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Antarctica is shrinking because the sea floor is being eroded – by warm water.
Global warming is causing vast swathes of the land underneath the frozen continent to be carried away – leading to structural instability in the great ice sheet.
Now entire cliffs of ice that have stood for millions of years are breaking off and falling into the ocean, because the land they were built on has been subject to rapid erosion.
Research by the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) at the University of Leeds has produced the first complete map of how the ice sheet’s underwater edge, or “grounding line”, is shifting.
Most Antarctic glaciers flow straight into the ocean in deep troughs, the grounding line is the place where their base leaves the sea floor and begins to float.
Their study, published today in Nature Geoscience, shows that the Southern Ocean melted 1,463 km2 of Antarctica’s underwater ice between 2010 and 2016 – an area the size of Greater London.
The team, led by Dr Hannes Konrad from the University of Leeds, found that the ground level has retreated at an extreme rate at eight of the 65 biggest glaciers – leading to around 125m of glacier length lost annually.
The pace of deglaciation since the last ice age is roughly 25 metres per year.
The retreat of the ground level at the eroded glaciers is more than five times that rate.
Biggest changes were seen in West Antarctica, where more than a fifth of the ice sheet has retreated across the sea floor.
Dr Konrad said: “Our study provides clear evidence that retreat is happening across the ice sheet due to ocean melting at its base, and not just at the few spots that have been mapped before now.
“This retreat has had a huge impact on inland glaciers, because releasing them from the sea bed removes friction, causing them to speed up and contribute to global sea level rise.”
Grounding lines typically lie a kilometre or more below sea level and are inaccessible even to submarines, so remote sensing methods for detecting them are extremely valuable.
The team were able to track the movement of Antarctica’s grounding line using European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 across 16,000 km of the coastline.
Although CryoSat-2 is designed to measure changes in the ice sheet elevation, these can be translated into horizontal motion at the grounding line using knowledge of the glacier – which relates the thickness of floating ice to the height of its surface.
Study co-author Professor Andy Shepherd, from the School of Earth and Environment at Leeds, said: “We were delighted at how well CryoSat-2 is able to detect the motion of Antarctica’s grounding lines.
“They are impossible places to access from below, and usually invisible on the ground, so it’s a fantastic illustration of the value of satellite measurements for identifying and understanding environmental change.”
The paper was published 2 April in Nature Geoscience. | <urn:uuid:6e6e063b-5707-4464-8655-668e1611fd2a> | {
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- Satisfaction with race relations and position of minorities both down since 2016
- Race relations satisfaction dropped sharply in 2015 and is down further since
- Whites' and Republicans' satisfaction with race relations down most
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' satisfaction with both race relations and the situation for blacks and other racial minorities in the U.S. edged down from last year, the only two areas of the 28 Gallup measured to decline significantly over this period.
|The state of the nation's economy||34||46||+12|
|The level of immigration into the country today||30||41||+11|
|The nation's laws or policies on guns||34||42||+8|
|The nation's military strength and preparedness||59||66||+7|
|The nation's security from terrorism||43||50||+7|
|The Social Security and Medicare systems||40||47||+7|
|The role the U.S. plays in world affairs||38||45||+7|
|Our system of government and how well it works||34||40||+6|
|The nation's policies regarding the abortion issue||33||39||+6|
|The way income and wealth are distributed in the U.S.||29||35||+6|
|Government regulation of businesses and industries||33||38||+5|
|The overall quality of life||76||80||+4|
|The opportunity for a person to get ahead by working hard||62||66||+4|
|The size and influence of major corporations||35||39||+4|
|The influence of organized religion||53||56||+3|
|The size and power of the federal government||37||40||+3|
|The amount Americans pay in federal taxes||36||39||+3|
|The nation's energy policies||39||41||+2|
|The availability of affordable healthcare||37||39||+2|
|Efforts to deal with poverty and homelessness||22||23||+1|
|The nation's policies to reduce or control crime||38||38||0|
|The moral and ethical climate||31||31||0|
|The acceptance of gays and lesbians in the nation||60||59||-1|
|The quality of medical care in the nation||53||52||-1|
|The quality of the environment in the nation||53||52||-1|
|The quality of public education in the nation||38||37||-1|
|The state of race relations||27||22||-5|
|The position of blacks and other racial minorities||43||37||-6|
Americans' current satisfaction with aspects of life and national policies varies significantly, ranging from 22% who are satisfied with the state of race relations to 80% who are satisfied with their overall quality of life. Satisfaction with the position of blacks and other racial minorities is also among the lowest of the 28 areas measured.
The biggest positive changes over the past year were increases in Americans' satisfaction with the state of the nation's economy, up 12 percentage points, and the level of immigration into this country, up 11 points. By contrast, satisfaction with the position of blacks and other minorities fell six points, from 43% to 37%, and satisfaction with race relations edged down five points, from 27% to 22%.
These data are from Gallup's annual Mood of the Nation poll, conducted each January since 2001, except for 2009-2011. The most recent poll was conducted Jan. 4-8.
2015 Marked Significant Dividing Line in Race Relations Satisfaction
At least half of Americans were satisfied with the state of race relations in most years since Gallup first asked the question in 2001, including 55% in 2014 when race relations was among the higher areas of satisfaction. In the past few years, however, satisfaction with race relations has dropped precipitously, falling to 30% in 2015, 27% in 2016 and now 22%, the lowest to date.
The most likely explanation for this substantial shift in attitudes about race in the U.S. is a series of deadly incidents that have occurred in recent years involving black men and white police officers. These included the deaths of unarmed black men in Staten Island, New York, and Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. In both instances, grand juries subsequently decided not to indict the police officers involved. In the years since, deaths of black men and women at the hands of white police officers in Maryland, South Carolina, Minnesota and elsewhere continued to fuel the fires of controversy over the treatment of blacks by police -- a situation further exacerbated in 2016 by the targeted killing of white police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Americans' satisfaction with the position of blacks in the U.S. has shown a similar trend.
Other Gallup measures have shown that public worry about race relations jumped in 2015 and 2016, that race relations has risen on Americans' list of most important problems, and that twice as many Americans say that the nation lost ground as gained ground on race relations since Barack Obama became president.
Whites, Republicans See Biggest Declines in Satisfaction With Race Relations
The drop in satisfaction with race relations is evident across all major demographic groups, including gender, education, income, age and region.
Comparing satisfaction from 2002-2014 to 2015-2017, the downturn is much larger among whites than among blacks. Across the earlier time period, whites, on average, were significantly more positive than blacks about the nation's race relations, at 54% and 38%, respectively. Whites' satisfaction has fallen over the last three years by 29 points, while blacks' satisfaction has decreased by only 10 points. As a result, whites are now less satisfied than blacks with race relations, a flip from previous years.
The same pattern is evident in the trend among Democrats and Republicans. Republicans were significantly more satisfied than Democrats with race relations from 2002 to 2014. GOP satisfaction has fallen dramatically over the past three years, putting Republicans in a position where they are tied with Democrats on this measure.
More than seven in 10 Americans in late 2008 said that the election of Barack Obama as the first black president in U.S. history constituted one of the most important advances for blacks in the past 100 years. These views faded as his presidency continued, however. Over the final three years of Obama's presidency, Americans also have become much less satisfied with race relations than they were during his first years in office and during most of the George W. Bush administration.
Clearly, despite the historic nature of his election, Obama's legacy is not going to be focused on achieving racial harmony or erasing the race relations problems that have been a part of American culture in one way or another since the nation's inception.
President-elect Donald Trump's rhetoric surrounding race and ethnic and religious minorities since the beginning of his presidential campaign has been controversial. Trump has promised that black Americans will, within four years, be thankful for his presidency and vote for him in large numbers if he runs for re-election in 2020. How Trump's actions and policies will affect either the reality or the perception of race problems in the years ahead remains to be seen. Gallup's last two measures of Trump's image show that blacks are three times less likely than whites to view Trump favorably (16% vs. 51%, respectively).
Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics.
Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Jan. 4-8, 2017, with a random sample of 1,032 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.
Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 70% cellphone respondents and 30% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.
Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. | <urn:uuid:bdab141d-0be8-4572-8316-d40f32d653c2> | {
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Definition of corrosion
n. - The action or effect of corrosive agents, or the process of corrosive change; as, the rusting of iron is a variety of corrosion. 2
The word "corrosion" uses 9 letters: C I N O O O R R S.
No direct anagrams for corrosion found in this word list.
Words formed by adding one letter before or after corrosion (in bold), or to cinooorrs in any order:
s - corrosions
All words formed from corrosion by changing one letter
Browse words starting with corrosion by next letter | <urn:uuid:b6516ae3-0647-4b94-b07e-7758146350e7> | {
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Cockatiels receiving proper nutrition sparkle with life. They are
healthy, alert, active, have thick glossy feathers and generally have a long
lifespan. Cockatiels require protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and
water just like humans do. In the past, cockatiels were fed a
seed based diet because seeds are inexpensive, readily available and they are eaten by birds in the wild.
has shown that an all seed diet is inadequate and leads to nutritional deficiencies and health problems
in pet birds. Diet related problems include
malnutrition lack of energy, a weak immune system, sinusitis, muscle weakness, nerve
damage, seizures, delayed blood clotting, liver and kidney disease, rickets, goiter,
anemia, poor skin/feather conditions, rough dry skin, dry eyes, thickened eyelids,
overgrown beaks and egg-binding and sudden death. According to Dr. Bruce Henderson DVM, 80% of all avian illness that he encounters have a nutritional basis. According
to the American Cockatiel Society, a cockatiel's life span can be as short as 5 years with
Vitamin enriched seeds, which were recommended in the past, have a coating of vitamins
on the hulls and birds discard hulls. According to avian veterinarian
Gary Gallerstein, birds require about a dozen vitamins to stay healthy-A, D, E,
F, K, B1, B2, niacin,B12, pantothenic acid, biotin, folic acid and choline.
Seeds lack vitamin A & D which cockatiels need to fight off
infections and to prevent kidney and eye problems and vitamins C, K and B12.
They also lack necessary minerals and several essential amino acids. Cockatiels on an
all seed diet are receiving inadequate nutrition.
A poor diet is one of the main
reasons why too many cockatiels live short lives and die suddenly.
Fat Content of Seeds and Other Fatty Foods
Most seeds contain a very
high fat content and when given a choice, birds will select
the seeds with the highest fat content over the ones with a lower fat content. Simply put, they just taste better.
Sunflower seeds contain a whopping 47%-49% fat and safflower 24.6% fat.
Cockatiels love sunflower seeds. According to Dr. Bruce Henderson,
DVM, sunflower seeds are the "Cupcakes and Twinkies"
of the avian world. High fat diets contribute to the same health problems in birds as do in humans.
Birds can have high cholesterol levels, become obese, get strokes,
heart attacks and other heart problems or develop serious illnesses such as Fatty Liver Syndrome which is fatal.
High fat diets also cause birds to have a
short life span. Since cockatiels can live 15- 20 years of age, it is
important that they receive adequate nutrition to ensure that they live within
range of their full life expectancy.
Based on Chickens
Prior to 1985, the nutritional needs of cockatiels were based on the nutritional
needs of chickens. In 1979, the
University of California-Davis began a research program on a colony of
cockatiels. The Psittacine Research Project was the first
research ever conducted on the dietary needs of pet birds and cockatiels specifically.
The results of this ongoing
project have created new standards in avian nutrition and diet. The avian research from the University of
California is further
supported by additional research conducted at the Hagen
Avicultural Research Institute, Rigaud, Quebec and by other research sites. A
diet based on pellets, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, other natural supplemental foods
as well as seeds is now being recommended as the best approach to
meeting all of a cockatiel's nutritional needs. An all seed diet
provides inadequate nutrition, causes health problems and is now a thing of the past.
Birds only eat food to meet their energy requirements. The July 2000 Exotic Bird Report,
(Published by the
Psittacine Research Project) reports that the amount of food a bird eats depends
on the amount of energy it requires for any given day. Cockatiels in the wild do
eat large quantities of seeds but they also eat insects, crops, plants and other
foods. Seeds are consumed primarily during the Winter months when other food
sources are unavailable. Wild birds that eat seeds based diets are much more
active than our pet birds. Wild birds need much more energy for flying, foraging
for food, building nests, raising chicks and maintaining body warmth during
Winter. Since wild birds must consume a greater quantity of food to meet their
energy needs, they are able to derive all of their nutritional needs from a
primarily seed based diet. Wild cockatiels consume "3 times more food" in a day
then our pet birds. Because of this, they can select foods with less nutritional
values. Their nutritional needs are being met by the larger quantity of food
that they eat.
clearly explains to us why cockatiels in the wild
can receive adequate nutrition from an all
seed diet and why our pet birds can not. Pet cockatiels
consume much less food in a day so the foods that they do eat need to contain a
higher concentration of
nutrients. According to UC Davis, factors such as growth, reproduction and molting, will increase our
pet birds need for energy. In all other stages of their life, they
are in a state of maintenance. Most avian veterinarians in the USA will strongly advise pet bird
owners to convert their birds from an all seed diet to a pellet based diet,
supplemented with fresh vegetables, fruits, other healthy table foods and seeds each day. The health problems associated with the high fat
content and lack of nutrients in an all seed diet has been well documented. | <urn:uuid:a04c8869-6dbd-4299-a61d-5bab29c8ce0b> | {
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has filed a suit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to the Dairy Reporter
. The suit is designed to force a change in the current law, which bans sales of raw milk across state lines (the U.S. law reference is CFR 1240.61).
Organic Pastures says that the reason for its action is because demand is growing for raw milk and they want to meet that demand. Proponents of unpasteurized milk make the argument
that if milk is obtained from humanely raised cows that are grass fed and handled hygienically, then there is little problem with disease.
Organic Pastures’ owner Mark McAfee is quoted as saying, by Food Safety News
, that: "The entire thing (producing raw milk) is a learning process. “No one completely understands bacteria and how they interplay with humans."
The argument of the FDA is that raw milk presents a health risk to consumers due to the risk of bacterial infection. The argument
is that raw milk can become contaminated in a number of ways: by coming into contact with cow feces or bacteria living on the skin of cows, from an infection of the cow's udder, or from dirty equipment, among others. Improperly handled raw milk is responsible for nearly three times more hospitalizations than any other food-borne disease outbreak.
The Marler blog
notes that several recalls have been associated with unpasteurized milk supplied by Organic Pastures.
The process of pasteurization
is applied to most milk today. Pasteurization is a process of heating a food, which is usually a liquid, to a specific temperature for a predefined length of time and then immediately cooling it after it is removed from the heat. This process slows spoilage due to microbial growth in the food.
The outcome of the latest law suit will have a bearing upon the take up, or otherwise, of unpasteurized milk. | <urn:uuid:4bff0d88-b885-4a3c-80d5-c4f38b5e4b83> | {
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The ability of tumors to evade being recognized by the immune system plays a critical role in cancer progression. Now, as discussed in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Gerard Blobe, M.D., Ph.D., and a team at Duke University have explored the tumor microenvironment and identified a mechanism by which tumors evade detection.
Using mouse models of breast cancer and melanoma, they show that loss of the Type III TGF-β receptor (TGFBR3) in tumors promotes cancer progression by altering signaling in tumor-associated immune cells. The scientists say their study also supports the use of TGF-β inhibitors to enhance the efficacy of therapies that promote immune-mediated elimination of tumor cells.
According to the researchers, TGFBR3 and its shed extracellular domain (sTGFBR3) regulate signaling pathways involving TGF-β. Epithelial homeostasis is thus maintained. As previously noted, they cite the loss of TGFBR3 expression as a key factor in the progression of breast cancer in its early stages.
Work with the murine models demonstrated that the loss of tumor-expressed TGFBR3/sTGFBR3 enhanced TGF-β signaling within locoregional dendritic cells (DC). “Alterations in these DC populations mediated Treg [regulatory T cell] infiltration and the suppression of antitumor immunity,” wrote the scientists.
The researchers concluded that if TGF-β expression is inhibited, this would provide a novel method of tumor immunotherapy and that “sTGFBR3 levels could serve as a predictive immunotherapy biomarker.” | <urn:uuid:835bae7f-9f26-43d9-8af2-33a73c8779af> | {
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} |
A big part of growing up and becoming an adult is learning how to manage money. Of course, that doesn't mean that teens can't start learning about money management. Money plays a significant role in everyone's life, whether you like it or not. Those who don't know how to budget or spend wisely may face financial troubles that can be hard to fix. Unfortunately, too many teens are thrown into the real world without having any real money management tips at their disposal. Whether you're entering the workforce right after high school, or you have decided to go to college, it's extremely important to practice money management tips whenever you can.
Why Is Money Management Important?
As much as a person might try to avoid having to deal with money, it's hard to ignore. People use money every single day to buy food, pay bills and even to have a good time. But if your money is going toward one thing more than another, you can have some serious problems. After all, money is one of the biggest causes of stress in a person's life, and it's one of the biggest reasons that couples argue.
It doesn't matter how much money you have. Some people who make less can save more because they have better money management skills, while those who make more may save less because they never had to learn healthy money management skills.
A person who goes to college to earn a degree may earn more than a person who enters the workforce right after graduating from high school. Depending on how much money you earn, you will have to plan a budget in order to make sure all the necessities are paid for. This could be your rent, your car, your food budget, your cable and internet and care for your pet. If you have children, student loans to pay and a mortgage on top of other bills, then you'll have to manage your money for those things as well. Imagine if you spent all your money on entertainment, food and clothes that you didn't need, and nothing was left over to pay for your rent?
Money management skills are important for a variety of different reasons. For one thing, if you don't pay your bills on time or keep track of your spending, you could lose your house, your car or other investments. If you don't pay your credit cards, you can get in trouble. If you neglect to pay your student loans, they could go into default, which could seriously harm your credit score. These skills are important when it comes to keeping a roof over your head and making sure you have clothes to wear and food to eat. If you ever want to buy a house, raise children or even take a nice vacation, then you will need to manage your money, so you will be able to afford those things without going into debt.
What Are Money Management Skills?
Money management skills may be different for each person as no two people will necessarily have the same techniques when it comes to handling money. Additionally, those who are in different stages of their lives will have different rules. For instance, a college student's money management skills may be very different from that of a retiree. However, any person who has decent money management skills shares similarities with others who have a common mindset about money:
- They keep their bank accounts organized
- They limit spending to what's absolutely necessary at first. Then, they can use what's left over for entertainment.
- They pay their bills on time.
- They see where their money goes by monitoring their spending.
- They always have a "cushion" in case an emergency arises.
- They balance their checkbooks and/or check their online banking.
- They sit down once a month to go over accounts and spending.
- They have investment accounts, properties, stocks and/or a retirement plan.
Money Management Tips and Tricks
There are many money management tips and tricks that can help people of all ages and at all stages of life with any amount of income. There's no question that those who earn less than most people will have to work harder to manage their money. That being said, there are many rich people out there who maximize their style of living and have to continue to stay on top of their spending as well. If you're new to the workforce or you'd like to try your hand at having better money management skills, there are many tips and tricks you can try:
- Always have some extra money for little everyday expenses.
- Write down what you spend. This can help you see if too much of your money is going to one place, and you can try to limit that spending.
- Don't live outside of your means. This may be difficult, but an example is that you should make sure your rent isn't something like 75 percent of your monthly income.
- Try not to be impulsive when buying something. Ask yourself, "Do I really need this?"
- Have a checking account and a savings account, and put money in your savings account whenever you have the chance.
- Use cash instead of using a debit card. This will help you be more aware of your spending.
- Set up automatic payments for your bills, so that you never forget to pay them.
- Set money aside in envelopes for different things. Keep an envelope for general savings and an envelope for emergencies.
- If you work on a commission, plan your budget around your guaranteed salary, and anything else you take home will just be extra.
- Be prepared if an emergency comes up, something breaks in your house, or you need to buy a gift for a wedding by setting aside a little fund for that.
- Meet with a financial advisor at a bank if you have questions about investing money.
- Try to minimize your debts.
Money Management Tips for Students
Are you a student that's about to start college, or are you in school already? Then money management tips will have a whole different meaning for you. First and foremost, it's important to understand that many students who go away to a four-year school may find it hard to have a job while attending classes full-time. However, if it's a possibility for you, then it's worth doing. This way, you can live independently, start making payments toward your loans or tuition and save for when you graduate. In addition to this, there are many other money management tips for students:
- Try to keep college costs down by going to a less expensive school or starting out at a community college.
- Try to get grants and scholarships for school before taking out federal or private loans. If you do take out loans, make sure you know exactly how much you'll be responsible for when you graduate.
- Take advantage of opportunities, amenities and events on campus instead of paying to go out. For instance, if your school has a free shuttle, then that might make more sense than buying a car and paying for parking.
- Get a roommate or move off-campus. Living expenses will likely be higher if you choose the most expensive single room on campus or you live off-campus by yourself.
- See if you can opt out of your meal plan and use that money to cook for yourself instead.
- Rent your textbooks instead of buying them new.
- Use your student ID to get discounts whenever you can.
- Avoid overdraft fees at your bank by maintaining the necessary balance.
- Share and borrow materials from your classmates when you can.
- If you do have an income, try to save as much of it as possible. In college, it's easy to spend money, so learn to say "no" once in a while if you're unable to go out with your friends.
- Talk to your parents about finances. They may have more experience and can share some meaningful advice.
Money Management Tips for Beginners
It's never too early or too late to start managing your money and making better financial decisions for yourself now and in the future. But it's helpful to have some good money management tips for beginners in order to get started:
- Write down what you need to buy, and purchase only what is necessary. For instance, it's tempting to buy more things at the grocery store, such as a bag of chips or that soap you like. But if you write down just what you need and make sure you only buy those things, then you'll reduce unnecessary spending.
- Re-use and recycle things as much as possible. Just because Ziploc bags are technically for one-time use doesn't mean you can't use them again.
- Give yourself an incentive. If you manage to save some money every month by being mindful of your spending, allow yourself to have a treat every so often, like a trip to the movies or a nice meal.
- Cook instead of going out to eat.
- Buy a coffee machine instead of buying coffee outside of the house.
- Kick any habits that are making you spend money. Can you do your nails yourself a little more often? Can you walk instead of driving? Can you stop drinking soda or at least not as much?
- Take advantage of circulars, coupons and discounts. Sometimes, it's worth it to go to the other store in town if it has things for half the price.
- Design a weekly or monthly budget and stick to it.
What Is the Main Purpose of a Budget?
Many of the tips for college students, beginners and those who have been managing money for a while suggest making a budget. But what does that really mean? Budgets are important for individuals, families and businesses because all of thesm have the same things in common, according to Investopedia:
- A budget helps you stay focused on what matters.
- A budget helps you make sure you don't spend money that you don't have.
- A budget helps you save for retirement.
- A budget helps you prepare for emergencies.
- A budget helps you realize if you have bad spending habits and fix them.
Tools to Help Manage Money
If you know what you must do in order to manage your money, but you need some help staying on track, there are quite a number of tools to assist you. If you have a phone, you can download one of the many money-management apps, such as Mint. If you want to practice saving more money, then you can download Acorns. Or you can just download the app that's from your bank. This will help you keep track of your money in real-time. If you don't like apps, then you can buy a bank book from a school supplies store and record your spending there. | <urn:uuid:50615bf7-e26d-4a70-a576-fc0ae1fe23a5> | {
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NECAP Reading & Writing
The Rhode Island Grade Level Expectations (GLEs) and Grade Span Expectations (GSEs) for Reading and Written and Oral Communication were developed as a means to identify the content knowledge and skills expected of all students (grades K-high school).
Please note that Rhode Island has adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects ("Literacy in the Content Areas"), and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in Mathematics. In the 2013-14 school year, the CCSS for ELA and Literacy in the Content Areas will replace the RI Reading and Written and Oral Communication GLEs/GSEs in preparation for the change from NECAP (reading, writing, mathematics) to the new statewide assessment (PARCC) (ELA/literacy, mathematics) in 2014-15.
For more information on the transition to the CCSS for ELA/literacy and mathematics. | <urn:uuid:e4751490-1528-46c7-ba1f-7f8810cb6c2c> | {
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Ferdinand Magellan's expedition was heavily influenced by a desire to find another route to the Spice Routes of the Orient. The New World had already been discovered by Christopher Columbus, but the actual size of the Pacific Ocean was not realised. He possibly would not have undertaken such a venture if he had realised it was so large! Anyway, I digress.
Magellan got funding from King Charles of Spain on the 22nd March 1518 and acquired five ships* for his expedition. The diary of Antonio Pigafetta a loyal crew member, is one of the main sources of information for the voyage. It tells of the Spanish captains being envious of their Portuguese commodore and several attempts at mutiny and murder of Magellan. These scurvy rogues were either executed or marooned in isolated and barren lands in 1520.
The expedition left Europe in the September of 1519. Magellan chose to not tell the crewmen the real purpose of the voyage at first, fearing they would abandon ship and mutiny due to the exploratory nature of their expedition. By December 6 Brazil was sighted, but Magellan chose to sail on to a port (now Rio de Janeiro) further down the coast to take on supplies and water in order to avoid Portuguese settlers of Northern Brazil who may have raised unpleasant questions due to him sailing with the Spanish! They then continued south down the South American seaboard into the Southern Ocean, but weather conditions became so cold and stormy they decided to winter in Patagonia. They settled at San Julian in March 1520.
Magellan sent one of his ships on a reconnaissance voyage down the coast, but it was wrecked due to rough seas in May. The remaining ships continued and in October, during a wild storm, two ships were nearly lost as they were driven towards the land by strong tides and currents. Luckily there was a break in the coastline that they managed to steer to, and the Strait of Magellan was found. The strait is made up of hundreds of islands, closely packed together, and is subject to uncertain winds named williwaws that can blow from any direction and scupper ships on lea shores if the steersman is not paying attention. It was so hard that one of the ships abandoned the fleet and sailed back to Spain taking with it many of the expedition's provisions. This was to prove disastrous once the remaining ships reached the Pacific Ocean.
After traversing the strait, a voyage of some 38 days, and scavenging for food and game from the surrounding lands, the three remaining ships reached the Pacific Ocean. In November, the ocean was relatively calm and placid which inspired Magellan to name it 'Pacific'. Unfortunately Magellan suspected that they were much closer to the Spice Islands than they actually were and set off on a journey that would take nearly four months, without adequate supplies.
Conditions soon deteriorated on board the remaining ships. There was very little food, the men resorting to living on leather, rats and putrid biscuits. The freshwater soon turned bad and scurvy took hold due to the lack of Vitamin C. In January they restocked their supplies at an unknown Pacific island, but did not take on any fresh fruit or vegetables so were continually beset by scurvy. After making landfall at Guam in March 1521, they finally arrived in the Philippines on the 28th of that month.
From here the tale of Magellan ends as he got involved in island politics and was killed in battle on April 27th, 1521. His remaining crewmen continued on in just two ships, their numbers being so depleted. By November 1521 they had reached the Spice Islands, loaded up with spice and continued on to Spain with their valuable cargo. In order to be sure of actually getting back to Spain with news of the voyage it was agreed that one ship should sail East, back across the Pacific, and the other West around the Cape of Good Hope. The Pacific bound ship was seized by the Portuguese, most of her crew being killed, but the other finally arrived back in Spain on the 6th September 1522, having dodged enemy ships in the Indian Ocean.
Magellan's Route was not really used until the late 16th Century, but is the only real alternative to the perilous seas of Cape Horn**. A great account of a voyage through the straits can be read in Joshua Slocum's book 'Sailing Alone Around the World'.
* These were the Trinidad, the Victoria, the Santiago, the San Antonio and the Concepcion.
**Unless you want to go by the far more Northerly route of the Panama Canal! | <urn:uuid:bc77e561-3038-42ca-86ed-0c25d5507dcf> | {
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HIV Rates Rise in Youth
The number of new HIV infections in the United States remains relatively stable, standing at about 50,000 people annually.
But HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is on the rise among younger Americans under the age of 25.
In fact, too many youth in the United States continue to become infected with HIV, federal officials said. And few are tested.
Those are two key take away points from a new report out by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was released to coincide with World AIDS Day.
Specifically, young people between the ages of 13 and 24 in the U.S. account for more than a quarter of new HIV infections each year (26 percent) while 60 percent of these youth living with HIV are unaware they are infected, according to the CDC’s Vital Signs report, released November 27.
The most-affected youth are gay and bisexual men and African Americans.
The analysis looked at the latest data on HIV infections, testing, and risk behaviors among young people.
The report offers insights into what kinds of behavior are driving the high rates of infection.
For example, young men who have sex with men - or MSM - were more likely to report having had sex with four or more partners or injecting illegal drugs.
In addition, among students who were currently sexually active, young MSM were also more likely to have used alcohol or drugs before their last sexual experience and were less likely to have used a condom.
And young MSM were also less likely to report having been taught about HIV or AIDS in school.
A silent epidemic
Medical professionals expressed concern over the report.
"The AIDS epidemic is silent," said Dr. Kenneth H. Mayer, medical research director of the Fenway Institute in Boston, in a phone interview. "It may have been horrible for older people, but youth don’t know people who are very sick. They think of AIDS as a disease of old people, and it’s a manageable disease. At least that is the youthful perspective."
Mayer is also the director of HIV prevention at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital.
For African Americans, he said, discrimination, stigma, and homophobia are contributing factors to increased rates of HIV infection.
"These youth are very disenfranchised from society," Mayer explained. "If you are a young black man, you may have been ostracized by your family of birth, experienced racism - so there is a lot going on in your life."
Other independent factors, he said, that account for HIV infection among young black MSM are poverty, unemployment, being a bottom (receptive in anal intercourse), and having other sexually transmitted diseases.
"The economic factors that make more people susceptible to HIV speak to the fact that there is a whole set of structural issues that place young, urban, disenfranchised youth at risk for HIV," he said.
Indeed, the increased infection rates are worrisome for AIDS activists and service providers. Rebecca Haag, president and CEO of Boston-based AIDS Action Committee, offered an assessment concerning the report’s findings.
"The CDC report is quite disturbing, but it doesn’t really tell us anything that we did not already know. Young people, particularly young black and African American gay and bisexual men, are incredibly vulnerable to HIV infection and more than half of those who are infected with HIV are unaware of it. This is the perfect storm for spreading HIV," she said.
Haag was referring to the results of an earlier study, released this summer during the International AIDS Conference, which showed gay, bisexual, and black men between the ages of 18 to 30 are infected at a rate nearly three times more than whites.
The study enrolled more than 1,500 black, gay, and bisexual MSM, between 2009 and 2011, from six cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington.
Mayer was a leader of the study.
Haag continued, "The CDC report calls for more community- and school-based interventions to help stop the spread of HIV among young people. We already know that this is what needs to happen. We’ve been doing this work for years and we continue to do it. But it is unconscionable that we do not have comprehensive sexuality education in every school.
"Our young people should know everything they need to know about how they can keep themselves safer from HIV infection. In order to end the AIDS epidemic, we need to employ every public health tool available to us to reduce new infections, and that includes educating those vulnerable to infection on ways to keep themselves safer," Haag added.
Overall, an estimated 12,200 new HIV infections in the U.S. occurred in 2010 among young people aged 13-24, with young gay and bisexual men and African-Americans hit harder by HIV than their peers. In 2010, for example, 72 percent of estimated new HIV infections in young people occurred in young men who have sex with men.
By race and ethnicity, 57 percent of estimated new infections in this age group were in African Americans.
Two data sources were used for HIV testing and risk behavior analysis, including surveys from public school students in grades 9-12 in 11 states (Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) and nine large urban school districts (Boston, Chicago, Detroit, District of Columbia, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York City, San Diego, and Seattle).
"That so many young people become infected with HIV each year is a preventable tragedy," CDC Director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden told reporters during a conference call last week to discuss the findings.
"All young people can protect their health, avoid contracting and transmitting the virus, and learn their HIV status," he said. "This is our future generation and the bottom line is that every month 1,000 youth are becoming infected with HIV."
He added, "HIV, despite the great treatments that we have, remains an incurable infection. And the cost of care of a single patient is approximately $400,000 over their lifetime. That means we are incurring about $400 million in health care costs, and every year $5 billion from preventable infections in youth."
Despite recommendations from CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics that call for routine HIV testing of youth in medical settings, the Vital Signs analysis showed that 35 percent of 18-24 year olds have been tested for HIV, while only 13 percent of high school students - and 22 percent of sexually experienced students - have ever been tested.
"The key here for clinicians is to make it routine," said Frieden. "It is routine screening just as we screen adults for high cholesterol, we screen people for HIV infection."
Test then treat
Of course, testing is only the first step to treatment, which can lead to improved patients’ health if they are found to be HIV-positive, as well as prevent them from spreading infection.
The phenomenon is known as "treatment cascade," which Frieden addressed during the conference call. By "improving what we call the treatment cascade, increasing the number and proportion of people whose infection is controlled whose viral load is suppressed, we will reduce the risk for everyone in society," he said. "That’s a critical goal for us to work with communities, health care providers, and most importantly with people infected with HIV so they can get the care and services they need to live long and productive lives, be healthy, stay out of the hospital, and not to infect other people."
Furthermore, studies have shown that people who know they are HIV-positive are less likely to engage in risky behaviors, such as unprotected sex and sharing needles.
"We can and must achieve a generation that is free from HIV and AIDS," said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention at the CDC.
"It will take a concerted effort at all levels across our nation to empower all young people, especially young gay and bisexual youth, with the tools and resources they need to protect themselves from HIV infection," he said.
An openly gay man, Fenton, who participated in the conference call, is stepping down from his position at the end of the year to return to his native England. He has served as head of the CDC’s HIV/AIDS division for seven years.
Currently, an estimated 1.2 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV. | <urn:uuid:98079b88-3572-4403-8aee-419031ef1815> | {
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Authors: Sara Hanafy, Ayah Nayfeh
Increasing conflict and political fragility in Syria has forced the large-scale displacement of millions of Syrians into neighbouring countries like Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Nearly one in every four people in Lebanon is a refugee, many of whom are women and children whose medical needs are not being met . The influx of refugees from Syria over the past five years has moved Lebanon from the 69th largest refugee-hosting country to the third largest.
An estimated one quarter of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon are not receiving the needed care or medications due to issues of affordability . Illnesses such as fever and respiratory problems are treated at a pharmacy rather than from a primary or secondary health care provider as a method to minimize out-of-pocket expenses and consultation fees . Similarly, Syrian refugee women face difficulties with seeking reproductive care, primarily due to cost, but also due to travel distance and fear of mistreatment . Research has shown that Syrian refugee women in Lebanon experience poor health indicators related to reproductive health, pregnancy and delivery complications, and poor birth outcomes , alluding to the fact that poor pregnancy outcomes are an indicator of refugee status, inadequate antenatal care, and insufficient economic means.
There are several reasons for the shortcomings of Syrian refugees in Lebanese host communities, many of which encompass the architecture of the country’s political and health care delivery system. First, the country already hosts a large proportion of the world’s Palestinian refugee population, which comprises nearly 10% of the country’s population. There is also a dearth of up-to-date health information from the State statistical bodies, and information that is available through international financial institutions and private research institutes is influenced through political motives. In order to advance health outcomes, public health policies must be inclusive of the society and should take into account the basic needs of Syrian refugees to ensure that they are being properly met.
It has been proposed that the design and integration of digital platforms would be an asset to improve the welfare of Syrian refugees in Lebanon . The upstream of reliable health data and information to policy makers and stakeholders can allow for tailored planning and implementation of systems that target the needs of vulnerable populations. Digital health technologies, such as mobile phones, have the potential for providing information via text messages to increase health awareness among refugees and to improve home management of illnesses and self-care. However in order for digital platforms to be effective, there are several factors that must be considered, such as the level of literacy both in language and in technology, as well as the attitude towards both formal and informal health advice system.
Recognizing this, the e-Sahha project funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) was designed to improve the timeliness and reach of health monitoring, and to gather feedback from pregnant women and other users about the perceived and actual quality of care they received. This project is setting the groundwork for a growing number of diabetic or hypertensive refugees to enjoy more accessible and better quality health care on a continuous basis.
There are grand challenges to overcome when providing quality health care to underserved and displaced populations, especially those living in fragile and humanitarian settings. But with creative ways of using technology to reduce health inequities, and with strong relationships with leaders and the community, there is a real potential for positive transformative change.
There is no one-size-fits all system to improve health, but it is crucial that countries like Lebanon continue to work on implementing efforts that are inclusive and that will improve the welfare of Syrian refugees to help reach Agenda 2030 and the sustainable development goals. Primarily, acknowledging the basic social and economic rights of non-citizens should be promoted, and countries should be required to report separately on their citizen and non-citizen populations for all relevant targets. Furthermore, financial compensation to aid those countries with unequal distribution of refugees should be given. This can be achieved with the help of the international community. Joint policies with Europe, North America, and Arab countries on the sharing of refugee burden can be an effective mean of extending a helping hand.
- El-Khatib, Z., Scales, D., Vearey, J., & Forsberg, B. C. (2013). Syrian refugees, between rocky crisis in Syria and hard inaccessibility to healthcare services in Lebanon and Jordan. Conflict and health, 7(1), 18.
- Lyles, E., Hanquart, B., Woodman, M., Doocy, S., & LHAS Study Team. (2016). Health service utilization and access to medicines among Syrian refugee and host community children in Lebanon. Journal of International Humanitarian Action, 1(1), 1-13.
- Masterson, A. R., Usta, J., Gupta, J., & Ettinger, A. S. (2014). Assessment of reproductive health and violence against women among displaced Syrians in Lebanon. BMC women’s health, 14(1), 25.
- Talhouk, R., Mesmar, S., Thieme, A., Balaam, M., Olivier, P., Akik, C., & Ghattas, H. (2016, May). Syrian refugees and digital health in Lebanon: Opportunities for improving antenatal health. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems(pp. 331-342). ACM | <urn:uuid:61564185-74e2-4bb7-8854-12099757d6cb> | {
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It is quite common for those providing information to the Wall/McHenry database to indicate that their Central Pain makes the distal part of the extremities or other areas feel inflamed. Other descriptors of dysesthesia include “burning” and “like acid under the skin”. New research from Harvard may explain why.
The Wall/ McHenry database has been bombarded with Central Pain subjects who report muscle pain with CP. Now, electromyography confirms this. The wave changes were there all along, but are just now being recognized.
What mind set will deliver a cure, pragmatism or sentimentality? The dentist who numbs us and is smart enough to fix the problem is to be preferred to a sentimental bandage wrapped around our heads. Pragmatic service is greater than lip service.
Is pain a physical event or a psychological event?
Is there anything to weed out those who have substituted hunches for hard science? Karl Popper gives some suggestions for recognizing pseudoscience.
This article is the follow up to “The Smoking Gun”. It is important for all pain sufferers to understand the huge amount of research being done on pain so they do not lose hope. Drugs which influence membranes are very likely to be part of the pain arsenal in the future. | <urn:uuid:2ee96b4f-f198-4b51-937a-4cb8e0badfea> | {
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Frogs of Australia
This is the definitive guide to the frogs of Australia, providing
descriptions, distributions, images, breeding calls, and more for every
frog in Australia. That's the plan, anyway (and we're well on the way).
Discover the regions of your state then find the frogs of a particular region.
Frogs of ...
Jump straight in and discover ALL the frogs of your state.
All of Australia's frogs are listed with taxonomy (family/genus/species) and common names. Region guides are complete for every state. All frogs have distribution maps! Field guide entries are available for all frogs. More than two thirds of the frogs have an image and many frogs have multiple images showing all stages of their life cycle.
Frogs of Victoria
Frogs of Victoria is no more - but wait, we've retained the "Key guide to Victorian frogs" as this will not be expanded to a national key.
Key guide to Victorian frogs
The "Frogs of Victoria" project features a "key" to aid in the identification of a frog. At each question of the key, there are two alternative statements (A or B) - choosing the one which best describes the frog leads to a further question until, finally, the frog is identified. It is designed to be used with the Glossary.
Use the key to identify a Victorian frog or, if you don't have enough information for the key, simply check out all the frogs in your region. | <urn:uuid:3c326680-d556-4fcc-831b-6336677a11e9> | {
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Using renewable energy to fuel its data centers is one of the ways Google is fulfilling a four-year-old commitment to reduce its carbon footprint to zero. But electricity generated from the sun or wind isn’t the best match for the data centers operated by the $29 billion Internet search engine provider. Wind isn’t constant and sunshine is limited, while data centers have to have power around the clock. Nor can the energy be stored for later use to deal with the differences in the timing of supply and demand.
So Google’s 2010 signing of a 20-year contract to buy 114 megawatts of electricity a year from a wind farm in Iowa being developed by NextEra Energy posed a challenge, one that Google solved with a series of financial transactions involving the electricity grid and the power markets.
The electricity from the wind farm comes with a Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) attached that differentiates it from electricity produced using coal or oil. Google buys the electricity from the wind farm at an interconnect, strips the certificate and resells the electricity into the market at that same interconnect. The company then buys power for its data center, either at the interconnect closest to the center or from a utility, and attaches the certificate to that power.
“When we are buying power at the interconnect close to our data center and we couple that with the REC that was generated by the wind farm, we can say through these financial transactions that we are technically utilizing green power to indirectly supply our data centers,” says assistant corporate treasurer Axel Martinez.
“Energy is really the core of Google’s business and our goal is to make it sustainable,” Martinez adds. “It’s about really making renewable energy much more sustainable through investments to reduce the overall cost.”
One of Google’s requirements for renewable energy is “additionality”—its purchases should result in new renewable energy projects. NextEra was planning to use the purchase agreement with Google to raise funds to build the wind farm, but the banks providing the financing wanted the agreement signed by an investment-grade counterparty, and Google had no credit rating. The company viewed the alternative, providing a letter of credit or cash collateral, as overly burdensome. So Google’s treasury managed to obtain credit ratings in a speedy 45 days.
That wasn’t the only work required. To participate in the wholesale market, Google set up a subsidiary, Google Energy. And the company did an analysis to ensure that the transactions would have a positive net present value over the 20-year life of the contract, looking at such factors as wind farm output, near-term and long-term power prices and the value of renewable energy certificates.
One plus for Google is the hedge the contract provides against increases in energy costs, Martinez points out. “As prices go up for power, we get a benefit.”
Purchasing power directly from a generator was new for Google, and selling directly to a corporate, rather than a utility or municipality, was new for NextEra, Martinez says. So the process took “several quarters.
“We went back and forth with NextEra about different structures, different ways to acquire the power, before we got to this structure,” he says.
“The first time you do it is complex but once you put it in place, the next one is easier,” Martinez adds. And in fact, Google has already made a second purchase, of 100.8 megawatts of wind power from a facility that NextEra is building in Oklahoma. | <urn:uuid:2db7447a-aeb2-4eec-83b8-dc9028195ab8> | {
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Cosmic dust is dust which exists in outer space. Most cosmic dust particles are between a few molecules to 0.1 µm in size. A smaller fraction of all dust in space consists of larger refractory minerals that condensed as matter left the stars. It is called “stardust” and is included in a separate section below. The dust density in the local interstellar medium of the Local Bubble is approximately 10−6 × dust grain/m3 with each grain having a mass of approximately 10−17 kg.
Cosmic dust can be further distinguished by its astronomical location: intergalactic dust, interstellar dust, interplanetary dust (such as in the zodiacal cloud) and circumplanetary dust (such as in a planetary ring). In the Solar System, interplanetary dust causes the zodiacal light. Sources of Solar System dust include comet dust, asteroidal dust, dust from the Kuiper belt, and interstellar dust passing through the Solar System. The terminology has no specific application for describing materials found on the planet Earth except for dust that has demonstrably fallen to Earth. By one estimate, as much as 40,000 tons of cosmic dust reaches the Earth’s surface every year. In October 2011, scientists reported that cosmic dust contains complex organic matter (“amorphous organic solids with a mixed aromatic–aliphatic structure”) that could be created naturally, and rapidly, by stars.
On August 14, 2014, scientists announced the collection of possible interstellar dust particles from the Stardust spacecraft since returning to Earth in 2006.
Cosmic dust, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cosmic_dust&oldid=713482589 (last visited May 15, 2016).
01.Kuedo – Reality Drift [BANDCAMP]
02.ARKTKT – Sea Monster (original mix) [Division Recordings]
03.Totemic – Drow [SOUNNDCLOUD]
04.These Hidden Hands – These Moments Dismantled (feat.Lucrecia Dalt) – [Hidden Hundred]
05.Death Grips – 8080808 [ Harvest Records]
06.Noisia & Mono/Poly – The Nomad (Original Mix) [Division Recordings]
07.CloZee – The Path To Heaven [Gravitas Recordings]
08.Richie Brains – The Blips [Exit Recordings UK ]
09.CloZinger – Sinking [ SOUNDCLOUD]
10.Richie Brains – Likkle Som [Exit Recordings UK ]
11.Moresounds – Ghetto Style [Le French Work]
12.The Imposture – Made It [Le French Work]
13.Flying Lotus – Camel [Warp Records]
14.SCNTST – Wavez Changes – [Boyznoize Records]
15.Jackhigh – Turbines [XLR8R]
16.Harmonic 313 – No Way Out [Warp Records]
17.Azekel – New Romance (Om Unit Remix) [SOUNDCLOUD]
18.Submerse – This Combo Could End Us [Project Mooncircle]
19.Decap – Feeling [OkayPlayer]
20.Stray – Hide [SOUNDCLOUD]
21.Captain Murphy – Between Friends [SOUNDCLOUD]
22.Captain Murphy – Between Friends ft. Earl Sweatshirt (Prod. Flying Lotus) [SOUNDCLOUD]
23.Kaytranada – Bus Ride [Stones Throw]
24.TH7 IMMORTXLZ – PLXN7TXRY TRIO [BANDCAMP]
25.Dave Douglas – Cardinals [SOUNDCLOUD] | <urn:uuid:fa3ba431-2c5f-4dd0-a349-dc8dca93a8d3> | {
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Chin cactus, (genus Gymnocalycium), genus of about 50 species of cacti (family Cactaceae), native to South America. Chin cacti are found in warm regions of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Brazil. Many natural and cultivated varieties are available and are common ornamentals.
The small plants are globose to cylindrical and are so named for the chinlike protuberance below each spine-bearing areole (special bud) on the ribs. The showy diurnal flowers are most often white or cream, with shades of pink, yellow, or red in some species and varieties. The receptacle (the flower stalk upon which the flower organs attach) characteristically lacks spines or hairs.
One of the most outstanding cultivated species, commonly known as moon cactus (Gymnocalycium mihanovichii), is a glowing red mutant that must be grown grafted onto a normal cactus because it lacks chlorophyll and cannot synthesize its own food. Varieties of other colours also have been developed and are seen in the florist trade. | <urn:uuid:1a506718-6762-4364-8db2-b8e29fff8432> | {
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A recent article in The Guardian offers some advice on how to make Britain’s 5 million historic homes more energy efficient. At key point in the article is that Britain’s 5m historic houses – defined by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings as anything built before 1919 – should not be treated like new ones, and that green deal-style modern technologies were often inappropriate.
Suggestions from the team of historic advisers include:-
- A lot of energy waste in old buildings is the result of overdue maintenance, so get the window panes fixed and clear out the gutters and drains that make walls damp and cold.
- Do the cheap options that have the least impact on the building fabric first, eg: turning the thermostat down a degree, draught-stripping for windows and doors and a thick pair of curtains can be just as effective as more expensive measures. Floor coverings or rugs can block air infiltration and keep feet warm.
- Think about how and when you use your building. When does it need
to be warmer and when could it be cooler? Swap your boiler controls from a timer to a programmable thermostat and switch off what you can.
- Historic buildings were designed to be heated one room at a time using separate open fires, which is more efficient than all at once. You can recreate this today by manually controlling thermostat valves. Programmable wi-fi radiator valves are becoming more readily available.
- Typically, about 25% heat is lost through the roof, in comparison to 35% through the walls, 15% through the floor and 25% from windows and draughts. But the cost of insulating in the roof is usually much lower than the cost of solid wall insulation, so it is often more cost-effective to do the roof first.
- For the big investment, focus on how you generate and distribute
heat in your building. Ask for advice while you’re still considering your
- Older homes deal with heat and moisture differently to more modern construction types. Look at the property as a whole system rather than considering measures individually and think about their cumulative impact on the way that the building fabric functions.
- Consider all the simple and cheap measures first, before investing in more expensive measures such as external wall insulation – like draught excluders and heavier curtains. Think about floor coverings or rugs to block air infiltration and keep feet warm.
- Keeping your home in a good state of repair can make a big difference, and in most cases is likely to maintain or even improve the heritage value of a home.
- Typically, about 25% heat is lost through the roof, in comparison to 35% through the walls, 15% through the floor and 25% from windows and draughts. But the cost of insulating the roof is usually much lower than the cost of solid wall insulation, so it is often more cost-effective to do the roof first.
No or very low risk, which do not require expertise or huge amounts of money include:-
- Know what you use and where you use it and switch off what you can.
- Maintain the building fabric and your heating system.
- Make sure controls and timers are set correct.
- Replace incandescent and halogen bulbs with LED ones.
- Install simple efficiency measures – thick curtains, draught proof strips. | <urn:uuid:9cbc31df-a782-4ed5-9b34-051ceb7b74b1> | {
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Whether one is driven by curiosity or is experiencing encounters with a snake, he or she may wonder what eats snakes. The food web is a complex system of predators and prey which includes almost every species, including snakes. There is an enormous amount of different types of snakes, each type or group of snakes have their own predators.
So What Eats Snakes?
When researching the predators of a snake, a variety of groups of animals will show up. As previously stated, each type of snake will encounter something different or new that will eat them. From all of the bird species out there, not all will eat snakes. The eagle and the hawk usually eat most of the snakes out there. Other than the eagle and the hawk, other birds also eat snakes as their main prey.
Aside from flying vultures, the snake also has on-land animals that will eat them. One particular animal that preys on those slithery snakes is the mongoose. The mongoose can also, surprisingly, eat poisonous snakes such as cobras. The mongoose has the ability to consume poisonous snakes because of their immunity towards venom. As strange as it may sound, the mongoose is also able to repel snakes with their urine. In conclusion, the mongoose consumes, repels, and scares away snakes. What a mixture.
With such a diverse amount of types of snakes, three animals alone won’t be their only predators. Weasels, foxes, and a few other mammals eat snakes as well. Furthermore, there are big snakes that will eat smaller snakes when possible, or, when they feel like it. With a variety of this many predators, snakes also have their prey. The size of the snake will affect what they eat; some snakes eat rodents and other snakes have the capability to consume something the size of something bigger than a dog!
What do Snakes Eat?
There are many different snakes out there and each one has it’s own taste. Generally speaking, snakes like to eat their prey whole. It’s not like they have much of an option considering they don’t
The list given above is just categories of animals they’ll eat. For example, snakes, lizards, toads, and frogs all go under the reptiles section. To get a bit more astonishing, it’s a bit crazy but these slithery reptiles also eat bigger animals. Big is generic so let me get more specific. By big I mean that snakes also eat goats, pigs, chickens, and so on.
It’s good to know that the size of the snake will generally determine what they eat. A small, non-venomous snake would eat insects and smaller animals as opposed to an anaconda (who first constricts their prey before eating) that has the capability to eat animals who are 5 to 6 foot (basically the size of a human).
To conclude, snakes are carnivores so they eat just about anything with meat that was living. From insects to pigs and animals that are as big as humans. Now let’s get into two specific snakes: the garter snake and corn snake.
What do Garter Snakes Eat?
As stated above, snakes are carnivores and eat just about anything living BUT it’s in respect to it’s size. A garter snake eats smaller meals and are huge fans of pink baby mice. They also eat many insects such as earthworms. A garter snake will also be able to eat guppies or platies (very small fish), frogs, toads, salamanders, and more. However, if they’re granted the opportunity, they’ll also aim for small mammals.
It’s good to note that ideally they should have mice as the core of their diet/meal-plan. A garter snake, along with essentially any snake, will eat different things when raised in a home or in the wild. Overall though, they should eat insects and mice and once in a while fish and other amphibians wont hurt.
What do Corn Snakes Eat?
Similar to the garter snakes above, corn snakes share similarities in their diet. Their primary meal that is very nutritional to them are rodents. Mice or rats should be your go-to if you are the one feeding a corn snake. A great idea is to allow the snake to share the action and even though it may be dead just dangle the meal above them so they can feel as if they’re doing the hunting. Corn snakes do constrict their prey before eating so allow them the privilege.
On occasion, a corn snake can eat other amphibians and reptiles. Luckily corn snakes aren’t picky so it shouldn’t be too tough to feed one (or a few).
Where do Snakes Live?
Snakes can be found almost everywhere. Where they live influences their diet and other factors of their life so it’s important to know where snakes live. Different species of snakes will scatter across Earth so you won’t find every snake breed everywhere. However, overall, at least one type of a snake can be found everywhere excluding: Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Greenland, and Antarctica.
The reason for why they live everywhere excluding the places above are because of resources, shelter, and safety. All of what they eat can be found where they currently reside in. Alongside that, they also have many tricks to hide from predators or attack their prey on land or in water (depending on the type of snake). | <urn:uuid:3b309194-6f0d-4357-bc18-fac690cbeae4> | {
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Manage Pet Stress
Jun 01, 2015 04:48AM
● By Family Features
(Family Features) Bad behavior by your four-legged family members can create disruptions that range from a minor nuisance to full-out frustration. In fact, leading veterinary organizations report that behavior problems are the leading cause of pet euthanasia and account for as much as 80 percent of pet abandonment.
Warmer weather fosters many of the activities and situations that can bring out the worst in pets such as family travel, loud noises from increased activity in the neighborhood or fireworks, and ceaseless barking in the yard or on a walk.
Fear and stress are common triggers for behavior problems in pets, so taking steps to reduce the impact of scary and stressful situations can make a big difference.
While some pets can’t wait to hop in the car and take off, others experience stress and fear from travel. For some, it is the motion of the vehicle, and for others it may be the fear of unfamiliar environments. With a grasp of basic commands, as well as a little planning on the part of the owner, your pet can enjoy a more comfortable travel environment.
- Keep your pet in a carrier during the journey. Include a favorite blanket or toy in the carrier to increase comfort and provide reassurance.
- Set the carrier out several days in advance, leaving the door open to allow your pet to explore it without fear of immediate departure.
- During the journey, allow your dog to exercise and relieve themselves every two hours. For cats, put a litter tray in the car, along with some water, and allow them to roam free in the car every few hours.
- The calming effects of pheromones are a proven way to help reduce the fear that traveling can cause in dogs and cats. A SENTRY Calming Collar with its soothing lavender chamomile fragrance contains pheromones that help to reduce fear and make traveling less stressful for pets. This is especially important if the journey is longer than three hours.
- Do not leave pets unattended in the car as it increases their fear and can affect their safety.
Loud noises such as thunder or fireworks can create extreme stress and fear that cause not only emotional distress, but also dangerous behaviors like trying to escape or becoming destructive. Avoid forcing your pet to stay with you and “get used to” the loud noises that are terrifying him. Instead, try a few of these recommendations:
- Create a safe place for your pet to come and go freely based on the area that he tries to go when he becomes frightened, such as the basement, your bedroom or behind the sofa.
- Make your pet’s safe place extra therapeutic with a SENTRY Calming Diffuser that continuously emits calming pheromones in the immediate environment to help pets feel relaxed and safe.
- Run a fan or radio to help distract from the noise he fears.
- Try distracting your dog with favorite toys or activities just as he becomes anxious about the approach of a storm or sporadic firework sounds.
There are many reasons a dog might bark incessantly, preventing you from enjoying the company of guests, annoying your neighbors and leaving you feeling irritated. While it’s unreasonable to expect a dog to never bark again, there are ways to help your dog change behavior and reduce barking.
- Tell your dog to stop barking and wait to make sure he completely accepts this command.
- Give your dog plenty of exercise through active play, walking or running to ensure pent-up energy isn’t driving your dog to bark. After correcting the behavior, activity can also help redirect a barking dog’s attention.
- If underlying stress is the cause of your dog’s barking, pheromone technology can be an effective tool. Try using SENTRY Calming Spray, which contains a soothing pheromone to help reduce fear and calm pets, in your pet’s area to encourage him to lie down quietly.
- If your dog is barking for attention, ignore him until he quiets, then give a treat or reward to reinforce the “no barking” behavior.
Signs of Stress in Dogs and Cats
Like people, pets respond differently to stressful situations, and circumstances that one pet copes with easily can create extreme duress for another.
Pet care author and blogger Sandy Robins suggests watching for these signs of canine stress:
- Destructive behavior such as chewing furniture and other items in the home
- Excessive barking, both inside and outside the home
- Urinating and defecating around the house
- Sudden displays of growling, snarling and even biting family members that your dog is normally affectionate toward
- Physical signs of illness such as vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, skin allergies, excessive licking and pulling out clumps of fur
When it comes to cats, Robins says it can be more difficult to pick up signs of stress because signals such as hiding or sleeping out of sight are normal behaviors. Sometimes the escalating level of feline stress is gradual. Be aware that these situations can cause cats to feel stressed:
- Loud music
- Strangers in the home, such as repairmen
- A barking dog or new pets
- New family members, such as a baby and even visitors
- New furniture
- A change of food or litter type
- A dirty litter box
In some cases, the fix is simple — turn down loud music or move pets to a different part of the house when guests visit, for example. Other times, more significant behavior training or tools such as pheromone therapy are necessary to ease your pet’s distress.
Animals produce pheromones in response to stress, alarm or danger that change the behavior of another animal of the same species. Pheromone collars, diffusers and calming sprays, such as those made by SENTRY, mimic the pheromone that the mother dog or cat produces to calm and reassure her young and are recognized throughout life. When used by pet owners, pheromones are a safe, efficient and convenient means of behavior management.
More tips for addressing common pet behavior problems can be found at www.sentrypetcare.com. Also remember to consult your veterinarian, who can help identify the right combination of training and therapy for your pet’s unique needs.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images | <urn:uuid:b555f215-d4f5-4329-ae87-fa0625abaeeb> | {
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When we hear that an earthquake has occurred, scientists ask the same basic questions that other people do:
- How bad was it? Were people killed, and was there severe damage?
- How big was it? Did its size alone make it unusual?
- Where was it? Did it affect places where we have friends or where lots of people live? Did it occur in a place where earthquakes occur often or somewhere that earthquakes have not occurred previously?
To answer questions like "how bad" or "how big," it helps to have quantitative measures—numbers that allow us to compare earthquakes in different places. Thus in this chapter we describe three important ways of measuring earthquake damage and size. We also explain how scientists determine where earthquakes have occurred.
How Bad Was It? Modified Mercalli Intensity
When an earthquake occurs near a heavily populated place, newspapers typically report the number of people injured or killed and the dollar value of damage done. These are apt measures of a quake's human impact, but they aren't very useful if we want to know how the earthquake itself compares to previous earthquakes. These measures are especially inadequate if we want to assess the potential hazard from future earthquakes. In many areas the population density changes regularly over time, as do the number and type of buildings and the quality of construction. Moreover, damage depends on the quake's intrinsic size and on its distance from areas of high population density.
When we ask, "How bad was the Valentine, Texas, earthquake of 1931?" the question is not precise. This question might mean we wish to know how intense the shaking was during that earthquake. Or we might wish to know how damaging an identical earthquake would be if it were to happen in the same place today. Finally, we might wish to know how a similar-sized earthquake would affect some other place like Dallas, were it to happen there next year. We could answer all three of these questions if we had some objective way of describing the intensity of ground motion at different places during the 1931 earthquake.
In 1902 an Italian, Guiseppe Mercalli, suggested measuring intensity by evaluating reports of damage or by asking people what they experienced during an earthquake. Then he assessed this information and assigned a number (see table 1.1); for example, if the quake was just strong enough to wake up most people who were asleep, he assigned an intensity of V (figure 1.1). Mercalli intensities are always given as Roman numerals—perhaps because Mercalli was Italian, but also so they aren't confused with Richter magnitudes, which we will explain later. Mercalli's scale is still used widely today, although it has been modified several times to account for geographic differences in building construction. The scale used now is called the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale, and to be explicit about this the numbers are preceded by the letters MMI.
Intensities on the Mercalli scale range from MMI I to MMI XII or 1 to 12. MMI I and MMI II correspond to motions so subtle that most people don't feel them. Those few who do sense something may just feel slightly queasy or notice hanging objects gently swaying. The highest intensity, MMI XII, is reserved for situations in which the shaking produces accelerations stronger than the pull of gravity, and heavy objects like statues get thrown into the air (figure 1.2).
After damaging earthquakes occur, seismologists interview people or use newspaper reports to construct maps indicating where people felt shaking of different intensities. Nowadays people who experience earthquakes can send Internet messages describing what they felt to the United States Geological Survey,1 and seismologists studying the events will incorporate this information into an intensity map (Wald and others 1999). For contemporary earthquakes, these maps are useful for engineers or planners who wish to assess "how bad it was" in different places and for different kinds of construction. However, sometimes it is possible to use historical reports to construct intensity maps for earthquakes which occurred a century or more ago (figure 1.3). Often, comparing intensity maps for contemporary and historical earthquakes is the only way to determine whether a historical quake was bigger or smaller than a modern one.
How Big Was It? Magnitude
On 25 March 1998, the world's largest earthquake for 1998 occurred near the Balleny Islands, just offshore of Antarctica (Antolik, Kavarina, and Dreger 2000). Since the nearest city was about 2,000 kilometers (km) distant in New Zealand, the quake caused no damage and apparently was not felt by humans. It was an insignificant event if we only measure earthquakes in terms of how they affect people. To borrow from the old philosophy question: "If an earthquake occurs and nobody felt it, did it occur at all?" Clearly, to maintain records of the world's earthquakes we need some measure of earthquake size other than maximum intensity—big is not always bad, and bad is not always big. The most common such measure is magnitude.
Charles Richter invented the first magnitude scale in 1935 (see sidebar 1.1), which is why people often say that the "magnitude is 4.8 on the Richter scale." He determined magnitude by measuring the amplitude of ground motion as recorded on a particular seismograph. This measurement was really easy—Richter simply used a ruler to measure the peak-to-peak size of the biggest waves on paper seismograms (figure 1.4). He then used tables to correct the measurement for instrument gain and the effects of distance. Magnitude is a "power of ten" scale, so that a 5.8 indicates ten times more ground motion than a 4.8; a 6.8 is 100 times more; a 7.8 is 1,000 times more, etc.
The Richter scale defines magnitude only in terms of the amplitude of ground motion recorded on a seismograph. Thus there is no limit to how small or how large magnitude can be. A very tiny earthquake might have a magnitude of minus 2. And a very large event might have a magnitude of 8; for example, both the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco and the 1998 Balleny Islands earthquake had magnitudes of about 8. In principle an extraordinarily large earthquake might have a magnitude of 12. However, since magnitude is a power-of-ten scale there are practical limits. People seldom feel earthquakes with magnitudes smaller than about 2.0, and even very sensitive seismographs seldom record earthquakes with magnitudes smaller than minus 1 or so. The Chile earthquake of 1960—the largest recorded since seismographs were invented about a century ago—had a magnitude Mw of 9.5. This is about as large as possible for natural earthquakes (see sidebar 1.2). To get a magnitude of 12 would require something entirely different than an ordinary earthquake—like a good-sized asteroid crashing into the earth.
How Big Was It? Scalar Moment
To be most useful, any statistic such as magnitude should have three properties. It should be (1) easy to measure, (2) strongly correlated with the phenomenon of interest, and (3) not strongly correlated with other phenomena.
Most familiar statistics satisfy at least one of these properties; few satisfy all three. For example, weight and height are the most common statistics reported for football and basketball players. Weight and height are easy to measure and often correlated with success in these sports, but we are all aware of very heavy or very tall people who are poor athletes. To measure mental ability, IQ is the most familiar statistic. However, while IQ is strongly correlated with success in school (at least), it is very difficult to measure, especially if you try to evaluate people from different backgrounds.
With respect to these three properties, magnitude is not a very good statistic. Measuring it is easy enough; essentially, this just involves measuring the biggest arriving signal on a seismogram. The problem is that when some very big earthquakes occur, their faults slip relatively slowly, and thus their biggest arriving signals are not as large as signals from earthquakes on much smaller faults that slip more suddenly. Moreover, since particular seismographs often are tuned to record signals at particular frequencies, they underestimate magnitudes for quakes having their strongest signals at another frequency. Thus magnitude is not correlated very well with the length of the fault that ruptured or the amount of slip.
For these reasons, in 1966 a seismologist named Keiiti Aki proposed a different measure of earthquake size that he called scalar moment (Mo), sometimes just called moment. Like magnitude, scalar moment can be determined directly from seismograms. As with magnitude, determining scalar moment involves correcting for the gain of the recording instrument and the effect of distance. However, in addition, the signal is manipulated to remove any other effects introduced by the seismograph; and the higher-frequency details of the signal are removed by filtering to determine the average strength of the signal radiated along the whole length of the fault. This process is routine but not nearly as easy as determining magnitude. Also, moment is not a dimensionless power-of-ten scale with simple, small numbers like magnitude. Instead, it has units of force times distance, so that a typical magnitude 4 earthquake will have a scalar moment of a thousand trillion newton-meters, and a magnitude 8 might have a moment a million times larger (see table 1.2).
Scalar moment does, however, have two important advantages over magnitude. First, scalar moment can be used to estimate the area of the fault that slipped to cause the earthquake. Indeed, the scalar moment is equal to the product of three factors, the surface area A of the part of the fault that slipped during the quake, the average slip S over this region, and the rigidity or stiffness (denoted by the symbol m) of the rock along the fault.2 This is quite useful, since one can determine moment from a seismogram and then figure out what combinations of rupture area and slip might have caused the earthquake. This allows us to estimate typical fault dimensions for quakes of various magnitudes (table 1.2). Thus a magnitude of minus 6 with a fault diameter of 7 mm corresponds to a crack in your car windshield, which explains why you seldom hear about earthquakes with negative magnitudes. A magnitude zero corresponds to a fault about the size of a two-car garage. Very damaging earthquakes with magnitudes between 7 and 8 have slips of several meters occurring along faults with dimensions of tens of km.
Second, unlike magnitude, scalar moment has the same value regardless of the instrument used to record seismic waves. There are not different moments for different kinds of seismographs (as in sidebar 1.1). For these two reasons, seismologists nowadays nearly always prefer to use moments rather than magnitude for measuring earthquake size. However, moments will never completely replace magnitudes, partly because magnitudes are just so familiar to the public and because moment numbers are so unwieldy.
Where Was It? How a Seismograph Works
For some earthquakes scientists have no problem figuring out where they occurred. If a quake happens in a populated area and is large enough, felt-report maps such as in figure 1.3 present approximately circular zones around the region where the fault slipped. Indeed, for historical earthquakes occurring before about 1900, such maps are usually the only means of location available. But to locate earthquakes that occur in unpopulated regions or which are too small to cause damage, it is useful to employ a seismograph, a detector of seismic waves that is more sensitive than humans. The power of the seismograph is that it provides a way to sense and locate earthquakes that are far too small to be felt or do damage.
When a fault slips suddenly, the disturbance travels away in all directions, much as waves on a pond travel away from the point where a pebble is dropped. Although a sizable portion of the fault may slip, the point where the slippage begins is called the earthquake focus; subsequently the area that slips grows larger as the rupture proceeds. A seismograph amplifies and records the elastic waves produced by the sudden slippage. Since waves arrive earliest at the closest seismograph stations, and since different kinds of seismic waves (figure 1.5) travel at different speeds, you can locate the focus if you know the arrival times at several seismograph stations.
For example, suppose that a station records a primary or "P" wave and a secondary or "S" wave (figure 1.4). Seismologists know that up to distances of 1,000 km, P waves travel at about 8 km per second (km/sec), and S waves travel at about 4.5 km/sec. Using high school math one can show that with these velocities, the epicentral distance in km is about ten times the difference in seconds between S and P arrivals. If the S arrives one minute after the P at a station, the quake-to-station distance is about 600 km. If P and S readings are available from three or more stations, you can locate the focus. Before about 1960 seismologists often located earthquakes on a globe by drawing arcs around the sites of seismograph stations. Seismologists now use computer programs that take all available readings and find the best-fitting epicenter.
How does a seismograph work? The essential element of a seismograph is just a loosely suspended object that, when the ground moves, can't quite keep up. For vertical motion, this object is just a mass suspended from a spring. For horizontal motion, this can just be a "swinging gate" (figure 1.6). To make a working seismograph, the motion of the suspended object must somehow produce an electric current. A simple way to do this is to use the fact that when an ordinary magnet moves through a coil of wire, it induces an electric current in the wire. Thus if the seismograph mass is a magnet and the coil of wire is fixed to the ground, the motion of the ground produces a current. After amplification, even imperceptible ground motions produce signals that can be displayed with a suitable chart recorder or on a computer screen.
A seismograph is just like an ordinary stereo speaker, but in reverse (figure 1.7). Your stereo speaker has a magnet and a coil of wire in it, with the magnet attached to the base of a cardboard cone. In the speaker, an electric current from your amplifier through the coil makes the magnet move, vibrating the paper in the cone and making sounds—vibrations of the air.
Several seismograph stations operate continuously in Texas (figure 1.8). In Hockley, Texas, a small town 50 km northwest of Houston, the University of Texas at Austin has placed modern seismic sensors about 500 meters beneath the surface in a salt mine operated by United Salt, Inc.3 The Hockley site is attractive for a seismograph station because its subsurface location reduces effects caused by manmade and weather-generated noise. In Lajitas, Texas, near Big Bend, Southern Methodist University operates a seismic array. A seismic array is several nearby seismograph stations operating together; arrays are especially useful because they allow the detection of weaker signals and because scientists can use them to determine the direction of arrival of seismic phases from distant earthquakes.
Elsewhere, in far West Texas the University of Texas at El Paso operates several stations, mainly to record small regional earthquakes. Texas Tech University operates stations in Lubbock and Amarillo, and Texas Tech and the University of Texas at Austin jointly operate a station in Junction, Texas.
Finally, sometimes amateurs build and operate seismographs. This is a bit tricky—not the kind of thing most people could do for a high school science project. However, articles in Scientific American in September 1975, July 1979, and April 1996 explain how to do it (Strong 1975; Walker 1979; Carlson 1996). There is even a website that lists amateurs worldwide and archives the seismograms they record.4 According to this site, five amateurs were operating seismic stations in Texas as of this writing.
- For the central United States, the USGS began the website to produce what are known as Community Internet Intensity Maps only in the year 2000. You can access this site at: http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/cus/. At this website you can contribute felt reports for recent earthquakes and view intensity maps for current and past events.
- When a twisting or shearing force acts on any elastic solid, it will change shape until the force is removed, whereupon it springs back to its original shape. Some materials like steel or rock are very rigid; that is, they do not change shape much even when a large force is applied. Others, like foam rubber, are not very rigid. When scientists measure rigidity in the lab or use it in equations such as "scalar moment equals fault area times slip times rigidity," they usually use the symbol m,which is the Greek letter m.
- For the University of Texas' Hockley station, you can see today's data and pictures from down in the salt mine at: http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/eq/seismo/hkt/about/about/hkt.htm. Current data recorded at several stations in and near Texas are available at: http://www.ig.utexas.edu/TexSeis/. A website that includes a very complete set of links to various earthquake-related sites around the world is: http://www.geophys.washington.edu/seismosurfing.html. The U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards program website includes maps of earthquake hazard, recently occurring earthquakes, and much other useful and interesting information: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/.
- The so-called Public Seismic Network archives information from and about amateur seismologists; the web-address is: http://psn.quake.net. In January 2002 this site shows amateurs operating stations in Buda, Corpus Christi, Friendswood, Pearland, and Plano. | <urn:uuid:b940985c-d364-4a90-b894-cef528425cdf> | {
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There are only a few sites in Wisconsin where people followed this unique lifeway. These sites are mainly in the southwestern part of the state along the Mississippi River. The Hopewell culture was more evident in Illinois and southern Ohio. Rivers provide an avenue for travel, trade and communication, a perfect means to bring Hopewell culture to Wisconsin. The people in Wisconsin who were involved in Hopewell culture only adopted a limited number of the Hopewell traits from all those used by the people in Illinois and Ohio. A characteristic of the Hopewell cultures is their large conical mounds. Some contained burial tombs.
Hopewell people were also involved in elaborate trade networks. Some objects placed with the burials were made from materials found outside Wisconsin. Some of these items were traded from great distances. A black shiny glass-like stone called obsidian, used to make projectile points, was traded from Wyoming. Marine shells, used for decorations, came from the Gulf Coast. Some of the items made from exotic materials that were used for rituals or placed in burials included large knives, pipes and copper axes, beads and earspools. | <urn:uuid:697532de-71ed-4fa2-93ab-88d13eaff516> | {
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Erected by Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes
and Washington County Historical Society, Inc.
Hartford, Washington County, Wisconsin
Congregation of Sisters of Saint Agnes
Congregation of Sisters of Saint Agnes
The Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Agnes was founded here in Barton, Wisconsin in 1858 by Father Caspar Rehrl. Father Rehrl, a Catholic missionary, left his native Austria for Milwaukee in 1844. To fulfill his pastoral zeal in the new Milwaukee diocese, this included the entire Wisconsin Territory.While ministering to immigrants in Southeastern Wisconsin, Father Rehrl attempted to bring religious women from Europe to aid him. However, Father Rehrl did not receive help until Pope Pius IX gave approval to establish a sister of young pioneer women at Barton.On August 12, 1858 Father Rehrl received three women into his new community which would be under the patronage of Saint Agnes of Rome. The first to respond to the call was Gertrude Rehberg who was christened Sister Mary Agnes Clara and became the first "Agnesian." Magdalene Hapfer and Katherine Goetz soon joined Father Rehrl and became Sisters Mary Agnes Gertrude and Mary Agnes Mechtildis.Enthusiasm was high and fourteen other young women joined the community in 1859. Teaching, taking mission trips, and learning to farm were all duties Father Rehrl expected of his sisters. But soon the lack of farming knowledge, tools and the sister's [sic] own lack of education proved to be too burdensome. Filled with despair, hunger and frustration all but Father Rehrl and blind Sister Urusla fled in the Exodus of 1861.The arrival of young Anne Marie Hazotte in 1862 marked a new beginning for the community. Blessed with determination and faith, Anne Marie made her first vows on July 2, 1863 and was named Sister Mary Agnes. The following year (1864) at the age of 17 she was elected Mother Superior.By 1868, the community grew to twenty-eight sisters and seven novices. Father Rehrl began printing and distributing his own books to increase education of both his sisters and his congregation. To handle the spiritual and educational needs of the growing population of the area, a boarding school was added at the convent.Sister Mary Agnes Thecla (Melania Dulzo), teacher of English, German and French, wrote of the boarding school:"There were children of all kinds: healthy and crippled; Indians and Whites; anywhere from the age of seven to thirteen. The parents brought wheat, flour, mean [sic], vegetables, and groceries, sometimes in lieu of tuition, at other times in gratitude for what we did for the children. We suffered not want."The sisters also founded Barton Elementary School, their first normal school, or teacher's college. It is one of the oldest schools in Wisconsin.Today, the congregation continues to welcome women of all cultures and nationalities with a mission to educate while walking in the footsteps of the Lord.
The marker is located on the grounds of St. Agens Convent & School on southbound Fond du Lac Street, at its intersection with Barton Avenue, at 1386 Fond du Lac Street, West Bend, Wisconsin 53090.
Washington County Historical Society: St. Agnes Historic Convent & School
The building today . . .
Anne Marie Hazotte (Mother Agnes)
Youngest child of Christoph and Mary Ann Hazotte.
Born: May 7, 1847 Buffalo, New York
Died: March 6, 1905, Kansas
"You are a child of destiny; your name will be Agnes."
In 1862, young Anne Marie Hazotte, Father Rehrl's "child of destiny," arrived at the convent of Sisters of Saint Agnes Congregation in Barton to find it a fledgling community. Starvation, desperation, and frustration during 1861 had reduced the congregation to blind Sister Ursula and Father Rehrl. Two years after her arrival, seventeen [sic] year-old Anne Marie was elected Mother Superior and christened Mother Agnes Hazotte, Father Rehrl's "child of destiny."Anne Marie's early life was shaped by tragedy caused by illness and death. By age fifteen, her ancestors had fled revolutions in France and she had lost her father, mother, two sisters and a brother to illness. These tragic experiences gave her the heart and spirit of a leader and created a woman of determination, faith, and compassion.Not long after her election in 1864 tension began to build between Mother Agnes and Father Rehrl. They both agreed that the sisters would teach faith and academics to pioneer families but Rather Rehrl wanted to send sisters into the ministry with minimal training. Mother Agnes insisted they stay and receive a complete education.A turn of events occurred in June 1870 when Father Rehrl resigned as director of the congregation. Fearing the order would be disbanded without definite rule, Father Francis Haas, the founder of the Capuchins in the United States and a friend of the congregation, revised Father Rehrl's proposed rule. With the community on more stable ground, Mother Agnes and several sisters moved from Boston to Fond du Lac in August of 1870. Mother Agnes remained the sister's [sic] leader until her death in 1905.
The marker is on the pedestal to the left.
St. Agnes Convent & School is located in West Bend, Wisconsin. | <urn:uuid:337c109f-f8fb-4d38-84f8-7a721ae57f5d> | {
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This essay has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers.
Here the selected two articles are Article 1: "Basics about Employee Motivation" written by Carter McNamara, Article 2: "Employee Motivation" by Dr. Robert E. Wubbolding. As the assignment is to do a comparative analysis between two articles on a related topic, the selection was done on topic of employee motivation which is an essential topic in effective business administration.
In the first article it is basically focuses on the new managers and supervisors. First it describes how to clear up the myths of employee motivation. Then it describes basic principles in employee motivation. Subsequently it provides the details of step you can take for employee motivation.
The second article starts with a serious problem in human resource management and then starts the discussion about the Ideas of the management that need to absolutely give up by the management. Then it opens up for a discussion of why employees succeed or fail and what we can do.
Accordingly there are no clear cut similarities that we can find it these two articles. But after the reading and the understanding it will open-up for broader understanding of the area of employee motivation. The employee motivation factors also include in these two articles but those are in a hidden manner. But once you analysis this critically it tells the story of how a manager or above post can handle the employees.
And these articles also teach us not only the steps that we can do for motivation people but the principals that a manager must know how to use those in the organization. And the best thing we can get those articles is that how we can make a schedule to motivate our employees. It also describes why we fail in the process of motivating our employees. And finally these two articles make us think ourself and find out what are the wrong attitudes we have our own.
As above said Article 1: "Basics about Employee Motivation" introduces the myths to clear up in the employee motivation. Those are as follows:
"I can motivate people"- Not really -- they have to motivate themselves
"Money is a good motivator" - understand the motivation factor of each of employees
"Fear is a damn good motivator" - Fear is a great motivator -- for a very short time
"I know what motivates me, so I know what motivates my employees"- Not really different people are motivated by different things.
"Increased job satisfaction means increased job performance"- Increased job satisfaction does not necessarily mean increased job performance
"I can't comprehend employee motivation -- it's a science" -Supporting your employees to motivate themselves toward increased performance in their jobs.Â
Article 2: "Employee Motivation" also introduces the ideas which have to be given up by the management. Those are somewhat new when compare with the myths of article one. The following four ideas are ineffective and actually constitute barriers to increased quality.
As a manager, I can force employees to do what I want them to do
Increasing the compensation package is sufficient to keep people happy
It is not necessary to reward people for "doing what they are supposed to do."
People are good, honest, and will always perform to the best of their ability
In article one introduces specific steps that can help to go a long way toward supporting the employees to motivate them in an organization.
1. Do more than read this article -- apply what you're reading here
2. Briefly write down the motivational factors that sustain you and what you can do to sustain them
3. Make of list of three to five things that motivate each of your employees
4. Work with each employee to ensure their motivational factors are taken into consideration in your reward systems
5. Have one-on-one meetings with each employeeÂ
6. Cultivate strong skills in delegation
7. Reward it when you see it
8. Reward it soon after you see it
9. Implement at least the basic principles of performance management
10. Establish goals that are SMARTER
11. Clearly convey how employee results contribute to organizational results
12. Celebrate achievements
13. Let employees hear from their customers (internal or external)
14. Admit to yourself (and to an appropriate someone else) if you don't like an employee
In article two introduces this area as "What you can do" and it says like this, Write a description of the behaviour of two employees with whom you need help. Be specific about their negative behaviours. After you read Employee Motivation, return to these two employees, using your new skills. You will be surprised at your success in helping employees learn to modify their behaviours in positive ways-ways that will help their productivity and make them happier-a win-win for everyone!
But in article one "Basics about Employee Motivation" introduces five basic principles in the employee motivation.
Motivating employees starts with motivating yourself.
Always work to align goals of the organization with goals of employees.
Key to supporting the motivation of your employees understands what motivates each of them.
Recognize that supporting employee motivation is a process, not a task.
Support employee motivation by using organizational systems (for example, policies and procedures) -- don't just count on good intentions.
In article two also describes this in a different manner. It always focuses to speak to the heart of the reader as considering him or her as a manger rather than introducing concepts and approaches in employee motivation. It is as follows with some key areas that author needs to emphasize. That society believes this is illustrated by the actions of our institutions. Authorities believe that stiffer penalties will, of themselves, cure the drug problem; that more effective punishments will control student behaviour. And the world of employment, in which most people spend a high percentage of their time, has surpassed other institutions in affirming this fallacious theory-that people can be effectively controlled from above. The fact is that employees can be helped to become more productive, to show initiative, and to do quality work. But the use of force alone brings only temporary compliance. If you are willing to make a commitment to change, you can learn how to coach employees in an effective manner. You can learn effective ways to talk with employees who are apathetic, resistant, or who suffer from other negative traits or attitudes. If you have ever found yourself without words to respond to an employee, or getting defensive, or giving in to the urge to verbally attack an employee, you will benefit from implementing the ideas contained in this book. These skills can help you feel more comfortable about your job. You might even look forward to Monday mornings! Positive results depend on one condition-you must learn the technique and then put it into practice.
Article always try to build a conversation with the reader. It introduces the employee's behaviours where the need of the employee motivation will arise as follows.
Do you have employees who...
• Are consistently late to work?
• Perform below their potential?
• Lack initiative?
• Fail to follow through?
• Seem to be moody?
• Perform poor quality work?
Article 1 first start up with what a manager should give up if he wants to motivate the employees. After that author wants to clear the myths of motivation and then gradually input the fresh ideas of motivation, And also the Motivation should be SMARTER all the time according to the situation. And all the time we need to find out the employees situational analysis, it is clearly mention in the article that after finish one motivate factor you must monitor it in various ways. There is one big plus point mentioned by the author that once you get in to a position which is above manager level you must always build confident relationship among others, this will help you to increase the motivation of the employees under you. In nutshell it's all about how you build good motivation skills among employees in the organization.
Article 2, Employee Motivation, is a tool book that addresses the concerns of anyone who ever wanted to motivate anyone. It first asks serious of question which reader's mind will open to a new area. Then introduces basic principles in employee motivation and then things can do when implementing those principles. So more or less both the articles try to open the reader's mind by thinking that the reader will implement what the authors have mentioned. And this article also guides someone to rethink what movements he has failed to motivate the other one. Once you understand and recorrect the passed mistakes you can be a good motivator or a good manager. And also it gives the right way to handle an employee rather than you loose him or her. It also teach us to change our attitude towards the motivating others. And if you really want to change the other person you need to change yourself first. This will help you to build a win-win situation between the employer and employee. | <urn:uuid:5d425af3-70c9-4239-8b1e-9aeed0edaf22> | {
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Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
| "Arachnida" from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904|
Arachnids are a class (Arachnida) of joint-legged invertebrate animals in the subphylum Chelicerata. Arachnids are named after the mythological figure Arachne. They are chiefly terrestrial arthropods, comprising some 65,000 to 73,000 named species including spiders, scorpions, harvestmen, ticks, and mites.
It is commonly understood that arachnids have four pair of legs, and that arachnids may be easily distinguished from insects by this fact (insects have six legs or three pair). Interestingly, archnids have a total of 6 pair of appendages--two pair of which have become adapted for feeding, defense, and sensory perception. The first pair of appendages, the chelicerae, serve in feeding and defense. The next pair of appendages, the pedipalps have been adapted for feeding, locomotion, and/or reproductive functions. In Solifugae, the palpi are quite leg-like and make Solifugae appear to have ten legs. The larvae of mites have only six legs; the fourth pair appears when they moult into nymphs.
Arachnids are further distinguished by the fact they have no antennae and no wings. Their body is organized into two tagma called the prosoma, or cephalothorax, and the opisthosoma, or abdomen. The cephalothorax (Prosoma) is derived from the fusion of the cephalon (head) and the thorax. The abdomen (opisthosoma) can be further divided into the preabdomen and postabdomen in many taxa, although in some orders such as the Acari the abdomenal sections are fused.
There are three important modifications that are particularly important for the terrestrial lifestyle of an arachnid. First, the book gill is modified into a book lung, an internal series of vascular lamellae used for gas exchange with the air. Second, appendages are modified for more efficient locomotion on land. Third, water conservation is enhanced by more efficient excretory structures (coxal glands and Malpighian tubules).
Arachnids are mostly carnivorous, feeding on the pre-digested bodies of insects and other small animals. Only the harvestmen ingest particles and are thus exposed to internal parasites . Several groups are largely venomous - they secrete venom from specialized glands to kill prey or enemies. Several mites are parasites, some of which are carriers of disease. Arachnids usually lay eggs, which hatch into immatures that resemble adults.
Arachnids have two kinds of eyes, the lateral and median ocelli. The lateral ocelli evolved from compound eyes and may have a tapetum, which enhances the efficiency of photon capture. The median ocelli develop from a transverse fold of the ectoderm. The ancestors of modern arachnids probably had both types, but modern ones often lack one type or the other.
- † Trigonotarbida - extinct
- Amblypygi - "blunt rump" tailless whip scorpions with front legs modified into whip-like sensory structures as long as 25 cm or more (140 species)
Phylogeny of the Chelicerata
- Araneae - spiders (40,000 species)
- † Phalangiotarbida - extinct
- Opiliones - phalangids, harvestmen or daddy-long-legs (6,300 species)
- Palpigradi - microwhip scorpions (80 species)
- Pseudoscorpionida - pseudoscorpions (3,000 species)
- Ricinulei - ricinuleids, hooded tickspiders (60 species)
- Schizomida - "split middle" whip scorpions with divided exoskeletons (220 species)
- Scorpiones - scorpions (2,000 species)
- Solifugae - solpugids, windscorpions, sun spiders or camel spiders (900 species)
- † Haptopoda - extinct
- Uropygi - whip scorpion, forelegs modified into sensory appendages and a long tail on abdomen tip (100 species)
- Acarina - mites and ticks (30,000 species)
It is estimated that a total of 98,000 arachnid species have been described, and that there may be up to 600,000 in total, including undescribed species .
- Main article: Acarina
Acarina or Acari are a taxon of arachnids that contains mites and ticks. Its fossil history goes back to the Devonian era. In most modern treatments, the Acari is considered a subclass of Arachnida and is composed of 2-3 orders or superorders: Acariformes, Parasitiformes, and Opilioacariformes. Most acarines are minute to small (e.g. 0.080-1.00 mm), but the giants of the Acari (some ticks and red velvet mites) may reach lengths of 10-20 mm. It is estimated that over 50,000 species have been described (as of 1999) and that a million or more species are currently living. The study of mites and ticks is called acarology.
Only the faintest traces of primary segmentation remain in mites, the prosoma and opisthosoma being insensibly fused, and a region of flexible cuticle (the cirumcapitular furrow) separates the chelicerae and pedipalps from the rest of the body. This anterior body region is called the capitulum or gnathosoma and is also found in the Ricinulei. The remainder of the body is called the idiosoma and is unique to mites. Most adult mites have four pairs of legs, like other arachnids, but some have fewer. For example, gall mites like Phyllocoptes variabilis (superfamily Eriophyioidea) have a wormlike body with only two pairs of legs; some parasitic mites have only one or three pairs of legs in the adult stage. Larval and prelarval stages have a maximum of three pairs of legs; adult mites with only three pairs of legs may be called 'larviform'.
Acarine ontogeny consists of an egg, a prelarval stage (often absent), a larval stage (hexapod except in Eriophyoidea which have only 2 pairs of legs), and a series of nymphal stages. Larvae (and prelarvae) have a maximum of 3 pairs of legs (legs are often reduced to stubs or absent in prelarvae); legs IV are added at the first nymphal stage.
Acarines live in practically every habitat, and include aquatic (freshwater and sea water) and terrestrial species. They outnumber other arthropods in the soil organic matter and detritus. Many are parasitic, and they affect both vertebrates and invertebrates. Most parasitic forms are external parasites, while the free living forms are generally predaceous and may even be used to control undesirable arthropods. Others are detritivores that help to break down forest litter and dead organic matter such as skin cells. Others still are plant feeders and may damage crops. Damage to crops is perhaps the most costly economic effect of mites, especially by the spider mites and their relatives (Tetranychoidea), earth mites (Penthaleidae), thread-footed mites (Tarsonemidae) and the gall and rust mites (Eriophyoidea). Some parasitic forms affect humans and other mammals, causing damage by their feeding, and can even be vectors of diseases such as scrub typhus and rickettsial pox. A well-known effect of mites on humans is their role as an allergen and the stimulation of asthma in people affected by the repiratory disease. The use of predatory mites (e.g. Phytoseiidae) in pest control and herbivorous mites that attack weeds are also of importance. An unquantified, but major positive contribution of the Acari is their normal functioning in ecosystems, especially their roles in the decomposer subsystem .
- Main article: Amblypygi
Amblypygids are also known as tailless whip scorpions or cave spiders. Approximately 5 families, 17 genera and 136 species have been described. They are found in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. Some species are subterranean; many are nocturnal. During the day, they may hide under logs, bark, stones, or leaves. They prefer a humid environment. Amblypygids may range from 5 to 40 mm. Their bodies are broad and highly flattened and the first pair of legs (the first walking legs in most arachnid orders) are modified to act as sensory organs. (Compare solifugids, uropygids, and schizomids.) These very thin modified legs can extend several times the length of body. They have no silk glands or venomous fangs, but can have prominent pincer-like pedipalps. Amblypygids often move about sideways on their six walking legs, with one "whip" pointed in the direction of travel while the other probes on either side of them. Prey are located with these "whips", captured with pedipalps, then torn to pieces with chelicerae. Fossilised amblypygids have been found dating back to the Carboniferous period.
Amblypygids, particularly the species Phrynus marginemaculatus and Damon diadema, are thought to be one of the few species of arachnids that show signs of social behavior. Research conducted at Cornell University by entomologists suggests that mother amblypygids comfort their young by gently caressing the offspring with her feelers. Further, when two or more siblings were placed in an unfamiliar environment, such as a cage, they would seek each other out and gather back in a group .
- Main article: spider
Spiders are the most numerous and familiar of the arachnids. All spiders produce silk, a thin, strong protein strand extruded by the spider from spinnerets most commonly found on the end of the abdomen. Many species use it to trap insects in webs, although there are many species that hunt freely. Silk can be used to aid in climbing, form smooth walls for burrows, build egg sacs, wrap prey, and temporarily hold sperm, even flying, among other applications.
All spiders except those in the families Uloboridae and Holarchaeidae, and in the suborder Mesothelae (together about 350 species) can inject venom to protect themselves or to kill and liquefy prey. Only about 200 species, however, have bites that can pose health problems to humans . Many larger species' bites may be painful, but will not produce lasting health concerns.
Spiders are found all over the world, from the tropics to the Arctic, with some extreme species even living underwater in silken domes they supply with air, and on the tops of mountains.
- Main article: Haptopoda
Haptopoda is an extinct order known exclusively from a few specimens from the Upper Carboniferous of the United Kingdom. It is monotypic, i. e., has only one species, Plesiosiro madeleyi Pocock 1911. Relationships with other arachnids are obscure, but closest relatives may be the Amblypygi, Thelyphonida and Schizomida of the tetrapulmonate clade .
- Main article: Opiliones
Opiliones (better known as "harvestmen") are arachnids which are harmless to people and are known for their exceptionally long walking legs, compared to their body size. As of 2005, over 6,300 species of Phalangids have been discovered worldwide. The order Opiliones can be divided in four suborders: Cyphophthalmi, Eupnoi, Dyspnoi and Laniatores. Well-preserved fossils have been found in the 400-million year old Rhynie cherts of Scotland, which look surpringly modern, indicating that the basic structure of the harvestmen hasn't changed much since then. Their closest relatives are probably the mites (Acari).
The difference between harvestmen and spiders is that in harvestmen the two main body sections (the abdomen with ten segments and cephalothorax, or prosoma and opisthosoma) are nearly joined, so that they appear to be one oval structure. In more advanced species, the first five abdominal segments are often fused into a dorsal shield called the scutum, which is normally fused with the carapace. Sometimes this shield is only present in males. The two most posterior abdominal segments can be reduced or separated in the middle on the surface to form two plates laying next to each other. The second pair of legs are longer than the others and works as antennae. They have a single pair of eyes in the middle of their heads, orientated sideways. They have a pair of prosomatic scent glands that secrete a peculiar smelling fluid when disturbed. Harvestmen do not have silk glands and do not possess poison glands, posing absolutely no danger to humans. They breathe through tracheae. Between the base of the fourth pair of legs and the abdomen a pair of spiracles are located, one opening on each side. In more active species, spiracles are also found upon the tibia of the legs. They have a gonopore on the ventral cephalothorax, and the copulation is direct as the male has a penis (while the female has an ovipositor).
Typical body length does not exceed 7 mm (about ¼ in) even in the largest species. However, leg span is much larger and can exceed 160 mm (over 6 in). Most species live for a year. Many species are omnivorous, eating primarily small insects and all kinds of plant material and fungi; some are scavengers of the decays of any dead animal, bird dung and other fecal material. Mating involves direct copulation, rather than the deposition of a spermatophore. They are mostly nocturnal and coloured in hues of brown, although there are a number of diurnal species which have vivid patterns in yellow, green and black with varied reddish and blackish mottling and reticulation.
- Main article: Palpigradi
Palpigradi, commonly known as "microwhip scorpions", are tiny cousins of the uropygid, or whip scorpion, no more than 3 mm in length. They have a thin, pale, segmented carapace which terminates in a whip-like flagellum, made up of 15 segments. The carapace is divided into two plates between the third and fourth leg set. They have no eyes. Some species have three pairs of book lungs, while others have no lungs at all. Approximately 80 species of Palpigradi have been described worldwide, all in the family Eukoeneniidae, which contains four genera.
They are believed to be predators like their larger relatives, feeding on minuscule insects in their habitat. Their mating habits are unknown, except that they lay only a few relatively large eggs at a time. Microwhip scorpions need a damp environment to survive, and they always hide from light, so they are commonly found in the moist earth under buried stones and rocks. They can be found on every continent, except in arctic and antarctic regions.
- Main article: Phalangiotarbida
The affinities of phalangiotarbids are obscure, with most authors favouring affinities with Opiliones (harvestmen) and/or Acari (mites and ticks). Phalangiotarbida has been recently proposed to be sister group to (Palpigradi+Tetrapulmonata): the taxon Megoperculata sensu Shultz (1990). (Pollitt et al., 2004).
- Main article: pseudoscorpion
Pseudoscorpions are small arthropods with a flat, pear-shaped body and pincers that resemble those of scorpions. They range from 2 to 8 mm (Template:Frac to ⅓ inch) in length . The opisthosoma is made up of twelve segments, each guarded by plate-like tergites above and sternites below. The abdomen is short and rounded at the rear, rather than extending into a segmented tail and stinger like true scorpions. The colour of the body can be yellowish-tan to dark-brown, with the paired claws often a contrasting colour. They may have two, four or no eyes. They have two very long palpal chelae (pedipalps or pincers) which strongly resemble the pincers found on a scorpion. The pedipalps generally consist of an immobile "hand" and "finger", with a separate movable finger controlled by an adductor muscle. A venom gland and duct are usually located in the mobile finger; the poison is used to capture and immobilise the pseudoscorpion's prey. During digestion, pseudoscorpions pour a mildly corrosive fluid over the prey, then ingest the liquefied remains. Pseudoscorpions spin silk from a gland in their jaws to make disk-shaped cocoons for mating, molting, or waiting out cold weather. Another trait they share with their closest relatives, the spiders, is breathing through spiracles. Most spiders have one pair of spiracles, and one of book lungs, but pseudoscorpions do not have book lungs.
There are more than 2,000 species of pseudoscorpions recorded. They range worldwide, even in temperate to cold regions, but have their most dense and diverse populations in the tropics and subtropics. The fossil record of pseudoscorpions dates back over 380 million years, to the Devonian period, near the time when the first land-animal fossils appear.
During the elaborate mating dance, the male of some pseudoscorpion species pulls a female over a spermatophore previously laid upon a surface . In other species, the male also pushes the sperm into the female genitals using the forelegs .The female carries the fertilised eggs in a brood pouch attached to her abdomen, and the young ride on the mother for a short time after they hatch . Up to two dozen young are hatched in a single brood; there may be more than one brood per year. The young go through three molts over the course of several years before reaching adulthood. Adult pseudoscorpions live 2 to 3 years. They are active in the warm months of the year, overwintering in silken coccoons when the weather grows cold.
Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans since they prey on clothes moth larvae, carpet beetle larvae, booklice, ants, mites, and small flies. They are small and inoffensive, and are rarely seen due to their size. They usually enter the home by "riding along" with larger insects (known as phoresy), or are brought in with firewood. They are often observed in bathrooms or laundry rooms, since they seek humidity. They may sometimes be found feeding on mites under the wing covers of certain beetles.
- Main article: Ricinulei
Riniculei (hooded tickspiders) are 5–10 mm long. Their most notable feature is a "hood" which can be raised and lowered over the head; when lowered, it covers the mouth and the chelicerae. Ricinulei have no eyes. The pedipalps end in pincers that are small relative to their bodies, when compared to those of the related orders of scorpions and pseudoscorpions. The heavy-bodied abdomen forms a narrow pedicel, or waist, where it attaches to the prosoma. In males, the third pair of legs are modified to form copulatory organs. Malpighian tubules and a pair of coxal glands make up the excretory system. They have no lungs, as gas exchange takes place through the trachea.
Ricinulei are predators, feeding on other small arthropods. Little is known about their mating habits; the males have been observed using their modified third leg to transfer a spermatophore to the female. The eggs are carried under the mother's hood, until the young hatch into six-legged "larva", which later molt into their adult forms. Ricinulei require moisture to survive. Approximately 57 species of ricinuleids have been described worldwide, all in a single family which contains 3 genera.
- Main article: Schizomida
Schizomida is an order of arachnids which tend to live in the top layer of soils. Schizomids present the prosoma covered by a large protopeltidium and smaller, paired, mesopeltidia and metapeltidia. There are no eyes. The opisthosoma is a smooth oval of 12 recognisable somites. The first is reduced and forms the pedicel. The last three are much constricted, forming the pygidium. The last somite bears the flagellum, which in this order is short and consists of not more than four segments.
The name means "split or cleaved middle", referring to the way the cephalothorax is divided into two separate plates. Like the related orders Uropygi, Amblypygi, and Solpugida, the schizomids use only six legs for walking, having modified their first two legs to serve as sensory organs. They also have large well-developed pedipalps (pincers) just behind the sensory legs.
- Main article: scorpion
Scorpions are characterised by a metasoma (tail) comprising six segments, the last containing the scorpion's anus and bearing the telson (the sting). The telson, in turn, consists of the vesicle, which holds a pair of venom glands and the hypodermic aculeus, the venom-injecting barb. The abdomen's front half, the mseosoma, is made up of six segments. The first segment contains the sexual organs as well as a pair of vestigial and modified appendages forming a structure called the genital operculum. The second segment bears a pair of featherlike sensory organs known as the pectines; the final four segments each contain a pair of book lungs. The mesosoma is armored with chitinous plates, known as tergites on the upper surface and sternites on the lower surface.
The cuticle of scorpions is covered with hairs in some places that act like balance organs. An outer layer that makes them fluorescent green under ultraviolet light is called the hyaline layer. Newly molted scorpions do not glow until after their cuticle has hardened. The fluoresent hyaline layer can be intact in fossil rocks that are hundreds of millions of years old.
Scorpions are opportunistic predators of small arthropods and insects. They use their chela (pincers) to catch the prey initially. Depending on the toxicity of their venom and size of their claws, they will then either crush the prey or inject it with neurotoxic venom. The neurotoxins consist of a variety of small proteins as well as sodium and potassium cations, which serve to interfere with neurotransmission in the victim. Scorpions use their venom to kill or paralyze their prey so that it can be eaten; in general it is fast acting, allowing for effective prey capture. Scorpion venoms are optimised for action upon other arthropods and therefore most scorpions are relatively harmless to humans; stings produce only local effects (such as pain, numbness or swelling). A few scorpion species, however, mostly in the family Buthidae, can be dangerous to humans. The scorpion which is responsible for the most human deaths is the Androctonus australis, or fat-tailed scorpion of North Africa. The toxicity of A. australis's venom is roughly half that of L. quinquestriatus, but since A. australis injects quite a bit more venom into its prey, it is the most deadly to humans. Human deaths normally occur in the young, elderly, or infirm; scorpions are generally unable to deliver enough venom to kill healthy adults. Some people, however may be allergic to the venom of some species, in which case the scorpion's sting can more likely kill. A primary symptom of a scorpion sting is numbing at the injection site, sometimes lasting for several days. It has been found that scorpions have two types of venom: a translucent, weaker venom designed to stun only, and an opaque, more potent venom designed to kill heavier threats .
Unlike the majority of Arachnida species, scorpions are viviparous. The young are born one by one, and the brood is carried about on its mother's back until the young have undergone at least one moult. The young generally resemble their parents, requiring between five and seven moults to reach maturity. Scorpions have quite variable lifespans and the lifespan of most species is not known. The age range appears to be approximately 4-25 years (25 years being the maximum reported life span in the species H. arizonensis). They are nocturnal and fossorial, finding shelter during the day in the relative cool of underground holes or undersides of rocks and coming out at night to hunt and feed. Scorpions prefer to live in areas where the temperatures range from 20°C to 37 °C (68°F to 99 °F), but may survive in the temperature range of 14 °C to 45 °C (57 °F to 113 °F) .
Scorpions have been found in many fossil records, including coal deposits from the Carboniferous Period and in marine Silurian deposits. They are thought to have existed in some form since about 425–450 million years ago. They are believed to have an oceanic origin, with gills and a claw like appendage that enabled them to hold onto rocky shores or seaweed.
- Main article: Solifugae
Solifugae is a group of 900 species of arachnids, commonly known as camel spiders, wind scorpions, and sun spiders. The name derives from Latin, and means those that flee from the sun. Most Solifugae live in tropical or semitropical regions where they inhabit warm and arid habitats, but some species have been known to live in grassland or forest habitats. The most distinctive feature of Solifugae is their large chelicerae. Each of the two chelicerae are composed of two articles forming a powerful pincer; each article bears a variable number of teeth. Males in all families but Eremobatidae possess a flagellum on the basal article of the chelicera. Solifugae also have long pedipalps, which function as sense organs similar to insects' antennae and give the appearance of the two extra legs. Pedipalps terminate in eversible adhesive organs.
Solifugae are carnivorous or omnivorous, with most species feeding on termites, darkling beetles, and other small arthropods; however, solifugae have been videotaped consuming larger prey such as lizards. Prey is located with the pedipalps and killed and cut into pieces by the chelicerae. The prey is then liquefied and the liquid ingested through the pharynx. Reproduction can involve direct or indirect sperm transfer; when indirect, the male emits a spermatophore on the ground and then inserts it with his chelicerae in the female's genital pore.
- Main article: Trigonotarbida
The Order Trigonotarbida is an extinct group of arachnids whose fossil record extends from the Silurian to the Lower Permian and are known from several localities in Europe and North America. They superficially resemble spiders, to which they were clearly related. It was once thought that trigonotarbids lacked the silk-producing spinnerets that have apparently been crucial to the spider's evolutionary success, though in recent years at least one fossil find seems to show distinct microtubercles on its hind legs, akin to those used by spiders to direct and manipulate their silk.
These early arachnids seem to have been adapted to stalking prey on the ground. They have been found within the very structure of ground-dwellings plants, possibly where they hid to await their prey. Trigonotarbids are currently the oldest known land arthropods. They lack silk glands on the opisthosoma and cheliceral poison glands, and most likely represented independent offshoots of the Arachnida.
- Main article: Uropygi
The Uropygi, commonly known as whip scorpions, range from 25 to 85 mm in length; the largest species, of the genus Mastigoproctus, reaches 85 mm. Like the related orders Schizomida, Amblypygi, and Solifugae, the uropygids use only six legs for walking, having modified their first two legs to serve as antennae-like sensory organs. Many species also have very large scorpion-like pedipalps (pincers). They have one pair of eyes at the front of the cephalothorax and three on each side of the head. Whip scorpions have no poison glands, but they do have glands near the rear of their abdomen that can spray a combination of acetic acid and octanoic acid when they are bothered. Other species spray formic acid or chlorine. As of 2006, over 100 species of uropygids have been described worldwide.
Whip scorpions are carnivorous, nocturnal hunters feeding mostly on insects but sometimes on worms and slugs. The prey is crushed between special teeth on the inside of the trochanters (the second segment of the leg) of the front legs. They are valuable in controlling the population of roaches and crickets.
Males secrete a sperm sac, which is transferred to the female. Up to 35 eggs are laid in a burrow, within a mucous membrane that preserves moisture. Mothers stay with the eggs and do not eat. The white young that hatch from the eggs climb onto their mother's back and attach themselves there with special suckers. After the first molt they look like miniature whip scorpions, and leave the burrow; the mother dies soon after. The young grow slowly, going through three molts in about three years before reaching adulthood.
Uropygids are found in tropical and subtropical areas worldwide, usually in underground burrows which they dig with their pedipalps. They may also burrow under logs, rotting wood, rocks, and other natural debris. They enjoy humid, dark places and avoid the light.
- ↑ Ruppert, E., Fox, R., & Barnes, R. (2007) Invertebrate Zoology: A functional evolutionary approach. 7th Edition. Thomson Learning ISBN 0-03-025982-7
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pinto-da-Rocha, R., Machado, G. & Giribet, G. (2007) Harvestmen - The Biology of Opiliones. Harvard University Press ISBN 0-674-02343-9
- ↑ Arthur D. Chapman (2005). Numbers of living species in Australia and the world, Department of the Environment and Heritage. ISBN 0-642-56850-2.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 D. E. Walter & H. C. Proctor (1999). Mites: Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney and CABI, Wallingford. ISBN 0-86840-529-9.
- ↑ Jeanna Bryner. Creepy: Spiders Love to Snuggle. LiveScience.
- ↑ James H. Diaz (2004). The global epidemiology, syndromic classification, management, and prevention of spider bites. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 71 (2): 239–250.
- ↑ Dunlop (2000). "The Carboniferous arachnid Plesiosiro" 19th European Colloquium of Arachnology, 17-22 July 2000, University of Aarhus, Denmark.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Steve Jacobs. Entomological Notes: Pseudoscorpion Fact Sheet. Pennsylvania State University, Department of Entomology.
- ↑ Peter Weygoldt (1966). Spermatophore Web Formation in a Pseudoscorpion. Science 153 (3744): 1647–1649.
- ↑ (1993). Mating biology resolves trichotomy for cheliferoid pseudoscorpions (Pseudoscorpionida, Cheliferoidea). Journal of Arachnology 21 (2).
- ↑ David Cheng. Scorpion sting. eMedicine.
- ↑ Jan Ove Rein (1993). Sting use in two species of Parabuthus scorpions (Buthidae). Journal of Arachnology 21: 60–63.
- ↑ W. R. Lourenco (2000). Reproduction in scorpions, with special reference to parthenogenesis. European Arachnology: 71–85.
- ↑ Neil F. Hadley (1970). Water relations of the desert scorpion Hadrurus arizonensis. Journal of Experimental Biology 53: 547–558.
- ↑ K. Hoshino, A. T. V. Moura & H. M. G. de Paula (2006). Selection of environmental temperature by the yellow scorpion Tityus serrulatus Lutz & Mello, 1922 (Scorpiones, Buthidae). J. Venom. Anim. Toxins incl. Trop. Dis. 12 (1): 59–66.
- Giribet, G., Edgecombe, G.D., Wheeler, W.C. & Babbitt, C. (2002): Phylogeny and systematic position of Opiliones: a combined analysis of chelicerate relationships using morphological and molecular data. Cladistics 18: 5-70.
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Nuts are nutrient-rich – they contain a spectrum of micronutrients including LDL-lowering phytosterols, circulation-promoting arginine, minerals - potassium, calcium, magnesium, selenium, and antioxidants including phenols, resveratrol, tocopherols (vitamin E), and carotenoids.
Nuts, and almonds in particular, are some of the most beneficial foods for decreasing heart disease risk:
- A 2009 meta-analysis confirmed that almond consumption of at least 25 g per day (about 1 ounce) is associated with a 7 mg/dL decrease in total cholesterol.1
- Collectively, the data from the four most recent U.S. studies estimates that Americans who eat five or more servings of nuts per week have a 35% reduced risk of coronary heart disease.2
There are many potential mechanisms by which nuts might exert these beneficial effects on heart health – the dramatic decrease in heart disease risk from nut consumption can’t be explained by cholesterol lowering alone. Scientists are now investigating the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of nuts for their potential cardioprotective effects.
Almonds may have powerful antioxidant activity, in addition to their cholesterol-lowering activity. As well as their vitamin E, the skins of almonds contain a large and varied collection of phenol antioxidants.
A study of hyperlipidemic individuals fed either almonds or a snack with a similar fatty acid profile each day for 4 weeks compared markers of oxidative stress in these two groups. The subjects fed almonds showed reductions in markers of oxidative stress.3
This alleviation of oxidative stress was reflected in reduces serum levels of oxidized LDL.4 Since oxidation renders LDL more likely to be taken up by inflammatory cells, oxidized LDL is more dangerous in relation to atherosclerotic plaque formation. The synergistic effects of the healthy fats, antioxidants, and surely many other phytochemicals in almonds help to prevent this early and important step in the development of atherosclerosis. Though this study was reported on almonds, other nuts and seeds have similar marked effects that protect the heart.
1. Phung OJ, Makanji SS, White CM, Coleman CI. Almonds have a neutral effect on serum lipid profiles: a meta-analysis of randomized trials. J Am Diet Assoc. 2009 May;109(5):865-73.
2. Kris-Etherton PM et al. The Role of Tree Nuts and Peanuts in the Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease: Multiple Potential Mechanisms. J. Nutr. 138: 1746S–1751S, 2008.
3. Jenkins DJ, Kendall CW, Marchie A, et al. Almonds Reduce Biomarkers of Lipid Peroxidation in Older Hyperlipidemic Subjects. J. Nutr. 138: 908–913, 2008.
USDA/Agricultural Research Service (2008, November 4). Antioxidant Effects From Eating Almonds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 25, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/10/081031213057.htm
4. Jenkins DJ, Kendall CW, Marchie A, et al. Dose response of almonds on coronary heart disease risk factors: blood lipids, oxidized low-density lipoproteins, lipoprotein(a), homocysteine, and pulmonary nitric oxide: a randomized, controlled, crossover trial. Circulation. 2002;106:1327–32. | <urn:uuid:acf2b42b-c32d-495f-9d54-d950d75d1aeb> | {
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Ash dieback, caused by Chalara fraxinea has increasingly been observed in European countries on ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior) in the last ten years. Because ash dieback may represent a serious threat to forest, amenity and nursery ash trees, C. fraxinea was added to the EPPO Alert List. However, much data is lacking on its pathogenicity (other biotic and abiotic factors could be involved in ash dieback), biology, geographical distribution and economic impact. Therefore EPPO organized a workshop to bring together researchers and experts in forestry quarantine to discuss recent research progress and advice NPPOs how to slow down the spread of this disease.
At the kind invitation of the “Norsk Institutt for Skog og Landskap” (Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute) the workshop was organized in Oslo. A total of 44 experts from 23 countries participated in this workshop. Warm thanks are due to Mr Bjørn Økland and his colleagues for the fine organization of the meeting and their warm welcome in Oslo.
The workshop discussed in particular the following main topics:
The workshop participants agreed, based on the current knowledge of this pest, several observations, conclusions and recommendations which are considered essential for NPPOs.
Technical visit (view more pictures of the Workshop>>)
The causal agent of dieback of European ash (Fraxinus excelsior) was first (2006) described as Chalara fraxinea. Study of the teleomorph of C. fraxinea revealed a species complex but that the strain causing ash dieback should be re-assigned as Hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus (2009).
A new real-time PCR test for the identification of Chalara fraxinea was presented which has been recently accredited by the French accreditation body. The test is specific for C. fraxinea and does not cross react with the non-pathogenic Hymenosciphus albidus.
F. excelsior and F. angustifolia are susceptible but C. fraxinea has not been reported on F. ornus (although some susceptibility was seen in inoculation experiments). Regarding American and Asian Fraxinus spp. more information is required regarding their susceptibility to C. fraxinea.
Many uncertainties still remain regarding the life cycle, infection process and the influence of environmental conditions and further research is required to address these.
Reports of the spread and impact of C. fraxinea were presented from Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden. A large endangered area of the EPPO region is however not infested yet (in particular the Western part of Europe).
The economic and environmental impact of this disease is very substantial. For instance in Denmark it is estimated that 60-90 % of ash stands are affected and will disappear. Comparable impacts were reported from Germany, including serious losses in nurseries growing ash plants. The ecological value of F. excelsior is very important e.g. as a valuable species on river banks and in cultural landscapes.
It is necessary to systematically collect data regarding the impact of C. fraxinea, including survey results regarding the spread of the disease and its presence in nurseries, number of diseased trees removed, costs of measures.
In infested areas C. fraxinea is not only found in forest and amenity plantations but also in nurseries (including on 1-year old seedlings), as reported by Austria. Severe impacts on young ash plants in nurseries were reported by Germany.
The importance of maintaining apparently tolerant specimens in infested stands was underlined as these may form a basis for the development of future tolerant populations. If trees in the urban environment are infested, the progress of the disease may be slowed down by removing leaves on the ground during autumn to lower ascospore production. It is observed that ash dieback symptoms are more serious in ash trees planted in wet and organic rich soils.
Although questions regarding spread mechanisms still remain, it is likely that natural spread is the most important factor on the continent. However, for endangered areas which are not infested yet the introduction (UK, Irl) or spread can be slowed down by preventing the spread associated with plants for planting. Plants for planting which are produced in nurseries outside infested areas from disinfected seeds and traded in spring (to avoid trade of asymptomatic plants) pose a lower risk.
Chalara fraxinea identity, hosts and life cycle
Hymenoscyphus species associated to European ash
A.M. Hietala & H. Solheim (NO)
Mechanisms of spread and epidemiology of Chalara fraxinea
Disease spread and tracking spores
H. Solheim, V. Timmerman & I. Børja (NO)
Seasonal activity and genetic variation of Chalara fraxinea
S. Johansson (SE)
Endangered area and impact
Impact of Chalara fraxinea ash dieback on Danish forests
I. M. Thomsen (DK)
Studies on ash dieback caused by Chalara fraxinea in Austria - VIDEO: Ascospore release (1.8 Mbytes)
T. Kirisits & T. L. Cech (AT)
Contemporary situation on ash dieback in Czech Republic
L. Jankovsky (CZ)
Ultrastructural modifications in ash tissues colonized by Chalara fraxinea
L. Montecchio, E. Dal Maso, L. Scattolin (IT)
Root rot and dieback of Fraxinus excelsior
R. Vasaitis (SE)
Rachises as key to ash decline due to Chalara fraxinea
N. Ogris (SI)
Survey and control measures
Circumstances for successful pathogen eradication
D. Jurc (SI)
New approaches for biocontrol of the ash dieback caused by Chalara fraxinea in Egypt
F.M. Salem (EG)
Chalara fraxinea, how to deal with it in the cultural landscape
J. Stenlid (SE)
- Influence of temperature and available water on growth of Chalara fraxinea. T. Hauptman (SI)
- Ash dieback in Czech Republic – pathogen Chalara fraxinea. V. Kostalova (CZ)
- Chalara fraxinea in Estonia. R. Drenkhan (EE)
- Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) decline in Lithuania and investigation of fungus Chalara fraxinea. A. Gustiene (LT)
- Common ash (Fraxinus excelsior) dieback in Latvia. N. Arhipova (LV)
- Chalara fraxinea on Fraxinus spp. in Norway (. V. Talgo (NO)
- Occurrence of ash dieback in Slovakia. R. Leontovic (SK)
- Chalara fraxinea: survey strategy in Wallonia. A. Chandelier (BE) | <urn:uuid:8fcb9b23-643b-447c-ab23-8eb57aa7e7b7> | {
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The technology is based on the concepts of Augmented Reality (AR), bringing the components of the digital world into the real world and is primarily used during the live broadcast of major football events.
A computer system technology first invented by Sportvision Company that makes the broadcasting of various sports more fascinating for the viewers. The prime factor of this technology is to mark the Down positions that define the 1st and Ten states between the goal line and the line marked 10 yards from it in football matches. It is represented by a yellow line that corporeally doesn't exist on the field but virtually denotes the state where the player has either scored a goal, left the field of play or is declared 'Down' by the official.
An aggregator box converts the information data (sent by the camera encoders) into modulated audio which is further conveyed to the corresponding computer system. All the data is synchronised with the host camera and is then demodulated into digital data for the software program that draws the virtual yellow line on the first Down position.
The cameras used in the system are "instrumented cameras" that have electronic encoders with the help of which, live data is forwarded to the broadcaster's truck for further processes. Due to this element, the yellow line is fixed at the same place even when the cameras follow players or the ball. In some games, skycams are also used in this graphical technology.
The system comprises a combination of motion sensors that are linked with the cameras (the number of cameras varies according to the sport played) to record the game.
Chroma Keying computers are also involved in this system that provides colours to the scene such as the colour of grass etc.
Ideally, a total number of four computers are used in the system, each linked with a camera and the fourth one is the shared computer.
The position of the cameras is set in conjunction with the predefined 3D model of the playground.
The basic idea of inventing this system is to signify the Down position for the TV viewers so that they can better judge the game.
*We crave for more modifications
and accuracy. Help us do that with your valuable feedback. No responsibility is taken for
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- Word Explorer
|part of speech:
||genuine, true, and not pretended.
The mayor took a sincere interest in the people and their problems.
- authentic, genuine, natural, true
- similar words:
- honest, warm
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Cold medicines for kids: What's the risk?
Cough and cold medicines can pose serious risks for young children. Know the facts and understand treatment alternatives.By Mayo Clinic Staff
Jay L. Hoecker, M.D.
Over-the-counter cough and cold medicines are the best way to help a child who has a cold feel better — right? Think again. Here's practical advice from Jay L. Hoecker, M.D., an emeritus pediatrics specialist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
What's the concern about cough and cold medicines for kids?
Over-the-counter cough and cold medicines are intended to treat the symptoms of coughs and colds, not the underlying disease. Research suggests that these medicines haven't been proved to work any better than inactive medicine (placebo). More important, these medications have potentially serious side effects, including fatal overdoses in children younger than 2 years old.
Don't use over-the-counter medicines, except for fever reducers and pain relievers, to treat coughs and colds in children younger than 6 years old. Also, consider avoiding use of these medicines for children younger than 12 years old.
What about antibiotics?
Antibiotics can be used to combat bacterial infections but have no effect on viruses, which cause colds. If your child has a cold, antibiotics won't help. Remember, the more your child uses antibiotics, the more likely he or she is to get sick with an antibiotic-resistant infection in the future.
Can any medications help treat the common cold?
An over-the-counter pain reliever — such as acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) or ibuprofen (Advil, Children's Motrin, others) — can reduce a fever and ease the pain of a sore throat. However, fevers are generally harmless. The main purpose for treating them is to help your child feel comfortable.
If you give your child a pain reliever, follow the dosing guidelines carefully. For children younger than 3 months old, don't give acetaminophen until your baby has been seen by a doctor. Don't give ibuprofen to a child younger than 6 months old or to children who are vomiting constantly or are dehydrated. Also, use caution when giving aspirin to children.
Is codeine OK?
No. The Food and Drug Administration has issued its strongest warning against the use of codeine to treat a cough or pain and the narcotic tramadol (Ultram) to treat pain in children younger than 12 years old. This is due to the potential for serious side effects, such as slowed or difficult breathing.
How can I help my child feel better?
To help your child cope with a cough or cold:
- Offer fluids. Liquids such as water, juice and broth might help thin secretions. Warm liquids, such as tea or chicken soup, might have a soothing effect, increase the flow of nasal mucus and loosen respiratory secretions.
- Run a cool-mist humidifier. This can help shrink nasal passages and loosen nasal secretions.
- Use a suction bulb. Use this device on a baby or young child to draw mucus out of the nose.
- Use nasal saline. Over-the-counter saline can keep nasal passage moist. In younger children, use saline nasal drops. For older children, use a saline nasal spray or saline nasal irrigation.
- Offer cold or frozen drinks or foods. Ice cream, frozen fruit pops, ice or cold beverages might feel good on a sore throat.
- Encourage salt water gargling. For children age 6 years and older, gargling salt water might soothe throat pain.
- Offer hard candy. For children age 5 years and older, sucking on a piece of hard candy might soothe throat pain. Hard candy is probably as effective as medicated lozenges and less likely to have harmful effects. However, hard candy is a choking hazard and shouldn't be given to younger children.
What's the best way to prevent the common cold?
To help your child stay healthy:
Nov. 11, 2017
- Keep it clean. Teach your child to wash his or her hands thoroughly and often. When soap and water aren't available, provide an alcohol-based hand sanitizer or hand wipes. Keep toys and common household surfaces clean, too.
- Cover up. Teach your child to cough or sneeze into a tissue — and then toss it. If he or she can't reach a tissue in time, show your child how to cough or sneeze into the crook of the arm.
- Steer clear of colds. When possible, help or encourage your child to avoid close contact with anyone who has a cold.
See more In-depth
- Codeine and tramadol medicines: Drug safety communication — restricting use in children, recommending against use in breastfeeding women. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm554029.htm. Accessed Oct. 18, 2017.
- Pappas DE, et al. The common cold in children: Management and prevention. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/search. Accessed Oct. 18, 2017.
- Green JL, et al. Safety profile of cough and cold medication use in pediatrics. Pediatrics. 2017;139:1.
- Use caution when giving cough and cold products to kids. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/resourcesforyou/specialfeatures/ucm263948.htm. Accessed Oct. 18, 2017.
- Stopping germs at home, work and school. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/stopgerms.htm. Accessed Oct. 18, 2017.
- Drutz JE. Sore throat in children and adolescents: Symptomatic treatment. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/search. Accessed Oct. 18, 2017.
- Fever and your child. American Academy of Pediatrics. https://patiented.solutions.aap.org/handout.aspx?gbosid=156451&resultClick=1. Accessed Oct. 18, 2017. | <urn:uuid:289835bd-ee75-4b60-8ec1-4a57022e81b9> | {
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Updated 23 May 2015
Sir Thomas Fleming - the judge who sentenced Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plotters
Sir Sandford Fleming - credited with creating 'Standard Time'. Was a Scottish national who migrated to Canada
Sir Alexander Fleming - discovered penicillin which was used extensively during WWII.
Ian Fleming - author and Creator of the James Bond books (the character was based on a man with whom Fleming worked during WWII).
The illustration below shows a photograph of the human chromosomes when viewed with a microscope (this is called a karyotype). We have 22 pairs of chromosomes, plus the sexual chromosomes Y and X. Each parent contributed one chromosome in each pair. (With acknowledgement to http://b4fa.org/
Updated 20 February 2015
Use the menu bar to the side of the project page to navigate to any page of the project website. To post to the forum ("Activity Feed"), make sure you are signed in as a member.
Updated 18 April 2014
Use the menu bar (including the drop-down menus) across the top of the project page to navigate to any page of the project website.
Surname DNA testing is the the best "add-on" tool available to genealogists! The many advantages include:-
Surname tests (Y-DNA) enable genealogists to verify their father's father's...father's paternal ancestry. (The molecular (aka genetic) ancestry overrides the surname ancestry).
Molecular ancestry information can be very powerful when combined with traditional paper trails and can uncover family secrets!
- While a surname itself may give us incomplete or misleading or, at best, only general information about the origin of a family, DNA-testing can give us concrete evidence for identifying and separating family lines. Y-chromosome DNA testing is especially helpful because the male Y-chromosome is handed down, father to son, unchanged through the generations, except for rare mutations which, in themselves, can be helpful indicators of branching. The accessibility and affordability of family DNA testing is doubtless the greatest technical advance in the history of genealogical research because -- at long, long last -- we have a tool to break down those brick walls!
This project is keen for people from the United Kingdom, all the countries of Western Europe, Northern and Eastern Europe, the United States of America, Canada, the Caribbean, South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa (and anywhere else I have missed when I considered the countries in which the surname exists...) to please join it.
Like all surname projects, this one is intent upon proving connections using DNA. But it is NOT just surname ancestry. It is molecular (or as some prefer it, genetic) ancestry.
The best articles I have found to date for understanding just what 'DNA' is and how the results of testing can help you with your genealogy.
Here is a hint for you if you have tested FF.
Once you (or anyone) joins a project, you can go to your FTDNA Home Page and hover your mouse over the FF Drop-down menu visible in the blue tool bar. Then select "Advanced Matches" from that menu. Check FF and select whether you want to see your matches in either the full data base, or just in the specific projects that you have joined.Because it is a pain switching from one window to another, I have three browsers, so that I can get the same person’s Home page up showing different reports for the same tester all at the same time.
If you are reading this, then it is assumed you are hunting for details about your ancestors and extending your knowledge about your particular line.
DNA testing will certainly aid you in a number of ways but you must still have a paper trail if you want to name that ancestor when you find you have a match!
DNA testing will also inform you whether your paper trail is correct. (My favourite 'hobby-horse' is to tell you not to rely on the work of someone else UNLESS they have supplied you with references to enable you to check these for yourself. And please do check them). | <urn:uuid:4047f4f4-f399-4177-b249-249f4b71d595> | {
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- BDAS Meetings and Sidewalk Astronomy
- National Science Week: Scinema
- National Science Week: Technology Workshops
- Design and Technology Week: Solar Power
- School Holidays: Sound
Discovery works very closely with the Bendigo District Astronomical Society (BDAS). The partnership has resulted in Sidewalk Astronomy nights and other events at Discovery!
Sidewalk Astronomy dates, gold coin donations welcomed. Meet on the forecourt outside Discovery. Event subject to clear skies:
- 12 August 5.00pm - 7.00pm
- 9 September 5.30pm - 7.30pm
- 7 October 6.30pm - 8.30pm
- 11 November 7.30pm - 9.30pm
- 9 December 7.30pm - 9.30pm
We will be running technology-focussed workshops on Friday 19 August for people with a disability.
Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 August will have open exploration available to the general public, with technology dissections at noon.
To celebrate the inaugural Design and Technology Week, hosted by Design and Technology Teachers Association Victoria, the Discovery Centre will launch its solar panels with technology workshops looking into how solar energy works.
Bookings will soon be available online.
Image created by Studio Ampersand
Can we break things with sound? How do we change pitch or volume? And what is the most annoying sound in the world? Let's use whirling tubes, fire and things that go bang to explore how sound moves through instruments, the air, and into our brains. Sounds like fun!
Show Times: Noon and 2pm daily
Silence of Space
Sound doesn't travel through the (almost) empty vacuum of space, so no one can hear our noisy rockets once they've left Earth! What are some of the beautiful silent features of our sky, and what could they sound like if we transform radio waves into sound waves...
Show Times: 11:30am, 12:30pm and 1:30pm daily
Pretty much anything can become an instrument: music makers can come in all shapes and sizes! They can also make lots of different noises. See if you can put together an instrument that sounds like rain with our simple materials.
Activity Times: 10:30am to 1:30pm | <urn:uuid:9432c0c3-d08b-498a-80f4-de8f937c65b8> | {
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Why are so many Facebook friends sharing preposterous stories from Natural News?
Have you heard that eating whole lemons prevents cancer? Or that bathing in Himalayan salt rids the body of harmful toxins? That eating hijiki seaweed can delay hair graying? If you have a few Facebook friends, you’ve probably encountered some of these claims. The website Natural News —which seems like a parody but is unfortunately quite serious—published these preposterous stories, and many others just as silly, last week alone.
Hokum like this is best ignored, but hundreds of thousands of Americans fail to do so. Natural News has achieved astonishing traction on social media, garnering Facebook shares in the high five and low six figures. These numbers should trouble you—Natural News has an uncanny ability to move unsophisticated readers from harmless dietary balderdash to medical quackery to anti-government zealotry.
Let’s start by deconstructing the claim that eating whole lemons staves off cancer. The author cites two medical journal articles. She badly mischaracterizes the first, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in 1999. The study described the isolation of three compounds, known as coumarins, from lemon peel. Coumarins exhibit tumor-suppressing properties in a laboratory dish, but that does not mean that eating lemon peel prevents cancer. Even if the oral ingestion of coumarins were convincingly shown to fight cancer in a laboratory animal, we still wouldn’t know how much lemon peel would be required for a human to experience the same effects or whether you could tolerate the dose.
The second study the author cites is an enormous overreach. No one enjoys biostatistics, but bear with me and you’ll be better prepared to identify weak studies in the future. The study, published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer in 2000, purported to show a correlation between consumption of lemon peel and diminished cancer risk. The authors surveyed 242 skin cancer survivors and 228 controls about their citrus consumption habits, but the questionnaire wasn’t externally validated and has some screwy definitions. (Eating citrus peel “often,” for example, is defined as “50-75 percent of the time.” What does that mean?) The authors did not adequately control for race or skin tone, which is an important variable in skin cancer studies. The sample size was much too small. Only 163 of the 470 study participants reported eating citrus peel, and just 28 of them admitted to eating citrus peel often. That’s not enough to prove that eating lemon peel prevents skin cancer. In addition, the statistical correlation is very weak, close to undetectable. Had one more person with cancer reported eating citrus peel, the relationship would likely have disappeared. In fairness, the study authors acknowledged the small sample size and the need for more substantial follow-ups, but everyone knows how these correlational studies are reported in the media. This is why you should look for patterns in scientific literature rather than relying on individual studies.
Anytime someone tells you that eating something prevents cancer, your BS detector should start a-clanging. Natural News is full of these beauties. | <urn:uuid:1761aec4-3458-47b8-88b2-833f18347f15> | {
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Software system aids development of application programs that analyze signals.
An automated system to assist a General Aviation (GA) pilot in improving situational awareness of weather in flight is now undergoing development. This development is prompted by the observation that most fatal GA accidents are attributable to loss of weather awareness. Loss of weather awareness, in turn, has been attributed to the difficulty of interpreting traditional pre-flight weather briefings and the difficulty of both obtaining and interpreting traditional in-flight weather briefings. The developmental automated system not only improves weather awareness but also substantially reduces the time a pilot must spend in acquiring and maintaining weather awareness.
The automated system includes computer hardware and software, a speech-based hardware/software user interface, and hardware interfaces between the computer and aircraft radio-communication equipment. The heart of the system consists of artificial intelligence software, called Aviation Weather Environment (AWE), that implements a human-centered methodology oriented towards providing the weather information (1) that the pilot needs and/or wants, (2) at the appropriate time, and (3) in the appropriate format.
AWE can be characterized as a context-aware, domain-and-task knowledgeable, personalized, adaptive assistant. AWE automatically monitors weather reports for the pilot’s flight route and warns the pilot of any weather conditions outside the limits of acceptable weather conditions that the pilot has specified in advance. AWE provides textual and/or graphical representations of important weather elements overlaid on a navigation map (see figure). The representations depict current and forecast conditions in an easy-to-interpret manner and are geographically positioned next to each applicable airport to enable the pilot to visualize conditions along the route. In addition to automatic warnings, the system enables the pilot to verbally request (via the speech-based user interface) weather and airport information.
AWE is context-aware in the following sense: From the location of the aircraft (as determined by a Global Positioning System receiver) and the route as specified by the pilot, AWE determines the phase of flight. In determining the timing of warnings and the manner in which warnings are issued, AWE takes account of the phase of flight, the pilot’s definition of acceptable weather conditions, and the pilot’s preferences for automatic notification. By noting the pilot’s verbal requests for information during the various phases of flight, the system learns to provide the information, without explicit requests, at the corresponding times on subsequent flights under similar conditions.
This work was done by Lilly Spirkovska of Ames Research Center and Suresh K. Lodha of the University of California. For further information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line at www.techbriefs.com/tsp under the Information Sciences category.
Inquiries concerning rights for the commercial use of this invention should be addressed to the Patent Counsel, Ames Research Center, (650) 604-5104. Refer to ARC-14970-1. | <urn:uuid:0862edb0-1f05-462b-a6ed-daf8e9c5d1bb> | {
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Man: 00:00 Here we have an array of values that we'd like to flatten. Here is a flatten function that we would use prior to ES2019. Here we have console logged the values.flat and cloned the flat function on values to see what it produces.
00:15 When we run this code, we see that flat will concatenate all the values together, which includes skipping empty arrays and flattening other arrays. Besides for flat, ES2019 introduces a flatMap function on the array prototype as well. What this does is allows you to provide a map function that will get called before the array concatenation gets called.
00:40 If I change over to flatMap and use the identity function, which takes a value in and returns that same value, I could see that it's the same as flat. If instead do some more interesting transformation like casting it to a string, we see that it does the mapping function before concatenating. Now that we've seen the most basic functionality to flatMap, let's see what else we can do with it. Here we have a list of counts, with each count being an object of the number of, let's say, birds observed in the AM and PM at different sites.
01:19 An interesting property of flatMap is that can be used to filter, map, or both on an array. If we do counts.flatMap and iterate over each count, and decide we want to filter out values from site A, we can return if (count.site = A) an empty array, otherwise return the count itself. Now because flatMap will concatenate the resulting values, an empty array basically says ignore this value. If we console log this, we'll see that only the values from site B are returned.
01:54 Not only can we filter, because this is flatMap, we can return multiple values from our counts and each will be added the resulting array. If we run this again, we'll see that it now returns 2, 4, 1 and 7, which is the AM, the PM value, and the AM and the PM value from site B. Of course, if we only want to map, we could do that too. See? No more filter. | <urn:uuid:3a40715e-162a-4461-a115-192cc0543c8b> | {
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E.5. The Functioning of the Nazi Regime: State and Society
The Nazi state: strong dictatorship or polycratic chaos?
How did the Third Reich work? What was the role of the army, the industry, the state apparatus, the Nazi party, the SS? A debate closely connected to the discussion on the genesis of the Holocaust emerged about the functioning of the Third Reich.
The intentionalist position has tended to see the Third Reich above all as a dictatorship of Hitler, whereas the functionalist position has emphasized chaos in the government and the improvisatory character of Nazi decision-making. The intentionalists argued that almost all of Nazi propaganda centered on Hitler, that his personal popularity always was much higher than the prestige of his party, the army, or any other person or institution. Given his popularity, Hitler’s position was unassailable, all the more so, since the Nazi party had been founded on a strict “leadership principle” of absolute obedience to the leader. The regime soon tried to impose this personal loyalty and blind obedience on the army, the judiciary, the civil service, and all other areas of public (and even private) life. The intentionalists further pointed to Hitler’s impressive range of power: in 1934, after Hindenburg’s death, Hitler usurped the power of the state president, and in 1941 he seized the supreme command of the army, which he had strongly influenced already before. The SS carried out his racial visions, and the whole state apparatus worked to support them. The Führer’s will was the highest level of reference.
The functionalists dismissed the role of the dictator, arguing that a single man could not run all offices alone. They paid more attention to the structure of the Nazi state, focusing on four major power blocs that functioned partly independently from each other and often competed with each other: the Nazi party with all its organizations (including the SS), the state apparatus, the economy, and the army. Given this rather decentralized structure and its often chaotic overlapping, the functionalists saw Hitler as a weak dictator and explain the history of the Third Reich less as an outcome of Hitler’s will than as a dynamic of diverse power centers. The following chart summarizes the positions:
THE DEBATE ON THE FUNCTIONING OF THE THIRD REICH
|Intentionalist Interpretation||Functionalist Interpretation|
|1.Hitler’s role||Strong dictator; can implement his will||Weak dictator; depends on competing organizations|
|2.Structure of the state||Obedience to the dictator||Rivalry of offices in spite of the dictator
Four competing and relatively independent power blocks: economy, army, Nazi party/SS, state administration
|3.Implementation of policies||Hitler’s will
Realization of long-term goals
Primacy of ideology
|Spontaneous initiatives of organizations, improvisation, primacy of opportunism|
|4.Critique||Too personalistic, too much centered on Hitler, too rational, too apologetic of Germans in general||Ignores deliberate policies and the popularity of Hitler, overestimates independence of single organizations and apparatuses, too much focused on anonymous structures|
|Synthesis (according to Bracher and Jäckel): Hitler derived much of his strength from the rivalry and the overlapping responsibilities of state and party institutions. He thus could assume the role of a mediator. Single offices competed to win him over to their policies. Often they tried to implement what was considered to be his wish (example: genesis of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, August 1939). In a deeper sense, Hitler also was a mediator in a thoroughly divided German society neither of whose main forces (socialism, conservatives) had been able to dominate the other ever since the late Wilhelmine Empire.|
Whether Hitler deliberately applied the principle “divide and rule” or simply made use of the chaos of responsibilities existing since his appointment in 1933 is unclear. The very constitutional vagueness of the Third Reich (the Weimar Constitution remained in place but was largely ignored) gave the will of the leader more and more authoritative and legitimizing power. Undoubtedly the balance between the main rivaling institutions changed during the Third Reich: Hitler’s control of the military and the economy increased; the independence of the state apparatus and the economy diminished as the SS (the organization most closely associated with Hitler’s aims) assumed nearly total control toward the end. The army was placed under Hitler’s command in 1941 but (due to its essential role in the war) preserved a little more independence than other institutions.
Altogether, we should not see the four power blocs of the functionalists as too static. Although the economy and the army enjoyed some independence for much of the Third Reich, their status and interests changed in the twelve years of the Nazi regime. The economy was first left alone in order to complete the recovery from the devastating crisis. We have seen how Hitler courted big business and repressed the SA with its partly socialist demands. Until 1936 rearmament was limited and subordinated to the health of the national economy. Businessmen could largely do what they considered most profitable and faced almost no state invention (except for the removal of Jews and, indirectly, strong incentives for rearmament).
After 1936 rearmament and state control intensified. The government drafted a four-year plan that should prepare Germany for war by 1940 (neither the industrialists nor the public, however, were informed that readiness for war should be realized so quickly). The plan’s insistence on autarky and rapid rearmament sometimes contradicted industrialist interest, and the pace of war preparation raised concerns about the future of the economy. The economics minister consequently stepped down. Despite occasional tensions, however, business relations to the government remained good, and the Nazis still tried to placate the entrepreneurs’ concerns. With party-directed educational and leisure programs (Strength through Joy), the regime reconciled the workers with low wages and long hours.
The pace of war preparation in 1936-39, however, might have overheated the economy, created an irresponsible deficit, and threatened a new economic crisis. Some historians believe an aggressive war of conquest was necessary in 1939 to make up for excessive military spending. During the war, government control over the economy intensified, but until 1941 the Blitzkrieg concept mandated only limited changes. Only in 1942-44 did the government intervene more directly in the economy to support a more intensive struggle that could not be tackled by Blitzkrieg methods. But even in this period, dominated by Hitler’s armament minister Albert Speer, the economy did not fall under complete Nazi control, and businessmen could still largely influence the government regulations. In the face of defeat in 1944-45, the regime tried to implement total control but failed in the midst of chaos, bombings, and general breakdown. It remains remarkable, however, that the most intensive phase of military production started so late and culminated only in 1944.
The army, another pillar of the “polycratic chaos” seen by the functionalists, at first was eager to comply with the regime. The army did not want to be taken over by the SA, appreciated the more rapid rearmament after 1933, and credited the Hitler government with increasing freedom from the limitations of Versailles. The army may also have tried to make up for its attentism during the domestic struggles of the Weimar Republic. Seeckt’s reluctance to support rightist plots in the early 1920s had frustrated the Nazis.
After Hitler’s sacrifice of the SA in 1934, the party continued to exert relatively little control over the army. A crisis broke out in 1938, when army leaders got concerned about Hitler’s risky foreign policy, but a reshuffling of the army command ensured more loyalty to the regime. The army’s relative independence prevailed until December 1941, when Hitler appointed himself supreme commander. After the war, the army tried to dissociate itself from the racial crimes of the regime and, in particular, from the SS, but recent research offers much evidence that the army let itself be ideologized, at least on the eastern front, where most of the German forces were fighting. Army involvement in mass shootings and help in deportations is widely documented.
In my opinion, the army enjoyed relative independence from the party and the government only because it complied readily with most of what Hitler wanted. A group of committed enemies of the regime existed, however, and resistance against Hitler came from parts of the officer corps (see below). We have to take into consideration, moreover, that every soldier had to swear a personal oath of allegiance to Hitler. Many officers and soldiers disliked the regime’s racial agenda and hated the “coward” SS units shooting innocent people behind the lines, but most of the army venerated Hitler for most of the Third Reich, and much of the army embraced at least parts of the regime’s racial agenda during the war with the Soviet Union, which in its brutality and extremely harsh conditions brought out the worst traits of hatred.
The state apparatus retained some autonomy at least until 1938, when Hitler appointed several Nazis to key offices, such as the foreign ministry. Even after that, the bureaucracy remained relatively independent. Not everybody serving in high office was a Nazi or had to be a party member. Unlike in the Soviet Union, the party did not completely take over the state and society to run them in a revolutionary way. The party did much in local government, as Germany was divided into new administrative units, the Gaue with a Nazi Gauleiter as governor. With its specific organizations for every German citizen, the party did much to ensure loyalty to the regime and to instill the people with Nazi propaganda. The success of the Hitler Youth (HJ) and its sister organization for girls, the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM), was decisive in ensuring ideological loyalty among most of the young. Women’s organizations and every other imaginable club run by the Nazi party sought to organize the whole people according to Nazi ideology.
But differences existed: even people who were party members did not always like the party or the regime’s policy. It was possible to become a member of a “harmless” Nazi organization (for example the Nazi motor drivers corps) to hide oppositional strivings under the cover of compliance. One needed not always to be a party member to make a career, and people who had occupied high positions before 1933 (and were neither socialist nor Jewish) did not necessarily have to join the party in order to keep their jobs. The party was important, but it did not monopolize power in the state and army nearly as much as the communist party did in most communist societies including the Soviet Union and China.
The peculiar characteristic of the Third Reich’s functioning indeed is its apparent chaos of overlapping competencies. Foreign policy, for example, was conducted by the foreign ministry, by a committee of the SS, by Hitler, by Göring (the chief of the air force), by the army, and occasionally by other institutions as well. German policies in the occupied countries often were contradictory because different agencies worked for different goals. Denmark, for example, was administered first by the foreign ministry and later by the army. Both institutions tended to be much less repressive and fanatical than the SS. It was the local German army commander, for instance, who warned Danish authorities about the upcoming deportation of the Danish Jews and thus helped to make possible their escape to Sweden. In this chaos of overlapping competencies, Hitler often appeared as the mediator in conflicts, and he could reward a successful policy of one institution by listening more to it than to another. Rivaling agencies, according to Bracher, would often try to interpret Hitler’s will and act accordingly, so he could be a strong dictator even without actually influencing every bit of policy-making.
Throughout the Third Reich the Nazi regime remained stable. Terror and manipulation of public opinion combined with widespread, sometimes overwhelming, popular consent to the regime and, in particular, to Hitler. But despite the total claim of the Nazi ideologues, loopholes remained, and some were even tolerated or deliberately created as security valves by the system itself. Entertainment was one such area. Goebbels, the propaganda minister, furthered “unpolitical” literature and films, knowing that too much Nazi propaganda would alienate the Germans.
The churches were also left largely intact even though their ultimate preservation in the Nazi state would have been doubtful. During the war, the churches were treated particularly carefully by the regime, as they fulfilled an important role in soothing people who felt increasingly depressed about the war and the regime; they thus helped to keep up morale. That the churches secured some autonomy, of course, had to do with their general refusal to fight the regime. In my opinion, the Nazi system functioned so successfully because it remained relatively polycratic and did not insist on complete control of every sphere of life.
Combining terror with freedom and leaving loopholes in a system with a totalitarian claim proved successful. Germans who did not care much about politics or did not like the Nazis could continue their lives more or less unharmed until well into the war, provided that they were not Jewish or communist. People upset with one particular policy or institution could always find a scapegoat while excusing the Nazi regime as a whole. In particular, Germans often dissociated Hitler from aspects of the regime or the party they disliked. The most widespread phrase was “If only the Führer [the leader: Hitler] knew.”
Hitler always was much more popular than the party or, in particular, the SS. Many Gauleiter were hated, and party institutions often had the reputation of allowing poorly qualified people a rapid career (which they did). But, amazingly, Hitler was considered by many Germans as standing above all the aspects they disliked about the regime. With his charisma and the aura of an honest, committed outsider to the political establishment (“one of us”), he was able to stylize himself (with Goebbels’ help) as an ingenious, trustworthy, and powerful savior who would lead the country into new, better times.
Opportunities for resistance:
The terror machine of the Gestapo as well as the regime’s popularity left little latitude for opposition. To many people there appeared to be no alternative to the Nazi regime except foreign domination by the Soviet Union (which was seen by most as the worst possible fate). Hardly anybody wanted to return to the latent civil war and weakness of the Weimar Republic. Resistance in the Third Reich nevertheless existed. It assumed different shapes and often mixed with partial or temporary cooperation. There was a gliding scale from cooperation and consent to indifference, disagreement, and active, determined opposition.
Resistance during the war carried the connotation of betrayal (the person who resisted allegedly stabbed the German army in the back and opened the gates for murderous Bolshevists); unlike in the German-occupied countries, resisters in Germany could not claim to fight a war of liberation from foreign oppression, and they could not offer a governmental alternative with broad popular support.
Nevertheless, the total coherence of the “Volksgemeinschaft” that the regime claimed was fiction. Although Hitler personally was very popular (particularly in 1938 and 1940 after major successes), attitudes of Germans toward the system and its policies covered a wide range. Many people did not hate the regime enough to be willing to risk their lives (and usually the lives of their families) in fighting it. But keeping one’s children out of the HJ or BDM already was an act of resistance. Even some party members did not condone all of the regime’s or Hitler’s policies, and opinions changed with time.
But beyond those who were indifferent or critical it seems fair to mention those thousands of Germans who in spite of terror and accusations of betrayal risked and lost their lives by opposing the regime. Communist underground resistance operated under terribly difficult conditions; its repression by the Gestapo led to 20,000 deaths over the twelve years of the Nazi dictatorship; thousands of other Germans were also killed or put into concentration camps for acts of defiance, such as hiding a Jew, listening to a foreign radio station, doubting that Germany would win the war, cracking a joke on the regime, writing an anti-Nazi phrase on the wall of a public restroom, and others.
Some individuals also took more spectacular action: Georg Elser, a South German artisan, tried to kill Hitler in Munich in November 1939; the Catholic priest Bernhard Lichtenberg prayed for the Jews in his church in Berlin until he was deported to a death camp; the general Henning von Treskow placed a bomb in Hitler’s plane when the dictator flew back to Berlin after a visit to the eastern front in March 1943 (the bomb did not explode); the Scholl siblings, other students, and one professor in Munich got killed for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets (their resistance group was called the White Rose). Several conspiratorial circles were formed in the army and within the churches, such as the Bekennende Kirche (in opposition to the official Protestant church).
The oppositional army circles were the most powerful centers of resistance since they had weapons and direct access to Hitler. Some resistance circles included such diverse groups as military officers, conservative politicians, Social Democrats, and clergy. Some planned to remove Hitler and the Nazis from power already before the war, but they postponed their plans when Hitler became extremely popular after the victory over France and when the war assumed existential proportions, in which every form of resistance would have been considered as betrayal by most Germans. When some officers and civilians nevertheless took decisive action in July 1944 (after many abortive attempts in the preceding months), they knew of all the involved dangers but hoped at least to state a heroic example documenting “another” Germany than the one claimed by the Nazis.
Many resisters in the army had cooperated in the war for a long time, and it seems to have been the racial crimes of the regime that committed them to killing Hitler. After several failed attempts, Count Stauffenberg, a high officer with direct access to Hitler, managed to place a bomb next to the dictator on 20 July 1944. But due to an unfortunate series of circumstances Hitler survived with only minor injuries.
The putsch plan the resisters had prepared failed quickly when the survival of the dictator, to whom the whole army had sworn an oath of allegiance, became known. Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators were killed in the evening of the same day, and a special court run by the Gestapo condemned to death 5000 people who had been involved in the plot indirectly.
Others committed suicide to evade that fate, such as the generals Stülpnagel and Rommel. Some of the executions were carried out in April 1945, days before the ultimate breakdown of the Third Reich. The executions were done sadistically, filmed, and “served” to Hitler in the evenings to satisfy his unquenchable thirst for revenge. Unfortunately, many Germans did not understand what had happened on 20 July. Nazi propaganda depicted the plot as a conspiracy of ambitious and selfish aristocratic officers, and many Germans believed this, particularly since Hitler personally was still rather popular.
Resistance, in any case, faced almost insurmountable problems. After the conference of Casablanca in January 1943, Germany had no choice other than fight to the end or surrender unconditionally. A new government, even after having overthrown the Nazis, would have had no latitude. If it surrendered or continued the war and lost, it would have produced a new stab-in-the-back legend and associated itself with high treason. In the desperate situation of the Second World War, the resisters knew that they could not make much of a difference. They at least gave a heroic signal of humanism and tried to stop the regime’s mass murder.
Living in the Third Reich: workers and women:
That the Nazi regime was not resented as a repressive dictatorship by a majority of Germans and actually offered many welcome innovations to the people should be clear by now. The economic recovery after 1933, the seeming restoration of order (however questionable), and a successful foreign policy created the feeling that things in Germany in the late thirties were much better than in the Weimar Republic. The Nazis, who were concerned about the workers (in particular the former Communists and Social Democrats) as their main opponents, did much to reconcile them.
Psychologically, Nazi propaganda instilled the workers with a sense of social pride. They were considered heroes in their workplaces, and Nazi rhetoric made sure that they would consider themselves a pillar of the Volksgemeinschaft (phrases such as the “nobility of work” suggested an obliteration of traditional class prejudice and difference). Social projects and leisure programs (Strength through Joy) gave the workers the opportunity to take holidays in Scandinavia, Italy, or Germany.
Hitler also promised a cheap car to every German (the Volkswagen, which means “people’s car”, at the price of 999 mark) and hoped to replace the big working-class apartment complexes by individual houses with a small piece of land for each family. These houses looked like a strange combination of suburban home and family farm, all done in old German style. This was an attempt to decentralize the workers and to bring them into closer contact with the “soil.” The Nazis believed that exposure to agricultural work would wean the workers of all remaining socialist striving. This decentralized rural housing, of course, made commuting necessary, and the Nazis considered cars important in this respect (because individual commuting would prevent the potentially seditious meeting of workers in the public trains and buses).
Nazi organizations also tried to give workers opportunities to improve their training and to advance socially. The Nazis also wooed the farmers, telling them that they would occupy a central place in the future Aryan state. Nazi ideology insisted that agricultural work was racially healthy and would be the way of the future. The Nazis were fascinated with modern technology, but they ultimately wanted to create a predominantly agricultural state, focusing on the bond of “blood and soil.”
The war rearranged priorities, so that few Germans ever got their promised Volkswagen or individual home during the Third Reich. But the regime’s social policies were successful nevertheless. Many working-class people even after the Second World War felt that the Nazis had — regardless of their criminal aspects — done a lot for them. Party organizations, among them the SS, offered fast careers to many people with limited education and money. In this context, historians have spoken of a “social revolution” in Nazi Germany. In terms of values, social prestige, and opportunities to advance, the Third Reich was probably more egalitarian than the Weimar Republic. It eliminated privileges of the Prussian aristocracy, for example, and destroyed some traditional class barriers.
In some respects, the engagement of the regime for the workers represents a striking continuity from Bismarck’s social legislation to the social welfare state of West Germany in the 1950s. The Nazis increased the state’s commitment to worker welfare and accepted the widespread demand of German workers that the state should play a decisive role in securing their jobs and standard of living.
In doing so, they walked in the footsteps of the German government of World War I and completed programs the Weimar cabinets had started. In the two Germanies after 1945, politicians were aware that the state could not back down from this role without losing the support of many workers. West Germany built up a social welfare state, making sure that nobody would be worse off than under the Nazis, and the East German communists until 1989 did all they could (however insufficiently) to keep the people satisfied in material terms. That this “paternalistic” attitude of the state is not as strong in today’s unified Germany than it was under the communist regime explains some of the anti-unification feeling in former East Germany today.
Nazi policies toward women carried many contradictions as well. In ideology, Nazis wanted women to stay home and breed as many children as possible. Mothers of four children or more got medals and were honored in ways similar to war veterans. The Nazis told women that their role as breeders of children and of a higher race was essential, and they seem to have instilled many of them with a sense of pride. Nazi organizations for girls and women, though not as comprehensive as their counterparts for boys and men, organized female Germans in mostly traditional roles. They nevertheless seem to have been rather popular and given many women a sense of mission and importance they had missed before 1933.
Professionally active women faced pressure to leave their jobs, especially if they were married. Education and skilled jobs for women became harder to get. Yet, these reactionary policies, which were hardly unpopular among women for reasons discussed above, soon conflicted with the demands of a rearmament economy. Around 1938 there was a lack of workers in Germany, and women were encouraged to join the work force. Around 1939 almost half of all working-age women were employed. The need for labor increased during the war. The Nazis made up for the missing men by using forced labor (prisoners of war, deported men, or concentration camp inmates) but also had to compromise their ideology further by drafting even more women into jobs.
One occasionally reads that this happened on a smaller scale than in Britain or the Soviet Union (hampering the German war effort), but the employment rate of German women was already exceptionally high in 1939, so that the potential for additional mobilization was limited during the war. The racism of Nazi ideology in some ways also empowered women and ascribed primary importance to them: as mothers, they were responsible for choosing a racially valuable mate and for breeding genetically healthy offspring. This and the extension of female employment (which was higher in 1939 than in West Germany during the 1980s) instilled many women with a sense of independence and importance that made them little concerned about lacking freedom.
Many historians therefore argue that Nazi Germany forms a continuity in the emancipation of women rather than a step back. Although women remained legally subordinate to men, faced discrimination in all upper-level jobs, and got lower pay than men, the opportunities for female employment were greater than in the Weimar Republic and partly greater than in postwar West Germany. But this was largely due to economic circumstances and happened in contradiction to official ideology.
German rule in Europe:
A final aspect that needs to be considered is German rule in the countries and territories occupied during the Second World War. In general, occupation policies in the west were milder than in the east, where the SS worked to realize Hitler’s bloody racial utopia. After the defeat in June 1940 France was separated into an occupied zone in the north and west and a formally independent unoccupied state. Alsace-Lorraine was annexed by Germany. Germany justified the occupation of parts of France with the necessity to fight the British, who were still at war. In the unoccupied south of France a conservative and authoritarian government under General Pétain, the popular defender of Verdun in 1916, established itself in Vichy. The Vichy regime legally had authority over all of France (and its colonies), but its power was particularly limited in the areas occupied by German troops.
The Vichy regime collaborated with the Germans, particularly after the end of 1942, when the German army occupied the rest of France fearing an Allied invasion after the defeat in North Africa. Under the cover of compliance, the Vichy regime did preserve some independence for France, but the latitude was small, and the price seems not to justify the results in retrospect. The Vichy legacy is painful for France even today, and the country has only reluctantly faced the large degree of collaboration that included even support for the Nazis’ Jewish policies. Resistance in France, as in many other German-occupied areas, arose on a larger scale only when the war obviously had turned and when German rule became more exploitative and repressive. Forced labor and other forms of German exploitation fueled broader popular resistance in France.
Similar dynamics characterized the other occupied countries in western and northern Europe. Resistance was partly successful in Norway and Denmark, but it is hard to deny that many Western and Northern Europeans accommodated themselves with the Nazi regime at least in 1940-42, believing that the Nazi empire would remain in place for the foreseeable future. In some places in Eastern Europe the Nazis even found allies. Slovakia and Croatia became reliable satellite states under authoritarian Catholic regimes. Their anti-Semitism made them help the implementation of the Holocaust.
Croatia left one of the bloodiest legacies of Germany’s satellites: without pressure from Germany the Croat regime established its own death camps and murdered thousands of Serbs and Jews. Serbia had strong partisan movements, one communist and one monarchist-conservative. The partisans managed to liberate their country even before the Red Army arrived, but there was much infighting. The fact that more people in Yugoslavia died as a result of infighting than as a result of German or Italian brutality (which took place on a considerable scale) shows that a Yugoslav civil war was taking place already during World War II.
The Czech part of occupied former Czechoslovakia remained loyal to the Germans until the murder of Heydrich, planned by the British, led to brutal German reprisals and consequently to greater resistance of the populace. Hungary and Rumania remained in the German sphere of dominance as nominal allies for most of the war but were occupied by German troops shortly before the Red Army arrived. Hungarian fascist units helped in the deportation of the Jews.
Poland and the Soviet Union, as the building ground for the Nazi racial utopia, were treated in totally different ways that have already been explained in the context of the war and the Holocaust. While extermination and large-scale resettlements were not the German policies outside Poland and the Soviet Union (except for the extermination of the Jews), reprisals against resisters and partisans made thousands of victims everywhere, and the growing exploitation of the occupied countries for the German war industry after 1942 built up massive resentment. In any case, the Nazi occupation throughout Europe left a legacy of hatred for all things German that in many respects can still be felt today, particularly among older people.
Modernism and the Nazis:
Was the Nazi regime a terrifying aspect of modernity or did it rise as a reaction to modernity? Historians have always been struck by the anti-modern and agrarian elements in Nazi ideology. Ultimately, the Nazis seemed to want to resettle the racially “purified” Germans on the vast lands of Eastern Europe. Like the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia they sometimes manifested hatred of intellectuals and suspicion of industrial work. Hitler’s writings reveal that he was obsessed with the coming of a new ice age that would threaten the survival of the human race. His racial policy aimed to make the German-Aryan race genetically as strong as possible, so that it would survive this extreme hardship.
Many other aspects of the Nazi regime show anti-modern trends as well, such as the aim to revert the individualization of modern society through the Volksgemeinschaft, the policies toward women, the Germanic cults of the SS (which, by the way, copied the organizational structure and hierarchy of the Jesuit order), and the conservative, classicist element in Nazi art and architecture (although this element strangely mixed with some “modern” forms developed during the Weimar Republic).
Nazism often defined its anti-modern stands by using the Jews as the epitome of modernity: they seemed urban, they had a low birthrate, they seemed tied to industry and commerce, and they represented avant-garde art and literature, modern science and so on. This kind of modernity had seemed to thrive in the Weimar Republic, not only among Jews. But Nazis, with other rightists, defined the Weimar Republic as “Judaized” and degenerate, representing the modernity they wanted to destroy.
The anti-modern aspects of the Nazi regime clashed with the needs of a military power in the modern world. Even many party members started to complain that Nazi education with its stress on physical strength and politically correct attitude was not conducive to making physicists and creative engineers. “Germanic” warriors, however strong, fierce, brutal, and obedient, could not win the war alone. The cult of muscular strength and Aryan breeding in Nazi schools stifled critical inquiry and intellectual skills.
This became apparent already during the war. It is safe to say that many Germans, even party members, did not take the regime’s agrarian cult too seriously; it became the target of many popular jokes. Certainly, Nazism can be seen as a reaction to the “crisis of classical modernity” apparent in the Weimar Republic, as historian Detlev Peukert has done.
But I think that modernity should not be defined simply as the progress of freedom, individualism, democracy, and industrial society. Nazi methods, particularly in propaganda and mass manipulation, were extremely effective and “modern.” Many social goals or achievements of the Nazi regime, moreover, have made it to contemporary lifestyle, for example the holidays and holiday trips for workers or the upgrading of car traffic through the building of highways and the promise of a car to every family. Ultimately, Nazi Germany with its industrially organized death machine seems to me a terrifying but very real potential of modernity, as was the Stalinist Soviet Union.
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Myths and Legends of our Own Land, by Charles M. Skinner, , at sacred-texts.com
Keusca was a village of the Dakota Indians on the Wisconsin bluffs of the Mississippi eighteen hundred miles from its mouth. The name means, to overthrow, or set aside, for it was here that a tribal law was broken. Sacred Wind was a coquette of that village, for whose hand came many young fellows wooing with painted faces. For her they played the bone flute in the twilight, and in the games they danced and leaped their hardest and shot their farthest and truest when she was looking on. Though they amused her she cared not a jot for these suitors, keeping her love for the young brave named the Shield—and keeping it secret, for he was her cousin, and cousins might not wed. If a relative urged her to marry some young fellow for whom she had no liking, she would answer that if forced to do so she would fling herself into the river, and spoke of Winonah and Lovers' Leap.
She was afraid to wed the Shield, for the medicine-men had threatened all who dared to break the marriage laws with unearthly terrors; yet when the Shield had been absent for several weeks on the war-path she realized that life without his companionship was too hollow to be endured—and she admired him all the more when he returned with two scalps hanging at his belt. He renewed his wooing. He allayed her fears by assurances that he, too, was a medicine-man and could counteract the spells that wizards might cast on them. Then she no longer repressed the promptings of her heart, but yielded to his suit. They agreed to elope that night.
As they left the little clearing in the wood where their interview had taken place, a thicket stirred and a girl stole from it, looking intently at their retreating forms. The Swan, they had named her; but, with a flush in her dusky cheeks, her brows dark, her eyes glittering, she more recalled the vulture—for she, too, loved the Shield; and she had now seen and heard that her love was hopeless. That evening she alarmed the camp; she told the parents of Sacred Wind of the threatened violation of custom, and the father rose in anger to seek her. It was too late, for the flight had taken place. The Swan went to the river and rowed out in a canoe. From the middle of the stream she saw a speck on the water to the southward, and knew it to be Sacred Wind and her lover, henceforth husband. She watched until the speck faded in the twilight—then leaning over the side of the boat she capsized it, and passed from the view of men. | <urn:uuid:72805c5e-a9a7-4f1b-8279-afc82e33e7c3> | {
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It is almost time that anhydrous ammonia (NH3) applications could begin (remember 50° F and cooling 4-in. soil temperature). However, many soils in Iowa are quite dry this fall. So, can anhydrous ammonia be applied to dry soil? Will it be held in dry soil?
Can anhydrous ammonia be applied to dry soils?
Yes. Dry soil can hold ammonia. Even airdried soil contains some moisture, although quite low. Ammonia dissolves readily in water, but it is held or retained in soil by clay and organic matter. The problem with dry soil and low moisture is that soil moisture is needed to temporarily hold (“go into solution”) the ammonia so it can become attached to clay or organic matter as ammonium. If dry soils are cloddy and do not seal properly, the ammonia can be lost at injection, or seep through the large pores between clods after application.
Therefore, proper depth of injection and good soil coverage are a must for application into dry soils. Wing sealers immediately above the outlet port on the knife can help close the knife track, limit the size of the retention zone and reduce vertical movement of ammonia. Closing disks can reduce ammonia loss by covering up the injection track with soil that traps the ammonia as it moves to the soil surface. Reducing the application rate or narrowing the knife spacing reduces the concentration of ammonia in each injection band. If soils are dry and in good physical condition, they hold more ammonia than soil that is moist.
What happens when anhydrous ammonia is injected into soil?
Several physical and chemical reactions take place: dissolution in water, reaction with soil organic matter and clay, and attachment of resulting ammonium ions on the soil cation exchange complex. These reactions all tend to limit the movement of ammonia, with water having the greatest initial effect. The highest concentration of ammonia is at/near the point of injection, with a tapering of the concentration toward the outer edge of the retention zone. Usually the greatest ammonia concentration is within the first inch or two of the injection point, with the overall retention zone being up to 3-4 in. in radius in most soils. The size of the ammonia retention zone, and shape, vary greatly depending upon the rate of application, knife spacing, the soil and soil conditions at injection (soil texture, soil structure, organic matter and moisture status).
Ammonia moves farther at injection in coarse-textured soils and soils low in moisture. Also, if the injection knife causes sidewall smearing (when soils are wet), then ammonia may preferentially move back up the knife slot. Movement toward the soil surface can also occur for some time after application if the soil dries and the knife track “opens up” as the soil dries (also less soil moisture to retain free ammonia in solution with drying soils). A similar movement within the soil can occur if the soil breaks into clods at application and there are large air voids left in the soil. These conditions can result in greater ammonia concentration toward the soil surface, and greater potential for loss to the atmosphere at or after application.
When ammonia is injected into soil, the initial reaction at the point of release is violent. The ammonia reacts and binds with soil constituents such as organic matter and clays. It reacts with water to form ammonium (NH4+). These reactions help retain ammonia at the injection point. With the high affinity for water, soil moisture is important for limiting the movement of ammonia, but does not ultimately determine retention in soil. After conversion to ammonium, which is a positively charged ion, it is held on the soil exchange complex and does not move with water. Only after conversion to nitrate (NO3–), via the nitrification process, can it be lost from soil by leaching or denitrification.
Chemical and biological reaction of anhydrous ammonia in soil over time
1) NH3 + H2O = NH4+ + OH–
This is chemical reaction of ammonia with water and causes an initial alkaline pH in the ammonia retention zone (pH can temporarily rise above 9 at the point of highest concentration). It is free ammonia and not ammonium that can be lost from soil at application and is damaging to microorganisms and plant seedlings. As pH goes above 7.3, the equilibrium between ammonium and ammonia results in increased free ammonia (the percentage as ammonia would be 1% at pH 7.3, 10% at pH 8.3, and 50% at pH 9.3).
2) 2NH4+ + 3O2 Þ 2NO2– + 2H2O + 4H+
3) 2NO2– + O2 Þ 2 NO3–
These two reactions are the steps in the biological nitrification process that occurs with ammonium in soil, and ultimately results in a lowering of pH back to the original pH or lower. Nitrification occurs first at the outer edges of an ammonia band, and progresses inward as the initial effects of ammonia injection decrease and the soil conditions become more conducive to microbial growth.
What about damaging corn next spring?
The potential is usually low for fall-applied ammonia to damage corn seed or seedlings. However, if the soil remains dry (and limits nitrification), the ammonia is injected shallow or there is poor soil structure (ammonia placed near the seed location), or the rate of application is high, then it is possible for ammonia damage to occur. The best cure is to inject deep enough with friable soil coverage to get adequate soil separation between the point of ammonia injection and the depth where corn seed will be planted, or offset ammonia bands from future corn rows.
For example, if the injection point is 6-8 in. in depth, the outer edge of the ammonia retention zone (which would be low in ammonia concentration) is 4 in. from the point of injection, and seed is planted at a 2-in. depth directly over the ammonia track, then the seed would be outside the applied ammonia band. Shallower injection, greater movement upward from the injection point, wider knife spacing or higher rates can lead to ammonia being in the seeding area at rates high enough to cause damage.
Be mindful of what is happening at application, especially if soil conditions are not ideal. If you make an application round in the field, and you can still smell ammonia from that application, then you should make adjustments or wait for better conditions. If the soil is breaking into clods, there isn’t good coverage of the knife track with loose soil, and ammonia is escaping (remember your nose tells you if ammonia is escaping; a white vapor is condensed water vapor, not ammonia which is colorless), then stop and either change the way the equipment is working or is set up, or wait until the soil has better structure or moisture. | <urn:uuid:2582cbff-a2a8-4d81-b14c-57b97b0b8748> | {
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An essay on Shakespearean Comedy and Tragedy
The editors of the 1623 Folio, in which most of Shakespeare’s plays were first published together, divided them into Comedies, Tragedies and Histories. The ten plays included among the tragedies, in rough order of composition, are Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Timon of Athens; the four great tragedies - Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth - and then Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus. The Folio’s method of dividing them has so influenced subsequent views of the plays that it is easy to forget that it was an interpretation of the relationships between them that was based on the conventions of classical drama. In many cases the categorisation does not tell us much about the play. The range of genres that Shakespeare actually used and the difficulty of distinguishing them is better suggested by Polonius’ famous description of the players in Hamlet:
‘the best actors in the world either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, or tragical-historical-pastoral...‘
Although in his earliest plays Shakespeare followed the generic conventions of classical models, he gradually learned how to mix the genres, introducing comic elements into tragedies and sadness into comedy.
Why was Shakespeare not content simply to operate within inherited conventions? The answer lies in the way genre determines the subject matter of a play and limits the range of ways that subject matter can be explored within the conventions of plot, characterisation within a genre. Oscar Wilde wittily said that Hamlet’s description of art ‘holding a mirror up to nature’ is intended by Shakespeare to show that Hamlet really has gone mad. Art, as a Renaissance playgoer would have understood, does not reflect external realities, it creates its own, and writing within a genre means accepting a set of rules about the nature of the reality that can be created. A work of art is a world in itself, that strives for internal consistency and characters can only operate within the terms of that world. A character in a comedy inhabits a comedic world; a character in a tragedy inhabits a tragic one, and it is absurd to imagine a character being transposed from one to the other.
The simplest definition of dramatic comedy, for example, might follow another Wildean witticism - Lady Bracknell’s definition of fiction in Wilde’s pastiche of Shakespeare’s comic forms, The Importance of Being Earnest: ‘The good end happily and the bad end unhappily. That’s why it is called fiction.’ In creating a character in a play written according to such a formula the writer would be constrained by the need not to bring the attitude underlying it into question, and would be forced to tailor their characterisation accordingly. This would impose limits on the range of experience that it was possible to portray in such a context - and this might indeed be said of characters in early comedies such as Much Ado About Nothing, or A Comedy of Errors.
As Shakespeare developed, however, he explored an increasing broad, and deep range of experience and he developed ways of expanding the possibilities of comedy and tragedy so that they could accommodate this expanded range of experience. The happy endings of the later comedies are profoundly qualified by the deep and unresolved ambiguities in the plays. Jokes after all are usually at another person’s expense, and happy endings imply unhappy beginnings and middles. In the later comedies we are unable to forget the perspective of the character who are the butt of our laughter, or to ignore the sufferings that precede the final resolution. The unhappy endings of tragedies also possess a greatly expanded significance that take the plays far beyond the bare outlines of what makes a play a tragedy - that it depicts the suffering and fall of a great man.
One way Shakespeare was able to allow the plays to outgrow their schematic foundations was in the development of his characterisation. It is surely these characters, who are so compelling and have provesd so real to audiences and readers for four centuries, and who have the unprecedented quality of changing in the course of the plays, that mark out what is truly distinctive in these plays. Shakespeare’s genius was to seize upon a characteristic of drama that helped in the creation of autonomous characters - the absence of an authorial voice. All we have in the plays are the words and actions of individual characters. Shakespeare never speaks in his own voice, we are not told by him how to interpret what the characters say and none of his characters, not even Hamlet or Prospero, can be entirely seen as a self portrait. Shakespeare exploited this in learning to create characters who possessed greater and greater powers of introspection and interpreted their roles for themselves. The Merchant of Venice, marks a crucial stage in this development in Shakespeare’s characterisation. The Folio editors categorised it as a comedy, presumably because the two lovers at the play’s centre survive the difficulties the plot throws up and marry at the end. However, Shylock, the play’s Jewish villain-victim, is himself a complex character who articulates a quite different interpretation of what happens. It is therefore possible to look at the play’s events from his perspective, in which case it appears as a tragedy
An interest in exploring the protagonist’s experience was crucial from the outset of Shakespeare’s career as a writer of tragedy. In Titus Andronicus Titus loses wealth, position and status and witnesses the sufferings of his family that culminate in the rape and mutilation of his daughter Lavinia. This all happens in the first half of the play, and does not make convincing drama, but it seems that Shakespeare is interested in something other than telling a believable story. In the manner of God heaping sufferings on Job, it seems that Shakespeare wants to place Titus under the greatest imaginable strain and then see how he responds. Or rather, as Shakespeare is the author of Titus’ character as well as of his torments, he wishes to test his own ability to encompass such suffering, to articulate it, and to explore its implications.
In writing tragedy, therefore, it seems that Shakespeare was seeking a way to explore human experience, by creating circumstances that would take that experience to its limits. Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello pass through some form or other of madness, and each is driven by internal and external compulsion to extreme action and this affords a unique perspective on each of them and the worlds they inhabit. Titus’ circumstances are comparably extreme, but his experience is none the less limited, because he is limited. The difference in the later figures is their complex, and diverse minds, and the consequent expansion of their capacity for emotion and reflection. Their ‘tragic’ situations mean that the potentialities of those minds are explored and articulated to the fullest degree imaginable.
Each of these characters possesses, to a greatly expanded degree, the quality of self-awareness that stops Shylock from being a straightforward comic stage villain. Each is able to consider his experience, in particular through soliloquy. These famous speeches are moments at which, by definition, nothing is happening in an external sense, and yet they are the centre of the plays providing their most vivid language. They represent an unprecedented depiction of human thought process and an examination of human psychology.
Each of the great tragedies takes one into a distinct world that is not simply the world of historical and empirical realties. It is a world in which action and thoughts resonate with psychological, ethical, indeed symbolic meanings. The soliloquies are dramatic poems describing intense processes of image-thinking. To understand the thoughts of Hamlet or Macbeth in their soliloquies we must attend to their metaphors in their own terms, seeing the images those metaphors create. These image-thoughts are concerned with the great themes of time, loss, death, impermanence, desire, duty conscience, and so on, that pervade the Tragedies. Their intensity compels one to consider these themes in the light of the images.
Macbeth stricken by conscience while contemplating Duncan’s murder does not speak abstractly about right and wrong. He imagines an apocalyptic future in which knowledge of his crime is spread by the trumpets of angels and by:
‘pity like a naked new-born babe
striding the blast...’
Hamlet, mortified by the unseemly haste of his mother’s re-marriage wishes viscerally that:
‘ this too, too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew...’
Othello is a somewhat lesser imaginer than either of these, more constrained by the conventionality of his metaphors. And yet, tormented by jealousy, his description of his perceived dishonour has a comparable intensity:
‘alas to make me
The fixed figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow and moving finger at.’
Lear does not have many soliloquies, but once he has withdrawn into the solitude of madness, all of his speeches have this quality of visionary metaphor. His denunciation of the libidinous selfishness of his daughters becomes an eschatological vision:
‘Down from the waist
They’re centaurs, though women all above,
But to the girdle do the god’s inherit
Below is all the fiend’s. There’s hell, there’s darkness,
There is the sulfurous pit, burning, scalding, stench, consumption...’
Such metaphors (and not only those of the soliloquies) induct one into a vision of existence in which the literal setting is perceived symbolically as a cosmological battle-field where Shakespeare’s universal themes can be fully unfolded.
Another dimension is added to the plays’ symbolic character as, especially in Macbeth and King Lear, the literal settings themselves take on a symbolic force. Shakespeare’s geographical and historical settings always have a profound influence on the kind of experience the plays contain. Thus the Roman world of Julius Caesar and Coriolanus offers a setting where political and social questions can be considered. The fantasised settings of Ilyria and Bohemia are the appropriate location for the liberating possibilities of romance and pastoral. By setting King Lear in prehistoric Britain, Shakespeare found an imaginative space in which it was possible to explore primal themes of humanity and inhumanity outside the conceptual frameworks of Christian ethics or historical societies. This is epitomised by the blasted heath to which Lear is exiled, that comes to represent a primal wilderness, emptied out of all social forms and meanings, that offers a resting place from which those forms can be reviewed. Macbeth is set on the cusp of the pre-historic and the historic and depicts a world that contains both Christian values and pagan alternatives and whose entire character changes depending on their relative ascendancy. The supernatural is a reality in Macbeth’s Scotland in ways that are not possible in plays set in Shakespeare’s own time.
In these plays the whole drama becomes a giant metaphor, or at least a metaphorical canvas that expresses and contains the conflicts that are focused on the experience of the hero. This is less the case in Othello, set in a modern world, albeit on the geographical frontier between Christian civilization and its enemies. Othello is a domestic tragedy that gains much of its strength from its translation of Shakespeare’s exploration of violence and evil to a familiar setting.
Hamlet is set in a court, an imaginative space in which its hero’s hyper-sophisticated and perpetually modern mind might exist, and yet in which it cannot have free rein. The reverberations of Macbeth’s tragedy are externalised in the chaos his world is swept up in. The reverberations of Hamlet’s tragedy have as much force, but the more naturalistic setting means that they are turned inwards, and this emphasises their origin in the imagination. ‘Denmark’s a prison’. Hamlet tells the courtier Rosencrantz, who has been sent, along with his friend Guildenstern, to find out his intentions. ‘Then is the world one,’ Rosencrantz replies, seeking to deflect the force of Hamlet’s metaphor. But that metaphor actually gains force from Rosencrantz’ parry. Hamlet’s world is, indeed, a prison in the same way that Blake’s London is filled with the sound of ‘mind-forged manacles’. The world a prison?
‘Hamlet: A goodly one in which there are many confines, wards and dungeons, Denmark being one of the worst
Rosencrantz: We think not so, my Lord.’
Indeed not, and by now Rosencrantz can no longer keep up with the game. Thinking in terms of Hamlet’s metaphor would mean submitting to the vision of life it entails. But there is no escape for Rosencrantz back into the literal because Hamlet knows that such literalism is merely a metaphor for a lack of imagination.
‘Hamlet: Why then ‘tis not so to you. There’s no thing good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me ‘tis a prison.’
Unable to cope with Hamlet’s image, Rosencrantz can only protest that if Hamlet’s mind feels trapped in a prison, it must be that the mind is a too big, rather than that the world is too small. He hopes to deny the imaginative necessity of Hamlet’s metaphor, by asserting that the mind can itself be seen in the metaphor’s terms.
‘Rosencrantz: Why then your ambition makes it one; ‘tis too narrow for your mind.’
What he has forgotten is the imaginative priority of Hamlet’s vision. His view of Denmark as a prison is not a whimsical fancy. Hamlet is compelled to view it in that way, because that way of viewing it is more true. Denmark is indeed more like a prison than it is like liberty. Hamlet cannot determine what he imagines, and the imagination cannot offer any consoling solipsistic alternatives to this implacable image:
‘Hamlet: Oh, God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself the King of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.’
Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, that sees the events of Hamlet from the viewpoint of the courtiers seeks to establish their imaginative perplexity as a norm against that the rest of the play should be measured. This is an attempt to read the play as a Becketian irony rather than a Shakespearean tragedy. Hamlet himself is wiser than Stoppard or Becket, Rosencrantz or Guildenstern and when he tells them that the mind makes the difference between tragedy and travesty also implies that the deepest perspective will be found in the deepest mind. This depth is what Hamlet searches for, what he sometimes speaks from, and is the only norm that the play provides. However illusive this quality of consciousness may be, it none the less underlies the sense that the play reveals the significance of the events it describes. This quality is itself an argument against the Becketian meaninglessness of the world of Stoppard’s play. This is why Hamlet is a tragedy and his Tragedy.
If we wish to apprehend the significance of Hamlet we must firstly attempt the difficult task of opening ourselves to the compelling yet vertiginous perspectives that are revealed by its hero. And if we wish to gain an alternative perspective on Hamlet himself we must conduct a similar process of engagement with Ophelia, Polonius, Gertrude and Claudius - indeed, all of the other characters, who possess their own, though lesser subjectivities.
Shakespearean Tragedy remains the crucial imaginative test for any reader, critic, actor, director or theatergoer. The point is not so much the unhappy endings of the protagonists; so much as the intensity that is created by their sufferings. On the basis of this intensity the imaginative significance of those sufferings is revealed through the heroes’ perception and by the context of the play. The test is of one’s ability to apprehend that significance - and it is a test that one inevitably fails.
Hamlet’s mind, like the mind revealed in Macbeth, King Lear, and Othello, is not only too big for Denmark, it is too big for us.
One way that Shakespeare and especially King Lear, is a masterpiece of parallel plotting, in which the protagonists experience is balanced and tested against the experience of others. Lear’s experience is counterpointed with Gloucester’s, underscored by Kent, the Fool and Poor Tom, and mirrored in Edgar’s conflict with Edmund. Lear has a dominating, centripetal presence, and yet the experience of the other characters, even the most minor, is not wholly absorbed into his. Towards the end of the play a soldier is dispatched to murder Cordelia in prison. This is surely a ‘small part’ for an actor, and yet his response intimates a world of experience:
‘I cannot draw a cart
Nor eat dried oats. If it be man’s work, I’ll do it.’
However without the depth of the central characters, all of this perspectivising would leave us with epic rather than tragedy - vast stories told on vast canvasses. We would have something akin to the emphasis in Brecht’s epics on the social context within that individual struggles are enacted. Brecht’s Coriolanus may even be an improvement of Shakespeare’s play of the same name, but this is precisely because of the limitations of Shakespeare’s protagonist, ‘a character without an inside’, in the words of one critic. A Brechtian Macbeth would be a mere shadow because Shakespeare’s play is so profoundly concerned with the hero’s subjective experience.
In seeking to identify the distinctive genius of these plays one may, therefore, look to the tension between the breadth created by the multiplication of perspectives and the depth created by the protagonists’ huge capacity for experience. Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and Othello each charts the suffering and eventual demise of a central protagonist. This is largely what gives them a more defined focus and there fore a greater intensity than the love tragedies, Romeo and Juliet, and Antony and Cleopatra that have two central characters. Each of the protagonists of the great plays undergoes a journey that makes possible an enlarged understanding of human experience, and any reading of the plays that hopes to learn from that enlarged understanding must seek to follow those journeys. It must explore the imaginative world that the plays create through exploring their suffering.
© Vishvapani, 2006
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Animal languages are forms of non-human animal communication that show similarities to human language. Animals communicate by using a variety of signs such as sounds or movements. Such signing may be considered complex enough to be called a form of language if the inventory of signs is large, the signs are relatively arbitrary, and the animals seem to produce them with a degree of volition (as opposed to relatively automatic conditioned behaviors or unconditioned instincts, usually including facial expressions). In experimental tests, animal communication may also be evidenced through the use of lexigrams (as used by chimpanzees and bonobos). While the term "animal language" is widely used, researchers agree that animal languages are not as complex or expressive as human language.
Many researchers argue that animal communication lacks a key aspect of human language, that is, the creation of new patterns of signs under varied circumstances. (In contrast, for example, humans routinely produce entirely new combinations of words.) Some researchers, including the linguist Charles Hockett, argue that human language and animal communication differ so much that the underlying principles are unrelated. Accordingly, linguist Thomas A. Sebeok has proposed to not use the term "language" for animal sign systems. Marc Hauser, Noam Chomsky, and W. Tecumseh Fitch assert an evolutionary continuum exists between the communication methods of animal and human language.
- 1 Aspects of human language
- 2 Primate: studied examples
- 3 Non-primates: studied examples
- 4 Comparison of the terms "animal language" and "animal communication"
- 5 See also
- 6 References
- 7 Further reading
- 8 External links
Aspects of human language
The following properties of human language have been argued to separate it from animal communication:
- Arbitrariness: there is (usually) no rational relationship between a sound or sign and its meaning (e.g. there is nothing intrinsically "housy" about the word "house").
- Discreteness: language is composed of small, repeatable parts (discrete units) that are used in combination to create meaning.
- Displacement: languages can be used to communicate ideas about things that are not in the immediate vicinity either spatially or temporally.
- Duality of patterning: the smallest meaningful units (words, morphemes) consist of sequences of units without meaning. This is also referred to as double articulation.
- Productivity: users can understand and create an indefinitely large number of utterances.
- Semanticity: specific signals have specific meanings.
Research with apes, like that of Francine Patterson with Koko (gorilla) or Allen and Beatrix Gardner with Washoe (chimpanzee), suggested that apes are capable of using language that meets some of these requirements such as arbitrariness, discreteness, and productivity.
In the wild, chimpanzees have been seen "talking" to each other when warning about approaching danger. For example, if one chimpanzee sees a snake, he makes a low, rumbling noise, signaling for all the other chimps to climb into nearby trees. In this case, the chimpanzees' communication does not indicate displacement, as it is entirely contained to an observable event.
Arbitrariness has been noted in meerkat calls; bee dances demonstrate elements of spatial displacement; and cultural transmission has possibly occurred between the celebrated bonobos Kanzi and Panbanisha.
Human language may not be completely "arbitrary." Research has shown that almost all humans naturally demonstrate limited crossmodal perception (e.g. synesthesia) and multisensory integration, as illustrated by the Kiki and Booba study. Other recent research has tried to explain how the structure of human language emerged, comparing two different aspects of hierarchical structure present in animal communication and proposing that human language arose out of these two separate systems.
Claims that animals have language skills akin to humans however, are extremely controversial. As Steven Pinker illustrates in his book The Language Instinct, claims that chimpanzees can acquire language are exaggerated and rest on very limited or specious data.
The American linguist Charles Hockett theorized that there are sixteen features of human language that distinguished human communication from that of animals. He called these the design features of language. The features mentioned below have so far been found in all spoken human languages and at least one is missing from all other animal communication systems.
- Vocal-auditory channel: sounds emitted from the mouth and perceived by the auditory system. This applies to many animal communication systems, but there are many exceptions. Ex. An alternative to vocal-auditory communication is visual communication. An example is cobras extending the ribs behind their heads to send the message of intimidation or of feeling threatened. In humans, sign languages provide many examples of fully formed languages that use a visual channel.
- Broadcast transmission and directional reception: this requires that the recipient can tell the direction that the signal comes from and thus the originator of the signal.
- Rapid fading (transitory nature): Signal lasts a short time. This is true of all systems involving sound. It does not take into account audio recording technology and is also not true for written language. It tends not to apply to animal signals involving chemicals and smells which often fade slowly. For example, a skunk's smell, produced in its glands, lingers to deter a predator from attacking.
- Interchangeability: All utterances that are understood can be produced. This is different from some communication systems where, for example, males produce one set of behaviours and females another and they are unable to interchange these messages so that males use the female signal and vice versa. For example, Heliothine moths have differentiated communication: females are able to send a chemical to indicate preparedness to mate, while males cannot send the chemical.
- Total feedback: The sender of a message is aware of the message being sent.
- Specialization: The signal produced is intended for communication and is not due to another behavior. For example, dog panting is a natural reaction to being overheated, but is not produced to specifically relay a particular message.
- Semanticity: There is some fixed relationship between a signal and a meaning.
Primate: studied examples
- Baboons: Humans are able to distinguish real words from fake words based on the phonological order of the word itself. In a recent study, baboons have been shown to have this skill, as well. The discovery has led researchers to believe that reading is not as advanced a skill as previously believed, but instead based on the ability to recognize and distinguish letters from one another. The experimental setup consisted of six young adult baboons, and results were measured by allowing the animals to use a touch screen and selecting whether or not the displayed word was indeed a real word, or a nonword such as "dran" or "telk." The study lasted for six weeks, with approximately 50,000 tests completed in that time. The experimenters explain the use of bigrams, which are combinations of two (usually different) letters. They tell us that the bigrams used in nonwords are rare, while the bigrams used in real words are more common. Further studies will attempt to teach baboons how to use an artificial alphabet.
Non-primates: studied examples
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Among the most studied examples of animal languages are:
- Bird songs: Songbirds can be very articulate. African grey parrots are famous for their ability to mimic human language, and at least one specimen, Alex, appeared able to answer a number of simple questions about objects he was presented with. Parrots, hummingbirds and songbirds - display vocal learning patterns.
- Bee dance: Used to communicate direction and distance of food source in many species of bees.
- African forest elephants: Cornell University's Elephant Listening Project began in 1999 when Katy Payne began studying the calls of African forest elephants in Dzanga National Park in the Central African Republic. Andrea Turkalo has continued Payne's work in Dzanga National Park observing elephant communication. For nearly 20 years, Turkalo has spent the majority of her time using a spectrogram to record the noises that the elephants make. After extensive observation and research, she has been able to recognize elephants by their voices. Researchers hope to translate these voices into an elephant dictionary, but that will likely not occur for many years. Because elephant calls are often made at very low frequencies, this spectrogram is able to detect lower frequencies that human ears are unable to hear, allowing Turkalo to get a better idea of what she perceives the elephants to be saying. Cornell’s research on African forest elephants has challenged the idea that humans are considerably better at using language and that animals only have a small repertoire of information that they can convey to others. As Turkalo explained on 60 Minutes’ “The Secret Language of Elephants,” “Many of their calls are in some ways similar to human speech."
- Mustached bats: Since these animals spend most of their lives in the dark, they rely heavily on their auditory system to communicate. This acoustic communication includes echolocation or using calls to locate each other in the darkness. Studies have shown that mustached bats use a wide variety of calls to communicate with one another. These calls include 33 different sounds, or "syllables," that the bats then either use alone or combine in various ways to form "composite" syllables.
- Prairie dogs: Dr. Con Slobodchikoff studied prairie dog communication and discovered:
- different alarm calls for different species of predators;
- different escape behaviors for different species of predators;
- transmission of semantic information, in that playbacks of alarm calls in the absence of predators lead to escape behaviors that are appropriate to the type of predator which elicited the alarm calls;
- alarm calls containing descriptive information about the general size, color, and speed of travel of the predator.
- Bottlenose dolphins: It was long believed that dolphins were never able to demonstrate the ability to communicate in their own language, but in light of a recent discovery, this may have been incorrect. Research has found out that dolphins greet each other with whistles, possibly communicating information about each other's name, age or sex.[better source needed] Each dolphin has its own unique whistle sound, allowing each dolphin to maintain a separate identity, similar to humans. Dolphins are able to create new sounds and whistles when trying to attract a mate. Furthermore, there appears to be a designated leader within most pods. The leader is responsible for initiating communication when approaching another dolphin group.[better source needed] Dolphins can hear one another up to 6 miles apart underwater. In one National Geographic article, the success of a mother dolphin communicating with her baby using a telephone was outlined. Researchers noted that it appeared that both dolphins knew who they were speaking with and what they were speaking about. Not only do dolphins communicate via nonverbal cues, but they also seem to chatter and respond to other dolphin’s vocalizations.
Recording of humpback whales singing and clicking.
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- Whales: Two groups of whales, the humpback whale and a subspecies of blue whale found in the Indian Ocean, are known to produce repetitious sounds at varying frequencies known as whale song. Male humpback whales perform these vocalizations only during the mating season, and so it is surmised the purpose of songs is to aid sexual selection. Humpbacks also make a sound called a feeding call, five to ten seconds in length of near constant frequency. Humpbacks generally feed cooperatively by gathering in groups, swimming underneath shoals of fish and all lunging up vertically through the fish and out of the water together. Prior to these lunges, whales make their feeding call. The exact purpose of the call is not known, but research suggests that fish react to it. When the sound was played back to them, a group of herring responded to the sound by moving away from the call, even though no whale was present.
- Sea lions: Beginning in 1971 and continuing until present day, Dr. Ronald J. Schusterman and his research associates have studied sea lions’ cognitive ability. They have discovered that sea lions are able to recognize relationships between stimuli based on similar functions or connections made with their peers, rather than only the stimuli's common features. This is called “equivalence classification.” This ability to recognize equivalence may be a precursor to language. Research is currently being conducted at the Pinniped Cognition & Sensory Systems Laboratory to determine how sea lions form these equivalence relationships. Sea lions have also been proven to be able to understand simple syntax and commands when taught an artificial sign language similar to the one used with primates. The sea lions studied were able to learn and use a number of syntactic relations between the signs they were taught, such as how the signs should be arranged in relation to each other. However, the sea lions rarely used the signs semantically or logically. In the wild it's thought that sea lions use the reasoning skills associated with equivalence classification in order to make important decisions that can affect their rate of survival (e.g. recognizing friends and family or avoiding enemies and predators). Sea lions use the following to display their language:
- Sea lions use their bodies in various postural positions to display communication.
- Sea lion's vocal cords limit their ability to convey sounds to a range of barks, chirps, clicks, moans, growls and squeaks.
- There has yet to be an experiment which proves for certain that sea lions use echolocation as a means of communication.
The effects of learning on auditory signaling in these animals is of special interest. Several investigators have pointed out that some marine mammals appear to have an extraordinary capacity to alter both the contextual and structural features of their vocalizations as a result of experience. Janik and Slater (2000) have stated that learning can modify the emission of vocalizations in one of two ways: (1) by influencing the context in which a particular signal is used and/or (2) by altering the acoustic structure of the call itself. Male California sea lions can learn to inhibit their barking in the presence of any male dominant to them, but vocalize normally when dominant males are absent. Recent work on gray seals show different call types can be selectively conditioned and placed under biased control of different cues (Schusterman, in press) and the use of food reinforcement can also modify vocal emissions. “Hoover”, a captive male harbor seal demonstrated a convincing case of vocal mimicry. However similar observations have not been reported since. Still shows under the right circumstances pinnipeds may use auditory experience, in addition to environmental consequences such as food reinforcement and social feedback to modify their vocal emissions.
In a 1992 study, Robert Gisiner and Ronald J. Schusterman conducted experiments in which they attempted to teach Rocky, a female California sea lion, syntax. Rocky was taught signed words, then she was asked to perform various tasks dependent on word order after viewing a signed instruction.It was found that Rocky was able to determine relations between signs and words, and form a basic form of syntax. A 1993 study by Ronald J Schusterman and David Kastak found that the California sea lion was capable of understanding abstract concepts such as symmetry, sameness and transitivity. This provides a strong backing to the theory that Equivalence relations can form without language.
The distinctive sound of sea lions is produced both above and below water. To mark territory, sea lions “bark”, with non-alpha males making more noise than alphas. Although females also bark, they do so less frequently and most often in connection with birthing pups or caring for their young. Females produce a highly directional bawling vocalization, the pup attraction call, which helps mother and pup locate one another. As noted in Animal Behavior, their amphibious lifestyle has made them need acoustic communication for social organization while on land.
Sea lions can hear frequencies as low as 100 Hz and as high as 40,000 Hz and vocalize between the ranges of 100 to 10,000 Hz.
- Caribbean reef squid have been shown to communicate using a variety of color, shape, and texture changes. Squid are capable of rapid changes in skin color and pattern through nervous control of chromatophores. In addition to camouflage and appearing larger in the face of a threat, squids use color, patterns, and flashing to communicate with one another in various courtship rituals. Caribbean reef squid can send one message via color patterns to a squid on their right, while they send another message to a squid on their left.
Comparison of the terms "animal language" and "animal communication"
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It is worth distinguishing "animal language" from "animal communication", although there is some comparative interchange in certain cases (e.g. Cheney & Seyfarth's vervet monkey call studies). Thus "animal language" typically does not include bee dancing, bird song, whale song, dolphin signature whistles, prairie dogs, nor the communicative systems found in most social mammals. The features of language as listed above are a dated formulation by Hockett in 1960. Through this formulation Hockett made one of the earliest attempts to break down features of human language for the purpose of applying Darwinian gradualism. Although an influence on early animal language efforts (see below), is today not considered the key architecture at the core of "animal language" research.
Animal Language results are controversial for several reasons. (For a related controversy, see also Clever Hans.) In the 1970s John Lilly was attempting to "break the code": to fully communicate ideas and concepts with wild populations of dolphins so that we could "speak" to them, and share our cultures, histories, and more. This effort failed. Early chimpanzee work was with chimpanzee infants raised as if they were human; a test of the nature vs. nurture hypothesis. Chimpanzees have a laryngeal structure very different from that of humans, and it has been suggested that chimpanzees are not capable of voluntary control of their breathing, although better studies are needed to accurately confirm this. This combination is thought to make it very difficult for the chimpanzees to reproduce the vocal intonations required for human language. Researchers eventually moved towards a gestural (sign language) modality, as well as "keyboard" devices laden with buttons adorned with symbols (known as "lexigrams") that the animals could press to produce artificial language. Other chimpanzees learned by observing human subjects performing the task. This latter group of researchers studying chimpanzee communication through symbol recognition (keyboard) as well as through the use of sign language (gestural), are on the forefront of communicative breakthroughs in the study of animal language, and they are familiar with their subjects on a first name basis: Sarah, Lana, Kanzi, Koko, Sherman, Austin and Chantek.
Perhaps the best known critic of "Animal Language" is Herbert Terrace. Terrace's 1979 criticism using his own research with the chimpanzee Nim Chimpsky was scathing and basically spelled the end of animal language research in that era, most of which emphasized the production of language by animals. In short, he accused researchers of over-interpreting their results, especially as it is rarely parsimonious to ascribe true intentional "language production" when other simpler explanations for the behaviors (gestural hand signs) could be put forth. Also, his animals failed to show generalization of the concept of reference between the modalities of comprehension and production; this generalization is one of many fundamental ones that are trivial for human language use. The simpler explanation according to Terrace was that the animals had learned a sophisticated series of context-based behavioral strategies to obtain either primary (food) or social reinforcement, behaviors that could be over-interpreted as language use.
In 1984 during this anti-Animal Language backlash, Louis Herman published an account of artificial language in the bottlenosed dolphin in the journal Cognition. A major difference between Herman's work and previous research was his emphasis on a method of studying language comprehension only (rather than language comprehension and production by the animal(s)), which enabled rigorous controls and statistical tests, largely because he was limiting his researchers to evaluating the animals' physical behaviors (in response to sentences) with blinded observers, rather than attempting to interpret possible language utterances or productions. The dolphins' names here were Akeakamai and Phoenix. Irene Pepperberg used the vocal modality for language production and comprehension in an African grey parrot named Alex in the verbal mode, and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh continues to study bonobos such as Kanzi and Panbanisha. R. Schusterman duplicated many of the dolphin results in his California sea lions ("Rocky"), and came from a more behaviorist tradition than Herman's cognitive approach. Schusterman's emphasis is on the importance on a learning structure known as "equivalence classes."
However, overall, there has not been any meaningful dialog between the linguistics and animal language spheres, despite capturing the public's imagination in the popular press. Also, the growing field of language evolution is another source of future interchange between these disciplines. Most primate researchers tend to show a bias toward a shared pre-linguistic ability between humans and chimpanzees, dating back to a common ancestor, while dolphin and parrot researchers stress the general cognitive principles underlying these abilities. More recent related controversies regarding animal abilities include the closely linked areas of Theory of mind, Imitation (e.g. Nehaniv & Dautenhahn, 2002), Animal Culture (e.g. Rendell & Whitehead, 2001), and Language Evolution (e.g. Christiansen & Kirby, 2003).
There has been a recent emergence in animal language research which has contested the idea that animal communication is less sophisticated than human communication. Denise Herzing has done research on dolphins in the Bahamas whereby she created a two-way conversation via a submerged keyboard. The keyboard allows divers to communicate with wild dolphins. By using sounds and symbols on each key the dolphins could either press the key with their nose or mimic the whistling sound emitted in order to ask humans for a specific prop. This ongoing experiment has shown that in non-linguistic creatures brilliant and rapid thinking does occur despite our previous conceptions of animal communication. Further research done with Kanzi using lexigrams has strengthened the idea that animal communication is much more complex then we once thought.
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- International Bioacoustics Council research on animal language.
- The Animal Communication Project. More information on animal communication.
- Excellent compendium of links to the websites of all of the major animal language studies
- Listen to Nature includes article "The Language of Birds"
- Jarvis Lab homepage Evolution of Brain Structure for Vocal Learning | <urn:uuid:2f03ec4d-69cd-4ddc-b317-948a526667fb> | {
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The image of a glass full of false teeth on the nightstand is plastered all throughout popular culture. You would think that soaking your dentures in water and cleaner is sufficient, but Dr. Walker and Dr. Raynal remind us that proper denture care requires more than just that. In fact, denture maintenance is an important part of oral health. For Brandon residents who have dentures or are considering them, it is important to know exactly how they function and how to care for them. If you have any questions, please give us a call at Walker Raynal DMD.
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Dentures are intended for Brandon residents who have lost most or all of their teeth. Dentures are removable dental appliances that look nearly identical to natural teeth. They also function the same way, allowing folks with little or no remaining teeth to eat and speak normally. In addition to improving oral health, facial structure, and smile, having a good set of dentures can mean a world of difference for your general health.
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Come and visit us at Walker Raynal DMD for a consultation! Dr. Walker and Dr. Raynal will help you explore your options and get the wonderful smile you’ve always wanted. | <urn:uuid:fb937735-c39a-4ba3-a3ad-d2d93ca9ef9e> | {
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You are here: REHACARE Portal. REHACARE Magazine. Archive. Research.
Survey Tracks “55+” Attitudes About the Environment
The survey aims to identify
difficulties that people over the
age of 55; © panthermedia.net/
An international survey led by Simon Fraser University's Gerontology Research Centre (GRC) and the University of York's (UK) Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) is tracking attitudes about the environment among those over 55.
The EnviroSurvey55, which involves a consortium of organisations, will provide a snapshot of current attitudes of older people to such environmental issues as climate change.
The survey aims to identify difficulties that people over the age of 55 face in personally taking action to reduce their environmental footprints.
Gloria Gutman of GRC says: "Evidence shows that older people can be disproportionately affected by environmental problems such as air pollution, climate change-related heat waves and other natural disasters. It is important that seniors around the world make their voices heard so that steps will be taken to better prepare them, and to meet their needs when they cannot always do it themselves."
Gary Haq of SEI says: "The survey will provide insight into the level of understanding and concern about environmental issues in this demographic group, including differences that are linked to geography and location. The results of the survey will feed into the policy process and help develop better strategies that address the environmental concerns of an ageing population."
Gutman says: “The EnviroSurvey55 builds on previous studies of older people and the environment and focuses on the vulnerability of this demographic group to the effects of a changing climate, and the need for new approaches that are sensitive to personal circumstances in later life.”
REHACARE.de; Source: Simon Fraser University
- More about the Simon Fraser University at: www.sfu.ca
- Click here for the survey: www.envirosurvey55.com
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Seeking Matrilineal Descendants for CLEEVE Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) Project
The purpose of this Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) Project is to develop a genetic “signature” for Elizabeth (CLEEVE) (MITTON) HARVEY based on mtDNA test results from her matrilineal descendants.By comparing mtDNA from Elizabeth’s proven matrilineal descendants with mtDNA from her probable or possible matrilineal descendants, we can confirm or refute theoretical or ambiguous lines of descent that have been developed through conventional genealogical research. Elizabeth was the daughter of George-1 CLEEVE, an early settler and founder of Portland, Maine who served as the Deputy President of the Province of Lygonia from 1643 until the final submission of its Maine towns to Massachusetts in 1658. Elizabeth was first married to Michael-1 MITTON; she was subsequently married to Peter Harvey. In alphabetical order by given name, the proven, probable and possible daughters of Elizabeth (CLEEVE) (MITTON) HARVEY were:
* Anne (MITTON) BRACKETT, wife of Anthony BRACKETT * Dorcas (MITTON) ANDREWS, wife of James ANDREWS * Elizabeth (MITTON) CLARKE, wife of Thaddeus CLARKE * Martha (MITTON) GRAVES, wife of John GRAVES * Mary (MITTON) BRACKETT, wife of Thomas BRACKETT
The first project participant who can provide a well-documented line of matrilineal descent from Elizabeth (CLEEVE) (MITTON) HARVEY may be eligible to join the project for free!The first project participant who can provide a well-documented line of matrilineal descent specifically from Elizabeth’s possible daughter, Dorcas (MITTON) ANDREWS, may also be eligible to join the project for free! Because mtDNA is only transmitted along maternal (or umbilical) lines of inheritance, the only male descendants of Elizabeth (CLEEVE) (MITTON) HARVEY eligible for participation in this project are those whose mothers have known, probable or possible unbroken lines of matrilineal descent from Elizabeth. | <urn:uuid:2a94e620-16b5-4848-905c-21873013e1df> | {
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It's going to be a busy season for space scientists working on the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission to an asteroid.
Carl Hergenrother from the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory is among researchers looking closely at the data the spacecraft shortly after it entered orbit around the asteroid Bennu last December. He notes photographs from OSIRIS-REx put Bennu in the category of "active" asteroids in the solar system, after images showed particles appearing to fly from Bennu's surface.
"We're finding some asteroids, especially when they get close to the sun, might have some dehydration if they have a little bit of water," said Hergonrother. "They have a kind of popping effect, like a pop rock kind of effect coming off the surface."
When OSIRIS-REx was launched toward Bennu in September 2016, it left Earth without an instrument package specifically designed to tell scientists more about the particles in the pictures. But Hergonrother and other scientists are not completely disappointed.
"You can learn a lot about how reflective they are, a little bit about their size," said Hergonrother. "And if they are ice particles, then over time they should sublimate in the sunlight, so you can actually watch them get smaller, so there's a lot you can learn just by having the images."
The OSIRIS-REx mission has had a series of amazing milestones all along its two-year journey to Bennu. Just matching the speed and orbit of the asteroid was an accomplishment. Bennu is less than a half-mile wide, and flight engineers maneuvered it into an orbit a mile away.
OSIRIS-REx will need to get a lot closer.
Its main objective, collecting a soil sample from Bennu's surface and returning it to Earth, is still months away. It will require brief contact with Bennu's surface by a specially-designed soil collector. And that's a task photos show will be more challenging than expected.
Jamie Molaro is a research scientist at the Tucson-based Planetary Science Institute. She's studying the pictures of boulders on Bennu's surface.
"The materials that the boulders are made of are different on Bennu's surface than lunar boulders or Martian boulders," she said. "It's interesting to see how that changes what the boulders look and how they break down."
Molaro's area of study concentrates on why rocks on Bennu are cracked and broken. The data she's investigating will give scientists a clearer picture of what kind of soil sample OSIRIS-REx will ultimately have a chance to pick up next year.
"We’re really trying to assess where are the boulders on the surface, and where is it most likely that we'll find fine-grained material," suggested Molaro. "Because it's hard to see in the images." | <urn:uuid:f24147b7-b278-40f7-b80f-24a50435a70e> | {
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The vast majority of people age 50 and older want to stay in their homes and communities for as long as possible. AARP has expanded the definition of aging in place to include people either remaining in their own home or staying in the same community in other possible housing options.
“Aging in place” is a popular term in current aging policy, defined as “remaining living in the community, with some level of independence, rather than in residential care”. Claims that people prefer to “age in place” abound because it is seen as enabling older people to maintain independence, autonomy, and connection to social support, including friends and family.
Having people remain in their homes and communities for as long as possible also avoids the costly option of institutional care. There is a strong focus on housing and support or care for aging-in-place. Changes at home (such as removing obstacles or introducing mobility aids) can enhance independence.
However, there is also growing concern about the quality and appropriateness of family homes for aging in place, in terms of insulation, heating/cooling, housing size, and design. Housing options enable links to family and friends to continue. Social support is independently related to mortality, and quality of social contacts has been shown to ameliorate the negative impacts of past and immediate environments.
Some argue that adequate and appropriate housing should be a foundation for good community care, including health services and care support. Much research has explored the relative costs and outcomes of providing health and support services at home or in residential care. Many older people, thinking about what might enable them to successfully age in place, also emphasize service provision, including health, care, and home maintenance. Yet the term “aging in place” is ambiguous.
Although most discussions on aging in place focus on home, there is growing recognition, that beyond the home, neighborhoods and communities are crucial factors in people’s ability to stay put. To assist aging in place, consideration needs to be given not only to housing options but also to transportation, recreational opportunities, and amenities that facilitate physical activity, social interaction, cultural engagement, and ongoing education.
Excerpts from a study by aarp.org | <urn:uuid:aa12c3f7-6a95-4a54-bb21-1162fa3f5032> | {
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In English, many things are named after a particular country – but have you ever wondered what those things are called in those countries?
1.1(coordination)enlace masculinecontacto masculinecoordinación feminine
- We think that educational sessions for small groups of family doctors and close liaison with psychiatric colleagues can greatly improve the recognition of depression and the care of people with depression.
- This has been done through close liaison with many local and national bodies.
- It is also our intention to work in closer liaison with the fans and the local authority.
- This preliminary experience suggests that, despite close liaison with the primary care group, the referral process will take time to be adopted and implemented.
- Our audit illustrates why we must consider non-attendance within the wider social context and the importance of close liaison with social services.
- Saunas, white-water rafting and a very close liaison with the local military combined to make this a most successful visit.
- Nursing support and close liaison with the general practitioner and education and social services are necessary.
- There is also close liaison with the school's reception class.
- The Department of Agriculture will continue to maintain close liaison with the Northern Ireland authorities.
- On the contrary, ‘lobbying’ must be applied vigorously in close liaison with constituent social movements.
- He said the Institute was putting in place a framework for the resolution of the problem and towards this end, it would work in close liaison with the residents, students, community leaders and the Gardai.
- The university is in close liaison with the police and a formal complaint has been laid with the Commercial Investigation Branch.
- After many phone calls between the ship and the UK, along with close liaison with the contractor support team, a new engine was shipped out.
- The party also proposes closer liaison with local governments and private organizations to help refugees.
- Stimulants should be prescribed judiciously and monitored carefully by specialists in close liaison with primary care physicians.
- The police have to work a good deal harder to develop closer liaison with the transport providers.
- A spokesman for Essex Health Authority said it had been in close liaison with the school and was helping it to pass on advice to parents on how to spot meningitis.
- There has been a great deal of liaison with the local community and with the peaceful groups who wanted to demonstrate.
- Management of toxicities in the community requires close liaison with the hospital team, and severe toxicity requires immediate admission.
- FBI field offices with these types of schools in their area should establish appropriate liaison.
1.2(person, official)enlace masculinecontacto masculine
- Advisers serve advisees as advocates, guides, group leaders, community builders, liaisons with parents, and evaluation coordinators.
- If you want to interview someone in particular, see if a media liaison can arrange it for you.
- This eight-week program trains parents to be active participants and advocates in their children's education and to share these skills as community liaisons.
- The media liaisons are there to ensure that the press has something to write about.
- I'm a liaison between the scientific community and the public.
- To assist them, they hired an Italian liaison who lives in Italy and speaks fluent Italian.
- Keith has been in Bulgaria since April working as a liaison of the American Bar Association.
- As health care professionals, we must see ourselves as social activists and community liaisons.
- This dual responsibility helps them to be effective communicators, serving as liaisons between software engineers and the user community.
- When not covering specific cases, the team of six officers act as police liaisons with both the hip-hop world and detectives covering a similar beat in California and Florida.
- Second, when outside assistance is sought, family members frequently serve as liaisons between elderly relatives and health care systems.
2literary(affair)affaire masculinerelación feminine
- The idea of a liaison with such an older man seemed to hold a fascination which they often discussed among themselves.
- In fact, she rents an apartment so they can conduct their liaison without being disturbed.
- Despite his unpleasant personality, he was remarkably successful at this, although these liaisons rarely lasted beyond a single night.
- In some traditional stories, the temple fair was even a place for romantic liaisons.
- The protagonist of this novel, married young to a much older man, embarks on an adulterous liaison with one of his friends.
- Seductive women pursue sexual liaisons, as well - they just employ different tactics.
- In desperation, she entered warily into a sexual liaison with an army captain, who offered some promise of economic stability.
- For most modern readers, the idea that Isabel is intending an eventual extra-marital liaison is grotesque.
- Above and below, divisions blur and the long-established equilibrium is knocked off balance amid revelations of illicit sexual liaisons and dubious business dealings.
- A couple of slaps later they were advised to be careful in their romantic liaisons.
- Imagine if we held America accountable for every secret liaison its agents have ever made.
- Their liaisons are unlikely to lead to anything permanent - they're just having a good time.
- His tie to her will last longer than most adulterous liaisons.
- In 1613, she was accused of having a sexual liaison with a neighbour and to clear her name, went to the Church Court.
- Isn't that one of the primary reasons for engaging in an illicit liaison in the first place?
3Linguisticsenlace masculineligazón feminine
- Perhaps, in the final analysis, French liaison and linking in English may not be so different after all.
English has borrowed many of the following foreign expressions of parting, so you’ve probably encountered some of these ways to say goodbye in other languages.
Many words formed by the addition of the suffix –ster are now obsolete - which ones are due a resurgence?
As their breed names often attest, dogs are a truly international bunch. Let’s take a look at 12 different dog breed names and their backstories. | <urn:uuid:ec3a4aa9-89ba-4117-8556-90682ce58713> | {
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A new study published last week in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s journal, Preventing Chronic Disease, indicates that onscreen depictions of tobacco use in 2011 increased 7 percent from 2010. In fact, scenes involving smoking increased 34 percent last year in films rated G, PG and PG-13.
Screeners noted a 311 percent increase in incidents of smoking in G- and PG-rated films, with youth-oriented films delivering 68 percent of all in-film tobacco “impressions” in 2011. Last year’s totals represent a marked increase over 2010’s estimates, in which youth-oriented films made up only 39 percent of theatrical films depicting tobacco use.
Researchers say that last year’s increase in on-screen smoking ends a five-year downward trend in depictions of cinematic tobacco usage. The authors of the report suggest several methods of curbing tobacco depictions in youth-oriented films, including automatic R-ratings for any films featuring characters smoking.
“The reversal of progress toward less onscreen smoking in youth-rated movies underscores the need to rate movies with tobacco imagery as R, establishing an industry-wide market incentive to keep youth-marketed movies tobacco-free,” the report states.
Additionally, the authors of the report recommend that anti-smoking messages run before any film – including Internet downloads and streaming video content – depicting “tobacco imagery.” The researchers urged filmmakers to implement “complementary policies” to guarantee that movie companies do not receive compensation for depicting smoking in films, ultimately leading to the “end of depiction of tobacco brands” in Hollywood films. | <urn:uuid:bcad90dc-4a55-433f-a904-1e271890b99e> | {
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Some vacuum cleaners -- those basic tools for maintaining a clean indoor environment in homes and offices -- actually contribute to indoor air pollution by releasing into the air bacteria and dust that can spread infections and trigger allergies, researchers report in a new study. It appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Lidia Morawska and colleagues explain that previous studies showed that vacuum cleaners can increase levels of very small dust particles and bacteria in indoor spaces, where people spend about 90 percent of their time. In an effort to provide more information about emission rates of bacteria and small dust particles, the scientists tested 21 vacuum cleaners sold in Australia. The vacuums came from 11 manufacturers, included those marketed for household and commercial use, ranged in age from six months to 22 years and cost from less than $100 to almost $800. They looked at the effects that age, brand and other factors had on the amount of small particles and bacteria released into air.
All of the vacuums released some fine dust and bacteria into the air. Surprisingly, vacuums with so-called High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters in some cases released only slightly lower levels of dust and bacteria. Newer and more expensive vacuum cleaners were generally less polluting than older or less expensive models.
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Last week’s Definitive Guide to Fats gave us a chance to unpack the essential fatty acids. But we thought they deserved a closer look still.
Just to review, omega-3 and omega-6 are known as “essential” fatty acids because the body can’t produce them itself. So, it’s up to us to incorporate them into our diet. The typical Western diet is rich in omega-6. (Think corn, soy, peanut, safflower, and other oils.) As for the prevalence of omega-3? Not so much. (Think fish, flax, algae, walnuts, and animal products from grass fed livestock.)
We talked about the importance of ratio last time. Experts estimate that the typical American diet has as much as 30 parts omega-6 to 1 part omega-3 (30:1). Uff da.
As we said last time, there’s some squabbling to be certain about the proper ratio. Some nutritionists go as high as 4:1. Others suggest 2:1. But since we’re all about the primal here, we’re taken in by the ratio most experts agree characterized hunter gatherer diets. And that would be an elegant 1:1 ratio. You gotta love simple.
So, what’s with the bickering about ratios anyway? The fact is, omega-3 keeps omega-6 in check. Omega-6, when left to its own devices, wreaks havoc, inciting and oxidizing LDL in the body (a real cholesterol threat). Lower ratios have been associated with higher bone density and decreased risk for diabetes, arrhythmia and heart disease.
Among other cultures, the ratio is much more favorable, and death from heart disease is much lower. Greenland Eskimos, because of high fish consumption, are estimated to have a 1:1 ratio. According to one study, their rate of death due to heart disease is approximately 15% of what it is for those in the U.S. and Europe who eat a typical Western diet.
Furthermore, the traditional diets of the Mediterranean and Okinawa, Japan, are characterized by high levels of omega-3 fatty acids and a low 6 to 3 ratio of 4:1 or less.
Ratios have also been assessed in the context of particular diseases and physiological conditions. A 2:1 ratio was found to reduce inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis, while even a 5:1 ratio relieved symptoms in those with asthma.
With all the fervor over omega-3 fatty acids, there’s a lot of questions out there regarding recommended amounts. The World Health Organization recommends two servings of fish (particularly fatty fish like salmon, herring, sardines and mackerel) as well as the use of oils containing omega-3. Other experts recommend three to four servings of low toxin fish each week.
And how much is too much, especially if you choose to take an omega-3 supplement? Or is there such a thing? Although there isn’t an official RDA for omega-3 fatty acids, you can consider anywhere between 1-3 grams daily to be optimal. There is some concern about the fatty acid’s ability to thin the blood too much with higher doses. We’d advise talking with your doctor about beginning a supplement. If you’re taking a blood thinner or a daily aspirin regimen, that conversation and perhaps some monitoring will be essential. There has been some indication that larger doses of omega-3 fatty acids can be (in very rare cases) associated with an increased risk of stroke. Many doctors will also suggest that you stop taking the supplement within a week or more of surgery. With all that said, supplementing your diet with a high-quality omega-3 fatty acid supplement is, in our estimation, one of the best things you can do for your body.
Thoughts? Comments? Further questions? Shoot us a line.
Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds | <urn:uuid:c0e4271a-44ef-4977-92d3-f9533ad3a5ec> | {
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Gabriela is an animation student at George Brown's Game Development program entering her final year of study. Being a Paraguayan immigrant has helped enrich her outlook on design and animation approaches, as well as critical evaluation of the game industry and its treatment of ethnic and cultural minority characters. Her love for her indigenous Guarani heritage inspires her style of drawing and storytelling. In the past year with help of her fellow peers she has started a group called Pytyvo Gaming, concerned with addressing the lack of diverse and accurate ethnic and culture representation in games. Gabriela believes that through the power of game storytelling we can empower those who have been silenced by oppression and leave behind stories to influence our youth culturally and artistically.
This talk will highlight the ability of games to become cultural tools. Using personal lived experience to preserve oral traditions is an example of such an action. The talk will take example from current events and games in the market.
AlterConf was a traveling conference series that provided safe opportunities for marginalized people and those who support them in the tech and gaming industries. | <urn:uuid:91666923-ceac-47cd-a9e8-df620e874d44> | {
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Despite having been originally discovered in 1999 (2), and several times since then by different scientists, the Socotran rock gecko (Hemidactylus inintellectus) was not officially described as a species in its own right until 2009 (1) (2). This rock-dwelling reptile had previously been incorrectly identified as various other species within the Hemidactylus genus (2) (3). As a result of a decade of misidentification, the Socotran rock gecko was given the scientific name inintellectus, meaning ‘misunderstood’ (2) (3).
A rather robust member of the Hemidactylus genus (2) (3), the Socotran rock gecko has a somewhat flattened head, which is concave between the eyes and nostrils, and swollen in front of the eyes (2). Its snout tapers to a point, and is covered in roundish scales of irregular size (2), while the paired scales on the chin are almost triangular (2) (3). The Socotran rock gecko is easily distinguishable from other Hemidactylus species within its range by the large, strongly keeled tubercles that are present on its back (2). In contrast, the scales on the underside of this species are small, flat and smooth (2).
The Socotran rock gecko has rather long limbs, and its toes are only slightly webbed at the base (2). As in other Hemidactylus species, which are also known as ‘leaf-toed geckos’ (5), each toe is slightly bulbous towards the tip (2) and has plate-like structures known as lamellae on the underside, which help the gecko to grip onto rocks and other surfaces (2) (3). The Socotran rock gecko has claws on all of its toes (6), and its conical tail has a series of strongly keeled and raised tubercles running along the upper part and sides (2).
A pinkish or sometimes greyish species (2), the Socotran rock gecko is patterned with dark, narrow bands which run across its back and tail (2) (3). In some individuals, these bands are interrupted, and are instead replaced by irregular spots. The Socotran rock gecko’s tail is marked with about seven very distinct dark bands that alternate with a paler ground colour, which ranges from pinkish towards the base of the tail to whitish towards the tip. This species has cream-coloured eyes with a netlike pattern of brown veins, and black, vertical pupils (2).
Hemidactylus species, such as the Socotran rock gecko, are known to make almost inaudible squeaks (7) as well as clicking sounds, which are produced as the tongue strikes against the palate (8).
- Also known as
- Socotran leaf-toed gecko.
- Hemidactylus granti.
- Male snout-vent length: up to 59.5 mm (2) (3)
- Female snout-vent length: up to 60.5 mm (2) (3)
- c. 4.8 g (4)
Socotran rock gecko biology
Like most other geckos, the Socotran rock gecko is a nocturnal reptile (1) (4), mainly being active after dusk (2).
Little other information is available on the specific biology of the Socotran rock gecko, although other species within the Hemidactylus genus are known to be insectivorous. Hemidactylus species generally hibernate during the winter (8).
Most geckos within the Gekkonidae family lay two eggs, although some smaller species just lay one (9). Like in other Hemidactylus species, the eggs of the Socotran rock gecko are likely to be spherical, with a hard, white shell (8) (9).
Socotran rock gecko range
Socotran rock gecko habitat
As its name suggests, the Socotran rock gecko tends to be found in rocky habitats (1) (2), particularly those formed of limestone or occasionally granite (1). This species has been observed in a variety of areas around the island of Socotra, including on cliffs and boulders or hiding within crevices (1) (2) (4). The Socotran rock gecko’s preferred habitats generally occur within well-vegetated areas (2), and this newly described reptile has been recorded climbing palm tree trunks (1) (2).
The Socotran rock gecko has been observed from sea level up to elevations of about 762 metres (1) (4), and although it is found in many rocky regions on the island, it is not thought to occur on Socotra’s higher peaks (2).
Socotran rock gecko status
The Socotran rock gecko is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List (1).
Socotran rock gecko threats
The Socotran rock gecko is common and widely distributed within its range, and there are no known threats to this species at present (1).
Socotran rock gecko conservation
There are no known conservation measures currently in place for the Socotran rock gecko.
Find out more
Learn more about the Socotran rock gecko:
Sindaco, R., Ziliani, U., Razzetti, E., Carugati, C., Grieco, C., Pupin, F., Awadh Al-Aseily, B., Pella, F. and Fasola, M. (2009) A misunderstood new gecko of the genus Hemidactylus from Socotra Island, Yemen (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae). Acta Herpetologica, 4(1): 83-98. Available at:
Reptile Database - Hemidactylus inintellectus:
Find out more about reptile conservation:
Learn more about newly discovered species:
This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact:
- A species or taxonomic group that is only found in one particular country or geographic area.
- A category used in taxonomy, which is below ‘family’ and above ‘species’. A genus tends to contain species that have characteristics in common. The genus forms the first part of a ‘binomial’ Latin species name; the second part is the specific name.
- Hibernation is a winter survival strategy in which the animal passes the winter in a resting state. This period of inactivity is characterised by specific biological and biochemical changes including lowered blood pressure and respiration rate. In reptiles, this is also known as brumation.
- A projecting ridge along a flat or curved surface, particularly down the middle.
- Active at night.
- A small, rounded, wart-like bump on the skin or on a bone.
IUCN Red List (January, 2013)
Sindaco, R., Ziliani, U., Razzetti, E., Carugati, C., Grieco, C., Pupin, F., Awadh Al-Aseily, B., Pella, F. and Fasola, M. (2009) A misunderstood new gecko of the genus Hemidactylus from Socotra Island, Yemen (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae). Acta Herpetologica, 4(1): 83-98.
Reptile Database - Hemidactylus inintellectus (January, 2013)
Gómez-Díaz, E., Sindaco, R., Pupin, F., Fasola, M. and Carranza, S. (2012) Origin and in situ diversification in Hemidactylus geckos of the Socotra Archipelago. Molecular Ecology, 21: 4074-4092.
Smith, H.M. (1995) Handbook of Lizards: Lizards of the United States and of Canada. Cornell University Press, New York.
Johansen, T. (2012) A Field Guide to the Geckos of Northern Territory. AuthorHouse, UK.
Pianka, E.R. and Vitt, L.J. (2006) Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity. University of California Press, Berkeley, California.
Khanna, D.R. (2004) Biology of Reptiles. Discovery Publishing House, New Delhi.
Halliday, T. and Adler, K. (2002) The New Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. Oxford University Press, Oxford. | <urn:uuid:795d9366-eecb-4687-bed0-72132e18f067> | {
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The second stage of labour, commonly referred to as the pushing stage, is the stage when you are soon to, and will, meet your baby. It is divided into two sections – the latent or passive phase when the woman is fully dilated but not yet ready to push/not yet feeling the urge to push and the baby is beginning to descend through the pelvis and starts to rotate and flex to find the best and easiest position for birth of the head; and the active phase when the woman and her body is actively pushing (this is when most women feel the urge to push) to expel the baby from the uterus.
In a physiological second stage (with no interventions or time limits on pushing and allowing the uterus to work on its own to expel the baby) it can take anywhere from seconds, to minutes, up to and potentially even exceeding several hours for the baby’s head and body to be born. More commonly in a hospital setting however an arbitrary time limit, set by hospital policy or a care provider and often being a different time limit given from one care provider to another, of 1-3 hours of pushing is imposed on the birthing mother after which interventions in the form of the ventouse (vacuum extraction), forceps and possibly even an episiotomy are tried and usually as a last resort (or next resort if baby is starting to show signs of possible distress and other interventions have failed) an “emergency caesarean” will be performed, sometimes an “emergency caesarean” will be the first and only option offered. Which of these options that are usually offered and tried is very dependent on the particular maternity staff’s skills (both obstetrician/registrar and midwife/nurse), on the staff that are on duty at the time (obstetrician/registrar, midwife/nurse, anaesthetist etc), on the availability of an anaesthetist and a theatre for potential surgery and on the personal wishes (consent or non-consent) of the birthing mother and/or her family if she is unable to make a decision herself.
To continue with the description of the second stage of labour – during this stage the baby is moved down through the pelvis and through the dilated cervix and vaginal canal, causing the babies malleable skull to be compacted by the surrounding pressure, the surrounding bodily tissue is stretched outwards and, in the case of the front or anterior part of the pelvic floor, drawn up, the depth of the vaginal canal is shortened by the stretching. In some cases – for example sometimes in a fast pushing stage, sometimes in coached pushing or more commonly in an instrumental delivery - the tissue may be stretched too quickly without being allowed to adapt to the changed conditions and stretch at its own pace and can result in varying degrees of damage (grazing or tearing) to the tissue including light grazing (similar to a graze on a knee or elbow when you fall over/scrape against something), a labial, clitoral or perineal tear or combinations of any or all. Sometimes even with the best preparations and actions to promote no tearing the tissue will still tear anyway – if this occurs it is just because your body’s tissues reached their own personal limits on stretching during the time between the beginning of crowning and babies head being born. As the babies head enter the vaginal canal and begins to crown the rectum is also compressed and this is when many women will defecate (in laymans terms – do a poo), do not stress about this as midwives and doctors have seen it all and really do not care (and you likely won’t even know if you did or not if someone doesn’t tell you about it).
The muscles of the fundus (the muscles making up the top section of your uterus) contract causing the contents of the uterus to be pressed “down” towards the cervix and the vaginal canal while the muscles of the lower uterus (including the cervix) will have already been pulled upwards towards the fundus resulting in dilation and effacement. The pelvic floor muscles will also be working to help move the baby further down through the vaginal canal.
During each contraction (generally lasting a minute or 2 with a space of anywhere from 1-5 minutes between each contraction) the uterine muscles are compressed/tightened, this pushes the blood out of the uterine veins, preventing fresh blood from entering them, and reduces the amount of oxygen available to the placenta and as a result to the baby. It is considered a normal variation for a baby’s heart rate to drop slightly during contractions of the second stage in response to the reduced blood flow and oxygen supply and pressure on the head as it is pressed into the cervical opening and the vaginal canal, however if the baby’s heart rate is slow to increase after the contraction has eased or does not recover it may be indicative of early stages of fetal distress, your care providers will be monitoring this and will be able to inform you of anything that they feel isn’t right and if any intervention is needed.
As babies head crowns you may feel a strong sense of “pressure” and/or a stinging or burning type of pain (the “ring of fire” as described by many women), this is normal and is from baby stretching the lower end of the vaginal canal and the perineum. During and just prior to the crowning part of the later second stage of labour baby will likely turn a bit or make a “corkscrew” kind of movement to find the widest points in the pelvis in order to descend (in laymans terms – finding the easiest way out via the path of least resistance that has the most room to move around in).
When babies head is born there is still the body to be birthed. First one shoulder, and then the other shoulder will come out allowing the arms to emerge, again baby will semi-rotate one way or another to get the shoulders through the pelvis. In rare circumstances the shoulders may get a bit stuck (shoulder dystocia) or be a bit “sticky” making it difficult to get them through. This can usually be solved with position changes although sometimes more medical approaches (forceps, physical force, cesarean etc) may be needed. If you are concerned about the possibility of this happening please speak to your care provider and ask lots of questions about it to help put your mind at ease.
Once the body has emerged your baby is born though it is still connected to you via the umbilical cord and placenta.
The umbilical cord is usually cut within minutes of birth although it is now becoming more common to do what is known as “Delayed Cord Clamping” (DCC) which has been scientifically shown to have many benefits for your baby and means that the cord isn’t cut until it has stopping pulsating and baby has regained all of the blood that was present in the cord (approximately 1/3rd of your babies total blood volume).
Anatomy & Physiology for Midwives, Second Edition, by Jane Coad, Melvyn Dunstall, forward by Rona McCandlish, published 2006, pages 335-337
"Your birth. Your body. Your baby. Your choice. Your way. Even when the shit hits the fan and you have to change your original plans."
Do you want 1-on-1, 100% focused on YOU support during your pregnancy and birth? Do you want someone willing to listen who really HEARS YOU? How about a source of unbiased up to date information? Someone who doesn’t have a hidden agenda? Who trusts in, and believes, in you? Who doesn't pretend to be someone that they aren't? Someone who will give their all in supporting you to the best of their ability and beyond?
If your answer is a resounding YES!!! and you live on the North Side of Brisbane send a message TODAY to arrange a no obligation interview. | <urn:uuid:92fd36f7-ce4a-4e76-a33b-7ce63fd25b9a> | {
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Black Rhinoceros Diorama 1000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
Black Rhinoceros Diorama
Northwestern Slope of Mount Kenya, Kenya
The black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis
) inhabits dry brush and thorn country, where its thick skin provides good protection. These rhinos may reach a weight of three thousand pounds and have a front horn as long as fifty-three inches. Black rhinos are solitary, the mother and young composing the main social unit. After a gestation period of seventeen to eighteen months, a single calf is born and remains with the mother for about two years, not reaching maturity until five to seven years of age. The red-billed tickbird—better known as the red-billed oxpecker—(Buphagus erythrorhyncus
), often seen on rhinoceros and other large mammals of the African plains, was long thought to feed on the ticks that infest these animals. However, current thinking suggests that the birds may be more parasitic than beneficial to the animals.
The habitat dioramas are among the greatest treasures of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, depicting a precise moment in time—a specific location, complete with its indigenous flora and wildlife. The Museum is one of the world’s preeminent scientific, educational, and cultural institutions, drawing millions of visitors each year. Visit amnh.org for more information.
Thoughtfully conceived and engagingly intricate, our interlocking jigsaw puzzles combine superb color reproduction, stunning and unusual images, and sturdy construction to delight generations of novice and veteran puzzleworkers.
WARNING: Choking hazard—small parts. Not suitable for children under 3 years. | <urn:uuid:7e12767e-09c7-4140-96c4-c77bcf8649ab> | {
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Washington: Scientists have shed light on why people with cystic fibrosis are particularly vulnerable to lung disease and that a simple solution of baking soda helps prevent the airway infection in animal models.
The human airway is a pretty inhospitable place for microbes. There are numerous immune defense mechanisms poised to kill or remove inhaled bacteria before they can cause problems. But cystic fibrosis (CF) disrupts these defences, leaving patients particularly susceptible to airway infection, which is the major cause of disease and death in CF.
Using a unique animal model of CF, a team of scientists from the University of Iowa has discovered a surprising difference between healthy airways and airways affected by CF that leads to reduced bacterial killing in CF airways.
The finding directly links the genetic cause of CF -- mutations in a channel protein called cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) -- to the disruption of a biological mechanism that protects lungs from bacterial infection.
The study showed that the thin layer of liquid coating the airways is more acidic in newborn pigs with CF than in healthy newborn pigs, and that the increased acidity (lower pH) reduces the ability of the liquid to kill bacteria. Moreover, making the airway liquid less acidic with a simple solution of baking soda restores bacterial killing in CF airways to almost normal levels.
Although the findings suggest that therapies that raise the pH of the airway surface liquid (ASL) may help prevent infection in CF, the researchers strongly caution that this discovery is at an early stage.
“Some have asked us if people with CF should inhale an aerosol that would raise the pH of the ASL. At this point, we have no idea if that would help. And more importantly, it could be harmful,” said Joseph Zabner, M.D., UI professor of internal medicine and senior study author.
Alejandro Pezzulo, M.D., UI postdoctoral fellow and co-lead author of the study, said their finding was very surprising as “There have been many ideas as to what goes wrong in CF, but lack of a good experimental model has made it difficult to gain insight into how the disease gets started.”
Unlike mouse models of the disease, the CF pigs develop lung disease that closely mimics what is seen in humans. Previous studies from the UI lab showed that although the airways of CF pigs are infection-free at birth, they are less able to get rid of bacteria than healthy airways and quickly become infected.
The UI team, including Pezzulo and co-lead author Xiao Xiao Tang, Ph.D., a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral research associate at the UI, developed a simple experiment to study bacterial killing by the ASL. They immobilized bacteria on a tiny gold grid and exposed these bacteria to ASL from CF-affected and healthy pigs.
The ASL from normal airways killed most of the bacteria very rapidly, whereas the ASL from CF-affected airways only killed about half of the bacteria, suggesting that in CF airways some bacteria would survive and go on to cause infection.
Further investigation showed that although many characteristics of the ASL in CF and non-CF pigs are similar, the ASL from CF airways is more acidic than the liquid from healthy airways.
When the scientists raised the pH of the ASL in CF pigs through inhalation of a solution of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), the treated ASL was capable of killing most of the bacteria on the grid (just like ASL from normal airways). Conversely, lowering the pH of ASL from normal airways reduced bacterial killing. The finding confirms that pH is a critical factor for bacterial killing,
“This study explains why a defect in the CFTR channel protein leads to reduced bacterial killing and an airway host defense defect. Impaired bicarbonate transport because of the defective CFTR could cause increased acidity in the ASL, which the study shows reduces the ASL bacterial killing capability,” Tang said
Although the approach is not ready for clinical application, the study indicated that pH is a contributing factor in airway infection, suggesting that therapies that modify airway pH may potentially be helpful in preventing infection in CF patients.
In addition, the researchers believe that using the bacteria-coated grids to measure bacterial killing in airways might provide a simple way to test the effectiveness of other new CF therapies that currently are being developed.
The study published in the July 5 issue of Nature. | <urn:uuid:bc36d737-e45b-4f1f-bf7d-77cb09604231> | {
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Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is an immune system disorder in which you have low levels of several of the proteins (antibodies) that help you fight infections. CVID leaves you open to recurrent infections in your ears, sinuses and respiratory system, and increases your risk of digestive disorders, blood disorders and cancer.
Signs and symptoms of common variable immunodeficiency may appear during childhood or adolescence, though most people don't experience them until adulthood. The condition can be inherited, or it can be acquired during your lifetime.
Nov. 19, 2012
You Are ... The Campaign for Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit organization. Make a difference today. | <urn:uuid:ba7eec19-1374-490b-87ab-4ee8d818a9d6> | {
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Outdoor cooking takes many forms; from basic cooking over a simple camp-fire to gourmet meals prepared on equipment that rivals that found in modern kitchens. Wood, charcoal, propane gas or piped in natural gas may fuel the cooking devices. This is clearly a type of cooking with many variations.
- Camp Cooking
- Backyard Smoking
- Backyard Grilling
- Backyard Deep-Fry (think deep-fried turkey.)
- Outdoor Cooking - Misc (Boiled Clams, Crabs, etc.)
General Rules for Outdoor Food Safety
Plan ahead: decide what you are going to eat and how you are going to cook it; then plan what equipment you will need.
- Pack safely: use a cooler if car-camping or boating, or pack foods in the frozen state with a cold source if hiking or backpacking. Keep raw foods separate from other foods. Never bring meat or poultry products without a cold source to keep them safe.
- Bring disposable wipes or biodegradable soap for hand- and dishwashing.
- Plan on carrying bottled water for drinking. Otherwise, boil water or use water purification tablets.
- Do not leave trash in the wild or throw it off your boat.
- If using a cooler, leftover food is safe only if the cooler still has ice in it. Otherwise, discard leftover food.
- Whether in the wild or on the high seas, protect yourself and your family by washing your hands before and after handling food. | <urn:uuid:49d66131-86ca-402c-8ea8-b9f81e744674> | {
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Seven-a-day: Michael Mosley's guide to reaching the target
A recent study has suggested that we should significantly increase the amount of fruit and vegetables we eat from five a day to at least seven. So how would Michael Mosley do it?
We have known for a long time that eating more fruit and vegetables is likely to be good for us, and the famous five-a-day campaign was always intended as a recommendation aimed at promoting the minimum we should eat, rather than a maximum. What this study adds to things we had previously known is that eating vegetables is better for us than eating fruit (probably because fruit has far more sugar in it) and that eating tinned fruit seems to be positively bad for us (again, probably because it is often in a syrup).
About the author
Michael Mosley is a medical journalist, TV presenter and trained doctor
On the basis of this study, you should aim to eat at least four portions of vegetables a day and around three portions of fruit. Importantly, you should eat them, not drink them. The study found no real benefit from drinking fruit juice, and I would say the same is probably true of commercially bought smoothies.
So how do you reach your seven-a-day? If you're feeling continental, you might start the day with an omelette containing a decent handful of spinach. The protein in the eggs will keep you full for longer and spinach is rich in folate and betaine - vitamins that help regulate homocysteine (high levels of which are associated with heart disease). Unfortunately, despite Popeye the Sailor, spinach is not rich in iron.
Alternatively you could add a handful of strawberries or blueberries to your cereal, or wolf down an orange.
A rough guide to portion size
The NHS advises a fruit and vegetable portion to weigh about 80g.
- One fresh apple, banana or peach
- Half an avocado
- Two handfuls of blueberries
- Seven fresh strawberries
- One corn on the cob
- One medium tomato, or seven cherry tomatoes
- Three tablespoons of peas
- Two spears of broccoli
- Half a pepper
- Two-inch piece of cucumber
For lunch and your evening meal you are going to be eating vegetables, with fruit as a dessert. But which vegetables? Again, the recommendations are that you add as much colour as possible to your diet. The different colours of different plants represent some of the thousands of different bioactive compounds, known as phytochemicals, which keep plants alive and healthy.
Eat them raw or lightly steamed rather than boiled to death.Green
So-called "leafy greens", which include spinach, chard, lettuce and kale, are a good source of minerals like magnesium, manganese and potassium.
Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and other members of the brassicas family contain sulphur and organosulphur compounds. Sulphur is essential for the production of glutathione, an important antioxidant, as well as amino acids like methionine and taurine.Orange and Yellow
Fruit and vegetables with yellow or orange in them are rich in carotenoids. Foods rich in carotenoids include, not surprisingly, carrots. The type of carotenoid you find in carrots can be converted to retinol, an active form of vitamin A. As vitamin A is important for healthy eyesight, this may explain why carrots are supposed to help you see in the dark. Vitamin A also plays an important role in bone growth and regulating our immune system. As well as carrots you will also find carotenoids in melons, tomatoes, peppers and squash.Red
Get your seven
Another class of carotenoids that produces the colour red are called the lycopenes. You'll find lots of lycopene in rich, red tomatoes. Oddly enough cooking tomatoes actually boosts the levels of lycopene. The reason is that heat helps break down the plant's thick cell walls, making the nutrient more available. Unfortunately heat also destroys vitamin C, so it's a trade off.Blue and purple
Blue and purple foods get their colouring from a group of flavonoids called anthocyanins. You'll find decent levels of these particular flavonoids in blackberries, blueberries, purple carrots and red cabbage. There is some evidence that anthocyanin - rich blueberries may improve memory and cognitive function in people as they get older.White
Examples include garlic, white onions, shallots and leeks. These are rich in alliums and allyl sulphur compounds. Although there is no compelling proof that garlic will ward off vampires, it does appear to be quite good at killing microorganisms. | <urn:uuid:35ee27f7-4c8a-4eac-a71e-a131eaedd6b0> | {
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The Vampire began as an experimental aircraft, unlike the Gloster Meteor which was always specified for production. Under specification E.6/41, design work on the DH-100 began at the de Havilland works at Hatfield in mid-1942, two years after the Meteor.
Originally named the "Spider Crab," the aircraft was entirely a de Havilland project, exploiting the company's extensive experience in using moulded plywood for aircraft construction, as used in the Mosquito bomber. It was the last time composite wood and metal construction was used in high performance military aircraft. It had conventional straight mid-wings and a single jet engine placed in an egg-shaped, aluminium-surfaced fuselage exhausting in a straight line. To reduce the losses caused by a long jetpipe the designers used the distinctive tail with twin booms, similar to that of the Lockheed P-38.
Geoffrey de Havilland Jr, the de Havilland chief test pilot and son of the company's president, test flew prototype LZ548/G on its maiden flight 20 September 1943 from Hatfield. The flight took place only six months following the Meteor's maiden flight. The first Vampire flight had been delayed due to the need to send the sole remaining flight engine to Lockheed to replace one destroyed in ground engine runs in the prototype XP-80. The production Vampire Mk I did not fly until April 1945 with most built by English Electric Aircraft due to the pressures on de Havilland's production facilities, busy with other types. Although eagerly taken into service by the RAF, it was still being developed at war's end, consequently the Vampire never saw combat in the Second World War. A total of 3,269 Vampires were built in the UK, and about 1,100 in other countries although there is some uncertainty about the numbers built in Italy. There were 15 versions, e.g. a twin seated night fighter, trainer and carrier-based aircraft.
It was used by some 31 air forces. Of the major Western powers, Germany, Spain and the US were the only ones not to use the aircraft type. Operational historyRAF service
The Vampire was first powered by a Halford H1 (later renamed the "Goblin") producing 2,100 lbf (9.3 kN) of thrust, designed by Frank B Halford and built by de Havilland. The engine was a centrifugal-flow type, a design soon superseded post-war by the slimmer axial-flow units. Initially, the Goblin gave the aircraft a disappointingly limited range, a common problem with all the early jets. Later marks were distinguished by greatly increased fuel capacities. As designs improved the engine was often upgraded. Later Mk Is used the Goblin II; the F 3 onwards used the Goblin III. Certain marks were test-beds for the Rolls-Royce Nene but did not enter production. An unusual characteristic of the low positioning of the engine meant that a Vampire could not remain on idle for longer than a certain time because it would melt the tarmac on which it stood.
In postwar service, the RAF employed the Gloster Meteor as an interceptor and the Vampire as a ground-attack fighter-bomber (although their roles probably should have been reversed). The first prototype of the "Vampire Fighter-Bomber Mk 5 (FB 5)," modified from a Vampire F 3, carried out its initial flight on 23 June 1948. The FB 5 retained the Goblin 2 engine of the F 3, but featured armor protection around engine systems, wings clipped back by 30 centimeters (1 foot), and longer-stroke main gear to handle greater takeoff weights and provide clearance for stores/weapons load (an external tank or 225 kilogram (500 pound) bomb outboard on each wing, and eight "3 inch" rocket projectiles ("RPs") stacked in pairs on four attachments inboard of the booms). Although an ejection seat was considered, it was not fitted.
At its peak, 19 RAF squadrons flew the FB 5 in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. The FB 5 undertook attack missions during the successful British campaign to suppress the insurgency in Malaya in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The RAF eventually relegated the Vampire to advanced training roles in the mid-1950s and the type was generally out of RAF service by the end of the decade.
The Mk 5 was navalised as the Sea Vampire, the first Royal Navy jet aircraft. The navy had been very impressed with the aircraft since 3 December 1945, when a Vampire carried out the flying trials on the carrier HMS Ocean. The RAF's Mk 5 was altered to extend the aircraft's role from a fighter to a ground-attack aircraft, the wings being clipped, strengthened and fitted with hard-points for bombs or rockets. The Mk 5 (FB 5) fighter-bomber became the most numerous variant with 473 aircraft produced.
Two-seat Vampire trainer.
The final Vampire was the T 11 trainer. First flown in 1950, over 600 were produced in both air force and naval models. The trainer remained in service with the RAF until 1966.
Vampires in Canada
An F Mk 1 version began operating on an evaluation basis in Canada at the Winter Experimental Establishment in Edmonton in 1946. The F 3 was chosen as one of two types of operational fighters for the Royal Canadian Air Force and was first flown in Canada on 17 January 1948 where it went into service as a training aircraft at Central Flying School at RCAF Station Trenton. With 86 in total, the F 3 was the first jet fighter to enter RCAF service in any significant numbers. It served to introduce fighter pilots not only to jet flying, but also to cockpit pressurization and the tricycle landing gear. The "Vamp" was a popular aircraft, easy to fly and considered a bit of a "hot rod." It served in both operational and air reserve units until retirement in the late 1950s.
Vampires in Finland
D.H.100 Vampire Mk 52 "VA-7" KoskueThe Finnish Air Force received six FB 52 Vampires in 1953. The model was nicknamed "Vamppi" in Finnish service. An additional nine twin-seat T 55s were purchased in 1955. The aircraft were initially assigned to 2nd Wing at Pori, but were transferred to 1st Wing at Tikkakoski at the end of the 1950s. The last Finnish Vampire was decommissioned in 1965.
Vampires in Sweden
The Swedish Air Force purchased its first batch of 70 FB 1 Vampires in 1946, looking for a jet to replace the P-51D Mustangs and the outdated J 22s of its fighter force. The aircraft was designated J 28A and was assigned to the F 13 air wing at Norrköping. It provided such good service that it was selected as the backbone of the fighter force. A total of 310 of the more modern FB 50, designated J 28B, were purchased in 1949. The last one was delivered in 1952, after which all piston-engined fighters were decommissioned. In addition, a total of 57 two-seater DH 115 Vampire called J 28C were used for training.
The Swedish Vampire fighters were retired in 1956 and replaced with J 29 (SAAB Tunnan) and J 34 (Hawker Hunter). The trainers remained in service well into the 1960s. The last Vampire was retired in 1968. (All Vampire warbirds being flown in Sweden today originate from the Swiss Air Force.)
Vampires in Rhodesia
The Rhodesian Air Force acquired Vampire FB9 fighters and Vampire FB11 trainers in the early 1950s, its first jet aircraft. More were supplied by South Africa in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Rhodesia operated Vampires until the end of the bush war in 1979. They were eventually replaced by the BAe Hawk 60 in the early 1980s. After 30 years service they were the last Vampires used on operations anywhere in the world. RecordsThe Vampire was an exceptionally versatile aircraft, setting many aviation firsts and records, being the first RAF fighter with a top speed exceeding 500 mph. Piloted by Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown, a Sea Vampire was the first jet to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier and in 1948, John Cunningham set a new world altitude record of 59,446 ft (18,119 m). On 14 July 1948, Vampire F 3s of No. 54 Squadron RAF became the first jet aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. They went via Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Keflavik in Iceland, and Goose Bay at Labrador, before going on to Montreal to start the RAF’s annual goodwill tour of Canada and the US where they gave several formation aerobatic displays.
At the same time, USAF Col. David C. Schilling was leading a group of F-80 Shooting Stars flying to Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base in Germany to relieve a unit based there. There were conflicting reports later regarding competition between the RAF and USAF to be the first to fly the Atlantic. One report said the USAF squadron delayed completion of its movement to allow the Vampires to be "the first jets across the Atlantic". Another said that the Vampire pilots celebrated “winning the race against the rival F-80s”. | <urn:uuid:e7a30b73-839c-41b7-a1df-718cdf845122> | {
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The Norwegian School and Sport Sciences published new research this year testing the importance of post exercise carbohydrate and protein consumption. It’s always good to stay up to date with the current science behind nutrition because it is constantly changing. When it comes to exercise nutrition, you should constantly be looking for research that validates how you currently train and eat.
Protein is absolutely essential in building muscle. When you start lifting weights your entire goal is to build muscle and burn fat. People don’t always understand how important and impactful the right diet will have on the results they are seeking.
There are many methods of Intermittent Fasting but we scoured the scientific research to determine the most effective method and created this guide to help you reach your goals.
There has been this myth propagating throughout the internet that eating small, frequent meals throughout the day boosts your metabolism. When you don’t understand how the body works, it might make logical sense.
According to the National Institute of Health, 2 out of 3 Americans are overweight or obese and 1 out of 3 is obese. This is a crazy high number that people should really take note of. With numbers this high this means that a good majority of people who read this article will have a significant amount of weight they need to lose. If you search for ways to lose weight on the internet, the amount of results is pretty staggering.
Taking caffeine before a workout may seem counter intuitive to some, but science says otherwise. When you hit the gym, the benefit you see at the end of the session will often times be determined by the level of effort you exert during the workout (I say often because nutrition also plays a huge factor). Spending 45 minutes in the gym doing crappy workout takes the same amount of time to do a great workout. How you fuel yourself will ultimately determine if you spent that 45 minutes wisely or should have just stayed in bed. If caffeine is something you should take before a workout, what is it going to do and how much should you take?
Most people are aware that resistance training provides an increase in muscle tissue and strength. This type of training also provides other benefits including weight loss, improved mobility and balance, increased bone density, and decreased risk of disease and injury. While much of this is common knowledge, how do we know that much of this is…
People often fear that while they begin reducing the amount of calories they eat, they will lose muscle along with fat. This may be false according to science.
Bodybuilders and other fitness enthusiasts are always looking for better ways to target and burn fat. Fasted cardio is one of those things that is constantly discussed. The first article that comes up when you search for fasted cardio is one from bodybuilding.com. Written by a self identified “expert”, she goes on throughout the article… | <urn:uuid:c2fa020a-5492-43ea-8da6-a48080c05338> | {
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It’s a bit overwhelming to begin describing all the ancient sites in Greece. From Athens to Delphi to Olympia and more, there is so much history here. It’s hard to know where or how to begin. And how to keep all the stories straight. Honestly, I’m not or wasn’t that familiar with ancient history before coming here. It was one thing to explore the ancient Roman sites in France, now we’re looking at remains even older and some even thousands of years before Greece’s Golden Age. Whew!
I’ll start with Athens where we began this journey, and take you along the roads we traveled. We had a very basic little hotel in the heart of the Plaka, the area just below the Acropolis in Athens. However, we had a great view of the Acropolis from our balcony. In the other direction were the mountains of Greece. After several gorgeous, sunny days, we awoke one morning to a chill in the air and snow atop the mountains.
Across from the entrance to the Acropolis is a huge, craggy Boulder called Mars Hill. Standing here gives you a good view of the Acropolis. This Boulder is where The Apostle Paul preached and converted many Athenians.
The Acropolis is set on a high hill rising above the sprawling city of Athens. As a European city, Athens itself has little to offer, the architecture is lacking and the city is a bit messy, much like many cities in Mexico. However, the Acropolis rises above it all with its own historic and artistic significance. Athens now boasts a state of the art museum that houses many pieces of art and architecture from the Golden Age and before.
The Mycenaeans ruled this area from around 1400 B.C. and had a palace atop this hill. These people had an empire in Greece and beyond about 1000+ years before the ancient Greeks. If you think about it, they existed about the same amount of time before the Golden Age of Greece as between the Golden Age and now! We’ll see more from them later.
By 450 BC, after withstanding attacks and destruction from the Persians, Athens was once again at its peak. The leader, Pericles, led a massive building project transforming the Acropolis into a supersized complex devoted to the goddess Athena who was believed to be the city’s protector. There were four major buildings or monuments; the Parthenon, Erechtheion, Propylaea and the Temple of Athena Nike. One thing we know of this great site was it was started and finished within fifty years (450-400 B.C.).
There is a lot of information in the museum that tells visitors about the geometry of the columns and buildings. There was so much life-sized statuary built onto the buildings. It is truly amazing to see these structures and imagine how they were constructed without the technology and tools we have today. Just the massive size was impressive.
Also in Athens, at the base of the Acropolis, were ruins of the old city including the Ancient Agora. This is where the people would shop and meet and philosophize. Walking these streets and considering some of those who went before, Socrates, Plato, and others can be awe inspiring. Almost anywhere people begin to dig in Greece ruins are found. When the construction began for the Metro prior to the 2004 Olympics more ruins were unearthed and are now displayed in the Metro entrance.
I’ll finish up this post with a few more pictures from Athens. The Byzantine churches are seen everywhere in Greece. They are always built in the shape of a cross and furnished similarly inside. Now it’s common to see more modern versions throughout the villages.
One morning on our walk we were lucky to watch a changing of the guard outside a government building.
Now, we’re off to see the oracle of Delphi. I hope you’ll come along. | <urn:uuid:eef57f5f-20fc-4308-9a91-f44149fc8436> | {
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Antibiotic Overload? When and When Not to Put Your Child on Antibiotics.by Teresa Shaw | October 13, 2008 12:00 AM
Sniffles and sneezes, fevers, aches and chills—cold and flu season has arrived. While the colder weather doesn't actually cause colds, theories suggest that, due to the cold, people gather in closer proximity in indoor areas and, therefore, spread germs more easily than in the warmer months.
When cold and flu season strikes, it's important to know how to treat the illnesses. Not all illnesses are the same, nor can they be treated equally. Antibiotics, in particular, are not a fix-all for every illness or infection. Following is an explanation of when antibiotics should and should not be used.
Causes of Infections
Infections are generally caused by two main types of germs: bacteria and viruses.
Bacteria are organisms that can be found almost anywhere in the body, with the exception of normally sterile sites such as the blood stream and spinal fluid. There are a few bacteria, known as pathogens, that can cause diseases in humans, animals, and plants.
Viruses are organisms that cause disease by invading healthy host cells in the body. As virus particles multiply, the host cells burst, allowing the viruses to infect other cells.
Your child's doctor can determine whether your child has an illness caused by bacteria or a virus, and can decide whether the appropriate treatment requires antibiotics.
When to Take Antibiotics
Antibiotics are used to treat illnesses caused by bacteria. While your child's pediatrician is the best judge for when antibiotics should be prescribed, the following are generally treated with antibiotics.
- Ear and sinus infections. There are several types of ear infections and sinus infections; many need antibiotics, but some do not. Antibiotics are generally needed in the cases of long-lasting or severe infections.
- Strep throat. A major type of sore throat, strep throat requires antibiotic treatment. A lab test is completed in order to properly diagnose strep throat.
It is important to note that viral infections have the potential to turn into bacterial infections. However, using antibiotics to treat viral infections will not prevent bacterial infections; in fact, it may trigger infections with resistant bacteria. Tell your child's pediatrician if he or she seems to get sicker or if the illness lasts for a long time in order to ensure proper treatment.
When Not to Take Antibiotics
Antibiotics do not work on viruses. Therefore, they should not be taken in cases of:
- Cold or flu
- Cough or bronchitis
- Sore throat (not strep throat)
- Runny nose
In fact, taking antibiotics for a viral infection increases the risk of antibiotic resistance, which has been referred to as one of the most pressing health problems today. There are more antibiotic-resistant bacteria today than ever before, nearly all of which are becoming resistant to the most commonly prescribed antibiotics. Each time a person ingests antibiotics, they are killing sensitive bacteria, while other, resistant germs are left behind and multiply in numbers. The best way to control this is to decrease the inappropriate use of antibiotics. Be sure to talk to your child's pediatrician to ensure that any antibiotics prescribed for him or her are truly necessary.
Parents should also refrain from demanding that their child be given antibiotics to treat a cold or cough, runny nose, or sore throat. Antibiotics should be used only to treat bacterial infections. If you or your child have a cold or the flu, treat the illness by drinking plenty of fluids, using a cool-mist vaporizer and/or a saline nasal spray, and try ice chips or lozenges (for older children and adults) for relief.
Many Americans falsely believe in the power of antibiotics so much that many patients and parents expect a prescription for antibiotics, no matter what ails them. Doctors sometimes comply, due to pressure from patients and an unwillingness to spend the time explaining why the antibiotics might not be the answer. What's more, when the diagnosis is uncertain, many doctors will rely on antibiotics to get rid of the infection, even when the cause is not certain to be bacterial.
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I am fascinated by the discussion level that continues around “Close Reading” which is just a “part” of the text in Reading Anchor Standard 1. (Specifically two words out of 31 that actually say, “Read closely.”) You can read what Grant Wiggins posted about Close Reads here.
Tim Shanahan has several posts about close reads. This one, “A Time for Humility,” posted after the IRA conference on April 23, 2013, is particularly enlightening as Shanahan shares that there is no “one perfect model” for close reads.
Who are the experts? Is there a “formula” or a plan that works for every story? No, NO, NO! Close reads are dependent on the complexity of the texts, the skills of the students and the goal of the specific lessons.
When a reader begins with the text, the meaning has to be aligned with the author’s words and craft. How do students understand that? Some students may get all that in the “first read” and therefore not need a second or a close read. But if the second grade students can only provide a “topic” when questioned about a page they have read, a “second read” may be necessary for instruction/modeling of main idea whether explicitly shared by the author or implicit in the text.
Will a single close read work for all students? Probably not! That is the “ART” of teaching, a teacher that can propose a learning target, provide a model and the resources and then begin to check for understanding to specifically meet the needs of all students.
In the waning days or weeks of the 2013 school year, I would encourage teachers to continue to challenge students. Ask your classes when they felt that they were “stretched” in their learning this year. Likewise, ask them when they felt like they were “coasting” and they didn’t need to put out a great deal of effort. Consider students’ input and “Try something different” in your implementation of the Core. A lot of other bloggers and authors have written about the value of high expectations. With scaffolding and some collaborative practice, many student CAN be successful!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
What is close reading?
To begin at the beginning, this began with Reading Anchor Standard #1.
- “Close Reads” are not the Final Goal (March 19, 2013 post)
- How Often Do I Use a Close Reading? (March 9, 2013 post)
Then when considering text for use in close reading demonstrations or for student practice, two posts that cover this ground are:
- Close Reading: Not for Every Text (February 28, 2013 post)
- How Do I Choose Text for Close Reading? (March 2, 2013 post)
What should be the content or purpose of “close reads?”
- Are you allowed to make “connections” in close reading? (February 22, 2013 post)
- and just as a reminder: “Common Sense” and the Common Core (February 21, 2013 post) | <urn:uuid:deef6b88-3871-4898-ad6e-054cee3e1966> | {
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As a parent, do you ever wonder what all those letters mean after your therapist’s name? To a speech-language pathologist, these letters represent years and years of hard work and ultimately they confirm certification to the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA).
So, what exactly is ASHA?
ASHA is the national organization and governing body for speech-language pathologists, audiologists and speech/language/hearing scientists. In 1926, ASHA became the first organization to initiate the development of national standards for these two professions. Today, ASHA represents more than 181,000+ professionals; 148,105 of which are certified speech-language pathologists (SLP’s), 31,964 of which are certified audiologists and 931 of which hold dual certification as both audiologists and SLPs. These two rewarding professions have shown immense growth over the years and continue to require a governing body to further detail professional standards.
ASHA has been certifying both speech-language pathologists and audiologists since 1952. These standards are established by audiologists and speech-language pathologists, respectively, who are members of ASHA’s Council for Clinical Certification in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CFCC). ASHA’s certification standards are based on assessment of academic knowledge, professional and clinical skills by professors, employers and leaders in the discipline of communication sciences and disorders. This certification requires graduate level coursework and clinical practicum within a variety of settings and populations.
These populations span the lifetime and can include:
- Early Childhood
- School-Aged Children
Clinical Practicum explores various settings for an SLP to work including:
- Private clinics
- Outpatient Facilities
- Skilled Nursing Facilities
In addition, ASHA collaborates with the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in developing national examinations for both professions. Both speech-language pathologists and audiologists must obtain a passing score on the Praxis examination.
Now, back to the letters after your child’s therapist’s name. Being “certified” from ASHA means holding a Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC). This is a nationally recognized professional credential that represents a level of excellence in the field of Audiology (CCC-A) or Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP). Individuals who have achieved the CCC-ASHA certification have voluntarily met academic and professional standards, typically going beyond the minimum requirements for state licensure. In order to maintain their knowledge, skills and expertise to provide high quality clinical service, individuals who are certified with ASHA are required to engage in ongoing professional development courses.
North Shore Pediatric Therapy requires all speech-language pathologists to hold and maintain ASHA’s CCC Certification. This is a crucial aspect of ensuring that all our therapists continue to uphold high standards of clinical service to the clients we serve.
As an organization, ASHA provides an abundant amount of resources. Each year, ASHA holds a nationwide convention and invites professionals to come, attend lectures, network and earn CEU course hours. In addition, the ASHA website contains insightful resources, such as the Practice Portal. This online resource offers one-stop access to guide evidence-based decision-making on a variety of both clinical and professional issues. This resource contains direct research articles and resources on a variety of clinical topics and disorders, as well as professional practice issues.
NSPT offers services in Bucktown, Evanston, Highland Park, Lincolnwood, Glenview, Lake Bluff, Des Plaines, Hinsdale and Milwaukee! If you have questions or concerns about your child, we would love to help! Give us a call at (877) 486-4140 and speak to one of our Family Child Advocates! | <urn:uuid:ee09e1c0-5f49-4ec9-96e4-12b1addf66a3> | {
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KENTUCKY (5/21/13) – This is your daily update of what has happened on this day in history.
The Lewis and Clark expedition began 209 years ago today.
The first bicycles were introduced in the United States 194 years ago today.
The first Democratic National Convention was held in Baltimore 181 years ago today.
The Red Cross was founded 132 years ago today.
The first horror movie, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, premiered 105 years ago today.
The House of Representatives passed an amendment allowing women to vote 95 years ago today.
Information provided by http://www.historyorb.com
Graphics provided by SurfKY Graphics Department
Copyright 2013 SurfKY News Group, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Why modern men are losing their testosterone
Research has shown that men today have less testosterone than they used to. What's happening?
- Several studies have confirmed that testosterone counts in men are lower than what they used to be just a few decades ago.
- While most men still have perfectly healthy testosterone levels, its reduction puts men at risk for many negative health outcomes.
- The cause of this drop in testosterone isn't entirely clear, but evidence suggests that it is a multifaceted result of modern, industrialized life.
Remember Frank Sinatra's swagger, John Wayne's quiet confidence, and Burt Reynold's impressive mustache? They were icons of masculinity for a lot of people, and many folks today point to those icons when bemoaning a perceived loss of masculinity in our society.
Well, Frank Sinatra had a violent temper, John Wayne was a racist, Burt Reynolds was a womanizer, and they all drank way too much. Our values have changed more than the storied qualities of "manliness." Despite this, there is something to the argument that men used to be more manly back in the day.
A study on a large sample of American men found that the average testosterone level has been dropping by as much as 1 percent per year. Testosterone levels lower naturally with age, but this study found that a 65-year-old man in 1987 had about 17 percent more testosterone than a 65- year-old man in 2004. This wasn't just limited to Americans either; a Danish study found similar results. Anecdotally, sex counselor Ian Kerner told CNN that he's noticed "an increasing number of young guys are complaining of sexual concerns, such as diminished libido and erectile problems, more commonly seen in older men."
How bad is this?
It's not a disaster. Most men today still have perfectly healthy levels of testosterone even if it is dropping year to year. But if testosterone levels get too low, then we start to see a slew of bad effects.
Testosterone promotes attention, memory, spatial reasoning, and energy — essentially, it makes you sharper — and, of course, it increases libido and muscle mass. When Testosterone counts get too low, men can begin to feel fatigued, lose sexual interest, gain weight, and lose muscle mass. In addition, there is a link between low testosterone levels and depression.
There's also a wide association between low testosterone levels and disease. One study, published in the spring, found that people with a testosterone deficiency (defined as less than 300 nanograms of testosterone per deciliter) were at greater risk for obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, and other diseases. It's important to note that this is correlational data; it's very difficult to definitively prove that low testosterone causes these negative outcomes. But the odds are that doing the activities that keep your testosterone levels up will also help prevent these very undesirable conditions.
Flickr user Linden Tea
As testosterone levels decrease with age or in response to medical conditions, some people choose to receive testosterone therapy and inject what their body fails to produce.
What's the cause?
Unfortunately, the reason why testosterone counts keep dropping over the years isn't clear, but there are some likely candidates. One surprising possibility is that people smoke fewer cigarettes now. Even though everything else it does is terrible for you, smoking actually raises testosterone levels. And back in Frank Sinatra's day, smoking was the norm, not the exception. But please, don't light up to make yourself manlier. It's a bad idea.
Our rising rates of obesity, too, are probably contributing. Between 1999 and 2016, obesity in American adults increased by nearly 10 percent. Obesity and testosterone create something of a vicious cycle: obese men tend to have lower testosterone , and men with lower testosterone tend to become obese. This happens because fat cells metabolize testosterone and convert it into estrogen. In addition, obese people have lower levels of SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin), which transports sex hormones like testosterone through the blood.
However, the most likely candidate is pollution. Research has shown that chemicals that are commonly found in medicine and pesticides inhibit testosterone. These chemicals are seeping into our water, contributing to fertility problems in fish. The researchers also speculate that this same mechanism is occurring in humans as well.
In addition, research on Native American tribes found that higher levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs; a component in industrial coolants, as a plasticizer, and in many other applications) in the males' systems was associated with lower testosterone counts. We've known that PCBs are toxic for years, but the chemical lasts for a very long time. Other chemicals, like bisphenol A (BPA; a plastic) and triclosan (an antibacterial agent) have been shown to disrupt the human hormone system, either by mimicking estrogen or blocking the activity of testosterone. Once chemicals such as these get into the environment and enter the food chain, they are very difficult to remove.
(Photo by ROMEO GACAD/AFP/Getty Images)
Industrial pollutants have a myriad of negative effects on our health, one of which can is the blocking of testosterone in the body.
What can be done?
Good news: The things that are lowering men's testosterone levels may be complicated, but combating this issue is simple and probably what you would have guessed anyways. Eat a healthy diet, exercise more, and get a good night's sleep. If you really want to go the extra mile, avoid eating or drinking from plastic containers. Finally, get political: When environmental regulation goes out the window, so too does your health. Contrary to the stereotype, becoming a treehugger might be the best way to save your masculinity.
Indiana ranks 3rd in coal consumption, but a primary energy utility there just declared the end of coal by 2028
- Where politicians fail, economic realities mean renewables are far less expensive: A savings of $4 billion over the next 30 years
- Indiana is 7th in coal production and 3rd in consumption; this is due to change rapidly
- The big winners? Solar and wind energies
The comics titan worked for more than half a century to revolutionize and add nuance to the comics industry, and he built a vast community of fans along the way.
- Lee died shortly after being rushed to an L.A. hospital. He had been struggling with multiple illnesses over the past year, reports indicate.
- Since the 1950s, Lee has been one of the most influential figures in comics, helping to popularize heroes that expressed a level of nuance and self-doubt previously unseen in the industry.
- Lee, who's later years were marked by some financial and legal tumult, is survived by his daughter, Joan Celia "J.C." Lee.
The government hopes to see 1.5 million electric cars on roads by 2030.
- The legislation is expected to pass by the end of 2018.
- The move is inspired partly by Israel's recent discovery of several large deposits of natural gas.
- It's one of the latest developments in Israel's broader plan to wean itself off other more destructive fossil fuels.
The results come from a 15-year study that used ultrasound scans to track blood vessels in middle-aged adults starting in 2002.
- The study measured the stiffness of blood vessels in middle-aged patients over time.
- Stiff blood vessels can lead to the destruction of delicate blood vessels in the brain, which can contribute to cognitive decline.
- The scans could someday become a widely used tool to identify people at high risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's.
SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by The Big Think, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:2d0cd009-707f-458b-bc0f-4d0a89867af3> | {
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Stuff you need to know:
• Cloud computing systems generally have a front end, which is what the user sees, and a back end, which does all the work.
• Cloud computing shares some similarities with an older model of computing called timesharing. A timesharing computer system connects multiple users to a single computer processor through dumb terminals, which have a keyboard and monitor, but leave the computing to the central machine.
• While cloud computing promises to offload tasks like data storage and processing power, the model raises questions about data accessibility and security. How can you insure that you can get to your data and keep it safe if it's on someone else's computer? | <urn:uuid:8c4a68d2-9f7b-4230-b56e-3c81edada76e> | {
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Vegetables And Health
E. Coli: How To Protect Your Veggies
Page 2 of 2
Which cooking method is best?Steaming, boiling, microwaving, pressure cooking, and frying are all acceptable methods of cooking your veggies, but when it comes to deciding which is best, the truth is that no single method is tops, and the choice is largely left up to the individual. In January of 2008, a report in The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry concluded that boiling was best for carrots, zucchini and broccoli, better than steaming, frying or even serving raw. Frying was by far the worst, as it can lead to the creation of free radicals — highly reactive compounds that can injure healthy cells. However, a November 2007 study in the same journal found that heating broccoli damages the enzyme myrosinase which is important for the production of sulforaphane, a potential cancer-fighting and ulcer-preventing compound. Making matters even more befuddling, a March 2007 study in The Journal of Food Science touted microwaving as tops, at least when it came to preserving vitamin C. This study found that microwaving and pressure-cooking led to only a 10% loss in vitamin C levels in broccoli, while steaming and boiling caused upwards of a 34% loss. Although — surprise, surprise — a November 2007 study in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found quite the opposite.
The bottom lineThere are countless examples of studies that flip-flop on which cooking method is best, depending on which veggies are examined and which specific nutrients are being measured. The point then is to enjoy variety. Food is cooked so it tastes better. If it tastes better, you’ll eat more. The same principle applies to adding spices or fatty dressings to food. According to a May 2008 study in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, one of the largest barriers to young adults eating their greens was taste. If it tastes better, you'll eat more (and fat may even improve the absorption of certain nutrients). Does all this uncertainty mean that it’s time to throw your hands up in despair? Maybe, or you can just enjoy the idea of mixing things up. If you need a little more specificity, try a few of these tips:
- Generally, cook foods in the shortest amount of time possible and at lower temperatures; however, as mentioned before, change things up once in a while.
- If boiling, microwaving or steaming, use minimal amounts of water.
- Unless you’re worried about your weight or other health condition, don’t be afraid to add some fat-rich avocados, full-fat dressings or spices to your veggies, so long as it ensures you eat more.
- Leave edible skins on vegetables when possible (important nutrients may be lurking within).
- Lastly, save the water used when boiling vegetables and use it in soups, stews, gravies, and sauces. | <urn:uuid:6ac685a7-c4c1-4c80-9190-7f061d72907c> | {
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The mission of the Brazoria County Groundwater Conservation District (BCGCD) is to maintain the quality and availability of Brazoria County's groundwater resources for current users and future generations.
Groundwater is one of Brazoria County’s most precious resources and represents an important contributor to the county’s water supply. Because it is such a valuable resource, groundwater must be protected to ensure that it will always be available to residential, agricultural, municipal, and industrial water users.
A groundwater conservation district such as the BCGCD plays a key role in protecting groundwater resources. The BCGCD’s five-member board will proactively work with groundwater users in the district to address issues such as how to most efficiently use groundwater, control and prevent waste, control and prevent subsidence, and address drought conditions. | <urn:uuid:208116a6-76c4-4154-ada1-30eebcdf3233> | {
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H. A. & Margaret Rey are the authors for the month for August! They lived absolutely fascinating lives. They were both born in Germany and also spent some time in Brazil. They both later sought refuge from the Nazis at Château Feuga, an old castle owned by some friends in southern France. As the Nazis approached Paris they both escaped on bicycles just hours before Paris fell. They carried with them the manuscript for Curious George. They then ended up in New York City and published Curious George.
When researching I found some fascinating resources. The Jewish Museum in New York did an exhibit on their art. It is wonderful to see their artwork. The New York Times also did a piece on the exhibit and more about the Rey's lives. The University of Southern Mississippi houses all of the papers of the Reys and has some information on their lives.
I have set up a Pinterest board with some ideas. My favorite is this free preschool printable packet. I also love this unit study on Curious George and the Houghton Mifflin site with more information on Curious George. | <urn:uuid:84e0cf46-d8c0-4ba8-a320-c8e787d69b49> | {
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James Wright (1716-1785)
James Wright was the third and last royal governor of Georgia, serving from 1760 to 1782, American Revolution (1775-83). Almost alone among colonial governors, Wright was a popular and able administrator and servant of the crown. He played a key role in retarding the flame of revolution in Georgia long after it had flared violently in every other colony.
Wright was born in London, England, on May 8, 1716, to Isabella and Robert Wright. He came to South Carolina in 1730 when his father was appointed chief justice of the colony. By 1740 Wright was a practicing attorney in South Carolina and had been appointed acting attorney general. On August 14, 1741, he entered Gray's Inn in London and was called to the bar.
Returning to South Carolina, Wright practiced law and purchased plantations and slaves. He married Sarah Maidman in February 1742, and they had eight children before her death at sea in 1763. He became attorney general of South Carolina in 1747. He held that position until 1757, when he became colonial agent for South Carolina in London.
Wright's ties with Georgia began when the crown appointed him the third royal governor of Georgia in 1760, after poor health forced Henry Ellis to leave the colony. His appointment coincided with a period of expansion in Georgia, and he encouraged settlement of Georgia's frontier. Wright played an instrumental role in two large land cessions for the state from Georgia's Native American neighbors, one in November 1763 at a conference in Augusta and another in 1773 while he was in London. He eventually purchased eleven plantations, encompassing more than 25,000 acres, and more than 500 slaves.
Wright never doubted his duty to enforce the 1765 Stamp Act, which ignited the Revolutionary crisis, and Georgia was the only colony in which stamps were actually sold. He returned to London in 1771 and was named a baronet in 1772. Despite his popularity and determined leadership, Sir James Wright proved powerless to stop the Revolutionary movement when armed conflict erupted in 1776. Georgia rebels arrested him in January 1776, but he fled to a British warship and returned to London. He lobbied heavily for a full-scale British invasion of Georgia, which finally occurred in December 1778.
Wright returned to British-occupied Savannah in July 1779 and served as royal governor for three more frustrating years. Despite capturing Savannah, the British lacked the resources and manpower to quell the Revolution in Georgia, and Wright was unable to govern effectively. Royal government finally ended in Georgia when the British evacuated Savannah on July 11, 1782. He sailed for London, never to return.
Wright spent his remaining years as head of a board of American Loyalists seeking compensation for losses as a result of the Revolution. Though he claimed losses of £33,000 and his office as governor, he received an annual pension of only £500 for his services. Wright died at his house in Westminster on November 20, 1785, at the age of sixty-nine and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Wrightsborough is named for him. | <urn:uuid:f0ff6ff7-062c-4659-bfc3-12d45553a3fe> | {
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Differences Between Counseling and Social Work
For those of us who want to help other people overcome problems and difficulties, both counseling and social work seem like a logical choice for careers. After all, both social workers and counselors are fully trained to perform therapy one-on-one and helping patients with issues such as mental illness and substance abuse. In fact, the job functions for these two professions often overlap to the point where most people cannot tell them apart. There are, however, a couple of important differences between the two that students should understand in order to make a better informed decision as to which path of study is right for them.
Social Work versus Counseling
The key difference between social work and counseling is this: social workers can act as counselors but counselors cannot act as social workers. The reason is that counseling is a much more narrowly defined field and such professionals are licensed to provide everything from marriage counseling to school counseling, but they cannot perform what is considered to be social work.
Social workers can perform advocacy work for families and children, including being employed by state and local governments in order to investigate claims of child abuse and neglect. Counselors, on the other hand, work primarily in a clinical setting, providing therapy to patients. While social workers can work in a number of different settings from community organizations to nonprofit advocacy groups, helping people to not only get clinical treatment for their problems but to also gain access to entitlements and other services which they need to improve their lives, counselors instead focus on treating emotional and mental problems and how best to alleviate the symptoms associated with these problems.
As an example, let's take the case of a middle-aged man who has been addicted to drugs for several decades but is finally seeking out treatment. In this situation, a counselor would provide psychotherapy, helping the patient to understand where his problem of addiction originated and how to cope with feelings that often drive him to want to use drugs. The social worker would provide similar therapy, but may also help the man to find subsidized housing while he looks for work as well as qualify for other services which will help him to focus on his recovery instead of worrying so much about finances or other resources.
The good news is that regardless of which profession one chooses to pursue, the job outlook for both are fairly positive going forward, as the handling of substance abuse shifts more from imprisoning offenders to treating them in clinical settings. For those who have the experience and education necessary, ample opportunities could be available in the future.
Are you ready to pursue a career in counseling? Get information on schools in your area and online using our counseling degree finder at the top of this page. ↑
If you would like more information, check out the links cited below. | <urn:uuid:f7d3fca6-c824-4ea1-9466-a02a02fd1ef9> | {
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Migraine Triggers May Not Always Trigger Migraines
WebMD News Archive
Jan. 23, 2013 -- Worrying about what may trigger a migraine attack adds to the discomfort of many people with migraines. But according to a new study from Denmark, much of that worry may be unfounded.
The researchers studied the effect of light and exercise -- both commonly believed by patients to trigger migraine with aura -- and demonstrated that neither caused attacks in most of the people enrolled in the study.
“There are a lot of things about headache and migraine that are accepted as true but that remain untested,” neurologist Peter Goadsby, MD, Dsc, says of triggers. “The results of this study may surprise some patients.”
Goadsby, director of the University of California, San Francisco Headache Center, co-authored an editorial that accompanied the Danish study. In his clinical practice, he sees many patients whose quality of life suffers as a result of both their migraines and their efforts to avoid triggers that they believe will lead to attacks. In addition to light and exercise, other proposed triggers include stress, emotions, and certain foods.
But there’s little evidence that any of these things really do trigger attacks, says Goadsby. He hopes that, in addition to the current study, there will be much more research on triggers.
“There are tens of millions of people with migraine,” says Goadsby, “and all they have to go on are tales handed down about what triggers them.”
Trying to Cause a Headache
To investigate the impact of light and exercise, researchers at the University of Copenhagen recruited 27 people who had migraine with aura, a condition in which headaches are preceded most often by other symptoms, such as blind spots and light flashes. Nausea, excessive yawning, and numbness are among the other possible aura symptoms. About 1 in 5 people with migraines has migraine with aura.
The study participants -- 17 women and 10 men whose average age was 40 -- all said that light or exercise, or a combination of the two, triggered their attacks. To test their claims, the researchers exposed each of the participants to their triggers.
In 30- to 40-minute sessions, one of three different types of stimulation was used to mimic the light that patients said triggered their migraines. The exercise portion of the study was also intense. Participants went running or pedaled on a stationary bicycle until they reached 80% of their maximum heart rate. Afterward, the researchers monitored the participants for three hours for symptoms.
Overall, only three of the 27 participants had an attack of migraine with aura: one after exercise alone and two following a combination of light and exercise. Another three participants had a migraine without aura. None of the participants had an attack after being exposed to light alone. | <urn:uuid:b23c3c68-1329-45c3-a105-46c00cfbaedb> | {
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US Youth Soccer has recently adopted a sports concussion protocol. Everyone should develop an awareness and watch for this type of injury.
US Youth Soccer Concussion Resources
US Youth Soccer Concussion Procedure and Protocol
US Youth Soccer Concussion Notification Form
Crucial Concussion Evaluation Info for Coaches
By Dev K. Mishra, M.D.
How should a coach evaluate a young athlete for a possible concussion?
The key word in that first sentence is “possible,” meaning that a coach who is not medically trained should not make the definitive diagnosis of a concussion. Your job is to assess the athlete and determine whether you suspect a concussion, remove that athlete from play, and send the athlete for evaluation by a medical professional trained in sports concussion management.
I highly recommend the Pocket SCAT2 concussion assessment tool, which you can download HERE <http://www.sportconcussionlibrary.com/content/concussion-information-coaches-and-first-responders-trainerstherapists> , under the heading "Assessment Tools."
If your athlete has taken contact and has any one of the features noted on the card you should suspect a concussion and remove the athlete from play:
* Loss of consciousness
* Seizure or convulsion
* “Pressure in head”
* Neck Pain
* Nausea or vomiting
* Blurred vision
* Balance problems
* Sensitivity to light
* Sensitivity to noise
* Feeling slowed down
* Feeling like “in a fog“
* “Don’t feel right”
* Difficulty concentrating
* Difficulty remembering
* Fatigue or low energy
* More emotional
* Nervous or anxious
The downloads available at the Sports Concussion Library <http://www.sportconcussionlibrary.com/content/concussion-information-coaches-and-first-responders-trainerstherapists> offer more detailed information, and should be studied by coaches.
If the athlete is unconscious, do not move, shake, or attempt to rouse the athlete. Call for emergency medical transportation immediately. Stay with the athlete until help arrives. If the athlete is unconscious it is a medical emergency.
As our knowledge about concussion has improved it’s clear to us that the definition of concussion needs to change. Long gone are the days when an athlete needed to be knocked unconscious or close to unconscious before it was deemed a concussion.
We know now that even a headache that happens after contact to the player’s head, player’s body, or by the ground to the player’s body can be an early indicator of a concussion. Essentially, the definition of concussion is quite a bit broader than it once was.
What that means for the coach is that there are going to be a lot more suspected concussions. It means that you’ll likely deal with situations where you’ll ask yourself questions such as “it’s just a headache, do I really have to hold this player out after something like that?”
My advice to you: yes, you need to hold that player out of practice or competition and the player should seek medical attention urgently.
Use your best judgment and be overly cautious.
The final phrasing on the SCAT2 card says what you need very clearly:
“Any athlete with a suspected concussion should be IMMEDIATELY REMOVED FROM PLAY, urgently assessed medically, should not be left alone and should not drive a motor vehicle.”
(Dr. Dev K. Mishra is the creator of the SidelineSportsDoc.com <http://sidelinesportsdoc.com/> injury management program for coaches. He is an orthopedic surgeon in private practice in Burlingame, Calif. He is a member of the team physician pool with the U.S. Soccer Federation and has served as team physician at the University of California, Berkeley. This article first appeared on SidelineSportsDoc.com <http://blog.sidelinesportsdoc.com/> .) | <urn:uuid:97f0aefc-c975-423f-b949-9816e056d167> | {
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Thomas R. Sinclair and C. J. Sinclair
Bread, Beer and the Seeds of Change
The men, women and beasts aboard Noah’s Ark almost certainly were drunk a lot of those 40 days and 40 nights, according to Thomas R. Sinclair, a professor of Crop Science at North Carolina State University, and his wife Carol Janas Sinclair, a researcher, the authors of Bread, Beer and the Seeds of Change (CABI, 2010). “Noah was a beer trader on the Euphrates River,” Professor Sinclair said. The book manages to link man’s thirst for beer with nearly every important moment in history, from the invention of democracy in ancient Greece to the advent of the industrial revolution.
As to Noah, the Sinclairs argue as do many historians that the Biblical story of a man in a boat surviving a great flood probably stems from an earlier Sumerian tale. Because good clean water was very hard to find in ancient civilizations, many people regularly drank a form of beer made from grain soaked in water and fermented. The alcohol killed the pathogens in the water. (Hops were a later addition in the middle ages). Noah was most likely selling kegs of beer from his boat in ancient Sumeria, the Sinclairs told me in the hourlong interview posted here. “His boat was caught was in one of those flash floods and taken out to the Persian Gulf and there he floated for 40 days. And of course he had to have some animals in there and some family members and barrels of beer, critically, so they could survive those 40 days. The classical story never does tell you what they drank for those 40 days. They had to have that beer. The people of the time wouldn’t drink water.”
Noah? Original Noah, the guy from the Bible who built an ark and floated around for 40 days with lots of animals — was a really a beer trader? “Yes,” Ms. Sinclair said. “The precursor of that story probably was a beer trader in Sumeria.” The book also contains a recipe George Washington used for beer, and a Sumerian drinking song from the Third Millennium B.C.E. Add your own music and you might just be singing what Noah sang to his pairs of sheep and goats.
What makes your heart feel wonderful
Makes (also) our heart feel wonderful
Our liver is happy, our heart is joyful
I will make cupbearers, boys (and) brewers stand by,
While I turn around an abundance of beer,
Drinking beer, in a blissful mood,
Drinking liquor, feeling exhilarated
With joy in the heart (and) a happy liver.
Modern medical science would quibble with how happy beer makes the liver, but the Sinclairs don’t mind. Since their book has come out, they have become a strange pair of crossover academic stars, being asked to appear at beer festivals across the country.
The only place they’ve met trouble is Harvard, where students who now idealize the farming lifestyle do not cotton to the book’s portrayal of the farming life as much duller and less fulfilling than the lives lived by early hunter-gatherers. The only thing that broke up the drudgery of farming, the authors say, is the very stuff that caused man to give up the relatively carefree hunter-gather lifestyle in the first place, the desire to brew mood-altering substances. Farming made the widespread production of beer possible and beer made farming tolerable. | <urn:uuid:d62ea087-4b46-44e5-aaf6-fe0b57f0253e> | {
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Nearly 32 million U.S. kids get meals at school every day- and the meals are based on new nutrition standards from the USDA. Kids attending the schools that participate in the program will have more vegetables and fruits, less fat and salt, and more whole grains. Portion sizes will better meet the needs of growing children. The changes to make for a healthier school day will also provide parents opportunities to help create stronger school wellness policies. If you pack a lunch for your child to take to school, remember to take steps to keep the lunch safe to eat.
The School Day Just Got HealthierSeptember 17th, 2013 by Will Humble Leave a reply » | <urn:uuid:02ec2490-225a-4468-8dd5-b9e4fd0e5edd> | {
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As a kid I was transfixed by the remote worlds illustrated in the Peabody Museum’s murals of prehistoric creatures, and learned the skill of getting lost in the Museum of Natural History. With the scientific developments in the decades since those exhibits, I continue to find a well-told natural history an awe-inspiring tale; the stories of evolution, population dynamics, continental drift and climate change play out with accidents, contingencies, and deep patterns.
Tim Flannery’s Eternal Frontier is a big picture ecological history of North America, from the demise of the dinosaurs til yesterday. From a basic following of science news, I’d heard the theory that dinosaur extinction was caused by an asteroid impact. The book assembles a wide swath of evidence to pull together the big picture of massive destruction – the impact caused fire that burned most of North America; probably even more deadly was the dispersal of debris into the atmosphere, disrupting photosynthesis for months, causing ecosystems depending on land plants and plankton to die off. The result was massive extinctions on land and ocean. The stratigraphic evidence around the world shows a layer of sediment containing iridium, an element characteristic of asteroid material. In what is now North Dakota, 80% of all species disappeared above the iridium layer. According the fossil record, more species survived in fresh water, where the ecosystem is more dependent on detritus, than on dry land or ocean, where the ecosystem depends on photosynthesizing plants and plankton.
Many more deciduous plant species survived than evergreens, because they can “shut down” in times of stress, and for ten million years after the impact, decidious trees dominated in areas where evergreens would be otherwise favored by the climate. The anomalies caused by the asteroid impact serve to illustrate the more typical, longer-term patterns in North American ecology.
One of the strengths of the book is the way that Flannery illustrates large-scale patterns that play out over deep evolutionary time. One such pattern is North America’s distinctive sensitivity to climate change. The continent is shaped like wedge shape, with mountain chains running north/south. This geography results in causing in dramatic seasonal changes in temperature during the year than in other parts of the world and also magnifies the effects of global change in temperature. During two periods of global cooling at 50 and 38 million years ago, the deep sea temperature fell 4-5 degrees Celsius overall, but fell by about 9 degrees Celsius on the gulf coast.
Another deep pattern Flannery illustrates is the characteristic constellations of species in ecosystems. The African Seregeti has several major species: elephant, buffalo, rhino, lion. A similar ecosystem in North America was populated by mastodons, and later gomphotheres. The rhino role was played by Aphelops and Teleoceras. The big cat role was played by nimravids, and later on “barbourofelis” (illustration by the amazing natural history illustrator Carl Buell, aka Olduvai George.)
After major disruptions, Flannery shows that the ecosystem tends to repopulate with creatures of similar size, playing similar roles. This leads Flannery to leads to a recommendation (that he has supported for many years in his native Australia as well) to re-introduce species of megafauna such as elephants and camels that are missing in today’s ecosystem.
Speaking of missing species, Flannery reviews the evidence and finds the case compelling that humans caused the extinction of megafauna – sabre toothed tigers, mammoths, camels, sloths that roamed North America before humans arrived 13,000 years ago. The pattern isn’t just found in North America – humans arrived 50,000 years ago in Australia, and 6000 years ago in Cuba, and the megafauna disappeared at the time the humans arrived. Flannery makes that case that the species that flowed into North America after the arrival of humans had behavior that enabled them to survive predation – buffalo lived in large protective herds, and wolves had evolved near humans in Eurasia and had evolutionary time to learn fear. These behaviors worked until humans upgraded from knives to guns.
One of Flannery’s strengths is bringing together the evidence to tell big stories and illustrate big patterns. Two of the biggest patterns Flannery discusses also seems to me to be the most problematic.
The question with which Flannery frames the book is which continent originates the most species. Continents – largely isolated large landmasses – are biologically meaningful units in which evolution proceeds largely in isolation, so; examining the relative direction of population flow reveals interesting patterns. This lens also reveals interesting factoids – squirrels, dogs and camels all originated in North America. I don’t know about you, but I always wondered about species that seemed common to North American and Europe – what originated where? This book answers those questions. In addition to the question about population flow, there is also a real “history of science” question – the early dominance of North American evidence in paleolontology appears to be be a historical accident of caused by early enthusiasm and progress in North America; when you assemble paleontological results from other parts of the world you get a more balanced picture. And yet, aside from the real scientific and social history issues, the book is also replete with metaphorical language speculating about which continent will prove to be the “winner” in the global contest for originating the most species. This competitive framing sounds a bit too suspiciously like human geopolitics for comfort; the continental competition narrative reads like the Olympic television coverage of paleontology.
An even more problematic thesis is that of the frontier. There is a scientific element to it, in that North America has historically drawn influxes of species from Eurasia when the Bering crossing was open, and from South America when migration was possible; North America is a “frontier” into which new species spill and spread. Flannery sees the history of the immigration and diffusion of human cultures into North America in modern times as an instance of the same pattern. But the economic circumstances that have driven human migration to North America seem very weakly analogous to the geographic patterns that drove animal migration; the weakness of the hypothesis can be seen by looking at migrations that have nothing to do with geographical access – African Americans travelling North for manufacturing jobs; workers fleeing the rust belt for other parts of North America when manufacturing jobs move south and overseas. The reasons people move have everything to do with with human culture and financial resources.
Flannery draws his picture of the frontier from Turner – a historian who drew a romantic picture of a rough-and-ready, independent settler whose mindset is shaped by geographical expansion. There have been strong historical critiques of Turner – I’m most familiar William Cronon from his course in the American West and his book on the history of Chicago. Cronon shows how the exploitation of timber, mineral, and other resources were always closely tied to urban cultures and urban financial structures. More than that, the myth of frontier was shaped very early by theater and advertising; that Romantic self-image was heavily colored by fiction. And Turner’s focus on the white, Anglo frontiersman reflects his bias -there were African-Americans, Mexicans, ethnic Europeans; women and men. Turner’s Frontier is an important cultural myth, but a much weaker base for scientific comparison.
As a cultural myth, the Frontier and the death of the Frontier is a compelling narrative to explain the relentless exploitation of natural resources and the terrifying awareness — much later than the crisscrossing of the continent by railroads and telegraphs — that natural resources are limited and humans have the power to destroy our own civilization by mis-utilizing resources. The connection to the the flows of animal populations based on climate and geology is most tenuous. It would be better if Flannery drew a distinction but he doesn’t; the book tries to draw a seamless analogy between the population flows into North America across millions of years, and the cultural mythologies of manifest destiny and environmental exploitation, but the seams show.
Despite the weakness of the title argument, I really liked the book. if you are already deeply familiar with the scientific literature and have been following the topics closely across recent decades, this book may not have much new for you. If you are generally interested in the topic but not as familiar with the details, the book is fascinating. It is a strong entry in a genre of environmental history that weaves together paper-level detail to an accessible big picture story that shows the larger patterns across deep time. | <urn:uuid:a5796c90-1c4d-4f67-987a-1ab06e4fa36b> | {
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Encouraging data for gene replacement therapy for SMA type I, phase 1 study shows
A one-time intravenous infusion of the high dose of gene therapy extended the survival of patients with spinal muscular atrophy type 1 (SMA1) in a Phase 1 clinical trial, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was conducted by Researchers from Nationwide Children’s Hospital in collaboration with AveXis, Inc. and The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
“My team at Nationwide Children’s has worked with commitment and dedication to develop a therapy that may subsequently be shown through future clinical trials to potentially alter the course of this unforgiving condition and provide a therapeutic option for the families and infants with SMA1,” says Jerry Mendell, MD, principal investigator in the Center for Gene Therapy at Nationwide Children’s.
SMA1 is a progressive, childhood, neuromuscular disease caused by a mutation in a single gene. Children with SMA1 fail to meet motor milestones and typically die or require permanent mechanical ventilation by 2 years of age. The phase 1 clinical trial is the first to test the functional replacement of the mutated gene responsible for SMA1.
A one-time intravenous injection of modified adeno-associated virus serotype 9 (AAV9) delivered the SMN gene to 15 patients. Three patients received a low dose, while 12 patients received a high dose. In the Phase 1 trial, patients in the high dose group demonstrated improvement in motor function and they had a decreased need for supportive care compared to the natural history of the disease.
Specifically, at the end of the study period, all 15 patients appeared to have a favorable safety profile and to be generally well tolerated. Of the 12 patients treated with the high dose, 92 percent of patients have achieved head control, 75 percent of patients can roll over and 92 percent of patients can sit with assistance. Seventy-five percent of these patients are now sitting for 30 seconds or longer. Two patients can crawl, pull to stand and stand and walk independently.
According to natural history of the disease, patients require nutritional and respiratory support by 12 months of age, and are not able to swallow or speak effectively. Of the patients who received the high dose in study, 11 patients are able to speak, 11 patients are fed orally and seven do not require bi-level positive airway pressure as of the data cut-off (August 7, 2017).
“In this first phase of clinical trials, we have observed preliminary results that appear to be promising compared to the natural history of SMA Type 1,” says Dr. Mendell, also a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
This study builds on nearly three decades of foundational research led by teams at Nationwide Children’s and Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and exemplifies the strong basic science and clinical bonds between the two institutions. Arthur Burghes, PhD, of Ohio State created a ground-breaking SMA mouse model that remains the standard by which all therapies, including AVXS-101, are initially tested. Senior author of the study, Brian Kaspar, PhD, during his appointment at Nationwide Children’s discovered that the AAV9 vector was capable of crossing the blood brain barrier when injected into the vascular system to deliver genes directly to motor neurons. The two laboratories then collaborated to show that scAAV9-SMN, when delivered to SMA mice shortly after birth, completely prevented their neuromuscular disorder. The laboratories also collaborated to successfully prove that reversing a protein deficiency through gene therapy is effective in improving and stabilizing SMA in a large animal model. “In neurological disease, it is rare to go from gene defect to therapy so directly, and the fact that this has happened here in one place is perhaps even rarer,” said John Kissel, MD, chair of Neurology at Ohio State and director of the SMA Clinic at Nationwide Children’s.
AveXis, Inc., a clinical-stage gene therapy company developing treatments for patients suffering from rare and life-threatening neurological genetic diseases, announced in July 2016 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for the treatment based on preliminary clinical results from the trial of AVXS-101.
“At AveXis, we are enormously pleased to see that all children who received AVXS-101 are alive and free of permanent ventilatory support at 20 months of age and older — an age where, sadly, only eight percent of untreated children with SMA Type 1 are expected to survive without permanent breathing support,” said Dr. Kaspar, now serving as Chief Scientific Officer at AveXis. “The New England Journal of Medicine publication marks an exciting milestone in the development of AVXS-101.”
More information at http://www.nationwidechildrens.org | <urn:uuid:548c9914-bfe7-4c3f-b3ee-e80f870b3a14> | {
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Middle School Computer Lessons; Google Earth Scavenger Hunt
If you are looking for an interesting way to introduce Google Earth to your students, I have an activity for you. This this activity is good for about 3 class periods.
During the first class, I like to introduce Google Earth (GE) to the class by a little class discussion to see who is familiar with it. I find about half of younger students have never heard of it. Either way, I will show the location of our school then introduce some of the basic tools. I give the rest of the period as a day to “Explore” GE. I ask them to find the school, their house and at least one other place and add place marks to them. Towards the end of class we will discuss some interesting things that they have discovered.
I use the iPad in my class by showing them GE on it and then having a few students travel down the hallway with it and they can observe the little blue dot move as they move in the building. (This is pretty popular with my students). Your building would have to be wireless for this to work.
The next day I pair up my students and hand out my GE Scavenger hunt. It includes Questions that you need GE to answer and a rubric for them to write their answers on. I total up the points when they are finished, It takes 1-2 class periods. This can get pretty competitive, my classes love this activity and it makes them use GE as a tool in ways that they may not have thought of before. During this activity, my role is to guide the pairs of students as needed. I don’t give answers, only clues. | <urn:uuid:ef5bfebb-ded1-482a-a46d-9c5246ef00d4> | {
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The Relationship Between Depression and Internet Addiction
Increased levels of depression are associated with those who become addicted to the Internet.
Kimberly S. Young and Robert C. Rodgers
Ed. Note: This paper was published in CyberPsychology & Behavior, 1(1), 25-28, 1998
Prior research has utilized the Zung Depression Inventory (ZDI) and found that moderate to severe rates of depression coexist with pathological Internet use.1 Although the ZDI was utilized for its expediency with on-line administration, its limitations include poor normative data and less frequent clinical use. Therefore, this study utilized the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), which has more accurate norms and frequent usage among dual diagnostic patient populations. An on-line survey administered on a World Wide Web site utilized the BDI as part of a larger study. A total of 312 surveys was collected with 259 valid profiles from addicted users, which again supported significant levels of depression to be associated with pathological Internet use. This article discusses how a treatment protocol should emphasis the primary psychiatric condition if related to a subsequent impulse control problem such as pathological Internet use. Effective management of psychiatric symptoms may indirectly correct pathological Internet use.
PRIOR RESEARCH HAS IDENTIFIED the existence of addictive Internet use, which has been associated with significant social, psychological, and occupational impairment.2 Addicts in this study used the Internet an average of 38 hr per week for nonacademic or nonemployment purposes, which caused detrimental effects such as poor grade performance among students, discord among couples, and reduced work performance among employees. This is compared to nonaddicts who used the Internet an average of 8 hr per week with no significant consequences reported. Predominantly, the interactive capabilities of the Internet such as chat rooms or on-line games were seen to be the most addictive. This type of behavioral impulse control failure, which does not involve an intoxicant, was seen as most akin to pathological gambling. Therefore, a formal term utilized in this article is pathological Internet use (PIU) to refer to cases of addictive Internet use.
Research in the addictions field has shown that psychiatric illnesses such as depression are often associated with alcoholism3 and drug addiction.4 Further, research has shown that other addictive behaviors overlap with depression-for example, eating disorders5'6 and pathological gambling.7-9 Although the concept of Internet addiction has gained credibility among mental health professionals both in academic and clinical realms, little research has been conducted to examine if similar underlying psychiatric illnesses may contribute to such Internet abuse.1
Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess depression and compare such results to other established dual diagnostic populations. Young1 utilized the Zung Depression Inventory10 (ZDI), which suggested that increased levels of depression are associated with moderate to severe levels of PIU. However, the ZDI yields limited clinical utility; therefore, this study used the Beck Depression Invento#1 (BDI) because it is a more psychometrically and clinically valid instrument to further investigate the effects of depression on PIU. Finally, this study also attempted to increase its sample size from the previous examination (N -99) to improve generalizability of results.
Subjects were self-selected active Internet users who responded to postings on electronic support groups and those who searched for the keywords Internet or addiction on popular Web search engines (e.g., Yahoo).
An on-line survey was constructed for this study. The survey exists as a World Wide Web (WWW) page (located at http: / /www.pitt. edu/ ksy/survey.html) implemented on a UNIX-based server that captures the answers into a text file. The on-line survey administered a structured diagnostic questionnaire that modified the DSM-IV criteria for pathological gambling'2 to classify subjects as addicted or nonaddicted, followed by administration of the BDI, the Sixteen Personality Factor Inventory,15 and Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale,13 as part of a larger study. Finally, demographic information was also gathered.
The WWW location of the survey was submitted to several popular search engines available to assist on-line users in finding Web pages of interest. On-line users entering keyword searches for Internet or addiction would find the survey and have the option to follow the link to the survey in order to fill it out. Additionally, a brief description of the study along with the WWW address of the survey was advertised on prominent electronic support groups geared toward Internet addiction (e.g., the Internet Addiction Support Group and the Web-aholics Support Group). Answers to the survey were sent in a text file directly to the principal investigator's electronic mailbox for analysis. Respondents who answered "yes" to five or more of the criteria were classified as addicted Internet users for inclusion in this study.
A total of 312 surveys were collected, resulting in 259 valid geographically dispersed profiles from addicted users. The sample included 130 males with a mean age of 31 and 129 females with a mean age of 33. Educational background was as follows: 30% had a high school degree or less, 38% had an associate's or bachelor's degree, 10% had a master's degree or doctorate, and 22% were still in school. Of the subjects, 15% had no vocational background (e.g., homemaker or retired), 31% were students1 6% were blue-collar workers (e.g., factor worker or auto mechanic), 22% were nontech white-collar workers (e.g., school teacher or bank teller), and 26% were high-tech white-collar workers (e.g., computer scientist or systems analyst).
Occupational type appears to be a determinant in the level of Internet usage in this study. These results suggest that nontech or high-tech white-collar workers are more likely to become addicted to the Internet than are blue-collar workers. White-collar employment may offer wider access to the Internet and greater salary potential, making the purchase of a home computer more affordable compared to those in blue-collar types of employment, which may explain these results.
Results from the BDI were a mean of 11.2 (SD 13.9), indicating mild to moderate levels of depression compared to normative data. Prior research showed that analysis of the ZDI provided a mean of 38.56 (SD = 10.24), also indicating mild to moderate levels of depression when compared to normal populations.~ Therefore, the BDI yielded similar results as the prior work suggesting that depression is a significant factor in the development of PIU.
As noted with other addictive disorders, our findings suggest that increased levels of depression are associated with those who become addicted to the Internet. This suggests that clinical depression is significantly associated with increased levels of personal Internet use. These results should be interpreted with caution, however, as self-selected sample biases exist in this study coupled with the questionable accuracy of on-line responses.
This study suggests that accurate assessment of depression and PIU can improve early detection, especially when one is masked by primary symptoms of the other diagnosis. It is likely that low self-esteem, poor motivation, fear of rejection, and the need for approval associated with depressives contribute to increased Internet use, as prior research indicated that the interactive capabilities available on the Internet were found to be most addictive.2 It is plausible that depressives are drawn to electronic communication because of the anonymous cover granted to them by talking with others through fictitious handles, which helps them overcome real-life interpersonal difficulties. Kiesler et al.14 found that computer-mediated communication weakens social influence by the absence of such nonverbal behavior as talking in the head set, speaking loudly, staring, touching, and gesturing. Therefore, the disappearance of facial expression, voice inflection, and eye contact makes electronic communication less threatening, thereby helping the depressive to overcome the initial awkwardness and intimidation in meeting and speaking with others. This anonymous two-way talk also helps depressives feel comfortable sharing ideas with others thanks to the personal control over the level of their communication, as they have time to plan, contemplate, and edit comments before sending an electronic message. Therefore, the treatment protocol should emphasize the primary psychiatric condition, if related to a subsequent impulse control problem, as addictive Internet use. Effective management of such psychiatric symptoms may indirectly correct PIU.
Based on the findings, it is concluded that evaluation of suspected cases of PIU should in-dude assessment for depression. These results, however, do not clearly indicate whether depression preceded the development of such Internet abuse or if it was a consequence. Young2 showed that withdrawal from significant real-life relationships is a consequence of PIU. Therefore, the possibility exists that increased levels of social isolation subsequent to excessive time spent in front of a computer may result in increased depression rather than be a cause of such Internet overuse. Therefore, further experimentation with a more comprehensive level of analysis is necessary to examine cause and effect. Data collection should also include patients in treatment to eliminate the methodological limitations of an on-line survey and to improve the clinical utility of the information gathered. Finally, although it is unclear how PIU compares to other established addictions, future research should investigate if clinical depression is an etiologic factor in the development of any addictive syndrome, be it alcohol, gambling, or the Internet.
1. Young, K.S. (1997, April 11). Leoels of depression and addiction underlying pathological Internet use. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
2. Young, K.S. (1996, August 10). Internet addiction: The emergence of a new clinical disorder. Paper presented at the 104th annual meeting of the American Psycho-logical Association, Toronto.
3. Capuzzi, D., & Lecoq, L.L. (1983). Social and personal determination of adolescent use and abuse of alcohol and marijuana. Personnel and Guidance Journal, 62, 199-205.
4. Cox, W.M. (1985). Personality correlates of substance abuse. In M. Galizio & S.A. Maisto (Eds.), Determinants of substance abuse: Biological, psychological, and environmental factors (pp.209-246). New York: Plenum.
5. Lacey, H.J. (1993). Self-damaging and addictive behavior in bulimia nervosa: A catchment area study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 163, 190-194.
6. Lesieur, H.R., & Blume, S.B. ~993). Pathological gambling, eating disorders, and the psychoactive substance use disorders. Journal of Addictive Diseases, 12(3), 89-102.
7. Blaszczynski, A., McConaghy, N., & Frankova, A. (1991). Sensation seeking and pathological gambling. British Journal of Addiction, 81, 113-117.
8. Criffiths, M. (1990). The cognitive psychology of gambling. Journal of Gambling Studies, 6, 31~2.
9. Mobilia, P. (1993). Gambling as a rational addiction. Journal of Gambling Studies, 9(2), 121-151.
10. Zung, W.K. (1965). Self-rating depression scale. New York; Springer-Verlag.
11. Beck, A.T., Ward, C.M., Mendeleson, M., Mock, J.F., & Erbaugh, J.K. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 5~-571.
12. American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
13. Zuckerman, M. (1979). Sensation seeking behavior: Beyond the optimal level of arousal. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
14. Kiesler, S., Siegal, I., & McGuire, T.W. (1984). Social psychological aspects of computer-mediated communication. American Psychologist, 39(10), 1123~134.
15. Cattell, R. (1975). Sixteen Personality Factor Inventory. The Institute of Personality and Ability, Inc., Champaign, IL
Writer, H. (2008, December 28). The Relationship Between Depression and Internet Addiction, HealthyPlace. Retrieved on 2019, October 19 from https://www.healthyplace.com/addictions/center-for-internet-addiction-recovery/relationship-between-depression-and-internet-addiction | <urn:uuid:1b959fdc-e692-4e21-8e9c-8b7a51ce2e27> | {
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Technology developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists that automatically scans poultry carcasses for contamination has been successfully tested in a commercial poultry plant.
ARS researchers have improved the hyperspectral imaging system so that it can detect small amounts of fecal contamination. ARS scientists Kurt Lawrence, Bosoon Park, Bob Windham, and Seung-Chul Yoon, at the agency's Quality and Safety Assessment Research Unit in Athens, Ga., developed the system. Hyperspectral imaging is a technique that combines digital imaging with spectroscopy, creating individual wavelengths of light that pinpoint contaminants.
To test the technology commercially, a prototype was installed in a commercial poultry plant to detect contaminated carcasses. The system was developed through a research agreement with Stork Food Systems, a manufacturer of poultry-processing equipment in Gainesville, Ga. Carcasses were imaged after evisceration but before washing, at a rate of 150 birds per minute. The system ran for several days without hardware or software problems and demonstrated its feasibility, according to Park.
The Athens team is collaborating with agricultural engineer Kevin Chao and biophysical scientist Moon Kim at the ARS Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory in Beltsville, Md. Using the same hyperspectral imaging technology but at different wavelengths, the ARS scientists in Beltsville developed an on-line imaging system to differentiate systemically diseased poultry carcasses from wholesome ones. This research supports the U.S. Department of Agriculture's priority of ensuring food safety.
The ARS groups and their industry partner are now merging the fecal-detection and diseased-carcass-detection systems onto a common platform that includes a line-scan hyperspectral imaging camera, lighting, and operating and detection software. Merging the two systems will aid in commercialization by creating one interchangeable imaging system that can be installed in different locations of the processing line to solve two separate and significant processing problems.
Combining the two systems will allow processors to more easily integrate such a system into their operations. The team plans to have a new prototype tested by the end of 2009.
In addition, the researchers in Athens also developed and implemented a new image-processing method to identify and remove false-positive readings.
ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency. | <urn:uuid:335479d0-77f3-4ba2-88f3-15c7956c3398> | {
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Year 7 students have been working incredibly hard in creating entries for ‘Antarctica Day Flags’ competition in order to celebrate ‘Antarctica Day’ which is on December 1st. The students were required to create a flag as Antarctica is a global common and therefore does not have its own flag. The students were taught a sequence of lessons based on the characteristics of Antarctica including, climate, landscape, animals, potential threats and past explorers. They then used all of this information to create a flag that represents this last great wilderness.
The 5 best Antarctica flags have been sent to a researcher in Antarctica. This is an amazing opportunity for our youngsters as it will allow them to learn about Antarctica directly from a researcher. Their flag will be photographed in Antarctica and the students will be sent a certificate. | <urn:uuid:d3ae1e3d-81f3-47df-bccb-36f845870309> | {
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Gamma Delta T cells
Gamma Delta T cells (γδ T cells) represent a very small subset of T cells that possess a distinct T cell receptor (TCR) on their surfaces. A majority of T cells have a TCR composed of two glycoprotein chains called α- and β- TCR chains. However, in γδ T cells, the TCR is made up of one γ-chain and one δ-chain. This group of T cells is much less common in humans and mice (about 2% of total T cells) and are found mostly in the gut mucosa, within a population of lymphocytes known as intraepithelial lymphocytes. In rabbits, sheep, and chickens, the number of γδ T cells can be as high as 60% of total T cells. The antigenic molecules that activate γδ T cells are still widely unknown. However, γδ T cells are not MHC-restricted and seem to be able to recognize whole proteins rather than requiring peptides to be presented by MHC molecules on APCs. | <urn:uuid:19add775-8179-44ef-9e41-c150f35e4ebf> | {
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The Making Space for Water Project is investigating a new approach to flood management. Moors for the Future in partnership with the Environment Agency aim to demonstrate how our natural resources can help to protect against flooding.
About the Project
The Upper Derwent catchment, located within the Peak District National Park, is a major source of water for regular flood events affecting the entire length of the River Derwent including the Lower Derwent and City of Derby downstream into the Trent towards Nottingham and beyond. The upland catchment for these regions in the Peak District is predominantly moorland, giving way to extensive areas of farmland.
The Making Space for Water in the Upper Derwent Valley Project aims at demonstrating how practical restoration of degraded moorland can add benefit to reducing flood risk at the same time as delivering other benefits. Practical work conducted could reduce the impact of flooding downstream by holding water back and increasing the time it takes for rainwater to reach the river during a storm. The project will restore presently heavily eroded moorland by blocking erosion gullies and re-establishing vegetation on bare soils.
This photograph shows the height of water that rushes down erosion gullies
Making Space for Water 2 - Final Report
Annex 1. Introduction and the Restoration Process
Annex 2. Diversity
Annex 3. Particulate Organic Carbon
Annex 4. Dissolved Organic Carbon
Annex 5. Flood Risk
Annex 6. Modelling Flood Risk
Annex 7. Ecosystem Services Assessment
Annex 8. Payments for Ecosystem Services | <urn:uuid:b616e9c6-7c35-43bb-81b3-875b66ba294b> | {
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Tom Heydt-Benjamin tapped an envelope against a black plastic box connected to his computer. Within moments, the screen showed a garbled string of characters that included this: fu/kevine, along with some numbers.
Heydt-Benjamin then ripped open the envelope. Inside was a credit card, fresh from the issuing bank. The card bore the name of Kevin E. Fu, a computer science professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who was standing nearby. The card number and expiration date matched those numbers on the screen.
The demonstration revealed potential security and privacy holes in a new generation of credit cards -- cards whose data is relayed by radio waves without need of a signature or physical swiping through a machine. Tens of millions of the cards have been issued, and equipment for their use is showing up at a growing number of locations, including pharmacies, McDonald's restaurants and many movie theaters.
The card companies have implied through their marketing that the data is encrypted to make sure that a digital eavesdropper cannot get any intelligible information. American Express has said its cards incorporate "128-bit encryption," and J.P. Morgan Chase has said that its cards, which it calls Blink, use "the highest level of encryption allowed by the US government."
But in tests on 20 cards from Visa, MasterCard and American Express, the researchers here found that the cardholder's name and other data was being transmitted without encryption and in plain text. They could skim and store the information from a card with a device the size of a couple of paperback books, which they cobbled together from readily available computer and radio components for US$150. They say they could probably make another one even smaller and cheaper: about the size of a pack of gum for less than US$50.
And because the cards can be read even through a wallet or an item of clothing, the security of the information, the researchers say, is startlingly weak.
Companies that make and issue the cards said that what looks shocking in the laboratory could not lead to widespread abuse in the real world, and that additional data protection and anti-fraud measures in the payment system protect consumers from end to end.
"This is an interesting technical exercise," said Brian Triplett, senior vice president for emerging-product development for Visa, "but as a real threat to a consumer -- that threat really doesn't exist."
The experiment was conducted by researchers here working with RSA, the security division of EMC, an information management and storage company.
The companies contend that testing just 20 cards does not provide an accurate picture of the card market, which generally uses higher security standards than the cards that were tested.
"It's a small sample," said Art Kranzley, an executive with MasterCard. "This is almost akin to somebody standing up in the theater and yelling, `Fire!' because somebody lit a cigarette." | <urn:uuid:39274d52-1df7-4b05-bf17-e9a8f6575813> | {
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A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source.
[ad300] The standard for the name “mushroom” is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word “mushroom” is most often applied to those fungi that have a stem, a cap, and gills or pores on the underside of the cap.
“Mushroom” describes a variety of gilled fungi, with or without stems, and the term is used even more generally, to describe both the fleshy fruiting bodies of some Ascomycota and the woody or leathery fruiting bodies of some Basidiomycota, depending upon the context of the word.
Some of these were about colorful and glossy mushrooms, some were about poisonous mushrooms and some were about weird and peculiar mushrooms. In this article is about bizarre mushrooms around the world.
Octopus Shape: Octopus Stinkhorn
This species looks weird. As its name implies, this fungus look likes an octopus. Clathrus archeri, commonly known as OctopusStinkhorn, is endemic to Australia and Tasmania. The young fungus erupts from a suberumpent egg by forming into four to seven elongated slender arms initially erect and attached at the top. In maturity it smells of putrid flesh.
Eat this mushroom while it’s young and avoid eating it when it grows old. This distinct species of mushroom called the gem-studded puffball or devil’s snuff-box (Lycoperdon perlatum) is a moderate sized puffball mushroom with a round fruiting body,tapering to a wide stalk. Gem-studded puffballs are considered to be a choice edible mushroom when young and the gleba is homogeneous and white. They become inedible as they mature: the gleba becomes yellow-tinged, and then finally develops intoa mass of powdery olive-green spores.
Funnel Shape: Jack o’ lantern Mushroom
It’s not the color of this species of mushroom that makes it unique but rather for its bioluminescent properties, it glows in the dark. The jack o’lantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius) is an orange to yellow gill mushroom that to an untrained eye appears similar to some chanterelles, and is most notable for its bioluminscent properties. The funnel-shaped jack o’lantern mushroom is poisonous.
The Sea Anemone fungus
Aseroë rubra, commonly known as the Anemone Stinkhorn or Sea Anemone fungus, is a widespread Australian fungus. Just like the octopus stinkhorn it is recognizable for its foul odour of carrion and its unique anemone shape. Found in gardens on mulch and in grassy areas, it resembles a red star-shaped structure covered in brownish slime on a white stalk. It attracts flies, which spread its spores.
Fly Amanita (Amanita muscaria) – world’s most famous mushroom
Also known as the fly Agaric or the fly Amanita, the Amanita muscaria is a poisonous and psychoactive basidiomycete fungi, which is one of many in the genus Amanita. There are several subspecies, and each of them has a different cap color. These include the yellow-range flavivolata guessowii, formosa, the pink persicina, and the brown regalis (although it is now considered a separate species).
Fly Agaric’s are one of the most recognizable and widely encountered in popular culture. They have been featured in children’s books, films, garden ornaments, greeting cards, and computer games. This toadstool is associated with the famous book turned movie, Alice in Wonderland; the mushroom in Super Mario Bros., and more. It is also known as the mushroom of flies from due to Albertus Magnus’ work in De vegetabilibus where he stated, “It is called the mushroom of flies, because crushed in milk it kills flies”.
Bioluminescent fungi (Mycena chlorophos)
No, you’re not hallucinating; you really are seeing bright green mushrooms, but if you are partial to the odd magic mushie, these images won’t faze you in the slightest. These neon green mushrooms, or Mycena chlorophos, to use the technical term, emerge during the rainy season in Japanese and Brazilian forests, scattering the floor with glowing spores. The bases of tree trunks, fallen branches, leaf litter and moist soil provide perfect breeding grounds for the mushrooms. Found mostly on Mesameyama island in Ugui, Japan and Ribeira Valley Tourist State Park, Brazil, the appearance of these garish looking fungi is due to bioluminescence, one of the weird but wonderful reactions that happen naturally in many plants and animals.
Dog Stinkhorn (Mutinus caninus)
Mutinus caninus, commonly known as the Dog Stinkhorn, is a small thin, phallus-shaped woodland fungus, with a dark tip. It is often found growing in small groups on wood debris, or in leaf litter, during summer and autumn in Europe and eastern North America. It is not generally considered edible, although there are reports of the immature ‘eggs’ being consumed.
Bearded Tooth mushroom (Hericium erinaceus)
This mushroom that looks like noodles or pom-pom are known to a variety of name like Lion’s Mane Mushroom, Bearded Tooth Mushroom, Hedgehog Mushroom, Bearded Hedgehog Mushroom, or Bearded Tooth Fungus. It is an edible mushroom in the tooth fungus group. In the wild, these mushrooms are common during late summer and fall on dead hardwoods, particularly American Beech.
Sky Blue mushroom (Entoloma hochstetteri)
Entoloma hochstetteri is a species of mushroom found in New Zealand and India. The small mushroom is a distinctive all-blue colour, while the gills have a slight reddish tint from the spores. The blue colouring of the fruit body is due to three azulene pigments. Entoloma hochstetteri is not edible, but whether or not it is poisonous is unknown. This species was one of six native fungi featured in a set of fungal stamps issued in New Zealand in 2002. It is also seen on the reverse side of the $50 bank note, issued by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in 1990.
The Devil’s Cigar (Chorioactis) – world’s rarest fungi
A star-shaped mushroom, called the Devil’s Cigar (Chorioactis geaster) is one of the world’s rarest fungi. It’s also known as the Texas star. These fungi had been detected only in central Texas, two remote locations in Japan, and most recently in the mountains of Nara. The Devil’s Cigar is a dark brown cigar-shaped capsule that transforms into a tan-coloured star when it splits open to release its spores. It is also one of only a few known fungi that produce a distinct whistle sound when releasing its spores.
The Giant puffball (Calvatia Gigantea)
The giant puffball, Calvatia gigantea, is easily recognized by its size and shape. Typical specimens are about the size of a soccer ball, and more or less round. However, it can be much larger (a 5-foot, 50-pound specimen is on record!), and its shape can be more “blob-ish” than round, especially when it attains enormous sizes. But it is never shaped like an inverted pear, since it lacks the sterile base portion common to many other puffballs.
The Bleeding Tooth fungus (Hydnellum pecki)
Hydnellum peckii is a common, inedible fungus, also known as bleeding tooth fungus, often found beneath conifers. It possesses a funnel-shaped cap, and is best known for “bleeding” a red liquid. This liquid contains a mushroom pigment called atromentin, which has anticoagulant properties similar to heparin. Its normal cap diameter is between 5 and 15 cm (2-6 in).
The Brain mushroom (Gyromitra esculenta)
Gyromitra esculenta, one of several species of fungi known as false morels, is an ascomycete fungus from the genus Gyromitra, widely distributed across Europe and North America. It normally sprouts in sandy soils under coniferous trees in spring and early summer.
The fruiting body, or mushroom, is an irregular brain-shaped cap dark brown in colour which can reach 10 cm high and 15 cm wide, perched on a stout white stipe up to 6 cm (2.4 in) high. Although potentially fatal if eaten raw, Gyromitra esculenta is a popular delicacy in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and the upper Great Lakes region of North America.
Although popular in some districts of the eastern Pyrenees, it is prohibited from sale to the public in Spain. It may be sold fresh in Finland, but it must be accompanied by warnings and instructions on correct preparation. It is eaten in omelettes, soups, or sautéed in Finnish cuisine. Although it is still commonly parboiled before preparation, recent evidence suggests that even this procedure may not make the fungus entirely safe, thus raising concerns of risk even when prepared properly. | <urn:uuid:115a5bd6-5f54-4058-a01c-f2517e81e99d> | {
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This is a worksheet to practice story tenses: past simple, past perfect and past continuous. It suits intermediate level. It includes two tasks. The first task includes 5 sentences to be completed by the correct form of the infinitive verb given between brackets. the second is a brief story with incompleted sentences. Students have to complete with a past simple, perfect or continuous verb. | <urn:uuid:be9444d2-2589-4269-bffc-1b1c71568c66> | {
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Effect of rhizobial inoculation on growth of Calliandra tree species under nursery conditions
MetadataShow full item record
Permanent link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10568/42787
Internet URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11056-009-9166-3
A nursery experiment was conducted in un-sterilized soil in Senegal using six Calliandra species or provenances inoculated with a mixture of seven rhizobial strains. Plant growth was assessed periodically at 1, 2, 3, 12 and 18 months whereas nodulation, shoot and root dry weights were assessed at 12 and 18 months after planting (MAP). Un-inoculated seedlings of all the six species died at 12 months after planting. Results of growth assessments were variable with significant differences (P < 0.05) between C. calothyrsus Meissn provenances (Flores and San Ramón) and C. juzepczukii Standley in height at 1, 2 and 3 MAP. Shoot dry weights of San Ramón provenance of C. calothyrsus Meissn were also significantly different from those of C. acapulcensis (Britton and Rose) Standley and C. longepedicellata (Mc Vaugh) H. Hern and Macqueen at 18 MAP. In contrast, C. glandiflora (L’Her.) Benth grew poorly and did not nodulate. Although rhizobial inoculation improved shoot and root dry weights some differences were observed among the Calliandra species in response to the inoculation, which suggested the occurrence of interaction between the rhizobial strains and the host plant species tested.
- CIAT Articles in Journals | <urn:uuid:1577092e-8a5f-4653-8633-b16421cf96c7> | {
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The books listed below are all set in the Tudor period during the reigns of Henry VII, Henry VIII and Edward VI. The Tudors: Part 2 features books on the Grey sisters, Mary I and Elizabeth I. There will be some overlap, but there were just too many Tudor novels to fit on one page! Please feel free to comment with your own suggestions and recommendations.
This Booker Prize winning novel by Hilary Mantel is the first in a planned trilogy telling the story of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s chief minister. In Wolf Hall, we see how Cromwell helps to bring about Henry’s divorce from Katherine of Aragon and his subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn.
This excellent sequel to Wolf Hall continues Thomas Cromwell’s story and describes the events leading to the downfall of Anne Boleyn. You could probably enjoy this book even without reading Wolf Hall first, but I would still recommend reading them in order!
The first in Philippa Carr’s twenty-volume Daughters of England series is the story of Damask Farland and her relationship with Bruno, a ‘miracle child’ who was found in the Christmas crib at St Bruno’s Abbey. This is a fun read but also gives us a good idea of what it was like to live through a time of great political and religious change.
Margaret Tudor is an important historical figure, being the sister of Henry VIII and grandmother to Mary, Queen of Scots, yet her story is often ignored. Here D.L. Bogdan gives Margaret the attention she deserves. A light but enjoyable read!
Katherine of Aragon
The first in a series of novels about the six wives of Henry VIII, this is a wonderfully thorough and comprehensive account of the life of Katherine of Aragon. Written from Katherine’s perspective, the novel takes us from the moment of her first arrival in England right through to her death. A great start to the series!
I enjoyed this book because instead of concentrating on Anne Boleyn’s marriage to Henry VIII, the focus here is on her earlier relationship with Henry Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland. We learn as much about Percy as we do about Anne – and there’s lots of fascinating information on the Border Reivers too!
The second in Alison Weir’s series of novels following the lives of Henry VIII’s wives moves on to Anne Boleyn. This is a very detailed account of Anne’s life and while I thought some parts of the novel dragged, I really enjoyed learning about Anne’s earlier years and her time spent at various European courts.
An alternate history novel in which we’re asked to believe that Anne Boleyn gave Henry VIII a son and heir – who grows up to become King Henry IX. From the historical perspective, this is a very intriguing and thought-provoking book…but unfortunately it failed to sweep me away to another time and place. If you do enjoy this one, there are two more in the trilogy – The Boleyn Deceit and The Boleyn Reckoning.
This novel follows the early life of Henry VIII’s third wife, Jane Seymour – but it also introduces us to Katherine Filliol, the woman who marries Jane’s brother, Edward. This is a very domestic story, with most of the novel being set at the Seymour home, Wolf Hall, rather than at court.
The third instalment in the Six Tudor Queens series moves on to the story of Jane Seymour. If you’ve read the previous two books in the series, there is some repetition but also a lot of focus on Jane’s early life at Wulfhall (the alternate spelling for Wolf Hall) and on her brief reign as queen. I liked the portrayal of Jane and found Henry also a more sympathetic character in this book.
Originally published in 1933, this is a fictional account of Katherine Howard’s time as queen and her alleged love affair with Thomas Culpeper.
Henry VIII’s sixth wife, Katherine Parr, is the subject of Elizabeth Fremantle’s first novel. The story is told from the perspective of both Katherine herself and her maid, Dot Fownten.
Another fictional account of Katherine Parr’s life, this time narrated entirely by Katherine herself. I enjoyed this, but preferred the Elizabeth Fremantle book above.
Another novel about Katherine – or Kateryn, as she is referred to here. This book is a bit different from the others as it is narrated by a fictional character, Juliana St John, who has an interesting story of her own to tell.
Tudor mysteries and thrillers
This is the first in a series of Tudor thrillers featuring Joanna Stafford, a novice nun from Dartford Priory. The story is set during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and revolves around the search for a legendary crown. Joanna is a wonderful character and I found this a very compelling novel.
Joanna Stafford, who has now rejoined the secular world, becomes drawn into a plot to restore the Catholic religion to England. Another excellent novel!
The final novel in the Joanna Stafford trilogy follows our favourite ex-nun as she travels to Whitehall Palace where King Henry VIII commissions her to weave a special tapestry. On arriving at court, Joanna discovers that her life is still in danger – but who is trying to harm her and why? This is a great conclusion to the trilogy – I would highly recommend reading all three.
Susanna Horenbout, a Flemish artist, teams up with courtier John Parker to unravel a plot against the king. This is a light but entertaining and action-packed novel. Susanna and John are both historical figures who really existed but I hadn’t come across either of them before reading this book.
Varina Westcott, a young woman with her own candle making business, investigates two historical mysteries in this novel. The first is the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, who may or may not have been murdered by Richard III; the second involves the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Prince Arthur, Henry VIII’s brother. An enjoyable story, though not entirely convincing!
Set in 16th century Canterbury, this is the third in a series of Tudor mysteries featuring a very unusual detective – Giordano Bruno, a former monk who has escaped the Inquisition in Italy. In this book, Bruno agrees to help clear the name of his friend, Sophia, who has been accused of murdering her husband. I haven’t read any of the other books in this series.
The first in Sansom’s series of novels following the investigations of the hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake. This is an excellent murder mystery set in a lonely monastery in winter.
In the second Shardlake novel, our hero and his new assistant, Jack Barak, search for the ancient secrets of Greek Fire while also trying to prove the innocence of a young woman accused of murder.
The third book in the series sees Shardlake and Barak heading for York where Henry VIII is due to arrive on a royal progress. As well as carrying out his official duties as a lawyer, Shardlake has been tasked with tending to the welfare of an important political prisoner.
This wonderful fourth Shardlake novel involves a string of murders inspired by passages from the Book of Revelation. Set in 1543, with Katherine Parr about to become the sixth wife of Henry VIII, this is my favourite of the series so far.
The fifth Shardlake novel is not the strongest, in my opinion, but the Tudor setting is as vividly described as ever, culminating in a memorable and dramatic depiction of the sinking of the Mary Rose.
A good place to start if you know nothing about the Tudors. As the title suggests, this is a very short book and only intended to be an introduction to the period.
A longer, more in-depth book on the Tudors than the one above. The focus here is on religious reform and change during the Tudor period. This is the second volume in Ackroyd’s History of England series, but if you haven’t read the first that won’t be a problem.
A long, comprehensive biography of Elizabeth of York – daughter of Edward IV, niece of Richard III, wife of Henry VII and mother of Henry VIII. This book is wonderfully detailed and provides information on the social history of the period as well as the facts of Elizabeth’s life. I enjoyed it despite Alison Weir’s bias against Richard III.
This excellent biography of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, provides a thorough account of his reign, including details of the plots, conspiracies and rebellions directed against him. An enjoyable, well-researched read which provides a good introduction to the life of Henry VII.
For more Tudor novels please see The Tudors: Part 2. | <urn:uuid:c5542662-47a8-42b1-bdf0-8bda3b9343b4> | {
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The media has a tendency to blow medical reports out of proportion and sensationalize new treatments. Over the past 15 years other treatments were labeled as "new cures for cancer", including monoclonal antibodies, interferon, IL-2, and TNF. Each has found a role in the treatment of specific cancers, but are in no way a cure for cancer on their own.
Cancer is not just a single disease. It is a conglomeration of over one hundred different diseases, with different histology?s and different genetic mutations. There is little chance that a single drug will cure all cancers. Most cancers require multi-modality treatments with some combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation therapy. Each of these modalities treats an individual cancer with specific techniques that may not be effective in other types of cancers. Cancer can also become resistant to a specific type of therapy, which requires the integration of other approaches in treatment.
The most effective way to eradicate cancer is to prevent its occurrence. Any individual can significantly reduce their risk of cancer by avoiding smoking, drinking alcohol with moderation, eating a healthy diet, and protecting oneself from overexposure to the sun. The second most effective treatment is early detection of cancer. Cancers are much more treatable when at an early stage, so follow age appropriate screening recommendations for specific cancers. Screening mammograms, gynecologic examinations, stool occult-blood tests, colonoscopies, digital rectal examinations, and PSA blood tests have all been proven to help detect cancer at an earlier stage. It is also important for the general population to learn self-screening techniques such as the breast self-exam, testicular self-exam, and skin self-exam.
Contrary to popular belief, there is not a big conspiracy by the medical establishment to prevent the public from gaining access to new treatments. Unfortunately, it takes many years to identify a new treatment, show it is safe, prove that it works better than established treatments and then produce enough of the treatment to make it widely available.
There are many new, exciting ways to treat cancer that are currently under investigation. The only way to identify the most promising new treatments is to test them in clinical research trials. If you have been diagnosed with cancer, ask your physician about any clinical research trials that you may be eligible to join. You may not only help yourself, but the many other patients who are diagnosed with cancer in the future.
Again, beware of media claims of a "new cure for cancer." These are exciting times in cancer research, but we still have a long way to go. Science is slowly unraveling the secrets of the many diseases known as cancer. | <urn:uuid:5e66d8a8-8b9a-4423-9a32-6c46f524f239> | {
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The borough was formed in 1965, and took this historic name, through amalgamation of the former metropolitan boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney. These boroughs were the heart of the East End of London.
The constituencies for the next election will be:
The Borough is a part of the London constituency for election to the European Parliament. The political history of the borough has been characterised as leaning heavily to left-wing parties, often explained by the migrant minorities that have lived within it. In the main, this has meant large Labour majorities in terms of national and local elections, although other left-wing parties have won seats including Communists and more recently the Respect Unity coalition.
Previous election results are as follows:
|Overall control||Conservative||Labour||Lib Dem||Others|
The Isle of Dogs is formed from the lock entrances to the former West India Docks and the largest current meander of the River Thames and the southern part of the borough forms a part of the historic flood plain of the River Thames; and but for the Thames Barrier and other flood prevention works would be vulnerable to flooding.
The Regent's Canal enters the borough from Hackney to meet the River Thames at Limehouse Basin. A stretch of the Hertford Union Canal leads from the Regent's canal, at a basin in the north of Mile End to join the River Lee at Old Ford. A further canal, Limehouse Cut, London's oldest, leads from locks at Bromley-by-Bow to Limehouse Basin. Most of the canal tow-paths are open to both pedestrians and cyclists.
Victoria Park was formed by Act of Parliament, and administered by the LCC and its successor authority the GLC. Since the latter authority's abolition, the park has been administered by Tower Hamlets.
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets forms the core of the East End, it lies east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames, use of the term "East End", in a pejorative sense began in the late 19th century, as the expansion of the population of London led to extreme overcrowding throughout the area and a concentration of poor people and immigrants in the districts that make it up. These problems were exacerbated with the construction of St Katharine Docks (1827) and the central London railway termini (1840–1875) that caused the clearance of former slums and rookeries, with many of the displaced people moving into the area. Over the course of a century, the East End became synonymous with poverty, overcrowding, disease and criminality.
The East End developed rapidly during the 19th century. Originally it was an area characterised by villages clustered around the City walls or along the main roads, surrounded by farmland, with marshes and small communities by the River, serving the needs of shipping and the Royal Navy. Until the arrival of formal docks, shipping was required to land its goods in the Pool of London, but industries related to construction, repair, and victualling of ships flourished in the area from Tudor times. The area attracted large numbers of rural people looking for employment. Successive waves of foreign immigration began with Huguenot refugees creating a new extramural suburb in Spitalfields in the 17th century. They were followed by Irish weavers, Ashkenazi Jews and, in the 20th century, Bangladeshi. Many of these immigrants worked in the clothing industry. The abundance of semi- and unskilled labour led to low wages and poor conditions throughout the East End. This brought the attentions of social reformers during the mid-18th century and led to the formation of unions and workers associations at the end of the century. The radicalism of the East End contributed to the formation of the Labour Party and demands for the enfranchisement of women.
Official attempts to address the overcrowded housing began at the beginning of the 20th century under the London County Council. World War II devastated much of the East End, with its docks, railways and industry forming a continual target, leading to dispersal of the population to new suburbs, and new housing being built in the 1950s.. During the war, in the Boroughs making up Tower Hamlets a total of 2,221 civilians were killed, and 7,472 were injured, with 46,482 houses destroyed and 47,574 damaged. The closure of the last of the East End docks in the Port of London in 1980 created further challenges and led to attempts at regeneration and the formation of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The Canary Wharf development, improved infrastructure, and the Olympic Park mean that the East End is undergoing further change, but some of its parts continue to contain some of the worst poverty in Britain.
The unusual Green Bridge, constructed in 2000, links sections of Mile End Park, that are divided by the Mile End Road. The bridge contains gardens, water features and trees around the path.
Tower Hamlets has one of the smallest indigenous populations of the boroughs of Britain. The main ethnic groups are the White British (42.9%) and Bangladeshis which constitute 33% of the population. Black African/Caribbean's constitute 7%, with a mainly large Somalian community.
The main religions followed or practiced in Tower Hamlets are Christianity and Islam. There are 75,783 people who identified themselves as Christians (38.6%), and 71,389 people who are Muslims (36.4%). The Muslim community are mainly of Bangladeshis and Somalians. The Muslim population in the borough is the largest out of all authorities in England & Wales.
The population of the Bangladeshi community counted on the census was 65,553. Bangladeshis are more likely to have large families living together. The number of Bangladeshis aged under 18 is almost double the proportion for all Londoners. Most Bangladeshi children in London were born in the UK, while most adults were born in Bangladesh, 70% of the Bangladeshi community are below the age of 30, where 40% of these are aged 0-15 and 9% are aged 16-19.
The main language of the borough is English. Other languages include, Bengali or Sylheti, and Somali, also Chinese and Vietnamese. There are also many other languages used by the people from many other different cultures.
Mile End Stadium, within Mile End Park hosts an athletics stadium, and facilities for football and basketball. Two football clubs, Beaumont Athletic F.C. and Sporting Bengal United F.C. are based there.
A leisure centre including a swimming pool at Mile End Stadium was completed in 2006. Other pools are located at St Georges, Limehouse and York Hall, in Bethnal Green. York Hall is also a regular venue for boxing tournaments, and in May 2007 a public spa - Spa London was opened in the building's renovated Turkish Baths. Official London Spa website | <urn:uuid:6e8686cb-bd55-4b89-8f17-0cee72997508> | {
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Has anyone in the industry done accelerated exposure testing? If so, what fails?
There are many factors. For example surface damage to the panels. This happens through exposure to wind and weather, and the more obvious physical damage such as trees, dust, hail, and so on. If there are scratches on the surface, you may in a worst case scenario have water seep through the surface, and thus short-circuit the solar panels. So, you need to constantly make sure that the surface of the panels are clean, because pollen, dust, and so on lowers the efficiency of the cells.
It has also to do with the chemistry behind it all. They are designed to react to photons hitting its surface of the cell. This process affects its longevity. If one or more cells are in the shade for far too long can create so called hotspots, and that accelerates the degradation as well.
Here's Fraunhofer on this issue of longevity: http://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/resea ... les-7.html
And here's more on cell degradation: http://pveducation.org/pvcdrom/modules/ ... lure-modes | <urn:uuid:1c456ad6-feda-4220-aa28-f90523b43fbe> | {
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Two decades ago, the historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam suggested that what defined early modern Eurasia (roughly mid 15th to mid 18th century) was a colossal change in the scale and nature of the circulation and mobility of elites, texts, ideas, and technologies across political boundaries and cultural zones. By approaching early modern Eurasian history as “connected histories,” Subrahmanyam argued that we would be able to recover the continental and intercontinental connections, junctions, and interactions that are obscured to us by nationalist historiographies and our own academic fixation on area studies. “Connected histories” advocates for the exploration of regional, supra-regional, and global modes of interaction, without offering a totalizing historical narrative.
In this course, we will explore this approach to the history of early modern Eurasia. How would a “connected histories” of Eurasia look like? What can we learn from such a focus on connectivities in Eurasia, rather than a comparative approach to the history of early modern Eurasia, as suggested, for example, in the comprehensive work of Victor Lieberman (Strange Parallels)? And what are the pitfalls and limits of this approach to history? The basis for our investigation will be early modern courts and imperial systems across Asia, with a special focus on Ming and Qing courts (China), the Ottoman (Turkey, Egypt, Syria, North Africa), Safavid (Iran), and the Mughal courts (India).
In the first part of the course we will survey the historical background and discuss the main theoretical approaches to early modern Eurasian history. Next, we will devote each meeting to exploring from a different perspective early modern Eurasian connectivities, including the Chinese and Islamic (Turkic, Persianate, and Arabic) spheres. The main themes that will be discussed include gift exchange and diplomacy; place, space, and borders; imperial ideologies and religions; material culture and artistic interactions; commerce and economical exchanges; text, translation and literature; knowledge production and skill transfers; and representations of the Asian and European other and self.
Course Requirements: The seminar will be based on weekly readings in primary and secondary sources (in English) and discussions in class. Students are required to actively participate in the class discussions and address the readings. Each student will make one to two short oral presentations (based on assigned readings). Other assignments include one book review on a pre-approved book, and a final take-home exam. | <urn:uuid:e982d896-9ff7-4591-8272-8eed26e1cb8b> | {
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The Pros and Cons of Autonomous Vehicles
I am convinced that autonomous vehicles, also known as self-driving cars or automated cars, are the wave of the near future. There are already several dozen prototypes roaming the streets around the world. So now is the time to determine the advantages and disadvantages of these autonomous vehicles before it is too late.
The Advantages of Autonomous Vehicles
- Fewer Accidents: Reducing human errors should drastically decrease the number of car accidents.
- Cheaper Insurance: With fewer accidents, the costs of car insurance should also decrease, and not just for the insurance of automated cars.
- Better Traffic Flow: Computers have a much better holistic understanding of traffic flow and can drive multiple cars in unison, thus allowing better traffic flow, shorter driving times, and more fuel economy.
- Efficiency: Since autonomous cars will be able to drive much closer together to each other, automated cars will furthermore decrease traffic and increasing fuel economy by decreasing vehicle drag.
- Time: In my opinion, the biggest benefit of autonomous vehicles is the saved time. People (formerly drivers) will instantly have their commute time freed up for work and leisure activities while stuck in their cars.
- Fewer Cars: Car sharing should become more popular. For instance, one family member could be driven to work or school, then the empty car drive back home to pick up another family member, and drive that person to work or school. Thus families could save money by owning fewer vehicles, less car insurances, less maintenance costs, and maybe even less fuel costs when car pooling.
- No Driving Exams: Almost anyone, including children too young to drive, people too old, blind, disabled, too sick, sleepy/sleeping, or even inebriated, will be able to take a vehicle, since they will not be driving and not need to pass a driving exam.
- Less Stress: Driving can be stressful at times, thus automated driving can and will reduce stress.
- Fewer Traffic Guides: Driverless cars do not need street signs, road signs, traffic lights, and even road lights, thus reducing governments’ costs.
- Less Parking Spaces: Automated cars can drop people off at the entrance of buildings and more willing to drive an extra distance to find available parking.
- More Convenient Maintenance: Automated cars can automatically take themselves for maintenance, repairs, and fuel; and even find a replacement vehicle for their owners without their owners’ involvement.
- Laws and Regulations: If an automated car is in an accident, who is responsible? Is it the people in the car (if any), the car’s owner(s), the car’s manufacturer(s), or the car’s software creator(s)?
- Longer Trips: In my opinion, people would be much more willing to tolerate longer commutes, if their travel time is free and less stressful. As a result, increase fuel consumption and traffic could increase.
- Massive Job Loss: Truck drivers, taxi drivers, and even delivery people can and will lose their jobs.
- Police: With fewer people violating traffic laws (i.e. speeding) and fewer accidents, fewer people officers will be needed as well as less revenue for the police/government (fewer tickets).
- Increased Complexity and Risk: Computers can malfunction, be hacked, spontaneous crash and reboot, and automated cars are heavily reliant on GPS systems. All of these systems are increased risk for safety when using an autonomous vehicle.
- Cost: Automated cars will have a higher cost than non-automated vehicles, however this cost maybe offset by fewer cars being maybe needed.
- Appeal: For some people, the appeal of driving their own car will be too great. The human need for control, power, and speed is a strong desire for some people.
- Experimental: Finally, autonomous cars are still experimental and have not completely proven themselves.. yet.
by Phil for Humanity | <urn:uuid:bde1a243-083a-4b1f-912f-3d73bfd46c05> | {
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Routing Numbers are an essential part of the monetary transactions which is used to identify and differentiate each banking institution from another. A routing number, also referred to as RTN or ABA routing number, is asked from you whenever you make a transaction online or through the phone. The ABA routing number was designed originally to help the sorting, bundling and shipment of paper check back to the check-writer’s account. With the arrival of new payment methods like ACH and Wire, the system was extended to incorporate these methods too.
The Routing Transit Number is important for the Federal Reserve Banks when processing Fedwire funds transfer and for the Automated Clearing House to process direct deposits, bill payments, and other such automated transfers.
The People behind Routing Numbers
American Bankers Association had developed the Routing Transit Number system in 1910. In 1911, it partnered with Accuity (official Routing Number Registrar) to manage the system. ABA was founded in 1875 and today, it represents banks of all sizes and charters. This includes regional and money center banks, community banks, savings associations, mutual savings banks and also the trust companies.
The main tasks of American Bankers Association is lobbying, maintenance of the industry standards and best practices (routing numbers). Moreover, it checks for the professional development for member institutions, proper distribution of products and services, and consumer education. Accuity, on the other hand, is responsible for assigning all the new Routing Numbers and managing the RTN system.
Major Banks and their assigned routing numbers
A financial institution can be assigned up to five routing numbers as directed by the Routing Number Policy. But due to a lot of mergers between several financial institutions, they have more than five routing numbers. Currently, there are around 26,895 active RTNs in use across the country.
All the major banks operate through a network of bank branches and ATMs. These banks transfer funds among each other inside the country with the help of routing numbers. On this site, you can find the routing numbers for Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase banks. While there are 57 Wells Fargo routing numbers used by Wells Fargo Bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank uses 24 different JPMorgan Chase routing numbers to makes transactions. | <urn:uuid:65a48d17-ffd2-460c-a1c1-131a5d2dcb77> | {
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There’s some good news for people who suffer from bee sting allergies and bad news for the rest of the world as the population of honey bees seems to be disappearing. Bee farms around the continent have been noticing a dramatic decrease in the population of bees and with no obvious explanation. Losses of up to 70% of populations have been reported, and most bee keepers consider a loss of 20% in off-season to be abnormally large. This alarming loss of honey bees is having an impact on a lot more than honey and may significantly increase the looming food crisis across the globe.
It is estimated that honey bees are used to pollinate around $14 billion worth of food crops in the United States alone. Most fruits, vegetables, and nuts depend on pollination from honey bees in order to end up on our dinner tables. A lower number population of honey bees could very easily mean a lower crop production of fruits and vegetables which means higher dependence on meats and produce shipped from other areas of the world. Some of the possible causes for the mystery of declining bee populations could be virus, poor nutrition, fungus, or pesticide use that affects the bee’s ability to find their way back home, but no definite answer has been found yet.
Other issues affecting honey bees are the growing commercialization of bee farming, added stress on the bees because of high demand for pollination, higher equipment and keeping costs, and habitat loss due to real estate and commercial development. Mites have also been devastating bee colonies and the insecticides used to get rid of the mites have been having a negative impact on the ability for the bees to reproduce at a normal rate. Insecticides have also been linked to the life spans of queen bees being cut in half over recent years. The growing demand for crops and declining populations of honey bees is just going to add further pressure and possibly further decrease in numbers.
The honey bee crisis is not getting better and is having a huge impact on flowering crops that make up one third of our food supply. Although slow progress is being made to find an answer to the mystery that is plaguing the world’s honey bees more progress needs to be made and quickly before this problem starts to really devastate crops which are already struggling because of other issues. | <urn:uuid:e5855091-a77c-4f1d-aab0-c19d3d8f3672> | {
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NEW YORK, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- When tragedy strikes, parents are doubly challenged -- to process their own feelings of grief and to help their children do the same, a U.S. psychiatrist says.
"As a parent, you can't protect you children from grief, but you can help them express their feelings, comfort them and help them feel safer," Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, a psychiatrist at the Child Mind Institute in New York, said in a statement.
"By allowing and encouraging them to express their feelings, you can help them build healthy coping skills that will serve them well in the future, and confidence that they can overcome adversity."
Koplewicz advised to:
-- Invite children to express everything they heard about the tragedy, and how they feel. Give ample opportunity for them to ask questions. The goal is to avoid encouraging frightening fantasies.
-- Be a role model of calm. If you talk to your child about a traumatic experience in a highly emotional way, then he will likely absorb your emotion and very little else.
-- Reassure children about how unusual this kind of event is, and the safety measures that have been taken to prevent this kind of thing from happening to them.
-- Help children express their feelings.
-- Don't volunteer too much information.
-- Memorialize those who have been lost, by drawing pictures, planting a tree, sharing stories, or releasing balloons. It's important to assure your child that a person continues to live on in the hearts and minds of others.
-- Do something to help others in need as it can be very therapeutic. | <urn:uuid:125d24f8-063f-4d30-92d6-558a1bf55c4f> | {
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Visualize New Developments In The Adjuvant Therapy Of Stage Ii Colon Cancer within Stage 3 Colon Cancer Prognosis
Article Related to Stage 3 Colon Cancer Prognosis :
A Guide To Understanding Colon Cancer – stage 3 colon cancer prognosis
Colon cancer is a deadly cancer that affects the large entrail, or the large bowel. It is a common type of cancer only second to lung cancer in the number of members of manifestations. The jeopardy of developing this kind of cancer is much higher in certain ethnicities and those living in the industrialized Western countries. The only good news about colon cancer is that those diagnosed early have a high rate of existence and remedy with timely treatment.
Also known as colorectal cancer, colon cancer begins in the bowel. The large intestine, or bowel, has two sections including the upper colon near the belly and the lower colon near the rectum. Colon cancer affecting the great intestine may spread to both the high and low regions of the colon, which is the main reason it was given the medical name colorectal cancer.
The upper colon assimilate nutrients and ocean during the course of its digestion of meat. The lower colon, or rectum, was working to accumulate and then deport the waste material from their own bodies that is left after the digestion process.
Growths In The Colon
A cancerous emergence found in the colon generally originates as a polyp. A small tissue emergence or group of cells come together to words a polyp that stretches in the colon. If a polyp is not concluded and treated, it usually develops into colon cancer over time.
A certain kind of polyp called an adenomacan polyp is the most dangerous type of small-scale tissue increment polyp that was transformed into colon cancer. It frequently takes between five and ten years old for any type of polyp to reach the dimensions of the approximately half an inch. Once a polyp contacts this immensity, it typically takes an additional five to ten years for the polyp to develop into full blown colon cancer.
While a straddle of twenty years seems like enough time for a person to discover a polyp and have it plowed before it develops into colon cancer, it is often difficult to even spy a increment without researching because many times there are no evidences until it’s too late. Luckily, countless advances in diagnostic techniques and screenings have made it possible to successfully discover polyps or cancerous raises before they develop into deadly colon cancer.
Some of the most common types of screening procedures that facilitate specialists diagnose and consider colon cancer are through the use of a biopsy, a colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, and barium enemas. In addition to these screening process, patients can also undergo stool test researching to look for blood in the stool or an unexplained absence of cast-iron, as these are signs of developing polyps or colon cancer.
Screenings Are The Answer
A prevalent cancer that doesn’t have to be, colon cancer is preventable and treatable when discovered early. With several subjects and research being play-act, experts are increasing the rate of survival in addition to finding ways to make it easier to discover colon cancer early so those diagnosed can receive treatment before their life is at risk.
Get a colon cancer screening and hearten those you love to do the same. Through screenings, we can stop the unnecessary demises that occur each year from the disease of colon cancer. | <urn:uuid:4265cfb3-1d27-4f5c-a82b-ecd2625d990e> | {
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Getting it Wrong
The author starts with a simple and interesting puzzle. Most of the articles published on Milton Friedman after his death agree that he was a great economist. Many compare him to John Maynard Keynes, another great economist. But Friedman and Keynes held different, indeed inconsistent, views; an important part of Friedman’s accomplishment was to undo the effect of Keynes' accomplishment. If Keynes was right, how can Friedman be a great economist? If Friedman was right, how can Keynes be?
It is an interesting question, but the author gets the answer wrong. He concludes that both Keynes and Friedman were right. Keynes' version of economics was correct for the forties and fifties, Friedman’s for the seventies and eighties, when the Keynesian model "had played itself out."
That is a claim that neither Keynes nor Friedman would have taken seriously. Keynes titled his magnum opus “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” not “The Theory of How Employment, Interest and Money Will Work from 1930 to 1960.” Part of the work that earned Friedman his Nobel was A Monetary History of the United States (coauthored with Anna Schwartz), in which he demonstrated that the Keynesian analysis of the Great Depression, the centerpiece of the Keynesian view of economics, was based on a historically mistaken account of what actually happened. It is an odd view of science in which the historical facts about the 1930’s changed between 1940 and 1970.
The author starts his discussion by claiming that economics is somehow less of a science than physics, hence its truths more temporary. Yet the history of physics offers precisely the same puzzle. Newton was a great physicist. Einstein was a great physicist. Part of Einstein’s accomplishment was to show that Newtonian physics was, in certain fundamental ways, wrong.
Newton was wrong, wrong not only now but then, but Newtonian physics provided the foundation of ideas on which later generations of physicists, including Einstein, built. Keynes was wrong, but his attempt to make sense of what he believed happened during the Great Depression provided a theoretical foundation on which later theorists, including Friedman, could build. Hence Friedman’s comment on Keynes: “In one sense, we are all Keynesians now; in another, no one is a Keynesian any longer"—misquoted by Time Magazine as “We are all Keynesians now.” | <urn:uuid:d947787b-cb27-4807-acb8-dd87e1ffe9c2> | {
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Avery Schmidt, hr. 3.
3 FOODS IN THE GRAIN GROUP
2. Brown Rice
3. White Bread
2 SUB GROUPS OF GRAINS
Refined Grains: have been milled, a process that removed the bran and germ.
Ounce of Grains
Protein, Fiber and Iron.
Fiber: Dietary fiber helps you feel full faster and longer; it also aids digestion and helps prevent constipation.
Iron: Iron helps our bodies make hemoglobin (for red blood cells) and myoglobin (for muscles).
- Consuming whole grains as part of a healthy diet may reduce the risk of heart disease.
- Consuming foods containing fiber, such as whole grains, as part of a healthy diet, may reduce constipation.
- Eating whole grains may help with weight management.
- Eating grain products fortified with folate before and during pregnancy helps prevent neural tube defects during fetal development.
Food Label: 5 ways the nutrition label display's whole grains.
2. Look at fiber content
3. Foods labeled with the words "multi-grain", "stone-ground", "100% wheat", "cracked wheat", seven-grain", or "bran" are usually not whole-grain products.
4. Read the food label’s ingredient list. Look for terms that indicate added sugars (such as sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, malt syrup, maple syrup, molasses, or raw sugar) that add extra calories. Choose foods with fewer added sugars.
5. Most sodium in the food supply comes from packaged foods. Similar packaged foods can vary widely in sodium content, including breads. Use the Nutrition Facts label to choose foods with a lower % DV for sodium. Foods with less than 140 mg sodium per serving can be labeled as low sodium foods. Claims such as “low in sodium” or “very low in sodium” on the front of the food label can help you identify foods that contain less salt (or sodium).
Tips when reading food labels
2. Look at calories. | <urn:uuid:f6323e0c-eb27-4e8a-a5d0-0bcfbb8ddfc3> | {
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Ocean health and the condition of our global marine ecosystems have come into sharper focus the the last several decades. Careful monitoring of our oceans and specific costal areas have revealed changes in the nutrient and chemical composition of our oceans. Additionally, environmental disasters such as oil spills and sewage or chemical runoffs can have lasting impacts on seawater composition and ocean health. The oceans have a massive impact on our planet, from producing over half of the oxygen and serving as carbon dioxide store to how it influences our weather and atmosphere. Our oceans also function as a significant food source, with over 50 million tonnes of fish feeding billions of people every year. Seawater analysis and monitoring plays a very important role in generating data that helps us protect this critical natural resource and sustainable fisheries.
Seawater analysis consists of a variety of assays that assess nutritional and chemical content of the sample. Many of these nutrients are at trace levels, and detecting and quantifying long term changes in the oceans requires the accurate and reliable analysis of many samples. Scientists require instrumentation that is easy to operate, rugged and flexible enough to develop new methods and be able to expand detection ranges to meet their analysis needs. Low level detection in seawater is critical and the ability to take the analyzer on board ocean going vessels is essential.
Unity Scientific has been working with marine scientists and have ready to use solutions for these applications. The SMARTCHEM® series of discrete analyzers and the Futura line of continuous flow analyzers offer reliable, accurate, unattended analysis and come standard with many EPA and Standard methods. Our systems are being used by universities and researchers across the globe in both laboratory settings and for shipboard analysis. Our commitment is to provide instrumentation that will help preserve one our most important nature resource – our oceans. | <urn:uuid:b49f9f7d-46ac-4f0e-8ed5-67d26a8e9c2e> | {
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Faced with a dwindling population of less than 1,000 members of a native Florida conifer known as stinking cedar (Torreya taxifolia), a nonprofit group known as the Torreya Guardians has been cultivating seedlings on private lands to promote the species’ survival in the face of climate change.
This so-called assisted migration of species remains controversial among forest managers, with most favoring one of three distinct policy options:
These three positions characterize the discussions among ecologists. Each position is characterized below in an effort to move the dialogue forward. In all cases, ethics suggest that parties proposing to move species seek legal authority to collect and move individual members of a species and notify all parties who might be affected by this management practice.
Strong advocates of assisted migration typically believe that climate constrains most species’ distributions and that pending climate changes will lead to imminent extinction of some or many species. They tend to have confidence in the accuracy of projected habitat shifts associated with future climate change. Some see assisted migration as a way of addressing broader human-caused disequilibria with nature (Martin 2005).
The strongest advocates for this position would apply the principle of assisted migration broadly to many species, arguing that time is short and there’s not enough time to develop species-specific predictions and models. This position is characterized by a belief that the risks of inaction are high. Proponents of this position may require predictive habitat models to guide the release of organisms, but they may also simply opt to endorse broad movement, allowing ecosystems to sort themselves out.
Adherents of this position emphasize the risk of human interference, no matter how well intentioned. They point to the uncertainty that surrounds our understanding of what controls the distribution and abundance of species, noting it is difficult to predict which species will become pests. They also note that monitoring efforts are unlikely to prevent problems, as decades may pass before an introduced species becomes a pest.
Proponents of the position that managers should avoid assisted migration suggest too many uncertainties are involved, from climate predictions to other factors such as biotic interactions (Guisan and Thuiller 2005). They accept that rejecting assisted migration will increase the threat of climate-driven extinction of species. However, they advocate for management efforts that could help reduce the risk, such as scientific and conservation efforts to preserve isolated populations (Schwartz et al. 2002) and efforts to facilitate natural migration via landscape design (Pearson and Dawson 2005).
The hallmark of this position is the expectation that assisted migration is necessary to preserve biological diversity despite recognized risks. Adherents of this position may range broadly between the first two positions. Under this position, proposals for assisted migration may require evidence of imminent threat, a quantitative model of predicted outcome, and a management plan – possibly one vetted by a board of experts.
Although supportive of the potential value of assisted migration, this position is still likely to risk extinction for some species because proposals would require substantial data, and disputes could lead to costly delays. It is likely this approach would be implemented only for a few species of highest concern.
Data collected for other purposes can be useful, but research specifically focused on assisted migration is necessary. Research that could help inform the debate on the concept of assisted migration includes efforts to:
Such research efforts could help answer important questions that must be addressed in this debate. Is there a population level threshold that should trigger consideration for assisted migration? Which species should be priority candidates? How could populations be introduced to minimize potential problems? A consensus that identifies the risks and opportunities of alternative approaches to assisted migration and suggests best-management strategies would be a step forward in developing a coherent policy stance on this issue.
Adapted for eXtension.org by Melanie Lenart, University of Arizona
Guisan, A., and W. Thuiller. 2005. Predicting species distribution: offering more than simple habitat models. Ecology Letters. 8: 993-1009.
Martin, P. S. 2005. Twilight of the mammoths: ice age extinctions and the rewilding of America. University of California Press, Berkeley, California.
Nijhuis, M., 2008. Taking wilderness in hand: rescuing species. Orion Magazine, May/June 2008. Available online at: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2966/.
Pearson, R. G., and T. P. Dawson, 2005. Long-distance plant dispersal and habitat fragmentation: identifying conservation targets for spatial landscape planning under climate change. Biological Conservation. 123: 389-401.
Schwartz, M. W., N. L. Jurjavcic, and J. M. O’Brien. 2002. Conservation’s disenfranchised urban poor. BioScience. 52: 601-606.
Articles Related to Assisted Migration
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