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Note: Not to be confused with the iDrive, which is a BMW proprietary combination rotary controller and head unit (based around Windows CE) for managing in-car systems.
The BMW I-Bus is not a vehicle; rather, it is a 'bus' in the sense of an information transfer system. Put simply, it is a standard method of transporting control signals for cabin electronics around the body of an automobile. It is a proprietary scheme of BMW GmbH, although it is based on openly available standards and some of the specifics of it have been reverse engineered by enthusiasts.
The most important piece of background technology for the I-Bus is the OBD-II standard. The I-Bus is based on a standard known as ISO-9141, which is part of the OBD-II scheme. For more information, see the OBD-II node; but in a nutshell, OBD-II is a data connection and network standard intended to facilitate the transmission of automotive engine and emissions-related metrics out of the running car onto electronic diagnostic and data collection devices. To that end, bus standards as well as message protocols were devised. BMW implemented OBD-II on its vehicles to comply with U.S. Department of Transportation regulations. They also implemented a proprietary complement - their own engine and vehicle control system bus, which they named the K-Bus. That allowed BMW engineers to utilize vehicle and engine control information without disturbing the legally protected OBD-II data. As cars became more complex, particularly in the level of their passenger electronics, BMW decided that it would be advantageous to have their in-car electronic systems talk over a bus rather than via direct wiring - potentially saving several direct wiring runs throughout the car body, and allowing them to standardize components across models.
The I-Bus was originally intended to handle the needs of the radio, telephone and onboard navigation systems inside the car cabin. It was first available in the 1997 model year, and is now on every car BMW ships, including the popular Mini Cooper. The presence of the I-Bus is what allows BMW to put their navigation computers and, in fact, their stereo systems and amplifiers in the rear of their vehicles, leaving only a slightly-intelligent head unit in the cabin. This head unit does little more than turn control actions (button presses, knob turns, etc.) into I-Bus messages, and display I-Bus-encoded status information (radio channel, CD track names, etc.) on the MID, if available. This is why replacing the stock stereo in modern BMWs can be such a headache.
The I-Bus is based on the K-Bus protocols and hardware. It is, at its most physical, a single wire bus which is run to several points in the car. Various devices can be plugged into this wire, and signals put onto the wire are visible to all other devices plugged into it. Signal contention is the responsibility of each individual device. Bus speed is fairly pokey, at the geek-familiar 9600 bps 8E1 (8 data bits, Even parity, 1 stop bit) - which means the I-Bus is really limited to control data, and cannot be used to stream digital media or for any other such broadband application. The bus itself, as a single wire, is pulled high to +12V - the battery voltage of the car - and pulled low (ground) by the talking device. The wire used for the I-Bus is color-coded white/red/yellow.
The Message Format
The message format can be found, if one cares, at the following URL:
...where many folks have contributed to this knowledge and are credited for their pains.
The Unholy Union
Of course, the wonderful thing about the I-Bus is that it can be used to do things that, well, BMW really didn't have any intention of doing. For one example, it is quite possible to stick a car computer in the back of a BMW runing, say, linux, and using a small Perl script to talk to the serial port (and a small adapter which one can find plans, kits or ready-made versions of on the net) one can configure the controls of those same BMW head units to run the controls of one's favorite linux MP3 player, rather than a CD changer. Rather than using BMW and Philips' slow-and-expensive navigation computer in the trunk, it's perfectly feasible to have that same linux machine use GPSDrive, or for additional functionality run a more full-featured Windows GPS route planning package using WINE - again, controlled using the same controls that BMW uses to run theirs, adapted through that Perl listener. Want to watch movies on that little navigation LCD? Sure. BMW will sell you a TV Tuner module for that Navigation LCD, although I'm not sure why you'd want it - but that tells us it's got a composite video input! Add a DVD changer to that input - or, better yet, just rip 'em to the Linux box, and run them straight out of mplayer or some other solution.
It's your car. Let it be all it can be.
Thank you, BMW, for the I-Bus. | <urn:uuid:54a0a3ae-4579-4630-908a-12b74a69e89f> | {
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Fight poverty first to fight superbugs
researchers at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center reported the first case of what they called a “truly pan-drug resistant bacteria” On May 26, 2016! By now, the story has been well-covered in the media: a month earlier, a 49 year old woman walked into a clinic in Pennsylvania with what seemed to be a urinary tract infection. But tests revealed something far scarier—both for her and public health officials. The strain of E. Coli that infiltrated her body has a gene that makes it bulletproof to colistin, the so-called last resort antibiotic.
Most have pinned the blame for the impending doom of a “post-antibiotic world” on the overuse of antibiotics and a lack of new ones in the development pipeline. But there’s another superbug incubator that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves: poverty.
Last month at the IMF meeting in Washington, D.C., UK Chancellor George Osborne warned about the potentially devastating human and economic cost of antimicrobial resistance. He called for “the world’s governments and industry leaders to work together in radical new ways.” But Gerry Bloom, a physician and economist at the Institute for Development Studies, argued that any measures to stop overuse and concoct new drugs must be “complemented by investments in measures to ensure universal access to effective antibiotic treatment of common infections.”
“In many countries, poor people obtain these drugs in unregulated markets,” Bloom said. “They often take a partial course and the products may be sub-standard. This increases the risk of resistance.”
For at least fifteen years, we’ve known about these socioeconomic origins of antimicrobial resistance. Other studies have revealed problems with mislabeled or expired or counterfeit drugs. But the clearest link between poverty and the rise of antimicrobial resistance is that poor people may not see a qualified health care provider or complete a course of quality antibiotics. Instead, they might turn to unregulated markets for substandard drugs.
But why do people resort to unregulated markets or take drugs that aren’t that great if they are available? Marcella Alsan, an assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine who studies the relationship between socioeconomic disparities and infectious diseases, led a study that answered this question. In last October’s Lancet Infectious Diseases, Alsan and her colleagues showed that it might have a lot to do with requiring copayments in the public sector. To show this, they analyzed the WHO’s 2014 Antibacterial Resistance Global Surveillance report with an eye toward the usual suspects, such as antibiotic consumption and antibiotic-flooded livestock.
“We found that out of pocket payments were the most significant correlate of antimicrobial resistance across countries,” Alsan told me. “But when we looked more deeply into the data, we found that that entire correlation was driven by countries that had in place a policy by which copayments were imposed in the public sector.”
That means some of the poorest of the poor need to fork over a copayment anytime they want to receive antibiotics from a public sector provider. That gives us a pretty good idea of why someone might decide to use the “unregulated market” or why they might only complete part of their treatment and save the rest of their antibiotics for a family member or the next time they’re sick.
“If you think about a model in which there’s two sectors to obtain healthcare, there’s a private sector and a public sector. It’s sort of like you have Coke and Pepsi. If you start taxing Pepsi, then people are probably going to drink Coke,” she explained. “We can see that in healthcare, too. And that’s great if the private sector is homogenous and well regulated, but often times the private sector is really heterogeneous. When you drive people into the private sector, you are driving at least some of them into less qualified providers with lower quality medications.”
Rather than shame individuals for taking antibiotics incorrectly, we need to understand how poverty constrains their options. “We presume a lot sitting really far away from some of the populations that are most heavily afflicted,” she said. “What would be the alternative medical care that people could obtain if we shut down informal provision? How would people afford antibiotics if we required copayments everywhere?”
In addition to alleviating the burden of copayments for the poorest patients, what might make a difference in the fight against antimicrobial resistance in low-income countries is the same as what might make a difference in the fight against Zika or Ebola. In other words, the things that many of the fortunate take for granted like health care staff and a regulated supply chain and a functioning public health system.
“Antimicrobial resistance is not unique,” Alsan added. “It is just another manifestation of underinvestment in basic public health infrastructure.” | <urn:uuid:820c7c38-d6a3-4f84-8ebf-ab64c57e6acd> | {
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Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigs, are marketed as the healthier alternative to cigarettes. There are certainly many aspects that are indeed healthier for both the person smoking and the people around them, but are they as deter mental to your oral hygiene?
The short answer?
As always, it is more complicated than that! But e-cigarettes still pose many of the same risks to your oral hygiene, and when making a choice affecting your health, it is important to do your research and decide for yourself. E-cigs still contain nicotine. Nicotine restricts blood-flow, which impacts many aspects of your health, including your body’s ability to fight diseases. This includes gum disease. The use of nicotine increases your chance of periodontal disease. In addition, the cigarettes still contain many harmful chemicals that you may want to think twice about before ingesting them on a daily basis.
If you are a traditional smoker, e-cigs could provide a stepping stone toward quitting. Talk with your doctor about whether this is a good option for you. However, the important takeaway is this: e-cigarettes still have many health risks associated with them, and do still contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. If you are not already a smoker, don’t get sucked in because these are marketed as healthier! | <urn:uuid:981b0d79-ee49-4240-a02f-07840a73b6c8> | {
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Malala Day on July 12th at the United Nations, and the subsequent social media and worldwide press buzz created a call to action for governments, donors, organizations and individuals to support education for all and youth engagement around the world. The message: stand up, take notice, and put education at the forefront of the international development agenda.
The UN Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) was launched by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and UN Special Envoy Gordon Brown at the UN General Assembly in September 2012. It is a five-year campaign to mobilize political and financial commitments to accelerate progress towards Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG2) of universal education. GEFI focuses on three priority areas: putting every child in school; improving the quality of learning; and fostering global citizenship.
In April 2013, the first round of “Learning for All” ministerial meetings at the World Bank included seven countries that are lagging behind in achieving universal education -- Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Yemen. National governments, international donors, and organizations made commitments that included eliminating or reducing school fees (a barrier to access), additional investments to support teacher salaries, and aligning aid efforts with country priorities, among others. To demonstrate U.S. support, the White House hosted a Policy Dialogue on Global Education, led by USAID Administrator Shah, to launch USAID’s “Room to Learn” -- a targeted effort as part of USAID’s five-year Education Strategy -- to increase equitable access to education in target countries including Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan. USAID is hosting a biennial Education Summit from August 6-8 in Washington, D.C., where experts will further discuss best practices, research and solutions for providing access to education in conflict and crisis-affected environments.
During the upcoming 68th UN General Assembly in September, there will again be a focus on education and the challenge of getting 57 million out-of-school children into classrooms and learning. A second round of “Learning for All” ministerial meetings will bring Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Timor Leste, Chad, and Burma to the table to find constructive solutions to obstacles facing education in their countries. Other events will highlight progress toward the Millennium Development Goals, early childhood, peace and education, inclusive development, and the role of the private sector in promoting education globally.
Youth will be again at the center of these conversations, contributing their voices and commitments to advancing education for all and the future of their communities. Without a quality education, youth will not have the basic skills or opportunities to achieve higher levels of education, be prepared for the 21st century workforce, or contribute to the peace and stability of their societies. As President Obama said at a town hall in South Africa, “The most important investment any country can make is educating its youth.” And on July 12th, Malala Day, millions of youth around the world -- mostly in countries of conflict or in need of economic development -- stood up and said, “Put education first!” | <urn:uuid:2860e7e0-0b27-49ed-b580-39e53df0405a> | {
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TUESDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDay News) -- An anti-cancer drug shelved because it was thought to be too toxic may be effective in small doses against a devastating pediatric cancer, a new study found.
In tests on animal models, the drug a-difluoromethylornithine, or DFMO, helped prevent the spread of neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system responsible for 15 percent of all pediatric deaths related to cancer.
"The drug, which was developed as a cancer therapy and later shelved because of toxicity concerns, has been around since the 1970s," John Cleveland, chair of the Scripps Florida department of cancer biology, whose laboratory conducted the study, said in a news release issued by the institution. "But over the past five years, it has undergone a rebirth as a chemoprevention agent, first showing efficacy in animal models of human cancer and, more recently, in human prostate and colon cancer. Our study shows that it likely works in a large cast of tumors, even those having poor prognosis, like high-risk neuroblastoma."
In the study, published in the Jan. 15 issue of Cancer Research, researchers successfully used DFMO to target ornithine decarboxylase (Odc), a protein that aids in cancer cell growth and has been found in abundance in neuroblastoma with a poor prognosis, to prevent neuroblastoma in genetically altered mice.
"What's even more compelling, we used low doses of the drug, and DFMO only had to be given for a moderate amount of time to prevent cancer," Cleveland said of the study.
Neuroblastoma usually occurs in infants and young children. Those with stage IV, high-risk neuroblastoma have a less than a 40 percent chance of long-term survival.
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about neuroblastoma.
Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:103b82bd-285f-49d0-9355-ada1cd14d742> | {
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It certainly is possible that life could exist on a larger scale, perhaps on a “cosmic level”. What makes us different from stones? Some scientists have thought about what “life really means” and there are some that believe that life is a bigger deal than previously thought. Is it possible that the entire cosmos is a single living organism, in which we live and move?
Today, after about 4000 million years, we find out that we share the planet with other animals such as elephants, whales and another 8 million eukaryotic species. It is clear that all living beings on our planet are interconnected, in one way or another and that suggests that we are all part of a single living organism.
The first person to think of the universe as a great organism was the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, but the idea of the universe as a living organism was largely formulated by Plato, then by the Stoics, Plotinus and Neoplatonism.
According to the “organismic” view, the structures that make up the universe, galaxies, black holes, quasars, stars, nebulae, planets and us included, should be considered as the tissue of a living giant, something as the parts of the body of the universe.
The characteristics of living organisms is birth, growth, reproduction and death, but according to researchers these aspects are also plausible for the Universe. The fact that the universe is believed to expand just means growth, and in the distant future, the universe, like other living organisms might actually come to an end. But what about reproduction? Does the universe reproduce? Does a multiverse exist? And is there a possibility that the existence of “multiverses” proves that there are giant organisms (universe) that inhabit an unimagined place? If so is it possible that “our” universe has its “family”?
According to physicist Lee Smolin, founder of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, our universe has already created a whole family of children, hidden universes beyond the dark horizons of black holes.
“The laws of nature are perfectly tuned, so that the Universe can harbor life,” says Smolin. “Imagine what would happen if these laws changed slightly. The universe would not be so hospitable and it remains a mystery as to why the universe is so acceptable for biology”.
Cosmologists periodically collide with an enigma called “perfect harmony”. If any of the forces of nature were stronger or weaker in less than 1%, stars and galaxies would never have formed. There wouldn’t even be atoms.
Smolin, was in search of an explanation that is observable and was not able to find one found in physical but in the biological theory of evolution. “Natural selection explains the complex structures of life which slowly develop,” says Smolin. Would it be possible that our complex universe is the result of a cosmic version of biological evolution?
Many believe that this is a sign that our universe has been carefully shaped by the hand of the Creator which designed to accommodate human life.
So what about our universe? Does it have ancestors? What about the notion of time? Is it applicable to the “evolution” of the universe in reality?
According to Smolin, the answer lies in the center of the impenetrable black holes, where known laws of physics cease to exist, with the advantage of the other laws related to quantum gravity hitherto unknown. Theoretical physicist believed that when a star exploded, leaving room for a black hole, it is at that time when the birth of a new universe takes place.
According to Smolin, our universe could belong to a branch of the ever-growing giant cosmic tree. “The cosmos works as biology: There is a population of universes that are able to generate offsprings through black holes.”
Smolin has even discovered a mysterious analogy between the cosmic and biological tree.
Smolin believes that, for a black hole to form, a very big star is needed, also,, huge clouds of cold gas and dust, so that these substances can transform into carbon monoxide, both carbon and oxygen are needed, both are essential for the formation of life. According to Smolin, these two elements are present in the universe on a massive scale, the explanation of why the cosmos is a hospitable place for life is nothing more than a side effect of its own fertility in reproductive terms.
If Smolin is slightly right, the laws of physics that we know and understand today have been carefully adjusted to maintain the fertility of the cosmos.. The same laws make our world a place where life based on carbon, oxygen and chemistry can thrive. | <urn:uuid:b6474db6-c3ff-4687-a451-2288244333b7> | {
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In Literacy, the children have been planning and writing their own stories based on the character of the Dragon from Julia Donaldson’s ‘Room on the Broom’. They have been trying hard to include commas, exciting vocabulary and speech marks into their stories. We are looking forward to reading them all!
In Numeracy this week, the children have been learning about positional language, as well as reflective symmetry in shapes.
We thank you once again for attending the Parents’ Evening meetings and would like to say that is was a pleasure meeting all of you. | <urn:uuid:c0c3fabf-abc9-496f-877d-bd52f69a9a86> | {
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Lessons From the Susquehanna
By Tom Neale - Published September 29, 2011 - Viewed 842 times
|Chesapeake Bay and Tributaries NASA
Satellite September 13, 2011.
The floods caused by those storms ruined the property and lives of millions of people, killing quite a few. And that’s probably the worst of the story. But the flood waters will also probably cause huge damage to the bay for years to come. On an immediate small perspective, boats are canceling or postponing trips in the bay because of fear of hitting debris. For a slow moving sailboat with protected single screw, the implications may not be quite so great, but for fast moving powerboats with screws hanging out and churning, hitting a chunk of debris can take out the running gear and/or sink the boat. Also, on an immediate perspective, sediment is settling on underwater grasses, shellfish beds and other “normal” underwater features that are important for the health of the bay.
The implications worsen when you remember that, although the Susquehanna is the primary watershed into the bay, there are many more rivers, creeks and streams. It is said that the Native Americans who earlier lived around its shores referred to the bay as the Mother of Rivers. Different tributaries had different degrees of flooding and different types of shorelines, but each of these also flooded, sending untold amounts of stuff into the bay. This stuff, like that from the Susquehanna, ranged from the not so bad to the worst in terms of bay health.
|Upper Chesapeake Bay NASA Satellite
September 13, 2011.
An article at http://catonsville.patch.com/articles/impact-of-baltimore-county-sewage-spills-on-chesapeake-limited-8279b25f contained the following, as well as other material: “It’s a big number, for sure,” said Ronald D. Neufeld, an environmental engineer at University of Pittsburgh. Spills on the scale of those in Baltimore County recently “are not routine events,” he said. Fortunately, Neufeld said, the sewage was diluted by large volumes of rainwater and flowed into large bodies of water. Jenn Aiosa, Maryland senior scientist at Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said that over the long term, the impact of the sewage flows on the bay is less significant than the contamination from runoff, streams and groundwater that occurs across the Chesapeake watershed on a daily basis. “Any time one hears about millions of spilled sewage, it is not a good thing. But it creates a problem of perception versus reality,” Aiosa said. “We need people to be concerned about their water on a routine basis.”… However, the impact of the sewage spills is not as dramatic as it seems, she said. “Sewage is readily diluted,” Aiosa said.”
Considering all this, I have to wonder how some environmental extremists are quite alright with fining a boater $10,000, or so, and perhaps even convicting him of a class 1 misdemeanor, for one flush of highly treated sewage (treated to the point that it’s no longer “sewage”) from a USCG approved Marine Sanitation Device. Also, I can’t help but wonder at the conclusions of anyone who says that millions and millions of gallons of raw sewage into the bay really isn’t all that terribly bad and simply needs to be put into perspective. I think that it’s very bad. And the sewage is just a small part of it when you consider stored chemicals, chemicals on the streets and other toxins of all sorts from a huge number of sources. Raging floods don’t pick and choose. They take what’s there.
But maybe those folks do have a point of sorts. Irene and Lee weren’t the first massive flood inducing storms we’ve had. This type of phenomenon has been happening for millions of years. Of course, in recent years we’ve increasingly put more bad stuff in the way of the waters, not necessarily because we as a people don’t care, as some would have you to believe, but just because our numbers keep increasing and our civilization keeps advancing. I, for one, wouldn’t like to go back and live in the age of the dinosaurs so that I can be more “eco-friendly.”
So when I see fingers wagging at me, because I’m a boater, with often absurd, unrealistic demands made, which haven’t been thought through, I don’t like it. Every one of us should do all that we can to keep not only our waters, but our planet healthy. It’s a no brainer. It’s where we live. But realistic perspective never hurts. Listening to each other never hurts. It even helps to recognize the truth of that heretical concept that we can’t live here without making adverse impacts. When we recognize that, we’re better equipped to minimize those impacts. Would extremists order everyone who lives up the Susquehanna to leave? I don’t think so. I hope not. It makes about as much sense as some of the other extremist ideas. Not only is this unrealistic, it would be self defeating. We’re all here. We all want to continue being here. We all need to work together to do everything we can, rather than to waste time and money and the planet by pointing a finger at the other guy.
Boating and water sports involve risk. Any comments herein should be followed at your own risk. You assume all responsibility for risk or injury to yourself or others. Any person or entity that uses this information in any way, as a condition of that use, agrees to waive and does waive and also hold authors harmless from any and all claims which may arise from or be related to that use.
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|P. concinna is a dark green spherical cactus with a woolly crown , and white, yellow, or brown spines. Funnel-shaped, deep lemon-yellow flowers with red tips, bloom in spring.
The Parodia genus is made up of 35 to 50 species of cactus ranging in size and form from columnare and single to clustering. All are cylindrical. Native to the highlands of Columbia, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uraguay, water these plants moderately and fertilize with a low nitrogen fertilizer every 6 to 8 weeks from midspring to late summer. This plant should remain dry at other times except for a quick, periodic misting on warmer days in late winter. If your climate is warm enough to grow this plant outside, be sure that soil is well drained and sun if full, but with protection from strong mid-day rays. | <urn:uuid:6d1a68c4-0961-42f6-ab9e-183086585d23> | {
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Music Therapy is an established healthcare profession that uses music to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals of all ages. Music therapy improves the quality of life for persons who are well and meets the needs of children and adults with disabilities or illnesses. Music therapy interventions can be designed to:
- promote wellness
- manage stress
- alleviate pain
- express feelings
- enhance memory
- improve communication
- promote physical rehabilitation
A common misconception concerning music therapy is that the client or patient has to have some particular music ability to benefit from music therapy — they do not. That there is one particular style of music that is more therapeutic than all the rest — this is not the case. All styles of music can be useful in effecting change in a client or patient’s life. The individual’s preferences, circumstances and need for treatment, and the client or patient’s goals help to determine the types of music a music therapist may use.
The idea of music as a healing influence which could affect health and behavior is as least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato. The 20th century discipline began after World War I and World War II when community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional, went to Veterans hospitals around the country to play for the thousands of veterans suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars. The patients’ notable physical and emotional responses to music led the doctors and nurses to request the hiring of musicians by the hospitals. It was soon evident that the hospital musicians needed some prior training before entering the facility and so the demand grew for a college curriculum. The first music therapy degree program in the world, founded at Michigan State University in 1944, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1994. The American Music Therapy Association was founded in 1998 as a union of the National Association for Music Therapy and the American Association for Music Therapy.
American Music Therapy Association
The American Music Therapy Association is the largest professional association which represents over 5,000 music therapists, corporate members and related associations worldwide. Founded in 1998, its mission is the progressive development of the therapeutic use of music in rehabilitation, special education, and community settings. AMTA sets the education and clinical training standards for music therapists. Predecessors to the American Music Therapy Association included the National Association for Music Therapy founded in 1950 and the American Association for Music Therapy founded in 1971.
AMTA promotes a vast amount of research exploring the benefits of music as therapy through publication of the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives and other sources. A substantial body of literature exists to support the effectiveness of music therapy. | <urn:uuid:28b32104-fb14-422f-a18d-db87c3a20c54> | {
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Nicolas Appert 1841
17 November 1749|
|Died||1 June 1841
Nicolas Appert (17 November 1749 Châlons-sur-Marne (present Châlons-en-Champagne), present Marne – 1 June 1841 Massy), was the French inventor of airtight food preservation. Appert, known as the "father of canning", was a confectioner.
Appert was a confectioner and chef in Paris from 1784 to 1795. In 1795, he began experimenting with ways to preserve foodstuffs, succeeding with soups, vegetables, juices, dairy products, jellies, jams, and syrups. He placed the food in glass jars, sealed them with cork and sealing wax and placed them in boiling water.
In 1795 the French military offered a cash prize of 12,000 francs for a new method to preserve food. After some 14 or 15 years of experiment, Appert submitted his invention and won the prize in January 1810. The same year, Appert published L'Art de conserver les substances animales et végétales (or The Art of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Substances). This was the first cookbook of its kind on modern food preservation methods.
La Maison Appert (English: The House of Appert), in the town of Massy, near Paris, became the first food bottling factory in the world, years before Louis Pasteur proved that heat killed bacteria. Appert patented his invention and established a business to preserve a variety of food in sealed bottles. Appert's method was to fill thick, large-mouthed glass bottles with produce of every description, ranging from beef, fowl, eggs, milk, and prepared dishes (according to sources). His greatest success for publicity was an entire sheep. He left air space at the top of the bottle, and the cork would then be sealed firmly in the jar by using a vise. The bottle was then wrapped in canvas to protect it, while it was dunked into boiling water and then boiled for as much time as Appert deemed appropriate for cooking the contents thoroughly.
In honor of Appert, canning is sometimes called "appertisation", but should be distinguished from pasteurization. Appert's early attempts at food preservation by boiling involved cooking the food to a temperature far in excess of what is used in pasteurization (70 °C (158 °F)), and can destroy some of the flavour of the preserved food.
Appert's method was so simple and workable that it quickly became widespread. In 1810, British inventor and merchant Peter Durand also of French origin, patented his own method, but this time in a tin can, so creating the modern-day process of canning foods. In 1812 Englishmen Bryan Donkin and John Hall purchased both patents and began producing preserves. Just a decade later, the Appert method of canning had made its way to America. Tin can mass production was however not common until the beginning of the 20th century, partly because a hammer and chisel were needed to open cans until the invention of a can opener by an Englishman named Yates in 1855.
In 1999, busts of Appert by Richard Bruyère were erected in Institute of Food Technologists I.F.T. Chicago (USA), Massy, and Museum of Fine Arts in Châlons-en-Champagne.
In 2010, a statue of Appert by Roger Marion was erected in Malataverne (France).
A room in the Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology of Châlons-en-Champagne was dedicated to him, (collection Jean Paul Barbier and AINA detail objects on the site of the international association Nicolas Appert.
There are 72 streets named after Nicolas Appert in France, and one in Canada.
There is a high school named after Nicolas Appert in Orvault, France.
In 1955 a French postal stamp commemorated him.
2010 was declared Nicolas Appert Year, a national celebration, by the French ministry of culture. The Principality of Monaco issued a postage stamp featuring Appert. An exhibition entitled "Mise en boîte" was held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Châlons-en-Champagne.
Nicolas Appert Award
The student association of the Food Technology education at Wageningen University is called Nicolas Appert. Since 1972 this association has focused on improving the courses related to food technology education and organises several events each year for students and alumni. Currently almost 300 bachelor and master students are members. In 2007 the association celebrated its 9th lustrum.
- "Nicolas Appert inventeur et humaniste" by Jean-Paul Barbier, édition Royer, Paris, 1994 (ISBN 2-908670-17-8)
- "Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement", Vol. 20. Gale Group, 2000.
- Jean-Paul Barbier Nicolas Appert inventeur et humaniste, Royer, 1994, Paris.
- Lance Day, Ian McNeil, ed. (1996). Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-19399-0.
- Gordon L. Robertson, Food Packaging: Principles and Practice, Marcel Dekker, 1998, p. 187
- The First Book on Modern Food Preservation Methods (1810)
- Nicolas Appert in 1810 was probably the first person ...
- Nicolasappert.nl (Dutch) (English) and some parts in Chinese
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By Rainer Foelix
Spiders are not exactly renowned for being colorful animals. Admittedly, most of the more than 40,000 spider species are rather drab looking. However, there are certainly several hundred species which are lively colored, e. g. bright red or bright green, and some are very colorful indeed. For instance, the so-called “peacock-spider” that shows a wide range of iridescent blue and green color hues, reminiscent of the plumage of peacocks or humming birds.
How do those colors in spiders come about? Usually they are due to certain pigments deposited in the cuticle of their exo-skeleton or the underlying epidermis cells. Some spiders appear bright green or red or yellow, due to pigment granules. Other spiders contain crystalline deposits of guanine and strongly reflect the incoming light, either pure white or bright silvery. And often coloration is not really caused by pigments but is due to a special light diffraction (interference) in their cuticle. A very fine lamellation in the nanometer range causes a shift of the wavelength of the incoming light and thus a whole spectrum of colors appears in the outgoing light. We all know this phenomenon from other natural objects such as mother-of-pearl, butterfly wings, or bird feathers. In spiders, such iridescent colors have been known for a long time but only in the last few years were they studied in detail.
Among the jumping spiders are some species where the mouth parts (chelicerae) are strongly iridescent: reddish-purple in the females and blue-green in the males. In that case it is the layering of the cheliceral cuticle that is responsible for the brilliant coloration. In some other species these interference colors reside entirely in hairs or scales of the body. This is for instance the case in those most colorful peacock spiders, where some scales change from blue over turquoise to green, and others from yellow to purple and golden. Under the electron microscope those hairs and scales exhibit a meshwork of thin layers that ultimately produces these structural colors. These shiny colors are much more pronounced in males than in females (as in most birds) and it is very likely that they play a crucial role in the visual courtship dances that the male performs in front of a female.
Somewhat surprisingly, such iridescent colors also occur in the large tarantulas. Several species are deep blue and they are in high esteem (and highly priced!) among tarantula keepers. Some species may have additionally bright yellow hairs on their legs or golden-green hairs on their abdomen. Since most tarantulas are active at night, it is a bit puzzling why they are colorful at all. Their courtship is not visual but tactile, and no predator would be warned by bright colors that can only be seen under day light. So, it may well be that there is no specific purpose for having conspicuous colors, at least not in tarantulas. Perhaps the situation is comparable to colorful organisms living in the dark abyss of the oceans, in which colors only show up under illumination.
Since 14 March is Save-a-Spider-Day, let these colorful spiders brighten your day, or, as the old English saying goes: “If you want to live and thrive, let a spider run alive.”
Rainer Foelix is recognized as an authority on spiders. He studied Biology in both Germany and Switzerland and earned his PhD in Zoology. His is also the author of Biology of Spiders, now in its third edition.
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Image Credit: Figures one, two, three, and four by B. Erb. Figures five and six by R. Foelix | <urn:uuid:27d3dbd6-da75-4f80-a143-dfa3f5bf3786> | {
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Publications: Articles - Theology
The Freedom of Obedience
by Philip Kariatlis
In the November 2005 issue we examined the freedom of obedience by looking at the New Testament witness to this. And so in this issue, this discussion is continued by looking at the desert fathers and then critically reflecting upon the notion of obedience, indeed the freedom of obedience.
The sayings of the Desert Fathers on Obedience
Beyond the New Testament, the entire ascetic tradition emphasizes the importance of obedience for the Christian life. The Gerondikon or The Sayings of the Desert Fathers1 gives abundant examples of the significance of obedience in the Christian life and is indeed a major theme in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers. A well-known anecdote recounts the story of John the Dwarf, who, upon entering the desert, was told, by his spiritual elder to continue watering a dry stick2, which had been planted into the ground, and to keep on doing this until it bore fruit. Indeed, the story is intensified when we are told that the novice had to travel throughout the whole night to collect water, something, which, besides being irrational would have been physically and mentally exhausting. The pinnacle moment of the story is reached when we discover that one morning, in the third year, upon going to water the 'dead' stick, John found that it had flowered and produced much fruit. It is said that his spiritual elder took it to the community and told the brothers: "Take and eat the fruit of obedience!"3 Another story relates the perfect obedience of a disciple, who, having been called by his spiritual father, responded immediately, not even completing the letter of the alphabet that he had been writing whilst copying a manuscript.4 From this, we can see that all sayings in the Gerondikon seek to emphasize, in the strongest of terms the importance of obedience for a person setting out to live a monastic life. At this point one may be tempted to ask: 'whatever happened to the freedom of that human person?'
All such stories will not only seem to be a stumbling block for 'logical' or 'rational' persons but also absurd, if not at the very least ambivalent, unless they are seen as the only effective means of disarming pride and one's autonomous self-orientated existence. Indeed the extremities of obedience described are nothing other the powerful antidote or remedy needed for the extremity of the world's fallen state. The Gerondikon is clear in stating that the practice of obedience, even when it
may seem at first 'irrational' acquires a profound meaning only when it is understood as a means of training the soul of the novice. Just as disobedience was the cause of the fall of the first Adam, so too, obedience becomes the means, by which the human person can be restored to their primordial state of existence. That such a teaching is Scriptural can be seen from the letter of St Paul to the Romans, which relates to Christ's saving obedience as a example for all human persons:
For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous (Rom 5:19).
Just as Christ, through His obedience opened the door to Paradise through to God the Father, so too, will all human persons be led to the glory of God through their obedience (cf 2Cor 9:13). That is, the self-seeking ego, which entered human history with the fall of Adam can only be transformed to a communal manner of existence – that is, a life in communion with God and the world around – with the daily struggle of the monk to become obedient in all things. And it is precisely for this reason that the practice of obedience is placed over charitable acts which a monk may perform by his own will.5 As such, obedience is considered to be 'the first of virtues'.6 In an age of radical individualism, where the human person has become the measure of all things, such stories relating to ascetical obedience become all the more important as inspiring examples which can lead to our freedom from our 'crowded solitude' - which is nothing other than a dead existence even before we die.
The Freedom of Obedience
From the above, it has become clear that the issue of obedience is extremely important both in the Scriptures and the Patristic ascetical tradition as a means for life-giving 'communion' and freedom. If one were to give some working definition, it could be said that within the life of the Church, obedience is fundamentally both a gift of communion with God and the dynamic realisation of that communion which can only occur in freedom and which leads to freedom. Understood in this way, obedience does not only signify the gift of fellowship bestowed by God on the obedient person, but also that person's striving to make this mode of existence a permanent reality in their life. That is to say, obedience is not only a gift bestowed by God leading to communion with God but also the active response by the person towards God. Ultimately obedience is a gift from above which is bestowed upon humanity as the effective means for beginning the struggle to cease living in isolation, opting instead to allow our life to be governed by the freedom of a life in Christ which leads to life eternal (cf Eph 2:14). Indeed this can only happen in the first place because Christ has opened the way for it and bestowed upon the world this gift of communion with God. But it also requires our free acceptance in humility
and obedience upon recognizing that we no longer wish to isolate ourselves from the fullness of life. Consequently it becomes apparent that the freedom of obedience comes to be seen as both a gift and goal of our Christian life. In this way, our life must be characterised by a daily struggle to receive this gift from God in all humility and increasingly offer our life willingly back to God.
Understood in this dynamic way, it becomes evident that obedience is inseparably linked with the notions of 'communion' and 'freedom' whereby the absence of one of these elements inevitably leads to a misdirected understanding of this virtue. Accordingly, obedience is in contradistinction to any tendency for a self-centred, self-serving and non-communal existence, which inevitably can only lead to death even though we may be 'alive' on a merely biological level. Obedience becomes an attitude to life, which enables the radical transformation from an individually-centred existence to that of a communally focused mode of existence. That is, in the practice of obedience, it becomes possible for persons to experience, here and now, even by way of foretaste, the existential event of God's communal mode of life. And this cannot happen unless human persons willingly (notice again the will is not destroyed) cease to draw their existence from their individuality, which is corrupt and mortal and can therefore only lead to death, but instead, realize that the source of life is from God. In this way obedience emerges as a power beyond the human, which can destroy the barrier of egotism and isolationism opening up, instead a taste of the fullness of life offered as a communion of love. Obedience therefore implies a communal way of life, which arises from a relationship of co-operation thereby creating real bonds of co-existence.
The life of the person who has freely decided to lead an obedient life – i.e. one in communion with God - does not become diminished but on the contrary is enriched and built up. Indeed, obedience is practiced so that the person can become free, free from simply acting out of instinct. Obedience ultimately says that true freedom is born from the moment that one decides not to be conformed to one's self-seeking will choosing instead to draw the fullness of life from God. It is only within the context of selfless love, which is nothing other than one's commitment to obedience that freedom is borne within. Far from becoming a slave or leading a docile life, the obedient person is made free in so far as he or she is liberated from a captivated state of an isolated existence by destroying the wall raised between them and God. Paradoxically, true freedom which is liberation even from the confines of death can only take place in precisely the same manner as that of Christ – that is, it is only in surrendering our own self-will, by burying it since it has become alienated from God and has deluded itself into believing that it is self-sufficient and self-regarding, that it
will be resurrected by being conformed, by grace to a communal life in God, which is eternally free. Therefore it has been clearly shown to what extent obedience can be truly seen within the context of communion and freedom.
In the next issue we will discuss the context in which this practice of obedience takes place, namely the spiritual elder.
1 The sayings of the desert fathers is a collection of sayings written between the fourth and fifth centuries by certain abbas and ammas inviting the reader not to imitate them blindly but rather to be inspired by their burning desire for God. As such, it is a highly relevant book which will only be understood if the reader can appreciate that these desert fathers and mothers give 'glimpses' of the fullness of a radically renewed life of the eschatological age.
2 It is said that the dry stick was the staff of the novice's spiritual father.
3 Gerontikon [in Greek] (Astir: Athens, 1981), 44.
4 Apophthegmata, Mark the disciple of Silvanus I, 2 (293D-296B).
5 According to a saying attributed to Abba Rufus, the monk who "pursues hospitality acts by his own will. And he who is in the desert has withdrawn by his own will. But he who has patience and has renounced everything that is of his own will, depends on God and his own father". (Cited in Stelios Ramfos, Like A Pelikan in the Wilderness (Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2000), 120.
6 Cf John Climacus, Ladder 4. PG 88:680 and 717 cited in John Chryssavgis, Soul Mending: The Art of Spiritual Direction (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2000), 102.< Back to the articles list | <urn:uuid:f97947c5-8609-490f-9d0c-eb3032472f58> | {
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XML and SOAP Serialization
XML serialization converts (serializes) the public fields and properties of an object, or the parameters and return values of methods, into an XML stream that conforms to a specific XML Schema definition language (XSD) document. XML serialization results in strongly typed classes with public properties and fields that are converted to a serial format (in this case, XML) for storage or transport.
Because XML is an open standard, the XML stream can be processed by any application, as needed, regardless of platform. For example, XML Web services created using ASP.NET use the XmlSerializer class to create XML streams that pass data between XML Web service applications throughout the Internet or on intranets. Conversely, deserialization takes such an XML stream and reconstructs the object.
XML serialization can also be used to serialize objects into XML streams that conform to the SOAP specification. SOAP is a protocol based on XML, designed specifically to transport procedure calls using XML.
To serialize or deserialize objects, use the XmlSerializer class. To create the classes to be serialized, use the XML Schema Definition tool.
In This Section
- Introducing XML Serialization
- Provides a general definition of serialization, particularly XML serialization.
- How to: Serialize an Object
- Provides step-by-step instructions for serializing an object.
- How to: Deserialize an Object
- Provides step-by-step instructions for deserializing an object.
- Examples of XML Serialization
- Provides examples that demonstrate the basics of XML serialization.
- The XML Schema Definition Tool and XML Serialization
- Describes how to use the XML Schema Definition tool to create classes that adhere to a particular XML Schema definition language (XSD) schema, or to generate an XML Schema from a .dll file.
- Controlling XML Serialization Using Attributes
- Describes how to control serialization by using attributes.
- Attributes That Control XML Serialization
- Lists the attributes that are used to control XML serialization.
- How to: Specify an Alternate Element Name for an XML Stream
- Presents an advanced scenario showing how to generate multiple XML streams by overriding the serialization.
- How to: Control Serialization of Derived Classes
- Provides an example of how to control the serialization of derived classes.
- How to: Qualify XML Element and XML Attribute Names
- Describes how to define and control the way in which XML namespaces are used in the XML stream.
- XML Serialization with XML Web Services
- Explains how XML serialization is used in XML Web services.
- How to: Serialize an Object as a SOAP-Encoded XML Stream
- Describes how to use the XmlSerializer class to create encoded SOAP XML streams that conform to section 5 of the World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3.org) document titled "Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) 1.1."
- How to: Override Encoded SOAP XML Serialization
- Describes the process for overriding XML serialization of objects as SOAP messages.
- Attributes That Control Encoded SOAP Serialization
- Lists the attributes that are used to control SOAP-encoded serialization.
- <system.xml.serialization> Element
- The top-level configuration element for controlling XML serialization.
- <add> Element for <xmlSchemaImporterExtensions>
- Adds types that are used by the XmlSchemaImporter class.
Other ResourcesBinary Serialization
Copyright © 2007 by Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:82e018b5-1a1e-425c-aa11-fd7c2a0e44a9> | {
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Wildfire is a global phenomenon that plays a vital role in regulating and maintaining many natural and human-influenced ecosystems but that also poses considerable risks to human populations and infrastructure. Fire managers are charged with balancing the short-term protection of human assets sensitive to fire exposure against the potential long-term benefits that wildfires can provide to natural systems and wildlife populations. The compressed decision timeframes imposed on fire managers during an incident are often insufficient to fully assess a range of fire management options and their respective implications for public and fire responder safety, attainment of land and resource objectives, and future trajectories of hazard and risk. This paper reviews the role of GIS-based assessment and planning to support operational wildfire management decisions, with a focus on recent and emerging research that pre-identifies anthropogenic and biophysical landscape features that can be leveraged to increase the safety and effectiveness of wildfire management operations. We use a case study from the United States to illustrate the development and application of tools that draw from research generated by the global fire management community. | <urn:uuid:0697de54-e99c-4aa8-8766-b0a685e51219> | {
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Every teacher is a special education teacher. From attending Individual Education Program (“IEP”) meetings to differentiating instruction to meet the needs of students, every teacher plays some role in educating special needs students.
The Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (“IDEA”) is a federal law that guarantees that students with disabilities receive a free and appropriate education. An important component of IDEA is the IEP meeting. The IEP meeting must be held once a year by the IEP team, which consists of the parent or guardian, teachers, administrators, therapists, and other invited parties. The purpose is for the team to plan a specialized education program tailored to the student’s needs.
Although teachers and administrators can come together before the IEP meeting to discuss possible placement options, they cannot determine before the meeting the student’s final services for the year. This is called predetermination and it is illegal under the IDEA.
Predetermination is illegal because it forces the parent or guardian out of the IEP process. Parents are very important members of the IEP team and have a lot of information to contribute to the meeting. When a school district predetermines the student’s placement before the meeting, it effectively cuts the parents out of the process and may be requiring services that are not appropriate for the student.
Imagine the following scenario:
Two parents of an autistic child attend an IEP meeting at the end of Year 1. The school district decided that the appropriate placement for the student was in a full-time autism program. The parents disagreed, refused to sign the IEP, and filed a due process request.
At subsequent IEP meetings for Years 2 and 3, the same result occurred. The district decided that the appropriate placement was in a full-time autism program and the parents disagreed.
An Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) heard the case and ruled that the district did in fact provide a free and appropriate public education. The parents filed a complaint in federal court to challenge the ALJ’s decision.
A federal district court disagreed with the ALJ’s decision and overruled it. The school district did not provide a free and appropriate education because it did not involve the parents in determining a proper placement. After hearing the parents’ dissent from the district’s placement decision, the district did not consider any alternative placements for the autistic child. It did not take the parents’ input into consideration. Therefore, the district violated the student’s rights under the IDEA.
The above scenario is based on an actual case. D.B. v. Gloucester Township School District, 751 F.Supp.2d 764 (D.N.J. 2010).
So, what does this mean for you? Can you not discuss a student’s placement with your colleagues before the IEP meeting?
You can discuss possible placement options with your team of teachers before the meeting. This may be necessary so that everyone can be on the same page for the meeting. What you cannot do is already determine a student’s placement. An IEP team must work together to ensure that the placement is proper. That cannot occur if the parent or guardian is left out of the process.
Have you ever been asked to make substantial placement decisions without the parent? | <urn:uuid:72b4e39d-b08c-48b4-a504-09dd01254a15> | {
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In Britain almost one in three five-year-olds suffers from tooth decay and it’s the most common reason why five-to nine-year-olds are admitted to hospital, according to a report by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS), The State Of Children’s Oral Health In England. The Faculty of Dental Surgeons at the RCS is seriously concerned about the state of children’s teeth and recommending that access to NHS dental services be improved so children can visit a dentist regularly for preventive advice and get any problems treated early. More than 30 per cent of children didn’t see a dentist between 2012 and 2014, data show.
The report highlights the need for parents and children to be educated about the risks of tooth decay and the importance of good oral hygiene in order to prevent decay. This is an area where pharmacy staff could play an important role.
“Community pharmacies are easily accessible,” says Dr Phil Stemmer, dentist and founder of the Fresh Breath Centre. “They have specific knowledge on dental care and good relations with their customers. They are seen as non-threatening, so customers may be more comfortable discussing oral care with them than a dentist.”
“You need to catch parents early, ideally during pregnancy, and speak to them about how it’s essential to begin looking after a baby’s teeth as soon as they appear. You can advise them on using age-appropriate paste and brushes, too.”
Mhari Coxon, a trustee and dental hygienist at the British Dental Health Foundation, agrees. “Often the pharmacy will be the first port of call – for tooth pain, broken fillings, bleeding gums,” she says. “It’s essential that staff are well educated about oral care so they can confidently offer good advice.”
“We know there are barriers to visiting the dentist and this is something pharmacists could help with. Local pharmacies have good relations with their customers and with local dentists. They can encourage parents to visit their dentist and remind them that the service is free for all children as well as during pregnancy.”
Children’s primary teeth are more susceptible to decay than permanent teeth – they have thinner enamel, which offers less protection from bacteria. When tooth decay isn’t diagnosed and treated early, children may need hospital treatment. This can be distressing and is costly, with £30 million a year spent on hospital-based extractions for under-18s.
It’s estimated that 90 per cent of decay is preventable with good oral care. The main preventive advice to give parents is:
“Hidden sugars are the main area where pharmacy staff could help give more education to parents,” says Ms Coxon. “Advise sugar-free medicines where possible. If it’s not, suggest using a fluoride mouthwash. This is also good for children who’ve had decay.”
“If a child has to use a sugar-containing medicine, advise parents to brush their child’s teeth first to remove bacteria that reacts with the sugar to cause decay. A syringe applicator is a good idea as it keeps the medicine away from teeth.”
Tepe brand manager Nicky Godfrey says: “Pharmacists can play an important role in supporting the use of fluoride toothpaste to help protect the enamel and the use of plaquedisclosing tablets that make identifying plaque simple and fun for children.”
Well Pharmacy commercial manager Jennifer Rann says customers in its stores are trading up to premium oral care products. “Whitening and cavity protection pastes are popular, while power brushes continue to grow sales, as well as premium fresh breath mouthwashes,” she says. But even with premium products, she stresses that promotions are still key. “This gives customers the confidence to try these products at a lower price,” she says. “Increase stocks of promotional
It makes sense to offer your customers service and products they can’t get through grocery outlets. Specialist oral care products are a good way of competing in the oral care market and of offering your customers a unique service.
“Specialist products that local pharmacies should consider stocking include high-fluoride toothpastes, inter-dental brushes, specialist mouthwashes, flosses and dental tapes” says Dr Stemmer. “You need to know about and understand all these products so you can advise patients on the best choice and how to use them effectively.”
Ms Coxon has this advice: “Daktarin oral gel is an excellent product to stock because it’s good for thrush caused by dentures or dry mouth. Chlorhexidine mouthwash is important for gum disease. Ulcer products are important, too. Stock a good range of products for dry mouth as more than 400 types of daily medication can cause this. Sugar-free gum is useful for dry mouth.”
Ms Godfrey stresses the importance of stocking floss and inter-dental brushes. “It’s important to get the message across that tooth brushing alone is not enough as the brush will only reach 60 per cent of the surfaces of the teeth – the remaining 40 per cent can only be accessed by floss and inter-dental brushes,” she says.
Tepe notes a trend of increased sales for specialist products for cleaning around dental implants and bridges. “The rapid growth in the dental implant market has given rise to a small range of specialist cleaning tools that are not readily available in retail, so the Tepe Implant Care, our Super Soft Special Care brushes and new bridge and implant floss will become key products in pharmacy.”
NICE has published new guidance for dentists on how they can improve the public’s experience of visiting the dental surgery in a bid to encourage more people to go regularly.
Some 31 per cent of adults and 28 per cent of children have decay. More than one in four adults report dental pain. Even though routine dental check-ups contribute to oral health, many people still only go to a dentist in a dental emergency (22 per cent of high and 34 per cent of low socio-economic groups).
Messages given to the public should include:
Dental teams are advised to be aware of the personal, cultural, social, environmental and economic barriers to good oral health. This includes:
NICE guidance on oral care for residents in care homes was also issued in December.
Well Pharmacy commercial manager Jennifer Rann says customers in its stores are trading up to premium oral care products. “Whitening and cavity protection pastes are popular, while power brushes continue to grow sales, as well as premium fresh breath mouthwashes,” she says.
But even with premium products, she stresses that promotions are still key. “This gives customers the confidence to try these products at a lower price,” she says. “Increase stocks of promotional lines to ensure maximum sales and give customers the offers they are looking to buy into.”
She stresses the importance of good product knowledge as well as good oral care understanding. “It is a confusing category to shop and it can be confusing for customers to understand the benefits and the one that suits their needs,” says Ms Rann. “Merchandising oral products together will help, as will informing customers how important it is to rinse and floss as well as brush teeth.”
At Day Lewis pharmacy group, professional services pharmacist Rebecca Myers says: “We’ve certainly seen a change in what sells well in recent years. Areas of growth are in higher-end lines such as specialist mouthwashes, pastes for sensitive teeth, whitening products, flosses, tapes and electric brushes. Areas that have shown no growth or decline are traditional brushes and pastes.”
“Medicinal products remain fairly constant. Customers still typically require advice regarding medicinal dental products and growth in the mouthwashes range has led to increased training in this area with respect to advice on fluoride content and treatment of gingivitis.”
“With parents, make every contact count. When answering queries about teething, get in early and talk about cleaning babies’ teeth. When recommending oral cough/cold medicines or pain relief, use the opportunity to discuss the sugar content of the medicine and good dental hygiene.”
She would advise pharmacists to keep only a small selection of traditional brushes and pastes. A dental planogram she recommends includes:
Numark communications manager Emma Charlesworth says some of its members are working collaboratively with dentists through LPC/LDC. “They signpost each other’s services and run joint health promotions,” she says. “With future plans for the NHS this makes sense and should result in a more co-ordinated service.”
For a more successful category she says: “It is important that your oral care fixture has appropriate space allocation in line with subcategory share. Consider the breakdown of the different sub-categories such as denture products or pastes. Allocate sufficient space to categories that customers are most likely to buy from.”
“Use brands synonymous with oral care to help signpost the category. Use Colgate as a beacon brand for the category. Your section should reflect products that not only sell well, but deliver good profit and value to your pharmacy. Our recommendation is to stock a brand leader and an own-brand for each.”
“Toothbrushes and pastes should sit together on shelves. We recommend denture care is positioned in an accessible place due to its target market. Denture is a ‘destination’ category for pharmacy, so should be displayed prominently. Merchandising children’s oral care items together and at their eye level can help drive sales and it also gives you the perfect opportunity to offer advice and support on children’s oral health.”
Other ways to improve sales include offering advice on how often customers should change their toothbrush, the benefits of different types of brush and the various types of paste, says Ms Charlesworth.
Dental floss sales is an area ripe for growth, with only 43 per cent of adults having used it in the past three months, says market research company Mintel (Oral Care report, June 2015). Alcohol-free mouthwash is also a growth sector, with 17 per cent of adults using it.
The oral care market is predicted to grow by 8 per cent by 2020 to an estimated £1.25 billion. An important trend to watch in the category, says Mintel, is towards the use of natural ingredients where possible.
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition has recommended our maximum sugar intake should be halved and not exceed 5 per cent of total dietary energy. It also recommends consumption of sugary drinks be minimised by adults and children.
A tax of 10 to 20 per cent on high-sugar products such as soft drinks is being recommended. “A sugar tax is essential. If we don’t have it we’ll continue to pay out huge sums to repair decay in the population,” says dentist Dr Phil Stemmer.
“In Mexico, where a tax was imposed to reduce the high incidence of diabetes, it’s worked well,” says BDA dental hygienist Mhari Coxon. “There is a lot of general anaesthetic used to treat decay in children, which is costly and traumatic. A tax could reduce this. The tax money collected will go towards educating the public about sugar and diet. It’s not about policing what people eat or drink, it’s about educating them so they know the facts. Currently, we are only treating the symptoms of excess sugar consumption, not the causes. This needs to change.”
Data show that more than 30 per cent of children didn’t see a dentist between 2012 and 2014
Fiona McElrea, Whithorn Pharmacy, Whithorn “This is a big category for us, and we deal with a lot of OTC requests for problems such as toothache, ulcers and oral thrush. With dental pain, we’ll check to see if they’ve seen a dentist, then if appropriate, will give advice for pain, as well as offer certain mouthwashes. Corsodyl is useful to try and stop infection. Some patients aren’t registered with a dentist, so we have local information from the health board to give to patients to register and be seen by a dentist. We have a specified dental section and we keep our staff well trained on these issues. Our best selling products tend to be Corsodyl, Bonjela, Ambesol liquid and Orajel. We can prescribe certain products as part of the minor ailments scheme.”
Nemesh Patel, Day Lewis Pharmacy, Chelmsford “We find a simplified core product range containing products, such as Corsodyl and Sensodyne, merchandising and promotions help drive sales growth. I would recommend subcategory segments merchandised together, to help customers identify the product(s) they require, eg toothbrushes and mouthwashes together. Everyone in our team has an excellent relationship with our local dental surgery and are skilled at offering advice promoting good oral hygiene, combating ailment, such as halitosis and oral thrush. Paramol is our best selling dental pain product, although we do find that traditional remedies, such as clove oil, are still popular. with some of our customers.”
Rena Dadra, Village Pharmacy, Harlington “The main oral care brands we sell really depends on what’s being promoted advertising wise. For example, Oral B Whitening has been on TV quite a lot recently. But many customers already know what they want when they come in. Generally, it is the Oral B range we sell the most of, as well as Corsodyl, which I usually recommend if someone speaks to me about gum issues. We’ve increased our dental area in the pharmacy recently and now we’ve got a whole section devoted to toothbrushes, toothpastes and the TePe cleaning brushes. We also have a new area focusing on the dry mouth range. At the moment this is not a massive seller, but I think if it had an advertising push we’d see demand rise massively.” | <urn:uuid:5b9ab719-a59b-4559-bab0-78d397829c3e> | {
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The government today released some new stats on prescription-drug use through 2008. The headline finding: Over the previous decade, the proportion of Americans (of all ages) reporting they took a prescription drug in the past month rose to 48% from 44%.
Some other key findings:
- The percentage of people reporting the use of multiple prescription drugs in the last month also rose, to 31% for two or more prescriptions and 11% (a near-doubling of the previous 6%)) for five or more drugs.
- As you’d expect, prescription-drug use varied by age, with about 20% of kids under 12 and 90% of older Americans (defined as age 60 and over — sorry, Mom!) reporting the use of at least one drug in the past month.
- Among the 60-plus crowd, more than 76% used at least two drugs in the past month and 37% used at least five. Of that finding — which stems, of course, from the fact that older folks often have multiple diseases — the report says that “excessive prescribing or polypharmacy is also an acknowledged safety risk for older Americans, and a continuing challenge that may contribute to adverse drug events, medication compliance issues and increased health-care costs.”
- The type of drugs used most often were asthma meds for kids, central nervous system stimulants (such as those used to treat ADHD) for teens, antidepressants for the middle-aged and cholesterol-lowering drugs for older people.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the trade association for drug makers, said in a statement that “as we learn more about disease, prescription medicines are justifiably playing an increasingly important role.” The group noted that many patients still lack access to needed medications, and that in many cases early interventions and improved compliance would improve health outcomes. “The best solution for all patients is to strike the right medical balance between proper and effective use of prescription medicines and other therapies and interventions,” it said.
A few months back, the pharmacy-benefits manager Medco issued its own figures for prescription-drug use and spending, covering 2009. It reported that use among adults held fairly steady, edging up slightly among those over 65 and dropping a bit for those aged 50-64 — but use among those 19 and under rose by 5%.
Update: This post has been updated to include a statement from PhRMA. | <urn:uuid:4986236f-4e2d-4332-9d1e-1e9e54f7ad86> | {
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Consumerism Essay Assignment 3
Write an interpretive essay that integrates your analysis o f the Fiestaware, the
souvenir pennants, the blue jeans, and documents A-D. The essay should
address the following questions:
What roles have consumers played in the economic and political transformation o f the United States between the Depression and the Cold War? How did consumer products connect individuals with wider economic, political, and social developments during that period?
I wish there were one word in the English language that meant exciting,
frightfully important, irreplaceable, deeply satisfying, basic and thrilling all
at once. I need that word to tell you how much your awareness of color
means to you in decorating. It is the rock on which your house is built.
Without a keen sense of color, without the ability to get real enjoyment and
excitement out of lovely colors, we might as well quit right now I firmly
believe that nothing contributes so much to the beauty of this world as
color. And, happily enough, I believe with equal conviction that every man,
woman and child alive has within him a true instinct for color . . . . No decoratoreither professional or amateurwho is worth her salt really plans
her color schemes from a card index file. The world is full of beautiful colors to choose from and everyone has her own individual preferences. Select
the loveliest colors you can findthrow them together and your own
taste, resourcefulness and independence will carry you through .... The
day of drab, timid colors is past. We are beginning to learn the magic of
colorthe glorious chance it gives us to turn a dreary room into something
miraculous, and the relative cheapness with which the transformation of
the whole feeling of a house may be brought about by its gay, fearless use.
Source: From Dorothy Draper, Decorating Is Fun! How to Be Your Own Decorator, New York: Doubleday, 1939, p. 27.
Many Americans now "travel," yet few are travelers in the old sense of the word. The multiplication, improvement, and cheapening of travel facilities have carried many more people to distant places. But the experience of going there, the experience of being there, and what is brought back from there axe all very different. The experience has become diluted, contrived, prefabricated ....
Even within the United States to go from one place to another is no longer to travel in the old sense of the word. Not only because, as we often hear, the culture of different parts of the country has been homogenizedso that wherever you go in the United States you see the same motion pictures, hear the same radio programs, watch the same television shows, eat the same packaged foods, select from the same ice cream flavors. We all know how desperately Chambers of Commerce work to create local color, how auto license plates advertise unreal distinctions. Alabama is the "Heart of Dixie," Arkansas is the "Land of Opportunity," Illinois is the "Land of Lincoln," Maine is "Vacation-land," Minnesota has "10,000 Lakes," North Dakota is the "Peace Garden State." All this is obvious.
But in addition to this, the democratizing of travel, the lowering cost, increased organization, and improved means of long-distance transportation within our country have themselves helped dilute the experience. Even here at home we are little more than tourists .... The more we move about, the more difficult it becomes not to remain in the same place.
From Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image, or, What Happened to the American Dream, New York: Atheneum, 1962.
[The students were] dressed Revolutionary Street Fighter. After the strike at [San Francisco] State, middle-class students didn't show up on campus any more in letter sweaters or those back-to-school items like you see in the McGregor ads. They dressed righteous and "with the people." They would have on guerilla gear that was so righteous that Che Guevara would have had to turn in his beret and get bucked down to company chaplain if he'd come up against it. They would have on berets and hair down to their shoulders, 1958 Sierra Maestra style, and raggedy field jackets and combat boots and jeans, but not Levi's or Slim Jims or Farahs or Wranglers or any of those tailored hip-hugging jeans, but jeans of the people, the black Can't Bust `Em brand, hod7carrier jeans that have an emblem on the back of a hairy gorilla, real funky jeans and woolly green socks, the kind that you get at the Army surplus at two pair for 29 cents.
From Tom Wolfe, Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers in Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1970, p. 126, describing students at San Francisco State University in 1969.
New beauty is free. Liberated from hang-ups over form and function, unencumbered by tradition or design. A freaky goddess surveying her . . .
realm. Kite high, moon pure. Groovy, powerful, and weird! . . .
Exhibitionism is the quiet side of violence: it aims to provoke . . . . No wonder it dominates the fashions of the `60s . . . . The same turmoil and insurrection that provides the terror of our times also inspires its greatest
achievements. The style of the `60s is creative anarchy.
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Emergency Preparedness BSA
|The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is pleased to partner with the Boy Scouts of America to increase the level of citizen preparedness across the country. DHS has asked the Boy Scouts of America to build upon the foundation of the Ready campaign and to help citizens across the country prepare for emergencies of all kinds. |
Emergency management, emergency preparedness, and disaster services are common throughout the United States—we take care of each other. By whatever name, these activities encompass mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery related to any kind of disaster, whether natural, technological, or national security. Emergency preparedness means being prepared for all kinds of emergencies, able to respond in time of crisis to save lives and property, and to help a community—or even a nation—return to normal life after a disaster occurs.
It is a challenge to be prepared for emergencies in our world of man-made and natural phenomena. The Emergency Preparedness BSA program is planned to inspire the desire and foster the skills to meet this challenge in our youth and adult members so that they can participate effectively in this crucial service to their families, communities, and nation.
The emergencies of today's world demand more than ever that our young people and adults be trained as individuals and as units to meet emergency situations. The importance of this training is not new to the Boy Scouts of America, as Scouting has always taught youth to be prepared for all types of emergencies. Since Scouting began in the United States, Scouts have responded to the needs of their communities and nation in time of crisis.
From its beginning, the Scouting movement has taught youth to do their best, to do their duty to God and country, to help others, and to prepare themselves physically, mentally, and morally to meet these goals. The basic aims of Scouting include teaching youth to take care of themselves, to be helpful to others, and to develop courage, self-reliance, and the will to be ready to serve in an emergency.
In addition to the millions of youth and adults who are active members of the Boy Scouts of America, millions of former members were trained in Scouting skills that prepare them for meeting emergencies. They are a built-in source of help to meet the challenge of readiness for any emergency situation. As Scouting units across the country begin planning an emphasis on emergency preparedness, this foundation of former members can be a resource for support—a trained group to help assure a response that will benefit the homes and communities of our nation.
When an emergency occurs, it affects every youth and adult member of BSA in the immediate area, creating the responsibility to respond first, as an individual; second, as a member of a family; and third, as a member of a Scouting unit serving the neighborhood and community. Because of these multiple levels of responsibility, the Emergency Preparedness BSA plan includes training for individual, family, and unit preparedness. Special training in all three areas is a prerequisite for BSA members conducting any type of emergency service in their communities.
The primary emphasis of this initial step in the program is to train members to be mentally and emotionally prepared to act promptly and to develop in them the ability to take care of themselves. Teaching young people to know and be able to use practical survival skills when needed is an important part of individual preparedness.
Since family groups will be involved in most emergency situations, this part of the plan includes basic instructions to help every Scouting family prepare for emergencies. Families will work together to learn basic emergency skills and how to react when faced with fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, explosions, warning signals, fallout protection, terrorism attacks, and other emergency situations.
The program fosters the desire to help others and teaches members how to serve their communities in age-appropriate ways. By taking the age-appropriate First Aid for Children course (Tiger Cubs) and Basic Aid Training (Wolf and Bear Cub Scouts), these boys help ease the burden on the family and community resources. Through all Scouting ranks and for adult members, the responsibilities and skills for community service increase with the members' maturity.
When a member has fulfilled the requirements, a completed application is submitted to the council. Upon approval, an Emergency Preparedness pin is awarded. The pin may be worn on civilian clothing or on the uniform, centered on the left pocket flap.
What you have on hand when a disaster happens could make a big difference. Plan to store enough supplies for everyone in your household for at least three days.
Planning ahead is the first step to a calmer and more assured disaster response
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Practical Index > Pets - Index > Pet Care
The wild bird trade may be one of the cruelest activities ever imposed upon innocent animals. The initial shock of losing their freedom and being confined to a cage can kill 10-20 percent of wild-caught birds. Of those who survive capture, half will die of starvation, dehydration, suffocation, or disease before export to large importing countries in Europe and Asia. Not only is this trade cruel, for most threatened parrots it is the primary cause of dramatic declines in populations. The parrot family has more globally threatened species than any other family of birds.
At least a million birds are imported into the European Union each year. With high mortality, hundreds of birds of different species traded, and a myriad of inconsistent and insufficient laws, it is impossible to track the exact numbers of birds that fall victim to the wild-bird trade.
In 1992 the U.S. Congress learned that the international pet trade in wild-caught birds contributes greatly to the decline of species in the wild, and that the trade produces an unacceptably high rate of mortality among imported animals. As a result, Congress passed the Wild Bird Conservation Act, which transformed the United States from the largest importer of wild-caught birds to one of the smallest. It is time the European Union followed our example by passing legislation to stop this cruel and destructive trade.
You Can Help!
The World Parrot Trust, an international bird conservation and welfare organization, is gathering support from the international community with a petition. The petition will be used to encourage the European Union to stop importing wild-caught birds. Sign the petition online at http://www.worldparrottrust.org/trade.htm or contact Monica Engebretson at API (916) 447-3085 or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:d68c57b1-f731-4e4d-bef3-91246ae7bd3f> | {
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The trie is a family of tree data structures used to hold sorted sets or maps (dictionaries) in which each node of the tree only holds, or represents, parts of keys, not entire keys.
I am using a loose definition of "trie" here because I have developed a special kind of trie. I call it a "Compact Patricia Trie" or
CPTrie. Unlike standard tries, which have very high memory requirements,
CPTrie has lower memory requirements than other collection types, particularly in certain cases such as keys with a limited alphabet (e.g., ASCII text). It's generally slower than
SortedDictionary and much slower than
Dictionary, but it potentially uses much less memory than either of them.
So, while normal tries are sometimes used to build a sorted list quickly in exchange for high memory use,
CPTrie provides the opposite tradeoff.
Please do read the Wikipedia article if you have never heard of tries; from now on, I'll assume you understand the concept.
A few months ago, I read about something called the Judy array, a C sparse array data structure that organizes itself in one of several ways in order to keep itself both fast and memory-efficient at the same time. You can assign a value at any sequence of indices between 0 and
uint.MaxValue, and Judy will organize itself into a kind of trie up to 4 levels deep (one level for each byte of the index), that is always fast and memory efficient regardless of the key distribution. For example, if you assign a value at every index between 0 and 1000, Judy will produce a data structure similar to an ordinary array, so that the values are closely packed. Meanwhile, if you use clusters of indices, say 23-70, 200-210, and 500-550, with a few unused slots, Judy will choose a different arrangement called a "bitmap". In any case, it minimizes the number of processor cache lines that are accessed.
I was so captivated by Judy's ideas that I wanted to make something like it for .NET, but after thinking and coding for several days, I came to the conclusion that there was no way, in C#, to come close to the speed or memory efficiency of Judy.
For example, Judy often stores data inside pointers. The bottom 2 or 3 bits of any pointer to any heap block is always zero; so you can either use those bits to store information along with the pointer, or you can use one of those bits to indicate that the pointer holds an integer instead. The dynamic language Ruby uses this technique to store integers in variables. That way, a variable can either point to an object, or (if the low bit is 1) it can store an integer directly with no heap space required. Sadly, this seems to be outright impossible in C#, even with unsafe code, since the garbage collector would probably crash when it encounters one of these non-pointers.
Another important limitation of C# is that you cannot store a fixed-length array of
object inside a class--you can only use fixed-length arrays of primitive types. Even then, you must sprinkle the
unsafe keyword everywhere so the code would be unusable in "safe" contexts. An external
object array is distinctly less efficient, as it requires a 4-
DWORD header and may need one extra cache line to access. Oh, and in .NET, the allocation alignment of ordinary objects cannot be controlled, so it is difficult to align to cache line boundaries.
...I left you for Patricia
Then, after reading about Burst tries and Patricia tries, I decided maybe there was hope that I could make some kind of useful new data structure for .NET. Plus, while porting some C++ code to C#, I was irritated because there was no .NET equivalent for
map::lower_bound, and I figured I would solve that problem too.
Introducing the CPTrie
- the Patricia trie idea of storing multi-byte prefixes in a single node
- the Burst trie idea of storing a limited number of keys together without factoring out common prefixes
- the Judy ideas of using multiple node types, storing data in a very compact form, and gaining speed by being cache-friendly
I guess I could have called it the PBJ trie. That would have been yummy.
I also wanted to use the Judy idea of using different types of nodes for different key densities, but I couldn't figure out an efficient way to port Judy's "bitmap" and "uncompressed" nodes to .NET, under the constraint that I wanted to support variable-length keys. But I'm really getting ahead of myself.
CPTrie itself is an abstract base class that only understands keys as arrays of bytes. Each kind of key you want to support needs a derived class to translate keys into byte arrays. In order to store strings in a
CPTrie, I provide the
CPStringTrie class. When you store a string in
CPStringTrie, the string is encoded in UTF-8 format before being placed in the trie. To store integer keys, use
CPIntTrie. If you actually want to use byte arrays as keys, use
If you use
CPStringTrie to hold strings, it will likely end up as a tree of "sparse" (a.k.a. "standard") nodes (
CPSNode). When using
CPIntTrie, up to three different kinds of nodes are used depending on the distribution of keys. Small collections (regardless of key distribution) always use
It helps to explain the structure of a
CPTrie in picture form. Suppose you run the following code:
CPStringTrie<int> t = new CPStringTrie<int>();
t["This little piggy went to market"] = 1;
t["This little piggy stayed at home"] = 2;
t["This little piggy had roast beef"] = 3;
t["This little piggy had none"] = 4;
t["And this little piggy went"] = 5;
t["'Wee wee wee' all the way home."] = 6;
t["And then some wolf came along"] = 7;
t["and blew down two of their houses!"] = 8;
CPStringTrie will end up containing two nodes, structured as follows:
As you add keys, the node must either enlarge itself or split itself (creating a child node), to make room for new keys and values. At first, it will enlarge itself, but at some point, it will notice a common prefix and decide to create a child node instead.
Notice that the trie is sorted, but the sort order is case-sensitive (uppercase comes before lowercase, the natural order of ASCII). Unlike a
SortedDictionary, which supports various sort orders, case-sensitive sorting is an inherent limitation of a trie (a kind of workaround is possible, but I have not tried it).
Like a Patricia trie,
CPSNode can hold several bytes of a key within a single node. Somewhat like a Burst trie,
CPSNode does not immediately create new nodes when two keys have a common prefix, because it is more efficient to wait until there are several keys before splitting the node. Unlike a Burst trie, however, a
CPSNode splits by creating children, not by creating a new parent node.
Nitty-gritty details (skip if you don't care)
CPSNode<T>: the "standard" or "sparse" node
CPSNode<T> consists of:
- An array of "cells" (
SCell) which are used to encode parts of keys
- An array of "children" (
CPNode) which associate child nodes with common prefixes
- An array of "values" (
T) associated with keys that terminate in the current node (i.e., keys that do not have children)
Some nodes have no children, so the array of children may be null. Likewise, there may be no values; in fact, storage is not allocated for the
null value, so if you want to store a set of strings instead of a dictionary, use
null for all values to save memory.
The cell is the innovative part that allows nodes to be very compact. Normal .NET strings take up a relatively large amount of space, because each string has a 12-byte header as well as a 2-byte null terminator and sometimes 2 bytes of padding (in a 32-bit process, I think). Moreover, if the text is English, half the space is wasted on null bytes of UTF-16. By encoding several strings into a single array of "cells", only one 12-byte header is needed for all the strings, and there are no null terminators.
Cells are 4-byte groups that encode partial (or complete) keys and pointers to values or child nodes. If a
_count keys (or partial keys), the first
_count cells are sorted and describe the beginning of those keys. Each cell contains up to 3 bytes of a key (
K2), so the first
_count cells tell us the first three bytes of each key. The fourth byte, called
P, acts as a pointer to another cell, to a child, or to a value, depending on its value:
- A child node (if
P < _count);
[P] is an index into the child array
- Another cell (if
P < 222);
[P] is an index into the cell array
- A non-null value (if
P < 254), where
[253-P] is an index into the value array
- The null value (if
P == 254)
P == 255, it means that the cell is free, and it is part of a doubly-linked list of cells that are not in use.
P is only one byte, the size of a
CPSNode must be fairly limited. There are a maximum of 32 values; all keys together cannot use more than 222 cells; and I arbitrarily selected limits of 34 for
_count and 50 bytes for the length of any single key*. The number of keys in a single node must be strictly limited anyway, because the first
_count cells form a sorted array, and building a sorted array with N items requires O(N2) time. Building an unsorted array first and sorting it afterward would be faster (O(N log N)), but for various reasons, that seems impractical. The limit should not be too low either, because as the number of keys decreases,
CPSNode becomes less memory-efficient as more objects and arrays are allocated, leading to more overhead. Also, traversing from one node to another may take extra time, as the processor stalls more often waiting for cache lines to fill.
* Note: I am not saying keys are limited to 50 bytes, only that keys longer than 50 bytes will be broken up into a chain of nodes.
P points to a value or child node, the key might not use the entire three bytes that are available in that cell. Special values of
K2 indicate this situation; for instance,
K2==254 means that the key ends after only one byte (
K0). Of course, if the number 254 actually happens to be the third byte of the key, special handling is required.
There can be (at most) one zero-length key in any given node, but there can sometimes be a zero-length cell following a cell of length three, in some cases, where a special number like 254 is encountered at the end of a key.
CPSNode can contain up to 34 items, it can comfortably hold a set of words starting with each letter of the alphabet (e.g., "apple", "banana", "coconut", donut", etc.). However, if there are more than 34 different characters at the beginning of the keys (or following a common prefix), a different data structure is required.
I would have liked to do something resembling Judy's "bitmap nodes", but I couldn't think of a very efficient way to do it in .NET. So instead, I implemented a simple kind of bitmap node that I call
CPBNode simply divides the "byte space" into 8 slices, with a child
CPSNode for each slice. There is a
CPSNode for keys that start with a byte between 0 and 31 (child #0), another
CPSNode for keys between 32 and 63 (child #1), and so forth. This way, there can never be more than 32 unique starting bytes in any given child. When
CPBNode is asked to create a key such as "
~foo~", it observes that
'~' (0x7E) is in slice #3, so it forwards the "create" request to child #3. If some slices are not needed (e.g., if there are no non-ASCII characters),
CPSNodes are not allocated for unused ranges.
CPBNode will switch back to
CPSNode when the number of items drops below 24.
CPBNode never converts itself to
CPBitArrayLeaf is a new node type I added to improve the space efficiency of
CPIntTrie when densely packed keys are detected, i.e., when sequences of integers are close together.
CPBitArrayLeaf is also the fastest node type. Theoretically, string tries can also use this node type, but only when there are a large number of constant-length strings that differ only in their last character.
As its name implies,
CPBitArrayLeaf is a leaf node with an array of bits (called
_flags). It only supports 1-byte keys, and the bit array has two bits for each of the 256 possible keys. There is also an array of
T) and a table of
_indices that map keys to slots in the
_flags is really two arrays of 256 bits: one array tracks which keys are in use, and the other tracks which entries in
_values are in use, so that a free slot can be found quickly.
If a key is ever added that is not 1 byte, the node must be converted immediately to
CPBitArrayLeaf has a fixed size for keys - the number of non-null values affects its size, but the number of keys does not. Therefore,
CPBitArrayLeaf is very efficient when it is almost full (near 256 keys), but inefficient when it is nearly empty (near 0 keys).
CPSNode switches to
CPBitArrayLeaf when it is full with 34 items and every key is one byte (with no children);
CPBitArrayLeaf switches back if the number of items drops below 24, which is the approximate point at which both node types occupy the same amount of memory. However,
CPBitArrayLeaf is more compact when there are no values associated with the keys, because of the overhead of the
_indices map. Therefore, if you are storing a set (with all
null values) rather than a dictionary,
CPSNode will switch to
CPBitArrayLeaf at 16 items and switch back to
CPSNode when the number of items drops below 12.
CPTrie is quite memory-efficient if you only insert nodes, but what about deletions? Well, rest assured, deleting keys is as fast as inserting them... at least I think so, but I didn't make a benchmark for it. However, after deleting the majority of keys, the trie may have a less efficient structure.
Remember, during insertion, a node is not eager to divide because multiple small nodes are typically less efficient than one large node. This is because if nodes are small, a larger fraction of their size goes to .NET object headers, and on average, more nodes must be traversed when scanning a key (keys are "scanned" as we insert, remove, find, or enumerate them). When deleting keys, small nodes are not consolidated into larger nodes; a small node is only eliminated when its last key is removed.
The worst case is not terrible, however. In the worst case, after removing most of the nodes from a very large
CPTrie, the "Patricia trie" property can be lost, increasing the space overhead. But tries cannot be "unbalanced" the way a binary search tree can be, so it is not crucial for
CPTrie to have a balancing algorithm.
CPSNode does notice when the majority of its cells are unused, and it will switch to a smaller array in that case.
Optimizing the trie
You may have heard that as you add items to a
List<T>, the items are added to a fixed-size internal array. When that array is full,
List<T> copies the items to another array that is twice as big, before discarding the original array.
CPSNode<T> does roughly the same thing for each of its arrays (
_values); consequently, there are usually some unused array entries sitting around, wasting space.
CPTrie can optimize itself when it makes a copy of itself, so you can eliminate this space by calling
Clone() and then discarding the original version of the trie. Unfortunately, at this time, it does not support optimizing in-place, so when you make the clone, memory will be required for the original trie and its clone simultaneously (which is only a problem if the trie is extremely large).
In some applications, you will build a trie and then scan it many times without modifying it at all. In such cases, you should optimize the trie. Note that the optimization process merely discards unused array entries; it does not optimize the structure of the trie (e.g., to account for deleted items).
My benchmark program shows that an optimized
CPTrie tends to be about 20% smaller.
In a program (such as my benchmark) that uses datasets larger than the processor cache, I have found that an optimized
CPTrie is about 10% faster when looking up keys. I believe this is for two reasons related to locality of reference:
- Because there are fewer blank spaces in the cells array, a key longer than 3 bytes, but in the same cell array, is more likely to be on the same cache line.
- An optimized trie node allocates all three of its arrays together. The .NET memory manager tends to put objects adjacent in memory when they are allocated at the same time, so the node itself and its three arrays are likely to be contiguous in memory. Therefore, they share some cache lines and can be accessed with fewer processor stalls.
When should you use a trie?
When managing any large amount of data, it's important to choose the right data structure for the job. If your keys are not strings and can't be represented as a byte array, then you can't use
CPTrie anyway. If you do not need to access keys in sorted order, you are probably best off using a hash table. .NET's
Dictionary<K,V> is an excellent hash table design that is both simple (small code size) and fast.
If you need keys in sorted order, but not until all the keys are added to the list, it might still be better to use a standard
Dictionary, or even a
List<KeyValuePair<K,V>>, because both of those are so much faster than
CPTrie. Add all your key-value pairs to the
List, then (if you used
ToList() to convert it to a
List, then sort the list with
On the other hand, if you need interleave queries (that depend on the sort order) with modifications to the collection,
CPTrie make sense. If you need to sort strings in case-insensitive or culture-sensitive order, you should probably use
In some cases, you should consider some kind of parallel data structure or algorithm (standard
CPTrie are all single-threaded).
Okay, so when should you use CPTrie?
One reason to use
CPTrie is that it offers four operations that
- Reverse-order enumeration: get an enumerator from
GetEnumerator(), then call
MovePrev() repeatedly instead of
- Find the nearest larger key: call
FindAtLeast() to get an enumerator that points to the key equal to or greater than the requested key.
- Get the next key/value and get the previous key/value:
SortedDictionary will only let you get the next key if you start enumerating from the beginning. With
CPTrie, you can start enumerating (backward or forward) from any key you want.
There is no reason
SortedDictionary couldn't offer these operations, but for some reason, it doesn't.
Here are some more reasons to consider
- Your keys have many common prefixes. For example, a set of URLs all start with one of a few prefixes, such as "http://", "http://www.", "ftp://", "file:///", and so forth. In such cases,
CPTrie will store the common prefix only once, saving a lot of memory in a large set. In such cases,
SortedDictionary has lookup speed of at worst O(K log N) (where K is the key length and N is the collection size), whereas
CPTrie is no worse than O(K).
- Your data set is extremely large, and you need to avoid using more virtual memory than physical RAM. For instance, if the machine has 1 GB of RAM, the computer will slow to a crawl when your data structure exceeds that size. In a 32-bit Windows process, you can't normally use more than 2 GB total; if you might approach that limit, consider
CPTrie. In some cases,
CPTrie can encode the trie itself and all the keys in the same amount of memory it takes
SortedDictionary to hold the data structure and merely pointers to the keys. Provided that you do not need to store copies of the keys in string form, you can often use half the memory by using
CPTrie (see graph below).
- You need a set, not a dictionary, and you are not using .NET 4.0 (which offers a sorted set collection). If you use a reference type as the value type of a
CPTrie will save at least 4 bytes of memory every time you use
null as the value for a key. This allows
CPTrie to store sets very compactly.
- You want to store a set of integers that are highly clustered, meaning that there are long runs of almost-consecutive integers, e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, 104, etc.
CPIntTrie can store large clusters efficiently with
CPBitArrayLeaf nodes, especially if no values need to be associated with the integers.
Performance for string storage
SortedDictionary for three data sets:
- A list of English words from 12dicts.
- A collection of 200,000 strings. Each key was built by concatenating two random English words with a space in between.
- A collection of 1,000,000 strings. Each key was built by concatenating one of 31 prefixes to a random English word with a space in between. In the second test, I expect the
CPTrie to receive some benefit (in speed and space) from the relatively small number of prefixes.
You can see the results of the first data set in the first two lines of the benchmark in the screenshot at the beginning of this article (or, just run the benchmark on your own machine - be sure to use a Release build). The first line uses a normal non-optimized
CPTrie, while the second line (marked "
opt.") shows the performance difference when the trie is optimized, but since the English word list fits in my processor's 2 MB cache, it doesn't make much difference.
After first publishing this article, I realized I had not been fair to
SortedDictionary because I had used the default sort order. Since
CPStringTrie sorts by ordinal,
SortedDictionary ought to use the
StringComparer.Ordinal comparer instead, to make the comparison fair. This change makes
SortedDictionary about twice as fast, so
CPStringTrie is generally slower for collections with less than 200,000 items, but it is still faster for very large collections.
The timer used for measurements has a 10-15ms. resolution, so the tests on the first data set are repeated 10 times to get more accurate results. For the larger data sets, I only used 1 or 2 reps so that the benchmark didn't take too long.
I only benchmarked the speed of insertions and retrievals ("scanning"). There are no benchmarks for enumeration or removals. I suspect that
CPTrie has relatively slow enumeration because when you ask for the value of each key, it must be converted from
StringDictionary store strings directly. However, I don't expect removals to be slow.
For the last two data sets, I did a sequence of tests to show the effect of varying collection sizes. In the first test of each data set, I stored the entire data set (200,000 or 1,000,000 items) in a single collection. For the other tests, I divided the data set into "sections" of size 1000, 500, 250, or smaller, and I placed each section in its own collection. This is intended to simulate common applications that manage large amounts of data but do not store all the data in one place--that is, the data is spread out over many collections.
Only the first data set is small enough to (almost) fit in a typical 2 MB L2 cache. In all other cases, I tried to access the data in such a way that the processor cache is stressed. Before scanning the keys, their order is randomized, and one key is added or retrieved from each collection in turn, so that the cache tends to be "cold" when retrieving each key. I thought this access pattern would be relatively friendly to
CPTrie because of its compact size, but it doesn't seem to matter much.
So, here are the results:
These graphs show that (on my workstation)
CPTrie only beats
StringDictionary for very large collections. Note that
StringDictionary must be constructed with ordinal sort order for this to be true; the default sort order (which I think is case insensitive and culture-aware) cuts
StringDictionary's speed in half. In any case,
StringDictionary gets incrementally slower as the collection size increases, which makes sense because it uses a red-black tree, which requires O(log N) time for each insertion or retrieval.
CPTrie has a more complex insertion performance. Insertion speed suddenly becomes slower for collections with 64 rather than 32 items; I suspect this is because the trie is forced to split into multiple nodes after it exceeds its 34-item-per-node limit, and the splitting process is somewhat expensive. However, performance never gets much worse; a collection with 200,000 items is constructed almost as fast as 1600 collections with 125 items each.
It almost seems as though
CPTrie defies the law I was taught in school that sorting algorithms generally cannot be faster than O(N log N). Yet theoretically, I believe a trie can produce a sorted data set in O(N * K) time, where K is the (average?) key length, and there is no "log N" penalty. Does some academic care to explain this discrepancy?
As I mentioned,
CPTrie can use less memory than standard collections, and it does especially well for large data sets.
I performed memory measurements in a purely analytical way, under the assumption of a 32-bit processor. To determine the memory use of these collections, I assumed 8-byte headers on normal objects, 12- and 16-byte headers on arrays (see here), 4-byte object alignment and standard alignment rules, and then I examined each of the relevant classes to figure out its memory requirements.
CPTrie, I wrote a method (
CountMemoryUsage()) to compute the exact memory usage; for
SortedDictionary, I used Reflector to examine the implementation details to find out how much memory is used, and I wrote methods to calculate memory use. If you trust my arithmetic, the memory measurement for
SortedDictionary is exact, whereas
Dictionary is only approximate.
List<T>, uses arrays that roughly double in size when they are enlarged, which means that between 0% and 50% of entries in a
Dictionary are unused. A
Dictionary cannot be asked for its current capacity, so for my calculation, I assumed that 25% of the entries were unused.
If you are using a 64-bit process instead, I suspect
CPTrie will look relatively more favorable, although all types of collections will require substantially more memory.
So, here are the memory graphs to go along with the speed graphs above. The trie measurements are for a non-optimized trie.
There is an important "cheat" here: the memory consumption of the keys is added to the total memory use of the
SortedDictionary, but not for the
CPStringTrie. So, while it appears
CPTrie uses less memory, this is only true if you discard the keys after adding them to the trie. If you keep all the keys lying around in the form of strings (as the benchmark does, admittedly), you will not save memory by using
So, keeping in mind the rule about keys, the 200,000 item
CPStringTrie can use 57% less memory than the
Dictionary, assuming 4-byte values associated with each key. The million-item trie is even better, using 67% less memory.
I thought that the million-item trie would save quite a bit of memory by having only 31 prefixes, but if I use random word pairs instead (not shown on the graph), the savings is still a healthy 65% compared to the
Dictionary. Note that there are only 41,238 unique words, so there are still many common prefixes in the million-item test.
If you optimize your trie with
Clone() after you are done building it, you can save about 20% more memory than shown on the graphs, plus you'll get 10% faster queries if your access pattern stresses the processor cache (but you'll take a performance hit if you modify the trie after optimizing it). Notice the memory spike for collections with 64 items - I believe this happens because most of the 32-item tries fit in one node, but the 64-item tries require two or more, increasing overhead disproportionately. All three collection types require more memory if there are very few items per collection (because the sheer number of collections is very high, and each one has some overhead).
Remember that in these tests, the keys are ASCII. This helps save memory because
CPStringTrie uses UTF-8, compared to normal UTF-16 strings which use two bytes per character. However, if you store mainly non-ASCII strings such as Chinese,
CPStringTrie will need substantially more memory (I believe a typical Chinese character uses 3 bytes in UTF-8 versus 2 for UTF-16).
I wrote a single class,
CPIntTrie<TValue>, for storing integers of all sizes from 8 bits to 64 bits, signed or unsigned. It contains overloaded methods for adding integers of various sizes, and it implements two dictionary interfaces,
IDictionary<int, TValue> and
IDictionary<long, TValue>, which should cover most use cases.
In order to store data efficiently in
CPIntTrie encodes each key into bytes in one of three formats:
- A 3-byte form for 24-bit integers in the range -0x10000 to 0xFAFFFF
- A 6-byte form for 41-bit integers in the range -0xFFFFFFFFFF to 0xFFFFFFFFFF
- A 9-byte form for large signed and unsigned integers
Using multiples of 3 bytes makes sense for storing numbers in a
CPSNode, where there are 3 bytes per node. In large collections, the encoding method is not really important as long as it maintains sort order, but in small collections, this encoding is as compact as possible.
To maintain sort order, all the 6-byte negative integers need to appear "smaller" than the 3-byte ones, and all the 6-byte positive integers need to appear "larger". Likewise, the negative 9-byte integers need to appear the smallest, and positive 9-byte integers need to appear the largest. Therefore, the keys are stored in a kind of big-endian format, with a prefix byte in front that indicates magnitude and length:
- 0x00: 64-bit signed integer below -0xFFFFFFFFFF in 9 bytes
- 0x01: 41-bit signed integer between -0xFFFFFFFFFF and -0x10000 in 6 bytes
- 0x02-0xFD: 24-bit integer between -0x10000 and 0xFAFFFF in 3 bytes; subtract 3 from this byte to compute the first byte of the 24-bit number
- 0xFE: 40-bit unsigned integer between 0xFB0000 and 0xFFFFFFFFFF in 6 bytes
- 0xFF: 64-bit unsigned integer above 0xFFFFFFFFFF in 9 bytes
The original data type is not encoded: the "byte" 100 and the "int" 100 are stored the same way. Although it would be very unusual to use signed and unsigned 64-bit numbers as keys simultaneously in the same collection,
CPTrie does allow it. Therefore, there is no primitive data type that can represent all possible keys.
Performance for integer storage
For the integer benchmarks, I took a different approach than the string benchmarks. In the string benchmarks, I examined how the trie's performance is affected by collection size, by repeating the tests with keys divided into "sections" of various sizes. I simplified the integer benchmarks by only testing a single large collection at once, but I used a variety of key distributions, thinking this could affect performance and space consumption of the trie.
The executive summary:
CPIntTrie is usually slower than
SortedDictionary. However, if the keys are very densely clustered,
CPIntTrie is faster and much smaller.
CPIntTrie is also a good choice for very large collections. However, as before,
Dictionary is much faster than either of the sorted collections.
I did tests involving 24-bit, 32-bit, and 64-bit keys. I tried three kinds of key distribution:
- Random: a uniform distribution.
- Exponential: in 32-bit mode, a random number is chosen with a random number of bits between 15 and 32 so that the high bits are zero; this should approximate picking a random point on a logarithmic scale. In 64-bit mode, a random 32-bit number is left-shifted by up to 32 bits.
- Clustered: clusters are groups of integers that are close together. But how close? There are an infinite number of variations of the idea of "clustered" data. In my tests, I build random clustered key sets using parameters
(C, S, D, start) where
C is the maximum number of integers in each cluster (
C/2 is the minimum),
S is the maximum space between clusters (
S/2 is the minimum),
D is the maximum distance between adjacent integers in the cluster (
1 is the minimum), and
start is the first integer in the series (
start is set to
0x0123456789ABCDEF for 64-bit clusters, and
0x1000000 for 32-bit clusters). I picked various arbitrary values for
D in the tests.
Clustered data often appears in ID columns of databases. Each new row is given an ID one greater than the last, but over time, some rows or series of adjacent rows are deleted, leaving small or large gaps in the integer space.
CPIntTrie stores such sets very compactly. Clustered data also come from various other sources, such as histograms.
Of course, the key distribution has little or no effect on the performance of
CPIntTrie, it turns out, is usually not dramatically affected by the key distribution either, except that
CPIntTrie handles densely clustered data faster, and it is faster when storing a set (
null values) rather than a dictionary.
Here's some raw data from my machine:
|-Int Dictionary--| |-SortedDictionary-| |----CPIntTrie----|
Scenario Reps Set size Fill Scan Memory Fill Scan Memory Fill Scan Memory
-------- ---- -------- ---- ---- ------ ---- ---- ------ ---- ---- ------
1-100,000, sorted 10 100000 15ms 12ms 2.5M 128ms 58ms 2.7M 63ms 46ms 0.9M
1-100,000, random 10 100000 15ms 4ms 2.5M 132ms 62ms 2.7M 58ms 44ms 0.9M
1-100,000 w/ null vals 10 100000 15ms 6ms 2.5M 129ms 58ms 2.7M 47ms 43ms 0.0M
24-bit keys with 100K items:
Random 24-bit ints 10 100000 19ms 9ms 2.5M 134ms 66ms 2.7M 157ms 65ms 2.0M
Random set (null vals.) 10 100000 18ms 13ms 2.5M 134ms 62ms 2.7M 117ms 63ms 1.3M
Clusters(20, 100,2) 10 100000 15ms 9ms 2.5M 134ms 66ms 2.7M 101ms 60ms 2.2M
Clusters(same w/ nulls) 10 100000 18ms 9ms 2.5M 135ms 63ms 2.7M 81ms 46ms 0.2M
Clusters(20, 100,9) 10 100000 16ms 9ms 2.5M 131ms 60ms 2.7M 134ms 65ms 2.3M
Clusters(20,1000,2) 10 100000 21ms 9ms 2.5M 131ms 63ms 2.7M 126ms 70ms 1.4M
Clusters(20,1000,9) 10 100000 15ms 12ms 2.5M 132ms 55ms 2.7M 129ms 74ms 1.4M
Clusters(50, 100,2) 10 100000 15ms 10ms 2.5M 129ms 60ms 2.7M 84ms 47ms 1.6M
Clusters(50, 100,9) 10 100000 21ms 12ms 2.5M 132ms 58ms 2.7M 128ms 52ms 3.1M
Clusters(50,1000,2) 10 100000 15ms 12ms 2.5M 131ms 62ms 2.7M 137ms 62ms 1.7M
Clusters(50,1000,9) 10 100000 16ms 10ms 2.5M 128ms 58ms 2.7M 143ms 70ms 2.2M
Tests with 32-bit keys:
Random 32-bit ints 10 100000 23ms 16ms 2.5M 154ms 58ms 2.7M 175ms 96ms 2.0M
Random 32-bit ints 5 200000 49ms 43ms 5.1M 315ms 165ms 5.3M 468ms 237ms 5.1M
Random 32-bit ints 3 500000 135ms 130ms 12.7M 1051ms 530ms 13.4M 1291ms 614ms 8.5M
Random 32-bit ints 2 1000000 335ms 281ms 25.4M 2593ms 1257ms 26.7M 2390ms 1328ms 13.3M
Exponential 32-bit 10 100000 21ms 13ms 2.5M 134ms 62ms 2.7M 185ms 88ms 1.9M
Exponential 32-bit 5 200000 49ms 49ms 5.1M 321ms 162ms 5.3M 390ms 218ms 3.8M
Exponential 32-bit 3 500000 140ms 135ms 12.7M 1056ms 525ms 13.4M 1234ms 567ms 9.1M
Exponential 32-bit 2 1000000 335ms 288ms 25.4M 2671ms 1218ms 26.7M 2601ms 1218ms 17.8M
Clusters(25,25,1) 10 100000 15ms 0ms 2.5M 129ms 62ms 2.7M 81ms 62ms 1.5M
Clusters(25,30000,5) 10 100000 16ms 10ms 2.5M 134ms 60ms 2.7M 155ms 93ms 1.3M
Clusters(50,50000,5) 10 100000 16ms 12ms 2.5M 134ms 60ms 2.7M 180ms 90ms 2.0M
Clusters(75,90000,5) 10 100000 19ms 9ms 2.5M 129ms 60ms 2.7M 169ms 82ms 2.1M
Clusters(75,90000,5) 5 200000 40ms 40ms 5.1M 318ms 165ms 5.3M 368ms 205ms 4.3M
Clusters(75,90000,5) 3 500000 130ms 130ms 12.7M 1031ms 530ms 13.4M 1202ms 577ms 10.6M
Clusters(75,90000,5) 2 1000000 320ms 296ms 25.4M 2624ms 1241ms 26.7M 2562ms 1234ms 21.3M
Clusters(75,90000,5) 1 2000000 687ms 593ms 50.9M 6671ms 2796ms 53.4M 5265ms 2656ms 42.7M
Clusters(99,90000,2) 1 2000000 703ms 578ms 50.9M 6640ms 2796ms 53.4M 5328ms 3062ms 28.1M
Tests with 64-bit keys:
Clusters(25,50000,9) 10 100000 23ms 15ms 3.1M 151ms 71ms 3.1M 177ms 97ms 1.4M
Clusters(50,20000,5) 10 100000 23ms 15ms 3.1M 148ms 68ms 3.1M 179ms 91ms 2.0M
Clusters(75,1000,3) 10 100000 19ms 13ms 3.1M 144ms 71ms 3.1M 156ms 70ms 1.8M
Random 32-bit longs 10 100000 26ms 15ms 3.1M 149ms 71ms 3.1M 179ms 96ms 2.0M
Random 40-bit longs 10 100000 24ms 15ms 3.1M 174ms 78ms 3.1M 190ms 93ms 2.5M
Random 64-bit longs 10 100000 26ms 15ms 3.1M 148ms 68ms 3.1M 201ms 94ms 3.1M
Random set (null vals.) 10 100000 27ms 16ms 3.1M 144ms 71ms 3.1M 187ms 90ms 2.3M
Exponential longs 10 100000 26ms 15ms 3.1M 154ms 74ms 3.1M 210ms 112ms 2.3M
Exponential longs 5 200000 55ms 46ms 6.1M 365ms 187ms 6.1M 534ms 246ms 4.7M
Exponential longs 3 500000 156ms 135ms 15.3M 1296ms 567ms 15.3M 1406ms 697ms 11.4M
Exponential longs 2 1000000 343ms 296ms 30.5M 3218ms 1452ms 30.5M 3343ms 1531ms 22.3M
I only made a graph of the 32-bit section of these results:
Note that this graph doesn't show cases of all-null values, which are faster, but you can see that the dense cluster
(25,25,1) is faster than
CPIntTrie's memory savings are not as dramatic, but still distinct. The graph below shows how
CPIntTrie handles various distributions and data sizes of 32-bit integers.
The graph doesn't show any cases of
null values. If you look at the raw data, you'll see that in cases where all values are set to
null (e.g., "1-100,000 w/ null values"), dramatically less memory may be required, particularly if the data is densely clustered. In such cases, the trie acts more like a bit array in regions of the integer space that contain dense clusters of keys. In the best such case, less than 4 bits per key are required, so the total comes to 0.0 MB after rounding to the nearest 0.1 MB. You can choose whether or not to use a value on a key-by-key basis, but in order to get such dramatic memory savings, large regions of the number space must only use
Curiously, there is a spike in memory usage for the case of 200K random integers. I am not certain why this is the case, but I suspect the key density is the problem.
CPTrie is efficient when the keys are either sparse (using
CPSNode) or dense (using
CPBitArrayLeaf), but at certain densities, it would have to use
CPBNode, and since the data is random, it requires 8
CPBNode, which adds a lot of overhead.
On the other hand, memory use dips for 1 million random numbers and for certain kinds of clustered data. In the case of 1 million random integers, I can only assume this key density is a sweet spot, even though it is not dense enough to use
CPBitArrayLeaf. The clusters
(99,90000,2) are probably benefiting from
CPBitArrayLeaf, while perhaps the clusters
(25,30000,5) make efficient use of
I hope you enjoyed reading about my new data structure. Let me know if you find a practical application!
- March 30, 2010: Added
CPBitArrayLeaf) with benchmarks and tests.
- February 26, 2010: Initial release with | <urn:uuid:696d66c2-d1b7-44d9-8b06-f70744560180> | {
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Hungarian National Museum
|This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2013)|
The Hungarian National Museum (Hungarian: Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum) was founded in 1802 and is the national museum for the history, art and archaeology of Hungary, including areas not within Hungary's modern borders such as Transylvania; it is not to be confused with the collection of international art of the Hungarian National Gallery. The museum is in Budapest VIII in a purpose-built Neoclassical building from 1837-47 by the architect Mihály Pollack.
The Hungarian National Museum traces its foundation to 1802 when Count Ferenc Széchényi set up the National Széchényi Library. This would then be followed a year later by the donating of a mineral collection by Széchényi’s wife. This led to the creation of the Hungarian National Museum as a general and natural history museum, and not only a library. In 1807 the Hungarian National Parliament passed legislation on the new institution and asked the nation to help donate to the museum.
The Hungarian Parliament of 1832-1834 helped with the growth of the museum as well. The parliament voted in favor of giving half a million forint to help with the construction of a new building for the museum. During this time the Hungarian National History Museum was officially set up under the Hungarian National Museum. Later in 1846, the museum moved to its current location of VIII. Múzeum krt. 14-16. Here the museum resides in a neo-classical style building designed by Mihály Pollack.
In 1848 the Hungarian National Museum played a major role in the Hungarian Revolution. The Revolution was partially spurred by the reading of Sándor Petőfi’s 12 points and the famous poem Nemzeti dal on the front steps of the museum. This helped give the museum an identification as a major national identity for Hungary. In remembrance of the revolution two statues were added to the museum. The first is a statue of János Arany which was unveiled in 1883. Later in 1890 there was a statue next to the stairs of the museum of a memorial tablet to Sándor Petőfi. In addition during this time the Upper House of the parliament held its sessions in the Cereminial of the museum. This continued until the new house of Parliament was built. Today in remembrance festivities for National Commemorations Day of 1848 are held in front of the museum.
In 1949 an act mandated that the ethnographic and natural history part of the Hungarian National Museum had to split off of the main museum, and are now the Hungarian Natural History Museum and Ethnographic Museum. This also helped with the setting up of the modern day National Széchényi Library. All of these separate museums are still interconnected and other museums and monuments have become affiliated with them over time. The most recent addition was the Castle Museum in Esztergom that joined in 1985.
The Hungarian National Museum has seven permanent displays. The general history of Hungary is covered in two sections: the archaeology from prehistory to the Avar period ending in 804 AD on the first (ground) floor ("On the East-West frontier"), and the history from 804 to modern times on the first floor. This display covers topics such as the age of the Arpads, the long Turkish occupation, Transylvania and royal Hungary. More modern and Contemporary history covered begins with the Rákóczi War of Independence, showing different sections of his military attire and various coins. The history section then ends with the rise and fall of the communist system in Hungary. In another hall on the second floor one can find out about the Scholar Hungarians who made the twentieth century. A room on the first floor displays the medieval Hungarian Coronation Mantle.
The ground floor’s permanent exhibit is focused on Medieval and Early Modern stone inscriptions and carvings. This exhibit looks at various stone relics and the carvings that have been made into them. The majority of the items in this collection were discovered during the 60’s and 70’s since they looked for more relics post World War II. The final permanent exhibit is placed in the basement of the museum. This is the Roman Lapidary exhibit, which is a collection of ancient Roman stone inscriptions and carvings.
The building where the Hungarian National Museum is currently located was built from 1837-1847. The style of the main building was laid out in a neo-classical style and was added onto by other artists in the form of statues, paintings and other architecture. The statues of the Portico were done by Raffael Monti of Milan. One of these is a famous statue of the allegoric figure of Hungary, holding a shield with the Hungarian coat of arms on it. On the sides of this figure there is Science on one and Art on the other. In addition the paintings that have been in the staircase and on the ceiling since 1875 were done by Károly Lotz and Mór Than. There has also been a garden that is used primarily for various concerts. Various artists have performed here including Ferenc Liszt. Today the garden is the venue of the Museum Festival.
|List of Hungarian painters|
|List of Hungarian sculptors|
|Hungarian National Gallery|
|Museum of Fine Arts|
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Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the Youth Health and Rights Coalition. They do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development nor of the U.S. federal government.
It is often said that young people are our future. But young people aren’t just assets for development tomorrow – they are agents of change today. The first-ever USAID Youth in Development Policy (PDF) clearly recognizes this reality and provides important opportunities to involve global youth in shaping our development agenda and advancing their health and rights.
Today’s generation of young people is the largest in history; nearly half of the world’s population—some three billion people—is under the age of 25. Given that this large demographic of young people presents the world with an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate economic development and reduce poverty, the policy is particularly timely and critical. It rightly acknowledges that in order for young people to realize their potential and contribute to the development of countries, they must be able to access information and services that protect their rights and promote their sexual and reproductive health throughout their life span. Advocates, implementers, young people and government partners can help achieve that vision by ensuring that the following important policy provisions are translated into action:
Start early in life
Young people bear a significant burden of poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes, including unmet need for family planning, early marriage and childbearing, maternal death, gender-based violence and HIV. However, when families, communities and nations protect and advance adolescent and youth reproductive rights, young people are empowered to stay healthy and take advantage of education and economic opportunities throughout their lives. We know when these investments happen early in life as well as throughout the life course, they help foster more gender equitable and healthier attitudes and behaviors. So why wait? Let’s embrace the tenets of the policy and invest in young people’s health and rights today.
More money, more tracking
The Youth in Development policy clearly calls for the implementation of evidence-based programs and interventions. The Youth Health and Rights Coalition (PDF) looks forward to supporting this effort with the range of tools and resources developed to effectively implement evidence-based sexual and reproductive health interventions. But we need more than guidance to truly protect and promote the well-being of young people. Advancing youth development will require more funding, better data collection to track investments and outcomes, robust partnerships across sectors, and strong commitment across the agency. It’s a challenge, but one worth taking.
“Nothing about us, without us!”
Many of the young people who are members and partners of the Youth Health and Rights Coalition often call upon this phrase to express the importance of meaningful and ongoing youth engagement, something which is still too often missing in development today. The policy puts the importance of youth participation and engagement front and center of the USAID programming process and emphasizes the need to support more meaningful and equal partnerships with young people while building capacity of local youth-led and youth-serving organizations. USAID’s dedication to civil society consultations to inform the development of the policy was an important first step to put words into action. So let’s keep it up and continue to engage young people as we move forward with the implementation of the policy.
We applaud USAID for recognizing how critical it is to meaningfully engage youth across the diverse countries where the Agency works and look forward to future collaborations. Only together can we succeed in meeting the sexual and reproductive rights and health of all young people and work with them to fulfill their full potential.
The Youth Health and Rights Coalition (PDF) is comprised of advocacy and implementing organizations who, in collaboration with young people and adult allies, are working to advance the sexual and reproductive rights and health of adolescents and youth around the world. The YHRC advocates with key decision makers to prioritize funding and support for comprehensive adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive rights and health policies and practices. Their goal is to ensure young people in the developing world have the sexual and reproductive rights and health information, tools, commodities, and quality services necessary to make healthy and informed choices about their own lives.
Member organizations of the coalition include: Advocates for Youth, American Jewish World Service, Americans for Informed Democracy, CARE, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), Family Care International, FHI 360, Georgetown University-Institute for Reproductive Health, Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Guttmacher Institute, International Center for Research on Women, International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region, International Women’s Health Coalition, Ipas, John Snow, Inc., Marie Stopes International-US, PATH, Pathfinder International, Plan International USA, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Population Action International, Population Reference Bureau, Population Services International, Public Health Institute, Save the Children, and Women Deliver. | <urn:uuid:4940e3a8-270b-4eac-a10f-4b1a5137e884> | {
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It took 2 1/2 years to complete his best-known work, “Alphabet.”
Dalton Ghetti has found a remarkable niche in the art world. There have been artists who use pencils as part of their craft, but none use the smallest and most fragile part: the pencil lead. Check out the pictures to see Dalton Ghetti’s amazing work for yourself. Think twice before sharpening your pencil. (Pics)
Dalton Ghetti is an artist who works with one of the toughest mediums around. His craft involves sculpting pencil lead into impossible to imagine images. Everything from a giraffe to a hammer can be made out of lead.
They’ve got magnifying glasses on hand at the New Britain Museum of American Art to help visitors fully appreciate the carvings of Dalton Ghetti, a Brazilian-born artist who lives in Bridgeport.
The magnifiers help bring out the exacting details of the teensy figures Ghetti makes out of the ends of tips of lead pencils. Using needles and razors, Ghetti takes months to complete one of his little works. And accompanying each piece is an indication how many months it took to carve. | <urn:uuid:bb89c32d-2add-454a-a4f6-0283ff29d5aa> | {
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Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Labelling or Labeling (US) is defining or describing a person in terms of his or her behavior. For example, describing someone who has broken a law as a criminal. The term is often used in sociology to describe human interaction, control and identification of deviant behavior.
In sociology, the word is used more as a metaphor, than a concrete concept. The general function of labels are widely known and recognized as a method of distinction that helps people recognize one product from another. In social terms, labels represent a way of differentiating and identifying people that is considered by many as a form of prejudice and discrimination.
Overview of the sociological labelling theory
The most common method of 'labeling' people derives from a general way of perceiving members of a certain nationality, religion, ethnicity, gender, or some other group. When a majority of people hold a certain point of view towards a certain group, that point of view becomes a stereotype. That stereotype affects the way other people perceive the groups in question and the result is a 'label' that is metaphoricaly imposed on the members of the group in question. A member of a targeted group is thus 'labeled' by the larger society, and along with it, the nuances underlying the label, be it positive or negative, that aids in the formation of social stereotypes.
- Main article: Labeling theory
Labelling in mental health
In sociological terms, labelling is the attachment of a diagnosis of a mental illness to a person who has been given a specific diagnostic label. More generally, this person becomes identified as someone who has received mental health treatment-a "mentally ill" person. It is because of this labelling that many refuse to receive treatment for certain symptoms associated with mental illnesses. American society appears to have certain negative stereotypes of mental illness-such as unpredictability and instability-which would be applied to the labeled individual, which in return, may cause others to reject the labeled individual. Such reactions may introduce new sources of stress into the mentally ill person's life, which limits their life changes through discrimination, damage to their self-concepts, and impair the way they cope with and confront the world.
- Main article: Labelling in mental health
Hard & soft labeling
- Hard labeling - People who believe in hard labeling believe that mental illness does not exist. It is merely deviance from the norms of society that cause people to believe in mental illness. Thus, mental illnesses are socially constructed illnesses and psycotic disorders do not exit.
- Soft labeling - People who believe in soft labeling believe that mental illnesses do, in fact, exist. Unlike the supporters of hard labeling, Soft labeling supporters believe that mental illnesses are not socially constructed.
Our conceptualization of stigma is a two-part definition of the concept as a "mark" or label. Stigma: 1) sets a person apart from others and 2) connects the labeled individual to undesirable characteristics. When the second of the above two occurs, a third aspect of stigma comes into play-people reject and avoid the stigmatized individual. With regard to mental illness, an individual could be hospitalized for mental illness and then assumed so dangerous and unstable that social avoidance and isolation ensue. Stigma is a matter of degree; the worse the undesirable characteristics, the more strenuous the rejection.
- Main article: Social stigma
- Labeling theory
- Psychodiagnostic typologies
- Social perception
- Stereotyped attitudes
References & Bibliography
- Horwitz & Scheid. A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health: Social Contexts, Theories, and Systems. Cambridge; New York, NY. 1999.
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Dark matter, galaxies, and hot gas merge in the core of the galaxy cluster Abell 520 in a composite image.
An unusual patch of sky devoid of galaxies could hint at the existence of more than one type of dark matter, scientists say.
Dark matter at the center of Abell 520, a cosmic “train wreck” of galaxy clusters located about 2.4 billion light-years away, is not behaving as predicted, according to new results from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Dark matter is a mysterious substance that appears to make up almost a quarter of the universe but cannot be detected with current instruments. Theory predicts that dark matter clusters, or “halos,” form gravitational anchors around which normal matter can coalesce to form galaxies.
When galaxies and galaxy clusters crash into one another, their dark matter skeletons also collide. Because normal matter is gravitationally attracted to dark matter, the visible tatters of the colliding galaxies should be dragged along, like dogs on leashes.
This is in fact what astronomers observed in 2006 in the Bullet Cluster (pictured), which is a textbook example of how dark matter should behave.
During the same 2006 research, astronomers examining Abell 520 found that its dark matter is concentrated in a “dark core” that contains far fewer galaxies than would be expected if the dark matter and galaxies had stuck together. Most of the galaxies have apparently sailed far away from the collision.
"It is very hard to explain this with current theories of dark matter or galaxy formation," said study co-author Myungkook James Jee at the University of California, Davis.
Dark Matter Results Puzzling
The 2006 results were so unexpected that some scientists dismissed them. But the recent Hubble analysis backs up those initial observations, leaving astronomers as puzzled as ever.
"We tried to come up with models that would explain this, but there were not any good models," study co-author Andisheh Mahdavi, an astronomer at San Francisco State University, said in a statement.
"There is no way that you could have cold dark matter piling up like this in a region with so few galaxies," said Mahdavi, who was involved in the 2006 observations.
(See "Dark-Matter Galaxy Detected: Hidden Dwarf Lurks Nearby?")
The team has proposed several explanations for their findings, but none of them can be accounted for by current dark matter theory. One idea is that there are more than one type of dark matter, and that some varieties clump together during collisions while others do not.
"If there is more than one species of dark matter, one could be collisionless and the other could be collisional," said study co-author Jee, whose study was recently published online in the Astrophysical Journal.
"But that is all very speculative right now."
Dark Matter Theories in Question?
Another possibility is that Abell 520 involves a collision between three galaxy clusters, instead of just two systems, as in the case of the Bullet Cluster. The result would be a more complicated interaction, experts say.
For instance, “one can imagine a transient structure exhibiting a dark matter peak without galaxies,” said Avi Loeb, chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University. (See galaxy pictures.)
Computer simulations of Abell 520 could help resolve the mystery by helping to calculate just how likely it is that Abell 520’s dark matter core could exist, added Loeb, who was not involved in the study.
"Without such a statistical analysis, it is premature to conclude that the observed structure is unlikely."
The team says plans are already underway to conduct computer simulations to try to explain Abell 520. But if the simulations fail, particle physicists may have to revise their theories about dark matter, co-author Mahdavi said.
"I’m just as perplexed as I was back in 2007," he added. "It’s a pretty disturbing observation to have out there."
for National Geographic News
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According to the World Bank, with "future sea levels projected to increase in the range of 10 to centimeters by the yearthe entire country could be submerged". The Maldives is also taking the lead in attempting to arrest global climate change by instituting a goal of achieving a carbon-neutral economy by One of these is copra, another mainstay of the regional economy.
Image of Majuro, Marshall Islands Among the many efforts to protect the culture of the Marshall Islands is an effort to buy land and relocate the people to other locations.
In our creation and genealogy stories, humans were created to serve the land. Pursuing this imperative, in their view, would entail redefining mainstream notions of the natural world — requiring us to reach back into our ancestral past to rediscover our interconnected relationship with the ecological support systems that sustain us, and reach forward to reimagine a more sustainable future for coming generations.
This would severely impact the agricultural and commercial sector in nations such as the Marshall Islands and Kiribati. Following a drought inthe US sent supplies to aid the Marshall Islands. There is also a historical precedent for the United States causing and then aiding the Marshall Islands when it comes to natural climate change and catastrophe.
In this context, relocations inland mirror the state of Samoan culture. NOAA estimates that "sincenew methods of satellite altimetry the measurement of elevation or altitude indicate a rate of rise of 0. We need to put our heads together, and try to slow this down.
As a sailor, to him the drua represents a prime example. In the face of these mounting challenges, the people Vanuatu have begun devising creative ways to adapt to their changed circumstances. Pacific Island states are some of the most vocal advocates for aggressive carbon reduction targets, and the Paris Agreement had been welcomed at the time of its creation by Pacific Island states.
And I know this will take a very long time, but I genuinely think that there is a future where indigenous people become the main source of information for how we can tackle climate change. As ocean temperatures rise and the pH of oceans increases, many fish and other marine species would die out or change their habits and range.
Indigenous Lessons 5, km to the north, Hawaii occupies a very different category when it comes to resources and levels of development.
And then the beaches: Her team now hopes to teach younger Samoans how to build the traditional house — or fale — armed with new engineering skills and hybrid designs so as to modify and strengthen the structures in the face of more severe storms. The blueprint is remarkably similar to its traditional inspiration in appearance, but has been reimagined on a much grander scale.
Introduction Nowhere is climate change more evident than in small island states, where entire populations are facing existential challenges — the very real prospect of full evacuation, dispersed resettlement, and potential cultural annihilation.
One example is the tourism sector which is being threatened by the increased likelihood of violent storms, damage to coral reefs, and beach erosion.
The future is clearly far from golden, and the feelings of many islanders range from mixed to defeatist. This effort is especially important for Feaunati, because young Samoans today are growing increasingly divorced from their heritage. But it seems like climate change is going too fast now.
She recalled hearing frequent tsunami and hurricane warnings growing up, which kept her community perpetually on edge. As a result of sea level rise, one of the largest issues facing the Marshall Islands is how to preserve cultural and historical traditions if the Marshallese are forced to adapt to a new, totally different area potentially in a far away locale.
The atolls of French Polynesia are flat islands — the highest elevations reach only two to three meters — essentially lying at sea level. It can be found about halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Of these, many of the most threatened territories lie within the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
Other related shifts, while less dramatic, have likewise brought considerable hardship.The most comprehensive study so far into Pacific Island migration was released at the UN Climate Change Summit in Paris, where world leaders are attempting to.
Effects of climate change on food production in the Pacific Islands region Effects of climate change on economic development in the Pacific Islands region.
Climate change is impacting regions worldwide, but the Pacific Islands have been hit particularly hard. From rising sea levels, record storms, and extended droughts to the contamination of crops and freshwater resources, local environments are being fundamentally altered.
Through the Pacific Climate Change Science Program (PCCSP), Pacific-Australia Climate Change Science Adaptation Planning (PACCSAP) program and Pacific Climate Change Science and Services Outreach Project, the Australian Government provided tools and knowledge to 15 Pacific island countries to enhance their capacity to deal with a changing climate.
The Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative (PICCC) is sponsored and partly supported by the USFWS and hosted by the Hawai`i Conservation Alliance (HCA). The PICCC steering committee is comprised of HCA members and other partners, forming a cooperative partnership of Federal, State, private, Hawaiian, and non-governmental conservation organizations and academic institutions.
Climate change is not only affecting the Maldives and the Marshall Islands.
All islands, especially low lying ones with coastal population centers, are threatened by the effects of climate change. Many of the Pacific Island nations like the Marshall Islands, including Tuvalu and Nauru, are currently having to deal with rising sea levels.
Tuvalu is a small Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean.Download | <urn:uuid:c831672e-2fa7-4887-acd2-94a04e9b9748> | {
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Establishing financial goals is an important part of managing your finances.
Examples of goals are: saving for a vacation, buying a new car, saving for college, paying off debt, or planning for your retirement.
Come up with short-term goals (achievable in 2 years or less) and long-term goals.
Write down your goals and make them specific, including what you want to accomplish, how much money is associated with each, and a realistic timeline for reaching those goals.
Develop an action plan for your goals. Your action plan may include things like talking to a financial planner, researching vehicle prices and ratings on Consumer Reports, brown-bagging your lunch, or paying $300 each month towards your credit card debt.
Take some action, no matter how small; it will make your goals seem more attainable.
Writing down your goals and your progress will give you a sense of accomplishment and keep you on track towards reaching your goal.
Review your goals regularly and modify them as needed.
See how long it will take you to reach your financial goal: | <urn:uuid:52a0f021-32f3-4f9c-aa10-6758bda4aa61> | {
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Phase contrast X-ray imaging has enabled researchers at ETH Zurich, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the Kantonsspital Baden to perform mammographic imaging that allows greater precision in the assessment of breast cancer and its precursors. The technique could improve biopsy diagnostics and follow-up.
The researchers have succeeded in advancing an emerging imaging technique for breast investigations: the X-ray phase-contrast mammography. The new developments enable distinguishing between the different types of microcalcifications observed in breast tissue and help assigning them to malignant lesions. The study has just been published in Nature Communications.
One of the advantages of the phase contrast technique is its ability to provide images of high contrast. In the future, this technique can aid physicians to determine in a non-invasive way where premalignant and malignant breast lesions are most likely located. One goal of breast cancer screening is to detect (groups of) microcalcifications in the breast, because these may be associated with early stages of breast cancer since they often occur in connection with cancer cell death. Mammographic screening does not allow definite conclusions regarding the underlining conditions that cause calcifications. Only tissue biopsies that are examined under the microscope by pathologists can determine which lesions have caused the calcareous deposits.
Clinical equipment could be used for phase contrast imaging
At the PSI, the use of phase contrast for medical X-ray imaging has been investigated for several years. X-ray radiation as used in conventional mammography was long considered not suitable for phase contrast procedures because of its incoherence and mixture of multiple wavelengths. "The fact that we have now managed to use these X-ray sources for the phase contrast method in order to develop a new and improved imaging method is a considerable step towards application in daily clinical practice," says Marco Stampanoni, Professor at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering at ETH Zurich and Head of the X-ray Tomography Group at the PSI. He received an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2012 to advance the clinical use of X-ray phase contrast.
In X-ray phase contrast, the extent in which tissue absorbs x-rays is not the only quantity that is being measured but also how tissue deflects radiation laterally (refraction) and consequently how it influences the sequence of oscillation peaks and valleys of X-ray waves -- the so-called phase. Depending on the tissue type, the overall scattering also varies. To be able to measure the phase shift, researchers use three very fine grids. The first one is located directly at the source. It ensures that the object is illuminated with the required coherence. Another grid is placed behind the object and generates an interference signal that is analyzed by a third grid downstream. Using suitable algorithms, the re-searchers calculate the absorption, phase and scattering properties of the object from the interference signal. This information can be used to generate sharp and high-contrast images that show very detailed soft tissue properties. A discovery by Zhentian Wang, PostDoc in Prof. Stampanoni's team, initiated this development: "During my trials with the phase contrast method, I noticed that there are microcalcifications with different absorption and scattering signals. That indicated that the new method might identify different types of calcifications," he says. Wang subsequently reviewed through medical literature and found studies that showed that a certain type of calcification is more frequently associated with breast cancer precursors. "I was persuaded that my observation could be very interesting for breast cancer diagnosis, since it could distinguish between the different types of microcalcifications," says the researcher.
The relevance of the new method was also confirmed by the physicians who participated in the study: "We are hopeful that the new technique, in comparison to standard mammography, will help to better indicate where a biopsy must be carried out in the breast," says Rahel Kubik, Head of the Institute of Radiology at the Kantonsspital Baden. "Still, it is not ready for clinical use as it needs to be validated in a larger number of cases," says the radiologist. "But it is very encouraging that the new method enables a distinction between the different well-known microscopic types of calcifications," confirms Gad Singer, Head of the Institute of Pathology at the Kantonsspital Baden.
Whether the technology will make it to clinical use also depends on the radiation dose. "The aim will be to significantly improve quality, resolution and diagnosis with the same radiation dose as for a standard mammography so that breasts can be better examined" says Nik Hauser, Head of Gynaecology and of the Interdisciplinary Breast Center at the Kantonsspital Baden. "If we can significantly improve imaging, this would enable better assessments of tumor extent prior to surgery. Then the new method will quickly become important," he is convinced. The foundation for a new imaging device has been laid, says Hauser. "We are optimistic that we soon will be able to present further results." To date, the re-searchers have worked with a prototype. They examined breast tissue samples, but no patients have been involved yet. "One of our next aims will be to develop a device for clinical use," says Marco Stampanoni.
- Zhentian Wang, Nik Hauser, Gad Singer, Mafalda Trippel, Rahel A. Kubik-Huch, Christof W. Schneider, Marco Stampanoni. Non-invasive classification of microcalcifications with phase-contrast X-ray mammography. Nature Communications, 2014; 5 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4797
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Aura Parker Visit
Most people can still name at least a few of the books they read at school and parents often roll their eyes upon hearing that their daughters are still studying the same texts they did over thirty years ago. In today’s classroom though English has changed, it is about so much more than reading classic books. Today’s English teachers are charged with crafting a love of literacy that goes beyond literature. The study of English is about how and why texts work in order to gain a rich and nuanced understanding of the world we live in. More than that it is about teaching students to communicate in multifaceted ways, they need to be creators and communicators of content.
One of the ways the English department seeks to teach rich multimodal skills is through activities as varied as creating trailers for books and storyboarding tasks. Last Friday Year 8 enjoyed a visit from author, illustrator and designer Aura Parker who worked with them on storyboarding their idea for a short film around the trope of the lost child. Aura spoke with Year 8 about her creative process and in particular about the value of rough drafts along the road to a finished product. She reiterated a lot of what we talk about at Loreto in terms of moving away from perfectionism and instead encouraged students to find their own process, whether it was scripting their four key scenes first or using quick stick figure drawings to visualise key moments in their imagined film. A particularly heartening story for the students was about a silkworm character who accidently got written out of the story but who is now the central figure in another book. The take away message for our students was that nothing is lost in learning. What may initially appear as a setback or a mistake can actually open the door to something else.
The students appreciated the chance to get expert advice from a ‘real-life’ published author and illustrator and we know this is important There’s a saying that gets used in girls’ education a lot to the effect of ‘you cannot be what you cannot see’. Young women in particular need to see other women in action, they need to know that it is possible to carve out a career for yourself in the creative arts or computer science or aeronautical engineering for that matter. Perhaps more importantly they need to be able to ask those women questions about how they got there and the choices they had to make along the way. It was wonderful to hear Aura speak so candidly about her work practices, her studio and even the ways in which being a parent had led to creative opportunities for her.
One of the other special features of the day was the opportunity for an extended period. Rather than the usual 55 minute period the Year 8s worked in two cohorts across four periods. They gathered to listen to Aura and then they applied her suggestions in a hands on workshop. Aura was generous with her time and moved around providing expert advice and many handy Photoshop skills for those students who elected to do their storyboards digitally. Additionally, the students critiqued one another’s work. Many students remarked on how much they enjoyed having the time to work on their storyboards and reported that they would have liked even more time to simply engage in the creative process. We know that a traditional model of schooling doesn’t work for all of our students and occasions like this, as well as the myriad of other opportunities Loreto offers, are about working in different ways. They are about offering experiential learning opportunities that take students out of the everyday.
The feedback from our students was rich, from the Year 8 girl who said that as a budding artist she felt excited that in a few short years she could be doing what Aura does to the student who said that “creativity isn’t about being able to draw like an artist.” So while not all students are emerging Picassos or even necessarily interested in illustrating they were all learning vital English skills around how images can create meaning. When you and I were at school English might have been about the meaning derived from an esteemed piece of literature, today students will often deconstruct visual texts to understand how meaning is made. Neither method is superior to the other, they are simply two different ways of communicating. We are not forgoing traditional literacy, there is still a place for the so-called classics but being literate in today’s world means being able to create and communicate across a variety of platforms. It is our hope that our students become powerful storytellers regardless of how they chose to tell that story.
Aura Parker is the illustrator of My Magnificent Jelly Bean Tree and the author and illustrator of Twig due to be released in November this year.
Ms Elizabeth Green
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On Surpassed Expectations and Nobel PrizesShare
Nobel Laureate John Gurdon's high school report card declares his dreams of pursuing science "quite ridiculous . . . a waste of time."
Last week, Dr. John Gurdon learned that he had won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his pioneering work demonstrating that each cell in a body contains the same genes. He shares the award with Japanese stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka.
To say that John Gurdon exceeded early expectations would be a gross understatement. Nick Collins, science correspondent for TheTelegraph reports,
"At the age of 15, Prof Sir John Gurdon ranked last out of the 250 boys in his Eton year group at biology, and was in the bottom set in every other science subject."
Here is the assessment high school biology teacher, Mr. Gaddum, offered of Gurdon's work and prospects in 1949.
After learning of the award, Gurdon revealed that the disparaging report card is mounted above his desk at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge. It is, he says, the only item he has ever framed.
This year's Nobel Prize is not the first major award Gurdon has won for his scientific work. In 2009, Gurdon and Yamanaka shared the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for their discoveries in nuclear reprogramming.
Sometimes the desire to prove our critics wrong is exactly the motivation we need to succeed. | <urn:uuid:898053c0-990d-421f-b576-c44825e3e80e> | {
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Grapes were enjoyed by the Greeks and Romans, who ate them fresh, pressed them for wine and cooked the juice to make a thick syrup (vincotto). The juice of unripe grapes, verjuice, was used before the advent of vinegar, as a souring agent. Common figs are descendants of wild figs (caprifigs), which originated in Asia Minor. It is thought that cultivation started between 4,000-2,700 BC. By 800 BC they were grown throughout Greece, and 400 years later the Greek philosopher Plato extolled their nutritional qualities, promoting them as food for athletes.
Grapes are classified according to their use – table grapes, dried grapes or wine grapes. Table grapes, unlike wine grapes, are low in acid. Raisins, sultanas and currants are all different types of dried grapes. The Australian table grape season runs from November to May, with fruit grown in most states, though the bulk of the crop is from Victoria’s Sunraysia region. Figs are grown mainly in South Australia and the Northern Territory, with smaller quantities in New South Wales and Queensland.
Grapes tend to be overlooked in Australian cooking, but not so in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern kitchens, where their moistness and ability to cut through rich flavours is celebrated in recipes for poultry, game, pork, veal and fish. In sweet recipes they are seen doused in alcohol, arranged jewel-like over tarts, or studded in bread dough with rosemary, as in the Italian flat bread schiacciata.
Buying and storing
The soft, luscious, juicy qualities that make figs desirable are the same ones that make them fragile and perishable. Eat figs at room temperature as soon as possible, or store in the fridge for 1-2 days. For grapes, look at the stems and stalks as well as the fruit: choose those with green, pliable stalks and plump, firm fruit. Store grapes, unwashed in an airtight container or in a sealed plastic bag, for up to 1 week and wash only when ready to use. For the best flavour, enjoy them slightly chilled.
- Many old recipes call for grapes to be peeled and pitted, but such bothersome preparation is usually ignored these days, though it is advisable to choose seedless varieties for cooking.
- Verjuice, the unripe and unfermented juice of green grapes, is a delicious addition to sauces, or use for a salad dressing. Its taste is less sour than vinegar or lemon juice, and lighter than wine; it adds a fresh, fruity taste to cooking. One of the best brands to try is Maggie Beer’s, found in delicatessens.
- Vincotto literally means ‘cooked wine’ in Italian. It is an ethereal substance with a wonderfully complex sweet and sour grapey flavour, made by cooking the juice of grapes until thick and syrupy. It is used as a condiment. Add a splash to meat pan-juices, toss with berries, or, for a delicious snack, layer bread with avocado slices and flaked parmesan then drizzle over. Look for it in delicatessens.
- Unless figs are very thick-skinned (most aren’t), it’s not necessary to peel them. | <urn:uuid:085a4f13-73a6-4a4b-9d4d-202cb7898872> | {
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Imagine the workplace during flu season. Some people get sick and display clear symptoms—a warning sign to coworkers to avoid contact and for that individual to stay home. Others are infected, but never or only belatedly exhibit the tell-tale signs of sickness, meaning they can infect coworkers without knowing it. If healthcare professionals had the ability to test in advance whether a person is likely to spread a disease following infection, they could recommend specific measures to treat the person or limit exposure and perhaps keep an outbreak from growing into an epidemic or pandemic.
DARPA’s new Prometheus program is setting out to develop that predictive capability. Prometheus seeks to discover a minimal set of molecular biomarkers that would indicate, less than 24 hours after exposure to a pathogen, whether an individual will become contagious. That window is narrow enough to allow for early treatment or the initiation of other mitigating steps before a person begins infecting others.
“Many infections are spread by people who haven’t yet displayed symptoms of their illness,” said Matt Hepburn, the Prometheus program manager. “These people don’t know they are sick, so they often end up spreading the disease to close contacts. Our goal with Prometheus is to develop techniques that could alert people that they are likely to become contagious, so they can proactively take steps to keep the disease from spreading.”
Prometheus will focus on acute respiratory infections. As part of that effort, researchers on the program will set out to develop a fundamental understanding of the biological responses occurring in a recently infected person.
In particular, Prometheus will characterize the body’s molecular-level immune responses at multiple time points during the infection process. These “biomarkers”—measurable indicators of the severity or presence of some disease state—might help researchers predict the onset of contagiousness. Within hours after exposure to a pathogen, for example, a number of genes inside immune-system cells become active. Other biomarkers may be predictive of viral replication, well before there is a measurable increase in the amount of virus in the body. Among the many other biomarkers potentially useful for assessing infection status and likelihood of disease transmission are messenger RNA, certain genetic variations in the infected person’s DNA, and immune-system proteins.
Enabling a prognosis of individuals’ likelihood of spreading a disease would not only help mitigate an outbreak and speed treatment of affected individuals, but also would help researchers forecast the spread of the disease. Current models of outbreaks rely heavily on reported cases, which are generated after symptomatic patients visit a healthcare provider and receive a diagnosis. Patients who only exhibit mild symptoms may never seek medical care, yet may still be capable of spreading infection.
“Forecasts based on clinical diagnostics aren’t ideal because they’re based on incomplete and essentially historical information,” Hepburn said. “Identifying contagious or potentially contagious individuals early is a critical capability for outbreak mitigation—especially in relatively well-defined communities such as aboard a large ship or on a military base. If researchers can characterize the pre-symptomatic population, they stand a much better chance of building successful models of disease transmission and developing effective medical and public health interventions.”
Proposers to Prometheus are encouraged to build teams with experience in fields such as immunology, microbiology, clinical epidemiology, medical infectious diseases, computational biology, bioinformatics, and molecular biology.
To familiarize potential participants with the technical objectives of Prometheus, DARPA will host a Proposers Day on Monday, June 27, 2016, in Chicago. The DARPA Special Notice announcing the Proposers Day and describing the specific capabilities sought is available at http://go.usa.gov/chPYd. A Broad Agency Announcement with full technical details on Prometheus will be forthcoming. For more information, please email [email protected].
Image Caption: Following exposure to a pathogen, people may become infected, and soon after they may begin to spread disease to others. Some people become infected and also become sick with symptoms (red). Some people become infected and do not exhibit symptoms, but still spread disease (yellow). Some people do not become infected (blue). Prometheus aims to develop tests to predict if people will spread disease, whether or not they show symptoms.
Media with inquiries should contact DARPA Public Affairs at [email protected].
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Reliability vs Validity
When taking measurements especially in scientific studies we have to ensure the precision of the data. If the data are not précised, then the outcome or the conclusion we make from those data aren’t going to be valid. In order to increase the precision of the measurements, we use different tactics. One is to increase the number of data, so that the error will be minimized. In other words, this is known as increasing sample size. Another way is to use calibrated equipments and equipments with less error. Not only the equipment but the person who takes the measurement is also of very importance. Normally an expert would take the measurements. Also to minimize the error of the experimenter we can use several people and repeat the same experiment few times. Reliability and validity are two important aspects of precision and accuracy.
Reliability refers to the reproducibility of a measurement. This measures the consistency of the measurements taken from an instrument or an experimenter. We can draw a conclusion about the reliability by taking the same measurement using the same conditions few times. If similar outcome is resulted at all the attempts, then the measurements are reliable. If reliability is poor, it is hard to track the changes in the measurements. Also, poor reliability degrades the level of precision.
Retest reliability method can be applied to measure the reliability. Here, a variable of the same subject is measured twice or more to check the reproducibility. Change in the mean, typical error, and retest correlation are important components of retest reliability. When the difference between the means of two tests is considered, the change in the mean can be calculated. Retest correlation is also another way to quantify reliability. When the test and retest values of an experiment is plotted, if the values are closer to a straight line then the reliability is high.
Validity refers to the similarity between the experiment value and the true value. For example, the weight of 1 mole of carbon should be 12g, but when we are measuring it could take different values depending on the instrument, person who is measuring, sample condition, external environmental conditions etc. However, if the weight comes very closer to 12g, then the measurement is valid. So validity can be quantified by comparing the measurements with the true values or with values that are very closer to the true value. Poor validity in measurements degrades our ability to characterize relationships and draw true conclusions about variables.
What is the difference between Reliability and Validity?
• Reliability refers to the reproducibility of a measurement. Validity refers to the similarity between the experiment value and the true value.
• Reliability is related with the consistency of the measurements whereas validity is focused more on how accurate the measurements are.
• By saying “a sample is reliable,” it doesn’t mean it is valid.
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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with higher intakes of vitamin K from food may be less likely to develop or die of cancer, particularly lung or prostate cancers, than those who eat relatively few vitamin-K- containing foods, a new study suggests.
The study, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, appears to be the first to look at the association between vitamin K intake and the risk of developing or dying from cancer in general. A previous report had linked it to lower prostate cancer risk.
The findings do not prove that consuming more vitamin K helps lower the risks of certain cancers. But they lay the foundation for future studies to try to answer that question, according to Dr. Jakob Linseisin and colleagues at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg.
Vitamin K exists in two natural forms: vitamin K1, or phylloquinone, found largely in green leafy vegetables, as well as some vegetable oils, such as canola and soybean oils; and vitamin K2, or menaquinone, for which meat and cheese are the primary dietary sources.
In the current study, vitamin K2 -- which study participants most frequently got through cheese -- was linked to the odds of developing or dying from cancer, whereas vitamin K1 was not.
The findings are based on data from 24,340 German adults who were between the ages of 35 and 64, and cancer-free at the outset. The researchers estimated the participants' usual vitamin K intake based on a detailed dietary questionnaire.
Over the next decade, 1,755 participants were diagnosed with colon, breast, prostate or lung cancers, of whom 458 died during the study period.
In general, the researchers found, the one quarter with the highest intakes of vitamin K2 were 28 percent less likely to have died of any one of the cancers than the one-quarter of men and women with the lowest intakes of the vitamin. That was with factors like age, weight, exercise habits, smoking and consumption of certain other nutrients, like fiber and calcium, taken into account.
Of the one-quarter of study participants who got the least vitamin K2, 156 -- or 2.6 percent -- died of one of the four cancers. That was true of 1.6 percent of participants with the highest intakes of the vitamin from food.
When Linseisin's team looked at the cancer types individually, there was no clear link between either form of vitamin K and breast cancer or colon cancer. However, greater consumption of vitamin K2 was linked to lower risks of developing or dying from lung cancer -- a disease for which smoking is the major risk factor -- or of developing prostate cancer.
Of the one-quarter of study participants with the lowest vitamin K2 intakes, 47 -- or 0.8 percent -- developed lung cancer, versus 0.4 percent of the one-quarter who got the most vitamin K2 in their diets.
When it came to prostate cancer, there were 111 cases among the one-quarter of men with the lowest vitamin K2 intakes, and 65 cases in the group with the highest consumption.
In theory, vitamin K itself could offer some protection against cancer. It's often used to counteract too-high doses of blood thinners, although this does not have an obvious link to cancer. In lab research, however, Linseisin and his colleagues point out, the vitamin has been shown to inhibit cancer cell growth and promote apoptosis -- a process by which abnormal cells kill themselves off.
But whether vitamin K intake itself is responsible for the lower cancer risks in this study is unclear, according to the researchers. One limitation is that they estimated vitamin K intake based on participants' reported eating habits; most of their vitamin K came from eating cheese, and it's possible, Linseisin and his colleagues note, that some other components of that food are related to cancer risk.
Future studies, the researchers say, should measure people's blood levels of vitamin K and look at the relationship of those levels with cancer risks.
In the U.S., the recommended daily intake for vitamin K, in all forms, is 120 micrograms for men and 90 micrograms for women.
In the current study, men in the group with the highest vitamin K intake from food got 92 micrograms a day or more; their female counterparts got at least 84 micrograms per day.
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online March 24, 2010. | <urn:uuid:aa183e7c-2fc9-45f6-b768-afc3b0feb766> | {
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Kabir, Nanak and Sri Chaitanya were the torch bearers of the Bhakti movement and their ideals form the kernel of the movement. Selfless love and devotion was the cornerstone of the preaching’s of these saints. Primarily, the Bhakti saints were great proponents of monotheism. For them Ram and Rahim, Allah and Govinda – all were the same. They were all manifestations in different names of one Supreme Being.
Second, God was self-creative and all powerful and it was through his direction that the universe generated, sustained and destroyed.
Third, Godhood can be attained through love and devotion and could be worshipped too with only love and devotion.
Fourth, self-purification was another basic tenet of the Bhakti movement with self-purification the path is cleared for the worship of God.
Fifth, the Bhakti movement laid great emphasis on unity amongst all people and this was preached by all the religious saints.
Sixth, love for mankind was basic to the movement.
Seventh, fellow- feeling and fraternity were strongly espoused by the movement.
Eight, the movement vehemently opposed to caste system and the differences that existed between castes.
Finally, Bhakti movement made an intense effort to remove the differences between Hindus and Muslims.
Factors for the Popularity of the Bhakti Movement:
The Bhakti movement became extremely popular in India. During the medieval period this movement assumed considerable significance. The movement brought about a revolutionary change in the sphere of religion. Hence within a very short span of time, the Bhakti movement became very popular. First, the complexities and complications involved in the method of worship in Hinduism were not easily intelligible to the people. The Bhakti movement paved the way for simple and easy means to worship God. People in general realized this and were attracted to become a part of this movement.
Second, the Bhakti movement was propagated through simple ‘Dohas’, ‘Bhajans’ and ‘Kirtans’, which were easily understood and appreciated by the people. Hence people from almost all parts of India identified themselves with the Bhakti movement.
Third, the most important aspect of the movement was the magnetic personalities of Kabir, Nanak and Sri Chaitanya. Their austerity and simplicity touched the hearts of all. Moreover, their soothing words and benevolent teachings made each of them a centre of attraction.
Fourth, the Bhakti saints preached in regional languages-the language of the people. As a result, the people of a particular region understood the ideals of the saints and were drawn towards them.
Fifth, the idea that Godhood could be attained through love and devotion only came as a big relief to the people who seemed to be confused with the rituals and complexities of religion. Hence, people gave up all outward ceremonies and made effort towards attainment of godhead through the path of Bhakti.
Finally, the Bhakti saints raised their voice against the caste system and people were influenced by it. Since the Bhakti movement was far from the absurdities of the caste system, people in general had a natural inclination towards the movement and helped the movement in assuming a popular flavor.
Results of the Bhakti Movement:
The Bhakti movement was a major religious development in the history of Medieval India. Its results deeply influenced the contemporary religious and cultural trends in India. The movement gave a new dimension to ancient beliefs and values and it initiated great changes in the prevailing social condition.
As a result of this movement, the differences that prevailed in society between castes and communities were removed. The fact that there was no difference between man and man or between Hindus, Muslim, Buddhists and Jains, as preached by the Bhakti Saints, created a new consciousness among people. They now tended to ignore communal and cattiest feelings and sought to be tied in a common bond of friendship. It helped in widening the scope of Indian culture.
New Method of Worship:
Kabir, Nanak and Sri Chaitanya preached the attainment of Godhood through love and devotion. This inspired people to worship their personal Gods through Kirtans and Bhajans. Moreover, this form of worship was very simple and involved no expenditure. People started worshipping their personal Gods themselves without making Brahmins their mediums.
This movement helped in restoring the spirit of unity in India. Kabir and Nanak preached that all were equal and that all people in India belonged to one race and one country. As a result, all Indians tried to give up their mutual jealousies and rivalries and were engrossed with a deep sense of love for their motherland.
The Growth of Regional Literature:
The Bhakti movement also helped in the growth and development of regional literature. The saints of this movement by and large preached in the language of the people. While Kabir preached in Hindi, Nanak preached in Punjabi and Sri Chaitanya in Bengali. Similarly, the preachers of later times too preached in their own regional language in a very simple way. All their teachings were written down in regional languages. In due course, the writings enriched the literature of different regions of India. Furthermore, both Hindus and Muslims became deeply attracted towards each others literary qualities.
Under the inspiration of Sultan Hussain Shah of Bengal, learned Muslim of the time translated the Mahabharata and Bhagavad-Gita into Bengali. Equally significant was the .synthesis of Hindi and Persian which resulted in the birth of a rich language – Urdu. Influenced by this movement, subsequently, Goswami Tulsidas wrote the Ram Charit Manas.
Friendly relation between Hindus and Muslims:
The Bhakti movement led to the establishment of friendly relations between Hindus and Muslims. Both the communities tried lo make an introspection of their respective religions. While Hindus tried to imbibe certain religious practices of the Muslims, the Muslims inculcated certain practices of the Hindus. Hindus started worshipping the ‘Pirs’ of the Muslims and treated the Muslim ‘fakirs’ with respect.
The Muslims too started worshipping “Narayana’ and offered charities to Hindu hermits and medicants. This cultural assimilation led to the growth of the ‘Satya Pir’ worship cult. During the time of Sultan Hussain Shah of Bengal, the Satya Pir cult became extremely popular.
In this manner, the Bhakti Movement of the medieval period brought about a great change in the social and cultural trends in India. It achieved considerable success in bringing about a spirit of unity among Hindus and Muslims. The movement made a great effort in liberating religion from the clutches of evil practices and meaningless ceremonies. Undoubtedly, the Bhakti Movement set up a new milestone in the history of India. | <urn:uuid:cf66c92b-dd4e-4207-86fe-f72fcc538fff> | {
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Gray gives Haidt credit for overcoming the recently voguish "primitive type of rationalism" that so often ignores the strength and value of our irrational or extra-rational nature; he acknowledges that the conscious mind is like a rider on a strong, beautiful animal. Still, he faults Haidt for his emphasis on group morality:
Understanding morality as a group phenomenon neglects the fact that human groups are complex, historically shifting, and internally conflicted. Tribes and nations are not natural kinds of things like genes and blood types. They are historical constructions whose existence depends on human recognition. Human beings rarely, if ever, belong to only one group. One of the tasks of morality is to arbitrate the clashing loyalties that regularly arise from the many group identities that human beings possess. In some cases, morality may lead people to put aside group loyalties altogether.Gray also argues that Haidt's functionalist definition of morality leaves him in a number of unresolved difficulties:
There is a slippage from “is” to “ought” in nearly all evolutionary theorizing, with arguments about natural behavior sliding into claims about the human good. It may be true—though any account of how precisely this occurred can at present be little more than speculation—that much of what we see as morality evolved in a process of natural selection. That does not mean that the results must be benign.Gray cautions against Haidt's naive confidence that evolutionary psychology can resolve the conflict between utilitarianism and pluralism:
Issues such as abortion and gay marriage are not bitterly disputed because legislators have failed to apply a utilitarian calculus. They are bitterly disputed because a substantial part of the population rejects utilitarian ethics. . . . . Haidt appears not to grasp the importance of the fact that intuitionism and utilitarianism are rivals, and not only in moral philosophy. They are also at odds in practice. Making public policies on a basis of utilitarian reasoning requires a high degree of convergence, not diversity, in moral intuitions. Such policies will not be accepted as legitimate if they violate deep-seated and widely held intuitions regarding, for example, sexuality and the sanctity of human life. . . . Once again seemingly unaware of the depth of the problems he is addressing, Haidt tells us that such conflicts will not arise, or else they will be soon overcome, as long as people are brought together in the right way.A good review should either warn you not to waste your time, or inspire you to acquire the book and spend time ploughing through it. This review is tipping me toward the investment of time and effort. | <urn:uuid:0b4a5b1c-75f1-4190-8e5b-4a56f8c1263c> | {
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A volcano will not send out an official invitation when it’s ready to erupt, but a team of researchers suggest that scientists who listen and watch carefully may be able to pick up signs that an eruption is about to happen.
In a study of Hawaii’s Kīlauea volcano, the researchers reported that pressure changes in the volcano’s summit reservoirs helped explain the number of earthquakes—or seismicity—in the upper East Rift Zone. This zone is a highly active region where several eruptions have occurred over the last few decades, including a spectacular one in 2018.
“We are interested in looking at the mechanisms that trigger seismicity at a very active and dynamic volcano, like Kīlauea Volcano in Hawaii,” said Christelle Wauthier, assistant professor of geosciences and Institute for CyberScience co-hire, Penn State. “There are several physical processes that can drive seismicity and, in this study, we were trying to find out which one was the most likely.”
According to Wauthier, the pressure changes that occur in the summit reservoir—an underground chamber hosting hot magma—causes stresses in the rocks and ground that surround the magma, even not at its immediate proximity. These stress changes can trigger small magnitude volcano-tectonic earthquakes, most of the time imperceptible to humans but that are picked up by the sensitive seismic equipment that monitor the volcano. This seismic activity, then, may better predict magma movements and resulting eruptions.
The researcher’s work challenges a previous theory that suggested the seismic activity in the rift zone was being triggered by the volcano’s gradual slip toward the sea. The southern flank of Kīlauea is gradually moving toward the ocean at about six centimeters a year.
While most people picture volcanoes violently erupting at their summits, Kīlauea is different because its sprawling system of underground tunnels and chambers where magma flows results in eruptions that can happen at various points miles from its summit. When magma travels out of these chambers and onto the Earth’s surface, it is called lava.
“Underneath, there is a conduit system that is extremely long—we’re talking 20 miles or so,” said Wauthier. “And it’s just like the plumbing in a house. A volcano’s plumbing system can be plugged up or blocked and that just might lead to an eruption.”
By better understanding the forces that are triggering seismicity, scientists monitoring seismic activity at other volcanoes could predict future eruptions more accurately, according to the researchers, who reported their findings in a recent issue of Geology. Because Kīlauea is one of the world’s most closely and densely monitored volcanic systems, it serves as a living laboratory to study volcanic activity that can be applied to study other volcanoes, added Wauthier, who worked with Diana C. Roman, staff scientist, Carnegie Institution for Science, and Michael P. Poland, scientist-in-charge, Yellowstone Volcano Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey.
“While there are only a few volcanoes that are as highly instrumented as Kīlauea, which has a super-dense seismic network and GPS, so it’s very well-monitored, but other volcanoes are not monitored like that,” said Wauthier. “However, for volcanoes that have good seismic networks—and there are many of them—you can apply the exact same approach as this one to look if your volcano-tectonic seismicity—these small earthquakes—are due to magma being injected into a magma reservoir, or due to something else.”
The team used both seismic and satellite imagery data from mid- to late-2007 for the study. Seismic analysis was conducted with data collected on the upper East Rift Zone from the U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). Using information from global positioning satellites, also collected by HVO, the researchers were also able to analyze physical changes to the mountain’s shape and paying particular attention to ground surface deformations at the summit. They then looked at how these factors correlated with models of the stress changes caused by inflations and deflations of the summit reservoir.
By carefully analyzing movements to a volcano’s summit reservoir, researchers may be able to better predict when and where eruptions are likely to occur, then, according to the researchers. However, more work needs to be done, said Wauthier. Future research plans include looking at seismic activity and ground deformation data from other time periods of the volcano.
“We’ve been looking at the period in 2007, but that’s just a subset,” said Wauthier. “We could imagine just looking at a longer time period where we have other inflation-deflation events happening and see if we still conclude that same thing that it’s magma reservoir inflating that triggers the seismicity. It is likely that over the course of a long-term eruption like the 1983-2008 one, things are changing.”
Christelle Wauthier et al. Modulation of seismic activity in Kīlauea’s upper East Rift Zone (Hawaiʻi) by summit pressurization, Geology (2019). DOI: 10.1130/G46000.1 | <urn:uuid:90ef8032-e603-4a1d-aa0e-07918c782035> | {
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The presence of hepatitis C virus in the blood is detected with a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test on blood samples. Many people will be given a screening test – the hepatitis C antibody test – before the PCR test.
Hepatitis C Antibody test
The hepatitis C Antibody test shows whether you have ever come into contact with the virus by looking for hepatitis C antibodies produced by your body to fight against the virus. It is used as a screening test before giving someone a PCR test.
A hepatitis C antibody positive test result simply means that at some stage of your life you have been exposed to the hepatitis C virus. It does not indicate whether or not you still have hepatitis C. After clearing the virus a person is no longer infected but will remain antibody positive for some years.
While antibody test results are usually positive or negative, they can sometimes return an indeterminate result, which may require a follow-up test. Repeat tests are also performed to confirm positive results.
The body may take up to three months after initial exposure, to develop antibodies although this "window period" is usually six weeks. Antibody tests carried during this period may not yield accurate results.
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test
In contrast to the antibody test, which tests for the presence of antibodies, the PCR test detects whether the hepatitis C virus itself is present. This is done by using a laboratory technique to amplify the genetic material of the virus in a blood sample.
There are three types of PCR test:
- The PCR viral detection test, or qualitative test, is used to determine if a person has the virus. It is often used to confirm antibody test results. A hepatitis C PCR positive result means there is detectable virus in the person’s blood and that they have a current hepatitis C infection.
- The PCR viral load test, or quantitative test, measures the amount of hepatitis C virus (HCV) circulating in someone’s blood. This test is used to monitor people on treatment and help determine if treatment is working. It can also help in determining the likelihood of response to treatment.
- The PCR genotype test looks for the virus, and determines which HCV genotype a person has. Genotype testing is routinely performed prior to therapy, as the genotype a person is infected with can influence the length of treatment and its chances of success. Find out more about hepatitis C genotypes.
PCR tests can be expensive, but are covered by Medicare under certain circumstances.
Liver function test
A Liver function test (LFT) is a blood test used to determine if the liver is functioning properly. Liver damage – which can be caused by many things, including hepatitis C – causes liver cells to release certain enzymes into the bloodstream. LFTs work by measuring the levels of these enzymes.
For hepatitis C, the most relevant enzyme measured by a LFT is Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT), which is released when liver cells are inflamed. Elevated ALT levels can be an indication of hepatitis C infection, although there may be other causes.
A FibroScan machine is a relatively new device that uses ultrasound to assess the 'stiffness' of your liver, and thus the likelihood of damage or scarring being present. The procedure only takes 10 to 15 minutes and unlike a liver biopsy, it is entirely non-invasive.
While the procedure is able to detect mild liver damage and cirrhosis, your specialist may still request a liver biopsy to assess more accurately, the level of damage present.
A liver biopsy can give the most accurate picture of your liver's condition and may be recommended if you are considering treatment. It is a minor surgical procedure that involves taking a small sample of your liver and examining it under a microscope. While generally safe, there are some risks involved and the decision to have a liver biopsy should not be taken lightly.
Since 2006, a liver biopsy is not required to qualify for government-funded hepatitis C treatment. | <urn:uuid:eec91880-1dc7-42cf-8fd5-1c27630bf04e> | {
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The name Stannfith has a long Anglo-Saxon
heritage. The name comes from when a family lived in the village of Stanford that was found in at least ten parishes in England.
Early Origins of the Stannfith family
The surname Stannfith was first found in Staffordshire
but was found in various counties including: Stanford, Kent; Stanford Bishop, Herefordshire; Stanford Dingley, Berkshire; Stanford in the Vale; and Stanford le Hope in Essex
. The name literally means "stone ford" or "stony ford" CITATION[CLOSE]
Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
and was listed in the Domesday Book
in numerous places too. The Stainforth variant called Darnall in Yorkshire
their ancient family seat
. "The Hall [of Darnall], built by the Staniforths, was the residence of that family for several generations, and afterwards a seat of the late Duke of Norfolk's." CITATION[CLOSE]
Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
Early History of the Stannfith family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Stannfith research.Another 191 words (14 lines of text) covering the years 1175 and 1461 are included under the topic Early Stannfith History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Stannfith Spelling Variations
in names were a common occurrence before English spelling was standardized a few hundred
years ago. In the Middle Ages, even the literate spelled their names differently as the English language incorporated elements of French, Latin, and other European languages. Many variations of the name Stannfith have been found, including Stamford, Stanford, Staniford, Staniforth, Stainforth, Stannford, Stanforth and many more.
Early Notables of the Stannfith family (pre 1700)
More information is included under the topic Early Stannfith Notables in all our PDF Extended History products
and printed products wherever possible.
Migration of the Stannfith family to Ireland
Some of the Stannfith family moved to Ireland
, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.Another 33 words (2 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Migration of the Stannfith family to the New World and Oceana
Families began migrating abroad in enormous numbers because of the political and religious discontent in England
. Often faced with persecution and starvation in England
, the possibilities of the New World attracted many English people. Although the ocean trips took many lives, those who did get to North America were instrumental in building the necessary groundwork for what would become for new powerful nations. Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America bore the name Stannfith, or a variant listed above: John Stamford who settled in Virginia in 1624; Francis Stanford, his wife Grace, and six children arrived in Philadelphia in 1683; Robert Stanford and his wife Mary and son Robert arrived in Barbados in 1678. | <urn:uuid:95b76b7b-e4c8-407d-af1f-b3fdaadbe7a9> | {
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Mayan SpiritualityThe Mayan calendar is still in use in parts of Guatemala today, particularly in the Western Highlands, and is pegged closely to the agricultural cycle.Mayan spirituality has its origins in pre-Columbian religious practices and a cosmology that venerated natural phenomena, including rivers, mountains, and caves. The soaring temples built by the Mayan and other Mesoamerican civilizations were built to mimic mountains and were usually built in alignment with the cardinal directions. The solstices were very important in this regard and many of their temple pyramids and observatories were built in precise fashion so as to mark these events. Caves were also sacred to the Mayans and believed to be passages to the underworld, a belief that persists to this day. Archaeologists speculate that at least one powerful economic center, Cancuén, lacked buildings of strictly religious significance because of its proximity to the massive Candelaria cave network nearby.
The Mayan calendar is still in use in parts of Guatemala today, particularly in the Western Highlands, and is pegged closely to the agricultural cycle. Maize is a sacred crop and is believed to have been the basis for the modern formation of man by the gods, as told in the K’iche’ book of myths and legends, the Popol Vuh, discovered by a Spanish priest in Chichicastenango in the 18th century. Although the vast majority of the Mayans’ sacred writings were burned by Bishop Diego de Landa in a 16th-century Yucatán bonfire, three Mayan texts, known as codices, survive in European museums. The Chilam Balam is another sacred book based on partially salvaged Yucatecan documents from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Modern-day Mayan religious practices, also known as costumbre, often take place in caves, archaeological sites, and volcanic summits. They often include offerings of candles, flowers, and liquor with the sacrifice of a chicken or other small animal thrown in for good measure.
Another curiosity of the Western Highlands is the veneration of a folk saint known alternatively as Maximón or San Simón, with a particularly persistent following in Santiago Atitlán and Zunil. The cigar-smoking, liquor-drinking idol is a thorn in the side of many Catholic and Evangelical groups, whose followers sometimes profess conversion to Christianity but often still hold allegiance to Maximón, who is thought to represent Judas or Pedro de Alvarado. Syncretism, combining Mayan religious beliefs and Catholicism, is a major player in highland Mayan spirituality.
The cult following of folk saints is also tied to the presence of cofradías, a form of Mayan community leadership with roots in Catholic lay brotherhoods wielding religious and political influences. The cofradías are responsible for organizing religious festivities in relation to particular folk saints and a different member of the cofradía harbors the Maximón idol in his home every year.
The Catholic Church
Catholicism has played an important role in Guatemala ever since colonial times, though the state increasingly took measures to limit its power starting in the late 19th century, when liberal reformers confiscated church property and secularized education. More recently, the Church wrestled with its official mandate of saving souls and its moral obligation to alleviate the misery and injustice experienced by many of its subjects, particularly the Mayans. Many parish priests, faced with the atrocities and injustices of the civil war, adopted the tenets of Liberation Theology, seeking a more just life in the here and now and officially opposing the military’s scorched-earth campaign throughout the highlands. Many clergy paid for their beliefs with their lives or were forced into exile. Even after the civil war ended, Bishop Juan Gerardi was murdered in the days after his issuance of a scathing report on civil war atrocities perpetrated mostly by the military. The Church remains a watchdog and defender of the poor, which is evident in the ongoing work of the Archbishop’s Human Rights Office.
Although there are many churches throughout the country, the Catholic Church often has trouble finding priests to fill them, a factor that has contributed to the explosive growth of Evangelical Christianity. Pope John Paul II visited Guatemala three times during his term at the helm of the Vatican; the last visit was for the purpose of canonizing Antigua’s beloved Hermano Pedro de San José Betancur.
Catholicism can still draw a big crowd, though, most noticeably during Holy Week, with its elaborate processions reenacting Christ’s crucifixion, and the annual pilgrimage to Esquipulas on January 16 to pay homage to the Black Christ in the town’s basilica.
According to some estimates, a third of Guatemala now claims adherence to Protestantism and, more specif ically, Evangelical Christianity. The growth of this sect will become obvious as you travel around the country and hear the sounds of loud evening worship services, known as cultos, emanating from numerous churches, particularly in the highlands. The trend toward Evangelical Christianity dates to the aftermath of the 1975 earthquake, which destroyed several villages throughout the highlands. International aid agencies, several of them overtly Christian, rushed in to Guatemala at a time of great need and gained many grateful converts in the process. During the worst of the civil war violence of the 1980s, many Guatemalans sought comfort in the belief of a better life despite the hardships of the present. Other factors making Evangelical Christianity attractive to Guatemalans include the tendency toward vibrant expressions of faith, spontaneity, and the lack of a hierarchy, which makes spiritual leaders more accessible to common people.
A notorious legacy of Guatemala’s trend toward Protestantism was the dictatorship of Efraín Ríos Montt, a prominent member of Guatemala City’s Iglesia El Verbo (Church of the Word), who sermonized Guatemalans on subjects including morality, Christian virtues, and the evils of communism via weekly TV broadcasts. Meanwhile, a scorched-earth campaign aimed at exterminating the guerrilla presence raged in the highlands, though violence in the cities was widely curtailed and order somewhat restored. He faces charges of genocide in a Spanish court, though it’s doubtful he will ever be brought to justice. Also disturbing was the brief presidency of Jorge Serrano Elías, another self-proclaimed Evangelical now exiled in Panama after he dissolved congress in a failed autocoup, which ended in his ouster a few days later. His government faced widespread corruption charges.
On a more promising note, it is a well-documented fact that some Guatemalan villages have converted to Evangelical Christianity almost in their entirety with astounding results. The town of Almolonga, near Quetzaltenango, is a particular case in point. Alcoholism, which once ran rampant (as in other parts of the highlands), is now virtually unheard of and the city jail has been closed for years. It is hailed as a “miracle city” by Evangelical leaders, who like to point out that it was once a hotbed of cult worship for the folk idol Maximón. The town exports its fantastic fruits and vegetables to El Salvador, including carrots the size of a human arm, making it very prosperous.
Evangelicals these days, while still adhering to the belief in a better afterlife, are also very much focused on making things better in the here and now. There is a growing movement toward producing a generation of morally grounded political leaders with a vision to develop the country along inclusive lines that address Guatemala’s substantial needs and challenges, though it remains to be seen if they can overcome the unfortunate legacy handed to them by the substandard Christian leadership experienced by Guatemalans thus far.
Excerpted from the Fourth Edition of Moon Guatemala. | <urn:uuid:86834f24-42ae-49f6-a2c3-30bc3ca4f023> | {
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Australia – outgrowing the world?
Despite two world wars, the 20th Century produced an unprecedented explosion in the human population. But that was then and this is now, and the human species isn’t growing like it used to. In fact, the latest UN projections show that by the end of this century the global population will have actually plateaued, and the next century will likely be defined by a global population in modest decline.
As sanguine as this global scenario might sound, many nations and regions are already facing some harsh demographic realities. Western Europe, for example, will struggle to post any growth at all over the next twenty years, before leading the world’s regional blocks into decline thereafter (Chart 1).
Chart 1. Global Population Growth (2010=100)
Source: U.N Population Projections
Even the previous population powerhouses of Asia and South America are expected to go into decline sometime in the next 40 to 50 years.
The truth of it is that the global population is only being kept on an upward trajectory by exceptionally strong growth in Africa (literally off the chart above). Without Africa, the decline would be coming around a lot quicker.
Australia, however, is expected to ‘outgrow the world’ as our population moves towards its own plateau sometime around the end of the century. If population decline is the drag on economic growth that it is commonly assumed to be, Australia looks to be relatively well insulated.
However, demographic pressures will radically reshape our economic context. Of our major trading partners, only the USA will maintain an upward trajectory through this century (Chart 2).
Chart 2. Trading Partner Population Growth (2010=100)
Source: U.N Population Projections
The picture among our other major trading partners is not so bright. China has quickly become an essential part of the Australian economic story in recent years, but the Chinese population is actually expected to peak as soon as 2030. In Japan, a nation once as economically important as China, the population has already entered long-run decline.
The populations of India and Indonesia will continue to grow reasonably rapidly in the first half of this century (though it should be noted, less rapidly in Australia.) But even then, the UN is expecting the populations of India and Indonesia to peak around 2060.
This potentially sees Australian exporters of the future selling into a rapidly shrinking market.
Of course, it is not just sheer population numbers that determine the size of Australia’s export markets. Market size is a function of population numbers and wealth. Indeed, the mining boom of recent years was driven in large part by China, but not by the growth of their absolute population, but by the emergence of a relatively affluent, urban middle class. These dynamics will persist.
However it is exactly these dynamics that are accelerating population decline. There’s no contraceptive like wealth. There is a direct and clear correlation between increasing wealth (going hand in hand with the education of women) and declining in birth rates.
All this sets up a potential battleground. Advanced economies will be looking to import younger, talented workers to bolster growth and support their own ageing population. But developing countries, facing their own ageing pressures and declining populations, will be reluctant to let their best and brightest (and youngest) leave.
We’ve typically thought about population ageing being a largely European problem. And until now, it has been. However Australia needs to come to grips with the fact that it finds itself in a region well on the way towards population decline, and be very alert to the challenges that this presents.
We’ve written more about how Australia is responding to this challenge in our free e-book Three Growth Markets in Australia. This is an excellent resource if you’re looking to understand how key consumer markets will evolve over the next 30 to 50 years. | <urn:uuid:f58b2aa4-8c5a-4a38-8711-c80074f2f85f> | {
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The etiquette for addressing members of the Christian clergy can be confusing. Fortunately manners have been simplified over the years. While the title "Rector" and "Vicar" still exist, the difference between rectors and vicars was essentially abolished in 1936. Both terms refer to priests, so the same rules of address apply, simply using the given title of the individual member of the clergy. There are etiquette proscriptions for addressing a vicar in person and in writing.
- Skill level:
Other People Are Reading
Address an envelope to the vicar with "The Reverend" followed by his or her first name and surname. For example, "The Reverend Richard Jones." Capitalise the "R" of "Reverend."
Use "Mr" or "Mrs" to refer to the vicar's husband or wife when writing. For example, "The Reverend Richard and Mrs Jones."
Use this same form when writing an invitation to an event. Use the same wording on the invitation and on the envelope containing it.
Start a letter with "Dear Rector" or "Dear Vicar" if you know the person in question; for instance if he is the clergy person for the parish in which you live and worship. Alternatively, begin the epistle with "Mr," "Mrs," "Ms" or "Miss" as appropriate.
End your letter with the words "Yours sincerely." Sign your name underneath. Modern style guides do not require a comma after "sincerely."
Say "The Vicar" or "The Rector" when referring to the individual in the third person for the first time during a conversation. You could add the surname if it eliminates confusion. After the first reference, refer to the vicar as "Mr" or "Mrs."
Use "Vicar" or "Rector" when addressing the individual directly during conversation. Some vicars may prefer the word "Father." This is a personal choice and is not a required form of address.
Tips and warnings
- There is no proscribed form of address when both people in a married couple are vicars. Crockford's, the UK clerical directory, recommends the use of "Reverend" twice. For example "Reverend Richard Jones and Reverend Rachael Jones."
- 20 of the funniest online reviews ever
- 14 Biggest lies people tell in online dating sites
- Hilarious things Google thinks you're trying to search for | <urn:uuid:7d8c4287-c8d9-463b-a761-b1d7572f9921> | {
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Workers lower Gardiner into a fire from a gallows, and a group of soldiers observes from a distance. The martyrdom occurs on a Portuguese shoreline. The stumps of Gardiner's wrists drip blood, following the removal of his hands. This woodcut appears only in the 1559 Latin edition. No Luborsky and Ingram #. JPEG file (2.43 MB).
Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ | <urn:uuid:e379db74-82c1-490a-88ff-07daed104a9b> | {
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Weeds work hard to develop resistance to specific herbicides and cultural practices, and they will ultimately become resistant unless a diverse weed management program is put in place, said Mike Owen, Ph.D., Iowa State University, weed scientist. He made a presentation in the Monsanto pavilion at Farm Progress Show.
Owen provided a short summary of a couple key points about weeds potentially winning against farmers.
“Without a diverse weed management program, anything that you do, whether it be a tillage system or specific herbicide or the combination of a herbicide resistant trait in the crop in combination with a herbicide, anything you do will inevitably fail simply because Mother Nature lets weeds adapt to anything we do in an agronomic system.
“This was proven, I think, many, many years ago by Charles Darwin when he was talking about origin of a species, selective pressure and how various species adapt to that selective pressure. In our case, we are spraying a specific herbicide repeatedly and that is all we are doing, and as predicted, the weeds will ultimately evolve resistance to that herbicide.
“Essentially what I was saying is that you need to diversify your weed management program. You need to use different herbicide mechanisms of action, you need to use different cultural practices, you need to consider how tillage and mechanical weed control fits into that program and try to come up with a best management practice that will keep the herbicide resistant weeds or weed population off balance, so that they are not able to adapt as Charles Darwin predicted. | <urn:uuid:2bb005b1-6a8a-4a09-84b6-5a9dc5e0c9ee> | {
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Historic Preservation and Natural Resource Plan_____________
The Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC) requires that municipal Comprehensive Plans address resource preservation, specifically identifying natural, cultural, and historic resources. The natural resources noted by the MPC are wetlands and other aquifer recharge zones, woodlands, steep slope areas, prime agricultural land, floodplains, and “unique natural areas.” The MPC adds that municipalities are not limited by this list, but may provide for the protection of other resources of local importance. In addition to these resources, this chapter will identify energy conservation objectives for the planning Region. Prime agricultural land has been previously discussed in Chapter 4, the Future Land Use and Housing Plan.
The results of the citizen survey indicated that the Region’s residents are concerned about historic resource preservation. Respondents also indicated a high level of interest in farmland and open space preservation.
When prioritizing issues facing the Region, the Steering Committee and municipal officials gave high priority to preserving agricultural resources, retaining woodland and open space, providing sufficient water quality and supply, and historic and natural resource protection.
The Region’s history is reflected in its architecture, people, and character. Historic resources connect us to the past, emphasize our sense of community, and often provide aesthetic value. In addition, historic resources can provide tourism benefits which often lead to economic development opportunities. Planning for the protection of historic resources is especially important because historical resources are not renewable.
Historic Resources in the Region have been identified in South Mountain to Blue Ridge Summit, an Architectural History of the Antietam Watershed, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, edited by James M. Smith of the Waynesboro Historical Society. Historic Resources are also discussed in Chapter 13 of this Plan. The challenge is to establish priorities for preservation of resources.
A task force of the Waynesboro Historical Society has been formed to identify and then cooperatively work to protect historic buildings.
Local historic districts are areas in which historic buildings and their settings are protected by public review. Historic district ordinances are local laws adopted by communities using powers granted by the state. Historic districts consist of the Region's significant historic and architectural resources. Inclusion in a historic district signifies that a property contributes to a group of structures that is worth protecting because of its historic importance or architectural quality.
Mountain to Blue Ridge Summit
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. Authorized under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Register is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect our historic and archeological resources. Properties listed in the Register include districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering and culture. Sites n the Region which are on the Register are listed in Chapter 13.
Cultural and Artistic Resources
resources are the special characteristics that make a community unique. A community that takes pride in and respects
its traditions is typically a community with a well-defined character. The Region contains a rich, diverse heritage
with significant cultural resources that should be embraced and preserved. Many of these resources are discussed in the
Community Facilities Chapter. Some of
those resources are the many churches in the Region, the libraries, schools,
should also be noted that there are performing arts theaters within half an
Historic, Cultural, and Artistic Resources
Goal: Identify, preserve and enhance the historic, architectural, artistic, and cultural resources of the Township and Borough.
• Encourage the preservation, protection, and enhancement of historic and architectural resources and their context.
• Preserve and promote the unique aspects of the Region’s cultural diversity and heritage that is displayed through its’ architecture and its’ people.
• Encourage the appreciation of the visual and performing arts in the Region.
• Support efforts of the Waynesboro Historical Society to preserve historic and cultural resources.
• Create an atmosphere that attracts and enhances the artistic community.
• Work with
• Require new development to reflect and consider the history, architecture and development patterns of the municipalities; discourage inconsistent development near historic resources; require impact studies for development near historic resources; and require mitigation of any potential adverse impacts on historic resources.
• Consider initiating community-wide festivals to promote, enhance, and celebrate the Region’s unique cultural diversity.
• Encourage adaptive re-use of historic structures where appropriate.
Historic, Cultural, and Artistic Resource Actions:
A. Update zoning ordinances as necessary to protect historic resources and community character. Options include:
1. Adopt Historic Resource Overlay Zoning. Concentrate on the Historic Overlay District, as depicted on the Future Land Use Map.
a. Create historical commissions and/or committees where they do not exist or a joint historical commission
b. Identify historic resources
c. Require developers to analyze:
• Nature of historic resources on and near property
• Impact of proposals on historic resources, and
• Mitigation measures
d. Encourage adaptive reuse of historic buildings
e. Establish use, coverage, density, intensity, and yard bonuses for architectural treatments, building design, amenities, and open spaces/buffers compatible with existing resources, appropriate reuse of existing resources and donation of façade easements
f. Encourage architecture, materials, and development patterns characteristic to the area
2. Adopt Demolition by Neglect Provisions:
a. Require property owners to protect and maintain historic properties to avoid demolition by vandalism or the elements by requiring unoccupied structures to be sealed or secured by fencing
3. Identify provisions to protect the character of the Borough and villages, and have streets, buildings, and public spaces integrated to create a sense of place with pedestrian scale. Consideration can be given to adopting the following as standards or promoting them through incentives:
a. Allow only appropriate uses in scale with, and compatible with, existing appropriate uses, discouraging uses that would transform the character of the areas.
b. Establish coverage, density, intensity, and yard bonuses for architectural treatments, building design, amenities, street furniture, open spaces, and parking designs consistent with the character of the area.
c. Require pedestrian amenities as necessary improvements to be made by land developers.
d. Construct parking areas to the rear and side of buildings and establish standards for design, buffering, and landscaping of new parking facilities.
e. Require signage appropriate to the area.
f. Establish appropriate standards for driveway design and access to streets to provide for appropriate access management.
g. Minimize use of drive-through facilities in the Downtown Business District.
h. Encourage new development to be compatible with, and integrated into, existing streetscapes when appropriate, with consideration of:
• Appropriate siting patterns, such as setbacks of buildings on lots
• Materials of similar appearance and texture to those on existing buildings
• Similar architectural details as other buildings in the neighborhood
• The scale and proportion of buildings near new structures in the Downtown Business District. Scale deals with the relationship of each building to other buildings in the area; and, proportion deals with the relationship of the height to the width of a building and with the relationship of each part to the whole
• Similar roof shapes
• Similar footprints of buildings and rooflines (matching façade masses with existing buildings)
• Similar building heights
4. Regulate conversions of buildings, addressing:
• Locations where permitted
• The procedural treatment of the use
• The type of building that can be converted
• Density of converted units
• Lot size for converted building
• Impervious surface/open space requirements
• Units allowed per structure
• Structure size requirements
• Minimum size of dwelling units
• Neighborhood compatibility standards
• Adequate parking requirements
• Screening of parking and common areas
• Limits on the structural revisions for buildings
B. Appoint a regional or municipal historical commission or committee, which is actively involved in historic preservation, to work with the Waynesboro Historical Society. The commission would be instrumental in administration of any historic resource overlay zoning that is adopted. The commission would also continue to:
1. Identify, evaluate, mark and foster awareness of historic resources
2. Investigate participation in Certified Local Government Program
3. Encourage retention, restoration, enhancement and appropriate adaptive re-use of historic resources and discourage removal of historic structures
4. Develop programs, events and interpretive signage and exhibits that emphasize the history of the Region
5. Evaluate the potential for historic districts and support their creation if warranted. If created, consider the adoption of voluntary or mandatory Design Guidelines and Sign Controls for the Historic District.
C. Support the activities of individuals and groups that identify, document, evaluate, and protect historical resources and increase public awareness of the area’s history and historic resources.
NATURAL RESOURCES PLAN
Natural resources contribute to the economic activity, environmental health, and quality of life of a community. Parks, open space, woodlands, steep slopes, streams, wetlands, and farmlands are all resources that are aesthetically pleasing, and provide economic as well as environmental benefits. One example of this is the way that floodplains and wetlands act as natural storage basins in periods of high water and help to improve water quality by filtering out sediment and pollutants. Natural Resources in the Region are mapped and discussed in Chapter 12.
South Mountain is a timeless treasure of natural, aesthetic, historic, cultural, community, agricultural and recreational resources where citizens, government, and partner organizations are working together to ensure that South Mountain as a whole, and the special places within, are understood, valued, protected, and enjoyed for generations to come.
Natural, Agricultural, and Scenic Resources Goal: Protect the Natural Resources within the Region.
Goal: Protect, preserve and
enhance the natural, agricultural, and scenic resources of
• Protect and retain water resources within the municipalities to
assure the quantity and quality of surface and groundwater for recreational
use, wildlife habitats, fire protection, and water supply. Of particular concern will be water supply
• Protect groundwater and surface water from pollution and excessive withdrawal.
• Protect and manage woodlands within the municipalities.
• Protect the steep slopes within the Township and Borough.
• Protect the actively farmed land remaining in the Region
• Identify techniques to encourage continual use of existing farmland, including the Agricultural Preservation Program.
• Encourage the retention of existing desirable trees in the Borough and Township and the planting of additional trees as part of a tree planting program.
• Protect watersheds and wellhead areas.
• Encourage the preservation of the scenic road corridors and
views along them within
• Encourage creation of riparian buffers and retention of greenways along the Region’s creeks.
• Support efforts of the South Mountain Landscape Initiative.
Preservation of scenic resources can be accomplished through broad land use policies, such as open space and woodland preservation and through attention to developments as
they are proposed. Performance and design standards for developments, including siting of buildings and protection of woodland can encourage retention of scenic areas.
Scenic Resources Goal: Protect the Scenic Resources within the Region.
• Protect scenic views, features and landscapes, and ensure for future generations views of the scenic and natural beauty of the Region.
• Protect the night sky from excessive light pollution.
• Minimize the visibility of cell towers from roads within the Region.
Natural Resources Actions:
A. Update zoning ordinances where applicable, and consider adopting official maps to reflect the resource protection Goal and Objectives of this Plan and to be consistent with the Future Land Use Map (Figure 6.1). The resource protection provisions of municipal zoning ordinances vary, and the approach taken by each municipality will vary. Options include:
1. Use Natural Resource Protection Standards and/or Net-Out Provisions for the following resources:
c. Wetland Margins (buffers)
e. Water bodies
f. Greater than 25% slope
g. 15-25% slope
2. Maintain Steep Slope Protection Provisions:
a. Control and limit development on steep slopes
• Require larger lot sizes and impose stricter impervious restrictions for steep slopes of 15 to 25%
• Prohibit or severely restrict development on slopes greater than 25%
3. Adopt Groundwater Protection Provisions:
a. Protect aquifers through design standards, construction guidelines, use restrictions, impervious limits, and permit submission requirements.
4. Adopt Tree and
a. Limit clearance for development in both subdivisions and land developments.
b. Require tree protection and replacement during development.
c. Encourage the use of native species in landscaping. Discourage invasive species.
d. Establish limited clearance buffer zones around the perimeter of new developments
5. Adopt provisions for Wetland, Wetland Buffer, and Hydric Soil Protection:
a. Restrict development in wetlands.
b. Establish consistent wetland, wet area, and water body buffer (margin) requirements, such as 50 feet or 100 feet.
c. Require wetland delineation in hydric soil areas.
6. Adopt Floodplain Protection Provisions:
a. Severely restrict development in floodplains to compatible open space uses.
7. Establish Stream Corridor Overlay Zoning and require forested Riparian Buffers:
a. Restrict development and impervious surfaces.
b. Require riparian (vegetative) buffers to moderate water temperatures, protect wildlife habitats, control sedimentation, and reduce pollution.
c. Require greenways.
d. Utilize the Best Management Practices where practical, and implement Act 167 Stormwater Management Plans.
e. Protect the Region’s streams.
8. Adopt Outdoor Lighting Standards to control light pollution and protect the night sky:
a. Establish illumination levels that are adequate but not excessive.
b. Require impacts on surrounding streets and properties to be mitigated by directing light down, not up or out to sides of fixtures.
c. Control glare.
9. Adopt Forestry Regulations:
a. Require accepted silvicultural (forestry) practices.
b. Require a forestry management plan.
c. Require stormwater and erosion and sedimentation control.
d. Require properly constructed internal logging roads and protection of public roads.
e. Require soil erosion protection during steep slope forestry.
B. Update subdivision and land development ordinances as necessary. Options to consider include the following:
1. Expand plan data requirements to include a specific listing of environmental, scenic, historic, and cultural resources.
2. Require developers to identify the resources within their tracts, analyze the impacts of the development, and mitigate those impacts.
3. Require environmental assessment studies; hydrogeologic studies; scenic, historic and cultural resources impact studies; plans for preservation of environmental, historic, and cultural resources; and analysis of the site’s ability to support the proposed use and intensity.
4. Require developers to identify natural, historic, scenic, architectural and cultural resources in their tracts and incorporate them into the open space system. Require management plans for open space as well as mechanisms to ensure the continuation as open space.
In review of Subdivision and Land Development Plans, requirements for setting aside open space can be used to preserve conservation corridors and provide for greenways.
Requirements for setting aside open space can also be used to protect targeted undeveloped areas and identified natural areas pursuant to municipal plans.
5. Establish development guidelines for development in groundwater recharge areas, including limits on impervious cover and limits on on-site sewage disposal.
6. Require protection of vegetation during site work.
7. Limit clearance on approved, but not developed, lots. Potential techniques include tree clearance ordinances, deed restrictions, net-out provisions, and identification of permissible clearance areas during the development process.
C. Create an Environmental Advisory Council to work with municipal officials to preserve key tracts of open space, protect environmental resources in the Region, and implement open space and recreation plans.
Act 148 of 1973 authorizes any municipality or group of municipalities to establish, by ordinance, an Environmental Advisory Council to advise the local planning commissions, park and recreation boards, and elected officials on matters dealing with the protection, conservation, management, promotion, and use of natural resources located in the municipality’s territorial limits.
Act 148 empowers Environmental Advisory Councils to:
• Identify environmental problems and recommend plans and programs to the appropriate municipal agencies for the promotion and conservation of natural resources and for the protection and improvement of the quality of the environment within its municipal boundaries;
• Keep an index of all open space, publicly and privately owned, including flood-prone areas, and other unique natural areas, for the purpose of obtaining information on the proper use of such areas;
• Advise the appropriate local government agencies, including, but not limited to, the planning commission and park and recreation board or, if none, the elected governing body, on the acquisition of property, both real and personal.
D. Encourage formation of groups within the community to adopt a stream and provide monitoring and oversight along the stream corridor.
E. Pursue joint watershed planning opportunities under the Growing Greener initiative and other programs in order to protect community water resources.
Scenic Resources Actions in the Township:
A. Update zoning ordinance as necessary to protect scenic resources. Options include the following:
a. Require greater setbacks from scenic roads.
b. Require additional landscaping, trees and screening on site.
c. Establish standards for siting buildings and building height.
d. Require retention of existing desirable vegetation when it will not conflict with road safety concerns.
e. Impose sign limitations.
f. Require access management.
2. Adopt ridgeline protection zoning.
3. Maintain Sign Regulations:
a. Regulate billboards.
b. Maintain consistent and appropriate signage standards along road corridors in the Region.
c. Encourage appropriate signage with consideration of the following:
• Sign materials compatible with the building style.
• Sign colors that complement building façades.
• Hardware for projecting signs integrated into the building architecture.
• Lettering compatible with the building façade.
• Purpose of sign for identification only.
• Restrict signs with off-premises advertising.
• Lighted signs should illuminate the sign area only.
• Signs do not obscure architectural features or windows.
• Prohibition of roof-top signs.
• Window signs should not obscure displays.
• Prohibition of flashing lights, neon lights, moving lights, and unshielded light bulbs.
4. Require landscaping and buffering in commercial and industrial Developments.
B. Update subdivision and land development ordinance as necessary. Options include the following:
1. Establish guidelines for development near scenic roads and vistas.
2. Require tree plantings along streets in both major and minor developments and both residential and non-residential developments.
C. Minimize visual blight along the road corridors in the Region to enhance the business climate. Work with the Franklin County Planning Commission and PennDOT to identify illegal or non-compliant signage and enforce applicable regulations. Establish responsibility in each municipality for addressing this issue.
Green Infrastructure is a strategically planned and managed network of wilderness, parks, greenways, conservation easements, and working lands with conservation value that supports native species, maintains natural ecological processes, sustains air and water resources, and contributes to the health and quality of life of the community.
The Green Infrastructure network encompasses a wide range of landscape elements, including natural areas such as wetlands, woodlands, waterways, and wildlife habitat; public and private conservation lands such as nature preserves, wildlife corridors, greenways, and parks; and public and private working lands of conservation value such as forests and farms. It also incorporates outdoor recreation and trail networks.
Forested Riparian Buffers
A forested riparian buffer is an area of vegetation that is maintained along the shore of a water body to protect stream water quality and stabilize stream channels and banks. The buffers provide the following benefits:
• Filter runoff – Rain that runs off the land can be slowed and infiltrated in the buffer, settling out sediment, nutrients and pesticides (nonpoint source pollution) before they reach streams.
• Take up nutrients – Fertilizers and other pollutants that originate on the upslope land are taken up by tree roots. Nutrients are stored in leaves, limbs and roots instead of reaching the stream. Through a process called “denitrification,” bacteria in the forest floor convert nitrate to nitrogen gas, which is released into the air.
• Provide shade – The leaf canopy’s shade keeps the water cool, allowing it to retain more dissolved oxygen, and encouraging growth of plants and aquatic insects that provide food for fish.
• Contribute leaf food – Leaves that fall into the stream are trapped on fallen trees and rocks where they provide food and habitat for organisms critical to the aquatic food chain.
• Provide habitat – Streams that travel through woodlands provide more habitat for fish and wildlife. Woody debris provides cover for fish while stabilizing stream bottoms.
• Provides migration corridors for wildlife.
• Safeguard water supplies by protecting groundwater recharge areas.
• Provide flood control.
• Provide stormwater management potential – Natural vegetation provides a basis for innovative stormwater management systems. Stormwater flows from retention basins can be directed to, and allowed to flow through, buffers to reduce nutrient and sediment loads.
• Improve water and air quality.
• Stimulate economic opportunities such as providing valuable open space which may increase land values and, therefore, the tax base.
• Provide some federal tax incentives to landowners (depending on a landowner’s financial situation) willing and able to place some of their lands under conservation easement.
• Reduce grounds maintenance.
• Provide recreational opportunities, and associated economic benefits for recreation-related businesses.
• Provide educational and research opportunities for local schools and colleges.
• Provide windbreak, shade, and visual buffer.
The Region is growing, and with this growth comes the increased reliance on energy sources. Energy conservation is becoming a high priority because the way we use our resources today will have a profound effect on future generations. Land use plans, land development regulations, building codes, and transportation policies should be implemented to support the policy of energy conservation.
As the environmental impact of buildings becomes more apparent, a new field called green building is arising to reduce that impact at the source. Green or sustainable building is the practice of creating healthier and more resource-efficient models of construction, renovation, operation, maintenance, and demolition.
Goal: Conserve energy through appropriate land use and transportation planning techniques and public education efforts.
• Promote alternatives to motor vehicle use to improve air quality and conserve fossil fuels.
• Maximize recycling as the markets become available.
• Promote mixed-use development patterns and densities that result in more compact communities, encourage fewer and shorter vehicle trips, and limit the need to extend infrastructure.
1. Educate residents and businesses regarding the benefits of energy conservation.
2. Review and update ordinances to include regulations for energy efficient building and design techniques. Encourage the use of renewable sources of energy, including solar, wind, and biomass (energy from organic matter). | <urn:uuid:5e5e3bbd-8a2a-49d0-befe-ecef463291dc> | {
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File transfer speeds can vary greatly from device to device. The same holds true for network file transfers and uploads. One of the best ways to test these speeds on your Mac is to create dummy files with the Terminal.
Let’s say you’ve installed a fast new solid state drive in your computer, and want to see how fast they really are. Or maybe you’ve finally upgraded your entire setup to gigabit ethernet or wireless AC, and you want to know if it performs as well as it promises. Or maybe something is just transferring slower than you think it should, and you want to test its real-world speeds (rather than the theoretical speeds on the box).
A dummy file is simply a fake, empty file of any size. Dummy files have a distinct advantage over real files when testing hard drive or network speeds, because you can instantly create a file of any size. That way, you don’t have to search your computer for equivalently sized files, and after you’re done testing, you can just delete them.
How to Create Dummy Files on macOS
To create a dummy file, open the Terminal. If you don’t have the Terminal pinned to your Dock, you can find it in Applications > Utilities or by conducting a Spotlight search using the keyboard shortcut Command+Space.
When you open the Terminal, it starts you out in your Home directory. When you create dummy files, it’s a good idea to first change your directory to an easily accessible location, such as the Desktop, so they are automatically created there.
You can see what directories available by running the
ls command, but we’re going to use the Desktop for this example. To change directories to the desktop, run:
Keep in mind that, whatever directory you choose, its name is case-sensitive—so pay attention to how the directory name is spelled if you choose to
Now that you’re in your Desktop directory, you can create dummy files right from that same terminal window. Your command will look like this:
mkfile <size> filename.ext
<size> with a number followed by a size unit.
g represent gigabytes, so
4g would give you a 4GB file. You can also use
m for megabytes,
k for kilobytes, and
b for bytes.
filename.ext with any filename you want followed by any extension, whether it’s .dmg, .txt, .pdf, or anything else.
For example, if I wanted to make a 10,000 MB text file named dummyfile, I’d run:
mkfile 10000m dummyfile.txt
The file will appear on your desktop.
To check the size of your dummy file, right-click it and select “Get Info”.
According to the Size, our new dummy file is 10,485,760,000 bytes. If we check this number and convert to megabytes (megabytes = bytes ÷ 1,048,576), it’s exactly 10,000 megabytes.
How to Test Transfer Speeds Using Dummy Files
Once you create a dummy file, you can use it to test transfer speeds, whether it’s using a USB flash drive, sharing a file across your home network, or something else.
In this case, we’re going to test how long it takes to transfer our 10,000 MB file to a USB 2.0 flash drive and to a USB 3.0 flash drive to compare the speeds. (We could test with smaller files, but we really want an idea of the speed disparity, so using a larger file is going to give a more pronounced difference than a smaller file.)
The only other thing you’ll need is a stopwatch—the one on your phone should work fine.
With your dummy file on the desktop, click and drag it to the new drive (in our case, our flash drive) and start the stopwatch when you release the mouse button.
Wait for the file to finish copying onto the device, then tap the “Stop” button on the stopwatch as soon as it does. There’s no need to be super precise, this is just to get a good idea of transfer times, not an exact down-to-the-millisecond number.
Then, repeat the process with the other device (in our case, the other flash drive), and compare the results.
As you can see, our USB 3.0 file transfer (left) is significantly faster than the USB 2.0 transfer (right).
If you want to turn these values into or MB/s, just divide the file’s size by the number of seconds in your transfer time. In our case, our USB 3.0 drive can write files at around 41 megabytes per second (10000 MB ÷ 244 seconds). The USB 2.0 drive writes files around 13 megabytes per second (10000 MB ÷ 761 seconds).
This is a simple, non-scientific example, and shouldn’t be mistaken for any kind of official benchmarking. But, it gives you a clear idea of how to test transfer speeds with dummy files.
You can use them to test the difference between your wired Ethernet network connection and wireless Wi-Fi connection, compare cloud services, or get a decent idea of your Internet connection’s practical upload and download performance. | <urn:uuid:04e66c43-8c9d-4cda-8203-531a707dd549> | {
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I’m sure you’ve heard the song, “9 to 5.” It has catchy lyrics, but they don’t describe the real-life experience of about 15 million Americans. That’s how many shift workers—on duty evenings, nights, or in some rotating or otherwise irregular schedule—the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates are in the workforce. And you may be one of them.
Occupations affected include: the military, food services, transportation, manufacturing, and industry, police, firefighters and security personnel, and health-care providers.
Unlike nocturnal animals such as owls and mice, most humans have some trouble adjusting to this strange lifestyle of working at night and sleeping in the day. This is because shift work, including night work, disrupts the body’s “circadian rhythm” – the internal clock that governs eating, sleeping, body temperature and other regular biological processes, all hardwired and regulated to the rising and setting of the sun.
As it turns out, messing around with that clock can have some serious consequences on your weight. Shift workers have a higher prevalence of being overweight—a fact substantiated by research. There are four main reasons why.
Exercise After Shift Work
First, regular eating and exercise habits are tough to maintain on shift work. You can get bored easily, so you tend to nibble on junk food in response. According to a study by the New York Obesity Research Center and published in Nutrition in 2000, late-shift workers gained an average of 9.5 pounds during their late-shift tenure, while their day-shift counterparts gained only 2 pounds.
Night Shift Work: The Effects on Your Metabolism
Second, there’s a hormonal issue. When you sleep and eat at irregular times, your metabolism gets thrown out of whack. At night, during sleep, your body’s insulin-making processes naturally go into hibernation. You’re not eating, so the body doesn’t require much insulin action so your body drives nutrients toward fat accumulation this late in the day.
Digestive Problems Avoid Gaining Weight
Third, digestive problems are at fault. Shift workers have two to three times as many digestive problems as their peers on the day shift. During nighttime, your digestive system shuts down and doesn’t secrete the normal enzymes. Plus, your metabolism slows down in the evening. Many shift workers report diarrhea or constipation, gastric and peptic ulcers, gastritis, nausea and weight gain.
Finally, there are sleep problems. Shift workers are among the most sleep-deprived segments of our population. It’s tough to sleep soundly during the day, when your body clock is screaming for you to be up and at it. Also, sleep deprivation drives down leptin, a hormone produced in fat cells that tells your brain when you’re full. At the same time, your substandard snoozing causes a rise in ghrelin, a hormone that makes you feel like you haven’t eaten since two Mondays ago. Numerous studies showed that those who sleep less than eight hours a night have lower levels of leptin, higher levels of ghrelin and more body fat than the long-slumbering subjects. Chronic sleep deprivation can thus drastically increase your risk of gaining weight.
Avoid Junk Food
One of the things you can do to improve your energy and overall health is to eat a healthy diet, rich in vitamins and minerals. Those chocolate bars and packets of crisps in the vending machines at work may be tempting, but they’re probably doing you more harm than good, reducing your energy levels and stamina even further. Donuts and cakes may give you an instant “buzz,” but the downside is that you’ll crash, and large amounts of refined sugar can lead to extreme mood swings.
The same goes for drinks. Cut down on the cans of coke and other fizzy drinks (even the “diet” variety) and avoid beverages with caffeine because you’ll find it harder to sleep when you get home. Instead, go for water. It’s important to keep hydrated, since dehydration can lead to headaches and fatigue.
On night shift, eat small light meals, with lots of raw salads, fruit and veggies. These will give you energy but won’t make you sleepy.
Sometimes shifts are long, so if you take sandwiches, make them whole grain bread. Try gluten-free bread. The older you get, the more difficult gluten is to digest and it can block the bowel. A healthy bowel that is moving will give you more energy.
If you really want to lose weight and shed pounds, take the time to learn more about my 17 Day Diet Meal Plan. You’ll learn how to start eating healthy to lose weight safely while dining out as well as create a regular meal plan.
Thank you for reading this article about shift work and gaining weight. Please share and comment below!
Topics included in this article include | <urn:uuid:c2e58db1-e41b-459b-ba60-902f38f85095> | {
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Heian Period Japanese Garden Design
It was not till the warlike period of Heian, about 800 to 1150, that the court nobility began to build palaces in Kyoto, the capital, and that gardens were laid out in the front of the strange collection of houses. which were joined to each other by corridors. At that period there existed only one typical style, imported from China, which brought into a single picture the view of lake, island, bridge, water falling from an artificial hill in the background, and different sorts of trees and stone-work oddly shaped and twisted. There would be a grotto at one corner, and some sort of hermitage or hut to enliven the scene. People were wont to come to a place like this on fine summer evenings. There were covered walks leading from the house to the garden, which also served as walls for the whole enclosure. In the ninth century the famous artist Kanaoka was busy, drawing such houses and gardens. His death was followed by the closing years of the Heian epoch, a period of much revelling and licence, when the nobles took to all kinds of extravagances; but famous gardens were laid out at Kyoto.
The greatest admiration was excited by the house of a chieftain of the Minamota clan. This house was encased in brick—a style which at that time was positively unique. The owner made a park round his house which copied in miniature a landscape that was famous in Japan—the salt coast (shiwo-mama) of the province of Mutsu. It is characteristic of the nobility of that day that they had hundreds of tons of salt water evaporated there, so as to give the fresh-water lake the proper taste of the sea. In the same spirit of exaggerated æstheticism, they would cover tall trees with artificial cherry- and plum- blossom, in order to recall the spring, or would hang garlands of wistaria on pine-trees in the autumn, or would pile up great masses of snow, so that they might still see traces of it under the sunny skies of spring. The mixture of snow and flowers is, of course, one of the things that the Japanese have delighted in at all times.
The reviews and ratings originate in all cases from third parties. Gardenvisit is in no case responsible for the correctness or accuracy of the reviews. Reviews and similar information are not an expression of Gardenvisit's opinions. | <urn:uuid:f4c3a399-aa92-4a1c-9219-b10331e8c0c3> | {
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|MEANING||Kronos (A Greek titan) reptile|
|CLASSIFICATION||Pliosauridae, Pliosauroidea, Plesiosauria|
|AGE||Early Cretaceous (Aptian/Albian) 110 MYA|
|SIZE||9-10 metres (26-30 feet) long|
The type specimen for Kronosaurus queenslandicus is a mandible (lower jaw) fragment with 6 teeth discovered by Andrew Crombie from Hughendon, Queensland, in 1899. The teeth of this specimen would have been about 25 cm long. In 1929 more of the fossil was discovered, most of which was fragmentary but which included some fragments of each humerus (the bone in the forearm). In 1931/2 an expedition from the Museum of Comparitive Zoology, Harvard University, headed by W.E.Schevill, discovered an almost complete skeleton of Kronosaurus in the Army Downs region of Queensland. It was dynamited out by his assistant, known as "the maniac" for his overzealous use of explosives, and about four tons of rock and fossil was wrapped in bloodied sheep skins and sent back to Harvard.
It took about 25 years for the entire 12.8 metre (42 foot) skeleton to be prepared and mounted, where it is now kept on display at Harvard. It is yet to be fully described, so there is still some doubt that this is the same species as the original mandible fragment. The mounted skeleton has been highly (and imaginatively) reconstructed. Alfred Romer, who helped to create the mounted skeleton at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, probably gave the skeleton too many dorsal vertebrae, hence the length of the mount at 12.8 metres (about 40 feet) is probably too long. Estimates of 8 to 9 metres (26 to 30 feet) based on the remains of more complete close relatives are probably closer to the true length of Kronosaurus. A new nearly complete skull, measuring 2 metres in length, has shown that the original Harvard reconstruction of the head is probably also in error.
In 1992 a large pliosaur found in the Boyaca region of northern Colombia was described by Oliver Hampe of the Frankfurt Museum. The fossils date to the Early Cretaceous (upper Aptian). The new species was named Kronosaurus boyacensis and, based ona fairly complete skeleton, is estimated to have been about 9 metres in length. However the uncertainty surrounding the original Kronosaurus queenslandicus material from Australia means that much more research needs to be done on the genus before being certain of how closely related this new Kronosaurus species was, or whether it deserves to be within the genus at all.
Pliosaurs probably caught their prey using speed, rather than the stealthy approach of slower marine beasts such as plesiosaurs. It was said that the rounded teeth at the back of the jaw of Kronosaurus indicate that it probably preyed on ammonites, large shelled cephalopods something like a modern nautilus. The rounded teeth may have been used to crush the hard shells of the ammonites, with the long pointed snout and sharper teeth towards the front of the jaw being used to capture the prey. However more recent evidence suggests that Kronosaurus also fed on plesiosaurs and turtles, since the remains of these have been found where the stomach cavity of the beast would have been. The skull of the Australian plesiosaur Woolungosaurus is also said to exhibit teeth marks possibly attributable to Kronosaurus. Perhaps Kronosaurus fed on a wide variety of creatures - certainly its size (and those teeth) would have made it one of the top predators in the Mesozoic oceans.
For more information on the facts and fantasies of giant pliosaurs, see Dino-Dispatches No. 1, 11/08/1998
Top of page | <urn:uuid:9e4078e4-a8da-45f5-9295-ff133a813bb5> | {
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With the ambient temperature at 36 degrees, Cauvery water supplied once in a week and daily power-cuts by Bescom, we are left in no doubt that summer is here. It seems a bit ridiculous that one would choose to spend the whole day outside, roasting slowly in the sun, but the fact is that summer is a good time for birders. The trees are bare, birds are easier to sight and shoot, and summer is breeding season for many species.
One bird that breeds in the summer is the Indian grey hornbill, Ocyceros birostris. The members of the Bucerotidae family sport a prominent casque or a horn on their beaks. The term ‘ buceros’ means cow horn in Greek.
Hornbills are generally monogamous, meaning that they mate for life (unlike humans). They nest in holes or large cavities in trees. The female prepares the nest by lining it with mud and lays it eggs inside. She then seals herself inside, with just her beak poking out. She remains sealed in until the eggs hatch and the fledglings are old enough to come out. Till then, the faithful male feeds her and the chicks. Hornbills feed on fruits, insects, molluscs and sometimes small birds.
I snapped this hornbill pair setting up home in a dried-up tree at Kokrebellur, about 120 km from Bangalore. Their grey plumage blends in perfectly with the surrounding bark, making them very difficult to spot and photograph.
Let’s hope they have a long and happy married life!
Cheers … Srini. | <urn:uuid:8efa5634-a99f-47b7-87a9-535394d8360c> | {
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Monday, 26 November 2012
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Photo Krista Schlyer
Rob McDonald, a senior scientist for The Nature Conservancy, used to hate cities—the concrete jungles and constant din used to stress this plant ecologist out. But today, he and other Conservancy scientists are finding that helping cities—which will add 3 billion people by 2050—grow and function sustainably is key to protecting nature and the benefits it provides people.
What do you think? Should people who care about conservation pay attention to cities? Or do you agree with Thore
au who once said, "In wildness is the preservation of the world"? Share your opinion below.
Read more of Rob's blog posts (including his thoughts on the end of nature, the tenuous relationship between conservation and human rights advocacy, and the Jevons paradox) here. | <urn:uuid:e9c372ef-3f2e-4bdf-ad2c-0a1036aaefc3> | {
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E waste is becoming a big problem in Africa, mainly because of the “donations” of old unused electronics from America and European countries. E waste is a name derived from electronic waste which is any domestic electrical appliance, ICT electronics or mobile phones that are not usable anymore. In fact a good working discontinued decoder is considered to be e waste. The theory according to me is that if it’s not usable to any humans nearby then its e waste. E waste when dumped in landfills causes environmental degradation by releasing toxic chemicals like mercury and lead. When burnt, e waste emits these dangerous chemicals as well as a foul smell in the air. This can cause breathing problems to children as well as grownups alike if inhaled.
So it starts with you do not dump e waste into the landfills directly instead you could do the following and earn some cash while at it. The amount depends on your willingness and marketing skills. This advice applies both to businesses and individuals as well.
Donate any working electronics to deserving people
In this world there is nothing more satisfying than seeing someone benefit and enjoy a gift. Give that old phone to someone in need or donate that old TV, DVD Player and movies to a children’s home near you. The satisfaction you will get is better than any monetary value in this world. Big companies can choose to donate their old computers to schools instead of throwing them away; it’s good for CSR you know.
Donating is good but please do not donate non working items unless the recipient asks for them. Its bad for CSR and your overall image.
Sell as it is either working or non working
What type of old electronics do you own, a radio, DVD Player or perhaps a Mobile phone. If its working perfectly you can sell it. Just clean it well to get rid of any dust or hand oils that may have accumulated over the years. Using WD-40 or foam cleaner can make an old CRT monitor look new. The tip here is to make the item look as if it was being used all the time and not fished from the store. Clean every part, even the cables, stands and adapters where applicable. You can even sell your old working Mobile phone, TV set, DVD Player or anything else you can get your hands on.
Repair and sell
If the unit is not working you can have it repaired by a qualified service technician and sell it. Do not attempt to open anything for risk of electric shock. If the unit will require a spare part make sure that the cost is not higher than the final price you want to sell the unit. The cost of spare parts is usually lower than the cost of the unit itself not unless the spare part required is a TV LCD panel.
Take it apart and sell it as spare parts
Have you ever seen those banners in town saying “We buy dead phones”? You probably have. The un repairable units in your house or office can be sold to local technicians for spare part cannibalization. If the cost of the spare part is higher than the overall price you want to sell the unit then you can take apart the unit and sell the spare parts that you will get. Do not attempt to open up anything yourself but refer the service to qualified service technicians. There must be something useful to electronics technicians in e-waste. In short whatever you have can be sold.
Turn it into art and sell
If you are an artist or believe you have an artistic touch you can turn the e-waste into beautiful pieces of art and sell the finished products for a bigger price than the above two methods. Believe me there are people who can cough up quite big chunks of money in the name of art. Take for example the pieces below . How much do you think they were sold for. | <urn:uuid:00c86ebf-481a-47a0-a3df-f1e4ac717e5b> | {
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Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities by David Sobel
The most comprehensive review of place-based education – its pedagogy and its practice – yet to appear, by the author of the highly influential book Beyond Ecophobia
. Through academic research, practical examples, and step-by-step strategies drawn from classrooms throughout the United States, Sobel celebrates teachers who emphasize the connection of school, community, and environment. Place-Based Education uses the local community and environment as the starting place for curriculum learning, strengthening community bonds, appreciation for the natural world, and a commitment to citizen engagement.
"Place-based education requires imaginative teaching, coalition building, strategic thinking, and community oriented, hands-on learning. Sobel's life work is a brilliant blend of these essential qualities. His book is a superb compilation of research, theory, and practice. It is compellingly and warmly presented. Sobel nurtures the reader, engendering confidence, inspiration, and care."
—Mitchell Thomashow, President of Unity College & author of Ecological Identity
and Bringing the Biosphere Home
"Literally a landmark book, Sobel’s book belongs in the hands of every teacher in this country as a practical and inspiring guide to combining field and classroom in educating students. He offers a wealth of practical experience as well as documentation of how students and communities profit from place-based education. Parents and educators of all kinds will cherish Sobel’s work."
—Ann Zwinger, teacher & author of The Nearsighted Naturalist
Volume 4 in the Nature Literacy Series
For more educational resources, please visit Orion for Educators | <urn:uuid:0d9a91a2-e3c9-4926-9518-e2a8ddcdb195> | {
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Our best hope for preventing cancer through diet is to eat a wide variety of healthy, nutrient-dense plant foods.
Scientists estimate that 35 percent of cancers are related to nutritional factors. Our best defense against cancer is prevention: keeping ourselves as healthy as possible and eating the kinds of foods that have been shown to help protect our bodies — right down to our cells. Some foods can damage body cells, setting them up for precancerous changes, while other foods protect cells from damage. Cancer prevention depends on knowing the difference. | <urn:uuid:52517736-33c8-4b1a-8b2e-30bcadce510c> | {
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There are many times during the day that we as educators may go off topic or on a tangent during our classes or lessons. Whether this is of our own accord or caused by a students question, in my opinion this can be a good thing. The important things are to ensure that the tangent is appropriate and to come back to the central theme.
The reason for this came this morning. Every morning my students and I listen to O’ Canada or watch a video that has the song. This particular video we watch has a scene where there are logs dropped from a helicopter into a river.
After the video a student asked why the logs were being dropped into the water. This allowed a discussion about logging, a primary industry in Alberta. As well as River Logging and being a Log Driver, both parts of our heritage as they are no longer practiced in mainstream logging. It also allowed me to show a great video to the students, about the River Driver that I used to see at least once a week when I was younger.
Needless to say the 5 minute tangent was a great learning opportunity and I hope that the students enjoyed it as much as I did.
Personally, I love this approach to learning because it requires the students to as questions about what they see, in addition I can answer their questions by asking different ones to further engage them. Another significant reason I like this is due to experiences in my past. I recall often asking questions in class during some lessons, trying to understand and relate what I was learning, but hearing the response that it wasn’t relevant to the lesson or that it was off topic and we needed to get stuff completed. Whose to say that it isn’t relevant? Everyone’s method of understanding and comprehending is different and learning in any sense or context is what we want, unless I am misguided, but enough ranting.
It was a great learning moment and I hope to have many more and to hear about others experiences. | <urn:uuid:f1abf474-e9c9-4116-b935-4d2deaf7fc20> | {
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Human Resource Management is a management function that helps managers recruit, select, train and develop members for an organization. HRM is concerned with the people’s dimension in organizations.
Some core points related to HRM:-
- Organizations are not mere bricks, mortar, machineries or inventories. They are people. It is the people who staff and manage organizations.
- HRM involves the application of management functions and principles. The functions and principles are applied to acquisitioning, developing, maintaining, and remunerating employees in organizations.
- Decisions relating to employees must be integrated. Decisions on different aspects of employees must be consistent with other human resource (HR) decisions.
- Decisions made must influence the effectiveness of an organization. Effectiveness of an organization must result in betterment of services to customers in the form of high-quality products supplied at reasonable costs.
- HRM functions are not confined to business establishments only. They are applicable to non-business organizations, too, such as education, health care, recreation, and the like.
- HRM is a series of integrated decisions that form the employment relationship; their quality contributes to the ability of the organizations and the employees to achieve their objective.
- HRM is concerned with the people dimension in management. Since every organization is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to higher levels of performance and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the organization are essential to achieve organizational objectives. This is true, regardless of the type of organization-government, business, education, health, recreation or social action.
- HRM is the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of the procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance, and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organizational, and social objectives are accomplished.
The HRM refers to a set of programmes, functions and activities designed and carried out in order to maximize both employee as well as organizational effectiveness. | <urn:uuid:7ef767af-3449-4e3c-9ed7-3aedcf369d70> | {
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Making a Chinese paper scroll
Chinese scroll made by kids at
Laurelhurst School, Portland Oregon
Chinese people began to write about 1500 BC. They usually wrote vertically, from the top of the page to the bottom in columns, and read the text beginning from the right side of the page, the reverse of what we do. After they invented paper during the Han Dynasty, about 100 AD, writers in China wrote mainly on paper scrolls.
You can make a Chinese paper scroll by cutting a brown paper grocery bag into a long strip and gluing the ends to wooden sticks. You can copy Chinese characters on to your scroll using a paintbrush and black paint or ink. You can make the scroll look old by burning the edges a little with a candle (get your mom's permission first!). Or, try to get a shoulder bone from your butcher (or make one out of clay) and carve characters on it to make an oracle bone.
Other activities:* Paper-making
* Making a compass
Back to main China project page | <urn:uuid:768bcf00-bb07-44b0-b097-711345ceec26> | {
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Walter Wanderwell, born Valerian Johannes Pieczynski, was born in Poland in either 1893 or 1897. An international traveler and soldier of fortune, he explored Siberia, the Amazon, and the Sahara, and ended up in the United States, where he changed his name to something Americans could pronounce. He was jailed during World War I by American authorities who suspected him of being a German spy. Often referred to as "Captain", he never served in any country's military. In 1918, after being released from prison in Atlanta, he married Nell Miller, a Broadway chrous girl, and the two founded the Work Around the World Educational Club for International Police (WAWEC). WAWEC was founded to ostensibly support the new League of Nations through imposition of law, not war. The FBI branded the organization a private army with potential for subversive activities.
After much around the world adventuring, the Wanderwells ended up in California. They purchased a yacht, which was to be used for a South Seas cruise, but on the night of December 5, 1932, Wanderwell was murdered on board the yacht.
[Source: Michael Newton, The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes, pp. 385-387] | <urn:uuid:d396a6fc-30e0-4570-9a2f-f137ae284ab0> | {
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In the Republic of Ireland, one in three children are overweight and one in five are obese. Poor eating habits and lack of regular physical activity are key contributors to this issue. According to a 2006 Health Behavior study, less than one in five Irish school-aged children reported eating fruits and vegetables more than once a day, while only half exercised on a regular basis.
Research demonstrated that the majority of mothers of overweight or obese children had skewed perceptions and believed their children’s weight was fine. Parents who did understand the issue often felt overwhelmed by it. Research also revealed that six in 10 parents felt that getting their children to eat healthy food was a struggle.
To tackle the issue, it was crucial to engage parents and adult caregivers in the effort to improve their children’s nutrition and increase their level of physical activity. In order to accomplish that, parents needed to understand the benefits of healthy eating and physical activity and the importance of their own lifestyles in influencing children’s behaviors and habits.
Applying social marketing principles, a strategy was developed to change parents’ beliefs about obesity and its risks and to increase their understanding that small, singular, sustained changes could help have a big impact over time and lead to a healthier future. The campaign strategy was designed to help support and empower parents and adult caregivers to become positive role models for their children.
The strategy was translated into the “Little Steps” campaign, which integrated online and off-line components to influence parents and caregivers. A comprehensive website coupled with a sustained public health awareness effort to drive traffic to the site were the core elements of the campaign. The messaging strategy used humor to appeal to both parents and children and to convey positive messages about the little steps that can be made to improve physical activity and nutrition.
The campaign offered realistic and practical advice to support parents’ attempts to make little changes in their family’s diet and physical activity levels. Parents received, for instance, useful tips for healthier shopping, advice on different ways to increase activity as a family and handy hints on how to deal with snacks and treats at home.
Research shows positive changes in parents’ behaviors. More than half of parents report replacing unhealthy food with healthier options and using raw ingredients in meal preparation. Almost one in three parents is spending more time with his/her children doing physical activity and 75% are encouraging children to reduce or avoid foods containing added sugar.
Web site: www.LittleSteps.eu | <urn:uuid:9ec5db69-4cab-4e2f-8b93-95f7b7c0371e> | {
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Lesson 1: What’s the Main Idea?
Leaf by Leaf: Autumn Poems | NP
- Learning Goal
- Explain the main idea of a poem.
- Approximately 2 Days (35-40 minutes for each class)
- Necessary Materials
Provided: Main Idea Chart 1, Main Idea Chart 2, Main Idea Mania Worksheet
Not Provided: Favorite book or movie, chart paper, markers, Leaf by Leaf: Autumn Poems selected by Barbara Rogasky
Before the Lesson
Read the poems and complete the Student Packet Worksheets for “September,” “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,” “Wild Goose,” and “James Lee”
Activation & Motivation
Bring in a copy of your favorite book or movie to show to the class. Briefly tell students what the book or movie is about. Then, ask students to share their favorite book or movie with the class and describe what the book or movie is about.
will explain that the books or movies we have just discussed all have a main idea. I will explain that just like books or movies have a main idea, poems also have a main idea. I will define a poem’s main idea as what the poem is about. To fully understand a poem, a reader must first figure out its main idea.
I will explain that to find the main idea of a poem, a reader must read through the entire poem first. I will read aloud “Wild Goose” to identify the poem’s main idea. Note:You may want to write the poem on chart paper or the board before the lesson so students can refer to the lines of the poem.
After I’ve read the poem aloud, I will think about the subject of the poem- who or what the poem is about. Sometimes, a poem’s title gives the reader a clue about the poem’s subject, but a title may or may not tell who or what is the subject of the poem. Good readers read the whole poem, with their title clue in mind, before determining the main idea. For example, the title “Wild Goose” tells me that the poem has something to do with a wild goose. But it doesn’t tell me the exact main idea. The wild goose could be a metaphor for something else, like a wild little boy. I will explain that good readers consider a title when trying to figure out the main idea, but also read the whole poem to determine the main idea.
After reading the poem, I will identify who or what the poem is about. The last line of the poem mentions that the subject of the poem is a goose. I know this because the first stanza mentions a migration and a spearhead formation. By reading these lines, I can guess that the poem might be about geese because I know first-hand that geese migrate in a V-formation. The last line gives me specific information that the poem is about a goose because it says, “from the frozen world of earth-bound fools who, shivering, maintain that geese are silly.” I will write this information on Main Idea Chart 1. Note: See Main Idea Chart 1 for specific examples.
Next, I will find out what happens to the subject of the poem. I will underline words or phrases that describe the action. I see that the first stanza of the poem gives me information about the action, such as “He climbs the wind above green clouds of pine, honking to hail the gathering migration.” The second stanza also has plenty of information about the goose’s actions. I will write all of this information on Main Idea Chart 1.
Using information I’ve identified about the subject of the poem (including what happens to the subject and what it is like), I can draw a conclusion about the poem’s main idea. I can conclude that the main idea of “Wild Goose” is that a goose’s migration is smart and beautiful. I will write this on Main Idea Chart 1.
Ask: "How can I figure out the main idea of a poem?" Students should respond that you should look at clues that a title could provide, then you should read the poem aloud and look for who or what the poem is about. Next, you should look for information about what happens or the actions of the subject. Finally, use information about the subject and the action to draw a conclusion about the poem’s main idea.
will identify the main idea of the poem “November Day” on Main Idea Chart 2. First, we will look at the title for clues about the poem’s main idea. Ask: "Does “November Day” give us a clue about the subject of the poem?" (Encourage students to brainstorm about information that the title might give.) Next, we will read the poem together and look for information about the poem’s subject. We will answer the question: Who or what is the poem about? We will record our response on Main Idea Chart 2. We will then look for information that tells us about the subject’s action in the poem. We will answer the question: What is happening in the poem? We will record our response on Main Idea Chart 2. Finally, we will use information about the poem’s subject and subject’s actions to draw a conclusion about the main idea. We will record our response on Main Idea Chart 2.
will read and identify the main idea of “Come Up From the Fields Father.” First, you will write information about the poem’s title on the Main Idea Mania Worksheet. Next, you will read the poem to identify the subject and action of the poem. You will record this on the Main Idea Mania Worksheet. Finally, you will draw a conclusion about the poem’s main idea and record it on the Main Idea Mania Worksheet.
will come together to share our findings about the main idea of the poem.
Build Student Vocabulary serene
|Tier 2 Word: serene|
|Contextualize the word as it is used in the story||“The day becomes more solemn and serene / When noon is past—there is a harmony.”|
|Explain the meaning student-friendly definition)||Serene means calm, peaceful, and free from trouble. When the day in the poem is described as serene, it means that the day is quiet and peaceful.|
|Students repeat the word||Say the word serene with me: serene|
|Teacher gives examples of the word in other contexts||The surface of the lake was smooth and serene–it looked completely undisturbed. I felt serene after talking to my friend, because she herself is so calm.|
|Students provide examples||What is the most serene place you can think of? Why? Start by saying, “The most serene place I know is __________________________ .”|
|Students repeat the word again.||What word are we talking about? serene|
|Additional Vocabulary Words||flaunt, nook, lush, odor, solemn|
Texts & Materials
(To see all of the ReadWorks lessons aligned to your standards, click here.) | <urn:uuid:2ea038b4-98c9-4958-af7e-2e9bd50dbd1d> | {
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Two close friends of mine had their email accounts hacked this week and they are not alone by any means. Email hacking is a common occurrence and it can represent a serious security threat or a benign inconvenience, however, in either event, it is important to act promptly to remedy the situation. Sometimes your email is hacked and used as part of a botnet, which is a zombie network of computers used by scammers to send out spam. Other times, however, when you are hacked, malware is installed on your computer without your becoming aware of it. One particularly troublesome type of malware is keystroke logging malware that can steal all of the information from your computer and make you a victim of identity theft. Often you only become aware that you have been hacked when someone on your email list informs you that that you have received an email that appears to have been sent by you, but is strange and arouses suspicion.
Here are some tips for what to do if you have been hacked. For more detailed information, check out my book “50 Ways to Protect Your Identity in a Digital Age.” You can order it by clicking on the link on the right hand side of this page.
1. Change your password on your email account. If you use the same password for other accounts, you should change those as well.
2. Change your security question. I often suggest that people use a nonsensical security question because the information could not be guessed or gathered online. For instance, you may want the question to be “What is your favorite color?” with the answer being “seven.”
3. Report the hacking to your email provider.
4. Contact people on your email list and let them know you have been hacked and not to click on links in emails that may appear to come from you.
5. Scan your computer thoroughly with an up to date anti-virus and anti-malware program. This is important because the hacker may have tried to install a keystroke logging malware program that can steal all of the information from your computer.
6. Review the settings on your email, particularly make sure that your email is not being forwarded somewhere.
7. Get a free copy of your credit report. You can get your free credit reports from www.annualcreditreport.com. Some other sites promise free credit reports, but sign you up for other services that you probably don’t want or need.
8. Consider putting a credit freeze on your credit report. You can find information about credit freezes on my blog www.scamicide.com. | <urn:uuid:028b208e-9433-4890-b422-e8229639a176> | {
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Presentation on theme: "The Pilgrims were committed to walk out their Christian faith on a higher level than just the Church-State politics of Rome, the Reformers, and even the."— Presentation transcript:
The Pilgrims were committed to walk out their Christian faith on a higher level than just the Church-State politics of Rome, the Reformers, and even the Presbyterians. Biblical Christians believed that salvation came by faith, and not by the rituals of the established church. Their personal relationship with Jesus Christ was the key. He was the crux of their faith. They knew Him. And they were committed to walk with Him in a life of total commitment. This was the Gospel. It was their top priority. The state of religion in England in the late 1500 and early 1600’s The Church of England spoke out loudly from their pulpits against their radical idea of Christians being separated. They had no time for their consecration to God and spoke disdainfully about their "Enthusiasm". To these church of England this enthusiasm for God was unreal. It was mere emotionalism. It seemed that these people were either irrational or hypocritical or both. As the Pilgrims sailed out to a new life in America their future was uncertain. But they were glad of the opportunity. Over there in the New World God had given them sanctuary. The English colonies would give them a chance for a new life. And they would have a chance to enjoy the religious freedom which had eluded them back in Europe and in England.
In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc. Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620 Mayflower Compact 1620
1 st Thanksgiving Day 1621 The Pilgrims did not call this harvest festival a "Thanksgiving," although they did give thanks to God. To them, a Day of Thanksgiving was to thank God for his provisions. It was a religious observance
Patrick Henry (1736-1799), five-time Governor of Virginia, whose "Give me liberty or give me death" speech has made him immortal, said: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly, nor too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ...." John Jay first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” Benjamin Franklin: "I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God Governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?“ "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.“ "Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants."
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third U.S. President, chosen to write the Declaration of Independence, said: "I have little doubt that the whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator, and, I hope, to the pure doctrines of Jesus also." He proclaimed that it was the God of the Bible who founded America in his 1805 inaugural address: "I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in this country." Yes, this is the same Thomas Jefferson that was called a deist and the author of the separation of church and state clause (which is not in the constitution)
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. Look this up in a recent text book. This quote is often missing George Washington’s Farewell Address 1796
God is mentioned 4 times in the Declaration of Independence Delaware constitution of 1776: Art. 22. Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust... shall... make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit: "I ________, do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, Blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scripture of the Old and New Testaments to be given by divine inspiration."
A PROCLAMATION by the United States in Congress assembly: It being the indispensable duty of all nations, not only to offer up their supplications to Almighty God, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in the a time of public distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his Providence in their behalf; therefore, the United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these states, in the course of the important conflict in which they have been so long engaged; and the present happy and promising state of public affairs; and the events of the war in the course of the last year now drawing to a close, particularly the harmony of the public councils, which is so necessary to the success of the public cause; The perfect union and good understanding which has hitherto subsisted between them and their allies, notwithstanding the artful and unwearied attempts of the common enemy to sow dissension between them divide them; the success of the arms of the United States and those of their allies, and the acknowledgment of their independence by another European power, whose friendship and commerce must be of great and lasting advantage to these states; and the success of their arms and those of their allies in different parts do hereby recommend it to the inhabitants of these states in general, to observe, and recommend it to the executives of request the several states to interpose their authority in appointing and requiring commanding the observation of the last Thursday, in the 28 day of November next, as a day of solemn thanksgiving to God for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks, to testify their gratitude to God for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience to his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness. 1782 Thanksgiving Proclamation
September 28, 1789 - First Federal Congress passed a resolution asking that the President of the United States recommend to the nation a day of thanksgiving New York, 3 October 1789 By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation. Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness. Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be-- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war--for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us. and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best. Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789. Go: Washington NOTE: John Adams and James Madison submitted similar proclamations
Washington, D.C. October 3, 1863 By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth. By the President: Abraham Lincoln | <urn:uuid:26e5a18e-9e0e-4773-bff5-5551b67e4df5> | {
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In the minds of some (perhaps most) people, “utilitarianism” has a special meaning. It often refers to an extremely “materialistic” view, which aims at maximization of wealth. This is not surprising, since utilitarianism has been (but less so nowadays) associated with economics. In the early 19th century, those who wrote on economics (or “political economy”, as it was usually called) were not seldom adherents to hedonistic utilitarianism of the Benthamite kind. Later in the same century, however, the goal of maximizing pleasure was by many economists regarded as too imprecise to be used in scientific discussions. So pleasure was generally replaced by “utility”, and the by the maximization of utility, it was usually meant the highest possible satisfaction of subjective preferences. Moreover, the easiest way to “measure” such satisfaction of preferences is by measuring income, wealth, and the like. It is hard to be scientific if one wants to measure levels of mental “satisfaction”.
It is, of course, a shame that many associate utilitarianism with this “economistic” way of thinking, since it is rather barren if it is regarded as a moral view (and if it is not intended as a moral view, then why should one make policy recommendations on the basis of it?). Nevertheless, it is, in fact, a very old view, and if we look back in the history of ideas, we find one extreme adherent to it in the Chinese philosopher Mozi (or Mo Tzu), who lived around 400 B.C. Mozi put forward a principle of “universal love” (not really emotional love, but rather “concern”) which is not all that different from the utilitarian/hedonist idea of impartiality when it comes to maximization of happiness, and he criticized the Confucian view that parents and relatives should always be one’s first concern.
However, It seems that Mozi’s prime concern was economic production, and he criticized Chinese rulers who squandered resources by, for instance, waging war. He also criticized traditions that seemed very unproductive, like expensive funerals and long periods of mourning, during which one was expected to do no work.
Now, it is, of course, rather uncontroversial to criticize war and the destructive forces and costs that it brings along. Somewhat less uncontroversial is perhaps the critique of superstitious practices that drain resources, but even people who subscribe to such beliefs would probably agree that such things cannot swallow too much of one’s material resources.
But there are other things in Mozi’s doctrine which appear more controversial. To quote a scholar: “To attain the end of a rich, numerous, orderly, peaceful, and literally ‘blessed’ population, Mo Tzu was willing to sacrifice very nearly everything else. Clothing should keep out the cold in winter and the heat in summer but should not be attractive. Food should be nourishing but not well-seasoned. Houses should keep out the cold and heat, the rain and thieves, but should have no useless decoration.” Mozi went so far as to condemn music, “which used men’s time and wealth in the making and playing of instruments, yet created nothing tangible”.
Mozi’s utilitarianism is, thus, extreme in its maximization of “utility”, in the form of production of material, “useful” things, and the production of new people, and in its rejection of what is of interest to the hedonistic utilitarian, namely, pleasure. Now, it is probably the case that no utilitarian economist adhere to such an anti-hedonistic view. Nevertheless, their political recommendations have not always been all that different. Politics is often regarded as a wealth-making machine, whereas pleasure is something that should be left to individuals, and not concern politicians. Just enable people to make money, and the rest will take care of itself.
The problem with this is that the way we make money affects the possibilities of leading a more pleasurable life. And it is not easy for an individual to plan these things by her- or himself, when the system itself is geared towards a specific way of making money. It is, for instance, hard to find a career that will give you a reasonable balance between leisure and money. The logic of the system demands that you either work hard for a lot of money, or work very little for little money (although many also work hard for little money, of course, just as a few lucky people work little for a lot of money). It is hard to find a career which requires a medium amount of work for a medium amount of money, even though that would probably produce more pleasure than the present way of making a living.
In conclusion, utilitarian politics must from the beginning regard people as interested in pleasure and promote it through politics, rather than decide that one thing (for instance, income) should serve as a proxy for happiness. | <urn:uuid:66c880b6-cf12-4161-a8a5-4a3f47aa7422> | {
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By Mauro Small
Sustainable cities, or “smart” cities, focus economic and technological resources on conserving water, improving energy efficiency, reducing waste and enhancing their citizens’ quality of life. Innovations for renewable energy, the development of efficient waste management systems and community planning for smart growth ensure the viability of cities for years to come.
Critical Water Conservation Planning
Cities striving for sustainability must address water supply issues based on population demand. According to the United Nations, a 3-4 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures by 2080 could place an additional 1.8 billion people in water-scarce environments. Municipalities must be able to maintain freshwater resources through conservation, treatment and recycling.
The city of Philadelphia has made inroads toward water sustainability through its “Green City, Clean Waters” plan. One of its goals is to protect the municipal water supply from stormwater runoff pollution. The plan calls for green, low-impact development to limit paved areas, which block runoff absorption. Additionally, Philadelphia has formally partnered with the EPA to develop new water handling strategies based on hydrologic and hydraulic models.
Long-Term Energy Efficiency
Smart cities focus on increasing both municipal and residential energy efficiency. Not only does this save money, but it also reduces air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, makes progress toward energy stability and independence, and creates new jobs.
Vienna, Austria, is well on its way on becoming a model city for sustainable development. Its goal is an 80 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by the year 2050. District heating systems that supply multiple end-users with heat and electricity are already in place. Additionally, Vienna’s energy efficiency standards for new construction are among the most stringent worldwide. The city is already a champion for ultra-low- energy housing.
Renewable Energy for Future Security
By developing renewable energy facilities, cities without domestic sources of oil, natural gas and coal can increase their future energy security and decrease their GHG emissions. Munich, Germany, has established a renewable energy program called “100 percent Green Power,” setting a goal of meeting all of the city’s energy requirements by 2025 with locally generated, green energy. The city plans to tap into hydro, solar, biomass, geothermal and wind energy to supply its electric needs.
Sustainable Solid Waste Management
To achieve a state of sustainability, cities must develop effective waste management practices. According to the EPA, the volume of waste in the U.S. alone increased 184 percent between 1960 and 2010.
San Francisco’s Zero Waste Program has set a goal of zero solid waste generation by 2020. By implementing strict waste reduction measures and actively creating a recycling and composting-friendly culture within the city, San Francisco has increased its rate of recycling to 80 percent.
Community Planning for Smart Growth
Planning for smart municipal growth is crucial for achieving long term sustainability. Affordable, energy efficient housing, and green spaces are components of sustainable cities in the future. In Paris, this vision is already taking shape at Parc Clichy-Batignolles, a 133-acre development in the 17th arrondissement. The city has reclaimed land formerly used as railroad freight yards to build a sustainable community. The central park features low maintenance plants, wind turbines, solar collectors and a rainwater harvesting system.
Building sustainability into a city’s infrastructure creates long-term livability, jobs and increases the quality of life. Planning for a low carbon future, while preserving resources such as water and green space, is critical in terms of meeting the challenges of climate change and population growth.
The examples listed above are real-life projects for how cities can actively solve the problem of accommodating a large population while using fewer resources.
Image credit: Flickr/photographerglen
Mauro Small is an Energy Engineer based in Berlin, Germany. | <urn:uuid:09322f90-4460-455e-a45e-d58284f5c1ee> | {
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Man versus machine — it’s an all-too-familiar battle in science fiction movies. But some actually believe that a time will come when artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence, altering human civilization in unfathomable ways.
It’s called the technological singularity.
History has indicated that artificial intelligence has the capability of winning over human intelligence.
In 1997, world chess champion Garry Kasparov forfeited to IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer after 19 moves.
And who could forget IBM’s other success in 2011, when its Watson computer beat two former “Jeopardy!” champions?
Futurist Ray Kurzweil made this prediction about AI in a Tech Insider interview with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson: “By 2029, computers would have all of the intellectual and emotional capabilities of humans, so they would be spiritual machines.”
Kurzweil believes that in the 2030s our brains will be able to wirelessly communicate directly to the cloud to speed up our knowledge exponentially.
Kurzweil went on to say in the interview, “I think the scenario that is realistic is that computers are getting smaller and smaller. We’ll have nanorobots at the size of blood cells that have computers in them. They’ll go into the brain through the capillaries and communicate with our neurons … that will communicate wirelessly to the cloud.”
Then there are those who believe AI poses a threat. Back in July, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told the National Governors Association that AI is a “fundamental existential risk for human civilization” and believes it should be regulated. World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has also issued warnings. He believes artificial intelligence has the potential to destroy human civilization through powerful autonomous weapons or new ways for the few to oppress the many.
On the other end of the spectrum, people like engineer Anthony Levandowski, who worked for Uber and Google and specialized in autonomous cars, believes artificial intelligence has godlike qualities and should be worshipped.
Only time will tell what remains to be seen. Will it be man versus machine, or man plus machine? | <urn:uuid:c5505ecb-457d-49bb-abd5-8b0467ee85d5> | {
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THE 40th anniversary of the mobile phone passed by quietly yesterday, with no celebration for the device which has become an integral part of modern society.
On April 3, 1973, Motorola engineer and general manager of the communications systems division Martin Cooper talked his way into the history books by becoming the first person to make a call on a handheld cell phone in public.
Dr Cooper lifted the relatively enormous Motorola DynaTAC to his ear while standing on Sixth Ave, New York, to place a call that would be remembered as the debut of mobile communications.
In an interview with technology website The Verge, last year, Dr Cooper said the call was to Bell Labs rival Joel Engler, who was also working to pioneer mobile technology.
"Joel, this is Marty. I'm calling you from a cell phone, a real handheld portable cell phone," he said.
Gawking New Yorkers were inevitably curious and many would have tuned in to witness the DynaTAC's announcement at a press conference soon after.
The DynaTAC cost about $4000, weighed nearly a kilogram, had 35 minutes of talk-time and a battery life of 20 minutes, which was considered a stunning achievement at the time.
Today's smart phones offer a wide variety of functions, including text messaging, browsing the internet and snapping photos, all of which are often taken for granted.
And the DynaTAC's debut, marked by a simple phone call, was the crucial beginning of the communication revolution.
According to independent researcher BuddeComm there is an estimated 29 million mobile phones in Australia, despite our population of only 23 million.
Update your news preferences and get the latest news delivered to your inbox. | <urn:uuid:99840e01-1348-4523-b0ec-420cb0bdd927> | {
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- The Foundry: Conservative Policy News from The Heritage Foundation - http://blog.heritage.org -
Making It Easy to Remember America's First Principles
Posted By Ericka Andersen On October 1, 2011 @ 1:00 pm In Featured,First Principles,Ongoing Priorities | Comments Disabled
Knowing America’s history well is one of the first steps to becoming a well-rounded and knowledgeable conservative. It’s not always easy to remember the many dates, speeches, people, and events from the past 235 years, and The Heritage Foundation knows that. As a result, we have created a new one-stop shop for America’s first principles and historical inquiries on the newly designed Heritage First Principles website.
With Congress in constant battles over tax policy and budgetary issues, the key questions underlying nearly every issue can be answered by America’s first principles. Our Founders gave us a map to guide the country—the Constitution—and it provides a reference for actions in government and public life.
As Judge Janice Rogers Brown once said: “Without a return to first principles, we will end up arguing that conservatives can preside over the welfare state more efficiently than liberals. That hardly seems a distinction on which the pivot of human history should turn.”
In Heritage’s new online resource for first principles education, viewers will find links for information on America’s founding, conservatism, the rise of progressivism and how America’s first principles still apply today. The site is easily divided into key themes including: The American Founding, Constitutional Government, Lincoln and the Civil War, Progressivism & Liberalism, Conservatism, Foreign Policy, and Economic Thought.
Those interested in national security, foreign policy, immigration, and elections will also find extensive and helpful information.
Regardless of your level of knowledge, you can find items of interest in this new, unique format that includes basic information, question and answers, book recommendations, key articles, and more. Unlike other websites that simply collect public-domain sources and republish them as is, Heritage explains the context and importance of the documents presented. Individuals can dig as deep as they want through a helpful categorization of documents.
The goal is to highlight primary documents that a thoughtful conservative should learn and remember. These include famous speeches like Washington’s Farewell Address and FDR’s Second Bill of Rights speech.
First principles are not just ideas from several hundred years ago—they should guide America on today’s toughest policy questions. Find out more in “Applications: What these principles mean for the policies and politics of today.”
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org
URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2011/10/01/making-it-easy-to-remember-americas-first-principles/
URLs in this post:
Heritage First Principles website.: http://www.heritage.org/Initiatives/First-Principles
“Applications: What these principles mean for the policies and politics of today.”: http://www.heritage.org/Initiatives/First-Principles/basics#applications
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:ce6e9e56-e97f-4741-95b2-3fa80c80b26a> | {
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Well-meaning proposals sometimes have a way of raising troubling questions. Case in point: A team of wireless researchers in Germany proposed a way to improve the communications abilities of first responders, the brave people who rush into disastrous situations to help save the victims.
But the proposal hinges on something many private citizens and privacy or security advocates will likely find uncomfortable: creating an “emergency switch” that lets government employees disable the security mechanisms in the wireless routers people have set up in their own homes. This would allow first responders to use all the routers within range to enhance the capabilities of the mesh networks that allow them to communicate with each other. In a mesh network, each node or device can route traffic to the other devices on the network through a series of hops. Adding devices (in this case wireless routers) thus improves the network's stability and performance.
The residents’ wireless traffic would still remain private, in theory. Wireless routers already support a technology that might make the idea feasible—the creation of guest networks that home owners can use to grant visitors access to the Internet. But the proposal—laid out in a new paper in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Mobile Network Design and Innovation—suggests allowing public safety officials the right to remotely activate an emergency mode making similar guest access available to them. The paper is also described in a press release titled “Your wireless router could save lives in an emergency.”
The paper acknowledges privacy and security concerns, although just how abuse can be prevented isn’t really spelled out.
“The emergency switch is meant to disable the security protocols and allow public access to the wireless router,” says the team led by PhD student Kamill Panitzek of Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany (he's also a research associate at the university’s Telecooperation Lab). “It can only be part of the network if it is open to all users and offers its resources. Abuse of such a network must be avoided at all cost. Therefore this network should be isolated from the citizen’s home network to protect people’s privacy. This goal could be easily accomplished as it is already today possible to install a home network and a guest network in parallel to grant Internet access to visitors.”
Panitzek believes this can be achieved through firmware updates sent to routers, and won't require new hardware. A wireless mesh network would be created on top of the privately owned routers, acting as a “backbone in case of a disaster,” and filling the “communication gap between the incident site and the command center," the paper states. The press release notes that cell phones can connect to each other in mesh networks, and could thus continue to be used when cellular networks are congested or unavailable.
While the paper’s proposal is dependent on the existence of the “emergency switch,” it focuses less on how to create the switch than on research demonstrating the utility of it. The researchers studied the density of wireless routers in their hometown of Darmstadt, using an Android application that detects available networks. The conclusion was that using private routers would dramatically improve network performance and resiliency in the emergency responders’ mesh network.
But is it wise?
After reading the paper, we exchanged e-mails with Panitzek to get more details on the emergency switch concept. We also talked to security expert Bruce Schneier and the makers of DD-WRT router firmware to get opinions on whether such an emergency switch would be feasible and/or desirable.
Schneier was troubled by the idea, comparing it to the so-called Internet kill switch, which would let the government shut down the Internet in case of a major cyber attack.
“The problems are the same,” Schneier told Ars. “Once you build such a system, you have to build the security to ensure that only the good guys use it. And that's not an easy task. It is far more secure not to have the capabilities in the first place.”
We’ve tried to find out whether anyone is working on such a product by contacting the industry group the WiFi Alliance, as well as router and wireless chip makers like Cisco and Broadcom, but haven’t been able to get any firm answers. Cisco’s public relations group told us the company was not aware of the research, and that it is not aware of anyone at Cisco “involved in assessing the feasibility of this type of emergency takeover of a network.”
So while the “emergency switch" may only exist on paper, DD-WRT CEO Peter Steinhäuser told us it wouldn’t be all that difficult to achieve on a technical level.
“With today's technology, it's pretty simple because it's (as mentioned) very similar to a Guest Network,” Steinhäuser said. One unanswered question Steinhäuser raised is “What's more likely, breakdown of public communication or public power supply?” He also said the question of how to trigger the emergency mode seems unanswered.
Panitzek told us that “the triggering of the emergency mode is a technical detail which we did not focus on in our study. Secure triggering of emergency mode is important for the realization of our idea but remains [for] future research.”
Why is the emergency mode necessary, given that emergency responders already have wireless communication technologies? In the US, the 4.9GHz band is already designated for public safety. But adding nodes to the network can still strengthen communication.
Panitzek explains: “The proposed emergency switch would not provide the only means for communication to first responders but a supportive infrastructure as stated in our paper. The routers would form a mesh network to assist the mesh network [that] first responders would create with their own devices and therefore increase network coverage, and also quality of communication service. Internet access could be provided through such an infrastructure as well if needed. This could be done by single network nodes with Internet access deployed by first responders."
Panitzek’s research paper notes a precedent that might show how such an emergency network could work. The German city of Aachen, a local university, and businesses provided free mobile Internet connectivity through a project in which participants shared their wireless routers—voluntarily—to increase network coverage.
In this project, “the data traffic of mobile users is tunneled to their own homes to protect owners of the routers from illegal usage and law infringements," Panitzek and his research team wrote. "This ensures that all Internet usage is bound to the right users’ identities. In addition, mobile users are protected by encrypting the wireless communication between user and the router.”
Potential for abuse
An emergency switch would only be effective if private wireless routers were capable of being joined to emergency networks in large numbers. But from a privacy standpoint, we think it should be voluntary on the part of users, if it is ever implemented at all. Deploying the system widely might require intrusive legislation, and software upgrades by router manufacturers that forcibly take away users’ administrative control is something we’re not a fan of, either.
When asked if it would be legal for emergency responders to have control over private routers, Panitzek acknowledged that it may be a gray area. “We know of security and law problems associated with such an emergency switch,” he told us. “But the technological realization, the social implications, and the societal acceptance, as well as the legal implications of such an emergency switch, are subject to future research.”
While improving wireless communication abilities of emergency responders is a worthy goal, we think this particular idea could raise more problems than it solves. | <urn:uuid:252eefd3-8537-43b1-a4ff-544873455423> | {
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On today’s grocery shelves, it’s commonplace for produce from all over the world to be displayed side by side, regardless of the season. It’s not unusual, in fact it’s expected, to see lettuce or tomatoes from California in New England grocery stores even as the snow begins to fall.
With produce traveling further than ever before from its origin to grocers’ shelves, how can anyone track where each head of lettuce comes from?
Some producers are beginning to do that by affixing new radio frequency identification (RFID) chips to each produce container. The chips can be used to trace a specific batch from the fields to its final destination on supermarket shelves. The technology, widely regarded as an effective step toward better food safety, is precise enough to track produce back to within a few feet of where it was grown.
Once the system achieves what the industry calls “whole-chain traceability,” the use of RFID-type technology should benefit food safety and and improve recall systems, explained Dan Vache, vice president of Supply Chain Management with the United Fresh Produce Association.
Vache said RFID tags enable each step of the entire growth, harvest, processing and distribution chain to be traced efficiently. In the event of a foodborne-illness outbreak or some other issue, “whole chain traceability will limit the scope of a recall, speed up the identification process all the way back to the grower,” minimizing the impact to consumers, Vache said.
Vache has years of supply chain management experience having been involved in multiple industries providing cold chain analytics with services to track and trace products throughout the cold chain from harvest to the backend of retail stores and restaurants.
With RFID tags, he explained, each so-called touch point in the supply chain should capture a minimum of basic data including the date, time and location and ultimately environmental conditions as a product is handled and passed along, from harvest to merchandising.
Eventually, the technology will become so sophisticated that “smart tags” will indicate a product’s shelf life, whether it is beyond its use date or whether it may have been exposed to temperatures that could be damaging, Vache told FSN in an email.
Producers like the Dole Food Company have led the pack in using RFID in the fields that is controlled by handheld, GPS-enabled readers to encode chips with the coordinates of the produce being harvested for a particular bin. Dole uses the RFID program throughout its farms in the Salinas Valley.
Other producers are also using the technology, although it’s not yet widespread.
Vache told FSN that “what we do see is some use of RFID in tracking assets such as pallets” or containers that are eventually reused; in that case the RFID tags are recommissioned for multiple uses.
Once there is sufficient infrastructure for data collection at more perishable food distribution centers, “the use of RFID tags will gain traction” and more producers will be able to handle the volume of data. At that point, the cost per tag should also go down dramatically, Vache said.
RFID chips and tracking systems can be used to track or trace any type of products, not just produce. The chips help industry “gain insight into the total supply chain and enhance supply chain efficiencies,” Vache said. Already, RFID is in play with many products, especially items such as high-end electronics and other hardware items.
As for the future of produce tracking systems? “When RFID reaches critical mass, there will be a tremendous amount of data that when analyzed will take the industry to the next level in process improvements and increased consumer confidence,” Vache predicted.© Food Safety News | <urn:uuid:73d514ac-29b8-4482-9af9-1b8efa76d6fc> | {
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When I talk to woodworkers about drawers, particularly dovetail joinery, I mention the transition that occurs as we moved from one furniture period to the next. In general, dovetails became a drawer-joinery method during the William & Mary period; woodworkers had used dovetails earlier, but they became more widely used during the period that stretched from about 1690 through 1730. At that time dovetails were large and chunky and not very refined.
As we move into the Queen Anne period, dovetails changed. Pins got smaller and tails began to grow. Overall, the look became a bit more refined as we paid attention to details.
During the Chippendale period, without new joinery methods on which to concentrate, woodworkers focused more on details. Drawer dovetails were more refined. Pins became more narrow as tails again gained in size. You can, in some of the furniture from this period, find examples of dovetails with pins barely wide enough for a saw blade to pass.
Today we have little new joinery and even less in new designs, so we continue to focus on details. We use special layout tools to mark our dovetails, we use dividers to get each socket laid out just right and we stress over the smallest joint gaps – your dovetails best be tight and closed or others will notice.
This focusing of attention is what causes me to wonder about woodworking as a whole. Are we so tied up in the details – in trying to get everything correct and perfect before we move on – that we’re no longer getting projects built? Have we become “process-oriented” woodworkers instead of “project-oriented” woodworkers? Or do we still want to get completed projects?
I’m waiting to hear your comments. | <urn:uuid:eb15b3f3-976d-47f3-8927-93e94b815cb8> | {
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With her all-American good looks, natural charm, and self confidence, Amelia Earhart captured the hearts of the entire nation after becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928.
Amelia Earhart was a record setting aviator, but also a social worker, author, lecturer, businesswoman, educator, and a tireless promoter of women’s rights. She was thirty nine years old and on a round-the-world flight when she went missing in 1937
On this last flight Amelia Earhart had with her Fred Noonan, a top navigator. No pilot had flown the world at the equator, the longest way around, at 27,000 miles, for a very good reason: it was dangerous. Amelia Earhart said,
“Here was shining adventure.”
East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart finally sets the record straight, providing the most comprehensive account to date of Amelia Earhart’s extraordinary life.
East to the Dawn:The Life of Amelia Earhart was an alternate book-of-the-month club selection when it came out in hardcover in 1997. It was published in paperback in 1999 and is on audio tape. | <urn:uuid:60a4ce14-d722-4c5f-8b27-c1ea8324e836> | {
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We take many actions that we don’t give much thought to everyday. An example: breathing! Yeah, taking a deep breath seems relatively mundane on the surface, but it’s pretty much essential to, you know, keep living.
Considering that breathing (along with brain, muscle and heart functions) is one of the most necessary auto-actions we do, it makes sense that breathing exercises and techniques can regulate stress, tension and anxiety.
So, you just got 15 emails, your phone is ringing, and you have to pick up your little girl from daycare in 20 minutes. Stop your heartbeat from going all wacko by consciously connecting your breathing. Think: how do you breathe when you’re absolutely relaxed? Think of how you feel breath before you go to sleep, or when you wake up. Just slowly inhale, exhale, and go from there!
Deep Breathing Exercises
Similar to conscious breathing, deep breathing tells your brain when to calm the heck down. Breathing deeply helps decrease heart rate, slows your breath rate and helps lower heightened blood pressure.
Andrew Weil, M.D., suggests that breathing exercises are useful stress relievers because breath is easily controlled and regulated. One exercise he suggests to maintain stress: the 4-7-8 (or Relaxing Breath) Exercise. The practice is simple and can be done anywhere:
“Although you can do the exercise in any position, sit with your back straight while learning the exercise. Place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue just behind your upper front teeth, and keep it there through the entire exercise. You will be exhaling through your mouth around your tongue; try pursing your lips slightly if this seems awkward.
- Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
- Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.
- Hold your breath for a count of seven.
- Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
- This is one breath. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths.
Note that you always inhale quietly through your nose and exhale audibly through your mouth. The tip of your tongue stays in position the whole time. Exhalation takes twice as long as inhalation. The absolute time you spend on each phase is not important; the ratio of 4:7:8 is important. If you have trouble holding your breath, speed the exercise up but keep to the ratio of 4:7:8 for the three phases. With practice you can slow it all down and get used to inhaling and exhaling more and more deeply.
This exercise is a natural tranquilizer for the nervous system. Unlike tranquilizing drugs, which are often effective when you first take them but then lose their power over time, this exercise is subtle when you first try it but gains in power with repetition and practice. Do it at least twice a day. You cannot do it too frequently. Do not do more than four breaths at one time for the first month of practice. Later, if you wish, you can extend it to eight breaths. If you feel a little lightheaded when you first breathe this way, do not be concerned; it will pass.
Once you develop this technique by practicing it every day, it will be a very useful tool that you will always have with you. Use it whenever anything upsetting happens – before you react. Use it whenever you are aware of internal tension. Use it to help you fall asleep. This exercise cannot be recommended too highly. Everyone can benefit from it.”
Other Deep Breathing Exercises | <urn:uuid:9a824bd1-ba7f-4de3-b6a8-7f6b93c36423> | {
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Honda, BMW, Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Ford, and Chrysler all make cars. Well, obviously. But this is not the only thing that these companies have in common. The key players in the evolution of automobiles all use airbags made from Takata, a company founded in 1933. Now, eighty-three years later, Takata is responsible for one of the biggest auto safety recalls in history.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 19 million vehicles in the U.S. alone have been affected by the recalls. The faulty Takata air bag inflators have contributed to ten fatalities worldwide, nine of them right here in America. The most recent one was in December 2015 with a 2006 Ford Ranger in South Carolina.
It turns out that Takata has gotten in trouble for their defective airbags before, but have always denied any responsibility on their part, until May of last year. On May 19, after the urging of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the company determined that a defect existed in some of its air bag inflators. The inflators were made by a repellent that can degrade over time, leading to ruptures. The NHTSA has played a major role since then in attempting to find out exactly how many and which cars are unsafe to drive due to the airbags. On November 3, 2015, the association ordered twelve of the now fourteen vehicle manufacturers that use the recalled parts to speed up repairs on cars affected. Takata also consented to phase out the dangerous repellant’s use and to pay up to $200 million in penalties. Most recently, in late January of this year, Takata announced new developments on the defective inflators, expanding recalls even further.
Despite all this, Takata is not the only one to blame for faulty auto parts. Continental Automotive Systems Inc. recently announced that some 5 million vehicles are equipped with recalled air bags that have been made from 2006 through 2010. Fewer than 2 million of these vehicles are in the U.S.
Although the Continental recall is not necessarily comparable to Takata, some say that it makes things harder for auto manufacturers to make safe cars if there are fewer parts for them to use. The recalls also inconvenience consumers who are now in danger of being yet another victim of a faulty air bag. It is extremely important for car owners to stay educated and up-to-date with all auto recalls. Drivers should ask their automobile manufacturer for assistance if their vehicle is considered dangerous to drive due to Takata or Continental airbags.
For more up-to-date info on the Takata recall from the NHTSA, click here.
To find out if your vehicle is affected, enter the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) here. | <urn:uuid:56873053-5fd2-4e5c-9463-eae0ab7d1a65> | {
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Moving a file to a new location using the command line
You can use the command line to move files within a repository by removing the file from the old location and then adding it in the new location.
Many files can be moved directly on GitHub Enterprise, but some files, such as images, require that you move them from the command line.
This procedure assumes you've already:
- Created a repository on GitHub Enterprise, or have an existing repository owned by someone else you'd like to contribute to
- Cloned the repository locally on your computer
On your computer, move the file to a new location within the directory that was created locally on your computer when you cloned the repository.
Open TerminalTerminalGit Bashthe terminal.
git statusto check the old and new file locations.
$ git status > # On branch your-branch > # Changes not staged for commit: > # (use "git add/rm
..." to update what will be committed) > # (use "git checkout -- ..." to discard changes in working directory) > # > # deleted: /old-folder/image.png > # > # Untracked files: > # (use "git add ..." to include in what will be committed) > # > # /new-folder/image.png > # > # no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
Stage the file for commit to your local repository. This will delete, or
git rm, the file from the old location and add, or
git add, the file to the new location.
$ git add . # Adds the file to your local repository and stages it for commit. To unstage a file, use 'git reset HEAD YOUR-FILE'.
git statusto check the changes staged for commit.
$ git status > # On branch your-branch > # Changes to be committed: > # (use "git reset HEAD
..." to unstage) > # > # renamed: /old-folder/image.png -> /new-folder/image.png # Displays the changes staged for commit
Commit the file that you've staged in your local repository.
$ git commit -m "Move file to new directory" # Commits the tracked changes and prepares them to be pushed to a remote repository. To remove this commit and modify the file, use 'git reset --soft HEAD~1' and commit and add the file again.
Push the changes in your local repository to your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.
$ git push origin your-branch # Pushes the changes in your local repository up to the remote repository you specified as the origin | <urn:uuid:d33f2a05-8546-4a02-967a-48f7a4b24a55> | {
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Is it farther or further?
to promise "by one's truth." Men and women were betrothed when they were engaged to be married. This usually took place a year or more before marriage. From the time of betrothal the woman was regarded as the lawful wife of the man to whom she was betrothed (Deut. 28:30; Judg. 14:2, 8; Matt. 1:18-21). The term is figuratively employed of the spiritual connection between God and his people (Hos. 2:19, 20). | <urn:uuid:8492d8c5-027a-4b6c-9f64-35e0e5599dea> | {
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Saint Audas was Bishop of Bethchasar in Persia. He destroyed a temple of the fire-worshippers, and was brought to trial before the Persian emperor Izdegerd I (401-402), who ordered the saint to rebuild the temple. When Bishop Audas refused, the emperor ordered soldiers to destroy all the Christian churches, persecute the Christians, and to torture them.
Saint Audas was the first to be martyred. He was beheaded after lengthy tortures. After thirty days, the other martyrs were also executed. Among them was the deacon Benjamin, who suffered particularly cruel torments. They stuck sharp needles under his nails and impaled him on a spear.
The hieromartyrs died in the old Persian city of Suza. | <urn:uuid:c2256033-6fbf-4996-917b-636e43b2d95f> | {
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Skip to Main Content
Integrating population and genetic monitoring to understand changes in the abundance of a threatened seabirdAuthor(s): Catalina Vásquez-Carrillo; R. William Henry; Laird Henkel; M. Zachariah Peery
Source: Biological Conservation. 167: 173-178
Publication Series: Scientific Journal (JRNL)
Station: Pacific Northwest Research Station
PDF: View PDF (855.54 KB)
DescriptionPopulation monitoring programs for threatened species are rarely designed to disentangle the effects of movements from changes in birth and death rates on estimated trends in abundance. Here, we illustrate how population and genetic monitoring can be integrated to understand the cause of large changes in the abundance of a threatened species of seabird, the Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus). Specifically, we used genetic data to test whether a large apparent population decline and subsequent recovery in central California was due to a population collapse followed by dispersal from larger populations to the north (the ‘‘rescue hypothesis’’), or whether it was due to local changes in distribution where resident individuals dispersed from and then returned to surveyed areas (the ‘‘distribution hypothesis’’). An alternative explanation, that rapid population recovery was the result of positive local population growth, was not supported by demographic data. The post-recovery population was more similar genetically to the pre-decline population than it was to northern populations. In addition, both pre-decline and post-recovery populations had a similar proportion and number of individuals of migrant ancestry, as determined with genetic assignment tests. Thus, pre-decline and post-recovery samples appear to come from the same population and our results support the distribution hypothesis. By conducting concurrent genetic and population monitoring, we were able to understand observed changes in the abundance in a threatened species, which would not have been possible by only monitoring abundance.
- You may send email to [email protected] to request a hard copy of this publication.
- (Please specify exactly which publication you are requesting and your mailing address.)
- We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
- This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.
CitationVásquez-Carrillo, Catalina; Henry, R. William; Henkel, Laird; Peery, M. Zachariah. 2013. Integrating population and genetic monitoring to understand changes in the abundance of a threatened seabird. Biological Conservation. 167: 173-178.
Keywordsdispersal, genetic monitoring, marbled murrelets, population monitoring
- Regional population monitoring of the marbled murrelet: field and analytical methods.
- Northwest Forest Plan—the first 10 years (1994-2003): status and trends of populations and nesting habitat for the marbled murrelet.
- Age ratios as estimators of productivity: testing assumptions on a threatened seabird, the marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus)
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ITHACA, NY -- Green calorie labels may lead people to view sugary snacks in a healthier light, according to a new study. A Cornell researcher says in the current issue of the journal Health Communication that consumers are more likely to perceive a candy bar as more healthful when it has a green calorie label than when it has a red one -- even though the bar, and the number of calories, are the same.
"More and more, calorie labels are popping up on the front of food packaging, including the wrappers of sugary snacks like candy bars. And currently, there's little oversight of these labels," said Jonathon Schuldt, assistant professor of communication and director of Cornell's Social Cognition and Communication Lab. "Our research suggests that the color of calorie labels may have an effect on whether people perceive the food as 'healthy,' over and above the actual nutritional information conveyed by the label, such as calorie content."
Schuldt asked 93 university students to imagine that they were hungry and looking at a candy display while waiting in a grocery checkout lane. The students were then shown an image of a candy bar with either a red or a green calorie label. Schuldt asked them whether the candy bar, compared to others, contained more or fewer calories and how "healthy" they thought it to be. The students perceived the green-labeled bar as more healthful than the red one, even though the calorie content was the same.
Schuldt repeated the experiment with 39 online participants who were shown candy with either green or white labels. The participants were asked to what extent the healthiness of food affects their decisions about which foods to buy and eat, on a scale of 1 (not at all important) to 7 (very important).
The more importance the participants placed on "healthy" eating, the more they perceived the white-labeled candy bar as being less healthful. This unfavorable impression did not occur when the candy bar had a green label.
"The green calorie labels buffer relatively poor nutrition foods from appearing less healthful among those especially concerned with healthy eating," Schuldt concluded.
The researchers emphasized that the findings have implications for nutrition labeling, given that front-of-package calorie labels have become increasingly common in the food marketplace in the United States and Europe. He instanced candy brands like M&M's and Snickers as examples that have green front-of-package calorie flags that are particularly conspicuous to consumers at points of purchase.
"As government organizations, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, consider developing a uniform front-of-package labeling system for the U.S. marketplace, these findings suggest that the design and color of the labels may deserve as much attention as the nutritional information they convey," Schuldt said.
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Healthy Earth, Sick Earth
This lesson uses the book Planet Earth Gets Well by Madeline Kaplan to introduce students to
concepts related to climate change and properly caring for the Earth. Students will learn what they
can do to help make the Earth “healthy” and what others are doing that is making the earth “sick.”
Lesson Plans EPA
Environmental and science based lessons.
Green Lesson Plans
Sustainability lesson plans.
Great site with lessons, puzzles, printouts, and more. A Teacher's Guide Best Bet
Includes an Earth Day Organizer's Guide, calendar of events, and resources.
Find out about Earth Day events and activities.
U.S. Department of
Activities and resources dealing with energy use.
EPA's Environmental Education
Find activities, information on workshops and more.
National Wildlife Federation
Environmental Education Page
Explore NWF's educational pathways to understanding, appreciating and safeguarding the natural world.
Free Earth Day Printables from Time for Kids
**Click on the picture of the printables at this site, not the link.
Pals Puzzles Earth Day
Print out this colorful puzzle, cut and put together.
Coloring Pages from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency:
Day Coloring Pages
Ten pictures to print out and color dealing with Earth Day and recycling.
10 posters to print. Available in color or black&white to use for coloring. Recycling themes.
Earth Day Every Day
Earth Day Crafts from Makingfriends.com:
Look at the Recycling Crafts | <urn:uuid:d41617ed-45a9-4361-a606-78d4db1c29c7> | {
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The internet, and today’s technology in general, has made policy-making more complex. Yesterday’s model of a rule-based system does not work as well as it used to, because there are too many variants. Consider a model-based reasoning system instead, by following these four steps before crafting policy:
1. Identify critical issues. Think about how technology, when functional, will work: What it will do, how it will do what it does, and what human-computer or human-human situations are affected by it?
2. Anticipate vicarious results (unintended or unexpected consequences of the policy). This process is similar to the one involved in identifying and researching the critical issues, but involves a deeper thought process.
3. Explore the range of policies. Identifying the full range of critical issues and vicarious results will help you put all the possible policy decisions “on the table” for discussion. Each possibility must be considered in a fashion similar to the discussion of critical issues.
4. Consider stakeholders’ views. Although it’s inevitable that someone or some group will be displeased with a policy decision, it is imperative to hear their voices and carefully weigh their positions. | <urn:uuid:bcb03a1e-6c99-4797-b5ba-d9623cb3149d> | {
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Pioneers of lithium-ion battery win Nobel Chemistry Prize
Three researchers won the Nobel Chemistry Prize on Wednesday for the development of lithium-ion batteries, paving the way for smartphones and a fossil fuel-free society.
STOCKHOLM - Three researchers won the Nobel Chemistry Prize on Wednesday for the development of lithium-ion batteries, paving the way for smartphones and a fossil fuel-free society.
John Goodenough of the United States - at 97 the oldest person to be awarded a Nobel prize - Britain's Stanley Whittingham, and Japan's Akira Yoshino will share the nine million Swedish kronor (about $914,000 or €833,000) prize equally, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
"This lightweight, rechargeable and powerful battery is now used in everything from mobile phones to laptops and electric vehicles... (and) can also store significant amounts of energy from solar and wind power, making possible a fossil fuel-free society," the jury said.
"Lithium batteries have revolutionised our lives since they first entered the market in 1991," and were "of the greatest benefit to humankind".
Seeking an alternative source of power during the oil crisis of the 1970s, Whittingham discovered a way to harness the potential energy in lithium, a metal so light it floats on water.
Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionised our lives and are used in everything from mobile phones to laptops and electric vehicles. Through their work, this year’s Chemistry Laureates have laid the foundation of a wireless, fossil fuel-free society.#NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/KXVfXlUT4B— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 9, 2019
Learn more about the 2019 #NobelPrize in Chemistry— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 9, 2019
Press release: https://t.co/P6TszYtBPK
Popular information: https://t.co/oyRZvyf3Lw
Advanced information: https://t.co/1DDjDu5DuY pic.twitter.com/Hz8EP3t6Wl
He constructed a battery partly made of lithium that utilised the element's natural tendency to shed electrons, thereby transferring energy.
However, the battery was too unstable to be used.
Goodenough built on Whittingham's prototype, substituting a different metal compound and doubling the potential energy of the battery to four volts.
This paved the way for far more powerful and durable batteries in the future.
In 1985, Yoshino instead used a carbon-based material that stores lithium ions, finally rendering the battery commercially viable.
The culmination of the trio's research resulted in the most powerful, lightweight and rechargeable battery ever seen.
"This is such a wonderful thing, and I am very surprised," Yoshino told reporters in Tokyo after winning the prize.
He said he had only gotten a cell phone in recent years.
"I have long felt a bit of rejection towards mobile phones, so I have never had one until recently.
"I know the lithium-ion battery really benefited mobile phones", he said, adding he did "not really" feel that he had helped make a product that benefited his life.
For Yoshino, a good scientist needed two qualities.
"One thing is that you have to have a flexible brain. Flexibility. The other is tenacity. You stay persistent and never give up."
Yoshino, 71, works at the Asahi Kasei Corporation in Tokyo and is a professor at Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan, while Goodenough holds the Cockrell Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
Whittingham, 77, is a professor at the Binghamton University, State University of New York.
The trio will receive the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.
Last year, the honour went to US scientists Frances Arnold and George Smith and British researcher Gregory Winter for developing enzymes used for greener and safer chemistry and antibody drugs with fewer side effects.
Arnold was just the fifth woman to clinch chemistry's most prestigious honour since Marie Curie in 1911.
This year's Nobel season kicked off on Monday with the Medicine Prize awarded to Americans William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza, and Britain's Peter Ratcliffe.
PEACE PRIZE ON FRIDAY
They were rewarded for research into how human cells sense and adapt to changing oxygen levels, opening up new strategies to fight such diseases as cancer and anaemia.
On Tuesday, the Physics Prize went to Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles and Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for research on how the Universe evolved after the Big Bang, and the first discovery of a planet outside our solar system, known as an exoplanet.
The Literature Prize will follow on Thursday, with two laureates to be crowned after a sexual harassment scandal forced the Swedish Academy to postpone the 2018 award, for the first time in 70 years.
Names creating a buzz ahead of this year's literature prize include Canadian poet Anne Carson, Kenyan writer Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Romanian poet and novelist Mircea Cartarescu and Polish writer and activist Olga Tokarczuk.
On Friday the action moves to Norway where the Peace Prize is awarded, with bookies predicting a win for Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.
The Economics Prize will wrap up the Nobel prize season on Monday, 14 October.
RECENT WINNERS OF THE NOBEL CHEMISTRY PRIZE
2019: John Goodenough (US), Stanley Whittingham (Britain) and Akira Yoshino (Japan) for the development of lithium-ion batteries, paving the way for smartphones and a fossil fuel-free society.
2018: Frances H. Arnold (US), George P Smith (US) and Sir Gregory P Winter (Britain) for developing enzymes used for greener and safer chemistry and antibody drugs with less side effects.
2017: Jacques Dubochet (Switzerland), Joachim Frank (US) and Richard Henderson (Britain), for cryo-electron microscopy, a method for imaging tiny, frozen molecules.
2016: Jean-Pierre Sauvage (France), Fraser Stoddart (Britain) and Bernard Feringa (The Netherlands) for developing molecular machines, the world's smallest machines.
2015: Tomas Lindahl (Sweden), Paul Modrich (US) and Aziz Sancar (Turkey-US) for work on how cells repair damaged DNA.
2014: Eric Betzig (US), William Moerner (US) and Stefan Hell (Germany) for the development of super-high-resolution fluorescence microscopy.
2013: Martin Karplus (US-Austria), Michael Levitt (US-Britain) and Arieh Warshel (US-Israel) for devising computer models to simulate chemical processes.
2012: Robert Lefkowitz (US) and Brian Kobilka (US) for studies of G-protein-coupled cell receptors.
2011: Daniel Shechtman (Israel) for the discovery of quasicrystals.
2010: Richard Heck (US) and Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki (Japan) for work on palladium-catalysed cross couplings in organic synthesis. | <urn:uuid:3cb224f4-a4f5-4186-b611-05964542ed6d> | {
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While probiotics offer a variety of potentially positive health benefits, they also can produce side effects which may cause you to think more carefully about increasing your intake of these live microorganisms. Knowing the potential dangers of probiotics may help you and your doctor decide whether they are a good choice for you in your quest to improve your health.
Benefits of Probiotics
Probiotics are live microorganisms which, primarily through activity in the intestinal system, are thought to help provide a variety of benefits, including improved lactose tolerance, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, improving mineral absorption, preventing colon cancer and generally improving the immune system and preventing infections.
Mild Side Effects
Lesser side effects of taking probiotics include gas, headaches, diarrhea, bloating, constipation, excessive sinus drainage and abdominal discomfort. These side effects may be magnified in those with serious gastrointestinal issues, younger and older persons (due to less robust immune systems), and anyone with a damaged immune system.
In people with weakened immune systems (e.g., those with a terminal illness, HIV, seniors and infants), the microbes may be seen as an invading virus and be attacked by the body’s immune system. “In some cases they can induce a potentially fatal condition called lactobacillus septicaemia,” said Catherine Collins, chief dietician at St George’s Hospital in London. Many hospitals in the United Kingdom are following subsequent recommendations by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, which recommends that probiotics not be used to treat seriously ill patients, according to Collins.
One study at the University Medical Centre in Utrecht, Holland saw 12 percent of patients with acute pancreatitis die after being given genetically modified strains of probiotic bacteria during a trial conducted there. The researchers concluded that extremely ill persons should avoid probiotics.
While those with healthy immune systems need not fear the serious dangers which the use of probiotics may cause, persons with compromised immune systems for any reason should avoid taking them, or at the very least, consult closely with a physician before using them.
Health-e-Solutions comment: Since type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, we have opted to avoid probiotics, even though there are many potential health benefits. As our two boys with type 1 diabetes have healed, the case to add probiotics becomes stronger in some ways, but weaker in others. We prefer to focus on eating the correct foods and keeping supplements to a minimum. If we can accomplish the same thing by eating a healthy diet and living a healthy lifestyle, then we prefer that over supplements.
Our Recipe e-Books provide alternatives to the typical high-carb, low nutrition foods that are standard fare for the average western diet. Our Home Study Course teaches you how to implement the diabetic-alkaline lifestyle in a practical and livable way. We think it can form the foundation for a natural, way to better manage all types of diabetes.
- “The Times”: Probiotics Not So Friendly After All, November 10, 2008
- “Daily Mail”: So-Called ‘Friendly’ Bacteria May Be Dangerous, January 29, 2008
- NutraIngredients: FDA Raps Probiotic Swine Flu Supplements for False Claims | <urn:uuid:6de0a86b-dfc8-4550-8e11-aff225807b2e> | {
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Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is a natural compound that helps cells make energy. Although a popular "anti-aging" supplement, animal research suggests that ALA can have either good or bad effects on brain health and lifespan. The evidence from human research is very limited and similarly mixed. ALA supplements are generally regarded as safe.
ALA is made by our cells and helps convert sugar into energy. ALA acts as an antioxidant in laboratory experiments on isolated cells, helping to protect against free radical and inflammatory damage [1,2]. Whether ALA functions as an antioxidant in the human body remains unclear.
Did You Know? Before discovering its essential role in helping cells make energy, ALA was known as "potato growth factor" because it was first isolated from potatoes and helped bacteria to grow.
ALA is naturally produced in plant and animal cells, especially in organs such as the heart, liver and kidneys, as well as leafy greens.
ALA is available as a supplement in capsule form. When ALA is commercially synthesized, two "mirror image" forms are produced, which are referred to as R-lipoic acid (R-LA) and S-lipoic acid (S-LA). R-LA is the form that is naturally produced by animal and plant cells and is more easily used by cells than S-LA . Although supplements contain either pure R-LA or equally proportioned mixes of R- and S-LA, it is unclear if one supplement type is more effective.
Possibly, based on very limited evidence.
In animal and test tube experiments, ALA can reduce the formation of Alzheimer's disease plaques and increase the production of acetylcholine, an important signaling molecule that is impaired in Alzheimer's disease . However, we don't yet know whether ALA can prevent dementia or age-related cognitive decline in humans. An upcoming clinical trial will explore whether an omega-3-ALA vitamin cocktail could help prevent Alzheimer's disease (NCT01780974).
Controversial value to Alzheimer's patients, due to conflicting evidence.
Human research on ALA in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's has been limited with mixed results. In the largest clinical trial to-date, Alzheimer's patients' cognitive function was worsened, not improved, by 16 weeks of treatment with an antioxidant cocktail of ALA (900mg), vitamin E and Vitamin C. The supplements did reduce evidence of oxidative stress in the brain by 19%, but that did not appear to help the patients . In a smaller but longer clinical trial, patients with Alzheimer's disease did benefit from supplementation with a combination of 600 mg of ALA with omega-3 fatty acids. Specifically, the patients receiving the supplement had less cognitive and functional decline over the course of one year compared to the group that received placebo .
In a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, a combination of ALA and regular exercise improved certain aspects of learning and memory compared to sedentary mice . Another study found that 2 weeks of ALA treatment improved learning and memory and reduced oxidative stress in very old mice .
Unlikely, based on very limited evidence.
Although ALA is a popular anti-aging supplement, the evidence that it extends lifespan is mixed. Experimental results from fruit flies and worms suggest that ALA extends lifespan [11,12], but these results have not been reliably replicated in mammals. One study in mice showed that ALA supplementation extended lifespan in mice that had undergone a period of caloric restriction, but it blocked the lifespan extension effects of dietary restriction when it was taken before starting the diet . However, another study found that ALA daily supplementation shortened lifespan in older mice by 18% .
Laboratory research suggests that ALA may act as an antioxidant, scavenging free radicals and preventing inflammation and damage of brain cells in conditions like stroke, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and dementia.
Most evidence for brain protection comes from experiments in isolated cells and laboratory animals. In mice, ALA treatment before a stroke reduced the amount of brain damage by 35 to 40%, as well as improved brain function and recovery . Another study in rats found that after traumatic brain injury, ALA enhanced healing by reducing cell death and scar tissue formation, while increasing blood vessel formation and blood flow to the damaged area . However, these results have yet to be replicated in humans.
Very likely safe, based on moderate evidence.
NOTE: This is not a comprehensive safety evaluation or complete list of potentially harmful drug interactions. It is important to discuss safety issues with your physician before taking any new supplement or medication.
Evidence from human trials suggests that alpha-lipoic acid is generally safe for healthy individuals, with one clinical trial reporting occasional minor stomach discomfort at high doses .
Because of its potential function as an antioxidant, ALA may reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapy or radiation therapy in cancer patients [14,15]. Always talk to your oncologist about any dietary supplements you take and how they may affect your treatment.
There are no official recommended doses for ALA supplements, but clinical trials have used doses ranging from 20 to 1800 mg per day for up to a year without reporting serious adverse events.
Due to its potential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory functions, ALA is being considered as a potential therapy for a number of disorders. An upcoming clinical trial will further explore the possible benefits of an omega 3 fatty acids+ALA vitamin cocktail in Alzheimer's disease prevention (NCT01780974). Currently, clinical trials are underway to determine whether ALA by itself or in combination with other compounds can be effective for treating or preventing conditions such as heart disease (NCT00765310), thyroid cancer (NCT01396733), multiple sclerosis (NCT01188811) and obesity (NCT01138774). More information about planned and on-going clinical trials can be found at clinicaltrials.gov (U.S.) and at clinicaltrialsregister.eu (Europe).
To stay connected with us, please provide your contact details below. We will share the latest Alzheimer's and related research news, along with information on our signature events. | <urn:uuid:1091d32e-194f-44e1-9cf5-269f36689a8e> | {
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Its name means “honey bear,” but it’s not a bear. It’s a carnivore, though it mostly eats fruit. It has a prehensile tail, but it’s not a primate.
The kinkajou is awash in contradictions. But what is it?
This mammal is a procyonid, a member of a group of small animals with long tails that includes raccoons. Kinkajous can be found in tropical forests from southern Mexico to Brazil. They fill the same ecological niche as the New World monkeys they sort-of resemble, but unlike the monkeys, they’re nocturnal and they don’t use their tails for grabbing food. The kinkajou’s tail helps it to balance as it reaches for food–it’ll grab a branch with its tail as it reaches. And if it falls and catches itself with its tail, the kinkajou can twist itself in such a way that it can climb back up its own tail.
Like other members of the procyonid family, kinkajous aren’t too big, only about 16 to 22 inches in body length, and about double that if you add in the tail. Wild cats such as jaguars, ocelots and margays will prey on kinkajous, but kinkajous have a hidden talent that helps them escape: They can rotate their feet so that they can run backwards just as fast they run forwards. They also have sharp hearing that lets them detect quiet predators like snakes.
Kinkajous have long tongues that they use to slurp up the insides of fruit, nectar from flowers and honey from beehives (that’s where the name “honey bear” derives). They’re not complete vegetarians, though, and have been known to eat insects, eggs and even small vertebrates.
These are mostly solitary animals (though a few have been seen playing, grooming and sleeping in small groups), and the females raise their young alone. She’ll give birth to usually one baby in a tree hollow. And those babies grow up pretty fast—by the age of two weeks, the little kinkajou will be eating solid food, and it’ll be hanging by its own tail by seven weeks. It’ll reach maturity after 18 to 20 months. In a zoo, it might live as long as 40 years.
Kinkajous aren’t endangered, but their numbers are thought to be decreasing. Their forest habitat is being disturbed and destroyed in many places. They’ve been hunted for their meat and their pelts. And they’ve been captured for the pet trade, though, due to their painful bite and propensity for nocturnal mayhem (just think what they’d do to your home while you sleep), kinkajous, as with all wild animals, make for lousy, dangerous pets. | <urn:uuid:a8c17908-1af9-4e1b-9e7a-b4640210cf40> | {
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If you grew up in an American suburb, you’re probably familiar with the Tudor architectural style, typified by homes with a stucco exterior accented with dark brown trim and topped with a steeply pitched gabled roof. What you may not know, however, is that, charming as they are, those 20th-century homes are simply “mock” Tudors, or Tudor Revivals, inspired by timber-framed cottages built 400 to 500 years earlier, during the reign of the Tudor dynasty in England.
While the gentry of that post-medieval period built impressive brick or stone manor homes replete with hundreds of casement windows and ornate chimney stacks, the commoners developed a more modest architectural style. Back then, an ordinary village home or farmhouse was first framed entirely of timber. The builder would then insert woven sticks known as wattle between the timbers. Using daub (a mixture of clay, sand, and dung), he would infill the spaces around the wattle and seal the wall. Once the wall was dry, the daub was often painted white with limewash and the structural timbers were sealed with tar to protect them from rot. This building technique, known as half-timber, created the familiar brown-and-white exteriors we associate with Tudor-style homes today. In a variation on this construction method, the more well-to-do commoners often integrated sections of brick between timbers and added windows made up of small panes of glass held together by metal or wood.
By the 16th century, fireplaces with chimneys became commonplace in ordinary homes, and the interiors consequently became more complex. Rather than relying on one large room with a central fire pit for heat and cooking, Tudor homes could now have multiple rooms that served different purposes, each with its own fireplace as a heat source. Often, large fireplaces included inglenooks where people could sit to keep warm. And now that smoke could be channeled out through chimneys rather than up through a hole in the roof, these structures could include second stories, and with them staircases made of hand-hewn timbers. These upper-story rooms—usually bed chambers—generally had ceilings with exposed beams.
Other architectural details that were integrated into Tudor homes included depressed arches—flattened arches with a slight central point—in doorways and on mantels; elaborate masonry chimneys on rooftops; steeply pitched roofs of thatch or tile; and jetties. A jetty is formed when the second floor extends beyond the dimensions of the first, creating an overhang. This feature enjoyed particular popularity in cities where the first-floor footprint was limited by the street outside.
At the turn of the 20th century, Americans embraced the Tudor style, building new homes that blended some of the old-world design elements with modern home-building techniques. Cousins of the Stick-style house, Tudor Revivals eschewed authentic half-timber construction and often featured brick or stone walls on the first story, and upper floors that were stud-framed and covered with a veneer of stucco and decorative faux timbers. Cross gables were commonly included in the plans, as were typically Tudor features like steep rooflines and gabled windows with leaded-glass mullions. The traditional thatched roof, however, was replaced by slate. Interiors incorporated such Tudor-style elements as decorative beamed ceilings, arched doorways, plaster walls, and detailed wooden staircases.
REMODELER’S NOTES: Tudor Revivals continue to be a popular architectural choice today, especially for homeowners seeking an historic aesthetic. They can, however, be expensive to maintain due to some of their most compelling elements, namely slate roofs, plaster walls, and highly inefficient leaded-glass windows. Advances in building techniques and materials have led some homeowners to turn to synthetic wood and stucco substitutes when updating a half-timber structure, and to replace the interior plaster walls with drywall. | <urn:uuid:f049139a-29d2-4fa1-bd6f-3cb816f7a1fb> | {
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In December of last year, IEEE placed the web-of-things (WoT) as second in its top 10 tech trends for 2014. As the world reaches for greater connectivity, the Internet of Things (IoT) has become a vital instrument to interconnect devices. No doubt, the IoT will prove to be a disruptive technology.
When Bosch decided to create the IoT company, Bosch Connected Devices and Solutions, it served as a reminder of how this seemingly new concept has quickly become mainstream. However, despite countless media mentions on IoT, understanding remains limited with many of us never experiencing it firsthand.
What is the Internet of Things?
The Internet of things is often known as Machine to Machine, Man to Machine, or Machine to Mobile. Smartphones are an important connecting tool acting as a vital instrument in making this new technology a convention. These wireless devices are equipped with all the necessary sensors and network technologies to stay connected with your things. With the IoT, watches, car keys, and even buildings use embedded chips and sensors to form a ubiquitous network.
Companies like Samsung and GE are manufacturing products like smart thermostats, lighting systems and other appliances that communicate using the IoT. However, until now this smart connectivity was expensive and difficult to produce. It is only in the last year or so that companies like Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Intel have come up with economic and efficient chips that can connect to the web.
A wide adoption of the Internet of Things model will result in the generation of a large amount of data requiring storage, processing and retrieval. This challenge requires the scale of cloud computing.
Elements of IoT
The technical component of the IoT is its hardware elements like sensors, actuators, and embeddable chips. Wireless sensors
and other types of wireless network nodes will account for 60 percent of the total Internet of Things devices by 2020.
The most important role will be played by autonomous wireless sensors that can execute their intended function autonomously when deployed in a suitable environment. The current lot of sensors employ low-power consumption wireless protocols such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Zigbee or Radio-frequency identification (RFID).
RFID Sensors are being implanted in humans as well
is underway to improve the power supply of RFID devices. The more power efficient a sensor is, the more messages it can send or receive. Manufacturers are developing many autonomous sensors with natural power sources that would allow these devices to operate indefinitely. Examples of natural power sources include photovoltaic energy, thermal energy and radio frequency energy. However, using natural power can be riddled with complexities that can lead researchers to find more reliable solutions.
Wireless battery-free sensors based on RFID are being developed. They can be deployed in any environment from piping systems, concrete, walls and pillars to other enclosures. The only limitation is that they require an RFID reader in close vicinity to RF power.
Wireless sensing networks (WSN) has been used in environmental and industrial monitoring. Their usage is moving from proprietary standards to adopt IP-based sensor networks using the 6LoWPAN/IPv6 standard. This will allow native connectivity between WSN and the Internet, enabling participation of smart objects in the Internet of Things.
Large Application Scope
The IoT has a wide application range depending on the network type, scale, coverage, and user involvement. In fact, many companies have their own vision about the future of the IoT.
Cisco has been calling it the Internet of Everything, while GE CEO Jeff Immelt said that a global network connecting people, data and machines called the Industrial Internet had the potential to add $10 to $15 trillion to global GDP in the next 20 years. GE plans to invest $1 billion in the "development of industrial internet technology and applications to make customers more productive."
To ensure familiarity rather than foisting IoT on consumers, companies are considering smartening their existing appliances with cheap wireless chips and sensors. For instance, the concept of smart homes where you can control the electronic systems of your house through your smartphone is a good way of making customers familiar with the IoT without overwhelming them with connected sensors and other gadgets. Once the customers becomes a regular user of smart objects, they can come back again for other smart gear.
For example, the AllSeen Alliance, supported by Linux Foundation and a host of other manufacturers like Cisco, Qualcomm, Haier, LG Electronics, D-Link and Sharp is an open source framework that enables connection of home appliances, cars and computers. Originally developed by Qualcomm under the codename AllJoyn, this software framework would allow all kinds of systems to interact with each other regardless of their operating systems and manufacturer.
Personal and home usage
Human implanted RFID sensors can gather data about the human body and use the IoT to upload the data to servers that can be accessed by physicians or by individuals. This would serve elderly patients who can be monitored in their homes thereby reducing hospitalizations.
The control of home equipment such as air conditioners, and washing machines is already possible. However constant monitoring, can improve the way electricity is consumed, improving efficiency.
Will the IoT create jobs?
Technology advances are mostly seen as a step back for workers. However, according to the GE report, Industrial Internet
will supposedly create new job opportunities. With IoT being a product of Information and Communication Technology, there will be demand for professionals with IT skills such as data scientists, user interface experts and digital-mechanical engineers
According to the report, there will also be a marked increment in the technology awareness of workers. Thus, instead of being afraid of the IoT, future workers should prepare themselves to work alongside it.
About the author:
Saurabh Tyagi is an electronics and communication engineer with interests in emerging technologies. He is currently pursuing a career in digital media.
Images courtesy of Wikipedia1, Wikipedia2 | <urn:uuid:2b30e6f9-3023-4a48-b5f3-820c2d78bd47> | {
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A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1924.
This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.
Cilletone, Ciltone, Chiltune, Chiltuna, Cildatun, Childatun (xi cent.); Childestuna (xii cent.).
Chilton is a small parish covering an area of 1,447 acres, of which 1,089 acres are arable land, 302 acres permanent grass, and 3 acres woods and plantations. (fn. 1) The soil is chiefly chalk and light gravel with a subsoil of chalk, and the chief crops are wheat, barley and roots. The general slope of the land is from south to north, the height above the ordnance datum varying between 600 ft. and 400 ft. Grimsdyke forms one of the boundaries of the parish. The nearest railway station is Upton, which is 2 miles distant. Although here, as at East Usley, there are training stables for race-horses, the principal occupation of the inhabitants is agriculture, and much of the open down known as Chilton Plain has been brought under cultivation since the Inclosure Act. (fn. 2) A prehistoric hoard was discovered on Hagbourne Hill in 1803, and near it is a supposed Roman burial ground, while on the summit of the hill is a barrow. (fn. 3)
The village of Chilton lies in the middle of the beautiful undulating down-land on the north side of the Downs. It is well wooded and is built about some by-roads on the east side of the main road from Newbury to Abingdon. The cottages are of brick or brick and half-timber construction and are generally roofed with tiles. The church stands at the northern end of the settlement. A little distance below the church on the south side of the roadway stand the remains of the house formerly called Lattons Place, which has been completely modernized and converted into a small residence. The original portion dates from the latter part of the 15th century and consists of a small L-shaped building, (fn. 4) two stories high, built of brick and half-timber and roofed with tiles. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel at some distance from the village on the Bargeway road.
Edward II visited Chilton in 1321, (fn. 5) but the chief historical event of interest in connexion with the parish occurred in 1644, a few days after the second battle of Newbury, when Chilton narrowly escaped being the scene of a battle, a strong force of Royalists in pursuit of Cromwell's troops having arrived there the day after the enemy had withdrawn. (fn. 6)
There are two manors of CHILTON mentioned in the Domesday Survey, one of which was held by Wenric under Edward the Confessor and granted by William the Conqueror to Walter Fitz Other. (fn. 7) The descendants of Fitz Other, who assumed the name of Windsor on becoming wardens of Windsor Castle, (fn. 8) retained the overlordship for nearly five centuries as parcel of the manor of Stanwell in Middlesex, which they held of the king in chief. (fn. 9) In 1542 Henry VIII compelled them to surrender Stanwell to him in exchange for certain abbey lands, (fn. 10) and the overlordship then passed to the Crown, and is mentioned as late as 1601. (fn. 11)
The Lascelles held under the Windsors, Duncan de Lascelles married Christine daughter and heiress of Walter de Windsor, (fn. 12) At the date of the Testa de Nevill Thomas de Lascelles (fn. 13) held the fee from the Windsors, with Simon de Luncok, Robert Danvers and Henry Pesey as his under-tenants. (fn. 14) The Danvers family, the successors of the Estuns (see under advowson), held the manor for several generations. In the middle of the 13th century Robert Danvers was holding a free tenement in Chilton for the service of half a knight's fee, (fn. 15) while in 1288 Thomas, probably his son, levied a fine of a 'messuage, land and rents,' to be held of Henry Simeons for the nominal rent of one clove gillyflower. (fn. 16) Edmund the son of Thomas was returned as owning the 'vill' of Chilton in 1316, (fn. 17) and in 1329 the district was referred to as Chilton Danvers. (fn. 18) Edmund was succeeded by his son Robert Danvers, (fn. 19) who died in 1362 seised of 5 virgates of land (fn. 20) in the parish. The manor is first actually mentioned in 1381, when Sir Almeric de St. Amand died seised of a third of it, (fn. 21) possibly by right of dower. In 1399 in an inquisition taken on the death of one of the overlords the tenants are entered as 'not known,' (fn. 22) but property in Chilton was held by Almeric de St. Amand, son of the above-mentioned Almeric, at his death in 1401. (fn. 23) In 1432 seisin was delivered to William son and heir of Edmund Danvers (fn. 24) 'of the manor of Chilton which formerly belonged to Eleanor St. Amand,' (fn. 25) apparently the wife of the younger Almeric, who survived her husband and died in 1426. William Danvers was holding in 1428 (fn. 26) and in 1439, (fn. 27) but he must have died before 1446–7, as at that date his widow Joan was in possession of the manor. She had a life interest in it with reversion to Isabella the wife of Thomas Hannes who was probably the heir of William Danvers and who released her claim for a consideration of 100 marks to William Yorke, a cousin of Thomas de Windsor, and his heirs. (fn. 28) Joan was still holding in 1457. (fn. 29) The manor seems to have been inherited by John the son and heir of William Yorke, and then divided between his two children, Eleanor, who married Robert Hungerford, and Joan, who married first Thomas Bodenham and secondly Stephen Apharry, (fn. 30) as the latter was holding a moiety of it in 1543. (fn. 31) In 1569 Joan's son Roger Bodenham was defendant in a suit in which he claimed a moiety of Chilton against Walter Hungerford, who, however, alleged that his father Robert had died seised of the manor in 1557, (fn. 32) and that Roger had put the deeds relating to the estate into Chancery and refused to show them. (fn. 33)
The result of the suit is not known, but Walter died seised of the manor in 1601. (fn. 34) He was succeeded by his son John, (fn. 35) who settled the manor in 1628–9 (fn. 36) and died in 1636. (fn. 37) Edward his son was holding in 1651. (fn. 38) George, the grandson of the latter, conveyed it in 1701 to George Knapp. (fn. 39) Catherine daughter of Richard Knapp (fn. 40) married her cousin Robert Knapp. Their daughter Catherine became the wife of Charles Peeres of Chislehampton (fn. 41) and had a son Robert, who settled the manor in 1800 (fn. 42) and sold it shortly afterwards to Sir Thomas Metcalfe. The latter conveyed it in 1803 to Mr. Benjamin Morland of Abingdon, (fn. 43) who died in 1833 and was succeeded by his son the Rev. Benjamin Morland. In 1865 he and his brother, Mr. G. B. Morland, conveyed the manor and estate to Lord Overstone of Lockinge House, who during the same year conveyed it to the trustees of the settlement of his daughter Mrs. Loyd Lindsay, wife of Colonel Loyd Lindsay, V.C., K.C.B., who was created Lord Wantage. Lady Wantage now owns the manor. No courts have been held or any quit-rents received in modern times. (fn. 44)
A second manor of CHILTON was held at the time of the Domesday Survey by Wenric under the Abbot of Abingdon, and had previously been held by Blacheman under Earl Harold. (fn. 45) It is stated in the Abingdon Chronicles that Blacheman, who was a wealthy priest, was holding it from the abbey in 1050, (fn. 46) and that upon his flight from England with the mother of Harold the land was wrongfully forfeited to William the Conqueror, who, however, after much solicitation from the abbot, restored it to the abbey. The Chronicles further relate that the estate had originally belonged to one Wulfget, from whom it had been confiscated in 1015 for engaging in plots against King Ethelred, and that it had then been granted to Brihtwold Bishop of Ramsbury, who conveyed it to the abbey. Their right to it was confirmed in 1052 by a charter of Edward the Confessor, (fn. 47) and this again was re-confirmed in the reign of Henry II by a bull of Pope Eugcnius. (fn. 48) The abbey continued to hold the overlordship of the manor of the king in chief until the Dissolution. (fn. 49)
The next under-tenant of whom mention has been found was Gueres de Palences, who by an early return held a quarter of a fee from the abbey in Sandford, Chilton and Leverton (in Chilton Foliat). (fn. 50) In the Testa de Nevill Alice de Sandford is given as holding one fee in Chilton and Pibworth from the abbot which Thomas de Sandford had previously held. (fn. 51) From the Sandfords the holding passed to the Paynels and was held in the first half of the 14th century by John Paynel. (fn. 52) The manor of Bayworth, which was also held by John Paynel, was granted by him in 1324 to his uncle Hugh Paynel, parson of Chilton, who gave it to the abbey of Abingdon. (fn. 53) In 1359 Henry de la Poyle died seised of a carucate of land in Chilton held of the Abbot of Abingdon as of his manor of Bayworth. (fn. 54) Thomas de la Poyle, son and heir of Henry, held lands and tenements in Chilton, (fn. 55) and his successor John de la Poyle was holding rents of assize and a court baron there at his death in 1423. (fn. 56) John's heir was his grandson Robert, who died without issue in 1446 when the title passed to the descendants of Margery de la Poyle, daughter of John and Mabel de la Poyle and apparently sister of the first-mentioned Henry. Margery had married John Gainsford of Crowhurst (co. Surr.). In 1478–9 the Chilton property was settled on John Gainsford, jun., gentleman, son of John Gainsford, esq., late of Crowhurst, and Catherine his wife, and Elizabeth Martyn, daughter of John and Catherine Martyn. (fn. 57) Before the middle of the 16th century the estate is found under the name of the manor of GAINSFORDS in the hands of John Latton (see below under Symeons). It then followed the descent of the manor of Symeons until 1601, and was sold in that year by William Latton to James Hyde and John Stampe. (fn. 58) At this date a lease of forty-one years formerly held by John Broker had been transferred to John North, (fn. 59) but nothing further is known of its history.
The so-called manor of SYMEONS (Simeons, Symons) is first mentioned in 1468–9, when it was held by Edward Cheyne and his wife Beatrice. (fn. 60) The estate probably derived its name from the family of Simeon of Abingdon. (fn. 61) Henry Simeon and Gunnora his wife were dealing with a 'messuage, land, and rents in Chilton' in 1288–9. (fn. 62) In 1488 Edward Cheyne conveyed the manor to Thomas Latton, (fn. 63) who on his death in 1503 is described as holding the manor of Chilton, meaning this manor. (fn. 64) John Latton his son, who died in 1548, also owned a capital messuage called Sewardes and the reputed manor of Gainsfords. (fn. 65) He was succeeded by his son William, who died seised of these properties in 1551, (fn. 66) leaving a son John, who died in 1596. (fn. 67) William, the son and successor of the latter, sold the manor in 1604 to Henry Knapp and Adam Cox, (fn. 68) but his mother, who had married Sir David Williams (fn. 69) as her second husband, still retained certain lands in Chilton for which he was acting as trustee in 1623, she having lost her reason. (fn. 70) Alice daughter of Adam Cox married John son of Henry Knapp, (fn. 71) bringing him part of Symeons Manor as her share of her father's property. In 1647 a quarter of the remaining moiety of the manor was conveyed to Alice by Francis Hyde and Agnes his wife, (fn. 72) and in 1650 a quarter of the manor was conveyed by Robert Terrell and Mary his wife and Zachariah Keane and Elizabeth his wife to Nicholas Knapp. (fn. 73) Apparently the whole manor came into the hands of the Knapps. John Knapp, the son of John and Alice, alienated part of the manor to his brother (fn. 74) George, who conveyed it to Richard Knapp, (fn. 75) but apparently one quarter was retained to the use of his widow Mary and his son Jerome, who were dealing with this share in 1709. (fn. 76) Anne Chancellor held another share in 1704, (fn. 77) which was probably the quarter purchased by Nicholas Knapp in 1650. Richard Knapp had a daughter and heir Catherine, who married her cousin Robert Knapp, grandson of John and Alice Cox, and the manor seems to have devolved upon their daughter Catherine, who with her husband Charles Peeres was holding it in 1739. (fn. 78) Their son Robert settled the manor in 1800, (fn. 79) and shortly afterwards sold it to Sir Thomas Metcalfe, who in 1803 conveyed it to Benjamin Morland. (fn. 80) It descended with the main manor of Chilton held by this family, and was in 1865 conveyed to Lord Overstone, whose daughter Lady Wantage now holds it.
The church of ALL SAINTS consists of a chancel about 24 ft. 9 in. by 12 ft. 3 in., a nave 31 ft. 9 in. by 15 ft. 8 in., a south aisle 21 ft. by 11 ft. 7 in., and a modern west tower and south porch. These measurements are all internal.
The oldest part of the present building is the late 12th-century nave, originally that of a small aisleless church. Early in the 13th century the south aisle was added and in the 14th century the chancel was rebuilt. The tower was not built until 1847. In 1876 the chancel was restored under the supervision of the late G. E. Street, R.A.
The east window of the chancel, which is of 14thcentury date, is of three cinquefoiled lights with geometric tracery under a pointed head. In the north wall are two single trefoiled ogee lights with external chamfers, and splayed inner jambs carried up to the underside of the wall-plate, while in the south wall are two late 14th-century square-headed windows, each of two cinquefoiled lights with sunk spandrels. As with the window in the opposite wall the inner jambs are carried up to the underside of the wall-plate. Between them is a pointed doorway having a label with head stops and a carved head just above its apex. The chancel arch is contemporary with the nave. It is pointed and of one square order springing from moulded and chamfered abaci. The walls of the chancel are plastered inside and covered with roughcast without. At the eastern angles are diagonal buttresses, and there is also one against the north wall, all of two offsets and much restored.
In the east end of the north wall of the nave is a square-headed late 14th-century window similar in detail to those lighting the chancel, but of three cinquefoiled lights. In the east jamb immediately below the soffit is a small carved head. To the west of this is a small trefoil-headed recess, under which is a modern open grate. The arcade between the nave and the south aisle is of two bays with pointed arches of a single chamfered order, carried by a central column having a moulded capital and base. The responds are chamfered, and at the springing are moulded abaci. To the west of the arcade is a squareheaded window of two cinquefoiled lights. The south aisle is lighted from the south by a 15th-century window of two squareheaded lights, to the west of which is a modern pointed doorway, while in the west wall is a 14th-century square-headed window of two trefoiled ogee lights. The walls of both nave and aisle are plastered internally and are covered externally with rough-cast.
The tower is of stone and is undivided externally; it has an embattled parapet and diagonal buttresses at its western angles, stopping about half-way up the tower. The lower part is now used as a vestry.
A plain nine-sided font of 12th-century date is still in use. The base upon which it stands is modern.
Preserved in the tower are two carved head stops, one the head of a beast, the other a grotesque human head. They were found in the walling during a restoration and are apparently of 12th-century date.
There is a peal of six bells: the treble and second are both by Mears & Stainbank of London, 1892; the third is inscribed 'Peter Lawson and William Payne C.W. 1770'; the fourth, 'Let youar hope be in the Lord E.K. 1623'; the fifth, 'Feare God Honour the King 1665'; while the tenor was recast in 1892 by Mears & Stainbank.
The plate consists of a silver chalice with no stamps of any description, the upper part of which appears to be of late 17th-century workmanship, while the foot is of much earlier date, a late 17th-century paten, the date letter of which is quite illegible, a small silver pyx of 1898 and a pewter foot paten inscribed with the date 1720; there are also two small glass cruets with silver stoppers.
The registers previous to 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms 1584 to 1812, burials 1667 to 1812, marriages 1694 to 1753; (ii) marriages 1754 to 1812.
The advowson of Chilton Church (fn. 81) belonged to the abbey of Abingdon, and in the 14th century was attached to the abbey's manor of Bayworth. (fn. 82) The first rector of whom there is record is Philip Bassett, who was summoned in 1275 for building a wall which encroached on the king's highway. (fn. 83) The advowson remained in the gift of the abbey until 1538, when the abbot conveyed it to Henry VIII. (fn. 84) It was granted by the king to John Wrothe in 1544. (fn. 85) Before 1591 it had come into the possession of Sir William Button, who died seised of it in 1591 (fn. 86) and was succeeded by his son William, who was presenting in 1596. (fn. 87) He died in 1599, leaving it to his son William, (fn. 88) who was created a baronet by James I. (fn. 89) The grandson of the latter, Sir John Button, with whom the baronetcy became extinct, was the patron in 1692 (fn. 90) and was succeeded in 1714 by Mary Read, widow. (fn. 91) From 1736 the advowson was held by the family of Walker, John Walker presenting until 1766, followed by Arabella Walker Heneage until 1808. (fn. 92) In 1817 J. W. Heneage held the gift of the living and was succeeded by H. Heneage until 1862, (fn. 93) when it came into the possession of Mr. G. B. Morland, whose widow presented after his death until 1877. From that date until the present day it has been in the hands of his trustees.
In 1641 Chilton made the protestation ordered by the House of Commons to 'maintain and defend the Reformed Protestant religion.' (fn. 94) During the Commonwealth Thomas Lawrence was ejected from the living as non compos mentis and Holyday Barten inducted. (fn. 95) This divine had been chaplain to Charles I and Archdeacon of Oxford since 1626. He was a translator and a dramatist, and among other things wrote a play which was performed before James I, who, however, found it so dull that he was with difficulty induced to remain till the end. (fn. 96) At the Restoration Lawrence was reinstated in his living. (fn. 97)
The tithes of the Danvers manor of Chilton were confirmed to the abbey of Abingdon by papal bull in 1401. (fn. 98) These had been granted in the 12th century by members of the family of Estun (Aston Tirrold), who evidently preceded the Danvers family as tenants of the manor (cf. Aston Tirrold). Nicholas son of Tirrold de Estun granted the tithes of his demesne to the abbey in the reign of Henry II, and the payment of these by Miles son of Tirrold is noted in an abbey custumal. (fn. 99) The papal bull confirmed the ground tithes in 2 carucates recently held by Robert Danvers and from 4 half acres of his demesne.
After the Dissolution some of these tithes were held under grant from the Crown by Sir John Mason, (fn. 100) who conveyed them in 1562 to Nicholas Cox, (fn. 101) from whom they descended, like the manor of Symeons (q.v.), to the Knapps and their successors. (fn. 102) In 1771 John Walker, who was at that date patron of the living, was in receipt of all the tithes. (fn. 103) These were held by the Morland family, and the tithe rentcharge in lieu of great tithes issuing out of land in Court Tithing and other lands was conveyed to Lord Overstone and is now owned by Lady Wantage.
Adam Head, as stated on the church table, charged lands in Harwell Fields with 10s. a year for the poor in Christmas week. The payment of this annuity has been discontinued for some years.
In 1807 Lydia Thomas, as appeared from the same table, by her will bequeathed £333 6s. 8d. consols, now held by the official trustees, the annual dividends of which, amounting to £8 6s. 8d., are distributed in bread on New Year's Day.
It appears from the Parliamentary Returns of 1786 that sums amounting to £20 were given for the poor by John and George Knapp; also that a sum of £10 was left to the poor by will of Mary Allen. No interest is now received in respect of these sums, which had been advanced on loan.
By an award made under the Inclosure Act, (fn. 104) 4 a. or. 20 p. on the Hagbourne Way, an acre in Bury Croft and 3 r. 8 p., with Chilton Pond, were allotted to the surveyor of the highways. These allotments are not now productive of income. | <urn:uuid:ab9b3b41-a985-40e8-a0ae-c7f947815d77> | {
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Burn injuries are some of the most painful and complicated injuries one can face. Over 40,000 victims are treated for burn injuries every year according to the American Burn Association.
Unfortunately, they are also one of the most expensive injuries to treat. A severe burn that covers 30% of total body area can cost between $100,000 and $700,000 in hospital and doctorís fees. In general, the more severe a burn is, the longer it will take to fully recover.
There are three degrees of burn injuries: First-degree burns usually involve minor tissue damage and only involve the epidermis of the skin. These burns may be red, swollen and painful but will usually heal with minimal treatment. Second-degree burns involve both the epidermis and the underlying skin known as the dermis. These burns are usually deeper and cover a larger surface area causing blisters to form. If not properly treated, a second-degree burn can progress into a third-degree burn. Victims with second-degree burns need to seek immediate medical attention and recovery time is usually prolonged. Third-degree burns are the most severe burn injury because they affect the epidermis, dermis and the hypodermis underneath.
Many times, these burns are numb due to the extensive nerve and tissue loss. Healing is usually very slow and recovery is extensive. In general, third-degree burns will usually leave behind extensive scarring and skin grafts and surgeries may be needed.
If a burn injury is severe, fatal complications may occur including shock, infection and respiratory distress. Burns that cover large surface areas or that is unusually deep may even result in death.
In addition to the physical dangers associated with burn injuries, many burn victims also find themselves dealing with psychological and emotional trauma. In severe cases, burn injuries may not be able to heal appropriately on their own. In this situation, a plastic surgeon may need to perform a skin graft to close the wound and reconfigure the affected area.
A skin graft is a procedure that takes a piece of healthy skin from one area of the body and transplants it to the affected area. After a skin graft is performed, the victim will begin the long and arduous process of trying to heal. Recovery after a skin graft can be anywhere from 6 weeks to several months. Unfortunately, not all skin grafts are successful. Some may require additional surgeries to stimulate new blood vessel growth. Burns can occur anywhere and to anyone. They can occur on the job, or in the comfort of your own home. Burn injuries can occur from explosions, open flames, steam, hot water, electrical currents and even through radiation exposure.
If you have been involved in a serious accident or injury involving burns and/or skin grafts we would like to be a resource for you. | <urn:uuid:b0691a73-f458-455f-8fbd-dea21a6cef8a> | {
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The collection pertains to the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), its legislation, ratification process and the many other complex issues involving the pro-ERA movement, and anti-ERA groups. The collection deals, for the most part, with Alice Allred Pottmyer's, Hazel Davis Rigby's, and Maida Rust Withers's involvement in the organization Mormons for ERA, the organization itself, and the involvement of Mormons for ERA in the national debate over ERA. A substantial amount of material relates to the LDS Church and its official stand against ERA. One of the main focal points of the collection is the excommunication of Sonia Johnson from the LDS Church.
Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives Manuscript Collection
Merrill-Cazier Library Utah State University 3000 Old Main Hill Logan, UT 84322-3000 Phone: 435 797-1663 Fax: 435 797-2880 Email: [email protected]
Collection materials are in English.
Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant, 2007-2008
Mormons for ERA was officially organized during the winter of 1978. The co-founders of the organization were Hazel Davis Rigby, Maida Rust Withers, Teddie Wood, and Sonia Johnson. Mormons for ERA was a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. The organization was officially incorporated April 11, 1980.
Sonia Johnson was voted the first president and main spokesperson for the organization on May 7, 1980. On December 11, 1982 she officially resigned as president, but still remained on the Board of Directors. Alice Allred Pottmyer was a member of the organization (she prepared many of the press releases) and succeeded Sonia Johnson as president on December 11, 1982.
The original Board of Directors were as follows:
Hazel Davis Rigby-Treasurer
Ronald K. Rigby
Teddie Wood (resigned Jan. 27, 1981)
The Board of Directors as of 1985 are as follows:
Hazel Davis Rigby
Ronald K. Rigby
Function of the organization: By 1978, 35 states had ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. Three more states needed to ratify in order to make it part of the US Constitution. Mormons for ERA were a pro-ERA organization that worked, rallied, and lobbied for the ERA to be ratified in those states that had yet to do so. Their major activities included: formal and informal relations with the media, lobbing legislators, informing and educating the public on ERA issues, and debating ERA issues in public forums. One of the obstacles Mormons for ERA saw as a threat to the Equal Rights Amendment was the LDS Church's stand against the Equal Rights Amendment (they formally opposed ERA Oct. 22, 1976), and the Church's support of anti-ERA lobbing efforts.
In 1978 the time period within which ERA needed to be ratified was quickly approaching. Congresses took an unprecedented step and extended the time for ratification by three years to 1982. During the well publicized hearings on the extension, Sonia Johnson was called to testify on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment before the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights on Aug. 4, 1978. On that day, Sonia Johnson and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah (who was a member of the LDS Church and who also opposed the ERA bill) clashed on the issues of ERA and also the LDS Church's opposition to it.
After the extension was passed by congress, Mormons for ERA continued to campaign for ERA. But the significant turning point in the groups activities and media coverage came in November of 1979. The LDS Church called Sonia Johnson into an L.D.S. Bishop's court. Bishop Jeffery Willis presided over the hearing to determine whether or not Sonia should be excommunicated from the church. Despite the many testimonies on behalf of Sonia and the support vigils outside the hearing, Sonia Johnson was officially excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on December 5, 1979. This act alone propelled Sonia Johnson and Mormons for ERA into the national media spotlight and the heated national debate over ERA.
Ultimately the Equal Rights Amendment failed by three states to ratify and has never been passed by Congress again. Mormons for ERA continued to function as an organization for several years after, but by about 1987 funds and interest had began to diminish. Subsequently, the organization finally disbanded.
BIOGRAPHY--ALICE ALLRED POTTMYER
Alice Allred was born in South Dakota but spent her early years as an active Mormon youth growing up in Texas in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Her father was transferred to Washington, D.C. during the summer of 1954. Alice attended Brigham Young University and received her B.S. degree in Journalism. During her time at BYU she became friends with Maida Rust Withers and Hazel Davis Rigby (later to be founding members of Mormons for ERA).
Alice worked for 12 years in Washington D.C. as a trade and professional editor. She married James Pottmyer and in 1972 left work and had her first baby, Laura. Their next child, Stephen, was born in 1975. With her young children at home, and caring for her ailing mother-in-law, she would occasionally do part time editing jobs from her home. She wrote articles and produced Dialogue magazine for five years. She wrote numerous articles for Sunstone magazine, was twice an Arlington delegate to the Virginia Democratic Convention, volunteered for Arlingtonians for a Better County, was a member of the PTA, was a leader for the Girl Scouts, and worked for the church public communications department.
Alice had long supported the Equal Rights Amendment, and in 1975 the issues of ERA began to heat up. With the increasing anti-ERA activity from conservative groups, including the Mormon church (the church formally opposed ERA Oct. 22, 1976), Alice's friends from BYU, Maida Rust Withers and Hazel Davis Rigby, along with Teddie Wood and Soina Johnson co-founded Mormons for ERA in 1978.
Although Alice was not a founding member, she did a great deal of background work for the group. She organized and gave background information to the media about the organization and their activities, including their lobbing efforts, their views on the complexities of ERA issues, and their debates on ERA issues in public forums. She also developed the press kits that were given to the media. This proved to be an invaluable task once the media coverage exploded when the Mormon Church excommunicated Sonia Johnson on December 5, 1979.
On December 11, 1982 Alice Allred Pottmyer succeeded Sonia Johnson as president of Mormons for ERA and also took over the newsletter. She functioned as president until 1987 when the funds and interest had begun to diminish.
BIOGRAPHY--HAZEL DAVIS RIGBY
Hazel Davis grew up in Salem, UT and was an active member of the Mormon community. One of her childhood friends was Maida Rust (Withers); they both attended BYU. Hazel received her B.A. from BYU and then went on to receive her M.A. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She married Dr. Ronald K. Rigby (Department of Defense, Naval Sea Systems Command). Hazel met Sonia Johnson in 1961 while both were attending graduate school, along with their husbands, at the University of Minnesota.
Her husband began working at the Department of Defense, Naval Sea Systems Command, and she began teaching and became head of the Business Dept. at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, VA.
In 1978 she co-founded the organization Mormons for ERA along with Teddie Wood, Maida Rust Withers, and Sonia Johnson. She was treasurer. In November of 1980 Mormons for ERA were holding a demonstration in front of the Washington Temple in Washington State. A scuffle erupted between the demonstrators and anti ERA supporters. Subsequently, the police were called and Hazel was one of several demonstrators who were arrested. In the years following, Hazel played other important roles in Mormons for ERA activities and development.
BIOGRAPHY--MAIDA RUST WITHERS
Maida Rust was born October 13, 1936 in Kanab, Utah. She was the youngest of eight children born to Isabelle Martina Luke and Woodruff Rust. She was raised in Salem, Utah as a member of the Mormon Church from which she was a sixth generation pioneer descendant. She graduated from Spanish Fork High School in 1954. She then attended Brigham Young University where she received her B.S. in Music and Dance in 1958. She completed her M.A. in Dance from the University of Utah.
She began her teaching career at Purdue University. By this time, Maida had married her husband Lawrence Arlen Withers (born in Rexburg, Idaho). In 1963 Maida took a teaching position at Howard University for one year. During that time she marched with the other Faculty members (she being the only white female faculty) to the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King was giving a speech.
At the end of that year, she accepted a position in the Department of Theater and Dance as an Associate Professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. During her career at George Washington University, she has directed the M.F.A. dance program, taught advanced dance, dance and movement improvisation, choreography, and performance art theory. She also severed on the Board of Directors of Washington Projects for the Arts for eight years, and severed a three year term on the Kennedy Center Education Committee.
On September 19, 1964, Maida and her husband had their first child, Kristin Withers. Almost five years latter they had their second child, Lawrence Luke Withers, May 28, 1969. Two years later, April 15, 1971, they had twins, Eric Pratt and Marc Pratt Withers. Despite her young family at home, Maida's professional and creative career began to shine. In 1974 Maida founded the critically acclaimed dance troupe Maida Withers Dance Construction Company.
During the early seventies, she became increasingly involved in the social and political issues of the Vietnam war and the Civil Rights movement. In 1975, the issues of the Equal Rights Amendment began to heat up. It was during this year that Maida Rust Withers and one of her friends, Teddie Wood became active participants in the pro-ERA movement. But with increasing anti-ERA activity from conservative groups, including the Mormon church (the church formally opposed ERA Oct. 22, 1976), Teddie Wood, Sonia Johnson and Maida, along with one of Maida's close childhood friends, Hazel Davis Rigby, Co-founded Mormons for ERA in 1978.
During the 80's Maida's focus on social reform turned to environmental awareness. The social issues of the past and her activism in the Equal Rights movement prepared her for her passionate environmental activism. In 1992 Maida Rust Withers and her dance troupe participated with other international artists for ecology at the historic United Nation's Conference on the Environment and Development. Maida Rust Withers continues to tour nationally and internationally with her dance company and uses dance as interpretive means for environmental awareness. She has created over 35 distinctive works for the stage and video, and subsequently she has received a myriad of prestigious awards and accolades from her peers, critics, and the public.
The Mormons for ERA collection consists of the papers donated by Alice Allred Pottmyer, Hazel Davis Rigby, and Maida Rust Withers, who collaborated in the founding of "Mormons for ERA" in 1978. The collection contains 25 boxes that includes: correspondence, newsletters, pamphlets, financial records of Mormons for ERA, bulletins, minutes, testimonies, speeches, papers, congressional records, legal records, press kits, news clippings, photos, books, and memorabilia. The papers in the collection span the years 1977 to approximately 1993, with the bulk of the papers dating between 1979-1983.
The collection was treated as a whole, but each of the three women's papers were kept in their own separate collection, thus, the materials have some overlap and inter-connection between each of the individual donors' papers. The collection is divided as follows: Box 1-15 contain the collection of Alice Allred Pottmyer, boxes 16-20 contain the collection of Hazel Davis Rigby, and boxes 21-23 contain the collection of Maida Rust Withers. Within each of the three collections, the papers have been divided into five main subcategories: Personal information, Mormons for ERA, the Equal Rights Amendment, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and Sonia Johnson.
The correspondence was arranged as follows: Outgoing correspondence arranged by chronological date and incoming correspondence arranged alphabetical by last name. The correspondence is mainly divided into personal correspondence and the correspondence as it relates to the organization Mormons for ERA (example: contribution correspondence).
Items within the collection pertain to the Equal Rights Amendment, its legislation, ratification process and the many other complex issues involving the pro-ERA movement, and anti-ERA groups (including the LDS Church and members of the US Congress). The papers deal, for the most part, with the women's involvement in the organization Mormons for ERA, the organization itself, and the involvement of Mormons for ERA in the national debate over the Equal Rights Amendment. A substantial amount of material relates to the LDS Church and it's official stand against ERA. One of the main focal points of the collection is the excommunication of Sonia Johnson (first president of Mormons for ERA) from the LDS Church. This act alone propelled Sonia Johnson and the organization Mormons for ERA into the national media spotlight and the heated national debate over ERA.
Use of the Collection
Restrictions on Access : Restrictions
Open to public research.
Restrictions on Use : Copyright
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Utah State University Libraries, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright.
Mormons for ERA, 1977-1983. (COLL MSS 234). Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives Department.
Organized into subcollections for each donor: Alice Allred Pottmyer, Hazel Davis Rigby, and Maida Rust Withers. Each subcollection is divided into the following subcategories: Personal information, Mormons for ERA, the Equal Rights Amendment, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and Sonia Johnson.
Acquisition Information :
Donated by Alice Allred Pottmyer, Hazel Davis Rigby, and Maida Rust Withers. | <urn:uuid:8ff7bc41-7b47-41b7-a2e9-0a91bfc86271> | {
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Question: "What does the Bible say about satire and/or sarcasm?"
Answer: Sarcasm is the use of irony (saying one thing while meaning another) or other rhetorical devices in a biting, hurtful way. There is a difference between sarcasm and satire, although they are related. Satire is the use of irony or ridicule to expose foolishness, but without the “bite” of sarcasm. Satire is gentler; sarcasm is more derisive and sneering.
The question is, is satire or sarcasm ever appropriate? This would be easy enough to resolve if not for the fact that God uses satire in several places in Scripture. For example, Paul's words in this passage:
You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you. For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now. 1 Corinthians 4:8-13
Is Paul's language ironic here? Absolutely. Was it hurtful? Intentionally so. Yet, because his intent was to lead the stubborn Corinthians to the truth, it can still be considered loving. In fact, Paul followed this passage with, "I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children."
The Corinthians would not have considered Paul’s language intentionally cruel. Instead, they would have recognized Paul was using rhetoric to make a point. The Corinthians felt superior to Paul, casting judgment on him. So he calls them spiritual kings and says, ironically, that God considers His apostles “scum” and “dregs.”
The passage sounds sarcastic. It says one thing while meaning another in a way that makes the hearers look foolish. But Paul’s method was not meant as a personal insult. The goal was to grab the readers’ attention and correct a false way of thinking. In other words, Paul’s words are satirical, but not sarcastic. They are spoken in love to “beloved children.”
Other passages in the Bible that use satire include Isaiah’s ridicule of idol-makers (Isaiah 40:19-20), God’s taunting of Egypt (Jeremiah 46:11), and Elijah’s gibes directed at the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:27). Jesus Himself used satire in the form of hyperbole when He told His hearers to “take the plank out of your own eye” (Matthew 7:5).
Therefore, we can say that irony is fine; irony is a figure of speech that can bring attention and clarity to a situation. Sometimes, irony can be painful because the truth it reveals is convicting. Satire, which uses irony to gently deride and prompt needful change, can be appropriate on occasion; we have examples of satire in Scripture.
Sarcasm, on the other hand, is not appropriate. Sarcasm has at its core the intent to insult or to be hurtful with no corresponding love or wish for well-being. Instead, the goal of sarcasm is to belittle the victim and elevate the speaker. Jesus warned against such harsh, unloving words in Matthew 5:22. Our words should be helpful and edifying, even if they are uncomfortable to the hearer.
We should speak the truth with loving intent (Ephesians 4:15), avoiding “foolish talk or coarse joking” (Ephesians 5:4). We should speak in such a way that the hearer will understand our motivation. And we should never be malicious or cruel. Carefully worded irony may be fitting, but malicious sarcasm is not.
© Copyright 2002-2013 Got Questions Ministries. | <urn:uuid:9e3c8019-7329-4d0e-8114-b87acf4f4a73> | {
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[Epidemiological study of onchocerciasis and malaria in Bamendjin dam area (Cameroon). Malacologic fauna and risks of schistosomian introduction (author's transl)].
- Published Article
Médecine tropicale : revue du Corps de santé colonial
- Publication Date
Jan 01, 1979
Report of survey in Bamendjin dam area indicates that 25 p. 100 of the population have a blood smear positive for malaria (P. falciparum) and 80 p. 100 have a positive indirect immunofluorescent test for malaria. The vector is A. funestus. In male inhabitants 23,2 p. 100 of the snip-biopsies are positive for O. volvulus and 40 p. 100 of the indirect immunofluorescent test are positive. In female inhabitants the respective ratios are 14,4 p. 100 and 48,8 p. 100. There is no urinary or intestinal schistosomiasis in this area but specimens of potential vectors have been detected.
Report this publication
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
This record was last updated on 07/01/2016 and may not reflect the most current and accurate biomedical/scientific data available from NLM.
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It is critical for Europe to maintain a knowledge-based economy and be at the forefront of technological, innovative entrepreneurship if Europe is to maintain its competiveness. To meet these targets young people should study and seek careers in the scientific and technological fields and understand entrepreneurship. ‘Educating the Next Wave of Entrepreneurs’, a discussion at The World Economic Forum 2011 concluded that the earlier an entrepreneurial spirit is encouraged the better the results for society.This project field was chosen to directly address the motivation of entrepreneurship and innovation within European secondary school students.
Meeting the needs
StartUp_EU is designed to motivate secondary school students by replicating the excitement and creative innovation of a startup company. The project will create an educational game to develop entrepreneurial skills on a Web2.0 technology platform where secondary school students will learn about entrepreneurship through inspiring and thought-provoking videos, online workbooks covering business and marketing plans, and presentation skills. Students are then supported to develop their own business ideas collaboratively across Europe. The process will mirror the idea creation, barriers and problems in developing new technology and building a company. It will enable students to understand the problems and rewards of working in the exciting high tech area and inspire students to seek out careers in this vital European sector. Through reflection activities students will be able to understand what factors influenced their success or failure.
StartUp_EU is designed to be replicable and the resources can be used by additional European secondary schools at the end of funding.
StartUp_EU will address multiple priorities and key competencies within the LLP:
- Learning to learn
- Creativity through invention
- Raising interest in technology as a career choice
- Motivation to learn languages
- Communication in foreign languages
- Digital competence
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See what questions
a doctor would ask.
Proteus vulgaris: A species of gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacteria that occurs in soil, fecal matter, and sewage. It is an opportunistic pathogen and causes cystitis and pyelonephritis.
Source: MeSH 2007
These medical condition or symptom topics may be relevant to medical information for Proteus vulgaris:
The following list attempts to classify Proteus vulgaris into categories where each line is subset of the next.
Search to find out more about Proteus vulgaris:
Search Specialists by State and City | <urn:uuid:93215134-851b-4f2e-af17-f8c8e1899486> | {
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In this part, the goal was to use the cameras on the racecar to navigate around a bright orange cone. This entailed writing computer vision code to identify the cone, and a controller to weave around the cones smoothly.
Part 4A Autonomous Racecar Vision With Pose
Part 4A Autonomous Racecar Vision Without Pose
Part 4A Autonomous Racecar Visual Servoing
Table of Contents
The ZED camera publishes an
Image topic with images from the front of the robot like this one:
There are two different things that could be looked for when trying to locate the cone in this image – shape, and color. Our implementation chose to discard shape, and classify cones exclusively by color. In order to do this, the color of the cone must be measured.
A video of a static cone was recorded, with the lighting conditions varying. This aimed to capture all the possible colors that the cone could appear as. As the cone did not move within the frame, it was possible to hand-draw a mask over a single frame, to label where the cone is. Samples can then be taken from all the pixels under the mask, for every frame, yielding a large dataset of shades of cone-orange.
Using this data, there are a number of common options for building a classifier:
- choose upper and lower bounds for R, G, and B
- choose upper and lower bounds for H, S, and L
- find a small set of planar classifiers – a set of planes which contain the region of color-space holding orange colors. This generalizes the above two options
- Attempt to use machine learning to come up with non-linear classifiers
A little more thought revealed a much simpler option – building a lookup table from color to orangeness. The following plots show the collected color data as voxels, where a voxel is filled if at least one of the samples of the cone falls inside it.
Some thought must be put into choosing voxel sizes: too small, and the size of the lookup table might cause cache invalidation performance issues, and unless a very large amount of data is recorded, the tables will be sparse; too large, and the classifier will group non-orange colors with orange. Settling on a total of 83 voxels.
The output of the thresholder is the result of taking every pixel in the raw image, and looking up how many times that region of pixels occurred in the calibration sample. The result is returned as a grayscale image, with white representing the colors seen most in calibration, and black representing colors never seen in calibration.
Continue reading “Racecar Part 4: Computer Vision” | <urn:uuid:7cb5f4e0-0525-484d-8c5b-5472e7747519> | {
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Modern demand to building construction involves not only proofing of steel articles from fire exposure, but also their protection from corrosion. When metal facilities construction one often applies the primer GF-021 as the basic anticorrosion protection, due to it is well-known and inexpensive material. However, priming of steel articles takes place usually at a manufacturing plant, but flame-retardant coating is made directly at the object. A technological gap between priming of steel articles, their structural fabrication and their flame-retardant coating can be often up to several months, sometimes it can last several years, meanwhile operating life of the primer GF-021 in the open air is no longer than 1 year. On this occasion corrosive damages occur very often before flame-retardant coating of steel articles, which goes against the technological requirements of flame-retardant coating and impairs its effectiveness.
For effective and long-term anticorrosion and flame-retardant protection of steel articles the unique technology PLAMCOR has been developed by VMP team. The technology consists in coating metal with combination coatings, which protect construction metal structures from atmosphere corrosion, as well as from high temperature exploration in fire condition.
Protective technology PLAMCOR is based on application of VMP zinc-rich anticorrosion and flame-retardant coating materials according to the following scheme:
|zinc-rich primer ("cold" galvanizing)
||intumescent flame-retardant coating или
||anticorrosion + fire protection
Application of zinc-rich materials is one of the most important conditions for creation of high performance systems for anticorrosion protection. The basic component of these materials is fine zinc powder, owing to high content of which i.e. more than 86% by mass, the materials protect steel galvanochemically, similar to hot galvanizing, thus their application got its name from the technology of "cold" galvanizing.
Advantages of "cold" galvanizing in comparison to the primers without zinc powder are as follows:
- 2-5 times longer operating life of the coatings indoors, as well as while building construction (lowering cost while operation);
- steel cathodic protection, absence of underfilm corrosion in the points of coating failure;
- workability in any climatic zones, including workability in moderatelly-frigid and frigid climate;
- verified compatibility with flame-retardant coatings PLAMCOR-1 and PLAMCOR-2, maintenance of high adhesion while fire effect;
- fire safety (zinc-rich coatings prevent flame spreading on the surface).
Owing to application of zinc-rich primers in the protective technology PLAMCOR the operating life of steel anticorrosion protection in combination with flame-retardant protection is 15-25 years, if the coating is exploited indoors.
Typical coating schemes for the protective technology PLAMCOR
||Quantity of layers,
||Quantity of layers,
|| based on epoxy (Technical Requirement 2312-022-12288779-2000)
||1 layer, 50-60 um
|| (Technical Requirement 2216-069-12288779-2008) or (Technical Requirement 2313-074-12288779-2008)
||2 - 6 layers
1,0 - 2,5 mm
of a steel
|| №2 based on ethylsilicate (Technical Requirement 2312-004-12288779-99)
||2 layers, 60-80 um
|| based on polyurethane (Technical Requirement 2312-017-12288779-2003)
||1 layer 50-60 um
Flame-retardant materials PLAMCOR-1 and PLAMCOR-2 can be also applied in combination with the primer GF-021 and other primers as agreed with VMP representatives. If there are additional requirements to decorative sight and colour of a protective coating, it is recommended to coat additionally the enamels POLITON-UR, POLITON-UR (UV) or POLITON-AK of VMP production with thickness 50-80 um of on the flame-retardant coating.
Coating systems PLAMCOR are recommended for application indoors or in the open air but under the roof at atmosphere relative humidity up to 80 %.
- steel surface shall be conditioned before coating the zinc-rich primer: removing dust and dirt, degreasing, cleaning of oxides and coated before primers;
- application of a zinc-rich primer on a plant, manufacturing steel article or on a worksite;
- surface preparation of the primer coating before application flame-retardant coating: degreasing (if it is necessary), dehydration and dusting off; removal of coating defects – metal corrosion, flaking and crackling of the prime layer and so on;
- application of flame-retardant coating after steel erection on a worksite.
PLAMCOR-1 - at atmosphere temperature from + 5 °С up to + 40 °С and relative humidity up to 85 %. Minimum time of interlayer drying is 2 hours;
PLAMCOR-2 - at atmosphere temperature from - 15 °С up to + 40 °С and relative humidity up to 80 %. Minimum time of interlayer drying - 4 hours;
application of the decorative layer if it is necessary in accordance with the technical documents of the manufacturer. Minimum time between application of the finishing layer of flame-retardant coating and decorative enamel is 24 hours.
Certification and testing:
All the coating materials have Hygiene Certificates. Fireproof effectiveness of PLAMCOR technology is confirmed by the fire safety certificates №№ ССПБ.RU.ОП073.Н.00208, ССПБ.RU.ОП073.Н.00240, ССПБ.RU.ОП056.В.00370, ССПБ.RU.ОП073.В.00678. Material compatibility is approved by the results of complex testing. | <urn:uuid:e8d80e8b-49f7-44a8-ac4e-57f2dab6b0f5> | {
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This is a real PowerWindow Breakthrough. A new generation transparent solar energy generating windows will provide enough power to make buildings energy neutral. The founders: startup Physee settled in Delft (the Netherlands).
The powerwindows have solar cells installed in the edges at a specific angle that allows the incoming solar light to be efficiently transformed into electricity.
and its Smart:
With SmartWindow we integrate smart sensors in the window that sense the outside environment. SmartWindows control inside systems, such as Airconditioning and sun blinds, based on information about the outside conditions around the building. | <urn:uuid:c169471f-df58-414d-ad61-9fd06988e1e6> | {
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Download Full Text (938 KB)
To understand the climate variability and weather prediction in the Earth’s atmosphere, measurements of winds, temperature and wave activities are very crucial. The Earth’s atmosphere is believed to act as a source and sink for the waves of a broader spectrum with periods from few seconds to years. Generally, the Earth’s atmosphere is stably stratified except the planetary boundary layer and thus makes a reasonable assumption for the presence of atmospheric waves. A barotropic atmosphere in a resting basic state is able to support these spectra of waves. These waves move diagonally upward or downward and horizontally. The mean zonal circulation is mainly driven by these atmospheric waves, which are believed to be generated in the troposphere and propagates horizontally and vertically in to the middle and upper atmosphere. These waves transport energy and momentum from one region to another without the transport of material medium thereby impinging the signature of the source region on to the sink region. The waves propagating in Earth's atmosphere are expected to be both anisotropic and dispersive. The anisotropic characteristics of these waves mean that the properties of the waves are not uniform in all the directions. The propagating waves can be characterized by the amplitude and phase, which depends on time and space. When the wave frequency depends on the wavelength (2/K) then the wave is dispersive. For such waves the group velocity is different from the phase velocity. A better understanding of the vertical coupling by these wave activities will provide a deeper insight into the processes that control the dynamics and energetics of the whole atmosphere.
Modern Climatology, whole system, historical statistics, variability, atmosphere, prediction
Climate | Earth Sciences | <urn:uuid:18244538-150f-4cef-8e9c-2fbf3d6ef73e> | {
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The History of Google. Important events in the history of the search engine, algorithm updates and more...
Created by wayneb77 on 20/03/2012
Last updated: 21/03/12 at 22:46
Tags: google search engines internet algorithms
In what’s now to be a monthly update on search changes, a new Google “Inside Search” blog post today tells us that life is getting tougher for those with parked domains, life may get better for those plagued by scraper sites and those hoping to “push down” negative listings may have a tougher challenge.
Google announced they are rolling out a new search algorithm change that helps make the search results “fresher.” The big news here is that besides for the results being fresher, the results will change for about 35% of all searches.
On Tuesday, Google announced that signed-in users will, by default, be routed to the SSL version of Google (https://www.google.com). Before Tuesday, most users used non-SSL Google for their searches. Now, according to Google, "...a web site accessed through organic search results on http://www.google.com (non-SSL) can see both that the user came from google.com and their search query... However, for organic search results on SSL search, a web site will only know that the user came from google.com." The effects were obvious immediately. Here's a screenshot of our GA account showing the quantity of "(not provided)" keywords going up from Sunday to today:
We’ve worked hard over the past few years to increase our services’ use of an encryption protocol called SSL, as well as encouraging the industry to adopt stronger security standards. For example, we made SSL the default setting in Gmail in January 2010 and introduced an encrypted search service located at https://encrypted.google.com four months later. Other prominent web companies have also added SSL support in recent months.
Searchmetrics has a pretty good track record of figuring out who lost after one of Google’s Panda Updates. Among the latest victims of this week’s Panda Update 2.5, some unexpected surprises: popular tech blog The Next Web, blog aggregator Technorati, and NBC’s The Today Show. Winners include Google’s own YouTube, along with Fox News and several other mainstream news sites.
Google has confirmed that the latest iteration of its Panda algorithm update is live. Based on our tracking of the algorithm changes, this is Panda Update 2.5.
Google declined to share any specifics about what types of sites, pages or content this update targeted, instead only sharing the company’s default statement:
We’re continuing to iterate on our Panda algorithm as part of our commitment to returning high-quality sites to Google users. This most recent update is one of the roughly 500 changes we make to our ranking algorithms each year.
Much like rel=”canonical” acts a strong hint for duplicate content, you can now use the HTML link elements rel=”next” and rel=”prev” to indicate the relationship between component URLs in a paginated series. Throughout the web, a paginated series of content may take many shapes—it can be an article divided into several component pages, or a product category with items spread across several pages, or a forum thread divided into a sequence of URLs. Now, if you choose to include rel=”next” and rel=”prev” markup on the component pages within a series, you’re giving Google a strong hint that you’d like us to:
When you’re searching, you often have a specific task in mind, like figuring out which exhibits are showing at a nearby museum. Despite this narrow goal, people often start with a broad query, like [metropolitan museum of art], with no mention of exhibits. For these searches, the first result may include a list of links to specific sections of the site, which are called “sitelinks.” Today, we’re launching several improvements to sitelinks, including the way they look and are organized in search results.
Google CEO Larry Page headlined Google’s earnings call today and of course revealed some interesting statistics on Google’s most recent product, Google+. Page said the new management structure he implemented is “working together fabulously,” and helping complete Google’s goal of making “sharing on web like sharing in real life.”
Vanessa Fox, called a cyberspace visionary by Seattle Business Monthly, is an expert in understanding customer acquisition from organic search. She shares her perspective on how this impacts marketing and user experience and how all business silos (including developers and marketers) can work together towards greater search visibility at ninebyblue.com. She’s also an entrepreneur-in-residence with Ignition Partners, Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land, and host of the weekly podcast Office Hours.
AdWords advertisers receive free phone support.
Over a month ago we introduced an algorithmic improvement designed to help people
find more high-quality sites in search. Since then we’ve gotten a lot of positive responses about the change: searchers are finding better results, and many great publishers are getting more traffic.
Today we’ve rolled out this improvement globally to all English-language Google users, and we’ve also incorporated new user feedback signals to help people find better search results. In some high-confidence situations, we are beginning to incorporate data about the sites that users block into our algorithms. In addition, this change also goes deeper into the “long tail” of low-quality websites to return higher-quality results where the algorithm might not have been able to make an assessment before. The impact of these new signals is smaller in scope than the original change: about 2% of U.S. queries are affected by a reasonable amount, compared with almost 12% of U.S. queries for the original change.
+1 gets conversations going. Click the +1 button to give something your public stamp of approval. Then, if you want to share right away, add a comment and send it to the right circles on Google+.
The next time your friends and contacts search on Google, they could see your +1. You’ll help them find the best stuff on the web – and you might just start up another conversation!
LONG BEACH, California — Google announced a new update last week to its search engine that addressed the growing complaint that low-quality content sites (derisively referred to as content farms) were ranked higher than higher-quality sites that seemed to be more important to users. This major change affects almost 12 percent of all search results, and the web is still buzzing about its implications, which include dramatic losses for some companies (Mahalo, Suite 101), and gains by some established sites known for high-quality information.
By now, everyone in the SEO world is aware of the algorithmic update Google launched last Wednesday, February 23rd. Several posts on the topic are worth reading, including Danny Sullivan's take, Aaron Wall's assesment, SearchMetrics' analysis and Sistrix's data-driven post.
Here at SEOmoz, we've been analyzing the shift with help from our friends at Distilled, staff research scientist Dr. Matt Peters (whom you may remember from our Google Places analysis and who's now joined our staff full time - welcome!), and several other contributors. While there's no way to be precisely sure what Google changed to impact "11.8%" of queries, we've got some ideas that fit a number of the data points and we hope to contribute to the discussion on the topic and help search marketers gauge the update's impact on their own sites.
On Friday it seems (Google's) Matt Cutt's was talking about one of the more prominent algorithm changes (remember, there's hundreds per year) that we've seen over the last while. For those that missed it see; Algorithm change launched
Now, at first blush I didn't really pay much attention to it. But then I read it a few times and also one of the posts it referenced. The blogosphere and social channels were buzzing about 'content farms' and 'thin content' sites being the focus. But that's not really geeky enough now is it? Of course not.
I just wanted to give a quick update on one thing I mentioned in my search engine spam post.
My post mentioned that “we’re evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content.” That change was approved at our weekly quality launch meeting last Thursday and launched earlier this week.
This was a pretty targeted launch: slightly over 2% of queries change in some way, but less than half a percent of search results change enough that someone might really notice. The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content.
A recent article by the New York Times related a disturbing story. By treating your customers badly, one merchant told the paper, you can generate complaints and negative reviews that translate to more links to your site; which, in turn, make it more prominent in search engines. The main premise of the article was that being bad on the web can be good for business.
With Google Instant you get results as fast as you type, but your search doesn’t stop there. Once you get results back, you choose a site to visit based on the information in each result—like the title, a snippet of text and the URL. Over time we’ve made steady improvements to our search results and snippets to help you pick a great page. Now we’re making a leap to image-based snapshots—a new kind of visual search result we call “Instant Previews” which makes it even faster to choose the right result.
Ugh... Part of me just wants to link to this old blog post and leave it at that.
But, since there's actually a bit of data to share helping to show that (at least so far) Google Instant changes less than your average algorithmic rankings update, let's share.
880,000 Search Visits Analyzed
Conductor released some nice research from anonymized data of sites on their software platform making a compelling case:
Google Instant is a search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.
The most obvious change is that you get to the right content much faster than before because you don’t have to finish typing your full search term, or even press “search.” Another shift is that seeing results as you type helps you formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. You can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. In time, we may wonder how search ever worked in any other way.
Update: Google has confirmed that this is a ranking/UI change. See statement below.
Is it a test? Is it a bug? Is it a permanent change to Google’s search results? No one knows, and Google hasn’t answered our questions about it yet. What’s “it”? As Malcolm Coles describes in a blog post today, Google is allowing a single domain — from a well-known brand — to dominate the first page of search results on some brand-related searches.
Caffeine - 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and is the largest collection of web content offered.
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I thought my fourth post on the Google May Day update would be it for the month of May, but I was wrong. In my fifth post on May Day in May 2010, Matt Cutts has released a video on what is going on in this "May Day update."
announce Google TV, which is built on Android and Chrome and gives you an easy and fast way to navigate to television channels, websites, apps, shows and movies.
Today the Local Business Center is becoming Google Places. Why? Millions of people use Google every day to find places in the real world, and we want to better connect Place Pages — the way that businesses are being found today — with the tool that enables business owners to manage their presence on Google.
Google Places (formerly the Local Business Center) gets a new name along with some new features
Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about things you find interesting—like photos, videos, webpages or whatever might be on your mind—built into Gmail and for mobile. | <urn:uuid:e3dd26bc-1d6e-4ee8-a355-e9e6e7f2184c> | {
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