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New Zealand’s relationship with Africa in the 2000s
In the early 2000s New Zealand did not have strong relationships with countries in Africa. There was not much trade between Africa and New Zealand, and not many New Zealanders visited Africa. New Zealand had only two embassies in the continent, one in South Africa and the other in Egypt. New Zealand interacted with African countries through the United Nations, through sporting contact and through aid.
Relationships in the 1800s
In the 1800s Britain had made many African countries part of its empire, as New Zealand was. Ships often sailed to and from New Zealand via the Cape of Good Hope, allowing people to travel between New Zealand and South Africa. A few New Zealanders went to Africa as missionaries.
South African War
Between 1899 and 1902 New Zealand troops went to South Africa to fight in a war between Britain and the Boer republics. After the war, the British and Boer states joined to become the Union of South Africa. In 1907 New Zealand Prime Minister Joseph Ward was one of the few to object to South Africa allowing only white people to vote, as part of the Act of Union passed by the British Parliament.
New Zealand and South Africa have a long history of playing sport against each other. Because of South Africa’s race laws, New Zealand rugby teams generally excluded Māori players until 1970.
During the First World War (1914–18) and the Second World War (1939–45) some New Zealand soldiers were based in North Africa.
After the Second World War many African countries that had been European colonies became independent. They all became members of the United Nations and many joined the Commonwealth. In 1961 South Africa resigned from the Commonwealth and Rhodesia was expelled in 1965.
In 1948 South Africa introduced apartheid – a system of racial segregation. The United Nations made resolutions that South Africa should end race discrimination and that other countries should end their relationships with South Africa. New Zealand continued to play rugby against South Africa, which made other countries, and many New Zealanders, angry. Apartheid ended in the early 1990s.
Migration to New Zealand
Most migrants from Africa are white, and mainly from South Africa. Refugees have come to New Zealand from a number of African countries where there have been wars. | <urn:uuid:235d452c-f033-47a2-abf4-e497036655dc> | {
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Definition of the adjective agglomerated
What does agglomerated mean as an attribute of a noun?
- clustered together but not coherent
Definition of the verb agglomerated
What does agglomerated mean as a doing word?
- past of agglomerate
Printed dictionaries and other books with definitions for Agglomerated
Click on a title to look inside that book (if available):
by Mark Hellyer , Valeriy Piatnytskyi, Sergey Nerpii
Worked slate and articles of slate or of agglomerated slate Millstones, grindstones, grinding wheels and the like, without frameworks, for grinding, sharpening, polishing, trueing or cutting, hand sharpening or ...
Instantization is based on agglomeration, which enables a larger volume of air to be incorporated between the powder particles, resulting in a characteristic coarse , clusterlike, agglomerated structure (see DEHYDRATED DAIRY PRODUCTS ...
by Marion Eugene Ensminger, Audrey H. Ensminger
Dustless (agglomerated) flour— The older types of flour were very dry and dusty, and tended to ball up in large masses when mixed with liquids. Furthermore, it is believed that many professional bakers developed allergies to wheat as a result ...
Volume 27 - Hydrogen Cyanide to Ketones Dimethyl (Acetone) by John J. McKetta Jr
in size are usually agglomerated by sintering or pelletizing before being charged to the blast furnace. This is done primarily to improve permeability of the furnace burden and to ...
Midline Medical Dictionary (2002)
by P. S. Rawat
HRT-RRRTH; HRHTaiza, Agglomerated. Massed together, aggregated. HHeafari; if Ri Agglutinant. Uniting agent; adhesive; a substance with adhesive properties; agglutinative.
Urological Dictionary (1878)
Containing an Explanation of Numerous Technical Terms; the Qualitative and Quantitative Methods Employed in Urinary Investigations ... by John King
The white precipitate is formed of oxalate of lime, but in the form of small grains agglomerated in little groups; this is due to the rapid precipitation which does not allow the time required for the formation of the regular crystals. In neutralizing ...
by James A. Schwarz, Cristian I. Contescu, Karol Putyera
Metals that are precipitated from aqueous solutions generally tend to be porous and highly agglomerated. For example, silver particles can be produced1'1 via the reduction of acidic silver salt solutions using aldehydes in the presence of ...
Online dictionaries and encyclopedias with entries for Agglomerated
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Scrabble value of A1G2G2L1O1M3E1R1A1T1E1D2
The value of this 12-letter word is 17 points, but it's not an accepted word in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary.
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Go to the thesaurus of Agglomerated to find many related words and phrases! | <urn:uuid:ff1c825b-af87-419d-94a8-4fa2a7b75e6a> | {
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Chapter in In Outdoor Recreation for 21st Century America, edited by Ken Cordell, Venture Press, State College, PA, 289 pp, 2004
18 Pages Posted: 24 Feb 2016
Date Written: February 22, 2004
In this chapter we took a broad look at American participation in on-farm recreation. While further analysis is in order, it does seem that visiting farms, either as a primary purpose of a trip or as part of a rural sightseeing outing, is a popular activity. We estimate that over 60 million Americans (over 30% of the population) made one or more recreational visits to farms during the past year. While many of these visits were to family and friends, a majority were not. People valued a number of different attributes of their farm trips. Purchasing agricultural products and picking fruit and vegetables was important, but enjoying the rural scenery around the farm, and learning where our food comes from, was more important. Interestingly, petting farm animals was the most frequent on-farm activity mentioned. In general, en-route to a farm people would like to see more woodlands and grazing animals, about the same amount of farmland, and less “development”. When broken down across regions, and along socioeconomic lines, the data do not reveal any striking patterns. Although there are a few noticeable differences (for example, hunting was more important in the Northern Great Plains then in the Northern Crescent), the overall impression is that visiting farms is an activity that is enjoyed by people all across America.
Keywords: agro tourism, farm recreation, NSRE
JEL Classification: Q19
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Abstract: This study is about four cacti species in the state of Chihuahua, (Coryphantha macromeris, Mammillaria lasiacantha, Echinocereus dasyacanthus and Ferocactus wislizenii). Geographic distribution was inferred with MaxEnt. Projection was estimated under three scenarios simulated from IPCC (A2, B1 and A1B) and four periods (2000, 2020, 2050 and 2080) with 19 climatic variables. MaxEnt projects a species decrease in 2020 under scenario A2, increasing in the following years. In 2080 all species, except E. dasyacanthus, will occupy a larger area than their current one. Scenario B1 projected for 2050 a decrease for all species, and in 2080 all species except E. dasyacanthus will increase their area. With A1B, C. macromeris decreases 27% from 2020 to 2050. E. dasyacanthus increases from 2020 to 2050 and decreases 73% from 2020 to 2080. M. lasiacantha decreases 13% from 2020 to 2080 and F. wislizenii will increase 13% from 2020 to 2080. Some species will remain stable on their areas despite climate changes, and other species may be affected under the conditions of the A1B scenario. It is important to continue with studies which give a broader perspective about the consequences of climate change, thus enabling decision-making about resource management.
This is an open access article distributed under the
Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Export to BibTeX
MDPI and ACS Style
Cortes, L.; Domínguez, I.; Lebgue, T.; Viramontes, O.; Melgoza, A.; Pinedo, C.; Camarillo, J. Variation in the Distribution of Four Cacti Species Due to Climate Change in Chihuahua, Mexico. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2014, 11, 390-402.
Cortes L, Domínguez I, Lebgue T, Viramontes O, Melgoza A, Pinedo C, Camarillo J. Variation in the Distribution of Four Cacti Species Due to Climate Change in Chihuahua, Mexico. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2014; 11(1):390-402.
Cortes, Leonor; Domínguez, Irma; Lebgue, Toutcha; Viramontes, Oscar; Melgoza, Alicia; Pinedo, Carmelo; Camarillo, Javier. 2014. "Variation in the Distribution of Four Cacti Species Due to Climate Change in Chihuahua, Mexico." Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 11, no. 1: 390-402. | <urn:uuid:c4f7983f-224a-46bc-b9b0-9bedc10ed94a> | {
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Despite being known for almost 50 years, the question has remained: where do AM CVn systems come from? New X-ray and optical observations have begun to answer that with the discovery of the first known systems of double stars that astronomers think will evolve into AM CVn systems.
AM CVn systems are of interest to scientists because they are predicted to be sources of gravitational waves. This is important because even though such waves have yet to be detected, many scientists and engineers are working on instruments that should be able to detect them in the near future. This will open a significant new observational window to the universe.
The paper reporting these results is available online and is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters. The authors are Mukremin Kilic, from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK; J.J. Hermes from the University of Texas at Austin in TX; Alexandros Gianninas from the University of Oklahoma; Warren Brown from Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, MA; Craig Heinke from University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada; Marcel Agüeros from Columbia University in New York, NY; Paul Chote and Denis Sullivan from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand; and Keaton Bell and Samuel Harrold from University of Texas at Austin. | <urn:uuid:7cc1c100-3ffc-4790-a9b0-ffa6038b092c> | {
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JURBARKAS (Ger. Jurburg), town in S.W. Lithuania; until the incorporation of Lithuania within Russia in 1795, the town belonged to the principality of Zamut (Zhmud; Samogitia); subsequently, until the 1917 Revolution, it was in the province of Kovno. Jews who visited Jurbarkas at the end of the 16th century are mentioned in the responsa of Meir b. Gedaliah of Lublin (Metz, 1769, 4a no. 7). Within the framework of the Lithuanian Council (see *Councils of the Lands) the community of Jurbarkas belonged to the province (galil) of Kaidany (Kedainiai). In 1766, 2,333 Jews were registered with the community. A wooden synagogue built in Jurbarkas during the second half of the 17th century was preserved until the Holocaust. There were 2,527 Jews registered with the community in 1847. The Jews numbered 2,350 (31% of the total population) in 1897, and 1,887 in 1923. In June–September 1941, after the occupation of the town by the Germans, some 1,000 Jews were murdered at the cemetery and outside the town.
Lite (1951), 1595–97, 1849–54, index 2; M. and K. Piechotka, Wooden Synagogues (1959), 200; Yahadut Lita, 1 (1960), index.
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:ddcbad48-49d6-4477-96b0-df302afcbe94> | {
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Helping Haitians Help Themselves
|Locke delivered the Gannon Lecture at the UN, the first time in thirty years the lecture was given off campus.
Photo by Chris Taggart
About midway through delivering Fordham’s fall Gannon Lecture in the United Nation’s Delegates Dining Room on Nov. 15, author and humanitarian Hugh Locke paused to collect himself.
Overcome with emotion, Locke, whose NGO is on the ground in Haiti, was expressing his "personal feelings on the U.N. peacekeeping mission’s responsibility for introducing cholera" in an already-ravaged Haiti.
"The only people who don't believe that it was inadvertently introduced to Haiti by U.N. peacekeeping forces are the lawyers in this building," he said. "They are doing a terrible disservice, because how can you occupy the moral high ground when you [don’t] take your own principles to guide your actions?"
In an otherwise soft-spoken and even delivery, Locke also made clear his affection for the organization, noting that the first time he was ever in the Delegates Dining Room was as a teenager—when he won a trip to the U.N. for an essay he wrote.
Locke's lecture, "Haiti: Post-Disaster Reconstruction. Sustainability, & Development"
was geared toward a potential future for Haiti, and for those Non Government Organizations (NGOs) and U.N. agencies doing humanitarian work. He said that many NGOs' manners of operating have contributed to problems in Haiti and other developing countries, because they foster a culture of dependency rather than working alongside the poor.
"Collectively we feel like we are anointed by the Divine to transfer money to the rich and give it to the poor," he said of NGOs.
Locke’s own NGO launch was begun with a grant from the Timberland Shoes. At the insistence of Timberland’s chief Jeff Schwartz, funding was contingent upon the farmer’s support program becoming self-reliant. It had to function on its own after Locke was no longer involved. The result was the Haitian-based Smallholder Farmers Alliance, which assisted in motivating small farmers to help plant trees.
Locke said that part of the cycle of devastation that Haiti experiences nearly every year comes through deforestation. Once known as the "Pearl of the Antilles," Haiti went from 60 percent tree coverage in 1915 to 2 percent today. The reason is because Haiti's primary fuel source is charcoal and wood, requiring nearly 30 million trees a year. Without vegetation, mountainsides act like funnels, sending the rain into the valleys and causing soil erosion and crop loss.
|A cohort of students attended three seminars with Locke on rebuilding Haiti before the Gannon Lecture.
To address the problem, Locke said, the United States sent nearly 100 million trees the country that were essentially dropped at farmers' doorsteps with the request that they volunteer to plant them. But without a real economic incentive, there was little likelihood that the farmers would plant them.
He also detailed a 50-year history that encouraged the dissolution of small scale farming in Haiti favor of importing food from U.S. industrial farms. Today Haiti is the fourth largest importer of U.S. rice, even though half of the country’s work force makes a living farming.
In the hope of attracting volunteer tree planters, Locke and his partners began to offer agriculture services in exchange for tree planting. What started with 200 volunteer farmers has grown to 2000 farmers who have planted nearly three million trees over a 40 square mile area.
Initially, the exchange included seeds for the farmers, but once again Locke had to step back and let the farmers take control. Now the farmers have to buy the seed, negotiate the price, and come back to the community to get approval for the purchase.
"Once you take the first layer of oppression off of a community you then create the circumstances for that community to begin to function for the better," he said. "But you have to plan your exit strategy from day one."
To hear the lecture in its entirety listen below.
View the evening's Twitter feed below.
Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to more than 15,100 students in its four undergraduate colleges and its six graduate and professional schools. It has residential campuses in the Bronx and Manhattan, a campus in West Harrison, N.Y., the Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y., and the London Centre at Heythrop College, University of London, in the United Kingdom. | <urn:uuid:9d9b25a9-919f-4612-890f-be61f839e0a3> | {
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Firstly: If you are reading this page you probably have at least a passing general interest in space, and if you do and follow any of the major space news pages at all you have probably have already seen this:
Video above :Comet Lovejoy seen from the ISS. Courtesy of NASA.
But I wouldn't be Human if I didn't put a copy here. It's comet Lovejoy, which recently made a breakneck death plunge into the sun and came out the other side (see last weeks post) ....And now, as if to rub ol' Sols nose in it, it is putting on a truly spectacular display. The video is made of time lapse footage from the international space station, an what better place to watch a comet from?
Image left: Hubble, still exploring the universe.
Secondly: Tentative evidence from the Hubble space telescope suggests that the low temperature processes on Pluto may be forming complex carbon molecules : Remember that molecules of that broad type are thought to be involved in the chemical processes leading to life, so Pluto joins the list of places where nature may be bearing her greatest secrets for us to see. This and the possibility of a subsurface ocean makes the dwarf planet (and similar objects in the Kuiper belt ) more interesting than ever.
Thirdly: NASA has long been hankering after returning a sample of comet to a well equipped lab beneath Earths blue skies. However landing on such a fragile object is problematic at best. So a team at Goddard space centre, led by Joe Nuth, is working on a 'comet harpoon' to spear the icy beasts and bring back subsurface samples without needing to land. It sounds kind of wacky, so NASA have put together a video explaining the concept:
Video above: The 'Comet Harpoon' concept. Video courtesy of NASA/Goddard.
Today is Christmas, a holiday and a time of reflection, so rather than focus on any specific topic I've decided to post some of the thoughts that make asteroid, comet, hell even space dust, science so fascinating for me:
As I’ve written about before, the study of meteorites has opened up a picture of the kinds of worlds that made up our solar system in the years after its birth. The major planets, especially the terrestrial ones, were still growing. This left a lot of smaller bodies ranging in size from chips of rock to things the size of Mars, roaming about the solar system in chaotic orbits. Given the current state of Mars – a hyper arid, bitterly cold desert where even on a good day the hardiest organisms would struggle on the surface – you’d expect these small worlds to be at least as inhospitable. In fact you’d expect most of them to be like our Moon: Totally unsuitable for the kind of chemical processes involved in or leading to life.
Image above: Modern Mars, an environment that challenges the outer bounds of what even ultra hardy extremophiles may be capable of surviving.But was it always this way? Image courtesy of JPL.
But this is where we have to remember that the rules were different in the early solar system. Many bodies, it is now apparent , had enough internal heat form liquid water in the cracks and pores beneath their surfaces. The chief culprits for these heat sources are impacts from smaller bodies, which were many many times more frequent than today, and relatively short lived radioactive isotopes. Internal heat in the Earth and other terrestrial planets today comes, at least in part , from the decay of radioactive materials. Back in the day, in fact back before there were days and nights, many radioactive materials that have now decayed away completely (for example Aluminium 26) were still present. This meant that even places as small as Lutetia could have maintained a molten – or at least semi molten – core. There are other lines of evidence supporting this: Meteorite fragments that show signs of having come from parent bodies with Earth like crusts , fragments that have signs pointing to liquid water percolating through them, ones that show signs of coming from differentiated bodies, and the giant asteroid Vesta which is covered in frozen basaltic lava, a dead giveaway of a geologically active history.
Image right: Meteorite GRA 06129, composed of material similar to Earths continental crust. Image courtesy of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites.
Ok – so these little planetary pre-cursors were warm (in fact some of them were probably as hot and active as Jupiters mon Io for a while). So..... fascinating for geologists, who get to study the geology of worlds hundreds, even tens of thousands, of times smaller than Earth with consummately lower gravity. It makes a fascinating comparison to the Earth itself, tells them something about how the larger rules that govern its geology work, and what materials it was built from. But who else would be interested?
Image above: Io. Only marginally relevant to what I'm talking about but it's just to spectacular to not put an image of up. The volcano blowing its lid in this picture is called Prometheus. Courtesy of NASA/JPL.
Astrobiologists for a start. You see; these little worlds inherited a legacy or two from the primordial cloud that span up to become our solar system: An abundance of water (one of the most abundant compound in the cloud), and organic chemistry . Some of them were so hot these things were baked out of them, but many were merely warm. Some members of the carbonaceous chondrite meteorite family were never heated above 50 degrees Celsius for example.
Now we have the three big things that astrobiologists wet themselves about all together, on not just one small world but many: Water, carbon based (which is referred to as ‘organic’ by chemists) chemistry, and enough heat to melt the water and allow the carbon chemistry to actually do something.
In fact, as the latest evidence from studies of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites shows, these reactions had got quite a way down the road before their host worlds were either destroyed or froze:
In August this year researchers from the University of California published results showing that nucelobases (basic building blocks from which DNA and RNA are made), and similar molecules referred to a nucleobase analoges, were present inside certain carbanceous chondrites.
Now in a way this isn't all that Earth shaking: Fairly complex carbon compounds, includeing amino acids and nucleobases, have been found in meteorites before. But the discovery, in more than one meteorite, of nucleobase anlouges adds credebility to the idea that these molecules are not contamination from terrestrial biology: Terrestrial biology would have left the nucleobases themselves, not the similar-yet-different anolgues. Further evidence comes from the studies the team did to see if any of these compounds were present in the ice or soil near where the meteorite landed - they weren't. Lastly the team did a series of lab experiments involving liquid water, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide. These experiments were aimed to re-create the chemical environment present beneath the surface of the long dead protoplanet that these meteorites came from. These lab tests produced the same mix of nucleobases and their anogues, in the same proportions.
It seems as though these asteroids, long before Earth as we know it existed, were producing the basic chemical building blocks of life. Watch these tiny specks of matter - they may have even bigger surprises in store for us......
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Common name: Sydney blue gum
Eucalyptus saligna Sm. APNI*
Description: Tree to 50 m high; bark smooth, powdery, white or grey, shedding in short ribbons or flakes, sometimes persistent on lower trunk.
Juvenile leaves disjunct, ovate, glossy green to dark green.
Adult leaves disjunct, broad-lanceolate, 10–17 cm long, 2–3 cm wide, dark green, glossy, discolorous, penniveined. Umbellasters 7–11-flowered; peduncle narrowly flattened or angular, 4–18 mm long; pedicels terete, 0–3 mm long. Buds ovoid to cylindrical or fusiform, 5–8 mm long, 3–4 mm diam., scar present; calyptra conical (slightly beaked), as long and as wide as hypanthium.
Fruit cylindrical, pyriform or campanulate, 5–8 mm long, 4–7 mm diam.; disc depressed; valves exserted.
Distribution and occurrence: Widespread and abundant, in wet forest on soils of moderate fertility, often on slopes; north from Port Jackson.
NSW subdivisions: CC, NT, CWS
Other Australian states: Qld
All populations south of Port Jackson show some genetic influence from E. botryoides, typically manifested as a scattering of stomates on the upper surface of the leaves (leaves of E. saligna have the stomates more strictly confined to the lower surface with stomates on the upper surface only along the midrib) and some rough bark. Local introgression of these populations with E. botryoides has also produced a number of more recent hybrid swarms. Plants with the general appearance of E. saligna extend as far south as Batemans Bay, then becoming more like E. botryoides south into East Gippsland in Victoria.
Text by K. Hill
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 2 (1991)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
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Need a break from seeing the latest comic book hero movie, or found-footage horror flick? Learn a little about the behind the scenes efforts of a diverse crowd that help make these movies. Last week for our summer blockbusters series, we featured an excerpt from Lab Coats in Hollywood which explores the relationship between science and the film industry. For our second post we have a Q & A with Moving Innovation author, Tom Sito, a legend in the CGI world.
In what way was the dream of computer animation and its ultimate potential created and pushed along by “outsiders” and artists on the fringes of mainstream Hollywood?
In the early years, graphics was never a major focus of a mainstream computer science programs, except perhaps for demonstration purposes. Computer animation began as the projects of experimental filmmakers, gifted students and scientists with time on their hands. The pioneers of the medium can be categorized into two types: (1) The engineer scientist who longed to be an artist; and (2) the artist who sought to create in other than traditional means. Since the 1940s, these people labored at night or on down time, scrounged for funding, and shared information on their breakthroughs. Computer animation pioneer John Whitney Sr said, “We were outsiders, inside Hollywood.”
Your book centers on how drastically computer animation altered the movie industry. How resistant was Hollywood and its studio executives to computer animation initially?
At first the movie industry felt computer animation was too expensive, too complicated, and yielded results often below their expectations. Digital missionaries like John Whitney and Ivan Sutherland would make the rounds of studios trying to interest them. But more often than not they spent their time fruitlessly sitting in waiting rooms. CG production houses were advised not to use the words “computer” or “digital” in their sales pitches, because of the immediate negative connotation. For some studios it was easier and cheaper to buy a CG student film, like Ed Catmull’s thesis Computer Animated Hand (1972), and optically insert it into a movie, than actually create new animation.
How much has the film industry’s growth and evolution simply been driven by the emergence of new technology, such as computer animation?
Hollywood has periodically had revolutions that turned over its established way of doing things. In 1928 with sound technology, in 1948 with television and magnetic tape recording. In the 1990s with computer generated imaging. In each case fortunes are made and lost, power bases crumble and new ones rise, old production methods yield to new ones. This is as much a Hollywood tradition as the Chinese chicken salad lunch meeting.
In what ways did the U.S. government contribute to the growth of computer animation?
The important formative work creating the basic tools of computer animation occurred at a time when Hollywood was in financial decline, the late 1950s and 1960s. This coincided with the period of the Cold War, when the US government engaged in open-ended spending on research projects to compete technologically with the Soviet Union. Among the Defense Department’s priorities was computer graphics for simulations, both for training purposes as well as research films. In a flight simulator for an advanced supersonic aircraft, when the pilot turned his controls, the virtual landscape on his screen had to move in real time in accordance with his commands. This necessitated instantaneous computations on a very advanced level, what was called then “virtual reality”. The first wireframe constructs of people and devices were created in government labs. The term “Computer Graphic Imaging” (CGI) was coined by an engineer at Boeing working on ergonomically structured cockpit seats for jet fighters.
In the build-down after the Vietnam War in 1973, much of this research and the researchers themselves moved into the private sector.
What films were most pivotal in leading to the mainstream acceptance of CGI?
The turn in the public’s acceptance in digital filmmaking, what we now refer to as the Digital Revolution in Hollywood, occurred in the early 1990s with three films. Terminator II: Judgement Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), and Toy Story (1995). The effects created for Terminator and Jurassic were so breathtakingly real, as to be indiscernible with flesh and blood figures. Toy Story established that computers weren’t only good for making killer cyborgs, but could create warm, and loveable Disney-style characters. Before these three films, the idea of making a movie with computers seemed ridiculous. After these movies, the idea of doing a movie without computers seemed equally ridiculous. This year (2013) Hollywood is completing it’s transition to digital by shutting down the last producers of celluloid film. It marks the end of a way of making movies for over a century.
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Blogs We Like
Books, news, and ideas from MIT Press
The MIT PressLog is the official blog of MIT Press. Founded in 2005, the Log chronicles news about MIT Press authors and books. The MIT PressLog also serves as forum for our authors to discuss issues related to their books and scholarship. Views expressed by guest contributors to the blog do not necessarily represent those of MIT Press. | <urn:uuid:cfb89426-15dc-4407-ac69-27ed57a3dcd2> | {
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Welcome to a new series on the wildly popular JosephSangl.com! In this series, I will be sharing what I believe are Fundamental Rules Of Money Management. I look forward to reading your thoughts on this topic!
Rule #1 Make hay while the sun shines.
I was raised on a farm in Indiana, and one thing we learned was that we needed to make hay while the sun was shining. We knew that a time of famine was coming (winter) when there would be no fresh food to feed the livestock. This made it imperative that we cut the grass, dry it in the sun, bale it, and store it WHILE IT WAS AVAILABLE.
How does this relate to finances? I see some key similarities:
- There will almost always be a time of famine The job lay-off, an unexpected pay-cut, an unanticipated healthcare issue, or increased expenses can lead to financial famine – especially if one has not saved for such a famine.
- When you cut hay, more will grow to replace it If the grass is not cut, it will mature and die off. It will also prevent additional growth. If you cut the hay, it stimulates new growth. The same is true for finances. If you save some, it will lead to new financial growth!
- When you have plenty of hay saved up, it leads to confidence When you have an emergency fund of money saved up, it can help you take a few risks and not jeopardize your entire financial situation. You can absorb some costly expenses.
When you are in a period where you are making excellent money and life is good, it is time to save and store up for the future. Make hay while the sun shines. | <urn:uuid:f887aee9-6e1c-4af8-9371-4e4e197f8dd1> | {
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In a legal sense, adoption is an act by which a person, with the cooperation of the public authority, selects for his child one who does not belong to him. In Roman law adrogatio was the name given to the adoption of one already of full age ( sui juris ); datio in adoptionem , when one was given in adoption by one having control or power over him. The adoption was full ( plena ) if the adopting father was a relative in an ascending scale of the one adopted; less full ( minus plena ) if there was no such natural tie. Perfect adoption placed the adopted under the control of the adopter, whose name was taken, and the adopted was made necessary heir. The adoption was less perfect which constituted the adopted necessary heir, in case the adopter should die without a will. The rule was that a man, not a woman, could adopt; that the adopter should be at least 18 years older than the adopted; that the adopter should be of full age, and older than 25 years. In Athens the power of adoption was allowed to all citizens of sound mind. Adoption was very frequent among the Greeks and Romans, and the custom was very strictly regulated in their laws.
The Church made its own the Roman law of adoption, with its legal consequences. Pope Nicholas I (858-867) spoke of this law as venerable, when inculcating its observance upon the Bulgarians. Hence adoption, under the title cognatio legalis , or "legal relationship ", was recognized by the Church as a diriment impediment of marriage. This legal relationship sprang from its resemblance to the natural relationship (and made a bar to marriage):
- civil paternity between the adopter and the adopted, and the latter's legitimate natural children, even after the dissolution of the adoption;
- civil brotherhood between the adopted and the legitimate natural children of the adopter, until the adoption was dissolved, or the natural children were placed under their own control ( sui juris );
- affinity arising from the tie of adoption between the adopted and the adopter's wife, and between the adopter and the adopted's wife. This was not removed by the dissolution of the adoption.
The Church recognized in the intimacy consequent upon these legal relations ample grounds for placing a bar on the hope
of marriage, out of respect for public propriety, and to safeguard the morals of those brought into such close relations. The Code of Justinian modified the older Roman law
by determining that the rights derived from the natural parentage were not lost by adoption
by a stranger. This gave rise to another distinction between perfect and imperfect adoption. But as the modification of Justinian made no change in the customary intimacy brought about by the adoption, so the Church at no time
expressly recognized any distinction between the perfect and less perfect adoption
as a bar to marriage. There arose, however, among canonists a controversy on this subject, some contending that only the perfect adoption
was a diriment impediment to marriage. Benedict XIV (De Syn. Dioec., I, x, 5) tells of this discussion and, while giving no positive decision, lays down the principle that all controversies must be decided in this matter
in accord with the substantial sanctions of the Roman law. This is a key to the practical question which today arises from the more or less serious modifications which the Roman, or Civil, law
has undergone in almost all the countries where it held sway, and hence flows the consequent doubt, at times, whether this diriment impediment of legal relationship
still exists in the eyes of the Church. Wherever the substantial elements of the Roman law
are retained in the new codes, the Church recognizes this relationship
as a diriment impediment in accord with the principle laid down by Benedict XIV. This is thoroughly recognized by the Congregation of the Holy Office in its positive decision with regard to the Code of the Neapolitan Kingdom (23 February, 1853). In Great Britain and the United States legal adoption, in the sense of the Roman law, is not recognised. Adoption
is regulated in the United States by State statutes ; generally it is accomplished by mutual obligations assumed in the manner prescribed by law. It is usually brought before the county clerk, as in Texas, or before the probate judges, as in New Jersey. In such cases the relation of parent and child is established; but the main purpose is to entitle the adopted to the rights and privileges of a legal heir. Adoption, or contract
by private authority, or under private arrangements, is not recognized by the Church as productive of this legal relationship. The Congregation of the Holy Office (16 April, 1761) had occasion to make this declaration with regard to it, as customary among the Bulgarians. Hence, generally in the United States adoption
is not a diriment impediment to marriage, nor in the eyes of the Church in any way preventive of it. A different view is taken by the Roman Congregations of the Holy Office and of the Sacred Penitentiary of adoption
as recognised in other countries which have retained the substantial elements of the Roman law
establishing this relationship. The French Code (art. 383) decides that the adopted will
remain with his natural family
and preserve all his rights, but it enforces the prohibitions of marriage as in the Roman law. Hence the Congregation of the Penitentiary decided (17 May, 1826) that if the adoption
took place in accordance with the French law, it involved the canonical diriment impediment of marriage. In Germany, by the new law
taking effect in 1900, there is prescribed the procedure by which adoption
is effected, and by which the adopted passes into the family
of the adopter, losing the rights coming from his natural family. In Germany, however, many subtile distinctions have been engrafted upon this adoption. The restrictions of the relationship
by the German law
are not, however, accepted by the Church. When adoption
is in accord with the substantial elements of the Roman law, as in the case of the German code, in the eyes of the Church it carries with it all the restrictions in the matter
of marriage accepted by the Church from the Roman law. Thus, by the German law, the wife of the adopter is not united by affinity to the adopted, nor the adopter to the adopted's wife. But the Church still recognises this affinity to hold even in Germany. The Austrian Code has almost the same prescriptions as the German. When there is a reasonable doubt
or difference of opinion among canonists or theologians upon the fact of legal relationship, the safe rule is to ask for a dispensation. In the Legislature of Quebec, a few years ago, an attempt was made to introduce into the Civil Code the almost identical principles of the Napoleonic Code for adoption, but the proposal was rejected by the Chamber. The Church authorities in Canada
do not recognise that any impediment to marriage arises from whatever private arrangements of adoption
may be there recognized.
The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.
Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.
No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.
Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912
Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online | <urn:uuid:8704d982-0819-4543-8047-a6a3fb3b6902> | {
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Below is an overview of some of the intellectually, socially, and emotionally enriching projects that honors students in our college’s Honors Enrichment Program (HEP) engage in. The list is broken down by discipline and/or course and is intended to provide a small sample, rather than an exhaustive list, of the opportunities available to Honors students in these disciplines:
For some sections of Cultural Anthropology (ANTH 102H) or Physical Anthropology (ANTH 101H), Honors students are expected to complete a large research project devoted to a major topic in anthropology. The students prepare an annotated bibliography and present an in-class oral presentation. If the topic and number of students allow, this presentation can take the form of a debate or a panel. Topics in the past have included a critique of Darkness in El Dorado, an examination of the Mead-Freeman debate concerning the nature versus nurture debate, an examination of the biological concept of race, and an examination of whether or not humans are inherently violent.
Honors students in Art History (ART 102H and ART 103H) conduct a museum-based research project on a particular topic in art. For example, students may have to select a single work of art in the collection of a Los Angeles area museum and then perform in-depth research about every aspect possible of its background and importance. Another assignment might include researching German printmaking at the Gore Rifkind study center of the LA County Museum of Art. In the process of the course, students gain access to many priceless artworks, as well as the assistance of the center’s staff.
Honors students in the Topics in Biology course (BIOL 115H) develop a testable hypothesis on a subject in biology that has larger implications. They research the topic using peer-reviewed, scientific journals. They then design a controlled experiment to test that hypothesis and carry the experiment out to determine if their hypothesis is supported. Finally, they analyze their data using statistical measures, develop appropriate tables and figures, and write up their study in the format of a manuscript for submission into a biological journal. They also present their study on PowerPoint to the non-honors students. Past topics have included testing the effects of the addition of acidic substances to soil on the growth of native plants (the larger implication being the effects of acid rain on vegetation and biodiversity) and testing the effects of constant exposure to different kinds of music on growth and learning in mice (the larger implication being the effects of hard rock on learning in teenage humans).
Honors students in various English classes (such as ENGL 220H: Analysis of Fiction and ENGL 280H: Multiethnic Literature) are expected to read an additional full-length novel or text and write an extended analytical paper. The students also have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with the professor in order to make their understanding of the text more concrete. In other English courses, such as ENGL 106: Introduction to Literature, honors students work on a group project where they analyze a text or novel, meeting with the professor several times over the course of the semester for discussions. In addition, they write a research paper and conduct peer reviews of their paper.
Honors students in Introduction to Environmental Science (ENVS101H) are asked to do a literature review on a controversial topic in environmental science, using at least fifteen peer-reviewed, scientific journal articles. Honors students in the same section are encouraged to work together on the project as co-authors. They are asked to objectively weigh the scientific evidence on both sides of the scientific debate, draw a conclusion from their studies as to which argument most studies they reviewed support, and then write the literature review in the format of a manuscript that could be submitted for publication in an environmental science journal. Topics that have been done in the past have included a review on perchlorate contamination in the Colorado River and a review on the scientific debate over the ultimate cause of global climate change. At the end of the semester, the students turn in their report and present what they did in a PowerPoint presentation to the non-Honors students.
In the honors humanities course (Introduction to the Humanities to 1500), students are expected to complete a research project on a piece of architecture that includes a paper and a presentation, along with a monthly seminar that refers to additional readings.
Honors Enrichment Program 200: The Honors Seminar
The multidisciplinary Honors Seminar is the heart of our Honors Program, the central constituent of the 15 units required for graduation as an honors student. The topic, as well as the faculty who participate, change each semester, creating a dynamic and fluid learning experience each time the course is taught. Students who have taken it say it has helped them in all their other classes and given them an appreciation and understanding of their world around them.
Honors students in MATH 105H have the opportunity to use a graphing calculator to solve various mathematical problems, such as using the linear regression option to find the line of best fit, finding the determinant and inverse of a matrix, or graphing polynomial functions.
Honors students in Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 101H) complete a series of three projects related to psychology research. The first project involves the development and completion of simple research techniques, such as developing an experiment or survey. The second project involves the implementation of some type of learning theory on an experimental group (such as a student’s dog or spouse). The third project is a class presentation on a topic of their choice.
In philosophy courses, honors students participate in a monthly seminar on a reading of importance in philosophy and complete a critical paper or class presentation. | <urn:uuid:52120c3a-5a75-4f0a-b909-3ed734cbb03f> | {
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The death indexes for England and Wales between 1837 and 2005 will help you get hold of death certificates for ancestors who died during this period. Finding out the circumstances of their death may also tell you more about how they lived.
If you’re looking for deaths between 1837 and 1915, search the FreeBMD collections – there’s a separate transcription of these indexes from 1916-2005. However, they’re both in the same place on our site and easy to find.
Relatively few deaths are missing from the registers, even though registration wasn’t compulsory until 1875. The main reason people have difficulty finding a death record is they have inaccurate date or location information. Deaths before 1837 in the United Kingdom should be found in parish register burials, so try searching our parish records collections.
Death indexes include the surname, first name, the year and quarter the event was recorded in, the registration district and the volume and page number where the death certificate information is recorded at the General Register Office. After 1866, the age at death is also listed, helping you work out the person’s year of birth. Be careful, though – the age shown may have been estimated by whoever reported the death, and they may not have accurately known the person’s age.
Using the information in the indexes, you can order a certificate that will tell you their name, age, sex, date and place of death, occupation, cause of death, and the date of registration. You can order the certificate through Ancestry.co.uk by clicking the trolley icon on the left when viewing the transcription. | <urn:uuid:439f2a46-5e35-418a-bfae-36a8bdabc6e6> | {
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National Awareness Campaign Urges Pregnant Women To Take Simple Steps to Reduce Baby's Exposure
Released: 5/29/2014 9:00 PM EDT
Source Newsroom: Grassroots Environmental Education
There is a short video at the original website and also at Baby Safe Project Org.
The BabySafe Project is promoting ten simple steps women can take to limit their exposure to wireless radiation:
1. Avoid carrying your cell phone on your body (e.g. in a pocket or bra).
2. Avoid holding any wireless device against your body when in use.
3. Use your cell phone on speaker setting or with an “air tube” headset.
4. Avoid using your wireless device in cars, trains or elevators.
5. Avoid cordless phones, especially where you sleep.
6. Whenever possible, connect to the internet with wired cables.
7. When using Wi-Fi, connect only to download, then disconnect and disable Wi-Fi.
8. Avoid prolonged or direct exposure to nearby Wi-Fi routers.
9. Unplug your home Wi-Fi router when not in use (e.g. at bedtime).
10. Sleep as far away from wireless utility meters (i.e. “smart” meters) as possible.
"We believe all pregnant women should be made aware of this research on wireless radiation risks,” says Patricia Wood, a Visiting Scholar at Adelphi University and Executive Director of Grassroots Environmental Education. "More research is needed to determine exactly how the developing brain is affected, but in the meantime, we certainly have enough evidence of potential harm to recommend taking simple, common-sense precautions."
“There’s essentially no downside to being cautious and protecting your baby," says Dr. Hugh Taylor, Chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale University School of Medicine, who recently authored a study showing significant behavioral changes in the offspring of mice exposed to cell phone radiation during pregnancy. "We have demonstrated clear cause and effect relationships in mice, and we already have studies showing that women who use cell phones have children with more behavioral problems. I think together that's very powerful evidence."
"As a public health expert, I am deeply concerned about the experiment we are conducting on our pregnant women and young children today,” says Dr. Devra Lee Davis, author of numerous books on wireless radiation and human health, and founder of the Environmental Health Trust. "We cannot afford to treat this generation as experiments in a subject with no controls. We’ve got to be smarter. "
"Pregnant women deserve to know that wireless radiation can have an impact on the developing brain," says Dr. Maya Shetreat-Klein, a pediatric neurologist practicing in New York. "We're seeing alarming increases in the number of children diagnosed with neurological disorders over the past decade, and anything we can do that might help reduce that rate should be taken very seriously."
Wireless radiation is part of a growing list of environmental exposures thought to interfere with normal fetal brain development, with implications that include impaired communication skills, learning deficits and behavioral problems.
"When you have an environmental exposure that disrupts brain cell connections, a number of things can happen," says Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a pediatrician at the NYU Langone School of Medicine and professor of Environmental Medicine at the Wagner School of Public Service. "Nerve cells may not communicate the way they should, or maybe the wrong connection is sent to the wrong cell. And as a result there can be permanent changes in the electrical wiring of the brain that can have consequences all across the entire lifespan."
A Joint Statement on Pregnancy and Wireless Radiation advocating precaution and research has been endorsed by scientists and medical professionals from around the world. The statement calls for women to be informed about the risks of exposure to wireless radiation, and to take precautionary steps while more research is conducted.
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The Meaning Of Redemption
We were created so that we can be redeemed. More accurately put, we were created so that we could attain redemption. That means that we all have a need to be redeemed regardless of when we have lived and what we have done in our life times. From the most evil to the most righteous, we all need to be redeemed. We were all created to be redeemed.
No one else is going to redeem us; it is up to us to get redeemed. In fact, there has never been redemption where someone redeemed someone else. If the redeemed was not independently deserving of redemption they would not have been redeemed. There is no free ticket or lunch on the redemption ride.
There is always someone or some others who are pivotal to the process of redemption. The Jews did not get out of Egypt on their own. They were redeemed through the good offices of Moshe and Aharon. Moshe and Aharon acted as the mechanism for freedom; however, the Jews were redeemed because of themselves, not because of Moshe and Aharon.
Throughout the period of the Shoftim (Judges) the roller coaster of our relationship with G-d was more than eventful. We sinned, G-d sent an enemy against us, we cried out to G-d to save us, He sent a savior. In each instance there was a person who acted in the capacity of savior; but the Jews would not have been saved if they themselves had not been worthy.
What do I mean by worthiness? Worthiness is an equation made up of ancestral merits (Zechus Avos) personal merits, and future potential. Just as Hashem (G-d) said to Moshe Rabbeinu at the Burning Bush, “The proof that it is I (G-d) Who has sent you to save the Jews will be when you bring them to this mountain to serve Me.” “You might not understand why the Jews merit to be saved but I am not asking you. I am telling you to be the medium of their redemption because they have the courage and the conviction to willingly accept My Torah. (See Rashi) I am saving them because of who they will be, not necessarily who they are right now.”
Redemption has always been up to us and us alone. We do not believe that believing in anyone else, alive or dead, equates with redemption. We must accept that our redemption is a reflection of our deservedness based upon the factors of ancestral, personal, and future merit (including repentance and change).
What does it mean that we were created to be redeemed?
The Medresh 1:4 states, “Six things were created before creation. Some of them were actually created and others G-d had in mind to create before He actually created creation. (In other words, the intent to create them predated creation itself. Meaning, they were not the outcome of circumstance and time; they were the reasons for circumstance and time.) The Torah and the Celestial Throne were created before creation. The Forefathers, Jewish People, Bais Hamikdash, and the name of Mashiach were the intentions that predated creation.” (Meaning, they were the reason for creation.)
Our understanding of Mashiach (the Anointed – the Messiah) is that because of our sins we were exiled from our land and dispersed across the face of the earth. This exile has put the Jewish nation at the mercy of countless despots, criminals, and foreign powers that chose to persecute us and make our lives miserable. At some point in history, the Jewish people will have suffered enough, or gained sufficient merits to be released from the generations of enslavement and persecution and return to Eretz Yisroel (the Land of Israel). To accomplish this, G-d will send the Mashiach to gather in the exiled, rebuild the sovereign majesty of the kingdom, and create world peace.
For all intents and purposes, Mashiach is Plan B. It would have been far better if we had never sinned so grievously as to deserve exile and subsequent pain and suffering. It would have been far better is we would have never left the Promised Land and if the Temple had never been destroyed. We should not have needed a redeemer or savior!
The Medresh implies differently. The Medresh says that the name of Mashiach was among those things that were intended by G-d before He created creation. That Mashiach is one of the fundamental reasons why G-d created the universe to begin with. Mashiach was not Plan B if and when plan A failed. Mashiach is and was Plan A! It was always intended that humanity would require redemption! That means we were created in order to be redeemed!
Rashi (1:2) references the verse in 2:4 and the Gemara in Menachos and Berachos that explains the dual names, “Elokim” and “Hashem.” “Elokim” denotes G-d in His capacity to be judicious and “Hashem” denotes G-d in His capacity to be merciful. As we have explained in past essays, merciful means granting humanity the gift of Teshuvah – repentance. On the other hand, judicious means granting the exact consequence demanded by a given action; meaning, no sin will go unpunished and no good deed will go unrewarded. The Gemara informs us that all good deeds will receive their just reward while a sin may not receive its just punishment. If the sinner repents the punishment is voided or minimized.
The Gemara tells us that at first G-d intended to establish the universe on the basis of justice. When He realized that humanity would never survive their failings and inevitable consequences He changed His mind and established the universe on the basis of mercy.
Whatever it means that G-d first thought one thing and then changed His mind (given that G-d knows everything, cannot make a mistake, and has no cause to ever “change His mind”) it is clear that creation assumed human failing and the need for redemption and salvation!
In the record of the creation of Adam (the first human being comprised of both male and female), Rashi (2:7) references the Medresh Tanchumah that identifies the source of the dirt used to form Adam. “G-d gathered the dirt from the place where the Mizbeach (the alter on the Temple mount) would one day be erected. It is as if G-d was saying, ‘If only Adam will find forgiveness and be able to survive!” (The Mizbeach was a key component in seeking forgiveness through the medium of sacrifice.)
Whatever the Medresh means it is clear that from his inception Adam was assumed to need “forgiveness” in order to survive. In other words, humanity would have to have the mechanism of forgiveness (mercy) in order to survive their own failings and avoid the destruction that would otherwise be their punishment. That means that we were created to need and seek redemption
What does that really mean?
What is redemption? I would like to suggest that the first “story” recorded in the Torah, the story of Adam and Chava in Gan Eden, their encounter with the Nachash (serpent) and their sin, defines the meaning of redemption. Once we appreciate the meaning of redemption we will better understand why we were created to seek it and attain it.
In the beginning, at the moment of their inception when Adam and Chava radiated their pristine purity of purpose (the Laiv Tahor and Ruach Nachon) the Torah describes them as, (2:25) “They were both naked and they were not ashamed.” Rashi references the Medresh that states, “They did not know to be modest which distinguishes between good and evil. They did not have an evil inclination until they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”
The meaning of evil is the imposition of a value and purpose that is removed from G-d’s reason for having formed that creation. As new creations fashioned by the hand of G-d Himself, they did not know any other purpose except that which G-d dictated and established for them. As such, their bodies were tools fashioned by the Creator for the purpose and reasons revealed and yet to be revealed by the Creator. The notion of prurient desires that are self-serving and self-gratifying did not yet exist; therefore, their being unclothed could not have any “evil” value.
The idea of Tzniut (modesty), allows us to proclaim in deed and attitude the understanding that our physical beings have the potential to be used in the service of Hashem or in sole service to ourselves. The way we distinguish between the two is by being modest or immodest. Adam and Chava had no need to distinguish between good and evil because there was only good. Evil did not yet exist; therefore, modesty as we know it did not exist either.
Once they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, (3:7) Adam and Chava immediately realized that they were naked and they quickly sought ways to cover themselves. “They sewed together fig leafs and they made themselves aprons.”
From the moment that Adam and Chava sinned and the evil inclination was released they needed to seek redemption. That redemption was a return to the pristine purity of their inception. That pristine purity was the absolute acceptance of G-d’s word as to the meaning and purpose of their creation and existence. Redemption is therefore the absolute acceptance of Hashem’s word. Redemption is the acceptance that the only true value is G-d’s intention for creating the universe, in whole and in part.
To be continued…
In the beginning G-d created separate and different creations. Each of these separate and different creations had its own assigned purpose in being created, and it is the universal responsibility of all creations to protect each others divinely ordained right to accomplish their individualized missions. If a creation hinders or interferes with another creation’s purpose for being created, the interfering creation is opposing the established order of the Creator and His purpose in creating that specific creation.
The Creator provides all the necessary qualities and tools for each separate and different creation to exist and attain its reason for being created. Individual talents, rights, and ownership are the tools for accomplishing the Creator’s purpose in creating separate and different creations. The need to protect these individual rights and qualities is as evident in the proper functioning of the complex ecosystem of our world as it is in the proper functioning of any human society. We must therefore conserve the natural resources of our world and cherish the right of all people to have what is theirs and be who they can be.
This mandate of “Intentionally Created Speciation” is a universal truth as stated throughout Parshas Bereshis. It began with the six days during which G-d created all things as separate and different, and concluded with the creation of man, woman, and Shabbos as the most different and the most glorious of all creation. It is our responsibility to embrace the reality of “Speciation” and acknowledge through our actions the Creator and His purpose for creation.
The author is the Rabbi of Shaarey Zedek Congregation, Valley Village, CA, and Assistant Principal of YULA. | <urn:uuid:1eed7f1b-94f9-41c0-a922-03c96408182f> | {
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Flora and Fauna of South Luangwa
Vegetation of South Luangwa
To understand the Luangwa Valley's vegetation, the base of its productive ecosystem, consider the elements that combine to nurture its plants: the water, light, heat and nutrients. The rainfall in the valley is typically 800 to 1,100mm per annum – which is moderate, but easily sufficient for strong vegetation growth. Occupying a position between 12° and 14° south of the equator, the valley lacks neither light nor heat. (Visit in October and you may feel that it has too much of both.)
However the key to its vegetation lies in the nutrients. The Luangwa's soils, being volcanic in origin, are rich in minerals, and the sediments laid down by the river are fine, making excellent soils. Thus with abundant water, light, heat and nutrient-rich soils, the valley's vegetation has thrived: it is both lush and diverse.
Unlike many parks, the 'bush' in the Luangwa is very variable, and as you drive or walk you'll pass through a patchwork of different vegetation zones with the more obvious including some beautiful mature forests of 'cathedral mopane'. Just outside the national park on the way to the salt pans (south of Mfuwe) is one area where the mopane are particularly tall.
Along the Luangwa's tributaries, which are just rivers of sand for most of the year, you'll find lush riverine vegetation dominated by giant red mahogany trees, Khaya nyasica
(Now known as Khaya anthotheca
) and Adina microsephala
. Sometimes you'll also find Natal mahoganies, Trichilia emetica
, and African ebony trees, Diospyros mespiliformis
. There are several locations in the park where the latter form dense groves, casting a heavy shade on the sparse undergrowth. Look for such groves where the tributaries meet the Luangwa; there's one beside Mchenja Camp.
Elsewhere are large, open grassland plains. Chief amongst these are probably the plains in the Nsefu Sector. These surround some natural salt springs, which attract crowned cranes in their thousands. | <urn:uuid:31b727d6-8d90-4ade-bd2d-39c535c08beb> | {
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The hero of Owen Wister's The Virginian argues that the US Declaration of Independence's statement that "all men are created equal"
is a great big bluff. It's easy called. [...] Wait, and let me say what I mean." He had made an imperious gesture with his hand. "[...] I know a man that works hard and he's gettin' rich, and I know another that works hard and is gettin' poor. He says it is his luck. All right. Call it his luck. I look around and I see folks movin' up or movin' down, winners or losers everywhere. All luck, of course. But since folks can be born that different in their luck, where's your equality? No, seh! call your failure luck, or call it laziness, wander around the words, prospect all yu' mind to, and yu'll come out the same old trail of inequality." (Chapter 12)
The narratorial voice then takes up the theme, explaining that when all men were declared equal, what was truly meant was that all men were to be granted equality of opportunity so that all those who enjoyed economic success could henceforth be assumed to have done so on the basis of their own merit and, consequently, be deemed to be better than those who were unsuccessful:
we decreed that every man should thenceforth have equal liberty to find his own level. By this very decree we acknowledged and gave freedom to true aristocracy, saying, "Let the best man win, whoever he is." Let the best man win! That is America's word. That is true democracy. (The Virginian Chapter 13)
As William R. Handley notes, "Wister omits his belief that only Anglo-Saxon men need sign up for the contest" (68) but it is noticeable that in The Virginian a party of Native Americans and, later, a Hispanic, attempt to kill the Anglo-Saxon hero and fail: he triumphs and they either die or are confined to a reservation.
In Wister's hierarchical vision of humanity, inequality also arises from differences in intellectual abilities; the Virginian is ingenious and able to plan ahead whereas Shorty is easily tricked and resembles "a yellow dog that is lost, and fancies each newcomer in sight is going to turn out his master" (Chapter 14). Whereas the handsome Virginian "succeeds in climbing the ladder of social and economic mobility and winning the hand of the aristocratic but not-so-wealthy schoolmarm" (Stoeltje 249), Shorty is a dupe who loses his most prized possession, turns to crime and is eventually shot dead by someone he trusted.
I would like to suggest that "poor stupid Shorty" whose "honesty had not been proof against frontier temptations" (Chapter 30) is a character with what in those days would have been classified as a "feeble mind" and in ours would be said to have learning difficulties or an intellectual disability. The Virginian describes him as a "Poor fool!" (Chapter 23) and adds that "he will never get wise. It was too late for him to get wise when he was born" (Chapter 23).
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was thought that the feeble minded were prone to being led into criminality, as Shorty is. For instance, in 1886 Catharine Brown wrote that
we have not yet been able to strengthen the will nor develop the moral nature to a degree that can enable the great majority of the feeble-minded as they pass from our schools, to cope single-handed with the evil there is in the world. The man of weak intellect ... will deteriorate till his last state be worse than the first. Because he has been lifted up a little way he has more temptation, is the better fitted to become the tool of the designing, the cat's-paw of the criminal. (Trent 84)
This is exactly what happens to Shorty. He is initially sheltered to some extent by the Virginian: "it's me that has kept Shorty out of harm's way this long. If I had fired Trampas, he'd have worked Shorty into dissatisfaction that much sooner" (Chapter 23). Having been worked on by "the designing" Trampas, Shorty is destined, as the Virginian correctly predicts, to be
"[...] a handy tool some day."
"Not very handy," said Scipio.
"Well, Trampas is aimin' to train him. Yu' see, supposin' yu' were figuring to turn professional thief--yu'd be lookin' around for a nice young trustful accomplice to take all the punishment and let you take the rest." (Chapter 23)
Shorty will, in other words, become a feeble-minded "cat's paw of the criminal" as, indeed, he has been in the past:
when he was eighteen he got to be help to a grocery man. But a girl he ran with kept taking all his pay and teasing him for more, and so one day the grocery man caught Shorty robbing his till, and fired him. There wasn't no one to tell good-by to, for the girl had to go to the country to see her aunt, she said. So Shorty hung around the store and kissed the grocery cat good-by. He'd been used to feeding the cat, and she'd sit in his lap and purr, he told me. He sends money back to that girl now. (Chapter 31)
Handley, William R. Marriage, Violence, and the Nation in the American Literary West. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002.
Stoeltje, Beverly J. "Making the Frontier Myth: Folklore Process in a Modern Nation." Western Folklore 46.4 (1987): 235-53.
Trent, James W. Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Mental Retardation in the United States. Berkeley: U of California P, 1994.
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The Roman Forum, known as Forum Romanum in Latin, was a site located at the center of the ancient city of Rome and the location of important religious, political and social activities. Historians believe people first began publicly meeting in the open-air Forum around 500 B.C., when the Roman Republic was founded. The rectangular-shaped area, sited on low-lying land between Palatine Hill and Capitoline Hill, was home to many of the ancient city’s most impressive temples and monuments. Today, the Roman Forum is one of the most famous tourist sites in the world, attracting more than 4.5 million visitors annually.
Forum’s Early History
According to a widely accepted legend, ancient Rome was founded by brothers Romulus and Remus in 753 B.C. After a rising conflict, Romulus killed Remus, became king and named Rome after himself.
The traditional story also credits Romulus with starting an alliance with his rival, Titus Tatius, and making the site of the Roman Forum a neutral meeting zone.
At first, the Forum essentially served as a marketplace for day-to-day shopping. Over time, it became much more versatile and functional, as public affairs were held in the area.
Historians estimate that the rise of public events in the Roman Forum first took place around 500 B.C., when the Roman Republic started.
The Forum gradually developed, progressed and expanded over many centuries. Statues, arches, basilicas and other buildings were constructed to accommodate the gatherings.
Around the reign of Julius Caesar, the Forum became overcrowded. Caesar is credited with building a new forum, off to the side of the original, to offer more space. Later, the Emperor Augustus also added on to the area.
Roman Forum Functions
The Forum was considered the heart of Rome. While there were many other forums in ancient Rome, the Roman Forum was the most significant.
It was a multi-purpose site that accommodated various functions. Events taking place in the Forum included:
- Public speeches
- Criminal trials
- Gladiator matches (before the Colosseum was built)
- Social gatherings
- Business dealings
- Public meetings
- Religious ceremonies
- Educational events
- Buying, selling and trading of items
Important Sites in the Forum
Several important buildings, statues and monuments were located in the Forum. Some temples were built to honor men, and others were dedicated to gods or goddesses.
Some of the most well-known structures in the Roman Forum include:
Senate House: The senate house, known as the “Curia,” served as the council house for the Roman Senate and a site for various political events. It was rebuilt several times, and in the 7th century, the Curia was converted into a church.
Temple of Saturn: The first Temple of Saturn was built around 498 B.C. and is considered one of the earliest temples in the Roman Forum. But it was rebuilt years later, and the current ruins date back to roughly 42 B.C. This building was dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and was used as a treasury—where Rome’s money was managed and kept.
Arch of Titus: This first-century arch was constructed in 81 A.D. by the Emperor Domitian to honor his brother, emperor Titus, who was victorious in the Siege of Jerusalem.
Temple of Vesta: The Temple of Vesta was a circular-shaped temple that was dedicated to Vesta, the goddess of hearth, home and family.
The Rostra: The Rostra was a platform that people could stand on to give speeches.
Temple of Castor and Pollux: Historians believe this temple was completed in about 484 B.C. It was dedicated to the Roman twin demi-gods, Castor and Pollux, and underwent several construction phases.
The Sacra Via: This was the main road that ran through the Roman Forum and connected the various important sites. This famous street also stretched to the Colosseum, which was within walking distance of the Forum. It primarily served as a pathway for ceremonies and processions.
Roman Architecture and Art
The Roman Forum was reconstructed many times during its existence. This allowed for various forms of architecture from different eras to merge together. Influence from each period can be seen in the design and construction of the buildings.
Roman architects were greatly influenced by classical Greek designs. But, the Romans also created their own signature structures, such as basilicas, triumphal arches, domes, Roman baths and amphitheaters. Materials ranged from concrete to magnificent marble.
The Roman Forum, and the ruins themselves, also served as a source of inspiration for artists. The famous Giambattista Piranesi, an Italian artist who lived during the 1700s, was known for creating a set of etchings that depicted views of Rome.
Sites in the Forum are also mentioned in historic literature: ancient Rome was, for example, the setting for several of William Shakespeare’s works.
Decline of the Roman Forum
Over time, many economic and political events began to take place in more elaborate structures to the north of the Forum.
The last major expansion to the Roman Forum, the Basilica of Maxentius, took place during the reign of Constantine in 312 A.D.
But most of the ancient buildings and sites in the Roman Forum were destroyed in 410 A.D., around the time that the entire Roman Empire began to fall.
During the Middle Ages, the land that was once the great Roman Forum was reduced to a pasture for grazing animals. The area became known as “Campo Vaccino,” or “cattle field” and was essentially an overgrown, neglected field.
Excavating the Forum
The Roman Forum was “rediscovered” by archeologist Carlo Fea in 1803.
Excavations to clear the area took over 100 years. In fact, it wasn’t fully excavated until the early 20th century.
Because the Romans built over earlier ruins, the remains from several centuries can be found in the Forum.
Roman Forum Today
Today, the Roman Forum is a popular tourist attraction. Visitors can get a first-hand look at the ancient ruins and architectural fragments that were left behind. Persistent efforts to restore and preserve the ruins remain a top priority.
Excavations are ongoing in and around the Forum. Historians are still trying to uncover new findings that could give them answers about Rome’s exact age. For instance, in 2009, a group of archeologists found pottery remains and foods scraps around a wall that dated back to the 8th or 9th century B.C. This is more than a century before most experts thought Rome was founded.
The ancient remains are mysterious in many ways, but they offer unprecedented insight into Roman civilization.
The Roman Forum, Ancient History Encyclopedia.
The Roman Forum, KhanAcademy.
Roman Forum, TribunesandTriumphs.org.
The Ancient Roman Forum, ThoughtCo.
Ancient Rome, Ancient History Encyclopedia.
Interesting Facts About the Roman Forum, Just Fun Facts.
Roman Architecture, Ancient History Encyclopedia. | <urn:uuid:8f6c0ed5-a32f-4a49-8be0-1187a3d19be6> | {
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What are the rules for local and global variables in Python?
In Python, variables that are only referenced inside a function are implicitly global. If a variable is assigned a new value anywhere within the function’s body, it’s assumed to be a local. If a variable is ever assigned a new value inside the function, the variable is implicitly local, and you need to explicitly declare it as global.
Though a bit surprising at first, a moment’s consideration explains this. On one hand, requiring global for assigned variables provides a bar against unintended side-effects. On the other hand, if global was required for all global references, you’d be using global all the time. You’d have to declare as global every reference to a builtin function or to a component of an imported module. This clutter would defeat the usefulness of the global declaration for identifying side-effects. | <urn:uuid:1fc079ff-db09-40b8-8390-6d403e4936a5> | {
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Definition of parent–teacher association in English:
1.1A local organization of parents and teachers for promoting closer relations and improving educational facilities at a school.
- The solution, says the County Joint Committee, is to invite local councils, parent-teacher associations or organisations like the scouts to organise supervision.
- But would it be reasonable to report the head teacher's salary, the amount raised by the parent-teacher association last year and the average length of service of staff?
- The proposed shake-up could provoke a power struggle between Scotland's school boards and parent-teacher associations, with parents caught in the middle.
Definition of parent–teacher association in:
- British & World English dictionary
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
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Local News Columnist
9:42 PM EDT, August 8, 2012
Congratulations are in order for NASA. Not for the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars, though that was pretty spectacular.
But for doing something the space agency has failed to do for quite some time and that's capture the imaginations of throngs of people who otherwise couldn't care less about space exploration.
This is an extraordinary feat in an age when so many screens and bits of information peck at our time and attention with the same persistence and ferocity that those Angry Birds go after the pigs.
Never mind unlocking the universe's mysteries on a faraway planet. NASA appears to have pulled off a rare win in the attention span game.
Today will mark Day 5 of the Curiosity craze that started in earnest on Sunday as people gathered to watch the early Monday morning landing. That's practically a millennium in Internet time.
Such an achievement took precision science, some luck and latest Internet meme Bobak Ferdowsi — we'll get to him in a minute.
It started with a video created by the NASA nerds. They explained in stark and jaw-dropping terms what they planned to do: Hurl an SUV-sized rover through space for eight months until it reaches Mars.
Then, if all goes according to plan and there was a big emphasis on "if," slow the rover down from 13,000 miles per hour on the edge of Mars' atmosphere by deploying the largest and strongest supersonic parachute in the world that opens with a "neck-snapping 9 G's."
But the parachute would only do half the job of slowing the vehicle down, so NASA created a hover craft that would eventually lower the rover with nylon tethers from a sky crane onto Mars' surface as gently as a mother would place a baby in a crib.
It all sounds crazy and petrifying. Even the wonks said so in the NASA video appropriately named, "Seven Minutes of Terror." Nobody knew if this $2.5 billion experiment would actually work.
Was George Lucas in charge of this thing?
The folks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California assure me he wasn't.
But "Seven Minutes of Terror" has been watched on YouTube more than 2 million times and that doesn't count the many thousands, maybe millions, of views it received after it was posted by news organizations and blogs. The grainy video of Curiosity's descent onto Mars has been watched nearly 2 million times since Monday.
A similar video created by NASA in 2008 for the Phoenix mission to Mars tallied just 56,000 views. And the Phoenix landing video just 85,000.
Curiosity certainly piqued America's interest in a new way.
JPL social media manager Veronica McGregor said Twitter, Facebook and sites like Tumblr, which weren't nearly as pervasive in 2008, thrust this mission into a new stratosphere of attention.
"It just comes down to the sharing," she said.
On Saturday, Curiosity Rover's Twitter account (@marscuriosity) had 150,000 followers. Shortly after the landing that number had grown to 312,000. By Wednesday nearly 900,000 people were followers on the account.
The now-famous "GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU" tweet was retweeted 71,000 times. No doubt by some of the hundreds of people who gathered in New York's Times Square to watch the landing and chanted "U-S-A" and "Sci-ence."
"A week ago if we had had 700 retweets that would have been pretty good," McGregor told me.
And then there's @sarcasticrover, the hilarious spoof account that was reaching more than 46,000 people by Wednesday with observations like, "I think I've got a dust allergy!! WORST PLANET IN THE UNIVERSE TO BE! EXCEPT FOR EARTH… POLLEN amirght?! I miss the flowers."
Not surprising in our reality-TV obsessed culture that SarcasticRover, a made-up character, is only to be outdone by the real-life, mohawk-sporting NASA engineer Bobak Ferdowsi a.k.a Mohawk Guy.
The flight director's black mohawk with stars shaved into the side of his head stood out among the rest of the blue-shirted geeks in the JPL control room as the rover landed.
One fan created a Tumblr site documenting all the chatter about Mohawk Guy and it's received more than 230,000 page views.
The title of the Tumblr site? "NASA needs more mohawks."
Isn't that the truth.
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Copyright © 2013, Orlando Sentinel | <urn:uuid:405ee47d-b96e-4313-bca6-cf025908343d> | {
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As the climate warms, corn production starts slowly moving north
One of the predicted effects of global warming is a shift in agricultural regions. Over centuries, certain areas have demonstrated suitability for certain crops — the right mix of rain and temperature and seasons. As the world warms, that balance shifts, meaning that areas good for agriculture suddenly aren’t, and regions that once weren’t good for production suddenly seem to be.
In the Midwest, that migration is beginning to happen. From Bloomberg News:
While farmers nationwide planted the most corn this year since 1937, growers in Kansas sowed the fewest acres in three years, instead turning to less-thirsty crops such as wheat, sorghum and even triticale, a wheat-rye mix popular in Poland. Meanwhile, corn acreage in Manitoba, a Canadian province about 700 miles north of Kansas, has nearly doubled over the past decade due to weather changes and higher prices.
Shifts such as these reflect a view among food producers that this summer’s drought in the U.S. — the worst in half a century — isn’t a random disaster. It’s a glimpse of a future altered by climate change that will affect worldwide production.
The businesses that drive the agriculture industry aren’t wasting any time shifting infrastructure and resources.
Agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. is investing in northern U.S. facilities, anticipating increased grain production in that part of the country, said Greg Page, the chief executive officer of the Minneapolis-based company.
“The number of rail cars, the number of silos, the amount of loading capacity” all change, Page said in an interview in New York. “You can see capital go to where there is ability to produce more tons per acre.”
The drought has demonstrated that use of the already-withering Ogallala Aquifer is clearly not sustainable.
The harnessing of the Ogallala Aquifer, a massive underground lake that runs from South Dakota to west Texas [and] provides about 30 percent of U.S. irrigation groundwater, has allowed corn to flower where rainfall can’t support it. …
Ty Rumford, who manages High Choice Feeders LLC south of Scott City, Kansas, is planting less corn and more triticale to feed the 37,000 animals in his company’s two feed yards. A hardier crop is necessary as water availability falls, he said.
“When the wells were put down here in the ’40s, they went 30 foot down into a 180-foot-deep aquifer,” he said. “Those wells were pumping 1,500, 2,000 gallons a minute in the ’50s. Now we’re at 135 feet deep, and they’re pumping 200, 250 a minute. We’ve got to make sure we have enough water.”
Yesterday, Climate Central noted just how little rain fell in Nebraska this year and included this graph:
That dryness is exceptional, to be certain, but farmers are betting that it will become less and less exceptional as the years progress. And when the stakes of the bet are one’s livelihood, there’s little choice but to change decades of tradition.
Corn Belt Shifts North With Climate as Kansas Crop Dies, Bloomberg.
Donate now to support our work. | <urn:uuid:070a889f-f189-440c-b848-eb5464c80a05> | {
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Sydney, the capital of New South Wales is the largest, oldest and most cosmopolitan city in Australia. The city, which is also home to the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, has some interesting facts about it. Read on for our collection:
1. Sydney is the 73rd most populous city in the world. It is also the 21st most-expensive city in the world.
2. The local nickname for the Sydney Harbour Bridge is the ‘Coat Hanger’, because of its arch-based design. The Bridge is 1511.3 feet wide; and took over 8 years to build it.
3. The Rocks in Sydney is one of the most-visited sites. Called the “birthplace of Sydney”, some of Sydney’s oldest pubs can be found here. You’ll also find a maze of cul-de-sacs and courtyards, with historic buildings sitting next to vibrant modern cafes.
4. Sydney Tower is the city’s tallest building. You can have a great view of the city at the top of the tower.
5. Sydney Opera House holds 5 theatres. You can take a guided tour that’ll take you backstage to learn more about this world-renowned landmark. Approximately 4.5 million people visit the Sydney Opera House a year.
6. A resident of Sydney is known as a Sydneysider.
7. In terms of variety, the Fish Markets of Sydney rank as the 2nd largest in the world.
8. The main languages spoken in Sydney are English, Chinese and Arabic.
9. The Sydney Funnel web spider is considered the world’s most deadly spider. It is the only spider that has killed people in less than 2 hours.
10. Being Australia’s first and largest city, Sydney – also known as ‘Sin City’ – was wanted to be the capital of Australia, but its convict stigma counted against it.
What other interesting or weird facts have you got about Sydney? We would like to hear from you! | <urn:uuid:fc0cfa2c-9e5c-4bb7-8cdc-e8228ab3e451> | {
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American Short Story Handbook
This is a concise yet comprehensive treatment of the American short story that includes an historical overview of the topic as well as discussion of notable American authors and individual stories, from Benjamin Franklin’s “The Speech of Miss Polly Baker” in 1747 to “The Joy Luck Club”.
- Includes a selection of writers chosen not only for their contributions of individual stories but for bodies of work that advanced the boundaries of short fiction, including Washington Irving, Sarah Orne Jewett, Stephen Crane, Jamaica Kincaid, and Tim O’Brien
- Addresses the ways in which American oral storytelling and other narrative traditions were integral to the formation and flourishing of the short story genre
- Written in accessible and engaging prose for students at all levels by a renowned literary scholar to illuminate an important genre that has received short shrift in scholarly literature of the last century
- Includes a glossary defining the most common terms used in literary history and in critical discussions of fiction, and a bibliography of works for further study | <urn:uuid:ddd80715-da94-424b-9d5b-6692ad11e985> | {
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First I was fascinated and then absorbed by the rich spectacle of the meadows in springtime; then I was filled with wonder and delight by the marvellous shape, colour and structure of the individual plants.
While my eyes feasted on these sights, my mind too was stimulated. I became inspired with a passion for botany and I conceived a burning desire to become proficient in that study, from which I promised myself much innocent pleasure to sooth my solitude.’
Ray is best known for his work on plants. In his ‘Methodus Plantarum Nova’ – first essay in classification published in 1682 but based on earlier work – Ray describes the nature of buds as annual plants which spring from the old stock. He also recognised the important division of flowering plants into two families called Mono- and Di-cotyledones. He divided plants into Leguminosae, Palmaceae and Coniferae which we still use today.
Most significantly, basing his system largely upon the fruit, but also in part the flower and leaf, he made the first step towards the establishment of a natural system of classification. His system was so advanced that it was not recognised as a major scientific breakthrough and he himself continued to classify plants by the locality in which they grew, their use i.e. as a food, drug or ornament and then by the principal parts – flower, root, seed, saying ‘… the third is by far the best and most congruous with nature’. | <urn:uuid:7023c978-4cab-4542-824c-ea898a6b0f28> | {
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DHS news release
May 1, 2008
General contact: Bonnie Widerburg, 971-673-1282
Program contact: Emilio DeBess, D.V.M., 971-673-1111
Gary Oxman, M.D., Multnomah County Health Department, 503-988-3663 ext. 22640
Rabies-infected bat found in Multnomah County
The Oregon State Public Health Laboratory has confirmed that a bat in Multnomah County was infected with rabies. The bat was found by a resident in an inner southeast Portland home in the early morning hours.
The report is prompting public health officials to remind people to avoid bats and to vaccinate their pets against rabies, particularly cats.
"People can do three things to protect themselves and their pets from rabies," said Emilio DeBess, D.V.M., public health veterinarian in the Oregon Department of Human Services. "Use screens in your windows, never handle bats, and make sure your cats and dogs are up to date on their rabies vaccines."
Rabies is a viral disease that affects the nervous system after exposure to a rabid animal. Exposure is usually through a bite but can also occur through scratches and saliva contact with broken skin. It is almost always fatal once symptoms begin.
Bats play an important role in the ecosystem, especially in controlling insects and aiding agriculture, DeBess said, but a small percentage can carry rabies.
"Bats are normally night-time creatures," said DeBess. "They pose little danger to people who do not handle them. But if you find a bat during daylight hours, it is most likely unhealthy and should be avoided."
DeBess also advised that vaccinating pets against rabies protects them and provides a buffer zone between humans and rabid wild animals. "Sadly, if an unvaccinated pet is exposed to rabies, the recommendation is that it be euthanized," he said.
Nationally, twice as many cats as dogs are reported to have rabies each year, underscoring the need for better vaccination of cats, according to DeBess.
DeBess noted that human rabies is rare in the United States, numbering two to six cases a year. However, because animal bites are very common, thousands of people annually receive painful, expensive and unnecessary treatment for rabies, which underscores the importance of education and prevention. | <urn:uuid:bb56d6ba-6e66-4d4f-b4b6-410d288c876c> | {
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The landscape both in and around Marlborough is a rich archaeological feast which becomes more exciting with every new discovery. The very first evidence of people using the land on which Marlborough now lies stems from a few Palaeolithic hand axes from the site of the gasworks and from Granham Hill, ephemeral proof that hundreds of thousands of years ago people used this area as they followed migratory herds across the landscape.
After the last ice age, which ended roughly 11,000 years ago, semi-nomadic Mesolithic hunter- gatherers began making temporary camps along the banks of the River Kennet, utilising the river as a routeway and for its natural resources. In doing so, they left large quantities of flint tools behind them; one such camp site is located just off London Road and another on Elcot Lane.
A few thousand years later, during the Neolithic and Bronze age, people were living in more permanent settlements and evidence of early farming communities is still visible on the surrounding hillsides in the form of Neolithic Long Barrows and Bronze Age Round Barrows. A small community of late Neolithic/early Bronze Age people settled on the valley floor, now Ducks Meadow. A ditched trackway was discovered in the grounds of St. John’s School, possibly a routeway for taking their animals to graze up on the hillside, and where they would have probably tended their crops.
Marlborough Mound, a 19 metre high chalk structure which is located in the grounds of the college, has recently been dated to the Neolithic period. The radiocarbon date of 2,400 BC has effectively changed our perception of the Neolithic landscape of the area, making it likely that Marlborough was an important ritual landscape during these times. The mound was built at the same time as Silbury Hill, located approximately 8km west of Marlborough, some 4,400 years ago. In recent years the shape of Marlborough Mound has been obscured by tree and shrub growth, making it diffcult to pick out, even from the top of St Peter’s Church tower. Such growth can also be damaging, but there is now a plan to carefully restore and cut back the unwanted growth. The mound, being within the grounds of Marlborough College, is not often accessible to the public.
Frequent discoveries of brooches, coins and pottery found all over Marlborough are testament to the people of the Iron Age and there are many, many finds left behind by the Romano-British people who lived here shortly afterwards, including a settlement with a cemetery at St. Margaret’s Mead and a Villa at Brown’s Farm. In addition, the famous ‘Cunetio Hoard’. The Saxon period shows little evidence of occupation and archaeological fnds are limited to a few coins and shards of pottery; there was however a Saxon burial located near Savernake Hospital. | <urn:uuid:6f61d749-5be6-4fdb-b827-55c9660c772e> | {
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Medically Reviewed by William H. Parker, MD
Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
UCLA School of Medicine
Santa Monica, CA
- Overview & Diagnosis
- Treatment & Prevention
- Facts to Know & Questions to Ask
- Key Q&A
- Lifestyle Tips
- Organizations and Support
What Is It?
A fibroid is a mass of muscle tissue, typically noncancerous, that develops within the wall of the uterus.
Fibroids are noncancerous masses of muscular tissue and collagen that can develop within the wall of the uterus. They are the most common benign tumor in premenopausal women. By the time women are 50 years old, 80 percent will have fibroids, but only 20 percent of women with fibroids will have any symptoms.
You may hear your health care professional call fibroids by other terms including uterine leiomyomas, fibromyomas, fibromas, myofibromas and myomas. They can be small or quite large.
While fibroids can cause a variety of symptoms, they may not cause any symptoms at all—so you may not even know you have one. Heavy bleeding is the most common symptom associated with fibroids and the one that usually prompts a woman to make an appointment with her health care professional. You may learn you have one or more fibroids after having a pelvic exam.
Fibroids may cause a range of other symptoms, too, including pain, pressure in the pelvic region, abnormal bleeding, painful intercourse, frequent urination or infertility.
What actually causes fibroids to form isn't clear, but genetics and hormones are thought to play a big role. Your body may be predisposed to developing fibroids. They seem to grow or shrink depending on estrogen levels in your body, but researchers don't know why some women develop them while others don't.
Fibroids usually grow slowly during your reproductive years, but about 40 percent of fibroids increase in size with pregnancy.
At menopause, fibroids shrink because estrogen and progesterone levels decline. Using menopausal hormone therapy containing estrogen after menopause usually does not cause fibroids to grow. Growth of a fibroid after menopause is a reason to see your gynecologist to make sure nothing else is causing the growth.
Progesterone and growth hormone are other hormones that may stimulate a fibroid's growth once it has already formed.
A variety of treatments exist to remove fibroids and relieve symptoms. If you learn you have fibroids but aren't experiencing symptoms, you usually won't need treatment.
Who Is at Risk for Fibroids?
Your risk for developing fibroids increases with age. African-American women are more likely than Caucasian women to have them, and they are more likely to develop fibroids at a younger age. If women in your family have already been diagnosed with fibroids, you have an increased risk of developing them. You may also be at an increased risk if you are obese or have high blood pressure.
Types of Fibroids
Fibroids form in different parts of the uterus:
- Intramural fibroids are confined within the muscle wall of the uterus and are the most common fibroid type. They expand, which makes the uterus feel larger than normal. Symptoms of intramural fibroids may include heavy menstrual bleeding, pelvic pain, back pain, frequent urination and pressure in the pelvic region.
- Submucosal fibroids grow from the uterine wall into the uterine cavity. They can cause heavy menstrual bleeding with associated bad menstrual cramps and infertility.
- Subserosal fibroids grow from the uterine wall to the outside of the uterus. They can push on the bladder or bowel causing bloating, abdominal pressure, cramping and pain.
- Pedunculated fibroids grow on stalks out from the uterus or into the uterine cavity, like mushrooms. If these stalks twist, they can cause pain, nausea or fever, or extremely rarely can become infected.
More than half of women who have fibroids never experience symptoms. When fibroids are symptom-free, they generally don't require treatment. But even small fibroids can cause heavy or longer-than-normal menstrual bleeding and significant pain. Fibroids may also contribute to infertility.
The three most common symptoms caused by fibroids are:
- Abnormal uterine bleeding. The most common bleeding abnormality is heavy menstrual bleeding—menstrual bleeding that is excessively heavy or long. Normal menstrual periods last four to seven days. If you have abnormal bleeding from fibroids, your periods are likely to last longer or may be heavier. Instead of changing a pad or tampon every four to six hours, you may have to change one every hour and find that your periods greatly interfere with your daily activities. You may also experience breakthrough bleeding, or bleeding that occurs between periods.
- Pelvic pressure. You may experience pressure in the pelvic region. Many women with fibroids have an enlarged uterus. Pelvic pressure may be caused by either the increased size of your uterus or from the location of one fibroid in particular. Health care professionals usually describe the size of a uterus with fibroids in the same terms used for someone who is pregnant, such as a "12-week-size fibroid uterus."
You may also experience pressure on areas near your pelvis, including your bowel or bladder. Pressure against these structures can lead to difficulty or pain with bowel movements and constipation or increased urinary frequency and incontinence. Conversely, you may not be able to empty your bladder because the fibroid is in the way or you may get recurrent urinary tract infections.
- Reproductive problems. Fibroids also are associated with reproductive problems, depending on the number of fibroids present in the uterus and on their size and specific location. While having fibroids can cause complications with pregnancy, most do not have any impact. Fibroids in a uterus do not create a high-risk pregnancy. The risks from fibroids may include a higher risk of miscarriage, infertility, premature labor and labor complications.
Symptoms caused by fibroids can be similar to a number of other symptoms caused by a variety of other conditions, including reproductive cancers, sexually transmitted infections and bowel and bladder disorders. So, if you are having any unusual symptoms, be sure to make an appointment to discuss them with your health care professional.
The first step in diagnosing fibroids is usually a pelvic exam and a comprehensive medical history performed by your health care professional. He or she may be able to feel the fibroids in your uterus during the exam, because fibroids can make the uterus feel enlarged or irregular. If the uterus is enlarged enough, it may also be felt abdominally above the pubic bone.
To confirm the diagnosis, even if nothing is felt, your health care professional may recommend one or more diagnostic tests.
Ultrasound is probably the most common option used to confirm the diagnosis. It is important to note that imaging may find very small fibroids that don't pose any medical problems, wouldn't be felt on physical examination and may not be causing symptoms.
If you have heavy or prolonged bleeding or have had multiple miscarriages, your health care professional may recommend a more involved examination of your uterine cavity to see if you have a submucous fibroid, which might go undetected on a regular ultrasound. The assessment can be performed in one of four ways:
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI uses a magnet (not x-ray) to make an image of the uterus. It is the most accurate way to determine the positions, sizes and number of fibroids you have.
- Hysteroscopy. The uterus is expanded with a liquid or gas, and a hysteroscope (a small telescope) is inserted directly into the uterus through the vagina and cervix enabling your health care professional to see your entire uterus. Fibroids within the uterine cavity can also be removed during this surgery.
- Saline-infused sonography. A saline solution is injected into your uterus, and ultrasound is used to visualize the uterine cavity. Also called hysterosonography, this test is most useful in women who have prolonged or heavy menstrual bleeding but normal ultrasound results.
- Hysterosalpingography (HSG). A dye that shows up on an X-ray is injected into your uterus, enabling your health care professional to evaluate the structure of your uterine cavity and look for any abnormalities in the uterus or fallopian tubes. This test may be recommended if you are trying to get pregnant to check if your tubes are open, but it is not very accurate when looking for fibroids..
Imaging tests, such as computed tomography (CT), may also be ordered but is not very accurate for the diagnosis of fibroids.
If you are experiencing abnormal vaginal bleeding as a result of fibroids, your health care professional may want to conduct other blood tests, including a complete blood count, to rule out other conditions.
If you aren't experiencing symptoms caused by your fibroids, you usually do not need any treatment. And, if your symptoms aren't severe, you may decide you can put up with them. This may be especially true if you're close to menopause—a time when fibroids shrink and symptoms resolve. It's important to discuss all your options with your health care professional and consider his or her recommendations when weighing your treatment options.
You may want to try the "watch and wait approach," where your health care professional periodically evaluates the size of your fibroids during routine pelvic exams and discusses how much discomfort you're feeling or how the symptoms may be disrupting your lifestyle.
Fibroids that don't cause symptoms rarely need therapy unless they get big enough to affect other structures in the pelvic area, such as the kidneys or the ureter (the tube that drains the kidney to the bladder).
The need for treatment and the type of treatment you choose depends on the size and position of the fibroids, as well as any symptoms they're causing, your age and whether or not you want to have children in the future. Even with a variety of treatment options available, new fibroids may grow back to some degree in the years following most treatments. The need for repeat treatments ranges from 10 percent to 25 percent, depending on the number and sizes of the fibroids initially treated. No treatment—except hysterectomy—can guarantee that new fibroids won't grow. The more fibroids you have, the more likely you are to have a recurrence after treatment.
If bleeding is your major symptom, some women opt for managing this symptom with medication before surgery or as a way to delay surgery if they're close to menopause (because fibroids generally shrink and cause few or no problems after menopause).
Medical Treatment Options for Fibroids
Oral contraceptives (OCs). While OCs do not treat fibroids, they may be recommended to manage heavy bleeding caused by fibroids or for women who experience irregular ovulation in addition to fibroids. OCs are the first treatment option for many women, often combined with a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory such as ibuprofen. OCs do not make fibroids grow.
Intrauterine device (IUD). The levonorgestrel intrauterine device (Mirena), which is usually prescribed for birth control, can help ease the heavy bleeding that accompanies some fibroids. The device won't shrink the fibroids, however, and depending on whether or not the fibroids have distorted the inside of the uterus, it may or may not provide effective birth control. Although the levonorgestrel IUD is FDA-approved for heavy menstrual bleeding, it isn't approved specifically for the treatment of fibroids, so if you are interested in this option, discuss it with your doctor.
GnRH agonists. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists, including leuprolide (Lupron), nafarelin nasal (Synarel) and goserelin (Zoladex), temporarily shrink fibroids by blocking estrogen and progesterone production; estrogen is thought to stimulate their growth. They are mainly used in women close to menopause or to shrink fibroids before removing them surgically or to correct anemia caused by heavy bleeding associated with fibroids. GnRH agonists are considered a short-term treatment because they block hormone production by the ovaries, thus triggering menopausal symptoms caused by estrogen depletion, such as hot flashes, vaginal dryness and bone loss. The usual course of treatment is three to six months, and it may be combined with estrogen and/or progesterone hormones to minimize menopausal symptoms. Once this medication is stopped, fibroids usually grow back to near pretreatment size or larger within several months.
- Antifibrinolytic medicines. Antifibrinolytic medicines are drugs that help slow menstrual bleeding by helping blood to clot. The drug tranexamic acid (Lysteda) is FDA-approved for heavy menstrual bleeding. Rare side effects include headaches, muscle cramps, or pain. Antifibrinolytic medicines do not affect your chances of becoming pregnant. They should not be taken with hormonal birth control without prior approval from a health care professional as the combination can cause blood clots. Antifibrinolytic therapies are relatively new and expensive—and often not covered by insurance. Check with your insurer if that is a concern.
Minimally Invasive Treatment Options
Uterine artery embolization (UAE). UAE is a procedure that involves placing a small catheter (a thin tube) into an artery in the groin and guiding it via X-rays to the arteries in the uterus. Then, tiny particles similar in size to grains of sand are injected through the catheter and into the artery. As they move toward the uterus, they obstruct the blood supply to the fibroids. Without an adequate blood supply, the fibroids shrink. The uterus is spared, however, because an alternate blood supply develops to support it.
UAE takes about one hour to perform and is typically performed by an interventional radiologist. It usually requires a one-night hospital stay. Most women are back to their normal activities in seven to 10 days.
While this treatment option leaves your uterus intact, it's not recommended for women who wish to become pregnant in the future.
Potential complications include fever, passage of small pieces of fibroid tissue through the vagina after the procedure, allergic reaction and hemorrhage. Complications can also occur if blood supply to the ovaries or other organs becomes compromised.
- Endometrial ablation. This technique is used to treat small fibroids within the uterus or heavy periods caused by fibroids. Endometrial ablation uses electrical energy, heat or cold to destroy the lining of the uterus. It is performed on an outpatient basis and is only offered as a treatment option to women who have finished childbearing. It is not recommended for women who wish to preserve fertility. However, using a reliable form of contraception after having ablation is important.
Surgical Options for Fibroids
Hysterectomy. A hysterectomy offers the only real cure because it completely removes the uterus.
However, hysterectomy is major surgery, requiring between two and eight weeks of recovery, depending on the type of surgery performed. Hospital stays and recovery times can vary based on the type of procedure used and the extent of the surgery performed. Because your uterus and, sometimes, your ovaries, are removed, it is not an option if you want to become pregnant. If your ovaries do not need to be removed, you may want to keep your ovaries to maintain estrogen production.
If you and your health care professional decide that a hysterectomy is the best choice for you, you may have several options about how the procedure is performed:
Abdominal hysterectomy, in which the uterus is removed through an incision in the abdomen. It is generally used for large pelvic tumors or suspected cancer because this procedure allows the surgeon to see and manipulate the pelvic organs more easily.
Vaginal hysterectomy, in which the uterus is removed through the vagina.
Laparoscopically hysterectomy, in which a surgeon uses a laparoscope (a small telescope) inserted through the abdomen to see inside your pelvis. Laparoscopic hysterectomy is less invasive than an abdominal hysterectomy, but more invasive than a vaginal hysterectomy.
Robotic-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy, in which a robotic system assists in removal of the uterus in a laparoscopic hysterectomy. It may be helpful with some patients because of the flexibility it allows, but it also adds to the time and cost of the procedure.
Myomectomy. This procedure removes only the fibroids, leaving the uterus intact, which can preserve fertility. The procedure is performed through an incision in the abdomen (a laparotomy), which requires general anesthesia, or by laparoscopy, which uses a few small incisions to insert an operative camera and surgical instruments. Robotic myomectomy is a variation of laparoscopic myomectomy during which the surgical procedure is aided with a surgical robot. A full recovery from laparotomy can take up to six weeks and two weeks from laparoscopy. Your health care professional will recommend which procedure to use based on the size of the fibroids, as well as whether they are superficial or deep (which is too difficult for laparoscopy).
A hysteroscopic myomectomy is performed through the vagina and requires no incision. It is appropriate only for women whose fibroids are in the endometrial cavity. With this procedure, fibroids are removed using an instrument called a hysteroscopic resectoscope, which is passed through the vagina into the uterine cavity. A wire loop carrying electrical current is then used to shave off the fibroid.
Blood loss may be slightly greater with a myomectomy than with hysterectomy, but surgeons use tourniquets and medications to control blood loss, so that transfusion rates are no greater than with hysterectomy.
Magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound. A more recent fibroid treatment option, magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS or FUS) is a noninvasive treatment that takes place inside an MRI machine. The machine guides the treatment, which consists of multiple waves of ultrasound energy that go through the abdominal wall and destroy the fibroid. The procedure requires sedation but is usually performed on an outpatient basis. In the weeks and months that follow, fibroids shrink and heavy menstrual flow decreases. Pregnancy isn't recommended after FUS, but it is possible to become pregnant following the procedure.
Radiofrequency ablation. Acessa is a new FDA-approved laparoscopic surgical procedure that uses radiofrequency energy to destroy fibroids. The energy heats the fibroid tissue and kills the cells, which are then reabsorbed by the lymphatic system, decreasing fibroid size and symptoms. The procedure is minimally invasive, performed under ultrasound guidance during an outpatient pelvic laparoscopy. The early results regarding the safety and effectiveness of Acessa are good. On average, women returned to normal activities in nine days. The long-term risk of fibroid recurrence has not yet been determined, though a 12-month follow-up in one study showed good results.
Fibroids can't be prevented. If you are experiencing symptoms, such as heavy bleeding and pelvic pressure, contact your health care professional for an evaluation. If you have a family history of fibroids or have been treated for them in the past, you may want to be examined more frequently or investigate the various management strategies available to treat fibroids.
Facts to Know
Fibroids are not cancerous and they do not turn into cancer. They are balls of muscular tissue that grow inside the uterus, on the surface of the uterus or in the muscular wall of the uterus.
Up to 80 percent of women have fibroids, but not all of these women have symptoms. They are most commonly found in women in their 40s and early 50s.
African-American women are more likely to have fibroids than Caucasian women.
If there are women in your family who already have been diagnosed with fibroids, you have an increased risk for developing them.
Fibroids usually grow slowly during the reproductive years, but may increase in size with pregnancy. At menopause, fibroids usually shrink, because estrogen and progesterone levels decline. Estrogen replacement therapy may rarely interfere with this shrinkage after menopause.
More than half of the women who have fibroids never experience symptoms and require no treatment. In general, the severity of symptoms varies based on the number, size and location of the fibroids.
The two most common symptoms of fibroids are heavy menstrual bleeding and pelvic pressure. Normal menstrual periods last four to seven days, but if you have fibroids, your periods are likely to last longer. The bleeding might be so heavy that you may need to change your sanitary pads or tampons as often as every hour.
Fibroids may be associated with a handful of reproductive problems, depending on the number of fibroids in the uterus and their size and specific location. While fibroids can cause complications with pregnancy, most do not have any impact. Fibroids in a uterus do not create a high-risk pregnancy. The risk from fibroids may include a higher risk of miscarriage, infertility, premature labor and labor complications.
Oral contraceptives (estrogen and progestin and progestin-only) are sometimes recommended to manage heavy bleeding caused by fibroids, but they aren't used to treat fibroids.
There are several treatment options available for fibroids, including medication, minimally invasive options and surgical options.
Questions to Ask
Review the following Questions to Ask about fibroids so you're prepared to discuss this important health issue with your health care professional:
How do I know if I have abnormal or excessive menstrual bleeding?
What tests are needed to determine if I have fibroids?
What are my treatment options?
I want to get the best treatment possible to get rid of my fibroids, but I want to have children as well. What are the best treatment options for me?
When should hysterectomy be considered?
What's uterine artery embolization and how is it performed?
What type of doctors perform the treatment options for fibroids?
How can I get a second opinion?
Does my insurance cover all the options we're discussing?
Will my fibroids recur after any of these treatments?
How do I know I have fibroids?
More than half of all women who have fibroids have no symptoms. If you aren't experiencing any problems, there's usually no reason to treat the fibroids. The two most common symptoms of fibroids are heavy menstrual bleeding and pelvic pressure. Normal menstrual periods usually last four to seven days, but if you have fibroids, your periods are likely to last longer.
If you have fibroids, the bleeding might be so heavy that you may need to change your sanitary pad or tampons as often as every hour. Bleeding between periods isn't usually associated with fibroids, but it may occur in rare situations.
You may also experience pressure in the pelvic region from an increase in the size of your uterus or from the location of one fibroid in particular. If you notice these symptoms, you should definitely seek a diagnosis from your health care professional.
Are fibroids hard to diagnose?
Not usually. A health care professional should be able to feel some kind of irregularity in your pelvic region during a regular office pelvic exam. If fibroids are suspected, more detailed tests may be conducted to confirm the initial diagnosis. These may include ultrasound, magnetic resonance imagery (MRI), hysteroscopy, saline-infused sonography or hysterosalpingogram (HSG), a test that involves injecting a special dye into the uterus and then taking an X-ray of the area. Ultrasound is the most common option used to confirm the diagnosis, and MRI is the most accurate.
Does the location of my fibroids really make a difference in how they're treated?
The symptoms you experience may vary depending on where the fibroids are located. However, the ultimate course of treatment for your fibroids will likely depend more on other factors, such as whether you plan to have children or how close to menopause you are. If preserving your fertility is a priority, several options won't be recommended.
Is a hysterectomy really the only way I can get rid of my fibroids forever, or at least before I reach menopause?
Yes. While other procedures are helpful because the existing fibroids are removed or shrunk, there is no guarantee that new fibroids won't develop. There are newer surgical procedures, such as myomectomy, robotic myomectomy, magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound surgery, and radiofrequency ablation (Acessa procedure), that are showing success in treating fibroids while sometimes preserving fertility. Your health care professional will recommend which procedure is best for you.
Is there anything I can do to protect myself from developing fibroids?
Unfortunately, there isn't. Fibroids appear to affect women mostly in their 30s and 40s. Genetics and hormones appear to play a role in who develops fibroids.
I've heard that estrogen and other hormones can make fibroids grow. Should I avoid taking birth control pills that contain estrogen?
No, there is no evidence that oral contraceptives have any effect on fibroid size. In fact, health care professionals prescribe oral contraceptive pills for some women with fibroids to help control the prolonged or excessively heavy blood flow during menstruation.
Do I need to see a specialist other than my gynecologist to diagnose and treat fibroids?
Your gynecologist should have adequate experience in diagnosing fibroids because they are so common. However, some gynecologists may have more experience or better success at treating fibroids. If you're considering any of the more innovative treatments, whether surgical or medical, make sure you see a practitioner with a strong track record in treating fibroids, and ask about their success rates.
Are hormone therapy treatments for fibroids dangerous?
GnRH agonists are one treatment option for fibroids. This treatment shrinks fibroids by blocking hormone production by the ovaries. Because estrogen production is suppressed temporarily, you will experience menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness. Treatment is usually limited to three to six months.
To offset hot flashes and other uncomfortable menopausal symptoms caused by GnRH agonists, your doctor may add estrogen and/or progesterone therapy.
Ask your health care professional to review the risks associated with menopausal hormone therapy and how they may or may not be relevant to your treatment needs for fibroids.
Regularly track your menstrual cycle
If you have fibroids, your bleeding may last longer than normal and be heavier than normal. If you already know you have fibroids, you should have regular pelvic examinations and ultrasounds. This monitoring enables you to keep tabs on the size of the fibroid and determine if any additional treatments are necessary.
Manage pain with over-the-counter drugs
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen can help ease menstrual pain. Along with helping with the pain, these drugs can also reduce inflammation. However, long-term use of such drugs can increase the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding and ulcers.
Think about adding iron to your diet
You can develop anemia from iron deficiency if fibroids cause excessively heavy bleeding. Sometimes the smaller fibroids, usually the submucosal ones, are more likely to cause heavy bleeding than the larger ones. Some of the best foods for increasing or maintaining iron levels include clams, oysters, beef, pork, poultry and fish.
Organizations and Support
American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL)
Address: 6757 Katella Avenue
Cypress, CA 90630
Hotline: 1-800-554-AAGL (1-800-554-2245)
Center for Uterine Fibroids at Harvard Medical School
Address: Brigham and Women's Hospital
77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, 160, New Research Building
Boston, MA 02115
Hotline: 1-800-722-5520 (ask operator for 525-4434)
National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA)
Address: 1627 K Street, NW, 12th Floor
Washington, DC 20006
Email: [email protected]
Society of Interventional Radiology
Address: 3975 Fair Ridge Drive, Suite 400 North
Fairfax, VA 22033
Email: [email protected]
A Gynecologist's Second Opinion
by William H. Parker, Rachel L. Parker
Fibroid Tumors & Endometriosis
by Susan M. Lark
Uterine Fibroids: What Every Woman Needs to Know
by Nelson, M.D. Stringer
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Fibroids: New Techniques and Therapies--Including Breakthrough Alternatives to Hysterectomy
by Scott C. Goodwin, David Drum, Michael Broder
Yale Guide to Women's Reproductive Health: From Menarche to Menopause
by Mary Jane Minkin, Carol V. Wright
Medline Plus: Uterine Fibroids
Address: Customer Service
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20894
Email: [email protected]
Center for Uterine Fibroid
Address: Brigham and Women's Hospital
77 Avenue Louis Pasteur - 160, New Research Building
Boston, MA 02115 | <urn:uuid:4b6b4a8b-cd54-4a3d-944f-b6ba7027fdc8> | {
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How Does The Composer Compose Songs?
A Composer, otherwise called a Music Director, is a man who makes or composes music, which can be vocal music, instrumental music or music which consolidates both instruments and voices. They can assign individuals who take an interest in other musical conventions who make music, and in addition the individuals who make music by means other than composed ones. Composers generally compose unique music that symphonies, groups, and other musical gatherings perform, mastermind existing music into new creations, composes verses for music or work with a lyricist and work with artists to draft all the concluded setting. Music executives lead ensembles and other musical gatherings.
They guarantee that the artists play with one lucid sound, adjusting the tune, timing, musicality, and volume. They likewise offer input to artists and segment pioneers so they can accomplish the sound and style they need for the piece. They compose music for an assortment of musical gatherings and clients. Some work in a specific style of music, for example, traditional or jazz. They additionally may compose for musicals, musical dramas, or different sorts of dramatic preparations. A few of them compose scores for motion pictures or TV, others compose jingles for plugs. Being neighbourly, aware, open to feedback and also acclaim, and getting a charge out of being with others can help music chiefs and writers function admirably with an assortment of individuals. | <urn:uuid:113c4f89-39cd-4128-a170-5c6be493608d> | {
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Flowering crab trees, also called flowering crab apple trees, are popular yard and landscaping trees because of their beauty and relatively low maintenance requirements. However, in order to get the most beautiful blooms out of your crab tree and the longest life, you should understand what makes these trees "happiest." Understanding when and why your flowering crab tree reacts to certain things will help you keep your tree healthy and happy for years to come.
Flowering crab trees have been popular forever, which may help explain why there are more than 700 cultivated varieties. Some of the most popular and well-known species of flowering crab tree include the Siberian crab tree, Tea crab tree, the Japanese flowering crab tree, the Zumi crab tree and the Sargent crab tree.
Flowering crab trees blossom with five petals that grow in clusters. They have bright yellow stamens and light pink to hot magenta to red petals. They tend to be 15 to 30 feet in height, but can be as short as 6. Their shapes are largely dependent on pruning--or lack thereof--but there are some species of weeping flowering crab trees.
Flowering crab trees will bloom in the spring as far north as Michigan and New England. This makes them very popular as most other "spring bloomers" cannot survive the harsh winters. They are able to tolerate winters as far north as USDA hardiness zone 4.
Flowering crab trees need a rich, loam soil and good drainage, as well as eight to 12 hours of sun a day for maximum blooming and fruit production. They do not generally need to be pruned unless it is cosmetically desirable or they are interfering with other landscaping. However, weeping varieties may need shoots that are growing up to be periodically removed to help them keep their flowing shape. Crab trees generally will not require fertilizer or additional watering, but if your flowering crab tree is growing less than 5 inches or is less than a year old in a drought condition, then you should water and fertilize.
Problems, Pests and Troubleshooting
Fortunately for flowering crab tree lovers, most of the species on the market today are disease-resistant. However, if you have an older flowering crab in your yard, then you will need to look out for dark, scablike formations on the branches and trunk, which can indicate the presence of apple scab fungus and fire blight, which turns branches black and eventually will kill the tree. Japanese beetles often attack this tree, but, unlike most of this beetle's prey, the tree seldom experiences significant damage. | <urn:uuid:757c2f6f-1337-40d9-94ae-2a3002437417> | {
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In 2011, according to the 2014 edition of Injury Facts from the National Safety Council, 66 workers died as a result of operating or worker near a forklift. A forklift was a secondary source of fatal injuries for an additional 24 workers. Those numbers are up from 2010, in which forklifts were a primary source of fatal injury for 54 workers and a secondary source of fatal injury for 31 workers.
National Forklift Safety Day, which is scheduled for June 10 in Washington, D.C., will serve as a focal point for manufacturers to highlight the safe use of forklifts and importance of operator training to reduce fatalities and injuries related to the use of forklifts. Sponsored by the Industrial Truck Association, the day provides an opportunity for the industry to educate customers, policymakers and the administration on forklift operating safety practices and events on June 9 and 10 will allow customers and manufacturers the opportunity to network.
What Are Powered Industrial Trucks?
Powered industrial trucks, commonly called forklifts or lift trucks, are used in many industries, primarily to move materials. They can also be used to raise, lower or remove large objects or a number of smaller objects on pallets or in boxes, crates or other containers. Powered industrial trucks either can be ridden by the operator or controlled by a walking operator.
There are many types of powered industrial trucks. Each type presents different operating hazards. For example, a sit-down, counterbalanced high-lift rider truck is more likely than a motorized hand truck to be involved in a falling load accident because the sit-down rider truck can lift a load much higher than a hand truck.
Workplace type and conditions also are factors in hazards commonly associated with powered industrial trucks. For example, retail establishments often face greater challenges than other worksites in maintaining pedestrian safety. Beyond that, many workers can also be injured when (1) lift trucks inadvertently are driven off loading docks; (2) lifts fall between docks and an unsecured trailer; (3) they are struck by a lift truck; or (4) they fall while on elevated pallets and tines.
OSHA enforces regulations regarding the manufacture and operation of industrial trucks. The Industrial Truck Standards Development Foundation (ITSDF), which is accredited by ANSI, and UL (Underwriters Laboratories Inc.) develop the safety standards for designing and manufacturing industrial trucks. National Forklift Safety Day will provide greater awareness of regulations and safe practices to encourage safer behavior.
Preventing Forklift Accidents
Determining the best way to protect workers from injury largely depends on the type of truck operated and the worksite where it is being used. Employers must ensure that each powered industrial truck operator is competent to operate a powered industrial truck safely, as demonstrated by the successful completion of the training and evaluation specified in 29 CFR 1910.178(l)(1).
The OSHA standard for powered industrial truck training [29 CFR 1910.178(l)] requires that an employer provide training to truck operators on a variety of topics. Among these topics are vehicle inspection and maintenance that the operator will be required to perform. OSHA provides checklists on its web site at https://www.osha.gov/dte/library/pit/daily_pit_checklist.html as part of an ongoing effort to assist employers and employees in ensuring that workers understand the hazards and proper use of forklift trucks.
There are two general types of powered industrial trucks: electric (battery) powered and internal combustion engine (gas/LPG/diesel) powered. Each of these general types has a variety of different configurations and attachments. Your workplace may have a variety of trucks that are being operated. All operators must be trained to operate all types of industrial trucks they will be operating. All operators also must be over 18 years of age.
Daily, pre-shift inspection of powered industrial trucks is required by OSHA standards. Each type of powered industrial truck is unique and checklists pertinent to each type of vehicle should be modified accordingly. Daily checklists for each type of industrial truck are available from the truck manufacturer. You may choose to use a checklist for each type of industrial truck in your workplace or compile one that can be used for any type of truck.
Refer to the owner's manual, specifications and manufacturer's recommendations to modify the checklist for trucks being operated in your workplace. In addition to the lists OSHA offers, which can be modified to suit your workplace needs, the agency recommends that the manufacturer's instructions on vehicle maintenance and owner's and operator's responsibilities also be consulted. The OSHA standards for powered industrial trucks must be reviewed to ensure compliance.
Schedule of Events for National Forklift Safety Day
All events for National Forklift Safety Day will be held at the Hyatt Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20001 (11th Floor – Thornton Room)
June 9, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. – Educational meeting/session on how to talk to members of Congress and review topics to be discussed
June 9, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. – Reception for National Forklift Safety Day participants
June 10, 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. - National Forklift Safety Day Event
June 10, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. – ITA members visit their members of Congress
June 10, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. – ITA and NAM joint reception (times are tentative), location on Capitol Hill (in the Senate or very close by) | <urn:uuid:e9eb2917-2746-4bfe-8871-e23ef7a2896d> | {
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There are many ways training can facilitate projects. When we put field biologists and trainers together we discover the needs. And in reality whether we acknowledge it or not, birds in conservation projects are learning all the time. Why not add some structure and specific behavior goals to that learning to help the project succeed?
|Kakapo feeding station|
|Enclosed kakapo feeding station with cat door|
There are three chicks that needed to be hand raised this year due to various challenges (cracked egg, weight loss, health issues) Ideally it is preferred that a female kakapo raises the chicks, however in some cases it is just not possible in order for the chick to survive. And at this stage, all chicks are very precious. All three chicks will be released into the wild on protected, predator free islands.
At this stage this comfort level with people provides an important training opportunity. These chicks are in a critical period of development in which they are open and receptive to new experiences. Anyone who has had a baby parrot in their life will be able to relate. Young birds will often let you do just about anything to them. Once they mature that open and receptive attitude tends to go away and the once sweet baby parrot starts objecting to being manipulated by biting or running away. To avoid this, good things like hand feeding formula, favorite food items and enrichment can be paired with anything you are trying to do with a young parrot, such as restraint training, wing manipulation, etc. This can have long lasting effect into the future and can teach a young parrot that handling is associated with good things.
Each bird in The Kakapo Recovery Program is carefully monitored on a regular basis. This involves, at a minimum, hour long hikes into the forest over difficult terrain. One of our main goals is to help make health checks and transmitter changes a stress free process. Kakapo just like companion parrots usually don’t appreciate being captured and restrained. One of our goals is to train these young chicks for these procedures so that when health check/transmitter change time in the field comes around it will be as pleasant as possible. The idea is that the birds will lead their wild lives as normal and occasionally a ranger will visit for a stress free health check or transmitter change.
This focus on training at just the right time in a young bird’s life can help make future care and specific procedures pleasant. However someday in the future the hope is for the population to become large enough that such intensive monitoring and care of each wild bird and chick won’t be necessary. The population would be stable and self-sufficient. Unfortunately we are not there yet. So for now training any birds we can to make their care as stress free as possible is a big plus.
Keep your on eye on my blog for more updates soon! | <urn:uuid:02557290-802d-4cd6-94f8-485e08a9a834> | {
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For generations people have used a variety of ways to mark the passing of the days leading up to Christmas. Starting in the protestant regions of Germany in the 18th and 19th centuries, it became popular to hold the season of Advent as a time for reflection and to prepare oneself for the celebration of Christmas. To mark the passage of the season, many families drew lines in chalk on the kitchen wall or put out an “Advent Clock,” a wreath with 24 candles on it, one more of which was lit each night at dinner on each of the days of December preceding Christmas. In 1908, Gerhard Lang, a German, published the first commercial Advent Calendar. As a child at Christmas time, his mother had made him a board with 24 candies stuck to it and let him take down one each morning during Advent. Remembering this when he designed his own calendar, Lang made one with little colored pictures so children could add a new one to the scene each day. The German Advent Calendars were hugely popular through the 20’s and 30’s. A myriad of new designs were created and sold all over the world. During the Second World War, however, production ceased when cardboard was rationed and it was forbidden in Germany to print calendars with pictures. Following the war, in 1946 a artist named Richard Selmer created a paper Advent Calendar depicting a little town street whose doors and windows opened up to reveal Christmas celebrations inside the buildings. He printed it and sold it throughout Germany, later building a business for himself designing and printing Advent calendars that was carried on by his children and grandchildren after his death. During this time, Advent calendars spread to the United States, helped along by pictures in a newspaper article showing President Eisenhower’s grandchildren all gathered around the Little Town Advent calendar, counting down the days until Christmas. | <urn:uuid:6acdebd2-0b82-447e-8100-f3058dba36c2> | {
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SCIENCES LEARNING AREA
Mr. W. Sloane (Head of Learning Area/Physics)
Mr. S. Drennan (Physics)
Dr. S. Wilson (Chemistry)
Mr C. Knox (Chemistry)
Dr. R. Hogg (Biology)
All pupils study Science to GCSE level. At Key Stage 3 they are taught Science by a single teacher and have six periods of Science per week.
Below is an overview of the topics covered by pupils at KS3.
KS3 Science Scheme of Work
1 - 7
Who am I (Tissues & Transplants)
Ecology Matters and Photosynthesis
Food and Diet
Bubbles ,bangs and basic ideas.
Light and Sound (will run into term 2)
1 - 6
Energy and Sustainable Living
Circulation and Respiration
1 - 6
Acids and Alkalis
Forces and their effects.
7 - 11
The Solar System and Beyond
GCSE Double Award Science
All pupils study the Double Award – Unitised GCSE Science course. Pupils are taught by Subject Specialists and have a total of twelve Science periods per week, (4 Physics, 4 Chemistry and 4 Biology)
GCSE Double Award Science is a two year unitised course. This course covers Physics, Chemistry and
Biology and is the equivalent of 2 GCSE qualifications. You have the opportunity to be awarded a grade A*A*–CC at Higher Tier or CC–GG with Foundation Tier. The majority of pupils will sit the Higher Tier papers.
This specification encourages students to develop their curiosity about the living, material and physical worlds and provides insight into, and experience of, how science works.
It prepares students for further study in A level sciences and also is a valuable preparation for a range of careers, not only in the fields of science and engineering, but also, for example, in areas such as commerce and public service which value problem solving and practical skills.
At present we aim to complete Unit 1 in Biology, Chemistry and Physics during Year 11. Pupils will sit external exams in these units during the first year of their GCSE course with all remaining units examined at the end of Year 12.
The table below sets out the assessment objective weightings for each examination component and the overall GCSE qualification:
Nature of Assessment
Unit B1. Biology Unit 1: Living Processes and Biodiversity
Unit C1. Chemistry Unit 1: Structures, Trends and Chemical Reactions
Unit P1. Physics Unit 1: Force and Motion, Energy, Moments, and Radioactivity
Unit B2. Biology Unit 2: Body Systems, Genetics, Micro-organisms and Health
Unit C2. Chemistry Unit 2: Further Chemical Reactions and Organic Chemistry
Unit P2. Physics Unit 2: Waves, Sound and Light, Electricity, and the Earth and Universe.
Practical Skills Unit
Students complete at leasttwo controlled assessment tasks from a choice of six. The two tasks must come from different subject areas within the specification.
Internal Controlled assessment
CCEA GCSE Chemistry
- Unit 1 Structures, trends and Chemical reactions
- Controlled Assessment
- Unit 2 Further Chemical reactions and Organic chemistry
OCR AS Chemistry
- Atoms, bonds and groups
- Chains, Energy and resources
- Practical skills 1
OCR A2 Chemistry
- Rings, Polymers and Analysis
- Equilibria, Energetics and elements
- Practical skills 2
Thinking (logical) skills | <urn:uuid:bd97320c-6ebd-4a42-9a97-a4ed3fbe3090> | {
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Dracula ophioceps is an epiphytic orchid in the genus Dracula.
Plant blooms in the summer and fall with a single 2 cm wide flower.
Plants are found growing in southwestern Colombia at elevations around 1600 meters
Keep plant in partial shade. Plant can be grown in cold to cool conditions. Pot the plant in fine bark with perlite or sphagnum moss. Water regularly and keep potting media moist.
Common Names: The The Snake-Headed Dracula | <urn:uuid:efb1be73-0aab-4f62-8b5c-9eef97db0ff8> | {
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61.1. Statement of the Principle of Typification. Each nominal taxon in the family, genus or species groups has actually or potentially a name-bearing type. The fixation of the name-bearing type of a nominal taxon provides the objective standard of reference for the application of the name it bears.
61.1.1. No matter how the boundaries of a taxonomic taxon may vary in the opinion of zoologists the valid name of such a taxon is determined [Art. 23.3] from the name-bearing type(s) considered to belong within those boundaries.
61.1.2. Objectivity provided by typification is continuous through the hierarchy of names. It extends in ascending order from the species group to the family group. Thus the name-bearing type of a nominal species-group taxon is a specimen or a set of specimens (a holotype, lectotype, neotype or syntypes [Art. 72.1.2]), that of a nominal genus-group taxon is a nominal species defined objectively by its type; that of a nominal family-group taxon is the nominal genus on which its name is based.
61.1.3. Once fixed, name-bearing types are stable and provide objective continuity in the application of names. Thus the name-bearing type of any nominal taxon, once fixed in conformity with the provisions of the Code, is not subject to change except in the case of nominal genus-group taxa as provided in Article 70.3.2, of nominal species-group taxa as provided in Articles 74 and 75, and by use of the plenary power of the Commission [Art. 81].
61.2. Name-bearing types of nominotypical taxa. The name-bearing type of a nominal taxon is also the name-bearing type of its nominotypical taxon [Arts. 37.1, 44.1, 47.1], and the fixation of a name-bearing type for one constitutes fixation for the other also.
61.2.1. If different name-bearing types are fixed simultaneously for a nominal taxon and for its nominotypical taxon, the fixation for the taxon at higher rank takes precedence.
61.3. Name-bearing types and synonymy.
61.3.1. If nominal taxa with different name-bearing types are referred to a single taxonomic taxon, their names are subjective synonyms at the rank of that taxon (but need not be synonyms at a subordinate rank).
Example. The different name-bearing types of Psittacus elegans Gmelin, 1788 and Platycercus flaveolus Gould, 1837 are considered to belong to a single taxonomic species of rosella parrot of which Platycercus elegans (Gmelin, 1788) is the valid name. Although the names are subjective synonyms at the rank of species, they are not synonyms at the subordinate rank of subspecies of Platycercus elegans, for which the valid names are Pl. e. elegans (Gmelin, 1788) and Pl. e. flaveolus Gould, 1837.
61.3.2. If two or more objectively synonymous generic names have been used as the basis for names in the family group, the family-group names are objective synonyms.
61.3.3. If two or more nominal genus-group taxa have the same type species, or type species with different names but based on the same name-bearing type, their names are objective synonyms.
61.3.4. If two or more nominal species-group taxa have the same name-bearing type, their names are objective synonyms.
61.4. Designation of a subgenus or subspecies as a name-bearing type. If a nominal subgenus is fixed as the name-bearing type of a nominal family-group taxon, it is deemed to have been raised first to the rank of genus. If a nominal subspecies is fixed as the name-bearing type of a nominal genus-group taxon, it is deemed to have been raised first to the rank of species.
Example. Planigale Troughton, 1928 (Mammalia) was established with the species P. subtilissima (Lönnberg, 1913), P. tenuirostris Troughton, 1928 and P. ingrami (Thomas, 1906) and the subspecies P. ingrami brunnea Troughton, 1928. In the original description, the latter "subspecies of ingrami" was designated the type of Planigale by the term "Genotype". P. brunnea Troughton, 1928 is the type species by original designation, not P. ingrami (Thomas, 1906). | <urn:uuid:81afb7e5-766f-4f58-80c9-f6e9f6d41909> | {
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Use a G Type document with class functionality to define the fields and methods of a class. A class object on the diagram of a VI can have a specific value for each field and can perform each method on the class G Type document.
You cannot remove class functionality after you add it to a G Type document.
After you add class functionality to a G Type, the G Type document is split into two views:
- Data—The fields that apply to a class object on the diagram of a VI. The palette contains controls and indicators you can use to set the fields of the class.
- Member List—The list of methods that are a part of the class and have access to the fields on the Data view.
Compare the fields and methods of the class you want to create with that of other classes in your project to avoid duplicating code. If two classes in your program share the same fields and methods, consider merging the two classes into a single class.
Complete the following steps to create a class using a G Type document.
Add a G Type document to your project.
Open the G Type document.
On the Document tab, click Add class functionality.
To add a class field, add a control or indicator to the Data view of the class G Type document.
To add a class method, drag a file from the Project Files tab onto the Member List of the class G Type document or click Add member on the G Type document toolbar to select a template to use as a starting point.
|VI for data member access
||Create an interface that other parts of your program can use to read or write to a class field.
You can only create a VI for data member access if a control or indicator is present on the Data view of the class G Type document.
|VI from dynamic dispatch template
||Create a version of a VI specific to the class. The program chooses the version of the VI to execute at run time based on the object the VI input accepts.
|VI from static dispatch template
||Create a VI that has the same functionality for all class objects it accepts.
|VI for override
||Create a VI that overrides a method on the Member List of a parent class in your project.
The option to create a VI for override is available only when the Member List of the parent class contains a valid member VI to override.
||Create an empty VI for the class.
||Create a property that can use VIs you create to access fields on the Data view. | <urn:uuid:732d6b56-4dd7-4a8f-af67-1acbdc5a1dde> | {
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Note: You must be registered in order to post a reply.To register, click here. Registration is FREE!
quote:Originally posted by Jim
...many points of mass cannot perform in the same way as one point of mass does.
L1 has been calculated to be an unstable position (see, among others, Cornish's article on Lagrange points, linked to Nasa's website) but the calculation assumes a circular orbit, and negligible third mass. The presumed 1987 (not 1986) position of Frey, is roughly consistent with L4, but in the circular orbit / negligible third mass approximation, L4 also is unstable for m2 / m1 < about 25.
My own numerical simulation, like that of Cornish but in the instantaneous rotating frame for an elliptical orbit, linearized in tiny displacements from the origin at L1, shows that for negligible third mass, L1 is only slightly more unstable for e = 0.24 than for e = 0. Small displacements grow exponentially roughly 30x per radian of the binary orbit.
A few months ago I mentioned on this messageboard thread, that a well-known astrophotographer had published a photo of a mystery object near Jupiter. This might have been a temporary accumulation of material at or near Jupiter's L1. Also I recall that some modern astronomers have seen faint accumulations of dust at some of the Earth/Luna Lagrange points.
Maybe resources should be allocated differently. Tombaugh found Pluto after only a few months of intense observation. Someone like Tombaugh could have found Neptune in a few weeks, without doing any calculus. That's much less costly than requiring hundreds of astronomers to learn calculus so that LeVerrier or Adams could calculate Neptune's position. Telescopes were better in Tombaugh's time than in LeVerrier's, Tombaugh had a better geographical vantage (Arizona), and above all Tombaugh had photographic plates. However if there had been less emphasis on the abstract, and more emphasis on empirical science and industrial arts in European schools, photography might have been developed earlier. | <urn:uuid:ac8899cc-5552-49ae-9392-92bfcb7411a1> | {
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Astronomy in Everyday Life
By Marissa Rosenberg, Pedro Russo (EU-UNAWE, Leiden Observatory/Leiden University, The Netherlands), Georgia Bladon, Lars Lindberg Christensen (ESO, Germany)
From astronomy to industry
From astronomy to the aerospace sector
From astronomy to the energy sector
Astronomy and medicine
Astronomy in everyday life
Astronomy and international collaboration
Throughout History humans have looked to the sky to navigate the vast oceans, to decide when to plant their crops and to answer questions of where we came from and how we got here. It is a discipline that opens our eyes, gives context to our place in the Universe and that can reshape how we see the world. When Copernicus claimed that Earth was not the centre of the Universe, it triggered a revolution. A revolution through which religion, science, and society had to adapt to this new world view.
Astronomy has always had a significant impact on our world view. Early cultures identified celestial objects with the gods and took their movements across the sky as prophecies of what was to come. We would now call this astrology, far removed from the hard facts and expensive instruments of today’s astronomy, but there are still hints of this history in modern astronomy. Take, for example, the names of the constellations: Andromeda, the chained maiden of Greek mythology, or Perseus, the demi-god who saved her.
Now, as our understanding of the world progresses, we find ourselves and our view of the world even more entwined with the stars. The discovery that the basic elements that we find in stars, and the gas and dust around them, are the same elements that make up our bodies has further deepened the connection between us and the cosmos. This connection touches our lives, and the awe it inspires is perhaps the reason that the beautiful images astronomy provides us with are so popular in today’s culture.
There are still many unanswered questions in astronomy. Current research is struggling to understand questions like: “How old are we?”, “What is the fate of the Universe?” and possibly the most interesting: “How unique is the Universe, and could a slightly different Universe ever have supported life?” But astronomy is also breaking new records every day, establishing the furthest distances, most massive objects, highest temperatures and most violent explosions.
Pursuing these questions is a fundamental part of being human, yet in today's world it has become increasingly important to be able to justify the pursuit of the answers. The difficulties in describing the importance of astronomy, and fundamental research in general, are well summarized by the following quote:
“Preserving knowledge is easy. Transferring knowledge is also easy. But making new knowledge is neither easy nor profitable in the short term. Fundamental research proves profitable in the long run, and, as importantly, it is a force that enriches the culture of any society with reason and basic truth.”
- Ahmed Zewali, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1999).
Although we live in a world faced with the many immediate problems of hunger, poverty, energy and global warming, we argue that astronomy has long term benefits that are equally as important to a civilized society. Several studies (see below) have told us that investing in science education, research and technology provides a great return — not only economically, but culturally and indirectly for the population in general — and has helped countries to face and overcome crises. The scientific and technological development of a country or region is closely linked to its human development index — a statistic that is a measure of life expectancy, education and income (Truman, 1949).
There are other works that have contributed to answering the question “Why is astronomy important?” Dr. Robert Aitken, director of Lick Observatory, shows us that even in 1933 there was a need to justify our science, in his paper entitled The Use of Astronomy (Aitken, 1933). His last sentence summarizes his sentiment: “To give man ever more knowledge of the universe and to help him 'to learn humility and to know exaltation', that is the mission of astronomy.” More recently, C. Renée James wrote an article outlining the recent technological advances that we can thank astronomy for, such as GPS, medical imaging, and wireless internet (Renée James, 2012). In defence of radio astronomy, Dave Finley in Finley (2013) states, “In sum, astronomy has been a cornerstone of technological progress throughout history, has much to contribute in the future, and offers all humans a fundamental sense of our place in an unimaginably vast and exciting universe.”
Astronomy and related fields are at the forefront of science and technology; answering fundamental questions and driving innovation. It is for this reason that the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) strategic plan for 2010–2020 has three main areas of focus: technology and skills; science and research; and culture and society.
Although “blue-skies research” like astronomy rarely contributes directly with tangible outcomes on a short time scale, the pursuit of this research requires cutting-edge technology and methods that can on a longer time scale, through their broader application make a difference.
A wealth of examples — many of which are outlined below — show how the study of astronomy contributes to technology, economy and society by constantly pushing for instruments, processes and software that are beyond our current capabilities.
The fruits of scientific and technological development in astronomy, especially in areas such as optics and electronics, have become essential to our day-to-day life, with applications such as personal computers, communication satellites, mobile phones, Global Positioning Systems, solar panels and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners.
Although the study of astronomy has provided a wealth of tangible, monetary and technological gains, perhaps the most important aspect of astronomy is not one of economical measure. Astronomy has and continues to revolutionize our thinking on a worldwide scale. In the past, astronomy has been used to measure time, mark the seasons, and navigate the vast oceans. As one of the oldest sciences astronomy is part of every culture’s history and roots. It inspires us with beautiful images and promises answers to the big questions. It acts as a window into the immense size and complexity of space, putting Earth into perspective and promoting global citizenship and pride in our home planet.
Several reports in the US (National Research Council, 2010) and Europe (Bode et al., 2008) indicate that the major contributions of astronomy are not just the technological and medical applications (technology transfer, see below), but a unique perspective that extends our horizons and helps us discover the grandeur of the Universe and our place within it. On a more pressing level, astronomy helps us study how to prolong the survival of our species. For example, it is critical to study the Sun’s influence on Earth’s climate and how it will affect weather, water levels etc. Only the study of the Sun and other stars can help us to understand these processes in their entirety. In addition, mapping the movement of all the objects in our Solar System, allows us to predict the potential threats to our planet from space. Such events could cause major changes to our world, as was clearly demonstrated by the meteorite impact in Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013.
On a personal level, teaching astronomy to our youth is also of great value. It has been proven that pupils who engage in astronomy-related educational activities at a primary or secondary school are more likely to pursue careers in science and technology, and to keep up to date with scientific discoveries (National Research Council, 1991). This does not just benefit the field of astronomy, but reaches across other scientific disciplines.
Astronomy is one of the few scientific fields that interacts directly with society. Not only transcending borders, but actively promoting collaborations around the world. In the following paper, we outline the tangible aspects of what astronomy has contributed to various fields.
From astronomy to industry
Some of the most useful examples of technology transfer between astronomy and industry include advances in imaging and communications. For example, a film called Kodak Technical Pan is used extensively by medical and industrial spectroscopists, industrial photographers, and artists, and was originally created so that solar astronomers could record the changes in the surface structure of the Sun. In addition, the development of Technical Pan — again driven by the requirements of astronomers — was used for several decades (until it was discontinued) to detect diseased crops and forests, in dentistry and medical diagnosis, and for probing layers of paintings to reveal forgeries (National Research Council, 1991).
In 2009 Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the development of another device that would be widely used in industry. The sensors for image capture developed for astronomical images, known as Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs), were first used in astronomy in 1976. Within a very few years they had replaced film not only on telescopes, but also in many people’s personal cameras, webcams and mobile phones. The improvement and popularity of CCDs is attributed to NASA’s decision to use super-sensitive CCD technology on the Hubble Space Telescope (Kiger & English, 2011).
In the realm of communication, radio astronomy has provided a wealth of useful tools, devices, and data-processing methods. Many successful communications companies were originally founded by radio astronomers. The computer language FORTH was originally created to be used by the Kitt Peak 36-foot telescope and went on to provide the basis for a highly profitable company (Forth Inc.). It is now being used by FedEx worldwide for its tracking services.
Some other examples of technology transfer between astronomy and industry are listed below (National Research Council, 2010):
The company General Motors uses the astronomy programming language Interactive Data Language (IDL) to analyse data from car crashes.
The first patents for techniques to detect gravitational radiation — produced when massive bodies accelerate — have been acquired by a company to help them determine the gravitational stability of underground oil reservoirs.
The telecommunications company AT&T uses Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF) — a collection of software written at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory — to analyse computer systems and solid-state physics graphics.
Larry Altschuler, an astronomer, was responsible for the development of tomography - the process of imaging in sections using a penetrating wave - via his work on reconstructing the Solar Corona from its projections. (Schuler, M. D. 1979)
From astronomy to the aerospace sector
The aerospace sector shares most of its technology with astronomy — specifically in telescope and instrument hardware, imaging, and image-processing techniques.
Since the development of space-based telescopes, information acquisition for defence has shifted from using ground-based to aerial and space-based, techniques. Defence satellites are essentially telescopes pointed towards Earth and require identical technology and hardware to those used in their astronomical counterparts. In addition, processing satellite images uses the same software and processes as astronomical images.
Some specific examples of astronomical developments used in defence are given below (National Research Council, 2010):
Observations of stars and models of stellar atmospheres are used to differentiate between rocket plumes and cosmic objects. The same method is now being studied for use in early warning systems.
Observations of stellar distributions on the sky — which are used to point and calibrate telescopes — are also used in aerospace engineering.
Astronomers developed a solar-blind photon counter — a device which can measure the particles of light from a source, during the day, without being overwhelmed by the particles coming from the Sun. This is now used to detect ultraviolet (UV) photons coming from the exhaust of a missile, allowing for a virtually false-alarm-free UV missile warning system. The same technology can also be used to detect toxic gases.
- Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites rely on astronomical objects, such as quasars and distant galaxies, to determine accurate positions.
From astronomy to the energy sector
Astronomical methods can be used to find new fossil fuels as well as to evaluate the possibility of new renewable energy sources (National Research Council, 2010):
Two oil companies, Texaco and BP, use IDL to analyse core samples around oil fields as well as for general petroleum research.
An Australian company, called Ingenero, has created solar radiation collectors to harness the power of the Sun for energy on Earth. They have created collectors up to 16 metres in diameter, which is only possible with the use of a graphite composite material developed for an orbiting telescope array.
Technology designed to image X-rays in X-ray telescopes — which have to be designed differently from visible-light telescopes — is now used to monitor plasma fusion. If fusion — where two light atomic nuclei fuse to form a heavier nucleus — became possible to control, it could be the answer to safe, clean, energy.
Astronomy and medicine
Astronomers struggle constantly to see objects that are ever dimmer and further away. Medicine struggles with similar issues: to see things that are obscured within the human body. Both disciplines require high-resolution, accurate and detailed images. Perhaps the most notable example of knowledge transfer between these two studies is the technique of aperture synthesis, developed by the radio astronomer and Nobel Laureate, Martin Ryle (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1974). This technology is used in computerised tomography (also known as CT or CAT scanners), magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs), positron emission tomography (PET) and many other medical imaging tools.
Along with these imaging techniques, astronomy has developed many programming languages that make image processing much easier, specifically IDL and IRAF. These languages are widely used for medical applications (Shasharina, 2005).
Another important example of how astronomical research has contributed to the medical world is in the development of clean working areas. The manufacture of space-based telescopes requires an extremely clean environment to prevent dust or particles that might obscure or obstruct the mirrors or instruments on the telescopes (such as in NASA’s STEREO mission; Gruman, 2011). The cleanroom protocols, air filters, and bunny suits that were developed to achieve this are now also used in hospitals and pharmaceutical labs (Clark, 2012).
Some more direct applications of astronomical tools in medicine are listed below:
A collaboration between a drug company and the Cambridge Automatic Plate Measuring Facility allows blood samples from leukaemia patients to be analysed faster and thus ensures more accurate changes in medication (National Research Council, 1991).
Radio astronomers developed a method that is now used as a non-invasive way to detect tumours. By combining this with other traditional methods, there is a true-positive detection rate of 96% in breast cancer patients (Barret et al., 1978).
Small thermal sensors initially developed to control telescope instrument temperatures are now used to control heating in neonatology units — units for the care of newborn babies (National Research Council, 1991).
A low-energy X-ray scanner developed by NASA is currently used for outpatient surgery, sports injuries, and in third-world clinics. It has also been used by the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to study whether certain pills had been contaminated (National Research Council, 1991).
Software for processing satellite pictures taken from space is now helping medical researchers to establish a simple method to implement wide-scale screening for Alzheimer’s disease (ESA, 2013).
Looking through the fluid-filled, constantly moving eye of a living person is not that different from trying to observe astronomical objects through the turbulent atmosphere, and the same fundamental approach seems to work for both. Adaptive optics used in astronomy can be used for retinal imaging in living patients to study diseases such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa in their early stages. (Boston Micromachines Corporation 2010)
Astronomy in everyday life
There are many things that people encounter on an everyday basis that were derived from astronomical technologies. Perhaps the most commonly used astronomy-derived invention is the wireless local area network (WLAN). In 1977 John O’Sullivan developed a method to sharpen images from a radio telescope. This same method was applied to radio signals in general, specifically to those dedicated to strengthening computer networks, which is now an integral part of all WLAN implementations (Hamaker et al., 1977).
Other technologies important to everyday life that were originally developed for astronomy are listed below (National Research Council, 2010):
X-ray observatory technology is also used in current X-ray luggage belts in airports.
In airports, a gas chromatograph — for separating and analysing compounds — designed for a Mars mission is used to survey baggage for drugs and explosives.
The police use hand-held Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) photometers — instruments developed by astronomers for measuring light intensity — to check that car windows are transparent, as determined by the law.
A gamma-ray spectrometer originally used to analyse lunar soil is now used as a non-invasive way to probe structural weakening of historical buildings or to look behind fragile mosaics, such as in St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice.
More subtle than these contributions to technology is the contribution that astronomy has made to our view of time. The first calendars were based on the movement of the Moon and even the way that we define a second is due to astronomy. The atomic clock, developed in 1955, was calibrated using astronomical Ephemeris Time — a former standard astronomical timescale adopted by the IAU in 1952. This led to the internationally agreed-upon re-definition of the second (Markowitz et al., 1958).
These are all very tangible examples of the effect astronomy has had on our everyday lives, but astronomy also plays an important role in our culture. There are many books and magazines about astronomy for non-astronomers. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking is a bestseller and has sold over ten million copies (Paris, 2007) and Carl Sagan’s television series, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, has been watched in over 60 countries by more than 500 million people (NASA, 2009).
Many non-astronomers also engaged with astronomy during the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009), the largest education and public outreach event in science. The IYA2009 reached upwards of eight hundred million people, through thousands of activities, in more than 148 countries (IAU, 2010).
Astronomy and international collaboration
Scientific and technological achievements give a large competitive edge to any nation. Nations pride themselves on having the most efficient new technologies and race to achieve new scientific discoveries. But perhaps more important is the way that science can bring nations together, encouraging collaboration and creating a constant flow as researchers travel around the globe to work in international facilities.
Astronomy is particularly well suited to international collaboration due to the need to have telescopes in different places around the world, in order to see the whole sky. At least as far back as 1887 — when astronomers from around the world pooled their telescope images and made the first map of the whole sky — there have been international collaborations in astronomy and in 1920, the International Astronomical Union became the first international scientific union.
In addition to the need to see the sky from different vantage points on Earth, building astronomical observatories on the ground and in space is extremely expensive. Therefore most of the current and planned observatories are owned by several nations. All of these collaborations have thus far been peaceful and successful. Some of the most notable being:
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile, is the largest astronomical project in existence.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) which includes 14 European countries and Brazil, and is located in Chile.
Collaborations on major observatories such as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope between USA and Europe.
In the above text we have outlined both the tangible and intangible reasons that astronomy is an important part of society. Although we have focused mainly on the technology and knowledge transfer, perhaps the most important contribution is still the fact that astronomy makes us aware of how we fit into the vast Universe. The American astronomer Carl Sagan showed us one of astronomy’s simplest and most inspirational contributions to society in his book, The Pale Blue Dot:
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
Aitken, R.G. 1933, The Use of Astronomy. Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Leaflet 59, December 1933, 33-36
Bode, Cruz & Molster 2008, The ASTRONET Infrastructure Roadmap: A Strategic Plan for European Astronomy, http://www.eso.org/public/archives/books/pdfsm/astronet.pdf, August 2013
Boston Micromachines Corporation, http://www2.bostonmicromachines.com/Portals/1703/docs/AO_101_White_Paper.pdf, 2010
Clark, H. 2012, Modern-day cleanroom invented by Sandia physicist still used 50 years later, https://share.sandia.gov/news/resources/news_releases/cleanroom_50th, June 2013
ESA 2013, Identifying Alzheimer’s using space software,http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/TTP2/Identifying_Alzheimer’s_using_space_software, July 2013
Finley, D., Value of Radio Astronomy, http://www.nrao.edu/index.php/learn/radioastronomy/radioastronomyvalue, Retrieved November 2013
Gruman, J. B. 2011, Image Artifacts-Telescope and Camera Defects, http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/artifacts/artifacts_camera.shtml, August 2013
Hamaker, J. P., O’Sullivan, J. D. & Noordam J. D. 1977, Image sharpness, Fourier optics, and redundant-spacing interferometry, J. Opt. Soc. Am., 67(8), 1122–1123
International Astronomical Union 2010, International Year of Astronomy 2009 Reached Hundreds of Millions of People: Final Report Released, http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iya1006, August 2013
International Astronomical Union 2012, IAU Astronomy for Development Strategic Plan 2010–2012. http://iau.org/static/education/strategicplan_2010-2020.pdf, June 2013
Kiger, P. & English, M. 2011, Top 10 NASA Inventions, http://www.howstuffworks.com/innovation/inventions/top-5-nasa-inventions.htm, June 2013
Markowitz, W. et al. 1958, Frequency of cesium in terms of ephemeris time, Physical Review Letters 1, 105–107
National Research Council 1991, Working Papers: Astronomy and Astrophysics Panel Reports, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press
National Research Council 2010, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press
Paris, N. 2007, Hawking to experience zero gravity, The Daily Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1549770/Hawking-to-experience-zero-gravity.html, August 2013
Renée James, C. 2012, What has astronomy done for you lately?, www.astronomy.com, May 2012,30-35
Shasharina, S. G. et al. 2005, GRIDL: high-performance and distributed interactive data language, High Performance Distributed Computing, HPDC-14. Proceedings. 14th IEEE International Symposium, 291–292
Schuler, M. D. 1979, in Image Reconstruction from Projections, (ed. G. T. Herman, Berlin:Springer), 105
StarChild, StarChild: Dr. Carl Sagan, NASA, http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/sagan.html October 2009
Truman, H. 1949, Inaugural Presidential Speech, http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/50yr_archive/inagural20jan1949.htm, June 2013
Wikipedia contributors 2013, Technical Pan, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_Pan, April 2013. | <urn:uuid:e02a57ce-e53b-4257-bed6-2f7da9eb2eb4> | {
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Oxygen saturation calculator
after/by Buehrer back to Calculators
Change the numbers and click on question mark.
A click on oxygen calculates oxygen.
Click on saturation calculates saturation.
Click on altitude shows the pressure conversion factor as oxygen (~atm).
(source: pressure of air: Schmassmann, oxygen: Weiss, CRC-Handbook)
precision: O2: 0 ... 25°C ±0.02 mg/l, >25°: <±0.3 mg/l; temperature range: 0° ... 70°
Remark: Altitude makes sense for oxygen saturation in lakes, because the contact time at surface is unknown.
For streams barometer readings should be used. | <urn:uuid:42c4811c-870e-41c0-ac89-d37861a031f4> | {
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Due to normal anatomy variations from person to person, you may have deep grooves (also known as pits and fissures) on your premolar and molar teeth. These areas are the most common areas to develop tooth decay.
Sealants can be recommended for:
- Baby teeth – Occasionally done if teeth have deep grooves or depressions and child is cavity prone.
- Children and teenagers between the ages of 6-16 yrs – When permanent teeth are erupting children can be cavity prone. This can be due to deep grooves that are hard to clean or a lack of effective and regular oral hygiene habits.
- Adults – Tooth surfaces without decay that have deep grooves or depressions.
Sealants can be applied by your dentist, hygienist or dental assistant. After thorough cleaning of the tooth surface, a flowable material is applied to these surfaces of the teeth and becomes a thin plastic coating that is easy to clean. Monitoring of the sealants for wear and chipping will be checked during your regular check up with the dentist. Proper home care, a balanced diet, and regular dental visits will aid in the life of your new sealants.
The whole team at Cowichan Valley Dental is amazing, and I have never trusted a dental office more. They are professional while still being fun, and my teeth have never looked better 🙂
- Maaike Aarsen | <urn:uuid:a7808845-060a-4093-8464-51be39b0b14f> | {
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WAX CRAYON SCRATCH BOARDS
Ancient Greek school boys wrote on wooden boards covered with layers of wax and scratched words onto the boards using a sharp stylus pen.
My Y3 class had a go at this technique, writing questions about the ancient Greeks using the Greek alphabet. They covered card with a brightly coloured wax crayon and then with a second layer of black. They used the end of paint brushes to scratch out each letter and then added Greek patterns for decoration.
EVERY GREEK POT TELLS A STORY
After visiting the British Museum and studying Greek vase designs, Year 3 created their own designs inspired by Greek myths, warfare and everyday life.
They drew their designs in black pen onto sugar paper and then created their own papier mache vases, using paint to reproduce their designs. | <urn:uuid:cd1311b9-a23f-4ebb-bc10-ef9b42d10e5f> | {
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In the highly complex world of risk management, mistakes, shortcuts and a lack of planning or regulation can lead to grave consequences if and when disaster strikes. But the digital revolution of the past several decades has contributed a number of innovations to help risk managers craft more effective and airtight strategies for facing such situations.
At a recent conference marking the 30th anniversary of Wharton’s Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, experts in the field discussed new products and solutions for addressing challenges associated with current and emerging risks. Panelists noted that science and technology play a key role in improving the modeling of risks and developing strategies for reducing future losses and aiding recovery.
“A poor decision can turn a natural disaster into what in retrospect looks very much like a man-made catastrophe,” University of Pennsylvania Provost Vincent Price said in his introductory remarks to the conference. “Such a level of complexity demands input not only from numerous and varied academic experts, but also from experts both in the government and the private sector.”
More Predictable Weather
Perhaps no area has attracted greater concern among scientists and technologists than meteorology, where computerized modeling has “really advanced our understanding of the intensity of storms and [storm] tracks” over the past 15 years, noted Holly Bamford, former acting assistant secretary for conservation and management for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Bamford was recently named chief conservation officer at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
A great deal has been achieved in terms of analyzing and predicting the intensity and track of storms, she noted, particularly as a result of major advances in radar. “This kind of technology is extremely significant for tornados and watching when a tornado actually hits and is causing damage,” Bamford said. “We’ve gone from just knowing that it is going to rain [today or tomorrow] to … businesses being able to plan knowing that rain is going to turn into sleet by 2 p.m. or 3 p.m.” Such advances allow schools or business to shut down early so people can arrive home before the worst weather hits, which in turn minimizes the potential human impact from severe weather.
“We’ve gone from just knowing that it is going to rain [today or tomorrow] to … businesses being able to plan knowing that rain is going to turn into sleet by 2 p.m. or 3 p.m.” –Holly Bamford
Tsunamis are another threat where technology has made it easier to manage risks. Bamford explained that in 2004, when the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami occurred, “we had six experimental buoys in the Indian Ocean that could detect tsunamis, and we had no global warning system.” Partially as a result, more than 200,000 people died in that event. “Today, we have over 40 tsunami detection buoys and we can not only detect a tsunami well in advance, but we can also detect storm surges from that [tsunami],” Bamford said, adding that there have also been numerous advancements in “understanding some of the supply chain risks, particularly in the climate and weather area.”
Looking to the future, Bamford said that the NOAA’s major challenge involves figuring out how to best use historic information, real time information and forecast information in the event of a disaster and getting that data to decision makers in time for them to act on it. Bamford highlighted key challenges in several different areas: First, improving NOAA’s capacity for risk communication. In 2011, “when a number of tornadoes touched down [in the U.S.], our forecast and understanding of those tornadoes was an A-plus. But in terms of the output, hundreds of people died. It wasn’t close to an A-plus.”
The agency held a public meeting to gain insights about how its response could be improved. Five hundred people came to the meeting, and the NOAA learned something unexpected: Giving people more advanced warning about the tornadoes and more lead time to take shelter didn’t save more lives. “What we saw was ‘more time, less lives saved,’” Bamford noted. “When people have a limited amount of time, they quickly and urgently [take] shelter. When they have more time [as in this case], people get into their cars. We expected people to take that information and actually take shelter. But if they have enough lead time, people don’t take the behavior you’re expecting.” Now, the agency is “incorporating social science early on into our decision making.”
A second challenge is to revamp NOAA’s pipeline for how it integrates information. Currently, NOAA’s storm forecast models and its river forecast models don’t necessarily communicate with each other smoothly. “People don’t care where the water is coming from; they just want to know when it is coming and how high it is,” Bamford pointed out. “So we are trying to integrate our science and data so we can do ‘total water analyses.’”
Although much of the discussion among experts at the conference concerned innovations undertaken by specialists trained in advanced sciences and technology, Robin Gregory, associate director of the Eco-Risk Research Unit at the University of British Columbia, noted that much of the innovation in long-term risk management is coming from the public. “Experts are surprised by that wealth of knowledge” emerging in public discussion groups and on social media, he noted.
And yet Gregory expressed concern about the unwillingness of many people to open up their thinking to viewpoints that are unfamiliar and emotionally unsatisfying, at least at first sight. A key question for him is: “How do you get people to move outside a concretized box and open themselves up to new views? Many people live in an environment where there is someone in the community — a priest, or imam or whatever — essentially telling them how they should think about issues. To get someone to open up to new points of view is something very difficult to do, but it is essential.”
“How do you get people to move outside a concretized box and open themselves up to new views?” –Robin Gregory
Another major challenge, he noted, is that “many of our early involvement techniques are focused on individuals, but the problems we’re talking about [nowadays] are collective problems. Simply aggregating the views of individuals is a misguided way to go about this…. We’re talking about important community problems; in many cases, global problems. So there are important issues of aggregation as well.”
At first, research efforts aimed at achieving collective awareness yielded very little informed participation in risk management, Gregory said, and “a lot of sham processes and cynicism on the part of the public.” The challenge for the risk management community in terms of boosting stakeholder engagement is how to develop approaches that incorporate social science concepts related to preferences, decision-making processes and other modes of thought.
“How do you do this, in the context of getting input from the public?” Gregory asked. “There is a lot of innovative work that is being done in risk management that is changing the scene — some really good work on [applying the social science concepts of] ‘mental models’ and ‘risk communication,’ and some very interesting work involving ‘deliberative polling’ with social media. Many of the methods that we grew up using – such as mail surveys, telephone surveys — are really outmoded. Social media is now changing things a great deal and is underutilized in terms of how we work with the public.”
When it comes to innovative approaches to engaging the public, Gregory added that “there is a lot of interesting work being done with climate change, where you try to develop survey mechanisms that mimic or model a good way to think about a decision. The concept is to start by outlining a sensible decision context. Talk about objectives; talk about alternatives. Address the tough trade-offs. Don’t just pose questions that people cognitively and emotionally can’t handle or answer. Build up that level of trust and think about cognitively and emotionally sensible ways of asking these tough questions.”
Another key challenge for Gregory is this: How do you get people to think about things they would prefer not to talk about? “How do you encourage dialogue about things people prefer not to discuss without being overly pushy or forceful about our views, but by encouraging a dialogue that involves sharing views? We’ve made strides, but we have a lot more to learn as a community to get people to face up to these challenges.”
Creating a Market for Risk Protection
Strides are also being made by applying digital technology to develop risk management tools that tackle the endemic poverty prevalent in the world’s lowest-income countries. Over the last 10 years, the economic losses to property due to natural disasters have amounted to $1.8 trillion, but of that, only $300 million dollars have been covered by insurance, noted Joan Lamm-Tennant, chief executive officer of Blue Marble Microinsurance, in her presentation to the panel. “The consequences for developing countries are disproportionally large,” she noted. For Haiti and Nepal, in particular, losses were larger than one year of these country’s GDPs.
“We are trying to create a market for risk-protection of the underserved.” –Joan Lamm-Tennant
This is especially challenging given the characteristics of the world’s rising population. Lamm-Tennant noted that there are seven billion people on earth today, but population experts anticipate there will be more than 9.3 billion by 2050. Currently, only about 1.8 billion people are in the middle class — only about one-fourth of the global total. But over 12% of the world’s population lives at or below $1.90 a day, according to the World Bank.
The good news, noted Lamm-Tennant: “We believe there is a chance that we can change the dynamics.” Over the next 35 years, as much as 50% of the world’s population will belong to the “emerging middle class,” she said, “but they are very vulnerable. They could easily fall to the bottom of the economic pyramid. So what do we need to enable this emergence? We need education, access to health and financial inclusion — access to credit, the ability to bank the unbanked, and the ability to finance risk — so insurance plays a role in this. How do we play a part in this eco-system? How do we enable this emerging middle class to emerge, recognizing that the answer is not all within our hands?”
To tackle the unique needs of the world’s poor and underserved, eight major insurance and reinsurance firms have established the consortium known as Blue Marble Microinsurance. As Lamm-Tennant explained, “We are trying to create a market for risk-protection of the underserved.” Unveiled at the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Blue Marble consortium comprises American International Group, Aspen
Insurance Holdings Limited, Catlin Group Limited, and Guy Carpenter & Company, together with Marsh & McLennan Companies, Hamilton Insurance Group, Transatlantic Reinsurance Company, X.L. Group, and Zurich Insurance Group.
Lamm-Tennant said that partnerships are vital for the success of this new business model. “Little did we know how this would involve other corporate and public partnerships. By showing good behavior to solve problems that are bigger than our own, we have invited other partnerships. It is not about capital; we represent 250,000 employees licensed in 170 countries.” | <urn:uuid:3cd0a884-6463-4689-bc53-f38cf27140b6> | {
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To see the future of technology in the classroom -- and how it will change the way classes look -- we should probably start with college. Although we can't predict how technology will change, we can make some assumptions about how it will trickle down. Of course, university students are now almost uniformly armed with laptops. But they also often work with Learning Management Systems like Blackboard to post papers, receive instructions or discuss assignments or lectures. This is already starting to show up in lower grades; not just to monitor school work, but to allow parents to keep up and keep tabs on students' grades, homework and progress.
This speaks to a larger trend that technology might lead to in the future. Customizing the student's learning experience has become a hot (and debated) topic. Chris Dede and John Richards are Harvard University professors who propose a digital teaching platform called Time to Know that allows teachers to formulate large and small group learning, as well as individual education. They envision a classroom where each student has a computer, but the teacher can press a button to make all devices freeze, capturing a large group's attention. Beyond that, the teachers would use the broader big-group lessons to let each child find an individual understanding of how that lesson impacts them, personally [source: Dede and Richards]. But how would that occur?
As Dede and Richards point out, our classrooms don't lack content. With the Internet and the technology that lets us connect to resources around the world, what teachers now need is a system to assess what content is going to be most valuable to their class. These digital teaching platforms will have assessments that will theoretically help teachers determine a curriculum that's best for their community, classroom and even each individual student, in real time.
This idea of customization through digital teaching platforms is interesting, but let's consider some of the actual tools that might be used in the future classroom -- as well as some warnings about how technology might impact education negatively. | <urn:uuid:8c93d431-3966-43b3-a7a2-40701a8a85a7> | {
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Scrabble word: AGRONOMY
In which Scrabble dictionary does AGRONOMY exist?
Definitions of AGRONOMY in dictionaries:
- noun - the application of soil and plant sciences to land management and crop production
- Application of the various soil and plant sciences to soil management and crop production; scientific agriculture.
- noun - the application of scientific principles to the cultivation of land
There are 8 letters in AGRONOMY: A G M N O O R Y
All anagrams that could be made from letters of word AGRONOMY plus a wildcard: AGRONOMY?
Scrabble words that can be created with letters from word AGRONOMY
8 letter words
6 letter words
5 letter words
4 letter words
3 letter words
2 letter words
Images for AGRONOMY
SCRABBLE is the registered trademark of Hasbro and J.W. Spear & Sons Limited. Our scrabble word finder and scrabble cheat word builder is not associated with the Scrabble brand - we merely provide help for players of the official Scrabble game. All intellectual property rights to the game are owned by respective owners in the U.S.A and Canada and the rest of the world. Anagrammer.com is not affiliated with Scrabble. This site is an educational tool and resource for Scrabble & Words With Friends players. | <urn:uuid:5201a2fb-d7b7-4086-8154-6e72761bc7cb> | {
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An account of the August 28, 1963, gathering for civil rights, culminating in Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. "A must-purchase for both school and public libraries."—SLJ
Common Core Alignment:
RI.3.10. By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2–3 text complexity band independently and proficiently. | <urn:uuid:d40809fb-3b77-494a-9b45-268132c05e2c> | {
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Chickens form strong family ties. A mother hen begins bonding with her chicks before they are even born. She will turn her eggs as many as five times an hour and softly cluck to her unborn chicks, who will chirp back to her and to one another. After they are hatched, the devoted mother dotes over her brood, teaching them what to eat, how to drink, where to roost, and how to avoid enemies. Male chickens (called roosters) are most famous for greeting each sunrise with loud crows, often acting as alarm clocks for farmers.
Chickens are fascinating creatures. They have more bones in their necks than giraffes, yet they have no teeth. They swallow their food whole and use a part of their stomach called the gizzard to grind it up. Chickens actually have many similarities to humans: the majority are right-footed (just as most humans are right-handed), they see a similar color range, and they love to watch television. Many also enjoy classical music, preferring the faster symphonies to the slower ones.
Having a private nest in which to lay eggs is extremely important to hens. The desire is so strong, in fact, that a hen will often go without food and water, if necessary, to use a nest. The nest-building process is fascinating. A hen will first scratch a shallow hole in the ground, then reach out to pick up twigs and leaves, which she drops onto her back. After she has gathered some material, she'll settle back in the hole and let the material fall off around the rim. She will continue to do this until her nest is completed.
As highly social animals, chickens can bond very closely to other animals, including humans. They will fight to protect their family and will mourn when a loved one is lost. When they have bonded with a human, chickens will often jump into his or her lap to get a massage that they enjoy fully with their eyes closed, giving every indication of being in ecstasy.
"It's just a chicken" is a retort heard often when concern for the welfare of chickens is exhibited. This comment reflects just how misunderstood these animals are. Chickens are just as deserving of our respect and compassion as are all other animals. | <urn:uuid:e6d5d55c-41fb-4423-a892-426847d7d8e0> | {
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African-Americans seeking to teach youth on Juneteenth
Published 4:08 pm, Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Ever since 70-year-old Charles Etta Smoots was a school girl, she’s celebrated Juneteenth and reflected on its historical significance.
“A lot of people don’t like it, but I think it’s a day we should never forget and we should celebrate,” she explained. Smoots, like other mature members of the African-American community of Plainview, wants children to learn what this day means. Also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, the holiday commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement in Texas of slavery abolition.
“Children, they don’t know and it’s good for them to learn,” Smoots said. “The older of us already know, but they don’t.”
Juneteenth committee member Carlene Willis agreed and said teaching children of its history is among the main reasons to celebrate.
“A lot of youngsters, if you ask them about Juneteenth, they really don’t know the meaning,” Willis explained. “And then it’s like, ‘oh well that happened back then and this is now.’ They don’t even realize what a struggle it was because they’ve had it so easy,”
A baby boomer, Willis believes her generation wanted so much more for their children than they had, and those kids consequently never realized difficulties they encountered.
“They don’t even realize what a struggle it was because they’ve had it so easy,” Willis said.
Vergie Williams echoed the sentiments of Smoots and Willis when it comes to getting children involved.
“I think it’s really for children to understand where they came from and who they are,” Williams explained. “I think knowledge is power and when you understand these things, both black and white can get along better . . . as far as youth is concerned, I’ve been around long enough to know all the changes and we need to build stronger ties.”
Jackie Ervine, president of the Juneteenth committee, said the observance is “all about freedom.”
“It represents the joy of freedom and the chance for a new beginning, “ explained her fellow event organizer, Ramona Hemphill. “Unless we expose the truth about the African-American slave experience, Americans won’t truly be free . . . Juneteenth allows us to acknowledge that.”
Willis, who is a first-timer on the committee, recalls a time about 20 years ago when Juneteenth celebrations in the community were on a much larger scale.
“There were big floats going through town,” she said of years past, and attributed much of those successful celebrations to former community leader N.C. Jenkins.
“We don’t have the support we used to have back then,” she reflected. “Everybody’s going their own direction, looking out for number one and not bringing the community together.”
But Willis, like others, remains hopeful that will change.
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Ask the Staff
Can you tell me what Japanese waterstones are made of? Do they have any lead in them?
While there are some true mined Japanese waterstones still sold (they are pretty expensive), most of all waterstones are manmade. They consist of a crushed aggregate stone material of an appropriate grit and usually have a clay binder mixed in. They are typically fired in a kiln to make the "brick" or stone. Waterstones cut quickly, always exposing fresh and sharp cutting surfaces as the stone is used. They are the preferred stones to use for many woodworkers.
I've never heard of lead being an ingredient or concern with Japanese waterstones.
E-mail us with your woodworking questions. If yours is selected for publication,
we'll send you a free Highland Woodworking hat.
Return to Wood News front page | <urn:uuid:c894a1bf-8bfd-497c-8b69-0ab090bfab2e> | {
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A system of carrying letters at a charge of one penny, in particular the system established in the UK in 1840 at the instigation of Sir Rowland Hill.
- ‘Moves towards free trade had led to the abolition of many indirect taxes on goods and services, and in addition the introduction of the penny post in 1840 reduced revenues from the postal services.’
- ‘Love letters were relatively rare before the introduction of Roland Hill's penny post in 1840.’
- ‘During the water mechanization wave, banks were among the first organizations of penny post which partially relied on cheaper transportation costs afforded by the build out of canals throughout England.’
- ‘By petitions, demonstrations, the mobilization of nonconformity, and the imaginative use of the new penny post, it created a widespread animus against the territorial aristocracy, and against Peel himself.’
- ‘This goes all the way back to the water mechanization wave where banks were among the first organizations to extensively use the penny post.’
We take a look at several popular, though confusing, punctuation marks. | <urn:uuid:88ab80b4-1187-41fb-91f0-a5b64b53178c> | {
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DISABILITY WITHIN THE APA
Integration of Disability in the International Context: APA Policy Update
By Day Al-Mohamed, JD
Late last year, APA, working in coalition with the Campaign for U.S. Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), co-hosted a briefing on the relevance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child with regard to Children's Health issues in the U.S. Dr. Harold Cook, one of APA's UN representatives presented APA's perspective at the event. The event offers a unique example of APA’s success in integrating disability into all its areas of advocacy.
The CRC was drafted with the specific purpose of ensuring the well-being of all children, regardless of national boundaries. Good physical health and mental health sets the foundation for overall physical growth and cognitive and social development. However, many children still lack sufficient access to quality health care services. Article 23 of the Convention specifically highlights children with disabilities and their right to special care, education and training to help him or her enjoy a full and decent life in dignity and achieve the greatest degree of self-reliance and social integration possible.
Psychologists have a unique role in that they, as health care professionals, are charged with the promotion of an exchange of information regarding the “care of disabled children, including dissemination of and access to information concerning methods of rehabilitation, education and vocational services.” In addition to addressing children as a whole, APA’s comments regarding children with disabilities included:
One out of every ten children or adolescents has a serious mental health condition. Mental health problems in young people can lead to tragic consequences, including suicide, substance abuse, inability to live independently, involvement with the correctional system, failure to complete high school, lack of vocational success, disability and health problems.
There is a lack of mental health services for children and adolescents. Less than half of children with mental health problems get treatment, services, or support. Only one in five get treatment from a mental health worker with special training to work with children. Families that are poor, are people of color, or have children with other disabilities or health concerns have an especially difficult time getting services that would identify, prevent or treat mental health problems.
More than 2.3 million children are infected with HIV/AIDS. The incorporation of pediatric treatment, and psychosocial and behavioral interventions are necessary as mutually reinforcing elements in a comprehensive plan to combat HIV on a national scale.
Maltreatment of Children with Disabilities
An estimated 300,000 children with disabilities are maltreated each year, two to three times more than children without disabilities. As a consequence of the lack of available research in this area, the knowledge base on maltreatment of children with disabilities is severely limited. APA encourages research to help identify risk factors (e.g., anger, depression, and stress) that may lead to abuse and neglect, and determine the multiple service needs of people with disabilities and their families.
Research estimates of the rate of disability among the juvenile justice population are 3 to 5 times that of the overall juvenile population, with learning disabilities and emotional disturbance being the most common types of disability among this group (National Council on Disability, 2003).
Psychologists have an ethical duty to promote human dignity and welfare, and APA has committed to the integration of disability into these efforts. APA members have and continue to contribute to the inclusive, accessible and integrated design, development and enhancement of educational, health, mental health, juvenile justice, socioeconomic, family, and community environments for persons with disabilities. Their work will hopefully set an example and lead to greater disability-inclusive initiatives both nationally and worldwide. | <urn:uuid:af5593ae-a2ea-4851-846b-8a6ecc5f1a48> | {
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Health advocates are concerned more children are being born with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) in Australia because women are getting mixed messages.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) changed the guidelines on drinking during pregnancy in 2009.
Since then it has recommended pregnant women abstain from drinking alcohol, as there is no safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
Around 3,000 babies a year are born with FASD, a number that may be rising when it should be falling.
Michael Thorn from the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education says the message is still not getting through.
"We know that too many of those health professionals are not aware of what the NHMRC guidelines say," he said.
"We suspect that the numbers are actually going up - we know that from the change in patterns of drinking among women of child-bearing age."
Anne Russell gave birth to her two children in the 1980s and says she was told there was no harm in drinking alcohol during her pregnancies.
Both her sons have suffered the effects of FASD.
"If I had known when my oldest son was born that alcohol was the problem my younger son wouldn't have been affected," she said.
Possible symptoms include distinctive physical disabilities, behavioural problems and brain damage.
Ms Russell says the behavioural effects in her family have been damaging.
"It was only after my young son with full FASD became an adolescent," she said.
"He started using drugs and alcohol, sex, he just went completely off the rails."
She expressed dismay that two decades later women are still not being told of the risks.
Research shows 50 per cent of pregnant women drink alcohol before they know they are pregnant and 20 per cent continue to drink after they know they are pregnant.
Some doctors unaware of risks
University of Sydney professor of paediatrics and child health Elizabeth Elliot says doctors should be taught about the risks of alcohol during pregnancy early in their training.
"Patients tell us they're getting mixed messages," she said.
"Some doctors will say it will relax you and won't do any harm, others will say it's best not to drink during pregnancy.
"Clearly this needs to be incorporated into curriculums.
"We're all obliged to do more training - colleges should include this in continuing education."
The former federal government promised $20 million for research and prevention of FASD.
It is not yet clear if the Abbott Government will honour that pledge.
Professor Mike Daube from the Public Health Association of Australia says government funding for education should be a priority.
"People don't like to be told that not drinking in pregnancy is the safest choice, but that's what the evidence tells us," he said.
"The Federal Government gets something over $7 billion a year in revenue from alcohol tax so $20 or $30 million a year for FASD would quite literally be a drop in the alcoholic ocean." | <urn:uuid:15398e3c-ca98-476a-bc25-c0c29ea5815a> | {
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The 1997 Christmas House Tour gave many area residents their first exposure to the Salem Athenaeum, Salem's "other" library on upper Essex Street.
The Salem Athenaeum, Essex Street
The Salem Athenaeum, while not as well known as the Peabody Essex Museum, House of the Seven Gables, or even the former Salem Lyceum Society, was the city's first permanent cultural institution. While organized as the Athenaeum in 1810, its roots actually date back to the founding of the Social Library in 1760 by Massachusetts Supreme Court Justices Nathaniel Ropes and Benjamin Lynde, the legendary physician, Edward Augustus Holyoke, and other members of Salem's cultural elite.
Fifty years later, the Social Library merged with the newer Philosophical Library. The latter had been organized in 1781 after the capture of the world reknowned Kirwan Scientific Library by a Salem privateer during the American Revolution. The result of the merger was the Salem Athenaeum, a private library with limited membership of 100 patrons.
Between 1810 and 1855, the new library occupied space at various locations in downtown Salem including the former Custom House Building on Central Street, Essex Place (now 177 Essex Street), and the Lawrence Block at the northeast corner of Washington and Front Streets. In 1857, thanks to a bequest made by Caroline Plummer in memory of her brother Ernestus, the Athenaeum moved into its brand new home at 132 Essex Street.
The Athenaeum played a central role in the development of many of Salem's men of genius. Nathaniel Bowditch, "the most famous of early New England scientists" (Dirk Struik, Yankee Science in the Making), devoured mathematics and astronomy texts in the Kirwan collection as a teenager, thus laying the foundation for his seminal navigational text, The New American Practical Navigator. Nathaniel Hawthorne, using his Aunt Mary's membership card (which she eventually gave to him), borrowed extensively from the Athenaeum's collection of novels, histories, autobiographies, and poetry.
Many other Salem citizens, including the great Impressionist painter Frank W. Benson and former U.S. Senator Nathaniel Silsbee, have availed themselves of the Athenaeum's resources. Today, a growing number of Salemites, members, associate members, and interested citizens, make their way to library's "new" home (1906) at 337 Essex Street to satisfy the thirst for intellectual and cultural enrichment that they share with their illustrious predecessors.
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The moth members of this Order of insects include a large number of diverse families. Moth groups include micro moths, leaf miners, clothes moths, plume moths, ermine moths, burnets, geometrids, silk moths, sphinx moths, tiger moths, wasp moths, noctuids, underwings and many others.
Most moths have bilateral symmetry but this large group of moths know as Geometrids are striking for the variety of “zigzag” markings and wings with serrated edges. At rest, this group holds its wings in a flat plane, perpendicular to their body. Caterpillars of this group lack legs in the center portion of their long, tubular bodies. Having two or three pair of clasping prolegs at the back and three pair of thoracic prolegs legs up front, they have adopted a looping form of locomotion. When disturbed, the caterpillars mimic a branching twig by holding on with their prolegs and stretching themselves erect and holding perfectly still. They can often be seen suspended below their food plant by a silken thread. | <urn:uuid:389e6300-f680-4432-b79b-bfe83eb077a1> | {
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We've all heard about the No Child Left Inside initiatives launched around the country in recent years by parents, educators and health professionals worried about what's been termed "nature deficit disorder" and its links to the epidemic of childhood obesity.
The implication is that we need to get our children outside and away from screens — computer, smartphone, television and other types — but a lot of us aren't sure why or how to do it. So we sought out people in Southern Oregon who spend their time educating people about the outdoors and asked them for some tips.
The heart of it is that you don't need a lot of equipment and planning. Just "get outside" and watch how nature has a way of giving kids millions of ideas for playful and educational things to do.
Convinced of the importance of raising nature-loving kids, a group of parents at Talent Elementary school asked the school board there to set up an Outdoor Discovery School that would provide all the academics but spend lots of time outside — romping, playing, going to parks and nature centers, hiking trails and going on field trips to the coast and wildlife sanctuaries of Eastern Oregon.
"Nature is inherently educational," says teacher Erin Mahaney. "Children naturally enjoy learning about it and are connected to it. We all are.
"As a society, we sanitize and structure all the time, but kids like to explore, build fairy houses and find things to keep themselves interested. They can and do entertain themselves," she says.
Standing amid a swirling mass of shouting, happy kids, Sue Carroll, an instructional assistant at the school, says, "You find nature everywhere. As long as you get away from the TV and get outside. You don't have to go up on Grizzly Peak."
At Coyote Trails School of Nature in Medford, director Joe Kreuzman and his staff teach a range of outdoor survival classes and retreats designed to "pattern the mind" by exposing it to the challenges (and setbacks) of nature.
Kids immersed in nature are more stable, mentally resilient, better at stress and stay out of trouble more than indoor-directed kids, Kreuzman notes.
"It teaches you to get beyond emotional reactions of fight or flight," he says. "It helps kids realize they're not the center of the universe. It teaches self-confidence, patience, respect. It teaches you to slow down. It teaches that nature, ultimately, meets all our needs."
Asked for tips on raising nature-loving kids, Kreuzman recommends making it a game.
"Keep it fun. Get them engaged early in life," he says. "Too often we go camping with loved ones and it's with hundreds of dollars of gear, all regimented. Look at the needs of the young ones, then you'll all have fun and a sense of wonder and will want to return."
Wendy Odhner, whose kids attend workshops at Coyote Trails, says she often takes her kids out to a creek, "just to hang out and experience what's going on."
Trish Styer, who is raising two sons in a nature-loving way, echoes the theme. "We let the kids do what they love, being active, climbing rocks, hiking, beachcombing, bouncing on the trampoline. We go tubing, canoeing and floating rivers. We don't do the extreme stuff. We want the boys to love Oregon, where there's so much opportunity to do stuff with extended family."
"Just get 'em outside, away from the TV and computer and let 'em enjoy it as they want to," says Ashland nurse Beckie Elgin, who writes a blog called "Wolves and Writing."
Elgin has raised her three children with lots of exposure to nature, including some years living and working on an Indian reservation in Arizona. One is now a professional snowboarder and two will graduate soon from college, one as a nurse and one as an anthropologist with a passion for raptors — and all in love with the big outdoors.
"What I would say to parents is don't feel you have to take them way out in the wilderness," says Elgin. "You can find nature in the backyard or neighborhood parks, with easy access. Start with picnics when they're small. Just sit in the grass and look for birds.
"They learn by touching. Let them get dirty. Let them roll in it and wade in water. Let them enjoy their innate ability to connect with nature. It's so natural for them. Let them climb on rocks. Do NOT instill fear in them. Most kids know what's safe and not. They learn caution on their own terms."
The "why" of loving nature can be harder to define than the how. Sure, it's fun, but it goes deeper.
"It's physically healthier. Everyone is happier outside," says Styer. "We assume it makes them better citizens of the world. When we're in nature, it's who we are."
Speaking of her nature-friendly childhood, Becky Elgin's daughter Hannah Hartsell says, "It shaped who I am today. I have always been more comfortable away from man-made structures, and this has led me to seek experiences that put me in close touch with nature.
"I share that with my siblings. My brother and I, on a camping trip in Eastern Oregon with my mom, hiked to the bottom of Hell's Canyon and back; in one day. We knew climbing back up would be rough, but we just couldn't get enough. ...
"My exposure to nature has fostered a sense of empathy within me for the natural world, and the other animals we share it with. This is expressed in the work I do now, rehabilitating sick and injured birds of prey, and educating the public about their importance in our ecosystems."
"Once they know and love nature," Elgin says, "all their lives, it will provide them with a sense of fullness and will be a home for them to return to." | <urn:uuid:3f1440cb-baa9-4ef7-9e0a-da761a4f2024> | {
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There appears to be a gap separating the minds of humans from even our closest animal relatives, the great apes. What is the future of our special status on Earth? Will the gap increase, decrease or remain the same?
The view that the gap is stable may derive from a belief that humans are no longer evolving—a perspective quite widely held. Could it be that cultural and technological advances mean biological evolution no longer matters to us? We have become so powerful in creating artificial worlds that we primarily seem to adapt the environment to us rather than the other way around. Modern medicine increasingly circumvents natural selection, and our global interconnectedness means there are no longer many isolated pockets in which human evolution can diverge. Has the evolution of our minds stopped?
On a moment’s reflection this scenario seems rather unlikely, and even reeks of arrogance, as it seems to imply that we are the final product—the height and endpoint of evolutionary achievement. I find it difficult to believe that after four billion years of life forms changing on the planet, it all comes down to the perfection that is you and me. Given our past, it seems more likely that we are another segment in the long chain of evolutionary change. Tens of thousands of generations from now, if we manage to not go extinct, our descendants will look back at us as early humans. In fact, there is evidence that even over short time frames natural selection is effective in bringing about genetic changes in human populations. Furthermore, natural or human-made disasters can create isolation rapidly—as could human success: just think of the possibility of humans eventually populating other planets. Those who do go extraterrestrial may quickly find themselves isolated and available for separate evolutionary trajectories. In sum, it is highly unlikely that evolution will stop with us.
What, then, is the trajectory of the evolution of the human mind? Some data suggest that over the last ten thousand to fifteen thousand years, as population density increased, brain sizes decreased. Given associations between brain size and IQ, this may reflect a decline in mental ability over the time we gained most of our amazing technological powers. Potential reasons for this decrease are changes in nutrition and climate, as well as the possibility that our societies, with extensive division of labor and social safety nets, enable the less mentally endowed to survive where in the past they would not have reproduced. Many of us get by without having the basic skills of hunting and gathering that had been essential for our forebears. Perhaps as technology does more and more of the hard work for us, our artificial world will put ever less demand on our minds. It is imaginable that in the future we will all sit in our lounge chairs and play in virtual reality. Is it possible that our mental capacities are dropping and the gap will become smaller?
It seems unlikely that our minds will dumb down dramatically as long as humans are needed to design and maintain these artificial systems. However, the forces of natural selection on humans today are puzzling. The rich, successful, powerful, beautiful, and well-educated people seem to breed less, not more, than most of the rest of us. In other words, they appear to leave fewer copies of their genes in the next generation than those not blessed with these seemingly highly advantageous attributes. One may therefore worry humanity will slowly lose its edge and the gap eventually gets smaller as a result.
It is also possible, of course, that we cut short our own success story more dramatically. In addition to radically changing the environment, our arms races have resulted in weapons that enable us to annihilate each other many times over. War, terrorism, or mishaps could quickly result in a dramatic unraveling of our civilizations. If we somehow mess it up, our minds may struggle to rebuild, especially as we become ever more dependent on technology. As Einstein warned, “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” Countless civilizations have collapsed. In addition to violent conflicts, common causes include habitat destruction, soil and water management problems, overhunting and overfishing, introduction of new species, and overpopulation. As we are increasingly linked into one system, and we face many of those problems on a global scale, it is possible our modern civilization too will collapse one day for similar reasons. A potentially bleak future awaits in which few survive and other creatures are given a chance to close the gap.
A scenario like the one in the 2011 film Rise of the Planet of the Apes (and its 2014 sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), in which we unleash a deadly pandemic while simultaneously enhancing the capacities of apes through biotechnology, is highly unlikely but not entirely out of the question. Genetic engineering has given us radically new powers to influence evolutionary pathways. Advances in biotechnology, such as the capacity to turn any cell into a stem cell and use it to grow body parts or entire organisms, will open up incredible opportunities. It is not far-fetched to assume that we may one day be able to alter brain development and enhance the minds of our closest remaining relatives. Humans are increasingly guiding evolution itself. Some call this “playing God.”
Humans have played God for a long time. At least since the beginnings of agriculture humans have practiced what Darwin called “artificial selection.” We encourage versions of plant and animal life that are useful to us and discourage those that are not. Artificial selection may also have been important in the shaping of our own species. Hitler’s genocides and attempts at breeding a superior race may be the first things to spring to mind, but we socially guided our evolution long before any notions of eugenics. Capital punishment and banishment from social groups not only enforce social norms but select against certain undesirable attributes, such as tendencies to rage violently. We may have domesticated ourselves much as we have domesticated dogs and horses. Domesticated animals are not only less aggressive and more cooperative than their wild counterparts but also typically sport smaller brains. So this proposal is in line with recent human brain size reduction and the overall decline in violence and increase in cooperation that Stephen Pinker argued has characterized recent history.
We have gained some significant new capacities for what we might call “auto-artificial selection.” Contraception is the most obvious, letting us curtail reproduction. Conversely, we can make sperm fertilize eggs in ways other than through sex. We will increasingly have the opportunity to deliberately determine not only the number of offspring but also their characteristics, from sex to disease resistance. Many people have understandable reservations about such interference. But imagine if you could make the genetic changes to stop your child from getting cancer, Alzheimer’s, or whatever else has plagued your family tree. It is a small step from preventing disease to influencing the intellectual capacities of offspring or altering the shape of the nose. This direct interference in the genetic makeup of the next generation—“artificial mutation” rather than just artificial selection—may lead to drastic changes as we fast forward tens, hundreds, or thousands of generations into the future. We are increasingly acquiring the power to shape our own evolution, and we may well end up using it to acquire greater mind power.
I predict that the gap will widen. In fact, there are signs it already is widening. Over the past century humans have improved in their average performance on intelligence tests by about 3 percent every decade. Some evidence suggests that brain size, contrary to the trend of the last ten thousand years, may have slightly increased over the last 150 years. We have more nutritious foods and more stimulating education. We bolster our scenario-building minds with ever more refined machines and technologies that allow us to measure, model, and control the world in increasingly powerful ways. Through the internet and other electronic networks we are connecting millions of minds and bringing about an explosive growth in cultural accumulation. Answers to most questions are only a few clicks away. Science is accelerating, and greater knowledge in turn will open doors for the already foreshadowed biological, as well as electronic or chemical, enhancement of human mental powers. We are getting ever smarter—and, one can only hope, wiser.
There is a second way through which we may increase the gap. We could make ourselves appear more special on this planet by reducing the capacities of our closest animal relatives—moving the other side of the chasm. I do not mean we somehow dumb down the apes; I am referring to driving them to extinction. Their demise would turn other species into our closest living relatives, thereby widening the gap. Let’s face it: we are in the process of doing just that. All the great ape species are endangered, and their numbers are primarily declining for one reason: human activity. Whether through habitat destruction, bush-meat consumption, or the pet trade, we are causing the demise of our closest animal relatives, perhaps not entirely unlike what we might have done to our upright-walking hominin relatives in the past.
In a couple of generations, our descendants might wonder at just how different they are from their closest remaining animal relatives: the monkeys. Apes may join Neanderthals and Paranthropus as half-forgotten creatures of the past. With the demise of our smartest animal relatives, the human mind would appear ever more special on this planet. And so our descendants may become even more baffled by their own apparent uniqueness. But we can prevent this from happening. Plan it for the apes. We can safe our ape relatives from extinction and we can encourage others to become more informed about the nature and origin of our special status on Earth. | <urn:uuid:b1f765c8-575d-474c-91fc-c4e9b10212a8> | {
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The Dead Sea is not all dead. Sure, it is one of the most extreme ecosystems on our planet, with a salinity so high that tourists can easily float atop its dense, briny brew. And with no plants, fish or other visible life, swimmers can be excused for assuming that nothing stirs in the deep. But long ago scientists discovered single-celled microorganisms called archaea living in the lake’s waters—causing many to wonder whether other simple life could also survive within the sediments below despite the absence of oxygen, light or nutrients.
Now Camille Thomas, a geomicrobiologist at the University of Geneva, and his colleagues have unearthed molecular fossils in Dead Sea sediments that suggest bacteria lived there as recently as 12,000 years ago. It is the first time scientists have discovered a life-form other than archaea in this ecosystem—which hints that such life might exist (or have existed in the past) in similar places across the globe and elsewhere in the solar system, including Mars. The results were published in March in Geology.
Thomas and his colleagues were part of an international collaboration that in 2010 drilled 430 meters below the lake bed in an unprecedented opportunity to better assess our climate’s past. After several years of analyzing the samples, Thomas’s team found archaea buried within the sediment. It was proof that these organisms could survive both within the lake itself and in the sediment below, where conditions are even more hostile. But Thomas still thought it was unlikely that anything other than archaea could survive there. “I was thinking, ‘It’s an extreme environment, and it’s only for the extreme guys,’” he says.
The team’s most recent finding upends that notion. Thomas and his colleagues analyzed layers of gypsum (a mineral left behind when saltwater evaporates) that were deposited 12,000, 85,000 and 120,000 years ago. Entombed within them, they discovered wax esters—energy-rich molecules that small organisms create and store when food becomes scarce. Because archaea cannot produce these molecules, and multicellular organisms are very unlikely to survive such hostile conditions, the team concludes that ancient bacteria must have produced the compounds.
But how did these bacteria survive? The wax esters carried traces of archaea cell membranes, so the researchers hypothesize that the bacteria scavenged remains of archaea. That survival mechanism would explain how the community managed to thrive in such seemingly desolate conditions. “Although we know there’s a ton of diversity in the microbial biomass, it’s always exciting to see what strategies these microbial communities use to survive in different environments,” says Yuki Weber, a biochemist at Harvard University, who was not involved in the study. “There’s still a lot that has to be learned about the microbial metabolism.”
Furthermore, Thomas and his colleagues found tantalizing hints that bacterial life may exist in the Dead Sea ecosystem even today. When they first opened a large vial of contemporary sediments, for example, they smelled rotten eggs—a telltale sign of hydrogen sulfide gas, which is often produced by bacteria. But the gas can also have a nonbiological origin, such as geothermal activity (for which Yellowstone National Park is famous), so the researchers are not certain that bacteria continue to reside below the salty lake.
Even if they do not, bacteria most likely live in similar conditions across Earth’s vast underground biosphere, Weber argues. And as scientists continue charting the extreme environments in which life can survive, they will better understand how and where it arises on Earth and other planets, he says.
Take Mars—in 2011 NASA’s Opportunity rover stumbled on gypsum, the same mineral that Thomas found in the Dead Sea sediments. Its presence suggests that as the Red Planet warmed, its oceans and lakes evaporated. But before they did, these bodies of water probably would have looked a lot like the Dead Sea—maybe even down to the biological processes, says Tomaso Bontognali, a scientist at the Space Exploration Institute in Switzerland, who was not involved in the Dead Sea study. Bontognali works on the European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover, which is set to land in 2021 in an ancient ocean bed on Mars. It will analyze sediment cores with a simplified version of the method used by Thomas’s team. The Dead Sea evidence “makes the hypothesis that life may have existed on Mars more plausible,” Bontognali says. | <urn:uuid:9a2d9825-1c70-4133-905d-e5e1e06a52f3> | {
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Most people are familiar with the word bird as a noun, but did you know that bird is also a verb? To bird by definition is to observe or identify wild birds in their habitats. In this post we will take a deeper look at what it really means to bird.
The essence of birding is simply watching birds. Anytime you or I stop what we are doing to watch and appreciate a bird in nature, we are birding. But obviously birding enthusiasts go a bit further. I have broken birding down into three categories based on what I have learned about the sport so far: Accomplishment, Identification and Appreciation.
Birders seek to see as many different species of birds as they can, and most birders keep a record of these sightings. You might be tempted think that recording bird sightings is somewhat obsessive, and you would be right. It is somewhat obsessive. Being obsessive about your passions is a good thing, if it helps you do it better. Faithfully recording bird sightings helps the birder to see what she or he has already accomplished and helps the birder set goals for what comes next. Now if you still think logging birds is too weird then maybe birding is not for you, but don’t get upset if I give you a hard time when I find your list of snakes.
When it comes to recording my bird sightings, I have set a couple ground rules for myself. First, I have decided to only count birds that I observe in nature. Zoos, pet shops, bird cages, etc… do not count. Second, I will only count birds that I have stopped to actually enjoy. Just because I happen to see a bird and know what it is doesn’t mean I am going to rush to write it down. I would not dare to impose these rules on other birders. They are my rules for me. One of the great things about birding is there are no official rules. Everyone is free to play the game the way that they want to.
One of my favorite things about birding so far is identifying the birds I have observed. It really isn’t as easy as it seems. There is a lot of help out there on the internet, but try describing something you saw to a computer. There are thousands of birds species flying around and many of them look very similar. Some websites are better than others, especially the ones that allow you to collaborate with other birders. I have listed some websites below that have helped me thus far, and if you know of more please comment so I can add them to the list.
Fortunately for a novice like me, birders have been struggling with the identification issue for many years. They have learned to break down the characteristics of a bird, making it easier for someone who has really paid attention to what they saw to narrow down the possibilities. Birders learn to look for things like body shape, wing bars, eye color and much more. They also learn to identify birds by their song or call. The key to identification is careful observation. You have to take the time to take in the whole bird and this always results in a much greater appreciation of the bird you are observing.
In my first post I mentioned how my broken foot pulled me out of the fast pace of city life and allowed me to stop and enjoy nature. I will be back to full speed soon and I am realizing that to keep this up it has to be intentional. Birding won’t just happen. I have to seek it out. I have to plan to go to beach to watch seagulls. I have to be willing to sit a little bit longer in the car when I see finches playing in a nearby puddle. I can’t appreciate birds on the run, and that pause, that re-acquaintance with nature is what I’m after.
I really like birds so I am excited about the opportunity to appreciate their beauty, character and uniqueness. Maybe you like birds too, or maybe you like something else about nature. I encourage you to stop and appreciate it. We have so many things to distract ourselves with today,and most of the time nature is nothing more background music. The world is a ever-changing place, and nature won’t always be the same, but those moments that we choose to stop and enjoy little pieces of it will always stay with us. Don’t miss out on all of those moments.
Until next time, | <urn:uuid:2e8128ae-da3f-4489-a827-be9d35ef8e1a> | {
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Stanford University News Service
425 Santa Teresa Street
Stanford, California 94306-2245
Tel: (650) 723-2558
Fax: 650) 725-0247
April 22, 2009
Mark Shwartz, Woods Institute for the Environment: (650) 723-9296, [email protected]
Each year, diarrhea kills an estimated 1.8 million people worldwide. More than 90 percent of the victims are children younger than 5 in developing countries. What makes the problem especially tragic is that it seems so preventable.
Diarrhea usually results from drinking water contaminated with human feces, coming in contact with a person with poor personal hygiene or exposure to a contaminated surface. About 1 billion people lack access to adequate freshwater supplies, and approximately 2.8 billion do not have access to basic sanitation, so the problem is particularly daunting.
Enter Jenna Davis and Alexandria Boehm of Stanford University. In 2006, Davis, an authority on sanitation in the developing world, and Boehm, an expert on microbial contamination in freshwater and coastal environments, were awarded a two-year Environmental Venture Projects grant from Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment to find solutions to the problem of diarrhea-related deaths among children in Africa.
The focus of the study is Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania. Historically, residents of the peri-urban communities surrounding Dar have relied on water from surface sources or shallow wells that are in close proximity to household pit latrines. "That means when people defecate, the waste stays under the house," said Davis, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and a fellow at the Woods Institute. "As a result, those shallow wells are very vulnerable to microbial contamination."
To address the situation, city water and sanitation officials have drilled a series of bore wells that tap into clean aquifers deep below the surface. High-quality water is then pumped into storage tanks connected to sets of four to six taps. "Most of the water from the bore wells meets the World Health Organization guidelines for E. coli bacteria in drinking water," said Boehm, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. "Concentrations are typically less than 1 bacterium per 100 milliliters water."
For a little money, residents can go to the taps and carry clean water back to their homes. Many people use the bore-well water for cooking and drinking. But so far, there has been little improvement in their overall health. City water officials want to know why and have turned to the Stanford team for answers.Household surveys
In the summer of 2008, Davis, Boehm and a team of Stanford students and postgraduates traveled to Dar to study 300 households over a 10-week period. The research team hired Tanzanian enumerators to conduct surveys and interact directly with the households. The enumerators visited each household four times. On the first visit, they collected behavioral information, primarily from female heads of households ("the mothers"), and tested stored water and the hands of family members for indicators of fecal contamination.
Approximately 7,000 water and hand samples were collected during the study. Laboratory analysis revealed very high levels of bacterial contamination on the hands and in the stored drinking water of study participants, even though the deep bore-well water collected at the source was generally of good quality.
"There appears to be something in the transport and storage that is contaminating the water," Davis explained. "It's probably happening when people use their fecal-contaminated hands to scoop water out of their home containers. Another possibility is that the stored water containers used for fetching water are not cleaned regularly."
A major challenge facing many households is distance. Some homes are 200 yards from the clean tap water, and a typical water container weighs 44 pounds when full. "We know that when people haul water from a distance, the first thing they do is drink it, then they cook, and then they wash their kids, themselves and sometimes their animals," Davis said. "So they may not have enough water for adequate personal hygiene."
For the second round of visits, the researchers separated the households into four groups. Each group was given generic information about how germs are spread through the five F's—feces, flies, field, food and fingers. "We used pictures showing several ways to prevent the spread of germs, such as boiling or chlorinating the water," Davis explained. "One of the four groups received only the generic information. A second cohort got the generic information plus the results of their water test. The third cohort got the generic information and their hand test results. The fourth group got everything—generic information, the water test results and the hand test results. The idea builds on basic health behavior-change theory: The more tailored and less generic the message is, the more effective it should be at motivating change."'More is not better'
The preliminary results were surprising. Groups that received hand data or water data alone seemed to have a more positive response than households that got both hand and water test results. "It turns out that more is not better," Davis said. "Even though we spent an equal amount of time discussing water-related strategies and hand hygiene-related strategies, there was a bigger behavioral change on the hand hygiene side than on the water side."
The researchers are in the process of finalizing the survey data from their Environmental Venture Project. Meanwhile, in September 2008, Davis and her colleagues were awarded a three-year National Science Foundation grant to expand the number of households and the length of the study. "We're aiming for a full year, which would allow us to monitor behaviors in both the dry and wet seasons," she said. Data collection will begin in mid-2009, and the results could lead to low-cost solutions that reduce the incidence of diarrhea for tens of millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa and throughout the developing world.
Other members of the Stanford research team are Gary Schoolnik, professor of medicine and of microbiology and immunology; Abby King, professor of health research and policy and of medicine; and Cynthia Castro, research associate at the Stanford Prevention Research Center.
Mark Shwartz is communications manager at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford.
Jenna Davis, Woods Institute for the Environment and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: (650) 725-9170, [email protected]
Email [email protected] or phone (650) 723-2558. | <urn:uuid:6854c1da-ace6-43d6-b9f9-283b950cf7e3> | {
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In summer, cyclists must adjust to heat. Many of us must adjust to all kinds of hot weather from the scouring, dry heat of the United States' West Coast to the wilting humidity of the South.
Heat stress occurs when high humidity, radiant heat from the sun and elevated air temperature combine to impede your body's ability to dissipate heat. It also places considerable demands on your body's physiological control mechanisms.
To train and compete at your best all summer, it is important to understand how your body copes with heat, and what you can do to keep cool.
Eliminating Heat From Your Body
Your skeletal muscles can use only about 25 percent of the energy available to them to generate force; the other 75 percent of energy is released as heat during prolonged cycling, heat production can potentially raise your body temperature nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit every five to eight minutes.
If the body did not adjust to this condition, exercise would be limited to about 20 minutes before elevated body temperature caused fatigue.
But exercise can be sustained for longer than 20 minutes, so your body must possess some mechanism to dissipate heat. In fact, there are four ways that excess heat produced by muscle contraction can be removed from the body: conduction, convection, radiation and evaporation.
Excessive heat strain during exercise usually does not occur unless temperature and humidity are high, the air is stagnant, you do not rehydrate effectively, or you are not adequately acclimatized to the heat all of which happen during the summer months.
However, when cycling, the wind moving across your body can usually remove the heat produced. This is convective heat lost, and is related directly to wind speed.
Sweating is important to help regulate body temperature during hard training. As sweat evaporates, heat is removed from your body. However, humidity impairs this cooling mechanism, since air is already saturated with water and sweat doesn't evaporate as easily. | <urn:uuid:c579155f-a3ed-4b6c-be48-9398d975a7f6> | {
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Martial arts is the collective name given to a variety of hand-to-hand fighting styles, or fighting styles that involve weapons that are used as an extension of the body. Most fighting styles are unique to a particular culture, such as Karate to Japan, and TaeKwonDo to Korea. While many have roots in the period BC, there are variations of the styles that evolved in the last 200 years.
Interestingly enough, Karate is more of an anti-martial art, designed to help common folk prepare to fight against martial rule, during a time of weapons bans. Kara te do means "empty hand way" referencing this style without weapons. TaeKwonDo means "the way of the hands and feet".
Most martial arts were originally intended to be used for serious fighting, but in the modern age they are mainly practised as sports, with strictly codified rules; indeed some, such as Judo, were developed from other martial arts purely for sporting purposes. Many people, especially women, also learn martial arts for self-defense. | <urn:uuid:1cc3a5ad-b648-4cb4-8962-4a51e93d576c> | {
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Facebook, Twitter and different technology blogs have been talking very much about 3D printing. Due to its impact on product development and innovation, this kind of technology continues to soar in terms of popularity. According to IT experts, 3D printing cost will be reduced that it will start to spread in the consumer market. But before it reaches you, here are the known advantages of 3D printing (also called additive manufacturing) to the world.
The world’s largest brands including Coca-Cola and Converse have been using 3D printing technology to cut a huge slab in expenses. Compared to traditional manufacturing methods, additive manufacturing can reduce cost up to 70%. The 3D printing tech will help you achieve this through lower shipping and packaging prices for overseas orders, lesser involvement of manpower and cheaper but more reliable raw materials.
If 3D printing technology was fully adopted, it would replace prototyping injection mold tools and other expensive equipments. With this kind of manufacturing, you can generate copies of parts or the actual replica of an object with lower amounts than traditional prototyping and tooling. Not to mention that time saved with 3D printing, can help your savings and earnings grow exponentially.
If traditional prototyping is a running horse cart, 3D printing technology is a sports car on its top speed. That is how they differ when it comes to speed of production. They give you the same results but the time frame of achieving those is very much quicker with additive manufacturing. Industrial 3D printers can produce objects in a matter of hours. While with the traditional methods, most prototyped products take up to several days or even weeks.
With 3D printing, you may be able to print almost anything that you want to replicate. Because of that, if a team of medical professionals collaborated with 3D printing specialists, the result would be groundbreaking and amazingly beneficial. It was anticipated that 3D printing would provide huge contributions in the field of health and wellness.
Apart from prosthetic limbs, medical facility researchers are looking forward to a day of producing vital organs such as heart, kidneys, lungs and more with 3D printing. This would eliminate the need for organ donors and would make the organ transplant transfer process faster with a higher success rate.
Manufacturing with 3D printers can also cause huge benefits to the environment. Traditional prototyping leaves an awful amount of waste and this is not a good thing. In aircraft production, 90% of the materials are being thrown away. But with 3D printing technology the amount of leftovers may be reduced for more than 50%. Apart from lesser waste, this eco-friendly method can save more energy and human resources. You can also save space by ditching the old machines with separate functions as with 3D printing technology, you won’t need an extra equipment to create a part of the product.
Quality Products and New Designs
The 3D printing technology offers creation of sustainable, marketable and top-class products. Apart from creating perfect replicas with accurate size and description, additive manufacturing lets you explore on different types of raw materials. You can also play along with discovering new shapes, design and structures for the benefit of fashion.
Jensen Carlyle writes about business and manufacturing technology topics such as process optimization and continuous improvement. | <urn:uuid:4d2a8d1f-7ad5-4381-9e98-0b273076abe3> | {
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Are You Also Making the 10 Common Toothbrush Mistakes?
Toothbrush is Indispensible to Oral Hygiene
Toothbrushing is such an ingrained habit, few people think twice about it. Step one in your daily routine- brushing your pearly whites ‘properly’ is what is stressed upon right from childhood. However, mistakes are evidently made in this otherwise deeply ingrained habit. Below are 10 mistakes that you are probably making. Image Courtesy: Getty Images.Loading...
Using the Wrong Toothbrush
No, we don’t mean that you are using someone else’s toothbrush; but the one that doesn’t suit your mouth. Consider the size of your mouth when picking a toothbrush, and the comfort of the handle before, recommends the American Dental Association. If you are straining to open wide enough to let the brush in, the brush is probably too big. Image Courtesy: Getty Images.
Picking the Wrong Bristles
Some toothbrushes have angled bristles, others straight; hard bristles and soft. So which is better? Bristles that are too stiff are known to aggravate gums. Hence a soft bristled brush is the perfect choice. One must also bear in mind that the bristles should be sturdy enough to remove the plaque but not cause damage to the teeth. Image Courtesy: Getty Images.
Not Brushing Often
With too much time between brushings, he says, bacterial plaque will build up, boosting the risk of gum inflammation and other problems. Brushing thrice a day softly is ideal. But not more than that as since it could result into exposure of the root of the tooth leading to irritation. Image Courtesy: Getty Images.
Not Brushing Long Enough
Brushing should last at least two minutes, three minutes is even better. Divide the mouth into quadrants and spend 30 seconds a quadrant. Some electric toothbrushes include built-in timers for your convenience. Image Courtesy: Getty Images.
Brushing Too Hard
Excessive brushing could expose the root of the tooth to irritation, and that could in turn irritate the gums. Brushing vigorously can also erode tooth enamel. The trick is to brush very gently for two to three minutes. Image Courtesy: Getty Images.
Not Brushing Correctly
Do you know the correct technique of brushing? Aim your bristles at the gum line at a 45-degree angle and do short strokes or vibrations. Softly brush up and down your teeth, not across your teeth. The strokes should be vertical or circular, not horizontal. Image Courtesy: Getty Images.
Ignoring the Inside of Your Teeth
Most people forget to brush the inner surfaces of teeth -- the surface that your tongue presses against. Skipping your back teeth, molars and pre-molars while brushing can cause cavities and also lead to bad breath. Image Courtesy: Getty Images.
Not Rinsing Properly
After brushing, rinsing the toothbrush and your mouth with water is extremely crucial. Bacteria are known to grow on an un-rinsed toothbrush. Thoroughly washing the brush will help you getting rid of any leftover toothpaste and particles stuck in the bristles. Image Courtesy: Getty Images.
Ignoring the Tongue
The tongue should be given some much-needed attention too. A tongue cleaner or scraper should be used to kill the bacteria present in that area of the mouth and hence, freshen your breath. Image Courtesy: Getty Images.
Using the same Toothpaste for Long
The American Dental Association recommends getting a new brush every three or four months, or even sooner if the bristles look frayed. Image Courtesy: Getty Images. | <urn:uuid:497cab0b-e1c0-47fc-a9c9-81261e765b50> | {
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April 1, 2010 12:46:00 PM
Rob Hardy - [email protected]
The Black Death struck Europe in the 14th century, killing hundreds of millions of people. There was little understanding of even the most basic causes and effects that might have been involved in the spread of the disease. It is not true, however, that the scientific insights about disease that were to start in the Enlightenment and continue to our own times represented the first understanding of the plague as something other than a magical curse or a lesson from God. In Italy, the plague recurred in an epidemic from 1575 to 1578, and during this particular outbreak, people began some primitive but essential epidemiology and even societal treatment.
This is the surprising lesson of Cultures of Plague: Medical Thinking at the End of the Renaissance (Oxford University Press) by Samuel K. Cohn Jr., an astonishingly detailed look at the beginnings of an intellectual revolution. The author, a specialist in the Italian Renaissance and in the history of disease, reminds us that there was "no simple binary progression from a supposed premodern to modern medical thought." The doctors, medical workers, and even gatekeepers in the middle of the plague in Milan, Padua, and Venice observed, looked at the illness in new ways, and wrote about what they saw.
The writings are essential to Cohn''s study, and represent a basic shift in the way the plague was documented. Included here are graphs that show by year the number of Italian tracts, broadsheets, and other imprints about the plague; there is an unmistakable spike around 1576, and no such dramatic increase in similar graphs from French- and German-speaking regions. The writings before this time, written always by university-trained doctors, concentrated on the classic ancient understanding of disease. Galen, Hippocrates, and Arab authorities were cited, and explanations were based on the theory of humors, the configuration of stars and planets, and of course the doings of God or of Satan.
The rush of tracts for this particular epidemic represented a change. Barber-surgeons might write about the plague, and drug-sellers, merchants, lawyers, artisans, clerics, and minor officials all got into the act, a printed resource which Cohn has mined as the bibliographical backbone of his book, "a wide spectrum of authors from cardinals to cobblers, in prose and verse." The tracts from this time were not just in academic Latin but in the vernacular. That there was a broader
participation by non-doctors partially explains why the plague was this time examined in a new way, but at least some of the doctors were looking at disease anew, too.
Many of the doctors continued to analyze and explain the disease in the same way they had done for centuries, concentrating on signs and symptoms of illness that befell the individual, and proposing individual treatments. Some of these treatments, like bleeding, were quackery, but doctors also recommended sensible practices like handwashing, covering one''s mouth and nose with a sponge or bread soaked in vinegar when near infected people, and using smoke and scents as disinfectants.
Doctors seemed (to themselves) to be making a difference with such steps, although it must be said that whatever disease they were seeing, it was not the virulent type of Black Death of a couple of centuries before. Doctors'' tracts at that time despaired of understanding or treating the illness, urging the only recourse available, praying to God. Now doctors had a new confidence, and it was gained in part by disregarding ancient teachings. Galen, for instance, had barely a notion of transmission of disease by goods or persons.
The doctors of the plague that is the subject of this book may have used Galen and other ancients as an initial framework for understanding the disease, and they used plenty of Greek and Latin in describing buboes and other symptoms, but they did more. Lists of symptoms were made not just from what the ancients would have predicted, nor from authors about plagues in the centuries before, but from direct observation. Experience and even experimentation began to be stressed; following abstract ancient theories was not going to give the understanding that these doctors made. It seems like a small step, but doctors began documenting that mortality was occurring within households, getting an idea of the concept of contagion and disease transmitted from one person to another rather than being "miasmic," transmitted by air that was somehow bad.
The plague tracts also documented an understanding that the illness, while not limited to afflicting the poor, did so disproportionately. Galen had insisted that a true plague would cut down the privileged; one author had written during the original Black Plague that "the planets looked down on rich and poor alike." In the recurrence Cohn writes about, however, even granted that the elite left their stricken cities, it was recognized that the poor endured the most mortality. There were attempts to explain why this should be so. One author wrote that plague struck the lower classes because they were "forced to eat bad and corrupt food, stinky bread, grass, and unknown roots". The poor could not count upon clean water; polluted water began to be recognized as a cause of disease. The poor lived in filth; there was lack of plumbing in their houses, buckets of excrement were kept under the beds, the windows (if any) were sealed, and dirt accumulated. Seeing the social effects of the plague in this new way resulted in new ways of treatment.
"To judge from their published treatises," writes Cohn, "the crisis of 1575 fundamentally altered doctors'' approach to and thinking about plagues from the individual patient to the community."
The causes of plague were social, so the solutions had to be political. Recommendations were made about how the cities ought to issue decrees about administering the sick, building new hospitals, enacting quarantines, cleaning the streets, executing those who dealt in infected goods, and other public measures. At least some of these decrees were put into action, and in addition, charity to improve the lot of the poor was enforced. There was a place for religious processions and other ceremonies, but secular governments were in charge of making practical changes. The point of view developed in this outbreak attributed any triumph over disease to rulers and civil servants, the subjects of many subsequent literary celebrations.
Of cours,e the doctors and citizens had no real knowledge of the disease roles of rats, fleas and Yersinia pestis, but the capacity to look at clinical evidence without the burden of forcing it into ancient medical theories did enable some important changes, and was a foundation for better understanding as the centuries went on. Cohn, in an erudite and beautifully organized book, has cited a multitude of tracts, and quoted many of them here to show the beginnings of these initial ideas about how governments should involve themselves in the administration of health procedures for their citizens. Four centuries later, we are still trying to answer the same question for our own times.
Rob Hardy is a local psychiatrist who reviews books for a hobby. His e-mail address is [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:a54f6432-3f11-4a4d-a09d-f0d2bf456393> | {
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Following the fall of the Roman Empire in the year 476, England proceeded to go through a series of 4 historical periods. Known as the Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, Medieval, and the Renaissance periods, they are long spans of time that are clearly divided by major historical events. The Anglo-Saxon period begins with the fall of the Roman Empire. England is then invaded by people from the northern region of Europe. The Anglo-Norman period begins with the French invasion of England, which lasts until the Hundred Years War in about 1300. The Medieval period follows and lasts until the combination of the invention of the printing press and the onset of the Protestant Reformation. The period that follows the medieval is the Renaissance, but is also known as Early Modern.
Of all of these events, the event that has the strongest influence on religion throughout British history is the Protestant Reformation, which occurred between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period. This event drastically changed the culture and the view of religion in society. The protestant reformation forever transformed religion in Europe.
The Middle Ages consist of the Anglo-Saxon period, Anglo-Norman period, and the Middle English period, which is from the fifth century to the fifteen hundreds. During the Middle Ages Catholicism was the only religion that was practiced. “The church was not simply a religion and an institution; it was a category of thinking and a way of life” (People & Ideas: The Roman Catholic Church in Medieval Europe). Catholic at this time was the “classical” Christianity. The culture in the middle ages was created around the Catholic Church. “It is generally acknowledged that the Middle Ages were an ‘age of faith’ in which rel...
... middle of paper ...
...nsing of blood for sins. “Being with thy deare blood clene washt from sin, May live forever in felicity” (Spenser 998). This shows that religion was still around but just was not in control of every aspect of life.
In conclusion, throughout all of the events that occurred in Europe, the Protestant Reformation had the strongest influence on religion throughout British history. The Protestant Reformation bought the people a new society and culture that was free to make their own decisions. They are able to teach themselves their own religion by reading and owning their own Bible. People were free to write and live how they choose. All of this was accomplished with the technology of the Printing Press being invented and the Protestant Reformation. This is why the Protestant Reformation has the strongest influence on religion throughout British history.
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- There are many different beliefs on how and why the Roman Empire ended. It was strong for a time. It was founded on geography, military strength, and wise leadership. Throughout Europe, Asia Minor, and North Africa, the Roman Empire spread. There were multiple causes to the fall of Rome including economic reasons, political reasons, military reasons invasions and threats by both internal and external forces 476 a.d was the ending year for most of the Empire, but the Eastern Empire grew and contributed to society for another thousand years.... [tags: Roman Empire, fall of the Roman Empire, history, ]
547 words (1.6 pages)
- ... It seems the author assumes the audience reading it has an understanding of the time frame and history of Rome, and also that they already know some things about what is going on in Rome and around Rome at this time. The issue this article seems to be addressing is the theories blaming primarily a single reason as why Rome fell when there are many reasons why. The article appears to place the blame primarily on the economic and military problems of Rome, caused by the Emperors of Rome, and an increasingly stronger threat from the Celtic and Germanic tribes, and the Sassanid Persian Empire.... [tags: Roman Empire, Decline of the Roman Empire]
712 words (2 pages)
- When the fall of the Roman Empire is discussed in today’s time, usually the focus is on when the Western half of the empire expired in 476 CE, but considering that the eastern half – or the Byzantine Empire as it was called at the time – was still a part of the empire as a whole, the true fall of the Roman Empire was in 1453 CE, which is when the Byzantine Empire was taken over by the Ottoman Turks. The reasoning behind the fall of the Roman Empire is complex; there were numerous issues that assisted in the empire’s demise.... [tags: Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire]
1280 words (3.7 pages)
- ... This lead to a decrease in long-distance trade and a decrease in production. Since taxation became less relevant, wealth started to center around land ownership instead. The wealthy were the ones that owned the most land, however, this development prevented any revival of the taxation centered Roman Empire. There was also a shift from a mostly civilian nobility to a more military one. With the increase of the Germanic people within the Roman Empire more value was placed on the military and more and more nobles joined military ranks.... [tags: Roman Empire, Ancient Rome]
855 words (2.4 pages)
- Reasons for the Fall of the Roman Empire (Second Revise) Ancient Rome origin of the many romance languages such as; Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian ( “Ancient Rome”), and home of the beautiful, elegant buildings and long Roman roads and the making of aqueducts.Let 's not forget the ingenious Roman theater, literature, and art. Rome was the birthplace of satire, and it 's brilliant way of sarcastic humor; it 's astonishing literature including the famous work the Aeneid by Virgil, and realistic statues and incredible mosaics.... [tags: Roman Empire, Ancient Rome, Byzantine Empire]
2073 words (5.9 pages)
- From Empire to its Disintegration: The Roman Empire Since its beginning the Roman Empire has been struggling to be in control of its surroundings. However, it took over 500 years for the decline of this powerful empire. Historians have argued different factors such as the migrations of new groups for its unexpected disintegration. But, what were the real factors of its decline. Also, what is the most important factor that lead to this empire to its end. The Roman Empire, a marvelous city, was disintegrated because of the loss of traditional values, economic troubles with overreliance on slavery and military overspending caused by its overexpansion.... [tags: Roman Empire, Ancient Rome, Western Roman Empire]
1014 words (2.9 pages)
- Rise and Fall of The Roman Empire The Roman Empire began in Italy as a bunch of villages on the Seven Hills, a defensible spot due to marshlands from the Tiber. This position is 16 miles upstream the Tiber allows the fastest route north and south, and close enough to the shore to control trade in Italy. As the villages grew, they formed together, which would be the foundation of Rome. Rome supposedly got their name from Roma, named after Romulus in the fable, with strong influences from Greece who colonized Italy and still held Sicily at this time.... [tags: Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Ancient Rome]
1861 words (5.3 pages)
- The fall of the Roman Empire in the West is seen as one of the most pivotal points in all of human history. This event traditionally marks the transition from classical civilization to the birth of Europe. There is an absolutely tremendous scholarly interest in this subject; thousands of books have been published and endless numbers of essays and theories, as to the cause, have been written. Why did the Roman Empire in the West fall. It is difficult to pinpoint a simple explanation. Some scholars have tried to identify one main problem which caused the fall.... [tags: Roman History]
1278 words (3.7 pages)
- There are several theories behind the reasoning for the fall of Rome. Such theories include: religion, decadence, and military problems. Although there are several factors that led up to this historical event, the fall of Rome occurred because of military problems. There were numerous conflicts between Rome and it’s military. Economically, the military became a burden on the government. The cost to keep a military took away the money needed to fund for public housing and to build roads. Politically, issues began to become visible.... [tags: Roman History Essays]
1185 words (3.4 pages)
- ... Founded by Count Guifre de Cerdanya. (Stokstad) He eventually became a monk himself until he took refuse and finally died inside the Monestary. In Roman tradition the building material was masonry stone, and the building itself sits on a platform. Classically Roman arch ways and buttressed walls adorn the entire construct. (Stokstad) It’s one the first examples of a vaulted basilica (several parallel aisles separated by rows of columns, ending in a semicircular structure) (Stokstad) ,church with barrel vaulted and half arches, which are very reminiscent of Roman techniques.... [tags: Roman Empire, Ancient Rome, Middle Ages]
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CONDO, FRANCIS (the name sometimes appears as François Est, dit Condeau), Micmac chief; b. c. 1761, the son and grandson of chiefs; d. 24 July 1837 in Lower Canada or New Brunswick.
Francis Condo was third chief at the Restigouche Indian Reserve, Que., in 1786 when chief Joseph Claude* negotiated about fishing rights and land claims with Nicholas Cox*, lieutenant governor of Gaspé. In 1812 Condo was named first chief in succession to Jacques (Joseph) Gagnon on the recommendation of missionary Charles-François Painchaud.
Condo was responsible for maintaining the land claims of the Restigouche Indians against white intruders, a matter that became extremely complex because of faulty surveys. The general vagueness of land titles in the region led to a law being passed in 1819 “to secure the inhabitants of the Inferior District of Gaspé in the possession and enjoyment of their lands,” and claims commissioners were appointed. Their findings in the Restigouche area drew a protest from Condo in July 1820: the Indians had not been aware that Edward Isaac Mann still claimed the lands that had been the subject of negotiation in 1786. The protest was printed in the Quebec Gazette in June 1823 and went to formal adjudication in April of the following year. The board awarded the Restigouche Indians some 680 acres that lay between Mann’s claims and those of another white, Robert Ferguson*. Visiting Restigouche in the summer of 1826, Governor Lord Dalhousie [Ramsay] invited Condo to meet him at Quebec in the autumn. What Condo received for his journey, however, was the governor’s handwritten statement that the board’s decision was “now their legal title” to the land and must be considered final. The Indians continued to press for full satisfaction of their claim, petitioning Lord Durham [Lambton] in 1838 and sending Joseph Malie, Pierre Basquet*, and François Labauve to London in 1841.
The Restigouche Micmacs were in an anomalous position in Lower Canada. Their kin ties lay in New Brunswick where they spent much of their time; they used their village more as a base of operations than as a residence the year round, and this village just happened to be on the north bank of the river that marked the boundary line. Lower Canada did not consider itself under the usual obligations to these Indians, who did not receive the annual presents given to other native people in the Canadas. To mark the occasion of Condo’s visit to Quebec, Dalhousie ordered the distribution of some supplies, but he was careful to point out that his action was not to constitute a precedent. To a large extent, the Restigouche Micmacs fell between two governments, and the position of a chief in such a situation was particularly difficult.
In 1823 Painchaud, who was in touch with the Indians even after he moved from the reserve, had urged Condo’s dismissal, describing him as a drunk who had lost the respect of his people and who no longer lived at Restigouche. Condo eventually regained the confidence of the church, however. In 1836, a little stooped under the weight of his 75 years and wearing two silver medals on his chest, he came at the head of his people to greet Bishop Pierre-Flavien Turgeon*, who visited the Restigouche area that year. After his death he was succeeded by Thomas Barnaby.
Can., Prov. of, Legislative Assembly, App. to the journals, 1847, 1: app. T, no. 96. Ramsay, Dalhousie journals (Whitelaw), 3: 65–66, 71. Père Pacifique [de Valigny] [H.-J.-L. Buisson], “Ristigouche, métropole des Micmacs, théâtre du ‘dernier effort de la France au Canada,’” Soc. de géographie de Québec, Bull. (Québec), 20 (1926): 171–85. | <urn:uuid:3fc21a81-f3b7-42c6-a815-5f9276f8cdc8> | {
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La Unidad III, Aproximación al texto, trata de estrategias de lectura para la comprensión de un texto; así mismo las técnicas de predicción a través de un contexto.
Dichas técnicas son:
Texto en Inglés:
The capabilities of the personal computer have changed greatly since the introduction of electronic computers. By the early 1970s, people in academic or research institutions had the opportunity for single-person use of a computer system in interactive mode for extended durations, although these systems would still have been too expensive to be owned by a single person. The introduction of the microprocessor, a single chip with all the circuitry that formerly occupied large cabinets, led to the proliferation of personal computers after about 1975. In what was later to be called The Mother of All Demos, SRI researcher Douglas Englebart in 1968 gave a preview of what would become the staples of daily working life in the 21st century - e-mail, hypertext, word processing, video conferencing, and the mouse.
Early personal computers - generally called microcomputers - were sold often in Electronic kit form and in limited volumes, and were of interest mostly to hobbyists and technicians. Minimal programming was done by toggle switches, and output was provided by front panel indicators. Practical use required peripherals such as keyboards, computer terminals, disk drives, and printers. Micral N was the earliest commercial, non-kit "personal" computer based on a microprocessor, the Intel 8008. It was built starting in 1972 and about 90,000 units were sold. Unlike other hobbyist computers of its day, which were sold as electronics kits, in 1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak sold the Apple I computer circuit board, which was fully prepared and contained about 30 chips. The first complete personal computer was the Commodore PET introduced in January 1977. It was soon followed by the popular Apple II. Mass-market pre-assembled computers allowed a wider range of people to use computers, focusing more on software applications and less on development of the processor hardware.
Throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s, computers were developed for household use, offering personal productivity, programming and games. Somewhat larger and more expensive systems (although still low-cost compared with minicomputers and mainframes) were aimed for office and small business use. Workstations are characterized by high-performance processors and graphics displays, with large local disk storage, networking capability, and running under a multitasking operating system. Workstations are still used for tasks such as computer-aided design, drafting and modelling, computation-intensive scientific and engineering calculations, image processing, architectural modelling, and computer graphics for animation and motion picture visual effects.
Eventually due to the IBM-PC's influence on the Personal Computer market Personal Computers and Home Computers lost any technical distinction. Business computers acquired color graphics capability and sound, and home computers and game systems users used the same processors and operating systems as office workers. Mass-market computers had graphics capabilities and memory comparable to dedicated workstations of a few years before. Even local area networking, originally a way to allow business computers to share expensive mass storage and peripherals, became a standard feature of the personal computers used at home.
1.- ¿Cual es la Idea general del texto?
La idea general del texto son los cambios que han venido presentando las computadoras personales a lo largo del tiempo.
2.- ¿Qué palabras se repiten?
3.- ¿Qué palabras se parecen al español?
4.- ¿Cuáles son las palabras en negrita, el titulo, subtitulo o graficos que te ayudan a entender el texto?
· computer system
· The Mother of All Demos
· computer terminals
5.- ¿De qué trata el texto? Lee el primer párrafo y el último o las ultimas ideas del último párrafo
El texto trata de las capacidades de las computadoras personales han cambiado desde la introducción de las computadoras electrónicas.
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Air curtain is an electrical appliance usually used to separate two different temperature environments. When a temperature controlled room is frequently accessed by opening the door a significant amount of cold or hot air is lost. This usually spikes up the overall consumption of electricity used for cooling or heating the interior of a room or building. It is usually mounted over top of the door, which produces a high velocity air stream blowing from top to bottom, which acts as a barrier preventing the air escaping from inside or outside.
Air curtains or air doors are built with different mounting preferences, and a variety of accessories to fit the air curtains based on customer requirements. Air curtains with heating options include electric, steam, or hot water coils and gas fired duct furnaces. Air doors are selected according to the height of the door. Air curtains not only preserves the controlled environment, but it reduces energy costs spent on air conditioning. An air (non-heated) air curtains are often used in conjunction with cold storages and refrigerated rooms. Airflow through a door depends on wind forces, temperature differences and pressure differences.
Advantages of air curtains.
- It reduce energy consumption and costs by 70%
- Acts as a air barrier keeping the environment hygienic by preventing dust, insects and pollutants.
- Keeps you comfortable 100% by maintaining the interior temperature at required level.
- All heating options like gas, steam and electric are available according to your heating requirements.
- Wind stopping capability of 30 miles per hour.
- Controls temperature efficiently by 80 to 90%
- Easy to install, easy to handle and maintain.
Air curtains balances temperature, reduces energy loss, maintains hygiene and sanitation level, prevents dust, insects and all types of pollutants. Air curtains has unique cross flow / radial flow fan made of 316, 304 grade Stainless Steel or Aluminium or ABS which provides an effective, amply sized powerful air door. If installed at the doorway of a precision machinery factory, or a food or clothing store near high traffic areas, keeps dirt and dust outside, protecting the merchandise at an efficiency level of 70%.
Why do you need to buy from us?
KALLERIANS Air curtains provides air deflection louvers that easily adjusts airflow direction and double end sealed ball bearings that gives an absolute noiseless operation. Our air curtains comes in attractive designs and colours to enhance the infra structure in any location. Air curtains are the only technical solution for open doors and has been proved as the part of GMP standards, FDA, ISI in Food Industry and Pharmaceuticals Industries. | <urn:uuid:af0c8f5c-fb34-4d6a-9c9a-3f100fd3ee97> | {
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worms in dogs
What are Worms?
• Worms are parasites (organisms that live inside your dog.)
Where does my dog get Worms from?
• Most commonly by coming into contact with faeces from an infected dog.
• Puppies can pick up worms from their mum while still in the womb and through her milk if she is infected. WORMING PUPPIES IS VERY IMPORTANT!
• There are a few different types of worms that your dog can catch, most of them live in the stomach and intestinal tract
• The two most common intestinal worms are roundworms and tapeworm.
What are the signs of worms?
• Some dogs can have worms but only appear unwell when heavily infected.
• Some of the signs that could suggest your pet has worms include:
◦ Diarrhoea (from very severe to just a little bit loose)
◦ Weight loss, especially if they also seem very hungry
◦ Some dogs (especially puppies) can have a round or swollen looking tummy
Diagnosis of worms?
• Sometimes worms can be seen in a dog’s poo, they can look like spaghetti or bits of rice.
• Despite being infected you may not always see worms in your dogs poo.
• Worm eggs are too small to be seen by the naked eye but can be tested for in a laboratory (poo sample).
Differentials (problems that look like Worms, but aren't!)
• Bacterial Infections – E.g. Salmonella, E.Coli and Campylobacter. These are of particular concern as they can be also passed onto people.
• Viral Infections – E.g. Parvo Virus, a serious virus that causes nasty diarrhoea and unfortunately is often fatal.
• Eating a foreign object (like a toy or stone!) - This can then get stuck, causing vomiting and diarrhoea and then further, more dangerous complications.
• Vomiting, diarrhoea and weight loss are very common signs of lots of different diseases. Which is why it is important that your pet is seen by a vet and given a though examination and investigations as necessary.
Treatment of Worms?
• In most cases is very simple with either a tablet or a paste that you can give to your dog at home.
Prognosis for Worms (how a dog is likely to do afterwards)?
• Most dogs recover very well, with no long term problems.
• Very young puppies, with very high numbers of worms can be very poorly and may need extra support and aftercare, but thankfully it is less common to be severe.
Prevention of Worms
• Is easy!
• Routine worming for all dogs, how regularly you give the medication (tablet, paste, spot on etc.) depends on the product we use.
• Pick up poop! To reduce the spread of worms – they can cause health problems in children! | <urn:uuid:db28ba9c-754b-4a75-ab9b-ed00373881e3> | {
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The Endeavour Journal is significant as the key document foreshadowing British colonisation of Australia. It has been cited in countless works on Pacific exploration and on first contacts between Europeans and the indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. The journal, written between 1768 and 1771, records one of the first English voyages to the Pacific and one of the first in which exploration and scientific discovery, rather than military conquest and plunder, was the expedition's primary purpose. It is significant for its recording of the exploration of Tahiti and the Society Islands, the first circumnavigation and detailed charting of New Zealand, and the first charting of the eastern coast of Australia. The Journal is also significant as one of the few substantial manuscripts in the hand of one of the world's greatest navigators and maritime explorers, James Cook. It is of high significance in the history of British colonisation of Australia and as one of the earliest written records of the indigenous peoples of Polynesia, New Zealand and eastern Australia. It is unique and irreplaceable, as no other journal of this voyage is in Cook's handwriting. Inscribed on the International Memory of the World Register in 2001. The Memory of the World International Register lists documentary heritage which has been identified by the International Advisory Committee in its meetings in Tashkent (September 1997), in Vienna (June 1999), in Cheongju City (June 2001), in Gdansk (August 2003), in Lijiang (June 2005), and in Pretoria (June 2007) and endorsed by the Director-General of UNESCO as corresponding to the selection criteria for world significance.
The Endeavour Journal of James Cook
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Clinical trials in cancer and blood disorders
Through research, our team is able to offer more options to patients and families in their battle with cancer and blood disorders. Offering treatment options is our commitment to helping patients and families achieve the best possible outcomes.
Clinical trials help us understand and test new ways to diagnose and treat cancer and blood disorders, such as leukemia, resulting in higher survival rates, and reducing short-term and long-term side effects of therapy. New and improved treatment options then are available to help patients worldwide.
Many types of clinical trials available
We offer a broad range of clinical trials, from phase I and other early phase clinical trials, through phase III trials. Phase I trials are for patients whose disease can’t be effectively treated using regular treatments. Phase III studies typically are considered standard care and involve evaluating a series of small changes to regular treatment.
Access to new, cutting-edge treatments
Children’s participates in several groups of top hospitals nationwide and around the world that work together to develop and study new therapies.
We are part of Children’s Oncology Group (COG), the world’s largest organization devoted entirely to pediatric cancer research. As a COG Phase 1 Center, an elite distinction awarded to fewer than 25 sites in the nation, Children’s Hospital is able to offer patients and families access to new, cutting-edge treatments. That includes studies led by our own researchers and multicenter clinical trials initiated by our partners at leading programs around the country.
Participating in a clinical trial could mean testing the effectiveness of a new therapy or simply donating tissue so that researchers can better understand the underlying parts of these diseases. The safety of our patients always comes first, and Children’s Institutional Review Board carefully reviews each project before it is approved. Although participation in clinical trials is voluntary, many of our patients’ families take the opportunity to help us advance cancer and blood disorders research and possibly help future generations of children.
Recent clinical trials
Some of our clinical trials have included:
- Photodynamic therapy for brain tumors
- Combination chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and/or surgery in treating patients with high-risk kidney tumors
- Biomarkers in tumor tissue samples from patients with newly diagnosed neuroblastoma or ganglioneuroblastoma
- Radiation biodosimetry in children undergoing total body irradiation
- Combination chemotherapy in treating young patients with Down syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes
- Pharmacokinetics of liquid hydroxyurea in pediatric patients with sickle cell anemia
Participate in a clinical trial
Want to get involved? Find a list of all the current studies available from Children’s Research Institute or learn more about research at Children’s Hospital: | <urn:uuid:09378df9-3b0f-483c-a09e-87d51a88b750> | {
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28 March 2013
What do you see when you look at this space picture?
If you answered 'a galaxy', or better yet, 'a spiral galaxy', you're right! But can you believe that not once, but twice, this galaxy has been misidentified by professional astronomers? When it was first observed by Pierre Méchain way back in 1780, he thought it was a nebula (a glowing cloud of gas and dust). Then, a few years later, Charles Messier called it a 'star cluster', which is a group of a few thousand or million stars bound together by gravity (far less stars than in a galaxy). Nevermind Charles, you were only wrong by a few 100 billion stars!
But before we judge Pierre and Charles too harshly, we have to remember that telescopes were still quite a new invention in the 1700s. Comparing the quality of early telescopes to the Hubble Space Telescope is like comparing a toy car to a Ferrari. Can you believe it was less than 100 years ago that we found out there are other galaxies in the Universe than our own? These days, we know the Universe contains hundreds of billions of star-filled galaxies.
These galaxies come in all different shapes, sizes and types. This picture doesn't just show a spiral-shaped galaxy , this is also the closest example of a 'Seyfert galaxy'. This is an extremely energetic type of galaxy that is full of hot, glowing gas and ejects huge amounts of intense radiation from its dark core.
Cool Fact: In a single image of a tiny patch of the night sky, Hubble photographed thousands of galaxies! You can see this picture here. Doesn't it make you realise just how gigantic the Universe is? | <urn:uuid:7c32fb77-b47c-4ee4-b8cd-7a2ebfe0e1cb> | {
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French IPA Symbols
An introduction to the IPA symbols used to represent French sounds
Introduction to IPA | French IPA Symbols
A Course in Phonetics, by P. Ladefoged
Phonetic Symbol Guide, by G.K. Pullum, W.A. Ladusaw
The Sounds of the World's Languages (Phonological Theory), by P. Ladefoged
French pronunciation is represented by a relatively small number of IPA characters, so in order to transcribe French phonetically, you just need to memorize those.
French IPA symbols can be divided into four categories:
There is also a single diacritical mark, which I have included with the consonants.
The free, twice-weekly About French newsletter keeps you informed about changes to this site, including new lessons, articles, and forum discussions. Subscribe today! | <urn:uuid:0a98adc6-9180-48b1-ad65-314db6d708e2> | {
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In Uganda, the wet season has arrived. It is now not only constantly hot, but also extremely humid. This climate is very trying for humans, but the anopheles mosquito simply loves it. The mosquito which has a body size of just a few millimetres requires not only warm temperatures, but also stagnant water for reproduction. The inherent danger: about 40 anopheles species can transmit human malaria. If malaria is not treated quickly, it can be fatal, particularly for children.
The Struggle for little Sam’s Life
By now, Sam is happy again. (Photo: Ross) Little Sam now is one and a half years old and very small for his age. Just like many other children in Uganda he suffers from malnutrition and in addition to this, he also contracted severe even complicated malaria with extreme anaemia. His level of haemoglobin – the oxygen-carrying substance in the human body – was so low that it is was difficult to measure at all. Sam was unconscious, feverish and extremely short of breath when he was admitted to the emergency ward of our hospital in Uganda. “Sam was a particularly difficult case. Due to his critical condition, it took us very long to insert an intravenous line”, says Simone Ross, paediatric nurse with Cap Anamur. Everything had to be done very quickly because Sam’s condition was really critical. Thanks to the good cooperation with the lab, the local Cap Anamur team was able to quickly start a blood transfusion. The small boy’s condition slowly stabilised over night after an oxygen therapy and immediate administration of anti-malaria and fever-reducing medication. Two days later, we were able to move Sam to the paediatric ward for further treatment and special diet. He is still weak, but owing to the special diet, he slowly recovers and gains weight.
>>> If Sam had been admitted to our hospital only a little bit later, he probably would be dead by now. Help us to help. Donate for Uganda now. | <urn:uuid:0afc4b7b-a254-4b48-a311-aee2ff61581f> | {
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Definition of the works
1 : the moving parts of a machine the works of a clock —sometimes used figuratively The office used to be very efficient, but the new regulations have gummed up the works.
2 informal : everything that there is to have or do : everything that is available They ordered a pizza with the works. When we went to New York, we visited the museums, did some shopping, saw some shows—the whole works.
Word by Word Definitions
: activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something:
: sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result
: the labor, task, or duty that is one's accustomed means of livelihood
: used for work
: suitable or styled for wear while working
: involving or engaged in work
: to bring to pass : effect
: to fashion or create a useful or desired product by expending labor or exertion on : forge, shape
: to make or decorate with needlework
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up the works? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). | <urn:uuid:a3c8f3ed-f9cc-462e-8066-556fc7a6dddf> | {
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Old Pills Finding New Medicine Cabinets
By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: May 18, 2005
As the cost of prescription drugs climbs, more of the nation's officials and consumers are weighing how to salvage at least $1 billion worth of unused drugs that are being flushed down the toilet each year.
Though the Food and Drug Administration generally forbids the redistribution of prescription drugs once they are dispensed to consumers, states are free to set their own policies for drugs controlled by nursing homes, long-term-care centers and other pharmacies.
''They seem content to let the states be laboratories, and that works out rather well because the dollars the states are saving are in a lot of cases federal dollars,'' said James Cooley, chief of staff for Diane Delisi, a Texas state representative and the author of legislation to expand Texas's limited drug recovery program, which may pass within a week.
Several states, including Oklahoma, Louisiana and Ohio, have passed legislation in the last few years allowing unused drugs to be recovered from those organizations for distribution primarily to poor patients.
Nebraska even permits consumers to return unused drugs if they are in tamper-resistant packaging, like the blister package most familiar in over-the-counter medicines, skirting the F.D.A. prohibition.
Recovery has been modest, but California, Maine, Washington and other states are pondering similar programs in hopes of lowering health care costs, however marginally.
Other supporters are trying to push the idea further. An inventor in Massachusetts is seeking a patent on a system that would knit together existing technologies to address the myriad issues of drug redistribution.
''We recycle newspapers, we recycle soda cans, we recycle plastic,'' said Moshe Alamaro, the inventor, who is a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ''It's ludicrous not to recycle expensive drugs.''
Mr. Alamaro added, ''It should be criminal to throw these drugs away, and instead it's required.''
The concept has more skeptics than believers. The hurdles include concerns about patient safety and privacy, the lack of an infrastructure to process and redistribute drugs, and administrative requirements.
''I don't want to sound overly negative, but there are lots of obstacles,'' said Susan McCann, administrator of the Missouri Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, which is struggling to begin the state's redistribution program.
To sidestep the questions of recycling, Representative Tim Murphy, a Republican who represents Pennsylvania in Congress, suggests that the federal government take a different tack and make it easier for doctors to prescribe small quantities of drugs initially to determine whether a patient can use them.
Monthly or longer prescriptions, now encouraged and sometimes mandated by states and insurers to hold down costs, lead to waste that could be curbed through redistribution.
The amounts discarded are unknown. Though many states require nursing homes, hospitals and consumers to follow specified procedures for drug disposal, the rules add costs and are largely ignored, state health officials and others say.
A study published in the Journal of Family Medicine in 2001 estimated that $1 billion a year in drugs prescribed to the elderly are thrown away, and Mr. Alamaro estimates that a more ambitious system for drug recycling could recapture 5 percent of the nation's prescriptions, or about $6 billion worth annually.
Existing programs are a long way from that, however. The prevailing method of dispensing prescription medicine in bottles leaves it too vulnerable to tampering and contamination for any chance of recovery.
Pharmacies, the most likely candidates for redistribution, have little incentive to take on the administrative burdens and potential liabilities.
And states have not committed to developing the databases and other systems that would be needed, much less wrestled with how to ensure adequate supplies of drugs for patients to continue a regimen.
''It doesn't matter how safe the drugs are, how many of them there are or how neat and crisp the records are, if there isn't a database to tell patients what's available and where it is,'' Ms. McCann said.
So far, only one clinic has expressed interest in participating in the Missouri program. Ohio has failed to get its program off the ground more than two years after it was approved by the legislature because of a lack of interest among nursing homes.
Among the handful of states pressing ahead, Louisiana is one of the most advanced, with 12 pharmacies that distribute unused prescription drugs. Expired drugs and controlled substances, those that are potentially dangerous, are not accepted. As in other states, the drugs are collected from nursing homes and assisted-living centers, which have a carefully controlled storage and distribution system and use blister packaging.
''We know those drugs are perfectly good,'' said William T. Winsley, executive director of the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy. ''They've been under lock and key; they've been stored properly.'' | <urn:uuid:1be47d6a-bc4b-4d6d-9537-c269ccae020a> | {
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Hesperidin is a bioflavonoid. Hesperidin, along with other bioflavanoids, can improve the health of capillaries and connective tissues. Because of this, it has been noted to help with bruising, varicose veins, and fragile capillaries.
Hesperidin is an important nutrient that works synergistically with Vitamin C to maintain the health of collagen. Sagging and wrinkling of the skin is the consequence of the breakdown of collagen.
The flavonoid hesperidin is a flavanone glycoside (glucoside) comprised of the flavanone (a class of flavonoids) hesperitin and the disaccharide rutinose. Hesperidin is the predominant flavonoid in lemons and oranges. The peel and membranous parts of these fruits have the highest hesperidin concentrations. Therefore, orange juice containing pulp is richer in the flavonoid than that without pulp. Sweet oranges (Citrus sinensis) and tangelos are the richest dietary sources of hesperidin. Hesperidin is classified as a citrus bioflavonoid.
Hesperidin, in combination with a flavone glycoside called diosmin, is used in Europe for the treatment of venous insufficiency and hemorrhoids. Hesperidin, rutin and other flavonoids thought to reduce capillary permeability and to have anti-inflammatory action were collectively known as vitamin P. These substances, however, are not vitamins and are no longer referred to, except in older literature, as vitamin P. | <urn:uuid:3075f672-6858-4df2-a865-b774d67277db> | {
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One of our rarest regular birds in Vermont, the Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) is a small and elusive bird that spends most of its time running on the ground, rather than flying. In fact the genus, Ammodramus, means “sand runner” in Latin.
Unless you have visited Franklin County State Airport (NE of Swanton, VT), then chances are you have yet to see this species in Vermont. Grasshopper Sparrows are also occasionally reported from elsewhere in the Champlain Valley, and a few very small populations may occur within the Connecticut River Valley.
In New England Grasshopper Sparrows are often found in large and open grass-dominated fields with few shrubs, such as those found on airfields and military bases (e.g., Joint Base Cape Cod and Westover Airforce Base in Massachusetts). Despite their breeding range across the U.S. (from coastal California to New England) we still do not fully understand their migratory and non-breeding movements, or to what degree breeding populations of Grasshopper Sparrows are connected. For example, do Grasshopper Sparrows breeding in Massachusetts and Maryland follow the same migration routes, and do they spend the winter in the same places? Finding Grasshopper Sparrows during the breeding season can be challenging enough, but how do you follow a 17-gram bird from New England to its wintering grounds and back again?
VCE is partnering with the Department of Defense (DoD) Legacy Program to help answer those questions using sophisticated light-level geolocators: tiny devices that track an individual bird’s location using day length and sunrise and sunset times. In 2015 VCE deployed 180 geolocators onto Grasshopper Sparrows at a total of six DoD installations. Read more about that project (here) and a recap of our 2015 research efforts (here).
Grasshopper Sparrows are ground-foraging insectivorous species during the breeding season, and yes, they do eat grasshoppers—usually after removing the grasshopper’s wings, legs, and heads. In the winter, however, Grasshopper Sparrows primarily switch to eating grass and sedge seeds. Grasshopper Sparrows were named after their insect-like song, however, and not their dietary habits. Both sexes generally fly close to the ground (below 2 m), and males often weakly “flutter-fly” between perches: the purpose of this flutter-flight is unclear, but it is likely involved in mate-advertisement.
Grasshopper Sparrows are mono-chromatic: males and females cannot be distinguished based on plumage alone, but behavior is a good clue to their sex. Only male Grasshopper Sparrows sing (usually from exposed perches), and males have two very different song types that are used for mate attraction and territorial defense. The second song’s excited bubbly trill is almost reminiscent of a very weak Winter Wren. Males can be aggressive—chasing other males, other bird species, and potential mates around the grassland. From VCE’s Jason Hill’s research with color-banded males and females we know that most observations of non-singing birds are males, too. So where are the females?! Females are cryptic, and spend most of their time on the nest or finding food on the ground. If you see two Grasshopper Sparrows perched together, chipping at you, then you have likely encountered an agitated mating pair who are asking you to move away from their nest. If you are walking through a grassland (the best way to see grassland birds!) and a bird appears to fly up from between your feet then you have found a nest and a female. Females will generally only fly ~5-10 m at the most before “plopping” back into the grass where they will then run away from you.
Like most species of North American grassland birds, Grasshopper Sparrows have substantially declined throughout their range over the last 50 years. These declines are likely tied directly to grassland loss through agricultural conversion and through the intensification of agricultural practices (read more here)—including on their migration and wintering grounds.
Conserving Grasshopper Sparrow populations will likely require preserving the remaining large tracts of open grasslands throughout the U.S. and Mexico. Grasshopper Sparrows are incredible dispersers, and we know that they readily find patches of new grasslands (even in the middle of the woods). Grasslands are fire-prone ecosystems, and this dispersal ability likely served them well on the Great Plains when fires and herds of American Bison denuded large areas of grass. Their dispersal ability makes it likely that Grasshopper Sparrows will find and colonize newly-restored patches of grasslands, so reclaiming large patches of marginal agricultural lands back to grasslands may also be a key component in the restoration of Grasshopper Sparrow populations.
If you want to do something to promote our understanding of Grasshopper Sparrow populations then drive south this winter (e.g., Texas or Mexico) and look for grassland birds–then submit your data to eBird. Check out this interactive map from eBird. Notice how Grasshopper Sparrows “disappear” from the southern U.S. in September? The birds are still there in Texas and along the Gulf Coast states–there just are not many birders looking for them. | <urn:uuid:52f01911-75bd-4273-9a32-9add99523d63> | {
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The transmission of TV programs into the home and office via coaxial cable. The first cable TV dates back to the late 1940s, when antennas were located at the highest point in a community to deliver TV to areas that had difficulty receiving over-the-air broadcasts (see CATV).|
From TV to Internet to Telephony
Since the cable companies were already wired into millions of homes, they had great success selling Internet access to its subscribers, starting in the late 1990s. Unlike the telephone company's DSL service, Internet access via the cable infrastructure does not have distance limitations. Cable TV companies later added telephone service to offer the "triple play" (data, voice and video service). See cable Internet.
Many Analog and Digital Channels
Cable TV typically transmits 125 6 MHz channels using frequency division multiplexing (FDM) to its subscribers. Each channel can hold one analog TV program, three high-definition (HD) digital programs or 10 standard definition (SD) digital programs. The digital channels provide 40 Mbps of digital bandwidth, 38 of which is the actual payload.
The channels are also used for video-on-demand, Internet access and voice over IP (VoIP) telephone service. Upstream channels use from 0 to 50 MHz, while downstream channels use 50 MHz to 750 MHz. See FDM, CMTS and digital TV transition. | <urn:uuid:e4efcfd8-4832-4ee3-a7ec-754693bb53ac> | {
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Advanced Comput, Math & Data
Detecting the Secrets of the Universe Deep Underground
Using advanced detection techniques, scientists will attempt to detect a Majorana Particle.
Electroformed Copper is being produced in PNNL's Underground Laboratory and at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. Large parts of the detector are fashioned of the ultrapure Copper produced through electroforming.
Results: Working as part of a collaborative team, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is bringing its signature capability in ultra-low-level detection to help search for a rare form of radioactive decay—never before detected—called “neutrinoless double beta decay” (0νββ) in germanium (76Ge). If observed, 0νββ would demonstrate neutrinos are Majorana-type particles. This discovery would show neutrinos are unique among fundamental particles, having a property whereby the matter and anti-matter version of this particle are indistinguishable. Scientists from PNNL, in cooperation with nineteen other collaborating institutions, are developing the necessary equipment to detect and measure the properties of these rare particles. Ultrapure electroformed copper created in the Shallow Underground Laboratory at PNNL and the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) is key to the success of the detection technology.
Why it matters: Measuring the Majorana nature of neutrinos, from the previously unobserved 0νββ process, would give clues about the formation of the universe and why we observe more matter than antimatter in the universe. The indistinguishable nature of matter and anti-matter neutrinos, if observed, would act as a window to better understand the detailed relationship between matter and anti-matter and how the universe likely began as an equal mixture of matter and anti-matter but cooled and expanded into a state composed primarily of matter.
These results would constitute a paradigm shift. The Standard Model of Physics relies on the conservation of lepton number in which the lepton number is constant through an interaction, in this case that the same number of matter beta particles (β) are emitted as anti-matter neutrino (ν) particles. This would have to be true if neutrinos were massless particles. However, experiments measuring neutrinos produced in the Sun, nuclear reactor cores, and in the atmosphere from cosmic rays have determined that at least one of the neutrinos have mass, although that mass cannot be determined by these types of observational experiments. Massive neutrinos are a requirement for the existence of the 0νββ process and thus the 0νββ process also provides a method for understanding the mass scale of the neutrino.
As a spin-off benefit, the technology used to detect this decay informs the design of other detection technologies for use in environmental and national security applications, where precision and ultra-sensitive measurements of radioactivity are crucial.
Methods: The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR Project is a coordinated effort to create a radiation-free environment for measuring the ultra-rare 0νββ process. Every element of the project centers on eliminating the effects of radiation backgrounds on the detection equipment. Starting with the electroformed copper in shielded environments and moving the detector nearly a mile underground to avoid background cosmic radiation, every effort is being made to ensure that the detection of neutrinoless double beta decay is unambiguous and coming from the source material (76Ge) and not from some other uncontrolled source.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is leading the production and assay of the major ultrapure materials required to accurately measure the Majorana nature of the neutrino. The equipment is so sensitive that exposure to the naturally occurring cosmic radiation outside of the underground laboratory will cause results from the experiment to be contaminated. Electroforming of ultrapure copper is one way to ensure that any radioactive isotopes in the copper are limited, making it more capable with measuring the rare 0νββ process.
What’s next? Currently, the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR Project is completing the necessary creation of the detection technology for observing 0νββ the mass of a neutrino. Over the coming years, the refined germanium (76Ge) that makes up the source for 0νββ, and also the detectors of the experiment, will be observed for evidence of neutrinoless double beta decay. If successful, the experiment will be scaled up and collaborative efforts between the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR Project and the European GERDA (GERmanium Detector Array) Experiment will be leveraged and scaled to create a larger tonne-scale experiment to further refine the properties of the neutrino. | <urn:uuid:b71900fe-64b0-481f-a13c-8419a48971bf> | {
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If you drive a car, one of them might just be you.
Car crashes kill about 1.2 million people worldwide each year. And let's face it, drivers are getting worse -- not better.
Between texting, mobile e-mail and glitzy in-dash graphics, today's drivers are more distracted than ever.
In fact, more than 90 percent of all auto accidents are caused by driver error.
That's one of the reasons why Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is taking the lead in producing robotic cars.
In other words, it won't be long before you can put your car on "auto pilot."
A Radical Change for Drivers
Technically speaking, though, the robot wouldn't actually drive the car for you.
Instead, the vehicle will be cram-packed with advanced sensors, computer chips, radar and software.
Together, all these gadgets are designed to take over driving at critical times, such as when a driver wanders out of his lane.
These autonomous features could also help combat the boredom many of today's drivers suffer in urban centers when they are stuck in traffic nearly an hour each day.
That's not to say that today's cars are unsafe.
Compared to vehicles from 20 years ago, today's feature-rich cars and trucks are practically like space capsules. A series of breakthroughs in design and materials have made cars safer and more sophisticated than ever before.
And yet the roads really aren't that much safer. | <urn:uuid:6ece767b-2798-439e-9c78-ed8f8f04934a> | {
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The process of extinction involves many factors, such as weather, habitat loss, environmental toxins, disease, and shrinking population dynamics.
These factors can be analyzed to predict extinction risks and rates for endangered species. But some species may become extinct much faster than predicted because scientists have not updated the standard extinction prediction model.
Ecologists Alan Hastings at the University of California, Davis, and Brett Melbourne at the University of Colorado in Boulder have recommended a re-evaluation of the risks to wildlife based upon the proportion of males compared with females in a dwindling population, and the differences in reproductive success between individuals and birth rates in the group.
When these additional aspects are factored into risk assessments for particular species, the danger of extinction substantially increases. Missing factors such as the number of males to females and variations in the number of offspring are capable of causing unexpected large swings in the size of a population. At times, the swings may cause a population to grow, but they also may cause a population to contract.
Hastings and Melbourne contend that older extinction models could be erroneously underestimating the time to extinction. They predict that some species could go extinct 100 times sooner than expected. | <urn:uuid:b3698d8f-9187-4c4e-b411-b94790218433> | {
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In recent years it has become obvious that the role of RNA structure in regulating biology has been underappreciated. The function of most RNA molecules is dependent on their three-dimensional structure, yet these structures have remained difficult to predict. During RNA folding, some nucleotides become conformationally constrained due to base pairing and interactions with other ligands. Researchers in Dr Kevin Weeks’ laboratory (Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina) are addressing the challenging problem of establishing comprehensive, quantitative structure–function relationships for intact cellular and viral RNAs. Their approach is to develop models for the global structures and long-range architecture of cellular RNAs, and then apply this knowledge to RNA function. We spoke with Drs David Mauger and Nate Siegfried about the novel technologies being developed in their lab to deduce RNA structure and the exciting discoveries that have followed.
Selective 2’-Hydroxyl Acylation analyzed by Primer Extension (SHAPE)
Dr Weeks’ team has created high-content “chemical microscopes” that use Selective 2’-Hydroxyl Acylation Analyzed by Primer Extension (SHAPE) to enable generic and highly accurate analysis of RNA secondary structure. The basis of the technology comes from the researchers’ discovery that the ribose 2’-OH in RNA is reactive to certain small molecules at conformationally flexible, unpaired nucleotides. Based on this, they modify RNA at these positions and identify the unpaired nucleotides using primer extension (or by observing protection from exoribonucleases attack). They can then deduce RNA secondary structure based on the positions of paired and unpaired nucleotides (see below).
“The structure of RNA is central to its function. The goal of the lab is to use these technologies to study biological questions and to make a determination of the structure fast and very easy. SHAPE technology can be used to develop models for RNAs of unknown structure and to study conformational changes and other features of other more established structures.” —Dr Nate Siegfried
Unlike current methods, there is no limit to the size of the RNA that can be analyzed using SHAPE technology. Dr Mauger states, “We recently investigated the structure of authentic HIV genomic RNA—the whole genome, which is approximately 10 kb. The current workflow required us to do it in 500 nt windows, but higher resolution RNA analysis technologies, such as NMR and X-ray crystallography, are often limited in the types and sizes of RNA that they can probe.” The lab has also examined smaller structures, including ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), which range from 200 to 2600 nt in length.
Structure prediction workflow using SHAPE reagents
The typical workflow for RNA structure analysis using SHAPE reagents involves three steps: treatment of RNA with SHAPE reagent (Figure 1), reverse transcriptase–mediated primer extension, and data analysis .
Figure 1. Useful SHAPE reagents. (A) 1-methly-7-nitro-isatoic anhydride (1M7), a fast-reacting SHAPE reagent; and (B) Nmethyl isatoic anhydride (NMIA), which reacts slowly and can detect nucleotides in unusual conformations.
Step 1: RNA modification by SHAPE reagents
Briefly, the researchers begin with native (folded) RNA and modify it with one of several SHAPE reagents (Figure 2). The reaction is allowed to proceed until the SHAPE reagent is depleted by reaction with RNA or hydrolysis by water . Treatment typically takes a few minutes, with the entire RNA molecule modified in a single reaction. While all SHAPE reagents probe RNA structure, each SHAPE reagent has a unique half-life; e.g., 1-methly-7-nitro-isatoic anhydride (1M7) has a fast reaction time while N-methyl isatoic anhydride (NMIA) reacts more slowly. Researchers in the Weeks lab have used these differences in several ways to investigate the dynamics of RNA folding. For example, differences between 1M7 and NMIA reactivities have been used to identify uniquely constrained nucleotides that have particularly slow dynamics; such a nucleotide within RNase P was found to function as a molecular timer to regulate domain folding .
Figure 2. Mechanism of SHAPE reaction. N-methyl isatoic anhydride (NMIA) reacts with the 2’-hydroxyl group in flexible nucleotides, forming a stable 2’-O-adduct.
Step 2: Primer extension using fluorescently-labeled DNAs
After modification with a SHAPE reagent, the scientists perform primer extension reverse transcription using fluorescently-labeled DNA oligonucleotides (purchased from IDT). The extension reaction terminates when the reverse transcriptase reaches a nucleotide containing a SHAPE adduct at the 2’-OH position. Because the modifications correlate with structure, the ends of the resulting pool of cDNAs map to areas of flexible nucleotides within the RNA.
It can be difficult to obtain primer extension data close to the primer and at the extreme 5’ end of the RNA due to the presence of a large primer peak and noise at the 5’ end of the electropherogram following capillary electrophoresis. Therefore, for smaller RNAs such as transfer RNAs or riboswitch elements, the team uses RNA radiolabeled at the 5’ end in conjunction with a 3’→5’ exoribonuclease . In this case, RNA exoribonuclease degradation continues until the enzyme reaches a modification site; essentially, providing the same data as cDNA primer extension, but for the entire RNA, and encoded in the original RNA rather than in cDNA. The radiolabeled RNA is then analyzed on a sequencing gel. Sites that have been modified by the SHAPE reagents appear as protected RNA fragments of a specific size.
Step 3: cDNA analysis by capillary electrophoresis
The positions of the cDNA ends are determined by capillary electrophoresis of the fluorescently-labeled cDNAs, which produces peaks that correspond to positions of modification. The intensity of each peak correlates directly with the extent of modification at that position and, therefore, the degree of flexibility at that position. The researchers integrate these peaks and use this information to deduce a reactivity value for each position using custom software called ShapeFinder .
Secondary structure prediction
SHAPE reactivities at single-nucleotide resolution correlate well with local flexibility in the RNA (Figure 3) and can be used as pseudo–free energy change terms to inform a folding algorithm regarding the probability that a nucleotide is likely to be single-stranded or conformationally restrained. Dr Weeks’ team uses the folding algorithm, RNAstructure , and has found that SHAPE-derived pseudo free energy folding dramatically increases algorithm accuracy.
Figure 3. Reactivity of 1-methyl-7-nitro-isatoic anhydride (1M7) at different nucleotides in the Bacterial Thiamine Pyrophosphate (TPP) riboswitch adapter domain. The absolute reactivities of IM7 are superimposed on a secondary structure model of the ligand-bound TPP riboswitch adapter domain. Reactive nucleotides (yellow and red) are located within flexible loops, while unreactive nucleotides (black and blue) are constrained by base pairs, tertiary contacts, or contact with the ligand. [Adapted with permission from Steen K-A, Malhotra A, and Weeks KM (2010) Selective 2’-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by protection from exoribonuclease. J Am Chem Soc 132(29):9940–9943. Copyright 2010 American Chemical Society.]
Use of SHAPE technology to predict tertiary structure—critical to fully understanding RNA function—is another major focus for the lab. Drs Mauger and Siegfried are addressing this difficult question by blending computational and experimental techniques. The team has continued to improve the algorithms they use to analyze SHAPE data to enhance the capacity for RNA structure prediction. Currently, the low SHAPE reactivity observed in a non-flexible region does not inform what kind of interaction is constraining a given region. Improvements to the algorithms and new classes of SHAPE reagents that differentiate between secondary and tertiary contacts will allow researchers to better predict and identify tertiary structure motifs.
Applications of SHAPE technology
Dr Weeks’ laboratory has focused on viral RNA genomes, particularly HIV. For these HIV investigations, the lab has worked with collaborators at the University of North Caro¬lina and at the National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD, who provide RNA samples and facilitate studies on the biological importance of the structures identified by the SHAPE technology. The Weeks lab develops biological hypotheses based on their structure modeling data and collaborates with virologists to design experiments to prove or disprove these models.
Predicting RNA interference (RNAi) targets
SHAPE modeling can be used to predict specific siRNA target sites that are most effective for down-regulating specific RNA molecules. The Weeks lab focuses on the fact that the structure of the target RNA plays an important role in determining whether a specific siRNA or miRNA will be an effective regulator or have any effect in regulating that target through its interaction with RISC and the target transcript.
A collaboration with Ben Berkhout’s laboratory at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, recently resulted in publication using small RNAs to efficiently down-regulate HIV in cell culture . In this work, Dr Weeks’ team used the predicted genomic structure for HIV-1 obtained from SHAPE analysis to select putative shRNAs. Then, working with the original HIV-1 investigators, Weeks and colleagues tested the efficacy of the designed shRNAs (Figure 4) .
Figure 4. Success rates of SHAPE-predicted shRNAs. Inhibition of HIV-1 production by shRNAs shows that SHAPE-predicted shRNAs are more effective inhibitors than shRNAs without SHAPE selection. The data demonstrate >90% HIV-1 inhibition observed with a prediction success rate >80% for SHAPE-based shRNA selection compared to 16% for shRNAs selected based on sequence conservation only.
Dr Siegfried noted, “We are focused on the actual RNA targets. So the question we are asking is, ‘What makes an RNA the target of RISC?’ There are many biotech companies and laboratories that have developed sets of rules to try to predict this, but largely, they ignore the fundamental structure of the target that they are trying to knock down.” Among the rules the Weeks lab has identified is that the seed regions and sequences directly downstream need to be unstructured to allow interaction with RISC, while the structure of other regions of the RNA play a much smaller role. There also appears to be a small correlation for structured regions being preferred upstream of the miRNA target sequence .
Probing infectious viruses
SHAPE reagents are small molecules, and many are capable of permeating membranes. The Weeks lab has used this fact to carry out SHAPE experiments directly inside infectious viruses. Upon treatment, the SHAPE reagents penetrate the virus and modify viral genomic RNA. The researchers then extract RNA from the virus and detect the site of modification by primer extension. Using this approach, the researchers can infer both the pattern of RNA base pairing and sites of RNA–protein contacts, such as the interaction between the HIV genome and the nucleocapsid protein, inside an infectious virus .
Future directions for SHAPE technology
In addition to studying some important RNA targets, the long-term vision of the Weeks lab is to expand SHAPE technology to novel areas. As an example, primer extension fragments are currently run out on a capillary electrophoresis sequencer that provides a window of approximately 300–500 nt of useful data per run. However, since SHAPE reactions can chemically modify the structure of entire RNA molecules in one single reaction, the researchers are working to adapt SHAPE technology for use with next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. With this approach, an entire RNA or pool of RNAs could be modified and structural information obtained on every nucleotide in a single experiment. Follow the progress of this research (http://www.chem.unc.edu/rna/
- Wilkinson KA, Merino EJ, and Weeks KM (2006) Selective 2’-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by primer extension (SHAPE): quantitative RNA structure analysis at single nucleotide resolution. Nature Protoc 1(3):1610–1616.
- Mortimer SA and Weeks KM (2009) C2’-endo nucleotides as molecular timers suggested by the folding of an RNA domain. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106(37):15622–15627.
- Steen K-A, Malhotra A, and Weeks KM (2010) Selective 2’-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by protection from exoribonuclease. J Am Chem Soc 132(29):9940–9943.
- Vasa SM, Guex N, et al. (2008) ShapeFinder: A software system for high-throughput quantitative analysis of nucleic acid reactivity information resolved by capillary electrophoresis. RNA 14(10):1979–1990.
- Steen K-A, Rice GM, and Weeks KM (2012) Fingerprinting non-canonical and tertiary RNA structures by differential SHAPE reactivity. J Am Chem Soc 134, in press.
- Low JT, Knoepfel SA, et al. (2012) SHAPE-directed discovery of highly potent shRNA inhibitors of HIV-1. Mol Ther 20(4):820–828.
- Wilkinson KA, Gorelick RJ, et al. (2008) High-throughput SHAPE analysis reveals structures in HIV-1 genomic RNA strongly conserved across distinct biological states. PLoS Biol 6(4):e96.
Dr Kevin Weeks was named Kenan Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in 2011. Dr Weeks began his career as a Fulbright scholar at the Universität Göttingen, Germany. He obtained his PhD from Yale University in 1992, and was a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Colorado from 1992 to 1995 before joining the UNC faculty in 1996.
Dr Weeks is a recipient of several honors and awards, including a National Science Foundation Career Award for 2000–2005; a North Carolina Health and Life Sciences Promise for Tomorrow Award in 2009; and an NIH EUREKA (Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration) Award in September 2011.
Dr David M Mauger (top) has been a member of the Weeks lab since 2008. He is an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow and was previously a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr Mauger obtained his PhD from Duke University, where he studied alternative splicing. He has a keen interest in technology development and is applying that passion in his research using SHAPE.
Dr Nate Siegfried (bottom) is a postdoctoral fellow in the Weeks lab with a fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. Prior to that, he was a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Fellow. Dr Siegfried obtained his PhD from the Pennsylvania State University, studying thermodynamics of RNA folding and cooperativity in folding. In the future he hopes to run an RNA virology lab as principal investigator.
IDT products that can facilitate your research
You can order up to 1 µmol desalted, custom synthesized DNA oligonucleotides and they will be shipped to you the next business day (larger scales are shipped within 5 business days). You can also specify whether to receive them dried down or hydrated, and whether you want them already annealed. Every IDT oligonucleotide you order is deprotected and desalted to remove small molecule impurities. Your oligos are quantified twice by UV spectrophotometry to provide an accurate measure of yield. Standard oligos are also assessed by mass spectrometry for quality you can count on.
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Learn more about gBlocks Gene Fragments at www.idtdna.com/gblocks.
Unraveling RNA—the importance of a 2' hydroxyl—On paper, the small structural differences between RNA and DNA may not look substantial but, in practice, these small differences have major significance for the biological role of RNA. Find out how.
G repeats—structural challenges for oligo design—G-quadruplexes are formed from the stacking of two or more G-tetrads, which occur naturally in sequences with short G base repeats. Find out more about G-quadruplexes and how they can affect oligonucleotide synthesis and applications.
Oligopaints—visualizing the three-dimensional organization of the genome—Research profile: See how this research group used modified oligos as probes for chromosomal mapping of specific sequence elements. The location of these sequence elements correlates with the 3D organization of the genome.
3D DNA canvas—synthetic DNA learns new tricks—Research profile: These scientists assemble DNA bricks (32mers) to create complex, nanostructure shapes. Read how they use DNA bricks to design 3D structures.
You can also browse our DECODED Online newsletter for additional application reviews, lab tips, and citation summaries to facilitate your research.
Author: Nicola Brookman-Amissah, PhD is a Scientific Writer at IDT.
© 2012, 2016 Integrated DNA Technologies. All rights reserved. Trademarks contained herein are the property of Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc. or their respective owners. For specific trademark and licensing information, see www.idtdna.com/trademarks. | <urn:uuid:76db443c-9e37-4299-9cac-6c6013703c77> | {
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Date of Completion
College of Arts and Science Honors
Art & Art History
Kelley Helmstutler DiDIo
Bernini, Baroque, Catholicism, Papacy, Fountain, Conversion
The Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, or the Four Rivers Fountain, depicts four seated figures encircling a towering obelisk crowned with a dove. Each figure personifies a river in each of one of the four known continents: The Nile is representative of Africa, the Ganges of Asia, the Rio de la Plata of South America, and finally the Danube of Europe. I argue that the Four Rivers Fountain is a monument celebrating the globalization of Catholicism during the 17th Century, specifically through conversion. The conversion depicted on the fountain takes place through the personified bodies of the four great rivers.
Bernini uses the circular format of the fountain and the figures to create a theatrical narrative of conversion to Catholicism under the influence of the papacy and the Catholic Church. The figures are composed to create a progression of four distinct phases of the conversion. The artist’s focus on conversion, specifically to Catholicism, was a product of Counter-Reformatory artistic aims, as well as the domestic and global political ambitions of the papacy. Bernini combined traditional Biblical imagery, associations with antiquity, and contemporary European beliefs about race and foreign cultures to further imbue the fountain with references to conversion and the supremacy of Catholicism.
Beard, Kirsten S., "Bernini’s Four Rivers Fountain: A Monument to Global Catholic Conversion" (2016). UVM College of Arts and Sciences College Honors Theses. 33.
Available for download on Sunday, May 10, 2026 | <urn:uuid:330d8b43-2a81-4d6e-9fe9-9ffe3d1dfc5c> | {
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Sunday, September 22, 2013
Just the other day, I heard about two Toronto Firefighters who were suspended for making inappropriate comments on Twitter. As I embark upon a year-long journey with a team of colleagues to integrate technology into their classrooms, I have lots of questions about when, where and how we teach kids to use technology ethically and responsibly. What I do know, is that kids need to remember that who they are online needs to reflect who they are in person.
I do believe that it is EVERYONE's responsibility to teach kids in the context of any technology being introduced. BUT (in Ontario anyway) unlike Financial Literacy which must be included in every subject at every level, there is no official mandate for teachers to include Digital Literacy or Citizenship in their curriculum. Though that may be on the horizon, many teachers are trying to juggle many things and may often assume it's being covered elsewhere.
I have recently put together a list of Digital Citizenship Resources that have been shared with me on Twitter that you are welcome to revise for your own purposes. Please add any resources you may find valuable as well!
I have also created this short Video based on the poster above which was shared with me on Pintrest. It was my first go at Animoto and though next time I'll have to adjust my picture sizes, it was a quick way to get my ideas across!
For further reading, my colleague @DClaphamK12 has put together this ScoopIt page.
Digital Citizenship is NOT old news! We need to keep talking about it every day! | <urn:uuid:bbeaf02e-50c7-4dc1-87c8-9532dbf1651b> | {
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To save energy, fill all the spaces in your dishwasher and scrape rather than rinse dishes beforehand. Doing both saves you up to 75 liters of water per wash, or 28 thousand liters a year. That's how much a person can drink throughout his/her life! If you wash dishes manually, turn off the tap while scrubbing.
Microwave ovens are 3.5 to 4.8 times more energy efficient than traditional electric ovens. What may cost you 10 cents to cook in a microwave would cost you 48 cents in a traditional oven.
Reuse paper bags or plastic bags to line your trash can. You'll save money and time. One ton of reused plastic bags equals the energy saved of 11 barrels of oil. For every one tone of reused paper bags, 17 trees are saved from being cut.
When baking and grilling, skip the pre-heat phase if the recipe calls for longer than one hour in the oven. Even for breads and cakes, avoid preheating more than 10 minutes. Reducing the time your oven is on will make a difference in your wallet. Another tip is to always use the right size of pan for each of your range burners.
If everyone could simply sort paper, plastic, glass and aluminum, and dispose in a recycle receptacle we could reduce the waste in the landfills by 75%.
Get your head off the fridge and close the door! The refrigerator is the appliance in your kitchen that consumes more energy; a considerable amount of a family's electric bill derives from the simple act of repeatedly opening the fridge.
Dispose the remains of fruits, vegetables, and coffee powder in a composting can or special container. You can throw it in the garden or create a composting area in the backyard. It fertilizes the soil, making for a better garden, in addition to recycling nutrients and saving space in the landfills.
When cooking, try to avoid waste by using perishable ingredients by the expiration date, measuring quantities carefully, and keeping leftovers for a future meal, instead of throwing away. If you can reduce food waste in your home by 25 grams a day (the equivalent of a slice of sandwich bread) you can save 9 kg of food per year, enough for 16 meals.
For drinking water in your home, use a water filter instead of buying bottled water. You will save money while preserving the environment. Every year, about 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to bottle 89 billion liters of water; plastic enough to produce 2 water filters for every household in the planet! One billion people worldwide have no access to clean, drinking water.
“Pee in the shower” campaign
NGO's SOS Mata Atlântica campaign Pee in the Shower (Xixi no Banho, in Portuguese) was so successful it was competing for Best Social Activism Campaign prize in the Deutsche Welle International Blog Awards – The BOBs, an international competition of websites in 11 languages.
“Xixi no Banho” was launched in 2009 with the purpose of showing, with a sense of humor, that it's possible to save more than 4 thousand liters of water a year by peeing in the shower and saving the water from the flush.
A non-moving car in a parking space or garage causes 20 times more pollution than a car moving at 50 km/hour; therefore, reduce the time you spend warming-up your car's engine.
Whenever possible try to buy fresh breads from a bakery instead of the industrialized ones. The paper packaging can be recycled and the energy saved can be used to freeze or refrigerate the breads.
When going away try to choose the low season, the ideal time to avoid the crowds, cut costs up to 40%, and reduce carbon emissions since there is less traffic and bottlenecks.
Avoid the use of wireless earphones on your mobile phones as they use too much battery. The type of battery needed for these devices contains mercury, lead, and zinc which, if disposed improperly, cause pollution in the air and in the water supply. Safe recycling of batteries supports responsible management of toxic chemicals. When disposing batteries always look for an e-cycle facility.
When buying or changing carpets and rugs choose the ones made with recycled materials over the ones made with synthetic fibers, which consume more energy to produce.
Buy used books or borrow from your local library. Lend yours to friends and donate the ones you no longer care about. Every year, about 3 billion new books are sold resulting in 400 thousand trees being cut.
When eating out, try to use less napkins. One less napkin you use means 150 million unities saved.
Instead of cheques, use a bank or credit card for shopping. Electronic payments save US$ 4 billion in paper costs.
If you are flying, pack lightly. Every 4 kg of luggage per passenger consumes an additional 1.3 billion liters of fuel per year. With that much fuel, a 747 aircraft could fly non-stop for 10 years.
Surfing the waves
When searching for the best waves, avoid driving on dunes. Search for open pathways or paved roads in order to save gas, protect coastal habitats and avoid soil erosion.
Change of diet
Paul McCartney created a campaign called “Meat Free Monday” to suggest people go meatless for at least one day a week. According to data released by the UN, 18% of greenhouse gas emissions originate from meat production. To produce a half kilo of meat, 3,5 kg of cereal is fed to the animal, and we still need to factor in the gallons of water consumed by the animal, and much more.
Reduce your showers by 5 minutes and you may save 48 liters of water per wash.
English version: Frida Sterenberg | <urn:uuid:3e356724-2923-44be-8ed0-8bf4d43d54e2> | {
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This article is a joint publication of TheNation.com and Foreign Policy In Focus.
On November 9, 1989—twenty-five years ago—huge crowds of East Germans descended on the Berlin Wall. The restless citizens were responding to an announcement by authorities suggesting that the government would loosen travel restrictions.
In truth, those in charge intended to make only limited alterations in visa requirements. But their intentions quickly became irrelevant. Mass numbers of people flocked to the wall, overwhelming the border guards. Soon, along with allies from the West, the crowds began dismantling the hated barrier for good.
Remarkably, although the fall of the Wall was an iconic moment, it was just one of the highlights in a flurry of activity that was sweeping through the Soviet bloc—a series of uprisings that would become known as the revolutions of 1989.
Every so often, we witness a period of mass insurgency that seems to defy the accepted rules of politics: Protests seem to begin popping up everywhere. Organizers see their rallies packed with newcomers who come from far outside their regular network of supporters. Mainstream analysts, taken by surprise, struggle for words. And those in power scramble as the political landscape around them dramatically shifts—sometimes leaving once-entrenched leaders in perilous positions.
If ever there was a time in modern history that exemplified such a moment of peak public activity, it was the second half of 1989.
Although the crowds at the Berlin Wall on November 9 assembled in impromptu fashion, their gathering was not altogether spontaneous. It came after months of growing demonstrations and escalating pressure on the country’s Communist Party. Throughout the fall, weekly rallies in Leipzig had called for freedom of travel and democratic elections. Demonstrations in that city began with just a few hundred protesters, but they grew exponentially until, by early November, they were attracting as many as half a million. The contagion reached other cities as well: Mass protests started erupting in Dresden, East Berlin and beyond.
Demonstrations in East Germany did not feed only off each other; they also drew energy from what had become a region-wide revolt. Earlier that year, in the spring, historic marches in Hungary set an example of how popular pressure could propel negotiations with a reformist government. That summer, in Poland, the union-based opposition party Solidarity—having led a series of crippling strikes the year before—won a stunning and decisive victory in the country’s newly liberalized elections. By autumn, rebellion was in full bloom. Hardly more than a week after the November 9 revolt in East Germany, students in Prague undertook the first demonstration of the “Velvet Revolution.” By the end of the month, social movements would call a general strike and force the end of one-party rule in Czechoslovakia.
Looking back now, what can we learn from these extraordinary mobilizations?
Conventional political analysts see the revolutions of ‘89 as a spontaneous, once-in-a-lifetime swelling of popular discontent. Their description of the wave of uprisings in Eastern Europe mirrors the assertions they make virtually every time an outbreak of mass mobilization erupts on the political stage: They tell us that these moments of peak activity are rare and unpredictable. They contend that mass protest is the product of broad historical forces. And they suggest that no one could consciously engineer events that trigger such upheavals.
On each of these points, the political tradition known as “civil resistance” offers a contrary interpretation. Those who listen will take very different lessons from the momentous ferment of twenty-five years ago.
Civil resistance—the study and practice of nonviolent conflict—is a tradition that traces its lineage through the campaigns of Gandhi, the US civil rights movement, the works of scholars such as Gene Sharp and contemporary revolts such as the Arab Spring. Immersed in the study of how unarmed uprisings work, analysts in this tradition put forth several propositions that challenge conventional wisdom about 1989: They contend, first, that extraordinary mobilizations are not as rare as they might seem; second, that there is an art to organizing around them; and third, that activists willing to embrace a strategy of nonviolent escalation can often set off historic upheavals of their own.
Uprisings large and small
Before the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the idea that the Iron Curtain would fall not primarily through coups and military maneuvers but through the mobilization of mass, unarmed resistance would have seemed improbable at best and quite possibly deluded. But what has been remarkable in recent decades is how frequently new examples of successful civil resistance have presented themselves. From the Philippines, to Chile, to South Africa, to Serbia, to Tunisia and Egypt and beyond, the repertoire of civil resistance has ushered in remarkable changes.
Certainly, the revolutions of ‘89 were exceptional in their breadth and impact. Yet, viewed in another way, mass uprisings are a more regular part of our political lives than we often acknowledge. Once you are looking for them, popular mobilizations appear constantly—materializing with little notice in diverse countries, drawing new participants out of the woodwork and upending politics as usual. The Arab Spring of 2011 is an obvious example, one that evoked memories of Eastern Europe. But momentous disruptions need not be so sweeping and international to be significant. Nor need they take place in undemocratic contexts.
Just in the United States, and just in the past fifteen years, we have seen disruptive outbreaks emerge with shocking frequency, capturing the spotlight at a wide range of levels, from the national to the local. Nationwide, landmark protests against the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund in Seattle and Washington, DC, at the turn of the century were followed by massive antiwar mobilizations in New York and San Francisco in 2003. Historic immigration marches in 2006 were followed by the multiplying encampments of the Occupy movement in 2011. State-level mobilizations such as the Wisconsin uprising, citywide protests against police brutality in Oakland and Ferguson and campus living-wage sit-ins, while taking place on more modest scales, have all had an outsized impact in galvanizing public debate. For intensive spurts, each drew in unusual numbers of participants, activating people in ways that are mysterious and foreign to conventional politics.
That mainstream commentators are taken by surprise, again and again, by such mobilizations—large and small—speaks more to their own biases than to the contours of how social change happens.
And yet their biases are not unique. A predisposition toward gradualism extends even into social movement circles. The school of community organizing pioneered by Saul Alinsky has traditionally viewed mass mobilizations with suspicion. Organizers in this lineage charge that outbreaks of protest are flashes in the pan, too unpredictable and unsustainable to be relied upon. They stress that their goal is to build “organizations,” not “movements”; they seek to create institutions that can leverage grassroots power on an ongoing basis. Interestingly, Alinsky himself was more open to the extraordinary potential of peak moments than many of his ideological descendants. Seeing the rush of civil rights activity that followed the 1961 Freedom Rides in the segregated South, Alinsky and his protégé Nicholas von Hoffman dubbed it a “moment of the whirlwind.” The two agreed on the need to temporarily set aside their normal organizing methodologies in order to tap into the energy of the extraordinary uprising.
The politics of the unusual
In contrast to conventional politicians, and even to many organizers, Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. carefully studied the dynamics of creating moments of the whirlwind. They were specialists in the politics of the unusual. Through the use of nonviolent conflict, they sought to produce ruptures in the normal functioning of the political system, and thus to propel previously ignored injustices to the fore of public consciousness. It was their talent for doing so that secured their places in history.
In his famous 1963 letter from the Birmingham city jail, King explained that the purpose of direct action “is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation” with otherwise intransigent adversaries. Early in his career, King had been reluctantly thrown into crises created by other activists and organizations. But by the time of the Birmingham campaign, he had developed a savvy understanding of how to manufacture nonviolent conflicts that could stir national indignation and move foot-dragging politicians.
In his 1968 book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, he described civil rights organizations using militant direct action as “specialists in agitation and dramatic projects,” creating “explosive events” that “attracted massive sympathy and support.” He self-critically noted that these events were no substitute for building institutional structures that could sustain the fight for the long haul. Still, the uprisings he helped create in places like Birmingham and Selma had shaken the American public like few other efforts and had become defining peaks in the push for civil rights.
Decades before, Gandhi had likewise articulated how nonviolent conflict could be used to consciously provoke social crises. “Those who have to bring about radical changes in human conditions and surroundings,” he wrote in 1932, “cannot do it except by raising a ferment in society.”
One of the earliest studies of Gandhi’s method, Krishnalal Shridharani’s 1939 text War Without Violence, elaborates on this theme. It notes that unarmed uprisings often have more in common with war than with routine interest-group politics. “Underlying…both violence and non-violence,” Shridharani writes, “is the basic assumption that certain radical social changes cannot be brought about save by mass action capable of precipitating an emotional crisis, and that the humdrum everyday existence of human life needs shaking up in order that man may arrive at fateful decisions.”
In 1930, when the time came for a decisive confrontation with the British Raj, the Indian National Congress entrusted Gandhi as the sole strategist in charge of crafting its direct-action challenge. Congress members did so not because they were his spiritual disciples—in fact, many distrusted his otherworldly faith in the power of redemptive suffering—but rather because Gandhi had gained a hard-won reputation for being able to create disruptions of historic proportions. In this case, the result was the famous Salt March of 1930, one of the landmark events in the drive for Indian self-determination.
An undetermined future
When social movements are able to provoke political crises that prompt dramatic change, they are not always given much credit for their efforts.
Looking at the revolutions of ‘89, some political scientists hardly discuss popular movements at all. Instead, they focus on economic and geopolitical developments. They stress how the long-term strain caused by competition with the West and the perpetual economic crises in the Eastern bloc fomented unrest. They highlight Mikhail Gorbachev’s signals that the Soviet Union would tolerate reform rather than replicating the Chinese crackdown at Tiananmen Square. These stances are part of a wider trend: Political analysts commonly describe the timing and fortunes of mass uprisings as the product of historic conditions rather than the decisions of citizens themselves.
Analysts in the field of civil resistance do not deny the importance of economic and political context. But they emphasize the interplay of such conditions with the skills of social movement participants—the agency of activists, as reflected in their strategic choices and on-the-ground execution.
Historians have the luxury of looking back after the fact of an uprising and identifying the structural forces and historical peculiarities that contributed to a successful effort, or that helped to sink an unsuccessful one. Activists on the ground, in contrast, never have the benefit of hindsight, and they must make the most of whatever conditions they encounter. As Hardy Merriman, an analyst and trainer in nonviolent conflict, writes, “agency and skills make a difference, and in some cases have enabled movements to overcome, circumvent, or transform adverse conditions.”
It is important to note that, overwhelmingly, the same experts who would later credit historical conditions for the momentous shifts of ‘89 did not foresee the potential that existed at the time. Writing for the leading journal Foreign Affairs in 1987, a former US ambassador to Czechoslovakia argued that, despite signs of openness from Gorbachev, “there is no prospect of fundamental change in relations between [Warsaw Pact] countries and the USSR.” In the face of such discouraging prognoses, it took a daring and skillful leap of faith for activists to challenge the entrenched and repressive regimes that ruled over them.
From trigger to explosion
Ultimately, neither skills nor conditions are enough on their own. At any given time, history might offer up a “trigger event” that provokes widespread outrage and sends people into the streets. But it takes determined escalation on the part of social movements to keep the issue in the spotlight, to compel greater participation and sacrifice, and to repeatedly reinforce the sense of public urgency.
A final lesson that we can draw in looking back at the revolutions of ‘89 is that, when a whirlwind truly begins churning, it is not the result of one incident. Rather, it is the product of multiple, compounding crises—many of which are the result of deliberate effort.
In his book Doing Democracy, Bill Moyer, a longtime social-movement trainer and theorist of the nonviolent direct-action tradition in the United States, describes the concept of a “trigger event.” A trigger is a “highly publicized, shocking incident” that “dramatically reveals a critical social problem to the public in a vivid way.” These events, Moyer argues, are an essential part of the cycle of every social movement. They create vital windows in which activists can rally mass participation and sharply increase public support for a cause.
Prominent examples of trigger events include the accident at the Three Mile Island power plant in 1979, which suddenly made nuclear safety a hot-button issue. Just days after the accident, a previously planned anti-nuclear rally in San Francisco that ordinarily might have attracted hundreds of participants instead drew a crowd of 25,000. Similarly, the 1955 arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to move to the back of a segregated bus prompted a community-wide boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. And the self-immolation of Tunisian fruit seller Muhammad Bouazizi set off the 2011 revolts of the Arab Spring.
Trigger events, however, are only the beginning; they provide no guarantee of change. There are countless instances of oil spills and school shootings, for example, that spark outrage but ultimately have little impact on political life. Likewise, there have been many other self-immolations that did not have the effect of Bouazizi’s.
In truth, the triggers that do morph into explosive revolts are often less accidental than they first appear. Civil resistance works when groups are willing to seize an opportunity and escalate—rallying the power of mass participation and personal sacrifice in order to produce ever more ambitious acts of resistance. Before Rosa Parks, there had been previous arrests on Jim Crow buses, but civil rights groups consciously chose to make Parks’s arrest into a test case for segregation, in part because she was a committed activist herself. In other instances, from the Salt March to Birmingham to Occupy, movements created their own trigger events, using disruptive actions to make headlines, prompt a reaction from authorities and begin a cycle in which new participants could join in to ever-larger actions.
On November 17, 1989, a week after the Berlin Wall fell, students in Prague held a march to mark the anniversary of a university activist who had been killed during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Sociologists Lester Kurtz and Lee Smithey describe how, when the students encountered security forces, they offered flowers to police and waved their bare hands in the air. The police attacked nevertheless, indiscriminately bludgeoning the students with their truncheons.
“This was the spark that set Czechoslovakia alight,” one writer later remarked.
Certainly, the students were responding to the swelling of revolt in countries all around them. But it was their decision to brave the threat of repression—knowing the dangers, but not the consequences—that launched the Velvet Revolution. And it was the decision of countless others to join them that gave the revolution its force. Today, few things about the whirlwind uprisings of 1989 are more relevant to remember than this choice: to rise up in the face of uncertain outcomes, to risk escalation and to create the possibility of setting a movement ablaze. | <urn:uuid:ad10053c-019e-4c7e-8598-1091bd65dc92> | {
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The short answer: both. So:
Why do Catholics often leave off the words at the end of the Lord’s Prayer?
Actually, Catholics are free to recite the prayer either with and without those words, and they do include them at some Parish Masses.
The Lord’s Prayer is unique among all prayers because it was taught by Jesus Himself.
Catholics commonly refer to it as the “Our Father,” after the ancient tradition of using the first two words of a prayer to name it, e.g., Hail Mary, Glory Be, etc.
Catholics and non-Catholics sometimes recite different versions of this prayer. Typically, the Catholic version ends with the phrase “deliver us from evil,” while the non-Catholic version goes on to include, “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, now and forever.” These additional words form a doxology, a short, flowery verse of praise appended to a prayer.
The apparent discrepancy between the two versions of the Lord’s Prayer naturally causes one to ask which way of praying it is the way Jesus originally taught.
This prayer is recorded in two of the four Gospels—Matthew and Luke. The two accounts are essentially the same with some phrasing omitted in Luke. Jesus, endeavoring to teach His followers how to pray, declares:
“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:9-13; Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition).
Some translations of Matthew, most notably the King James Version, produced in the seventeenth century, include the aforementioned doxology to the Lord’s Prayer. The majority of the oldest surviving manuscripts, however, do not. It should also be said, furthermore, that the doxology does not appear in any translation of Luke. Thus, it is believed that the doxology was not part of the original Biblical text, but was later inserted by a scribe in the process of translating it. Likely the doxology was initially written in the margin and eventually came to be integrated in with the main text in a certain line of manuscripts.
While the doxology is not found in the most authoritative manuscripts of the Bible, the tradition of the Lord’s prayer doxology goes all the way back to the early decades of the faith. The ancient Church document known as the Didache (did-ah-kay), for instance, which was probably written in the latter part of the first century A.D., essentially at the same time as the New Testament, includes the doxology.
The Didache is a thoroughly Catholic document—expressing beliefs about Baptism, the Mass, and Confession that agree with what the Catholic Church teaches today. The custom of adding the doxology at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, then, appears really to be part of Catholic tradition. And while it is believed the shorter version of the prayer is probably the version which Matthew originally wrote down, both versions of it are perfectly acceptable for Catholics to pray. In fact, the doxology is regularly recited by Catholics today when the Our Father is prayed at Mass. | <urn:uuid:5f27ed2f-33c1-4862-9000-17e99e82b496> | {
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The United States has one of the best highway systems in the world.
Interstate highways connect just about every large and mid-sized city in the country.
Did you ever wonder why such a complete system of excellent roads exists?
For an answer, you would have to go back to the early 1920s.
In those years, just after World War I, the military wanted to build an American highway system for national defense.
Such a system could, if necessary, move troops quickly from one area to another.
It could also get people out of cities in danger of being bombed.
So-called roads of national importance were designated, but they were mostly small country roads.
In 1944, Congress passed a bill to upgrade the system, but did not fund the plan right away.
In the 1950s, the plan began to become a reality.
Over $25 billion was appropriated by Congress, and construction began on about 40,000 miles of new roads.
The idea was to connect the new system to existing expressways and freeways.
And though the system was built mostly to make car travel easier* defense was not forgotten.
For instance, highway overpasses had to be high enough to allow trailers carrying military missiles to pass under them.
By 1974, this system was mostly completed.
A few additional roads would come later.
Quick and easy travel between all parts of the country was now possible.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Question 19. What does the speaker say about the American highway system?
Question 20. What was the original purpose of building a highway system?
Question 21. When was the interstate highway system mostly completed? | <urn:uuid:02ab283c-ed89-45d9-96eb-9cae1d8554aa> | {
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Often and thoughtlessly repeated, 'One man's terrorist in another man's freedom fighter' is one of those sayings that cry out for logical and philosophical analysis. Competent analysis will show that clear-thinking persons ought to avoid the saying.
Note first that while freedom is an end, terror is a means. So to call a combatant a terrorist is to say something about his tactics, his means for achieving his ends, while to call a combatant a freedom fighter is to say nothing about his tactics or means for achieving his ends. It follows that one and the same combatant can be both a terrorist and a freedom fighter. For one and the same person can employ terror as his means while having freedom as his end.
Another Palestinian renounces terrorism and fights for freedom from occupation by the path of negotiation. He is objectively a freedom fighter and objectively no terrorist. A third case might be an Israeli terrorist who blows up a Palestinian hospital or mosque in revenge for Palestinian terrorist attacks. He is objectively a terrorist but objectively not a freedom fighter.
So there are two reasons to avoid 'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.' The first is that it rests on a confusion of means and ends. Describing a combatant as a terrorist, I describe his means not his end; describing a combatant as a freedom fighter, I describe his end not his means. A second reason to avoid the saying is because the saying suggests falsely that there is no fact of the matter as to whether or not a person is a terrorist. There is: a combatant is a terrorist if and only if he employs terror as a tactic in the furtherance of his political goals. It doesn't matter what his goal or end is. It might be the noble one of freedom from oppression. Or it might be base one of domination and exploitation. What makes him a terrorist is the means he employs.
In brief, terror is a means not an end, and there is an objective fact of the matter whether a combatant is a terrorist or not. But what is a terrorist? I suggest that the following are all essential marks of a terrorist. I claim they are all individually necessary conditions for a combatant's being a terrorist; whether they are jointly sufficient I leave undecided. 'Terrorist' is used by different people in different ways. That is not my concern. My concern is how we ought to use the term if we intend to think clearly about the phenomenon of terrorism and keep it distinct from other phenomena in the vicinity.
1. A terrorist aims at a political objective. Criminals may 'terrorize' as when a loanshark microwaves a delinquent's cat, but criminals who terrorize are not terrorists because their aim is personal, not political. And although terrorists commit crimes, they are best not classified as criminals for the same reason. Treating the 1993 and 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center as criminal matters shows a lack of understanding of the nature of terrorism.
2. A terrorist does not discriminate between combatants and noncombatants. All are fair game, which is not to say that in a particular situation a terrorist might not have a reason not to target some combatants or some noncombatants. This distinguishes a terrorist organization such as Hezbollah from the Israeli Defense Forces. As a matter of policy, the IDF does not target noncombatants, whereas as a matter of policy Hezbollah targets anyone on the enemy side. The deliberate targeting of civilians also distinguishes terrorists from guerilla fighters.
3. A terrorist is not an agent of a state but of a nonstate or substate entity. A terrorist is neither a criminal (see #1 above) nor a warrior; a terrorist act is neither a criminal act nor an act of war; a terrorist organization is neither a criminal gang nor a state. Strictly speaking, only states make war.
Of course, a state (e.g. Iran) can arm and support and make use of a terrorist outfit (e.g. Hezbollah) in pursuit of a political objective (e.g., the destruction of Israel). But that does not elide the distinction between states and terrorist organizations. It is also clear that states sometimes 'terrorize'; but this is not a good reason to think of states as terrorist organizations, or some or all of their combatants as terrorists or of any of their acts as terrorist acts. The Allied firebombing of Dresden in February of 1945 was a deliberate targeting of combatants and noncombatants alike in clear violation of 'just war' doctrine. But whatever one's moral judgment of the Dresden attack or the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, none of these acts count as terrorist for the simple reason that they were the acts of states, not terrorist organizations. Some will bristle at this, but if one wants to think clearly about terrorism one must not confuse it with other things.
4. A terrorist is not a saboteur. Sabotage is one thing, terrorism another. Analytical clariy demands a distinction. Infecting computer networks with malware or attacking the power grid are acts of sabotage, but they are not strictly speaking acts of terrorism. An act is not terrorist unless it involves the killing or maiming of human beings or the threat thereof.
I am indebted to the discussion in Louise Richardson, What Terrorists Want, Random House, 2006, Ch. 1 | <urn:uuid:c9d7e85e-5c8e-4964-99fb-8d5688a8be13> | {
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A Milford fifth grader, 10-year-old Alexis Walter, went before city council May 21 to raise awareness about bullying.
“Bullying has been a problem in my school,” Walter said before the meeting began. “I was being bullied and I stood up for myself. That’s when I realized it was a problem.”
Walter wanted something done about the problem and asked that the City of Milford draft a resolution against bullying. She prepared a speech and read a poem to the council.
“I would like to talk to you about a trend in our country that affects school age children everywhere,” Walter said to start her speech. “I want to ask you as a council and as a city to become an upstander against this trend of bullying.”
Throughout her presentation, Walter encouraged her audience to be upstanders, rather than bystanders, and stand up against bullies.
“Bullies rely on bystanders to elevate their power,” Walter said.
She also spoke about the way new technology has enabled bullies to reach out to their targets.
“The use of texting and the internet makes it easier for the bully to attack and get their message out,” Walter said. “It’s not the same bullying of 10, 15, or 20 years ago. It is much more common and, to many experts, much more cruel.”
Walter listed a few statistics of bullying. She said 3.2 million students will be bullied this year, 10 percent of students are bullied on a daily basis, over 100,000 students skip school every day to avoid being bullied, and 75 percent of school shootings are directly related to bullying.
“She did all the research herself,” said Laurie Howland, Milford vice-mayor and Walter’s mother. “She told me she wanted to do this and I said she needed to do the work. It’s her issue.”
Walter has spoke about a Facebook page she started, called End the Trend, in order to raise awareness about bullying. She hopes to get one million “likes” on the social media site. The page is updated regularly with bullying statistics, news, and inspirational quotes and songs.
After Walter finished her speech, Milford Law Director Michael Minniear read a resolution, entitled The Alexis Walter Anti-Bullying Resolution. Council voted to adopt the resolution.
Milford is the first city in Ohio to pass such a resolution. | <urn:uuid:32a9035a-89db-4401-9dba-fd556f03b3c4> | {
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This week evolutionary ecologist Peter Mayhew has presented a set of findings which show the rate of climate change in the Earth to be detrimental to the number of species of animals on our planet. While findings in the past have shown that periods of warmth on our blue globe have also been times when the number of different species of animals has risen, the speed at which the Earth is warming here in the present is, as Mayhew suggests, too rapid for the increase in species to outweigh the number of species that are becoming extinct. The new study Mayhew presents works with a new way of looking at the number of species in each geological period studied with only well-sampled periods rather than with simple tallies of the first and last appearances of each species.
The results of the newest findings here with Peter Mayhew’s group resolve a previous contradiction in the study of climate change in which high and low temperatures both showed growth or decline in numbers of species on the planet. The current article referred to this week “Biodiversity tracks temperature over time” will be appearing in PNAS immediately if not soon, and includes authors P. J. Mayhew, M. A. Bell, T. G. Benton, and A. J. McGowan, who let it be known that with their new findings worked with number of known families of marine invertebrates and sea-surface temperatures over the course of 540 million years.
OF SPECIAL NOTE – Scott Wing, palaeobiologist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, reacted to the article in a couple ways – the first of which will be important to those of you looking for information on what this all has to do with us humans:
“This article has nothing to say about the effects of global warming at any timescale of interest to most humans.” – Wing
So keep that in mind – you can certainly take what you want from it, but note that the paper does not comment on the effect climate change is having on humans – that’s a talk for a different day.
What findings in this study do show is that when temperatures were high in the history of our planet, biodiversity was high, and when temperatures were low, biodiversity was low as well. These findings, as the group make clear, contradict previous work (that includes work by Mayhew’s group, amongst others), which showed temperature to have the opposite effect on biodiversity.
The rate at which the planet gets warmer or cooler, the group reports, has a direct effect on the biodiversity of the planet. The rate of change can have giant effects on how biodiversity is affected. With the rate of extinctions that are occurring at the rapid change in temperature we’re in now, for example, diversity will likely not rise fast enough to make up for the loss.
Professor Tim Benton, Biological Sciences at the University of Leeds, reacted to this particular possibility according to U of York:
“Science progresses by constantly re-examining conclusions in the light of better data. Our results seem to show that temperature improves biodiversity through time as well as across space. However, they do not suggest that current global warming is good for existing species. Increases in global diversity take millions of years, and in the meantime we expect extinctions to occur.” – Benton
Mayhew adds that the next step is to study longer periods of time, and as Shanan Peters, palaeobiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, notes: the more interesting study in the future will be findings on major climate transitions, like the one we’re very possibly in right this minute.
“The time periods we’re really interested in now are decades and hundreds of years — at maximum 1,000 years. … You can’t get that kind of detail by looking into the deep past. If you want to know how temperature change is affecting things on that timescale, you’re going to have to look at the more recent fossil record.” – Mayhew
*EDITORS NERD NOTE: Though it would be ironic beyond comprehension if it were true, the ecologist Peter Mayhew and the actor Peter Mayhew are not one in the same. SlashGear awards 5 bonus nerd points to anyone who knows Peter Mayhew’s most famous and iconic role without looking it up! | <urn:uuid:3c69bdd4-1f42-4eb1-8128-a453d65e77d2> | {
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What is Biblical Hope?
For thou art my hope (tikvah), O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth. (Ps. 71:5)
We typically think of hope as a feeling that something desirable is likely to happen. Unlike a wish or longing, hope implies expectation of obtaining what is desired. In Hebrew, hope is the word tikvah (teek-VAH). Strong’s defines it as a cord, expectation, and hope. It comes from the Hebrew root kavah meaning to bind together, collect; to expect: – tarry, wait (for, on, upon).
Did you notice the concrete idea of a woven cord? While hope in English is abstract, hope in Hebrew provides us with a strong visual. A bound cord, rope, or thread cannot only be seen with our eyes, but it is something we can grasp hold of with our hands. In other words, hope is something real enough that we can cling to it. Hope is not something out of our reach.
The first occurrence of the word tikvah in the Bible is in the book of Joshua in the account of the two Israelite spies and the woman Rahab of Jericho.
The men said to her, “We shall be free from this oath to you which you have made us swear, unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father’s household. (Jos. 2:17-18)
She said, “According to your words, so be it.” So she sent them away, and they departed; and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. (Jos. 2:21)
While the Hebrew tikvah is used here in its literal sense as a “cord or thread”, it still gives us a picture of its figurative picture of hope. The scarlet thread was Rahab’s hope. It was her only guarantee that her household would be spared by the Israelites. Though the physical cord had been tied to ensure their safety, Rahab still had to WAIT for the realization of the spies’ promise.
This is where the root of tikvah, kavah, becomes relevant to our understanding. We can typically relate to hope. But we too often forget that hope is rooted in waiting. Being patient and waiting for an expected thing or outcome is very difficult for the majority of us. We see numerous examples of Biblical heroes that struggled with “waiting”, sometimes with devastating consequences. Think about Abraham and Sarah’s impatience with producing an heir. They eventually agreed to use the surrogate Hagar that produced Ishmael. We still see the effects of their impatience today through Ishmael’s offspring, a persistent enemy of Israel.
So, the real question is how do we cling to hope? How do we keep from growing restless? How do we keep doubt from over taking us?
The truth is that we can cling to the hope we have in the promises of Elohim (God). Like grasping onto a strong rope, our hope is tangible and secure. Nevertheless, we must wait for their fulfillment and not grow weary. But what about the myriads of issues in our daily lives that do not have a direct reference of promise in Scripture; is our hope real when we are trusting that YHWH will intervene in these affairs?
Life isn’t black and white. There are many “grey” areas as we only see “dimly” most of the time. Our nature seeks certainty and absolutes no matter the issue or subject. Hope lives in the greyness and uncertainty of life; it can seem fuzzy. But, if we continue to cling to it, the sharp clarity of black and white will emerge into focus and with it the full technicolor of life. Yet, this realization isn’t why I’m writing. I want to be able walk steadily in the fuzzy grey path I currently find myself meandering.
Some of our travels and seasons on this journey of life with YHWH don’t make sense to our natural minds. What appears in the natural to be unfair, trying, or even wrong are in fact the very place He desires us to be. How else would learn to lean on our faith, trust, and hope in His promise to never leave us or forsake us? Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that we won’t feel that He has. But feelings aren’t a reliable gauge of truth. Feeling empty, dry, or deserted only causes us to cry out to the Almighty. When everything is hunky-dory we typically don’t cry out.
My family is in a place in the wilderness where we are continually crying out. It seems as if the desert is going to consume us… but this is where I must CHOOSE to see with spiritual eyes and stand on the promises of my MASTER. He really is in control. And if I can only relinquish my every anxiety over to Him, I will find that shalom I so desperately am seeking. If you are in a similar place of desperation, join me in taking courage although it seems the sky is falling all around you.
Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD. (Ps. 27:14)
Even when the Word doesn’t speak directly to your situation or perhaps even appears contrary to a promise you’ve been standing on, know that YHWH is love. No matter the problem, issue, or situation, in the end His will and purposes ARE without a doubt being met. We must simply release our façade of control and be willing vessels no matter the cost.
This brings me to the question that I HOPE I can answer in the affirmative:
Can I let go of what I think is supporting me when I can’t see where I will land? Do I trust Him to catch me or throw me a rope?
There is a precious scarlet cord that runs not only throughout the Bible, but through each of our lives. But in order to see it, we must do just what I’ve been writing about. We must let it go of ourselves and tenaciously take hold of His rope. That is our only real HOPE.
I suppose my (and many other people’s) problem is the feeling (there’s that word again) that we aren’t worthy of being caught. We all know that we deserve nothing. Perhaps this limbo like desert is really a place of remembrance. We must remember what YHWH has already done in our lives. He is not a fickle Greek god. He is trustworthy and He changes not. This is what we must do when fear, doubt, and even restlessness tries to overtake our hope.
We must think about that tangible woven cord that was plaited just for us. Perhaps this is the very reason Rahab’s cord was the color red or scarlet. It is to remind us of our scarlet sins and the scarlet blood that washes them away white as snow. Like Rahab, we don’t deserve to be spared. We aren’t worthy, yet He still loves us. He still forgives us. We mustn’t try to force or work our way around our situation. Real hope waits on the Master to provide the way, all we have to do is walk as He leads.
Can we hold onto this hope in the midst of swirling chaos? | <urn:uuid:d4d1a274-917a-4afc-97fc-fef9f4724ad3> | {
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Today in History: May 21
Zachary Taylor and His Cabinet, All Seated Except President Taylor (detail),
Mathew Brady's studio, 1849.
America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1864
In this detail of President Zachary Taylor with his cabinet, Reverdy Johnson, attorney general, is seated at the far right. Click on the thumbnail for an enlargement showing the entire group portrait.
On May 21, 1796, attorney and statesman Reverdy Johnson was born in Annapolis, Maryland. Johnson represented Maryland, a slaveholding state south of the Mason-Dixon line, as a Whig, in the U.S. Senate from 1845-49 and again following the Civil War as a Democrat from 1863-68. Under President Zachary Taylor, he served as attorney general from 1849 until Taylor's death in 1850. Johnson was considered a brilliant constitutional lawyer and won an 1854 Supreme Court decision in favor of a patent for the McCormick reaper.
Men binding grain being cut by McCormick's horse-drawn reaper, invented in 1831,
Photo by McCormick Company.
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
Although he personally opposed slavery and emancipated slaves inherited from his father, Johnson represented the slave-owning defendant in the 1857 Dred Scott case in which the U.S. Supreme Court decided that slaves could not be citizens of the United States. The court's decision intensified antislavery sentiment in the North and fed the antagonism that sparked the Civil War. In 1865, the ruling was made obsolete with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment prohibiting slavery.
Contemporary condemnation of the Dred Scott decision can be found in the the minutes and sermon of the Second Presbyterian and Congregational Convention held in Philadelphia in 1858:
…it was Resolved, That the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Dred Scott, the evident design of which is, to degrade and rob the free people of color of civil and political rights, to perpetuate Slavery, and dishearten true philanthropy in the United States: is alike a sin against God, and a crime against humanity; and that Judges Curtis and McLean, who dissented from the infamous decision, are worthy of all praise.
Motion of Rev. E. P. Rogers
The minutes and sermon of the Second Presbyterian and Congregational Convention, held in the Central Presbyterian Church, Lombard Street, Philadelphia, on October 28, 1858.
African-American Perspectives, 1818-1907
This map depicts free states in pink and slave states in dark green. The light green area in the West was composed of a number of territories at that time.
During the Civil War, Reverdy Johnson strove to keep Maryland in the Union as exemplified in a major address to a Unionist meeting in January 1861. He maintained a close relationship with the Lincoln administration by serving as a member of the failed Washington Peace Conference that met in February 1861. Two years later, he was sent by President Lincoln to New Orleans to investigate complaints about the Union occupation of the city. Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was supported by Johnson as evidenced in this meeting between the two in April 1861.
Johnson was moderate in his attitude toward post-Civil War reconstruction of the rebellious Southern states. When impeachment proceedings were brought against Andrew Johnson, largely for his lenient treatment of the South, Reverdy Johnson was instrumental in securing the president's acquittal.
Following a two-year appointment as minister to Great Britain from 1868-69, Johnson returned to his law practice in Annapolis where he died in 1876 as a result of a fall.
To learn more about the historical events in which Reverdy Johnson played a pivotal role:
Supreme Court Room,inside the Capitol, Washington, D.C.,
William Henry Jackson, photographer, circa 1902.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920
- See the Special Presentation on the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson included in A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, 1774-1875.
- The Library's Manuscript Division holds the largest collection of Reverdy Johnson papers with correspondence relating to his early law career, Congressional terms, the 1862 investigation of General Benjamin Franklin Butler, and service as U.S. Minister to the Court of St. James.
- Search on Dred Scott as a phrase, in the full text search box in African American Perspectives, 1818-1907 and in Words and Deeds in American History. Read, for example, Minutes and Sermon of the Second Presbyterian and Congregational Convention from October 1858, which includes a condemnation of the recent Dred Scott decision.
- Read a series of sixty-eight letters between Johnson, Abraham Lincoln, and others in the Abraham Lincoln Papers.
- Visit the online exhibition African American Odyssey which explores black America's quest for equality from the early national period through the twentieth century. Also available is The African-American Mosaic, the first Library-wide resource guide to the institution's African-American collections including books, periodicals, prints, photographs, music, film, and recorded sound covering 500 years of history.
- Search on keyword Dred Scott in Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 to read more about this famous law case. Read, for example, The Case of Dred Scott in the United States Supreme Court.
- See the presentation titled "The Dred Scott Case" mounted by the National Park Service in conjunction with The Museum of Westward Expansion. This complex, part of the national park system, includes the Old Courthouse where the first two trials of the Dred Scott case were held. | <urn:uuid:ae43b790-af46-4a95-a786-301a4d536673> | {
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Celebrated as one of the civil rights movement’s most courageous young leaders, John Lewis, a founding member and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), greatly contributed to student movements of the 1960s. He described Martin Luther King as ‘‘the person who, more than any other, continued to influence my life, who made me who I was’’ (Lewis, 412).
Born on 21 February 1940, Lewis was raised on a farm near Troy, Alabama, where his parents were sharecroppers. Lewis was first exposed to King and his ideas when he heard one of the young minister’s sermons on the radio. This was a revolutionary moment for Lewis who thought of King as a ‘‘Moses’’ of his people; one who used ‘‘organized religion and the emotionalism within the Negro church as an instrument, as a vehicle, toward freedom’’ (Allen, ‘‘John Lewis’’). Inspired by this idea of the social gospel, Lewis began preaching in local churches when he was 15 years old. Upon graduating from high school, Lewis enrolled in the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville.
Lewis’ first direct encounter with King occurred in the summer of 1958, when he traveled to Montgomery to seek King’s help in suing to transfer to Troy State University, an all-white institution closer to his home. Lewis met with King, Ralph Abernathy, and Fred Gray at Abernathy’s First Baptist Church, and they decided they would contribute their financial and legal assistance to ‘‘the boy from Troy,’’ as King called him (Lewis, 68). Lewis’ parents, however, feared the potential repercussions of the lawsuit. Lewis acknowledged these sentiments and returned to American Baptist that fall.
While in Nashville, Lewis attended direct action workshops led by James Lawson and came to embrace the Gandhian philosophy of nonviolence. Lewis became heavily involved in the Nashville movement and participated in a series of student sit-ins in early 1960 that aimed to integrate movie theaters, restaurants, and other businesses. In April 1960, he helped form SNCC and later participated in the Freedom Rides of 1961. During this campaign, Lewis realized the potential implications of his involvement in the movement after being severely beaten by white youth. Faced with jeopardizing his ability to graduate from American Baptist by being incarcerated for participation in a demonstration, he stated: ‘‘this is [the] most important decision in my life, to decide to give up all if necessary for the Freedom Ride, that Justice and Freedom might come to the Deep South’’ (Branch, 395).
Lewis received his BA from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in 1961. Acknowledging him as ‘‘one of the most dedicated young men in our movement,’’ the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) elected him to their board the following year in an attempt to bring more young people into the organization (SCLC, 16 May 1962). In 1963 he was chosen by acclamation as the chairman of SNCC. As leader of the organization, Lewis often found himself torn between his allegiance to SNCC and his relationship with King. Lewis told King that ‘‘it has always been a deep concern of mine that there has not been enough communication between S.C.L.C. and SNCC,’’ however, this was not a sentiment shared by other members of either group (Lewis, 11 April 1964). Lewis’ decision to ‘‘maintain a liaison with Dr. King and the SCLC’’ earned him much criticism within SNCC (Lewis, 379). Lewis, however, valued King as the man who had ultimately set him on his life’s path, and chose to uphold strong ties with both him and SNCC.
As chairman of SNCC, Lewis participated in many of the civil rights movement’s most momentous events. On 28 August 1963, he delivered one of the keynote speeches at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Fellow civil rights leaders had advised Lewis to revise his speech because of its blunt criticisms of the federal government’s inaction, but the final version was still regarded as ‘‘the most controversial and militant speech at the March,’’ proclaiming that ‘‘we march today for jobs and freedom, but we have nothing to be proud of’’ and asking in an accusatory manner, ‘‘which side is the federal government on?’’ (Lewis, 28 August 1963). Lewis went on to play a crucial role in the 1964 Freedom Summer by coordinating voter registration drives and community action programs in Mississippi.
On 7 March 1965, Lewis and Hosea Williams led several hundred protest marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in a demonstration aimed at drawing attention to increased voting rights in the South. The march came to be known as ‘‘Bloody Sunday,’’ because of the brutal beatings that many of the marchers received from state troopers; Lewis himself was severely attacked and suffered a fractured skull. Lewis’ involvement with SNCC ended the following year when Stokely Carmichael won a bid for the chairmanship, and Lewis perceived that the organization was heading in a militant direction that conflicted with his ‘‘personal commitment to nonviolence’’ (Carson, 231).
Lewis continued his civil rights involvement in later years as the head of voter registration initiatives run by the Southern Regional Council and the Voter Education Project. In 1977 President Jimmy Carter chose him to head ACTION, a federal volunteer agency. He attempted to enter government that same year with a House congressional campaign but was unsuccessful. He served on Atlanta’s city council from 1982 to 1986, when he defeated Julian Bond in the Democratic congressional primary and was elected to the House of Representatives, where he served 11 terms.
Archie Allen, ‘‘John Lewis: Keeper of the Dream,’’ New South 26 (Spring 1971):15–25.
Branch, Parting the Waters, 1988.
Carson, In Struggle, 1981.
Lewis, Speech delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 28 August 1963, SNCCP, GAMK.
Lewis, Walking with the Wind, 1998.
Lewis to King, 11 April 1964, MLKJP-GAMK.
SCLC, Minutes from board meeting, 16 May 1962, MLKJP-GAMK. | <urn:uuid:44a80244-0d51-4418-a9d5-07dceaebdcb9> | {
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During the campaign, Trump promised to bring back jobs. In January, after his inauguration, President Trump promised to create 25 million jobs. No previous President has made such an ambitious promise. Analysis of the voting results indicates that job creation is a large part of why Trump won the election. People overlooked his glaring problems because they truly believed he’d create jobs.
As soon as candidate Trump started bring up job creation, especially in the manufacturing industry, people began to talk about the impact of automation on jobs, especially manufacturing jobs. The debate as to whether automation would create a net job loss took center stage.
A consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, did a study on automating jobs that found that up to half of the tasks performed by a human at their job could be automated in some way. When you first see that number it sounds like a lot of jobs will be lost to automation, but to get the real story you have to dig a little deeper.
Some economists argue that automation will actually help create jobs. Introduction of automation can create jobs that didn’t exist before. In many manufacturing jobs, humans are needed to manage the automated technology. The job of creating the item has been eliminated, but the job of managing the machine has been created. Proponents of automation say this nets out. Looking at the big picture, jobs created by automation and jobs lost by automation, it can look like we’re breaking even with automation. Overall, we’re not losing jobs, we’re just shifting jobs.
Economists also argue that the introduction of automation can create jobs by cutting costs for the businesses, enabling them to hire more people. For example, when banks introduced ATM’s to handle simple cash withdrawals and deposits, the logical result would have been that there would be less bank tellers because ATM’s did part of the work of bank tellers. However, since the introduction of ATM’s the number of bank tellers has actually increased. The need for bank tellers at each branch decreased, which lowered the cost of opening a branch. This, in turn, meant than banks could open more locations, which meant they needed more bank tellers. So, ATM’s actually created jobs.
On the other hand, it’s clear that automation is causing some people to lose their jobs. When your job is to assemble an item by hand and your company buys a machine to assemble that item, you won’t have a job anymore. This is happening to a lot of people, all across the country. The majority of people losing their jobs to automation are unskilled, low paid workers. Many of them do not have college degrees and they usually can’t afford to pursue one.
When their job is eliminated by a machine, they usually do not even qualify for the job that was created to manage the machine that took their job. They can’t just get a job that requires a degree or specific skills. They cannot pursue training to get a new job that requires specific skills because they cannot afford training.
So, the real conversation about how automation impacts jobs shouldn’t be about whether there is net job loss or job creation. It should be about whose jobs are being lost and the classism involved in giving their job to a machine. On a whole, automation may create jobs, but automation creates highly skilled jobs, while it eliminates unskilled labor. Automation is giving jobs to people who could already get jobs, while taking jobs away from people who can’t get new jobs.
Saying we’re shifting jobs, not losing jobs ignores the fact that many people cannot shift. In a country where the divide between the rich and the poor is already astronomical, ignoring the impact automation has on the poor by insisting that automation creates jobs on a whole, is at best naive and at worst willfully dismissive.
If we want to responsibly invest in automation and create jobs for everyone, not just skilled workers, we need to commit to job training programs as well as job creation programs. Unskilled workers who are losing their jobs to need to be offered training that will help them acquire the necessary skills to obtain a new job, and this training needs to be free or affordable. It should be included as a benefit of unemployment. Individual companies should provide their unskilled employees with training to manage the machines that are replacing them instead of hiring skilled technicians.
There is a way to move forward with automation in a responsible and non-classist way, but none of the policies proposed by the current administration are doing so. Trump wants to create jobs, but he doesn’t care who he creates them for, which is unfortunate for all the poor, unskilled laborers who voted for him. | <urn:uuid:d1decd34-0111-4c53-9e37-fc1ae43b2b28> | {
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Whether it’s the Power Loader from Aliens or Marvel Comics’ amazing Iron Man armor, science fiction has long painted a rose-tinted picture when it comes to the possibility of wearable exoskeleton suits. Like upgraded knights’ armor, these robotic exosuits are promised to transform ordinary fleshy mortals into augmented beings with man-made superpowers: capable of moving faster, lifting heavier and working longer than would ordinarily be humanly possible.
Today, such exosuits are no longer confined to the pages of comic books or far-future science fiction flicks directed by James Cameron. The military is actively investigating the technology for enhancing its soldiers, Edge of Tomorrow-style. On construction sites, exosuits are being used to help workers carry out their job with greater efficiency and minus the wear-and-tear that would normally come along with it. Heck, robot exosuits could even make you a better skier. Ever wanted to shred the slopes like a cyborg? Now you can!
But such tools may not be quite the magic bullet many have hoped for. If the concept of wearing a suit that upgrades your abilities like the Six Million Dollar Man sounds a little too good to be true well, unfortunately, that may well be because it is.
In a new research project carried out by researchers at Ohio State University’s Spine Research Institute, participants were tested in a study involving a commercially available exoskeleton — consisting of a mechanical arm attached to a harness — which is used by workers to help them carry heavy objects hands-free.
The idea is that doing socan greatly reduce the amount of stress put on workers’ arms. However, while the augmented exosuit did indeed manage to achieve this goal, it didn’t entirely erase the wear-and-tear on wearers’ bodies — but instead displaced it onto other parts of their body.
“We conducted a biomechanical study on an exoskeleton that was initially designed to help offload the upper body, [particularly the] shoulders and arms,” Eric Weston, a graduate research associate in Ohio State’s Integrated Systems Engineering department, told Digital Trends. “What we were particularly interested in assessing was the potential trade-off that exists with the low back with the use of this device. We saw that such a trade-off does indeed exist. The loads on the discs of the spine in the low back increased by up to 53 percent when the exoskeleton was used compared to if the tasks tested were performed without the intervention.”
While a 53 percent increased load on the back is bad enough, though, the researchers found that stress on different muscles in the torso actually increased anywhere from 56 percent to 120 percent while users were wearing the exosuit. That should certainly be enough to worry anyone who’s asked to wear an exosuit to carry out heavy work, regardless of what industry they work in!
The study involved 12 subjects who were asked to simulate working using both a torque wrench, a relatively light tool weighing 10 lbs, and a heavier impact wrench, weighing around 30 lbs. The experiment was carried out in a laboratory setting with users wearing and then not wearing the industrial exoskeleton.
“We recorded how the subjects moved, how they activated their muscles to do the task, and ultimately used a biomechanical model of the low back to predict the forces that were being produced by the trunk muscles and the loads inside their spines,” Weston continued.
“To us, the results were not particularly surprising,” he said, referring to the displacing — rather than eliminating — of impact on the wearers’ body. “Though the subjects no longer need to support the weight of the tool with their upper body when wearing the exoskeleton, this potentially heavy tool is located much further from the back, and the back muscles need to compensate for this by producing more force. This will also create a greater load on the spine.”
This isn’t to suggest that exosuits aren’t capable of carrying out some genuinely amazing feats, of course. Some have allowed individuals with partial paralysis to rise from their wheelchairs and walk again — or even to compete in sports. That’s absolutely phenomenal, and should not be sold short.
Over the long run, the underlying technologies in exosuits will also no doubt continue to be honed so as to produce lighter, cheaper, more versatile and durable wearables able to assist individuals in a range of pursuits.
But, right now at least, it seems that some of the report cards are more likely to read “good first effort” or “must try harder.”
“As researchers, we often talk about solving problems using a systems approach — meaning that solving one problem within a system should not create another problem elsewhere, ” Weston noted while explaining lessons he hopes manufactures will learn. “The results of this study highlight the need to design industrial exoskeletons considering how loads might be shifted or transferred with their use. It is important that the exoskeleton truly supports its wearer as opposed to pushing or pulling on them in ways that force them to fight it.”
Other co-authors on the Ohio State study include Gregory Knapik, Mina Alizadeh and Xueke Wang. Their research paper was published in the journal Applied Ergonomics. | <urn:uuid:c4721323-6b30-43d4-8591-45b2e0f48b3f> | {
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However, when the ear is exposed to excess moisture water can remain trapped in the ear canal. The skin inside becomes soggy, diluting the acidity that normally prevents infection. A cut in the lining of the ear canal also can allow bacteria to penetrate your skin. When this happens, bacteria and fungi from contaminated water or from objects placed in the ear can grow and cause a condition called swimmer's ear (external otitis).
Children get swimmer's ear when bacteria grow in their ear canal. This happens when something irritates the delicate skin in the ear canal. Some of the causes are listed in the table above.
Swimmer's ear can be very painful. The pain can get worse when you touch your child's earlobe. Other symptoms include
- Pain or discomfort in or around the ear. Usually only one ear is involved.
- Itching of the outer ear.
- Swelling in the ear or lymph nodes in the neck.
- Your child complains of a fullness or stuffiness in the ear.
- There is pus draining from the ear.
- You notice your child's hearing is decreased
Your child's doctor can usually tell whether your youngster has swimmer's ear by looking into your child's ear canal. Swimmer's ear usually isn't serious, but complications can occur if it isn't treated. Complications are rare but may include:
- Temporary hearing loss.
- Recurrent outer ear infections which can lead to infection in the surrounding skin (cellulitis).
- Bone and cartilage damage (necrotizing otitis externa).
- More widespread infection. If swimmer's ear develops into necrotizing otitis externa, the infection may spread and affect other parts of your child's body,
- Cleaning. Clearing your child's outer ear and ear canal of any drainage. In severe cases, your child's doctor may do this with a suction device. To prevent further irritation or injury, don't clean inside your child's ear.
- Ear Drops Your child's doctor may prescribe eardrops containing antibiotics to fight infection and corticosteroids to reduce itching and inflammation. Use eardrops as directed. If your child's ear canal is exceptionally swollen, a special wick may be inserted into the ear to allow the drops to reach the entire ear canal.
- To ease your child's ear pain, have them hold a warm, moist washcloth against the ear. Give them an over-the-counter pain medicine like acetaminophen (such as Tylenol), or ibuprofen (such as Advil or Motrin). Do not give aspirin to anyone younger than 20.
- Avoid getting water in the ear until after the problem clears up. Make an earplug out of cotton that is lightly coated with petroleum jelly (such as Vaseline). Don't swim, fly or scuba dive during treatment for swimmer's ear. For the most effective treatment results, water should be kept out of the ear. Have your child use a hair dryer to carefully dry the ear after you shower.
Parents may be able to prevent swimmer's ear in their child by doing the following.
- Do not scratch or clean the inside of the ear with cotton swabs, bobby pins, or other objects.
- Avoid prolonged use of earplugs. Earplugs, like cotton swabs, can cause irritation and itching and can plug the ear with wax.
- Keep soap, bubble bath, and shampoo out of the ear canal. These products can cause itching and irritation.
- Keep the ears dry.
- After your child swims or showers, have them shake their head to remove water from the ear canal.
- Gently dry their ears with the corner of a tissue or towel, or use a hair dryer on its lowest setting.
- Put a few drops of rubbing alcohol or rubbing alcohol mixed with an equal amount of white vinegar in your child's ears after they swim or shower. This mixture may help prevent the growth of bacteria and fungi that can cause swimmer's ear. Over-the-counter drops, such as Star-Otic or Swim-Ear, can also be used to help prevent swimmer's ear. As you put these drops in your child's ear, wiggle the outside of their ear to let the liquid enter the ear canal, and then tilt their head to let it drain out.
- Do not let your child swim in dirty or polluted water. | <urn:uuid:492f7749-b1c4-4616-9f3f-eebd21c93290> | {
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Extreme star cluster bursts into life (ground-based image)
A wide-field image of the Milky Way stretching across the southern sky. The beautiful Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) is seen at the right of the image glowing in red. It is within this spiral arm of our Milky Way that NGC 3603 resides. At the centre of the image is the constellation of the Southern Cross. The bright yellow/white star at the left of the image is alpha Centauri, in fact a system of three stars, at a distance of about 4.4 light-years from Earth.
About the Image
|Release date:||2 October 2007, 15:00|
|Size:||5544 x 4432 px|
About the Object
|Type:||• Solar System : Sky Phenomenon : Night Sky : Milky Way| | <urn:uuid:3e4fbb35-c2d3-4cce-b618-8f36e1a56970> | {
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