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Although this chapter has been placed under the Silicon Valley location, much applies to the rest of California and some to the country in general. But you can't ignore that Silicon Valley belongs to one of the most affluent locations in the country. If you think other places look more wealthy, it may be because house prices in Silicon Valley reflect the scarcity of dwellings close to the technological epicenter with price levels unheard of in most of the country.
Many houses are heated by hot air circulation. It can make individual regulation of the temperatures difficult; you can turn down the temperature by closing the duct, but you can't turn up in individual rooms. Compared to radiator heating, hot air makes a lot of noice when it is moved around in the ducts and the fans rotate. The upside is, obviously, that it can heat a room very fast and you can connect an air condition unit to the same system and cool the house down in the summer.
An other major difference is the 110V in the electric outlets where the holes are rectangular and usually there isn't an on/off switch, the outlet is always live. If you come from a 220V country you can kiss all your kitchen appliances, toaster, coffee grinder, kettle, blender.... good bye. Your vacuum cleaner, power tools, telephones, and everything electric also needs a new charger or to be replaced. We have a single converter box that I used for my sewing machine once every two years. We brought some lamps with us when we moved the furniture over and they all have new plugs but most can use the local light bulbs. Bulbs also have to be made for 110V - otherwise they can only be used as night lights.
For the most part, washing machines take in cold and hot water as it comes out of your pipes; they don't heat up the water. Hence, the water is either cold (5C/41F), as hot as you have set your water heater, or a mix of the two. Forget thermostats. The upside is that when the machine has taken in hot water, it takes 30 minutes, not two hours, to finish the wash.
I have yet to meet thermostat regulated faucets. You have to learn by doing where to position the handle. Remember that water is a scarce resource and many shower heads will reflect this.
In spite of the water scarcity, it is still unusual to see toilets where you can chose big or small flush. Some public buildings have started to install water saving flushes - I have even met a type that time how long you have spent on the throne and regulate the amount of water accordingly. And that was more than enough said about this subject.
In California most of the water comes from the melting snow pack of the Sierras. It doesn't contain much calcium (like ground water often does) and consequently there is not the same need for decalcifying water heaters and adding salt to the dish washer. Where ground water is used, it is common to install a central salt filter on both or just the hot water pipe to clean out debris that otherwise might clog pipes or gaskets.
Most houses are made of wood. Stucco may lead you to believe that they are made of brick or cinder blocks but normally it is a wooden skeleton covered up in plywood and sheet rock. In an earth quake you will appreciate the difference. The wooden structure will easier move with the rolling motions in the ground where a stone structure is more likely to break. Obviously, if you house has survived a major earth quake, you may not find two parallel walls and installing cabinets or hanging pictures can be a little tricky if the floor or walls are not level. You can get quite queasy if the cabinets are mounted correctly but don't follow the contours of the room. Hanging a door when the opening doesn't have straight angles can also be a challenge. Remodeling, however, is quite easy in a wooden construction when compared to brick or cinder block walls.
When you look at some of the luxurious villas in the very affluent neighborhoods, it is amusing to remember that the fancy garden walls may well be 2"x4" timber posts covered in tar paper, chicken mesh and stucco. A truck driving into one of these walls might pass right through it.
With wooden houses you need more fire stations and hydrants. The little blue reflexes in the streets mark the position of a fire hydrant. You will often see the big fire engines in the street. Fortunately the fire fighters may just have been out for lunch or inspecting alarm systems in an office complex, but they are also first responders when you call 911 and will show up at car crashes or other medical emergiencies.
When you live in a wooden structure, termits are not welcome. The termit itself is like a big red-brown ant with very long wings. It lays its eggs in the wood where the larvae will eat the wood and damage the structural strength of the building. You know you have visitors if you find what seems like sawdust in stange places. Smaller infestations can be freezed out with nitrogen injections; in many cases the house needs to be tented and all perishable food, plants, pets, and inhabitants must be out of the building for a least three days. It is said that it is not a question of if but when you will experience an infestation.
Moths are also unwelcome, less serious but more pervasive. Most homes will have at least one piece of furniture lined with cedar for storing clothes. Moths don't like the smell of cedar. And when you get a new piece of furniture you have to agree with them - the smell is pretty obvious for a while and the windows stay open. You can find cedar hangers, blocks, and shoe blocks, all for the purpose of having a little cedar smell in your closets and there is a big assortment of plactic storage containers for your clothes. How to store a fur coat? Don't even bring it to California. It may be cold enough in the mountains but it is not considered politically correct to wear more fur than what you grow yourself.
The plastic containers may not only protect your clothes from moths, it will also reduce the amount of dust landing on your wardrobe. With a rainy and a dry season the air can contain dust and pollen that will happily circulate through your open windows and into your built in or walk in closets. Most of the year the weather invites you to have open windows (covered by mosquito netting). So the clothes that is not in season will likely get dusty unless you store it in appropriate containers.
If you suffer from allergies you may find that they disappear here - or you may not have been prone to allergies and suddenly find yourself sneezing from redwood, acacia, or eucalyptus. Palo Alto is nicknamed Allergy Capital of the World, perhaps because of the many Golden Amber trees lining the sidewalks. They give beautiful shade and make the city very green but they also leave a mess of dust - and small, spiked seed capsules that you will not appreciate stepping on. Local honey should give some tolerance for local flowers and can be found in the Farmers' Markeds popular around the area. I don't know if it works, but the honey is delicious.
Dust not only settles on your clothes, it will also circulate into your garage. As few houses have cellars or attic storage space, most garages are home to - dusty - camping gear, earthquake supplies, suitcases and the like. The only things you will rarely find in garages are cars. Most are filled up with the afore mentioned items, old refrigerators, and things people should have gotten rid of long ago.
Hence the term garage sale when people do clear out their excess possessions. I don't know how common they are where you come from, but they are incredibly more common around here than where I come from. The weather probably has something to do with this. You can generally plan on sunshine regardless of when you want to have a garage sale in the summer and then you can put everything out in the driveway. If you are not comfortable with your neighbors and total strangers picking through your belongings, you can donate almost anything to Goodwill, a non profit organization that has manned containers parked on many locations. They will issue a receipt so you can write off your donation on your tax return.
If you don't like saying good bye to your things, you can keep them in a self storage facility. For a monthly fee you can rent a smaller or bigger room.(You can even rent storage for a boat or an RV, recreational vehicle, a second home on wheels.) Some people use this option if they have a hobby requiring some space. Perhaps you are restoring an old car and don't have room for doing that in your garage (because it is filled up with refrigerators and pinball machines?) Perhaps your relatives left you a full dining room that you just can't part with even though you don't currently have room for it? Perhaps your child lost his job and moved home during the economic crisis? Remember that the price for renting a unit very soon may top the value of goods stored and check your insurance.
Pest control don't only chase termits, they also take care of other unwelcome guests. As we live along one of the valley's many creeks, we have had rats. Fortunately, they are not big, ugly sewer rats (frankly they remind me more of cute guinea pigs). But they can still make quite a mess - not the least because they like chewing on electric wires and nest under your hood where the engine makes is warm and snug. Your breaks work best if there are no holes in the break fluid tubes. Although I normally see myself as a tolerant and nature loving person, I really don't like having rats indoors so I do use rat traps. Pest control will also help you with raccoons - for mountain lions you call the police.
Solar power is getting increasingly popular as are electric cars. It takes quite a lot of solar panels to power an electric car but the technology now has a common feature in Tesla's new power wall, a huge battery for storing solar power to use at night. If you drive electric, remember to get the reduced night rate from your power provider and "tank up" when consumption is otherwise low.
Don't get me started on the subject of contractors. Fortunately we can use a hammer and are not afraid of a broken nail, but when it comes to electricity and gas pipes we pass. You need permits for most remodeling projects, even fairly minor ones, but that doesn't stop many contractors from offering their services without telling the city - or without knowing what they are doing.
Our new neighbors had a major remodeling project shortly after buying the house. One day we noticed the police parked in front of the house and then nothing happened on the project for the longest time. When the windows were ready to be installed, the neighbors got a call that the windows had not yet been payed for. If they still wanted the windows, the company would like to see some money otherwise the windows would be handed off to another customer. The contractor confessed that he had used the money for other purposes. "So sorry, if you pay me more money I will be happy to finish the house." Obviously, they got another contractor to finish the project - but the windows and who knows what else were paid for twice.
Two houses further on the new owners were ready to make a minor change when they found so serious termite infestation that the whole house had to be torn down. When the city officials came to inspect the new house, it didn't pass inspection in so many areas that they, too, had to hire a new contractor. So don't go with the cheapest bidder; ask around before you sign a contract.
You can check Better Business Bureau on the internet, although there are rumors that they can be influenced to take down negative reports, or you can subscribe to Angie's List or Yelp, online customer feedback sites. You can also check when the company was licensed. If the owner lets the company go bankrupt every 5 years, a 15 year guaranty is not worth much.
Before we moved in, branches from the garden's big trees had been to close to the roof for too long and although the trees had been pruned back, the roof was not healthy in some places. We learned that when the rain started to seep through the ceiling. After patching up the hole to stop the rain, we tore parts of the roof off the next summer with the help of a local friend who had worked his way through college roofing.
Shake roofs are basically layered tar paper. The paper keeps out the rain. On top of the paper are wooden shakes, protecting the paper from sun damage. Unless you on a regular basis remove leaves, acorns, pollen (and at times racoon droppings), the shake will rot and the paper disintegrate in the sun. Acorn and other seeds can take root in the mulch collecting between the shakes, and leaves in the gutters will make the rain seep up under the edge of the roof. I used to go on the roof regularly to blow off the debris, but then I got allergic to oak pollen. So after 10 years we got the whole roof professionally replaced with something that requires less maintenance.
More and more roofs are now covered either in pseudo shakes, made out of concrete or metal to reduce the fire hazard, or a composite material cut to look like shake. Good shake is expensive to come by and new shakes are treated with fire retardant. Some insurance companies will not insure your house if you have a shake roof. Or they will give you a reduced rate if you have less fire-prone materials.
Many houses have a fireplace. We have converted our fireplace into a gas burning unit with ceramic logs. When I moved to California, I swore I would never get that artificial but when you live in a wooden house you really don't like leaving burning embers overnight. The concept of wood burning stoves, that have replaced open fireplaces in many other countries, is not well known in California.
An alternative to dealing with embers is to buy logs. A log is an (also artificial) product made of some oil base and sawdust or coffee shells. They are made to burn for 2-3-4 hours but they really don't smell that good. Rather than having the smell of petrol in the living room I caged in to the pressure from other family members with fire-philia. The upsides are that we have a nice, cosy living room when the central heating has turned down for the night, and it works even when we have a black out and the fans for the air heating system don't work.
On Spare-the-air-days, where you are not allowed to burn wood or charcoal in the BBQ, you can still burn gas or propane. Spare-the-air is declared when it has been very dry (no rain washing the air) and with no wind for a while. Then the Valley is covered in a thick, yellow layer of dust and pollution and burning firewood will only make it worse. Unfortunately these weather patterns are common around Thanksgiving and Christmas when everybody longs to use the fireplace. In the event of an earth quake so grave that the gas has to be shut off, we can - if the chimney is still standing - remove the ceramic logs and take some firewood from the back yard. It is not for the lack of wood we use gas. | <urn:uuid:c3afa889-54c5-441c-b1b9-3f7c875d7c57> | {
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This Sunday, on the first day of class, ten-year-old Ala from El-Ein camp walked into my classroom by herself, her hands tightly gripping a shiny green bag. In front of her were twenty children running and screaming with cups of acetic acid and vinegar in their hands. The hectic scene added a poignant aptness to the child-friendly title of my science course, “Mad Scientists.” She approached hesitantly. Terrified? Sure. But she made it in the door.
We began with games to break the ice in a room of strangers while learning each other’s name. She didn’t give in that easily; withdrawn, she wouldn’t say a word. During the games, the kids stopped throwing the inflatable soccer ball to her because she would never catch it. When they sat in groups of four, she was the oddball out – the fifth in a group of four. But she made it in the door.
I noticed her eyeing the crayons while the other kids were mixing cornstarch and water to make goo, so I gave her paper and crayons to draw with even though she didn’t touch them for another ten minutes. I asked her why she wasn’t drawing, and she spoke her first words to my translator.
“I don’t know how to,” she said. She was one of two kids that day ranging from nine to 11 that told me they didn’t know how to draw. So, we learned together. I held her hand in mine and had her grip the pencils with the same fervor with which she gripped her green bag. She drew lines on the paper and on the desks, slowly leaving her worries about what was right and wrong, what the other kids thought, and even what I thought behind her. She drew flowers, animals, and even clouds – all things she wanted to learn about in her science class. She drew the goo and even other examples of liquids, solids, and gases.
She blew me away. Prior to the arrival of the kids this week, I took part in an intense orientation program, but Ala was my true introduction to Nablus. Here was this incredibly observant child that drew at the same level as her peers even though she had no idea how to hold a crayon. This beautiful girl with a green bag and a black-and-white polka dot headband that she kept losing left her refugee camp for possibly the first time in her life and entered a classroom filled with strangers. She is far braver than I could ever be, and it is a beautiful to watch her from across the room and share a smile or wink with her. I wonder where she goes home to, what her family is like, and where her sister is that was enrolled in my class but never made it through the door. But there’s time for that, space for her to open up if she wants to, and I sincerely hope that she does. I hope her classmates and her family find the same inspiration in her that I found when she walked into my door.
As she was walking out of my door that day, she slipped a piece of paper in my hand.
“Ala,” she wrote.
And it was then that I knew her name. It was then that I was introduced to the future of Nablus. And it blew me away.
Filed under: Reflection | Tagged: Ala, el-ein, intern program, journal, mad scientist, science, Shahla, students | Leave a comment » | <urn:uuid:c7db3346-b164-4f77-8827-7f1c2d6c713d> | {
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South Africa, as the name implies, is a country located in southern Africa. South Africa has three capitals with Pretoria as administrative, Cape Town as legislative, and Bloemfontein as the judicial capital. The climate ranges from a Mediterranean climate in the southwest to a hot and humid climate along the eastern coast.
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Arduino/Soldering 101 - Make your own Arduino and Learn to Program it!
Sunday, October 3, 2010 from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM (EDT)
Brooklyn, United States
This is your friendly introductory class to soldering and micro-controllers. In this three-hour class we will:
- solder together a Freeduino board (an Arduino Duemilanove-compatible board)
- learn how to program it using the Arduino environment
- wire up several circuits and load up code to read sensors and light LEDs
- cover variables, functions, basic Arduino functionality
- show you how to get more help in the future for all your projects
When you leave, you'll have a micro-controller, a mini-USB cable, a power supply and a few programs to play with.
Please bring a laptop with the Arduino environment on it. It's available at http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software. | <urn:uuid:cb507a3e-5cbb-4f3d-9a7e-dae1a4f07cc7> | {
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Where can you get access to view some of the awe inspiring Great Work of past Alchemists? We know of the alchemy exhibit in the Rosicrucian San Jose Museum, and the Prague Czech Republic Speculum Alchemiae exposition but most recently in Los Angeles the locals have had the privilege of having accesss to a temporary Alchemy exhibition. The properly titled exhibition “The Art of Alchemy” exhibits old alchemy texts and art. The traffic in the museum is light with many who just pass by casually but for the dedicated alchemist indeed it is a gold mine(no pun intended). Adept Initiates has had the pleasure of visiting the exhibit and enjoying the Ars Magna. We have graciously put together some highlights below for the lovers of Alchemy.
“Among all the arts, it is
The Art of Alchemy
that imitates nature most closely”
Crystal Icosahedron (Water Atom)-Left
North of Rome, Ca. First Century
The rock crystal icosahedron (meaning twenty sided) represents a water atom. It was found in the tomb of a young girl and perhaps placed there as token of her through the river of the underworld.
Hollow Icosahedron (Water Atom)-Right
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519)
Woodcut in Luca Pacioli, Divina proportione
(Venice, 1509), fol. xxii
Leonardo da Vinci’s designs for Divine Proportion illustrated for Renaissance artists ancient Greek theories about the underlying structure of physical matter. The designs provided instructions on how to reproduce the perfect geometric forms of elements in the visible world.
The Ultimate Furnace
Woodcut in Pietro Mattioli, Commentari in libros sex Pedacii Dioscoridis….de materia medica (Venice, 1568).
The alchemical furnace was called an athanor, a word derived from the Arabic for oven, al-tannur. Europeans, however, misinterpreted the word, mistaking it for athanatos, ancient Greek for “deathless” or “immortal,” a reference to the long-burning flame of the furnace as well as to the goals of alchemy. Pietro Mattioloi was a botanist and the personal physician to Ferdinand II, archduke of Austria, and then to Maximilian II, the Holy Roman emperor. He created the scientific fiction of the “ultimate furnace,” a technological reference to the many-breasted statue of Artemis at the Temple of Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. (See Richard Gaywood 1630-1680. Artemis of Ephesus.)
Hermes Trismegistos Teaching the Geometry of Creation
France, ca. 1687
Watercolor in Michael Maier, “Atlanta Fugiens,” trans. anonymous, ca. 1687, p. 41
Hermes Trismegistos continued to be regarded as the “patron saint” of alchemy well into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Here, his instructions concerning the mechanics of creation cryptically combine geometry and gender. ” Make a circle around man and woman, then a square, now a triangle; make a circle, and you will have the philosophers’ stone.”
The Marriage of the Dragon and the Tiger
Woodcut in Xingming guizhi (Directions for Endowment and Vitality) ([Beijing], 1669
In Chinese alchemy, the union of opposing substances is represented as the Marriage of the Dragon and the Tiger. The dragon symbolizes the “masculine” metal mercury and the tiger symbolizes the “feminine” metal lead. The dragon and the tiger breathe and fuse their energies into a crucible, a metal vessel capable of withstanding high temperatures. A crucible is used by metal workers as a container for mixing and pouring molten metals. Mercury was used in silver mines to extract valuable metal from lead ore.
ca. 1550 (or eighteenth-century imitation)
Attributed to Bernard Palissy (French, 1509-1590)
The ceramic artist Bernard Palissy was the first to use the medium to cast from life. He created stoneware teeming with flora and fauna that he collected by slogging through the marshes of France. Palissy’s pottery was prized for the vive mort (“alive in death”) effect of his proprietary glazes and enamels, which produced the slippery gloss of life. Palissy was captivated by the pictures of life preserved in fossils. Entombing swamp life within glazes, he interrupted their decay and transformed them into immortal fossilized creatures with the fires of his kiln.
Designs for cluster of Fire Atoms
Wenzel Jamnitzer (German, 1507/8-1585).
Jost Amman (Swiss, 1539-1591), engraver
Engraving and facsimile of title page in Wenzel Jamnitzer Perspectiva corporum regularium (Nuremberg, 1568), for. 7
One of the most prominent artist in this period combined artistic practice and expression with current theories about elemental matter in Perspective of Regular Bodies. Wenzel Jamnitzer-printmaker, sculptor, and, above all, court gold smith to every Holy Roman emperor from Charles V to Rudolf II-adapted the genre of perspective manuals for artist into a fantasy series about the “atomic” forms of the four elements. Based on the geometric polyhedra, which, according to Plato, shaped the building blocks of the physical world, Jamnitzer’s series demonstrates a progression of interlocking “atomic” shapes in increasing complexity. Thus, artistic “molecules” are rendered in a virtuoso display of perspectival mastery.
Chemical and Minerals Traded along the Silk Road
(Top Left-Curelian blue)
Literally meaning “gold glue” in ancient Greek, this copper salt was used for refining gold.
With a name derived from the Arabic rah alghar (powder if the mine), this red sulfide mineral was also called ruby sulfur or soul of the cinnabar mountain by Chinese scientist.
This naturally occurring mercury sulfide, sourced from China, was widely used as a red paint, medicine, and source for liquid mercury.
Johann Gregor van der Schardt
(Netherlandish, ca. 1530-after 1581)
The Roman god Mercury (Hermes to the Greeks) delivered messages from the gods of Mount Olympus to the human world. He was worshipped as the transmitter of scientific and medical knowledge, and thought to hold the secrets to the preparation of therapeutic drugs. The Greeks called him psychopomp (escort of the soul through the underworld). Mercury’s reputation as a trickster may have inspired the Romans to equate him with the quirky and mysterious metallic element also known as quicksilver. Its slippery nature, at once both liquid and solid, and its transformative effects on other materials as it evaporates into a gas, posed many scientific mysteries.
All rights reserved @Copyright | <urn:uuid:68d9d767-ebf4-42fe-96d2-66290165b7c5> | {
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ATS: Programming with Theorem-Proving/Preface
This book is aimed at teaching practical programming skills using ATS: we concentrate on actually writing programs, all other aspects of programming, such as formulating problem descriptions, thinking about them, and using various problem solving techniques are not covered in this book. ATS shares some aspects with other programming languages, namely Standard ML and OCaml, but is unusual in the way it uses its type system to support safe (in terms of type safety) and efficient (in terms of execution time and memory footprint) programming in a variety of paradigms.
ATS supports imperative, functional and concurrent programming paradigms. Imperative programming is what most programmers are familiar with. Functional programming can be contrasted with imperative programming as it enables programmers to concentrate on the problem at hand without worrying too much about (uninteresting) implementation details of some kind, such as explicit memory management. Some functional programs can be seen as executable specifications, which makes them suitable for teaching and reasoning about.
It is widely known that programming is prone to errors (by "error" we mean "unwanted program behavior"). One way to mitigate the problem is extensive testing, but sometimes, you'll want to use other methods, such as stating pre-, post-conditions and other invariants formally, with help of a type system.
Type systems have arisen as a tool to eliminate certain classes of program errors (for example, making sure that memory for an object is allocated and initialized correctly).
Typical type-safe programming languages (such as Pascal and Java) will not try to treat a variable of type integer as if it was a variable of type bool; errors like this are ruled out at compile-time (early, before testing). Other errors, such as out-of-bounds array access, cannot be checked at compile-time, hence such checks are moved on to the next phase, of executing the program. The program remains safe (in a sense), because even if it goes wrong, it will not continue to do so.
Also, it's usually the case that public APIs place certain restrictions on their use for proper functioning. For example, what would [printf] do if the NULL was passed for the format string? In a typical statically typed programming language it is not possible to enforce a compile-time constraint on [printf]: it accepts only non-NULL format strings. In addition, there are rules that must be followed in constructing format strings.
This is where ATS fits in: it allows you, the programmer, to formally specify constraints using its type system. Such constraints are then checked by the compiler without human intervention. For example, in ATS you have an option (a trade-off) to prove that your program will never access an array out of its bounds making run-time bounds-checking redundant and increasing our confidence. In this particular case, you won't need to address this issue with tests.
We heartily recommend our readers to not take into account their experience with common statically typed programming languages (especially C/C++) because this experience, for the most part, is not applicable to programming with ATS (as you don't use types in these languages to express constraints); and to keep their mind open for new ideas and concepts, which might seem confusing at first, but we hope will make sense after some practice.
Chapter one contains an introduction to a purely functional subset of ATS, starting from elementary arithmetic, continuing to functions and data structures. In this chapter, readers will acquaint themselves with programming without assignment and loops. Chapter two covers basic imperative programming (mutable variables and data structures, explicit control flow operators) and relates it to the language introduced in chapter one. Chapter three goes to a detour about types, and then introduces some advanced types, such as singleton types, dependent and linear types. Chapter four introduces users to program verification with types. | <urn:uuid:848362eb-6a40-4a79-a172-c024ec3b9e2e> | {
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Sheepherders of Northern Nevada | A Trip through (Idaho) Basque Sheep Country | Hidden Basque Kitchens Sheepherding on NPR | Ulacia Sisters of Oregon | Life Magazine photographs of Utah Sheep Camp (1951) | Documentaries on sheepherders | California's Basque sheepherders (BBC) | Arborglyphs - tree carvings | Basque Sheepherders of Jordan Valley, Oregon | New York Times Sheepherding article
Essentially unique among American ethnic groups, only in the American West did one group of people become so exclusively identified with just one occupation: Basques & sheepherding. So now you know why those Basque BBQ's always feature lamb!
Basques have been in the Americas for centuries--possibly even before the arrival of Columbus. Most of the current Basque communities of the American West, however, trace their origins to the more recent past. The Basque sheepherding story of the American West goes to the California Gold Rush that brought a sustained number of Basques to the American West. Most "49ers" did not find their gold and had to turn to an alternative plan, and thus some Basques went into ranching. By the 1870s Basque sheep outfits had expanded throughout the high desert country of the American West.
Anyone who has driven the high desert ranges of the West has pondered how someone could possibly live there. It's possible, but the life was very demanding, compounded by the reality that sheepherding as an occupation was not favorably looked upon. Basques took the job because it offered them economic opportunity. These hundreds of herders tended bands of sheep for months on end in a harsh, desolate environment. They were usually all alone. It was not an easy existence, but thanks to their perseverance their descendants were able to enjoy a better life here in America.
Ironically these Basque newcomers knew little or nothing about herding sheep; they literally learned on the job. They did so well that they quickly became sought after by sheep outfits while some Basques moved into positions of ownership that together initiated the practice of bringing over other Basque young men. Many obtained U.S. citizenship, and trips to the Basque homeland now became vacations often with the primary purpose of finding a Basque wife.
While shepherding served as the foundation of the Basque community for many years, today few Basques remain active in the sheep industry. By the 1970s the Basque involvement in the sheep business began its decline. Various factors contributed to this transformation, beginning of course with the immense challenges posed by the occupation that thrust the herder into "one of the loneliest professions in the world." A domestic struggle over the use of public land which resulted in the limitation of livestock grazing permits, improved economic conditions in the Basque homeland, recruiting efforts shifting to Latin America and changes in the livestock industry that favored cattle to sheep ranching effectively brought an end to a 150 year story.
But sheepherding was always just a means not an end for most Basques. Thus the children and grandchildren of the herders have diversified into many careers. As William Douglass noted, "the work ethic, business integrity and success of Basques in a wide variety of walks of life resulted in their being viewed in the region as one of its unique cultural and economic assets."
Euskal Artzainak Ameriketan
Many Basques came here as sheepherders, and most had the same idea: they would work for several years then return to the Basque Country. That some changed their minds is evident or else you are likely not reading this now. Others however return and this is their story
See the original online story and the latest news of the Basque Diaspora at: www.Euskalkultura.com
Here recently a new organization has been formed to periodically gather those men who herded sheep in the United States from 1940 to 1970. It is called Euskal Artzainak Ameriketan or the Basque Shepherds in America.
The launch of the new organization was announced at the Sept. 2011 gathering that was marked by emotional moments, like the Mass when the celebrating priest commented on the harshness of those months alone. Then when a choir sang “Agur Jaunak” fifteen people had to leave the church when overcome with emotion. The event included a photographic exhibition with images retrieved by the association, and it concluded with a dinner at the sports center of Zubiri, Nafarroa.
The new association is at work developing initiatives beyond an annual gathering, to include a return trip to the American West in conjunction with some of the festivals. Currently, the board is comprised of twelve people, and after Saturday's lunch they already have almost 1,000 members. Anyone who would like to join Euskal Artzainak Ameriketan or contact the board of directors can do so by emailing:[email protected] | <urn:uuid:ba97bd57-3f4f-4458-a2b7-9a0eb91cff34> | {
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The first month is so important because it may be the first introduction your family will have to healthy eating. It needs to be a delicious introduction!
- The very first thing that has to go is milk. It is the most mucus-forming substance in the world. This will save you on Kleenex and save your children from countless colds and flues. They will not mind the subtraction of milk if it is replaced with refreshing fruit juices. If they are old enough, teach them how to use the juice machine so that they are able to make their own juices on demand. Even frozen concentrated juices are far better for you than milk. Look for our nut milks in the nut section of this book. You can also purchase soy or rice milk from your health food store which can be used for drinking or baking. Banana milk shakes are excellent for replacing milk.
At one time, people would be horrified at the thought of removing milk from a child’s diet, but, recently, there has been a substantial amount of information on the destructive effect that milk has on health.
- We can live without deep-fried foods. French fries are a family favorite. We have a recipe to make delicious almost fat-free french fries and potato chips. Your kids will love them and they will barely be able to tell the difference. If you want to sauté and lightly brown food, we suggest you use just enough butter to prevent food from sticking.
- Bread is a big part of most of our diets. Change to whole grain, fresh, high-quality bread. When looking at the ingredients, check for the addition of preservatives, additives, gluten and oils. These are undesirable and unnecessary for good taste.
- Get rid of brown and white sugar. It is absolute, man-made garbage. There are natural sweeteners that taste better and are far healthier. Change to unpasteurized honey, Sucanat, frozen juice concentrates, fructose and molasses.
- Replace margarine with butter. Use half the butter you would normally apply on potatoes, vegetables, popcorn, bread, etc.
- Go natural! One example is peanut butter. Your health food store will have freshly-ground peanuts without the addition of fat, sugar and salt. For the first month, you can add a sprinkle of sea salt and honey to your natural peanut butter to ease the change in flavor.
If you are a pasta lover, switch to whole grain pastas. Other than a slight difference in texture, the flavor is the same. Get into the habit of reading the ingredients before purchasing prepared foods. For instance, some spaghetti sauces are loaded with oil, sugar and preservatives, whereas, others will have natural ingredients.
- Introduce more fresh fruit into your diet. To encourage this, keep a fruit bowl filled with fresh, washed, ready-to-eat fruit in the middle of the kitchen table. You will find that your children will naturally snack on these quick nutritious foods, especially if the cookie jar is empty. Twice a week, determine to have a fruit breakfast.
- Make a fresh glass of vegetable juice for the family each day. A great starter for kids that is regularly accepted is carrot and apple. As they become accustomed to this natural flavor, you may begin to add some greens. Kids love to push the carrots through the juicer. Carrots in one hole, juice out the other. If you involve your children in these changes, they will be more receptive, feeling a part of the exciting discovery process.
- Split your coffee, tea and pop consumption in half. This one is going to hurt because caffeine is a drug that has tampered with your natural chemistry. Discover the soothing flavors of herbal teas. Decaffeinated coffee is useful only for transition and should not be a permanent coffee replacer.
- Desserts and treats. This is a tough one. Kids love treats and so do we. The food industry is expert in making colorful creative, sweet, delicacies that appeal to children. So we have a challenge. Let’s be creative, making our own treats that are equally fun but nutritious and healthy. We have some great suggestions in our recipe section.
Next Article: Transition Diet Program – Month 2 | <urn:uuid:8e2e920a-d773-485f-8941-9dd659c71627> | {
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When Sun Tzu advised readers to know your enemy in The Art of War, he likely wasn’t talking about carpet contaminants. But the philosophy applies.
The key purpose of carpet cleaning is to remove soils. However, there are actually several different types of soils and contaminants found in carpets, and knowing what type of soil is in the carpet should be the first step in effectively removing it.
A recent U.S. Products study focused on the top 10 soils that most often end up in carpets and how they get there.
As much as 80% of these soils are deposited onto carpets from the shoe bottoms of people walking into facilities, according to Mark Baxter, a carpet cleaning expert and product manager for U.S. Products.
“Making matters worse,” he says, “the soil, now transferred to the carpet, can transfer back on to someone else’s shoes and then become transferred once again to another area of the carpet, spreading the soil throughout the facility.”
“Of all these soils, gritty materials are probably the most harmful to carpets,” adds Baxter. “Technicians should view gritty soils as tiny little razors, gouging and cutting carpet fibers as people walk over the carpet. Fortunately, they can usually be removed using a hot water carpet extractor, protecting the health and life of the carpet.”
So what are the most common types of soil in carpets?
Top 10 Soils in Carpet
- Sand, clay, and other “gritty” materials
- Natural fibers such as lint from clothing
- Petroleum, oil, and grease
- Human hair and skin
- Dust mites, fleas, and other insects
- Organic soils and materials (minerals and soils from landscaping areas,
- Airborne carbon and automotive exhaust
- Spilled food or beverages
- So-called “miscellaneous unknowns” | <urn:uuid:42eb3ab1-ae3b-495b-9555-03994b41b61b> | {
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A head-on collision was averted between a spent upper stage from a Chinese rocket and the European Space Agency's (ESA) huge Envisat Earth remote-sensing spacecraft.
Space junk tracking information supplied by the U.S. military, as well as confirming German radar data, showed that the two space objects would speed by each other at a nail-biting distance of roughly 160 feet (50 meters).
ESA's Envisat tips the scales at 8 tons, with China's discarded rocket body weighing some 3.8 tons. A couple of tweaks of maneuvering propellant were used to nudge the large ESA spacecraft to a more comfortable miss distance.
But what if the two objects had tangled?
Such a space collision would have caused mayhem in the heavens, adding clutter to an orbit altitude where there are big problems already, said Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Agency's Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany.
It turns out, Klinkrad told SPACE.com, that 50 percent of all the close conjunctions that Envisat faces are due to the lethal leftovers from China's January 2007 anti-satellite test, as well as chunks of junk resulting from last year's smashup between an active U.S. Iridium satellite and a defunct Russian Cosmos spacecraft.
Klinkrad joined several orbital debris experts that took part in the 33rd Annual Guidance and Control Conference organized by the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Astronautical Society. The five-day meeting began Feb. 5.
Significant progress has been made by the U.S. and the international aerospace communities in recognizing the hazards of orbital debris, reported , chief scientist for orbital debris at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Johnson added that steps are being taken to reduce or eliminate the potential for the creation of new debris. However, "the future environment is expected to worsen without additional corrective measures," he noted.
During 2009, Johnson reported, five different NASA carried out collision avoidance maneuvers: a (TDRS-3), Cloudsat, Earth Observing Mission 1, Aqua, and Landsat 7. Also, the and the took collision avoidance actions, he said.
The worst thing that could happen, according to ESA's Klinkrad, is the International Space Station (ISS) receiving a fatal hit. The space station is currently home to five astronauts representing the U.S., Russia and Japan.
"A penetrating object hitting the ISS, and possibly causing a casualty onboard . . . I think that would be the most dramatic case we could have," Klinkrad suggested. Such an incident might turn public opinion against human spaceflight, he said.
Collaboration on the increase
One bit of good news in all this orbital riff-raff.
Due to last year's satellite crash between the Iridium and Cosmos spacecraft, Johnson explained that the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) of the U.S. Strategic Command now conducts conjunction assessments for all operational spacecraft in Earth orbit, regardless of ownership nationality.
"To be honest, a year ago, we couldn't even have hoped to have done this," Johnson told SPACE.com.
"It's really a consequence of the collision last year. People have been talking about this for years. But now we've made the commitment . . . that this is something that needs to be done and can be done relatively easily," Johnson said.
Klinkrad concurred. "The collaboration is getting even closer now," he said.
Duck or pluck?
Playing dodge ball with high-speedis one tactic. But there is also a growing interest in removing the most troublesome objects — perhaps an annual quota of some sort.
Targeted would be specific inclination bands and altitude regimes, Klinkrad said. But prior to implementing debris remediation measures on a global scale, technical, operational, legal and economic problems must be overcome.
Klinkrad and NASA's Johnson provided a wearisome appraisal of the future.
Even with an immediate halt of launch activities, spacefaring nations will be dealing with an unstable low-Earth orbit environment in some altitude and inclination bands. This would be a consequence of about 20 catastrophic collisions within the next 200 years, the two orbital debris experts explained.
Some orbit altitudes already have critical mass concentrations that will trigger "collisional cascading" within a few decades, unless debris environment remediation measures are introduced.
The Kessler Syndrome
The idea of debris creating debris was put in motion by Donald Kessler, along with fellow NASA researcher, Burton Cour-Palais, back in 1978.
Their research suggested that, as the number of artificial satellites in Earth orbit increases, the probability of collisions between satellites also increases. Satellite collisions would produce orbiting fragments, each of which would increase the probability of further collisions, leading to the growth of a belt of debris around the Earth.
Kessler told SPACE.com that the disorder fits into much more complex natural laws that include the evolution of the solar system, as well as meteoroids, meteorites, and climate-changing asteroids.
Kessler is now an orbital debris and meteoroid consultant in Asheville, North Carolina.
"There is nothing complex about what is called the 'Kessler Syndrome' . . . it is just the way nature may have converted a disorderly group of orbiting rocks into an orderly solar system . . . although nature reminds us with a large asteroid or comet collision every few million years that it isn't quite finished yet.
"In the case of orbital debris, this collision process is just starting," Kessler explained.
Consequently, nobody should be surprised that as orbital debris models became more complex — and as more data is obtained — the same conclusion holds, Kessler said.
"The future debris environment will be dominated by fragments resulting from random collisions between objects in orbit, and that environment will continue to increase, even if we do not launch any new objects into orbit," Kessler concluded.
- Some of the Worst Space Debris Moments in History
- India Developing Anti-Satellite Spacecraft
- Video — The Expanding Danger of Space Junk
Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is past editor-in-chief of the Space World magazines and has written for SPACE.com since 1999. | <urn:uuid:4168e0ed-b954-49ed-b0da-db6029fe812b> | {
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Have we squandered our natural resources beyond the point of no return? NOAA has monthly recorded record high temps across the planet for more than a year. It can’t all be blamed on El Niño. NASA scientists at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies reported that the first six months of 2016 were the warmest since they started keeping records in 1880. Deke Arndt, the head of the climate monitoring division at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, told Scientific American, about the rising surface temperature, “We’ve left the 20th century far behind. This is a big deal.”
The 2015 Stanford University plug-load study speaks to the concern the scientific community has about how we can conserve resources. Lead researcher Moira Hafer found that lab equipment used 50% of the plug load energy measured in the study, and computers and monitors used 36%. The other six categories—Kitchen and Breakroom, Office Occupant Comfort, Printers and Scanners, Audio/Video, Gym and Training Equipment, and Laundry Equipment—were together responsible for the remaining 19%.
Non-profit My Green Lab conducted a in-depth study of plug-load, focusing on labs:
Like Hafer, My Green Lab found autoclaves consumed a lot of energy — but do they have to? By designing specifically for laboratory use—instead of simply repurposing medical autoclaves for the lab—we can create huge energy and cost savings. Priorclave autoclaves are designed specifically for research and are extremely water and energy efficient. Rising global temperatures—and rising energy costs—demand action to conserve resources, and Priorclave makes it their mission to provide the most efficient lab sterilizers possible.
[Image credit: NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies] | <urn:uuid:b2740350-5961-4b6d-88d8-912179ff3ad5> | {
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The aim is to link the national authority files (such as the German Name Authority File) to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together. A VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary "see" and "see also" records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are made available online and are available for research and data exchange and sharing. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative protocol.
The file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata.
Esch and Voes were Augustinian monks of Saint Augustine's Monastery in Antwerp. When in 1522 all the monks there publicly professed Lutheran doctrine, the Bishop of Cambrai had them all arrested and imprisoned in Vilvorde, where they were interrogated by Jacob van Hoogstraten from Cologne and some dependably Catholic professors. When the monks realized that they risked being burned alive if they did not recant, all except three—Johann Esch, Heinrich Voes, and Lampertus Thorn—recanted. The recanting monks were released but were not returned to the monastery, which instead was declared defiled and soon demolished.
Refusal to recant
Esch, Voes, and Thorn, still held in custody, were questioned again by the ecclesiastical inquisition court, but they refused to recant. They were then handed over to the secular court and sentenced to death. They were taken to Brussels and held until the appointed day of execution on 1523 July 1. New attempts were made meanwhile to get them to renounce. Voes was brought first to the inquisitors, but he refused to recant. Esch also refused to renounce Lutheranism. Thorn asked for an additional four-day period to study the scriptures with respect to his views, and thus he was not executed then with Esch and Voes. Esch and Voes were summarily delivered to the executioner, brought to the marketplace in Brussels, and burned alive. For some reason, the charges against them were not read aloud as was the established practice; it has been conjectured that the authorities were concerned that hearing the charges might cause Lutheran ideas to spread among the public witnesses or that the ideas were already there and would ignite a protest. | <urn:uuid:cfdd8767-f161-4ed6-9923-a6ff5f43a879> | {
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Whooping cough cases in the West Midlands have rocketed by more than 1,300 per cent – the highest level for more than 20 years.
There were just 33 victims in the region in 2011, but that has risen to 435 cases in the first nine months of this year.
The dramatic increase has prompted a fresh call for pregnant women to receive vaccinations.
The Health Protection Agency says three babies have died from whooping cough during October, bringing the total number of deaths this year to 13.
The West Midlands’ rise is mirrored nationally, with more than 7,770 suspected cases reported in 2012.
The disease is identified by dry persistent coughing fits, often following by a ‘whooping’ noise as the child inhales sharply – hence the name.
Birmingham City Council cabinet member for health Coun Steve Bedser, said: “Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease and infants are particularly vulnerable.
‘‘It really is vital that babies are protected from the day they are born, so we would strongly recommend all pregnant women take up the offer of vaccination.
“Protection throughout childhood is vital and parents must ensure their children are vaccinated against whooping cough, even babies of women who’ve had the vaccine in pregnancy.”
Since September the vaccine has been made available to women during the third trimester of pregnancy, between 28 and 38 weeks, to protect the newborn babies.
Even women who have previously been immunised are encouraged to be vaccinated again to boost their immunity levels.
Birmingham’s director of public health Dr Adrian Phillips said that parents also need to look out for the symptoms.
“Vaccination is vital but parents should be alert to the signs and symptoms of whooping cough.
‘‘The condition usually begins with a persistent dry and irritating cough that progresses to intense bouts of coughing. This is followed by a distinctive ‘whooping’ noise, which is how the condition gets its name.” | <urn:uuid:03d50c5d-39ce-49c6-bf3f-7952beebdc20> | {
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||This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2009)|
Oceanus Procellarum is the large mare in the center and upper left of this image. Visible in the upper right is another large mare, Imbrium, and below is the small round Mare Humorum.
|Diameter||2,592 km (1,611 mi)|
|Eponym||Ocean of Storms|
Oceanus Procellarum (pron.: / /; Latin for "Ocean of Storms") is a vast lunar mare on the western edge of the near side of Earth's Moon. It is the only one of the lunar maria to be called an "Oceanus" (ocean), due to its size: Oceanus Procellarum is the largest of the maria, stretching more than 2,500 km (1,600 mi) across its north-south axis and covering roughly 4,000,000 km2 (1,500,000 sq mi).
Like all lunar maria, Oceanus Procellarum was formed by ancient basaltic flood volcanic eruptions that covered the region in a thick, nearly flat layer of solidified magma. Unlike the other lunar maria, however, Oceanus Procellarum may or may not be contained within a single well-defined impact basin. Around its edges lie many minor bays and seas, including Mare Nubium and Mare Humorum to the south. To the northeast, Oceanus Procellarum is separated from Mare Imbrium by the Carpathian Mountains. On its north-west edge lies the 32 km wide Aristarchus ray crater, which is considered as the brightest feature on the Near side of the Moon. Also, the more-prominent ray-crater Copernicus lies within the eastern edge of the mare, distinctly with its bright ray materials sprawling over the darker material. On the northern edge of Oceanus Procellarum lies Sinus Roris.
There are several hypotheses about the origin of Oceanus Procellarum and a related asymmetry between the near and far sides of the Moon. One of the most attractive is that Procellarum was a result of an ancient giant impact on the near side of the Moon. The size of the impact basin has been estimated to be more than 3,000 kilometers, making it if existed one of the largest craters in the Solar System. The impact likely happened very early in the Lunar history: at the time when magma ocean still existed or just ceased to exist. It deposited 5–30 km of crustal material on the far side forming highlands. If this is the case, all impact related structures such as crater rim, central peak etc have been obliterated by later impacts and volcanism. One piece of evidence in support of this hypothesis is concentration of incompatible elements (KREEP) and low calcium pyroxene around Oceanus Procellarum.
Other hypotheses include spatially inhomogeneous tidal heating during the Moon's formation and a late accretion of a companion Moon on the far side. The latter postulates that in addition to the present Moon, another smaller (about 1,200 km in diameter) moon was formed from debris of the giant impact. After a few tens million years it collided with the Moon and due to a small collisional velocity simply piled up on one side of the Moon forming what is now known as far side highlands.
The robotic lunar probes Luna 9, Luna 13, Surveyor 1 and Surveyor 3 landed in Oceanus Procellarum. The manned Apollo 12 mission also landed in Oceanus Procellarum, with astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean on board. Their landing site, within 300m of Surveyor 3, has become known as Mare Cognitum.
- "Oceanus Procellarum". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
- DK Space Encyclopedia: The Near Side of the Moon
- Nakamura, R.; Yamamoto, S.; Matsunaga, T.; Ishihara, Y.; Morota, T.; Hiroi, T.; Takeda, H.; Ogawa, Y. et al. (2012). "Compositional evidence for an impact origin of the Moon's Procellarum basin". Nature Geoscience 5 (11): 775. doi:10.1038/NGEO1614.
- Byrne, C. J. (2008). "A Large Basin on the Near Side of the Moon". Earth, Moon, and Planets 101 (3–4): 153–188. doi:10.1007/s11038-007-9225-8.
- Jutzi, M.; Asphaug, E. (2011). "Forming the lunar farside highlands by accretion of a companion moon". Nature 476 (7358): 69–72. doi:10.1038/nature10289. PMID 21814278. | <urn:uuid:b42cb6a0-bc11-481d-986a-cf076a2cf6cd> | {
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The video “Iron In The Soul” Portrait of the Caribbean explores the history and the legacy of slavery in the British Caribbean. Several people are interviewed by the narrator Stuart Hall as he speaks of the past, present and future of the Caribbean. In his native Jamaica Hall speaks with Professor Rex Nettleford and several Sixth Form (Grade 12) students at a prestigious all-male secondary school who are all beneficiaries of a British education system. It is mentioned that during the British colonial system, Nettleford, Hall and the students who are all Africans would not have been permitted to enter certain spaces on the island, including the club and the exclusive boys only secondary school.
A dramatisation of Douglas Hall’s book In Miserable Slavery: Thomas Thistlewood in Jamaica, 1750-86 illustrates the lives of enslaved Africans. Thomas Thistlewood, was a British slave holder who lived in Jamaica in the 18th century. His diary documents his rise from overseer on a sugar plantation to owning his own plantation where he enjoyed moderate success depending on the unpaid coerced labour of enslaved Africans. Thistlewood’s diary also documented his physical, sexual and emotional abuse of the Africans enslaved on his property.
In the dramatisation of Thistlewood’s diary, an enslaved African woman identified as Phibba is referred to as his “slave wife.” This is a misnomer since Phibba did not live in Thistlewood’s house and their only relationship was a sexual one. Thistlewood documents his systemic rape of the enslaved African women on his plantation and Phibba was one of many with whom he engaged in sex. The fact that these enslaved women did not have much choice in who used their bodies for sexual gratification or in an exercise of power, makes the term "slave wife" in regards to Phibba unusual and mistaken. The only thing that sets Phibba apart from the other enslaved women on the plantation is that Thistlewood acknowledges the child that is born of his sexual relationship with Phibba.
In Barbados, Hall interviews the descendant of a slave owning and plantation owning family. After retiring from his job in Britain the interviewee moved to Barbados in a seeming bid to recapture the glory days of his slave owning ancestors as he entertains visitors at his family’s plantation house and grounds. The Goddard family is a white family which has a different history from the slave owning descendant who lives on his family’s former plantation. The Goddards are the descendants of the poverty stricken Europeans from Britain who went to Barbados as indentured servants. However, it was easier for some members of the Goddard family to rise above poverty because of the colour of their skin as white people. Those descendants of enslaved Africans in Barbados and Jamaica who have managed to rise above their ancestor’s impoverished condition have done so through education and also through sports.
The documentary explores the influence of both the European and African cultures on the people of the Caribbean. Cricket, a game imported from Britain and played by the white expatriates who colonized Barbados and Jamaica has become a game played by the descendants of the Africans who were enslaved on those islands. Ironically cricket has become one of the means of escaping poverty. Barbadian Wesley Hall, a world famous cricketer whose family was interviewed in this documentary is an example of Africans using sport as a way out of poverty.
The documentary shows that the legacy, culture and traditions of the former enslavers and colonizers have been integrated into attitudes and culture of Jamaica and Barbados. That legacy is seen not only in the games and the education system but also in the dress of the people and their names. In the documentary none of the Africans bear African names. The members of the judiciary in Barbados dress in clothes unsuitable for the hot climate as they mimic the former colonizers.
In this documentary there is not much evidence of an African influence in the culture of the descendants of the enslaved Africans. The language has been lost, the names have been lost and much of the culture is missing. Some African influence is evident in the worship style of the members of the Spiritual Baptist church that is featured. There is some syncretism of the European and African style of worship. The Christian religion which was forced on the enslaved Africans is seen as a way to alleviate the feelings of desperation that come with living in poverty that many of their descendants experience as they remain at the bottom of the economic ladder in the Caribbean even though they are the majority and have political power. | <urn:uuid:1295abd3-bcef-4af8-bf09-a71059b3ee81> | {
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Periodontics is the specialty of dentistry that studies the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the diseases or abnormalities that affect the tissues supporting the teeth. The main periodic diseases are gingivitis and periodontitis.
Periodontitis is the leading cause of tooth loss in the world (3 in 4 people suffer from it). It is a bacterial disease that affects the gums and the bones that support the teeth. It can be caused by redness, bleeding and swelling of the gums while brushing. It also causes bad breath, gum recession and teeth mobility.
Periodontitis is related to other systemic diseases: diabetes, acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), premature deliveries and aspiration pneumonia. The treatment consists of removing the bacteria that causes gingivitis/periodontitis, stopping the progression of the disease, and in some cases regenerating the lost bone. There are also other conditions when the periodontist can use this method, even if it is not related to periodontitis, for example if the patient has an exceeding or receding gum line.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT PERIODONTICS
What causes periodontitis?
The most common reason the gums become infected is because of bacteria. In the mouth there are over 600 different types of bacteria and many of them are potentially harmful to the tissues that support the teeth. The bacterium that lives in the mouth is deposited on the surface between the teeth and the gums, forming plaque. The seriousness of the lesions caused by bacteria during periodontitis depends on the susceptibility of the individual, which is genetically determined.
Is gum disease hereditary?
The main cause of periodontitis is individual susceptibility, which is a genetic trait. It is a misconception that pre-disposition alone can cause periodontitis, there also has to be bacteria present in order for the disease to develop. Often the people who develop periodontitis, especially the more severe cases, find that their parents or siblings are affected as well, which also points to the hereditary nature of the disease. However, because it is so common some people don’t consider it hereditary, but rather a coincidence, that there is such a high occurrence in one family. Therefore, and also considering that at the moment there is little we can do to modify genetic disposition, the best way to prevent and treat periodontitis is to control bacterial plaque.
Why does my periodontist suggest that I stop smoking?
Although tobacco is not capable of directly causing gum disease, it does aggravate the evolution of it and reduces the effectiveness of treatment. The ways in which tobacco aggravates the evolution of the disease is by reducing the amount of blood that is sent to the tissues in the gums, and as a result reducing the body’s defense against bacteria.
Is there a cure for this disease?
Basically, yes. A specialist can plan out the phases of the treatment that is necessary to overcome this disease. Following the return of tissue after the treatment, it is of upmost importance that the patient continues to follow the regime that the doctor outlines in order to maintain the results. | <urn:uuid:38c08c48-ba30-4ad0-aa0f-a1e4c06ca1d3> | {
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© RicardMN Photography
The Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It was originally constructed as a small fortress in 889 and then largely ignored until its ruins were renovated and rebuilt in the mid 11th century by the Moorish king Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar of the Kingdom of Granada who built its current palace and walls, and later converted into a royal palace in 1333 by Yusuf I, Sultan of Granada.
The Alhambra’s Islamic palaces were built for the last Muslim emirs in Spain and its court of the Nasrid dynasty. After the Reconquista by the Reyes Católicos (“Catholic Monarchs”) in 1492, some portions were used by Christian rulers. The Palace of Charles V, built by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1527, was inserted in the Alhambra within the Nasrid fortifications. After being allowed to fall into disrepair for centuries, the Alhambra was rediscovered in the 19th century by European scholars and travelers, with restorations commencing. It is now one of Spain’s major tourist attractions, exhibiting the country’s most significant and well known Islamic architecture, together with 16th-century and later Christian building and garden interventions. The Alhambra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the inspiration for many songs and stories.
The present entrance to the Palacio Árabe, or Casa Real (Moorish palace), is by a small door from which a corridor connects to the Patio de los Arrayanes (Court of the Myrtles), also called the Patio de la Alberca (Court of the Blessing or Court of the Pond), from the Arabic birka, “pool”. The birka helped to cool the palace and acted as a symbol of power. Because water was usually in short supply, the technology required to keep these pools full was expensive and difficult. This court is 42 m (140 ft) long by 22 m (74 ft) broad, and in the centre there is a large pond set in the marble pavement, full of goldfish, and with myrtles growing along its sides. There are galleries on the north and south sides; the southern gallery is 7 m (23 ft) high and supported by a marble colonnade. Underneath it, to the right, was the principal entrance, and over it are three windows with arches and miniature pillars. From this court, the walls of the Torre de Comares are seen rising over the roof to the north and reflected in the pond.
Moorish poets described it as “a pearl set in emeralds,” in allusion to the colour of its buildings and the woods around them. The palace complex was designed with the mountainous site in mind and many forms of technology were considered. The park (Alameda de la Alhambra), which is overgrown with wildflowers and grass in the spring, was planted by the Moors with roses, oranges and myrtles; its most characteristic feature, however, is the dense wood of English elms brought by the Duke of Wellington in 1812. The park has a multitude of nightingales and is usually filled with the sound of running water from several fountains and cascades. These are supplied through a conduit 8 km (5.0 mi) long, which is connected with the Darro at the monastery of Jesus del Valle above Granada.
Washington Irving’s “Tales of the Alhambra” is a collection of essays, verbal sketches, and stories. Irving lived in the palace while writing the book and was instrumental in reintroducing the site to Western audiences.
Alhambra has directly inspired musical compositions as Francisco Tárrega’s famous tremolo study for guitar “Recuerdos De La Alhambra”.
In pop and folk music, Alhambra is the subject of the Ghymes song of the same name. The rock band The Grateful Dead released a song called “Terrapin Station” on the 1977 album of the same name. It consisted of a series of small compositions penned by Robert Hunter and put to music by Jerry Garcia; a lyrical section of this suite was called “Alhambra”.
Marcel L’Herbier’s 1921 film “El Dorado” features many scenes shot in and around the Alhambra palace. This was the first time permission had been granted for a film company to shoot inside the Alhambra palace and L’Herbier gave prominent place to its gardens, fountains and geometric architectural patterns, which became some of the film’s most memorable images.
Prints/greeting cards/iPhone cases – RicardMN Photograpy’s Facebook Page – RicardMN Photography’s Pinterest | <urn:uuid:c5d285ec-eb1a-4971-9311-401fc7c7e98e> | {
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Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder are among the most well understood and researched eating disorders. Though the former two are probably more spoken about, the third one, also known as compulsive eating disorder is more common.
An estimated 3.5 % women and 2% of men in the United States probably have a binge eating disorder which is an underlying condition for about one third of those who seek weight loss treatment.
There are similarities between bulimia and a binge eating disorder-
Both involve a binging component, where the sufferer tends to eat very large amounts of food, often high calorie, high sugar and fat foods, to the point of feeling overfull or uncomfortable.
In both these eating disorders, a person may eat double, triple or more at a time than others may eat in an entire day. The food is consumed in an uncontrollable manner and often much faster than one would normally eat.
The food is often eaten secretly and alone, and pains are taken to avoid discovery.
In both bulimia as well as binge eating, there is an emotional element the eating and the food may be used as a coping mechanism in times of stress, depression, feelings of isolation or loneliness, boredom, failure and so on. The person may be eating to feed an emotional rather than physical hunger. Low self esteem and a propensity for depression and other addictive behavior may also be observed in individuals suffering from these two eating disorders.
However there are also significant differences between binge eating disorder and bulimia-
The most significant difference between bulimia and a compulsive eating disorder is the fact that in bulimia compensatory behaviors follow the episode of binging.
While bulimics will typically follow the binging by purging, by either taking emetics or using other methods to induce vomiting or purging by using laxatives and diuretics, binge eaters do not display this compensatory behavior.
Bulimics may also display other compensatory behaviors such as fasting, excessive exercising and so on, which those with binge eating disorder will not usually display.
Compulsive or binge eaters are very often obese or overweight while bulimics are most often normal weight individuals or only slightly over or underweight. Compulsive overeaters may very often need medical intervention for their eating disorder.
9 out of 10 bulimics are women; while very significant numbers of men can also suffer from a binge eating disorder. An estimated 4 million Americans could have a binge eating disorder. | <urn:uuid:0d3b7ac0-81df-47d8-9e2e-f6830b8eff21> | {
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What Does "In Cold Blood" Mean?m.wisegeek.com
The phrase "in cold blood" is an idiom which means to act in an unemotional manner, without feeling or passion. Today, it is most frequently used when referring to murders which were not emotionally motivated. The origin of the phrase dates back to the early 1600s and is based on a medieval medical belief.
Originally, this phrase was once thought to be much more literal than it is considered now. Early physicians once thought that a person's emotions and internal fluids were closely connected. Blood, for example, was thought to literally heat up when a person became angry or impassioned.
Conversely, when a person was calm, with little or no emotion, their blood was thought to be cool. So although saying someone did something "in cold blood" in the 17th century meant they were calculated and free of emotion. It was also thought that the person's blood was literally cooler than an individual who was emotional. The terms "cold blooded" and "hot blooded" are also derived from this idea and actually appeared in use about a century before "in cold blood."
Some linguists also think the phrase might have been originally translated directly from the French word sang-froid. Sang-froid means "calmly" or "with composure," but translates literally to "blood-cold." The French term, however, has a generally positive connotation whereas "in cold blood" is more often used negatively.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the phrase "in cold blood," was in 1608 by an English soldier, Sir Francis Vere in his Commentaries of the Divers Pieces of Service. Vere stated that he was writing "a resolution framed in cold blood." The phrase was used in various documents over the next hundred years, appearing in literature in 1711 when Joseph Addison used the phrase in his periodical, The Spectator, to describe a murder.
Perhaps the most famous use of the term in recent history is Truman Capote's 1965 book, titled In Cold Blood. Capote and the book gained fame and infamy when Capote, a journalist, swore the book's account of events was pure fact merely told with a fictional style. Controversy broke out when several people featured in the book accused Capote of making up major scenes and misrepresenting characters. Infamous or not, In Cold Blood revived a style of journalism used by Mark Twain almost a century before. Now dubbed New Journalism, Capote's fiction-writing techniques are considered essential in most journalism philosophies.
Original Page: http://m.wisegeek.com/what-does-in-cold-blood-mean.htm
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Many developing countries seem likely to see a substantial downturn in economic growth over the 2015–2030 implementation period of the SDGs, compared with the recent years of strong growth. Since the 2015 WEO, the macroeconomic outlook has deteriorated further, with projected global growth for 2017 falling from 3.8 to 3.5 percent. However, a key result of this study is that projected declines in global poverty rates are not greatly affected by the anticipated slowdown in economic growth. Under the updated projections for 2030, the extreme poverty rate will be 5.2 percent compared to 4.8 percent. For most groups of countries and subgroups of populations, projected 2030 poverty rates will be within one percentage point of the levels projected under the optimistic outlook on global growth. However, there is some variation across countries, and even countries not directly affected by the recent global slowdown are likely to see long-term impacts. And despite this optimistic finding, we should be concerned that the movement in poverty rates is away from the SDG goal of complete elimination of poverty. | <urn:uuid:bdf61a64-6f71-4ef6-89ba-ca322e07388c> | {
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Pink in the Sink
Sure, every dentist you have ever visited has pestered you about the importance of brushing and flossing to keep cavities away, but it seems the importance of gum health has been overlooked by millions. Gum disease impacts over two-thirds of Americans, and most of them do not even know it.
Two common symptoms of periodontal disease are bleeding, swollen gums, and persistent bad breath. Since gum diseases are the equivalent of open wounds, kissing when you or your partner has bleeding or infected gums is inviting the transmission of unwanted bacteria and disease.
The same bacteria that cause inflammation in the gums and unpleasant breath can also travel throughout the rest of the body, putting you at an increased risk for heart disease, stroke, and cancers. At the office of Goldstein Garber and Salama we offer the World's first FDA approved laser assisted periodontal therapy, which painlessly removes the pathogenic bacteria below the gum line to help restore your oral health.
Human Papillomavirus, more commonly known has HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease today. In the United States it is estimated that 50-80% of adults will be infected with HPV in their lifetime. Recently HPV has gotten more attention with the newly discovered vaccine Guardasil which protects women against cervical cancers.
What is less known about HPV is that it is transferable through kissing, and is also responsible for genital warts and several types of oral and throat cancers.
While there is not a routine medical exam to test for it, there are high-risk HPV screening methods that we offer in our office. All that is required is a saliva sample that we send off to the Oral DNA labs for analysis. We also offer oral cancer screenings standard as part of every hygiene visit. Be informed about health and risk! | <urn:uuid:6b1193c3-209e-4b4a-a85f-f49ae05b97f8> | {
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September 19, 2005
The future fuel might mean a brighter future for Aiken County’s economy. The Savannah River National Laboratory is teaming with Toyota to study hydrogen cars. News 12 is on your side with how this will benefit Aiken County’s economy.
The Savannah River National Lab is using Cold War research for a future fuel: hydrogen. Ted Motyka is the lab’s program manager.
“Our experience is in hydrogen storage from our years of experience from the tritium facilities and we’re taking that technology to solve that one problem,” Motyka said.
That experience lured Toyota to team up with the National Lab for the next four years. They’ll figure out how to make hydrogen lighter and how to store it. Those are two important parts when it comes to putting a hydrogen fuel cell in a car. Right now they’re testing this glass micro-sphere.
“These are tiny, glass hollow spheres that can store air or hydrogen, if these had hydrogen in them you can take them, store them in your hand they’d be so safe,” Motyka said.
And though this project won’t change what we drive for another 15 years or so, it could help out Aiken County’s economy much sooner. This hydrogen lab will be finished in another month and the national attention could mean new researchers and new tax dollars for Aiken County.
Aiken County is paying for this $10 million lab. They’re hoping along with Savannah River researchers, people from companies like Toyota and universities will rent space here. And when they do, the county will start making money. | <urn:uuid:f579180f-7d6c-4529-ada7-d64e1a48b516> | {
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a group of six English farm workers who were put in jail for organizing a trade union (=organization that represents workers) in Tolpuddle, Dorset, in 1833-4. The were sent to Australia as criminals, but many people protested and in 1836 the men were brought home and set free.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
Dictionary pictures of the day
Do you know what each of these is called?
Click on any of the pictures above to find out what it is called. | <urn:uuid:63d9d9b5-9829-4a27-9b35-264e2690c1b5> | {
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Carlo Maley, PhD
Aspirin is known to lower risk for some cancers, and a new study led by a UC San Francisco scientist points to a possible explanation, with the discovery that aspirin slows the accumulation of DNA mutations in abnormal cells in at least one pre-cancerous condition.
"Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which are commonly available and cost-effective medications, may exert cancer-preventing effects by lowering mutation rates," said Carlo Maley, PhD
, a member of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and an expert on how cancers evolve in the body over time.
In the study, published June 13 in the online journal PLOS Genetics, Maley – working with gastroenterologist and geneticist Brian Reid, MD, PhD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center – analyzed biopsy samples from 13 patients with a pre-cancerous condition called Barrett's esophagus who were tracked for six to 19 years. In an "observational crossover" study design, some patients started out taking daily aspirin for several years, and then stopped, while others started taking aspirin for the first time during observation. The goal was to track the rate of mutations in tissues sampled at different times.
The researchers found that biopsies taken while patients were on an aspirin regimen had on average accumulated new mutations about 10 times more slowly than biopsies obtained during years when patients were not taking aspirin.
"This is the first study to measure genome-wide mutation rates of a pre-malignant tissue within patients for more than a decade, and the first to evaluate how aspirin affects those rates," Maley said.
Gender and ethnic distribution of study patients reflected the known demographics of esophageal cancer, which predominantly affects white, middle-aged and elderly men, he said. Barrett's esophagus only occasionally progresses to esophageal cancer.
Asprin's Effect of Reducing Inflammation
Cancers are known to accumulate mutations over time much more rapidly than normal tissue, and different mutations arise in different groups of cells within the same tumor. The acquisition of key mutations ultimately allows tumor cells to grow out of control, and diversity within a tumor may foster drug resistance, a phenomenon that is a major focus of Maley's research.
Read more at UCSF.edu | <urn:uuid:68e801be-1adb-4a0f-8205-8cae654fdf4a> | {
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To vent the crankcase vapors from the engine, 1949-69 Volkswagen vehicles utilize a simple road-draft tube. The road-draft tube is connected to the oil filler/generator stand and allows the engine crankcase vapors to vent out below the engine as the vehicle drives down the road.
This system is designed only to vent the vapors; the road-draft tube does nothing to prevent the release of these crankcase vapors into the atmosphere. Newer Volkswagen models still use a road-draft tube, but also have a hose attaching the upper end of the road-draft tube to the air cleaner. The incoming air charge passing through the air cleaner creates a vacuum in the road-draft tube so that the crankcase vapors are routed up and into the air cleaner. Once in the air cleaner, the crankcase vapors pass through the carburetor to be burned along with the incoming air/fuel mixture.
Most newer vehicles utilize a Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) system to combat the release of crankcase vapors into the atmosphere. This system is described here to further general automotive understanding of emission systems.Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) System
The PCV system used on most newer vehicles is designed to prevent the crankcase vapors from entering the atmosphere by burning them along with the incoming air/fuel charge. The PCV system is usually composed of a PCV valve, vacuum hoses and a fresh air breather hose. The PCV system vents the crankcase vapors in the following manner:
Fresh air is introduced into the engine crankcase through a fresh air breather hose, which is connected to the air cleaner or a similar air filter element. This prevents dirt and other contaminants from entering the engine, which would accelerate engine wear. The fresh air enters the crankcase and sweeps the blow-by gases along with it. The gases pass through the cylinder head cover through the PCV valve, which is controlled by engine vacuum. Once through the PCV valve, the gases are routed through a vacuum hose to the carburetor. The gases enter the incoming air/fuel charge to be burned in the combustion chambers.
The PCV system only functions when engine vacuum is high (idle and high-way cruising). Carbureted vehicles with PCV systems utilize carburetors that are specially calibrated.
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Bladder cancer stages
Before describing bladder cancer stages below it is worth explaining why this process is so important. Staging refers to how advanced the tumour has grown both locally or spread elsewhere. There are a number of staging systems used throughout the world but the most popular are the TNM (size of local tumour, whether spread to local lymph nodes, whether metastasied) bladder cancer stage is described using this system. Other tumour use a number of other systems such as AJCC, FIGO (gynaecological tumours), Duke's (colorectal carcinoma) and Ann Arbor classification (lymphoma). The main advantages of an internationally agreed staging system are:-
There are four main bladder cancer stages:
I - The tumour has spread only into loose tissue beneath the lining (lamina propria) but not into the bladder’s muscular wall or beyond. No lymph nodes are involved.
II - Tumour has invaded into the muscle wall (muscularis propria) of the bladder but has not spread to lymph nodes or other sites in the body
III - Tumour has invaded through the muscle wall (muscularis propria) of the bladder to involve the soft tissue around the bladder or has invaded adjacent organs including the prostate, uterus or vagina. No lymph nodes or other distant sites in the body are involved at this stage.
IV- Tumour has extended out of the bladder to invade the pelvic or abdominal wall, but does not involve lymph nodes or other distant sites in the body OR tumor has spread to involve lymph nodes and/or other distant sites in the body
Further general information Your doctors and specialist nurses are in an ideal position to give you relevant information on your disease and treatment as they know your individual circumstances. Cancerbackup has a help line (0808 800 1234) and a prize winning video available in English, Italian, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati & Hindi explaining Radiotherapy & Chemotherapy. Cancernet.co.uk has over 500 pages describing cancer, its management, practical tips and tool which patients, their carers and their doctors have found helpful during the cancer journey. | <urn:uuid:1a153cb7-0e69-4f93-9c1c-1506eb9dda39> | {
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Julia Davis has 3 employee: If A is the event that at least 2 of them are men and B is the event that 2 are females, are A and B Mutually exclusive?
Determine whether 2 events are mutually exclusive: Explain?
1 Answer | Add Yours
Mutually exclusive events are events that cannot occur at the same time.
Event A: at least 2 male employees
Event B: 2 female employees
Julia Davis only has 3 employees. If event B is true, then she has 2 females and 1 male. Since event A calls for at least 2 males, the two events cannot occur at the same time.
Events A and B are mutually exclusive.
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Join a community of thousands of dedicated teachers and students.Join eNotes | <urn:uuid:ceff1c7e-3287-4e18-82ba-bd992d7a41e6> | {
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This article focuses on the definition of the smart city concept and identifies the different fields involved in this development. Triggered by a variety of factors (e.g.: urbanization, scarce resources, climate change and technology), the concept of smart city encompasses a diverse reality that cannot be pinned down by a single definition. In fact, it relates to actions taken in complementary fields like mobility, energy, governance, quality of life or environment.
What is a Smart City? —The “smart” seen through the lens of formal definitions
The “smart city” concept has gained wide attention across the globe. Despite the attention it has garnered, when it comes to defining what a “smart city” is, there seems to be much disparity. Today, it is possible to distinguish various types of “smart city” definitions:
- Data-driven definitions, which focus on the key role of ICT and technology in the city:
e.g. IBM defines a “smart city” as “one that makes optimal use of all the interconnected information available today to better understand and control its operations and optimize the use of limited resources”. (2009, IBM)
- Citizen-centric definitions, which focus on how a city should address its citizens’ needs/wants and improve their quality of life:
e.g. Caragliu, Bo & Nijkamp view a city as smart when “investments in human and social capital and traditional and modern infrastructure fuel sustainable economic growth and a high quality of life” (2009)
- The broader and more sophisticated definitions, which attempt to bring these two spheres together:
e.g. The European Parliament defines a “smart city” as “a city seeking to address public issues via ICT-based solutions on the basis of a multi-stakeholder, municipally based partnership” (Mapping Smart Cities in the EU, 2014)
The conclusion from these various definitions is that the truly “smart” city cannot be pinned down by one single definition; it is a city that is always thinking, listening and adapting itself to remain attractive, efficient and sustainable. Increasingly talk is centered around leveraging the “Internet of Things” to achieve this. Last but not least, all cities must be conceived in their unique setting. What might be “smart” for one city might not be for another. In this light, smart governance is a core part of the puzzle. It is imperative for leaders to understand the unique problems and opportunities of their own city if they are to go any way in developing policies and projects to create their personal “smart city”.
There may be no single definition of a “smart city” but many different words come to mind when we think of a “smart city”. These include:
To approach more accurately the smart city concept, a smart city acts in the following fields:
- Smart mobility: Initiatives that aim to reduce transport CO2 emissions; improve public transport infrastructure and reduce congestion; make public transport safer, faster and more connected.
- Smart Environment: Initiatives that aim to improve air and water quality and use resources in a sustainable way by reusing and recycling.
- Smart Governance: Initiatives that encourage citizens’ participation; that makes governing bodies transparent and government services easy to use with the help of digital technologies.
- Smart Energy: Initiatives that include producing energy from renewable and sustainable resources such as solar, wind and biomass; reducing energy consumption by making the urban sector more energy efficient; increasing citizens’ awareness about their energy usage.
- Smart Living: Initiatives that simplify citizens’ experience in terms of health care and make cities safer and more inclusive; broader initiatives that aim to increase citizens’ quality of life either by providing access to higher-quality housing or advanced neighborhoods.
- Fostering Innovation: Initiatives that encourage and support start-ups as well as efficient collaboration of start-ups with big companies and the public sector.
Why are they a focal point?
The rise in importance of “smart cities” in recent times is driven by a variety of factors, including:
- Growing Urban Populations: The projected increase of the population forces us to conceive new ways of working. UN research shows that the world’s population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, posing a predicament for the world in terms of feeding, educating and caring for people. The increase in population will combine with the trend of urbanization to put further stress on world cities. World Health Organization estimates have the world’s urban population will have doubled by 2050, which is equivalent to 7 new metropolises with the population of London being created each year.
- Scarce Resources and Threat of Climate Change: Increasing awareness and acceptance of depleting fossil fuel resources and damage to the environment caused by pollution have made smart cities an imperative issue today. To meet the target of just a 2 degrees rise in global temperatures set by the world community, only one-third of the world’s proven fossil fuel resources can be used by 2050. This means that there needs to be prodigious improvements in and proliferating use of renewable energy sources, as well as an abatement in the amount of energy consumed. Smart city initiatives are one way of doing this, because by improving the way in which individual households and cities as a whole work, energy consumption can be greatly reduced.
- Recognition of Economic Growth and Social Improvement Opportunities: Whilst the prospect of rapid urbanization poses various challenges, it does also offer potential opportunities. Much of the smart agenda is also focused on how the advantages of urbanization can be realized. What is more, with cities increasingly competing on a global scale, there is a realization that “smartness” is almost a requirement to drive investment and attract the smartest citizens.
- Growth of New Technological Phase: Whilst the notion of using technology to improve urban life is by no means a new concept, never before have the prospects looked so bright. Current technological progress (in particular, concerning The Internet of Things) now make it feasible to put the smart city concept into practice. Improvements in technology have given us the ability to create smarter systems for every aspect of city life. Combining this with the emergence of big data, and cities can be smart in how these systems are created and used.
From an Imperial College & BearingPoint study | <urn:uuid:c0459d01-1d2b-4f83-b682-a321cae8b93f> | {
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How Delivery Systems Change Skin Care Effectiveness
By: Marc A. Ronert, MD, PhD
Posted: June 20, 2014, from the July 2014 issue of GCI Magazine.
The skin is the largest organ of the human body and makes up about 15%—roughly seven pounds—of body weight. Its complex, water-resistant structure fulfills numerous protective functions against environmental exposures, such as UV radiation and other harmful toxins; as well as chemical, microbial and physical influences. The nature of the skin’s anatomy limits permeability, which is advantageous as a defense mechanism, but presents a challenge in delivering ingredients into the skin. Topical or transdermal delivery of ingredients are heavily researched for drug applications in the pharmaceutical world, and there are connections and beneficial clinical findings that can be translated for the cosmetic skin care industry, as well. Delivery mechanisms and physiological conditions are identical for both drug and cosmetic ingredients. Therefore, several methods have been examined on how to increase the effectiveness of active ingredients for the skin, and how to overcome the protective barrier, making active ingredients more effective to positively enhance a desired result.
The Structure of the Skin
Simply put, the skin consists of four main layers:
- The outermost layer, or the stratum corneum (SC);
- The viable epidermis (living tissue);
- The deeper dermal layer; and
- The subcutaneous connective tissue.
The stratum corneum consists of a strong layer of dead skin cells comprised of dehydrated keratinocytes that are embedded in lipid layers. In order to reach living tissue, this protective cover and barrier needs to be passed by active ingredients. Skin care products using active ingredients that cannot pass this barrier can have moisturizing and protective functions, but they cannot affect the living tissue and, therefore, cannot alter or positively influence living cells to achieve a longer-lasting result. How good is an ingredient or product, really, if it can’t reach the area it is intended to reach?
As a physician, I often hear the question: “What types of delivery systems are used in order to get ingredients to the spot where they actually can do what they are meant to do?”
The Factors of Functionality
That simple question is extremely complex. There are numerous factors and mechanisms that can promote the delivery of ingredients. The term “delivery system,” as it is used in the skin care industry, refers to the definition or mechanism for how active ingredients reach the deeper layers of the skin in order to fulfill their function at a target site.
There are three mechanisms active ingredients can use to help them reach live tissue.
- Intercellular. These active ingredients travel in between keratinocytes into deeper layers.
- Transcellular. This means that active ingredients must penetrate from cell to cell in order to reach deeper.
- Transappendageal. This means other openings, such as sweat glands, sebaceous glands or hair follicles, are used as travel pathways to reach lower levels of the skin.
The pathway that specific active ingredients can utilize depends on many factors that are closely interconnected.
Concentration. One of the major factors in a good delivery system is the concentration of active ingredients. The higher the concentration of a particular ingredient, the more the skin will try to absorb it, leading to more of the active ingredient ultimately being relocated into the deeper layers of the skin.
pH. Although the concentration is important, it is also influenced by the pH. pH alone is a great delivery system, because the skin is always attempting to neutralize pH differences and stay in a pH-balanced state. The lower the pH, the more product will travel into deeper layers, because the skin is trying to balance and increase the pH again to a higher level. The higher the pH of a particular product, the less the active ingredients will penetrate the skin; instead, they will sit on the surface. | <urn:uuid:4de5ac2c-fb4f-4f31-8a4e-36d0c69ad4bc> | {
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1 Answer | Add Yours
Mary Warren...argues for telling the truth.
Early in the play Mary Warren argues that the girls should confess to what they were doing in the woods to avoid a severe punishment. Mary Warren was not, however, doing the same things in the woods that Abigail was going.
Abigail was drinking blood and speaking in tongues in addition to dancing naked in the woods. The punishment that Abigail might face would naturally be more harsh that than what Mary Warren might face.
Abigail rejects Mary Warren's advice and bullies her into agreement with a different plan - along with the rest of the girls, including Tituba. Abigail insists that the girls follow her lead and stick to the story that she makes chooses for them to tell.
Abigail...forcefully insists that the girls stick to the story that they were only dancing and that Tituba and Ruth alone conjured her dead sisters.
We’ve answered 327,946 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question | <urn:uuid:a4ffc22b-4874-4296-b738-5e31de81c143> | {
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Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont 05482
The Ticonderoga is the last remaining example of the type of North America side wheel steamboat that carried our westward expansion in the decades before the railroads. Except for her enclosed wheel-houses, an early 20th century development, the Ticonderoga is identical in design and propulsion system to the vessels that served every seaboard and inland port in the United States (except on the Mississippi River system) from the late 1830s to World War II. Her motive power is a vertical beam engine, an American marine adaptation of the Newcomen engine first used for pumping water out of English coal mines. This type of propulsion system led to a distinctly American development in marine architecture: the engine rose several decks through an ellipse, allowing commodious passenger accommodations and substantial freight capacities. At the same time, great ease of handling and navigation in shallow waters was made possible by the side paddlewheels. In their heyday in the 19th century, side-wheelers were ubiquitous. The paddlewheel era is one of the most exuberant and colorful in American history.
The S.S. Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in the 1950s.
The Ticonderoga's engine was hand-built in Hoboken, New Jersey, by Andrew Fletcher and Sons, the most famous of the vertical engine builders. Her steel hull was designed and built by T. S. Marvel on the Hudson River and shipped to Lake Champlain through the Champlain Canal. Her joiner work was completed in 1905 at the Shelburne Harbor Shipyard of the Champlain Transportation Company, the oldest steamboat company in the world when it ceased operations in 1932. The company traced its origins to 1809 when the Vermont I, licensed by Fulton and Livingston, became the first steamboat in regular service on any lake in the world. The Ti was launched in 1906
Powered by two boilers which consumed a ton of coal an hour, the Ti was capable of speeds from 18 to 23 miles per hour. Paddlewheels on either side of the boat were driven by the unencased engine which rises through all three decks. Firemen in the boiler-room shoveled coal to heat two enormous boilers containing thousands of gallons of water. The steam pressure thus generated rose into the steam chest from which it could be released by the engineer into the 53-inch piston cylinder. The piston's upward motion pushed on the walking beam connected to the Pitman arm which in turn rotated the shaft holding the two wheels. The wheels themselves are of the 'feather wheel' type and were designed so that the ten buckets on each wheel entered and left the water straight. Thus engine power was not wasted lifting the tons of water displaced.
The paddlewheel design was perfectly suited for inland water ways, as it enabled very large boats to navigate in shallow water. The Ticonderoga weighs 892 tons and yet drew only six feet of water when standing still and ten feet when underway, enabling her to travel nearly anywhere on Lake Champlain.
Designed for the luxury tourist lake trade, and used mainly for excursions, the Ticonderoga also carried freight such as apples, cars, and livestock and had roomy overnight passenger accommodations. She once carried an elephant across Lake Champlain. The Ti's interior shows the elegance of the grand tradition of American steamship building in the butternut and cherry paneling of its dining room and stateroom hall, its gold stenciled ceilings and its wide and lushly carpeted staircases.
The last vessel built by the Champlain Transportation Company, the 220 foot Ticonderoga had served 43 years when, in 1950 she was about to be scrapped. A public fund-raising campaign enabled her to return to operation that year. Early in 1951 she was purchased by the Shelburne Museum which, through a subsidiary, the Shelburne Steamboat Company, kept her in operation through 1953, when trouble with her aging coal-fired, Scotch-type boilers and lack of qualified licensed personnel forced her retirement.
In 1954 the Museum decided that the best means for her preservation was her removal to the Shelburne Museum. During the winter of 1955 she was hauled two miles from the foot of Shelburne Bay through swamps and across meadows and a railroad right of way to the Museum grounds. The move demanded careful planning and unique procedures. The Ti was floated into a specially dug basin which was filled with water to enable the Ti to be floated over a railroad carriage. The water was then let out of the basin, and the Ti settled onto her carriage. Tracks were laid in front of the boat, and two months later she arrived at her final destination near the Colchester Lighthouse at the Shelburne Museum.
The journey of such a large vessel overland was without precedent, and the Ticonderoga was featured around the world in newspaper and magazine articles (including a feature story in Life) and on radio and television. In 1964 she was declared a National Historic Landmark. To move the Ti to the Museum and provide ongoing maintenance has required great and sustained effort, not to mention the commitment of a substantial portion of the Museum's annual operating budget.
In 1977 it was becoming apparent that if the vessel was to survive at all, much less be accessible to future generations, more than annual housekeeping and maintenance was required. Accordingly, planning began, first to renew the most seriously deteriorated parts of the boat, then to proceed with a complete restoration of her exterior, interior and utilities. The Museum trustees determined to restore her as closely as possible to her condition when she was launched. This program began in 1978 when the National Trust awarded a matching $10,500 grant for sandblasting and painting the iron hull and paddle-wheels. The work was completed on schedule and within the budget in September 1978.
In 1979 the Ti received a $117,500 matching grant from a special fund for maritime preservation administered by the Department of the Interior and the National Trust. The Ticonderoga award is the largest preservation grant ever made in Vermont.
The Museum plans to raise $60,000 in each of the next two years to match the federal money; $13,000 has been raised so far in 1980 from foundations, local businesses and individuals. Part of the funds from a new season membership program will also go toward the match. Other special fund raising efforts are underway. A group of 48 fifth graders from Springfield, Vermont, is organizing a public service advertising campaign for the Ti as part of a school project. This is by far the largest fundraising campaign in Shelburne Museum history.
1. Coal bin
2. Steam chest
4. Walking beam
5. Connecting rod
6. Paddle shaft
The schedule of renovations for the Ti is staged according to priority of work and the Vermont weather. The hurricane deck, forecastle and quarterdecks are rotted in many places and will be replaced. This work will make the vessel watertight and prevent further damage. Ribs, exterior sheathing and guard rails will be replaced and, at the same time, all exterior surfaces will be painted. The 40-year-old sprinklers and fire hoses will be replaced and all wiring will be examined and replaced where necessary. Refurbishing of the interior is scheduled for the summer of 1981. All interior surfaces will be painted; all chairs and sofas will be reupholstered; all rugs will be replaced; broken windows in the saloon will be replaced with reproduction etched and frosted glass; and the linoleum floors will be replaced with reproduction rubber tile. The Museum staff, under the direction of Robert Francis, will undertake all repairs. The Benjamin Moore Paint Company will offer technical assistance in the extensive painting work. The Museum has also received a commitment from Dr. Waldo C. M. Johnston, ex-director of Mystic Seaport, to help assemble and serve on a Ticonderoga advisory committee of maritime experts.
Since she has berthed at the Shelburne Museum, more people have boarded the Ti each summer than in any season she operated on Lake Champlain. Her annual visitation averages well over 130,000 people from every state in the Union and many foreign countries. Since her boiler, dynamo, steering engine room, galley and foc'sle are now available for inspection, along with the main and hurricane decks and Stateroom Hall, she has become a unique educational resource. In addition, her dining room serves as an auditorium and a lecture hall, with frequent daily screenings of a film describing the moving of the boat from the harbor. The Museum library holds her plans and records for researchers as well as general information on the history of the Champlain waterway. In 1979 the Museum and the National Trust cosponsored an intern to develop this important maritime archive.
The Ticonderoga will remain open to visitors at the Shelburne Museum during the regular season, mid-May-mid-October each year and to researchers throughout the year. The Shelburne Museum is a non-profit organization founded in 1947 by Mr. and Mrs. J. Watson Webb. | <urn:uuid:64b901ec-b8af-46a0-91a4-5162a04d85cf> | {
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Our dental care is highly important and yet often ignored. The health of our mouths can have a direct link to so many other conditions in the body, but it’s often the last problem we address.
However, when it comes down to it, we’d do anything to get rid of that nagging toothache or stop gum disease in tracks. The best way to tackle dental problems is to start looking after your teeth early. So, here are few things you can do to keep you and your family’s dental care on track.
Tips for Family Dental Care
Make Brushing a Habit
As soon as your children start growing teeth, it’s time to start getting them in the habit of brushing. The sooner your children realize that it should be something they’re doing every morning and evening, they’ll start to do it automatically. If you can instill this in your children when they’re young, it won’t be a problem for them when they’re adults.
Get Some Fluoride
There seems to be some debate on whether tap water or bottled water is healthier for us. When it comes to your teeth, drinking tap water can do no harm because it often contains fluoride.
Fluoride is used to strengthen tooth enamel and prevent unnecessary tooth decay. Too much fluoride can cause white spots on the teeth which can look out of place. However, if you’d like to whiten your teeth, try reading, How to Whiten Teeth Fast – 3 Best Ways to Whiten Teeth Fast.
Use Dental Sealants
As humans, we often use our back teeth to chew and break down food that enters the mouth. That’s usually why the back teeth are the first to have cavities. Cavities are just one of the many things that happen to the body as you age. Using a dental sealant on your back teeth could prevent those cavities from happening. The sealant is a way of protecting your teeth for as long as possible while you enjoy the foods you love the most.
Floss After Eating
No-one likes to be the person with spinach stuck between their two front teeth at a party. But, flossing is about so much more than appearance. We often get food leftovers stuck in our teeth without even knowing it, and if they’re left there for hours, you run the risk of your teeth decaying quickly. Flossing after every meal will ensure those bits of food aren’t left lingering in your teeth.
If your children take part in sports, whether at school or as a hobby, it’s important to protect their teeth when necessary. For example, some contact sports, like wrestling or martial arts can result in accidental blows to the head. Without a mouth shield, many children and adults have found missing teeth on the wrestling mats. Always wear the protective gear recommended.
Tobacco is a huge no, no, for dental care. Along with causing yellow stains on the teeth and tongue, tobacco can cause a range of different health problems you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy, including oral cancer. Avoid it completely.
Taking care of your family’s dental health is easy when you know how. | <urn:uuid:18127250-09ac-4a8a-baf0-7fea3818012a> | {
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ATLANTA (Reuters) - U.S. health authorities are turning to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in a bid to prepare people to be vaccinated against the pandemic H1N1 virus.
But efforts to distribute accurate information about the dangers of swine flu and the importance of vaccination are hampered by the sheer complexity of the message that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aims to convey.
For a start, the vaccine will not be ready for widespread distribution until mid-October, after the traditional flu season has begun.
The U.S. government hopes to target around 50 percent of the population for vaccination, focusing on key groups including pregnant women and healthcare workers.
But anyone getting vaccinated will likely need three separate inoculations: one for seasonal flu, which kills around 36,000 people annually in the United States, and two for H1N1 taken three weeks apart.
Health officials also face the problem of how to prepare the public for the onset of a disease that has killed and could kill more but has so far been largely mild.
"The messages can be complicated," said Kris Sheedy, a communications director with CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
On its CDCFlu feed at www.twitter.com, the organization sporadically posts information on swine flu death tolls and also promotes its offerings on other social media, such as an interview on YouTube with a leading CDC scientist.
The CDC Facebook page, which has more than 20,000 fans, includes information on how to prepare for swine flu and a lively discussion in its comments section.
Aside from social media, CDC has run focus groups in Chicago, New York and Atlanta in a bid to test appropriate messages and has also worked with so-called mommy bloggers, an influential group among women.
'ONLY THING CERTAIN IS UNCERTAINTY'
H1N1 is expected to surge this fall in the United States as the school year starts. The World Health Organization predicts that 2 billion people globally will likely become infected eventually.
CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden says the new H1N1 flu is the agency's No. 1 priority.
"We have literally mobilized more than 1,000 people at CDC to work on H1N1," he said.
The message to the public can be subtle and confusing, Frieden said.
"If you get sick and you get a fever get help promptly. But don't overwhelm the emergency department with people who are not very sick," Frieden said.
CDC officials have been urged to admit when they do not know something.
"The only thing that is certain is uncertainty," Frieden added.
The CDC is also aware that some people doubt the safety of vaccines.
"People do have some trust issues. That's 2009. At CDC we are really committed to accurate, timely information," said the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the respiratory disease section.
Vaccine safety groups argue that insufficient testing of swine flu vaccine could pose a risk to the public and say individuals will have little legal recourse if problems emerge.
But paradoxically, public interest in the pandemic offers a chance to present concerns about vaccinations to a wider public, said Barbara Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center.
"It seems irresponsible to advocate and promote a vaccine and have no safety net whatsoever, and so yes it seems like an opportunity to point to some of the problems," said Fisher, a longtime critic of public vaccination programs. | <urn:uuid:d228e48f-d3df-4ce7-a41e-975d745d4de1> | {
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Presentation on theme: "1 Hub Location & Hub Network Design James F. Campbell College of Business Administration & Center for Transportation Studies University of Missouri-St."— Presentation transcript:
1 Hub Location & Hub Network Design James F. Campbell College of Business Administration & Center for Transportation Studies University of Missouri-St. Louis, USA Spring School on Supply Chain and Transportation Network Design HEC Montreal May 14, 2010
3 Design a Network to Serve 32 Cities 32 demand points (origins and destinations) 32*31/2 = 496 direct connections
4 One Hub Single hub: Provides a switching, sorting and connecting (SSC) function. Access arc connect non-hubs to hubs Hub networks concentrate flows to exploit economies of scale in transportation.
5 Two Hubs and One Hub Arc 1 hub arc & 2 connected hubs: Hubs also provide a consolidation and break-bulk (CB) function. Multiple Allocation Flows are further concentrated on hub arcs.
6 Multiple Allocation Four Hub Median 4 fully connected hubs 38 access arcs
7 Single Allocation Four Hub Median 4 fully connected hubs 28 access arcs
8 Multiple Hubs and Hub Arcs
9 Final Network 6 connected hubs, 1 isolated hub and 8 hub arcs
10 Hub Networks Allow efficient “many-to-many” transportation: -Require fewer arcs and concentrate flows to exploit transportation economies of scale. Hub arcs provide reduced cost transportation between two hubs (u sually with larger vehicles). -Cost: i k m j : C ijkm = c ik + c km + c mj -Distance: i k m j = d ik + d km + d mj Hub nodes provide: -Sorting, switching and connection. -Consolidation/break-bulk to access reduced cost hub arcs. k j m i collection transfer distribution
11 Hub Location Applications Passenger and Freight Airlines: -Hubs are consolidation airports and/or sorting centers. -Non-hubs are feeder airports. Trucking: -LTL hubs are consolidation/break-bulk terminals. -Truckload hubs are relay points to change drivers/tractors. -Non-hubs are end-of-line terminals. Postal operations: -Hubs are sorting centers; non-hubs are regional post offices. Public transit: -Hubs are subway/light-rail stations. -Non-hubs are bus stations or patron o/d’s. Computer & telecom networks.
12 Hub Location Motivation Deregulation of transportation in USA: -Airlines (1978). -Trucking (1980). Express delivery industry (Federal Express began in 1973). -Federal Express experiences: Developed ILP models in ~1978 to evaluate 1 super-hub vs. 4 hubs. Used OR models in mid-1970s to evaluate adding “bypass hubs” to handle increasing demand. Large telecommunications networks.
13 Hub Location Research Strategic location of hubs and design of hub networks. -Not service network design, telecom, or continuous location research. Began in 1980’s in diverse fields: -Geography, Transportation, OR/MS, Location theory, Telecommunications, Network design, Regional science, Spatial interaction theory, etc. Builds on developments in “regular” facility location modeling.
14 Hub Location Foundations First hub publications: Morton O’Kelly ( ): -Transportation Science, Geographical Analysis, EJOR: First math formulation (quadratic IP). 2 simple heuristics for locating 2-4 hubs with CAB data set. -Focus on single allocation and schedule delay. Continuous approximation models for many-to- many transportation. -Built on work with GM by Daganzo, Newell, Hall, Burns, etc. in 1980s. -Daganzo, 1987, “The break-bulk role terminals in many- to-many logistics networks”, Operations Research. Considered origin-hub-hub-destination, but without discounted inter-hub transportation.
15 Hub Location & Network Design Given: -Network G=(V,E) -Set of origin-destination flows, W ij -Discount factor for hub arcs, 0< <1 Design a minimum cost network with hub nodes and hub arcs to satisfy demand W ij. Select hub nodes and hub arcs. Assign each non-hub node to hubs.
16 Traditional Discrete Location Models Demand occurs at discrete points. Objective is related to the distance or cost between the facilities and demand points. “Classic” problems: -p-median (pMP): Minimize the total transportation cost (demand weighted total distance). -Uncapacitated facility location problem (UFLP): Minimize the sum of fixed facility and transportation costs. -p-center: Minimize the maximum distance to a customer. -Set Covering: Minimize the # of facilities to cover all customers. -Maximum covering: Maximize the covered demand for a given number of facilities (or given budget). Demand points are assigned to the closest (least cost) facility.
17 Discrete Hub Location Models Demand is flows between origins and destinations. Objective is usually related to the distance or cost for flows (origin-hub-hub-destination). -Usually, all flows are routed via at least one hub. Analogous “classic” hub problems: -p-hub median (pMP): Minimize the total transportation cost (demand weighted total distance). -Uncapacitated hub location problem (UHLP): Minimize the sum of fixed hub and transportation costs. -p-hub center: Minimize the maximum distance to a customer. -Hub Covering: Minimize the # of hubs to cover all customers. -Maximum covering: Maximize the covered demand for a given number of hubs (or given budget). Non-hubs can be allocated to multiple hubs.
18 Hub Location Research Very rich source of problems - theoretical and practical. Problems are hard!! A wide range of exact and heuristic solution approaches are in use. Many extensions: Capacities, fixed costs for hubs and arcs, congestion, hierarchies, inter-hub and access network topologies, competition, etc. Many areas still awaiting good research.
19 Hub Location Literature Early hub location surveys/reviews: -Campbell, 1994, Studies in Locational Analysis. 23 transportation and 9 telecom references. -O’Kelly and Miller, 1994, Journal of Transport Geography. -Campbell, 1994, “Integer programming formulations of discrete hub location problems”, EJOR. -Klincewicz, 1998, Location Science. Recent surveys: -Campbell, Ernst and Krishnamoorthy, 2002, in Facility Location: Applications and Theory. -Alumur and Kara, 2008, EJOR (106 references). -Computers & Operations Research, 2009, vol. 36. Much recent and current research…
20 Hub Median Model p-Hub Median: Locate p fully interconnected hubs to minimize the total transportation cost. Assume: (1) Every o-d path visits at least 1 hub. (2) Inter-hub cost per unit flow is discounted using . Boston Dallas Chicago Cleveland 3 Hub Median Optimal Solution
21 Hub Median Formulations Cost: i k m j : χc ik + c km + δc mj k j m i collection transfer distribution Single allocation: Z ik = 1 if node i is allocated to a hub at k ; 0 otherwise Z kk = 1 if node k is a hub; 0 otherwise Min Use p hubs Serve all o-d flows Link flows and hubs Subject to
22 Hub Median Formulations Min Subject to Multiple allocation: 4 subscripted “path” variables X ijkm = fraction of flow that travels i-k-m-j H k = 1 if node k is a hub; 0 otherwise Cost: i k m j : C ijkm = χc ik + c km + δc mj Use p hubs Link flows & hubs Serve all o-d flows
23 Hub Median Formulations Multiple allocation: 3 subscripted “flow” variables Z ik = flow from origin i to hub k Y i km = flow originating at i from hub k to hub m X i mj = flow originating at i from hub m to destination j k j m i collection transfer distribution Z ik Y i km X i mj Min
24 Hub Median Formulations Min Subject to Multiple allocation – 3 subscripted “flow” variables Use p hubs Link flows & hubs Serve all o-d flows Flow balance
25 Hub Center and Hub Covering Introduced as analogues of “regular” facility center and covering problems…but notion of covering is different. Campbell (EJOR 1994) provided 3 types of centers/covering: -Maximum cost/distance for any o-d pair -Maximum cost /distance for any single link in an o-d path. -Maximum cost/distance between an o/d and a hub. k j m i collection transfer distribution Much recent attention: -Ernst, Hamacher, Jiang, Krishnamoorthy, and Woeginger, 2009, “Uncapacitated single and multiple allocation p-hub center problems”, Computers & OR
26 Hub Center Formulation Min Subject to Use p hubs Link flows & hubs Serve all o-d flows Hub radius Objective X ik = 1 if node i is allocated to hub k, and 0 otherwise X kk = 1 node k is a hub z is the maximum transportation cost between all o–d pairs. r k = “radius” of hub k (maximum distance/cost between hub k and the nodes allocated to it). k
27 Hub Location Themes I. Better solution algorithms for “classic” problems. II. More realistic and/or complex problems. -More general topologies for inter-hub network and access network. -Objectives with cost + service. -Other: multiple capacities, bicriteria models, etc. III.Dynamic hub location. IV.Models with stochasticity. V.Competition. VI.Data sets.
28 I. Better solutions for “classic” problems Improved formulations lead to better solutions and solving larger problems… Hamacher, Labbé, Nickel, and Sonneborn, 2004 “Adapting polyhedral properties from facility to hub location problems”, Discrete Applied Mathematics. Marín, Cánovas, and Landete, 2006, “New formulations for the uncapacitated multiple allocation hub location problem”, EJOR. -Uses preprocessing and polyhedral results to develop tighter formulations. -Compares several formulations.
29 Better solutions for “classic” problems Contreras, Cordeau, and Laporte, 2010, “Benders decomposition for large-scale uncapacitated hub location”. -Exact, sophisticated solution algorithm for UMAHLP. -Solves very large problems with up to 500 nodes (250,000 commodities). -~2/3 solved to optimality in average ~8.6 hours. Contreras, Díaz, and Fernández, 2010, “Branch and price for large scale capacitated hub location problems with single assignment”, INFORMS Journal on Computing. -Single allocation capacitated hub location problem. -Solves largest problems to date to optimality (200 nodes) up to 12.5 hrs. -Lagrangean relaxation and column generation and branch and price.
30 II. More Realistic and/or Complex Problems More general topologies for inter-hub network and access network. -Inter-hub network: Trees, incomplete hub networks, isolated hubs, etc. -Access network: “Stopovers”, “feeders”, routes, etc. Better handling of economies of scale. -Flow dependent discounts, flow thresholds, etc. -Restricted inter-hub networks. Objectives with cost + service. Others: multiple capacities, bicriteria models, etc.
31 Weaknesses of “Classic” Hub Models Hub center and hub covering models: -Not well motivated by real-world systems. -Ignore costs: Discounting travel distance or time while ignoring costs seems “odd”. Hub median (and UHLP) models: -Assume fully interconnected hubs. -Assume a flow-independent cost discount on all hub arcs. -Ignore travel times and distances.
32 Hub Median Model p-Hub Median: Locate p fully interconnected hubs to minimize the total transportation cost. -Hub median and related models do not accurately model economies of scale. -All hub-hub flows are discounted (even if small) and no access arc flows are discounted (even if large)! Boston 85 Dallas Chicago Cleveland low flows on hub arcs 3 Hub Median Optimal Solution
33 Better Handling of Economies of Scale Flow dependent discounts: Approximate a non-linear discounts by a piece-wise linear concave function. -O’Kelly and Bryan, 1998, Trans. Res. B. -Bryan, 1998, Geographical Analysis. -Kimms, 2006, Perspectives on Operations Research. More general topologies for inter-hub network and access network -“Tree of hubs”: Contreras, Fernández and Marín, 2010, EJOR. -“Incomplete” hub networks: Alumur and Kara, 2009, Transportation Research B -Hub arc models: Campbell, Ernst, and Krishnamoorthy, 2005, Management Science.
34 Hub Arc Model Hub arc perspective: Locate q hub arcs rather than p fully connected hub nodes. -Endpoints of hub arcs are hub nodes. Hub Arc Location Problem: Locate q hub arcs to minimize the total transportation cost. q hub arcs and ≤2q hubs. Assume as in the hub median model that: Every o-d path visits at least 1 hub. Cost per unit flow is discounted on q hub arcs using . Each path has at most 3 arcs and one hub arc (origin-hub- hub-destination): model HAL1.
35 Hub Median and Hub Arc Location Hub Median p=3 Hub Arc Location q=3 3 hubs & 3 hub arcs 5 hubs & 3 hub arcs
36 Time Definite Hub Arc Location Combine service level (travel time) constraints with cost minimization to model time definite transportation. Motivation: Time definite trucking: -1 to 4 day very reliable scheduled service between terminals. -Air freight service by truck! Transit Drop-off Pickup Dest Distance Days at STL at Dest ATL :00 7:00 JFK :00 9:00 MIA :00 8:00 ORD :00 9:00 SEA :00 8:30 Campbell, 2009, “Hub location for time definite transportation”, Computers & OR.
37 Service Levels Limit the travel distance via the hub network to ensure the schedule (high service level) can be met with ground transport. Problems with High service levels (High SL) have reduced sizes, since long paths are not feasible. Formulate as MIP and solve via CPLEX High Service Level Direct o-d Distance Max Travel Distance miles 600 miles miles 1200 miles miles 2000 miles
38 Time Definite Hub Arc Solutions for CAB Medium SL solution - 9 hubs! High SL solution - 10 hubs Low SL solution - 9 hubs! =0.2, p=10, and q=5
39 Time Definite Hub Locations High service levels make problems “easier”. High service levels “force” some hub locations. Good hub cities: -Large origins and destinations. Chicago, New York, Los Angeles. -Large isolated cities near the perimeter. Miami, Seattle. -Some centrally located cities. Kansas City, Cleveland. Poor hub cities: -Medium or small cities near large origins & destinations. Tampa.
40 Models with Congestion Elhedhli and Wu, 2010, “A Lagrangean heuristic for hub- and-spoke system design with capacity selection and congestion”, INFORMS Journal on Computing. -Single allocation. -Minimize sum of transportation cost, fixed cost and congestion “cost”. -Congestion at hub k: -Uses multiple capacity levels. -Solves small problems up to 4 hubs and 25 nodes to within 1% of optimality.
41 Another Model with Congestion Koksalan and Soylu, 2010, “Bicriteria p-hub location problems and evolutionary algorithms”, INFORMS Journal on Computing. -Two multiple allocation bicriteria uncapacitated p-HMP models. Model 1: Minimize total transportation cost and minimize total collection and distribution cost. Model 2: Minimize total transportation cost and minimize maximum delay at a hub. -Delay (congestion) at hub k: -Solves with “favorable weight based evolutionary algorithm”.
42 III. Dynamic Hub Location How should a hub network respond to changing demand?? Contreras, Cordeau, Laporte, 2010, “The dynamic hub location problem”, Transportation Science. -Multiple allocation, fully interconnected hubs. -Dynamic (multi-period) uncapacitated hub location with up to 10 time periods. -In each period, adds new o-d pairs (commodities) and increase or decrease the flow for existing o-d pairs. -Hubs can be added, relocated or removed. -Solves up to 100 nodes and 10 time periods with branch and bound with Langrangean relaxation.
43 Isolated Hubs Isolated hubs are not endpoints of hub arcs. -Provide only a switching, sorting, connecting function; not a consolidation/break-bulk function. -Give flexibility to respond to expanding demand with incremental steps. How can isolated hubs be used, especially in response to increasing demand in a fixed region and demand in an expanding region. Campbell, 2010, “Designing Hub Networks with Connected and Isolated Hubs”, HICSS 43 presentation.
44 Hub Arc Location with Isolated Hubs Locate q hub arcs with p hubs to minimize the total transportation cost. If p>2q there will be isolated hubs; When p 2q isolated hubs may provide lower costs. Each non-hub is connected to one or more hubs. Key assumptions: 1. Every o-d path visits at least 1 hub. 2. Hub arc cost per unit flow is discounted using . 3. Each path has at most 3 arcs and one hub arc: origin-hub-hub-destination. Cost: i-k-m-j =
45 Hub Network Expansion No SL, =0.6 # of hubs, # of hub arcs, # isolated hubs Transportation Cost Add a hub arc between existing hubs Add a new isolated hub 3, 2, , 3, , 2, , 3, , 2, , 3, , 2, , 4, , 3, , 4, , 3, , 5, , 4, , 6, , 5, Start with a 3-hub optimal solution
46 Geographic Expansion q=3 hub arcs Allow 1 Isolated Hub 1 isolated hub, Cost=914 Allow hub arcs to be moved 1 isolated hub, Cost=864 Optimal with no west-coast cities, p=4 Add 5 West- Coast cities No isolated hubs, Cost=1085
47 Findings for Isolated Hubs Isolated hubs are useful to respond efficiently to: -an expanding service region and -an increasing intensity of demand. Adding isolated hubs may be a more cost effective than adding connected hubs (and hub arcs). Isolated hubs seem most useful in networks having: few hub arcs, small values (more incentive for consolidation), and/or high service levels. With expansion, the same hubs are often optimal – but the roles change from isolated to connected.
48 IV. Models with Stochasticity How should stochasticity be incorporated?? Lium, Crainic and Wallace, 2009, “A study of demand stochasticity in service network design, Transportation Science. -Does not assume particular topology and shows hub-and-spoke structures arise due to uncertainty. “consolidation in hub-and-spoke networks takes place not necessarily because of economy of scale or other similar volume-related reasons, but as a result of the need to hedge against uncertainty” Sim, Lowe and Thomas, 2009, “The stochastic p-hub center problem with service-level constraint”, Computers & OR. -Single assignment hub covering where the travel time T ij is normally distributed with a given mean and standard deviation. -Locate p hubs to minimize so that the probability is at least that the total travel time along the path i → k → l → j is at most .
49 V. Competitive Hub Location Suppose two firms develop hub networks to compete for customers. Sequential location - Maximum capture problem: -Marianov, Serra and ReVelle, 1999, “Location of hubs in a competitive environment”, EJOR. -Eiselt and Marianov, 2009, “A conditional p-hub location problem with attraction functions”, Computers & OR. Stackelberg hub problems: -Sasaki and Fukushima, 2001, “Stackelberg hub location problem”, Journal of Operations Research Society of Japan. -Sasaki, 2005, “Hub network design model in a competitive environment with flow threshold”, Journal of Operations Research Society of Japan.
50 Stackelberg Hub Arc Location Use revenue maximizing hub arc models with Stackelberg competition. Two competitors (a leader and follower) in a market. -The leader first optimally locates its own q A hub arcs, knowing that the follower will later locate its own hub arcs. -The follower optimally locates its own q B hub arcs after the leader, knowing the leader’s hub arc locations. Assume: -Competitors cannot share hubs. -Customers travel via the lowest cost path in each network. The objective is to find an optimal solution for the leader - given the follower will subsequently design its optimal hub arc network.
51 How to Allocate Customers among Competitors? Customers are allocated between competitors based on the service disutility, which may depend on many factors: -Fares/rates, travel times, departure and arrival times, frequencies, customer loyalty programs, etc. For a strategic location model, we assume revenues (fares/rates) are the same for each competitor. We focus on disutility measures in terms of travel distance (time) and travel cost. Key factors may differ between passenger and freight transportation.
52 Cost & Service For freight, a shipper does not care about the path as long as the freight arrives “on time”. -Often pick up at end of day and deliver at the beginning of a future day. -Allocate between competitors based on relative cost of service. Passengers are more sensitive to the total travel time (though longer trips allow more circuity). -Allocate between competitors based on relative service (travel time or distance).
53 Distance Ratio and Cost Ratio D ij A : The distance for the trip from i to j that achieves the minimum cost for Firm A. D ij B : The distance for the trip from i to j that achieves the minimum cost for Firm B. Distance ratio (passengers): DR ij =(D ij A –D ij B ) /(D ij A +D ij B ) C ij A : The minimum cost for the trip from i to j for Firm A. Cost ratio (freight): C ij B : The minimum cost for the trip from i to j for Firm B. CR ij =(C ij A –C ij B ) /(C ij A +C ij B ) i k j l As D ij A (or C ij A ) 0, DR ij (or CR ij ) -1, and Firm A captures all revenue.
54 5-level Step Function for Customer Allocation CR ij or Dr ij –r 1 –r 1 to –r 2 –r 2 to r 2 r 2 to r 1 > r 1 Φ ij A (x A,x B ) 100% 75% 50% 25% 0% Φ ij A (x A,x B ) = fraction of demand captured by Firm A r 1 and r 2 determine selectivity level of customers. r 1 = r 2 = 0 is an “all-or-nothing” allocation. r 1 = 0.75, r 2 = 0.50 is insensitive to differences. Fraction of demand captured by Firm A
55 Notation Given: -V = set of demand nodes, V (|V |=n) -W ij = set of origin-destination flows -F ij = set of origin-destination revenues (e.g. airfares) -d ij = distance between i and j -C ijkl = unit cost for the path i k l j = d ik + d kl +d lj s - = cost discount factor for hub arcs, 0< ≤1. Decision variables: -x ijkl A ( x ijkl B ) = flow for i k l j for Firm A (B) - y kl A ( y kl B ) = 1 if there is a hub arc k–l for Firm A (B) -z k A ( z k B ) = 1 if there is a hub at city k for Firm A (B) i j k l
57 HALCE-A (Firm A’s Problem) Network Flow Hub arcs & hubs Maximize A’s total revenue Firm B finds an optimal solution
58 Optimal Solution Algorithm “Smart” enumeration algorithm: Enumerate all of Firm A’s sets of q A hub arcs. For each set of Firm A’s hub arcs, use bounding tests to enumerate only some of Firm B’s q B hub arcs and only some OD pairs. Bounding tests are effective and allow problems with up to 3 hub arcs for Firm A and Firm B to be solved to optimality. But we would still like to solve larger problems…
Problem Scenarios with CAB data 2 OD revenue sets: -airfare : IATA Y class airfares -distance : direct OD distance 3 levels of customer selectivity: -low: (r 1, r 2 )=(0.75,0.25) -medium: (r 1, r 2 )=(0.083,0.015) -high: (r 1, r 2 )=(0,0) (“all-or-nothing”) 2 Customer allocation schemes: -Distance ratio allocation (passenger) -Cost ratio allocation (freight) 5 values of : 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0 Up to 3 hub arcs for Firms A and B.
60 Results: High Customer Selectivity Red lines: Firm A’s optimal solution Blue lines: Firm B’s optimal solution Revenue = airfareRevenue = distance Distance ratio allocation q A =q B =2, =0.6
61 Hub Use with Distance Ratio Allocation 92.2% 86.3% 57.4% 47.8% 47.0% Top hub arcs for Firm A Top hub arcs for Firm B
62 Cost Ratio vs. Distance Ratio Revenue=distance, q A =q B =3, =0.6 Cost Ratio allocation (freight) Firm A’s hubs=4,6,8,12,17,22 Distance ratio allocation (passengers) Firm A’s hubs=1,4,12,14,17,22 Red lines: Firm A’s optimal solution Blue lines: Firm B’s optimal solution Only 15% of revenues are from paths with a hub arc. Over 67% of revenues are from paths with a hub arc.
63 Findings The leader (Firm A) usually has an advantage, but not always (“first entry paradox”). Distance ratio allocation encourages one-stop routes (as preferred by passengers). Cost ratio allocation encourages more circuitous two- stop routes (as in freight transportation). Large origins/destinations have a large advantage for hub location. -Peripheral cities have a geographic disadvantage for hub location. Though the optimal hub arcs vary considerably, the competitors generally use the same optimal hub nodes.
64 Competitive Model Conclusions There are some interesting differences between the leader’s and follower’s strategies: -The leader tends to use fewer hubs more intensively, but the follower performs about as well in many cases! -The leader tends to capture the higher revenue customers, while the follower captures more, but less valuable, customers. Optimal network design can be very sensitive to the customer allocation mechanisms.
65 VI. Hub Location Data Sets Much work has been done with only a few data sets: -CAB25: 25 cities in US. -AP: up to 200 postal locations in Sydney, Australia. -“Turkish data”: 81 nodes in Turkey What should alpha be?
66 CAB25 Data Set 25 US cities with symmetric flows based on air passenger traffic in No flow from a node to itself (W ii =0). Subsets are alphabetical.
67 AP Data Sets Up to 200 postal codes in Sydney with asymmetric flows of mail from 1993(?) and given collection, transfer and distribution costs. 42.4% of flows (including all flows W ii ) are at minimum level of 0.01 (mean flow=0.0995) Smaller data sets are created to be “ a reasonable approximation” of the larger problem.
68 Turkish network: TR81 81 nodes for provinces in Turkey with asymmetric flows generated based on populations. Often used with =0.9 (from interhub travel time discount). Smaller versions selected in various ways.
69 Concentration of Demand
70 Spatial Distribution of Demand
71 Distribution of Demand Optimal hub locations and hub networks reflect the underlying distributions of flows (and aggregated flows). All data sets have flows heavily concentrated in a few large nodes. CAB is least centrally concentrated with large peripheral demand centers. AP has concentrated demand and is least evenly distributed over the region. -Subsets of AP may not be as similar to each other as “designed”. TR81 is most evenly distributed in space.
72 Alpha What is the “right” value of ? ValueModeLocationReference Truck-postalAustralia Ernst and Krishnamoorthy, Location Science TruckEU Limbourg and Jourquin, Transportation Research E Truck-railEU Limbourg and Jourquin, Transportation Research E – 1.0LTLBrazil Cunha and Silva, EJOR Truck (time definite) Taiwan Chen, Networks and Spatial Economics 2010
73 New Directions for Hub Location Research Better, more realistic models: -Incorporate cost, service and competition. -Model relevant costs (especially economies of scale) more accurately. -More complex networks with longer paths and direct routes. Solve larger problems.(?) Link to service network design. Link to telecom hub location. Link to practice. | <urn:uuid:54181b55-f0f2-43fe-9eba-796ab1344aaf> | {
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Molecule by Molecule by Molecule
Louis Guido (left) and G.Q. Lu (right) discuss sapphire crystal substrates in the new laboratory for metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The new lab gives Virginia Tech researchers the capability of building semiconductor materials with precise control of thicknesses and composition at the atomic level.
Louis Guido and G.Q. Lu are trying to build a better light bulb by combining an unconventional approach to the architecture and packaging of light emitting diodes (LED) with nano-technology developed at Virginia Tech. Their effort is now possible with the new ECE/MSE metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) laboratory, which begins operation in June.
Guido and Lu hope to create a white LED lamp with thermal capabilities that are three to five times better than current state-of-the-art. Their efforts support U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) goals of developing solid-state lighting technology that competes with conventional incandescent and fluorescent lamps and is fully integrated into the lighting market by 2020.
DOE statistics for 2001 indicate that lighting accounts for 21 percent of U.S. electric energy generation. Since today’s illumination technology for residential applications still relies on the century-old incandescent lamp developed by Thomas Edison, more than 85 percent of the electrical energy spent on residential lighting is wasted in heating the environment, according to Guido. “This is because incandescent lighting is based on the principle of black-body radiation, which uses electricity to heat a tungsten filament to glow, thus providing light, but also heat,” he explained. “Although fluorescent lighting is about three-to-five times more efficient than incandescent, it has not been widely used in residential markets because of the perceived poor quality of light and higher initial costs.”
By switching to white LEDs, which are efficient and long-lived, national electricity demand for lighting can be reduced by about 167 billion kW hours per year, or the equivalent of about 29 600-MW power plants. The cost savings of $12 billion/year would be augmented by the accompanying reduction in pollution associated with electricity generation.
The p-n junction LED is a nearly perfect electrical-to-optical energy conversion device; that is, it can convert input electrical energy, in the form of the bias voltage applied across the p-n junction multiplied by the current flowing through the device, into output optical energy, consisting of photons created by electron-hole recombination across the energy band-gap of the semiconductor, with an efficiency approaching 100 percent.
The first practical red LED was invented more than 40 years ago, by Nick Holonyak, Jr., who was Guido’s Ph.D. thesis advisor at the University of Illinois. Single-color LEDs are highly efficient and are now used extensively in automobile brake lights, outdoor TV screens, and traffic signals. The challenge for future LEDs in general lighting applications is to generate a “high quality” white light spectrum with the best possible electrical-to-optical energy conversion efficiency. “In principle, the white light output from an LED lamp could be tailored to mimic the solar spectrum over the visible spectrum while eliminating the unnecessary ultraviolet and infrared radiation,” Guido said.
Single-color LEDs used in signaling and display applications now constitute a $2 billion/year industry and the market is expected to grow to $10 billion/year over the next 10 years, he indicated. If white LED lamps could fully penetrate the general illumination market then overall LED sales would double in size beyond this estimate. However, for white LED lamps to successfully compete with incandescent and fluorescent lighting, significant cost improvements are needed. “To meet the roadmap for LED lighting, we need an eight-fold increase in performance, plus a 12-fold decrease in cost,” Guido noted.
“There are two ways to lower the fixed cost of LED based solid-state lighting,” Guido explained. “You can increase the power, or you can lower the cost. It’s hard to increase the power without increasing the cost. A big fraction of the cost is the semiconductor itself, measured in square cm. If you double the power by doubling the area, you have doubled the cost.”
Guido and Lu’s solution is to design the semiconductor nano-scale active region for improved efficiency, then to run more current through, increasing the brightness. Increasing the current will raise the operating temperature, and they are developing the packaging to withstand high temperatures.
“This is a nice collaborative project at the interface between electrical and materials engineering,” said Guido, who, like Lu, has a joint appointment in ECE and Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). “This project involves materials, device design, and packaging.”
Their new design involves removing the sapphire substrate that supports the junction in conventional LEDs so that current can flow directly across the junction. They also plan to use mesh electrodes for optimal light extraction and flexibility, a reflective silver coating, and direct-bond-copper heat sinks.
Increasing the current will yield brighter light per unit area of device, but it will also raise the junction temperature. Conventional packaging materials, such as solder, cannot withstand higher temperatures. The team’s solution is a nano-scale silver paste developed by Lu’s research group working with the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) for attaching power devices. The paste, which looks black at room temperature, turns silver at high temperatures and has excellent thermal and electrical conductivity.
“Our new material works at high temperatures, such as 500-600°C,” Lu said. “However, it can be processed or sintered at the lower 200 to 300°C temperature of solder. Using our paste, manufacturers do not need to retool, which is important for being useful in the marketplace.” He explained that nano-scale materials have a “large surface area,” so the nano-scale paste contains more surface energy than commercial materials and does not need high temperature to attach devices. The sintered silver is also porous, which makes it more malleable, giving devices improved reliability compared to devices attached by conventional means. “With its porosity, the attachment does not transfer stresses from substrate to device,” Lu said.New MOCVD Laboratory enables atomic-level precision
A series of other nano-materials developed at Tech by Lu's group. The yellow and green solutions are suspensions of silver nano-particles, and the rest are suspensions of gold nano-particles. The nano-metal suspensions are under development for biological sensing applications and for control of harmful bacteria.
The third partner on the team to develop a brighter LED is the new ECE/MSE metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) laboratory. The $2.5-million facility, which begins operation June, will enable researchers to build semiconductor materials with precise control of thickness and composition at the atomic level. “We can build very complex structures out of individual layers,” said Guido, who serves as director of the laboratory.
The Aixtron MOCVD system, which is the centerpiece of this new laboratory, can be used to synthesize semiconductor alloys and heterostructures containing elements from column III and column V of the periodic table. These semiconductor materials can be used to construct a variety of devices including electronic amplifiers operating at high power and high frequency and lasers and photodetectors covering the entire ultraviolet-to-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The MOCVD laboratory is the newest addition in the college’s microelectronics capabilities. “The ECE and MSE departments have made a large commitment to microelectronics at Tech,” Guido said. “The capabilities of this laboratory, combined with the soon-to-be-completed upgrade of our cleanroom microfabrication facility, will put Virginia Tech researchers in a position to compete and do research at a new level.” These experimental facilities will enable research along the entire “food chain” from molecules-to-devices in important areas such as chemical and biological sensing, electronics and photonics, and energy and environmental systems. | <urn:uuid:56a1f974-19ed-4e86-8ff6-d872a4004de0> | {
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Succininc acid for mitochondrial disease
Succininc acid for mitochondrial disease
This leaflet is about the use of succinic acid for complex I deficiency mitochondrial disease.
This leaflet has been written specifically about the use of this medicine in children. The information may differ from that provided by the manufacturer. Please read this leaflet carefully. Keep it somewhere safe so that you can read it again.
Name of drug
Why is it important for my child to take this medicine?
In complex I deficiency, cells do not have enough succinic acid, which the mitochondria in cells need to work properly to make energy.
Giving your child succinic acid does not cure the mitochondrial disease but may help to reduce the symptoms.
What is succinic acid available as?
- Capsules: 500 mg
When should I give succinic acid?
Succinic acid is usually given twice each day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Ideally, these times are 10–12 hours apart, for example some time between 7 and 8 am, and between 7 and 8 pm.
Give the medicine at about the same times each day so that this becomes part of your child’s daily routine, which will help you to remember.
How much should I give?
Your doctor will work out the amount of succinic acid (the dose) that is right for your child. The dose will be shown on the medicine label.
It is important that you follow your doctor’s instructions about how much to give.
How should I give it?
Capsules should be swallowed whole with a glass of water, milk or juice. Your child should not chew the capsules.You can open the capsules and mix the contents with a teaspoon of jam, yogurt or honey. Your child should swallow it all straight away.If you need to give less than a 500 mg dose, open the capsule and dissolve the powder in 10 mL of water (measured using an oral syringe or medicine spoon). Give your child the right amount using an oral syringe or medicine spoon. Your nurse or pharmacist will explain how to do this. Throw any unused mixture down the sink. Do not keep it for later.
When should the medicine start working?
The medicine may take some time to show any real effects. Your child may need to take it for up to 6 months to see if it helps.
What if my child is sick (vomits)?
- If your child is sick less than 30 minutes after having a dose of succinic acid, give them the same dose again.
- If your child is sick more than 30 minutes after having a dose of succinic acid, you do not need to give them another dose. Wait until the next normal dose.
What if I forget to give it?
If you remember up to 4 hours after you should have given a dose, give your child the missed dose. For example, if you usually give a dose at about 7 am, you can give the missed dose at any time up to 11 am. If you remember after that time, do not give the missed dose. Wait until the next normal dose.
What if I give too much?
If you think you may have given your child too much succinic acid, contact your doctor or NHS Direct (0845 4647 in England and Wales; 08454 24 24 24 om Scotland). Have the medicine packet with you if you telephone for advice.
Are there any possible side-effects?
We use medicines to make our children better, but sometimes they have other effects that we don’t want (side-effects).
- Your child may feel sick or be sick (vomit) when they first start taking succinic acid. Giving each dose with some food may help. This effect usually wears off after a few days. If it is still a problem after a week, contact your doctor.
Can other medicines be given at the same time as succinic acid?
- You can give your child medicines that contain paracetamol or ibuprofen, unless your doctor has told you not to.
- Check with your doctor or pharmacist before giving any other medicines to your child. This includes herbal or complementary medicines.
Is there anything else I need to know about succinic acid?
Mitochondrial diseases vary widely between children and it may take some time to find a medicine that helps with the symptoms. It is important that you continue to give the medicine regularly.
General advice about medicines
- Try to give medicines at about the same times each day, to help you remember.
- If you are not sure a medicine is working, contact your doctor but continue to give the medicine as usual in the meantime. Do not give extra doses as you may do harm.
- Only give this medicine to your child. Never give it to anyone else, even if their condition appears to be the same, as this could do harm.
- If you think someone else may have taken the medicine by accident, contact your doctor straight away.
- Make sure that you always have enough medicine. Order a new prescription at least 2 weeks before you will run out.
- Make sure that the medicine you have at home has not reached the ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date on the packaging. Give old medicines to your pharmacist to dispose of.
Where I should keep this medicine?
- Keep the medicine in a cupboard, away from heat and direct sunlight. It does not need to be kept in the fridge.
- Make sure that children cannot see or reach the medicine.
- Keep the medicine in the container it came in.
Who to contact for more information
Your child’s doctor, pharmacist or nurse will be able to give you more information about succinic acid and about other medicines used to treat mitochondrial diseases.
- NHS Direct
- NHS 24 (Scotland)
08454 24 24 24
- NHS Direct (Wales/Galw lechyd Cymru)
- NI Direct (Northern Ireland)
- The Children?s Mitochondrial Disease Network Help and information line:
Version 1.2, February 2010 (November 2011). © NPPG, RCPCH and WellChild 2010, all rights reserved. Reviewed by: February 2012.
The primary source for the information in this leaflet is the British National Formulary for Children. For details on any other sources used for this leaflet, please contact us through our website, www.medicinesforchildren.org.uk
We take great care to make sure that the information in this leaflet is correct and up-to-date. However, medicines can be used in different ways for different patients. It is important that you ask the advice of your doctor or pharmacist if you are not sure about something. This leaflet is about the use of these medicines in the UK, and may not apply to other countries. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), the Neonatal and Paediatric Pharmacists Group (NPPG), WellChild and the contributors and editors cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of information, omissions of information, or any actions that may be taken as a consequence of reading this leaflet. | <urn:uuid:53e95f49-dfe7-4ddb-acae-ab6e03c88524> | {
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Google has a knack for honoring those who have left their mark throughout history, and today’s Google Doodle commemorates the life of Frank Zamboni: creator of the ice-smoothing Zamboni machine.
In celebration of Frank Zamboni’s 112th birthday, Google users can virtually operate the ice resurfacing machine on the site for themselves. The search engine giant’s homepage features a simple 8-bit video game and animation in which users get to drive a Zamboni across the screen using their arrow keys.
After pressing the “play” button on the screen, a character on ice skates glides across the Google Doodle, leaving marks and scratches across the ice for zamboni to clear. The patterns get increasingly difficult to remove as the game progresses, and a counter at the bottom of the game portion of the screen keeps track of how many moves it takes to clear the level.
Frank Zamboni grew up in the Western United States, where he began building his machine that would become an essential part of hockey and ice skating culture. He was born in Utah in 1901 and moved to California in 1920, where his older brother’s auto repair business was located. According to Frank’s official biography, the family switched to the refrigeration business and built an ice skating rink in Paramount, Calif., in 1939.
Before the Zamboni was invented, workers would drive a tractor across the ice with a scraper attached to the back to refresh the ice. The resurfacing process, which required workers to gather ice shavings and wipe away the dirty water, took more than an hour. This prompted Frank to begin researching alternatives to this method in 1942.
In 1947 a prototype for the modern Zamboni was developed, but it took an additional two years before it could adequately clear ice from a rink. It wasn’t long before Frank acquired a patent for the machine in 1953, and the rest was history. Although he passed away in 1988, Frank’s business continues to this day.
According to the Zamboni's official website, the company delivered its 10,000th ice resurfacing machine in April 2012. Zamboni was also inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009, although he never played a professional match in his life.
This is not the first time Google has paid homage to an historical figure with its interactive doodles. Last May Google showcased a virtual, playable Moog synthesizer on its homepage to honor the American electrical engineer Robert Bob Moog on his 78th birthday. Before that, Google decorated its homepage with an interactive metal zipper in April to commemorate Gideon Sunback, inventor of the zipper.
Head over to Google’s homepage today to navigate the virtual Zamboni for yourself, or check out the video below. | <urn:uuid:63123caa-e206-4bbb-a742-86e6345649b8> | {
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Volatile chemicals in glands of the carpenter ant, Camponotus arminius
Camponotus arminius is a large black carpenter ant that occurs in tropical and sub-tropical Africa and has extensive foraging trails both in trees and on the ground. Analysis of excised mandibular glands has confirmed The presence of pentane-2,4-dione, n-hexanal, 4-methyl-3-heptanone, and mellein. Pentane-2,4-dione has not been reported from insects. The postpharyngeal gland contains n-heneicosane, n-tricosene, n-tricosane, n-pentacosene, n-pentacosane, and a significant amount of 11-methyl- n-tricosaneand 11-methyl- n-pentacosane. Dufours glands contain mainly n-undecane, n-tridecane, and two terpenoid compounds that are unknown in the genus Camponotus. These latter two compounds are geranyllinalool and probably geranylfarnesol. | <urn:uuid:3b1f3efc-18ce-4595-912c-3f51e04a9d64> | {
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Researchers have drawn out a protocol to study the role of
interprofessional education (IPE) in dementia patients. The study results will hopefully help in
improving the care of dementia patients.
For a patient with dementia
life's journey could be challenging. The diagnosis itself could come as a shock
for the patient as well as their family members. Persons suffering from
dementia often feel vulnerable and this is the time when they look forward to
the support and reassurance of friends and family the most.
is the most
common cause of dementia; other types of dementia include vascular dementia,
dementia with Lewy bodies, fronto-temporal dementia etc. A variety of tests and diagnostic procedures are used to
diagnose the cause of dementia such as CT scans, MRI scans, blood tests as well
as mental state examinations of the patient using different questionnaires.
Interprofessional Education (IPE) is defined
as an activity that occurs when members of two or more professions (which
include health care providers and social care providers,) learn with, from and
about one another to improve collaboration and the quality of care. For example, a dementia patient will require
treatment from a neurologist, neuropsychologist, physical/occupational
therapists, nurses, social workers etc.
Thus, if all these members who participate in the care of the dementia
patient interact with and learn from each other, the patient is likely to
benefit from the successful teamwork.
There is limited literature currently providing information on
effectiveness of IPE in dementia care. Hence, a protocol has been designed and
published which will be used to study the influence of IPE on collaborative
knowledge and skills as well as on interprofessional practice and care for people
with dementia. The study will cover health care providers, regulated and
unregulated social care providers working with dementia patients, as well as
The following electronic databases will be searched for pertinent
information: PubMed, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library,
PsycINFO CINAHL, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA), ERIC
British Education Index (BEI) and the Healthcare Management Information
A manual search of 3 relevant journals will be undertaken with the aim
of finding and collecting additional studies. In addition, the reference lists
of included and pertinent studies would also be checked. Duplicate studies will
be removed from the list.
The studies included in the final review would most likely include: randomized
studies, non-randomized controlled studies, cohort studies, and qualitative as
well as mixed method studies.
Analysis of data will
be done via a narrative synthesis method initially. If a subset of data
analyzed appears comparable, then it may be pooled through formal meta-analysis
The findings of this
systematic review will hopefully identify how IPE programs can possibly
influence and even improve patient outcomes in delirium patients. It may also
identify specific gaps in the current information which could be later
addressed through research, policy and practice.
The findings of this review will be published in a | <urn:uuid:7f2c8099-5df5-46c4-b85d-c859f63ac3d4> | {
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The Bay Area Thanks Buckminster Fuller for Geodesic Domes
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is showing, for just a few more short days, an exhibit called "The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area." Fuller never actually lived in the Bay Area, but the exhibit's designers seem to think he would have liked it. Considering the region's abundance of oddball inventions, disruptive technology, and sustainability experiments, it's hard to disagree. And Fuller was no stranger to the kind of collaboration between engineers and designers that actively ferments in the Bay Area today.
Geodesic domes are a great example. Fuller didn't actually invent the things. The very first was a planetarium in Germany, built by one Walther Bauersfeld in 1926, but it wasn't called a geodesic dome. It was Fuller who coined that term in the forties, as he was developing and popularizing the architectural design. "Geodesic" refers to the shortest distance between two points on Earth's surface, which is always a segment of a great circle–a circle that slices through the center of a sphere. Geodesic domes are built entirely out of great circles.
Fuller's ideas about domes were intimately connected* with another concept he named: tensegrity. Tensegrity structures are built out of compressed members (bars) and tensioned members (cables) such that the bars never touch. The cables follow the shortest paths between bars and are therefore geodesic, resulting in exceptional strength. Stress force is always transmitted across the shortest distance, so tensegrity structures–whether bridges, buildings, or works of art–are optimally designed to handle it.
Artist Kenneth Snelson was involved with Fuller's tensegrity work from the beginning, creating aesthetic applications even as Fuller was working on practical ones. In fact, Fuller commissioned a piece from Snelson early on, which was later shown with some of Snelson's other work at the New York Museum of Modern Art.
Geodesic domes in the Bay Area today follow the legacy of both men. As Burning Man approaches, the thoughts of many Burners are turning to their domes. (Even those who prefer to camp in off-the-shelf tents are likely to benefit from tensegrity.) The SF MOMA show is only open until July 29th, so go check it out if you need inspiration for your dome–or for your livingry in general.
(Can you tell one of my favorite things about Fuller was his propensity for making up words?)
* For more on the overlap between geodesic domes and tensegrity structures, see first comment below.Tags: buckminster fuller, burning man, geodesic dome, kqed, QUEST, sf moma, tensegrity | <urn:uuid:fa8f9298-16a4-44ea-8077-67072b2b22f7> | {
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- freely available
Plants 2013, 2(3), 396-415; doi:10.3390/plants2030396
Published: 25 June 2013
Abstract: The leaf is the major organ involved in light perception and conversion of solar energy into organic carbon. In order to adapt to different natural habitats, plants have developed a variety of leaf forms, ranging from simple to compound, with various forms of dissection. Due to the enormous cellular complexity of leaves, understanding the mechanisms regulating development of these organs is difficult. In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the use of technically advanced imaging techniques and computational modeling in studies of leaf development. Additionally, molecular tools for manipulation of morphogenesis were successfully used for in planta verification of developmental models. Results of these interdisciplinary studies show that global growth patterns influencing final leaf form are generated by cooperative action of genetic, biochemical, and biomechanical inputs. This review summarizes recent progress in integrative studies on leaf development and illustrates how intrinsic features of leaves (including their cellular complexity) influence the choice of experimental approach.
The emergence of leaves has had a tremendous impact on the entire planet . During the course of evolution, leaves have developed certain forms and shapes in order to adjust to the environment or to maximize life strategies and propagation. Today, understanding the mechanisms regulating leaf development has two main points; the first is related to gathering the biological knowledge and the second is related to the future potential of engineering energy efficient plants with increased biomass production. In order to achieve this, we must characterize all of the factors involved in the development of leaf shape and size and gain an understanding of how they are interconnected. This is a difficult task, mainly due to the fact that leaves are multicellular organs and their morphogenesis and growth are regulated in a complex manner. Frequently, understanding leaf biology has been limited by the narrow focus of individual studies. Due to the very dynamic progress of molecular approaches, the accepted scientific thinking has often resulted in publications focusing on individual genes and proteins rather than focusing on an integrated view of the whole process. Despite the obvious scientific value of such work, the derived conclusions were frequently misleading or not sufficient to fully illustrate the complex biological issues related to leaf biology. Taking into account the growing evidence on complex coordination between biophysical and molecular regulatory mechanisms during plant organogenesis, a return to the old research paradigm where observation of the phenomenon drives further direction of detailed studies may strengthen our understanding of leaf development. Once combined with modern techniques of cell visualization, mathematical modeling, and image analysis this approach may be very helpful for deciphering global rules governing leaf shape and size development. This research approach has recently become more popular, resulting in several interesting outcomes. Therefore, we decided to summarize and illustrate how interdisciplinary methods have contributed to our understanding of leaf development. Another useful approach for integrative studies on leaf biology is the targeted manipulation of morphogenesis. The basic principle of this method is the use of all available methods to modify processes such as cell growth, expansion, or division. This modification is usually performed with the help of chemical factors or changes in the concentration or location of proteins that specifically influence cell division or growth. Manipulation of morphogenesis may also include the application of compressive force or cell ablation techniques. In this review, we are aiming to summarize how integrative studies based on defined local modification of cellular parameters, combined with accurate cell imaging techniques, can facilitate a greater understanding of leaf morphogenesis. This approach has remained unexplored for many years and only recently has technical progress enabled us to obtain a more holistic view of leaf development.
Since this review will frequently refer to biophysical issues we would like to introduce two terms, which will be used to describe specific phenomena. “Stress” describes the force acting upon tissue and “Strain” is the degree of deformation caused by “stress”. Using these terms helps to describe how multicellular organisms are subjected to physical forces and how they maintain cellular integrity. For an in-depth review of plant biomechanics, refer to Boudaud .
Changes in the mechanical properties of particular cells and tissues occur throughout the life of a plant and are necessary for adaptation to the environment. Since all cells in plants are connected, they work together and each single change of biophysical properties may significantly affect the fate of the entire organ. Leaves are primarily composed of an external layer of epidermal cells, several layers of different types of parenchyma cells, and conductive tissue. From the biophysical perspective, different cell layers or tissues within the leaf are likely to have different mechanical properties. The three main tissues (epidermis, parenchyma, and conductive tissue) have different growth dynamics and rigidity, as well as the size and shape of cells they are built of. These differences result in the generation of tension, therefore the organ is under constant stress. In fact, some intrinsic features of particular components of the lamina may help to withstand these tensions. For example, a quick look at the epidermal pavement cells show that they are very similar to the pattern of interlocking bricks so successfully used for pedestrian walk-ways. This copy of the Mother Nature idea is not incidental but is related to the fact that interlocking increases the resistance to tension and helps to maintain the structural integrity of the entire layer. Looking at it from this perspective may help to illustrate how leaves grow and maintain their flat structure. On the other hand, understanding how each particular element contributes to this so-called “leaf engineering project” may help future work on the modification of plant architecture.
Since the main focus of this review is to summarize current knowledge on cellular aspects of leaf development and explain how integrative methods helped to resolve complex biological problems related to leaf morphogenesis and subsequent growth, we did not include detailed descriptions of genetic regulation of leaf shape and size development. This subject has been already extensively reviewed. For further reading, follow the references given at the end of this paper [3,4].
2. Leaf Primordium Formation—The Biomechanical Perspective
Leaf primordium specification occurs at the flank of the shoot apical meristem and depends on the proper gradient of auxin distribution to specify “leaf primordia initials” . Recently, molecular biology studies have revealed pathways that regulate the switch from non-determined to determined growth characteristics for leaf primordium formation, as well as pathways regulating the establishment of basic leaf polarity axes . At present, the exact sequence of events leading to the formation of the future site of leaf initiation is not fully understood. However, the role of biomechanical factors in this process becomes evident. Biophysical factors have long been considered as potential inputs influencing organogenesis within the shoot apex. This was experimentally verified when the cell wall loosening protein expansin was applied to the shoot apex . Expansin application resulted in local changes in cell wall properties that ultimately influenced leaf phyllotaxy and led to differentiation of primordia-like structures. This result clearly demonstrated that local biophysical properties of cells have dramatic impacts on global aspects of organogenesis within the shoot apex. This has been additionally proven by local induction of expansin gene expression in the tetracycline inducible system and recently by overexpression of another cell wall modifying enzyme—pectin methylesterase (PME) . Further progress has been achieved with the development of precise tools for cell imaging and techniques for artificial modification of stress within the shoot apex [10,11]. This work has led to the observation that mechanical forces are involved in microtubule orientation and auxin transport [10,11]. The authors found that microtubule orientation follows stress orientation. This particular pattern of microtubule orientation influences cellulose deposition within the cell wall and is responsible for anisotropic cell growth. The most significant finding in this work is that membrane specific localization of the major auxin transporter PIN1 also depends on stress distribution. Recently, Kierzkowski et al. showed that different growth dynamics observed between the central region of the shoot apex and its boundaries (including developing leaf primordia) overlaps with differences in the elastic properties of cells. By application of hyper- or hypo-osmotic solution to particular areas of the apex, Kierzkowski et al. demonstrated that the elastic properties of cells influence their expansion or shrinkage upon modification of turgor pressure. The authors suggest that strain-stiffening in the central meristem could be one of mechanisms influencing the balance between meristem self-maintenance and organogenesis. This global mechanical feedback may be additionally influenced by local changes in cell elasticity triggered by cell wall remodeling enzymes. This concept is further supported with experimental evidence from atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements performed on the shoot apices of the plants with increased amounts of pectin methylesterases (PME) . These observations lead to enormous progress in understanding of the plant morphogenesis. However, due to the fact that the factors responsible for mediating between mechanical inputs and physiological growth responses were unknown, we were still far from understanding how changes in mechanical properties of cells are transferred into physiological responses. In 2012, Uyttewaal et al. performed a series of experiments based on local application of a compressive force or cell ablation within different regions of the shoot apex of wild type and the atktn1 Arabidopsis mutant. This work has led to the discovery that the microtubule-severing protein called katanin (derived from the word for the Japanese sword, “katana”) regulates cell competence to respond to mechanical stress and may be involved in mediation between mechanical inputs and further growth responses. In addition, Nakayama et al. showed how exact biomechanical factors can regulate patterns of auxin transport and distribution within the shoot apex (this phenomenon was previously described by Hamant et al. ). The main player in this process is the plasma membrane, which can respond to mechanical stimuli by changes in membrane protein turnover. In order to demonstrate this concept, the authors applied local force, triggered changes in cellular turgor pressure, or induced cell growth by apoplast acidification (local auxin or acid treatment). This approach has led to the observation that cells located within the area of deformation contain higher amounts of the PIN1 auxin efflux protein and that local strain positively influences plasma membrane localization of PIN1. From previous experiments, we know that blocking auxin transport by the NPA does not affect cytoskeleton rearrangements , therefore, we can speculate that the mechanism by which katanin mediates between mechanical inputs and growth responses is auxin-independent. Taken together, we can say that it becomes clear that precise changes in mechanical properties of cells are key factors influencing leaf morphogenesis within the shoot apex. So far, it seems that mechanical inputs are transferred by at least two parallel pathways (Figure 1). First, morphogen-based regulation is mediated by the plasma membrane and based on changes in auxin transport/distribution leading to differential growth responses. The second mechanism is related to growth anisotropy and is mediated by proteins involved in microtubule rearrangements such as katanin. Further research will be necessary to determine a precise explanation of how these two mechanisms are interconnected.
3. Light Directed Leaf Morphogenesis—The Cellular Response
In recent years, much effort has been devoted to the study of the impact of light on leaf morphogenesis. The presence of light is necessary for leaf primordia formation; however, no exact mechanism for this regulation has been provided. One very important event accompanying early steps of leaf differentiation is the acquisition of photosynthetic capability by the developing leaf primordium. Transcriptional profiling has shown that expression of genes related to carbohydrate metabolism accompanies the early steps of leaf differentiation . It is quite intuitive to consider that light must be involved in leaf differentiation, particularly because the lack of light negatively influences leaf primordia formation. Yoshida et al. showed however, that light-dependent primordium formation is not regulated by any long distance signaling pathways related to photosynthesis but by the local regulation and balance between auxin and cytokinin within the shoot meristem. There is a high probability that at least some part of this mechanism is related to the spatio-temporal regulation of cell proliferation. It follows then, that understanding the exact relation between auxin and cytokinin, and its impact on cellular events within the shoot apex may help to integrate current knowledge. At present, we know that formation of new primordium requires oriented cell divisions , but it remains unclear how precise regulation of cell cycle progression within different areas of shoot apex contributes to leaf organogenesis. So far, experiments based on modification of cell cycle-related genes led to contradictory results [19,20,21], therefore, future work on this subject may require the use of precise regulatory elements to restrict and define cell cycle modification to a particular cellular context.
4. Epidermis and Mechanical Regulation of Turgor-Driven Leaf Expansion
Epidermal tissue can work as a growth rate limiting factor influencing turgor pressure-based leaf lamina expansion, as shown in experiments in which expression of a brassinosteroid receptor gene BRI1 in the epidermis of a bri1 mutant restored normal leaf size . The BRI1 receptor is the major protein involved in perception of the brassinosteroids at the plasma membrane. Phosphorylation of its intracellular domain triggers transduction of the brassinosteroid signal and leads to physiological responses, including cell growth . The bri1 mutation leads to extreme dwarfism caused by significant reduction of cellular growth . Savaldi-Goldstein et al. showed that the expression of BRI1 in the epidermis of the bri1 genetic background was sufficient to restore proper leaf growth. What is even more important is that this resulted in normal parenchyma cell growth. Despite the fact that this experiment shows that epidermal growth is a major factor responsible for lamina expansion, it remains unknown whether this observed phenomenon is related only to mechanical changes in the epidermis or other BR signaling related responses. At the organ level, epidermal growth has been modified by overexpression of the KRP1/ICK1 protein . The KRP1 protein is a negative factor involved in the G1-S cell cycle progression . Depending on the protein concentration, it may block G1-S transition, resulting in cell division arrest, or blocking entry into mitosis with simultaneous S phase progression leading to endoreduplication . An increased level of this protein causes decreases in cell number and lamina size [28,29]. One characteristic effect of KRP1 increase is the development of abnormally large cells, which may be related to the fact that cells are connected and a certain degree of compensation occurs. This hypothesis coincides with the fact that increased levels of KRP1 in the trichome cell (which grows independently from internal lamina cells) reduced its size . Overexpression of KRP1 in the epidermis decreased lamina size, demonstrating that growth in the L1 layer influences the entire organ . Conversely to results obtained by Savaldi-Goldstein et al., the epidermal expression of the KRP1 gene did not influence the internal cell layer, since no increase in cell size within the internal layer was observed. To gain a better understanding of this phenomenon, future experiments may require modification of leaf growth by epidermal overexpression of factors facilitating cell wall extensibility or remodeling. This would help to distinguish between clearly biophysical and physiological effects of epidermal growth. We believe that further understanding of the cellular dynamics within the epidermis will benefit scientists working on various aspects of plant developmental biology and leaf form engineering.
5. Proliferation/Differentiation Balance within Leaf Epidermis
As we mentioned above, the epidermis has a large impact on leaf growth and final form acquisition, therefore it is very important to understand the mechanisms regulating cellular dynamics within this tissue. Within the epidermis, we can distinguish cells of strikingly different form: puzzle piece-shaped pavement cells, guard cells, meristemoid cells, trichomes, and long margin cells. Differentiation of these cells is regulated via specialized pathways that influence microtubule reorganization, endoreduplication and differential cell wall synthesis or modification. The majority of cells that make up the leaf surface are generated via asymmetric divisions of meristematically active cells called meristemoids . Due to the fact that certain factors determine the polarity of meristemoid mother cell divisions, and their further cell fate in a transient fashion, precise and non-invasive techniques must be applied in order to study cell proliferation/differentiation balance within the epidermis. Recently, cell tracking and time-lapse imaging techniques were used to determine how the timing of cell cycle progression and the precise regulation of the polarity of cell divisions are crucial for epidermal development [32,33]. These studies demonstrated that the maintenance of epidermal meristematic activity depends on the ability to retain the speechless (SPCH) transcription factor, whereas polar localization of the BASL and POLAR proteins provides positional information for the determination of which daughter cells retain meristematic activity after asymmetric division. In addition, transcriptional profiling showed that increased levels of 17 core cell cycle genes were present in a meristemoid-enriched fraction . Interestingly, the authors also found that elements of cytokinin signaling (ARR16), catabolism (CKX4), and cytokinin related differentiation regulation (CLE9) were also upregulated in the meristemoid-enriched fraction. This suggests the existence of a precise cytokinin-related mechanism regulating the timing of cell proliferation and maintenance of meristemoid cells in an undifferentiated state. The potential involvement of hormonal factors in the maintenance of meristematic activity within the epidermis is additionally supported by the fact that cell divisions are distributed in the longitudinal gradient from tip to base during early steps of leaf primordium development . The existence of such a pattern shows that cell proliferation must be globally coordinated at the organ level (Figure 2) and phytohormones like auxin or cytokinin have all the necessary features to be involved in this process. Recently, this phenomenon has been more extensively studied and more abrupt cell cycle arrests along the proximo-distal axis were reported . What is interesting is that the authors found a positive correlation between achievement of cellular photosynthetic capacity (retrograde signaling coordinating plastid protein import and nuclear gene expression) and transition towards cell enlargement. This shows that other physiological inputs may coordinate cell proliferation during leaf development.
Epidermal cell division, growth, and expansion occur simultaneously during several stages of leaf development. The main challenge that lies before us is to properly separate and describe these processes. At least partially, this can be achieved via a combination of modeling and kinematic observation approaches. Such work has been published recently by Kheibarshekan et al. and led to the discovery of many interesting details on cellular events within epidermis . At first, the authors showed that cell cycle duration in leaf epidermis is constant for all types of cells reaching the approximate value of 20 hours . They also found that the maximum growth rate for pavement cells coincides with the early leaf expansion phase at which cell proliferation still occurs. Moreover, kinematic observations showed that small pavement cells grow faster than the large ones and, in general, cells within the leaf epidermis of the same organ grow at different rates. This has been further demonstrated with the help of the sequential replicas and scanning microscopy method by Elsner et al. . Kheibarshekan et al. pointed out that the highest growth rate of small pavement cells is most probably generated by the endoreduplication process since increases in cellular DNA content can be observed at that moment. In late stages of leaf development, pavement cells grow more slowly. However disproportion in growth rate between smaller and larger pavement cells is maintained. The obvious implication of this uneven growth rate is a generation of mechanical stress. Observations made by Kheibarshekan et al. showed also that in wild type plants, cell divisions are largely independent from cell growth and expansion, suggesting that mechanisms regulating cell cycle progression exclusively influence the maintenance of meristematic activities, proliferation/differentiation balance, and the supply of new cells. As we can see, there are multiple mechanisms involved in local and global coordination within epidermis and they are crucial for the final leaf form (Figure 2).
6. Integrating Cellular Balance with General Patterns of Leaf Development
The final leaf size results from a combination of cell number, cell size and growth. To a large extent, the size of the leaf blade is determined by genetic information. Recent work has shown that the timing and maintenance of meristematic activities, and proliferation/differentiation balance within leaf blade, is crucial for the final leaf size (review in ). This genetic regulation, however, is strictly connected with intrinsic mechanisms influencing cellular responses. The disturbance of one factor usually leads to a response, which at least partially neutralizes the possible impact of such an action at the organ level. This phenomenon is commonly called compensation, and the work of Ferjani et al. showed that various cellular events may lead to it. After a very detailed analysis of cellular interplay in the an3-4 mutant, the KRP2-OE (overexpression) line, and mutations in different alleles of the FUGU gene, the authors found that cell enlargement in leaves with a smaller number of cells may be related to increases in size during the mitotic phase, postmitotic increases in cell growth rate, or prolonged cell growth. This result shows that many levels of regulation exist and care must be taken when experiments with mutants of single factors displaying changes in leaf morphology are interpreted. The technique, which is particularly helpful for studying these cellular aspects of leaf size determination, is the chemically inducible manipulation of gene expression where the products directly regulate cell cycle progression. Results of such experiments showed that some existing views on the cellular aspects of leaf size determination must be changed. For example, the frequently proposed mechanism in which increases in cell divisions leads to an increase in leaf size turned out to be a gross over-simplification, since artificially increased cell number did not correlate with increase of blade size . In fact, delayed or inhibited termination of proliferation by the overexpression of the positive regulator of G1-S progression CYCD3.1 and the silencing of the negative regulator of G1-S progression RBR1 led to an overall decrease in leaf blade size . This result also shows that despite increased cell division it is important for leaf blade enlargement, the quit of the proliferation state is crucial for this process. This maintains agreement with molecular work where factors (SHORT-ROOT, SCARECROW and SCRAMBLED/STRUBBELIG) regulating maintenance of meristematic activities and proliferation/differentiation balance within the leaf blade were characterized [39,40].
So far, high resolution experiments describing spatial and temporal growth patterns exclusively within internal cell layers have not been performed, therefore, we do not exactly know how parenchymatic cells are influencing leaf development. Recent molecular work shows that precise mechanisms regulating cellular dynamics within this layer exist, and at least during early stages of leaf primordium development, internal cell layers may strongly influence lateral leaf blade expansion . The authors provide evidence that expression of two WOX genes within the middle region regulates lateral outgrowth of leaf blade expansion. Finally, they suggest that WOX genes can modulate activity of the KLUH gene encoding cytochrome 450 monooxygenase. KLUH has been found to prevent the arrest of cell proliferation in a non-cell autonomous manner, and its mutation leads to decrease in leaf lamina size . Work of Nakata et al. suggests that WOX genes expression in a middle domain may be a part of important mechanisms, which allow coordination of growth between internal and external cell layers during early stages of leaf development. These experiments show that parenchyma cells may play roles beyond their structural role, therefore modification of cell growth or cell divisions exclusively within internal cell layers combined with the recently developed technique for 3-D observation of subepidermal layers [43,44] needs to be performed for future understanding of cellular interplay during different stages of leaf development.
7. Effects of Vasculature on Leaf Expansion and Final Form Acquisition
Understanding leaf morphogenesis must also include deciphering the rules governing the development of venation systems. The general mechanism has been recently described and auxin transport and distribution have been recognized as the central factors responsible for venation patterning. This issue has been extensively reviewed in Scarpella, Barkoulas, and Tsiantis and, therefore, we will not discuss it here. From the physiological point of view, veins are important for water and nutrient distribution across the leaf. From the structural and biophysical perspective, they support the leaf, which allows for development of certain shapes and sizes of this organ. From the engineering point of view, the most appropriate venation pattern ensures a high transport capacity relative to construction cost therefore, a certain degree of similarity is shared even between distant plant species. A quantitative description of the venation patterns in Arabidopsis thaliana leaves has been recently performed with help of the LIMANI open-source in silico tool . This work showed that the pattern of vein branching in Arabidopsis is independent from the developmental stage and cellular content, suggesting the existence of a self-organizing regulatory mechanism. The existence of such a self-regulating system in which pattern accommodates to form has been demonstrated experimentally by local changes in growth distribution triggered by expression of the KRP1 gene in the CUC2 domain . When obtained this way in deeply dissected leaves, (see next part of this review) the veins accommodated drastic changes in leaf shape but no major differences in general rules governing venation pattern have been observed. The LIMANI tool showed also that there are differences in venation density across subsequent leaves within the rosette. Surprisingly however, the opposite trend has been observed between two different ecotypes (Col0 and Ler), thus reflecting impact of the genotype. In Arabidopsis, different shapes of subsequently developed leaves are related to the vegetative phase change and this process is under strict molecular regulation [48,49]. We believe that there may be some discrete differences in regulatory mechanisms between these two ecotypes.
Another observation made with the LIMANI tool is that during the exponential phase of leaf growth, the vascular pattern extends faster than the size of leaf blade, whereas later on the differentiation of new veins slows down. Since differentiation of major veins starts during the transition from primary to secondary leaf morphogenesis, both cell cycle and cell growth will have an impact on certain aspects of venation (Figure 3). Work by Dhondt et al. shows that change in the timing of cell proliferation affects venation. They also show that discrete differences in growth dynamics between veins and parenchyma cells occurs—for example, parenchyma cells inside the differentiated areole still grow, influencing the final areole size. Lack of proper growth coordination between veins and other components of the lamina heavily influences leaf development. One example of such a disturbance is the brassinosteroid receptor mutant bri1. Leaves of bri1 mutants are small with a dark green lamina caused by decreased cell growth . Another very striking feature of these leaves is a curly phenotype most probably caused by disturbed coordination of growth between veins and lamina (Figure 3). Veins of the bri1 mutant are thicker in diameter but shorter than the corresponding veins in wild type plants. Disturbance in brassinosteroid synthesis or perception affects both cell growth and divisions and most probably leads to disturbances in the mechanism regulating proper growth distribution between lamina and veins [24,50,51]. This disproportion generates tensions that result in organ deformations. Veins of the bri1 mutant are less resistant to bending and it is easier to break them. If we mechanically remove the midvein by excision from a curly leaf we can expand the resulting pieces of the lamina. This shows how lack of growth coordination between major veins and the lamina leads to three-dimensional deformation. Possible impacts of mechanical forces in this process should also be taken into account. In silico modeling suggests that generation of certain aspects of vein patterning may be related to a mismatch in elastic properties between different cellular layers of the leaf , therefore one can imagine that a disturbance of precise cellular coordination may lead to major changes in the venation system. Another recently completed modeling shows that higher degrees leaf venation may rely on the distribution of mechanical tensions within the organ . To our knowledge, thus far, high resolution studies describing the mechanical impact of main veins on leaf development have not been published, however theoretical aspects of such 3-D leaf deformation was discussed .
Comparisons of leaves from different species shows that certain mechanical features of veins and venation patterns correspond to adaptations of plants to different environmental conditions. For example, plants from extremely dry habitats have smaller leaves with higher major vein density, which helps to decrease leaf hydraulic vulnerability . Recently completed comparative studies across 485 plant species, differing in leaf size, shape, venation patterns, and habitats, brought a very clear picture of the correlation between leaf anatomy and adaptation of plants to different environments . Sack et al. also found that higher degree veins do not contribute to leaf size, which is in agreement with previous modeling works . Based on these studies, we may expect that modification of major veins’ growth or patterning or change in their biomechanical properties could be a very promising direction for future engineering of plant architecture.
8. Gradients of Growth and Leaf Shape Formation
Higher plants developed a large variety of leaf forms differing in size and shape. There has been much speculation as to how leaf shape contributes to plant life strategies; however recent review by Nicotra et al. suggested that it can be an important trait influencing water relations. In the light of recently published work by Sack et al. this statement is fully justified (see chapter above). Nicotra et al. also mention that leaf shape variation is not an independently functional trade-off, instead it can work together with different traits (e.g., leaf size, number, stomatal conductance) as an additional factor allowing for better adjustment to the environment. Further exploration of leaf shape regulatory mechanisms and their connections with other traits by precise modification of leaf shape has future potential in generation of the energy efficient or environmentally adapted plants.
The final leaf shape is a result of interplay between growth rate distribution and growth orientation. Recent work showed that to a large extent across distant plant species these two parameters are modulated by the NAM/CUC transcription factors . The recruitment of the same molecular factors, however, results in various leaf forms. Therefore, deciphering rules governing leaf shape acquisition needs an interdisciplinary approach.
The model describing interplay between NAM/CUC transcription factors and auxin has been recently completed . According to this work, generation of auxin maxima on the leaf margin and subsequent directional auxin transport is responsible for lobe outgrowth, whereas NAM/CUC factors are involved in promotion of PIN1-dependent auxin transport, thus defining the area of local tissue outgrowth. Auxin was also shown to suppress CUC2 gene expression and restrict it to the sinus area . This shows that the main factor influencing lateral leaf outgrowths (lobes, serrations, etc.) is auxin; on the other hand, this suggests that CUC2 may specifically restrict growth. The cellular basis of this growth restriction has not been fully verified; however, the work of Kawamura et al. suggests that increased cell proliferation is present in the sinus area. This result shows that differential growth within the leaf lamina strongly depends on the timing of cell proliferation and increased or prolonged proliferation may in fact lead to net growth reduction. This phenomenon has been also observed when CYCD3.1 G1-S progression factor was overexpressed in Arabidopsis leading to generation of a smoother and smaller leaf blade compared to the corresponding leaf in undisturbed plant .
The first visible signs of leaf dissection overlap with transition from cell proliferation to differentiation , therefore, we may say that regulation of meristematic activities also affects final leaf shape. Important factors regulating the cell proliferation status in leaves are TCP genes, and disturbance of their action leads to serious defects in leaf expansion and shape acquisition [60,61]. It is worth mentioning that some members of the TCP group negatively regulate cell proliferation whereas others are positive regulators. Another group of genes of which activity has been linked to meristematic capacity are KNOX transcription factors. Typically, their activity is excluded from leaves, however in some species the appearance of KNOX gene expression on the leaf margin leads to compound leaf development. One such example is Cardamine hirsuta—a close relative of Arabidopsis. Leaves of Cardamine are compound due to the promotion of the meristematic state of cells by occurrence of local KNOX gene activity within the margin area . Barkolaus et al. showed that the occurrence of these local areas of KNOX activity is regulated by auxin distribution. KNOX gene expression is excluded from non-compound blades of Arabidopsis and variations of KNOX expression in leaves of different relatives of Arabidopsis influence the degree of leaf dissection, thus reflecting evolutionary change .
Recent work on tomato plants has shown that cytokinins also regulate leaf shape, mainly by the regulation of cell proliferation, timing, and maintenance of morphogenetic capacity within the margin area of the developing leaf . Some effects of cytokinin activity are probably linked to modulation of auxin transport whereas others involve the direct influence of cytokinin on cell cycle progression.
The molecular framework regulating leaf shape determination differs between species. However, with the exemption of plants whose leaf dissection is generated via programmed cell death , most leaf forms need an early generation of gradient of growth distribution along the margin. Work with Cardamine shows that local meristematic activity and further maintenance of cell proliferation leads to the development of compound leaves, whereas leaf serration (e.g., in Arabidopsis) depends only on the maintenance of cell proliferation during lobe outgrowth. The manipulation of local gradients of growth promotion and repression within the leaf margin shows however that leaf dissection may also be generated by local growth repression . Artificial manipulation of lamina growth by targeting the KRP1 cell cycle inhibitor expression to the CUC2 expressional domain led to the development of deeply serrated leaves (Figure 4) . Since no change in native CUC2 gene expression pattern was observed, this manipulation most probably did not affect the formation of auxin convergence points, therefore the observed deep serrations were generated exclusively by imposing local growth restrictions to an otherwise growing system. An increase in KRP1 gene expression around the margin area led to the suppression of growth gradients, resulting in the arrest of lobe outgrowths and subsequent 3-D leaf blade deformation. This work shows that auxin-related local outgrowth and the timing of local growth repression both influence leaf complexity and a balance between these two factors may reflect the existence of different leaf forms.
Recently, a general model describing lamina growth, which takes into account factors influencing lateral outgrowth as well as determination of the proximo-distal polarity, has been published . Combinations of time-lapse imaging, clonal analysis, and computational expertise resulted in the generation of a robust model sufficient to describe the development of distinct leaf shapes. Similar to the experiment with local expression of the KRP1 gene , this model clearly shows that manipulation of growth distribution during early stages may influence final leaf shape, whereas modifications during late stages do not heavily influence leaf patterning and growth rates except in regions in close proximity to the manipulation. A model created by Kuchen et al. describes general mechanisms of growth coordination during leaf shape acquisition. The authors tested several combinations of factors and derived a theoretical model of interactions which can be used to describe generation of overall leaf shapes such as oblong, cordate, ovate, elliptic, etc. This model reflects growth rates, growth distribution and growth directions revealed on time-lapse observations of leaf growth. This work resulted in the formation of an “Organizer-based” model, which takes into account two major regulatory networks—first specifying the growth polarity and second regulating the growth rate. According to the model, the synthesis of factor regulating growth polarity is promoted at the proximal base of leaf primordia by the so-called proximal organizer. Furthermore, a gradient of the polarity-regulating factor is maintained by its constant degradation within the remaining part of primordium. In order to reflect growth directions observed in planta, the authors determined that distribution of the factor regulating growth polarity deforms together with the organ during subsequent growth. This polarity network is strictly connected with networks regulating growth rate. The authors distinguished two types of growth rates, parallel to the primordium midline, and perpendicular to the midline. In later steps of primordium development, these main growth rates are influenced by the production of uniformly distributed proximodistal growth inhibitors, resulting in a higher perpendicular growth rate. Additionally, perpendicular growth rate is positively regulated by another factor whose distribution is gradual in proximodistal direction and is excluded from the base of primordium. In order to reflect the growth directions in a presumptive midvein area, the authors placed another factor, which negatively influences the perpendicular growth rate in the midline of the leaf primordium. Spatial and temporal modifications of particular elements of this theoretical set up allows generation of various, biologically relevant leaf shapes. At present, we do not know exactly which protein, gene, morphogen, etc. represents the particular factor designed by the authors. It is only a theoretical model, however it may work as a framework for further experimental investigations; and predicted interactions may help to illustrate the interactions between different regulatory networks influencing final leaf form. A model created by Kuchen et al. shows that the general rules governing leaf form specification may be shared across distinct plant species, however in order to understand how different leaf forms are generated, further detailed studies on molecular mechanisms determining cellular parameters in particular species are necessary.
9. Concluding Remarks
The results presented in this review reveal the technical progress that has occurred over the last decade, allowing us to verify long-standing hypotheses. The development of modern imaging methods and computational tools has helped us to study dynamic cellular changes during leaf development. This work resulted in the discovery of mechanisms involved in the precise coordination between mechanical inputs and growth responses during plant organogenesis [14,15]. Today, we can be sure that the biophysical level is a very important component of global regulation of plant organogenesis. In case of leaves, there is still much work that must be done in order to link the mechanisms regulating cell proliferation/differentiation balance with biophysical inputs. Precise measurements and cell tracking techniques showed that there are multiple levels of regulation influencing final leaf form [29,32,35,36,37]. This information is still incomplete, and further work needs to be done in order to characterize all complex cellular relations. Finally, use of chemically inducible expression systems allowed us to show directly that local changes in growth are responsible for the generation of complex leaf shapes . Integration of these recent findings with patterns of auxin transport and genetic networks may be additionally supported by a recently generated theoretical model describing overall leaf shape generation . The holistic perspective of these studies already resulted in the discovery of general rules governing leaf size and shape acquisition, but future understanding of how exactly particular leaf forms are generated will need further characterization of genetic factors and their involvement in coordination of all regulatory levels. The use of precise systems for modification of gene expression will ultimately help to test the exact involvement of newly characterized factors in a defined biological context. As one can clearly see, further progress in understanding of these complex biological subjects requires an integrative approach. There are already multiple examples where advanced equipment designed for medical or purely physical applications such as X-ray tomography has been used for plant biology studies . We believe that this tendency will continue and further integration of scientific methods will result in an understanding of leaf development at the system level.
This review I would like to dedicate to my beloved daughter Zuzanna. I would like to acknowledge Anna Kasprzewska and Asuka Kuwabara for fruitful discussions and inspiration. For English grammar correction I would like to acknowledge Becky Cozart Higgins. I am sending my apologies to colleagues whose work has not been included in this review.
Conflict of Interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
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© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). | <urn:uuid:aac52e32-ae35-4465-b5ae-6e091c01dda1> | {
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Abbasid Gold Dinar Minted Under Al-Muqtadir - KA.106, Origin: Minted in Suq min al-Ahwaz, Circa: 925 AD, to 926 AD, Dimensions: .93" (2.4cm) wide 5.7 Grams, Collection: Numismatics, Style: Abbasid Dynasty, Medium: Gold, The Abbasid Dynasty was an Arab family legendarily descended from Abbas, the uncle of Muhammad. The Abbasids held the caliphate from 749 to 1258. Under the Umayyad caliphs the Abbasids lived quietly until they became involved in numerous disputes, beginning early in the 8th cent. The family then joined with the Shiite faction in opposing the Umayyads, and in 747 the gifted Abu Muslim united most of the empire in revolt against the Umayyads. The head of the Abbasid family became caliph as Abu al- Abbas as-Saffah late in 749. Under the second Abbasid caliph, called al-Mansur, the capital was moved from Damascus to Baghdad, and Persian influence grew strong in the empire. The early years of Abbasid rule were brilliant, rising to true splendor under Harun al-Rashid and to intellectual brilliance under his son al-Mamun. After less than a hundred years of rule, however, the slow decline of the Abbasids began. Long periods of disorder were marked by assassinations, depositions, control by Turkish soldiers, and other disturbances. In 836 the capital was transferred to Samarra, remaining there until 892. Under the later Abbasids, the power of the caliphate became chiefly spiritual. Many independent kingdoms sprang up, and the empire split into autonomous units. The Seljuk Turks came to hold the real power at Baghdad. Later their power dwindled even further, and, in 1258, Baghdad was burned by the Tatars. From then until 1517 the Abbasids retained limited power as caliphs of Egypt. | <urn:uuid:2d933c43-9ab9-42cb-a79b-66cc93e71f8a> | {
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You may even know the Latin, cogito ergo sum. Bonus points for you, even more so if you know that Descartes’ modus operandi was systematic doubting. In trying to establish a firm foundation for knowledge, Descartes decided to doubt absolutely everything until he could rest on a sure proposition.
In his own words, Descartes wanted to, “accept nothing as true which I did not evidently know to be such” (Discourse on Method). The revelation of his own doubting was what he eventually landed on as a indisputable starting point for knowledge, hence his statement (literally): “I doubt, therefore I am.” In other words, Descartes hadn’t seen Inception so he felt comfortable trusting his own doubting as a certain state of affairs.
Descartes’ doubting was his own spinning top so to speak.
Now, what might be a surprise to you is that most philosophers today consider Descartes’ quest for a firm foundation in epistemology to be a failure. He did not return with the elixir that he had hoped he did. In reality, he opened what is known as an epistemic gap between thought and reality which the philosophers that followed him tried desperately to repair.
By the time Kant came along, he just conceded defeat and admitted there was no bridging this divide.
All of this could have been avoided (maybe) had Descartes been a little more systematic in his doubting. Here then is short list of items that Descartes failed to take into account. In other words, while Descartes tried to strip himself of any assumptions in developing his method, here’s what he forgot:
- He assumed his own reasoning powers were in tact and functioning properly
- He assumed that human beings in general had properly functioning reasoning abilities
- He assumed a method for knowledge could proceed without reference to God
- He assumed that the difficulties in the reliability of knowledge were merely intellectual
- He assumed it was morally acceptable to search for a method self-reliantly
- He assumed issues regarding knowledge were not moral or spiritual
- He assumed the French language was adequate for making truth claims
- He assumed his own usage of French was correct
- He assumed the thoughts in his head corresponded to some kind of external reality
- He assumed the doubting that he recognized was in fact his own and not someone else’s
- He assumed that his own experiences were capable of being prescriptive for others
- He assumed that his memory was reliable and that his private experiences actually happened in the past
- He assumed a uniformity to the natural world that enabled future experiences continuity with the past
Now I could probably go on, but I think you get the point. Some of these are from an appendix in this book and others are from my own thinking in the past few years. The point is that Descartes really wasn’t systematic in his doubting. Rather than attempting to repair the breach, postmodern thinkers have actually just picked up Descartes’ mantle and taken it on down the road.
What I’ve noticed with some postmodern thinkers is that they are much more systematic than Descartes ever dreamed and so are really just taking his ideas to their logical conclusions. The other thing I noticed is that unless you submit to some kind of authority like God and His Word, there is really no escape from some of the conclusions that are drawn from this kind of systematic doubting.
That is probably another post in and of itself, but unless you’re willing to submit your reasoning to God and the foundations provided in Scripture, better to be consistent and take Descartes all the way down the road to postmodernism. There are really only two legitimate ways to go.
Or as my philosophy professor was fond of saying, “Christ or Nietzsche, you pick.” | <urn:uuid:5f4f3b1c-57a4-4af5-972b-b8ac18865f8b> | {
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What is peripheral neuropathy?
Peripheral neuropathy is a disease in a nerve that causes numbness in the arms, hands, legs and feet.
It is estimated that more than 20 million people in the United States have peripheral nerve damage and the incidence increases with age. With the aging of the baby boomer population, this number will increase in the near future.
Causes of peripheral neuropathy
Diabetes is the most common cause of peripheral neuropathy in the foot. It is estimated that more than half of the people with diabetes have some type of neuropathy.
There are many other causes of peripheral neuropathy including:
- Some medications that are used to treat cancer, such as chemotherapy can cause peripheral neuropathy.
- Trauma to the nerve can sever the peripheral nerves.
- Poor diet of people who suffer from alcoholism can lead to vitamin deficiencies and may cause peripheral neuropathy.
- Vitamin deficiencies — vitamin B, vitamin E and niacin are important to maintain nerve health.
- Kidney disease
- Liver disease
- Cancer and cancerous tumors
- Noncancerous tumors
- Bone marrow disorders
- Infections such as hepatitis C, HIV, Lyme disease, Epstein-Barr, leprosy and diphtheria
- Exposure to poisons that may have metals or chemicals in them.
Risk factors for peripheral neuropathy
People who are overweight, have high blood pressure, or are over the age of 40 are at a higher risk for peripheral neuropathy.
Other risk factors for peripheral neuropathy are symptom related and include people who have:
- Family history of peripheral neuropathy
- Autoimmune disorders
- Vitamin deficiencies
- Exposure to toxins
- Lyme disease
- Epstein-Barr virus
- Hepatitis C
- Kidney disorders
- Liver disorders
- Thyroid disorders
Symptoms of peripheral neuropathy
The most common symptoms of peripheral neuropathy include numbness and prickling or tingling in your foot that can extend up the leg.
Other symptoms of peripheral neuropathy of the foot include:
- Sensitivity to touch
- Sharp, intense, stabbing or shooting pain
- Weakness or even paralysis in the foot muscles
- Inability to walk normally
Less common symptoms of peripheral neuropathy include:
- Drop in blood pressure
- Excessive sweating
- Sexual dysfunction
Diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy
Early diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy is crucial in minimizing the damage to the foot. If you suspect you have peripheral neuropathy because you are experiencing unusual tingling and numbness in your foot schedule a visit with your primary care doctor right away.
Treatments for peripheral neuropathy
Treatments for peripheral neuropathy include working with your physician to manage the underlying disorder causing the foot neuropathy. To manage the pain patients can self-treat for minor cases with over the counter medications and other home remedies.
If the pain is too severe to manage with home-care a physician may treat the peripheral neuropathy with one of the following treatments:
- Prescription medication
- Physical therapy & rehabilitation (TENS treatment)
- Cast or splints
Recovery from peripheral neuropathy
Recovery from peripheral neuropathy is dependent on curing or managing the underlying condition causing the neuropathy. If caught soon enough and medical intervention is started right away the condition can be reversed quickly. | <urn:uuid:e71b56ba-7e3e-49e9-8d06-42028ceacf14> | {
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Hotel Sustainable Development: Integrating Practices for the Environment and the Bottom Line
The term “sustainable development” was first coined in 1987. In a report entitled, “Our Common Future,” the Brundtland Commission defined sustainable development as follows: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This definition immediately caught on. In the business world, it is sometimes referred to as a triple bottom line – capturing the concept that investments are profitable, good for people and protective of the environment. Within the hotel industry, companies have taken an active role in committing themselves to addressing climate change and sustainability. Hotel operations have realized that environmentally sound practices not only help the environment, but can lead to cost reductions, business expansion, and profit growth as consumers increasingly seek environmentally sustainable products and services. In a recent survey by Deloitte, it was noted that 95% of respondents believe that the hotel industry should be undertaking “green” initiatives. Additionally, 38% of respondents said they made efforts to identify “green” hotels before traveling, and 40% said they would be willing to pay a premium for the privilege. These results suggest that consumers want and expect sustainability in their travel plans. In response to these trends, many hotel companies and on-line travel agencies have even begun offering their consumers an opportunity to purchase carbon offsets to reduce the environmental impact of their trips. The May issue of the Hotel Business Review will document how some leading hotels are integrating sustainability practices into their hotels and how their operations, consumers and the environment are profiting from them. | <urn:uuid:c18afe2f-3c02-40c6-acad-1909790d917f> | {
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On Truth offers Krishnamurti's most profound ruminations on the search for truth. In 1929, he began his life of public teachings by saying, "Truth is a pathless land". Throughout his many years of speaking to audiences of all ages and backgrounds, he continually emphasized that truth cannot be approached through the instrument of thought. Truth is intangible and nameless and can only be realized through exploring the total movement of thought and its activities.
Publisher: East West Books
144 pp - Paper | <urn:uuid:bd121940-99fa-40ee-8469-c0bd640080c4> | {
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Food Standards Agency (FSA) tests revealed that more than a fifth of meat sampled contained DNA from animals not on the labelling, according to the BBC.
Out of 665 results from England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the survey, 145 were partly or wholly made up of unspecified meat. These included 18 pork/ham samples, with lamb, 77 samples, the most affected.
The samples came from 487 businesses, including restaurants and supermarkets. A BBC Freedom of Information request to the FSA revealed that in total 73 of the contaminated samples came from retailers – including three supermarkets. A further 50 came from restaurants, while 22 originated from manufacturing or food processing plants.
The FSA said the levels were consistent with ‘deliberate inclusion’, that is 1% or greater un-named DNA. Levels of less than 1% were excluded from the results on the basis they could have been caused by poor hygiene.
The BBC said the tests also showed:
- Some samples contained DNA from as many as four different animals, while others contained no trace of the meat that appeared on the product’s label
- Meat labelled as lamb was most likely to contain traces of other animals’ DNA, followed by beef and goat
- Cow DNA was the most commonly found contaminate, followed by pig, chicken, sheep and turkey
- The most commonly mis-labelled product was mince meat, while sausages, kebabs and restaurant curries also featured prominently
The FSA added that testing had targeted those businesses suspected of ‘compliance issues’. The results were ‘not representative of the wider food industry’, a spokesman said.
He said it was up to the relevant local authorities – which procured the samples before sending the results to the FSA – to lead individual investigations and take “appropriate action” such as prosecutions.
The testing was introduced in response to the 2013 horsemeat scandal. While none of the 2017 samples contained horsemeat, the lack of transparency surrounding the quality and origin of meat products in the UK has raised concerns, the BBC said.
The FSA explained the ‘majority’ of samples were tested for cow, pig, sheep, goat, horse, chicken and turkey DNA because those animals represent the “overwhelming majority” of livestock reared, slaughtered and imported in the UK.
The BBC quoted experts who said replacing expensive meat with a cheaper product is a common reason behind food fraud – a global problem that has existed for centuries. | <urn:uuid:f0aa9f3e-69f6-4c14-99db-73065af72fd7> | {
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The cosecant function given by
f ( x ) = a * cot ( b x + c ) + d
and its period, phase shift, asymptotes domain and range are explored interactively. An applet is used, where parameters a, b, c and d are changed to investigate their effects on the graph of f.
1 - Click on the button above "click here to start" and maximize the window obtained.
2 - Use the scroll bar to set a = 1, b = 1, c = 0 and d = 0. Take note of the period, phase shift and positions of the asymptotes (in red) of the graph of f? Now change a , how does it affect the graph? Does it affect its range? If yes, how?
3 - Set a = 1,c = 0,d = 0 and change b. Approximate the period from the graph and compare it to 2pi/|b|. How does b affect the graph of f(x)? How does it affect the asymptotes of the graph of f?
4 - Set a = 1,b = 1,d = 0 and change c starting from zero increasing slowly to positive large values. Take note of the shift, is it to the left or to the right? Compare its measure to - c / b.
5 - Set a = 1,b = 1,d = 0 and change c starting from zero deceasing slowly to negative smaller values. Take note of the shift, is it a left or a right shift? Compare its measure to - c / b.
6 - Set a,b and c to non zero values and change d. What is the direction of the shift of the graph?
7 - Which parameters affect the positions of the asymptotes(in red)? Explain analytically.
8 - Which parameters affect the domain of the cosecant function? Explain analytically.
9 - Which parameters affect the range of the cosecant function? Explain analytically.
More references on the trigonometric functions. | <urn:uuid:2e03ee46-a2ba-49be-a7bd-f76bcdd8c574> | {
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This edition of the PPPJ is a special issue devoted to the field of pre- and perinatal anthropology (see my editorial in the last issue, and also my 1989 review article in Vol. 3, No. 4 of PPPJ and my earlier article in the special Pre-Congress issue of the PPPANA Journal in 1985). Anthropology is the broadest of the social sciences and takes as its data base all of the 4,000-plus cultures on the planet and the entire course of evolution of our species. Anthropologists typically tend to carry out naturalistic field research and very little in the way of experimentation or clinical work. Fieldworkers, such as Janet and Philip Kilbride and Ben Blount often spend months and even years living with people in other societies, participating in their hosts' way of life, and recording what they experience and learn from their stay. I did much the same among the So of northeastern Uganda and the among Tibetan lamas in Nepal and India.
Anthropology consists of five subdisciplines. Most anthropologists carry out sociocultural research of the sort just mentioned. Physical, or biological anthropologists like Wenda Trevathan, however, are interested in the evolution of our species, and the several species that came before us in what we call the "hominid line." Some anthropologists do archaeology which is the study of human prehistory (archaeology is the one subdiscipline unrepresented in this issue of PPPJ). Still others specialize Qike Ben Blount) in linguistic anthropology which, as the name implies, is the study of the world's languages, their differences and similarities, and how they are acquired by children. And finally, some anthropologists attempt to apply our understanding of human sociocultural dynamics to the solution of current social problems. These are called applied anthropologists. Lois Chetelat's work represents an applied perspective.
The authors in this issue were invited to contribute and they responded admirably. Not only do they demonstrate four of the five subdisciplines of anthropology for us, they also address some crucial topics that may expand our global understanding of the evolutionary and cultural background of pre- and peri-natal psychology. Wenda Trevathan discusses the evolutionary processes that brought about the extreme behavioral helplessness and dependence of the human infant. Much of this has to do with the complex interplay between the development of our large brain and the limits of our relatively small birth canal. Although the human newborn is behaviorally altricial compared with other mammals, the extent of this helplessness will vary across cultures. The Kilbrides address this issue with respect to their fieldwork among the Baganda of East Africa.
It is a curious fact that women in most cultures require birth attendants. Wenda Trevathan in her book, Human Birth: An Evolutionary Perspective, suggests that this is so because the human baby is born in such a way as it is awkward, and even dangerous, for the mother to birth entirely by herself. And in most cultures it is the older experienced women in the community that act as midwives. The interesting question arises, then, as to how the predominantly male profession of obstetrics came to dominate the birthing process in several modern states. Lois Chetelat, herself a nurse in Third World countries for many years, and now an applied anthropologist, offers a cultural analysis of the process by which obstetrics came to take over the birthing system in Canada.
Current research suggests that the fetus and newborn are exquisitely sensitive to the speech going on around them. And newborns become quite active in initiating social communication with their caregivers. We need a better understanding of the early periods of language acquisition. As Ben Blount makes clear in his article, early experiences of language have a formative influence upon the more general process of acquiring culture. And these experiences are conditioned by how the caregivers perceive and conceive communication with the very young.
I hope you will enjoy these papers as much as I have, and that they will help us all to flesh-out our pre- and peri-natal psychology so that it better accounts for early life among humans everywhere on the planet. | <urn:uuid:755b0868-a113-4350-a782-4e40f198fe7e> | {
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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you.
Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.
Teacher Resources by Grade
|1st - 2nd||3rd - 4th|
|5th - 6th||7th - 8th|
|9th - 10th||11th - 12th|
Creating a Class Pattern Book With Popular Culture Characters
|Grades||K – 2|
|Lesson Plan Type||Standard Lesson|
|Estimated Time||Four 50-minute sessions and one 30-minute presentation session|
MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY
- LCD projector
- Computer with Internet access and microphone
- Toys or stuffed animals of popular culture characters
- Digital (or traditional) camera
- I Went Walking by Sue Williams (Gulliver, 1990)
- Notepad and pencil
- Photo Story 3 (optional – download)
- Windows Movie Maker (optional – download)
- PowerPoint (optional)
- How I Feel About What I Did self-assessment
- Predictable Patterns Book
- Predictable & Pattern Books
- First Books for Emergent Readers
- Create Your First Photo Story
- Windows Movie Maker 2: Atomic Learning, Inc.
- Create Home Movies Effortlessly With Movie Maker 2
- How to Create Talking Books in PowerPoint 97 & 2000
|1.||This lesson will work best if you have access to an LCD projector. If you have a computer with Internet access in your classroom, you should arrange to have the projector hooked up to it for Sessions 3, 4, and 5.
|2.||Obtain and familiarize yourself and your students with a wide variety of predictable pattern books. You can use the following websites to find such books:
|3.||Have students bring to school toys or stuffed animals representing their favorite popular culture characters. These can include cartoon, comic book, and movie characters.
|4.||Keep your eye on fast food restaurants for the latest popular culture toys that are often included in kids' meals. Keeping a box of these toys in the classroom is a wonderful aid to creativity at a pattern-book writing center (see Extensions). In addition, you could supply these toys for use by students who do not have a character to bring to school.
|5.||After reading and becoming familiar with the chosen pattern book, students will be taking pictures of their popular culture characters to make a class pattern book in Photo Story 3, Windows Movie Maker, or PowerPoint. Arrange to use a camera (preferably digital) during Session 2. If a digital camera is not available, you can use a traditional camera and have the photographs saved onto a CD. Alternatively, if computer technology is an issue, this lesson can be completed by placing photographs on paper and having students create a hard-copy class book.
You will be taking pictures all around your school and playground. As a courtesy, you may wish to send an e-mail or note to teachers and other staff to let them know about the timing and objective of this lesson. Some teachers will close their doors so you do not disturb them, while others will welcome you to visit their classrooms. Office and custodial staff usually enjoy these visits by students but will appreciate the advance warning.
|6.||Students will be helping you add text and visual effects to enhance their class pattern book. Photo Story 3, Movie Maker, and PowerPoint offer the opportunity to use effects that can add interest to their digital photos. You will need to decide which software you would like to use prior to the lesson.
If you decide to use Photo Story 3 or Movie Maker, experiment with adding text and using effects. Prior to using the program in the classroom, you should know how to import photos into the software, place photos on the storyline, insert transitions, insert picture effects, create narration, and write words on the pages. These skills are outlined in the Photo Story 3 Instruction Sheet and the Windows Movie Maker Instruction Sheet.
In addition to these sheets, detailed instructions for using Photo Story 3 can be found at Create Your First Photo Story. Windows Movie Maker 2 and Create Home Movies Effortlessly With Movie Maker 2 both have basic information about how to use this program. (Note: If you have a Windows operating system on your school computers, Movie Maker should be included in the "All Programs" list or in the "Accessories" folder on your machines; otherwise, you will need to download it.)
If you decide to use PowerPoint, practice using the different effects and transitions. How to Create Talking Books in PowerPoint 97 & 2000 offers a tutorial in how to make digital books using the software. Before demonstrating it to students, you will need to know how to import photos, add text, use screen transitions, and apply effects. The PowerPoint Instruction Sheet lists directions for how to create a simple book with digital photos.
|7.||Practice using the microphone to record speech on the computer. In Photo Story 3 and PowerPoint, this process is relatively simple because you record each frame separately. However, when recording speech in Movie Maker, you must match the speech with the timeline.
|8.||Make copies of the Planning Sheet for Your Digital Story Pages and How I Feel About What I Did self-assessment.| | <urn:uuid:6d34955f-3352-40ba-8c61-c4a5ebd8a55f> | {
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April 23, 2010
Genetic Research Suggests Multiple Orca Species
Experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have discovered genetic evidence that there are multiple species of killer whales.
Lead researcher Phillip Morin and his colleagues at the NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, took tissue samples from 139 orcas from the North Atlantic, the North Pacific, and Antarctica. By analyzing the mitochondria of each, they confirmed the existence at least three distinct killer whale species.According to Maggie Fox of Reuters, "Researchers had suspected this may be the case--the distinctive black-and-white or gray-and-white mammals have subtle differences in their markings and also in feeding behavior." They apparently also have different eating habits, as one hunts Antarctic seals and another preys on fish, according to what Morin told Fox.
The NOAA study was published in the April 22 edition of Genome Research.
"The genetic makeup of mitochondria in killer whales, like other cetaceans, changes very little over time, which makes it difficult to detect any differentiation in recently evolved species without looking at the entire genome," Morin said in a statement. "But by using a relatively new method called highly parallel sequencing to map the entire genome of the cell's mitochondria from a worldwide sample of killer whales, we were able to see clear differences among the species."
Orcas are currently not recognized as an endangered species, except in specific areas. Based on these new findings, however, that could all change. If the whales are reclassified, each of the new species might be eligible for protection status, which would aid efforts to protect them from habitat loss, fisheries, pollution, or other threats that could harm the marine mammals.
"Establishing appropriate taxonomic designations will greatly aid in understanding the ecological impacts and conservation needs of these important marine predators," the researchers note in the abstract accompanying their paper. "We predict that phylogeographic mitogenomics will become an important tool for improved statistical phylogeography and more precise estimates of divergence times."
On the Net:
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- Southwest Fisheries Science Center
- Genome Research
- Image Courtesy Minette Layne - Wikipedia | <urn:uuid:078f0bf0-a463-4d42-8eee-9b1a2b06f92f> | {
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Zeit-Online: American Nuclear Power Plants Map
German newspaper Zeit-Online has created a Google Maps application that shows how many Americans live near nuclear power plants.
The map includes a distance slider tool that lets you visualise how many people live within different distances of a nuclear power plant. For example, the voluntary evacuation zone around the Fukushima power plant is currently 18 miles. Using the Zeit-Online map we find that a total of 16,040,474 Americans live within 18 miles of a nuclear plant.
You can use the slider to adjust the radius around the nuclear power plants. The number of people living within the radius is then shown. Clicking on a power plant on the map brings up more information about the location in the map sidebar. | <urn:uuid:3c9614ad-7bc9-4e7a-ae53-0be97bca9b97> | {
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When people brush their teeth, oral odors disappear. But, for those with halitosis the odor can linger and remains persistent. The medical term for chronic bad breath is halitosis, and the
condition can be very difficult to self-diagnose as the bad scent may be familiar to those who have it, and yet it severely bothers those around them. Bad breath can significantly impact social
life, work as well as other aspects of daily living and this is true for children who suffer from halitosis.
If it has been noted that bad oral odor lingers after a regular brushing and flossing routine, halitosis may be to blame.
What Causes Bad Breath?
While a dentist can easily identify what causes halitosis, some of the most common causes of bad breath are: gum disease, poor oral hygiene, unhealthy lifestyle choices (poor diet, smoking or chewing tobacco), pungent foods and certain medical conditions, (such as diabetes, blood disease, lung cancer and kidney problems).
Other medical issues that can trigger halitosis are sinus or tonsil infections, eating disorders (anorexia nervosa or bulimia) and other illnesses which may encourage mucus to begin developing may lead to chronic bad breath. Dry mouth can also lead to halitosis as saliva assists to rid the mouth of bacteria. | <urn:uuid:51f67074-d912-4321-b960-26909903c04c> | {
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All of us have curiosity about vital processes of our body and constantly wonder how they are carried out. Various body systems like digestion, reproduction, respiration etc have always been the object of our research and most interesting is the ongoing growth and development of our body without any outside factor catalyzing or hindering it. Science, to an extent has found the explanation of some of the processes but most of them still seem a mystery to us. There are many topics in the queue with amino acids standing in front as an entity of suspense.
What Are Amino Acids?
An organic acid which has carboxyl group (-COOH) and amino group (-NH2) along with a side chain denoted by –R is called amino acid. Nitrogen, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen are basic constituent members of amino acids.
List of Fundamental Amino Acids
- Aspartic acid
Functions of Amino Acids
As an important constituent of human body amino acids carry out many important functions, some of which are listed below-
- Build Protein: Amino acids connect to build proteins required by our body as per the data contained in the DNA. The DNA defines various combinations of amino acids which join to build a specific protein.
- Protect Cardiovascular Health: Arginine, an amino acid is used to make nitric oxide, which relaxes muscles in blood vessels lowering the blood pressure. The development of plaque in arteries is inhibited by it hence helping to prevent atherosclerosis.
- Synthesize Neurotransmitters: Tryptophan and tyrosine produce neurotransmitters, and helps keep the stock of neurotransmitters replenished in the body. If your carbohydrate intake is more than normal prescribed value, then tryptophan enters into the brain and makes you sleepy.
Areas of Use of Amino Acids
- Mood, sleep and performance
- Fat- burning
- Virility and libido
- Hair care
- Anti- aging
- Osteoporosis and arthritis
Amino acids are a crucial part of our body and a priceless gift of nature which help not only in keeping our body functions going but also in passing of hereditary features from one generation to next generation. Researchers have discovered about 700 naturally existing amino acids and are working to discover more. All the best and have fun knowing about amino acids. | <urn:uuid:202126ff-faed-484d-a714-676cc757772d> | {
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NSF Int'l Study Finds Kitchen Tools Hold onto Foodborne Pathogens
NSF International's Applied Research Center (ARC) has released the 2013 NSF International Household Germ Study, revealing that many common kitchen items harbor unsafe levels of E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, yeast and mold. NSF International scientists point to a number of contributing factors — including improper food storage, handling, preparation and cleaning — which may help explain why more than 20% of foodborne illness outbreaks result from food consumed in the home.
NSF International is an Ann Arbor, MI-based global public health and safety organization. NSF's Applied Research Center conducts original research and development projects for academia, industry, and regulatory bodies to further public health and safety.
The NSF microbiologists conducting the germ study analyzed 14 common kitchen items for the presence of four different types of microorganisms: E. coli, Salmonella, yeast and mold, and Listeria. The study found that many of these common kitchen appliances and tools used to prepare food do indeed harbor pathogens that can cause foodborne illness:
- Refrigerator vegetable compartment: Salmonella, Listeria, yeast and mold
- Refrigerator meat compartment: Salmonella, E. coli, yeast and mold
- Blender gasket: Salmonella, E. coli, yeast and mold
- Can opener: Salmonella, E. coli, yeast and mold
- Rubber spatula: E. coli, yeast and mold
- Food storage container with rubber seal: Salmonella, yeast and mold
It is NSF's hope that the information gained from this study will further underscore the importance of properly maintaining and cleaning these items, especially those that we don't always think to disassemble and clean such as the blender gasket.
"Consumers are increasingly concerned about the safety and quality of their food but often don't realize that they may be the cause of foodborne illness in their own homes, due to improper cleaning of kitchenware and appliances. As a NSF microbiologist, I was surprised to learn that most people know what items carry germs, but they still didn't clean them properly. Products that come in direct contact with food must be designed and maintained properly to prevent germ growth. The performance, quality, material safety and cleanability of home products all are important for food safety," said Rob Donofrio, Ph.D., director of NSF International's Applied Research Center.
NSF Home Product Certification Program
"Young children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to foodborne illness," said Donofrio. "Concerned consumers can look for the NSF Home Product Certification mark on products to ensure items can be cleaned correctly when following the manufacturer's instructions to prevent harboring germs."
Perception vs. Reality: Are We Unknowingly Making Ourselves and Others Sick?
Importantly, while germ study volunteers correctly identified items that they thought would harbor the most germs, they are not always cleaning them sufficiently to prevent illness. The following is a list of the items that were perceived by volunteers to be the "germiest" versus the actual "germiest" items (ranked from highest to lowest in germ count):
1. Microwave keypad
2. Can opener
3. Refrigerator meat compartment
4. Refrigerator vegetable compartment
5. Flatware storage tray
6. Knife block
7. Pizza cutter
8. Rubber spatula
9. Refrigerator insulating seal
10. Ice dispenser
1. Refrigerator water dispenser
2. Rubber spatula
4. Refrigerator vegetable compartment
5. Refrigerator ice dispenser
6. Refrigerator meat compartment
7. Knife block
8. Food storage container with rubber seal
9. Can opener
10. Refrigerator insulating seal
Germs found on these everyday kitchen appliances and tools can easily come in direct contact with food, especially raw produce, meat, poultry, seafood and ready-to-eat food. The study identified where the germs are located in the average home kitchen and, more importantly, how people can better protect against foodborne illness. The key is to be aware of where the 'hot spots' are in your home and clean correctly and regularly to help prevent germ accumulation.
"What's important to remember is the science behind the study. Germs exist everywhere and while not all germs are 'bad,' our goal is to educate the public about how they can help keep their families healthy," said Donofrio. | <urn:uuid:9538a2c2-eeda-4fce-9d22-4626f6a6938a> | {
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Students explore alphabetical order. In this language arts lesson, students are given a list of twenty vegetables and complete a worksheet putting the names of these vegetables in alphabetical order.
3rd - 5th English Language Arts 3 Views 23 Downloads
Summer Reading Activities
Provide parents with the tools they need to bridge the summer learning gap with this collection of fun activities. Whether it's creating an alphabet poster with illustrations for each letter, playing a game of sight word concentration,...
Pre-K - 5th English Language Arts CCSS: Adaptable
Phonics Teachers Resource Book
Looking to improve your classes literacy program? Then look no further. This comprehensive collection of resources includes worksheets and activities covering everything from r-controlled vowels and consonant digraphs, to the different...
1st - 3rd English Language Arts CCSS: Adaptable
Alphabetizing Words Beginning with R and S
Students alphabetize words that begin with R and S. For this alphabetizing lesson, students complete a worksheet in which they alphabetize words that end with R and S. After a classroom discussion about how to alphabetize, students...
4th - 5th English Language Arts
Salad Words- Spelling Practice and Alphabetizing Worksheet
In this spelling worksheet, 4th graders practice reading and writing each of the spelling words that are related to making a salad. They fill in 3 blanks about their opinions on these foods, and then put the words in alphabetical order.
4th English Language Arts | <urn:uuid:a3a3f30e-c5d3-4500-b7ce-546479bbbe93> | {
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|UNESCO #1418 - Mount Fuji - JAPAN|
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Mount Fuji - JAPAN - UNESCO #1418
Mount Fuji is one of those natural places that we all recognize and immediately associate with its country Japan - more than just a beautiful place (and it's really awesome) is has a very strong spiritual meaning for all the Japanese. It's another of those sites that I have on my "bucket list" for ages! I really thought this site was one of the first inscribed in the UNESCO list, but I found out today that it was only last year that it became a World Heritage Site, I wonder why... Thank you very much Fumie, this beautiful card is a wonderful addition to my collection (409 down, 598 to go). This postcard took 7 days to arrive!
The beauty of the solitary, often snow-capped, stratovolcano, known around the world as Mount Fuji, rising above villages and tree-fringed sea and lakes has long been the object of pilgrimages and inspired artists and poets. The inscribed property consists of 25 sites which reflect the essence of Fujisan’s sacred and artistic landscape. In the 12th century, Fujisan became the centre of training for ascetic Buddhism, which included Shinto elements. On the upper 1,500-metre tier of the 3,776m mountain, pilgrim routes and crater shrines have been inscribed alongside sites around the base of the mountain including Sengen-jinja shrines, Oshi lodging houses, and natural volcanic features such as lava tree moulds, lakes, springs and waterfalls, which are revered as sacred. | <urn:uuid:dc20076f-3878-4e1d-8510-ea70a32e1e08> | {
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|Jmol-3D images||Image 1|
|Molar mass||464.63 g/mol|
|Except where noted otherwise, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C (77 °F), 100 kPa)|
|(what is: / ?)|
Ecdysone is a steroidal prohormone of the major insect molting hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone, which is secreted from the prothoracic glands. Insect molting hormones (ecdysone and its homologues) are generally called ecdysteroids. Ecdysteroids act as moulting hormones of arthropods but also occur in other related phyla where they can play different roles. In Drosophila melanogaster, an increase in ecdysone concentration induces the expression of genes coding for proteins that the larva requires, and it causes chromosome puffs (sites of high expression) to form in polytene chromosomes. Ecdysteroids also appear in many plants mostly as a protection agent (toxins or antifeedants) against herbivorous insects. These phytoecdysteroids have been reputed to have medicinal value and are part of herbal adaptogenic remedies like Cordyceps, yet an ecdysteroid precursor in plants has been shown to have cytotoxic properties. A pesticide sold with the name MIMIC has ecdysteroid activity, although its chemical structure has little resemblance to the ecdysteroids.
- Ecdybase, The Ecdysone Handbook - a free online ecdysteroids database
- Wang YS, Yang JH, Luo SD, Zhang HB, Li L, Molecules. 2007;12(3):536-42
|This insect-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.| | <urn:uuid:36c81d8a-1fb2-4441-ac5d-839a555c7cad> | {
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The Validity of Poetry in 2011
The definition for poetry can be a bit complicated as its aesthetics in general
Simply stating, it can be defined as a small piece of imaginative writing put in lines to pass out an intended message. Its general purpose is to help in understanding the world in human terms through literature composition. Poetry plays a major role in the current generation and cannot in any way be ignored as it has become part of the day today life. It can be regarded as an art, way of communication or even a historical document depending on the intended audience. Poem can be argued to be a way of expression of a visual item intelligently and pleasured by others and can arouse or rekindle emotions. It can also be taken as a way of communicating or passage of a certain message not necessarily to mean the worldly meaning but written in a rather complex language.
The validity of poetry in 2011 cannot be underestimated under any circumstances
In the real life, there a many things one may not express in absolute terms rather would need to use a higher level of communication to express ones feeling. Love can be one of the most challenging things one can fail to express or define. In the poem of Robert frost, LOVE IS TO SUFFER, it shown how much one can be confused not to know whether love is the cause of all the suffering of human kind or whether the solution to suffering is love indicating the height at which expressing one’s self can be difficult (Lucy Collins, 2011). Therefore, poem is a way of communicating or delivering that which one finds hard to express other ways of communication.
We all have loved at some point and maybe fail to know why all the suffering one had to go through just because of love. Poems provide support, comfort, happiness, advice, entertain and above all educate. As earlier stated, poet can use a difficult language which can even be confused in the literal meaning. In the poem SUNDAY MORNING by Wallace Stevens, he brings out a picture of a woman who is preparing for her wedding and admiring her wedding gown as she takes her breakfast (MacKenzie, 2011). One may think he was trying to express a real wedding event, but, in the real sense, it was about ones salvation i.e. the death of Jesus Christ. It is through poetry that we may be able to pass out a message to some persons who might have lost hope in life such as the bereaved. Anyone who loses a dear one no matter how many others might have passed they would always think that they are the only persons who lost. A poem creates the image in one’s mind that the poet might have passed through the same experience. In addition, even the bereaved feels like he/she is not alone in it hence this comforting message can ease the pain and suffering in a way (Busch, 2011).
Currently, we dedicate ourselves to work which sometimes is demanding and stressful
Depending on a person’s personality, one may need a drink to cool down after a hectic day at work, a majority of which would just sit down to listen to their favorite poets to cool them off. In fact, we can say poetry is life; we cannot actually separate life from poetry as they go hand in hand. Poems about deadly diseases such as HIV and Aids have been of considerable help. It is through them that persons were able to learn more of the deadly diseases and how to prevent themselves from contacting it. A poem is unlike an essay published in the daily newspaper as it brings out the actual picture of what is happening hence delivering the message home. | <urn:uuid:82df0150-226c-44cd-944b-f60e157841af> | {
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on highly effective K-12 Math & English
Grade 2 - Mathematics
1.36 Working with Equations
Read out the equations given.
Either sides of the = sign must be identical.
It is used to compare numbers.
: **+ *** = *****
The above equation can be written as 2+3 = 5 and it is similar to:
Answer : 2+3 = 4+1
Answer the following questions. Also write at least ten examples of your own.
: When you write 7 - 4 = 3 or 5 + 3 = 8 you are writing an
: Write the equation for this: *** + ** = *****
2+2 = 4
3+3 = 5
3+2 = 5
Question 3: This question is available to subscribers only!
Question 4: This question is available to subscribers only!
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For unlimited printable worksheets & more, go to | <urn:uuid:ae60f1d9-49ff-4dba-88c8-3bdd5e05382f> | {
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Name: Drawn from several historic ships including Henry Hudson's exploring Hudson Bay in the 1600s and James Cook's exploring South Pacific in the 1770s, discovering Hawaiian Islands.
Figures: Third shuttle commissioned, following Columbia and Challenger. Mission STS-133 will be its 39th and last, most of any shuttle. Will have carried 252 crew members, most. Orbited Earth 5,628 times, going 143 million miles. Highest shuttle orbit, 360 miles.
Highlights: Launched Hubble Space Telescope. Fixed Hubble Space Telescope. Carried two U.S. Senators into space, Jake Garn and John Glenn. Flew both "return to flight" missions, following Challenger and Columbia disasters.
Notable astronauts: Charlie Bolden (NASA administrator,) Michael Coats (director of Johnson Space Center,) Eileen Collins, Jake Garn, John Glenn, Rick Husband, Mark Kelly, Sergie Krikalev, Tom Mattingly, Story Musgrave, Lisa Nowak, Judith Resnick.
Aug. 30, 1984: Maiden flight, launched three satellites.
April 12, 1985: Carried U.S. Sen. Jake Garn (R-Utah) into space.
Sept. 29, 1988: Return to flight mission after 1986 Challenger disaster.
April 24, 1990: Delivered Hubble Space Telescope to orbit.
Oct. 10, 1990: Delivered Ulysses spacecraft to explore Sun.
Feb. 3, 1994: Carried first Russian cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev, on U.S. shuttle.
Feb. 3, 1995: First female shuttle pilot, Eileen Collins.
Feb. 11, 1997: Fixed Hubble Space Telescope.
Oct. 29, 1998: Carried U.S. Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) in his return to space.
May 27, 1999: First shuttle docking to the International Space Station.
July 26, 2005: Return to flight mission after 2003 Columbia disaster.
April 5, 2010: Most recent mission. | <urn:uuid:c1f7c278-2a61-4874-83e4-13c070192d9a> | {
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Defying frost and the cold with hormones
Plants cannot simply relocate to better surroundings when their environmental conditions are no longer suitable. Instead, they have developed sophisticated molecular adaptation mechanisms. Scientists at the Technical University Munich (TUM) in cooperation with the Helmholtz Center Munich and the University of Nottingham have been able to demonstrate that brassinosteroids, which until now have mainly been regarded as growth hormones, increase the resistance of plants against frost.
Pictured are frozen flowers of an apple tree in South Tyrol, Italy that have been protected from damage by late frost with frost-protection sprinkling. Eremina et al show that in the freezing tolerance of plants steroid hormones take part, and elucidate molecular pathways, which contribute to this activity. (Photo: courtesy of D. Mitterer-Zublasing)
"Stress caused by cold is an environmental influence which has a direct effect on the growth and yield of plants", says plant molecular biologist Professor Brigitte Poppenberger. With her research group at the Biotechnology of Horticultural Crops institute at the TUM, she investigates the mechanisms used by plants to adapt to external influences. Her research activities have centered on brassinosteroids for quite some time.
In earlier work, her group already used common thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) as a model plant to demonstrate exactly how this plant hormone, which was identified for the first time in rapeseed in 1979, promotes plant growth. In fact, it had been known for a long time that this hormone plays a role in plant development. However, the exact mechanism of action was unknown. It was the work of the biotechnology experts at the TUM School for Life Sciences in Weihenstephan that first made it possible to gain a precise understanding of this phenomenon.
It's no coincidence that Brigitte Poppenbergers team once again picked Arabidopsis for the current study. Due to its relatively undemanding nature, simple structure, and its compact size, it isn't simply a favorite among geneticists in general—the tiny herb also provides optimal conditions under which to search for cold protection mechanisms in plants, as it's able to survive low temperatures and increase its tolerance to frost by adapting to the cold. In the current issue of the specialist journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" (PNAS), the scientists describe the hitherto unknown side of brassinosteroids, which up until now have been known as growth hormones.
In order to gain a detailed understanding of their mechanisms, the researchers carried out experiments in which they exposed Arabidopsis plants to slowly decreasing temperatures. Experiments with wild-type varieties in the laboratory showed that as the temperature decreases, the plant reacts by beginning to modify the expression of genes for which DNA is transcribed to RNA within its cells. "This reduces its growth, which increases its chances of survival", Poppenberger explains, describing the natural protective mechanism of the normal plants.
A molecular path to 'winter fat'
The researchers obtained a different result with their experiments involving genetically modified model plants, which are no longer able to synthesize brassinosteroids themselves or recognize them as a signal. While wild-type varieties often still managed to survive temperatures of six degrees below zero, most of the mutants already displayed clear signs of damage at this point, which demonstrates the essential role steroid hormones play in this process. By analyzing the process, the researchers found that brassinosteroids increase frost resistance by regulating a protein called CESTA. This protein uses a signal cascade to control gene expression. In this manner, it in turn influences the protein composition of the cells, which among other things appears to lead to a change in the fatty acid composition. This ensures that the plant stocks up on a type of 'winter fat' on a molecular level, thereby protecting it from potential cold damage.
Spray-on steroids for plants
These exact findings regarding the order and type of chemical processes for the effects of steroid hormones in plants are not only an important step forward for basic research into the adaptation strategies of plants. More importantly, according to the researchers, they may also provide solutions to problems, which have occurred in agriculture as a result of climate change. Although people generally only associate global warming with an increased occurrence of hot periods, it also causes an increase in the number of frost events, such as early and late frosts, which can lead to devastating harvest shortfalls. "The conventional method of breeding more resistant plants has not been very successful so far, as resistance to cold and reduced growth are difficult to separate", says Brigitte Poppenberger. But she's convinced that "our discovery that brassinosteroids boost both growth and cold resistance will open up new possibilities for bringing out both characteristics in plants." She asserts that it's also possible to spray crop plants with brassinosteroids to achieve both effects. "That may be a viable method—at least, that's what the findings suggest."
Marina Eremina , Simon J. Unterholzner, Ajith I. Rathnayake , Marcos Castellanos , Sean T. May, Klaus F. X. Mayer, Wilfried Rozhon and Brigitte Poppenberger: Brassinosteroids participate in the control of basal and acquired freezing tolerance of plants, PNAS 2016. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1611477113
Technical University of Munich
Biotechnology of Horticultural Crops
Prof. Dr. Brigitte Poppenberger
Tel.: +49 8161 71-2401
Dr. Ulrich Marsch | Technische Universität München
What the world's tiniest 'monster truck' reveals
23.08.2017 | American Chemical Society
Treating arthritis with algae
23.08.2017 | Empa - Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt
Whether you call it effervescent, fizzy, or sparkling, carbonated water is making a comeback as a beverage. Aside from quenching thirst, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have discovered a new use for these "bubbly" concoctions that will have major impact on the manufacturer of the world's thinnest, flattest, and one most useful materials -- graphene.
As graphene's popularity grows as an advanced "wonder" material, the speed and quality at which it can be manufactured will be paramount. With that in mind,...
Physicists at the University of Bonn have managed to create optical hollows and more complex patterns into which the light of a Bose-Einstein condensate flows. The creation of such highly low-loss structures for light is a prerequisite for complex light circuits, such as for quantum information processing for a new generation of computers. The researchers are now presenting their results in the journal Nature Photonics.
Light particles (photons) occur as tiny, indivisible portions. Many thousands of these light portions can be merged to form a single super-photon if they are...
For the first time, scientists have shown that circular RNA is linked to brain function. When a RNA molecule called Cdr1as was deleted from the genome of mice, the animals had problems filtering out unnecessary information – like patients suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders.
While hundreds of circular RNAs (circRNAs) are abundant in mammalian brains, one big question has remained unanswered: What are they actually good for? In the...
An experimental small satellite has successfully collected and delivered data on a key measurement for predicting changes in Earth's climate.
The Radiometer Assessment using Vertically Aligned Nanotubes (RAVAN) CubeSat was launched into low-Earth orbit on Nov. 11, 2016, in order to test new...
A study led by scientists of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science in Hamburg presents evidence of the coexistence of superconductivity and “charge-density-waves” in compounds of the poorly-studied family of bismuthates. This observation opens up new perspectives for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity, a topic which is at the core of condensed matter research since more than 30 years. The paper by Nicoletti et al has been published in the PNAS.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, superconductivity had been observed in some metals at temperatures only a few degrees above the absolute zero (minus...
16.08.2017 | Event News
04.08.2017 | Event News
26.07.2017 | Event News
23.08.2017 | Life Sciences
23.08.2017 | Life Sciences
23.08.2017 | Physics and Astronomy | <urn:uuid:b4cf5f7d-9123-4ca3-8335-c2c3a4154e97> | {
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Features Actual Space Flown Relic from Apollo–Soyuz
The Apollo–Soyuz Test Project was the first joint U.S.–Soviet space flight, and the last flight of an Apollo spacecraft. The flight launched in July 1975, and was the last manned US space mission until the first Space Shuttle flight in April 1981. The mission included both joint and separate scientific experiments and provided useful engineering experience for future joint US–Russian space flights, such as the Shuttle–Mir Program and the International Space Station. This photograph shows the Apollo spacecraft being recovered in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1975 after traveling over 3.5 million miles. In total, the spacecraft flew 136 orbits around the earth during its nine day mission.
This photograph is matted to include a piece of flown Kapton relic. This pressure-sensitive Kapton polyimide tape was part of the spacecraft's thermal protection subsystem and was removed from the heat shield after splashdown. Kapton is a polyimide film developed by DuPont which can remain stable in a wide range of temperatures, from −273 to +400 °C (−459 – 752 °F).
Certificate of Authenticity included. | <urn:uuid:f2ef27ae-084c-499e-baa3-08ad19b14e9c> | {
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What Is a Healthy Home?
Most of us spend at least half of our lives inside our homes without realizing there is a connection between our housing and our health. This slide show will explore that connection, along with ways to make your house a healthy home.
Our homes can make us feel safe, but they can also make us sick. Some homes may have health hazards including lead-based paint, mold, rodents and insects hiding in clutter, secondhand smoke, and pesticides. Other health hazards are invisible and can be deadly such as carbon monoxide and radon.
Many Homes Have Unhealthy Conditions
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports many homes have unhealthy conditions, including:
- One in 16 have high radon levels
- One in 10 have water leaks
- One in six have structural problems
- One in four have lead-based paint
- One in four do not have a working smoke alarm
For Bedrooms, Living Rooms, and Family Rooms
Here are some ways you can make your bedrooms, living room, and family room more healthy:
- Install smoke alarms on every floor and near all bedrooms, test these smoke alarms monthly and change the batteries every year.
- Install carbon monoxide alarms near bedrooms.
- Do not smoke or allow anyone else to smoke in the home.
- Clean up clutter so insects and rodents don't have a place to burrow
- Keep your floor clear of electrical cords and other clutter such as shoes, toys, and clothing
If your home was built before 1978:
- Have your home tested for lead paint.
- Fix peeling or chipping paint using lead-safe work practices.
- Use safe work practices when painting, remodeling, and renovating to prevent spreading lead dust.
There are also ways to ensure your kitchen is healthy:
- Never use the stove or oven to heat the house.
- Use a range hood fan or other kitchen exhaust fan. Idealy it will vent outside; fans that do not vent outside keep poisons and moisture in the house.
- Install a carbon monoxide alarm.
- Never leave food unattended on the stove.
- Avoid wearing clothes with long, loose-fitting sleeves when cooking.
- Use safe cleaning and pest-control products (keep them locked away from children, follow label directions, and dispose of these products safely).
For Kitchen Pests
If you find pests such as cockroaches, ants, or rodents in your kitchen, there are safe and healthy ways to stop them:
- Seal openings to the outside and between rooms to keep pests out.
- Put away food, clean up, and cover the trash and garbage to starve pests.
- Fix leaks and wipe up spilled water so pests have nothing to drink.
- Use closed baits, traps, and gels only if necessary.
- Never use bug bombs or foggers.
To keep your bathrooms safe:
- Keep all medications away from children by locking them in a medicine cabinet and using childproof caps.
- Clean up moisture and mold safely.
- Open windows and doors to get fresh air.
- Use a bathroom exhaust fan that is vented outside; a fan that is not vented outside keeps moisture in the house.
- Install grab bars on the wall of the bathtub and shower and next to the toilet if anyone in the house has mobility challenges.
Steps you can take to keep your attic safe and healthy include:
- Check for water leaks from the roof.
- Make sure your attic is properly ventilated to prevent moisture that promotes mold growth.
- Seal gaps around roofing and attic openings to keep rodents and insects out of the house.
- Clean up clutter to deny rodents and insects any places to nest.
- Older insulation may contain asbestos. Hire an expert if insulation must be removed or disturbed.
For Basement, Crawl Space, Utility, and Laundry Areas
Remember to safety-proof your basement, utility, and laundry room as well. Steps you can take to keep these areas safe include:
- Set the water heater at 120 F to prevent burns.
- Change the furnace/AC filter regularly.
- Have gas appliances and furnaces checked yearly by a pro¬fessional to make sure they do not release carbon monoxide (CO).
- Vent the clothes dryer to the outside.
- Test for radon (if a high level is detected, hire a specialist to eliminate the hazard).
- Lock up products used for cleaning, car maintenance, gardening, and pest control
For Stairways and Halls
Stairways and hallways should be free of clutter and safe:
- Use stair gates at the top and bottom of stairs if children live in or visit the home.
- Keep a working light bulb in overhead lights in the hall and above the stairs.
- Fix loose or uneven steps and rails on stairs.
- Attach stairway carpet firmly to every step or remove carpet and attach nonslip rubber stair treads.
- Keep stairs free of clutter.
- Install handrails on both sides of the stairs.
For Outer Parts of House and Yard
To have a safe and healthy home, also consider your yard and outside areas as well:
- To keep pests away, fix exterior holes, cracks, and leaks, eliminate standing water and food sources, and keep trash covered with a lid.
- Maintain gutters, downspouts, and roof to prevent moisture from entering the home.
- Use safe work practices when painting, remodeling, or renovating a home built before 1978.
- If you have a septic tank or private well, properly maintain it to prevent illness.
- If you have a swimming pool, use self-closing and self-latching gates and four-sided fencing to prevent small children from unintended access.
- Complete a playground safety checklist if you have playground equipment in your yard.
Cleaning Tips for a Healthier Home
A clean home is one way to have a healthier home. Following are some suggestions to keep your home clean.
Dust Your Home
Dust thoroughly, and clean or replace air conditioning and heating filters regularly, clean ducts and vents to reduce pollen and other airborne allergens.
Organize Your Medicine Cabinet
Keep your medicine cabinet organized and free of older medications. If a medication is expired, discard it safely.
Check the Garage, Basement, and Under the Sink
Get rid of any old and no longer used items that could be "toxic" including cleaning products, pain cans, thinners, oils, solvents, and stains. Do not throw these items into the regular trash. These should be disposed of properly so contact your local sanitation department to find out where the hazardous waster drop-off center is located.
If you have a fireplace with a chimney, have it professionally cleaned to reduce the chances of carbon monoxide exposure.
Mold and Mildew
Mold can be dangerous and can make people in the household ill and trigger allergic reactions. Clean mold and mildew in bathrooms and other damp areas with a nontoxic cleaning product.
Check Your Rugs
Make sure all rugs are secure. Rugs on bare floors should have on-skid mats underneath them, and old mats should be washed or replaced to ensure they do not slide. All bathrooms should have non-skid mats as well.
Keep the kids safe by ensuring outdoor playground equipment such as swing sets and slides are in good shape, and sturdy. Make repairs if needed. Pay attention to guardrails, protruding bolts, swing rope/chain attachments and other things that could injure children.
Make sure batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are changed regularly and working. Do not throw batteries in the trash - dispose of old batteries by recycling or taking them to a hazardous waste center.
Your Healthy Home
A healthy home can help you have a healthy body! Use these tips and make your home a healthy one! | <urn:uuid:ba73db57-a46c-45a3-8b7d-043bc76820e5> | {
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I’ve been researched a lot through forums, websites about wpm. And I heard a lot of people want to reach to 100 (wpm), or from 100 (wpm) to 150 (wpm). But what is words per minute anyway? Is that factor really measures your typing speed as we often thought?
The Fact about WPM
Most people often think that typing speed is measured in words per minute ( wpm ). Since words are not all the same it would not be fair to measure someone’s typing speed counting the actual number of words taken randomly. Consider the following cases:
- Simple words that all text is lower case. (often use in chatting with friends or colleague)
- Complex words from history, or poem, or lyrics, or transcript. (For writer, blogger, writing report)
- Words with punctuation and capitals. (often meet in the reality)
- Words from programming with a lot of special characters. (!@#$%^&*).
For each case, even they have the same number of words, but I can pretty sure that words per minute factor will different for each case if you take a test. Why?
Practice with MasteringTyping.com | <urn:uuid:d5f9cb67-c916-4fcd-8481-69a8ff73f370> | {
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While simply observing the Sun at any wavelength is a wonderful experience, there is something very satisfying about watching sunspot activity with a white light solar filter and recording the changes which occur over a period of days. While you might think it would take sophisticated photography equipment, all it really takes is some patience combined with a pencil and paper and a solar-filter equipped telescope or binocular.
To begin recording sunspots, set up your equipment in a comfortable area. Inspect your solar filter(s) for any pinholes or scratches and then securely attach it to your telescope or binocular. Be sure to cover your finder scope before aiming at the Sun, unless you have a solar-filter equipped finder scope! Once you have the Sun in view, give your equipment a few minutes to reach thermal stability. Since the sunlight will also warm your telescope and cause some image waiver, it will be impossible for it to have a completely steady view. However, a few minutes allowance time for things to "warm up" helps significantly. To help you get the most from your viewing session, try draping a dark colored towel over your head when you are at the eyepiece - similar to an old-fashioned photographer. While you might think it looks silly, it helps to block the stray light and allows your facial muscles to relax and enjoy the view!
Now, let's take a look at the sunspots...
Like our Earth, the Sun is divided into two hemispheres - north and south. Sunspots occur on either side of the equator and they rotate across the solar surface from east to west. Sunspots which appear near the solar poles rotate quickly, making their journey across the visible face in just a matter of a few days, while sunspots appearing along the equator take a longer path and move more slowly. Each sunspot will be constructed of two parts - the very dark umbra and the more opaque penumbra. Regions of sunspots can also contain "fragments" as well.
When you're ready, it's time to begin sketching. Start by drawing a simple circle on your paper. (It's easy to trace around a saucer in advance and do several sheets for several days - or just in case you make a mistake and need another.) Now, sketch what you see! It's easy to make the dark patches which signify the umbra and then shade around them for the penumbra. Try to be as accurate as possible - not because anyone is going to grade your sketches, but because you'll be amazed at the small changes which occur. Be sure to note anything else you might see, such as signs of granulation or areas which appear brighter than others. When you are finished, turn off any drive on your telescope and allow the Sun to "drift" in the eyepiece. The direction in which the limb first goes out of view is west. Label your sketch accordingly. North and south can be completed later.
Once you have a finished sketch, it's time to put away your equipment safely and begin some investigations. All of the sunspots, or groups of sunspots, you have drawn have been assigned numbers. These numbers go by a sophisticated classification system and even more names. They might be referred to a Carrington Rotation Numbers, Wolf Numbers, or Mt. Wilson Numbers... just to name a few. No matter how you refer to them, you will need an accurate source to label your sketch. One of the best resources for sunspot numbers is the Solar Influences Data Analysis Center (SIDC) website at http://sidc.oma.be/index.php3. Once you have viewed the Sun for yourself, it's easy to match what you have on your sketch to their information. Checking with this website will also ensure that you have labeled east and west properly, and can now add the northern and southern hemisphere accurately. Before you put away your sketch, there's more information to be added. You will also want to include the date, time, location, instrument used, type of filter used and magnification.
As the days pass and you continue to observe the same sunspots, you'll notice many wonderful and exciting changes. Some umbra regions may break apart, forming smaller groups all located in the same penumbra. Other umbra regions may join themselves together, forming a large spot with a changed penumbral size. Some smaller spots may disappear entirely and other new ones might form. More sunspots may have rotated into view - while others may have passed around the limb. As a sunspot nears the limb, look for an unusual, dimpled appearance known as the "Wilson Effect". It's just one of many great things you can see using a white light solar filter!
Be sure to store your sunspot records in a safe place. As time passes and you learn even more about solar observing, you'll enjoy accessing your observing reports and seeing how much you have learned. With some practice, you might even find yourself accurately predicting the return of large sunspot regions - or even predicting events such as coronal mass ejections based on what you have seen. It's a wonderful hobby and a great way to enjoy your telescope equipment while observing our nearest star!
CAUTION: Never view the Sun, even for an instant, without a properly installed protective solar filter for your telescope or binoculars, or specialized solar telescope. Doing so could permanently damage your eyes. | <urn:uuid:5c925fec-c32b-4007-a2c6-4285b8ff4796> | {
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Magnetic Resonance Imaging provides highly detailed pictures of anatomy and pathology to help evaluate a wide range of conditions anywhere in the body. MRI uses a strong magnetic field and radiofrequency pulses to produce clear and detailed pictures. MRI does not use ionizing radiation and does not involve x-ray exposure. Detailed MR images allow physicians to better evaluate various parts of the body and determine the presence of certain diseases that may not be assessed adequately with other imaging methods such as x-ray, ultrasound or computed tomography (CT scanning).
- Brain stem
- Soft tissue neck
- Pelvis (boney)
- Pelvis (tissue)
- Sacroiliac joints
- Extremity digit(s)
- Lower extremity
- Lower joint
- Upper extremity
- Upper joint
During Your MRI Exam
During the MRI examination, the patient will be asked to rest motionless on a padded table for 30 to 90 minutes depending on the area of your body being scanned. The anatomic area of interest will be positioned in the center of the magnet. During the scan the patient will hear faint hums, and the thumping of radio waves. The patient is in constant contact with the MRI technician throughout the examination, and has access to a control button to alert the technician if necessary. To help make the MRI exam experience a pleasant one, we have a music system that patients can listen to during the exam. Patients are encouraged to request their favorite music from the technologist that will help them to relax.
No special preparation is required prior to the examination. Patients can continue to take all medication and follow their regular diet unless instructed otherwise. Prior to entering the scan room, the patient will be instructed to remove all jewelry, hairclips, watches, coins, keys and any other metal objects from their body. Credit cards and ATM cards must not be brought into the scan room, as the magnet will erase the magnetic codes on the cards. Patients with metallic or electronic implants, pacemakers or aneurysm clips should alert the technician prior to entering the scan room as the MRI may adversely affect these items.
Some MRI examinations require the use of a non-iodine containing injectable contrast material to increase the sensitivity of the examination and achieve additional information. The contrast material is injected into a vein using a very small needle, which is removed before the scanning begins. The decision to use the contrast material will be made by the referring physician and/or radiologist.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the advantages of MRI?
Some of the advantages of MRI are:
- Earlier detection of disease or injury, making earlier treatment possible
- No exposure to X-rays or radioactive substances
- It is painless, accurate, quick and safe
- No known side effects
When scheduling an appointment, are there certain conditions we need to know about?
Please advise the technologist if you have any of the following:
- A pacemaker
- Are pregnant, or suspect that you may be
- Have aneurysm clips
- Have had heart or brain surgery
- Have any metal fragments in your eyes
- Have shrapnel in your body
- Suffer from claustrophobia
- Weigh 300 lbs. or more
How does a patient prepare for the exam?
Patients should continue with their normal activities, eat light meals, and take any prescribed medications as usual. If possible avoid wearing clothes that have metal buckles, buttons or zippers. Do not use hair spray or eye makeup and please bring your insurance information with you, along with any previous X-rays or imaging studies of the area to be examined.
What will the exam be like?
The patient will be met by our MRI technologist who will be performing the examination. The technologist has completed a rigorous course of education and training, and they work under close supervision of the radiologist to assure the most accurate results from your examination.
The technologist will position and secure the patient on the imaging table. It is important that the patient be secured, because even the slightest movement during the exam can blur the image and result in the need for repeated scans.
The technologist will have the patient in full view at all times during the examination. The technologist and the patient will be in constant communication via a two-way microphone for the length of the examination. The patient will not feel a thing, but may hear the hum of the equipment as the images are being produced.
The patient may be given an intravenous contrast medium, gadolinium to highlight certain abnormalities and blood vessels. The contrast medium at other times, contrast may be given by mouth or rectum for gastrointestinal applications.
How long will the exam take?
The exam usually takes from 30 minutes. Time may vary significantly, depending on the nature of the study. | <urn:uuid:20910295-1cea-41a8-bee9-bd09d1d4ea37> | {
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Author: Aaron White, Date: 31st March 2016
Hot Scams and You
Beyond anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, firewalls, and routine updates to your system, there are things you can watch for every day while using personal technology. Take a look at the hottest scams versus seven tips for protecting yourself.
Who are you really talking to?
Phishing emails attempt to impersonate companies or authorities to fool you into providing personal information, particularly passwords. This type of scam can be also be committed via your personal social networks. For instance, you receive an urgent email from Google.Your email has been hacked! Keep your account safe by clicking this link and entering a new password!
Of course, now you are also prompted for your current password. In effect, the hacker uses your fear of having your account hacked in order to hack your account! The consequences can run from annoying to devastating.
Tip: A reputable company will never request personal info via email.
It gets even worse when the fraudster impersonates your financial institution. You click a link that appears to be from your bank, asking you to verify your account credentials. Just enter your routing and account number and… you can guess the rest. Check out Am I a Bank Account Fraud Victim? Here’s What You Should Know, which details the warning signs of attempted bank fraud and what steps to take if your account has been compromised.
Tip: Do not open unsolicited emails, or attachments.
2. Email Spoofing
Only open attachments from people you know.
It sounds like straightforward advice, but identifying the true email sender can be more difficult than you would think. Email spoofing is a deceptive tactic that malware distributors use. They search through your contacts for familiar names or email addresses, then falsify the sender field of your email. The intent is to make you more likely to click on an attachment or link, thus infecting your machine with software that is specifically designed to harm your computer. The malware also plunders your contact list for fresh targets to further spread the infection. So if a friend tells you that they received a strange email from you, it likely means your account has been compromised.
3. Pop-up Scams / Redirects
These are fake but very urgent-sounding warnings that pop-up out of nowhere. These are designed to scare you. They will often urge you to call a phone number where someone posing as a tech support guy will ask for your sensitive information, passwords, or maybe even try to get you to purchase phony computer protection. Because they often impersonate Microsoft or Apple, or mimic “anti-virus software” notifications, it’s important to remember that tech support simply does not work this way. If your anti-virus software finds a suspicious file, it will quietly quarantine it in the background. It may display a message in your toolbar, but it will quickly disappear. It will not announce that it’s infected with fanfare and flashing colors.
To identify these scams, watch out for telltale signs such as:
- Grammar and spelling mistakes
- Oddball message from “friends” or acquaintances
- Anything that prompts you to provide personal info
- Offersthat sound too good to be true
7 Tips For Protecting Yourself
1. Compartmentalize your Online Identity
Many online services (think Google+) offer to link your accounts to make logging in more convenient across websites. But if you want to make yourself harder to track, you should keep these accounts separate.
In fact, you can go a step further and use different email addresses during registration to further fracture your online ID. At a minimum, use a different email address for your banking (or anything that keeps a credit card on file) than you would social media, or other non-financial accounts.
2. Check your Privacy Settings:
Go into the Settings/Options menu of every web browser you use and make sure your privacy settings are optimized.
Open IE and click the Tools button in the upper-right corner, then select Internet Options, and click the Privacy Tab.
Type “about:preferences#privacy” in the address bar.
3. Beware of What You Share
Social media will never go away. Neither will the information you post there. Try to limit the amount of sensitive info you post, and be careful about who you’re sharing it with. For instance, posting your current location might tip off a burglar that you’re away on vacation.
4. Never Enter More Info Than You Have To
Whenever you find yourself filling out a form online, complete only the required fields. These are generally the ones with an asterisk next to them. There’s no need to give away your personal details when you don’t have to.
5. Use Strong Passwords
A strong password is one that is hard for another person to guess. You’ll want to strike a balance between making it hard to figure out, and easy enough to remember. Avoid words that include pet or family member names, birthdates, and other identifying personal information.
Instead, use an inside joke, random but memorable phrase, and combinations of letters numbers and symbols. Also, do not reuse the same passwords across many accounts. If someone guesses your one password, they will have access to all your accounts.
6. Do Not Track Request
All web browsers have a feature that sends a “Do Not Track” request. However, websites are not required to honor this request, and most don’t. It can’t hurt to enable this setting though.
7. Send Sensitive Stuff Safely
In light of the phishing scams mentioned above, it’s handy to know the clues that you’re on a safe, authentic website. If you are using private information online, check for the https: prefix in the website address. If it has that extra “s”, it means the website is keeping your information secure. | <urn:uuid:a51c053b-7711-4718-b35e-4ee91087a911> | {
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For most of the eighteenth century, the power of the Russian monarchy had been wielded by women. When his mother Catherine the Great died in 1796, the new emperor, Paul, introduced a set of succession laws which, in the future, barred women in the Romanov family from inheriting the throne - or from transmitting that claim to their children. The Empress Anna had married abroad and when she unexpectedly inherited the throne in 1730, it was felt by many that her government became the puppet of her German in-laws. Female monarchs, like Anna, could therefore apparently be weak and easily dominated by their male advisers. If they weren't weak, then the dominant misogynist logic of the time held that they would be devious and manipulative. Both the Empress Elisabeth and Catherine the Great had seized the throne by overthrowing weak male monarchs in order to achieve their goals. After a century of such behaviour, Emperor Paul, who loathed his mother and had mortified Marie-Antoinette on a state visit to Versailles by the things he said about her, was determined to make sure that a female coup didn't happen again. From 1797 on wards, the succession to the Russian throne could only proceed directly through the male line.
By 1904, Tsar Paul's great-great grandson, Nicholas II, was beginning to feel the pressure of his ancestor's decision. So far, he and his Anglo-German wife, Alexandra, had produced four children - 8 year-old Olga, 7 year-old Tatiana, 5 year-old Maria and 3 year-old Anastasia. All girls. (Below) Whilst the birth of Olga, a fat and healthy baby, had been greeted with undisguised joy in 1895, the birth of Maria in 1899 had been described by her own grandmother as a crushing disappointment and when Anastasia was born in 1901, the Tsar had gone for a long walk in the palace gardens, before putting on a brave face to greet his wife and child.
Alexandra was more than aware that people expected her to deliver. (Quite literally.) And she felt the pressure keenly. When her second daughter, Tatiana, was born in 1897, the young Empress had apparently burst into tears, asking, "What will the nation say?" There were also signs that Alexandra's delicate build could not cope with many more pregnancies. She did not have a strong heart, or back, and even during her second pregnancy, she had spent most of her time in a wheelchair or in bed. She repeatedly fainted during her pregnancy with Maria and the birth of Anastasia had been difficult. Increasingly desperate, Alexandra had turned to her religion and she formed a close friendship with another member of the Imperial Family, the Grand Duchess Militsa, a woman known for her interest in the quack fringes of Christianity. On her advice, the Empress had made visits to a dubious French mystic called Philippe Nazier-Vachot; she had also gone on pilgrimage and bathed in holy springs. At one point, not too long after Anastasia's birth, the Tsarina thought she might be pregnant again, but it was a false alarm.
In early 1904, Alexandra knew for certain she was pregnant again. She was under pressure not just from her own body, which physically could not take any more pregnancies, but also from the nation, who had been anything but responsive when yet another daughter had been born in 1901 - despite the Tsar's attempts to celebrate Anastasia's birth by granting amnesty to certain prisoners. As with Anastasia's birth three years earlier, the Imperial Family stuck to their usual annual routine and decided to spend part of the summer at Peterhof (below), a magnificent eighteenth century summer palace near Saint Petersburg, built by Peter the Great and sometimes nicknamed "the Russian Versailles."
The weather was very hot that summer and the breeze coming off the bays near the palace helped alleviate the court's discomfort. On 12th August, the Tsar and Tsarina sat down to luncheon together, as usual. The Empress was nine months pregnant. She made it to the soup course before excusing herself and hurrying to her rooms, with her servants and doctors. After all the pain and panic that had gone into hoping for a boy, and all the pain and panic that would follow this particular little boy, Alexei Romanov's birth was actually surprisingly easy. Labour lasted less than an hour and in the early afternoon, the guns at Peterhof fired out to announce the birth of another imperial child. Protocol demanded three hundred shots for a boy and one hundred and one for a girl. By the time the one hundred and second shot was fired, the nearby imperial naval base at Kronstadt had started their own salute. The population of the country's capital, Saint Petersburg, heard the news when the enormous cannons of the Peter and Paul Fortress began thundering out across the city and the cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan led the city's churches in a bell-ringing cacophony.
The child had been christened Alexei, after Nicholas II's favourite ancestor, the seventeenth century Tsar Alexei the Just. He inherited the Romanovs' proverbial good looks and the delicate complexion of his mother's family. Nicholas described it as a "great, never-to-be-forgotten day" in his diary and attributed his son's birth to "the mercy of God." Alexandra wept hysterically: "Oh, it cannot be true! It cannot be true! Is it really a boy?" The Empress's lady-in-waiting, Anna Vyrobouva, described him as "beautiful ... healthy, normal." He was beautiful, yes, but he was not healthy.
Some of the first official visitors to see the future tsar in his cradle were his four sisters, who were allowed to tiptoe in once the baby had been washed and dressed. His full name and title was His Imperial Highness Alexei Nicholaivich, Sovereign Heir and Tsarevich, Grand Duke of Russia, Hetman of All Cossacks, Knight of the Order of Saint Andrew, Head of the Siberian Infantry, Head of the Horse Battalion Infantry and Head of the Cadet Corps. His godparents were his grandmother, the Dowager Empress Marie (Nicholas's Danish mother and one of the most popular members of the Romanov family with the public); King Edward VII of Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and the Tsarina's brother, Grand Duke Ernest of Hesse. It would be six weeks before his parents began to notice dark purple bruises on his arms and legs and the awful realisation that he had haemophilia - the same disease which had killed Alexandra's uncle, Leopold, and her little brother, Frederick.
Desperate to hide the truth about her son's illness, lest it weaken respect for the dynasty, and crippled by guilt that it had been her genetics which gave him the sickness which could kill him, Alexandra turned to the same dubious religious solutions she had used when trying to fall pregnant in the first place. When doctors couldn't do anything for her, she sought an answer from God and she believed she had found it in the form of a smelly, eccentric Siberian peasant called Grigory Rasputin. His soothing voice and prayers were the only thing that seemed to stop Alexei's terrible fits of bleeding and, having witnessed these miracles with her own eyes, Alexandra became convinced Rasputin had been touched by the hands of God. To preserve her son's life, she ignored all the evidence which proved that, once he left her presence, Rasputin was not submissive and holy, but wild, drunken and belligerent. Even when she (ludicrously) was accused of being his lover, Alexandra refused to abandon the man who could cure her son. Nicholas, who found Rasputin bizarre and slightly irritating, loved Alexandra so much that he could not bring himself to shatter the only mechanism she had to cope with their child's disease: religion, represented by Rasputin. She defended Rasputin, even when everyone around her knew that his unpopularity was damaging the monarchy. Since the public knew nothing of Alexei's illness, they could not understand why Alexandra was so attached to Rasputin and, naturally, many of them therefore assumed the worst. The repressed trauma of Alexei's illness would eventually set in motion a catalogue of disasters that would shatter the prestige of the Romanov dynasty, claim dozens of political careers, split the church, end Rasputin's life and drag Alexandra's reputation through the mud. Thirteen years later, when the Russian Empire Alexei was born to inherit vanished in revolution, many people, even Alexandra's own friends and family, blamed her dependence on Rasputin and the secret grief she had carried for years, which had led her to put her son's health, his happiness and (above all) his privacy above everything else. | <urn:uuid:2a6cb7a4-2087-4d82-a2e7-469d4eb9e59a> | {
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In this 30th Sightings, I have decided to discuss one of my own images, as I did in the very first column. Not that I think this particular image is earth-shattering; in fact, many images in this issue of American Scientist might be considered more worthy. But I thought Sightings readers would be interested in an example of what has become for me an obvious, but too-often ignored, transformative exercise: clarifying and learning science by thinking about how to visually represent an idea, a process or a structure in science, for the purpose of explaining it.
My Harvard colleague and coauthor George Whitesides, with whom I am working on the book No Small Matter, forthcoming in 2009 from Harvard University Press, asked that I make an interesting representation of nanotubes. I am a science photographer, not an illustrator, so my first course of action is usually to think photographically. The obvious, making a scanning electron micrograph of a nanotube, was not an option. Others have done that, probably much better than I would have. I decided to photographically simulate a nanotube structure.
Here's what I did. First I printed a black hexagonal pattern, representing a standard carbon lattice, on an 8x10 piece of transparent acetate (a). I then began to roll the acetate to make a tube. Immediately, something wonderful happened: I couldn't make a decision about how to longitudinally connect the edges of the paper. I was faced with a few choices. The literature informed me that there were indeed various possible configurations for carbon nanotubes, and that the ultimate configuration was significant in determining the electrical properties of the nanotube.
For this image, I decided (for no particular reason other than aesthetic) to adopt what's called the "zigzag" configuration and not to attempt to show the endcaps that tie up the dangling carbon bonds in a nanotube. I secured the edges of the acetate with a couple of pieces of tape and placed the tube on my flatbed scanner. [Below left] is the image I came up with (b). Nothing terribly compelling. I then "inverted" the nanotube in Adobe Photoshop and combined a few "layers" of the same image to make multiple layers with varying degrees of transparency, resulting in (c). For the final composite image at left, I went a little further in nudging the image using various filters and additional inversions.
Whether the reader believes the final image was worth all that manipulation is another discussion. The point here is that making this representation taught me something about nanotubes. The act of creating it allowed me to comprehend the key bit of nanotube science that Boris Yakobson and the late Richard Smalley described in a word-picture in these pages in July-August 1997:
. . . a nanoscopic tailor might start with a nice big piece of a one-atom-thick sheet of graphite, cut a long strip out of it and roll it up into a cylinder with no stitches left. The tailor has a decision to make, though: whether to choose the strip width parallel to the dense zigzag row of bonds, perpendicular to it, or at . . . an angle somewhere between the angles of the zigzag (0 degrees) and the armchair (30 degrees).
We are privileged that the National Science Foundation sees the value to students in making representations in science through their support of our Picturing to Learn project (www.picturingtolearn.org), in which undergraduates show their grasp of an aspect of science by creating a representation intended to communicate the information to a high school student. Whoever you are—a photographer manipulating a scientific image in today's "virtual darkroom," a physicist sketching on a blackboard, a student reaching for a visual metaphor or graphing a function—understanding often comes through the act of representation. I would be delighted to hear from Sightings readers interested in hearing more about our project. | <urn:uuid:bb7b5020-d942-46d4-9012-06f88f00b1a1> | {
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'Cuddle hormone' oxytocin may play role in fear
According to The Daily Telegraph, a new study may “help explain why intense feelings of love can also lead to painful heartache that can be hard to move on from if a relationship turns sour.”
Given the headlines, you might expect the study to match the emotional complexity and power of “Anna Karenina” or “Wuthering Heights”. But the study actually involved mice.
The rodent research explored how oxytocin, the so-called “cuddle hormone” – considered to have pro-social and anti-anxiety effects in the brain – may actually be involved in increasing fear in some scenarios.
Mice underwent a variety of behavioural and biological tests that ultimately suggested oxytocin may be involved in enabling them to remember bad social memories. One of these memories was being “bullied” by a more aggressive mouse.
While this result is interesting, it isn’t wise to generalise the findings from a handful of mice in very controlled situations to the general human population’s complex social experiences. This is especially so given that research from earlier in the year came to the entirely contrary conclusion that oxytocin could ease the pain of social rejection.
This research was exploratory and improves our knowledge about the role of oxytocin, leading to new ideas, but it does not provide definitive proof that we fully understand the function of oxytocin in humans.
Where did the story come from?
The study was carried out by researchers from universities in the US and Japan, and was funded by US National Institutes of Health grants.
It was published in the peer-reviewed science journal Nature Neuroscience.
The general UK media’s reporting of this study was poor. It failed to highlight the limitations of the research and in some cases even failed to acknowledge that the research was in mice. Many readers might assume the research was in humans and may be surprised to learn this is not the case.
What kind of research was this?
This was a laboratory-based study in mice. It aimed to investigate the role of a hormone called oxytocin in the fear response.
The researchers highlight how oxytocin is generally understood to have anti-anxiety, pro-social and anti-stress properties. This is partly why the media has dubbed it the “cuddle hormone”.
However, the researchers mention that the view that oxytocin reduces fear and anxiety has recently been challenged by recent research in humans.
Some research suggests that oxytocin may not always have an exclusively positive effect on human mood. In a recent overview on the issue, the New Scientist highlighted a number of studies that showed that oxytocin may promote feelings of envy and hostility to strangers (PDF, 826kb)
The researchers sought to investigate the issue by studying how changes in oxytocin signalling in a specific part of the brain involved with stress and fear (the lateral septum) were related to fear-related behaviour in mice.
What did the research involve?
The researchers used genetic engineering methods to generate two different groups of mice with alterations to normal levels of the oxytocin receptor, a protein that allows cells to respond to the hormone.
One group were engineered to produce high levels of the oxytocin receptor in the lateral septum part of the brain, while the other group produced low levels of the receptor in the same area.
The researchers studied both the biological and behavioural impact of this genetic engineering to understand the role oxytocin plays in fear. The mice with high levels of the receptor were expected to be more responsive to oxytocin, while those with low levels were expected to be less responsive.
The mice were then administered three different tests to see how oxytocin levels influenced fear response.
Context-dependent fear conditioning
In a so-called “context-dependent fear conditioning” experiment, the mice were observed to see if they “froze” in anticipation of an electric shock. This involved placing the mice in a chamber with a metal floor that delivered a short shock to their feet after three minutes. They were placed back in the chamber – the same “context” – and observed to see how scared they were in anticipation of the shock.
The second behaviour assessment was called “stress-enhanced fear”. This was complex and involved “social defeat” followed by “fear conditioning”. It aimed to to see if being socially wounded affected future fear responses. The media latched on to this as analogous to a relationship break-up.
For the social defeat element, mice were placed in a cage with an aggressive resident mouse for 10 minutes. Social defeat was monitored and confirmed based on the number of attacks by the aggressor, and defensive and submissive postures of the defeated mouse. Six hours later the mice underwent the contextual fear conditioning described above to see if the social defeat had any effect.
The third test (social memory) involved taking the socially defeated mouse and allowing it to mingle with the aggressive mouse again six hours after the initial encounter. The researchers observed how often the defeated mouse approached the aggressive one as a sign of whether it remembered the fear it experienced six hours before.
Analysis focused on differences in the biology and behaviour of the two mice groups, who were genetically engineered to have different levels of response to oxytocin. They also compared them with mice that had no genetic engineering, so had “normal” levels of response to the hormone.
What were the basic results?
The results from the “context-dependent fear conditioning” suggested fear regulation was not directly mediated by oxytocin levels. This was because the results in the two groups of mice engineered to have both higher and lower levels of oxytocin receptors were very similar to normal mice in their contextual fear responses.
The “stress-enhanced fear” experiment showed that mice with genetically engineered low levels of oxytocin responsiveness were less scared than normal mice. Those with higher oxytocin responsiveness were more scared under the same conditions.
The fear was also reduced by chemically inhibiting the oxytocin molecule, which reinforced the suggestion that oxytocin might be having an effect in stress-related fear.
The social memory experiment showed that mice with high levels of oxytocin responsiveness approached the aggressive resident mouse less than normal mice.
This was interpreted to mean they had a better lasting memory of their previous interaction and so were more scared of the aggressive mouse on the second encounter.
The mice with lower levels of oxytocin responsiveness approached the aggressor more frequently, suggesting their social memory and fear may be less strong.
How did the researchers interpret the results?
The researchers concluded that their results showed that “social defeat” activated the oxytocin pathway and enhanced fear conditioning. This means they thought past social knockdowns caused greater fear for future interactions and that these were at least partly caused by oxytocin-related signals in the brain.
This research, using mice, showed that oxytocin may have a role in enhancing the memory of past socially stressful events, which may cause more fear of future events.
The main limitation of this research is that it is in mice, rather than humans. There are many biological similarities between mice and humans, and studies in mice can be useful to better understand the biology of behaviour.
However, their findings cannot necessarily be directly translated across species to humans, particularly when dealing with complex issues such as social interaction.
The media headlines focused on the impact on humans, which assumes that the findings in mice are directly relevant to humans. This type of assumption needs to be tested and may not always be true.
Human behaviour is complex, so there are likely to be many factors involved in fear and social rejection that will vary from person to person. It is not possible to generalise the findings of a few mice to the majority of human social experiences as some of the headlines have done.
The researchers report that some initial studies have suggested that oxytocin may be associated with memories of unpleasant events and fear and anxiety in humans, and undoubtedly research into its role in these emotions will continue.
Given that previously oxytocin was largely thought to reduce fear and anxiety shows how complex the biology of these emotions are, and that we still have a lot to learn.
Nonetheless, this was a useful piece of research that adds to a growing body of evidence exploring how different molecules play a role in fear.
If you are having problems coping with feelings of fear and anxiety, contact your GP. | <urn:uuid:10740319-75f9-4766-a923-1f3f992e8e38> | {
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Frankincense, the name echoes throughout the fragrant histories of the world as a champion of aromatics. As one of the most popular incense materials of the ages, it has long nourished many spiritual and religious traditions from ancient Egypt to Japan. In addition to its holy uses, Frankincense is also traditionally used as a medicine to treat a wide variety of imbalances and ailments in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Greek Medicine, Tibetan Medicine, and many other alternative medical practices.
Frankincense is the fragrant resinous sap of various species of Boswellia trees. The trees range in height between 6 to 28 feet tall and are native to the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. Traditionally, incisions are made on the tree’s trunk or branches which exude the precious gum which is left to harden before it is collected for trade. Frankincense ‘tears’ get their name from the droplets secreted from the trunk which resemble tear drops.
Histories and Virtues of Frankincense
For 5,000 years Frankincense has reigned supreme as the most widely used incense in the world. From ancient Roman emperors and humble Catholic monks, to Arabian kings and fine incense and spice merchants of the ancient Orient, Frankincense has influenced the divine connection between Gods and humans for millennia. In addition, many traditional medical practices utilize Frankincense in the treatment of countless physical ailments and mental imbalances.
In one of the oldest writings in history, the Bible, Frankincense is mentioned many times in holy context as sacred incense; a sacrament to the heavens, to God. It was one of the ingredients in the holy Ketoret incense, burned daily by specially trained authorized priests at Solomon’s Temple, and was among the three gifts from the three Wise Men, or Magi, who visited infant Jesus in the famous Biblical tale. It was even said to have been one of the handful of holy plants that Adam took from the Garden of Eden and brought back as a fragrant treasure for all mankind. From these early days, and throughout many different beliefs and religions, Frankincense was known to hold a special power to help one connect and commune with the Divine.
Many small kingdoms and major trading villages of old were supported by the trade of Frankincense, among other aromatic incense plants and tree resins. Arabian traders were made wealthy beyond belief from these precious botanical substances; Egyptian pharaohs were happy to pay enormously for unbelievable amounts of exotic incenses from afar. Through the sacred smoke of Frankincense, these wealthy rulers, spiritual leaders, and royals of the Old World shared in the aromatic riches of the divine sense of smell. Never-ending plumes of smoke emanated the halls of ancient temples, castles, and courts, bathing royalty in constant fragrant blessings.
The ancient Egyptians were quite fond of Frankincense resin and used it as temple incense (an ingredient in the famous Kyphi incense), as medicine, in the use of cosmetics and perfumery, and even for burial ceremonies and embalming. The enormous appetite for heavenly Frankincense smoke among royalty, religious institutions, and wealthy citizens of Europe, Egypt, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia made this prized resin one of the most heavily exported resins in the world. For thousands of years caravans carrying metric tons of Frankincense traveled the ancient Incense Road reaching tropical paradises, gloomy fortresses, and far-off exotic kingdoms near and far.
In Catholicism, Frankincense and Myrrh have been used in rites since its formation and are still present in the church today. Burning Frankincense in the church may also be viewed in the context of a “burnt offering” given to God. Like many other religious and spiritual traditions, the act of smoke rising upward is thought by Catholics and Christians alike to carry prayers to heaven, or to the Creator.
Frankincense has been an important substance in Alchemical and European mystical traditions for its symbolism and its practical and spiritual medicine. In Alchemy, it was used to make many different philosophical medicinal preparations aimed at physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional healing, as well as for spiritual evolution. Countless wise men and women have meditated on Frankincense’s many layers of meaning and hidden wisdom, as it is an herb long associated with the Sun, the intuition, divine connection, inner strength, personal power, and the archetype of the King,
Many of the esoteric and magical uses of Frankincense are based on its affinity to the Sun. In times of old it was used as sacrificial incense to many Sun gods including the Egyptian Sun god Ra, the Greek deity Apollo, and the Babylonian Sun god Bael. This sacred connection resembles spiritual insight, spiritual self-discipline, and the dedication of finding ones true spiritual nature. Frankincense is known to open up channels to a higher power and higher wisdom during meditation and ritual; a sacred key that unlocks the door to the divine.
Traditional Medicinal Uses
Since Biblical times, the many healing abilities of Frankincense have been utilized to treat a wide variety of illnesses and imbalances all over the world. It has been most widely used for its bacteria, infection, and virus-killing properties. Many cultures would burn Frankincense around the dead or in infirmaries during times of plague to control the spread of disease. Frankincense is burned as incense or used in an essential oil diffuser for various internal healing purposes. It has been used in the treatment of various respiratory conditions such as bronchitis, asthma, sinusitis, and laryngitis, and is also an effective expectorant with the ability to relieve tightness in the chest.
Physicians of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tibetan Medicine, and Ayurveda have been using Frankincense incense and essential oil to relieve nervous tension, stress, depression, insomnia, anxiety, and other nervous disorders for ages. Many also utilize the melted resin topically or in ointment or salve form for its ability to relieve pain associated with arthritis, muscle tension, joint stiffness, menstruation, and various injuries. Ancient cultures also applied Frankincense topically to heal wounds and to prevent infection and scarring.
When safe doses are taken internally using traditional raw resin preparations (not essential oil), Frankincense can help improve circulation of the blood, relieve certain digestive problems, and soothe inflamed tissues (depending on a person’s unique personal constitution). It has even been studied for its effects in killing cancer cells and preventing free-radical damage. Recent studies have proven that Frankincense can be beneficial in cases of ovarian, colon, breast, and prostate cancers. Unfortunately, these studies have yet to be verified by ‘officials’ and are still in process of publication. Many of the ancient medicinal applications of Frankincense resin are still used today for the same disorders and illnesses.
Frankincense is a mainstay in any incense lover or aromatherapist’s collection. Whether you’re in need of positive upliftment, healing, to release nervous tension in the mind and body, to connect more deeply with the self or a higher power, or simply desire to enjoy the rich, fruity aroma of the world’s most ancient incense resin, Frankincense is a warm and comforting companion to meditation, contemplation, and your own unique spiritual evolution.
Sustainability and Endangerment
The Frankincense populations of the world are greatly threatened at this time due to their ever-growing popularity, over-harvesting, and natural destructive forces. The rise in popularity of essential oils has had the most devastating effect on the natural populations of these trees. Local harvesters try to meet large-scale corporate demand of essential oil companies by harvesting much more than the trees can handle, jeopardizing the tree’s well-being. Once weakened in this way, their immune systems are compromised, allowing disease and insects to finish them off. Frankincense trees are highly endangered at this time, though the demand and trade of this precious commodity has not slowed. Studies show that if we continue down the road of unconscious stewardship and over-harvesting, Frankincense trees could be extinct in 50 years!
Times of crisis tend to generate good in the world however. In light of this critical reality, local leaders and wild-harvesting co-operatives in North Africa have begun to address this issue, spreading knowledge and best practices for healthy harvesting methods as quickly as possible. Though in its infancy, the exports from these co-operatives and sustainability groups are growing. Soon sustainability certification will be available for suppliers, allowing the consumer to vote with their dollar and do their part to preserve the timeless treasure and traditions of Frankincense. Be sure to ask your Frankincense resin/oil supplier to look into these co-operatives, and demand ethical and sustainable sourcing of their Frankincense from them.
Want to learn more about incense traditions and aromatic plant medicine? Check out the one-of-a-kind Listening to Incense Program today!
Latin Name: Boswellia carterii, B. sacra, B. frereana, B. serrata, B. thurifera, B. bhaw-dajiana
Other Names: Olibanum, Oleo, Oliban, Frankincense
Chakra: Third Eye, Crown
Parts Used: resin, gum
Aroma: rich, resinous, balsamic, sweet, slightly citrus, camphoraceous
Organ/System Affiliation: nervous system, respiratory system, immune system
Physiological Effects: analgesic, antibacterial, anti-depressive, anti-infectious, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, aromatic, astringent, calmative, carminative, expectorant, stomachic, vulnerary
Article By – Evan Sylliaasen
© 2016 Evan Sylliaasen, Higher Mind Incense. All Rights Reserved.
*The statements above have not been evaluated by the FDA. This article is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Want to experience Frankincense resin for yourself? Check out our 1oz. Frankincense packages, Boswellia carterii. | <urn:uuid:e6e6ca42-4ecc-4a35-af61-d995fecc4afa> | {
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Cooperatives are user owned businesses that are an important part of the U.S. economy and particularly prevalent in the agricultural sector. In 2009, cooperative businesses in the United States controlled over $3 trillion in assets, generated nearly $654 billion in revenue, employed over 2 million people and distributed nearly $79 billion in income to user/owners. Agricultural marketing cooperatives generate nearly $130 billion in revenue and over 200,000 jobs (Deller et al.2009) Cooperatives operate under a business model that generates unique challenges in financial management, governance, strategy and communication. These unique challenges and the prevalence of cooperatives in U.S. agriculture have encouraged research and education efforts by agricultural economists since the early 1900’s. Cooperatives were included as a part of the mission of the Cooperative Extension Service in 1926 and the USDA has maintained research and statistical staff focusing on cooperatives for over 50 years. A National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA; formerly CSREES) Regional Research and Extension Committee for cooperatives has been active since 1993, making it one of the longest running such committees in the United States. Cooperatives, as an industry, are among the most generous supporters of departments of agricultural economics with more than $20 million invested in scholarships, faculty, and other endowments in at least 14 different departments. In addition, more than $150,000 of scholarships are awarded annually by cooperatives to undergraduate students in the United States and another $100,000 for graduate student research.
A review of academic archiving services yields thousands of citations with “cooperative” listed as a key word. Some of these studies have discussed the economic models that can be applied to a cooperative. Agricultural cooperatives have been analyzed as a form of vertical integration as; a unique form of firm; as a set of implicit and explicit contracts between farmer members, managers and employee; and as a coalition. Other studies have considered the cooperative’s role and impact in the market place. Firm level research has analyzed the structure and performance of the cooperative firm—including financial structure, taxation, marketing activities, strategy, and membership involvement.
The interest of agricultural economists in agricultural cooperatives is understandable and appropriate. The cooperative business model creates unique challenges and economic questions which agricultural economists are positioned to address. In addition, since agricultural cooperatives are owned by and designed to benefit producers, cooperative related research has the potential to benefit a large number of farmers. Almost 715,000 farmers are members of agricultural marketing cooperatives (Deller et al., 2009).
Cooperative Organizations Represented on the Expert Panel
There have also been a number of efforts to identify challenges, critical issues and success factors for agricultural cooperatives. This Choices theme reports on the most recent effort. The objective of this series of articles is to summarize current challenges and needs within the cooperative community. The insights were gained from a panel of cooperative leaders (Table 1) and USDA and academic experts. Similar panels have been organized in every decade since the 1970s and have helped the academic community develop research and outreach programs. The panel met August 4, 2011 in Washington, DC. and was organized by the Council on Food, Agriculture, and Resource Economics (C-FARE). The CHS Foundation was the main sponsor of the event. A diverse spectrum of business areas including raisins, oranges, grain, farm supply, dairy, bio-energy, farm credit and local foods were represented. The challenges and issues for cooperatives were identified through a two-stage modified Delphi survey process and a face-to-face focus panel discussion. A Delphi survey is a multi-stage expert survey in which the opinions and information from the first stage are used to refine the second and subsequent stages. In this case, the first stage was an open-ended survey in which the panel identified and described challenges and critical issues. In the second stage, the panel members rated the importance of the major issues identified in the first stage. Twenty-five cooperative leaders received the survey, 18 responded to the first stage and 19 responded to the second stage. The degree of response, particularly by members of the cooperative business industry—including CEOs of major cooperatives, suggests there is an important constituency that values research on agricultural cooperatives and is interested in engaging with the agricultural and applied economics profession.
In this article, we introduce the topics identified as challenges and issues currently affecting the success of cooperatives. Subsequent articles in this theme explore the relationship between these challenges and issues, the current nature of the agricultural economy, and the interaction of these conditions with achievement of farmer-owner objectives, subject to the constraints of the cooperative business model.
The panel reported that a variety of issues external to cooperative firm are impacting them (Figure 1). Volatility of commodity and input markets was perceived as the most important issue. The panel indicated that recent market volatility had created the need for additional equity and more robust risk management strategies.
Public policy, global competition, industry competition and market concentration were all perceived as extremely important or very important issues. Interestingly, specific environmental regulations and issues including green house gas emissions and genetically modified organisms were not ranked as highly important. Consumer preferences were rated as “extremely important” by nearly a third of the panel.
The panel identified a number of challenges and issues which are inherently important to cooperatives, and must be dealt with in the context of the external environment in which they operate.
These outside forces impacted the collective perception of the strategic issues facing cooperatives (Figure 2). McKee, Boland, and Hogeland summarize the findings and research needs in strategy in another article. Almost 90% of the cooperative leaders viewed the need for effective strategic planning as an extremely or very important issue. Aside from planning, human resource issues dominated the strategy area. The succession of management and key personnel, attracting and maintaining high quality personnel, and aligning the incentives of managers and employees with member interest all received high importance ratings. A third of the respondents viewed gaining efficiency and maintaining viability in their market segments as an extremely important issue, while 12% gave extreme importance to the cooperative’s ability to make effective, timely decisions. The ability of the cooperative to pursue alliances with investor owned firms or with other cooperatives was also considered important.
Respondents identified several financial issues of current importance to the success of cooperatives. The Barton, Boland, Chaddad, and Eversull article summarizes the challenges and research suggestions in the finance area. The panel indicated that acquiring and maintaining adequate equity was the most critical challenge. This issue is related to the features of the cooperative business model since cooperatives often create equity out of the profit stream and simultaneously manage systems to return—redeem—that equity to members. It is therefore not surprising that maintaining sufficient and consistent profitability and risk management were also considered key issues.
The panel identified two other financial challenges related to acquisition of equity. The use of outside, nonmember equity was considered important. The majority of the panel also considered the recent trend of creating unallocated equity—retaining earnings—instead of issuing stock to individual members as an extremely or very important issue. The complexity of these challenges is further evidenced by the fact that the panel considered the financial competency of both managers and directors an extremely important issue.
The fact that agricultural cooperatives are governed by producer-members is both a key strength and a key challenge for cooperatives. Hueth and Reynolds summarize the issues and need for future research in this area. The key governance challenge (Figure 4) is that of identifying and recruiting directors with the essential mix of skills. Member involvement in a cooperative—another key issue—often relates to their access to board members or interest in running for the board. Other governance issues identified by the panel were related to the effectiveness and performance of the board of directors. The addition of outside, non-member directors has been a recent development in agricultural cooperatives, and according to the panel, is an important issue facing modern cooperatives.
The panel identified a number of issues relating to communications (Figure 5).
Bond and Bhuyan summarize these issues and discuss research needs. All businesses, including cooperatives are formed to create and deliver value to their customers and owners. The cooperative member is both user and customer and this creates tension in generating and allocating economic benefits. This also creates unique challenges in communicating the value of the cooperative to both its members and to the general public. Communicating the value of the cooperative to its member owners was the most critical communication challenge identified. Cooperatives create value through the prices they provide members, access to the market place, unique services provided, counteracting market power, and of course, the financial return created at the cooperative level. Communicating this complex value package, particularly to large producer-members, was identified as a key issue.
Related to this issue is the challenge of educating members so they understand and participate in decisions on retaining funds, managing equity, distributing profits and rationalizing business operations. Reaching young producers and young potential employees is also an important issue as is improving the public understanding of the cooperative business model. The panel noted that cooperatives have struggled to develop a simple unified message that describes the value of the cooperative business model across all sectors of cooperatives.
Newly organized agricultural cooperatives experience challenges distinct from those facing established firms. Henehan, Schultz and Hardesty summarize these new cooperative development issues and research needs. Cooperative membership—and therefore ownership—is dynamic and is limited to the current users of the business. Thus, founding members of a cooperative may have a very different perception of the firm’s value in comparison with future generations. Surprisingly, the panel indicated that many issues facing new cooperatives are similar to those described as facing established cooperatives (Figure 6). Acquiring significant equity, and identifying and attracting knowledgeable leadership, are viewed as key impediments to the development of successful cooperatives. Other key issues facing new cooperatives include developing partnerships within the supply chain, and accurately forecasting demand and business feasibility. The panel commented that managers and board members of new cooperatives need linkages with their counterparts in established, successful firms.
One of the most significant results from the discussion of the panel of cooperative experts is their willingness to participate. All of the cooperative leaders who were contacted were enthusiastic about the project. The industry panel participants, who included CEOs of major cooperatives, invested the time to respond to the two-stage survey and to travel to Washington D.C. to participate in the focus group discussion. Agricultural economists should take note that there is an important industry constituency that values the research conducted by land grant universities and is interested in engaging with the profession. Such public-private partnerships are critical for land grant universities and the partnerships with cooperatives are a crucial part of many departments of agricultural economics.
While many of the critical challenges and issues identified by the panel are not unique to agricultural cooperatives, most had unique implications. The cooperative business model has different structures for equity creation, profit distribution and governance relative to investor-owned firms. The economic relationship between a cooperative and its members and users is different from that of an investor owned firm. This leads to challenges and opportunities for cooperative leaders and research questions for agricultural economists. The following articles in this theme provide a summary and discussion of these issues. The various authors, among the leading cooperative scholars in the United States, discuss issues relating to strategy, finance, governance, communication and new cooperative development. The common theme of these articles provides insights into how the unique business structure of agricultural cooperatives influences their relationship with producer members and their competitive environment.
Deller, S., A. Hoyt, B. Hueth and R. Sundaram-Stukel. (2009). Research on the Economic Impact of Cooperatives. University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives. Available Online: | <urn:uuid:0b3c2d48-077e-4c4e-8dbc-b2bbe3ba97c3> | {
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The boundaries between mental, social and physical order and various states of disorder – unexpected mood swings, fury, melancholy, stress, insomnia, and demonic influence – form the core of this compilation. For medieval men and women, religious rituals, magic, herbs, dietary requirements as well as to scholastic medicine were a way to cope with the vagaries of mental wellbeing; the focus of the articles is on the interaction and osmosis between lay and elite cultures as well as medical, theological and political theories and practical experiences of daily life.
Time span of the volume is the later Middle Ages, c. 1300-1500. Geographically it covers Western Europe and the comparison between Mediterranean world and Northern Europe is an important constituent.
Contributors are Jussi Hanska, Gerhard Jaritz, Timo Joutsivuo, Kirsi Kanerva, Sari Katajala-Peltomaa, Marko Lamberg, Iona McCleery, Susanna Niiranen, Sophie Oosterwijk, and Catherine Rider. | <urn:uuid:35692f4e-ce77-4f9e-bf4e-90a746528cb0> | {
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scleral venous sinus
Definition: the vascular structure encircling the anterior chamber of the eye and through which the aqueous humor is returned to the blood circulation.
© Copyright 2018 Wolters Kluwer. All Rights Reserved. Review date: Sep 19, 2016.
Search Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Examples: glitazone, GI cocktail, etc. | <urn:uuid:131b8f3f-d7c6-44aa-bd7f-6f0d83fe1d2d> | {
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Aluminium Heat Treatment: An OverviewFebruary 29, 2016
Aluminium is a versatile metal, one that exhibits a lightweight profile. Used as a key material in many industries, the low weight of the material is a handy attribute but not one that works alone. The aerospace industry, for example, demands light but strong frames to cope with airborne stresses. Indeed, it's only through the incorporation of an aluminium heat treatment stage that the physical and mechanical characteristics of the metal can match the demanding needs set by multiple applications.
Not All Aluminium Alloys Submit to Heat Treatment
Heat treatment adds or subtracts useful characteristics, but not all grades of the alloy submit to the procedure. Alloyed variants of aluminium imbued with magnesium, zinc, silicon, and copper are open to aluminium heat treatment processes. Conversely, non-heat treatable grades are processed via cold working techniques.
The Employment of Thermal Segregation
The work hardened aluminium cast or extruded alloy is a mess of heterogeneous elements, with each metal fighting for dominance. Uniformity is required at this point. Ingot preheating forms the inaugural stage of this process, with a homogenising furnace maximising equilibrium through thermal softening until each elemental component of the alloy is uniformly distributed throughout the microcrystalline matrix.
Relegating Work Hardening Effects
An aluminium component, stretched and hammered into shape or cast and pressurised with stress hardened spots is resistant to further processing. The annealing or softening of the product places a heat source across the entire structure and restores the distorted microstructure to a workable form. Solution heat treatment furthers this goal by taking the constituents of the alloy to approximately 980°F (527°C) and holds the temperature at this transitional point for an hour. The metal transforms and becomes a solid solution, thus entering a fully homogenised state.
The Quenching Operation
The quench stage locks the microcrystalline structure and traps the dissolved metals to define the initial outline of key mechanical characteristics. Rapid cooling is carried out with water, brine solutions, or various oils.
Concluding the Process with Hardening
Subsequent aluminium heat treatment techniques work at lower temperatures, taking the product through precipitation hardening and an ageing stage. The dissolved metals held in place by the quenching stage "precipitate" and create the desired form within the product, an overall mechanical profile that highlights strength, hardness, and ductility.
Key characteristics are evenly distributed throughout the alloy and finitely altered by varying the temperature of the heat treatment stage, the length of the quenching phase, and the duration of the ageing period to create strengthened grades of aluminium.
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- Do's and Don’ts in Non-Ferrous Metal Casting
- Most Common Alloys Used In Die Casting
- Differences between Low Pressure and High Pressure Die Casting
- Differences between Shotblasting and Sandblasting
- How Different Types of Non-Ferrous Metals Respond To Different Moulding Temperatures
- Powder Coating Non-Ferrous Metals
- The Rotational Moulding Process
- Electric Induction Versus Gas Melting of Aluminium Alloys: What's the Difference?
- The Process of Metal Casting and Why Mould Matters?
- How Temperature Factors Affect Non-Ferrous Metal Castings
- Definition of Rapid Prototype Aluminum Casting Process
- Definition and Applications of a Blow Moulding Die
- Scope and Functions of a Rotomould in Non-Ferrous Metal Casting
- Properties of Non Ferrous Metals at Different Pouring Temperatures
- Different Types of Pattern Materials Used for Non-Ferrous Metal Castings
- What are Vacuum Moulding Dies?
- Most Common Uses and Applications of Non-Ferrous Metal Castings
- Non-Ferrous Metal Casting Technology and Its Basic Processes
- Aluminium Heat Treatment: An Overview
- Aluminium Casting Process: A Few Ideas on How This Is Done
- Definition of Moulding and Core Making Process
- Foundry Industry: Brief History and Definition | <urn:uuid:8606141a-8c0a-4a41-9939-7012b50fa7b3> | {
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Planning and Land Management
TeSP - Segurança e Proteção Civil
6 ECTS; 2º Ano, 1º Semestre, 30,0 T + 30,0 PL
Understand and articulate the problems and objectives of spatial planning in the context of Public Safety
1. Principles and Concepts Planning and Land Planning. The concept of Integrated Management of Land and Environmental Planning.
2. Evolution of the great models of planning.
2.1. The main schools of planning.
2.2. rationalist planning and strategic planning.
3. planning systems. Steps of a planning process.
4. Principles and Concepts in Environmental Planning.
4.1. Fundamental variables Environment and Land Planning.
4.2. Dimension of environmental analysis in Land Planning.
4.3. Process and planning levels. scale Definition and classification of land uses.
5. Instruments of Land Management.
6. General Legislation on Land Planning. Legal restrictions: the National Ecological Reserve, National Agricultural Reserve, Natura 2000 network, easements and other constraints.
- 80% Individual report. Presentation. Report.
- 20% Test(minimum score of 8 points).
- 100% Exam
Method of interaction
Theoretical-practical classes based on teaching / learning processes that combine exhibition, demonstration and application case studies.
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British Virgin Islands Setting Up Shark Sanctuary
Jamaica, May 22, 2014 - The British Virgin Islands declared its territorial waters a sanctuary for all shark species Thursday to help protect the marine predators whose global numbers have been dramatically dwindling.
Kedrick Pickering, deputy premier and minister for natural resources, said the loss of sharks disrupts the predator-prey balance, compromising the health of oceans and reefs and the survival of other marine creatures. "The best way to manage their populations is to let them fulfill their ecological role as apex predators," Pickering said at a conference in Belgium.
The Cabinet of the British Caribbean archipelago of roughly 60 small islands, cays and islets banned commercial fishing of all shark species in the 30,933 square miles (80,117 square kilometers) of its exclusive economic zone. Shark fishing has grown rapidly in recent decades, driven by rising demand, mainly in China, for shark fin soup. Because of their long life spans and low fertility rates, sharks are highly vulnerable to overfishing.
Experts say roughly 100 million sharks are killed each year in commercial fisheries around the globe. It's far from clear how robustly the tourism-dependent British territory will police its waters, which are home to coral reefs where divers can spot such shark species as scalloped hammerheads, oceanic whitetips and reef sharks.
The territory of about 25,000 people said it is also protecting rays, whose numbers have sharply dwindled over the years. Researchers with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature have said roughly one-quarter of the world's sharks and rays are threatened with extinction. T
he sanctuary announcement was applauded by the territory's most famous resident, British tycoon and adventurer Richard Branson. Branson, CEO and founder of the Virgin Group of companies, has been pushing Caribbean governments to better protect marine environments, making special mention of sharks and rays.
At a conference (CCI Summit of Caribbean Political and Business Leaders) Branson hosted on his private island last year, several regional governments committed to establishing shark protections by May 2015. "The British Virgin Islands has shown leadership here and I urge other countries and territories in the region to follow suit to create a Caribbean-wide sanctuary to protect these magnificent animals," Branson said in an email.
The territory joins Honduras and the Bahamas as the first governments in the Americas to declare shark sanctuaries, according to Pew Charitable Trusts, which has pushed shark conservation efforts around the world. The world's first shark sanctuary was created in 2009 by the Pacific nation of Palau. The Caribbean territory is "showing that small islands can have a big impact on global biodiversity," Pew's Angelo Villagomez said. | <urn:uuid:ad8c1022-5d06-48e0-ad0e-9c2c4569eaef> | {
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Early this afternoon we got a call from a neighbor in Upton’s Marble Hill, alerting us that Public School 103, Thurgood Marshall’s elementary school, was on fire. The Baltimore City Fire Department is still working to contain the fire but the damage is clearly devastating. The roof is destroyed across large portions of the building and the interior has suffered terrible damage.
Public School 103 was built on Division Street in 1877. The school changed from serving white to black students in 1910 when it was first used for students from nearby Public School No. 112. In March 1911, the school was officially designated Public School 103. Thurgood Marshall began attending the school just three years later and continued as a student up through 8th grade in 1921. Today, many Baltimoreans remember it as the “Division Street School” or Henry Highland Garnet Elementary School. After the school closed in the early 1970s, the Upton Planning Committee moved in. The Upton Planning Committee continued to use the structure for arts and cultural programs and community meetings up until they vacated the building in the 1990s.
While the building had stood vacant for many years, Baltimore City and the Baltimore National Heritage Area had been working to promote the reuse and rehabilitation of the building. Building on the work of a Mayoral Commission established in 2008, the Heritage Area led efforts to repair the building’s roof and remove asbestos. Baltimore Housing solicited development proposals for the building last year as part of the Vacants to Value surplus surplus property sale.
Read more about today’s fire from the Baltimore Sun or read the PS 103 Commission reports for more on the history of the building. We are will continue working with the Baltimore National Heritage Area, Upton residents, and supporters of Baltimore’s Civil Rights heritage to preserve Public School 103 and recover from this difficult setback.
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During an outbreak of a herpesvirus infection in juvenile harbor seals, 11 out of 23 seals died. The duration of the disease in these 11 animals varied from 1–6 days. Nasal discharge, inflammation of the oral mucosa, vomiting, diarrhea and fever up to 40 C were observed in the first days of the disease. In later stages coughing, anorexia and lethargy occurred. Severe necrosis of the liver and interstitial pneumonia were the most striking histopathological findings.
During the 12-yr period, 1973–1984, 243 isolates of Pasteurella multocida were recovered or identified from specimens submitted for plague tests. Of the isolates, 79% were from rodents, 10% from lagomorphs, and 7% from carnivores; eight isolates were recovered from pools of rodent or carnivore fleas, and two were recovered from cat-bite wounds of human patients. No correlations of host or geographic sources, season, or biotypic or serotypic characteristics were found. Of the rodent strains serotyped, most were found to be serotypes 1A or 3A, which suggests a possible epizootiologic role for rodents in outbreaks of avian cholera that commonly involve these serotypes.
Pulmonary adiaspiromycosis was diagnosed in seven of 25 striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) in east-central Alberta. The infection varied from mild, where only microscopic lesions were seen, to severe, where gross lesions of grayish-white nodules were observed in the lung parenchyma. Mild lesions were restricted to the lung, while severe lesions extended to the tracheobronchial and mediastinal lymph nodes. Histologically, the lesions were characterized by a centrally located fungal spherule, surrounded by granulomatous inflammation. The morphology of the fungal spherules was consistent with that of Emmonsia crescens. By electron microscopy, the fungal cells had an outer thick fibrillar wall and an inner cytoplasm filled with large lipid vacuoles with relatively few mitochondria, ribosomes or glycogen inclusions. The absence of endosporulation and budding suggested that each fungal cell in the lung represented a separate inhaled spore. Infection was by inhalation, nevertheless adiaspores may disseminate to the regional lymph nodes.
Blood smears from 54 platypuses in southeastern Australia were examined by light microscopy. Protozoa were found in erythrocytes in 53 platypuses; all infections were sparse. A few parasites were found in leukocytes. Intraerythrocytic forms examined by electron microscopy contained vacuoles, micronemes, rhoptries and cytostomes with double unit membranes. Merozoites were identified in leukocytes. The parasites were identified as Theileria omithorhynchi Mackerras, 1959.
The feces of 212 sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) collected in central New Mexico from October 1982 to January 1983 and from October 1983 to January 1984 were examined to determine the prevalence of coccidial oocysts. One hundred forty-five granulomatous nodules from the viscera of 64 cranes and samples of lung, small intestine, and large intestine from 58 birds were examined by light and transmission electron microscopy for the presence of intestinal or extraintestinal coccidiosis. Of the 212 fecal samples, 160 (75%) were positive for oocysts of Eimeria, including E. gruis in 139 (66%) and E. reichenowi in 118 (56%) of the samples. Eimeria bosquei sp. n. was found in two (∼1%) of the fecal samples. Subspheroid to ovoid oocysts of this new species are 19–27 × 14–19 (23.6 × 17.1) μm with ovoid sporocysts 10–14 × 7–11 (12.3 × 9.3) μm. A rough, heavily pitted outer oocyst wall, sporocyst residuum, Stieda and substieda bodies, and multiple polar bodies are present. The polar bodies, of varying sizes, always aggregate at the apex of the sporulated oocyst. An Adelina sp. was found in one (0.5%) crane. Coccidian developmental stages were found in the epithelium and lamina propria of the small and large intestine. Disseminated granulomatous nodules were found in the oral mucosa, esophagus, heart, descending aorta, liver, small intestine, mesenteries, and parietal peritoneum. Unique cell types resembling coccidian asexual and sexual stages were observed by light and electron microscopy in some of the nodules.
Samples of tongue or diaphragm from 2,056 black bears harvested in Pennsylvania during the 1981–1983 hunting seasons were examined for larvae of Trichinella spiralis by peptic digestion. Sixteen males and 21 females were infected. The overall prevalence of infection was 1.8%. Infected animals were distributed widely throughout the range of the bear in Pennsylvania. In samples from infected bears, the geometric mean density of muscle larvae was 7.8 per g of tissue (LPG). There were neither sex- nor age-related differences in prevalence or intensity of infection. Virtually all bears harvested in Pennsylvania are consumed as food, which often is shared widely among hunters, their friends and relatives. Furthermore, high densities of larvae occurred in some bears (i.e., 300, 348, 465, 512, 555, and 912 LPG). Thus, a basis for potential, single-source outbreaks of severe human trichinosis exists.
Samples of muscle from 4,773 specimens of 18 species of wild mammals from Ontario were examined for Trichinella. One of 12 mink (Mustela vison), 83 of 1,821 fisher (Martes pennanti) and 68 of 1,980 marten (Martes americana) had T. spiralis. Prevalences of infections by Trichinella were determined for fisher and marten from the Algonquin region, over a 10-yr period. Prevalences ranged from 0.9–9.2% in fisher and 1.3–8.7% in marten indicating that the parasite is well-established in the region. Prevalences of Trichinella increased with age of both fisher and marten. Intensities determined for the 1981–1982 sample ranged from 0.4–15.8 larvae/g for fisher and 22.4–159.7 larvae/g for marten. Higher intensities were not correlated with older hosts. Fisher and marten appeared to be the key hosts maintaining Trichinella in the Algonquin region, but transmission dynamics were unclear. Transmission may include an unidentified small rodent or other host and natural carrion-feeding.
Two size-groups of dorsal-spined, first-stage, nematode larvae were found in feces of woodland caribou, Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin), in Alberta from 1976–1982. Larvae from caribou feces in northeastern Alberta were 451 ± 17 μm in length, while those from west-central Alberta were 362 ± 18 μm in length. Larvae collected from west-central Alberta developed to the infective stage, experimentally, in the terrestrial gastropod Triodopsis multilineata (Say) and were infective to captive mule deer fawns, Odocoileus h. hemionus (Rafinesque). Adult nematodes, identified as Parelaphostrongylus odocoilei (Hobmaier and Hobmaier, 1934), were recovered from the skeletal muscles of the mule deer.
Twenty-five species of helminths, recovered from the gastrointestinal tracts of 129 Mexican ducks from Mexico and the United States, were all new host records. The species included: Echinoparyphium recurvatum, Echinostoma revolution, Hypoderaeum conoideum, Notocotylus attenuatus, Prosthogonimus cuneatus, Zygocotyle lunata, Anomotaenia ciliata, Cloacotaenia megalops, Diorchis bulbodes, Diorchis sp., Drepanidotaenia lanceolata, Echinocotyle rosseteri, Fimbriaria fasciolaris, Fimbriarioides sp., Hymenolepis sp. 1, Hymenolepis sp. 2, Sobolevicanthus gracilis, Corynosoma constrictum, Polymorphus minutus, Amidostomum acutum, Echinuria sp., Epomidiostomum crami, Hystrichis varispinosus, Rusguniella arctica, and Tetrameres sp. Fimbriarioides sp. occurred predominantly in ducks from south-central Chihuahua, Mexico. The distributions for the other 24 species of the helminths were not significantly different among the four collecting areas. The helminth fauna for the 32 complete specimens and 97 intestinal tracts was distributed relatively evenly among the hosts with a calculated mean evenness of 0.77 ± 0.15 and 0.89 ± 0.03 respectively. The parasite fauna was more similar to those of the black duck Anas rubripes Brewster of eastern North America (53%), the mallard, Anas platyrhynchos (L.) (49%), and the mottled duck, Anas fulvigula Ridgway, from Florida (45%), than to the green-winged teal, Anas crecca (L.) (36%), the gadwall, Anas strepera (L.) (30%), and the American wigeon, Anas americana Gmelin (26%), collected in the Southwest.
Intercurrent canine distemper and Tyzzer's disease were diagnosed in a mature raccoon (Procyon lotor) submitted for necropsy. Clinical, gross and microscopic findings characteristic of canine distemper virus (CDV), included ataxia, dyspnea, suppurative conjunctivitis, interstitial pneumonitis and generalized lymphocytolysis. Inclusion bodies typical of CDV infection were present in many epithelial tissues. Acute multifocal hepatic necrosis and acute segmental necrotizing enteritis were attributed to the presence of Bacillus piliformis organisms in these lesions, confirmed by special stains and electron microscopy. This is apparently the first reported case of Tyzzer's disease in a raccoon.
Thyroids from 213 adult herring gulls of both sexes were collected during incubation from nine colonies in the Great Lakes basin of eastern North America between 1974 and 1983, and from a single colony in the Bay of Fundy from 1977 to 1982. Qualitative and quantitative histological assessment revealed that the majority of the gulls from the Great Lakes basin suffered from goiter. These thyroids had a greater mass than those from the Bay of Fundy, and were microfollicular and frequently hyperplastic. The histopathology was similar to that previously observed in Pacific salmon from the Great Lakes. These findings are consistent with a forage fish-borne goitrogenic etiology other than, or in addition to, iodine deficiency. Temporal and spatial differences in the severity of thyroid dysfunction are consistent with the hypothesis that polyhalogenated hydrocarbons are responsible for the goiter development and thyrotoxic effects observed in herring gulls from the Great Lakes area.
Dead or moribund raptors (n = 75) representing 11 species were collected between 1971 and 1981 from various locations in Florida. Samples of brain, muscle, liver and adipose tissue were analyzed for DDT, DDE, DDD, dieldrin, and PCB's. Detectable concentrations of DDT or its metabolites were found in 100% of all samples of muscle and liver, and 77% all samples of brain. Dieldrin was determined to be present in 91%, 93%, 87% and 78% of all samples of brain, muscle, liver and adipose tissue, respectively. Lethal or hazardous concentrations of dieldrin were found in brain samples from three birds, but DDT and PCB's were present at sublethal concentrations. When species were grouped according to their dietary habits, it was not possible to identify any trends in pesticide concentrations.
A serologic survey was conducted on 628 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in 1976 and 1979–1980. Tests for antibodies to the etiologic agents of infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), parainfluenza 3 (PI3), leptospirosis, and brucellosis produced positive results of 15%, 20%, 3% and 0%, respectively. Adult deer had significantly higher prevalence of antibodies to IBR virus and PI3 virus than fawns. These data provide a basis for monitoring these disease agents in Minnesota's white-tailed deer.
Exposure of pronghorns (Antilocapra americana) in western Nebraska in 1983 to selected livestock pathogens was examined by serology and attempted virus isolation. Antibodies were present to the agents of bluetongue, epizootic hemorrhagic disease, and bovine respiratory syncytial virus. There were no serologic reactors to Brucella, and attempts to isolate the viruses of bluetongue and epizootic hemorrhagic disease were negative.
Eight captive wapiti (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) were injected with xylazine hydrochloride on two occasions during March and April 1984. Animals were grouped into a modified Latin square design and were given either successive injections of yohimbine hydrochloride and 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) to antagonize the sedative effects of xylazine hydrochloride or permitted an unantagonized recovery. Induction times ranged from 3 to 26 min with excited and wild animals requiring a supplementary dose. Time until walking was significantly (P < 0.005) shorter in the group given successive injections (given i.v.) of the reversal drugs yohimbine hydrochloride (0.15 mg/kg) and 4-AP (0.30 mg/kg) than those animals during unantagonized recoveries. Marked increases in heart rate and respiratory rate were observed in animals within 3 min after successive injections of yohimbine hydrochloride and 4-AP. There was no occurrence of convulsions and animals did not relapse to profound sedation. Slight muscle tremors were observed in one animal which received a dose of 0.35 mg/kg of 4-AP. This drug combination can reduce markedly the duration of recovery from xylazine hydrochloride-induced sedation in wapiti.
A mixture of 120 mg ketamine hydrochloride (KHCL)/20 mg xylazine hydrochloride (XHCL)/ml was used to immobilize 37 wild mountain lions (Felis concolor) 46 times. Observations were recorded during 37 trials that included kittens, adult females, and adult males. Dosages were based on 11 mg KHCL and 1.8 mg XHCL/kg estimated body weight. Actual doses for 24 lions requiring a single injection for immobilization ranged from 4.7–15.8 mg KHCL/kg and 0.8–2.6 mg XHCL/kg. Induction, duration, and recovery times did not differ (P > 0.05) between the sex and age classes. Two kittens were overdosed with the drug combination, but the effects were not life threatening. Eleven other lions, nine of which were initially underdosed, required additional injections of the drug combination for safe handling. Immobilization was characterized initially by semi-consciousness, open eyelids, pupillary dilation, and muscle rigidity. Later, most lions appeared unconscious, muscles relaxed, and breathing slowed considerably. No convulsions or hypersalivation occurred. The KHCL/XHCL mixture given at approximately 11 mg KHCL and 1.8 mg XHCL/kg body weight proved useful for immobilizing wild mountain lions for research purposes. Suggestions for care of immobilized cats are included. | <urn:uuid:337eb2c9-1929-40cd-bfcd-e28d1c82007a> | {
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1818 - Monmouth is built in 1818, by Natchez postmaster, John Hankinson.
1824 - John A. Quitman purchases Monmouth as home for his wife Eliza Turner and newborn daughter, Louisa.
1833 - Cholera claims Quitman’s infant sons, John and Edward. An enslaved woman at Monmouth named Aunt Dicey is put into service as a nursemaid to Eliza and John Quitman’s children.
1834 - Quitman purchases fifty slaves. A house slave at Monmouth name Harry Nichols is put into service as personal valet to John Quitman.
1836 - Harry Nichols travels with Quitman to Texas. Quitman participates in Texas Independence over Mexico.
1842 - John and Eliza’s family grows to seven children. Aunt Dicey is “banished” to Springfield Plantation by Eliza for “misbehaving.”
1846 - John Quitman serves as a victorious general in the war with Mexico he is assisted by “faithful” Harry Nichols. Quitman procures a daguerreotype of Harry.
1850 - John Quitman becomes Governor of Mississippi. A Monmouth house slave named Belle Vessels assists at the “White House of Mississippi.”
1856 - Aunt Dicey is allowed back at Monmouth. Viola Vessels, a Monmouth house slave, is bridesmaid at the wedding of enslaved couple at neighboring Melrose, a suburban estate owned by Quitman’s law partner, John McMurran. Viola is married the following year to Marcellus Brannick, a house slave at Melrose.
1858 - Quitman dies at Monmouth. His wife Eliza dies at Monmouth one year later. Daughters Annie Rosalie, J. Antonia, and Louisa marry and remain at Monmouth.
1861 - The state of Mississippi secedes from the Union. The Quitman daughters see their husbands off to war. Monmouth slaves are asking, “how’s master”?
1862 - Natchez surrenders to the Union Army. Monmouth house slaves begin to run off, including Monmouth house slaves Charles Vessels, Richard Austin and Isaac, all of whom join the Union Army.
1863 - Monmouth is occupied by Union Soldiers whereupon extensive looting occurs. Harry Nichols joins the Union Army, and then returns to Monmouth “demanding wages”. Quitman daughters begin paying wages to eight former house slaves. Aunt Dicey and Old Sarah are compensated in their old age.
1865 - The only staff left at Monmouth is “Fred and his family along with Harry and his wife”. Surviving Quitman daughters sell off Monmouth’s household possessions to former Monmouth enslaved to supplement their income.
1875 - A Lease/Lien agreement is signed with John Williams, giving the Quitman daughters a lien on any cotton grown on Monmouth premises for the payment of rent.
1887 - John Quitman’s granddaughters, Eva C. Lovell and Alice Lovell, move back to Natchez and take up residence at Monmouth. Viola Vessels Brannick’s daughters, Corinne and Hester, childhood companions to Evan, return to Monmouth as paid staff.
1902 - Belle Vessles, a former house slave to Governor Quitman at the “White House of Mississippi”, lives at the edge of Monmouth where she and her husband rent Monmouth land for crops. One year later Quitman’s daughter, Annie Rosalie Quitman Duncan, sells a half acre of Monmouth to Viola Brannick (a widow) for the sum of $200.
1912 - Corrine Scott “a colored woman” who grew up at Monmouth purchases from Rose Duncan one-half acre of Monmouth property as “her residence for the sum of $100”. Former house slave, Charles Vessels also purchases a portion of Monmouth property.
1914 - Annie Rosalie Quitman Duncan, the last surviving child of John and Eliza Quitman, dies at Monmouth, leaving Monmouth to her nieces, Eva Lovell and Alice Lovell. Descendents of Monmouth enslaved and staff, Corinne Scott, Frank Tolles, Viola Brannick, and Kitty Austin are listed as beneficiaries in “Aunt Rose’s” will.
1924 - Monmouth passes from the hands of Quitman descendants when it is sold to Annie Gwen. Corrine Scott sells her portion of Monmouth to Mamie Davis for $500.
1978-2012- Ronald and Lani Riches purchase and begin restoration of Monmouth after decades of neglect. After 3 years of restoring the main house and original kitchen, work begins on the 26 acres. With archeological digs indicating where original buildings once stood, new buildings for the hotel use are placed on these footprints.
2012-present - Nancy and Warren Reuther are the current owners of Monmouth Historic Inn & Gardens. With extensive experience in the Hotel and Tourism industry, they continue to make sure every modern comfort has been provided in the 30 elegantly appointed spacious rooms and suites, yet carefully integrated as not to spoil the historic architectural virtue. | <urn:uuid:e8eb9f97-d297-443a-92a5-1f4ef9d2d1d1> | {
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Your brain is a soft organ that is surrounded by spinal fluid and protected by your hard skull. Normally, the fluid around your brain acts like a cushion that keeps your brain from banging into your skull. But if your head or your body is hit hard, your brain can crash into your skull, or be jolted, literally causing it to move around in your head. This force can injure the brain, causing bruising, damage to the blood vessels, and injury to the nerves. The result? Your brain doesn’t function normally. If you’ve suffered a concussion, vision may be disturbed, you may lose equilibrium, or you may fall unconscious. In short, the brain is confused.
There are many ways to get a concussion. Some common ways include fights, falls, playground injuries, car crashes, and bike accidents. Concussions can also happen while participating in any sport or activity such as football, boxing, hockey, soccer, skiing, or snowboarding.
However, concussions don’t always involve a loss of consciousness. Most people who have a concussion never pass out, but they may describe seeing all white, black, or stars. You can have a concussion and not realize it.
You don’t have to pass out (lose consciousness) to have a concussion. Some people will have obvious symptoms of a concussion, such as passing out or forgetting what happened right before the injury. But other people won’t. With rest, most people fully recover from a concussion within 7 to 10 days. Other people take a few weeks or months to recover. In rare cases, concussions cause more serious problems. Repeated concussions or a severe concussion may require surgery or lead to long-lasting problems with movement, learning, or speaking. Because of the small chance of permanent brain problems, it is important to contact a concussion specialist if you or someone you know has symptoms of a concussion.
Studies in basic neuroscience have demonstrated that mild traumatic brain injury (concussion) is followed by a complex cascade of ionic, metabolic, and physiological events that can adversely affect cerebral function for several days to weeks. Concussive brain injuries trigger a sequence of biochemical changes characterized earliest by an indiscriminate release of excitatory amino acids, massive ionic flux, and a brief period of hyperglycolysis, followed by persistent metabolic instability, mitochondrial dysfunction, diminished cerebral glucose metabolism, reduced cerebral blood flow, and altered neurotransmission. These events culminate in axonal injury and neuronal dysfunction. Clinically, concussion eventuates in neurological deficits, cognitive impairment, and somatic symptoms.
The terms concussion, mild brain injury, mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), mild head injury (MHI), and minor head trauma may be used interchangeably. Head injury, closed head injury, head trauma, brain injury, diffuse axonal injury, goose-egg, bump on the head, postconcussive syndrome, “seeing stars”, and “getting your bell rung” are also terms commonly used interchangeably with concussion.
Sports Concussions: What are the Signs?
A great deal of concern and energy have been spent on concussion in the world of sports recently. Recent deaths associated with second impact syndrome in school sports has revolutionised the manner in which we assess and manage sport concussion in the school setting. Revisions in return-to-play protocols have been prioritised to minimise the devastating effects of concussive injury in our children. Athletes who have had a new concussion may exhibit behavior from the list below.
- Appears to be dazed or stunned
- Is confused about assignment
- Forgets plays
- Is unsure of game, score, or opponent
- Moves clumsily
- Answers questions slowly
- Loses consciousness (even temporarily)
- Shows behaviour or personality change
- Forgets events prior to hit (retrograde amnesia)
- Forgets events after hit (anterograde amnesia)
When to Seek Emergency Care Following a Concussion
The following are emergency symptoms of a concussion. Seek immediate medical care if there are:
- Worsening alertness and consciousness
- Convulsions (seizures)
- Muscle weakness on one or both sides
- Worsening confusion
- Remaining unconsciousness (coma)
- Repeated vomiting
- Unequal pupils
- Changes in behaviour or unusual behaviour
- Changes in speech (slurred, difficult to understand, does not make sense)
- Fluid or blood leaking from the nose or ears
- Severe and worsening headache
- Someone tries to wake you and cannot do so.
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[ek-struh-trop-i-kuh l, ek-]
- any large-scale, cyclonic storm that is not a tropical cyclone, especially the common frontal cyclone of the middle and high latitudes.
Origin of extratropical cyclone
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
- See under cyclone.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:15d736ed-8343-4b3e-aa7f-66cba8b8ac51> | {
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ZARAHEMLA has a land (or state) and city of the same name. Zarahemla (the land or state) is west of the river Sidon (Alma 2:15, Alma 6:7), and the river Sidon runs by Zarahemla, thus forming its east border (Alma 2:15). It is the homeland for ZARAHEMLA’s capital city.
When Mormon retells the advance of the Lamanites about 51 B.C., he says, "but they had come into the center of the land, and had taken the capital city which was the city of Zarahemla, and were marching through the most capital parts of the land . . ." This doesn’t have to mean dead-center, but does require that Zarahemla not be a borderland.
Gideon is east of the river Sidon (Alma 6:7) and northward of Manti (Alma 17:1), with a city Gideon in the valley Gideon (Alma 6:7). Mormon is unclear as to whether this valley Gideon constitutes the whole of the land Gideon. It is a relatively young land, founded by Gideon after the return of Limhi’s people from NEPHI (Alma 6:7). Mormon's narrative in Alma 2-3 and Alma 6:7 suggest Gideon is across the river from Zarahemla.
Click here for a really good map that shows the river valleys on the east of the Rio Coco just north of Garrobo. This map gives another excellent view of this area. Manti would be in the general area of Neuva Segovia and extending into Honduras, with Gideon extending from Bocay southward.
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. Anne Bradstreet
And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. Ether 12:27
Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season therof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul. And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion. D&C 59:18-20 | <urn:uuid:53b4b5ff-82cf-493f-aa5f-af5f014d1d82> | {
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A search for the term "climate change" shows Copenhagen Sumit
A search for the term "famine"
News Globe lets you search the BBC News & Sport website and see the results mapped to the geographic location of the story on an animated globe which can be rotated to enable navigation of the results. It uses a customised RSS feed from BBC News.
This geo-visualization, connects you in a very immediate way to the location of the news story by providing further contextual information about it. For example, if we search for “FIFA World Cup” we find the majority of the BBC news stories originating in Europe or South Africa and very few in North America. So not only has News Globe produced a range of different news topics for us to read, it has also given us an indication of the level of interest in the topic across different cultures.
How to use it
News Globe is available immediately for use, either dive straight in, follow the instructions below, or watch the accompanying video that gives an overview of its different functions. You must have Adobe Flash player installed to use the project, it can be downloaded here.
If you would like to comment or feed back on this visualisation please do so on the blog entry
Launch News Globe //
Video walkthrough //
This video was created with screen capture software and shows the application being used.
How it was built //
The search results are returned in the form of an RSS feed from BBC News.
The contents of the Title tags in the rss xml are then sent off to Yahoo's geocoding API
If any place names are recognised by Yahoo it sends back the longitude and latitude co-ordinates. (It often gets confused and you'll find lots of mistakes, usually placed in North America). We originally tried to create this app using Atom feeds from BBC iPlayer but there were too few place names and Yahoo was making some really bad guesses with the data.
Meanwhile a rotating globe with moon (please don't complain that the moon's position is wrong, it's only there for effect) was created using the Alpha version of Papervision 3D 2 (Great White).
An algorithm converts the Cartesian co-ordinates returned by Yahoo and converts them into spherical co-ordinates and it's then easy to use papervision to plot a marker on the correct spot on the map.
Rolling over the markers give you some information about the news article plotted.
Clicking on the markers will take you to the news article on bbc.co.uk.
While this all looks pretty cool lots of the work was done by other people:
Most notably Mark Waters and his excellent article on Geocoding in Flash. The majority of the Papervision code was taken from his Flex source files.
Credit should also go to the programmers who created Papervision 3d, the authors of the tweener class, the authors of the AS3 tool tips component, the AS3 preloader class written by Marco Di Giuseppe, and http://planetpixelemporium.com who created the earth texture map.
What we like about this project is the fact that is uses so many resources from the web (mostly in the form of AS3 classes) and shows how visualisations can be created in a modular way with code from all over the place.
Example XML returned by Yahoo Geocoding API //
This is the XML returned from Yahoo when a sentence containing the word London was was parsed through it.
<ResultSet xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="urn:yahoo:maps" xsi:schemaLocation="urn:yahoo:maps http://api.local.yahoo.com/MapsService/V1/GeocodeResponse.xsd">
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I'm going to share with you all of the different resources I find to help me out in my classroom. Most of them will be free (I'm cheap!), but I may share a few for-sale products as well... (Especially if I've tried them myself!)
Check out the tree below to get an idea of how the middle school math content in the Common Core fits together for 7th and 8th grade...If there's no link for a standard, that means Opus doesn't have any problems for it yet. New content appears all of the time, so if you don't find what you want, please check back soon.
Close reading is an outcome. You want students to be able to read texts—without a lot of external information from teachers or publishers—getting what the text says, how it works, and what it means (including my critical response, my sense of how it connects with other texts, etc.)
Wonderopolis is a whimsical, engaging site offering "Wonders of the Day" such as "Why do skunks stink?" "Do insects work out?" to "Who was Rosie the Riveter? Although it is primarily geared for elementary grades, students of all ages can learn from it. New questions are posted each day.
What we most need now is not cold feet, but high quality examinations, first-rate curriculum and instructional resources and high quality training for our teachers in the use of those standards, instructional resources and assessment systems. It will take years of determined effort to develop all that infrastructure and years more to implement it effectively. And there is no time to waste.
The standards were designed to elevate the quality of instruction in our country: to teach students to think independently, grapple with difficult texts, solve problems and explain their thinking in a clear and compelling way. This is a noble vision. But its attainment depends entirely on the execution.
NSDL.org is an online science library with links to high quality science, technology, engineering, and math resources for K-12 teachers, faculty, librarians, students and informal learners. Funded by the National Science Foundation.
The Common Core is a reminder of the credo literature professors live by. Language is the building block of great sentences, great paragraphs, great chapters, and great books. We cannot take it for granted.
You may not agree with this direction, but those who create assessments have already increased the reading difficulty on state tests. Students should not see difficult material for the first time on these tests. They have to be prepared to closely read, examine, decode, and digest material that is not within their “fluency” or comfort range.
In October, he was appointed president of the College Board, the organization best known for administering the Advanced Placement program and the SATs. He has been and continues to be an advocate for teacher voice in the Common Core State Standards.We spoke with Coleman about the Common Core:
The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has given a $12.5 million contract to Amplify Insight (formerly known as Wireless Generation) to develop a digital library of formative assessment practices and professional learning resources for teachers.
Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.
How to integrate my topics' content to my website?
Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.
Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy. | <urn:uuid:eb338ab5-3947-4361-a3cd-26a2138742c7> | {
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Production Credit Association - PCA
Definition of 'Production Credit Association - PCA'
A federal instrumentality created by Congress through the Farm Credit Act of 1933 to provide short- and intermediate-term credit to farmers, ranchers and rural residents. The credit was extended so the recipients could purchase housing, perform marketing activities, purchase farm equipment and livestock and operate farm-related businesses. At the time, credit was either not available or was available only at prohibitively high interest rates because of the Great Depression. Farmland and commodities weren't worth as much, and banks already had lots of agricultural loans on their books.
Production credit associations can make or guarantee loans whose terms do not exceed seven, 10 or 15 years, depending on the funding bank's policies. The loan must be amortized over 15 or fewer years, and any refinancing may not extend the loan term further than 15 years from the original loan date.
Investopedia explains 'Production Credit Association - PCA'
The Farm Credit System, a government-sponsored enterprise established in 1916, provides financing and financial services related to agriculture and includes a number of credit organizations. In addition to production credit associations, these include agricultural credit associations, agricultural credit banks, banks for cooperatives, farm credit banks, federal intermediate credit banks, federal land bank associations and federal land credit associations. PCAs get their funding from farm credit banks and own their loan assets. The Farm Credit System raises money by selling debt securities to investors in the U.S. and abroad. | <urn:uuid:54c2afe3-b38a-4941-9e3a-78696ca580c6> | {
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W ith the ratification of the Adams-Onis Treaty in February 1821 the United States finally came into legal possession of the Florida peninsula. Although a few Americans -- naturalists, shipwrecked sailors, adventurous traders, General Andrew Jackson and his troops -- had visited Spanish Florida or squatted on its soil, the great majority knew very little about this remote region except that it had been a hideout for marauding Indians and runaway slaves. But in the early years after annexation an increasing number of soldiers and settlers had an opportunity to see the newly acquired territory for themselves. Most of them were enthusiastic.
Lt. George A. McCall, a recent graduate of West Point, exulted in the "glorious clime" of the army base at Pensacola. In January 1823 when most of the United States was in the icy grip of winter, northwestern Florida was balmy. Except for a few small fleecy clouds the sky was "clear and serene, unruffled and undisturbed by the breath of a zephyr." McCall described the air as "light and elastic, and of that happy temperature which, inducing a calm repose of the physical faculties, and leading the mind to indulge in a dreamy tranquillity, causes the mere consciousness of existence to become an unspeakable delight."1* The young officer continued to love his Florida assignment. The Indians were quiet; military duties were minimal; the fishing and hunting were exhilarating. Transferred to a fort near Tampa, McCall was even happier. On 1 December 1827, he wrote: "Here we have the most charming weather imaginable; I should say, unparalleled in any part of our country, if, indeed, it is surpassed in any part of the world. Since the third day of October not a drop of rain has fallen, and not twice in a month has a cloud as big as a blanket appeared in the bright canopy above us.... It is a paradise for those who love to live in the open air."2
Florida cast a similar enchantment over other early visitors. The____________________ | <urn:uuid:ae2ccb38-70fb-490a-84bf-3abbd4ad5bea> | {
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Principles of Economics Matching Exercise Student Name: Date: Each scenario below practices one of the 10 principles of economics. Match the principles to the appropriate scenario listed and justify your answer.
Each principle will only be used once. Principles:
1. People face tradeoffs.
2. The cost of something is what you give up to get it.
3. Rational people think at the margin.
4. People respond to incentives.
5. Trade can make everyone better off.
6. Markets are usually a good way to organize economic activity.
7. Governments can sometimes improve market outcomes.
8. A country’s standard of living depends on its ability to produce goods and services.
9. Prices rise when the government prints too much money.
10. Society faces a short-run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment.
1. Even though generally more expensive, energy efficient appliances and vehicles sell better with a rebate or tax credit.
2. Airlines will charge a fee for each additional suitcase you may want to take with you on a trip.
3. At a restaurant, when ordering an entrée, you get to choose two side dishes from a group of five side dishes.
4. Instead of growing your own food and making other necessities you decide to specialize in a particular profession and purchase things, even things that you would have not been able to make yourself.
5. There is an incredible variety of goods and services available at many different price points even though no single entity or government is deciding or dictating the market what to do.
6. In its effort to limit the effects of rising inflation, the Federal Reserve System reduces the quantity of money in the economy, but sees an increase in unemployment.
7. While consuming the same amount of farmers’ labor and capital the newly developed hybrid crops achieve twice the yields of the previous crops.
8. You have noticed that the same amount of money buys you fewer goods and services than it did a year ago.
9. You worked for extra pay on a holiday and therefore missed out on your neighbors’ barbeque. People face trade-offs. You had to miss the barbeque to get something else that we liked.
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According to Dr. Christopher Wild, director of the WHO's cancer agency, 70 percent of global cancer deaths are now in emerging markets in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. He tells DW what's behind the increase rates.
DW: There have been an estimated 14 million new cases of cancer per year. That figure is expected to rise to 22 million annually within the next two decades. Weren't we getting better at treatment and survival rates?
Christopher Wild: I think both aspects are correct, in fact we are getting better at treatment, particularly for some cancers. What we're seeing here is the result of population growth and aging, particularly in the low and middle income countries. As cancer is an age-related disease, and the populations are changing, the number of cancers is increasing globally, but particularly in those low and middle income countries.
You're citing African, Asian, Central and South American countries where up to 70 percent of the world's cancer deaths are accounted for.
Yes. Those regions also have very high numbers of people, they're the most populous regions, but it's a combination of changing demographics and the aging process. But those are also the same countries where survival, if you develop a cancer, is much poorer: The access to cancer services is not as good as in high income countries.
That would be treatment plus after-surgery care - but what about effective prevention strategies?
This is our major conclusion from the World Cancer Report 2014: we need to complement the efforts that have been made to improve treatment with more focus on prevention. We've learned a lot about the causes of cancer, and also how to detect it early, but we don't always see that information being translated into effective cancer control policies at a national level.
Do enough people understand that certain cancers can be prevented?
It's a very interesting question. I've been working in the cancer field for 30 years now, and when I tell my neighbors and friends what I do, almost inevitably the next question is, have we found a cure yet? So I think there's a lack of understanding among the general public on the opportunities we have to avoid the disease, like not smoking, exercising, keeping a regular weight.
Some very effective vaccines have also been developed which can prevent liver cancer and cervical cancer, associated with certain viruses. There's a lot of information about the causes of cancer. We just need to have these understood, not only by the public but also by the policy makers and those planning cancer control at a national level.
But, to put it bluntly: is the right kind of research going into the right kind of cancer?
I think what we're lacking actually is research in some areas. For example, if we take the vaccine for the human papilloma virus, there are two problems: the first is getting the vaccine also for the countries where cervical cancer is common, that is, sub-Saharan Africa, parts of Southeast Asia, Latin America. The price is now coming down, so that's increasingly happening.
The second concern is, we need more research on how we actually integrate these preventions into health services, particularly in the developing countries. Often we have something we know in principle will reduce the risk of cancer but we need to understand how best to implement it in an operational sense in order to have the effect on the population.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization. Dr. Christopher Wild has been director of the IARC since January 2009.
Until recently, the deadly Ebola epidemic in West Africa was far away from Germany. Now, infected patients may come to Hamburg for treatment. But specialists are prepared and hope to gain new insights into the virus.
Celebrating a new treatment for malaria is one thing. Celebrating a new way to infect people with the parasite is another. But researchers say injecting volunteers with malaria yields better results.
Bees are having a hard time. Pesticides, viruses, varroa mites and climate change pose major threats. Scientists have found that some bees can cope better with others.
India exported $3 billion worth of shrimp last year. The nation's seafood industry is booming, but it's also damaging the environment. Farmers in one community are turning to an age-old practice to save their land. | <urn:uuid:9d7ba2e1-3ff9-4b90-8b7d-5d54b3a1b1fb> | {
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Bob Dylan 1941-
(born Robert Allen Zimmerman) American singer, songwriter, and musician.
The most influential singer-songwriter of his era, Bob Dylan demonstrated that rock and roll lyrics, once known for their lightheartedness, could be rich, serious, and meaningful. Combining forms borrowed from folk ballad verse, blues, country and western, and gospel music and techniques gained from French symbolists and beat poets, Dylan revitalized the popular song and inspired other musicians to follow his lead in self-expression. Songs such as “Blowin' in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin'” endeared him to antiwar demonstrators and supporters of the Civil Rights Movement, and he was commonly referred to as the spokesman for his generation, a title he disavowed. As Dylan restlessly ventured from folk music to electrically amplified rock music to country music to gospel to blues to bluegrass, his audiences followed. In the course of a career that began professionally in 1961, Dylan has written more than three hundred songs, released more than forty albums, and performed live in more than two thousand concerts. Among his most celebrated songs are “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Subterranean Blues,” “Lay Lady Lay,” “Knockin' on Heaven's Door,” and “Tangled Up In Blue.” Dylan has garnered widespread praise for the literary merit of his lyrical compositions; his merits as a poet have been repeatedly compared to the likes of such literary giants as Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot, and Allen Ginsberg. Dylan has received numerous honors and awards, including an Academy Award, and was named by Life magazine as one of the one hundred most important Americans of the 20th century.
Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941, into a Jewish family in Duluth, Minnesota. His father was co-owner of Zimmerman Furniture and Appliance Co. In 1947, the family moved to Hibbing, Minnesota. Dylan started writing poetry at age ten and taught himself the guitar at age fourteen. Inspired by Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, and Little Richard, Dylan formed several bands in high school, one called the Golden Chords, which played country music and rhythm and blues. Dylan won a scholarship to the University of Minnesota in 1959, and was introduced to Bound for Glory, the autobiography of Woody Guthrie. Dylan was greatly affected by the book and soon learned dozens of Guthrie's songs. He performed many of them at local coffeehouses, appearing for the first time under the adopted name Bob Dylan (legally changed in 1962.) His renditions of folk songs were charged with the influence of his rock and roll background. After some months in Madison, Wisconsin, and later in Chicago, Dylan borrowed a ride to New York at the end of 1960. He played folk music in clubs and coffee houses in Greenwich Village and visited the ailing Woody Guthrie in the hospital. As an opening act Dylan received an ecstatic review from The New York Times. The next day, at a studio session as a harmonica player, he was signed to Columbia Records by John Hammond. Although his debut album Bob Dylan (1962), sold a respectable 5000 copies, his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), gained him cult status because it included “A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall” and “Blowin' in the Wind.” Peter, Paul and Mary's cover of “Blowin' in the Wind” was phenomenally successful and popularized the socially aware folk song. Dylan became the favorite of the counterculture movement and gave them eloquent voice and an anthem with the title song of his third album, The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964). Dylan was quickly overwhelmed by his political status and turned inward with Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964). In one of its songs, “My Back Pages,” Dylan signals a break from his past: “Ah, but I was so much older then / I'm younger than that now.” Dylan further broke from folk purists and political activists when he performed a loud, electrically amplified set of new compositions at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Although he lost some of his fans in the transition, he gained many more and in the same year had a hit single with “Like a Rolling Stone,” which made him a pop superstar. Exhausted from international concert tours and the pressures of stardom, Dylan used a motorcycle accident in 1966 as an excuse to step back from his career. Although he continued to write and record new material, he would perform in public only a few times until 1974, when he held a record-shattering comeback tour. At the end of the year he recorded what is considered one of his finest albums, Blood on the Tracks (1975), followed by the chart-topping Desire (1976). Dylan's conversion to Christianity brought more controversy in 1979. Many fans were outraged that Dylan refused to perform any of his classic songs written before his religious conversion and became even more offended by his on-stage proselytizing, but he had another hit single with “Gotta Serve Somebody,” which won him a Grammy Award in 1980. Dylan began performing his earlier classics again by the end of the year. In 1982 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Also in the early 1980s, Dylan converted from Christianity to Hasidic Judaism. In 1988 Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and, with fellow music stars George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne, formed a group called the Traveling Wilburys; their debut album delighted both critics and the public. Dylan accepted a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1991. In 1993 he sang “Chimes of Freedom” as part of President Clinton's inaugural celebration. In 1997 he performed for Pope John Paul II in Italy. Time Out of Mind (1997) received rave reviews and earned him three Grammy awards for Album of the Year, Male Rock Performance, and Contemporary Folk Album. Later that year Dylan was presented by the President with the Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001 Dylan received an Oscar for his song “Things Have Changed,” written for the film Wonder Boys. His latest album, “Love and Theft” (2001) received a rare five-star, immediate classic, rating from Rolling Stone magazine.
Bob Dylan includes only two Dylan originals, one of which, “Song to Woody,” demonstrates the influence of his one-time idol. His second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan contains only two songs which are not Dylan originals, and includes such protest songs as “Blowin' in the Wind” and “Masters of War,” which capture the mood and spirit of the counterculture of the early 1960s, as well as “A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall” and “Don't Think Twice, It's All Right,” which remains one of his most popular songs of lost love. His third album, The Times They Are A-Changin', also contains many classic folk-protest and socially-conscious songs hailed as masterpieces, including “Ballad of Hollis Brown,” “With God on Our Side,” “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.” The liner notes showcase his first widely circulated poetry, “11 Outlined Epitaphs.” The title of his next album, Another Side of Bob Dylan, indicates his shift from political to more personal lyrics. This turning inward produced songs that demonstrate the influence of beat poetry and psychedelic drugs. “Chimes of Freedom” expresses his spiritual side, which eventually earned him the label of visionary. The first half of his next album, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), surprised everyone with its electric guitars. Again the songs express social and political alienation rather than activism. “Subterranean Homesick Blues” voices distrust of authority and sees convention as stifling and oppressive to the individual. “Maggie's Farm” expresses the impulse to “drop out” of the workaday world with the assertion, “I ain't gonna work on Maggie's Farm no more.” “It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding),” which was included on the soundtrack to the quintessential counterculture film Easy Rider (1969), further expresses the cruelty of mainstream society. “Mr. Tambourine Man,” one of his most enduring songs, expresses the sense of freedom and joy which comes from renouncing social mores in favor of creativity and artistic release. In the liner notes Dylan offers an explanation of himself and his work: “my poems are written in a rhythm of unpoetic distortion / divided by pierced ears. false eyelashes / subtracted by people constantly torturing each other. with a melodic purring line of descriptive hollowness-seen at times thru dark sunglasses an other forms of psychic explosion. a song is anything that can walk by itself / i am called a songwriter. a poem is a naked person... some people say that i am a poet.”
Highway 61 Revisited (1965) solidified his transition from political folksinger to alienated rock musician, still critical of society but without any specific political agenda. The double album Blonde on Blonde (1966), often considered his finest work, contains mostly songs of love or of the bitterness of failed relationships, including the hit “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” “Visions of Johanna” and “Just Like a Woman.” The Biblically-inspired John Wesley Harding (1968), Dylan's first album of new songs to be released after his motorcycle accident, returns to acoustic material. Quiet and thoughtful, the album is widely considered a response to the excesses of rock music as typified by the Beatles with their Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band release. Dylan's next two albums were heavily influenced by country music: Nashville Skyline (1969), which includes a duet with Johnny Cash, and Self Portrait (1970), a double album, largely consisting of covers, which was panned by critics. Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1971) started a trend in the music industry with its inclusion of several previously unreleased songs. Dylan wrote the soundtrack for Sam Peckinpah's western film Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) and accepted a bit role in the movie. Also in that year Dylan released Writings and Drawings; he had never included the lyrics to his songs in his albums and thus this large hardback book containing all of his published songs and many unpublished ones was met with great acclaim and became a bestseller. (It was updated in 1985 with the publication of Lyrics, 1962-1985.) Planet Waves (1974) was released in conjunction with Dylan's highly anticipated return to touring across America, a tour represented by the double album Before the Flood (1974). Blood on the Tracks is widely considered his best or second best album. Its impact on listeners was indicated by Rolling Stone's devotion of their entire record review section to this one album, with numerous essayists expressing their individual assessments. The same magazine awarded it album of the year, tied with another album of the year, also by Dylan, The Basement Tapes. Although The Basement Tapes was not released until 1975, it dates from 1967 when he was recuperating. Desire includes, as Allen Ginsberg states in the liner notes, “songs of redemption,” and remains Dylan's biggest seller upon initial release, at some two million copies. Street Legal (1978) was released during his return to world touring and featured a saxophone player and three female backing vocalists. The three albums of Dylan's Christian phase include Slow Train Coming (1979), Saved (1980), and Shot of Love (1981). Infidels (1983) continues with expressions of faith in God, although more subtly and with the influence of Hasidic Judaism, then favored by Dylan.
Biograph is a five-LP or 3-CD box set containing not only dozens of his greatest hits but a dozen and a half previously uncirculated works from recording studios and concert halls. It spawned dozens of similar sets by other artists. After the seemingly career-capping release of Biograph, Dylan faltered with Knocked Out Loaded (1986), generally considered one of his weakest efforts and Down in the Groove (1988). Although The Traveling Wilburys, Volume One (1988) and Oh Mercy (1989) were viewed as returns to fine form, the release of Under the Red Sky (1990) and the follow-up Wilburys album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 (1990) showed a drifting and disengaged Dylan. The Bootleg Series, Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991 (1991) was comprised of 3 CDs of previously unheard songs and performances, but with its necessary emphasis on the past, some critics were eager to interpret it as evidence of Dylan being a has-been. The following years gave more fodder to Dylan's detractors. Good as I Been to You (1992) and World Gone Wrong (1993) were solo acoustic albums of mostly traditional songs, with no Dylan originals, and neither Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 (1994) or MTV Unplugged (1995), gathered from two live performances, could take the place of new, original material. Not until 1997 with the release of Time Out of Mind, were fans treated to an album of all new songs. 1998 saw the release of The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Live 1966, a 2-CD recording of a legendary performance in England, often considered the finest rock concert ever given by any artist. “Love and Theft” continued to build Dylan's reputation as a vital, creative force in popular music.
As early as 1965 media critics were acknowledging Dylan's status not only as a popular music star but as a poet of substantial literary merit. Dylan has generally treated his critics with derision, stating that they do not understand what he is trying to express. Dylan has always confounded reviewers by refusing to explain the meaning of his songs, however, insisting that they stand for themselves. Because many of his songs hold up well as poetry, separated from their music, they are natural choices for study by critics specializing in contemporary language arts, who compare them to the works of Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot, and Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg himself proclaimed Dylan to be among the greatest poets of the century. Dylan usually avoids discussion of his works as poems or talk of himself as anything but a performing songwriter: “Poets drown in lakes,” he told Paul Zollo in a 1991 interview. Zollo explains that Dylan “broke all the rules of songwriting without abandoning the craft and care that holds songs together.” Such well-crafted songs include “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues” which are examined for their visionary symbolism and imagery. “Like a Rolling Stone” is praised for its lyrical qualities and the emotional force of the repeated refrain, “How does it feel?” and its powerful expression of alienation. “Desolation Row” which portrays a dark, apocalyptic vision of the fate of human society, is another favorite of critics. Dylan's work fell below his own classic standard during parts of the 1980s and 1990s. Not until Time Out of Mind did critics once again overwhelmingly praise Dylan's lyrics as startlingly fresh compositions, equal to his most critically acclaimed songs from the 1960s and 1970s. Music writer Bill Flanagan was present at a party held in 1985 to honor Dylan's accomplishments. When television reporters asked him to explain Dylan's significance, he explained that Dylan refused to accept any limits on rock and roll and thus showed everyone else that the form could expand to include all sorts of ideas. Flanagan relates a conversation he had with musician Pete Townshend, who also attended the party. “He joked about the futility of trying to offer a concise explanation of Dylan's significance. ‘They asked what effect Bob Dylan had on me,’ he said. ‘That's like asking how I was influenced by being born.’” Dylan's popular base continues to increase as he performs worldwide in live concerts more than one hundred times per year.
Bob Dylan (musical recording) 1962
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (musical recording) 1963
The Times They Are A-Changin' (musical recording) 1964
Another Side of Bob Dylan (musical recording) 1964
Bringing It All Back Home (musical recording) 1965
Highway 61 Revisited (musical recording) 1965
Blonde on Blonde (musical recording) 1966
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (musical recording) 1967
John Wesley Harding (musical recording) 1968
Nashville Skyline (musical recording) 1969
(The entire section is 251 words.)
SOURCE: Monaghan, David. “Taking Bob Dylan Seriously: The Wasteland Tradition.” English Quarterly 6, no. 2 (Summer 1973): 165-70.
[In the following essay, Monaghan asserts that the songs of Bob Dylan, while remaining at the center of popular culture, also belong within the tradition of twentieth-century literature. Monaghan analyses Dylan's song “Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues,” noting that it bears the influence of T. S. Eliot’s poems.]
“JUST LIKE TOM THUMB'S BLUES”
When you're lost in the rain in Juarez, And it's Easter time too, And your gravity fails And negativity won't pull you through, Don't put on any airs when you're...
(The entire section is 2188 words.)
SOURCE: Johnson, Thomas S. “Desolation Row Revisited: Bob Dylan's Rock Poetry.” Southwest Review 62, no. 2 (Spring 1977): 135-47.
[In the following essay, Johnson analyzes several of Dylan's mid-career songs in an attempt to understand his motivations for moving away from the folk-protest idiom and into rock music.]
What was Bob Dylan doing when he moved into rock music in mid-career? His first albums were in a folk-protest idiom. His later albums tended to return to a folk-country idiom close to his first albums. But the latter were markedly different because of three central albums that intervened: Bringing It All Back Home; Highway 61 Revisited;...
(The entire section is 5580 words.)
SOURCE: Wells, John. “Bent Out of Shape from Society's Pliers: A Sociological Study of the Grotesque in the Songs of Bob Dylan.” Popular Music in Society 6, no. 1 (1978): 39-44.
[In the following essay, Wells examines Dylan's song lyrics from a sociological perspective, viewing the recurring imagery of the grotesque in many of Dylan's songs as expressive of the individual alienated from society.]
I accept chaos. I am not sure whether it accepts me.
Although Bob Dylan is widely known for his musical and lyrical contributions to the rock culture, few attempts have been made to examine...
(The entire section is 2994 words.)
SOURCE: Sumner, Carolyn. “The Ballad of Dylan and Bob.” Southwest Review 66, no. 1 (Winter 1981): 41-54.
[In the following essay, Sumner discusses the recurring imagery and themes found in Bob Dylan’s songs as they relate to his own personal experiences.]
A striking feature of Bob Dylan's art, and one which suggests the possibility of analysis, is the continuity over the years of certain imagery in his lyrics. His songs grow out of a few consistently held concerns which have gathered about them clusters of repeated images. These images, and the themes that grow from them, emerge primarily from the material of his own life, most dramatically from his...
(The entire section is 6126 words.)
SOURCE: Scobie, Stephen. “The Text of Bob Dylan.” In Alias Bob Dylan, pp. 29-46. Red Deer College Press, Alberta, Canada: Red Deer College Press, 1991.
[In the following excerpted chapter, Scobie discusses the ways in which the meaning of Bob Dylan's songs can change, depending on the style and context in which they are presented.]
THE TEXT OF BOB DYLAN
In April, 1987, Bob Dylan joined the Irish group U2 on stage in one of their concerts and sang ‘Knockin' on Heaven's Door’ with them. In the middle of the song, U2's lead singer, Bono, starts improvising a new verse: ‘Well, the time has come / For this wounded world to start changing....
(The entire section is 7906 words.)
SOURCE: Klier, Ron. “Walt Whitman, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and the Anxiety of Influence.” The Midwest Quarterly 40, no. 3 (Spring 1999): 334-50.
[In the following essay, Klier describes Bob Dylan as the most recent in a line of popular American poets, from Walt Whitman to Woody Guthrie, who are “singers of democracy.”]
Hank Lazer has written that “because of the range, ambition, freedom, and magnitude of Walt Whitman's work, as well as the attractive model of Whitman's persistence as a poet, it is to be expected that nearly every contemporary poet of some stature will, at one time or another, bow respectfully to Walt Whitman's direction” (1). In “Walt...
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Discover your intellectual strengths
Quiz your knowledge on the history of IQ and IQ testing.
Test your knowledge and discover who came up with the concept of IQ testing, and who helped to refine IQ tests in the present form.
Discover what IQ studies around the world have suggested about the concept of IQ.
1.According to Sternberg's triarchic (three-part) theory of intelligence, intelligence consists of three main aspects: analytic intelligence, creative intelligence, and ______ intelligence.
2. At what age are mental test scores first stably predictive of later IQ?
Susan took an intelligence test when she was 18 and scored 114. What is her intelligence quotient likely to be at the age of 32?
4. Measures of fluid intelligence, such as speed of reasoning and memory, _______ into adulthood and then _______ due to the aging process.
5. Research on the effect of social class on IQ has shown.
6. Jim took the same IQ test on different days and gets the same score each time. This means that the test possess a high degree of.
7. Jorge is a Latino student who is about to take an IQ test. Jorge may obtain a lower IQ score than some of his white classmates because.
8. Block design, picture arrangement and object assembly are three subtests of the:
9. For which ability is there a substantial sex difference where boys score higher than girls:
10. The bell shaped distribution of intelligence test scores is called. | <urn:uuid:4b1441e4-c282-4806-8be6-856bb92430a9> | {
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Xah's lojban Tutorial
Lojban is a artificial language based on logic. It is a constructed language designed to remove syntax-level ambiguity that are in natural languages.
- Lojban has a precise grammar spec.
- Lojban reads as is written.
- Lojban is simple and regular.
Lojban attempts to enhance logical thinking and efficient communication by providing a protocol of human communication (i.e. language), using modern knowledge as the basis in its design. The real practical value of lojban, is as a study of the semantics of human communication.
Lojban A Word A Day + 中文 with voice recordings
- Lojban A Word A Day + 中文
Brief Introduction to Lojban (in the works)
Lojban Word List
Below is the core word list grouped them into categories. (the grouping is informal as a by-product of learning, and is not absolute or correct or complete in anyway.)
- food (bread, butter, milk, wine)
- body parts (eyes, breasts, legs…)
- things (nouns, mostly)
- iron, gold, plastic, lead, hydrogen…
- opposites (big/small, old/new)
- verbs (run, walk, carry, hit, …)
- time, have, current, confused
- plants (tree, flower, rose…)
- animals (cat, dog, elephant…)
- clothing (hat, coat, socks, undies…)
- family (dad, mom, sis, nieces, wife, daughter …)
- cultural group (Asian, Greek, Canadian…)
- color (black white red…)
- math/number (1 2 3 infinity…)
- cmavo (sentence constructors)
- pro-sumti words (pronouns)
- miscellaneous/unsorted (the rest not sorted yet)
〔In the Land of Invented Languages: Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius By Arika Okrent. @ amazon〕 | <urn:uuid:4bd7f57d-5474-42af-aa0d-281f5f76de85> | {
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Beware Excess Sodium
Some tapas, as well as meza and dim sum, are high in fat and calories and some have too much sodium.
"Interestingly, this is not true of all tapas and most dishes are very good for you," says Harlan. "There are a myriad of recipes that use fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, and anchovies. While these are higher in fat, they do contain high amounts of the good omega-3 fats, which have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke."
Nuts and olives containing healthy fats also predominate in Spanish cuisine, he notes. Likewise, olive oil is the primary fat used for cooking and marinating.
"The benefits of monounsaturated fats have been well established in a healthy diet," he says.
Make Them at Home
Making your own steamed dumplings, a kind of dim sum, is fun and easy. A quick Internet search of the topic "healthy steamed dumplings" will yield dozens of simple recipes. Some are vegetarian but using shrimp, lean pork, and chicken are great choices as well.
Dipping sauces made with reduced-sodium soy sauce make for a perfect addition to an Asian meal.
Middle Eastern dishes are also designed to be served as small dishes, Harlan says. There are great hummus recipes that use less fat by reducing the amount of tahini (sesame seed butter) and using other ingredients such as yogurt.
Various recipes are available that use ingredients other than chickpeas as the base such as black beans or red peppers; coupled with some tabbouleh, minted cucumbers in yogurt, a few stuffed grape leaves, and pita bread, this can make for a delicious and healthy meal.
Tips for Healthy "Little Dishes"
1. Don't be afraid to ask questions at a restaurant, says Nowlin. "Black bean sauce and oyster sauce are high in sodium, and people with high blood pressure should ask about sodium content in the foods they're served."
2. Avoid breaded or deep-fried foods. Instead choose steamed, baked, or grilled dishes and those dishes made from vegetables, nuts, and seafood.
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Broken bones, or fractures, are a common hazard of childhood. And although a bone can break in a split-second fall off the jungle gym or a quick collision on the soccer field, the healing process takes a bit longer.
In most cases, a child who breaks a bone will need a cast. A cast is a big, hard bandage made of fiberglass or plaster that keeps bones in place while they heal. Depending on the age of the child and type of fracture, a cast can be on for as little as 4 weeks or as long as 10 weeks.
For minor fractures, a splint may be all that is needed. A splint supports the broken bone on one or two sides and is adjustable; a cast encircles the entire broken area and needs to be removed by a doctor when the bone is healed.
Types of Breaks
A doctor might be able to tell whether a bone is broken simply by looking at the injured area. But the doctor will order an X-ray to confirm the fracture and determine what type it is.
Because their bones are softer and more likely to bend than break in half, kids are more likely to have incomplete fractures (fractures that go partially through the bone). Common incomplete fracture types include:
- buckle or torus fracture: one side of the bone bends, raising a little buckle, without breaking the other side
- greenstick fracture: a partial fracture in which one side of the bone is broken and the other side bends (this fracture resembles what would happen if you tried to break a green stick)
Mature bones are more likely to break completely. A stronger force will also result in a complete fracture of younger bones. A complete fracture is one that extends completely through the bone and sometimes causes the bone to break into several pieces. Types of complete fractures include:
- closed fracture: a fracture that doesn't break the skin
- open (or compound) fracture: a fracture in which the ends of the broken bone break through the skin (these have an increased risk of infection)
- non-displaced fracture: a fracture in which the pieces on either side of the break line up
- displaced fracture: a fracture in which the pieces on either side of the break are out of line (which might require the doctor to realign the bones or require surgery to make sure the bones are properly aligned before casting)
Other common fracture terms include:
- hairline fracture: a thin break in the bone
- single fracture: the bone is broken in one place
- segmental: the bone is broken in two or more places in the same bone
- comminuted fracture: the bone is broken into more than two pieces or crushed
Also common among kids are growth plate fractures. These are breaks through the growth plate alone or through the growth plate and the area around it. Growth plate fractures are seen in kids until they reach late adolescence. At this point the growth plates close and cannot be fractured. These fractures range from mild to serious and require treatment by an orthopedic specialist.
Before Getting a Cast
For displaced fractures, the bone will need to be set, or realigned, before a cast is put on so that it will heal in a straighter position. To set the bone, the doctor will put the pieces of the broken bone in the right position so they can grow back together into one bone (this is called a closed reduction).
A closed reduction involves the doctor realigning the broken bone so that it heals in a straighter position. The child is given sedation, which is a medicine, usually through an intravenous line (IV) during the closed reduction. Realigning the bones is a painful procedure, so sedation is given so the child won't feel it. A cast is then put on to keep the bone in position. You can expect another X-ray to be taken immediately after the procedure to make sure the bones are in good position after the realignment is done.
If the fracture is complicated or more serious, an open reduction might be necessary. Open reduction is a surgical procedure in which an incision is made in the skin and metal pins and plates are attached to the broken bone fragments to better stabilize the break while it heals. This is done under general anesthesia.
Casts usually are made of either:
- plaster of paris: this heavy white powder forms a thick paste that hardens quickly when mixed with water. Plaster of paris casts are heavier than fiberglass casts and don't hold up as well in water.
- synthetic (fiberglass) material: these casts come in many bright colors and are lighter and cooler. The fiberglass (a kind of moldable plastic) covering is water-resistant, but the padding underneath is not. You can, however, sometimes get a waterproof liner. The doctor putting on the cast will decide whether your child should get a fiberglass cast with a waterproof lining.
Having a cast put on is a relatively simple process. First, several layers of soft cotton are wrapped around the injured area. Next, the doctor or orthopedic technician wraps a layer of plaster or fiberglass around the soft first layer. The outer layer is damp but will dry to a hard, protective covering. Doctors sometimes make tiny cuts in the sides of a cast so that there is room for swelling if it occurs.
There are many types of casts, for all types of breaks. The most common casts are:
- short arm casts, which are placed from the knuckles of the hand to just below the elbow. These types of casts are used for forearm and wrist breaks and after some surgeries.
- long arm casts, which go from the upper arm to the knuckles of the hand. These casts are generally used for upper arm or elbow fractures, but can also be used in forearm breaks.
- short leg casts, which run from just below the knee to the bottom of the foot. These are usually used for ankle and lower leg breaks or surgeries.
- long leg casts, which are applied from the upper thigh down over the foot. These casts are used to heal breaks or fractures of the knee, lower leg, or ankle.
- short leg hip spica casts, which go from the chest to the knees and are used to keep hip muscles and tendons in place after surgery.
Sometimes splints are worn for a few days (usually between 3 to 7) before a cast is made. This allows for swelling to subside so that the cast can provide the best fit for your child.
Splints are usually held in place by fabric fasteners, velcro, or tape, but they should not be rewrapped or removed, even if a child is experiencing some discomfort. Only a doctor or orthopedic technician should adjust a splint.
Short-Term Cast Care
The area around the break will probably be a little sore and swollen for a few days, so the doctor may recommend acetaminophen or ibuprofen to help ease any pain.
The doctor might also recommend raising the body part with the fracture. Use something soft, like a pillow, to raise the injured arm or leg above heart level to reduce swelling and pain.
If the cast or splint is on an arm, the nurse or technician will give your child a sling to help support it. A sling is made of cloth and a strap that loops around the back of the neck and acts like a special sleeve to keep the arm comfortable and in place. A child with a broken leg who is mature enough and of adequate height probably will get crutches to make it a little easier to get around.
Sometimes a "walking cast" (a foot or leg cast with a special device implanted in the heel to allow for walking) can be used, though your child shouldn't walk on it until it's dry.
Long-Term Cast Care
For bones to heal properly, certain steps must be taken to make sure the cast can do its job. These tips can help keep a cast in good shape:
- Keep non-waterproof casts dry. Many casts are not waterproof, so keeping them dry for the whole time the cast is in place is very important. It is preferred that your child take baths, not showers. The doctor will tell you to cover the cast with a plastic bag or special cast protector for baths. The cast area should be propped up on something like a milk crate during the bath to keep it completely out of the water. Children under age 5 years should be sponge bathed.
- Keep out foreign objects or substances. At some point, the skin inside the cast will probably become itchy. Your child should not insert anything into the cast to relieve itching, as this could scrape the skin and lead to infection. You also should not pour baby powder, creams, or oils into the cast.
To relieve itching, tapping on the outside of the cast or using a cool blow dryer to blow air in around the edges of the cast may help.
Young children should be watched closely because they may place small toys or food inside their cast.
- Check for cracks. Be sure to check the cast regularly for cracks, breaks, tears, or soft spots. If you notice any of these things, contact your doctor.
- Don't alter the cast. Decorating the cast and having friends and family sign it is OK, but things like pulling out the cotton lining or breaking off parts are not.
- Sharp edges. If a sharp edge develops on the cast and is irritating the skin, put tape or moleskin on the edge to protect the skin from the rough surface.
When to Call the Doctor
When splints and casts are applied properly and care instructions are followed, complications are rare. Sometimes sores can occur if the splint or cast is loose fitting and rubs the skin. These sores can become infected. Tight fitting splints or casts can cause fingers or toes to turn bluish — this can be relieved by fixing the cast or splint.
Contact your doctor if you notice any of the following:
- increased pain that isn't better with raising the casted part and/or pain medication
- extreme tightness that leads to the hand or foot feeling numb or tingly
- fingers or toes turning white, purple, or blue
- trouble moving toes or fingers
- a blister developing inside the cast
- any unusual odor or drainage coming from inside the cast
- a break in the cast or the cast becoming loose
- a wet cast
- skin around the edges of the cast gets red or raw
Once the bone is healed, the cast will be removed with a small electrical saw. The saw's blade isn't sharp — it has a dull, rounded edge that vibrates from side to side. This vibration is strong enough to break apart the fiberglass or plaster but won't hurt skin. Don't attempt to remove the cast on your own.
Once the cast is off, the injured area will probably look and feel different to your child. The skin will be pale, dry, or flaky; the hair will look darker; and the muscles in the area will look smaller or thinner. This is all temporary. Over time, with some special exercises recommended by the doctor or a physical therapist, the bone itself, and muscles around it, will be back in working order.
Reviewed by: Yamini Durani, MD
Date reviewed: October 2012 | <urn:uuid:ee2fcde3-859e-4c5e-b4fd-66942245b117> | {
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Parshas Acharei Mos – Kedoshim
Among the many mitzvos presented In Parshas Kedoshim is that of Orlah- the mitzvah of waiting three years after planting a tree to benefit from its fruits. Many of the Rishonim suggest reasons for this mitzvah. The Rambam explains that idol worshipers told people to bring their fruits as a sacrifice to their idols. If they didn’t do this, the tree would not grow well in the future. To counteract this myth, we are mandated not only to wait for three years before using the fruit, but also to destroy the fruit from the first three years.
The Imrei Baruch explains another reason that Chazal gives for the mitzvah of Orlah. The Medrash connects the mitzvah of Orlah to the prohibition of eating blood. Just as a person is able to delay eating from the tree for three years, certainly he should be able to wait to eat from an animal until all the blood has been removed. The message of the Medrash is that the mitzvah of Orlah is to teach patience. If a person can exercise the patience to refrain from eating fruit from a tree for three years, this person will be able to perform other mitzvos that require patience.
The Imrei Baruch quotes the Ohr Hachaim who explains that the sin that Adam performed when eating from the tree of knowledge was due to a lack of patience. According to the Ohr Hachaim, in Breishis 1:29, Hashem seems to allow Adam to eat from every tree. If so, why did Hashem tell Adam that he couldn’t eat from the tree of knowledge after allowing him to eat from every tree? The Ohr Hachaim explains that the test of Adam was only until Shabbos. Once Shabbos began, the tree of knowledge would also have been permitted.
The Sifsei Kohen explains that Adam was created in the ninth hour of the day. According to the Ohr Hachaim, the tree of knowledge would have been permitted at the 12th hour as that would have been the beginning of Shabbos. Waiting three years to eat from any trees that are planted corresponds to the three hours that Adam should have been patient and waited before eating from the tree of knowledge.
The mitzvah of Orlah is a reminder that the first sin in the world was caused by a lack of patience, and it is for this sin that we continue to need to atone. | <urn:uuid:f449aab8-f71d-4417-8365-f77d2616de42> | {
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Impacts of California’s Ongoing Drought: Hydroelectricity Generation 2015 Update
Published: February 2016
Author: Peter Gleick
The Pacific Institute has released a comprehensive assessment of the costs to California of lost hydroelectricity during the four years of drought from October 2011 to the end of September 2015 (the official California “water year” runs from October 1 to September 30).
Under normal conditions, electricity for the state’s millions of users is produced from a blend of many sources, with natural gas and hydropower being the top two. Since the drought has reduced the state’s river flows that power hundreds of hydropower stations, natural gas has become a more prominent player in the mix. This is an expensive change. According to the Institute’s new report, the four years of drought led to an increase in electricity costs of more than $2.0 billion. The additional combustion of fossil fuels for electric generation also led to a 10 percent increase in the release of carbon dioxide from California power plants.
“The impacts of the California drought – which is the driest and the hottest in 120 years of instrumental records and one of the worst in history – has had widespread impacts on all water users, including farmers, industries, cities, and natural ecosystems,” said the report’s author, Pacific Institute President Peter Gleick. “And in fact, all California ratepayers are affected by the drought as they pay for electricity that is both dirtier and more expensive than in non-drought years.”
In addition, the report notes that the ability to expand California’s hydroelectric capacity is limited, as there are few undammed rivers, little unallocated water, and growing environmental, economic, and political constraints to adding new hydropower capacity.
In an average year, hydropower provides 18% of the state’s electricity needs. Comparatively, during the four-year period from October 2011 through September 2015, hydropower generation was at 10.5% of total electricity generation. For the most recent water year overall, with the state’s reservoirs at record low levels, hydropower was far below normal, providing less than 7% of total electricity generated in-state.
Despite the state’s winter rainstorms, the drought has not ended: reservoir levels remain abnormally low, precipitation and especially Sierra Nevada snowpack are just slightly above normal, and hydroelectricity generation is expected to continue to be below average until the reservoirs refill. Thus, we expect costs to California ratepayers and to the environment will continue to mount.
Download the report here. | <urn:uuid:3b6a4db7-26d5-4b67-97e6-eca95877c817> | {
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Samson and his team observed that Hadza sleep patterns were rarely in sync. Out of over 220 hours of observation, there were only 18 minutes when all adults were sound asleep simultaneously. On average, more than a third of the group was alert, or dozing very lightly, at any given time.
Usually the Hadza participants went to bed shortly after 10 pm and awoke at around 7 am, but some retired as early as 8 pm and woke up by 6 am. Still others stayed up past 11 pm and slept until after 8 am. Daytime naps were frequent.
Conditions while the Hadza slept were family-oriented, to say the least.
RELATED: Exploding Head Syndrome: Hearing Crashes and Seeing Bursts of Light During Sleep
“The Hadza do not sleep on raised cots, but simple ground beds that consist of a textile or an animal hide,” Samson said. “Couples and families consistently sleep on the same bed, and the average bed has 2.4 individuals on it, but I measured up to seven on one, including a nursing mom.”
“This proximity, I am sure, leads to a type of shared ‘asynchrony,’ where when one individual wakes up within a hut, it may increase the likelihood of another waking up,” he added.
Several factors are behind the varying sleep habits. As previously indicated, the number of people in a given sleep group matters, as does the timing of snooze phases, such as REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, a deeper rest during which dreaming tends to occur.
The primary driver, however, is each individual’s chronotype.
“Chronotype is defined as the individual propensity for sleep and activity at particular times during a 24-hour period,” Samson explained. “It's also moderately heritable and varies through the lifespan — thus it is controlled by genes, environment, and age.”
As a result, some humans wind up being morning people and others become night owls. Chronotype variation is found not just in primates but also in other animals. | <urn:uuid:734d1b9c-4301-49f1-9ca1-fa6cdbf8606b> | {
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A citation informs a reader that the material in your work, such as a quote, image or idea, came from another source.
Research and scholarship is built upon the work of earlier scholars. By citing, you acknowledge the work of those earlier scholars and provide a pathway to their work, which allows readers to find your sources and consider the derivation of your ideas. Citations establish your credibility as a serious scholar by providing evidence that you have considered the existing information on a topic.
Failure to cite, or citing improperly, is considered plagiarism.
When do I cite?
You need to cite your sources whenever you quote, paraphrase or summarize ideas that are not your own, or make specific reference to the work of another.
You do not need to cite well-known, undisputed facts. It is not necessary to cite your own ideas expressed elsewhere in the same paper.
What do I cite?
Cite the source that you used. In other words, cite only what you have seen. To cite a work that you have not seen is dishonest and inaccurate. Ideally, you should always try to view primary sources because other authors may have misrepresented statistics, ideas or meaning from the primary source. | <urn:uuid:26de9c97-82e7-46dc-a53e-167f10ad9795> | {
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This video will help your students explore electricity and make creative links between science, history, literacy and design.
It’s one of 7 questions to explore before you leave primary school, a series of short films designed to provide inspiration for cross-curricular learning. Find out more below.
With electricity playing such an important role in our everyday lives, it’s easy to take it for granted. But have you ever stopped to wonder what your life would be like if you had no access to electricity?
Filmed at Wonderlab: The Statoil Gallery at the Science Museum, London.
7 questions to explore before you leave primary school
This project—a collaboration between the Science Museum, TES and the Arts Council—is designed to provide inspiration for cross-curricular learning and offer greater access to STEM for all types of learners. We see that wonder and imagination are the foundation of both arts and sciences, and these videos invite young people to help answer big questions about the world using their curiosity, creative thinking and problem-solving skills through STEM, arts and humanities subjects.
Watch the other videos in the series
Each question, which can be used either as part of a lesson or as the start of a full topic of work, can be approached from a multitude of angles, opening up opportunities for learning across science, history, art and design and beyond. | <urn:uuid:5bae46a1-2db4-4fca-8794-bfb7b1dce206> | {
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Subsets and Splits