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Migration and Development: Policy Perspectives from the United States
As migration has become an increasingly visible global phenomenon in recent decades, there has been a surge in interest in the complex relationship between migration and the development prospects of migrants’ countries of origin. The United States’ historic openness and commitment to immigrants’ economic success has been a powerful force for social and economic development in poor countries. But while individual migrants and their families tend to benefit from the decision to seek opportunities abroad, the consequences for migrant communities and countries of origin are more ambiguous.
In some countries, substantial emigration has coincided with development. Still, it has rarely been the cause of it: the basic ingredients for development predated or were independent of the large-scale migration of labor. Similarly, where substantial emigration has not coincided with development, forces other than emigration have been at work.
There is extensive evidence that immigrant communities in the United States contribute resources, expertise, and energy to their communities—and sometimes countries—of origin. While poverty reduction via contributions through remittances is a strong development example, such actions vary country to country. The report examines U.S. immigration and international development policies, which have unique objectives and respond to distinct political and administrative constraints, and points out that international development has never been a U.S. immigration policy objective; nonetheless, it is an unintended consequence.
II. Theory and Evidence
A. Individual Motivations and the “Root Causes” of Migration
B. The Costs and Benefits of Migration for Origin Countries
III. Policy Experience and Outlook
A. Pre-1970s: Disconnected Policies
B. Mid-1970s to Mid-1980s: Development Assistance as an Antidote to Migration
C. Mid-1980s to Mid-1990s: The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and the Embrace of Openness
D. Mid-1990s to Present: Unexpected Returns and Growing Unease with Openness
IV. Conclusion: The Unintended Impacts of Openness | <urn:uuid:e594b5df-a3a1-4d40-84e7-d334aa97251e> | {
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A critical WiFi security flaw has been discovered by security researchers in Belgium. The WPA2 WiFi vulnerability can be exploited using the KRACK (Key Reinstallation attack) method, which allows malicious actors to intercept and decrypt traffic between a user and the WiFi network in a man-in-the-middle attack. The scale of the problem is immense. Nearly every WiFi router is likely to be vulnerable.
Exploiting the WPA2 WiFi vulnerability would also allow a malicious actor to inject code or install malware or ransomware. In theory, this attack method would even allow an attacker to insert malicious code or malware into a benign website. In addition to intercepting communications, access could be gained to the device and any connected storage drives. An attacker could gain full control of a device that connects to a vulnerable WiFi network.
There are two conditions required to pull off KRACK– The WiFi network must be using WPA2-PSK (or WPA-Enterprise) and the attacker must be within range of the WiFi signal.
The first condition is problematic, since most WiFi networks use the WPA2 protocol and most large businesses use WPA-Enterprise. Further, since this is a flaw in the WiFI protocol, it doesn’t matter what device is being used or the security on that device. The second offers some protection for businesses for their internal WiFi networks since an attack would need to be pulled off by an insider or someone in, or very close to, the facility. That said, if an employee was to use their work laptop to connect to a public WiFi hotspot, such as in a coffee shop, their communications could be intercepted and their device infected.
In the case of the latter, the attack could occur before the user has stirred sugar into his or her coffee, and before a connection to the Internet has been opened. That’s because this attack occurs when a device connects to the hotspot and undergoes a four-way handshake. The purpose of the handshake is to confirm both the client and the access point have the correct credentials. With KRACK, a vulnerable client is tricked into using a key that is already in use.
The researchers explained that “our attack is exceptionally devastating against Android 6.0: it forces the client into using a predictable all-zero encryption key.” The researchers also pointed out, “Although websites or apps may use HTTPS as an additional layer of protection, we warn that this extra protection can be bypassed in a worrying number of situations.”
The disclosure of this WPA2 WiFi vulnerability has had many vendors franticly developing patches to block attacks. The security researcher who discovered the WPA2 WiFi vulnerability – Mathy Vanhoef – notified vendors and software developers months previously, allowing them to start work on their patches. Even with advance notice, relatively few companies have so far patched their software and products. So far, companies that have confirmed patches have been applied include Microsoft, Linux, Apple, and Cisco/Aruba. However, to date, Google has yet to patch its Android platform, and neither has Pixel/Nexus. Google is reportedly still working on a patch and will release it shortly.
There is also concern over IoT devices, which Vanhoef says may never receive a patch for the WPA2 WiFi vulnerability, leaving them highly vulnerable to attack. Smartphones similarly may not be patched promptly. Since these devices regularly connect to public WiFi hotspots, they are likely to be the most vulnerable to KRACK attacks.
While the WPA2 WiFi vulnerability is serious, there is perhaps no need to panic. At least, that is the advice of the WiFi Alliance – which co-developed WPA2. “There is no evidence that the vulnerability has been exploited maliciously, and Wi-Fi Alliance has taken immediate steps to ensure users can continue to count on Wi-Fi to deliver strong security protections.” The WiFi Alliance also explained, “Wi-Fi Alliance now requires testing for this vulnerability within our global certification lab network and has provided a vulnerability detection tool for use by any Wi-Fi Alliance member.”
The UK’s National Cyber Security Center pointed out that even with the WPA2 WiFi vulnerability, WPA2 is still more secure than WPA or WEP, also explaining that there is no need to change WiFi passwords or enterprise credentials to protect against this vulnerability. However, businesses and consumers should ensure they apply patches promptly, and businesses should consider developing policies that require all remote workers to connect to WiFi networks using a VPN. | <urn:uuid:f2cdf6c2-9abc-4cc5-bfe4-999a3f1589e3> | {
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When traveling beyond Willits, it is surprising the number of people who know our home town because of an early childhood trip made on the Skunk Train. For many outside the region, the Skunk Train defines Willits.
The California Western Railroad and Navigation Company was formed by its owner, the Union Lumber Company, from the Fort Bragg Railroad in 1905. One of the new company's goals was to connect through to Willits and tie into the railroad there.
The CWR did not became known as the Skunk Train until the 1930s when passenger service between Fort Bragg and Willits switched to smelly gasoline motorcars. In 1905, the CWR and N ended at a major lumber mill in Alpine.
Union Lumber kept pushing the rail east towards Willits despite the earthquake of April 1906 and that winter's dreadful stormy conditions. The storms washed out eight bridges, had numerous mud slides and significant other damage. Despite the setbacks by 1908 the railroad had pushed through to Irvine and Muir Lumber Company (IRMULCO) site. By 1910, the railroad had reached North Spur.
In 1911, construction on the final leg into Willits began, working from Willits in the east and North Spur in the west. Hundreds of workers were brought in to build it, with some crews working around the clock. One of the last sections of the railroad to be completed was the 790-foot tunnel number two.
Willits businessmen banded together and pledged $7,350.
The main railroad from the Bay Area had already reached Willits in November 1901. This railroad became known as the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. The NWP continued pushing north reaching Eureka in 1914.
Even before the California Western Railroad tracks pushed into Willits in 1911, hardy sightseers from throughout the world came by a combination of rail and stagecoach to ride the railroad along the Noyo River, through the redwoods and into Fort Bragg. The photos accompanying this article were part of a scenic railroad brochure distributed around 1905 throughout California to encourage visitors to visit Mendocino County. Visitors to the region would take a train to Willits and switch to a regularly scheduled stagecoach to Alpine to board the California Western train for a ride through the redwoods. Tourist lodges and camps sprinkled through the area to accommodate the tourists. Tourists could either return by rail or grab a berth on the steamship shuttling from Fort Bragg to San Francisco.
The first train from Fort Bragg to Willits on the California Western Railroad pulled into the Willits Depot on December 19, 1911. The special train consisted of three coaches and Engine No. 5, carrying 140 prominent Fort Bragg citizens. The 40-mile trip took a bit less than three hours, and when the train was spotted approaching the outskirts of Willits the Irvine and Muir Lumber Company mill whistle blew to tell the town the train was arriving.
The Northwestern Redwood Company planing mill sounded its whistle, and all the locomotives in the rail yard "took up the joyous refrain" to welcome the visitors.
Most of the 1,153 Willits townspeople met the train as it pulled into the depot, led by the Willits Band.
The party atmosphere continued as the entourage strolled to the headquarters for the festivities, the Willits Hotel.
At noon the Northwestern Pacific train arrived from San Francisco with a number of dignitaries to join in the celebration.
At 3 p.m. Bragg group remounted the train and headed home.
The Willits News headlines the next day read, "The City of Destiny is now linked to Fort Bragg by Bands of Steel and Friendship."
The California Western Railroad began in 1885 as a logging railroad bringing logs from the interior to the Fort Bragg coast with most of the tracks placed on old logging roads.
The headlines in the Fort Bragg Advocate read, "A Great Day of Rejoicing." The paper noted that nearly every one of the towns 2,400 residents wanted to ride on the first train. The 140 who made the trip were specially invited to take part as were the engineer, fireman and conductor operating the train.
"It was a day looked forward to for years by the old residents of Fort Bragg with eager anticipation and when it did finally come, it brought with it all the pleasures and happiness of years stored up in realization of such an important event.
"There is loop after loop on the road before reaching the summit. The construction presented some very difficult engineering problems."
The railroad was opened for full passenger operations in August 1912. | <urn:uuid:bbee056d-6f6f-493e-85c2-ddcb88e24394> | {
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New report highlights how the cotton harvest fosters modern day slavery and extortion
In 2014, the government of Uzbekistan forced more than a million of its own citizens to pick cotton, and officials extorted individuals and businesses, including multinational companies, at a larger scale as part of the annual Uzbek cotton harvest, according to a new report released by the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights (UGF).
Although the government did not systematically mobilize children throughout the country to pick cotton, as it had in previous years, this did not decrease the massive scale of forced labor, as the government instead coerced more adults to pick cotton in their place.
The study of the 2014 cotton harvest also found an unprecedented degree of extortion of individuals and businesses that fueled the forced labor system, including keeping people in fields even though there is no more to cotton to pick so people are still forced to pay fees for food and board, etc., and setting unattainable quotas so people had to pay to make up deficits.
“The scope of the bribery is simply astounding,” said Umida Niyazova, UGF director. “At all levels of government, officials take their cut, and Uzbek citizens, particularly public sector workers are forced to pay or pick cotton through intimidation and fear.”
The Government’s Riches, the People’s Burden: Human Rights Violations in Uzbekistan’s 2014 Cotton Harvest documents the 2014 cotton harvest with data gathered by human rights monitors and interviews of hundreds of people forced to participate. The report finds that in 2014, more public sector workers were mobilized than in previous years, handicapping essential public services such as healthcare and education during the two months of the cotton harvest.
“Students and the sick suffer during the harvest time,” said Nadejda Atayeva, president of the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia. “Schools and health clinics cannot function with so many staff sent to pick cotton. Students cannot receive the quality of education that they deserve, and medical care is inaccessible to people, even when they are very ill.”
The increase in adult workers was, according to the report, to make up for a substantial decrease in the number of children forced to harvest cotton. However, monitors still found many 17-year-olds were forcibly mobilized with their schools, and officials resorted to forcing younger children to pick cotton in several incidents.
At least 17 people died during the harvest, the report found, and numerous people were injured, an increase from previous years. The report also documents brutal working conditions. Workers toiled in the fields for 10 hours a day with little rest and no days off, and their living conditions were often unheated, overcrowded, and lacking clean water and washing facilities.
The report found that widespread extortion characterized the 2014 harvest more than in previous years, with officials lining their pockets at every level. Authorities extorted contributions from businesses small and large, payments from individuals to avoid field labor, and payments from forced laborers for food, transportation, and unmet quotas. The government’s practices in the cotton sector, the report states, undermine rule of law and nurtures a culture of impunity. Two multinational companies – Telia Sonera and Telenor – admitted to making contributions to the harvest in 2014, claiming it is a prerequisite for conducting business in Uzbekistan, and employees of another multinational corporation, General Motors, reported for a third straight year that they were sent to pick cotton.
“We’ve long known about the human rights risk associated with cotton sourced from Uzbekistan, but these findings raise alarms for any company invested in Uzbekistan,” said Emily Kaiser, sustainability analyst at Calvert Investments. “As the Uzbek government feels more international pressure to end its forced labor system, the system is becoming more volatile and destructive. It seems to be increasingly difficult for any company in Uzbekistan not to support the forced labor system in some form.”
The Cotton Campaign supports the report’s recommendations to the Uzbek government: to permit unfettered access to international organizations, journalists, and independent civil society, and to undertake fundamental reforms of the cotton sector that would eliminate forced labor. As UGF notes in the report, it is also incumbent on Uzbekistan’s international partners, including the United States, European Union, World Bank and International Labour Organization, to use their influence to impress upon the Uzbek government the necessity of these reforms.
The Cotton Campaign is a global coalition of labor, human rights, investor and business organizations coalesced to end forced labor of children and adults in the cotton sector of Uzbekistan.
For more information, please contact:
In Berlin, for Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights, Umida Niyazova, +49-17687-532684, [email protected] (English, Russian, Uzbek)
In New York, for the Cotton Campaign, Matthew Fischer-Daly (English, Spanish): +1-347-266-1351, [email protected]
In Paris, for the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, Nadejda Atayeva,
+ 33-6-17-46-1963 [email protected] ( French, Russian)
In Washington DC, for Calvert Investments, Melinda Lovins, 301-657-7089, [email protected],
In London, for Anti-Slavery International, Jakub Sobik, [email protected], and Klara Skrivankova, [email protected] (English and German)
For more reporting by the Uzbek-German Forum on cotton and forced labor in Uzbekistan, see: http://uzbekgermanforum.org/
For more information on the Cotton Campaign, see: www.cottoncampaign.org
For more information on the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, visit http://www.ahrca.org/ | <urn:uuid:e346c64c-1bb1-4a46-b434-713e47241567> | {
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|Port of registry||
Destroyed by the Silent Mary
|Behind the scenes|
It is unknown when the Red Dragon was built, but by 1751 she was one of the ships in the pirate fleet of Captain Hector Barbossa. One day the Dragon encountered the Silent Mary, a Spanish Royal Navy galleon that was transformed into a terrifying ghost ship during decades of imprisonment in the infamous Devil's Triangle. As the Spanish ship slowly approached the unsuspecting pirate vessel, one of the undead seagulls that always surrounded the Mary landed on the gunwale of the pirate ship, right in front of one pirate. At first, the pirate thought that he was hallucinating, seeing a rotten corpse of a bird that still moved like a living creature. However, the next moment he saw the Silent Mary on the horizon. As the Mary sailed right into the starboard side of the Dragon her bow opened like the jaws of a giant sea monster. Seemingly indestructible, the Spanish ship crushed the pirate ship, cutting her in half like a razor. All the pirates were killed except one who was spared to tell the tale of Salazar's return.
Behind the scenesEdit
- The ship was named the Red Dragon by the conceptual artist Jeremy Love. However, the ship's name was never mentioned in the film.
- In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales the Red Dragon was portrayed by the same prop that played at least three other pirate ships - the Ruddy Rose, the Queen Anne's Revenge, and the Wicked Wench/Black Pearl.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (First appearance)
Notes and referencesEdit
|Pirate ships in Pirates of the Caribbean| | <urn:uuid:5a3d08d1-dd8b-40dc-9567-0911473bbf34> | {
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TÜSEB / About Us
A New Hope for Health Sciences and Health Biotechnology;
Health Institutes of Turkey (TUSEB)
Medicine is developing with innovations in a tremendous pace. Technology and recent inventions in genome bring new challenges. During all ages, medical doctors had to face different sort of challenges.
In the last century, in the USA and Western European countries, National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the USA, Medical Research Council (MRC) and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in England, INSERM in France, and Max Planck Society in Germany were established in order to do scientific research on health, promote and coordinate them. Intended for the same purpose, Health Institutes of Turkey (TUSEB) was established officially in Turkey in November, 2014, and the effort of organization started with the appointment of founding president in the mid – 2015. The research related to health in our country have been started to promote notably by TUBITAK and by the universities’ own resources since 1960s.
The establishment date of TUSEB, in fact, concurred in a period of time that the important changes and developments related to health and health sciences take place. Between the challenges, aging is the leading one. Today, life expectancy is getting longer, and as a result of this, elderly population increases. The population above hundred-year-old increases dramatically. The diseases associated with aging lead to not only severe economic burden but also the deterioration of the person’s quality of life. Artificial intelligence and robotic systems are getting to be used more commonly in the applications of health. The further understanding of human genome is a revolutionary issue in terms of human history. Genome becomes a discipline in itself, and with starting to use cutting-edge high technology on genomic research day by day, not only the genetic diseases but also such chronic complex diseases as diabetes and obesity have begun to undergo serious changes in diagnosis and treatment. “Precision Medicine” is an updated statement of a traditional concept (there is no ‘disease’, but patient) and the use of it especially on cancer treatment becomes a routine application. Billions of data emerge from genomic analyses and bio-informatics science is required to make evaluations. Translational Medicine is a relatively new concept and it covers the mutual interaction between basic scientific research and clinical research, and thus, it paves the way for arising new diagnosis and treatment. Brain research has advanced over the past 20 years, and thus, the brain functions have been understood better, so significant progress has been made in diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases. New imaging methods are used in the diagnosis of brain diseases. Besides organic brain disorders, even borderline personality disorders can be imaged with neuro-radiologic methods. Aerospace Medicine is a brand new research field in relevant countries. Regenerative Medicine will continue to be one of the most important research areas in the upcoming years. Tissue engineering, cellular therapy and the rapid developments in medical devices technology enable the artificial organs to be constructed. It is inevitable to review the medical education in Turkey, at certain intervals in parallel with these developments around the world, as well.
The purposes of establishment of TUSEB are clearly stated in the related law no: 6569 that make and promote R & D in the field of health sciences and health biotechnology. However, the applications in the world and in Turkey indicate that instead of intramural R & D works, supporting extramural R & D studies is a more appropriate approach. There is only one exception: basic scientific research area. Industry, generally, does not support basic scientific research on a large scale. The most crucial reason for this is that basic scientific research cannot be figured out to become a commercial outcome, or that there is no such expectation in the short term. Actually, basic scientific research does not aim to obtain a product that can be used for diagnosis and treatment in a short period of time. But, without basic science, it is not possible to reach new ideas and discoveries in science. Therefore, TUSEB will make R & D in the field of basic sciences related to health sciences itself, and train the researchers. When the countries that are advanced in science and technology are examined, it is easily understood that they are also the pioneers in basic scientific research. TUSEB will renovate the support policies considering the scientific developments and needs in the course of time. Basic Sciences, Translational Medicine, Precision Medicine and Biotechnology, in general, are supported proportionally and evenly.
TUSEB has two campuses now. The first one is Koşuyolu Campus, located in İstanbul, and a basic scientific research center related to such chronic complex diseases as obesity and diabetes will be established here. The survey – project and infrastructure studies are still going on. It is thought that the center to be established here should also have the features to fulfill the needs of a wide geographical area. The center has a dynamic structure and will include the features that advanced basic scientific research can be done. R & D support programs of TUSEB will be conducted in Koşuyolu, as well. The second campus of TUSEB is Mavi Göl (Mamak), located in Ankara. We have started to establish Cancer Research Center in Mavi Göl Campus. Aziz Sancar attended to the opening ceremony of the research center dedicated to his name: Aziz Sancar Research Center. We have begun to establish two important research laboratories there. The first one is Chronobiology and DNA Repairment Mechanisms Laboratory. As the name suggests, it is targeted to do research related to Aziz Sancar’s own field of study in this lab. The second lab will be “Genome Research Laboratory” where genomic studies will be carried out. This lab, which will be led by TUSEB, will also be a reference center of “Turkish Genome Project” to be started soon. Moreover, regarding the genome research, the establishment of research centers in the universities whose human and physical infrastructure are proper will be supported within the scope of the project. It is now accepted by the scientific world that genome science will be one of the most crucial research fields in the upcoming years. The data to be ensued from society as a result of genome studies will change health systems to a large extent. TUSEB, Turkey Health Policies Institute has already begun to work on the adaptation of genomic data to health systems. The existing representatives of a civilization that presented very original and new information and discoveries to the scientific world especially between 8 – 14th centuries have a lot of extraordinary responsibilities. It is a general fact that science is universal, but developed countries are also the ones that make contributions to the universal science the most. Genome research centers will be a ‘project’ of TUSEB to train scientists.
TUSEB will also support the plasma and plasma products, vaccine and drug development studies that have strategical importance. It will support the studies on vaccine production in Turkey. Significant studies on this subject have been performed, and the required projects came into force in order to produce initially viral vaccines in Turkey, a short time ago. The laboratories which were founded in a university before and where Phase – 1 studies of vaccine production were carried out for Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever disease for the first time around the world have begun to be supported by TUSEB. One of the most remarkable fields that we care about is to produce medical devices and to develop new technological devices in our country. Furthermore, we will value technology transfer related to medical devices and the development of new technologies.
The biobanks where tissue, blood and blood products, DNA and other biological specimens are stored are very significant for scientific studies. We have started to establish a National Biobank in Mavi Göl – Ankara Campus which serves the purpose of Turkey. Thus, advanced scientific studies, particularly cancer research, can be done, and also it will enable Turkish scientists to join the international multicenter studies which have the feature of contributing to universal science. National Biobank will have prevented waste of resources considerably, too.
TUSEB now has seven institutes including Turkish Cancer Institute, Turkish Biotechnology Institute, Turkish Institute for Public Health and Chronic Diseases, Turkish Health Care Quality and Accreditation Institute, Turkish Maternity, Child and Adolescent Health Institute, Turkish Traditional and Complementary Medicine Institute, Turkish Health Policies Institute. If required, new institutes can be further established. From 2019, research projects support programs will be launched in the fields of health sciences and health biotechnology. The topics to be selected will be determined by the institutes’ board of scientific counsellors. In selecting the topics, universal and local health problems will be taken into consideration, and the support to the innovative research will also be paid attention. International scientific collaborations will be promoted to the utmost. Primarily strategic R & D projects will be supported. In this regard, TUSEB – Research Centers will be established in selected topics and at the universities which have proper physical and academic infrastructure. At these centers priority will be given to support applications of translational medicine excessively. The appointment of centers will be decided by TUSEB after the investigation of universities’ research infrastructure.
In 2017, “TUSEB Aziz Sancar Science, Service and Incentive Awards” program was launched and the first awards were given. We have a lot of highly qualified researchers working in healthcare abroad. It has been planned that new applications are realized so as to bring the experiences of Turkish scientists working abroad to our country. Turkish Medical World Congress, which our scientists working abroad on the selected topics meet with the scientists working on the same topics in our country, has been started to be organized by TUSEB since 2017. Vth Turkish Medical World Congress in 2018, will be on ‘Chronic Diseases’. Each year the hottest topic in health sciences is chosen as the main theme of the Congress. Chronic Diseases topic of TUSEB for the Vth Congress is in accordance with the World Health Organization strategic paper for 2030 SDG targets.
In line with the targets we have determined, Turkey will be one of the world’s leading countries in the fields of health sciences and biotechnology in a short period of time.
Prof. Dr. H. Fahrettin Keleştemur,
President of TUSEB, | <urn:uuid:90a719d7-6f8b-4a93-b69e-27b98135088c> | {
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In the book that I'm working on, one of my primary themes is that ideas behave just like viruses or bacteria in a number of important ways. As well, the differences in pathways that they use and the impact of technology on those pathways are also important to consider.
Living organisms are defined by the genetic material contained within their cells. For humans, there are over two billion bits of information that define our organic structure. Evolution has constantly played with the data through endless random experiments that, as Darwin noted, were selectively pressured in or out of existence through competition between the organisms and others that inhabit their environment. The combination of heredity, random mixing, and mutation have essentially made us what we are today.
Infectious agents, like viruses or bacteria can enter our organic home and have either beneficial or detrimental effects. Bacteria cells outnumber our own body's cells by ten to one and in many cases provide us with essential processes and chemicals needed for our healthy existence.
Inoculations are also infections albeit, mildly potent, just strong enough to teach our body’s immune system the signature of a dangerous pathogen so that it can be fore-armed against invasion. We can think of both cases, good and bad invaders, as extensions to the information set contained within our genome. The genetic information contained within the vaccine is added to our body to teach it a new trick.
The pathways used by infectious agents can be through our orifices (mouth, nose, etc.) or injected by needle into our bloodstream. A handshake can deliver a cold. The deliverer of the handshake could have taken a bus or plane to meet us.
In the Noosphere (the universe made up of ideas and thoughts), the addition of information to an organism can be considered identically, but travelling over different pathways, through our eyes or ears, delivered in some cases by radio or podcast. Also, in a similar way, it can educate us and protect us, or it can harm us.
Communications technology that heralded the industrial revolution with Gutenberg's movable type press, has increased the speed of "idea" infections in a similar way to how the airplane has facilitated the movement of Ebola from one continent to another. But, the most recent innovation of the Internet has clearly challenged our ability to absorb and defend against "idea" pathogens as has never happened before.
An illustrative example of how this works can be found in a company called "Cure Violence."
Gary Slutkin, MD is the founder of Cure Violence and he also serves as Professor of Epidemiology and International Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. As a medical researcher, Dr. Slutkin was used to looking at maps that showed the spread of epidemics in the process usually involved in finding “Patient Zero” where the first infection occurred. He applied these skills back in the 1980s while working for the Tuberculosis Program at the San Francisco Health Department.
Subsequently, he noticed that maps of violence in Chicago had similarities to those of epidemics and he postulated that similar techniques used to successfully control epidemics could be used to control the spread of violence (Slutkin, 2013). He postulated that “maybe violence is just a disease.”
He created a strategy that enlisted people that could “find first cases, and then interrupt transmission from those first cases.” His early efforts showed a 67% drop in neighborhood killings and his processes have been replicated over 20 times with observed reductions ranging from 30% to 50%.
His work has been featured in Studs Terkel’s Will the Circle be Unbroken and he speaks of his work in a TED talk.
Thinking about ISIS and other infectious thought agents in their "biological" sense can help us to better define strategies for immunizing members of society who lack adequate immunity (or education) to deal with the infection. For Ebola, we used quarantine followed by immunization. For ISIS we should be following a similar strategy. However, quarantine for ideas is more about restricting their access to pathways and immunization is more about education.
This is a new challenge for society. Never before have we been so inundated with potentially harmful, or useful, information. Strategies that immunize the weakest in society are essential to deal with the newly available pathways for "idea" infection. | <urn:uuid:bc482781-3faf-4e16-b7b9-1c6e809f41b1> | {
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These innovations can change the future of fashion
From grape leather and manure-based fabric to solar textiles, content thread and denim-dyed denim. Vote in the Global Change Award and you can help re-invent the whole industry.
In a not too distant future your shirt can be made of cow manure, your shoes of grape leather, and the colour on your jeans could come from the colour of an older pair. And instead of oil, our nylon clothes could be produced with solar energy, and the garments you choose to recycle could be sown with one digital thread that reveals their “ingredient list”, making sure that every last string can be re-used.
For the second year in a row, an expert panel (handpicked by non-profit H&M Foundation) has selected the top five innovations from a pool of nearly 2,900, to split a one million euro grant. However, it’s not going to be an equal split, which is why the foundation wants your help to decide which innovations get the most of it.
“In this second round of Global Change Award, we received 2,885 innovative ideas from 130 countries, which is even more than last year. Cross-border challenges call for a cross-border approach. I am convinced that by bringing people from different industries, with different backgrounds and perspectives together, we can make a fundamental shift in the fashion industry to protect both the people and the planet,” says Karl-Johan Persson, board member of H&M Foundation and CEO of the H&M group.
Keep swiping (or scrolling) to find out more about the winning innovations, and head to globalchangeaward.com to vote for your favourite.
…to haute couture! By extracting and using the valuable cellulose in cow manure, this innovation could make it possible to create a biodegradable textile from, well, bull shit.
Recycled denim is already a great asset to the fashion industry. This innovation finds even more use for the fabric. By breaking down old denim into fine particles, it could be used as a colouring powder to dye new denim, or to make prints on other textiles.
Instead of using oil, this innovation suggests that we use solar power, plant waste and water to create decomposable nylon. And if this isn’t enough, the nylon also binds greenhouse gases into the material, contributing to a zero-emissions world.
Weaving a tiny RFID thread with a digitalised “ingredients list” into the garment, the recycling process will become much more efficient and less will go to waste, as it’s suddenly clear what materials the garment consists of.
Using leftovers from wine production to produce fine vegetal leather is good news for animal welfare and eliminates the need for oil to make synthetic leather. The fact that the grape skins and stalks are used for something good, instead of combustion, is an extra plus.
The online vote is open from 27 March to 2 April. The Global Change Award Ceremony takes place in Stockholm on 5 April, where the allocation of the 1,000,000 euros will be made public. Read more and vote here.
• The H&M Foundation is a non-profit global foundation, privately funded by the Stefan Persson family, founders and main owners of H&M. Its mission is to drive long-lasting positive change and improve living conditions by investing in people, communities and innovative ideas.
• Since 2013, the Stefan Persson family has donated 1.1 billion Swedish krona (USD 154 million/EUR 123 million) to the Foundation.
• The first Global Change Award was launched in August 2015 and is an innovation challenge in the fashion industry. This is one of the world’s biggest challenges for early stage innovation and the first such initiative in the fashion industry. | <urn:uuid:09bf4287-78aa-4a27-8321-11eb76f3403a> | {
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Socialsekreteraren har ordet! En studie av hur ungdomar beskrivs i socialtjänstens yttranden avseende unga lagöverträdare.
Sammanfattning: The purpose of this essay was to examine how youths are described in certain written statements that are produced by the social services. The statements that this study has focused on, are those written with the purpose of serving the court with suggestions of treatment-measures when a person between 15 and 18 is suspected of having committed a crime. The main issues were: How is the content in these statements described and what do these descriptions tell the reader? Do the images of youths in the statements differ, depending on the degree of intervention for the suggested treatment-measure? The essay is based on a qualitative content-analysis of 50 statements and the material has been analysed from a social-constructive theoretical perspective.
The study shows that the youths in the statements are described through descriptions that reinforces a positive or a negative image of the youth, and that these descriptions are described as either utterances or facts. Depending on the degree of intervention for the suggested treatment-measures, the information in the statements differ in that descriptions that are likely to reinforce a positive image of the youth are more frequent in the statements where no or less intervening treatment-measures is suggested. I addition to this, descriptions that are likely to reinforce a negative image of the youth are more frequent in the statements where more intervening treatment-measures is suggested. The study further shows that descriptions are more often described as facts in the statements with more intervening suggested treatment-measures. In addition to this, descriptions are more often described as utterances in the statements with less intervening suggested treatment-measures.
HÄR KAN DU HÄMTA UPPSATSEN I FULLTEXT. (följ länken till nästa sida) | <urn:uuid:84af515e-8825-46ed-8ba7-1bfc992af98a> | {
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Transcript of Hydraulic Systems
-A system is an assemblage or combination of things or parts that form a complex or unitary whole.
-That means a hydraulic system is a combination of things or parts operated by, moved by, or employing water or other liquids in motion. Hydraulics
Systems History of Hydraulics The history of hydraulics is older than recorded history. Prehistoric canals and dams have been found in Egypt and Mesopotamia. One of the basic principles of hydraulic science, the principle of buoyancy, was discovered in the third century by a Greek scientist named Archimedes. As we learned in science while doing systems we learned about the Archimedes Screw which is an example of a hydraulic system. However, it was not until the 17th century (400 years later) that Blaise Pascal, a french scientist discovered the principle that is the basis for modern science. This principle is now called Pascal's Law or Pascal's Principle. BY: Kush Patel Mantosh Gill Ameer Bacchus Robbie K. Keon Harvey Tyler Tran Deval Rajgor Examples of Hydraulic Systems Vehicle Brakes We use fluids everyday to help us do work. Machines such as escalators, backhoes and front-end loaders use hydraulic rams to do work. Rams are similar to syringes: they are composed of a piston inside a cylinder. The cylinder is connected by pipes to a reservoir of hydraulic fluid. A pump provides the pressure and fluid is directed into the cylinder on either side of the piston. Fire pumps and hoses are hydraulic systems designed to cause fluids to leave the system with great force. Water coming from a fire hydrant is already under some pressure. The pumping unit and nozzle design significantly increase this pressure to project the water a considerable distance away. Pushing a plunger into a sealed container will lead to a smaller volume because the air will get compressed into the container. Gas under pressure in a closed system will lead to a significant decrease in volume. It is the same thing with liquids, but the difference is barely noticeable. Particles in liquids are more close together apart from gas, this property of fluids is used for scuba tanks/other rigid contraptions. More gas particles forced into the containers=more collision between the particles, which forces pressure on the inside walls of the container, which is usually made of metal so that it won't burst. An example of this is a hand pump. Also pushing a plunger up and down will force the air into a smaller volume because of more collisions with air particles between the particles and the cylindrical walls of the toilet.This increase in collision results in an increase in pressure and a rise in temperature while an increase in volume will cause the temperature to drop. If the temperature increases, particles of a fluid move faster and farther apart which leads to fluids expanding and finally, if the temperature of a fluid drops, the volume decreases or contracts. This is generally true for all types of matter. This however is not true for water between the temperature of 0 and 4 degrees Celsius Fluid Power The Value of Valves The circulatory system pumps blood (a fluid) throughout the body (closed hydraulic system) which makes a hydraulic system because blood flows from the heart to the blood vessels and arteries which form a long, convoluted, sealed compartment in the body. The circulatory system has special features that allow it to do its job. Heart (the Pump)- Pushes blood through the arteries and veins Halls of Arteries- Vessels that collect blood and return it to the heart (much slower). The veins of the human body have very thin walls compared to arteries and they are equipped with valves. Valves are devices that control movement of a fluid through a hollow tube or pipe. Valves in veins are like one-way gates that prevent blood from backing/pooling. Some people have valves that do not close completely, so the blood backs up in pools in some veins. These veins become large and swollen and are called varicose veins. The heart also has valves that force blood to move throughout itself in one direction. The heart muscle contracts and relaxes, and there are 4 heart valves that keep the blood flowing in the right direction. Many human built systems also use valves, such as car engines that have an internal combustion engine, which is technically a car valve. It burns fuel in chambers inside the engine, which is how it provides fuel for the car. Effects of External Pressure on Fluids Pressure refers to the force applied to a unit of surface area. Some devices are designed to increase pressure such as thumbtacks. Force applied to the head of a tack transfers to the tiny area of the point to increase pressure in that exact spot. Force concentrated on smaller area equals an increase in pressure. There are other devices which are designed to decrease pressure. Snowboards and snow boots allow people to walk in deep snow because the PRESSURE is exerted over a larger area. Spreading force over a large area decreases pressure and in our case prevents a person from sinking into the snow. Mathematically, you can find pressure by dividing the force applied by the area the force is applying on. It is measured in pascals (Pa) and 1 Pa= 1 newton metre squared. Fluids can exert pressure as well. Earth's atmosphere is 160 km thick and gravity pulls on every single particle of it. Atmospheric pressure aso known as air pressure decreases the higher you ascend because their is less air above you that is pressing down. Air pressure acts in all directions, exactly like water pressure. The difference is water is much more heavier, so it exerts more pressure than air. An example of this is when you are swimming under water. Gravity pulls you down but since you weigh a lot, and we are applying our body force over a larger area we would have a pressure of less than 1 which will cause us to surface from beneath the water. Tyler Sucks Devals Dick Putting the Squeeze on Fluids Air and water tend to flow from one place to another when you try to squeeze them or compress them into a smaller space. Gases can be much more easily compressed into a smaller volume than liquids can. Particles of gases are more farther apart than liquid particles which allows us to force the particles of gas closer together, but since the particles of liquids are much farther apart liquids have less compressibility, while solids have almost no compressibility at all. Systems which are designed to put a squeeze on fluids can be divided into two main groups: pneumatic and hydraulic systems.
Pneumatic Systems use pressurized gases to work
Hydraulic Systems use pressurized water to do their job.
These systems also known as closed systems keep their paticles within them, hence the name closed system. Both Hydraulic and Pneumatic Systems consist of many components:
-A pump (sometimes including cylinders and pistons) forces fluids through a system
-Conductors- (tubing, hoses or pipes) which provide a pathway to carry the fluid
-Valves keep the fluid moving in the desired direction at the desired time
-A pressure gauge monitors the pressure within the system .
Each of these systems has its own job to do, and without any of these parts the rest of the system would have an extremely hard time working. | <urn:uuid:75fe24ac-fcbf-4459-86dd-bce008076721> | {
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8:22 a.m., Oct. 13, 2010----Edward Evenson, a professor of glacial geology at Lehigh University, will present a talk titled “Charles Darwin and the Origin of 'Darwin's Boulders,' Tierra del Fuego” at 3:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 22, in Room 209 Penny Hall.
Evenson is a glacial geologist who works extensively -- and almost exclusively -- at high latitudes and high elevations.
His recent research has taken him to Alaska, Iceland, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and to high elevations in the mountains of Wyoming, Argentina, Chile and Argentina.
“Most people consider Darwin a biologist and associate him almost entirely with the theory of evolution. In reality Darwin was first, if not foremost, a geologist,” Evenson says. “Darwin published extensively on geologic subjects and was especially interested in the origin of 'erratic boulders.'”
In the course of geologic mapping in Tierra del Fuego, Evenson said researchers have discovered two boulder trains of huge erratic boulders. The Bahia San Sebastian Boulder Train -- that known as “Darwin's Boulders” -- is located on the Atlantic coast just south of Bahia San Sebastian and consists of approximately 500 large, angular boulders. Except for these two boulder trains, the area is devoid of boulders.
Evenson will discuss Darwin's classic 1841 paper on the origin of how "Darwin's Boulders" traveled to the location of San Sebastian Bay, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. | <urn:uuid:045c9081-14fb-4e03-aea8-91aea09f40d4> | {
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What Kids Say About: Handling Stress
Compared with what adults face, it might seem like kids don’t have that much to stress about. But kids have their own concerns — and sometimes feel stress, just as adults do. And kids’ stresses can be just as overwhelming, particularly if they don’t have effective coping strategies.
A KidsHealth® KidsPoll explored what kids stress about the most, how they cope with these feelings, and what they want their parents to do about it.
The poll showed that kids are dealing with their stresses in both healthy and unhealthy ways, and while they may not say so, they do want their parents to reach out and help them cope with their feelings.
The poll underscored how important it is for parents to teach kids to recognize and express their emotions, and to use healthy ways to cope with the stress they experience. By guiding them to healthy coping skills, parents can help prepare kids to tackle whatever stresses they meet throughout their lives.
Results of the Poll
We asked kids to tell us what things cause them the most stress. Kids said that they were stressed out the most by: grades, school, and homework (36%); family (32%); and friends, peers, gossip, and teasing (21%).
These are the coping strategies kids said they use the most (they could give more than one response):
- 52% play or do something active
- 44% listen to music
- 42% watch TV or play a video game
- 30% talk to a friend
- 29% try not to think about it
- 28% try to work things out
- 26% eat something
- 23% lose their temper
- 22% talk to a parent
- 11% cry
About 25% of the kids we surveyed said that when they are upset, they take it out on themselves, either by banging their heads against something, hitting or biting themselves, or doing something else to hurt themselves. These kids also were more likely to have other unhealthy coping strategies, such as eating, losing their tempers, and keeping problems to themselves.
The idea that kids would do things to try to harm themselves may be shocking to parents. But for some kids, feelings of stress, frustration, helplessness, hurt, or anger can be overwhelming. And without a way to express or release the feelings, a kid may feel like a volcano ready to erupt — or at least let off steam.
Sometimes, kids blame themselves when things go wrong. They might feel ashamed, embarrassed, or angry at themselves for the role they played in the situation. Hurting themselves may be a way to express the stress and blame themselves at the same time.
The poll also revealed important news for parents. Though talking to parents ranked eighth on the list of most popular coping methods, 75% of the kids surveyed said they want and need their parents’ help in times of trouble. When they’re stressed, they’d like their parents to talk with them, help them solve the problem, try to cheer them up, or just spend time together.
What Parents Can Do
You may not be able to prevent your kids from feeling frustrated, sad, or angry, but you can provide the tools they need to cope with these emotions.
Notice out loud. Tell kids when you notice something they might be feeling (“It seems like you might still feel mad about what happened at the playground”). This shouldn’t sound like an accusation (as in: “OK, what happened now? Are you still mad about that?”) or make a child feel put on the spot. It’s just a casual observation that you’re interested in hearing more about your child’s concern.
Listen to your kids. Ask them to tell you what’s wrong. Listen attentively and calmly — with interest, patience, openness, and caring. Avoid any urge to judge, blame, lecture, or tell your kids what they should have done instead. The idea is to let a child’s concerns (and feelings) be heard. Encourage your child to tell the whole story by asking questions. Take your time, and let a child take his or her time, too.
Comment briefly on the feelings you think your child was experiencing as you listen. For example, you might say something like: “That must have been upsetting” or “No wonder you felt mad when they wouldn’t let you in the game.” Doing so shows that you understand what your child felt, why he or she felt that way, and that you care. Feeling understood and listened to helps kids feel connected to you, and that is especially important in times of stress.
Put a label on it. Many kids do not yet have words for their feelings. If your child seems angry or frustrated, use those feeling words to help your child learn to identify the emotions by name. That will help put feelings into words so they can be expressed and communicated more easily, which helps kids develop emotional awareness — the ability to recognize their own emotional states. Kids who can recognize and identify emotions are less likely to reach the behavioral boiling point where strong emotions get demonstrated through behaviors rather than communicated with words.
Help kids think of things to do. Suggest activities kids can do to feel better now and to solve the problem at hand. Encourage them to think of a couple of ideas. You can get the brainstorm started if necessary, but don’t do all the work. A child’s active participation will build confidence. Support good ideas and add to them as needed. Ask, “How do you think this will work?” Sometimes talking and listening and feeling understood is all that’s needed to help kids’ frustrations melt away. Other times change the subject and move on to something more positive and relaxing. Don’t give the problem more attention than it deserves.
Just be there. Sometimes kids don’t feel like talking about what’s bothering them. Try to respect that, give them space, and still make it clear that you’ll be there when they do feel like talking. Even when kids don’t feel like talking, they usually don’t want parents to leave them alone. You can help them feel better just by being there — to keep your child company and spend time together. So if you notice your child seems to be down in the dumps, stressed, or having a bad day — but doesn’t feel like talking — initiate something you can do together. Take a walk, watch a movie, shoot some hoops, or bake some cookies. Isn’t it nice to know that your presence really counts?
Be patient. It hurts to see your kids unhappy or worried. But try to resist the urge to fix every problem. Instead, focus on helping them grow into good problem-solvers — kids who know how to roll with life’s ups and downs, put feelings into words, calm down when needed, and bounce back to try again. Remember that you can’t fix everything, and that you won’t be there to solve each problem as your child goes through life. But by learning healthy coping strategies, kids can manage stresses in the future.
About the Poll
The national KidsPoll surveyed 875 9- to 13-year-old boys and girls regarding how they coped with stress. The KidsPoll is a collaboration of the Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth, the Department of Health Education and Recreation at Southern Illinois University — Carbondale, the National Association of Health Education Centers (NAHEC), and participating health education centers throughout the United States. Those centers include:
- Robert Crown Center for Health Education — Hinsdale, Illinois
- HealthWorks! Kids Museum — South Bend, Indiana
- Health World Children’s Museum — Barrington, Illinois
- Ruth Lilly Health Education Center — Indianapolis, Indiana
- Susan P. Byrnes Health Education Center — York, Pennsylvania
- Poe Center for Health Education — Raleigh, North Carolina | <urn:uuid:82177c8f-c200-47e4-8044-8fecda4012a7> | {
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In the late 1960s, Penn’s printing experiments included the gum bichromate process, a nineteenth-century technique in which paper coated with a light-sensitive solution containing a watercolor pigment is contact-printed to a film negative using a UV light source. Rather than use paper as a substrate, Penn made his multi-colored gum prints on porcelainized steel plates which ensured perfect image registration during numerous sensitization and processing sessions.
The plates are very heavy, but the surface is characterized by a delicate layering of pigments, with an effect similar to a pointillist painting.
Penn kept meticulous records about which pigments he used on the verso of the plates. One of the many treasures in the Irving Penn Archives at The Art Institute of Chicago is a notebook with 75 pages of Penn’s technical notes on his gum bichromate experiments. The digitized images can be found here. | <urn:uuid:9db0ac48-cfdc-42af-a14a-27f32c2bb0e4> | {
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Mobile Backhaul Evolution
Over the last two months, we covered the following topics: the evolution of mobile wireless networks from circuit-switched architectures to packet-switched architectures and the definitions, standards, and technologies defining mobility today and in the future.
Continuing in the series of articles related to mobility (this one being number 3 of 4), this month’s article will focus on mobile backhaul evolution from circuit-switched networks to pseudowire networks to Ethernet/IP-based packet networks.
Mobile Backhaul Trends
As consumers’ insatiable demand for Internet access continues to grow, mobile traffic growth is increasing exponentially in two dimensions – the number of mobile devices is growing, and the amount of data generated by mobile devices is growing. A single high-end phone (such as an iPhone or Blackberry) generates more data traffic than 30 basic-feature cell phones. A laptop aircard generates more data traffic than 450 basic-feature cell phones.
According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, mobile broadband traffic will roughly double each year between 2008 and 2013, increasing 66 times during that span. With the advent of higher speed data networks – beginning with Third Generation EVDO and UMTS, and continuing with Fourth Generation WiMAX and LTE networks, mobile wireless backhaul networks also need to evolve to accommodate the data growth.
However, it is important to remember that today’s cellular technologies are not going away, so a backhaul network must evolve to support today’s current requirements – namely TDM transport and timing – as well as next generation mobile requirements – namely, high bandwidth and QoS-capable.
Mobile Backhaul Today
Today’s mobile backhaul networks are mainly ATM-based or TDM-based networks for the transport of voice and data services from the cell site to the mobile core infrastructure. Figure 1 illustrates the backhaul technologies of today’s common mobile standards.
These networks rely on the underlying backhaul technology to provide a number of services, including:
Ethernet Backhaul and Pseudowires
From a sheer cost perspective, continuing to deploy TDM circuits and carry the increasing load of data traffic over these circuits is prohibitive. In addition, managing and maintaining a large number of TDM circuits per cell site is operationally complex. For this reason, many operators have begun migrating their backhaul networks from TDM to Ethernet/IP. These Ethernet/IP transport networks leverage a large number of transport mechanisms, including DSL and cable networks, optical transport networks (SONET or dark fiber), and microwave.
While the inherent values – 30% savings in CAPEX and OPEX – for Ethernet transport is well-known, it is also incumbent upon these technologies to provide the same set of capabilities that TDM provides. This is important in order to ensure that end devices, namely base stations at the cell site and the mobile core infrastructure, are unaware that the transport network in between has been altered.
Pseudowires provide an emulation service for the circuit-switched “native” services over a packet infrastructure. In order to provide this function, many IETF and ITU standards have emerged. These include:
With the standardization of the above capabilities over packet-switched networks, operators have begun migrating their infrastructure away from TDM transport networks. This migration may begin simply as an offload of data traffic, or it may take all voice and data traffic off TDM links altogether. In either scenario, operators are recognizing the need to migrate their networks to packet infrastructures today to achieve the OPEX advantages that packet-switched networks provide.
Ethernet Backhaul for Next Generation Mobile
As mobile networks evolve, the advantages of having a packet-switched network are further recognized. These next-generation mobile networks natively support Ethernet/IP in the base station and packet core network. End-to-end mobile networks will leverage Ethernet and IP as foundation building blocks. Pseudowires will continue to provide value for segmenting and isolating traffic across the network, including supporting both legacy voice/data services and next generation services over the same infrastructure and providing differentiated QoS on backhaul networks. Supporting services and end-to-end management over the packet-switched domain requires capabilities above and beyond those provided in the TDM domain. Figure 3 illustrates this concept.
These capabilities, however, align with the services that are deployed in today’s metro Ethernet networks. This provides just one example of convergence and how mobile networks and services are converging with today’s fixed broadband networks and services. As it happens, convergence will be the topic of our fourth, and final article in the mobile networking series.
Packet-switched backhaul networks are capable of more than just supporting packet-based services. Many standards organizations have developed protocols and specifications for transporting circuit-switched services, including today’s 2G/3G mobile traffic, over these packet-switched networks, while still meeting the requirements of the circuit-switched domain. As such, mobile operators have begun deploying packet-switched backhaul networks both as a cost-savings in today’s networks, but also as preparation for next-generation 4G mobile networks, where packet-switched infrastructure stretches end-to-end.
If you have any questions regarding the topics discussed in this article, you can email questions to Kevin from now through September 3, 2009. | <urn:uuid:1a4d3b45-5d99-4747-853d-4abe593c8c5e> | {
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20) The gardens of the Quinta da Boa Vista Pala ce, now the National Museum in the São Cristovão district. This region had previously been dominated by sugarcane plantations. The palace remained the imperial residence until the end of the monarchy in 1889.20) Jardins do Palácio da Quinta da Boa Vista, atualmente Museu Nacional, no bairro São Cristóvão. A região era anteriormente dominada por plantações de cana-de-açúcar. O palácio serviu como residência imperial até o fim da monarquia, em 1889.
Latin American and Iberian Institute / University of New Mexico
Brazil Slide Series Collection: This article is copyrighted by the Latin American & Iberian Institute (LAII) of the University of New Mexico. Rights permission is for standard academic, non-commercial, use of these materials. Proper citation of this material should include title, author, publisher, date, and URL. Copyright Latin American and Iberian Institute University of New Mexico 1991 | <urn:uuid:e6191adf-c5c3-4382-a3a8-6fb16e159b5c> | {
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The prognosis (chance of recovery) and treatment options depend on the following:
- The stage of the cancer (the size of the tumor and whether it is in the lung only or has spread to other places in the body)
- The type of lung cancer
- Whether there are symptoms such as coughing or trouble breathing
- The patient’s general health
Different types of treatments are available for patients. Some treatments are standard (the currently used treatment), and some are being tested in clinical trials. The nine types of standard treatments are described below.
There are four types of surgery used to treat lung cancer:
- Wedge resection: Surgery to remove a tumor and some of the normal tissue around it. When a slightly larger amount of tissue is taken, it is called a segmental resection.
- Lobectomy: Surgery to remove a whole lobe (section) of the lung.
- Pneumonectomy: Surgery to remove one whole lung.
- Sleeve resection: Surgery to remove part of the bronchus.
Even if the doctor removes all the cancer that can be seen at the time of the surgery, some patients may be given chemotherapy or radiation therapy after surgery to kill any cancer cells that are left. (Treatment given after the surgery, to lower the risk that the cancer will come back, is called adjuvant therapy.)
Radiation therapy is a cancer treatment that uses high-energy x-rays or other types of radiation to kill cancer cells or keep them from growing. There are two types of radiation therapy. External radiation therapy uses a machine outside the body to send radiation toward the cancer. Internal radiation therapy uses a radioactive substance sealed in needles, seeds, wires, or catheters that are placed directly into or near the cancer.
Radiosurgery is a method of delivering radiation directly to the tumor with little damage to healthy tissue. It does not involve surgery and may be used to treat certain tumors in patients who cannot have surgery. The way the radiation therapy is given depends on the type and stage of the cancer being treated.
Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses drugs to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. When chemotherapy is taken by mouth or injected into a vein or muscle, the drugs enter the bloodstream and can reach cancer cells throughout the body (systemic chemotherapy). When chemotherapy is placed directly into the spinal column, an organ, or a body cavity such as the abdomen, the drugs mainly affect cancer cells in those areas (regional chemotherapy). The way the chemotherapy is given depends on the type and stage of the cancer being treated.
Targeted therapy is a type of treatment that uses drugs or other substances to identify and attack specific cancer cells without harming normal cells. Monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors are two types of targeted therapy being used in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.
Monoclonal antibody therapy is a cancer treatment that uses antibodies made in the laboratory from a single type of immune system cell. These antibodies can identify substances on cancer cells or normal substances that may help cancer cells grow. The antibodies attach to the substances and kill the cancer cells, block their growth, or keep them from spreading. Monoclonal antibodies are given by infusion. They may be used alone or to carry drugs, toxins, or radioactive material directly to cancer cells.
Tyrosine kinase inhibitors are targeted therapy drugs that block signals needed for tumors to grow. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors may be used with other anticancer drugs as adjuvant therapy.
Laser therapy is a cancer treatment that uses a laser beam (a narrow beam of intense light) to kill cancer cells.
Photodynamic Therapy (PDT)
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a cancer treatment that uses a drug and a certain type of laser light to kill cancer cells. A drug that is not active until it is exposed to light is injected into a vein. The drug collects more in cancer cells than in normal cells. Fiberoptic tubes are then used to carry the laser light to the cancer cells, where the drug becomes active and kills the cells. Photodynamic therapy causes little damage to healthy tissue. It is used mainly to treat tumors on or just under the skin or in the lining of internal organs.
Cryosurgery is a treatment that uses an instrument to freeze and destroy abnormal tissue, such as carcinoma in situ. This type of treatment is also called cryotherapy.
Electrocautery is a treatment that uses a probe or needle heated by an electric current to destroy abnormal tissue.
Watchful waiting is closely monitoring a patient’s condition without giving any treatment until symptoms appear or change. This may be done in certain rare cases of non-small cell lung cancer. | <urn:uuid:d4db70c8-defa-4b84-ab75-2ba4bdc81ac3> | {
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AUBURN UNIVERSITY – Two Auburn University professors have developed a disease-detection technology that could be the beginning of handheld, point-of-care devices – a breakthrough that would let health care professionals, first responders and even individuals quickly do blood tests for a variety of illnesses and conditions.
Associate professor Christopher Easley and professor Curtis Shannon, both in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Sciences and Mathematics, led the research team that published its results in the March 27 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
“This new technique is rapid and accurate,” Easley said. “We can get results in three minutes compared to current lab technology which takes six hours. Our technique is also very flexible in that it should require relatively minor adjustments to detect hundreds of other proteins that are biomarkers for diseases.”
Easley engineers DNA strands and uses chemistry to attach them to two standard antibodies already known to bind to a specific protein in blood. When the two antibodies attach to the protein in the blood sample, the DNA strands on each antibody come together onto a metal electrode to produce an electrochemical signal. The magnitude of the signal indicates the protein level in the blood, a process they termed electrochemical proximity assay, or ECPA.
Easley’s lab attaches the DNA to the antibodies while Shannon works with the electrochemical process.
“We detected the insulin protein level in mouse serum in three minutes,” said Easley, who began conducting the research in late 2011. “We can apply this to many proteins that are biomarkers for diseases. The technique is very sensitive, too. We can detect 5,000 times lower than the normal amount of insulin in blood.”
The researchers also performed normal laboratory tests using current technology and found the new technique detected a much wider range of protein levels and at much lower concentrations. Since the technique involves an electrical measurement, Shannon says it could be miniaturized like any electronic device, such as a glucose meter.
“Electrochemistry’s advantage over other types of detection technology is that it is relatively low cost and it can be miniaturized,” Shannon said. “We have no handheld device now, but our technology could be the foundation for a device that a health care company could commercialize for point-of-care analysis. They would need to do clinical trials on human blood first.”
Targeting Different Diseases
The Auburn researchers can target different protein-based biomarkers by changing the two antibodies to target other diseases. Potential applications could include tests for liver disease, cancer, inflammation of the heart, Alzheimer’s disease, tuberculosis, pancreatitis, diabetes, kidney disease and numerous others, Easley said.
“You could get a sample of blood and determine if a person has a disease with a predefined biomarker,” he said. “A single device could be used for diagnosis of multiple diseases by simply switching out the antibodies on the metal surface.
“The technology could have an impact on biomedical research as well, such as understanding how a person’s insulin spikes when he or she drinks a soft drink. As far as I know, there is no other way to so rapidly detect insulin now.”
The research is funded by the National Science Foundation, the USDA and the National Institutes of Health and is supported by Auburn’s Office of the Vice President for Research and the Office of Technology Transfer. The university has applied for a U.S. patent on the new technique and is considering licensing the technology to an external company for further development.
“We are really excited about the potential for this technology,” Easley said. “This technique works really well and is consistent. It can be miniaturized and it gives quantitative measurements.”
A video segment and photographs are available on the Auburn University Office of Communications and Marketing website, http://ocm.auburn.edu/featured_story/disease_detection.html#.Uhesca8o7cs.
(Written by Charles Martin.) | <urn:uuid:be638574-a796-48e0-85ce-343bd2538a2f> | {
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Solar plane's first international flight
13 May 2011 Last updated at 15:16 BST
The Solar Impulse single-seater prototype solar-powered plane has embarked on its first international journey.
The Swiss team said the flight from a small airfield in Switzerland, across France Luxembourg and Belgium, would pose a challenge as it required navigation across international air traffic networks.
In 2010 the plane completed a 26-hour non-stop flight that proved the plane could stay flying at night with the energy that its solar cells received during the day. | <urn:uuid:d162a801-1e7c-40fb-883a-d0c11d0e5953> | {
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Hypothesis & Theory ARTICLE
Music, neuroscience, and the psychology of well-being: a précis
- 1 Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- 2 Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
In Flourish, the positive psychologist Seligman (2011) identifies five commonly recognized factors that are characteristic of human flourishing or well-being: (1) “positive emotion,” (2) “relationships,” (3) “engagement,” (4) “achievement,” and (5) “meaning” (p. 24). Although there is no settled set of necessary and sufficient conditions neatly circumscribing the bounds of human flourishing (Seligman, 2011), we would mostly likely consider a person that possessed high levels of these five factors as paradigmatic or prototypical of human flourishing. Accordingly, if we wanted to go about the practical task of actually increasing our level of well-being, we ought to do so by focusing on practically increasing the levels of the five factors that are characteristic of well-being. If, for instance, an activity such as musical engagement can be shown to positively influence each or all of these five factors, this would be compelling evidence that an activity such as musical engagement can positively contribute to one’s living a flourishing life. I am of the belief that psychological research can and should be used, not only to identify and diagnose maladaptive psychological states, but identify and promote adaptive psychological states as well. In this article I advance the hypothesis and provide supporting evidence for the claim that musical engagement can positively contribute to one’s living a flourishing life. Since there has not yet been a substantive and up-to-date investigation of the possible role of music in contributing to one’s living a flourishing life, the purpose of this article is to conduct this investigation, thereby bridging the gap and stimulating discussion between the psychology of music and the psychology of well-being.
In Flourish, the positive psychologist Seligman (2011) identifies five commonly recognized factors that are characteristic of human flourishing or well-being: (1) “positive emotion,” (2) “relationships,” (3) “engagement,” (4) “achievement,” and (5) “meaning” (p. 24). Although there is no settled set of necessary and sufficient conditions neatly circumscribing the bounds of human flourishing (Seligman, 2011), we would mostly likely consider a person that possessed high levels of these five factors as paradigmatic or prototypical of human flourishing. Accordingly, if we wanted to go about the practical task of actually increasing our level of well-being, we ought to do so by focusing on practically increasing the levels of the five factors that are characteristic of well-being. If, for instance, an activity such as musical engagement can be shown to positively influence each or all of these five factors, this would be compelling evidence that an activity such as musical engagement can positively contribute to one’s living a flourishing life. I am of the belief that psychological research can and should be used not only to identify and diagnose maladaptive psychological states, but also to identify and promote adaptive psychological states as well. In this article I advance the hypothesis and provide supporting evidence for the claim that musical engagement can positively contribute to one’s living a flourishing life. Since there has not yet been a substantive and up-to-date investigation of the possible role of music in contributing to one’s living a flourishing life, the purpose of this article is to conduct this original investigation, thereby bridging the gap and stimulating discussion between the psychology of music and the psychology of well-being.
First of all, what is music and what counts as musical activity? As easy as it is to recognize instances of music and musical activity when one encounters them in practical situations – for instance, when one perceives another person using an instrument to create a structured auditory stimulus that incorporates a combination of pitch, melody, and rhythm (Zatorre et al., 2007, p. 549), as when a friend plays a piece on the piano for you – there has in fact been much debate among scholars about how to precisely define these terms (for example, see the discussion in Cross, 2001). In fact, several scholars have argued against the appropriateness and very plausibility of there being precise and agreed upon definitions for concepts like music and art, articulated in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions, and have instead sought to understand these concepts in terms of relations that Wittgenstein called “family resemblances” (Wittgenstein, 1953; Sect. 67). In an influential article published in Cognitive Psychology, Rosch and Mervis (1975) characterized a “family resemblance relationship” as one in which, for every item subsumed under some category X, “each item has at least one, and probably several, elements in common with one or more other items, but no, or few, elements are common to all items” (p. 575; for an application of the family resemblance approach to concepts of natural language see Croom, 2011a; especially pp. 355–357). For instance, in an influential article published in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Weitz (1956) argued that the “attempt to discover the necessary and sufficient properties of art [or music] is logically misbegotten,” and that the “contention that “art” [or “music”] is amenable to real or any kind of true definition is false” because art or music “has no set of necessary and sufficient properties” (p. 28; for discussion see also Kaufman, 2007; Tilghman, 2008; Irwin, 2011). So on this kind of view, there is no feature x such that possession of x is necessary and sufficient for some event y to be categorized as a musical one. Instead, this view suggests that for each of the various events that we categorize as musical, we will more realistically find “a complicated network of similarities [among them that are] overlapping and criss-crossing: sometimes overall similarities, sometimes similarities of detail” (Wittgenstein, 1953, Sect. 66).
It is not my purpose in the present article to put a dog into this fight. This topic has been discussed elsewhere (Kaufman, 2007; Tilghman, 2008; Irwin, 2011) and a proper analysis and critique of these discussions should be reserved for its own occasion. Accordingly, for the purposes of the present article I will simply adopt an influential and intuitively appealing working definition of music that was proposed by the musicologist Ian Cross. As Cross suggests, “musics can be defined as those temporally patterned human activities, individual and social, that involve the production and perception of sound and have no evident and immediate efficacy or fixed consensual reference” (Cross, 2001, p. 33). As it will become clear throughout the course of this article, I will disagree about the inefficacy of music that is suggested by this definition, and so one might find it appealing to think of the features that we have so far identified in this section as features characteristic of music rather than features the possession of which are necessary and sufficient for the circumscription of music, an idea that is clearly compatible with the family resemblance conception (Wittgenstein, 1953; Rosch and Mervis, 1975; Kaufman, 2007; Tilghman, 2008; Croom, 2011a; Irwin, 2011). However, as a working definition, Cross’s (2001) proposal is largely helpful and will be suitable for the purposes of the present discussion. (Importantly, one should also note that in this article certain kinds of musical activity will be associated with certain effects, and often these details will be evident in the context of discussion; however, more specific details about particular musical activities and their effects can always be found in the corresponding studies cited).
Now, it has long been speculated that musical activity might be good for the mind, body, or community at large (for instance, see Needham et al., 1962), but it has not been until recently that serious empirical work has been done on the behavioral, physiological, and psychological effects of human musical engagement. The recent increase in neuroscientific and psychological studies on human musical behavior are well motivated, for music is an intimate part of the human form of life and psyche. For instance, it has been well argued that music is a universal and cross-culturally present feature shared by all humans (Darwin, 1871, p. 878) and is persistent throughout hominid evolutionary history (Merriam, 1964; Blacking, 1995; Trevarthen, 1999; Cross, 2001; Levitin, 2006; Molnar-Szakacs and Overy, 2006; Brandt, 2008). Like linguistic competence, musical competence is unconsciously and automatically acquired upon exposure and develops along a standard biological timetable (Miller, 2000, p. 335), with a sensitive period (after which musical skill is substantially more difficult to acquire) occurring around 7 years of age (Habib and Besson, 2009, p. 279; see also Elbert et al., 1995; Schlaug et al., 1995; Watanabe et al., 2007). Structural features of music, such as pitch interval and pitch contour, are automatically encoded by all individuals (Trainor et al., 2002), which suggests that the functional architecture of the human brain has been adapted to process such musical stimuli (Peretz et al., 2001) and that human life has presumably found an intimate partner in musical activity for quite some time. In fact, musical instruments over 35,000 years old have been found (Conard et al., 2009), suggesting that the human preoccupation with music has been an enduring one, and that “music was an integral part of human life far earlier than first thought” (Miller, 2009, p. 19). Given the fact that human life finds an intimate partner in musical activity and has done so throughout our evolutionary history, one is naturally left wondering what musical activity might have to offer and how one might potentially benefit from it. Might musical activity do one some good, and possibly even facilitate a life of well-being? And if so, by what means can musical activity accomplish this?
In order to understand how music interacts with human sensitivities and influences human responses, it is helpful if we first discuss several features of our human constitution and evolution first. Now, thanks to our evolutionary history, we have been handed down many interesting and important biologically functional features (e.g., see Cosmides and Tooby, 1994; Cosmides and Tooby, 2000), only a few of which I will be able to discuss here for the purposes of this article. First, given the practical importance of being able to predict and anticipate future events (for instance, approaching food sources, predators, or mating prospects), it is not surprising that we find such future-oriented capacities among the functional capacities that our evolutionary history has handed down to us. Over 500 million years of naturally selective forces has favored the development of perceptual and cognitive systems with the capacity to predict and anticipate what is likely to occur, better enabling individuals to avoid dangers and capitalize on opportunities. Thus, it has been well argued by scholars that the biologically adaptive function of expectation is to prepare the organism for “appropriate action and perception” with regard to future objects and events (Huron, 2006, p. 3), which is an undeniably crucial capacity for successful survival and reproduction. Since the world is a dangerous place and it is safer for us to react to hundreds of false alarms than to neglect a single genuinely life-threatening event, nature has endowed us with perceptual and cognitive equipment that is sensitive to perceptual stimuli and susceptible to deviant or over-reaction, which musicians and “Composers can [exploit by] fashion[ing] passages [of patterned or structured auditory stimuli] that manage to provoke remarkably strong emotions using the most innocuous stimuli imaginable” (Huron, 2006, p. 6). In fact, it has been well argued that, “Since accurate predictions are of real benefit to an organism, it would be reasonable for psychological rewards and punishments to arise in response solely to the accuracy of the expectation” (Huron, 2006, p. 12, original italics). In other words, even though what we expect in music is typically of no practical harm to us, the fact that we expect in music still enables us to reap the experiential “rewards and punishments that arise in response solely to the accuracy of the expectation” we experience when we’re actively listening to something as “innocuous” as music itself.
In addition to our capacity for anticipation and expectation, another functional feature that evolution has endowed us with is concerned with energy regulation. All biological organisms consume and require energy for the general maintenance of life, as energy is required for nervous, muscular, and metabolic functioning. Since one’s energy must be generated from the food one consumes, and since the foraging for food and hunting of food is risky and time-consuming, organisms in general and humans in particular place a high premium on expending their energy efficiently. The importance of energy conservation is evidenced by the fact that brains and bodies drift toward low arousal states when action and thought are not required or when one’s environment is static and unchallenging (Huron, 2006). Our body, including our brain, conserves energy by declining toward lower states of arousal when ecological conditions do not solicit our activity. Likewise, our bodies, including our brains, incline toward higher states of arousal when ecological conditions do solicit our activity (Huron, 2006). The purpose of the aforementioned biological features (of expectation and energy conservation) is to prepare our bodies, including our brains, to appropriately interact with upcoming events while at the same time attempting to do so as economically as possible in terms of energy expenditure (Huron, 2006). It is important to note that our level of arousal and attention does not simply incline and decline in accord with the occurrent demands of our ecological context or practical situation, but also with anticipated demands. And as one’s various arousal states adjust in accord with one’s changing expectations (which themselves adjust in accord with changing ecological conditions), the use of structured auditory stimuli to manipulate one’s expectations could also thereby manipulate one’s level of arousal and phenomenological experiences as well.
It is also important to note that different autonomic, physiological, and psychological responses are often solicited at different times and for different durations during emotional and anticipatory episodes. For instance, responses have often been characterizes as being of two types: (1) short-lived but immediate reaction responses, and (2) more contextually nuanced but slower appraisal responses (Huron, 2006). These two types of responses have been investigated by researchers and are typically distinguished in the following way. First, there are (1) reaction responses, which are usually composed of immediate reactions and learned schemas (Huron, 2006, p. 14), that are fast (e.g., usually reaction responses are solicited within 150 ms of stimulus presentation), non-conscious, and typically “defensive or protective in function” (Huron, 2006, p. 13). Affective arousal, for instance, has been shown to occur at an early stage of perceptual processing, often before one is even consciously aware of the perceptual stimulus (Zajonc, 1980; Bayens et al., 1990; Murphy and Zajonc, 1993; Esteves et al., 1994; Lang, 1995; Fox, 1996; Bargh, 1997). Interestingly, the presentation of a stimulus that is below the threshold level of one’s conscious awareness can even influence one’s affective ratings of other stimuli and can induce in one various novel physiological responses (Frijda, 1999).
Secondly, there are (2) appraisal responses, which are characterized as being slower than reaction responses (e.g., usually appraisal responses are solicited after 150 ms of stimulus presentation) and conscious, taking into consideration environmental, social, and other contextual factors (Huron, 2006). The more cognitive factors influencing emotional arousal range from prior conditioning operating over simple associations, confirmation or disconfirmation of what is familiar (Zajonc, 1980) or expected (Meyer et al., 1991), and various degrees of arousal afforded by memory. Cognitive factors influencing emotional arousal also involve the use of schemas, complex pattern comparisons, or other inferential processes (Landman, 1993; Gilovich and Medvec, 1995). Cognitive factors also play a major role in the elicitation of emotion because emotions are typically aroused by events that are appraised as relevant to one’s tasks and concerns. In fact, it has been argued that determining which emotion is aroused by an event is largely dependent upon cognitive factors, since one’s emotional reactions are largely dependent upon what one expects, personal assessments of causal agency and controllability, appraisals of task challenges and possible task-relevant actions, and so on (Lazarus, 1991; Frijda, 1999). Since goals and values differ among individuals, the relative emotional significance of an event will differ among individuals as well (Lutz, 1988; Markus and Kitayama, 1991; Mesquita et al., 1997; Frijda, 1999). Thus, emotional experiences include primary appraisals of an object as being of positive or negative affective valence – that is, as good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant (Lazarus, 1991) – as well as higher order cognitive appraisals of why the object was evaluated as it was (James, 1884, 1890, 1894; Lange, 1922). Reaction responses and appraisal responses are independent and need not (and often are not) consistent with one another (Huron, 2006), and the different combination of factors that mix into the cup of our emotional lives can make our emotional experiences quite variable and complex (Leventhal and Scherer, 1987), involving both lower and higher level processes. As Huron nicely puts it in Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation, different variations in our emotional responses evoke in us various feeling states, which “combine [in us] to create a distinctive limbic cocktail” (Huron, 2006, p. 18). Huron explains that “the emotions accompanying expectations are intended to reinforce accurate prediction, promote appropriate event-readiness, and increase the likelihood of future positive outcomes,” and that “music making taps into these primordial functions [of emotion] to produce a wealth of compelling emotional experiences. In this way, musicians are able to create a number of pleasurable emotional experiences, including surprise, awe, “chills,” comfort, and even laughter” (Huron, 2006, p. 4). Fiske (1996), summarizing an account of auditory expectation proposed by Meyer (1956, 1973), explains the relationship between auditory expectation and emotional arousal in the following way:
During the course of a musical work listeners create on-going expectations about what particular tonal-rhythmic events are likely to occur “next” in the piece. The expected next-event is based upon the culmination of events that have occurred in the piece so far. If this expected event is delayed or fails to occur at all, then emotional arousal will be stronger than it would be if the event had occurred as predicted […] For a piece to be meaningful, the composer must tread a thin line between absolute predictability of musical events and the fulfillment of predictability versus absolute unpredictability through the frustration, inhibition, and avoidance of expected events. (p. 19, 107)
To mention just a few examples, Huron points out that, “tragedy can be evoked by using predominantly minor chords played within rich sonorities in the bass register. Suspense can be evoked using a diminished seventh chord with rapid tremolo. Surprise can be evoked by introducing a loud chromatic chord on a weak beat” (Huron, 2006, p. 2).
In order to account for how music and expectation interact to produce rich emotional experiences in music listeners universally, Narmour (1991) proposed that there are innate principles of auditory expectation that are universal and largely fixed in human psychology, presumably due to the fact that we have come pre-equipped with them as a result of our evolutionary constitution. Follow-up studies conducted by Schellenberg (1996) provided empirical support for Narmour’s proposal, as well as confirming other data concerning the formation of expectations in music (Carlsen, 1981; Unyk and Carlsen, 1987). Some of the innate principles of auditory expectation that have been highlighted in the literature include, for instance, continuity of intervals, large tonal changes followed by a resolution toward an original tone, grouping by symmetry, similarity, and proximity, and others (see also Kubovy, 1999). These innate and universally present principles of auditory expectation form a bottom-up system that interacts with a top-down system of auditory expectation, which has instead been developed as a result of culturally acquired musical experience. For instance, top-down schemas include “practiced motor skills (such as brushing your teeth) or perceptual norms (such as watching traffic flows) […] social norms (such as polite greeting rituals) or cultural norms (such as framing an object so that it is recognized as “art”),” and insofar as a “schema is well entrenched in a mind, it becomes possible to provoke reaction responses by violating the schematic expectation” (Huron, 2006, p. 14). Different combinations of delay, violation, and satisfaction of one’s auditory expectations cause arousal and tension in the listener, and the resolution of this tension can afford the listener pleasure (Rozin, 1999). By manipulating a listener’s uncertainty of what will be heard and when they will hear it, musicians are able to produce different emotional responses in listeners, including positive emotional states (Huron, 2006).
For instance, if an upcoming stimulus accords with our expectation of it we typically experience an emotion of positive valence, whereas if an upcoming stimulus does not accord with our expectation of it we typically experience an emotion of negative valence (Mandler, 1975; Huron, 2006). This psychological principle is typically regarded as the primary affect (Olson et al., 1996). Even when an upcoming stimulus is negative, people tend to experience a positive emotional response when their expectation of the negative stimulus is satisfied; as Huron nicely puts the point, “It is as though brains know not to shoot the messenger: accurate expectations are to be valued (and rewarded) even when the news is not good” (Huron, 2006, p. 13). Again, this psychological principle seems to underwrite an appropriate biological function. Since what will happen to us in the near and far future is of the utmost importance to us, and since we generally respond better to events that we are physically and cognitively prepared for than to those that we are not, the capacity to anticipate changes in upcoming events provides us with the opportunity to reorient and prepare ourselves to appropriately engage with potential events and situations. It should also be noted, before moving on, that the pleasure we experience from apt violations of expectation, along with their resolution, is not a pleasure peculiar to music alone, but is found in other forms of pleasurable entertainment as well, such as comedy. For instance, several theories of pleasure in humor (see, e.g., Suls, 1972, 1977; Apter, 1982; Wyer and Collins, 1992) are similar to theories of pleasure in music (see, e.g., Kubovy, 1999, p. 146). Now that we have a preliminary understanding of how music can interact with human sensitivities and influence human responses, we will next turn our discussion to the question of how musical activity can positively influence each of the five factors that have been identified as characteristic of well-being. First, we will discuss recent findings from neuroscience that demonstrate how music can influence our emotions and lead us to positive emotional states.
Music and Positive Emotion
Recently, neuroscientists have been attempting to get clear on exactly which biological components are involved in musical pleasure and what role each of these components play. In a study published in Nature Neuroscience, Salimpoor et al. (2011) used a combination of techniques to investigate the biological mechanisms involved in musical pleasure. They were interested in investigating how “Music, an abstract stimulus, can arouse feelings of euphoria and craving, similar to tangible rewards that involve the striatal dopaminergic system” (Salimpoor et al., 2011, p. 257). In particular, they used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and found that intense pleasure in response to music can lead to dopamine release in the striatal system. Further, they found that the anticipation of an abstract reward can result in dopamine release in an anatomical area distinct from the area implicated during experiences of peak emotional responses to music, namely, that the caudate was more involved during states of anticipation and the nucleus accumbens was more involved during the experience of peak emotional pleasure. So recent work in neuroscience has helpfully advanced our knowledge of which biological components are implicated during the pleasure we experience when listening to and anticipating music.
It has also been shown, in a study published in Brain by Sarkamo et al. (2008), that “music listening activates a wide-spread bilateral network of brain regions related to attention, semantic processing, memory, motor functions, and emotional processing,” that “Music exposure also enhances emotional and cognitive functioning in healthy subjects and in various clinical patient groups,” and that their “findings demonstrate for the first time that music listening during the early post-stroke stage can enhance cognitive recovery and prevent negative mood” (p. 866). In yet another article entitled, “Music enhances the effect of positive emotional states on salivary IgA,” published in Stress Medicine, McCraty et al. (1996) demonstrated that “music affects autonomic function and […] can be designed to enhance the beneficial effects of positive emotional states” (p. 173). They also proposed that, “music and emotional self-management may have significant health benefits in a variety of clinical situations in which there is immunosuppression and autonomic imbalance” (p. 167). An article published in Heart by Trappe (2010) also suggests that, “Music may not only improve quality of life but may also effect changes in heart rate and heart rate variability” (p. 1868). In that article Trappe (2010) further proposes that, “a proposed regimen of listening to music while resting in bed after open-heart surgery is important in clinical use” (p. 1868). In short, there is a growing body of work being published in neuroscience and medical journals arguing for the use of music to facilitate patient’s recovery, health, and well-being, and my proposal is that music can be used to facilitate the well-being of normal individuals also.
The finding that musical engagement can lead to intensely pleasurable experiences in music listeners, and that these intensely pleasurable responses to music can lead to dopamine release in the striatal system (Salimpoor et al., 2011), is a useful finding, especially since it has been reported that individuals with high positive emotion experience less heart disease, are approximately 18% less likely to die of any cause (Seligman, 2011, p. 192), and develop fewer colds than people with average positive emotion and low positive emotion. Due to a difference in the presence of interleukin-6, a protein that causes inflammation, Seligman reports finding that, “The higher the positive emotion (PES), the lower the interleukin-6 (IL-6), and so the less the inflammation [… and that] Sheldon replicated this study with flu virus as well as cold virus, with the same results: positive emotional style is the driving factor” (Seligman, 2011, p. 200). Seligman further reports that, “More fibrinogen leads to more blood clots in the circulatory system […] People with high positive emotions show less of a fibrinogen response to stress than those with low positive emotion” (Seligman, 2011, p. 207). So musical engagement might be implemented as a means of achieving positive physiological states such as these through its influence on our positive emotions.
In fact, music has been one of our oldest forms of stress reduction (Lehrer and Wookfolk, 1993, p. 9) and Avant et al. (1990–1991) report that musical engagement was shown to be more effective than, for example, progressive muscle relaxation and focused imagery in relieving stress. Music has been used to facilitate psychological well-being among the elderly (Laukka, 2007), and as one woman suffering with chronic illness reported, “I have this sensation of my body being a set of electrical circuits and the energy in the music passes right through my body and it feels like a cleansing or an undoing of kinks” (quoted from a woman going by the name “Celia,” in Nicol, 2010, p. 356). Consistent with first person reports such as these, Krueger (2011) has rightly suggested that music is often a tool that can be used to “enact micro-practices” that can influence an individual’s regulatory functions, such as their emotions (p. 2; see also Trevarthen, 1999; Juslin and Sloboda, 2001; Molnar-Szakacs and Overy, 2006, p. 239).
Moreover, there is now much empirical data collected showing that music can enhance the physiological states and emotional well-being of neonates while they are in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (DeNora, 2000, p. 81; Standley, 2001, p. 213; Krueger, 2011, p. 9). Some of the positive benefits reported include facilitating various kind of “physiological and micro-behavioral stability” (Krueger, 2011, p. 9), including the stabilization and regularization of heart rate, blood pressure, and sleep cycles (DeNora, 2000, p. 81), while also reducing stress and calming infants, facilitating neurological and social development, and increasing the oxygen saturation levels of infants and reducing the time of their hospital stays (Standley, 2001, p. 213). In fact, the positive benefits of music can be extended to infants before they are even born. For instance, from as early as the 24th week of an unborn infant’s life, their perceptual world is embedded within the sound of their mother’s heartbeat (Hicks, 1992, p. 31). The child is not grown in an acoustic vacuum, but rather in an environment textured by the regularly occurring beats of the mother’s heart and the melodic contours of her physiological states. These temporally regularized acoustic textures provide security to the infant as their regularity affords an environment in which the infant’s expectations can be repeatedly satisfied and secured (Krueger, 2011, p. 13). It is unsurprising, then, that “one of the most stressful changes that occurs during the transition from intrauterine to extrauterine life is the loss of rhythm that the fetus has become accustomed to through months of being exposed to maternal movements, breathing, and heartbeat” (Collins and Kuck, 1991, p. 24). Research has suggested that an infant’s transition from intrauterine to extrauterine life, and as a result, their transition from a more rhythmic to a more chaotic acoustic environment, “has the unwelcome effect of disrupting the infant’s basic life processes [… and] adversely affects neonatal biorhythms which, in turn, affect sleep regulation and state lability” (Krueger, 2011, pp. 8–9; see also Kaminski and Hall, 1996, p. 46). In short, babies have good reason to be kicking and screaming as they enter the new world; for the new world is acoustically unstable, unpredictable, and in a constant state of unharmonious disequilibrium (Krueger, 2011, pp. 8–9).
The physiological, neurological, and emotional benefits of musical engagement are not restricted to neonates and infants, but extend to many others also (Koelsch, 2010). For instance, in a study published in Cerebral Cortex, Hutchinson et al. (2003) found that the brains of male musicians with piano experience showed significantly greater absolute and relative cerebellar volume compared to the brains of male non-musicians, and Gaser and Schlaug (2003) found in a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience that the brains of musicians showed a greater volume of auditory cortex compared to the brains of non-musicians. Schlaug et al. (1995) also found that the anterior half of the corpus callosum was significantly larger in musicians relative to non-musicians, and since the corpus callosum is the main fiber tract responsible for transmission of information between the left and right hemisphere of the brain, these findings suggest that inter-hemispheric integration and transfer of information is thereby enhanced in musicians relative to non-musicians. Bangert and Altenmuller (2003) also found that 20-min of music training was sufficient to elicit durable improvements in sensory–motor integration (see also Pascual-Leone et al., 1995), while Bangert et al. (2006) discovered that the benefits of such sensory–motor integration can even occur at an unconscious, precognitive level.
A study conducted by Rosenkranz et al. (2007) utilizing transcranial motor stimulation (TMS) demonstrated that musicians have increased brain plasticity in motor areas relative to non-musicians, and another study conducted by Bengtsson et al. (2005) utilizing diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) demonstrated greater white-matter coherence in the internal capsule of professional musicians. Bengtsson et al. (2005) showed that musicians that practiced the piano since childhood had a more structured pyramidal tract than non-musicians and that long-term musical practice implicates neural activity resulting in increased myelination of the fiber tracts involved during activity (although such plasticity in white matter was shown to become more limited as one matures with age). More recent studies using positron emission tomography (PET) and fMRI have also shown that white-matter bundles pertaining to the motor circuits in the brain are better structured in musicians than non-musicians (Habib and Besson, 2009, p. 280). Work by Chandrasekaran and Kraus (2010) suggests that musical training “induces neuroplastic changes throughout the nervous system” (p. 297) and work by Habib and Besson (2009) suggests that “beyond its effect on the plasticity of specific brain areas, music training, especially if started early in life, may enhance general plasticity of the brain and thus generalize to other learning domains” (p. 282). The enhanced cross-modal properties of the brains of musicians facilitates their audio–visual transfer of information, and several researchers have even used non-linguistic audio–visual games to successfully treat French dyslexic children (see Kujala et al., 2001; Magnan et al., 2004; Santos et al., 2007; Habib and Besson, 2009).
In another interesting study published in Science, data from magnetic source imaging (MSI) showed that musicians with extensive experience playing a stringed instrument had a larger cortical representation of the digits of the left hand compared with a control group of non-musicians (Elbert et al., 1995), which provides compelling evidence that practiced musical behavior can induce significant changes in the function and organization of the brain. Musical practice can even benefit patients with Parkinson’s disease by helping them with “regulating gait and arm control” via priming and “entrainment of the motor system to the beat of the music,” and stroke patients have been found to benefit from piano and drum training since these activities help to refine their motor skills, resulting in increased precision, speed, and smoothness of their movements (Koelsch, 2010, p. 132). Such findings are consistent with previous work demonstrating that musical training can facilitate greater concentrations of gray matter in motor cortices (Gaser and Schlaug, 2003).
Further, musical training has been shown to improve many aspects of auditory processing (Trainor et al., 2003; Peretz and Zatorre, 2005), including but not limited to improvements in pitch perception (Schneider et al., 2002), auditory stream segregation (Beauvios and Meddis, 1997), auditory attention (Strait et al., 2010), phonological skills (Forgeard et al., 2008), and the processing of prosody (Wong et al., 2007; Chandrasekaran et al., 2009; Bidelman et al., 2011) and emotions (Strait et al., 2009) in speech. Chandrasekaran and Kraus (2010) further point out that, “Musicians show less degraded brainstem representation of speech relative to non-musicians, as evidenced by faster neural timing, enhanced spectral representation, and better stimulus-to-response correlations” and that “the differences in spectral representation between musicians and non-musicians are large, suggesting that musical experience protects against the debilitating effects of background noise” (p. 301; see also Parbery-Clark et al., 2009). Chandrasekaran and Kraus (2010) further demonstrated in their study that:
Musicians showed enhanced induced gamma-band activity (GBA), which is oscillatory activity in the 25 Hz-100 Hz range. Induced GBA is argued to reflect integration of top-down and bottom-up sensory processing [(Trainor et al., 2009)] […] One year of music training in children has been shown to increase induced GBA relative to untrained participants [(Shahin et al., 2008)] [… and the evidence suggests that] GBA changes reflect increased efficiency of top-down processes, and that music has dramatic effects on cognitive-sensory interaction. (pp. 302–303)
Musical activity can also improve certain cognitive functions, as it has been shown to increase an individual’s digit span (Fujioka et al., 2006) and working memory (Parbery-Clark et al., 2009). Although musical engagement implicates a vast range of brain areas, a detailed discussion of which would require an article in its own right (for instance, see the nice review by Zatorre et al., 2007), it is worth briefly mentioning that music has been shown to influence the amygdala, hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate cortex, and insular cortex (Koelsch, 2010, pp. 133, 135). Music’s influence on the amygdala, hippocampus, and the nucleus accumbens reflects the fact that music often influences the listener’s emotional state (Koelsch, 2010, p. 133), and since music can influence the functioning of the hippocampus it has been argued that music training could cause “upregulation of neurogenesis in the hippocampus,” helping both patients with depression and PTSD (Koelsch, 2010, p. 135).
It is plausible that the different forms of improved functioning resulting from musical experience that we have discussed above could either directly or indirectly influence our positive emotional states; directly, if positive affect is directly associated with improved functioning in the forms mentioned above, or indirectly if these forms of improved functioning lead one to greater practical success (e.g., through becoming talented, then rich, and famous), which may in turn solicit positive affect. Further, these findings are of practical import since studies have shown that individuals spend a significant amount of time and energy structuring their lives in ways that will facilitate positive feelings and emotions (Gollwitzer, 1993; Mischel et al., 1996), and so people may be able to implement knowledge from further music studies to facilitate positive feelings and emotions in their life. Indeed, many people seem to use music for this purpose intuitively, for as Frijda has pointed out, emotional regulation is often the major reason for “listening to music, or going out dancing” (Frijda, 1999, p. 205).
Music and Relationships
Musical engagement, however, can do more than simply influence one’s emotional states. Musical engagement can also positively strengthen one’s social bonds with others. In an article published in Heart and Lung, Nilsson (2009) demonstrated that actively listening to soothing music can increase a listener’s level of oxytocin, a neuropeptide that plays a central role in the formation of social attachment and relationships in humans (Kosfeld et al., 2005) and other non-human species (Carter, 1998). Furthermore, music can influence our emotional states, which in turn influence our orientation toward the world, our comportment, and our action readiness, all of which are usually manifested in our observable behavior. Since our emotional states typically influence our observable behavior, and since others often take our observable behavior into consideration when interacting with us, our emotional states can also typically influence our interactions and relationships with other people. For example, the presence of positive emotions (such as happiness) tends to increase liking and social interaction with others, whereas the presence of negative emotions (such as sadness) tends to decrease liking and social interaction with others (Clark et al., 1996). So one way music can influence our relationships with other people is by influencing our emotions that in turn influence our relationships with other people. Emotional regulation is one of the important reasons for establishing relationships with others in the first place (Zillmann et al., 1986), and music is a useful medium for establishing those relationships. Through their influence on the emotions, music can facilitate the strengthening of bonds with others by demonstrating commitment in relationships and by providing evidence of those commitments to others (Frank, 1988). “Emotions have powerful effects in shaping and regulating social interactions, even outside the interactions that the emotions are about,” Frijda claims, and “These social effects can be of large scope and magnitude” (Frijda, 1999, p. 205), being able to influence one’s social functioning for time periods extending long after the event that originally initiated the emotional response (Frijda, 1999).
Indeed, many evolutionary psychologists have argued that social bonding and cooperation are fundamental features of human nature that facilitated our ancestor’s survival and reproduction (Caporael and Brewer, 1991; Myers, 1999). For instance, many group selectionists argue that musical behavior is evolutionarily adaptive because it promotes group coordination and cohesion among members, synchronizing group actions, emotions, and identity (Merriam, 1964; Turnbull, 1966; Lomax, 1968; Hood, 1971; Seeger, 1987; Richman, 1987; Feld, 1994; Freeman, 1995; McNeill, 1995; Richman, 2000, p. 304; Brown, 2000a, p. 296; Brown, 2000b, pp. 231, 238; Trevarthen, 1999; Cross, 2001, p. 37; Christensen-Dalsgaard, 2004, Sect. 2.1; Levitin, 2006, p. 258; Brandt, 2008, pp. 6–7; see also Croom (2010b, 2012, under review) for a new account of the evolutionary origins of music that is based on principles of biological synchronization and efficiency, which is more explanatorily powerful than previous accounts but is still consistent with the particular points made here by group selectionists). For instance, synchronized chorusing has been found in certain species of insects (Otte, 1977; Greenfield and Shaw, 1983) and frogs (Wells, 1977; Klump and Gerhardt, 1992), and fireflies have been shown to synchronize their bioluminescent flashing at night (Buck, 1988). Researchers have also found that there are at least several hundred species of birds that perform precisely synchronized duets in order to stay in sync reproductively, strengthen partnership bonds, or defend territories (Brown, 2000b, p. 247). So it is plausible, many group selectionists argue, that musical behavior likewise evolved in humans to unite individuals into groups and strengthen partnership bonds (Brown, 2000b, p. 247). “[S]inging, marching, and laughing tunes the group,” as Seligman (2011, pp. 144–145) says.
In his article “A neurobiological role of music in social bonding,” Freeman (2000) proposed that the rhythmically repeated and predictable motions between agents that we find in music and dance facilitate joint action through the synchronization of attention and expectation between agents (p. 420). This, in turn, is hypothesized to facilitate interpersonal coordination, social bonding, and possibly even reproductive benefits. For instance, one hypothesis that has been suggested is that a group of male chimpanzees, upon discovering a resource such as large fruit trees, synchronize their chorusing in order to produce a stronger vocalization than other groups of males for the purpose of attracting the attention of – and thus increasing the probability of mating with – migrating females (Merker, 2000, pp. 318–320; see also Wrangham, 1975; Wrangham, 1979). In this sort of way, synchronized group chorusing among chimpanzees and even humans might have conferred reproductive advantages, in addition to more obvious advantages in hunting and combat. Further, in order to explain the fact that the cranial capacity of our hominid ancestors’ skulls doubled in size from approximately 600 cm3 5000,000 years ago to approximately 1,200 cm3 in the present, Humphrey (1986) has argued that those with larger, more robust brains had more computational power with which to solve social problems and dilemmas, which in turn positively contributed to their sociality and interpersonal relationships (see also Seligman, 2011).
In any case, regardless of the specific details of our evolutionary past, a great deal of our behavior today is in fact oriented toward strengthening our social bonds with others, and we typically experience better physical, mental, and emotional health when we have others to bond with (Argyle, 1999; Myers, 1999). Our positive emotions are largely influenced by and directed at others (Seligman, 2011) and it has been shown by several scholars that participating in enjoyable activities with friends is predictive of subjective well-being (Heady et al., 1985). Argyle, for instance, mentions that “social clubs, music, and voluntary work all show strong positive effects” for the well-being of the individuals participating in these activities (Argyle, 1999, p. 353). Given the fact that musical performances are often done with or for others, a commitment to a musically engaged life could positively contribute to one’s well-being. Commitments such as career involvement, marriage, and religion have been associated with improved overall life satisfaction (Batson and Ventis, 1982; Kessler and Essex, 1982; Cantor and Sanderson, 1999), and since a musically structured life is one constituted by genuinely engaged involvements and commitments to musical investments, rehearsals, and performances, we have good reason to believe that musical activity can also positively contribute to one’s overall life satisfaction. As Argyle writes:
A lot of leisure activities [for example, musical activities] are done in groups, such as [… music bands,] choirs, and teams, and this is a source of happiness […] the mood-inducing nature of the[se] activities, such as dancing and music, and also the social support and social integration [involved in these activities, all positively contribute to one’s level of wellbeing]. Indeed, it is possible to fulfill a variety of social needs through such activities – [for instance, one’s needs] for intimacy, public performance, cooperation, and so on. (Argyle, 1999, p. 364; see also Argyle, 1996)
Other work has shown that individuals in close relationships with others cope better with stress and illness (Cohen, 1988; House et al., 1988; Nelson, 1988) and are less likely to die prematurely (Abbey and Andrews, 1985; Perlman and Rook, 1987) than individuals lacking in close relationships. Individuals that have a network of social support are likely to live longer than individuals that do not (Vaillant, 2003), and when participants were asked which element in life would bring them the most happiness, most cited love, or close interpersonal relationships (Freedman, 1978; Berscheid, 1983; Pettijohn and Pettijohn, 1996). It should be clear that participating in a band or musical group can serve as a means for building close relationships with others, since the mastery of a musical work provides the band members with a common purpose, common ground, and a potentially extensive amount of time together for the sake of rehearsal and performance. That is to say, participation and commitment to activities, such as musical events, often involves participation with and commitment to others, as many activities involve a social component and are of sociocultural significance (Erikson, 1950; Havighurst, 1972).
Furthermore, Brickman and Coates (1987) have shown that individuals often benefit more from helping and caring for others than they do from being helped and cared for themselves, and so, as Cantor and Sanderson (1999) point out, social contact and participation with others “may be associated with well-being not only directly by providing social support and assistance, but also indirectly by providing individuals with opportunities to care for others” (p. 235). In fact, Seligman (2011) reports that doing kind deeds for others produces the most reliable momentary increase in well-being than any exercise his team has tested and that “Other people are the best antidote to the downs of life and the single most reliable up” (p. 20). Musicians, like other performers, have the opportunity to care for others every time they perform. Insofar as music listeners enjoy listening to music, musicians have the opportunity to provide listeners with something that they enjoy, and thereby have the opportunity to perform a kind deed for others every time they perform. And insofar as performing kind deeds for others can reliably produce momentary increases in well-being, as Seligman (2011) has argued, this suggests that performing music for others can produce momentary increases in well-being also. Furthermore, insofar as a musician is cognizant of the fact that their performance is providing pleasure and momentary increases of well-being to their listeners, that musician is afforded evidential support for believing that they have actually accomplished something (see Music and Accomplishment) and that their actions are meaningful or purposeful (see Music and Meaning; see also Seligman, 2011). Thus, participation and commitment to shared activities can facilitate social bonding or connection with others (Baumeister and Leary, 1995), often times through the development of shared sensitivities and norms for evaluative ascriptions (Croom, 2010a,b, 2011a,b, 2012), which influence both the individual and the larger community within which that individual participant is engaged (Putnam, 1995).
Music and Engagement
Musical activity is not only of practical application for the cultivation of positive emotions and strong interpersonal relationships, although musical activity often does serve these functions. Music can also positively influence other features that we have identified as characteristic of a flourishing life. Another important feature that we identified as characteristic of a flourishing life was the presence of flow experiences, i.e., experiences where “psychic energy flows effortlessly” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p. 36) and one is attentively absorbed and skillfully engaged in an activity that one finds valuable. As Seligman describes it, “engagement, is about flow: being one with the music, time stopping, and the loss of self-consciousness during an absorbing activity” (Seligman, 2011, p. 11). Features of flow experiences include perceptions of control, task focus, and a resultant absence of public self-consciousness (Vallerand et al., 2003; Mageau et al., 2005; Forest et al., 2008; Philippe et al., 2009). Previous research has shown that, in contrast with people that do not experience flow, people with flow experiences typically report higher levels of well-being (Haworth and Hill, 1992; Haworth and Evans, 1995; Haworth, 1997; Csikszentmihalyi, 1999; Eisenberger et al., 2005; Carpentier et al., 2011), positive emotions, positive moods, and pride (Han, 1988; Clarke and Haworth, 1994; Bloch, 2002; Delle Fave and Massimini, 2004).
The experience of flow is no stranger to musicians, and in fact, Tchaikovsky had famously said that, “Do not believe those who try to persuade you that composition is only a cold exercise of the intellect. The only music capable of moving and touching us is that which flows from the depths of a composer’s soul when he is stirred by inspiration” (quoted in Vernon, 1970, p. 58). Of this fluid, flowing state of the mind and body, Tchaikovsky further remarked that it was “a great thing if the main ideas and general outline of a [musical] work come without any racking of brains, as the result of that supernatural and inexplicable force we call inspiration” (p. 58). Wolfgang Mozart also reported that, “When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer […] my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not; nor can I force them” (quoted in Vernon, 1970, p. 55).
One psychologist that has done extensive research in this area is Csikszentmihalyi, and in his (1990) book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, he reports finding that people are happiest when they are most absorbed in their actions and experiencing flow. In their article “Effects of asynchronous music on flow states and shooting performance among netball players,” Pates et al. (2003) show that musical engagement can indeed “enhance performance [on concentration tasks] and trigger emotions and cognitions associated with flow” (p. 426). Work carried out by Chandrasekaran and Kraus (2010) also suggests that, “Musicians show less degraded brainstem representation of speech relative to non-musicians, as evidenced by faster neural timing, enhanced spectral representation, and better stimulus-to-response correlations” and that “the differences in spectral representation between musicians and non-musicians are large, suggesting that musical experience protects against the debilitating effects of background noise” (p. 301; see also Parbery-Clark et al., 2009). Findings like this are relevant for our understanding of flow because, insofar as background factors that distract someone from engaging attentively with their current activity interrupts their experience of flow (Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi, 2002; Carpentier et al., 2011), and insofar as the reduction of background noise that musical experience affords can help facilitate one’s engaging attentively with their current activity, it is arguably the case that musical experience can thereby positively contribute to one’s becoming fully absorbed in their actions and achieving the experience of flow.
Kubovy (1999) has previously linked Csikszentmihalyi’s (1975) work on flow to the experience of virtuosity, and he explains that in flow experiences we often experience the exercise of virtuosity, whereby “an act is performed with virtuosity if it is difficult for most people to do but is carried out with ease and economy” by oneself, and often accompanied by “the pleasure we have when we feel we are doing something well” (Kubovy, 1999, pp. 147–148). We can even experience the pleasures of virtuosity relative to our prior lack of ability, as, for instance, Sudnow (1978, 1979) describes his experience of accomplishment over the 6 year period in which he learned to improvise jazz on the piano. “The pleasures of virtuosity make us want to do things well,” Kubovy (1999) remarks, “and hence we play in order to achieve this pleasure, which gives us skills we need to survive” (p. 148). In flow experience we are optimally attentive and tuned in to what we are doing, deploying our most developed skills which in turn afford us feedback in the form of positive emotions, a sense of accomplishment and purpose, and even better relationships (Seligman, 2011, p. 24). So musical practice and performance, as a conduit for flow experiences, likewise offers us an avenue for attunement, perceptual and cognitive exercise, the accomplishment of successful motor execution, the experience of positive emotional states and pleasurable auditory stimulation, the meaning derived from participating in a larger social entity and offering a distinctive contribution, and connecting with others.
Music and Accomplishment
Up to this point we have now discussed how musical engagement can positively influence one’s positive emotions, relationships with others, and flow experiences. Next, we will discuss how music can positively influence one’s sense of accomplishment and meaning in life. First, it seems clear that music can in fact contribute to one’s sense of accomplishment. For instance, Tchaikovsky once said of his musical career that, “I can affirm with joy that I make continual progress on the way of self-development, and am passionately desirous of attaining the highest degree of perfection of which my talents are capable” (quoted in Vernon, 1970, p. 60). Many practicing musicians are likely to feel the same way, and accordingly, musical involvement can help people attain a sense of personal accomplishment. Numerous findings have demonstrated that those individuals that made the most significant accomplishments in their field of practice were those that spent the most time devoted to carefully practicing what it is that they do (Chase and Simon, 1973a,b; Hayes, 1981; Bloom, 1985; Ericsson et al., 1993; Weisberg, 1999). For instance, Bloom (1985) conducted a study based on interviews of accomplished professionals from a broad range of fields – including, for instance, highly accomplished scientists (e.g., mathematicians and neurologists recognized for excellence in early career development), musicians (e.g., award-winning pianists), artists (e.g., award-winning sculptors), and athletes (e.g., Olympic swimmers and tennis players recognized among the world’s top 10) – and found that accomplishment by individuals in each of these fields required years of dedicated and attentive practice to their particular activity, while also partly depending on the support provided by one’s friends and family, and the informed guidance provided by one’s parents, coaches, and role models (Bloom, 1985; Weisberg, 2006). A study conducted by Ericsson et al. (1993) that focused on the accomplishment of musicians in particular found that accomplished professional musicians spent, not only more time practicing than less accomplished musicians, but also more time sleeping, suggesting that sleep can facilitate learning from attentive and effortful musical practice (Ericsson et al., 1993; Weisberg, 2006). But the main finding for our purposes here is that what distinguishes a truly outstanding musician, or any other specialist or professional, from those of less or no skill is the amount of structured motor behavior they have unreflectively available for action, which is itself typically the result of undergoing hard-earned practice and repetitive motor drill (Seligman, 2011). For instance, studies have found that world-class musicians averaged 10,000 h of solo practice by the time they were 20 years old, in contrast to 5,000 h for the next lower level musician, and in contrast with 2,000 h for merely serious amateur musicians (Ericsson et al., 1993; Weisberg, 2006).
Similar findings have been demonstrated outside of the domain of musical performance – for instance, in musical composition, poetry, and chess (Chase and Simon, 1973a; Hayes, 1981; Weisberg, 1999) – and this consistent finding is now frequently referred to as the 10-year rule (Hayes, 1981, 1989; Gardner, 1993; Weisberg, 2006) for the straightforward reason that “if you want to become world class at anything, you must spend 60 h a week on it for 10 years” (Seligman, 2011, p. 115). Thus, Aristotle’s insight on the nature of excellence seems to have been on the right track. As Aristotle advised, “virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions […] the Good of Man comes to be “a working of the Soul in the way of Excellence” […] for as it is not one swallow or one fine day that makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy” (Aristotle, 1911; Book II, 4; Book I, 7). “Human excellence,” in musicality as in morality, comes about as a result of habit (Aristotle, 1911; Book II, 1).
I previously mentioned in Section “Music and Relationships” that one can use participation in a band or musical group as a means for building close relationships with others, since the mastery of a musical work provides the band members with a common purpose, common ground, and a potentially extensive amount of time together for the sake of rehearsal and performance. But not only are individual members brought together to collectively constitute the larger whole that is their band, but this collective constitution also typically assigns each member a unique role to perform within that larger whole. Since each member is assigned a role to perform, and since each member can perform that role poorly or proficiently, the musician’s ability to come through and deliver during their musical opportunities can provide them with the sense of accomplishing their musical part successfully, instead of with ineptitude. A well executed and emotionally inspiring musical performance requires not only musical knowledge and technique, but also a performer’s confidence and social grace, and the collective manifestation of these features in a single musical act by the performer surely counts as a bona fide accomplishment (indeed, audiences often pay good money to witness such accomplishments). Also, since people often listen to music because they enjoy it, the musician’s act of performing a musical work for an audience of listeners is at the same time an act of providing listeners with something that they enjoy. Thus, the musician’s ability to competently bring joy and pleasure to others through their musical performances can provide them with another way in which to feel like they have genuinely accomplished something.
Music and Meaning
Finally, musical engagement can afford one a sense of meaning or purpose in life. The emotion that music is capable of soliciting from us may influence our well-being, not only through positively influencing our social interactions and relationships with others, but also by positively influencing our sense of coherence in the world and our sense of identity (Frijda, 1999). Indeed, having a sense of meaning or purpose in life is important, since it has been shown that the absence of meaning in one’s life can cause depression (Seligman, 2011). Research has shown that pursuing and making progress toward goals that one finds valuable, such as becoming a more proficient musician, are associated with positive affect, as well as physical and psychological well-being (Diener, 1984; Emmons, 1986; Cantor and Sanderson, 1999). A consistent commitment to goals and tasks may even provide consistency to one’s life in times of adversity, helping individuals cope with the various problems they face at each of life’s developmental stages (Cantor and Sanderson, 1999). It has been suggested that this is because commitment to particular goals can provide one with a consistent sense of personal agency (Cantor, 1990), structure, and purpose in their daily life (Klinger, 1975; Little, 1983; Cantor and Sanderson, 1999). In this way, musical goals can provide one with a consistent sense of personal agency (e.g., I am a musical performer), structure (e.g., routine practices and performances), and purpose (e.g., I am the alto saxophonist in the band X and play the sax solo in song Y) in their daily life.
Since an individual that participates with others in a band or musical group is also thereby provided the opportunity to play a distinctive and significant role in something larger than themselves, and as “The Meaningful Life” has often been characterized by positive psychologists as “belonging to and serving something that you believe is bigger than the self” (Seligman, 2011, p. 12), an individual that participates with others in a band or musical group can thereby positively influence their experience of having meaning or purpose in life. For instance, the solo saxophonist during a jazz band performance plays a vital social and esthetic function during the musical context in which all ears are on him, and the ability to come through and deliver in those musical moments keeps his style and identity, as well as his band’s, intact. Each band member, as a dependable musical comrade, has a role and a responsibility to the larger band to which they submit themselves as constituent members. And insofar as one consistently performs their social role and responsibility as a contributing musical member, this can provide the musician with a venue through which to continually re-experience a moment of purpose in their life. Various musical performances that the musician has previously accomplished with success could also provide the musician with salient memories of those prized moments when he had served his musical purpose successfully in the past.
Potential Maladaptive Consequences of Musical Activity
It should be mentioned before concluding this article that musical activity does not always or necessarily lead to well-being. In fact, there are various risks associated with musical activity, like any other physically demanding activity that can be done excessively or incorrectly (Sataloff et al., 1991; see also Fishbein et al., 1988; Middlestadt and Fishbein, 1988; Zaza, 1998). Some of these risks are more instrument-specific than others. For instance, pianists are particularly susceptible to musculoskeletal pain and problems in the hands and wrists (Yoshimura et al., 2006), whereas woodwind players are particularly susceptible to problems in the orofacial musculature (Fuks and Fadle, 2002). Others problems, however, are more general and include psychosomatic symptoms associated with performance anxiety (Langendörfer et al., 2006) as well as injuries resulting from inappropriate practicing techniques, poor posture, and poor physical conditioning.
The British Association for Performing Arts Medicine, for instance, conducted a study on 1,046 musicians and found that 52% of them had problems resulting from technical faults or inappropriate practicing procedures. Specifically, they found that improper performance techniques, excessive practicing without breaks or rest, poor posture, insufficient exercise, and general misuse of the body drastically increased one’s susceptibility to music-related injuries (Wynn Parry, 2004, p. 47). Another study by Kreutz et al. (2008) also suggested that “significant proportions of [the] health problems among music performance students emerge from general dispositions, such as posture [which can affect the spine and upper extremities] and fatigue, and thus are not specific to the instrument played” (p. 3). Accordingly, research suggests that musicians wanting to prevent or downplay potential music-related injuries while maximizing music-related benefits should spend an appropriate amount of time warming up, cooling down, and resting at intervals during practice sessions, pay particular attention to the posture of their spine and upper limbs, and maintain a healthy diet and exercising regimen (Wynn Parry, 2004; Kreutz et al., 2008). Kreutz, Ginsborg, and Williamon have suggested that “These [more general] issues should take priority perhaps even over those that are specific to the voice or individual instrument being played” (Kreutz et al., 2008, p. 11). Fortunately, music departments and conservatories have become increasingly aware of the potential risks associated with musical practice and performance, and have been actively creating special programs concerned with both the prevention and treatment of music-related injuries (Chesky et al., 2006). For further discussion I refer the reader to the literature (Fishbein et al., 1988; Middlestadt and Fishbein, 1988; Sataloff et al., 1991; Liu and Hayden, 2002; Wynn Parry, 2004; Spahn et al., 2005; Chesky et al., 2006; Williamon and Thompson, 2006; Kreutz et al., 2008, 2009), as a more focused discussion of this topic is admittedly beyond the scope of the present article.
Like any other activity that imposes physical demands on performers, there are potential risks associated with music-related activities; we briefly reviewed some of these and discussed preventive solutions in Section “Potential Maladaptive Consequences of Musical Activity.” But as these issues have been discussed elsewhere (Fishbein et al., 1988; Middlestadt and Fishbein, 1988; Sataloff et al., 1991; Liu and Hayden, 2002; Wynn Parry, 2004; Spahn et al., 2005; Chesky et al., 2006; Williamon and Thompson, 2006; Kreutz et al., 2008, 2009), the main purpose of this article was to offer new insight into the question of whether musical activity can positively contribute to one’s living a flourishing life. My claim was that musical activity can do this, and throughout the course of this article I have offered new evidence in support of this claim. Specifically, I began by presenting the five commonly recognized factors characteristic of human flourishing or well-being: (1) “positive emotion,” (2) “relationships,” (3) “engagement,” (4) “achievement,” and (5) “meaning” (Seligman, 2011, p. 24). In order to determine whether musical activity could actually increase one’s level of well-being, we investigated whether it could actually increase one’s level of positive emotions, strong interpersonal relationships and rapport with others, commitment in engaging activities, level of accomplishment, and experience of meaning or purpose in life. In Section “Music and Positive Emotion” I argued that music can positively influence one’s level of positive emotions, in Section “Music and Relationships” I argued that music can positively influence one’s interpersonal relationships and rapport with others, in Section “Music and Engagement” I argued that music can positively influence one’s commitment in engaging activities, in Section “Music and Accomplishment” I argued that music can positively influence one’s level of accomplishment, and in Section “Music and Meaning” I argued that music can positively influence one’s experience of meaning or purpose in life. Thus, throughout the course of this article we have established that musical engagement can positively influence all five of these factors, and as a result, we have compelling evidence that musical engagement can positively contribute to one’s living a flourishing life. Since prior to this study there had not yet been a substantive and up-to-date investigation of the possible role of music in contributing to one’s living a flourishing life, this study offers a novel contribution to existing work by carrying out this original investigation, thereby bridging the gap and stimulating discussion between the psychology of music and the psychology of well-being.
Conflict of Interest Statement
The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
I would first and foremost like to thank Marty Seligman and the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania for generously offering me financial support to carry out this research. I have also greatly benefited from conversations with Stephen Amico, Liz Camp, Yale Cohen, Paul Guyer, Robert Kurzban, Jairo Moreno, Carol Muller, Alex Rozin, Paul Rozin, Susan Schneider, and Dmitri Tymoczko, and I owe them much thanks. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Dan Lloyd and the two reviewers of this article for their very helpful comments and suggestions.
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Keywords: music, neuroscience, well-being, positive emotions, relationships, flow, achievement, meaning
Citation: Croom AM (2012) Music, neuroscience, and the psychology of well-being: a précis. Front. Psychology 2:393. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00393
Received: 22 September 2011;
Accepted: 15 December 2011;
Published online: 02 January 2012.
Edited by:Dan Lloyd, Trinity College, USA
Reviewed by:Andrea Eugenio Cavanna, Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Douglas Bruce Johnson, Music Conservatory of Westchester, USA
Copyright: © 2012 Croom. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited.
*Correspondence: Adam M. Croom, Positive Psychology Center and Department of Psychology, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. e-mail: [email protected] | <urn:uuid:24a35e85-6d8b-4fc3-9a38-1080213f0162> | {
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Bhagbali Pande of Chhatarpur
Four very early shrines of the post-reconstruction period at Kundalpur were built by legendary Bhagbali Pande of Chhatarpur 11. Three of the temples contain undated idols of local sandstone, and one of them contains an idol installed by Jivaraj Papdival. One of his temples is on the west side of the lake near the Jal-Mandir. No detailed information about Bhagbali Pande is available. While I have not come across an inscription mentioning him, some old manuscripts still preserved in Chhatarpur mentioned that they were written for him. According to the tradition he was an accomplished scholar and author. His title Pande (Sanskrit Pandit) reflects his scholarly background.
Several miracles are mentioned about him 10. It is said that he could make his palki move without any kahars (palanquin bearers). One time during a drought he had caused rain to happen using the power of his mantras. Kamal Kumar Jain 10 mentions that a memorial platform in Chhatarpur named after Chhatrasal; built by Chhatrasal himself was founded during the time of Bhagbali Pande. He is also said to have been respected by Chhatrasal’s court. Bhagbali Pande and an associate named Balkishun lived in Chhatarpur on Dera Pahari, where five temples built by him still stand. The traditional accounts of Bhagbali Pande would suggest that he was somewhat like a bhattaraka, however no information has been found that would associate him with a known bhattaraka seat. | <urn:uuid:3718facd-672d-4bf0-ac79-a887137a75b9> | {
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A: Arabic/Persian/Farsi; Gr: Greek; L: Latin; J: Japanese; Fr. French; K:
Korean; Heb: Hebrew.
In the Japanese language nouns are the same in both the plural and singular form. When we adopt the word in English, we honor this by refraining to add the ‘s’ of our plural. In indicating pronunciations, the letter within the parenthesis shows the word the sound is taken from but is itself not spoken.
accent – AC(t)-SENT (L: accentus – song added to speech) Greater articulary force, resulting from greater musculatory exertion in forming a sound. This may be achieved by raised or lowered pitch, or duration or a combination of both. Though some find differences between accent and stress, the two words are often used interchangeably.
acrostic – A-CROSS-TIC (Gr. at the tip of the verse) In an acrostic verse the first letter, or the last, of each line or stanza adds up to the name of the topic, the author, addressee or the title of the work. The oldest examples are from Babylonian texts from1,000 B.C. Both Chinese ring poems (which can be read by starting anywhere in the poem) and Japanese poems use the acrostic.
ageku -AH-GAY-COO (J: completing verse) The last stanza of a renga. The link that attempts to summarize the whole work with a reference to the beginning stanza.
aishôka AA-EYE-SHOW-KAH (J: laments) One of the designated topics for the organization of poems within an anthology and of certain stanzas of a renga.
allegory – ALL-LEH-GORY (Gr. allos "other" + agoreuein "to speak") A work that is composed so that its apparent sense can also refer to another different sense at the same time. At times this has been done by an extended metaphor or figural images. It is part of the process of trying to express what cannot be said with language and plays a large part in love poetry of all languages.
alliteration – A-LITTER-A-SHUN The repetition of a sound in different words close enough for the ear to hear them together. Alliteration was often used in early poetry before the popularity of rhyme. Almost every major poetry used alliteration except Isreali, Persian and Arabic.
allusion – A-LOU-SHUN The inclusion in a poem of identifiable elements from other sources. The allusion can be used to display knowledge, exclude the unknowledgeable reader, or to add richness and depth to the poem. Often the source of the allusion was other written works - honkadori, but in Japanese poetry works of art, famous places and everyday life were widely used.
aphorism – A-FOR-ISM. See epigram.
assonance – ASS-OH-NONCE (L: assonare – to answer with the same sound) An aural device in which one word echoes another. Sometimes used in substitution for rhyme even in modern times. Assonance is close to, but not the same as alliteration.
aware - AH-WAH-RAY (J: touching-ness) The quality of an object to touch one's emotions, often with pathos or sadness. Your native flag has aware; another country's better designed flag does not have it.
banka – BAHN-KAH J: Poems of mourning for a death. A category of poetry used in organizing anthologies.
Basho - BAH-SHOW and not BASH-OH (J: banana tree) The pen name of the poet Matsuo Yozaemon inspired by his delight in a such a plant given to him by a student to be planted outside the window of his newest hut on the outskirts of what is now known as Tokyo. Renga Master, Poet of Poets, Legend of Japanese literature: Basho is now a common English-Japanese word that makes people respond with the words, "Frog!" or "Autumn Crow!" in the same way that "Thank you" brings forth "You are welcome".
bathos – BA-TOES (Gr: depth) An attempt at elevated expression which misfires and so had the unintentional effect of sudden transport from the sublime to the ridiculous. Bathos maybe consciously used in parody for an anticlimax of irony but most of the time the term is applied in a pejorative manner to the work of others.
blank verse Poetry in which a highly patterned line shape replaced rhyme. The style was developed in England between 1539 – 1546 by the Earl of Surrey for his translation of the books of the Aeneid. The obliteration of the rhyme scheme greatly aided the writing of longer works and reintroduced the word order of the spoken language. It was greatly used by Shakespeare who mixed blank verse with rhymed verse and songs to add variety to his plays.
bungaku BUN-GAH-COO J: The study of literature.
bungei BUN-GEE J: Literature or art.
caesura - SAY-SURE-A (F. césure) A break in the metrical structure of a line. Related to the pause but is usually indicated with a punctuation and is therefore slightly longer in duration. It is closer to a ‘rest’ than a pause. Absolutely vital in the rhythm patterns of the sijo.
cinquain – SIN-QUAY-N The poetry form devised by Adelaide Crapsy around 1910, supposedly based on the tanka, in which five lines are filled with the syllable count of 2/4/6/8/2.
choka - CHOKE-AH (J: long poem) A poem of indeterminate length which was built on the repeating of a 5-7, 5-7 sound units per line pattern. The final couplet indicated the close by using 7/7 units. The longest example in the Man’ yoshû consists of 149 lines. A favorite genre about a thousand years ago which has enjoyed some revival at different times since.
chokusenshû CHOKE-OU-SEN-SHOE J: The twenty-one anthologies of poetry commissioned by imperial decree in thirteen different eras.
clerihew CLAIRE-EE-HEW A light-verse English poetry form for giving biographical information in quatrains consisting of two rhymed couplets developed by Edmund Clerihew Bentley as a schoolboy in 1890. The clerihew is deliberately clunky and rough and seems related to the limerick.
dai - DAY'EE (J: given subject) In Japan it was often customary that a group of poets were given a theme on which to write their poems for competitions. Thus, it came that poets often organized their own work according to certain acceptable topics.
daisan - DAY'EE-SAH-N (J: the third) In renga, the official name for the third stanza which ends, in English, with a verb - often a gerund [ending in -ing].
danjo utaawase - DAN-JOE-OU-TAH-WAH-SAY J: A tanka contest with men on one side and women on the other.
Danrin – DAN-RIN J: A popular style of haikai no renga to which Basho was opposed. It had become light-hearted, witty and to his thinking, frivolous. His student Kikaku was more in line with danrin school ideals and yet, at the end of Basho’s life, when he adopted a philosophy of writing with more lightness, Kikaku left him.
divan (diwan) – DIE-WAN (A: collection). Used in a title of a book, it means a collection or anthology. Used in the upper case it refers to the collection of Hafez’s poetry that is used as a tool of divination in the Middle East.
dokugin - DOE-COO-JEAN J: A solo work of a sequence or renga written by one person.
engo – EN-GO (J: verbal association) Words thought to be associated by meaning, convention or sound. A knowledge of these was absolutely basic to the writing of tanka, in order to connect the two sections, and in renga to make the leaps between links.
enjambment - N-JAM-MENT (Fr: enjambement) The practice named by Ronsard in the 16th century of breaking the sense of a line by placing part of the phrase on the second line. A device in which the phrase end is no longer the end of the line. The practice of the enjambment causes a slight distress in the audience because the reader wants the phrase break to come in the familiar place for the rhythm of the poem but it doesn’t. Often the sense of the poem can be changed or emphasis given by creating an enjambment.
epigram – EH-PAH-GRAM (Gr: epigramma – inscription) The use of satire as an aphoristic observation with extreme brevity and caustic wit. Most often takes the form of a couplet or quatrain but the tone defines the genre more than the shape. Both the Japanese haiku and senryu exhibit this quality.
epitaph – EH-PI-TAF (Gr: writing on a tomb) A literary work suitable to be inscribed on a monument or tombstone what indicates the salient facts or characteristics of the deceased. A shortened form of the elegy, the epitaph may be panegyric or ribald. The epitaph may be in a prose or verse form and is often related to the epigram.
epithalamium – EH-PI-THA-LA-MEUM (Gr: at the bridal chamber) A wedding song sung outside the bridal chamber on the wedding night. Different from the gamelios, or song sung at the wedding ceremony.
euphony – YOU-PHONY The quality of having pleasant, easily pronounced, or smooth-flowing sound which are free of harshness and discord. Some find "linked sweetness drawn out" as an attribute and others do not; so it is a matter of taste in defining poetical attributes.
flyting –FLY-TING A Scottish form of linked poetry in which combatants exchange insults and boasts in a highly flamboyant and exaggerated language bordering on slander and hyperbole. Can also be found in Celtic and Arabic poetry.
free verse – (Fr. vers libre) A poetry form without a structural grid based on meter, syllable count or rhyme which is now the most-used genre in contemporary poetry. It seems to complete the circle back to the earliest ‘poetry’ before the invention of these devices indicative of poetry.
fueki – F(y)OU-EE-KEY. (J: changelessness) The idea of eternal truths that poets aimed for with their ideals.
fûga – FUH-GAH J: true art. A title given to only two of the six kinds of Chinese poetry was also the art of poetry or prose. Waka was seen as a true art but not haikai no renga until Basho’s influence elevated it to this status.
fûgetsu – FUH-GET-SUE (J: wind and moon). Natural scenery which was considered the essential elements of true or fine art.
furimono – FOU-RE-MO-NO (J: falling things) A motif category to designate phenomenon which fall like rain, snow, dew, etc. The opposite of sobikimono – rising phenomenon like fog, clouds, smoke, etc.
ga – GAH (J: elegant or elegance) The highest form of any art in opposition to zoku. Art designated as ga was considered not only the highest but also official as recognized by society. At first, the term was only applied to works written in Chinese, especially waka, but later works written in Japanese also obtained this status. As suffix (renga) and prefix (gagaku) ga was also written as ka as in tanka and waka. At the time Basho was alive his work, called haikai no renga was not considered to be ga, but he worked to elevate it to this status by his use of the term fûga.
ga no uta – GAH-NO-OU-TAH (J: elegant song) The designation for congratulatory poems or auspicious poems written in praise of something or someone. A poetic topic for the ordering of poems within an anthology.
ghazal – GAZ-ZEL A: a poem form dating back to 7th century Arabia which is still being written and sung to musical accompaniment. The traditional form is in couplets in which the end rhyme or refrain is repeated in every couplet. There is no enjambment between couplets and each one is complete in sense and syntax. Only the repeat and / or rhyme connects the non-linear associations. Originally drinking songs, the ghazal still is often witty while imparting wry philosophical opinions often on love or life. As is typical of tavern poetry, the poem is signed by the poet inserting his (most were written by men) name as part of the last couplet.
gingko – GING-KOH J: A trip or walk or outing made for the distinct purpose of being inspired for the writing of haiku. When done in a group, the haiku are spoken aloud as the participants amble along in a garden or other scenic spot.
glosa – GLOS-SAH Any poem expanding on the theme presented in the introductory stanza and usually repeating one or more lines of the opening in subsequent stanzas. Based on the Spanish form the mote, of the 14th century in which a line or short stanza, called the cabeza which set the theme of the poem. Following stanzas were built from phrases or lines of the cabeza which were often used at the ends of lines like a refrain.
gojuin - GO-JEW-EEN J: A 50-link renga.
goshû – GO-SHOE (J: later collection). A collection published posthumously. The opposite of zenshû.
gunsaku - GOO'N-SAH-KOO (J: group work) A term for poems written by a group of persons. The work can be interactive, with each one linking to another, or they can cohere around a subject (dai) which represents various viewpoints while each part can be read as a complete whole. The main difference between a gunsaku and a rensaku is that the verses in a gunsaku can stand alone. In spite of the name, it can be done by one person.
ha - HAH J: The 24-link "body" or middle part of a kasen renga. The renga is divided into three parts as was done with music. The first page and those six stanza are the jo. The last page and those six stanza are the kyu. Each has different attributes. The ha is characterized by many shifts in scene and more non-seasonal verses.
haiga - HI-GAH (painting) J: Brush and ink drawing done to accompany a handwritten haiku or hokku. It is usually a rough sketch, slightly abstract or simplified in style like a cartoon. In the current revival of interest in haiga, photographs and computer generated artwork are also used.
haigon - HI-GO'N (J: haikai words) Words not allowed in serious poetry meaning those words in foreign languages or those too vulgar for polite company. Such expressions used in haikai writing are signposts of the genre.
haijin - HI-GIN (J: a person who writes haiku or haikai) A name of honor for a haiku poet.
haikai - HI-K'EYE (J: humor, joke or unusual) A designation for humorous poems which was later used to substitute for the phrase haikai-no-renga which as become a generic word for linked poetry in this vein.
haikai-no-renga - HI-K'EYE-NO-RAY'N-GAH (J: comic renga) In Basho's time it meant vulgar, earthy renga, full of satire and puns, which was the dominant mode at that time. When Basho spoke of his work, this is what he called it.
haibun - HI-BUN (J: prose in the style of haikai) By adopting and adapting the practice of ancient diary keepers of Japan who combined prose with tanka, Basho created a new style by combining his diary accounts with his hokku. In English the term indicates a terse style of prose combined with either haiku or tanka or both or even other forms. When the subject of the work is a journey it becomes kikô (bungaku) or nikki (bungaku) although in English we do not yet make this distinction.
haikaika - HI-K-EYE-KAH or haikaika no uta. Poems grouped in the nineteenth part of the Kokinshû and considered indecorous or humorous due to deficiencies or excesses of language or conception.
haiku - HI-COO (J: a verse of haikai) Thus it originally meant a verse taken from a renga, but in this century, the word was coined by Shiki to be synonymous with hokku. From this came the idea that haiku had to have the elements of the hokku, a kigo and a kireji, but most important was the linking of images completely within the three lines without relying on connections with other elements to make a completed thought. Also it was to be uplifting, edifying, profound, and not fun. Modern poets have reverted back to writing haiku which could have been the stanza from any part of a renga.
hanja – HAN(d)-JAH J: A judge in a poetry contest.
hanka – HAN(d)-KAH (J: envoy) One or more envoys were short poems added to the end of a long poem rather like an abridged version of the poem or emphasizing the important aspect. These short poems (tan-ka) soon became the more popular form then known as waka but now called tanka.
hana no ku - HAH-NAH-NO-COO (J: flower verse) The stanzas (#17 and #35) in a traditional renga in which there must be mention of a flower. In Japanese linked verse the flower is always the cherry blossom, but in English almost any flower is acceptable.
hankasen – HAHN-KAH-SAY'N J: Half of a kasen renga or one with only eighteen stanzas.
hibiki - HE-BEE-KEY (echo) J: A term used when two stanza reflect images closely or relate in the same way.
hiraku - HE-RAH-COO J: The name for any of the stanza in a renga which have no name –those other than the hokku, ageku, etc.
hokku - HOE'K-COO (J: starting verse) The traditional name for the first stanza of a renga. As poets jotted down hokku against the day when they might be called upon to start a renga without preparation, there came to be collections of only beginning verses. Later, in this century, since Shiki, hokku were called haiku, even in Japan.
hokkuwaki – HOE-COO-WAH-KEY (J: hokku = the first stanza of a renga + waki = the second stanza of a renga) If written by one person, and containing the proper subject matter and diction it could be a tanka. If written by two persons, as in renga, it was a tan renga (short linked elegance).
hommondori- HOME-MON-DOOR-EE J: the direct borrowing or taking over of a passage from an older work more or less as it was. When done in English the section is positioned under the title and poet’s name, set aside in italics with the original author’s name. It is a method of giving homage or recognition for the inspiration for a work.
hon’i – HONE-EE (J: essential characteristic). An aesthetic principle that used convention to describe the character of certain things especially in renga writing. For example the subject of love require unrequited longing, travel had to denote the suffering. These codified versions which were gathered from previous admired literature were considered more poetic than reality.
honkadori - HOE'N-KAH-DOE-REE J: A stanza that has borrowed from literature or refers to a commonly known incident from past writings or writers. Distinct from hommondori.
hôraku – WHORE-AH-COO J: Votive poetry composed for presentation to or expressive of the wishes of the gods or of Buddha. Copies of poems were often presented to temples as offerings. Waka offerings were sometimes called hônôka.
hosomi – HOE-SO-ME (J: fineness) A literary term used for haikai no renga and haiku to denote depth of meaning with a subtlety of expressive intent. This was one of Basho’s ideals for haikai in his effort to raise it to a fine art. The lack of this intent after Basho’s death was one of the main causes for the decline in the popularity of the genre in the hands of his followers. Only when Buson revived this intent did haikai regain its quality and acceptance.
hyakuin - HE-YAH-COO-EEN (J: one hundred verses) A term for a poetic work containing that many verses or stanzas. The work could be solo or a collection of poets’ work in tanka, or later came to designate the number of links in a renga.
hyundai- HI-UN-DEE (K: modern). This adjective sets modern sijo apart from the traditional school which is stricter about keeping the syllable count.
iisute – EYE-EYE-SUE-TEA J: An adjective describing a renga with not enough links, or an irregular number, of casual production and not felt worthy of recording.
incantation – IN-CAN-TA-SHUN (L: incantore – to chant, bewitch, cast a spell) Use of a ritualistic formula spoken to produce a magical effect or to charm. Very close to prayer and surely the beginning of poetry.
ji – J-EYE (J: ground). A term used in discussing renga links to designate those which are unimpressive, but yet very necessary to act as mounting for the more impressive stanzas (mon)
jiamari - J-EYE-AH-MAR-EE (J: excess character). In a poetry based on the counting of sound units (on or kana) occasionally a poem would contain one additional unit. Sometimes this was a poetic device and sometimes simply the way the wording resulted.
jikaawase - J-EYE-AH-AH-WAH-SEE J: A poetry match with oneself. A poet would set themes and topics to compose a set of poems often giving them the authorship of fictional poets’ names. These poems were divided into rival groups of "left" and "right". Then the poet would compare, declare and defend the matched poems. This was a way of instruction as well as a method of showing ones understanding of poetry and readiness to judge contests.
jingle – JING-GULL (Medieval English: gyngle) Any verse that pleases the ear by a catchy rhythm and pronounced sound repetition which is often at the expense of sense such as eeny, meeny, miny mo. The tinny effect of excessive alliteration has made this mainstay of commercial advertising a pejorative term among poets.
jo – JOE (J: preface) The introductory part of a collection of poetry or of music. The jo tends to be elevated or smooth. Jo-ha-kyû refers to the development pattern of music which was later adopted for the pacing of renga. The ha = breaking, section was the largest and longest, was agitated and filled with variety. The kyû was climatic with a rush to end in poise and rest.
joryû bungaku – JOE-REW BUN-GAH-COO (J: literature by women) Though much of Japan’s greatest literature was (and is) written by women, the term is still sometime used as dismissive or pejorative.
kaishi - KAY-EE-SHE (J: pocket paper) Small, slim sheets of paper used for writing poems. Implies why one should always have them available and their alternate purpose. Achoo! kaishi! Also see shikishi.
kakekotoba - KAH-KAY-KOH-TOE-BAH (J: pivot word) The use of words which have double meanings. In Japanese this is very easy because most nouns also another meaning as a verb. Examples in English are: leaves / to go away; sprout/ to grow up; blossom / bloom; fall / autumn etc. The knowledge and use of pivot words is paramount in the writing of tanka and very useful in renga, also.
kami no ku – CAM-ME NO COO (J: upper stanza) In tanka, the beginning three parts containing 5/7/5 sound units. Distinct from the lower stanza of 7/7 units called the shimo no ku.
kana – KAH-NAH J: phonic syllabary. Originally the Japanese used Chinese ideograms or characters (kanji) for their own writing. However since they pronounced words differently than the Chinese, it became necessary to have a system of writing that indicated the sounds of the words and not the drawn symbols. For this they devised two systems: one called kana, which is more angular and is used for foreign words, telegrams, for particles, and certain emphasis. Women who were not educated in Chinese writing wrote in kana, and thus their work was sometimes called kanabun or onnade. When a Japanese person is counting the sound units to get the proper five or seven on, they are counting the kana.
kanji – CAN-GEE J: Chinese written characters.
kanshi – CAN-SHE (J: Chinese poem). A Japanese poem written in Chinese characters instead of Japanese. Prose written in Chinese by a Japanese is called kambun = Chinese composition.
kaori - KAH-OH-REE (J: scent or fragrance) A term for the relationship between stanzas in which both evoke the same feeling with very different images. Both a puppy lost in the rain and a newly divorced man might have kaori.
karumi - KAH-RUE-ME (lightness) The quality in writing that Basho encouraged, especially in his later years. Here it meant the beauty of ordinary things spoken of in a simple way. This was the end of puns and word play which was so dear to the hearts of renga writers. Kikaku, his most brilliant student, left him at this point, feeling that karumi lacked challenge and sparkle. People still argue about the concept three hundred years later.
karuta - KAH-REW-TAH J: Any of a number of card games which involve the matching of one element with another – somewhat in the manner of our Old Maid. The most famous one involves matching the two sections of one hundred famous tanka called Hyakuin Isshu which were collected by the famous Fujiwara Teika in the thirteenth century as a model for teaching tanka. The game is associated with New Year’s activities but is played at all times of the year. Usually the group is divided into two teams which compete to identify and find the completing part of the poem.
kasen - KAH-SAY'N (J: immortal poets or sages Meaning the 36 immortal poets of Japan until Basho took the phrase and concept to shorten the hyakuin or hundred verse renga. Kasen is now a term for the 36-verse renga written in the traditional style with moon and flower verses as designed by Basho.
katauta – KAH-TAH-OU-TAH (J: side poem). An early verse form used in the Man’yoshû (an anthology of poetry) consisting of three parts with 5/7/7 sound units. When this form was doubled, it was called the sedôka.
kidai - KEY-DAY'EE (J: season topic) A system that designates a season by agreement among poets which makes the full moon a sign of autumn. As this path is full of potholes and debates, there are dictionaries called saijiki which are devoted to the sport and explain little with many words.
kigo - KEY-GO (J: seasonal word) Nouns which imply the season because they have been traditionally associated with certain times of the year in Japanese literature and/or real life. There are winter birds and summer plants, spring activities and winter skies, fall trees and summer holidays and the list goes on and on. Is a red balloon an indication of summer or fall?
kireji - KEY-RAY-GEE
(J: cutting character) A form of verbal punctuation used to divide Japanese
poetry which not only showed the duration of the pause, but also gave emotional
signals. Some stood alone and others were used as suffixes. Examples are:
ka – emphasis or sometimes a question.
kana – expressing wonder at a scene, event or object.
-keri – a verb suffix in the past perfect tense expressing exclamation.
-shi – adjective suffix to end a clause – much like a comma.
ya – emphasis with the punctuation of a semi-colon, but also can give the sense of suspension as with the use of an ellipsis.
kotoba – KOH-TOE-BAH (J: words, diction, subject matter) The actual words used in poetry as opposed to the feelings the words evoke. In haiga, this refers to the written words placed next to the artwork.
kouta – KOH-OU-TA (J: little song) A broad classification for several varieties of short songs from traditional to popular which is most often associated with the popular songs made popular in the pleasure quarters of Edo (old Tokyo) where they were often composed and sung by geisha to the accompaniment of the shamisen.
kyoka - KEY' YOE-KAH (J: a mad poem) The tone and feel of a limerick written in tanka form and sometimes just as bawdy. Often the subject is about poets or the writing of poems which makes fun of both. Also means tanka using an excessive amount of wordplays as does the daughter of Genji’s rival who was raised in the provinces.
ku - COO (J: verse) Verse or stanza or link.
kuzari - COO-ZAH-REE (J: suspension) The lapse of a number of stanzas between the use of certain words. For example, there should be eight stanza between the use of "dream". And "insects" should be used only once in 100 verses.
language poetry – An American poetry style that emerged in the 1970s that deliberately flattened tonal register with the extensive use of non-sequitur. This is often accomplished by radical condensation into fragment and the displacement of linguistic elements. Thus, language poetry is also called deconstructionism. The development of language poetry has opened the door to greater understanding and use of the haiku.
light verse – A collective term for a wide variety of verse including, folk poetry, nonsense verse, kitsch, ribald and comic poetry. The idea of ‘light’ as requiring little mental activity, amusing, entertaining has been expanded to funny or witty. The limerick is probably the oldest form of light verse which has been joined by the clerihew and the senryu. In recent years the term has come to be used to indicate ‘bad verse’ or trivial or unimportant poetry written in a verse form.
limerick – LIMB-RICK The limerick is the only English stanza form used exclusively for light verse. It was popularized by Edward Lear (1846) but the history of the form remains in doubt. Some claim it came from the Irish town of Limerick due to soldiers bringing home an old French form and others find a connection with nursery rhymes. The form is very exacting with a rhyme scheme of aabba and strict structure of stresses and weak syllables. The main rhyme is often based on the name of a location – "There was an old man from Lymes". The verse usually ends with wit or some indecency.
lyric – LEER-RICK (Gr: lyra – a musical instrument) Lyric is one of the three general categories of poetic literature. The other two being narrative or epic and dramatic. Thus, the lyric most closely retains its connection to music and song even though not all lyrical work is made to be sung. The earliest lyrics were composed in Sumer (modern Iraq) during the times of 2300 – 2000 B.C. as proverbs, hymns, lamentations, incantations, and lovesongs.
madih – MAH-DIE A: the panegyric or final portion of the qasida in which the poet liberally praises the bringer of his victory be it his mount, his lover, Allah, the present ruler or person who paid to have the poem written.
maeku - MAH'EE-COO (J: previous verse) The preceding stanza. The one to which another author is expected to add a verse.
maekuzuki - MAH'EE-COO-ZOO-KEY (J: joining to the previous verse) A game resulting from renga writing in which one person, usually a poet, writes a maeku and someone (or each member of a group) responds with a tsukeku. It can be a contest with the poet then choosing a winner. A maeku plus a tsukeku is a tan renga, the shortest possible kind. The maekuzuki is a sadly neglected practice at the moment, but still it has great possibilities for the enjoyment of linkage on a competitive basis.
matla – MAT-LAH (A: opening couplet) The first stanza of a ghazal which sets the scheme of the rhyme (qafia) or repeat /refrain (radif) by having the word in both lines of the couplet. In following couplets the repeated word or phrase is only used once and usually at the end of the second line – aa, ba, ca.
mankuawase - MAH'N-COO-AH-WAH-SAY (J: collected verses) An anthology of the winning tsukeku (verses) written in a maekuzuki.
Man’yoshû - MAN-YO-SHOE (J: collection of ten thousand leaves.) The title of the first anthology of Japanese poetry was considered to be an anthology of anthologies (most of the rest which are now lost). Compiled in the seventh and eighth centuries (the last dated poem was 759) this work of over 400 poets contains 4,517 poems in twenty ‘books’, or more accurately – scrolls.
metaphor – MET-A-FOUR (Gr: transference) A trope or figurative expression in which a word or expression is shifted from its normal usage to a context where it evokes new meanings. It invokes a transaction between words and things. The metaphor is the most significant feature of poetic style. The function of metaphors is aesthetic (to make expression more vivid) and pragmatic (conveying meaning concisely, cognitive (providing meaning to things that have no literal name or rendering complex abstractions through easily understood concrete analogies.
meter – MEET-HER (Gr: metron – measure) The oldest and most important device of verse form which builds on the repeat of a feature of language such as stress, pitch, or length into a definable pattern. The size and shape of the units (feet, measures, metra, coda) vary from verse form to form but most are either binary or ternery. The first function of meter is to distinguish written discourse from versified text. The aesthetic function results in a test of the author’s skill to make good sense and keep within the principle of order.
michi – ME-CHEE (J: way or path) Used as way, road or path in the physical sense but also in the spiritual realm as representing the way to enlightenment. In the thirteenth century there were those who believed that enlightenment was possible by devout exercise of one’s own calling or profession. Thus, there came to be uta no michi (the way of poetry) for tanka writers and Tsukuba no michi, the way for renga writers.
mikasazuke - ME-KAH-SAH-ZOO-KEY J: A kind of maekuzuke in which three people collaborated to write the three parts of a 5 / 7 / 5 unit maeku.
mondo – MON-DOE J: question and answer dialogue. An ancient teaching device used in sedôka, occasionally in maekuzuke and less often, in renga.
moonhak - (K: literature) This is the adjective given to designate classical sijo from modern or non-traditional sijo.
mon – MON (J: pattern) The designation of a verse in a renga that stood out from the links around it. The opposite of ji.
mushin - MOO-SHE'N (J: without heart) The term as used in renga means the use of images without classical beauty. The opposite is ushin. Torn black lace tights, neon green sculpture nails and a mouthful of "rad" and "max" has mushin. The naked country lass surprised while washing her hair in a cold mountain stream has ushin.
nagauta –NAH-GAH-OU-TAH (J: long poem) Another name for the chôka which was composed of lines with five or seven sound units repeated until the final couplet which was composed of seven /seven units.
nasib – NAH-SIB A: the prelude to the qasida which is usually an erotic accounting of what the poet has lost as he weeps over the cruelty of his fate. The section is designed to attract and hold the listeners’ hearts and minds for the rest of the story.
nazem – NAY-ZEM (A: versifier) One who writes verse in the traditional form with traditionally acceptable content.
nikki (bungaku) – KNEE-KEY (J: journey (literature)). Journals or diaries of a journey or even stories of a journey. The earliest existing example, Tosa Nikki by Tsurayuki, combined waka with prose, and Basho combined haikai or hokku with his prose in Oku no Hosomichi which he called michi no nikki (diaries of the road).
objective – OB-JECK-TIVE A term used to designate poetry primarily concerned with concrete objects as they are in opposition to subjective poetry which works with ideas, abstracts, philosophies and feelings. Haiku is objective. Sonnets and tanka are subjective.
Objectivism A school of American poetry of the 1930s which sprang up as result of T.S. Eliot Ezra Pound’s earlier search for a language free of Victorian moralizing and philosophizing by concentrating on things instead of feelings and ideas as poetic motifs.
occasional verse – OH-CAA-SHUN-AL VERSE Poetry written for a public or social occasion. However, some persons say all verse is the result of an occasion, either public or private. The Japanese tanka is considered to be highly occasional in both senses of the word – an idea supported by the oft-used heading which explains the event for which the poem was written.
onji - OH'N-GEE (J: sound symbol) - An archaic Japanese word American haiku writers were misinformed about. For years we used the word which no one in Japan recognized! We have learned our lesson and now refer to the things the Japanese count on their fingers when writing poetry simply as 'sound units' because the word they use is on which is simply too confusing with English. The word Tokyo has three Japanese sound units: to- k-yo so you see these are not syllables – another bit of misinformation.
Okukazu – OH-COO-KAH-ZOO J: The title of a haikai collection of 1,600 stanzas composed by Ihara Saikaku in twenty-four hours in May 1677. Thereafter, this was the name for the feat performed by anyone else.
onnade – ON-NAD-DEH J: female hand. Either the actual handwriting of a woman or works written by women in the kana syllabary.
oriku - OH-REE-COO J: Tanka or haikai with the given topic (dai) concealed in an acrostic, charades, or conundrum. The trick was to guess the connection between the topic and the poem.
otokode – OH-TOE-KOH-DEH (J: men’s hand) Actual handwriting done by a male, but also the more general term for works written by men and more particularly, writing with a high proportion of Chinese characters.
oxymoron – OX-EE-MORE-ON Two words which each make sense but combined indicate something unobtainable or satirical. The classic example is "military intelligence".
panegyric – PAN-EH-JI-RIC (Gr: panegyrikos) An oration delivered at one of the Greek festivals, but the term now covers a speech or poem in praise of someone or some event. Much of oral poetry was in praise of a god, a hero, a military victory or even a wedding. Many of the waka written by members of the imperial court of Japan were panegyric.
paradox – PAIR-A-DOCKS A statement that unties seemingly contradictory ideas but which upon closer examination proves to have an unexpected meaning and truth. An example: "The longest way round is the shortest way home". It is one of the techniques of haiku. Related to oxymoron.
parallelism – PAIR-AH-LEL-ISM (Gr: side by side) The repetition of identical or very similar syntactic patterns in adjacent phrases, clauses or sentences. The variety of grammatical domains with which a parallel can work are enormous – more available than rhymes which may explain why parallelism was one of the earliest poetic devices. Thus, in English we find parallel poetry in the Proverbs, and Psalms of the Old Testament. Instead of only using a grammatical parallel, Japanese poetry also uses a parallel between the realm of nature and that of human nature to associate, compare or contrast.
pathos – PAH-TOES (Gr: suffering or passion that causes suffering) Evoking an audience’s emotions in order to use them for persuasion or for a cathartic effect. Certain words carry greater emotional impact than others, but with overuse can render them less effective. Early English haiku writers overused the word ‘old’ in an attempt to gain the quality called sabi for the work.
piyyut – PEA-UTE (rhymes with pea root) Plural: piyyutim; from the Greek poihthj; Heb: a poetry form that emerged in the 4th century in Palestine intended to embellish and supplement the prose prayers or any other religious ceremony. The piyyut were determined by liturgical contexts and always intended to be recited in public in a lofty style and a characteristic rhythms and the use of parallelism. Only later was the strophic form was based on rhymes and the addition of he author’s name, in acrostic or signal in the piyyut was an important formal feature which surely influenced the same use in the ghazal.
poet – POH-ET (Gr: poiein - to make; piortes – maker L: poeta) The definition - a person who writes poetry is surely far too simple. Where does the person stop and the poet begin? And whatever is written – is it poetry, verse or worse? Thus, is a poet one who has his or her work recognized as poetry? Or is this a term the self must decide on and take?
poetry – POH-EH-TREE (L: poema, poetria) Bound speech that convey a heightened form of perception, experience, meaning or consciousness. Another definition is: using the best words to say the best things in the best way. Until the last century, form was an absolute aspect of poetry, but with language poetry and prose poetry this facet has fallen away.
prose poem –P-ROSE POH-EM This oxymoron ends the either / or aspect of writing lines that cross the page to wrap around into the following space or lines ending mid-space to give a ragged right margin to the printed page. While it is thought to be a modern form, dating from the middle of the 1800s and French poetry as done by Baudelaire, it is actually found in Biblical texts and oral traditions of classical and folk lyrics. Depending on how one views the travel diaries of the Japanese, even the prose parts can be seen as poetry.
qafia – QUAH-FEE-AH (A: rhyme) In discussions of the ghazal, this term is used when speaking of the traditional form as one of the identifying aspects.
qasida – QUA-SIGH-DAH A: A mono-rhymed lyric poem common to the Arabian, Persian, Turkish, Pasto and Urdo languages. The couplet patterns are aa, ba, ca. The poems of up to one hundred lines are divided into three parts. The erotic prelude (nasib), the journey (rahil) and the ode or praise (madih). The form, dating back to the 8th or 9th centuries was later superseded by the ghazal.
radif – RAH-DEEF (A: repeat or refrain) Sometimes the aspect of the qafia is not a rhyme pattern but is based on the repeating of a word or similar word or even a phrase. Then it is referred to as the radif and not the qafia or rhyme.
quatrain – QUAH-TRAIN A stanza of four lines is the most common stanza form in European literature. The most popular rhyming schemes are abab and abba. Though the quatrain is usually multiplied into sequences, when the quatrain stands alone it is often called an epigram.
rahil – RAH-ILL (A: desert journey) The middle part of a qasida that describes the poet’s journey, and usually his mount in great detail, in the resolution of his great unhappiness which is either to regain a lost love or vanquish an enemy.
renga - RAY'N-GAH (J: linked elegance) The Japanese poetry form in which a three-line stanza of 5-7-5 on are linked to a two-line of 7-7 on, usually written by two or more persons. Renga baffle Westerners because as a poetry form it lacks a narrative, actual time sequence, and doesn't seem to be doing anything except jumping all over the place. The secret is the linking between images within a stanza and in the empty places between the stanzas.
rengashi – REIN-GAH-SHE (J: renga master) A title not bestowed by any institution but adopted by a person wishing to instruct others in the art of renga.
rensaku – REIN-SAH-COO (J: linked work) A sequence of haiku or tanka in which the individual stanzas do not function independently. Also see gunsaku.
rengaawase RAY'N-GAH-AH-WAH-SAY J: A renga contest.
renku RAY'N-COO (J: ren = linked ku = verse) A term used to describe Chinese linked verses was taken on in the 1740s in Japan to cause confusion and the disrupt the lineage of renga from its historical beginning. Some Americans mistakenly use the term in place of renga, which is what Basho called his work. Renku can also mean inferior renga-type poems written in Japanese since Basho's death. The English term "linked verse" however, means an experimental or modern renga-influenced work usually written by poets.
rensaku - RAY'N-SAH-COO (J: linked work) A sequence of haiku or tanka wherein each stanza is dependent upon the previous one for meaning.
rhyme- RIME (L: rithmus, rhythus rhythm; Old English: rime) A major poetic device based on the shared sound combined with differences. Time – rhyme. From the Latin, you can see that originally the sense of rhythm (or meter) was the definitive device, but over time the meaning of rhyme separated itself from rhythm. Being such an important part of poetry, many kinds of rhyme and uses of the rhyme have developed. Alliteration (bad boy); assonance (back / rat); consonance (back / neck); reverse (back / bat); pararhyme (back / buck) strict (back / rack); rich rhyme (bat –as the wooden cylinder / bat – a fly creature).The use of letters such as abab indicate a rhyme scheme in which the final words of the first and third and second and fourth lines share a difference and a similarity – often in sound.
rhythm – RI(d)-THUM (Gr: rheo – to flow; rhythmos) Cadence or musical quality based on repeats in a discernable pattern or an order in movement. Meter is the structure but rhythm is the movement and one cannot have one without the other.
rizoku – RYE-ZOH-COO (J: abstain from the low) – the haikai maxim of Yosa Buson.
rubaiyat – RUBY-YAT (A: quatrain) The four-line poetry form in which Edward Fitzgerald translated the poems of Omar Khayyam.
ryogin - RE-YOE-GIN J: A renga written by two authors.
saijiki – SIGH-GEE-KEY (J: seasonal index) Now called a kiyose (KEY-YOH-SEE). A listing of subjects to be used in haikai, haiku or renga according to designated times of the year. Under the five seasons: spring, summer, fall, winter and New Year’s, are seven categories: seasonal moods, celestial, terrestrial, holidays or observances, livelihood or human affairs, plants, animals.
sabi - SAH-BEE (J: aged/loneliness) A quality of images used in poetry that expresses something aged or weathered with a hint of sadness because of being abandoned. A split-rail fence sagging with overgrown vines has sabi; a freshly painted picket fence does not.
sangin - SAH'N-GIN J: A renga written by three authors.
see’er – SEER (A: poet) A truly creative artist whose form and content unify to project a unique vision.
sedoka - SAY-DOE-KAH (J: repeat head poem) An old verse form used in the 7th century consisting of matching stanza of 5/7/7 units, using a question and answer method to reveal riddles. This form is sometimes considered the forerunner of renga.
senku - SAY'N-COO J: A 1,000 link renga. In practice, it is composed of ten hyakuin or hundred-link renga in one poem.
senryu - SEND-JEW-RUE (J: river willow) The pen name of the most famous poet who conducted maekuzuki (linking contests) has been given to this genre in his dubious honor. Because haiku and senryu are written much alike, often on the same subjects and usually by the same authors, great controversies have ensued over which is what. For a time, in America, senryu were considered to be faulty haiku. Actually, if one must differentiate, the senryu form is satiric, concerned with poking fun at human behavior as opposed to the profound, sublime world of nature where haiku shine. In Japan the distinction is easier to find because all of their haiku contain a season word - kigo and senryu do not. Haiku are published with the author's name and senryu are not - which tells much about the esteem of senryu.
septet - SEP-TET (It: sepette; Fr. septain) A seven-line stanza popular with the troubadours of Europe often with a rhyme scheme of ababcc.
sestet – SIS-TET (It: sestette) The last six lines of a sonnet which in English often has the rhyme scheme of efefgg.
sestina –SIS-TEA-NAH (It:
sistine, sesta rima) A highly complicated verseform practiced by
troubadours which is composed of six stanzas each containing six lines often
with a three-line envoy. Instead of rhyme, the use of repeated words from the
end lines of the beginning stanza are used in progressively reversed patterns.
If the numbers 1 –6 represent the six end words of the first stanza, the sistina
uses the following pattern.
stanza 1: 123456
stanza 2: 615243
stanza 3: 364125
stanza 4: 532614
stanza 5: 451326
stanza 6: 246531
envoy: 531 or 135
shahed SHAH-HEED (A: witness) When using Hāfez’s poetry as divination, one seeks assurance for the correctness of the answer by also reading a second or ‘witness’ verse for verification.
sharefû SHAH-REH-FOO (J: witty style) The name of the school and style of haikai writing established by Basho’s student Kikaku after Basho’s death. Lively wit with an impressive technique, which was indicative of Kikaku himself, led to the excesses which brought haikai out of the popularity which Basho had gained for the form.
shamisen SAH-ME-SEN J: A three-stringed banjo-like instrument either plucked with the fingers or a plectrum – a paddle-shaped piece of ivory.
shibumi - SHE-BOO-ME (J: acerbic) A description of poetry typifying subdued, classical, or astringent images. Think of cracked whole wheat flour muffins without oil, eggs, preservatives, additives or coloring as compared to oven-ready frozen croissants.
shisenshû – SHE-SHE-SHOE (J: poetic anthology) The term best approaches the western idea of an anthology because this was an anthology not decreed into existence by imperial command as was the chokusenshû. Also the briefer term shû is also used but is also dropped from many titles.
shikimoku – SHE-KEY-MOE-COO J: rules or a rule book used for renga or haikai writing.
shikishi – SHE-KEY-SHE (J: square paper). Square sheets of heavier paper kept for writing and painting.
shimo no ku – SHE-MO NO COO (J: lower stanza) In tanka, the proper name for the final two sets of 7/7 sound units.
shinku - SHE'N-COO (J: closely related) Two stanzas that are related by images that fit closely together. As opposed to soku.
shiori - SHE-OH-REE (J: bent/withered) A delicate, pathetic quality for an image.
shôfû (or shôfu) – SHOW-FU (J: right style) a shortened name for Basho’s style of writing and also the name of his school in his later years.
Shomon - SHOW-MOAN J: The proper name of Basho's school of renga which was located where he was no matter where he was. His competitor was the Danrin school. Basho's teaching is considered to emphasize the profound, reverent way of relating to the world while still having humor and certain oddities.
shoori – SHOW-OH-REH J: the first of four sheets upon which a hundred-link renga was written (on both sides). The second sheet was called ni no ori (KNEE NO OR-REE), the third was the san no ori (SAN NO OR-REE) and the nagori no ori (NAH-GOR-REE NO OR-REE). The two sheets used for a kasen renga were called shoori and nagori no ori.
shûka – SHOE-KAH J: An outstanding waka, worthy of being a model for emulation.
sijo – SEE-JOE (K: song). Originally the term referred to the music written for a type of short poem, which was called the tang-ka. Now sijo refers to the poetry form composed of 44 – 46 sound units written in a rhythmic pattern over three long (14 – 15 syllables) or six short lines of six or seven syllables. The form is thus very lyrical, melodic and uses all the regular poetry techniques. Like the Japanese tanka, one of the indications of the sijo is the ‘twist’ or turn near the end of the poem. Subject matter was previously humor or love or both as sex, but now is open to all themes.
simile – SIM-ILL-LEE A figure of speech defined as an explicit comparison using "like" or "as" to reveal an unexpected likeness between two seemingly disparate things. The simile has been called the oldest readily identifiable poetic artifice in European literature as well as "a past-time of very low order" by William Carlos Williams.
sobikimono – SO-BEE-KEY-MO-NO (J: rising things) Phenomenon like fog, clouds, smoke, etc. as a classification of subjects for poetry. Rising things were contrasted with falling things like rain, snow and dew.
soku - SO-COO (J: distantly related verse) Two links which made you wonder if the authors were working on the same renga.
song – SAW-NG A verbal utterance combining music with poetry for an expression of emotion. Yet not all poems of capable being songs, and all songs do not contain poetry.
sonnet – SAW-NET (It: sonetto – little sound or song) A fourteen-line poem written in meter patterns and rhyme schemes depending on whether the sonnet is Italian, French or English. The most famous poet of the English sonnet was William Shakespeare who used the rhyme pattern of abab cdcd efef gg. The first eight lines, often called the octaves, were found in 1910, to be favored with a abba abba rhyme scheme. Due to difficulties in rhyming in English, the dropping of the rhyme scheme has been the greatest deviation followed by the lack of continued or constant meter giving a variety of line lengths. Still the sonnet has stood in over eight centuries in European literature where verse forms come and go rather rapidly.
sono mama - SO-NO MA-MA (J: as it is) To present an image without flourishes or embellishment.
stanza – STAN-ZAH The stanza is an established portion of poetry often determined by a repeating end-line rhyme scheme or metrical structure.
stress – see accent
syllabic verse – SILL-AH-BEAK VERS The metrical structure of English poetry is built most often on stresses and not syllables. Thus, when imitating the poetry of a language without stresses, such as Japanese, which is built on a rigid sound unit frame, the English form of the genre makes a drastic change. This cross-over is even more difficult when one finds stated in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "But it is very doubtful that verse lines regulated by nothing more than identity of numbers of syllables would be perceived by auditors as verse. . ."
synecdoche – SIN-NECK-DOUGH-SHE (Gr: "understanding one thing with another) A figure of speech that is formed by a part of the phrase which is substituted for the whole phrase. Example: "hired hands" for the phrase "the persons hired to do work with their hands".
syntax – SIN-TAX The placement of words in an arbitrary but conventional sequence. There is the colloquial syntax of the language as it is spoken and poetic syntax resulting from imitation of other poetry or in an effort to bring the rhyming words to a definite part of the line.
tabi no uta – TAH-BE NO OU-TAH (J: travel poem, poems or poetry). This was also a classification for renga subjects.
tang-ka – TONG-KAH (K: poem part). This was formerly the correct term for the lyrics or words of a sijo but the term has been discontinued in favor of sijo – a term that is also used in English to designate this style of poetry.
tanka - TAH'N-KAH (J: short poem) Consisting of 31 on in five units of 5-7-5-7-7, this lyrical form has existed since earliest recorded Japanese literature. Along the way it has also been called uta or waka. In many ways it is like the first two stanza of a renga or is a tan renga written by one person. For writers who find haiku too plain and lacking in emotion, the tanka is a great way to express feelings and let your love live. The trick is to not sound sentimental and this is usually done by anchoring the thought in the reality of the natural world.
tan renga - TAH'N-RAY'N-GAH (J: short linked elegance) A renga consisting of only two linked stanzas of 5-7-5 and 7-7, but written by two people. In English the lines may be of any length but the form is best displayed if they are short /long / short and long / long.
tenja – TEN-JAH J: A judge in a poetry contest.
tercet – TAIR-SET A verse unit of three lines. Usually it is rhymed but in the case of the haiku it is not.
tsukeai - T'SUE-KAY-AH-EE (J: joining together) Linking of verses or linked verses or a renga or a sequence.
tsukeku - T'SUE-KAY-COO (J: linked verse) The second stanza or the one which is linked.
tsukinami – T’SUE-KEY-NAHM-ME J: A haikai association formed for the purpose of meeting monthly and to publish poetry. It flourished in the early 1800s and became the basis for haiku clubs and societies now so prevalent in Japan.
tsuki no ku - T'SUE-KAY-NO-COO (J: moon verse) In the kasen renga this feature occurs at links #5, #14, #27 - if everyone is paying attention. It is snazzy to shift this link forward by one stanza when writing of an 'early' moon or the opposite if someone realizes the moon is missing.
ushin – (y)OU-SHE'N (J: with heart) - See mushin.
uta – (y)OU-TAH (J: song). This was the earliest Japanese word for poetry. Later, as greater designation was made, the term has come to mean song. Occasionally you will find someone who uses the word interchangeably with waka and or tanka.
utagaki – (y)OU-TAH-GAH-KEY (J: poetic exchange) In very old times this was a kind of mating game. Young men and women gathered, often in the woods or on mountains, to exchange, invite and reject each other’s poetry and then, sexual favors. Later the term came to mean an exchange in which the mating was fictional.
utai – (y)OU-TAH-EE (J: chanting) A term used when poetry is chanted in rhythmic recitation.
utsuri – (y)OU-T'SUE-REE (J: reflection) The relationship between renga stanza where there is a sense of movement or transference.
wabi - WAH-BEE (J: poverty) Beauty judged to be the result of living simply. Frayed and faded Levis have the wabi that bleached designer jeans can never achieve.
waka - WAH-KAH (J: poetry) The ancient term for tanka that is still used for imperial court ceremonies which designates Japanese poetry as opposed to foreign poetry forms. The other term is Yamatouta (Japanese poetry) from the old title for Japan - Yamato. Most Japanese use the term tanka for contemporary work and reserve the word waka for poetry or the ancient poems in the 5/7/5/7/7 form.
wakan renku- WAH-KAH REN-COO (J: linked Japanese and Chinese poetry) In this, Chinese verses were linked to Japanese verses and vice versa to make a tan renga (if done by two persons).
wakiku - WAH-KAH-COO (J: side verse) The official name for the second link in a renga. Sometimes shorted to waki.
yongin - YOEN-GIN J: A four-partner renga.
yoyoshi - YOE-YOE-SHE J: A 44-stanza renga.
yugen - YOU-GAY'N (J: mystery) A word describing poetry which is so mysterious that many volumes have been written to explain it. One could say a woman's face half-hidden behind a fan has yugen. The same face half-covered with pink goo while getting a facial, however, does not.
zappai – ZAP-PAH-EE (J: miscellaneous, irregular or low haikai) Often used as another term for senryu. Matsuo Basho regarded these amusements with contempt. They were not worthy of the true art of haikai but merely something "that a peasant could enjoy, hoe in hand."
zo – ZOH (J: miscellaneous) A classification for renga links indicating those that had no seasonal topic (dai). These links were less esteemed than those with seasonal references which were then below those mentioning flowers or the moon.
zoku – ZOH-COO (J: common, low verses) Another term for works that did not measure up as true art of haikai due to inappropriate subject matter, audience or diction. Naturally, with hindsight, some zoku works were late later elevated by the addition of the ga prefix so they ended with the confusing designation of ga-zoku. Still, these two concepts are important to understanding Japanese literature because they separate the various genres and are not designations of worth within the form. Thus, a waka, which was almost above true art, retained this status no matter how poorly written a poem was with stereotypes and clichés.
zuiga - ZOO-EE-GAH J: The extra 50 stanza composed on the 5th day of writing a senku.
zuihitsu – ZOO-HIT-SUE (J: following the brush) A style of writing that was loose, impulsive, and casual. In concept much like the essay or ‘attempt’ though often pursued in a serious manner and very congenial to the Japanese.
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Books of HAIKU
RENGA or LINKED POETRY
Mixed Oriental Genres
Homepage of resources for the book Writing and Enjoying Haiku. | <urn:uuid:ca36a14f-5ffa-4c57-8f3e-eb76eff847c2> | {
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Know as “the country’s first wine country,” Missouri’s winemaking dates back to the late-1830s when German settlers arrived and planted grape vines in the town of Hermann, on the flanks of the Missouri River. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Missouri’s Stone Hill Winery that built in 1947 by a German immigrant was the second largest American winery and the third largest in the world and scooping up gold medals at international competitions. Soon Italian immigrants arrived, bringing their wine expertise to the area and in the Ozark Highlands, near St. James.
Amongst the leaders in the wine world, when the phylloxera louse attacked much of Europe’s vines in the late 1800s, Missouri winemakers were instrumental in helping Europe rebuild their industry. They shipped “phylloxera-resistant” American rootstock to France that was grafted with French vine cuttings. There is a statue in Montpelier, France, in honor of this saveur.
There were over one hundred thriving wineries scattered throughout Missouri prior to the start of Prohibition in 1920. But when the planting, picking and pressing stopped wineries closed, leaving the economy in shambles. Only St. Stanislaus Novitiate winery, in St. Louis, who produced sacramental wine during the enduring dry period, was sole survivor by the rescind of the act in 1934. The modern wine industry started to gain some momentum in the 1960s and 1970, but it never regained the same prominent status it once owned.
Today there are over one hundred wineries with five separate wine trails: Hermann Wine Trail, Route Du Vin, Missouri Weinstrasse, Missouri River Wine Trail and Ozark Mountain Wine Trail. www.missouriwine.org. Similar to Virginia, the Norton grape is a reliable workhorse that produces rich, robust tannic red with an inky purple with some tobacco, chocolate-covered berry flavors swirled with a touch of rusticness.
The two standout wineries because of their spectacularly beautiful properties and some very nice wines, which are near wonderful biking and adventuring are Stone Hill Winery in Hermann and Mount Pleasant Winery in Augusta. Both wineries have produced ninety-plus rated wines that won blind tastings against some of California’s best wines – and have fascinating histories.
Mount Pleasant Winery is also the start and finishing point of the annual Vino Fondo cycling event, which is part of local bike shop Big Shark’s Grand Fondo – an epic recreational cycling event series. Held in spring, the Vino Fondo is a fully supported and timed recreational ride - that is not race - with three distance and elevation option: 128 miles with 11,000 feet of climbing, 84 miles with 6,700 feet of climbing or 26 miles with 2,600 feet of climbing. Any of the distances is sure to build up a crazy thirst.
For those looking for something less extreme, but just as beautiful, the nearby, two hundred mile Katy Trail is a very popular for bike wine tours. Crisscrossing through Augusta and Weinstrasse wine regions it connects to stash of rail-trails and wineries.
Stone Hill Winery 1110 Stone Hill Hwy, Hermann, MO 65041 * 800-909-WINE
www.StoneHillWinery.com Open daily.
Mount Pleasant Winery 3125 Green Mountain Drive, Branson, MO 65616 * 417-336-9463 * www.mountpleasant.com Open daily.
Grand Fondo’s Vino Fondo Cycling Event 314-862-1188 * www.bigshark.com
Katy Trail Map & Information * www.bikekatytrail.com | <urn:uuid:b9022441-4351-4af8-87a3-36be03b6f88d> | {
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- Conference date: 19–21 November 2012
- Location: Colmar Tropicale, Bukit Tinggi, Pahang, Malaysia
Kurtosis is a statistical method which can be used to measure abnormality in a reading including measurement of Radio Frequency Inteference (RFI) levels on potential radio astronomical sites. The chosen sites were Jelebu, Behrang and Merang. The RFI surveys were done for hydroxyl spectral line windows (1600–1700 MHz). The simple kurtosis method used in this work has found that a higher kurtosis value indicated a less RFI affected site. The kurtosis values for the three chosen sites were 10.04, 7.94, and 5.89, respectively. For the overall spectrum (0–3Ghz), their kurtosis value were 5.22, 4.02 and 3.70, respectively. In both cases, the kurtosis values have been shown to be a good indicator of the levels of RFI at the chosen sites.
- Electromagnetic interference
- Frequency analyzers
- Frequency measurement
- Statistical analysis
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Thanksgiving Day, November 26, will be honored by many US citizens around the world. This small tribute recognizes a few representative bird species that impact us. Although the examples refer to specific foods for these birds, these examples and other species may eat varied diets during different times of the year.
THANKS FOR THE POLLINATORS/NECTAR FEEDERS:
Over 2,000 bird species in the world pollinate plants as they feed on nectar. In North America we are familiar with hummingbirds pollinating wildflowers.
THANKS FOR THE INSECT AND RODENT EATERS:
Insect-eating birds destroy many agricultural and garden pests along with those pesky mosquitoes. The rodent eaters are usually hawks, eagles, owls, and falcons, but herons and egrets will also eat rodents too.
THANKS FOR THE SEED DISPERSERS:
Birds help maintain and even restore plant communities as seed and fruit dispersers.
THANKS FOR THE SCAVENGERS AND NUTRIENT RECYCLERS:
Both the scavengers and other bird species help in recycling nutrients into the soil. Nature’s clean-up crew such as vultures help break-down carcasses. They recycle nutrients of their “organic diets” to contribute to healthy ecosystems.
Although not scavengers, flocks of geese may feed in salt marshes, harvested grain fields, and even lawns. They help tear up the leaf litter by trampling the ground, which aids in decomposition of nutrients back into the soil.
THANKS FOR THE BEAUTY, WONDROUS BEHAVIORS, ENJOYMENT, SONGS, AND INSPIRATION:
Link to a Tropical Mockingbird song:
As thanks to my readers and supporters of three years of my columns, I give you the Bluebird of Happiness. It discovered a bountiful feast, supplied by humans, in giving thanks.
MAY YOU EXPERIENCE A BOUNTIFUL YEAR FILLED WITH GRATITUDE!
Cherie Pittillo, “nature inspired,” photographer and author, explores nature everywhere she goes. She’s identified 56 bird species in her Merida, Yucatan backyard view. Her column, published on the 7th and 21st of each month, features anecdotes about birding in Merida, Yucatan and beyond. Contact: [email protected] All rights reserved, ©Cherie Pittillo
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After the massive arrival of thousands. | <urn:uuid:2743e6be-812a-40dc-a003-396dea305ec7> | {
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|PostgreSQL 8.0.26 Documentation|
|Prev||Fast Backward||Chapter 35. PL/pgSQL - SQL Procedural Language||Fast Forward||Next|
PL/pgSQL can be used to define trigger procedures. A trigger procedure is created with the CREATE FUNCTION command, declaring it as a function with no arguments and a return type of trigger. Note that the function must be declared with no arguments even if it expects to receive arguments specified in CREATE TRIGGER — trigger arguments are passed via TG_ARGV, as described below.
When a PL/pgSQL function is called as a trigger, several special variables are created automatically in the top-level block. They are:
Data type RECORD; variable holding the new database row for INSERT/UPDATE operations in row-level triggers. This variable is NULL in statement-level triggers.
Data type RECORD; variable holding the old database row for UPDATE/DELETE operations in row-level triggers. This variable is NULL in statement-level triggers.
Data type name; variable that contains the name of the trigger actually fired.
Data type text; a string of either BEFORE or AFTER depending on the trigger's definition.
Data type text; a string of either ROW or STATEMENT depending on the trigger's definition.
Data type text; a string of INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE telling for which operation the trigger was fired.
Data type oid; the object ID of the table that caused the trigger invocation.
Data type name; the name of the table that caused the trigger invocation.
Data type integer; the number of arguments given to the trigger procedure in the CREATE TRIGGER statement.
Data type array of text; the arguments from the CREATE TRIGGER statement. The index counts from 0. Invalid indices (less than 0 or greater than or equal to tg_nargs) result in a null value.
A trigger function must return either NULL or a record/row value having exactly the structure of the table the trigger was fired for.
Row-level triggers fired BEFORE may return null to signal the trigger manager to skip the rest of the operation for this row (i.e., subsequent triggers are not fired, and the INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE does not occur for this row). If a nonnull value is returned then the operation proceeds with that row value. Returning a row value different from the original value of NEW alters the row that will be inserted or updated (but has no direct effect in the DELETE case). To alter the row to be stored, it is possible to replace single values directly in NEW and return the modified NEW, or to build a complete new record/row to return.
The return value of a BEFORE or AFTER statement-level trigger or an AFTER row-level trigger is always ignored; it may as well be null. However, any of these types of triggers can still abort the entire operation by raising an error.
Example 35-2 shows an example of a trigger procedure in PL/pgSQL.
Example 35-2. A PL/pgSQL Trigger Procedure
This example trigger ensures that any time a row is inserted or updated in the table, the current user name and time are stamped into the row. And it checks that an employee's name is given and that the salary is a positive value.
CREATE TABLE emp ( empname text, salary integer, last_date timestamp, last_user text ); CREATE FUNCTION emp_stamp() RETURNS trigger AS $emp_stamp$ BEGIN -- Check that empname and salary are given IF NEW.empname IS NULL THEN RAISE EXCEPTION 'empname cannot be null'; END IF; IF NEW.salary IS NULL THEN RAISE EXCEPTION '% cannot have null salary', NEW.empname; END IF; -- Who works for us when she must pay for it? IF NEW.salary < 0 THEN RAISE EXCEPTION '% cannot have a negative salary', NEW.empname; END IF; -- Remember who changed the payroll when NEW.last_date := 'now'; NEW.last_user := current_user; RETURN NEW; END; $emp_stamp$ LANGUAGE plpgsql; CREATE TRIGGER emp_stamp BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE ON emp FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE emp_stamp();
Another way to log changes to a table involves creating a new table that holds a row for each insert, update, or delete that occurs. This approach can be thought of as auditing changes to a table. Example 35-3 shows an example of an audit trigger procedure in PL/pgSQL.
Example 35-3. A PL/pgSQL Trigger Procedure For Auditing
This example trigger ensures that any insert, update or delete of a row in the emp table is recorded (i.e., audited) in the emp_audit table. The current time and user name are stamped into the row, together with the type of operation performed on it.
CREATE TABLE emp ( empname text NOT NULL, salary integer ); CREATE TABLE emp_audit( operation char(1) NOT NULL, stamp timestamp NOT NULL, userid text NOT NULL, empname text NOT NULL, salary integer ); CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION process_emp_audit() RETURNS TRIGGER AS $emp_audit$ BEGIN -- -- Create a row in emp_audit to reflect the operation performed on emp, -- make use of the special variable TG_OP to work out the operation. -- IF (TG_OP = 'DELETE') THEN INSERT INTO emp_audit SELECT 'D', now(), user, OLD.*; RETURN OLD; ELSIF (TG_OP = 'UPDATE') THEN INSERT INTO emp_audit SELECT 'U', now(), user, NEW.*; RETURN NEW; ELSIF (TG_OP = 'INSERT') THEN INSERT INTO emp_audit SELECT 'I', now(), user, NEW.*; RETURN NEW; END IF; RETURN NULL; -- result is ignored since this is an AFTER trigger END; $emp_audit$ language plpgsql; CREATE TRIGGER emp_audit AFTER INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE ON emp FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE process_emp_audit();
One use of triggers is to maintain a summary table of another table. The resulting summary can be used in place of the original table for certain queries — often with vastly reduced run times. This technique is commonly used in Data Warehousing, where the tables of measured or observed data (called fact tables) can be extremely large. Example 35-4 shows an example of a trigger procedure in PL/pgSQL that maintains a summary table for a fact table in a data warehouse.
Example 35-4. A PL/pgSQL Trigger Procedure For Maintaining A Summary Table
The schema detailed here is partly based on the Grocery Store example from The Data Warehouse Toolkit by Ralph Kimball.
-- -- Main tables - time dimension and sales fact. -- CREATE TABLE time_dimension ( time_key integer NOT NULL, day_of_week integer NOT NULL, day_of_month integer NOT NULL, month integer NOT NULL, quarter integer NOT NULL, year integer NOT NULL ); CREATE UNIQUE INDEX time_dimension_key ON time_dimension(time_key); CREATE TABLE sales_fact ( time_key integer NOT NULL, product_key integer NOT NULL, store_key integer NOT NULL, amount_sold numeric(12,2) NOT NULL, units_sold integer NOT NULL, amount_cost numeric(12,2) NOT NULL ); CREATE INDEX sales_fact_time ON sales_fact(time_key); -- -- Summary table - sales by time. -- CREATE TABLE sales_summary_bytime ( time_key integer NOT NULL, amount_sold numeric(15,2) NOT NULL, units_sold numeric(12) NOT NULL, amount_cost numeric(15,2) NOT NULL ); CREATE UNIQUE INDEX sales_summary_bytime_key ON sales_summary_bytime(time_key); -- -- Function and trigger to amend summarized column(s) on UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE. -- CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION maint_sales_summary_bytime() RETURNS TRIGGER AS $maint_sales_summary_bytime$ DECLARE delta_time_key integer; delta_amount_sold numeric(15,2); delta_units_sold numeric(12); delta_amount_cost numeric(15,2); BEGIN -- Work out the increment/decrement amount(s). IF (TG_OP = 'DELETE') THEN delta_time_key = OLD.time_key; delta_amount_sold = -1 * OLD.amount_sold; delta_units_sold = -1 * OLD.units_sold; delta_amount_cost = -1 * OLD.amount_cost; ELSIF (TG_OP = 'UPDATE') THEN -- forbid updates that change the time_key - -- (probably not too onerous, as DELETE + INSERT is how most -- changes will be made). IF ( OLD.time_key != NEW.time_key) THEN RAISE EXCEPTION 'Update of time_key : % -> % not allowed', OLD.time_key, NEW.time_key; END IF; delta_time_key = OLD.time_key; delta_amount_sold = NEW.amount_sold - OLD.amount_sold; delta_units_sold = NEW.units_sold - OLD.units_sold; delta_amount_cost = NEW.amount_cost - OLD.amount_cost; ELSIF (TG_OP = 'INSERT') THEN delta_time_key = NEW.time_key; delta_amount_sold = NEW.amount_sold; delta_units_sold = NEW.units_sold; delta_amount_cost = NEW.amount_cost; END IF; -- Update the summary row with the new values. UPDATE sales_summary_bytime SET amount_sold = amount_sold + delta_amount_sold, units_sold = units_sold + delta_units_sold, amount_cost = amount_cost + delta_amount_cost WHERE time_key = delta_time_key; -- There might have been no row with this time_key (e.g new data!). IF (NOT FOUND) THEN BEGIN INSERT INTO sales_summary_bytime ( time_key, amount_sold, units_sold, amount_cost) VALUES ( delta_time_key, delta_amount_sold, delta_units_sold, delta_amount_cost ); EXCEPTION -- -- Catch race condition when two transactions are adding data -- for a new time_key. -- WHEN UNIQUE_VIOLATION THEN UPDATE sales_summary_bytime SET amount_sold = amount_sold + delta_amount_sold, units_sold = units_sold + delta_units_sold, amount_cost = amount_cost + delta_amount_cost WHERE time_key = delta_time_key; END; END IF; RETURN NULL; END; $maint_sales_summary_bytime$ LANGUAGE plpgsql; CREATE TRIGGER maint_sales_summary_bytime AFTER INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE ON sales_fact FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE maint_sales_summary_bytime(); | <urn:uuid:08a81227-9239-45af-8f91-6239ab1c9ff0> | {
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In digital imaging, there are 256 levels, or tonal values, ranging from black to white. Black is level 0. White is level 255. Of course, not all images (e.g. extreme foggy, misty, atmospheric shots) contain the full tonal range from black to white, but most do.
The histogram (Levels) is a graphical representation of the tonal values in an image. Ideally, it should range from 0 to 255, with a good spread of tonal values throughout.
If the histogram is bunched up towards the left, it indicates the image is under-exposed. Note the crushed shadow detail.
If bunched up towards the right, it's over exposed. Note the blown-out highlights.
If the black and white points are set incorrectly, the image will have a dull, flat, washed-out appearance. Here they're wrongly set to 20/230.
Unless under instructions from a repro bureau or printer, you should not set the black/white points to anything other than 0/255. The printer may well adjust them later for technical reasons to do with repro, but don't try to guess what's required. It's true that some leeway is acceptable (e.g. up to 5% is usually OK), but your images will lack visual impact if the black/white points are incorrect, so don't do this as a matter of course.
In the vast majority of cases, it's best to set them to 0/255. | <urn:uuid:52488de0-c8c9-4c17-af7d-5a2c271456dc> | {
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The Computing curriculum is a challenge for primary school teachers. The realities of primary school resources mean limited access to computer hardware. But computing is about more than computers. Important aspects of the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science can be taught without any hardware. Children can learn to analyse problems and computational terms and apply computational thinking to solve problems without turning on a computer.
This book shows you how you can teach computing through ‘unplugged’ activities. It provides lesson examples and everyday activities to help teachers and pupils explore computing concepts in a concrete way, accelerating their understanding and grasp of key ideas such as abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation. The unplugged approach is physical and collaborative, using kinaesthetic learning to help make computing concepts more meaningful and memorable.
This book will help you to elevate your teaching, and your children's learning of computing beyond the available hardware. It focuses on the building blocks of understanding required for computation thinking. | <urn:uuid:fe085af3-29f7-4010-9219-0ee16a22a898> | {
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Symptoms vary widely from person to person and depending on which organs are affected. Some people do not even have symptoms, which makes the condition difficult to diagnose.
When amyloidosis is associated with another disease, symptoms may be masked. The underlying disease may be fatal before amyloidosis is found.
- An enlarged liver
- An enlarged tongue (macroglossia)
- An irregular heartbeat
- Diarrhea alternating with constipation
- Difficulty swallowing
- Dizziness or feeling faint
- Loss of weight
- Numbness or tingling in the hands or feet
- Severe fatigue
- Shortness of breath
- Skin changes
- Swelling of the ankles and legs
The severity of amyloidosis depends on which organs it affects. It can be life threatening if it causes kidney or heart failure.
If the amyloidosis affects the kidneys, their ability to filter the blood becomes impaired. Protein leaks from the blood into the urine. The loss of protein from the blood can cause fluid to leak out of the blood vessels, resulting in swelling in the feet, ankles and calves. Eventually, there is so much damage to the kidneys that they are not able to remove waste products from the body and they fail.
If amyloidosis affects the heart, the first symptom typically is shortness of breath even with only light activity. Climbing a flight of stairs or walking long distances may be difficult without having to stop. The buildup of amyloid in the heart lessens its ability to fill up with blood between heartbeats. As a result, less blood is pumped with each beat, and the heart is not able to keep up with the body's needs. The buildup of amyloid can also cause problems with the electrical system of the heart, resulting in irregular heartbeats (arrhythmia).
Other effects of amyloidosis include:
- A burning sensation as a result of nerves being irritated by the amyloid
- Alternating bouts of constipation and diarrhea, if the protein deposits affect the nerves that control the bowels
- Bowel obstruction
- Carpal tunnel syndrome, which causes pain, numbness or tingling in the fingers. Approximately four out of 10 people with amyloidosis develop this syndrome.
- Disruption of the nervous system
- Dizziness or nearly fainting when standing up too quickly. This can happen if the condition affects the nerves that control blood pressure and a sudden drop in blood pressure occurs when standing up.
- Numbness or lack of feeling in the toes or feet
- Weakness in the legs, which can be a result of nerves irritated by the amyloid
Diseases that are associated with amyloidosis include multiple myeloma, Hodgkin's disease, some types of tumors and Mediterranean fever that runs in families. It may also be associated with aging. Amyloid is often found in the pancreas of people who develop diabetes as adults.
Causes and Risk Factors
The cause for amyloid to be produced and to collect in the tissues is not known. The risk of getting amyloidosis is not connected to what a person eats (including how much protein) or does for a living or to the amount of stress in one's life
The disease starts in the bone marrow. Bone marrow creates red and white blood cells, platelets and antibodies that protect the body against infection. After the antibodies have done their work, the body breaks them down. When the bone marrow cells produce antibodies that cannot be broken down, amyloidosis develops. The antibodies build up in the blood and eventually get deposited in the tissues as amyloid.
The risk of developing amyloidosis is greater in people who:
- Are older than 50
- Have a chronic infection or inflammatory disease
- Have a family history of amyloidosis
- Have multiple myeloma. Between 10 and 15% of people who have multiple myeloma develop amyloidosis.
- Have a kidney disease that has required dialysis for more than five years | <urn:uuid:4fe27a94-8a62-4cf4-bebe-11795229aba7> | {
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My Saved Article
|Atomic Number:||33||Atomic Symbol:||As|
|Atomic Weight:||74.9216||Electron Configuration:||2-8-18-5|
|Melting Point:||817 @ 28 atm.oC||Boiling Point:||sublimes @ 613oC|
|Uses:||LEDs, deadly poison, semiconductors|
History(L. arsenicum, Gr. arsenikon, yellow orpiment, identified with
arenikos, male, from the belief that metals were different sexes; Arabic,
Az-zernikh, the orpiment from Persian zerni-zar, gold)
SourcesElemental arsenic occurs in two solid modifications: yellow, and
gray or metallic, with specific gravities of 1.97, and 5.73, respectively.
is believed that Albertus Magnus obtained the element in 1250 A.D.
Schroeder published two methods of preparing the element.
arsenopyrite, (FeSAs) is the most common mineral from which, on heating, the
arsenic sublimes leaving ferrous sulfide.
PropertiesThe element is a steel gray, very brittle, crystalline,
semimetallic solid; it tarnishes in air, and when heated is rapidly oxidized to
arsenous oxide with the odor of garlic.
HandlingArsenic and its compounds are poisonous.
Arsenic is used in
bronzing, pyrotechny, and for hardening and improving the sphericity of shot.
CompoundsThe most important compounds are white arsenic, the sulfide,
Paris green, calcium arsenate, and lead arsenate; the last three have been used
as agricultural insecticides and poisons.
Marsh's test makes use of the
formation and ready decomposition of arsine.
Arsenic is finding increasing
uses as a doping agent in solid-state devices such as transistors. Gallium
arsenide is used as a laser material to convert electricity directly into | <urn:uuid:a283feed-f052-4dc2-bd51-f6d4be44bf24> | {
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The history of Qutb Minar
The victory tower which represents the defeat of the Delhi Sultanate by Muslim invaders
The amazing thing about the tower (which has not unfairly been likened to a bog-standard factory chimney although of course it’s much more significant than that) is the fact it's decorated with calligraphy representing verses from the Holy Koran, and that it has a slight tilt.
In February 2009, the Union minister of tourism and culture, Ambika Soni, reported that the Qutb Minar is tilting at an annual rate of 0.5-3 seconds – it had tilted between 9-11 seconds from 1983 to 2005.
Qutb Minar is located 15km south of New Delhi, and sits above the foundations of Lal Kot, the 'first city of Delhi' founded in the 11th century by the Tomar Rajputs. It was Qutb-ud-din-Aiback's victory tower, celebrating the advent of the Muslim dominance of Delhi and much of the Subcontinent that was to last until 1857.
Qutb-ud-din-Aiback (variously spelt as Qutab or Qutub) was the slave-turned-general who laid the foundation of Minar for the use of the muezzin to give calls for prayer.
The man himself however built only one storey – his successors completed it. A cupola was added in 1368 but it was toppled in 1803 by an earthquake. An Englishman replaced it in 1829 but the replacement was deemed inappropriate and removed. Unfortunately, a stampede during a school trip, which resulted in several deaths, means the tower has been closed for many years.
The tower is in the southern half of the complex. At its base is the first mosque to be built in India, the Quwwat ul-Islam (Might of Islam) Mosque, which Qutb-ud-din-Aiback (hereafter just ‘Qutb’) began building in 1193 but which has been amended several times over the centuries.
An indication of what the Muslims felt about the Hindu religion can be gleaned from the fact the original mosque was built on the foundations of a Hindu temple, and an inscription over the east gate states it was built with materials obtained from demolishing '27 idolatrous temples'.
Qutb played a significant if short role in Delhi’s Muslim history. As a child, he was sold in north-eastern Iran to a chief called Qazi who treated him as a son. After Qazi’s death, Qutb, who was of Turkic ancestry, was sold to a slave merchant and ended up in the employ of the Turkish warlord Muhammad of Ghor (1162-1206).
Qutb rose through the ranks and became so trusted by Muhammad he was given the title ‘Axis of the Faith’ (it isn’t certain which part of Qutb’s name reflects this). After Muhammad defeated the powerful Rajput clan in 1192, he returned home, leaving his generals to complete the conquest. But when Muhammad was assassinated in 1206, Qutb became the autonomous ruler of his former Indian territories, including Delhi.
(A variation on this story has it Qutb’s superior was assassinated, allowing the former slave to become ruler of the Delhi sultanate. Either way, his elevation led to the start of the so-called ‘Slave Dynasty’).
Qutb died in 1210 while playing polo in Lahore; he is said to have become impaled on the pommel of his saddle after his horse fell. He was buried near a bazaar in the city. His son, Aram, died the following year, so Iltutmish, Qutb’s son-in-law and another former slave, became sultan of Delhi.
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|March 2014 (37.05081, -122.07092) Felton Covered Bridge|
The Felton Covered Bridge is one of the newer and one of the shorter covered bridges in California. However, the addition of the roof truss also made it the tallest (at 35 ft) covered bridge in the United States. It is also one of the last covered bridges made of redwood.
The bridge was closed to traffic in 1937 and became the first bypassed bridge in the western U.S. to be restored as an historic landmark. Money was raised for the original bridge with a costume ball and the bridge continues to be maintained with an annual pancake breakfast.
Information on the Felton Covered Bridge comes from many sources. A plaque beside the bridge describes how after it became a pedestrian bridge it was used in many movies until it was damaged by a flood on the San Lorenzo River in 1962 and rebuilt by local residents in 1967. The Santa Cruz Public Library's website also contributed information about this and the other San Cruz covered bridges. Drawings and other information was provided by 'Historic Highway Bridges in California.'
Santa Cruz County, California Bridges: Felton Covered Bridge across the San Lorenzo River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. | <urn:uuid:2b769743-7976-40b8-ab76-f60c06207215> | {
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Cuban President Fidel Castro says it shows Mexico has become a lackey of the United States.
Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the Mexico Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, however, said the expulsion of Cuba’s ambassador to Mexico and the recall of Mexico’s ambassador to Cuba “is indicative of Mexico’s more independent foreign policy. Mexico has matured and evolved and Cuba hasn’t.”
There’s also some fascinating political intrigue behind the action.
The ostensible reason for the rift is that Mexico recently supported a U.N. resolution calling for the United Nations to investigate human-rights abuses in Cuba, and Castro criticized Mexican President Vicente Fox. Castro also criticized Peru, which also voted for the resolution and recalled its ambassador to Cuba.
In Mexico’s case, however, there’s more to it. Under the PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Mexico maintained close relations with Cuba even when most Latin American countries cut diplomatic ties. When Fox became the first non-PRI president, things changed. There are policy differences and bad blood between Fox and Castro.
Furthermore, Cuba just deported a Mexican businessman, Carlos Ahumada, who had videotapes of himself allegedly offering bribes to politicians close to Lopez Obrador, the leftist mayor of Mexico City who may run for president in 2006. There are suspicions Ahumada may have dirt on officials close to Fox as well. And Cuban diplomats recently visited with members of Obrador’s Party of the Democratic Revolution, leading Mexican officials to suspect Cuba is meddling in Mexican politics.
We doubt that cutting diplomatic ties is wise. But it’s indicative of Cuba’s increasing isolation in Latin America — and political intrigue. | <urn:uuid:9abb92dd-d594-4240-a5c2-98b7c6e09006> | {
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From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
- The manner is which an item is sharp.
- extremely greatly or seriously; crucially
Origin: 1560–70; L acūtus sharpened, ptp. of acuere (acū-, v. stem, akin to acus needle, ācer sharp + -tus ptp. suffix + OE -līce adj) | <urn:uuid:0adeb3cf-e3f1-4cf7-af8a-7718d5321044> | {
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Nymans Garden in West Sussex is one of Britain's great horticultural wonders, and with its relatively-new head gardener – only the fifth in over 120 years – now bedded in, George Plumptre paid a visit.
In 1895, James Comber became the first head gardener to be employed by Ludwig Messel, who acquired West Sussex’s Nymans in 1890. It says a lot for the stability and continuity of Nymans that the present head gardener, Stephen Herrington, who has been in charge for the past four years, is only the fifth head gardener at the estate since 1895.
Messel had the largesse and energy that typified the Edwardian garden-making era and much of Nymans’ reputation rests on its exceptional plant collection, gathered on a series of overseas collecting trips by Comber’s son Harold.
This, combined with Comber’s management and propagating skills, propelled Nymans into the vanguard of 20th-century gardening in Britain – a position further secured by Messel’s son, Leonard. William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll both visited and the Messels corresponded with Lawrence Johnston at Hidcote, which was also being developed at that time.
Within a grand structural framework of trees and architectural features that typified the period, new plants also arrived from expeditions by two other distinguished plant collectors, Frank Kingdon Ward and George Forrest.
Between them all, over nearly three decades, they collected from far and wide – the Andes, the Himalayas, South America, South Africa and Tasmania – as Nymans established a reputation for rare and outstanding plants.
The National Trust took on the garden in 1953, six years after the main house was almost destroyed by fire. Much of the latter only survives now as a sombre shell.
Mr Herrington is constantly responding to the garden’s heritage and, as he says, ‘working to keep alive the real tradition of wild origin and species collection’. It means that he aspires to a balance between the quantities of cultivars and species in the garden.
He is also deftly balancing conservation with new development. On the one hand, he keeps an eye on the healthy survival of the garden’s 37 Champion trees and of the collection of Chilean trees and shrubs that came back from Comber’s expeditions in the 1920s (when he collected some 3,000 plants). Planted beneath sturdy sheltering walls at Nymans, it is the second largest Chilean collection in Britain, after the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, and includes choice rarities – some of which have beguiling or evocative names.
These include Blepharocalyx cruckshankii, known as Heaven Scent, which has superbly patterned, orange bark; Colletia cruciate, described in one nursery catalogue as ‘a vicious little evergreen shrub from Patagonia with delicious almond-scented flowers beloved by all self-respecting butterflies with a healthy disregard for their own safety’; Crinodendron patagua is known as the lily-of-the-valley tree, the pure-white flowers of which contrast with the bright-red ones of its better-known cousin, C. hookerianum. Weinmannia trichosperma is a handsome evergreen that grows to a height of 100ft in the wild, its small white flowers producing delicious honey.
When energising the garden with new developments, Mr Herrington ensures that they’re done in a manner that’s true to the Messel family’s original ambitions, priorities and interests.
A good example is the wild garden, which he’s looking to expand by three acres, using predominantly mixed native woodland enlivened with more exotic introductions from overseas – exactly as the Messels would have done.
The Messels built up an enormous collection of South African plants, grown mainly under glass; most of them no longer exist in the garden, but are listed in its inventory, Nymans Flora of 1918.
To go in its place, Mr Herrington is developing a new area of South African borders to re-create the spirit of the original, but with hardy outdoor varieties such as the airy grass Pennisetum villosum Cream Falls, a spectacular orange red-hot poker, Kniphofia Mango Popsicle, and different restio grasses.
Another new area being developed close to one boundary of the garden is something of an homage to Comber’s Antipodean collecting. The Australia Dry Garden is planned as a living embodiment of ‘no maintenance’ horticulture – the plants were watered once when put in and have not been since.
Visitors familiar with some Australian plants will delight in previously unknown curiosities, such as the strong-smelling Dianella tasmanica with its small white flowers, the ‘sea rosemary’, Ozothamnus rosmarinifolius Silver Jubilee, and the luxurious, broad-leaved bottlebrush, Banksia robur, all of which are as distinctive-looking as you would expect from a trio of Australasian rarities.
Mr Herrington is ensuring that Nymans is a pioneer of Green gardening. No water is taken from the mains and the garden uses only recycled rainwater. Hand tools are all battery powered and the tractors run on bio-diesel. No chemicals have been used for three years, which, in some areas, has affected the varieties of plants grown, for instance, in the rose garden, where David Austin roses are being phased out and replaced with a growing collection of older cultivars and species.
With such a richly varied collection of trees and shrubs, Nymans has always been a garden with wonderful spring and autumn displays in addition to its midsummer zenith. However, Mr Herrington regularly looks for ways to strengthen this diversity and a good example is the salvia triangle he has planted in an area close to the main entrance, which he’s building up over three years to provide a spectacular display of colour into September that will draw admiring visitors to the garden.
As big a challenge as anything is keeping on top of the sheer scale of the garden. Every year, the famous double borders that form the centrepiece of the walled garden are filled out with 6,000 half-hardy and tender annuals grown in the glasshouses.
In an operation of military efficiency in the first week of June, they’re all planted out and staked with hazel twigs. The annuals are planted in the front sections with taller perennial plants behind.
At the end of the season, an assessment is done of all plants’ success or failure; after the first frost, the annuals are taken up and the taller perennials left to provide seeds for birds and continuing autumn interest. Closer to the house, 3,000 tulips are planted in the sunk garden annually, mixed with Winter Orchid and Winter Passion wallflowers.
It would be easy to be intimidated by Nymans’ illustrious past, reminders of which are everywhere in the garden. One of the rarest magnolias is Cecil Nice, named after the second head gardener.
Not only is there a rare cultivar of the pocket-handkerchief tree, which was named after the garden – Davidia involucrata Nymans Sentinel – but, towards one edge of the space, there is a whole grove of davidias interspersed with great clumps of cloud-clipped box. There are Camellias Leonard Messel and Maud Messel and, perhaps best known of all, Magnolia Leonard Messel.
Nymans remains an internationally important horticultural aristocrat whose lineage is being rejuvenated with youthful vigour that makes it as relevant to the priorities and conditions of the 21st century as it was to those of its early-20th-century origins.
Nymans, at Handcross near Haywards Heath, West Sussex, is open year-round; for further information, telephone 01444 405250 or visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/nymans.
George Plumptre enjoys the grounds of a Tudor farmhouse that was the former home of Lord Baden-Powell. Photographs by Clive
Simon Jenkins, former chairman of the National Trust, considers the next steps for Clandon Park in Surrey, two years after
This West Sussex house was originally built as a coach house and stables, and now boasts a magical walled garden
A windy hilltop was no deterrent to the owners in creating a garden with a special focus on winter and
This book on Lancelot 'Capability' Brown by the greatest living expert on his work is like nothing else – but it | <urn:uuid:06d253fc-322b-435a-a96f-9286720697cb> | {
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Many seemingly complex features of the world and universe are built from repeating units that combine regularly to assemble astoundingly beautiful structures. From sea shells and spiral galaxies to cauliflower florets and the leaves on a tree, repeating patterns shape our universe.
This month’s project is a model of a truncated icosahedron, a planar combination of hexagons and pentagons. You might recognize this pattern as the shape from a soccer ball. This model was developed by George W. Hart.
While it looks complicated, this is a relatively simple model to construct and is a good place to start for beginners. This example is made from 20 3″ triangles cut from scrap cardboard. You can also use other types of paper, such as construction paper or poster board.
- White glue
- 9″ by 12″ of scrap cardboard
Cut out the triangles:
- Use the pencil, ruler, and compass to draw a 3” equilateral triangle.
- Cut it out.
- Trace 20 copies of the triangle and cut them out.
- On each triangle, cut a slit on each side, 1″ from the corner. Each slit should reach to the triangle’s midline. These slits will help each piece lock together when you assemble the model.
Tip: To make this process faster, cut a template using the 21st triangle you cut out earlier.
Once slits are cut on all three sides of all twenty triangles, you are ready for assembly.
Assemble the icosahedron:
- Slide two triangles together, by their slits.
- Add three more triangles to make a ring of five triangles.
- Add another triangle to each of the free points on the ring.
- Then, to create an alternating row, connect a new triangle to two of the triangles on the ring. This should form a pentagon-shaped space between the triangles.
- Repeat step 4 with four more triangles, until the ring is complete.
- Fit the last five triangles across the ends to complete the polyhedra.
Tip: If you are having difficulty with pieces popping out while you are working dab a little white glue on the seams as you go.
Try making paper sculptures in different sizes. The larger you go the more rigid your source material needs to be. Or go smaller to make some lovely, delicate models using decorative papers of all kinds.
If this type of project appeals to you, try the versatile and far more durable Space Chips available in many sizes and styles. | <urn:uuid:2220f569-677a-4036-b92f-6e0576d4e5b9> | {
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Should I use toothpaste with my child?
The ADA recommends using fluoridated toothpaste once you start using a toothbrush. Use a smear of toothpaste to brush the teeth of a child less than 2 years of age. For youngsters 2-5 years old, dispense a pea-size amount of toothpaste and perform or assist your child's tooth brushing. Remember that young children do not have the ability to brush their teeth effectively on their own. Make sure they spit out and not swallow excess toothpaste after brushing.
When should I schedule my child's first dental appointment?
The experts all recommend that your child's first dental visit should take place around 12 months of age or shortly after the eruption of the first baby tooth. This proactive approach will help us identify potential problems early and introduce your baby to all the sights, sounds, and sensations. Don't wait until your child has a toothache or a dental emergency. This could result in your child developing a fear of the dentist, which is sometimes very hard to overcome — and we wouldn't want that to happen.
Your child's teeth begin forming before your child is even born. Baby teeth, just like permanent teeth, need to be kept clean and healthy or they can decay. We take extra care and have the knowledge on treating our young patients. We recommend a child's first visit to a dentist when they are 12 months. At this age, the dentist will check for problems and will guide parents on best practices for helping the child maintain good oral health. Children should visit the dentist every six months, just like adults, to ensure no cavities are forming.
By age six, your child's molars and other permanent teeth are starting to come in. Just as their bodies are changing physically as they reach the pre-teen and teenage years, so are their oral health needs. As your child grows, our dentist will be there to advise whether a referral to an orthodontist is needed and what you and your child can do to ensure that your child's permanent teeth will form a beautiful and healthy smile that can last a lifetime.
At Clements Dental, you can enjoy comprehensive care for your whole family. Our dentists focus on preventive care, early detection of cavities and other concerns, diagnosis, and treatment. Whether your child needs a check-up, a cavity filled, or emergency treatment for a chipped or broken tooth, we're ready to help. The child's parent or legal guardian must give his or her consent before any dental care is provided for a child under 18 years of age.
What should I use to clean my baby's teeth?
It is important to develop the habit early on of removing plaque bacteria that can lead to decay, starting at birth. For newborns, clean your baby's gums with a soft infant toothbrush or cloth and water. As soon as the teeth begin to appear, start brushing at least once a day (at bedtime) with a soft-bristled toothbrush with a small head, preferably one designed specifically for infants; twice a day is even better, especially as more teeth come in and the child's diet becomes more varied.
Conveniently located in Shelbyville, TN, our dental office is always at the forefront of dental methods and technology to help create beautiful and long lasting, natural smiles. We're committed to providing affordable and quality dental care to our patients while maintaining a friendly and relaxed environment.
Dr. Tara Clements and Dr. James Clark are your Shelbyville, TN dentists that provide crowns, teeth cleaning, tooth extractions, teeth whitening, root canal therapy, dental implant restorations, pediatric dentistry, and so much more. We are happy to file most all dental insurances as a service to our patients.
Clements Dental · Dental Office in Shelbyville, TN · Dentist · All Rights Reserved
Website Design by Willow Management | <urn:uuid:c59c06dc-849a-4158-bcb8-74dc928c1de4> | {
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A veteran veterinarian delivered the first known biologically identical puppy twins in South Africa, researchers who tested the pups' DNA over several weeks confirm.
Kurt de Cramer, who works in South Africa's Rant en Dal ANimal Hospital in Mogale City, was performing a C-section on an Irish wolfhound when he encountered something unprecedented in 26 years of veterinary practice: two puppies with umbilical cords attached to the same placenta, according to British news agency BBC.
The puppies were the same sex and had similar markings; the other five puppies in the litter also looked similar, but each had his or her own placenta, the website reported.
A team of researchers took DNA samples when the pups were 2 weeks old, and again at 6 weeks, and the results confirmed de Cramer's initial hypothesis that they were monozygotic twins.
It's not clear if this is the first case of monozygotic twin puppies, because pups born in the same litter often look alike and DNA testing is usually not performed -- but it's the first documented case in scientific literature.
Non-identical twins are more common because they each have their own placenta. Identical twin fetuses have been reported in horses, for example, but the placenta doesn't have enough oxygen to sustain both.
De Cramer told BBC he saw only one other case of puppies sharing a placenta, but both, oxygen- and nutrient-deprived, were dead before he performed a C-section on the mother. | <urn:uuid:581e5786-c293-4717-9f47-a616ba7c7f81> | {
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The main goal of the project "Teach and Learn with Georgia" is to improve English language proficiency through recruiting native English speakers who will be willing to help Georgian schoolchildren learn the English language in public schools in Georgia. As they strive towards globalization and acknowledge the advantages of new technology, the Georgian government considers human interaction and people-to-people communication as irreplaceable and have far more tangible or intangible benefits than any other means of communication. This is why "Teach and Learn with Georgia" is so important for a small country like Georgia that has exceptional customs and traditions and is willing to share them with the rest of the world.
Volunteer teachers will stay in Georgia for at least one year and experience once in a lifetime opportunities, such as getting familiarized with amazing Georgian customs and traditions by living with local families, experiencing unique Georgian folklore and cuisine by socializing with local communities, and learning the Georgian language, one of the 14 existing alphabets in the world, should they wish to do so.
The exchange of information, experiences and culture will create important ties between Georgians and other peopls from different parts of the world. This initiative will significantly improve foreign language proficiency in Georgia and give volunteer teachers advantageous benefits for their future careers. | <urn:uuid:7378db40-3f96-4ea5-b989-32976fa6294a> | {
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Before embarking on a philosophical study of suicide, it may be helpful to attempt at least a preliminary definition of it. A definition that comes to mind is the following:
A. Suicide is any form of self-killing, where self-killing is
understood as acting in such a way as to bring
about one's own death.
Problem: consider the following three cases:
Presumably, we agree that (1)-(3) are cases of self killing, but only (1) is a case of suicide. Hence, the definition is too wide.
B. Durkheim's definition of
Suicide is the death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result.
4) Jim knows he'll be shot unless he betrays the
underground; he doesn't betray and is executed.
Presumably, (4) is not a case of suicide because Jim doesn't intend to die and doesn't see his death as a means not to betray.
Consider now these cases:
5) Joe takes poison and dies in order not to reveal secrets.
This is a case of suicide because Joe intends to die not to
reveal secrets; that is, he views his death as a
means to achieve a goal (keeping the secrets), and known means to
intended ends are themselves intended.
NOTE: Some, e.g., Beauchamp, deny this is a case of suicide because Joe is coerced and consequently doesn't act of his own free will (his act is not his own). On this view, neither Socrates nor Seneca committed suicide.
6) Jack throws himself on a grenade to save his buddies and the explosion kills him.
Presumably, this is not a case of suicide because
C. Another definition of suicide: X commits suicide iff:
The definition allows:
Before investigating suicide, a few points are also worth noticing:
∑ It's far from clear whether suicide is a cowardly act, as it is often claimed. For one thing, it take some courage to commit suicide because it requires overcoming a natural instinct for self-preservation. For another, in some situation involving extreme suffering continuing life would be (perhaps foolishly?) heroic. But morality does not require us to be heros at all costs.
∑ It's not clear whether the commandment "Don't murder" prohibits suicide.† In many circumstances we are morally permitted to kill, as in war, in self-defense, in protecting life and limbs; the point is that not all killing amounts to murder.† If I am allowed to kill you if I know that otherwise you're going to inject me with some horrible disease, why should I not be allowed to kill myself if I have that horrible disease?
∑ The issue of whether suicide is morally permissible is different from that of whether suicide is reasonable. Note that there are many unreasonable and stupid things that can be morally permissible.
∑ It is simply false that people who commit suicide are mentally ill, although no doubt some (and perhaps many) suicides are the result of mental illness. In many cases, the decision to commit suicide is reached with proper information and good reasoning.
∑ The idea that one should keep on living at all costs because there's always hope that things will get better is very problematic. Sure, it is possible that tomorrow someone will discover the cure for my horrible disease and give it to me. But our reasonable decisions are made on the basis of what is probable, not merely of what is possible. It's certaily possible that tomorrow I'll win the lottery, but it would be unreasonable of me to start making debts today because what is possible need not be probable.
∑ Although some, perhaps many, cases of suicide do show disregard for the feelings or the interests of family and friends, it's simply false that all do. Sometimes people commit suicide with the agreement of family and friends, and sometimes they take into due consideration not only their own feelings and interests but also the ones of others. Hence, suicide need not be a selfish act any more than most other acts.
Aquinas on suicide.
It's wrong to commit suicide (unless commanded by God!) because:
Objection: What does "natural" mean? As the inclination to commit suicide is not uncommon, whay is it not natural?
Reply: "natural" as normative notion stemming from an Aristotelian (perfectionist) consideration of humans: one ought to strive for happiness (the actualization of human capacities), and suicide prevents that.
Duplication: but then the good is happiness, not life per se, and if one's life is wretched and with no hope for happiness, the reply fails.
Thought Question: how basic are property rights?† Do they trump avoidance of severe pain and suffering?† Can you think of some examples?
Kant on suicide.
For Kant, the intention to kill oneself constitutes suicide. He provides two order of arguments against the permissibility of suicide, secular and religious. The latter dependent on the former: God forbids suicide because it is wrong, not vice versa.
A) Secular arguments
Kantís point applies, if at all, to the first one. But
the spring of suicide can be the second.
Thought Question: Does Kant fail to appreciate the importance of moral luck?
K. distinguishes between one's life and one's humanity; duty towards the former is conditional, towards latter absolute. But suicide at times originates in respect for one's humanity (personhood), as in the case of suffering or living in chains. See, e.g., Seneca's letter 70 to Lucilius, or even Kant's remarks on Cato's suicide (the only case about which he seems in doubt)
Reply: One's humanity cannot be diminished or stripped away because morality is totally autonomous (one can always be moral in Kantís view).
Duplication: It is far from clear that this is so. Consider cases of forced administrations of drugs, brain-washing, concentration camps, mental degeneration, etc. Ultimately, Kant fails to appreciate the importance of moral luck.
B) Religious arguments:
Hume on suicide.
Superstition and our natural fear of death make our views on suicide muddled. It's the task of philosophy to free us from confusion and show that suicide may be free from all imputations of guilt and blame because it is not a transgression of our duties towards God, society, or ourselves.
1. Suicide is not a transgression of duty towards God.
God is the creator of a system of inanimate and animate creatures which act on the basis of immutable laws. Human life, like everything else, is subject to natural laws, and diverting a few ounces of blood from their usual course is no more an encroachment on providence, or a disturbance of the order of creation, than diverting a river. It's arbitrary to allow the former and condemn the latter.
NOTE: H's point is that human life, like most everything else, is rightly subject to human prudence.
2. Suicide is no transgression
of duty towards society
Hume presents several arguments:
Thought Question: do you think there is a duty to commit suicide to avoid pain and suffering to others?
3. Suicide is no transgression of duty to oneself. Age,
misfortune, sickness can make life worse than death.
Suicide and Paternalism
It is one thing to believe that suicide is morally unjustifiable, it is another limit the freedom of action of one who wants to commit suicide. We value rational agency, and one of the manifestations of rational agency is acting in accordance with one's own conception of the good (i.e., autonomously). In other words, the fact that an agent can act autonomously is good. It follows, then, that one might be morally required to uphold one's legal right to do what's morally wrong if the morally wrong act is a manifestation of autonomy and compatible with it.
Note: this rules out things like self-enslavement.
Paternalism is the limitation of a person's liberty of action or
information for the sake of that person's welfare or needs. Since
paternalism restricts autonomy, it requires a justification (it's guilty until
proven innocent, as it were).
It helps to distinguish two types of paternalism:
Thought Question: to what extent is an appeal to future values reasonable?† For example, I may know that if I donít kill myself my values will become thus and so as Iíll adjust to my new state, and at that point Iíll judge favorably my decision to keep on living.† But suppose that now I donít want to be the type of person Iíll become if I keep on living.† What should I do?
While weak paternalism is justifiable because it does not impinge on autonomy, strong paternalism is much harder to support and probably has to be rejected. | <urn:uuid:1ea1fa44-8118-4068-92ab-f896e617f71d> | {
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Our life is filled with mazes which can be fun or confusing. The puzzles that accompany this time of year are filled with wonder. Many students will be graduating from high school or college this month. Their lives will be a maze of discovery.
The high school graduate has been guided by their parents through the mazes of the school years. Each school grade has a set of content to be mastered by the students in the school year. Everything is regimented and there is a clear map to the end of the maze. This is a wonderful and fun time in life. School dances and sports will be remembered and talked about for a lifetime.
The day comes for graduation and the high school graduate is faced with decisions for the future. Which maze in life to take has filled the mind of the graduate for months and now the time has come for a decision to be made. Does the graduate go to college or a vocational program or perhaps immediately enter the workforce?
If college or the vocational program is the high school graduate’s choice then which school enters into the maze? For some graduates this is an easy choice having had a revelation of what to study early in life. Other graduates will have a difficult decision due to not having a clear idea of what to do in life. The maze will be more of an adventure for these graduates.
For the high school graduate that chooses to immediately enter the work force the maze will also be an adventure. The process of finding a job can be a confusing task filled with resume writing, filling out job applications, and finally the job interview. Successful navigation of this maze requires guidance and a willingness to learn from other people.
The next group of graduates come from the college or vocational school settings. These students have pursued higher education in specific interests and are now on the threshold of exiting the maze of school into the real world. The time to move into the new maze of life has come.
These graduates face the same learning experiences as the high school graduate who entered the work force years earlier. Their focus will be on a career path based on the specific interests studied in school. Like the high school graduate entering the work force a job will be found and the maze of life in the real world will begin.
In the next phase of life graduates must learn to navigate the maze of living in the real world. The parents of these graduates will offer advice when needed but the main focus is now on independence. This is an exciting time in life.
The path to independence is a fun maze to enter filled with twists and turns. Learning to live on a new income can be a daunting task. There is no longer the safety net of parental income. The graduate will learn to navigate this maze with pride and a sense of accomplishment.
Searching for the first apartment is an exciting adventure. The graduate searches for something within a budget based upon income. There are many different apartments with differing lifestyle options to choose from. This maze may be taken individually or with a group of people looking to share living expenses. Learning to navigate this maze is an exciting adventure.
The next maze encountered by young graduates is the option to get married following graduation or to live independently as a single adult. Both options hold exciting possibilities.
The young graduate opting to marry immediately has a partner to share the journey of the maze. The twists and turns in this maze include learning to live as a couple and possibly childbearing. The adventure turns to searching for independence and stability in the maze.
The young graduate choosing to remain single for a while may experience the maze of adventure. The young graduate may choose a career that allows for travel. This can be an exciting time in a young person’s life. There is the challenge of living in different places for a short amount of time. This maze requires planning to navigate the twists and turns of life. It can be an amazing experience.
Mazes continue throughout life. Choosing to go into life’s mazes with the sense of wonder and excitement makes the journey more pleasant. Some mazes will be difficult with many twists and turns. All of this is just part of our journey through life.
copyright 2017 Debbie Pierce | <urn:uuid:66cc24b9-e5a9-4d21-8efb-c85c3b7ce463> | {
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Automated Scoring of Speech
ETS's SpeechRaterSM engine is the only spoken response scoring application that is used to score spontaneous responses, in which the range of valid responses is open-ended rather than narrowly determined by the item stimulus. Test takers preparing to take the TOEFL® test have had their responses scored by the SpeechRater engine as part of the TOEFL Practice Online test since 2006. Competing capabilities focus on assessing low-level aspects of speech production such as pronunciation by using restricted tasks in order to increase reliability. The SpeechRater engine, by contrast, is based on a broad conception of the construct of English speaking proficiency, encompassing aspects of speech delivery (such as pronunciation and fluency), grammatical facility and higher-level abilities related to topical coherence and the progression of ideas.
The SpeechRater engine processes each response with an automated speech recognition system specially adapted for use with nonnative English. Based on the output of this system, natural language processing is used to calculate a set of features that define a "profile" of the speech on a number of linguistic dimensions, including fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary usage and prosody. A model of speaking proficiency is then applied to these features in order to assign a final score to the response. While the structure of this model is informed by content experts, it is also trained on a database of previously observed responses scored by human raters, in order to ensure that SpeechRater's scoring emulates human scoring as closely as possible. Furthermore, if the response is found to be unscorable due to audio quality or other issues, the SpeechRater engine can set it aside for special processing.
ETS's research agenda related to automated scoring of speech includes the development of more extensive Natural Language Processing (NLP) features to represent grammatical competencies and the discourse structure of spoken responses. The core capability is also being extended to apply across a range of item types used in different assessments of English proficiency, including a range of options from very restricted item types (such as passage read-alouds), through less restrictive items (such as summarization tasks), to fully open-ended items.
Below are some recent or significant publications that our researchers have authored on the subject of automated scoring of speech.
Applying Unsupervised Learning To Support Vector Space Model Based Speaking Assessment
NAACL/HLT 2013 (2013): 58
The author shows that machine-generated scores can effectively approximate the scores of human raters for use in model-building for automated speech assessment. View citation record >
Coherence Modeling for the Automated Assessment of Spontaneous Spoken Responses
X. Wang, K. Evanini, & K. Zechner
Conference of the North American Association for Computational Linguistics and Human Language Technologies (NAACL-HLT)
This paper describes a system for automatically evaluating discourse coherence in spoken responses. View citation record >
Prompt-based content scoring for automated spoken language assessment
K. Evanini, S. Xie, & K. Zechner
Proceedings of the Eighth Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications, pages 157–162, Atlanta, Ga.
This paper investigates the use of prompt-based content features for the automated assessment of spontaneous speech in a spoken language proficiency assessment. View citation record >
Automated Content Scoring of Spoken Responses in an Assessment for Teachers of English
K. Zechner & X. Wang
Proceedings of the Eighth Workshop on the Innovative Use of Natural Language Processing for Building Educational Applications (BEA-8), Conference of the North American Association for Computational Linguistics and Human Language Technologies (NAACL-HLT-2013), Atlanta, Ga.
This paper presents and evaluates approaches to automatically score the content correctness of spoken responses in a new language test for teachers of English as a foreign language who are nonnative speakers of English. View citation record >
Using an Ontology for Improved Automated Content Scoring of Spontaneous Nonnative Speech
M. Chen & K. Zechner
Proceedings of the Seventh Workshop on Innovative Use of Natural Language Processing for Building Educational Applications (BEA). June 2012, Montréal, Canada.
This paper presents an exploration into automated content scoring of nonnative spontaneous speech using ontology-based information to enhance a vector space approach. View citation record >
Acoustic Feature-based Nonscorable Response Detection for an Automated Speaking Proficiency Assessment
J. H. Jeon & S. Yoon
Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, Portland, Ore.
This paper presents a method that filters out nonscorable (NS) responses, such as responses with a technical difficulty, in an automated speaking proficiency assessment system. September 2012. View citation record >
A Comparison of Two Scoring Methods for an Automated Speech Scoring System
X. Xi, D. Higgins, K. Zechner, & D. Williamson
Language Testing, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 371–394
In this paper, researchers compare two alternative scoring methods for an automated scoring system for speech. The authors discuss tradeoffs between multiple regression and classification tree models. View citation record >
Exploring Content Features for Automated Speech Scoring
S. Xie, K. Evanini, & K. Zechner
Proceedings of the 2012 Meeting of the North American Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (NAACL-HLT)
Association for Computational Linguistics
Researchers explore content features for automated speech scoring in this paper about automated scoring of unrestricted spontaneous speech. The paper compares content features based on three similarity measures in order to understand how well content features represent the accuracy of the content of a spoken response. View citation record >
Assessment of ESL Learners' Syntactic Competence Based on Similarity Measures
S. Yoon & S. Bhat
Paper in Proceedings of the 2012 Joint Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing and Computational Natural Language Learning (EMNLP-CoNLL)
In this paper, researchers present a method that measures English language learners' syntactic competence for the automated speech scoring systems. The authors discuss the advantage of the current natural language processing technique-based and corpus-based measures over the conventional ELL measures. View citation record >
Using Automatic Speech Recognition to Assess the Reading Proficiency of a Diverse Sample of Middle School Students
K. Zechner, K. Evanini, & C. Laitusis
Paper in Proceedings of the Interspeech Workshop on Child, Computer, and Interaction
The authors describe a study exploring automated assessment of reading proficiency, in terms of oral reading and reading comprehension, for a middle school population including students with reading disabilities and low reading proficiency, utilizing automatic speech recognition technology. View citation record >
A Three-Stage Approach to the Automated Scoring of Spontaneous Spoken Responses
D. Higgins, K. Zechner, X. Xi, & D. Williamson
Computer Speech & Language, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 282–306
This paper presents a description and evaluation of SpeechRaterSM, a system for automated scoring of nonnative speakers' spoken English proficiency. The system evaluates proficiency based on assessment tasks that elicit spontaneous monologues on particular topics. View citation record >
Automatic Scoring of Non-Native Spontaneous Speech in Tests of Spoken English
K. Zechner, D. Higgins, X. Xi, & D. Williamson
Speech Communication, Vol. 51, No. 10, pp. 883–895
This paper presents the first version of the SpeechRaterSM system, reviewing the automated scoring engine's use in the context of the TOEFL Practice Online test.
View citation record >
Find More Articles
View more research publications related to automated scoring of speech.
Read More from Our Researchers
View a list of current ETS researchers and their work. | <urn:uuid:473e8afe-1e2c-4ac2-b077-16727bedbbc1> | {
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Definition of bullfrog in English:
A very large frog that has a deep booming croak and is often a predator of smaller vertebrates.
- Genera Rana and Pyxicephalus, family Ranidae: the North American bullfrog (R. catesbeiana), the Asian bullfrog (R. tigrina), and the African bullfrog (P. adspersus)
- In their native habitat, predators such as large water snakes, alligators, and snapping turtles keep adult bullfrogs in check, while fish slurp tadpoles.
- In southern Arizona the most common vertebrates found in bullfrogs are other bullfrogs, Schwalbe said.
- The lake behind the house was filled with tree frogs and bullfrogs and cicadas and crickets.
Words that rhyme with bullfrogeggnog • leapfrog
Definition of bullfrog in:
- British & World English dictionary
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
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Most popular in the US
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Most popular in Pakistan | <urn:uuid:74444f1a-62a2-4911-b8b6-d91e84e6b3bc> | {
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Space worms were gigantic creatures—capable of surviving in space—which fed on minerals. They were responsible for hollowing out Eskaron, a moon in the Cularin system, but due to this they exposed Eskaron's molten core, which expanded, destroyed the atmosphere and killed some of the worms. When the worms used up their food source, they moved on from the system millennia before it was discovered by Reidi Artom.
The remnants of one worm was found in Eskaron and called simply the Worm.
- Blood Ties: Boba Fett is Dead 4 (Mentioned only)
- Living Force Campaign Guide (First mentioned) | <urn:uuid:f749fb03-e9e8-4132-80d7-ba605d129c2d> | {
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Irish community in Israel
Learn more about the Irish Community in Israel
The origin of the Irish community in Israel is inextricably linked to the Jewish community in Ireland. For many generations there was an Anglo-Jewish community in Ireland. This substantially augmented by the arrival of Jews from Europe beginning in the 1890s. In main, these Jews came from Lithuania, than part of the Russian Pale. They settled in our cities, principally in Dublin, Belfast and Cork, rising to over 5,000 in numbers on the eve of World War II. The Jewish communities in Ireland made remarkable contributions to the life of Ireland in many field from business, law and politics, to culture, academia and the arts. Leading figures from the Briscoe family, for example, played a significant role in the struggle for Irish independence.
Ireland’s Jewish community declined in numbers after WWII. Like many Jewish communities in Britain, they consolidated in major cities in Britain and in the US. Many families made Aliya to Israel from Ireland in the decades after the war. This was Ireland’s loss and Israel’s gain.
The Irish contribution to Israel was felt early. The first Chief Rabbi during the mandate period and later under independence was Yitzhak Herzog, Ireland’s first Chief Rabbi before he made Aliya in 1936. Like the Briscoe’s, the Herzogs were committed Irish nationalists. Herzog’s son Jacob would make a significant contribution to Israeli diplomacy. His other son, Chaim, born in Belfast and raised in Dublin, would fight for Israeli independence and later become its sixth President. His grandson, Isaac, continues to make his contribution to Israeli public life as Member of the Knesset and leader of the Labor Party.
The Irish community here is well established, thanks to those from Ireland who made Aliya. New Irish have also come here, attracted by business opportunities and Israel’s renowned hi-tech sector and start up culture.
Focal points for the Irish community to get together include the Israel Ireland Friendship League, the Israel Ireland Chamber of Commerce, events hosted by the Embassy, cultural events, Irish dancing classes and the social ambiance of a dozen or so Irish pubs located throughout Israel. | <urn:uuid:b1c80cfd-6fc2-4809-8976-12f1bcf60d6a> | {
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Vaccines are medicines that boost your immune system’s natural ability to protect your body against diseases and infections. Vaccine therapy in the treatment of cancer is designed to boost your body’s natural ability to protect itself, through the immune system from dangers posed by damaged or abnormal cells such as cancer cells.
Researchers are developing treatment vaccines against many types of cancer and testing them in clinical trials. The FDA has approved one cancer treatment vaccine for certain men with metastatic prostate cancer.
How Cancer Vaccine Treatment Works
A vaccine is a substance designed to stimulate the immune system to launch an immune response. This response is directed against specific targets, or antigens, that are part of the vaccine. An antigen is any substance that the immune system recognizes as foreign.
Most vaccines are preventative. You receive a vaccine before infection to enable your immune system to recognize and respond to a future specific infection.
Cancer treatment vaccines are different from traditional preventative vaccines in that they are designed to treat cancers that have already developed. They are intended to delay or stop cancer cell growth; to cause tumor shrinkage; to prevent cancer from coming back; or to eliminate cancer cells that have not been killed by other forms of treatment.
Advances in research and the understanding of how the immune system works are now enabling researchers to harness the power of your body’s immune system to protect itself against cancer cells. Researchers are able to design more effective cancer vaccines that improve the immune system’s ability to identify cancer cells and stimulate a strong immune response to attack targeted cancer cells.
Can vaccine therapy be used with other cancer treatments?
Vaccine therapy may be used in addition to other cancer treatments including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or hormone therapy.
Our Treatment Team
Vaccine therapy in the treatment of cancer is administered by medical oncologists. Medical oncologists are physicians who specialize in treating cancer with a variety of cancer-fighting medications. Our medical oncologists meet with patients and their families to determine an individualized treatment plan working with other cancer specialists and oncology nurses.
Appointments & Referrals
If you need a help to find a medical oncologist and/or a location, please call at 1-(855)-XCANCER (1-855-9226237) or (206) 215-3600.
Talk to Someone or Make an Appointment
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Listen and Learn
Stories of Hope | <urn:uuid:5263829d-f032-48e3-aa81-8f13438d7211> | {
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To answer just what the importance of Psychology is, first we should define Psychology as a practice and field of study. As described in what is psychology – the field of Psychology can be described as:
- The scientific study of the human mind and its functions, esp. those affecting behaviour in a given context.
- The mental characteristics or attitude of a person or group.
- The mental and emotional factors governing a situation or activity
Over the years as the field of Psychology grew, it was broken down into seven schools of thought. These schools of thought are definitely not the only psychological fields of study, but are broad comparisons to help you narrow your thinking as to what is Psychology and thus defining its importance. The seven schools of thought being referred to are Biological Psychology, Behavioural Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Humanistic Psychology, Cross Cultural Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology and Psychodynamic Psychology.
So Why is Psychology Important?
Psychology is the study of so many different aspects that relate to the human mind, functions and our environment. Looking at the many different branches of Psychology, one can immediately see how it is engraved into our lives in so many diverse ways. While looking at these various ways Psychology is being studied, it’s applications can be seen in the personal / inner-self, environmental interactions between us and the outside world and so on.
Psychology and its Importance to Health
In our daily lives Psychology is directly relevant through services like therapy and counselling. Clinical Psychologists work with anyone from individuals, couples, families, or groups in a variety of settings, including private practices, hospitals, mental health organizations, schools, businesses, and non-profit agencies. We can immediately see the array of applications Psychology has in only one immediate practice, however Clinical Psychologists do employ numerous different ideologies and types of Psychological approaches that determine how they approach their practices.
Often the practice of Psychology takes from its various branches or schools of thought, depending on what we are trying to diagnose or figure out. For example – treating a patient with Alzheimer’s Disease (a neurodegenerative disease characterized by memory loss, language deterioration, impaired ability to mentally manipulate visual information, poor judgment, confusion, restlessness, and mood swings [Psychologytoday]) is a lot different then treating someone with a Schizoid personality disorder (Schizoid Personality Disorder is characterized by a long-standing pattern of detachment from social relationships. A person with schizoid personality disorder often has difficulty expression emotions and does so typically in very restricted range, especially when communicating with others [PsychCentral]).
The Importance and Relevance of Applied Psychology
Instead of using Psychology as a treatment, it can also be used to improve our daily lives through developments in Applied Psychology. We can apply Psychology to our everyday lives for situations such as for business, education, product design, ergonomics, law and so on. Applied Psychology utilizes other forms of Psychology, such as Social and Cognitives Psychology fields to help in its design. Applied Psychology is a part of Clinical Psychology as already described above, however it is a great example at being able to show how Psychology can have an important role in pretty much anything.
For example – Psychology is important to businesses who want to be able to best sell their products to the consumer, such as yourself. Back in February of 2012, the following was an article published by Forbes magazine – How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant before Her Father Did. The premise behind the article was that Target, a large retail company started sending out coupons for baby items to customers based on “pregnancy scores”. These scores were determined by a consumers shopping habits and sure enough it worked rather successfully as seen in the above linked article. Through studying the Psychology of Target’s consumers shopping habits, they were able to accurately market their products , which ideally from the perspective of Target would increase sales and decrease advertising costs in the long run.
The above story is used as an example to what the power that Psychology and the study of can have. Whether or not the benefit was to the corporation or to the consumer, either way you can see the relevance it can have in the lives of everyone.
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Shakespeare (Hamlet)
Psychology is Everywhere
The importance of Psychology is seen through the many different examples of how Psychology is being studied and how it is being applied to our daily lives. Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behaviour, which can literally be applied to everything from health to business and social behaviour. In an attempt to improve our lives, Psychology strives to collect and make sense of the data that surrounds our day to day. And when we posses maladaptive behaviour & thinking, Psychology attempts to diagnose and treat. Through just a quick introduction into the different types and applications of Psychology, we see just how relevant and important it really is.
Can you think of any examples of how Psychology is important to yourself? | <urn:uuid:1667f190-86c0-422e-83e1-095e3821614c> | {
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Since the dawn of history, ‘public’ architecture – the architecture constructed by institutions of church and state, served as a tool in shaping the consciousness of the masses. Its massive dimensions, layout of spaces, and choice of materials, were all done with the objective of creating in the viewer and visitor a sense of moving between dimensions – from the day-to-day, the simple and the often inferior – to a place that is sublime, inspiring and of awesome majesty – homes to those among the people raised to privilege– the representatives of God on earth.
The Pharaohs in Ancient Egypt, influenced by the Nile which flows in linear manner, designed their temples as a voluminous physical experience. En route, temple visitors move over long stretches that become more convoluted and ever deeper, passing through spaces where each exposes a clue to the next, and where each transition appears to take you closer to the exalted and the shocking, which only the favored will get to see.
Western modern architecture sought to break free of its propaganda-based foundations and serve as a reflection of the values of a society, its culture, and its technological capabilities. It is intended to serve the public and the objectives of a nation’s government – no longer in the form of holy places, but as functional public buildings that are welcoming and democratic in nature. Accordingly, the importance of changing the mind-set of the visitor has been almost entirely absent from the design discourse in recent centuries.
When it comes to ‘grassroots architecture’ – namely, the architecture used in planning private residences – the experience of a change in consciousness upon entering a house is hardly ever thought of nowadays in the design process, having lost its importance quite some time ago. The living spaces and the living room are thus made as one piece, separated from the street by nothing more than a door, both physically and metaphorically.
The house under discussion here is about this experience. It is this dynamic that is generated in its design, explaining it to the visitor simply by placing him or her at its center from the first moment they stand in front of the facade facing the street — an opaque monolithic slab, covered in dark stone. The impermeability of the wall is softened by an avenue of young trees directing the visitor along the length of the paved footpath, directly into an inner courtyard surrounded by a semi-opaque stretch of wood, the first in a series of internal courtyards that form a key principle in the design of the house.
Walking along the path, as indeed the entry into the enclosed grounds, is part of the process of separating from the outside world and contemplating the present moment more deeply. Full attention can now be given to the structure, captured in its spaces like a prisoner – as we stand in front of a large, transparent curtain wall on which we can observe what is going on in the house in absolute transparency, something reserved for visitors invited because they appreciate such loveliness.
Although the facade facing the street is designed as an opaque mass and seems to hold an enigmatic secret, as soon as one crosses the line of the wooden ‘arbours’, the spaces of the house are suddenly visible in all their simplicity. The process of stepping into opaqueness and then catching sight of the private interior as it emerges from the sealed, the hidden, and the monolithic, into an open and light-filled space, would almost seem to confirm that you have entered the place now exposed – the private parts of the house. Here the geometry is simple and minimalist, and is clean and transparent in its form and materials, almost as if it were someone that had turned all his cards face up on the table.
The other internal courtyards, as well as the glass balustrade that encloses the swimming pool, separating it from the other outside spaces, seemingly bring together all the visitor’s experiences into a focused and penetrating experience, one that clearly spells out the boundaries of what is permitted and possible, and defines the house as a private and intimate experience.
courtesy of Pitsou Kedem Architects | <urn:uuid:b6418665-c2c6-4f8e-9d10-386c5e9fbcd3> | {
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Gardening Articles: Flowers :: Roses
Marc Cathey: The Zone Map Man (page 2 of 2)
by Charlie Nardozzi
Marc contributed to the new edition of the mammoth book, American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia Of Garden Plants, which has just been published (DK Publishing, 2004; $80). "There are 15,000 plants referenced in the book, with 500 new plants," says Marc. They are all coded with zone ratings. "For the first time we included tropical and semi-tropical plants and turf, complete with hardiness zones," he adds.
Most recently he has turned his attention to another passion: color. A lifelong watercolor artist, Marc is working on a groundbreaking "color book" that will help gardeners match the colors of flowers to colors of furniture, paint and fabrics. "We are standardizing 30 different colors and their companion colors," says Marc. "I want to create a common language of color for gardeners using the new advances in both art and science."
Marc sees other areas of horticulture that need addressing in the future. "We need to leave a clean environment for future generations, and I think horticulture can help," says Marc. He's particularly interested in using plants to clean up toxic waste sites and contaminated soils.
At 76 years old, Marc Cathey also is thinking of future generations of gardeners. He'd like to use art and science to get kids excited about gardening and would love to pen a children's book. Whether it's through maps, research or books, Marc Cathey has given home gardeners valuable tools for becoming more knowledgeable and more successful. | <urn:uuid:a3a2a0e4-5bd7-4975-800d-177a0aaf3487> | {
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Dr Vallant’s Portefeuilles (Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris) are a hodgepodge of information, with recipes for gateaux, remedies in French and Latin, medical case notes, letters, religious reflections, and poems kept side-by-side. Vallant was the household physician of famed salonnière Mme de Sablé (d. 1678) and, later, Mlle de Guise. He was also regularly consulted by Madame’s friends and family and acted as her secretary. Vallant kept track of all treatments that he tried and the remedies that proved, or might prove, useful in his practice. The notebooks, in some ways, have much in common with our modern personal recipe collections: lots of random bits, from clippings to notes. But it is the informality of the collection that makes it such a useful source of information about the process of collecting and using recipes in early modern France.
The language that Vallant used to describe the transmission of recipes is intriguing: several of his recipes suggest the ways in which knowledge was passed to him by monks and nuns, apothecaries, physicians, and laywomen. Recipes were a form of social currency and were closely tied to patronage. This isn’t always explicit in English, but emerges more clearly in the formality of French. The Duchess of Orléans, for example, seems to have been the originating point for a couple recipes. Mme de la Haye (wife of the Duchess’ apothecary) ‘gave’ a cure for the sciatica, while Mme la Ursée (the Orléans’ governess) ‘shared’ a small pox remedy. The language here suggests that these recipes were gifts of the Duchess.
The reliance on oral knowledge is also striking. Vallant regularly noted that recipes had been passed verbally to him. Various people ‘told’ him their remedies, which he then entered into his notebooks. Mme la Norrice, for example, ‘said’ that after trying many remedies for toothaches she found ease only by putting cold water in her ear. Physician Mr Belay was a particularly frequent source of oral information. He ‘told’ Vallant a remedy for the ‘colours’ [vaginal flows] in 1676 and ‘discussed’ several for blood loss in 1681.
Recipes also took winding routes before ending up in Vallant’s possession. Belay ‘told’ Vallant a remedy for the stone that had been passed to him by Mr de Fromont, secretary to the Duke of Orléans, who had it in turn passed it to him. Belay had used the recipe with great success in treating a mutual patient, Mme de Guise. Vallant also included in his collection occasional recipes from print sources, listing some from Mme Fouquet’s famous book and keeping a cut-out excerpt for Mme Ledran’s balm and unguent.
The Marquise de Sablé was condemned by historian André Crussaire as a hypochondriac (Un Médecin au XVIIe Siècle le Docteur Vallant: Une Malade Imaginaire, Mme de Sablé, Paris, 1910), partly because she kept a household physician and partly because so much of the notebooks and correspondence focus on health. But a close inspection reveals that much of the collection was Vallant’s attempt to keep track of his growing medical practice by writing down his successful cures. Under the heading ‘Escrouelles’ (King’s Evil, or scrofula), for example, he provided his case notes and recipe used to cure a thirty-six year old woman.
Elsewhere in the Portefeuilles, it is difficult to distinguish between what is purely Vallant’s or Mme de Sablé’s. In one section, there are several remedies for eye problems; it is perhaps no coincidence that Mme de Sablé suffered from eye trouble. Three letters were addressed to Madame directly. All eye remedies were sent by friends: Abbé Charrier, Mme Daumon, the Marquis de la Motte, Countess d’Orche, Mr Chartier, Mme de St Ange and Mlle de Vertie. But was this primarily for her use, or for her physician?
The books were kept as a practical source of working knowledge for both doctor and patron. The care taken in identifying a recipe’s sources and route of transmission was crucial in establishing two matters: reliability and reciprocity. Many recipes may have been passed on verbally rather than in writing, but this was no casual matter. As physician, Vallant needed to know if a recipe could be trusted before he tried it. As patron, Sablé needed to know the precise source of a remedy for social reasons: a recipe gained might be a favour owed… Something to keep in mind the next time you casually take a recipe from a friend and proceed to cram it into your recipe box without a second thought. | <urn:uuid:c44044cb-ac7c-40e0-af65-ec3f71a2f869> | {
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Spherical silicon nanoparticles with sizes of a few hundreds of nanometers represent a unique optical system. According to theoretical predictions based on Mie theory they can exhibit strong magnetic resonances in the visible spectral range. The basic mechanism of excitation of such modes inside the nanoparticles is very similar to that of split-ring resonators, but with one important difference that silicon nanoparticles have much smaller losses and are able to shift the magnetic resonance wavelength down to visible frequencies. We experimentally demonstrate for the first time that these nanoparticles have strong magnetic dipole resonance, which can be continuously tuned throughout the whole visible spectrum varying particle size and visually observed by means of dark-field optical microscopy. These optical systems open up new perspectives for fabrication of low-loss optical metamaterials and nanophotonic devices.
We experimentally demonstrate for the first time that spherical silicon nanoparticles with sizes in the range from 100 nm to 200 nm have strong magnetic dipole response in the visible spectral range. The scattered “magnetic” light by these nanoparticles is so strong that it can be easily seen under a dark-field optical microscope. The wavelength of this magnetic resonance can be tuned throughout the whole visible spectral range from violet to red by just changing the nanoparticle size.
Technology Review - Invisibility cloaks that work for microwaves are easy to make using simple building blocks. Now engineers have created the equivalent building blocks for visible light.
The building blocks of microwave cloaks are split ring resonators--c-shaped pieces of metal in which electric and magnetic fields resonate when they interact with a electromagnetic wave. This interaction is what steers microwaves in a way that cloaks objects
These split ring resonators need to be a little smaller than the wavelengths they are designed to interact with. For microwaves, that's the centimetre scale and so are relatively easy to make and assemble.
But that's much harder at optical wavelengths, where the scale is measured in nanometres..What's more, losses become much more significant on this scale because most metals tend to absorb visible light rather than transmit it.
Consequently, nobody has been able to make split ring resonators that work for visible light. The optical cloaks made so far all rely on other structures such as gold nanorods or holes drilled through silicon slabs.)
So anybody who finds a way to create the optical version of split ring resonators might reasonably be said to be sitting on an important breakthrough.
Enter Arseniy Kuznetsov at the Data Storage Institute in Singapore and a few pals. These guys say they've found an alternative to split ring resonators that work well at optical frequencies, with few losses.
This alternative is silicon nanospheres between 100 and 200 nm in diameter. It turns out that these spheres behave just like split ring resonators in the sense that they allow for the same kind of magnetic resonances when they interact with light.
The trouble of course is making these spheres. Chemists have been making much smaller spheres--between 2nm and 50nm in diameter--for some time now using various self assembly techniques to grow tiny crystals or 'quantum dots' as they are called. (These are useful because they fluoresce at well defined and controllable wavelengths.)
To make larger spheres, Kuznetsov blast a slab of silicon with a short pulse of high-powered laser light. This evaporates the silicon which then condenses into liquid balls. These solidify into spheres as they fall back on to the surface as a kind of silicon rain.
The end result is a surface covered with solid silicon nanospheres between 100 and 200nm in diameter.
Kuznetsov calculated how the magnetic fields inside these balls should resonate when they are zapped with light and then used a hi-tec tweezer and magnifying set to see whether the behaviour matched the theory.
Turns out it does. This magnetic resonance can be tuned to match any part of the visible spectrum simply selecting spheres of a specific size.
That's important because it opens up an entirely new way make invisibility cloaks that operate in the visible region. "These optical systems open up new perspectives for fabrication of low-loss optical metamaterials and nanophotonic devices," they say.
That could have a significant impact on the way optical cloaks are designed and made.
There are plenty of challenges ahead, however. Not least of these will be finding a reliable way to make nanospheres of a specific size.
Then there is the problem of assembling nanospheres into useful devices in a way that scales. That's not something that a tweezer and magnifying set can help with, no matter how hi-tec.
If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks | <urn:uuid:28dcad57-a644-4deb-89c5-431952d6fb23> | {
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Many mouse cell lines have undergone spontaneous immortalization or transformation in tissue culture [35–39], but in general, cells from most of the higher species do not undergo spontaneous immortalization or transformation . The problem is further compounded in RPE research because the cells are post-mitotic in-vivo and therefore must first re-enter the cell cycle. Also, removal of primary RPE cells from Bruch's membrane causes a majority of cells to die in culture. Apart from the commonly utilized ARPE-19, there are few accounts of spontaneously immortalized RPE cell lines such as D407, RPE-J and BPEI-1 [41, 42]. Additionally, it is common practice for primary cells to be transformed by viruses, such as SV40 or HPV, or other genetic manipulation such as activating a telomerase gene [28–30, 43, 44]
While our cell line, tRPE, still shows many of the in-vivo characteristics, including expression of RPE-specific genes, further experiments would have to be performed to determine whether the spontaneous immortalization that occurred had changed the expression of other genes.
Primary RPE cell isolation can often become contaminated with choroidal melanocytes or fibroblasts. The melanocytes are derived from neural crest embryonic tissue whereas RPE are optic cup derived [1, 45]. These melanocytes can often be confused with the pigmented RPE, but melanocytes are difficult to culture in normal unsupplemented media. TPA, bFGF, phorbol esters, or concurrent growth with keratinocytes are required to grow the melanocytes [46, 47].
The tRPE cell line had similar morphological characteristics as the passaged primary cells. Although the tRPE cells were never observed to have the hexagonal morphology as seen in-vivo cells, they were polygonal. Growth of RPE cells on BCE-ECM and Matrigel has been established and used by many investigators [24, 48–51]. Other researchers have shown that primary RPE and other RPE cell lines grow better on BCE-ECM than Matrigel [49, 50]. Because ECM is integral in the differentiation of epithelial cells, both types of ECM were used to determine the optimal matrix material.
Morphologically, tRPE cells and primary cells grown on BCE-ECM were epithelioid. When Matrigel was used, the cells were elongated and disorganized, and did not seem to inhibit the proliferation of RPE cells (data not shown). Based upon morphological characteristics, BCE-ECM seemed to be a better substrate for tRPE cells.
It is important to have the cells melanized in order to regain an in-vivo like state. There are many publications that state melanin is a protective agent to light mediated damage and also acts as a free radical quencher . Remelanization has been attempted by feeding the cells α-MSH and thymidine dimmers, and irradiation with UV (data not shown). Boulton and Marshall , and Denton et al. have shown that directly feeding purified melanosomes to the cells causes the cells to endocytose exogenous melanin. In our research, we have found that immortalized RPE cells will take up melanosomes granules when fed in culture, but a control cell line, HeLa, does not. The exogenously melanated tRPE cells were similar in morphology to primary cells as seen in Figure 1. Although speculative, the melanin granules may cause the tRPE cells to re-differentiate, but this needs further study.
Addition of growth factors was attempted as a mechanism to increase the differentiation of RPE cells. Although serum-free media has been established for RPE cultures, the cost and time for preparing it prohibited its use [51, 54]. Some of the ingredients were supplemented into the DMEM media as a cost-effective approach. The supplementation of the media along with growth on BCE-ECM was a requirement to fully differentiate the tRPE cells in order to determine if they produced RPE-specific proteins.
The tRPE cell line was characterized to establish that they are indeed RPE origin. Four genes were used as identifying markers performed by RT-PCR. RPE65 and CRALBP are RPE-specific genes [17, 55–61]. RPE65 expression is rapidly lost in cells that have been cultured without any external signals [17, 31, 62], and growth of RPE on BCE-ECM has been shown to produce an increase in CRALBP expression . We have seen that the tRPE cells will express both RPE65 and CRALBP when grown on BCE-ECM with supplemented media. This indicates that the tRPE cells may have the ability to re-differentiate when grown under these conditions. As expected, the RPE65 expression was lost in the tRPE cells cultured on tissue grade plastic, and CRALBP expression was diminished.
Vimentin functions as an intracellular scaffold, and it is expressed in cultured RPE cells and primary cells from ARMD patients [19, 63]. We show that both tRPE and primary RPE cells express the gene. Finally, β-actin is a housekeeping gene and was used as a measure to quantitate the relative levels of expression. We believe that the RT-PCR data support that the clones derived from the primary explant are of RPE origin.
To further expand the evidence that the cells are of RPE origin and retain the in-vivo characteristics, immunocytochemistry was performed. Reverse transcriptase PCR was already performed, but it does not show that the cell will produce protein. There are post-transcriptional regulations that can inhibit the translation of the protein. Multiple groups have confirmed that cultured RPE cells will express ZO-1, RPE65, and CRALBP under specific conditions [8, 24, 64, 65]. Expression was determined by immunocytochemistry to show that the cells do produce proteins specific to RPE cells and some that are characteristic of monolayer epithelial cells.
Because Nicoletti et al. have shown that the RPE65 mRNA has AU rich elements on the 3' UTR that will allow down-regulation of the RPE65 protein, , the presence of the protein needed to be established. Only after the cells have redifferentiated when grown on an extracellular matrix, is the expression seen again [17, 31]. Ma et al. have shown that a Sf9 cell line transfected with a plasmid-containing recombinant human RPE65 will have a distribution throughout the cell when detected with an anti-RPE65 antibody . Figure 3 shows that the tRPE cells produce RPE65. The green fluorescence is seen throughout the cells, but has a mottled appearance and higher intensity toward the edges of the cells, which may be indicative of protein on the membrane and in the cytosol.
Vimentin is usually used as a marker for the determination of cell types of mesenchymal origin [66–68], while cytokeratins are found in epithelial tissue almost exclusively . Both of these proteins are frequently co-expressed with in RPE cultures. Rapidly dividing cells show cytokeratin diffusely, while quiescent cells will show a strongly staining perinuclear cage-like structure surrounded by profuse finger-like projections extending out from the nucleus . Immunocytochemistry showed that most of the cells were positive for vimentin and cytokeratin, but not all. The tRPE cells were reactive against antibodies to both proteins in a typical pattern of the cytoskelatal network found in RPE cultured cells, which further indicates that the cells are of RPE origin.
Long culture conditions are needed to form adherins junctions in RPE cells [64, 65], which forms an adhesion belt around each cell . Zonula Occludens-1 (ZO-1), also known as tight junction protein (TJP1), is utilized in adherins junctions for cell polarization, transport and cell-to-cell signaling [71–73]. ZO-1 immunofluorescence shows that the tRPE cells form a nearly hexagonal structure on the periphery of the cells, as previously seen in Figure 1a. This indicates that the tRPE cells form adherins junctions and are a polarized epithelial monolayer, as expected of differentiated RPE.
Bestrophin is heavily detected in cells of epithelial and endothelial origin because of the requirement of these cells in transport of nutrients through the cell [74, 75]. Marmorstein et al. have shown bestrophin to localize in the basolateral side of RPE cells to control the transport of chloride and water between the RPE and the choriocapillaris . The observed expression of this protein indicates the tRPE cells have a polarized morphology and are a monolayer of epithelial cells.
Initially, the tRPE cells were thought to be spontaneously immortalized because they had no foci formation after the cells became confluent. Generally, as cells increase in passage number, they have the ability to become transformed due to mutations accumulating in their DNA. Specific tests were done to establish that the tRPE cells were not transformed even at population doubling 102. Additionally, the experiments also show that the cells still retained specific characteristics of a differentiated state.
The tRPE cells are spontaneously immortalized after being passaged up to 150 population doublings. Growth beyond 100 population doublings is considered immortal . The cells did not have the ability to grow in the lack of serum or under low serum conditions and did not form foci (data not shown), which are two characteristics of untransformed cells.
Bovine cells have a normal diploid chromosome number equal to 60 . All of the autosomes are telocentric except the X and Y chromosomes, which are metacentric . Transformed cells have been shown to be aneuploid or heteroploid . Most of the chromosomes that were counted were within the 55–60 range, with many at 60 chromosomes.
Growth studies of cells in suspension or soft agar were performed to determine whether the cells were anchorage-independent and exhibited the loss of contact inhibition . The tRPE cell numbers dramatically decreased in suspension at the beginning of the experiment, indicating they require a substrate to attach. The tRPE cells were unable to grow in soft agar, while the control CHO AA8 cells were able (data not shown).
Pulse labeling was performed to confirm that the cultures stopped or slowed down proliferation after confluence, a process called density-dependent inhibition of cell growth . The number of dividing cells was never greater than 1.5%, with most times being less than 1%. Comparatively, actively dividing tRPE cells were expected to have a rate of labeling around 25%, and transformed cells could show up to 50% of cells labeled with 3H-thymidine. The tRPE cells did not exhibit significant cell division at confluency. Also, the tRPE cells remained as a confluent culture for one year and still were viable, whereas primary cells are difficult to keep alive for any extended period of time. | <urn:uuid:263d2a0d-1448-40ff-9523-f5a077e94135> | {
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BARCELONA -- Children who suffer through a bout of bronchiolitis can end up with lungs early in adulthood that look like those of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), researchers reported here.
Thirty years after being hospitalized for bronchiolitis when they were younger than 2 years of age, 11% of the patients exhibited lung function that fell below the 0.7 FEV (forced expiratory volume in one second)/FCV (forced vital capacity) ratio that is threshold for the definition of COPD, said Katri Backman, MD, a researcher in pediatrics at Kuopio University Hospital in Finland.
"We found that [about] 30 years after first being hospitalized for bronchiolitis, many of these patients exhibited irreversible airway obstruction -- even though [they] were 28 to 31 years of age," Backman told MedPage Today. She reported her results in a late-breaking poster abstract session at the annual meeting of the European Respiratory Society.
"Irreversible airway obstruction is present 30 years after infantile bronchiolitis for more than 20% of former bronchiolitis patients, suggesting permanent structural changes in airways," Backman said.
Backman and colleagues determined that these patients' airways had been permanently damaged by performing lung function tests before and after administration of bronchodilating medications. But there were no differences in lung function among the bronchiolitis patients, compared with controls or with patients who had been hospitalized with pneumonia in childhood.
"The lack of effect among the bronchiolitis patients of these medicines leads us to believe that the disease has irreversibly damaged their lungs," she said.
In the study, Backman and colleagues identified 83 children hospitalized for bronchiolitis and 44 who were hospitalized for pneumonia at Kuopio University Hospital in 1981-82. All the children in the study were under 2 years of age. "All these children had viral infections in their lungs," she said. "What differentiates bronchiolitis and pneumonia is that the bronchiolitis children have their illness accompanied by this wheezing."
In 2010, the researchers tracked down 47 of the bronchiolitis patients and 22 of the pneumonia patients and compared them with controls who had avoided hospitals as youths. The researchers also recruited 138 healthy, matched controls. All the subjects then underwent multiple lung function tests, such as forced vital capacity, FEV1, the FVC-FEV-1ratio and the FVC/FEV1-ratio % of predicted (FEV%).
They found irreversible airway obstruction that could be considered COPD in five of the bronchiolitis patients (P=0.012); in one of the pneumonia patients (P=0.360), and in two of the controls. "I think that if we had more pneumonia patients, then that number would be statistically significant too. These are both serious diseases in infancy."
Irreversible airway obstruction -- defined as an FEV % of less than 88% -- was observed in 21% of bronchiolitis patients (P=0.001); in 9% of pneumonia patients (P=0.247), and in 4% of controls.
Backman said making comparisons between the bronchiolitis patients and pneumonia patients was difficult because there were few pneumonia patients.
"These findings are similar to what we are finding in our children," Guilia Cangiano, MD, resident in pediatrics at Sapienza University in Rome, told MedPage Today. "Our children have reached the age of 6 and we are seeing these kinds of long-term problems." She did not participate in Backman's study.
Backman and Cangiano had no disclosures.
- Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD Emeritus Professor, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner | <urn:uuid:2ebde8d3-288f-44c7-8b35-9577fb3de707> | {
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The effects of environmental contaminants on the reproductive success of olivaceous cormorants (Phalacrocorax olivaceus ), Laughing gulls (Larus atricilla ), and black skimmers (Rhynchops niger ) nesting in Galveston Bay, Texas were investigated from 1980 through 1982. Populations of cormorants and gulls have remained stable in recent years, but skimmer numbers may have declined. Cormorants produced 1.9 to 2.8 young per pair in nests that remained active throughout the season. Gull and skimmer reproduction was seriously limited by storms and predation. DDE and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) residues in carcasses and eggs generally were below levels associated with chronic poisoning and reproductive problems in most species of birds.
Additional Publication Details
Population trends, reproductive success, and organochlorine chemical contaminants in waterbirds nesting in Galveston Bay, Texas
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The song of solomon essay
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I've thought to myself, at times, that opposites aren't fully understood. They seem pretty straightforward, but they can be more complex than they are given credit for. Many of you readers, I'm sure, are familiar with the “Either/or” logical fallacy (also known as a False Dilemma). In this fallacy, there are more than three options, but person A presents the dilemma to person B as if there were two, and only two, choices.
Child: “Mamma, can I have a cookie now or later?”
The child presents only two options as an either/or choice, and tries to get the mother to not notice any additional option. You see, the child paints the question as if it's just a one dimensional choice - and that dimension is the dimension of time:
Cookies soon -------------------------------- Cookies later
Near time frame and far time frame. Two opposites, yes, but it ignores a third dimension: The dimension of how many cookies are given.
In the diagram above (I'm sure you will all be impressed at the creative artwork that went into that one), you can see both dimensions: Time, and amount of cookies. With this more comprehensive view of the situation, the mother also can see the option of not giving the child a cookie at all.
That specific example is easy and childish, but I think that we usually think of opposites as always coming in a pair, and many of them come in groups of three. For instance, what's the opposite of taking action to something good? Taking action to do something evil!
Doing evil ---------------------------------- Doing good
Perfect: We have our opposites. But could there be a third option which is the opposite of both? I say yes. This shows opposite sides of the dimension of morality here, but both involve action. The opposite of action is inaction, and therefore there is another dimension:
It may seem inconceivable that anything could have two opposites, because we are so used to used to thinking of opposites on opposite sides of a one-dimensional line. However, the pattern shows up again and again throughout life. For instance, the speaker in my class about christian principles in government tonight pointed out another triangle of opposites:
Often, we hear about being politically “to the left” or “to the right.” The far left might be communism or socialism; interested in large centralized government being used to create change and to redistribute wealth and take care of the society. One the far right is said to be fascism; the right perhaps encourages centralized government to keep things at the status quo, or to enforce moral boundaries (like no abortion). Many people can't explain exactly explain what dimension this measures – the best explanation I've heard looks like this:
More gov in economics --------------------- More gov in moral issues
So, if you buy into that scheme, whether you think of yourself being more “to the left” or more “to the right,” you are always in favor of more government. More, and more, and more government. But of course there is the other dimension as well:
Then I thought to myself about other opposites. There's hot and cold. Surely, there couldn't be an opposite to both of those! But then I thought to myself, spiritual beings may not have a physical temperature, and may not be either physically hot nor physically cold.
Finally, there's love. I've been a firm believer in the triangle opposites of love for a long time. If I ask people “what is the opposite of love?” most would say “hatred.” Love is passion for someone's betterment, and hatred is passion for someone's pain or destruction. We see hatred painted very clearly in stories where a person hates someone else, and then dedicates a lot of time and effort to damaging that person, even to their own detriment sometimes.
Desire for their betterment ------------------------ Desire for their harm
But both of these options involve passion. In both cases, the person is very emotionally involved. In either case, it can be self-sacrificing: Whether self-sacrificing love, or seeking vengeance even to the point of destroying one's own life. What is the opposite of both? Apathy. No passion for or against the other person; an apathetic person couldn't be bothered to take revenge, since they have their own life to lead.
Pathos versus non-pathos. (Passion versus apathy) On one dimension, we have desire for the other person's betterment or desire for their harm. On the other dimension, are you even having desire about their life at all? | <urn:uuid:e9f17bb3-e5d8-4119-8c46-7bc8bfa1fbdf> | {
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5. Land use on the Lake Taihu Plain
She Zhixiang, Chen Yuee, and Tang Zhenfu
Nanjing Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Nanjing, Jiangsu Province
Almost all the land on the Lake Taibu Plain has been brought into productive use, so the only way to increase agricultural production is to raise the per-unit yield. Since 1965 triplecropping systems have become widespread in the region and the per-unit grain yield has increased greatly Crops must be planted and harvested precisely on time to maximize resource use. Among the problems of triple-cropping are seasonal labour shortage, soil deterioration, and the poor quality of some grains. The hills around Lake Talbu are used for fruit growing, of which tangerine production is the most important. Future expansion of tangerine production should consider carefully local microclimatic conditions, to avoid frost damage.
Fig. 5.1. Land-Use Patterns on the Taihu Plain, Southern Jiangsu Province
The Lake Taibu Plain, in the southern Yangzi Delta, includes counties and towns located in Jiangsu and Zheliang Provinces and Shanghai Municipality. The plain has an area of about 36,355 km², a population of 30 million (60 per cent in agriculture), and 1.44 million ha of cultivable land. Urban settlements on the Taihu Plain range in size from Shanghai, the world's largest metropolis, to small towns, and include Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzbou, Jianxing and Huzhou. Having excellent land and water communications, this region has emerged as the most economically advanced and developed region in East China (fig.5.1).
Although the Lake Taihu Plain accounts for only 0.3 per cent of China's total area, the region's agriculture is highly productive yielding 11.5 million t/yr of grain, an amount far in excess of that produced by many provinces. The plain is now China's most important area for grain production. It is also a major silkwormbreeding area with an annual output of 50,000 t/yr cocoons. It is also noted for the production of freshwater fish, pearls and for sheep. Moreover, it produces 10 million/yr head of pigs, 125,000 t/yr of cotton, 290,000 t/yr of rapeseed, and 60,000 t/yr of various fruits. Traditional household handicraft industries, such as embroidery and woven items for everyday use, flourish, and industries run by the People's Communes and Brigades have also developed rapidly in recent years.
One reason for the high levels of agricultural productivity in the Taibu Plain region is the intensity of land use commonly found in the lower and middle Yangzi Valley. This chapter examines the condition of land resources and the present-day land use patterns in the Lake Taihu Plain. A better understanding of the land use patterns will contribute to a more rapid development in this area as well as in other densely populated regions of China, and may also be a useful example to assist in the development of many Third World regions. Two aspects of land use will be discussed in detail, intensive cropping systems and the use of hilly land.
Intensive Cropping Systems and Land Use
Almost all land on the Taibu Plain has been fully used for centuries and no large areas remain to be reclaimed for cultivation. Thus the only way to raise agricultural productivity in this region is to increase the per-unit productivity. For many years Taihu Plain farmers have made great efforts to extend the area under multiple cropping and have invested a large amount of labour to make better use of time and the limited land area. Immediately following a harvest, the sowing and transplanting of the next crops is done. No farmland is left unused for any appreciable time because of the use of double- or triple-cropping systems.
Before 1965, two crops per year (rice and wheat) were generally harvested. After six to eight years of experimenting and practice in some localities, a triplecropping system based on wheat (or rape or green manure) and two crops of rice entered widespread use in the early 1970s. As a result, intensive land-use entered a new stage. With the improvement of cultivation techniques, grain yields have increased from 6,000-6,800 kg/ha to 9,500-10,000 kg/ha, making the Lake Taihu Plain one of the most productive agricultural regions of China.
The frost-free period on the plain is about 220-245 days, and the accumulated temperature of <3°C is 5,300°C, higher than that needed for the triple-cropping of wheat-rice rice (5,000°C). The average January temperature of 3-4°C is suitable for winter wheat. The annual rainfall of 1,100-1,200 mm, which falls mostly in the summer, provides adequate water during the growing season. Such ideal conditions for multiple cropping are rarely found elsewhere in China. In north China, for example, temperatures do not permit the maturation of two rice crops per year, whereas in south China the winter temperature is not everywhere suitable for the common winter wheat. In the south, during its mature stage, wheat may also suffer seriously from excessive temperature and moisture, insufficient sunshine, and crop diseases, each of which affects yield. On the Lake Taihu Plain the high yields of wheat, rice and rapeseed are closely related to the favourable climatic conditions, dense population, efficient irrigation, prosperous economy, and intensive cultivation.
Development of the wheat-rice-rice system of triplecropping, which requires an aggregate growing period of 450 days, was complicated since even the production of two crops of rice per year requires a frost-free period of 220-245 days in a growing season of 240-250 days. Given such a serious constraint to triplecropping and the high risks of crop failure, the correct temporal organization of cropping is of the utmost importance.
Throughout the Lake Taihu Plain, therefore, the crop calendar is extremely tight. All farming tasks, including the selection of crop strains with different maturation periods (fig.5.2), are meticulously planned and scheduled for each season.
Under the triple-cropping system used southern Jiangsu Province, barley, planted in mid-November, is the major earlymaturing crop. This permits the early planting of the first rice crop, the strains of which must be high-yielding and have either an early or intermediate maturation period, whereas the second rice crop is sown and transplanted strictly according to season. Transplanting takes place as seedlings reach the earing stage.
Improvements have been made in rice-crop management. The seedlings of the middle- and late-maturing strains of the first crop are often raised after early sowing under a thin nylon cover, which gives the crops an early start. In addition, many communes have adopted a two-step method of raising the seedlings of the latematuring strains of the second crop. The first step is to raise the seedlings as usual in a seedbed. Because such seedlings require a longer growing season than do those of the first rice crop before they reach the transplant stage, some are moved from the seedbed to a temporary seedbed where they remain until ready for transplanting (fig. 5.3). They will not be transplanted until all the first crop has been harvested and after seedlings of the secondcrop rice, raised in the usual way, have been transplanted. This method makes it possible to use the original seedbed as a field for transplanting. The use of a temporary seedbed compensates for the lack of sufficient fields for rice growth, prolongs the transplanting period, regulates the tight working schedule of the growers, and saves on the space devoted to seedbeds.
At present, the Lake Taibu Plain is one of the largest areas in China where a triple-cropping system producing two rice crops per year is practiced. This intensive system has two main advantages: it effectively maximizes the use of the limited agricultural land and fully employs farm labour, and, more importantly, it has resulted in drastically increased grain yields. But a number of problems have recently become evident, especially the higher demand for labour that has followed the overexpansion of triplecropped areas. Under the present conditions of farm mechanization, most production teams require more than 1,500 working days/yr/ha of triple-cropped land. Labour demand is especially heavy at planting and harvest times. Production costs are often too high to enable commune members to increase their income. Also, the physical properties of the soil tend to deteriorate, particularly as a consequence of prolonged immersion which leads to poor aeration and to secondary gleyization. Further, in the race against time early-maturing crop strains have been overemphasized, which has contributed to a decline in crop quality. In the last several years, however, a diversified triplecropping system with two dry crops (wheat, rapeseed or green manure) plus one crop of maize, soybean or rice has been developed.
As a result of those problems, disputes have arisen about the prospects of the triple-cropping system in southern Jiangsu. There is no need to repeat the arguments here. However, it may be useful to point out that in the past the disputes centred on exposing the weaknesses of the system. The task now should be to consolidate the experience and to seek an agricultural system that would better fit the physical and economic conditions of the region and would yield a higher regional income. In the last few years, efforts have been made in the Lake Taihu Plain to reduce the area devoted to triple-cropping, which has reduced demands made on both the scarce labour and fertilizer during the growing season. On the other hand, the area under wheat has been increased, reducing the supply of winter green manures, a practice that gains profit in summer at the expense of autumn crops. Solutions to the issue of the most appropriate farming system for a region will not be found by looking only at the problems at hand. A broad perspective on the issue must be maintained, and the potential problems of the cropping system to be adopted must be anticipated. Only when all the ramifications of the cropping systems have been thoroughly studied can an optimum solution be expected to emerge.
Fig. 5.2. Stages of Grain Crop Growth in the Triple-Cropped Areas of the Taibu Plain, Southern Jiangsu Province
Fig. 5.3. The evolution
(a) Ca. 20 July. Fields devoted to three types of first rice
crop (early, middle, and late maturing). A seedbed is used to
raise the seedlings for the second crop. Before fields are
planted to rice, they are planted with wheat, rapeseed, or a
green manure crop.
(b) Ca. 25 July. The early-maturing first rice has been harvested, followed by the immediate transplanting of the second crop. Some of the seedlings are moved temporarily to a field transplanted with an early maturing second crop.
(c) Ca. 30 July. After the harvest of the middle-maturing variety of the first rice crop, a second crop of rice is transplanted. At the same time the seedling bed becomes available and is used for transplanting the second crop.
(d) Ca. 15 August. Seedlings temporarily raised in the field are transplanted to the field from which a late maturing variety of the first rice has just been harvested. Although such transplanting is rather late, it usually does not affect crop maturing since the seedling period has been long enough.
Use of Hilly Land
In Lake Taihu there are a number of small islands, and along its borders are to be found mostly quartzitic hilly areas with elevations of 100-300 m above sea-level, and some peaks higher than 300 m. These hills and islands are mostly scattered and isolated, but are important agriculturally for various kinds of fruit, including tangerine, loquat (Eriobotrya japonica), arbutus (Arbutus sp.) chestnut, plum, persimmon (Diospyros sp ), peach, apricot (Prunus sp ), pomegranate (Punica granatum), and ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans), and roses, as well as for the provision of stone used in construction. Their renowned scenery makes them a locally important recreation area. Contrary to the common belief that upland areas are economically more backward than plain regions, the economy of the communes of the densely populated hilly areas on the Lake Taibu Plain is highly developed.
Regularities of land-use occur along the East and West Dongting Hills and in the Dengwei Hills. In general, the higher elevations are under grass, below which are mixed forests and small patches of bamboo. Both the valleys and the hillsides support fruit farms where the land-use patterns are highly complex, meticulously planned and well managed. These factors are closely interrelated. The fruit farms derive their water from the dense vegetation at higher elevations, and should that vegetation be destroyed, the orchard environment would be seriously affected and production would decline.
Fruit-growing, an important form of land use in the hilly regions of the Taibu Plain, is distinguished by four main characteristics. The first is that production areas of many fruits and flowers are well defined. The sweet osmanthus flower, for instance, is a special product of the DengweiXiji Hills, one of the three largest osmanthus-producing regions of China, and its flowers are noted for their colour, fragrance, appearance, and taste. The East and West Dongting Hills are known for such fruits as arbutus, loquat, plum, persimmon, ginkgo, and chestnut. Hengshan and Yinshan islands, in the middle of Lake Taihu, produce high-quality pomegranates.
Second is that, with the exception of tangerine groves, which occupy fairly large areas devoted to one type of fruit, most fruitproducing regions grow a variety of fruits or combine fruits with such economic plants as tea and mulberry to ensure harvests and to meet market demands. In the planting of fruit trees, the following measures are taken: rough fruits (such as arbutus) are combined with delicate ones (such as loquat); nuts (such as chestnut and ginkgo) are combined with fruits eaten fresh (such as peach and plum); and trees requiring a longer growing period (such as tangerine) are combined with those requiring a shorter period (such as peach).
Such combinations are complex and display characteristics of the traditional small-scale farm economy. However, trees are arranged so that different species receive the correct amount of sunlight. Such artificial plant communities are both comparatively stable and ecologically sound.
The third characteristic is that the East and West Dongting Hills have 2,800 ha under various kinds of fruit trees. Some of the subtropical evergreen fruits are of geographical significance. The tangerines of the Lake Taihu area occupy about 1,000 ha in total, which produce 15,000 t/yr, and are located on the northern margin of the south China tangerine-producing region. The Taibu Plain is one of the three largest (and the northernmost) loquat-producing areas of China, and its arbutus production is one of the largest in the lower and middle Yangzi Valley. These three evergreen fruits all show a strong preference for hilly or valley locations where the thermal and moisture conditions are more suitable for their growth. Important in this region is the moderating effect of Lake Taibu on local microclimates, which, together with local topography, affects the growth of the evergreen fruit trees.
The final characteristic is that fruit production has been affected by market prices at different times. In recent years, tangerine production has been expanding rapidly whereas loquat, chestnut, ginkgo, plum, and peach outputs are gradually declining. Such changes affect farm land-use patterns. Tangerine production continues to expand because the market value of tangerine is high, the demand large and close at hand, and advanced cultivation techniques introduced to this area ensure a large and steadily increasing production per unit.
These characteristics facilitate study of the possibility of expanding the tangerine production areas in the uplands of the Taibu Plain. Being located in the transitional zone between the northern subtropical and central subtropical regions, the thermal conditions of the plain barely meet the requirements of the earlyripening and cold-resistant tangerine trees that are commonly grown. In the Dongting Hills, for example, the average annual temperature is 16°C, the January average is 3.3°C, and the low 8.9°C. Normally, tangerines require an average annual temperature of not less than 15°C, a January average higher than 5°C and a lowest temperature of not less than - 5°C. Thus the region's January average and the lowest temperature tend to be on the low side, which easily damages the fruit.
Records indicate that in the 600-year period from the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty (eleventh to seventeenth centuries), the Dongting Hills suffered 12 times from frost damage, during five of which the loss was nearly total. Over the past 30 years, especially in 1955, 1969, and 1977, severe frost has also greatly reduced production. In view of the existing unstable physical conditions for the growth of tangerines in this area, great importance should be attached to the microregional differences in temperature, radiation, moisture, and wind caused by local geomorphological factors. Such considerations can play a critical role in the selection of areas suitable for tangerine cultivation. Other factors such as local experience with cultivation, the selection of earlyripening and cold-resistant strains, as well as socioeconomic conditions, are also of significance.
Based on a detailed investigation, we have compiled maps on the current distribution of tangerine cultivation, the distribution of areas damaged by frost, and on the general patterns of land use. We have ascertained that the lake islands, valleys and hillsides are the localities most suited for orange cultivation, since there the microclimate is regulated by the lake. Cultivation is also possible on some of the sunny slopes and in some valleys that do not experience the climate-modifying effects of the lake. In the interior parts of valleys, however, local conditions may either facilitate air circulation or contribute to its stagnation. With the arrival of a cold wave, the tangerines on both sides of a valley often suffer from relatively minor frost damage whereas on the floor of the valley, where the cold air penetrates easily but flows out with difficulty, the fruit is more readily damaged.
The results of our research have shown how and where to select the best areas for tangerine growing in the hilly regions around Lake Taihu as well as in the East and West Dongting Hills. A total area of about 1,700 ha is suitable for tangerine cultivation, of which 42 per cent has been rated as first-class, with excellent conditions.
At present, the Taihu Plain is entering a new stage of agricultural development. To bring into full interplay the natural and economic conditions of the region an adjustment of the structure and spatial distribution of agricultural production is now under way. Changes in land use patterns will inevitably take place. For this reason, comprehensive investigations of the land resources of the Lake Taihu Plain and a thorough understanding of the region's historical processes of land utilization are essential.
6. Salt-marsh resources of China
Institute of Forestry and Soil Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, Liaoning Province
In China salt-marsh resources have been used for more than 4,000 years. Coastal marshlands offer a variety of ecological niches where crops. aquatic products, salt and grasses are produced. Detailed studies have been conducted along the coasts of the northern Yellow Sea and southern Zhejian Province, using LANDSAT images and aerial photographs to analyse soil and water conditions as well as land-use patterns. An interdisciplinary study should be conducted in each coastal province to understand better the resource endowment and the problems of its utilization.
China has about 18,000 km of coastline and some 6,000 coastal islands. The coastal zone of China is ecologically complex and economically highly productive, and includes extensive marsh areas. Based on coastal geomorphology, three major categories of coast can be recognized in China: plain (deltaic), rocky, and biological.
The plain coast comprises mostly the deltas of large rivers, such as the Huanghe, Yangzi, and the Zhu. This type of coast is subdivisible into a depositional type and corrosional type. The former occurs where large quantities of silt have been deposited in estuaries, largely as a consequence of the misuse of upstream resources. In the estuaries of these three rivers, nearly 2,000 million t/yr of silt and sand are deposited, causing continuous seaward progradation. Only a few areas are corrosional-type coastal plains, the best example being the estuary of the old Yellow River, in north-eastern Jiangsu Province.
A rocky coast occurs mainly along the Liaodong and Shandong peninsulas on the Yellow Sea and the Gulf of Bohai. In south China, rocky coast predominates from Hangzhou Bay to Guangdong and Guangxi, and on the southern coast of Hainan Island, except for some estuarine and deltaic areas.
Biological seacoasts occur in northern Fujian Province, on Hainan Island, and on some islands in the South China Sea. That in Fujian Province consists mainly of mangrove and tobira (Pittosporaceae) forests, the dominant species of the latter being Aegiceras comiculatum and Scaevola hainanensis. Those in the South China Sea consist mostly of mangrove forests and coral reefs.
Salt-marsh Resources in China and Problems of their Utilization
Salt-marsh resources in the coastal plains of north and east China have been used by farmers and fishermen for more than 4,000 years. The large coastal plains formed by the major rivers of China have, over the millennia, gradually been developed into fertile agricultural lands where rice, wheat, corn, soybean, and cotton are highly productive. Abundant aquatic products are produced in the many ponds, lakes, and waterways of these plains. The population density of the long-urbanized and highly developed lower Yangzi and Zhu valleys is 100-200 persons/km²
In the lower Liao delta of north-east China, where irrigation and drainage systems have been constructed and salinized soils reclaimed, the application of green manures and commercial fertilizers has greatly increased productivity, and the rice yields are now 6-7.5 Vha. In South China, sugar-cane, citrus, and rice thrive in reclaimed areas of former salt marsh. Double and triple cropping is practiced there, and average rice and wheat yields may reach 10-20 t/ha/yr 2
For centuries Chinese farmers have made tidal flats by enclosing salt marshes. Coastal marshlands offer a variety of ecological niches suitable for cropping, aquaculture, salt-making, and the cultivation of Phragmites sp. and other useful grasses (fig. 6.1). The inter-tidal zone of the higher beach, beyond 3 m in elevation, is suitable for the cultivation of rice, other crops, or for pasture. Aquaculture of prawns, clams, mussels. oysters, and razor clams can be practiced 2-3 m below sea level, where mud or silt deposits are abundant in nutrients and biological products. This middle tidal zone is also suitable for cultivating Spartina anglica, which may grow in tidal water with up to 3 per cent salt content. Because of its rapid propagation this valuable grass hastens the deposition of salt marsh and increases its depth at the rate of between 0.120.40 m/yr. This grass also protects dikes along shores, and its leaves and stems can be fed to livestock, used for green manure or for making paper.
Fig. 6.1. Schematic Diagram of Resource Potentials of Tidal Flats in South Zhejiang Province
It can also increase the fertility of the tidal salt marsh, in which the total organic matter can be increased from 1.2 to 1.3 per cent while the salt content of the surface horizons decreases 0.45-0.20 per cent. In estuaries where the salt content of the water is less than 0.5 per cent, phragmites may form reed beds.
At depths of 1-15 m below the middle tidal zone, fertile muds are suitable for the cultivation of kelp, laver (Porphyra spp.) and sea cucumber, all rich in protein. The area lying below the tidal zone, at depths of -5 to -15 m, may be several times as wide as the intertidal zone, and can be used to cultivate kelp and other edible seaweeds.
Fig. 6.2. Land Use near Yingkou City, Liaoning Province
The salt-marsh water in the upper part of the middle tidal zone has a salt content of about 3 per cent. Here salt pans may be constructed. Coastal salt production in China amounts to about 10 million t/yr. The country has more than 2 million ha of salt pans, mostly in north China, especially along Bohai and Liaodong Bays. About 20 per cent of China's salt is produced along the East China and South China Seas.
The development of salt marshes must be based on detailed studies to assist in the better understanding of the alternative uses of coastal resources; thus Chinese teams have conducted comprehensive research on the natural resources and economic conditions of the coastal zone, and have examined coastal geology, geomorphology, hydrology, meteorology, sedimentation, biology, soils, and land use. Maps of coastal resources have been prepared, based on field data, aerial photography and LANDSAT images. Researchers have studied the chemical, physical, biological, and mineralogical characteristics of the marshes. evaluated the quality of different kinds of coastal natural resources, and conducted research on the protection of the ecological systems of the coastal environment. In the final report, suggestions are made for the comprehensive development and use of salt-marsh resources in different parts of China.
Coastal Resources along the Northern Yellow Sea
Black-and-white 1:30,000 aerial photographs, 1:50,000 topographic maps and marine charts and colour LANDSAT images were used to compile soil and land-use maps along the Yellow Sea coast.3 Figures 6.2 and 6.3 show parts of land-use maps of two study areas along the coast of Liaoning Province.
Fig. 6.3. Land Use between Donggou and Zhuanghe, Northern Yellow Sea Coast
TABLE. 6.1. Salt Content of Salt Marsh Soils. Northern Yellow Sea Coast. North-east China
|Type of Salt Marsh||Depth (cm)||Total
|pH||Ion Content (m.e./100g)|
|Salt-marsh soil (sample from Tongkou)||0-15||1.40||7.0||0.14||20.88||2.62||0.42||2.33||20.75|
|Salt-marsh soil with salt (Sample from Xingging)||0-15||5.86||8.3||0.33||63.42||30.20||2.091||0.39||81.47|
(Sample from Tongkou)
a. The unit of total salt content in the Groundwater is Img/l), as is the unit of anion and cation
TABLE 6.2 Nutrient Content of Paddy Soils and Salt Marsh Soils, Northern Yellow Sea Coast, North-east China
|Depth (cm)||Organic matter (%)||pH||Total N (%)||Total P2O5 (%)||Water soluble N (mg/1009) (%)||AvailableP2O5 (%) (mg/100g) (%)||Available K(mg/100g) (%)|
The land-use patterns of the salt-marsh region near Yingkou are shown in figure 6.2. Desalinized former salt marsh soils along the Liaohe delta are used for rice-fields. Phragmites beds and ponds are located near the estuary, the latter being used for raising prawns and fin fish. South of Yingkou City is a salt pan of approximately 20,000 ha. East of the city are extensive areas of dry farmland developed on former salt-marsh deposits and used to grow maize, sorghum, and millet, usually with high yields. Low hills with meadow brown forest soil are scattered over the plain, and support apple orchards. Larger hills with moderate slope are covered mostly by secondary forest, with Ouercus liaotungensis and Pinus tabulaeformis as the dominant species.4 Land use around the Dayanghe estuary, on the Yellow Sea coast, is shown in figure 6.3. Along the coast are salt marshes of 5-10 km in width. Some salt pans and fish ponds are distributed along the coast. The slightly elevated land is used mostly for dry farming, whereas stony hills are under broad-leaf forests, and the few small hills are planted with apple trees. Phragmites beds are located along the estuary, and rice fields are widespread in the flat lowland that has been developed from the former salt marshes. Many reservoirs for irrigation and raising freshwater fishes lie in the northern part of the area.
To evaluate land resources we analysed the salt content of different kinds of salt-marsh soils (table 6.1 ) and investigated the nutrient content of the salt marsh and paddy soils (table 6.2). The coastal paddy soils have a medium organic matter content, high N content, and modest P content. The productivity of rice is either moderately high or high. The organic matter as well as the N content of the salt marsh soils are medium to high, and the pH ranges between 6.4 and 7.7, mostly neutral in reaction. The texture of the paddy soils and salt-marsh soils ranges from silty clay loam to silty clay.
Fig. 6.4. Coastal Soils and Land Use near Wenzhou, Zheliang Province
Land Use in the Wenzhou Area, Southern Zheiiang Province
A soil and land-use map along the coast around Wenzbou, a city in southern Zheiiang Province, is given in figure 6.4. This map was prepared in connection with a 1979 comprehensive survey of the salt-marsh resources of the area, and was based on blackand-white LANDSAT images, aerial photographs, and two months of fieldwork.6,7 7 The red-earth soil sub-group (1 a) is derived
from red clay, sandstone, shales, and acidic crystaline rocks, and the Young red-earth sub-group (1 b) is derived from coarse granitic rocks. These two soils are surrounded by paddy soils, some of which have been formed from former salt-marsh deposits dating back to the Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties (about A.D. 600-1600), but for the most part the soils and the coastal plain along the East China Sea have developed only in the last 200300 years.
Paddy soils developed on clay deposits are usually old rice soils, whereas those developed on silty clay or silty clay loam deposits are usually new rice soils which are distributed behind the sea dikes. These soils are highly productive and can yield rice at about 15 t/ha/yr. On the other hand, the fertility of the desalinized paddy soils near the sea dikes is only modest, and they produce rice at a rate of about 7-8 t/ha/yr.
TABLE 6.3 Nutrient and Physical Properties of Salt March Wenzhoru Zhejiang Province
|Soil type||Locality and field No.||Depth (cm)||pH||Nutrient content (%) humus||Total N (%)||Total P (%)||Physical sand >0.01 mm (%)||Physical clay <0.01 mm (%)||Soil texture||Clay minerals|
|Salt marsh of Lingguan Island|
|79-W-16||0-20||8.28||1.66||0.11||0.11||29.6||70 4||Light clay||-|
|Salt marsh of Wugisa||0-20||8.24||1.01||0.08||0.10||43.2||56.8||Heavy clay loam||Hydrated mica|
|79-W - 4||20-40||8.18||-||-||-||41.6||58.4||Light clay loam||Vermiculite Kaolinite|
|Pazou salt-marsh soil||0-20||8.41||1.22||0.09||0.09||45.2||54.8||Light clay loam|
|20-40||8.16||-||-||-||49.0||51.0||Light clay loam|
TABLE 6.4 Salt content of Salt Marsh Soils, Wenzbou, Zheiiana Province
|Soil type||Locality and field No.||Depth (cm)||Total salt (%)||Ion content (m.e./100g)|
|Meadow saline soil||Lingguan Island||0-20||0.91||-||0.47||12.56||1.97||0.47||1.09||13.44|
Immediately behind the sea dikes are salinized meadow soils with a pH value of 8.28. They are calcareous in reaction. Their humus content is 1.66 per cent, and the total N and total P both 0.1 1 per cent. The texture is mostly light clay. The clay mineral composition of the saltmarsh deposits are hydrated mica, vermiculite and kaolinite, ail detected by X-ray defection and by using an electron microscope. These clay minerals are quite similar to those found in deposits near the Yangzi delta. The nutrient content and the physical properties of the salt marshes near Wenzhou are listed in table 6.3, and the salt content of the meadow saline soils and sea marsh soils is shown in table 6.4.
Preliminary estimates show that China has some 2 million ha of tidal flats. Research on coastal and saltmarsh resources and their proper use is still going on. It is recommended that an interdisciplinary investigation be conducted in each coastal province better to understand its coastal resources and the problems of their utilization. Such knowledge is basic to the better planning, use and management of resources.
1. Chen Jiyu, " Comments on the Comprehensive Survey and Rational Utilization of Tidal Flat Resources, " Ziran Ziyuan [Natural resources] 1(1979): 53-57 (in Chinese).
2. Song Daquan, "The Significance of Strengthening the Investigation and Research on China's Tidal Flat Resources and the Prospect for the Study of Coastal Ecosystems," Ziran Ziyuan [Natural resources] (1978): 48-52 (in Chinese).
3. Institute of Forestry and Soil Sciences. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, " Using LANDSAT Images for the Study of Salt Marsh Resources in Liaoning Province." Unpublished research paper, 1973 (in Chinese).
4. Pei Yong, " Land Types along the Coast of Southern Liaoning Province, North east China." Unpublished research paper, Institute of Forestry and Soil Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 1980 (in Chinese.)
5. Luo Xuan, "Characteristics of Tidal Flats in Liaoning Province, and Their Improvement and Utilization," Turang Tongbao [Soils bulletin] 1(1980): 17-21 (in Chinese).
6. Cai Ouinquan et al., "Land Use in the Wenzhou Area, Zhejiang Province." Unpublished research paper, Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 1980 (in Chinese).
7. Song Daquan et al., "Soils and Land Resources in the Wenzhou Area, Zhejiang Province, East China." Unpublished research paper, Institute of Forestry and Soil Sciences. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 1980 (in Chinese).
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Distal humerus fractures or distal third humerus fracture are fractures of distal part of the humerus. The overall incidence of distal humerus fracture in adults is 0.5% of all fractures. The nature of the injury is commonly severe and is often associated with injury to surrounding soft tissue and nerves.
[Note: This article mainly focuses on adult distal humerus injuries. Injuries to pediatric elbow are discussed in pediatric trauma section]
The outcome of the fractures around the elbow is determined by the anatomical part involved, by the degree of displacement, and by the degree of comminution.
Anatomy of Distal Humerus
The elbowt has the capacity to flex and extend within the sagittal plane and also to rotate around a single axis. Elbow joint consists of three different articulations, as follows:
- Radiocapitellar joint
- Olecranon-trochlear joint
- Proximal radioulnar joint
Motion within the sagittal plane occurs at the ulnohumeral articulation within the semilunar notch.
The distal end of the humerus is flattened, expanded transversely, and rounded at the end which presents presents articular and nonarticular surfaces.
The articular portion forms the elbow joint and articulates with the radius and ulna.
Posterior surface of distal humerus is nonarticular which allows fixation on this aspect.
The distal humerus resembles a triangle, with the medial and lateral columns making up the sides and the trochlea forming the base. These columns are separated by a very thin layer of bone that posteriorly makes up the olecranon fossa and anteriorly composes the coronoid fossa. The lateral column ends distally in the capitellum. Capitellum is the lateral convex portion of the lateral condyle which is covered on its anterior and inferior surfaces with articular cartilage. It articulates with the head of the radius. The medial column is entirely nonarticular.
Ulnar nerve lies just behind the medial epicondyle.
Few points to remember
- The lateral column lies in approximately 20° of valgus relative to the humeral shaft.
- The medial column is aligned at a 40° angle to the shaft and ends in the trochlea.
- The capitellum is angulated 30-40° anteriorly, while the trochlea is angulated 25° anteriorly.
- The trochlea is larger in diameter medially than laterally and ends more distally than the capitellum in the coronal plane [This lead to valgus position of the elbow in extension.]
The blood supply around the elbow is primarily fed by anastomotic vessels from the brachial artery.
Humerus bone widens distally in the coronal plane to a maximum between the medial and lateral epicondyles and narrows from proximal to distal in the sagittal plane before its distal most articular segment expands and juts anteriorly.
This forms kind of lateral and medial column which diverge diverging medial and lateral columns. At their most distal point, they are joined by the “tie arch,” consisting of the articular segment—the trochlea and the capitellum.
Causes of Distal Humeral Fracture
The fracture typically occurs when there is a force applied to upper limb when the joint is flexed more than 90 degrees.
The fracture either results from motor vehicle accident or fall while walking.
Clinical Presentation of Distal Humerus Fracture
A thorough patient history must be taken including medical history, surgical history, medication use, nonmedication drug use, occupation, and smoking history.
Examination of the injured extremity and other associated injuries present should be done. With high-energy injuries, associated injuries to the head, chest, abdomen, spine, or pelvis must be excluded.
A complete examination of the neurovascular status of the extremity should be conducted.
In suspected vascular injuries Doppler studies or angiography should be performed.
The patient should be given an above elbow splint after thorough examination of limb including neurovascular examination and x-rays.
Imaging for Distal Humerus Fracture
Recommended views are antroposterior and lateral view of elbow. Entire length of humerus and forearm should be recorded.
A wrist x-ray should be sought if there is a distal tenderness. Traction view may assist in surgical planning but CT is better.
CT is performed in complex intrarticular fractures. 3D reconstruction of CT images help to understand the fracture anatomy better.
MRI is not indicated in acute injury.
If there is an additional injury present, investigations might be needed accordingly. For example, arteriogram for arterial injury.
Distal Humerus Fracture Classification
Ao/OTA classification is the most widely used classification used .
Fracture is nonarticular.
A fracture of the B type is partially articular. A part of the articular segment remains in continuity with the shaft
Fractures are articular, but have no articular fragments remaining in continuity with the shaft
Type C is further divided into subtypes 1
- C1: T or Y fractures
- C2: Articular fracture is simple, but the nonarticular supracondylar area is segmental or comminuted
- C3: Articular segment is segmental or comminuted.
Different Fracture Patterns in Distal Humerus
Fracture of Lateral Epicondyle
An avulsion fracture of the lateral epicondyle is an extremely rare injury in adults. It may occur as part of a posterolateral or posterior dislocation of the elbow.
When the elbow is reduced, the epicondylar fragment reduces.
Fractures of the Medial Epicondyle
Fractures of the medial epicondyle are most common in children. They can be seen in adults as consequence of direct injury or avulsion.
A small and undisplaced fracture is treated by non-operative means.
A displaced fracture should be openly reduced and stabilized by internal fixation to prevent the onset of ulnar palsy.
Distal Single Column Fractures [Condylar fractures – Medial Condyle/Lateral Condyle]
Fracture of lateral condyle is a major intra-articular injury which needs to be accurately reduced and fixed for preservation of normal joint function.
Coronal Shear Fractures [Fractures of the Capitellum]
The capitellum is the rounded knob-like portion of the lateral condyle, and is completely covered by articular cartilage. It allows movement of radial head when elbow is flexed. In extension the radial head falls away from the distal end of the humerus and loses contact with the capitellum.
When fractured, the capitellum becomes a free intra-articular osteochondral body. Traditionally, surgeons had been recommending excision of the fragment but recent studies recommended internal fixation to be better.
Supracondylar fractures, as the name suggests are above the condylar area and are generally transverse or oblique. This is a different entity than intercondylar fractures of humerus.
Supracondylar fractures are very common in children and are managed differently than adult supracondylar fractures.
In adults these fractures require treatment by internal fixation and using tow plated for fracture fixation.
Internal fixation allows early mobilization and prevents stiffness.
Jupiter further classified these fractures according to fracture pattern.
|Jupiter Classification of Two-Column Distal Humerus Fractures|
|High-T||Transverse fracture proximal to or at upper olecranon fossa|
|Low-T||Transverse fracture just proximal to trochlea (common)|
|Y||Oblique fracture line through both columns with distal vertical fracture line|
|H||Trochlea is a free fragment (risk of AVN)|
|Medial lambda||Proximal fracture line exists medially|
|Lateral lambda||Proximal fracture line exists laterally|
|Multiplane T||T type with additional fracture in coronal plane|
Treatment of Distal Humerus Fractures
Factors That Affect The Treatment Decisions
Age and Bone Quality
In an elderly fragile person, if the bone quality is not good, it would be difficult to get secure purchase of the implant.
Moreover, the treatment goals would be different for a young adult than elderly.
Type of Fracture
Fracture pattern is a major deciding factor. Some fractures are difficult to treat, even with surgery. Prognosis of the injury should be discussed with patient and treatment decision made accordingly.
- An undisplaced fracture may not require surgery. Displacement, particularly of the joint fragments, is clearly an indication for an open reduction.
- Degree of comminution and joint involvement are also determinant of outcome.
- Open fractures, vascular injuries, associated bony injuries would always require internal fixation.
- If a fracture is not salvageable for optimum function for a given age, elbow replacement may be considered.
There are certain situations where the decision to operate must be made on considerations other than the fracture.
Distal humerus fracture in adults are best treated with open reduction and internal fixation. This allows anatomic reduction and early range of motion exercised.
Nonoperative treatment depends on the fracture type. Nonoperative treatment of fractures include casting and immobilization. Undisplaced fractures especially extrarticular can be safely managed by casting and immobilization.
Medial epicondylar fractures can be immobilized for 7 days, with the elbow flexed at 90º, the forearm pronated, and the wrist flexed at 30º [ To relax the common flexor-pronator muscles].
A displacement > 3 mm of displacement or fragment in the joint warrants surgery.
Stable, nondisplaced, supracondylar fractures can be treated with splinting for approximately 2 weeks followed by use of a hinged functional brace with early elbow motion.
Fractures with articular involvement, comminution, displacement, or both should not be treated with conservative means.
But in spite of indications, there could be circumstances where patient is not suitable to get operative treatment. For example, debilitated patients, patients with other ailments that make them a poor candidates for anaesthesia, problem with local sites such as degloving injuries
Such cases need to be treated non operatively with cast immobilization or skeletal traction.
Surgical Management of Distal Humerus Fractures
Restoration of articular congruity, elbow stability and decrease risk of posttraumatic arthritis and elbow stiffness are the main goals of surgery.
Main indications for surgery are
- Intra-articular fragment displacement
- Supracondylar comminution and displacement
- Open fractures
- Floating elbow patterns
- Neurovascular injury
- Compartment syndrome
- Multiple traumatic injuries
Closed reduction and percutaneous pinning
Closed reduction and percutaeous pinning is done mainly in children. It could be done in selected distal humerus fractures in adults.
Open reduction internal fixation
Most of the adult fractures require open reduction and internal fixation especially supracondylar humerus fracture and intercondylar fractures of distal humerus.
Total elbow arthroplasty
It should be considered in elderly patients and non-salvageable fractures.
Distal humerus fractures should be operated as early as possible. Undue delay can cause elbow swelling which would interfere with tissue closure.
If the injury to soft tissues is severe to permit safe surgery, then definitive surgery should be delayed by immobilizing the fracture and bridging the elbow with an external fixator to allow some degree of reduction and maintain length.
Overall prognosis of distal humerus is good. Complex fractures are associated with less fovorable prognosis but with timely intervention results in good functional elbow.
Open fractures, comminuted intra-articular fractures and fractures with neurovascular injuries may result in less than optimal limb function.
Healing rates of 80-100% have been reported postoperatively.
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The properties of plywood include increased stability, surface dimensional stability, high-impact resistance, chemical resistance and a high strength-to-weight ratio. Plywood is made from layers of wood pressed together and bonded with an adhesive.Continue Reading
Plywood has a cross-laminated structure and is durable through drastic temperature and moisture changes, making it ideal for flooring and framework in locations where exposure to moisture is likely.
Because of plywood's laminated structure, it distributes weight over a large area on its opposite side. This means that plywood can accommodate up to twice its designated load for short periods of time, making It ideal for use in locations where seismic activity or strong winds occur.
There are four types of plywood, and each one is designed for a different application. Structural plywood is used in permanent structures like form work, flooring, bracing and manufactured beams. Internal plywood is used in interior structures that are aesthetically appealing and do not need to bear weight, such as wall paneling, furniture, ceiling linings and interior door skins. External plywood is used in external applications that are not subject to loads, such as exterior door skins, signs and cladding. Marine plywood is meant for use in marine applications, such as the hulls of boats and yachts. It minimizes potential water damage.Learn more about Carpentry | <urn:uuid:de28b2e5-3422-4c83-90fd-ec4f96b673f5> | {
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When considering the prospect of alien life, humankind should prepare for the worst, according to a new study: Either we're alone, or any aliens out there are acquisitive and resource-hungry, just like us.
These two unpalatable options are pretty much the only possibilities, according to the new study. That's because evolution is predictable, and alien biospheres should thus produce intelligent creatures much like us, with technological prowess and an ever-increasing need for resources.
But the fact that we haven't run across E.T. yet argues strongly for the latter possibility — that we are alone in the universe's howling void, the study suggests.
"At present, as many have observed, it is very quiet out there," study author Simon Conway Morris, of the University of Cambridge, told SPACE.com in an e-mail interview. "And given many planetary systems are billions of years older than ours, I'd expect us to be best grilled on toast back in the Cambrian."
Evolution is predictable
Life on Earth has exploited just about every conceivable niche, tolerating extremes of temperature, salinity, pH and pressure. Conway Morris makes the case that Earth life thus exists close to the physical and chemical limits of life anywhere. [The Weirdest Life on Earth]
Further, Conway Morris says, evolution operates predictably, producing relatively predictable outcomes. These two suppositions argue that alien life, if it exists, should be fairly similar to terrestrial life, generating intelligent beings much like us. These aliens may look unfamiliar, but any differences would be skin-deep.
There is reason to be wary of such creatures, according to Conway Morris.
"If intelligent aliens exist, they will look just like us, and given our far-from-glorious history, this should give us pause for thought," he writes in the study, which was published today (Jan. 10) in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.
Other researchers have raised this same point. The eminent physicist Stephen Hawking, for example, recently warned that aliens may be more interested in mining our planet for vital resources than in getting to know us.
Are we alone?
The prospect of greedy, imperialistic aliens is a troubling one, but Conway Morris thinks another scenario — also depressing — is more likely to be true.
We're likely alone in the universe, he writes. The cosmos is almost inconceivably vast, likely harboring at least 100 billion galaxies. And our solar system is relatively young compared to the rest of the universe — 4.6 billion years versus 13.7 billion years.
So there should have been plenty of time and opportunity for many alien civilizations to get a sizable evolutionary head start. The fact that E.T. seemingly hasn't contacted us is a strong indication that he's just not out there, according to Conway Morris.
The huge distances that would likely separate potential alien civilizations don't present an insuperable barrier to contact, Conway Morris said.
"At least so far as this galaxy is concerned, a distance of circa 100,000 light years doesn't seem insurmountable, given a relatively slow diffusion rate and a geometrical rate of establishment of colonies," he said.
Welcoming aliens with open arms?
While Conway Morris' study recommends caution when considering the possibility of alien life, another new report suggests that humanity would probably be happy to learn that we're not alone.
Writing in the same issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, psychologist Albert Harrison predicts that the discovery of alien life — should it happen anytime soon — would be more likely to inspire delight than incite pandemonium here on Earth.
That's partly because E.T. would probably seem pretty non-threatening, and fairly abstract, when we first discover it. The first evidence of alien life would likely be a microbe from Mars or other solar system body, or an electromagnetic signal snagged out of the air, according to Harrison.
"This is how we're looking systematically for extraterrestrial life," Harrison, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, told SPACE.com. "Because this is where we're looking, this is where we're likely to find it."
Either way, such a discovery would be a far cry from "War of the Worlds"-style invading spaceships. There may be some ambiguity and uncertainty involved, especially with an electromagnetic signal, which could be tough to interpret. But that shouldn't be a major problem, according to Harrison.
"There will be varied responses, but I think that on the whole we'll take it well," he said. "You have to remember, there are adaptive mechanisms that swing into play."
And finding E.T. might not be a single, drama-packed event, he added. Rather, it could occur as most science does, with a lot of back-and-forth discussions and appraisals of the evidence.
"What I think could very well happen is that slowly, over time, different people start concluding that we're not alone," Harrison said. "Some people have already concluded it. It won't necessarily have to be a big flashpoint, or like a bomb going off. It'll be more and more people saying, 'Gee, the evidence does show that they're out there.'"
Preparing for 50 years
Another reason people would likely take the discovery of E.T. well, according to Harrison, is what has happened in the last 50 years. Advances in technology, spaceflight, space science and our understanding of the cosmos have prepared us for the possibility that we are not alone. [Top Spaceflight Stories of 2010]
"This creates the sense that anything could be possible," Harrison said. "And it creates the perceptions, I think, that E.T. may be out there, and that we'll eventually have the technological means to detect him."
For his part, Harrison is more sanguine than Conway Morris about the possibility of E.T.'s existence. Aliens may well be hard to find in such a vast universe, especially since we don't know exactly what we're looking for.
"It's that needle in a cosmic haystack," Harrison said. "Maybe they're just too far away, and we'll never run into them. There are a lot of unknowns."
And, though he doesn't advocate letting our guard down, Harrison is not quite as worried about aliens' possible malignant intentions as Conway Morris is. It's not necessarily inevitable that alien civilizations advance to stages of interstellar imperialism, cruising the cosmos for resources, Harrison said.
Despite the atrocities leading the news every night, societies here on Earth seem to be trending more toward peaceful coexistence, Harrison said. And even if an alien civilization got greedy and imperialistic, there's no guarantee it would be able to run roughshod over its neighbors.
"It's possible to have very acquisitive civilizations out there," Harrison said. "Maybe they get to a certain point, but they may collapse or be beaten back. No one civilization is necessarily going to take over, because there will be coalitions of other civilizations that will keep them in check."
People around the world seem to share Harrison's more positive outlook. In the new study, he cites one poll that found that 86 percent of Americans believe that aliens are more likely to be friendly than hostile.
Maybe most of us have a bead on aliens. Or maybe we're just optimists — or suckers. | <urn:uuid:afcd7676-84c9-482f-ae23-f7f3c6584335> | {
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In 1852 the New Zealand Constitution Act provided parliamentary franchise to European, Māori and half caste men who met the property criteria. Fifteen years later, the Māori Representation Act 1867 provided for the establishment of four Māori seats; only men could stand for these. In 1876 the Municipal Corporations Act gave both men and women ratepayers the right to vote and stand for local government office. It is not known how many women exercised this right.
In the last decade of the nineteenth century, Māori women were involved in two suffrage movements at the same time. Māori women supported the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in seeking the right to vote for members of the New Zealand House of Representatives, and they also sought the right to vote and to stand as members of the Māori Parliament – Te Kotahitanga. By the turn of the century both these goals had been achieved. Their involvement in the suffrage movements was a significant development in the story of Māori women and the ways in which they organised at a national level to deal with issues of importance to them and their communities.
The experience gained by women in working for the vote during the early 1890s was put to effective use in the following century. Collective organising at a national level in Ngā Komiti Wāhine and later the WCTU was a new experience for Māori women. The skills they had gained in working for the vote and for control over their lives and resources were never lost. Continuing involvement in women’s organisations enabled them to express their views on the matters of importance. The political voice which they had fought for and won in their Māori forum ceased with the demise of the Māori Parliament in 1902. However, Ngā Komiti Wāhine continued to operate on most marae up until the Second World War when they became more commonly referred to as the Ladies’ Committees.
Māori women brought their organising skills to local societies such as the Country Women’s Institute (CWI), which they joined with Pākehā women. They joined this organisation after the first world war and the first separate Māori Institute was formed at Kohupātiki, Hawkes Bay, in 1929. Lack of resources caused Māori membership in the CWI to fall away during the mid 1930s.
As the 1930s Depression took its toll, health and welfare became critical issues of concern. A new initiative was needed and Nurse Rubina Cameron, together with local Māori women in the Bay of Plenty district founded the Women’s Health League in 1937.
After the Second World War, Māori women faced new problems as more Māori began to move into urban areas. Once again a national response was called for. In 1951 the Māori Women’s Welfare League was formed to give women a forum to discuss and act on political issues of concern to them.
Many of its leading members, as young women, had been influenced by the women who led the movement for the vote in the Māori Parliament. One of these women was Maata Hirini who had been brought up by Niniwa i te Rangi. Maata was the League’s President between 1960 and 1964.
Land has continued to be a major issue for Māori women. A number of outstanding women have spent their lives working to regain their people’s lands. Te Puea Herangi in the 1930s and 1940s set up land development schemes and worked to re-establish the Waikato people economically and culturally. In the protest movements of the 1970s and 1980s, women such as Eva Rickard spoke out in defence of their land rights and used direct action to illuminate the injustices they had suffered. Other prominent Māori women at the time included Donna Awatere, Ripeka Evans, Titewhai Harawira, Hilda Halkyard and Hana Jackson. The strategies which these women employed were not so different from the approaches which Māori women had taken during the 1890s.
Māori Women in the House
In 1919 the Women’s Parliamentary Rights Act gave women the right to stand for Parliament but it was not until 1935 that the first Māori woman stood as a candidate. In this year Rehutai Maihi contested the Northern Māori seat. Although she announced during her campaign that she was a Labour supporter, she was listed as an Independent when the results were posted. Older Māori, who did not believe women should enter politics, criticised her and she polled only 162 votes.
In 1949 Iriaka Ratana became the first Māori woman to win a seat in the New Zealand Parliament when she successfully contested Western Māori. Her husband, the previous member for this seat, had died in office earlier in the year. She retained the seat until her retirement in 1969. As a Ratana she was allied with the Labour Party which initially showed some hesitation in endorsing a woman candidate in a Māori electorate. Iriaka Ratana defeated her nearest rival by 5871 votes. In spite of her Ratana support, she faced opposition from some Māori who claimed that as a woman she could not adequately represent them. They also criticised her for taking on a political role when she was the mother of a large family. Her years of committed work for Māori won over her critics.
Iriaka Ratana was not the only Māori woman contestant in the 1949 election. Katarina Nutana also stood for the Western Māori seat as an Independent and faced criticism from some sections of the electorate.
Other women known to have contested Māori seats include Hinerapa Ropiha who stood for Southern Māori in 1957, and Whina Cooper who stood for Northern Māori in 1963.
In 1967 Whetu Tirikatene was elected Member of Parliament for Southern Māori and retained the seat for twenty-six years. Like Iriaka Ratana, she followed a family member into the House, after the death of her father. She was appointed Minister of Tourism in 1972, becoming the first Māori woman to hold a Cabinet portfolio.
Sandra Lee, standing as an Alliance candidate, won the Auckland Central seat in 1993. She was the first Māori woman to hold a general seat in the New Zealand Parliament.
The beginnings of national organising by Māori women lie in their involvements in the suffrage movements. Māori women were keen to retain their traditional rights and maintain visibility in New Zealand society by seeking out measures which would ensure a continuity of representation. Franchise rights would be a means of achieving this.
However, winning the vote was never going to be the end of the story for Māori women. Mounting problems in the areas of health and welfare meant that considerable efforts were required to address them. Leadership by women such as Heni Pore, Hera Stirling, Herena Taupopoki, Takarea Te Heuheu and Sophia Te Paea Hinerangi was necessary to consolidate the women’s efforts.
The initiative of encouraging Māori women to communicate with each other through the Māori newspapers of last century was taken by women such as Niniwa i te Rangi, Meri Mangakahia and Pani Te Tau. It was an educative process which inspired many women to discuss political issues of the day and also to question their relative status with others in their communities. The medium enhanced Māori women’s abilities to collectively organise and to speak with a unified voice.
Māori women learned the advantages and disadvantages of collaborating with Pākehā women and participated with them in their various organisations for over a hundred years.
Women’s suffrage in this country was more than just women getting the right to vote for members of parliament; it was about women being able to speak on their own terms and having the opportunities to do so. The women mentioned resisted the sexist and cultural oppression of the anti-suffragists and are role models for Māori women today. Their leadership qualities, participation in tribal matters, national networking and entrepreneurial flair are as relevant to Māoridom today as they were one hundred years ago. | <urn:uuid:b631fd5a-9b45-443a-9295-188e2d3228a3> | {
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Friday 5th February 2016 By Chris Harris, Euronews.
EU states must do more to tackle female genital mutilation (FGM), campaigners say, as the number of those affected by the practice in Europe climbs amid the refugee influx. End FGM European Network says more girls and women are arriving on the continent’s doorstep scarred by the problem. It says 26,755 women and girls from FGM-practicing countries sought asylum in the EU from January-September last year. Up to 16,320 of those are likely to have been affected by the practice, according to prevalence rates used by UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency.
It is estimated around 500,000 women and girls are affected by FGM in Europe. It comes as UNICEF – to mark global FGM awareness day on February 6 – revealed at least 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone FGM. It said girls 14 or under made up around a fifth of that total, with the majority of girls being cut before their fifth birthday.
FGM is defined by the World Health Organisation as procedures that ‘intentionally alter or cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons’.
The European Commission says FGM is illegal throughout the EU via general legislation. But just 13 countries have a specific law against it, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality: Sweden, UK, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Denmark, Croatia, Netherlands and Malta.
Meanwhile just a dozen EU states have signed the Istanbul Convention, the first treaty to recognise the existence of FGM in Europe and commit states to addressing the problem, while just eleven have implemented an EU directive aimed at supporting victims of FGM.
“It’s shocking,” Liuska Sanna, director of End FGM European Network, told Euronews. “The directive should have been implemented. All member states should have already modified their national law in line with the provisions of the directives. “The EU needs to ensure and monitor implementation properly – the member states are not meeting their obligations. “Political will needs to be sustained and prevention work needs to be ramped up. The EU has handed the baton to member states, but a co-ordinated approach is needed to tackle FGM.”
Knowledge is key
One of the major problems regarding FGM in Europe is the absence of solid figures – rather than estimates – on how many people are affected. “Knowing the real numbers affected and reaching those affected is difficult,” added Ms Sanna. “In Europe you have all these communities mixed together and spread out, so reaching them and finding a comprehensive way of working with them takes time.
“EU national governments need to work on collecting data using a common methodology that is comparable. If we do not know the real scale of the practice here, or who is affected and why they carry out the practice, it is very difficult to prevent it.” It is a sentiment echoed by Rao Gupta, deputy executive director of UNICEF. She said: “Determining the magnitude of FGM is essential to eliminating the practice. When governments collect and publish national statistics on FGM they are better placed to understand the extent of the issue and accelerate efforts to protect the rights of millions of girls and women.”
Grounds for optimism?
UNICEF highlight some reasons to be positive, despite countries like Somalia having FGM prevalence rates of 98 percent in women and girls aged 15-49. The children’s fund says there has been a decrease in the proportion of 15-19 year olds affected, notably in Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Liberia and Togo. Nigeria and The Gambia were among countries to announce FGM bans last year.
Ms Sanna said: “There have been strides forward in the last year. The bans were a big step forward and are to be encouraged. But of course it will only make a difference if these laws are correctly implemented.”
By Chris Harris for Euronews | <urn:uuid:dec16158-4a68-4f79-b16e-5caa787908e9> | {
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Convert units of measure worksheet
6.22 m _ cm 18a.
3 cm 15 Measuring Worksheet 11 Convert the measuring units as indicated.
72 cm 8a m 8b.4 mi.Distance between two cities?2 C oz 15b mi ft 15c measure km m 16a.Teach students how to convert between seconds, minutes, hours, and days.Using these sheets will help your child understand how to: read measure scales in both the standard and metric systems; read worksheet a convert scale going units up convert in a range measure of fractions: halves, quarters and eighths; read a scale going up in tenths, fives, tens, fifties, and hundreds.
Students will make a table to list all data of the conversion factors they might need.
500 cm _.
8 L 19 Measuring Worksheet 13 Convert the measuring units as indicated.
12 C pt 14c.Label answers with the appropriate unit of measure.5 mi _ yd windows 10b.1 mi.3 mi _.8800 yd windows _ mi 10b.Assign additional practice if necessary.The United States follows an older system of measurement referred to as the Imperial system of measurement.210 ml 4b ml 5a L 5b ml 6a L 6b kg windows 7a kg 7b L 8a kg 8b product kg 9a g change 9b kg 10a kg 10b kg 21 Measuring Worksheet 15 Convert the measuring units as indicated.8691 m _.1 leawo m.8.625 mi _.Group projects are included in addition to numerous individual activities.7 kg g 8a ml L 8b g kg 9a ml.
Converting Metric convert units of measure worksheet Units: Length, Weight Volume.
Step 6 Have students work individually on solving word problems that involve units of measure. | <urn:uuid:bef80304-91b2-43c3-aac0-e3959be58abf> | {
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Three Worlds of Relief examines the role of race and immigration in the development of the American social welfare system by comparing how blacks, Mexicans, and European immigrants were treated by welfare policies during the Progressive Era and the New Deal. Taking readers from the turn of the twentieth century to the dark days of the Depression, Cybelle Fox finds that, despite rampant nativism, European immigrants received generous access to social welfare programs. The communities in which they lived invested heavily in relief. Social workers protected them from snooping immigration agents, and ensured that noncitizenship and illegal status did not prevent them from receiving the assistance they needed. But that same helping hand was not extended to Mexicans and blacks. Fox reveals, for example, how blacks were relegated to racist and degrading public assistance programs, while Mexicans who asked for assistance were deported with the help of the very social workers they turned to for aid.
Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, Fox paints a riveting portrait of how race, labor, and politics combined to create three starkly different worlds of relief. She debunks the myth that white America’s immigrant ancestors pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, unlike immigrants and minorities today. Three Worlds of Relief challenges us to reconsider not only the historical record but also the implications of our past on contemporary debates about race, immigration, and the American welfare state.
She is also the recent winner of the 2012 C. Wright Mills Award, one of the most prestigious awards given in the area of social science research.
Cybelle Fox is assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the coauthor of Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings. | <urn:uuid:4bfa2b2e-b0b7-40ee-9a05-76cd2d6b11c2> | {
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The Singapore Zoo has hatched the first baby Komodo Dragon in it's 34 year history. Here you get a rare glimpse at the world's heaviest lizard at it's very smallest: just hatched! At this size the apex predator of the the Indonesian isles looks pretty harmless but in adulthood wild Komodo Dragons grow up to 10ft long and eat deer or even buffalo!
DRAGON BABE HAS ARRIVED AT SINGAPORE ZOO
- First zoo in Asia (outside Indonesia) to have successfully bred the world’s largest lizard, Komodo dragon
Singapore, December 1, 2009 – Singapore Zoo welcomes newest addition to the Komodo dragon family, the first in 34 years. The arrival of the baby dragon on November 15, 2009 signifies father Bima’s successful attempt at winning over mother Yoko, after one and a half years of courtship. Yoko, a diminutive female had not been receptive to Bima’s presence until late last year.
“The hatching of the Komodo dragon is one of the most significant moments for us at the Singapore Zoo. Veterinarians and zookeepers have been patiently monitoring Yoko’s receptivity to Bima’s advances and mating behaviour, as female komodo dragons have been known to be hostile during the early phases of courtship. We have been planning for this momentous day over the last seven months (when Yoko first laid her eggs), familiarising ourselves with the various steps required to artificially incubate the eggs, setting up a proper habitat for any hatchlings and reviewing the diet for dragonlets. Still, all the planning in the world cannot really prepare us for the tremendous sense of elation and wonder at seeing this 40-cm long baby resting beside its empty egg-shell in the incubator,” said Mr Biswajit Guha, Assistant Director Zoology, Singapore Zoo.
The conservation status of the Komodo dragon is vulnerable, as its already restricted distribution has contracted further due to human encroachment and prey depletion. Generally, breeding komodo dragons in captivity is fraught with difficulties due to incompatible pairings, dearth of experience in egg incubation and over-representation of males in zoos.
Singapore Zoo is the first Zoo in Asia, out of the Komodo Dragon’s native home of Indonesia, that has successfully managed to breed this reptile.
Considered as one of Indonesia’s national treasures, komodo dragons can only be given away by the President. Currently there are three Komodo dragons, including the hatchling, at the Singapore Zoo’s Reptile Garden.
About Komodo Dragon
Komodo Dragon, the world’s largest lizard, inhabits the rugged terrain of the Indonesian island of Komodo, Rinca and Flores. They are among the most intelligent lizards with a keen sense of smell, which enables them to detect dead animals 8.5 km away upwind. In the wild Komodo dragons prey on animals as large as deer, feral ponies and buffalo and are also known to be cannibalistic as adult dragons may prey on young, old and sickly dragons. With a very efficient digestive system, komodo dragons excrete only 8-13 percent of the amount they eat and this means they do not need to eat often. Cooperative efforts between zoos and wildlife parks have helped boost the number of komodo dragons. According to the IUCN Red List, komodo dragons are Vulnerable to extinction. | <urn:uuid:a8e70fa8-b2b5-4b1a-afe4-a71b4f2aa33e> | {
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Planché, the "bold knight" of Madame d'Aulnoy according to theater critics, greatly admired her works and others which inspired the Parisian folies féeriques. Although English-speaking readers and audiences have traditionally associated such stories with children, the tradition which fascinated Planché was not originally aimed at the young but rather was a type of imaginative literature which operated on several levels, the surface credulity belied by strata of witty, often cynical, commentary on human nature and expression of humane, occasionally democratic, ideals (Extravaganzas, i, 207-8; Barchilon, Le Conte 63-4).
Marie-Catherine le Jumel d'Aulnoy was one of the earliest and most sophisticated of the fairy writers, as well as one of the main forces in popularizing such tales. Rather than being embellished folktales (like those of Charles Perrault or of the later team of Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm), her romances were original literary creations, and as such reflect d'Aulnoy's own cultural values, as well as some borrowed from folktales. For instance, when a prince marries a girl in a folktale, it is usually because she deserves a reward; she is a commoner, and her boon is the life of comfort and prestige she will enjoy after enduring much hardship. In the romances, the same marriage still rewards the girl for merit, but also reflects her birth. Furthermore, the folktale heroine's worth usually lies in her compassion, resourcefulness, or faith. Her physical attributes and education are often ignored entirely. While the romances still prize virtue, the girl's beauty and social graces are always lauded, as are the elegance and chivalry of the boy.
Another source of the aristocratic aura is the fairy writers' strong interest in medieval romance as an alternative to the classically-oriented male academic culture of the time. Many academicians perceived these tales as anarchistic, for they at least seem to question social privilege (Barchilon, Le Conte 63-4). In truth, the fairy romances often answer such questions with a reassuring restoration of the aristocratic hero or heroine to a comfortable life because he or she merits such a life; only a relative few actually deny the value of birth. However, even asking the questions was perceived as disagreeably "democratic" by many acadmicians, as was the use of folk motifs. The continuing argument between such writers as Charles Perrault and Nicolas Boileau-Despré began the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns satirized in Jonathan Swift's Battle of the Books (Pomeau 78-81). Eventually the controversy lost momentum, but the romances, although widely read, were never received into the academic canon, and most slowly died of neglect. However, some of the most successful tales, usually in abridged forms, survived in the adaptations of playwrights and moralists.
The most widely-read tales became part of the received culture of millions in France, Britain, and, to a slightly lesser degree, North America. However, retellings penned by moralists interested in educating children lost much of their original sophistication. In Planché's words, the tradition was "most ludicrously perverted" (Fairy Tales, xiii). His extravaganzas restored the asides and the fun of "innocent" sagacity. His interest in the French tradition of both page and stage is suggested by the fact that of his vast output, the only nursery-tale pieces not French in origin were two comic dramas, a pantomime, a spectacle, an opera, and a revue (respectively, Abudah, or, the Talisman of the Oromanes, 1819; and The Dragon's Gift, 1830; Harlequin Little Red Riding Hood; or, Rodolfo the Wolf, 1818; Chevy Chase, 1836, Oberon 1826; and The Seven Champions of Christendom, 1849). Of these, only Oberon and The Seven Champions achieved notable success, and Oberon is usually praised for Weber's music and damned for Planché's libretto.
Planché labored to produce accurate translations of Aulnoy's tales in 1853 and 1854, having
the pleasure of placing
for the first time in the hands of English readers those
delightful tales in their integrity, including several that had been omitted, and
rendering as faithfully as possible the original text of others which had been most
barbarously mutilated and woefully misinterpreted, to suit the capacity of children still
limited to the nursery. (Fairy Tales of Madame d'Aulnoy, note, iii, 43)
Planché showed the extent of his scholarship when he later produced a similar translation of Perrault's tales. Visiting prestigious French libraries, where even though "it seemed ridiculous for an 'homme de lettres,' a 'savant,' an 'antiquaire,' to present himself to the authorities . . . and inquire for a copy of 'Mother Goose's Fairy Tales!'," he looked almost obsessively for a first edition of the works (2, 161). He not only visited collections in Paris but traveled to many of the major libraries of the Continent in search of a first edition, and finally had to content himself with second editions and contemporary journal reviews of Perrault's work (Recollections, 2 160-61). (Possibly confusion in the dating of the three earliest versions led Planché to this conclusion; for a discussion, see Jâcques Barchilon, Contes de Perrault, iv-v). Planché even corresponded with the Duc d'Aumale, who, by consulting the royal archives of France, provided background information in a "courteous letter" which also complimented Planché "sur la grace et l'exactitude de la traduction, ainsi que sur les très bonnes et substantielles notices qui sont à la fin du livre" (Recollections 2, 162).
With d'Aulnoy's works,
however, definite first editions were available, and Planché
worked at length not only to translate the language as accurately as possible,
but to provide notes explaining topical references (usually humorous) and word
plays not possible to reproduce in translation. Such a conscientious
translator tried not to stray unnecessarily from the original text. For
instance, rather than bowdlerize two of the tales, Le Prince Marcassin and Le Dauphin, which would
likely have offended English-language readers, he merely summarized them (xiii).
Planché's attempt to convey d'Aulnoy's elusive prose style, full of play with both sound and meaning, was as close as nineteenth-century English would allow, although generally, the original remains slightly richer in possibility than does the translation. One of the most notable changes Planché made in the language of his translations involves sentence length. D'Aulnoy, like her contemporaries, often wrote in very long sentences with several parallel independent and subordinate clauses. Planché, although he kept close to the original word order and phrasing, often chose to separate the independent clauses into as many sentences, presumably for the sake of readability.
While these strategies in translation deserve note, Planché generally approximated d'Aulnoy's prose style as closely as readable nineteenth-century English would allow. Moreover, he tried to mirror her verse as faithfully as possible. Although the bulk of her text utilizes a sophisticated conversational tone reminiscent of the salon, d'Aulnoy peppered her tales with verse, usually representing songs or poems composed by the characters. Poetry is always challenging to translate, and Planché used longer lines (making rhyming easier, since fewer rhymes were needed); however, the general imagery and voice of d'Aulnoy's originals are suggested by Planché's paraphrases.
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Every year, more than 340,000 people visit the Barton Springs swimming hole in Austin, Texas. Few swimmers realize they’re taking a dip in the home of one of North America’s most endangered species — the Barton Springs salamander. An entirely aquatic amphibian, this salamander is uniquely adapted to live in Barton Springs’ warm, consistently flowing water. But if Austin can’t curb the urban expansion that degrades the water quality of the springs, this tiny creature will swim with us no more.
Barton Springs is part of Texas’ Edwards Aquifer region, which provides habitat for more than 50 species of animals and plants living nowhere else in the world — including the Barton Springs salamander. Since the springs provide much of Austin’s municipal water supply, their cleanliness is a critical issue for both local salamanders and Austin’s human population. But increasing development in the area has severely contaminated the aquifer, and salamanders bear the brunt of the damage. Sediment runoff from construction clogs their gills, smothers their eggs, reduces the availability of spawning sites, and lessens water circulation and oxygen.
Also of concern are pesticides, six of which have been known to contaminate Barton Springs — and which are likely causes of strange deformities and deaths recently seen in Barton Springs salamanders. In 2002, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requested that the Environmental Protection Agency engage in consultations regarding pesticide impacts on the salamander — but the agency failed to do so. The Center, along with Austin environmental group Save Our Springs Alliance, sued in 2004, and in 2005, the EPA agreed to perform consultations regarding pesticide impacts for atrazine and five additional pesticides. The Center continues to monitor and oppose harmful chemical pesticide use through our Pesticides Reduction Campaign.
|Get the latest on our work for biodiversity and learn how to help in our free weekly e-newsletter.|
Contact: Jeff Miller | <urn:uuid:e6e80f42-db34-4ddb-9f5d-ad61fbe7acdd> | {
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Science, in its ceaseless effort to ruin just about all the good things in the world, is currently doing its level best to ensure that you won't be able to eat any of the world's most delicious treats without feeling like you're destroying the future. Two independent studies involving epigenetics have found that diet, whether healthy or unhealthy, might tweek the nature of your DNA, which change we might then be able to pass onto all those kids and grandkids that people tend to have eventually.
Epigenetics, for anyone who's just too embarrassed to admit they don't know, refers to changes in gene expression from outside forces. An epigenetic change is not a mutation because the change doesn't lie in the DNA itself — it occurs in the DNA's surroundings, all those enzymes and chemicals that determine how DNA unwinds in different sections in order to make proteins or new cells. A study from Torsten Plosch at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands (which built off of an earlier Duke University study) found that there were many ways in which nutrition alters the epigenome in many animals, including humans. There are historical examples of the effects of one generation's dietary habits on a subsequent generation — children born to mothers during the Dutch famine towards the end of WWII, for example, were susceptible to glucose intolerance and cardiovascular disease.
What's missing, say scientists like Joseph C. Jimenez-Chillarón of the Paediatric Hospital Sant Joan de Deu, in Spain, is the mechanism for how such dietary information is remembered from generation to generation. Another study led by Ram B. Singh of the TsimTsoum Institute in Krakow, Poland suggests that diet can affect the broth of chromatin that DNA floats around in, and that nutrients introduced into the chromatin can even cause mutations. The results have so far been inconclusive, though scientists are pretty sure that cells in a state of early development are more susceptible to epigenetic changes than adult cells, which is why the most notable changes are seen in fetuses and infants.
Not only are you what you eat, but pretty much everyone who is ever going to sprout from your loins might become what you're eating, too.
Your diet affects your grandchildren's DNA, studies say [LiveScience via CBS News] | <urn:uuid:3043d82e-87e6-431e-85cb-c217352adb10> | {
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Model Behavior: Creating Virtual Worlds to Solve Real World Problems
The fight against HIV is now being waged in virtual worlds that exist only inside a computer. Making use of statistics and other data, these simulations recreate real world conditions to help us better understand drug resistance, predict the outcome of prevention and treatment efforts, and determine the best use of resources. They can't predict the future, but computer models are helping us to answer the question, What if?
Mixing a Better Cocktail
For a person on HIV medication, strictly following their drug regimen is critical to treatment success. Research has shown that the relationship between adherence and the resistance the virus can develop is different for each medication in a patient's regimen. A new computer model developed by Harvard grad students in collaboration with a similar team at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine is the first to predict drug resistance that takes adherence into account.
"The mathematical model we built looks at the growth rate of the virus in a person who's being treated," said Daniel Scholes Rosenbloom, one of the students who developed the model. "To know whether viral load will grow or decay, you need to know both how strong each drug in the regimen is and how often the patient is taking or skipping their pills."
The Harvard simulation builds on years of accumulated data and mathematical models explaining how viral load changes over time and at different phases of infection. But Rosenbloom and his colleagues also made use of another research team's work. At the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Robert F. Siliciano, M.D., Ph.D., worked with graduate student Alireza Rabi to study how HIV reacts to varying doses of medications.
Using data from Johns Hopkins, the Harvard team created a simulation that predicts whether the virus was growing or if different strains were emerging, based upon a patient's adherence level. If drug levels are very low, the virus is able to grow even without being resistant to medication, and so drug resistance does not emerge. If drug levels are very high (as they are in a patient taking 100% of their pills), then even a drug-resistant virus may not be able to grow. However, there is a "danger zone" of intermediate drug levels where drug resistance emerges. The new model computes the size of this danger zone, which is different for each drug. (Rosenbloom noted that boosted protease inhibitors tend to have a very small danger zone.)
The Harvard students fed the data and their equations that simulated more than 1 million patients -- about 50,000 for each of 23 HIV medications -- into the school's computer cluster. These virtual patients varied in adherence and viral load over the course of 48 simulated weeks. "We tried to simulate a diverse cohort [that] might participate in a real-world clinical trial," said Rosenbloom. It took the computers up to two days each time the simulation was run.
Rosenbloom notes that the model focuses on monotherapy and that only some simple drug combinations were simulated. However, it proves that resistance can be predicted. While the current model only examines concentrations of drug in blood plasma, Rosenbloom says future models will look at drug concentrations in other parts of the body, as well as simulating combination therapies. The hope is that their computer model will lead to better, cheaper, and more effective HIV medications.
Led by Martin A. Nowak, Ph.D., professor of mathematics and biology and the director of Harvard University's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, the Harvard model is discussed in a paper appearing in the September 2, 2012 issue of Nature Medicine.
Sim City, New York
These sims, however, act like real people -- they have sex, sometimes engage in risky behaviors, and sometimes contract or transmit HIV.
Public health officials and policymakers need to identify the best strategies for combating the spread of HIV, especially in a world of limited resources. However, determining the effectiveness of these strategies, either separately or in combination with others, can take years. Brandon Marshall, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown University, presented a computer model at the AIDS 2012 conference last summer that accurately recreates the spread of HIV in New York and can make predictions into the year 2040 based on a given scenario.
New York City data about drug use, sexual orientation, access to treatment, treatment effectiveness, probabilities regarding risk behaviors, and information about other behavioral, social, and medical factors were used to create the model. The simulation was run and constantly adjusted until it could match actual infection rates that were known to have occurred in New York between 1992 and 2002 among injection drug users.
"With this model you can really look at the micro-connections between people," Marshall said in a Brown press release about his work. "It reflects what's seen in the real world."
Marshall's model of New York is a virtual reality of 150,000 "agents" -- simulated individuals derived from statistical data. These sims, however, act like real people -- they have sex, sometimes engage in risky behaviors, and sometimes contract or transmit HIV.
Six scenarios, each featuring a different HIV prevention policy, was tested by the model: expanding needle exchange programs, expanding substance abuse treatment programs, expanding HIV testing, starting people on HIV treatment earlier, a combination of these strategies, and not changing the current policies.
Simulating one year's time with the six scenarios and the 150,000 agents took Brown University's massive computer array 72 hours to run. To ensure accurate results, each scenario was run several times, providing predictions through 2040.
The single most effective strategy was to start HIV treatment earlier, which lowered the rate of new infections by 45%. Increasing the number of people who get tested for HIV by 50% would reduce new infections among injection drug users only by about 12% through 2040, according to the model. Combining all four strategies would cut infections by 62%.
Marshall was disappointed that the strategies, as shown by the model, would not lead to a greater drop in the infection rate.
Marshall plans to expand work on his model. "What we are moving towards now is actually implementing costing data into the model so we can examine the cost-effectiveness of various scenarios," Marshall told Rhode Island Public Radio. "That's the next step that I think will be of most interest to policy makers."
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Lifespan/Tufts/Brown Center for AIDS Research are providing financial support for the model's continued development.
Any HIV Viral Load Reduction Can Improve CD4 Count for Individuals With Multi-Class Resistance, Study Finds
This article was provided by Positively Aware. It is a part of the publication Positively Aware. Visit Positively Aware's website to find out more about the publication.
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adding your comment, please read TheBody.com's Comment Policy.) | <urn:uuid:4cbf2626-ec48-4727-9003-2499828788bc> | {
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Intussusception in Children
Intussusception is a condition where one segment of the intestine slides into the adjacent segment causing obstruction, swelling and inflammation. Intussusception can occur in both adults and children, but it is more common in children (especially below the age of 3 years).
The exact cause for intussusception is not known. However, in some cases, it is thought to happen due to viral infections, tumor or polyp in the intestine. Intestinal developmental defects present at birth and history of intussusception in the past increase the chances of developing intussusception.
Boys are more commonly affected in comparison to girls. Children above 5 months of age and below one year are commonly affected. However, it can affect older children and even adults.
The most common site for intussusception is the area where small intestine meets the large intestine (ileo-colic region).
With intussusception, blood supply to the affected part of the intestine gets reduced or disrupted. This leads to swelling in that area and intestinal obstruction. If the blood supply to the affected part is considerably low, there is a chance of tissue death, bleeding and rupture of the intestine. This in turn can cause infection in the abdominal cavity and lead to sepsis and shock.
Intussusception is a medical emergency and requires immediate medical assistance to prevent major complications like gangrene (death of intestinal tissue) of the intestine, peritonitis, sepsis and shock. Usually, if treatment given within 24 hours of onset of intussusception, chances of developing complications are low.
Signs and Symptoms of Intussusception in a Child
Symptoms of Intussusception in a Child:
• Sudden severe colicky abdominal pain alternating with periods of no pain. As the condition progresses, further pain only becomes stronger and intense. The baby pulls the knees to the chest during episodes of pain
• Bilious vomiting
• Blood and mucus in the stools; the stools are described as currant jelly stools
Signs of Intussusception in a Child:
• Abdominal swelling
• Swelling in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen
Late Complications related to Intussusception in a Child:
• Death of intestinal tissue
• Severe bleeding in the abdomen | <urn:uuid:0a1f18fd-8956-4e0e-98f5-b7b6143b1af0> | {
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In excel if you want to find number between two numbers you can do it by simply using if else condition.
find number between two numbers
Suppose you have a series of number in cell A1 to A10 and you want to find if the number is between 1 and 10. Simply using formula =IF(AND(A1>=1,A1<=10),1,0)
will give you solution. We have used it to get 0 for false and 1 for true. You can use true/false or yes/no. I have used 0 and 1 as I can use it for condition formatting respective cell more easily. For example I can make 0 cells red and 1 cells green. It depends what you want excel to do after it finds number between two other number
find time between two times
You can find in excel if a time is between two times with help of this if formula. But note you will have to convert your times between which you want to find times to number or alternately you can use reference for those times. Now the first formula which can be used is below in which we are trying to find times between 4:00 AM and 10:00 AM. =IF(AND(F3>=0.1667,F3<=0.4167),1,0) As you can see above we have changes time to number this you can simply find typing time in a cell and change format to decimal number. In Second formula you can see we have used reference cell to instead of times directly, here you don’t require to change to decimal numbers. =IF(AND(F2>=$I$7,F2<=$I$8),1,0) These formulas we have tested on Excel 2007 and 2010. | <urn:uuid:6b3123e9-7dd3-4914-872e-2d5aa8e88d9a> | {
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Typical Syllabus for Math 321: Numerical Analysis
at Lycoming College
Note: This is a typical syllabus for this course. Each semester in which Numerical Analysis is taught, a semester-specific syllabus will be distributed, which will spell out --in addition to the topics-- other administrative details, such as information about grading, homework, tests, labs, etc.
As early as in the time of Archimedes, Numerical Analysis arose as the study of obtaining numerical approximations. In recent times, the emphasis in numerical analysis has been to use computers to such an extent that its definition has narrowed to specify the computer as the exclusive tool. The course, as taught recently at Lycoming, treads a middle path: to illustrate the use of computer programming and software to apply the principles of numerical analysis to classic problems of solving equations and approximating functions, as well as the use of paper-and-pencil (and a four-function calculator) to find approximations that are readily available with more sophisticated scientific or graphing calculators.
The following topics form the traditional core of the course
If time allows, elliptic partial differential equations are presented at an elementary level. Additional topics may be the Fast Fourier Transform and its uses.
Extensive use is made of Microsoft Excel, Java, and C++. | <urn:uuid:4c52641f-de01-4061-9bb0-5bea1bfca656> | {
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Making it Stick
Researchers find that even after a heart attack, healthy habits are hard to keep.
While a New Year's resolution to start hitting the gym often fades by February, a heart attack can be a sobering wake-up call that it's time to get serious about getting healthy. But research shows that even survivors of cardiac events have a hard time sticking with exercise programs after their recovery.
Researchers from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University checked up on 248 individuals one year after completing a 12-week rehabilitation following a cardiac event-a heart attack, bypass surgery or angioplasty-and found that only 37 percent exercised three times a week to keep their hearts healthy.
"The study points out that interventions are needed to keep people exercising," says Mary Dolansky, assistant professor of nursing and the lead investigator of the study.
The study identified differences based on gender and age. Women were less inclined to continue healthy changes than men, while young men sustained healthy exercise patterns better than all other groups.
"The downward trend over time concerns us-especially since current guidelines suggest exercising five times a week," Dolansky says. "We need to understand why they stop exercising."
Women notoriously tend to put taking care of their families ahead of their own health needs, says Dolansky, which could explain the gender divide.
The research follows up on an assessment of individuals as they left a 12-week rehabilitation program to help cardiac patients make lifestyle changes in the area of exercise—a major factor in improving heart health.
Research team member Shirley Moore, the nursing school's associate dean for research, led the original study.
Both studies are projects of the SMART (Self-Managed Advancement Through Research Translation) Center, a National Institute of Nursing Research/National Institute of Health-funded Center of Excellence to build the science of self-management. This NIH-funded study is part of a long-term look at how people manage their chronic illness.
Understanding the barriers that keep patients from exercising is key to determining what new interventions they need to maintain healthy habits for life, Dolansky says. | <urn:uuid:47cbcf39-678e-4347-95ea-6202d657747a> | {
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The Death of the Virgin
The Death of the Virgin is a woodcut created by Albrecht Dürer in 1510. It is part of a series called "Life of the Virgin". It depicts Mary in her death bed surrounded by the twelve disciples. A woodcut is created by carving an image on a wooden block and rolling ink over that surface and then printing it on paper. | <urn:uuid:83c6c357-58ba-46a1-a4a6-91b335f4e98b> | {
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COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THEORY
Cognitive-behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a widely used term that describes a number of approaches focussing on attitudinal and behavioural change. Included are Albert Ellis’s Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy; Donald Meichenbaum’s Stress Inoculation Training; Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy, among others. While each of these approaches differs with respect to the techniques used to ensure change, all share some important elements.
The Elements of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Firstly, there is an emphasis on cognitions as the primary focus of change. Terms used to refer to the cognitions include thoughts, internal dialogue, self-talk, schemata and cognitive maps. The major premise of CBT is what and how an individual thinks, how an individual views the world and people how s/he reasons and attempts to solve problems. The relationship between attitudes and the resulting emotional and behavioural reactions was first presented by Albert Ellis (1962) using the ABC Model where:
A = Activating Event, i.e., the situation;
B = Belief, i.e., how the situation is perceived and evaluated;
C = Consequences, i.e., how the individual reacts.
Secondly, Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy is based on three primary principles:
You behave and feel the way you think: Cognitive approaches assume that negative emotions (e.g. anger, depression, anxiety, etc.) and negative behaviours (e.g. criminal and other antisocial behaviours) result more from negative or antisocial thoughts than from external events.
Most negative or pro-criminal feelings and behaviours come from distorted or antisocial thinking: This principle assumes that antisocial thinking is nearly always illogical, harmful and distorted even though the individual rigidly adheres to it.
You can change the way you feel and behave by altering what you think: Cognitive approaches assume that it is necessary to alter the content of thought in order to alter the way you feel and behave.
Thirdly, a systematic analysis of the cognitions that contribute to inappropriate or painful emotional and behavioural reactions is required to change those cognitions and the consequent emotion and behaviour. Though the methods vary according to the approach used, individuals are taught to identify, analyze and then alter those cognitions that lead to problematic emotions and behaviours. | <urn:uuid:9a9280ca-c487-4faa-be31-70cfb223ec2e> | {
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Wheel of Invention
- Main article: Wheel of Invention
After the Wheel of Invention is completed, the user enters the Time Machine. All the information learned at the Wheel is on the readouts near the viewing window. Botley pulls the lever and travels back in time with the user to find one of the missing robots about to mess up history. The player has to hit the Recall button -- the button with the hand icon found near the bottom right corner of the viewing window. The robot is then recalled, history is back on track, and Botley and the user travel back to the future.
The Robot Roost is the given name for the place where each of the rescued robots are stored. After a robot has been rescued, the user begins a new mission by selecting another question from the TransQuizzer. The game continues in this manner until all twenty-five robots are returned to the present, at which point the game is completed. After the game is completed, the Wheel of Invention and the Time Machine cannot be used.
Dialogue of Botley
Digital manual description
Enter Time Machine Mission Control through the passageway on the third floor of the Mountain Mansion. On the left side of Mission Control is the Wheel of Invention. It's here where you'll learn where and when you have to go back in history to retrieve Polly's robot - before it's too late. Just click on the Wheel to get started. | <urn:uuid:4213898d-bc51-47ce-89df-bfb14725b1e6> | {
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all tai chi enthusiasts welcome
Third, its shape is unique, like a cross between a Katana and western cavalry saber with a ring at the end. What is that ring for? I thought, perhaps, one could attach a lanyard to the ring to avoid being disarmed.
This saber appears to be one of the several Imperial sabers, commissioned by Emperor Qianlong and by other high-ranking officials, and made by the Imperial Workshops, which have the ridged cross-section and 2 fullers, one short and one long, on both sides of the blade. They were most likely modelled after one specific type of Japanese sword blade design known as "naginata naoshi katana", which in turn was modelled after the Japanese naginata polearm.
The YANMAODAO (Goosequill saber) has a blade which is essentially straight up until the beginning of the backedge, at which point the cutting edge begins a gentle curve to a slightly upswept tip. Of all forms of peidao, it is stylistically the most archaic because its shape is so influenced by the zhibeidao of earlier times. The blade is straight until the curve begins around the centre of percussion. The center of percussion is the point on the blade with the least vibration on hard contact, the spot on the blade that transmits the most power to the target in a hard chop. This type of sword seems to have lost its popularity by the end of the 18th century.
The yanmaodao was designed to combine the best features of both the curved saber and straight sword. The arc of the cutting edge towards the point, as well as the thickness of the blade's back, enabled a swordsman to deliver more penetrating cuts than he could with the straight, double-edged jian. Yet the lack of curve for most of its length, plus the double-edged tip afforded by the back-edge, enabled him to execute both long thrusts and short "pointing" jabs that he would not be able to perform effectively with a more curved blade.
Surviving specimens and portrayals in art indicate that the yanmaodao was quite widely used in China from the Ming through the first half of the Qing. It appears to have lost popularity by the 19th cent., and is now little-known among students of martial arts. Perhaps the reason for its decline was that Chinese sword schools developed preferences for more specialized weapons, whose strong points fulfilled the needs of their particular fighting systems. In the world of swords, the design requirements for optimal cutting and thrusting efficiency are on opposite poles. A blade design that attempts to combine the attributes of sword and saber will achieve a "mid-range" versatility at the expense of the strong points at either end of the spectrum.
The willow-leaf saber or LIUYEDAO also made its debut during the Ming. It is characterized by a narrow but fairly stiff blade, tapering towards the point, and with a gentle curve which begins ahead of the forte. Generally, the blades are grooved and are provided with a backedge. The somewhat greater curve of the liuyedao makes it a better cutting weapon than the yanmaodao although it changes the balance sufficiently to make it less accurate for the thrust. It is characterized by the blade having a gentle curve throughout its length. The steepness of the curve increases as it moves towards the tip.
Liuyedao were perhaps the most widely-used sabers in Chinese history. Beginning in the Ming Dynasty, they became the sidearm of choice for military men in all branches of the service, and retained this status until the fall of the Qing in 1911. It is not difficult to understand this weapon's enduring appeal. The blade is well-suited for powerful, slashing cuts delivered either on foot or from the saddle. Its moderate arc makes it a usable thrusting implement as well.
Isaac888 wrote:p/s... any intention of joining the association?
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The flag of Extremadura, according to Article 4-1 of the Statute of Autonomy, consists of three horizontal stripes of green, white, and black.
The flag first appeared in the middle of the 1970s, after the death of Francisco Franco, in an era when the rights of the regional communities were being reclaimed and re-established across Spain.
Despite the flag’s relatively recent origins, various interpretations exist regarding why green, white, and black were chosen and what they signify; even the inventor or creator of the flag is unknown. What is known is that by the 1980s the flag had become so popular amongst Extremadurans as the principal symbol of regional identity that those who presented the Statute of Autonomy in 1983 did not hesitate in including an article concerning this flag in this Statute.
In official government publications, the colors of the flag are said to honor aspects of the region’s history during the Middle Ages:
Green: color of the emblem of the Order of Alcántara.
White: representing the Kingdom of León, which repopulated the region during the Reconquista.
Black: representing the Aftasid kings of the Taifa of Badajoz.
However, in 2008, in the regional press, a professor of history named Antonio Galache Cortés posited his own theory on the meaning of the flag’s colors. Galache Cortés believed that the color green referred to the Muslim era of Spain, in which Extremadura enjoyed its only period of complete independence as an Aftasid taifa. The color white referred to the Kingdom of León and the integration of the region into what would become Spain, while black was the color of the clothing worn by the Lusitanians, according to Strabo.
Die meisten Serienflaggen sind üblicherweise 150x90cm / 5x3 'oder 90x60cm / 3x2', was oft der Fall ist variieren vom offiziellen Größenverhältnis. Wir bieten jetzt eine speziell angefertigte offizielle Größenoption für unsere vielen unserer Flaggen an. | <urn:uuid:8dca533c-61f3-4b20-a672-46918969ecf7> | {
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New submitter ph4cr writes with news that a new particle has been discovered at CERN that confirms theoretical predictions. A pre-print of the academic paper is available at the arXiv (PDF). From the article: "Physicists from the University of Zurich have discovered a previously unknown particle composed of three quarks in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator. A new baryon could thus be detected for the first time at the LHC. The baryon known as Xi_b^* confirms fundamental assumptions of physics regarding the binding of quarks. ... In the course of proton collisions in the LHC at CERN, physicists Claude Amsler, Vincenzo Chiochia and Ernest Aguiló from the University of Zurich's Physics Institute managed to detect a baryon with one light and two heavy quarks. The particle Xi_b^* comprises one 'up,' one 'strange' and one 'bottom' quark (usb), is electrically neutral and has a spin of 3/2 (1.5). Its mass is comparable to that of a lithium atom. The new discovery means that two of the three baryons predicted in the usb composition by theory have now been observed." | <urn:uuid:c4d4dc1e-15c4-43c4-abda-51357c54c344> | {
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Resources Through Augmented Reality
Even today there are limitations to teaching concepts that require a specific level of manipulation or visualization of objects (the later of which are not always available). This is often because of the abstract, spatial or scientific nature of the object in question. Augmented reality and mobile devices are tools that are available today, which enable us to overcome these deficiencies. What’s more, they provide us with the ability to interact with virtual objects in a three dimensional space. For these technologies to form an active part of the educational environment, it is necessary to provide authorship tools that facilitate the creation of autonomous augmented resources, and explain the concepts that are presented to the student. It will also help with uploading- in a simple and transparent manner- virtual resources that can be re-utilized.This paper presents an augmented reality learning environment which fulfils these objectives.
augmented reality, mobile learning, authoring tools, contextualization, multiple choice questions | <urn:uuid:4bfe4f37-e39a-4e24-beaa-881f4ce6642d> | {
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The Master of Science in History is a thirty-six semester credit hour degree thatallows students the opportunity to focus on course work in history. A student with this degree must have a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution with a minimum of 2.5 GPA on the last 60 hours of undergraduate courses. Individuals who graduate with this degree are eligible to teach dual credit courses in high school (if they are certified to teach in public school) or they may qualify to teach at a community college. The Master of Science in History also provides a solid foundation for those who wish to pursue a Ph. D. in History. Finally, the Master of Science in History is a degree that satisfies students who simply enjoy studying history and want to read and write about history.
Degree Requirements: 36 Semester Credit Hours (SCH) | <urn:uuid:07c67a11-9f56-42d1-ae76-44b295868cf0> | {
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Crocodile-shaped iron cork press, Portugal, 1801-1900
Until the 1930s, corks were used to seal bottles of medical preparations so they could be taken home by the customer. Corks needed to be pressed and moulded in order to fit the bottle top. This crocodile-shaped cork presser has four different sized holes for pressing corks and is worked by lifting the tail up and down. Each foot of the crocodile has a hole for a screw so it can be attached to a bench. The cork press would have been made by a manufacturing chemist or pharmacist.
Related Themes and Topics
There are 1077 related objects. View all related objects
Glossary: Practising medicine
Glossary: cork press
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Alltycrib was mainly a lead mine, although some copper was also produced. Although many of the 19th century mining companies had the word “silver” in their name, it’s unlikely that any silver was actually produced. The ore from this mine had a very low silver content but was useful as a flux to smelt the silver rich ores of Darren and Cwmsymlog.
The very first mining activity probably coincides with early to middle Bronze Age, the attraction being the copper deposits which occurred over to the west. There are also very strong indications of Roman mining, but large scale mining only started stared in 1617 when Sir Hugh Myddleton took over the leases for the Society of Mines Royal. Later the mines were worked by Thomas Bushell whose name was given to the a level commenced in 1637 and driven for a distance of 200 fathoms. This was to be the main working level of the mine for the next 200 years.
After Bushell left, little was done until the frenzy of the early 19th century when the Flintshire Smelting Company drove a deep adit from the centre of Talybont village. This was at a place known as “Y Wern” which is behind the 2 pubs.
This level was intended to undercut the old miners bottoms, however it not only failed to do this, but it was found that almost everything had already been taken. Regardless of this a succession of companies took over the leases; unfortunately these included some pretty sharp characters. Notable is the swindler Joseph Fell who in consort with his lifetime business associate Richard Barrabee Fastnedge and the bent mine captain Thomas Glanville managed to con investors with what must be some of the most outrageous assertions ever made about the prospects of a mine.
The last company to work the mine was the Talybont Lead Mines Ltd formed in 1910 from a partnership of the kindly David Williams of Clettwr Hall and a mining engineer, ex shale miner named Archibald Simpson. The Williams family was a branch of the Williams family of Scorrier, as in Williams Perran Foundry.
The Talybont Company was responsible for the driving of a wide, straight crosscut level known as Pryces Level named after the mineral lords, the Pryces of Gogerddan. The level is somewhat unique as it was driven using Kelldrills designed by Moses Kellow of Croesor, the only other metal mines to use these drills being May Mining Company at Cwmystwyth and Rio Tinto. Operating by water at extreme pressure, they never caught on due to their size and difficulty to control.
The mine can be geographically divided 2 distinct areas.
The lower site of the deep adit and dressing floors at the Wern, and the upper workings on the Alltycrib Hill. However, very little remains at either.
The main assessable workings on the hill are Myddletons Level, a fine ‘coffin’ type level driven by Sir Hughes people, Wilkinsons Level, an early level enlarged and re-named in the 19th Century, and the air shaft. The latter gives the only access to the deep mine.
The lower site at the Wern was totally obliterated when the land was sold off and levelled in the 1930s, and now forms a private garden. The deep adit portal was buried during site clearance, however pipes were laid in order to ensure continuity of drainage. Water exits from the original drainage culvert at the river, however no access to the mine is possible from the Wern.
There are many interesting underground features to be seen today, the remains of an underground horse whim, a kibble, and the remains of the pumping angle bob at the engine winze. A side level has the remains of a very early wooden kibble and a powder barrel that could well date back to the 18th century or earlier. | <urn:uuid:c53b1b01-561a-4e66-b7a0-5bbff0372370> | {
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Information for Travellers
Types of Travel
About Lyme disease
Lyme disease is caused by a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. It’s most common in the USA but is becoming more prevalent in northern Europe as the climate warms. The illness is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected blacklegged tick, also known as a deer tick, tiny insects that it’s actually difficult to see, about the size of a poppy seed. The symptoms vary and tend to arrive in stages.
In most cases a tick has to remain on your skin for three to four days to transmit the disease. If you find one attached to you and it’s swollen up, it might well have been there long enough to pass the disease to you. If it’s been on your skin for less time than that, it’s unlikely you’ll be infected.
How to minimise the Lyme disease risk
How to minimise the chances of catching Lyme disease?
- If you’re spending time in the woods, wear long trousers and long sleeves
- If you work outdoors, do the same
- Remove ticks from your skin quickly and properly
Early symptoms of Lyme disease
- After a few days, a small red lump on the skin. This is normal and usually disappears in a few days. It doesn’t mean you’ve caught Lyme disease, but if you also get an expanding red area 3-30 days after being bitten, sometimes with a clear centre, it’s a sign
- A rash which can spread to 30 cm across, not itchy or painful , a hallmark of the disease
- Flu-like symptoms
- If you don’t get treatment, you might experience more rashes elsewhere on your body
- Severe, sometime shifting pain and swelling in your joints, especially the knees
- As long as years after you’ve been infected, neurological problems like meningitis and temporary facial paralysis, weak or numb limbs and difficulties moving your muscles
- Weeks after infection, a temporary irregular heartbeat
- Inflamed eyes and liver
- Severe tiredness
What happens if you don’t get treatment?
- Chronic inflammation of the knee and other joints
- Facial palsy
- Memory problems
- Irregular heart rhythm
When should you see your GP?
- If you’ve had a tick bite and are experiencing typical Lyme symptoms
- If you live in an area where the ticks are common and are showing signs and symptoms
- If you’ve had symptoms but they’ve disappeared – the absence of symptoms doesn’t mean you’re OK, it just means the disease could have gone ‘underground’ only to come back later
Treatment for Lyme disease
The earlier you get antibiotic treatment, the better it will work. That’s usually all you need to get rid of the illness. Left untreated it can spread around your body and stick around for years, causing all sorts of health issues including arthritis and issues with your nervous system. | <urn:uuid:7ff84ce9-d908-453f-9040-17bb8fc1824b> | {
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Stachys floridana Shuttlw. ex Benth.
Florida hedgenettle, Florida betony
Lamiaceae (Mint Family)
USDA Symbol: stfl4
Florida Betony is a member of the mint family (family Lamiaceae) which includes aromatic herbs or shrubs, rarely trees or vines, usually with stems square in cross-section, 4-sided, and flowers in long clusters, heads, or interrupted whorls on the stem. There are about 180 genera and 3,500 species nearly worldwide The Mediterranean region, the chief area of diversity, has produced many spices and flavorings; various mints, oregano, marjoram, thyme, sage, and basil. Catnip and lavender are in the family.
From the Image Gallery
Bloom InformationBloom Color: White , Pink
Bloom Time: Mar , Apr , May , Jun
National Wetland Indicator Status
BibliographyBibref 293 - Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas (1979) Correll, D. S. & M. C. Johnston
Search More Titles in Bibliography
Additional resourcesUSDA: Find Stachys floridana in USDA Plants
FNA: Find Stachys floridana in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Stachys floridana
MetadataRecord Modified: 2015-03-19
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The dismissal by President Harding of twenty-eight executive officials from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has not only created considerable adverse criticism but also has served to bring up once more the whole Civil Service question. The President's action was decidedly contrary to the law enacted years ago to and the spoils system, in that by an executive order, the President discharged employees coming under the provisions of the law without the written charges required for such action. In fact he said there were no charges nor even reflections intended against them and is afterwards transpired that one of the men had been commended in writing to the Secretary of the Treasury two hours before his discharge arrived.
Such an action can hardly be counted as befitting any Administration; but the statement of Assistant Postmaster Bartlett in connection, with it is far more important, questioning as it does the efficacy of the Civil Service system for higher offices. According to General Bartlett, every Administration needs higher officials which it can trust with its plans for accomplishing great reforms, and employees who act as tale-bearers for the minority are a severe handicap and menace to the handling of the Government. In other words, the Civil Service is only for the lower employees and cannot be applied to the positions of authority.
The purpose of the Civil Service Law, however, is not so much to keep politics out of the Government as to see to it that the efficient workers are retained no matter what changes of administration take place. An excellent example of Civil Service at its best exists in England where government positions are highly honorable offices and men are trained to the work which is recognized as a regular path to the peerage. Such a system is apparently perfectly workable there and is subject to none of the political shifts which occur. Granting that unfinished plans often look poorly in print, a return to the spoils system to avoid tale-bearing seems like cutting off the nose to spite the face. | <urn:uuid:b80fb413-726d-4e66-810c-5be587f8d17a> | {
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The days are long for the women of Yeumbeul, a village on the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal. But after hours of selling fruit in the market, house chores and caretaking for their families, they flock eagerly to the local community center for evening literacy classes. Among them is twenty-year old Kewe Ndiayea, who dreams of becoming a fashion designer, but was forced to leave the school at age eleven when her family could no longer afford the $2 monthly tuition. Today, literacy classes are helping her make this dream a reality, and now Kewe is determined to become the next Diouma Dieng Diakhate, the Senegalese couturier cum political activist.
The Senegal courses are part of the UNESCO Global Partnership for Girls' and Women's Education, a groundbreaking initiative launched in May 2011 that leverages public-private partnerships to address gender disparities in literacy and secondary education. According to UNESCO, the UN agency responsible for education, nearly 775 million people worldwide lack basic literacy skills and two-thirds of them are women. Girls also make up a disproportionate number of out-of-school children, particularly at the secondary level.
The benefits of teaching women to read and write are well documented. Literate women and their children enjoy better health and experience less poverty. They are more likely to participate actively in civic and political processes and make informed decisions about family finances. Sending girls and women to school also drives economic growth, not only at the local and national levels but the global level as well: a World Literacy Foundation report released in April 2012 estimated that illiteracy costs the global economy more than $1.19 trillion per year.
During International Literacy Day on September 8, we were reminded of how much work still needs to be done to accomplish the Millennium Development Goal of eliminating gender disparities in education by 2015. It's a difficult challenge that comes at a difficult time, but new education initiatives based on public-private partnerships offer a promising solution. Described as "smart aid," these initiatives draw on private companies, foundations, schools and even individual educators to offer made-to-measure programs that respond to the needs of local populations and benefit all those involved.
UNESCO's Global Partnership for Girls' and Women's Education is leveraging public-private partnerships in five African countries. The Packard Foundation supports the Partnership in Ethiopia and Tanzania. The Varkey GEMS Foundation is the primary funder in Kenya and Lesotho. And Procter & Gamble is helping finance programs in seven regions of Senegal.
Just a year after the launch, the Procter & Gamble-supported Senegal initiatives are proving highly successful. Working under the umbrella of Senegal's national literacy strategy, UNESCO has established more than 160 physical classrooms, serving more than 3,000 illiterate learners. The women and girls receive literacy instruction directly linked to income-generating activities, motivating them to put their new skills to good use.
In Tanzania, the Packard Foundation Partnership is focused on retention in secondary schools by reversing drop-outs. Young women leave school for a variety of reasons ranging from pregnancy to family issues to the need to work full-time. Through local NGOs, the Partnership is training mentors to improve retention and teach leadership and empowerment skills.
Why is private sector support so crucial to the success of the Global Partnership? First, Corporate engagement helps bring new ideas, technology and visibility to education assistance. Public-private partnerships broaden the network of resources, enabling organizations such as UNESCO to find and bring together the best participants to tackle education challenges. In Tanzania, for example, UNESCO has been able to leverage Packard's relationship with local NGOs specializing in girls' education and empowerment.
Second, private sector support provides financial support and sustainability in an era when government budgets are shrinking and development dollars are on the wane. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently found that major aid to developing countries dropped by almost 3 percent in 2011, a trend that is likely to continue in coming years.
Thanks to programs like these, companies can boost visibility, deepen the impact of corporate philanthropy, and even improve their bottom lines. Funding for the Senegal program is being provided through revenue from Always sanitary products sold in France. Specially marketed with the UNESCO logo, the products generated significant sales -- a win for both Procter & Gamble and the Partnership. The Always campaign is being expanded to markets in Scandinavia and the Balkans, providing additional funding for literacy programs.
Girls and women throughout the world have a right to access education, not just in their primary years but through the secondary level and beyond. The smart aid model can help make that right a reality, perhaps even in time to meet our 2015 target. | <urn:uuid:5701000b-bd3f-4043-bf05-991b18760e8d> | {
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China specialists make a parlor game of imagining what Mao Zedong would make of the People’s Republic of China today, with its capitalist-friendly Communists and young people more familiar with the theme song from Titanic than The East is Red.
In China’s Brave New World, for example, I ruminate on a revivified Mao’s likely response to my favorite Nanjing bookstore, where the philosophy section has nary a copy of his Little Red Book, but does contain Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy and studies of abstruse French theory, like the optimistically titled Understanding Foucault. Some of my colleagues have taken this motif a step further, bringing into the mix the Chairman’s arch-rival, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who died in exile on a Nationalist Party-run Taiwan that was both capitalist and authoritarian. In Modern China: A Very Short Introduction, for instance, Oxford historian Rana Mitter writes: “One can imagine Chiang Kaishek’s ghost wandering around China today nodding in approval, while Mao’s ghost follows behind him, moaning at the destruction of his vision.”
If the Olympics mark a turning point in the history of the PRC, isn’t it time to play this game with the games? What would Chairman Mao and Generalissimo Chiang make of the Beijing that has played host to athletes, journalists, fans and political leaders? How would the opening ceremonies have struck them? What about the media coverage and sporting events that followed?
Let’s start with the ghosts of two competitors arriving in a pre-games Beijing. Much about the look of the city would shock them, since neither had governed a metropolis with skyscrapers and mega-malls. News that the metropolis was gearing up to host the Olympics would surely be a welcome surprise. Both Mao and Chiang had long lamented the fact that China of the early 1900s was derided as the “sick man of Asia,” a play on earlier Western references to the Ottoman Empire in Europe–each a once-proud place that now could be bullied. Both leaders stressed the importance of exercise, insisting that China’s lack of a strong tradition of vigorous sports had contributed to it being laid low by Western and then Japanese imperialism. The dream of China hosting the games dates back to the early 1900s, so each leader would be pleased this longtime wish had been granted. | <urn:uuid:c6c1ccf0-c113-4cc5-830c-afcc925a97a4> | {
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The City Museum at Fembo's House (Stadtmuseum im Fembo-Haus) now presents costly copies of the crown, scepter and orb of the Holy Roman Empire in an innovative new permanent exhibit entitled "Crown - Power - History". In addition to the reproductions of the imperial insignia, the exhibit displays vivid pictures and fascinating original objects.
Speaking on a mulitmedia-guide, prominent visitors and newcomers to Nuremberg from by-gone-eras tell their exciting tales of the history of the city in nine languages. They bring to life almost 800 years of Nuremberg - from imperial times to reconstruction after World War II. Guests who are in ahurry can get an impressive and meaningful picture of Nuremberg's eventful past in only 30 minutes. Those who have more time can dig deeper and listen to further interesting background information about the objects on display.
Since the reign of the Emperor Charles IV, the ties between the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg and the Holy Roman Empire were even tighter than they had bee in the High Middle Ages: Charles designated the city as the place a newly-elected emperor should hold his first Imperial Diet. Another highlight in this close relationship to the German crown came in the reign of Emperor Sigismund von Luxemburg. IN 1423, he declared the heavily fortified city to be the repository of the imperial regalia, which were festively brought to Nuremberg in 1424. They were kept in the city for almost centuries, hung in a silver casket high above the altar of the church of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit to protect them from thieves. This chest can be seen today in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum.
Through Nuremberg's economic and political decline following the Thirty Year's War, the city was no longer able to protect the crown jewels as French Revolutionary troops approached. The imperial regalia were therefore sent to Vienna in 1796. Since then, all legal and diplomatic attempts to have them returned have been unsuccessful. | <urn:uuid:a1cb5be0-b280-4977-9b09-8db0b7ab25b8> | {
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Description of Historic Place
The original part of the Pavillon Irène Léger was built between 1947 and 1949 in the modern religious institutional style, and an expansion was added to the back in 1967-1968. The description includes both sections of the building. The site is located on the main street, in the heart of the Town of Shippagan.
The heritage value of the Pavillon Irène Léger lies in its historical interest, but first and foremost in its institutional nature.
Construction of the oldest part of the Pavillon Irène Léger began in 1947 and ended in 1949. La construction acadienne de Gloucester was chosen as the building contractor at a cost of $250,000, and the plans were prepared by the J.S. Bergeron firm from Quebec City. A five-storey brick building with a basement, this structure is a good example of modern religious institutional architecture from the mid-20th century.
Between 1967 and 1968, a piece was added to the right side behind the original building. The construction of the extension was entrusted to the A. C. Mallet et Fils Company from Shippagan at a cost of $666,990, and the plans were designed by architects Bélanger and Roy of Moncton. The expansion produced a late modern-style building.
The structure was originally built for the Religieuses de Jésus-Marie (Sisters of Jésus-Marie) congregation and was called the Couvent Jésus-Marie (Jésus-Marie Convent). Its main purpose was to be a residence for the sisters who taught in the region’s public schools. In September 1950, the convent accommodated a novitiate for young girls, which in 1952 became affiliated with the one in Sillery, Quebec.
In 1960, the Couvent Jésus-Marie was converted into a college for young girls, which would become affiliated with the Université Sacré-Cœur in Bathurst. In 1966, the college ultimately became part of the Université de Moncton.
In 1972, Collège Jésus-Marie welcomed boys, and in July 1977, it became the Centre Universitaire de Shippagan. The sisters of Jésus-Marie handed over the college property and administration to the Université de Moncton.
The building is also recognized for its association with Sister Irène Léger. Sister Léger was born in Paquetville in 1923. Pioneer of advanced French-language teaching in New Brunswick's northeast, Sister Léger, a member of the Congrégation des Religieuses Jésus-Marie, was an exceptional professor and university administrator. In 1960, she became the first Director of Studies at Jésus-Marie College. From 1971 to 1977, she served as rector and as Professor of Philosophy. Sister Léger then became the Secretary General for the Religieuses de Jésus-Marie in Rome. In 1996, the Université de Moncton designated the main pavillon as the Pavillon Irène Léger. She died in Lévis, Quebec on August 3, 2002.
Source: Shippagan Town Hall, file “218, boul. J.-D.-Gauthier”
The character-defining elements relating to the architectural interest of the Pavillon Irène-Léger include:
- rectangular five-storey building with two lateral four-storey wings;
- original red-brick exterior;
- overall symmetry of the building;
- balanced arrangement of rectangular windows;
- horizontal sandstone bands;
- central parapet featuring a cruciform.
The character-defining elements relating to the ethnological and historical interest include:
- religious roots;
- only Francophone institution for university instruction located in northeastern New Brunswick.
The character-defining elements relating to the relationship between the site and its surroundings include:
- the role the French Catholic community of the time played in the development of land. That is to say its location at the heart of the significant core of infrastructures relating to the French Catholic community located in that part of the Town of Shippagan. | <urn:uuid:0c8534df-07d1-4424-8483-a50aa5e52514> | {
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Researchers think they've found a word that will win you more friends and favors than "please."
According to a study led by Andrew Luttrell from Ohio State University's Department of Psychology, calling an argument or an attitude "moral" makes it stronger.
The team performed three experiments, in which the participants "were led to view their attitudes as grounded in moral or non-moral bases," the study said.
The idea was that, if the participants thought their beliefs were moral in nature, then they'd be less susceptible to outside persuasion, ostensibly because those opposing beliefs were immoral.
In one experiment, two groups were told to write down their thoughts about recycling. One group was told their views were moral. The other, "practical." Then Luttrell's team went about breaking them down secretly using anti-recycling messages like "recycling puts more cars on the road." In the end, the moral group was more resistant to the anti-recycling propaganda.
According to a study released Wednesday from Quinnipiac University, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton beats Republican hopeful Donald Trump 47% to 36% in the vague category of "higher moral standards."
That doesn't really mean anything. The study doesn't even say what it means be more moral. But according to Luttrell — and as seen in his study — labeling Clinton as moral might make her arguments more appealing to the public.
"Is moral a magic word?" Luttrell asked, according to the Washington Post. "In some ways, it might be. We grow up thinking morality is this thing that's untouchable. What's moral is permanent and cannot be challenged."
Untouchable, uncontested and permanent: In terms of gaining support and winning people over, that's a pretty great campaign platform. | <urn:uuid:88e814dd-7ca6-4906-b115-6947c0f47c3e> | {
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Science unlocks health benefits of fruits
01 Dec, 2006
Source: HortResearch & NutraIngredients.com
Researchers looking into the links between food and disease at a genetic level say they have seen positive results from apple extracts on genes associated with Crohn's disease.
“People react differently to foods and one of the ways they do so is genetic,” Karl Crawford of HortResearch, (now called Plant & Food Research), says.
HortResearch is part of a six-year collaboration called Nutrigenomics New Zealand, along with AgResearch, Auckland University and Crop & Food Research. (Note that in December 2008 HortResearch and Crop & Food Research merged to form Plant & Food Research).
“We are also looking back at the gene-based pathway that links gut inflammation response with the initial environmental insult. We have shown that fruit can positively influence this pathway, opening up new opportunities for foods which help manage inflammation,” says Dr Lesley Stevenson, also from HortResearch.
“Scientists world wide are beginning to recognise and accept that fruit, and particularly some fruit compounds, exhibit anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antiviral potential” Dr Stevenson points out.
However more work needs to be done on gene responses and they are still a long way from recommending that apples be consumed by people who suffer from inflammatory bowel disease, Mr Crawford says.
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A low-pass filter (LPF) lets the low frequencies go through and removes (attenuates) the high frequencies.
A high-pass filter lets the high frequencies go through and removes the low frequencies.
A band-pass filter lets the frequencies within the band go through and removes both the low and high frequencies.
As you probably know, a sound is a combination of sine waves of various frequencies and amplitudes. For a given sine wave, amplitude relates to how high and low the sine wave goes. When the sine wave frequencies are all whole-number multiples of the lowest frequency sine wave, the waves are called harmonics and the lowest frequency wave is known as the fundamental. The harmonics above the fundamental are commonly called overtones. Filters basically remove some of the harmonics of a sound.
Above is what you see when you go into SYNTH EDIT for synth1 or synth2. In this post, we focus on the VCF (Voltage Controlled Filter).
The CUTOFF is the threshold frequency for the various types of filters that are available (see the slider switch at the bottom): LPF (lowpass), HPF (highpass) and BPF (bandpass). In the case of the bandpass filter, the cutoff frequency is a misnomer as it should really be called the center frequency. Note that the cutoff frequency can be modulated with an LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) or in Korg's jargon, a MG (Modulation Generator) for interesting effects.
The PEAK refers to a phenomenon called resonance. When resonance is applied to a filter, there occurs a signal gain (as opposed to a cut) near the cutoff frequency. The peak directly relates to the amount of resonance applied, in other words, the gain.
EG INT refers to filter modulation by the internal envelope generator (the controls to the right). An envelope generator shapes a note played on the keyboard into attack (voltage rises), decay (voltage drops), sustain (voltage stays put) and release (voltage drops) phases, commonly referred to as ADSR. The envelope generator output (voltage) modulates the cutoff frequency as a note is being played, from the time the key is pressed (attack) to the time it is depressed (release). As the voltage rises in the EG signal, the cutoff frequency rises to the maximum level set by the CUTOFF knob and as the voltage drops, the cutoff frequency drops. This is one way of modulating the filter.
On most analog synths, there are two envelope generators: one for the filter and one for the amplifier. On the Korg DS-10, there is only one for the amplifier but you have the capability to use that single envelope signal to modulate the cutoff frequency. So it's not too bad. | <urn:uuid:696c89ea-2fa1-4a7e-aa5c-2386c22b722c> | {
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Why Iceland Formed So Differently From The Gentle Early Earth
If we can find minerals that formed during the period we are interested in, they can give us clues about the origin and evolution of the magmas from which they crystallized. That information, in turn, can provide valuable evidence of the conditions on the Earth’s surface at the time the magma was generated. This insight into ancient environments is critical to understanding when conditions on Earth were first hospitable to life.
A new study compares Hadean Earth (more than four billion years ago) to the modern Earth that we are familiar with today. This is not a new idea; people have long thought that Hadean Earth might be similar to modern Iceland, where magmatism runs rampant, volcanoes are active, the crust is anomalously thick, and rocks associated with continents (rhyolite, granite) are found in the ocean (seemingly out of place). The study demonstrates just how different Iceland and the Hadean really are, but how similar the Hadean may have been to other environments that are more typical of modern Earth.
Researchers found this out by analyzing zircon, a mineral that crystallizes in the kinds of magmas associated with continental crust. Zircons have been analyzed from all around the world, in many different magmatic and tectonic environments, and from all chapters of Earth’s history. However, until recently, zircons from Iceland have not been the focus of rigorous study. The conclusion, when Hadean zircons were compared to Icelandic zircons? Magmas in the Hadean Earth were likely formed in environments much cooler and wetter (some might say, more hospitable) than the magmatic environments of modern Iceland.
“Zircon is a phenomenal research tool — a reliable little time capsule,” said Lafayette College geoscientist Tamara Carley, who did the research while finishing her doctorate at Vanderbilt University. “It can tell you a lot about magmatic conditions at the time of its crystallization.”
The research was recently published in the scientific journal, Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
Finding the early rocks
The challenge in researching early Earth is the paucity of information available. Earth’s earliest rocks have been all but lost to the geologic record, and have been severely altered or totally destroyed by surficial and tectonic processes that continue to shape our planet today. Traditionally, this absence of rocks from the oldest chapter of Earth’s history led researchers to believe that early Earth was covered in a harsh environment, like a global lava ocean, that would be totally inhospitable to rocks and life alike.
In the 1980s, however, the vision of early Earth began to change. Researchers discovered zircon crystals that had crystallized in magmas during the Hadean, then survived Earth’s tumultuous geologic history for more than four billion years. The age of the crystals was confirmed using dating techniques that measure the proportion of radioactive and radiogenic isotopes (parent and daughter isotopes) inside the crystals. Isotopes decay in a predictable fashion over millions or billions of years, and zircon does a good job of locking in this valuable evidence, providing researchers with an accurate clock of the age of the crystals.
Carley’s group did a literature review of the oxygen isotope and trace element geochemistry data teased from these ancient zircon crystals. They then compared the published Hadean results to their new Icelandic findings. Upon realizing just how different Icelandic and Hadean zircons are (and thus, how different their formation environments were), they scoured the literature for zircons that acted as a better modern analogue for the Hadean. They considered the Andes in South America; the Cascade Mountains, the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Yellowstone Hotspot in western North America; the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; and volcanic rocks in the East African Rift Zone.
The Hadean has temperatures and other compositional clues that are more similar to zircons from subduction zones magmas, generated in areas where one tectonic plate is forced beneath the other when they collide, as happens in places like the Cascades and the Andes. They concluded that Iceland is most similar to other rift environments, which perhaps isn’t much of a surprise since it sits atop a rift itself.
From their look at other researchers’ published work, Carley said her team concurs with what the other researchers found: zircons from the Hadean crystallized at relatively low magmatic temperatures. Furthermore, oxygen isotope ratios measured in the zircon crystals acts as evidence that low-temperature surface water played a role in the generation of the magmas from which they grew. Icelandic zircons, on the other hand, crystallized at much higher temperatures, and have isotopic evidence of hot, hydrothermal waters playing a role in magma genesis. Zircons from Iceland and the Hadean tell very different stories, about their respective environments of origin. Zircons from subduction zone volcanoes (like the Cascades) are more in line with zircons from the Hadean.
“It’s pretty compelling evidence that Earth was cool enough, and perhaps wet enough early on in its history that the thought of early life isn’t crazy,” Carley said.
How similar is Iceland?
Iceland is a standout location on modern Earth, Carley pointed out. It sits at the junction of a mid-ocean ridge and a hotspot, making it a location of elevated heat and magma generation. It has more rhyolite and granite (rocks associated with continental crust) than is common in an oceanic setting. It also features an extra-thick crust, estimated to be about 16 to 19 miles thick (25 to 30 kilometers) compared to the average oceanic crust, which is 4.4 miles (seven kilometers) thick.
Differences also show up after comparing not-so-subtle differences in chemistry between the Icelandic and the ancient zircon populations. In an ideal world, a zircon mineral would only contain three elements: zirconium, oxygen, and silicon. However, trace amounts of other elements (like titanium and uranium) can be trapped in the mineral as it grows. The specific element and its composition all depends on the conditions of the magma as the zircon crystallizes. In this case, titanium was one element that helped give the game away. In comparing hundreds of Icelandic and Hadean zircons, Carley’s research team found that Icelandic zircons consistently were richer in titanium. This told them that the Icelandic zircons grew in hotter magmas compared to the Hadean zircons, which grew in cooler magmas.
Even more exciting than the temperature story told by titanium was the water story told by oxygen isotope ratios, locked in the zircon crystal structure. The zircon record revealed to Carley and her research team that liquid water (essential to life as we know it on Earth) played a major role in both Icelandic and ancient magmas.
But the waters were very different in both cases. In the Hadean, the water involved in the magma generating process appear to be cool, like we see at modern-day subduction zones (like the Cascadeds and the Andes), as opposed to very hot, like we see in Iceland with its active, high-temperature, hydrothermal systems. “It become clear to us that Iceland is very dissimilar to the Hadean,” Carley said. “We need to change the conversation, and we need to stop saying that Iceland is a modern analogue for the Hadean.”The field, she added, could benefit from examining zircons from other locations on Earth, such as collisional zones where subduction does not occur, and juvenile subduction zones that form volcanic islands. These are research directions she said she hopes to pursue in the future. | <urn:uuid:50bdf5ab-4af7-4b3e-bca4-04878d8042aa> | {
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"Honeydew" is a classification of honey that refers to honey produced by honeybees collecting nectar that is exuded from another insect such as an aphid or scale insect. It is quite common in a number of countries and the best known is honeydew from the Black Forest in Germany. World wide honeydew can be referred to variously as "forest honey", "Pine honey", "Fir honey" etc. and may sometimes be referred to by the specific species of tree producing the honeydew.
Typically honeydews have lower levels of glucose and fructose and higher levels of complex sugars due to the extra enzymatic actions in the sap sucking insect's gut. Honeydews don't normally crystallize due to the reduced levels of glucose and also have a high mineral content which is measured as a high conductivity - this measurement being the main tool to differentiate honeydews in the laboratory.
New Zealand Beech Honeydew honey is one of New Zealand's premium export honeys. It has a history of export to Europe and specifically Germany since the early 1970s. There are several honeydew producing scale insects in New Zealand inhabiting a variety of plants. However most of these are small honeydew sources or intermittent production. The beech forests of the South Island are a different story however. Two species of beech tree inhabited by two species of honeydew insect (the sooty beech scales) from the Margarodidae family produce New Zealand's largest single exported honey crop. The beech trees are Black Beech (Nothofagus solandri) and Red Beech (N. fusca). The two insects are Ultracoelostoma assimileand U. brittini. U. brittini tends to inhabit the trunks and larger branches, while U. assimile is recorded (C.F.Morales) as favouring the upper branches and twigs, thus U.brittini is the insect most likely to be encountered by the casual observer wandering in the beech forests.
The black colour of trees and plants with a honeydew source is due to the growth of a black sooty mould (Capnodium fungus) on the surplus nectar exuding over the plant and sometimes even the ground. Particles of this fungus are typically found in honeydew being referred to as "honeydew elements" and are used as a part of the identification as honeydew.
Droplets of nectar are highly visible to any observer visiting the beech forest, but bees are rarely seen collecting these. Mostly they are observed foraging on the bark and particularly at the base of the tubules extending from the scale insect buried under the bark.
Beech honeydew is one of our darker honey types with a Pfund Scale average of 87.6mm and a Standard Deviation (SD) of 12.9mm (1,125 records). Colour does depend to some extent on area. There are some areas that do produce darker honeydew. Whether this is due to local conditions or blends of lighter (non honeydew) honeys is uncertain but we can find no correlation between conductivity and colour. Honeydew is generally a slower honey flow than most of the other flower honeys (although there are exceptions of course), and honeybees prefer to store honeys like this closer to the brood nest, typically in darker combs. This can darken the colour of the resultant honey.
New Zealand Beech honeydew is typical of most honeydews in having a high conductivity. This arises from the nature of honeydew production. An insect of the Hemiptera order of insects (those with sap sucking mouthparts e.g. aphids, scale insects etc.) sucks sap from the host plant and exudes a sweet sticky nectar which is essentially slightly modified sap. This is then collected by honeybees as a nectar source and is "ripened" into honey. This pathway is quite different from that of normal flower honeys. The direct sucking of the sap, the additional insect in the production chain with many additional enzymatic processes taking place, and the presence of sooty moulds, all add up to an additional mineral content not normally found in flower honeys. This is indirectly measured by the ability of honeydew to conduct electricity. The average conductivity for Beech honeydew is 1.19 mS/cm SD .22 mS/cm ( 1,390 records) which is around 10 times the average for flower honeys. This high level of mineral and trace elements is thought to be of significant nutritional value, one of the key reasons honeydew is popular in Europe.
Honeydews in general are normally low in glucose and they are also lower in fructose than flower honeys. This low glucose and fructose is supplemented by higher levels of more complex sugars such as maltose, erlose and melezitose. This has the effect of reducing the tendency to crystallize. Beech honeydew is likewise very slow crystallizing and in fact some beech honeydews never crystallize. Typical values for Beech Honeydew are:
Glucose 22.9% - SD 2.0% (400 samples),
Fructose 33.8% - SD 2.1% (400 samples).
Sucrose 0.67% - SD 0.81% (400 samples)
SD = Standard Deviation.
Another feature of New Zealand beech honeydew is the presence of oligosaccharides (complex sugars) in greater levels than average flower honeys.
It has been shown that oligosaccharides are helpful in maintaining and promoting beneficial bacteria in the gut (probiotic bacteria), particularly after treatment with antibiotics. As such oligosaccharides are classed as "prebiotics" i.e. a food for probiotics.
New Zealand Beech Honeydew is similar to other honeydews in having higher levels of antioxidants than most other flower honeys. In a study at Lincoln University, Beech Honeydew had the highest levels of polyphenolics, one of the most significant classes of antioxidant compounds. Additionally, using the ABTS and ORAC methods for antioxidant calculation, Beech Honeydew consistently ranked near the top of 10 monofloral honey varieties tested. The results of these three tests indicates that New Zealand Beech Honeydew has one of the highest levels of antioxidants of all New Zealand honeys. Other high ranking honeys include Thyme, Manuka and Rewarewa - all dark coloured, strong flavoured honeys.
Honeydew has very high levels of Glucose Oxidase activity giving a high degree of antibacterial activity that often exceeds levels found in manuka honey. We are currently collaborating on further research into Glucose Oxidase activity in Honeydew.
Moisture Content - Presence of Yeast
Normally honeydew is below 17% moisture. In the main production area, fermentation is not generally a concern, but the environment is such that large populations of yeast can occur in the honeydew forests. This is due to the presence of large quantities of a food resource (honeydew nectar) and, particularly after rain, wet conditions. At times the forest can smell quite sour with a fermentation smell and wasps can be observed drunk on the tree trunks. Under these conditions, high levels of yeast may occur in honeydew honey that come from this environment, rather than from fermentation of the ripened honey. It is possible that this may be marked against the product as a perceived quality issue, rather than it being a natural occurrence.
"Oligosaccharides in New Zealand Honeydew Honey"
K. Astwood, B. Lee, and M. Manley-Harris J. Agric. Food Chem., 46(12), 4958-4962.
"A series of oligosaccharides based upon successive addition of glucose (1->4) to the glucopyranosyl residue of sucrose and another series similar to the first but with the final residue linked (1->6) have been isolated from New Zealand honeydew honey and fully characterized. Because the trisaccharide in this series is erlose, it is inferred that the honeydew of the indigenous scale insect, Ultracoelostoma assimile, which lives upon the Southern beech, Nothofagus spp,. is of the erlose type. These oligosaccharides and others have been quantifed by GC and LC in six New Zealand honedew honeys"
This paper is available online from the publisher at www.acs.org for US$25.00 in PDF format. The author (to whom correspondence should be addressed) is [email protected] | <urn:uuid:ba7a7b5d-e672-4fa6-a0ef-25b887a5ed4f> | {
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From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhow
Dhow (Arabic داو dāw) is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with lateen sails used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Historians are divided as to whether the dhow was invented by Arabs. Typically sporting long thin hulls, dhows are trading vessels primarily used to carry heavy items, like fruit, fresh water or merchandise, along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and East Africa. Larger dhows have crews of approximately thirty, smaller ones typically around twelve. | <urn:uuid:6cefe386-94b4-4850-84b6-63f5dd68207a> | {
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WHILE most of us spend our lives on terra firma, the Cajuns of southern Louisiana are an amphibious people, inhabiting a world of swamps and bayous, as comfortable on the water as they are on dry land.
They chose their watery habitat on purpose. Uprooted first from France and then from Nova Scotia, they were looking for a homeland from which they could never be dislocated again. In the backwaters of Louisiana, they found such a home.
If the Cajuns chose their home specifically for its remoteness, modern amenities such as bridges and causeways have changed all that. Cajun Country -- more properly Acadiana -- is a triangle of 22 parishes that extends from the Texas border east to New Orleans. It is an easy jaunt from New Orleans, perfect for a two- or three-day tour, a voyage across time as well as geography. Spring and fall are the good times to go, unless you're a glutton for heat.
The word Cajun is a colloquial shortening of Acadian, meaning one of those from Acadia -- now Nova Scotia. In 1755, these French Catholics refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Protestant King of England and were exiled.
The story was immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his epic poem, "Evangeline," the tale of a young Acadian woman who is separated from her lover, Gabriel, in the chaos of the emigration and spends the rest of her life looking for him. Evangeline is still one of the great figures of Acadian culture. While Longfellow ended the tale in Philadelphia, a local version of the legend has Evangeline finally tracking Gabriel to the town of St. Martinville, near Lafayette, only to find that he has married another woman. In her grief, Evangeline dies there, which explains the presence of the Evangeline Oak and the Evangeline grave in the town.
The Acadian diaspora brought the Cajuns south, some by way of the Mississippi River, some by way of the Atlantic Coast where the British colonists made them unwelcome. Still others returned to France, where they were rerouted to the new French colony called Nouvelle Orleans. Uncomfortable in the urban environment, they moved out into the swamps west and south of New Orleans, where they would never again be under the thumb of foreign authority.
Acadiana extends from Avoyelles Parish in the north, west to the Texas border and south like a great arm reaching under Baton Rouge and New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico. To this day, most of the southernmost parishes of Terrebone and Lafourche are inaccessible by road.
It is difficult to estimate the size of the contemporary Cajun population. Jacques Henry of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, a state agency, said 300,000 of the state's four million residents say they speak French at home. Some 900,000 residents of Louisiana claim full or partial French ancestry. The difficulties are compounded because it is not uncommon for Cajuns to have Irish, Italian or German surnames nowadays, Mr. Henry said.
Many Cajuns earn their living as ranchers, raising sheep and cattle; others grow sugar cane, rice and soybeans. In the days of Louisiana's oil boom a decade or two ago, the oil industry and oil-related businesses were the largest employer in Acadiana, but Kelly Strenge of the Lafayette Convention and Visitors Commission said more people now worked either in the medical-services industry or in tourist-related service businesses.
Lafayette, a city of 92,000 people, lies in the middle of Acadiana, and it is the capital of Cajun Country. Once a sprawling boom town financed by oil money, Lafayette's growth has slowed in recent years. For the tourist, the historic downtown district with its cathedral, courthouse and early homes provides a sense of the early years of Cajun culture in the area.
A two-day outing from New Orleans will get you there and back with some sightseeing each day. Three days allow time for exploration farther west into the Lake Charles area and north into Eunice and Opelousas, home of the so-called prairie Cajuns who raise sheep and cattle.
We took Route 90 from New Orleans, dipping southwest into Houma where the road swings northwest through Morgan City, where the first Tarzan movie was filmed in 1917 and the first offshore oil well drilled in 1947.
By late morning, we had come to Avery Island, just outside New Iberia. This is one of the true curiosities of the modern industrial age. Avery Island is the only place in the world where Tabasco pepper sauce is made. The McIlhenny family has been making the same sauce from a special red pepper since 1868.
The free tour of the old brick factory is offered along with a brief movie about the history of the factory and a tiny bottle of the hot stuff. What's more, in the gift shop you'll see the largest bottles of Tabasco you've ever seen, gallon-size.
For bird and plant lovers are the Jungle Gardens and Bird Sanctuary, developed by Edward Avery McIlhenny, with assorted local plants and birds. Early spring and summer are the times for seeing huge flocks of egrets and herons; ducks and other waterfowl come for the winter. The gardens are filled with camellias, azaleas and tropical plants in season. The Chinese Garden contains a Buddha dating from A.D. 1000. | <urn:uuid:30d9c547-1b41-4a89-9968-2832939a4774> | {
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You may have experienced walking through fields of grass and noticing a tiny bug running around on your skin, or even worse, digging into your skin. This is not an average bug. It's a tick.
Ticks feed on the blood of mammals, and aside from that, they can also spread diseases like tularemia or Lyme disease.
Identifying a tick is not too difficult. Although they initially look like tiny spiders, you should know that they radically change appearance once they're engorged with blood. You should search for images of ticks that are local to your area. You might be surprised to see the difference between an unfed tick and an engorged tick, but it's the same external parasite. Learn to recognize them.
It's recommended to wear pants and long sleeve tops when you go hiking or if you live in grassy areas. You can also use certain insect repellents and keep the grass around your house cut short. Should you also take precautions to protect your dog from ticks?
Can Dogs Get Ticks?
In fact, given a choice, ticks will rather go after your four-legged buddy than you.
Does My Dog Have Ticks?
Dogs are common hosts for ticks. Even if your dog spends most of his time indoors, ticks can still find him and attach themselves to your dog's skin. They will crawl around, trying to find the right spot where your dog won't be able to scratch it off, then latch on and proceed to suck blood until engorged. While this happens, your dog's skin may become irritated, and your pet may try to scratch herself to find some relief. However, ticks will attach themselves to areas where your dog can't reach them, so don't expect to see your dog scratching a lot as a symptom.
A tick isn't as harmful by itself, but in extreme cases, a tick infestation may suck so much blood from your dog that he may become anemic. Also worth considering is the fact that ticks can carry and transmit diseases like Lyme disease , Rocky Mountain Fever or Canine Ehrlichiosis , among others.
If you notice a tick crawling around your four-legged friend, remove it and dispose of it. If it already started to suck blood, it will feel like a little bump on your dog's skin.
How Do I Treat My Dog's Ticks?
There are things you can do to ensure that your dog does not become a host for ticks. First, you can take a look at your yard space and try to prevent ticks from invading the area. Cut the grass and place gravel as a road so you can walk over it instead of walking over tall grass. This can reduce the risk, but it won't be enough. You will still need to constantly check your dog for ticks by running your hands over his entire body. Any small bumps or lumps will alert you to their presence. Examine around your dog's head, neck, ears, chest, feet and between their toes. And if you get used to finding them in a particular spot, know that they won't always appear there. If anything, they'll know not to go there anymore and will find a new spot. So don't limit your search to certain areas. Be thorough. And if your dog is mostly outdoors, check for ticks daily.
Once spotted, use tweezers to remove them. Do not squeeze their bodies as infected blood may be injected back into your dog's body or part of the tick can remain inside your dog's skin. After removing it, clean the area with antiseptic or any particular tick cream your vet may recommend. Consult your veterinarian for tick removal devices and products, as well as the best removal practices depending on your dog's coat type.
Owners should be aware that it may take months for a dog to show any of the symptoms of the diseases mentioned.
There are products and collars designed to prevent ticks or limit their harm. However, they can also cause side effects. Consult your veterinarian to know your options, depending on the area you live and risk of infection.
How are Ticks Similar in Dogs, Humans and Other Animals?
Ticks feed off blood, and they can get that from dogs, humans, cats, and other animals as well. Ticks are often on low-growing plants and grass. They wait patiently for an animal or human to walk by before they attach themselves to their clothes or skin. Then they travel all over this new host to find the perfect place from which to start feeding. The way they feed is the same with all hosts.
A tick bite can be relatively harmless, but in some cases, humans and dogs may develop allergic reactions such as rash, blisters, a burning sensation, etc.
How are Ticks Different in Dogs, Humans and Other Animals?
As humans, we're able to reach a bigger percentage of our body by ourselves, and we're able to remove ticks from our own bodies. A dog will have a much harder time trying to remove a tick, even if he's able to reach it. That's why ticks may prefer going after your pet, instead of you.
Both humans and dogs may contract diseases from infected ticks. People tend to show signs of these diseases earlier than dogs normally do. Some of these signs include rash, neck stiffness, a headache, chills, and fever, among others.
Also, if the tick was able to transmit Lyme disease, 8 out of 10 humans will develop the classic Lyme disease rash, which is a circular red rash with central clearing that slowly expands. It eventually resembles a bullseye. Dogs infected with Lyme disease from a tick will likely not develop this bullseye rash.
There's a heated debate on whether you should use a year-round tick preventative product on your dog since detractors argue that those products will bring more harm to your pet, with all their short and long term side effects. On the other hand, some dogs can get dozens of ticks every day, just by running around a field.
In that regard, there are areas of the country where ticks can be more harmful than others, considering the risk of transmitting diseases. No simple solution will work for everybody, so you should consult your veterinarian to determine the risk in your area and decide the most appropriate action. | <urn:uuid:b03c78f7-3578-42be-af2f-9d5c9015bba8> | {
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Everything you need to understand or teach Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas, père.
The novel "Twenty Years After" by Alexandre Dumas tells the story of the reunion of d'Artagnan and his three musketeers two decades after their original conquests. The story touches on the themes of friendship and the opposing forces of love versus hate and betrayal versus loyalty. As the plot progresses, the four friends deal with their disappointments in their lives as well as their diverse opinions on working together.
The story begins as...
Twenty Years After Lesson Plans contain 18 pages of teaching material, including: | <urn:uuid:4956c2dd-8ba7-4371-811b-49b792a42f3b> | {
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Due to the current political climate, the issues surrounding inclusion have come to forefront in schools across the nation. Today, schools are more focused on achievement testing and provisions associated with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Schools are increasingly concerned with the testing and achievement of students enrolled in Special Education, and therefore, placement options that will increase achievement are being debated more often. The following review traces the inclusion movement through relevant court decisions and can be used as a guide for those interested in the history of inclusion in the public schools. Further, the review serves as a basis for understanding the current focus on inclusion and possible future decisions surrounding the issue.
Boon, R. T.,
& Fore, III, C.
Inclusion and Placement Decisions for Students with Special Needs: A Historical Analysis of Relevant Statutory and Case Law,
Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education, 2 | <urn:uuid:f531b7aa-5f47-4360-8373-326fdcd5e7fd> | {
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Child abuse can take many forms and has a huge impact on children’s ability to grow and develop. The effects can be severe and long term if they do not receive the support and nuturing they require and deserve.
Checkout the parenting section for some tips on how to create a supportive and encouraging environment for children to grow healthy and strong.
Types of Child Abuse
Physical abuse is when someone bigger than the child inflicts physical harm. Apart from punching, hitting, burning and other physical acts, physical abuse also includes things like giving a child alcohol or drugs, or other potentially poisonous substances. Physical and emotional harm can also result from witnessing or experiencing domestic/family violence.
Emotional abuse is behaviour which destroys a child’s confidence such as telling them they are no good or worthless, not showing affection or positive attention, verbal abuse & threats, name calling, locking them up, or not allowing them to participate in social activities.
Neglect is where a carer fails to provide developmentally appropriate food, shelter, care or supervision.
Sexual abuse is a crime where an adult or someone bigger than the child, and who is usually known to the child, uses their power and authority over them, taking advantage of their trust and respect to involve or expose the child to sexual activity which often progresses in severity and frequency over time. Often it also involves special gifts, tricks, rewards and bribery, and/or threats or force, all which assist offenders to manipulate the child and deceive protective adults.
Factors which influence the impact of abuse
age/development stage when abuse began
how long the abuse took place
how often it occured
their relationship with the abuser
strength of other protective relationships
reactions of others to the abuse
what help or intervention was provided
What to do if a child tells you they are being hurt
NSW Child Protection Interagency recommends that you can help by:
listening to what children have to say
stay calm & believe what they have to say
avoid making promises you cant keep
reassure and comfort the child
avoid reacting with shock or negatively
let them know that the abuse is not their fault
tell them that it was right to tell and that it is NOT okay for adults to hurt children
let them know that you will need to talk to other people to get help
Child sexual assault
is particularly complex due to the nature and dynamics of the abusive relationship. In most cases the offender is known to the child and family, and often the process of “grooming’, tricking and forcing the child into abusive situations may occur gradually over time. CSA can happen anywhere, anytime whenever the offender has access to children, and even when other people are around.
Below is a brief overview of some of the key themes identified by Finkelhor:
- The offender typically denies responsibility and blames child or their carer
- Various strategies are used to make the child feel like they wanted or instigated the sexual acts
- Calculated strategies are employed to isolate child from family, friends and community
- Child's sense of reality is manipulated and denied, thus creating confusion and self doubt
- Offenders manipulates relationships around the child so if they do disclose abuse they are seen as ‘trouble makers’ or not believed
- Often more than one person in the family is being abused, but the offender sets it up that they are isolated from each other and do not know what is happening to the others
Protection & Loyalty:
- Direct & indirect strategies and language are used to enlist child into maintaining the “secret”
- The child often is made to believe they are protecting their family by keeping the secret
- The child will protect others at a cost to self, often threats are made such as if the child does not do what they are told that others will get hurt, or that they will lose their parents
Power & Powerlessness:
- The offender has physical, psychological and intellectual power over the victim, the child is powerless to change the situation even though they are often made to feel like they have choices. These “choices” however are only an illusion created by the offender, and they manipulate the environment of the child to ensure their own needs are met.
- When children do try to resist they are often punished
- Bribes, tricks and threats are all utilised by the offender, this can create many mixed feelings including love and hate towards the offender, confusion, fear, hopelessness, guilt, shame etc.
- Developmentally children often do not have the language or the means to get the help they need
- Offenders take advantage of childrens niaveity, and twist their perspectives on things. They can even exploit children’s tendency for ‘magical thinking’ in that the child may come to believe the offender has magical powers, and can make bad things happen, or will know if they tell.
- Children are expected to be respectful towards adults no matter what, thus resistance is often difficult or misunderstood
- When children do try to speak out, messages may not always be clear, they might ‘test the waters’ to see what kind of reaction they get. Often upon disclosure bad things may actually happen, reinforcing the power of the offender.
- children come to feel powerless to change their situation, or unable to even consider that adults might be able to help them, they may even feel betrayed by adults who have hurt them or whom have not been able to protect them.
- magical thinking can further terroise the child into silence, and even into adulthood.
- the child learns that they have no or little control over their environment or their bodies, often coming to even hate their bodies or parts of it
- these strategies allow the offender to rationalise their behaviour, and trick the child into feeling guilty, complicit, and a ‘bad’ person
- the child is left holding the burden and struggling to protect the family from more bad things happening while trying to deal with their own distress. Thus the child learns to put others before their own needs, and suffer in silence.
- it can leave the child feeling alone, scared, angry, sad and confused which undermines their confidence and their ability to trust their instincts. It also creates a ‘smoke screen’ as the offender constructs an alternative reality around the victim, creating barriers to the child disclosing, and making it unlikely that they will be belived even if they do find the words to talk about what is happening to them.
- the child may also suffer not only throughout the abuse, but also through the trauma of reliving the experience in flashbacks, similar to those experienced by war veterans whom often feel as though they are re-living the events.
The impact of these complex dynamics can affect the childs physical, psychological and social development right into adulthood. It is important to seek out help both for children who are currently being abused, but also for survivors of abuse who are struggling to manage the long lasting effects. | <urn:uuid:c07d19ba-e3a0-43f7-a90a-3d0e5612a73b> | {
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