text
stringlengths 198
630k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| metadata
dict |
|---|---|---|
This book is aimed at students coming to the study of western
European medieval history for the first time, and also graduate
students on interdisciplinary medieval studies programmes. It
examines the place of the Middle Ages in modern popular culture,
exploring the roots of the stereotypes that appear in films, on
television and in the press, and asking why they remain so
persistent. The book also asks whether 'medieval' is indeed a
useful category in terms of historical periodization. It
investigates some of the particular challenges posed by medieval
sources and the ways in which they have survived. And it concludes
with an exploration of the relevance of medieval history in today's
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one! | <urn:uuid:419bc1b7-0ef8-4e93-9eaa-3a05918844b2> | {
"date": "2017-06-26T22:33:22",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-26",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320869.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626221252-20170627001252-00297.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8947253823280334,
"score": 2.71875,
"token_count": 211,
"url": "http://www.loot.co.za/product/marcus-bull-thinking-medieval/mgbh-420-g6a0"
} |
Is "ladies first" a timeless etiquette lesson or an outdated notion?
I always tell my boys to hold doors for everyone, especially adults. I have never really told them "ladies first," although I am not necessarily opposed to that. I just think that it is polite to hold doors and allow someone to go ahead of you, instead of just pushing through.
— Abbe Rousso
Teach sons and daughters (and even yourself and your spouse) to be considerate. That means taking a split second to look at your surroundings and situation and make a good judgment call. Don't ever let a door slam in someone's face. But also don't wait forever unless they absolutely need it.
— Mary Ellen Smolinski
Teach your children the manners you deem appropriate and relevant. "Please" and "thank you" are a good place to start. Take time to teach manners. There is nothing more unpleasant than a rude, demanding child.
Growing up in a family with both boys and girls, "ladies first" was never a big deal, but those younger and older were given special consideration. We were expected to be considerate as well to those with special needs, such as someone expecting a child or in a wheelchair. I will never forget riding the bus with my mother and having her insist we give up our seats for a very pregnant woman as well as a young man in uniform with a crutch.
— Marie Grass Amenta
"Others first," is what Mary O'Donohue (maryodonohue.com)teaches her son, 14, and daughter, 9.
"We teach them that every encounter we have with another person is an opportunity to be respectful to another human being," says O'Donohue, author of "When You Say 'Thank You,' Mean It" (Adams Media). "We teach it for all people — adults, classmates, peers."
O'Donohue runs manners drills at home, during which she devotes a day to a specific behavior she wants her kids to learn.
"I do think it's important to teach children how to treat others," she says. "To teach them how to respect other people, but also that they deserve to be respected."
A recent drill focused on holding the door for others — O'Donohue holding the door while her children entered the house and, in turn, her children holding the door as she entered.
"It's just the most easy and natural way to be respectful: 'Oh, you go first,'" says O'Donohue. "It makes children feel powerful, and it's not something they have to wait until they're grown-ups to do."
To further illustrate her point, she followed up with an exercise in which she allowed the door to slam behind her.
"My daughter said, 'Mom! What did you just do?' and I said, 'How did you just feel?' and she said, 'You just closed the door on me!'" O'Donohue recalls. "Then I asked her, 'Did you feel good?' The great thing about that structure is when a child is on the receiving end of a disrespecting act, a light bulb goes on: 'Oh, that's how my sister felt when I walked in and didn't hold the door while she was carrying a big bag of groceries.'
"And they learn, when somebody does something disrespectful, to stand up for themselves."
A worthy lesson for both genders.
"I think you do certainly want your sons to be respectful of women and girls," she says. "But I also don't want to give my son or daughter the impression that women or girls are weaker or need doors held for them. I don't know if that notion even occurs to this generation, but we just teach across the board: Put others first."
Got a solution?
One of your kids is terrified of fireworks but you don't want the whole family to skip July 4 festivities. Email us your thoughts at [email protected]. Find "The Parent 'Hood" page on Facebook, where you can post your parenting questions and offer tips and solutions for others to try. | <urn:uuid:b65c7b2d-752c-422f-adc9-c70f059c400a> | {
"date": "2017-11-24T22:48:15",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-47",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934808972.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20171124214510-20171124234510-00456.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9781783223152161,
"score": 2.625,
"token_count": 868,
"url": "http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/sc-fam-0531-parenthood-manners-20110531-story.html"
} |
February 2016 | Shift and Mazars; UN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework
This resource was developed in support of the UN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework, developed jointly by Shift and Mazars. The Q&A on this page is an excerpt from a longer Q&A on salient human rights issues -- see the full explanation here.
Something that is salient is prominent or important. It stands out conspicuously.
Salient human rights issues: The human rights at risk of the most severe negative impact through the company’s activities and business relationships.
A company’s salient human rights issues are those human rights that stand out because they are at risk of the most severe negative impact through the company’s activities or business relationships.
This concept of salience uses the lens of risk to people, not the business, as the starting point, while recognizing that where risks to people’s human rights are greatest, there is strong convergence with risk to the business.
The emphasis of salience lies on those impacts that are:
Salience therefore focuses the company’s resources on finding information that is necessary for its own ability to manage risks to human rights, and related risks to the business. In this way, it helps companies report on the human rights information that shareholders, investors, governments, customers, consumers, media, civil society organizations and directly affected people want to see.
Materiality depends on the choice of a particular audience or goal for which things are then judged more or less important. The audience may be shareholders alone or other stakeholders as well. A goal may be profit-making alone, decisions of an investor more widely, or societal welfare generally. The choice of audience or goal then dictates the selection of material issues.
By contrast, salient human rights issues are not defined in reference to any one audience or goal. Salience puts the focus on those human rights at risk of the most severe negative impact. This provides a consistent, predictable and principled means of identifying the appropriate focus of human rights reporting. At the same time, it gives business an effective tool for understanding how human rights issues connect with risk to the business.
When conducting materiality assessments, many companies discount human rights issues due to common assumptions, such as:
Where materiality processes engage external stakeholders to help inform the company’s understanding of relevant issues for reporting, common pitfalls include:
As a result of these common assumptions and pitfalls, many companies’ existing materiality processes fail to adequately reflect human rights issues or to identify those human rights that are at greatest risk and are therefore priorities for management and reporting.
Jump to the complete Q&A resource to see answers to the following questions: | <urn:uuid:53c13bc3-dee1-4dc1-badd-2e101ef357d9> | {
"date": "2020-01-25T15:27:51",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2020-05",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251672537.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20200125131641-20200125160641-00096.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.932537853717804,
"score": 2.625,
"token_count": 546,
"url": "https://www.shiftproject.org/resources/publications/video-introduction-to-salient-human-rights-issues/"
} |
All the stars are like us : they are born, live and die.
But, for them, this life has no common measure with ours, neither in time, nor in energy : the estimated lifetime of our Sun, for instance, is believed to be greater than 10 billion years.
The whole life and the death of a star is dependent upon its initial mass, with only a tiny bit dependent on its chemical composition.
You can find a great number of types of stars.
Their mass can vary between 1/10th and 50 times the Solar mass ; their size between 1/400th and 1000 times, and their surface temperature between 2000 and 50.000 degrees.
For a star, its birth begins in a gas cloud. In its infancy, it's called a protostar, then it spends the greatest part of its life on the main sequence. At its end, it undergoes a disproportionate inflation as a red giant. Then it dies as a white dwarf, a neutron star or a black hole.
I invite you to discover this life, which is seldom quiet and often stormy. Along with the pictures, you can also discover some of the wonders of our universe...
Stars scribble in our eyes the frosty sagas,
the gleaming cantos of unvanquished space.
Hart Crane (1899-1932) | <urn:uuid:0a482c89-9c1c-4b6a-ab83-fa58e4a5805d> | {
"date": "2017-07-25T08:34:26",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-30",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549425117.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20170725082441-20170725102441-00296.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9470639824867249,
"score": 3.1875,
"token_count": 278,
"url": "http://nrumiano.free.fr/Estars/Eac_et.html"
} |
That, and the fact the Thames passes through the heart of London, makes the waterway's foreshore (the riverbank exposed between high and low tide) one of Britain's most important archaeological sources, according to Forsyth, the Museum of London curator.
"Thames was the main conduit for transport and travel," Forsyth said. "People relied on boats to get between the north and south banks, and there were lots of smaller boats carting cargoes. Accidents would occur and things would fall overboard."
Forsyth says another prime source for objects found along the Thames today, outside boating accidents of centuries past, is ancient domestic rubbish. Such trash, which included old or broken toys, was used to backfill timber revetments, or embankments, built along the river up to about 1500.
"Every 25 years, on average, these revetments needed to be replaced. So over centuries, deposits of rubbish built up on the foreshore," Forsyth said.
Today, the tidal drop in the River Thames in London can approach 25 feet (7.62 meters), leaving large areas of mud exposed each day.
Founded in 1980, the Society of Thames Mudlarks has some 70 members. Forsyth says they are publicity shy. Under the licensing agreement allowing them to go metal detecting along the Thames, however, they must report historical finds to the Museum of London.
"We don't want people to go down there and think they can recover things willy-nilly," Forsyth said. "There's been a certain element of underworld activity. So we have to be cautious. It's also a very dangerous environment. You need to know your tides and to go with somebody else."
The museum now holds around 1,000 Mudlark finds, though not all are made from pewter. Many of the miniature guns and cannons were once working replicas and consist of copper alloy to withstand firing pressures.
"The largest of them are equivalent to a pocket pistol. So [they're] perfectly capable of killing somebody," Forsyth said. "It's obvious they are not perfect replicas. But we know they worked, because some of the barrels have exploded."
"If these were being used by children, then they probably met with an unfortunate accident. Certainly children had access to black powder and could use all sorts of projectiles," she said.
The miniatures weren't the only playthings that worked. For instance, tiny copper cauldrons have been found with sooty bases, suggesting children used them to cook food.
Hobbs says other replicas, including a three-legged stool, a birdcage, and tools such as saws, are important because no previous record of these objects is known for the period. "It enriches what we know about the medieval household in terms of the contents of a house," he said.
Some miniatures are so detailed that Forsyth suspects they were probably made for adults who wanted a copy of possessions of which they were particularly proud.
"One classic example is a standing buffet," she said. "It would have been made up from a flat shape that folded up into a three-dimensional form. It's extremely intricate and very cleverly designed."
Despite the exhibition's title, Hobbs notes Buried Treasure isn't just about objects made of silver or gold. True treasures are those that illuminate the past, he says.
Buried Treasure will appear at The National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff, from May 14 to September 5, before moving on to Manchester, Newcastle, and Norwich.
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES | <urn:uuid:f90f94e9-2c5c-4a4e-9442-dfe28821c1ef> | {
"date": "2015-08-31T21:51:37",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-35",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440644068098.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827025428-00171-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9780174493789673,
"score": 2.8125,
"token_count": 756,
"url": "http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0503_040503_mudlarks_2.html"
} |
Aware consumers choose sustainable ways to consume and live. They appriciate products and services that are tailored to their needs and make daily life easier.
In 2025, wood is used instead of plastic or other non-renewable materials in various products. Furthermore, wood and wood-based materials are incorporated into a great variety of items used in both everyday situations and in our leisure time, for example, in clothes, daily cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, foods, sports equipment and small electrical devices.
An increasing number of people are living a varied lifestyle in which the spheres of home, work, free time and hobbies overlap. People consider community, hobbies, efficient services, and mobility to be important. Also demand for products and services aimed at the ageing population is growing.
Paper demand has declined in the West, but consumption is growing in developing countries, for example in Africa and Asia, as demand for tissue and hygiene products increases. From the numerous compounds found in wood and other forest raw materials, researchers have identified compounds that promote positive health effects and that can be used in both the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. The food industry produces added value for its customers by making the most of the health effects of wood. The food industry uses ingredients found in wood that, for example, lower cholesterol.
Aware consumers favour not only food packaging made from wood fibre but also wood-based cooking and baking papers as well as tableware. Easily mouldable pulp fibre and plastic composites, biocomposites, are used in kitchenware and kitchen furnishings instead of plastic.
Nearly 80% of Finland’s surface area is covered by forests. In Finland, the forest is close and accessible to all for recreation, hiking and berry picking. A large share of Finnish forests is privately-owned and about every eighth Finn owns some forest.
Aware consumers select and use products that can be recycled and reused as raw material for new products and finally be employed in the generation of bioenergy. After use, raw materials made from wood pulp can be taken to recycling points, which are handily located along thoroughfares. Finns are still the most active recyclers of materials in Europe. | <urn:uuid:14a5a9ba-2c80-47a9-8d71-e462533e6467> | {
"date": "2019-03-22T18:21:39",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-13",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912202688.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20190322180106-20190322202106-00176.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9609871506690979,
"score": 3.125,
"token_count": 443,
"url": "https://www.forestindustries.fi/visio2025/leisure/"
} |
Today’s world is rapidly changing, not least because of advances in technology. This means that the demand for the M in STEM continues to increase. The Northern Ireland curriculum is cognizant of this and has the use of Mathematics as a cross-curricular skill right across the various Areas of Learning that make up the curriculum.
Following the success of CCEA’s Incentivising STEM Innovation programme in previous years, in 2015/16 we worked with seven teachers from a variety of post-primary schools to seek new and innovative ways to promote teaching and learning in Mathematics across the curriculum. The main aim was to affect change in the classroom, creating a shift in behaviours by making learning Mathematics more relevant and enjoyable, and to share this with teachers across Northern Ireland.
The project ran from November 2015 - June 2016. This year, for the first time the Incentivising STEM Innovation programme is being aimed at primary schools with the emphasis on promoting an enquiry based approach to learning across the disciplines that make up STEM.
STEM: Incentivising Innovation Using Mathematics
Note to Editors
Media enquiries to MarComms, Mobile 07718 424 373, Email [email protected] | <urn:uuid:133f221e-57de-4dc8-8060-3b8e30a093ed> | {
"date": "2019-06-20T16:13:31",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-26",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999261.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20190620145650-20190620171650-00136.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9466331601142883,
"score": 2.703125,
"token_count": 246,
"url": "http://ccea.org.uk/news/2016/incentivising_stem_innovation_using_mathematics"
} |
As I work for a dive resort in the Philippines, I am diving more or less on a daily basis, so I get to witness the breeding cycles of the marine critters on our dive sites throughout the month. This (sometimes) lets me plan my photo dives to coincide with periods when fish have eggs, or if I find a creature with eggs whilst I am guiding, I am then able to return later with my camera. I appreciate that not everyone is in this position, but a bit of research into your potential subject’s spawning habits and some planning ahead of time can improve your chances of getting shots of eggs in the marine environment.
The majority of fish species mate in a method known as broadcast spawning, or pelagic spawning, meaning that they release free floating gametes, sperm and eggs, into the water column to be taken away by the current. This normally involves a male and female of a particular species, but can sometimes involve aggregations of fish, participating in a “spawning rise” that is typically very quick and culminates in the release of gametes at its peak. This usually occurs around dusk, a time that the majority of divers are out of the water, as they have finished their day dives and have not yet started their night dive. This behavior is therefore not regularly photographed. An exception would be mandarinfish in the tropical Indo-Pacific region, where numerous dive operations run daily sunset dives to witness this mating ritual.
Broadcast spawning in most species normally occurs when there is the biggest tidal movement—around full and new moon. This ensures that the fertilized eggs are dispersed far and wide by the current. The eggs are very small and virtually transparent, so photographers have to concentrate on capturing the mating sequence rather than the eggs themselves.
The spawning methods that probably interest photographers most—as this allows us to photograph the eggs themselves—are benthic egg laying and those creatures that perform parental duties by looking after the eggs in their mouths or attaching them to their body. Different creatures will have eggs at different times of the month based on the lunar cycle, which dictates the tidal movement. It is therefore important to know your subject’s mating habits, given that, if you time it wrong, there will not be any eggs to photograph!
Normally the eggs will hatch when there are stronger currents, so around the time of the full and new moon, which disperse the oceanic larvae many miles away. Knowing the moon phase and tidal state is important so you can capture images of the eggs when they are a silvery colour, meaning the yolk has been consumed and the egg is at an advanced stage, sometimes letting us see the developed embryos inside the casing.
Which lens you use for shooting critter eggs will vary dependent on the species. But in all cases a good measure of patience is required to enable you to get good images.
Lighting is not too technical for most egg shots, so straightforward front lighting works well. A single strobe is sufficient, however in some cases, especially when using diopters and close-up lenses, you will probably need to select a small aperture to get the required depth of field; this is where additional light from a second strobe is preferable. Also, if you are shooting a shy subject from a distance, the extra strobe power is beneficial.
A macro setup is the norm for capturing images of marine creatures eggs, as the subject is generally quite small. On an SLR, a 50mm/60mm macro lens will work, but a 100mm/105mm macro lens enables 1:1 reproduction ratio with a decent working distance, letting you light the scene more easily. With the 50mm/60mm macro lens, the subject needs to be very close to the front of the port to get the required magnification, which can make lighting more challenging. The subject will obviously dictate the lens selection you are shooting and whether you can get very close to the subject or not.
In some cases you will need even more magnification to record the detail of the eggs, like the eyes inside, so the addition of a diopter/close-up lens can really help. These attach to the front of your lens and reduce the minimum focusing distance, enabling you to get closer to your subject and providing greater magnification. Use these with the 100mm/105mm lens, as the 50mm/60mm lens focuses very close already, so it does not really benefit from having a diopter attached.
Another option is a wet-lens. These let you get twice life-size magnification or more, but will reduce the depth of field dramatically, so small apertures are required—I regularly use f/32 or f/36 with my wet-lens. This setup will work for eggs that are on the substrate, like with clownfish, but for more shy subjects the like jawfish you cannot normally approach that close, so it is hard to get a tight facial shot with this setup.
This is where a longer macro lens like a 200mm would work well, but this is a lens that not too many underwater photographers own, myself included. An alternative, and cheaper, option is to use a teleconverter like the Kenko Pro series, which fits between the camera and lens. They come in different magnification strengths, the most popular being the 1.4x, 1.5x and 2x, which simply magnifying your lens by the relevant ratio. So a 60mm lens with a 2x T/C turns the lens into a 120mm on a FX format sensor (or approx. 135mm on a DX format sensor) but still retains the same minimum focal distance. A 105mm lens with a 1.4x T/C will become approximately 150mm on an FX sensor or 240mm on a DX sensor. A word of warning for those that own the new Nikon 60mm AF f/2.8 ED lens: it does not autofocus with a teleconverter!
For more information on super macro photography including the advantages and disadvantages of using diopters and teleconverters, see Keri Wilks’ very informative series on super macro.
In a lot of instances timing is crucial to catch your subject whilst they have eggs. You therefore need to know the phase of the tidal cycle so you can coincide your dive with when the fish are spawning or have produced eggs. Some species spawn at various times through the tide cycle, so timing is not so important. And for some divers they are simply unable to time their dives with the moon phase, so it can be an element of luck whether eggs are found during the dive.
For those not familiar with moon phases, the table below explains the different stages of the cycle:
- New (also called the Dark Moon) – not visible
- Waxing Crescent
- First Quarter – commonly called a “half moon”
- Waxing Gibbous
- Full – we can see the entire illuminated portion of the moon
- Waning Gibbous
- Third Quarter – another “half moon,” but the illuminated part is opposite of the First Quarter
- Waning Crescent
- New – back to the beginning
I nearly exclusively dive in the Indo-Pacific region having been based here for a number of years working as a Dive Instructor/Divemaster/Photo Pro. The following subjects are, therefore, from the aforementioned area. If you dive elsewhere, like many of you will, you will need to do a bit of research into the local marine life to get an idea of the potential subjects you may encounter. Below are some of the more popular critters to photograph with eggs. There are obviously many more options for egg photos and still quite a few on my list of shots that I want!
These are probably the most commonly photographed species of spawning fish, as they are found in the same area day after day and do not move around much. Locating them is therefore not a problem once you know where they are, which is usually amongst staghorn coral, lettuce coral, or similar. They mate most evenings at sunset and can spawn a number of times in the short time period before the sun disappears over the horizon and it turns to night. The larger male will have numerous females in the area and will perform a courtship ritual enticing them to mate with him. When the female accepts the invitation, they position themselves side by side and begin a slow spawning rise, which culminates in the release of eggs and sperm before they quickly dart back down into the coral.
Occasionally, a male with mate with two females at the same time! The shot that photographers are after is the pair together with the eggs in focus, but that is easier said than done, as split second timing is required. A bit of luck and trial and error is the norm to get this!
I have found the 105mm lens to be most effective in continuous servo AF mode, which enables the camera to track the moving subject and the shutter release to fire without you having to lock the focus on the subject. You may get a few out-of-focus shots, but I have found that this is outweighed by the ability to shoot at the exact moment that the gametes are released. Also setting the camera to continuous shooting mode can be advantageous as you can normally get 2 or 3 exposures in succession, increasing the chances of getting the eggs as they release. You should note that bright lights seem to distract mandarinfish from mating, so use a red filter over your focus light.
Clownfish are one of the easier fish to photograph with eggs, as they live in their host anemone and do not stray far from it. They are a benthic egg-laying species, normally depositing their eggs on a flat rock or similar directly next to the anemone that they live in. I have found this to occur on the waxing gibbous moon and they develop ready to hatch around the full moon.
Clownfish are at their most aggressive when they are protecting eggs and they have bitten me on numerous occasions. Fortunately their mouths are only about a centimeter wide and do not inflict much damage, leaving a semi-circular row of teeth marks and maybe a small trickle of blood at the worst! If you are patient and let them get used to you, you will find that they tend to the eggs regularly, blowing oxygen rich water over them from their mouths and brushing them with their fins to remove any algae build-up. With either the 60mm or 100mm lens you can get shots of the dutiful parent tending to the eggs, but for real detail in the eggs additional magnification is required. As the eggs will not move and the Anemonefish have to return to where they were laid to tend to them, you can approach quite close so can use either diopters or teleconverters to get the desired magnification ratio.
Some species of cardinalfish are mouth brooders, meaning the male will incubate the fertilized eggs inside its mouth, protecting them from predators. When the eggs are first deposited in the mouth around the new moon they are a milky white colour and they develop through the waxing crescent to a point when you can clearly see the eyes of the embryo inside the egg casing close to full moon.
The telltale sign that an individual has a mouth full of eggs is an extended jaw cavity. If you look closely you can see the eggs inside the mouth, but they do not open their mouth that far so you cannot easily get a clear shot. However, if you observe them you will notice that every few minutes they will spit the eggs partially out of their mouth, rotate them around and then suck them back in. This is known as “churning,” which aerates the eggs, removes waste and allows the embryos to mix so they develop equally. This is the moment that you need to shoot, so once again patience is the key. A close approach is not normally possible, as they will simply turn away, so use a longer lens like the 105mm. I normally use the 105mm together with a 2x teleconverters to get a nice tight shot of the face with detail in the eggs. The continuous servo AF and continuous shooting mode can help here as well, as again you have about a second or so to bag the shot.
In all of the species of ghost pipefish, the females have modified ventral fins that attach to the abdomen wall to create a brooding pouch where the fertilized eggs develop. This is normally around the new moon with the eggs developing through the waxing crescent and they are completely developed with eyes showing and ready to hatch around the full moon.
Once again patience is the key to getting a photo of the eggs, as periodically the fish will open the brooding pouch to aerate the eggs and this is the moment that you need to get the shot. Ghost pipefish will let you approach quite close so I have found that the 60mm lens works well. The 105mm will give you more working distance, but as the fish sway back and fourth in the current or swell, framing or simply move around a lot, it can be harder with longer focal length lenses. In lighter color variations of the ornate ghost pipefish (Solenostomus paradoxus) you may even be able to see the eggs though the brooding pouch walls.
These fish look after the eggs by attaching them to a brooding pouch on the underside of the male’s abdomen, which are clearly visible at all times. After an extended incubation period, highly developed offspring emerge and join the many other pelagic juveniles collectively known as zooplankton. I have noticed pipefish with eggs attached to their underside through the waxing crescent developing ready to hatch around full moon. These are another fish species that are on the easier side to photograph whilst they have eggs, but again patience is needed to get a shot with nice composition, as they have a tendency to move around quite a bit, but fortunately in a fairly confined area. Either the 60mm or 105mm lens will work well for these.
Jawfish are another species that mouth brood their eggs to provide protection from predation. The eggs are stored safely in the male’s mouth for around 5 to 7 days before they are ready to hatch. The eggs will develop quickly through this period; starting off a milky white/yellow colour and changing to silver as the juvenile grow inside the egg casing. When I worked on a live-aboard visiting the island of Derawan in Kalimantan (Borneo) we used to dive to watch the eggs hatch at sunrise around 5 to 7 days after the full moon, so in the waning gibbous.
The male jawfish that is brooding eggs is normally very cautious and will retreat into its burrow as you approach. Not to sound like a broken record, but once again patience is the key to getting the shot. A slow approach is required and then you need to spend some time letting the jawfish become accustomed to your presence. Similar to cardinalfish, the eggs are churned periodically and this is the moment when you can get a good shot. A 105mm lens is ideal for these shy fish, letting you get the required magnification without encroaching on their personal space.
There are various other marine creatures whose eggs can make interesting subjects. In the critter diving destinations of Asia you can find flamboyant cuttlefish eggs in discarded coconut shells, various crabs and shrimps will have eggs at certain times of the month, nudibranchs can be seen laying egg ribbons and, if you’re really lucky, you may even find a blue ringed cctopus or wonderpus with eggs attached to the underside—something I’m still waiting to see myself.
So to summarize, get to know your subject and its spawning cycle, plan your dives to coincide with when eggs are present, and have the right lens on to maximize your chances of getting a great “egg image.” Be patient when you find your subject and a bit of luck always helps!
References: Reef Fish Identification: Tropical Pacific by Gerald Allen, Roger Steene, Paul Humann and Ned DeLoach. Reef Fish Behavior Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas by Ned DeLoach and Paul Humann. Available from www.fishid.com.
About the Author: Alex has been based at Atlantis Dive Resort in Sabang, Puerto Galera, Philippines for the last two years, working as the Photo Pro, and has recently moved to their other resort in Dauin, Dumaguete in the same capacity.
Plan Your Adventure > | <urn:uuid:a59b2dfd-03ac-48f8-86cb-c192cbe1fbc2> | {
"date": "2017-06-25T12:09:18",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-26",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320491.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170625115717-20170625135717-00697.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9562586545944214,
"score": 3.5,
"token_count": 3432,
"url": "http://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-photography-special-features/article/egg-underwater-photography/"
} |
Created by Heidi Breudigam
Duration of Lesson:
2 days (45 minute periods)
2nd grade Social Studies Benchmarks and Indicators:
History: compare daily life in the past and present demonstrating an understanding that while basic human needs remain the same, they are met in different ways in different times and places.
History: Daily Life
Use historical artifacts, photographs, biographies, maps, diaries and folklore to answer questions about daily life in the past.
Social Studies Skills and Methods
Obtain information from oral visual, print and electronic sources.
Communicate information orally, visually or in writing.
Identify sources used to gather information: people, printed materials, electronic sources.
Letters on American Slavery by Rev. John Rankin
Review on the Statement of the Faculty of Lane Seminary (Ohio History Connection)
Summary of the Lessons:
1. Students will view background information on the Underground Railroad in Ohio.
Underground Railroad Information Station, Ohio History Connection
2. Students will read with a partner a section from the book Life on the Underground Railroad by Sally Senzell Isaacs and write the main idea and two key details of each section. They will then share them with the class.
1. Students will complete the person of history worksheet and write three interview questions for Rev. or Mrs. John Rankin. (The teacher will portray either Rev. or Mrs. Rankin, dressing for the role.)
2. Students will read and discuss primary source letters and sermon by Rev. John Rankin on slavery as a class.
1. Students will interview Rev. or Mrs. Rankin.
2. Students will complete the person of history worksheet.
Description of the instructional steps to implement the lesson.
1. Read information from the websites on the Underground Railroad in Ohio and discuss with the class.
2. Pass out Underground Railroad books and have students read with a partner a section of the book.
3. Students write down the main idea and two key details from the section.
4. Student partners present their information to the class.
5. Evaluation – Main idea and key details worksheet and teacher observation of how the students work in groups and their discussions.
1. Pass out person of history worksheet and fill out the first side about Rev. John Rankin or his wife Jean.
2. Students write interview questions for them.
3. Teacher will read excerpts of Rev. Rankin’s letters on slavery to his brother in Kentucky and his sermon to the Lane seminary to the class. The class should discuss the impact of these ideas on a pre-Civil War society.
4. Evaluation- quality of interview questions and their appropriateness to the subject.
1. Teacher will dress as Rev. or Jean Rankin and the students will interview them.
2. Students will complete the back of the person in history worksheet, telling the point of view of Rev. or Jean Rankin on the Civil War and slavery.
Post Assessment and Rubric:
Material needed by teachers:
Computer and projector to view websites
Clothes to dress up in as Rev. or Jean Rankin
Background knowledge on Rev. and Jean Rankin
Materials needed by students:
Life on the Underground Railroad by Sally Senzell Isaacs
Main idea and Key details worksheet
Person of History worksheet | <urn:uuid:c1872db6-d406-4b9c-bb08-a0bb08e02f98> | {
"date": "2019-07-20T01:34:14",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-30",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195526401.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20190720004131-20190720030131-00056.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8912582397460938,
"score": 3.75,
"token_count": 699,
"url": "https://hti.osu.edu/history-lesson-plans/american-history/african-slave-trade/john-rankin-and-underground-railroad"
} |
Although many issues related to walking are benign, early recognition of these classic clinical presentations is essential for initiating further workup when indicated.
“Is it normal for my child to walk like that?” “Are my daughter’s legs supposed to turn in that way?” Concerns regarding the appearance of a child’s lower extremities are a common reason for visits to the pediatrician and a frequent source of orthopedic referrals.1 Musculoskeletal exam findings change as a child grows and develops. It is crucial for the pediatric clinician to be able to recognize normal pediatric orthopedic variants in order to differentiate conditions that can be treated with reassurance and education from those warranting further evaluation and workup. The aim of this article is to provide guidance on the diagnosis and management of 7 common lower limb positional variations in children and adolescents (Table).
Accurate diagnosis of rotational and angular problems starts with a detailed history. Is there a family history of pediatric orthopedic or neurologic issues? Does the limb appearance or the way the child walks resemble anyone else in the family? Oftentimes, a sibling walked the same way or a parent will describe having bowed legs or knock knees as a child but outgrew it. How long has this been a concern, and does it seem to be improving or worsening over time? Are there any systemic signs such as fever or fatigue? Ask about pain, falls, and tripping. Inquire about underlying nutritional issues, growth concerns, developmental delay, and history of injury.2 These can be red flags of something other than a normal variant.
Physical examination includes a generalized musculoskeletal examination, and should always include observation of gait and rotational profiles of the legs.3 Key assessment points are: 1) foot progression angle; 2) internal and external rotation of the hips; 3) thigh-foot angle; 4) heel bisector; and 5) limb position and arch appearance while standing in bare feet.
The foot progression angle (FPA) describes the inward or outward position of the foot relative to the direction of ambulation. Watch the child walk. Focus on 1 foot at a time and observe them walking toward you as well as walking away from you. Inward FPA is quantified in negative degrees (ie, internal tibial torsion [ITT] has an FPA more negative than -10°) or outward (positive value). Normal FPA ranges from -5° to +15°.4 Slight out-toed gait is most common. Keep in mind that FPA does not identify the source of limb rotation, however, it helps quantify severity and can be monitored for change.
Rotational profile of the lower limbs is best assessed with the patient in the prone position with the pelvis flat to the table. Internal rotation, external rotation, and thigh-foot angle should be evaluated. Internal rotation increases over childhood, peaking in mid-childhood at ages 6 to 8 years.4 This explains the normal variant of femoral anteversion during that time. External rotation is greatest in the newborn and then declines rapidly. This also explains the common finding of outtoeing in infants/toddlers.
Thigh-foot angle (TFA) compares the axis of the thigh with the axis of the foot (heel bisector). With the patient prone and knees flexed to 90°, the ankle is put into a natural position. If the foot points outward, the angle is positive, and if it points inward, the angle is considered negative—just as is done with the foot progression angle. A thigh-foot angle that is inward at least -10° is consistent with internal tibial torsion.3
Examination should include inspection of the lower limbs and feet both at rest and during motion. While seated, the heel bisector can be determined by drawing a line through the mid-heel up through the forefoot. A normal heel bisector should go between toes 2 and 3. Metatarsus adductus will present with a heel bisector that extends more laterally through toes 3, 4, or 5, and the lateral border of the foot will be convex rather than straight.
Red flags include an asymmetrical deformity, leg length discrepancy, limitation in joint movement, tenderness, pain with range of motion, and short stature (<25th percentile).5 In these situations, consider further evaluation including but not limited to radiographs and lab work (calcium, vitamin D, alkaline phosphatase, phosphorus, for example).
Intoeing gait is the most common parental concern regarding how children walk. Nearly 2 in 1000 children have intoeing gait and it is typically bilateral.6 The 3 most common reasons for intoeing are metatarsus adductus, internal tibial torsion, and femoral anteversion. The conditions classically present in that order: metatarsus adductus in an infant, internal tibial torsion in a toddler, and femoral anteversion is seen most commonly in a school-aged patient.
Metatarsus adductus (MA) is a typically flexible deformation that is believed to occur from intrauterine positioning. It occurs in 1 in 5000 births and is more common in males, twins, and preterm babies.7 There is medial deviation of the forefoot relative to the hindfoot, resulting in a curved foot appearance. The heel bisector will be at the 3rd toe or more lateral. The majority of children improve on their own. More than 90% of children diagnosed before age 1 will self-resolve.8,9
Management depends on whether the adductus is flexible or rigid. Flexible MA is either actively correctable (the child can make his/her foot point straight) or passively correctable (foot can be stretched to/past neutral by the clinician). Flexible MA is typically managed with observation, gentle stretching, and reassurance. It is best to stretch multiple times/day, such as with each diaper changing or feeding. In some cases, children with flexible MA can benefit from treatment with bracing, orthopedic footwear, or serial casting to more aggressively improve flexibility and position at rest.
Families can be reassured that surgery to straighten the foot is seldom required. Surgery may be considered if metatarsus adductus is diagnosed late or if there is a rigid deformity. This is typically pursued after age 4 years.
Internal tibial torsion
Internal tibial torsion (ITT) occurs when the tibia twists inward. This can occur before birth as the legs rotate to fit in the confined space of the womb. After birth, an infant’s legs should gradually rotate to align properly. If the lower leg remains turned in, the result is ITT. When the child begins walking, the feet turn inward because the tibia in the lower leg points the foot inward.
Internal tibial torsion typically is bilateral and presents in toddlers aged 1 to 4 years.3 Parents may describe the child as frequently tripping, being clumsy, or stepping on his/her own feet while walking. Torsional issues such as ITT become more obvious with fatigue or fussiness.
Rotational issues can be seen during gait observation. Children with ITT will have knees directed straight ahead while walking, but inward rotation of the lower leg(s) causing intoed gait. Physical examination shows a thigh-foot angle of at least -10° and an inward foot progression angle.10 No imaging is needed.
As the tibia grows longer, it usually untwists on its own. Tibial torsion almost always improves without treatment, and usually before school age. Ninety-five percent of children will spontaneously resolve, usually by preschool or kindergarten.11 Splints, special shoes, and exercise programs have not been shown to speed the process. Surgery to reset the bone (tibial rotational osteotomy) may be done in a child who is aged at least 8 to 10 years and has a severe twist that causes significant functional issues. This is rare.
Femoral anteversion occurs when the femur is medially rotated on its long axis from birth. The shape of the proximal femur allows the hip joint to have significantly more internal rotation than external. As a result, both the knees and the feet point inward. It is often most obvious in children aged about 5 or 6 years.
Rotational profile shows the hips to have at least 60° of internal rotation. Families may describe the child as having “poor turnout” in ballet class or may say the child doesn’t like to sit “crisscross applesauce” in school. Children often sit in the W position, with their knees bent and their feet flared out behind them.
They also may complain of their knees bumping into each other while walking—a finding casually referred to as “kissing knees.”12
Femoral anteversion is also nearly always a benign condition that improves gradually in most children (>80%) by age 10 years, although it may not ever resolve completely.13 Mild to moderate femoral anteversion should also be considered a variant of normal anatomy, rather than a pathologic entity. There are no braces or exercises that will improve or correct this problem. Imaging typically is not needed. Furthermore, there is no evidence that sitting position, such as W-sitting, impacts this condition, and thus children should be allowed to sit in whatever position they find comfortable. If the femoral anteversion is severe and persists, the only definitive treatment would be rotational osteotomy of the femurs after age 10 years. This surgery is performed very rarely—less than 1% of children with this condition.14
Genu valgum (knock-knee)
Genu valgum is another common normal variant of alignment in children that typically corrects itself with normal growth. While standing, the legs are angled inward so that the knees come close to each other and the ankles are farther apart. The deformity most commonly comes from the femur. Knock knees are most exaggerated in toddlers aged between 2 and 4 years. Genu valgum is considered a normal variant of alignment (physiologic knock knee) until age 7 years. Up to 75% of children aged 3 to 5 years have knock knees, and up to 95% of these children will self-resolve by age 7 years.15
On physical examination, the intermalleolar distance can be measured with the knees approximated; up to 8 cm between the ankles is normal. Make sure to assess thigh-foot angle and hip rotational profile, as the same appearance can be attributed to a combination of increased femoral anteversion and external tibial torsion. Surgical treatment is quite rare, but is considered for severe progressive deformity. Guided growth technique and osteotomy are surgical options.
Genu varum (bowed legs)
Curving of the legs in which the knees are far apart is termed genu varum. In the first 12 months of life, bowed legs are physiologic. They begin to straighten as the child grows. Genu varum typically improves by about age 18 months, but in many children, it persists a little longer. Ninety-five percent of children with bowed legs will improve by age 4 years with normal growth.15
On examination, the legs should appear symmetric and the bowing should appear smooth/gradual along the leg versus an abrupt angular change. Standing intercondylar distance can be measured with the feet together; up to 6 cm is considered normal.6
If a child also has ITT, the ITT can complicate matters by making the bowing appear worse than it really is because the side of the knee is visible relative to the foot rather than the front. Fortunately, both conditions typically improve around the same age with normal growth.
For physiologic bowing, the treatment is generally observation. Special devices/shoes typically are not needed. However, bracing and/or surgery may be indicated for pathologic genu varum because of conditions such as rickets or Blount disease.
Pes planus (flatfoot)
Flexible flatfoot is a normal variant that is often familial and secondary to ligamentous laxity across the arch. Early on, parents can be reassured that almost all babies have flat feet. There is a medial plantar fat pad that obscures the arch from birth. More than 40% of children aged 3 to 6 years have flat feet. About 1 in 7 people have flat feet as adults (roughly 14%).6 Arch development can continue up to age 8 years as the muscles and ligaments in the arch mature and tighten.
Physical examination should be done with and without weight bearing. With the child seated and legs hanging from the exam table, the arch is typically revealed without bearing weight. The Jack toe raise test—passive dorsiflexion/extension of the great toe—can also be done to emphasize a flexible arch. During weight bearing, the arch will flatten but reappears when the child stands on his/her tiptoes. These maneuvers help distinguish flexible flatfoot from rigid flatfoot. Rigid flatfoot warrants further workup, including imaging to rule out other conditions such as tarsal coalition or congenital vertical talus.
Observation is typically recommended in children aged 8 years and younger, as the arch is still developing and symptoms are rare before age 8 years. Occasionally, however, pain can flare with activity or children can have difficulty with shoe wear. Research has shown that the use of orthotics, shoe inserts, special shoes, or exercises do not stimulate arch development. However, they can provide support and comfort. Reconstructive surgery is reserved for the rare severe cases that do not respond to conservative treatment.
Pronation is a normal foot motion that refers to the action of the foot as weight is applied through the gait cycle. Essentially, the heel and ankle roll inward after the heel strikes the ground, and as weight is transferred to the midfoot, the arch flattens out. Pronation is normal; however, problems can arise when there is overpronation. This places increased stress on the muscles and ligaments of the foot. Treatment is almost always nonsurgical.
Careful clinical evaluation can determine if the child is having pain or if pronation is affecting the overall limb alignment. A first step can often be trying an over-the-counter arch supports to provide better foot support, improve alignment, and decrease premature shoe wear/tear. Ankle braces can be used during sports to give additional support.
Variations in the lower limb appearance can raise concern among parents and clinical providers. Whereas the majority of rotational and angular issues are benign in children, recognition of the classic clinical presentations is important in order to diagnose quickly and correctly and initiate further workup when indicated.
1. Molony D, Hefferman G, Dodds M, McCormack D. Normal variants in the paediatric orthopaedic population. Ir Med J. 2006;99(1):13-14.
2. Staheli LT. Lower limb. In: Fundamentals of Pediatric Orthopedics. 4th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins; 2008:135-154.
3. Lincoln TL, Suen PW. Common rotational variations in children. J Am Acad Orthop Surg. 2003;11(5):312-320.
4. Staheli LT, Corbett M, Wyss C, King H. Lower-extremity rotational problems in children. Normal values to guide management. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1985;67(1):39-47.
5. Jones DHA , Hill RA . Children’s orthopaedics: normal development and congenital disorders. In: Russell RC G, Bulstrode CJK, Williams NS , eds. Bailey and Love’s Short Practice of Surgery. 23rd ed. London: Arnold; 2000, 420-440.
6. Jones S, Khandekar S, Tolessa E. Normal variants of the lower limbs in pediatric orthopedics. Int J Clin Med. 2013;4:12-17.
7. Hunziker UA , Largo RH , Duc G. Neonatal metatarsus adductus, joint mobility, axis and rotation of the lower extremity in preterm and term children 0-5 years of age. Eur J Pediatr. 1988;148(1):19-23.
8. Dietz FR . Intoeing—fact, fiction and opinion. Am Fam Physician. 1994;50(6):1249-1259, 1262-1264.
9. Widhe T. Foot deformities at birth: a longitudinal prospective study over a 16-year period. J Pediatr Orthop. 1997;17(1):20-24.
10. Wall EJ. Practical primary pediatric orthopedics. Nurs Clin North Am. 2000;35(1):95-113.
11. JA Herring. Tachdjians Pediatric Orthopedics. 3rd ed, vol 2. Philadelphia, PA: WB Saunders; 2002.
12. Rerucha CM, Dickison C, Baird DC. Lower extremity abnormalities in children. Am Fam Physician. 2017;96(4):226-233.
13. Staheli LT. Rotational problems in children. Instr Course Lect. 1994;43:199-209.
14. Staheli LT. Torsion—treatment indications. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1989;(247):61-66.
15. Green WB. Genu varum and genu valgum in children. In: Schafer MF, ed. Instructional Course Lectures. Vol 43. Rosemont, IL: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons; 1994:151 | <urn:uuid:bf446a36-0ab5-4aef-ba18-bafd9b29b228> | {
"date": "2018-04-24T21:05:34",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-17",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125947328.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20180424202213-20180424222213-00216.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9189283847808838,
"score": 3.390625,
"token_count": 3737,
"url": "http://www.contemporarypediatrics.com/contemporary-pediatrics/news/7-lower-limb-positional-variations?page=0,1"
} |
A Glimpse of Lao Cai
Lao Cai is mountainous border province in the North western part of Vietnam. 296km away from Hanoi by railway and 345km by road. It borders on Ha Giang to the east, on Son La and Lai Chau to the west, on Yen Bai to the south and on Yunnan, China to the North with a 203km long border. Lao Cai was originally called “Lao Nhai” (ancient town). On July 12th 1907 the province of Lao Cai came into being. It used to be an economic – political centre at the upstream area of the Red River
Lao Cai has complex terrain with high altitude strata and high line fault. The two main mountain ranges of Hoang Lien Son and Con Voi (Elephant) go along the northwest-southeast direction creating low and medium areas between the two mountain ranges and an area to the west of the Hoang Lien Son. Sapa is key destination in Lao Cai, listed as one of the 21 key tourist destinations in Vietnam. Located at an altitude of 1.200 – 1.800 meters, Sapa has cool climate all year round. It is home to forest, rocky mountain, waterfalls and vibrant cultural activities of ethnic minority groups such as highland markets, love market, etc. The land also boasts many historical relics, natural caves and agro-ecological zones.
Sapa about 30 kilometers away from Lao Cai city is the heart of Lao Cai tourism. It receives millions of domestic and foreign tourist arrivals each year. Sapa town has cool climate all year around. There are 4 seasons in a day in Sapa: spring in the morning, summer at the noon with thin sunlight and cool climate, autumn in the afternoon with clouds and slight coldness and winter at night with chilliness. The stone church is a must visit place, a symbol of. Sapa. The church is among few architectural works left by the French that are still kept infact here. But in 1895, the stone church is located right at the town centre. It is in the shape of the cross and bear Gothic Roman architectural features. The church has been under renovation and kept in good conditions. It is closely attached to the image of Sapa –the town in fog.
There is a busy market next to the church where all traditional handicrafts made by ethnic minority people are displayed for sale. The small booths, the pieces of brocade lingering the smell of jute and indigo the cute little hats, the colorful bags. They are typical handicrafts of this land that are mad with heart by the local ethnic people. Tourists can buy them as souvenirs or give them to their friends or the loved ones as beautiful gifts. Sapa love market is a fine feature of the traditional culture of H’Mong and Dao ethnic people. The market opens every weekend.
Local girls and guys gather there to express their feelings through songs and sound of “khèn” (a kind of wind instrument) that are performed the night away in a traditional way. It seems the words “love market” come from this nice custom. From such market days, many girls and guys have become husbands and wives. Sapa love market has become an interesting cultural event which is full of attrachtive to tourists. Ham Rong mountain is one of the most interesting destinations in Sapa. Lying night behind the stone church, Ham Rong mountain is likened to the paradise, holding great appeal to visitors. The mountain at an altitude at 2.000 meters booking like dragon head looming in clouds
Climbing up the mountain is an interesting experience to any visitor. It’s the kingdom of flowers and there are flowers all year round here. Ham Rong flower garden is built based on the natural terrain of the Ham Rong mountain. Tourists can feel the harmonious beauty of nature, culture and humans in the mountainous town as each step from the foot to the peak of the mountain is made. It may take visitors one hour to explore the mountain. The highlight is the big orchid garden with hundreds of species of orchids in bloom along the way. It is home to over 200 orchid species. With thousands of baskets of orchids. It is like as a fairy garden.
Here visitors can feel the rapid change of climate in Sapa. Mist from nowhere suddenly come up, enveloping the road and then it easily disappears just after a gust of wind unfolding everything again. Passing by the mountain slopes covered with flowers and gulches visitor will reach the Clound Ground. From this place, tourists can take a panoramic view over Sapa town. The Clound Ground is the best place to contemplate Sapa town because it is located at an attitude of 1.800 meters. There tourists can feel harmony between the earth and the heaven and as if they were stepping over the clouds. Sapa easily win visitors’ heart for its cool climate, stunning landscape and unique culture and Ham Rong Mountain featuring poetic, yet magnificent scenery is know as the fairy at Sapa.
This is why a great deal of tourists come here to enjoy fresh air, coolness and have beautiful photos taken. Cat Cat village in Sapa tourism zone is worth visiting. The village has long been inhabited by H’mong ethnic people. Approximately 100 H’mong families here have preserved their unique culture in practice.. The village is same 2 km away from Sapa centre H’mong ethnic people in Cat Cat village have kept many distinctive customs, habits and traditional crafts alive. The houses here bear ancientness with three compartments roofed with fokienia wood planks and covered by moss. The suspension bridge spanning over the well-know stream of Muong Hoa is the highlight of the village.
From the bridge, visitor can enjoy a panoramic view of a waterfall pouring water down, whitening a corner. Hundreds of years ago, French colonists had a small hydroelectric dam built here which still function well. It is about 14 kilometers from Sapa town centre to Sliver waterfall. The waterfall has long been known as a tourist attraction of Sapa. The waterfall flows down from 100 meter high mountain top. Like Love Waterfall, Sliver Waterfall makes us feel overwhelmed by the greatness of nature when we stand at the foot of the waterfall and look at imposing mountain in the distance. About 10-12 kilometers from Sliver Waterfall is the mountain pass that is considered as
The ancient stone filed that covers up to 8km2 and bears profound humane values is a must visit place. It consists of nearly 200 stone slabs found in the three communes of Hau Thao, Su Pan and Ta Van. It is believed to be associated with appearance of the first inhabitants here. The stone stabs were carved with the images of terrace, road, smiling faces, men and women making love which implies fertility and many other strange images that arouse lots of thoughts in visitors. According to scientists, it’s an ancient map of ancient H’mong people or summarizing battles in the ancient time. In October 1994, the ancient stone field of Sapa was recognized as a national relic by the Ministry of Culture an Information.
I am here on a tour. I can see many strange signs on the stone slabs, probably there were a lot more signs originally. Locate about 12km away from Sapa town is Ta Phin tourism village, the residence of Dao ethnic people. The local practice traditional crafts such as indigo dyeing and brocade embroil. Dao ethnic women are seen embroidering everywhere alone or with others. Dao ethic girls and women are always seen being with small needles and colorful threads. There embroidery products have become goods and been much favored by tourist. Many visitors come to village to buy such items.
Ta Phin village has recently restored the craft of drum making. Drums made by Dao ethnic people are liked a lot by domestic or foreigner visitors. This drum was made by Red Dao people. The craft of drum making was practicing it. It takes me 3 days to make a qualified drum. Drum make involves preparing skin to make drum head making hoop and others parts. I sell the drums to visitors and locals. The drum serve special occasisons like full – moon festival. Ta Phin cave, about 5 meters high and 3 meters wide, belongs to the Nhan Nho range, part Hoang Lien Son range.
If features stalacfifers in amazing shape, though this cave is not as magnificent as other famous caves in the region the colour and shapes of the stalactites reveval a lot about the cave formation. It’s quite convenient and easy to get there so Ta Phin cave has held an appeal to visitors promising to help develop the local tourism and life. This is the second time I’ve been in Vietnam. I first came here for travel purpose. Now I am here to help develop the local life and tourism. Those with love for adventure tourism should not miss the chance to visit two famous destinations: Hoang Lien national park and Fansipan peak
Hoang Lien national park is one the important special-use forests in Vietnam, located at the altitudes between 1000 meters and 3000 meters. The national park lies to the northwest of the Hoang Lien Son mountain range with Fansipan peak, the highest peak in Indochina, at an altitude of 3143 meters above sea level. With thousands of animal and plant species, including rare and precious ones, the national park has been recognized as an ASEAN heritage park. Exploring Hoang Lien national park and conquering Fansipan – roof of Indochina are great experiences for tourists to Sapa. The cable car that takes visistors to the roof of Indochina – Fansipan Peak has been recently put into operation. Thanks to it, visitors can reach the roof of Indochina within 15 minutes. It takes visitors 2 days to trek to the peak. The cable car wins two Guiness World Records.
Let’s come to Sa Pa –Lao Cai to get amazing experiences, contemplate stunning scenery, and know more about the local cultural uniqueness. It’s time to say goodbye. See you again.
Source: VTC10 Netviet | <urn:uuid:39293d4c-a8ec-4ccb-a368-0812cb2527b1> | {
"date": "2019-10-19T12:49:19",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-43",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986693979.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20191019114429-20191019141929-00256.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.960781455039978,
"score": 2.53125,
"token_count": 2140,
"url": "https://visagotovietnam.com.vn/top-vietnam-a-glimpse-of-lao-cai/"
} |
Where is Swaziland?
Swaziland is in Southern Africa, between Mozambique and South Africa.
What is the Capital of Swaziland?
Mbabane , Swaziland.
What is the official language of Swaziland?
The official language of Swaziland is English.
When are the Public Holidays in Swaziland?
Independence Day, 6 September (1968).
What is the flag of Swaziland?
Three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (triple width), and blue; the red band is edged in yellow; centred in the red band is a large black and white shield covering two spears and a staff decorated with feather tassels, all placed horizontally. | <urn:uuid:917ee259-5389-40a9-a7d3-b2fe982abf55> | {
"date": "2017-06-29T10:52:22",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-26",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128323908.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20170629103036-20170629123036-00097.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8885095715522766,
"score": 2.8125,
"token_count": 153,
"url": "https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/africa/swaziland/travel-swaziland/"
} |
Seed producers and seed-related industries or agencies have informational needs concerning plant diseases that are not met by existing reference books. This publication provides a database on all diseases of maize, caused by fungi, bacteria, mycoplasmas, spiroplasmas, and viruses. Information is provided for each disease against a standard set of items, designed to cover interests in all aspects of seed technology. Diseases are grouped in parts 1, 2, and 3, according to the seedborne and seed transmission aspects of the pathogen.
Related Title: Compendium of Corn Diseases, Third Edition
ORDER ONLINE OR TOLL-FREE 1.800.328.7560
If for any reason you are unsatisfied with your purchase,
return it within 30 days with a copy of your receipt for a full refund. | <urn:uuid:617a287e-d83f-4c9e-9d55-be04d690ab91> | {
"date": "2014-10-21T07:06:57",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-42",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413507444209.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017005724-00075-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.913471519947052,
"score": 2.53125,
"token_count": 167,
"url": "http://www.apsnet.org/apsstore/shopapspress/Pages/4090X.aspx"
} |
The world’s largest Buddha statue is open to public again
THE Giant Buddha in China, also known as the Leshan Buddha, recently underwent a six-month examination as part of its repair plan. It had suffered degradations from weathering, air pollution, and swarms of tourists.
However, last week, it officially reopened to tourists once again.
Said to be one of the world’s most awesome giant statues, it is a true feast for the eyes, impressing all that comes across it.
Located near the city of Leshan in southwest China’s Sichuan province, it stands proud at 71 meters tall, earning it the title of world’s largest Buddha statue and the tallest pre-modern statue in the world. His shoulders are 28 meters wide and his smallest toenail is large enough to easily accommodate a seated person.
The stunning stone sculpture was carved out of a cliff face of Cretaceous red bed sandstones that lies at the confluence of the Min River and Dadu River.
It is said that the statue was built over a 90-year period between 713 and 803 during the Tang Dynasty, originally led by a Chinese monk named Hai Tong. The construction results in so much stone being removed from the cliff face and deposited into the river below that the currents were altered by the statue, making the water safe for passing ships.
A sophisticated drainage system was also incorporated into the Leshan Giant Buddha which includes drainage pipes served into various places on the body to carry away water after the rain to reduce weathering.
Its prime location at the mountain range coined the local saying, “The mountain is a Buddha and the Buddha is a mountain.”
In 1996, the Mount Emei Scenic Area, including the Leshan Buddha Scenic Area, was listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Buddhism is still very much a dominant religion in China.
From October 2018 until March 2019, the Leshan Buddha was examined using cutting-edge technology such as drone aerial survey, 3D laser scanning, and high-density resistivity methods. This was deployed because the statue had developed cracks and some damage to its chest and abdomen, according to the management committee of the Leshan Buddha Scenic Area.
This was not the first time that the Leshan Buddha had to undergo restoration works.
In 2001, a US$37.1 million project was conducted to clean the body, cement rock structures, mend cracks, and install drainage pipes. This was followed by another facelift project in 2007 to repair damage caused by weathering and acid rain. | <urn:uuid:72397705-5e12-4e65-841b-83a58b006e8f> | {
"date": "2019-07-16T18:19:18",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-30",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524685.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716180842-20190716202842-00336.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9779213666915894,
"score": 2.875,
"token_count": 545,
"url": "https://travelwireasia.com/2019/04/71097/"
} |
Children of obese fathers at risk of being overweight: study
Children of obese fathers are at a greater risk of being overweight, a new study by Australian researchers has claimed.
Adelaide University's Robinson Institute team has found molecular signals in the sperm of obese fathers could produce diabetes-like symptoms and obesity in two generations of offspring, even if those children consumed healthy food.
Researcher Tod Fullston said that this was the first time such a link was found.
"A father's diet changes the molecular makeup of the sperm," he was quoted by ABC News as saying.
"With obese fathers, the changes in their sperm, in their microRNA molecules, might programme the embryo for obesity or metabolic disease later in life," Fullston said.
He said research had used mice and the next step would be human trials.
"We'll be proposing to do human studies based around that very thing, whether men with a higher BMI (body mass index) do indeed have a different microRNA profile within their sperm and we'd also like to have a look at whether diet and exercise return that to what it would be in a normal weight male," he said.
The study found that the second generation could face similar metabolic disorders, including obesity, however, not a severe one.
Fullston said even if an obese father had no signs of diabetes, metabolic disease similar to diabetes could turn up in two generations of descendants. | <urn:uuid:07d00601-060b-4b33-813f-4a28268d5d46> | {
"date": "2015-03-04T15:15:49",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-11",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936463606.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074103-00092-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9796079993247986,
"score": 2.671875,
"token_count": 289,
"url": "http://www.deccanherald.com/content/344880/children-obese-fathers-risk-being.html"
} |
Skjöldr , King of Denmark
b.abt 237 Hleithra, Denmark
Facts and Events
Skjöldr (Latinized as Skioldus, sometimes Anglicized as Skjold or Skiold) was among the first legendary Danish kings. He is mentioned in the Prose Edda, in Ynglinga saga, in Chronicon Lethrense, in Sven Aggesen's history, in Arngrímur Jónsson's Latin abstract of the lost Skjöldunga saga and in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. Under the name Scyld he also appears in the Old English poem Beowulf. The various accounts have little in common.
In the Skjöldunga saga and the Ynglinga saga, Odin came from Asia and conquered Northern Europe. He gave Sweden to his son Yngvi and Denmark to his son Skjöldr. Since then the kings of Sweden were called Ynglings and those of Denmark Skjöldungs.
Scyld Scefing is the legendary ancestor of the Danish royal lineage known as the Scyldings. The kingdom of Scyld is said to have started in the modern municipality of Tønder, but grew fast as he conquered. Around the time of his death, the kingdom included the Southern Region of Denmark, except the municipalities of Varde, Billund and Vejle, and Lolland in the Region of Zealand. The capital of the kingdom was probably somewhere on the island of Fyn (Funen), but was later moved to the region of Zealand, where the kingdom later on would only be. He is the counterpart of the Skioldus or Skjöldr of Danish and Icelandic sources.
He appears in the opening lines of Beowulf, where he is referred to as Scyld Scefing, indicating he is a descendant of Sceafa, Scyld son of Scef, or Scyld of the Sheaf. The Beowulf poet places him in a boat which is seen in other stories about Scef as a child in a boat. After relating in general terms the glories of Scyld's reign, the poet describes Scyld's funeral, his body was laid in a ship surrounded by treasures:
They decked his body no less bountifully | <urn:uuid:8c1b5c81-a828-4287-ba87-9dc7e203fe96> | {
"date": "2015-10-14T03:36:58",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-40",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443738095178.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001222135-00226-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9699271321296692,
"score": 3.25,
"token_count": 486,
"url": "http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Skjold_Danes_(1)"
} |
April 14, 2009
Health Affairs , Web exclusive
Peter J. Cunningham
About two-thirds of primary care physicians (PCPs) reported in 2004–05 that they could not get outpatient mental health services for patientsa rate that was at least twice as high as that for other services. Shortages of mental health care providers, health plan barriers, and lack of coverage or inadequate coverage were all cited by PCPs as important barriers to mental health care access. The probability of having mental health access problems for patients varied by physician practice, health system, and policy factors. The results suggest that implementing mental health parity nationally will reduce some but not all of the barriers to mental health care.
This article is available at the Health Affairs Web site by clicking here. (Subscription required.) | <urn:uuid:564c9afe-ea3f-4e75-9a39-bdfbaa0bf32d> | {
"date": "2018-01-19T11:49:31",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-05",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084887973.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20180119105358-20180119125358-00656.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9703820943832397,
"score": 2.546875,
"token_count": 158,
"url": "http://hschange.org/CONTENT/1054/?PRINT=1"
} |
Conservation Planning & Implementation
The conservation plan for Cave 85 included development and implementation of preventive conservation measures to inhibit further deterioration and remedial treatment interventions to stabilize the wall paintings and was based on a thorough understanding of the causes and mechanisms of deterioration.
Preventive Conservation Measures
In order to slow deterioration in the cave, preventive measures that mitigate and reduce the causes and mechanisms of deterioration of the wall paintings were implemented.
• better sealing of the outside doors and keeping the cave closed to visitation during periods of high humidity and rain to prevent the intrusion of exterior humid air; and
• use of an ultrasonic humidifier (i.e., Preservation Pencil) in conjunction with treatment procedures to reduce surface and subsurface salts in areas of high salt content.
Soluble salts have been established as the main cause of deterioration of the wall paintings in Cave 85. Therefore environmental control measures are the most effective means of slowing salt-related deterioration. A simple but effective strategy of keeping the outside door to the cave closed significantly reduces the air exchange rate of the interior microclimate with the exterior climate, during periods of high humidity, thus maintaining stable environmental conditions.
Reduction of soluble salts was also undertaken, although difficult given the fragile condition of the painted earthen plaster and the water sensitive nature of the materials. Surface salt reduction in limited areas was carried out with an ultrasonic humidifier in areas of high salt content to address salt accumulation at the surface and/or slightly below the paint layer. The ultrasonic humidifier projects a fine mist of warm water, which is used in conjunction with highly absorbent tissue to dissolve and absorb surface and subsurface salts.
Development of conservation interventions to stabilize the paintings follows principles of minimal intervention, compatibility, and retreatability and were based on understanding of the causes and mechanisms of deterioration. Particularly important was the realization that the soluble salts could not be completely removed and that mitigation of deterioration is only possible through control measures. Therefore all treatment materials were selected to exist in areas of high salt content and to withstand possible fluctuations in relative humidity.
Remedial treatments included:
• emergency stabilization: treating areas of exfoliation at the onset of the project through microgrouting using an earth-based slurry to provide both bulking and adhesion to the area behind the exfoliated layers;
• grouting: reattaching detached plaster to the conglomerate by injection of a fluid earth-based mixture with adhesive and bulking properties;
• fixing and consolidation: reattaching flaking paint layers and consolidation of powdering plaster areas with a 1 percent gelatin solution;
• plaster edging repairs: securing the edge of original plaster where loss of plaster had occurred with an earth-based plaster similar in composition to the original in areas.
A methodological approach to treatment development was designed and was applicable to all interventions. It included the following steps:
- Establish existing treatment conditions based on results of the diagnostic investigation and how they will impact the design of the treatment
- Assess treatment options and determine the most appropriate choices.
- Undertake a literature search of current research on treatment interventions selected.
- Specify desired performance characteristics of treatment materials indicating the long-term behavior of the material in its final state (which measures how a material will function over time).
- Specify desired working properties of treatment materials indicating the short-term behavior of the material in the state it is applied (which measures its practical ease of use).
- Select and formulate treatment materials based on desired performance characteristics and working properties
- Design testing protocol and procedures for laboratory and in situ testing to evaluate performance characteristics and working properties.
- Undertake testing.
- Evaluate results.
The implementation phase developed safe and appropriate methods of treatment based on the existing condition of the paintings and the cave, and provided training in all aspects of treatment to Dunhuang Academy conservation team members.
In a salt-laden environment, the use of water-based treatments can lead to damaging deliquescence and crystallization of salts on or below the painting surface. All treatment materials selected included water, and this therefore needed to be taken into account.
Several general principles were followed:
• Minimum amounts of water were used.
• Presses with highly absorbent layers were applied to the surface of the paintings after treatments so that salts could be absorbed. Absorbent layers were monitored and changed when damp. The press covered and maintained contact with the surface of the painting until the treated area was completely dry.
• Surfaces of treated areas were examined post-treatment for evidence of salt crystallization. In high salt areas, an ultrasonic humidifier (i.e., Preservation Pencil) was used to reduce salt on the surface after treatment.
• Treated areas will be monitored for salts and salt-related deterioration.
Specific application methods of treatment can also be altered to suit a particular condition or area. Grouting was carried out with syringes, combined with either needles and catheter tubes, depending on the size of the void and ease of access. Areas to be treated were studied and evaluated to plan the required sequence of treatments.
Consideration was also given during the implementation for a conservation approach that favors minimal intervention and future retreatability. In grouting of the wall paintings, the goal was not to fill every void but instead to do enough to anchor the paintings to the conglomerate by grouting key locations. This reduces the overall weight behind the paintings, a serious consideration for ceiling slope areas, and allows for future retreatability.
Final high resolution photographic documentation of the cave was undertaken by the Dunhuang Academy in 2005.
Page last updated: January 2014 | <urn:uuid:192e2518-4ca2-4790-9f8c-95f17425e2a0> | {
"date": "2016-07-28T08:49:47",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-30",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257828010.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071028-00109-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.947884738445282,
"score": 2.71875,
"token_count": 1153,
"url": "http://www.getty.edu/conservation/our_projects/field_projects/mogao/implementation.html"
} |
FRIDAY, March 24, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. teens with autism are four times more likely to visit an emergency room than those without the disorder, a new report says.
The Penn State College of Medicine researchers said the likelihood of an ER visit for a teen with autism increased five-fold from 2005 to 2013.
The findings suggest that young people with autism may require better access to primary and specialist care, the researchers said.
"We believe if their regular medical and behavioral specialist services served them better, a big portion of them would end up with fewer emergency department visits," said study author Guodong Liu, an assistant professor of public health sciences at Penn State.
In the United States, it's estimated that 1 in 68 children has an autism spectrum disorder. This is the term for a range of conditions that may involve problems with social skills, speech and nonverbal communication, and repetitive behaviors, according to Autism Speaks. Frequently, other medical and mental health issues accompany the disorder.
Liu's team analyzed nine years of private insurance health-care claims of 12- to 21-year-olds. The researchers found that ER use by adolescents with autism rose from 3 percent in 2005 to 16 percent in 2013. During that same time, ER use by teens without autism held steady at about 3 percent.
Older teens with autism were much more likely to visit an ER than younger ones -- one-third vs. 10 percent, the study found.
The researchers also discovered that the proportion of ER visits by teens with autism for a mental health crisis rose from 12 percent in 2005 to 22 percent in 2013.
Liu said puberty and the transition to adulthood may be especially difficult for children with autism, and their parents and other caregivers might not be aware that they need extra guidance and support during this vulnerable time.
In response to stress, some teens with autism may harm themselves, Liu said.
"The consequence is they're more likely to end up in the emergency department," he said in a Penn State news release.
The study was partly funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. It was published recently in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on autism.
This article: Copyright © 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:2067d08b-a441-460d-a68d-e882078313f3> | {
"date": "2017-10-18T22:06:04",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-43",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187823153.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20171018214541-20171018234541-00556.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.96944659948349,
"score": 2.71875,
"token_count": 482,
"url": "http://www.jamhi.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=news&id=188612&cn=20"
} |
Germicidal air purifier helps protect your environment. Air pollution is a major concern in our environment today. You must be well aware of the implications that breathing in the contaminated air has on our health. Health experts name air pollution as the leading cause of conditions such as asthma, sinusitis, bronchitis, allergies and many others.
Come to think about it; we spend most of our time indoors that is whether at home or work. On that note, you want to ensure that the air within your indoor space is free from contaminants. With pollutants such as dust mites, pet dander, pollen and domestic smoke, you may agree that the air you breathe at home may be the reason you always catch that annoying flu or wake up with itchy eyes.
As if that is not enough, unhealthy microorganisms such as mold, fungi and bacteria also pose significant health risks in addition to causing stuffiness in your house. Luckily, with a air purifier, you will quickly get rid of bio-aerosols, viruses, and allergens hanging around your home.
Technological advancement has seen air purifiers take on a new turn. Devices that we relied on to rid our homes of allergens and dust can now destroy germs known to cause colds and flu by utilizing knowledge in natural silver, ultraviolet light, and sterilizing heat. Apart from common cold, with germicidal air purifiers, you can say goodbye to influenza, tuberculosis, strep throat, and even staph infections.
Below is a review of air purifiers intended to maintain a healthy living and working environment for you.
therapure uv germicidal air purifier plug in
Ultraviolet Air Purifiers
Also known as an air sanitizer, an ultraviolet air purifier makes use of ultraviolet light to kill airborne allergens, bacteria, germs and viruses. When the room air passes through the device, the natural light destroys the pathogen's DNA structures rendering them unable to reproduce. As a result, the organisms quickly die off, and you are left with clean air circulating in your space.
Before you jump to ask whether ultraviolet purifiers are safe, you would love to know that their UV bulbs are enclosed in the air purifier housing. This means that you will not come into contact with the light bulb unless the need for bulb replacement arises in which case you need to switch off the unit. Choosing a model with a long lasting UV bulb is a good way of avoiding the hassle.
therapure uv germicidal air purifier plug in
Silver Infused Air Filters
By nature, silver exhibits some antibacterial, antifungal and anti-viral properties and recently, these benefits have become widely preferred in the air purifier business. For instance, silver nanoparticles have the ability to attack a cell membrane, repress the cell's nutrient transportation system and hinder cell division. This in itself tells you that germs do not stand a chance. Just to put emphasis on silver's effects, recent studies indicate that silver can kill the HIV-1 virus and other virus strains such as the avian flu.
By considering these tremendous benefits, leading air purifier manufacturers have integrated silver infused air filters in their units.
This type of air purification involves the use of heat to destroy persistent germs, and other airborne pathogens. When your room air enters this air purifier, it passes through a sterilization chamber with high temperatures of about 400 degrees Fahrenheit. During this time, the airborne germs are incinerated and destroyed. After that, the pure air undergoes cooling to comfortable temperatures and is released back into your space.
Air sterilizers are advantageous as they eliminate 100% of airborne germs and also carry little maintenance costs. Unlike the other air purifiers, you may never know the strife of replacing air filters as air sterilizers do not use filtration to capture pathogens.
Before we conclude, you will be pleased to know that germicidal air purifiers also remove volatile organic compounds from your indoor air. VOC's are responsible for causing short-term irritations of the eyes, nose, and throat. Long-term exposure may lead to cancer or even complications of the liver, kidney or the central nervous system.
Since we are spending more time indoors, it 's nice to embrace germicidal air purifiers as they will help a lot to curb feelings of sickness, nausea, dizziness and exhaustion that may be caused by germicidal contamination. You will also agree that these units are more efficient than conventional air purifiers as they can capture even much smaller particles like viruses, and germs.
All that said this technology does not stand in place of good sanitation practices and healthy living habits.
Airfresha And More 2017 | All Rights Reserved.| Airfresha.com is a participant in the ClickBank and Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and Clickbank affiliated sites. | <urn:uuid:fcda3b26-5c08-4910-9490-9595229ce102> | {
"date": "2019-02-23T03:20:55",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-09",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550249434065.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20190223021219-20190223043219-00016.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9286569356918335,
"score": 2.53125,
"token_count": 1022,
"url": "https://www.airfresha.com/therapure-uv-germicidal-air-purifier-plug-in.html"
} |
Native American Petroglyphs - Vocabulary
Lesson 12 of 22
Objective: SWBAT learn the vocabulary necessary to understand the text we will be reading for our close read.
Introduction to Petroglyphs
The students have worked together as groups or "tribes" to research and present information to the rest of the class on Native American tribes from Utah. Today we will talk about some of the great "art" they have left behind for us to enjoy and to try to gather information about them. While some of petroglyphs in Utah were created by the tribes we have studied recently, many were created by earlier tribes such as the Fremont and Anasazi. We have learned about these tribes earlier in our social studies lessons.
Last summer I taught a class for teachers and got the chance to travel to Vernal. Vernal has many of these amazing petroglyphs. I took all the photos in the resources myself and grant permission to use them for educational purposes. I have included some of these photographs in the Native American Tribes packets.
We will start the lesson out by talking about ways tribes could communicate if they didn't have paper and pencil to write things down. We will brainstorm as a class some of the ways tribes ways back then may have communicated one with another. After we have discussed how communication took place, I will let them now that we are going to take a close look at petroglyphs for the next few days.
Next, we will take a close look at some of the pictures I took from my trip to Vernal. My experience there was incredible! I was so AMAZED at the beauty of the petroglyphs! I felt like I was at the Disneyland of history! I will be sure to explain to the students how incredible it was. I am sure a few of them have been to Vernal or other places where Petroglyphs can be viewed. As we take a close look at the photographs, we will look at each symbol and try to guess what it could represent. We will then try to guess what the panel means as a whole.
After we have had a chance to examine the pictures of the petroglyphs, we will play a vocabulary game to introduce and practice some vocabulary words needed for our close read article we will be working on tomorrow.
I will review each of the words with the students by reading the word and having them guess the definitions. Some of the words we have used as we have discussed the pictures of the petroglyphs so they should know the meanings for those. Others we will discuss the meaning of more explicitly. Once the students have a good grasp on the words and definitions, we will play a game with the cards. I have made several copies on card stock of the vocabulary cards found in the resources. I have also included details on how to play the game in the resources. | <urn:uuid:83b888da-a321-4fc9-8564-7d8d79a2ebbc> | {
"date": "2017-11-23T06:13:49",
"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": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9800545573234558,
"score": 4.09375,
"token_count": 600,
"url": "https://betterlesson.com/lesson/resource/2669148/petroglyphs-vernal-utah-jpg"
} |
In this section the basic ideas and details behind CEL are described and explained.
What are Entities?
Every object in the game is represented by an entity. The entity system allows the game programmer (using CEL) to speak to game objects in a consistant manner. Examples of entities are: the player, the world itself, creatures, a candle, objects in general, items, ... It is important to note that entities don't have to represent visual objects. An entity can be a part of a story line (i.e. a quest) that the player has to solve.
One of the most important concepts in CEL is the notion of a Property Class. Attached to every entity we have a list of property classes. A property class describes a specific kind of behaviour or attribute set for an entity. All the property classes together define what the entity really is and can do. In addition to the property classes predefined by CEL you can also write your own property classes (in C++ or Python).
To clarify what you can use property classes for we give a list of the current implemented property classes:
Essentially it is a piece of code (like a C++ class) that you can attach to an entity. They can send out messages.
- pcworld.region: A region represents an area in the engine. It usually contains some sectors with geometry although it is also possible to make regions containing only mesh factories or materials.
- pcworld.zonemanager: The zone manager is a more powerful version of pcregion. It supports dynamic loading for big worlds.
- pccamera.standard: A camera represents what the player sees on screen. A camera is usually in first-person or third-person mode.
- pcinput.standard: This property class represents input from the keyboard, mouse, or joystick. An entity that has this property class attached to it will get messages when input is generated.
- pctools.inventory: The inventory property class contains a set of other entities. An entity which has this property class is capable of containing other entities. This property class can have several attributes that put some limit on what the inventory can contain. The pctools.inventory.characteristics property class is used to define limits for entities (see below). Common limits are weight, size, number of inventory slots, ... but the system is not limited to those. The system is hierarchical. For example, a box entity can have an inventory so that you can put objects in that box. If the player picks up the box then the box including the contents will be in the player inventory. All objects in the world (except for the world itself) belong to some inventory. This is to avoid dangling references. The inventory system goes to great lengths to insure that the maximum capacity of entities inside is not exceeded. This even works for nested inventories. i.e. if the player holds a box and the weight of the box plus contents is near the limit of what the player can hold then you will not be able to add another item to the box.
- pctools.inventory.characteristics: This property class defines the characteristics that some object has in relation to the inventory system. For example, with this property class you can say that the weight of an entity is 10.
- pcobject.mesh: This property class represents a mesh from the engine. Use this if you want a visual representation for an entity.
- pcobject.mesh.select: If you want this entity to receive messages when other meshes (or this mesh) are selected you can use this property class. It is very configurable and even allows you to drag objects along a 3D plane.
- pcmove.solid: If your mesh has a solid representation that needs to be used for collision detection or physics than it must have this property class.
- pcmove.linear: This is the movement system. If you want an entity to move around, have proper collision detection and gravity then you should use this class.
- pcmove.actor.analog and pcmove.actor.standard: These property classes can be used for the main actor. They help synchronise camera, movement system, and animation on the model. The first does multi-directional movement like in platform and action games, whereas the second does turn and move forward movement which is useful for certain cases.
- pc2d.tooltip: This is a convenient property class that allows you to have tooltips. In some games this can be useful for showing information about the actor on which the cursor is resting.
- pctools.timer: Use this property class to get messages when a specific time has passed. Can also repeat.
- pctools.properties: This is a general property class to store properties with an entity. These properties are otherwise not used. It is simply a way to associate data with an entity.
- pclogic.spawn: A property class that represents a spawn point where creatures or other entities can be created.
- pclogic.trigger: A property class that sends messages to the behaviour as soon as some other entity enters a trigger area. Can be useful for doors that open when a player arrives or something.
- pc2d.billboard: This can be used for 2D images on top of 3D world or even for making full 2D games.
- pclogic.quest: This is a powerful and general quest system using a state machine. This is not only useful for RPG games but also for FPS games where a quest can be as simple as 'player presses button' -> 'light goes on'.
- pcmove.pathfinder: The path finder can be used by creatures that are interested in finding out how to move to some location through the level. This property class works together with pcmove.steer in order to actually move the entity around until it reaches the correct destination. This property class also generates events when the destination is reached or the destination cannot be reached for some reason.
- pctools.bag: A bag of strings.
- pclogic.wire: A message conduit. This property class can listen for a certain message on a channel (or entity) and then redirect them as other messages to other channels. It also supports parameter transformation and expressions on those parameters. This is a very useful property class that can be used to connect other property classes so that they act in a coherent manner (for example, listening to a message from the input property class so that you can send out a message to a timer to do something else).
- and more...
Several more property classes are planned like:
- pclocator: The locator is used to keep track of the position of another entity. There can be multiple instances of locator attached to one entity if that entity is interested in more than one entity. When a locator is attached to an entity the entity will receive events when the other entity moves, becomes visible, becomes invisible, or is destroyed. Only the last event is immediate. The others are only calculated every second (default: this is configurable for any locator). The locator is very useful in combination with the pcpathfinder above.
This is only the beginning. More property classes will follow as the game system is further refined. The property class system is a very dynamic and flexible system which allows us to dynamically change properties of entities on the fly. It is possible to add/remove any of the above property classes at any time. This is something that is very hard to do if we were to use the traditional inheritance based entity system.
Property classes are created by getting their property class factory. These are usually implemented in a plugin. You load the plugin at startup of your game and you then create property classes for your entities from that plugin when you need them.
The Physical Layer (PL)
The PL is actually what CEL is all about. It describes the constraints on interactions between entities and also constraints about what an entity can do. The idea is that you attach property classes to an entity. Every property class defines some specific physical attribute or constraint for an entity. The collection of all property classes attached to some entity define what the entity really is. Property classes can be dynamically added or removed from a given entity. Usually the BL will do that.
One important note with this entity system is that one usually doesn't subclass entities. There is only one type of entity and that is provided by the PL. To control behaviour of entities one adds the appropriate property classes instead. The core of CEL doesn't have property class implementations but only provides interfaces which allows a game to create property class implementations. But CEL will come with a set of pre-made property classes which are potentially useful for all/most games.
The PL itself is split into several sub-layers:
- Entity Manager: The entity manager is responsible for creating and managing bare-bones entities.
- Message System: This will allow property classes to send messages to each other.
- Property Class System: Here property classes are managed.
- Persistence Layer: To save/load entities the persistence layer is defined.
A very important part of CEL is the message system. Each entity acts as a message channel on which interested parties can subscribe or broadcast messages. Every message has a message id by which it can be recognized. These id's are hierarchical so that you can easily listen to a collection of messages at once.
Property classes are one of the main generators of messages and can also react to them.
The following table lists a few current messages grouped by the property class by which they are generated (from the list of example property classes above):
- cel.entity.add: An entity was added to the inventory contained within this entity.
- cel.entity.remove: An entity was removed.
- cel.entity.add.this: This entity was added to another inventory.
- cel.entity.remove.this: This entity was removed from another inventory.
- cel.mesh.select.down: Mouse down on a mesh (selection).
- cel.mesh.select.up: Mouse up on a mesh.
- cel.mesh.select.move: Mouse move for a mesh.
- cel.timer.wakeup: Timer wake-up event.
- cel.properties.set: Property has been set.
- cel.properties.clear: Property will be cleared.
- cel.input.<key>.down: Specified command has been activated (i.e. the key associated with the command is pressed).
- cel.input.<key>.up: Specified command has been de-activated (i.e. the key associated with the command is released).
- and more...
More messages will of course follow. This is only the beginning.
The persistence layer in CEL allows games to save and load entity state. In a single player game this can be used for saving the current game state so that the player can later load the game again. In a multiplayer game this can be used in more controlled scenarios to persists parts of the world in a cache or on the network. There are currently two persistence layer: classic (using binary output) or XML. | <urn:uuid:8c2f904f-11d0-45ea-b4de-4127ec9c735e> | {
"date": "2015-04-21T08:56:07",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-18",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246641054.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045721-00286-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8995697498321533,
"score": 3.046875,
"token_count": 2338,
"url": "http://www.crystalspace3d.org/main/CEL_Design"
} |
endodermArticle Free Pass
endoderm, the innermost of the three germ layers, or masses of cells (lying within ectoderm and mesoderm), which appears early in the development of an animal embryo. The endoderm subsequently gives rise to the epithelium (tissue that covers, or lines, a structure) of the pharynx, including the eustachian tube, the tonsils, the thyroid gland, parathyroid glands, and thymus gland; the larynx, trachea, and lungs; the gastrointestinal tract (except mouth and anus), the urinary bladder, the vagina (in females), and the urethra. The term endoderm is sometimes used to refer to the gastrodermis, the simple tissue that lines the digestive cavity of cnidarians and ctenophores. Compare ectoderm; mesoderm.
What made you want to look up "endoderm"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:4fd86661-c27b-4839-afed-363ab460dbcb> | {
"date": "2013-05-24T08:58:31",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9034773111343384,
"score": 3.375,
"token_count": 204,
"url": "http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/186938/endoderm"
} |
This is the third part of a series of texts on various methods for creating generative art with random numbers. The first part is Shepherding Random Numbers, and the second part is Shepherding Random Grids. This text does not rely too heavily on the previous ones, but I recommend looking at them even so.
In this part I will describe a simple form of differential growth. I have written about this technique previously in my essay On Generative Algorithms. Specifically in the following sections: Differential Line, Differential Mesh, Differential Mesh 3d. Moreover, several other people have done similar work. My favorites are Floraform by Nervous System, and Cellular Forms by Andy Lomas.
You can click or tap all animations to restart them.
Differential Growth is a way in which biological systems develop shape. By controlling the rate at which different parts of a surface grows, you can control the shape it grows into.
In this case we will consider lines, not surfaces. However the principle is similar. Some good examples of shapes that inspired this particular system are walnuts, flower petals and the layers of cabbage.
While differential growth in nature is a multi-layered and complicated process, it can be simulated with only a few factors:
- Nodes and Edges: nodes are connected to a certain number of neighboring nodes through edges.
- Attraction: connected nodes will try to maintain a reasonably close proximity to each other. In the figure below attraction happens between connected nodes in the loop.
- Rejection: nodes will try to avoid being too close to surrounding nodes (within a certain distance). Rejection fores are indicated by cyan lines in the figure below.
- Splits: If an edges gets too long, a new node will be injected at the middle of the edge.
- Growth: in addition to the splits, new nodes are injected according to some growth scheme. I will describe this further soon.
The simplest kind of growth scheme is to randomly select an edge, and insert a new node at the middle of it. To reduce clutter, you should avoid inserting nodes if the edge is too short. This will tend to lead to collisions.
The intensity at which new nodes are inserted will greatly impact the rate of growth as well as the shape, so there are a number of things to experiment with.
This section is a little more technical.
So far the growth has been uniform. One way of introducing some variation in growth is to prioritize parts of the structure where the curvature of the surface (line) is greater. Below we indicate the curvature with cyan circles. Larger circles indicate greater (estimated) curvature.
One way to estimate how much the line bends at a given point is to compare an edge to one of it's neighbouring edges. The greater the angle between them, the greater the curvature. The value I display in the figure below is the following: for normalized vectors (edges) a and b, the curvature is 1-abs(dot(a, b)). I should point out that this is not how you calculate the actual curvature.
The next challenge is to sample edges to split such that we tend to split edges that have greater curvature. If we use the formula listed above, we will get a number for the curvature between which ranges between 0 and 1. We then generate a random number (from a uniform distribution) between 0 and 1. We only split the edge if the edge is sufficiently long, and if this random number is less than the value of the curvature. That way, greater curvatures will tend to be selected more frequently. We can repeat this process for every edge, in every iteration.
This process is quite computationally intensive. The most costly operation is to find nodes that are in the vicinity of a given node, so that you can calculate the rejection forces. A useful tip for implementing this in an efficient manner is to use k-d trees for looking up nearby nodes. Most k-d tree implementation will let you look up all entries within a certain radius of a given point, which happens to be exactly what you want in this case.
Below is a structure that will grow a little more intricate than the previous samples.
By drawing strokes along the outline of the structure as it grows, we get a radically different result. You should also note that we are not restricted to closed loops, you can easily extend this logic to work with lines, or perhaps even grids?
Hopefully this was an understandable intro to the idea of differential growth.
You can also extend this to surfaces. The major difference is that you will have to handle a triangular mesh structure of some kind, which is a little more complicated.
Finally, if you would like to read up on the actual biological processes, I'd suggest starting with Morphogenesis. | <urn:uuid:5ec7de7e-3930-4a2a-8a70-d2c7c6bdfc7e> | {
"date": "2019-04-20T12:51:18",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-18",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578529813.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20190420120902-20190420142024-00078.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9417550563812256,
"score": 3.078125,
"token_count": 996,
"url": "https://inconvergent.net/2016/shepherding-random-growth/"
} |
16 August 2012
The fusion of science and art at the South Australian Museum is causing an inspiration explosion for visitors as part of National Science Week.
This year's stunning Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize exhibition forms a timely backdrop for Science Week as we look at the intricacies of bringing specimens and scientific processes to life. The digitally-produced videos and images that scientists use today are a talking point for how illustration has changed over hundreds of years.
School groups are being taken on a journey of creative discovery as they explore the role of early scientific illustration in global science communication.
Children from Westport Primary School were introduced to early natural science illustrations of Dreamtime stories, cave paintings, studies of the human body and explorers' observations, and then given the chance to try their hand at drawing specimens in the South Australian Biodiversity Gallery.
One student tried to overcome the challenge of drawing a hoof.
"This is hard because I don't know whether to draw under or draw the top. So I think I'll put it on an angle then draw it, then see how it goes," he said.
"To be a science illustrator, you need to be good at seeing where the stuff is when you're drawing it, like sketch and get all the right details," said his classmate.
The Museum is committed to promoting science education as the number of upper secondary students opting for these subjects dwindles. Art can be an attractive way of stimulating young minds to think more deeply about our natural and cultural environment and helping young people to understand their roles in conservation.
Drawings and paintings have long been important to the Museum's scientific research. However, photographs and digitally-produced images are increasingly being used, particularly when extinct creatures need to be illustrated.
One of the Museum's expert Palaeontologists Dr Mike Lee studies life from millions of years ago. He investigates reptile phylogeny (particularly skinks, geckos and fossils) and uses molecular dating to work out when creatures roamed the earth and what they may have looked like.
Dr Lee relies on digital images to illustrate his scientific discoveries. In some cases, computer images are useful when the specimen is not available or is at risk of being destroyed. Dr Lee says when he was studying the the Hydrophis donaldi, a sea snake from northern Australia, only two specimens existed. "Cutting even one of them up to see their skull bones was not an option," he says.
"The image of the snake skull was generated via a micro-CT scanner — a small, high resolution version of the CAT-scan machine used when people have, for instance, brain scans," he says.
"These images can be readily shared and manipulated, for example rotated, sliced, enlarged and stretched. They can even be printed out in 3D (in various polymers) if a physical representation is required. The method allows us to see rare museum specimens without damaging them. These are important advantages over traditional scientific illustration."
Dr Lee has also used a hybrid artwork-computer image of an Anomalocaris – a top predator from half a billion years ago – to complement his work. The image, painted by local artist Katrina Kenny, has been published all around the world.
"I used a 3D mock up of the Anomolacaris to paint from because it was so odd to envisage," she says.
Dr Lee then altered the image of Kenny's painting on his computer.
The Museum is seeing record numbers of visitors fascinated by the unique links between science and art, particularly the dynamic and diverse paintings, sculptures and works on paper submitted to this year's Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize.
This year's exhibition offers a colourful and thought-provoking exploration of our natural world. Visitors can vote for their favourite work with the winner of the People's Choice announced at an artists' evening on 25 August. | <urn:uuid:3c08dba5-fc07-473f-98d4-badb09f9bf66> | {
"date": "2015-03-03T20:19:54",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-11",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936463411.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074103-00044-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9576584100723267,
"score": 3.421875,
"token_count": 791,
"url": "http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/media/unlocked/science-illustration-in-the-digital-age"
} |
The $2 million project, which began in September 2012, promises to save the Zoo nearly $275,000 in annual utility costs. The DZS's performance contract with Johnson Controls, Inc. provides a guaranteed payback of its investment within seven years through savings of energy usage and related operational expenses.
"Being green is a fundamental value that reinforces our commitment to progressive resource management and environmental leadership," said Ron Kagan, DZS Executive Director and CEO. "The energy and resource efficiencies realized through this project represent another big step on our green journey."
Noteworthy examples of energy efficiency improvements at the Detroit Zoo include variable speed controls installed at the Arctic Ring of Life – something that wasn't widely used in 2001 when the facility was built – resulting in a savings of nearly $55,000 a year. Electronic controls installed in various animal habitats where water runs non-stop will save tens of thousands of dollars annually.
The energy efficiency upgrades span more than 50 Zoo buildings and include installation of additional utility meters and low-flow toilets as well as rooftop unit upgrades and boiler control upgrades. A new automated building management system allows the Zoo to monitor the HVAC systems of multiple buildings from one location and make adjustments in real time based on actual conditions.
The improvements will result in an annual greenhouse gas reduction of 1,063 metric tons, equivalent to carbon dioxide emissions of 203 passenger vehicles or saving more than 11 million gallons of water a year.
The Greenprint is the DZS's plan to refine and improve daily practices and facilities, develop new policies and programs and improve green literacy in the community. To learn more about the energy efficiency improvement project and other green initiatives, visit http://www.detroitzoo.org/about/greenprint. | <urn:uuid:a3ab167f-e8c8-4ff1-b8a9-f27e64cded97> | {
"date": "2014-10-25T16:45:17",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-42",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119648706.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030048-00227-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9388915300369263,
"score": 2.59375,
"token_count": 358,
"url": "http://www.detroitzoo.org/press-releases-2013/detroit-zoo-wraps-up-energy-efficiency-improvement-project"
} |
These eerie videos give an insight into the bleak desolation left by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which happened 32 years ago today.
On April 26, 1986, a nuclear plant in the Ukranian city conducted a reactor test that went wrong.
It killed two people immediately, another 29 died in the aftermath from sickness caused by the fallout.
The predicted death toll, accounting for those dying from illnesses connected to the disaster, could reach 4,000.
Pawel Pudelko, 36, who lives in New Parks, visited Pripyat, the town nearest to the Chernobyl power plant, which was left deserted following the disaster.
As a youngster in Poland, he recalled being given a serum in the aftermath.
He said: “People in Poland had to have some special liquid.
“We had no information about what happened.
“At this moment, I didn’t understand it.
“When I was 12 I saw a video [of the site], I said, ‘I want to go there’.”
The “special liquid” was Lugol’s iodine, issued to people by the Polish government to help block the intake of radiation.
In July 2016, Pawel fulfilled his curiosity with a visit to Pripyat.
The town is part of the 30km ‘zone of alienation’ surrounding the plant, which was opened to tourists in 2011.
This is now inhabited by a few hundred residents, but buildings largely remain dusty and decimated, with overgrowth claiming most of the structures.
“It’s not like a town now, it’s a forest. It’s amazing how nature’s just taken this place.
“Inside the buildings there were trees.
“In other towns you have lights in the streets and some cars. Near Chernobyl there are animals and that’s it, there are not so many people.
“It was a little bit sad actually.
“What can you see is just trees, bushes and nothing else,” he said.
Pawel uploads videos of places he visits to his YouTube channel, under the name HANYS.
He is also a keen drone photographer and is planning to go back to the site near Chernobyl next year.
His videos show inside a disused post office and hospital.
The insides of both are dilapidated, with plaster flaking from the walls and thick dust covering the furnishings.
In the hospital there are still medical supplies and glass bottles containing a variety of liquids. | <urn:uuid:687c9fe9-2fe0-4662-8309-fbab70194cc5> | {
"date": "2018-08-19T23:42:00",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-34",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221215404.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20180819224020-20180820004020-00136.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9683215618133545,
"score": 2.796875,
"token_count": 545,
"url": "https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/take-look-around-chernobyl-fallout-1498194"
} |
Last Saturday, May 17, 2014, was the 60th Anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education court decision that struck down de jure school segregation. That same day, Mira Debs, Prof. Jack Dougherty, and I gave a presentation entitled, “Who Chooses Magnet Schools? Findings from Three Studies in Hartford, CT.”
So what’s the connection between Brown v. Board of Education and magnet schools in Hartford?
First, public school choice programs (such as charter and interdistrict magnet schools) in Connecticut are all required by Connecticut law to provide children with an equal educational opportunity and to reduce racial, ethnic, and economic isolation of students (except technical schools). The exact goals and rules vary by program.
Second, interdistrict magnet schools in Hartford and its suburbs are one of the ways that the State of Connecticut chose to comply with the Sheff v. O’Neill decision, a local court case on public education and racial/ethnic segregation.
As the first presenter, I shared some findings from my “Choice Watch” report that I co-wrote with Kenny Feder for Connecticut Voices for Children. I also provided a short overview of school choice programs here in CT.
The findings on public school choice enrollment are fairly straightforward. In Connecticut:
- Interdistrict magnet school and regional technical schools tend to be (numerically) racially and economically “integrated” if we used free/reduced price meal eligibility as the measure for the latter. (A note of caution here.)
- Charter schools in the state tend to be racially hyper-segregated, but not necessarily as isolated in terms of economic status (free and reduced price meal eligibility).
- All three school choice programs tend to have a lower percentage of children with disabilities and emerging bilingual students (ELL) when compared to their local school district averages.
Why these demographic differences happen is more complex. As Mira writes, maybe the complexity of the school choice system(s) in the Hartford-area is a good place to start looking. | <urn:uuid:5f7d6bff-38da-4557-9faf-69f05d66143d> | {
"date": "2016-08-28T05:04:59",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-36",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982932823.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823200852-00070-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9528472423553467,
"score": 2.640625,
"token_count": 427,
"url": "http://commons.trincoll.edu/cssp/tag/desegregation/"
} |
November 30, 2012
World AIDS Day 2012
First commemorated in 1988, World AIDS Day 2012 will take place Saturday, December 1. The theme of this awareness day is “Getting to zero: zero new infections, zero discrimination, zero AIDS-related deaths.” It was also last year’s theme and will remain the theme until 2015. Events to mark the day are taking place nationally and globally before, during and after December 1. About 34 million people around the world are living with HIV.
For more information, click here.
Search: World AIDS Day, WAD, awareness
Scroll down to comment on this story.
Show comments (1 total)
[Go to top] | <urn:uuid:0a568c72-294d-4613-903c-cf31af2e05b7> | {
"date": "2015-03-04T02:53:59",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-11",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936463444.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074103-00066-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9402837753295898,
"score": 2.75,
"token_count": 145,
"url": "http://www.poz.com/articles/world_aids_day_1_23208.shtml"
} |
Iodine deficiency is a major health problem worldwide, but a new study points to the potential downsides of too much iodine.
Iodine is a mineral found in iodized salt, seafood, eggs, dairy and some breads. It is used by the thyroid gland to help regulate metabolism and development, especially in babies and children.
Iodine deficiency during fetal and early-childhood development is a leading cause of brain impairments in much of the world. So most research has been directed at the effects of inadequate iodine.
Less is known about how much iodine is too much. So for the new study, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Chinese researchers randomly assigned healthy adults to take various doses of iodine supplements for four weeks.
They found that at relatively higher doses -- 400 micrograms a day and up -- study participants began developing what's called subclinical hypothyroidism.
That refers to a dip in the body's thyroid hormone levels, but with no obvious symptoms of hypothyroidism -- which include problems like fatigue, depression, dry skin and weight gain.
In this study, people taking 400-microgram supplements were getting around 800 micrograms of iodine per day when diet was factored in.
So the findings suggest that people -- at least in China -- should get no more than 800 micrograms a day, according to the researchers, led by Wanqi Zhang of Tianjin Medical University.
That's different from what's recommended in the U.S., where National Institutes of Health guidelines say the safe upper limit for adults is 1,100 micrograms of iodine per day.
Still, the typical American would get much less than 800 micrograms of iodine a day through diet anyway, according to Dr. Elizabeth Pearce, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University who was not involved in the study.
That said, Pearce cautioned against taking iodine supplements with more than 150 micrograms in a daily dose. And most Americans could skip supplements altogether.
"Overall, we're iodine-sufficient," said Pearce, who studies iodine sufficiency and thyroid function.
But she said there are certain people who may need supplements, including pregnant women.
In the U.S., adults are advised to get 150 micrograms of iodine each day; pregnant women should get 220 micrograms, while breastfeeding moms are told to get 290 micrograms.
The American Thyroid Association recommends that pregnant and breastfeeding women take a vitamin with iodine because low iodine can increase the risk of miscarriage and thyroid problems in moms, in addition to mental disabilities in babies.
According to Pearce, vegans may also want to take a supplement. In a recent study, Pearce and her colleagues found that the average iodine level in a group of 63 vegans was lower than what's recommended -- though their thyroid hormone levels were in the normal range.
Vegans eschew all animal products, including dairy and eggs, so their iodine sources may be few.
WHO YOU ARE, WHERE YOU LIVE
The current findings are based on 256 healthy adults who had normal thyroid when they entered the study. Zhang's team, which did not respond to requests for comment, randomly assigned them to take one of 12 doses of supplemental iodine -- anywhere from 0 to 2,000 micrograms per day, for four weeks.
Of the people who took 400 micrograms, 5 percent developed subclinical hypothyroidism. And the numbers rose in tandem with the iodine dose: Of people on the highest dose (2,000 micrograms per day), 47 percent developed subclinical hypothyroidism.
"These are interesting data," Pearce said, "because we don't have a lot of information on iodine excess."
Subclinical hypothyroidism has no obvious symptoms, but studies have linked it to an increased risk of heart disease over the long term, Pearce noted.
Those studies don't prove that subclinical hypothyroidism is to blame. Still, they raise concerns that there could be health consequences.
But in general, Pearce said, it's thought that the effects of your iodine intake may depend on "who you are and where you live."
In certain parts of the world, the soil is low in iodine, and people who eat mainly local foods have a high risk of deficiency. In other parts of the world -- Japan, for example -- people have a high iodine intake starting early in life, and they seem to "tolerate" that high level, Pearce explained.
In China, natural iodine levels vary by region. The country introduced universal salt iodization in 1996, so the problem of iodine deficiency has been controlled in most areas.
But Pearce said it's not clear if the adults in this study had adequate iodine intake early in life. If not, that could be a factor in their response to iodine supplements. | <urn:uuid:6cbdde74-4cb9-45af-968e-86833e14696e> | {
"date": "2015-02-01T04:08:17",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-06",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422121967958.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124175247-00249-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9629520773887634,
"score": 3.1875,
"token_count": 992,
"url": "http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/18/how-much-iodine-is-too-much/"
} |
Smartphones have created a bridge between two previously separate industries—wireless networks and personal computing. For Internet firms and device makers, this means access to the world’s largest network of people. As can be seen above, the wireless telephone business is large compared to personal computing. In 2012, the world’s mobile operators did $1.2 trillion in business and served around 3.2 billion people, versus perhaps 1.7 billion people who used PCs to access the Internet. By comparison, the combined revenue of Microsoft, Google, Intel, Apple, and the entire global PC industry was $590 billion. Online advertising, the main driver of the consumer Internet, generated only $89 billion in revenue.
PCs still represent a majority of personal computing devices in use globally. But not for long. As smartphone and tablet sales increase rapidly, they are replacing PCs and Microsoft Windows as the dominant personal-computing paradigm. At right are the number of PCs, tablets, smartphones, and all mobile phone handsets in use, as well as the number of each sold in 2012. Growth in smartphone sales are coming largely at the expense of older-style “feature phones,” as people replace them, typically once every two years. As can be seen, two-thirds of the mobile phone market has yet to convert to smartphones. Close to a billion smartphones will be sold in 2013, while PC sales will gradually decline.
Smartphones have greatly increased the profitability of the mobile phone handset business. The average selling price of all mobile phones rose from about $105 in 2010 to $180 at the end of 2012, largely driven by Apple’s iPhone. In 2012, Apple sold 136 million iPhones for $85 billion, averaging $629 per phone. By comparison, the average selling price of a PC is about $700. With a further $33 billion in revenue from iPads, Apple’s annual revenue now exceeds the combined business of Intel and Microsoft. Sales by other companies of Android smartphones (not shown) reached 480 million units in 2012, generating an estimated $120 billion in revenue at an average selling price of $250. | <urn:uuid:4dfc14c9-392a-47d2-8db9-cfff7ad10b25> | {
"date": "2017-02-21T18:51:35",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-09",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170823.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00408-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9403629899024963,
"score": 2.625,
"token_count": 434,
"url": "https://www.technologyreview.com/s/511791/smartphones-are-eating-the-world/"
} |
Blogs Pre May 2018
9th May 2018
In Year 1 in English and Topic they have been looking at Amazing Animals and Peculiar Plants. In particular, they have been looking at which wonderful animals they like the most!
In maths, they have been working on number bonds to 100, all the children are doing amazingly! Their teachers have been giving them plenty of hard work to get their brains moving, but not too hard work. Look on the Year 1 section to see more of their wonderful work!
30th April 2018
In Year 3 Oakwood, in there Topic subject they have been looking at food through the ages. This involved looking at the food the Anglo-Saxons, Romans, Ancient Egypt and lots more had all been eating.
In Maths this week they are working on shapes (2D & 3D) lines and angles (right angles, acute angles and obtuse angles.) It sounds extremely interesting!
27th April 2018
In Year 2 this week, they have been looking at the story ‘The Night Zookeeper’ and planning their own adventures through a diary entries.
Last term they were writing reports and stories all about Australian animals and it all sounded very interesting.
24th April 2018
What have Year 2 Oakwood been learning about?
This week in Maths Year 20 have been doing multiplication through arrays it sounds extremely hard! Throughout the term they will be learning how to tell the time and calculation types.
This term in English they are writing a diary entries and reading different story’s.
4th December 2017
This week Year 6 have been learning about the Romans, they seem to be really enjoying it! As part of this subject, they have been using powerful words to describe the Romans because they are doing a non-chronological report. It has taken them a long time to complete the report, but it has to be as neat as possible!
In Topic, they have been learning about Hinduism, however they all drew their own god to decide which one they would go to and why they would chose this god. While they were doing Hinduism, they said it was very interesting!
In maths, Year 6 are working on adding and subtracting fractions, it looks extremely hard! Some of the children were getting really confused in their maths; do you think you could help them?
30th November 2017
This week Year 1 have been learning about construction in their lessons and they have found this very exciting!
They have also spent some time learning about the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter.
In Geography Year 1 have been learning about the different countries that make up the UK: England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland.
In Year 2 this week have been learning about “Elf on the Shelf” and it is extremely fascinating to learn about, however, a naughty elf has come inside their classroom and made a mess. They are trying to find out which elf has done this to their classroom.
In their Maths lessons, they are doing their times tables with elf’s socks so it makes it a lot easier for them. As you know, there is many different elf’s.
That is also relevant to their English session! The naughty little elf that invaded their class has also been up to mischief and has taken all of their bottle lids off their bottles. Do you think you could help them?
20th November 2017
This week at The Meadows Primary Academy, it is Road Safety Week. Road Safety is important because people can learn the dangers of driving fast while children are crossing the road.
It is very important that you don’t go over the speed limit while you have a child inside the car as you could possibly scare them; maybe even have an accident because of all the shouting in the background which can be very distracting. We all should take care when driving and crossing roads as this will help to prevent accidents and people being hurt. Do you agree?
If a child was trying to cross a road and cars were parked carelessly, that child could cross at a dangerous point and it may possibly lead to an accident happening! Would you like that to happen to one of your friends/family members? We all should treat each other with respect and how you would want to be treated.
Please try not to go over the speed limit and be careful not to have an accident.
13th November 2017
This week we will be learning about Anti-Bullying at The Meadows Primary Academy. The most common types of bullying are name calling and tripping people up. Do you think bullying is okay?
Staff at our school help people not to be bullies and prevent them from hurting others or having arguments with other students/people. At our school everyone is very caring and bullying is dealt with by members of staff as soon as possible.
Do you like seeing others getting hurt? Do you think bullying is right?
If you see anyone getting bullied, you should follow these instructions:
Tell an adult; try not to get involved; ask the person who is being bullied “are you okay?” and try not to copy of the actions of people who are bullies. Please follow these!
20th June 2017
Year 6 have been practicing really hard for their production of Grease, they have all learned their lines, their dances and the songs. Almost all of the props are complete and they are all looking really forward to performing for the parents next week.
15th May 2017
Today on our way into school we all saw that an act of vandalism had been committed during the weekend, paint had been thrown over the KS1 playground and the Nursery playground. This is not the only act of vandalism in recent weeks the new playing field fence also had a panel broken. The police have been informed about this incidents and are looking into them.
4th May 2017
FIDGET SPINNERS!! The latest craze has already been banned from a lot of schools around the UK. Many pupils are however questioning why they are banned. Whilst they were originally invented to help relieve stress and anger they are becoming more and more distracting in lessons leading to the ban. Is there something that can be done? or should the ban stay?
5th April 2017
Today Year One have been practicing their dance! They were dancing to Disney theme songs, such as The Little Mermaid, The Jungle Book and Frozen. They were all really good dancers and listened to their teacher.
23rd March 2017
Reception have been learning about phonics and practicing their handwriting today, as well as making flowers out of paper for Mother's Day. Reception are really looking forward to red nose day tomorrow and all the fun activities!
14th March 2017
Today Nursery have been learning about the Gingerbread Man! They have been reading the story of the Gingerbread man, as well as pretending to bake Gingerbread Men made of Play-Doh! They have really enjoyed it!
7th March 2017
Year Five have been learning about different beliefs today, as their topic is to to learn about about different cultures. We asked a few children what they thought about belief, one said that "there is no problem believing in God and nobody is going to stop you". They have also learnt about why people do and don't believe, all the children were very sensible.
1st March 2017
Today Reception have been learning about an author called Sue Hendra who wrote the books 'Gordons Great Escape' and 'Wanda and the Alien'. They have also been making aliens! All the children were really well behaved and were eager to learn.
16th February 2017
Year Six have been doing tests this week and today they have had a computing day, which they thoroughly enjoyed. They completed three maths papers as well as grammar, spelling and reading tests.
7th February 2017
Today Year Four have been learning about dragons and the Chinese Blossom Tree in forest schools, they have also done some finger painting of blossom which they really enjoyed. Year Four have also been making a dragon using sticks.
1st February 2017
Year Six when to Hanley fire station today, they had lots of fun learning all about fire and the dangers of life. We visited several workshops, there was one that was run by Changes who listen to children who are having problems with something difficult.
24th January 2017
Today Year One have been doing gymnastics, they were all fantastic at it and were marvelous performers. I also got to join in.
They were doing different jumps and shapes, such as the straight shape, the straddle shape, the tuck shape and the pike shape.
18th January 2017
Year Three have been learning about plants in science today. They were trying to see what would happen to the plants if they were put in a cupboard, in the fridge and if they had no water. Year Three were all well behaved and love to learn.
13th December 2016
Today Year Five have had a science day, which they thoroughly enjoyed. They have learnt about friction and pressure using a tricycle and different materials such as wood, paper, card and polystyrene. They all enjoyed their science day and were eager to learn.
30th November 2016
Year One have been practicing the Christmas concert today, they have practiced lots of songs such as a gift called love, the brightest star, ba ba bananas, simply having a wonderful Christmas time and don't forget the donkey. They were all really good singers and were enjoying singing the carols.
1st November 2016
Today has been a very busy day at the Meadows as we have had a film crew in from Reels in Motion. Nursery have been learning about a famous artist called Jackson Pollock and recreated some of his work themselves. | <urn:uuid:509d35c0-cb30-4f34-a309-d4f234d28122> | {
"date": "2019-11-22T08:49:45",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-47",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496671245.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20191122065327-20191122093327-00536.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9907161593437195,
"score": 2.921875,
"token_count": 2013,
"url": "https://www.themeadowsprimaryacademy.org.uk/children/the-meadows-blog/blogs-pre-may-2018"
} |
If you're familiar with the Christmas story, then you've probably heard of myrrh -- it was one of the gifts that the three wise men brought to Jesus. Its presence in the Bible not only gives us an idea of myrrh's importance, but it also sheds some light on how long myrrh has been around. It can actually be traced all the way back to ancient Egypt, where it was used for embalming, among other things [source: Calmet]. Today myrrh continues to be used as incense just like it was in the Bible, but it's also used as a fragrance in perfumes and cleansers.
Myrrh is taken from Commiphora myrrha trees, which are commonly found in the Arabian Peninsula. It's harvested as dried sap and has a sweet, woody fragrance. This aroma becomes most obvious when myrrh is burned, which is why it makes such good incense. When myrrh undergoes steam distillation, an essential oil forms -- this oil is what's used in skin cleansers and perfumes [source: Britannica]. You might even have something in your bathroom right now that contains myrrh.
The uses of myrrh actually go beyond that of simple aromatics, though. The sap can also be used to make medicines that decrease inflammation and kill bacteria. Because of these properties, people have used myrrh to treat a wide range of ailments such as indigestion, asthma and sore throats. However, there's not enough scientific evidence to say for sure whether myrrh is effective in all these uses. Some people also experience side effects, like a skin rash, diarrhea or heart rate changes, if they ingest myrrh, and you shouldn't use it if you are pregnant. Myrrh can also interact with diabetes medications and medications used to slow blood clotting. But these are worst-case scenarios. In general, in the amounts contained in skin cleansers, myrrh is safe for most people [source: WebMD].
To find out more about the ingredients you're using on your skin, read on to the following page.
Related HowStuffWorks Articles
- Calmet, Augustin. "Dictionary of the Holy Bible." Google Books. June 19, 1833. (Accessed 09/07/2009)http://books.google.com/books?id=v1ga4m9vIhYC&pg=PA386&lpg=PA386&dq=myrrh+embalming&source=bl&ots=AvT2BiaGTl&sig=IyvQhrwyq7DqadAeljVxpfXDg1s&hl=en&ei=r_OmSqXvBpDQsQP-yenKBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=myrrh%20embalming&f=false
- Encyclopedia Britannica. "Essential oil." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. (Accessed Sept. 28, 2009)http://www.search.eb.com/eb/article-2154
- WebMD. "Myrrh." (Accessed 09/07/2009)http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-570-MYRRH.aspx?activeIngredientId=570&activeIngredientName=MYRRH&source=3 | <urn:uuid:bcdf0a01-7c33-41d5-8773-6707efc3d328> | {
"date": "2018-12-12T23:12:59",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-51",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376824180.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20181212225044-20181213010544-00456.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9124773144721985,
"score": 2.953125,
"token_count": 741,
"url": "https://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/cleansing/products/myrrh-in-skin-cleansers.htm/printable"
} |
DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Research has shown that a meningitis A vaccine can survive high temperatures for up to four days, and could therefore reach more people in remote areas across the African continent and cost half as much as it does now, a paper in the scientific journal Vaccine reported on Wednesday.
Scientists writing in the journal reported that MenAfriVac, used for protecting adults and children against meningitis A, could withstand temperatures of up to 40°C for as long as four days without losing its efficacy, according to trials in Benin in 2012.
This means the vaccine could be taken to distant health posts without the need of a cold chain – freezers, refrigerators and cool boxes for keeping the vaccine between 2°C-8°C – a fundamental requirement of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“The need to continually keep vaccines in a 2–8◦C cold chain is a major constraining factor for achieving universal immunization coverage, especially in the ‘last mile’, from health centre to vaccinee,” the paper said. “The logistical challenges in maintaining the cold chain, from faltering electricity, poorly functioning or absent equipment, to ice pack production capacity are significant.”
The paper’s lead author, Simona Zipursky, said the discovery could open the way for other vaccines also to be used outside the cold chain. “We’re also looking at other vaccines that are used to control mass outbreaks, like the cholera, yellow fever and measles vaccines, to see if they too can be used outside the cold chain,” she said, adding that further research was needed to test their stability.
Meningitis outbreaks occur throughout the African meningitis belt, a region stretching from Senegal to Ethiopia, every eight to 12 years. In 1996 and 1997, an epidemic killed more than 25,000 people and made 250,000 ill. Those who survive often suffer from deafness, epilepsy, limb loss and/or mental retardation.
Periodic vaccination campaigns target up to 70 percent of the population, all those aged 29 and under, but the need to keep the vaccines cool as well as the labour intensive nature of the work mean that costs quickly mount.
“As a result of removing the cold chain, the cost of a vaccination has come down from $0.24 per person to $0.12 per person,” Patrick Lydon of the WHO told Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone from Geneva. The money saved could be used to invest in other healthcare essentials.
Lydon said that despite this, vaccine manufacturers had been scared to go against the grain and to label vaccines as suitable outside the cold chain, a regulation that has been in place since the start of the WHO vaccination programme 40 years ago.
The research conducted for the first time in Benin has profound implications for vaccination campaigns around the world, Zipursky said.
“What the economics doesn’t take into account is the opportunity costs. At the moment, it’s health workers that have to make sure the cold chain is working - time they can spend immunising children, treating malaria or providing ante-natal care,” she said.
Although immunization is cost effective, over 20 million children worldwide do not receive vaccinations they need, partly because of the cold chain, and remain at risk of vaccine-preventable diseases each year, the paper said. | <urn:uuid:f2feacd1-5af1-4f78-a88a-8227a90e2dfd> | {
"date": "2015-10-06T08:10:11",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-40",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443736678574.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001215758-00228-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.953549325466156,
"score": 2.90625,
"token_count": 715,
"url": "http://www.trust.org/item/20140219164332-whoxk/?source=hpbreaking"
} |
Aikido History from Japan to Darwin in the Northern Territory
Modern Aikido, was created by Morihei Ueshiba sensei when he made a significant change to Aiki Jujutsu
This ancient, formerly secret Japanese Martial Art, has a noble past going back at least a thousand years. The change made by O Sensei transformed a violent Fighting Art, appropriate for its time, into a beautiful peaceful art appropriate for ours.
The ancient techniques arose out of a need for a Samurai, who had either broken or lost his weapon in battle, to defend himself using empty hand techniques.
These techniques were modified over time by various practitioners, within the same family, according to their experience of what worked in self defence and what did not.
It is believed by some Historians that modern Aikido evolved from Aiki Jujutsu and this self defence art had its beginning with Prince Teijun a son of Emperor Seiwa, (850-880 AD).
Prince Tiejun while developing empty hand techniques, to enable him to take control of an attacker, noticed the vulnerability of the hands of a Samurai in armour and the gaps in his armour.
These observations led him to design techniques to take advantage of those weaknesses, particularly if he broke or lost his own weapons. These techniques included bending and twisting the arms and wrists of the attacker or taking hold of the armour to throw the attacker to the ground where he could control him.
Other techniques were further developed by Prince Teijun’s son, Tsunemoto and one of these developed from studying the different distances he needed to place himself away from an attacker, according to the length of the weapon being used. He called this technique Ma-ai and it made the defence more effective and is still used and referred to as Ma-ai in modern Aikido.
The secret art of Aiki-Jujutsu was passed down through successive family members who changed the name of the school from time to time in accordance with a change in family name or as they moved from one area to another.
With some additions and minor changes the art continued down through succeeding generations of the Minamoto clan reaching Yoshimitsu in the 12th century who developed the art further and changed the name of the art to Daito-ryu Aiki-Jujutsu.
Yoshimitsu’s son, Yoshikiyo developed the art further and it was during his lifetime the family took on the name, Takeda, and it was late in the 19th century that a descendant of that family Sogaku Takeda inherited the Aiki-Jujutsu school.
Takeda Sensei, decided, in the late 19th century, to teach Aiki-Jujutsu to select students outside of the Nobility and one of these was Morihei Ueshiba. Ueshiba Sensei already had considerable knowledge of a number of Japanese Martial Arts and he rapidly acquired skill in Aiki-Jujutsu which he later taught along with other skills such as sword and spear patterns and defence.
This all changed when the violence of the second world war led Ueshiba Sensei to believe there must be a better way to deal with violence than fighting back and he thought about what religious leaders were saying about meeting violence with non violence.
This led O Sensei to change the focus and method of applying Aiki -Jujutsu movements into movements which enabled him to merge his movement with that of his attacker, which then enabled him to take control of the movement and turn it back to his attacker thereby neutralising the attack. He called this new art Aikido.
It seems that not all of O Sensei's students understood his new philosophical approach to this new Art and this was confirmed by some of his early Aikido Graduates who confessed they did not understand what O Sensei was saying in class.
There are now different styles of Aikido being taught throughout the world and some of them are heavily influenced by the older Aiki-Jujutsu style which Ueshiba Sensei taught before he created modern Aikido.
In contrast to the above, O Sensei's descendants manage and teach OSensei's Aikido at the Hombu (Aikido Headquarters ) in Japan and travel throughout the world teaching at Aikido schools registered with the Hombu. They teach only basic techniques which is the core of Aikido.
Aikido techniques have an ancient Martial foundation in Aiki JuJutsu.
These techniques were obviously modified by O Sensei to become non aggressive self-defence techniques which have a Nobel Spiritual aspect in their application.
This raises these questions - if an Aikido School is not teaching and training with the fore mentioned goals in mind are they really doing Aikido? Or, are they just teaching a modern form of Aiki JuJutsu?
With a probable 2 million Aikido practitioners world wide the answers to these questions are uncertain, hopefully the majority are following O Sensei's Aikido.
Dates, names and time-lines have been sourced from:-
History of Aikido by Hiroshi Takeuchi | <urn:uuid:b01f9ad5-108e-46b5-bc32-2a39b25e5760> | {
"date": "2017-08-21T17:31:15",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-34",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886109470.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20170821172333-20170821192333-00256.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9771835207939148,
"score": 3.078125,
"token_count": 1060,
"url": "http://aikikaintincorporated.org.au/index.php/home/history"
} |
Inside the SPR there is a spinning rotor producing millions of microscopic cavitation bubbles. When these bubbles collapse and produce shockwaves, powerful forces are generated that cut up the process material into microscopic sizes. This increases the surface contact area between the liquids, gases and/or solids being mixed and maximizes the efficiency of the process for processes such as hydration, emulsification and gas/liquid mixing. This can be seen below:
The SPR mixes in a totally different way and creates results that cannot be achieved with other equipment. This is all accomplished in a small footprint with no scaling inside the device.
Video of Mixing Action
When a gas such as air or oxygen is added to the Shockwave Power Reactor, you begin to see larger bubbles appearing. As the SPR increases in speed the mixing action will become very chaotic. The large gas bubbles begin to become very small and the still image at the end shows them reduced to a fog.
See the gas-liquid mixing on SPR exit of the SPR in our flotation section.
The SPR Compared to Conventional Mixers
A visual comparison showing the ability of the SPR to mix color into a thick and viscous liquid compared to a static mixer and a high shear mixer.
The SPR represents a paradigm shift in mixing. | <urn:uuid:3f147259-c669-4486-baf4-d789061dda37> | {
"date": "2017-08-17T05:43:12",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-34",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886102967.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170817053725-20170817073725-00296.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.935882031917572,
"score": 2.96875,
"token_count": 262,
"url": "http://hydrodynamics.com/cavitation-technology/mixing/"
} |
CINCINNATI -- Neil Armstrong was a soft-spoken engineer who became a global hero when as a steely-nerved pilot, he made "one giant leap for mankind" with a small step onto the moon. The modest man, who had people on Earth entranced and awed from almost a quarter-million miles away but credited others for the feat, died Saturday, Aug. 25. He was 82.
Armstrong died following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures, his family said in a statement. Armstrong had a bypass operation this month, according to NASA. His family didn't say where he died; he had lived in suburban Cincinnati.
Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969, capping the most daring of the 20th century's scientific expeditions. His first words after becoming the first person to set foot on the surface are etched in history books and the memories of those who heard them in a live broadcast.
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong said.
(Armstrong insisted later that he had said "a" before man, but said he, too, couldn't hear it in the version that went to the world.)
In those first few moments on the moon, during the climax of a heated space race with the Soviet Union, Armstrong stopped in what he called "a tender moment" and left a patch to commemorate NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had died in action.
"It was special and memorable but it was only instantaneous because there was work to do," Armstrong told an Australian television interviewer this year.
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on the lunar surface, collecting samples, conducting experiments and taking photographs.
"The sights were simply magnificent, beyond any visual experience that I had ever been exposed to," Armstrong once said.
The moonwalk marked America's victory in the Cold War space race that began Oct. 4, 1957, with the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, a 184-pound satellite that sent shock waves around the world.
Although he had been a Navy fighter pilot, a test pilot for NASA's forerunner and an astronaut, Armstrong never allowed himself to be caught up in the celebrity and glamour of the space program.
"I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer," he said in 2000 in one of his rare public appearances. "And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession."
Fellow Ohioan and astronaut John Glenn, one of Armstrong's closest friends, recalled Saturday how Armstrong was down to the last 15 seconds to 35 seconds of fuel when he finally brought the Eagle down on the Sea of Tranquility.
"That showed a dedication to what he was doing that was admirable," Glenn said.
A man who kept away from cameras, Armstrong went public in 2010 with his concerns about President Barack Obama's space policy that shifted attention away from a return to the moon and emphasized private companies developing spaceships. He testified before Congress, and in an email to the Associated Press, Armstrong said he had "substantial reservations," and along with more than two dozen Apollo-era veterans, he signed a letter calling the plan a "misguided proposal that forces NASA out of human space operations for the foreseeable future."
Armstrong was among the greatest of American heroes, Obama said in a statement.
"When he and his fellow crew members lifted off aboard Apollo 11 in 1969, they carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation.
Obama's Republican opponent Mitt Romney echoed those sentiments, calling Armstrong an American hero whose passion for space, science and discovery will inspire him for the rest of his life.
"With courage unmeasured and unbounded love for his country, he walked where man had never walked before. The moon will miss its first son of earth," Romney said.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recalled Armstrong's grace and humility.
"As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind's first small step on a world beyond our own," Bolden said in a statement.
Armstrong's moonwalk capped a series of accomplishments that included piloting the X-15 rocket plane and making the first space docking during the Gemini 8 mission, which included a successful emergency splashdown.
In the years afterward, Armstrong retreated to the quiet of the classroom and his southwestern Ohio farm. Aldrin said in his book "Men from Earth" that Armstrong was one of the quietest, most private men he had ever met.
The 1969 landing met an audacious deadline that President John F. Kennedy had set in May 1961, shortly after Alan Shepard became the first American in space with a 15-minute suborbital flight. (Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had orbited the Earth and beaten the U.S. into space the previous month.)
The third astronaut on the mission, Michael Collins, circled the moon in the mother ship Columbia 60 miles overhead while Armstrong and Aldrin went to the moon's surface.
An estimated 600 million people -- a fifth of the world's population -- watched and listened to the landing, the largest audience for any single event in history.
Parents huddled with their children in front of the family television, mesmerized by what they were witnessing. Farmers abandoned their nightly milking duties, and motorists pulled off the highway and checked into motels just to see the moonwalk.
Television-less campers in California ran to their cars to catch the word on the radio. Boy Scouts at a camp in Michigan watched on a generator-powered television supplied by a parent.
Afterward, people walked out of their homes and gazed at the moon, in awe of what they had just seen. Others peeked through telescopes in hopes of spotting the astronauts.
Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were given ticker tape parades in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and later made a 22-nation world tour.
In all, 12 American astronauts walked on the moon from 1969 to the last moon mission in 1972.
In 1970, Armstrong was appointed deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA but left the following year to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
He remained there until 1979 and during that time bought a 310-acre farm near Lebanon, where he raised cattle and corn. He stayed out of public view, accepting few requests for interviews or speeches.
"He didn't give interviews, but he wasn't a strange person or hard to talk to," said Ron Huston, a colleague at the University of Cincinnati. "He just didn't like being a novelty."
Those who knew him said he enjoyed golfing with friends, was active in the local YMCA and frequently ate lunch at the same restaurant in Lebanon.
In 2000, when he agreed to announce the top 20 engineering achievements of the 20th century as voted by the National Academy of Engineering, Armstrong said there was one disappointment relating to his moonwalk.
"I can honestly say -- and it's a big surprise to me -- that I have never had a dream about being on the moon," he said.
From 1982 to 1992, Armstrong was chairman of Charlottesville, Va.-based Computing Technologies for Aviation Inc., a company that supplies computer information management systems for business aircraft.
He then became chairman of AIL Systems Inc., an electronic systems company in Deer Park, N.Y.
Armstrong married Carol Knight in 1999, and the couple lived in Indian Hill, a Cincinnati suburb. He had two adult sons from a previous marriage.
Armstrong's is the second death in a month of one of NASA's most visible, history-making astronauts. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died of pancreatic cancer on July 23 at age 61.
One of Armstrong's closest friends was fellow Ohioan and Mercury astronaut Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth.
Just prior to the 50th anniversary of Glenn's orbital flight last February, Armstrong offered high praise to the elder astronaut and said that Glenn had told him many times how he wished he, too, had flown to the moon on Apollo 11. Glenn said it was his only regret.
Noted Armstrong in an email: "I am hoping I will be 'in his shoes' and have as much success in longevity as he has demonstrated." Glenn is 91.
At the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles on Saturday, visitors held a minute of silence for Armstrong. For anyone else who wanted to remember him, his family's statement made a simple request:
"Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink." | <urn:uuid:0c7a2cdb-c017-43ba-91c3-7f91f7f5c01c> | {
"date": "2015-12-01T04:26:35",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-48",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398464396.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205424-00068-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9776027202606201,
"score": 2.515625,
"token_count": 1812,
"url": "http://www.twincities.com/vikings/ci_21400129/neil-armstrong-first-man-moon-dies?source=pkg"
} |
Hurricane Sandy raises the issue that is absent from the campaigns
It is only November and we have already experienced five major climatic abnormalities that have been at the forefront of discussion across America. Since the beginning of this year, wildfires have burned through an area the size of Maryland. On August 14th 2012, 25 percent of the land area of the lower 48 states was experiencing extreme or exceptional drought (which in turn knocked off 0.4 percentage points from third quarter GDP growth). Arctic sea ice melted to the lowest levels ever recorded. And most recently, a late season hurricane swept across the East Coast and caused billions of dollars of damage that will take weeks or months to recover from. Unsurprisingly, the problem at the root of these events is related to one simple factor that we have known about for years: a warming climate. The first nine months of the year have been the hottest the United States has ever experienced.
A recent opinion piece in the Washington Post highlights these starting events and notes that while these events are not a direct result of how much CO2 we are emitting this year (which is actually on pace to be the lowest total in 20 years), the fact that we continue to affect the climate with greenhouse gases is making the atmosphere more unstable and prone to natural disasters. Studies have shown that continuing to pollute our atmospheres will make drought and wild fires more frequent and severe. Global sea level is rising, meaning that powerful storms are more likely to cause the intense flooding seen during Hurricane Sandy.
Despite this overwhelming amount of evidence linking greenhouse gas emissions to global warming, and thus extreme weather events, neither political party has done much to address the topic on the campaign trail. The topic of climate change did not surface at any of the debates, despite the presence of these climate-related disasters. The only real mention of energy policy came when both President Obama and Governor Romney boasted that they would expand the US natural gas industry. There were only vague mentions of wind and solar power, with Governor Romney asserting that he will fight for coal, oil and gas, give the EPA less power to regulate coal plants, and bring the Keystone Pipeline in from Canada. And though President Obama has implemented some of the most important energy legislation to date (including fuel efficiency standards and $90 billion for clean energy), he too was notably absent on the topic of greenhouse gases and climate change.
In order to have a real discussion about climate change, we need our political leaders to take a stance and propose solutions. The climatic events seen in 2012 have accelerated the timeline that scientists have given for climate change; dramatic shifts in our climate are happening right now. We need a president and Congress that would be willing to pass legislation like the Clean Energy Victory Bonds Act of 2012 in order to start building an energy future that reduces our reliance on emissions-producing fossil fuels. In order to increase the stability of our climate and remove dangerous heat from our atmosphere, we need to invest in technologies that do not contribute to the warming of the planet. We have more than enough renewable resources throughout the world to meet our power needs with technology that is already available. Getting the public to realize that we need to make the switch as soon as possible will be the most important challenge of the next decade for our climate change leaders and our elected officials – starting with the office of the President.
Blog post by Matt Jennings | <urn:uuid:988b0f97-8b6a-48ba-b10e-41c72f18d7cc> | {
"date": "2014-07-25T23:02:49",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-23",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997894865.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025814-00048-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9612290859222412,
"score": 2.859375,
"token_count": 677,
"url": "http://blog.greenamerica.org/2012/10/31/hurricane-sandy-raises-the-issue-that-is-absent-from-the-campaigns/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=20ee2ea151"
} |
What is Family Group Decision Making?
Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) describes a variety of practices to work with and engage children, youth, and families in safety and service planning and decision making, including Family Group Conferences (FGC), Circles of Support (COS), and Family Team Meetings (FTM). CPS began using FGDM in the conservatorship stage of service in 2003 and expanded the practice into the investigative stage in 2007 and into the family based safety services stage in 2009.
This section of the DFPS intranet provides easy access to tools for FGDM, as well as background and rationale for the practice of FGDM in Texas.
How It Works
First, CPS will tell families they can help make a plan. Then, CPS will set up a meeting. The family helps pick the time, place, and who attends. Families can invite anyone who is important in their children’s lives.
A Family Team Meeting happens most frequently while children live with their families. It’s a quick way to deal with safety concerns.
A Family Group Conference happens most frequently when children have been removed from their families for a short time. It’s up to the family to decide if they want to have one.
- All children should be free from harm.
- Children are best raised in families.
- Families should care for their children.
- Families can make safe choices.
- Children are safest when families and CPS work together.
- Families must be respected.
- Families are the experts and can learn about their own strengths and needs.
- Children should be removed only when there is a strong risk of harm.
Why Family Group Decision Making?
- Families know best about children and their needs.
- There is less trauma for children.
- Culture, dignity, and values are respected.
- Fathers and families are involved more often.
- It can find and use community supports as available.
To learn more, contact your local CPS office or DFPS Family Group Decision Making staff.
FGDM Evaluation Links:
Family Group Decision Making gets help from Casey Family Programs. Casey Family Programs is a private foundation that works with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS).
~ download an PDF version of this page ~ | <urn:uuid:8e7d0262-7c0b-47c1-9828-c5444d03903c> | {
"date": "2018-01-18T23:22:48",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-05",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084887660.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20180118230513-20180119010513-00456.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9398427605628967,
"score": 3.234375,
"token_count": 474,
"url": "https://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Child_Protection/Family_Support/fgdm.asp"
} |
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, which is annually on December 7, commemorates the attack on Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, during World War II. Many American service men and women lost their lives or were injured on December 7, 1941. National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is also referred to as Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day or Pearl Harbor Day.
What do people do?
On the direction of the President, the flag of the United States of America should be displayed on the homes of Americans, the White House and all United States government buildings. The flag should be flown at half-mast to honor those who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Many associations, especially those linked with Pearl Harbor survivors or those who died from the attack, participate in special services to commemorate the event. Memorial services are held at venues such as the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Other activities include: wreath-laying ceremonies; keynote speeches by those associated with the event; luncheons; media stories on survivors’ recollections of the Pearl Harbor attack; and school activities to educate students about the attack on Pearl Harbor in relation to World War II history.
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is not a federal holiday. Government offices, schools, businesses and other organizations do not close. Public transit systems run on their regular schedules. Some organizations may hold special events in memory of those killed or injured in Pearl Harbor.
On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the American Army and Navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The attack came as a surprise to the American Army and Navy and lead to great losses of life and equipment. More than 2000 American citizens were killed and more than 1000 were injured. The Americans also lost a large proportion of their battle ships and nearly 200 aircraft that were stationed in the Pacific region. More than 60 Japanese servicemen were killed, injured or captured. The Japanese Navy also lost five midget submarines and 29 aircraft.
The Japanese military had hoped that the attack on Pearl Harbor would prevent the United States of America from increasing her influence in the Pacific. However, the events in Pearl Harbor actually led to the escalation of World War II. The day after the attack, the United States declared war on Japan and so entered World War II. President Franklin Roosevelt in a speech to Congress stated that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was “a date which will live in infamy”. Shortly afterwards, Germany also declared war on the United States. In the months that followed the attack, the slogan “Remember Pearl Harbor” swept the United States and radio stations repeatedly played a song of the same name.
In 1991, which marked the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Congress established the Pearl Harbor Commemorative Medal. This is also known as the Pearl Harbor Survivor's Medal and can be awarded to any veteran of the United States military who were present in or around Pearl Harbor during the attack by the Japanese military. The medal can be awarded to civilians, who were killed or injured in the attack.
Memorials have been built to remember or to symbolize the day. For example, the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor is a marble memorial built over the sunken USS Arizona, which was dedicated in 1962. The memorial remembers all military personnel who were killed in the Pearl Harbor attack. The memorial was designed by architect Alfred Preis, an Austrian-born resident who lived in Honolulu and was placed at a detainment camp after the Pearl Harbor attack as part of the internment policy of Japanese and German Americans at the time.
Another memorial that commemorates Pearl Harbor Day is the USS Utah, a battleship that was attacked and sunk in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. A memorial to honor the crew of the USS Utah was dedicated on the northwest shore of Ford Island, near the ship's wreck, in 1972. The ship was added to the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989. It is also Utah’s official state ship. Memorabilia, books, and movies about the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 have also been made available to the public over the years. | <urn:uuid:b66dba77-c4f9-4fe7-a895-c86d80ede05a> | {
"date": "2018-02-19T17:56:21",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-09",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891812758.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20180219171550-20180219191550-00256.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9776790738105774,
"score": 3.71875,
"token_count": 849,
"url": "https://craftybrooklynarmywife.blogspot.com/2010/12/pearl-harbor-remembrance-day.html"
} |
1 Answer | Add Yours
The Geneva Conventions set the standards for humanitarian treatment of people in time of war. They consist of treaties and protocols (or amendments). The most recent one was ratified in 1949, after World War II.
Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity. Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault. Without prejudice to the provisions relating to their state of health, age and sex, all protected persons shall be treated with the same consideration by the Party to the conflict in whose power they are, without any adverse distinction based, in particular, on race, religion or political opinion. However, the Parties to the conflict may take such measures of control and security in regard to protected persons as may be necessary as a result of the war.
This treaty was signed by 194 countries.
The Geneva Conventions apply to countries who have agreed its terms. However, there are issues with regard to your second question as to whether the conventinos work or not. When the Geneva Conventions apply, countries must give up part of their national sovereignty to comply with international law. These laws may not be in accordance with their own country's consitution, values or other laws. Many critics argue that the Conventions offer many rights to individuals but not to governments and governments are therefore hesitant to accept the Convention's responsibilities.
Also, there are all sorts of ways "around" the provisions of the Conventions. For example, currently the United States is involved in "armed conflicts" in the Middle East. But, are they really wars? What is the definition of "war"? In the U.S. Constitution, war has to be declared by the Congress, and all of the U.S. conflicts have not offcially been wars. Plus, what about countries that are not part of the Geneva Conventions? Just because the U.S. may respect its provisions, does not mean that other countries will. Also, has the United States complied with the provisions of the Geneva Convention at Abu Ghraib? It's debatable. Were the terrorists imprisoned there "victims of war" or "enemy combatants"? If they were "enemy combatants" then the U.S. has a right to protect itself, but if they were "victims of war" then the Geneva Conventions were supposed to apply.
We’ve answered 317,858 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question | <urn:uuid:2f6a4136-d48c-41c5-8bdd-40d9d02492df> | {
"date": "2016-10-27T15:01:09",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-44",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721347.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00562-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9657676219940186,
"score": 3.9375,
"token_count": 565,
"url": "http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-can-described-evaluated-geneva-convention-155965"
} |
A SpaceX video shows the Grasshopper prototype rocket taking a 12-story leap toward full rocket reusability in a Dec. 17 test flight.
SpaceX's prototype Grasshopper rocket took one giant leap last week, rising to a 12-story height and settling back down safely on its landing legs at the company's Texas rocket test facility. Just for fun, the engineers let a dummy cowboy go along for the ride.
The Dec. 17 test flight at the pad in McGregor, Texas, was documented in a YouTube video released today — and discussed in a series of lighthearted tweets from SpaceX's billionaire founder, Elon Musk.
"To provide a little perspective on the size of Grasshopper, we added a 6-ft cowboy to the rocket. ... Then we took him for a ride," Musk wrote. So how did the cowboy fare? "No problemo," said Musk.
The 10-story-tall Grasshopper rocket is designed to take off and land vertically, as part of Musk's plan to develop a rocket capable of returning itself to a launch pad for rapid reusability. Today's vertical-takeoff launch systems generally rely upon expendable lower stages — although the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters could be recovered from the Atlantic Ocean and refurbished for reuse. If a rocket stage can return to its launch facility intact and ready to go again, that could significantly lower the cost of spaceflight. That's what Musk is shooting for.
SpaceX says the Grasshopper consists of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage, a Merlin 1D engine, four steel landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure. During the prototype's first flight test on Sept. 21, the Grasshopper rose 6 feet into the air. The second test, on Nov. 1, lasted 8 seconds and lifted the Grasshopper 17.7 feet (5.4 meters) off the pad. The company said last week's third test went for 29 seconds, during which the Grasshopper rose 131 feet (40 meters) into the air, hovered and landed safely back on the pad, using closed-loop thrust vector and throttle control.
A dummy cowboy is perched on SpaceX's Grasshopper rocket for a Dec. 17 test.
In addition to the Grasshopper, SpaceX is sending its Dragon capsules to resupply the International Space Station, working on a version of the Dragon that could carry astronauts into orbit sometime soon, and developing a Falcon Heavy rocket that could conceivably power flights to the moon. But Musk's long-range goal is even more ambitious: getting settlers to Mars. He has said Grasshopper-style rocket reusability is a key part of that long-term strategy.
"If it does works, it'll be pretty huge," he said last year during a speech at the National Press Club in Washington.
More on the commercial space race:
- SpaceShipTwo straps on its engine
- Golden Spike wants to fly you to the moon ... for $1.4 billion
- Blue Origin's spaceship prototype aces pad-escape test
- Gallery: Ten players in the commercial space race
- Cosmic Log archive on the new space race
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds. | <urn:uuid:779a7083-0ae7-42fe-84c7-9a1007b6ccd6> | {
"date": "2017-08-18T16:16:50",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-34",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886104704.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170818160227-20170818180227-00336.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9453017115592957,
"score": 2.515625,
"token_count": 767,
"url": "http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/24/16114180-spacex-launches-its-grasshopper-rocket-on-12-story-high-hop-in-texas"
} |
|25 August 2013
Prehistoric Europeans spiced up their food
A recent study led by Hayley Saul of the University of York found that at least some of our prehistoric ancestors liked to spice up their food for a more palatable cuisine. By examining isolated carbonized (burned) food deposits from pottery shards dated from ca. 6,100 to 3,750 BP from three sites in Denmark and Germany, Saul and colleagues identified phytoliths from plant remains that are likely mustard garlic seeds.
Phytoliths are created when plants absorb silica from the soil. The silica is deposited within different intracellular and extracellular structures of the plant and, after the plants decay, it is redeposited in the soil in the form of phytoliths, which are rigid, microscopic structures of varying sizes and shapes. These phytoliths are naturally decay-resistant and are thus preserved in soil and other contexts, ready to be discovered and examined by archaeologists thousands of years later.
In addition to the phytoliths, most of the samples studied contained evidence for marine and terrestrial animals, and starchy plant foods, all carbonized together with the phytoliths, suggesting that the garlic mustard seed substance was carbonized concurrent with the other animal and plant foods in the pots as food for consumption. While all of the food types identified in the analysis indicated substances with nutritional and calorie-rich value, the garlic mustard seed is known to have very little of such value. Moreover, garlic mustard seed spice, made from plants ranging from Europe to Central Asia, northern India and west China, is also known to have a strong peppery, mustard flavor, and is used today to flavor salads and sauces such as pesto.
Concludes Saul and colleagues in their report, "despite the modest number of samples, it is demonstrated beyond doubt that the use of spice was practised regularly during the decades when domesticates were introduced in the western Baltic region... It is now established that the habit of enhancing and altering the flavour of calorie rich staples was part of European cuisine as far back as the 7th millennia cal BP." The study authors add that "it is still uncertain if the practise was the result of Neolithic influence ultimately derived from the Near East, from where Old World farming originates, or if such advanced culinary practice was developed locally prior to the arrival of Neolithic elements in northern Europe".
Edited from PLOS One (August 2013), Popular Archaeology (21 August 2013)
Share this webpage: | <urn:uuid:8af6100b-da42-4fb5-b5a6-4bf2af26d952> | {
"date": "2018-04-26T22:54:11",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-17",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125948617.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20180426222608-20180427002608-00576.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9639366269111633,
"score": 3.453125,
"token_count": 514,
"url": "http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/005106.html"
} |
11 April 2014 The necessity for international cooperation in space and the universal utility of duct tape were among insights revealed when the United Nations sent a former astronaut into cyberspace today to inspire young people to explore new frontiers on the anniversary of the first human space flight.
Takao Doi, an expert on space applications with the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), who was an astronaut prior to joining the world Organization, conducted a Twitter chat to answer questions about his experiences ahead of the International Day of Human Space Flight, celebrated on 12 April.
On that day in 1961, Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union bThe exploration of outer space is a truly global undertaking and I hope that the International Day of Human Space Flight will inspire young people, in particular, to strive towards new frontiers of knowledge and understanding.ecame the first human to go into space. Fifty years later, the UN General Assembly declared the International Day to mark the new era that had dawned and to encourage peaceful uses of outer space that would benefit all people.
Mr. Doi flew in the space shuttles Columbia and Endeavour, in 1997 and 2008, respectively, undertaking a space walk in the first mission and visiting the International Space Station in the second.
Answering questions in today’s Twitter chat, he compared the experience of walking in space to swimming in a scuba suit, and said that the space station was much larger than people imagined – “as big as a football field, lots of live and work space.”
Asked if duct tape is ever used to temporarily repair equipment in space, Mr. Doi wrote, “All the time! Duct tape is an astronaut's best friend, carry it everywhere.”
He told a questioner from a developing country that everyone’s contributions are needed to make advances in outer space that would benefit humankind: “No one country has all innovative ideas; need international cooperation,” he tweeted.
“The exploration of outer space is a truly global undertaking and I hope that the International Day of Human Space Flight will inspire young people, in particular, to strive towards new frontiers of knowledge and understanding,” the new Director of UNOOSA, Simonetta Di Pippo said in her video message for the International Day.
Also to celebrate the day, UNOOSA, which is based at UN headquarters in Vienna, has launched its third edition of the online autograph album “Messages from Space Explorers for future generations,” which features notes from international astronauts in English, French and Russian.
The present edition contains 57 messages from astronauts of 20 countries, including from the first woman in space, the first Chinese woman in space and the pilot of the Apollo16 Lunar Module, and is available on the UNOOSA website.
News Tracker: past stories on this issue | <urn:uuid:3fcbb889-0461-47ce-a751-f9abb66da97f> | {
"date": "2016-05-01T09:16:03",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-18",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860114649.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161514-00174-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.93131422996521,
"score": 2.90625,
"token_count": 596,
"url": "http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=47565&Cr=outer+space&Cr1="
} |
If Twitter can anticipate the stock market, what can it do for deadly illnesses?
For epidemiologists, a swift response is critical in limiting the effects of an infectious disease outbreak. As the recent spate of cholera in Haiti indicates, infectious diseases can rapidly spread in a matter of days. For maladies as common as influenza, the best strategy against illness is vaccination. But if prevention is crucial to halting epidemics, how can doctors and governments maximize their ability to anticipate outbreaks and plan accordingly?
While the Center for Disease Control continues to plot the life-cycles of infectious diseases, a professor at Southern Louisiana University has turned to social media for guidance. Between August 2009 and May 2010, associate professor for computer science Aron Culotta and two student assistants analyzed more than 500 million Twitter messages collected through the service's application programming interface (API). By using a small number of keywords to track flu-related updates -- ranging from headache to sore throat -- Culotta's team had a 95% success rate in matching the CDC's projected probability of flu outbreaks in the United States.
"A micro-blogging service such as Twitter is a promising new data source for Internet-based surveillance because of the volume of messages, their frequency and public availability," Culotta told Science Daily last month. "This approach is much cheaper and faster than having thousands of hospitals and health care providers fill out forms each week."
Culota's software is remarkably efficient. While the CDC produces weekly estimates for disease outbreaks, those reports typically lag a week or two behind due to the data collection process. Culota's program is lightning fast and entirely automated, analyzing the bulk of each day's Twitter messages and producing an estimate of the current proportion of people with the flu. Culotta compares his software to Google Flu Trends, which uses aggregated search queries to estimate flu activity. "The basis is different," Cullota told me. "They're looking at what people put in a search box while we look at Twitter, but we get pretty comparable results."
But Twitter may prove more efficient than Google Flu Trends in disaster or conflict zones. The ubiquity of Twitter -- and its frequent usage in conjunction with mobile phones -- suggests that the short-form service may be the medium of choice during an unforeseen disaster like the Februrary 2010 earthquake in Chile or in the face of closed or diminished Internet access, as in Iran during the 2009 election protests. "When normal ways of collecting data are out of service, informal mediums become more appealing," Cullota said.
Twitter-analyzing software and other forms of algorithmic forecasting have their limitations, though. In order to determine the accuracy of his model, Culotta matches his data against existing CDC flu trends in the United States. In disaster-ridden or post-conflict areas where the CDC or other global health organizations lack baseline data on infectious diseases, validating the accuracy of a projection proves problematic.
Similarly, the information introduced into the Twitter ecosystem may not always indicate the actual spread of disease. "If you have a lot of events that are extremely rare, you can track them and compare them to baseline ... maybe it wouldn't be cholera stats, but actual false alarms," Cullota said. "You could run the software without validating it and say, compared to past Twitter data, 'here's a big spike' ... but you never know if you've seen these spikes before and whether or not they represent a spike or some false alarm." Cullota pointed to Google Flu Trends as an example. "What about recalls for flu medication? A big spike in searches for a certain query may produce the same sets of keywords that software associates with a spike." Other constraints are simpler: "How many Haitians use Twitter or Google?"
Despite these pitfalls, Cullota maintains that his Twitter-analyzing software may play an integral role in disaster recovery, especially in containing the spread of infectious diseases in devastated areas. "In real time in, say, Miami, you can tell the CDC to look closer. But if there's no CDC, then yeah, it's a valuable alternative," Cullota said. "It's impressive and amazing that we're able to correlate so closely with CDC stats."We're just beginning to learn exactly how valuable this information is. The stereotypically menial messages -- people talking about their coffee -- are actually very important, and we can pull that information out of them." | <urn:uuid:de302f77-7aaf-4090-b8ce-f4548cd1ecad> | {
"date": "2017-02-23T02:40:40",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-09",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171070.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00280-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9391050934791565,
"score": 2.78125,
"token_count": 896,
"url": "https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/10/twitter-and-disease-control-the-limits-of-algorithmic-prediction/65165/"
} |
RANAU August 27, 2012: Parents have been urged to work together with teachers to ensure that their children in Primary 1 and 2 will be able to master the basic art of reading, writing and basic arithmetic (3R) under the Literacy and Numeracy Screenings (LINUS) initiative established since 2010.
The headmaster of Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Pekan Ranau Mostajah @ Zunaidi Dullah insisted that parents played a very crucial role in assisting the school and especially teachers by transforming the teaching and learning methods to educate Year 1 students so that they could master the basic skills as per the LINUS initiative.
- The initiative is part of the Education NKRA under the GTP and was put in place to ensure that children in Primary Year 1 to 3 are literate and numerate before they advance to Year 4.
- The programme consists of 12 constructs for Literacy and Numeracy respectively which must be mastered by students before they start their normal class cycles.
- The student must have the basic ability to read and write vocals and consonants as well as construct simple and compound sentences with conjunctions.
- As for numeracy, each student must master the aspects of pre-numbers, number recognition followed by counting and understand the value of a number.
- Students must also have basic knowledge of addition and subtraction, know Malaysian currency values, possess the ability to tell time and conduct simple transactions in ringgit and measurements.
“This will be further developed with the skills to translate ordinary sentences to mathematical equations and apply this knowledge to daily life,” he said during a briefing which was attended by parents in the school.
Mostajah was happy to announce that there were no more students under the LINUS programme in Year 3
He attributed the success to the students and teachers of the batch since Year 1.
A guide book was also presented to the parents to monitor and assist their children's development at home during their participation in the programme. | <urn:uuid:b3a92474-d11b-48db-9117-f00920f6ac30> | {
"date": "2017-04-29T01:34:05",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-17",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917123172.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031203-00472-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9689263105392456,
"score": 2.75,
"token_count": 415,
"url": "http://kgsilou.blogspot.com/2012/08/parents-urged-to-work-hand-in-hand-with.html"
} |
Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) are a group of breathing tests. They can show how well your lungs are working. PFTs may measure:
- How much air you can blow out
- How much air your lungs can hold at different times
- How fast you are blowing air out
Reasons for Test
PFTs may be used to diagnose lung conditions or diseases, such as:
These tests may also be done to:
- Measure how much a lung problem is affecting you
- Evaluate symptoms such as coughing , wheezing, and trouble breathing
- Evaluate your lung function before or after a surgery
- Determine how well a treatment is working
What to Expect
Prior to Test
- Review your medicines with your doctor. You may need to stop taking some before testing.
- Do not eat, smoke, or exercise 4-8 hours before testing.
- Wear loose-fitting clothing.
Description of Test
Most tests will require you to breathe into a mouthpiece. The mouthpiece may be attached to a simple handheld device or be part of a larger machine. Examples of devices are a spirometer or peak flow meter . You may be asked to breathe in and out in different patterns and speeds. You will rest between tests.
Tell the technician right away if you have breathing problems, pain, or dizziness during testing.
Other tests that may be used in some situations include:
- A brief period of exercise before the test.
- Oxygen saturation test to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood. Can be measured with a small clip on your finger.
- You may be exposed to a specific chemical called methacholine during the PFT. The test will determine if your breathing changes due to that chemical. This is only done under close and careful supervision.
Rest until you feel able to leave. You may be given medicine if testing has caused wheezing, coughing, and/or difficulty breathing.
How Long Will It Take?
Will It Hurt?
The test does not hurt. You may feel symptoms of your lung condition during or immediately following testing.
Your doctor will compare the results of your tests with normal values based on your age, sex, and height, or previous test results. Your doctor will discuss the results with you and decide if further testing or treatment is needed.
Call Your Doctor
After the test, call your doctor if any of the following occurs:
- Headaches, nausea, muscle aches, dizziness, or general ill feeling
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Wheezing or persistent coughing
- Chest pain
- Reviewer: Michael Woods, MD
- Review Date: 09/2013 -
- Update Date: 09/30/2013 - | <urn:uuid:b18eb667-346f-40be-a958-ec828c873273> | {
"date": "2013-12-08T18:32:49",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-48",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163785316/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204132945-00002-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.919393002986908,
"score": 3.6875,
"token_count": 572,
"url": "http://blakemedicalcenter.com/your-health/?/14853/Pulmonary--Lung--Function-Tests"
} |
Twenty-eight miners are reported to have died in a gas explosion at the Babao Coal Mine in Jilin Province, in the far northeast of China, at 10.40 pm local time (1.40 pm GMT) on Friday 29 March 2013. A further 13 workers suffered miner injuries; rescuers are not looking for any further people.
The location of the Babao Coal Mine. Google Maps.
Gas explosions in coal mines are an unpleasantly common event. Coal is formed by the compression and heating of plant matter in deeply buried sediments. The remaining coal is mostly carbon, with other elements that were present in the original material being squeezed out by the pressure. However if these are not able to escape they will be trapped as pockets of gas, typically a mix of methane, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, water vapor and volatile hydrocarbons.
China gains 70% of its energy from coal-burning power stations, which places the country under great pressure to maintain coal supplies. This has led to a poor safety record within the mining sector, particularly in the private sector, where there is a culture of seeking quick profits in poorly regulated (and often officially non-existent) mines. State owned mines are often thought to be better regulated, but still compare badly to mines in other parts of the world; the Babao Coal Mine is run by the state-owned Tonghua Mining Group.
See also 83 feared dead after Tibetan landslip, Polish miners rescued after Earthquake, Seven workers killed by mine explosion in Hunan Province, China, Miners trapped by flooding at Qielichong Coal Mine in Hunan Province, China and At least 21 miners killed in mining disaster in Yunnan Province, China.
Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook. | <urn:uuid:dc3d249a-0c07-480b-9316-ab2db2847365> | {
"date": "2018-06-21T14:33:34",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-26",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267864172.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20180621133636-20180621153636-00616.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9663134813308716,
"score": 2.78125,
"token_count": 358,
"url": "http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.com/2013/03/"
} |
An international collaboration will delve into why patients with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome have an elevated risk of schizophrenia and other psychiatric illnesses. Genetics experts from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia are among the top leaders of this major collaboration, which aims to discover the genes implicated in the syndrome and shed light on the biological causes of mental illness in the general population.
Found in approximately 1 in 4,000 live births, 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2 DS) involves birth defects and developmental and behavioral differences. Caused by the absence of a DNA sequence on the long arm of chromosome 22, the syndrome carries many possible signs and symptoms that may affect the heart, palate, the immune and endocrine systems, and the kidneys. Some patients may have seizures, hearing loss, scoliosis, or feeding and swallowing problems.
In addition, many children with 22q11.2 DS have developmental delays, including learning disabilities and delays in language emergence, or may have an autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder. As they enter adolescence or young adulthood, approximately 25 to 30 percent of patients are at risk of developing schizophrenia, which represents a much higher rate than the one percent rate found in the general population.
Donna McDonald-McGinn, MS, CGC, program director of the 22q and You Center at CHOP, is the co-director of the International Consortium on Brain and Behavior in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome, which has just received a $12 million, four-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health. The consortium brings together caregivers and scientists from 22 clinical centers and five genotyping sites throughout the world.
The consortium’s research tools will include whole-genome sequencing to uncover genetic variation among patients with chromosome 22q11.2 DS. Children’s Hospital, which has a long-standing research and clinical program focused on this condition, has evaluated more than 1,200 patients, making it the world’s largest center of its kind.
Two genetics researchers with global prominence in studying this diagnosis, Beverly S. Emanuel, Ph.D., and Elaine Zackai, M.D., are co-investigators at CHOP’s site in the Brain and Behavior Consortium. Among many other accomplishments, in 1995 both scientists were on the team that created an early genetic map of chromosome 22, setting the stage for it to become the first chromosome sequenced in the Human Genome Project.
While focusing on the genetic roots of psychiatric disorders in 22q11.2 DS, the consortium leaders expect to identify biological pathways leading to schizophrenia in the broader population, with the hope that such data may inform novel, more effective treatments.
For more information, please visit the Research Institute’s website. | <urn:uuid:897b56cf-0b09-4abf-a590-9b64abd8a4de> | {
"date": "2013-12-13T19:44:25",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-48",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164987957/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204134947-00002-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9275400638580322,
"score": 3.109375,
"token_count": 590,
"url": "http://www.research.chop.edu/blog/chop-genetics-expert-co-leads-large-new-nih-grant-psychiatric-illnesses-patients-deletion-syndrome/"
} |
Pancreatic cancer: It’s the fourth highest cause of cancer deaths in the United States. In fact, it’s estimated that over 32,000 people will succumb to pancreatic cancer this year alone in the U.S. Plus, only a scant five percent of people with this type of cancer will live past a year of diagnosis. While these are somber statistics, researchers are finding new ways to help combat this devastating disease.
The newest discovery? Two types of blood pressure medications could help halt the growth and spread of this deadly cancer: ACE inhibitors and AT1R blockers.
Thanks to a new study out of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, researchers have found that these two common blood pressure drugs can help reduce the development of blood vessels that feed pancreatic tumors. This process — known as “angiogenesis,” which is the formation and differentiation of blood vessels — goes awry when a tumor is present in a person’s system.
This isn’t the first time that ACE inhibitors and AT1R blockers have been tagged due to their potential cancer- fighting properties. Previous studies have shown that both have been linked to lower incidences of cancer progression. Both drugs have also been shown to have the ability to inhibit the pancreas hormone “angiotensin II,” which also plays a harmful role in the development of pancreatic cancer. Basically, this hormone creates a vascular factor, known as VEGF, which promotes the growth of blood vessels in various cancers.
The main point you need to know about VEGF is that when It’s in high amounts in the body, a poor cancer prognosis as well as an early relapse of the disease are more likely to occur. So, in the study, what the researchers did is look at how both ACE inhibitors and AT1R blockers worked in relation to VEGF in both invasive pancreatic cancer and normal pancreatic tissue.
In the test tube study, they found that both drugs helped slow down the process of angiogenesis. Of course, further animal and subsequent human studies into this effect will have to be conducted, but the researchers do note that this finding may lead to both ACE inhibitors and AT1R blockers could become part of a potential strategy to help control the growth and spread of pancreatic cancer.
According to a lead researcher in the study, Hwyda Arafat, MD, PhD, “High VEGF levels correspond with lymph node metastasis and worse prognosis in many cancers. High levels of angiotensin II might mean high levels of VEGF and pancreatic cancer. We have a treatment to block it.”
“Patients have chemotherapy and radiation sometimes before surgery. I would imagine this would be useful either for unresectable tumors or after surgical removal of the pancreatic cancer. It might be used in maintenance,” she added.
Calling the findings “very promising,” Arafat also noted the safety of the drugs, which have already been well tested, and the fact that the test tube findings could translate to an animal study quickly. We’ll keep you posted. | <urn:uuid:9f087a9a-1407-4057-ba8a-2d2cbf255aa4> | {
"date": "2019-12-14T13:06:45",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-51",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575541157498.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20191214122253-20191214150253-00136.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9599719643592834,
"score": 3.078125,
"token_count": 656,
"url": "https://www.doctorshealthpress.com/heart-health-articles/blood-pressure-drugs-could-slow-down-pancreatic-cancer/"
} |
Cyclophosphamide and Fludarabine to Treat Lupus Nephritis
This study will test the safety and effectiveness of combination therapy with cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan) and fludarabine in treating lupus nephritis (kidney inflammation). This condition, common in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, is caused by abnormal action of immune cells called lymphocytes against the kidneys. Left untreated, severe cases can result in loss of kidney function. The current treatment of choice-intermittent high doses (pulses) of cyclophosphamide-does not work in all patients and causes infertility in many women. The rate of infertility in men is not known. This study will examine whether fludarabine can safely be given with significantly lower doses of cyclophosphamide, and if this combination controls kidney inflammation.
Patients 18 years of age and older with severe lupus nephritis (called proliferative lupus nephritis) may be eligible for this study. Candidates will have a history and physical examination; blood and urine tests; chest X-ray; electrocardiogram; cancer screening that may include a Pap smear, mammogram, rectal examination, PSA testing, and sigmoidoscopy.
Participants will be divided into one of the following treatment groups:
Group 1-Patients undergo three treatment cycles of cyclophosphamide, taken by mouth, and fludarabine, injected subcutaneously (under the skin). Patients receive both drugs on day 1 of the cycle, and fludarabine alone on days 2 and 3. This regimen is repeated once every 5 weeks for three cycles.
Group 2-Same as for Group 1, except fludarabine injections are given intravenously (through a vein) for the second treatment cycle. Patients in this group have frequent blood sampling during the first and second treatment cycles to monitor blood levels of the drug. Samples are collected before the first injection is given and at 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 4, 8, 24 and 48 hours after the third injection. A total 12 tablespoons of blood is drawn over a 2-month period.
All patients will have blood drawn once or twice a week during the first two cycles and then less frequently to monitor blood counts. Some patients will have the following additional procedures to test the effects of treatment on lymphocytes:
- Blood sample collection
- Bone marrow aspiration-The skin over the hip bone is cleaned and a local anesthetic is injected into the outer covering of the bone. Bone marrow is suctioned through the needle into an attached syringe. The procedure is done before treatment begins, at the end of treatment, and 6 months after treatment.
- Tonsillar biopsy-The tonsils are numbed with a local anesthetic and 1 to 4 pieces of tissue are removed using special forceps. The procedure is done before treatment begins, at the end of treatment, and 6 months after treatment.
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the abdomen-The patients lies on a table in a narrow cylinder (the MRI scanner) containing a strong magnetic field, which is used to create images of parts of the body in small section views.
Patients will be followed for at least 24 months to monitor late side effects and the response to treatment.
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Drug: SQ Fludarabine
|Study Design:||Endpoint Classification: Safety Study
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:||Combination of Cyclophosphamide and Fludarabine for Lupus Nephritis: Tolerance, Toxicity, Efficacy and Effects on B and T Lymphocyte Regeneration|
|Study Start Date:||January 1998|
|Estimated Study Completion Date:||November 2002|
Studies at the NIH Clinical Center have shown that intermittent pulse cyclophosphamide therapy is effective for treating patients with severe lupus nephritis, but may result in substantial rates of sustained amenorrhea. Initial studies in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases have also suggested a beneficial effect from the lymphocyte-specific nucleoside analogs chlorodeoxyadenosine and fludarabine. Cyclophosphamide induces DNA cross-links whereas, nucleoside analogs inhibits DNA repair indicating complementary and partially synergistic modes of action. Whether combination of lower doses of cyclophosphamide with nucleoside analogs will increase efficacy while at the same time minimize toxicity from higher-cumulative doses of cyclophosphamide has not been determined. In this phase I/II study, 15 patients with proliferative lupus nephritis will be treated as outpatients with a combination of oral cyclophosphamide (500 mg/m(2)) on day 1 followed by fludarabine (30 mg/m(2)) subcutaneously on days 1, 2 and 3 every month for 3 cycles. The cumulative dose of cyclophosphamide in this regimen is approximately 2.5g as compared to greater than or equal to 30g in the standard NIH cyclophosphamide regimen. In this study the tolerance and toxicity of this combination will be studied. Regeneration of T and B cells following depletion including analysis of antigen-repertoire and function will also be examined. Preliminary efficacy information, including rates and time to renal remission and rates of preservation of renal function, will be analyzed to be used for future controlled studies. Pharmacokinetic analysis will be performed on a subset of patients to determine the bioavailability and pharmacokinetic parameters of subcutaneous fludarabine.
|United States, Maryland|
|National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)|
|Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892| | <urn:uuid:e0f0dee3-6826-41be-b5a5-d86d9a6e230c> | {
"date": "2014-03-10T06:29:05",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-10",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394010672371/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305091112-00006-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8916361927986145,
"score": 2.609375,
"token_count": 1217,
"url": "http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00001676?cond=%22Lupus%22&rank=14"
} |
Headings contain runes, phonetics and tokens. Description contains a link to the docs and a short description of the rune. Both regular (R) and irregular (I) forms are given.
Ctrl-f to find out the meaning of something weird you saw? Search for
\=. It'll show you to the irregular forms that uses that symbol.
. dot (nock)
Anything Nock can do, Hoon can do also.
[%dtls p=atom]: increment an atom with Nock 4.
[%dtls p=hoon q=hoon]: test for equality with Nock 5.
; mic (make)
Miscellaneous useful macros.
[%smcl p=hoon q=(list hoon)]: call a binary function as an n-ary function.
: col (cells)
The cell runes.
[%clhp p=hoon q=hoon]: construct a cell (2-tuple).
[a b] ==> :-(a b) [a b c] ==> [a [b c]] a^b^c ==> [a b c] a/b ==> [%a b] `a ==> [~ a] ~[a b] ==> [a b ~] [a b]~ ==> [[a b] ~]
= tis (flow)
Flow hoons change the subject. All non-flow hoons (except cores) pass the subject down unchanged.
[%tsgl p=hoon q=hoon]: compose two hoons, inverted.
| bar (core)
docs \$ Core hoons are flow hoon.
Technically not irregular syntax, but worth mentioning.
The above runes produce a core with a single arm, named
$ ("buc"). We can recompute this arm with changes, useful for recursion among other things. Commonly used with the irregular syntax for
:make, like so:
% cen (call)
The invocation family of runes.
[%cnts p=wing q=(list (pair wing hoon))]: take a wing with changes.
%=(p a 1)
[%cnsg p=wing q=hoon r=hoon]: call with multi-armed door.
%~(p q r)
~(p q r)
[%cnhp p=hoon q=hoon]: call a gate (function).
=<($ p)), which behaves as you would expect (func call w/o args).
$ buc (mold)
A mold is a gate (function) that helps us build simple and rigorous data structures.
[%bcwt p=(list model)]: mold which normalizes a general union.
[%bccb p=value]: mold which normalizes to an example.
? wut (test)
Hoon has the usual branches and logical tests.
[%wtzp p=hoon]: logical not.
[%wtpm p=(list hoon)]: logical and.
[%wtbr p=(list hoon)]: logical or.
^ ket (cast)
Lets us adjust types without violating type constraints.
[%kthp p=model q=value]: typecast by mold.
[%ktts p=toga q=value]: name a value.
acan be an ((ir)regularly defined) atom or a symbol.
See %sand for other irregular definitions of atoms.
&nnth element of a list.
|ntail of list after nth element (i.e. n is the head).
[%limb p=(each @ud [p=@ud q=@tas])]: attribute of subject.
+15is slot 15
.is the whole subject (slot 1)
a"of a higher scope", i.e. "resolve variable a, ignoring the first one found".
^^peven higher, etc.
- 'Lark' syntax for slots / tree addressing:
+1 +2 - +3 + +4 -< +5 -> +6 +< +7 +> +8 -<- ...
[%wing p=(list limb)]; a limb search path.
a.b finds limb
a within limb
a within "var"
In our in-house examples throughout our documentation, we use irregular forms instead of regular for the sake of verbosity. But remember with irregular forms: everything is just runes! Like magic. In general, irregular forms (usually) read better, but of course regular forms provide more information about what you're doing by showing you the full rune. Of course, it's up to you, the Hoon programmer, as to whether or not you want to use these. | <urn:uuid:f9ae8b5b-1fcd-482d-a17d-9ddae85a2139> | {
"date": "2019-05-19T12:16:08",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-22",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232254882.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20190519121502-20190519143502-00376.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.713630735874176,
"score": 2.625,
"token_count": 1020,
"url": "https://urbit.org/docs/reference/hoon-expressions/irregular/"
} |
Currently, federal law does not explicitly prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, federal funding, education, credit, and jury selection based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Equality Act would amend existing civil rights laws to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.
Tell Congress to pass the Every Child Deserves a Family Act and end the practice of adoption and foster care agencies discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status when considering prospective parents.
In August 2017, President Trump issued a directive banning transgender individuals from serving in the United States military. While legal battles have been launched to fight against the ban, the best solution is a legislative fix. Urge your members of Congress to pass bipartisan legislation (S. 373/H.R. 1032) to reverse the effects of this discriminatory ban.
This text study provides an opportunity to highlight this issue of LGBTQ rights with audiences, such as teens and young adults, interested in connecting the work they are currently doing to secure equal rights with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
In October 2018, the New York Times reported on efforts by the US Department of Health and Human Services to adopt a narrow legal definition of sex. This definition would essentially erase federal recognition of transgender individuals. The Religious Action Center wrote a letter, joined by 15 other Jewish organizations, urging the Department to abandon this definition. | <urn:uuid:dbfab068-9816-4c26-b1b3-e792388fa1c8> | {
"date": "2019-05-26T23:15:18",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-22",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232260161.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20190526225545-20190527011545-00536.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9418702721595764,
"score": 3.3125,
"token_count": 276,
"url": "https://rac.org/lgbtq-rights-0"
} |
Back then there may not have been a single mile of downhill ski trail on the continent, according to the Jan. 25, 1935 Ski Bulletin. Those first Appalachian Mountain Club skiers finished 20 miles of trail in the southwest corner of New Hampshire.
Then, in New Hampshire's Lakes Region, the Winnipesaukee Ski Club finished trails on what is now Gunstock. The Works Progress Administration further developed the Belknap Mountains Recreation Area.
Much early New England skiing took place at mom-and-pop ski areas. Putting up a tow rope and taking in lodgers was a way for farmers to earn a little more money in the off season.
Enthusiasm for skiing spread to a farm in Lisbon, N.H. , in 1936. Farm Security Administration photographer Marion Post Wolcott took pictures of local teenagers skiing on Dickinson's farm in March 1939. She described the photos:
On Saturday afternoon many high school students come to Dickinson's farm to ski. Mr Dickenson built a ski tow on his farm three years ago at a cost of one thousand dollars. This is the first year he had made any money, although business is increasing rapidly now. He has a small dairy farm and until the hurricane last year destroyed his entire grove of maple trees he made and sold maple syrup. Lisbon near Franconia, New Hampshire.
New England skiing wasn't just a way for farmers to make money. It also allowed innkeepers to extend their season into winter. Kate Peckett, the daughter of the owners of Peckett's-on-Sugar-Hill, persuaded her parents to run a ski school on Cannon Mountain.
Kate is also credited with inspiring the Taft Slalom trail on Cannon Mountain, which the Civilian Conservation Corps cut in 1933 as the first racing trail in North America.
In February 1933, the Ski Bulletin called it a "ski run equaled by nothing in the East.”
The CCC also built a parking lot and ski trails on Cannon Mountain. And in 1938, the state of New Hampshire agreed to finance an aerial tramway on Cannon, completed in 1939.
The first tow rope in New England was constructed on Jan. 28, 1934 in a former sheep pasture near Woodstock, Vt. Made out of rope, pulleys and an old Model T engine, it gave birth to the White Cupboard Skiway (named after the nearby inn).
The Civilian Conservation Corps played a big role in developing Vermont's ski industry. CCC enlistees built 11 ski trails, mostly in Stow. All but one still exist.
Two Vermonters affiliated with Dartmouth College also helped popularize skiing in New England. When a Swedish student challenged the school's carpenter, Fred Garey of Thetford, to make a pair of skis, he rose to the occasion. He figured out how to make the eight-foot-long skis from seasoned ash in his kitchen. When he showed them to the Dartmouth students, he realized he had a hit on his hands.
Another Vermonter, Fred Harris of Brattleboro, founded the Dartmouth Outing Club in 1909 as a student. National Geographic ran a story about skiing in New Hampshire in 1920 that featured the club, and Dartmouth's admissions tripled.
When Maine's first tow rope opened in Fryeberg in 1936, 200 people came to ski and 3,000 came to watch.
Maine's first Alpine skiing resort, Shawnee Peak in Bridgton, opened in 1938 with a 1,100-foot tow rope.
Today, Maine has more than 100 abandoned rope tow sites.
For more information about New England skiing history, check out the New England Ski Museum at the base of Cannon Mountain or on their website. All photos by Marion Post Wolcott in March 1939, courtesy Library of Congress. This story about New England skiing was updated in 2019. | <urn:uuid:239a38ed-efa8-4b08-a223-349def581b46> | {
"date": "2019-12-07T14:41:56",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-51",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540499439.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20191207132817-20191207160817-00416.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9594168663024902,
"score": 2.703125,
"token_count": 791,
"url": "http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/early-days-new-england-skiing/"
} |
What Do Blood Pressure Numbers Mean?
May. 4, 2017
We hear this every time we visit the doctor. OK, Mr. Smith, your blood pressure is 120 over 75. Or, Mrs. Jones, your blood pressure is 118 over 82. And so on. But have you ever wondered what exactly those numbers really mean? And what does that mean to your overall health?
It’s something all medical providers must know. It’s something taught to all of our Concorde students, especially those in Nursing and Medical Assistant programs. Really, all of us should have this bit of health care awareness, especially as we approach our elder years.
We here at Concorde are here to help … and provide answers. We did bit of research and sought out the help of one of our Medical Assistant program directors. Read on and gain a bit of health care awareness yourself … information that could help save your life one day.
Health care awareness about what the numbers mean
“Blood pressure numbers represent your heart’s health,” said Hanna Hodges, BS, NCMA, MA/MOA Program Director at Concorde’s campus in San Antonio, Texas.
Hodges said the first, or top, number represents systolic pressure. That’s the amount of pressure inside your arteries when your heart muscle contracts. The second, or bottom, number is diastolic. That is the pressure in your arteries between heart beats.
“These two numbers together show your provider a picture of how well the blood and oxygen are moving through the heart and can even help predict possible health complications,” Hodges said. “Having a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise will help your blood pressure stay at a normal range.”
More health care awareness behind the numbers
The U.S. government’s Food and Drug Administration states that blood pressure usually varies throughout the day. For adults, a blood pressure reading of lower than 120/80 is considered normal. Readings between 120/80 and 139/89 are considered pre-hypertension. People with pre-hypertension do not have blood pressure as low as it should be, but are not yet considered to have high blood pressure.
Your doctor might tell you that you have high blood pressure if you have two measurements of blood pressure readings, on physician office visits at least one week apart, that are higher than 140/90.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has issued guidelines that state people with blood pressure lower than 120/80 should be screened every two years. Your doctor might determine that your blood pressure should be screened more frequently. | <urn:uuid:395cdbd0-4573-4564-8f50-d4d2b5e63327> | {
"date": "2018-02-24T16:11:32",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-09",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891815843.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20180224152306-20180224172306-00256.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9453641176223755,
"score": 3.109375,
"token_count": 547,
"url": "https://www.concorde.edu/blog/health-care-awareness-bp-numbers"
} |
Education & Jobs
Staying in education
Morocco’s state education system consists of five years at primary level (from age six) and four years of secondary.
Primary schooling is free and compulsory, with 90% of children enrolled. However attendance levels can be low in rural areas.
SchoolSchoolIn this video… Fadoua and Rafik talk about what their school life is like. Rafik attends a school in the countryside which is very different to Fadoua’s school.
Once primary schooling finishes, drop-out levels are high, especially among girls. Only around half of girls enrol at secondary school, compared to nearly two-thirds of boys. This is reflected in national literacy rates (2008), showing 68% of 15-24 year-old women able to read and write, compared to 85% of young men.
Children in rural areas also have a language barrier to overcome if they are to continue successfully up through the schooling system. Many rural children have a local Berber dialect as their mother tongue.
However, standard Arabic and French are the main languages of education. English is also increasingly taken as the foreign language of choice.
Not enough jobs
Over two-fifths of Morocco’s working population remains in agriculture, while a third work in the service sectors. The remainder are mostly employed in the mining, manufacturing and construction industries.
As the economy continues to modernise, the government expects more workers to be absorbed into the tourism, telecommunications and service industries.
Currently, Morocco is battling high levels of unemployment. Official statistics put the unemployed at 10% of Morocco’s work force. But rates are likely to be much higher among younger people.
As there is no welfare support, many Moroccans leave the country to seek work abroad; the World Bank estimates three million migrants send back over six billion dollars in remittances annually. | <urn:uuid:3ab4e653-34c2-4e33-bb0b-1e8151423cec> | {
"date": "2016-12-08T05:55:53",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-50",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698542414.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170902-00336-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9647682905197144,
"score": 3.15625,
"token_count": 389,
"url": "http://www.our-africa.org/morocco/education-jobs"
} |
During the 17th and
18th centuries many Passions were written
by German composers. Until the first
half of the 18th century these were
in the main oratorio Passions, based
on the Biblical account of the suffering,
and death of Jesus, often with additional
free texts - arias and chorales. The
Gospels according to Matthew and John
were popular choices. In the first half
of the 18th century a new genre emerged:
the so-called Passion oratorio. This
was mostly a combination of a paraphrase
of and contemplation on the story of
the Passion. Passion oratorios were
usually performed outside the church,
in the form of a concert, but during
the second half of the century they
became a part of religious services
as well. Some composers wrote Passion
music of both genres, Telemann and Gottfried
August Homilius amongst them.
The most famous Passion
oratorio in Germany was Carl Heinrich
Graun's 'Der Tod Jesu'. The text was
written by the poet Carl Wilhelm Ramler,
and was also used by Telemann. This
text strongly reflects the spirit of
the Enlightenment, and as a result is
rather moralistic. Jesus is an example
of absolute virtue, and mankind should
follow in his footsteps. The Homilius
oratorio certainly bears the traces
of the Enlightenment too, but the difference
between this work's text and Ramler's
'Der Tod Jesu' can hardly be overlooked.
In Ramler's work the element of personal
sin – Jesus suffering in the sinner's
place – is pushed to one side to make
way for an expression of the wish to
follow Jesus' example. That is certainly
not the case in Homilius's oratorio,
the text of which was written Ernst
August Buschmann, who from 1759 to 1775
was pastor in Löbnitz, near Leipzig.
The title and the the first line of
the opening chorus are indications of
its content: "A little lamb goes bearing
the guilt of the world and its children.
It goes patiently atoning for the sins
of all sinners." It is the first stanza
of a well-known Passion hymn by Paul
Gerhardt (1607-1676). The oratorio contains
five choruses and two ariosos where
passages from the Bible are quoted.
These all refer to sin and the hope
for redemption, which is underlined
by the texts of the chorales. In regard
to content, this oratorio is closer
to Bach's Passions than to 'Der Tod
The recitatives are
either accompanied, in particular the
most dramatic ones, or secco: with basso
continuo only. Features of these recitatives
are the shifting perspective, their
tone of commitment and their sometimes
very dramatic character. The recitative
"Die Mörder kommen schon" in the
first part shows this very clearly.
It describes how Judas and his henchmen
are coming to capture Jesus. The singer
(tenor) first asks: "Ah! disciples,
will you go on sleeping?" and urges
them "wake, wake, and all of you, pray".
Then he returns to reporting what happens:
"In bonds he is led to his judges."
He then leaves his neutral stance to
say: "Here sits the band of venerable
elders, and each of them is a miscreant
who hates Jesus Christ". Then he addresses
Peter: "Ah, Peter, you who wanted to
die with him, feeble man, now betraying
the duty that you should be doing, do
you know not Jesus?" Some recitatives
are very dramatic, like the beginning
of "Seht, wie Jerusalem sich wider ihn
empöret!" (See how Jerusalem rages
against him!) (part 1) or "Zerreiße,
Golgatha" (Break asunder, Golgotha,
and earth, tremble) (part 2).
It was quite usual
in Passions of both genres to give arias
to Jesus. Although the aria doesn't
refer to him, it is clear from the text
that in "Ich bete, zürnet nicht"
Jesus is speaking: "I pray, do not rage,
I am the man of sorrows". The tenor
aria "Nun wird, mein Gott, dein Donner
fassen" makes no specific reference
to Peter, but it is obvious that he
is speaking, right after his denial
of Jesus: "Now will your thunderbolt,
God, strike me, for I have denied you".
It is typical, though, that into this
aria a chorus is integrated in which
the believers say "We fall before you,
Jesus, what we have done". This way
they acknowledge they are not better
than Peter and have done the same as
he. There is not much difference between
the content of this aria and chorus
and Bach's St Matthew Passion ("Erbarme
Homilius very effectively
translates the text into music. In particular
the orchestra is used to express the
content of the arias. In the B section
of the aria "Wie tödlich schrecken
die Gerichte" the held notes in the
wind lament the impending death of Jesus
("Earth, quake! end your fearful lament
up to Heaven!"). Ascending figures depict
the joy of the redemption through Jesus'
death in "Nun sterb ich Sünder
nicht": "Now, I, a sinner, shall not
die, the Father will grant pardon".
The aria "Umgürtet mit Gerechtigkeit"
is very warlike: "Girded with righteousness,
the hero now rushes into mighty combat,
death must flee, and hell must shiver".
Fast repeated figures express terror,
wrath and thunder in "Bewaffne dich,
Mächtger": "Arm yourself, mighty
one, with terror and wrath, command
the thunder with the voice of destruction".
This aria strongly reminds me of the
opening chorus of a cantata by Homilius
('Verwundrung, Mitleid, Furcht und Schrecken').
In the second part the bass, acting
as 'vox Dei', sings an arioso on the
words of Isaiah 43, v24: "Thou hast
made me to serve with thy sins, thou
hast wearied me with thine iniquities".
The singer is accompanied here by the
low strings and the bassoons, a most
eloquent expression of the content.
In the choruses homophony
dominates, but Homilius shows he is
able to write in polyphonic style as
well: the last line of "Daran ist erschienen
die Liebe Gottes" and the second section
of "Israel, hoffe auf den Herrn" (Psalm
130, vv7-8) are fugues. After all Homilius
was a pupil of Bach.
The general tenor of
the oratorio is well expressed in the
closing chorus (with alto solo): "Here
hangs the sacrifice for man's sins,
the blood of the great Peacemaker is
flowing! Now can the Christian soul
receive the comfort of having Christ
as his Saviour."
This is the first recording
ever of this oratorio, and I am very
impressed by its quality. The more I
hear of Homilius's sacred music, the
more I lean towards the view that he
must be considered one of the very best
composers of religious music in Germany
of the generation of the sons of Bach.
No wonder that his compositions were
widely performed in Germany and beyond.
And I am very happy that there is something
like a 'Homilius renaissance' going
on, as the cover of this disc states.
I am also very impressed
by the performance. The soloists give
a splendid account of themselves and
express the content of arias and recitatives
very well. The voice of Hans Christoph
Begemann does not however appeal to
me, and it's a shame that there is a
slight tremolo in his voice. But on
the whole this does not detract unduly
from the value this recording. The Basler
Madrigalisten give immaculate performances
of the choruses and the chorales. The
orchestra is not that well-known yet
must be one of the best baroque orchestras
around, as is impressively demonstrated
in this recording.
This recording goes straight to the
top of my list of records of the year.
Johan van Veen | <urn:uuid:7b434edc-720b-4774-b041-59081d75a969> | {
"date": "2014-10-31T22:19:21",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-42",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414637900397.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20141030025820-00019-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8985304236412048,
"score": 3.453125,
"token_count": 1965,
"url": "http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Sept07/Homilius_carus83262.htm"
} |
An End to Our Darkness
The word miketz or keitz signifies “end” or “conclusion.” It is usually used
to denote the end of an era, the defining moment of the passage of time. It
also denotes that a great change of circumstances is about to occur. What
was before will be no longer. The end of the past will give way to a new
reality. In this week’s parsha the word introduces us to the radical change
in the circumstances of Yosef – from dungeon inmate to viceroy of Egypt.
In Jewish tradition, the word is employed to describe the end of the period
of exile and trials of Israel and the beginning of the longed for redemption
and messianic era. Implicit in our understanding of the word as it appears
in the Torah and Jewish tradition is the understanding that nothing is
certain and what may appear to be long lasting and immovable is always only
temporary and given to change.
Only uncertainty is certain in our lives and in all human affairs. There is
always an end to the present and a new future, for good or for better,
always is present just over the horizon of time. This short Hebrew word
mocks all of the predictions of experts in any field of endeavor. All such
statements are based upon the known past and present but these come to an
eventual end and the future remains as inscrutable as ever. We are experts
in hindsight. We rarely achieve meaningful foresight in any field of human
endeavor, and in national and personal living.
All of this is true regarding humankind generally. It is doubly true
regarding the future of the Jewish people and Israel. Only the diehards
stubbornly insist that somehow the path of the Oslo Agreements has not yet
come to an end. Only the hardened and Jewishly Torah ignorant secularist
believe that somehow theirs is the solution to the “Jewish problem,” both
internally and externally.
In our generation, the end has come to many ideas, ideologies and
circumstances that were supposed to carry on for future centuries. The whole
world’s economic structure is now threatened by the unthinkable, something
that economic experts told us could never happen and that there never would
be an end to consumer and debt driven prosperity.
Hitler’s Reich was to have lasted one thousand years and Marx’s economic
theories were to have produced eternal peace, fairness and a certain and
easily predictable future. The world operates as though the word miketz is
not present in the human lexicon. That is the main tragic error in human
society for it allows for faulty planning, a sense of overconfidence, and a
pompous certainty of rectitude that is based on the false assumption that
circumstances and eras do not change or end.
This week’s parsha reiterates this true fact of our existence, uncomfortable
as that may be to our psyche. The Midrash introduces its commentary to our
parsha with the verse “keitz – an end has the Lord brought to our darkness.”
May that be the keitz to our era as well.
Rabbi Berel Wein | <urn:uuid:34fa708a-c2dc-434f-9bba-23e945d94f31> | {
"date": "2014-10-25T11:56:15",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-42",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119648148.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030048-00165-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9331702589988708,
"score": 2.6875,
"token_count": 694,
"url": "http://www.torah.org/learning/rabbiwein/5772/miketz.html"
} |
“Our total storage capacity is the same as an adult human’s DNA. And there are several billion humans on the planet.”
“To put our findings in perspective, the 6.4*1018 instructions per second that human kind can carry out on its general-purpose computers in 2007 are in the same ballpark area as the maximum number of nerve impulses executed by one human brain per second.”
The above may be true, but computers, as opposed to humans, are always increasing their capacity and computational power. Furthermore it is easier to make a computer than a human being. It does make you think how things will be in … years (fill in the blank). | <urn:uuid:6b93ffa8-9d26-451a-a0f5-87ec85a3cef1> | {
"date": "2014-09-02T18:51:31",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-35",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1409535922763.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20140909043232-00095-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9524321556091309,
"score": 2.6875,
"token_count": 142,
"url": "http://www.lighthouse3d.com/tag/brain/"
} |
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.4 Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 6–8 texts and topics.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.5 Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to an understanding of the topic.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.6 Analyze the author's purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.7 Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table). | <urn:uuid:65cb50d9-c357-4c84-a202-4283cb689db7> | {
"date": "2019-12-07T01:35:15",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-51",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540491871.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20191207005439-20191207033439-00216.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.7546411156654358,
"score": 3,
"token_count": 208,
"url": "https://www.ixl.com/standards/wisconsin/science/grade-8?documentId=2020001022&subsetId=2020001583"
} |
Each year for the past 60 years, the ONS has published ‘Family Spending’, which ‘gives an insight into the spending habits of UK households, broken down by household characteristics and types of spending’. The latest issue, covering the financial year ending 2017, has just been released.
To mark the 60th anniversary, the ONS has also published a blog, Celebrating 60 years of Family Spending, which compares spending patterns in 2017 with those in 1957. The blog looks at the percentage of the family budget spent on various categories, such as food, clothing, housing, tobacco and alcohol. Some of the percentages have changed dramatically over the years; others have hardly changed at all.
Before you read on, of the six categories mentioned above, which do you think have increased, which fallen and which stayed the same? What is your reasoning?
Differences in patterns of consumption partly reflect incomes. In 1957, real household income was £381 in today’s prices; today it’s £544 (43% more). You would expect, therefore, that a greater proportion of household incomes today would be spent on more luxurious goods, with a higher income elasticity of demand.
Other changes in consumption patterns reflect changes in tastes and attitudes. Thus there has been a huge fall in the proportion of household income spent on tobacco – down from 6% in 1957 to 1% in 2017.
Three of the biggest changes over the 60 years have been in housing costs, food and clothing. Housing costs (rent, mortgage interest, council tax, maintenance and home repairs) have doubled from around 9% to around 18% (although they were around 20% before the huge fall in interest rates following the financial crisis of 2007–8). Expenditure on food, by contrast, has fallen – from around 33% to around 16%. Expenditure on clothing has also fallen, from around 10% to around 5%.
Expenditure on alcohol, on the other hand, having risen somewhat in the 1970s and 80s, is roughly the same today as it was 60 years ago, at around 3% of household expenditure.
Some of the explanations for these changing patterns can be found on the supply side – changing costs of production, new technologies and competition; others can be found on the demand side – changes in tastes and changes in incomes. Some goods and services which we use today, such as computers, mobile phones, many other electrical goods, high-tech gyms and social media were simply not available 60 years ago.
Celebrating 60 years of Family Spending ONS blog, Joanna Bulman (18/1/18)
How did households budget in 1957? BBC News, Simon Gompertz (18/1/18)
Rising burden of housing costs shown by 60-year UK spending survey Financial Times, Gemma Tetlow (18/1/18)
Family spending in the UK: financial year ending 2017 ONS Statistical Bulletin (18/1/18)
All data related to Family spending in the UK: financial year ending 2017 ONS datasets (18/1/18)
- Why has expenditure on housing increased so much as a proportion of household expenditure? What underlying factors help to explain this?
- Why has expenditure on food fallen as a proportion of household expenditure? Are the explanations on both the demand and supply sides?
- What has happened to the proportion of expenditure going on leisure goods and services? Explain.
- What factors affect the proportion of expenditure going on motoring?
- Of the broad categories of expenditure considered in this blog, which would you expect to increase, which to decrease and which to stay roughly the same over the coming 10 years? Why?
- If expenditure on a particualar good falls as a percentage of total expenditure as income rises, does this make it an inferior good? Explain. | <urn:uuid:bea81dd3-fd1c-4ff9-8674-ae5369d0890a> | {
"date": "2018-09-18T19:50:46",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-39",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267155676.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20180918185612-20180918205612-00056.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9642422795295715,
"score": 2.59375,
"token_count": 793,
"url": "http://pearsonblog.campaignserver.co.uk/tag/family-incomes/"
} |
The Vatican has elected the first ever Latin American pope.
"In the first millenium the church of Rome was part of the so-called pentarchy with Jerusalem, Constatinople, Antioch and Alexandria. It was a part of a balanced sharing of authority if not power. In the second millenium the self-consciousness of the bishop of Rome has been to be the centre of a real global entity.
- Alberto Melloni, a church historian
Uniquely in human history, the pope is the sole religious leader for 1.2bn people globally, the world’s biggest single denomination.
Dozens of nationalities, with countless cultures all looking towards one institution - to the religious leadership of one man.
A hundred years ago, two-thirds of the world's Catholics lived in Europe, but in the past century demographics have shifted significantly. Now, European congregations are dwindling and two-thirds of the world's Catholics live in the global south.
While the following has shifted southwards, the seat of power has not.
From the moment Pope Francis was elected, Catholics and commentators have sounded a new note of optimism. But something as superficial as his Argentinean nationality alone, is no guarantee that the Catholic Church itself is about to change.
For most Latin American Catholics, how the Church helps the poor is the central issue. But it is one of the most contentious for the Vatican.
Latin America is the birthplace of Liberation theology, a radical movement which insists that Jesus called for bringing about real social justice for the poor; not just giving charity.
But both Pope John Paul II. and Benedict XVI. denounced the movement as heresy, and its followers as closet-Marxists.
Pope John Paul II spoke for the oppressed in an age when Western democracies championed individualism over social justice. But in Latin America he shamed some leftist priests for political activism.
For those living in poverty, struggling with oppressive governments, the Vatican’s stance against certain brands of left-wing activism has been alienating.
For the continent’s 480 million Catholics, the Church can feel out of step not only with their daily struggles, but also with their religious culture.
"In Latin America, the experience of God is of a saviour of the poor .... Latin Americans have depended on Europe for 500 years. We are very grateful for the christianity we have received. This is still our nature, a Latin American Christian soul, to this day. But this Western European version of Christianity is precisely what's creating today's tension in Latin America and in the rest of the world. There's the demand for a culturally inclusive Christianity," says Jorge Costadoat Carrasco, from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. Jorge Costadoat Carrasco
So can a pope from the developing world finally bridge the cultural gap between Rome and the margins? And can the new pope restore trust in the governance of the Church?
Rome and the Margins can be seen from Sunday, March 24, at the following times GMT: Sunday: 2230; Monday: 0930; Tuesday: 0330; Wednesday: 1630.
Source: Al Jazeera | <urn:uuid:ecd6b62b-2a22-4218-ada2-407322efe17a> | {
"date": "2015-03-03T01:44:41",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2015-11",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936463103.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074103-00304-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9531167149543762,
"score": 3.046875,
"token_count": 649,
"url": "http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/general/2013/03/2013325123233506715.html"
} |
|front |1 |2 |3 |4 |5 |6 |7 |8 |9 |10 |11 |12 |13 |14 |15 |16 |17 |18 |19 |20 |21 |22 |23 |24 |25 |26 |27 |28 |29 |30 |31 |32 |33 |34 |35 |36 |37 |38 |review|
There are several types of air supplied respirators: continuous flow, pressure demand, abrasive blast, self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), and self-contained-self-rescuer (SCSR).
Continuous Flow - A respirator that maintains air flow at all times, rather than only on demand. However, this type of respirator may not maintain positive pressure within the mask at all times. Negative pressure conditions may occur during inhalation involving strenuous activity.
Pressure Demand - A respirator that maintains a positive pressure within the facepiece, in relation to the immediate surrounding environment, during both exhalation and inhalation.
Abrasive Blasting - An atmosphere-supplying respirator to be used when performing abrasive blasting (sandblasting) operations. These respirators are equipped with additional devices designed to protect the wearer's head and neck from abrasion and impact from rebounding materials as well as ensure that the user maintains visual acuity.
Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus - An atmosphere-supplying respirator for which the breathing air source is designed to be carried by the user.Self-Contained-Self-Rescuer - A respirator that is designed for use during escape from a hazardous atmosphere and generates user breathing air through chemical or mechanical mechanisms. SCSRs have a mouthpiece (mouth-bit) that provides a source of oxygen enriched air to the user. | <urn:uuid:41396f9f-bb8e-492d-8cee-19b501e17d47> | {
"date": "2016-02-06T18:39:38",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-07",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701147492.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193907-00264-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9210799336433411,
"score": 2.875,
"token_count": 376,
"url": "http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec50291/020.htm"
} |
Some of interesting attributes of HDPE:
- It takes 8 milk jugs to make 1 pound of plastic lumber.
- Recycled plastic bottles uses 88 percent less energy to make than from virgin materials.
- Recycling 1 plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60 watt light bulb for 6 hours.
- 10 plastic bottles saves enough energy to power a laptop computer for over 24 hours.
- Enough plastic is produced in the US each year to shrink-wrap Texas. | <urn:uuid:06dca7d5-1cac-49b5-a40b-3b6cc6ce43de> | {
"date": "2018-12-14T12:41:50",
"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": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8518574833869934,
"score": 3.109375,
"token_count": 100,
"url": "http://www.aandbaccessories.com/did-you-know/"
} |
Clinical Practice Guideline
Developed for the
Aerospace Medical Association
by their constituent organization
Overview: Meniere's Disease (Morbus Meniere) is also known as Idiopathic Endolymphatic Hydrops. It is a disorder of the inner ear and is sometimes described as "glaucoma of the ear". One of the most common causes of dizziness originating from the inner ear, Meniere's is classically characterized by a symptom tetrad of: (a) fluctuating or episodic rotational vertigo, lasting more than five minutes per episode and not relieved by absence of movement; (b) fluctuating hearing loss; (c) fluctuating tinnitus; (d) and fluctuating sensation of fullness in the affected ear. However, these symptoms will rarely be all encountered simultaneously; instead, most patients will complain of one symptom such as hearing loss or dizziness. At this time there is no single effective cure for Meniere's Disease.
Aeromedical Concerns: A search of the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) reference base revealed three documents concerning Meniere's disease and aeromedical ramifications. In one study undertaken by the Air Force at Brooks AFB, six rhesus monkeys underwent an endolymphatic shunt procedure with pre- and post- testing of audiological and vestibular function. The results showed no impairment of audiological function; however, two of the animals showed a temporary (2-3 months) impairment of vestibular function. A report by Mitchell, et al. in 1967 examined the medical records of 84 patients referred to USAF Aeromedical Consultation Service because of vertigo or diseases capable of producing vertigo. The second most frequent category, making up less than one-third of the evaluees, had Meniere's disease. Finally, a NAMI report from 1965 looked at four patients who received streptomycin sulfate in the treatment of Meniere's in terms of a lack of return of their symptoms and the effect of the drug on hearing, the semicircular canals, otolith organs, ataxia, and the Coriolis illusion. The authors suggest that the disease may "represent a disturbance to the secretory cells of the christa."
In one study of 574 patients with Meniere’s disease, over 300 had vertiginous attacks lasting 30 minutes to 12 hours. Over half of the cases had between one and four attacks per week and 1-10 per day, and approximately 94% had some degree of hearing loss. Medical therapy includes use of benzodiazepines, anticholinergics, and antihistamines. Some experts advocate restriction of sodium intake and the use of diuretics. Surgery is used in some patients with varied results.
Because of the unpredictable and sudden nature of the attacks and their potentially incapacitating effects, a military flying waiver is granted only in exceptional and documented stable circumstances. Additionally up to 30% of patients may present with bilateral disease. Patients may also develop Tumarkin's crises (a.k.a. "drop attacks") as the disease progresses.
In the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aviation Medicine office the medical certification of Meniere’s Disease depends on the stability of the condition. If the airman is in remission for six months or more, they may be granted a medical certificate. Certification has been granted with the use of diuretic therapy. The airman is cautioned that if the condition returns, they must cease flying and notify the medical certification division.
Medical Work-up: Physical examination should include evaluation for nystagmus and balance. An audiometric examination (hearing test) is required, including air and bone conduction thresholds as well as speech discrimination testing. An electronystagmograph (ENG), Auditory Brain Stem response (ABR), and CT or MRI of the head (to rule out tumors such as acoustic neuroma) should be performed. Further expert evaluation is strongly suggested which should include eletrocochleography (ECOG), eye tracking and rotary chair tests.
Aeromedical Disposition (military and civilian): It is essential to obtain a thorough history of frequency, duration, severity and the character of vertiginous attacks, as well as hearing loss and change over time, if any, and whether symptoms of tinnitus or fullness in either or both ears have been present. Past history of syphilis, mumps or other serious infections, inflammation of the eye, autoimmune disorder or allergy, and ear surgery are of significance.
Waiver Experience (military): According to a military database, 58 individuals have been thoroughly evaluated for Meniere's Disease through December 1997. Of those, 13 (22%) have been granted flying waivers.
Waiver Experience (civilian): During calendar year 2000 there were 34 First, 25 Second and 88 Third class airmen granted medical certification with this condition by the FAA.
Allen, John M, Ph.D.,
personal conversation, Aeromedical Consultation Service,
Casano PJ. Meniere's Disease, Public Service Brochure of the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Alexandria, VA, 1993.
Graybiel A, et al. Practical and Theoretical Implications Based on
Long-Term Follow-Up of Meniere's Patients Treated With Streptomycin Sulfate,
Unclassified NAVMED Report, DTIC Accession No.
AD-625-865, Naval Aerospace Medical Institute,
et al. Dizziness and Vertigo in Aviators, Unclassified Report, DTIC Accession
Rayman, RB, Clinical Aviation Medicine, 3rd edition, Castle Connolly Graduate Medical Publishing, LLC, 2000, pp. 130, 133-34.
Wolfe JW. Endolymphatic
Shunt Effects, In-house Work Unit Report, DTIC Accession No. DF-325930,
November 27, 2001 | <urn:uuid:2ce8aec9-57da-4858-8286-b504644fe1ff> | {
"date": "2017-04-26T00:09:02",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-17",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917121000.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031201-00058-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9270980358123779,
"score": 3.484375,
"token_count": 1233,
"url": "http://asams.org/guidelines/Completed/NEW%20Meniere's%20Disease.htm"
} |
What is Dengue Fever
Dengue Infection Dengue is an acute flu-like fever caused by a virus.
It can cause disease in two forms:
(a) Dengue Fever (DF) – marked by an onset of sudden high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, and pain in muscles and joints. Some may also have a rash.
(b) Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) – is a more severe form, characterised by high continuous fever for less than 7 days; bleeding from various parts of the body (including nose, mouth and gums or skin bruising) enlarged liver, and shock in severe cases. This can lead to death. DHF is more serious in children.
How is it transmitted ?
Dengue Fever spreads via bite of an infected dengue mosquito. It can spread fast in urban areas when the mosquito population increase during rainy season
What are the Clinical features
We may all confuse dengue fever with flu or a cold. Clinical features of dengue fever vary according to the age of the patient. Infants and young children may have nonspecific febrile illness with rash. Older children/adults may have a mild febrile illness or classical incapacitating disease with abrupt onset and high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pains, and rash. 1. Dengue Fever is a self limiting disease. For those who develop DHF hospital treatment is required. 2. Patient may feel ill and fever may last up to a week. They could feel weak and in low spirits for up to two weeks or so. What you should really watch-out for are features of DHF.
What is the treatment
Treatment There is no specific treatment for dengue fever. Treatment is symptomatic – • keep the person home and allow to rest, this will help recover more quickly • give plenty of fluids to drink • allow to eat what they can • Paracetamol may relieve symptoms of fever and joint pain. Aspirin and other NSAIDs must be avoided. However, careful early clinical management frequently saves lives of DHF patients. It would be advisable to see a qualified doctor if you/your child has high fever without any underlying reason for more than few days. However, even if dengue fever is suspected, you may not be expected to admit to a hospital.
What are important points in Prevention and Control
DF is transmitted through a mosquito. Therefore the best way to avoid dengue infection is to prevent mosquito bites. Still there is no vaccine or preventive drug. Hence, following tips are useful: • Avoid mosquito bites during day time by wearing protective clothing. • Use mosquito nets when sleeping (both day and night) • Get rid of mosquito breeding sites regularly in and around your household. These usually are discarded tyres, plastic containers, coconut shells, leaf axils, blocked roof gutters, bird baths flower vases, or any other place where rain water collect. If you/your child develop dengue fever try to be protected from exposure to mosquito bites in order to avoid further spreading of the infection. Especially children should stay at home during the illness, ideally under a mosquito net when resting.
Reference : Epidemiology Unit, Sri Lanka. | <urn:uuid:cbcaaf66-1355-45ab-b106-7ab35abd17b6> | {
"date": "2017-03-28T10:00:40",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-13",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189686.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00501-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9284214973449707,
"score": 3.796875,
"token_count": 676,
"url": "http://suwasariya.gov.lk/"
} |
App improves gait of people with Parkinson's disease
A new app for devices such as Google Glass promises to improve the gait of people with Parkinson’s disease and decrease their risk of falling.
Researchers at the University of Twente’s MIRA Institute in the Netherlands have received a €94,000 grant from funding body NutsOhra fund to develop the app.
The gait of Parkinson’s patients is often disturbed: sometimes this presents itself as a shuffling movement with the patient taking small steps, or it may result in the patient constantly looking for additional support. Gait disturbance also increases the chance of a fall, despite progress made in terms of medication.
Researchers have established that the gait of patients improves when they regularly see or hear a pattern with examples including stripes on the floor, or the regular ticking of a metronome.
The researchers, working under the leadership of Prof Richard van Wezel, who is professor of Neurophysiology at the UT, are now looking at exploring the possibility of using the intelligent glasses, such as Google Glass, that are now coming on to the consumer market.
Intelligent glasses would be able to provide patients with the regular visual or audible patterns required. These patterns may take the form of moving stripes or shapes which the patient sees through the glasses, flashing shapes, or music with varying tempos.
The latest intelligent glasses already have inbuilt cameras and accelerometers and by using these it will be possible to determine which approach works best for each individual patient.
The MIRA Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine is working on the project together with the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, the Medisch Spectrum Twente hospital, and the VUmc University Medical Centre in Amsterdam. | <urn:uuid:f89545aa-b56c-4cdc-bb4f-0ea2a960c277> | {
"date": "2014-08-21T04:21:00",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-35",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500814701.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021334-00332-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9230269193649292,
"score": 2.734375,
"token_count": 369,
"url": "http://www.theengineer.co.uk/medical-and-healthcare/news/app-improves-gait-of-people-with-parkinsons-disease/1017324.article"
} |
Riedell W.E.,U.S. Department of Agriculture |
Beckendorf E.A.,U.S. Department of Agriculture |
Catangui M.A.,47153 S. Clubhouse Road
Arthropod-Plant Interactions | Year: 2013
Defining the relationships between soybean (Glycine max [L.] merr.) shoot nitrogen (N) components and soybean aphid (Aphis glycines Matsumura) populations will increase understanding of the biology of this important insect pest. In this 2-year field study, caged soybean plants were infested with soybean aphids (initial infestation of 0, 10, 50, or 100 aphids plant-1) at the fifth node developmental stage. Soybean aphid populations, soybean shoot dry weight, and shoot concentrations of nitrate-N, ureide-N, and total N were measured starting at full bloom through full seed soybean development stages. Soybean aphid population as well as shoot concentration of ureide-N increased rapidly starting at full bloom, peaked at beginning seed, and dramatically decreased by full seed soybean reproductive stages. Regression analysis indicated significant relationships (P = 0.01; r = 0.71) between soybean aphid populations and shoot ureide-N concentration. Thus, soybean aphid population levels appear to coincide with shoot ureide-N concentrations in the soybean plant. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht (ouside the USA).
Fausti S.W.,South Dakota State University |
McDonald T.M.,Purdue University |
Lundgren J.G.,U.S. Department of Agriculture |
Li J.,Miami University Ohio |
And 2 more authors.
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems | Year: 2012
South Dakota has been a leading adopter of genetically modified organism (GM) crops since their introduction in 1996. In 2009, South Dakota shared the top adoption rate with Iowa for the percentage of acres planted with Bt corn. However; South Dakota has also recently experienced a significant increase in the proportion of acres treated with insecticide. The empirical evidence presented suggests that corn, hay and sunflower production in South Dakota have experienced an intensification of insecticide use in 2007 relative to past US Census of Agriculture reporting years. This study links the proportion of acres planted for a specific crop to the proportion of total acres treated with insecticide at the county level. This approach provides insight on how changing cropping patterns in South Dakota have influenced insecticide use. Empirical results indicate that the upper-bound estimate for insecticide usage on non-Bt corn acreage increased from 38% in 2002 to all non-Bt corn acres planted in 2007. The implication of this result is that in 2007 South Dakota producers were likely treating a percentage of their Bt corn acres with insecticide. Changing cropping patterns in South Dakota are also compared to that in other states in the US Corn Belt region. It appears that the South Dakota experience is not unique and is part of a broader trend. © Cambridge University Press 2011. | <urn:uuid:82fef127-90ab-448f-82d8-9f5bf5691deb> | {
"date": "2017-05-23T15:14:07",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-22",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607647.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20170523143045-20170523163045-00388.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9031062722206116,
"score": 2.78125,
"token_count": 648,
"url": "https://www.linknovate.com/affiliation/47153-s-clubhouse-road-880651/all/"
} |
May 23rd, 2015
by Tim Sablik - Econ Focus, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
The first time she rented out her bedroom to strangers on the Internet, Shela Dean admits, it was "a little weird." After she retired from practicing law at the end of 2013, she and her husband Dale realized they had more space than they needed in their four-bedroom home in Richmond, Va. They decided to move into their guest bedroom and put the master suite up for rent on Airbnb, a website that allows users to book nights in other people's homes, much like a hotel.
"I'm sort of an old hippie from the San Francisco Bay Area and I liked the idea of sharing your home," Dean says. "Plus, it would give us an opportunity to meet new and interesting people." Still, she wasn't completely at ease as they awaited their first guests. "I told my husband, either they're serial killers or they're lovely people," she says. Fortunately, they were lovely.
As members of Airbnb, the Deans are participants in a growing phenomenon that has been called the "sharing economy." A common thread that unites Airbnb and a number of similar businesses is that they create online platforms where individuals can share their possessions (such as a car or home) or market their skills.
While some of these services allow participants to make a profit, others focus on free sharing. For example, one can earn rent from travelers through Airbnb or advertise free sofa space on Couchsurfing for guests needing minimal accommodations. 1000 Tools lets owners of seldom-used tools like power drills or hacksaws rent them to someone looking to do a quick home improvement project; Freecycle, on the other hand, lets users give away those same items for free. Services like Lyft and Uber allow car owners to turn their vehicles into taxis and charge fares to shuttle travelers around; Ridejoy matches drivers with passengers traveling in the same direction, leaving them to work out the details of any compensation.
New sites are springing up seemingly every day, and some are enjoying meteoric success. Uber, which launched in San Francisco in 2009, today operates in over 200 cities and was recently valued at more than $41 billion, making it one of the most lucrative tech startups in history. This suggests that investors see potential for these companies to generate huge economic benefits, but where will those benefits come from? Supporters say the sharing economy is already increasing consumer welfare by opening up markets and providing more options to consumers. But detractors argue that many of these companies have ignored laws designed to protect consumers, giving them an unfair advantage over traditional services and making them a public safety disaster waiting to happen.
As a group, economists have tended to view the sharing economy favorably. In a September 2014 poll by the University of Chicago's IGM Forum, a diverse panel of 40 economists unanimously agreed that allowing new car services like Uber and Lyft to compete with traditional taxis would raise consumer welfare. They have good reason for being optimistic. Economic theory states that increasing the supply of goods or services in a market improves welfare by enabling more gains from trade, particularly when the increased supply comes from the use of previously idle resources.
Evidence suggests that sharing economy firms have greatly increased supply in sectors like transportation and lodging. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there were 233,000 taxi drivers and chauffeurs in the United States as of 2012, but new services are substantially adding to that number. According to a recent study by Uber's head of policy research Jonathan Hall and Princeton University economist Alan Krueger, the company had more than 160,000 active U.S. drivers in 2014. That alone nearly doubles the supply of short-term transportation, not counting Uber's competitors like Lyft and Sidecar. Similarly for the hotel industry, Airbnb boasts over a million properties in nearly 200 countries, surpassing the capacity of major hoteliers like Hilton Worldwide, which had 215,000 rooms in 74 countries in 2014.
Initial research suggests that consumers are benefiting from the wider range of options. In a March working paper, Samuel Fraiberger and Arun Sundararajan of New York University modeled the economic effect of ride-sharing services using data from Getaround, a company that allows individuals to rent cars from other users. They estimated that such services lower used vehicle prices and improve consumer welfare by allowing individuals (particularly those with below-median income) to rent transportation instead of owning it. For hotels, Georgios Zervas, Davide Proserpio, and John Byers of Boston University reported in a February working paper that an increase in Airbnb listings in Texas had a similar effect on hotel room revenue as an increase in the supply of hotel rooms, suggesting that travellers viewed Airbnb as an "alternative for certain traditional types of overnight accommodation."
Another benefit of the sharing economy may be the flexibility of supply. "The hotel business is a very efficient way to have short-term housing for a stable number of people, but it's not so great for variable demand," says Jonathan Levin, a professor of economics at Stanford University who studies Internet markets. "Either you've got a lot of empty rooms, or you've got super expensive rooms and a lot of people who can't find a place to stay." In contrast, firms like Airbnb allow for a more fluid supply of short-term accommodations. During events like the Super Bowl that draw many tourists, more property owners may choose to rent out space to take advantage of the increased demand and higher prices. But during lulls, those properties remain occupied by their owners rather than sitting idle.
In addition to expanding supply for existing markets, the sharing economy is also creating entirely new markets for goods and services. While it is theoretically possible for markets to exist for anything, transactions aren't free. It takes time and effort for buyers to find the best price, to locate sellers, to ascertain the true quality of the good being sold, and to make sure a seller will follow through on the commitment once the transaction is complete. Economists refer to these as "transaction costs." While pre-Internet institutions like classified ads and dedicated intermediaries such as real estate agents helped reduce the costs of many transactions, new technology has greatly expanded the range of viable exchanges.
"Before, if you wanted to borrow someone's hacksaw or couch, you'd first have to determine who in your area has those things available for rent," says Matthew Mitchell, a senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center. "The beauty of these websites is that they dramatically lower transaction costs and allow people to interact and exchange in new ways."
This creates more opportunities for entrepreneurs as well as consumers. Many sharing economy participants, like the Deans, see these platforms as a way to earn some extra spending money in their spare time. According to Hall and Krueger's study of Uber drivers, more than half drove 15 hours or less each week. But for some, the sharing economy offers an alternative to traditional full-time work. Nearly 20 percent of drivers in Hall and Krueger's study drove 35 hours or more each week, and on average they made about $19 an hour - $6 more than traditional taxi drivers and chauffeurs. The authors note that Uber drivers must pay for expenses like gas and car maintenance that some taxi companies may cover, but many professional drivers still view the new services as viable alternatives to traditional options. The San Francisco Cab Drivers Association reported in 2014 that nearly a third of the city's taxi drivers had switched to driving for services like Uber, Lyft, or Sidecar.
Economic benefits from improved selection and greater market efficiency are only some of the potential gains from the sharing economy. Many supporters have touted the environmental benefits of reducing consumption by using underutilized resources more efficiently. While it is still too early to tell what the final environmental impact will be, one study of vehicle-sharing services found that about a quarter of users in North America sold their vehicles after joining and their carbon dioxide emissions from transportation fell by as much as 56 percent due to the reduction in vehicle ownership and vehicle miles traveled.
Critics, however, contend that many of these benefits come at a huge risk. They say that companies like Airbnb, Uber, and others have enjoyed success largely by ignoring laws designed to protect consumers - laws that their traditional competitors must still adhere to.
Whom Do You Trust?
Many, if not all, of the markets that the sharing economy touches are regulated in some fashion. Zoning laws partition cities into commercial and residential areas; hotels are allowed in some areas and not in others. Professional drivers carry special licenses requiring additional training and more comprehensive background checks than personal driver's licenses. Restaurants must comply with health codes that don't apply to personal kitchens. A common goal of regulations is to prevent harm to consumers by providing them with information and certifying goods and services as trustworthy.
Establishing trust is particularly important when markets are prone to what economists call "asymmetric information" - meaning one party in a transaction, often the seller, has more information about the quality of the good or service in question than the other party. If these asymmetries are severe and there is no way for buyers to learn the true quality of the good or service, market efficiency suffers - even, or especially, when the numbers of buyers and sellers might seem plentiful enough to eliminate any monopoly power. This was the insight of Nobel Prize winner and University of California, Berkeley economist George Akerlof. In a famous 1970 paper, Akerlof looked at the market for used cars and reasoned that each car could either be of good quality or be a "lemon." When buyers don't know whether a given car is a lemon, good and bad cars will sell for the same price. This price will be lower for sellers of good cars than they would get in a market with full information, and this will tend to drive good cars out of the market, leaving more lemons.
Government regulations are one way to counteract such asymmetric information. For example, taxi drivers typically must display licenses in their car to signal they have undergone proper training to operate a commercial vehicle. Hoteliers are also required to follow state safety regulations, so guests can assume they are reasonably well protected when renting accommodations.
Critics argue that sharing economy firms have willfully ignored regulations like these to gain an unfair advantage against traditional businesses, and they say such actions put consumers at risk. In October 2014, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued a report stating that roughly three-quarters of Airbnb listings in New York City were illegal because they broke zoning laws and other rules related to safety such as maximum occupancy limits. Legislators in the state have cited complaints from constituents in residential apartment buildings that have seen increased commercial traffic thanks to sites like Airbnb. Uber has also been in the news for safety issues. In December, a woman in New Delhi, India, reported being raped by an Uber driver. Similar incidents have been reported in other cities, including Chicago and Boston. The company has been accused of failing to perform sufficient background checks on its drivers, and several countries, including India, have banned the service.
But it is not clear that top-down regulations perform better than markets at establishing trust and policing bad behavior. For one thing, economists note that regulations often have hidden costs. Licensing requirements can help ensure minimum quality, but they can also be used to reduce competition by making it harder for new firms to enter the marketplace. (See "May I See Your License, Please?" Region Focus, Summer 2003.) For example, the cost of a taxicab medallion in New York surpassed $1 million in 2011 - creating a substantial barrier for new entrants that might provide better service.
Firms have their own incentives to establish trustworthiness and quality in order to maintain and expand their market share. This can lead to novel market solutions designed to solve Akerlof's "lemons problem." For example, in the 1990s, it was not obvious that online retailers like eBay and Amazon would succeed. After all, they faced the challenge of courting customers who couldn't inspect their products before they bought them and had no guarantee of receiving a good in the mail after they ordered it. Those initial online firms developed rating and review systems to allow market participants to provide measures of quality.
Today, sharing economy businesses rely on the same underlying framework, and technological developments in the last decade have improved the reach and effectiveness of these systems. Widespread adoption of Internet-enabled smartphones gives consumers instant access to prices and reviews.
"I think the rating systems definitely help," says Katie Frantes. As a representative to colleges for International Studies Abroad, she travels frequently and prefers to use Airbnb rather than a hotel for longer trips. "We're used to reviewing hotels and restaurants, and I feel like this is the same. It's just as safe as a hotel, if not more so."
The spread of online social networks like Facebook have also helped build trust by making Internet commerce less anonymous. Indeed, many sharing economy businesses allow users to verify their identities by logging in through social media accounts. Economists have long known that social networks reduce transaction costs for local physical markets, and initial studies of online social networks suggest they perform a similar function on a wider scale. Researchers at the University of Maryland found that online social networks mitigate information asymmetries in online lending markets, improving transactions between borrowers and lenders.
For Frantes and many others, the increased opportunities for social connections are a large part of the appeal of the sharing economy. "What's great about Airbnb is you get to meet locals and socialize," she says. "It's not as lonely as a hotel."
Levin says regulators should take note of such consumer sentiments. "Some of the value of these marketplaces comes from the fact that what they are replacing was not necessarily optimized to promote consumer welfare," he says. "And that should cause you to rethink how many regulations we actually need. How much can markets take care of ensuring the right level of quality on their own?"
Despite their general enthusiasm, most supporters of the sharing economy don't advocate that it should be unaccountable. Instead, Mitchell urges regulators to allow firms to experiment and seek solutions to problems after they arise rather than apply rules upfront.
"To a lot of people, that doesn't sound very appealing. We have to wait until someone gets hurt before we solve the problem?" Mitchell says. "But the benefit of that is it allows for a lot more experimentation. You're foreclosing on a whole lot of opportunities for entrepreneurship, including potential safety enhancing opportunities, if you settle down too early and say this is exactly the model for what this industry should look like."
If the sharing economy is here to stay, though, it will undoubtedly require some changes to laws and regulations for businesses. In some cases, cities are already working to incorporate the new firms into the existing framework. Portland, Ore., has partnered with Airbnb to promote the service through its tourism bureau. The city may stand to gain from the deal. According to Airbnb's own studies, its guests tend to stay longer and spend more than typical tourists. For its part, Airbnb agreed to work with the city to ensure hosts meet safety requirements. It also agreed to collect and remit lodging taxes to Portland on behalf of its hosts.
Products like insurance, which have historically been separated into personal and commercial categories, may also need to adapt. The sharing economy blurs the line between personal and commercial use, and if it continues to grow, there may be increased demand for mixed-use insurance products. Some firms in the sharing economy have already begun to address this. Airbnb pledges to reimburse hosts for up to $1 million in property damages, and Uber has teamed up with San Francisco-based Metromile to offer per-mile commercial insurance for its drivers.
As platforms, sharing economy companies may also require regulators to exercise greater vigilance against monopoly power. Jean Tirole, chairman of the Toulouse School of Economics, won the 2014 Nobel Prize in economics in part for his work on the regulation of platform markets. Platforms have an incentive to become monopolies because they gain more value the more users they have. While Tirole noted that this is not inherently bad, regulators need to be wary of firms that use their power to block more dynamic upstarts from challenging them.
This is why Mitchell says consumers, economists, and regulators should be optimistic but still remain vigilant. "I am optimistic about the technology," he says, "but cautious about any particular company, because any company has an incentive to eventually capture its own regulators."
Akerlof, George A. "The Market for 'Lemons': Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism." Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1970, vol. 84, no. 3, pp. 488-500.
Fraiberger, Samuel, and Arun Sundararajan. "Peer-to-Peer Rental Markets in the Sharing Economy." NYU Stern School of Business Research Paper, March 6, 2015. (Paper available online by subscription.)
Hall, Jonathan, and Alan Krueger. "An Analysis of the Labor Market for Uber's Driver-Partners in the United States." Report from Uber Technologies, January 22, 2015.
Koopman, Christopher, Matthew Mitchell, and Adam Thierer. "The Sharing Economy and Consumer Protection Regulation: The Case for Policy Change." Mercatus Working Paper, December 2014.
Levin, Jonathan, "The Economics of Internet Markets." In Daron Acemoglu, Manuel Arellano, and Eddie Dekel (eds.), Advances in Economics and Econometrics, Tenth World Congress, vol. 1, Cambridge University Press: May 2013. (Previous versionavailable online.)
Zervas, Georgios, Davide Proserpio, and John W. Byers. "The Rise of the Sharing Economy: Estimating the Impact of Airbnb on the Hotel Industry." Boston University School of Management Research Paper Series No. 2013-16, Feb. 11, 2015. (Latest version available online by subscription.) | <urn:uuid:396b8d15-1f14-4a1a-b36a-a00102f7ff3e> | {
"date": "2017-03-26T09:53:48",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-13",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189198.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00126-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9631631374359131,
"score": 2.546875,
"token_count": 3694,
"url": "http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2015/05/23/are-new-online-markets-creating-economic-value-or-threatening-consumer-safety"
} |
Dive Into Your Imagination was started by Annie Crawley, aka Ocean Annie, to bring the ocean to children in all its beauty and color. Her goal is to help children (and adults) love the ocean and thus be inspired to protect and care for our environment and ocean.
In her training and career as a print and broadcast photographer, Annie traveled the world and discovered the magical world of the ocean. Ocean Annie lived and worked around the world as a scuba diving instructor and sailor, underwater photographer and cinematographer. She has poured her knowledge and experience into her own company, Dive Into Your Imagination, which features many resources sharing her love of the ocean and its inhabitants. One of these resources is a series of award winning DVD’s aimed at preschool and elementary students featuring her exquisite photography and demonstrating her love for the ocean and the life found in it.
The TOS Crew recently had the privilege of reviewing some of the DVD’s and accompanying lesson plans. The DVD’s reviewed included: What Makes a Fish a Fish?, Who Lives in the Sea?, and Dive Into Diversity. The DVD’s have a running time of 35-45 minutes and contain 8 tracks with several bonus features as well.
What Makes a Fish a Fish? In this DVD viewers encounter fish from around the world, sharks, and play hide and seek on the reef. They will learn about fish behaviors and habits while enjoying lively music and colorful underwater scenes.
Who Lives in the Sea? Viewers will meet dolphins, sea lions, sharks, octopi, blue footed boobies, and other unique ocean life. Information is accompanied by fascinating underwater photography and catchy music.
Dive Into Diversity. Journey under the sea and learn how ocean creatures depend on each other for survival. Explore the depths of the ocean and learn what happens at night.
Each of the DVD’s has accompanying educators’ guides. There are two editions for each title; PreK/K and Grades 1-3. They feature background information about all the topics presented on the DVD and many activities which correspond with each featured topic. These activities cover math, language arts, social studies as well as science.
All three DVD’s have three tracks; English, Spanish, and music only. Each one sells for $19.95
Powered by Linky Tools
CLICK HERE to see what Crew Members had to say about the Dive Into Your Imagination DVDs!
A big thank you to Martha of The Joy of School for writing this introductory post. | <urn:uuid:e8d7986d-213b-4766-ab6b-66f663bc08c8> | {
"date": "2019-10-14T13:08:56",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-43",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986653247.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20191014124230-20191014151730-00136.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9564247131347656,
"score": 2.640625,
"token_count": 523,
"url": "https://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/dive-into-your-imagination/"
} |
By Nick Davidson
On 26 April 1986, reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant blew up. Forty-eight hours later the entire area was evacuated. Over the following months there were stories of mass graves and dire warnings of thousands of deaths from radiation exposure.
Yet in a BBC Horizon report screened on Thursday, a number of scientists argue that 20 years after the accident there is no credible scientific evidence that any of these predictions are coming true.
Horizon interviews radiation scientist Dr Mike Repacholi
The anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident in April saw the publication of a number of reports that examined the potential death toll resulting from exposure to radiation from Chernobyl.
Environmental group Greenpeace said the figure would be near 100,000. Another, Torch (The Other Report on Chernobyl), predicted an extra 30,000-60,000 cancer deaths across Europe.
But according to figures from the Chernobyl Forum, an international organisation of scientific bodies including a number of UN agencies, deaths directly attributable to radiation from Chernobyl currently stand at 56 - less than the weekly death toll on Britain's roads.
"When people hear of radiation they think of the atomic bomb and they think of thousands of deaths, and they think the Chernobyl reactor accident was equivalent to the atomic bombing in Japan which is absolutely untrue," says Dr Mike Repacholi, a radiation scientist working at the World Health Organization (WHO).
Scientists involved in the Forum expect the death toll to rise but not far.
"We're not going to get an epidemic of leukaemia," Dr Repacholi tells Horizon, "and we don't expect an epidemic of solid cancers either."
So why have the predictions varied so wildly?
Scientific as well as public attitudes to radiation are still dominated by the devastating effects of the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US more than half-a-century ago.
At least 200,000 people died almost immediately from the blast, and thousands more were exposed to higher levels of radiation than anybody had ever been exposed to before.
The survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki became the most intensely studied people in the world.
"The detonation of the A-bomb," explains Professor Antone L Brooks of Washington State University, US, "was the first time that scientists had an opportunity really to look and to see the health effects of radiation; how much radiation was required to produce how much cancer."
In 1958, using data largely drawn from these bomb studies, scientists came up with an answer. It was called the Linear No Threshold (LNT) model and suggested all radiation, no matter how small, was dangerous.
It became the internationally recognised basis for assessing radiation risk.
Yet there has always been a problem with it. The data from Hiroshima and Nagasaki were for very high levels of radiation exposure, often in the range of thousands of millisieverts. There were no significant data for lower exposures, particularly below 200 millisieverts.
"The model was based on high doses and we just didn't know what was going on at lower doses of between one and 200 millisieverts," says Dr Repacholi.
Scientists simply guessed that if high-level radiation was dangerous then lower levels would also be hazardous. They made "an assumption", observes Dr Repacholi.
Chernobyl, where most people received radiation doses below 200 millisieverts, has been the first large-scale opportunity to test whether this assumption is true. The evidence from the Chernobyl Forum suggests it is not.
"Low doses of radiation are a [very] poor carcinogen," says Professor Brooks, who has spent 30 years studying the link between radiation and cancer.
"If you talk to anybody and you say the word radiation, immediately you get a fear response. That fear response has caused people to do things that are scientifically unfounded."
Other studies have come to even more startling conclusions.
Professor Ron Chesser, of Texas Tech University, US, has spent 10 years studying animals living within the 30km exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl.
He has found that, far from the effects of low-level radiation being carcinogenic, it appears to boost those genes that protect us against cancer.
"One of the thoughts that comes out of this is that prior exposure to low levels of radiation actually may have a beneficial effect," Professor Chesser says.
Today, although most radiation scientists are reluctant to sign up to radiation hormesis, as this phenomenon is known, there is a growing body of opinion that it is time to rethink the LNT model and with it our attitude to radiation exposure below about 200 millisieverts.
Residents in nearby Pripyat were evacuated soon after the accident
However, a number of radiological protection scientists still advocate the use of the LNT model.
In April, the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published a report that used the latest LNT-based radiation risk projection models to update the estimated cancer deaths from Chernobyl.
It concluded that about 16,000 people across Europe could die as a result of the accident.
Dr Peter Boyle, director of the IARC, put the row over the figures into perspective: "Tobacco smoking will cause several thousand times more cancers in the same population."
Chernobyl was about as bad as a power station accident gets - a complete melt down of the reactor core - yet the lessons of the accident suggest that among the myriad of issues surrounding nuclear power, the threat to human health posed by radiation has been overstated. | <urn:uuid:4d263364-51db-41a1-adc1-0e5e104c56ae> | {
"date": "2019-04-24T03:57:08",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-18",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578626296.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20190424034609-20190424060609-00416.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9674379825592041,
"score": 3.125,
"token_count": 1141,
"url": "http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5173310.stm"
} |
There are total 14 letters in Harmonizations, Starting with H and ending with S. In Harmonizations H is 8th, A is 1st, R is 18th, M is 13th, O is 15th, N is 14th, I is 9th, Z is 26th, T is 20th, S is 19th letters in Alphabet Series.
Total 925 words created by multiple letters combination of Harmonizations in English Dictionary.
Harmonizations is a scrabble word? Yes (28 Points)
Harmonizations has worth 28 Scrabble points. Each letter point as below. | <urn:uuid:0ae93564-1a81-4540-b2a1-f3e1b5dd2ac6> | {
"date": "2018-02-24T00:24:27",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-09",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891814872.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20180223233832-20180224013832-00656.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9701835513114929,
"score": 2.78125,
"token_count": 127,
"url": "http://wordcreation.info/how-many-words-made-out-of-harmonizations.html"
} |
What are Stratocumulus clouds?
Stratocumulus clouds are low, puffy and gray that usually form in rows.
The blue sky can also be visible between these clouds.
Rain rarely occurs with stratocumulus clouds, however, they can turn into nimbostratus clouds that does have light to moderate precipitation.
More Homework Help Questions | <urn:uuid:a7a98f14-8fb6-4e3f-bd5d-71c2a1ea1a5f> | {
"date": "2014-07-31T10:03:32",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-23",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510272940.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011752-00390-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9495710134506226,
"score": 2.84375,
"token_count": 77,
"url": "http://www.wfmz.com/weather/What-are-Stratocumulus-clouds/180088?view=print"
} |
What is the difference between probiotics and prebiotics?
Probiotics are preparations of live micro-organisms which when administered in adequate amounts may confer health benefits. They are mostly found in your supermarket or pharmacy (sold as a product such as capsules) and in some foods such as yoghurts.
When you consume probiotics, the major challenge is for their organisms to survive passage through the stomach (which has a very low pH of 2 and will kill most bacteria) and gut. They must also survive the enzymes and other secretions produced naturally in our gut. Once there, it can be hard to take up residency as they can be crowded out by other micro-organisms that are already there and well established.
The most common species used as probiotics are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Before these preparations can be sold to consumers, of course they need to pass a number of testing and safety assessments (to show they are non-pathogenic). While the use of probiotics has attracted a great deal of research focus the results from these many studies have been rather mixed and often dependent on the type of probiotic culture used (as there are many different types available). The types of benefits that have been explored range from treatment of Travellers Diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal problems, to upper respiratory tract infections, allergies, various skin disorders, diabetes, weight loss to infantile colic.
In summary, with probiotics you are consuming the live micro-organisms directly. In contrast prebiotics are fibres that stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria that are already present in your gut. The best way to improve our microbiota is a very active area of research worldwide and over the next 10 years great advances in our understanding will be made. It is possible that a combination of both probiotics and prebiotics (called a symbiotic) may be best.
While the role of prebiotics and probiotics are still being explored – it is clear that increasing dietary fibre in the diet can have a very important protective role against a range of common diseases that affect our community including prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes as well as various gastrointestinal disorders.
© Monash University 2017. CRICOS No. 00008C | <urn:uuid:55d61fe0-f77f-4588-bbaa-152bde03b9c3> | {
"date": "2018-10-16T04:43:20",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-43",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583509996.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20181016030831-20181016052331-00016.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9587827324867249,
"score": 3.015625,
"token_count": 461,
"url": "https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/food-as-medicine/3/steps/168032"
} |
It's common for parents to be concerned about what their children do online — what content they look at, who they're talking to and how the data they put on the web might be viewed as they enter college and apply for jobs.
A new study from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, released on Tuesday, shows that parents also worry about how much information advertisers can learn about their child’s online behavior (81%); 46% are very concerned about this issue.
Mary Madden, research associate for the project and a co-author of the report tells Mashable "parental anxiety about children's technologies is nothing new... but privacy management is daunting not just for parents but for any Internet user."
This information comes at an interesting time since the FTC is reviewing its COPPA rules — an acronym that stands for Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The rules are 12 years old and undergoing review for recommended changes that pertain to data collection. The rules prohibit kids under age of 13 from using social media and requires that they have certain protections. Any sites that provide content for children under 13 are subject to a number of regulations.
In addition to data collection from advertisers, the Pew study shows parents still worry about stranger danger. The study showed parents are concerned about how their children interact online with people they don't know (72%), and 69% of parents worry about the impact of their children’s online activity on their academic and job prospects.
One section of the study pertains to parental social media use — 66% of all parents with children ages 12-17 say they use a social networking site. Parents on social networks are more likely to help their kids with privacy settings. It seems with online privacy and safety, communication is key — 59% of parents of teen social networking users have talked with their child because they were concerned about something posted to their profile or account; 39% of the parents of teen users of social networks have helped their child set up privacy settings for a social networking site.
Madden said parents are using an array of strategies to keep their kids safe while online. Four out of 10 said they've searched for their teen's name online. That same number said they've read the privacy policies on the sites their children visit, although Madden said there is research to suggest that might mean they're just skimming over it.
Rebecca Levey, co-founder of KidzVuz.com, tells Mashable another tip for parents is to set up a Google Alert for their kids to see anytime something with their name attached to it is posted online. Parents should also continually check privacy updates on Facebook to make sure their child is keeping up-to-date.
"In terms of strangers online - it's the same rule as offline," Levey said. "You don't give out personal info — ever. You don't go to meet someone you've met online, or go to someone's home or invite them to yours.
"And you don't sign in to any accounts on public computers, including those at friend's homes. If you absolutely have to, they should know how to clear cookies and make sure that 'save password' is not checked, and be sure to sign out."
This survey of 802 parents and their 802 teens ages 12-17 is the latest in a series of Pew studies about teenagers and the Internet.
Do you take steps to protect your children's information online? Tell us in the comments. | <urn:uuid:649f04a1-9a67-4962-b729-63f465ea14c9> | {
"date": "2016-09-30T22:34:07",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-40",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738662400.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173742-00182-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.968140721321106,
"score": 2.90625,
"token_count": 707,
"url": "http://mashable.com/2012/11/20/parents-worry-advertisers-data/"
} |
LGBT Pride Event Tipsposted on 6/6/13
Springing from the early pickets known as the Annual Reminders where LGBT civil rights activists protested the denial of their rights at Independence Hall in Philadelphia to the Christopher Street Liberation Day celebrated on June 28 in honor of the Stonewall Riots in New York, June has since been declared LGBT Pride Month by the President of the United States on five separate occasions, and although the exact timing and focus is varied by each nation’s locale and individual history, the concept of a time of celebration and remembrance for activists for LGBT civil rights has undeniably become a storied tradition in our modern culture, Here’s some LGBT Pride Event Tips
Know The Rainbow Flag
The most well known symbol of supporting the civil rights accomplishments of LGBT community, The Rainbow Flag is credited to Gilbert Baker, a San Francisco based artist, a friend of Harvey Milk, and former US serviceman according to common lore designed and created the first Rainbow flag in 1978 to be used in LGBT marches, the flag is meant to symbol several things, chiefly the diversity within the LGBT community, and the colors themselves are symbolic for specific concepts: Pink for sexuality, Red for life, Orange for healing, Yellow for sunlight, Green for nature, Turquoise for magic/art, Blue for serenity/harmony and Violet for spirit.
Attend The Pride Parade
The most well known of the LGBT Pride events is the colorful and enthusiastic parade. Depending on the political climate of the parade’s setting, the Pride parades can still maintain a political activist mentality (especially in locales where the event is not well received) Other factors including local politics and economics play a large part in the attitude of the event. In larger urban and areas well-tread by LGBT events, the parade is of a much more festive nature with costumes, props and decorated floats, while, as mentioned before, in areas where the event is contested, to this day the parade has more the attitude of it’s original intent as a civil rights march, the most important LGBT Pride Event tip is knowing what the flavor and intent of the event you are attending shall be.
Celebrating LGBT Pride
Important LGBT Pride Event Tip: Each community within the wider LGBT spectrum has it’s own traditions and legacy of celebration and displays of self-affirmation, including assorted events, parades and gatherings. It is important to understand in order to celebrate the courage of the LGBT community as participant in the festivities and as an ally, the best way to do this is to get out there and show your support, to help you get started, here are some resources for finding local events in your area: | <urn:uuid:dec3cb79-2b0f-4541-9ba0-ccbffe312c71> | {
"date": "2014-03-11T19:25:02",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-10",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394011250185/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305092050-00006-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9571143388748169,
"score": 3.15625,
"token_count": 549,
"url": "http://blog.privateislandparty.com/lgbt-pride-event-tips/"
} |
Alternate names: Jastrowie [Pol], Jastrow [Ger], Yastrova. 53°25' N, 16°49' E, 70 miles N of Poznań (Posen), 19 miles N of Piła. Jewish population: 254 (in 1895). Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), III, pp. 496-497: "Jastrowie". The town of approximately 9,000 inhabitants in Zlotow County, Greater Poland Voivodship has 8,900 inhabitants (1998) and on the edge of the Gwda River valley. The town is located on the Oska stream. When the first Jews settled in Jastrow is unknown, but by 1771 a Jewish community existed. Until the mid-19th century, Jewish population increased gradually: 1788-254, 1849-509. The Jewish cemetery and synagogue existed, but since the second half of the 19th century, Jewish population declined as many Jews had left to emigrate in search of a better life. In 1937, 125 Jews remained in Jastrow. Nazis destroyed them, many victim to repression before the outbreak of WWII. Kristalnacht. Those remaining were deported to camps by the Nazis. Most survived the war. The abandoned cemetery on ul. Kilińskiego contains a few dozen tombstones. Ryszard Mikietyński to his "Koszalińsko-Kołobrzeskiego" (number 20/738 of 14 May 2006) describes the current state of the cemetery: "Old Jastrow Jewish cemetery is not the place of burial seen today. The area is overgrown; some gravestones are overturned and on others are outrageous drawings. Someone, however, visited the graves as proven by dried flowers, but also on monuments pebbles, the symbol of the presence of Jews who pray at the graves of their ancestors." photos. [May 2009]
US Commission No. POCE00406
Located in region Pila at 53º25N 16º47E, 25 km from Pila. The cemetery is located in the N part of town near the railroad. Present town population is 5000-25000 with no Jews.
The earliest known Jewish community existed in 1610. The synagogue was erected in the 17th century; a new one built in 1867 lasted until 1938. The Progressive-Reform Jewish cemetery was established mid-18th century. The isolated suburban hillside is landmarked: register of monuments of Pila No. A-536 as of August 8, 1986. Access off a public road is open to all with no wall, gate, or structures. Before WWII and now the size is 0.74 hectare. 20 to 100 gravestones, with 1 to 20 not in original locations and less than 25% are toppled or broken date from 1856 to 20th century. The stones, Hebrew and/or German inscribed, are granite and sandstone, some flat-shaped, some double, some with carved relief decoration. The municipality owns property used only as a Jewish cemetery. Properties adjacent are agricultural and commercial/industrial. Boundaries are unchanged since 1939. Rarely, Jewish and non-Jewish private visitors. The cemetery was vandalized during World War II. Non-Jewish individuals and groups attempted to clean stones and remove vegetation in 1986. Presently, the cemetery has no care. Vegetation is a constant problem, disturbing the graves; security, erosion and vandalism are serious threats.
Henryk Grecki, 70-534 Szczecin, ul. Soltysia 3/13, Tel. 377-41 completed this survey on August 13, 1991 after visiting the site on August 10, 1991. Cemetery pages served as sources.
|Last Updated on Thursday, 28 May 2009 13:39| | <urn:uuid:bf60f90c-2a68-4dcb-b796-12869efc8e12> | {
"date": "2016-12-09T21:11:24",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-50",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698542828.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170902-00120-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.941889226436615,
"score": 3.15625,
"token_count": 808,
"url": "http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/poland/jastrowie/print.html"
} |
You may not be aware of this (not many people are), but at the moment the council’s scrutiny committee is reviewing the waste system in Birmingham.
Birmingham currently asks its residents to put black bags full of rubbish, including food waste, out on the streets every week with recycling in open boxes collected every 2 weeks.
On most streets around the city, this means that by the time the lorries arrive to collect the stuff we put out, bags have been ripped open by rats, birds, foxes or cats and on windy days (like recently) the recycling is blowing all over the street.
In many other cities there is a better system where food waste is collected separately in sealed bins meaning vermin cannot get to it. Then it is taken and composted or put into a machine called an anaerobic digester that turns it into gas to be used in the grid or for generating electricity.
The prices of resources such as paper, cardboard, metals, plastics and all kins of fabrics is going up all the time, but at the moment we are sending tonnes of these to an incinerator where they are burnt and fill the sky with harmful gases.
Councillors this week have received information about the waste review and have the opportunity to put their views into it. If you contact your local councillor and let them know that you feel strongly that you want a change to how rubbish is collected in Birmingham, now is the time to do it.
The council is not great at consultation – have you ever been asked what you think would be the best way to collect your rubbish? Why don’t you take the initiative and tell your councillor what would work best on your street? If you don’t we may just carry on with the same dirty inefficient system. | <urn:uuid:09b6008e-d627-4ed2-ac7e-6d85fa7a7fc5> | {
"date": "2017-06-23T17:03:46",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-26",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320077.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623170148-20170623190148-00697.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9706701636314392,
"score": 2.59375,
"token_count": 365,
"url": "http://b31.org.uk/2012/01/your-opportunity-to-change-how-rubbish-is-collected/"
} |
With the help of Bruce Shapiro’s open source EggBot kit, available at Evil Mad Scientist, Jiří Zemánek of AA4CC (Advanced Algorithms for Control and Communications) used permanent markers and an electro kistka with bee wax to draw beautiful patterns on rotating egg shells before dying them. With no computer graphics tricks used in the video, how does it animate?
Various patterns are generated in Matlab using mathematical equations similar to ones describing Spirograph (or harmonograph) and Phyllotaxis. The patterns are calculated in such a way that when rotated under a stroboscopic light of suitable frequency or when recorded by a camera, they start to animate. It is kind of zoetrope— early device for animation.
We love zoetropes. Check out a few animated patterns from the project:
Watch this next: Pixar’s Zoetrope and how animation works. | <urn:uuid:3ead4562-302a-4345-bd10-8794638c078d> | {
"date": "2019-03-21T10:27:13",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-13",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912202510.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20190321092320-20190321114320-00136.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8743517994880676,
"score": 3.5625,
"token_count": 195,
"url": "https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/eggstatic-stroboscopic-patterns-animate-on-easter-eggs"
} |
When the kids arrived on W w worm day they found worms on a window for some above and below viewing. I propped the window up on two teacher chairs and stayed close to hold it steady. the kids crawled under to watch the wiggly worms and watched from above to see their funny friend (and worms) through the window.
Lou pulled up a chair before class to get a good view.
First, we talked about the letter Ww and the sound it makes. We sang the phonics song. We added W pictures to our W page in our class alphabet book.
Then to practice our letter, I put the friends in small groups of three and sent them with one of the stretchy bands and had them see if they could work together to make a W.
Only one group figured it out. They demonstrated for the others when we came back to the rug. This picture is obviously a work in progress group.
To get the worm part of our day started, we read An Earthworms Life by John Himmelman. It has nice drawings and good worms facts. I added in a few more worm facts from other books I had looked at.
I used this posted I drew to help point out the facts from the book as well as to review the facts after we read. There are even worm castings (poop) which was pretty funny to the boys.
Here are a few other books I had on hand, but didn't get to. Sometimes the day just gets away from us. That usually means we have been having a good day.
I showed the kiddos these pictures, which I just found through a google image search. We talked about whether the pictures were fake or real. They are both real pictures of giant earthworms from Australia. Aren't they crazy!
Next, each friend was given a worm on a paper plate and an observation page and sent somewhere in the room to observe their worm. Before passing these material out, we discussed what it meant to observe, using our senses, and how we were being like scientist. We also talked about proper handling of the worm. God made worms too, so we should be gentle with them; the kids all agreed and no one lost their worm, although one did crawl off the plate and try to make a break for it.
The worm observation pages were later collected into a class book.
When we came back to the rug, supplies were collected by our lovely parent helper and we shared some observations we made about our worms. I asked the kids to complete the sentence, "My worm..." Some talked about how the worm looked, others about how it felt, some about what it did, and one commented about how it smelled.
Later, I wrote their sentence on the bottom of their observation page.
They made some good observations.
Then, I asked if any of them had tasted the worms. They seemed grossed out, of course they had not. So I tricked them! I acted like I was trying to make sure I had the right worms and was worried about how long they had been in a closed container. I explained that I had some worms that I had rinsed the dirt off of (who would eat dirt!). I showed them the bowl of worms and then I picked one up and wiggled it. Then I ate it. They were pretty grossed out! I used this recipe for the worms. I offered others a chance to taste and a few started to figure it out.
I had two worms for each friend in a small individual bowl, but my leader child for the day had also brought jello worms so we just ate out of their container. There were a few friends who had the worm in their mouths before they figured it out.
At some point, we let them crawl through a tunnel like a worm.
The craft for the day was painting with worms. They were rubber fishing worms in brown paint.
Some friends were really into this and painted most of the 35ish minutes we were in our enrichment room.
Here is my Lou's art.
I snuck this activity in at the very end of the day. I gave them each a few short gummy worms and told them a letter I wanted them to make. When they had made a few letters, I gave them a regular long gummy worm to nibble on. The kids are really good at working with some food/candy item without eating it, knowing they will get a clean treat to eat later.
We sang this song in the hallway while we waited for all of the friends to get through the bathroom. I'd printed it out a few years ago and had it in a folder. I don't know where it came from.
Each line gets repeated, echo style"
The silliest worm
I ever saw
was stuck inside my soda straw.
He said to me
don't take a sip
for if you do,
you're sure to flip.
I took a sip,
and he went down
down through my pipes.
He was my friend
but he is gone.
Now he lives inside my tummy.
The kids were troopers this day and we just kept getting through things and they were eager to keep working. I love those days. I was worried we wouldn't get to these worms. With all the cutting I did, that would have been disappointing.
I passed out the worms and sang the worm song below. I got this idea from a similar song I saw in a Mailbox magazine. It might not have been about worms, I don't remember.
To the tune of "Where is Thumpkin"
Where is Victor worm? Where is Victor worm?
(child with V worm brings it up) Here he is. Here he is.
What do you say Victor? What do you say Victor?
(Kids:) /v/ /v/ /v/, /v/ /v/ /v/.
Then we repeated with other names I assigned to each worm. I used the yellow cards to show the letter I was looking for. I wanted everyone to be successful with identifying their letter. I wrote the name on the back for me.
We took a bunch of the worms home and Lou and Bee made them up some compost habitats. Next year, I might have the kids in class each make one and take a worm home.
Here was snack. Aren't these crazy? Whale cupcakes!
They are icing covered Twinkies coming out of cupcakes.
Here are a few other worm activities that my super co-teacher did the day prior. She passed out a long (brown/pinkish) dyed sock to each child. They put it on their arm and pretended they were worms.
They she sang this song and walked around the circle pretending to be a bird. The kids wiggled their arms. She snatched up a worm at the end of each song. The kids loved it. She's so good at doing fun things like this.
They also did some worm weaving, which the kids liked as well. The soil is just laminated brown construction paper that has slits cut in it. The worms must be about 10-11 inches long. There were bunches of worms available. Some kids wove 6 or more.
They also pretended some rope pieces were worms. They wiggled them on the floor and in the air, etc. Then they made some worm rope letters on the floor. I guess this picture must be rotated, I thought it was supposed to be a 'b'.
The kids are starting to think that since we are getting to the end of the alphabet, we must be getting to the end of the year. Lou agrees. He is counting down already. | <urn:uuid:7e55ae51-bd7e-4daa-80fc-079beec253be> | {
"date": "2016-10-26T23:03:10",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-44",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721008.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00098-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9881682991981506,
"score": 2.78125,
"token_count": 1596,
"url": "http://mamabeefromthehive.blogspot.com/2012/03/ww-worm-day-preschool-style.html"
} |
World Geography Israel Unit Study
Have you been looking for an exciting voyage across the world! Come along as we walk on the Great Wall of China, wander through the Amazon Rainforest, and climb the Egyptian Pyramids! Within this curriculum you’ll discover the sights and sounds of 31 countries across the globe. You’ll get hands-on with fun activities, crafts, recipes and more! So grab your passports, and get ready to go! It’s time for Expedition Earth Thursday!
Shalom! And welcome to our Geography Curriculum week on Israel!
Here are some of the highlights of the week:
- Where Israel is on the map, the Mediterranean Sea, the Dead Sea, and the capital
- A song in Hebrew
- How to say “Hello” in Hebrew
- How to pray for the Jewish people
- About children in Israel
- Completed a lapbook activity
- Completed and classified animals of Israel
- Learned new Geography terms
- Made a stone inlay craft
- Learned about the Dome of the Rock
- Learned about the 7th Wonder of the World: Petra in Jordan
We located Israel on the map. This is the smallest country we’ve done so far, so the kids really had to look to find it.
We played the Israeli version of tic tac toe. instead of marking your spot with an X or an O they use colored rocks. And instead of putting them in the blanks the rocks are placed on the intersections of the lines. 3 in a row wins!
We learned about the Dome of the Rock, and made a painting with foil on top.
We worked on our Israel Lapbook Component:
We learned about animals found in Israel, the Teeny Tot was particularly tickled with this activity.
We finished our animal lapbooks then classified them on our wall, here are our favorites:
We made these cool stone inlays that we’ll use as coasters. I do have to point out that this didn’t go quite as smoothly as I’d expected because I only had one mold, so each person had to wait about an hour for it to dry before the next one could do theirs! oh well, lesson learned. They still turned out pretty cool.
Of course we finished our week by visiting an Middle Eastern restaurant that served us yummy Falafel. (Okay, so the kids didn’t like it, but it’s all about experiencing the culture right?)
Of course we stamped our passports and greeted each other, Shalom!
Click here if you’d like to follow along with our Expedition Earth Geography Curriculum Journey! | <urn:uuid:658dd5c4-e61d-4600-9a10-459be0e99ce5> | {
"date": "2016-08-25T20:23:53",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-36",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982294097.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823195814-00010-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9488915801048279,
"score": 3.234375,
"token_count": 561,
"url": "http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2013/10/world-geography-israel-unit-study.html"
} |
the Hayward Fault: Online and On the Ground
Ever wonder exactly where the
Hayward Fault is? Three U.S. Geological Survey scientists will be on
hand to announce three new educational publications, showing you just
where to look.
With the 140th anniversary of the 1868 Hayward earthquake fast
approaching, the USGS is dedicated to providing information that will
prepare the public for a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake likely to
happen in the greater Bay Area in the next 30 years. The commemoration
date reflects an important milestone: the past 5 large earthquakes on
the Hayward Fault have been on average about 140 years apart, so a
repeat of this powerful earthquake could happen at any moment.
Who: USGS Earthquake
author of fact sheet The Hayward
Fault—Is it due for a repeat of the powerful 1868 earthquake?
creator of the Hayward Fault
“virtual tour” using Google Earth™ software
author of Where’s the Hayward
Fault? A Green Guide to the Hayward Fault
Press conference detailing the above publications with question and
session immediately following. A short guided tour of the Hayward Fault
will follow the press conference.
Hayward Area Historical and Society Museum, 22701 Main Street, Hayward,
9:30 a.m. Thursday, May 22, 2008
USGS provides science for a changing world. For
more information visit www.usgs.gov. | <urn:uuid:71e68a46-d6f1-4549-bd92-8eca246ff718> | {
"date": "2017-01-22T03:41:16",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-04",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281332.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00486-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8393545746803284,
"score": 3.1875,
"token_count": 300,
"url": "https://online.wr.usgs.gov/ocw/htmlmail/2008/May/19/20080519ma.html"
} |
CHAP. AXGER, 237 I I tf CHAPTER X. HATRED AND AXGEE. Hatred—Rage, effects of on the system—Uncovering of the teeth—Bag-e in the insane—Anger and indig-nation—As expressed by the various races of man—Sneering autl defiance—The uncovering' of the canine tooifi on one side of the face. IF we have suffered or expect to suffer some wilful injury from a man, or If he Is In any way offensive to us, we dislike him; and dislike easily rises into hatred. Such feelings, if experienced In a moderate degree, are not clearly expressed by any movement of the body or features, excepting perhaps by a certain gravity of be- haviour, or by some ill-temper. Few Individuals, how- ever, can long reflect about a hated person, without feel- Ing and exhibiting signs of Indignation or rage. But if the offending person be quite insignificant, we ex- perience merely disdain or contempt. If, on the other hand, he Is all-powerful, then hatred passes into terror, as when a slave thinks about a cruel master, or a about a bloodthirsty malignant deity.1 Most of our emotions are so closely connected with their expression, that they hardly exist if the body remains passive—the nature of the expression depending in chief part on the 1 See some remarks to this effect by Mr. Bains * The Emotions and the Will,' 2nd edit. 1865, p." 127. | <urn:uuid:938c92ff-4cd1-4ef8-bb82-79b2a522d509> | {
"date": "2016-05-04T20:20:16",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-18",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860123845.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161523-00182-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9165856242179871,
"score": 2.640625,
"token_count": 324,
"url": "http://www.archive.org/stream/TheExpressionOfTheEmotionsInManAndAnimals/TXT/00000246.txt"
} |
I started playing the French horn in sixth grade. I was a rule follower, and so I practiced regularly, in addition to performing at concerts and parades and all the other glamorous events to which a teenage French horn player is routinely invited. And yet, six years later, I was only marginally less terrible than when I began.
Those who, like me, have failed to become proficient at something despite working at it for a long time can take heart from a new paper in the journal Psychological Science. Brooke N. Macnamara and her co-authors analyzed 88 studies of the impact of practice on people’s prowess in such areas as music, sports and professional jobs. They found that practice helped, but it wasn’t everything — it explained about 21 percent of the difference in subjects’ musical skills, 18 percent of the difference in sports and less than 1 percent of the difference in professions. So definitely leave work early today — you may not be getting any better by staying.
Driving another nail in the practice coffin, a different recent study suggests that even years of work may not make up for tone-deaf genes. According to The Economist, Miriam Mosing and her team asked more than 2,000 pairs of twins how many hours a week they’d practiced playing an instrument or singing over the course of their lives, then put them through a battery of tests to measure their musical skill. They found that subjects who practiced a lot weren’t necessarily any better at music than their slacker twins, even if the pair were identical. One especially industrious twin practiced 20,228 hours more than her (or his) sibling, but still scored no better on the tests. In addition to showing that the joke’s on that twin, the research found, per The Economist, “that musical ability has a big genetic component.”
The most famous proponent of practice in recent years has, of course, been Malcolm Gladwell, whose widely cited “10,000-hour rule” holds that across a variety of disciplines, aspirants need 10,000 hours of practice to succeed. And the recent research has inspired a wave of Gladwell digs. Business Insider’s Drake Baer opened his piece on Ms. Macnamara’s study with the words, “The 10,000 Hour Rule — closely associated with pop psych writer Malcolm Gladwell — may not be much of a rule at all.” At The Science of Us, Jesse Singal wrote, “Practice is a hot concept, especially in the age of high-stakes testing and Malcolm Gladwell” — and added that Ms. Macnamara’s research shows that practice “doesn’t do a great job explaining why some people are better than others at a given skill.” And The Economist argued that Ms. Mosing’s study cast doubt on “what many music teachers — following Malcolm Gladwell’s prescription for achieving expertise in almost any field by applying the requisite amount of effort — tell their pupils.”
This prescription has actually been taking a beating for some time. Mr. Singal points to a 2013 study finding that practice explained just 30 percent of the difference in subjects’ musical skill and 34 percent of their chess-playing ability (these numbers actually sound pretty good compared with the ones in Ms. Mcnamara’s research, so maybe play some chess after you leave work). And David Epstein, author of the book “The Sports Gene,” has said that 10,000 hours isn’t “a magical number” — some people may get great at what they do much quicker than that, others much more slowly.
Mr. Gladwell responded to some of these criticisms in The New Yorker last year, clarifying that he never meant practice was the only thing that mattered: “No one succeeds at a high level without innate talent.” But despite this, and despite recent research, the idea that you can be awesome at anything with 10,000 hours of work continues to hold sway.
Its appeal makes a certain amount of sense — it’s heartening to believe we can excel in any field if we just work hard enough. In an interview with Outside Magazine, Mr. Epstein noted that this belief has its merits:
“It’s great that the 10,000-Hour Rule emphasizes the importance of practice because some people underestimate what practice can do. I think I can take anyone with two working legs and in six months can get them to run a marathon. I think most people don’t believe they can do that, but they can.”
But letting go of the idea that enough practice turns anyone into a star can have its upsides, too. It may free us from self-blame if we’re just not getting the hang of something. And if we’ve tried and tried and still don’t succeed, it may give us permission to quit and try something else. Which, when I graduated from high school as a still-pretty-bad French horn player, is exactly what I did. | <urn:uuid:b6caea64-775a-492a-bd72-b2d4b7816214> | {
"date": "2019-01-22T03:08:50",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-04",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583823140.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20190122013923-20190122035923-00616.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9646037817001343,
"score": 2.71875,
"token_count": 1062,
"url": "https://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/the-limits-of-practice/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=2"
} |
If you never intend to breed your pet, neutering is the responsible option. You may have heard that neutering your pet will stop unwanted litters, but did you know that it also provides many health benefits?
Neutering refers to the relatively simple surgical procedure of removing an animal’s sexual organs: for females, the ovaries and uterus and for males, the testicles. If you have a dog, cat, or rabbit you have no intention of breeding from, neutering is the most responsible action to take for your pet.
If you have a female animal, getting her spayed will help her health in the following ways:
- Prevents cancer of the uterus and ovaries and helps prevent breast tissue cancer
- Prevents uterine infections (Pyometra)
- Prevents unwanted pregnancies
- Prevents the nuisance and mess associated with coming in to season (bitches)
- Prevents pseudo-pregnancies (false pregnancies) in bitches
If you have a male animal, getting him castrated will help his health in the following ways:
- Prevents testicular cancer
- Reduction of the incidence of prostatic diseases, including cancer
- Controls testosterone-influenced aggressive behaviour
- Prevents urine marking and roaming (cats)
- Prevents adal adenoma (perianal tumours) in dogs
If you are worried about having your pet neutered, we can reassure you that it is a relatively low risk procedure, performed by our team on a daily basis. The procedure will be performed under a general anaesthetic, and your pet will even be able to recover with you at home on the same day. Your pet might feel a little groggy afterwards, but most animals spring back to their normal selves within a few days. | <urn:uuid:7fa725ec-6801-45bd-8a03-444817cde2a4> | {
"date": "2019-11-11T23:31:03",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2019-47",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496664439.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20191111214811-20191112002811-00496.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9531218409538269,
"score": 2.640625,
"token_count": 368,
"url": "https://www.wellpetsvets.uk/services/neutering"
} |
August 10, 2006
Researchers at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus, the National Institutes of Health, and Florida State University have developed and applied a new light microscopy technique that will allow them to determine the arrangement of proteins that make up the individual organelles, or structures, within a cell.
The microscope and the technology that make it possible are described in an article appearing on-line in the August 10 issue of Science Express. The technique was conceived by Eric Betzig, Ph.D, and Harald Hess, Ph.D while working as independent inventors and later as investigators at Janelia Farm, which subsequently supported their effort on the project. Funding for the project was also provided by the NIH. Drs. Betzig and Hess built the microscope and demonstrated the method at the NIH, while working with Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Ph.D and her colleagues in the Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Also working on the project was Michael Davidson of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University.
"This is a major advance that will allow us to understand the fundamental organization of the key structures within a cell," said Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., Director of the NIH. "What researchers learn from the new microscopy technique will provide a broad foundation for understanding the complexity of how proteins, the building blocks of cells, interact in health and disease."
The new technique is known as photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM). It relies on the earlier pioneering effort of Dr. Lippincott-Schwartz and NIH Staff Scientist George Patterson, Ph.D. to develop a new class of molecules, called photoactivated fluorescent proteins, which emit green or yellow light when exposed to a laser, but only after being activated by brief exposure to violet light. The cell itself is coaxed to produce these molecules, which are then bound to specific proteins of interest, thereby optically marking the molecular constituents of specific cellular structures.
In a conventional optical microscope, objects less than about 200 nanometers apart cannot be distinguished from one another. The trick of the new technique is to control the violet light to activate only a few molecules at a time, so that they are statistically likely to be well separated. Even though each fluorescing molecule still appears as an approximately 200 nanometer diameter spot, the center of the spot, and hence the location of the molecule, can be determined to within 2 to 25 nanometers, depending on its brightness.
"It's important to activate only a few fluorescent proteins at a time, or else you'd only see one bright blur of light, without being able to distinguish the individual position of the protein," Dr. Lippincott-Schwartz said.
Repeating this process many thousands of times, a computer image is eventually created in which the positions of all the molecules are determined, often with near-molecular precision. Currently, the main tool researchers use to produce high resolution images of the structures within a cell is an electron microscope. Although electron microscopes produce a detailed image of very small structures, they cannot provide an image of the proteins that make up those structures.
With the new technique, the researchers were able to study several cellular subsystems, including the mitochondria, the structures within a cell that provide energy for the cell's activities. The researchers were able to visualize the distribution of the proteins involved in the assembly and budding of the AIDS virus from a host cell.
Images generated by both conventional microscopy and the new PALM microscopy appear at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/news/releases/Pages/caption_palmvsconventional.aspx.
The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Web site at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov. | <urn:uuid:ede1873e-d9ae-4801-acf5-3cfec82b1268> | {
"date": "2014-07-28T08:23:00",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-23",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510257966.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011737-00282-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9438671469688416,
"score": 3.078125,
"token_count": 916,
"url": "http://www.nichd.nih.gov/news/releases/Pages/microscope_view_protein.aspx"
} |
Bengaluru, Feb 18: Today is Wednesday, February 18, 2015. What happened on this day in history? Oneindia takes a look at the past:
1546: German leader of Protestant Reformation Martin Luther died.
1564: Italian painter, sculptor and architect Michelangelo died.
1745: Inventor of battery Alessandro Volta was born.
1836: Ramkrishna Paramhansa was born.
1861: Victor Emmanuel II became the first King of Italy
1885: Mark Twain's The Adentures of Huckleberry Finn was published.
1907: 600,000 tons of grain were sent to Russia as relief for famine.
1930: Planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh, an American astronomer.
1932: Manchuria formally declared independent.
1943: German General Erwin Rommel took control of three towns in Tunisia in North Africa.
1953: First 3-D movie Bwana Devil opened in New York.
1954: East and West Berlin drop propaganda leaflets on east other after the end of one-month truce.
1962: Former New York Senator Robert F Kennedy said US troops will stay in Vietnam until Communism was defeated.
1964: The US cut off military aid to five nations for keeping trade relations with Cuba.
1982: Mexico devalued the peso by 30 per cent to fight economic slide.
2001: FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested and charged with spying for Russia. | <urn:uuid:5e3f4611-6442-4812-9e42-4ae71f98c2f3> | {
"date": "2017-04-23T20:20:39",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-17",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917118743.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031158-00527-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9550792574882507,
"score": 2.703125,
"token_count": 313,
"url": "http://www.oneindia.com/bengaluru/february-18-this-day-in-history-1657634.html"
} |
As part of his weekly experimental series, French filmmaker Mathieu Stern, whose amazing work we’ve previously posted and UV photographer Pierre-Louis Ferrer, filmed an array of cut fruit (yes, tomatoes are fruit) under UV blacklight in order to capture how the soft inner flesh would react to different wavelengths of invisible light. While the results of each fruit varied, it was the pineapple that reacted most visibly, lighting up into a beautiful shade of purple.
Photographer Mathieu Stern chops up some fruit under a UV blacklight. It’s an interesting look at how different surfaces react to different wavelengths of invisible light. …For this UV video, the subject is illuminated directly by UV emitting lamps . UV filter is placed on the lens, which allows ultraviolet light to pass and which absorbs or blocks all visible and infrared light. UV filters are made from special colored glass and may be coated or sandwiched with other filter glass to aid in blocking unwanted wavelengths. | <urn:uuid:31361fa4-99ae-41cb-a6a0-7fd30ce3df9a> | {
"date": "2016-12-11T09:55:37",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-50",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698544672.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170904-00392-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9509245157241821,
"score": 2.765625,
"token_count": 195,
"url": "https://laughingsquid.com/a-fascinating-video-experiment-showing-how-cut-fruit-reacts-under-uv-blacklight/"
} |
It is widely believed that being born is about the most stressful thing that can happen to anybody. But being weaned cannot be too far behind it in the list of traumatic experiences. Most humans come to terms with it eventually and the situation in animals is probably no different. How weaning takes place, however, can have a dramatic effect on the length of time required to overcome the shock. That this is so, at least for horses, comes from the latest work of the team of Christine Aurich at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna. Weaning is least stressful if foals are given the company of familiar adult female horses, even if they are not related to them. The work is published in the current issue of the journal Stress.
In the wild, horses are usually weaned for about a year, typically until their mothers are next about to give birth. Weaning takes place gradually the mothers discourage their young from suckling and do not produce as much milk and so the foals gradually come to rely on other sources of food. Contrast this idyllic picture with the situation of domestic animals, which are generally removed from their mothers abruptly and at a much earlier age. The young animal is suddenly deprived of its main source of nourishment as well as of the emotional security that the mothers provide. And the mothers no longer have young to care for, which as any human mother will confirm represents a significant change in lifestyle.
With increasing attention being paid to animal welfare, new and more "humane" weaning methods are being gradually introduced. Nevertheless, there have to date been relatively few investigations of whether the new methods actually improve the situation. Christine Aurich and colleagues at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna (Vetmeduni Vienna) have filled this gap in our knowledge by comparing the levels of stress suffered by foals when weaned by different methods.
In collaboration with Sandra Rose-Meierhöfer of the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Potsdam-Bornim and with other scientists at Vetmeduni Vienna, Regina Erber in Aurich's group elected to examine three ways in which female foals can be separated from their mothers. One group of foals (A) was subjected to the "short, sharp shock" method: the mothers were all removed from the foals' stable at once. Another group (B) was treated in the same manner but two other mares, not related to any of the foals, were present from the foals' birth until the end of the experiment. The final six foals (group C) were subjected to sequential removal of the six mothers, with two mothers taken away each day for three days. The animals' behaviour was closely monitored to see how they adapted to independent life, levels of stress hormones in the foals' saliva were measured and their heart rates were followed (changes in heart beat are associated with stress).
The results were dramatic. The most obvious conclusion was that weaning under any circumstances is extremely stressful. All foals lost weight after being separated from their mothers and the levels of stress hormones in their saliva were similar to those found when horses are transported, which is known to be associated with a high degree of stress. The hormone level immediately after weaning was not found to depend on the method of weaning, so it seems that irrespective of the weaning procedure the animals are discomfited. But there were nevertheless significant differences in how long it took the foals to come to terms with life without mum. The researchers found that foals in groups A and C needed much longer to gain weight after weaning than foals in group B and showed many other classical signs of stress, e.g. they whinnied more often and spent more time walking around, presumably searching for their mothers.
It is clear, then, that weaning foals in the presence of other mares helps reduce the length of time they suffer. Aurich interprets the results in relation to the situation in wild horses. "We know that horses in the wild usually live in family groups, with one mature stallion and several mares with their offspring. Having other mares present when foals are weaned is thus closer to the natural situation and seems to help compensate for the removal of the foals' mothers."
The presence of a "support group" seems to help foals accept the loss of their mothers but the researchers have not yet considered how the mothers may be helped to come to terms with no longer having their foals around them. Can it be assumed that they are happy to be free again?
Explore further: Intracellular ABC transporters enable leaf beetle larvae to accumulate defensive precursors when feeding
More information: The paper "Behavioral and physiological responses of young horses to different weaning protocols a pilot study" by Regina Erber, Manuela Wulf, Sandra Rose-Meierhöfer, Mareike Becker-Birck, Erich Möstl, Jörg Aurich, Gundula Hoffmann and Christine Aurich is published in the August 29, 2011 issue of the journal Stress. | <urn:uuid:e4a49532-52e9-4930-9e1a-3a329e21b9bf> | {
"date": "2013-12-09T19:26:18",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-48",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163996785/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204133316-00002-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9758992195129395,
"score": 3.296875,
"token_count": 1043,
"url": "http://phys.org/news/2011-10-short-goodbye-weaning-foals.html"
} |
Isidor Straus (February 12, 1845 – April 15, 1912), a German, was the owner of Macy's department store with his father Nathan. He also served briefly as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He died with his wife, Ida, in the sinking of the passenger ship The RMS Titanic.
Isidor Straus was born in Otterberg county of Kaiserslautern, Germany. He was the first of five children of Lazarus Straus (1809–1898) and his second wife Sara (1823–1876). His siblings were Hermine (1846–1922), Nathan (1848–1931), Jakob Otto (1849–1851) and Oscar Solomon Straus (1850–1926). In 1854 he and his family immigrated to the United States following his father Lazarus who immigrated two years before. They settled in Talbotton where Lazarus had opened a dry goods store.
Death on the TitanicEditTraveling back from a winter in Europe, mostly spent at Cap Martin in southern France, Isidor and his wife were passengers on the RMS Titanic when, on April 14, 1912, it hit an iceberg. Once it was clear Titanic was sinking, Ida refused to leave Isidor and would not get into a lifeboat. Although Isidor was offered a seat in a lifeboat too, he refused seating while there were still women and children aboard. Ida insisted her newly hired English maid, Ellen Bird, get into lifeboat #8. She gave Ellen her fur coat stating she would not be needing it. Ida is reported to have said, "I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together." Isidor and Ida were last seen alive on the deck holding hands before a large wave dragged them into the sea. Eyewitnesses described the scene as a "most remarkable exhibition of love and devotion." Both died as the ship sank.
Isidor Straus' body was recovered by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett and brought to Halifax, Nova Scotia where it was identified before being shipped to New York. He was first buried in the Straus-Kohns Mausoleum at Beth-El Cemetery in Brooklyn. His body was moved to the Straus Mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx in 1928. Isidor and Ida are memorialised on a cenotaph outside the mausoleum, "Many waters cannot quench love - neither can the floods drown it."
The couple are also portrayed in the 1953 film, Titanic, and the 1958 film, A Night to Remember, in scenes that are faithful to the accounts described above. In the James Cameron's 1997 film, the Straus' are briefly depicted kissing and holding each other in their bed as their stateroom floods with water, along with a deleted scene showing Isidor (played by Lew Palter) attempting to persuade Ida (Elsa Raven) to enter the lifeboat to which she refuses.
- Isidor Straus on Wikipedia
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia articles (view authors).| | <urn:uuid:ffd64c5f-7ca2-4239-96c8-8cd0a9e8cf63> | {
"date": "2016-10-24T21:45:38",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-44",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719784.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00407-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9823998212814331,
"score": 2.515625,
"token_count": 663,
"url": "http://jamescameronstitanic.wikia.com/wiki/Isidor_Straus"
} |
Antinuclear antibody panel
The antinuclear antibody panel is a blood test that looks at antinuclear antibodies (ANA).
Antinuclear antibodies are substances produced by the immune system that attack the body's own tissues.
How is the Test Performed?
Blood is drawn from a vein, usually from the inside of the elbow or the back of the hand. The site is cleaned with germ-killing medicine (antiseptic). The health care provider wraps an elastic band around the upper arm to apply pressure to the area and make the vein swell with blood.
Next, the health care provider gently inserts a needle into the vein. The blood collects into an airtight vial or tube attached to the needle. The elastic band is removed from your arm.
Once the blood has been collected, the needle is removed, and the puncture site is covered to stop any bleeding.
In infants or young children, a sharp tool called a lancet may be used to puncture the skin and make it bleed. The blood collects into a small glass tube called a pipette, or onto a slide or test strip. A bandage may be placed over the area if there is any bleeding.
Preparation for the Test
No special preparation is needed. However, certain drugs, including birth control pills, procainamind, and thiazide diurectics, affect the accuracy of this test. Make sure your doctor knows about all the medicines you take.
How will the Test Feel?
When the needle is inserted to draw blood, some people feel moderate pain, while others feel only a prick or stinging sensation. Afterward, there may be some throbbing.
Why is the Test Performed?
Your doctor may order this test if you have signs of an autoimmune disorder, particularly systemic lupus erythematosus. This test may be done if you have unexplained symptoms such as arthritis, rashes, or chest pain.
Normal Results for Antinuclear antibody panel
Usually, there is no detectable ANA in the blood (negative test). Sometimes, however, people who do not have any specific disease may have low levels of ANA for no obvious reason.
ANA is reported as a "titer." Low titers are in the range of 1:40 to 1:60. A positive ANA is much more significant if you also have antibodies against the double-stranded form of DNA.
ANA does not confirm a diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE). However, a lack of ANA makes that diagnosis much less likely.
Although the ANA is most often identified with SLE, a positive ANA can also be a sign of other autoimmune diseases.
Normal value ranges may vary slightly among different laboratories. Talk to your doctor about the meaning of your specific test results.
The examples above show the common measurements for results for these tests. Some laboratories use different measurements or may test different specimens.
What Abnormal Results Mean
The presence of ANA in the blood may be due to:
- Chronic liver disease
- Collagen vascular disease
- Drug-induced lupus erythematosus
- Myositis (inflammatory muscle disease)
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Sjogren syndrome
- Systemic lupus erythematosus
Increased ANA levels may sometimes be seen in people with:
Antinuclear antibody panel Risks
Veins and arteries vary in size from one patient to another and from one side of the body to the other. Obtaining blood from some people may be more difficult than from others.
Other risks associated with having blood drawn are slight, but may include:
- Excessive bleeding
- Fainting or feeling light-headed
- Hematoma (blood accumulating under the skin)
- Infection (a slight risk any time the skin is broken)
The ANA can be positive in relatives of people with SLE who do not have SLE themselves.
A positive ANA always needs further evaluation, including a careful history, physical exam, and blood tests for other antibodies, especially anti-double-strand DNA antibodies.
If the only finding is a low titer of ANA and everything else is negative, there is only a 5% chance of that patient developing systemic lupus erythematosis at some time later in life.
|Review Date: 2/11/2013
Reviewed By: Ariel D. Teitel, MD, MBA, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, NYU Langone Medical Center. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by A.D.A.M. Health Solutions, Ebix, Inc., Editorial Team: David Zieve, MD, MHA, Bethanne Black, Stephanie Slon, and Nissi Wang. | <urn:uuid:7331392d-a155-4629-896f-42a096d6391b> | {
"date": "2017-01-19T00:25:02",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-04",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280410.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00294-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9145001769065857,
"score": 3.84375,
"token_count": 1004,
"url": "https://www.drugs.com/enc/antinuclear-antibody-panel.html"
} |
The little bee-eater also referred to as the Merops pusillus is one of the unique bird species sought after on Uganda birding safaris and tours on Kidepo Valley National Park.
Belonging to the family Meropidae, the little bee-eater thrives greatly in Sub Saharan Africa. It stands as a bright-colored slender bird marked with yellow throat, green upper parts, black gorget and brown upper breast as viewed on birding safaris in Uganda.
The wings of little bee-eater are brown and green while the beak features a black color. They stretch from 15 – 17cm in length making it the smallest bee-eater thriving in Africa. Both female and male are the same. The Little bee-eater breeds in open country marked with bushes and close to water. They consume majorly insects mainly bees, hornets and wasps as explored on Uganda tours. They hunt in low perches of around one (1) metre. It removes the sting from the bees by hitting it repeatedly on the hard surface.
The Little bee-eaters differ from other bee-eaters as they are solitary nesters creating tunnel in the sandy banks or at the entry of the den of the Aardvark. Four (4) – six (6) white eggs are laid and these are taken care of by both female and male birds. They feature communal roosting as at times explored on Uganda Safaris. | <urn:uuid:d06379f0-8361-45e6-8391-7ec4ad077f56> | {
"date": "2018-11-20T08:42:59",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2018-47",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039746301.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20181120071442-20181120093442-00136.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9524291157722473,
"score": 3.109375,
"token_count": 300,
"url": "https://www.primeugandasafaris.com/safari-news/little-bee-eater-birds-kidepo-uganda-uganda-safari-news.html/"
} |
Posted on May 28, 2013 | Comments 0
A heart attack can occur at any time and does not depend upon whether a person is resting or working. Most of the heart attacks strike suddenly while some may occur only after signs and symptoms of the attack start appearing days and weeks in advance. In the case where a person shows no heart attack warning signs and symptoms, it is difficult to assess and reduce the chances.
But in the case where the warning bell starts ringing, there may be chances of avoiding the attack. It is important to know the various hints that the body is giving a person who might experience an attack in the future. The following given information would be thus useful:
Common Heart attack warning signs and symptoms:
- One of the most common hints that the heart gives as a warning of a heart attack is pressure. A feeling of an acute pain occurs in the center of the chest and this feeling of pain might last for a few minutes.
- Sometimes the pain might even extend to the shoulder and the left arm and even to the back, teeth and the jaw. This is a clear sign of an attack waiting to happen.
- Some people might experience regular and increasing episodes of pain the chest and if this happens, the person should immediately consult a heart specialist.
- Prolonged pain and uneasiness might occur in the upper abdomen as warning symptoms of a heart attack.
- Another common sign of an attack on the most important organ of the body is shortness of breath which might happen a few weeks in advance.
- Some other common symptoms of a heart attack are sweating, fainting, vomiting, nausea and an impending sense of doom.
Heart attack signs and symptoms in women:
- In the case of women, they might experience heartburn and abdominal pain which might occur in regular episodes.
- Women who have the risk of a heart attack might even experience a condition of clammy skin.
- It is a common symptom of a heart attack that some women might experience dizziness and lightheadedness.
- Some women who have the risk of an attack on the most vital body organ might experience unusual fatigue and unexplained tiredness.
These symptoms vary from one person to another and not all these symptoms might surely mean a nearing heart attack scenario.
Posted in: Heart Diseases | <urn:uuid:02e65564-7e87-459c-96d4-ecdd90ee2bc9> | {
"date": "2016-12-09T17:28:01",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-50",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698542714.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170902-00144-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9304946660995483,
"score": 3.25,
"token_count": 471,
"url": "http://www.healthwatchcenter.com/2013/05/what-are-the-heart-attack-warning-signs-and-symptoms/"
} |
According to Japanese research, sugarless yogurt can serve as another remedy for bad breath, tooth decay, and gum disease. Yogurt had allegedly reduced the levels of hydrogen suphide (a primary cause of halitosis) in 80% of participants in the study conducted by the International Association for Dental Research. The plaque and gum disease levels were also noticeably lower among those who ate the yogurt. The main bacteria that help reduce bad breath are Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus.
The study group of volunteers ate 90 grams of yogurt every day for six weeks, while maintaining a strict diet, medication intake, and oral hygiene routine.
People should consider having sugar-free yogurt as a healthy snack, since sugary snacks rank high in causing tooth decay. According to statistics, 1/4 people have chronic bad breath, and 19/20 have gum disease sometime in their lives! By cutting down on the consumption of sugary snacks and chocolate and adopting a good oral hygiene routine, one can start adopting better oral health.
Source: BBC News | <urn:uuid:5fdf0b9b-ff6d-4f58-b795-d4bfc24f93cb> | {
"date": "2014-07-31T17:36:26",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-23",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510273513.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011753-00402-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9519598484039307,
"score": 3.296875,
"token_count": 220,
"url": "http://blog.therabreath.com/tag/yogurt-bad-breath/"
} |
"Previous attempts to develop a reusable launch vehicle have failed, the agency acknowledges, arguing that the late-1980s X-30 and late-1990s X-33 VentureStar never flew because the designs were technically unachievable with the technology available at the time," writes Graham Warwick.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (Darpa) plans to develop a reusable-spaceplane launch vehicle with its new Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program.
However, the goal of the program is not to develop a vehicle exclusively for the U.S. armed services.
"In addition to enabling lower-cost, more responsive launches of U.S. government satellites, Darpa sees the reusable first-stage technology to be demonstrated under the XS-1 program as key to recapturing a commercial launch market lost to foreign competitors," Graham Warwick writes for Aviation Week.
Read the complete article, "Darpa Targets Lower Launch Costs With XS-1 Spaceplane" at Aviation Week, IndustryWeek's sister publication. | <urn:uuid:4e58aad5-10a3-4e9e-ac8a-0cf262da2dbe> | {
"date": "2014-09-30T22:06:38",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2014-41",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1412037663167.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20140930004103-00276-ip-10-234-18-248.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.93265300989151,
"score": 2.875,
"token_count": 218,
"url": "http://www.industryweek.com/around-web/darpa-developing-reusable-spaceplane"
} |
Women often don't think they are capable of launching their own businesses, which is one reason there are significantly fewer female entrepreneurs than male entrepreneurs, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2012 Women's Report released today.
What's more, women report being generally more afraid of failure than their male counterparts, according to the research, jointly sponsored by Babson College in the U.S., Universidad Del Desarrollo in Chile, and the University Tun Abdul Razak in Malaysia. The 2012 GEM survey, the 14th of its kind, surveyed 198,000 people in 69 countries. The GEM Women's Report looked at 67 of those economies.
In all but seven of the countries surveyed, women represent a minority of the nation's entrepreneurs. The seven economies where there are as many or more women as men entrepreneurs are Panama, Thailand, Ghana, Ecuador, Nigeria, Mexico and Uganda, the report says.
Comparison of female and male total entrepreneurship activity rates by region.
Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2012
To be sure, cultural expectations of women affect the likelihood that they will start a business. For example, in Chile, women are largely expected to take care of their children and parents, making it much harder for women to take an active role in running a business, the report notes. Moreover, many nations have longstanding cultural traditions that both discourage women from working outside the home and from taking leadership positions. In the Republic of Korea, for instance, women face significant hurdles in breaking into what is a very male-dominated business culture.
In the U.S., there are fewer overt barriers for women to become entrepreneurs, but there are still "covert" barriers, the report says, specifically in gaining access to capital or winning government contracts. "These covert practices are subtle, and sometimes not even recognized by entrepreneurs, in that they have to do with status expectations or gendered roles," the report says.
One classic example is the expectation in the U.S that venture capitalists will be men, the report notes. Lead author of the study and Babson professor Donna Kelley points to studies that show women are less likely to receive venture capital funding. "The fact that those making the investment decisions are primarily men can be one influencing factor," she says. Also, there has been previous academic research showing that fast-growth, high-tech entrepreneurs in the U.S. tend to be men, which is partly because women are less involved in science and engineering in general, says Kelly.
In all parts of the world, women entrepreneurs are more likely to run businesses that work directly with the consumer, like retail businesses, the GEM data shows. The data suggests women may choose these consumer-related businesses partly because they have lower aspirations for growth than men. Male entrepreneurs are more likely to gravitate toward capital-intensive manufacturing businesses and knowledge-intensive business services, the GEM data shows.
Even while more than 126 million female entrepreneurs were either starting or running new businesses in 2012 in the 67 countries measured, they are less confident about their abilities than men. In every economy studied, women reported lower perceptions of their entrepreneurial capabilities than men did, the report finds. Women in developed regions of Asia show the lowest levels of confidence in their abilities. Only 5 percent of women surveyed in Japan say they have the skills necessary to start their own business.
Meanwhile, perhaps surprisingly, women in sub-Saharan Africa showed much greater confidence in their entrepreneurship capabilities. Four out of five women in Zambia, Malawi, Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria say they have the skills necessary to start their own business. Part of the higher levels of confidence in sub-Saharan Africa is because almost 60 percent of women know other women entrepreneurs. Having direct interaction with a role model gives women confidence, says Kelly.
The entrepreneurship confidence levels in sub-Saharan Africa are also related to the types of businesses being started, says Kelly. "The typical business started by female entrepreneurs in these countries are often small, necessity-driven, consumer-oriented businesses with few or no employees and lower growth projections," says Kelly. "The perceptions about the skills needed for this type of business are different from those that involve more innovation, growth, and in industries with capital or knowledge intensity."
In every region, women report being more afraid of failure on average than their male counterparts, the report says. The fear of failure is linked to their lower rates of entrepreneurship because of the inherent risk of starting your own business. "When a woman has a choice between being an employee, especially when this is associated with an attractive salary, job stability, good benefits and even high social approval, she is taking a greater risk in entering entrepreneurship; she has to forego this opportunity in order to be an entrepreneur, and therefore has more to lose," says Kelly. Some of the most developed regions have the highest levels of fear of failure, including developed regions of Asia, Israel and Europe.
Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227631#ixzz2dIef36Gq | <urn:uuid:2a58adea-9a75-42e1-a696-650798124545> | {
"date": "2017-09-20T00:01:43",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-39",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818686077.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20170919235817-20170920015817-00016.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9690595865249634,
"score": 2.59375,
"token_count": 1030,
"url": "http://wehelpwomen.blogspot.com/2013/08/"
} |
Massachusetts and Virginia Essay
Massachusetts and Virginia
According to Lodge (1881) in his A Short History of the English Colonies in America, from the onset, the comparison between the colonies of Massachusetts and Virginia in how the beginnings of the settlements came about and developed are nearly as different as night and day. A Contrast in Founding Ideology The Plymouth settlers arriving on the Mayflower to escape religious persecution from England founded Massachusetts.
Virginia on the other hand, was an adventure quest of English gentlemen who put up the money for the journey to the New World and the establishment of the colony of Jamestown by the London Company to gain riches. Thus, the establishment of the two colonies had similarities in the momentum to take an action by a group of vested people but contrast in the underlying motives. The success in terms of both of these colonies becoming established and maintained again is a contrast.
The Plymouth colony of Massachusetts worked hard among its members and overcame many hardships of lack of promised supplies from England, and only through determination and commitment prevailed as a colony. Whereas, the determination and hard work of one man – Captain John Smith – is how the colony maintained itself for the first two years. The Revolutionary War Brings a Comparison Philosophically, both ideals of the Puritans of the Plymouth colony and the ideals of those founding Jamestown are based on freedom.
With the Puritans, it was the freedom from religious persecution and with Jamestown the freedom, that acquiring wealth brings. In terms of the American Revolutionary War Virginia was the first to raise dissention against the English Stamp Act (a precursor to events leading to the Revolutionary War). With Massachusetts, the die had been cast with the Mayflower Compact, which is historically recognized as a milestone in the North American continent lauding democratic ideals. The Contrast in Basics
Massachusetts developed into a region of centralized communities and with the growth of the shipping industry and with trade outside the continent wealth came to the region. Unlike Massachusetts was established after the hard work of the colonists to found townships and trade, Virginia became and remained a dispersed group of tobacco farmers with no established towns or cities and no centralized populations throughout the state. Virginia had no outside trade because of the population spread over the state and therefore depended on import goods (this was later remedied by laws enacted by leaders).
The Impact on the Civil War of the United States Massachusetts was the leader of the Abolitionist Movement (a common theme of the arguments leading to the Civil War of the United States). At the time of the original secession, Montgomery, Alabama was the designated capitol of the Confederacy. However, with the onset of troops called together for the Union by Lincoln in response to the firing on Fort Sumter, the Confederacy Capitol was moved to Richmond Virginia. Conclusion In conclusion, Massachusetts and Virginia were founded as colonies by people looking for freedoms in the New World.
Massachusetts – freedom from religious persecution and Virginia the freedom that wealth brings. The contrasts are in the development of the colonies. Massachusetts is populated with centralized towns and has a strong international trade with the development of shipping. Virginia develops into an agricultural colony with no centralized populations and no outside trade, which causes an economic hardship that only after becoming a state, does the lawmakers take action. Massachusetts sets the pulse of its citizen’s view of democratic ideals with the Mayflower Compact.
Virginia lauds independence from tyranny with its first to take the stand against the English King’s imposed Stamp Act on the colonies. Massachusetts leads the nation during the precursor years of the Civil War in the Abolitionist Movement whereas Richmond, Virginia becomes the second capitol of the Confederate States. The contrasts and comparisons are in part a picture of the diversity of the founding fathers and the underlying momentum towards the ideals of freedom. References Lodge, H. C. (1881) A short history of the english colonies in america. Harper & Brothers. New York. (Pgs 560).
University/College: University of California
Type of paper: Thesis/Dissertation Chapter
Date: 18 November 2016
Let us write you a custom essay sample on Massachusetts and Virginia
for only $16.38 $13.9/page | <urn:uuid:798f00d0-f7d3-4452-add2-127dfd1e749b> | {
"date": "2017-09-22T20:48:23",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-39",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818689192.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20170922202048-20170922222048-00656.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9555597305297852,
"score": 3.609375,
"token_count": 852,
"url": "https://studymoose.com/massachusetts-and-virginia-essay"
} |
The number of heroin- and opioid-addicted babies born has more than doubled in less than 10 years, a new study says.
When mothers are addicted to drugs during pregnancy, the babies have neonatal abstinence syndrome, which manifests as withdrawal symptoms after the infants are born.
People who become addicted to opioids, like heroin and prescription painkillers, have incredibly painful withdrawal symptoms that can last for days or weeks, depending on the severity of their physical dependency. Withdrawal is caused when the brain, which is accustomed to opioids flooding its receptors, is suddenly deprived of those chemicals -- and babies born to opioid-addicted mothers have the same withdrawal symptoms.
In the U.S., the incidence of opioid-caused neonatal abstinence syndrome increased from 2.8 cases for every 1,000 births in 2009 to 7.3 cases for every 1,000 births in 2013, according to researchers at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
Popular VideoThis young teenage singer was shocked when Keith Urban invited her on stage at his concert. A few moments later, he made her wildest dreams come true.
Dr. Joshua Brown, a pharmacy researcher at the University of Kentucky in Lexington and the study's lead author, pointed out that drug policies aimed at curbing the opioid epidemic have reduced supply by making it much more difficult for abusers to do things like forge prescriptions or go doctor-shopping. But lawmakers failed to predict the obvious -- that many addicts will opt for the next closest thing, heroin, instead of going for treatment.
“The drug policies of the early 2000s were effective in reducing supply -- we have seen a decrease in methamphetamine abuse and there have been reductions in some aspects of prescription drug abuse,” Brown told Reuters in an email interview. “However, the indirect results, mainly the increase in heroin abuse, were likely not anticipated and we are just starting to see these.”
Similar studies indicate the problem may be more pervasive. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that cases of newborns addicted to opioids have quadrupled over a longer time period. In 1999, the CDC report said, 1.5 babies per 1,000 were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, while 6 in 1,000 newborns were impacted in 2013.
There are also marked regional differences in the statistics, the CDC found. In Hawaii, for example, there were 0.7 babies born addicted to opioids per 1,000 births, while 33.4 babies per 1,000 were addicted at birth in West Virginia in 2013.
Popular VideoThis young teenage singer was shocked when Keith Urban invited her on stage at his concert. A few moments later, he made her wildest dreams come true:
Those variations are reflected in existing data about opioid abuse in certain states and regions.
“We know that certain states are harder hit by the opioid/heroin abuse epidemic, with about 10 states contributing half of all neonatal abstinence syndrome cases,” Brown told Reuters. “These states are often more rural and impoverished areas of the U.S. such as Mississippi, Alabama and West Virginia.”
Babies born with addiction symptoms require intensive medical care to prevent the symptoms from becoming fatal, Reuters noted. They're usually kept in hospitals for several weeks and are tapered down with methadone, the same powerful opioid drug used to wean adult users off heroin and heavy-duty prescription pills.
Those babies may go on to have developmental problems later in life, in addition to short-term problems like seizures, unstable body temperatures, respiratory problems and gastrointestinal difficulties, the report said.
“While abuse of prescription opiates has declined, the use of illicit opiates has increased such that there may be a zero-sum game at best,” said Dr. William Carey, a pediatrics researcher at Mayo Clinic Children’s Center. “Since maternal use of either prescription opiates or illicit opiates is associated with withdrawal in newborns, it is reasonable to think that any increase in the overall use of opiates would be linked to an increase in the rate of neonatal abstinence syndrome.” | <urn:uuid:14f3c9cc-899a-4b40-8668-56afa7d35405> | {
"date": "2017-07-24T19:18:16",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2017-30",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424909.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20170724182233-20170724202233-00336.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9650575518608093,
"score": 2.84375,
"token_count": 848,
"url": "http://www.opposingviews.com/i/health/increasing-number-us-babies-born-addicted-opiates"
} |
Indonesia's largest and least developed province, Sumatra rests along the equator, heavily forested and rich in rare wildlife. The island's slow development has made it ideal for eco-tourism, and numerous large reserves and preservation areas have been set aside. Its most famous park, Mount Leuser National Park, is one of the last refuges of the Sumatra Orang-Utan.
Another distinguished park is the Berbak Wildlife Reserve, which has one of Indonesia's largest tiger populations. In the far north of the island is Lake Toba, an enormous and extraordinarily beautiful crater lake.
A particularly enthralling adventure experience in Sumatra takes place on the Alas River, which winds its across North Sumatra through jungle, limestone gorges, and native villages. The voyage begins in the Karo Highlands and culminates with the Indian Ocean: a descent ten times that of the Grand Canyon's Colorado River.
Bali is an island where art and religion mingle in the daily lives of people in a way unlike anywhere else on earth. Its culture overflows from its temples and into the streets, where artisans of every kind continue traditional methods of handicraft that have been passed down for generations.
This cultural concentration in Bali can be traced back to the 14th century, when Islam expanded in force across the nearby island of Java, pushing the Hindu Majapahit court across the water to Bali and effectively making it an isolated haven for Indonesian Hinduism. The most famous of the many Balinese cultural traditions are its poetic and ornate dances, which employ a graceful and highly-sophisticated gestural language to narrate traditional stories and legends.
Bali's natural beauty is as startling as its cultural riches. Bali Barat National Park, which dominates the entire west end of the island, is home to one of the world's rarest and most beautiful birds. The beaches of Bali are world famous. Many are ideal for surfing, and plenty of offshore reefs create good scuba diving environments.
With four huge peninsulas stretching out haphazardly into the South Pacific, Sulawesi's infamous shape has often been compared to that of a spider or an amoeba. The island lies just east of Kalimantan and north of Bali.
The island is divided into two regions, north and south, with its key city, Unjung Padang, situated on the island's southwestern leg. North Sulawesi and its [link]Bunaken Marine Park[link] is best known as Indonesia's mecca for divers and snorklers, while South Sulawesi harbors two of the country's most interesting cultures. In the far south, in and around Ujang Padang, are the Bugi people, long reknowned for their seafaring skills. Evidence of their influence has been found as far as Australia, where they had contact with the Aborigines. When the Portugeuse, British, Spanish, and Dutch came, the daring Bugis would often attack the huge colonial vessels on the open sea.
South Sulawesi is also home to the Toraja people, who live in a picturesque, mountainous region called Tana Toraja, or Toraja Land. At the center of Toraja culture is a fascinating and complex belief system surrounding death and the afterlife. Death is an elaborate affair, and the prolonged funerals are a major interest to visitors, who can attend the ceremonies but should show the same respect that they would for their own. The funerals typically involve feasting, buffalo sacrifice, dancing and martial arts, culminating with a procession that carries the coffin to its final resting place in one of the many caves on the surrounding cliffs, which are guarded by rock statues.
The Toraja's are equally famous for their houses, which are called Tongkonan, or Family Houses. The houses are built on stilts, and each end rises like the horns of a buffalo, with the points always facing north and south.
The central link in the archepelagic chain that begins with Sumatra and ends with the scattering of small islands east of Bali, Java is often referred to as the heart of Indonesia. It is the historical center of Bhuddhist and Hindu culture and home to the nation's sprawling capital city, [link]Jakarta[link].
Java's three main regions are simply East, Central, and West Java, and the island's many roads and public transports make it easy to navigate. Though Jakarta is the most visited destination in the west, there are also major natural attractions, such as [link]Mount Gede-Pangrango National Park[link]. In Central Java, the seat of major dynasties throughout Indonesian history, are the cultural wonders of the [link]Prambanan temple complex[link] and the magnificent [link]Borobudur Temple[link]. Central Java is also the home of Indonesia's famous shadow puppet dances, or wayang kulit, and the craftwork center of [link]Yogyakarta[link]Finally, there is East Java, where travellers encounter some of the Indonesia's most extraordinary national parks, including the wildly spectacular [link]Bromo-Tengger[link].
When scholars and historians speak of the world's great Buddhist temples, no conversation is complete without the word Borobudur. This monumental structure, constructed in 9th century A.D., dominates an entire hill in Central Java, and it is one Bali's national treasures.
The temple is most famous for its many stone-carved panels depicting the life and teachings of Buddha. The narratives, over a thousand in all, are part of the temple itself, helping to form the terraces that support the temple's chambers.
Interestingly, Borobudur was lost to the world for many years. The temple was ultimately abandoned with the rise of Islam, and the halls that once echoed with the pilgrim footsteps of scholars, artists, and priests were silently overun by nature. In 1814, the temple was rediscovered, and later it was comepletely restored with the help of the United States.
The Indonesian province of Kalimantan occupies the greater part of the exotic island of Borneo, where the world's most dense and remote rainforests can be found. The island is famous for its rich concentration of wildlife, and it is equally notorious for its legendary headhunters. Indonesia's second largest province, Kalimantan has become a source of substantial natural wealth for the country. Its extensive oil reserves are now a key part of Indonesia's economy, and diamonds, rare woods, rattan, and resin are also harvested here.
There are parts of Kalimantan that to this day remain unexplored. Eighty percent of Central Kalimantan (the largest sub-region) is thick jungle that often clings to treacherous mountain slopes, hiding valleys that remain utterly inaccessible. Although only the most hardcore and experienced adventurers should consider a foray into these regions, Kalimantan has plenty of less formidable forests open to visitors.
Kalimantan is also home to one of Indonesia's most interesting indigenous cultures--the Dyak. Although they no longer practice headhunting, the Dyak continue to live much as they have for the last millenium, occupying enormous communal longhouses which serve as the residence for large family groups. An ideal way to tour Kalimantan is by riverboat on the Mahakam River, where one can also spot the world's only species of freshwater dolphin. Orang-utan live in the surrounding jungles, and special tours for the purpose of viewing the animals up close are available.
Komodo National Park
The main attraction of this park is the legendary Komodo Dragon, a gigantic reptile found nowhere else. The oldest, largest, and one of the rarest reptiles, the Komodo is a gigantic Monitor lizard that grows to lengths of more than three meters. It scavenges and hunts, using its powerful club of a tail to tackle large prey.
The island of Komodo, along with those surrounding it, is dry and barren, with rainfall occurring only between November and March. It lies about 500 km east of Bali, a location that places it between the Asian and Australian bio-geographical zones and makes the island an interesting crossroads for species. Birds from both zones can be found on the island, such as the Noisy Friar Birds of Australia and the Monarch Flycatchers of Asia.
Bromo-Tengger National Park
Long before there was a nation called Indonesia, there was Bromo-Tengger. This mystic, volcanic region was set aside by Hindus as a sacred place, and to this day thousands make a yearly pilgrimage to the park to honor Mount Semeru, which they consider to be a god.
The landscape of Bromo-Tengger is indeed heavenly. The park is situated around a group of forest encrusted volcanoes that rise up thousands of feet like gigantic, terrestrial limpets. At 3,676 meters, Semeru is Java's highest mountain, and it is still active, erupting once every eight minutes. Though Semeru is the highest mountain, no less astounding is Bromo.
Mount Bromo rests in what is known as the sand sea, a vast, empty expanse of sand 10 kilometers wide that is surrounded by interior slopes of another volcano that became extinct long ago. Bromo is also active, but visitors can trek to the mountain on foot or horseback and climb to the edge of its caldera and experience the spacial wonder of the sand sea below.
Bunaken Marine Park
The reefs of Bunaken Marine Park have been compared in richness to that of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which is visible from outer space and is the largest concentration of life on the planet. At Bunaken, nearly 900 square kilometers of prime marine habitat have been set aside solely for the enjoyment of the diver, the snorkeler, and the researcher.
On a single dive in Bunaken, the visitor is sometimes greeted by a dazzling palette of nearly 50 species of coral. Barrier reefs, mangrove reefs, and wall dives are all found here, and the visibility in Bunaken's gentle currents generally exceeds 10 meters. In addition to coral life, an abundance of fish and mammal species thrive here as well: seahorses, three species of turtle, rays, and sea snails. Also found here are the enormous, bottom-grazing Dugongs, marine mammals that are closely related to the manatee (and distantly related, like the manatee, to elephants). The whale shark, the world's largest (and completely harmless) fish, occasionally makes his royal appearance. The island of Manado Tua provides a particularly vivid dive locale: a crater lake within an extinct volcano.
Bali Barat National Park
Occupying much of the western extremity of Bali, the Bali Barat National Park is one of Indonesia's best bird watching locales. The park's rarest bird is the gorgeous Bali Starling, with its brilliant silver-white feathers and striking lapis eye markings. A victim of rampant poaching since the turn of the century, the starling now clings to the threads of existence in the wild. In 1989, about 30 individuals were tallied in the park, compared to over 700 in captivity across the globe.
Despite the starling's rarity, the Bali Barat is rich in over 160 other species. Yellow-vented Bulbul's are everywhere, as well as White-bellied Swiftlets, Sacred and Javan Kingfishers, and Drongos. On the north coast is a colony of Silvered Leaf Monkeys, and Pulua Menjangan, or Deer Island, offers a rich variety of marine life for snorkelers and divers. Dolphin watching is also a highlight of Bali, as large, playful schools thrive off the north coast.
There are a number of good guided treks through Bali Barat's jungles, though because of the starling's fragile existence no trekking is permitted on the Prapat peninsula and Menjangan island.
Mount Leuser National Park
Mount Leuser National Park is most distinguished as the home of the Orang-utan, a highly endangered and extremely intelligent primate. The park has two distinct Orang-utan reserves within its boundaries, Bohorok and Ketambe, both of which serve to rehabilitate animals back into the wild after they have lived in captivity.
Orang-utans are not the only interesting mammals to grace Mount Leuser National Park. Its whopping 10,000 square kilometers also provide protected habitat for the Sumatran Rhino, along with elephant and tiger. Overall, one can see 320 species of bird, 176 kinds of mammals, 194 reptile species, and 52 species of amphibian. Plant life is even more diverse: over one half all plant species on Sumatra can be found in the forests of Mount Leuser.
Berbak Wildlife Reserve
Dominating one-fifth of Sumatra's east coast is the Berbak Wildlife Reserve, a dense, swampy refuge on the edge of the Melaka strait. The reserve contains Indonesia's largest peat forest, a unique environment caused by an excess accumulation of organic matter on the forest floor. Due to acidic soil, trees here rarely grow past 40 meters, allowing a substantial amount of light to pierce the canopy.
When heavy rains flood vast areas of Berbak, its animals will often concentrate at higher elevations, often in inaccessible areas. The best time to come, therefore, is during the dry season from June to October. The reserve's most famous and common resident is the tiger, whose deep, thick roars are often heard in the distance. There are also a good amount of birds here ---over 240 species, as well as crocodile's and turtles.
Huge, international, and a cultural hub, Jakarta has long been a meeting place of cultures. At various times throughout history, it has been ruled by Hindus, Muslims, Portugeuse, Dutch and Japanese. It is the gateway to Indonesia and holds the special status of a provice, similar to Mexico City or Washington, D.C.
So many cultures have passed through Jakarta, that it is no surprise that some of them would leave a few things behind, especially the Dutch. Consequently, no place in the world has a finer collection of old sailing ships. The ships can be found in an area known as Sunda Kelapa, the old Dutch port. In addition to a variety of well-preserved colonial vessels, there are also splendid examples of native Buginese ships.
Lake Toba is the largest crater lake in the world. Its surface area measures 1707 square kilometers, so large that the island sitting in its center, Samosir, has numerous towns and villages and even a lake of its own. Surrounding the lake, which sits at an altitude of 800 meters, is a ethereal ring of bright, rust-colored mountains.
The central island of Samosir is home to the Batak people, a unique society known for its graceful hospitality. The Batak love music, especially love songs, and singing plays an unusually large role in the culture. The island offers many fine walking trails and three peaks of over 1000 meters that look out over the emerald waters of Lake Toba.
Home » Unlabelled » INDONESIA ARCHIPELAGO | <urn:uuid:89100be5-91fc-46cf-af45-ccfe002b4c7f> | {
"date": "2016-08-24T01:28:41",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-36",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982290752.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823195810-00162-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9465944766998291,
"score": 2.53125,
"token_count": 3203,
"url": "http://tasransel-oke.blogspot.com/2008/12/indonesia-archipelago_27.html"
} |
Emilie Bigorgne of the Université Paul Verlaine – Metz and colleagues suggest that the increasing production of nanomaterials will in turn increase the release of nanosized by-products to the environment. Whether or not these particles will accumulate or be degraded and whether or not they pose an ecological risk depends on the chemical and physical properties of the individual types and classes of nanoparticles rather than “nano” representing any intrinsic hazard. With this in mind the team hoped to assess the behaviour, uptake and ecotoxicity of titania nanoparticles and by-products in the earthworm Eisenia fetida. Earthworms play a critical role in the activity of fertile soil and as such have been used extensively in ecotoxicity studies for heavy metals and organic pollutants. This ubiquitous species might thus act as a marker for risk on exposure to the common titania nanoparticles.
- Size isn’t everything, or is it? Nano or non-nano (sciencebase.com)
- Safety in the nano sphere (sciencebase.com)
- Scientist Utilizing Nanotechnology to Improve the Food Safety and Nutrition (newswise.com) | <urn:uuid:8477f5a8-5594-4b4b-a897-1d74daa95698> | {
"date": "2016-12-06T15:54:37",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2016-50",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698541910.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170901-00016-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8511895537376404,
"score": 2.875,
"token_count": 241,
"url": "http://www.reactivereports.com/chemistry-blog/tag/organic"
} |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.