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Scientific name: Macroglossum stellatarum
Resembles a hummingbird as it flies rapidly between plants and hovers to feed over tubular flowers such as Viper's-bugloss (Echium vulgare), during the day.
Similar to Bee hawk moths in flight but the Humming-bird Hawk-moth has orange-brown hindwings which is evident in flight. It has forewings that are greyish-brown and a black and white chequered body.
Size and Family
- Family – Hawk-moths (Sphingids)
- Medium / Large Sized
- Wing Span Range (male to female) - 50-58mm
- Immigrant; Suspected resident
Larva mainly June-October, most frequently found in August. Hibernates as an adult in unheated outbuildings and in crevices and holes in walls and trees. Pupates in a cocoon spun close to the ground, among the foliage of the foodplant or in leaf litter.
Particular Caterpillar Food Plants
Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum), Hedge Bedstraw (Galium album) and Wild Madder (Rubia peregrina). Also seen laying eggs on Red Valerian (Centranthus ruber).
- Countries – England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland
- Immigrant from Southern Europe and North Africa. Widespread throught UK. Most numerous in Southern and Eastern England, South Wales and the Midlands
- Distribution Trend Since 1970’s = Britain: Stable
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The Scary Parallels Between 2016 and 1860News at Home
tags: Hillary Clinton, election 2016, Trump
Rebecca Edwards professor of history on the Eloise Ellery Chair at Vassar College.
A Maryland driver advocates violence against Hillary Clinton (Baltimore Sun)
Has there ever been an election like this? One in which opponents called for a candidate’s assassination, swore they would “never permit” the winner’s inauguration, and urged that their allies grab a “shot gun or pistol” and prepare for “revolution”?
Actually, yes: the candidate was Abraham Lincoln, and parallels with 1860 illuminate our current democratic crisis.
When Lincoln became the first Republican to win the White House, the United States was a “white man’s country,” as many a politician proclaimed. They literally meant man as well as white. Property restrictions on the franchise had fallen away in the 1820s and 1830s; after reaching age 21, almost all white men could vote. This American system of “manhood suffrage” endured almost a century before a national women’s suffrage amendment passed in 1920. In this, the United States differed starkly from most other industrialized nations. England, for example, retained property restrictions on men’s ballots until 1918. The act that enfranchised British women gave the vote to five million non-propertied men at the same time.
In Lincoln’s election, Democrats implicated both race and gender in their call to protect “manhood rights” from federal intrusion. They opposed, of course, the Republican Party’s effort to limit slavery in newly acquired federal territories—a future threat to slaveholding interests. Meanwhile, also, five northern states had extended “manhood suffrage” to African Americans. Lincoln’s fiercest opponents, South and North, denounced the spectacle of black men voting and argued that any such participation negated the results. As the New York Herald warned, the Republican Party’s rise cast “doubt of the right of the white man to rule.”
Secessionists’ virulent reaction precipitated the Civil War, over 700,000 deaths, and Emancipation—a reminder that extreme challenges to the political system can bring both catastrophe and revolutionary change. During Reconstruction, amid struggles to restore white men’s rule, Republican leaders in the South were beaten, shot, hung, and even in one case beheaded. Democrats’ armed seizure of state governments was accompanied by a broad, effective disinformation campaign, blaming violence on the expansion of democracy itself. That myth endures: a widely used AP textbook still depicts Southern Reconstruction governments as “bayonet-backed regimes,” rather than governments elected by multiracial coalitions of voters. It also glosses over the violence used to oust them, informing students merely that after Union troops left, power “passed back into the hands of white Redeemers.”
Elites bought the myth, concluding that universal male suffrage had been a mistake. It meant a “government of ignorance and vice,” as Charles Francis Adams Jr. claimed, if those who could vote included a “Celtic [Irish] proletariat on the Atlantic coast, an African proletariat on the shores of the Gulf, and a Chinese proletariat on the Pacific.” Self-styled reformers won passage of onerous new literacy requirements and registration hurdles to ensure that the “best men” ruled. Those restrictions endured through the so-called Progressive Era and the New Deal, restricting the scope and impact of twentieth-century social welfare initiatives. Many remain stubbornly in place today, dampening voter registration and participation.
Though reactionaries no longer denounce the power of the “Celtic proletariat,” we have yet to vanquish the legacy of white men’s democracy—the American political system’s long history of racial disfranchisement, and also its century-long exclusion of women. The political uses of petty patriarchy are evident in Donald Trump, Jr.’s circulation of a map showing “Trump momentum,” which turned out to illustrate the results of polling only male voters. On one level that’s fantasy; on another it’s history. The mindset that men’s votes are the ones that matter was, for generations, writ in law. Among many remarkable challenges to that order is the likely double whammy of a Black president and a consecutive white woman chief executive—with Michelle Obama’s eloquence suggesting that we need not wait much longer for a woman of color to lead.
The implications of this revolutionary moment are as yet unclear. In 2016, with the nation winding down major conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and U.S. special forces fighting in Mosul, it’s worth remembering that we vote in the shadow of war. The aftermath of almost every past American war has brought expanded citizenship and voting rights, from the Constitutional amendments of the post-Civil War years to the most recent one, in 1971, lowering the voting age to eighteen.
Yet, even amid the escalating conflict of 1860, no presidential candidate called for anyone’s assassination or claimed large-scale voting fraud. Then it was stand-ins—hotheaded congressmen, intemperate editors—who threatened to “hang Republicans high” and who, in response to Lincoln’s election, tried to secede from America’s democratic project. Of such men, one journalist observed, “it seems to be their endeavor . . . to browbeat and bully into silence those whom they cannot persuade to go with them.” Another wrote his brother from Alabama, “The people is apparently gone crazy. I . . . have no idea what might be the end of it.” Just so.
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- Historian: Why destroying archives is never a good idea | <urn:uuid:b5329a73-1a5e-4194-bcb5-1f347d2f7834> | {
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Tal como relatado por Murray Rothbard na sua história do período colonial americano Conceived in Liberty (1975), chapters 17 and 18: The Fall of Communism in Massachusetts.
"The Pilgrims formed a partnership in a joint-stock company with a group of London merchants, including Thomas Weston, an ironmonger, and John Peirce, a cloth maker. The company, John Peirce and Associates, received in 1620 a grant from the Virginia Company for a particular plantation in Virginia territory. In this alliance, each adult settler was granted a share in the joint-stock company, and each investment of ten pounds also received a share. At the end of seven years, the accumulated earnings were to be divided among the shareholders. Until that division, as in the original Virginia settlement, the company decreed a communistic system of production, with each settler contributing his all to the common store and each drawing his needs from it — again, a system of from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
In mid-December 1620 the Mayflower landed at Plymouth. In a duplication of the terrible hardships of the first Virginia settlers, half of the colonists were dead by the end of the first winter. In mid-1621 John Peirce and Associates obtained a patent from the Council for New England, granting the company 100 acres of land for each settler and 1,500 acres compulsorily reserved for public use. In return, the Council was to receive a yearly quitrent of two shillings per 100 acres.
A major reason for the persistent hardships, for the "starving time," in Plymouth as before in Jamestown, was the communism imposed by the company. Finally, in order to survive, the colony in 1623 permitted each family to cultivate a small private plot of land for their individual use. William Bradford, who had become governor of Plymouth in 1621, and was to help rule the colony for 30 years thereafter, eloquently describes the result in his record of the colony:
The antipathy of communism to the nature of man here receives eloquent testimony from a governor scarcely biased a priori in favor of individualism.
In 1627 the inherent conflict between colony and company in Plymouth was finally resolved, by the elimination of the company from the scene. In that year, the seven years of enforced communism by the company expired, and all the assets and lands were distributed to the individual shareholders. Grants of land were received in proportion to the size of the stock, so that the larger shareholders received larger gifts of land. This complete replacement of communism by individualism greatly benefited the productivity of the colony. Furthermore, the colonists took the happy occasion to buy up the shares of the Peirce company. Plymouth was now a totally self-governing colony. By 1633 the entire purchase price had been paid and the colonists were freed from the last remnant of company, or indeed of any English, control." | <urn:uuid:60f20993-21e0-4672-9733-70d6716b2fe9> | {
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Most recent posting below. See other articles in the column to the right.
Adra is 95 years old and has been a member of the Stony Brook Garden Club for 67 years
When I lecture on Daffodils, one of the most frequently asked questions is when to know that a clump needs dividing and how to do it. The signs of the need to divide are a thick cluster of foliage and few or no flowers.
Dividing can be done fall or spring. Fall is usually preferable but one must mark the clump needing attention as the leaves will be gone by fall.
A spading fork is the tool of choice to dig the mass up as as you are less apt to spear a bulb with it. If you do, throw the wounded one away.
You will probably find your crowded bulbs have grown on top of each other, forming two or three layers. Lift the mass and separate the bulbs gently or wash apart with the hose. Look for double ot triple nosed bulbs. Very small bulbs, and there will be many, should be discarded. They will not bloom for three or four years if then and are not worth saving to my way of thinking.
Some bulbs, the triple or double nosed ones, can be pulled apart. The offset side bulb must have a good basal plate and four or five good roots to be ready for this.
Replanting (remember, only the big bulbs not the puny ones) can be done immediately or postponed from spring until fall. Bulbs held must be kept in a cool, dry spot so most times the ground is the easiest place to put them. I usually replant at once. Divided bulbs should give a good bloom next season. Some varieties tend clump up sooner than others. Scarcity of bloom is the real clue that help is needed.
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- March (5)
- April (1) | <urn:uuid:bb476cff-8013-4e90-bcf4-5b9c3f77a48e> | {
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How to Start a Girls' School
The National Coalition of Girls' Schools (NCGS) is the leading advocate for girls' schools, connecting and collaborating globally with individuals, schools, and organizations dedicated to educating and empowering girls. NCGS is eager to support those who wish to imagine and explore new opportunities that will strengthen our schools, communities, and the world. As such, NCGS often hears from individuals and groups interested in starting an all-girls school. While NCGS does not consult directly on this matter, see below for basic guidelines and important steps you should consider prior to opening a school in the United States as well as additional resources to support you on your journey.
The information provided on this page is not intended to be an exhaustive list of steps, but rather key questions that should be contemplated by potential school founders on the tremendous undertaking of starting an all-girls school.
- 1. WHY ALL-GIRLS?
|Your team must clearly articulate why you want to start an all-girls school. Your understanding of the research and practice of successful girls’ schools will inform the design of your educational program. A thorough and research-based understanding of the benefits and distinctions of all-girl schools will enable you to make a strong case to all of your key stakeholders. Through publications, research reports, and advocacy tools that support and promote the unique benefits and outcomes of girls’ schools, NCGS provides resources that define the girls’ school advantage.
- 2. WHAT ARE THE CORE VALUES OF OUR SCHOOL?
|The Core Values:
- Are the principles that guide you in establishing the school.
- Set the foundation for how the school community will interact with the internal and external world.
- Should be evident in your program design.
- 3. WHAT IS THE VISION FOR OUR SCHOOL?
|A Vision Statement:
- Defines what you want your school to achieve over time.
- Provides guidance and inspiration as to what the school should do five, ten, or more years down the road.
- Is written succinctly in an inspirational manner that makes it easy for stakeholders to repeat at any given time.
Note: Incorporate the top three to five values into your Vision Statement (refer to Core Values section above).
- 4. WHOM WILL OUR SCHOOL SERVE?
|This question should be discussed prior to drafting your mission statement. Know your potential student population geography, socio-economic status, academic ability, and cultural diversity. How will you design your program to meet the specific needs of your prospective students? Is there a specific geographic area or demographic you want to target? This will help you determine the type of school you should open and the mission of your particular school.
- 5. WHAT IS THE MISSION OF MY SCHOOL?
|A Mission Statement:
- Defines the purpose of the school
- Answers three critical questions:
- What does the school do?
- Whom does the school serve?
- How will the school achieve the desired outcomes?
- Is written succinctly in the form of a few sentences.
- Is something all staff, students, and key stakeholders can understand and articulate.
Note: Incorporate the top three to five values into your Mission Statement (refer to Core Values section above).
- 6. WHAT TYPE OF SCHOOL DO YOU WANT TO OPEN?
|There are three primary pathways to opening a new school:
- Charter School: A charter school a publicly funded school established by teachers, parents, or community groups under the terms of a charter with a local or national authority.The actual "charter" that establishes these types of schools is a performance contract detailing the school's unique mission, program, student population, performance goals, and methods of assessment. One example of this model is the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women.
- District Initiative or Contract School: These schools are initiatives that are incubated in collaboration with the local school district. These are traditional public schools in their operation and governance structure, but may have additional resources and support from an outside community partner. Strong examples of this model are the Young Women’s Leadership Network schools in New York and the Young Women’s Preparatory Network schools in Texas.
- Independent School (Religious or Non-Sectarian): An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions; and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, donations, and endowment. It is governed by a board of trustees that is elected by independent means and a system of governance that ensures its independent operation. Please consult the list of NCGS member schools for several examples of this model.
- 7. WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?
|Creating and sustaining a new all-girls school is a significant undertaking. NCGS highly recommends individuals and groups considering opening a school conduct a feasibility study to determine the viability of their school plan.
- Guides you in developing a project description based on the mission of the school. This will help provide clarity to all stakeholders about what you are proposing.
- Assesses the competitive landscape. The study will assess the level of demand for the school model, as well as the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges of the proposed model.
- Enables key decision makers to focus on the most critical issues.
- Analyzes the operating requirements of a new school, and determines the essential capacities needed to start a new school.
- Creates financial projections by articulating start-up and annual operating budgets for the first five years.
- Proposes key findings and recommendations to strengthen and enhance the school’s success.
- Maureen Colburn, Consultant (recommended by NCGS): feasibility studies, application development, and new school start-up
- Provisional Membership: opportunity for schools in formation to join NCGS
- NCGS Publications: brochures and research reports for prospective families that make the case for the benefits of all-girls schools
- NCGS Research Reports: a curated archive of over 110 research studies, indexed by topic, on girls’ education and their healthy development
View the HOW TO START A GIRLS’ SCHOOL Chart, which outlines the key differences on the requirements, autonomies, and accountability for each pathway (public charter, public school district contract, and independent). | <urn:uuid:d30cfdb9-fd33-46df-b25b-77d62d1af848> | {
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PRINCETON – In April 2010, when the global economy was beginning to recover from the shock of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook predicted that global GDP growth would exceed 4% in 2010, with a steady annual growth rate of 4.5% maintained through 2015. But the forecast proved to be far too optimistic.
In fact, global growth has decelerated. In its most recent WEO, the IMF forecasts global GDP to grow by only 3.3% in 2012, and by 3.6% in 2013. Moreover, the downgrading of growth prospects is remarkably widespread.
The forecast errors have three potential sources: failure to recognize the time needed for economic recovery after a financial crisis; underestimation of the “fiscal multipliers” (the size of output loss owing to fiscal austerity); and neglect of the “world-trade multiplier” (the tendency for countries to drag each other down as their economies contract).
For the most part, the severity and implications of the financial crisis were judged well. Lessons from the October 2008 WEO, which analyzed recoveries after systemic financial stress, were incorporated into subsequent forecasts.
As a result, predictions for the United States – where household deleveraging continues to constrain economic growth – have fallen short only modestly. The April 2010 report forecast a US growth rate of roughly 2.5% annually in 2012-2013; current projections put the rate a little higher than 2%.
By contrast, the fiscal multiplier was seriously underestimated – as the WEO has now recognized. Consequently, forecasts for the United Kingdom – where financial-sector stresses largely resembled those in the US – have been significantly less accurate.
The April 2010 WEO forecast a UK annual growth rate of nearly 3% in 2012-2013; instead, GDP is likely to contract this year and increase by roughly 1% next year. Much of this costly divergence from the earlier projections can be attributed to the benign view of fiscal consolidation that UK authorities and the IMF shared.
Likewise, the eurozone’s heavily indebted economies (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) have performed considerably worse than projected, owing to significant spending cuts and tax hikes. For example, Portugal’s GDP was expected to grow by 1% this year; in fact, it will contract by a stunning 3%. The European Commission’s claim that this slowdown reflects high sovereign-default risk, rather than fiscal consolidation, is belied by the UK, where the sovereign risk is deemed by markets to be virtually nonexistent.
The world-trade multiplier, though less widely recognized, helps to explain why the growth deceleration has been so widespread and persistent. When a country’s economic growth slows, it imports less from other countries, thereby reducing those countries’ growth rates, and causing them, too, to reduce imports.
The eurozone has been at the epicenter of this contractionary force on global growth. Since eurozone countries trade extensively with each other and the rest of the world, their slowdowns have contributed significantly to a decrease in global trade, in turn undermining global growth. In particular, as European imports from East Asia have fallen, East Asian economies’ growth is down sharply from last year and the 2010 forecast – and, predictably, growth in their imports from the rest of the world has lost momentum.
Global trade has steadily weakened, with almost no increase in the last six months. The once-popular notion, built into growth forecasts, that exports would provide an escape route from the crisis was never credible. That notion has now been turned on its head: as economic growth has stalled, falling import demand from trade partners has caused economic woes to spread and deepen.
The impact of slowing global trade is most apparent for Germany, which was not burdened with excessive household or corporate debt, and enjoyed a favorable fiscal position. To escape the crisis, Germany used rapid export growth – especially to meet voracious Chinese demand. Although growth was expected to slow subsequently, it was forecast at roughly 2% in 2012-2013. But, as Chinese growth has decelerated – owing partly to decreased exports to Europe – the German GDP forecast has been halved. And, given that this year’s growth has largely already occurred, Germany’s economy has now plateaued – and could even be contracting.
In good times, the trade generated by a country’s growth bolsters global growth. But, in times of crisis, the trade spillovers have the opposite effect. As the global economy has become increasingly interconnected, these trade multipliers have increased.
Indeed, while less ominous and dramatic than financial contagion, trade spillovers profoundly influence global growth prospects. Failure to recognize their impact implies that export – and, in turn, growth – projections will continue to miss the mark. The projected increase in global growth next year will likely not happen. On the contrary, policy errors and delays in individual countries will seriously damage economies worldwide. | <urn:uuid:1f2ac25c-2bef-4e65-9e12-11ef7616706f> | {
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The expression "Tank it" derives its origin from the term "tank" in slang usage, where it commonly designates a person or a player who is able to take or handle the brunt of something (such as alcohol, aggressions, enemy fire, enemy attacks, difficult situations, criticism, reprehensions, etc.). It is therefore used as an encouragement similar to "You can do it", "Keep it up", "Go all out", "Stand strong", "Pull through" or even "Good luck" and "Break a leg"; while implying that the person directed should be strong and be able to take care of the situation no matter what the odds against them may seem to be.
WARNING: Should not be confused with the more standard verb "tank", meaning "to fail", as in "I tanked my exam" (i.e. "I failed my exam; I did poorly on my exam"). Though this verb is rarely employed in the imperative form, speakers unfamiliar with its secondary slang meaning may interpret it the wrong way.
"Dude, I don't know if I can do this, there are too many enemies"
"You'll be fine, just tank it!"
"I'm getting really nervous, I don't think I can do my presentation"
"Stop thinking so much about it. When the teacher calls you up, get up there and tank it. Do it like a boss, forget about the others." | <urn:uuid:638055b1-8813-4ec3-bedb-3f404293ac48> | {
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Sugata Mitra walked away from TED2013 with an extra one million dollars in his pocket. He’s not a fundraiser, a financial investor, or even a smooth criminal. He’s a teacher.
It’s rare to see teachers make that kind of money, but his idea and curiosity earned him every penny of it. And now, Mitra can continue his work.
The story starts one day when Mitra, a teacher at a private school in New Delhi, India, asked himself if his private school students were smarter than the “slum kids” or if they just had more access to educational tools. All it took was providing a computer to children outside of his school and letting them do whatever they wanted with it to answer his question. Students quickly taught themselves how to use the computer, learn from it, and share it with other interested children.
Mitra started to pose more difficult questions – like DNA construction – and test it around India. The results were the same. Regardless of question, language, or time, kids always wanted, and taught themselves how, to learn the topic presented. He also explored how to amplify this effect and found out the amazing value of what he calls “the method of the grandmother.” Adult encouragement, via a webcam, helped support the children as they got stuck and found new discoveries. It created a person they could interact with outside of their normal circle that showed true interest without divulging any answers.
So where did all this leave Mitra? He has created a new theory on education – Self-Organized Learning Environments (SOLE). The role of the teacher is not to teach, but to pose a question, provide a computer, and encourage the students to find an answer. It seems so simple, but so genius. And now, he plans to use his winnings from the 2013 TED prize to build a “school in the cloud.” We’re excited to see it.
Watch the video to see his TED presentation.
Every day great ideas, advice, and information are discussed around the institution. This knowledge is shared with students, alumni, friends, and faculty, but on a small scale. This blog was created to engage a larger audience, a group of lifelong learners who read, think, and provide valuable feedback. Forward Thinking is meant to be more than a blog; it’s another way of learning – for us and for you. | <urn:uuid:b5add45b-2f7f-4484-b9e8-40b705333408> | {
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Case study 2
“Bottle Village” , by Chris Lawrence,
for primary and low attainment secondary pupils
“Bottle Village” was the first thematic approach learning project I used in Dominica.
How I decided on “Bottle Village”
The problems. I thought of picking one specific area of study from the National Curriculum for a theme, but knew I would be focusing on those teachers who had that prescribed theme for their particular pupil age range, and it would not be so appropriate for those teachers who taught other ages and who would have different prescribed themes.
Similarly I did not have a set of the same story books to give each of my teachers a copy. The solution was to write my own simple story to use as an example for creating a thematic approach, but then I had to decide what my story would be about.
The stimulus for me. Dominica is an amazingly beautiful island, but don’t tell too many people! However, despite promotions and hard work from government officials and from individuals, there is still a litter problem and it is frequently made up of plastic and glass bottles!
Whilst collecting anything I could use for making teaching resources, I found I had accumulated a lot of empty, white, plastic, milk bottles. I invented a place called Bottle Village and wrote a simple story, set somewhere like Dominica, but where no one ever throws a bottle away, but recycles it….and the rest followed!
Using Bottle Village
At primary level, this project could be the basis for developing an integrated curriculum for children from 5 to 11 years adapted, of course according to age and ability. It would also be appropriate for some low ability students of older ages.
The classroom needs
Wall space for Bottle Village Word Wall and space to display children’s work and to hang work cards in polythene pockets (see through plastic bags).
Space for table or box to display the model of Bottle Village as it grows and also to display puppets of the different characters in the story.
Recycled backing paper for displays, (in Dominica I used blue plastic banana bags) fabric scraps, cardboard cartons and card, magazine cut outs for work cards, plastic milk bottles.
Coloured pencils or crayons, scissors etc.
Cross Curricular Activity Ideas when using Bottle Village as a thematic source
Speaking and Listening
Listening to the story. Drama acting out the story. Monologues from various characters in the story. Making the sounds that might back a radio play of the Bottle Village Story eg. cricket ball on bat, scrunching plastic bags for sea sounds, huffing and puffing to get the bottle up from the shore to the Village Square. Dialogues between two village characters.
The story…it should be easily accessible in the classroom maybe in the book corner for children to read alone or to each other. Bottle Village harts and labels round the room…children could work in twos moving round the room, one pointing to the words and the other reading. Reading the written work of other children and tidily writing a positive comment on it. Practicing the Bottle Village phonic story, the sound of the florist scolding the baby for putting a flower in her mouth (“a” sound), the florist pouring a drink for the baby from a bottle making the bottle sound (“b”) sound, the baby coughing (“c” sound) etc. See below for fuller version.
Cloze procedure work-cards (missing words in sentences cards). Here the children copy sentences about the Bottle Village story from cards where one word in each sentence is missing. Stage 1 the word would be missing from the end of each sentence, stage 2 the word would be missing from the middle of the sentence, stage 3 the word would be missing from the beginning of the sentence. Oh and those missing words should be easily accessible in a list at the top of the card. This encourages anticipating words when reading and encourages faster reading, comprehension and fluency..and it’s fun!
Question Cards with pictures relating to a Bottle Village theme and the set of cards including a wide range of readability to cater for all children in the group.
Imaginative writing. The story of the journey of the bottle.
Reported writing. A newspaper report of finding the bottle or of the Bottle Village ceremony at the Village Square.
Descriptive writing. How we found our bottle.
Letter writing. Thanks to the builder for his work in setting up the village sign.
How to writing. How to play beach cricket. How to make a bottle in a garden.
Poster design (calligraphy). Announcing the new sign and bottle ceremony.
Character study. Fleur the florist. The electrician. The fisherman.
Cross Curricular Activities
Mathematics. Estimating and measuring the volume of different sized bottles.
Science. Growing a plant in a bottle or container.
Food Science. Recipe for a Bottle Village fish dish.
Geography. Map of Bottle Village. Map of the island
Social Studies. The part the different villagers played to help each other.
Art and Craft. Making the Bottle Village model. Puppet making. Painting pebbles.
Music and sounds. Sea songs. Making sounds for a radio play of the story.
Bottle Village’s Phonic story
I haven’t yet created all the pages to the book I made for children to read about Bottle Village’s Phonic story. I made up the story arranging the phonics in alphabetical order, though I firmly believe that when first introducing phonics, this should not be done in this order. The easier sounds should come first to give children confidence. Many of the other sounds require quite distinct auditory discrimination and young children often struggle with this especially with the very soft sounds.
And it must be soft sounds! Those harsh sounds of yesteryear do not blend and were used so the children at the back of a large class could hear. For example, if you sound out the letters c,a,t using harsh sounds, they blend to make a word that sounds like Katter! If you use soft sounds, breath sounds, they easily blend to make “cat”!
So here is the story so far, at least the skeleton of it. Teachers can add flourishes to hold the children’s interest and to go at their pace. Then hand the home made book over to them to read and practice the sounds.
Fleur the florist sees her baby Flora putting a flower petal in her mouth. Fleur scolds the baby with the sound “a”. (Teachers facing the learner can put a forefinger to the left side of the teacher’s face making the shape of the letter “a”)
The baby starts to cough, so Fleur gets a bottle of water and pours it into a cup. The moving water makes the sound “b,b,b”
The baby drinks and starts to cough “c,c,c”
The baby is distracted by a band passing Fleur’s shop. The drummer makes the sound “d,d,d”
Granny is snoozing and wakes from her sleep. She is a bit deaf and has heard a sound and wonders what she heard. She cups her ear with her hand and says “e”?
Fleur picks up a feather from her flower arranging supplies and gently blows it to show the baby. She makes the blowing sound “f” The shape of the feather echoes the letter shape.
Fleur takes the baby for a walk. They see a frog and the frog goes “g”. The letter shape echoes the shape of the frog.
A dog rushes towards them and jumps and pants “h,h,h” The shape of the letter echoes the movement of the dog when he jumps!
I am not sure about the “i” sound! Let me know what you think!
The letter “j” is a slippy sound, so perhaps a child rushes by and his shoe makes that sound as he slips up running to the football field.
The player kicks the ball “k” and the shape of the letter echoes this kicking movement.
They pass a pole and the wires to it are vibrating “l”.
Fleur starts to hum as she walks. “m,m,m,”
They come to an ice cream seller and the fridge makes a sound “n,n,n,”
The baby has a lovely surprise. An ice cream “o”. (Make sure you make the sound for orange and not the sound for only).
They pass a fisherman. He takes down his pipe from a rack and the pipe echoes the “p” letter. He starts smoking his pipe and it makes the sound “p”
They see a poster for the beauty queen pageant “qu” for queen says Fleur.
A man takes down a saw he has hanging on a nail. The saw shape echoes the letter “r”. He saws some wood. “r,r,r,”
Fleur lifts her wrist to look at her watch. “t,t,t,”
Time to go home. Baby hugs the teddy and presses it’s tummy “u,u,u,” The tummy shape echoes the letter shape!
There’s the baker’s van. The engine sounds “v,v,v,”
The wind starts to blow “w,w,w,”
At home the baby kisses Granny with a kzz sound for “x,x,x,”
Baby yawns “y,y,y”
Baby settles to sleep. All is quiet except for a fly flying over the cot in a zig zag pattern echoing the shape of the letter. “z”.
Please note, teachers can improve greatly on this story, but I hope this gives the idea! It works! I know it does! I have made the book, used it and have experienced children working in twos in a book corner reading it and making the sounds. They loved it, despite my purile illustrations. Maybe I should have got them to do those illustrations! Now why didn’t I think of that before? | <urn:uuid:24914af1-927a-4288-a970-65e50162338b> | {
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No one has yet attempted a complete history of inverted sexuality in all ages and in all races. This would be well worth doing. Materials, though not extremely plentiful, lie to hand in the religious books and codes of ancient nations, in mythology and poetry and literature, in narratives of travel, and the reports of observant explorers.
Gibbon once suggested that a curious dissertation might be formed on the introduction of pæderasty after the time of Homer, its progress among the Greeks of Asia and Europe, the vehemence of their passions, and the thin device of virtue and friendship which amused the philosophers of Athens. But," adds the prurient prude, "Scelera ostendi oportet dum puniuniter, abscondi flagitia."
Two scholars responded to this call. The result is that the chapter on Greek love has been very fairly written by equally impartial, equally learned, and independent authors, who approached the subject from somewhat different points of view, but who arrived in the main at similar conclusions.
The first of these histories is M. H. E. Meier's article
on Pæderastie in Ersch and Gruber's "Allgemeine Encyklopädie:" Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1837.
The second is a treatise entitled "A Problem in Greek Ethics," composed by an Englishman in English. The anonymous author was not acquainted with Meier's article before he wrote, and only came across it long after he had printed his own essay. This work is extremely rare, ten copies only having been impressed for private use.
Enquirers into the psychology and morality of sexual inversion should not fail to study one or other of these treatises. It will surprise many a well-read scholar, when he sees the whole list of Greek authorities and passages collected and co-ordinated, to find how thoroughly the manners and the literature of that great people were penetrated with pæderastia. The myths and heroic legends of prehistoric Hellas, the educational institutions of the Dorian state, the dialogues of Plato, the history of the Theban army, the biographies of innumerable eminent citizens--lawgivers and thinkers, governors and generals, founders of colonies and philosophers, poets and sculptors--render it impossible to maintain that this passion was either a degraded vice or a form of inherited neuropathy in the race to whom we owe so much of our intellectual heritage. Having surveyed the picture, we may turn aside to wonder whether modern European nations, imbued with the opinions I have described above in the section on Vulgar Errors, are wise in making Greek literature a staple of the higher education. Their motto is Érasez l'infâme! Here the infamous thing clothes itself like an angel of light, and raises its forehead unabashed to heaven
among the marble peristyles and olive-groves of an unrivalled civilization.
Another book, written from a medical point of view, is valuable upon the pathology of sexual inversion and cognate aberrations among the nations of antiquity. It bears the title "Geschichte der Lustseuche im Alterthume," and is composed by Dr. Julius Rosenbaum. 1 Rosenbaum attempts to solve the problem of the existence of syphilis and other venereal diseases in the remote past. This enquiry leads him to investigate the whole of Greek and Latin literature in its bearing upon sexual vice. Students will therefore expect from his pages no profound psychological speculations and no idealistic presentation of an eminently repulsive subject. One of the most interesting chapters of his work is devoted to what Herodotus called Νοῦσος φήλεια among the Scythians, a wide-spread effemination prevailing in a wild warlike and nomadic race. We have already alluded to Krafft-Ebing's remarks on this disease, which has curious points of resemblance with some of the facts of male prostitution in modern cities. 2
Professed anthropologists have dealt with the subject, collecting evidence from many quarters, and in some cases attempting to draw general conclusions. Bastian's "Der Mensch der Geschichte " 3 and Herbert Spencer's Tables deserve special mention for their encyclopædic fulness of information regarding the distribution of abnormal sexuality and the customs of savage tribes.
In England an Essay appended to the last volume of Sir Richard Burton's "Arabian Nights" made a considerable stir upon its first appearance. 1 The author endeavoured to co-ordinate a large amount of miscellaneous matter, and to frame a general theory regarding the origin and prevalence of homosexual passions. His erudition, however, is incomplete; and though he possesses a copious store of anthropological details, he is not at the proper point of view for discussing the topic philosophically. 2 For example, he takes for granted that "Pederasty," as he calls it, is everywhere and always what the vulgar think it. He seems to have no notion of the complicated psychology of Urnings, revealed to us by their recently published confessions in French and German medical and legal works. Still his views deserve consideration.
Burton regards the phenomenon as "geographical and climatic, not racial." He summarises the result of his investigations in the following five conclusions. 3
"(1) There exists what I shall call a 'Sotadic Zone,' bounded westwards by the northern shores of the Mediterranean (N. lat. 43°) and by the southern (N. lat. 30°). Thus the depth would be 780 to 800 miles, including meridional France, the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and Greece, with the coast-regions of Africa from Morocco to Egypt.
"(2) Running eastward the Sotadic Zone narrows, embracing Asia, Minor, Mesopotamia and Chaldæa, Afghanistan, Sind, the Punjab, and Kashmir.
"(3) In Indo-China the belt begins to broaden, enfolding China, Japan, and Turkistan.
"(4) It then embraces the South Sea Islands and the New World, where, at the time of its discovery, Sotadic love was, with some exceptions, an established racial institution.
"(5) Within the Sotadic Zone the vice is popular and endemic, held at the worst to be a mere peccadillo, whilst the races to the North and South of the limits here defined practise it only sporadically, amid the opprobrium of their fellows, who, as a rule, are physically incapable of performing the operation, and look upon it with the liveliest disgust."
This is a curious and interesting generalisation, though it does not account for what history has transmitted regarding the customs of the Kelts, Scythians, Bulgars, Tartars, Normans, and for the acknowledged leniency of modern Slavs to this form of vice.
Burton advances an explanation of its origin. "The only physical cause for the practice which suggests itself to me, and that must be owned to be purely conjectural, is that within the Sotadic Zone there is a
blending of the masculine and feminine temperament, a crasis which elsewhere occurs only sporadically." 1 So far as it goes, this suggestion rests upon ground admitted to be empirically sound by the medical writers we have already examined, and vehemently declared to be indisputable as a fact of physiology by Ulrichs, whom I shall presently introduce to my readers. But Burton makes no effort to account for the occurrence of this crasis of masculine and feminine temperaments in the Sotadic Zone at large, and for its sporadic appearance in other regions. Would it not be more philosophical to conjecture that the crasis, if that exists at all, takes place universally; but that the consequences are only tolerated in certain parts of the globe, which he defines as the Sotadic Zone? Ancient Greece and Rome permitted them. Modern Greece and Italy have excluded them to the same extent as Northern European nations. North and South America, before the Conquest, saw no harm in them. Since its colonisation by Europeans they have been discountenanced. The phenomenon cannot therefore be regarded as specifically geographical and climatic. Besides, there is one fact mentioned by Button which ought to make him doubt his geographical theory. He says that, after the conquest of Algiers, the French troops were infected to an enormous extent by the habits they had acquired there, and from them it spread so far and wide into civilian society that "the vice may be said to have been democratised in cities and large towns." 2 This surely proves that north of the Sotadic Zone males are neither
physically incapable of the acts involved in abnormal passion, nor gifted with an insuperable disgust for them. Law, and the public opinion generated by law and religious teaching, have been, deterrent causes in those regions. The problem is therefore not geographical and climatic, but social. Again, may it not be suggested that the absence of "the Vice" among the negroes and negroid races of South Africa, noticed by Burton, 1 is due to their excellent customs of sexual initiation and education at the age of puberty--customs which it is the shame of modern civilisation to have left unimitated?
However this may be, Burton regards the instinct as natural, not contre nature, and says that its patients "deserve, not prosecution but the pitiful care of the physician and the study of the psychologist." 2
Another distinguished anthropologist, Paolo Mantegazza, has devoted special attention to the physiology and psychology of what he calls "I pervertimenti dell'amore." 3 Starting with the vulgar error that all sexual inversion implies the unmentionable act of coition (for which, by the way, he is severely rebuked by Krafft-Ebing, Psy. Sex., p. 92), he explains anomalous passions by supposing that the nerves of pleasurable sensation, which ought to be carried to the genital organs, are in some cases carried to the rectum. 4 This malformation makes its subject desire coitum per anum. That an intimate connection exists between the nerves of the reproductive organs and the nerves of the rectum is known to anatomists and is felt by everybody. Probably some
cinædi are excited voluptuously in the mode suggested. Seneca, in his Epistles, records such cases; and it is difficult in any other way to account for the transports felt by male prostitutes of the Weibling type. Finally, writers upon female prostitution mention women who are incapable of deriving pleasure from any sexual act except aversa venus.
Mantegazza's observation deserves to be remembered, and ought to be tested by investigation. But, it is obvious, he pushes the corollary he draws from it, as to the prevalence of sexual inversion, too far.
He distinguishes three classes of sodomy: (1) Perpheric or anatomical, caused by an unusual distribution of the nerves passing from the spine to the reproductive organs and the rectum; (2) psychical, which he describes as "specific to intelligent men, cultivated, and frequently neurotic," but which he does not attempt to elucidate, though he calls it "not a vice, but a passion"; (3) luxurious or lustful, when the aversa venus is deliberately chosen on account of what Mantegazza terms "la desolante larghezza" of the female. 1
Mantegazza winds up, like Burton, by observing that sodomy, studied with the pitying and indulgent eye of the physician and the physiologist, is consequently a disease which claims to be cured, and can in many cases be cured." 2
After persuing what physicians, historians, and anthropologists have to say about sexual inversion, there is good reason for us to feel uneasy as to the present condition of our laws. And yet it might be
argued that anomalous desires are not always maladies, not always congenital, not always psychical passions. In some cases they must surely be vices deliberately adopted out of lustfulness, wanton curiosity, and seeking after sensual refinements. The difficult question still remains then--how to repress vice, without acting unjustly toward the naturally abnormal, the unfortunate, and the irresponsible.
I pass now to the polemical writings of a man who maintains that homosexual passions, even in their vicious aspects, ought not to be punished except in the same degree and under the same conditions as the normal passions of the majority.
77:1 Third edition. Halle a. S., 1882.
77:2 Psych. Sex., p. 82.
77:3 Leipzig, Wigand, 1860.
78:1 Arabian Nights, 1885, vol. x., pp. 205-254.
78:2 Burton's acquaintance with what he called "le Vice" was principally confined to Oriental nations. He started on his enquiries, imbued with vulgar errors; and he never weighed the psychical theories examined by me in the foregoing section of this Essay. Nevertheless, he was led to surmise a crasis of the two sexes in persons subject to sexual inversion. Thus he came to speak of "the third sex." During conversations I had with him less than three month, before his death, he told me that he had begun a general history of "le Vice"; and at my suggestion he studied Ulrichs and Krafft-Ebing. It is to be lamented that life failed before he could apply his virile and candid criticism to those theories, and compare them with the facts and observations he had independently collected.
78:3 I give the author's own text, p. 206.
80:1 p. 208.
80:2 p. 251
81:1 P. 222.
81:2 Pp. 204, 209.
81:3 Gli amori degli Uomini, Milano, 1886, vol. i. cap, 5.
81:4 Ibid., p. 149.
82:1 Pp. 148-154.
82:2 P. 154. | <urn:uuid:c3e1637e-cff6-4a7a-9005-ff0ae4a2a4a3> | {
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VOs can organise the rural poor for their active participation in rural development process. VOs, has been acting as a catalytic agent in rural development. NGOs have greater accountability to the poor, as they work among the poor. They have better rapport with the rural poor and sincerely devoted to the task of reducing the sufferings of the poor. The major thrust of NGOs is promotion of human wellbeing and dignity and need-based programs of community development constitute efforts and achievements. There are thousands of such small voluntary groups, unknown invisible. NGOs for cumulatively they constitute a force which makes for a healthier society. While this book revealed the involvement of VO/NGO’s and Government in poverty alleviation programmes, like women empowerment, women development, awareness and participation especially women in drought prone areas. Our study is an effort in this direction to fill this void. | <urn:uuid:6853c15d-6200-4067-b9ae-69e3cced02bc> | {
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Despite the common observation that obesity runs in families, genetic research shows that the habits you inherit from your family are more important than the genes you inherit. Obesity genes account for only five percent of all weight problems. Then, we have to wonder, what causes the other 95 percent of weight problems?
We are seeing an epidemic of obesity in America today. It is the single most important public health issue facing us. If genes do not account for obesity, perhaps it is our high-fat diet that is to blame. That has been the common belief in our society since nutritional low fat guidelines were pushed upon us in the 1970's. It seems logical that eating fat makes you fat. Fat contains nine calories per gram, so it would seem that eating more fat (and more calories) would make you gain weight. But that's not what the science reveals.
What the Research Tells Us about Dietary Fat
In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (i) Dr. Ludwig correctly points out that careful review of all the studies on dietary fat and body fat -- such as those done by Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health -- have shown that dietary fat is not a major determinant of body fat.
Let me repeat that.
Dietary fat is not a major determinant of body fat.
The Women's Health Initiative, which is the largest clinical trial of diet and body weight, found that 50,000 women on low-fat diets had no significant weight loss. Yet another study looked at people who followed four different diets for 12 months -- and found no dramatic differences between those who followed low-fat, low-carb and very- low-carb diets.
The question then is, why aren't we seeing any significant effects or differences from these various diets? The main reason, Dr. Ludwig suggests, is that we are looking for answers in the wrong place.
The future of treating obesity and weight is in personalizing our approach. This is the approach I wrote about in my book UltraMetabolism. It's called nutrigenomics. It is the science of how we can use food to influence our genes and personalize our approach to health, and it is the science my practice is based on. Let me share how I diagnose and treat obesity.
A Better Way to Diagnose and Treat Obesity
Over the last 15 years, I have tested almost every one of my patients using a test that most doctors never use. In fact, it is even harder to find in the research, except in this pioneering work by Dr. Ludwig.
This test is cheap, easy to do and it is probably the most important test for determining your overall health, the causes for obesity, and your risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's and premature aging. Yet it is a test your healthcare provider probably does not perform, does not know how to interpret and often thinks is useless.
Thankfully, Dr. Ludwig's research brings this critical method of diagnosing the cause of obesity and disease to the forefront. You see, in two recent studies, he found that the main factor that determines changes in body weight and waist circumference (also known as belly fat) is how your body responds to any type of sugar, carbohydrate or glucose load.
The most important test to determine this doesn't measure your blood sugar or cholesterol. It tests your insulin level. You have to check it after drinking a sugary beverage that contains 75 grams of glucose. This test has shown me more about my patients than any other test. It helps me personalize and customize a nutritional approach for them.
And its usefulness is now being borne out in this research by Dr. Ludwig and his colleagues. In one study, for example, Dr. Ludwig and his colleagues followed 276 people for six years.(ii) They performed a glucose tolerance test at the beginning of the study and looked at insulin concentrations 30 minutes after the people consumed a sugary drink. This gave the researchers a rough estimate of whether they were high or low insulin secretors.
During the course of the study, they looked at the people's body weight and waist circumference or belly fat. They found that those who were the highest insulin secretors had the biggest change in weight and belly fat compared to the low insulin secretors. And people who were high insulin secretors and ate low-fat diets did even worse.
This makes perfect sense -- because insulin does two things:
1. It stimulates hunger.
2. It is a fat storage hormone, which makes you store belly fat.
After you eat a high-carbohydrate meal, your insulin spikes and your blood sugar plummets -- making you very hungry. That is why you crave more carbs, more sugar and eat more the whole day.
Dr. Ludwig also found that the patients who ate a low glycemic load diet -- which lowers blood sugar and keeps insulin levels low -- had much higher levels of HDL "good" cholesterol and much lower levels of triglycerides. It appears that the best way to address your cholesterol is not necessarily to eat a low-fat diet, but to eat a low glycemic load diet, which keeps your blood sugar even.
I highly recommend reviewing Dr. Ludwig's research on PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's database, to learn more about his exciting and pioneering work. I also encourage you to read his book, Ending the Food Fight. It is the first and only roadmap for dealing with our exploding childhood obesity epidemic.
Finally, I encourage you to ask your physician to do a glucose tolerance test and measure your insulin and blood sugar at 30 minutes, one hour, and two hours to get the best picture of your insulin profile.
If you are a high insulin secretor and your insulin goes over 30 at a half hour, one hour, or two hours, you produce too much insulin and need to be sure you are staying on a low glycemic load, whole-foods, unprocessed diet, which I describe in UltraMetabolism. This is essential if you want to lose weight and achieve lifelong vibrant health.
The bottom line is simple this ...
If you want to fit into your jeans, you have to fit into your genes.
Now I'd like to hear from you...
What seems to trigger weight gain for you?
How have different diets worked for you?
Have you ever had you insulin and blood sugar tested?
Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment.
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, M.D.
(i) Ebbeling C.B., Leidig M.M., Feldman H.A., Lovesky M.M., and D.S. Ludwig. (2007). Effects of a low-glycemic load vs low-fat diet in obese young adults: A randomized trial. JAMA. 297(19):2092-102
(ii) Chaput J.P., Tremblay A., Rimm E.B., Bouchard C., and D.S. Ludwig. (2008). A novel interaction between dietary composition and insulin secretion: Effects on weight gain in the Quebec Family Study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 87(2):303-9
Mark Hyman, M.D. practicing physician and founder of The UltraWellness Center is a pioneer in functional medicine. Dr. Hyman is now sharing the 7 ways to tap into your body's natural ability to heal itself. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, watch his videos on Youtube and become a fan on Facebook.
Follow Mark Hyman, MD on Twitter: www.twitter.com/markhymanmd | <urn:uuid:c287c621-6e77-48bf-b767-586377f002ff> | {
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• Compatible with tablet devices such as iPad; external keyboard recommended
Improve writing, comprehension & scores.
See what WriteToLearn is, how WriteToLearn is especially beneficial for English-language learners, struggling writers and readers, and how the program aligns and supports the Common Core State Standards. | <urn:uuid:2b4400c6-4d7d-4626-86f0-31bb7448622c> | {
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The planet may not feel any different today, but there are now 7 billion people on it, according to the United Nations.
That number will continue to rise, of course, and global incomes are likely to rise as well. That means more cars and computers, and bigger homes: the kinds of things Americans take for granted. It’s that rise in consumption that has population experts worried.
Klaus Lackner, a physicist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, says as economies improve in places like India and Africa — where populations are growing fastest — they’re going to want to live more like we do.
“It’s very hard to convince people to stop consumption,” he says.
But maybe the world’s next billion will be happy with Hondas instead of Hummers.
“I would expect consumption in the future gets larger, but we also learn how to do things more efficiently,” Lackner says, “so the raw material consumption may well go down.”
But Lackner says consumption will eventually go up again; you can only tighten your belt so much. Physicist Daniel Kammen at the University of California, Berkeley, says there just isn’t much incentive for rich countries to do that anyway.
“In many parts of the world, energy — and I hate to say this — is simply too cheap,” he says.
Kammen, the head of an energy laboratory at Berkeley, says cheap energy enables Western countries to live high on the hog. And people want to copy us.
“There’s a huge impact of the decisions that we make,” Kammen says, “and also we export a lot of technologies.”
The problem is there just isn’t enough cheap energy or water or land for 9 billion or 10 billion people to live the same way. So what if Americans set a different example? Consume less by living smaller? The Japanese do it. Can small be beautiful in the U.S.? Some people think so.
‘Creative Ways To Use Space’
In an industrial park outside of Sacramento, Calif., there’s a factory inside what looks like an old airplane hangar.
Zeta Communities builds modular homes here. Project manager Scott Wade says they’re not like “stick-built” homes — “stick-built meaning they build it one piece at a time,” Wade says, “whereas we build it an assembly at a time.”
One “assembly” is the floor, with duct work; then the walls, the ceiling, and so on. Workers make and assemble the parts for one home — about 1,500 square feet — in a single day.
“It is a higher quality because we have more control over it,” Wade explains. “And we don’t have the weather delays getting in the way.”
Everything from the caulk along the walls to the lumber is certified green or is from sustainable sources. The walls contain extra insulation and every hole is sealed to make the buildings energy efficient. Zeta says that in the right climate, rooftop solar panels could provide the entire home’s power — a so-called “net zero” energy home.
Zeta founder and President Naomi Porat sees cities as her company’s big market.
“The population all around the world is moving toward the cities,” says the former real estate executive. “Land is a vital resource, there’s not a lot remaining, so we need to think about creative ways to use space.”
In cities, modules can be stacked to make a new generation of efficient buildings. At Zeta headquarters, architect Taeka Takagi rolls out a blueprints with one of Zeta’s prototypes.
“It is a micro studio,” she says. “The units are under 300 square feet.”
That’s truly micro: smaller than most suburban living rooms. Porat says there’s a group that might find this alluring, though: “What I call the technocrati generation that uses the city as its living room and kitchen and goes to practically a dorm room to crash at the end of the day.”
But how do you convince someone to live this small?
“The psychology of convincing someone is to provide very simple things, like enough storage,” Takagi says. “I like to provide a large sink, so that the person who’s using it doesn’t feel like they’re lacking or living smaller and everything is miniaturized.”
Since buildings consume about 40 percent of the nation’s energy, they’re a logical target for more efficiency. But Berkeley’s Kammen says living smaller isn’t the ultimate solution. With 9 billion or 10 billion people, rising consumption will overwhelm any efficiency, as well as our current sources of energy. What’s needed, he says, is renewable energy that’s cheap and won’t run out.
“And by essentially every measure,” he concludes, “we are not moving fast enough.” | <urn:uuid:833b77c1-d608-4cb8-98a3-7d3eff01ed6f> | {
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For the western world, one of the main modern-day threats in terms of security is terrorism, a global phenomenon that cannot be controlled solely at national level, as it requires the cooperation of those governments and security forces affected. One of the greatest threats is drug trafficking, which, like the former, requires a high level of collaboration to establish policies and common legislation.
Both threats are closely related. Traditionally, drug trafficking has been one of the main sources of finance for non-state armed groups and terrorist groups. This is confirmed by the recent study World Atlas of Illicit Flows(2018),the result of collaboration between Interpol, the RHIPTO and Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. As the study indicates, 4% of the illegal flow ends up in the hands of terrorist information.
According to the document, although crimes against the environment (the trafficking of coal and petroleum, the illegal exploitation of minerals, illegal forest exploitation and animal trafficking) have come to represent the primary source of finance for terrorist groups(38% of the total), trafficking continues to be the main source if we consider environmental initiatives to be independent activities. It is estimated that the income of the seven principal terrorist groups and rebel groups of the Democratic Republic of Congo are about 1,160 million dollars, 28% of which (330 million dollars) comes from activities related to drugs. The two organisations that have traditionally profited from trafficking are the Taliban, with the cultivation of opium and heroin trafficking, and the FARC, with cocaine.
In the case of the Taliban, operational in Afghanistan, the cultivation of opium has traditionally been an important source of finance. According to current data, they have average revenue of between 75 and 95 million dollars, approximately 22.9 million dollars of which, comes from activities related to the cultivation of opium, from which morphine is abstracted and from which heroin is produced. Heroin produced in Afghanistan represents about three quarters of the total production and serves to supply the entire world market. In Europe, the heroin market is the second most important drug-related market considering the amount of money it turns over, about 6.8 billion Euros a year.
Since its inception, the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, regarded the cultivation of drugs (cocaine and cannabis) a counter revolutionary activity. In 1981, however, its policy changed due to the fear of alienating agricultural workers and the evident increase in finance that drug-trafficking would involve, managing to control up to 70% of the areas where cocaine was produced and therefore becoming the main actor in cocaine trafficking in the country. According to InSight Crime, a foundation dedicated to the study of organised crime in the Caribbean and Latin America, the FARC had, in 2015-2016, assets to the value of 580 million dollars, most of which (267 million dollars) came from activities related to drugs and illegal mining. Although in 2017 peace agreements began between the government and the FARC, some of its members didn’t accept these and organised themselves into dissident groups. One of these, the so-called East Block (or Oriental), has gone on to control an important part of the country’s cocaine trafficking.
According to the World Atlas, since 2015 a growth in the use two drugs has been noticed by some members of Islamic State: tramadol and phenethylamines. The first is an opioid with an analgesic function and the second a psycho-stimulant. These drugs are located especially in Syria and Iraq, but with an added presence in the Trans-Saharan area (Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Libya). Islamic State takes charge of the trafficking and selling of these two substances, both to combatants and those who are not. | <urn:uuid:0185c67a-2e6e-4187-be9d-c5d6b9bd77c5> | {
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How do you say Thank you in Spanish?
The Spanish is:
gracias which is thank you in Spanish.
muchas gracias which is thank you very much in Spanish.
The usual reply to this is:
de nada which means literally 'it's nothing' or
gracia literally means grace, or gracefulness in Spanish. So the Hispanic thanks is literally 'graces' or 'lots of grace'.
Most Spanish from Spain pronounce it GRRAATH-EE-ASS.
gracias a - means 'thanks to'
con gracias anticipadas means thank you in advance...
con gracias repetidas which means 'thank you again'
dar las gracias a algun por algo which means to give thanks to somebody for something.
agradecer means to thank.
la gracia also means joke, humor or wit in Spanish! Ha ha ha!
tener gracia means to be funny! Ha ha!
So be careful when listening for this one.
Learn Thank you in Spanish the 200 Words a Day! way. | <urn:uuid:bada8a81-43db-425e-b540-a2567777d62b> | {
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Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARs)
A STAR is an ATC-coded IFR route established for application to arriving IFR aircraft destined for certain airports. A STAR provides a critical form of communication between pilots and ATC. Once a flight crew has accepted a clearance for a STAR, they have communicated with the controller what route, and in some cases what altitude and airspeed, they fly during the arrival, depending on the type of clearance. The STAR provides a common method for leaving the en route structure and navigating to your destination. It is a preplanned instrument flight rule ATC arrival procedure published for pilot use in graphic and textual form that simplifies clearance delivery procedures.
The principal difference between standard instrument departure (SID) or departure procedures (DPs) and STARs is that the DPs start at the airport pavement and connect to the en route structure. STARs on the other hand, start at the en route structure but do not make it down to the pavement. This is primarily because STARs serve multiple runways and sometimes multiple airports.
STARs greatly help to facilitate the transition between the en route and approach phases of flight. The STAR will end at a fix or NAVAID, designated by ATC, which allows for radar vectors and/or to connect to an instrument approach procedure. The objective when connecting a STAR to an instrument approach procedure is to ensure a seamless lateral and vertical transition. The STAR and approach procedure should connect to one another in such a way as to maintain the overall descent and deceleration profiles. This often results in a seamless transition between the en route, arrival, and approach phases of flight, and serves as a preferred route into high volume terminal areas. [Figure 3-10]STARs provide a transition from the en route structure to an approach gate, outer fix, instrument approach fix, or arrival waypoint in the terminal area, and they usually terminate with an instrument or visual approach procedure. STARs are included at the front of each Terminal Procedures Publication (TPP) regional booklet.
For STARs based on conventional NAVAIDs, the procedure design and obstacle clearance criteria are essentially the same as that for en route criteria, covered in En Route Operations. STAR procedures typically include a descent gradient of about 318 ft/NM, or about three degrees. The descent gradient on a STAR will have to vary to meet altitude restrictions, if any, along the particular route. Altitude restrictions are frequently necessary for airspace and air traffic restrictions. The design guidance for a new or revised STAR is in FAA Order 8260.3, published in March 2016. Some published STARs were designed under the previous guidance in FAA Order JO 7110.9. The new guidance requires a more shallow descent gradient for the last part of the STAR. In addition to descent gradients, STARs allow for deceleration segments at any waypoint that has a speed restriction. As a general guideline, deceleration considerations typically add 1 NM of distance for each 10 knots of speed reduction required.
RNAV STARs or STAR Transitions
STARs designated RNAV serve the same purpose as conventional STARs, but are only used by aircraft equipped with FMS or GPS. An RNAV STAR or STAR transition typically includes flyby waypoints, with fly over waypoints used only when operationally required. These waypoints may be assigned crossing altitudes and speeds to optimize the descent and deceleration profiles. RNAV STARs often are designed, coordinated, and approved by a joint effort between air carriers, commercial operators, and the ATC facilities that have jurisdiction for the affected airspace. RNAV STAR procedure design, such as minimum leg length, maximum turn angles, obstacle assessment criteria, including widths of the primary and secondary areas, use similar design criteria as other RNAV procedures. Likewise, RNAV STAR procedures are designated as either RNAV 1 or RNAV 2, based on the aircraft navigation equipment required, flight crew procedures, and the process and criteria used to develop the STAR. The RNAV 1 or RNAV 2 designation appears in the notes on the chart. RNAV 1 STARs have higher equipment requirements and, often, tighter required navigation performance (RNP) tolerances than RNAV 2. For RNAV 1 STARS, pilots are required to use a course deviation indicator (CDI)/flight director, and/or autopilot in LNAV mode while operating on RNAV courses. (These requirements are detailed in Chapter 1 of this book, under RNAV Departures.) RNAV 1 STARs are generally designated for high-traffic areas. Controllers may clear a pilot to use an RNAV STAR in various ways.
If the pilots clearance simply states, “cleared HADLY ONE arrival,” the pilot is to use the arrival for lateral routing only.
- A clearance such as “cleared HADLY ONE arrival, descend and maintain flight level two four zero,” clears the pilot to descend only to the assigned altitude, and then should maintain that altitude until cleared for further descent.
- If the pilot is cleared using the phrase “descend via,” the controller expects the pilot to use the equipment for both lateral guidance and altitude restrictions, as published on the chart.
- The controller may also clear the pilot to use the arrival with specific exceptions—for example, “Descend via the HARIS ONE arrival, except cross BRUNO at one three thousand then maintain one zero thousand.” In this case, the pilot should track the arrival both laterally and vertically, descending so as to comply with all altitude and airspeed restrictions until reaching BRUNO, and then maintain 10,000 feet until cleared by ATC to continue to descend.
- Pilots might also be given direct routing to intercept a STAR and then use it for both lateral guidance and altitude restrictions. For example, “Proceed direct MAHEM, descend via the MAHEM TWO arrival.” | <urn:uuid:0d2f6a95-99ed-49a0-b0fe-e6e1ebbc2c02> | {
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The women of Sub-Saharan Africa spend about 40 billion hours a year collecting water. The total number of hours worked annually by Australia's entire labour force is about 20 billion hours. Despite the skill of engineers to process clean water and move it to where it is needed, and despite billions of dollars in development aid, clean water is a scarce resource in Africa and the incidence of waterborne illness and its brake on economic development is staggering.
The main reason African women spend so many hours fetching water is systemic corruption. African nations cluster at the bottom of the latest annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI).
The CPI is produced by Transparency International, which has chapters in more than 100 countries and an international secretariat in Berlin.
Australia ranks highly in the CPI, typically in the top 10. Most Australians can turn a tap and get clean water. But its reputation as one of the world's least-corrupt nations has lost some of its lustre. In 2014 it fell out of the top 10, landing at No. 11, and its score fell to 80, from a possible 100. In the latest rankings for 2015 it fell again, to No. 13, with a score of 79, considerably below the high-80s it was getting just a few years ago.
Australia is blessed with plentiful natural resources. Many countries in which such resources are abundant have what is known as the resources curse; despite ample non-renewable resources, their economic development is poor, poverty is rampant and environmental conditions are shocking. Many of these resource-rich countries cluster at the bottom of the CPI. In many countries, corruption blights resource extraction and management processes, but here we have a legal framework that shapes and considers such factors as environmental impacts, and contributions from extractive revenues that flow into government coffers rather than into the pockets of politicians and public servants.
It is disappointing that Australia has fallen out of the top 10, although many would say the CPI doesn't mean much. Yes, it is symbolic, and being in the top 10 is simply emblematic. Foreign investment is not going to dry up because we have slipped a little, although many countries that post a rise use their improved CPI ranking to assure investors that things are good, or at least getting better.
The issue for Australia is about pride in our ethical standards, and having the credibility to lead in our region. Outcomes from investigations by the Independent Commission Against Corruption in NSW and Victoria's Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, and the various recent royal commissions, have brought to light that much of what goes on here is well below the standards we should expect.
The CPI is a perception index. It is not a measure of corruption. We can never measure how much corruption there is – not like we count traffic accidents or educational achievements. Most corrupt activity takes place in secret, and what comes to light does not reflect the full extent.
The big question is whether what does come out is just the small tip of a large iceberg, or a fair whack of poor behaviour in the community. This is where perception is important.
Unlike citizens in many countries, Australian can go about their daily lives without fear of being shaken down by public officials, knowing they don't need to pay a bribe to receive basic services that should be theirs by right, and without the expectation that money that should be used for services finds its way into private pockets. However, Australia has fallen both in score and in rank on the CPI.
The CPI ranks and scores countries based on how corrupt the public sector is perceived to be. It is calculated from about a dozen data sources of governance indicators and ratings, various opinion surveys, the Transparency International Bribe Payers Index, and the IMD World Competitiveness Index.
The survey data and governance indicators come from the World Bank and World Economic Forum, and from various think tanks. Scores are standardised and scaled and distributed across a range of 0 to 100.
Australians expect high standards from their politicians and public officials, and are quick to turn against them when they transgress. The public also confuses poor behaviour, such as a senior politician chartering a helicopter when they could have gone by car, with corruption. Arrogance and poor leadership can breed corruption but are not corrupt in themselves.
What agitates the Australian public would not raise an eyebrow in many countries, and we should be proud of that. We have a strong tradition of good administrative law, and the way forward is not to have more laws and restrictions, but with the adherence to an ethical culture in our public life and public policy.
Setting up a national anti-corruption agency is not the answer, nor is becoming complacent because we are not as bad as others.
The answer lies in blending values and compliance as the foundations of everyday public life.
Adam Graycar is a professor in the school of social and policy studies, Flinders University. | <urn:uuid:da1f706d-a010-44c9-8362-77f78662c500> | {
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A new method allows for large-scale generation of human embryonic stem cells of high clinical quality. It also allows for production of such cells without destroying any human embryos. The discovery is a big step forward for stem cell research and for the high hopes for replacing damaged cells and thereby curing serious illnesses such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease.
Currently human embryonic stem cells are made from surplus in vitro fertilized (IVF) embryos that are not used for the generation of pregnancies. The embryos do not survive the procedure. Therefore it has been illegal in the USA to to use this method for deriving embryonic stem cell lines. Sweden's legislation has been more permissive. It has been possible to generate embryonic stem cells from excess, early IVF embryos with the permission of the persons donating their eggs and sperm.
An international research team led by Karl Tryggvason, Professor of Medical Chemistry at Karolinska Institutet and Professor at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore has, together with Professor Outi Hovatta at Karolinska Institutet, developed a method that makes it possible to use a single cell from an embryo of eight cells. This embryo can then be re-frozen and, theoretically, be placed in a woman's uterus. The method is already used in Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) analyses, where a genetic test is carried out on a single cell of an IVF embryo in order to detect potential hereditary diseases. If mutations are are not detected, the embryo is inserted in the woman's uterus, where it can grow into a healthy child.
"We know that an embryo can survive the removal of a single cell. This makes a great ethical difference," says Karl Tryggvason.
The single stem cell is then cultivated on a bed of a human laminin protein known as LN-521 that is normally associated with pluripotent stem cells in the embryo. This allows the stem cell to duplicate and multiply without being contaminated. Previously the cultivation of stem cells has been done on proteins from animals or on human cells, which have contaminated the stem cells through uninhibited production of thousands of proteins.
"We can cultivate the stem cells in a chemically defined, clinical quality environment. This means that one can produce stem cells on a large scale, with the precision required for pharmaceutical production," says Karl Tryggvason.
Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent and can develop into any kind of cell. This means that they can become dopamine producing cells, insulin producing cells, heart muscle cells or eye cells, to name but a few of the hopes placed on cell therapy using stem cells.
"Using this technology the supply of human embryonic stem cells is no longer a problem. It will be possible to establish a bank where stem cells can be matched by tissue type, which is important for avoiding transplants being rejected," says Karl Tryggvason.
The study has been funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Söderberg Foundation, AFA Insurance, the Sigrid Juselius Foundation, the EU's Seventh Framework Programme and the Singapore National Medical Research Council. LN-521 has been developed by the Division of Matrix Biology at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics (MBB), Karolinska Institutet and is currently marketed by the biotechnology company BioLamina, founded by Karl Tryggvason. | <urn:uuid:98a6983e-f780-4150-992f-c01d222a6ccb> | {
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Swallowing Small Batteries Is A Big Danger For Children
Dec. 15-Small children are at serious risk of swallowing "button batteries" which can get stuck in their throats, causing choking or even worse, severe throat burns and possibly death.
Hurley and Safe Kids Greater Flint are spearheading local efforts for “The Battery Controlled,” a national partnership between Safe Kids Worldwide and Energizer that shares life-saving information with parents and caregivers about the potential risks of swallowing coin lithium batteries. In 2010 alone, more than 3,500 "button batteries" swallowing cases, including 18 deaths, were reported to U.S. poison control centers, according to the National Capital Poison Center.
The most serious injuries are usually associated with the 20 mm diameter coin lithium battery. In the majority of swallowing incidents among children, the batteries are from remote control devices.
Dr. Rima Jibaly, Hurley Children’s Hospital Gastroenterologist, said, “These coin-sized button batteries can get stuck in the throats of children. The saliva immediately triggers an electrical current that causes a chemical reaction that can severely burn the esophagus in as little as two hours. In some cases, children have died from their injuries."
“Once the burning reaction begins, it can continue even after the battery is removed," said Dr. Brian Nolan, Director, Hurley Pediatric Critical Care Unit. "This can paralyze vocal chords or form an abnormal connection between the esophagus and trachea (wind pipe). Repairing that damage is painful and can require feeding tubes, breathing tubes and multiple surgeries.”
Lew Moquin, Safe Kids Greater Flint Coordinator, explained that "parents and other caregivers often don’t realize that coin-sized button batteries are included in devices they buy. Too often, these devices are left within reach of young children. Car keys with electronic fobs, for example, are often shared with children for their amusement. The batteries inside, if swallowed, can get stuck in a child’s throat and cause serious injury or death.”
These batteries can be found in just about any device
Coin-sized button batteries, approximately the size of a nickel, are found in everyday devices such as:
- Mini remote control devices that unlock car doors and control portable DVD players, MP3 speakers and other devices
- Bathroom scales
- Reading lights
- Flameless candles
- Talking and singing books and greeting cards
Don't let children play with electronic devices
Many of these potentially-deadly batteries are often inside compartments within electronic devices. However, because many of these devices are not children’s toys, the battery compartments are easy to open. Small children often have easy access to these devices and enjoy playing with them, and many parents do not know there is a risk. In a recent survey by The Battery Controlled, 66% of parents responded that they have not read, seen or heard anything about the risks of coin-sized button batteries and 56% said their children seem to like electronic devices more than their own toys.
Serious complications and deaths are increasing
The number of cases where children have been seriously hurt or have died as a result of swallowing a button battery has more than quadrupled in the past five years (2006-2010) compared to the five years prior (2001-2005).
Preventative steps for parents and caregivers
- Examine devices and make sure the battery compartment is secure. Strong tape is one option.
- Keep button batteries and devices that use them out of reach of small children if the battery compartments aren’t secure.
- Go to the emergency room immediately if swallowing is suspected.
- Tell others about this threat and share these steps.
Call the National Battery Ingestion Hotline at (202) 625-3333 for additional treatment information. | <urn:uuid:54a643ea-1c25-4b1b-837b-11a66b23c475> | {
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Chemical & Environmental Safety Office
Responsibilities of the Chemical Safety Office include chemical use and storage procedures, waste management, inventory, and emergency procedures. These elements are conveyed to faculty and staff in laboratory safety training courses such as Chemical Hygiene Plan and Hazard Communication.
The Chemical Hygiene Plan, a requirement of the OSHA Laboratory Standard, is the primary source of information for procedures on the safe use of chemicals in the laboratory at EVMS. A copy of the "Chemical Hygiene Plan" should be kept in each laboratory.
A companion text to the "Chemical Hygiene Plan" is the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) binder which is also located in each lab. MSDSs describe characteristics of chemicals and list precautions for their use. The MSDS should be reviewed prior to using a chemical for the first time and reviewed periodically. | <urn:uuid:c1cfcbb3-729e-40ad-b66f-ed3d2663fda6> | {
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Colorado, known as "the Centennial State," contains most of the southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern part of the Colorado Plateau. Colorado is the eighth most extensive state in the country. The state derives its name from the Colorado River which was named by Spanish travelers for the ruddy silt carried from the mountains. The state was admitted to the Union in 1876 by Ulysses S. Grant.
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Denver is both the capital and the largest city in Colorado. Denver can be found in the South Platte River Valley, east of the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Denver has acquired the nickname "Mile-High City" because its official elevation is exactly 5,280 feet above sea-level. Denver has nearly 80 official neighborhoods used by the city for administration and planning. The character of these neighborhoods varies differently and could include large skyscrapers or even houses from the late 19th century. Typically, neighborhoods that are closer to the city's center are older and contain more brick. The neighborhoods further away from the city were most likely developed after World War II and were built with more of a modern flair. Most neighborhoods in the Denver area have been built around parks as a focal point. Some of the most well-known neighborhoods include LoDo (Lower Downtown), the Union Station neighborhood, Speer neighborhood, and the Golden Triangle. Other cities in the Denver metropolitan area include Aurora, Littleton, and Castle Rock. | <urn:uuid:b40accd6-ee17-4e09-b4d9-370127180654> | {
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This particular kind of cicada has a revolutionary survival strategy. With only 3 weeks to live as an adult, it quickly mates and lays eggs in trees. The larvae hatch and drop to the ground, where they bury themselves for ... 17 years. It has been measured, and it is always 17 years. All at once, they then climb out of the ground, cling to something and crawl out of their baby pyjamas, leaving these behind to be collected by delighted children. Then, wings unfurled, they fly off into the sunset, trumpeting all the way. Other animals cannot rely on such infrequent visitors as a food source, and their vast numbers ensure plentiful survival even when the odd bird or snake ventures into new culinary territory. In this way, the juicy winged beetles live on to lay the next generation. See you in 2028!
Monday, May 16, 2011
WE were not alone in the campground. We were surrounded by cicadas. All over the grass, clinging to every tree, the empty shells of cicada nymphs, their skins shed as the adults emerged triumphant after a 17-year slumber. From the treetops they now sounded their victory cry. The noise was deafening. At first we didn't equate the high-pitched sound with the insect shells all around. It sounded more like a squeaky siren. Maybe some kind of motor. But it was, in fact, cicadas by the million. | <urn:uuid:155946f2-d0b7-4306-b1a4-29d054b040c6> | {
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Solutions for Snoring
Snoring Affects Health
People who snore heavily run a greater risk of developing high blood pressure, thus increasing their chances for heart disease or stroke. But the effects of snoring go beyond the health of the snorer, affecting the health and well-being of the snorer’s partner as well. Research conducted by the Mayo Clinic found that women who slept with snorers experienced an average of 26 awakenings per hour. These women slept less, losing up to 60 minutes of sleep each night. Chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to Type 2 diabetes, memory loss, accelerated aging, weight gain, irritability, reduced concentration and an increased risk for accidents. It also leads many couples to sleep in separate rooms.
Types of Snoring
Snoring, also known as sleep-disordered breathing, is a serious health problem that affects some 40 million Americans. The severity of snoring can range from mild (in which snoring is not a health threat) to a life-threatening condition known as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). This condition is characterized by significant interruption of breathing during the night and may be associated with a decrease in blood oxygen levels, irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure, and may even cause sudden death. If you suspect you have OSAS, your physician may wish to arrange for a sleep study. OSAS should always be treated before seeking treatment for snoring. Most people who snore, however, do not necessarily have OSAS.
Surgery Is Effective
Before considering surgery, many snorers try to improve their lives through exercise, weight loss, smoking cessation, changes in diet and appliances for the nose and mouth. These changes can be very effective for some patients. For those whose well-being is not improved or who don’t like the hassle of sleeping with nasal or oral appliances, surgery become a viable and lasting way to improve their health and the health of their partner.
There is Hope
If you suffer from heavy snoring, there are surgical treatments available that can significantly improve your health and quality of life. No one procedure is considered the best, although somnoplasty and injection snoreplasty appear to have the most advantages. The severity of your snoring and discussion with your otolaryngologist (ENT) will help you decide which option is best for you.
Types of Surgery
- Injection snoreplasty is a safe, painless and effective procedure in which medicine is injected into the soft palate of the patient’s mouth to reduce and stiffen the tissue. The procedure is completed in less than 15 minutes, is low-cost, and requires little to no recovery time.
- Somnoplasty, or radio frequency ablation, is a safe procedure in which low-energy radio waves heat and shrink tissues at the back of the throat. This relatively pain-free treatment can be performed in the surgeon’s office under local anesthesia with minimal patient discomfort and essentially no recovery time.
- Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) has been used for decades as the main surgical treatment for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Short-term results are effective, but long-term studies indicate a drop in effectiveness. The procedure is usually performed in an operating room under general anesthesia.
- Laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty (LAUP) was introduced in the 1980s as an alternative to UPPP. Performed in the office using local anesthesia, it uses a laser beam to tighten floppy tissue in the back of the mouth. It is more painful than newer procedures and is now performed infrequently.
- Cautery-assisted palatal stiffening operation (CAPSO) has the advantages of simplicity, low cost and the necessity of only a single session. However, it does produce more pain and may require several days to recover.
Are You Suffering From Sleep Apnea?
- Do you snore?
- Are you unhappy during the day?
- Are you overweight?
- Do you wake up with headaches?
- Do you have high blood pressure?
- Are you irritable or fatigued or do you have difficulty concentrating?
- Do you find it hard to stay awake while driving, watching TV, reading a book or attending a meeting?
- Do you ever wake up choking or gasping for air, or have a skipping or racing heartbeat during the night?
- Has anyone watched you sleeping and told you that you hold your breath or snort loudly, gasping for breath?
If you answered yes to two or more of these questions, you may be suffering from sleep apnea. If you suspect you have sleep apnea, contact your physician to arrange an evaluation and sleep study.
To Arrange an Appointment
Please contact your primary care physician if you think you have a form of disordered breathing during sleep. Your doctor can refer you to our Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose, Throat) Department for detailed diagnosis and effective treatment.
For more information, call us at 541-685-1755.
Sleep Disorders Center at Sacred Heart Medical Center
Visit the Sleep Disorders Center Web site to learn about common sleep disorders, sleep studies and to learn about our board–certified sleep specialists. | <urn:uuid:aa518173-7b80-4310-96bf-cc57db5ba187> | {
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The church of Santa Ana is located in the center of the small town of Nindirí, just across the Central Park. It was founded over 400 years ago, and during that time it has been rebuilt several times, causing the loss of some features of the colonial structure of origin. On one such occasion tiles with inscriptions were found, of which its believed were made by the Indians who inhabited the area.
Some of his statues of saints and pulpits are very old. Masses are held on Thursdays at 7:00 am and 6:00 pm, Sunday at 8:30 am and then at 5:00 pm. The other days some special masses are held such as dead masses, baptisms, fifteen years and any other activity that is requested in advance. On Mondays there are meetings of the charismatic groups. On Wednesdays there are liturgies classes held at 7: 00 pm, and on Sundays catechism classes are taught in the mornings.
Santa Ana was built with a structure influenced by the architecture of Constantinople, which is why its design is different from other churches built in Nicaragua during the same period. Another feature that makes it different is that it was built in a simple way, made of adobe blocks.
In 1772 it was destroyed by the eruption of the Santiago Volcano (still active crater of Masaya Volcano), and 15 years later the first reconstruction was done in 1887. From that time it has had several rebuilds, been the most recent in 2000. At that time the facade was changed and it was entirely painted in its current color.
The church is practically on a cemetery, as the local historians say on their records. There are many people who were buried at the time of the plague, also very important people in the city was buried as well as religious groups and people who dedicated their lives to serving the church. In the current floor there are some plates with the names of some people who were buried there, there are only six of these, since you can not have information on all the bodies that are buried under the construction.
On a private car you must take the road Managua - Masaya - Granada until reaching the entrance of Nindirí (km 26). From there, turn onto the boulevard and go straight three blocks to Central Park, from where you will see the church on the right side.
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Fiber versus copper.
When planning a new or upgraded cabling infrastructure, you have two basic choices: fiber or copper. Both offer superior data transmission. The decision on which one... more/see it nowto use may be difficult. It will often depend on your current network, your future networking needs, and your particular application, including bandwidth, distances, environment, cost, and more. In some cases, copper may be a better choice; in other situations, fiber offers advantages.
Although copper cable is currently more popular and much more predominant in structured cabling systems and networks, fiber is quickly gaining fans.
Fiber optic cable is becoming one of the fastest-growing transmission mediums for both new cabling installations and upgrades, including backbone, horizontal, and even desktop applications. Fiber optic cable is favored for applications that need high bandwidth, long distances, and complete immunity to electrical interference. It’s ideal for high data-rate systems such as Gigabit Ethernet, FDDI, multimedia, ATM, SONET, Fibre Channel, or any other network that requires the transfer of large, bandwidth-consuming data files, particularly over long distances. A common application for fiber optic cable is as a network backbone, where huge amounts of data are transmitted. To help you decide if fiber is right for your new network or if you want to migrate to fiber, take a look at the following:
The advantages of fiber.
Greater bandwidth-Because fiber provides far greater bandwidth than copper and has proven performance at rates up to 10 Gbps, it gives network designers future-proofing capabilities as network speeds and requirements increase. Also, fiber optic cable can carry more information with greater fidelity than copper wire. That’s why the telephone networks use fiber, and many CATV companies are converting to fiber.
Low attenuation and greater distance-Because the fiber optic signal is made of light, very little signal loss occurs during transmission so data can move at higher speeds and greater distances. Fiber does not have the 100-meter (304.8-ft.) distance limitation of unshielded twisted-pair copper (without a booster). Fiber distances can range from 300 meters to 40 kilometers, depending on the style of cable, wavelength, and network. (Fiber distances are typically measured in metric units.) Because fiber signals need less boosting than copper ones do, the cable performs better.
Fiber networks also enable you to put all your electronics and hardware in one central location, instead of having wiring closets with equipment throughout the building.
Security-Your data is safe with fiber cable. It does not radiate signals and is extremely difficult to tap. If the cable is tapped, it’s very easy to monitor because the cable leaks light, causing the entire system to fail. If an attempt is made to break the security of your fiber system, you’ll know it.
Immunity and reliability-Fiber provides extremely reliable data transmission. It’s completely immune to many environmental factors that affect copper cable. The fiber is made of glass, which is an insulator, so no electric current can flow through. It is immune to electromagnetic interference and radio-frequency interference (EMI/RFI), crosstalk, impedance problems, and more. You can run fiber cable next to industrial equipment without worry. Fiber is also less susceptible to temperature fluctuations than copper is and can be submerged in water.
Design-Fiber is lightweight, thin, and more durable than copper cable. And, contrary to what you might think, fiber optic cable has pulling specifications that are up to ten times greater than copper cable’s. Its small size makes it easier to handle, and it takes up much less space in cabling ducts. Although fiber is still more difficult to terminate than copper is, advancements in connectors are making temination easier. In addition, fiber is actually easier to test than copper cable.
Migration-The proliferation and lower costs of media converters are making copper to fiber migration much easier. The converters provide seamless links and enable the use of existing hardware. Fiber can be incorporated into networks in planned upgrades.
Standards-New TIA/EIA standards are bringing fiber closer to the desktop. TIA/EIA-785, ratified in 2001, provides a cost-effective migration path from 10-Mbps Ethernet to 100-Mbps Fast Ethernet over fiber (100BASE-SX). A recent addendum to the standard eliminates limitations in transceiver designs. In addition, in June 2002, the IEEE approved a 10-Gigabit Ethernet standard.
Costs-The cost for fiber cable, components, and hardware is steadily decreasing. Installation costs for fiber are higher than copper because of the skill needed for terminations. Overall, fiber is more expensive than copper in the short run, but it may actually be less expensive in the long run. Fiber typically costs less to maintain, has much less downtime, and requires less networking hardware. And fiber eliminates the need to recable for higher network performance.
Multimode or single-mode, duplex or simplex?
Multimode-Multimode fiber optic cable can be used for most general fiber applications. Use multimode fiber for bringing fiber to the desktop, for adding segments to your existing network, or in smaller applications such as alarm systems. Multimode cable comes with two different core sizes: 50 micron or 62.5 micron.
Single-mode-Single-mode is used over distances longer than a few miles. Telcos use it for connections between switching offices. Single-mode cable features an 8.5-micron glass core.
Duplex-Use duplex multimode or single-mode fiber optic cable for applications that require simultaneous, bidirectional data transfer. Workstations, fiber switches and servers, fiber modems, and similar hardware require duplex cable. Duplex is available in single- and multimode.
Simplex-Because simplex fiber optic cable consists of only one fiber link, you should use it for applications that only require one-way data transfer. For instance, an interstate trucking scale that sends the weight of the truck to a monitoring station or an oil line monitor that sends data about oil flow to a central location. Simplex fiber comes in single- and multimode types.
50- vs. 62.5-micron cable.
Although 50-micron fiber cable features a smaller core, which is the light-carrying portion of the fiber, both 62.5- and 50-micron cable feature the same glass cladding diameter of 125 microns. You can use both in the same types of networks, although 50-micron cable is recommended for premise applications: backbone, horizontal, and intrabuilding connections, and should be considered especially for any new construction and installations. And both can use either LED or laser light sources.
The big difference between 50-micron and 62.5-micron cable is in bandwidth-50-micron cable features three times the bandwidth of standard 62.5-micron cable, particularly at 850 nm. The 850-nm wavelength is becoming more important as lasers are being used more frequently as a light source.
Other differences are distance and speed. 50-micron cable provides longer link lengths and/or higher speeds in the 850-nm wavelength. See the table below.
The ferrules: ceramic or composite?
As a general rule, use ceramic ferrules for critical network connections such as backbone cables or for connections that will be changed frequently, like those in wiring closets. Ceramic ferrules are more precisely molded and fit closer to the fiber, which gives the fiber optic cables a lower optical loss.
Use composite ferrules for connections that are less critical to the network’s overall operation and less frequently changed. Like their ceramic counterparts, composite ferrules are characterized by low loss, good quality, and a long life. However, they are not as precisely molded and slightly easier to damage, so they aren’t as well-suited for critical connections.
Testing and certifying fiber optic cable.
If you’re accustomed to certifying copper cable, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to certify fiber optic cable because it’s immune to electrical interference. You only need to check a few measurements.
Attenuation (or decibel loss)-Measured in decibels/kilometer (dB/km), this is the decrease of signal strength as it travels through the fiber cable. Generally, attenuation problems are more common on multimode fiber optic cables.
Return loss-This is the amount of light reflected from the far end of the cable back to the source. The lower the number, the better. For example, a reading of -60 decibels is better than -20 decibels. Like attenuation, return loss is usually greater with multimode cable.
Graded refractive index-This measures how the light is sent down the fiber. This is commonly measured at wavelengths of 850 and 1300 nanometers. Compared to other operating frequencies, these two ranges yield the lowest intrinsic power loss. (NOTE: This is valid for multimode fiber only.)
Propagation delay-This is the time it takes a signal to travel from one point to another over a transmission channel.
Optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR)-This enables you to isolate cable faults by transmitting high-frequency pulses onto a cable and examining their reflections along the cable. With OTDR, you can also determine the length of a fiber optic cable because the OTDR value includes the distance the optic signal travels.
There are many fiber optic testers on the market today. Basic fiber optic testers function by shining a light down one end of the cable. At the other end, there’s a receiver calibrated to the strength of the light source. With this test, you can measure how much light is going to the other end of the cable. Generally, these testers give you the results in dB lost, which you then compare to the loss budget. If the measured loss is less than the number calculated by your loss budget, your installation is good.
Newer fiber optic testers have a broad range of capabilities. They can test both 850- and 1300-nanometer signals at the same time and can even check your cable for compliance with specific standards.
A few properties particular to fiber optic cable can cause problems if you aren’t careful during installation.
Intrinsic power loss-As the optic signal travels through the fiber core, the signal inevitably loses some speed through absorption, reflection, and scattering. This problem is easy to manage by making sure your splices are good and your connections are clean.
Microbending-Microbends are minute deviations in fiber caused by excessive bends, pinches, and kinks. Using cable with reinforcing fibers and other special manufacturing techniques minimizes this problem.
Connector loss-Connector loss occurs when two fiber segments are misaligned. This problem is commonly caused by poor splicing. Scratches and dirt introduced during the splicing process can also cause connector loss.
Coupling loss-Similar to connector loss, coupling loss results in reduced signal power and is from poorly terminated connector couplings.
Remember to be careful and use common sense when installing fiber cable. Use clean components. Keep dirt and dust to a minimum. Don’t pull the cable excessively or bend it too sharply around any corners. That way, your fiber optic installation can serve you well for many years. collapse | <urn:uuid:b6627b4a-ad5d-46e8-97ff-1df3ff04ca72> | {
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Hyperfocal distance, much like the “Sunny 16 Rule,” is one of those things that has arguably lost some relevance in the age of digital photography; the sophisticated metering and auto focusing systems built into digital cameras have helped make life a little easier in some ways.
But there are times when some automated feature of your camera simply doesn’t come through for you, or times when you prefer to take away all your camera’s decision-making abilities and do it all for yourself. Then it’s good to know all those old school rules that you thought you would never have any use for.
One of those “old” photographic principles deemed useful by landscape photographers is that of hyperfocal distance.
What is Hyperfocal Distance?
Portrait photographers don’t typically see depth of field as something to overcome; a good portrait can be made from large apertures and small apertures alike. How much depth of field is present depends on how much of the subject the photographer wants to isolate. Landscape photographers, however, face a different challenge. When shooting landscapes there are going to be numerous objects in a scene — there will be background elements and foreground elements. Furthermore, the distance between the background and foreground could very well be hundreds of feet. The goal is to get all this in focus. How, then, does one solve this depth of field riddle?
We know that depth of field increases with higher f-stops (f/16 creates more depth of field than f/4). We also know that depth of field increases as the camera focuses farther away. So, imagine you are attempting to focus in on a picturesque landscape scene using a 20mm lens set to f/11; you want to be sure that you’ve got the background as well as the foreground in sharp focus. You don’t want to run the risk of stopping the lens down too much and introducing diffraction, and you don’t want to guess on where to focus and end up with a blurry background.
What if there were a point at which you could focus so as to get as much of the scene as possible in focus? Something like that would be brilliant.
Luckily, such a thing exists. It is referred to as hyperfocal distance.
The hyperfocal distance is the point of focus that allows for maximum depth of field throughout a scene. Once you have focused on the hyperfocal point, everything from half the hyperfocal distance to infinity will be in focus.
You may be wondering how exactly hyperfocal distance is determined; how do you know where that magical point is?
Calculating Hyperfocal Distance
In order to calculate hyperfocal distance, you need to know three things:
- Focal length – This will depend on what lens you’re using.
- Circle of confusion value – Commonly 0.03 and 0.02; depends on sensor type.
- F-stop – f/11 and f/13 are often regarded as optimal for landscape photography.
Next, use the following formula and do a little math (lengths and distances measured in mm):
Using the aforementioned scenario involving a 20mm lens at f/11 on a full-frame camera, you get a hyperfocal distance of 1212 mm, or 1.2 meters (almost 4 feet). So you should focus on an object that is approximately 1.2 meters away; everything from 0.6 meters (half the hyperfocal distance) away to infinity will be in focus.
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Hepatotoxic Seafood Poisoning (HSP) Due to Microcystins: A Threat from the Ocean?
AbstractCyanobacterial blooms are a major and growing problem for freshwater ecosystems worldwide that increasingly concerns public health, with an average of 60% of blooms known to be toxic. The most studied cyanobacterial toxins belong to a family of cyclic heptapeptide hepatotoxins, called microcystins. The microcystins are stable hydrophilic cyclic heptapeptides with a potential to cause cell damage following cellular uptake via organic anion-transporting proteins (OATP). Their intracellular biologic effects presumably involve inhibition of catalytic subunits of protein phosphatases (PP1 and PP2A) and glutathione depletion. The microcystins produced by cyanobacteria pose a serious problem to human health, if they contaminate drinking water or food. These toxins are collectively responsible for human fatalities, as well as continued and widespread poisoning of wild and domestic animals. Although intoxications of aquatic organisms by microcystins have been widely documented for freshwater ecosystems, such poisonings in marine environments have only occasionally been reported. Moreover, these poisonings have been attributed to freshwater cyanobacterial species invading seas of lower salinity (e.g., the Baltic) or to the discharge of freshwater microcystins into the ocean. However, recent data suggest that microcystins are also being produced in the oceans by a number of cosmopolitan marine species, so that Hepatotoxic Seafood Poisoning (HSP) is increasingly recognized as a major health risk that follows consumption of contaminated seafood. View Full-Text
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Vareli, K.; Jaeger, W.; Touka, A.; Frillingos, S.; Briasoulis, E.; Sainis, I. Hepatotoxic Seafood Poisoning (HSP) Due to Microcystins: A Threat from the Ocean? Mar. Drugs 2013, 11, 2751-2768.
Vareli K, Jaeger W, Touka A, Frillingos S, Briasoulis E, Sainis I. Hepatotoxic Seafood Poisoning (HSP) Due to Microcystins: A Threat from the Ocean? Marine Drugs. 2013; 11(8):2751-2768.Chicago/Turabian Style
Vareli, Katerina; Jaeger, Walter; Touka, Anastasia; Frillingos, Stathis; Briasoulis, Evangelos; Sainis, Ioannis. 2013. "Hepatotoxic Seafood Poisoning (HSP) Due to Microcystins: A Threat from the Ocean?" Mar. Drugs 11, no. 8: 2751-2768. | <urn:uuid:04dcb226-5f74-420f-a844-65d7da512246> | {
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When I started this project, I knew next to nothing about Woody Guthrie. And all I really knew about the project was that it would be about him. I trusted that it would have to shed some light on the era of the 1930s because this decade was the first and shaping part of Woody's adult life and career, and because his experience brought him into contact with some of the most significant features of this era, such as the Dust Bowl migration, early radio, and the labor movements.
What my research impressed upon me was that there was really quite a lot about Woody already out there in books, articles, and web sites, but also that much of it was similar and repetitive, to an extreme. Statements about the import of his career and his impact on music and on America can be identical almost word for word. Other staples of any given book, article, or web-site are John Steinbeck's and Bob Dylan's tributes to Woody. Woody was a font of creativity in prose and letter writing, and painting and drawing as well as in song. Yet, despite the amplitude of this body of work, one comes across the same pieces again and again. And biographies are generally the facts filled out with the same anecdotes. This repetition is the first clue that Woody Guthrie has been mythologized. I should add, however, that recent attention to the Woody Guthrie archive has made for different and generally more comprehensive representations of Woody's life and works. This change in representation is one of the main subjects of this project; it is one of the most interesting aspects of the mythologizing of Woody Guthrie.
By mythologizing, I mean that Woody has come to be connected with certain ideas, images, and words, through repetition, so that these things are as much Woody as Woody himself. In fact, it is impossible to distinguish between Woody the man and Woody the myth, especially for those of us who did not know him personally, but only through others and through his own words, songs, and images which come to us through self-mythologizing or the mythologizing of others. "The point is that the hero is not the individual behind the image. He or she is a collective idealization that is associated with that individual." 1
By using the word "myth", I don't mean to suggest that the images we have of Woody are unreal or entirely untrue (on the contrary, they may have much truth to them), but, rather, to draw attention to the fact that they were and are created, in thought and in artifact, by certain people, places, and events, and that they served certain purposes for the groups and people that created them, as they do for the nation that maintains and reworks them. The myths of Woody Guthrie are creations of certain individuals such as Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger, Joe Klein, Marjorie Guthrie, and, especially, Woody himself. They are also the creations of places, events, and historical dynamics, such as the Depression and Dust Bowl, American Communism, and a postmodern ethos. Despite this variety of influences, the formative ones of Woody's lifetime which associated him with "the folk" and folk music make him an enduring symbol of integrity, authenticity, and the "common man", or "the people". As such, the symbol of Woody Guthrie is a form of cultural currency used and reused to explore and define these ideas which have captivated and continue to captivate the American consciousness in its effort to define itself.
While Woody has been greatly mythologized, his works do tell us a lot about him, the man, and not the myth, even if it is packaged in it. And while the repetition of works devoted to Woody evince a tradition of mythologizing him, they also tell us that Woody was an intriguing, inspiring, and wonderful person. This project looks at the various ways in which Woody mythologized himself and has been mythologized by others. It is my hope that in doing so, it may, in justice and yet another tribute to him, sound the depths of the man beneath the layers of myth as well. Finally, it will also explore certain aspects of the culture of the thirties as they intersect with Woody's life, how they helped to create Woody Guthrie, the man and the myth, and how attitudes toward this era and its attendant culture and concerns are reflected in the mythologizing of Woody Guthrie. | <urn:uuid:d26c43d7-5dee-4878-a967-89068f8f2275> | {
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The entire scenario surrounding the events which took place on April
26, 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant were the result of a safety
experiment gone awry. All power reactors produce significant amounts of
heat even when not in use ( due to the residual radiation with the materials
surrounding the fuel). As a result, when a reactor is in its shutdown
state, there is still a need to employ cooling systems to remove this heat
to keep the fuel from melting. Normally, the electric power necessary to
keep these systems running is drawn from the offsite power grid. However,
if there is a loss of offsite power with a shutdown, it is customary to
employ large diesel generators to supply the needed electricity to keep
the required emergency core cooling systems (ECCS) in operation.
In the United States, the time required to start one of these diesel
generators is on the order of 6 seconds. At Chernobyl, this time was on
the order of 3 minutes. In an effort to supply the necessary power to run
the safety systems in the 3 minute window between reactor shutdown and
diesel generator start, Chernobyl engineers thought that useful electric
power could be extracted from the turbine while it was in the process of
coasting to a halt. It was during a safety experiment designed to test
this theory that events were allowed to unfold which would ultimately lead
to the Chernobyl accident. It is the purpose of this section to outline,
in as simple language as is possible, the events which unfolded on April
Chernobyl Time Line
||Plant Power decreasing, signifying the start of the reactor shutdown.
||Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) is disconnected.|
||Power reduction resumed.
- Automated regulation system is shut off.
- Power decreased to 30 Mwt.
||Increased power to 200 Mwt by withdrawing rods.
- Operating Reactivity Margin (ORM) decreases to below 30 rods.
- No station managers approval for operation with less than 30 rods.
||Two additional recirculation pumps started - all 8 pumps running.|
||Increased feedwater flow to steam drums.
- Decreased void.
- All but 6 rods withdrawn.
- Emergency Protection Signals blocked by operators.
||Feedwater flow to steam drums decreased to very low value - 30 secs later
reactor inlet temperature begins to rise.
- Control room printout of core reactivity showed the excess reactivity
- required immediate shutdown - warning ignored and test initiated.
||Turbine feed valves closed.|
- Recirculation pumps begin to coastdown with the turbine.
- Reactor flow decreases.
||Emergency Scram initiated by button AZ-5. Button pushed because:|
- Power went up.
- Test was over.
- Operator saw rods moving on core map.
||Power increasing rapidly due to positive void coefficient.|
- Doppler decreases reactivity addition.
- Fuel fragments, causes rapid voiding.
- Power and steam drum pressure increase rapidly.
||Explosion occurs followed by a second explosion a few seconds later.|
The Chernobyl accident reminds us of the continuing importance of safe
design in both concept and implementation; of operational controls, of
competence and motivation of plant management and operating staff to operate
in strict compliance with controls; and of backup features of defense
against potential accidents.
Although a large nuclear power-plant accident somewhere in the United States
is unlikely because of design and operational features, we cannot relax
the care and vigilance that have made it so.
Back to Main Page | <urn:uuid:20210530-710a-45d2-9915-79b1d300c282> | {
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This half term we have been focusing on the story
Little Red Riding Hood.
We collaborated in groups to retell the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
We also collaborated in groups to retell the story through a story map.
We received a letter from Little Red Riding Hood to say that Grandmother had a cold and had lost her sense of smell. We decided to explore our 5 senses.
Do you know what they are?
Do you know what body part we use for each sense?
We had a letter from the sneaky wolf. He knew that we were learning about parts of the body and he sent us a picture of a body that he already labelled for us, trying to trick our teachers. But... he labelled them wrong!
We drew around Fausta and Riley and labelled different parts of the body... correctly!
Paper copies of all documents and policies on the website are available from the school office. | <urn:uuid:33661a22-b981-420e-bfef-45f7b342d98f> | {
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The IDEAS Abstract Thought class is combining art and math to explore the concepts of quadratics, trigonometry, linear equations and permutations. Starting second trimester, the students have been creating big and small works of art to both understand the math concepts and teach the rest of the class.
“Education serves as the greatest tool we have for social change and, by being a teacher, I have a direct impact on the lives of students and can help them better find their place in the world and also move the world toward a more equal and balanced space,” shared Peter Woods, who teaches math at IDEAS.
Imagine the following: You are walking into a job interview to apply for a position that you are qualified for. You sit down and the interviewer says “Well, why do you deserve to have this job?” How can you prove to your future boss that this organization will benefit from your employment? | <urn:uuid:8ecb53ce-3df3-46b0-ad03-02126efc01dc> | {
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Women in Flossenbürg Branch Camps —
· Searching the Database
This database includes 15,842 records of women who worked in sub-camps of Flossenbürg, based on documents in the Berlin Document Center and individual company archives.
Hans Brenner, in his 1999 book Frauen in den Aussenlagern des KZ Flossenbürg (Women in the Branch Camps of Concentration Camps of Flossenbürg), has collected lists of women forced in 1944-1945 to work in various Flossenbürg industrial sub-camps. He developed these lists utilizing documents in the Berlin Document Center (BDC) and individual company archives.
While his book deals with each sub-camp separately, this database merges all the names but with a notation where they worked. Below, you will find a separate brief summary description of each facility.
The use of forced laborers, Jews and non-Jews, near the end of the war reflected acute manpower shortages inside Germany. As a result tens of thousands of Jews and non-Jews who might otherwise have perished in Auschwitz or elsewhere were sent to these factories. Though conditions were poor, working in these camps was far better than the alternatives.
If a prisoner died while still held at the factory this is noted. Many more died on the forced marches/evacuations which came at the very end of the war, but this information was not available to Brenner. Additional information on many of these individuals is contained in the ITS collection available at the USHMM and Yad Vashem, as well as Bad Arolsen.
This collection identifies 15,842 women with the largest numbers from Poland, Hungary, Russia, Germany, France, and Czechoslovakia. Even two American women are identified. Almost all were under the age of 40.
Aussenkommando Astra-Werke Chemnitz. In October 1944, 515 women, shipped from Auschwitz, were held as forced laborers in this factory manufacturing aircraft parts. In April 1945, all surviving workers were sent by train to Leitmeritz.
Aussenkommando Dresden - Bernsdorf & Co. In October 1944, 284 women were sent from Auschwitz via Stutthof to work as forced laborers at a factory manufacturing ammunition. In April 1944, they were evacuated to Theresienstadt.
Aussenkommando Dresden - Universelle Maschinenfabrik. In October 1944 and January 1945, a total of 708 women were sent from Ravensbrück to work as forced laborers at this factory manufacturing aircraft parts. During the Dresden bombing hundreds were killed while survivors were transferred to other factories.
Aussenkommando Dresden - Zeiss-Ikon Goehle. In October 1944, 501 women were sent from Ravensbrück and Auschwitz to work as forced laborers at this factory manufacturing bomb fuses. They were evacuated to Theresienstadt.
Aussenkommando Hertine (Rtyne) - Munitionsfabrik Welboth (Velvety). In October 1944, 602 women were sent from Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen to this munitions factory near Teplitz Schönau. They were evacuated to Theresienstadt in April 1945.
Aussenkommando Holleischen (Holysov). In September 1944, 400 women were sent from Ravensbrück to work as forced laborers at unidentified facilities in the Pilsen area.
Aussenkommando Mehltheuer - Vomag. In December 1944 and March 1945, 350 women were sent from Bergen-Belsen and Nürnberg to work as forced laborers manufacturing armored cars.
Aussenkommando Mittweida. Established in October 1944 as the communications equipment facility of C. Lorenz AG in Berlin, this facility utilized 503 women sent from Auschwitz. In April 1945, the evacuated prisoners were forced to march to Freiberg, then by train to Theresienstadt and finally to Velesin. Many prisoners, especially Russian women, were murdered en route.
Neu - Rohlau "Bohemia". From September 1944 through April 1945, 1,400 women from Flossenbürg and Ravensbrück were held at the "Bohemia" factory.
Aussenkommando Nürnberg Siemens & Schuckert. Established in October 1944 and staffed by 550 prisoners sent from Auschwitz, this facility produced electronic equipment. After heavy bombings the facility was closed and the prisoners sent on to other facilities in March 1945.
Aussenkommando Oederan - Agricola GmbH. Beginning in September 1944, 700 women were brought to this facility in Freiberg from Auschwitz to produce auto parts. In April 1945, they were evacuated to Theresienstadt.
Aussenkommando Plauen Baumwollspinnerei. Beginning in September 1944, 200 women were brought from forced labor in Berlin to Plauen to work in an Osram KG factory. In April 1945, they were evacuated in a forced march to Karlsbad.
Aussenkommando Plauen Industriewerke. In September 1944, 300 women were brought from other forced labor facilities in Berlin to Plauen to work in a Osram KG wire factory. In April 1945, they were evacuated in a forced march to Karlsbad.
Aussenkommando Rochlitz. From September 1944 to February 1945, 660 women were brought from Auschwitz, Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen to Rochlitz to work in a Mechanik GmbH factory. They were evacuated to Calw.
Aussenkommando Venusberg. In January and February 1945, 1,000 women were transported from Bergen-Belsen and Ravensbrück to work in a Junkers subterranean facility manufacturing aircraft engines. Due to extremely poor working conditions there were a large number of deaths. In April 1945, they were evacuated to Mauthausen.
Aussenkommando Wilischthal - Agricola GmbH. In October and November 1944, 301 women were transferred from Auschwitz to Wilischthal for the manufacture of machine guns. The facility was evacuated in April 1945 and prisoners sent by train to Theresienstadt.
Aussenkommando Wolkenburg. In September and November 1944, 500 women were sent from Ravensbrück and Bergen Belsen to work in factories near Rochlitz.
Aussenkommando Zschopau - Auto Union AG. In November 1944, 450 women were transferred from Auschwitz to Zschopau to work in the Auto Union facility manufacturing aircraft parts.
Aussenkommando Zwodau - Luftfahrtgeräewerk Hakenfelde. Starting in April 1944, 870 women were transferred to this aircraft parts facility in Zwodau from Ravensbrück, and Gross-Rosen. They were evacuated in April 1945 in three separate forced marches.
Aussenkommando Dresden Zeiss-Ikon Reich. In October 1944, 400 women were sent from Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen to manufacture bomb fuses. They were eventually evacuated to Theresienstadt.
Aussenkommando Freiberg - Arado Flugzeugwerke. In August and October 1944, 1,000 women were sent from Auschwitz to manufacture aircraft parts. In April 1945, they were evacuated to Mauthausen.
Aussenkommando Graslitz (Kraslice). In September 1944 and early 1945, 1,000 women were sent from Ravensbrück and Rochlitz to Graslitz to work in several factories. In April 1945, they were evacuated to Mauthausen.
Aussenkommando Hainchen Framo Werke. In September 1944, 500 women were sent to work as forced laborers at the Framo Werke manufacturing smokescreen equipment. They were evacuated to Theresienstadt.
Aussenkommando Helmbrechts - Fa. Josef Witt Kabel u. Metallwerke. In summer 1944, November 1944 and January 1945, 1,100 women were sent from Neumeyer AG Nürnberg to work as forced laborers at the Witt factory.
This database includes 15,842 records of women who worked in sub-camps of Flossenbürg. The fields for this database are as follows:
The information contained in this database was indexed from the files of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The original source material was Hans Brenner's book Frauen in den Aussenlagern des KZ Flossenbürg. (Regensburg: Arbeitsgemeinschaft ehem. KZ Flossenbürg e.V., 1999). Edward Mitelsbach, a JewishGen volunteer, transcribed the list.
In addition, thanks to JewishGen Inc. for providing the website and database expertise to make this database accessible. Special thanks to Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias for their continued contributions to Jewish genealogy. Particular thanks to Nolan Altman, coordinator of Holocaust files.
Coordinator - Holocaust Database
This database is searchable via JewishGen's Holocaust Database.
|JewishGen Databases||JewishGen Home Page| | <urn:uuid:c26f749c-7d59-4165-a839-381efcfd622d> | {
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The cajón is little more than a wooden box with a hole in it, yet it is one of the world’s most popular percussion instruments in the world today.
This six sided drum provides the hypnotic pulse of Peruvian Criollo and Afroperuano, as well as musical genres around the globe.
The cajón was invented in Peru by African slaves during the early Spanish colonial period. Deprived of their instruments, they fashioned improvised drums from inconspicuous shipping crates, which helped them get around laws prohibiting traditional African music. They kept their culture alive.
According to this Ted.Ed video, Paco de Lucía, the virtuoso guitarists, and his percussionist Rubem Dantas introduced the instrument to Europe.
They discovered the cajón while on tour in Peru in 1977 and — recognizing its potential in flamenco music — brought it back to Spain.
The cajón caught on immediately with flamenco musicians. It was they who thought up the idea to stretch a guitar string inside the box behind the cajón’s striking surface, or tapa. That innovation remains a prominent feature of the modern instrument.
Last year, Paco de Lucía was honored during the VII International Festival of the Cajon Peruano.
This year, the week long festival will kick of on Saturday, April 25, from 10 a.m., with the annual Afro-Peruano drum fest in Lima’s historic Plaza de Armas. Register an bring hour cajón to join in the world’s largest Cajón Afro-peruano jam session.
The festival this year commemorates the event’s founder and director Rafael Santa Cruz. A tireless champion of the Afroperuano music, he died unexpectedly of a heart attack last August. | <urn:uuid:baf2dd2e-0d15-4ea0-85d5-1bc13ac2d9f6> | {
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Being breast-fed may lower breast cancer risk
By Joene Hendry
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adult women who were breast-fed as infants may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer than those who were not breast-fed, unless they were first-born, study findings suggest.
"As a general group, women who reported they had been breast-fed in infancy had a 17 percent decrease in breast cancer risk," Hazel B. Nichols, who was involved in the study, told Reuters Health.
"However, we did not observe this reduction when we looked specifically among first-born women," said Nichols, of the University of Wisconsin, in Madison.
A woman's age at childbirth helps predict the levels of environmental contaminants in her breast milk, and studies have suggested a possible link between increased breast cancer risk and the accumulation of these contaminants, Nichols and colleagues note in the medical journal Epidemiology.
To analyze whether an adult woman's birth order, mother's age at the time of her birth, and whether or not she was breast-fed alters her risk for breast cancer, the investigators interviewed 2,016 women, aged 20 to 69 years, with breast cancer, and 1,960 women of similar age without breast cancer.
As noted, women breast-fed during infancy generally had reduced breast cancer risk.
However, in analyses restricted to breast-fed women, those with 3 or more older siblings had a lesser risk for breast cancer than first born women, the researchers found. But breast-fed women showed no altered breast cancer risk according to their mothers' age at childbirth.
Among women who were not breast-fed, reduced adult breast cancer risk was linked with their mothers' older age at childbirth, but the investigators identified no association between breast cancer risk and birth order in this group.
While the current results hint that breast cancer risk may differ according to whether or not women were breast-fed during infancy, additional studies are needed to determine if these associations vary with duration of breast-feeding or according to measured levels of environmental contaminants present in breast milk, Nichols said.
SOURCE: Epidemiology, May 2008 | <urn:uuid:bd33d8ad-f1b1-4bc7-b328-813ffce87513> | {
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The Agrarian Utopia in Politics: The Homestead Act
During the crisis that preceded the Civil War the ideal of a yeoman society in the West exerted a powerful, perhaps even a decisive influence on the course of American history by shaping the policy of the Republican party.
The Republican platform of 1860, on which Abraham Lincoln was elected president, was a more cautious document than the platform on which Fremont had been defeated four years earlier. The abolitionist fervor of 1856 was cooling. The platform of 1860 opposed extension of slavery into the territories and criticized the proslavery Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court, but it declared against any interference with slavery in states where it already existed. The position with regard to slavery, in fact, had been weakened to such a degree that it was quite unsatisfactory to radical abolitionists.l
These changes were in large part concessions to Western opinion, especially that of the southern Ohio Valley as contrasted with the northern lake region, to which much New England radicalism had been transplanted. Horace Greeley, who played a dominant role in writing the platform, had doubted in 1859 whether the Republicans could get a hundred electoral votes on a square slavery issue.2 Everyone knew that the party could not succeed unless it carried the formerly Democratic Northwest. And in the Northwest, among recent German immigrants as well as among the descendants of pioneer settlers, the most important issue was the Homestead Bill, which had been vetoed by Democratic Presi-
166 THE AGRARIAN UTOPIA
dent Buchanan in 1858. "This Homestead measure overshadows everything with us, and throughout the West," wrote a Minnesota politician in 1860.3
The Republicans had been relatively slow to take up the issue of "land for the landless." It is true that when the future leaders of the party first turned their attention to the West they had translated their repudiation of slavery on abstract moral grounds into the slightly more concrete doctrine of "free soil." But this doctrine was not associated in their minds with agrarian tradition. They had related it to the older themes of the American empire and the passage to India. Such, for example, was the basis on which William H. Seward of New York demanded the admission of California in 1850.
The Atlantic States [he declared, in the accents of Benton
Speakers attacking Stephen A. Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1854 still linked the issue of free soil with the passage to India. Edward Everett of Massachusetts pointed out that the proposed territories beyond the Missouri
occupy a most important position in the geography of this
Such a strategic area, he believed, must not be allowed to come under the domination of the slave power. Predicting that within
l67 THE AGRARIAN UTOPIA
two decades a million freemen from Asia would be pouring into the trans-Mississippi every year, Seward declared in 1854 that the territories must be kept open for them.6
These arguments, like the freesoil doctrine itself, were essentially negative with regard to the internal development of the West. The position was simply that slavery must be kept out of areas where it was not already established. There was some positive meaning in the notion that the way must be kept clear for Asiatic trade and immigration, but it was not a very compelling argument because the theme of the passage to India had lost much of its fascination after the acquisition of Oregon and California. The position of Seward and Everett in 1854 was weak also because it emphasized maritime trade according to the assumptions of an archaic mercantilism instead of invoking the agrarian calculus that had been the basis of Western social thought for almost half a century. Seward showed an even more striking failure to understand the attitude of the West when he said that Douglas's squatter sovereignty doctrine made "the interested cupidity of the pioneer" the arbiter of national policy.7 This unflattering description of the Western yeoman and of the land-hunger which Douglas meant to gratify in his Kansas-Nebraska bill was a condemnation of the very impulses which advocates of homestead legislation proposed to foster. If the Republican Party was to challenge the Democratic Douglas's hold on the Northwest, it would have to develop a critique of squatter sovereignty in Western terms.
Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio moved toward this strategic goal when he declared that Douglas's doctrine invited the Western yeoman to occupy the territories beyond the Missouri in company with slaves from the South.
Gentlemen know that the high-minded free man of the North,
168 THE AGRARIAN UTOPIA
are to go out there and work side by side, degrading
The anti-Negro feeling of such remarks was hardly compatible with the moral principles of abolitionism, and Senator Archibald Dixon of Kentucky tried to impale Wade on the horns of a dilemma by asking him whether the Negro slave was not equal to the white farmer.9 But the farmers of the Northwest were not as a group pro-Negro. Freesoil for them meant keeping Negroes, whether slave or free, out of the territories altogether. It did not imply a humanitarian regard for the oppressed black man. Merely criticizing Douglas was still not formulating a positive program for the territories. Although individuals like Galusha A. Grow who were prominent in the formation of the Republican party had taken up the homestead principle before 1856, and although homestead bills had been twice passed by the House, the Republican platform of that year was silent on the subject. "Free soil, free labor, and Fremont" was conceived as an anti- slavery slogan rather than as a program for the West. But between 1856 and 1860 the homestead principle with its utopian blueprint for developing the trans-Mississippi region became official Republican doctrine. This change represented a victory for the conservative wing of the party. It was a bid for votes that could not be attracted to the antislavery cause. The platform of 1860, demanding free homesteads for actual settlers, showed that the Republicans meant to capture the myth of the garden and the symbol of the hardy yeoman, and thus to command the imaginations of Northwestern farmers. It was to this end also, in large part, that they abandoned the stern moral condemnation of slavery in general that had characterized the original policy of thee party, and merely opposed the extension of slavery into the territories. Although John R. Commons went too far in saying, "Only because slavery could not live on one hundred and sixty acre farms did the Republican party come into conflict with slavery," his over statement contains more than a half-truth.10
The basic demand for more liberal treatment of settlers on the public domain, of which the Homestead Act was the ultimate expression, had originated in slave states of the Southwest. During the 1820's and 1830's its principal spokesmen were Benton and
169 THE AGRARIAN UTOPIA
James A. Walker of Mississippi; in the 1840's they were joined by Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. All these men were Democrats and all were, in varying degrees, proslavery, although Benton eventually opposed slavery extension. As late as the session of 1852-1853 the issue regarding homestead legislation was drawn not between proslavery and antislavery groups, but between West and Northeast--between Western Democrats and Eastern Whig capitalists. It was only after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, when the Republican party cohered about aggressive free soil principles, that Southern opinion became unified in opposition to the homestead policy. The Southwest, motivated by fear of the Republican party, now abandoned alliance with the Northwest and joined the Southeast in opposing the Homestead Bill; in 1859 thirty Southwestern Congressmen voted against the measure.1l A realignment of forces also took place in the Northeast, which down to 1854 had been almost evenly divided on the homestead proposal but in 1859 voted seventy to one in favor of it.12 The Republican party had established a working coalition between Northeast and Northwest, and a clear North-South cleavage had replaced the equally clear East-West cleavage of prior decades
The intellectual framework of the Republican hornestead program, the theory that rationalized the almost instinctive land hunger of the West, was the National Reform doctrine propounded by George Henry Evans and his followers. As a leader in the New York Workingmen's party and an associate of Robert Dale Owen and Frances Wright, Evans represented the Eastern labor movement and currents of international radicalism. His contention was that free land in the West would attract unemployed or underpaid laborers from industrial cities and thus "prevent such a surplus of workmen in factories as would place the whole body (as now) at the mercy of the factory owners.''l3 National Reform influenced Republican theory through such leaders as Greeley, who had been converted to Evans's program in 1846, and Galusha Grow.14
Aside from its theory about free land and the labor surplus National Reform relied heavily on the idea that the only valid title to land was that of the man who applied his own physical labor to its cultivation. Derived from John Locke and the conception of
170 THE AGRARIAN UTOPIA
natural rights, and carefully expounded by Jefferson,l5 this argument offered strong intellectual support to the defense of free labor against the slavery system, and gave defenders of the home stead principle a basis for denying that their proposal called for donations of land as outright charity.16 The settler who perfected his title by five years' cultivation of the soil had paid for his land in the only currency which theorists of this school regarded as valid. A corollary of the National Reform platform was a stout resistance to land monopoly by speculators, whose titles were quite invalid from the standpoint of the labor theory of property. Attacks on land monopoly touched an ancient bitterness in the West. The practical expression of the anti-monopoly creed was the proposal, often made but always voted down, to limit the total holdings which any one person might accumulate.17 The principle should have dictated also a repeal of all existing provisions through which public land might be acquired by any means except actual settlement. But this likewise proved politically impossible, and the Homestead Bill was enacted in 1862 without the repeal of the preemption provision or other procedures for what amounted to the sale of public land.18
Opposition to slavery, the safety valve theory, and the labor theory of property were still but subsidiary parts of the case for the Homestead Bill as it was presented to Western voters. These arguments, although likely to appear in any speech favoring the bill, were largely Eastern in origin. The strongest appeal of the homestead system to the West, an appeal which touched the deepest levels of American experience in the nineteenth century, lay in the belief that it would enact by statute the fee-simple empire, the agrarian utopia of hardy and virtuous yeomen which had haunted the imaginations of writers about the West since the time of Crevecoeur. This theme Western representatives in the 1850's developed with a rhetoric which overlays but cannot entirely smother a real conviction. Besides Andrew Johnson, the pioneer agitator, the leading spokesmen for what was already becoming the older West were Representatives George W. Julian and Cyrus L. Dunham, of Indiana; and Galusha A. Grow, whose constituency in the upcountry of northern Pennsylvania had strong ties with the Ohio Valley. These men were intellectual heirs of Thomas
171 THE AGRARIAN UTOPIA
Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, whom they quoted as conclusive authorities on the nature of the American tradition. Grow had an especially close tie with the Jackson tradition through intimate association with the aging Benton during his first term in Congress.19
In view of the wide currency of the ideal of the yeoman society the question of these men's immediate sources is hard to settle, if indeed it is important. We need merely note that the time-honored themes of the agrarian tradition functioned with unimpaired vigor for such a man as Representative Julian in his speeches in favor of offering free land to settlers.
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Looking for something else?
QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
This is a way of recording information onto magnetic tape. It was used to record TV programs in the 1960s, and has been used in high-end tape-backup products. It's also the same technology used in digital audio tapes.
a. port scan
d. helical scan
e. Vera (Vision Electronic Recording Apparatus)
Were you correct? This week's answer is:
d. helical scan
Helical scan is a way of recording information onto magnetic tape. It was used to record TV programs in the 1960s, and has been used by several storage vendors (including IBM, Exabyte, StorageTek and others) in their high-end tape-backup products. It's also the same technology used in digital audio tapes (Digital Audio Tape).
Helical scan began in the VCR world and uses a spinning read/write head and diagonal tracks. But the recording and playback heads touch the tape, and an IBM scientist concluded in the mid-1990s that helical-scan cartridges can start to deteriorate after being used from 50 to 250 times. For this reason, IBM introduced its follow-on to helical scan in 1995. Called linear technology, it doesn't store as much data as helical scan but the heads don't touch the tape. Helical scan remains a viable option for high-capacity tape backup.
For more information:
Ask W. Curtis Preston your backup and recovery questions.
Talk with your peers in the new [email protected]!viewtype=&skip=&expand=>Backup and Recovery discussion forum.
Do you have an idea for a quiz question topic? Let us know! | <urn:uuid:ae812035-ce12-4263-91b1-c8594f8586c7> | {
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UNIX is a computer Operating System which is capable of handling activities from multiple users at the same time.
Unix was originated around in 1969 at AT&T Bell Labs by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. This tutorial gives a very good understanding on Unix.
This tutorial has been prepared for the beginners to help them understand the basic to advanced concepts covering Unix commands, UNIX shell scripting and various utilities.
We assume you have little knowledge about Operating System and its functionalities. A basic understanding on various computer concepts will also help you in understanding various exercises given in this tutorial.
Execute Unix Shell Programs
If you are willing to learn the Unix/Linux basic commands and shell script but you do not have a setup for the same, then do not worry. The compileonline.com is available on a high end dedicated server giving you real programming experience with a comfort of single click execution. Yes! it is absolutely free and its online.
1 - Unix Quick Reference Guide
A quick Unix reference guide for Unix System Users.
2 - Useful Unix Resources
A collection of Unix Sites, Books and Articles is given at this page.
3 - Unix Tools and Commands
Here you will find a useful Unix tools and commands which you will require very frequently while working with Unix System.
4 - Unix Tutorial in PDF
Download a quick Unix tutorial in PDF format. | <urn:uuid:b923eab8-e873-45f8-a5cd-7b88daecbe51> | {
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Part – 1 – Directives
Finally we are done with the D-Day and you have evaluated your answers from one of the most accurate answer keys provided on the Byju’s website. If the score is well above the expected cut off of 110(+/-3), then you are definitely in the safe zone and now it’s time to pull up your socks without getting lax. If Prelims was a battle then Mains is a war. So without any procrastination, it’s time to sharpen your mind and skills for what lies ahead.
The Mains examination is designed to gauge the overall intellectual quirks, depth of understanding with regard to the subject matter and the ability of an aspirant to critically analyse an issue/topic. The descriptive nature of this level tests one’s ability to present the answers in a clear, rational and concise manner.
Even before we venture out on how to practice answer writing, let’s get an in-depth understanding of the Directives which assists one to interpret a question and answer accordingly. A wide range of Directives are used in UPSC Mains General Studies and Optional question papers each year. Directives are general instructions that tell one what to do with the content words/task words to make the answer as relevant as possible. Let’s try to understand frequently used Directives with their clear meanings:
1) EVALUATE/CRITICALLY EVALUATE –
To evaluate is to come to a decision based on the overall analysis of the pros and cons backed by evidences. The word “Critically” is used when a fair judgement is demanded by the examiner. Critically evaluating a statement requires a person to be able to exercise their sense of reasoning and provide evidence both to support and repudiate a statement and to finally reach a conclusion.
Most common mistake that can be found here is most aspirants give only evidences to support the statement, thus leaving it incomplete and paving way for the examiner to partially grade the answer.
A) E-governance is the new mantra of governance in India and the world. Evaluate.
- Define e-governance
- Conclude the introduction by giving a hint that – all is not well with e-governance mode of governance.
- Briefly touch upon the success/positives of e-governance with some examples.
- However, bulk of your answer should evaluate the above statement. Primarily due to the fact that e-governance is value-neutral and sometimes not an inclusive model of governance, particularly in developing world.
- Focus on how e-governance systems can be made more inclusive.
- Conclude by saying that administration requires both men and machine. But, machines could replace men in areas where value questions or decision making is not very important.
B) The states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are reaching the limits of their ecological carrying capacity due to tourism. Critically Evaluate.
Introduction: The carrying capacity of a biological species in an environment is the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water, and other necessities available in the environment. The heavy rush of tourists into the ecologically sensitive Himalayan states of J&K, HP and UK during peak season has raised serious questions of ecological sustainability.
- Explain the ecological constraints of these states
- Explain how tourism is affecting their ecology
- Case study
- Graphs (if required)
- Steps to be taken to make tourism in these states eco-friendly.
- How tourism has become indispensable to the economy of these states.
- Conclusion should be balanced.
2) COMMENT/CRITICALLY COMMENT –
This is one of the most used directives in mains paper. Comment is a statement which expresses an opinion or reaction. It is important to pick out the main points/core and give ones opinion based on the information or the arguments originated from the reading. One should take a neutral ground and write facts and viewpoints.
As mentioned previously, the word “Critically” demands fair judgement and hence both the pros and cons are weighed. The opinion expressed may swing for or against but it should be backed by right evidences.
A) There should be zero tolerance to corruption, if ease of doing business has to make any noticeable progress. Comment from India’s perspective.
(Please note that comment basically is a detailed discussion, opening up a given topic)
- Define ease of doing business and India’s position
- There can be a statement like “empirical evidences have shown that ease of doing business is greatly impacted by issues of corruption, although factors external to corruption like – absence of citizen charters, shortfall in administrative personnel etc can determine ease of doing business.
- Explain how corruption impacts doing business.
- Explain how factors external to corruption dent ease of doing business.
- Use statistics, diagrams and case studies.
- Throw some light in steps taken to improve the ease of business scenario in India.
- Make new/possible suggestions to improve EODB.
- Make your concluding remarks – ideally, for this question – ‘ redressing corruption is a big factor in improving ease of doing business, but, ease of doing business has to do with lot other factors connected to ecology, economy, administration and the political and social culture.
3) DISCUSS/DISCUSS CRITICALLY
One of the most frequently used directives with a bland tone and possibly the trickiest term whose meaning varies according to the question. Discuss necessitates a debate where a reasoning is backed up with evidence to make a case for and against an argument and finally arriving at a conclusion. In simple terms an examiner expects one to discuss various perspectives and present a logical argument.
Questions which ask a candidate to “Discuss Critically” are broad based in nature and a UPSC examiner would expect the candidate to give out his own perspective with regard to the question. Also this directive expects one to discuss the points of criticism with regard to the concept.
A) Discuss the shortcomings of SAARC in achieving its objective of regional and economic integration.
- Start with the regional and economic objectives of SAARC.
- State how it has largely remained unfulfilled despite holding great promise.
- Bring out the hindrances and obstacles that are holding back progress with regard to seamless integration.
- Discuss trade barriers, bilateral incompatibility (especially Indo-Pak clashes due to terrorism), mutual distrust, poor connectivity and infrastructure etc.
- Highlight the achievements – SAFTA, SAARC University, SAARC food bank etc.
- Insulating the multi-lateral process from bi-lateral complications can help aid progress.
- Suggest a way out- use ASEAN model as a comparative guideline to resolve issues.
B) The frequency of earthquakes appears to have increased in the Indian subcontinent. However, India’s preparedness for mitigating their impact has significant gaps. Critically discuss various aspects.
- Discuss the causes and instances of increase in the frequency of earthquakes in the Indian subcontinent in brief and
- Proceed to critique India’s disaster management policy with regard to earthquakes.
- Bring out its loopholes, flawed implementation etc and at the same time balance it out by highlighting the positive changes and recent achievements in the field of earthquake preparedness, mitigation and rehabilitation.
- Back your critique with evidences and examples.
Conclusion: Suggest policy measures to improve disaster preparedness.
4) ANALYSE/CRITICALLY ANALYSE –
When a candidate is asked to Analyse, he/she is expected to break an issue into constituent parts and explain how these relate to one other and present as one summary.
On the other hand when asked to “Critically Analyse”, a candidate is supposed to provide a fair judgment and the other steps remain the same as Analyse.
A) There is a clear acknowledgement that Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are a tool of industrial development, manufacturing and exports. Recognizing this potential, the whole instrumentality of SEZs requires augmentation. Critically analyse the issues plaguing the success of SEZs with respect to taxation, governing laws and administration.
- Promise of an SEZ
- Broadly outline the problems they are facing
- Issues hampering the success of SEZ’s with respect to taxation(in detail)
- The income tax benefits were neutralized by the introduction of the minimum alternate tax (MAT) etc
- Issues with respect to governing laws and administration
- Complicated custom laws
- FTA free trade agreements
- The absence of complementary infrastructure outside the SEZs, like port connectivity, roads, train connectivity proved to be a dampener for manufacturing investments
- Export incentives were not extended too many sectors in SEZ’s whereas an export outside the SEZ’s enjoyed duty drawbacks and other incentives.
Conclusion: measures-how it could be improved, balanced view on SEZ’s with example of china.
5) EXAMINE/CRITICALLY EXAMINE –
The word “Examine” means to probe deeper into the topic and understand the topic in detail. Here a candidate is expected to investigate and establish the key facts and issues related to the question. In “Examine” you probe deeper than “Comment” and in “Analyse”, you probe deeper than in “Examine”.
ANALYSE > EXAMINE > COMMENT
“Critically Examine” throws light on the negatives and positives where an aspirant needs to examine both sides of an issue and come to a balanced conclusion.
A) Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata are the three mega cities of the country but the air pollution is much more serious problem in Delhi as compared to the other two. Examine.
The question wants us to examine the given statement. The statement already makes a conclusion that Delhi has more serious air pollution problem than Mumbai and Delhi. To examine we first need to present the issue in focus in detail and then proceed to reasoning finally concluding with a positive solution.
Paragraph 1: brief statement about air pollution in India, its severity and if possible India’s ranking in global air pollution index, ambient air quality index etc.
Paragraph 2: analysis of pollution in Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata
Paragraph 3: reasons why Delhi pollution is more than the other cities. It can contain the sources of pollution, geographical and climatic factors etc
Paragraph 4: problems due to pollution in Delhi
Paragraph 5: ways to tackle pollution in India with more focus on Delhi.
B) India is well endowed with fresh water resources. Critically examine why it still suffers from water scarcity.
The question wants us to critically examine water scarcity in India in spite of abundant fresh water.
Paragraph 1: importance of fresh water resources
Paragraph 2: present the details of abundant water resources stated in the question and its sources like rivers, lakes, groundwater, rainwater, glaciers etc
Paragraph 3, 4, 5: present the problems associated with conserving water leading to scarcity. Each source of water can be picked up and then problems associated with conserving that particular source of water can be stated. For example, problems associated with river water are pollution through industrial effluents, runoff into oceans, wetland destruction, developments on flood banks etc.
Paragraph 6: provide constructive solution to conserve fresh water resources.
6) ELUCIDATE –
Elucidate means to explain in detail/to make clear. When an examiner uses this directive, they present us with a cause- effect correlation. In such cases, a candidate has to bring out the connection more clearly by citing evidences and examples.
7) EXPLAIN –
Explain gives a clear account as to How/Why something happens. A candidate here is expected to clarify with relevant facts and implications.
Elucidate and Explain are self explanatory and previous examples gives a fair idea on how to structure the answer.
These are the most commonly used directives in mains repeated time and again. Some straight forward and obvious ones like “WHY?” “HOW?” show up a few times which demands a direct answer and no complications there.
P.S: This article is part 1 of the series on answer writing. Click here for part 2. | <urn:uuid:6d968902-c786-471b-a6ea-832cc43a8ea3> | {
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Water from space is 'raining' onto a planet-forming disc at supersonic speeds, new observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope reveal. The unprecedented detail of the observations at this early stage of the disc's formation could help reveal which of two competing theories of planet formation is correct.
Planets form when matter clumps together in swirling discs of gas and dust, called protoplanetary discs, around infant stars. But many details of how this works are still not known. For example, some scientists think giant planets can form in just a few thousand years, while others argue it takes millions of years.
Now, astronomers led by Dan Watson of the University of Rochester in New York, US, have gained an unprecedented view of a protoplanetary disc at the young age of just a few hundred thousand years old.
They used the Spitzer Space Telescope to examine the spectrum of infrared light coming from the vicinity of an embryonic star called IRAS 4B, which lies about 1000 light years from Earth.
At this very early stage, an outer cocoon of gas and dust called an envelope still surrounds the star and its swirling disc.
Previous observations in the microwave portion of the spectrum suggested that this large cocoon is contracting and sending material onto the disc. But the inner region, where the disc meets the cocoon, could not be seen at these wavelengths.
The Spitzer observations probe this inner region and reveal infrared light emitted by massive amounts of water vapour - the equivalent of five times the content of the Earth's oceans.
The vapour is too hot to be explained by the embryonic star's radiation alone, suggesting another process must be heating it up.
The team believes ice from the cocoon is pelting the disc at a rate faster than the speed of sound there, creating a shock front. "The sonic boom that it endures when it lands on the disc heats it up very efficiently" and vaporises it, Watson told New Scientist.
This supersonic shock "has been searched for and theorised about for decades", Watson says. It is a short-lived phenomenon that only occurs during the first few hundred thousand years of the star and disc formation, while the envelope is still feeding the disc.
The light emitted as the icy particles hit the disc can be used to learn more about the disc itself at this early stage, which could shed light on how planets form.
Most astronomers believe planets form according to a model known as "core accretion", in which small particles snowball into larger and larger objects over millions of years.
A competing idea, called "disc instability", is that turbulence in the disc can cause matter to collapse into planets extremely quickly, producing gas giants such as Jupiter in just a few thousand years.
"If you wanted to test between those scenarios, one of the most important places to look would be the stage we're looking at now," Watson says.
Future observations of such young discs could reveal how turbulent the discs are, and thus whether they boast the conditions required for disc instability, he says. "The whole subject of the very beginnings of the development of solar systems is open to study now," Watson says.
Donald Brownlee of the University of Washington in Seattle, US, agrees. "It's interesting to have a new peek into a period of history of what appears to be a forming planetary system, potentially at a timescale that we've never seen before," he told New Scientist. "It forms another important clue to how planetary systems form."
Journal reference: Nature (vol 448, p 1026)
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Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Mon Mar 19 19:02:04 GMT 2012 by Tony Marshallsay
Having been schooled in the theory of planet formation by agglomeration of dust particles over a period of thousands or millions of years, I have recently ceased believing in it for a number of reasons:
1. If agglomeration works so well, why has the Asteroid Belt not agglomerated to a planet?Of course, recent examination by spacecraft has revealed that, while some asteroids are solid, other "potatoes" are, indeed, agglomerates.
2. The agglomeration theory cannot easily - if at all - explain retrograde planetary spins
3. It is difficult to see how agglomeration and an exceedingly slow increase in self-gravity pressure could result in the creation of "rocky" planets like our Earth, with molten iron cores including heavier, radioactive elements to generate internal heating, since any heat generated by the compression process would be dissipated into space over such a long time, making fusion reactions extremely unlikely.
Accordingly, I have come to the opinion that planets of all types are formed initially not over an exceedingly long time but rather almost instantly as core shards of exploding supernovae.
This view, again, has several implications, viz:
A. Outer core shards consisting of light materials would likely be small, lose heat very quickly and cool into misshapes before being able to become spherical under self-gravity.
B. Inner core shards, on the other hand, would have sufficient thermal capacity and radioactive material to maintain heat long enough to develop a spherical shape and the composition of our Earth (we might thus consider the Earth to be a microcosm of a stellar core, albeit under far less heat and pressure).
C. The shards would be flung in all directions, resulting in the multitude of "free planets" recently observed by Japanese investigators.
D. Some of those free planets would inevitably - sooner or later - become trapped in the gravitational fields of stars, creating planetary systems, such as our own Solar System.
E. The inconsistencies of size and composition of the Solar System's planets can then easily be explained by considering the planets as having been captured "missiles" from various supernovae, perhaps even in other galaxies (do the math - it's possible, even at incredibly slow speeds, when you take a few billion years into consideration).
F. A "Gas Giant" can be formed by a heavy, rocky "seed" gathering a thick coat of gas through happening to have been ejected in the direction of a large gas cloud.
Opinions on the above are welcome (I am becoming accustomed to brickbats descending upon my head from a great height!).
All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
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Among the vast troves of scientific data and analysis threatened with deletion or exclusion by those who prefer to live in a fantasy world, we single out the below animation created by Jay Alder of the U.S, Geological survey, with its accompanying caption:
This animated spiral portrays the simulated changes in the global averaged monthly air temperature from 1850 through 2100 relative to the 1850 – 1900 average. The temperature data are from Community Climate System (CCSM4) global climate model maintained by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The simulation is for the IPCC Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) emission scenario. RCP8.5 is the most aggressive scenario in which green house gases continue to rise unchecked through the end of the century, leading to an equivalent of about 1370 ppm CO2, which is roughly four times the concentration at present. The CCSM4 simulation is part of the 5th Climate Model Intercomparison Program (CMIP5) and the data can be downloaded at https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/projects/cmip5/. The 21st century animations are an extension of the graphic (http://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/2016/spiralling-global-temperatures/) for the 1850-2010 observed air temperature created by E. Hawkins at Reading University, UK.
We are indebted to a DP correspondent for steering us to a second graphic death spiral, depicting changes in arctic sea ice volume:
And from our friends at Arctic News, we receive the following updated projection and analysis:
“Above forecast for February 6, 2017, shows that temperatures over parts of the Arctic Ocean will be as much as 30°C or 54°F higher than they were in 1979-2000. How can it be so much warmer in a place where, at this time of year, little or no sunlight is shining? The Arctic Ocean is warming particularly rapidly due to a multitude of feedbacks, some of which are illustrated on the image below.”
Feedback loops are accelerating, leaving very little wriggle room for alternative facts. At some point, the feedback spiral turns into a target for a species that will not be able to escape.
Finally, we note that building bunkers in faraway places has become fashionable among the “Future Forward” billionaires who would rather cut and run then face the implications of their various hubristic fantasies.
Former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong comments, “The tech preppers do not necessarily think a collapse is likely.They consider it a remote event, but one with a very severe downside, so, given how much money they have, spending a fraction of their net worth to hedge against this is a logical thing to do.” Oh my, how far the mighty shall fall…. | <urn:uuid:11c56db7-540a-468f-94e2-8b79855b4642> | {
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Creating Their Presentations
Today, we did an activity that I would have never thought I'd do with a group of Grade 1 and 2 students: we made Presentations on GoogleDocs. Since just before the March Break, we've been learning about feelings as part of a Character Education/literacy activity, so I thought it would be interesting for the students to create their own slideshows on "feelings." The students worked in partners to find appropriate images on Google Images, copy the links, and insert the pictures into their slideshows. Then they wrote sentences and/or captions about each of the feelings.
The activity itself does not seem that complicated, and it really wasn't, but it was the "searching" part of this activity that I was hesitant about. Our Board filters lots of Internet content, but when searching images, it's hard to know what's going to appear. Everything may not be appropriate. Can six- and seven-year-olds deal with this? Will they filter accordingly?
Today was the test, and my students did an outstanding job! The amazing part was sitting back and listening to them create their slideshows. They took this responsibility very seriously. They discussed what images to use, and they immediately let me know if they saw something inappropriate. The students also thought about the target audiences of this slideshow: their parents and the teacher. Even though some of the images were appropriate, I heard the students say that they wouldn't choose them because "Miss Dunsiger might not like them," or "this isn't something we do at school (fighting), so I shouldn't pick this picture." Wow! Today, all of the students showed me just how responsible they can be!
Below are the completed slideshows. I hope that you enjoy them! To help us with this feeling activity, I'd love if you would share what you do when you feel different ways. As I asked the students today: how can we behave our best even when we don't feel our best?
Thanks for your help with this activity! | <urn:uuid:9b22fc1a-fe9f-400b-8532-749d297df122> | {
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28 Apr 2016 - 29 Apr 2016 India Habitat Center, New Delhi
Recognizing the many significant services that ecosystems offer humanity, India has implemented multiple strategies to conserve critical ecosystems and stem the loss of biodiversity. However, even as scientific knowledge and management practices improve, ecosystems services across South Asia continue to steadily erode. Thus, we urgently need practical action that builds on evidence related to changes in ecosystem services, their implications for human well-being and management solutions that are effective.
In an effort to better understand the challenges associated with conserving ecosystem services, the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change, GIZ and SANDEE are jointly organizing a workshop on 'Valuing, Managing and Investing in Ecosystem Services in South Asia' on April 28th and 29th in New Delhi. This workshop builds on aresearch program on ‘the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB)' in India, co-organized by GIZ and the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change, Government of India, in 2014-15 on ecosystem services associated with wetlands, forests and marine and coastal systems. It also draws on research on ecosystems management by the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE).
The Delhi workshop will focus on key themes that are relevant to ecosystems management in South Asia: a) valuation and contributions of ecosystem services to livelihoods and human welfare; b) strategies that enable conservation of threatened ecosystem services; c) conflict and trade-offs among different stakeholders at multiple scales; and d) policy levers and instruments amenable to conserving ecosystem services.
Building on on-going research and dialogue on the value of ecosystem services, the objective of the Delhi workshop will be to share knowledge, identify policy lessons and examine the feasibility of converting research results to actionable management and policy changes at the local to national levels. The workshop will examine priorities to scale-up research results and identify key strategies that could make a difference on the ground. | <urn:uuid:2d214b5e-fabd-4eaa-b011-43e473cdbef3> | {
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"We want to know what issues are relevant in the long run," according to Martin Lohamm, Managing Director of the Institute for Tourism and Recreational Research in Northern Europe, N.I.T. in Kiel. Researchers circulated the notion that challenges are complex problems, for which there is usually no simple solution.
Together with the University of Lüneburg, Lohmann has been researching the challenges regarding global tourism. Lohmann with 22 other international researches, are provided in a Delphi study surveying the main challenges of tourism. However, referring from a total of 53 interviewed experts, very different opinions and views were raised. Lohmann summarized these variations of challenges together into four major issues.
The first challenge of global tourism expected to be confronted in the future is the continued globalization of supply and demand. "How to deal with it is a challenge for all destinations," Lohmann stated with conviction. Globalization is currently standing rapidly in conflict with environmental efforts. A region focused in tourism would want to attract more visitors and guests while at the same time connecting the objective with environmental preservation and awareness. For some countries, such as Austria, globalization is a more serious problem compared to its neighbors. Austria, living mainly with domestic and German tourists, compared to the already very international tourism in Switzerland.
The second major challenge is what Lohmann called "Costs and Benefits", which can be simplified in other words: What does the world really gain from tourism? Suppliers or providers of travel services should benefit from tourists by making money while the tourists or the customers should be able to relax and enjoy their stay with the money they spend. If there is no guarantee in this mutual interaction, tourism itself is superfluous. Lohmann sees a threat in the over-exploitation of the environment when opening for new spots or areas for recreation and tourism, and at the same time the prevention of such over-exploitation is depriving a country of its core tourism effect. "If the negative effects of promoting tourism is not under control, then tourism is in danger."
With new projects in tourism, one must always pose the question regarding the expected benefits for both the suppliers/providers/vendors and the guests.
As of today, tourism is expected to adapt to environmental factors. "Adaptation" is the third major challenge in global tourism development. For example, one must adapt to demographic change, such as the increasing number of aging workers in the labor force intensifies the competition of hiring younger workers.
The fourth challenge regarding global tourism is internal self-control. Among other things, the main factor regarding self-control is to avoid potential over-capacity. Lohmann used a cruise ship as an example for this challenge. As cruise ships increase in capacity, prices tend to fall as suppliers inside the ship undercut each other. A ruinous competition will lead to the survival of only a few suppliers or vendors that can manage the continuous increase in demand. According to Lohmann, "this is an unnecessary, painful process."
This study of Lohmann is only the beginning. Martin Lohmann believes that his research could contribute a lot to the proper response of tourism globalization as well as the natural environment. | <urn:uuid:f7dab16e-c6e3-404d-b54f-cfb2340ac0e8> | {
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West Antarctica warmed quickly (20,000 years ago)
Looking at how Antarctica melted in response to past climate change can help researchers better predict the ice sheet's future behavior.
Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 10:43 AM
West Antarctica Ice Sheet Divide project researcher stands in a snow pit next to an ice core with data from 68,000 years ago. (Photo: Kendrick Taylor/Desert Research Institute)
The modern meltdown of the Antarctic Ice Sheet mirrors the frozen continent's big thaw after the last ice age ended 20,000 years ago, a new study finds.
New ice core records from West Antarctica show the huge ice sheet started heating up about 20,000 to 22,000 years ago, 2,000 to 4,000 years earlier than previously thought. But in East Antarctica, which was higher in elevation, colder and drier than the West, the continent stayed in its deep-freeze cycle until 18,000 years ago. The results were published on Aug. 14 in the journal Nature.
The mismatch between West and East is similar to today's Antarctica. Modern West Antarctica is one of the fastest-warming places on the planet. The middle of West Antarctica has warmed by 4.4 degrees Fahrenheit (2.4 degrees Celsius) since 1958, three times as fast as the overall rate of global warming. But relatively little warming — half a degree or less — has been measured in East Antarctica. [In Photos: Stunning Photos of Antarctic Ice]
Looking at how Antarctica melted in response to past climate change can help researchers better predict the ice sheet's future behavior, said lead study author T.J. Fudge, a doctoral student at the University of Washington. "This most recent deglacial warming is the spot in time we can look at to really understand how our climate goes through big changes," Fudge told LiveScience.
The study is based on an ice core more than 2 miles (3,405 meters) long, covering 68,000 years, the longest U.S. ice core ever drilled. The five-year effort to retrieve the core ended in December 2011. Scientists are only halfway through the ice, having analyzed 30,000 years’ worth of annual layers, according to a statement from the University of Washington.
The authors — a consortium of 42 researchers signed off on the study — suggest that 20,000 years ago, warming in the Southern Ocean melted sea ice around Antarctica. The missing ice meant more storms traveled inland, boosting West Antarctica's warming.
"West Antarctica is influenced by the ocean much more than the ice up high in East Antarctica, so you are able to see this [warming] happening before you notice it in East Antarctica," Fudge said. "We're seeing something similar in the modern climate, where West Antarctica seems to be changing more quickly."
The findings also resolve a long-standing problem: The timing of polar melting when the ice age ended. Based on earlier ice core records, mainly from East Antarctica, researchers had thought Antarctica warmed up 18,000 years ago, about 2,000 years after the Northern Hemisphere had warmed. Climate modelers sought to explain the delay through shutdowns in ocean currents (which help carry heat across the globe), among other factors.
Now, the warming in West Antarctica matches the onset of warming in the Northern Hemisphere, also pegged at 20,000 years ago.
Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.
Related on LiveScience and MNN: | <urn:uuid:b7664c94-c14d-4086-a48e-1c164e0f7e22> | {
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Big performance gains are already well in hand for the class of materials called composites in which one type of material is reinforced by particles, fibers, or plates of another type. Among the first engineered composites was fiberglass, developed in the 1930s. Made by embedding glass fibers in a polymer matrix, it found use in building panels, bathtubs, boat hulls, and other marine products. Since then, many metals, polymers, and ceramics have been exploited as both matrix and reinforcement. In the 1960s, for instance, the U.S. Air Force began seeking a material that would be superior to aluminum for some aircraft parts. Boron had the desired qualities of lightness and strength, but it wasn't easily formed. The solution was to turn it into a fiber that was run through strips of epoxy tape; when laid in a mold and subjected to heat and pressure, the strips yielded strong, lightweight solids—a tail section for the F-14 fighter jet, for one. While an elegant solution, boron fibers were too expensive to find wide use, highlighting the critical interplay between cost and performance that drives materials applications.
Many composites are strengthened by graphite fibers. They may be embedded in a matrix of graphite to produce a highly heat-resistant material—the lining for aircraft brakes, for example—or the matrix can be an epoxy, as with composite shafts for golf clubs or frames for tennis rackets. Other sorts of composites abound in the sports world. Skis can be reinforced with Kevlar fibers; the handlebars of some lightweight racing bikes are made of aluminum reinforced with aluminum oxide particles. Ceramic-matrix composites find use in a variety of hostile environments, ranging from outer space to the innards of an automobile engine.
Tens of thousands of materials are now available for various engineering purposes, and new ones are constantly being created. Sometimes the effort is grandly scaled—measured in vast tonnages of a metal or polymer, for instance—but many a recent triumph is rooted in exquisite precision and control. This is especially the case in the amazing realm of electronics, built on combinations of metals, semiconductors, and oxides in miniaturized geometries—the fingernail-sized microchips of computers or CD players, the tiny lasers and threadlike optical fibers of communications networks, the magnetic particles dispersed on discs and other surfaces to record digital data. Making transistors, for example, begins with the growing of flawless crystals of silicon, since the electrical properties of the semiconductor are sensitive to minuscule amounts of impurities (in some cases, just one atom in a million or less) and to tiny imperfections in their crystalline structure. Similarly, optical fibers are composed of silica glass so pure that if the Pacific Ocean were made of the same material, an observer on the surface would have no difficulty seeing details on the bottom miles below. Such stuff is transforming our lives as dramatically as steel once did, and engineering at the molecular level of matter promises much more of the same. | <urn:uuid:4a6af288-1d96-401c-baab-cb78530c092d> | {
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Chronic Pain and the Brain
The brains of chronic pain patients fail to maintain the state of “activity equilibrium” seen in healthy patients. New research has demonstrated that a key emotional control center in the frontal lobe remains active constantly in chronic pain, while in pain-free patients it shuts down in order for other areas of the brain to function adequately.
Researchers compared functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans of chronic pain patients to healthy controls. The healthy patients showed decreased function of a specific area in the frontal cortex while performing simple tasks. The chronic pain patients, however, performed the task equally well but with constant activity in this frontal lobe emotional center.
It is normal for the brain to shut off one area while another is being used. This allows nutrients and oxygen to be efficiently delivered to the part of the brain whose activity is most important, and allows neurons to rest from their normal excitatory state. When areas of the brain become constitutively active, as seen in the brains of chronic pain patients in this study, the abnormal activity may produce a variety of unwanted effects. Overactive cells may “steal” energy that would otherwise supply different parts of the brain; they may also alter their connections with other neurons or may “burn out” and die from over-excitation.
Chronic pain patients frequently suffer from a variety of concomitant health problems, including depression, anxiety and insomnia. This research may help us to understand the underlying factors that allow chronic pain to produce these symptoms. It may be that hyperactivity of this emotional center in the frontal cortex results in altered emotional response to a variety of normal life occurrences.
Understanding the effects of chronic pain on brain function will hopefully aid in the treatment of the emotional and psychological symptoms that many patients experience, and may provide insight into the underlying mechanisms of the pain and its consequences.
- The Broken Mirror
- Surprising Role of Prions in Neurodegenerative Diseases
- Why Can’t We Stop Eating? | <urn:uuid:85b90edc-1669-4915-9e29-9747d5ac37f5> | {
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In children, limb length discrepancies and deformity commonly arise from birth defects (congenital) or after trauma. Congenital conditions include fibular hemimelia, congenital bowing of the tibia, congenital short femur, hemiatrophy or hemihypertrophy. Russel Silver Syndrome is another condition that leads to limb length discrepancies.
Trauma can also lead to limb shortening and deformity from either malunion or stunted growth at an injured growth plate. While bowleg and knock-knee deformities can arise after trauma, they can also be related to Blount's disease or Ellis van Creveld syndrome.
Dwarfism such as achondroplasia leads to short stature, limb deformity, and functional limitations.
Drs. Rozbruch and Fragomen perform advanced surgical techniques that reliably equalize limb length, correct deformities, and even increase stature in select conditions. | <urn:uuid:e63b7cb0-9ec8-4cad-9406-2956ec0f6200> | {
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A few words from the 18th century to entertain and amuse.
Noodle- A silly, naive person. The next time you call a person a noodle I guarantee you will get a very strange look.
Nicknackery- A petty contrivance or trick. I like this word. It's fun to say and I bet no one will know what you mean.
Cripple- A swamp. OK then....Definitions have really changed over the years.
Crowdy- A thick oatmeal. This sure does NOT sound appetizing and I think children would cringe upon hearing they were having crowdy for breakfast.
Slur- To conceal. I can kind of see this one.
Valetudinary- Sickly or weak. Boy if you use this one you will sound quite well educated.
Go forth and have fun and dazzle your friends.
P.S. The phrase "tickle your fancy" came from England from around the 1750's. | <urn:uuid:72433de7-bfeb-465f-92fa-66941cdcb436> | {
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Deep-sea exploration is the investigation of physical, chemical, and biological conditions on the sea bed, for scientific or commercial purposes. Deep-sea exploration is considered as a relatively recent human activity compared to the other areas of geophysical research, as the depths of the sea have been investigated only during comparatively recent years. The ocean depths still remain as a largely unexplored part of the planet, and form a relatively undiscovered domain.
In general, modern scientific Deep-sea exploration can be said to have begun when French scientist Pierre Simon de Laplace investigated the average depth of the Atlantic ocean by observing tidal motions registered on Brazilian and African coasts. He calculated the depth to be 3,962 m (13,000ft), a value later proven quite accurate by soundings measurement. Later on, with increasing demand for submarine cables installment, accurate soundings was required and the first investigations of the sea bottom were undertaken. First deep-sea life forms were discovered in 1864 when Norwegian researchers obtained a sample of a stalked crinoid at a depth of 3,109 m (10,200ft). The British Government sent out the Challenger expedition (a ship called the HMS Challenger) in 1872 which discovered 715 new genera and 4,417 new species of marine organisms over the space of 4 years.
Humans first acquired knowledge of the waves and currents of the seas and oceans in pre-historic times. Observations on tides were recorded by Aristotle and Strabo. Early exploration of the oceans was primarily for cartography and mainly limited to its surfaces and of the animals that fishermen brought up in nets, though depth soundings by lead line were taken. | <urn:uuid:ff60f424-f522-4192-a7bb-324cf370afb8> | {
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In the daily rush of modern life it can be hard to find time to care for yourself, and this includes taking appropriate care of your smile. Brushing and flossing your teeth properly each day is vital to avoiding tooth decay and toothaches. Mindfulness is good for your health, and there’s no reason that shouldn’t include your dental hygiene routine. What follows is an mindfulness exercise for caring for your teeth. Think of it like a guided meditation for your smile!
At the end of this 4 minute exercise, you should feel calm and content that you have taken proper care of your oral health.
Start by choosing a calm, isolated space. For most people this is the bathroom. If there are other people in your home that are being noisy or distracting, you should close the door.
First Minute – Flossing
Measure out your floss. You should use about 1.5 feet (45 cm) of floss to ensure that you have room to grip it while also not using the same length of floss throughout your mouth. Using a fresh part of the floss each time you move between teeth helps prevent the bacteria that cause tooth decay from spreading.
Holding the floss with your fingers a few inches apart, gentle wiggle the floss between your teeth. Curve the floss in a C-shape around each tooth and slowly move the floss up and down, all the way to the gumline and back. Your gums may start to tingle from the movement of the floss. Concentrate on this feeling as a massage for your gums, with the floss as a skillful massage therapist, soothing trouble spots and cleansing you of bad energy. When each tooth has gotten equal attention, discard your floss.
Second & Third Minute – Brushing
Next, select your toothbrush and carefully apply toothpaste. At this point, start counting in your head. Start with your top teeth and spend 30 seconds on the front of your teeth and the biting surfaces. Hold your toothbrush so the bristles are at a 45 degree angle to your teeth. This ensures that the brush sweeps against the gumline, where plaque and debris tend to accumulate.
Spend the next 30 seconds on the inside (tongue-side) surfaces of your teeth. To best reach this side, tilt your brush vertically and make several up and down strokes on each tooth. After 60 seconds total has passed, move on to your bottom teeth, repeating the process above in two more 30-second intervals.
As you brush, imagine your teeth becoming whiter and smoother. With each stroke, you are loosening and sweeping away sticky yellow plaque and revealing the gleaming surfaces of your pearly whites.
Next, open your mouth wide and gently sweep your brush from the back to the front of your tongue. If you have a tongue scraper tool, use that instead of your toothbrush. This liberates food particles and the bacteria that can cause bad breath and tooth decay from the bumpy surface of your tongue.
Fourth Minute – Rinsing
Finally, rinse your mouth. This is a good time to start a breathing exercise. As you swish either water or your mouthwash, breathe slowly and deeply through your nose. Try inhaling for 3 seconds and exhaling for 3 seconds. After you’ve swished for the amount of time recommended on your mouthwash (usually about 30 seconds), spit it out the rinse.
Run your tongue around your teeth, enjoying their cleanliness. Take a deep breath, paying special attention to the fresh sensation of your breath. Take a moment to smile, knowing you’ve taken excellent care of your smile. | <urn:uuid:e7e45f57-86cf-45b8-869f-79a0c40b1f4a> | {
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A general strike can be one of the most potent noncooperation methods in the repertoire of nonviolent resistance. It is a widespread cessation of labor in an effort to bring all economic activity to a total standstill. Although it is easy to broadcast the call for a general strike, it is exceedingly difficult to implement for the maximal impact that it potentially exerts. What’s more, a general strike must be called prudently, because it loses its effectiveness if weakly executed.
The Occupy movement’s calls for a general strike in the United States on May 1 make me think of an instance in which a general strike was brilliantly carried out and with great effect, in Czechoslovakia in 1989 — for only two hours.
For years beforehand, the sharing of subversive literature, drama and ideas against the communist regime had been occurring in Czechoslovakia, virtually unseen. In fact, historian Theodore Ziółkowski reminds us that “almost from the moment when the Soviet empire, after Yalta, swallowed up the nations of Eastern Europe, the fight against Communism began.” Thousands of clandestine samizdat (Russian for self-published) publications had been manually typed on onion skin with carbon paper, read, passed from hand to hand and circulated sub rosa. Incarcerated authors and dramatists worked intensively in contemplation and planning from their prison cells. While building strong networks among these civil society organizations in formation, Czechoslovaks considered how to withdraw their cooperation from the communist party-state, and thereby bend it to the popular will.
On November 17, 1989, in Czechoslovakia’s capital, Prague, police brutally interrupted a student demonstration. In response, the Czechoslovak people undertook what came to be known as the Ten Days, as I have recounted in more detail elsewhere. Events seemed to unfold instantaneously, but anyone who has studied nonviolent struggles knows otherwise. Aided by Radio Free Europe and labor unions, Prague’s theatrical circles would become catalytic in organizing a massive national resistance, including major demonstrations against the procedures of the regime. Citizens were emboldened by listening to Radio Free Europe and reading samizdat, and were thus aware of the popular national nonviolent mobilizations already underway in Poland, Hungary and East Germany. The Czechoslovaks also benefited from a more enlightened Soviet policy than during the crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968. These relative advantages, and the caliber of leadership emanating from the playwrights and thinkers in theatrical circles, meant that the Czechoslovaks would be able to bring about their 1989 Velvet Revolution with astounding haste and effectiveness, a key element of which was the breadth of participation in a general strike.
Overnight on November 17 — Day One — and into November 18, students became determined to go on strike. They spread word to Prague’s Charles University and other colleges and universities. Although students were the first to call for strikes, by Saturday afternoon the denizens of Prague’s famous theaters had declared their support and were proposing a national general strike for November 27. The students straight away endorsed the proposed general strike and for six weeks would persist in striking on their own, to a great extent backed up by similar noncooperation measures by actors and dramatists. As the students published releases announcing their strikes, the theatrical managers and actors circulated theirs, while Radio Free Europe broadcast texts transmitted by telephone. Official media, having long toed the government line, condemned the officials’ violence of November 17. Employees at television stations denounced biased coverage and disputed untruthful news reports. Broadcasts of the first photographic images of the Prague demonstrations proved to be critical because they disclosed to thousands what was happening in their own country.
On Day Three — Sunday, November 19 — a crowd of 200,000 gathered in Prague for a demonstration to protest the police brutality against the students. That night a citizens’ pro-democracy organization called the Civic Forum (Občanské Fórum) emerged, many of whose members had been persistent critics of the party-state. Over the following three days, throngs occupied Prague. Tens of thousands of young people and students took over Wenceslas Square, carrying flags and chanting slogans: “Freedom,” “Resign,” “Now’s the Time” and “This Is It.”
With playwright Václav Havel as the guiding light, Prague’s Magic Lantern Theater became the nerve center of the Civic Forum, in part because of its proximity to Wenceslas Square. Its wardrobes and changing rooms were assigned to committees, and Havel became the author and mediator for the Civic Forum’s statements and positions. Throughout the Velvet Revolution, the forum would act as the speaker for the Czechoslovak people, while coordinating the collective nonviolent actions of the broad opposition. The Civic Forum encompassed most perspectives and sentiments of opposition, and included some reform-minded communists. A Slovak group, Public Against Violence, acted as partner to the forum.
Prague’s theaters were perfect for hearty political debate. Instead of the curtain rising on productions, the actors would lead audiences in discussions of the situation. Signs instantly appeared in theaters across the country reading “We Strike” or “On Strike,” rousing unity because of the popular esteem for the dramatic arts. Theaters in Bratislava, Brno and Ostrava went on strike the next day. Wherever actors and dramatists gathered, they joined the noncooperation.
On Tuesday, November 21 — Day Five — the Civic Forum and student representatives met officially with Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec, who guaranteed that no violence would be administered against Czechoslovak citizens. The government announced that “socialism was not up for discussion,” but no one missed the meaning of such a meeting in the midst of mounting popular defiance. In Wenceslas Square in Prague and in Hviedoslav Square in Bratislava, mass demonstrations ratified calls for a general strike on November 27. Václav Havel addressed the multitude as the exemplar of the Civic Forum, his speech blunter and less courtly than usual. When he and the respected banned priest Václav Malý spoke, the crowd could hear every word, because rock groups had lent huge amplifiers. A message from the Roman Catholic František Cardinal Tomášek declared, “We cannot wait any more,” stressing that Czechoslovakia was surrounded by countries that “had broken the back of totalitarianism,” referring to Poland, Hungary, and East Germany. Bells rang. One journalist reported 200,000 sets of key rings unforgettably jangling. Throngs chanted “Today Prague, tomorrow the whole country!” and “Time’s up!” Striking students held sit-ins at institutions of higher learning throughout Prague.
On Wednesday, November 22 — Day Six — the Civic Forum formally announced a two-hour general strike for Monday, November 27. The forum and its partner, Public Against Violence, sought an incapacitating general strike with the participation of virtually every citizen to exert sufficient pressure on the government to accelerate a rapid, nonviolent transition of power. A general strike could reduce the threat of reprisals among large numbers of participants, yet many were ambivalent about hurting an already stagnating economy. By limiting the strike to two hours, the effect of a general strike would be wielded while minimizing harm to the economy.
Coal miners in northern Bohemia announced that they would join the work stoppage, but no one knew to what extent laborers in the country’s smokestack industries would join the growing noncooperation action. By Thursday, November 23 — Day Seven — Wenceslas Square saw more than 300,000 marching. The party-state started to split and divide. The ministry of defense that day announced that the Czechoslovak military forces would not be deployed against Czech and Slovak peoples. The Civic Forum issued a statement renewing commitment to a Czechoslovak tradition: “We are against violence and do not seek revenge.”
Striking students insistent on free elections and a change in government then sent hundreds of their numbers into the countryside to visit industrial plants and talk with workers, enlisting their involvement in the general strike. The government raised calamitous warnings of economic breakdown and tried in other ways to frighten the workforce not to join the general strike. Reporters who traveled to machinery works encountered busloads of communist militia members blocking the students from contacting the laborers and sharing handouts. The Reverend Václav Malý, now a spokesperson for the Civic Forum, proclaimed that workers at more than 500 enterprises had pledged to strike.
On Saturday, November 25 — Day Nine — the Civic Forum pronounced the upcoming national general strike as a “referendum” on communist rule. In Prague, 800,000 marched; in Bratislava 100,000 demonstrated. On national television, with Havel announcing that the planned November 27 national general strike would proceed, the forum had become the rudder for the nationwide preparations for the two-hour strike action. The forum encompassed virtually the entire Czechoslovak opposition to the party-state, served as the representative for the Czechoslovak public, coordinated the opposition’s civil resistance and had become a national voice. Comporting itself in a sensible, ethical and deliberately open manner — if a slightly chaotic one — the Civic Forum called its program “What We Want” and concentrated on civil and human rights, a free and independent judiciary, multiparty electoral democracy and political pluralism, economic and free-market reforms, and alterations to the nation’s environmental and foreign policies.
Roughly 6,000 strike committees were at work preparing to bring all economic activity to a halt. As midday approached on Monday, November 27, the population stopped functioning as church bells rang. Minutes before noon, a television broadcaster stated that he was joining the strike and would go off the air. Taxi drivers aligned themselves so as to block Prague’s ring road with a two-mile succession of cabs. This elegantly executed national noncooperation action lasted from noon until two o’clock — during lunchtime, so as not to endanger jobs. The colossal industrial strike reflected no divisions between classes, as laborers, workers of all skills, intellectuals, academicians, students, artist and theatrical personnel together orchestrated the nationwide general strike.
This countrywide, successful act of noncooperation brought the Civic Forum and the government into discussions that would soon lead to a peaceful democratic transition of power. The party-state began to yield. The Civic Forum and the government began discussions. The “leading role” of the communist party, protected in a constitutional clause, was formally rescinded. On December 29, 1989, the Federal Assembly, the communist-dominated national legislature, unanimously elected Havel as president.
The artists, playwrights, academicians, priests and activist intellectuals wanted genuinely revolutionary change that would transform Czechoslovakia permanently and construct a resilient democracy. Years of prudently building the strength of civil society had culminated in the ability to mount a memorable and effective national general strike. With the united voices of the Civic Forum and Public Against Violence, the people had brought about an expeditious transition of power. Czech educator Jan Urban explains the logic of those who were coordinating Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution: “[F]rom the first moment, we wanted to be aggressively nonviolent in our stance — to make a power of our lack of weapons.” He summarized, “In the course of one week, in November 1989, Winter blossomed into Spring in Czechoslovakia. A nonviolent mass movement … triumphed … in transition from the negation of the old to the building of the new.”
This story was made possible by our members. Become one today. | <urn:uuid:b9414f8f-cf53-477d-91b6-23a312c790f1> | {
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COOLIDGE, Ariz. — The four-story Casa Grande Ruins, the hand-built centerpiece of a prehistoric Hohokam Indian village, have baked under Arizona's desert sun and withstood its rains for perhaps seven centuries.
But now, even as the ruin made of concrete-like clay becomes an island surrounded by urban development, those walls face an unlikely threat from the air and ground: birds and squirrels.
Cooing pigeons roost in round holes that once held the stout wooden ceiling and floor beams, which were hauled at least 30 miles from the nearest mountaintops.
The birds peck at the hardened clay and foul the ruins with droppings, while underground burrows dug by the native ground squirrels hold water that undermines some of the low-lying perimeter walls in the compound surrounding the Great House.
Officials at the ruins 60 miles south of Phoenix are pondering ways to cope with the threats and minimize further degradation of the nation's first archeological preserve and one of its first national monuments.
"It's serious if we don't deal with it right now," said Paige Baker, the monument's superintendent.
If not addressed, Baker said, "Then we'll see this building start to deteriorate. If water gets underneath and starts to settle, and there's some holes right there ... that's a real issue."
"The birds are at least equal to the problem and the threat that we're having with the ground squirrels," said Carol West, chief ranger at the monument operated by the National Park Service.
Primarily pigeons, but also finches, starlings and other migratory birds have been attracted to the area by ample open feed available at nearby cattle feedlots, dairy and other farm operations.
"So the community's feeding them and then we have this absolutely fabulous place for them to sleep and nest," West said.
At least a few dozen pigeons have adopted the Casa Grande, or Great House, for their home, and in migratory periods, starlings can number in the hundreds -- despite the presence of a great horned owl in the canopy's rafters.
"Their droppings are pretty bad, but worse than that, they enlarge the cracks and the already existing holes in the walls in order to roost and nest," West said of the pigeons.
A giant metal canopy has kept rainwater from pooling under the walls of the now-roofless Casa Grande since 1932.
The canopy helped with long-term preservation of the house "but it provided just the perfect harbor for birds, and now they just love it and they're causing all kinds of trouble," West said.
Volunteers collect two or three gallons of debris weekly from inside the structure, looking for droppings and loosened clay to quantify how much material is being lost from the walls, West said. "It's not difficult to imagine how, at that rate, it's accelerating deterioration of the building."
The squirrels have dug scores of tunnels in the open compound surrounding the main structure and countless passages beneath much of the 472-acre complex, which is walled or fenced off from Coolidge on three sides.
The problem, West said, is that in many places, rainwater has collected in the critters' burrows beneath berm-like perimeter walls. "That standing water's the worst thing that could happen to caliche, because it'll soften it up and it will be more pliable," she said.
The squirrel problem has been noted before, including in the early 1970s.
A University of Arizona researcher reported in August that she had caught and tagged 135 adult squirrels and 55 juveniles in a small portion of the monument.
The squirrel population has swelled to the thousands in large part because, with development on the monument's perimeters, "we're cut off from the natural ecosystem that did exist," Baker said.
Large predators that once dined on squirrels are gone, the superintendent said. Only an occasional coyote still wanders through the park. Badgers, foxes and mountain lions are gone.
The vegetation also has changed: Mesquite has given way to creosote, a desert plant that the squirrels love.
Even hawks and other predatory birds come looking for squirrels less frequently; development has "affected those migration patterns or impacted their interest in looking for prey around here," Baker said.
A Wal-Mart and a Safeway strip mall sit to the east, across Arizona 87. Irrigation canals have been in place for years on the south and northwest.
Now, about 1,700 homes are planned to the west on the 489-acre Cross Creek Ranch planned development, said Sue Laybourn, senior planner for the city of Coolidge.
Baker is checking research for possible solutions to the squirrel and bird troubles.
Whatever action is taken must address the squirrels, as well as the pigeons, he said, to assure that the rest of the community is acting together to address the concerns.
Finding a solution won't be easy, but Baker believes it can be addressed.
Trapping would be overwhelming, given the number of squirrels, while poisoning has problems on several levels.
"The reason why we're here also is to protect animals, not destroy them, so that's part of the challenge. How do we do this in some manner that protects the Great House and at the same time protects the ecosystem?" Baker said.
Then too, he said, "If you destroy one species, what are the impacts of that with other species around?" | <urn:uuid:ce8a29bc-176b-4004-bdee-1f87ea12130d> | {
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Presentation on theme: "Chapter 1: Thinking critically with psychological science"— Presentation transcript:
1 Chapter 1: Thinking critically with psychological science Introduction
2 Fact or FalsehoodHuman intuition is remarkable accurate and free from error.Most people seem to lack confidence in the accuracy of their beliefs.Case studies are particularly useful because of the similarities we all share.We tend to overestimate the number of people who share our attitudes and beliefs.The opinions of 1500 randomly selected people can provide a very accurate picture of the opinions of an entire nation.
3 Fact or FalsehoodThe scientific finding that children who watch violence on television tend to be violent proves that viewing violence causes it.Listening to a tape with a subliminal message suggesting that you have a good memory can actually help improve your memory.The purpose of the experiment is to re-create behaviors exactly as they occur in everyday life.An analysis of the research indicates that psychologists have sometimes unnecessarily caused extreme pain to animals.As a science, psychology is objective and value-free.
4 Fact or FalsehoodNow at the top of your paper, predict how many you think you got correct.
5 Fact or FalsehoodHuman intuition is remarkable accurate and free from error.Most people seem to lack confidence in the accuracy of their beliefs.Case studies are particularly useful because of the similarities we all share.We tend to overestimate the number of people who share our attitudes and beliefs.The opinions of 1500 randomly selected people can provide a very accurate picture of the opinions of an entire nation.FalseFalseFalseTrueTrue
6 Fact or FalsehoodThe scientific finding that children who watch violence on television tend to be violent proves that viewing violence causes it.Listening to a tape with a subliminal message suggesting that you have a good memory can actually help improve your memory.The purpose of the experiment is to re-create behaviors exactly as they occur in everyday life.An analysis of the research indicates that psychologists have sometimes unnecessarily caused extreme pain to animals.As a science, psychology is objective and value-free.FalseFalseFalseFalseFalse
8 Why do we have to learn this stuff? Psychology is first and foremost a science. Thus it is based in research.Before we delve into how to do research, you should be aware of three hurdles that tend to skew our logic.
9 I KNEW IT ALL ALONG Hindsight Bias The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that you knew it all along.I KNEW IT ALL ALONG
10 Overconfidence We tend to think we know more than we do. 82% of U.S. drivers consider themselves to be in the top 30% of their group in terms of safety.81% of new business owners felt they had an excellent chance of their businesses succeeding. When asked about the success of their peers, the answer was only 39%. (Now that's overconfidence!!!)
11 Overconfidence Here are some examples of overconfidence among experts. There is no reason for anyone to have a computer in their home. (Ken Olsen, president of Digital Equipment Company, 1977)Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. (Lord Kelvin, British mathematician, physicist, and president of the British Royal Society, 1895)A severe depression like that of is outside the range of probability. (Harvard Economic Society, Weekly Letter, November 16, 1929)Man will never reach the moon, regardless of all future scientific advances. (Lee DeForest, inventor of the vacuum tube, 1957)Nuclear powered vacuum cleaner will probably be a reality within 10 years. (Alex Lewyt, manufactures of vacuum cleaners, 1955)
12 Overconfidence Compare your score to your predicted score. By raise of hands, how many over predicted your score?Overconfidence is a powerful phenomenon.Overconfidence stems partly from our tendency to search for information that confirms our preconceptions.
13 The Barnum EffectIt is the tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate.
14 Impression of Psychology With hopes of satisfying curiosity, many people listen to talk-radio counselors and psychics to learn about others and themselves.Dr. Crane (radio-shrink)Psychic (Ball gazing)
15 Demonstration Glass of water and paperclips. The limits of Intuition and Common SenseCounter to human intuition, water has a high surface tension, behaving as though is has a flexible skin. That skin pulls inward and resists breaking. The glass of water will develop a great bulge before the water flows over the edge.
16 Thinking Critically with Psychological Science The Need for Psychological ScienceThe limits of Intuition and Common SenseMany people believe that intuition and common sense are enough to bring forth answers regarding human nature.Intuition and common sense may aid queries, but they are not free of error.The Scientific AttitudeThe Scientific Method
17 Scientific AttitudeHow do we overcome the limits of our intuition, hindsight bias, and overconfidence?The scientific attitude is composed of curiosity (passion for exploration), skepticism (doubting and questioning) and humility (ability to accept responsibility when wrong).
18 The Need for Psychological Science Critical Thinkingthinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusionsexamines assumptionsdiscerns hidden valuesevaluates evidenceThe Amazing Randi--Skeptic
19 Ch 1: thinking critically with psychological science Research Methods
20 Applied V. Basic Research Applied Research has clear, practical applications.YOU CAN USE IT!!!Basic Research explores questions that you may be curious about, but not intended to be immediately used.Studying how kissing changes when you get older is interesting…but that’s about it.
22 For example, low self-esteem contributes to depression. TheoryA Theory is an explanation that integrates principles and organizes and predicts behavior or events.For example, low self-esteem contributes to depression.If we were to observe that depressed people talk about their past, present, and future in a gloomy manner, we may theorize that low-self-esteem contributes to depression.Psychology 7e in Modules
23 People with low self-esteem are apt to feel more depressed. HypothesisExpresses a relationship between two variables.A variable is anything that can vary among participants in a study.Participating in class leads to better grades than not participating.BOOKA Hypothesis is a testable prediction, often prompted by a theory, to enable us to accept, reject or revise the theory.People with low self-esteem are apt to feel more depressed.
24 Experimental Method Looking to prove causal relationships. Cause = EffectLaboratory v. Field ExperimentsSmoking causes health issues.
25 Independent Variable Whatever is being manipulated in the experiment. Hopefully the independent variable brings about change.If there is a drug in an experiment, the drug is almost always the independent variable.
26 Dependent Variable Whatever is being measured in the experiment. It is dependent on the independent variable.The dependent variable would be the effect of the drug.
27 Operational Definitions Explain what you mean in your hypothesis.How will the variables be measured in “real life” terms.How you operationalize the variables will tell us if the study is valid and reliable.Let’s say your hypothesis is that chocolate causes violent behavior.What do you mean by chocolate?What do you mean by violent behavior?
28 Sampling Identify the population you want to study. The sample must be representative of the population you want to study.GET A RANDOM SAMPLE.
29 Beware of Confounding Variables The object of an experiment is to prove that A causes B.A confounding variable is anything that could cause change in B, that is not A.If I wanted to prove that smoking causes heart issues, what are some confounding variables?Lifestyle and family history may also effect the heart.
30 Random AssignmentOnce you have a random sample, randomly assigning them into two groups helps control for confounding variables.Experimental Group v. Control Group.Group Matching
31 Hawthorne Effect But even the control group may experience changes. Just the fact that you know you are in an experiment can cause change.Whether the lights were brighter or dimmer, production went up in the Hawthorne electric plant.
32 Experimenter Bias Another confounding variable. Not a conscious act. Double-Blind Procedure.
33 Other Confounding Variables Placebo effectOrder Effects
34 Participant BiasTendency of research subjects to respond in certain ways because they know they are being observedThe subjects might try to behave in ways they believe the researcher wants them to behaveCan be reduced by naturalistic observation | <urn:uuid:07eb2041-5848-4e22-8a92-f22bbfbd4273> | {
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The Chinese In Pre-Columbian Mexico
By Bill Mesusan
As the 21st century evolves into “The Chinese Century” it’s fascinating to contemplate the possibility, even probability, that the Chinese discovered the western coast of the American continent before Columbus ever set eyes on the West Indies.
The story of the Chinese discovery of America and Mexico begins with Hwui Shan, a 5th Century Buddhist priest from Afghanistan, who came to China as a young missionary around the year 450 A.D.
During this period of great expansion for Buddhism, it wasn’t unusual for zealous monks to journey to far off regions to share their evangelical fervor. Priests traveled the Silk Road, west to the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.
Hwui Shan and four fellow priests chose a much different route than other missionaries, casting their fate to the winds, literally, and to the currents as well when they set sail to the east of China.
The distance and directions given by Hwui Shan indicate a coastal island-hopping route: across the North Pacific, past the Aleutian Islands to Alaska, then down the entire west coast of America as far as Mexico. The monks remained in Mexico for forty years observing the country.
Many 19th century Western scholars were convinced that Hwui Shan crossed the Pacific and landed on the west coast of the American continent. His story generated controversy, numerous articles, and even a book (Edward Payson Vining’s An Inglorious Columbus).
The great explorer Alexander von Humboldt described Hwui Shan as the Leif Ericson of China, and “Fusang” as the Vinland of the West. The voyage of this Marco Polo in reverse is ignored by modern historians.
Hwui Shan’s is not a new story. What is new is the theory proposed by British author Gavin Menzies in his best-selling book 1421: The Year the Chinese Discovered the World. Menzies writes that the largest fleet the world had ever seen sailed from its base in China on March 8, 1421. This expedition, massive 400-foot-long junks, was under the command of Admiral Zheng He and other loyal eunuch admirals circumnavigated the globe (a century before Magellan).
Menzies claims this Chinese fleet sailed around Africa, up the Cape of Good Hope, across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, landed in America 70 years before Columbus, settled Australia and New Zealand 300 years before Captain Cook, and mapped the entire globe long before historic European voyages of discovery.
Did the daring Zheng beat Columbus to America by two years? Did the Chinese really explore Mexico at this time? Menzies claims remain controversial.
Most critics believe the limits of Zheng He’s voyages are clear. He made a series of trips between 1405-1433 in the course of which he surveyed portions of the Indian Ocean already well-known.
What about this Chinese expedition and its explorations in Mexico?
Menzies most compelling evidence is his references to the pre-Hispanic lacquer art known in Mexico as Maque. Lacquer art, a highly unusual, complex and time-consuming method of decoration, flourished in the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, and Michoacán.
Menzies points out that the technical lacquering processes in China and Mexico are almost exactly alike (except for the use of local materials). Although the intricate processes are almost identical in China and Mexico, this doesn’t prove that the Chinese taught indigenous Mexican’s the art. It may have arisen simultaneously, independent of cross-cultural influences.
Much of the evidence presented in 1421 has been contested by experts in cartography and naval architecture. The behemoth junks are considered a technical absurdity, the story relies on ocean currents that don’t exist, and Menzies most important map is considered a 21st century fake. The book’s premise is highly speculative, improbable, and viewed as a fabrication.
The author hasn’t helped his own cause. In his Acknowledgements, Menzies writes that his book is for the general reader and three-fourths of the evidence had to be omitted. He now claims: “The great bulk of the new evidence that has enabled me to make such startling claims has come from readers of my book.”
Menzies thinks records, documents, and maps of the 1421-23 voyages were deliberately hidden or expunged by officials of the Chinese court during an abrupt change in foreign policy.
When Emperor Zhu Di lost control, and China began a long, self-imposed isolation from the world, “The great ships rotted at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed.” The Spanish word demasiado, which translates as “too much,” is applicable to this historical novel masquerading as revisionist history. Historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto considers 1421 devoid of “evidence, logic, scholarship, and sense.”
This brings us full circle back to Hwui Shan since evidence of his sea voyage to Mexico 1,000 years before Columbus discovered America is highly credible. First, there’s a written record.
Hwui Shan related his tale to courtier Prince Yu Kie. This was recorded in official court documents for the year 499. It was later published (circa 600) by historian Li Yan Chu in his Records of the Liang Dynasty. Additional passages are found in Ma Twan Lin’s Antiquarian Researches, published in 1321. The story appears in later Chinese works, including encyclopedias, and is always treated as a history (not a fable).
Hwui Shan unique story is the only actual record yet found that may be an historical account of an early East-West connection, although numerous discoveries suggest contacts dating back to 1200 B.C.
The second remarkable feature of Hwui Shan’s chronicle is his accuracy, in both distance and direction, in describing the journey from China to America (as well as the plausibility of his route).
Is the general direction “east” inaccurate for his journey? Not really. Consider that our western coastline doesn’t run north and south, but at a forty-five degree angle towards the east (i.e. due southeast). The common misconception that the Pacific Coast runs north-south results from printing a flat projection map of North America on a page.
In fact, it’s easy to imagine Hwui Shan making a successful journey from China since Asia and North America are almost joined together at Bering Strait. The sea route along the Aleutian Islands allows even small, primitive boats to follow it without ever being long out of sight of land.
The most amazing quality of Hwui Shan’s observations is the way his descriptions of the people and places he visited correspond to the North Pacific route and with what is known about America during that period. His “Land of Marked Bodies” is located 2,300 miles northeast of Japan. The tattoos or face paintings he described on local villagers are identical to those observed at Point Barrow, Alaska, in the 19th century.
Hwui Shan’s vivid description of “Fusang” (Mexico) is fascinating. “The region has many Fusang trees,” he said, “and these give it its name.” “…its first sprouts are like bamboo shoots. The people of the country eat them. They spin thread from the bark and make coarse cloth from which they make clothing and from it they also make a finer fabric.”
“Mexico,” writes Professor Charles E. Chapman, means “the land of the century-plant.” The sprouts of the century plant resemble bamboo and indigenous peoples in Mexico did eat them. The century plant furnishes a rough thread from which hemp cloth is made and also a finer variety similar to linen. Paper is made from the plant’s fiber.
The century plant (genus Agave in Latin), called maguey in Mexico, is described as a tree by residents of the American Southwest because its tall, branching, flowered stalk can reach a height of thirty feet.
Upon his return to China, Hwui Shan presented the Emperor with three hundred pounds of the silk of the “Fusang” tree and “a kind of semi-transparent stone cut in the form of a mirror.” This object might have been a polished obsidian mirror, the kind used by ancient Mexicans.
“They have a system of writing,” he reports. “But they have no fortresses or walled cities, no military weapons or soldiers and they do not wage war in that kingdom.” Did the wandering monks happen upon Mexico’s golden age, now referred to by archeologists as the Classic Period?
The Mexicans of that age possessed a system of hieroglyphic writing; a calendar more accurate than our own, and knowledge of mathematics that included a symbol for zero (centuries before the concept was known in Europe).
They built great metropolitan cities, one named Teotihuacán, not to be confused with Aztec cities that were discovered at the time of the Spanish conquest. These cities, unique in the history of ancient cultures, had no walls or fortifications. The inhabitants had no enemies and appear to have known nothing about war.
The Mexicans of the Classic Period cremated their dead, a practice unheard of at any other time in Mexican history. This opens up the question of a Buddhist influence upon these peoples.
“The ground contains no iron,” reported Hwui Shan, “but it has copper. The people do not value gold and silver.”
Iron existed in Mexico, but its use was unknown at this time. The Spanish were the first to mine it. Copper was used by the Tarascans to make needles, pliers, awls, hatchets, and the cutting edges of farm tools. The Tarascans (a.k.a. Purépechans) lived in western Mexico, the region where Hwui Shan would’ve landed.
In his Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, Diaz states that gold and silver were bought and sold like other commodities in Mexico City’s marketplace and paid for with the regular currency of the country, which was cocoa.
There are inconsistencies with Hwui Shan’s accounts, but his observations are relatively free of the incredible and the marvelous. Dr. Charles E. Chapman, a noted American historian, wrote: “Either “Fusang” was in America, presumably in Mexico, or else the story was a lie. The evidence that it was true is almost overwhelming”
Hwui Shan’s journey may never be proved, but what a mind-boggling event to contemplate: five Buddhist monks trekking around central Mexico more than one thousand years before Columbus discovered America.
(Ed. Note: The illustration was done by Michael Boss, who can be researched at www.michaelboss.com) | <urn:uuid:40998deb-12df-4f32-9504-f5d8336722c2> | {
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This year’s Old Farmer’s Almanac is hot off the press—bearing ominous predictions for the Northeast. The latest edition of the publication, which was founded in 1792 by American journalist Robert Bailey Thomas, forecasts a bitterly cold winter and lots of snow.
Just published, the 2016 Old Farmer’s Almanac offers its predictions for winter weather. (Courtesy of The Old Farmer’s Almanac)
The Almanac has an enthusiastic following—witness the more than 10 million monthly visits to its website and the millions of copies sold annually. But as a source of information to base one’s plans on, it isn’t everyone’s choice.
Despite all the fans and believers, many scientists remain skeptical of the Almanac’s prognostications. Stories in major news outlets, including The Washington Post, USA Today, the Associated Press, and CBS News, have incorporated a tweet from Houston meteorologist Matt Lanza: “Using The Farmers’ Almanac for a seasonal meteorological outlook is about as good as going to a psychic.”
Expressing a similar sentiment is at least one Dartmouth climatologist. “The Old Farmer’s Almanac should be read for entertainment, but not for serious long-term weather forecasts,” says Erich Osterberg, an assistant professor of earth sciences.
“It is extremely difficult to predict the weather for any location more than a week in advance with any accuracy,” Osterberg says. “Long-term climate forecasts by professional meteorologists are based on our ability to predict with some reliability, months in advance, large-scale patterns of ocean temperature and air pressure like El Niño.”
Janice Stillman, the editor of the Almanac, says she and her staff have a tried-and-true approach they’ve used for many years. “We make our weather forecasts based on three scientific disciplines—solar science, climatology, and meteorology. We use 30-year averages that are calculated by the National Weather Service, and our predictions are expressed as deviations from these norms.”
Stillman stresses The Almanac’s reliance on fluctuations in sunspot cycles, a longstanding priority going back to the publication’s earliest days. “The number and size of sunspots and the cycle of activity are an indication of what we can expect for the years, and sometimes decades, to come,” she says. “It’s the solar science that distinguishes our forecast methodology from just about everybody else out there. Our critics do not believe that the sun has much of any influence on our weather and our climate.”
For the coming winter, El Niño or no El Niño? That is certainly one of the questions up for debate.
“The Pacific Ocean is showing persistent signs of developing a major El Niño event, perhaps one of the strongest on record,” says Osterberg. “Looking at medium-strong El Niño years in the past, the Northeast had slightly warmer temperatures and average to below average snowfall. However, Northeast winter weather is also affected by atmospheric pressure patterns near Europe known as the North Atlantic Oscillation, which we can’t predict more than a couple of weeks in advance.”
Says Stillman: “We concede to Mother Nature if indeed El Niño does develop, but again, based on our study of long-range influences of the solar cycles and a number of other factors, we don’t think that this El Niño will be as significant as a lot of people have made it out to be.”
So who’s right this year, about El Niño and all the rest? As always, time will tell. | <urn:uuid:42d31c5e-2cc8-474a-905a-32704db29079> | {
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By the end of 2016, the NHS could be ‘pushed to its limit’ by the rising numbers of cancer patients, Macmillan Cancer Support has warned.
The rise in life expectancy means that many more adults are living to an age when they are at a greater risk of the illness. There are increased concerns that the NHS will find difficulty in treating such high numbers and that ‘cracks in the NHS are already beginning to show’. It has been stated that with the ageing population and ongoing NHS cutbacks, this could stretch cancer care to breaking point.
Unfortunately, the Macmillan charity revealed that the number of English NHS trusts missing the target for access to cancer treatment waiting times had doubled in 2014. It was suggested that this could be linked to pressure in part due to funding cutbacks.
Research by the charity shows that by 2016, a total of 361,000 people in Britain will be diagnosed with cancer each year. This is 100,000 more than the 263,000 in 1996. There is now a growing financial burden as a result of this illness and it was reported only yesterday that the Government may have to stop funding some life-extending drugs.
Charities are concerned that vital treatments for breast and prostate cancer will no longer be available through the Cancer Drugs Fund which gives patients in England access to effective treatments deemed too expensive for hospitals to fund. More than 40 drugs, around half the total, will be reviewed in mid-December as new rules on cost-effectiveness are introduced by NHS England. | <urn:uuid:699eafcd-3198-4237-8a5e-65a8d143fce7> | {
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By Emily Gilbert
According to a recent report by the World Fish Center, while natural fish stocks are being rapidly depleted, aquaculture, or the farming of fish and other aquatic species, could play an important role in meeting rising global demand for marine and freshwater products.
Feeding time at the fish farm (Photo credit: Robert Yin, Sea Pics.com)
Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food production systems in the world—it grew over 21-fold since 1970 . Currently, half of the seafood we eat comes from aquaculture, and as the human population continues to rise, demand for marine and freshwater products is likely to continue to grow.
There are many positive aspects to aquaculture. When compared to global livestock production, aquaculture requires less land, water, and natural resources. Farming fish is a comparatively more efficient way of supplying protein primarily because fish are coldblooded and have low metabolic rates. This results in more units of energy of protein produced for each unit of energy it took to raise the fish. Aquaculture may also be the only means to markedly increase future seafood production, causing less detrimental impacts to marine ecosystems than fishing.
Furthermore, not only can aquaculture provide nutritious food, fishing and fish farming generate income and employment to millions of communities around the world. Trade in marine and freshwater products can help alleviate poverty and contribute to national economic growth in many developing countries.
The World Fish Center states that while aquaculture has many positive characteristics, particularly in light of the current state of global fisheries and livestock, the degree of environmental impact depends greatly on a variety of factors, including the particular species being farmed, and the production system being used. The wide range of impact between different production methods indicates the need for improved regional learning networks where new technologies and sustainable methodologies can be disseminated to other producers, particularly those in the developing world.
Aquaculture has a great potential to meet rising demand with limited impact to the environment, while also providing employment and economic opportunity to impoverished communities. These efforts, however, are stymied by poor oversight and inconsistent regulation. If aquaculture is to achieve its production potential with limited impact on the environment, the public and private sector will need to develop a coordinated and consistent policy, and a robust regulatory and management framework.
What are your thoughts on farmed fish and aquaculture?
Emily Gilbert is a research intern with the Nourishing the Planet project.
Holiday offer: To purchase a copy of State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet at a 50 percent discount, please click HERE and enter code SW1150. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE. | <urn:uuid:2b081632-e3aa-4aee-bf93-d3eaee901930> | {
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Navigating the News Consumer Through New Terrain
The following offers some possible ways for consumers to adapt the method used in this study to take stock of a news site they encounter.
Consumer Check #1: Transparency
Examine the website. Find and read through the “About” section. Look at what it says about its mission, the background of the staff and the source of funding. A site that explains these items in detail, provides links to its funders, lists its individual donors and reports its financials is more transparent. This study suggests that this transparency tends to be associated with sites that also offer more balanced and diverse reporting.
Consumer Check #2: Range of Viewpoints
While reading a story, readers can check how much effort a story makes to include relevant and competing viewpoints. First, look for stories that involve a clear controversy in which competing viewpoints would be expected. Then assess, from the quotes in the story, whether differing viewpoints on the issue are present and the extent to which they are given space. Then check other stories. If a lot of the stories have mostly one viewpoint, that suggests a narrowness in perspective.
Consumer Check #3: Story Theme
The story theme can help consumers get a sense of whether the site has a particular point of view underlying its reporting and story selection. Evaluating this also involves reading through a number of stories. After reading several, ask what the main theme of each story was. If the themes tend to tilt solidly in one political direction over another, this amounts to a point of view in coverage. Do those themes also correlate with the viewpoints in check No. 2? The findings in this study suggest that often this is the case.
Consumer Check #4: Reporting Capacity
This study suggests that the non-profit news outlets that have the most robust news operations tend also to offer more balanced and diverse reporting. Information on the news staff can usually be found in the “About” section of the site. Look for the number of listed staff and contributors. How many are full time? And do some work on a volunteer basis? (You can also scan their bios for their journalistic experience). Take note of the number of new, originally reported news stories over the previous week. How many new stories were posted? Finally, look at the bylines that appear at the top of the stories. How many different names appear? If all stories are reported by one or two individuals, this suggests a low capacity for reporting. The study finds that larger staffs and more dispersed bylines tend to be associated with more diverse and balanced | <urn:uuid:0ddf7c3e-6331-4cbf-b1cd-4a9610ca4133> | {
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What is a heelstick?
Before every baby goes home from the nursery, he or she has a small amount of blood taken from his or her heel. This is called a heelstick. The blood from the heelstick is used to test for a specific group of conditions. If anything concerning is found, the Newborn Screening Laboratory contacts the baby’s doctor.
What conditions are included in Indiana's heelstick?
Below is a complete list of conditions included in Indiana's heelstick. For more information on a specific condition, click on the condition's name.
For a list of resources for families of children with newborn screening conditions, please click here.
1. Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (also called CAH)
3. Sickle cell anemia (includes testing for S/C anemia & beta-thalassemia)
Amino Acid (AA) Disorders (includes urea cycle disorders) (en español)
4. Arginase deficiency (also called argininemia)
5. Argininosuccinic aciduria
6. Biopterin cofactor defects
7. Citrullinemia (also called CIT type I)
8. Citrin deficiency (also called CIT type II)
9. Homocystinuria (also called HCY) (en español)
12. Maple syrup urine disease (also called MSUD) (en español)
13. Phenylketonuria (also called PKU) (en español)
14. Tyrosinemia type I (en español)
15. Tyrosinemia type II
16. Tyrosinemia type III
Fatty Acid Oxidation (FAO) Disorders (en español)
17. 2,4-dienoyl-CoA reductase deficiency
18. Carnitine-acylcarnitine translocase deficiency (also called CACT)
19. Carnitine palmitoyltransferase deficiency I (also called CPT IA)
20. Carnitine palmitoyltransferase deficiency II (also called CPT II)
21. Carnitine uptake defect (also called CUD)
22. Glutaric acidemia type II (also called GA type II, electron transfer flavoprotein deficiency, ETF deficiency, multiple acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency, or multiple FAD dehydrogenase deficiency)
23. Long chain hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (also called LCHAD)
24. Medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (also called MCAD) (en español)
25. Short chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (SCAD)
26. Short chain hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (SCHAD)
27. Trifunctional enzyme deficiency
28. Very long chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (VLCAD)
Organic Acidemias (OA) (en español)
29. 2-Methylbutyrylglycinuria (also called 2-MBG)
30. 3-Hydroxy-3-methyl glutaric aciduria (also called HMG)
31. 3-Methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase deficiency (also called 3-MCC deficiency) (en español)
32. 3-Methylglutaconic acidemia (also called 3-MGA)
33. Beta-ketothiolase deficiency
34. Glutaric acidemia, type I (also called GA type I)
35. Isobutrylglycinuria (also called IBG)
36. Isovaleric acidemia (also called IVA)
37. Malonic aciduria (also called MAL)
38. Methylmalonic acidemia (also called MUT or methylmalonyl-CoA mutase)
39. Methylmalonic acidemia with cobalamin disorders (CblA & CblB)
40. Methylmalonic academia with homocystinuria (CblC & CblD)
41. Multiple-CoA carboxylase deficiency
42. Propionic acidemia
43. Biotinidase deficiency (en español)
44. Cystic fibrosis
45. Galactosemia (also called classic galactosemia or G/G) (en español)
Includes testing for galactosemia D/G variant & other galactosemia variants (en español)
Click here to read the HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practice for the ISDH Newborn Screening Program.
Click here to read the HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practice in Spanish.
Indiana's Newborn Screening Brochure (en español)
After Newborn Screening Brochure (en español) | <urn:uuid:c63d3950-6786-4896-b324-12e4a454818d> | {
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An activity you can use in the classroom
Viral diseases can be spread through contact with a
person infected with the disease. Some diseases, such
as influenza, measles, and smallpox, spread rapidly
and are of great concern to public health organizations.
Used in risk analysis, models help predict the spread.
Once scientists analyze the risk, they use models to
develop plans to contain the virus and to make recommendations
for preventive behavior changes. In this activity, you?ll
see how an infectious disease can spread and you?ll
create a plan to contain it.
- small square of paper
- pencil or pen
- cardboard box
- Write your name on one
of the small squares of paper, and place it in the
- Your teacher will select one name from the box.
This person, who will remain a mystery for now, has
- For the first round, tap
two of your classmates at random. Record their names
in the chart on the worksheet.
- Tap two different classmates for round two, and
record their names on the worksheet.
- Now for round three, tap two additional classmates
and record their names on the worksheet.
- When everyone is finished with round three, your
teacher will reveal the name of the ?infected
- Look at your worksheet chart to see if you had direct
contact with this person. If so, you had direct contact
with the infected person. Raise your hand until your
teacher has recorded your name on the board.
- Now check your worksheet chart again to see if you
had contact with any of the people listed on the board.
If so, you had indirect contact with the infected
person. Raise your hand until your teacher has recorded
your name on the board.
- Using the lists on the board, complete the worksheet
questions and activities. | <urn:uuid:0cfdd371-adc4-4ca7-bbc6-78618dd9792d> | {
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Khema Tamu Phri is one of three scripts used for writing the Eastern and Western Gurung languages spoken in Nepal, Bhutan and India. These languages are often known collectively as “Gurung”, although they are not mutually intelligible. Usually, Gurung is written in the Devanagari script; however, in recent times, some Gurung-speaking groups have promoted the use of two other scripts, Khema Tamu Phri and Gurung Khe Phri.
Khema Tamu Phri is an abugida. There are twenty-nine consonant letters, each representing a syllable containing a consonant and the vowel /a/. This vowel can be changed by adding one of seven vowel signs to the consonant letter, or silenced by adding a virama character. Vowels which do not follow a consonant, for example those at the start of a word, are written with one of eight independent vowel letters.
Some of the letter shapes are closely modeled on their Devanagari or Tibetan equivalents.
It is not known how widely this script is used, and it seems to be a topic of controversy with supporters and opponents among Gurung speakers.
This script is not currently recognized by ISO 15924, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. | <urn:uuid:34087031-c30c-4276-af45-4209013e691e> | {
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A random walk is a mathematical formalization of a path that consists of a succession of random steps. For example, the price of a fluctuating stock and the financial status of a gambler can all be modeled as random walks, although they may not be truly random in reality. The term random walk was first introduced by Karl Pearson in 1905.
Random walks have been used in many fields: ecology, economics, psychology, computer science, physics, chemistry, and biology. Random walks explain the observed behaviors of processes in these fields, and thus serve as a fundamental model for the recorded stochastic activity. | <urn:uuid:364550c9-dd72-41c0-a976-d45f848117bb> | {
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Due to the very nature of algae, you find it in most bodies of water body which in fact, is a good sign that suggests good health of a pond. But, when the amount reaches unsustainable levels, you need to take action. If algae get out of control, it makes the pond water murky and clogs filters and pumps. Special attention needs to be paid during the spring (March – May) season.
The types of algae that you can spot in your pond could be –
1. String or Filamentous Algae
Since the string algae have the tendency to forming long threads around rocks, plants and other objects or dense mats, they are commonly referred to as blanket weed.
2. Suspended Algae
The suspended algae are at work to turn your crystal clear water into the murky green. When the algae cover extensive region, it resembles a pea soup and you will be unable to spot your vibrant, colorful fishes that lie just a few inches below the water surface.
Reason behind Algal Bloom
Primarily, there are three reasons due to which algae grow quickly and cover the water body in no time and those are –
1. High Content of Phosphates & Nitrates:
Dead and decay leaves, fish excreta, fish food waste or minerals from tap water are rich in nitrates, phosphates, and ammonia. These serve as the food for algae.
2. Stagnant Water
The continuous run off of nutrient fertilizer in the stagnant river body results in the algal bloom.
3. High Temperature and Excessive Sunlight
The presence of too much light into the pond paves way for algae. Shallow ponds or insufficient plant cover are the reasons that allows too much penetration of sunlight.
Algae Control in Ponds
The presence of algae is the bane for any pond keeper because it results in loss of fish life and depletes precious oxygen. But, with a few simple and precautionary steps, you can control algae in a pond and maintain the tranquility of the garden.
1. Maintain the Ecosystem by Adding Floating Plants
To achieve a fine balance naturally, cover at least half of the water surface with floating plants like water lettuce, azolla, water hyacinth or duckweed. Apart from these, you can even add lotus or lilies. These plants multiply quickly and work as shade for the life beneath. The submerged plant like hornwort keeps the water cool and blocks excessive sunlight and keeps the algal growth at a bare minimum. Adding plants is a necessity because they compete with algae for dissolved nutrients.
2. Love Fishes? Do NOT cram them in one pond
Who doesn’t love to see fish roaming around in crystal clear water? But, ensure that you do not add them in excess in one pond. More fishes would mean more waste (through excreta and food) which would result in the fast algae bloom.
3. Keep Debris at Bay
For algae control, regularly clean the water surface with a pond vacuum, net or with AquaClear Pellets. Because when these dead leaves, debris, and sludge break down, they result in the growth of algae. | <urn:uuid:88539360-236c-4a5b-8b27-4ea8b34354b5> | {
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GitHub’s Open Source Guides
Open source software is made by people just like you. Learn how to launch and grow your project.
What is GitHub?
According to Wikipedia “GitHub is a web-based Git or version control repository and Internet hosting service. It is mostly used for code. It offers all of the distributed version control and source code management (SCM) functionality of Git as well as adding its own features. It provides access control and several collaboration features such as bug tracking, feature requests, task management, and wikis for every project.”
GitHub released the open source guides for people to contribute and develop open source projects.
What is Open Source Guides?
Open Source Guides (https://opensource.guide/) are a collection of resources for individuals, communities, and companies who want to learn how to run and contribute to an open source project.
Open Source Guides is to provide a jumping off point for individuals, communities, and companies to sustainably embrace open source.
How to Contribute to Open Source
Contributing to open source can be a rewarding way to learn, teach, and build experience in just about any skill you can imagine.
Why do people contribute to open source? Plenty of reasons!
- Improve existing skills
Whether it’s coding, user interface design, graphic design, writing, or organizing, if you’re looking for practice, there’s a task for you on an open source project.
- Meet people who are interested in similar things
Open source projects with warm, welcoming communities keep people coming back for years. Many people form lifelong friendships through their participation in open source, whether it’s running into each other at conferences or late night online chats about burritos.
- Find mentors and teach others
Working with others on a shared project means you’ll have to explain how you do things, as well as ask other people for help. The acts of learning and teaching can be a fulfilling activity for everyone involved.
- Build public artifacts that help you grow a reputation (and a career)
By definition, all of your open source work is public, which means you get free examples to take anywhere as a demonstration of what you can do.
- Learn people skills
Open source offers opportunities to practice leadership and management skills, such as resolving conflicts, organizing teams of people, and prioritizing work.
- It’s empowering to be able to make changes, even small ones
You don’t have to become a lifelong contributor to enjoy participating in open source. Have you ever seen a typo on a website, and wished someone would fix it? On an open source project, you can do just that. Open source helps people feel agency over their lives and how they experience the world, and that in itself is gratifying. | <urn:uuid:952e0a63-b38a-47ec-a23f-20de8bab263e> | {
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African American culture can be regarded as both component of, and distinct from American culture. From the days of the slave trade, Africans and African Americans have contributed by signifies of literature, art, agricultural expertise, foods, music, and language to American culture. Discover further on the affiliated URL by clicking clicky. Even ahead of the abolition of slavery, African Americans had been recognized for their cultural ingenuity. Even though in numerous cases they were literally forced to adopt and mimic the traditions of their slave masters, African American slaves would still clandestinely practice their beliefs. Visiting get redirected here discussion maybe provides tips you might give to your brother. If you are concerned by operations, you will maybe choose to study about check here. Today, perhaps the most definitive form of African American culture can be noticed through their expression of the musical art form.
The types of music that best typify African American culture are these of Hip Hop, Rap, Blues, R&B and Gospel. Get supplementary information on our affiliated article - Click here: dig this. Several individuals shrug off these types of music as noisy garbage even so, they are in truth an expression of political, social or class discrimination of some form. This form of expression dates as far back as the slavery days when African Americans also utilised song composition as a car of social relief. They would compose songs in their native languages that described their emotions concerning the situation they were subjected to, their slave masters and the evolution of their lives.
If one has the signifies to study these musical genres which define African American culture today, it will grow to be very evident that these songs serve as a reminder that the past and the present are clearly linked when it comes to understanding the meanings of African American music. The emphasis on language clearly illustrates how African-American communities have defined themselves and their relations to the dominant white culture in America. In reality many of the lyrics in African American music seek to investigate the relationships the white community has shared with African Americans for numerous generations until today.
African American music is perhaps a single of the most pervasive African American cultural influences in America right now and is amongst the most dominant in mainstream popular music. Music genres such as Hip hop, R&B, funk, soul, techno and numerous other modern American musical types found its origins in black communities. Thus due to its popularity and probably even its character, several African Americans use musical genres to define their own individuality.. | <urn:uuid:27ad44d0-3b9d-4506-8caf-3ef024f69efc> | {
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01 What is Autism: An IntroductionPresented by Pamela Leonard
2016-121 What is Autism Update to 2012-22
This introduction to autism includes a video titled, “What is Autism” created by Gigantic Planet in collaboration with the University of Washington Autism Center and funding by the Washington State Legislature. The video provides an overview of autism, diagnosis and treatment. An explanation of the changes to the diagnostic guidelines for Autism is included, as well as prevalence, early diagnosis, causes/risk factors and IDEA's criteria.
Resource: Autism, Autism Learning Path
Running Time: 20:15
Learning Credits: .5 | <urn:uuid:6be5949d-6fc2-445e-90e6-8d1396660756> | {
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Lei Feng: Hero For Today’s China?
Monday marked the official observance of Learn From Lei Feng Day in China, a holiday initiated by Mao Zedong in 1962 which turned a dead young soldier into a folk hero, and the central government has revved up the propaganda machine to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of “China’s most famous Communist do-gooder.” From The Wall Street Journal:
Best known for helping little old ladies cross the street and offering to darn his fellow soldiers’ socks, the life of onetime People’s Liberation Army soldier Lei Feng is one of the Communist Party’s oldest set pieces. With the 1963 publication of his diary (in which enthusiastic paeans to Mao and the Communist Party feature prominently), he became a posthumous propaganda sensation, with the Party urging citizens to “learn from Comrade Lei Feng.” Now, as China confronts the excesses of its economic system — including growing concern over public corruption and fears about diminished public morality — the government is working harder than ever to make Lei Feng in vogue.
Efforts to resurrect Lei Feng’s ghost are everywhere: Last week, the education ministry released a bulletin urging schools to host activities promoting the soldier. That inspired one group of 1,000 college students to dress up in vintage military garb and stand outside Shanghai metro stations and extol his virtues. Some preached the importance of good manners inside the metro cars; others offered hugs to strangers. Thousands of students Monday across the country likewise participated in “Lei Feng is in my heart” campaigns, drawing pictures, penning essays and singing songs.
A state-run Xinhua news agency article published last week declared that contemporary China is like a symphony – a single “harmonious society” – and that Lei Feng is akin to its “first violin.”
“Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?”
These questions, raised by french Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), are widely considered to represent the human race’s deepest meditations on the meaning of life.
According to the article, elite members of the human race, including Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), the ancient Chinese poets Qu Yuan and Chen Zi’ang, who both wrote more than 1,000 years ago, asked similar questions, but never found the answer.
“Lei Feng, an ordinary soldier, has given a perfect answer,” the lengthy article maintained.
The Wall Street Journal article adds that Internet users have expressed their cynicism at the CCP’s immortalization of Lei Feng, however, and The New York Times reports that China’s netizens have responded to state media coverage of Lei Feng with snickers:
One posting on Sina Weibo, the country’s popular microblog service, seemed to sum up the sentiment that it is party officials, not ordinary citizens, who should be studying Lei Feng’s selflessness. “Your children have migrated overseas but you ask me to learn from Lei Feng in China,” said the posting by the sharp-tongued blogger who goes by the name Notebook and has two million followers. “I have cancer because of the poisonous milk I drank but you ask me to learn from Lei Feng.” The post was deleted by censors on Friday.
Even Ren Zhiqiang, one of China’s wealthiest property developers, could not help himself. Apparently invoking a line from Lei Feng’s official diary that schoolchildren once memorized, “My only ambition is to be a rustless screw for the great cause of revolution,” Mr. Ren called the legend a naked propaganda tool “for turning all citizens into screws that can be willfully placed anywhere.”
“That way, there is no need for democracy, human rights or freedom,” he wrote.
Dai Qing, a muckraking journalist and lapsed Communist Party member, said that many Chinese were offended by the patronizing message of moral righteousness. “Would I help a senior citizen or a child in need?” she said in an interview. “Of course I would, but not because I was told to do so by a government movement. Empathy is a minimal requirement of human decency, not one that should be directed by a political party.”
The editor of the state-run Global Times applauded the satirical spoofs that have appeared online, writes Danwei, which has a long tradition of reporting on Lei Feng and translated the following comment posted by Hu Xijin to his Weibo account along with the spoof photo above:
The louder the volume of the government campaign to study Lei Feng, the more such spoofs will be enthusiastically circulated online. This is the sigh-inducing balance of contemporary China’s public debate. When I see such Photoshop images, my heart just feels uncomfortable. But I know that the fact that such photographs appear is a sign of China’s progress. Making everything appear ugly is not just a way of thinking but has become a way of existing. Its importance to China is like that of the waste water pipes and sewers that even a city of light cannot do without. | <urn:uuid:0643de19-eab9-4fcc-b5cb-7f4785283e9f> | {
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c. 1658; Oil on canvas, 45.5 x 41 cm; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
With quiet concentration a woman pours milk into a bowl. With her left hand she supports the can she is pouring from. Around her are various objects: a loaf of bread, a stoneware jug, a basket and a brass bucket. The woman is standing near the window so she can see what she is doing. The light falls on her hands; her silhouette is dark against the white wall. There is a fascinating play of light and shadow in this painting. This is one of Johannes Vermeer's genre pieces in which he establishes an intensely intimate atmosphere. Although the artist observes his model from nearby, she continues with her work, totally unperturbed.
The lighting in Vermeer's Milkmaid is extraordinarily subtle. Light falls from the left through the window. Beneath and beside the window it is somewhat shadowy, but the woman is standing in full brightness. When you look carefully at the painting you see that Vermeer has introduced tiny points of light all over the canvas: on the edges of the jug and the bowl, but also on the fastening of her yellow dress, and on the bread in the basket. Vermeer paid great attention to details. He has painted tiny rough patches into the texture of the white plasterwork. Also, he gives careful thought to a nail set high in the white wall, as well as to the light entering through a cracked windowpane. The structure of various objects is expertly rendered: gleaming brass and crumbly bread.
Nail with shadow
Tiny points of light
Clearly, this woman is a servant and no grand lady. Her dress is simple. The blue skirt is tucked up to save it from getting dirty. She wears green over-sleeves which partly protect her yellow bodice. On her head the maid wears a starched cap. She looks strong and sturdy. Vermeer achieves this effect by painting her from a low viewpoint. This lends a certain weight and dignity to this simple and everyday subject - a woman at her work.
Perhaps this painting by Vermeer is an embodiment of the virtue of Temperance. The image of a woman pouring out of a jug was sometimes used in this way in the seventeenth century, for example by Jacob de Gheyn II.
Jacob de Gheyn II,
Vermeer has carefully organised the space around the maid. This appears from the several overpaintings that can be seen using X-ray and infrared photography. Initially, Vermeer had introduced a painting behind the woman. There was also a sewing basket on the floor beside the footwarmer. In the final version of the picture all these objects were overpainted. The background became less cluttered and the composition was thereby clearer and stronger. The Kitchen Maid is built up along two diagonal lines. They meet by the woman's right wrist. With this trick of composition Vermeer focused the viewer's attention on the act of pouring out the milk.
X-ray photographs of painting
Infrared photo reveals a basket
was highly appreciated at an early date. In
an auction catalogue of 1696 the painting is described as follows:
A Maid pouring out milk, exceptionally good.
The Milkmaid, as the
painting is commonly called, was sold for 175 guilders at that auction
- a large sum for those days. At the beginning of the twentieth
century the painting arrived in the Rijksmuseum. The Rembrandt Society
bought the work together with 38 other paintings, thereby saving it
for the Dutch public. There was a heated discussion both about the
quality of the 39 paintings as well as the price - 750,000
guilders. Many satirical cartoons were published in this
connection. Today the painting is unquestionably one of the museum's
Newspaper 'Het Vaderland', 9-11-1907: Minister Rink versus Uncle Sam
Stoneware is made of clay that produces a grey or brown color and is fired at a temperature of around 1250 degrees Celsius. It is exceptionally hard and only slightly porous. Moreover, stoneware does not acquire a taste and is easy to clean. It is therefore an ideal material in which to preserve liquids and from which to drink. Around 1300 stoneware acquired something of a mass market and remained popular until glass and delftware took its place in the 17th century. Sixteenth- and 17th-century stoneware is often decorated with reliefs. One of the centres of stoneware production was the area between Cologne and Aachen in Germany's Rhineland.
Credits: The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. | <urn:uuid:2ad3c9fd-0820-48e0-98d7-dbe4d764e57b> | {
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Not many Catholics have thought ‘solidarity’ in relation to their faith. Many do understand solidarity as a political force in the society and not as connected with their spiritual practices and devotions. Ignorance about the Catholic Social Doctrine may be a possible reason for this.
In one of his recent speeches Pope Francis was urging people to unite in solidarity as a sign of their tangible expression of living Christian faith. “Remember,” the Pope said, “when a faith doesn’t have solidarity, it’s weak, it’s ill or it’s dead. It’s not the faith of Jesus.” The Pope made this comment during his visit to the poorest neighbourhood in Paraguay’s capital in the month of July, encouraging residents to practice solidarity.
Solidarity is about valuing our fellow human beings and respecting who they are as individuals. Solidarity helps one go beyond the sectarian confines of the ‘otherness’ into a liberating global vision of the humanity and universe.
We must be familiar with the verse ‘faith without action is dead’ (James 2: 16-24), which urges us to engage in charitable activities. By telling ‘faith without solidarity is dead’ the Pope is poking our traditional notions of faith and spirituality, which is often concerned with rituals and ‘certain portions’ of morality. It challenges us to examine how we identify ourselves with Christ, the Church and the global humanity in radical ways.
The central aspect of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Compendium) is nothing more than human solidarity. It “is undoubtedly a Christian virtue” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (SRS) 40; Compendium 193). However, the Christian solidarity consists not only in perceiving the other as an autonomous human being with rights and fundamental equality but also in seeing them as the living image of the Trinitarian God. Christian solidarity therefore ought to go further, higher, faster than its secular equivalent (SRS 40).
The Church and its subordinate organisations run umpteen number of charitable institutions which include centres for the old, sick, differently abled, programmes for weaker sections of the society such as women, children, widows etc., vulnerable of the society such as Adivasis, untouchables, prostitutes, eunuchs, prisoners, to mention a few. The committed priests and religious of the Catholic Church reach out to these sections selflessly extending their service 24×7. Many charismatic lay people also have joined this great service force doing it out of sheer love for the Christ. The rest of the Catholic community generously supports these works of mercy by material and temporal resources.
Nonetheless, the Church in India, which boasts to be vibrant with strong faith traditions and intense devotional practices shall introspect on their sensitivity to solidarity. In a culturally transforming society such as that of ours we should come to a deeper awareness about solidarity, which does not end in engaging in some charitable activities. Pope John Paul has categorically exhorted that solidarity is “not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people…” On the contrary, “it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good… because we are all really responsible for all” (SRS 38).
Similarly, Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium exposes the idea of solidarity as something “more than a few sporadic acts of generosity” that “presumes the creation of a new mindset.” It involves our “decision to restore to the poor what belongs to them” and when we live this convictions and habits of solidarity they would “open the way to other structural transformations and make them possible” (EG 188, 189; emphasis added).
The cultural and political scenario today prevails with chauvinistic and fundamentalist attitudes and discourse. This fosters divisive and sectarian discourse in the society. Groups with relatively greater political power have significant control over how identities are constructed and ideologies are driven. Obviously, these identities are dichotomous in nature and use differential language such as ‘we’ and ‘they’ or ‘our home’ and ‘your home’ to describe themselves and their belongingness.
This is a time that demands increased sense and acts of solidarity from Indian Catholics. We are exposed to the irresistible cacophony of intolerance in terms of religious fundamentalism and nationalism. On August 25, 2008 India witnessed massive violence unleashed in Orissa against Christians. Though there had been numerous religious violations before and after that, in the last one-year we have faced an increased number of challenges to religious belief. These included burning and vandalising worship centres, abuse and violence against religious personnel, obstructing peoples right to believe in a God and practice a faith they choose to and even forceful conversions in the wake of Ghar Wapasi. The last in the series is desecrating a statue of St John Bosco occurred in a place believed to be non-hostile to Christians.
We also witness several other violations and intolerable talk through which the majority makes the life of the minority miserable. Albeit the Catholic institutions are committed to provide best quality education all across the country, the majority wish to rework the definition of minority with regard to education. Christian schools are forced to place Hindu deities in the campus. We have been seeing ill-intentioned interventions of the government in educational institutions ranging from Universities to IITs and IIMs to Colleges, apart from their vigorous attempt to alter the academic and historical narrative as such. Bans are banal with this government which has made prohibitions on various aspects of human life such as NGOs, Student Associations, food, books, films and documentaries, as well as websites. The logic of pressurising media channels for facilitating free and fair debate on pertinent issues is not only incomprehensible but has no legal basis.
The poor of the country are dismayed, as they have been kept at the fringes of the development agenda of the present government. The middle class whose mandate was crucial to put the present government to power is disappointed with the escalating cost of living even while the economic situations are favourable to the government. Nonetheless, we do not find equitable distribution of wealth among common people, which is their right.
The hugely majoritarian representative body of India has already passed or planning to pass a couple of laws which would deprive people of their land and their very right to life. People are dreaded with the laws that prohibit babies’ right to be born, people’s right to live longer and die peacefully, as well as securing justice before one being executed.
The Church has been outspoken in some crucial issues, which threatens human life. The national capital has been a focal point of Christian demonstrations of solidarity on various issues. However, poor participation is always bemoaned. These expressions of solidarity also remain in local levels only and exclusive to subsections within the Church (Eg: Koodamkulam atomic power station, Vizhinjam harbour development). Shouldn’t those instances of solidarity be heard across the country to become a national statement? The demonstration on Christian Dalit rights for example has now become an yearly routine event in the National Capital attended by very few. Shouldn’t this be a wave of solidarity across the country?
Further, we shall not be disillusioned that demonstrations are the only way for solidarity. We also need to rise above the sentimental level of demonstrations. Our solidarity must be politically correct, and shall be accompanied by studied materials. It is doubtful, in the case of protection of Eastern Ghats, if the Church has presented an erudite and convincing argument on it. For every social cause promoted by the Church, there shall be research support to which lay experts also shall be contributing.
This culture of solidarity should harness potentials of media and shape a sound public opinion in solidarity with our fellow brethren. The social media and other technologies are the best space for us who are separated by distances to come together for social and religious causes.
Above all, Church’s solidarity shall never be communal. Church should be waking up not only when something happens against its worship centres, institutions or personnel, but shall turn to be an ever-vigilant watchdog as well as a champion of every human right defence. Let the Church cross the barriers – communal, linguistic, gender and the like – to reach out to every human who needs our help.
A movement of the Spirit within, a recognition of the other as brother or sister, as a child of God is required to develop such a sense of solidarity. A determination to reach out to affirm, to support and to receive from the other, a taking of risks in the light of this underlying belief and insight is the practical aspect of it. If our sense of solidarity remains to be a shallow sympathy, our faith in the One who died in solidarity with humanity is a waste; nay it’s dead.
Article was published in Indian Currents August 2015 | <urn:uuid:6b5e1612-faad-4c45-ae68-f4d0a5ae8bd3> | {
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"Doctor, the patient is unresponsive!" You look up at the monitor and the rhythm strip becomes an all-too-familiar sinusoidal wave. Immediately, the medical student rushes to slap on pads. “O2 sat is 72%!” shouts a student at the head of the table. “2 minutes remaining,” blares the intercom. The audience looks on”¦
Luckily, this is not a hospital. In fact, the patient is not a patient at all, but rather a technologically advanced, wireless human patient mannequin equipped with palpable pulses, realistic chest rise, functional eyelids, and a voice box that allow learners to fully interact with this all-too-real patient.
Long gone are the days when medical education consisted purely of students submerged in piles of medical books without a single patient encounter. In an era when 500 page textbooks have been replaced by 50 megabytes on the cloud, technological advances challenge the medical curriculum by providing high fidelity, low stakes learning in the form of simulation. In the preclinical curriculum, this is exemplified by subjects that require early clinical context, including doctoring, objective structured clinical examination (OSCEs), and certifications such as Basic Life Support (BLS) or Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS). Medical students are now using medical simulation as an adjunctive tool to assess, learn, and actively participate in rare or emergent clinical situations while incorporating team-based competition and camaraderie. Simulation's accessibility increasingly allows students to be advocates of their own learning, facilitating clinical exposure that permeates the preclinical curriculum.
The Texas College of Emergency Physicians (TCEP) hosted the 2nd Annual Emergency Medicine Simulation Competition, otherwise known as “SIM Wars,” on April 1 in Grapevine, Texas. The TCEP Sim Wars creators recognize the importance of simulation-based training, not only for students interested in emergency medicine, but for anyone within the health care field. “We have the chance to immediately apply what we learn in lecture to medical cases in the simulation center. What results is an enhanced learning experience that encourages improved communication, teamwork, and confidence in our abilities. Ultimately, what we learn here is going to translate to better patient care in the future,” said first-year McGovern Medical School student John Peacock.
In this simulation challenge, each team had 8 minutes to complete a medical scenario in a simulated emergency department with access to vital sign monitoring, medical laboratory analysis, radiological imaging, and medical/procedural-based interventions. Teams were required to use their skills and judgment to assess the situation, make a quick diagnosis, and provide the appropriate treatment on a simulated patient. A physician panel judged each team on their quality of medical treatment, teamwork, and communication skills to determine the winner.
This year's TCEP SIM Wars winner, UTHealth McGovern Medical School (Houston), is relatively new to the world of medical simulation. The team consists of first-year students in the EMIG: Rishi Goel, Grace Guvernator, Joseph Moffitt, John Peacock, and Joseph Ponce, with fourth-year student coaches Shane Appel and Alexander Smith. Medical simulation in the McGovern Medical School EMIG is entirely student-led and functions as a small group. Each meeting consists of a 30-minute preview of a specified topic, a 20-minute hands-on simulated training session, and a 10-minute debrief.
With the support of school administration and key faculty mentors, the team plans to create an official organization that provides the infrastructure for students to enhance their medical education through simulation-based training. “We are currently taking the necessary steps to gather the faculty and financial support needed to create an official Simulation In Medicine (SIM) student group,” said first-year medical student Joseph Ponce. “Shane and Alexander have provided an excellent foundation for us to start with. It is my job to build on their vision and create an organization that encompasses not only emergency medicine simulation, but also surgical skills, anesthesiology, and even other specialties like OB/GYN. The bottom line is that we want to get students access to high-fidelity medical simulation earlier and more frequently than ever before because we believe it will make us better physicians in the future.”
Medical simulation not only provides excellent preparation for future clinical rotations and real patient care, but also provides an immediate benefit by integrating and solidifying the pre-clinical concepts and skills students learn in their first half of medical school. “As a first-year medical student, so much time is spent in the classroom and studying for exams as opposed to seeing patients,” Moffitt said. “Simulation provides a context for the concepts learned in the first half of medical school and serves as a reminder that my end goal is treating patients and providing excellent care.”
Experiences gained through medical simulation serve as a framework for making important decisions, such as deciding on a medical specialty. “After participating in simulation and attending the annual TCEP conference, I feel that I have gained so much insight into the field of emergency medicine and I know this is a field in which I can see myself building a life and a career,” Guvernator said. The students at UTHealth McGovern Medical School are passionate about medical simulation and are optimistic about the future of this amazing profession. | <urn:uuid:1b7d40da-0d77-4881-8da0-c1dea0d35335> | {
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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded a team at Rutgers to follow a group of children for five years to determine the effectiveness of changes in the physical activity and the food environment on lowering rates of childhood obesity in five of New Jersey’s poorest cities. The results from these studies will help policy makers identify what strategies are most effective at reversing the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic.
The NIH research study will assess the impact of changes being implemented to combat childhood obesity by organizations in Newark, Camden, New Brunswick, Vineland, and Trenton. The cities currently have dozens of initiatives and programs designed to reverse childhood obesity. For example, several cities are working with schools to improve the nutritional quality of foods served and the opportunities for physical activities. Others are improving lighting and safety in parks so families will use them for exercise. And efforts are being made to encourage corner stores to sell fruits and vegetables so children have an alternative to buying candy and chips.
The $3 million grant builds on previous work in 2009 and 2010, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), which surveyed children’s nutrition, physical activity, and weight status in the cities.
The RWJF grant also had researchers “conduct baseline policy and environmental audits of on the ground conditions in those cities, for all recreation facilities and food outlets,” said Laura Leviton, RWJF senior researcher and NCCOR member. “All this information was intended to be useful to the communities involved, for their planning and action steps.”
As a result of the studies funded by RWJF, much is already known about children’s proximity to parks and playgrounds, as well as stores that sell healthy foods. The research team at Rutgers will examine changes in physical activity and the environment as they occur. The team will also assess unintended changes, such as the closing of a supermarket due to changes in the local economy. | <urn:uuid:f1bfc512-41b5-4bfc-b43c-7cddf23d87ee> | {
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Table of Content
1/ What is Yin and Yang?
2/ To understand Chi
3/ How to apply Yin and Yang in order to cultivate Chi
1/ What is Yin and Yang?
The concept is first introduced in the book of ''The Oracle'', also known as ''The book of Change''. In this book, it use two symbols: ''---'' (a straight line) Yang and ''- -'' (a broken line) Yin. These symbols are used to describe the status of all objects being observed. They can be applied in describing the extension of slow and fast, big and small, and rigid and soft etc.
The object itself is neutral. Only when we want to describe or compare them, we apply Yin and Yang. For example:
1. The relative position of Sun and Earth is one scene. Day (Yang) and Night (Yin) is used to describe the phenomenon of brightness you observed from a specific location on earth.
2. Your lung is one object. Inhale (expand or Yang) and Exhale (Yin) is used to tell the status of the volume of the lung. Yet, from the direction of air moving. Exhale, out from our body is Yang, while Inhale, the air suck into our body is Yin.
3. Your arm is an object. When you stretching it, it is Yang. When you bent your elbow, we call it Yin.
4. ''I'' is one thing. Your ''I'' travel from your Tan Tien going out to finger tips, we call it Yang. While ''I'' come back from finger tips to Tan Tien we call it Yin.
It also depend on your point of view. Such as:
1. This leg is straight, it is Yang, that one is bend it is Yin. This is to the shape of legs.
2. Your bending leg support your weight, so it call Yang. The other is free from weight, we say it is Yin. It is to legs' function as holding weight.
3. Your straight leg generate post to your opponent. It is active, it is Yang. The other leg only support your weight, as a hinge, it is Yin. It is to the function of dealing with your opponent.
2/ To understand Chi
Chi is what that drive every trend of changes in our universe. We can say, the movement, the expanding of our galaxy is driving by this Chi. We can also say that the crazy stock market is driven by this Chi. The Chi from bigger environment will affect the circulation of the smaller environment. It is also true in reversal.
To the Chi of the larger environment, we can not change it, yet, we can follow it and redirect it at the right time and right place.
This is the ancient Chinese philosophy: to be a human being, we should complement the imperfection of the heaven and earth (mother nature). Yet, by following it, redirecting it to a more harmonic result, we can make the world better.
Here, our body is a small universe, your body, your circulation, everything is moving by a Chi we call ''Yun Chi''. A Chi that is born with you. When we are young, this Chi is very strong. And in good coordination. However, through the years the outside environment factors like: pressure, drugs and alcohol make this Chi aging. Eventually, one start to feel weak, not comfortable and finally to his illness. This is because our ignorance to the internal message. As we don't know how it work, therefore, we can't harmonize it.
3/ How to apply Yin and Yang in order to cultivate Chi
By understanding Yin and Yang, you have a starting point to compare and realize the trend of your Chi's fluctuation. Then, in your daily TaiChi practice you will learn how to follow it. (The change and interaction between Yin and Yang). By following it, you cultivate your Chi everyday, like the farmer growing their crops. You will no longer do things to harm it. This is what you should remember in your Taichi practice and in your push hand. After years, it becomes so clear that the flow of your Chi is there, then you will adjust it whenever you feel it goes wrong, or to pounding the power from it when situation required. The Chi will be in well balance all the time, externally or internally. You are a well balance person.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
1. IT IS AN EXERCISE THAT GOES A LONG WAYTo me, Taichi practice is not only a martial art training for self-defense but also serve as a balance training that help me throughout from my teenage till now and even future. When I was young, the beautiful circles, powerful moves attracted me to go further. Now, as my early 40's, I find the principle of searching balance and elegance way of living benefit me more then any others. As my teacher says, your Taichi started as a sport, then art finally lead you into the world of harmony, which is 'Tao'.
2. IT IS MOVEMENT - CIRCULAR, BALANCED AND ELEGANTThe circular, spiral type of movements prevent joint impact. By sync. the big nine joint's moving pattern, one's body can fully exercised. After several years practice, the speed and intensity of circles can be increased with very little chance of get injure in anyway.
3. IT IS A POWERFUL MARTIAL ART IN AN INTERESTING PLAYTaichi start in searching body re-patterning through slow motion. Then with push hand practice one experience how to cooperate and coordinate with others as well as himself. When one can sync himself with the opponent, the power of both become one. There will be no opponent, neither one's own.
4. IT IS DRIVING BY FAITH INSTEAD OF BY FEAR.Taichi training is begin and ended with faith. The faith of a world that everyone be able to stand by themselves. Everyone appreciate the cooperation from others as well as from themselves. It is not about defeating others, nor fear to be defeated. It is purifing ourselves, with better skill, more sensibile to the surrounding as well as within.
view taichi_intro.wmv 3.0 MB
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
1. How did Tai Chi begin?There are two theories
- Theory #1
- Around the Yuan and Ming Dynasty - Chang Sanfeng - about 600-700 years ago lived in Shaolin Temple and went to WuDang Mountain and created Tai Chi. He saw a crane fighting with a snake. The crane was always hard. The snake would yield and follow the crane and did not resist and so he didn't lose his life to the crane. Hard was controlled by soft.
- Theory #2
- Created by Chen Family about 300 years ago by Chen Wangting.
2. What are the 13 Postures (original name of Tai Chi Chuan)?The 13 Postures are comprised of 8 energies and 5 steps:
8 energies are: ward off, roll back, press, push, pull, elbow strike, shoulder strike, and split
5 steps are: forward, back, look left, gaze right, and center
3. How many styles of Tai Chi are there and what are their differences?There are 5 different styles of Tai Chi that are connected with each other. Chen, Yang, Wu, Wu and Sun styles. All 5 styles are connected together; their outside movements are a little different but inside the energies are the same.
Chen Style - is fast and slow combined together with some jumping and stomping movements. Old form and cannon fist was created from the 17th generation.
Yang Style - Yang Luchan learned the old form/frame from the Chen family. Yang movements are slow, even, gentle, big and large. Yang Luchan learned from the 14th generation Chen family member.
Wu/Hao Style - The 1st Wu style came from Yang and Chen styles and is slow, smooth, and small and the posture is high. Wu Yuxiang learned from Yang Banhou, 2nd generation Yang family member, and then learned from Chen Qingping, 14th generation. Wu/Hao is a smaller frame.
Wu Style - 2nd Wu style comes from Quanyu who learned from Yang Banhou. They lean their body to the side but when they lean they think about being straight. Wu learned from Yang Banhou. Later in age Banhou's frame became smaller.
Sun Style - learned from Hao Weijian. Their movements combine 3 styles of Tai Chi together, Wu, Hsing-I and Bagua.
4. Who created each of the 5 styles?Chen was created by Chen Wangting
Yang was created by Yang Luchan
Wu/Hao was created by Wu Yuxiang
Wu was created by Wu Jian Quan or Wu Quanyu
Sun was created by Sun Lutang
5. Who did the creators learn from?Yang Luchan learned from Chen Changxin
Wu Yuxiang learned from Yang Luchan, Yang Banhou and Chen Qingping
Wu Jianquan learned from his father, Quanyu
Sun Lutang learned from Hao Weijian
6. What are the original names of the birthplaces for the 5 major styles of Tai Chi Chuan?The original name of the birthplace of Yang Style is Guangfuzhen town in Guangpingfu area (bigger than county, smaller than province).
The original name of the birthplace of Chen Style is Chenjiagou village, Wen county, Hunan province.
The original name of the birthplace of Wu/Hao Style is Guangfu town, Yongnian county, Heibei province.
The original name of the birthplace for Sun or Wu Styles is not officially known.
7. What is the History of Yang Style?The birthplace of Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan is Hebei Province, Yongnian County. About 200 years ago, Yang LuChan went to Beijing to teach the Emperor's Family. People would watch and wanted to learn from him. His movements were smooth, slow and even. As it evolved, Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan has had different frames. The original frame style is called the Old Frame. Then came the Small, Middle or Medium Frame and last the Large Frame. The Frame that is practiced now is the Large Frame which we call the "Traditional, 85, 103, and 108 Form." Even though the counting is different, the movements are the same.
8. How has Yang Style changed from old, medium and small frame and who did which?Yang Luchan is old frame
Yang Banhou & Yang Shaohou - small frame
Yang Jianhou is medium frame
Yang Chengfu - large frame
9. What is the current Yang Family lineage?Yang Luchan, 1st generation (old frame)
Yang Jianhou is 2nd generation (middle frame)
Yang Chengfu is 3rd generation (large form) He standardized the form that is practiced throughout the world today.
Yang Zhenduo is 4th generation
Yang Jun is 6th generation
10. What is the most popular style of Tai Chi today?Yang Style is the most popular style of Tai Chi practiced around the world today. This is largely due to the Yang family teaching to the public and not keeping it private.
1. What is the 10 essential of tai chi chuan ?Following are the Ten Essentials of Tai Chi Chuan Orally transmitted by Yang Chengfu Recorded by Chen Weiming Translated by Jerry Karin
- Empty, lively, pushing up and energetic1
'Pushing up and energetic' means the posture of the head is upright and straight and the spirit is infused into its apex. You may not use strength. To do so makes the back of the neck stiff, whereupon the chi and blood cannot circulate freely. You must have an intention which is empty, lively (or free) and natural. Without an intention which is empty, lively, pushing up and energetic, you won't be able to raise your spirit.
- Hold in the chest and pull up the back
The phrase 'hold in the chest' means the chest is slightly reserved inward, which causes the chi to sink to the cinnabar field (dan1 tian2). The chest must not be puffed out. If you do so then the chi is blocked in the chest region, the upper body becomes heavy and lower body light, and it will become easy for the heels to float upward. 'Pulling up the back' makes the chi stick to the back. If you are able to hold in the chest then you will naturally be able to pull up the back. If you can pull up the back, then you will be able to emit a strength from the spine which others cannot oppose.
- Relax the waist
The waist is the commander of the whole body. Only after you are able to relax the waist2 will the two legs have strength and the lower body be stable. The alternation of empty and full all derive from the turning of the waist. Hence the saying: 'The wellspring of destiny lies in the tiny interstice of the waist. Whenever there is a lack of strength in your form, you must look for it in the waist and legs.
- Separate empty and full
In the art of Tai Chi Chuan, separating full and empty is the number one rule. If the whole body sits on the right leg, then the right leg is deemed 'full' and the left leg 'empty'. If the whole body sits on the left leg, then the left leg is deemed 'full' and the right leg 'empty'. Only after you are able to distinguish full and empty will turning movements be light, nimble and almost without effort; if you can't distinguish them then your steps will be heavy and sluggish, you won't be able to stand stably, and it will be easy for an opponent to control you.
- Sink the shoulders and droop the elbows
Sinking the shoulders means the shoulders relax open and hang downward. If you can't relax them downward, the shoulders pop up and then the chi follows and goes upward, causing the whole body to lack strength. Drooping the elbows means the elbows are relaxed downward. If the elbows are elevated then the shoulders are unable to sink. When you use this to push someone they won't go far. It's like the 'cut off' energy of external martial arts3.
- Use Intent Rather than Force
The taiji classics say, "this is completely a matter of using intent rather than force'. When you practice taijiquan, let the entire body relax and extend. Don't employ even the tiniest amount of coarse strength which would cause musculo-skeletal or circulatory blockage with the result that you restrain or inhibit yourself. Only then will you be able to lightly and nimbly change and transform, circling naturally. Some wonder: if I don't use force, how can I generate force? The net of acupuncture meridians and channels throughout the body are like the waterways on top of the earth. If the waterways are not blocked, the water circulates; if the meridians are not impeded the chi circulates. If you move the body about with stiff force, you swamp the meridians, chi and blood are impeded, movements are not nimble; all someone has to do is begin to guide you and your whole body is moved. If you use intent rather than force, wherever the intent goes, so goes the chi. In this way - because the chi and blood are flowing, circulating every day throughout the entire body, never stagnating - after a lot of practice, you will get true internal strength. That's what the taiji classics mean by "Only by being extremely soft are you able to achieve extreme hardness." Somebody who is really adept at taiji has arms which seem like silk wrapped around iron, immensely heavy. Someone who practices external martial arts, when he is using his force, seems very strong. But when not using force, he is very light and floating. By this we can see that his force is actually external, or superficial strength. The force used by external martial artists is especially easy to lead or deflect, hence it is not of much value.
- Synchronize Upper and Lower Body
In the taiji classics 'Synchronize Upper and Lower Body is expressed as: "With its root in the foot, emitting from the leg, governed by the waist, manifesting in the hands and fingers - from feet to legs to waist - complete everything in one impulse." * When hands move, the waist moves and legs move, and the gaze moves along with them. Only then can we say upper and lower body are synchronized. If one part doesn't move then it is not coordinated with the rest.
- Match Up Inner and Outer
What we are practicing in taiji depends on the spirit, hence the saying: "The spirit is the general, the body his troops". If you can raise your spirit, your movements will naturally be light and nimble, the form nothing more than empty and full, open and closed. When we say 'open', we don't just mean open the arms or legs; the mental intent must open along with the limbs. When we say 'close', we don't just mean close the arms or legs; the mental intent must close along with the limbs. If you can combine inner and outer into a single impulse*, then they become a seamless whole.
- (Practice) Continuously and Without Interruption
Strength in external martial arts is a kind of acquired, brute force, so it has a beginning and an end, times when it continues and times when it is cut off, such that when the old force is used up and new force hasn't yet arisen, there is a moment when it is extremely easy for the person to be constrained by an opponent. In taiji, we use intent rather than force, and from beginning to end, smoothly and ceaselessly, complete a cycle and return to the beginning, circulating endlessly. That is what the taiji classics mean by "Like the Yangtze or Yellow River, endlessly flowing." And again: "Moving strength is like unreeling silk threads". These both refer to unifying into a single impulse*.
- Seek Quiescence within Movement
External martial artists prize leaping and stopping as skill, and they do this till breath (chi) and strength are exhausted, so that after practicing they are all out of breath. In taiji we use quiescence to overcome movement, and even in movement, still have quiescence. So when you practice the form, the slower the better! When you do it slowly your breath becomes deep and long, the chi sinks to the cinnabar field (dan1 tian2) and naturally there is no deleterious constriction or enlargement of the blood vessels. If the student tries carefully he may be able to comprehend the meaning behind these words.
- How is Chinese Culture incorporated into Tai Chi?
- What is the difference between Internal and External martial arts?
1. How is Chinese Culture incorporated into Tai Chi?Chinese culture is developed from I-Ching and different schools of philosophy.
Tai Chi (one thing) eminates from wuji (ultimate nothingness). Tai Chi is the origin of dynamic and static states and separates into two - yin and yang. When there is movement, yin and yang separate. When there is no movement, they combine and become one.
Wu Sheng = 5 elements/principles. 5 elements are: fire, water, metal, wood and earth Each develops, controls and balances each other.
Earth is nourished by fire
Metal is created by earth
Metal dissolves to feed water
Water nourishes wood
Wood feeds fire
Water quenches fire
Fire tempers metal
Metal cuts wood
Wood restrains earth
Earth holds back water
Chinese medicine uses yin and yang. For example: Heart = fire; Liver = wood;
Kidney = water. When we are sick yin and yang are not in balance. Chinese medicine also uses Wu Sheng elements
2. What is the difference between Internal and External martial arts?With external martial arts one must be harder and stronger than their opponent in order to overcome the opponent.
Internal martial arts include Tai Chi, Hsing-I, and Bagua. We train to use soft ways to make body soft, follow opponent's energy. Like cotton - yielding. Inside and outside are coordinated together.
- After learning the hand form, what else do we learn?
- What is Push Hands and its basic principles?
- What forms and types of Push Hands is taught by the Yang Family?
- What weapons are part of the original Yang family Tai Chi?
- What is a Bow Stance?
- What is an Empty Stance?
- When practicing Tai Chi, should we concentrate on our breathing?
- What are some other things we should remember when practicing Tai Chi?
- How does the body move while practicing Tai Chi chuan?
- How do we keep upper body light and lower body solid?
- How do we keep our chi sinking down?
- What does it mean to be double weighted?
- Sometimes Tai Chi is referred to as the Long Fist. What is the meaning of Long Fist?
- What are the three treasures of the human body?
- What is Jing (Essence)?
- How does Jing (Essence) relate to Chi (Qi)?
- What is Shen (Spirit)?
- How Can we Raise our Shen (Spirit)?
- What is Wu De?
- What morals should we be adhering to?
1. After learning the hand form, what else do we learn?Students learn the Hand Form, Push Hands, and Weapons (sword, saber and staff). The hand form is the foundation for all other forms. After learning the hand form the student progresses to learn push hands. Push Hands teaches the student to apply the 8 energies taught in the hand form with an opponent/partner. The sword and saber teaches the student how to use a weapon. The sword and saber still follow the 10 essentials while maintaining the large, graceful, and even pace. The sword techniques are clear, light, flexible, lively and flowing and the saber techniques are heavy, powerful, and energetic and show strong spirit.
2. What is Push Hands and its basic principles?The basic principles for push hands is sticking, adhering, connecting, following with no resisting or separating from the opponent. If your opponent doesn't move, you don't move. When your opponent begins to move, then you move late and arrive/control first.
3. What forms and types of Push Hands is taught by the Yang Family?We have two forms of Push Hands - Fixed step and moving step. In Yang Style it includes 5 different types of push hands - single arm fixed step, double arm fixed step, moving step - straight footwork, moving step - cross footwork and big rollback.
4. What weapons are part of the original Yang family Tai Chi?The traditional Yang style actually doesn't have many weapons. In the main they are divided into two groups: long and short handled weapons.
The short weapons are the 67-move sword and 13-move saber.
For the long weapons we used to include the long spear (or Yang style 13-move spear), but later for safety reasons, removed the spear head so that it became a long staff. The techniques for the staff remain the same as the original spear form. Later the long staff practice turned mainly into a way of training to emit energy (fajing). This is usually referred to as dou gan or 'shivering staff.'
5. What is a Bow Stance?A bow stance is like the shape of an archer's stance. Knee follows the toe direction and doesn't go past the toe. Back leg is straight but not locked. Shoulder width between feet. Forward and back feet are rooted. If feet are too narrow (not shoulders width apart) you are not stable. Back foot points to corner or 45 degrees. Weight is 60% front, 40% back.
6. What is an Empty Stance?An Empty Stance is when your back leg and foot is pointed to the corner and the front foot is forward. The front foot touches with either the toe or heel. More weight is on the back leg and the front leg takes just a little bit of weight. The back leg knee is in line with toes. Do not cross heels. Stay on the other side of the centerline between the heels. Footwork is narrower. Weight is 30% front, 70% back. Do not lean back - keep centered.
7. When practicing Tai Chi, should we concentrate on our breathing?Breathing is natural, even. Sink your chi to the dantian. We don't talk too much about coordinating breathing with movements. With long movements you must breathe naturally - don't stop breathing because your energy will stop, chi will stop, and so movements and breath should be natural. Movements have to be coordinated with breath with simple movements.
8. What are some other things we should remember when practicing Tai Chi?Mouth: Keep mouth closed but not closed. Naturally closed. When mouth is dry, yin is not enough then cannot have yang.
Tongue: Touch tip of tongue to the roof of your mouth. This helps keep the mouth moist.
Shape of hand: Lift slightly, extend, bend your fingers, slight space between fingers. Same shape of palm. Don't go too soft or hard.
Relax: Remember to open the joints, tendons and bones while unifying the entire body during your practice. Tai Chi is a "whole body" exercise. The waist is very important as it leads your entire body. Energy is led from your root, which is located in the feet, exploded by the legs, controlled by the waist and expressed by the hands.
9. How does the body move while practicing Tai Chi chuan?The upper body is light, the middle body is flexible and the lower body solid and heavy.
10. How do we keep upper body light and lower body solid?Do not use too much force to keep the upper body light.
Keep your chi sinking down to keep the lower body solid.
11. How do we keep our chi sinking down?Do not hold your breath - keep breathing naturally. When you are calm, then your chi automatically sinks down.
12. What does it mean to be double weighted?Double weighted means that your "empty" and "full" are not clear. It makes it so you are not able to transfer between empty and full so you are not able to be flexible and agile. It makes your breathing unnatural, your energy stiff, and your whole body not flexible.
13. Sometimes Tai Chi is referred to as the Long Fist. What is the meaning of Long Fist?In the Tai Chi form the energy is continuously moving - no stopping. Like clouds moving, water flowing - it never stops.
With other forms of martial arts the meaning is the form is fast, movements are large but with Tai Chi it means that the energy continues like water, like clouds.
14. What are the three treasures of the human body?Jing (Essence)
Chi (Qi) (Vital Energy)
"Accumulate Shen to promote Chi
Accumulate Chi to promote Jing
Refine Jing until it becomes Chi
Refine Chi into Shen
Refine Shen to emptiness
This is the way to strengthen, support and increase the Jing, Chi and Shen of the body."
15. What is Jing (Essence)?Jing is a basic component of the human body and serves as a basis for vital activity. It is what we get from what we eat, the sun, the moon. In the Jing/Chi pair, Jing is more like Yin.
16. How does Jing (Essence) relate to Chi (Qi)?The meaning of Chi is simply, life! Life is due to the coming together of Chi, and death is due to the dispersion of Chi. It is a force promoting the activity of the human body. Chi coexists with Jing. Where there is Chi, there is Jing. Where there is Jing, there must be Chi. Chi is like energy. Chi is more like Yang.
17. What is Shen (Spirit)?Shen is derived from Jing and Chi, plus it has a substantial basis (Jing + Chi = Shen.) Shen is the outward manifestation of the cooperating action of Jing and Chi. Where Chi is strong, there will be Shen. Where Chi is absent, Shen will weaken. Shen moves along with Chi and Jing. The substance of Shen manifests itself in bodily appearance.
18. How Can we Raise our Shen (Spirit)?By follow the 10 Principles of Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan, the entire body is loose (song) and open allowing the (Jingshen) Vital Energy to be cultivated and be able to raise. Your spirit comes from your heart and shows out through your eyes. You must use your attention and concentration to help your spirit raise up.
19. What is Wu De?Wu De (martial virtue) is the established code of conduct (morals) for martial artists and covers two main areas: the actions and the mind set of the Practitioner.
In The Action, one should express Humility, Respect, Righteousness, Trust, and Loyalty.
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Why Are Avocados Good for You?
Avocados are one of the most nutritious foods you can eat with a creamy and satisfying taste and many benefits for your health and appearance.
Ahead is just about everything you could want to know about avocado fats, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other nutrition and just why they are so good for you.
6 Nutritional Benefits of Avocado
1. Fats in Avocado
The most common reason given for not enjoying eating avocados is because they are high in fat.
Fortunately, this type of outdated nutritional thinking is being replaced by an understanding that healthy fats, like those found abundantly in avocado, are vital for good health and even for losing weight.
While 100 grams of avocado usually has around 15 grams of fat, the majority of this is monounsaturated oleic acid. This is the same beneficial monounsaturated fat found in olive oil that makes the Mediterranean diet so good for you.
Recent research has demonstrated that a diet high in oleic acid can actually reduce high levels of potentially damaging LDL cholesterol at the same time as increasing protective HDL cholesterol. In fact, eating avocado has been specifically associated with a reduced risk of heart disease and a healthier cardiovascular system.
Oleic acid has also been shown to be much more likely to be used by the body as a slow burning energy source than stored as body fat when compared to saturated fat. Delicious avocado oil is an even better source of oleic acid and makes a much healthier replacement cooking oil.
See the page on avocado and weight loss for even more reasons why avocados are so good for your waistline.
Avocado nutritional benefits include a broad spectrum of antioxidant carotenoids such as beta-carotene, alpha-carotene and the less well-known beta-cryptoxanthin, chrysanthemaxanthin, violaxanthin, neoxanthin and neochrome.
These antioxidants provide important protection for your body’s cells from free-radical damage that leads to the visible signs of aging and diseases like cancer.
The strongest concentrations of these carotenoids are found just below the avocado skin, so make sure you eat as much as possible of the greener pulp there.
Lutein and zeaxanthin are two other special antioxidants found in good levels in avocados. They are uniquely important for protecting the macula area of your eyes that is responsible for short range vision and detail and allowing you read the words on this screen.
Having a diet high in lutein and zeaxanthin has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (the leading cause of blindness in the elderly) and cataracts later in life.
3. Avocado Vitamins
Vitamin C, itself a powerful antioxidant, is one of the many vitamins found in avocados that makes them so good for you.
There is around 15 mg of vitamin C in a cup of avocado, which is a quarter of the recommended daily allowance. Like most RDAs, this may be enough to prevent deficiency but it’s not likely to provide many health benefits.
Higher levels of vitamin C in the foods you eat will help protect against heart disease, improve circulation, boost your immunity and enhance collagen production for beautiful skin. Here’s a good list of the best vitamin C foods if you’d like to get more of it into your diet.
Vitamin E is also another strong antioxidant that avocados are rich in. Being fat soluble, it is particularly beneficial for preventing cholesterol oxidation that contributes to heart attacks and strokes.
Vitamin E can also enhance your appearance by allowing your skin to retain more moisture and protecting it from free radical damage that leads to wrinkles, sagging skin and other visible signs of aging.
A cup of chopped avocado contains around 3 mg of mixed vitamin E tocopherols and tocotrienols. It’s in this mixed form that the nutrient has been shown to have the most health benefits and avocado vitamin E is far superior to the alpha-tocopherol found in most multivitamins.
Most B vitamins are in avocados but they are highest in B5 at around 1.5 mg in 100 grams (which is 15% of the recommended daily allowance), B6 at close to 0.4 milligrams (which is 19% of the RDA) and folic acid at more than 120 mcg (which is 30% of the recommended intake).
All of these B vitamins are important for good health but natural folate can be particularly hard to get from foods. This is because so many of the supermarket foods we eat have it processed out of them.
Research shows that folic acid reduces homocysteine levels in the blood (a consistent marker for cardiovascular disease) and people with a good intake of this nutrient have a considerably lower risk of developing heart disease.
Folate is necessary for proper cellular growth and regeneration and is believed to have a role in preventing Alzheimer’s and certain types of cancer. This nutritional element is also very important for pregnant women to prevent fetal deformities in unborn babies so avocados are a good food to eat during pregnancy.
Avocado is good for vitamin K as well, with around a third of the RDA in one cup of the fresh fruit. This vital nutrient is involved in blood clotting, building healthy bones and proper calcium metabolism and vitamin K deficiency can be a factor in many diseases.
It’s doubtful many people realize just how many vitamins are in avocado and just how good for you they really are. With so much vitamin C, vitamin E, B vitamins and vitamin K, avocados really do deserve their nickname of ‘the big green vitamin pill’.
4. Mineral Content
Like most fruit and vegetables, the mineral content of avocados can vary significantly depending on the soil they are grown in. While avocados are not a crop usually associated with pesticide problems due to their thick outer skin, there is another reason why you may choose to buy organic avocados where possible.
Organic produce is usually grown in better soils that haven’t been so depleted of minerals by intensive conventional farming. The majority of comparisons I’ve read on organic versus conventional produce shows a higher (often significantly higher) mineral content for organically produced fruits and vegetables.
While amounts will vary, the highest levels of minerals in avocado on a recommended daily allowance basis are usually for manganese, copper, magnesium and potassium with lower, but still useful levels, of phosphorus, zinc, iodine, calcium and iron.
Having avocado in your diet can help reduce high cholesterol levels with their significant phytosterols content. Phytosterols, like beta-sitosterol found in avocados, are compounds that are structurally similar to cholesterol and can block its absorption during digestion.
Phytosterols also have anti-inflammatory properties and can be useful in helping to prevent diseases of inflammation like arthritis and heart disease. There have been positive studies recently associating beta-sitosterol with an increase in the body’s immune response.
Hass avocados, in particular, are a good source of phytosterols, but unrefined avocado oil is even richer in these beneficial nutrients. Switching from heavily processed and pro-inflammatory cooking oils like canola oil to inflammation reducing avocado oil would be a significant step to better health for many people.
6. Dietary Fiber
While it doesn’t taste like it, avocado is a good source of dietary fiber with approximately 8 grams per cup. This fiber content is primarily insoluble fiber for improving your digestion with some soluble fiber for regulating blood sugar and lowering cholesterol.
All the fiber in avocados, along with their healthy fats, is why they tend to fill you up so well and reduce hunger and cravings much more than quickly digested foods like grains or sugary fruits.
By eating avocados regularly you are giving your body a lot of what it needs to look and feel its best.
For a quick summary, the many nutritional elements in avocado provide:
- Slow burning and protective monounsaturated fats for a healthy heart.
- Anti-inflammatory and cholesterol reducing phytosterols.
- Powerful antioxidants to reduce free radical damage that leads to aging and disease.
- A broad spectrum of vitamins such as vitamin C, vitamin E, Vitamin K and B vitamins like B5, B6 and folic acid.
- Valuable minerals like manganese, copper, magnesium and potassium.
- And beneficial levels of dietary fiber in one of the most enjoyable ways to have it.
Also remember, if anyone asks you why are avocados good for you, then please share this information with them so more people can see and feel the benefits of one of nature’s healthiest foods.
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Hurting bodies and suffering minds often require the same treatment.
Pain, especially chronic pain, is an emotional condition as well as a physical sensation. It is a complex experience that affects thought, mood, and behavior and can lead to isolation, immobility, and drug dependence.
In those ways, it resembles depression, and the relationship is intimate. Pain is depressing, and depression causes and intensifies pain. People with chronic pain have three times the average risk of developing psychiatric symptoms — usually mood or anxiety disorders — and depressed patients have three times the average risk of developing chronic pain.
Medicating pain and depression
Almost every drug used in psychiatry can also serve as a pain medication. Relieving anxiety, fatigue, depression, or insomnia with mood stabilizers, benzodiazepines, or anticonvulsants will also ease any related pain. The most versatile of all psychiatric drugs, the antidepressants have an analgesic effect that may be at least partly independent of their effect on depression since it seems to occur at a lower dose.
The two major types of antidepressants, tricyclics and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), may have different roles in the treatment of pain. Amitriptyline (Elavil), a tricyclic, is one of the antidepressants most often recommended as an analgesic, partly because its sedative qualities can be helpful for people in pain. SSRIs such as fluoxetine (Prozac) and sertraline (Zoloft) may not be quite so effective as pain relievers, but their side effects are usually better tolerated, and they are less risky than tricyclic drugs. Some physicians prescribe an SSRI during the day and amitriptyline at bedtime for pain patients.
Both drug classes act in brain pathways that regulate mood and the perception of pain. Tricyclics heighten the activity of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and serotonin; SSRIs act more selectively on serotonin. Some researchers and clinicians believe that a newer antidepressant which acts strongly on both neurotransmitters, the so-called dual action drug venlafaxine (Effexor), is superior to both tricyclics and SSRIs for treating pain. So far, the evidence is inconclusive.
Physicians and psychiatrists are also considering the uncertain potential of the anticonvulsant drug gabapentin (Neurontin) and drugs that block the activity of substance P, another neurotransmitter involved in the regulation of both pain and depression. Electroconvulsive therapy, a standard treatment for severe depression, may have independent analgesic effects.
The association of depression with migraine headaches, which affect more than 10% of Americans, is especially close. One study found that over a two-year period, a person with a history of major depression was three times more likely than average to have a first migraine attack, and a person with a history of migraine was five times more likely than average to have a first episode of depression.
In somatoform disorders, including hypochondria, according to one theory, depression and anxiety are converted into physical symptoms. But often, when low energy, insomnia, and hopelessness resulting from depression and anxiety perpetuate and aggravate physical pain, it becomes almost impossible to tell which came first or where one leaves off and the other begins. In a statement by the International Association for the Study of Pain, pain is defined as "an unpleasant sensory or emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage."
The convergence of depression and pain is reflected in the circuitry of the nervous system. In the experience of pain, communication between body and brain goes both ways. Normally, the brain diverts signals of physical discomfort so that we can concentrate on the external world. When this shutoff mechanism is impaired, physical sensations, including pain, are more likely to become the center of attention. Brain pathways that handle the reception of pain signals, including the seat of emotions in the limbic region, use some of the same neurotransmitters involved in the regulation of mood, especially serotonin and norepinephrine. When regulation fails, pain is intensified along with sadness, hopelessness, and anxiety. And chronic pain, like chronic depression, can alter the functioning of the nervous system and perpetuate itself.
Fibromyalgia may illustrate these biological links between pain and depression. Its symptoms include widespread muscle pain and tenderness at certain pressure points, with no evidence of tissue damage. Brain scans of people with fibromyalgia show highly active pain centers, and the disorder is more closely associated with depression than most other medical conditions. Fibromyalgia could be caused by a brain malfunction that heightens sensitivity to both physical discomfort and mood changes.
Depression, disability, and pain
Depression contributes greatly to the disability caused by headaches, backaches, or arthritis. People in pain who are also depressed become extremely heavy consumers of medical services, even if they have no severe underlying illness. But that doesn't mean they receive better treatment; studies show that they actually use fewer mental health services than other patients with mood disorders. According to some estimates, more than 50% of depressed patients who visit general practitioners complain only of physical symptoms, and in most cases the symptoms include pain. Some studies suggest that if physicians tested all pain patients for depression, they might discover 60% of currently undetected depression.
Pain slows recovery from depression, and depression makes pain more difficult to treat; for example, it may cause patients to drop out of pain rehabilitation programs. Worse, both pain and depression feed on themselves, by changing both brain function and behavior. Depression leads to isolation and isolation leads to further depression; pain causes fear of movement, and immobility creates the conditions for further pain. When depression is treated, pain often fades into the background, and when pain goes away, so does much of the suffering that causes depression.
Treating pain and depression in combination
In pain rehabilitation centers, specialists treat both problems together, often with the same techniques, including progressive muscle relaxation, hypnosis, and meditation. Physicians prescribe standard analgesics — acetaminophen, aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and in severe cases, opiates — along with a variety of psychiatric drugs (see "Medicating pain and depression" box above).
Physical therapists provide exercises not only to break the vicious cycle of pain and immobility but also to help relieve depression. Cognitive and behavioral therapies teach pain patients how to avoid fearful anticipation, banish discouraging thoughts, and adjust everyday routines to ward off physical and emotional suffering. Psychotherapy helps demoralized patients and their families tell their stories and describe the experience of pain in its relation to other problems in their lives.
Pain specialists can improve their practice by learning more about the interactions among psychological, neurological, and hormonal influences that link pain and depression. Why do some people recover from injuries without pain while others develop chronic symptoms, and how is that process related to depression and anxiety? How do psychotherapy and antidepressant drugs affect brain function in depressed people with chronic pain? What kinds of psychotherapy are helpful for them, and how long should psychotherapy continue? In investigating these questions, and in all treatment of both pain and depression, the goal is not just comfort or the absence of symptoms but restoring the capacity to lead a productive life.
American Academy of Pain Management
An organization for professionals working with people in pain. It provides accreditation, continuing education, publications, and other services.
National Foundation for the Treatment of Pain
This organization provides comprehensive information and referrals to pain specialists.
American Chronic Pain Association
American Pain Foundation
These organizations provide information, advocacy, and support for chronic pain sufferers and their families.
Depression affects nearly 19 million adults each year, yet this common disease is often misunderstood or misdiagnosed. While depression can't simply be willed away by "shaking off" your blues, there are many effective treatments that can bring joy back into your life. Reading Understanding Depression and sharing it with those closest to you might help improve your life — or the life of someone close to you! | <urn:uuid:2e591dc6-87bd-4a60-b555-cc6aa88ee304> | {
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Mobile phone usage has exploded in Africa over the last few years, spurring economic growth and human development even where traditional Internet access is limited. But a new study points to a surprising side effect of cell phone proliferation: It actually increases violent conflicts across the continent.
At least 650 million people in Africa -- more than half the continent’s population -- are mobile users. That number continues to skyrocket; just 10 years ago, it was around 54 million. These devices not only help friends and family stay in touch; they are vehicles for commerce, education, development and innovation. Mobile money programs enable citizens to trade money for goods or services, using their phones in place of banks. Increased connectivity allows entrepreneurs to build support networks and expand their own services.
But according to a report published in the American Political Science Review, cell phones also come in handy for perpetrators of violence.
"Cell phone technology can increase the ability of rebel groups to overcome collective action problems. In particular, cell phones lead to a boost in the capacity of rebels to communicate and monitor in-group behavior, thus increasing in-group cooperation,” the report found. “Furthermore, cell phones allow for coordination of insurgent activity cross geographically distant locations.”
The study compared data on mobile service coverage with reports on the occurrence and locations of organized violence. High-conflict zones often overlapped with areas of mobile connectivity. Even when the researchers controlled for variables like population size, sectarianism and GDP-per-capita, they found evidence suggesting that mobile phones enhanced the coordinative capabilities of opposition groups, insurgents and other rebels.
These findings are not consistent around the world, as the study points out. A 2012 report on Iraq found that cell phone service coverage correlated with less successful violent attacks, not more. In that case, the connectivity had enabled Iraqi forces and Western troops to practice better surveillance.
In other words, the extent of violence encouraged by mobile phones depends on which actors are most effectively taking advantage of the technology. If violent groups in Africa are using their phones to organize attacks, security forces and government officials can counter them by making better use of mobile technology to prevent such incidents.
In their conclusion, study authors Jan Pierskalla and Florian Hollenbach noted that their findings do not imply that mobile phone usage has been harmful for Africa -- quite the contrary.
“We do not believe that the spread of cell phone technology has an overall negative effect on the African continent,” they wrote. “The increase in violence induced by better communication might represent a short-term technological shock, while the positive effects of better communication networks on growth and political behavior may mitigate root causes of conflict in the long run.” | <urn:uuid:de5e77a7-a557-42f9-8c53-c2b4f3907de3> | {
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From Slave to Pharaoh
The Black Experience of Ancient Egypt
Publication Year: 2004
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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List of Illustrations
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The present work is not a history of Nubia and the Sudan in antiquity, still less a history of Egypto-Nubian relations up to the seventh century B.C. The advent of complex society in the Nile Valley and the possible role and interaction of Nubia in the process of the development of the state are, similarly, not the burden...
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Despite its course through inimical terrain and its periodic interruption by cataracts (see map 1), the Nile constitutes one of the truly great and most easily negotiated transit corridors in the world. It also provides security and a guarantee of life. A community living along its banks is sheltered from hostile incursions from almost any point of the compass. Although it is a simple matter to keep in touch with people...
1. Egyptians and Nubians
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Human interaction between communities operates on many levels. Although conventional attitudes and propaganda do not necessarily characterize each one, at root lies an intensely personal identification of the individual which thrives on hostility, for one must not only, for purposes of safety and power, define and belong to the “kin” group, the “us,” but must...
2. The Problem of Frontiers
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Egypt enjoys the protection of a series of well-defined natural frontiers that enhance the meaning of boundary in the consciousness of anyone resident in the land.1 Rugged deserts east and west demarcate the limits of life with the sureness and abruptness of a single line, and the treacherous Mediterranean and the shelving beaches of the Delta prevent passage as effectively as a physical wall...
3. Nubia: Egypt's Primary Sphere of Influence
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Throughout all its ancient history Egypt oriented itself upriver: south would have been “up” on any pharaonic map large enough to include northeastern Africa. The word for “west,” imntt, was derived from the Afro-Asiatic root for “right hand,” and the verb “to go forward (by ship)” meant “to sail south.”...
4. "Plotting in Their Valleys": The Unruly Tribesmen
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By the last quarter of the third millennium B.C., northeastern Africa and the Levant were experiencing major changes on all fronts. The prosperous period of large towns in Palestine, labeled EB III in archaeological nomenclature, ended in the abandonment or destruction of these settlements and the absence of sedentary society thenceforth for several centuries.1 At the same time,...
5. From Chiefdom to State and Back Again: The Final Conquest of Kush
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The extraordinary effort expended by the pharaonic government of the Twelfth Dynasty to occupy and hold Nubia cannot be entirely explained by the attraction of natural resources: a certain degree of apprehension is attested in the preoccupation with military concerns. It has been noted that many of the forts at the Second Cataract are so sited as to maximize their potential...
6. The Egyptian Empire in Kush
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Although Thutmose I’s reign may be construed as a watershed in the history of the Sudan, his crushing victory did not mean that Egypt was automatically accepted by the autochthonous inhabitants. For more than a century it had to battle against increasingly isolated and weakened communities that saw no reason why they should relinquish their autonomy....
7. The Silent Years: The Abandonment of Lower Nubia and the Rise of Napata
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By the time of the first millennium B.C. the southland had entered a “dark age.” Herihor and his successors might well have displayed the old title “viceroy of Kush” as an expression of their claim to jurisdiction over the old Sudanese province,1 but it became increasingly a hollow claim. By the close of the Twentieth Dynasty, if not before, the inscriptions...
8. The Sudan Invades Egypt
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In the eyes of the youthful Nubian kingdom the vista that now opened to view in the old mother country to the north was anything but comforting. Frankly it was appalling. Gone were the piety and reverence and fear of god that had characterized the traditional Egypt of the New Kingdom. Egyptians were now a bastard race, shot through with the barbarity of godless foreigners....
9. The Invasion of Piankhy
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It must be remembered, when attempting to write a history of Egypt’s foreign involvement from about 900 to 525 B.C., that for most of our textual material we are reliant on non-Egyptian sources. The battle of Raphia points up the difficulties for the historian inherent in such a situation. If Sargon’s victory had been so complete, why had he not pursued—...
10. The Twenty-fourth Dynasty
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Tefnakhte died very shortly after Piankhy retired, but not before dedicating a parcel of land within his domains to Neit of Sa
11. The Resistance to Assyrian Expansion
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Unlike his deceased older brother, Sabaco did not retire to Napata after his victory over the north.1 Thebes became a focal point for the new regime, enhanced by the presence of Amenirdis I, Sabaco’s sister, as Divine Adoratress of Amun, but whether Sabaco himself established the city as his residence is uncertain. Though they wore upon occasion the expected crowns of the pharaohs, Sabaco and his successors...
12. "Taharqa the Conqueror"
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The date of Sabaco’s death is unknown at present. His latest dated inscription records a fifteenth year with a calendric of the eleventh day of the month Payni (= the tenth month),1 so that, if this text is accepted as genuine, he must have survived into the summer of 698 B.C. In accordance with Kushite custom, the throne passed...
13. Egypt of the "Black Pharaohs"
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The kings of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty had thus reinvigorated Egypt. Success had been enjoyed on the battlefield, and at home the extensive building program had signaled a revived economy. In the administration and state ideology, also, the Kushite regime had awakened Egypt and brought an end to the disastrous decline of the previous four centuries....
14. Thebes under the Twenty-fifth Dynasty
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The city that benefited most from the Sudanese occupation of the lower Nile was understandably the city of Amun himself, Thebes.1 The “southern city,” as it was known in a jargon fashioned in the Memphite-dominated north, had suffered a dramatic and damaging drop in population and diminution in spacial extent at the close of the Twentieth Dynasty,...
15. The End of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty in Egypt
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From Dynasties 22 through 26 Egypt’s desert frontiers, both east and west, remained reasonably secure. On the east the Wady Hammamat quarries were extensively worked, at least under the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, and the Red Sea offered, as it always had, an easily negotiated transit corridor to the south.1 If bedu continued to filter into the valley...
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Although no one realized it at the time, the disaster of 671 effectually terminated Kushite aspirations to control the entire Nile Valley to the Mediterranean. Two further Assyrian invasions in 666 and 663 B.C. drove home the point that Kushite arms could not sustain the claim to hegemony over Egypt which the kings of Napata asserted. And even in the face of the Assyrians’ brutality...
List of Abbreviations
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Page Count: 232
Illustrations: 38 halftones, 16 line drawings
Publication Year: 2004 | <urn:uuid:1dada4fa-ee8e-4bd7-90fe-389b2e4be3d8> | {
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The world is rich in resources with the potential to create wealth, but in order to be exploited they must first be identified. Looking down from orbit helps reveal resources on or under the land and sea that may otherwise go untapped.
Drawing on renewables
Counted among these are renewable resources represented by wind, wave and solar energy as well as hydro-electrical power harvested from fast-flowing rivers.
By returning data on hilltop snow cover or precipitation amount, satellite images capturing an entire river basin within a single acquisition enable accurate advance estimates to be made of future reservoir depth and hydropower production.
Space-based instruments also make possible the creation of wide-ranging 'sunshine indexes' for the optimal location of solar energy farms, and by recording incoming solar energy amount they provide an objective yardstick for checking existing farms are functioning efficiently.
Offshore energy and fisheries
Orbital sensors recording wind and wave parameters can provide the equivalent service for wind and wave farms – especially useful for positioning offshore facilities where meteorological statistics are not usually gathered.
The living natural resource that is the world's fisheries can be exploited more efficiently with ocean current and sea temperature data returned from satellite serving as a basis for guiding fishing fleets to areas where the catch of desired species is likely to be highest.
Prospecting from space
As our planet's oil and gas reserves dwindle, energy companies increasingly have to look further afield for fresh resources.
Offshore frontier areas such as the Arctic and south-east Asia have become an increased focus of interest, but the harshness and inaccessibility of these regions may make traditional mapping and exploration methods impractical.
Accordingly exploration managers are making increasing use of satellite data as a cost-effective means of carrying out large-scale surveying of unexplored areas. Wide-area satellite images have the potential to identify distinctive geological structures associated with oil and gas reservoirs and also mineral deposits. | <urn:uuid:45aaa8fe-671b-44a7-86f5-1882c256767e> | {
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Besides being a state of firsts when it comes to national parks and monuments, Wyoming is a state of women's firsts. It was the first state to grant women the right to vote and serve on a jury. The country's first female governor was elected in Wyoming in 1924. Because of these firsts, Wyoming is nicknamed the "Equality State."
Wyoming is named for the Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania. The word "Wyoming" comes from an Indian word meaning "large prairie place." The abbreviation for Wyoming is WY
Wyoming is a Rocky Mountain state bordered by Montana to the north, Nebraska and South Dakota to the east, Colorado and Utah to the south, and Idaho and Utah to the west. The state has the ninth largest area. However, it is the least populated state now that Alaska has more residents. Cheyenne, Wyoming's capital and largest city, is the state's only city with more than 50,000 residents.
One reason for Wyoming's small population is probably its landscape, which includes high, rugged terrain; valleys; plains; and large, flat treeless basins. The Continental Divide, known as the Crest of the Rockies, runs across the state. The state has many several-thousand-acre ranches. Because of this, the state's cities and towns are far apart. About 50 percent of Wyoming's land is used for grazing because its lofty, rugged terrain and sparse rainfall don't allow for much else. Over one million cattle and about 800,000 sheep feed on Wyoming's grasslands. Because the United States government owns almost half of Wyoming's land, federal agencies control much of the state's grazing, logging, and mining.
Even though Wyoming is known as a livestock-grazing state, mineral resources play a more important role in its economy. The state supplies more than half of the crude oil pumped in the Rockies. With 19 million acres of coal seams, Wyoming has the largest known coal reserves in the country. The state also has good-sized deposits of iron ore, silver, and copper.
Tourists visit Wyoming for its scenic beauty and historic places. Gape as the spectacular Old Faithful geyser erupts in a 150-foot-high column of steam in Yellowstone National Park, which is mainly located in the state. Yellowstone was the world's first national park. When Yellowstone was created in 1872, it became the first area in the country to be set aside from commercial exploitation. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Rocky Mountains.
While you're in Wyoming, go to Devils Tower National Monument, a spectacular 865-foot tower of volcanic rock that protrudes above the soil. It became the country's first national monument in 1906. It's located near the Bell Fourche River in the northeastern corner of the state. Visit Shoshone National Forest, the country's first national forest. If you want to see 60-million-year-old fish fossils, go to Fossil Butte, a national monument in Wyoming's southwest. It's one of the world's largest fossilized fish beds. Visit spectacular mountains in Grand Teton National Park. Celebrate Frontier Days in Cheyenne and visit museums that have impressive Indian and pioneer exhibits. | <urn:uuid:2dcdc27d-8158-47c0-b884-4d87b75247e1> | {
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North Carolina is home to a wide variety of aquatic plant species including green ash, buttonbush, American cupscale, common reed and sawgrass. North Carolina's moderate climate, extensive inland lakes and waterways, and coastal plain region provide an ideal environment for many aquatic trees, grasses and sedges.
Green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) is a tree species indigenous to wetland areas of North Carolina. Green ash can grow to 80 feet in height with green opposing leaves and inconspicuous flowers. Green ash prefers the lowland, brackish waters of the coastal plains.
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) is a deciduous shrub native to North Carolina that grows from 3 to 10 feet in height. Broad, green elliptical shaped leaves are arranged opposite each other on twigs extending outward from the central stem with white, tube-shaped flowers occurring in clumps or "buttons" in mid-summer. Buttonbush is commonly found on lowland shores of freshwater ponds, marshes and rivers.
American cupscale (Sacciolepis striata) is an aquatic, perennial grass that forms dense clumps up to 3 feet in height. The leaves of American cupscale grass extend outward from the central stem in thin, flat projections. The flowers form a thick, concentric ring around the upper stem above the water level and are brownish in color. American cupscale is found on the shoreline of North Carolina's freshwater marshes, lakes and rivers.
Common reed (Phragmites australis) is a perennial aquatic grass that can grow in excess of 12 feet tall, with narrow, flat leaves extending from a central stem that is round and hollow. Tan and purplish flowers bloom in clusters at the top of the central stem. Common reed grass grows in brackish, fresh and saltwater marshes and along the banks of streams and lakes.
Sawgrass (Cladium mariscus jamaicense) is a tall, perennial, aquatic sedge grass with coarse, thick stems extending up to 12 feet in height. Sawgrass grows in thick stands within brackish water in the coastal plain of North Carolina. Long, linear leaves arch outward from the stem with small seed pods dropping downward in thick clumps. | <urn:uuid:828c7fdc-9781-46a1-97bb-61c4e8e2affc> | {
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As an adulterer, Hester has broken Puritan society's harsh and strict rules. Puritan society demanded conformity because it considered any breach of that conformity a threat to its security and its religion. Hester doesn't conform and she suffers the consequences: the townspeople punish, shun, and humiliate her. The town seeks to use Hester as an example to frighten any other would-be nonconformists from breaking the strict moral rules of Puritanism. Yet Hester's unshakable faith in herself, her love for Dimmesdale, and her devotion to her daughter empower her to resist and transcend enforced Puritan conformity.
In general in The Scarlet Letter, the conflict between individuality and conformity is also a battle between appearance and reality. Because the Puritan government is so harsh, all Puritans are always concerned about looking like conformists to best fit in. This means that they hide the reality of their human flaws, frailties, and sins in order to avoid punishment. The result are secrets that are the embodiment of the disconnect between private individual reality and the need to maintain the appearance of public conformity. And though keeping secrets provide a short-term solution for the sinner to avoid punishment, the novel argues that repression of the individual behind a mask of secret-keeping conformity will ultimately warp and destroy a person's soul.
Individuality and Conformity ThemeTracker
Individuality and Conformity Quotes in The Scarlet Letter
"Yes, I hate him!" repeated Hester, more bitterly than before. "He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!"
"Not now, dear child," answered Hester. "But in days to come he will walk hand in hand with us. We will have a home and fireside of our own; and thou shalt sit upon his knee; and he will teach thee many things, and love thee dearly. Thou wilt love him; wilt thou not?"
"And will he always keep his hand over his heart?" inquired Pearl.
“Hold thy peace, dear little Pearl!" whispered her mother. “We must not always talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest. | <urn:uuid:40759afd-ac8f-4acd-8339-55d93606fdaf> | {
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08/20/2008 - The United States is one of the most religiously diverse countries in the world. Indeed, with adherents from all of the world’s major religions, the United States is truly a nation of religious minorities. Although Protestantism remains the dominant strain of Christianity in the United States, the Protestant tradition is divided into dozens of major denominations, all with unique beliefs, religious practices, and histories. Furthermore, Protestant Christianity’s dominance in the United States has waned in recent years.
In fact, a recent public opinion survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that the United States is on the verge of becoming a minority Protestant country for the first time in its history. The number of Americans who report that they are members of Protestant denominations now stands at barely 51 percent, down from more than 60 percent in the 1970s and 1980s.
Roman Catholics account for about a quarter of U.S. adults, and members of other Christian faiths account for an additional 3.3 percent. Overall, nearly eight in 10 adults report belonging to various forms of Christianity. Other world religions – including Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism – now have followers among about 5 percent of the U.S. adult population. Almost one in six adults are not affiliated with any particular religion, a population that has been growing in recent decades.
Religious diversity in the United States is driven by many factors, including immigration. America’s religious diversity also reflects the protections afforded to the free practice of religion under the U.S. Constitution. Not only do immigrants feel free to bring their religious beliefs and practices with them, but many Americans decide to change their religious affiliation at least once in their lives. Indeed, according to the Forum survey conducted in mid-2007, more than a quarter of American adults have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion – or no religion at all – and that does not include changes in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another.
Read the full report at america.gov.
This article was written by Brian J. Grim, Senior Research Fellow in Religion and World Affairs, and David Masci, Senior Research Fellow in Religion and Law, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. It was published by the U.S. State Department in the August 2008 edition of eJournal USA, “Freedom of Faith,” available at www.america.gov. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. government. | <urn:uuid:f0b2cd37-0ca5-46fc-b0fb-bad26469bd50> | {
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Destruction of Ocean Marine Ecosystems and Coral Reefs
Map of Location of World’s Coral Reefs
Map of World Seagrasses (which are important as a carbon sink)
Thermohaline Circulation of World Oceans
We are in the midst of a crisis relating to the destruction of our ocean marine ecosystems and coral reefs. It was long thought that the oceans were so vast that there were no limits to the amount of pollution we could dump in them and the number of fish that we could extract from them. Three things have caused an abrupt change in our understanding of the vulnerability of our oceans. One has been a mass die-off of coral reefs around the world. The second has been the depletion of fish species from over-fishing. The third has been the development of vast islands of floating garbage in the ocean. All of these things have caused us to re-evaluate our human impacts upon the ocean marine environment. One of the things that we have discovered is that the CO2 and air pollution of our human environment is creating a crisis of the acidification of the ocean. This threatens all the ocean marine ecosystems, but especially those of the coral reefs and shell fish which are most vulnerable to changes in the ph level of the oceans. Equally alarming are the increasing numbers of dead spots and large islands of floating garbage in the ocean. Ironically, one of the largest of the islands of floating garbage is located off the Islands of Hawaii, one of the most remote areas of the ocean, demonstrating that ocean currents carry pollution and garbage that we dump into the ocean to eventually all parts of the ocean. Finally, we have already experienced the collapse of significant fish populations, with scientists predicting that in the not too distant future we could see the end of much of existing commercial fishing. | <urn:uuid:76e767bc-6040-4e1e-9301-1dd90ed5dfbc> | {
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Kate found herself in one of the most vibrant cultures in north America. To understand this new environment and even the language, one needs to understand what is behind it. This section offers a brief snapshot of how life, society and history look like in Quebec.
Québec is French-speaking (the first language of more than 80% of the population). French is the official language and the one used most often in public life — at work, in communications, trade and business.
Québec is committed to preserving and promoting its official language. French represents not only an essential communication tool, but also a common symbol of belonging to Québec society. | <urn:uuid:a5f42c91-ba90-41f4-a87d-20804639c6d4> | {
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It's the future, and that being the case, you're going to want to talk to your smartphone and have it make heads or tails of what you're saying. Getting that to work can be a pretty tough job however, unless your phone can learn like a human. And as Wired explains, that's exactly what Google's Jelly Bean operating system does.
According to Google's Vincent Vanhoucke, a researcher who was integral in wrapping "neural network" technology into Android, voice recognition errors in Jelly Bean dropped a whole 25 percent thanks to the tech. As Vanhoucke explained to Wired:
"It really is changing the way that people behave." ...When you talk to Android's voice recognition software, the spectrogram of what you've said is chopped up and sent to eight different computers housed in Google's vast worldwide army of servers. It's then processed, using the neural network models built by Vanhoucke and his team.
And while neural network technology is most prevalent and advanced in Jelly Bean's voice capabilities, that's not where the application ends. Human-like brain-learning is also super promising when it comes to better and more useful image search capability. Eventually, it could help computers recognize images as actual objects instead of just jumbles of pixels.
It's a push towards a more intuitive style of computer-human interaction I think we can all get behind, at least until the SkyNet shows up. You can hop over to Wired to read more about it, and the awesomeness to come. [Wired] | <urn:uuid:a925ae7d-8a73-42e9-9b57-493da545b11a> | {
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What is the definition of personal finance?
Personal finance is a remarkably broad subject. The simplest way to define personal finance might be to take a look at each of the topics which come under the personal finance umbrella.
One of the fundamentals of personal finance is record keeping. It provides the foundation for everything else to build on. Keeping records means keeping track of all of your financial transactions. This includes what you earn, what you spend, what and where your savings (if any) are, insurance, and the list goes on. Record keeping can be as simple or as complex as you like. Some people will be thrive on tracking every individual cent that gets earned, saved and spent on a daily basis. Others will find this way too much overhead and will instead record approximate figures on a weekly or even monthly basis. Most people will find a working solution somewhere between these two extremes.
However you decide to do it, the main thing is to keep at it. Record keeping will enable you to understand what your financial position is now and how you've progressed over time. It will also provide valuable input into the planning process.
Budgeting could be considered the counterpart of record keeping. The two go arm in arm. Budgeting is the practice of estimating future income and expenditure. To create a budget you would normally offset your expenses against your income month by month for the next year (and beyond). That way you can see what the surplus or shortfall is each month. This can help with planning your investments or by identifying where your future cash flow problems might lie.
Another key area of personal finance is your financial position. Knowing this is key. When used in conjunction with your record keeping and budgeting, your statement of financial position is a key tool in meeting your financial goals. In it's simplest form, it's a document which lists your assets and your liabilities and which will hopefully show a surplus on the asset side. Even if it doesn't show a surplus of assets, it will provide you with a starting point on your road to freedom from debt.
Credit and other forms of Personal Debt.
And speaking of debt, this is another broad topic within personal finance. Not many of us can go through life without resorting to some sort of debt. Whether it's a mortgage to fund the purchase of a house, a personal loan to buy the car of our dreams or credit card debt to be used for day to day living and the odd larger consumer purchase, most of us will be in debt at some time or other.
But there are different types of debt. Borrowing money to finance investments can be a powerful wealth generating tool. However payday loans and other forms of cash advance are normally to be avoided if at all possible.
Saving and Investing.
Saving money is something we should all aspire to. It could be saving enough money to put aside in an emergency fund to provide a financial buffer in unforeseen circumstances. Or it might be saving for the kids' education or maybe even an overseas trip. And saving ties in nicely with budgeting. Saving is what we can do what the money which our budget tells us should be left over each month.
Then once you've accumulated some savings, you may look at how to invest them. Investing is a complex area with many complex investment products available. You might buy shares, real estate or a mutual fund. You can even invest in non-financial asset like art or wine providing you know what you are doing. Investing is how you take your accumulated saving and put them to best use to grow your wealth over the long term.
What does insurance have to do with personal finance? Well, what's the point in doing all of that hard work to get your personal finances in order just to see some catastrophic event wipe it all out? That's why insurance is such an important part of personal finance. Whether it's your house, your car, your income, your health or even your life, you need to make sure you have enough insurance for the worst case scenario.
Nobody likes paying tax, but with some careful planning and good advice, you can at least minimize the amount of tax you need to pay. I'm sure most people would agree that we pay more than enough tax already. And by organizing our personal finances better, we may be able to reduce our taxes freeing up more money to save and invest.
For some people this is what it's all about. You need to make sure that nest egg has grown large enough to support you once you stop paid employment. By putting the right strategies in place earlier in life you can help ensure you have a comfortable retirement.
Mastering each of the above topics should put you well on the way to living large in retirement.
They say that death and taxes are the two certainties in life. While nobody likes to think about their own mortality, it's important to consider your estate. How should it be distributed? Do you have any special wishes? Is your will up to date? A little planning and forethought may at least remove some of the financial worries from this difficult time.
I think the topics above cover this broad subject area reasonably well. In future posts, I will refer back to this "What Is Personal Finance" post often as I drill down on each of these topics. | <urn:uuid:e7b26fe1-31f7-4876-a683-68106d5d3556> | {
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Young adults are more likely to be heavy drinkers if they took their first drink of alcohol at an early age and also had to cope with stressful life events, a new study suggests.
"We found that the impact of stressful life events on drinking behavior depends on the age at first drink," study first author Dorothea Blomeyer, a senior researcher at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, said in a news release from Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
"The earliest [age at first drink] in our sample was 8 years; about half of the study participants had initiated alcohol drinking before they were 14 years old," Blomeyer said. "The earlier they start with alcohol use, the stronger the association between life stress and drinking in young adults. We found this interaction effect only for the variable 'total amount of alcohol,' not for the number of drinking days. This fits to the pattern of stress-related drinking, which is characterized by a higher number of drinks, and not so much by frequent drinking."
It's likely that people who start drinking at a very young age "learn to use alcohol in stressful situations during adolescence because research indicates that, during adolescence, drinking is particularly rewarding under stressful circumstances," Blomeyer said. | <urn:uuid:04428482-042f-4884-b529-baa98a7866eb> | {
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- Ontology Structure
- GO as a Graph
- One Ontology... or Three?
- Obsolete Terms
- Term Structure
- Essential Elements
- Optional Extras
- Sample GO Term
- Cross-Products and Logical Definitions
- Cross-Products with external ontologies
What is an Ontology?An ontology is a formal representation of a body of knowledge, within a given domain. Ontologies usually consist of a set of classes or terms with relations that operate between them. The domains that GO represents are biological processes, functions and cellular components.
GO as a GraphThe structure of GO can be described in terms of a graph, where each GO term is a node, and the relationships between the terms are edges between the nodes. GO is loosely hierarchical, with 'child' terms being more specialized than their 'parent' terms, but unlike a strict hierarchy, a term may have more than one parent term (note that the parent/child model does not hold true for all types of relation, see the relations documentation). For example, the biological process term hexose biosynthetic process has two parents, hexose metabolic process and monosaccharide biosynthetic process. This is because biosynthetic process is a subtype of metabolic process and a hexose is a subtype of monosaccharide.
The following diagram is a screenshot from the ontology editing software OBO-Edit, showing a small set of terms from the ontology.
A set of terms under the biological process node pigmentation.
In the diagram, relations between the terms are represented by the colored arrows; the letter in the box midway along each arrow is the relationship type. Note that the terms get more specialized going down the graph, with the most general terms—the root nodes, cellular component, biological process and molecular function—at the top of the graph. Terms may have more than one parent, and they may be connected to parent terms via different relations. The GO relations documentation describes these relations in greater detail.
One Ontology... or Three?As the diagram above suggests, the three GO domains (cellular component, biological process, and molecular function) are each represented by a root ontology term. All terms in a domain can trace their parentage to the root term, although there may be numerous different paths via varying numbers of intermediary terms to the ontology root. The three root nodes are unrelated and do not have a common parent node, and hence GO is three ontologies. Some graph-based software may require a single root node; in these cases, a "fake" term can be added as a parent of the three existing root nodes.
The three GO ontologies are is_a disjoint, meaning that no is_a relations operate between terms from the different ontologies. However, other relationships such as part_of and regulates do operate between the GO ontologies. For example the molecular function term 'cyclin-dependent protein kinase activity' is part_of the biological process 'cell cycle'.
Obsolete TermsOccasionally, a term is added to GO that is out of scope, misleadingly named or defined, or describes a concept that would be better represented in another way and needs to be removed from the published ontology. In these cases, the term and ID still persist in the ontology, but the term is tagged as obsolete, and all relationships to other terms are removed. A comment is added to the term, detailing the reason for the obsoletion and tags are also added that specify replacement terms. See the OBO file format specification for more information.
Unique identifier and term nameEvery term has a term name—e.g. mitochondrion, glucose transport, amino acid binding—and a unique zero-padded seven digit identifier (often called the term accession or term accession number) prefixed by GO:, e.g. GO:0005125 or GO:0060092. The numerical portion of the ID has no inherent meaning or relation to the position of the term in the ontologies. Ranges of GO IDs are assigned to individual ontology editors or editing groups, and can thus be used to trace who added the term.
NamespaceDenotes which of the three sub-ontologies—cellular component, biological process or molecular function—the term belongs to.
DefinitionA textual description of what the term represents, plus reference(s) to the source of the information. All new terms added to the ontology must have a definition; there remains a very small set of terms from the original ontology that lack definitions, but the vast majority of terms are defined.
Relationships to other termsOne or more links that capture how the term relates to other terms in the ontology. All terms (other than the root terms representing each namespace, above) have an is a sub-class relationship to another term; for example, GO:0015758 : glucose transport is a GO:0015749 : monosaccharide transport. The Gene Ontology employs a number of other relations, including part of (e.g. GO:0031966 : mitochondrial membrane part of GO:0005740 : mitochondrial envelope) and regulates (e.g. GO:0006916 : anti-apoptosis regulates GO:0012501 : programmed cell death). The relations documentation has more information on the relations used in the ontology.
Secondary IDsAlternate IDs that refer to a term. Secondary IDs come about when two or more terms are identical in meaning, and are merged into a single term. All terms IDs are preserved so that no information (for example, annotations to the merged IDs) is lost.
SynonymsAlternative words or phrases closely related in meaning to the term name, with indication of the relationship between the name and synonym given by the synonym scope. The scopes for GO synonyms are:
- an exact equivalent; interchangeable with the term name
- e.g. ornithine cycle is an exact synonym of urea cycle
- the synonym is broader than the term name
- e.g. cell division is a broad synonym of cytokinesis
- the synonym is narrower or more precise than the term name
- e.g. pyrimidine-dimer repair by photolyase is a narrow synonym of photoreactive repair
- the terms are related in some way not covered above
- e.g. cytochrome bc1 complex is a related synonym of ubiquinol-cytochrome-c reductase activity virulence is a related synonym of pathogenesis
Database cross-referencesDatabase cross-references, or dbxrefs, refer to identical or very similar objects in other databases. For instance, the molecular function term retinal isomerase activity is cross-referenced with the Enzyme Commission entry EC:18.104.22.168; the biological process term sulfate assimilation has the cross-reference MetaCyc:PWY-781.
CommentAny extra information about the term and its usage.
SubsetIndicates that the term belongs to a designated subset of terms, e.g. one of the GO slims.
Obsolete tagIndicates that the term has been deprecated and should not be used.
Sample GO TermThe following is a GO term taken from the OBO format file.
- id: GO:0016049
- name: cell growth
- namespace: biological_process
- def: "The process in which a cell irreversibly increases in size over time by accretion and biosynthetic production of matter similar to that already present." [GOC:ai]
- subset: goslim_generic
- subset: goslim_plant
- subset: gosubset_prok
- synonym: "cell expansion" RELATED
- synonym: "cellular growth" EXACT
- synonym: "growth of cell" EXACT
- is_a: GO:0009987 ! cellular process
- is_a: GO:0040007 ! growth
- relationship: part_of GO:0008361 ! regulation of cell size
Cross-Products and Logical DefinitionsTo be maximally useful, the Gene Ontology should be accessible to computers as well as to human users, enabling tools to access the data and perform tasks and analyses that would be time-consuming and work intensive for humans. One aspect that can aid automated access to the ontology is creating computable logical definitions to complement the existing text definitions. These logical definitions are in the genus-differentia form: the definition consists of the genus, the broader class to which the term belongs, and the differentia, the properties that distinguish the term from other members of the class. For example:
mitochondrial DNA replication is DNA replication that occurs in a mitochondrion
DNA replication is the genus and the differentia is occurs in a mitochondrion.
lysosomal membrane is the membrane that surrounds a lysosome
membrane is the genus and the differentia is surrounds a lysosome.
If we use ontology terms in the genus and the differentia, we can see that these logical definitions take the general form
term = term that relation term
mitochondrial DNA replication is DNA replication that occurs in a mitochondrion
lysosomal membrane is a membrane that surrounds a lysosome
These definitions of terms created by combining other terms with relations are called cross-products in GO parlance. In the OBO 1.2 format file, the human-readable text definition is held in the def line, and the cross-product definition in the intersection_of lines of a stanza. The cross-products above would be represented as follows:
- id: GO:0006264
- name: mitochondrial DNA replication
- def: "The process whereby new strands of DNA are synthesized in the mitochondrion." [source: GOC:ai]
- intersection_of: GO:0006260 ! DNA replication
- intersection_of: OBO_REL:occurs_in GO:0005739 ! mitochondrion
- id: GO:0005765
- name: lysosomal membrane
- def: "The lipid bilayer surrounding the lysosome and separating its contents from the cell cytoplasm." [source: GOC:ai]
- intersection_of: GO:0016020 ! membrane
- intersection_of: part_of GO:0005764 ! lysosome
Cross-Products with external ontologiesCross-products need not be restricted to terms within GO; cross-products can also be created by combining GO terms with those from other ontologies. For example, by using the Cell Ontology, we can easily extract cell type information from GO terms. For example:
megasporocyte nucleus (GO:0043076) is a nucleus (GO:0005634) that is part of a megasporocyte (CL:0000320)
- id: GO:0043076
- name: megasporocyte nucleus
- def: "The nucleus of a megasporocyte, a diploid cell that undergoes meiosis to produce four megaspores, and its descendents."
- [source: GOC:jl, ISBN:0618254153]
- intersection_of: GO:0005634 ! nucleus
- intersection_of: part_of CL:0000320 ! megasporocyte
osteoblast development (GO:0002076) is cell development (GO:0048468) that results in the complete development of an osteoblast (CL:0000062)
Cross-products are currently being retrofitted to existing ontology terms and added to new terms. Eventually, the hope is that cross-products could be dynamically generated, rather than having be added manually each time a new term is required. This would obviate the need for some of highly specific terms in GO—for example, many of the terms referring to organism anatomy or chemical entities—and simplify ontology searches and browsing.
- id: GO:0002076
- name: osteoblast development
- def: "The process whose specific outcome is the progression of an osteoblast over time, from its formation to the mature structure. Osteoblast development does not include the steps involved in committing a cranial neural crest cell or an osteoprogenitor cell to an osteoblast fate. An osteoblast is a cell that gives rise to bone." [source: GOC:dph]
- intersection_of: GO:0048468 ! cell development
- intersection_of: OBO_REL:results_in_complete_development_of CL:0000062 ! osteoblast
More information on the ongoing work on cross-products can be found in the cross-products category on the GO wiki. | <urn:uuid:d0ef4cbd-28cb-4e73-b617-6989a22254aa> | {
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Angkor saw a stegosaur?
Photo by Chris Maier.<www.UnexplainedEarth.com>
Stone carvings adorning the temples of Angkor, reclaimed from the jungles of modern-day Cambodia, depict aspects of everyday life along with Hindu and Buddhist mythology. They are 800 years old.
One of the glyphs1 appears to show what even most children today would readily identify as Stegosaurus, a dinosaur that evolutionary paleontologists say became extinct millions of years ago—supposedly long before man walked on this planet.
So how to explain the stegosaur glyph? There were no paleontology textbooks 800 years ago to show the ancient carvers what a reconstructed stegosaur fossil would have looked like.2 Clearly, the evolutionary history is wrong. Instead, dinosaurs once lived alongside man, just as the Bible says (Genesis 1:24–28, 6:19–20, 8:15–19; Job 40:15–19),3 which explains how the ancient people of Angkor could know what a stegosaur looked like.
References and notes
- From the temple of Ta Prohm. Maier, C., The fantastic creatures of Angkor, www.unexplainedearth.com/angkor.php, 9 February 2006.
- Even in the unlikely event that the ancient jungle-dwellers could have extricated a fossil from rock without modern techniques, it would not be obvious from the fossil alone what the original animal looked like. That has required the accumulation of specialist knowledge in modern times.
- See also Batten, D. (Ed.) et al., The Creation Answers Book, chapter 19: ‘What about the dinosaurs?’, pp. 235–253, Creation Ministries International, Brisbane, Australia, 2006.
It doesn't disprove evolution. If evidence surfaced that humans and dinosaurs co-existed, it merely brings into question the timing of extinction, rather than the evolutionary process. Intriguing though the similarities are to a stegasaurus, the resemblance is superficial. The head is too large and there are no spikes on the tail. One could argue that the image is based on word of mouth retellings or simply bad observation, but that is also supposition. By itself, it is not proof.
We never said it was proof. And you say that "if evidence surfaced that humans and dinosaurs co-existed, it merely brings into question the timing of extinction ...". Yes, it sure does, by about 65 million years! It would overturn every secular book written about dinosaurs that claims dinos became extinct before man appeared. (In other words, in my experience, every secular dino book!)
As for your other straw-clutchings, an article in the next Creation magazine addresses those (and other) skeptical 'objections':
O'Brien, J. and Doyle, S., Did Angkor really see a dinosaur?, Creation 35(2):41-43, 2013.
I just read a comment on another website claiming this stone had been recently "faked". The reason they gave was that the stone was a different colour to the surrounding stones and therefore "newer". The face of this particular stone had clearly been cleaned for photographic clarity and the old dirt deposits are still seen in the more inaccessible recesses of the carving. The other visible face of the stone is just as weathered as all the other stones. So if someone had the wherewithal to execute such a fake, why match the clear weathering on one face of the stone and not the face bearing the carving? Ridiculous. What they also failed to mention was the near impossibility of removing the surrounding stone and then replacing it all leaving no evidence of such interference. I suppose it just shows the lengths to which the anti-creationists will go to discredit the clear evidence before them simply because it does not fit their long-age paradigm (2 Peter 3:3-7) | <urn:uuid:a102cbe9-41d5-4b65-9b4c-d67c3ace3241> | {
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|Credit: Pencil point image via Shutterstock|
A pop quiz every now and then might be the best way to get the most out of employees, a new study finds.
Research published by the by the American Psychological Association revealed that older adults who haven't been in school for a while learn just as much from tests as do younger adults. And people of all ages learn more when tested on material, compared to when they simply re-read or re-study information.
"The use of testing as a way to learn new information has been thoroughly examined in young students," said the study's lead author, Ashley Meyer, a cognitive psychologist with the Houston Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence. "This research builds on that and supports the notion that educators, or even employers, can use tests to increase learning in adults of all ages."
As part of the study, researchers gave participants 15 minutes to study and read materials on four separate topics. The participants then took a multiple-choice test on two of the four topics. The tests were then graded, and participants were given their scores.
Following that, the participants restudied the other two topics that the test had not covered. Some participants then took a final exam, which tested them on all four subjects. This exam was more difficult, since it required participants to write answers rather than simply select from multiple choices. Some participants took the test right away, while others took it two days later.
Researchers found that adults of various ages improved their retention of new information when they were tested on the material and received feedback on their scores, compared to when they just re-studied the material. And this improvement was similar to that shown by college students.
"Both groups benefited from the initial testing more than the additional studying," Meyer said. "Taking the test and then being told how many answers they got wrong or correct was enough for these adults to improve their memory of the material as shown in a final, more difficult test."
Participants who took the final test on the same day as the study period did significantly better than those who took it a couple of days later. However, older adults, who presumably have poorer memories than young college students, still showed improved retention after a two-day delay for previously tested material as compared to re-studied material.
"Working adults often need to gain new skills or knowledge as they advance through their careers," said Meyer. "Our research suggests that testing may be one way to help them improve and move up."
The study, co-authored by Rice University's Jessica Logan, was recently published online in the journal Psychology and Aging. | <urn:uuid:f16472e6-259b-4264-90bf-d6b48faf2550> | {
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There are three main instructional design methods I have explored - ADDIE, Backward design, and the TIP models. All three instructional design models have their benefits and challenges; however, I would choose the backward design approach. I think backward design is similar to the ADDIE model, in that both agree that courses should be "logically inferred from the results sought, not derived from the methods, books, and activities with which we are most comfortable" (Wiggins & McTighe, 2013). According to the ADDIE model's analysis phase designers should "identif[y] the learning problem, goals and objectives" (ADDIE model, n.d.). I prefer the backward design because it is more stream-lined.
Click below for more information on backward design.
This approach is beneficial because if I know the objectives and desired results, I can design the material before the class begins more effectively. Though that should be done anyway, but usually "teachers begin with and remain focused on textbooks, favored lessons, and time-honored activities—the inputs—rather than deriving those means from what is implied in the desired results" (Wiggins & McTighe, 2013). Especially when designing for an online course, where reactions to the content and activities will be harder to foresee and react to by the nature of the technology, it is essential that we are not being distracted by a new website or game software we want to use, but instead design with the desired outcomes in mind and only use that software if it is actually useful for the learning desired.
Another reason I would choose the backward design, and I feel it is more stream-lined, is that feedback is a main focus of the method Wiggins and McTighe elaborate on in their book Understanding by Design. In the ADDIE model, it is the final phase, though it is pointed out it should be utilized throughout the process, it is last. The emphasis on feedback is not strong enough in the ADDIE model and should be more important since "researchers argue that feedback on successful actions encourages individuals to invest more resources in pursuit of other, similar actions" (Fishback & Finkelstein, n.d.). In other words, more feedback means more motivation from the students, which is important when there are no teachers present. This is something to consider before planning the course, how will the feedback be implemented.
These reasons, and the organization around an essential question in the backward design model, will help me frame and create the plans I need for designing the course. Organizing around the main principle that I need to first consider the objectives and what evidence I will need from the students to show mastery of those objectives will help me design a course that will always be keeping the students on-track for reaching those goals.
The challenges I foresee in this model are in the relating the learning to another instructor. This is where the ADDIE model would be beneficial. The details in which the ADDIE model considers each and every step in the designing process would help make sure no stone was left un-turned. Backward design is more open-ended and free for choosing other methodology in planning individual lessons, so it is not beneficial for the lesson-to-lesson planning, where ADDIE would be (ADDIE model, n.d.).
Ideally, the combination of the two would be the most beneficial. Backward design would be the framework for the course and ADDIE would cover the details more thoroughly.
Click below for an instructional design flowchart for help designing an e-learning course.
ADDIE Model. (n.d.). Learning-Theories.com: Knowledge base. Retrieved from http://www.learning-theories.com/addie-model.html
Fishbach, A. & Finkelstein, S. (n.d.). How Feedback Influences Persistence, Disengagement, and Change in Goal Pursuit. Goal-directed behavior. Psychology Press. Retrieved from http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/ayelet.fishbach/research/Feedback_Frontiers.pdf
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2013, February). Backward design: Why “backward” is best. Retrieved fromhttp://edublog.cmich.edu/edu345-cunningham/files/2013/02/Backward-Design-Wiggins-McTighe.pdf | <urn:uuid:e9bf16ef-e56b-45f8-a5f9-2b32b257dc1e> | {
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multimodal communication and learners with hearing impairment
The purpose of this study was to gain descriptive understanding of the teachers perceptions and application of multimodal communication in the instruction of learners with hearing impairment in inclusive classrooms. In particular it was aimed at finding out how teachers perceive multimodal communication. This included the practice in a classroom milieu where learners with hearing impairment are instructed together with their hearing counterparts. The study followed a qualitative case study design. The reason for choosing this design was to study the phenomena in depth. In order to gain deeper understanding of the phenomenon, three cases were studied using non-participant observation strategy. Observation was used to ascertain the multimodal communication practices of the cases in their respective classrooms. Thus, observation was used as the main method complemented by in-depth interview.
Few people would deny the increasing global drive towards inclusive education. Implications of this include education for learners with hearing impairment (HI) in inclusive mainstream schools. This book explores communication strategies utilized by teachers and other professionals for learners with HI in inclusive mainstream school settings based on empirical research. Issues discussed include strategies used for communication, factors affecting communication strategy selection, how they compare to those of hearing learners, and views about their suitability. Strategies discussed include listening training, use of sign language interpreters, visuals cues and aids among others. School policy is presented as a significant factor in choice of communication strategy. Others include professional competencies, amplification technology and class environment. Debates around what communication strategy is most suitable for learners with hearing impairment in inclusive settings are also presented. This book targets educators and teaching staff in academic institutions, college and university students in the field of education, particularly in special and inclusive education.
communication problems are not only a concern to the families of a child with hearing impairment but to the school and community where the child spends most of their daytime as well. Unfortunately, working with functional communication of children with hearing impairment in Uganda has been waiting until the child joins school. This publication identifies these challenges and opportunities that are available for early communication intervention for children with hearing impairment in Uganda. It recommends practical ways to enhance functional communication between a child with hearing impairment and the surrounding peers and adults. The experiences generated through this study are plausible opportunities for other countries.
The study was aimed to investigate differences in syntactic performance between children with normal hearing and children with hearing impairment.240 children were selected and divided into 2 groups of 120 children with normal hearing and 120 children with hearing impairment. Results revealed that children with normal hearing showed better syntactic performance in terms of reception and expression when compared to children with hearing impairment.Among children with hearing impairment,children in Non-government special schools show better performance on syntax as compared to children studying in Govt. special schools. In terms of Gender girls performed better than boys and children following oral communication performed better than total communication method. The implications for both educators and researchers are to understand the syntactic development of Telugu speaking children with hearing impairment and design treatment programs to improve syntactic and semantic–syntactic relational skills. The administrators can also plan and develop curriculum for improving the syntactic performance and also develop relevant teaching aids for children with hearing impairment.
How children born with severe hearing loss map phonological structures of their language with its orthography is under researched in relation to Indian languages. The research described in this monograph addresses the question of how to assess and train phonological and orthographic awareness in Telugu children with prelingual hearing impairment. A screening test of linguistic awareness and a set of fifty six lessons to enhance linguistic awareness in Telugu have been developed by the author. The contents of this book describe the research process and the efficacy of the material developed. It provides a detailed review of the literature, extensive references and sample lessons in linguistic awareness. The book will be of use to clinicians and researchers in the fields of communication disorders and clinical linguistics.
The main objective of the study is to investigate the parenting stress, emotional coping, psychological adjustment and psychological distress among mothers of children with hearing impairment and normal hearing children. Sample: The sample comprised of 300 subjects i.e., 150 mothers of (clinical group) children with hearing impairment and 150 mothers (control group) of children with normal hearing. The age range of the sample was 18 - 42 years. The mean age of mothers was 27.18 years. The age range of the children was 14 - 60 months. Criteria for inclusion in the hearing impaired children were severe or profound hearing loss (defined as a loss of 70 db or greater across the speaking range) and no other physical disabilities.
The Research has revealed that the lack of adequate and appropriate parental involvement at mainstream schools admitting learners with mild intellectual impairment is influenced by factors such as poor socio-economic background, high illiteracy, cultural beliefs, and parents' denial of intellectual impairment,diversity, lack of teacher training in parental involvement, lack of healthy inclusive climate charecteristics, parents' attitudes and perceptions.
This book is based on the original work and investigates some of acoustic characteristics of Telugu speaking children with hearing impairment using amplification devices. The results indicate a significant difference in the Fundamental frequency (F0), Formant frequencies (F1,F2 and F3), Bandwidths (B1,B2 and B3), Vowel duration and word duration for all the vowels between normal hearing group and hearing aid group, normal hearing group and cochlear implant group and hearing aid group and cochlear implant group. These findings would help in understanding the normal and deviant acoustic characteristics of speech sounds in children with hearing impairment which will help in facilitating the oral production skills by identifying the acoustic parameters that are deviant and also the extent of deviation. The findings acts as a precursor to plan therapy to improve the speech intelligibility and also also helps in determining the effectiveness of the type of listening devices used by the children with hearing impairment.
Deaf and hard-of-hearing students in a Colombian University are required to enroll in English courses as a graduation fulfillment. This research aims to reveal what communicative practices promote and facilitate the learning of English literacy of these learners under an integration approach with hearing peers. The findings obtained suggest that communicative practices such as using writing as a mean of communication, implementing role plays and using transcripts in order to include deaf learners into the listening tasks were implemented satisfactorily and promoted inclusion of the deaf and most of the times literacy development.
Hearing impairment is a major cause of delay in acquisition of speech and language, particularly at risk are newborns admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Hearing loss, especially in mild and moderate forms, may not be recognized before the second year of life, but it may produce great defects in conversational abilities. Further, it eventually affects the learning, social and emotional growth. Screening is one of the most important methods of early diagnosis of hearing loss which can be easily done in newborns and infants by Otoacoustic Emission (OAE) and Auditory Brain Response Audiomerty (ABR). Otoacoustic emission (OAE) is quick, cost effective and valid method of testing cochlear function, generated by motile elements in the cochlear outer hair cells. Evoked otoacoustic emissions (OAE) are acoustic signals generated from within the cochlea that travel in a reverse direction through the middle ear space and tympanic membrane out to the ear canal. In our study we assessed the hearing impairment in NICU graduates and identified the risk factors for the same.
This book ‘Family Burden and Social Support - Mothers of children with Hearing Impairment’ is a collection of details regarding various Psychological stress and burden of mothers who are taking care of their children with Hearing impairment. This research has carried out in various rehabilitation centers at Hyderabad named Sweekaar Rehabilitation Institute for Handicapped and National Institute for Mentally Handicapped, and Tagore Hariprasad Rehabilitation Center, during the period of 2010 - 2011. Book includes five chapters with references; it explains various psycho-social problems of mothers of children with hearing impairment in detail. It was comparative experimental design with control group of mothers of normal children. The mothers of children with hearing impaired are experiencing more burden than normal children but no difference found on social support.
This project is designed to use a computer application program as a hearing aid in order to help students who have hearing impairments (HI students) by making an application for learning them. This idea has came to the existence through working as a teacher and it has been concluded within the work on a research project that shall serve both teacher and student, and it shall go ahead to complete the idea of this vital project. The project's idea depends on transferring traditional Arabic fonts to sign language fonts that can be read by students with hearing Impairments. The main objective of this significant project is to facilitate the processes of teaching and learning for HI students and completely communicate with them by using sign language fonts, reading lips through recorded videos, facial expressions through recorded videos and saved pictures, and audio assistant (computer speakers).
Children with hearing impairment are at risk for serious literacy difficulty. Multiple factors influence overall literacy development. Degree of hearing loss, age of identification and intervention, amplification, received family background etc. are the contributory factors to attain success in literary. The book will help parents and special educators to understand the language development aspects of hearing impaired students to overcome the literacy difficulty of such students.
The process of Hearing empowers us and enriches our lives. It provides us with an enormous source of information, some of it obvious and some we barely notice but when combined, this information forms the bridge between the world and how we interact with it. The critical development for speech and language is said to be between birth and 5-6 years. This is where the parameters of language including syntax would take early stages of prominence. Therefore this book, in specific highlights the receptive performance of transitives, intransitives and causatives and its variations in a South Indian Dravidian language namely Kannada in a Hearing Impaired Child. This book provides an insight into the variations in Kannada in the comprehension of verb forms and its effects on a school going Hearing Impaired Child.
Dozens of decades have passed but there seem to be no agreed position on the best communication methods for learners who are deaf.Current trends are pointing towards inclusive education but a lot of research has so far showed that learners with severe to profound deafness can not fully discover their potential in an ordinary inclusive classroom.Some scholars are reporting positive results where reverse inclusion is used. In this book an evaluation of the use of the oral-aural approach under a reverse inclusion environment was made at Emerald Hill school for the Deaf in Zimbabwe.Focus areas included attitude change and speech and language development. The results showed that there was a positive impact on the attitudes of hearing peers and among hearing parents with hearing impaired children. On the other hand the impact recorded on the attitudes of deaf parents with deaf pupils, academic performance and speech development of learners with hearing impairments was insignificant. The study recommended that a longitudinal study be carried to establish the long term effects of the approach.Beneficiaries of the book include educationists,teachers, lecturers, schools, parents etc.
This case study tried to find answers to the questions regarding how the preparation process and the execution process of the program were carried out prior to the application of the Phonic-Based Sentence Method to hearing-impaired students, how the applications were carried out and what changes occurred in the performances of the hearing-impaired students participating in the study. During the application of the Phonic-Based Sentence Method to hearing-impaired students, the Teachers’ Book was used, yet the activities in the book were extended and increased in number with different materials. During the application, in order to raise the phonetic awareness of the hearing-impaired students and to integrate reading and writing studies, such activities in the Balanced Literacy Approach as reading a story to the class, storytelling, use of sorted cards and production of classroom books were carried out. It was found out that at the end of the academic year, the seven hearing-impaired students participating in the study were able to read and write the sentences used in the Phonic-Based Sentence Method as well as were able to do analysis as independent readers. | <urn:uuid:ce06d932-7528-4cf0-8d0b-29a7bd42d9cf> | {
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Charlotte Zolotow (author), William Pene Du Bois (illustrator)
More than anything William wants a doll. He wants to take the doll to the park, push it in the swing, bring it home, kiss it goodnight and wake it up again in the morning, just as if he were its father and it was his baby.
William dutifully plays with the train set his father gives him. He gets quite good at shooting the basketball from his father. Still, though, he wants a doll. His brother and friends call him a creep, but what will Grandma say when she finds out?
William’s Doll has been in print for forty-plus years because it does what a really good story is does best; it allows the reader to enter someone’s experience in a meaningful and touching way, without schmaltz or heavy-handed moralizing.
Zolotow’s tone is warmly matter of fact, as if written in the voice of the grandmother character. The grandmother in the story is what we should all aspire to be if we are blessed with a grandparent role. She is interested, attentive, kind, and gives her grandchild the space to be who he is.
Part of the beauty of Zolotow’s book is that she expresses the tension of the character’s experience with gentle, skilled, and spare writing. When William confesses his desire to care for a doll, his grandmother’s simply says, “Wonderful.” When he explains that it isn’t wonderful to his brother or father, she simply says “Nonsense.”
Without ever sounding heavy handed or appearing to baldly push home a point, Zolotow’s story makes several very strong ones. The nurturing capacity of men and boys and the importance of fatherhood ring throughout this book. The innocent nature of children simply being who they are regardless of gender is made abundantly clear. The power of caring adults to gently and clearly speak out on a child’s behalf is evident.
There has been much change in our society and our congregations in the forty some years since this book was written. Men are allowed and expected to play nurturing roles as parents and grandparents in ways they rarely were allowed when the book was written. Men and children have benefited from that greatly. And yet, we have not come so far that this book is no longer relevant. Far from it.
At various developmental stages, children tend to take in and amplify gender expectations. They are trying to make sense of the rules of the world and how they fit in. This book, read in their place of worship, will help them to understand that a loving, kind, and accepting response is more important than whether someone fits into “the rules” of convention. This book will be especially powerful in helping them know they are each valuable and okay as they are, even if they are different than their peers. It is a powerful illustration of non-judgment and compassion, cornerstones of every religion.
Themes: non-judgment, compassion, acceptance, difference, bullying, gender, fatherhood, parenting, teasing,
Motifs: Doll, Toy, Train, Basketball, Father, Son, Grandparent, Grandmother
Reviewer: Kristin Maier
author, A Good Telling: Bringing Worship to Life with Story | <urn:uuid:88d92dc7-0c10-4a63-9aa8-7e3ea7106497> | {
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Diabetics can Protect Their Nerves
By Julie Monheim, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent
ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Intense blood sugar monitoring may help people with type 1 diabetes reduce their risk of nerve damage.
Researchers presented the results of their study today at the American Diabetes Association’s 64th Annual Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Fla.
The study involved more than 1,400 patients with type 1 diabetes. Each participant was assigned to practice either standard or intense diabetes control.
Patients in the standard therapy group checked their blood sugar one or two times daily and gave themselves only one or two injections of insulin. On the other hand, patients in the intensive therapy group checked their blood sugar at least four times a day and had at least three insulin injections a day or treatment with an insulin pump.
Patients who kept intense control of their blood sugar levels for about six years had a lower risk of developing nerve damage. Researchers say even those who stopped the intensive therapy were about one-third less likely to develop nerve damage years later.
Catherine L. Martin, M.S., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, says, “The take-home message is that good glucose control should be started as early as possible.”
Researchers say about 1 million people in the United States have type 1 diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.
Martin concludes, “Intensive therapy has a long-lasting effect in delaying progression of neuropathy.”
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: /newsalert/.
SOURCE: Julie Monheim at the American Diabetes Association’s 64th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Fla., June 4-8, 2004 | <urn:uuid:77eecc95-107a-444a-904d-12ec16c763a9> | {
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comma (APA 3.02; see CMS 5.295.70 for detailed treatment of specific cases.)
This most common punctuation mark is also the most problematic. Some authorities try to fashion a few general rules to guide us in deciding when to use commas and when not. A good example is APA 3.02, which treats the topic in
about one page of loosely spaced type. Other authorities provide dozens, sometimes hundreds of rules in an attempt to be comprehensive. The Chicago Manual of Style, Chap. 5.295.70, is a case in point; CMS offers 40 separate rules (and many more specific exceptions) in over 10 pages of small, tightly spaced type.
Although APAs general rules do not cover every case, they are very sensible and are summarized here. If these rules are not specific enough to answer your question, try CMS.
commas and quotation marks (APA 3.36)
Although variations are conceivable, the APA rule here is simple and straightforward: Place commas within quotation marks. Period. Why make things more complicated than this?
1. Always use a comma
a. To separate items in a series. Note that the so-called optional comma before the words and and or should always be used in IRA Style (see serial comma):
Subjects in the experiment spoke French, Vietnamese, and English.
The idea was developed by Peirce, Dewey, and Whitehead in the 1920s.
David Lean directed films as diverse as The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and A Passage to India. (See commas, italic and roman.)
b. To separate two independent clauses joined by a conjunction:
The classroom was filled with light, and colorful books filled the shelves.
Twelve subjects completed the test, but the results were inconclusive.
c. To set off nonrestrictive (that is, nonessential) modifiers (see restrictive and nonrestrictive modifiers):
The first edition, which was published in 1837, was neither a critical nor a commercial success.
Page proofs, which are prepared after the galleys, incorporate earlier corrections and alterations.
d. To set off the year when month, day, and year are given (note commas precede and follow the year). If only the month and year are given, do not use commas:
Tuesday, January 12, 1982, was a day I will always remember.
Work on the project was completed between January 1982 and March 1983.
e. Preceding and following elements in place names, business names, academic degrees, etc.:
Before moving to Madison, Wisconsin, the author lived in New Delhi, India, with her parents and younger siblings.
Lima, Peru, is the home of one of the oldest libraries in the Western Hemisphere.
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., is located at 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY.
Thomas Godfrey Roberts Sr. was born in Ballston Spa, New York, in January 1882. (note exception here).
Earlene T. Winford, PhD, will be a guest speaker at the conference.
Exception: This rule has been modified for Jr., Sr., and other generational suffixes. See entry for Jr.
f. To separate words that might otherwise be misread as closely related:
After the bear had eaten the zookeeper cleaned its cage. (Do you see a problem here?)
After the bear had eaten, the zookeeper cleaned its cage. (Do you see the difference?)
Reading Today reaches every IRA member delivering news about the profession.
Reading Today reaches every IRA member, delivering news about the profession.
(Without the comma, the members are delivering the news. With the comma, RTy is delivering the news.)
g. To avoid squinting modifiers and similarly ambiguous constructions:
When space is available on-site registration can be accepted.
(As it stands, this sentence is ambiguous. Place a comma after available if you are referring to on-site registration. Place a comma after on-site if you are refering to space on-site.)
2. Never use a comma
a. Between the two parts of a two-part compound predicate:
The classroom was filled with light and piled to the ceiling with colorful books.
The class read the passage silently and then composed a brief summary.
Whitman was an ardent admirer of Abraham Lincoln and wrote several poems in memory of the slain president.
b. Between a restrictive modifier and the word it modifies (see restrictive and nonrestrictive modifiers):
The first book that Whitman published was neither a critical nor a commercial success.
Page proofs that require few alterations may be sent to the indexer immediately.
c. After the conjunctions and, but, or, for, so, or yet, unless the comma sets off a parenthetical phrase or clause (i.e., one that interrupts the main idea of the sentence):
Exceptions are possible, but (not but,) I don't see anything exceptional about this case.
But (not but,) she managed to win the Nobel Prize for Literature after all, even though the winning novel was her first published work.
Exceptions are possible but, by definition, quite rare.
commas, italic and roman
1. A comma that falls within a title or other italicized matter should be set in italics.
C.S. Lewiss novel The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950) is an allegory.
2. A comma that falls between items in italics should be set in roman.
C.S. Lewiss allegorical trilogy comprises the novels Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.
Exception: In text published in HTML, punctuation that immediately follows an italicized word or phrase should also be set in italics.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
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A flexible, bomb-proof luggage hold for aircraft is being tested by a team of international researchers.
It could replace the heavier, more expensive hardened luggage containers that are currently used as a precaution against the threat of in-flight explosions.
The Fly-Bag has multiple layers of novel fabrics, composites and coatings, and is designed to be filled with passenger luggage and then placed in the hold of an aircraft.
Fundamental to the design of the bag is the internal elastomeric coating and impregnation of fabric with shear thickening fluids (STFs), as project collaborator Dr Jim Warren of Sheffield University’s Department of Civil and Structural Engineering explained to The Engineer.
‘If you imagine the yarns of the fabric sliding across each other and changing orientations as you stretch it in both directions at once. What happens is the fluid that’s sprayed into each fibre of the yarn starts to stiffen up and resist that mechanical strain.’
STFs work by increasing their viscosity in response to impact. Under normal circumstances, the particles in STFs repel each other slightly.
However, following sudden impact, the extra energy in the system proves stronger than the repulsive forces, causing the particles to clump together in structures called hydroclusters, which bump into each other, consequently thickening the fluid.
‘The real damage is caused by impulse rather than the energy and that’s a very important concept,’ Warren said.
‘What we’re actually interested in is taking that impulse and, rather than have it all applied to a structure over a very tiny time period, we want to take the same amount of momentum and stretch it out over as long a time period as we can so that the peak stress falls.’
The group has built a full-scale prototype that Warren says has been tested with an explosive device of a similar potential as the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988.
‘The bag is showing no sign of failing yet, so we have to just keep putting bombs in bags and blowing them up until something fails, and then we can say this design is good up to this sort of level — which we’d only be able to discuss with secured parties,’ Warren said. | <urn:uuid:b0a5f0a6-9ae7-4071-8702-9a727b425085> | {
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The latest news about environmental and green
technologies – renewables, energy savings, fuel cells
Posted: Aug 30, 2016
Solar houses scientifically evaluated
(Nanowerk News) According to the current German Energy Savings Ordinance, new residential buildings are to require one quarter less primary energy. Solar houses with large collector surface areas meet this requirement. In these well-insulated buildings, solar energy systems cover at least 50 per cent of the heat demand. The BINE Projektinfo brochure 'Assessing solar houses in energy and economic terms' (pdf) details the costs and energy requirements of the various solar house concepts.
Diagram of a solar house. (Image: Sonnenhaus-Institut e.V.)
Primary energy demand and costs in comparison
In order to scientifically evaluate the buildings, the scientists developed a new simulation method in the research project HeizSolar. With this new method, experts can analyse different solar house constellations in terms of primary energy demand and costs. For example, the researchers varied the solar savings fraction between 50 and 100 per cent, and combined the data with different efficiency house standards. They also compared the solar house concept with other low-carbon heat supply concepts, such as using pellets or logs to meet heating requirements.
The foundation for the development of the simulation method was formed by evaluations of three multi-family and six single-family homes. These conceptually different solar houses were measured throughout several heating seasons. Based on the monitoring results and the gained operational experience, the scientists then derived optimisation suggestions for the collector layouts and the storage technologies.
The research project HeizSolar was carried out under the leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. Participating institutes included Sonnenhaus-Institut, the Ilmenau University of Technology, and Solar- und Wärmetechnik Stuttgart.
Source: FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz-Institut für Informationsinfrastruktur | <urn:uuid:bcab787e-95c2-4ada-9213-d8f7e6915197> | {
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Ever imagined being able to travel from New York to Los Angeles in 45 minutes or from Washington D.C. to Beijing in just two hours? That's precisely what a mobility technology, dubbed Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies, or ET3, can accomplish, if implemented, claims engineer Daryl Oster, who is also the founder and CEO of et3.com Inc., an open consortium.
The proposed Evacuated Tube Transport, or ETT, invented by Oster, aims to create a non polluting and safe mode of travel at a speed of about 350 miles per hour for in-state trips and up to 4,000 miles per hour for international travel. The patent for ETT was issued in 1999 and is scheduled to expire in 2017.
Besides being safe, clean and fast, ETT, is also a low cost transportation since it requires only 1/10th the cost of High Speed Rail, or 1/4th the cost of a freeway, to build a 350 miles per hour ETT infrastructure, according to the inventor of ETT.
ET3, the patented technology behind the high-tech transportation, which will run on electricity, allows for frictionless high speed travel, similar to the one experienced by astronauts in space flight, and hence its name "Space Travel on Earth". Oster claims that ET3 can provide 50 times more transportation per kilowatt-hour than electric cars or trains.
This new form of transport will involve car sized passenger capsules traveling through two-way vacuum-sealed tubes on a magnetic track that are built along a travel route. For people who feel claustrophobia as ETT involves traveling in a capsule, there is a solution - the reclined seating and "virtual window" displays allow the simulation of whatever environment the rider prefers; or TV, movies, video games, etc. may be displayed to provide distraction from negative thoughts.
Since the air is permanently removed from the two-way tubes, the Evacuated Tube Transport will use life-support apparatus to help passengers breathe. The ET3 capsules, weighing only 183 kg, has the capacity to seat six people, with enough room per passenger, exceeding that of airplanes and luxury automobiles, or carry up to 367 kg (800 lbs) of cargo.
Daryl Oster has proposed to test the ET3 concept initially in cargo transport since it represents lower risks, before moving onto human travel.
et3.com Inc. has begun selling licenses for its ETT system. The cost of the license is 6% of the accepted participation bid amount, plus an annual fee of $100 per person. Over a dozen et3 licenses have been sold in China, and more than 60 licenses have been sold in five different countries with several more expressing interest, according to the company. It is estimated that it will take less than a thousand licensees to achieve the first ETT commercialization.
A 3D virtual ride on an Evacuated Tube was slated for release last year by et3.com. Unfortunately, it still hasn't materialized.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: [email protected] | <urn:uuid:1bf62404-de62-4f5b-8fb6-f5a09085190c> | {
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Odysseus essay question
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Odysseus essay question
Is odysseus a hero this essay is odysseus a hero and other 63,000+ term papers, college essay examples and free essays are available now on reviewessayscom. Homer’s the odyssey plot summaries and study questions book i: what went on in the house of odysseus athena appeals to zeus for permission to help odysseus. The heroic odysseus - with a free essay review - free essay reviews.
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View essay - homer's the odyssey essay from map-ua 42 at nyu question 1 aeneas and odysseus accomplish what they set out to do at the beginning of their epic journeys. 1 how does odysseus escape from the cyclops’ cave while in the cyclops cave odysseus carves out a sharp point on a piece of olive wood he then gave the. Gender in odyssey is yet another topic for your odyssey essay how odysseus is influenced by the discussions with various women in the poem odyssey essay questions. Critical essays major themes in the study help essay questions bookmark this page consider two of the following as symbols — odysseus' great bow. | <urn:uuid:d8c7486e-a11d-440b-858a-8f6e5bc93a84> | {
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WASHINGTON, DC — Fast-food restaurants are concentrated within a short walking distance of schools, exposing children to “poor quality food environments” on a daily basis, according to new research published in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
After studying fast-food restaurants in the Chicago area, researchers found the median distance of any school from a fast-food restaurant to be about a third of a mile, a distance an adult can walk easily in five minutes. Researchers also found that almost 80 percent of schools had at least one fast-food restaurant within less than a half mile.
Fast-food restaurants were statistically significantly clustered in areas within a short walking distance from schools. An estimated three to four times as many fast-food restaurants were located within less than a mile of schools than would be expected if the restaurants were distributed throughout the city in a way unrelated to school locations.
Last year, the Institute of Medicine called upon the food industry to voluntarily restrict advertising of unhealthy food to children. The study's authors also suggest implementing school policies prohibiting off-campus fast food from being brought to school and zoning requirements to limit restaurants' proximity to schools as ways to combat rising childhood obesity rates. | <urn:uuid:abf0593b-e5b2-4981-b7d1-71cbd4fe1419> | {
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