 mg. This dose was less effective at controlling HIV than the approved twice a day dosage. The difference in effectiveness was greater in patients who started with viral loads over 100,000.
In human studies, the most common side effects in people taking raltegravir were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. Reports from people using Raltegravir also include rash and depression. In rare cases, skin rash can be severe and life-threatening. Contact your health care provider immediately if you develop a serious rash while taking raltegravir.
Raltegravir has been studied to see if it interacts with other drugs. Rifampin, used to treat tuberculosis (see Fact Sheet 518) decreases blood levels of raltegravir. A higher dose of raltegravir must be used.
Raltegravir has not been studied with all medicines, over-the-counter drugs or vitamin or herbal supplements. Be sure your doctor knows about all medications and supplements that you are taking.
Raltegravir is the first drug in a new class, integrase inhibitors. It stops HIV from inserting its genetic code into an infected cell. This prevents the virus from making new copies of HIV. Raltegravir helps control HIV, even when it is resistant to other medications.
This article was provided by AIDS InfoNet. Visit AIDS InfoNet's website to find out more about their activities and publications. | <urn:uuid:5a4ed77c-9cb8-438b-9dfe-e60876a1ccc2> | {
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Article reproduced courtesy of the Guardian Environment Network
'Sustainable' palm oil campaign banned by ASA
9th September, 2009
Advertorial claimed that controversial oil business was 'green answer' and was important to alleviating poverty
A press campaign making environmental claims about the controversial product Malaysian Palm Oil, including that it is "sustainable", has been banned as misleading by the advertising regulator.
Palm Oil, which is used in a third of all groceries, has been at the centre of an environmental debate over its role in the destruction of rainforest in areas such as south-east Asia.
The press campaign, run by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), made a number of claims, including that the product was the "green answer" and that palm oil is the "only product able to sustainably and efficiently meet a larger portion of the world's increasing demand for oil crop-based consumer goods, foodstuffs and biofuels".
MPOC also argued that the palm oil business had played an important role in the "alleviation of poverty, especially among rural populations".
The advertorial went on to claim that criticism of Malaysia's palm oil industry – including "rampant deforestation and unsound environmental practices" – amounted to "protectionist agendas" not based on scientific fact or evidence.
Environmental group Friends of the Earth, and two members of the public, complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that a number of the claims made by MPOC were misleading and could not be proven.
The ASA said that a palm oil company sustainability certification scheme, through a body called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), and the certification of biofuels in general, was "still the subject of debate". Therefore making a claim that palm oil could be wholly sustainable, which cannot be substantiated, was deemed to be misleading.
The ASA also said that MPOC's attack on its detractors was likely to mislead. This was because MPOC could not prove that the production of palm oil did not, in fact, lead to deforestation or environmental damage.
MPOC's assertion about helping to alleviate poverty was also misleading according to the ASA, as there was "not a consensus on the economic impact of palm oil on local communities". The ASA said that some research had shown that biofuel production causes adverse social impacts including rising food prices and has a major short-term impact on the poor.
The ASA ruled that the ad should not be shown again.
Mark Sweney is the Guardian's advertising, marketing and new media correspondent. This article is reprinted courtesy of the Guardian Environment Network.
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Researchers in Kerala to use modern techniques for DNA analysis
Alison is not aware of her white cousin housed in a rescue centre at Puducherry. She, however, is on chattering terms with the grey striped version of her species scurrying about in a cage near hers in the laboratory of the Department of Zoology, University of Kerala, here.
Ever since she was captured from the outskirts of the city in 2008, the black squirrel, named after a United Kingdom-based scientist who helped identify the animal, has been the subject of intense scientific curiosity.
Following up on preliminary investigations that have confirmed the black and white animals to be variants of the Indian striped palm squirrel, researchers here have launched a mission to decipher the genetic causes of the colour change.
The multi-institutional project will use modern techniques for DNA analysis.
Efforts are focussed on identifying the chromosome responsible for the genetic mutation in the grey squirrel, and the resultant colour change.
“Apparently, one of the genes in the animal acted as a switch to activate the change in pigmentation,” explains Oommen V. Oommen, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Emeritus Scientist, who heads the project.
While the research team has black and grey squirrels in its possession, the scientists have collected blood and hair samples of the white variant from Puducherry where the animal is kept in a rescue centre operated by the Forest Department.
Unlike the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada where the black squirrel has attained sizeable populations, there have been no reports of the mutant versions being sighted anywhere else in India.
“We had earlier carried out gene sequencing to establish that the black squirrel is a variant of Funambulus palmarum [Indian three-striped palm squirrel]. That work will have to be repeated to ascertain the mutation responsible for melanisation [black pigmentation],” says Dr. Oommen.
“Our attempt is to understand the basic science behind the colour change, what it is that throws the switch. The project could have far reaching implications for mankind. It would perhaps obviate the need to use bleaching creams for a fair skin or have a sunbath for a tan.”
The sequencing programmes are expected to generate meaningful data in the next two months.
The team includes Dr. Sanal George, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology; Dr. Dileep Kumar, Anaswara Krishnan and Dr. Achuth Sankar S. Nair; Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics; K. Ramachandran and A.S. Vijayasree, Department Of Zoology, University of Kerala; Dr. Divya, Central University, Kasaragode; Dr. Helen Mcrobie , East Anglia University, Cambridge; Dr. M.A. Akbarsha, Bharatidasan University; Dr. Anil Kumar, Deputy Conservator Of Forests, Puducherry; and Dr. Jacob Alexander, Veterinary surgeon, Thiruvananthapuram Zoo.
This is not the first time Dr. Oommen and his team have been on the trail of animals exhibiting abnormal colour characteristics. The scientists have already lined up their next project, to carry out gene sequencing of a hen that changes colour.
Belonging to a small-time farmer near here, the bird has acquired a celebrity status for its ability to change from black to white and back without shedding feathers. “Unlike the squirrel, the switch seems to be active throughout the life of the bird,” says Dr. Oommen. | <urn:uuid:7606c777-7c3b-439b-bce5-8cf1d65f8f89> | {
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Physicians, demographers, and epidemiologists often approach family planning as an issue of comparative risk and effectiveness of various contraceptive methods. But as the statistician Christopher Tietze (1908—84) wrote in the 1950s, any contraceptive approach succeeds only if it is “use-effective”—one which individual women (and men) find appropriate for use within their own lives. This idea, of course, has very different connotations in the developed countries of the world, where contraceptives are marketed products, and in developing countries, where they are often made available through government population control programmes. Let us consider a few historical instances from the USA in the mid-20th century that cast some light on the way women responded to using contraceptives.
In the late 1950s, Tietze, then at the National Committee for Maternal Health (NCMH) in New York, was working to improve the scientific legitimacy of contraception, both within US medical practice and for implementation in global population control programmes. With his ally Mary Calderone at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, he embarked on a research study to compare diaphragms, Planned Parenthood's medically endorsed method of choice, with what they called “simple methods”—spermicidal creams, jellies, and foam products. Tietze and Calderone suspected that many women found these products, which were widely marketed not only through physicians but also available at pharmacies and even five-and-dime stores, easier to use than the diaphragm, and therefore more “use-effective”. Calderone lamented at one point that they could not gather data on condoms, also a simple, widely available method, but one that at the time was inaccessible to clinic-based research, since virtually all condoms were purchased by men in retail outlets.
Planned Parenthood's 3-year simple-method study and a concurrent project at the Cleveland Clinic had similar results. Although spermicides seemed to be effective when used consistently, Tietze found it impossible to draw significant conclusions, since more than 60% of the women who took part dropped out of the study within 18 months. Although each woman was allowed to choose her own method when enrolled, many would not use it regularly or even adhere to a single method or product for more than a few months; all failed the use-effectiveness test. Tietze noted ruefully that “consistent use of one method was often not compatible with their pattern of life as evidenced by the frequent comment that they liked variety”.
Tietze had meanwhile begun working with Frederick Osborn and the Population Council on what promised to be a method less subject to user whim: the intrauterine device (IUD). This inexpensive and apparently effective device, inserted and removed only by physicians, seemed to be an ideal solution for global population control. The Cooperative Statistical Program (CSP) designed by Tietze evaluated five different IUDs between 1963 and 1968. The final reports presented data on 31 767 women submitted by 33 researchers at 26 clinical sites. Some 45% of the participants dropped out before the study concluded, some because of personal choice, most for “medical reasons” (other than expulsion). Tietze noted, however, that “The distinction between medical and personal reasons was not always unequivocal; doubtful cases were classified as medical.” In order therefore to assess the contraceptive effectiveness of the IUD, Tietze developed a formula that assessed the experience of those who persisted, “the more determined contraceptors”, while excluding those who had not found the device as use-effective.
In 1960, of course, the IUD and all earlier methods of contraception were overtaken by the astonishing impact of the pill. Tietze, Calderone, Osborn, and their colleagues had known that Enovid (Conovid), the first oral contraceptive (a progestin-oestrogen compound), was in development, but at an NCMH conference in 1958, had agreed that most women would probably not find a medication that altered their physiological cycles acceptable. This was clearly a misconception. The freedom and personal control that the pill put into the hands of women was life-altering for many. As Loretta Lynn sang in 1975, “I'm making up for all those years since I've got the pill.”
Oral contraceptives proved not to be an unmixed blessing. In November, 1961, The Lancet reported the death from thrombosis of a young woman who was taking the pill; in less than a year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had received reports of six such deaths and 20 other non-fatal cases. Popular articles in newspapers and magazines began to ask, “How safe is the birth control pill?” Several years of uncertainty and controversy followed, culminating in 1967, when Martin Vessey, Richard Doll, and their colleagues published their epidemiological findings in the British Medical Journal. They estimated the pill's mortality risk at one in 67 000 for women aged 34 years and younger and one in 25 000 for those aged 35 and older. The American journalist Morton Mintz, who had broken the thalidomide story in the USA, charged Enovid's developers, Gregory Pincus and G D Searle and Company, with risking the lives of thousands of women, claiming erroneously that the pill had been tested on only 132 experimental subjects before FDA approval. The feminist writer Barbara Seaman's better-evidenced, but impassioned, book, The Doctors' Case Against the Pill, fuelled consumer and congressional concern, resulting in a series of hearings chaired by Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1969, and the strengthening of the consumer warnings inserted in each packet of oral contraceptives sold.
As Elizabeth Watkins has described, the debate over the pill and the Nelson hearings galvanised feminist health activism in the USA and elsewhere. On the one hand, women still wanted an easy-to-use contraceptive that allowed them to control their own sexuality and reproductive choices; on the other, some no longer fully trusted the medical profession to make decisions for them and they trusted the pharmaceutical industry even less. Features in the popular magazines now shifted emphasis from discussing the risks of the pill to comparing and contrasting various contraceptive methods available and describing the “lifestyle” that each would best fit—in other words, assessing their use-effectiveness.
As concerns focused on oral contraceptives in this period, the IUD seemed to be a safer alternative to many women and physicians. In 1971, however, A H Robins Company introduced the Dalkon Shield, a tiny triangle-shaped IUD with “fins” to prevent its expulsion; the company claimed that the Shield was 98·5% effective in preventing pregnancy. Over the next 3 years, some 3·7 million women chose to have this device inserted, including many young, single women, whom A H Robins specifically targeted in its marketing. But within a year physicians reported cases of severe pelvic inflammatory disease, leading to miscarriage, birth defects, infertility, and even death. A H Robins suspended sales in 1974 and stopped manufacture in 1976, with about 400 000 lawsuits in progress; the company was forced into bankruptcy in 1986.
The subsequent histories of oral contraceptives and the IUD are telling. Manufacturers of both types of product have undertaken extensive research and redesign efforts to address the identified risks and improve the safety profiles; the current formulations on the market are relatively low-risk and well-publicised so that both physicians and consumers are able to make informed choices. Many medical experts consider the newer IUDs safer for long-term use than oral contraceptives. But while women have continued to find oral contraceptives use effective, in the USA at least IUDs never seem to have fully regained the confidence of women after the 1970s. Indeed, IUDs became less available in the USA during the 1980s and 1990s, as manufacturers found the market too limited to invest their time and effort; only two devices, the copper-T Paragard and hormonal Mirena, are currently available. In most parts of Europe IUDs are used by a higher proportion of women than in the USA, although they are still less popular than oral contraceptives. By contrast, in many Asian and African countries, where it has often been endorsed by government programmes, IUD use predominates.
In 1990, the Population Council tried again with Norplant, an implantable device that slowly released progesterone over 5 years, a method designed to combine the best features of the pill and the IUD; but women in developed countries disliked the erratic menstrual cycles they experienced with it. Norplant disappeared from the US and UK markets by around 2000 and other new implant and injectable products have so far had only limited impact on patterns of use.
Watkins has explored the remarketing of the oral contraceptive as a “lifestyle” drug, one that may also relieve premenstrual mood changes, treat acne, and regulate menstruation. But popular writers have discussed the appropriate contraceptive for a given lifestyle since at least the 1970s. The ultimate message of much of this popular literature in western countries is that women who take the pill are characterised as young, intelligent, free-spirited, able to choose for themselves. Condoms, since the 1980s, are often presented as a prudent choice for those who want to have multiple partners or spontaneous sex. By contrast, the IUD is often represented as the choice of the woman who has had her family and no longer wants to think about contraception. But for these women IUDs compete with surgical sterilisation, which has become an increasingly popular choice in both the USA and the UK.
Many women's responses to contraception in the 21st century are clearly interwoven with feminism, concerns about pharmaceutical marketing, and the rising consciousness of women about their own health. But it is worth looking back to the 1950s and listening to Tietze's stubborn study participants who “liked variety”. Where they have options, women will make choices; that is where family planning policy must start. | <urn:uuid:6a00e836-92d0-4c8e-83db-3a9cb12d35cd> | {
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High-fructose corn syrup linked to type 2 diabetes
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in national food supplies around the world might help explain the rising rates of type 2 diabetes around the world, researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford report in the journal Global Public Health.
After studying 42 countries, researchers found that those that use HFCS in their food supply had a 20 percent higher prevalence of diabetes than those that did not use HFCS, suggesting an association with diabetes independent of total sugar intake and obesity levels.
“HFCS appears to pose a serious public health problem on a global scale,” said principal study author Michael I. Goran, MD, professor of preventive medicine , director of the Childhood Obesity Research Center, and co-director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the Keck School of Medicine at USC in a release. “The study adds to a growing body of scientific literature that indicates HFCS consumption may result in negative health consequences distinct from and more deleterious than natural sugar.”
Not surprisingly, the United States topped the list with the most per-capita consumption of HFCS - 55 pounds per person, per year. The second highest was Hungary, with an annual rate of 46 pounds per person per year. Canada, Slovakia Bulgaria, Belgium, Argentina, Korea, Japan, and Mexico also had high rates while Germany, Poland, Greece, Portugal, Egypt, Finland, and Serbia were found to be among the lowest HFCS consumers.
Countries on the high end of the HFCS scale had an average type 2 diabetes rate of 8 percent, compared to 6.7 percent in countries not using HFCS. Researchers believe this link is driven by higher amounts of fructose in foods made with HFCS than in foods made with regular table sugar or glucose. Some evidence suggests that the body metabolizes fructose differently from glucose , researchers say in the article, though this runs contrary to the positions of the American Medical Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, among other groups. The AMA says HFCS is no worse for the body than glucose-containing table sugar - a claim that’s hard for some consumers to believe, as HFCS has been vilified for decades because of its suspected role in weight gain and metabolic syndrome .
Regardless, the take-home message is that consumers need to reduce the amount of all forms of sugar and sweeteners in their diets, says Joan Salge Blake, MS, RD, LDN, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “Honey, high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sucrose, molasses - these are all sources of added sugars that we need to reduce in our diet,” she says. “Sixty-five percent of Americans are overweight, and getting rid of foods like these that are just empty calories can potentially help manage weight.”
For more diabetes news and information, follow @diabetesfacts on Twitter from the editors of @EverydayHealth.
Reprinted with permission from EverydayHealth.com
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Join Jonathan Schechter as he shares thoughts on our natural world in Oakland County and beyond. | <urn:uuid:27824e38-bb18-49cc-8c56-238f56d791f3> | {
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Boffins simulate plasma-eating dusty 'life-forms'
Dust to dust, etc
Physicists have discovered that charged particles of dust can form themselves into life-like structures that appear to be capable of reproducing and passing information along, behaviour reminiscent of life on Earth.
The researchers, (led by V N Tsytovich of the General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Science, in Moscow, along with boffins from the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, and the University of Sydney) have developed a computer model to help them understand "the behaviour of complex mixtures of inorganic materials in a plasma".
Although convention dictates that there would be very little organisation in a system of such particles, the researchers demonstrated that under the right conditions, order could emerge.
As the plasma becomes polarised, the model shows microscopic strands of particles twisting into helical, or corkscrew structures.
The simulation suggests that the dusty corkscrews have two stable configurations - a large spiral and a small spiral. Each helix could contain various sequences of these two states, the researchers say, which raises the possibility that they could store information.
The team reports that the structures can divide, form copies (transmit their stored information information), interact with neighbouring spirals, and even induce changes in other spirals. More speculatively, they suggest these changes could evolve as less stable structures break down.
So, are there corkscrew-shaped dust-aliens floating about in interstellar space?
Gregor Morfill of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany is not prepared to go quite that far. He told New Scientist: "It has a lot of the hallmarks for how we define life at present, but we have not simulated life. To us, they're just a special form of plasma crystal."
However, Tsytovich is prepared to be a bit more flexible on his definition of what might constitute life, saying that the spirals "exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter. They are autonomous, they reproduce, and they evolve".
The next step is to go hunting for a real environment where such structures could have emerged. Morfill suggests that planetary rings would be the best place to start the search.
The research is reported in the 14 August edition of the New Journal of Physics, and New Scientist has a more extensive write up here. ®
2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul
Bit behind the times
Haven't they ever heard of Birkland currents and read existing Plasma
research which already demonstrates this type of helical twisted threading
in plasma at all scales from lab to space.
Re-inventing the research and calling their own in a slightly different
dark satanic clouds
Now the phrase 'dust devil' seems so much more personal. | <urn:uuid:8e42c785-f1b0-4a69-b060-51bf90081460> | {
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Is there a safe level of lead in children’s toys? Perhaps not. Recent studies suggest that the current standard for blood lead levels of 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood is too high. The CDC and the EPA have both issue statements that no level of lead in the blood is safe, although the standard has not yet been lowered.
Dr. Bruce Lanphear, Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center said in an interview reported in the Baltimore Sun that a study he published last year showed that children older than 4 with lead levels as low as 2 micrograms per deciliter had a four fold risk of having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder as compared to children older than 4 with lead levels less than 1 microgram per deciliter. Other studies have shown similar results. For example, one study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine showed a significant drop in IQ at levels below 10 ug/dL.
Blood lead levels correspond with the levels of lead in the individual’s environment. If no blood lead level is safe, then lead should be eliminated as much as possible from all sources. Lead in children’s toys isn’t the only source of lead. Lead in our houses is probably the biggest source of exposure. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that 25% of our nation’s housing contains significant lead based paint hazards.
What is alarming is that the US didn’t regulate lead in paint until 1978 but the hazards of lead in paint were known much earlier. In 1904, J. Lockhart Gibson was one of the first English-speaking authors to link directly lead based paint to childhood lead poisoning. In 1905, he wrote, “The use of lead paint within the reach of children should be prohibited by law.” Others made similar links in published literature, including 2 Americans in 1914. Kenneth Blackfan and Henry Thomas reported a boy who died of lead poisoning after ingesting leaded paint on his crib railing. With this information, other countries banned or restricted lead in residential paints beginning in 1909 with France, Belgium and Austria to Great Britain, Sweden and Belgium in 1926, among many others.
The US didn’t act, even in the face of mounting evidence, because of the strength of lobbying by the lead paint industry. In fact, the lead paint industry’s advertising in the first half of the 20th century aggressively promoted lead paint for interior use, and focused on children. Some of the advertising pictures are just frightening – several children’s items and the slogan “lead takes part in many games.” The lead paint industry aggressively challenged the scientific reports, and dismissed the scientific evidence. So we are left with a toxic legacy.
Okay, so this isn’t information you can use to reduce exposure. And that is what this website is supposed to be about. But I’ve been following the progress of AB 1108, a bill in California that would ban/limit phthalates in products intended for use by children under the age of 3 years. The bill has been passed out of the California Legislature and is awaiting the Governor’s signature, but he has threatened to veto it. The lobby against the bill cites scientific surveys that show how safe phthalates are . . .and I keep thinking of the history about lead in paint. | <urn:uuid:a0bb004c-a250-4094-8e43-1c7c7394ae51> | {
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|[ Excerpt from The Science of Yoga, page 280 ]
In yoga, the spinal column is referred to as Brahma danda, which literally means "the walking stick of God." This should give us an indication of the importance that the ancients attributed to this region of the body.
Spinal health is of paramount importance in yoga. The spine is seen as a vehicle through which the power of the Universe may manifest in the human form. As well, it is through sushumna nadi, the central channel within the spinal column that the mysterious and powerful kundalini force raises from its dormant state at the base of the spine to the Brahmarandhra, or psychic aperture at the crown of the head.
It is the vertical nature of the human spine which aligns the mechanism of our central nervous system with the vertical energy flows of the Universe and gives superior intelligence to the human beings. Thus, in meditation it is of the utmost importance that one's spine be vertical and straight.
As we have touched upon in an earlier lesson, it was precisely to enable the yogi to sit comfortably with a tall and straight spine that the asanas were primarily concerned with.
Even so today, the recurring theme throughout much of our hatha yoga practice revolves around the health, strength and flexibility of the spine. One cannot have good health without a healthy spine.
NOTE: This yoga article is an excerpt from The Science of Yoga, an online yoga training program with streaming yoga videos and 600 pages of step-by-step yoga instruction.
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Moon Light World Map
The map below shows where the Moon is visible from the Earth, depending on weather conditions and moon phases.
The white dot symbolizes the position of the Moon, and the yellow sun symbolizes the position of the sun.
View Day and Night Map
- The bright part of the map shows where the moon is over the horizon on Sunday, November 18, 2012 at 05:20:00 UTC.
- The Sun's position is marked with this symbol: . At this location, the Sun will be at its zenith (directly overhead) in relation to an observer.
- The Moon's position is marked with this symbol: . At this location, the Moon will be at its zenith in relation to an observer. Note that the symbol is not showing the current phase of the Moon.
Fraction of moon illuminated: 25%
Position of the Moon
On Sunday, November 18, 2012 at 05:20:00 UTC the Moon is at its zenith at these coordinates:
|Latitude: ||16° 26' ||South|
|Longitude: ||159° 08' ||East|
The ground speed of the movement is currently 428.40 meters/second, 1542.3 km/hour, 958.3 miles/hour or 832.7 knots.The table below shows the Moon position compared to the time and date above:
|Time||Longitude difference||Latitude difference||Total|
|1 minute||0° 14' 26.3"||15.97 mi||west||0° 00' 08.0"||0.15 mi||north||15.97 mi|
|1 hour||14° 26' 27.2"||958.18 mi||west||0° 08' 06.3"||9.29 mi||north||958.56 mi|
|24 hours||12° 58' 45.2"||861.23 mi||east||3° 36' 39.6"||248.28 mi||north||903.41 mi|
Locations with the moon near zenith
The following table shows 10 locations with moon near zenith position in the sky.
|Honiara||Sun 4:20 PM||780 km||485 miles||421 nm|| N|
|Luganville||Sun 4:20 PM||867 km||539 miles||468 nm|| E|
|Port Vila||Sun 4:20 PM||988 km||614 miles||534 nm|| E|
|Noumea||Sun 4:20 PM||1004 km||624 miles||542 nm|| SE|
|Brisbane||Sun 3:20 PM||1374 km||854 miles||742 nm|| SSW|
|Cairns||Sun 3:20 PM||1425 km||885 miles||769 nm|| W|
|Port Moresby||Sun 3:20 PM||1508 km||937 miles||814 nm|| WNW|
|Yaren||Sun 5:20 PM||1956 km||1215 miles||1056 nm|| NNE|
|Suva *||Sun 6:20 PM||2059 km||1280 miles||1112 nm|| E|
|Sydney *||Sun 4:20 PM||2087 km||1297 miles||1127 nm|| SSW|
Related time zone tools | <urn:uuid:9ead1390-a7fd-4041-a448-b92b6b964190> | {
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Chlorine manufacturers that still use a 19th-century technology have been largely overlooked in the national debate over whether the Bush administration has become aggressive enough in combating mercury emissions, an international group said yesterday.
Oceana, a group formed three years ago to track worldwide efforts to protect the seas, said chlorine plants that don't use a more modern mercury-free technology spew twice the mercury of some coal-fired power plants and should share some blame for fish consumption advisories in the Great Lakes as well as advisories against eating too much tuna from oceans.
There are far more power plants, though. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that power plants are responsible for about two-thirds of America's airborne mercury, a dangerous toxin that can cause problems with brain and nervous-system development among children.
While Oceana agrees the primary focus should be on power plants, it said chlorine makers should not be given a free pass if they have not converted to a mercury-free technology.
Ninety percent of the chlorine made in the United States is manufactured with the cleaner process. The other 10 percent is made by nine manufacturers that haven't embraced it, including Ashta Chemicals Inc. of Ashtabula, Ohio, the group said. Ashta is Ohio's single-largest source of mercury emissions and the nation's fifth-largest mercury emitter. Ohio, which has more coal-fired power plants than most states, is second only to Texas in mercury emissions, U.S. EPA records show.
An Ashta spokesman was not available yesterday. But Zoe Lipman of the National Wildlife Federation, a group often critical of state and federal regulators, praised the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for negotiating improvements at Ashta. In September, the agency announced a $1.54 million settlement that will prevent the release of 1,320 pounds of mercury annually from Ashta.
Although not mercury-free technology, the improvements will be "an important step forward," Ms. Lipman said.
Also yesterday, several groups claimed 12 of Ohio's 21 largest power plants increased annual emissions of sulfur dioxide between 1995 and 2004 and eight of them increased their annual emissions of smog-forming nitrogen oxide during that period.
But Jack Shaner, an Ohio Environmental Council spokesman, noted that FirstEnergy Corp.'s coal-fired Bay Shore power plant in Oregon posted reductions.
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