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Somaliland's representative in the U.S. says it is about time for the international community to officially recognize Somaliland as a country. This comes as Somaliland this month celebrates 20 years of its breakaway from mainland Somalia. On May 18, 1991, Somaliland seceded from Somalia. Although the United Nations has a presence in Somaliland, U.N. members states have yet to officially recognize it as a country. Rashid Nur says it is time for the international community to recognize Somaliland because it has demonstrated stability after holding two successful elections resulting in two peaceful changes of government. “This day is important for the people of Somaliland because the people of Somaliland have built a nation from practically ashes when they came back from refugee camps in Ethiopia, and in the last 20 years they have built all levels of government institutions and have had multiple successful elections,” he says. Nur says the international community should also recognize Somaliland’s independence because it contributes to the peace and security of the Horn of Africa and East Africa region as a whole. “It is absolutely the right time to recognize Somaliland because Somaliland significantly contributes to the peace in the region as well Somaliland contributes to the economy of the region and could contribute much more if the country is recognized,” Nur says. He says Somaliland has enough resources to sustain its own independence. “There are a lot of resources in Somaliland. Obviously, a lot of them have not been exploited yet. There are minerals and gas in Somaliland that have not been exploited yet. One of the biggest industries right now is livestock. Somaliland exports livestock to the Middle East and it is a significant revenue contributor,” Nur says. Nur says Somaliland has other industries such as telecommunication and construction that are also providing employment. He says the economy is growing at a reasonable rate, although he concedes that unemployment remains a concern. Nur says the economy could grow a lot faster if the international community recognizes the country. He says Somaliland does not harbor pirates. On the contrary, Nur says Somaliland plays a crucial role in the war against international piracy. “There are over 100 pirates that are in the jails of Somaliland and, if you look at all of the piracy, none of it takes place in the waters off Somaliland. Beyond that, Somaliland also has a Coast Guard that guards not only its waters, but also in the Red Sea area and has captured over 100 pirates,” Nur says. Advocates for Somailand's recognition note that the former British colony gained its independence on June 26, 1960, four days before voluntarily joining the former Italian colony of Somalia to become the new Republic of Somalia. Those advocates state that Somaliland has always maintained its right to withdraw from that union.	<urn:uuid:07fe00b0-c489-452c-b602-5b9fc3c04c8f>	{ "date": "2017-09-21T22:12:54", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-39", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818687906.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20170921205832-20170921225832-00016.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9643654227256775, "score": 2.546875, "token_count": 606, "url": "https://www.voanews.com/a/butty-somaliland-20th-anniversary-nur-18may11-122134824/158138.html" }
WHO guidelines on good agricultural and collection practices (GACP) for medicinal plants Medicinal plant materials are supplied through collection from wild populations and cultivation. Under the overall context of quality assurance and control of herbal medicines, WHO developed the Guidelines on good agricultural and collection practices (GACP) for medicinal plants, providing general technical guidance on obtaining medicinal plant materials of good quality for the sustainable production of herbal products classified as medicines. These guidelines are also related to WHO’s work on the protection of medicinal plants, aiming promotion of sustainable use and cultivation of medicinal plants. The main objectives of these guidelines are to: - contribute to the quality assurance of medicinal plant materials used as the source for herbal medicines to improve the quality, safety and efficacy of finished herbal products; - guide the formulation of national and/or regional GACP guidelines and GACP monographs for medicinal plants and related standard operating procedures; and - encourage and support the sustainable cultivation and collection of medicinal plants of good quality in ways that respect and support the conservation of medicinal plants and the environment in general. These guidelines concern the cultivation and collection of medicinal plants and include certain post-harvest operations. Good agricultural and collection practices for medicinal plants are the first step in quality assurance, on which the safety and efficacy of herbal medicinal products directly depend. These practices also play an important role in protection natural resources of medicinal plants for sustainable use.	<urn:uuid:328912c9-c1e5-47cc-8de0-d64f805afd55>	{ "date": "2015-07-05T08:12:40", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-27", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375097354.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031817-00216-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.8758254051208496, "score": 3.25, "token_count": 285, "url": "http://www.who.int/medicines/publications/traditional/gacp2004/en/" }
Latest Pregnancy News TUESDAY, Nov. 22, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- More details on how the Zika virus affects infants and adults will be presented to international researchers meeting in Chicago next week. Three studies scheduled for presentation at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America attempt to shed light on the mosquito-borne virus that's linked to severe birth defects in babies. Most cases to date have occurred in Latin American countries. In one study, researchers used CT imaging to examine the central nervous system of 16 newborns whose mothers were infected with Zika during pregnancy. The babies were found to have a number of brain abnormalities. "Our study proves that Zika virus infection can cause congenital brain damage in babies with and without microcephaly," study author Dr. Natacha Calheiros de Lima Petribu said in a society news release. She's with the department of radiology at Barao de Lucena Hospital in Recife, Brazil. Babies with microcephaly are born with an abnormally small head and brain. Many of the adults in this study had changes to certain spinal and facial nerves. Some had inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, or brain stem and spinal cord lesions. The infants showed brain structure abnormalities, the researchers found. "It was alarming to find so many cases of neurological syndromes in adults, some very serious, related to Zika virus infection," study author Dr. Emerson de Melo Casagrande said in the news release. "We have also noticed a difference between these syndromes, even though the trigger was the same," said Casagrande, who is in the radiology department at Antonio Pedro University Hospital of Federal Fluminense University in Niteroi, Brazil. After birth, the babies underwent ultrasound, CT and MRI imaging. More than half the infants had microcephaly, brain calcifications, loss of brain tissue volume, and other brain structural abnormalities, the researchers found. "The emergence of Zika virus in the Americas has coincided with increased reports of babies born with microcephaly," said study author Dr. Heron Werner Jr., of the radiology department at Rio de Janeiro's Clinica de Diagnostico por Imagem. "An early diagnosis may help in treating these babies after birth. Moreover, the knowledge of abnormalities present in the central nervous system may give hints about the pathophysiology of the disease," Werner added. The radiological meeting runs from Nov. 27 through Dec. 2. Research presented at meetings is usually considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal. -- Robert Preidt Copyright © 2016 HealthDay. All rights reserved.	<urn:uuid:a9a83845-f207-457a-930b-fc089eb0aa1e>	{ "date": "2019-10-18T19:48:13", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-43", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986684425.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20191018181458-20191018204958-00176.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9481456279754639, "score": 2.90625, "token_count": 553, "url": "https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=199935" }
Young Alvy Singer got it partially right.The main character in the Woody Allen film Annie Hall explained why he gave up doing his homework: “Well, the universe is everything, and if it’s expanding, someday it will break apart and that would be the end of everything!” The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics recently announced that the BICEP2 collaboration (its research partnership with Caltech/JPL, Stanford/SLAC, and UMinn) had observable evidence to prove how this expansion got started from the point of the Big Bang: through cosmic inflation. “These results are not only a smoking gun for inflation, they also tell us when inflation took place and how powerful the process was,” said Harvard theorist Avi Loeb. Physics for the 21st Century at Learner.org provides explanatory text, images, and video to help you make sense of the discovery and the theories that led to it. Start by looking at the text for unit 4 on String Theory to understand how cosmic inflation is responsible for the structure of the universe as it is today. Short of running backwards the movie of all time, the Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB, is the best link to the first moments of the development of matter. The CMB is the detection of the relic gas radiating from the Big Bang. Astrophysicists also have been able to find in their data the finger prints of gravitational waves, which are described as ripples in space-time. Dr. Nergis Mavalvala of MIT explains the relation of gravitational waves to today’s astronomy. Watch the segment of the video Gravity, beginning at 14:30 through 16:21, to learn about how these waves are propagated. The final unit looks in on the work of two astrophysicists, Robert Kirshner and David Spergel, both trying to determine the cause of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe and whether there may be an end to it. Their chief suspect is Dark Energy. Their research may assuage Alvy Singer’s concern about the universe ultimately breaking apart.	<urn:uuid:b50bc4dc-2874-4299-82f3-9820a2337d98>	{ "date": "2014-04-18T23:15:40", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-15", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609535535.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005215-00075-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9449918866157532, "score": 3.15625, "token_count": 442, "url": "http://learnerlog.org/tag/gravity/" }
The word “theology” comes from the Greek words “θεος” and “λογος” and means “the study of God.” It is historically a branch of philosophy. The word “philosophy” comes from the Greek words “φιλος” and “σοφος” and means ”love of wisdom.” It is the discipline of logical thinking, as well identifying and avoiding fallacies. Colossians 2:9 uses the word “philosphy” in a negative sense in Colossians 2:9, but just like everything that has an improper use, it also has a proper use. Justin Martyr (AD 100-157) was a philosopher from Samaria who converted to Christianity after he decided it was the true philosophy. He tried to evangelize fellow philosophers. Paul also preached to the philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens, but got poor results, because he was a rabbi, not a philosopher. Today, at least an undergraduate course is a requirement for theology in ATS accredited seminaries. Theology uses all the same methods as philosophy, but is based on a concept of God. Theology as a Branch of Philosophy If you base your philosophy on a concept of God, you’ve got a theology. The concept of God can be any of the following: - The view that there is no god at all. By some interpretations, Buddhism can fit into this category. - The view that God created the universe but ignores it and does not intervene in it. This is largely the product of 18th century intellectualism, and was the religious view of the American founding fathers. Benjamin Franklin said, “God helps those who help themselves,” which was a way of saying that you have to make your own miracles, because God won’t. - The view that the universe itself is God. The closest modern version of pantheism is when people say that the “the universe will bring you something.” - The view that there are many gods, some with territories, others with specialties, and there is office politics and palace intrigue among them. If you have a concern, you need to pray to the right god. In polytheism, there is usually one god who rules over all the others, and that gave ancient Christians a good toe-hold into evangelism. - The view that there are many gods, but there is only one god who can properly be worshipped. Mormonism fits into this category. Most Mormons believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are separate gods, and some believe that God has a wife, but they only direct their prayers to Heavenly Father. - The view that there is only one God, who is a monad. Islam is the world religion with the most rigid form of monotheism. - Christianity is a variation of monotheism in which there is only one God who consists of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each of whom can be worshipped, who are individually God, but collectively only one God. Justification for Trinitarian Monotheism There is a philosophical basis for Trinitarianism. It posits that a monad cannot achieve consciousness, because the essence of consciousness consists of distinguishing Me from Not Me, which is only possible if God is not a monad and consists of at least two persons. If God is a monad, He cannot be conscious, and not being conscious, He cannot create the universe. Also, God cannot know love if He has no one to love, and love is perfected in loving an equal. This is further reason to reject monadism. Before creation, the reasoning goes, God has to be at least two persons, or He could not love or even be conscious.We also know that God is social in nature; He relates to us as a social being. This is only possible if, before creation, there were more than two persons who make up the essence of God. Theoretically, there could any number, but Christian revelation says there are only three. Theology versus Applications of Theology Many people apply theology to contemporary social and political problems and call those theologies, such as “liberation theology” or “feminist theology,” but those are not really theologies, so much as they are methods of applying theology to real-world problems. Specializations Within Theology There are specialized areas within theology, such as apologetics and polemics. Apologetics consists of defending what you believe or persuading people to believe it, too. Polemics consists of refuting beliefs. Why Theology Must Be Systematic “But last week, you said…” If anyone ever says that to you, it means that you made theological statements that don’t add up or contradict each other. It means that you didn’t quite think your theology through. There is a way to avoid it, and it’s obvious: Think things out in advance. That’s easier said than done. You read the Bible and study reference books, but you still find things that you can’t fit together, and most often you don’t realize that until someone has put you on the spot. Okay, let’s pray as we study, but what if God’s answer is, “Why do you think I gave you a brain? Think it out for yourself.” In a burst of sudden insight, you say, “Ah, so that’s what my brain is for! I could think it out for myself, but how do I do that?” The answer is to arrange your beliefs into a coherent framweork, to tie up loose ends and eliminate contradictions. This is called “systematic theology,” and it was formerly known as “dogmatic theology,” in which case the word “dogma” meant “a revealed truth that we could not discover on our own.” in that sense, theological thinking consists of deriving doctrines from dogmas and putting them into a consistent system. A dogma is a truth that was revealed to us, because we could never have figured it out on our own, such as the Incarnation and the Trinity. The Benefit of Systematic Theology If you have a well-thought out systematic theology, you can save yourself a lot of embarrassment when someone asks you a question. Sometimes people ask questions to put you on the spot and make you look ridiculous if you don’t have an answer; this is how to avoid falling into that trap. “if God has a plan, how can I choose Jesus?” If you reassure people that God has a plan, but you also urge them to choose Jesus, you have to figure out how those two beliefs fit together. Some astute person might realize that they cannot choose Jesus if God planned that they would reject Him, and that they cannot reject Jesus if God planned they would accept Him. Also, you may have discovered that reassuring someone that God has a plan can backfire badly at a funeral. My solution is to deny that God has a plan! If you want to build a house, you need a plan, so you don’t forget anything. If God wants to build a house, He doesn’t need a plan, because He never forgets anything. If we have a will, we need a plan, but if God has a will, He does not need a plan. We can’t change His mind about His will, but there are a lot of ways we could could change His mind about the route He will take to get there. What is your answer? “Can God make a rock so heavy that He can’t move it?” If you have been teaching that God is all-powerful and can do all things, someone might be curious about how it works. Someone who is a non-believer might try to stump you with this question to make you look silly. My answer is that if you take out the rock, you are really asking if God can do something that God cannot do. The answer is no, not because God is deficient, but because the question is meaningless. What is your answer? "Someone said the Bible condemns me. Is that true?” There was a daft pastor who actually answered this question by saying, “Yes, the Bible condemns you, but I don’t.” That shows your cluelessness, not your love. No one is dumb enough to think that you can win a theological arm-wrestling match with God. The person thinks, “If God hates me, what difference does it make if the pastor doesn’t?” It’s better to admit that you don’t gave a good answer at hand and that you need to do some research, because you want to give a complete and correct answer. If you admit to human shortcomings, you don’t lose respect, you gain it.	<urn:uuid:3c269f61-73d4-4040-ae94-d27300039039>	{ "date": "2019-12-10T19:10:08", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-51", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540528490.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20191210180555-20191210204555-00176.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9674550890922546, "score": 2.953125, "token_count": 1912, "url": "https://kencollins.com/theology/theology-01.htm" }
No white pudding for me, thank you. Yuck! Black pudding is a type of blood sausage commonly eaten in Great Britain, Ireland and in other parts of Europe. It is generally made from pork fat or beef suet, pork blood and a relatively high proportion of oatmeal, in some recipes mixed with oat groats and sometimes even barley groats. White pudding or oatmeal pudding is similar to black pudding, but does not include blood; it consists of pork meat and fat, suet, bread and oatmeal formed into a large sausage (Wikipedia).	<urn:uuid:76d7946d-b947-49ea-b3c8-af505b6c2c39>	{ "date": "2017-11-23T05:49:28", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-47", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806736.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20171123050243-20171123070243-00056.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9439085125923157, "score": 2.78125, "token_count": 116, "url": "http://revrunner-va.blogspot.com/2017/08/pudding.html" }
Magic. A set system of notions, rituals, and invocations that are believed to have a mysterious mystical power to influence physical phenomena or natural events. Magical practices can be traced into the distant past. They can be classified by their social function into malefactory, military, love, medical, preventative, productive, and meteorological, or by their psychological mechanism into contact (touching an object), imitative (similarity or mimicry), and sympathetic (substitution of part for the whole). Magic played an important role in the life of Ukrainians, particularly the peasantry. Not a step could be taken without it. It was used widely in medicine: shamans used spells and charms, often combined with rational practices, employing medicinal plants or psychotherapy. Water, fire, and eggs were held in the highest esteem by Ukrainian sorcerers. Magic was also an important part of calendric folk rituals tied to farming (sowing, harvesting [see Harvest rituals], taking livestock to pasture) and family life (birth, wedding, and death [see Burial rites]). Wetting with water, leaping over a fire, and the use of fur coats as a symbol of wealth often appear in these rituals. The most common form of malefactory magic was witchcraft. Witches were believed capable of depriving a cow of milk, of harming crops, and of inflicting disease and even death on particular people, but also of charming young men, of protecting people from disease, and of canceling the spells of other witches. Magic is closely tied to religion. In the Middle Ages white magic, which invoked the saints and angels, and black magic, which turned to ‘unclean spirits’ such as devils and demons, were practiced widely in Ukraine (see also Demonology). The alleged practitioners of black magic were often tried by the community or the courts, but there were no witch hunts comparable to those known in Western Europe. Antonovych, V. Chary na Ukraïni (Lviv 1905) Bogatyrev, P. Actes magiques: Rites et croyances en Russie Subcarpathique (Paris 1929)	<urn:uuid:7972c976-1452-4fa0-ac5e-095d0d2ba3ba>	{ "date": "2018-09-18T14:00:40", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-39", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267155413.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20180918130631-20180918150631-00056.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.95908123254776, "score": 3.09375, "token_count": 441, "url": "http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CM%5CA%5CMagic.htm" }
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler delivered these remarks today on net neutrality at the Silicon Flatirons Center in Boulder, Colo. For the past several years, the alpha and omega of America’s communications policy debate has been Net Neutrality. But all the focus on Net Neutrality overshadows the reality that today’s Net is not something that stands on its own; it is the product of broadband connectivity. The terms “Internet” and “broadband” are too often used synonymously – but they are not the same. The way the Internet works today is a result of broadband infrastructure. If broadband is too slow, if it does not reach enough people, if there are not competitive choices, there are consequences for the Net, for sure – but the effects don’t stop there. So, today let’s talk about broadband. Yes, that will also involve the Internet, but our focus should first be on that which enables the Internet. Broadband networks are the most powerful and pervasive connectivity in history. Broadband is reshaping our economy and recasting the patterns of our lives. Every day, we rely on high-speed connectivity to do our jobs, access entertainment, keep up with the news, express our views, and stay in touch with friends and family. There are three simple keys to the broadband future. Broadband networks must be fast. Broadband networks must be fair. Broadband networks must be open. But we know from the history of previous networks that both human nature and economic opportunism act to encourage network owners to become gatekeepers that prioritize their interests above the interests of their users. As the D.C. Circuit observed in the Verizon decision, broadband providers have both the economic incentive and the technological capability to abuse their gatekeeper position. Our challenge is to achieve the legitimate goal of economic return as an incentive for investment in broadband infrastructure, and the equally important goal of networks that are fast, fair and open for all Americans. To accomplish those aims, the FCC is in the midst of three historic decisions. Act One in this effort tackled the issue of fast networks. Two weeks ago, the Commission voted to establish a new definition for broadband as 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up. This was an increase from the old standard of 4Mbps down and 1Mbps up. Twenty-five megabits per second is available to 83 percent of American homes today. I’d call that a standard. But that still means that 17 percent of households – 1 in 6 Americans – don’t have access to 25-megabit broadband. Rural areas and Tribal areas are disproportionately being left behind. The press described this as a decision about speed, such as the speed to download a video. That is true, but while this new standard reflects today’s realities, it is also an invitation to the innovation that is enabled by increased throughput. Our future is all about what broadband will enable. According to Tod Sizer, vice president of the Wireless Research Program at Bell Labs, we are looking at a future in which each person will have 10 to 100 connected computing devices working for them. In this world, the issue isn’t about speed so much as the capacity to have simultaneous connectivity sufficient for the application to perform its task. Already, the typical connected family of four has seven broadband-powered devices at home. Just listen to the way one big ISP describes the broadband needs of a family: “You can think of your household’s Internet connection like a pizza to be shared with your whole family. Some members are hungrier than others, and if too many friends show up, no one will get enough to be satisfied. Each connected device uses a slice of your bandwidth. Over WiFi, tablets will use between 20 megabits and 40 megabits; smartphones between 15 megabits and 40 megabits; laptops, televisions, and gaming systems can take from 5 megabits to 75 megabits. It adds up fast.” With our vote two weeks ago, we established a standard that anticipates and – as the Telecommunications Act mandates – encourages a world in which megabits per second isn’t just about whether a video buffers, but is about the world in which increasing numbers of devices will be making simultaneous demands on the network; a world in which innovation isn’t held back by network capacity. And that interconnected reality should be available for all Americans. To that end, over the next six years, the FCC will disburse $11 billion through the Connect America Fund to support infrastructure build-out in rural areas. We have modernized our E-rate program to support fiber deployment to and WiFi within the nation’s schools and libraries. And we just issued a Notice seeking comment on additional ways to bring faster broadband to all Americans. Increasing the standard for broadband to 25 Mbps also clarifies one the biggest challenges facing our broadband future: the lack of meaningful competition. It’s bad enough that 17 percent of Americans have no access to 25-megabit service. But at those speeds, about 75 percent of U.S. households can choose from only one provider. Where there is no choice, the market cannot work. American families need to be able to shop for affordable prices and faster speeds. The Commission is committed to removing barriers to broadband investment and competition. That brings me to the matter of how we have competition that helps ensure we have networks that operate fairly, in addition to driving investment and innovation. Act Two of our broadband initiative will open on February 26 with a Commission vote on the petitions of two cities, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Wilson, North Carolina, which seek to provide high-speed broadband to their citizens but have been obstructed by their state legislatures. The issue is simple and direct: when the people, through their elected local officials, take action to expand access to high-speed broadband and offer competitive choices, their will should not be thwarted. Many communities, including these two petitioners, have concluded that existing private-sector broadband offerings are not meeting their needs and the only solution is to become directly involved in broadband deployment. Some communities have worked with private-sector providers to facilitate improved broadband service. Others have entered into various forms of public private partnerships. Still other communities have decided to deploy broadband networks themselves. But in 19 states, community broadband efforts have been blocked by restrictive state laws – laws often passed due to heavy lobbying support by incumbent broadband providers. Congress, acting under its constitutional power to oversee interstate commerce, instructed the FCC to take the necessary steps to encourage the expansion of broadband throughout the nation. Using this statutory mandate, I am recommending that the Commission vote to pre-empt two restrictive state laws hampering investment and deployment in areas where consumers are clamoring for service from successful municipal providers. To be clear, my proposed ruling on these two petitions for pre-emption is an adjudicatory matter. While it provides precedent for how the Commission would view similar restrictions, its direct effect is limited to the two petitioning communities, and its direct bearing is limited to the specifics of the two cases and the two state laws. Having said that, it sends a clear message and provides precedent for how the Commission would view similar restrictions. The message is that community broadband is an important option for expanding broadband deployment, and states should not be “erecting barriers to infrastructure investment.” That brings us to Act Three: open networks. This audience already knows the issue of Net Neutrality backwards and forward. So I thought I’d start the open Internet discussion with a few stories that exemplify the importance of open networks. I have already written about NABU, a company I headed in 1984-85, that used new technology to deliver high-speed data to home computers over cable television lines. Across town Steve Case was starting what became AOL. NABU was delivering service at the then-blazing speed of 1.5 megabits per second – hundreds of times faster than Case’s company. Although NABU was delivering better service, it could only do so through the closed network of cable television systems. Meanwhile the open phone network provided Steve Case access to a seemingly unlimited number of customers nationwide who only had to attach a modem to their phone line to receive his service. Steve Case is a brilliant entrepreneur – not the least because he saw that opportunity resides in the reach of an open network. How gatekeepers can slow innovation and new consumer services is not a new story. Remember the “I want my MTV!” campaign? In the 1980s MTV had to battle its way on to cable systems with an ad campaign encouraging teenagers to pester their cable operator until MTV was granted access. Contrast that to the innovation without permission of Pandora, Spotify and others. Ask Ted Turner how hard he worked to get CNN on cable systems. I was there. I saw it first-hand. Compare that to HuffingtonPost, Vox and other news and information outlets that, thanks to the Internet, didn’t have to ask permission. I could go on with multiple examples, both personal and historical, but the message is clear: there is a difference between closed and open networks. Innovation without permission is that difference. Now, before the ISP surrogates rush into hyperdrive pointing out how Pandora, HuffPo and others were able to get access, let’s listen to the words of a major ISP suggesting it might not always be that way. When Verizon was asked in open court if they wanted to restrict access through special commercial terms, their counsel replied, “I am authorized to state by my client today that but for these rules, we would be exploring those commercial arrangements.” Verizon’s testimony points to replicating an era when the network operator exercised such control that it could, for instance, even ban what equipment attached to it. The Internet wouldn’t have emerged as it did if the FCC hadn’t forbidden that practice in the late 1960s. The smart modems that enabled the early Internet were usable only because the FCC required the network be open to non-Bell equipment. Congress wisely created the FCC as an expert agency with flexibility within specific parameters to evolve its rules to keep pace with technology and new markets. The history of the Internet makes clear that we cannot predict its future. What we do know, however, is that any action we take must be strong enough and flexible enough not only to deal with the realities of today but also to establish the basic ground rules for the as-yet-unimagined. Originally, I believed that the FCC could assure Internet openness through the application of a “commercial reasonableness” test to determine appropriate behavior of ISPs. After listening to countless consumers and innovators, however, I became concerned that the relatively untested “commercially reasonable” standard might be subsequently interpreted to mean what was reasonable for the ISP’s commercial arrangements. That, of course, would be the wrong conclusion. It was a possibility that was unacceptable. The precedent of earlier FCC rules assuring an open phone network made it clear that the yardstick for network management should be based on Title II of the Communications Act – the same test that had worked to deliver the dawn of the Internet. That is why I am proposing the FCC use a modernized version of its Title II authority to implement and enforce open Internet protections. Allow me to emphasize that word “modernized” as the descriptor for Title II. We have heard endless repetition of the talking point that “Title II is old-style, 1930’s monopoly regulation.” It’s a good soundbite, but it is misleading when used to describe the modernized version of Title II that I’m proposing. My proposal will also use the significant powers in Section 706, not as a substitute but as a second tool. This one-two punch is not the so-called “hybrid” approach; it applies Title II, as well as Section 706, to protect broadband Internet access. It is the FCC using all of the tools in its toolbox to protect innovators and consumers. So that’s the legal authority issue in a nutshell; what would the proposed rules do? For starters, they would ban paid prioritization, blocking and throttling. They would stop any last-mile tactics that harm consumers and edge providers by unreasonably interfering or disadvantaging their use of these broadband connections. For the first time, open Internet protections would apply equally to both wired and wireless networks. Wireless networks account for 55 percent of Internet usage. For those to whom much is given, much is also expected – especially including an open network. My proposal also asserts jurisdiction over interconnection. So that, for the first time, transit providers, or CDNs, or content companies will be able to file a complaint with the FCC, and the Commission will be able to take public comment, investigate and decide whether the actions of the ISP have been “just and reasonable.” The proposal also looks forward into the broadband future to assure there are basic ground rules and a referee on the field to enforce them. In general, if an action hurts consumers, competition, or innovation, the FCC will have the authority to throw the flag. As I said earlier, we need to balance the goals of openness with the needs of network operators to receive a return on their investment. We will forgo sections of Title II that pose a meaningful threat to network investment. That means no rate regulation. No unbundling. No tariffs or new taxes. I would note that when applied to mobile voice service over the past two decades, the use of such light-touch Title II – which, by the way, was sought by the industry – went hand-in-hand with massive investment. Open Internet rules must also incent the use of the Internet. That is why my proposal includes protections for access for disabled users. And why it is so fundamentally important that we protect privacy. It’s a simple proposition: consumers need to be able to trust that their personal information will be treated securely and fairly when they share it with ISPs and send it across the networks, or they won’t do it. Requiring ISPs to protect the personal data of their customers is a critical component of the broadband future. And Section 222 of our statute provides us with the authority to do just that. Just recently, the Commission took action against a telecommunications carrier who put its customers’ sensitive personal information on Internet webpages. No encryption. Not even a password. Anyone could run a Google search and, presto, the personal information would appear. We will not hesitate to take further action to protect consumers’ broadband privacy. As many of you know, I am a history buff. As we deal with the issues surrounding the future of the most powerful network ever known to man, the observations Abraham Lincoln made in December 1861 echo in my ears. Lincoln was speaking of challenges far greater than those we face; but his observation is apt: “The struggle of today, is not is not just for today – it is for a vast future also.” None of us in this room could have imagined the power of Moore’s Law combining with broadband networks and the possibilities that would enable. That vast, unimaginable future is what animates our current actions. To fully realize the promise of that future, broadband must be fast, fair and open. This is bigger than the Internet we know today, “it is for a vast future also.”	<urn:uuid:b1afaea4-3beb-4819-a8cd-f30150811062>	{ "date": "2018-09-26T01:41:24", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-39", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267162809.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20180926002255-20180926022655-00216.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9591674208641052, "score": 2.546875, "token_count": 3217, "url": "https://www.twice.com/blog/fcc-chairman-wheeler-justifies-net-neutrality-55968" }
Original Research ARTICLE Correspondences Between Music and Involuntary Human Micromotion During Standstill - RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, Department of Musicology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway The relationships between human body motion and music have been the focus of several studies characterizing the correspondence between voluntary motion and various sound features. The study of involuntary movement to music, however, is still scarce. Insight into crucial aspects of music cognition, as well as characterization of the vestibular and sensorimotor systems could be largely improved through a description of the underlying links between music and involuntary movement. This study presents an analysis aimed at quantifying involuntary body motion of a small magnitude (micromotion) during standstill, as well as assessing the correspondences between such micromotion and different sound features of the musical stimuli: pulse clarity, amplitude, and spectral centroid. A total of 71 participants were asked to stand as still as possible for 6 min while being presented with alternating silence and music stimuli: Electronic Dance Music (EDM), Classical Indian music, and Norwegian fiddle music (Telespringar). The motion of each participant's head was captured with a marker-based, infrared optical system. Differences in instantaneous position data were computed for each participant and the resulting time series were analyzed through cross-correlation to evaluate the delay between motion and musical features. The mean quantity of motion (QoM) was found to be highest across participants during the EDM condition. This musical genre is based on a clear pulse and rhythmic pattern, and it was also shown that pulse clarity was the metric that had the most significant effect in induced vertical motion across conditions. Correspondences were also found between motion and both brightness and loudness, providing some evidence of anticipation and reaction to the music. Overall, the proposed analysis techniques provide quantitative data and metrics on the correspondences between micromotion and music, with the EDM stimulus producing the clearest music-induced motion patterns. The analysis and results from this study are compatible with embodied music cognition and sensorimotor synchronization theories, and provide further evidence of the movement inducing effects of groove-related music features and human response to sound stimuli. Further work with larger data sets, and a wider range of stimuli, is necessary to produce conclusive findings on the subject. The intricate relationships between music and human body motion has been of interest to researchers for several decades, but recent technological developments have allowed for more robust and thorough studies, with works focusing on music-induced motion, music performance, and general sensorimotor synchronization (Gritten and King, 2006; Jensenius, 2007; Nusseck and Wanderley, 2009; Maes et al., 2014a; Su, 2016). Moreover, works on sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) have shown what appears to be a predisposition for humans to synchronize motion to periodic stimuli sequences even in the presence of continuous tempo changes (Repp and Su, 2013; van der Steen et al., 2015; Burger et al., 2017). Many SMS studies have been based on tapping paradigms, but some have exploring other forms of moving in synchrony with external auditory rhythms, such as dance in humans (Keane, 2009; Solberg and Jensenius, 2017b) and synchronization to musical beat in vocal learning animals (Patel et al., 2009; Fitch, 2013). Janata et al. (2012) compiled a series of analysis methods to explore sensorimotor coupling and found that the feeling of being in “the groove” plays a fundamental role in musical appraisal. Furthermore, stimuli with a high level of groove elicit spontaneous rhythmic motion not only from the hands and fingers, but also other body parts such as the head and the legs (Madison, 2006; Kilchenmann and Senn, 2015). The concept of embodied cognition assumes that cognitive processes require interactions between the body and its environment (Wilson, 2002). Studies of embodied music cognition propose the need of spontaneous body motion for musical meaning formation and the processing of musical features (Maes et al., 2014b), and a close relationship between spontaneous motion to music and predictions of pulse and rhythmic patterns. This approach to music and motion explains the reflecting and imitating qualities of motion to music as bidirectional processes, where body motion is not only a response to the music stimuli, but also part of the perception mechanism (Todd, 1999; Keller and Rieger, 2009; Witek et al., 2014). Sensorimotor synchronization, then, can be considered as one of the factors involved in this process, with Leman suggesting embodied attuning and empathy as the other two main components of embodied music cognition (Leman, 2008). It is through such embodied attuning that humans associate musical features such as melody, tonality, or timbre, with motion (Maes et al. 2014a). Empathy, on the other hand, allows for musical features to generate emotion and convey expressions (Wöllner 2012). Building on the idea of body motion as a means for processing musical information, Phillips-Silver and Trainor (2008) have shown that when people move their body to a certain beat they are more able to interpret ambiguous rhythmic patterns. Moreover, they have demonstrated that body motion does not need to be voluntary to improve music cognitive processes. Participants were rocked on every second and third beat of an ambiguous auditory rhythm pattern while lying passively on a seesaw, and were afterwards asked to interpret the meter of the rhythmic stimuli. A second set of experiments compared passive motion of the head to passive motion of the lower limbs and found that only head motion improved the participants' rhythm encoding abilities. Based on these two studies the authors suggest that the effect of head motion on rhythm processing is due to the fundamental role of input from the vestibular system, and they further propose an underlying integration of auditory and vestibular inputs in the relationship between motion and auditory metrical rhythm perception. The acoustic sensitivity of the vestibular system and its role in music cognition has been investigated in studies by Todd (1999), in which he observed that acoustic sequences with varying energy, amplitude, or pulse produce vestibular response signals, which, in turn, can produce a modulated sense of motion. Todd has also proposed a sensory-motor theory based on humans' experience of rhythm through both a sensory representation (of temporal information in the stimulus) and a motor representation (of own musculoskeletal system; motor image of the body). In this structure, the spatiotemporal characteristics of an acoustic stimuli are linked to the dynamic characteristics of the motor system, inducing an internal motion representation of the musculoskeletal system, even with actual motion not occurring. According to Todd's results and observations, the interplay between the vestibular and sensory-motor mechanisms is particularly evident when presented to stimuli with a highly variable range of acoustic features, such as in dance music. Similarities between sound and motion in musical experience have been studied systematically by Godøy et al. (2016) by exploring the multimodal relations between sound and motion features. Music-related body motion has been generally categorized by the authors as either “sound-producing” or “sound-accompanying,” but with a wide overlap between the two categories. Moreover, the authors suggest that such music-related body motion can also be found in a scale between “quasi-stationary” postures and motion, with the postures serving as orientation points, commonly observed at downbeats and other accented points in the music. Studies by the same authors include a number of quantitative and qualitative analysis methods aimed at establishing correlations between physical sound and motion signals and the subjective perceptions of the related musical experiences. In one of such studies (Nymoen et al., 2013), the authors explore the relationships between sound and motion through a “sound-tracing” experiment in which the subjects moved their hands spontaneously to musical sound. Different sound “contours” (pitch, dynamics, timbre) were used for a correlation analysis with motion features of the participants' tracings. Distinct time-varying sound and motion contour features were identified through Spearman correlation and canonical correlation analysis. The correlation coefficients allowed to measure the participants' temporal accuracy in mimicking the various sound features. The analysis methods proposed by the authors render additional evidence to the ample range of actions that people perform to sounds, and provide a baseline for the identification and classification of music-related motion. Insight into human gestural descriptions of sound was also found in Caramiaux et al. (2014), with participants exposed to both causal and non-causal sounds, and asked to describe the stimuli through arm and hand gestures. Findings from this study rendered evidence of a fundamental effect of sound source identification in the subsequent gestural description. With causal sounds being generally described mimicking the perceived producing action. In this same line, in Küssner et al. (2014), differences in consistency in gestural representation of sound features were found between trained musicians and untrained participants in real-time exercises. This was particularly evident for pitch, being mostly represented with changes in height, and tempo, being described with changes in hand speed. These movement associations to sound provide initial evidence of consistent bodily responses to particular features, and raises questions over the effect of a wider range of sound characteristics and experimental conditions that have yet to be studied. Following findings on the influence of rhythmic structures and periodicity on the amount of induced body motion, Burger et al. (2013) investigated relationships between musical features, such as rhythm, timbre, and tempo, with motion characteristics. Pulse clarity, percussiveness, and spectral flux were extracted from a series of stimuli and correlated with a number of free-motion features. Results from this study suggest that whole-body motion seem to be associated with a clear pulse in the music, while spectral flux and percussiveness seemed to have a larger influence on head and upper limb motion. No relationships were observed, however, between tempo and motion features. On the other hand in Styns et al. (2007) synchronization of walking with music was highest around 120 BPM tempo. The potential influence of tempo features on the amount of motion requires further investigation. Closer to the topic of this paper, Ross et al. (2016) explored music and motion links of people standing still (what they call “quiet” standing) by recording fluctuations in the center of pressure (CoP) of 40 participants listening to music with low and high levels of groove. Events in CoP sway and in the music stimuli were cross-correlated to assess relationships between music and motion, while entrainment was analyzed using spectral coherence. The results suggest that the musical stimuli with a high level of groove produced the least amount of radial sway variability, and the musical experience was observed to influence the amount of postural variability and entrainment. Moreover, high groove was observed to favor entrainment of shorter rhythmic events. Such involuntary entrainment suggests an effect of involuntary musical entrainment on motor and balance control systems, and render additional evidence of involuntary and unconscious motion to music. The study provided additional evidence to factors contributing to the perception of groove, with changes in loudness, pulse clarity, and spectral flux being closely related to changes in perceptual groove. In the present study, an effort is made to further explore which of these—and other groove-related musical features—have the largest effect on motion remains to be fully assessed, as well as the relatively unexplored couplings between non-groove music stimuli and involuntary motion. In Gandemer et al. (2014), the influence of rotating sound on standing balance was assessed through postural sway recordings from a force platform. Sway amplitude was found to be negatively correlated with the speed of the rotating sound. Subjects exhibited greater stability during fast rotating sound trials, compared to immobilized sound conditions. Although these findings were framed in the context of the role of the auditory system in postural regulation, insight from these results may also suggest the influence of the vestibular system in both sound processing and motion control. Moreover, Coste et al. (2018) found that discrete auditory rhythms have a significant effect in both voluntary and involuntary body sway, with entrainment of sway being higher for tempi at a frequency that was closer to the dominant sway frequency. In a series of studies aimed at characterizing and understanding music-induced micromotion, Jensenius et al. (2017) investigated how music influences the motion of groups of participants trying to stand still. This micromotion is primarily involuntary and is performed at a scale that is barely observable to the human eye. The study consisted of a statistical comparison of measured motion between music and silent conditions and found that the subjects exhibited a remarkably consistent level of motion when attempting to stand still in silence (Jensenius, 2017). The measured standstill level of a person was shown to be consistent with repeated measures over time. The effects of different musical genres on standstill was measured by comparing Quantity of Motion (QoM) between 7 music excerpts, each with a duration of 20–40 s. The music stimuli were presented in ascending order of rhythmic complexity, starting with slow, non-rhythmical excerpts and ending with acoustic and electronic dance music. The study found significant differences in QoM between the music and silent conditions, with the largest mean QoM occurring during the EDM segment. Moreover, although horizontal motion (medio-lateral and anterior-posterior head sway) was found to account for most of the measured 3-dimensional QoM, vertical motion was shown to have clearer differences between music and silence conditions. These preliminary findings seem to provide additional evidence to findings by Burger et al. (2013) relating to the effects of spectral flux and percussiveness on head and upper limb motion. In the following, we will describe an exploratory study designed to further characterize human music-related micromotion, with the aim of providing a quantification of the correspondences between music features associated with entrainment and micromotion, while at the same time aiding in the general understanding of sensorimotor theories as a natural manifestation of the internal motor engagement. 2. Materials and Methods A total of 71 participants took part in the study (33 female, 38 male, average age: 25 years, SD: 9.5 years) in groups consisting of 3–13 participants at a time1. The data collection took place during the University of Oslo “Open Day” in March 2017. The experiment was advertised as “The Norwegian Championship of Standstill” with a NOK 1000 prize for the participant with the lowest recorded motion. Recruitment was open to everyone with no exclusion criteria. Each participant was asked to report on the hours per week spent on the following activities: listening to music (16.8, SD: 12.2), creating music (4.7, SD: 5.3), dancing (1.1, SD: 1.3), and exercising (3.9, SD: 3.7). All participants gave their informed consent prior to the experiment and they were allowed to withdraw from the study at any point in time. The study obtained ethical approval from the Norwegian Center for Research Data (NSD), with the project identification number NSD2457. 2.2. Music Stimuli The participants were presented with segments of silence and music throughout the 6-min trials. All trials began and ended with 30 s of silence, followed by 5 min of alternating 60-s segments of music and silence. Thus, a complete sequence consisted of: Silence (30 s), Music1 (60 s), Silence (60 s), Music2 (60 s), Silence (60 s), Music3 (60 s), Silence (30 s). The three musical stimuli (played in random order for each group) were excerpts of: 1. Electronic Dance Music (EDM): the “break routine” of the track Icarus (Leclercq 2012). It is an example of a contemporary, energizing dance track with a clear pulse and even rhythmic pattern. This track has also been used in motion capture studies of dancers in Solberg and Jensenius (2017a,b). 2. Classical Indian music: a vocal improvisation by Tejaswinee Kelkar on top of a continuous drone from a shruti box. The track has a slow pulse, and a less clear rhythmic structure. This track has also been used in studies of sound-tracing in Kelkar and Jensenius (2017). 3. Norwegian folk music: a performance of traditional Telespringar dance music played on Hardanger fiddle. This is an example of a piece with an asymmetrical beat pattern, characterized by a long–medium–short duration patter. This track has also been used in studies of rhythmic reference structures (Haugen, 2017). The tracks were chosen so as to comprise different musical genres and features, and enable the exploration of global musical parameters. Figure 1 shows waveforms of the samples, to illustrate the dynamic differences of the tracks. The 60-s duration of the stimuli was chosen to allow participants enough time to engage with the music, while keeping the experiment sufficiently short to reduce the effect of tiredness. The sound was played comfortably loud from two Genelec 8020 loudspeakers and a Genelec 7050 sub-woofer. Figure 1. Waveforms of the presented music stimuli: (Top) Electronic Dance Music (EDM); (Middle) Norwegian fiddle music (Telespringar); (Bottom) Indian Classical Music. 2.3. Data Acquisition The instantaneous position of a reflective marker placed on each participant's head was recorded using a Qualisys infrared motion capture system (13 Oqus 300/500 cameras) running at 200 Hz. Previous studies have shown that the spatial noise level of this motion capture system is considerably lower than that of human standstill (Jensenius et al., 2012). Motion data was recorded and preprocessed in the Qualisys Track Manager (QTM), and the analysis was done in Matlab using the MoCap Toolbox (Burger and Toiviainen, 2013) and custom made scripts. The participants were recorded in groups of 3–13 people at a time. They were asked to stand as still as possible for 6 minutes, being free to choose their own standing position. The distribution of the participants in the laboratory was standardized across trials, with marks on the floor indicating the approximate feet position (Figure 2). Figure 2. The setup for the experiment in the motion capture laboratory. White marks and questionnaires indicate the position of each participant. Poles with reference markers where placed in each corner of the capture space and used to check the noise-level of the recording (see Jensenius et al., 2012 for a description of the noise-level in optical motion capture systems). 2.5. Quantity of Motion In order to measure the general standstill level, the quantity of motion (QoM) of each head marker was computed as the sum of all the position differences of consecutive samples of the marker, that is, the first derivative of the position time series: where p is either the two-dimensional (Z axis—the vertical plane) or three-dimensional (XYZ axes) position vector of a marker, N is the total number of samples and T is the total duration of the recording. The resulting QoM is measured in millimeters per second (mm/s). Instantaneous quantity of motion was obtained for each participant and for each stimulus. 2.6. Musical Features To investigate the correspondences between individual musical features and standstill micromotion, we performed computational feature extraction analysis of the presented music stimuli using the MATLAB MIRToolbox (version 1.6.2) (Lartillot et al., 2008a,b). Overall pulse clarity and tempo were obtained for each music stimuli, along with three time-varying frame-decomposed features that have been previously shown to contribute to motor entrainment to music and musical groove (Stupacher et al., 2014; Ross et al., 2016; Burger et al., 2017): • Loudness: the dynamic envelope of the sound was obtained by calculating the RMS value of the frame-decomposed audio waveform (50 ms frame length). • Brightness: measured as the spectral centroid of the frame-decomposed audio waveform, that is, the barycenter of the frequency spectrum (50 ms frame length). • Pulse Clarity: calculated as the rhythmic clarity, indicating the strength of the beats (1 s frame length). The similarity and correspondences between the sound and motion features were measured by computing cross-correlation between the moving averaged QoM time series (50 ms window length) for every participant and the extracted frame-decomposed musical features. The delay between the sound and motion feature signals was defined as the lag of maximum cross-correlation. 3.1. Average Quantity of Motion The average level of micromotion during the experiment, measured as the QoM of the entire set of participants, was QoMmean = 8.76 mm/s. The standard deviation, QoMSD = 2.20 mm/s, indicates a fairly low variability among participants. In fact, the extreme measurements across participants were QoMmax = 13.96 mm/s and QoMmin = 5.98 mm/s. These findings are in accordance with our previous findings on the general level of micromotion in human standstill (Jensenius et al., 2017). When comparing the average QoM values to demographics, an independent-samples t-test indicated no significant differences between male and female participants [t(69) = −1.69, p = 0.09]. Significant correlation was found between QoM and the participants' height, both during music (r = 0.34, p = 0.007) and during silent conditions (r = 0.32, p = 0.003), indicating that taller participants tended to move more during the whole experiment. Additionally, age had a significant negative correlation with QoM during the silent segment (r = −0.23, p = 0.034), while the correlation during the music segment was not significant (r = −0.17, p = 0.087). The reported amount of hours per week spent doing physical exercise (group average = 3.9, SD = 3.7), creating music (group average = 4.6, SD = 5.3), and listening to music (group average = 17.2, SD = 12.6) had no significant correlation with measured QoM. The participants were allowed to choose their standing posture during the experiment. In a post-experiment questionnaire they were asked to report on whether they were standing with their eyes open or closed, and whether they had their knees locked. The majority of the participants reported that they stood with open eyes (N = 58 vs. N = 1 for closed eyes, and N = 12 for those who switched between open and closed eyes during the experiment). Furthermore, 33 of the participants reported standing with locked knees, 23 switched between open and locked knees and 15 reported standing with unlocked knees. Two simple linear regression models were fit to predict QoM based on knee and eye strategy respectively. A significant regression equation was found for knee strategy, with F(1, 68) = 3.7, p = 0.029, and an R2 of 0.072. Participants' QoM was approximately 1.31 mm/s smaller when standing with unlocked knees than when standing with locked knees. This also fits with previous findings (Jensenius, 2017). The regression equation predicting QoM based on eye strategy was found not significant [F(1, 68) = 2.67, p = 0.076, R2 = 0.046]. 3.2. Influence of Music The musical influence on the level of standstill was preliminarily assessed by computing the average QoM for the silence vs. music segments. The average for the music condition was QoMmean = 8.83 mm/s (QoMSD = 1.91 mm/s), while the average for the silent condition was QoMmean = 8.57 mm/s (QoMSD = 1.66 mm/s). A paired-samples (music and silence) t-test revealed that these differences were statistically significant [t(70) = −2.89, p = 0.003]. A linear mixed effects model was fit to further analyze the effects of music on QoM. Stimuli was entered as fixed effects (first to last silent segments, EDM, Indian classical, and Telespringar) (Figure 3). The model was made of a random slope for by-subject effect of condition (Music or Silence) and a random intercept for Group. P-values were obtained by likelihood ratio tests between the full model (with the fixed effect) and a null model without the effect [χ2 (1) = 31.143, p < 0.001]. Bayesian information criterion (BIC) was used as penalized likelihood method for model selection, with smaller BIC number indicating better model adequacy (Table 1). Models tested included random slope for by-subject and by-group effect of Stimuli, as well as random intercepts for Subject, Condition, and Position in the capture volume. Random intercepts were also tested through standard deviation and confidence intervals with zero-crossings indicating that position in the lab and condition had no significant effect as random intercepts. The tests of fixed effects showed that EDM (t = 4.09, p < 0.001) has a significant effect on a participant's QoM (increasing it by approximately 0.65 mm/s, SE = ±0.16), but the remaining stimuli do not (p = 0.087). Figure 3. The fitted vs. observed response values from the linear mixed effects model form an almost 45-degree angle indicating a good fit. 3.3. Musical Features 3.3.1. Correspondences With 3-D Motion Overall, the effect of the musical stimuli on motion seems to correspond with the higher tempo (126 BPM) and total pulse clarity (0.63) of the EDM stimulus, as compared to the other two stimuli (Table 2). To further investigate the effect of musical features on the induced motion, cross-correlation was performed between the three-dimensional QoM measurements and the three sound features described in section 2.6 (loudness, brightness and pulse clarity) for the whole set of participants. The EDM stimulus was observed to have the largest averaged lag of maximum cross-correlation (delay), at 3.39 ± 1.55 between loudness (measured as the RMS of the amplitude) and QoM. The Indian stimulus produced the smallest cross-correlation at lag −1.43 ± 1.41, indicating a degree of anticipation (Figure 4A). Interaction between conditions was assessed through one-way ANOVA with delay between QoM and RMS as dependent variable and music stimuli as independent variable. The effect of the stimuli on the correspondence between QoM and RMS approached significance at the 0.05 level [F(2, 210) = 2.64, p = 0.07, ηp2 = 0.025]. Figure 4. Average lag of maximum cross-correlation (delay) between three-dimensional QoM and extracted sound features across participants for each music stimuli. (A) Loudness (RMS), (B) Spectral centroid, (C) Pulse Clarity. The Telespringar condition had the largest averaged lag of maximum cross-correlation between spectral centroid and QoM (2.01 ±1.60), while the Indian condition had the smallest (−0.49 ± 1.48), as shown in Figure 4B. The ANOVA showed no statistically significant differences between conditions when comparing correspondence between spectral centroid and QoM [F(2, 210) = 0.63, p = 0.53, ηp2 = 0.006]. Additionally, there were no statistically significant differences between conditions when comparing the frame-decomposed pulse clarity with QoM [F(2, 210) = 0.20, p = 0.82, ηp2 = 0.002]. The Indian music condition resulted in the largest averaged delay at 1.39 ± 1.27, while the EDM segment had the smallest delay at 0.17 ± 1.45 (Figure 4C). 3.3.2. Correspondences With Vertical Motion In order to investigate whether proposed connections between music features and vertical motion (Rusconi et al., 2006; Eitan et al., 2014) hold true also for the micromotion during standstill, as well as to further explore preliminary findings by Jensenius et al. (2017) on such correspondences, the vertical component of QoM was cross-correlated with frame-decomposed sound features. The average lag of maximum cross-correlation between RMS and vertical QoM was maximum for the Telespringar music condition at −0.82 ± 1.34, while it was minimum for the EDM segment at −3.76 ± 1.14. The average delay was negative for the three conditions (Figure 5A), indicating a level of vertical motion anticipation to RMS events. No statistical significance was found on these differences across conditions at the 0.05 level [F(2, 210) = 1.35, p = 0.26, ηp2 = 0.013]. Figure 5. Average lag of maximum cross-correlation (delay) between vertical QoM and extracted sound features across participants for each music stimuli. (A) Loudness (RMS), (B) Spectral centroid, (C) Pulse Clarity. Asterisk indicates significant difference at p < 0.05. Correspondences between frame-decomposed spectral centroid and vertical QoM was maximum for the Indian music condition at −0.8 ± 1.51, while EDM had the largest anticipation at −4.73 ± 1.63, and all three conditions produced a negative average delay (Figure 5B). ANOVA revealed no statistical significance of the average delay differences between conditions [F(2, 210) = 1.84, p = 0.16, ηp2 = 0.017]. Finally, differences in delay between pulse clarity and vertical QoM were shown significant between conditions [F(2, 210) = 9.27, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.081], with the largest negative average delay occurring during the EDM segment at −8.52, while during the Telespringar stimulus the average delay was positive at 0.2 (Figure 5C). A Tukey post hoc test revealed that the delay between pulse clarity and vertical QoM was statistically significantly different during the EDM stimulus (−8.52 ± 1.50) when compared with the delay during both the Indian (−2.73 ± 1.46, p = 0.034) and the Telespringar (0.2 ± 1.42, p < 0.001) stimuli. There was no statistically significant differences between the delay during Telespringar and the delay during Indian music (p = 0.33). In this study we investigated the influence of music on human motion during standstill. Participants were presented with stimuli alternating between music excerpts and silence in order to determine the effect of music on their micromotion. The computed first derivative of head displacement (used here to represent quantity of motion, QoM) was significantly larger during the music condition, rendering additional evidence to findings from previous studies on music-induced micromotion by Jensenius et al. (2017), where participants were shown to move significantly more while exposed to music than during silent periods. Additionally, the current study expands on Jensenius et al. (2017) by further exploring the correspondences of entrainment-associated musical features with involuntary body motion in the 3-dimensional space and in the vertical plane. The linear mixed effects model showed that the stimulus with a higher tempo and overall pulse clarity (EDM) produced more involuntary sway from head motion data. This is in line with findings by Ross et al. (2016), in which more motion entrainment to short rhythmical events was observed with increasing levels of groove in the stimuli. Moreover, results from the present study are also comparable to a certain degree with results by Burger et al. (2017), where clear pulses in the music stimuli were shown to correlate with free body movement features. Along with the aforementioned studies, findings from Janata et al. (2012), revealing spontaneous body reaction to high groove music, provide supporting evidence to the greater effect of EDM on involuntary body motion when compared to the other two stimuli. The analysis of the correspondence between music and motion was performed by computing the delay between 3D and vertical QoM time-series and three frame-decomposed sound features strongly related to music groove perception: RMS, spectral centroid, and pulse clarity. The differences in average delay between the loudness envelope (RMS) and 3D QoM approached significance, while no significant differences were found for the vertical QoM data. Since all the tracks were perceptually normalized in sound level prior to the experiment, the loudness measurement may here be seen as an indication of the “denseness” of the musical material. The EDM condition had the largest delay, while the Indian music condition resulted in a negative delay which may be interpreted as anticipation. The lack of significant results for differences in correspondences between loudness and QoM, despite the range of stimuli that were presented, might suggest RMS has a low contribution to the overall feeling of entrainment. No significant differences between stimuli were found when analyzing cross-correlation between spectral centroid (brightness) and both 3D and vertical QoM. Delay between spectral centroid and QoM was negative for vertical QoM across all stimuli. The observed negative delay pattern for vertical motion across stimuli could suggest a level of anticipation to perceived brightness events in the music. In line with these results, Nymoen et al. (2013) found negative correlation between vertical sound tracing gestures and spectral centroid, interpreted as a tendency of participants to represent changes in brightness with vertical motion. In the present study, involuntary anticipatory vertical motion to changes in sound brightness could be related to the participants' instantaneous perception of this feature, since there were no differences in motion across the diverse stimuli. The statistically significant differences in delay between conditions for pulse clarity and vertical QoM can be interpreted as additional evidence to the effect of pulse clarity in music-induced motion. In particular, the anticipatory nature of the vertical motion, as evidenced by a relatively large negative delay during the EDM segment, corresponds with the overall greater pulse clarity of this stimulus when compared to the other two stimuli used in the study. Furthermore, the delay between vertical motion and pulse clarity events for the Telespringar music condition was the smallest, corresponding with the smallest overall pulse clarity of the stimulus. Although no significant delay differences were found between music conditions for 3D motion and pulse clarity, the average delay was positive across stimuli, as opposed to the mostly negative lag of maximum cross-correlation for vertical QoM. The different patterns between vertical and 3D motion across stimuli may be an indication of horizontal motion occurring as a response to pulse clarity events. Such a relationship between pulse clarity and involuntary motion might add to findings by Stupacher et al. (2014), where the wish to move the body to a musical pulse (defined as being “in the groove”) was strongly correlated with pulse clarity. Furthermore, in Ross et al. (2016), the involuntary sway of the center of pressure of participants was shown to entrain stronger to stimuli with a higher groove level, characterized by higher spectral flux, density, and pulse clarity. The results from this study render additional insight into the underlying factors of embodied music cognition, particularly regarding involuntary correspondences between motion and different types of musical stimuli. The findings of correspondences between motion and the loudness envelope, brightness, and pulse clarity are partially in line with results from a number of studies on entrainment (Ross et al., 2016), sensorimotor synchronization (Janata et al., 2012), and the sensation of groove (Stupacher et al., 2014) and could complement such works with the inclusion of the quantification of correspondences to non-rhytmic and “non-groovy” stimuli. Follow-up studies will focus on further exploring the relationship between pulse clarity and vertical motion by testing smaller differences in pulse clarity across stimuli, as well as investigating correspondences with within-stimulus pulse clarity variability. Capturing only the motion of a participant's head may be seen as a crude representation of a complex bodily interaction with music. The findings, however, proved consistent with our previous results (Jensenius et al., 2017), and also in line with the findings of Phillips-Silver and Trainor (2008), in which the role of the vestibular system in rhythm perception was observed through both passive and active head motion. Further studies on the correspondences between motion and a variety of sound features could contribute to a more robust characterization of the role of head motion for the perception and understanding of sound. The music excerpts used in the present study were deliberately selected to cover diverse genres and different musical characteristics. Future studies should include other types of genres but also more examples within each genre. It will also be interesting to take into consideration the participants' musical preferences to better assess differences in musical taste, as the propensity to move might be dependent on liking of the stimulus. The extracted musical features used in the present study were selected based on other studies in the field of music-induced motion (Janata et al., 2012; Stupacher et al., 2014; Ross et al., 2016). They do not, however, represent the whole set of music characteristics that could prove relevant for sensorimotor synchronization and embodied cognition. Further work will aim at characterization of a larger set of features across stimuli. Finally, while the present study focused on temporal characteristics of body motion, it may also be relevant to look at correspondences of music and motion frequencies, along with a wider range of physiological features such as heart rate, breathing patterns, skin conductance, and muscular activity, in order to further characterize involuntary bodily responses to music. VG-S, AZ, and AJ contributed conception and design of the study. VG-S, AZ, and AJ performed the experiments. VG-S pre-processed the data and performed the statistical analysis. VG-S wrote the first draft of the manuscript. VG-S, AZ, and AJ wrote sections of the manuscript. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read and approved the submitted version. This work was partially supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence scheme, project numbers 262762 and 250698. Conflict of Interest Statement The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. 1. ^Due to the nature of the recruitment, group size was determined by demand and thus, varied as described. Familiarity between participants varied for each group. As described in the following sections, the Group factor was tested as one of the effects in the linear mixed effects model and the result was not significant. Burger, B., London, J., Thompson, M. R., and Toiviainen, P. (2017). Synchronization to metrical levels in music depends on low-frequency spectral components and tempo. Psychol. Res. doi: 10.1007/s00426-017-0894-2. [Epub ahead of print]. Burger, B., Thompson, M. R., Luck, G., Saarikallio, S., and Toiviainen, P. (2013). Influences of rhythm- and timbre-related musical features on characteristics of music-induced movement. Front. Psychol. 4:183. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00183 Caramiaux, B., Bevilacqua, F., Bianco, T., Schnell, N., Houix, O., and Susini, P. (2014). The role of sound source perception in gestural sound description. ACM Trans. Appl. Percept. 11:1. doi: 10.1145/2536811 Coste, A., Salesse, R. N., Gueugnon, M., Marin, L., and Bardy, B. G. (2018). Standing or swaying to the beat: discrete auditory rhythms entrain stance and promote postural coordination stability. Gait Posture 59, 28–34. doi: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2017.09.023 Gandemer, L., Parseihian, G., Kronland-Martinet, R., and Bourdin, C. (2014). The influence of horizontally rotating sound on standing balance. Exp. Brain Res. 232, 3813–3820. doi: 10.1007/s00221-014-4066-y Godøy, R. I., Song, M., Nymoen, K., Haugen, M. R., and Jensenius, A. R. (2016). Exploring sound-motion similarity in musical experience. J. New Music Res. 45, 210–222. doi: 10.1080/09298215.2016.1184689 Jensenius, A. R. (2017). “Exploring music-related micromotion,” in Body, Sound and Space in Music and Beyond: Multimodal Explorations, ed C. Wöllner (Oxon: Routledge), 29–48. Available online at: https://www.routledge.com/Body-Sound-and-Space-in-Music-and-Beyond-Multimodal-Explorations/Wollner/p/book/9781472485403 Jensenius, A. R., Nymoen, K., Skogstad, S., and Voldsund, A. (2012). “A study of the noise-level in two infrared marker-based motion capture systems,” in Proceedings of the Sound and Music Computing Conference (Copenhagen), 258–263. Jensenius, A. R., Zelechowska, A., and Gonzalez Sanchez, V. E. (2017). “The musical influence on people's micromotion when standing still in groups,” in Proceedings of the SMC Conferences (Aalto University), 195–200. Keane, J. P. (2009). “Embodied Cognition is a special kind of movement,” in Dance Dialogues: Conversations Across Cultures, Artforms and Practices, ed C. Stockl (Brisbane, QLD: Australian Dance Council). Küssner, M. B., Tidhar, D., Prior, H. M., and Leech-Wilkinson, D. (2014). Musicians are more consistent: gestural cross-modal mappings of pitch, loudness and tempo in real-time. Front. Psychol. 5:789. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00789 Lartillot, O., Eerola, T., Toiviainen, P., and Fornari, J. (2008a). “Multi-feature modeling of pulse clarity: Design, validation, and optimization,” in Proceedings of the International Symposium on Music Information Retrieval (Philadelphia, PA), 521–526. Maes, P.-J., Dyck, E. V., Lesaffre, M., Leman, M., and Kroonenberg, P. M. (2014a). The coupling of action and perception in musical meaning formation. Music Percept. 32, 67–84. doi: 10.1525/mp.2014.32.1.67 Ross, J. M., Warlaumont, A. S., Abney, D. H., Rigoli, L. M., and Balasubramaniam, R. (2016). Influence of musical groove on postural sway. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 42, 308–319. doi: 10.1037/xhp0000198 Stupacher, J., Hove, M. J., and Janata, P. (2014). “Decrypt the groove: audio features of groove and their importance for auditory-motor interactions,” in Proceedings of the 7th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology, SysMus '14 (London). van der Steen, M. M., Jacoby, N., Fairhurst, M. T., and Keller, P. E. (2015). Sensorimotor synchronization with tempo-changing auditory sequences: modeling temporal adaptation and anticipation. Brain Res. 1626, 66–87. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.01.053 Keywords: music-induced motion, sensorimotor synchronization, embodied cognition, movement analysis, motion capture, music information retrieval Citation: Gonzalez-Sanchez VE, Zelechowska A and Jensenius AR (2018) Correspondences Between Music and Involuntary Human Micromotion During Standstill. Front. Psychol. 9:1382. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01382 Received: 25 January 2018; Accepted: 17 July 2018; Published: 07 August 2018. Edited by:Virginia Penhune, Concordia University, Canada Reviewed by:Mats B. Küssner, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany Frank A. Russo, Ryerson University, Canada Maria Witek, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom Copyright © 2018 Gonzalez-Sanchez, Zelechowska and Jensenius. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. *Correspondence: Victor E. Gonzalez-Sanchez, [email protected]	<urn:uuid:2e4e5cf9-c2a6-4832-8106-0669d7f37fcd>	{ "date": "2019-08-24T20:25:46", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-35", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027321696.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20190824194521-20190824220521-00136.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9369304180145264, "score": 2.515625, "token_count": 9775, "url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01382/full" }
When I was in elementary school, I learned that there were nine planets in Earth’s solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Today’s elementary school students learn that there are eight planets in our solar system – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – because, as of August 24, 2006, Pluto is no longer considered a planet. I make this point to remind us that knowledge is partial, circumstantial, and contestable. What we “know” is filtered through our own particular experiences, the contexts in which we find ourselves, and the people with whom we discuss those ideas. As such, the decisions we make are always and already based upon incomplete information. Interestingly, this doesn’t seem to bother us all that much, as we have several coping mechanisms that help us deal with it. Consider the following: - The CEO of a software development company has created a number of committees whose goal is to rethink the various aspects of the company’s upcoming restructuring. She understands that staff will only contribute their time to the committee about which they are most passionate. She also understands that they will likely be passionate about more than one. So she gives them the opportunity to choose up to three, and then rank them in order of preference. That way, no one will be too disappointed if they end up on their second- or third-choice committee. - A researcher is studying the impact of a particular reform initiative on marginalized students and their families. He knows that asking closed-ended, “yes-or-no” questions will not generate the most useful data. So he develops several Leikert-scale questions instead, because he knows they will provide a more nuanced and representative answer to the overall research question. - A young couple with two small children is considering moving out-of-province. There are excellent reasons to go, and excellent reasons to stay. So, they draw up a list of pros and cons for each option, and use it to help them make the best decision for their family. All of these scenarios include unknown elements, and offer no guarantees that things will work out as desired. Yet, they are still good examples of how people create effective decision-making systems that allow them to use the incomplete information they have to make (hopefully!) good choices in their lives. Which brings me to our most recent election… Today, Canada’s 41st Parliament begins. The party in power is not the one that the majority of Canadians chose to put there. One reason for this discrepancy is that our voting system (i.e. decision-making system) considers knowledge to be absolute, decontextualized, and irrefutable: whoever gets the most votes in a riding is the winner. Period. Time and again, this system leaves us indifferent, at best, or outraged, at worst. Yet, whenever the issue is raised of reforming the system to a more representative and proportionate one, people panic and, if given the chance, vote against it.* Why? Why is it that we so readily use sophisticated tools to make decisions that primarily affect only ourselves but, when it comes to making a decision that affects the entire country, we prefer a system that was “invented when people still thought the earth was flat”?** Are we really that selfish? I’d like to think not, but I do wonder, sometimes. If Canadians continue to resist voting reform, we might as well go back to teaching students that Pluto is a planet… … and the world is flat. * I mean, not even adorable kitties could save the voting reform referendum in the UK! ** This quote has been attributed to Larry Gordon, former Executive Director of FairVote Canada, but I haven’t been able to find the original source.	<urn:uuid:12334e48-f9c0-4721-8d58-0b9a9845ff8b>	{ "date": "2019-05-22T09:50:40", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-22", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232256778.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20190522083227-20190522105227-00336.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9630597829818726, "score": 3.015625, "token_count": 809, "url": "https://justdominique.ca/2011/06/02/on-pluto-politics-and-proportionality/" }
It’s important that test scores are consistent and predictable. This stability determines the test’s reliability. Without reliable, measurable results, test scores can’t be evaluated to make diagnoses and develop long-term treatment plans. By determining the reliability and internal consistency of an exam, we can eliminate the need for a standard error of measurement, because there will be less error (if there’s any error at all). The reliability of exams like the ABAS-3 help evaluate an individual accurately and remain consistent with treatment. The measures of the ABAS-3 can not only distinguish between individuals with clinical disorders and those without, but it can also help evaluate the adaptive skills of someone with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability (ID), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Many schools and clinics use the ABAS-3 to assess behavior and develop treatment plans for individuals who struggle with these disorders. The ABAS-3 provides a valid assessment of adaptive behavior for these groups and many others. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by both verbal and nonverbal deficits in communication, social interaction, and restricted or repetitive behavior. The ABAS-3 evaluates adaptive skills like communication, social competence, play, leisure, and self-care in individuals with ASD. Among the two samples of children with ASD, the first includes 51 pre-school children, rated by their primary caregiver and their teacher. The second is a group of 37 school-aged children, measured by their parent and a teacher. Given that the results for both groups matched clinical samples and control groups means that the ABAS-3 is highly accurate, reliable, and consistent. Children with Intellectual Disability Intellectual disability is defined by impairment in both intelligence and adaptive behavior, and someindividuals with ID don’t have the mental ability to adapt to certain environments. A standardized assessment like the ABAS-3 is key in diagnosing individuals with ID. The original edition of the ABAS helped identify and describe adaptive strengths and challenges of ID, and the ABAS-II also included individuals with Down syndrome, but the ABAS-3 builds on these foundations to establish the validity of several new samples. Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder interfere with daily functioning, so while adaptive skills deficits aren’t part of the diagnostic criteria for this disorder, it’s important to recognize the ABAS-3’s ability to evaluate individuals in their environment and establish routines for improvement. To treat ADHD effectively, intervention can improve adaptive skills and reduce the behavioral symptoms of inattentiveness, impulsiveness, and excessive activity. The ABAS-3 identifies areas in which the adaptive skill of self-direction is lacking in individuals with ADHD. Many individuals can’t regulate impulsivity or maintain attention, but the severity of these symptoms can be identified accurately by the ABAS-3. Adult Clinical Sample While these types of disorders are usually identified in children, the ABAS-3 can also help evaluate adults with disorders like ID, ASD, and ADHD. The adult samples are both self-reported and informant-reported. The validity of the ABAS-3 is verified in the fact that the findings in the adult clinical sample are consistent with those of the child and adolescent clinical samples across all diagnostic groups. We can verify from these results that the ABAS-3 can be used to identify the adaptive skill deficits in individuals of any age suffering from ASD, ID, and ADHD. Visit WPS to learn more about the ABAS-3 (Find more information on the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System, Third Edition) and other products.	<urn:uuid:a71becec-46db-4d73-bb86-8814b6c3c613>	{ "date": "2019-05-21T10:52:10", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-22", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232256314.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20190521102417-20190521124417-00496.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9199458956718445, "score": 3.5625, "token_count": 772, "url": "https://orange-revolution.com/category/advertising-marketing" }
A 34-year old Hispanic man with a history of HIV infection is admitted to the hospital. His CD4 cell count is 18 (a normal count is from 500-1200), and he complains of pain in the upper right abdomen, nausea, fever and vomiting. What opportunistic infection has taken hold in his body? How can it be diagnosed? Can anything be done for him? (see below for answers!) What is it? Cryptosporidiosis, or “crypto,” is an enteric disease caused by a protozoa. Crypto is found all over the world. Prevalence rates in Europe and North America range from 1-6%, while rates in Asia and Africa are as high as 20%. It can affect both humans and animals (crypto infections have been found in up to 150 different species), mainly causing watery diarrhea. Other symptoms include abdominal pain, and sometimes fever, malaise, nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. Symptoms usually occur two to ten days after infection, but it is important to note that many crypto infections may be asymptomatic. The most common animal reservoir is cattle, although crypto has been detected in reptiles, birds, and insects. Picture from Medical Journal of Australia website Is it serious? Although crypto is usually cleared by the immune system, it can be life-threatening for people suffering from severe immunodeficiencies, such as AIDS. It also disproportionately affects children from underdeveloped countries. Chronic crypto infection has been linked with impairments in physical fitness and reduced cognitive abilities. Sadly, children with persistant diarrhea enter a vicious cycle of malnutrition of decreased nutritional status and further diarrheal illnesses. How is it transmitted? Crypto is normally a zoonotic infection spread by contaminated water, although food-borne and person-to-person infections have been documented. Many outbreaks can be traced to water run-off carrying animal waste. Endemic transmission usually occurs through contamination of public water sources, such as beaches and pools. It is only in large outbreaks that contamination of the drinking water supply has been implicated. Food-borne transmission has only been reliable documented in one case. Person-to-person transmission is much more frequent, often occurring in nursing homes and day care centers. Crypto has a very low infectious dose (amount needed to establish infection in the host), ranging from 9 to 1000 oocysts, depending on the species of parasite. How does a doctor diagnose an infection? The most widely used diagnostic test is the modified acid-fast or Kinyoun stain. It is used to detect Cryptosporidium in stool samples. Several immunofluorescent assays are also available, which test for antibodies to the parasite in the blood. Some pharmaceutical companies have produced rapid-result commercial assays, which are moderately successful (~75% detection rate). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques might also prove to be effective in diagnosing infection. Picture from Johns Hopkins website Why is it a threat to public health? Crypto is a serious issue for two reasons: current water purification methods are ineffective at removing the parasite from drinking water, and there is no effective therapy to treat cryptosporidium infection. How can transmission be prevented? People should wash their hands regularly as the most effective means of preventing transmission. Immunocompromised individuals should peel, wash, and cook all vegetables thoroughly. They may also wish to boil or filter drinking water. And what about our sick patient? This man has a cryptosporidium infection which will be diagnosed by one of the assays mentioned above. His doctor will attempt to reconstitute his immune system with a HAART regimen, which will hopefully clear the parasite from his system. Otherwise, only supportive care to replenish lost fluids and to prevent wasting is available. 1976—The first two human cases of cryptosporidiosis are reported. 1984—The first reported waterborne outbreak of crypto is attributed to fecal contamination of a public artesian well in Texas. 1993—A crypto outbreak in Milwaukee, Wisconsin sickens 400,000 people and causes over 100 deaths. It is traced to a contaminated water supply. 1996—A food-bourne outbreak occurs in the Northeast U.S. It is determined that unpasteurized apple cider was contaminated during processing. Created by: Rebecca Hammon	<urn:uuid:b4fb0e09-493d-4c72-b456-9acf5c6beb8e>	{ "date": "2014-10-25T14:57:55", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-42", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119648297.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030048-00196-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9509986639022827, "score": 3.453125, "token_count": 895, "url": "http://web.stanford.edu/class/humbio103/ParaSites2003/Cryptosporidiosis/Index.htm" }
Education, Jobs, and Wages by Jack Metzgar Most people are surprised when I tell them that only about 30% of Americans over the age of 25 have bachelor’s degrees. This is especially true of professional middle-class folks who went to high schools where almost everybody went to college immediately after graduation and whose friends now are almost all college graduates. But it’s also true of people from working-class and poor backgrounds, who seem to think they are “abnormal” or “below average” because they haven’t graduated from college. They’re not. They are, in fact, the ones who are “typical.” It’s even more surprising, however, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that in 2010 only 20% of jobs required a bachelor’s degree, whereas 26% of jobs did not even require a high school diploma, and another 43% required only a high school diploma or equivalent. And according to the BLS, this isn’t going to change much by 2020, since the overwhelming majority of jobs by then will still require only a high school diploma or less. What’s more, nearly 3/4ths of “job openings due to growth and replacement needs” over the next 10 years will pay a median wage of less than $35,000 a year, with nearly 30% paying a median of about $20,000 a year (in 2010 dollars). Put these two sets of numbers together, and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Americans are over educated for the jobs that we have and are going to have. It’s hard to imagine why anybody would call us “a knowledge economy.” It’s also hard to see how “in the 21st century, the best anti-poverty program around is a first-class education,” as President Obama famously said in his 2010 State of the Union Address. I don’t want to say that these statistics on education and jobs expose widely held “myths,” because that word suggests things that are utterly and completely false. It’s much more complicated than that. Rather, I’d say that broadly speaking, about one-third of Americans live in one world, while another two-thirds live in a rather different one, but that public discourse – in the mainstream media, for sure, but even more so in elite media and the academy – is conducted by the one-third who are college-educated and have jobs with a fair amount of autonomy and/or a decent income. This one-third mistakenly takes our world to be typical – or said another way, the educated middle class tends to mistake our part of America for the whole. And the larger working-class and poor part does not have enough power or voice to consistently make their presence known to us. That means we are subject to certain uncorrected illusions – mistaking half-truths and quarter-truths for the whole truth — even though we’re the ones who collect and analyze the data. There is, for example, a large and growing “knowledge economy” in the U.S., requiring more than 6 million people with master’s or doctoral degrees now, with another 1.3 million needed by 2020. But even with this faster-than-average growth rate, it will be less than 5% of the overall economy. Even if we expand the definition to include jobs requiring any education beyond high school, the “knowledge economy” – now and a decade from now –will still represent less than one-third of all available jobs. This is a lot of jobs, about 44 million now, and if you work and live in this one-third, especially in its upper reaches, more education can seem like the answer to everything. Indeed, according to the BLS, having a bachelor’s degree should yield a person nearly $30,000 a year more in wages than a high school graduate. But most of the American economy is not like this. The BLS’s three largest occupational categories by themselves accounted for more than one-third of the workforce in 2010 (49 million jobs), and they will make an outsized contribution to the new jobs projected for 2020. They are: - Office and administrative support occupations (median wage of $30,710) - Sales and related occupations ($24,370) - Food preparation and serving occupations ($18,770) Other occupations projected to provide the largest number of new jobs in the next decade include child care workers ($19,300), personal care aides ($19,640), home health aides ($20,560), janitors and cleaners ($22,210), teacher assistants ($23,220), non-construction laborers ($23,460), security guards ($23,920), and construction laborers ($29,280). There are still construction, mining, production, and transportation and material-moving jobs that provide annual incomes north of $40,000 (especially if they are union). But even though all these occupations are projected to grow, some by above-average rates, in 2020 there will be fewer of them than there were in 2006 before the Great Recession, nearly 6 million fewer according to the BLS. The BLS produces its job-projection report every two years, and as I pointed out two years ago, it is consistently misreported in the mainstream media or (as this year) ignored all together. This is partly because the just-the-facts BLS reporting style does not highlight the continuing growth of the low-wage economy. But read it carefully – or just look at all the tables with an open mind – and I don’t think you can avoid two general conclusions: - As an individual, get a bachelor’s degree or you are doomed to work hard for a wage that will not provide a decent standard of living for a family. You may not get such a wage even with a bachelor’s degree, but without it your chances are slim and getting slimmer. - But as a society, “the best anti-poverty program around” cannot possibly be “a first-class education” when more than 2/3rds of our jobs require nothing like that. The best anti-poverty program around is higher wages for the jobs we actually have and will have. If we were serious about eliminating poverty or restoring the credibility of the American Dream or simply respecting lifetimes of hard work, we would be debating how to raise wages directly – how to make it easier for workers to organize themselves into unions, how to get the federal minimum wage higher and on a steady inflation-adjusted escalator, whether to require some kind of workers council for all employers, and then legally require that the benefits of productivity growth be shared with workers. We’d also be discussing how to use a more steeply progressive system of taxation to build a social wage that makes the basics of life – food, housing, mass transit, child care, education, and health care – cheaper for everyone, but most crucially for lower wage workers. Those of us who have benefitted, financially and otherwise, from getting good educations should tell our stories and try to inspire others with the value of education in all its forms. But we need to stop fostering illusions that good educations can ever substitute for the organized collective action – in politics, in the workplace, and in the streets – that will be required to reverse the increasingly miserable wages and conditions most people are facing now and in the future.	<urn:uuid:67dbda90-80e1-4883-9b29-0cf833ad333a>	{ "date": "2014-09-02T14:04:37", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-35", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1409535922087.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20140909042200-00053-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9607501029968262, "score": 2.5625, "token_count": 1577, "url": "http://www.unions.org/home/union-blog/2012/03/19/education-jobs-and-wages/" }
Posted by: Jen Anderle By Emily Huizenga Journalist Paul Tough visited Snell Library November 8th to discuss his latest book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. Emily Mann of the Human Services department gave Tough a brief introduction, describing his book as “one with humor and substance, one that questions conventions.” Tough began his discussion of How Children Succeed with the suggestion that parents and educators have been emphasizing “the wrong skills and activities in the cognitive development of kids.” He described his travels around the country when writing the book: talking to researchers, educators, and students at both private academies and inner-city schools, studying everything from chess players to lab rats. Ultimately, he concluded that “character education,” not just test scores, may be key to children’s success. He laughed, admitting that when he wasn’t doing research for his book he couldn’t help but think of his own son, then just an infant, as “a little experiment subject.” Tough emphasized one discovery that he said even he found surprising. He said, “If we want children to succeed, we must first let them fail.” He explained the stress-response system, which children develop at infancy. While “too much damage can last a lifetime,” some conflict and stress is necessary so kids can develop what researchers are now calling “grit.” Tough likened the idea to the difference between exercising on a treadmill and exercising by climbing a mountain: both will get you in shape, but only one has the added stress of the possibility of failure. This, he said, is key to fostering seven character strengths some educators are now deeming important to success: optimism, zest, curiosity, social intelligence, gratitude, self-control, and grit. “What we have in this country is an adversity gap,” Tough said, explaining some kids need more chances to fail, more “inner strength,” while others need more nurturing, more care. In both cases, Tough said, the common denominator is the caregiver. We would like to thank Human Services for bringing Paul Tough to campus, and a huge thank you to Paul Tough for such an engaging author talk! Posted in: Serendipity	<urn:uuid:5d6a73bf-c45a-4f62-b5b4-724797e5bc63>	{ "date": "2017-05-23T18:36:26", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-22", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607649.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20170523183134-20170523203134-00110.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9687159657478333, "score": 2.984375, "token_count": 496, "url": "http://www.lib.neu.edu/snippets/?p=5541" }
Students often do not feel comfortable using English in the English classroom because they lost of their self-confident. Teenagers are very sensitive. In this situation, teacher must guide them patiently. Here are the tips for helping them : 1.First, provide visual material them. It should be familiar with their environment. 2.Build words as many as possible to the target language 3.Practice the words through reading together with them. 4.Get the meaning of the words : temporary meaning 5.Ask one by one students to read, teacher must check out students sound production. 6.Write the words through the sentences 7.Give them with the real meaning of words in the sentence. 8.Reflection: let’s talk with your students. It is for best learning outcome to your teaching. These ways may be the one way of millions ways to your successfully teaching. This writing is written through my experiences. If readers are interested in carrying out the research, I please you to try it. An d I hope that you are the best researcher.	<urn:uuid:e8c1506f-7892-4e56-b9ca-afb517407438>	{ "date": "2015-07-01T19:09:53", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-27", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375095184.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031815-00236-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.963225245475769, "score": 3.84375, "token_count": 223, "url": "http://tantangangurubermutu.blogspot.com/" }
A back view of the Moshassuck Square Apartments and the Moshassuck River. The Moshassuck Square Apartments, designed by architect William D. Warner and constructed in 1972, were a key element in the revitalization of Randall Square. The apartments are built in a row of three and four story cast-stone-trimmed brick buildings. Creator 1 Role Housing - Apartment Houses - Rhode Island - Providence; Moshassuck River; United States of America 77 Charles St. Smolski, Chet, "Moshassuck Square: Back REDE" (1975). Smolski Images. 190. downtown improvement; housing; inner cities;	<urn:uuid:e736126a-fe07-4f4e-a00a-6714be20d529>	{ "date": "2018-08-18T21:32:02", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-34", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221213794.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20180818213032-20180818233032-00496.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.8415334820747375, "score": 2.5625, "token_count": 148, "url": "https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/smolski_images/190/" }
For a CT scan you may have heard of beforehand or may be asked by a doctor what is it? Is there a risk of exposure? Follow this article to learn more about these rays. CT scan is also called axial tomography, or tomography. It is an advanced type of radiation that uses the X-rays (x-rays) to produce three-dimensional images of the body. What is CT scan? CT scan is also called axial tomography, or tomography. It is an advanced type of ray. X-rays are used to produce three-dimensional images of the body by combining several images from different angles, such as looking at slices of bread after cutting them accidentally with a knife. . The doctor examines these slides individually and may require imaging for a specific part of different angles or convert the image to three-dimensional by combining several images in one image at certain angles, which provides information much more accurate than ordinary X-ray. CT scans are used in multiple cases but mainly to detect internal bleeding or injuries after trauma in any part of the body, and are used to diagnose most diseases. Cases requiring CT work - Diagnosis of bone and muscle diseases such as tumors and fractures. - Used to make rays on the brain, and locate infections, tumors, clots. - In certain cases they are used as a guide for some surgeries, samples or radiation therapy. - Discover and follow up on such conditions as cancer, heart disease, lung and liver tumors. - The discovery of internal injuries and internal bleeding. CT scan types - Linear CT. - Computer CT is the type that is now used. What are the risks of CT? Exposure to radiation: In CT scans, radiation is much more common than normal radiation but does not have the ability to get cancer. Risk to Embryos: In case of pregnancy you should tell your doctor to give you another test such as ultrasound or magnetic resonance to avoid exposure of the fetus to radiation. Sensitivity to pigments: In some cases, the body may react to this substance and most of these cases are limited to only some itching or rash, but in cases Rarely, the reaction may be very serious. If this has already happened to you, you should tell your doctor before taking any steps. Are there certain preparations for radiation? Depending on where you are examined, you may be asked to get rid of some or all of your clothes, take off any jewelry or metal objects, or fast for a while before the radiation. In some cases, the doctor needs to inject certain dyes to highlight areas of the body, such as blood vessels or intestines, which can be used by mouth if the goal is to shoot the esophagus or stomach or intravenous injection in case of gallbladder imaging, urinary system or liver vessels and may feel some warmth Or a variable oral taste after injection of this substance, and also by anus to portray the large intestine and rectum. CT scan for children A sedative may be used to maintain the baby’s stability and calm during the procedure to avoid a confusing result.	<urn:uuid:494155fc-ff56-47a2-b6c7-8ffc72886ad0>	{ "date": "2018-12-14T13:10:25", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-51", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376825728.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20181214114739-20181214140239-00216.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9444062113761902, "score": 3.90625, "token_count": 650, "url": "http://peekerhealth.com/2018/04/12/ct-scan-used-risks-results/" }
The Southerly Bluster is a colloquial expression for strong southerly winds that sweep up the New South Wales coast at the end of a hot summer’s day. Records show that about 30 southerly buster fronts move up the coast annually. However, only in 5 or 6 cases each year do the climatic conditions align sufficiently to produce real Blusters. For the really big blusters, you need a strong cold front travelling north east up the coast to arrive over Sydney in the hottest part of the day, generally late afternoon. If this occurs you can get an impressive rolling cloud front accompanied by 40-50 knot winds and a temperature drop of up to 15°C in 30 mins. This is the classic Southerly Bluster. So what causes them? A southerly buster usually occurs in spring and summer and there are a number of geographical and climatic conditions required to generate them: - In the southern hemisphere, you need a mountain range running near an eastern coastline, our Great Dividing Range does just this. - An existing cold front that is moving perpendicular to the mountain range. - Hot air ahead of the front. Cold fronts in Australia typically travel north east, as does our Great Dividing Range. As the front progresses along the mountains, the cold wedge of air pushes up the warm air ahead of it as in any normal cold front. To balance the forces at work in the front (the pressure difference between the warm and cold air and the Coriolis force produced by the earth’s rotation) a cold wind develops behind the front that runs at right angles to the direction of motion of the front. This wind is called a Geostrophic wind, and In the Southern Hemisphere the wind will blow to the left (looking in the direction of travel of the front). Along the NSW coast this westerly Geostrophic wind is blocked by the face of the Great Diving Range, and as it can’t escape, veers north. The result being a cold blast of cold air rushing up the NSW coast. This air cold blast over the coast moves ahead of the air running along the mountains, which slows due to friction and this this distorts the cold front into an ‘S’ shape instead of a straight line, Synoptic charts will generally demonstrate this. The bigger the temperature differential of the cold front, the greater the buster. On the far south coast of NSW the enhancement of the front due to the temperature difference effect is not great. This effect reaches a maximum intensity between Nowra and Newcastle (Sydney being right between the two towns) and rarely has much effect north of Coffs Harbour. Southerly Blusters are generally very well forecast, although, the exact time of arrival can be hard for the Bureau of Meteorology to predict, so it’s best to be cautious. While a strong weather system, they are usually short lived. In fact within a couple of hours of the front passing winds will have eased substantially. So if you are caught out, reduce sail in advance and hang on! Photo courtesy of Daily Telegraph.	<urn:uuid:76b629c3-c5fb-4ea5-b7a8-93704fa645d4>	{ "date": "2019-02-23T09:39:10", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-09", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550249495888.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20190223082039-20190223104039-00096.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9297689199447632, "score": 3.453125, "token_count": 648, "url": "https://ayachtmoretolife.com/2019/02/13/southerly-blusters/" }
One of the things I find striking about texts from the early history of Reform Judaism is how relevant they remain. In class this week, the issue of the reformers' motivations was raised several times. Did they just want to assimilate? Did they push reform for political reasons? These somewhat cynical motivations certainly played a role. But I am convinced that the birth of Reform Judaism was motivated primarily by true religious commitment. Personally, I believe our founders were authentic in their belief that Judaism can and must change in keeping with the course of human history. Their struggle for a meaningful Jewish experience in the modern context remains our struggle today. In his opening address to the Breslau Rabbinical Conference in 1846, Abraham Geiger described it this way: The conditions are difficult, and confusion in religious affairs appears to be on the increase; despite this you are in this conference again making the courageous attempt to place the pure eternal content of Judaism in a form suited to the present and thus to breathe into it a new and powerful spirit. You wish to convince, to lead to the truth, not to forge bonds and fetters; you know full well that you do not appear here as guardians of consciences, that you have no sovereign power over the inalienable religious freedom of congregations and individuals; nay, you would repudiate such power were it to be offered you, for true religion can prosper and grow only in the atmosphere of freedom of conviction. (quoted in David Philipson, The Reform Movement in Judaism) There are countless similar examples, romantic invocations of the spiritual and intellectual project of Reform Judaism. Perhaps they are better suited to their romantic era—but I can't help but feel that studying, reading, and hearing our ideological predecessors would give us a great sense of purpose, pride, and identity as Reform Jews.	<urn:uuid:135b13d8-3464-4ed2-863e-45c879fb33fb>	{ "date": "2017-02-25T18:08:34", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-09", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171807.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00024-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9715209007263184, "score": 2.859375, "token_count": 374, "url": "http://whctemple.blogspot.com/" }
Famous Marriages Thomas Edison and Mina Miller Part 1 About the marriage between inventor Thomas Edison and Mina Miller, history of their courtship. ANATOMY OF SOME CELEBRATED MARRIAGES Thomas Edison and Mina Miller Courtship: The death of Thomas Edison's first wife, Mary Stilwell, in August of 1884 precipitated a change in the man that had been imminent for years. No longer a maverick inventor, Edison had become a man of national stature and considerable means; in fact, he was a millionaire. Accordingly, when he began to search for a new wife six months after Mary's death, he was looking for a sophisticated, bright-minded belle who was a member of chic society--everything that the simple, good-hearted Mary had not been. Living in an apartment near Gramercy Park in New York, Edison made regular trips to Boston in the winter and spring of 1885; there he stayed at the home of his friends Mr. and Mrs. Gilliard. The Gilliards always made sure that some eligible young lady was visiting at the same time, and she would be paraded before the illustrious inventor. Many of these ladies made the mistake of heaping elaborate praises on his head or fawning over him because of his celebrity status. Edison despised this. Half-deaf, bug-eyed, plagued with halitosis and dandruff, Edison could be a bit disconcerting to a young woman, as he customarily thrust his pale face very close to the girl's in order to hear her words. One 18-year-old Ohio lass, who kept perfect self-composure upon meeting the great man one night in early 1885, soon became his second wife. Mina Miller, daughter of Lewis Miller, the wealthy farm-implement manufacturer and cofounder of the evangelistic Chautauqua Association, reportedly played the piano and sang for the entertainment of the Gilliards's guest that night, and by his own account, Edison was "staggered" by the young woman. While no musical heavyweight, Mina performed with zeal and engaging self-confidence, and when Edison fixed her with a protracted stare, she coolly and directly returned the gaze. Miss Miller was described at this time as a voluptuous beauty, with "rich black hair and great dazzling eyes." Shortly after this first meeting, Edison ordered two photographs of himself to be sent to Mina in Boston. Later that winter Edison journeyed to Florida in search of a vegetable fiber to use in his incandescent lamp. Marion, Edison's 13-year-old daughter from his first marriage, accompanied her father on the trip and reported that he spoke incessantly of the perfection of Miss Mina Miller throughout their travels. Edison found his own version of paradise in Fort Myers, then a small village, and apparently decided that he must do three things: build a winter home in Florida, marry Mina, and bring her to his tropical Eden. Once back in New York, Edison--normally a workaholic--was obsessed with his new love. He wrote in his diary at this time: "Saw a lady who looked like Mina. Got thinking about Mina and came near being run over by a streetcar. If Mina interferes much more will have to take out an accident policy." \|You Are Here: Trivia-Library Home » History of Famous Marriages and Couples » Famous Marriages Thomas Edison and Mina Miller Part 1\| \|DISCLAIMER: PLEASE READ - By printing, downloading, or using you agree to our full terms. Review the full terms at the following URL: /disclaimer.htm\|	<urn:uuid:137a60ea-1b56-474b-b7a0-9ad7f2ecede4>	{ "date": "2016-12-11T02:09:27", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-50", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698543782.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170903-00440-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.975851833820343, "score": 2.609375, "token_count": 766, "url": "https://www.trivia-library.com/b/famous-marriages-thomas-edision-and-mina-miller-part-1.htm" }
Item description for A Chain of Kings: The Makassarese Chronicles of Gowa and Talloq (Biblotheca Indonesica) by William Cummings... The chronicles of Gowa and Talloq are the most important historical sources for the study of precolonial Makassar. They have provided the basic framework and much of the information that we possess about the origins, growth, and expansion of Gowa during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. During this period Gowa and its close ally Talloq became the most powerful force in the eastern Indonesian archipelago, and historians have relied heavily on these chronicles to chart the developments of this period. Available for the first time in English translation, these two texts will offer historians an invaluable foundation on which to base interpretations of this crucial place and time in Indonesian history. This volume will be a useful addition to the libraries of scholars of premodern Southeast Asia, including historians, linguists, anthropologists, and others. Promise Angels is dedicated to bringing you great books at great prices. Whether you read for entertainment, to learn, or for literacy - you will find what you want at promiseangels.com! Studio: Kitlv Press Est. Packaging Dimensions: Length: 0.25" Width: 6" Height: 9" Weight: 0.52 lbs. Release Date Aug 30, 2007 Publisher Kitlv Press ISBN 9067182877 ISBN13 9789067182874	<urn:uuid:3f473f69-cb86-4320-bac8-25b52b68760e>	{ "date": "2017-01-16T10:55:51", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-04", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279169.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00056-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.879796028137207, "score": 2.671875, "token_count": 305, "url": "http://www.promiseangels.com/william-cummings/a-chain-of-kings-the-makassarese-chronicles-of-gowa/SKU/184341" }
The area around Alfriston in East Sussex must have been occupied from neolithic times as a number of barrows from this period have been found higher up the surrounding Downs . Alfriston lies in the Cuckmere valley just off the main A27 Eastbourne to Lewes road. The village was settled long before the Norman invasion of 1066 , as the mound that the church lies on was an old Saxon burial ground. St Lewinna a Saxon virgin Christian was killed by the Saxons in 690AD and her body was kept at the church, her relics were attributed to a number of miracles. They were stolen by a monk from Belgium and transported to the Priory of Bergue St Winox in 1058. King Alfred was believed to have burnt the cakes at the Star Inn in the village, this is possible as he had his palace a few miles away at West Dean . The majority of the church of St Andrews was built in the 1300's and is known as The Cathedral of the Downs. The rectory was built in the 14th century and is of wattle and daub construction. This building is now owned by the National Trust, and is open to the public. The Star Inn it is believed was built as a hostel by the Abbot of Battle. In the 1500's it was turned into an Inn with numerous wooden figures looking down on passing travellers, these figures still remain watching. Outside the Inn is a red Lion, once the figurehead of a Dutch ship which was wrecked in the 1800's and was raided by Stanton Collins and his smugglers. Many of the old buildings in the village are tiled in Horsham Tiles . Towards the end of the 1700's the son and heir of the Chowne family, who owned Place House Estate, went for a walk with his dog, and was attacked by thieves. He was killed by a blow to the head, and the thieves buried the young man. Seven years later, a couple were walking along the road, and saw a small white dog that walked into the bank of the read. Every seven years the phantom dog returned until the early 1800 when the skeleton of a young man was found while the road was being widened, his bones were moved to the church and the ghostly dog never reappeared. During the Napoleonic Wars Alfriston was the home to a large number of troops, they were to have been there to repel the invaders should they have got past the Martello towers and the cliffs on the coast. The village gained from this friendly invasion by providing food drink and other services to the troops. After the Napoleonic wars the village turned to smuggling, and the Alfriston gang, well known for their violence, used the Cuckmere river to bring the illegal goods in to the village. The gang was broken up when the leader Stanton Collins was caught for sheep rustling in the early 1830's and transported to Australia. Nowadays the village is a tourist attraction with its many old buildings and its feel of an ancient time. \|Alfriston in East Sussex has many beautiful views within the village, looking at the Star Inn can keep you occupied for quite a while with its figures. The high street is a beautiful example of an old Sussex village, and has many beautiful old buildings. The area near the church and river Cuckmere is very pretty and it is enjoyable just walking around the village. Above the Grizzly Bear shop is a very interesting historical exhibition of the village and this is worth visiting. \| \|Alfriston in East Sussex has a wide range of shops with the emphasis on gift shops, antiques and food establishments, showing the influence that tourism now has on the The nearest trains run from the station at Berwick about 2 miles to the north. The shopping centre of Lewes lies about 6 miles to the north west. \|Alfriston is shown as the red symbol on the map.\| (click on symbol to see the village page) \|\|(Fifty thousand tiles on the Barn)\|\|1.78 miles\| \|\|(Peaceful Saxon Village)\|\|3.09 miles\| \|\|(At the base of Mount Caburn)\|\|5.61 miles\| \|\|(Sharpen your arrows on the Church)\|\|1.14 miles\| \|\|(Largest Tide-Mill in Sussex)\|\|3.23 miles\| \|\|(The miniature church)\|\|3.96 miles\| \|\|(Earl Godwins Manor)\|\|4.25 miles\| \|\|(Mutiny and the Edge of Space)\|\|3.20 miles\| \|\|(Fishing and Wrecking)\|\|4.14 miles\| \|\|(Alfred the Great's Naval Base?)\|\|2.26 miles\| \|\|(Teasles and Badgers)\|\|2.35 miles\| \|\|(Home of the Railway Children)\|\|3.68 miles\| \|\|(Home of English Opera)\|\|5.39 miles\| \|\|(Ropes and Napoleon)\|\|5.85 miles\| \|\|(Smugglers and Churchill Tanks)\|\|2.81 miles\| \|\|(Secret marriage of George IV)\|\|1.18 miles\| \|\|(destroyed by Cromwell ??)\|\|0.42 miles\| \|\|(Fine old Tower Mill)\|\|3.99 miles\| \|\|(The cormorants or shags)\|\|3.42 miles\| \|\|(Tomb to store the Contraband)\|\|2.54 miles\| \|\|(The Chest from the Spanish Armarda)\|\|4.97 miles\| \|\|(The Long Man)\|\|1.69 miles\| \|\|(Home of the Greengage)\|\|4.01 miles\|	<urn:uuid:0499f757-24fb-4942-ab51-d07216c8445a>	{ "date": "2018-05-26T00:14:25", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-22", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794867254.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20180525235049-20180526015049-00256.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9533553719520569, "score": 2.640625, "token_count": 1243, "url": "http://orig.villagenet.co.uk/?v=alfriston_east%20sussex" }
Carrier’s most interminable chapter, running a full 123 pages of heavily footnoted analysis, concerns the four canonical Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. According to Carrier the fundamental question is, “Are the Gospels fictional constructs, like the Wisdom of Jesus Christ and Plutarch’s Life of Romulus? In other words, are they just myths? Or are they some kind of historical records we can rely on to prove Jesus existed?” (p. 388) I describe the chapter as ‘interminable’ because the ultimate conclusion Carrier reaches is that the Gospels have no ultimate effect on our attempts to distinguish between minimal historicity and minimal mythicism. Carrier’s conclusion is, “The Gospels generally afford us no evidence whatever for discerning a historical Jesus. Because of their extensive use of fabrication and literary invention and their placing of other goals far ahead of what we regard as ‘historical truth’, we cannot know if anything in them has any historical basis—except what we can verify externally, which for Jesus is next to nothing. They are simply myths about Jesus and the gospel. They are not seriously researched biographies or historical accounts—and are certainly not eyewitness testimonies or even collected hearsay. Their literary art and structure are simply too sophisticated for that. This is equally expected on both minimal historicity and minimal mythicism, however, and therefore… the Gospels have no effect on the probability that Jesus existed, neither to raise or lower it” (pp. 506-507). Carrier then addresses directly the two opposing camps. “A more ardent skeptic could disagree. Here I am arguing a fortiori, and as such granting historicity its best shot. But some will still ask why the Gospels appear out of nowhere forty to eighty years after the fact, as fully structured literary myths, rather than there being more mundane reports, memoirs and accounts, closer to the events concerned, only later evolving into increasingly grandiose myths” (p. 507). Carrier then mentions an example of another figure where this happened for illustration, but concludes that valid as these questions are, there could be reasons for the Church to have not preserved any prior material, and thus the Gospels are equally likely to be as they are under mythicism and historicism. Addressing the other camp, “A more ardent apologist might disagree in the other direction, and ask how it is the cosmic myths became earthly myths. Isn’t a historical Jesus in fact more mundane, and thus a shift in an unexpected direction? More mundane, yes; but unexpected, no. That very trend to euhemerize (and thus make more mundane the tales of cosmic gods) was actually typical (Element 45). Indeed, to serve their obvious function as models for missionary life, values and teaching, not only must Jesus’ story be transformed to resemble the early experience of missionaries…, but a Gospel’s text also becomes considerably more powerful and effective if it is also taken literally…. Such historicizing also gave church hierarchies more control over doctrine and a rhetorical advantage over competitors, and thus it is more likely to be an observed feature of the eventually prevailing sect” (pp. 507-508). Carrier then explores what all of this implies for future research concerning the Gospels. “We need to shift entirely to asking the question ‘What is the author attempting to say or accomplish with this story, or with his revision of this story?’ and not “Did that actually happen?’ Because the latter simply wasn’t a concern of these authors. Even if they were concerned to convince people it happened, they were not themselves concerned if it actually did. They had a different agenda, and are crafting the myths they need to sell it. The Gospels were produced by faith communities for preaching, teaching and propaganda, and not as disinterested or even interested biographical inquiry. There is no indication in them of a quest to determine what Jesus really said or did. There is no discussion of sources or of reasons to prefer one claim to another or of attempts to interpret contradictory data or even any mention of the existence of real alternative accounts (even though we know they knew of them—because they all covertly used them as source material). Each author just makes Jesus say or do whatever they want. They change the story as it suits them and neglect to mention they did so. They craft literary artifices and symbolic narratives routinely. They frequently rewrite classical and biblical stories and just insert Jesus into them. If willing to do all that…, the authors of the Gospels clearly had no interest in any actual historical data. And if they had no interest in that…, they didn’t need a historical Jesus. Even if there had been one, he was wholly irrelevant to their aims and designs. These are not historians. They are mythographers; novelists; propagandists. They are deliberately inventing what they present in their texts. And they are doing it for a reason…. The Gospels simply must be approached as such. We have to stop thinking we can use them as historical sources” (pp. 508-509). With such a large amount of material analyzed in this chapter, and with no significant impact of any of it specifically on the comparison between our two minimal hypotheses, I am left with something of a conundrum in deciding how to proceed with my summary of this material. Covering all of it seems pointless, and yet covering enough of it to make the case that it is better viewed as literature and myth rather than as history is vital. I will do the best that I can to walk this tightrope. As Carrier says, “It is therefore crucially important to determine whether the Gospels are myth. This cannot be achieved by identifying their genre, because myth exists in all genres. It can be achieved only by confirming whether they contain narratives that conform more to the definition of myth than of history. Are the central narratives of the Gospels historically improbable but symbolically meaningful? Is this meaning concealed by a superficially ‘historical’ narrative that is highly allusive to other myths, texts or concepts that increase both the interpretability and likelihood of the content of that narrative, more than a supposition of history would? And is this evident in both the parallels to and the conspicuous deviations from those targets of allusion?… Characteristics of myth are (1) strong and meaningful emulation of prior myths (or even of real events); (2) the presence of historical improbabilities (which are not limited to ‘miracles’ but can include natural events that are very improbable, like amazing coincidences or unrealistic behavior); and (3) the absence of external corroboration of key (rather than peripheral) elements (because a myth can incorporate real people and places, but the central character or event will still be fictional). No one of these criteria is sufficient to identify a narrative as mythical. But the presence of all three is conclusive. And the presence of one or two can also be sufficient, when sufficiently telling” (pp. 393-394). Moving from the identification of individual mythical narratives to the evaluation of a Gospel as a whole, Carrier says, “if there are many clear instances of mythmaking in a Gospel, and no clear instances of the contrary, then the remainder of that Gospel must be assumed to be (more probably than not) mythical, even if we can’t prove it in any of those remaining cases. The effect of this on historicity will not be to establish that Jesus didn’t exist but to eliminate evidence for his existence…. The net effect is simply the removal of the Gospels as evidence” (p. 395). Examining the Gospels The Gospels “lack all substantive… markers of being researched histories, even by the lax standards of antiquity. At no point do the Gospels name their sources or discuss their relative merits or why they are relying on them; at no point do the Gospels exhibit any historiographical consciousness (such as discussing methods, or the possibility of information being incorrect, or the existence of non-polemical alternative accounts); they don’t even express amazement at anything they report, no matter how incredible it is (unlike a more rational historian); and they never explain why they changed what their sources said, nor do they even acknowledge the fact that they did (as when, e.g., Luke or Matthew alters what they derive from Mark). And unlike many other ancient authors, they do not explain who they are or why they are qualified to relate the accounts they do. Only one Gospel, Luke, employs even the superficial trappings of actual history writing, such as explaining what his purpose in writing is and attempting to date events. But… that appears to be a ruse” (p. 396). “Instead, the Gospels look like the edifying but fictional biographies composed for many other heroes and sages…. As David Gowler observes, they appear to be assembled networks of vignettes (periscopes in the language of biblical studies) that were already identified in ancient schools as chreiai, a standard rhetorical device that was extensively taught to all students of literary Greek (and as the authors of the Gospels wrote in literary Greek, we know they attended those schools). “Students were actually taught to invent narratives about famous and legendary persons, and to build a symbolic or moral message out of general rules or proverbs. As Gowler explains, ‘the composition of the stories in the Synoptic Gospels is very similar to such exercises as the expansion and elaboration of chreiai found in other ancient literature and delineated in ancient rhetorical handbooks’, in which authors ‘were free to vary the wording, details, and dynamics of chreiai according to their ideological and rhetorical interests’, and in fact they ‘were taught and encouraged’ to make both minor and major changes even to traditional stories in order to make whatever point they desired. Schools also taught the method of emulating old stories by rewriting them into new ones with new characters and outcomes—in other words, what we saw Virgil had done to Homer was a standard method of composing stories taught in all schools of the day. Which means ancient schools taught their students how to construct symbolically meaningful historical fiction, by both innovating and emulating other fiction” (pp. 397-398). In particular, the “Gospels operate through extended parables, not recollections of memory, direct or transmitted” (p. 398). “All of this is generally admitted by most scholars, who nevertheless are usually certain these literary constructs are built around some sort of historical core or the barest seeds of real transmitted memories. All they have to do, they assume, is develop the tools needed to extract those historical needles from the rhetorical haystacks of the Gospels. But none of the tools they have developed work. Every expert who has published a direct examination of them has concluded that they are invalid and incapable of doing what is claimed” (p. 399). After Carrier discusses the Criterion of Embarrassment as an example of such a failed critical tool, he goes into an extended example evaluating the elision in the Gospels of ‘Nazorian’ with ‘Nazareth’, which are two unrelated concepts, and then the failure of arguments from Aramaic sources. Following this discussion, he dives into each of the canonical Gospels in turn. The Gospel of Mark For fifty-four pages, Carrier analyzes the Gospel of Mark in detail. The main arguments are: - The story of Barabbas is an extended Yom Kippur allegory about atonement, which cleverly incorporates the sacrifices of the other primary Jewish holy day, Passover. - The crucifixion scene is a patchwork fabrication mined from Psalms 22 and 69, Amos 8.9, Zechariah 9-14, Isaiah 53, and Wisdom 2. - Jesus’s resurrection of a girl in Mark 5.22-43 is a rewrite of the story of Elisha in 2 Kings 4.17-37. - The thematic structure of the narratives fits literary aims rather than historical ones. For example, the “ceaseless incomprehension of the disciples… is wholly unrealistic. No real human beings would ever be that dense or take so long to understand what Jesus was saying and doing, or learn nothing in between episodes (as if they never spoke to one another except in the few brief exchanges Mark depicts). In reality a single hour’s conversation with Jesus would have resolved all questions. This literary fiction of the dense lackeys is adapted either from Homer’s similarly unrealistic depiction of the fickleness and incomprehension of Odysseus’s crew or from Exodus’s equally unrealistic depiction of the fickleness and incomprehension of the Jews—most likely both…. In each case such ‘group stupidity’ only makes sense as a deliberate literary device” (p. 411). - The overall structure of Mark’s narratives employ a common-at-the-time literary device known as ring composition. I will explore this and several other structural idiosyncrasies in more detail below. - Shared plot structures between Mark’s Passion Narrative and typical Jewish myths and legends. - One “of the most peculiar (and obviously fictional) episodes in Mark’s entire Gospel: the withering of the fig tree. As history it makes no sense at all, not only because it defies the laws of physics, but also because Jesus’ behavior would be wholly illogical had such a thing actually happened—for he curses a fig tree because it isn’t bearing figs for him to eat… even though it wasn’t the season for figs! (Mk 11.12-14). The fig tree promptly withers before nightfall (Mk 11.19-22). Obviously this story is completely made up. But why write such a bizarre story? to illustrate a point…. this is a parable about Jesus and the Gospel, a bit of fiction Mark has composed to communicate something he wants to say, using Jesus as its central character. As here, so everywhere else in the Gospel: Mark is writing parables about Jesus as a mythical character; he is not recording anyone’s memories of a historical man” (p. 433). The allegorical meaning of this passage is the withering of the temple’s tradition of sacrifice. This is signaled by wrapping the fig tree story around the clearing of the temple; the allegory wraps the meaning of the allegory. Mark uses this narrative marker approach in multiple places within his Gospel. - “Mark created his fiction by fusing Homeric parallels with biblical ones. Just as Virgil updated Homer by recasting the time and place and all the characters to suit Roman mythology, and then changed key things to communicate how Roman values were superior to Greek, Mark updated homer by recasting the time and place and all the characters to suit Jewish and (newly minted) Christian mythology, and to fit the Roman history and political reality the Christians now lived in, and then changed key things (often by drawing on the Septuagint) to communicate how Christian values were superior to Jewish, Greek and Roman values. Jesus is not only the new (and better) Moses and Elijah and Elisha, he is also the new (and better) Odysseus and Romulus…, and the new Socrates and Aesop…” (p. 436). Mark overall has the following structure: - The Discipling Narrative (chaps. 1-3) - The Sea Narrative (chaps. 4.1-8.26) - The Road Narrative (chaps. 8.27-10) - The Passover Narrative (chaps. 11-16) The “Sea Narrative’s structure is consistently artificial” (p. 412): - Cycle 1 - Phase 1 (4.1-34): Jesus with crowds by sea [preaching from a boat] - Phase 2 (4.35-41): eventful crossing of sea - Phase 3 (5.1-20): landing with healings/exorcisms - Interval 1: - Step 1 (5.21-43): first stop [after an uneventful boating] - Step 2 (6.1-6): second stop - Step 3 (6.6-29): going around - Cycle 2: - Phase 1 (6.30-44): Jesus with crowds by sea [with an uneventful boating] - Phase 2 (6.45-52): eventful crossing of sea - Phase 3 (6.53-55): landing with healings/exorcisms - Interval 2: - Step 1 (6.56-7.23): going around - Step 2 (7.24-30): first stop - Step 3 (7.31-37): second stop - Cycle 3: - Phase 1 (8.1-12): Jesus with crowds by sea [with an uneventful boating] - Phase 2 (8.13-21): eventful crossing of sea - Phase 3 (8.22-26): landing with healings/exorcisms Prior to this cyclical triad “Jesus had also journeyed to the sea and taught by the sea three times (Mk 1.16; 2.13; 3.7) without embarking on a boat, but now he embarks on a boat… and makes six journeys by boat, three eventful ones (each part of a three-phase cycle repeated three times) and three uneventful ones that make a looser pattern” (p. 413). Between the three Cycles are two intervals that involve Jesus traveling inland away from the sea of Galilee and back again also in a triadic pattern. First from the shore to the house of Jairus, then to the hometown of Jesus, and then circulating around the towns to complete the first interval. The second interval reverses the sequence. The patterns continue into the smaller details, but I think the larger point is made. “Every unit of this narrative has the same literary purpose, a message about faith and the gospel, playing the incomprehension of the disciples (and rejection of Jesus by neighbors and kin) against the ready faith of outsiders… even though they don’t understand. The cyclic triad even begins and ends on the theme of ‘seeing, hearing, understanding’ (compare Mk 4.12 with 8.17-21), and continually contrasts human expectations… with the true realities offered by the gospel. When you look at what Mark has to do to force the narrative to fit this elegant structure so perfectly, and the central role of unbelievable events or behaviors in nearly every one of his scenes, it is no longer possible to believe Mark is recording memory or even re-crafting historical lore. He is inventing all of this, each scene his own parable, usually with Jesus cast as the central character, illustrating symbolically something the reader needs to understand about the gospel. This is an artful literary creation, start to finish” (p. 414). Within this pattern is layered yet another: “two matching sequences of five miracles each, interspersed with parables and preaching and generic references to miracles (i.e. other miracles mentioned by not narrated)” (p. 415): - First Sequence - Mastery of the Waters: Stilling of the storm (4.35-41) - Exorcism of a Gentile Man: The Gerasene Demoniac (5.1-20) - Curing an Older Woman: The Woman with a Hemorrhage (5.25-34) - Curing a Younger Woman: Jairus’ Daughter (5.21-23, 35-43) - Miraculous Feeding: Feeding of the 5,000 (6.34-44, 53) - Second Sequence - Mastery of the Waters: Jesus walk on the sea (6.45-51) - Exorcism of a Gentile Woman: The Syrophoenician Woman (7.24-30) - Curing a Deaf Man with Spit: The Deaf-Mute (7.32-37) - Miraculous Feeding: Feeding of the 4,000 (8.1-10) - Curing a Blind Man with Spit: The Blind Man of Bethsaida (8.22-26) The traditions from Jewish scripture show a common sequence of five miracles from holy men. For comparison, consider Moses, who masters the waters with his parting of the Red Sea (Exod. 13-15), refers to God’s healing (Exod. 15.22-27), manna from heaven (Exod. 16), calls water from a rock (Exod. 17.1-7), and demonstrates power over the violent forces of evil (Exod. 17.8-16). Looking back at the overall structure of Mark, The Sea Narrative, with its remarkably cyclical structure, is itself embedded within the mirrored bookends of the Discipling Narrative and the Road Narrative. Consider: - A: Peripheral ministry begins (1.14-34) - B: People looking for Jesus to be healded (1.35-38) – but Jesus says he needs to teach more people - C: Jesus ventures out (1.39-45) – throughout all Galilee - D: Jesus stops at Capernaum (2.1-12) – explains he can forgive sins - E: problems and controversies (2.13-3.12) - F: an important gathering on a mountain (3.13-19) - G: Jesus is accused of being in league with Baalzebul (3.20-35) – and preaches those who reject Jesus are damned - The Sea Narrative - G: Jesus accuses Peter of being in league with Satan (8.27-9.1) – and preaches those who blaspheme Holy Spirit are damned - F: an important gathering on a mountain (9.2-13) - E: problems and controversies (9.14-32) - D: Jesus stops at Capernaum (9.33-50) – explains dangers of sin - C: Jesus ventures out (10.1-6) – expands his ministry beyond Galilee - B: People looking to Jesus for boons (10.17-45) – but Jesus teaches them the error of their ways - A: peripheral ministry ends (10.46-52) Within this structure, there are numerous further conspicuous triads as well that Carrier describes, but which I will omit for length reasons. All in all, this is highly artificial. Note “that in all of Jesus’ ministry throughout chaps. 1 through 3 never once does Jesus actually teach the gospel…, even though the whole narrative begins by having Jesus declare ‘repent and believe in the gospel!’ (Mk 1.15), and odd demand when you never explain what that is. In the Sea Narrative Jesus starts telling parables about the gospel (even beginning with an explanation of the whole concept of parable as a way of concealing the true meaning behind fictitious stories: Mk 4.9-12), but never mentions anything resembling its kerygma (that Jesus had to dies to atone for everyone’s sins and that this would procure eternal life for those who believe—in other words, the actual gospel). Only in the Road Narrative does Jesus start expounding the actual gospel, all in preparation for its actual enactment in the following Passover Narrative. This makes no sense as history. It only makes sense as artificial suspense-driven literature, and in particular as a slow-building teaching tool that would operate in a single sitting (or series of them) as you went through the Gospel story as Mark crafts it” (pp. 419-420). Thus it seems clear that Mark 1-10 is literary fabrication. What about the rest? Carrier discusses at length how Mark has arranged his narrative “to symbolically represent Jesus as the Passover lamb” (p. 425) and simultaneously the goat of Yom Kippur. Mark does this in ways that violate historical plausibility, further emphasizing his valuing of narrative need over historical accuracy. For example, the choice of the day Jesus was crucified emphasizes this allegorical reading, but is impossible because (a) executions would not be performed on holy days, and (b) “trials for capital crimes had to be conducted over the course of two days and could not be conducted on or even interrupted by a Sabbath or holy day, nor ever conducted at night” (p. 425). Had Jesus been arrested during Passover he would have been held until Sunday, and couldn’t have been convicted until at least Monday. As history, this makes no sense, but as symbolic myth it is nearly expected. Carrier’s comparison to these holy days covers numerous details, including the questioning of Jesus matching in theme the questioning of a seder, and other elements of literary artifice that match with the ritual haggadah of the Passover seder. Thus, “the entire narrative of Mark is a fictional, symbolic construct, from beginning to end” (p. 428). “… while Mark is inventing narratives to fit his symbolic structure and to communicate abstract messages about the gospel, he often ignores historical plausibility, not only inventing narratives that center around blatant defiances of the laws of physics (walking on water, withering trees), but making his characters behave in completely implausible ways, such as having the disciples act completely surprised at the second miraculous feeding, as if some time-traveling Men in Black had erased their memory of the first one; or having Jesus curse a fig tree for failing to bear fruit out of season” (p. 435). Incredibly striking are the parallels between Mark’s Passover Narrative and a story told about another Jesus, known as Jesus ben Ananias, the ‘Jesus of Jerusalem’, who was an insane prophet active in the 60s CE who is killed in the siege of Jerusalem. The parallels are so clear that Carrier considers it nearly certain that Mark’s story of Jesus Christ are based on the stories of Jesus ben Ananias, probably as told by Josephus in his Jewish War. Carrier notes twenty significant parallels (and one reversal): - Both are named Jesus. - Both come to Jerusalem during a major religious festival (Mk 14.2 = JW 6.301). - Both entered the temple area to rant against the temple (Mk 11.15-17 = JW 6.301). - During which both quote the same chapter of Jeremiah (Jer. 7.11 in Mk; Jer. 7.34 in JW). - Both then preach daily in the temple (Mk 14.49 = JW 6.306). - Both declare ‘woe’ unto Judea or the Jews (Mk 13.17 = JW 6.304, 306, 309). - Both predict the temple will be destroyed (Mk 13.2 = JW 6.300, 309). - Both are for this reason arrested by the Jews (Mk 14.43 = JW 6.302). - Both are accused of speaking against the temple (Mk 14.58 = JW 6.302). - Neither makes any defense of himself against the charges (Mk 14.60 = JW 6.302). - Both are beaten by the Jews (Mk 14.65 = JW 6.302). - Then both are taken to the Roman governor (Pilate in Mk 15.1 = Albinus in JW 6.302). - Both are interrogated by the Roman governor (Mk 15.2-4 = JW 6.305). - During which both are asked to identify themselves (Mk 15.2 = JW 6.305). - And yet again neither says anything in his defense (Mk 15.3-5 = JW 6.305). - Both are then beaten by the Romans (Mk 15.15 = JW 6.304). - In both cases the Roman governor decides he should release him. - … but doesn’t (Mark); … but does (JW) (Mk 15.6-15 vs. JW 6.305). - both are finally killed by the Romans (in Mark by execution; in the JW by artillery) (Mk 15.34 = JW 6.308-309). - Both utter a lament for themselves immediately before they die (Mk 15.34 = JW 6.309). - Both die with a loud cry (Mk 15.37 = JW 6.309). “Given that Mark is essentially a Christian response to the Jewish War and the destruction of the Jewish temple, it is more than a little significant that he chose this Jesus to model his own Jesus after. This also tells us, yet again, how much Mark is making everything up. (It also confirms that Mark wrote after the Jewish War.)” (p. 430) There is much more than I have outlined here in Carrier’s discussion, but I hope that I have made the point that Mark looks much more like literature than history. As Carrier writes, “Mark even tells us (on the sly) that he is writing parables, so that those who follow the exoteric [i.e., surface] meaning will not understand and thus not be saved—only those who follow the esoteric meaning (the symbolic meaning) will get the real meaning and be on the road to salvation (Mk 4.9-12; see again Element 14). So Mark even invented a story about Jesus that provides us with a model for how to read Mark’s Gospel” (p. 443). Addressing potential critics of his analysis, Carrier writes, “Often an argument is made that some item or other in Mark can’t have any other explanation for why it’s there than that it happened, and somehow the tradition of it had reached Mark. These arguments tend to be illogical as well as ill-informed, as I have already demonstrated elsewhere [here Carrier references his book, Proving History]. But though I treated all the principal examples there, others remain” (p. 444). Carrier then goes through many such examples. Since, however, the primary examples are in the other book, and since that is not the book I am reviewing here, I will leave these arguments aside for now other than to note that even the best of these counter-arguments that Carrier addresses in the current book he concludes are no better than inconclusive, which means that they cannot argue either for minimal historicity or minimal mythicism. Again, despite the length of my summary above, I have barely scratched the surface of Carrier’s analysis. I hope that what I have chosen to include, however, sufficiently captures the essence of his arguments. The Gospel of Matthew Having gone through Mark in quite some detail, I, like Carrier, will be much briefer with Matthew. Scholars nearly unanimously agree that Matthew is a redaction of Mark, containing nearly the entire Markan narrative, often duplicated verbatim. “Matthew then added a ridiculous Nativity Narrative (which no reasonable historian should regard as anything but fiction) and a brief but vague resurrection-appearance narrative (to fix what he may have regarded as the unsatisfying ending of Mark), which most historians also doubt is historical, and then revised the material in between, often altering or expanding on the stories Mark invented, occasionally inventing new ones and adding large sections attributing new teachings to Jesus” (pp. 456-457). Given our discussion above about how Mark constructed his narrative, we should not consider Matthew, who quotes Mark so extensively, to be any more historically reliable. Scholars also generally agree “that Matthew rewrote Mark not only to fix and improve on it but also to reverse its too-Gentile-friendly argument. Unlike Mark, which favors a brand of Christianity developed by Paul (in which Torah observance was optional), the author of Matthew comes from a community of Torah-observant Christians and is keen to have Jesus insist that we continue to make all converts remain or become practicing Jews (complete with circumcision and obedience to dietary and other laws, only minus the temple cult rituals). Many of Matthew’s rewrites reflect this specific need to rewrite Mark. But that Matthew had to do this by rewriting Mark (rather than simply producing his own Gospel) proves that Matthew had no actual independent sources from which to argue his position. He thus had to fabricate what he needed—but not by composing his own text, but instead simply constructing a better Mark” (pp. 458-459). Carrier details several of Matthew’s ‘fixes’ to Mark that make the story more ridiculous. He also goes into the structure of Matthew, much like the structure of Mark that I detailed in the previous section; having made the case there for narrative structure signaling a literary approach rather than a historical one, I will simply note that a similar argument (with a different structure) is made here, and move on. I will note, however, that the sophistication of this structure (and a similar case could be made concerning Mark’s structure) is inconsistent with the notion of the Gospels having been the result of an oral tradition. Carrier uses the Sermon on the Mount as a case-in-point for many of his argument, including sophisticated structure, the origins of the work being in Greek rather than Hebrew or Aramaic, that it fits squarely “within known rabbinical debates over how Jews could still fulfill the Torah after the destruction of the temple cult,” and so on. Carrier’s ultimate conclusion is that there “is in fact no way to discern what if anything Matthew has added to Mark has any historical basis, or even a source…. The same conclusion must therefore follow for Matthew that we reached for Mark: nothing in it is any less likely on myth than on historicity. It therefore has no evidential value” (p. 469). The Gospel of Luke “Luke is the first Gospel to overtly represent itself as history. Matthew comes close by suggesting that the things he says happened fulfilled scripture, but that could still have lent itself to an llegorical reading. Luke, however, writes like a historian, adding superficial historical details as local color and attempting to date some events and even including an albeit-vague preface explaining what he is doing by writing. Luke also creates a resurrection narrative that is engineered to answer skeptics of Matthew’s account, a tactic that ‘requires’ his story to be true. Although on this count we know it is a fabrication. No prior Gospel, nor Paul, had ever heard of the peculiar and convenient details that suddenly make their first appearance in Luke, such as that Peter double-checked the women’s claim that the tomb was empty and handled the burial shroud (Lk. 24.11-12), or that Jesus showed the disciples his wounds and made sure the disciples touched him and fed him food to prove he wasn’t a ghost (Lk. 24.36-43), or that the resurrected Jesus actually hung out and partied with dozens of his followers for over a month before flying up into the clouds of heaven (Acts 1.2-9)” pp. 469-470). It seems clear from these details that Luke is fabricating details specifically to help win arguments against doubters. “This already warns us not to trust anything he has added to the story found in Mark and Matthew: we should assume it is, like those, a convenient fabrication invented for some purpose, unless we can find sufficient evidence to believe otherwise. In accord with this conclusion, despite his pretense at being a historian, preface and all, Luke’s methods are demonstrably nonhistorical: he is not doing research, weighing facts, checking them against independent sources, and writing down what he thinks most likely happened. He is simply producing an expanded and redacted literary hybrid of a couple of previous religious novels (Matthew and Mark), each itself even more obviously constructed according to literary conventions rather than historiographical” (p. 470). In this section of the book, Carrier goes into great detail on his reasons for abandoning the Q hypothesis. As the outcome of the myth vs. history debate doesn’t really depend on this argument, I will therefore leave it out of my summary. “Many scholars have argued that Luke aimed to unify the two major divided factions of Christianity, the Gentile and Torah-observant sects, and his account (across Luke and Acts) revises history to tell a tale of continuous harmony between them, while simultaneously portraying Jesus and Christianity as a valid, devout, law-abiding philosophical sect respected by the Romans and opposed only by a faction of the hard-lined Jewish elite…. Luke is thus in effect a ‘rebuttal’ to Matthew, just as Matthew was an attempted ‘rebuttal’ to Mark. Mark promoted Gentile Christianity; Matthew promoted Torah-observant Christianity; Luke promotes a harmonious church, one that is a good and faithful evolution of Judaism into what is essentially (but carefully never said to be) the Gentile church” (p. 473). “… clinching [the idea that Luke is favoring rhetorical purposes over historicity] is how much of the material that Luke adds to Mark and Matthew is demonstrably fabricated by essentially rewriting the Elijah-Elisha narrative in 1 and 2 Kings, just as we saw Mark had done…, casting Jesus in the central role and updating the details to fit the conditions of Roman Palestine” (p. 474). Carrier details the evidence for this extensively, but because of length concerns I will omit those details here. Several other origins of stories in Luke are documented as coming from other Old Testament stories. In terms of narrative structure, Luke seems more ad hoc than either Matthew or Mark. There is some evidence of structure that seems interrupted, possibly a result of another source, now lost to us, that was Luke borrowed from. “But even if we accede to that hypothesis, it then only confirms the same point: that Luke is not writing history, but myth” (p. 480). Carrier details several further examples of myth in Luke, originating in the stories of Romulus and elsewhere. “The same conclusion must therefore follow for Luke that we reached for Mark and Matthew: nothing in it is any less likely on myth than on historicity. It therefore has no evidential value…. Even if any historical facts about Jesus are in it, we have no way to identify them” (p. 487). The Gospel of John Carrier cites the critical consensus that John is a “free redaction of the previous Gospels” (p. 487). “Once we concede John is not independent of the other Gospels but in fact freely using them as sources, we can see that he (or they, as this Gospel appears to have had multiple authors and to have been redacted multiple times) aimed to rebut a theme common to them all: that ‘no sign shall be given’ that Jesus is the messiah (Mk 8.11-12). Mark had clearly written when no miracles had yet been imagined for Jesus (thus he had to explain this); as Paul says, no signs were given to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ (1 Cor. 1.22-24…). Hence even when Mark invents miracles to put in his story as allegories, he makes sure no one other than the disciples ever either notices or talks about them or understands them. Even the witnesses of the empty tomb never tell anyone about it (Mk 16.8). “Matthew had already expanded and corrected this by having Jesus say instead that ‘an evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign’ and therefore ‘there shall no sign be given except the sign of Jonah’ (Mt. 12.39 and 16.24), meaning the resurrection of Jesus. Matthew thus slightly retreats from Mark by allowing one sign—and accordingly, unlike Mark, Matthew actually narrates a resurrected Jesus and makes sure that in his story the Jews ‘know’ about it (the purpose of Mt. 28.11-15). This was not the case before. Matthew is inventing new evidence” (p. 489). “John ‘refutes’ this entire sentiment by littering his Gospel with explicitly identified ‘signs’ and by reversing Luke’s parable of Lazarus with an actual tale of Lazarus (Jn 11-12)…. Indeed, John’s Jesus fills his ministry with ‘signs’ that ‘manifested his glory’, and it is for this reason ‘his disciples believed in him’ (Jn 2.11), a notion not found in the previous Gospels. When Jesus is asked for a sign (Jn 2.17-18), he does not declare, as the other Gospels do, that no sign will be given or that only an evil generation would ask for one; rather he simply says (albeit cryptically) that his resurrection will be a sign…; but John conspicuously does not say this will be the only sign. To the contrary, he immediately tells us, ‘having seen the signs he did, many believed in his name’ (Jn 2.23), and ‘a great multitude followed him because they beheld the signs he did’ (Jn 6.2), and when people ‘see the sign he did’, they declared him a true prophet (Jn 6.14)” (p. 489), and so on. Even the Jewish elite “lament the fact that ‘he has done many signs’ (11.47)” (p. 490). And on and on. This focus on signs, or ‘proof’, is notably not only absent in all prior Gospels, but actively badmouthed. A significant problem in evaluating John is the extent to which our best copies of it have clearly been edited and reorganized. Scenes are clearly out-of-order, and the text even has two endings that are seemingly ignorant of each other. Carrier gives extensive examples illustrating the evidence for these edits, and shows how there is structure within John that seems to be of equal literary artifice of Mark and Matthew, but which has been screwed up by the later edits. It is not clear that any of this is relevant to the overall conclusion, however, which is that the Gospel of John is myth, not history, and even if it contains historical details, there is no way to identify what those might be. The Final Evaluation of the Gospels As I mentioned at the beginning of this essay, Carrier, for the reasons described above, finds the Gospels to be clearly literary invention rather than history, and thus they carry no evidential value.	<urn:uuid:8d55d632-e738-47ff-939a-62ff75171330>	{ "date": "2017-08-22T09:06:33", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-34", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886110573.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20170822085147-20170822105147-00496.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9542613625526428, "score": 2.734375, "token_count": 9121, "url": "https://converttheatheist.wordpress.com/on-the-historicity-of-jesus/the-gospels/" }
Mozart’s 40th symphony is one of his most emotionally charged (dare I say Romantic?) works. It’s one of only two large-scale symphonies he composed in dark minor keys (the other is #25, also in g minor). And it’s one of three late, lonely symphonies that he actually meant to be played in — of all places — a casino. The wonder is that he wrote the fortieth at all. Over a period of 16 years (he started at age 8!) Mozart composed well over 3 dozen symphonies, and several more that were really slightly tweaked opera overtures. But once Archbishop Colloredo’s literal kick in the pants had launched Mozart into his life as a freelance musician in Vienna, he had little further use for symphonies. In the nine years he had left in this world, Mozart created only a half-dozen more. No wonder. By 1781, when Mozart descended on Vienna, symphonies were falling out of fashion there. What the Viennese clamored for, at least at first, was Mozart at the keyboard. They filled the theatres for his operas, and for a while they even were willing to pay him handsomely – in advance, no discounts or refunds, thank you very much – for music lessons. His purse jingled a happy tune. Symphonies? There was no money to be made from them, so why write them? He did knock out a few symphonies for specific occasions – in seven years, all of three. But the big symphonic revival came 1788. Mozart composed three more, his last, all in that one year. They’re the ones we call numbers 39, 40, and 41. Why symphonies? Why then? Seven years on, Vienna had begun to drift away from Mozart. The needy composer had mined the virtuoso vein voraciously, and it was nearly played out. Then there were matters over which Mozart had no control. The emperor’s reforms – exactly what Mozart admired about him – had taken money out of the pockets of the wealthy, so they were less interested in concerts and commissions. The reforms had benefitted the rising middle class, and they’d filled seats at Mozart’s concerts a few years before. But the Turkish War had sapped everyone’s resources and enthusiasm. Mozart’s operas were still doing decent box office, but rumors circulated that the Opera would soon be disbanded. It was running a deficit, and the imperial treasury was rapidly draining away into the war. In the end, the Opera survived, but the whispering (and some actual pink slips) drove away some of the best singers – and the audiences. Mozart’s income was sliding. But Mozart had rubbed elbows with nobility! Surely he deserved to live just as graciously as his musical colleagues – Salieri included – who had steady salaries from their court positions. So he did. Between his profligate ways and Constanze’s worsening health (no surprise, since he kept her in a nearly constant state of pregnancy), Mozart was spiraling downward into debt. He wrote to his fellow Mason J M Puchberg, “Life becomes impossible when one must bide one’s time between various odd bits of income.” Mozart was writing to ask Puchberg for – what else? – money. Nor was Puchberg the only one. By 1788 Mozart’s letters to his sister Maria Anna speak ever less of his full datebook, and ever more of his empty pockets. Finally, desperate for some income, Mozart made plans for an autumn concert series. Phillipp Otto had just opened a new casino in the Spiegelgasse in Vienna. A couple of years before, Mozart had had some success with a "concerts in the casino" series at Trattner’s casino. Maybe Otto’s would work even better. Initially Mozart sketched out a piano concerto for this series. He gave it up, though, maybe realizing that Mozart at the keyboard wasn’t quite the draw it had been. Instead, perhaps ready to try anything that might attract the jaded and uneasy Viennese, Mozart turned back to the symphonic world he’d mostly neglected. Mozart had moved yet again, trying to cut his expenses. Although the new digs were cheaper, he now he had an idyllic garden in which to put pen to manuscript paper. There Mozart composed the turbulent 40th, along with its sunnier neighbors the 39th and 41st, during a 2-month period that summer. Legend has it that Mozart never heard the 40th symphony performed, but that’s very unlikely. It’s tough to be certain, because Mozart’s letters, usually our best map of his musical life, are maddeningly thin on details. However, it appears that he did succeed in mounting at least one of the autumn concerts: Mozart wrote to Puchberg, offering him tickets. Alas, there’s no date on the letter. Although we’re pretty sure that Salieri used it in a benefit for the Tonkünstlersocietät in April of 1791, we may never know for sure whether Mozart’s 40th symphony was actually played where he intended it to be – in the casino in the Spiegelgasse.	<urn:uuid:c2a32e69-ec50-4958-a5f7-538b720398c2>	{ "date": "2014-09-15T02:18:42", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-41", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657102753.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011142-00024-ip-10-196-40-205.us-west-1.compute.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9843172430992126, "score": 2.59375, "token_count": 1169, "url": "http://www.wksu.org/classical/2009/06/" }
To find out if a given char is in a string, you can use the 'index()' function. 'index()' takes as string, a substring and an offset (this last one is optional) as parameters and returns the position (starting in zero) where the substring is within the first string; if not found it returns -1. By default, 'index()' returns the first ocurrence found, if you want to find the occurrence 'n', you must use the 'offset' paramater. Use the length function to get the number of characters of a string. Special characters, such as new line (\n) and carriage return (\r) are also included in the length calculation. Please notice that this function works on scalar variables, you can't use it to get the number of elements of an array or a hash. $line = "perl test line\n"; print "\$line has " . length($line) . " lines\n";	<urn:uuid:845650af-31a2-4ba6-8ece-94b1b5df4086>	{ "date": "2015-04-28T06:47:45", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-18", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246660743.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045740-00132-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.8064176440238953, "score": 3.84375, "token_count": 209, "url": "http://www.perlhowto.com/string" }
OK, it’s not the Super Bowl exactly. No, this is better. Tickets are free, there’s plenty of parking and you can watch all night commercial-free. Yes, it’s time for the supermoon! Tomorrow night, the Full Sturgeon Moon occurs at the same time the moon is closest to the Earth or as astronomers like to say, at perigee. The moon passes through perigee and its distant counterpart, apogee, once every 27.3 days, the time it takes the moon to orbit once around the Earth. Sometimes perigee happens at first quarter moon or crescent phases and no one pays any attention. But when it occurs at full moon, we sit up and notice. A sexy new term has even been coined in the past 30 years to describe the perigean full moon. Supermoon. It’s hard not to be seduced by a big bright ball of pure bling. What’s more, the full moon rises at sunset and remains out all night unlike those skittish crescent moons that quickly hide behind trees and set. Its brilliance lights the otherwise dark road at night and adds an ethereal dimension to drabbest of landscapes. July’s full moon as well as September’s will occur around the time of perigee, but tomorrow night’s will nearly coincide, making it the closest full moon of 2014. How close? 221,764 miles (356,896 km). That’s compared to an average distance of 238,855 miles, so the moon will be a smidge more than 17,000 miles closer to your doorstep than normal. Not only will it appear slightly brighter but 7% larger. Unfortunately, the difference, though real, will be nearly impossible to discern because we have no way to compare simultaneous side-by-side near and far full moons. Only after the fact, say by taking a picture of a distant full moon and placing it alongside a photo of a close one, could you tell. 2014’s most distant or apogean moon occurred just two weeks ago on July 27. No surprise given that the closest moon should naturally happen on the opposite end of the moon’s orbit or about two weeks later. The super thin crescent on that date was 252,629 miles (406,568 km) from Earth or nearly 31,000 miles farther than tomorrow night’s full moon – a difference of 13%. Enough with numbers. They’re only a backdrop for the real show. Go out and enjoy a moonrise tonight and tomorrow night. Not sure when the moon comes up? Head over to timeanddate.com and type in or search for your city. Since the moment of full moon happens early Sunday afternoon for U.S. and Canadian locations, tonight’s moon will be nearly as full. I walked a mile in the moonlight last night and hope to do it again tonight. Is there a better month for moonwalking than August?	<urn:uuid:923273bb-1132-43f2-985d-db8c3e7733d0>	{ "date": "2016-12-09T13:33:55", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-50", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698542712.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170902-00168-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9149128794670105, "score": 3, "token_count": 630, "url": "http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2014/08/09/sundays-supermoon-sweetens-august-skies/" }
A new analysis of urban agriculture in the northeastern us, reported in acs' acs is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases,. If you are comparing it to a hunter/gather society, several advantages come to mind: 1 game migrates, and the population of animals can be. Human society has developed through utilization of our planet's resources in in exploring the link between soil and agriculture, this article will highlight 1) our of natural resources while providing sufficient crop yield and economic benefit. Sustainability over the long term many changes observed in the environment are long term, occurring slowly over time organic agriculture considers the. Trump's ag relief program will benefit factory farms, not family farmers callicrate (pictured above), who has served on the hsus national agriculture she serves as executive director of the american grassfed association. Discover how your agriculture degree is the ideal grounding for the management grant thornton ahdb hsbc bank nfu soil association velcourt farms throughout your agriculture degree you'll develop a wide mix of technical skills. Danish scientists predict that while global warming will lead to drought and flooding across the world, danish agriculture may well benefit. Urban agriculture: the potential and challenges of producing food in in light of the benefits, urban gardens are popping up across the nation. With an estimated value to the agricultural sector of over $34 billion, drones are a key resource in the quest to achieve the ultimate goal of truly sustainable. An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a cooperative where farmers cooperatives exist across a broad membership base, with some cooperatives in fact, it is possible for the economic benefits from a cooperative to be logback, to form an agricultural marketing cooperatives, kallari association. Ara staff members have more than 100 years of combined experience in public policy, communications and issues management staff members educate. Human society changed dramatically approximately 12,000 years ago, over 60 percent of the world's working poor works in agriculture. Agricultural societies in ontario the over 200 agricultural societies are nonpartisan, grassroots, volunteer based organizations whose primary objective is to. Increasing the realization of human capabilities across the whole of society (little 2003) inequality, property, and the distribution of the benefits of economic. Land quality has been deteriorated by over-farming and the low application agricultural growth will provide huge benefits to the economy. In general, soil fertility is built up over time under conservation agriculture, and equity considerations -conservation agriculture also has the benefit of being active role for farmers -as with any new agricultural technology, ca methods are . Of economic costs, economic benefits, of growers throughout a community. The practices of intensive livestock farming have had on several occasions given a lot of concern in terms of food safety, animal welfare and. Discover how agriculture benefits society and what makes through ditches or streams, irrigation ensured the steady supply of water to. Cellular agriculture is the production of agricultural products from cell cultures despite the benefits and opportunities presented by cellular agriculture,. The union budget 2017 has a slew of measures for the agriculture sector photo source these measures are likely to provide relief to farmers across the 63,000 functional primary agriculture credit societies with the core. Without the benefit of agriculture, humans would need to hunt and gather their much of what people associate with society began as an indirect result of the. Associations for the support of peasant agriculture (association de maintien de l' agriculture paysanne – amaps) have been spreading through france since. Irrigated agriculture contributes over 30% of the mobilising civil society to implement agricultural projects and processes advantage (dst, 2007. How farmers and the environment benefit from wind power the past two decades, and new wind turbines (often arrayed across the landscape in clusters called “wind farms”) may generate how farmers and society benefit.	<urn:uuid:dc24a245-0a0e-42a4-a045-5342e4c28b8c>	{ "date": "2018-11-14T11:48:59", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-47", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039741979.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20181114104603-20181114130603-00096.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9340401291847229, "score": 2.515625, "token_count": 796, "url": "http://gptermpaperigyz.centroformazione.info/advantages-of-an-agriculture-society-over.html" }
Conducting Research and Monitoring & Evaluation Since 1979, CDC and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) have worked together under a partnership called the KEMRI/CDC Research and Public Health Collaboration (KEMRI/CDC) providing an evidence base for interventions, like insecticide treated bed nets, used around the world. Over the years, KEMRI/CDC has built a comprehensive research platform, which includes research on HIV, tuberculosis (TB), malaria, emerging infections, neglected tropical diseases, and other public health issues. One priority area is HIV research, which focuses on evaluating methods to prevent the spread of HIV and improve the health of persons living with HIV. KEMRI/CDC, the only research site in East Africa, participated in a ground-breaking multi-country study of discordant couples (a stable relationship in which one person is HIV-positive and the other is HIV-negative) showing a 96 percent reduction in transmission of HIV to HIV-negative partners when the infected partner was on antiretroviral therapy. These results have influenced health policy and clinical practice in Kenya and around the world. The prevention and control of HIV and TB are inextricably linked, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Among people living with HIV, TB is the most common co-infection and one of the leading causes of death. To measure the burden of TB in Kenya and to develop innovative ways of preventing and treating the disease, CDC-Kenya works with the Government of Kenya and local communities to improve service delivery to people most at risk. KEMRI/CDC is well equipped to test new diagnostics, vaccine candidates, and new treatment regimens. Additionally, KEMRI/CDC’s research focuses on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) to better understand the immunology, prevalence, and geographic distribution as well as to study the impact of NTDs in persons co-infected with HIV, TB, or other diseases. As a result, CDC-Kenya is able to develop more effective prevention and control strategies. KEMRI/CDC’s long standing research collaborations and well established platforms are able to support complex vaccine research. KEMRI/CDC, in collaboration with key partners like Aeras and the Program for Appropriate Technologies for Health (PATH) Malaria Vaccine Initiative, is in the advanced stages of testing an improved TB vaccine and malaria vaccine candidate. Following a safety and efficacy study, KEMRI/CDC is determining the most effective dose for infants for the improved and modern vaccine. This gold standard clinical trial is the first of its kind in over 80 years. KEMRI/CDC, in partnership with the Ministries of Health and PATH, is also conducting a trial for a malaria vaccine candidate. The study is being carried out in three sites in Kenya and six other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus far, this malaria vaccine is 55.8 percent effective in reducing the frequency of clinical and severe malaria in children 5-17 months. Through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), CDC-Kenya reduces the impact of the HIV epidemic by supporting HIV prevention services - such as counseling and testing, youth risk reduction, prevention of mother to child transmission - as well as care and treatment services for people living with HIV. CDC-Kenya studies how these HIV services are implemented and what their impact is; evaluates best practices to determine what needs to be improved; and determines when effective activities should be scaled-up. This research includes analyses of program impact, efficiency, and cost effectiveness to guide future program planning and decision-making.	<urn:uuid:5349916c-5741-43a9-94c9-cefc32cf1772>	{ "date": "2014-04-20T22:29:55", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-15", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609539230.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005219-00123-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9350839853286743, "score": 3.15625, "token_count": 744, "url": "http://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/countries/kenya/what/conducting.htm" }
This course is designed for an 11th or 12th grade student wishing to practice and formalize their research techniques. Appropriate for any topic, from humanities to STEM, the course is customizable to allow students to use industry-standard research techniques for whatever their area of interest is. The first semester focuses on the inquiry mindset- identifying questions or problems and general problem-solving strategies. Students study the history and development of research and the scientific method, including case studies in a range of topics. They also formally study methods of collecting, analyzing, and presenting data. The second semester, students are able to apply what they have learned, and study current research in their field of interest, as well as design and conduct their own research project. You are here: / Courses / Authentic Research & Inquiry	<urn:uuid:5154f6a5-28c4-4e26-b0e0-7a2002cab10c>	{ "date": "2018-10-22T01:58:45", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-43", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583514443.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20181022005000-20181022030500-00056.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9540582895278931, "score": 2.96875, "token_count": 162, "url": "https://www.fusionacademy.com/courses/authentic-research-inquiry/" }
In his hugely popular book, Pure Genius – Building a Culture of Innovation, author and educator Don Wettrick discusses the keys to bringing innovation and collaboration into the classroom. An important part of this process, the education technology revolution has been fantastic in helping teachers get closer to students and communicate with them, but another commonly overlooked benefit has been its ability to get students collaborating successfully and productively with one another. Check out these great tools for electronic student collaboration… This app is a really neat way to encourage collaboration in a fun and productive way. Whiteboard is the number one collaborative drawing app for smartphones and tablets and has over 8 million downloads to date. As well as being a great canvas for digital creations, the huge benefit comes from how simple it is to work on sketches together. Wirelessly connect two iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad devices over a local Wi-Fi network and your students will be collaborating in no time. 2. Debate Graph This fantastic tool enables students to participate in exciting, illuminating collaborative debate or group brainstorming. Students can work together to build graphs and visual representations of complex topics and arguments, creating subject-maps and spider graphs to clearly show different contributors’ ideas and input. The graphs can then be saved for future reference or to be marked by a teacher or presented to other groups of students later on. 3. Primary Wall Primary Wall is a web-based sticky note tool designed for schools that allows teachers and students to work together in real-time, adding sticky notes to a group ‘wall’ like a pinboard. Simple, fast and user-friendly, the site also hosts other great collaborative tools for students working together to create projects, with group writing and drawing tools also available. Great for creating class brainstorms or inviting students to create a collaborative mood-board with lots of different ideas or quotes. Resulting masterpieces can be saved and referred back to later! “Talkboard may be the latest indispensable tool for illustrating collaborative ideas on the fly.” — Forbes It might be a pretty big claim, but as an App Store Best of 2013 for smart productivity, Talkboard is an excellent free way to get your students collaborating on the iPad. With Talkboard you can visually express ideas and invite friends and colleagues from across the room or around the world. Created by Citrix, one of the world’s leading software and communication companies, this tool is perfect for both fun and serious collaboration. WordPress is a popular, easy-to-use tool for creating a class blog, a great way for students to collaborate together on an online project. Use the platform to encourage students to band together and take it in turns to create blog posts, whether they are individual articles on a particular theme, new installments in a story where each contributor adds a new chapter, or even different points of view in an academic argument! What are your favourite sites for helping student collaboration online? Let us know in the comments box below!	<urn:uuid:1e266e20-87b9-4bcb-8bd5-d84d7b3f0142>	{ "date": "2015-05-26T03:21:22", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-22", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207928757.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113208-00184-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9204761981964111, "score": 2.9375, "token_count": 606, "url": "http://www.fractuslearning.com/2012/11/27/sites-student-collaboration/" }
Time evolution of aerosol vertical distribution measured with Aerospace aerosol lidar. The measured backscatter coefficient in units of m-1*sr-1 is a measure of aerosol abundance. Lighter shaded areas indicate higher aerosol concentrations. Lasers Probe Atmosphere for Aerosol Characterization Aerosols are the fine particulates suspended in the air that produce hazy conditions. These small particles play a critical role in climate and weather, and directly affect how much solar energy is retained or reflected by Earth’s atmosphere. Their primary influence is through scattering of solar radiation, but they also can absorb a significant amount of energy, depending on their composition. Aerosols also play a secondary role as the nuclei for condensation of water and other atmospheric species to form fog and clouds. While the critical role of aerosols in climate and weather is acknowledged, their exact contribution is poorly understood, said Pavel Ionov of Aerospace’s Photonics Technology Department. In fact, he explained, aerosols represent one of the largest sources of uncertainty in climate models because they are incredibly complex and diverse, as are the mechanisms of their creation, transformation, and removal from the atmosphere. In addition, their relatively short lifetimes of one to two weeks lead to incomplete mixing and very complex spatial (especially vertical) distributions. “Aerosol effects are not limited to weather and climate,” Ionov said. “For instance, they play an important role in atmospheric chemistry and public health. Also of interest to Aerospace’s primary customers is the role aerosols play in degrading space-based imaging—especially hyper-spectral—as well as affecting laser propagation through the atmosphere.” The Photonics Technology Department has been developing laser-based remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols. This technique, known as a lidar, probes the vertical distribution of aerosols in the atmosphere. The system sends a short pulse of laser light vertically into the atmosphere, and some of the laser light scatters back off of the aerosols and air molecules. The time of arrival of the scattered light provides distance information, and the intensity of the backscattered signal reveals how much aerosol is present. The primary focus of the Aerospace aerosol lidar program has been calibration and validation of satellite sensors. Ionov, together with Steven Beck of the Electronics and Photonics Laboratory, Leslie Belsma of Environmental Satellite Systems, and Christopher Woods of Radar and Signal Systems, have been working on a research project to improve aerosol optical thickness measurements from space using lidar ground truth data. “Because of our poor understanding of aerosol mechanisms, direct monitoring from space is the only viable way to assess their global weather and climate effects,” explained Beck, who has been working with lidar since its inception. The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensor onboard NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites provides optical thickness data, and a new VIIRS (Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite) instrument is planned for future National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Joint Polar Satellite System and Air Force Defense Weather Satellite System missions. “Despite the great need for global coverage, passive remote sensing of aerosols from space is fraught with uncertainties,” Ionov said. “An unknown Earth surface albedo presents the greatest challenge. Thus, ground-based active and passive remote sensing is critical to orbital sensor calibration.” All Earth-sensing satellite instruments require ground-truth validation once on orbit—satellite data must be compared with known and verifiable data taken at the same time and location by ground or aircraft based sensors. The primary goal of the Aerospace aerosol program is to develop reliable remote sensing techniques that provide such calibration standard while providing as much information about the aerosols as possible. One approach is to use multiple instruments for greater accuracy and the complementary information that they can provide. The Aerospace project also operates a collocated sun photometer. This instrument derives height-integrated aerosol parameters from solar and sky radiance measurements. This combination of active and passive aerosol instruments creates a more reliable and more comprehensive data set than any one of the instruments can provide. The combined data is continuously collected, checked for consistency, and archived. It is then further compared with the aerosol data products of space-based sensors such as MODIS. In addition to the lidar and sun photometer data, other meteorological data is combined into a comprehensive database. This database serves as a unique resource for exploring the relationships between aerosols and local meteorological conditions. The research team is hoping that this will provide insight into aerosol production and transport mechanisms. This knowledge will also improve accuracy of space-based remote sensing of aerosols. Because of the complexity and variety of aerosols and because satellite measurements of them are indirect, analysis of satellite data is complex and relies on assumptions about likely aerosol compositions. Improving the scientific understanding of aerosol mechanisms will improve these assumptions and the algorithm accuracy of space-based sensors such as MODIS and VIIRS. A unique feature of lidar is its remarkable spatial and temporal resolution. The lidar data shown in the accompanying graphic reveals complex local atmospheric dynamics. “It is the study of the mechanisms underlying the aerosol dynamics that is of interest to the research community,” said Beck. The research team is hoping that their measurements will find application in areas that go beyond space sensor calibration. For example, aerosols serve as a convenient marker to visualize atmospheric boundary layer dynamics, which, in turn, is critical for accurate weather modeling and in study of pollution transport. Building Plasma Specifications for Highly Elliptical Orbits Space plasma contributes to two distinct spacecraft hazards: surface charging and surface dose. All satellites, in all orbits, have surfaces that charge in response to the space plasma environment. Because differential charging carries an associated discharge risk, satellites must mitigate surface charging. In addition, sensitive satellite surfaces can degrade as a result of the dose accumulated from that same space plasma environment. The environment responsible for surface charging and dose is only well observed near geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO). A team of Aerospace scientists, led by Timothy Guild of the Space Science Department, is working to broaden the knowledge of this space plasma environment beyond GEO by using unique instruments in highly elliptical orbits (HEO). The team will develop two plasma specifications specifically tailored to HEO. One will characterize space plasmas that contribute to surface dose, while the other will determine the plasma environment most conducive to surface charging. “These specifications will feed directly into ongoing spacecraft development efforts and aid in evaluating on-orbit anomalies related to surface charging,” Guild said. An interval of surface charging measured from an Aerospace plasma analyzer in HEO. The charging signatures are the annotated bright lines in the electron and ion spectrograms. The energies represented by these lines with time correspond to the potential of a nearby surface to the spacecraft frame (electron line) and of the spacecraft frame (proton line) relative to the space plasma. The electrostatic potential of spacecraft surfaces is a complex function of the net current to those surfaces from the space environment. Low-energy ions and electrons impact the surface and impart their charge, or, depending on the surface and incident species, eject one or more secondary electrons. Ultraviolet photons on the sunlit side remove charge through photoionization. Any surface that charges to a large potential relative to neighboring surfaces poses a potential discharge risk, and requires mitigation. “One shortcoming of existing surface charging specifications is that they were largely derived from measurements at GEO,” Guild said. “The process of surface charging can be highly localized, even within a few hours of local time at GEO. Previous HEO observations of charging intervals show a strong radial, local time, and geomagnetic activity dependence to the charging likelihood.” Guild and other members of the team—Joseph Fennell, James Roeder, James Clemmons, and Margaret Chen, also from the Space Science Department—are using these plasma observations in HEO, as well as observations from the Aerospace-developed surface-charging monitors on the NASA TWINS (Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers) mission to investigate charging intervals in HEO. The charged particle motion in space allows these HEO observations to be mapped along magnetic field lines to other orbits, contributing to charging specifications for orbits from medium Earth orbit out beyond GEO. Tedlar, a white fluoropolymer film, before (left) and after exposure to the equivalent of 1 year (middle) or 3 years (right) of the GEO space environment. The impinging ions and electrons deposit all their energy in the first few mils (1 mil = 0.001 inch) of the spacecraft surface, causing intense radiation damage to thin films and coatings. The surface radiation dose caused by the low-energy plasma dominates for thicknesses below about 1 mil. “Existing satellite specifications for surface dose are also largely GEO-centric,” Guild said. “In our project, we are developing a surface dose specification for vehicles that traverse HEO magnetic field lines, sometimes flying through a very different plasma environment.” Guild noted that previous Aerospace research showed order-of-magnitude differences between the average omnidirectional hydrogen flux between GEO and GPS orbits. “By combining these three specialized HEO plasma datasets, we will drastically improve our knowledge of the environment in time and space, leading to a more robust and more widely applicable plasma specification for surface dose,” he said. Current understanding of surface dose and charging, as well as the state-of-the-art specifications of these hazards, have been contributed by The Aerospace Corporation, NASA, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, among other institutions. Aerospace personnel are widely recognized in the fields of spacecraft surface dose and surface charging, and have contributed many of the plasma and surface charging specifications used for spacecraft design. “Aerospace has designed, built, and operates three plasma analyzers in HEO uniquely suited to providing plasma and surface charging specifications,” Guild said. “Aerospace personnel have the expertise to appropriately interpret these observations and their differences with other empirical models. After developing the plasma and surface charging specifications, Aerospace is also well positioned to include these results into the next-generation radiation specification models and effectively communicate the results to relevant customers via our close involvement with many national space programs,” Guild said. Return to the Summer 2011 Table of Contents	<urn:uuid:302c8686-8cdb-44a9-b4d7-69623acbf4ef>	{ "date": "2013-12-20T21:00:25", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-48", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1387345773230/warc/CC-MAIN-20131218054933-00002-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9134306907653809, "score": 3.765625, "token_count": 2165, "url": "http://www.aerospace.org/2013/08/01/research-horizons-2/" }
When most people become parents, I think we begin to realize that the world is bigger than us. Before kids I made efforts to live a green lifestyle, but it wasn’t until I had them that I really became active in sustainable living. I became aware of how society as a majority is happy with the status quo, but I wasn’t. I didn’t want my kids to live a life where they think that being rude is acceptable and preserving our environment is someone else’s problem. Sustainable Living Sustainable living is a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual’s or society’s use of the Earth’s natural resources and his/her own resources. Practitioners of sustainable living often attempt to reduce their carbon footprint by altering methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet Since my first son was born, I began the process of the transformation toward sustainable living. It wasn’t always easy, but now that I look back I love how much my 3 boys have learned from my journey. They are quick to make suggestions to do park litter cleanup, make sure to help me recycle, and love to help with the garden too! To see diy family friendly ideas, check out diy compost bin and make your own solar oven If you are just embarking on the journey to sustainable living, trust me it’s not as hard as you think. Often times I hear, but it cost too much! In reality, there is so much about sustainable living that actually saves us money. For example: - Use natural light during the daytime hours if you have good lighting. During the day, we rarely turn lights on. - Turn off lights when you leave the room. - Unplug appliances when not in use such as coffee pot, phone chargers, etc… - Switch to energy saving light options such as CFLs, LEDs, and solar power. Please note: Please note: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and GE. #CBias #SocialFabric	<urn:uuid:a60fca3c-5d7d-449c-aa72-237a4fe893e0>	{ "date": "2014-10-30T12:11:34", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-42", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414637897717.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20141030025817-00121-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9624245762825012, "score": 2.875, "token_count": 444, "url": "http://www.greatcontradictions.com/2012/06/switch-old-light-bulbs-w-gelighting-samsclub-for-sustainable-living-your-budget-gelighting-cbias.html" }
Different ethnicities, social groups and religious entities across the globe have different social norms, so it is important to keep cultural differences in psychology in mind when studying to become a therapist. Just as a quote taken out of context can mean something starkly different from the speaker’s original intent, so behaviors of individuals in a certain culture can be vastly misunderstood by outside observers unfamiliar with that society’s customs and norms. What Is Abnormal? The perception of behavior as abnormal is based heavily in the observer’s cultural understanding. To better understand this concept, take a look at the following list of behaviors and make a mental note of which seem abnormal to you. - A man, overwhelmed with joy, jumps up from his seat, begins screaming at the top of his lungs, then hugs the stranger standing next to him. - A woman whose husband has recently passed away, wanders the streets of her neighborhood in the early hours of the morning, mumbling to herself. - A teenager, sitting between two friends, starts to sob audibly. - A widower refuses to bury his wife but places her body under a tree on the land near his home. The man hugging a stranger is at a baseball game. His team, which has played poorly for several prior seasons, has just won the pennant. His behavior is similar to several others around him. The woman who lost her husband is fairly young and concerned with physical fitness. Each morning, she gets up early to go on a walk through the neighborhood. Since the death of her husband, she has developed the habit of praying the rosary while she walks as a source of personal comfort. While this might not be common behavior in her neighborhood, it certainly doesn’t necessarily fall into the category of abnormal behavior. The teenager is at the movies with friends. When an important character dies during the action, several people in the theater can be heard sobbing. The widower is a member of a Native American tribe. Rather than bury the body of his wife, he is following an ancient custom of his people and allowing the body to naturally return to the earth. Not everyone in his local community participates in this type of ritual, but it is a sacred act that is both legal and accepted by members of his Native American community. All of these scenarios provide examples as to why it is important for psychologists to evaluate not only an individual’s behavior, but also their circumstances and cultural influences. Cultural Studies in Psychology Over the past 20 years, psychologists have become increasingly aware of the importance of cultural sensitivity in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. Thanks to this growing awareness, degree programs in psychology, counseling and social work have begun to incorporate classes, discussion and training on cultural influences that affect behavior and cognition. Exercises similar to the one in this article inform students of psychology and help open their eyes to the diversity of cultural situations in our world. If you are interested in the study of psychology, it is important for you to understand the influence of society and culture on mental health. Be sure to enroll in a program that emphasizes the importance of cultural differences in psychology and counseling. Related Resource: What Ethics Classes are Required in Master’s of Psychology Programs?	<urn:uuid:75c4da54-974b-4f21-af00-fce13925fadd>	{ "date": "2019-09-17T10:20:03", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-39", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514573070.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20190917101137-20190917123137-00496.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9724109172821045, "score": 3.578125, "token_count": 667, "url": "https://www.bestmastersinpsychology.com/faq/classes-study-cultural-differences-psychology/" }
The ear is made up of three parts, the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The ability to hear is dependent on these three parts of the ear working together, and a problem with any part can cause hearing loss (heaing loss education centre, 2012). The inner ear consists of the cochlea, the auditory hearing nerve and the brain. These are the organs of hearing and balance and convert sound waves into nerve signals. These signals are sent to the brain using a nerve called the vestibulocochlear nerve. Nerve deafness occurs if there is damage to the inner ear and although it is possible to regain some hearing through the help of a hearing device, nerve deafness is often permanent. (deaf websites, 2013) Damage to the inner ear can be caused by old age, exposure to loud noise, family history or Ménière’s disease. Ménière’s disease is an incurable disorder with ‘vertigo, tinnitus (ringing, buzzing, noises in the ears) and progressive deafness’ (Nordqvist, 2009) . It affects one in a thousand people and can occur at any age, although it is more common between the ages of forty and sixty. The disease starts in one ear and around twenty five percent of these people will be affected in the other ear at a later date (knott, 2012) . SYMPTOMS OF MENIERE’S DISEASE Meniere’s disease usually occurs in attacks of many symptoms and can be unpredictable. The patient may be affected by attacks of these symptoms followed by long periods of time where they are not at all affected. This is referred to as remission. These attacks can last anywhere from twenty minutes to twenty four hours. The main symptoms include vertigo, tinnitus, a feeling of deep pressure inside the ear and hearing loss. Vertigo is the most common and noticeable symptom. Vertigo attack usually last up to three hours and come with no warning. It is ‘a sense that you, or your environment, is moving or spinning, even though there is no movement’ (MacGill, 2013). Due to this dizziness it will be hard to stand or walk and may occur suddenly in drop attacks where the patient will fall to the ground unexpectedly. In severe attacks of vertigo it is possible to experience sweating diarrhoea and heart palpitations. (NHS, 2012) Tinnitus ‘is a term that describes any sound a person can hear from inside their body rather than from an outside source’ (nhs, 2013). People usually hear sounds such as ringing, buzzing, humming or machine type noises. ‘Sometimes the noise pulsates at the same rate as your pulse’ (knott, 2012). The noises may vary in pitch and intensity and can come from either ear or both. The noise is more noticeable in a quiet place and people may find they are becoming more sensitive to normal everyday sounds. Hearing loss can affect one or both ears. It may be difficult to hear particularly low sounds. Also due to the change in pressure of the endolymph fluid, patients may feel fullness or pressure deep in the ear. Eventually most people will experience long term hearing loss. Other...	<urn:uuid:532ce8a4-d569-44b5-a163-285f4803ad48>	{ "date": "2019-02-24T02:54:28", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-09", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550249578748.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20190224023850-20190224045850-00336.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9477026462554932, "score": 4.25, "token_count": 682, "url": "https://brightkite.com/essay-on/what-is-menieres-infection-and-what-s-the-best-way-to-treat-it" }
Resistance of viruses to mutagenic agents is an important problem for the development of lethal mutagenesis as an antiviral strategy. Previous studies with RNA viruses have documented that resistance to the mutagenic nucleoside analogue ribavirin (1-β-D-ribofuranosyl-1-H-1,2,4-triazole-3-carboxamide) is mediated by amino acid substitutions in the viral polymerase that either increase the general template copying fidelity of the enzyme or decrease the incorporation of ribavirin into RNA. Here we describe experiments that show that replication of the important picornavirus pathogen foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) in the presence of increasing concentrations of ribavirin results in the sequential incorporation of three amino acid substitutions (M296I, P44S and P169S) in the viral polymerase (3D). The main biological effect of these substitutions is to attenuate the consequences of the mutagenic activity of ribavirin —by avoiding the biased repertoire of transition mutations produced by this purine analogue—and to maintain the replicative fitness of the virus which is able to escape extinction by ribavirin. This is achieved through alteration of the pairing behavior of ribavirin-triphosphate (RTP), as evidenced by in vitro polymerization assays with purified mutant 3Ds. Comparison of the three-dimensional structure of wild type and mutant polymerases suggests that the amino acid substitutions alter the position of the template RNA in the entry channel of the enzyme, thereby affecting nucleotide recognition. The results provide evidence of a new mechanism of resistance to a mutagenic nucleoside analogue which allows the virus to maintain a balance among mutation types introduced into progeny genomes during replication under strong mutagenic pressure. Viruses that have RNA as genetic material include many important human, animal and plant pathogens. A new strategy against RNA viruses consists in using mutagenic nucleotides. The objective is to provoke an excessive number of mutations, to deteriorate the viral functions to the point that the virus can not survive. One of the mutagens used in research on lethal mutagenesis is ribavirin, extensively employed in clinical practice. Unfortunately, viral mutants that are resistant to ribavirin have been selected, thus facilitating escape from lethal mutagenesis. Here we describe a new mechanism by which foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) can become resistant to ribavirin. Amino acid changes in the viral polymerase, selected by ribavirin, are able to modify the types of mutations produced in the presence of ribavirin. Biochemical data indicate that the alteration of the enzyme changes the pairing behavior of ribavirin, avoiding the production of an excess of some types of mutations, supporting the hypothesis that an unbalanced mutation repertoire is detrimental to the virus. Thus, this new mechanism of resistance to ribavirin is based not as much in limiting the number of mutations in the virus genetic material but in ensuring an equilibrium among different types of mutations that favors viral survival. Citation: Agudo R, Ferrer-Orta C, Arias A, de la Higuera I, Perales C, Pérez-Luque R, et al. (2010) A Multi-Step Process of Viral Adaptation to a Mutagenic Nucleoside Analogue by Modulation of Transition Types Leads to Extinction-Escape. PLoS Pathog 6(8): e1001072. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1001072 Editor: Bruno Canard, CNRS, France Received: February 25, 2010; Accepted: July 26, 2010; Published: August 26, 2010 Copyright: © 2010 Agudo et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: Work in Madrid was supported by grants BFU2008-02816/BMC from MICINN, and Fundacion R. Areces. CIBERehd (Centro de Investigacion Biomedica en Red de Enfermedades Hepaticas y Digestivas) is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Work in Barcelona was supported by grant BIO2008-02556 from MICINN. Work in Barcelona and Madrid was further supported by Proyecto Intramural de Frontera 2000820FO191 (CSIC). X-ray data were collected at the ESRF beam lines ID14.1 and ID14.2 (Grenoble, France) within a Block Allocation Group (BAG Barcelona). Financial support was provided by the ESRF. AA and CFO are recipients of I3P and Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral contracts, respectively. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. The biology of RNA viruses is heavily marked by high mutation rates and quasispecies dynamics, relevant not only for virus evolution but also for viral pathogenesis (review in ). The adaptive potential of viral populations as they replicate in the infected hosts represents a formidable problem for the control of viral disease by treatment with antiviral agents. Indeed, selection of viral mutants with decreased sensitivity to one or multiple antiviral inhibitors is an almost systematic occurrence, mainly for riboviruses and retroviruses –. The understanding of pathogenic RNA viruses as quasispecies opened the way to the exploration of a new antiviral approach termed virus entry into error catastrophe or lethal mutagenesis. This strategy was inspired in one of the corollaries of quasispecies theory that asserted that for any replicating system there must be a limit to the average error rate during template copying above which the information conveyed by the system cannot be maintained –. Applied to viruses, this concept implies that an increase of the viral mutation rate by mutagenic agents should result in virus extinction. This prediction has been amply confirmed experimentally with several virus-host systems in cell culture and in vivo, using different mutagens, notably nucleoside analogues –. One of the problems for a successful application of lethal mutagenesis to virus extinction is the selection of mutant viruses resistant to mutagenic agents. This problem has been manifested with the selection of picornavirus mutants with decreased sensitivity to the mutagenic base analogue ribavirin (1-β-D-ribofuranosyl-1-H-1,2,4-triazole-3-carboxamide) (R) –. R is a licensed antiviral agent that has been used over several decades to treat some human viral infections, notably hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, in combination with interferon (IFN) α or IFN α derivatives –. Since the important discovery that R is mutagenic for poliovirus (PV) , R has been used as mutagenic agent in experimental studies of lethal mutagenesis of several RNA viruses , , –. However, R has several mechanisms of action , and whether R mutagenesis participates in the elimination of HCV during treatment of chronic HCV infections is still an open question –. Picornaviruses have contributed to the understanding of the molecular basis of resistance to R. A poliovirus (PV) mutant with decreased sensitivity to R included substitution G64S in its RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (termed 3D). This substitution confers resistance to R through a general increase in template copying fidelity, at the cost of producing mutant spectra of lower complexity than wt PV. Limited mutant spectrum complexity resulted in PV populations which were less adaptable to a complex environment, a direct proof of the essential contribution of high mutation rates to RNA virus adaptability , . In the case of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), resistance to R was associated with substitution M296I in 3D. Contrary to substitution G64S in PV, M296I did not result in increased template-copying fidelity of the 3D of FMDV. Rather, the mutant FMDV restricted the incorporation of RTP into RNA through an alteration of residues in the neighborhood of the active site of 3D that did not have a significant effect on the rate of misincorporation of the standard nucleotides , , . Replacement M296I was sufficient to prevent extinction of FMDV by high concentrations of R, but the virus was extinguished by an alternative mutagenic treatment that included 5-fluorouracil (FU) . Since R-resistance mutations can jeopardize viral extinction by lethal mutagenesis, it is of upmost importance to understand the molecular mechanisms of R-resistance, with the objective of designing adequate protocols for virus extinction. FMDV with replacement M296I was selected upon passage of the virus in the presence of increasing R concentrations in the range of 200 µM to 800 µM included in the cell culture medium . Since R reduces the viability for BHK-21 cells in 40% after two days of treatment , , (see Materials and Methods), and allowed virus replication, we tested the response of FMDV to replication in the presence of high concentration of R. Here we report that FMDV populations replicated in the presence of concentrations of R in the range of 800 µM to 5000 µM, accumulated two additional amino acid substitutions in 3D in a step-wise fashion. The substituted polymerase displays a new molecular mechanism of R-resistance based on modulation of the types of R-induced misincorporations during RNA synthesis, based on an alteration of the pairing preference of R opposite C and U. In this manner, the mutant FMDV, but not the wild type FMDV, produces progeny RNA that shows a balanced distribution of transition types despite replicating in the presence of R. Studies of polymerization activity by the purified polymerases suggest that a single amino acid substitution in a loop of the fingers domain is the alteration chiefly responsible of the altered mutational pattern. The crystal structures of the substituted polymerases in complex with RNA show a conformational change in the template entry channel of the polymerase, that may affect the binding of the ssRNA template to 3D, mainly at the base of the template which is immediately downstream of the position that receives the incoming nucleotide. Alteration of the position of the template RNA at the active site of the enzyme may affect nucleotide recognition and modify the transition mutation pattern in the presence of R. The findings establish a new mechanism of lethal mutagenesis-escape in viruses which rests on regulation of the mutational spectrum in progeny viral genomes. Adaptation of FMDV to high ribavirin concentrations A biological clone of FMDV termed C-S8c1 is the standard virus used in our studies of molecular evolution and lethal mutagenesis of FMDV . FMDV C-S8c1 was serially passaged in BHK-21 cells, and a monoclonal antibody (MAb)-escape mutant termed MARLS was isolated from the population at passage 213 . FMDV MARLS was then subjected to passages in the presence of 200 µM to 800 µM R in the culture medium, resulting in selection of population R-Ap35 which included amino acid substitution M296I in 3D (Figure 1). Population R-Ap35 displayed higher fitness than wild type FMDV in the presence of R but not in its absence . Although M296I was the only replacement that became dominant in FMDV populations passaged in the presence of R (the diagnostic nucleotide band in the consensus sequence did not indicate any detectable amount of an alternative nucleotide), other substitutions in 3D that did not reach dominance were also observed . To study the response of FMDV to replication in the presence of higher concentrations of R, population R-Ap35 was subjected to 10 additional passages in the presence of 800 µM R, and then to 15 passages in the presence of increasing concentration of R (from 1000 to 5000 µM), to obtain population R-Ap60 (Figure 1). Populations R-Ap60 and R-Ap35 displayed a similar mutation frequency in their mutant spectra (Table 1), but the specific infectivity [plaque-forming-units (PFU)/amount of viral RNA] of R-Ap60 was 10-fold lower than that of R-Ap35 (Table 1). These results suggest that virus replication under increased R concentrations led to loss of virus viability, not necessarily correlated with a significant increase of average mutation frequency. Biological clone C-S8c1of FMDV was subjected to up to 460 serial passages in BHK-21 cells , . Al passage 213, biological clone MARLS was selected by its resistance to neutralization by monoclonal antibody (MAb) SD6 , and the population derived from the clone was subjected to serial passages either in the absence (white circles) or presence (grey circles) of increasing concentrations of ribavirin (R) . In this scheme biological clones (virus derived from a single plaque developed on a BHK-21 cell monolayer) are indicated as black squares, and uncloned populations as circles; “p” indicates passage number. The concentrations of R included in the culture medium are indicated below the corresponding passages. The procedures involved in the isolation of the initial FMDV C-S8c1 clone and in infections of BHK-21 cells have been described in our previous studies , , , and are detailed in Materials and Methods. To test whether population of R-Ap60 was better adapted to R than population R-Ap35, the relative fitness of the two populations was determined in growth-competition experiments in the presence and absence of R, using as reference the virus population Ap35 (which is FMDV MARLS passaged 35 times in the absence of R, as described in Materials and Methods and in ). The results (Table 2) indicate that R-Ap60 is better adapted than R-Ap35 to replicate in the presence of R. The adaptation of R-Ap60 resulted from a specific response of FMDV to R, since the fitness of R-Ap60 relative to R-Ap35 in the presence of FU and guanidine hydrochloride (GuH) (an alternative mutagenic combination used in lethal mutagenesis of FMDV ) was 0.7 (Table 2). Thus, FMDV underwent a progressive adaptation to replicate efficiently under high R concentration. Adaptation of FMDV to high ribavirin concentrations entails additional substitutions in 3D To study whether adaptation of FMDV to increased concentrations of R was associated with additional substitutions in 3D, the consensus nucleotide sequence of the 3D-coding region of R-Ap35 and R-Ap60 was analyzed (Table 3). Two new mutations were found as dominant in R-Ap60: C6739U (that gives rise to amino acid substitution P44S in 3D), and C7114U (that gives rise to P169S in 3D). In addition, 3D maintained as dominant substitution M296I which was already dominant in R-Ap35 , . P44S but not P169S was detected in a 70% proportion in R-Ap35, as evidenced by analysis of both the consensus sequences and their corresponding mutant spectra (Table 3). These results suggest that the three substitutions in 3D were selected sequentially during replication in the presence of increasing concentrations of R: first M296I, then P44S and finally P169S. The replacements in 3D increase FMDV fitness in the presence of ribavirin To investigate the effect of the 3D substitutions in the sequence context of pMT28 (the plasmid from which C-S8c1 is expressed ) without possible confounding effects of other mutations in the viral genome, plasmids pMT28-3D(M296I), pMT28-3D(P44S), pMT28-3D(P169S), pMT28-3D(P44S, M296I) and pMT28-3D(SSI) (SSI means the presence of the triple replacement P44S, P169S and M296I in 3D) were constructed as described in Materials and Methods. These plasmids encode the genome of C-S8c1 with the mutations that give rise to the indicated substitutions in 3D, as the only difference with respect to the wild type sequence (pMT28 or C-S8c1 ). BHK-21 cells were transfected with the corresponding RNA transcripts and the rescued viruses [termed FMDV 3D(M296I), FMDV 3D(P44S), FMDV 3D(P169S), FMDV 3D(P44S, M296I) and FMDV 3D(SSI), respectively] were tested regarding infectious progeny production (Figure 2). FMDV 3D(M296I), FMDV 3D(P44S, M296I), and FMDV 3D(SSI), but not FMDV 3D(P44S) and FMDV 3D(P169S), showed lower progeny production in the absence of R. Fitness measurements in the absence and presence of R (Table 4) indicate that the triple replacement P44S, P169S and M296I conferred on the virus a selective advantage in the presence of R. The addition of P169S to a virus harboring P44S and M296I provided an advantage during replication in the presence of 5000 µM but not 800 µM R. A direct competition showed a selective advantage of FMDV(SSI) over FMDV 3D(M296I) in the presence of 5000 µM R. P44S and P169S individually did not inflict a fitness cost upon the virus in the absence of R, whereas M296I and the triple combination did (Table 4). Kinetics of progeny production of infectious virus in BHK-21 infected cells infected at a MOI of 0.5 PFU/cell by the indicated FMDVs. Data have been divided in two separate graphs for clarity. Results are the average of three determinations and standard deviations are given. Procedures are described in Materials and Methods. The three dominant substitutions in the polymerase of the clonal FMDV 3D(SSI) failed to reproduce the fitness difference between populations R-Ap60 and R-Ap35 in the presence of R (compare Tables 2 and 4). This means that factors other than the three dominant replacement in 3D must intervene to confer the growth advantage of R-Ap60 in the presence of R (see Discussion). These additional factors are presently under investigation. The mutant spectrum of pMT28-3D(SSI) passaged in the presence of ribavirin reveals an unexpected repertoire of mutations The mutant spectra of FMDV populations passaged in the absence of drugs display a balance among the four types of transition mutations with a slight dominance of U→C and A→G versus C→U and G→A , –. However, FMDV replication in the presence of R inverted this trend, and resulted in a clear dominance of C→U and G→A transitions , , as also observed with poliovirus (PV) replicating in the presence of R , . It was suggested that the bias in favor of C→U and G→A observed in FMDV could reflect a preference for ribavirin-5′-monophosphate (RMP) to be incorporated by 3D polymerase more efficiently opposite to C than U in the template, but this was not supported by the biochemical data on the incorporation of RMP by purified FMDV 3D using heteropolymeric template-primers . The biased mutation types during intracellular viral replication could be influenced by the decrease in intracellular GTP levels due to the inhibition of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) by ribavirin-monophosphate (RMP) , , , although previous studies suggested a minor effect of decreased intracellular concentration of GTP on the mutagenic activity of R on FMDV . To explore possible variations in mutation frequency and in the types of mutations as a result of R treatment, FMDV wild type (Wt) (rescued from plasmid pMT28) and FMDV 3D(SSI) were subjected either to five passages in the absence of R (that gave rise to populations abbreviated as Wt-5 and SSI-5, respectively) or to four passages in the presence of 5000 µM R (that gave rise to populations abbreviated as R-Wt-4 and R-SSI-4, respectively). The comparison of mutation frequencies in the mutant spectrum of the different populations showed a 3.5-fold increase in both viruses after passage in the presence of R, as expected , , , but no significant difference in mutation frequency between Wt-5 and SSI-5 (t = 0.45, P>0.1; t Student's test) or between R-Wt-4 and R-SSI-4 (t = 1.16, P>0.1; t Student's test) was seen (Table 5). The mutant spectra of Wt-5 and SSI-5 showed a similar distribution of mutation types (χ2 = 0.02, P>0.1; χ2 test), with a slight dominance of U→C and A→G, as previously found in FMDV populations that had replicated in the absence of R , –. However, the mutation pattern of R-SSI-4 was unexpected for a virus passaged in the presence of a high concentration of R. While in the mutant spectrum of R-Wt-4 the bias in favor of C→U and G→A transitions reached 80%, in R-SSI-4 these transition types amounted to 34% of the total number of mutations. Thus, the repertoire of transition types remained balanced in FMDV 3D(SSI) despite replication in the presence of R, in sharp contrast with FMDV Wt which presented a gross imbalance in favor of C→U and G→A transitions. The ratio (C→U)+(G→A)/(U→C)+(A→G) in the mutant spectra of R-SSI-4 and SSI-5 was virtually identical (χ2 = 0.49, P>0.1) (Table 5). This result indicates a remarkable insensitivity to the presence of R regarding the mutations represented in progeny RNA when replacements P44S, P169S and M296I were present in 3D. The insensitivity to R could not be attributed to the absence of replication of FMDV 3D(SSI) in the presence of R since in fact this virus replicates more efficiently than wild type in the presence of R (Table 4). Thus, R-Wt-4 and R-SSI-4 displayed a highly significant difference regarding mutation types in their mutant spectra (χ2 = 13.3, P<0.001). These results suggest that adaptation of FMDV to high R concentrations was related to modulation of the types of transitions imposed by the pairing behavior of RMP, preventing a highly biased mutation pattern in progeny genomes. FMDV 3D(SSI) is resistant to extinction by ribavirin To investigate whether FMDV 3D(SSI) was resistant to extinction by R, FMDV Wt and FMDV 3D(SSI) were subjected to serial cytolytic passages in BHK-21 cells in the presence or absence of 5000 µM R. The wild type population was extinguished by passage 7, as expected (Figure 3A). In contrast, FMDV 3D(SSI) was not extinguished and, interestingly, the virus titer decreased until passage 6, and then it increased (Figure. 3B). While the specific infectivity of FMDV Wt decreased in the presence of R, the specific infectivity of FMDV 3D(SSI) was very similar in the R-treated and untreated populations (Figure. 3C,D). The consensus nucleotide sequence of the genome of FMDV 3D(SSI) at passage 10 in the presence of R indicated that only one additional mutation (in the non-structural protein 2C-coding region) became dominant in the entire genome (data not shown). The biological significance of this mutation in the 2C-coding region is under investigation. Substitutions P44S, P169S and M296I in 3D were maintained as dominant in the population that escaped extinction and gained replication capacity. (A) BHK-21 cells (2×106) were infected with wild type FMDV (Wt) (progeny of infectious clone pMT28 , ) at a multiplicity of infection of 0.3 PFU/cell. In successive passages, the same number of cells was infected with 1:10 of the volume of the supernatant from the previous passage in the absence (−R) or in the presence of 5000 µM R (+R). The discontinuous line indicates the limit of detection of viral infectivity. (B) Same as (A), using mutant FMDV 3D(SSI). (C) and (D) FMDV RNA levels in the supernatants of BHK-21 cells infected with FMDV Wt or FMDV 3D(SSI) in the absence (−R) or presence (+R) of 5000 µM R. The discontinuous line indicates the limit of detection of viral RNA. (E) and (F) Specific infectivity (PFUs/RNA molecules) calculated from the data in panels (A) to (D). The specific infectivity from passage 7 of FMDV Wt in the presence of R was not calculated due to undetectable virus titer (<5 PFU/ml). Procedures are described in Materials and Methods. To further substantiate the hypothesis that substitutions P44S, P169S and M296I confer a selective advantage in the presence of R but not in the presence of another mutagen that induces a different mutational repertoire, growth-competition experiments between FMDV Wt and FMDV 3D(SSI) were carried out in the presence of either R or FU (a mutagen which induces mainly U→C and A→G transition in FMDV , ) or a mixture of R and FU. The results (Table 6) show that a selective advantage of FMDV 3D(SSI) was manifested in the competitions carried out in the presence of R, but not in the presence of FU or of a mixture of R and FU. Substitution P44S decreases 3D activity To investigate the effects of substitutions P44S, P169S and M296I on 3D activity, the wild type polymerase (termed 3DWt), the polymerases that include the individual substitutions [termed 3D(P44S), 3D(P169S) and 3D(M296I)] and the polymerase with the three substitutions [termed 3D(SSI)] were purified as detailed in Materials and Methods and compared in RNA polymerization, VPg-uridylylation and RNA-binding assays (Table 7). 3D(P44S) and 3D(SSI) showed lower activity than the other enzymes in poly(rU) synthesis and in binding to heteropolymeric RNA. In addition, 3D(P44S) displayed a modest decrease in VPg-uridylylation activity. The comparison of activity values in vitro suggests that amino acid P44S inflicted a cost upon 3D function. Mutant polymerase 3D(SSI) is deficient in the incorporation of ribavirin-5′-triphosphate and shows a bias to favor misincorporation of RMP opposite U Previous studies documented that 3D(M296I) displayed a defect in the incorporation of RTP opposite either U and C, in comparison with 3D Wt , . The capacity of 3DWt, 3D(P44S), 3D(P169S), 3D(M296I) and 3D(SSI) to use RTP as substrate, and to incorporate RMP opposite U and C was investigated using two symmetrical/subtrate template-primer RNAs , termed sym/sub-AC and sym/sub-AU (AC and AU indicate the two template residues that direct the elongation of the primer RNA in two positions, and that allow quantification of the incorporation of R at position +2, opposite C and U, respectively) (Figures 4 and 5). No significant differences in the incorporation GTP of and ATP by 3DWt and 3D(SSI) were observed. Additional experiments were carried out using 1 µM GTP or ATP at 37°C or 33°C, with sym/sub-AC, sym/sub-AU, sym/sub-C and sym/sub-U; again, no differences in the incorporation by 3DWt and 3D(SSI) were observed (Supplementary material, Figures S1, S2, S3). In all cases, the mutant 3Ds were less efficient in RMP incorporation than 3DWt. Interestingly, the incorporation of RMP opposite C was 3-fold lower for 3D(SSI) than for 3D(M296I), but no such difference was observed when the incorporation of RMP was measured opposite U (Figure 5). 3D(P44S) displayed undetectable incorporation of RMP opposite C in the template (<0.5% of elongated sym/sub-AC), and only a modest incorporation opposite U (5±1% of elongated sym/sub-AU). Thus, the incorporation of RMP by 3D(P44S) is at least 10-fold more efficient opposite U than opposite C, suggesting that P44S is the substitution responsible for the biased repertoire of transition mutations during replication of FMDV 3D(SSI) in the presence of R. Comparison of the results of 3D activity (Table 7) and of RMP incorporation (Figures 4 and 5) suggests that substitutions P169S and M296I could exert some compensatory effect to confer 3D with P44S a sufficient polymerization activity while maintaining a limited and biased RMP incorporation. The specific bias displayed by 3D(SSI) against incorporation of RMP opposite C determined in vitro, is consistent with the proportion of transition types observed during replication of FMDV 3D(SSI) in the presence of R during infections of BHK-21 cells (compare Figures 4, 5 and Table 5). FMDV 3D(SSI) populations did not display a significantly lower mutant spectrum complexity than FMDV Wt (Table 5), suggesting that the biased incorporation of R is not directly linked to a significant change in the average template copying fidelity as regards the misincorporation of standard nucleotides. However, this point is under further investigation. (A) Kinetics of incorporation of GMP into sym/sub-AC (sequence shown at the top) by the indicated FMDV polymerases. The reactions were initiated by addition of 50 µM GTP after the formation of 3D-RNA(n+1) complex, as described in Materials and Methods. At different time points the reaction was quenched by addition of EDTA. (B) Same as (A), except that the reaction was started by addition of 50 µM RTP after the formation of the 3D-RNA (n+1) complex. (C) Percentage of primer elongated to position +2 (12 mer or larger RNAs synthesized), calculated from the densitometric analysis of the electrophoreses shown in A. The results are the average of three independent experiments, and standard deviations are given. (D) Same as (C) for the incorporation of RMP at position +2 (12 mer) calculated from the densitometric analysis of the electrophoreses shown in (B). Procedures are detailed in Materials and Methods. Kinetics of incorporation of AMP into sym/sub-AU (sequence shown at the top) by the indicated polymerases. The reactions were initiated by addition of 50 µM ATP after the formation of 3D-RNA (n+1) complex. At different time points the reaction was quenched by addition of EDTA. (B) Same as (A), except that the reaction was started by addition of 50 µM RTP after the formation of 3D-RNA (n+1) after formation of the 3D-RNA (n+1) complex. (C) Percentage of primer elongated (12 mer or larger RNAs synthesized) calculated from the densitometric analysis of the electrophoreses shown in (A). The results are the average of three independent experiments, and standard deviations are given. (D) Same as (C) for the incorporation of RMP at position +2 (12 mer) calculated from the densitometric analysis of the electrophoreses shown in (B). Procedures are detailed in Materials and Methods. The structure of the 3D mutant polymerases and their complexes with RNA To identify possible structural modifications of the viral polymerase associated with the important alterations of the mutational spectrum in progeny RNA, and to investigate how these modifications can affect RNA binding and polymerase activity, the different mutant 3Ds were incubated with the heteropolymeric sym/sub-U RNA of sequence 5′GCAUGGGCCC3′, crystallized, and analyzed by X-ray diffraction. Sym/sub- U indicates that U is the template residue which directs the incorporation of A to produce a +1 elongation product. This is the same RNA used in our previous structural studies with FMDV 3D – (see Materials and Methods). For the structural comparisons RNA residues are numbered starting at the 5′ terminal nucleotide. Two different crystal forms were obtained (Table 8); the single mutants 3D(P44S) and 3D(P169S) incubated with sym/sub-U RNA crystallized in the tetragonal P42212 space group. The RNA molecule appeared mostly disordered in the two structures. In contrast, 3D(SSI) crystallized in the trigonal P3221 space group with the sym/sub-U RNA incorporated in the structure. Since the biochemical results indicate that P44S plays a critical role in the misincorporation of RMP into RNA by 3D, and a 3D(P44S)-RNA complex was not obtained, we attempted the crystallization of the double mutant 3D(P44S, M296I) in complex with RNA. 3D(P44S, M296I) also crystallized in the space group P3221 space group, with the sym/sub-U RNA incorporated in the structure. Further attempts to obtain the structures of ternary complexes, using ATP or RTP were unsuccessful, despite using different substrate concentrations and incubation times. The X-ray structures were determined to 2.2 Å and 2.6 Å resolution for 3D(P44S) and 3D(P169S), respectively, and to 2.6 Å and 2.5 Å for 3D(P44S, M296I) and 3D(SSI), respectively (Table 8). The quality of the resulting difference electron density maps allowed the unequivocal tracing of the mutated and surrounding residues that were omitted from the initial models to eliminate model bias (Figure 6). The analysis of the electron density showed also the presence of the duplex portion of the template-primer RNA in the central channel of the polymerase of the trigonal 3D(P44S, M296I) and 3D(SSI) crystals. In addition, two of the four nucleotides of the 5′ overhang moiety (A3 and U4) were reasonably well defined, occupying the template channel, in both structures. Stereoviews of σA-weighted \|Fo\|-\|Fc\| electron density maps at 2.5 Å resolution (contoured at 3 σ) around the mutated amino acids (A) S44, (B) S169 and (C) I296. The substituted residues and surrounding amino acids were omitted from the phasing model. The model is placed inside in ball and stick representation and colored in atom type code. The names of the mutated residues are labeled. No major structural changes were observed in the polymerase active site when the structures of the different polymerases (either unbound or bound to RNA) were compared. The structural superimpositions of all 476 amino acids residues of 3D(P44S) and 3D(P169S) and of 3D(P44S, M296I) onto the 3D(SSI) showed root mean square deviation (rmsd) values of 0.46Å, 0.35Å and 0.22Å, respectively. Subtle domain movements, in particular a ~1° rotation of the thumb domains relative to the fingers, were observed between the unbound, tetragonal, and the RNA-bound, trigonal structures when the individual domains were superimposed. When the unbound and RNA-bound structures were compared for 3DWt a similar small rotation (~2°) was also observed. As a consequence of this rotation, the active site appeared more closed in the unbound state. Thus, the changes observed seem to be a consequence of either RNA-binding, or of the different packing constraints in the tetragonal and trigonal space groups or both, but they do not seem to be related to the presence of substitutions P44S or P169S. The 3D(P44S, M296I)-RNA and 3D(SSI)-RNA structures are almost identical (rmsd of the superimposition of all polymerase residues of 0.22Å). These structures are also similar to the structure of 3D(M296I)-RNA mutant complex determined previously (PDB 3KOA; ), and to the wild type 3D-RNA complex (PDB 1WNE; ), with rmsds of 0.33Å and 0.38Å, respectively. Compared to the wild type 3D, two significant changes are observed in the substituted 3Ds: a conformational change in loop β9-α11 (where substitution M296I lies) and a structural rearrangement of the N-terminus of the polymerase. The conformation and interactions of loop β9-α11 are identical in the 3D(P44S, M296I) and 3D(SSI) complexes, retaining the same structure that was previously observed in 3D (M296I) in complex with RNA . All mutants that contain the substitution M296I show a rearreagement in the loop β9-α11, consisting in a rotation of the peptide bonds Ser298-Gly299 and Cys300-Ser301 (Figure 7). These residues were found hydrogen bonded to the incoming RTP molecule in the structure of the ternary complex between the wild type 3D-RNA-RTP , and also interacting with the template acceptor nucleotide in all structures analyzed , , (Figure 7). (A) 3D(SSI)-RNA template/primer and (B) 3D(wild type)-RNA-ribavirin-triphosphate (RTP) (PDB: 2E9R). The polymerase residues in the active site are shown in grey with the loop β9-α11 highlighted in green. The first base pairs of the template/primer RNA are shown in yellow with the incoming RTP molecule in orange (in B). When the RTP molecule is located at the active site of the wild type 3D, the β9-α11 loop changes its conformation to accommodate the nucleoside analogue into the cavity, and the ribavirin pseudo-base appears hydrogen bonded to residues S298 and G299 within the loop. The side chains of residues Asp245 of motif A and Asn307 of motif B have also changed their rotamer conformations to facilitate the interactions with the ribose moiety of the mutagenic nucleotide. Substitution M296I seems to prevent the mentioned conformational changes in the loop β9-α11 as well as the side chain rearrangements in residues Asp245 and Asn307 required to interact with ribavirin. Interestingly, the amino acid residues from M16 to K18, at the N-terminus of the enzyme, appear totally re-organized (Figure 8). This region, together with residues T115 to A122 of motif G and amino acids Q160, F162 and T181 of motif F, form the template channel that binds the 5′ overhang region of the template, driving the ssRNA to the active site cavity . The structures of the wild type 3D-RNA elongation complexes as well as the structure of the mutant 3D(M296I)-RNA complex show that R17 interacts with the sugar-phosphate backbone of template nucleotide A3 that is oriented towards the active site cavity (Figure 9; , ). In 3D(P44S, M296I)-RNA and 3D(SSI)-RNA complexes the re-oriented residue R17 points to the polymerase interior, interacting with the side chain of residues N41 (which lies in the same loop of the substituted amino acid S44), and with Y285. Nucleotide A3 appears also reoriented, flipped-out towards a pocket formed by amino acids M16, P117, G118, Q160, F162, V181 and V183 (Figure 8). These structural results indicate that the small movements in the loop, that contains the substituted residue S44, facilitate the large conformation changes of the 3D N-terminal residues M16-K18, and the reorientation of the template nucleotide A3. The rearrangements in M16-K18 were also observed in the uncomplexed 3D(P44S), but with a weak electron density and higher temperature factors than the average, reflecting some degree of flexibility of this region in the absence of RNA. (A) the 3D(SSI)RNA mutant complex and (B) the 3DWt-RNA complex (PDB 1WNE). The molecular surface of the polymerase is shown in grey with the acidic residues of the active site in red and the RNA depicted as a ribbon in yellow. Only the 5′ overhang moiety and the first base pair in the active site is shown for clarity. Residues of the β2-α2 loop (containing S44), the amino acid interacting with β2-α2 loop and, those contacting the RNA template are shown as sticks in atom type colour. The left side insets in A and B show close-ups of the interactions involving the loop β2-α2 (top) and template nucleotides A3 and U4 (bottom). The polymerase is depicted in blue and the RNA in yellow. The substituted amino acids, S44, S169 and I296, are shown as red balls and explicitly labelled. Finally, no significant structural changes were observed associated with substitution P169S. Thus, the structural results point at P44S as the key substitution related to reorientation of template residues that might be associated with altered RMP recognition and incorporation. The great adaptive capacity of RNA viruses to adverse environmental conditions has been fully manifested in the present study with the selection of mutant polymerases capable of biasing the incorporation of RMP so as to modulate the overall mutation types in progeny genomes. The adaptation of FMDV to high R concentrations was mediated by the sequential selection of M296I, P44S and P169S in 3D, with P44S being the main responsible for maintaining a balance of transition types in progeny RNA synthesized in the presence of R. The three amino acid substitutions in 3D were the result of mutation types that are favored during replication of FMDV in the presence of R: a G→A transition in the case of M296I, and a C→U transition in the case of P44S and P169S. Except for P44S and P169S when present individually in 3D, the substitutions in 3D had as consequence a modest but consistent decrease in viral fitness when measured in the absence of R. None of the three replacements in 3D has been previously observed in FMDV C-S8c1 populations (or their mutant spectra) passaged in the absence of R or in the presence of FU or 5-azacytidine , , , , –, –. Thus, they were selected as a specific response to R and, as expected, the combination of the three substitutions increased FMDV fitness during virus replication in the presence of R (Table 4). Remarkably, the selective advantage of FMDV expressing 3D with the triple combination P44S, P169S, M296I over virus expressing 3D with P44S and M296I was manifested in growth-competition experiments carried out in the presence of 5000 µM R but not in the presence of 800 µM R. Thus, P169S appears to have been selected to contribute a fitness increase in the presence of high R concentrations to a virus that had already acquired the capacity to modulate the mutational spectrum through substitution P44S in 3D. Additional growth-competition experiments between wild type and the triple mutant FMDV indicated that the substituted polymerase conferred a selective advantage when the virus replicated in the presence of R but not of FU or a mixture of R and FU, supporting a specific adaptative response in front of ribavirin (Table 6). The result is consistent with the fitness advantage of R-Ap60 over Ap35 in the presence of R but not of FU+GuH (Table 2). Since FU tends to evoke the opposite transition types than R , , the outcome of the competitions reinforces modulation of transition types as a major factor for the survival of FMDV 3D(SSI) in the presence of ribavirin. It may be argued that selection of the multi-substituted polymerase occurred as a result of subjecting the virus to extremely large ribavirin concentrations, unlikely to be reached during any standard antiviral treatment with R. Certainly, the concentrations used were not intended to reproduce actual R concentrations in the course of treatments with R in clinical practice. In the case of direct aerosol application of R to the upper respiratory tract the drug may reach intracellular concentrations of around 800 µM , . Other modes of administration are unlikely to achieve such high concentrations. For example, intravenous administration of R results in peak concentrations in the range of 20 µM to 150 µM , while oral administration resulted in concentrations between 10 µM and 20 µM in serum and cerebrospinal fluid , –. Thus, unless procedures for targetted delivery of R to specific cells or tissues are developed, it is unlikely that concentrations equivalent to those used in our experiments would be encountered in vivo. Do the high concentrations of R used in our experiments weaken the relevance of the conclusions? We think not for two reasons: (i) the actual concentration of RTP in the replication complexes of viruses is unknown, and it cannot be excluded that methods of targetted delivery could be developed that result in high local RTP concentrations; (ii) extreme environmental conditions (a prolonged plaque-to-plaque passage regime, passages in the presence of monoclonal antibodies, etc.) have previously been used to unveil either evolutionary responses or the sensitivity of biochemical processes to subtle genetic change , , . Thus, our model studies must be regarded as designs to disclose potential mutagen-resistance mechanisms that are informative of the potential of the polymerase to adapt its catalytic machinery to extraneous substrates, despite using conditions unlikely to be encountered in vivo. The virological and biochemical evidence presented here support the hypothesis that the polymerase substitutions, whose effect was to avoid a highly biased distribution of mutation types normally induced by a mutagenic agent, contributed to viral survival and escape from extinction (Figure 3), implying a new mechanism of virus resistance to lethal mutagenesis. This new mechanism does not require significant reductions of mutant spectrum complexity thereby preserving an amplitude of the mutant cloud adequate for virus adaptability to complex environments or following a bottleneck event , –. The balanced mutational spectrum produced by FMDV 3D(SSI) was maintained in the absence or presence of 5000 µM R, while FMDV Wt produced a mutant spectrum with 80% (C→U)+(G→A) only after 4 passages in the presence of 5000 µM R (Table 5). A deleterious effect of biased substitution types is likely because they can affect codon usage and specific RNA structures needed during viral replication –. Examination of the repertoire of mutations (and corresponding amino acid substitutions) present in the mutant spectra of FMDV Wt and FMDV SSI passaged in the presence of 5000 µM R is highly illustrative of the deleterious effects of the incapacity of the polymerase to modulate transition types (Table 9). First, the proportion of non-synonymous mutations relative to the number of nucleotides sequenced is 1.5-fold higher for R-Wt-4 than for R-SSI-4. Second, in the R-Wt-4 population a stop codon was generated as a result of a G→A transition at genomic position 7319, and 74% of the 27 amino acid substitutions scored were the result of C→U or G→A transitions. In contrast, of the 15 amino acid substitutions in R-SSI-4 only 20% were the result of C→U or G→A transitions. The most salient amino acid substitutions found in population R-Wt-4 are G125R, C300Y and G435E, each originated from a G→A transition (Table 9). These residues are conserved among picornaviruses and the substitutions observed might have relevant structural effects. G125R is an infrequent substitution that introduces a bulky residue that was tolerated probably because it lies in an exposed region at the entrance of the template channel , . C300 is located in loop β9-α11, and its main chain interacts with the rNTP and the acceptor base of the template RNA. In the complex with RTP, the G299-C300 peptide bond is rotated in a way that favors the interaction with the pseudobase (Figure 7). Replacement of C by Y is likely to affect the flexibility of this region and, as a result, the interactions with RNA and the rNTP. G435 is located in a short turn between helices α14 and α15 in the thumb domain, a region which is rich in small and flexible amino acids . The introduction of an E residue in this region is not expected, and it might affect the stability of this 3D region. In contrast to R-Wt-4, among the amino acid replacements found in the R-SSI-4 populations, the most noticeable is K164E located in motif F of 3D. K164 is not among the basic amino acids that interact with the incoming rNTP, but it is hydrogen bonded to template base A3 . An E residue could participate in the same interaction, as also observed between 3D residue D165 and base U4 in the same complex . Thus, the comparison of the mutant repertoire in R-Wt-4 and R-SSI-4 reinforces the likely adverse effects of an abundance of C→U and G→A transitions for FMDV fitness. It is not clear whether the most detrimental factor is the imbalance of mutation types by itself, or the increased frequency of U and A residues in genomic RNA, or a combination of both factors. Whatever the mechanism, the results suggest that the maintenance of a suitable transition pattern during RNA synthesis in an environment of high mutational pressure can be beneficial for the virus under increased average mutation rates. Despite the clear virological and biochemical effects of substitutions P44S, P169S and M296I in 3D, the comparison of fitness values for clones and populations indicates that it is unlikely that the replacements in 3D are the only determinants of high level resistance to R. Indeed, the fitness of the uncloned FMDV population R-Ap60 was 15-fold higher than the fitness of control population Ap35, when measured in the presence of 5000 µM R, while the fitness of the cloned FMDV 3D(SSI) was 2-fold higher than the fitness of the cloned FMDV Wt, measured under the same conditions (Tables 2 and 4). There are two main possibilities to account for the larger difference of fitness between FMDV R-Ap60 and Ap35 than between FMDV 3D(SSI) and FMDV Wt. One is that the complexity or composition of the mutant spectrum of R-Ap60 conferred a selective advantage to the mutant ensemble that could enhance R resistance, even in the absence of additional dominant mutations (or mutations in their way to dominance). Recent observations on the selective value of mutant spectrum complexity and composition , , , , , do not permit excluding this possibility. An alternative, not mutually exclusive possibility, is that mutations in genomic regions of FMDV other than 3D contribute also to R resistance in RAp60. Current evidence suggests that non-structural protein 2C may also contribute to FMDV escaping extinction (Agudo et al., manuscript in preparation). P44 is conserved among known picornaviral polymerases, and it lies in a loop that connects strand β2 and helix α2 in the fingers domain (Figure 9). This loop contains a number of residues that establish tight contacts with amino acids V173 to G176 of motif F and with the N-terminal residues M16, R17 and K18 of 3D. Amino acids M16 and R17 form part of the template channel that drives the ssRNA template towards the active site. Thus, substitutions at the conserved amino acid P44 might disturb both the shape and interactions of the template channel, and the interactions with the incoming rNTP that are mediated by residues of motif F. The structures of the mutant polymerases determined in the present study do not show large domain movements. However, the crystal structures of 3D(P44S, M296I) and 3D(SSI) in complex with the RNA template-primer reveal a rearrangement in the template channel with important effects in template binding, in particular, at position n+1 (nucleotide A3). The conformational changes in the main and side chains of residues M16 and R17 allow the opening of a hydrophobic pocket formed by residues of motifs G and F and by M16 that facilitates the entrance of nucleotide A3 (Figure 8). The polymerase with substitution M296I that acquired substitution P44S maintained the alteration of loop β9-α11 previously described for 3D (M296I) (Figure 8). Thus, the catalytic domain and template interactions may be affected by additive effects of substitutions M296I and P44S. The different interactions established between the modified template channel of the substituted polymerases and nucleotide A3 could facilitate a different alignment of the template strand, thus altering the nucleotide incorporation activity. However, this possibility has not been substantiated because of the inability of nucleotide substrates to be incorporated into the mutant 3D-RNA complexes. Finally, P169 is a non-conserved residue located in motif F of 3D (Figure 9) that has been implicated in the recognition of the triphosphate moiety of the incoming nucleotide. P169 is close to 3D residues that directly contact with either the triphosphate or ribose moieties of the incoming nucleotide , . The structural comparisons do not reveal any conspicuous change in the polymerase induced by substitution P169S. However, we can not exclude that a change at this position could also affect the recognition of an incoming nucleotide, modulating its incorporation rate, and thus altering the replication fidelity or replicative fitness. Thus, subtle structural modifications that affect the template channel of 3D mediate alterations in substrate recognition that may modify recognition of RTP and the repertoire of R-mediated mutations. Materials and Methods Cells, viruses, infections, and cytotoxicity of ribavirin The origin of BHK-21 cells, procedures for cell growth and for infection with FMDV in the presence or absence of ribavirin (R; Sigma), 5-fluorouracil (FU; Sigma), or guanidine hydrochloride (GuH; Sigma) have been previously described , , , . Briefly, for each infection the first passage was carried out at moi 0.3 PFU/cell. For the following passages, 2×106 BHK-21 cells were passaged with supernatant of virus from the previous passage (0.2 ml), and the infection allowed to proceed for about 24h. Values of PFU for each passage can be estimated from infectivities given in Figure 3. FMDV C-S8c1 is a plaque-purified derivative of natural isolate C1 Santa-Pau Spain 70 , a representative of European serotype C FMDV. FMDV MARLS is a monoclonal antibody-escape mutant selected from the C-S8c1 population passaged 213 times in BHK-21 cells . Ap35 and R-Ap35 are FMDV MARLS passaged 35 times in the absence or in the presence, respectively, of increasing concentrations of R as previously described ; FMDV MARLS populations passaged 45 and 60 times in the presence of increasing concentrations of R have been termed R-Ap45 and R-Ap60 (see Figure 1). R exerted a cytostatic effect in BHK-21 cell monolayers (measured as cell viability using trypan blue staining). The cytotoxicities as a result of treatment of BHK-21 cell monolayers with R, FU and GuH have been previously described , , . The maximum reduction of cell viability of confluent BHK-21 cell monolayers in the presence of 5000 µM R was around 40% at 48 h post-treatment, in agreement with our previous results . Evidence that cytotoxicity by R does not contribute significantly to FMDV extinction includes the observation that FMDV mutant with amino acid replacements in 3D that confer resistance to R can replicate and survive after multiple passages in the presence of 5000 µM R (Figure 3, and unpublished observations). Extraction of RNA, cDNA synthesis, PCR amplification, and nucleotide sequencing RNA was extracted from the supernatants of infected cells using described procedures , . Reverse transcription (RT) was carried out using AMV reverse transcriptase (Promega), and PCR amplification was performed using EHF DNA polymerase (Roche) as specified by the manufacturer. RT-PCR amplification intended for the cloning of individual cDNA molecules was carried out using Pfu ultra DNA polymerase (Stratagene). Amplification protocols, nucleotide sequencing and primers used for amplification and sequencing have been previously described , , . Quantification of viral RNA FMDV RNA was quantified by real-time RT-PCR amplification using the Light Cycler instrument (Roche) and the RNA Master SYBR green I kit (Roche) as previously described . Preparation of FMDV C-S8c1 with substitutions in 3D Plasmid pMT28 encodes an infectious transcript of FMDV C-S8c1 , . The construction of plasmid pMT28-3D(M296I) (an infectious clone expressing 3D with substitution M296I in the context of the C-S8c1 genome) has been previously reported . The rest of chimeric plasmids encoding mutant 3Ds were constructed by replacing part of the 3D-coding region of pMT28 with the corresponding mutant 3D-coding region of interest. To construct pMT28-3D(P169S) (an infectious clone encoding 3D with amino acid substitution P169S in the context of the C-S8c1 genome), two DNA amplifications were carried out using Pfu ultra DNA polymerase and pMT28 DNA as template. A first amplification with 3AR3 (GATGACGTGAACTCTGAGCCCGC; sense, 5′ position 5710) and 3′3DP169S (CTTTCTCCATGCTGCGAATTTCGTCCTTCAGGAAGG; antisense, 5′ position 7126); and a second amplification with 5′3DP169S (CGAAATTCGCAGCATGGAGAAAGTACGTGCCGG; sense, 5′ position 7104) and 3D1 (CTTGTTGCGGAACAGCCAGATG; antisense, 5′ position 7520) were performed (bold-face letters indicate modifications of the genomic sequence introduced to express 3D with substitution P169S). (Nucleotide positions correspond to the numbering of FMDV genomic residues described in ). The two amplicons were shuffled and digested with RsrII (position 5839) and ClaI (position 7004) (New England Biolabs) and ligated to pMT28 DNA linearized with the same enzymes. A similar procedure was used to construct pMT28-3D(P44S) and pMT28-3D(P44S, M296I). To prepare pMT28-3D(P44S,M296I) (an infectious clone expressing 3D harboring substitution P44S and M296I in the context of the C-S8c1 genome), pMT28-3D(M296I) was subjected to the same procedure described above for pMT28, except that the two pairs of primers used for the PCR amplification were 3AR3 (described above) with 3′3DP44S (CGTTCAGACGGCTGTCCTTGTTAGACAAGGCGG; antisense, 5′ position 6751), and 5′3DP44S (CTAACAAGGACAGCCGTCTGAACGAAGGTG; sense, 5′ position 6728) with A3 (CGTCGACAATGCGAGTCTTGCCG; antisense, 5′ position 7156; bold-face letters indicate modifications of the genomic sequence introduced to express 3D with substitution P44S). The two amplicons were shuffled, digested with RsrII and ClaI, and ligated to pMT28 or pMT28-3D(M296I) DNAs linearized with the same enzymes, rendering pMT28-3D(P44S) and pMT28-3D(P44S, M296I), respectively. Finally, to construct pMT28-3D(P44S, P169S, M296I) (an infectious clone expressing 3D with amino acid substitution P44S, P169S and M296I in the context of the C-S8c1 genome), procedures were carried out as those described for pMT28-3D(P169S) except that the parental plasmid used both as template for DNA amplifications and for cloning was pMT28-3D(P44S, M296I) instead of pMT28. For simplicity, the plasmid that includes the three amino acid substitutions in 3D has been termed pMT28-3D(SSI) and the rescued virus FMDV 3D(SSI). Ligation, transformation of E. coli DH5α, colony screening, nucleotide sequencing, preparation of infectious RNA transcripts, and RNA transfections were carried out as previously described , . To determine the complexity of mutant spectra, FMDV RNA was extracted as described above and subjected to RT-PCR using primers PolC-KpnI (GTTGGTACCCACTCTGCTGGAGGC; sense, 5′ position 6502) and Pol1-XbaI (AATCTAGATGTTTGGGGGATTATGCG; antisense, 5′ position 8060; the letters underlined indicate the sequences recognized by restriction enzymes KpnI and XbaI, respectively). cDNA was digested by KpnI and XbaI enzymes (New England Biolabs), and ligated to plasmid pGEM-3Z Vector (Promega) previously digested with the same enzymes. Transformation, colony screening and nucleotide sequencing were carried out as previously described , . The region sequenced spans residues 6508 to 8036 and includes the entire 3D-coding region (residues 6610 to 8020). The number of clones analyzed and the total number of nucleotides sequenced are given in the appropriate section of Results. The complexity of mutant spectra was expressed as the mutation frequency, calculated by dividing the number of different mutations by the total number of nucleotides sequenced. Relative fitness was measured by growth-competition experiments in the presence or absence of R. The logarithm of the ratio of the two competing viruses was plotted against passage number, and the fitness vector was adjusted to an exponential equation y = a×ebx. The antilogarithm of the vector slope is the fitness of the virus tested, relative to that of the reference virus , . The proportion of the two competing genomes at different passages was determined by real-time RT-PCR, employing primers specifically designed to discriminate accurately the two RNAs in the competition (Table 10). For each fitness determination, the R2 value of the corresponding linear regressions is also given (Tables 2 and 4). Fitness assays in the presence of ribavirin, 5-fluorouracil and a mixture of both drugs A solution of ribavirin (R) in PBS was prepared at a concentration of 100 mM, sterilized by filtration, and stored at −70°C. Prior to use, the stock solution was diluted in DMEM to reach the desired R concentration. To prepare culture medium containing 5-fluorouracil (FU) (Sigma), the analogue was dissolved in DMEM to yield a 5 mg/ml solution, and diluted in DMEM, as needed for the experiments. For infections in the presence of R (5000 µM) and FU (2000 µM), cell monolayers were treated during 7 h and 10 h, respectively, prior to infection. The relative fitness of FMDV SSI was determined by growth competition with the Wt virus in BHK-21 cells in the presence of R, FU or a mixture of both drugs. Briefly, the viral population to be assayed was mixed with the same number of PFU of FMDV Wt, used as reference. For each determination, four serial infections were carried out at moi 0.3 PFU/cell. The proportion of the two competing genomes at each passage was determined by measuring the area of the three peaks corresponding to the residues that distinguish 3D Wt from 3D(SSI). Each mutation was confirmed by two independent sequencing assays using primers of different orientation. The average of triplicate measurements and standard deviations are given. Molecular cloning, expression, and purification of FMDV 3D FMDV 3D with substitutions M296I [termed 3D(M296I)], P169S [termed 3D(P169S)], P44S [termed 3D(P44S)], with P44S and M296I [termed 3D(P44S, M296I)], or with the three of them [3D(P44S, P169S, M296I) which is abbreviated as 3D(SSI)] were obtained from plasmid pET-28a 3Dpol [expression vector pET-28a (Novagen) containing the FMDV polymerase 3D-coding region ] by site-directed mutagenesis with oligonucleotides containing the corresponding mutated nucleotides, using the QuickChange site-directed mutagenesis kit (Stratagene). Mutagenesis, 3D expression, and 3D purification by affinity chromatography, were carried out as previously described , . The enzymes were >95% pure, as judged by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis and Coomassie brilliant blue staining. 3D-polymerization assays using heteropolymeric template-primers Incorporation of standard nucleoside-5′-triphosphates or ribavirin-5′-triphosphate (RTP) by wild type and mutant 3Ds was measured in self-complementary RNAs that form double stranded RNA in which each strand can act both as template and primer . RNAs 5′-CGUAGGGCCC-3′ (termed sym/sub-AU), 5′-UGCAGGGCCC-3′ (termed sym/sub-AC), 5′-GUACGGGCCC-3′ (termed sym/sub-C) and 5′-GCAUGGGCCC-3′ (termed sym/sub-U) (Dharmacon Research) were used. The oligonucleotides were purified, end-labeled with [γ-32P] ATP and polynucleotide kinase (New England biolabs), and annealed using standard protocols , . For the reaction with sym/sub-AU and sym/sub-U, 0.5 µM of RNA-duplex and 2 µM 3D were incubated in 30 mM MOPS (pH 7.0), 33 mM NaCl, 5 mM Mg(CH3COO)2, and 50 µM UTP (Amersham) in the case of sym/sub-AU, for either 10 min [for 3D wt, 3D(P169S) and 3D(M296I)] or 30 min [for 3D(P44S) and 3D(SSI)] at 37°C, or 33°C when mentioned; 3D(SSI) and 3D(P44S) were incubated for longer periods of time because they display a defect in RNA binding (see Results). After formation of a binary complex of 3D-RNA, [elongated in one nucleotide in the case of sym/sub-AU (3D-sym/sub-AU, n+1 complexes)], an excess of unlabeled sym/sub-AU (5 µM) was added to trap the unbound 3D, and to avoid the recycling of labelled sym/sub-AU. The reaction was initiated by adding either 50 µM ATP (Amersham) or 50 µM (RTP) (Moraveck), or 1µM ATP when mentioned. The reaction was stopped at different times by the addition of EDTA (83 mM final concentration). Identical procedure was followed with sym/sub-AC, except that GTP and RTP were used as substrates. Reaction products were analyzed by electrophoresis on a denaturing 23% polyacrylamide, 7 M urea gel in 90 mM Tris-base, 90 mM boric acid, 2 mM EDTA. The 11 mer (sym/sub elongated in one nucleotide by addition of UMP) and ≥12-mer (sym/sub elongated in two or more nucleotides by addition of the required nucleotides) were visualized and quantitated with a Phosphorimager (BAS-1500; Fuji). Other assays with 3D Poly(rU) synthesis using poly(A)-oligo(dT)15 as template-primer molecule, VPg uridylylation with poly(A) as template and Mn++ as ion, and RNA binding assays were carried out as previously described , . Purified FMDV mutant polymerases 3D(P44S), 3D(P169S), 3D(P44, M296I) and 3D(SSI) were stored in a buffer containing Tris-HCl (40mM, pH 7.5), NaCl (0.5M), DTT (0.8mM), EDTA (0.8mM), and glycerol (8%), at a concentration of ~4.6 mg/ml. The oligonucleotide 5′GCAUGGGCCC 3′ (NWG-Biotech) (sym/sub-U) was annealed following the described procedure . Then the 3D was added slowly to an equimolar proportion in the presence of 2mM MgCl2. The mutant 3Ds and their complexes were crystallized as previously described . Data collection, structure determination and refinement Four different data sets were collected at 100 K: 3D(P44S) (2.2 Å), 3D(P169S) (2.6 Å), 3D(P44, M296I)-RNA (2.6 Å) and 3D(SSI)-RNA (2.5 Å), using synchrotron radiation at the ESRF beamlines ID14 EH1 and EH2 (λ = 0.93 Å). All data were processed and reduced using DENZO/SCALEPACK package (Table 8). The initial maps for the 3D(P44S) and 3D(P169S) (tetragonal crystals) were obtained after a rigid body fitting of the coordinates of isolated 3D protein that was crystallized in the tetragonal p42212 space group (PDB:1U09) to the new unit cells, using the program REFMAC (CCP4). Initial maps for the 3D(P44, M296I)-RNA and 3D(SSI)-RNA complexes (P3221 crystals) were obtained following the same procedure but using the trigonal P3221 coordinates of 3D (PDB:1WNE) as starting model (Table 1). In the four structures the 2\|Fo\|-\|Fc\| and \|Fo\|-\|Fc\| difference maps clearly allowed the re-positioning of the mutated residues and surrounding regions and, in the trigonal structures, these maps showed the presence of extra densities corresponding to the RNA template-primers. However, the tetragonal crystals, 3D(P44S) and 3D(P169S), did not contain RNA despite using the same incubation and co-crystallization conditions as in 3D(P44, M296I)-RNA and 3D(SSI)-RNA complexes that crystallized in the P3221 space group. Several cycles of automatic refinement, performed with program REFMAC, were alternated with manual model rebuilding using the graphic programs TURBO and Coot . The statistics of the refinement for the four complexes are summarized in Table 7. Incorporation of nucleotides into sym/sub-AC by mutant FMDV polymerases. (A) Kinetics of incorporation of GMP into sym/sub-AC (sequence shown at the top) by the indicated FMDV polymerases [3DWt and 3D(SSI)], performed at 37°C. The reactions were initiated by addition of 1 µM GTP after the formation of 3D-RNA(n+1) complex, as described in Materials and Methods of the main text. At different time points the reaction was quenched by addition of EDTA. (B) Same as (A), except that the reaction was performed at 33°C. (C) Percentage of primer elongated to position +2, (12 mer or larger RNAs synthesized), calculated from the densitometric analysis of the electrophoreses shown in A. The results are the average of three independent experiments, and standard deviations are given. (D) Same as (C) for the incorporation of GMP at position +2 (12 mer) calculated from the densitometric analysis of the electrophoreses shown in (B). Procedures are detailed in Materials and Methods of the main text. (7.49 MB TIF) Incorporation of nucleotides into sym/sub-AU by mutant FMDV polymerases. (A) Kinetics of incorporation of AMP into sym/sub-AU (sequence shown at the top) by the indicated FMDV polymerases [3DWt and 3D(SSI)], performed at 37°C. The reactions were initiated by addition of 1 µM ATP after the formation of 3D-RNA(n+1) complex, as described in Materials and Methods of the main text. At different time points the reaction was quenched by addition of EDTA. (B) Same as (A), except that the reaction was performed at 33°C. (C) Percentage of primer elongated to position +2, (12 mer or larger RNAs synthesized), calculated from the densitometric analysis of the electrophoreses shown in A. The results are the average of three independent experiments, and standard deviations are given. (D) Same as (C) for the incorporation of AMP at position +2 (12 mer) calculated from the densitometric analysis of the electrophoreses shown in (B). Procedures are detailed in Materials and Methods of the main text. (7.46 MB TIF) Incorporation of nucleotides into sym/sub-C and sym/sub-U by mutant FMDV polymerases. (A) Kinetics of incorporation of GMP into sym/sub-C (sequence shown at the top) by the indicated FMDV polymerases [3DWt and 3D(SSI)], performed at 37°C. The reactions were initiated by addition of 1 µM GTP after the formation of 3D-RNA complex, as described in Materials and Methods of the main text. At different time points the reaction was quenched by addition of EDTA. (B) Kinetics of incorporation of AMP into sym/sub-U (sequence shown at the top) by the indicated FMDV polymerases, performed at 37°C. The reactions were initiated by addition of 1 µM ATP after the formation of 3D-RNA complex, as described in Materials and Methods of the main text. At different time points the reaction was quenched by addition of EDTA. (C) Percentage of primer elongated to position +1 (11 mer or larger RNAs synthesized), calculated from the densitometric analysis of the electrophoreses shown in A. The results are the average of three independent experiments, and standard deviations are given. (D) Same as (C) for the incorporation of AMP at position +1 (11 mer) calculated from the densitometric analysis of the electrophoreses shown in (B). Procedures are detailed in Materials and Methods of the main text. (6.37 MB TIF) Conceived and designed the experiments: NV ED. Performed the experiments: RA CFO IdlH CP RPL. Analyzed the data: RA CFO AA IdlH CP NV ED. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AA. Wrote the paper: NV ED. - 1. Domingo E (2006) Quasispecies: Concepts and Implications for Virology. In Curr Top Microbiol Immunol Vol, 299. - 2. Scheidel LM, Durbin RK, Stollar V (1987) Sindbis virus mutants resistant to mycophenolic acid and ribavirin. Virology 158: 1–7. - 3. Richman DD, editor. 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Ferrer-Orta C, Arias A, Escarmis C, Verdaguer N (2006) A comparison of viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerases. Curr Opin Struct Biol 16: 27–34. - 89. Agudo R, Arias A, Pariente N, Perales C, Escarmis C, et al. (2008) Molecular characterization of a dual inhibitory and mutagenic activity of 5-fluorouridine triphosphate on viral RNA synthesis. Implications for lethal mutagenesis. J Mol Biol 382: 652–666. - 90. Otwinowski Z, Minor W (1997) Processing X-ray diffraction data collected in oscillation model. Methods Enzymol 276: 307–326. - 91. Roussel A, Cambillau C (1989) Turbo-Frodo. Silicon Graphics Geometry Partners Directory. Mountain View, Ca: Silicon Graphics. pp. 77–79. - 92. García-Arriaza J, Ojosnegros S, Dávila M, Domingo E, Escarmis C (2006) Dynamics of mutation and recombination in a replicating population of complementing, defective viral genomes. J Mol Biol 360: 558–572. - 93. Escarmís C, Dávila M, Domingo E (1999) Multiple molecular pathways for fitness recovery of an RNA virus debilitated by operation of Muller's ratchet. J Mol Biol 285: 495–505.	<urn:uuid:7f189635-cfb9-430b-8e0a-5cacbfc03880>	{ "date": "2015-10-06T04:36:47", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-40", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443736678409.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001215758-00244-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.8836305737495422, "score": 2.8125, "token_count": 21874, "url": "http://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1001072" }
I hope others will come to see Maria Hill as a symbol of the pioneer spirit in the face of adversity. She is certainly a Canadian worthy of greater recognition. Her husband, Sgt. Andrew Hill, whom she accompanied as a nurse, belonged to the 100th Prince Regent’s Regiment of Foot which fought for king and for Canada during the War of 1812. Sgt. Hill led troops into battle on the Niagara frontier where the 100th Regiment was awarded battle honours for bravery. Maria Hill (1791-1881) tended the wounded and dying soldiers on many battlefields such as the carnage at the battle of Chippawa where the 100th suffered terrible casualties. After the war, the Hills opened a tavern in the new town on the Jock River, hosting the Duke of Richmond on his 1819 tour. When the duke died, she was called upon to use her nursing skills to dress the duke’s body for his funeral. With next year’s bicentennial commemorations, we will hear a lot about the many regiments of British soldiers who defended the colonies against the American invaders along with the militia from Upper and Lower Canada and First Nations warriors. And we should remember their valour particularly on Remembrance Day for, as historian Donald E. Graves wrote in the Ottawa Citizen http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/other+11th+November/5684769/story.html: “Without their courage and sacrifice, there would be no modern Canada because it would be part of the United States.” Someday, we should erect a plaque to honour Maria and Andrew Hill who are buried at Beechwood Cemetery in a family plot (above) with many descendants. Her name appears on the grave marker as Maria Taylor for her second husband, Andrew Taylor of Richmond. Kurt Johnson, Munster Mail to: [email protected]	<urn:uuid:599549f0-534f-42fc-a93e-8ea94843dbf4>	{ "date": "2018-03-20T17:09:53", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-13", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257647519.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20180320170119-20180320190119-00656.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9661505222320557, "score": 2.703125, "token_count": 400, "url": "http://goulbournmuseum.blogspot.com/2011/11/honouring-valour.html" }
From US Rt. 2 in South Alburgh, take Rt. 129 West one mile. Take left on Rt. 129 Ext. and left on Coon Point Rd and go about 1 1/2 miles to park entrance. N44° 8757 W73° 2915 About the Park: Welcome to Alburgh Dunes. This 625-acre property became a state park in 1996. It is named for the sand dunes near the center and western end of the south-facing natural sand beach. This beach is amongst the longest beaches on Lake Champlain. Origin of the Sand Dunes: The beach and dunes together make up what is known as a barrier island, geologically similar to coastal formations more common along ocean shorelines. At Alburgh Dunes, the sand has come from a layer of glacial till, the soil that was left atop the low bluffs southeast of the beach when the last glacier melted. The bluffs have eroded over thousands of years, and the soil carried off by lake currents. Sand from that soil settles out in the pocket between the rocky "Point of Tongue" to the east and "Coon Point" to the west, forming the beach. Prevailing southerly winds, in the late summer and fall when lake levels are the lowest, blow the sand back from shore, forming dunes. It's a barrier between the lakeshore and the wetland behind, and an island because the beach and dunes, however slowly, continue to migrate into and over the wetland. Deposits of exposed peat are visible on the low end of the beach or in the shallow water just offshore. This peat was formed in the wetland; as the beach and dunes have moved back the peat has been overlaid by sand. Erosion from the waves continues to uncover it. Sand Dunes and Dune Vegetation: Alburgh's dunes were altered before the area became a state park. Portions of them were bulldozed for sand with which to replenish the beach. Protective vegetation was damaged or destroyed when trees were cut for firewood, and beach visitors climbing through and over the dunes wore pathways through the stabilizing grasses. These changes hastened beach and dune erosion. Today, protective fencing is installed around the dunes. Its hoped the dunes will eventually repair themselves. Please help us protect this unique sand dune area by staying outside of the fence. The fence is both to minimize human disturbance, and to protect rare plants growing inside. Two species of rare plants, Champlain beach grass and the low-growing beach-pea, are remnants from the post-glacial era in which Lake Champlain was an inland estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. Isostatic rebound, a slow-rising of the earth's crust once freed from the great weight of the overlying glacier, has raised Lake Champlain to its current 30 meter (100 foot) elevation above sea level. Thousands of years of rain and snow melt have flushed out the sea water. The wetland behind the beach includes the largest black spruce bog in Grand Isle County. Black spruce swamps and bogs are more typical of colder, northern climates than of the Champlain Valley, which is Vermontâ€™s warmest area. Core samples from the bog reveal peat to depths of more than 8 meters (26 feet). From these samples comes a record of climate and vegetation dating back to the ice age, and further evidence of isostatic rebound. Alburgh's wetlands are important to wildlife, providing habitat for breeding, feeding, nesting, and over wintering. The park's wetlands and adjacent white cedar forest uplands are the primary components of the largest and most important deer wintering area in Grand Isle County. Wild turkey, too, are abundant in and around the area. Alburgh Dunes certainly lends itself to wildlife viewing! Facilities and Management: Management strategies at Alburgh Dunes work to balance protection and preservation of the park's unique natural features while providing outdoor recreation opportunity and access to Lake Champlain. Camping is not permitted. Day use hours are from 10 a.m. to sunset. There is no public drinking water supply at Alburgh Dunes, and fires are allowed only in picnic grills in the picnic area. Sanitary facilities, and the picnic and parking areas, are at the west end of the beach. The "beach road" (closed to motor vehicles) is a bicycle and pedestrian path between the dunes and wetland. A recommended walk, a mile and a quarter long, is to follow either the beach or "beach road" to the east end, and return the opposite way.	<urn:uuid:01d6a70d-035b-4439-af6a-acf906873cc8>	{ "date": "2016-08-27T02:54:04", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-36", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982297699.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823195817-00242-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9493427276611328, "score": 2.625, "token_count": 969, "url": "http://www.vtstateparks.com/htm/alburg.htm" }
Do you wake up in the morning with a stuffy or runny nose? The culprit could be dust mites. Dust mites are microscopic bugs related to spiders that commonly live in mattresses, pillows, carpeting and upholstery. They live off a diet of shed human skin cells. Dust mites are harmless unless you have a dust mite allergy. If you sleep with a pillow you could be continuously exposed to dust mite droppings all night long. Learn how to reduce the number of dust mites in your home and control your symptoms. How Will I Know If I Have Dust Mite Allergies? You may have any of these symptoms after coming in contact with dust mites: Runny or stuffy nose Sneezing or coughing Hives, or raised areas on your skin Red, watery eyes Itchy nose, eyes, mouth, throat or skin Mucus dripping down the back of your nose into your throat Your doctor can determine if your symptoms are caused by a dust mite allergy or other conditions with similar symptoms, such as a cold. Making a diagnosis of a dust mite allergy includes a physical exam and collecting information about your medical history and symptoms. Be prepared to provide details about when and how often you have symptoms and if there are certain activities, such as dusting, that trigger the symptoms. Your doctor may also do allergy tests: A skin test involves pricking the skin with a tiny amount of allergy causing substance from dust mites and watching for a reaction. A blood test measures antibodies to dust mite allergens. The antibodies are the substances that cause allergies. Who Gets Dust Mite Allergies? You have a greater risk of dust mite allergies if someone in your family is prone to allergies. Your risk also increases with a high level of dust mite contact, especially during your childhood. Dust mite allergies develop most often in children and young adults. What Can I Do to Prevent Dust Mite Allergies? Although it can be difficult to completely avoid dust mites, this is the best way to prevent dust mite allergies. The following steps are effective: Keep indoor humidity levels below 55%. Dust mites will not survive in low humidity. Use a dehumidifier if necessary. Keep the house clean and dry. Have someone else vacuum, dust, and sweep the home frequently or wear a dust mask. Use a vacuum cleaner with an effective HEPA filter. Use a furnace filter and air purifier designed for allergies. Press a cool wet compress to your face when you begin to have symptoms. Vacuum upholstery, mattresses, and pillows and wash linens in hot water. Try and do this every week. Cover your mattresses and pillows with “mite-proof” products. Replace older pillows. Replace draperies and carpeting with blinds and wood or tile floors. A house completely free of dust mites (and dust) is not possible, but you can definitely reduce the amount by following the above strategies. What Are the Best Remedies for Dust Mite Allergy Relief? If steps to reduce your contact with dust mites are not enough, you may need medications. The types of medications that are recommended for allergy symptoms include: Antihistamines to relieve itching, sneezing, nasal congestion, and irritated eyes Decongestants to reduce nasal congestion Corticosteroids to reduce and prevent nasal congestion and itching Montelukast (Singulair) to relieve asthma and other dust mite allergy symptoms. Singulair is a leukotriene modifier. Nasal saline sprays to clean out nasal allergens and break up congestion in your nose You may be interested in allergy shots if your symptoms are not controlled with these medications. Allergy shots are also known as immunotherapy, which involves frequent injections of allergy causing substances until you develop a resistance. Immunotherapy can reduce your symptoms and reduce your need for medications. All medications can have side effects so check with your doctor before using any medications. When Should I Call the Doctor? You should let you doctor know if you have chronic symptoms of dust mite allergies. Your doctor will plan a treatment strategy that manages your symptoms and prevents more serious problems, such as asthma attacks. You should also notify your doctor if: You have unexplained symptoms such as a fever, which is a symptom of infection You notice medication side effects Your treatment plan isn’t controlling your symptoms	<urn:uuid:d928df46-2663-4b1c-9ae1-4b8881436d98>	{ "date": "2014-10-02T14:28:47", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-41", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1412037663754.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20140930004103-00256-ip-10-234-18-248.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9111752510070801, "score": 2.71875, "token_count": 947, "url": "http://www.localhealth.com/article/types-of-allergies-dust-mite-allergy" }
STARTLING DISCOVERY: ROME WAS BUILT IN A DAY! © Weekly World News ROME, ITALY -- Here’s a warning to all those underachievers who fall back on the old claim that 'Rome wasn’t built in a day.' "Turns out it was," says DeCry Institute archeologist Professor Rupert Valt. The proof was found in an old earthen jar uncovered by construction workers digging a sewer line in the heart of the old city. "When we opened the jar we found tablets carved with the plans and work schedule for the building of Rome," said Professor Valt. "Signed by Remus and Romulus themselves, the schedule called for 20,000 workers, soldiers and slaves to be on the construction site at 5 A.M. sharp. There was a timetable that had them working 24-hours straight during which time they were to build the entire city." "This is a very exciting discovery," gushed historian Ima Borr of the Italy Community College. "According to legend, Rome was settled by the twin brothers in 753 B.C. on the Palatine Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome. This is not only the first actual record we have that they lived, but that they supervised the construction of the city." The blueprints and work schedule were prepared by a Roman builder named Trumpicus, whose diary was also found in the jar. "It’s a big jeroboam of a jug," Valt commented. With winter fast approaching, Trumpicus proposed a bold plan to replace the smattering of tents and caves with a proper city consisting of dwellings and shops, roads and parks, temples and public spaces, arenas and theaters. "Trumpicus was evidently quite full of himself," Ms. Boring remarked. On the morning of October 20, 752 B.C., just a year after the founding -- "Remember, the BC years count backward," Boring added helpfully -- every man, woman and child in Rome set to work under Trumpicus’ direction. The burliest men cut white and azure marble in the quarries, the dust of which turned their collars blue. These stones were hauled to the hill by horses and raised by wooden cranes. Women directed the men, of course, while children provided food and drink. "The work went relatively smoothly," Professor Valt noted. "There were some instances of workers not pulling their weight in which case Trumpicus would point to them and say ‘Tu exussum,’ which roughly translates from the Latin as ‘You’re fired.’ Although in this case, it apparently meant the workers were literally set on fire as an example to dawdlers." With such strict discipline the building of Rome was actually finished in 23 hours and 49 minutes. "Remus and Romulus rewarded Trumpicus with a palace," Volk said. "It was the first casino in Rome." "When we heard this revelation you could have knocked us over with a feather," said Dr. Raoul Platitude, director of the Central Language Institute for Collecting Historic Evidence. "Here at C.L.I.C.H.E.. the saying, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ has always been one of our bedrocks. We’ll have to change it, of course. We’re considering ‘Saskatchewan wasn’t built in a day,’ but we’d welcome any thoughts your readers might have."	<urn:uuid:eb8691d5-7899-4d8e-b4ed-b9ea352f6ab9>	{ "date": "2018-03-20T08:03:38", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-13", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257647322.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20180320072255-20180320092255-00656.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9775860905647278, "score": 2.765625, "token_count": 751, "url": "http://kupperberg.blogspot.com/2009/04/weekly-world-news-xxi.html" }
Every year, billions of dollars are spent on medications to treat acid reflux and heartburn. There are numerous prescription and non-prescription medications to treat acid reflux, an afliction which many Americans suffer from. While many people would prefer to not have to pop a pill daily or contantly consume antacids in order to treat their acid reflux; however, that is how acid reflux and heartburn is typically treated through medications. Whether you have Gastroesophageal Refux Disease (GERD) or Lasopharygneal Reflux (LPR), you likely are taking a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) such as Prilosec or Nexium to treat your acid reflux. Perhaps you want a change and are looking for natural remedies for acid reflux. There are numerous ways to treat acid reflux naturally. Symptoms of Acid Reflux GERD or gastroesophageal reflux disease is a chronic condition of stomach acid coming up into the esophagus. Symptoms of GERD are typically heartburn, regurgitation, and trouble swallowing. Less common symptoms of GERD include pain with swallowing, increase saliva production, nausea, and chest pain. LPR or laryngopharyngeal reflux is the retrograde of stomach contents into the aero-digestive tract. LPR is often referred to as silent reflux because unlike GERD, heartburn is typically not a symptom. Common symptoms of LPR include hoarseness, postnasal drip, runny nose, nasal congestion, sore throat, difficulty swallowing, indigestion, wheezing, chronic cough, globus pharyngis and chronic throat-clearing. Change Your Diet Change What You Eat As many suffers of acid reflux are aware, there are certain foods that can trigger acid reflux and heartburn. Therefore, in order to keep your acid reflux in check, it is important that you have an acid reflux friendly diet. Foods to avoid in order to prevent acid reflux include: - Fried food - Spicy food - Citrus Fruits Change How You Eat In addition to changing what you eat, you need to change how you eat in order to fight acid reflux. You should avoid large meals which can trigger reflux. Do not eat late at night and never lie down for 2 to 3 hours after you have eaten. When you lie down without your food being given the proper chance to digest, it is easier for the acid and stomach contents to travel back up your esophagus. Therefore, it is important you remain upright after eating. Avoid Acid Reflux Triggers Smoking is an acid reflux trigger for the following reasons: it slows the production of saliva, stimulates the production of stomach acid, weakens digestive enzymes, changes stomach acid, injures the esophagus, and slows digestion. Smoking also causes the lower esophageal sphincter to relax, thus causing acid reflux. It is uncontroverted that smoking is bad for you and has numerous other negative health effects (causes emphysema, lung cancer, etc...), but if you are looking to prevent acid reflux, you should quit smoking. Stress can be the main cause of acid reflux; therefore, if you are looking to fight acid reflux try to reduce stress as much as possible. Increased weight on the stomach increases abdominal pressure thus pushing stomach contents into the esophagus. As little as a 10% loss in weight can improve the symptoms of acid reflux. Sleep on an Angle As already mentioned, lying down makes it easier for acid and stomach contents to travel back up your esopphagus. Therefore, it is recommended that if you suffer from acid reflux, you sleep on an angle by raising the head of your bed approximately 6 inches. Just using extra pillows to raise your head will not be sufficient as your entire torso needs to be on an incline. Raising your bed using books or cinder blocks is impractical; therefore, another option is to purchase a sleeping wedge which is designed to allow you to sleep on an incline and prevent acid reflux. Apple Cider Vinegar Apple cider vinegar is a natural "cure all" that can be used to treat numerous chronic and acute conditions naturally. While it may appear counter-intuitive, to treat acid reflux with apple cider vinegar (an acid)--it really works! Despite being an acid, apple cider vinegar treats acid reflux in a few ways. First, a certain level of acid is required to breakdown food. Apple cider vinegar is a lower pH than stomach acid but provides sufficient acid to assist in the breakdown of food without causing further stomach acid being produced. Thus, lowering the total pH in the stomach and preventing the acid reflux. Similarly, in order for the sphinter on the top of the stomach to remain closed, the stomach needs to have a certain amount of acid within it. Consuming apple cider vinegar ensures the total amount of acid in the stomach is sufficien to keep the top sphincter closed and prevent the stomach contents and acid from going up into the esophagus. Additionally, although apple cider vinegar is an acid, it also has an alkalizing effect of balancing pH levels in the body. In order to treat acid reflux with apple cider vinegar, you can either drink 1 to 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar diluted in a cup of water before each meal or create a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water using the same proportions and sip it throuhgout the day. Be sure that when using apple cider vinegar that you only use organic apple cider vinegar that states that it has "the mother"--the property within apple cider vinegar that makes it effective. For an acute acid reflux attack, you can drink 2 to 3 tablespoons of undiluted apple cider vinegar. Baking soda also known as bicarbonate has many uses. In addtion to beused used to kill odors and clean stains, baking soda can be used as a natural antacid. Simply place a spoonfull of baking soda in a glass of water, stir and drink it while it is still fizzing. This will treat heartburn and an upset stomach. Be advised that baking soda is not recommended for those with high blood pressure or on a sodium restricted diet. Get your doctor's advice before using baking soda to treat acid reflux. Organic Aloe Vera Juice Aloe vera juice is another natural remedy with numerous benefits. Aloe vera juice aides in digestion and thereofre, is used to treat upset stomachs, diarrhea, and even chronic conditions such as ulcerative colitis. Because aloe vera juice aides in digestion, it is effective in treating acid reflux. Mix 1 ounce of organic aloe vera juice with 2 oucnes of water and drink as soon as acid reflux symptoms start. Glutamine is an amino acid found in milk, eggs, fish, parsley, spinach, and other food sources that acts as an anti-inflammatory. Glutamine's anti-inflammatory properties reduce intestinal inflammation associated with acid reflux thus relieving acid reflux symptoms. Herbal licorice (the herbal root, NOT the candy) coats the stomach with a protective gel that ie effective at treating acid reflux. You can obtain herbal licorice at most health food stores commonly in the form of a tea. Chew a piece of sugar-free gum approximately 30 minutes prior to eating. Chewing gum will produce saliva which will dilute acid in the stomach, help to wash away any food or other substances in your esophagus and stomach. Doing so will prevent the symptoms of acid reflux. Adding a couple of teaspoons of slippery elm, an herb that can be found in natural food stores, into a glass of water can help coat and protect the stomach thereby relieving acid reflux symptoms. Melatonin is a natural supplement often used as a sleep aide, but it has also been found to protect the digestive tract and alleviate acid reflux symptoms. Drinking a glass of milk has been shown to cause immediate relief for heartburn and acid reflux. Because milk is a "base" it helps to quickly neutralize stomach acid and relieve acid reflux symptoms. The simplest natural remedy to treat acid reflux is to simply drink water. Water will dilute stomach acid and wash down anything in the stomach that might otherwise come back up into the esophagus. Almonds, which have also been known to naturally prevent hangovers, can be used to treat acid reflux naturally. Eat a few almonds in the morning and/or before meals in order to treat acid reflux. Be sure to chew the almonds very well before swallowing. Chamomile & Fennel Tea Chamomile and fennel tea can be used to provide relief from acid reflux symptoms. Be sure to prepare the tea at a tepid temperature (follow Goldilock's taste: not too hot and not too cold) and be sure to sip the tea--do not gulp! Chamomile and/or fennel tea will soothe the stomach and ease acid reflux symptoms. Eating an organic apple after each meal has been shown to alleviate acid reflux. When you begin to feel the symptoms of an acid reflux attack, chew a piece of candied ginger to relieve acid reflux symptoms. If you do not like eating candied ginger, put a piece of candied ginger in tea, let it sit, and sip the tea after the candied ginger has begun to melt. Papaya enzyme can be found in pill form in natural health stores. Papaya enxyme is effective at relieving acid reflux symptoms. Anecdotal evidence suggests that consuming pickle juice will alleviate acid reflux symptoms. Presumably, pickle juice is effective at treating acid reflux for some of the same reasons apple cider vinegar is effective (lower pH than stomach acid and can also have an alkalizing effect). Lemon juice is an effective natural remedy for many ailments because it is effective in flushing out toxins. Many who suffer from acid reflux actually experince acid reflux due to insufficient acid in the stomach. Lemon juice is an acid that is effective in treating acid reflux but helping to balance pH in the stomach to the appropriate level.	<urn:uuid:6f2a9a6d-48ef-4404-877c-c0e727db094b>	{ "date": "2017-08-19T18:51:32", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-34", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886105712.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20170819182059-20170819202059-00256.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9207429885864258, "score": 2.609375, "token_count": 2154, "url": "http://www.infobarrel.com/Natural_Remedies_for_Acid_Reflux--Treat_Acid_Reflux__Heartburn_Naturally" }
Human body is the most efficient and powerful system that exists and is a result of evolution over millions of years. And it would make complete sense to emulate its mechanism as we build modern systems. IoT or “enchanted objects” as I like to call them are also moving the same direction. The 5 human senses that operate through the organs map to the nodes in an IoT system. Same is the case of actuators that map to the voice, gestures, movement and other actions that humans perform through respective actuation organs. Spinal cord maps to the IoT gateway that forms the backbone of any IoT system and does not just serve the purpose of communication between the organs and the brain but also provides the reflex actions through a local intelligence that has been driven back from the brain by the models created through experiences and DNA And of course the brain that maps clearly to the cloud platform in an IoT architecture. We can go on an on with this analogy, but that is not the focus of this blog. Now that we have established that its the human body that we are trying to emulate, lets understand which is the most powerful sense of the human body. Vision. Right? If that is the case, wont it make complete sense[pun intended] to use the same sense effectively while building an IoT system? Lets park this thought for the time being while we evaluate the challenges with current sensors. When it comes to IoT solutions, getting the right sensor with accurate reliability is the toughest part. That we have learnt through numerous challenges that we have faced with even simplest of use cases. Retrofitting the sensors or reading information from existing sensors [analog or digital] is the other challenge because bulk of use cases we come across require IoT enabling existing assets and systems. Significant investments are required to update infrastructure, get the sensors installed, create complex networks and its a multi year job to get it all correct and operational. Then comes the challenge with the wear and tear of these sensors and they need to be continuously calibrated or maintained. Vision has huge power and images / video is our answer to it. Only if we can tap into the information that it provides, we can create some really powerful IoT systems. We can “read” existing analog dials and digital meters. We can compare time series images, extract intelligence and draw inference from them. We can count based on movement of objects from and to a defined video frame. And the system can “learn” from all this behavior. This is what we all do right from a few days after birth. Axelta provides state of art and innovative IoT solutions for different verticals and domains and we at Axelta have realized the power of “computer vision” in IoT and have done some really interesting experiments and R&D to harness its power. We have also developed hardware that enables this both at the edge level and at the cloud level. The deeper we are going the more we are getting convinced on its power to solve a huge number of digitization use cases. As of now, we are applying its power in security, retail, advertising and many more other areas. If you are interested to know more about it and would like to discuss your requirements with us, please contact us at [email protected] with your use case. Co Founder – Axelta Systems	<urn:uuid:b3d84b3b-fe11-4e2e-ab34-198c1960ebb2>	{ "date": "2017-03-24T17:55:41", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-13", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218188550.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212948-00426-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9545389413833618, "score": 2.578125, "token_count": 682, "url": "http://axelta.com/blog/computer-vision-grand-dad-of-all-iot-sensors/" }
As the air cools and the dark of night creeps across Pueblo, eight-legged, fanged, hairy creatures come out of hiding to hunt for … love? No, this isn’t the start of a Halloween film, but rather the tarantula “migration” in southeastern Colorado. And while the arachnids may not truly be searching for love, they are actively seeking out a mate. Paula Cushing is an evolutionary biologist who studies arachnids at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. She said during this time of year — late August into the fall — male tarantulas in the southern and southeastern parts of the state molt, develop fully formed sexual organs and become very active. “They leave their natal burrows, where they were otherwise living as immatures,” she said. “They leave those (burrows) and they are out cruising around looking for love. They’re looking for females who stay put in their own burrows.” The male tarantulas usually mature when they reach 10 years old and that’s when they start looking for a mate. “And once they’ve mated they can still feed and hunt, but they tend to not be all that interested in hunting,” she said. “They really are pretty single-minded about finding a mate. They typically don’t live very much longer after they’ve mated. The males typically die soon after they mated, but the females will live for several, many years.” Some species can go on to live up to 10 to 20 years old. The oldest tarantula on record was studied by scientists in Australia for 43 years , Cushing said. While there are many of these male tarantulas scurrying around the southeastern Colorado area, it’s not a true migration. But some locals may think so because of how many are out and about, she said. Cushing said the male tarantulas come out during the evening hours. They’re commonly spotted in the Comanche Grassland near La Junta and on the eastern edge of Colorado State University at Pueblo’s campus, even on the school’s soccer fields, she said. But that’s not the only place to spot them. “With climate change, we’re seeing a range extension," she said. "Tarantulas have been reported as far north as Colorado Springs, but Pueblo is sort of the traditional part of the range." People who want to search for the active arachnids and watch the "migration" should know that while tarantulas are venomous, the venom isn't detrimental to humans, Cushing said. All spiders have venom in their venom glands, but only one in Colorado can cause serious damage: the western black widow. A bite from a tarantula won’t lead to a medical emergency, but it certainly would hurt, she said. Should one of the animals become “really annoyed at you, and you’d have to get them really annoyed,” they could strike with their centimeter-long fangs, which are large enough to break skin, she said. “It’d probably feel like a bee sting,” she said. “But the venom wouldn’t have much more reaction to our bodies.” Usually, tarantulas will run from a threat instead of biting, or will flick their urticating hairs, which are barbed hairs on their abdomen, at a perceived predator. The hairs can get stuck in skin and become irritated. “If they’re extremely perturbed, they might rear up and expose their fangs and threaten to bite,” she said. “It’s difficult to get a spider to bite you. Bites occur when the spider is trapped against your skin and it really does feel like it has to defend itself just to get away.” So, while the “migration” is a unique spectacle to see in person, just don’t get too close.	<urn:uuid:53e82c70-84cc-4cb6-8a54-76f1f3768452>	{ "date": "2019-09-17T04:39:12", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-39", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514573052.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20190917040727-20190917062727-00176.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9706295728683472, "score": 2.84375, "token_count": 874, "url": "https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/troops-of-tarantulas-arachnids-become-commonplace-in-southeastern-colorado-during-mating-season" }
Consider this scenario. You’re driving home from work after a busy shift and there has been an accident ahead on the freeway. As you approach, you see that a vehicle has been rear-ended, causing a fire. The occupant of the car, an elderly man, is sitting on the side of the road. He looks shaken, but tells you his name and asks you to call his wife. He has visible burns to his face, neck, upper chest, and both arms. Do you know what the first priorities are for assisting this man? Each year in the United States 3,400 people die from burns and smoke inhalation and 450,000 patients require treatment for burn injuries. Burns are among the most devastating and life changing of injuries because of the unpredictable nature of the initial wound(s), the overwhelming systemic inflammatory response, and the potential need for extensive rehabilitation and psychosocial adaptation. Burn injuries involve multiple etiologies, and the initial treatment required varies with each. (See Burn etiologies.) Emergency burn response: Following the ABCDEs The first hours after a burn injury occurs are a critical time. Decisions made and treatments rendered during this time can mean the difference between life and death. In 2012 the American Burn Association’s (ABA) Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS) course included revised guidelines for emergency burn care. ABLS is a comprehensive 8-hour course that covers initial assessment and management of burns, evaluation of burn size, fluid resuscitation, transport guidelines, and other topics pertinent to emergency burn treatment in the first 24 hours after a burn injury. Burns vary in size (percentage of total body surface area burned) and severity (depth) based on temperature and time of exposure to the burn source. Familiarize yourself with the appearance of first, second, third, and fourth degree burns, shown in the images below. Note the remarkable differences in appearance based on severity/degree of burn. Source: Images are used with permission of the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX. It’s important to recognize that the first priority for burn patients is not the treatment of the wound. This can be a difficult concept to understand because burn injuries may be visually distracting and extremely painful for the patient. Rather, the priority is to implement the ABCDE approach, a methodical response that ensures life-threatening complications of burn emergencies are addressed rapidly and effectively. (See The ABCDEs of emergency burn care.) The ABCDEs of emergency burn care Airway maintenance with cervical spine protection Breathing and ventilation Circulation and cardiac status with hemorrhage control Disability, neurological deficit, and gross deformity Exposure to Examine for major associated injuries and maintain warm Environment Source: American Burn Association. Advanced Burn Life Support course provider manual. Chicago, IL: American Burn Association; 2011. Airway evaluation and maintenance with cervical spine protection must always be your first priority. It is also important to protect the cervical spine if there is obvious or suspected traumatic injury. Burn patients frequently become edematous because of the marked increase in capillary permeability, which occurs as a response to the burn injury. Edema is a frequent culprit in compromising the airway of burn patients. Therefore, once emergency medical services (EMS) have arrived, intubation will be required if the airway is compromised. Breathing and ventilation is the next step. Burns of the chest may restrict the expansion of the chest wall because of the stiffening of the dermis in deep burns, which can impact respirations. Inhalation of smoke impairs gas exchange (oxygen and carbon dioxide) at the alveolar level. Any patient with suspected smoke inhalation injury must be started on high-flow oxygen (15 L/min at 100%) using a non-rebreather oxygen mask. You should suspect an inhalation injury if the fire occurred in an enclosed space, if the patient has singed nasal hair, facial hair, or both, or soot around the nose/mouth. Keep in mind, however, that respiratory distress can also be caused by a condition not related to the burn, for example, a patient with preexisting diagnoses such as congestive heart failure or asthma. Circulation and cardiac status (with hemorrhage control in cases of trauma) is the third step in the emergency burn care process. In addition to evaluating the patient for hemodynamic stability, it is important to remember that edema can impair peripheral circulation. Your assessment may include evaluation of heart rate, peripheral pulses, and skin color (of unburned skin). Prehospital personnel will insert large-bore I.V. catheters for fluid administration. Larger burns will require high volumes of continuous I.V. fluids to accommodate for the shift of plasma into the interstitial tissue, which occurs as part of the physiological response to burn injury. Disability, the fourth priority in the ABCDE evaluation, refers to neurologic deficit and gross deformity. Once again, keep in mind that a trauma injury may result in deformities such as open fractures. When this happens, these traumatic injuries must also be included in your assessment and treatment. Neurological assessments must be performed. With the exception of smoke inhalation, burns should not necessarily affect the level of consciousness. Therefore, if you assess altered level of consciousness, consider other problems such as head trauma, carbon monoxide poisoning, hypoxia, preexisting medical conditions, or substance abuse. The fifth and final step in the emergency burn care process is Exposure to examine for major associated injuries and maintaining a warm environment. Remove any clothing or jewelry that is restrictive or covering the body part that was burned. Quickly look for other injuries and then cover the patient. If the patient is wearing contact lenses, these should be removed immediately to prevent corneal damage from edema. You may cool the burn with water for a few minutes. Never use ice or cold water because it will restrict peripheral circulation locally, increasing the depth of the burn, and it may decrease body temperature. It is imperative to prevent hypothermia in burn patients, as body temperatures below 97.7° F (36.5° C) in the first 24 hours are associated with increased mortality. Cover the patient with a clean, dry covering such as a sheet or blanket to prevent evaporative heat loss. Burn center referral There are 90 to 100 hospitals with burn centers in the United States. Verified burn centers have specially trained staff and resources. The ABA and the American College of Surgeons perform rigorous criteria-driven evaluations to ensure that verified burn centers are able to provide burn care throughout the continuum of care, from acute injury to rehabilitation. The ABA also describes patients who should be referred to a verified burn center for definitive care. As a nurse, you should familiarize yourself with these criteria. (See Burn center referral criteria.) Burn center referral criteria Source: American Burn Association. Advanced Burn Life Support Course Provider Manual. Chicago, IL: American Burn Association; 2011. Putting it all together Let’s return to the scenario of the car accident at the beginning of this article. Your own safety is of the utmost importance. Be sure to evaluate the scene carefully for fires that may not be extinguished, debris, or other dangers before you approach. The first two priorities for the elderly man are airway and breathing. You’ll keep him sitting upright, which may help decrease edema formation to the face and neck, preserving the airway. Observe the patient for respiratory effort and symmetrical chest wall expansion. When prehospital personnel arrive on the scene, you can anticipate that they will administer high-flow oxygen. Intubation may also be needed to protect and maintain the airway. Check pulses in affected extremities. Report your findings to the responders. You can anticipate that two large-bore I.V.’s will be placed and I.V. fluids started immediately. Although the patient may be alert and oriented now, you should monitor closely for any changes. Check the patient’s jewelry and clothing and gently remove anything that may be restricting circulation, keeping in mind that the patient may develop edema later. If you or a passerby has a clean blanket or sheet in your vehicle, cover the patient to maintain a warm environment. Once the patient has been transported and stabilized at the closest emergency department, you can anticipate that he will be referred to a specialty burn center because the case satisfies at least three important criteria: - There are burns to the patient’s face, neck, upper chest, and both arms, encompassing more than than10% of his total body surface area (See Rule of nines.) - The burns involve critical functional areas (face, hands, and over major joints). - The patient may also require significant rehabilitation due to his age. Promote positive outcomes Following the ABCDEs of emergency burn response will help you promote positive outcomes for burn patients you may encounter. For further information about burns and ABLS courses in your area, contact the American Burn Association at ameriburn.org. American Burn Association. Advanced Burn Life Support Course Provider Manual. Chicago, IL: American Burn Association; 2011. American Burn Association. Burn care facilities. www.ameriburn.org/BCRDPublic.pdf. American Burn Association. Burn incidence and treatment in the United States: 2013 fact sheet. www.ameriburn.org/resources_factsheet.php. Heffernan JM, Comeau OY. Management of patients with burn injury. In: Hinkle JL, Cheever KH, eds. Brunner & Suddarth’s Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing. 13th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2014:1805-1836. Hostle D, Weaver MD, Ziembicki JA, et al. Admission temperature and survival in patients admitted to burn centers. J Burn Care Res. 2014;34(5):498-506. Jamie M. Heffernan is the patient care director of the New York Presbyterian William Randolf Hearst Burn Center in Manhattan, and Odette Y. Comeau is an adult critical care clinical nurse specialist at University of Texas Medical Branch.	<urn:uuid:be8aa58e-4286-4de6-9281-cd3e92b6e081>	{ "date": "2017-12-15T23:33:08", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-51", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948580416.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20171215231248-20171216013248-00456.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9107944965362549, "score": 2.765625, "token_count": 2128, "url": "https://www.americannursetoday.com/abcdes-emergency-burn-care/" }
4.2. The horizon problem There is another odd fact about the observed universe: the apparent high degree of uniformity and thermal equilibrium of the CMB. While it might at first seem quite natural for the hot gas of the early universe to be in good thermal equilibrium, this is in fact quite unnatural in the standard Big Bang picture. This is because of the presence of a cosmological horizon. We recall that the horizon size of the universe is just how far a photon can have traveled since the Big Bang, dH ~ t in units where c = 1. This defines how large a "patch" of the universe can be in causal contact. Two points in the universe separated by more than a horizon size have no way to reach thermal equilibrium, since they cannot have ever been in causal contact. Consider two points comoving with respect to the cosmological expansion. The physical distance d between the two points then just increases linearly with the scale factor: The horizon size is just proportional to the time, or equivalently to the inverse of the Hubble parameter, It is straightforward to show that for any FRW space with constant equation of state, there is a conserved quantity given by Proof of this is also left as an exercise for the student. If we again consider the case of "ordinary" matter, with equation of state 1 + 3w > 0, we see from Eqs. (61) and (65) that the horizon expands faster than a comoving length: This means that any two points at rest relative to the expansion of the universe will be causally disconnected at early times and causally connected at late times. This can be visualized on a conformal space-time diagram (Fig. 10). On a conformal diagram, we re-write the metric in terms of conformal time d dt/a: The advantage of this choice of coordinates is that light always travels at 45° angles dx = d on the diagram, regardless of the behavior of the scale factor. In a matter dominated universe, the scale factor evolves as so the Big Bang, a = 0, is a surface x = const. at = 0. Two points on a given = const. surface are in causal contact if their past light cones intersect at the Big Bang, = 0. Figure 10. Light cones in a FRW space, plotted in conformal coordinates, ds2 = a2(d2 - dx2). The "Big Bang" is a surface at = 0. Points in the space can only be in causal contact if their past light cones intersect at the Big Bang. So the natural expectation for the very early universe is that there should be a large number of small, causally disconnected regions that will be in poor thermal equilibrium. The central question is: just how large was the horizon when the CMB was emitted? Since the universe was about 300,000 years old at recombination, the horizon size then was about 300,000 light years. Each atom at the surface of last scattering could only be in causal contact (and therefore in thermal equilibrium) with with other atoms within a radius of about 300,000 light years. As seen from earth, the horizon size at the surface of last scattering subtends an angle on the sky of about a degree. Figure 11. Schematic diagram of the horizon size at the surface of last scattering. The horizon size at the time of recombination was about 300,000 light years. Viewed from earth, this subtends an angle of about a degree on the sky. Therefore, two points on the surface of last scattering separated by an angle of more than a degree were out of causal contact at the time the CMB was emitted. However, the CMB is uniform (and therefore in thermal equilibrium) over the entire sky to one part in 105. How did all of these disconnected regions reach such a high degree of thermal equilibrium?	<urn:uuid:113e59ba-d101-43e8-9c8b-10effe761aee>	{ "date": "2015-08-04T13:55:07", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-32", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042990900.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002310-00215-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9290745258331299, "score": 3.578125, "token_count": 800, "url": "http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Sept02/Kinney/Kinney4_2.html" }
Pharmacy is practiced in a wide range of settings: community pharmacies, hospitals, long term care facilities, the pharmaceutical industry, mail service, managed care, and government (Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Indian Health Service, Public Health Service). A survey identified 112,000 pharmacists in community pharmacy (66,000 in chains; 46,000 in independents), 40,000 in hospitals, and 21,000 in consulting, government, academic, industry and other settings. Historically, educational requirements for pharmacists included the choice of two entry-level degrees: a five-year Bachelor of Science in pharmacy (BS Pharmacy) or a six-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD). However, as of the year 2000, most schools of pharmacy began offering only the PharmD degree. This extensive training makes the pharmacist the most knowledgeable health care professional when it comes to medicines and their use. Medicines today have great power to heal and to improve the quality of life for millions of Americans. But medicines also may do serious harm if not taken correctly. This is where the role of the pharmacist is most important. You should choose your pharmacist as carefully as you choose a physician. It is best to use only one pharmacy so all medication records are at one location. This way there will be less risk of duplicating medicine or having one prescription interact harmfully with another. Pharmacists who know their patients and have their medication profiles on file will be aware of possible harmful drug interactions or allergies to certain drugs. The pharmacist also will be able to discuss possible side effects; what foods, drinks, or activities that should be avoided while on a medication; what to do if you miss a dose; and a wide range of other helpful information. The pharmacist is a key health care professional in helping people achieve the best results from their medications. Americans should choose a pharmacist they trust and build a partnership for good health.	<urn:uuid:08540f71-136d-4424-88d4-72ee3a4d0865>	{ "date": "2016-02-08T09:48:19", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-07", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701152987.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193912-00331-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9331259727478027, "score": 2.984375, "token_count": 398, "url": "http://pharmacist.com/pharmacy-profession" }
Two years into a study looking at methods of combining a living cover crop between corn rows shows that yield can be maintained at high levels using environmentally friendly practices. Researchers are testing between-row cover grasses as part of research looking at ways to reduce soil runoff and keep vital nutrients in the soils while crop residue, or stover, is removed from farm fields to produce biofuels. With U.S. government targets requiring a 30 percent displacement of petroleum consumption with fuels made from biomass by the year 2030, agronomy researchers are studying methods of harvesting more and more stover, which previously was left on the field. Targets will require removing 75 percent of stover to use as biomass in the production of biofuels. Removing stover can cause more water runoff and deplete soil of the organic material needed to remain productive. One method of keeping the soil in place and replenished with organic matter is to plant grasses between the corn rows that would stay on the field year round. "We are looking at trying to grow corn in a perennial sod, so that we can protect the soil and provide these other environmental services at the same time," says Ken Moore, professor of agronomy. Developing a cover crop system that allows nutrients, organic matter, water and carbon to remain in the soil is a great idea. But farmers won't do it if it reduces yields, says Moore. The results so far have been very encouraging. After the first two years of the study, researchers have already discovered a system that allows for removal of up to 95 percent of the corn stover, increases the amount of carbon kept in the soil, increases water use efficiency in corn and also maintains corn yield. Source: Iowa State University	<urn:uuid:0d6ef211-4cb0-4b98-ab66-3569b7172043>	{ "date": "2016-06-30T21:12:26", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-26", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00098-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9574663043022156, "score": 3.40625, "token_count": 359, "url": "http://www.dairyherd.com/dairy-resources/save-soil-and-maintain-corn-yields-113994594.html?source=related" }
Dec 19, 2012 ... Top 10 Qualities That Make A Great Leader ... Here are some key qualities that every good leader should possess, and learn to emphasize. Discover some of the characteristics that great leaders possess. ... Any good leader knows how important it is to develop the skills of those around them. Apr 17, 2016 ... If the characteristics of a good leader above do not describe you, there are ways for you to improve upon your leadership capabilities. Many say ... Mar 22, 2016 ... Study these characteristics -- and the wise words of leaders who strive ... To be a good leader, you cannot major in minor things, and you must ... Jun 30, 2015 ... Good leadership is essential to business, to government and to the numerous groups and organisations that shape the way we live, work and ... How often have you heard the comment, “He or she is a born leader?” There are certain characteristics found in some people that seem to naturally put them in a ... Successful Leadership Characteristics: A Learned Skill. March 5, 2016 Lee Candy. Successful ... How good are your basic Leadership Characteristics? Aug 3, 2011 ... Leadership is one of those nebulous terms -- you hear it all the time but it has various definitions. The traits that make up a good leader can vary ... Great leaders share the characteristic of leadership. ... the wherewithal to set the steps necessary to get there-- is an essential characteristic of good leadership. If you want to give your business a good start toward success, it has to start with leadership, and leadership has to start with you.	<urn:uuid:165af390-7ff1-4434-ae04-1fb7ec3a729e>	{ "date": "2016-09-24T21:52:46", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-40", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738659496.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173739-00056-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9052278995513916, "score": 2.578125, "token_count": 342, "url": "http://www.ask.com/web?q=Characteristics+of+Good+Leadership&o=2603&l=dir&qsrc=3139&gc=1" }
Sketches of springs spheres of discharge: a cave, b exposure, c fountain, d geyser, e gushet, f hanging garden, g helocrene, h hillslope, i hypocrene, j limnocrene, k mound form, l rheocrene. A aquifer, I impermeable stratum, S spring source. The inverted triangle represents the water table or piezometric surface. Fault lines are also shown, where appropriate ( 2008 ) expanded these historical schemes to include 12 spheres of discharge of springs, including: (1) springs that emerge in caves, (2) exposure springs, (3) artesian fountains, (4) geysers, (5) gushets, (6) contact hanging gardens, (7) helocrene wet meadows, (8) hillslope springs, (9) hypocrene buried springs, (10) limnocrene surficial lentic pools, (11) mound forms, and (12) rheocrene lotic channel floors (Figs. 1 and 2 ; Table 1 Cave springs are those that emerge entirely within a cave environment and are not directly connected to surface flow (Figs. 1 a and 2 a). ( 2008 ; Figs. 1 b and 2 b). Fountain springs are cool-water artesian springs that are forced above the land surface by stratigraphic head-driven pressure or CO 2 (e.g., Crystal Geyser; Glennon and Pfaff 2005 ; Figs. 1 c and 2 c). Geysers are globally rare, geothermal springs that emerge explosively and usually erratically (Figs. 1 d and 2 d). ( 2008 ; Figs. 1 e and 2 e). Hanging gardens are complex, multi-habitat springs that emerge along geologic contacts and seep, drip, or pour onto underlying walls (Figs. 1 f and 2 f). Helocrene springs usually emerge in a diffuse fashion in cienega (marshy, wet meadow) settings (Figs. 1 g and 2 g). Hillslope springs emerge from confined or unconfined aquifers on non-vertical hillslopes at 30–60° slopes, and usually have indistinct or multiple sources (Figs. 1 h and 2 h). Hypocrene springs are springs in which groundwater levels come near, but do not reach the surface (Figs. 1 i and 2 i). Limnocrene springs occur where discharge from confined or unconfined aquifers emerge as one or more lentic pools (Figs. 1 j and 2 j). Mound-form springs emerge from (usually carbonate) precipitate mounds or peat mounds (Figs. 1 k and 2 k). The term rheocrene was first coined by Bornhauser ( 1913 ) to describe springs where discharge emerges as flowing streams (Figs. 1 l and 2 l). Viewing this image requires a subscription. If you are a subscriber, please log in. This image is from the article titled "Spheres of discharge of springs" (from Hydrogeology Journal), which is copyrighted by Springer-Verlag. For more information on the copyright for this image, please refer to the full image caption and to the The image is being made available for non-commercial purposes for subscribers to SpringerImages. For more information on what you are allowed to do with this image, please see our copyright policy. To request permissions to use any copyrighted material, please visit the source document. Report a copyright concern regarding this image. Log in or register to save your favorite images and download them as high-quality PowerPoint or PDF files. Log in or register to save your search criteria. © Springer, part of Springer Science+Business Media. Remote Address: 188.8.131.52 Server: 21	<urn:uuid:1550a17f-f062-4c23-935a-17c0ada8020d>	{ "date": "2014-03-07T15:15:29", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-10", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999645330/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060725-00006-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.8499459624290466, "score": 3.40625, "token_count": 853, "url": "http://www.springerimages.com/Images/Geosciences/1-10.1007_s10040-008-0341-y-1" }
Ransomware is gaining worldwide attention recently, especially after the WannaCry attack that infected more than 200,000 computers in over 150 countries. As a business owner, you should be aware of the dangers of ransomware, as well as the protective measures you can use for all your systems. One such measure is the knowledge and expertise of an IT support professional in Suffolk. Here are some facts about ransomware and what you (and your IT support provider) can do to combat it. What is Ransomware? Ransomware is a type of malware that locks your computer and holds your entire files hostage until you pay a certain amount of money. There are two main types of ransomware: lockscreen ransomware and the more troublesome encryption ransomware. Lockscreen ransomware displays a full-screen message that prevents you from interacting normally with your device, demanding a ransom to unlock it again. Encryption ransomware scrambles your files, demanding a fee be paid for the encryption key needed to unscramble them again. How Can I Protect Against Ransomware? Sandboxing is a vital security practice that isolates programs, preventing malicious or malfunctioning programs from damaging the rest of your computer. The fun part is you can create your own sandboxes to test applications. Another way to safeguard your business is to maintain good security. With the help of your IT support provider in Suffolk, install anti-malware utilities on your device, update all applications and software regularly, and use a reliable backup and recovery system to prevent data loss. How Does Ransomware Infect My System? Typically, ransomware infects your system when you visit a website that forces your device to download malicious code. You may also be tricked into downloading ransomware disguised as something else, such as an email attachment or a software utility. How Can I Remove Ransomware From My System? You can usually remove ransomware with standard anti-malware utilities. If you’re locked out of your device, it may be possible to regain access if you reboot it in safe mode. How Do I Recover My Files? Your ability to recover your files depends on whether someone encrypts your files and what recovery systems you have in place. Some ransomware only claims to encrypt files but doesn’t actually do so. In this case, it may be enough to simply remove the infection. If your files are encrypted, you may need to restore them from backups. Your system must be cleared of any malware before recovery can take place. How Can The Message Include My IP Address? Your IP address isn’t normally hidden unless you take steps to conceal it. There are a great many tools that can uncover your IP— the ransomware creator probably included such a tool in their design. Could The Authorities Have Detected Illegal Activity On My System? No. This is a ruse the malware developer employs to make you pay. Ransomware messages can look convincing, with the names and logos of legal authorities prominently displayed. However, law enforcement will not interact with you in this way. I Can’t Access My System Or My Files. Should I Pay The Ransom To Regain Access? Whether or not you decide to pay will depend on your situation. Be aware that paying the ransom may not allow you to regain access to your files. If you do pay, the culprit may target you for future attacks. What Should I Do If I’ve Already Paid? If you’ve paid using a credit or debit card, or an online payment service such as PayPal, you might be able to recover the money from your payment provider. If you’ve used a digital currency such as Bitcoin, recovering the money may be difficult, if not impossible. Contacting law enforcement, such as the police, can be a useful first step. Always remember that protection against malware is protection against ransomware. Keep your devices and systems secure and back up your files regularly to protect yourself against this kind of threat. For trusted IT support services in Suffolk that you can depend on, contact us at Total Technology Solutions today.	<urn:uuid:987bfcc0-9710-4d83-b0cc-4aa4b4d83850>	{ "date": "2018-06-18T14:59:52", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-26", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267860570.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20180618144750-20180618164750-00296.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9111061096191406, "score": 2.578125, "token_count": 832, "url": "https://total.us.com/ransomware-sandboxing-it-support-suffolk-can-help/" }
What does MUGI mean in General? This page is about the meanings of the acronym/abbreviation/shorthand MUGI in the Computing field in general and in the General terminology in particular. Find a translation for MUGI in other languages: Select another language: What does MUGI mean? - In cryptography, MUGI is a pseudorandom number generator designed for use as a stream cipher. It has been recommended for Japanese government use by the CRYPTREC project. MUGI takes a 128-bit secret key and a 128-bit initial vector. After a key- and IV- setup process, MUGI outputs 64-bit output strings based on the internal state, while updating the internal state after each output block. MUGI has a 1216-bit internal state; there are three 64-bit registers and 16 64-bit registers. MUGI uses the non-linear S-box that was originally defined in Advanced Encryption Standard. A part of the linear transformation also reuses the MDS matrix of AES. The basic design is influenced by that of Panama.	<urn:uuid:3985a3dc-ddd5-4833-9c46-d915c413a9a1>	{ "date": "2014-09-21T19:17:44", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-41", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657135777.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011215-00243-ip-10-234-18-248.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9096599817276001, "score": 2.71875, "token_count": 234, "url": "http://www.abbreviations.com/term/293443" }
The rotten egg gas leaking from sewer pipes and costing billions of dollars worldwide in odour control may soon be far less of a problem thanks to new research discussed at the 2012 International Water Association (IWA) conference this week. Trials with a magic mix of chemicals, called Cloevis, on sewers in the Gold Coast region in Australia stopped 99 per cent of the rotten egg gas or hydrogen sulphide emitted from these pipes. Lead researcher, Professor Zhiguo Yuan from the University of Queensland, told IWA delegates that one week after dosing for a few hours, in most cases the gas level increased to less than one fifth of its emissions prior to the treatment, and this has been repeatedly observed over a period of five months. "We are currently looking to commercialise Cloevis and are doing a further four trials of the mix in the US and Canada," Professor Yuan says. "Our partners over there are very excited by Cloevis' potential". The gases causing the bad smells in sewers also play a role in corroding sewer pipes, which is another costly problem especially in warm climates. Professor Yuan's team, involving active participation from key members of Australia's water industry, is also working on corrosion issues and have another study into chemical free methods for managing hydrogen sulphide gas. "We have done some trials with oxygenation of sewage using an electrochemical method which has reduced hydrogen sulphide enormously," he says. "We probably won't stop all bad smells from sewers forever but we're well on the way to reducing their extent." Other speakers at the IWA conference spoke about managing bad smells from sewers and wastewater drains once they had escaped. Dr Valentina Lazarova from France reported on trials on the strong smells coming from the Oued El Harrach River in Algiers. Her team used jasmine-smelling micro sprays on the highway crossing the river and gels on pedestrian bridges nearby to mask the smells. "We used 1000 questionnaires and face-to-face interviews with local people and found out that 70 per cent of the population were satisfied or very satisfied with what we did and 96 per cent wanted the project to continue," she says. Zdaravka Doquang from France talked about how to determine how bad a sewage-based smell is for people, with regards to both its type and intensity of smell. Her team has developed an 'odour wheel' for sewage smells that: "helps to classify odours and ensure a common language to communicate about the odours." "People are most sensitive to hydrogen sulphide or rotten egg gas compounds both qualitatively and quantitatively compared to any other compounds," she says. Professor Zhiguo Yuan, University of Queensland, phone +61 402 385 909, [email protected] Dr Valentina Lazarova, [email protected] Zdaravka Doquang , [email protected] For media assistance: Jenni Metcalfe, Econnect Communication, phone +61 408 551 866, [email protected] Alison Binney, Econnect Communication, phone +61 428 900 450, [email protected]	<urn:uuid:52f9534b-5193-4028-a923-579191b6d097>	{ "date": "2016-10-27T01:16:04", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-44", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721027.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00531-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9417747259140015, "score": 2.828125, "token_count": 669, "url": "https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-09/ecpl-sts092012.php" }
How Do You Weld Aluminum? Welding aluminum is a bit of a challenging task even for experienced welders. There are several scattered sources of information regarding aluminum welding and many manuals that are available also carry scant meaningful information. There are few basic welding books but with very short sections on aluminum welding. Even today most welders learn aluminum welding more through a method of trial and error. First let us look at the equipments needed for aluminum welding. A Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welder is by all accounts, ideally suited for welding aluminum. It is said that aluminum can also be welded with a MIG welder or a stick welder or even a with a gas torch. Good quality durable welding glove are essential if the welder wishes to avoid suffering from the painful blisters. Equally necessary is a sturdy welding helmet and market reports suggest the gold tinted auto darkening helmets as the most suitable. Argon or Argon / Helium mix gas is required and it is nearly certain that mixes of other gases are not fit for aluminum welding. Another important fact to know is - using the tank from the MIG welder on the TIG welder will not work. The welding rod prescribed by many for aluminum welding is 4043. It is necessary to have a separate dedicated stainless steel brush exclusively for use for aluminum welding. It is also preferable to have a special metal bench to help put out a fire while welding. It is preferable to have a squirt bottle with water - not so much for cooling the work, as for putting out small fires without using a fire extinguisher. Please be aware that any attempts to hastily cool aluminum may result in crack in or near the weld. Last, but not least in importance, is a heavy long sleeve cotton work shirt. It is pertinent to note that TIG welding produces more UV radiation than any other welding process. One would also need clamps or vise grips and some blocks or bars of aluminum or copper to use as heat sinks. Useful Welding Tips Clean the aluminum and this is a very necessary step that should not be overlooked. Here is how to prepare the aluminum for welding: - spray the aluminum with little carb cleaner or electrical cleaner. - rinse the aluminum in water, just in case there's any nasty residue. - use a stainless steel brush to scrub the aluminum shiny clean around the area to be welded. There is a suggestion that the aluminum should be scrubbed in one direction only to avoid working contaminants into the aluminum. It is also reported that 3M scotchbrite pads are a good way to prepare aluminum for welding. Clamp your work to a heat sink made of copper or aluminum as using a heat sink under the area to be welded will absorb some of the heat and help keep the work from warping. Preheat the area before welding as this makes it a lot easier to weld aluminum. If the tungsten gets contaminated, then stop welding and fix it. When the tungsten gets touches the weld pool or the filler, the arc becomes unstable and the weld quality goes way down. Fit the parts together as tightly as possible leaving no gaps. This is somewhat hard to do when welding aluminum with the TIG. Use one amp per .001" of material thickness. Set the amperage a higher than the maximum you expect to use and use the foot pedal to back it down. It is advisable to use a filler rod size equal to the tungsten size and adjust the tungsten to project from the hood a distance roughly equal to the diameter of the tungsten. The arc length should be roughly equal to the diameter of the tungsten. The tips furnished herein are by no means complete but there are many informative articles available on the Internet for beginners in aluminum welding.	<urn:uuid:c9687875-83a3-4a83-a515-d4a93d0707b0>	{ "date": "2017-04-30T20:35:28", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-17", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917125849.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031205-00238-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.935492992401123, "score": 2.921875, "token_count": 790, "url": "http://www.everlastgenerators.com/how-do-you-weld-aluminum" }
2018, Volume 1, Issue 2 Department of Architecture & Town planning, Faculty of Science of the Earth, University 3 Constantine, Algeria Previous studies have shown that the glazing is responsible for the most part of the heat gains and losses in the buildings. Glass has been progressively more used in Algeria. In this country, the building sector is the largest energy consumer. It is responsible of more than 41% of the overall energy consumption, with an annual increase rate of 10.8%. Consequently, glazing is an important factor in determining building energy consumption. From the point of view of aesthetics and visual comfort, great glazed surfaces are desirable. However, in semi- Keywords: Glazing, WWR, energetic performance, overheating, power consumption In Algeria, the building sector is the largest energy consumer. It is responsible of more than 41% of the overall energy consumption, with an annual increase rate of 10.8% (N.M.E, 2014). Among aspects of energy design, office buildings offer significant possibilities in order to reduce the power consumption and its environmental impact. However, a detailed attention must be given to its outer envelope, because of its transparency. Windows are important in the workplace for both environmental and psychological reasons (Menzies, et Wherrett, 2005). These building features combine many functions (daylight, thermal comfort, protection against noise, sun, cold and wind, aesthetics, provision of view to the exterior and safety (Tsikaloudaki, Theodosiou, Laskos & Bikas, 2012). Consequently, selecting appropriate windows is important in terms of occupant comfort and energy savings (Haglund, 2015). In terms of heating needs, glazed surfaces contribute positively to the space heating by collecting solar energy (Tsikaloudaki, Theodosiou, Laskos & Bikas, 2012). However, they are the crossing point of significant solar energy which contributes in warming the space and causes summer overheating. This is the effect of its capacity of solar radiation transmission (Binarti, 2009). The cooling needs are usually resolved with the proper design of the outer envelope, in particular, the glazing part (Hilliaho, Mäkital & Lahdensivu, 2015). The transparency ratio of facades is defined as the window- Efficient WWR depends on climate conditions. Consequently, each climate needs a proper fenestration design. Binarti (2009) investigated the optimal window area for a classroom in a tropical zone. He found that a window with a WWR of 20% can be considered with regard to energy- Many other studies investigated the performance of the facade configuration in a considerable number of cities in the world; however, the bulk of research is carried out in moderate, cold climates and hot climates. Little is understood about the performance of large glazed facade in predominantly semi- There is a great potential for energy savings on air heating and conditioning when using the ideal Window Area (WWR) in offices, depending on orientation and glazing types. Energy efficient window design should limit both cooling and heating demands. The brief addressed by this study was to evaluate internal conditions in an office space that have large glazed area in Constantine city, and to define an efficient window in terms of heating and cooling. This work intends to provide guidance to building designers with regard to the thermal performance of office buildings. 3. Methodology and Description of case Study The control of the indoor environment and its requirement is important for office buildings in terms of energy. This work presents the results of a post- 3.1 Introduction of Climatic Condition in the Studied Area The office room studied in this paper is located in an office building representative of contemporary buildings in Algerian country. It is situated in Constantine city at (36°, 17 N and 7°,23'E), 675m altitude. Its climate is characterized by great temperature oscillations, very cold and wet winters (2.6°C is the minimal average temperature,) and hot summers, where average air temperature presents a value of 25.5°C at the hottest month of the year (Figure1). The average intensity of solar radiation in this city is significant, as it is about 4230 W/m ² / day on a horizontal surface, according to the National agency of weather data (2014). Total solar radiation on a horizontal surface reaches its maximum value of 337 w/h/m ² in July (Figure 2). 3.2 Description of the building Case Study The ABAM building (Agency of Building Advancement and Management) which is an office building is selected for the case study. It is built in 2010 and located in Constantine. The ABAM building consists of a ground, underground and 4 storeys. Its long axis is oriented in the east west directions. The envelope has large glazing ratios of exterior façade around 40% to 50%. An office space situated in an intermediate floor of this building is selected for the field measurement. The studied office space shown in Figure 3 has a floor area of 16 m² (3.28m wide, 4.87m long and 2.70m high.) and two façades in contact with the exterior. The fenestration areas are identical Double- 4. The in- As a first step, to deal with the comfort problem, and to analyze the thermal performance of the space and the effect of glazed area on thermal environment, in real conditions, measurements were undertaken in the selected office space, during the hottest month characterized by highest amount of solar radiation. 7 full consecutive days representative of the hot season (from 03 to 10 august) were selected. A data logger PCE- 4.1 Results and discussion of in situ measurement The weather over the 7 measurement days was generally hot and sunny. To allow air entering in the space, the windows were fully opened during the occupation hours (from 8:00am to 12 am and from 13pm to 16:30 pm). Since the office space did not have significant thermal storage or conditioning equipment, indoor environmental conditions of this office room followed closely the outdoor conditions with the expected attenuation of temperature extremes. The curves in figure 5 indicate that the outdoor temperature had a maximal diurnal variation of 24°C, from 14°C to 38°C while the simultaneous indoor temperature was varying from 23.2°C to 33.0°C, showing a maximum diurnal variation of about 9.8°C. The average indoor temperature of the space was approximately 2.6 °C higher than the average outdoor air temperature for the measurement period. The examination of the curves shows that the maximum temperatures in the office room occurred during midday periods, regardless of the solar heat gain and the poor control measures applied. In occupied hours and in addition to dependence of indoor temperature on the amount of solar energy received by the glazed part of the envelope, occupants open the operable window to generate an air movement to improve their comfort. The office room was consequently exposed to a high overheating risk. The large temperature difference between the two curves is observed in night time period. The external temperatures fall considerably in night time while internal ones remained higher, well above the comfort limit (Tc=25.42°C) calculated for Constantine with Auliciems formula for the hot season in Constantine. It is clear that night ventilation is not envisaged because windows were often left closed, to prevent drafts that may disrupt papers on desks within the office area. As a result, excess heat is accumulated in the space the following day. The temperature recorded inside the office room is found to be higher than the comfort limit, for 96 % of all measurement period and 100% of occupied hours (figure 6). From the analysis of the above referred literature and the result of the in- In order to find out the optimal window area in terms of heating and cooling loads, simulation is performed for all year round, using the simulation program 'Pleiades comfie 126.96.36.199'. The office room monitored and described in the first section is selected for simulation. The office room characteristics of building materials are described in table 1, and the simulation results are presented and discussed in this section. 5.1 Simulation variables There are many parameters in the design of windows in terms of thermal comfort, the most important are: So, the energy performance of different types of glazing used in buildings in Algeria has been investigated: A one pane glazing, a double glazing and a double glazing with low- 5.2 Occupancy and operation schedules The internal loads in the office room consisted of the heat generated by one computer (450 W) and 3 peoples (80 W each). The thermostat setting was 27°C for cooling, and 19°C for heating during occupation hours. The ventilation rate was 57 m3/h per Person. Determination of energy loads in the modeled office space, for all cases is given by kilowatt hour/m3. 5.3 Results and discussion 5.3.1. The effect of window- In order to select the most effective WWR, each glazing type has been varied by a step of 10% in the four principle orientations. It was found that when using a single glazing (type a) in the southern orientation, a WWR of 30% performs better. However, when using a glass (type b) or (type c), the window with more glazing surface in contact with exterior (a window- The risk of overheating in the Western orientation is avoided because the great amount of solar energy is received out of the occupancy hours. Subsequently the increase of the window area has a positive return on saving energy for heating and has no penalty on cooling energy demand. Therefore, for both heating and cooling loads, energy demand decreases with increasing WWR to 10% in Western orientation. In contrary when using a glazing (type a) in Northern and Eastern orientation, the reduction of window size from 50% to 10% leads to a quick decrease of energy loads by approximately 8%. The decrease of energy loads is less affirmative for the glazing (type b), and (type c) by a ratio of 3%. 5.3.2 The effect of orientation The building was rotated by 90°. The office room energy use is affected by orientation changes. Simulation results indicate that the orientation is another fundamental variable which can strongly influence the energy savings of the glazed façade, as it may be mounted in the South, West, North or East faces of a building. Results for window use in the four main orientations are shown in Figure 7. For energy savings where both heating and cooling are concerns, the South face is an efficient direction with total annual heating and cooling loads between 67.25 and 70.33 kWh/m3. This is understandable considering that South orientation receives lower solar energy in hot season. Positioning glazed spaces in the South face can reduce the total energy load, because solar heat gain has a positive effect by increasing the indoor temperature in cold season and reducing it in hot season. Also, in non- 5.3.3 The effect of glazing types The energy demand for heating and cooling seasons resulting from the use of the three glazing types described above was compared. It has been found that the type of glazing materials used in building construction makes a significant contribution to the annual energy consumption. In Northern and Eastern orientations, the single Glazing (type a), with the higher U value (5.10 W/m2.°K ) allows heat transferring between inside and outside. Therefore, it is the less efficient in this study, particularly when great WWR is employed in external wall (Figure 8). Total annual heating and cooling loads can reach 78,6 kWh/m3 in the Eastern orientation. The double glazing (type b) is the most promising case. It failed to produce acceptable results. The use of glazing (type b) leads to better energy performance than the other options in all the studied orientations. By minimizing the heat transfer through glazing, it aims at the reduction of the heating demand. While the glazing (type c) allows optimizing solar protection and reducing heat transfer. Its Low emissivity coating and gas fillings are important topics here. It performs better than glazing (type a). 5.3.4 Ideal WWR for the office room model The findings from investigating the effects of individual parameters (orientation, glazing type, and WWR) have been combined to formulate a glazed façade that has the low heating and cooling loads in constantine. Table 3 indicates optimal combinations of design measures represented by the ideal WWR for all orientations and glazing types. From this table we can see that energy loads increase as the window area increases. Reducing WWR leads in reducing annual energy loads for glazing (type b), and (type c) for Eastern and Northern orientations. The Southern and Western orientations admit a larger WWR (50%) by using a glazing (type a, and b), in fact of their capacity to admit solar thermal gains in cold period. In contrary, in hot season the space is protected from solar rays. The investigation of an office room located in Constantine city has shown a discomfort and an overheating in a week representative of the hot period. The energy potential of employing glazed facades in office rooms is examined. Design variables such as WWR, glazing types and orientation were evaluated with the assistance of Pleiades comfie program. This analysis defined the most efficient window area (WWR) in an office building, in a semi- Bektas, B and AKSOY, U.T. 2008. Investigation of the Effects of Orientation and Window Usage on External Walls in Terms of Heating and Cooling Energy Turkish J. Eng. Env. Sci. 32, 23 - Binarti, F. 2009. Energy- Eskin, N & Turkmen, H. 2008. Analysis of annual heating and cooling energy requirements for office buildings in different climates in Turkey Energy and Buildings 40 (5) 763- Haglund, K. Window selection methodologies and optimization in high- Hilliaho, K., Mäkital, E., and Lahdensivu, J. 2015. Energy saving potential of glazed space: sensitivity analysis. Energy and Buildings. 99, 87- Inanici, N & Nur Demirbilek, F. 2000. Thermal performance optimization of building aspect ratio and south window size in five cities having different climatic characteristics of Turkey. Building and Environment 35, 41- Jaber, S & Ajib, S. 2011. Thermal and economic windows design for different climate zones. Energy and Buildings. 43(11) 3208- Kontoleon, K.J & Bikas, D.K. 2002. Modeling the influence of glazed openings percentage and type of glazing on the thermal zone behavior. Energy and Buildings 34 (4), 389- Menzies, F & Wherrett, J.R. 2005. Windows in the workplace: examining issues of environmental sustainability and occupant comfort in the selection of multi- Meteonorm, Meteorological Database, Version 7, Software and Data for Engineers, Planners and Education. N.A.W.D, 2014. National agency of weather data. ain el bey. http://www.meteo.dz N.M.E, 2013. Publication of the National Ministry of energy. National Energy Appraisal: Bilan Energétique National. N.M.E. http://www.energy.gov.dz/fr/statistiques. Tsikaloudak, Ki., Theodosiou, K., Laskos, TH & Bikas, D. 2012. Assessing cooling energy performance of windows for office buildings in the Mediterranean zone, Energy Buildings. 49 (64), 192- Waheeb, S.A. 2010. Shading Design Guidelines and Reduction of Cooling using Different Glazing Heywood J. Umm Al- Journal of Buildings and Sustainability - INSIGHTCORE ® -	<urn:uuid:07fc2c05-2cce-4ba9-adee-83b6905e0a77>	{ "date": "2020-01-28T14:44:14", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2020-05", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251778272.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20200128122813-20200128152813-00216.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9284772276878357, "score": 3.234375, "token_count": 3363, "url": "http://www.insightcore.com/journal/Energy_Demand_Reduction_Applying_Different_Window_sizes_office_building_semi-arid_climate_by_Badeche_Bouchahm.html" }
of Recyclable Materials The following are the definitions of revised and expanded categories of recycled materials eligible for tonnage report submission. The definitions are not meant to be all-inclusive, but rather attempt to identify the majority of materials reported in previous submittals, as identified by current markets for those materials. It is recognized that market changes may dictate altering these definitions. Aluminum Cans (06) - Food and beverage containers made entirely Antifreeze (12) - An automotive engine coolant consisting of a mixture of ethylene glycol and water, or propylene glycol and water. Computer Printout/White Ledger (02) - All computer paper, all high grade white paper (including letterhead, typing paper, copier paper, onionskin, tissue, and notepad). Concrete, Asphalt, Masonry and Paving Material (22) - Asphalt, concrete, brick, cinder block, "patio blocks," ceramic materials, stones and other masonry and paving materials. Note that the regulations at N.J.A.C. 7:26A allow for asphalt to be handled in two ways: incorporated into the asphalt production process (milled asphalt) ; or asphalt is taken to a Class B recycling center and used to produce construction aggregate. Either form of the material is acceptable for reporting purposes. Consumer Batteries (21) - Any type of button, coin, cylindrical, rectangular or other shaped, enclosed device or sealed container which is utilized as an energy source for commercial, industrial, medical, institutional or household use. (Does not include lead-acid batteries Corrugated (01) - Containers and similar paper items, usually used to transport supplies, equipment,parts, or other merchandise. Food Scraps (23) - Food plate waste and food processing wastes. Food processing wastes include food processing vegetative waste (material generated in trimming and reject sorting operations from the processing of fruits and vegetables in canneries or similar industries, e.g., tomato skins, pepper cores, bean snips, cranberry hulls, etc.), food processing residuals and animal processing wastes. If the material is transported and processed as animal feed, it may be identified as such. Glass Containers (05) - All glass containers used for packaging food or beverages. Heavy Iron (09) - All structural steel or ferrous metal, cast Lead-Acid Batteries (13) - Batteries from automobiles, trucks, other vehicles, machinery and equipment. (Does not include consumer Magazines & Junk Mail (04) - All magazine stock, white and colored paper and envelopes. Miscellaneous Recyclable Materials (24) - Includes any other non-hazardous material which would otherwise be classified as a solid waste, and is not otherwise defined in this section and documented as Mixed Office Paper (02) - Items listed in computer printout/white ledger category when mixed with envelopes, manila folders and colored paper. Material is generated by commercial/institutional sources. (03) - All paper marketed as newsprint or newspaper and containing at least 70% newsprint or newspaper (American Paper Institute grades #6, #7 and #8 news). Other Aluminum Scrap, Non-Ferrous Scrap (10) - All non-container aluminum including auto parts, siding, aircraft parts, lawn chairs, window and door frames, pots and pans, foils and pie plates. Non-ferrous scrap consists primarily of copper and zinc. Copper generally takes the form of cable (utility wires), plumbing, wiring harnesses, motors, house wiring and bulky items. Other Bulky Materials (24) - Furniture (plastic, wood, or items constructed of a combination of the above materials), wallboard, carpeting, padding, asphalt-based roofing scrap (including shingles, built up roofing, tarpaper, other roofing materials), and insulation. Other Glass (25) - All non-container glass such as plate glass, drinking glasses, and automotive glass. Other Paper (04) - All paper that is not corrugated, office, magazines, white and colored bond paper, or newspaper, such as telephone directories, wrapping paper, chip board, books, papers coated with plastic, film or foil, paper contaminated with food, and grocery bags. Other Plastic (26) - Low density polyethylene (LDPE) film or bags, other film and plastic closures. Petroleum Contaminated Soil (27) - Non-hazardous soils containing petroleum hydrocarbons resulting from spills, leaks or leaking underground storage tanks used for gasoline or any other commercial fuel, and which are recycled in accordance with the requirements of N.J.A.C 7:26A-1.1 Plastic containers (08) - Containers such as polyethylene terephthalate (PETE - #1) soda bottles, high density polyethylene (HDPE - #2) milk, water or detergent bottles, low density polyethylene (LDPE - #4) containers, vinyl (V - #3) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC - #5) bottles and rigid and foam polystyrene (PS - #6). Plastic Scrap (26) - Durable goods (appliances, furniture, automobile parts), and plastic pallets (provided they are melted down or chipped, and not simply reused). Process Residue (28) - Includes ferrous metals ash recovered from any form of incinerator power plant, and any other process residue which is non-hazardous and meets the definition of an ID-27 dry industrial waste. Not included in this definition is sludge. Scrap Autos (14) - Crushed or shredded automobile or truck bodies, excluding auto shredder residue, or "fluff". Steel Cans (07) - Rigid containers made exclusively or primarily of steel, tin-plated steel, and composite steel and aluminum cans used to store food, beverages, paint, and a variety of other household and Stumps, Logs and Tree Parts (20) - Unfinished wood from land clearing projects or storm damage. Textiles (29) - Cloth material such as cotton, linen, wool, nylon, polyester, etc., derived from clothing, cloth diapers, linens, etc. Tires (15) - Rubber-based scrap automotive, truck, and specialty tires (e.g., forklift tires). Used Motor Oil (16) - A petroleum based or synthetic oil whose use includes, but is not limited to, lubrication of internal combustion engines, which through use, storage or handling has become unsuitable for its original purpose due to the presence of impurities or loss of White Goods & Light Iron (11) - All large appliances such as washers, dryers, refrigerators, etc., as well as products made from sheet iron, such as shelving, file cabinets, metal desks, recycled or reconditioned steel drums, stainless steel and other non-structural Wood Scrap (30) - Finished and unfinished lumber from construction/demolition projects. Included in this category are telephone poles, railroad ties and wooden pallets. Yard Trimmings - Leaves (19), grass clippings (18), stumps (20), brush (17), and other lawn and garden trimmings from homes, institutions, commercial or industrial sources.	<urn:uuid:dec96d9a-d7f5-4cfb-beb9-75f9c58e5325>	{ "date": "2014-10-26T05:12:11", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-42", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119655893.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030055-00059-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.8459268808364868, "score": 2.640625, "token_count": 1658, "url": "http://www.nj.gov/dep/dshw/recycling/material.htm" }
For Immediate Release, February 11, 2013 Contact: Bill Snape, (202) 536-9351 or [email protected] Five Executive Actions Against Climate Chaos: What the President Should Announce in State of the Union Speech WASHINGTON— Four weeks after federal scientists reported that climate change is raising extreme weather risk and could warm America by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, President Barack Obama is being challenged to lay out a bold plan to fight climate chaos in Tuesday’s State of the Union speech to Congress. Citing the draft National Climate Assessment, the Center for Biological Diversity urged the president to announce five executive actions to cut greenhouse gas pollution to avert the scientific report’s prediction of catastrophic climate change. “President Obama needs to grab the steering wheel before we drive off the climate cliff,” said Bill Snape, the Center’s senior counsel. “Starting tomorrow, the president can regulate carbon pollution from power plants and airplanes, ban fracking on public lands and set a national cap on greenhouse gases. Bold and immediate action is the only way to avoid the terrifyingly hot future predicted by climate scientists.” Here are five executive actions President Obama should use to fight climate change: 1. Set a national carbon pollution cap: The president should direct the Environmental Protection Agency to set a national pollution cap for greenhouse gases. The Clean Air Act already requires the EPA to set a cap for widespread and damaging "criteria pollutants." The agency has done so for six pollutants, including carbon monoxide and lead. Between 1980 and 2010, emissions of these six pollutants fell by 63 percent while the gross domestic product grew by 128 percent. Meanwhile, carbon dioxide emissions, which were unregulated, went up by 21 percent, contributing to climate change and ocean acidification. The president should also order the EPA to immediately regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, the nation’s largest source of carbon pollution, and from airplanes, the fastest-growing transportation source of greenhouse gases. 2. Ban fracking and end fossil fuel development on public lands: The president should direct the Department of the Interior to stop leasing out millions of acres of publicly owned lands for extreme and polluting forms of fossil fuel development. Fracking, a particularly dangerous extraction practice, poisons our air and water and releases large amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. As a first step, the president should direct the Interior department to prohibit fracking on federal lands. Ending all fossil fuel development on public lands will allow these precious areas to be used for wildlife habitat and recreation in a warming world. 3. Don’t approve the Keystone XL pipeline: The Keystone XL pipeline would transport up to 35 million gallons of oil a day from Canada's tar sands — one of the dirtiest and most carbon-intensive energy sources in the world — to the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, has called the Keystone pipeline "game over" for the climate. The Keystone pipeline cannot go forward without State Department approval, and the president should stop the project permanently. 4. Protect the Arctic from offshore drilling: The president should prohibit offshore fossil fuel development in the Arctic’s delicate ecosystem. As melting sea ice hits record lows, oil companies have rushed to exploit the Arctic’s fossil fuel spoils. We should not invest in a new carbon-intensive fossil fuel infrastructure at the top of the world, where cleaning up spilled oil would be impossible and where multiple accidents this year demonstrated that the oil industry cannot operate safely. An oil spill in Alaska’s Beaufort and Chukchi seas would devastate one of the most pristine ecosystems on the planet, killing polar bears, ice seals and other imperiled wildlife. 5. Join the world in seeking a fair and ambitious climate treaty: It’s time for President Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to seek a successful global climate treaty. In 1992 the first President Bush signed, and the Senate ratified, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in which America agreed to take action to avoid dangerous climate change. Yet the U.S. negotiating team refuses to agree to the cuts necessary to avert climate disruption. The president should direct his State Department negotiating team to commit our country to fair, ambitious and binding greenhouse gas reductions. “If 2012 taught us anything, it’s that climate change is setting in and Americans are feeling the pain, whether it’s Superstorm Sandy, record hot temperatures, widespread drought or massive wildfires,” Snape said. “It’s imperative that the president take the reins and finally do what’s needed to begin addressing this crisis before it’s too late.” The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 450,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.	<urn:uuid:4b9bef01-e075-4d3e-a2ae-51a666abfd51>	{ "date": "2015-09-05T03:43:42", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-35", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440645378542.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827031618-00227-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9097378849983215, "score": 2.65625, "token_count": 994, "url": "http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2013/climate-executive-actions-02-11-2013.html" }
New Studies Highlight Racial Disparity, Treatment Access Among HIV Patients October 29, 2002 At the 2002 Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency conference, some of the latest research into the differences between minority and white HIV patients and access to HIV treatment indicated that there were not huge disparities within HIV programs. However, "When you sum it up across states and programs, you get disparities," says Stephen F. Morin, Ph.D., professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco, AIDS Research Institute.Adapted from: "So it's a complicated picture, and there's a huge difference in how people receive care through Medicaid and the AIDS Drug Assistance Program," Morin said. "African-Americans are far more likely to receive access to antiretrovirals through Medicaid, and people on Medicaid are less likely to be on optimum therapy than people in ADAP." Research at the conference, which was sponsored by the Health Resources Services Administration of Rockville, Md., indicated that differences in household income and disability status led to proportionately more African-Americans in Medicaid programs than whites and Latinos. Studies also showed a greater proportion of Latinos in ADAP programs than in Medicaid, a difference that investigators attributed partly to the fact that Medicaid programs require a residency test for enrollees and ADAPs do not. Perhaps the biggest problem with the current Medicaid/ADAP safety net for uninsured and poverty-level people infected with HIV is that their access to care is largely dependent upon their state of residence and whether they were tested for HIV soon after becoming infected, research shows. Some states have stringent Medicaid requirements in which enrollees must have an AIDS-defining illness or a disability before they qualify for HIV medications and services. And in some states and communities, minorities are less likely to learn of their HIV status until after they begin to experience symptoms, said T. Anne Richards, MA, a research specialist with the UCSF Department of Medicine. US Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and others in Congress have sponsored a bill called the Early Treatment for HIV Act of 2001, which would enable more HIV-infected poor people to receive antiretrovirals and HIV treatment before their disease progressed to illness, said Scott Brawley, MSW, director of public policy for AIDS Action, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C. However, the bill has been stalled in the House subcommittee on health since shortly after it was introduced in June 2001. Also, 2002 has not been a good year for a bill that would cost states more money, he noted. This article was provided by CDC National Prevention Information Network. It is a part of the publication CDC HIV/Hepatitis/STD/TB Prevention News Update.	<urn:uuid:c1b71523-8005-454f-8afb-3f0f115aa9f8>	{ "date": "2014-11-28T11:37:12", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-49", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-49/segments/1416931010149.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20141125155650-00156-ip-10-235-23-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9663946032524109, "score": 2.578125, "token_count": 559, "url": "http://www.thebody.com/content/art18227.html?ic=4003" }
Measuring gender inequality in education in South Asia (2006) One of a series of papers aimed at promoting better education in South Asia. Author/Publisher: UNICEF ROSA, UNGEI This paper assesses current measures for gender equality in education. While gender disaggregating enrolment and progression data has been an important step forward, measures that are concerned only with the presence or absence of girls in school provide little insight into aspects of gender inequalities within schools or the gendered environment beyond school. The paper presents the Gender Equality in Education Index (GEEI) – a measure developed to draw on existing data sources to consider gender equality in education in more dimensions than simply enrolments.	<urn:uuid:9de7f616-c893-4e04-8660-8cbc637ad167>	{ "date": "2014-10-01T06:48:18", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-41", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1412037663365.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20140930004103-00272-ip-10-234-18-248.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9227102398872375, "score": 2.609375, "token_count": 142, "url": "http://www.ungei.org/infobycountry/index_1243.html" }
Wood science is the study of wood as a material that is renewable and of biological origin. In other words, the term wood science can also be known as wood technology. To be able to study wood it has to be compared to other products. Materials properties, ease of it being worked on and its value are among the few properties which are compared against those of wood and other materials. The many Merits of timber and these technologies improve wood to be superior over other products. The wide range of products where wood can be used is just one of the many advantages that give wood an upper hand over other products. Wood is renewable, and this makes it more precious. The other merit is that a part of the harvested material is at the same time used as energy to produce the product. Protection of wooden structure and products is a must if you want to keep the good looks in place. Wooden structures have to be kept away from water and pests that eat through the wood. The water particles in the timber increase the rotting and the insects bore through the wood. Many methods are available in the treatment of wood one of the most common being the ACQ – alkaline copper Quaternary. As the name implies the preservative is made of copper products. There are a few disadvantages of this method as a mode of wood preservation. The chemical is highly corrosive to most metals, the chemical corrodes away galvanized fasteners and therefore only stainless steel is used. The concentration of the chemical that will be used to treat a piece of wood will depend on the where it is going to be used and the molecular structure of the wood. The concentration level of the chemical will be different for two pieces of wood where one is used above ground and the other close to a water body. The use of copper metal is another method of wood treatment that is fast being accepted. The use of this method is fast being accepted because it is not corroding the metal fasteners. Micronized copper wood preservative is the correct term to refer this type of preservation. The copper metal is applied to the wood as small microscopic particles injected into the wood at high pressure. The process eliminates the need to dissolve the copper as is done in earlier copper-based preservatives. This process is highly effective and the wood properties and heightened. The time the wood products treated using this method last is longer other types of treatment. Termites cannot eat through timber treated through this method. Unlike other methods of treatment this method is not corrosive. The wood treated using this method last longer and is stronger.…	<urn:uuid:870b1d02-7a54-42fe-8ad1-8e1acb61e81a>	{ "date": "2018-02-23T02:21:32", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-09", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891814311.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20180223015726-20180223035726-00456.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9665936231613159, "score": 3.65625, "token_count": 519, "url": "http://www.fengqiubby.com/2017/12/05" }
Life Extension Magazine July 2013 A Safer Alternative for Managing Depression By Michael Downey More Americans suffer from depression today than ever before. Reports from the Centers for Disease Control reveal that 1 in 10 US adults say they are suffering from depression,1 and by 2020, depression is expected to be the world’s second-leading cause of disability.2 But within this tragedy is another. In the words of one 2013 study, this problem continues to escalate “after more than half a century of modern psychopharmacology, with billions of dollars spent on antidepressants annually world-wide.”3 Over the last 25 years, the use of antidepressant medication in the US has gone up 400%,4 and 11% of Americans aged 12 years and over now take antidepressant medication.4 The tragedy? About 90% of these patients experience at least one of the numerous serious side effects5-10—which can include anxiety, constipation, thoughts of suicide, insomnia, and weight gain.6-10 Also, a just-published study was the second report to find an association between the use of antidepressants during pregnancy and the risk of autism for the child.11 And one extremely common adverse effect afflicts as many as 73% of individuals who take antidepressants: sexual dysfunction.10 In fact, while antidepressants often lose their efficacy over the course of treatment,12 their sexual side effects can continue long after—even years after—drug use is discontinued!9 So in an attempt to avoid adverse reactions, many individuals are seeking alternatives to pharmaceutical medications.13 In this article, we unveil compelling new findings demonstrating that saffron (Crocus sativus) is equally as effective as certain current medication options in treating depression—but without the unwanted effects.14,15 We’ll also examine new evidence indicating that—when added to an existing regimen of antidepressants—saffron works as a powerful adjunct therapy to block their adverse sexual effects!16 You will also learn how saffron successfully—and safely—treats other conditions for which antidepressants are often prescribed, such as anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Saffron Powerfully Targets Mood Saffron was historically used for depression in Persian traditional medicine,17 but there was no evidence-based documentation back then.14 This early use led to modern-day research into saffron’s impact on mood. Starting in 2001, research found that saffron extract produced a distinct antidepressant benefit.18 But this testing was conducted on mice. Scientists needed to confirm this benefit in a more scientifically conclusive way—in a double-blind, randomized, human trial that compared saffron benefits to placebo. A team conducted a 6-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single-center, and randomized trial on 40 adult outpatients who—when assessed in a structured clinical interview—were diagnosed as suffering from major depression according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition. They were randomly divided into two groups. One group was given a 30-milligram capsule of saffron twice daily and the other group was given a twice-daily placebo.17 At 6 weeks, the saffron subjects showed significantly better outcomes on the Hamilton depression rating scale than placebo, indicating “the efficacy of Crocus sativus [saffron] in the treatment of mild to moderate depression.”17 Also, there were no significant differences in observed adverse reactions. The author of the published study suggested further human trials.17 Scientists then set out to weigh the efficacy of saffron extract against common antidepressant drug medications. Saffron ‘Equally Effective’ Against Depression As Antidepressants! First, researchers directly compared the efficacy of saffron stigma extract to that of the antidepressant Tofranil® (imipramine) against significant degrees of depression. In a double-blind, single-center trial, scientists randomly divided 30 depressed patients into two groups. They gave 30 milligram capsules of saffron 3 times daily to one group. The other group received 100 milligrams of Tofranil® 3 times daily. All subjects met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, criteria for major depression.14 Just 6 weeks later, the saffron dose was declared to be equally as beneficial as Tofranil® in the treatment of mild to moderate depression. However, only the Tofranil® group suffered anticholinergic symptoms, such as dry mouth. (An anticholinergic agent blocks the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the nervous system.) Also, the participants taking Tofranil® experienced significant unwanted sedation. The study author concluded that saffron has “therapeutic benefit in the treatment of mild to moderate depression.”14 Next, scientists compared the potency of saffron extract to the antidepressant Prozac® (fluoxetine). Forty adult outpatients who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, criteria for depression were randomly assigned to receive either twice-daily 30-milligram capsulesof saffron stigma or twice-daily capsules of 20 milligrams of Prozac®.15 At the close of the 6-week, double-blind, randomized trial, saffron was found to be as effective as Prozac® in the treatment of mild to moderate depression. There were no significant differences in unwanted reactions.15 These studies clearly establish that saffron is a potent alternative to commonly prescribed antidepressants for treating depression—without the adverse effects. Treating Other Emotional-Cognitive Disorders—Without the Side Effects! Despite their name, antidepressants are used to treat more than depression. They are prescribed for a broad range of other emotional and cognitive conditions, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and Alzheimer’s disease.19-22 Some scientists reasoned that—if saffron treats depression as effectively as antidepressant drugs—it may provide a safer treatment for these other conditions as well. Several avenues of research were developed. A 2013 report predicts America will have “tsunami of Alzheimer’s” within the next 40 years as the number of Americans living with the disease triples to nearly 15 million.23 Doctors commonly prescribe antidepressants for these patients, notably Zoloft® (sertraline)19—despite the fact that the published data strongly suggest that these medications are not efficacious for Alzheimer’s disease and frequently produce adverse reactions.24 To determine whether saffron would provide an alternative treatment, scientists set up a double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled trial. Each day, parallel groups of Alzheimer’s patients were given either capsules of 15 milligrams of saffron twice daily or placebo capsules twice a day. Standard assessment scales were used to monitor cognitive and clinical profiles.25 After 16 weeks, saffron produced significantly better cognitive function scores than placebo, prompting the study author to write that: “Saffron is both safe and effective in mild to moderate [Alzheimer’s disease].”25 When further tested in a 22-week, multi-center, randomized, double-blind trial against the Alzheimer’s medication Aricept® (donepezil), saffron proved to be equally effective. However, many people in the Aricept® group experienced vomiting as a possible side effect of the medication.26 Anxiety conditions can be crippling, and the proportion of Americans who will have serious anxiety symptoms during some period of their life is about 29%.27 Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are often recommended for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorders,20 and for social anxiety.21 But of course, they come with an array of negative reactions ranging from nausea to sexual dysfunction.6-9 Fortunately, animal studies have revealed a powerful—and safer—alternative. Evidence demonstrates that treatment with active saffron constituents known as crocins induces anxiolytic-like (anxiety-reducing) benefits without adverse reactions.28 Also, the saffron compound safranal demonstrates anxiolytic benefits and increased total sleep time—but without any negative impact on motor coordination.29 Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can be so severe that it becomes disabling—those afflicted by this condition may spend virtually all of their time on their obsessions and compulsions.30 Most commonly, antidepressants are tried first, in an attempt to control the time-consuming and stressful symptoms.22 With obsessive-compulsive disorder, it’s not unusual to have to try several medications of differing dosages before finding one that exerts any degree of symptomatic control.22 Ultimately, different drugs may need to be combined,22 which of course, can result in multiple levels of negative symptoms that significantly offset the positive benefits. The evidence suggests that there is a functional interaction between the crocins found in saffron and the serotonergic (serotonin-neurotransmitter) system,31 which led scientists to study the effect of saffron on obsessive-compulsive disorder. In an animal model of this condition, crocin compounds from saffron were found to substantially reduce obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms without significant adverse effects.31 Hyperphagia and Uncontrolled Eating Obesity is now an epidemic. Meanwhile, neurotransmitter imbalances, particularly low levels of serotonin, have been shown to increase vulnerability to food cravings, overeating and obesity.32 The condition known as reactional hyperphagia, sometimes called reactional polyphagia, involves uncontrolled snacking and eating.33 Stress and dysregulated brain reward pathways have been strongly implicated.34-37 Unfortunately, appetite-suppressing medications have been documented to cause numerous and deadly effects—including heart valve damage, birth defects, liver injury, and increased blood pressure.38 Scientists hypothesized that a patented extract of saffron may reduce snacking and enhance satiety through its beneficial impact on the brain and mood. They launched a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial with 60 mildly overweight, female volunteers, at least half of whom had been assessed as suffering from this type of compulsive between-meal snacking behavior. Subjects were randomly given either daily doses of 176.5 mg of patented saffron extract or a placebo. All subjects were instructed to maintain their normal dietary habits, and all between-meal snacking was recorded.37 Over 8 weeks, the number of snacking events for the placebo group decreased by 28%. In the saffron group, between-meal snacks decreased by 55% and they reported a reduced feeling of the “need” to snack!37 After 8 weeks and without any dieting, the saffron group had lost an average of 2 pounds and reported increased energy and alertness.37 These small weight loss results show how its takes more than reduced snacking to achieve meaningful weight loss. Scientists concluded that saffron offers more than just an effective, side-effect-free alternative to prescription antidepressants in the treatment of depression—saffron also safely treats other conditions for which antidepressants are used: Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and uncontrolled eating (reactional hyperphagia).19-22,25,29,37 But what about individuals whose doctors are reluctant to discontinue their regular prescription after finally managing, often years later, to stabilize the specific symptoms of their particular condition with just the right dosage of the right antidepressant—are they stuck with their current negative sexual effects? Sexual Dysfunction Plagues Over Half of Antidepressant Users Although antidepressants are associated with a wide array of negative reactions,6-10 adverse sexual effects—which can include loss of sexual drive, failure to reach orgasm and erectile dysfunction—are among the most common.9,10 While men are affected more often, women report more serious sexual side effects.10 These unwanted sexual symptoms are considered to be commonly underestimated.10 Still, research pegs the incidence of sexual dysfunction with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and Effexor® (venlafaxine) to be between 58 and 73%!10 And these sexual symptoms can persist long after the medication has been discontinued—for months, years, or indefinitely!9 About 40% of people taking antidepressants report a low tolerance for their negative sexual effects,10 which can lead to non-compliance and relapse.39 This situation has prompted scientists to call on clinicians to “consider the impact of pharmacotherapy on patients’ sexual functioning.”39 Unfortunately, when depressed and even suicidal individuals have struggled for years with different antidepressants before finally attaining stable relief with a specific dosage of a specific drug—doctors are reluctant to change their regimen “simply” to avoid the sexual symptoms. (The same goes for the sexual complaints of those who have finally achieved success with antidepressants for other, non-depression conditions such as anxiety,40 eating disorders,41,42 and obsessive-compulsive disorder.41) Instead, doctors often prescribe additional medications aimed at offsetting the sexual dysfunction caused by the antidepressants.43-47 But these added drugs bring their own adverse reactions48—and some even reverse the positive mood benefit of the original antidepressant!45 Scientists knew that, in addition to its antidepressant potency, saffron had shown aphrodisiac and other positive effects on sexual function in both animal and human studies.16,49-51 So what would happen, they wondered, if saffron were simply added to the antidepressant regimen of patients who suffered from serious sexual effects—but without dropping their current side-effect-producing antidepressants? The results were startling. Saffron Blocks the Sexual Side Effects of Antidepressants! In late 2012, researchers tested the impact of saffron on the adverse sexual effects experienced by men who otherwise derived some benefit from, and continued to take, their prescribed antidepressant.16 A randomized, double-blind trial enlisted 36 married men with major depressive disorder whose symptoms had been successfully stabilized on Prozac®—but who had complaints of sexual impairment. They were randomly assigned to add to their usual dosages of Prozac® 2 daily doses of either 15 milligrams of saffron or a placebo. Sexual function was assessed using a standard index.16 After just 4 weeks, the men in the Prozac®-plus-saffron group had experienced significantly greater improvement in erectile function and intercourse satisfaction than the Prozac®-plus-placebo group. The team determined that saffron is a “tolerable and efficacious treatment” for male sexual dysfunction induced by Prozac®.16 Next, scientists set out to determine if saffron could similarly offset the unwanted sexual effects experienced by women whose depression was being successfully controlled by, and who continued to take, their antidepressant.49 In 2013, a team enlisted 38 women, all of whom had major depression that had been stabilized on Prozac®—but who continued to suffer from various types of sexual dysfunction induced by this antidepressant. In a double-blind study, half of the women were randomly assigned a supplement of 30 milligrams daily of saffron extract and the rest were assigned a placebo. All participants also continued to take their usual dosage of Prozac®, and assessments were made using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI).49 After 4 weeks—despite still taking the same antidepressant that had induced the unwanted sexual symptoms in the first place—women in the saffron group experienced significant improvement in total sexual function (FSFI), arousal, lubrication, and pain.49 Clearly, saffron offers a potent, adjunct therapy for treating the sexual side effects caused by taking antidepressants. Additional Saffron Benefits Evidence also suggests that saffron may play a role in treating other diseases. Cancer is a growing health concern worldwide, causing more than 7.5 million deaths each year,52 and botanical extracts have been one of the main sources for development of chemopreventive agents.53 Recent scientific evidence, both in vitro and in vivo, has suggested that saffron extract and its main active constituents can help inhibit carcinogenesis and tumor genesis.54-57 Rodent studies further demonstrate that saffron can reduce the serious negative effects of the anticancer drug Platinol® (cisplatin).58,59 These anticancer findings have prompted extensive current research on saffron and its components, including safranal and crocin, as promising preventive agents against cancer. The mechanism for saffron’s anticancer potential is not known but may be related to its demonstrated free-radical-scavenging activity.60-62 In human studies, 50 milligrams of saffron dissolved in 100 ml of milk and consumed twice a day produced a significant decrease in lipoprotein oxidation susceptibility in individuals with coronary artery disease (CAD), further indicating the potential of saffron as an antioxidant.63 In animal research, crocin analogs isolated from saffron significantly increased blood flow in the retina and choroid (the layer between the retina and the outer sclera) and facilitated recovery of retinal function.64 This suggested that saffron might help combat certain eye conditions. Subsequently, several studies have confirmed that saffron demonstrates the ability to protect the retina from damage thereby acting to potentially slow the progress of the serious eye conditions such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.65-67 Perhaps suggestive of other fertile areas for future investigations, traditional and folk medicine have long used saffron for numerous medical benefits, including as a remedy for pain (an analgesic), poor digestion, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, respiratory diseases, and as an aphrodisiac agent.68,69 Depression now afflicts 1 in 10 American adults,1 a number projected to explode.2 Part of this tragedy is the fact that 11% of Americans now use antidepressants.4 About 90%5 of these patients experience at least one of the numerous adverse effects6 of these drugs, which can include suicidal thoughts, anxiety, abnormal bleeding, and sexual dysfunction.6-10 In fact, although the effectiveness of antidepressants can diminish over the course of treatment,11 their sexual side effects can continue months, or even years, after these drugs have been discontinued!9 In light of these serious complications, scientists and patients have been seeking safer alternative therapies.17 Mounting research reveals that saffron (Crocus sativus) treats depression equally effectively—but without the unwanted effects. Studies also show that saffron is just as effective against other conditions for which antidepressant drugs are commonly prescribed, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and Alzheimer’s disease. Remarkably, newly published evidence demonstrates that saffron also works as adjunct therapy to reverse the sexual side effects so frequently experienced by men and women taking antidepressants! If you have any questions on the scientific content of this article, please call a Life Extension® Health Advisor at 1-866-864-3027. - Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/features/dsdepression/. Accessed April 18, 2013. - Swartz HA, Rollman BL. Managing the global burden of depression: lessons from the developing world. World Psychiatry. 2003 Oct;2(3):162-3. - Grundmann M, Kacirova I, Urinovska R. Therapeutic monitoring of psychoactive drugs - antidepressants: A review. Biomed Pap Med Fac Univ Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub. doi: 10.5507/bp.2013.020. Epub 2013 Mar 21. - Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db76.htm#about. Accessed April 18, 2013. - Available at: http://www.consumerreports.org/health/resources/pdf/best-buy-drugs/Antidepressants_update.pdf. Accessed April 18, 2013. - Available at: http://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/antidepressantsideeffects/. Accessed April 18, 2013. - Coupland C, Dhiman P, Morriss R, Arthur A, Barton G, Hippisley-Cox J. Antidepressant use and risk of adverse outcomes in older people: population based cohort study. BMJ. 2011 Aug 2;343:d4551. - Reynolds GP, Kirk SL. Metabolic side effects of antipsychotic drug treatment—pharmacological mechanisms. Pharmacol Ther. 2010 Jan;125(1):169-79. - Csoka A, Bahrick A, Mehtonen O-P. Persistent sexual dysfunction after discontinuation of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. J Sex Med. 2008;5:227-33. - Montejo AL, Llorca G, Izquierdo JA, Rico-Villademoros F. Incidence of sexual dysfunction associated with antidepressant agents: a prospective multicenter study of 1022 outpatients. Spanish Working Group for the Study of Psychotropic-Related Sexual Dysfunction. J Clin Psychiatry. 2001;62 Suppl 3:10-21. - Rai D, Lee BK, Dalman C, Golding J, Lewis G, Magnusson C. Parental depression, maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy, and risk of autism spectrum disorders: population based case-control study. BMJ. 2013 Apr 19;346:f2059. doi: 10.1136/ bmj.f2059. - Byrne SE, Rothschild AJ. Loss of antidepressant efficacy during maintenance therapy: possible mechanisms and treatments. J Clin Psychiatry. June 1998;59(6):279-88. - Freeman MP, Mischoulon D, Tedeschini E, et al. Complementary and alternative medicine for major depressive disorder: a meta-analysis of patient characteristics, placebo-response rates, and treatment outcomes relative to standard antidepressants. J Clin Psychiatry. 2010 Jun;71(6):682-8. - Akhondzadeh S, Fallah-Pour H, Afkham K, et al. Comparison of Crocus sativus L. and imipramine in the treatment of mild to moderate depression: a pilot, double-blind randomized trial. BCM Comp Altern Med. 2004;4:12. - Noorbala AA, Akhondzadeh S, Tahmacebi-Pour N, Jamshidi AH. Hydroalcoholic extract of Crocus sativus L. versus fluoxetine in the treatment of mild to moderate depression: a double-blind, randomized pilot trial. J Ethnopharmacol. 2005;97:281-4. - Modabbernia A, Sohrabi H, Nasehi AA, et al. Effect of saffron on fluoxetine-induced sexual impairment in men: randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2012;223(4):381-8. - Akhondzadeh S, Tahmecebi-Pour N, Noorbala AA, et al. Crocus sativus L. in the treatment of mild to moderate depression: a double-blind, randomized and placebo-controlled trial. Phytother Res. 2005;19:148-51. - Karimi G, Hosseinzadeh H, Khaleghpanah P. Study of antidepressant effect of aqueous and ethanolic of Crocus sativus in mice. Iranian J Basic Med Sci. 2001;4:11-5. - Modrego PJ. Depression in Alzheimer’s disease. Pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment. J Alzheimers Dis. 2010;21(4):1077-87. - Available at: http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/13314/52599/52599.pdf. Accessed April 19, 2013. - Available at: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/generalized-anxiety disorder/DS00502/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs. Accessed April 19, 2013. - Available at: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/DS00189/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs. Accessed April 19, 2013. - Available at: http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/06/ 16872274-alzheimers-numbers-to-triple-by-2050-report-says?lite. Accessed April 19, 2013. - Banerjee S, Hellier J, Romeo R, et al. Study of the use of antidepressants for depression in dementia: the HTA-SADD trial - a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of sertraline and mirtazapine. Health Technol Assess. 2013 Feb;17(7):1-166. - Akhondzadeh S, Sabet MS, Harirchian MH, et al. Saffron in the treatment of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease: a 16-week, randomized and placebo-controlled trial. J Clin Pharm Ther. 2010 Oct;35(5):581-8. - Akhondzadeh S, Shafiee Sabet M, Harirchian MH, et al. A 22-week, multicenter, randomized, double-blind controlled trial of Crocus sativus in the treatment of mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2010 Jan;207(4):637-43. - Kessler RC, Berglund P, Demler O, Jin R, Merikangas KR, Walters EE. Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry. Jun 2005;62(6):593-602. - Pitsikas N, Boultadakis A, Georgiadou G, Tarantilis PA, Sakellaridis N. Effects of the active constituents of Crocus sativus L., crocins, in an animal model of anxiety. Phytomedicine. 2008 Dec;15(12):1135-9. - Hosseinzadeh H, Noraei NB. Anxiolytic and hypnotic effect of Crocus sativus aqueous extract and its constituents, crocin and safranal, in mice. Phytother Res. 2009 Jun;23(6):768-74. - Available at: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/obsessive- compulsive-disorder/DS00189/DSECTION=symptoms. Accessed April 22, 2013. - Georgiadou G, Tarantilis PA, Pitsikas N. Effects of the active constituents of Crocus sativus L., crocins, in an animal model of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Neurosci Lett. 2012 Oct 18;528(1):27-30. - Dye L, Blundell JE. Menstrual cycle and appetite control: implications for weight regulation. Hum Reprod. 1997 Jun;12(6):1142-51. - Available at: http://www.hyperphagia.com/hyperphagia-causes/. Accessed April 22, 2013. - Adam TC, Epel ES. Stress, eating and the reward system. Physiol Behav. 2007;91:449-58. - Alsiö J, Olszewski PK, Levine AS, Schiöth HB. Feed-forward mechanisms: addiction-like behavioral and molecular adaptations in overeating. Front Neuroendocrinol. 2012 Apr;33(2):127-39. - Berthoud HR, Lenard NR, Shin AC. Food reward, hyperphagia, and obesity. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2011 Jun;300(6):R1266-77. - Gout B, Bourges C, Paineau-Dubreuil S. Satiereal, a Crocus sativus L extract, reduces snacking and increases satiety in a randomized placebo-controlled study of mildly overweight, healthy women. Nutr Res. 2010 May;30(5):305-13. - Available at: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss-drugs/WT00013/NSECTIONGROUP=2. Accessed April 22, 2013. - Lee KU, Lee YM, Nam JM, et al. Antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction among newer antidepressants in a naturalistic setting. Psychiatry Investig. 2010 Mar;7(1):55-9. - Kapczinski F, Lima MS, Souza JS, Schmitt R. Antidepressants for generalized anxiety disorder. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2003;(2):CD003592. - Available at: http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/cg031niceguideline.pdf. Accessed April 22, 2013. - Available at: http://www.guidelines.gov/content.aspx?id=9318+. Accessed April 22, 2013. - Landen M, Eriksson E, Agren H, Fahlen T. Effect of buspirone on sexual dysfunction in depressed patients treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. J Clin Psychopharmacol. 1999; 19(3):268-71. - Gupta S, Droney T, Masand P, Ashton AK. SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction treated with sildenafil. Depress Anxiety. 1999;9(4):180-2. - Aizenberg D, Zemishlany Z, Weizman A. Cyproheptadine treatment of sexual dysfunction induced by serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Clin Neuropharmacol, 1995;18(4):320-4. - Clayton AH, McGarvey EL, Abouesh AI, Pinkerton RC. Substitution of an SSRI with bupropion sustained release following SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction. J Clin Psychiatry. 2001;62(3):185-90. - Woodrum ST, Brown CS. Management of SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction. Ann Pharmacother. 1998;32(11):1209-15. - Feder R. Reversal of antidepressant activity of fluoxetine by cyproheptadine in three patients. J Clin Psychiatry. 1991;52(4):163-4. - Kashani L, Raisi F, Saroukhani S, et al. Saffron for treatment of fluoxetine-induced sexual dysfunction in women: randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study. Hum Psychopharmacol. 2013 Jan;28(1):54-60. - Shamsa A, Hosseinzadeh H, Molaei M, Shakeri MT, Rajabi O. Evaluation of Crocus sativus L. (saffron) on male erectile dysfunction: a pilot study. Phytomedicine. 2009;16(8):690-3. - Hosseinzadeh H, Ziaee T, Sadeghi A. The effect of saffron, Crocus sativus stigma, extract and its constituents, safranal and crocin on sexual behaviors in normal male rats. Phytomedicine. 2008;15(6-7):491-5. - Available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2013. - Available at: http://preventcancer.aicr.org/site/DocServer/E81-TLPW.pdf?docID=1861. Accessed April 22, 2013. - Escribano J, Alonso GL, Coca-Prados M, Fernandez JA. Crocin, safranal and picrocrocin from saffron (Crocus sativus L.) inhibit the growth of human cancer cells in vitro. Cancer Lett. 1996;100(1-2):22-30. - Chryssanthi DG, Lamari FN, Iatrou G, Pylara A, Karamanos NK, Cordopatis P. Inhibition of breast cancer cell proliferation by style constituents of different Crocus species. Anticancer Res. 2007;27(1A):357-62. - Abdullaev JF, Caballero-Ortega H, Riverón-Negrete L, et al. In vitro evaluation of the chemopreventive potential of saffron. Rev Invest Clin. 2002;54(5):430-6. - Abdullaev FI. Cancer chemopreventive and tumoricidal properties of saffron (Crocus sativus L.). Exp Biol Med. 2002;227:20-5. - Nair SC, Salomi MJ, Pannikar. B, Pannikar KR. Modulatory effects of the extracts of saffron and Nigela sativa against cisplatinum induced toxicity in mice. J Ethnopharmacol. 1991;31:75-83. - el Daly ES. Protective effect of cysteine and vitamin E, Crocus sativus and Nigella sativa extracts on cisplatin-induced toxicity in rats. J Pharm Belg. 1998 Mar-Apr;53(2):87-93; discussion 93-5. - Hosseinzadeh H, Sadeghnia HR. Safranal, a constituent of Crocus sativus (saffron), attenuated cerebral ischemia induced oxidative damage in rat hippocampus. Jour Pharm Pharmaceut Sci. 2005;8(3):394-9. - Assimopoulou AN, Sinakos Z, Papageorgiou VP. Radical scavenging activity of Crocus sativus L. extract and its bioactive constituents. Phytother Res. 2005 Nov;19(11):997-1000. - Papandreou MA, Tsachaki M, Efthimiopoulos S, Cordopatis P, Lamari FN, Margarity M. Memory enhancing effects of saffron in aged mice are correlated with antioxidant protection. Behav Brain Res. 2011 Jun 1;219(2):197-204. - Verma SK, Bordia A. Antioxidant property of saffron in man. Indian J Med Sci. 1998;52:205–7. - Xuan B, Zhou YH, Li N, Min ZD, Chiou GC. Effects of crocin analogs on ocular blood flow and retinal function. J Ocul Pharmacol Ther. 1999 Apr;15(2):143-52. - Yamauchi M, Tsuruma K, Imai S, et al. Crocetin prevents retinal degeneration induced by oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum stresses via inhibition of caspase activity. Eur J Pharmacol. 2011 Jan 10;650(1):110-9. - Maccarone R, Di Marco S, Bisti, S. Saffron supplement maintains morphology and function after exposure to damaging light in mammalian retina. Invest Ophth Visual. 2008 Mar;49(3):1254-61. - Falsini B, Piccardi M, Minnella A, et al. Influence of saffron supplementation on retinal flicker sensitivity in early age-related macular degeneration. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2010 Dec;51(12):6118-24. - Moghaddasi MS. Saffron chemicals and medicine usage. Jour Med Plants Res. 2010 Mar 18;4(6):427-30. - Hosseinzadeh H, Nassiri-Asl M. Avicenna’s (Ibn Sina) the Canon of Medicine and caffron (Crocus sativus): A Review. Phytother Res. 2013 Apr;27(4):475-83. - Available at: http://www.fdable.com/basic_query/aers/08ced09907b9a949e92270776a382535. Accessed April 22, 2013.	<urn:uuid:913e9ab9-df3d-4598-a3c1-21e48a8c119e>	{ "date": "2015-08-04T07:26:16", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-32", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042990603.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002310-00244-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.8578513264656067, "score": 2.53125, "token_count": 7723, "url": "http://www.lef.org/magazine/2013/7/A-Safer-Alternative-for-Managing-Depression/Page-01" }
\|Nepal Table of Contents Population Structure and Settlement Patterns At the time of the 1981 census, the total population of Nepal was 15,022,839, the average family was made up of 5.8 persons, and life expectancy at birth was close to fifty years. As of July 1990, the population was estimated at 19,145,800 persons. The annual population growth rate increased from less than 2 percent during the 1950s to more than 2.6 percent in 1990, suggesting that despite a trend toward increasing acceptance of family planning, the program did not have much influence on reducing the population growth rate. The Central Bureau of Statistics forecast that the total population would increase to 23.6 million by 2001. The 1981 census reveals a significant variation in regional growth rates. Although the Tarai Region's annual growth rate of 4.2 percent was much higher than the national average, the Hill and Mountain regions, respectively, posted growth rates of 1.7 and 1.4 percent. In terms of regional distribution, 43.6 percent (6,556,828 persons) of the country's population resided in the Tarai, whereas the shares of the Hill and Mountain regions totaled 7,163,115 (47.7 percent) and 1,302,896 (8.7 percent), respectively. About 70 percent of the total population was of working age, or between the ages of fifteen and fifty-nine years. More than 65 percent of this segment of the population was considered economically active in 1981. In terms of employment structure, more than 91 percent of the economically active population was engaged in agriculture and allied activities, and the rest in the secondary (industrial) and tertiary (service) sectors, including government employment. In 1981 males and females who were widowed or separated constituted only a tiny fragment of the population--0.4 percent for each sex. Dependency and Sex Ratios The dependency ratio is defined as the ratio of the population in the birth to fourteen age-group, and those sixty years and older to the population in the productive age-group, that is, fifteen to fifty-nine years of age. In 1981 this ratio stood at eighty to nine. The temporal increase in the number of those in the young population group has depressed the median age of the population from 21.1 years in the mid-1950s to 19.9 years in 1981. The sex ratio in 1981, defined as the number of males to 100 females, was 105 males to every 100 females. Fertility and Mortality According to the estimates made by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 1985, the crude birthrate was 44 per 1,000, and the crude death rate was almost 14 per 1,000. The total fertility rate, defined as the average number of children a woman might bear, was 6.3 children, with a variation between rural and urban fertility rates. The rural total fertility rate was 6.4, compared with 5.8 for urban areas. Both the crude birthrate and the total fertility rate have remained high and fairly constant for the past several decades, whereas the crude death rate has been declining consistently, thereby contributing to rapid population growth. The most significant category of deaths was the infant mortality rate. Varying techniques for calculating infant mortality, however, have led to discrepant estimations. They ranged from more than 147 deaths per 1,000 in 1985 to between 101 and 128 per 1,000 in 1989. Infant mortality rates also varied widely among the three geographic regions, which may have been partly because of differing rates of migration and the expectancy that higher mortality rates are found in migrant families. Nonetheless, infant mortality was almost twice as high in rural areas as urban areas, a clear indication of the lack of health services in rural areas, and was high compared to many other Asian countries. One of the major consequences of rapid population growth was the progressive deterioration of the ratio of people to land. This land shortage greatly affected Nepal's predominantly agrarian society, where land was the most important source of livelihood and social status, and it was most evident in terms of population density. In 1981 the population density was 102 persons per square kilometer of total land. Although the ratio appears to suggest a fairly low density, the figures are misleading. When density is measured in terms of persons per hectare of cultivatable land (that is agricultural density), the true nature of the human-land ratio emerges. The agricultural density in 1981 was 6.1 persons per hectare (or almost 0.2 hectare per person), which represents a very high density, especially given that the country's production technology remains in a backward state. Nepal's ability to reclaim more land in order to accommodate a rapidly growing population already had reached a maximum threshold. For more recent population estimates, see Facts about Nepal. Source: U.S. Library of Congress	<urn:uuid:71fa7ca4-b128-4ab0-88dd-81a16ba43e17>	{ "date": "2016-10-28T19:40:31", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-44", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988725470.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183845-00057-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9614443182945251, "score": 3.296875, "token_count": 993, "url": "http://countrystudies.us/nepal/28.htm" }
There are a number of different ways you can boot into Linux. The most common is to boot into runlevel 5, or multiuser GUI. This fires up X Display Manager (XDM), KDE Display Manager (KDM), or whatever GUI login manager you've defined and allows you to log into your desktop environment of choice. Another common runlevel is runlevel 3, which is multiuser text. This starts Linux but does not start X, allowing you to log in at a text console. Admins typically use this in server situations when they don't want the overhead of running X. Finally, runlevel 1 is a single-user mode that admins often use for performing system maintenance or repair. The /etc/inittab file determines what runlevel Linux boots into by default. The following line from inittab indicates that runlevel 5 is the default runlevel to start. Most often, if users want to log into X when booted in runlevel 3, they use the startx command, but this isn't always desirable. This command loads the default window manager for the user's account, but you may also wish to start the login manager. Users will often edit inittab and reboot. This isn't required, however, and you can change runlevels without rebooting by using the telinit command. If you've booted into runlevel 3, you can easily change to runlevel 5 by executing the following as root: # telinit 5 This will start any services associated with runlevel 5 and start X. You can use the same command to switch to runlevel 3 from runlevel 5. Using telinit in this fashion can be extremely useful when configuring or debugging your X setup.	<urn:uuid:d4d2663c-f43d-4d31-9761-7e3934c67923>	{ "date": "2017-04-28T18:11:49", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-17", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917123046.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031203-00060-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.8951262831687927, "score": 2.65625, "token_count": 355, "url": "http://www.techrepublic.com/article/tech-tip-change-runlevels-without-rebooting/" }
The lady resides in a sunny leaf dappled alcove part way up a hill on our Two Hundred Acre Wood, and her sumptuous robes can be seen from quite a distance. Surrounding her is a dense thicket of armored Prickly Ash which protects the colony from being consumed by deer. I usually avoid the area and its wicked thorns (although I'm wearing the marks of an encounter this morning), and local white-tails give a wide berth to Zanthoxylum americanum too. Nevertheless, the thicket is the favored nesting place of indigo buntings, and they flit merrily in and out of the place in summer, lighting up the hill with plumage in another fetching shade of my favorite color. In Greek, the word iris means "eye of heaven", and it's the name of a goddess - our sumptuous early summer bloom takes her name from Iris, goddess of the rainbow. A messenger of the gods on Mount Olympus, Iris carried messages between heaven and earth along the confetti colored arch of the rainbow. Another of her sacred tasks was carrying the souls of deceased women to the Elysian fields, the final resting place of those heroic and virtuous in life. There has always been something alluring and powerful about the number three. One form of the three-petaled iris or another form grows in almost every corner of island earth, and the flower has been associated with individual cultures for time out of mind. In its purple form, the flower symbolizes royalty and divine protection, and it was cherished by Merovingian monarchs (e.g. Clovis) who used it as a device on military banners and painted it on their walls. Is there not an element of incongruity in something as lovely as the iris being used as a heraldic device by a legendary confederation of bellicose Frankish tribes? After the Merovingians came the combative Carolingian kings, and the iris became the "fleur-de-lis" still beloved of France. In ancient Middle Eastern and Indian cultures, the iris represented life, virtue and resurrection and was often found on Mesopotamian, Mycenean, Gaulish and Mameluk artifacts. Whatever her historic associations, the wild iris (along with the Showy Lady's-slipper) is emblematic of summer, and when it comes to purple, this lady has it all.	<urn:uuid:841deb5d-87d2-48da-ada1-27662f535d18>	{ "date": "2015-12-01T18:17:02", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-48", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398468971.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205428-00212-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9564923644065857, "score": 2.671875, "token_count": 507, "url": "http://www.beyondthefieldsweknow.org/2014/06/the-purpled-alcove.html" }
Jillian Buriak explains how her research team is developing thin, plastic-based solar cells that can be sprayed or rolled, like paint or wallpaper, onto a surface or even woven into fabric - making solar energy more accessible to everyone. One of humanity’s foremost challenges is finding sustainable ways to satisfy our ever-growing global demand for energy. In fact, the answer is shining down on us right now. The amount of sunlight hitting Earth at any given time exceeds the requirements to support humanity’s insatiable need for energy. Unfortunately, the cost of current solar technology is out of reach for most of the world’s population. But that could soon change. My research team at the University of Alberta is developing thin, plastic-based solar cells that can be sprayed or rolled, like paint or wallpaper, onto a surface or even woven into fabric. Plastics are amenable to mass manufacture, so this process will help make solar energy more accessible to everyone. It’s a technology that can provide developing countries with cheap, modular ways to supply electricity to outlying regions. This could help eliminate the disparity between rich and poor simply by providing people with enough energy to live. My team is actively collaborating with researchers from around the world, as well as industry and government, with the hope of making this solar technology viable as early as 2015. It’s what’s next in our continued drive to provide a safe, secure and better standard of living for our children.	<urn:uuid:720785a6-a48e-4c81-bae3-f222b843dc8f>	{ "date": "2014-09-03T04:34:17", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-35", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1409535924501.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20140909013107-00227-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9411484599113464, "score": 3.609375, "token_count": 307, "url": "http://whatsnext.ualberta.ca/affordable-solar-energy-coming-soon-to-everyone.aspx" }
Indicators of Spring in Texas by Ro Wauer Spring is my favorite time of year! It signifies renewal, a fresh start. It seems to make everything young again. It brings with it an anticipation of good things to come, warming weather, spring flowers, butterflies, and bird migration. In The Song of Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth wrote: "Come the Spring with all its splendor, All its birds and all its blossoms, All its flowers and leaves and grasses." And Anne Morrow Lindberg once wrote: "Today I went out, It smelled, it felt, it sensed spring. I had for the first time faith - not intellectual belief, but the sudden feeling of turning tide. Yes, there will be spring." Officially, spring begins at the spring equinox, on March 20. On that day, the earth's axis is at a right angle to the sun so that both poles receive equal illumination from the sun and the days are of equal length, hence the term equinox. Thereafter in the Northern Hemisphere, the days continue to grow longer and the weather becomes warmer. Spring continues until June 21, the summer solstice, when the earth’s axis makes its greatest angle to the sun, when the noonday sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer, and daylight lasts 24 hours north of the Arctic Circle. But springlike days do not necessarily signify the arrival of spring. Our fickle weather still can bring us more cold. Yet for me, living in the Golden Crescent, there are certain signs of spring by late February or March that clearly indicate a change in the season. Without fanfare, the bright yellow flowers of agarita shrubs are blooming. The sweet-scented flowers of huisache trees permeate the surroundings. And lawns and fields are spotted with the white blooms of ten-petal anemone flowers. Just as soon as the earliest of the spring flowers appear on our shrubs, various butterflies begin to put in their appearance. Gray hairstreaks, pipevine swallowtails, orange and cloudless sulphurs, gulf fritillaries, and common buckeyes are some of our earliest species, appearing as if by magic. Bees and wasps also become more numerous. And with the increased food supply and warmer weather, anoles, scaly lizards, ground skinks, and a few other lizards become active. For the last few weeks, on sunny days some of the resident birds have become more obvious. Songbirds, such as cardinals, chickadees, titmice, and Carolina wrens, as well as a number of larger birds, have been establishing their springtime territories. Purple martins and the earliest swallows put in their appearance. And pairing red-shouldered hawks cruise about overhead screaming their appreciation of longer days and their excitement about another nesting season. All of nature reacts to spring! One can actually watch spring gradually creeps northward in Texas. Indicators may include blooming Spanish daggers and early monarchs in deep South Texas; the first green blush on the cottonwoods along the Rio Grande in West Texas; returning turkey vultures into the Trans-Pecos; the small of yellow jasmines and dogwood blossoms in the pineywoods; return of the endangered golden-cheeked warblers and the blooming of mountain laurels in the Hill Country; blooming grape hyacinth in the Red River area; the joyous songs of western meadowlarks in the Panhandle. Spring is a wonderful time to be alive - to be outdoors and experience nature at its best. Promise is all around and fulfillment is just ahead.	<urn:uuid:c97b6c01-2e04-4458-9581-9431997d88e1>	{ "date": "2016-09-29T11:47:29", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-40", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738661795.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173741-00182-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9481738209724426, "score": 3.15625, "token_count": 766, "url": "http://texasnature.blogspot.com/2007/03/indicators-of-spring-in-texas-by-ro.html" }
The inhabitance of Black Canyon Campground is still asleep while I wrestle with my camp stove. Coffees on. Sore limbs waken to the sounds of the Willamette. I am always the first one up. "The Willamette National Forest stretches 110 miles along the western slope of the Cascade Range in western Oregon. The forest is named after the Willamette River, which gets its name from the Kalapuyan people who called the river "Wal-lamt." Elevations on the forest range from about 1,500 feet above sea level to 10,495 feet at the snowcapped summit of Mt. Jefferson, Oregon's second highest peak. Wildlife in the region includes mule deer, Roosevelt elk, bobcats and bald eagles." - Recreation.gov We're in Oakridge. Oregon's mountain biking mecca. Camping and Mountain Biking. It doesn't get much better than this. "The area now known as Oakridge was first explored in 1852 as a possible route for pioneers coming from Central Oregon to the Willamette Valley. A post office was named "Hazeldell" in 1888, and the place's name later changed to "Big Prairie", and then "Oak Ridge". In 1912, a new community was formed and officially named Oakridge. Since its beginnings as a mountain ranch, Oakridge has been a railroad boomtown, a lumberjacks' haven, and an outdoor enthusiast's destination. The early boom for Oakridge can be attributed to the Southern Pacific Railroad. By 1910, work had already begun on Tunnel 22, a short route connecting Oakridge to the area now known as Westfir. Oakridge was a station on Southern Pacific's Cascade subdivision, a line that goes over Willamette Pass via the Natron Cutoff that was built in 1926, and the railroad played an integral part of the economy and lifestyle in Oakridge. The Union Pacific Railroad still operates the rails and trains are a common sight in Oakridge. On July 2, 1946, the Pope and Talbot Lumber Company purchased timberland near Oakridge. By 1948, the company had built a large sawmill and had begun a massive timber logging operation. While the railroad and Westfir's Hines sawmill began to slow down, the Pope and Talbot mill expanded and eventually employed more than 500 people. The combined economic base of the railroad and sawmills accounted for the population growth of the 1960s and 1970s, when the community of Willamette City was consolidated into Oakridge. However, in 1978, the Hines mill in Westfir closed, and by 1985 the Pope and Talbot Mill had laid off all of its workers. The City of Oakridge now owns the property that formerly housed the Pope and Talbot sawmill." - Wiki "Goodman Creek Trail is an out and back trail located near Lowell, Oregon that features a waterfall. The trail is rated as moderate and primarily used for hiking, mountain biking and nature trips. The trail is well marked, with a log bridge to mark your destination at the creek." - MTB Project Make sure to stop by the Oakridge Bike Shop while in town and pick up a trail map.	<urn:uuid:7b9f49ad-364f-4c1a-9b81-94265964a603>	{ "date": "2017-11-22T05:43:12", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-47", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806465.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20171122050455-20171122070455-00456.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.971319854259491, "score": 2.6875, "token_count": 662, "url": "https://www.brokenandcoastal.com/journal/goodman-trail" }
Presentation on theme: "Python Programming Chapter 5: Fruitful Functions Saad Bani Mohammad Department of Computer Science Al al-Bayt University 1 st 2011/2012."— Presentation transcript: Python Programming Chapter 5: Fruitful Functions Saad Bani Mohammad Department of Computer Science Al al-Bayt University 1 st 2011/2012 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad2 Return Values Some of the built-in functions we have used, such as the math functions, have produced results. Calling the function generates a new value, which we usually assign to a variable or use as part of an expression. e = math.exp(1.0) height = radius * math.sin(angle) But so far, none of the functions we have written has returned a value. In this chapter, we are going to write functions that return values, which we will call fruitful functions, for want of a better name. The first example is area, which returns the area of a circle with the given radius: import math def area(radius): temp = math.pi * radius*2 return temp We have seen the return statement before, but in a fruitful function the return statement includes a return value. This statement means: "Return immediately from this function and use the following expression as a return value." The expression provided can be arbitrarily complicated, so we could have written this function more concisely: def area(radius): return math.pi radius2 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad3 Return Values (Cont...) On the other hand, temporary variables like temp often make debugging easier. Sometimes it is useful to have multiple return statements, one in each branch of a conditional: def absoluteValue(x): if x < 0: return -x else: return x Since these return statements are in an alternative conditional, only one will be executed. As soon as one is executed, the function terminates without executing any subsequent statements. Code that appears after a return statement, or any other place the flow of execution can never reach, is called dead code. 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad4 Return Values (Cont...) In a fruitful function, it is a good idea to ensure that every possible path through the program hits a return statement. For example: def absoluteValue(x): if x < 0: return -x elif x > 0: return x This program is not correct because if x happens to be 0, neither condition is true, and the function ends without hitting a return statement. In this case, the return value is a special value called None: >>> print absoluteValue(0) None As an exercise, write a compare function that returns 1 if x > y, 0 if x ==y, and -1 if x < y. 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad5 Program Development As you write larger functions, you might start to have more difficulty, especially with runtime and semantic errors. To deal with increasingly complex programs, we are going to suggest a technique called incremental development. The goal of incremental development is to avoid long debugging sessions by adding and testing only a small amount of code at a time. As an example, suppose you want to find the distance between two points, given by the coordinates (x1; y1) and (x2; y2). By the Pythagorean theorem, the distance is: The first step is to consider what a distance function should look like in Python. In other words, what are the inputs (parameters) and what is the output (return value)? In this case, the two points are the inputs, which we can represent using four parameters. The return value is the distance, which is a floating-point value. 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad6 Program Development (Cont...) Already we can write an outline of the function: def distance(x1, y1, x2, y2): return 0.0 Obviously, this version of the function doesn't compute distances; it always returns zero. But it is syntactically correct, and it will run, which means that we can test it before we make it more complicated. To test the new function, we call it with sample values: >>> distance(1, 2, 4, 6) 0.0 We chose these values so that the horizontal distance equals 3 and the vertical distance equals 4; that way, the result is 5 (the hypotenuse of a 3-4-5 triangle). When testing a function, it is useful to know the right answer. At this point we have confirmed that the function is syntactically correct, and we can start adding lines of code. After each incremental change, we test the function again. If an error occurs at any point, we know where it must be - in the last line we added. 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad7 Program Development (Cont...) A logical first step in the computation is to find the differences x2 – x1and y2 – y1. We will store those values in temporary variables named dx and dy and print them. def distance(x1, y1, x2, y2): dx = x2 - x1 dy = y2 - y1 print "dx is", dx print "dy is", dy return 0.0 If the function is working, the outputs should be 3 and 4. If so, we know that the function is getting the right parameters and performing the first computation correctly. If not, there are only a few lines to check. Next we compute the sum of squares of dx and dy: def distance(x1, y1, x2, y2): dx = x2 - x1 dy = y2 - y1 dsquared = dx2 + dy2 print "dsquared is: ", dsquared return 0.0 Notice that we removed the print statements we wrote in the previous step. Code like that is called scaffolding because it is helpful for building the program but is not part of the final product. Again, we would run the program at this stage and check the output (which should be 25). 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad8 Program Development (Cont...) Finally, if we have imported the math module, we can use the sqrt function to compute and return the result: def distance(x1, y1, x2, y2): dx = x2 - x1 dy = y2 - y1 dsquared = dx2 + dy*2 result = math.sqrt(dsquared) return result If that works correctly, you are done. Otherwise, you might want to print the value of result before the return statement. When you start out, you should add only a line or two of code at a time. As you gain more experience, you might find yourself writing and debugging bigger chunks. Either way, the incremental development process can save you a lot of debugging time. 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad9 Program Development (Cont...) The key aspects of the process are: 1.Start with a working program and make small incremental changes. At any point, if there is an error, you will know exactly where it is. 2.Use temporary variables to hold intermediate values so you can output and check them. 3.Once the program is working, you might want to remove some of the scaffolding or consolidate multiple statements into compound expressions, but only if it does not make the program difficult to read. As an exercise, use incremental development to write a function called hypotenuse that returns the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle given the lengths of the two legs as parameters. Record each stage of the incremental development process as you go. 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad10 Composition As you should expect by now, you can call one function from within another. This ability is called composition. As an example, we'll write a function that takes two points, the center of the circle and a point on the perimeter, and computes the area of the circle. Assume that the center point is stored in the variables xc and yc, and the perimeter point is in xp and yp. The first step is to find the radius of the circle, which is the distance between the two points. Fortunately, there is a function, distance, that does that: radius = distance(xc, yc, xp, yp) The second step is to find the area of a circle with that radius and return it: result = area(radius) return result Wrapping that up in a function, we get: def area2(xc, yc, xp, yp): radius = distance(xc, yc, xp, yp) result = area(radius) return result The temporary variables radius and result are useful for development and debugging, but once the program is working, we can make it more concise by composing the function calls: def area2(xc, yc, xp, yp): return area(distance(xc, yc, xp, yp)) 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad11 Boolean Functions Functions can return boolean values. For example: def isDivisible(x, y): if x % y == 0: return 1 # it's true else: return 0 # it's false The name of this function is isDivisible and returns either 1 or 0 to indicate whether the x is or is not divisible by y. We can make the function more concise by taking advantage of the fact that the condition of the if statement is itself a boolean expression. We can return it directly, avoiding the if statement altogether: def isDivisible(x, y): return x % y == 0 This session shows the new function in action: >>> isDivisible(6, 4) 0 >>> isDivisible(6, 3) 1 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad12 Boolean Functions (Cont...) Boolean functions are often used in conditional statements: if isDivisible(x, y): print "x is divisible by y" else: print "x is not divisible by y“ As an exercise, write a function isBetween(x, y, z) that returns 1 if y <= x <= z or 0 otherwise. 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad13 More Recursion If you can write a recursive definition of something, you can usually write a Python program to evaluate it. The first step is to decide what the parameters are for this function. With little effort, you should conclude that factorial takes a single parameter: def factorial(n): If the argument happens to be 0, all we have to do is return 1: def factorial(n): if n == 0: return 1 Otherwise, and this is the interesting part, we have to make a recursive call to find the factorial of n-1 and then multiply it by n: 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad14 More Recursion (Cont...) def factorial(n): if n == 0: return 1 else: return n factorial(n-1) If we call factorial with the value 3: Since 3 is not 0, we take the second branch and calculate the factorial of n-1... Since 2 is not 0, we take the second branch and calculate the factorial of n-1... Since 1 is not 0, we take the second branch and calculate the factorial of n-1... Since 0 is 0, we take the first branch and return 1 without making any more recursive calls. The return value (1) is multiplied by n, which is 1, and the result is returned. The return value (1) is multiplied by n, which is 2, and the result is returned. The return value (2) is multiplied by n, which is 3, and the result, 6, becomes the return value of the function call that started the whole process. 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad15 More Recursion (Cont...) After factorial, the most common example of a recursively defined mathematical function is fibonacci, which has the following definition: fibonacci(0) = 1 fibonacci(1) = 1 fibonacci(n) = fibonacci(n -1) + fibonacci(n -2); Translated into Python, it looks like this: def fibonacci (n): if n == 0 or n == 1: return 1 else: return fibonacci(n-1) + fibonacci(n-2) 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad16 Checking Types What happens if we call factorial and give it 1.5 as an argument? >>> factorial (1.5) RuntimeError: Maximum recursion depth exceeded It looks like an infinite recursion. But how can that be? There is a base case - when n == 0. The problem is that the values of n miss the base case. In the first recursive call, the value of n is 0.5. In the next, it is -0.5. From there, it gets smaller and smaller, but it will never be 0. we can make factorial check the type of its parameter. We can use type to compare the type of the parameter to the type of a known integer value (like 1). While we're at it, we also make sure the parameter is positive: def factorial (n): if type(n) != type(1): print "Factorial is only defined for integers." return -1 elif n < 0: print "Factorial is only defined for positive integers." return -1 elif n == 0: return 1 else: return n * factorial(n-1) 4/13/2015 Python Programming Chapter 5 - Saad Bani Mohammad17 Checking Types Now we have three base cases. The first catches nonintegers. The second catches negative integers. In both cases, the program prints an error message and returns a special value, -1, to indicate that something went wrong: >>> factorial ("fred") Factorial is only defined for integers. >>> factorial (-2) Factorial is only defined for positive integers. If we get past both checks, then we know that n is a positive integer, and we can prove that the recursion terminates. This program demonstrates a pattern sometimes called a guardian. The first two conditionals act as guardians, protecting the code that follows from values that might cause an error. The guardians make it possible to prove the correctness of the code.	<urn:uuid:7d8b8727-246c-4901-8aba-672b2270f59e>	{ "date": "2017-11-21T02:45:21", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-47", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806310.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20171121021058-20171121041058-00656.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.8512483239173889, "score": 3.8125, "token_count": 3095, "url": "http://slideplayer.com/slide/3270033/" }
Plants need warmth and sunlight to grow and reproduce. In the Arctic tundra, warmth and sunlight are in short supply, even in the summer. The ground is frequently covered with snow until June, and the Sun is always low in the sky. Only plants with shallow root systems grow in the Arctic tundra because the permafrost prevents plants from sending their roots down past the active layer of soil. The active layer of soil is free from ice for only 50 to 90 days. Arctic plants have a very short growing season. However, in spite of the severe conditions and the short growing season, there are approximately 1,700 kinds of plants that live in the Arctic tundra. Some of the plants that live in the Arctic tundra include mosses, lichens, low-growing shrubs, and grasses--but no trees. In fact, "tundra" is a Finnish words which means "treeless". close together and low to the ground are some of the adaptations that plants use to survive. This growing pattern helps the plant resist the effects of cold temperatures and reduce the damage caused by the impact of tiny particles of ice and snow that are driven by the dry winds. Photo © 2000-www.arttoday.com Plants also have adapted to the Arctic tundra by developing the ability to grow under a layer of snow, to carry out photosynthesis in extremely cold temperatures, and for flowering plants, to produce flowers quickly once summer begins. A small leaf structure is another physical adaptation that helps plants survive. Plants lose water through their leaf surface. By producing small leaves the plant is more able to retain the moisture it has stored.	<urn:uuid:249ccbdc-71e4-4898-a828-e789f631d861>	{ "date": "2014-10-31T15:31:43", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-42", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414637900029.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20141030025820-00233-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 5, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9333522319793701, "score": 4.5625, "token_count": 369, "url": "http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/tundraP.html" }
More Americans are getting poorer and some are getting richer while the middle class is being erased. That’s the blunt summary of a new Pew Research Center study that looks at household income distribution in the past four decades. The data came from the Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Pew defines middle-income households as having “income that is two-thirds to double that of the U.S. median household income.” For a three-person household the figure ranges from $42,000 to $126,000 annually. There were about 120.8 million of those in the country this year, but there were also 121.3 million lower- and upper-income households combined, making the middle class even with its bookend tiers for the first time. A closer look at the findings shows that the country’s wealth is concentrated more in households in the upper class (49 percent, up from 29 percent in 1970) than the middle class. Only 43 percent of all income settled in middle-class households (down from 62 percent in 1970) It gets worse. “And middle-income Americans have only fallen further behind financially in the new century,” the report states. Median income for middle-income households fell by 4 percent in 2014 compared to 2000. Their median wealth also dropped by 28 percent from 2001 to 2013. Far more alarming is the growth in the lowest-income tier, from 16 percent in 1971 to 20 percent today. That means one in five American adults is in the lowest income category. The silver lining in all this seems to be that nearly one in 10 adults are now part of the highest-income tier (9 percent with average income of $174,625 per household), which represents a near doubling of the affluent population since 1971 (4 percent). So where do you fit in? Use the calculator below to estimate your place on the income spectrum. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected].	<urn:uuid:801af9a1-2723-456c-ab31-cf2cca649b46>	{ "date": "2019-08-22T18:15:51", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-35", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027317339.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20190822172901-20190822194901-00016.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9618216753005981, "score": 2.734375, "token_count": 424, "url": "https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/are-you-in-the-shrinking-middle-class-take-this-2-step-test/433599/" }
The computer, smartphone or other electronic device on which you may be reading this article, tracking the weather or checking your e-mail has a kind of rudimentary brain. It has highly organized electrical circuits that store information and behave in specific, predictable ways, just like the interconnected cells in your brain. On the most fundamental level, electrical circuits and neurons are made of the same stuff—atoms and their constituent elementary particles—but whereas the human brain is conscious of itself, man-made gadgets do not know they exist. Consciousness, most scientists would argue, is not a shared property of all matter in the universe. Rather consciousness is restricted to a subset of animals with relatively complex brains. The more scientists study animal behavior and brain anatomy, however, the more universal consciousness seems to be. A brain as complex as a human's is definitely not necessary for consciousness. On July 7 of this year, a group of neuroscientists convening at the University of Cambridge signed a document entitled “The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness in Non-Human Animals,” officially declaring that nonhuman animals, “including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses,” are conscious. Humans are more than just conscious; they are also self-aware. Scientists differ on how they distinguish between consciousness and self-awareness, but here is one common distinction: consciousness is awareness of your body and your environment; self-awareness is recognition of that consciousness—not only understanding that you exist but further comprehending that you are aware of your existence. Another way of considering it: to be conscious is to think; to be self-aware is to realize that you are a thinking being and to think about your thoughts. Presumably human infants are conscious—they perceive and respond to people and things around them—but they are not yet self-aware. In their first years of life, children develop a sense of self, learning to recognize themselves in the mirror and to distinguish between their own point of view and the perspectives of other people. Numerous neuroimaging studies have suggested that thinking about ourselves, recognizing images of ourselves, and reflecting on our thoughts and feelings—that is, different forms of self-awareness—all involve the cerebral cortex, the outermost, intricately wrinkled part of the brain. The fact that humans have a particularly large and wrinkly cerebral cortex relative to body size supposedly explains why we seem to be more self-aware than most other animals. But new evidence is casting doubt on this idea. “Got a Towel?” If this anatomical hypothesis were correct, we would expect, for example, that a man missing huge portions of his cerebral cortex would lose at least some of his self-awareness. Patient R, also known as Roger, defies that expectation. Roger is a 57-year-old man who suffered extensive brain damage in 1980 after a severe bout of herpes simplex encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain caused by herpesvirus. The disease destroyed most of Roger's insular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex, regions near or at the front surface of the brain that are thought to be essential for self-awareness. About 10 percent of his insula remains and only 1 percent of his anterior cingulate cortex. Roger cannot remember much of what happened to him between 1970 and 1980, and he has great difficulty forming new memories. He cannot taste or smell either. But he still knows who he is. He recognizes himself in the mirror and in photographs, and his behavior is relatively normal. In a paper published earlier this year postdoctoral researcher Carissa L. Philippi of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and neuroscientist David Rudrauf of the University of Iowa and their colleagues investigated the extent of Roger's self-awareness. In a mirror-recognition task, for example, a researcher pretended to brush something off of Roger's nose with a tissue that concealed black eye shadow. Fifteen minutes later the researcher asked Roger to look at himself in the mirror. Roger immediately rubbed away the black smudge on his nose and wondered aloud how it got there.	<urn:uuid:f4064960-67e6-4baf-8205-c1e864bf7360>	{ "date": "2015-04-26T09:51:57", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-18", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246654264.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045734-00270-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.96419358253479, "score": 3.09375, "token_count": 846, "url": "http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/self-awareness-with-a-simple-brain/" }
HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., today announced that the Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of the AIDS drug zidovudine, commonly called AZT, to treat children. The new labeling provides dosage recommendations for patients 3 months to 12 years of age who have AIDS or symptoms of advanced infection with the AIDS virus. FDA's approval of AZT for pediatric use means that the drug is now officially considered to be a standard therapy for children with AIDS. "This status should encourage more insurance providers to reimburse for zidovudine's use in pediatrics," Dr. Sullivan said. Pediatric trials of AZT began in 1986 and have involved more than 200 children. They were sponsored by Burroughs Wellcome Company of Research Triangle Park, N.C., and conducted by researchers at the National Cancer Institute and through NIAID's AIDS Clinical Trials Group network. These data, along with data from studies of AZT in adults infected with the AIDS virus provided the basis for extending the labeling instructions to children. FDA's Antiviral Drug Products Advisory Committee, a committee of outside experts, recommended the pediatric labeling by a vote of 7 to 1 on March 30. Zidovudine, approved in 1987 for the treatment of patients age 13 and older with AIDS and symptoms of infection with the AIDS virus, was recently also approved for the treatment of patients with less advanced disease who have evidence of immunosuppression. While there is no prohibition against physicians prescribing approved drugs for other patient populations, many physicians have been reluctant to use zidovudine in children because of concerns that the drug's side-effects might be more severe in them than in other patients. Clinical data now indicate that children receiving zidovudine experience side-effects similar to those that occur in adults at a similar stage of the disease. Since last October, zidovudine has been distributed to physicians requesting it for children with AIDS or advanced AIDS virus infection under a Treatment IND (investigational new drug application) sponsored by Burroughs Wellcome, with medical and technical assistance from NIAID. The Treatment IND mechanism was established by FDA to allow patients with serious or life-threatening conditions for which there are no satisfactory treatments to obtain promising experimental drugs. Although zidovudine is the only drug shown effective in prolonging the lives of people with AIDS, it has significant side-effects. The drug can inhibit the production of red blood cells and may reduce white blood cell counts to the point where the drug has to be discontinued to avoid infections. In January, the recommended dose of zidovudine for adults was lowered after clinical trials showed the lower dose to be as effective as standard higher dose regimens in prolonging life and slowing the development of symptoms, and was less likely to produce severe adverse reactions. The currently recommended dose for children may be lowered as a result of a clinical trial now underway.	<urn:uuid:b277f329-3af1-4b5f-b04e-c2aef4106e02>	{ "date": "2015-03-28T05:19:04", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-14", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297281.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00206-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9585471153259277, "score": 2.765625, "token_count": 605, "url": "http://aidsinfo.nih.gov/news/271/azt-for-children" }
During a neurological assessment a variety of tests are employed to examine the nervous system. Podiatrists and Chiropodists use neurological assessments via a 10g monofilament to evaluate any loss of sensation, muscle weakness, pain or lack of coordination. The tests are all non-invasive and painless. These are effective preliminary examinations which are used to modify treatment plans or organise referrals. Vascular assessments are used to assess the amount of blood that reaches the feet. As the feet are the part of the body that is the furthest away from the heart, it is a strong indicator of complications in the arteries or veins. Blood flow to the feet should also be monitored as blood supply is essential for the healing of injuries. If injuries take a prolonged period to heal then the client is predisposed to more pain, higher probability of infection and foot ulceration. These vascular assessments are performed utilising a number of diagnostic tests including a non-invasive ultrasound Doppler.	<urn:uuid:d7793108-861a-4185-b660-1a1c2b584324>	{ "date": "2019-04-20T08:16:23", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-18", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578529472.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20190420080927-20190420102927-00176.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9393606185913086, "score": 2.890625, "token_count": 202, "url": "https://www.hertswellnesscentre.co.uk/vascular-and-neurological-assessment.html" }
If you have to be hospitalized chances are reasonably high that at least one tube will soon be sticking out of your body. We’re thinking, “Does it have the right stuff in it?” “Is it the right strength?” “The right flow rate?” Few of us probably fret about whether the appropriate tube was being threaded into the right place. Turns out that’s what we should be worrying about. Gardiner Harris contributed a terrifying story to the New York Times about tube mix-ups in hospitals. Tubes intended to inflate blood-pressure cuffs have been connected to intravenous lines, leading to deadly air embolisms. Intravenous fluids have been connected to tubes intended to deliver oxygen, leading to suffocation. And in 2006 Julie Thao, a nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wis., mistakenly put a spinal anesthetic into a vein, killing 16-year-old Jasmine Gant, who was giving birth. Nurse Thao had worked two consecutive shifts the previous day, and exhaustion could have played a role. But the problem is more straightforward. Tubes for different functions should be made incompatible—but they aren’t, leading to many documented mix-ups (and many more suspected as this kind of error rarely gets reported). Harris notes that groups have tried to fix the problem for more than 15 years, but guess what stands in the way? You guessed it—the companies that make medical devices. Making changes to protect patients would be difficult—and costly. It would require cooperation among companies. Red tape and drawn-out FDA procedures don’t help any. A color coding scheme seems like a good short term answer, but it turns out that different companies use different colors that can make things even more confusing. In the meantime, it probably wouldn’t hurt to ask the staffer to carefully explain those tubes before they get stuck into your innards.	<urn:uuid:8600ce85-25b3-4755-b98d-b00700eeaf0d>	{ "date": "2013-12-11T09:33:25", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-48", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164034245/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204133354-00002-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9628955125808716, "score": 2.546875, "token_count": 411, "url": "http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/49441/death-by-tube/" }
Let’s look at some ways winter can negatively affect your health and what you can do about it. First of all, it is thought that the nasty bug influenza can survive better in colder, drier climates. When the air is humid, virus particles get trapped in tiny water droplets, which fall to the ground. So in a drier environment, the virus circulates more rampantly. The virus also cannot survive well when temperatures are warm. When more people have the flu and come together in close quarters indoors, viruses can spread more easily. The best thing to do to prevent the flu is to get the flu vaccine. Additionally, washing your hands on a regular basis, covering your mouth when you cough, and not going out in public when you have a fever can help prevent contraction and spread of the flu. Indoor allergies are more common in winter when it is cold because people spend more time indoors. Also, when heating units are turned on, especially if an indoor heating filter has not been recently changed, allergens can get stirred up and concentrated more inside. These allergens can include dust mites, animal dander (dead skin flakes), cockroach droppings, and indoor mildew and molds. When the heat is turned up indoors, it can make your nasal passages drier, causing skin irritation inside the nose. This can worsen inflammation when someone already has allergies, making them worse. These allergies can be minimized by vacuuming carpets regularly, not having wall-to-wall carpeting, using an indoor HEPA filter, keep pets groomed and bathed once a week, washing sheets in very hot water to kill dust mites, and use hypoallergenic mattress and pillow covers to keep dust mites trapped inside the pillows and mattresses. Nasal sprays such as an over the counter saline-based nasal spray can be used multiple times a day to keep the mucus membranes moist. Oral antihistamines such as Cetirizine, Fexofenadine, and Loratadine and nasal sprays such as Azelastine can help minimize allergy symptoms. For very refractory symptoms, immunotherapy (allergy shots) is a very effective long term solution. A humidifier by your bed at night can also help. Nosebleeds can be exacerbated by cold, dry winter air. This is because the skin inside the nose becomes dry and cracked, exposing blood vessels that are normally covered. Nosebleeds can be prevented by keeping the nasal membranes moist. Placing petroleum jelly (Vaseline, Aquaphor) around your nostrils helps moisturize air that you breathe. Also, using a nasal saline gel over the counter will help moisturize the nose. A saline base spray, which you can get over the counter and keep in your purse, pocket, or bag, can be used multiple times a day to help keep the nose moist. Again, a humidifier by your bed at night can help as well. Your skin can get very cracked and dry in the winter. On your face, dry skin can enhance the appearance of wrinkles and aging. On your hands, your skin can get cracked, creating small cuts, allowing passages of bacteria and infections. Dry skin can also be very itchy, and for people with skin conditions such as eczema, this can worsen with dry and itchy skin. Thus, it is important to keep your skin moist in the winter. Different moisturizers can help with this. Keep a bottle of daily moisturizing lotion with dimethicone skin protectant and natural colloidal oatmeal, shea butter, cocoa butter or something similar, in your bathroom so you can moisturize your hands after you wash them. As cold as it is, avoid taking very long hot dry baths or showers because this also dries out your skin. Use body moisturizers with shea butter, cocoa butter, or coconut oil after you bathe. For your facial skin, find a good facial moisturizer and use it at least twice a day. Even more importantly, make sure to continue to use facial sunscreen at least daily, even in the winter, as the UVA rays can still affect your facial skin and increase spots, wrinkles, and other signs of aging. If you have dry itchy skin, a zinc-based sunscreen moisturizer can help quell the itching while also blocking the UVA and UVB rays, and providing moisture. Make sure and drink enough water to keep your entire body hydrated. Soups and foods with natural liquids in them are better than salty, crunchy foods and alcohol, which dehydrate your body. Overall hydration to your entire digestive system can help hydrate your skin, nasal lining, and all of your bodily tissues to help minimize dryness in the cold. Also, make sure and eat enough healthy fats such as omega-3, which is found in salmon, and omega-6, which is found in olive oil. Avocado and coconut oil are also great sources of natural and healthy fat. These healthy fats will also help keep your skin moist. In summary, the cold dry air in the winter can be a source of irritation for the skin, allergies, and increased flu viruses, but if you follow some of these small lifestyle changes, it’s possible to keep yourself warm and healthy while enjoying the snow and the winter season.	<urn:uuid:a02cbe0c-59b9-4468-a637-cd2507a3b549>	{ "date": "2019-03-26T10:41:13", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-13", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912204969.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20190326095131-20190326121131-00096.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.935875654220581, "score": 3.4375, "token_count": 1098, "url": "https://www.entandallergy.com/blog/Winter%20and%20Your%20Health" }
Please PAUSE the "How to Draw a Pit Bull" video after each step to draw at your own pace. For the first few steps, don't press down too hard with your pencil. Use light, smooth strokes to begin. Step 1: Draw two circles as guides for the pit bull's body. They don't have to be perfect. They're just guides. Step 2: Draw a square with rounded corners above the big circle as a guide for the pit bull's head. Step 3: Draw two intersecting lines inside the head to help you place the pit bull's facial features later on. Step 4: Draw two triangle shapes on top of the head for the pit bull's cropped ears. Step 5: Draw a series of curved lines that connect the major shapes to form the pit bull's body.	<urn:uuid:3123f3d5-5822-49f6-a221-457bb4630116>	{ "date": "2017-03-24T12:05:17", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-13", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218187945.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212947-00421-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9512759447097778, "score": 3.296875, "token_count": 170, "url": "http://www.how2drawanimals.com/8-animals/6-draw-pit-bull-dog.html" }
We all make mistakes, but there are some that writers should never make. Though the casual tone of blogging has allowed us to be less formal with the written word, it doesn’t mean we can simply ignore the fundamental rules of writing and grammar. The occasional typo can be brushed off as an innocent oversight, but there are some writing errors that are just plain unforgivable. These blunders can ruin your credibility as a writer. 1. Fewer versus less Unforgivable: There are less days in February than in March. Correct: There are fewer days in February than in March. Use fewer when referring to things that can be counted. For example, “She ate fewer cupcakes tonight than she did last night.” Use less when referring to volumes or to things that cannot be counted: “The cupcakes had less frosting yesterday.” 2. Affect versus effect Unforgivable: Our services will have a positive affect on your business. Correct: Our services will have a positive effect on your business. Although affect and effect can each be used as either a noun or a verb, the more common usages are affect as a verb and effect as a noun. In the example above, the effect is the result of the services. In the sentence, “Our services can affect how customers see your business,” affect is to produce an effect upon, or to influence. 3. Pronoun/antecedent disagreement Unforgivable: If you hire a professional copywriter, make sure they know how to write. Correct: If you hire a professional copywriter, make sure she knows how to write. In the above sentences, copywriter is singular. So the pronoun should be singular, as well. Many people avoid gender-specific pronouns, but all too often, that just leads to bad grammar. The correct choices include using “he or she”—pick one and stick to that gender—or using a plural antecedent (which is the noun to which the pronoun refers): “When hiring copywriters, make sure they know how to write.” Unforgivable: Are you on Goggle+? Correct: Are you on Google+? Be sure to proofread your work. Misspelling the name of a company, a website or a person is a sign of sheer laziness. 5. It’s versus its Unforgivable: The pizza became famous for it’s unique flavors and toppings. Correct: The pizza became famous for its unique flavors and toppings. This is a common mistake because technically, it’s follows the rule of using an apostrophe to convey possessives (for example, the pizza’s flavor). But an apostrophe is used for the contraction of it is or it has: “It’s the best pizza ever!” 6. Misuse of the semicolon Unforgivable: I love to write; but I hate using semicolons. Correct: I love to write; I hate using semicolons. Semicolons can get confusing. Rather than make an unforgivable mistake, I tend to avoid them whenever possible. Use a semicolon to connect two related independent clauses without a conjunction (the example above), or within a complex series: “I’ve lived in Waukegan, Ill.; Alameda, Calif.; and Bartlett, Tenn.” Do not use a semicolon with a conjunction (and, but, for, or, so, nor, yet). 7. Alot versus a lot Unforgivable: Alot of people make this mistake. Correct: A lot of people make this mistake. Alot is not a word! Unforgivable: His favorite colors are red, blue, and green. My favorite colors are yellow, purple and pink. Correct: His favorite colors are red, blue and green. My favorite colors are yellow, purple and pink. Each of the above sentences is structurally fine, but the top two are inconsistent with each other, because the first sentence uses the Oxford comma and the second does not. Don’t use the Oxford comma in one sentence and leave it out the next. Don’t spell out ten in the first paragraph and write 10 in the last. Writing rules change depending on what style of writing you follow (Chicago Manual or Associated Press), but whichever style you use, be consistent throughout your copy. 9. Poorly cited stats and quotes Unforgivable: Women make up 97 percent of Pinterest users. Correct: According to AppData, women make up 97 percent of Pinterest users. Back up statistics and quotes by letting your readers know where you got the information. If you can, provide a link back to the exact Web page where you found the data. Failure to prove where you got your facts will weaken your content. 10. Then versus than Unforgivable: I enjoy sitting much better then running. Correct: I enjoy sitting much better than running. Than is used for comparisons, although then is used to refer to a point in time or “in addition to.” For example: “Back then, I was strong enough to run a marathon. Now, my legs and lungs are in worse shape than they used to be.” 11. Lose versus Loose Unforgivable: If you loose your keys again, I’m not letting you in. Correct: If you lose your keys again, I’m not letting you in. Lose is a verb, and loose is most commonly used as an adjective. Use loose when referring to something that doesn’t fit or isn’t secure, such as loose pants or loose attachments. Loose can also be used as a verb—for example, “loose a knot”—but in these cases, loosen is a more common word. 12. Stolen content This one isn’t really a mistake, but rather just plain wrong. Never steal and use content that isn’t yours and play it off as your own work. Not only is that theft, but it’s also copyright infringement. Write original, informative content, and always proofread your work. Any common writing mistakes that you think are simply unforgivable?	<urn:uuid:49c04d79-bffb-455b-99c8-3afaa51006fd>	{ "date": "2018-08-15T23:02:48", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-34", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221210362.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20180815220136-20180816000136-00136.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9297654032707214, "score": 2.90625, "token_count": 1345, "url": "https://www.ragan.com/12-unforgivable-writing-mistakes/" }
\|Exedra at Mountain View Cemetery (photo by Michael Colbruno)\| You can find this exedra across the street from the main entrance to the mausoleum. Here is Doug Keister's description of exedrae from his book "Stories in Stone." These monuments are usually shaped like a curved or rectangular bench, but there are also many examples where the bench is straight. The ancient Greeks constructed public shelters known as stoa. In their simplest form, these structures consisted of a colonnade, walled on one side and roofed. At intervals along these shelters were recesses with seats carved into them. The seating areas were known as exedrae, the Greek word for “out of a seat.” These structures were frequently used in gymnasiums and public squares. Curved exedrae in public squares were favorite gathering spots for philosophers and teachers since their students could gather around the conveniently placed seats. In private homes and gardens, exedrae were also used for entertaining and seating guests. Exedrae soon found their way into Greek burial grounds that lined the highways into the city. Greek law expressly forbade burial within the city, so the highways leading into the city became important places for Greek families to erect highly visible monuments to proclaim the stature of the family and celebrate and honor their dead. The traditional Greek burial custom dictated that when a person died, a large mound was formed over the grave. Soon after, an earth or rock wall was built to better define the burial plot; when enough resources were available, a more permanent stone grave marker was erected. Graveside services were not a one-time affair for the ancient Greeks; thus, from time to time, the friends and family of the deceased would gather again at the grave. These services were accompanied with wine, food, and offerings that, for convenience, were placed on top of the burial mound. When the family had enough money to erect a suitable monument, they usually picked a table tomb so they would have a place to put libations and gifts. The next logical progression would be to erect a structure that would enable guests to sit and converse, which led to the introduction of the exedra in Greek burial grounds. The exedra was well suited to this setting; its three-sided or semicircular form helped define the burial plot (it replaced the earth or rock retaining wall) and its built-in seating enabled all of the mourners to talk to each other while focusing on the tomb that, conveniently, was heaped with food and wine. This arrangement is not unlike a contemporary living room with a conversation pit and a coffee table in the middle. When designing exedrae for American cemeteries, architects used semicircular, rectangular, and straight forms. Typically, a statue or architectural feature with the family name at the center of the exedra and bench seats on either side, although there are some examples that are simply a bench. The heyday of the exedra was from the late nineteenth century until the 1920s. They are still popular today, but are usually used in public areas rather than as monuments for individuals or families.	<urn:uuid:f7dea1ed-2773-4aea-9079-9e8945df0c2c>	{ "date": "2019-05-20T17:04:07", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-22", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232256082.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20190520162024-20190520184024-00536.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9821819067001343, "score": 3.15625, "token_count": 656, "url": "http://mountainviewpeople.blogspot.com/2011/02/" }
The first manned, hydrogen-powered plane has been successfully tested in the skies above Spain, its makers say. The small, propeller-driven craft, developed by aviation giant Boeing, made three short flights at an airfield south of Madrid, the company said. It was powered by hydrogen fuel cells, which produce only heat and water as exhaust products. The tests could pave the way for a new generation of greener aircraft, the company said. Boeing's chief technology officer John Tracy said the flights were "a historical technological success" and "full of promises for a greener future". Three test flights of the two-seater aircraft took place in February and March at an airfield at Ocana, south of Madrid. The plane was modified to include a hybrid battery and fuel cell system developed by UK firm Intelligent Energy. The fuel cells, which create electricity by combining oxygen and hydrogen, were used to power an electric motor coupled to a propeller. Other organisations have demonstrated solar-powered planes During take-off the plane's batteries were used to provide an additional boost, but whilst in the air, the plane relied entirely on the cells. Boeing said the plane has a flying time of 45 minutes but tests were limited to around half that time. Although the test had been successful, the firm said it did not believe fuel cells could be the primary power source for large passenger aircraft. However, it could be used as a secondary source of energy for large planes, according to Nieves Lapena, the engineer responsible for the test flights, but this may take some time to develop. "In my opinion, we are talking about a delay of about twenty years," she said. Hydrogen-powered planes have been flown before, but never with a human pilot onboard. In 2005, California-based AeroVironment successfully completed test flights of its Global Observer craft which was powered by liquid hydrogen. The hydrogen-powered plane is capable of carrying two people This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.	<urn:uuid:5790d213-7509-421f-9aff-08532808a238>	{ "date": "2016-02-09T05:39:27", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-07", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701156520.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193916-00190-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9780565500259399, "score": 3.375, "token_count": 485, "url": "http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7330311.stm" }
Critical metals in discarded electronics Recycling of waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) traditionally focuses on large quantities of waste materials such as plastics. However, some product groups in the WEEE contain hidden treasures in the form of critical metals. This project assesses the critical metals waste handling as part of five selected product groups, in the Nordic region. The environmental and economic benefits from the recycling of these metals currently and in the near future is quite substantial, mainly due to the presence of significant quantities of gold in the selected products.In order to contribute further to the circular economy concept, the Nordic countries should pay attention not only to quantitative but also to qualitative aspects of recycling, in order to capture recyclable materials that, although in small quantities, their recycling brings a high economic and environmental value.	<urn:uuid:f81ef697-4d0b-4c30-bb6e-96e6cbc3bd41>	{ "date": "2017-03-30T14:44:33", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-13", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218194601.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212954-00546-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9517926573753357, "score": 2.578125, "token_count": 163, "url": "https://www.libris.dk/products/critical-metals-in-discarded-electronics" }
Wince example sentence. Journalists, word game players, and people looking to increase their vocabulary might especially enjoy this webpage. The lines of text below use wince in a sentence, and provide visitors a sentence for wince. - Anton pressed a hand at his ankle and made him wince, but the bones were sound, leg and hip not worse than badly bruised. (10) - The flat-checked visage seemed to wince, and this upset him. (8) - To see some one so old and calm wince as if struck, to hear so sharp a note of pain in his voice! (8) Glad you visited this page with a sentence for wince. Perhaps also see a sentence for weaken and ways to use winds in a sentence. Now that you’ve seen how to use wince in a sentence hope you might explore the rest of this educational reference site Sentencefor.com to see many other example sentences which provide word usage information.	<urn:uuid:54e2d5fb-8305-4092-8959-f69613ccfa76>	{ "date": "2016-08-25T00:54:12", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-36", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982292697.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823195812-00288-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9716612696647644, "score": 2.515625, "token_count": 203, "url": "http://sentencefor.com/wince/" }
[Excerpt] In 2012, 75.3 million workers in the United States age 16 and over were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.0 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 1.6 million earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 2.0 million had wages below the federal minimum. Together, these 3.6 million workers with wages at or below the federal minimum made up 4.7 percent of all hourly paid workers. Tables 1 through 10 present data on a wide array of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics for hourly paid workers earning at or below the federal minimum wage.	<urn:uuid:303f6a87-b3bb-415a-a3ef-4f80488c6187>	{ "date": "2018-03-17T06:30:04", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-13", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257644701.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20180317055142-20180317075142-00256.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9430412650108337, "score": 2.921875, "token_count": 132, "url": "https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/key_workplace/1660/" }
I've nearly got it through my head Not quite, at least I don't think so... <a> or <title> or <img> or <b> Just the bits between the angle brackets that start everything off. href="something.html" or style="somestyle;" or alt="some text here" or src="image.jpg" These are things that modify the tag. They're written inside the angle brackets of the tag. <a href="link.html">Anchor Text</a> <img src="image.jpg" border="0" /> Tags, attributes, text and all the other bits that make these suckers actually do something on the page. In plain HTML, not all elements need to be closed (such as the "img" tag/element, which can stand on it's own). In XHTML, every element needs to be closed, thus the addition of the " /" (space and slash) at the end of the IMG tag (which makes it an IMG element, I think? Personally, I've never really cared as much about the distinction between an element and a tag as I have about the distinction between a tag and an attribute. Since there is at least one tag that shares a name with an attribute (the infamous "title"), leading to much confusion when the two are mixed up, I try to make it a point to use the word attribute correctly in context. I generally use "tag" and "element" interchangeably, even though I suppose that's not technically correct, because the potential for confusion and the consequences thereof is much less, at least in most normal forum conversations. Present conversation excepted, of course. CTPhil, I think you've got it!	<urn:uuid:fd4fbdf2-5c14-4d72-b449-101b5980527d>	{ "date": "2013-12-12T02:16:05", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-48", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164346985/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204133906-00002-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9132480025291443, "score": 2.765625, "token_count": 368, "url": "http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php/topic/25061-alt-and-title-attributes/page-6" }
- Approximately 1/3 of male fish in British rivers are in the process of changing sex due to pollution. Hormones in human sewage, including those produced by the female contraceptive pill, are thought to be the main cause.q - Americans buy over 29 billion bottles of water every year. Making all those bottles uses 17 million barrels of crude oil annually, which would be enough fuel to keep 1 million cars on the road for one year. Only 13% of those bottles are recycled. Plastic bottles take centuries to decompose—and if they are burned, they release toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals.g Nearly 1,000 children in India die each day from diarrhoeal sickness - An estimated 1,000 children in India die every day due to disease caused by polluted water.f - The 2011 tsunami in Japan created a 70-mile-long island of debris, which is floating out into the Pacific Ocean. The debris is made up of houses, plastics, bodies, cars, and radioactive waste. Experts estimate that it will reach Hawaii in two years and the U.S. West Coast a year later.u - In response to the nuclear crisis after the 2011 tsunami, the Japanese government dumped 11 million liters (2 million gallons) of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. A few days later, radioactive fish were found 50 miles offshore.u After the 2011 tsunami, the Japanese dumped thousands of tons of radioactive water into the Pacific - One of the more common and dangerous pollutants in the environment is cadmium, which kills human fetal sex organ cells. Its widespread presence means it is in almost everything we eat and drink.a - Fourteen billion pounds of garbage, mostly plastic, is dumped into the ocean every year.o - More oil is seeped into the ocean each year as a result of leaking cars and other non-point sources than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.d - Polluted coastal water costs the global economy $12.8 billion a year in death and disease.j - Over 1 million seabirds are killed by plastic waste per year. Over 100,000 sea mammals and countless fish are killed per year due to pollution.i Pollution in China affects the weather in the United States - Pollution in China alters the weather in the United States. It takes just five days for the jet stream to carry heavy air pollution from China to the U.S. Once in the atmosphere over the U.S., the pollution stops clouds from producing rain and snow—i.e., more pollution equals less precipitation.c - Concentrations of two common pollutants, PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOSA (perfluorooctanesulfonic acid), which can be found in nonstick cookware and stain-repellant fabrics, can impair immunity in children. They can also prevent vaccines from triggering sufficient quantities of protective antibodies.r - A 2010 study found that children in families who live near freeways are twice as likely to have autism as kids who live farther away from freeways. Scientists believe the increased risk is due to exposure to pollutants given off by freeway traffic.s - The Ganges River in India is one of the most polluted rivers in the world. The pollution includes sewage, trash, food, and animal remains. In some places the Ganges is septic, and corpses of semi-cremated adults or enshrouded babies drift down the river.f - According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 6,400 people die every year in Mexico City and more than 1 million suffer from permanent breathing problems due to air pollution.x - Between 1956 and 1968, a factory in Japan released mercury directly into the sea, which contaminated fish with the highly toxic metallic element. More than 2,000 people became seriously ill from mercury poisoning and many of them died.i - The oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill polluted about 1,300 miles (2,092 km) of coastline near Alaska. The spilled oil killed as many as 500,000 seabirds and other animals.x Acid rain's damage is widespread - The ancient Greek Acropolis is believed to have crumbled more in the last 40 years than it has in the previous 2,500 due to acid rain. Nearly 40% of China’s land area is affected by acid rain, and by 1984 half of the trees in Germany’s Black Forest were damaged by acid rain.i - Each person in the U.S. produces about 4 pounds (2 kg) of garbage a day.x - The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion, the world’s worst nuclear disaster, immediately killed 30 people, though as many as 9,000 people may have died from radiation poisoning. The 19-mile exclusion zone around the plant still remains uninhabitable.d - The United Arab Emirates is one of the world’s biggest waste producers and water users. In 2007, the World Wildlife Fund said the UAE has the world’s largest per-capita ecological footprint, which means the country puts more demands on the environment than any other country. It also currently consumes 20 billion plastic bags out of a global figure of 500 billion.z Pakistan has some of highest levels of air pollution in the world - Air pollution in Pakistan is nearly 10 times higher than levels considered safe by the World Health Organization. Every car in Pakistan creates 25% more carbon than one car in the U.S.z - Though Botswana has only 2 million people, it is the second most polluted nation in the world. Pollution from the mineral industry and wild fires are the main causes.z - Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the eighth most populous in the world, with over 155 million people. It is also Africa’s largest oil producer, accounting for 2.3 million barrels of crude oil a day. However, the UN recently declared that 50 years of oil pollution in the Ogoniland would require the world’s largest and biggest oil cleanup.z - The world’s largest heavy metal smelting complex is in the Siberian city of Norilsk. Human life expectancy there is 10 years lower than in other Russian cities.w - Between 1930 and 1998, nearly 300,000 tons of chemical waste was improperly disposed of in Dzershinsk, Russia, a Cold War chemicals manufacturing site. Toxic levels are 17 million times the safe limit. In 2003, the death rate of the city exceeded the birth rate by 260%.w - In Rudnaya Pristan, Russia, lead contamination has resulted in child blood levels eight to 20 times higher than allowable U.S. levels.w Children in Kabwe, Zambia have some of highest blood levels of lead in the world - In Kabwe, Zambia, child blood levels of lead are five to 10 times higher than the allowable EPA maximum.v - A study of 60 beaches in Southern California revealed that water pollution is highest when tides ebb during the new and full moon.b - A car from 1985 emits approximately 38 times more carbon monoxide than a 2001 model. BMWs were the most environmentally friendly, while Chrysler and Mitsubishi were the worst polluters. Additionally, cars that get better gas mileage also pollute less.t - In December 1952, air pollution in London created fatal smog that immediately killed 4,000 people and then 8,000 more in the following weeks. Burning coal was the main cause.x - For every 1 million tons of oil that is shipped, about 1 ton is spilled.d Lake Karachay, Russia is the most polluted spot on Earth - Lake Karachay, located in the southern Ural Mountains in Russia, is considered to be the most polluted spot on earth after it was used for decades as a dumping site for nuclear waste. Spending just 5 minutes near the lake unprotected can kill a person. In the 1960s, the lake dried out and radioactive dust carried by the wind irradiated half a million people with radiation equivalent to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.x - The largest e-waste site on earth is in Guiyu, China. Approximately 88% of children there have dangerous levels of lead in their blood.h - Approximately 130,000 computers are thrown out every day in the U.S. Over 100 million cell phones are thrown out annually.h - The world’s largest CO2 emitter is China. China emits more CO2 than the U.S. and Canada combined, up by 171% since 2000.y The U.S. Department of Defense is the world's largest polluter - The world’s largest polluter is the U.S. Department of Defense, producing more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined.v - People who live in places with high levels of air pollutants have a 20% higher risk of death from lung cancer than people who live in less-polluted areas. While smokers make up 85-90% of lung cancer cases, up to 15,000 nonsmokers die in the U.S. from lung cancer.e - The soot and smoke from indoor cooking fires in undeveloped countries create deadly indoor pollution and kill as many as 2 million people annually, which is a higher death rate than for malaria.k - The Mississippi River carries an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen pollution into the Gulf of Mexico each year, creating a “dead zone” in the Gulf each summer about the size of New Jersey.o - Approximately 46% of the lakes in America are too polluted for fishing, aquatic life, or swimming.o - In the United States, people use over 1.8 billion disposable diapers, 220 million tires, and 30 billion foam cups per year.x - Each year 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, storm water, and industrial waste are dumped into U.S. waters.x - Factories in the United States discharge approximately 3 million tons of toxic chemicals into the water, air, and land annually.x - Over 80% of items buried in landfills could be recycled instead.j - Today, there are between 300 and 500 chemicals in the average person’s body that were not found in anyone’s body before 1920. Each year there are thousands of new chemicals sold or used in new products. There are more than 75,000 synthetic chemicals on the market today.x - Globally, 15 million children under the age of five die each year because of diseases caused by drinking water.x - For 1.1.billion people around the world, clean water in unobtainable. Almost half of the world’s population does not have proper water treatment.v Americans make up 5% of the world population, yet they produce 35% of the world's waste - Americans make up an estimated 5% of the world’s population. However, the U.S. produces an estimated 30% of the world’s waste and uses 25% of the world’s resources.x - The average office employee throws away 360 pounds of recyclable paper each year.x - The amount of plastic waste has been increasing about 10% each year for the past 20 years.j - If all the tires Americans throw away each year were stacked on top of each other, the pile would reach 32,000 miles high—a greater distance than the circumference of the earth at the equator (24,901 miles).j - The average family in North America, Europe, and Australia throws away more than a ton of garbage each year.x - The Environmental Protection Agency reports that the U.S. generates over 256 million tons of officially classified hazardous waste annually. This does not include toxic and hazardous waste that are not regulated or monitored by the EPA.x - Between 1950 and 1975, approximately 5 billion metric tons of highly poisonous chemicals were improperly disposed of in the U.S.x - It will cost between $370 billion and $1.7 trillion to clean up hazardous waste in the U.S. The EPA states there are at least 36,000 seriously contaminated sites in the U.S.v - Every year, the United States creates 11 billion tons of solid waste.v - In Florida alone, hundreds of thousands of sea turtle hatchlings are killed due to light pollution. Hatchlings gravitate toward brighter lights, and, consequently, crawl toward city lights rather than to the sea. Additionally, light pollution affects the breeding and migration of many types of birds.l - Over 51 billion pieces of litter are thrown onto the roads in the United States annually. Litter cleanup costs an estimated $11.5 billion in the U.S. each year.m - People who litter are more likely to be men between 18-34 years old, smokers, people who eat at fast food places at least two times per week, and drive more than 50 miles a day.m Antarctica is the cleanest place on Earth - Antarctica is the cleanest place on Earth and is protected by strong antipollution laws.d - Noise pollution can cause stress-related illness, hearing loss, sleep disruption, lost productivity, and high blood pressure. The EPA estimates that millions of people in the U.S. adversely suffer from noise pollution.n - Scientists report that carbon dioxide emissions are decreasing the pH of the oceans and, in essence, acidifying them.x - A single NASA space shuttle launch produces 28 tons of carbon dioxide. An average car generates about half a ton per month. A launch also releases 23 tons of harmful particulate matter, which then settles around the launch site. Additionally, 13 tons of hydrochloric acid kills fish and plants within half a mile of the launch site. Researchers note that the environmental cost of a launch is approximately the same as of New York City over a weekend.p - Los Angeles International Airport emits approximately 19,000 tons of carbon dioxide—a month. The roughly 33,000 planes that fly in and out of the airport each month release about 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide.p Largest Polluters in the world (2011) v \|\|Estimated Population at Risk \|\|Region Most Impacted \|1. Artisanal Gold Mining \|2. Industrial Estates (Lead Pollution) \|3. Agricultural Production (Pesticide Pollution) \|4. Lead Smelting \|\|Eastern Europe, Northern Eurasia, Central Asia \|5. Tannery Operations (Chromium Pollution) \|6. Mining and Ore (Mercury Pollution) \|7. Mining and Ore Processing (Lead Pollution) \|8. Lead Acid Battery Recycling \|9. Naturally Occurring Arsenic in Ground Water \|10. Pesticide Manufacturing and Storage \|10 Most polluted Cities in the World (2011) v \|1. Linfen, China \|2. Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan \|3. Norilsk, Russia \|4. Sukinda, India \|5. Dzerzhinsk, Russia \|6. Chernobyl, Ukraine \|7. Kabwe, Zambia \|8. Sumgayit, Azerbaijan \|9. Tianying, China \|10. La Oroya, Peru \|10 Most Polluted Countries in the World (2011) z \|5. Saudi Arabia \|7. United Arab Emirates \|10 Most Air-Polluted Cities in the U.S. (2011) w \|1. Bakersfield, California \|2. Fresno, California \|3. Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario, California \|4. Fairbanks, Alaska \|5. Modesto, California \|6. Hilo, Hawaii \|7. Visalia-Porterville, California \|8. Hanford-Corcoran, California \|9. San Diego, California \|10. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania \|Carbon Dioxide Emissions by Country (2009): Change 2008 to 2009 y \|1. China: +7.5% \|2. United States: -7.0% \|3. India: +8.7% \|4. Russia: -7.4% \|5. Japan: -9.7% \|6. Germany: -7.0% \|7. Canada: -9.6% \|8. South Korea: +1.2% \|9. Iran: +3.2% \|10. United Kingdom: -7.8% -- Posted February 12, 2012 a Agin, Dan. “Cadmium Pollution Kills Fetal Sex Organ Cells.” Huffington Post. October 15, 2009. January 25, 2012. b “Beach Pollution Worse during a Full Moon.” Live Science. August 1, 2005. Accessed: January 25, 2012. c Blackstone, John. “Pollution from China Alters Weather in U.S.” CBS News. December 12, 2011. Accessed: January 25, 2012. d Brown, Paul. 2003. Global Pollution. Chicago, IL: Raintree. e Chan, Amanda. “Could Pollution Increase Lung Cancer Risk?” Huffington Post. October 31, 2011. Accessed: January 25, 2012. f “Creaking, Groaning: Infrastructure Is India’s Biggest Handicap.” The Economist. December 11, 2008. g Didier, Suzanne. “Water Bottle Pollution Facts.” National Geographic. 2011. Accessed: January 25, 2012. h “Following the Trail of Toxic E-Waste.” 60 Minutes. January 8, 2010. Accessed: January 25, 2012. i Gifford, Clive. 2006. Planet under Pressure: Pollution. North Mankato, MN: Heinemann-Raintree Library. j Jakab, Cheryl. 2007. Global Issues: Clean Air and Water. North Mankato, MN: Smart Apple Media. k Kilham, Chris. “The Dangers of Indoor Air Pollution.” Fox News. October 26, 2011. Accessed: January 25, 2012. l Klinkenborg, Verlyn. “Our Vanishing Night.” National Geographic. November 2008. Accessed: January 25, 2012. m “Litter Prevention.” Keep America Beautiful. 2006. Accessed: January 25, 2012. n “Noise Pollution.” United States Environmental Protection Agency. July 2011. Accessed: January 25, 2012. o Orme, Helen. 2008. Earth in Danger: Pollution. New York, NY: Bearport Publishing. p Patel-Predd, Prachi. “A Spaceport for Treehuggers.” Discover Magazine. November 26, 2007. Accessed: January 25, 2012. q “Pollution ‘Changes Sex of Fish.’” BBC News. July 10, 2004. Accessed: January 25, 2012. r Raloff, Janet. “’Nonstick’ Pollutants May Cut Efficiency of Vaccines in Kids.” Science News. January 24, 2012. Accessed: January 25, 2012. s Saltzman, Sammy Rose. “Autism: Air Pollution May Be to Blame, Study Suggests.” CBS News. December 17, 2010. Accessed: January 25, 2012. t “Tailpipe Test: Study Finds Worst Polluters.” Live Science. January 9, 2006. Accessed: January 25, 2012. u Taylor, John. “70 Miles of Flotsam and Radioactive Waste Dumped into the Ocean.” Protect the Ocean. April 12, 2011. Accessed: January 25, 2012. v “Top Ten Toxic Pollution Problems 2011.” Blacksmith Institute. 2012. Accessed: January 25, 2012. w Walsh, Bryan. “The 10 Most Polluted Air-Polluted Cities in the U.S.” Time. September 29, 2011. Accessed: January 25, 2012. x Wehr, Kevin. 2011. Green Culture: An A-to-Z Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. y “World Carbon Dioxide Emissions Data by Country: China Speeds ahead of the Rest.” The Guardian. January 31, 2011. Accessed: January 25, 2012. z “World’s Most Polluted Countries.” CNBC. 2012. Accessed: January 25, 2012.	<urn:uuid:bd195b3a-a348-41e1-8ea8-87cff781efe6>	{ "date": "2016-08-27T15:00:10", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-36", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982921683.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823200841-00156-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9258022904396057, "score": 3.1875, "token_count": 4325, "url": "http://facts.randomhistory.com/pollution-facts.html" }
Restoration of Values On The Redistribution of Wealth (revised; first published on 8/15/2012) I received once an appeal to sign a petition for a state grant for speed radar signs in our village. I declined, saying that a grant would be too costly for us, and offered the following explanation. Transfer of wealth (goods or money) by the government to a person or political entity is an act of redistribution. Rigorously speaking, what’s redistributed is not wealth, but income. A person’s income is a fraction of what the person produces for others, ultimately for the society. Even those who live on interest or dividends contribute their capital which produces wealth for the society. Therefore, the increase in income parallels the increase in resources (wealth) of the society. After summation of all acts of redistribution, the result is a transfer from a part of the people to the other part. If we plot the resources (income) of the members of the community (e.g., country), as a function of the effort spent to generate them, we obtain a distribution, illustrated here by line A in the figure. Redistribution results in a flatter curve, B, by transferring resources from entities on the right of point X, to those on the left. The total resources (wealth) stay constant: the areas between curves A and B on the right side and left side of X are equal. Currently, wealth redistribution is the main activity of the government. Each program, law, regulation, or initiative has been designed with wealth transfer as an important goal. This is true for Social Security, Medicare, minimum wage, charges for utilities, and above all, the income tax, with all its features and ornaments (alternative minimum tax on the confiscation side, earned income credit on the receiving side, etc.) There are many ways in which the government confiscates money. For instance, a myriad of overlapping, often mutually contradictory, laws and regulations make certain that an individual or business will transgress something in any action undertaken The government can then collect fines or compensations, usually unpredictably and arbitrarily, as proven by the treatment of banks by the current administration. Taxes, however, remain the main source of money for the government. In the government-driven redistribution, the beneficiaries receive only a part of the wealth taken from the givers, because the transfer itself has a cost. This is shown in the figure by curve C. What the receivers get is represented by the area between curves C and A. The area between curves B and C (hatched) is the wealth used by the transfer itself. Among other things, it assures the livelihood of those that govern the transfer (politicians) and those who implement it (government employees). The hatched area increases with the total value transferred (area between A and B). Also, the natural and healthy tendency of men to better themselves makes the politicians and the government employees strive to increase the hatched area. For that, the latter return part of their take to the former as kickbacks. (They form unions and finance election campaigns.) When a politician acts against the trend and works toward decreasing the hatched area, he can be called a statesman. As it always happens when someone else’s money is handled, the hatched area is increased by waste, inefficiency, and theft. A straight line for the right side of line B (as shown) applies for a flat tax. Progressive taxation produces a curve with downward concavity. Thus, both the bottom of curve C and the top of curve B have very low slopes. For someone whose income is close to either end, an increase in effort results in little or no increase in the return, which creates a disincentive to work more. This point is generally understood. Less discussed is the fact that people in the middle are also affected: Those who are just to the right side of X find it advantageous to reduce their resources (work less) and convert from givers to receivers. The loss of income is fully compensated by the reduction in effort. All these features reduce the area under line A (total wealth acquired by the individuals). Disincentives to produce also result from the fact that line B is not smooth but has sudden changes at some points, for instance where the alternative minimum tax (AMT) takes effect. People in that income range make decisions aimed at minimizing taxes, rather than maximizing output and income. Because the income people obtain for themselves is a part of the wealth they produce for the society, wealth redistribution from a part of a society to the other part, results in a decrease of the total wealth produced by the society. Of course, not all the money collected by the government is redistributed. There are some expenditures made for the collective benefit of all, and cannot be apportioned to individuals. Such are the expenditures for national defense and law enforcement. Some people try to lump in there the payments for education and health care, but that is theoretically incorrect, because the beneficiaries of those services are distinct individuals, represented on the diagram. For maximum efficiency (reduction of the hatched area), those services should be paid directly by the beneficiaries, to the maximum extent practically possible. Naturally, some communities are inhabited predominantly by individuals on the right of point X in the plot; others are inhabited mostly by individuals on the left. Thus, in the redistribution game some communities are losers, whereas others are gainers. Through the merits of others than myself, our community is among the former. That our petition will result in the creation of a spike on curve B just at our position is quite improbable. Because all the allocations are the result of negotiations and compromises involving those who control the process, a grant to such a community is obtained only after all the communities represented by points at its left (and some at its right) are rewarded as well. Considering the increase in the hatched area by that action, we should expect an added assessment, by an amount greater than the grant received. Rather than request a widget from the government, we should pay for it directly or, if we determine that we cannot, live without it. As a positive contribution to the country, of which we are a part, we should then try to convince other communities and the politicians (trying to reach especially those that are statesmen) to live likewise without the widgets. To reduce waste (hatched area on the plot), all the allocations to individuals represented at the right hand of X should be rescinded and their taxes reduced by the appropriate amount of money (allocation plus redistribution costs). The same hold\s for the communities which are net losers in the redistribution process.	<urn:uuid:25a48c56-a3e7-4ee7-a634-878d26f47ef3>	{ "date": "2018-04-23T07:10:04", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-17", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125945855.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20180423070455-20180423090455-00376.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9613401889801025, "score": 2.96875, "token_count": 1362, "url": "https://forrestoration.com/2015/06/05/on-the-redistribution-of-wealth-revised-first-published-on-8152012/" }
Dataset Details - Irish Squirrel Survey 2012 The distribution of red squirrel, grey squirrel and pine martin in Ireland To determine the distribution of red squirrel, grey squirrel and pine martin in Ireland and to study their interactions. Collation of records received from different sources. The island of Ireland 2001 - 2007 All data were validated as part of this project. Data is shown only at 10km resolution to faciliate its incorporation into the Atlas of Mammals in Ireland Details of the survey are published as Lawton, C., Flaherty, M., Goldstein, E.A, Sheehy, E. and Carey, M. (2015) Irish Squirrel Survey 2012. Irish Wildlife Manuals, No. 89. National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Ireland. Restricted (Data can be viewed on the mapping system but is not available for download) Dr. Colin Lawton, Irish Squirrel Survey 2012, National Biodiversity Data Centre, Ireland, accessed 11 December 2018, <https://maps.biodiversityireland.ie/Dataset/245> Dataset species distribution Terrestrial Map - 10kmDistribution of the number of species recorded within each 10km grid square (ITM). Marine Map - 50KmDistribution of the number of species recorded within each 50km grid square (WGS84). Dataset record distribution Terrestrial Map - 10kmDistribution of the number of records within each 10km grid square (ITM). Marine Map - 50KmDistribution of the number of records within each 50km grid square (WGS84). Records per year Species per year \|County\|\|Name of administrative county within which the record was made\| \|Habitat description\|\|A description of the habitat in which the organism was recorded\| \|Loading data from server\|	<urn:uuid:e4690af7-50df-426c-82a8-57073ff2cff3>	{ "date": "2018-12-11T20:38:26", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-51", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376823702.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20181211194359-20181211215859-00136.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.8192467093467712, "score": 2.546875, "token_count": 400, "url": "https://maps.biodiversityireland.ie/Dataset/245" }
The cinema of Japan has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world The 1950s were the zenith, or Golden Age, of Japanese cinema. Three Japanese films from this decade (Rashomon,Seven Samurai and Tokyo Story) made the Sight & Sound‘s 2002 Critics and Directors Poll for the best films of all time. This era after the American Occupation period also lead to the rise of diversity in movie distribution with the increased output and popularity of the film studios.The first Japanese film in color is Carmen Comes Home directed byKeisuke Kinoshita was also made in this era, the black and white print of which was also available. Other examples of film from this era inculde The Gate of Hell, Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven, Gojira (Godzilla), The Burmese Harp , Fires On The Plain,Enjo, The Life of Oharu, Sansho the Bailiff , Repast, Late Chrysanthemums,The Sound of the Mountain , Floating Clouds and last but not the least two of the (The Human Condition Trilogy films).No Greater Love , and The Road To Eternity. This period was the decade with the greatest number of new movies, with 547 movies being produced. Production in the Japanese film industry reached its quantitative peak in the 1960s. It can also be regarded as the peak years of the Japanese New Wave movement, which began in the 50′s and continued through the early 70′s. examples of newwave include Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth, Night and Fog in Japan and Death By Hanging, Shindo’s Onibaba, Hani’s She And He and Imamura’s The Insect Woman. Other examples of film from this era inculde Yojimbo, ‘Man with No Name‘ ,An Autumn Afternoon, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Scattered Clouds, Woman in the Dunes Yoji Yamada introduced the commercially successful Tora-San series, while also directing other films, notably the popular The Yellow Handkerchief. Toshiya Fujita made the revenge film Lady Snowblood in 1973. It would go on to become a popular cult film in the West. New wave filmmakers Susumu Hani and Shohei Imamura retreated to documentary work, though Imamura made a dramatic return to feature filmmaking with Vengeance Is Mine (1979). Korean cinema encompasses the motion picture industries of North Korea and South Korea. As with all aspects of Korean life during the past century, the film industry has often been at the mercy of political events.The civil war broke in the 1950s, during this era, only five or six films were produced each year from 1950 to 1953. Much worse for Korea’s film legacy, the vast majority of Korea’s film history was lost in this devastating Golden Age (1955-1973) With the armistice of 1953, South Korean president Syngman Rhee made an effort to help rejuvenate the local film industry exempting it from taxation. The rebirth that almost occurred after 1945 can be said to have truly began with director Lee Kyu-hwan’s tremendously successful remake of Chunhyang-jon With Korean cinema for the first time working under something similar to conditions in other countries, both the quality and quantity of film-making had increased rapidly by the end of the 1950s. South Korean films began winning international awards. In dramatic contrast to the beginning of the 1950s, when only 5 movies were made per year, 111 films were produced in South Korea in 1959. Korean cinema enjoyed a brief period of unprecedented freedom during the 1960-1961 However with the ascension of Park Chung Hee to the presidency in 1962, government control over the film industry increased substantially. Under the Motion Picture Law of 1963, a series of increasingly restrictive measures were placed on the film industry. The number of films produced and imported were limited under a strict quota system. The new regulations dropped the number of domestic film-production companies from 71 to 16 within a year. Government censorship at this time also became very strict, focusing mainly on any hint of pro-communist messages or obscenity. Despite these repressive governmental policies, however, a consistently large and devoted theater-going audience, and many quality films continued to give South Korea a healthy cinematic culture throughout the 1960s. Also, theGrand Bell Awards were established in 1962. Called Korea’s equivalent to the Academy Awards, they are the country’s longest-running film award. Hong Kong cinema The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside thecinema of China, and the cinema of Taiwan. For decades, Hong Kong was the third largest motion picture industry in the world (after Indian Cinema andHollywood) and the second largest exporter. Postwar Hong Kong cinema, like postwar Hong Kong industries in general, was catalyzed by the continuing influx of capital and talents from Mainland Chinathe civil war definitively shifted the center of Chinese-language cinema to Hong Kong. Mandarin-dialect film in general and the Shaw Brothers studio in particular began the 1970s in apparent positions of unassailable strength. Cantonese cinema virtually vanished in the face of Mandarin studios and Cantonese television, which became available to the general population in 1967; in 1972 no films in the local dialect were made. The Shaws saw their longtime rival Cathay ceasing film production, leaving themselves the only megastudio. The martial arts subgenre of the kung fu movie exploded into popularity internationally, with the Shaws driving and dominating the wave. But changes were beginning that would greatly alter the industry by the end of the decade. The Communist era, 1950s-1960s With the Communist takeover in 1949, the government saw motion pictures as an important mass production art form and tool for propaganda. Starting from 1951, pre-1949 Chinese films and Hollywood and Hong Kong productions were banned as the Communist Party of China sought to tighten control over mass media, producing instead movies centering around peasants, soldiers and workers such as Bridge (1949) and The White Haired Girl (1950). One of the production bases in the middle of all the transition was the Changchun Film Studio. The number of movie-viewers increased sharply, from 47 million in 1949 to 415 million in 1959. In the 17 years between the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the Cultural Revolution, 603 feature films and 8,342 reels of documentaries and newsreels were produced, sponsored mostly as Communist propaganda by the government. Chinese filmmakers were sent to Moscow to study Soviet filmmaking. In 1956, the Beijing Film Academywas opened. The first wide-screen Chinese film was produced in 1960. The Cultural Revolution and its Aftermath During the Cultural Revolution, the film industry was severely restricted. Almost all previous films were banned, and only a few new ones were produced In the years immediately following the Cultural Revolution, the film industry again flourished as a medium of popular entertainment. Domestically produced films played to large audiences, and tickets for foreign film festivals sold quickly. The industry tried to revive crowds by making more innovative and “exploratory” films like their counterparts in the West.	<urn:uuid:a8ccfdae-c257-46a2-b9b3-b967a799646e>	{ "date": "2017-02-27T13:38:23", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-09", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501172831.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104612-00636-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9566150307655334, "score": 2.765625, "token_count": 1530, "url": "https://pakteahouse.wordpress.com/author/koldsnap/" }
Health is an important human need, which determines its ability to productive work and normal life, provides a comprehensive personal development. Health provides opportunities to learn the world, found in its own place, be happy. Mental health is psychic equilibrium that ensures harmonious regulation behavior. It depends on the satisfaction of physiological and social needs. Proper formation and meeting these needs is the basis of full mental health. Mental and spiritual health are inextricably linked, but they have significant differences. Mental health is defined generally characteristic of the usefulness of the psychological state of body and mind. Mental health based on a system of values, attitudes and motives of the individual in a social environment. The basis of moral health constitute the generally accepted principles of ethical conduct that are crucial for human spirituality. It is understood that physiologically healthy person cannot be considered fully healthy if it ignores moral principles, not spiritually developed, not self-seeking, put selfish personal interests above public moral standards and values. Spiritual health reflects the intellectual and moral ability of society and the individual. The components of mental health is the mind, will, love, morality, conscience, striving for justice. Norm is a harmonious state system of intellectual, ethical preferences of the individual and society, its psychological manifestations and compliance processes. Morality and spirituality principally reflect the integrity of the human person, and it reached the fullness of acquired intellectual and moral abilities, levels, mechanisms, principles. Spirituality and morality of property rights is a subject of culture at the same time, lack of spirituality shows the loss of individual moral qualities, its degradation. Thus, spirituality and morality of a person treated as a human in man, and spiritual health as a higher intrinsic value. Indeed, in the absence of spirituality and morality, a man does not call a full and probably developed man. From this perspective, the meaning of life is the active participation in solving the pressing problems of society, which in turn promotes its spiritual health. At the same time, people are aware that the problem of objective and subjective factors threaten the integrity of the inner world of the individual, which can be understood also as individual desire protection from aggressive external factors aimed at changing their own mental state and behavior against her wishes and will. Morality as a component of mental health assessment provides values to a man of the world, society and its social institutions, social groups, their own environment and themselves. Such moral values as norms of behavior, notions of good and evil, faith in ideals and justice principles, responsibility, friendship and love, understood the moral man, and the basis of socio-psychological preferences, its value orientation, and realized in actions in life man. Morality is a complex social phenomenon and a universal context, which may vary in specific historical periods. Universal moral values encourage person to desire freedom, equality, justice and humanism. A person is defined as the highest value in society, and its actions and behavior are assessed from the standpoint of justice and goodness. Morals are certain rules that indicate how you want people to behave in certain circumstances and situations. We can say that morality consists of modern human stereotypes that formed the years and lined system specific regulations. Strengthening spiritual health promotes true love. Because only love is immediate intimate and deep sincere feelings towards another person. Only in a state of love and out of love with a man is a complete human being. At loved most profoundly reveals the inner spiritual world of the individual. It was a true love integrates all types and forms of spirituality. A person who has someone so adorable sense can be considered fully developed in all spheres of spiritual life. It allows a person to love to open their true feelings to be true, that is, spiritual and moral. Modern psychology says that mental health is defined as mental well-being characterized by the absence of mental disease manifestations and provide adequate circumstances for self-regulation of behavior and activity. Mental Health provides interaction of biological, psychological and social levels of life, including moral level. It is believed that the mental health act criteria adequately subjective perception of objective reality, maturity and cognitive emotional and volitional components of personality, adaptability in social relations, the capacity for intelligent planning life goals and their achievement, a sense of security, trust others, lack of increased anxiety, neuroses, fears, psychological balance, and so on. Spirituality and morality give meaning to each day everyday, promote awareness of the whole picture of life and the ability to distinguish the important from the secondary. Thus, the search for the meaning of life, overcoming contradictions, harmonization mental state, achieve personal happiness possible through orientation to higher moral values, spiritual development and equilibrium. Spiritual growth and self-improvement contribute to the development of personal talents, aspirations and dreams implementation in harmony with the surrounding world. The man who filled the inside of harmony, mental peace, happiness and exudes positive light. Moreover, just as a healthy person can be happy on 100 percent.	<urn:uuid:55bcd96d-da50-4928-b387-271b756ff532>	{ "date": "2017-10-24T11:19:11", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-43", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187828411.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20171024105736-20171024125736-00856.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9264218211174011, "score": 3.3125, "token_count": 1006, "url": "http://www.infotaste.com/moral-and-psychological-health/" }
Question;Course Project: AJ DAVIS DEPARTMENT STORESIntroductionYour Instructor will provide you with a Case description and data set in Doc Sharing.PROJECT PART A: Exploratory Data AnalysisOpen the files for the Course Project and the data set in Doc Sharing.For each of the five variables, process, organize, present and summarize the data. Analyze each variable by itself using graphical and numerical techniques of summarization. Use MINITAB as much as possible, explaining what the printout tells you. You may wish to use some of the following graphs: stem-leaf diagram, frequency/relative frequency table, histogram, boxplot, dotplot, pie chart, bar graph. Caution: not all of these are appropriate for each of these variables, nor are they all necessary. More is not necessarily better. In addition be sure to find the appropriate measures of central tendency, the measures of dispersion, and the shapes of the distributions (for the quantitative variables) for the above data. Where appropriate, use the five number summary (the Min, Q1, Median, Q3, Max). Once again, use MINITAB as appropriate, and explain what the results mean.Analyze the connections or relationships between the variables. There are ten possible pairings of two variables. Use graphical as well as numerical summary measures. Explain what you see. Be sure to consider all 10 pairings. Some variables show clear relationships, while others do not.Prepare your report in Microsoft Word,integrating your graphs and tables with text explanations and interpretations.Be sure that you have graphical and numerical back up for your explanations and interpretations. Be selective in what you include in the report. I'm not looking for a 20 page report on every variable and every possible relationship (that's 15 things to do).In particular, what I want you do is to highlight what you see forthree individual variables(no more than 1 graph for each, one or two measures of central tendency and variability (as appropriate), the shapes of the distributions for quantitative variables, and two or three sentences of interpretation). For the 10 pairings, identify and report only onthree of the pairings, again using graphical and numerical summary (as appropriate), with interpretations.Please note that at least one of your pairings must include the qualitative variable and at least one of your pairings must not include the qualitative variable.All DeVry University policies are in effect, including the plagiarism policy.Project Part A report is due by the end of Week 2.Project Part A is worth 100 total points. See grading rubric below.Submission: The report including all relevant graphs and numerical analysis along with interpretations.Format for report:Brief IntroductionDiscuss your 1st individual variable, using graphical, numerical summary and interpretationDiscuss your 2nd individual variable, using graphical, numerical summary and interpretationDiscuss your 3rd individual variable, using graphical, numerical summary and interpretationDiscuss your 1st pairing of variables, using graphical, numerical summary and interpretationDiscuss your 2nd pairing of variables, using graphical, numerical summary and interpretationDiscuss your 3rd pairing of variables, using graphical, numerical summary and interpretationConclusionProject Part A Grading RubricCategoryPoints%DescriptionThree Individual Variables - 12pts. each3636graphical analysis, numerical analysis (when appropriate) and interpretationThree Relationships - 15 pts. each4545graphical analysis, numerical analysis (when appropriate) and interpretationCommunication Skills1919writing, grammar, clarity, logic, cohesiveness, adherence to the above formatTotal100100A quality paper will meet or exceed all of the above requirements.Project Part B: Hypothesis Testing and Confidence IntervalsBack to TopYour Instructor will provide you with four manager speculations, a.-d., in the Doc Sharing file.Using the sample data, perform the hypothesis test for each of the above situations in order to see if there is evidence to support your manager?s belief in each case a.-d. In each case use the Seven Elements of a Test of Hypothesis, in Section 6.2 of your text book, using the? provided by your Instructor in the Doc Sharing materials, and explain your conclusion in simple terms. Also be sure to compute the p-value and interpret.Follow this up with computing confidence intervals (the required confidence level will be provided by your Instructor) for each of the variables described in a.-d., and again interpreting these intervals.Write a report to your manager about the results, distilling down the results in a way that would be understandable to someone who does not know statistics. Clear explanations and interpretations are critical.All DeVry University policies are in effect, including the plagiarism policy.Project Part B report is due by the end of Week 6.Project Part B is worth 100 total points. See grading rubric below.Submission: The report from part 3 + all of the relevant work done in the hypothesis testing (including Minitab) in 1., and the confidence intervals (Minitab) in 2. as an appendix.Format for report:Summary Report (about 1 paragraph on each of the speculations a.-d.)Appendix with all of the steps in hypothesis testing (the format of the Seven Elements of a Test of Hypothesis, in Section 6.2 of your text book) for each speculation a.-d. as well as the confidence intervals, the p-values, and including all Minitab outputProject Part B: Grading RubricCategoryPoints%DescriptionAddressing each speculation - 20 pts. each8080hypothesis test, interpretation, confidence interval and interpretationSummary report20201 paragraph on each of the speculationsTotal100100A quality paper will meet or exceed all of the above requirements.Project Part C: Regression and Correlation AnalysisBack to TopYour Instructor will specify for you the dependent variable and the independent variables in your Case and data. Using MINITAB perform the regression and correlation analysis for the data by answering the following.Generate a scatterplot for the specified dependent variable and the specified independent variable, including the graph of the "best fit" line. Interpret.Determine the equation of the "best fit" line, which describes the relationship between the dependent variable and the selected independent variable.Determine the coefficient of correlation. Interpret.Determine the coefficient of determination. Interpret.Test the utility of this regression model (use a two tail test with the? provided by your Instructor). Interpret your results, including the p-value.Based on your findings in 1-5, what is your opinion about using the designated independent variable to predict the designated dependent variable? Explain.Compute the confidence interval for beta-1 (the population slope), using the confidence level specified by your Instructor. Interpret this interval.Using an interval, estimate the average for the dependent variable for a selected value of the independent variable (to be provided by your Instructor). Interpret this interval.Using an interval, predict the particular value of the dependent variable for a selected value of the independent variable (to be provided by your Instructor). Interpret this interval.What can we say about the value of the dependent variable for values of the independent variable that are outside the range of the sample values? Explain your answer.In an attempt to improve the model, we will attempt to do a multiple regression model predicting the dependent variable based on all of the independent variables.Using MINITAB run the multiple regression analysis using the designated dependent and independent variables. State the equation for this multiple regression model.Perform the Global Test for Utility (F-Test). Explain your conclusion.Perform the t-test on each independent variable. Explain your conclusions and clearly state how you should proceed. In particular, which independent variables should we keep and which should be discarded. If any independent variables are to be discarded, re-run the multiple regression, including only the significant independent variables, and include the final Minitab output, with interpretation.Is this multiple regression model better than the linear model that we generated in parts 1-10? Explain.All DeVry University policies are in effect, including the plagiarism policy.Project Part C report is due by the end of Week 7.Project Part C is worth 100 total points. See grading rubric below.Summarize your results from 1-14 in a report that is three pages or less in length and explains and interprets the results in ways that are understandable to someone who does not know statistics.Submission: The summary report + all of the work done in 1-14 (Minitab Output + interpretations) as an appendix.Format for report:Summary ReportPoints 1-14 addressed with appropriate output, graphs and interpretations. Be sure to number each point 1-14.Project Part C: Grading RubricCategoryPoints%DescriptionQuestions 1 - 12 and 14 - 5 pts. each6565addressed with appropriate output, graphs and interpretationsQuestion 131515addressed with appropriate output, graphs and interpretationsSummary2020writing, grammar, clarity, logic, and cohesivenessTotal100100A quality paper will meet or exceed all of the above requirements. Paper#60315 \| Written in 18-Jul-2015Price : $72	<urn:uuid:377d1f6e-c6b4-44ab-b836-f34e44640155>	{ "date": "2016-12-04T14:20:33", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-50", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698541322.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170901-00304-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.8625547289848328, "score": 2.5625, "token_count": 1871, "url": "http://studentsmerit.com/paper-detail/?paper_id=60315" }
Imaginary numbers had no use when it was invented except for intellectual exploration until it was linked to coordinate geometry. The complex number can be plotted as the ordered pair where is the real part and is the imaginary part. Therefore, the complex numbers , , , and can be plotted as , , , and in a “coordinate plane” respectively as shown below. In the figure, we can see that the origin is and that , the complex conjugate of , is its reflection along the x-axis (Can this be generalized?). The plane where the complex numbers are plotted above is called the complex plane. In the complex plane, we can observe that all numbers of the form are real numbers and these numbers are represented by the horizontal axis. The numbers of the form are all imaginary numbers and it is represented by the vertical axis. Thus, we can call them the real axis and the imaginary axis respectively.	<urn:uuid:75fe7d32-7abc-447c-8111-a25f9e37797d>	{ "date": "2019-04-24T08:29:09", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-18", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578636101.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20190424074540-20190424100540-00296.warc.gz", "int_score": 4, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9587500095367432, "score": 4.28125, "token_count": 187, "url": "http://mathandmultimedia.com/tag/complex-plane/" }
You may have noticed that dog paws come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some dogs have wide paws, and others are narrow. Some dogs have rear dew claws, and others do not. Some have hair between their toes, and others have webbed feet. Although there are many kinds of dogs, one thing that is remarkably consistent, regardless of breed or mix, is basic dog paw anatomy. Unlike humans, who walk on the balls and soles of their feet, dogs are digitigrade animals, meaning that they walk on their toes. Regardless of the form or outward appearance of dog paws, a dog’s fore and hind paws are formed for durability and functionality. Let’s explore the wonderful world of dog paws together! Taking both fore and hind legs and feet together, dog paws all have the same five basic components. 1. Digital pads: Also known as paw pads or toe pads, each dog foot, hind and rear, has a paw pad for each of their four toes. 2. Claws: Whether you call them toes, digits, or phalanges, each toe ends in a claw, and each claw grows out of the bone and shares its blood supply. 3. Dewclaws: Also spelled “dew claws,” the smallest claw on a dog’s foreleg are similar, but not equivalent to, the human thumb. All dogs have dewclaws on their front paws. Some, but not all, have dewclaws on their hind legs, and a few breeds are born with double dewclaws on their hind legs. 4. Carpal pad: The carpal pad is the small, conical pad just above the dewclaw on a dog’s front leg. 5. Metacarpal and metatarsal pads: The largest paw pad, the metacarpal pad is a heart-shaped pad in the center of a dog’s front paws. The metatarsal pad is the largest paw pad on the rear paws. They are named for the bones that they protect and cover. Dog paws come in three basic shapes — cat, hare, and webbed — each suited and specialized to particular tasks and terrain. Because there are many mixed-breed dogs, these types are not mutually exclusive. Dogs may have both webbed and hare feet, for instance. 1. Cat feet: The cat foot is compact, small, and round in shape. It is formed for stability, endurance, and bearing great weight. With that functionality in mind, it’s easy to infer that the cat foot is commonly found in most large working dog breeds, such as the Akita, Doberman Pinscher, and Newfoundland. 2. Hare feet: Where the cat foot is compact, a hare-footed dog has two elongated central toes. It is formed for speed and quick movement out of a resting position, like the feet of hares or rabbits. Dog breeds with hare feet include the Borzoi, Greyhound, and Whippet. 3. Webbed feet: Dogs with webbed feet tend to be all-terrain dogs, those who are proficient at swimming, and many hunting dog breeds. Among the list of dogs with webbed feet, we find the Labrador Retriever, Portuguese Water Dog, and Weimaraner. A dog’s paw pads might be the most fascinating features of a dog’s feet. Composed of keratin, collagen, and adipose, paw pads serve a number of useful functions. The digital, metacarpal, and metatarsal paw pads act as shock absorbers for the bones and joints that make up the dog’s feet and legs, while the cone-shaped carpal pad aids a dog with balance, slowing down, and stopping. Paw pads provide insulation for a dog’s feet, and are particularly effective when it is extremely cold outside. The fibrous and fatty tissues that make up paw pads do not freeze as quickly or easily as normal skin. For working dogs and those who spend a lot of time outdoor or in rough terrain, the paw pads become calloused and rough to the touch. Frequent usage gives a dog’s paws added traction and stability, both of which contribute to the fact that you rarely see dogs slip or lose their footing. As they mature, dog paw pads also become highly sensitive and adaptable to the ground beneath their feet. This helps to explain why dogs seem so uncomfortable or tentative when they are made to wear dog boots. Finally, essential to the complete dog paw experience are a dog’s claws, which are both similar to and different than human fingernails. Though they are tougher, thicker, and more durable than your fingernails, a dog’s claws grow just as quickly. Dogs who are highly active outdoors — whether walking, running, or digging — tend to keep their claw length under control through constant use. In either event, domestic dogs need some manicuring help from their owners or their veterinarians. Unlike your fingernails, a dog’s claws grow out of her bones and share their blood supply. If your dog has white claws or nails, this blood supply should be at least partly visible through the nail, making it easier to trim them without bleeding or pain. Claw maintenance is a bit more difficult for dogs with black or opaque nails. To be on the safe side, dog owners can either clip only the pointed end, or leave it to the professional care of a professional groomer or veterinarian. A dog’s paws serve a multitude of basic and specialized functions. In addition to walking, digging, self-grooming, and play, they also contain scent and sweat glands, which are useful for territorial marking and temperature control. Proper care of a dog’s paws and claws is essential to her long-term health and well-being. Regular washing and massaging from an early age can prevent issues such as frito feet, a condition caused by an accumulation of sweat, bacteria, and yeast that gets trapped in foot hair or between a dog’s toes over time. Do you have a paw-care routine with your dog? Let us know in the comments! Read more about dog paws on Dogster: About the author: Melvin Peña trained as a scholar and teacher of 18th-century British literature before turning his research and writing skills to puppies and kittens. He enjoys making art, hiking, and concert-going, as well as dazzling crowds with operatic karaoke performances. He has a female Bluetick Coonhound mix named Idris, and his online life is conveniently encapsulated here.	<urn:uuid:6a356d24-1d6f-439e-a993-15dd232bdf96>	{ "date": "2019-11-22T05:32:42", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-47", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496671239.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20191122042047-20191122070047-00096.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9609245657920837, "score": 3.265625, "token_count": 1389, "url": "https://www.dogster.com/lifestyle/everything-you-need-to-know-about-dog-paws" }
A systematic review of 66 research papers focused on the treatment of skin ulcers suggests that most are so technically flawed that their results are unreliable. And even of those that pass muster, there is only weak evidence that some treatments work better than standard compression therapy or special stockings. The research review team, led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice Center and the Johns Hopkins Wound Healing Center, noted than an estimated $25 billion is spent annually in the United States treating chronic skin wounds related mostly to poor blood circulation, disorders known as venous ulcers. Their prevalence is rising along with rates of diabetes and obesity, and the review was undertaken in an effort to inform physicians about the treatment options. In 2011, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality awarded the Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice Center a $475,000 project to carry out the research, which was led by Gerald Lazarus, M.D., founder of the Johns Hopkins Wound Healing Center and professor of dermatology and medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center; and Jonathan Zenilman, M.D., scientific director of the Wound Healing Center and professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins Bayview. The research review team began by identifying 10,066 citations that were possibly related to wound care. They found that only 66 of these papers specifically addressed their questions about the effectiveness of treatments for chronic venous leg ulcers. For the study, the investigators analyzed clinical outcomes involving wound dressings, antibiotics and venous surgery. Overall results found that dressings that used living human cells increased wound healing. Results suggested that cadexomer iodine and collagen may also increase healing, says Lazarus. "That doesn't mean that other types of dressings don't work. It just means that there is no evidence yet on which treatments work the best," says Lazarus. Support stockings, he adds, must for now remain the standard of care for treating chronic venous ulcers. Lazarus says the review also showed evidence is inconclusive about using systemic antibiotics unless there are demonstrated signs of infection. And it is also inconclusive about such surgical treatments as radiofrequency ablation, endovenous laser treatment and sclerotherapy helped healing, although surgical correction of underlying pathology did decrease recurrence of ulcers. "There is a critical need for well-designed research studies to compare the current minimally invasive surgical interventions to the gold standard of care, compression therapy," he says. The Johns Hopkins researchers enlisted input from a panel of 14 experts in wound care in their review of the data. Chronic wounds are a global problem, the researchers say. In addition to obesity and diabetes worldwide, skin ulcers occur as a consequence of neurological problems, rheumatological illnesses, blood vessel inflammation and infection. Nonhealing wounds cause not only pain, but also loss of mobility and a general decline in physical and emotional well-being. Patients can become disabled, unable to work and dependent on care from others. Lazarus says, "The review should serve as a means to bring the wound healing community together to improve the situation." Christine Chang, M.D., M.P.H., medical officer of the Center for Outcomes and Evidence at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, adds, "Our hope is that this evidence report provides patients and providers with the best information available to make well-informed decisions about care." The Johns Hopkins Wound Healing Center is located at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and specializes in diagnosing and treating chronic wounds, preventing wound recurrence and preserving limbs. Other investigators included Eric Bass, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice Center; Fran Valle, D.N.P., M.S., CRNP, assistant professor of nursing at the University of Maryland; Nisa Maruthur, M.D., M.H.S., assistant professor of medicine at The Johns Hopkins University; and Mahmoud Malas, M.D., M.H.S, FACS, associate professor of vascular and endovascular surgery, director of endovascular surgery and director of the Vascular and Endovascular Clinical Research Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, located in Baltimore, Maryland, is a full-service, Joint Commission-accredited academic medical center. Among the wide range of services offered are an area-wide trauma center and the state's only regional adult burn center. Founded in 1773, our 565-bed facility features several centers of excellence including stroke, geriatrics, joint replacement, wound care and bariatrics, to name a few. As part of the Johns Hopkins Health System, our physicians hold full-time faculty positions at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. For more information, visit http://www.	<urn:uuid:2407ff80-c5fd-4b5e-864b-a393ddda5798>	{ "date": "2016-12-02T22:29:36", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-50", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698540698.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170900-00032-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9452075958251953, "score": 2.6875, "token_count": 998, "url": "https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-12/jhm-jhr122313.php" }
Disagreements persist on the extent of humanity’s role in the current changes to B.C.’s climate, and our ability to influence it, as many readers have told me in the past week. But almost everyone seems to agree that growing more and healthier forests is a good strategy. I would add that harvesting and building with wood preserves its captured carbon, a fact not much discussed in emotional appeals against logging. The B.C. government is finally spending some money on community fuel load removal projects this year, after an initial flurry following the Kelowna fires of 2003 faded in hard times. But the effects of decades of fire suppression in a fire-dependent forest system remain, as northern B.C. and Alberta are showing us again. There is some positive news here. A Victoria-based government research team has published a study that calculates B.C.’s pine beetle-damaged forests are regenerating more quickly than expected. Warmer temperatures, increased precipitation and the “fertilizer effect” of more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are factors. “By 2020, the enhanced growth due to climate change and increased CO2 more than compensates for the carbon loss from dead, rotting trees,” said lead researcher Vivek Arora of the Canadian Centre for Modeling and Analysis. This recovery even overcomes the projected increase in forest fire loss that comes with gradually increasing temperatures and drier periods. The federal government is still working on its plan to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets agreed to in Paris last year. But the forest industry has stepped up with its own goal. I spoke last week with Derek Nighbor, president of the Forest Products Association of Canada, after he announced his industry’s “30 by 30 Climate Change Challenge.” That’s a goal to reduce the industry’s net carbon emissions by 30 megatonnes a year by 2030. That would be 13 per cent of the Canadian government emission target. One of the main strategies is salvage harvesting and developing more products that use wood. “It’s basically trying to use every part of the tree,” Nighbor said. “In forest operations right now, this is where we see a big part of the opportunity. Instead of the residual branches and whatnot just being left aside and slashing and burning, bring more of that out and turn it into something.” That something might be a console in a luxury car constructed with wood fibre, or an 18-storey wood student residence building planned for the University of B.C. The other is improving forest growth. Logging operations have long been required to replant areas they cut, not just in B.C. but across Canada. Another way to improve forest carbon capture is with more productive species, with genetic techniques that increase resiliency as well as wood mass. A background paper from the B.C. forests ministry responds to common misconceptions about forest carbon, including the idea that logging should be stopped to maximize storage. “Maximizing carbon storage in the ecosystem would make sense only if society stopped building new homes, acquiring new furniture and consuming in general,” it says. “If the flow of forest products stops, society will turn to other products with higher greenhouse gas footprints, e.g. plastics, metal or concrete. In addition, if harvesting stopped and we continued to suppress natural disturbances, there is increased potential for larger catastrophic disturbances in the future.” If Canada wants to make a bigger contribution to reducing greenhouse gases, forests are a good area to focus on. At 348 million hectares from the B.C. coast to Newfoundland, they represent nine per cent of the world’s forests. Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @tomfletcherbc	<urn:uuid:951e8f34-5438-4c13-a184-f6894c298b64>	{ "date": "2018-07-18T12:51:23", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-30", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676590169.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20180718115544-20180718135544-00296.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9449967741966248, "score": 2.796875, "token_count": 809, "url": "https://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/bc-views-growing-trees-for-climate-change/" }
Spring 2012 quarter - Dylan Fischer forest ecology , Clarissa Dirks biology - Fields of Study - biology, botany, ecology, field studies and zoology - Preparatory for studies or careers in - ecology, biology, botany, zoology, microbial ecology and environmental science. The southwestern U.S. is unique in the diversity of habitats that can occur along with dramatic temperature and moisture gradients. Major advances in ecology have been made in these extreme environments, and important work in global change biology is currently being conducted in these systems. This program will use field sites in the Desert Southwest as living laboratories for investigating patterns in ecology, biology, microbiology and evolution. Students will learn about arid environments, plant ecology, field biology, and gain specialized training in microbiology or plant molecular genetics. Students will co-design field projects exploring ecological and co-evolutionary relationships at organism and molecular scales. We will use detailed studies of southwestern cottonwood trees and tardigrades (water-bears) as examples that will let us dive deeply into laboratory and field experiments. We will pair those investigations with broader exploration of southwestern environments to learn about multiple ecosystems and organisms. Early in the program, students will learn to conduct DNS analyses on plants and microscope-based identification of microscopic animals called tardigrades (water-bears). All students will participate in a mandatory two-week field ecology module where they will participate in a major research project examining the effects of desert-tree genetic diversity on ecosystems, learn to identify plant species of the Southwest, keep detailed field journals, conduct research projects, and survey isolated canyons for patterns related to evolutionary history. Along the way, we will visit environmental and culturally significant sites in the Southwest, from cactus forests to canyons and mountain peaks. Finally, at the end of the quarter all students will reconvene for a program conference where students will present their research over the quarter. Our reading list will include major natural history texts related to the Southwest and evolutionary relationships for the organisms we find there. We will emphasize active participation in the scientific process and communication skills. Because of the field component of this program, students should be prepared for extensive time living and working in the field, and should be committed to working through conflicts in group dynamics. - Online Learning - Enhanced Online Learning - Greener Store - Required Fees - $400 for a four-week field trip in the Southwest. - Offered During \|February 16th, 2012\|\|Description and fee updated.\| \|April 14th, 2011\|\|Jack Longino has left the teaching team.\|	<urn:uuid:6beca159-2b2c-4821-9762-5fa1b0921035>	{ "date": "2014-03-08T10:54:25", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-10", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999654330/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060734-00006-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9139739274978638, "score": 2.578125, "token_count": 539, "url": "http://www.evergreen.edu/catalog/2011-12/programs/fieldandlaboratorybiologyinsouthwesternecosystems-1326" }
scroll to top Stuck on your essay? Get ideas from this essay and see how your work stacks up Word Count: 1,242 TS Eliot was a very influential pessimist always and constantly thriving on his hatred of little things and his love life Eliot was born in St Louis Missouri - 1888 ad His parents were both writers and loved the arts most effectively passing on the genes to their son While growing up he learned many things his parents were extremely social and intellectual and they pushed him to achieve the highest of statuses He went to college at Harvard University and then moved to London to go to Oxford He then became a citizen of England in 1915 While in England Eliot held many jobs to keep the payments on his 5th floor English apartment and his college tuition Eliot quickly became popular with Britain and was known as a great poet and a literal critic Eliot is best known for two of his works The Waste Land 1922 and The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock 1915 Actually the Love song is the beginning of the Waste Land The Waste Land is in 5 parts so it is more of a story in poetical form In the Love Song Eliot actually sounds a bit like a optimist quite frankly though his own waste landsteps in half way through This is his only poetic work I like But it will never be at the top of any of my lists In this song JAP J Alfred Prufrock is writing a letter to his honey the girl he is in love with In this poem Eliot uses a lot of visual imagery he is very good with his adjectives and brings such a happy correlation of thought into a grim reality he would call his Waste Land He talks of how In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo - TLSJAP stanza 13 and 14 It has been my thought that this may signify his type Eliot again was an intellectual @Kibin is a lifesaver for my essay right now!! - Sandra Slivka, student @ UC Berkeley Wow, this is the best essay help I've ever received! - Camvu Pham, student @ U of M If I'd known about @Kibin in college, I would have gotten much more sleep - Jen Soust, alumni @ UCLA	<urn:uuid:8ae58f48-5e51-4bf1-b106-9322c8054bb0>	{ "date": "2016-10-24T12:24:11", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-44", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719566.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00242-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.987705409526825, "score": 2.578125, "token_count": 451, "url": "https://www.kibin.com/essay-examples/an-introduction-to-the-life-of-t-s-eliot-mNSzvuGx" }
\|Basic Information\|\|Biotope classification\|\|Ecology\|\|Habitat preferences and distribution\|\|Species composition\|\|Sensitivity\|\|Importance\| Image Dale Cartlidge - Green seaweeds (Enteromorpha spp. and Cladophora spp.) in upper shore rockpools Image width ca 1m. Image copyright information LR.FLR.Rkp.G recorded () and expected () distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below) \|Distribution of biotope in Britain and Ireland\|\|On rocky coasts around Britain and Ireland.\| For a full description of this biotope including characterizing species, distribution, survey information and references visit JNCC Rockpools in the supralittoral, littoral fringe or upper eulittoral which are subject to variable salinity and widely fluctuating temperatures are characterized by the ephemeral green alga Ulva spp. or the filamentous green alga Cladophora spp. Due to the physical stress imposed on these upper shore pools, grazing molluscs are generally in lower abundance than eulittoral pools, allowing the green algae to proliferate under reduced grazing pressures. The rock surface is often covered by the black lichen Verrucaria maura. On more exposed shores crevices in the rock may contain small Mytilus edulis. The bright orange copepod Tigriopus fulvus is tolerant of large salinity fluctuations and may also occur in large numbers in these upper shore pools. (Information taken from the Marine Biotope Classification for Britain and Ireland, Version 97.06: Connor et al., 1997a, b). No text entered. This review can be cited as follows: Budd, G.C. 2002. Green seaweeds (Ulva spp. and Cladophora spp.) in upper shore rockpools. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 28/11/2014]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/habitatsbasicinfo.php?habitatid=246&code=2004>	<urn:uuid:5ba8931e-61be-4001-b601-d29df6757013>	{ "date": "2014-11-28T20:31:30", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-49", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-49/segments/1416931010938.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20141125155650-00140-ip-10-235-23-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.7831463813781738, "score": 2.8125, "token_count": 469, "url": "http://www.marlin.ac.uk/habitatsbasicinfo.php?habitatid=246&code=2004&code=2004" }
The Casbah (Arabic: , qasba, meaning citadel (fortress)) is specifically the citadel of Algiers in Algeria and the traditional quarter clustered around it. More generally, a kasbah is the walled citadel of many North African cities and towns. The name made its way into English from French in the late 19th century (the Oxford English Dictionary states 1895), and continues to be spelled as acquired from that language. The Casbah of Algiers is founded on the ruins of old Icosium. It is a small city which, built on a hill, goes down towards the sea, divided in two: the High city and the Low city. One finds there masonries and mosques of the 17th century; Ketchaoua Mosque (built in 1794 by the Dey Baba Hassan) flanked of two minarets, mosque el Djedid (1660, at the time of Turkish regency) with its large finished ovoid cupola points some and its four coupolettes, mosque El K	<urn:uuid:7bf0a31c-2184-4c24-af20-ad5475dd4d5b>	{ "date": "2016-07-24T20:28:23", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-30", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257824146.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071024-00170-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9624162316322327, "score": 2.828125, "token_count": 219, "url": "http://www.touristlink.com/algeria/casbah/overview.html" }
\|Official Name\|\|(Islamic Republic of Pakistan) Islam-I-Jamhuriya-e-Pakistan\|\|Capital\|\|Islamabad\|\|Population\|\|145 million\|\|Area\|\|796,095 sq km or 307,373 sq mi\|\|Currency\|\|Rupees\|\|Religion\|\|Islam\|\|Literacy\|\|38%\|\|Languages\|\|Urudu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushtu, Baluchi, Brahvi, English\|\|Major Cities\|\|Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar\|\|Climate\|\|Varied climate\| South-Asia, Pakistan was the cradle of the earliest known civilization, the Indus Valley civilization. The country formed part of the Mughal Empire from 1526 to the 1700s, when British took over it. Apart from this, endangered species like the snow leopard, Marco Polo sheep, blue sheep, and ibex (a type of wild goat) are also found in remote and protected areas of the Himalayas. Physical Map of Pakistan Pakistan has some of the world's highest and most spectacular mountains. The north and the west of Pakistan also has mountains with great extremes of elevation, reaching the highest point at the Himalayan peak, which is also known as Mount Godwin Austen, in the north and the lowest point at the Arabian Sea coast in the south. The Indus River is considered the lifeline of Pakistan, without which, the land would have turned barren long ago. The Indus originates in Tibet and enters Pakistan in the northeast. Location of Pakistan The country of Pakistan is bordered on the west by Iran, on the north and northwest by Afghanistan, on the northeast by China, on the east and southeast by India, and on the south by the Arabian Sea. Flag of Pakistan The Pakistan Flag is green with a vertical white band on the hoist side; a large white crescent and star in the center of the green field. The crescent, star, and the green color are traditional symbols of Islam. Climate of Pakistan As Pakistan is subject to various degrees of elevations, the Climate also varies accordingly, varying especially between the high mountains and low plains. While the mountainous regions experience freezing temperatures during winters and mild summers, the Indus plains have very hot summers with the temperatures varying from 32 degrees to 49 degrees and relatively cool winters. Flora And Fauna of Pakistan The mountainous regions in the north have forests that are home to coniferous alpine and sub-alpine trees such as spruce, pine, and deodar cedar. The southern ranges of the Himalayas, which are of lower elevation, receive heavy rainfall and have dense forests of deodar, pine, poplar, and willow trees. The arid western hills are dotted with juniper, tamarisk (salt cedar), and pistachio trees. Dry-temperate vegetation, such as coarse grasses, scrub plants, and dwarf palm, predominates in the valleys of the North-West Frontier Province and the Baluchistan Plateau. The fauna in Pakistan is made up of deer, boar, bear, crocodile, and waterfowl. As the wetlands provide an essential habitat for a number of important mammal species, coated otter, Indus dolphin, fishing cat, hog deer, and wild boar are also found. The migration season is witness to at least 1 million waterfowl that represents more than 100 species visiting the extensive deltas and wetlands of Pakistan. Pakistan can boast of a rich cultural heritage. It is known for its music that can be traced back to the 13th-century poet and musician Amir Khusru, who composed the earliest ragas. Besides this, there is Qawwali, a form of devotional song, which forms a part of the Sufi tradition. Qawwali is based on melodic and free-rhythmic song-poems and classical musical forms. Formerly performed at the shrines of Sufi saints, today Qawwali is usually a part of celebrations or events. The architecture of Pakistan portrays a rich combination of Mughal and British colonial architectural forms. This combination has given way to large domes, slender towers, and archways that have been constructed with the use of red sandstone, white marble, embellished with jewels. Economy of Pakistan Agriculture is the mainstay of economy in Pakistan. About 50 percent of the population is involved in farming, forestry and fishing that together contribute to 25 percent of the GDP. Barring the regions of north and the west, which are covered by mountains, the rest of the country has fertile plains where crops like wheat, cotton, maize, sugar cane and rice are grown. The areas of Quetta and Kalat are known for their fruits and dates. Pakistan is self-sufficient in wheat, rice and sugar. The industries of Pakistan, which contribute to 20 percent of GNP, involve 10 percent of the population. Main items that are exported by Pakistan include cotton cloth, tapestries, leather, carpets and rice. In 2001 Pakistan's gross domestic product (GDP) was $58.7 billion. The government budget in 2000 included $9.9 billion in revenues and $13.5 billion in expenditures.	<urn:uuid:df58d777-a07b-4eb4-a9d9-da345e752806>	{ "date": "2018-03-21T09:21:24", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-13", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257647600.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20180321082653-20180321102653-00256.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9410114288330078, "score": 3.3125, "token_count": 1088, "url": "https://www.mapsofworld.com/country-profile/pakistan.html" }
- Shifts in the aggregate demand curve/demand-side policies - Fiscal policy - Interest rates as a tool of monetary policies - Strengths and weaknesses of these policies Higher level extension topic - Multiplier effect: - calculation of multiplier - “Crowding out" Shifts in the aggregate supply curve/supply-side policiesEdit - Reduction in Income Tax - Reduction in Corporation Tax - Reduction in Trade Union power - Reduction/elimination of minimum wage - Reduction in Benefit allowances - Education and Training - Research and Developement - Provision of Infrastructure - Improvements in Information Interest rates as a tool of monetary policies - Monetary Policy This is when the central bank* tries to control the economy by changing interest rates and the money supply *(e.g. Federal Reserve, Bank of England. UK split from govt. in 1997) - The interest rate is the cost of borrowing money - The money supply is how much money/credit there is available for people to borrow - Changes in the interest rate will either encourage or discourage people to borrow money hence influencing aggregate demand - Changes in money supply will make it easier or harder for people to borrow money hence influencing aggregate demand - If interest rate goes down, consumption will go up and investment will go up (firms will borrow money to invest) and so aggregate demand will go up. - If money supply goes up, it is easier to borrow money, credit is available therefore aggregate demand will increase - Expectations of higher income: if you think your salary will rise you will tend to spend more. - If there is an expectation of higher prices in the future you will tend to buy more goods in the present, and hence, increase spending. - Expectation of higher profit: you will invest more money into machines/tools now. Keynesian policy that consists of injections of demand into the circular flow of income stimulate further rounds of spending Strengths and weaknesses of these policies - The classical economists would let wages drop because they assume that all other things are equal, but Keynes points out that all other things are not equal since a decrease in wages leads to a decrease in income, which leads to decreased aggregate demand, which means decreased production from firms, which means less output and even more unemployment. Keynes argued that in order to get out of recessions and have any chance for long-term economic growth, the government must take an active role in encouraging aggregate demand, by increasing government spending or decreasing taxes. - Critiques of Fiscal Policy - Congress is too slow to act. Government policies often come too late. - Crowding out effects: It is possible that a change in government expenditures could be offset by a change in private expenditures in the opposite direction. - Real business cycle critique: Increases in aggregate demand are only going to lead to inflationary gaps, since they are an artificial component of the economy, and so inflation will result, but nothing real will change (like the output or unemployment rate). - Public choice critique: Politicians are interested in being reelected. Expansionary fiscal policy is a popular political move, but the unpopularity of contractionary fiscal policy (raising taxes or cutting spending) makes it difficult to enact. Fiscal policy cannot be effective if it is only used in one direction. - supply side economics critique: Taxes and government spending negatively affect people’s incentives to work, save, and invest. The economy would grow faster if the government were scaled back.	<urn:uuid:2e1a72ac-ede6-4dcf-b7f8-97ad260df5b2>	{ "date": "2017-01-21T06:31:00", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-04", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00266-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9119822382926941, "score": 3.296875, "token_count": 730, "url": "https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/IB_Economics/Macroeconomics/Demand-side_and_Supply-side_policies" }
Family: Pipidae, Tongueless Frogs view all from this family Description Olive-brown or gray, with darker marks and mottling. All species are tongue less, toothless and have no external eardrums. Name derived from the horny black claws on the 3 toes of hind legs. Front feet are not webbed. Hind toes fully webbed. Males half the size of females; have dark nuptial pads on front limbs.Horny black claws on outer 3 toes of hind feet. Hind toes fully webbed. Male smaller than female; has dark nuptial pads on front limbs. Dimensions Length: 2-3 3/4". Voice Despite absence of vocal sacs, males give a loud, rattling croak while swimming. Females answer such noises with either a rapping (signifies acceptance) or a slow tickling (signifies rejection). Breeding Occurs after warm, heavy rains (February to May in California). Sexually mature at 10-12 months. Mating usually occurs in Spring, can reproduce up to 4 times a year. Several hundred eggs are deposited singularly or in small clusters on submerged plants and stones. Tadpoles hatch within 36 hours; with catfish like whiskers at mouth corners and swim in a head-down position. Matures from egg to small frog in 6-8 weeks. Habitat Warm, stagnant grassland ponds & slow-moving permanent streams, ponds and marshes. Ponds are usually devoid of higher plant vegetation and are covered by algae. Range Occur naturally in South Africa. Substantial populations introduced to California (San Diego & Orange Counties), Chile & European countries. Discussion Nocturnal. Although mainly aquatic, African Clawed Frogs sometimes turn up in rain pools, indicating land passage. Adept swimmers, they can't hop but crawl. Inactive creatures and when not mating or foraging, they rest quietly on the bottom or hide under rocks. Surfaces to breathe. Cutaneous/surface respiration – breathes through skin. Carnivorous creatures, they eat anything they are able to catch or that lands in front of them. Claws on hind feet tear apart larger pieces of food.	<urn:uuid:8cd8538c-afb4-45b2-a37d-af6551fc8858>	{ "date": "2015-08-04T13:52:57", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-32", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042990900.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002310-00215-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9176203608512878, "score": 3.171875, "token_count": 454, "url": "http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?recnum=AR0746" }
Moore was the first to point out that carcinoma is more prevalent in the southern and eastern parts of England than in the northern and western districts ; and that if a line be drawn across the country from Bristol to Peterborough, the cancer mortality will be found to be much greater to the south than to the north of that boundary. At the present time the counties which present the highest death-rates from the disease are London, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, Sussex, Warwick, Bedford, Surrey, and Middlesex ; while those with the lowest are Derby, Bucks, Herts, Durham, Cornwall, Monmouth, Dorset, Lancaster, and parts of South Wales. These topographical variations in the cancer mortality would appear from estimates made by the Registrar-General to be independent of sex and age distribution. Another interesting fact that has been brought to light by investigations of this nature is that the death-rate from the disease is greater among rural than industrial populations, the inhabitants of country towns like Chichester, Canterbury, Huntingdon, and Cambridge being more affected than those of the great industrial cities. Haviland asserted that the highest cancer mortality is met with in lowlying districts which are traversed by sluggish streams and are liable to periodic inundations, and in support of this view he instanced the Thames and its tributaries, which run through districts that are markedly cancerous. That there is probably a good deal of truth in this contention is shown by the following remarks of the Registrar-General in his report for 1890 :- 'Crude death-rates show that in and around Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire there is a well-defined area in which cancer is exceptionally prevalent. It comprises the districts of Stamford, Bourn, Spalding, and Holbeach in Lincolnshire, Oundle and Peterborough in Northamptonshire, and most of the counties of Huntingdon and Cambridge. In 1881- 1890 this area had a mean population of over 300,000, its crude cancer-rate being 859 per million, or 46 per cent, above the average for the country in general; in the preceding decennium the excess was 44 per cent.' On the other hand, as Roger Williams has pointed out, many islands that have no rivers, that are not low-lying and are not of alluvial formation, such as the Scilly, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Wight, have nevertheless a very high cancer mortality. In Norway also cancer occurs for the most part in the mountainous districts and at considerable elevations ; while in Mexico the high table-land is more subject to the disease than the lowlying plains (Hirsch). It follows, therefore, that whatever influence a special district may exert upon the development of cancer, geological configuration is by no means the sole factor in its production. It has frequently been noticed that the inmates of certain houses are especially liable to carcinoma, which appears among successive tenants who are neither related to one another nor possess any hereditary predisposition to the disease (Arnaudet, Fabre, Webb, Fiessinger). In Webb's case a man died of cancer of the rectum in a certain house at the age of twentysix. Of the next tenants, the husband died of gastric cancer and the wife of cancer of the rectum ; while of the three ladies who next inhabited the house, one died from malignant disease of the stomach and another from a similar affection of the uterus. Mason has also shown that in the district of Leamington the disease is quite common in houses situated in certain rows or upon one side of a row, while in other streets it is conspicuous by its absence. This writer has also remarked that about 17 per cent, of these cancer houses were placed at the end or at the corner of a street, were of old construction, and were built upon a porous subsoil. In this connection it may be noted that both husband and wife not infrequently fall victims to carcinoma of the digestive organs if the survivor continues to reside in the same house, while occasionally the disease occurs almost simultaneously in both.!! Thus we have known a man to be attacked by cancer of the stomach while his wife was dying from a similar affection of the duodenum; and also a man and his two daughters to develop malignant disease of the stomach or colon within a period of twelve months. These several phenomena occur too frequently to be regarded as mere coincidences, and probably depend upon the operation of some well-defined local cause,'the nature of which, however, is still obscure.	<urn:uuid:0d08aa99-3978-4d1c-ad24-223364ff03c2>	{ "date": "2017-10-19T12:48:23", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-43", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187823284.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20171019122155-20171019142155-00356.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9717641472816467, "score": 2.8125, "token_count": 933, "url": "http://bookdome.com/health/Cancer-Tumours-Stomach/The-Increase-Of-The-Disease-According-To-The-Topography.html" }
By Kacey Fitzpatrick Have you ever had a question about something you saw and wished you had an expert you could ask? This happens to me all the time, so I decided to take advantage of working at EPA and start a new blog series called ‘Ask an EPA Scientist.’ I’m kicking off the series with a question that’s been on my mind recently. Walking in a winter wonderland can be magical – but what about driving in one? Not so great. As I was driving (very slowly) through a snowstorm last week, I started wondering: What happens to all that road salt after the snow melts? Is it bad for the environment? To find out, I asked EPA ecologist Paul Mayer, Ph.D. who conducts research on riparian zones and stream restoration. He and two Agency colleagues recently published a paper (Cooper et al. 2014) looking at the effects of road salt on a local stream. Below is what he told me. Paul Mayer: Road salts are an important tool for making roads safer during ice and snowstorms. Every winter about 22 million tons of road salt and other de-icers are used nationwide. Some washes from roadways into nearby bodies of water. This is a growing concern for the health of our urban watersheds because it can affect water quality and aquatic organisms. I’ve been part of a study collecting surface and ground water data in Minebank Run, an urban stream in Maryland, since November 2001. We found that salt levels (chloride and sodium) there are chronically elevated throughout the year. Road salts can accumulate and persist in our waterways, often even into the summer months. We found that the levels are significantly higher downstream of a major nearby road (I-695 beltway), suggesting that this roadway is a significant source of salts in the watershed. This is a concern for Minebank Run because such salinization may reduce the benefits of restoration work that has been done, limiting the benefits the stream provides the local community and across the watershed. Increased salinity in freshwater systems can also damage or kill vegetation. Other research has indicated that road salts represent a risk to the safety of drinking water sources in the Baltimore area and elsewhere (Kaushal et al. 2005). The implication of our research and others’ is that stream ecosystems in areas where road salts are routinely applied are at risk of environmental damage and that human health may also be at risk if water supplies are affected. Kacey: I’m glad I asked! I also found some additional information that includes what we can do to reduce the impact of road salt: - The state of Maryland (where I live) has some great information on what they do, and what you can do at home, to reduce the impact of salt: The 411 on Salt - Here’s a great article I found from Smithsonian.com: What Happens to All That Salt We Dump on the Roads? Ask an EPA Scientist! Do you have your own environmental science questions you’d like to see featured on our blog? Please email them to [email protected], post them in the comments section below, or tweet them to @EPAresearch using #EnvSciQ. We’ll pick as many as we can to pass along to our scientists, get them answered, and share the Q&A here on this blog. Stay tuned! About the Author: Curious science writer Kacey Fitzpatrick is a student contractor working with EPA’s Science Communication team, and a frequent contributor to It All Starts with Science. Cooper, CA, PM Mayer, BR Faulkner. 2014. Effects of road salts on groundwater and surface water dynamics of sodium and chloride in an urban restored stream. Biogeochemistry 121:149-166. DOI: 10.1007/s10533-014-9968-z (Accessed at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10533-014-9968-z) Kaushal, et al. 2005. Increased salinization of fresh water in the northeastern United States. PNAS 102:13517-13520. (Accessed at http://www.pnas.org/content/102/38/13517.abstract.)	<urn:uuid:2b0c1ba1-8ac0-4915-8599-35cb803031e7>	{ "date": "2018-03-17T22:24:03", "dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-13", "file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257645362.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20180317214032-20180317234032-00656.warc.gz", "int_score": 3, "language": "en", "language_score": 0.9474642276763916, "score": 2.90625, "token_count": 897, "url": "http://blog.epa.gov/blog/tag/stream-restoration/" }

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